The black energy beam that pierced through Ichigo died down, and Orihime could see a large hole that left a gap on Ichigo's chest, despite how far the roof of the tower was from her. Orihime felt as though a part of her soul was ripped out of her, seeing what was presented. The life in her eyes began to die down, trying to process everything that was going on. When Ulquiorra threw Ichigo off the roof with his tail, it was then that reality hit her. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Orihime screamed out in horror, and seeing Ichigo falling down in the air made her start sprinting towards where Ichigo would hit the ground.
Orihime summoned her Rikka shield and moved it closer just in time to catch Ichigo, making him land on her shield instead of the ground. She kept running in desperation, her emotions running out of control as saving Ichigo was the only thing that came in her mind and ignored everything around her. As she got halfway to reach the fallen Ichigo, Ulquiorra used his Sonido to appear right in front of her, preventing her from going any further. "Don't even bother." Ulquiorra said, seeing the look of utter despair that latched onto Orihime. "With your level of power, you wouldn't be nearly strong enough to bring him back, even if you managed to reach him."
It was then that Uryu came up from behind in the air, his bow being summoned and aimed at Ulquiorra's back with a flash of anger shown on the Quincy's face. Uryu fired off a shot from his bow, but Ulquiorra didn't bother to turn around before one of his wings deflected the arrow. Ulquiorra turned his head, and Orihime used this opportunity to run past Ulquiorra as Uryu fired an onslaught of his arrows. Ulquiorra used the same wing he just used over his head to defend himself from the annoying arrows. Uryu began to charge up at full power, just so he could at least distract Ulquiorra long enough or somehow put a scratch on him. "Licht Regen!" Uryu exclaimed the name of his attack before firing over a thousand arrows down at Ulquiorra with all his might. "Graaaaaagh!"
Uryu came back down on the ground and saw nothing but smoke piling up from all the arrows he fired off at. He heard footsteps coming toward him, and he wasn't surprised to see that Ulquiorra came out without a scratch, walking underneath the pile of small holes he made. "This is quite unexpected. I had estimated that out of Ichigo Kurosaki's friends, you were the calmest." Ulquiorra remarked.
"I am calm… and because of that, I have the best chance of stopping you." Uryu replied as he pointed his bow at Ulquiorra. Staying calm was rather hard to pull off, especially after witnessing Ichigo's death… or at least hoped he wasn't. But he needed to try his best to stay composed, and buy as much as possible.
Orihime was running off to the fallen Ichigo, using her healing power to put a barrier around him. "Please be alright, Ichigo! I'll heal you!" Orihime got over to her lover's side, wanting to see any life that could be in him. He would pull through, right? He managed to do it before, this shouldn't be anything different, right? Orihime was slowly widening her eyes, not seeing any life that remained in Ichigo. "No…" she silently murmured to herself, getting down on her knees, refusing to believe this was happening.
She then remembered something. A memory sparked as she remembered how Ichigo's sword returned to its Shikai state after he came back from that strange Hollowfied state he was in. She wasn't sure why that was the case, as she presumed it was from lack of exhaustion. 'Wait… his sword hasn't turned back like before.' she thought to herself, as the sword in front of her eyes still remained in Bankai. She figured it would have long since returned to its Shikai state… if he truly was dead to begin with. Realizing this, a small smile curled up, meaning that Ichigo was still alive, and there was still time left as well. 'Maybe there is still hope!'
Back in the battle, Uryu kept using his Hirenkyaku to go from one direction to another, firing his arrows at every different direction he could catch Ulquiorra with. But the Espada merely raised his wings and deflected each and every one of the arrows while standing still.
'It's just as I thought, those wings of his will keep deflecting my attacks from the distance.' Uryu thought as he appeared in front of Ulquiorra, not firing any more arrows as of now. 'But if I move any closer, I would be playing right into his hands. I have to buy Orihime as much as possible so she can… hopefully heal Ichigo.' Uryu shook his head, not wanting to come to the worst right now. 'Regardless, I gotta keep this guy distracted.' Uryu pulled off the string on his energy bow before firing several more arrows at Ulquiorra's direction.
Ulquiorra continued to deflect the arrows with his wings before Uryu hopped in the air to fire 2 more arrows, but this time they were shot between where Ulquiorra was at, creating smoke around him so that the Quincy couldn't be seen. Uryu used Hirenkyaku to get behind Ulquiorra and strike against his back, however Ulquiorra sensed the arrows from behind and deflected them with the wings, this time they were sent launching back at Uryu, who widened his eyes and used Hirenkyaku to get away from the arrows as he got in the air. "Where is he?!" Uryu asked out loud, now having lost track of where Ulquiorra was. It wasn't until he sensed Ulquiorra came up right next to him. "Damn it!" Uryu swore before he got hit by Ulquiorra's wing, having been sent flying away until he crashed through a nearby pillar.
Uryu groaned from the pain he felt, as his back was leaning against a wall from the attack he got hit by. 'It's no surprise… his strength truly is overwhelming. However… as long as I can keep my distance, and find another way to attack… after all, there's gotta be some weakness to that form.' he thought to himself, and then he looked up to see Ulquiorra standing above where he crashed through.
"It shouldn't be surprising that you're this weak. When you first began attacking me, I could observe just how fast you were capable of moving. After all, you are merely just a Human, and that seems to limit your capabilities." Ulquiorra said.
Uryu began to get up. "Oh trust me, I'm just getting warmed up…" he replied as he summoned his Quincy bow, wanting to try out a different strategy this time. It couldn't be very well used in a one-on-one fight, but what other choice did he have at this point. Uryu grabbed a Seele Schneider from behind, pulling out the glowing sword with his left hand.
That left him wide open for an attack, making a foolish error as Ulquiorra grabbed Uryu's left wrist, something that took Uryu by surprise as he turned to see that the Espada was right next to him. "Was this supposed to harm me?" Ulquiorra rhetorically asked, and Uryu widened his eyes in shock as he realized the position he was stuck in. He couldn't move his hand at all… until Ulquiorra ripped it out.
There still wasn't any ounce of life that could be recognized in Ichigo, as he continued to lay stagnant on the ground, the healing barrier providing no signs of healing whatsoever. Bags were forming under Orihime's eyes, as no matter how hard she tried to heal Ichigo, she wasn't making any progress to begin with. The Spiritual Pressure that surrounded Ichigo's wounds was far too powerful for her to reject.
