Shit's gonna go down soon! This freaking fanfiction was intended to be a short story but the plotline grew wings and began to write itself. I've been watching too much action movies recently... And it all culminated into this monstrosity asfhkbafhkbfdhk... I hope you enjoy though! Leave me your revieeeeewwwss~~

ICHIGO

He stood up on instinct. His assumptions were now made fact and it was incomprehensible. How could a man be capable of doing that? How could any man be capable of taking another's life away?

"What does that mean Yoruichi? Is he a fighter? Who is he?" there was a sudden desire to understand him even further. He knew Grimmjow wasn't that sort of person. He needed to understand.

"Sit down, Ichigo. Grimmjow is a part of the Espadas," she said as she looked up at him. Ichigo paced a few steps and returned to sit down next to her.

The Espadas were a rank of fighters under Aizen's jurisdiction. Ichigo finally knew who this Aizen; the man was the head of the huge underground world, holding influence in drug dealing, prostitution, smuggling and most significantly, cage fighting. The man was untraceable and had never been caught. He was too deep within the network and even when there was a loophole, there was no way for the man to be charged guilty for anything.

However, in the last year, there were some recent developments that had him most invested in cage fighting. With his creation of the Espadas, he was raking up even more illegal income. Cage fighting became a popular sport, garnering attention from all over the world. It was largely known that Aizen's honoured guests would be introduced to his cage-fighting first. And noticeably, he had been making frequent appearances at the ring which was very rare. Subsequently, Yoruichi opened a case file. There was a identity photo of Grimmjow in military uniform. Ichigo's heart sank.

Name: Grimmjow Jacquerjacques

Date of Birth: 31 July

Nationality: US citizen

Country of Origin: Germany

Attached was information regarding his military service. He read through it, the information coinciding with what he was told by his partner. Skimming through the other man's details, the end of the page caught his eye.

Bad Conduct Discharge for Aggravated Assault

Position in Espada: Sexta, sixth.

Included were blurred snapshots of Grimmjow in battle, Grimmjow on the fifth floor talking to Aizen. Grimmjow looked like he was meant to be in that situation. His commanding presence in the arena; it all seemed like the man was supposed to be there. Ichigo never knew this side of the man.

Ichigo continued to read. Grimmjow's entrance was quite recent. The date was heavily marked with red marker and clipped onto it were images of Aizen visiting the arena during every single one of Grimmjow's fights. And as he read on, his heart dropped.

Weapon of choice: Melee and Katana. As he saw the score, his heart practically stopped breathing.

Estimated battle scores: 0 Deaths, 22 Knocked Out Wins, 6 Wins, 4 Losses.

Estimated murder count: 34

Ichigo was dazed looking at the numbers. He couldn't comprehend it but he had to. He knew Grimmjow was a better person, a man who often has his head on straight, but the man had these moments, of uncontrolled anger and passion for the flesh. He had seen Grimmjow, especially during sparring sessions with him and other trainers. The man was a beast when released. He was just letting it all in.

According to Yoruichi, Grimmjow's arrival had been a cause of much activity. Then, there was a controversy of Grimmjow being related to the man itself. Apparently, a sizeable portion of Grimmjow's past had been wiped off the board, and surprisingly, Neliel's one as well. As he studied Yoruichi's expression explaining all of that, he connected the dots.

"You're with the police, aren't you?" There was no way she had access to all this information with only mere membership and constant visitations to the underground.

"My identity remains confidential but yes, somewhat. It's top secret. Whoever I am Ichigo, this whole underground fighting has to stop. Once you're in, you never come out the same." Yoruichi looked distant as she she said it. Then Ichigo realised that he know was a part of it, whether he wanted to or not.

The next day...

It was raining heavily as Ichigo made his way to Grimmjow's house. He was running through possible ways to talk about the subject. It'd been a really long time since he last saw his the man. All he could remember was the look of his face, the softness of his hair and the roughness of his palms on his skin. He missed all of this. Ichigo neared the apartment complex and as he exit the elevator, it seemed like there was no one around, not even the old cleaner. It was beginning to feel ominous.

