Verse 14

Another soul departs...

…

THE NEXT MORNING:

Ichigo and the rest of the camp received barely any shut-eye that night. Overwhelmed by the loss of two great people: Tessai Tsukabishi, a kind-hearted and generous guardian of the Hearts Village; and Kaede Kurosaki, a mother figure for all the children and Ichigo's beloved wife.

Perhaps what made Kaede's disappearance more tragic for Ichigo was the fact that she was now suffering at the hands of the Spades clan. He could only imagine the sort of pain or torment they must be putting her through at the moment. Cold and heartless beasts had taken her, so why would they show any mercy, the Hearts leader thought.

To make matters worse, provisions were running low so everyone had to sustain themselves for the rest of the day with only a small meal of bread and plain pancakes. Since it had never rained since the Two Worlds Impact, the village had to rely on groundwater deep underneath the barren surface. However the aquifers were now drying on empty and so the entire camp would need to be relocated to a new source of groundwater.

"Our headquarters still has plenty of supplies." Komamura mentioned as Ichigo and a few soldiers gathered outside the main camp. "After seeing the current state of your villagers, I could not possibly forgive myself if I saw them starve. We shall relocate your camp into our base so we can plan our assault on the Spades."

"Thanks." Ichigo seemed grateful yet still saddened by Kaede's absence. "Kurama, please inform the villagers to collect their belongings, we'll be evacuating this place and move our camp into the Diamonds headquarters.

"Yes King." Kurama bowed as he went over to some of the nearby tents and conveyed the news.

"Yuzu." Ichigo called over his younger sister who was nearby. "What is the status of the injured?"

Mayu came out of the infirmary tent and answered instead. "Karin seems to have almost fully recovered, Nana and Tatsuki's injuries are also no longer serious."

"Thank goodness." Ichigo still couldn't seem to find the confidence in his voice. "Most of our people should be fully mobile now, Nyu and Nana can use their vectors to help transport the frail or ill."

"Yes King Kurosaki." Mayu nodded as she returned to the infirmary.

"Now it's only a matter of Urahara's research equipment that needs attending to." Ichigo walked over to one of the smaller tents adjacent to the main camp with Komamura and a few other soldiers following.

"That's a brilliant idea! But will it really work?" Ichigo could hear the Diamond's scientists Arakawa was very excited about something.

"Well it's a long shot but our chances of victory will increase a hundredfold of I can pull it off." Urahara responded until he noticed Ichigo entering the room. "Oh hey there?"

"How's it going Urahara?" Ichigo said with the fire absent from his voice. "I'm sorry for Tessai's loss."

Urahara sighed deeply as he spun around on his chair. "Tessai was a great friend, but I can't waste my mind on sentimental thoughts...I've just been having a little chat with this beautiful young lady here."

"Oh you..." Arakawa blushed at the hat-n-clog's comment. "I'm hardly beautiful but thanks anyway."

"It sounded like you two were coming up with something." Komamura mentioned. "Do you know how we can beat the Spades?"

Arakawa tipped her glasses as she gave a little wink. "~It's a secret"

"I see, well anyway we're going to relocate our base of operations into the Diamonds headquarters, so gather any materials you need before we go."

"Oh I don't need to bring any of this junk with me for what I've planned." Urahara said with a confident smile. "But I will need to take a brief detour to Mayuri's lab on the Clubs former campsite if you don't mind."

"Very well." Ichigo showed that he still had trust in the former shopkeeper. "Okay let's move out so we can reach the Diamonds base before sundown."

…

LATER ON – SPADE'S CASTLE:

Number 28 stood before her King with another message. "My Lord, it would appear the Human clans are preparing to form an alliance against us."

The Vizard Kakuzawa grinned in amusement as he pondered a possible offensive against his Diclonii-Arrancar army. "Very well, we shall let them fritter away their final moments on my terms...And they shall bring the last fragment to me, mwhahaha..."

…

DIAMONDS HEADQUARTERS – MEETING ROOM:

The entire forces of the Diamonds and Hearts clans gathered into the the tiny briefing room as Ichigo stood in front of the crowd, outlining their battle plan.

"As you are all well aware of by now, the Spades army we're up against is no ordinary enemy, they are of course the powerful hybrids of Arrancar and Diclonii, essentially each one of them is the equivalent of fighting a Diclonius, a Menos Grande, and a Shinigami at the same time. I must admit, this is going to be an almost impossible battle, but we must fight, as the last remnants of humanity on this earth, we must find a way to win over these demons who have raved our land."

Most of the crowd seemed less than confident with the idea of going up against such an army. One conscientious objector spoke out "These guys sound too powerful for us humans, why the hell are we gonna run straight into a suicide mission?"

"Yeah, maybe if we just stay here they'll leave us alone anyway."