She didn't know how much time was left, but no matter how much she tried she just couldn't do anything. Her attempts would end up in futility, but she couldn't just leave him. She was too weak to help. "Come on… this can't be happening…" Orihime began to shed tears, her hands gripping onto her head, as the last hope that remained in her hands was being wasted. 'What can I do?! I can't do anything to help! I thought that Ichigo would end up winning, I thought he'd gotten so strong right now that he would surely be capable of winning!' Orihime's body began to tremble profusely. 'It's my fault… if only I went with him sooner, I might have done something to help! I'm given this last chance of saving him, and nothing is working!' her emotions were running rampant, as she became stuck on what to do. 'I… I don't know what to do! Uryu isn't going to last much longer, and I'm helpless to do anything! I don't know how to heal you, Ichigo!'
It was then that Uryu got thrown back by Ulquiorra, grinding his feet on the ground so that he could stop himself. Orihime was in shock when she saw that Uryu's left hand was missing, seeing how it bled profusely while Uryu was panting heavily. "Don't worry about me, Orihime. I already injected myself with an anesthetic and a Hemostatic drug to stop the bleeding." Uryu said, seeing the horrified look on Orihime's face, but he knew it was more than seeing his missing hand. "Don't worry, I'll cover for you as long as I can. You just focus on healing Ichigo!" he exclaimed before grabbing a Seele Schneider and running off to where Ulquiorra was.
Ulquiorra lazily whipped his tail when the Quincy reached the distance available to swing his tail. Uryu jumped to the side and managed to avoid the attack, but he wasn't able to get away when Ulquiorra used Sonido to appear in front of the teen and backhand him. "Gagh!" Uryu cried out in pain as he got knocked aside. The Quincy tried to get back on his feet, but he was far too slow to do it as Ulquiorra already appeared in front of him.
'What can I do here?!' Orihime desperately tried to summon her shield, bringing it in front of Uryu to protect him. 'Please, somebody help! I don't know what to do here!' Orihime's tears were dropping uncontrollably. 'Please, come back Ichigo... I need you. You can't leave me all alone. I-I'm not prepared to do this by myself! I don't know any — anyway to fight him! He's too strong!' Orihime couldn't register any proper words, the fear and panic that were in her kept increasing while her mind was breaking down. She was having difficulty breathing as she held her chest. 'I don't understand anything anymore… everything hurts so much.' she choked on her sobs. "Please don't leave me… I need you, Ichigo, don't leave me all alone." she could barely get to muster up her words. "HELP MEEEEEEE!"
She was calling out to him.
He didn't know how, but he could hear her voice. He wasn't sure how, as he should have been fully dead at this point.
But regardless, he could hear the desperation in his lover's voice, begging him to return. Screw the hole in his chest, he needed to get up and protect her. He was somewhat aware of what was going on, and he couldn't let harm be brought to her.
Get up.
He had to get up and protect her. If the situation was so bad that she was calling his name this desperately, he had to get up and fight. He made her promise that he will rescue her, and he swore to stick up for it. He could feel burning heat of energy flowing through his body, as he was able to start getting up again, with his hair growing far longer and his Spirit Energy was being released from his body.
And no matter what…
HE WILL PROTECT HER.
Orihime continued to cry out, just somehow hoping that anything would come to stop Ulquiorra, and it was then she felt a massive torrent of power rise just behind where she was at. She turned around, and for the briefest of moments thought that Ichigo did come back, to which she stopped her tracks when she saw that it was indeed Ichigo… who looked completely different as he broke through her healing barrier. This being before her looked like a Hollow, with long straight orange hair that reached down to his waist, and a Hollow hole that looked just like the one Ichigo had, decorated with markings that stretched from the hole across his chest and shoulders. He had retractable claws on his fingertips and toes, along with small, furry red tufts, two starting from his collarbone and stretching around his neck and one each on his wrists and ankles, and white skin. The mask covered his entire head, and his markings consisted of four spike-shaped marks, two of them stopping by the forehead and the other two stretching past the eyes and teeth, going past his chin and joining with the marks on his chest. There were small marks resembling a heart, but with the top and bottom open, extending from the inner corners of his eyes. The mask featured two long forward-pointing horns, with black strips extending from their center towards the tips. The being still kept the torn off Shihakusho as well.
Orihime stared at the new being before her with a suspension of disbelief. Uryu managed to turn his head around to look at the Hollow monster, not believing what he was seeing. "Is that... Ichigo?" Uryu asked in utter confusion. He either got knocked around so much that he was seeing things, or this Hollow creature was actually Ichigo… somehow.
Despite there being no physical reaction from Ulquiorra, even he was shocked by this. "This can't be possible. You can't be alive…" Ulquiorra scanned up and down at the Hollowfied human, his resemblance looked to be far too different than the human he previously fought. "What is that form?" he asked, wanting to know just what even was that. Despite its absurd appearance, from the type of Hollow it looked to be very humanoid, something along the lines of a Vasto Lorde. "Who are you right now?"
The Hollow merely gestured his hand, and it made Tensa Zangetsu sprung from the ground and reached to its master's hand, and this action took Ulquiorra by surprise. The Vasto Lorde swung his sword from behind, the force behind the swing tore apart the ground and made Orihime be launched away, with Uryu using Hirenkyaku to catch her with one arm, as he also got pushed away.
"Did you not hear what I just said? I asked you to identify yourself." Ulquiorra asked with a tone of authority, wanting to know just what this being was.
The Vasto Lorde didn't listen to what Ulquiorra was saying, instead it made an animalistic growl. "GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOO!" the Vasto Lorde then unleashed a blood curdling roar, its mouth open wide as he seemed to be ready to cause a slaughter.
Ulquiorra was not the least bit intimidated by the scream. "It appears to me… that you cannot understand anything I'm saying." Ulquiorra charged a Cero Oscuras from his finger as he pointed it at Ichigo.
The Vasto Lorde stopped his roar before pointing his horns at Ulquiorra, charging a regular red Cero between its tips. This completely shocked Ulquiorra before both of them fired their Ceros at the same time. The Ceros clashed with one another, and when it did their sizes increased to the size of the towers, right before Vasto Lorde's Cero managed to overwhelm Ulquiorra's in an instant. It caused a large scale explosion to the major portion of the above canopy of Las Noches.
Ulquiorra was seen emerging from the explosion, flying outside just so he could comprehend what occurred. 'That… was without a shadow of a doubt a real Cero. And it was one so powerful that it overwhelmed my Cero Oscuras on top of that. This can't be real…' he tried to search just where the Hollowfied human was at. 'Where in the world did he get that much power?'