As he reached the door, he put his ear on the wooden surface. Trying to hear if there was any movement in the house, he heard none. If Grimmjow was in, he would always leave the television on as empty noise or there would at least some sound of him moving around. Nothing.

He had proceeded to use the key Grimm gave him. As he opened the door, there was no one. All the lights are out and even the cat food bowl was empty. Pantera wasn't even in the house which usually meant that the cat was let out. If Ichigo guessed right, it looked like for the past two weeks, there had been no one. As he went in the kitchen, there were some items on the counter. Most obvious, there was a plate of sandwiches, and a note.

/ Find me when you're back. /

The sandwiches were already mouldy and completely untouched. He recognised the handwriting to be Neliel's. Ichigos body stiffened as he put the note down. The light to the toilet was on. He prepared himself to see the worst. And as he went inside bedroom, there was nothing out of place. Bathroom, nothing.

As he went into the makeshift medical room, the door wide open, Ichigo's heart pounded in his chest.

There were torn bandages everywhere. Blood stained sheets, empty packets of IV saline solution with its tubes still attached. Torn clothes, and the thick white uniform laid on the floor in shreds like it was either methodically torn off or cut off hastily. He touched the material of the cloth and it was reinforced with some hard material, something like kevlar for protection. He grabbed what seemed to be a large piece of the thigh armour only to realise it was heavily coated with blood. He released whatever breath he was holding. It was a wreck. His heart was beating a mile a minute. Where is Grimmjow? He immediately pulled out his phone. He hit quick dial and immediately called the other man.

There was the usual ringtone playing.

The number you have dialled is not in service. Please try again later.

Fuck.

The only possibility was that the other man could have been out of network area. Ichigo inwardly panicked. He had to find out.

Almost out of instinct, Ichigo immediately returned to Yoruichi's place for answers. He had considred other options and the police was definitely not one of them. So many possibilities ran into his head. The blood and the armour meant that Grimmjow had a fight that day or some time recently. He brisk-walked past the neighbourhood and climbed up the stairs in twos. As he noticed there was light coming from her window, he barged into the apartment, knowing the door was rarely ever locked.

That was when he saw she had a guest. He recognised the dirty blonde hair anywhere, it was Urahara and apparently, both of them were settled on the couch across each other, discussing intensely about something. The coffee table was packed and layered with important documents and pictures. Ichigo could guess that they were discussing about some top secret shit stuff as he saw the national CIA logos on the papers. Ichigo didn't question why Urahara was with her but it was pretty obvious that both of them were partners, seeing how they often fought with each other and shared certain looks.

And as he bust in the house, slamming the front door wide open, the both of them looked shocked, their head spun around to just stare at Ichigo. Yoruichi stared at him and as she saw the dried blood on his palms, she immediately stood up from the couch, rushing over. "Wha-?"

"I can't find Grimmjow," Ichigo automatically replied as she came over. She touched his hands.

"He's been heavily injured in the last fight. Both his thighs almost got ripped apart." The blonde replied from where he was sitting and Urahara picked out the snapshots on the coffee table. Ichigo paled as he came closer and saw a snapshot of Grimmjow in battle. The man's unadulterated expression gave him the chills. The blue-haired man was smiling almost cruelly as the audience behind him was cheering.

"Where is he now?" Ichigo demanded an answer at this point. There were too many lies. Too many variables. He was getting tired of all this bullshit. Ichigo could sense that the two other people in the room were staring at him, studying him. He couldn't care less.

"He has another battle tonight. We-" Yoruichi replied as she was taking her usual seat. Perfect.

"I'll go. I have to see him." There was no doubt that Ichigo was going to see Grimmjow.

