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JAKEenstien Q: Any chance of Ichigo joining the hero faction and being paired with Jeanne?

A: A very high chance.

The rest were grammar tips, power leveling tips, praise, and one or two flamers.

And for you people who only want action, a good fight is built on a good foundation. I want a fight to feel like it means something and not just a pointless fight that doesn't contribute to the story.

That aside, the "powerless" arc, or what I like to call "de-humanization" arc is over with this chapter.

Chapter 6

Cometh The Hour

Ichigo opened his eyes and was greeted with a clouding sky. Feeling unrestrained, he surveyed his surroundings. Yet, he did not need to survey it, for he instantly recognized it.

His inner world.

"It has been a long time, Ichigo," the voice, the one he had long trusted yet now doubted, greeted him.

There, with his long black coat that billowed in the wind, was Juha. The man who represents his Quincy side and who had long deceived him.

"Juha..." It was more of a mutter than a greeting but that was all he could muster.

After all, it was his first time seeing a familiar face from his world in weeks.

"Miss me as well, kingy?"

And there was the voice he dreaded to hear. Once he craned his neck to his left, his eye twitched a bit. "Y-Yo..."

There, for all his bastardized stolen glory, was the real Zangetsu that also represented his hollow side. "What the fuck is with that fucking weak greeting? Eh, king?"

"Oi! You shut up you white bastard!"

"You are a fucking racist now?! What the fuck did I miss?!"

As he bickered with Zangetsu, Ichigo felt... Fulfilled. As if he was made whole again.

In a way, it brought him closer with Zangetsu. And he was sure his zanpaktou felt the same based on that shit-eating grin on his face.

Yet, now that he was more familiar with his setting, he noticed the rain. He really hadn't felt anything so he didn't notice immediately, but after bickering with Zangetsu, he noticed it.

It was a thunderstorm.

Juha took notice of his revelation and decided to enlighten him. "It is as if we were on a ship, in the middle of the ocean, sailing," he started, his eyes looking up, "then this thunderstorm arrived and we had worked to keep this ship afloat lest we are consumed by sharks."

Zangetsu remained silent, his rude remarks and arguments no more as he too looked up. "It began when you came to this world."

"When you became mournful, it was only slightly cloudy. Then, it became thunder quickly after you had that dream. From there, it escalated." He brought his eyes to Ichigo. "Now with us slowly drowning, the shark is coming. Not even our swords could drive away the infinite."

"Infinite?"

"The Ouroboros, the Dragon of Infinity, whatever this world calls it. It wants you and is coming," Zangetsu gave a short sigh as he brought his eyes back to the storm. "We had tried to keep you out of the supernatural as much as possible so we suppressed your powers. After all, you wanted a normal life, did you not?"

Ichigo remained silent, his eyes now glued to the sky.

"So... You guys were the reason... The reason why I lost?" he murmured.

Zangetsu and Juha remained silent, that silence was all Ichigo needed to know.

He turned his sights on the two manifestations of his powers, his eyes filled with anger and hate.

"You bastards!" he roared, his arm reaching out behind him, his hand gripping the object behind him. The familiar handle of Zangetsu greeted him.

In his rage, he recklessly jumped Juha. Only to be reflected by Zangetsu who wielded a more powerful blade.

Ichigo was sent flying and crashed into a building, hitting the thin concrete and steel that prevented him from going through.

His mind blanked as he tried to process what had happened. 'W-Was that Zangetsu...?'

That was impossible, for the blade that he held in his hands and the one held by Zangetsu was not the usual identical ones they usually clashed with.

No, it was far more detailed and smaller than his plain butcher knife.

It was a trench knife.

Unfortunately, Ichigo wasn't able to ponder about it before Zangetsu shunpo'd before him and struck Ichigo with his trench knife.

Reacting sluggishly, Ichigo wasn't able to defend himself and was sent flying downwards in an angled slope that tore the building in half.

What was this power? Surely this was bankai.

Ichigo looked up to see a grinning Zangetsu.

"As much as I want to help you, kingy. I very much like to guide you," the zanpakuto spirit said cockily. "Don't worry, king, I would avenge your girlfriend."

Ichigo's eyes widened at the revelation before his heart clenched. Soon, however, his sadness and sorrow turned into rage.

His rage fueled his hollow powers.

Which in turn made Zangetsu stronger.

Petram was petrified, his eyes were plates as he felt the rapidly increasing demonic power from behind him. His breath was becoming more erratic and his legs felt weaker with every passing moment.