The Vasto Lorde appeared behind where Ulquiorra was at, and Ulquiorra turned around to see the Vasto Lorde charging a Cero from his horns again. "Enough!" Ulquiorra exclaimed before he charged his Cero Oscuras as well. Their energy beams fired off and clashed with one another, but once again Ulquiorra's Black Cero became overwhelmed by the Vasto Lorde in an instant. This time, however, an even bigger explosion occurred, one that was far more powerful than the previous. It left a tremendous shockwave that was released from the explosion and it extended beyond the whole area of Las Noches in just a matter of a second.
This caused one of the towers to be utterly destroyed, and Ulquiorra was seen flying away just so he could gain distance from Ichigo's Hollowfied form. "He managed to overpower Cero Oscuras for a second time now…" Ulquiorra told himself, trying to find where Ichigo could be at.
It was then he sensed Vasto Lorde right behind where he was at, using only raw speed to catch him from behind. Ulquiorra turned around to somehow make a counter attack, but it wasn't until Vasto Lorde caught his left arm before going ahead to completely slice off his arm. Blood spurted out from Ulquiorra's missing limb, and the Espada couldn't believe what was happening. He stared right into the deep, soulless eyes that were filled with black void. Despite there being no physical eyes, Ulquiorra could tell this being wanted nothing more than to kill him. The Vasto Lorde used Espada's arm he held onto to slap Ulquiorra across, sending him spiraling downwards. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Vasto Lorde released another loud, blood howling roar from its throat, making it loud and clear for everyone in the area to hear it.
"I… can't believe it… he's so powerful." Orihime murmured to herself, with Uryu crouching next to her side, as both of them were in utter disbelief at what they were looking at. "Is that really Ichigo…?" she asked, seeing Ichigo's bizzare form standing amidst the maelstrom of chaos, his long hair flowing wildly from the wind that blew.
"La Gota." Halibel's blade was condensed by a large amount of water before going ahead to fire it at Hyorinmaru, who was flying below to stay away from her. The water blasts took the shape of a shark tooth, and they were coming after Hyorinmaru at rapid speeds.
Each blast was flooding multiple buildings, and Hyorinmaru kept on dodging the blasts as he tried to get farther away from Halibel. 'What is she doing this time? It doesn't seem like she's launching those attacks blindly. She must be aware that an attack of that level won't be enough to finish me off, yet at the same time it's like she's not even aiming for me to begin with... ' Hyorinmaru thought to himself, biting his lower lip as he tried to think of any attack that would allow him to turn the tables to his favor.
"Shouldn't you look where you're going?" Hyorinmaru widened his eyes in shock when he saw Halibel appear in front of him before swinging her blade horizontally in an attempt to cut him in half, to which Hyorinmaru leaped in the air to avoid the slash. Halibel continued to use her La Gota at Hyorinmaru, who spun around in the air to dodge the water blasts before starting to get further away from Halibel. "You seem to be at your most confident when you're running away…" Halibel commented before she started going after Hyorinmaru.
If she kept using more of her water based attacks, then Hyorinmaru would turn the water into ice, or if Hyorinmaru used his ice against her then she would turn it into water. At this point they were going in circles, and the fight was starting to become a bore. If that was the case, she would just attack him the old fashioned way. Halibel's blade began to flow with yellow energy surrounding it. "Cero." She announced the name of her attack, and Hyorinmaru widened his eyes in shock before Halibel swung her blade in a very wide arc, and her Cero was released on the same shape that followed the wide arc.
The Cero blast landed a direct blow on Hyorinmaru at his back, destroying a large portion of his right wing in doing so. Hyorinmaru barely managed to get himself together as he landed on a rail on top of a rooftop, and turned around to see Halibel standing in the air from above. "No more running away for you." Halibel said, keeping a firm tone.
Hyorinmaru started panting, feeling his stamina starting to drain from the amount of energy he kept on using, and meanwhile his opponent wasn't anywhere close to drawing her breath. Hyorinmaru drew the water in the air close to him to fully restore his right wing. The more this fight kept dragging out, the more the tables were turning against him. At this point it was only a matter of time before Hyorinmaru reached his limit, and it didn't help that the strain on Toshiro's body was increasing. He didn't know how much longer he could last.
"I have to give you credit, you're far more powerful than I expected you to be…" Hyorinmaru commented as he started floating in the air before matching up at the same length where Halibel was at, now standing in front of her. "Honestly, at the rate we're going through, we'll just keep running in circles. How about if we take this a step forward?" he saw Halibel raising her eyebrows in question. "This whole battleground is gonna be filled with water until one of us makes the final blow."
"So what's your point?" Halibel asked in a bland tone, as she was starting to get less interested in the fight. "Have you come up with a new strategy or something?"
"You could say that…" Hyorinmaru held his sword with both of his hands. "I'm just ready to finish this fight once and for all…" he said, making Halibel give some interest. 'I have no choice in the matter, I have to use Hyoten Hyakkaso while in Bankai. I know Toshiro never attempted this before, and using this will make me use all the power that's left in me, and after that neither me nor Toshiro will be in any condition to fight anymore. If this move doesn't work... I don't know what will.' he thought, getting ready to activate his technique at any point. But it was then he began to notice multiple surges of Spiritual Pressures very close to where they were at. Hyorinmaru turned around to see Komamura, and behind him was a Kido barrier where Izuru was at, healing other damaged Lieutenants, as they were all seen down on the street. 'You have got to be kidding me…'
Halibel immediately noticed the concerned expression on Hyorinmaru's face, seeing some of the subordinates that were previously injured, along with a Captain that stood to guard the barrier. "What's wrong? Are you hesitating because the child's allies are too close to where we are?" Halibel rhetorically asked, as she already knew Hyorinmaru wouldn't go through "finishing her", most likely due to the allies getting potentially caught in the crossfire of whatever attack he was about to use.
Hyorinmaru gave a frustrated sigh, cursing himself for not paying more attention to their surroundings. Some of those were Toshiro's friend and his Lieutenant down there, and he really couldn't risk using this movie if the others would get caught in the crossfire and it would end up being his fault. "So I take it that you're through then…" Halibel said, as she started to release a strong amount of Spiritual Pressure, raising her shark tooth blade above her head. "In that case, now it's my turn since you wasted yours just now. Say goodbye…" And with that waid, Halibel swung her blade down. "Cascada."