Ichigo stared at them. Yoruichi and Urahara shared a knowing look. Their faces obviously not expecting his volunteering. Almost immediately, the purple haired woman replied,

"Ichigo, wait, you can't just- " Yoruichi began to protest when she was suddenly cut off by the blonde.

"Okay." Urahara said.

"What?" Ichigo and Yoruichi responded in chorus, both of them now looking at him.

"No!" Yoruichi began as a resounding Yes! played in Ichigo's head. "He's not going to be a part of this!"

Almost immediately, they were back to arguing with each other but Ichigo was too focused on studying Grimm's case file and other information regarding the Espadas. He gulped as he saw almost too many images of bloodied contestants and the Espadas dominance over them. He saw a decapitated head and he had to blink away.

"He's innocent, Kisuke!" the woman practically shouted her point.

"He could be the final piece in bringing us closer to capturing Aizen." Urahara clearly had the final say and Yoruichi almost look defeated. Everyone in the room knew that they had no choice. Ichigo had to be involved in the situation, he already knew too much. Ichigo tried to lighten up the situation.

"I'll help you guys out. If Aizen is the main goal, I'll help you get to him but I need to help Grimmjow first." Ichigo reasoned with them. He could almost hear Yoruichi's worry building, she sighed as she broke eye contact.

"Then, you will go with me tonight," the blonde said as he grabbed Ichigo's shoulder.

The adrenaline and the atmosphere in the arena was definitely getting to him. He couldn't stand still. Apparently, he was given a new access card by Yoruichi. His name was etched on the card under the name of a large MNC, Soul Society. It was a cover but he did not expect such a large nationalised brand to have dealings in the underground society. Ichigo began to realise how big this operation was.

He had prepared himself that night, right after visiting Yoruichi. With a change of clothes, he went with Urahara to the ring. He was made to dress 'decent'. Apparently, the process of entering the arena always changed. One had to figure out the location of the entrances based on the placing of the fences. It took both of them at least an hour to find the opening in the extremely huge shipyard and factory area. Ichigo wondered how Shinji could have easily done it. He shuddered to think that his best friend frequented the area.

The moment he entered the place, he could hear the cheering of the crowd and the stench of the surrounding area, drugs, blood, body odour. Ichigo was immediately disgusted with the place. It was clear why there was the separation of the classes into different floors. The main floor was deplorable to say the least. Apparently, certain passes only gave certain floors, and theirs was limited only to the ground area. Shinji's access card had them both travel all the way up which made him unsettled.

Who was Shinji? The people around him, most of them weren't who he thought they were. He had this sense of betrayal but Ichigo knew. He knew that he was just being naive, he had been clouding his judgements for so long with the alcohol, making excuses and telling himself that he couldn't see the world for what it is because of his mother's passing. It was all bullshit. He knew better. He didn't need to ask Shinji anything, his best friend was always there for him, whatever this was, he trusted the other man's judgement.

Currently, he was staring up at the main fighting ring next to the weird-hat. The blonde was rarely seen without the damn hat but when he was out of it, it definitely meant business. Ichigo was surrounded by hundreds of people but they managed to squeeze relatively close to the pits, getting a good spot to view the upcoming battle clearly. He looked up at the large screen and saw the man of his dreams.

NÚMERO SEIS, SEXTA ESPADA, GRIMMJOW JAGERJACQUES

VS

ADJUCHAS

That was when the blue-haired man climbed onto the arena. The boom from the sudden cheering of the crowd nearly deafening his ears but it was all just white noise. The man had his hair short now, with a buzzcut, he looked even more threatening. He was wearing the full armoured white uniform and his thighs were heavily bandaged. Ichigo's heart ached. So many things were so familiar and yet so different with that man. He looked so regal yet so uncaged, carrying no expression, no care for the world. The commentators were shouting over the sound of the audience and then there was the ring of the entrance of his opponents.

