Zangetsu
The old man stared at the wall of world, as if staring out the eyes of Ichigo What makes this boy tick? How much pressure can this boy take before he utterly explodes? Only Zangetsu knew that. And that was a secret he would keep. "Ichigo. Kurosaki Ichigo." he commented to the empty world around him.
"Oh what about him?" A sharp, harsh voice generated behind him, coming from the soulless hollow that inhabited Ichigo's soul as well. "Ready to tell me yet old man? What can make him break?"
Zangetsu stood there looking out the opaque window quietly contemplating his thoughts, if he could, he would crush this hallow in a moment. But the moment he does that, he will just reappear. "The moment you find that out is the moment he shatters you in an instant." He replied calmly.
The hollow walked closer to Zangetsu, and stood right behind him, holding a sword to his back, "So you actually believed what that bitch said?"
Zangetsu stood there and closed his eyes. Five sword materialized around him, each with the same hilt, but no cross guard and with different shapes. "Be gone with you hollow."
The monster weighed it's options and just sneered, "Ichigo is weakening and you know it old man, i'm all that makes him strong.." He lashed out, right before he fully disappeared.
The old man clad in black turned the world again, and walked up onto the roof behind him. Standing upright again. "Are you going to grow strong Ichigo just because she said so?" he said, raising his hand, a large mirror appeared in front of him. "Kuchiki Rukia." The mirror suddenly brought up a portrait of the girl and became slightly transparent. He walked into the mirror, the glass enveloping him and dissappearing.
He entered a hall of mirrors, each one representing a part of Rukia he knows. This hall was the longest out of all them that he's seen. Directly to his left, he saw the zanpakuto that the girl wielded. It was a women clad solidly in white, snow glittering all around her. "Sode no Shirayuki. Fits her well." He walked down the hallway further, scanning the memories Ichigo has had with her.
Walking down the hallways of mirrors, he noticed something written on the walls, he hasn't seen this before in any of Ichigo's memories. Just small sayings Ichigo had remembered, so Zangetsu didn't even bother to read them. Although, at the very end of the hallway, where the mirrors gave way to an empty hallway; one mirror had been placed directly in his path, in the center of the hallway. Looking at it, this picture was of that girl, Rukia, standing on something, her arms crossed. Around it was a long paragraph; he looked at it carefully, then placed his hand on it. A sound resonated throughout the hallways as this women's voice read it aloud.
"If it was defeat then you need to train harder." The women in the picture closed her eyes, her hands clenched shut, "If it was about your companions, then you just need to reseal those promises and become a more virtuous man." her stance began to become more dignified, "If it's about becoming a hollow, then just become strong enough until you can shatter it in an instant." Her eyes opened in defiance, she held her hand to her chest, "even if you can't rely on anyone else, Just pull yourself together and roar!" She started to yell, her eyes opening wider, "The you that still lives in my heart, Kurosaki Ichigo, Would do exactly that!" She finished, crossing her arms and smiling.
When this finished, the picture froze again, and the old man closed his eyes and smiled, "I was wrong about you Ichigo. You will grow strong, her strength that flowed from you to her, now flows between both of you freely." He started to laugh, the first time ever, "And when that time comes Kurosaki Ichigo, the time when you can utterly shatter your regrets. I will be there with you. And so shall she." He began to disappear, from his bottom first, He looked behind him shortly, he saw the white sword of the Sode No Shirayuki, "I guess I'll be seeing you more often, sword of snow and ice." he smiled in triumph, as if he knew the future.
Zangetsu and Ichigo, they share one thing in common. Sheer and utter determination, that was also the bonding trait between Ichigo and Rukia. The old could already hear the roar of shatters of regrets, the roar that first started out as determination and the will to save someone.
The sky never wept rain again.