A massive surge of water began spiraling down at Hyorinmaru, and the torrent of the water seemed just large enough to cover several town blocks or greater. Hyorinmaru widened his eyes, now beginning to feel pressure on what his next move should be. He could technically dodge the attack, but if he did then she would hit the people below. The only way to do that is to charge head-on and stop it with all the remaining strength in him. But if he did then he wouldn't be in any condition to fight, and he may get killed as well. It didn't matter how you looked at this, it was gonna be a lose-lose situation either way.
"Damn it all…" Hyorinmaru held onto his sword before a circle of cold air showcased in front of him. "Ryusenka!" he exclaimed the name of the attack before lunging towards the massive surge of water. When Hyorinmaru came into contact with the water, it began to be encased by the ice. "Graaaaaaaaaagh!" Hyorinmaru made a battle cry, using all his strength to stop the Cascada.
"Even if you somehow manage to stop this Cascada, you should check the volume of the water on this battleground. It already reached the level where it should be more than enough to finish you." Halibel spoke, as she continued to stand over and watch Hyorinmaru's futile effort into stopping her attack. "While this Cascada is more powerful than the ones I used on you earlier, it only comes close to half its destructive capacity."
"Graaaaaagh!" Hyorinmaru stopped listening to her at this point, as the only thing he focused on was stopping the massive surge of water. He was starting to get through to it even more, as more of his ice was encasing the Cascada. Hyorinmaru clenched his teeth together, suppressing the groans from all the pain he was starting to feel from the amount of strain he felt. But he was so close to finishing the attack now, he couldn't just stop. "Graaaaaagh!" Hyorinmaru gave one last push, using all his remaining might to fully encase the Cascada with all the ice he could cover. The Cascada was successfully encased by an enormous amount of ice before it shattered apart, leaving no trace of the water attack.
Despite this achievement, it was all Hyorinmaru could do as he reached the limit of his power, falling down on the sky as the ice on Toshiro's body began to disappear before Hyorinmaru landed on the other side of where most of the Lieutenants and Komamura resided. Halibel merely watched from above as Hyorinmaru fell down on the ground, making a small crater in doing so. She could already tell he reached his limit. "You were either going to sacrifice yourself to save your allies, or sacrifice them to achieve victory against me. I see you chose the former as your option, but even so all you accomplished was nothing." Halibel remarked, seeing that Hyorinmaru's Bankai was disappearing, and he could barely hold his consciousness. "When we sacrifice ourselves, it's to further our tactical advances. You, on the other hand, were willing to fall in battle just so you could protect the members of your squads. My subordinates weren't just defeated in vain. Each of them left a marking for me, a guideline telling me how to carry on the fight. If I were the one who lost this battle, the sacrifices of my predecessors would have all been for nothing." She remembered her time when she was still a Vasto Lorde, and meeting Aizen who saved her from a grueling battle she went through. "I hold the resolve of those who have fallen before me."
Hyorinmaru could feel his consciousness starting to slip away further, as he was soon about to pass out from the exhaustion. If that became the case, then Toshiro would be lent back control again, but even so the injuries and the energy that was wasted in this fight wouldn't change at all. 'Toshiro… you're an utter fool. What made you think you stood a chance at beating an Espada as powerful as this? We're lucky that we didn't fight anyone stronger than her. Was the reason why you came here was just so you could cut down Aizen? You would have had better chances… if you just went to Hueco Mundo instead…' Those were Hyorinmaru's last thoughts, as the purple eyes switched back to their natural green, and with that both Hyorinmaru and Toshiro lost consciousness, as the Bankai fully disappeared.
Halibel sighed, now seeing that her opponent was defeated and couldn't go anymore. Now that left her a question on what she should do next. She checked over to see how the other Espadas were doing. Barragan was taking care of his situation with relative ease, and Starrk was handling himself just fine despite barely putting effort in his attacks. There was another Captain for her to fight down below, but she didn't feel in the mood to do so.
So that only left her with one other option to do.
Halibel went ahead to leave Komamura and the Lieutenants just so she could go back to what she was doing before Hyorinmaru interrupted her. So with that said, Halibel travelled up further in the air until she got close enough to where Yamamoto was at. Yamamoto opened up one of his eyes to see the same woman who threatened him before. "You and I have unfinished business to settle for. And as I said last time…" Halibel pointed her blade at the old man, giving off a glare in doing so. "I will avengers those 3 you burned, and I will make you suffer in doing so. You better prepare yourself…"
Yamamoto didn't say anything, but instead he was rather interested to see that the woman was ready to back up her words. Of course he did know that she stood no chance of beating him whatsoever, but he was intrigued on what she would do against him. He saw Halibel charge at him, readying herself to cut him in half.
Ulquiorra was seen standing on the ground amidst all the chaos that occurred in such a short time. Vasto Lorde was merely standing far away from Ulquiorra in the air, still holding onto his amputated arm that he detached with his sword. Ulquiorra looked over at the missing arm he had, and went ahead to use his regeneration to make another arm to replace the one he lost. This was something that took Orihime and Uryu by surprise.
"One of my greatest strengths does not come from just my offensive capabilities, but rather my regeneration." Ulquiorra said, stretching out his new arm and it worked just like the one he had before it was sliced off. "In exchange for immense strength, most Arrancars lose the ability to rapidly regenerate. Only I can regenerate all of my body parts, except for 2 areas: My brain and my internal organs." he looked back at Vasto Lorde Ichigo. "I don't know how you were capable of taking on that form, but it won't be enough of an advantage against me. Defeating me will be impossible." Ulquiorra then put his hands together. "Don't think you can just defeat me by plucking off my arm. As you can see, I was able to regenerate it quite easily." a green orb of energy began to appear between Ulquiorra's hands before he split his hands, revealing a green javelin similar to the one he had in his first released state, but this one looked more arrow-like, and glew flames surrounding it. "Lanza del Relàmpago."
Ulquiorra picked up his javelin and pointed it at the Vasto Lorde. "Don't come any closer, I want you to stay right where you are. If possible, I would like to avoid firing this from up close…" Ulquiorra then threw his bright javelin straight at Vasto Lorde at high speeds, and the Vasto Lorde stood still, as if he was ready to take the attack head-on. However, the javelin went past Vasto Lorde's head and flew much farther away from Las Noches.
