Sosuke narrowed his eyes even more at the familiar words before he took a deep breath and regained his composure.
"So you have finally arrived to save Soul Society once again, ne?" he asked with a sly grin, "You have some loyalty to the ones that would easily cast you aw-."
"Aizen," interrupted Ichigo.
Sosuke stopped short of his monologue with narrowed eyes. He had forgotten how rude the boy could be, especially when other people were talking. Ichigo in the meantime was looking at his surroundings.
"Let's go somewhere else, I don't want to fight here," said Ichigo.
Again recapping our last fight, hmm?
Sosuke suppressed a chuckle.
"So what are you going to do? Grab my face and throw me into Rukongai?" he asked, "There is really nowhere barren enough to carry out a fight of this caliber."
Suddenly Ichigo was right in front of Sosuke in a speed that dwarfed the speed Sosuke saw during their last battle. Sosuke's eyes widened as once again Ichigo's palm slammed into Sosuke's face. The same thing happened to all of Sosuke's bodies with Ichigo's bodies.
"You really need to learn to shut up," said Ichigo.
Suddenly Sosuke felt himself and his other bodies being pushed with tremendous force into what seemed to be a large Garganta that Sosuke didn't sense let alone see until he was through it. Within seconds, Sosuke felt all of his bodies impact the familiar sandy dunes of Hueco Mundo. Sosuke got onto his knees and held his face still in awe at the power that the boy displayed from that one thrust. He looked up towards Ichigo who looked back down at him with that same expression.
"What is the point of bringing me here?" asked Sosuke regaining his composure for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, "Our battle will still be catastrophic."
Ichigo said nothing while him and all his bodies started to take different stances.
"There is a very good reason why we brought you here, Sosuke Aizen."
Sosuke blinked when he saw that it wasn't Ichigo who spoke, but his own doppelganger who wore same clothing and demeanor as he did before he betrayed Soul Society.
"At Soul Society, we would be limited in our power due to the fact that Soul Society cannot contain it," explained Sosuke-Ichigo.
All of Ichigo's bodies started to release a large amount of reiatsu.
"But here, we are free to unleash however much power we want," continued Sosuke-Ichigo.
Sosuke's eyes widened when he figured out the implications of his doppelganger's explanation and quickly got his doppelgangers to do the same.
"Bankai!" shouted all of them at once causing a huge amount of reiatsu to explode out and shake the very foundations of Hueco Mundo.
Genryusai walked along the debris with Chojiro at his side as they surveyed the damage that Sosuke wrought.
To think that we were so easily tossed aside… again.
Genryusai felt nothing but shame and humiliation to be counting on the ryoka boy again. To hell with the fact that Ichigo had the power of the entirety of the Gotei 13's captaincy as well as lieutenants and the Espada, he was still doing the job that the original Gotei 13 was built up to do and they had failed. Suddenly Genryusai sensed a presence behind him and turned to see Retsu walking up to him with her lieutenant in tow.
"Do you have the estimates Unohana-taichou?" asked Genryusai.
Retsu had a grim look on her face as she shook her head.
"I do not have a specific number as of yet," she said, "There are so many dead and wounded both civilian and soldier."
Genryusai bowed his head a bit at that. Chojiro decided then to step up.
"Did any of the other captains or vice-captains gain victory over their doppelgangers?" he asked.
Retsu looked up at Chojiro with saddened eyes.
"No, and the only ones not in hospital beds are standing right here," said Retsu, "They are, however, alive."
"But their pride will be wounded deeply…" muttered Genryusai.
The three were silent for a moment before Genryusai looked back upward towards Retsu with his eyes opened.
"Arigato… Retsu… carry on," said Genryusai.
Retsu's eyes widened in surprise as did Isane's at Genryusai's use of a first name. None were more surprised than Chojiro.
"Sensei?" asked Chojiro.
Genryusai simply turned and walked towards the battered remains of the 1st Division Headquarters looking deep in thought. Chojiro stared after his old mentor before he turned towards Retsu.
"I will see what is wrong, you should focus on what you need to do Unohana-taichou," said Chojiro.
Retsu regained her composure and nodded before turning the opposite direction and heading towards the 4th Division Barracks.
"Let's go, Isane," said Retsu.
"H-Hai," exclaimed Isane as she rushed after her captain.
Chojiro watched them go before looking at the retreating back of Genryusai with worried eyes.
"What happened to your spirit, sensei?" asked Chojiro to the wind.
Rukia woke to the sound of endless commotion as the members of the 4th Division scrambled to treat the endless wounded after the deadly battle with Sosuke's clones. She herself led a troupe of Shinigami to battle with the lone doppelganger of her brother only to be batted down by the sheer power of a captain. While Rukia was powerful herself, she just wasn't ready to match up to the power of her brother doppelganger or no doppelganger. Rukia groaned as she tried to sit up only for her face to be smothered by a pair of well-endowed breasts.