Instead of one person, there were three that walked into the ring. While the audience first jeered with the entrance of the first one, they began to rile up when they noticed that he was not alone. They cheered at the unseen development in the was a battle definitely meant to test the capability of an Espada. There were no rules in the cages. If weapons are allowed into the arena, it meant that battles were a fight to the death. Ichigo didn't know if guns were allowed but he knew that it was an unspoken ban within the arena. Guns would make fighting almost too easy. The very fact that people came to visit Las Noches was a sign in itself. They wanted to see blood, lots of it. They wanted to savour suffering of others', almost like an outlet, a release of their own when they're not in the underground.

Outnumbered 3 to 1. It was an unfair match but it was purposely set up as so. The 'Adjuchas' seemed overconfident but Grimmjow only bared his teeth. There was a devastatingly huge boxer and a pair of twins. The twins were almost half the size of the boxer, still smaller that Grimmjow. Obviously untrained in battle by the way they held their stance. The boxer only stood at the corner, studying Grimmjow as the blue-haired man merely paced his within his side of the arena. The twins, on the other hand, were the complete opposite, bustling with nervous energy, whipping out their own set of combat knives. They were swinging it around, clearly trying to threaten their opponent.

"It's gonna be one hell of a show alright, a fucking massacre," Ichigo heard Kisuke say, next to him. The man was almost gritting his teeth in disgust.

"You mean, they're gonna kill Grimmjow?" Ichigo just replied in shock, his mouth suddenly growing parched.

"Definitely not, it's the other way round. Look up," Ichigo peered over and the upper levels were filled to the brim with lavishly dressed people. He could practically see the excitement of the audience on the upper decks. It was like a fully packed movie theatre. Then, there was Aizen, right in the middle.

"The Adjuchas are a lower level tier of fighters under Aizen. If they want to rise up the ranks, they have to fight their way up and survive. Match setters always, always, place their battles in the smaller rings within the mid-lower rank of fighters," the blonde was explaining to him.

"Then why are they here?" Ichigo questioned, unable to understand what's going on.

"This is no way a ranking match. It's a murder show." Kisuke surmised and Ichigo finally caught on when he heard 'show'. This wasn't for the fighters, this battle was for the audience. That was when he noticed the people in orange walking around the arena, carrying buckets of money. People were betting on the fight.

Ring!

Ichigo immediately swivelled his head to the scene in front of him. The twins stupidly rushed in towards the blue-haired man. Standing in the pits, staring at the ring, it was as if everything was in slow-motion. The twins were coming in both directions, flanking their opponent. And Grimmjow, he just stood there.

In a second, the other man had already incapacitated the one on his left by pinning his opponents outstretched arm behind his back while he used the reach of his long leg to kick and trip over the twin on his right. The blue-haired man still had one of the twins pinned and subsequently, dislocated the man's arm from his shoulder as he pulled at it mercilessly. Concurrently, the man on the floor quickly raised himself up, running over, swinging his knife wildly while Grimmjow effortlessly dodged them. The twin's movements could easily be read, his weaknesses so exposed. At the very last moment, Grimmjow swerved his body, bringing the pinned and struggling twin over with the momentum, and used him as a human shield. Then, there was a second of silence as everybody began to take in what was happening. The twin had stabbed his brother in the eye and the look on their faces was of complete and utter shock. The very next moment happened in the immediate second, Grimmjow took the knife that was embedded in the twin's eye, and threw it.

It was such a precise toss, aimed at the other brother. And it landed the killing blow. It cut straight through the other twin's throat; tossing the weapon at such a short distance and with such precision and strength, the other end of the knife clearly protruded at the back of the other's neck. With a gurgle and blood spurting out of the other's mouth, the twin landed on the ground with a lump. Grimmjow proceeded to release the other one that he was holding up. Apparently also motionless, after the knife pierced through his skull and probably deep enough to cut the brain. It all occured in merely 10 seconds and the Espada was unscathed. His armour still pristine and white. The area was buzzing with energy, everybody was shouting.