The javelin made contact within the sands of Hueco Mundo, far away from the entire fortress of Las Noches. And when it did, an incredible, destructive explosion was made that dwarfed the entire fortress several times in size. It was as if a nuke itself was fired, as in mere seconds it hurled powerful shockwaves that destroyed some of the pillars from the upper canyon of Las Noches, and drew the sand from the Hueco Mundo to be drawn all the way to the dome and the harsh winds blew it past where everyone stood at. Orihime and Uryu were covering themselves so as not to get blown by the wind. "It looks like I missed… I'll have to try again. This is very difficult for me to control…" Ulquiorra commented before summoning another javelin from his hand, ready to fire it again.
'Are you kidding me?! He can fire those off as many times as he wants?!' Uryu thought to himself in shock as he widened his eyes, being baffled by this.
The Vasto Lorde did not seem to be the least bit impressed by this, as his hair flowed wildly against the wind. It was then Vasto Lorde used Sonido to get right behind Ulquiorra, something that shocked the Espada. 'What?!' Ulquiorra thought, his eyes widening as he began to turn around to face the Vasto Lorde. 'He slipped completely past my Pesquisa! That wasn't a Flash Step he just did now… it was a Sonido!'
The Vasto Lorde threw Ulquiorra's amputated arm at the Espada, who did not seem very impressed by this before he thrust his javelin and disintegrated the amputated arm. "Was I supposed to be intimidated when you threw something like that at me?" Ulquiorra was ready to swing his javelin at Vasto Lorde. "You must take me for a fool."
The Vasto Lorde appeared closer to Ulquiorra right before he grabbed his javelin and managed to stop it from moving any further. 'Impossible!' Ulquiorra couldn't believe what he was looking at right now. 'With just his bare hand?!' he thought before the javelin was crushed completely, drawing a small explosion in doing so. As the smoke cleared up, Ulquiorra could see Vasto Lorde's eyes from up close, and could have sworn they brightly glew with a yellow tint in them. Ulquiorra gasped out loud before Vasto Lorde slashed him across his hip all the way to cutting his left horn. Blood splattered from Ulquiorra's body, his wounds having been cut deeply from the slash before he fell down on the ground.
"Is… is it over?" Uryu asked, being rather stunned from the display he just saw. Was it actually over? He couldn't believe that it was, and so quickly as well. While he was fighting for his life just to keep Ulquiorra focused on him, Ichigo in this Hollow form overpowered Ulquiorra as if he were nothing to him.
Ulquiorra didn't know what to think at this point. He's been through a lot of surprises in a single day, but this? This was madness. How did the tables turn against him so quickly like this? He turned a blind eye on Ichigo for one minute, and the next thing he knew, he himself was getting tossed around like garbage. "Damn it all... I never thought it was positive." Ulquiorra murmured out, his head turning to look at the Vasto Lorde. "To be beaten by a Hollowfied Human… it's completely ludicrous…"
Vasto Lorde surprised everyone when he grabbed Ulquiorra by his throat hard enough to carve the ground from the force before lifting Ulquiorra to charge a Cero blast at him. "I see... I should have known there would be no mercy. So typical of a Hollow…" Ulquiorra strained his words out, feeling as though his throat was about to get crushed. "I don't mind… after all I lost to you. My life no longer has any meaning."
The Vasto Lorde threw Ulquiorra in the air right before he fired a Cero at the Espada, and when it did it caused a collateral explosion to occur. As it cleared up, Ulquiorra was seen falling down in the air, with burnt marks shown over his body, along with the perfused bleeding. Ulquiorra crashed down on the ground, and as of now the damage that was done to him became bad enough for Ulquiorra to revert back into his Sealed form, as the Espada could barely hold onto his consciousness anymore.
The Vasto Lorde began to walk over to Ulquiorra, now moving in to finish the job once and for all as he pointed his blade downwards, approaching closer to the fallen Espada so he could start mutilating Ulquiorra from his neck. Uryu tensed up when he saw that Ichigo wasn't going to stop his slaughter until there was nothing left of their enemy. What he was about to do may have been considered potentially suicidal, but he had to stop Ichigo or otherwise he would cross a line that may be too deep to come back from.
So with that said, Uryu used his Hirenkyaku to appear next to Vasto Lorde and grabbed his wrist to prevent Ichigo from moving any further. "That's enough, Ichigo." Uryu ordered the Hollowfied being. "Just stop, you already won the fight. I understand he's our enemy but there's no need to mutilate him." the Vasto Lorde casted a glance at him before continuing to go back to what he was doing before, getting halfway to Ulquiorra. Uryu firmly grabbed the Vasto Lorde's shoulder. "Are you listening to me right now?! If you go any further than this, you won't be human anymore!"
The Vasto Lorde payed the Quincy no mind, but he did shove Uryu away from him, making the Quincy crash on a pillar instead before continuing to walk forward. Orihime was scared of what to do next, seeing that Ichigo wasn't going to stop until there was nothing left of Ulquiorra's corpse. 'What am I gonna do…?' Orihime thought to herself, biting her lower lip in fear of approaching the Vasto Lorde and getting attacked, but if she waited and did nothing for too long, then Ichigo would be committing a horrific act that she did not wanna see. 'I have to stop this before Ichigo goes too far… I really hope this works.'
So with that said, Orihime started running towards Vasto Lorde, and she managed to get right in front of him as well, spreading her arms in an attempt to stop Ichigo from getting closer. "Ichigo… can you hear me in there?" Orihime asked, and Vasto Lorde looked down at her, and she became a bit intimidated by the height difference between them. She made sure she looked into the eyes, and hoped she wouldn't mess anything up, as the being before her looked like he could crush her with just his bare hand. "It's me… you have to stop this."
Vasto Lorde didn't really say anything, as he merely looked at the woman he was supposed to protect. "...lp her…" Orihime widened her eyes when she heard him speak. "Help her…" There was no doubt about it, that was definitely Ichigo's voice. "Must… protect… her." Orihime set down her arms. "I will… protect her…"
Now she understood why he was able to come back, and she was hit with guilt that she was the one who caused all of this to happen. Because of her begging, it somehow made Ichigo's desire to come back to her grow strong enough to come back into… that form. As for how he took it was beyond her, but that was the least of her concerns. "Just listen to me…" she caught a peak at the muscular physique before looking back at the… eyes? "You don't have to do this… you've done more than enough as it is. There's nothing bad happening right now, trust me…" she at least knew he wouldn't attack her, making a small gulp as she took her hands onto his, and shuddered when she felt how cold they were. "So just…" she made a leap forward and went on to hug him, something that even took the Vasto Lorde by surprise. "Put down your blade and rest… and let me treat your injuries. I'm safe now."