The human girl, whom he was going to take his frustrations on, was petrified like him but for different reasons.

She wasn't petrified of the power. No, she couldn't even feel it. She was terrified for what was slowly rising from the ground from where Ichigo was once was.

In Asa's terrified eyes Petram saw it as well, a demon.

Long, angular horns.

A starch white body.

Long tattoos, which Asa recognized as Ichigo's.

A menacing mask with the eyes of a dragon.

Long nails that could pierce a man.

A hole in the chest.

And as it stood to full height, Petram was already on the floor and suffocating.

Asa, on the other hand, slowly limped her way to it.

Yet, she collapsed half way from exhaustion and significant blood loss.

Before she could collapse, a pair of cold arms picked her up like a sack of potatoes.

Then, they heard the roar.

The roar of anguish and authority.

Petram shakily released all his energy to counter the overwhelming power. The weight on his shoulder was immediately lightened, perhaps not enough to make him regain his composure, but enough to regain the motor functions to run.

Run he did. "R-Retreat!" he called out shakily. He didn't wait for his men to confirm his order, they were already dead after all.

Whether it didn't notice him or saved him for last, the monster had taken out Petram's men first. They didn't have time to scream before they were cut down.

Bat-like wings sprouted from his back, 3 in total, and he lifted off the air. Yet, it didn't let him leave.

For what seemed impossible to Petram, it was a common practice for all beings from its world.

Air walking.

It had grabbed on to Petram with a grip that broke his arm.

"Gah!" he screamed his first reflexively curling into a fist. "Take this you bastard! Solid Strike!"

The magically enhanced fist collided with the hollowfied-Ichigo's mask. A loud bang! resounded, along with a bright light before it receded.

It was unharmed and from its eyes, Petram knew it had just pissed it off further.

It grabbed Petram by the mouth and squeezed so tightly, yet slowly that it was practically torture to him. It removed its hand around his shoulder, letting him dangle.

Petram wasn't about to be idle as he was squeezed to death. He fruitlessly pried, scratched, and blast his way out of the grip. He repeated kicked it in the chest, to no avail.

He was going to die and he knew it. But it did not know, as it was a mere mindless monster.

A ball of condensed energy formed between its horns. It was strangely silent as it charged it as if it were a puppet.

Seeing his imminent doom, Petram struggled more.

The cero was at its peak and it discharged.

Except, it wasn't Petram that was obliterated for he had struck its head downwards.

The shrine went up in a massive column of energy. It consumed the nearby houses and the inhabitants.

While the pillar of energy did indeed it both of them, it was weak enough that Petram could survive it. But the grip it had around him instantly became crushing, reducing his head to a mess of gore.

This time it roared, not in triumph, but in agony.

I chigo screamed as the malice and anguish consumed him, his energy skyrocketing.

Zangetsu had to back off and retreated next to Juha. "Fucking restrain him now! I doubt I can hold back any longer!" he said in a hurry as he clutched his sword tighter.

Juha, in contrast to Zangetsu's panic, remained calm and collected as he observed the transformation Ichigo was going through.

"Take over his body, I'll try to keep him distracted," Juha commanded.

"Eh? Why can't you?"

"You're the one complaining," Juha stated plainly.

C leria Belial stared at the monster before her, the overwhelming energy threatened to destroy her.

Being the owner of Kuoh Town and the surrounding area, she had borne witness to the destruction the thing did.

She turned her head to her peerage, all of whom's only experience in combat was in stray devil hunts and a few Rating Games. They had wet themselves, some had even fainted.

She was only a bit better than them.

While not exactly on their level of fear to wet herself, she could barely stand and she could feel herself sweating.

It was suicide.

She should've retreated back to the Underworld. Yet, how would her limited prestige in the devil society fare?

Simple, it would all disappear and she would be the laughing stock of the Belial family. Her thoughts wandered to her cousin, the Emperor of Rating Games, and she couldn't look him in the face if she ran.

But now, she felt that she should've run when she first felt the demonic energy.

"Raaaaa!" the roar sent shivers down her spine.

This was the power of a demon. Pure malice.

Possibly the only devils that could match even the weakest of them were the Maous, Ultimate-Class.

By no means was this a weak demon, in her opinion.

As she looked upwards at the demon, her face quivered, tears poured down her face as the pressure threatened to destroy them.

Its head snapped towards them. It went silent as it observed them, or rather what was behind them.

Her eyes went to slits as she was forced onto her knees by a new power from behind. Turning her head behind, her heart sank at what she found.

