Fun fact, this was supposed to be 666 words, until I decided to get a little bit more in depths. Anyway, I had fun with this chapter. Ichigo's Bankai was fun to write and interpret, even it's truly OOC, I imagine.
Enjoy !
Chapter VII – Be afraid of the dark, it's where monsters hide
"-Where the Night is eternal, may the Moon light your path, Tensa Zangetsu."
The skies became heavens of shadows right then. Darkened under his words and revering his vow, like a promise it had failed to keep so long ago and now intended to accomplish. As the Sun grew black and turned white, the starless void engulfed everything. There, up in those skies, lied the darkness that devoured up until the marrow of Ichigo's own bones. The string tied up to his blade, followed like a piece of loose puzzle now founding back its rightful place and turned black in turn, as if tinted by the malevolent desire that rooted this world and shattered the skies until nothing remained. Nothing, but pure black.
Like a weight too wary of its own burden, the blemished Sun, mere and cheap copy of the Moon seemed to fell. Descending from the skies it had once ascended from, as if punished for its pride and ambition. As if getting grounded for its foolishness. A reflection of their selfish behaviours, or maybe a reflection of one own self-destruction. Soul Reapers were such dark creatures after all. They roamed and danced in the shadows, but they never truly found their most destructive ways and paths. Up there, for all to see, as if the essence of negativity had taken life of its own, was such dark. Chains rippling through them like a sea of ink, hanging loose and yet so threatening by their mere presence, pursuing the ever falling astral object. A desperate attempt to save the dying Sun and the ever lasting sorrow that follows.
Yet, they have managed it. Rounding and rounding as they go, tight and coiled as if trying to get the heavy celestial being up, without even moving it. Desperation indeed, they looked ready to snap. The bound of rust and diamond hues snapped up, like a snake that have been awaiting the moment to strike. Circling the arms of his own master, biting the hand that had fed it so. The crescent moon of metal like a collar chocked the arm of Ichigo in a tight grip, the chain staining red the skin reaping of death of tears of sadness. On that Day that became Night, all the Imperials Guards understood how monsters where borns. Not from one action or repercussion. Not from consequences or butterfly effects.
For one to become such unnamable thing, one must first cultivate the hope that he will become so, and then be desperate enough to survive it, before letting their hope burn everything to the ground. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, 'til nothing is left to be burn. There, then, come Darkness. Like a countdown unto nothingness that have ate up the skies and now intended to do the same to everything else, the ringing of the chains balancing off an unknown coming cataclysm. Started metronome, that of a reincarnated Moon, slowly, agonisingly, the parasitic white that have leeched out the bright burn of the Sun, was now dissipating too, turning back to black.
Observing from the roof tiles of one of his own Division's building, Shunsui sigh heavily as if it was no more than an inconvenient time to interrupt his moment of peace and quiet with his alcohol. "Well, there goes my afternoon nap." He pushed is kasa out his eyes to send a side along glance in direction of his own lieutenant, that was until then, in the middle of her rant when she fainted. "Can't really blame the poor girl, uh…" as the giant sphere kept going back and forth, he flash-stepped down to the woman's side and assured himself she wasn't dead. "What a truly-" his eyes hardened as he took the scene and the spiritual pressure, compacting every fiber of his being in a vice of fear and anguish he hadn't felt nor never wish to feel ever again. "-despicable Reaitsu…"
Ichigo smiled, and Yoruichi could only watch and pray. "Kisuke…" she whispered like a secret lost the wind. "What have we done…" she could hope that Ishida, Chad and Orihime couldn't witness this and knew this was simply an impossible feat. This was… "Ichigo…" she blinked and for the first time since they meet, she saw everything that she missed, all of that she didn't saw. She thought he was but mere man with the knowledge that of a child. How wrong she was, on both account. He was never a child, but then, he never was man either. He simply was. And that, well, wasn't that the most aggraving fact of them all ?