"... Safe…" Vasto Lorde spoke again, and he could feel a warm hug enveloped around him, sensing who it was from. He could feel that he was with his mate, and awkwardly went on to bring her close to him with one arm. If everything was safe, then his job was finished here. And so with that, Ichigo's mask shattered apart, exposing most of Ichigo's face before he started limping down, but Orihime quickly caught him before he could fall down.
"I got you… it's okay now…" Orihime tried to comfort Ichigo as she let him limp on her shoulder.
Ulquiorra saw all of this happening, as he painfully turned his head and looked at the scene with one open eye. 'It's going to take some time before my body fully regenerates, especially the internal organs that are damaged. It's fortunate that he hadn't used more power behind that blast… cause if he had, I wouldn't be alive anymore.' he thought to himself, seeing Ichigo coming back to normal.
Just then, Ichigo's enregy flew out of his body, fully reverting him back to the previous damaged state he was in. The Reishi were physically seen as scattered parts before they connected back to one another, and when they did, the Reishi flew right back onto the hole of Ichigo's body, closing it up fully as if it were never there to begin. This was something that shocked everyone. 'Was that… Instant Regeneration?' Ulquiorra thought in confusion.
"Unbelievable… the entire hole closed up." Uryu said, being in more shock than he was already.
"... Ichigo?" Orihime gently shook him to see if he regained consciousness or not, but she yelped when Ichigo gasped out loud, frantically moving his head to see what happened.
"What the — wait — I'm still alive?" Ichigo painted heavily, looking around to see what happened. He then widened his eyes as he found out he could still breathe, and touched his chest to see that the hole he once had wasn't there anymore. "What gives… didn't I have a hole in me before?"
"Well… you did… but you're healed now." Orihime said, having a smile that her lover was back.
Ichigo tried to move around to see what happened, and was surprised to see an injured Uryu that was leaning against the pillar that he made him crash into. Orihime let go of him so he could stand on his own. Uryu grew a weak smile, being glad that his friend was back. "I see that you finally came to your senses…" Uryu said.
Ichigo began to widen his eyes. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked the Quincy, and then he held his head in pain, now beginning to see snippets of what happened to him after he "died" so to say.
"You really are a stubborn person to kill…" Ichigo widened his eyes, turning around to see where Ulquiorra was lying, his form having gone back to how he was before his transformations. Though something about the voice felt off, as if Ulquiorra barely had any energy to speak with how hoarse his voice sounded.
"Ulquiorra…?" Ichigo began to remember a little more of the battle in his bizarre Hollowfied form, and the injuries he gave to Ulquiorra. "I was the one who did all that to you? In that form I was in?"
Ulquiorra kept taking heavy breaths, trying to form words out of his mouth, but with the injuries he's taken it was very difficult to do so. Ichigo frowned over this, with Ulquiorra's condition being all he needed to know. "I see…" he looked back at Uryu before looking over at Ulquiorra. "Tell me… can you still move around?"
"... For what… to continue?" Ulquiorra took several breaths before he continued to talk. "You would be… better off… to finish me. Do you need… to win that badly?"
Ichigo shook his head in refusal. "This isn't about our fight anymore. The thing that fought you…" the form he was in was so strange. He thought that his Inner Hollow must have been the one to take the situation under his control and put Ulquiorra in the state he was in, but he couldn't bring himself to. That control felt way too different to be considered the work of his Hollow counterpart, it really felt as though those were his actions he took, along with the fighting style he kept. "Well… honestly I couldn't win against you in the state I was in before." he remembered back to when Ulquiorra was beating the crap out of him, and was overpowering him in every way. "And I'm not so petty to force a guy to fight who can't even move anymore for my own satisfaction."
Ulquiorra was becoming frustrated by Ichigo's refusal. "Does it matter?" he continued to breathe heavily. "This match… won't remain settled… until…" he started coughing up. "One of us dies…"
"You dumbass, the fight already ended." Ichigo scowled at this. "In fact, I think I already won before you got to blow a hole in me." he saw that Ulquiorra looked at him in confusion. Ichigo sighed from lack of understanding on Ulquiorra's part. "You know what, I think it would be better to show you again." he looked over to Orihime. "Orihime, I want you to heal him right now."
"Huh?!" Ulquiorra coughed up from the shock of Ichigo's bold decision, and Orihime was confused by this.
"Hold on! What do you think you're doing, Ichigo?!" Uryu exclaimed, hoping that Ichigo wasn't going crazy by just deciding to heal their enemy. "Don't do anything brash here!"
"Relax, I know what I'm doing here." Ichigo shrugged off, and really he could understand why Uryu was concerned, but he knew he should have things under his control. "Do you trust me?" he looked back at Orihime.
Orihime was a bit hesitant on the decision, but she should know that Ichigo wouldn't do something stupid after what just happened. "I do…" And with that, she and Ichigo headed over to Ulquiorra before Orihime put her healing barrier around Ulquiorra's whole body.
"What…" Ulquiorra didn't understand any of this. "Do you think… you're doing? Why… heal me?" he needed to know this. After all he's done to them, why would they be going out of their way to heal him? Was it for some forgiveness? That's nonsense. They weren't saying anything either, which made it more frustrating. "You would be better off… by finishing me. I can no longer resist you, I don't… have the strength… to even get up anymore."
Ichigo groaned in frustration. "You really are one miserable bastard, ya know that?" Ichigo crouched down next to Ulquiorra's side while rubbing his own hair. "Listen... I'm willing to give you a chance here. I wanna make a deal with you."
"A deal…?" Ulquiorra was becoming more confused by this. "For what?"
"Well I did technically win the fight a while back…" Ichigo put his fingers under his chin. "But you just kept going on to beat me up when you refused to accept the one thing that was still in you; the fact being that you do have emotions of your own as well." he saw Ulquiorra widen his eye at this. "If I remember correctly, you told me before that having something like the heart was completely meaningless and was more of a liability… Do you remember how I managed to close the gap between us when I fired that Getsuga Tenshou at you?"
Ulquiorra didn't say anything for a while, and Ichigo was waiting for what his response would be. It was giving Orihime more time to heal Ulquiorra, although it wouldn't be possible for her to fully heal him, as the Spiritual Pressure that surrounded the Espada's wounds was far too great for her to reject. Ulquiorra thought about everything that happened ever since Orihime and Ichigo arrived here. All of his attempts at breaking them failed every time, and not only have they defied and stood in his way, but managed to overcome the obstacles in their way as well. Hell, he couldn't even get to break the Quincy that stood in his way either. The closest he's ever come to was breaking Orihime, which may have succeeded, had Ichigo not returned from the dead.