"Rukia! Oh thank goodness you're okay!" cried the familiar voice of Rangiku.
From the heavy sake smell, she had been drinking… a lot.
"M-Matsumoto-fukutaichou!" stammered the familiar voice of Hanataro Yamada the current seventh seat of the 4th Division, "Please release R-Kuchiki-fukutaichou and please stop drinking sake from… wherever you get it!"
Rukia struggled feebly in Rangiku's surprisingly strong grasp feeling herself slowly fall back into lala land.
Oh c'mon! I just woke up!
"Sheesh, the girl just woke up and here you are ready to knock her out again," came the voice of Yoruichi in her cat form.
Suddenly there was a heavy thud like a human body hitting the floor.
"Aaand there goes Renji," said Yoruichi.
"Ah! Abarai-kun!" came the bubbly voice of Orihime.
Rukia's mind slowly continued to fog up as her air reserves reached their limit.
"Oh I've waited so long for you to wake up! And now you are finally are awake!" cried Rangiku.
"You'll be waiting a bit longer if you don't let go right now," grunted the annoyed voice of Uryu.
There was a grunt of agreement. Something only Sado would do. It seemed that the whole gang was there to greet her… for better or worse.
"Matsumoto-fukutaichou, please release Kuchiki-san from your grasp, we need her awake for what we're about to discuss!" came the annoying voice of Kisuke Urahara.
"Fine," pouted Rangiku as she released Rukia allowing her to breath.
Rukia glared at Rangiku before looking around the room. Sure enough surrounding her bedside were all the ryoka, the residents of Urahara Shoten, Rangiku, Momo, Hanataro, and Renji… who was currently on the floor with blood gushing out of his nose.
"What is everybody doing here and why is Renji on the floor?" asked Rukia.
"For your first question, we're here to talk about Ichigo," said Kisuke with a serious expression on his face.
Rukia was alert immediately at that. Anything that had to do with Ichigo was important, especially with the past events. Suddenly Kisuke pulled out his fan and hid his goofy smile behind it.
"As for your second question he's probably on the floor after seeing Matsumoto-fukutaichou suffocating you in her chest much like that blue-haired succubus from the vampire anime!" said Kisuke causing everybody to lose balance.
Elsewhere a girl with blue hair and purple eyes sneezed while hugging a boy's head into her chest.
Yoruichi jumped up and sliced at Kisuke's face with open claws causing the man to weep in a corner while holding face.
"Focus on the task at hand Kisuke," hissed Yoruichi, "I told you that this is urgent!"
"Why is Kurosaki-kun in trouble?" asked an anxious Orihime.
Kisuke suddenly stood there completely healed fanning himself once again.
"No, no not at all! Kurosaki is completely fine! Other than the fact that he is fighting Sosuke Aizen once again but completely fine!"
Everybody glowered at the man (for Orihime she pouted) looking about ready to beat him to a pulp when suddenly Kisuke became serious.
"I'm sure by now you are all familiar with Kurosaki-kun's younger sisters correct?" asked Kisuke.
Everybody but Hanataro nodded who just stood there feeling as if he shouldn't be there.
"U-Um… there are other patients that I must attend to so I'll just…" said he said as he started sneaking out the door only to by caught by the collar.
"Now, now, I'm sure you'll want to hear this as well!" said Kisuke, "Plus it gives you a longer opportunity to be with Rukia-chan!"
Hanataro turned beet red and stuttered denial while Rukia lifted a brow in confusion. Kisuke noticed this and giggled into his fan.
"Ah, how alike you and Kurosaki-kun are!" giggled Kisuke.
Rukia's brow twitched a bit at that.
"Whatever, you mentioned Yuzu?" asked Rukia, "Is she in danger?"
Kisuke's expression once again turned serious as he shook his head.
"No she is not in any danger," he said, "Rather she found something that might very well explain what Kurosaki-kun is going through."
Rukia and everybody else leaned in in interest except for Yoruichi. Kisuke didn't say anything; instead he looked to Yoruichi who was suddenly in human form fully clothed. She wasn't called the Goddess of Flash for nothing. Yoruichi simply held up a journal.
"This is apparently the journal that Ichigo bought from Kisuke during the first few weeks of the… incident," she explained.
Rukia blinked as she looked at the journal before looking back at Kisuke.
"How is this journal going to tell us about Ichigo?" asked Rukia.
Kisuke lowered the brim of his hat over his eyes.
"As I've said before, Kurosaki-kun is not in any immediate danger, but if the contents of that journal are accurate, I fear his existence may be in peril," he said.
The room was dead silent at that statement.
"You mean… Kurosaki-kun… might…" started Orihime.
Rukia felt Yoruichi clench the sheets of her bed in a death grip, but she was too in shock to care. Kisuke looked back up with a grim look.