A little girl with the most emotionless eyes yet held an endless pool within.

The infinite.

One of the two most powerful beings in the world.

Dragon God, Ophis.

Yet, she paid no mind to them. Instead, her blank stare was directed at the demon.

As she took a step forward, she hit one of Cleria's pawns. He was fairly new to the supernatural fold and held a decent amount of potential.

Cleria's heart sank as Ophis directed her gaze at her unconscious pawn's body.

"You're in the way."

Cleria tried to open her mouth, just to speak out a warning for her conscious peerage members to run. Yet, she could not.

A s Ophis wiped out the group of devils that cluttered her path, she turned back to the demon. Yet, she took note that the demon had vanished.

The pressure had let up so some of the unconscious people sprawled around were bound to awake. Yet she did not care for them, instead, she made her way to the crater that was once a shrine.

Trying to locate her prey, her eyes closed in concentration. Yet, she could not find him making her actually feel annoyed.

She had ceased her observation on Vali Lucifer once she sensed him. It was annoying because she had flown all the way from England to Japan, only to come empty-handed.

"Fucking hell, old man! Why didn't you subdue him sooner!" Zangetsu yelled at Juha, his voice one of anger.

Juha sighed as he looked at the unconscious Ichigo. "He had too cool off, lose his steam here so he won't automatically attract attention when he awakes," he responded coolly.

Zangetsu grumbled in agitation but kept his silence.

"I also want to keep his powers suppressed so-"

"I'm not fucking helping you."

Juha narrowed his eyes at the hollow. "I'm doing this to keep Ichigo safe."

Zangetsu growled back at Juha. "You and keeping his safe my ass! You fucking broke him!"

"Correction, we. And for your information, it is our job to protect him. There is nothing that says we can't take the extreme," Juha growled back, surprising Zangetsu. "This was the best survival outcome. He is not ready to combat it."

"Then why aren't we fucking teaching him to use his powers?!"

"Did you see how fast it arrived once it sensed his power?! Did not see how it regarded the devils as a nuisance?!" Juha asked, now yelling.

"We regard them as insects!" Zangetsu retorted.

"That is beside my point! It would obliterate us! The only way we could defeat it is by utilizing my disassembly powers! And I can't even guarantee the success of it!"

"We haven't even tried!" Zangetsu shouted, his retort making Juha go rigid. "We haven't asked what it wants! We haven't negotiated with it! How can you be so sure that it would try to kill us?!"

Juha's mood soured and darkened. "Because it has the same aura as the Quincy God, the man whose form I take," he said darkly.

It was Zangetsu's turn to shut up.

Silence reigned.

For he knew who Juha was talking about.

Yhwach, the king and God of all Quincies.

Juha sighed. "Now that we have a clean slate to work with, we'll just have to mold it so that we'll end up with the perfect result."

The Vasto Lorde crashed into an alleyway, swords of energy piercing all around it, binding it. It tried to struggle but it eventually ceased it and slowly it became less of a demon and more human.

It's long angular horns, nails, and mask slowly became ash and disintegrated.

The pale skin gained a normal color.

The orange flowing hair changed to black.

The hole in its chest knitted itself together.

It's lost chaotic aura changing to a deathly cold aura.

Ichigo laid sprawled in the garbage dump, bare as he was born.

Suddenly, the world became still and thick fog covered the streets till it was invisible. The alleyway strangely the exception to the fog.

The light clanking of armor resounded within the alleyway along with two pairs of footsteps.

"Ophis is truly naive, giving up once she lost sight and trace of him," the person in armor commented.

"Are you sure he could be an ally of humanity, Cao Cao?" Cao Cao's companion inquired. "He's not fully human."

"No, you misunderstand, Georg, he is human. Take Siegfried for example, he bathed in Fafnir's blood and as a result, gained a body that was invincible but fundamentally he was human," Cao Cao stated. "And his hate of devils should make up for any percentage he is not human. Besides, his power is about the only thing that could counter Ophis should my Longinus or our secret weapon fail."

Georg frowned in disapproval but said nothing else.

"Let's go, soon the devils and yokai will swarm Kuoh in light of the owner's demise."

Chapter 6 End

I think it's shorter than most and my least favorite. I was heavily struggling with what to do after Petram's death, I had to rewrite it like 6 times before I decided to add some Kuoh lore, emphasizing the fact it was before the events of DxD and pushing the "Hero" arc sooner than what I had scheduled.