It didn't even matter how many times he tried, they wouldn't give up even when things were so hopeless. They continued to get stronger while he remained stagnant. He was defeated by the very thing he feared the most, after so many years of running away from it. Not only that, but he failed to protect Las Noches as well, and was ready to give everything up the moment he couldn't see his chances of winning anymore. Ulquiorra realized that Ichigo and Orihime were right the whole time, and Ichigo was the one who won the fight and the argument as well. He couldn't deny it anymore. It made him think deeper, on just how many lives he took for so many decades, following Aizen's orders without question under the beliefs he was in the entire time. It felt like a real punch to the gut.
Ichigo could see the shocked look in Ulquiorra's face, who opened both of his eyes as Orihime's healing barrier disappeared. Ichigo saw Orihime on her knees, panting for air as she was near her limit already. "Are you alright?" he asked as he held her shoulders.
"I'm fine…" Orihime took a few breaths before she started speaking again. "It's just… the Spiritual Pressure behind his wounds are too powerful to reject, but he should be able to move around at least. This was the best I could do. Not to mention... I tried healing you earlier." she said.
"That's fine, it's all I needed anyways." Ichigo replied before he looked back at Ulquiorra who began to get up again. But he wasn't worried if Ulquiorra would attack them again, because in Ulquiorra's current condition, even Uryu or Orihime should be capable of easily taking him down. "Well? Got anything to say?"
"I realized that… you were right." Ulquiorra said, his body still feeling rather shaken and weak. "Who would have thought that the thing I feared the most was what defeated me in the very end…" he looked back at Ichigo, who also got up. "But I guess… It's what makes you Humans so intriguing. But I still don't understand one thing, what is this deal you want to make with me?"
"I want you to show me how to open the Garganta." Ichigo said, something made Ulquiorra become confused by this. "What? It's a simple deal, isn't it? We don't have any other way to get back to Karakura Town, and you're one of the few Arrancars I know that should be able to open up a Garganta. If you show me how to do it, in exchange I'll allow you to live and let you figure out your own life. Sounds like a simple deal, doesn't it? Besides, it's not like you have anything better to do."
"Well... I suppose you would be correct. Very well, I'll accept your deal. It should be rather simple for you to learn how to open the Garganta…" Ulquiorra proceeded to move his hand and made a gesture. "Use your Spirit Energy and put it around your hand, and now imagine tearing apart a fabric of space." he used his Descorrer technique, and with that he opened up a Garganta. "We mainly use this to travel between Hueco Mundo and World of The Living, but you should be able to get to whatever other destination you choose to be in. Do you understand it yet?" Ulquiorra closed up the hole.
Ichigo nodded his head. "Yeah… hang on, let me give it a try." he brought his hand forward, and tried to replicate what Ulquiorra did. 'First you gather Spirit Energy around your hand…' it took him slightly longer to gather his energy around his hand than it did with Ulquiorra. 'Now imagine tearing a space in fabric…' he gestured his hand in a ripping fashion, and with that said he successfully opened up a Garganta. "There, I think I got it!"
"You should know how to do the rest then. However… before you do get in, it would be wise of you to stop Yammy first. If I'm correct, he should have gotten out of the tower and picked a fight with someone by now. Whatever you do, you should not let him transform inside Las Noches." Ulquiorra said.
The hole in the Garganta then closed itself off next to Ichigo. "Yammy…? Wait, you mean that big guy we saw earlier? From what I remember, he wasn't really that powerful…" Ichigo replied.
"The first time you met him, he was rather weak. If I recall, I don't think you even know about his rank. Out of all the Espadas, his power is only ranked 10 in his normal state." Ulquiorra answered.
"He's ranked Number 10?" Ichigo blinked his eyes in surprise from this. He didn't get what was there to worry about. "I'm not exactly in any good shape to fight normally, but I'm pretty sure I should be able to take him out easily. What makes that guy so dangerous?"
"Yammy is a little more… unique among the Espadas. In his normal state, he's the weakest among all of us, and doesn't even pose much of a threat to begin with. However, Aizen gave him a few modifications with the usage of the Hogyoku, rather similar to what he recently did with Wonderweiss by removing some brain capacity. At this point, Yammy is gathering more power as time goes on, and if he were to release completely, his power would be above the first Espada as well." Ulquiorra answered. "And at that point, it would take several powerful Espadas to tame him."
Ichigo nodded his head. "I guess it sounds that bad. In that case, I'll have to take him down before he can transform."
"Wait a minute!" Orihime interjected. "But I haven't even begun to treat your injuries!"
"I can't stand around and do nothing, not to mention it took a lot out of you just to make Ulquiorra move around. You focus on healing Uryu first, and I know I'm not anywhere close to being in top shape to fight…" Ichigo looked at his hand before clenching it into a fist. "But I still think my current level of strength might be enough to take down Yammy… hopefully. I'll come back sooner or later."
Orihime was hesitant about letting him go, but she couldn't convince him otherwise. "Alright, just be careful, and do your best."
Ulquiorra looked at the two of them. 'Now... I'm finally starting to understand what they were talking about. How long has it been since I felt like this? It's been so many years that I completely forgot…' he watched Ichigo leaving them, as he went ahead to travel to below the dome to rescue his friends. 'This… must be what they call the Heart…'
"My, my, things are starting to get pretty serious around here. I can sense some of the Espadas used their Resureccións by now, and the Soul Reapers are putting up quite a fight as well." Gin commented; as he, Tousen, and Aizen were still stuck from the flames that they were surrounded with. "I really wish that I could get to see the show personally. How long is it gonna take for him to arrive?"
"Just wait a little while longer, Gin. Our time to strike will be soon. Just be patient for a little longer…" Tousen said.
"Also, is it me or is one of our Espadas actually fighting our former Head Captain right now?" Gin asked. "If so, then even I'm not that crazy to pull a stunt like that."
"I believe Halibel is the one who's up against him right now." Aizen answered the question with a small smile. "She is rather stubborn when it does come to protect those dear to her."
Halibel crashed back down on the ground, her head hitting against the pavement as it made another crater in doing so. Her armor was damaged by the heavy hits she took from Yamamoto, with one of her spaulders missing from her shoulders, along with the fragmented armor on her left arm and elbow length glove having been destroyed and covered by burnt marks instead, and finally both of her knee length boots have been drastically reduced that they only covered her feet. There was also bleeding shown on the side of her face.