Then there were two left.

The boxer moved in quickly and was strategic. The man clearly had the advantage of size and reach. His punches were controlled and Grimmjow had to dodge a larger distance in order not to get hit. There was no time to move the corpses, the fighters just weaved around them. Unexpectedly, the boxer was also quick. The movement were unpredictable and there was a change in the pace of the battle. The boxer was trained and experienced. Even then, it was still clear who had the advantage. The blue-haired man was so unaffected, it almost looked like he was going over some basic training drills.

It was a close battle. No one could figure out who was going to win. And still they could not, until Grimmjow made a huge mistake. More like the odds were against him, he had slipped on the pool of blood that had caused him to lose balance. And in that very moment, the boxer tackled him to the ground. The boxer spun himself around, sitting on Grimmjow's chest. The boxer was so much bigger, his full weight was now being pushed down on the blue-haired's torso. No one expected such a move, and it all made sense as the boxer began punching down on Grimmjow's thighs. It was torture. The man pounded on the two appendages consecutively and the groans of the blue-haired man was so piercing. It was relentless and the white bandages began to turn red, the blood soaking the thick layers of cloth.

It was brutal.

That was until Grimmjow hooked his ankles on the back of the boxers head. The blue-haired man was forced to use his flexibility on the boxer, pulling the boxer's head towards the ground with a strong grip made by creating a lock with his ankles and forcing him to lift up from Grimmjow's chest. And just as the weight was relieved and the boxer was made to roll his body forward on the ground, Grimmjow lifted his body up. There was no sign of pain. However, the pain was replaced completely with anger. The man's features were scrunched into an expression of utter lividity. It was ominous and the man was the uncanny image of a demon. It was scary and the crowd was deafening at this point. Ichigo couldn't even hear the sounds of the commentators. The next act occured in three seconds.

Second 1. The boxer had rolled forward. He landed on the ground on his knees. The boxer was facing away from the blue-haired man. Staring into the crowd, and Ichigo was making eye contact with the man. The boxer was covered in sweat, trying to lift his upper body up. But lady luck had a say in deciding winner of matches like these, his grip on the floor was slippery from the mixture of his sweat and blood. He slipped but only slightly. The boxer did not realise. The boxer could not see. Nor, was the boxer able to sense the presence behind him.

Second 2. Fighters in the ring were allowed to wield weapons. It was meant to be used for one's advantage. No one had noticed that the black stick on Grimmjow's back was a weapon. It used to be covered by the length of his hair. Ichigo had never seen the man use the weapon or even seen the damn thing. It looked like a simple baton or a wooden stick.

A flashback came into his mind,

Weapon of choice: Melee or Katana

Second 3. And it all ended in a second. With a glinting flash, the excessive stage light was reflecting off the complete length of Grimmjow's weapon. The eye contact that Ichigo held with the boxer remained. But the man's iris was suddenly blown out. And it began to slide leftwards. The entirety of the man's head began to slide leftwards. The rest of the body, however, had remained at that same spot. The head dropped onto the ground, it laid open the exposed neck, the arteries, the ivory bone of the spine, the split open oesophagus. Blood shot out like a roman candle. And the body remained upwards in its muscle shock, stuck at the same position, trying to stand up.

Silence.

SEXTA! SEXTA! SEXTA! The crowd went absolutely delirious. Chanting Sexta like he was God. God of the arena. God of Destruction.

There was that short moment. Not even a millisecond, but Ichigo had looked Grimmjow in the eye. The man was smiling. The man was happy, coated in other people's blood. As if, the pain in his thighs meant nothing. As if murdering the three men in a mere 3 minutes, was just a game. The decapitated head suddenly shouted, releasing the air and shock that was held back just before it was cut off. Whatever that was in Ichigo's stomach, rose up into his throat. The bile crept into his mouth and he just spat it out into the ground. That was when Kisuke grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him out of the building.