Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and RWBY. Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo. RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Oum (rest in peace you saint of a man).
A question one would ask why type this up? Simple – why not?
Chapter 26: Existence Vol. 1
"So you can get angry." said Gruby, "I shot a really good nerve there."
"Zan-Zangetsu?" gasped Ichigo, the pain in his gut suddenly numb to the sight of the old man, "H-How are you here?"
"Okay, seriously." said Ruby, despite being pressured below Gruby's foot, "What is wrong with your head, Ichigo?!"
"Well this whole thing went straight to hell." said Hichigo, "This is funny."
"I know, right?" Gruby agreed.
A moment of silence as the two stared at each other with wide eyes.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Did we just agree on something?" said Hichigo.
"I think we did." gasped Gruby.
(In hell)
The Devil himself was enjoying his eternal routine until he nearly choked on an impossibility. His realm was freezing over.
"WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING UP THERE?!"
(Back to the fight)
"Now, where was I before I was rudely interrupted?" Gruby mused.
"You shall say no more."Zangetsu' declared.
The false Zangetsu lifted his blade and swung for Gruby's legs. She didn't spare a glance to the spirit. Her legs automatically lifted over the blade and landed softly on it with cat-like precision. 'Zangetsu's' eyes widened and the next he knew he was knocked away from a kick. The force was enough to dig him into the ground.
"Oh yeah, that old fart there." said Gruby, tapping her chin, "He's a good actor, I'll give him that. He was playing you like a fiddle with the so-called power he was giving you. In his selfish pride, he took the place of Zangetsu and wanted to drive you away from your true strength because it was from a Hollow."
Gruby paused to level a grin and a stare at Ichigo and Hichigo.
"The real Zangetsu," Gruby revealed, pointing to Hichigo, "is him."
Ichigo completely forgot that there was a literal sword impaling him. It was nothing compared to the storm of emotions as he returned wide eyes at his 'Inner Hollow'. He felt betrayal that the old man he trusted as his teacher lied about his power, and confusion of how this was possible. Hichigo met his stare his smile flattened. The words didn't come out but Ichigo was demanding an answer.
After what felt like days, Hichigo nodded confirming what Gruby said.
"Wha..." Ichigo choked out.
"I am Zangetsu." said Zangetsu, "I never really wanted to hurt you or any of your friends. Whenever I tried to give you my power, it was because I wanted to help you. The only reason you, or rather we, were out of control is because I didn't possess the shinigami powers since a certain prideful bastard decided he wanted to do things his own way. Personally, I don't hate him, but I would've done things differently."
The fake Zangetsu launched from hid down position, his blade poised to strike Gruby yet again. The Grimm gave the spirit a grin and bended back with impossible flexibility from the blade. The fake corrected himself and swung down, but met Gruby's glaive.
"Don't listen to her and push on-"
"IS IT TRUE?!" Ichigo shouted, stopping all combatants in place, "IS IT TRUE YOU LIED TO ME?! WHY DID YOU LIE TO ME?!"
The fake's eyes widened in shock at the fury in Ichigo's voice. Where others saw his rage, Ruby could see betrayal and confusion in his brown eyes that made her sick to her stomach.
"Ichigo-"
"WHO ARE YOU!?" Ichigo shouted, "ANSWER ME, OLD MAN!?"
A long silence permeated the mindscape. The fake Zangetsu and Ichigo were locked in a battle of wills. Clouds thundered and blackened the sky to bring down an unforgiving rain. As stoic as the spirit seemed, his sword arm was shaking uncontrollably. Suddenly, the black blade went up in ashes, and the spirit levitated a few paces away. Ruby could see regret and guilt behind his orange visor.
"You're right, I did lie to you." admitted the spirit. "I am not Zangetsu, but you're Quincy powers. I manifest to you as part of the soul that reside in all Quincy. I am Juha Bach, and yet at the same time not Juha Bach."
"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!" cried Ichigo, "HAS EVERYTHING YOU'VE TOLD ME BEEN A FARCE?!"
"All that I have lied about is my name."said Juha Bach, "But she is right on a level that it was also my pride. I may have taught you the ways of the zanpakuto, but I never wanted you to become a shinigami, especially from a Hollow. But I realize...I've been the fool. I've seen you grow up your entire life and never once has your heart faltered, the will to protect never dwindled. I was proud of you yet I still held back power that would've helped in your goal to protect. I now realize that I am not worthy. Not after what I've done."