Halibel looked up to see where Yamamoto was at, having been standing at the same spot he was in for some time now. 'Damn it... I can hardly get him to move around!' she thought to herself before she began to lunge at the Head Captain again.
Yamamoto patiently stood as he watched the woman attack him for the upteempth time. He had to hand it to her, the woman was quite resolved, and clearly knew the power gap between them, yet continued to attack him once more. She fired off her Cascada at him, and moved fast enough to get in front of her attack to fire off a wide arc of a Cero blast at the same time. Yamamoto stood by until he unsheathed his Zanpakuto, swinging his sword to cover himself in flames until they evaporated the Cero and the Cascada both at once. The flames died out, and then Halibel used Sonido to get behind him, switching her weapon from her right hand to left, and spinned her body to cut the other side of Yamamoto's neck, only for him to to grab Halibel by the wrist and threw her across multiple buildings until she crashed into a water tower.
"Fuck… this is such a mess…" Halibel groaned out as she fell down on the rooftop, with water bursting from the tower she crashed at. "At this rate, I'm never gonna make any progress…" she began to get up, determined to take down Yamamoto. "But still... I can't let their defeat go in vain."
It wasn't until that a massive rippling black void began to appear, something that made everyone in the battlefield look towards where it was coming from, having been rather close to where Aizen and his lackeys were trapped at. Halibel became surprised, knowing what this meant as she could see Wonderweiss stepping out of the massive Garganta.
'Wonderweiss…?!' Halibel realized what this meant now that the new Arrancar was stepping out of the massive Garganta. 'If Wonderweiss is here, that must mean that Lord Aizen is becoming impatient.' she thought, before she and everyone else saw a large mass of a Hollow stepping outside of the Garganta, making its presence well known to everyone.
Soon enough, Wonderweiss made an eerie, high pitched screech that helped clear the smoke from where Barragan was at, having been directly hit from Soi Fon's Bankai a little earlier. As the screech began to die down, the massive chunk of Hollow made a step forward, before taking a deep breath and blew away Yamamoto's Jokaku Enjo, completely freeing Aizen, Gin and Tousen from their prison.
"That is one foul smell…" Gin commented. "I'm betting that this is what they would have to call the 'Stench of Death'."
"I would be inclined to agree." Tousen said.
"The Stench of Death does seem to be quite a fitting name for this situation… of what's about to happen before us." Aizen said, taking a few steps forward.
Now that those 3 have escaped from Yamamoto's prison, they were now free to do as they pleased. It gave the Espadas more firepower to overwhelm most of the Soul Reapers and get to destroy Karakura Town, and hope seemed to be getting lost for the Captains and Lieutenants alike, having no clue as to what counter attack they could make against this.
"Not so fast!"
Aizen turned his head to look over, hearing a rather familiar voice call out to him. Aizen made a smirk, seeing that it was Shinji and the other Vizards that appeared, recalling the last they met over a 100 years ago. "It's been a long time, hasn't it... Sosuke." Shinji said, his ever present toothy grin shown as he spun his hat with his finger.
Alright, good to see this chapter is up and about. And man, uploading 3 chapters in a row already. But then again, most of this was for the famous Ichigo vs Ulquiorra fight. Hope this chapter lived up to its expectations. So let's break down what happened…
The beginning of this is more or lees the same as in Canon, can't really have much difference with Orihime on trying to heal Ichigo since uh… there is no way she could have possibly done anything with Ichigo or against Ulquiorra for that matters since she was having a mental breakdown in that scene. This isn't exactly that different, I mean how do you just react to the love of your life dying right in front of you? And Ulquiorra was way too powerful for her powers to work against. I went with the Anime extension of Uryu vs Ulquiorra, since it seemed more genuine that Uryu was actually trying to buy time, and not like in the Manga where it gets off screened.
Another thing I just recently noticed is Ichigo's second "death" by Ulquiorra. Unlike the first time Ichigo died by him in Canon, Ichigo's sword never broke at all like it did last time. So the fact that it never did might have to mean that Ichigo may have been somewhat alive, or it's more so he did die but not really fully dead. It's kind of interesting I just picked up on thanks to my Co-Author.
And yeah, Hyorinmaru lost his match against Halibel even despite the power boost. And now Halibel is choosing her time to fight motherfucking Yamamoto… which obviously she's getting bodied by him, but it takes balls to threaten him, let alone fight him. I was also really stuck if I should go with the Anime extension of the Vasto Lorde vs Ulquiorra because of how cool it was, but… I kinda remembered that this Vasto Lorde in the story right now is more powerful than the one in Canon. So I went with the Manga version of the fight instead, as much as I wanted the filler extension this had to be done.
Speaking of which, I did rewatch the part where Vasto Lorde did charge up the Cero and nuked it at Ulquiorra… and Ulquiorra still managed to survive… which is honestly bullshit when I was writing this fight. Ok granted, Ulquiorra did have very little time left after that and couldn't really regenerate his inner organs, but still it's really dumb how he even managed to survive that in the first place. Vasto Lorde was taking his sweet time to charge a Cero that a normal one bltized through a Cero Oscuras like it was dogshit. Look at the fucking radius that the blast took and even went through the dome. Literally half of Ulquiorra's body, wing, and arm was missing in the next panels and could STILL somehow move? Despite the blast still aimed at his fucking head and nuked his whole body in general. There is no way Ulquiorra should have survived that, especially when the internal organs were blown away. I get Kubo wanted to do "The Heart" scene but come on, at least make it more believable for how he survives.
So with the whole direction I took in this is that the Vasto Lorde wasn't charging that much power and wanted to make Ulquiorra suffer further, and also that I really didn't like how Ichigo was acting after coming back from the transformation, specifically the one with Ulquiorra… like don't get me wrong I would get Ichigo was traumatized from what happened… but he was gonna keep dragging the fight while Ulquiorra was just asking him to put him out of his misery at that point when he began to disappear. Oh and the uh… cutting his arm and leg off… yikes… that's going crazy. In this version it's more so that Ichigo does get to calm down from what happened.
And uh… yeah... Ulquiorra gets to stay alive in this version. This was honestly something that my friend and I were debating about for a while where we weren't really sure if we should keep the emo Espada dead or alive, but we did come to a decent conclusion on having Ulquiorra stay alive to at least give a trade-off to Ichigo.
Still trying to make the timing correct for the Fake Karakura fights, and the ones in Anime and Manga are a little different from one another. I really do wanna get the timing of this down, especially now that the Vizards have shown up