"Don't begin to doubt yourselves now." Ichigo tried to pull back the crowd's morale. "If we don't fight them on our terms we'll just be sitting ducks for them to keep invading us!"

"Who does this guy think he is telling us Diamonds what to do?" Some more angry voices drowned out Ichigo's words.

"YEAH! GO HOME! SCREW THIS!" The crowd become more agitated until.

SMASH. The sound of Nyu's pounding vectors quickly startled the crowd as they looked towards the white-haired angel of death. "You humans are so pathetic, if you all just want to camp here and wait to either get killed by those Arrancar or die of starvation then you can all go ahead...I'll just go and fight them all myself then...At least for once you humans will be grateful for a Diclonius for once!" The furious Diclonius was about to storm off when...

"Wait Nyu." The gentle but assertive voice came from none other than Ren Su. "Let...let me fight them with you..."

Nyu offered a weak smile as she heard another voice call out from the crowd. "Nana wants to fight too!"

"If Nana is going them I'm going!" Mayu soon declared."

"I better go and protect Nana and the others too." Kuruma stood up, adjusting his low spectacles.

"As the final member of the Noble Kuchiki, I cannot allow myself to be absent from this final battle." Byakuya vowed with his high pride.

"I'll join you Byakuya." Komamura rested his hand on his fellow Gotei 13 Captain's shoulder.

"Hey me too." Hisagi jumped out of his seat.

"And me." Tatsuki followed suit. "I'm gonna give these hollow or Diclonii or whatever a bruising they'll never forget."

"Me too!"

"Yeah me too!"

"YEAH" and soon enough the entire crowd seemed to have found their spirit again, everyone now willing to take part in the final battle for the fate of humanity.

Ichigo was overwhelmed with joy. To see the smiles and confidence in everyone's hearts that even he couldn't generate. His eyes caught his daughter's in the crowd and he gave her a thumbs up of approval.

Well done, Nyu...

Nyu smiled back at her fiery haired father.

Let's get 'em...Dad...

"~Oohoo how naughty, we should save some of that for later..." Arakawa sounded quite flirtatious with her fellow counterpart researcher as the two of them returned from the Clubs' ruins.

"Oh, uh, it's not really what it sounds like." The slimy old Urahara tried defending himself.

"My dear Arakawa." Shunsui began frowning over his fleeing fledgeling. "Have you already fallen for another ma-OW!" But his grief was silenced by his aggressive Queen Nanao.

"Just when the hell was she ever yours?" Nanao bunched a fist in anger as Shunsui scurried away in a corner somewhere.

"Sorry it's just." Arakawa made a high pitched squeal as she coiled her arms around the greying man. "I just love a man who's...smart..."

"So...uh Urahara..." Ichigo tried to bring the main subject back to the fore. "Did you find anything useful from Mayuri's lab?"

"Not quite, but I did obtain some vital information from my old friend." Urahara continued. "I was able to upload some of Mayuri's memories on a computer underneath the main camp."

"I didn't really enjoy scooping up that guy's milkshake remains though..." Arakawa contributed.

"Yes, well in order to communicate with Mayuri, we had to obtain what was left of his body and sync it with the device." Urahara explained. "What he told me confirmed my own theory about the Spade's location."

"Go on..." Ichigo asked with keen interest.

"From what Mayuri told me..."

…

A FEW HUNDRED METRES OUTSIDE OF SPADE'S CASTLE

The ivory pillars towered over the relatively tiny group of humans, Diclonii and Shinigami gathered outside the main entrance. The imposing structure reminded Ichigo of the castle Las Noches where he fought the Espada in Hueco Mundo.

"So this is it...Our final battlefield..."

"Do you really think it will work?" Nyu walked over to her father's side.

Ichigo looked ahead towards the roofless abode. "It has to, I have to believe in Urahara's words and I have to believe in you..." Ichigo ruffed her daughter's hair. "And I want everyone to believe in each other, and never give up hope..." Ichigo roared back to his army. "We WILL defeat them! This will NOT be our final resting grounds!"

"YEAH!"

The humans and humanoids seemed to have gathered the attention of their hosts for this bloody feast. As demon like monsters rose from the ground and masked angels of death descended from the Castle's walls, the final showdown between the forces of light and darkness was about to begin.

"Okay everyone, on my signal we show them the power of humanity." Ichigo gripped his jet black sword as it began shimmering with a sudden flow of energy. "One...Two...GETSUGA TENSHOU!"

The final showdown between the humans and Diclonii-Arrancar begins...But how was Ichigo able to produce a Getsuga Tenshou? What did Urahara discover from Mayuri's memory...And most importantly, do the Human's, Diclonii and Shinigami finally stand a chance to defeat this evil menace and free the land once and for all? Don't miss some of the last few chapters of the epic Two Worlds's Trilogy!