Near the end, his voice lost its stoic manner and was dripping with regret and guilt. Ichigo's fury softened at the sad mood he could feel from Juha Bach. Suddenly, the spirit disappeared into the wind without a whisper of his power to trace.
"Wait." called Ichigo, "Come back. Zan - Old man!"
Ruby felt her heart ache when she saw the look on Ichigo's face. He looked on the verge of tears. His brown eyes dimmed with sadness and regret, and that sure glint of a guardian was just gone. He was broken.
It only got worse when a chuckle turned Ruby's head to Gruby. To her ire, she wasn't crying or silent. No, the Grimm was laughing, and by the signs couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha." laughed Gruby maniacally, creeping out Hichigo even (as if he would ever admit it), "HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA. What a show, what a show. Encore please. The lie is out, and he bitches out. Good riddance to trash."
"SHUT THE HELL UP!"
The scream of anger came from Ruby. Before Gruby could turn back to her hated adversary, a fist instead met her cheek rocketing the Grimm into a building. The smile dropped into a furious scowl as the rubble of the building fell down on her.
"SNAP OUT OF IT, ICHIGO!" Ruby cried, getting Ichigo's surprised attention, "So what if he lied to you and held back your power? Did that stop you? Would you even care? You could still protect everyone. He may have lied to you, but I bet he had a pretty good reason why. Even without your full-power, you still fought Captains, mastered Bankai, and saved Rukia, right?!"
"I..." Ichigo tried to say but the rest of his words were caught in his throat.
"Who cares if your the strongest if at your weakest you can still protect people?" Ruby continued, "Even without more power, you can still protect people. You always have been able to do so and you can still do it."
Ichigo's gaze lowered to the ground. His expression was unreadable as he was in deep thought. Seconds passed until in reply Ichigo firmly grasped the white Zangetsu blade in his gut. His reiatsu poured over it, and he was reunited with his own blade. Hichigo widened his eyes in surprise, but smiled. Not in the sadistic way, but one that showed pride. He didn't move as he plunged the blade into Zangetsu.
The moment the blade impaled Zangetsu, Ichigo felt a rush of energy he never felt before. His blade turned white, but it still felt like his own blade. Zangetsu released himself from his blade, but he was no longer a threat.
"Well done, King." said Zangetsu.
"I hope I can amends, Zangetsu." said Ichigo.
Zangetsu shrugged. "Meh, water under the bridge. I may be your zanpakuto, but I'm still a Hollow. I won't be taking over your body, but I'll have some fun a different way."
Zangetsu gave his usual devilish grin. "For now, let's watch the show."
"What about my real body out there?" asked Ichigo.
"Oh that." said Zangetsu, pausing for a moment as though in a trance, "There, I've reigned in control of you, but your girlfriend is going nuts up there."
Ichigo reluctantly stood on the spot. He was already finished with his fight, and it wasn't his place to interfere for Ruby. Meanwhile, the rubble bursted off of Gruby in an explosion of crimson reiatsu. The pale, red eye doppleganger rose from the dust cloud. She put a hand to her jaw and twisted back in place with a snap. If there was one thing Ruby got from Yang it was a nasty haymaker.
"Still got some spunk in you, huh." Gruby said making a grin that promised pain, "I'm gonna have to break that."
Ruby gave no word except narrowed eyes that could kill a mortal. They both vanished and reappeared in the middle their glaives locked steel against steel trying to overpower the other. Where Ruby had scowl (perhaps Ichigo has been rubbing off on her lately), Gruby gave back a sadistic grin. She slid one of her hands to the hole in the grip of the blade and looped a single finger in it. Her grip loosened immensely, but Ruby couldn't capitalize on it fast enough. With a flick of her other hand, the glaive spun like the rotors of a Bullhead. Crimson reiatsu condensed in the spin and blew Ruby away by the sheer multiplying power.
Ruby anchored her glaive into the ground to slow her velocity and panted her feet on the polearm for a steady posture. If only Qrow could see her pull of that move that he did when fighting Tyrian. Hooking a hand on her glaive, Ruby dashed back into action. She parried a powerful overhead and countered with a quick thrust. Gruby titled her head away from the blow, purposefully having it close in until the last inch. Gruby went passed Ruby's guard ready to attack like a beast. Ruby swung her glaive to intercept Gruby's, but she underestimated the force and her feet slid back from the shock.
Simultaneously, the two charged down each other and swung in mirroring directions. Their feet skidded to a halt passes each other. A second passed and a gash on Ruby's side revealed itself by spilling blood. Her footing faltered, but she righted herself by swiveling around to face her doppelganger. In contrast, Gruby was unharmed.