"His physical body will be alive and well… but mentally… he won't be so well off," said Kisuke.
"Getsuga Tensho!" cried Fem-Ichigo.
A familiar black arch of energy flew down at Ichigo-Sosuke who shunpo'd out of the way before donning his hollow mask and sending a counter attack.
"Getsuga Tensho!" he growled as an even more powerful attack came flying back.
Fem-Ichigo simply cut the attack in half with her zanpakuto before donning her own hollow mask and speeding at Ichigo-Sosuke and tackling towards the ground just in time to avoid a powerful Gran Rey Cero. A barrage of blue Ceros followed with Ulquiorra-Sosuke in his Resurreccion form evading them all. He turned and faced his attacker who was Stark-Ichigo in his Resurreccion form.
"What's the matter? The real Ulquiorra wouldn't run away like this," said Stark-Ichigo.
Ulquiorra-Sosuke narrowed his eyes before trusting his palm out allowing a black energy overlaid by green to focus on his palm.
"Cero Oscuras!"
The powerful Cero went barreling towards Stark-Ichigo who stood unmoving. Suddenly a row of large charms appeared out of nowhere behind Stark-Ichigo sucking the power of the blow into them leaving him unharmed. Ulquiorra-Sosuke's eyes widened at this. Suddenly Jushiro-Ichigo appeared with her zanpakuto together and pointed back at Ulquiorra-Sosuke. From them a Cero Oscuras of twice the power went flying back at Ulquiorra-Sosuke engulfing him as it went along. The continuing projectile would have caused devastation of high magnitude… had Orihime-Ichigo not thrown up a shield that redirected the blast towards the sky. Never taking her eyes off of her opponents who happened to be Renji-Sosuke, Byakuya-Sosuke, and Soifon-Sosuke. Beside her was Momo-Ichigo and Gin-Ichigo. Suddenly Gin-Ichigo placed Kamishini no Yari at the center of his chest with the blade facing exactly away from it.
"Buto: Renjin," said Gin-Ichigo.
Suddenly a flurry of jabs coming at blinding speeds descended upon the three forcing them to evade while pulling back. Orihime-Ichigo waved her hand and domed shield appeared behind Sosuke's doppelgangers preventing any chance of escape outwards and Gin-Ichigo's Buto forced them to cluster. Renji-Sosuke couldn't keep up with the speed and was eventually pierced through the leg and then through the heart before he fell to the ground. Byakuya-Sosuke gritted his teeth and quickly directed Senbonzakura Kageyoshi to attack Ichigo's doppelgangers, but Orihime-Ichigo simply put up another shield to block them. Momo-Ichigo meanwhile was chanting away as Zaiten no Kanbai held a tiny yellow ball of compressed energy. Suddenly Gin-Ichigo stopped his relentless assault, but before Byakuya-Sosuke and Soifon-Sosuke could react, Momo-Ichigo had already finished.
"Hado #63," said Momo-Ichigo giving Gin-Ichigo the signal to stop, "Raikoho."
From the ball a seemingly small lightning strike ripped towards the in the blink of an eye. Orihime enclosed the shield right when it impacted causing the shielded ball to light up brightly from the released energy. When the light dispersed and Orihime released the shield, there was nothing left. From above, Ichigo and Sosuke faced off as their doppelgangers battled around them.
"With this, I will bury you for good so that you will no longer terrorize anybody," said Ichigo.
Sosuke didn't answer as he observed the one-sided battle around him with widened eyes. Ichigo suddenly held his head while Sosuke wasn't looking.
Good thing he didn't put up much of a fight, I'm reaching my limit.
A battered Rukia-Sosuke flew in between them before being sliced to nothing by Genryusai-Ichigo. Soon Ichigo's doppelgangers gathered around behind Ichigo until finally they all stood tired, but victorious. They all released their bankai states as they stared down Sosuke.
"It's over Aizen," said Ichigo.
Sosuke stared at the fallen bodies of his doppelgangers before he looked back up at Ichigo… and smirked.
"Over?" asked Sosuke, "I think not."
Suddenly Sosuke's reiatsu shot through the roof, almost overwhelming the reiatsu level of all of Ichigo's bodies combined.
"Surprised? Well you see I was planning for you to kill off all of my bodies anyway for each one you kill adds to my pool of power," said Sosuke, "You should have killed me first, for it would have killed off all of my other doppelgangers, but instead you played right into my hand."
Ichigo gripped onto his sealed zanpakuto as he glared at Sosuke.
"You have to manage all those bodies while I only have to manage one… that fact puts me at an advantage," said Sosuke, "And if I'm not mistaken, if I kill even one of your bodies, the rest die with it… yes?"
Ichigo surveyed his bodies seeing that they were already a bit exhausted from their battles.
Shit…
"Give in to despair Ichigo Kurosaki," said Sosuke, "There is no way you can win."