"You can't win because you will never fight like the alpha." Gruby berated with an undertone snarl of a wolf, "You can't even touch me."
Gruby quirked a surprised eyebrow when Ruby made a mocking smirk. Her smile turned into a frown seeing that Ruby was doing the opposite she should be doing.
"You might want to check the little spot." Ruby noted while pointing to the left side of her neck.
Gruby reached a hand at that spot on her neck. On contact, her eyes widened as the only indication she felt a sting of pain. She retracted and examined the hand. Her lips curled in fury at the sight of blood. This human, this weakling, made her bleed.
Her curled lips revealed sharpened fangs, and her fists clenched tightly. The glaive in her other hand creaked under the pressure. An inhuman growl resonated from her throat.
"You say I can't even hit you because I'm human?" said Ruby, "I may not know a lot about you, but I'm starting to find you out. You may claim to fight like an animal, but I'm just starting to see how you move. It's impressive, but not impossible."
Gruby only growled before dashing off in a more pounced stance, Mazarozu hanged to the side for a wide sweep, while Ruby waited for her with a calm aura. A clash of steel rang on impact as Ruby successfully blocked the blow that Gruby expected to be too fast for her to react to. When she tried putting more force into the weapon, the Grimm widened her eyes meeting opposition.
Ruby twisted her glaive perpendicular to her, causing Gruby to stumble forward from her own strength. Gruby snarled in fury, twisting her body out of the way like a wolf. Ruby's glaive hit air but that didn't deter her focus on her doppleganger. She recovered in time to parry Gruby's weapon and countered with a forward kick. The Huntress pressed on with a thrust that Gruby backed away from. The glaive dug into the ground allowing Ruby to expertly swing around to kick both of her feet into Gruby's side. Once Ruby planted her feet flat on the ground, she pointed the end of the glaive with the red flag that charged a red orb at the tip.
"Piasusan."
Ruby unleashed a cero-like blast of red raging toward Gruby. Biting her lip, the Grimm held out a palm and stopped in its path. She gritted her teeth as her feet started to slide from trying to stop the force of energy. She didn't realize Ruby using shunpo to get behind her, already in the midst of casting Kido.
"Hado 32: Okasen."
Gruby turned around in wide eyes just as the yellow arc of energy blinded her vision. The two blasts exploded with the Grimm in between and Ruby used her Semblance and shunpo to get out of the blast zone. Ichigo had to cover his eyes from the blown dust, and most of the buildings around them were destroyed.
Ruby waited in dead silence as the dust settled. A labored heavy breathing drew her eyes to the slight left. Suddenly, she felt a blow so hard, something cracked whether it was her skull or whatever hit her. With her vision shortly gone, Ruby used her hearing to pinpoint Gruby down and swung her glaive to the side as hard as she could. When she met resistance, Ruby swung again and again harder each time and not giving Gruby enough time to get out of the way. On the fifth one, Ruby put most of her spiritual pressure into the blow and felt something shatter on impact with her glaive.
Ruby's vision began to clear. Right in front of her was Gruby. She didn't entirely escape the blast herself with the left side of her face and shoulder bleeding. In her hands were two halves of the glaive she was using. Her entire body was shaking in rage. She was being wounded by this single human that was the source of all her hate. Of everything that has her trapped here.
"Why?!" Gruby snarled.
Ruby's eyes widened when the air became heavy and an oppressive weight pushed down on her. Apprehensively, the Huntress inched away from the Grimm. Her lips parted revealing growing canines in the back of her mouth. Gruby's crimson reiatsu bursted into a geyser reaching to the skies of the mindscape and gained a purple hue to it. The halves of the glaive disintegrated into purple particles in her hands that grew white claws.
"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DISAPPEAR?!" Gruby bellowed.
The reiatsu suddenly hid Gruby away. Ruby, Ichigo, and Zangetsu anchored themselves to prevent being blown away by an enormous pressure that continued to climb.
"It's like a nuke just went off." cried Ichigo, "This never happened in our fight."
Zangetsu explained. "It's because she is actually fighting to get control. She won't take no for an answer and - oh no."
(In the Real World)
The Vizards stood around the barrier in apprehension. It has been fifteen minutes since they left the two Adjuchas ripping each other apart. At some point in their fight, the one of Ichigo seemed more concerned of getting the wolf Adjuchas away from the barrier.
Suddenly, their hearts almost stopped in shock as the wolf Adjuchas coated itself in crimson etched in purple reiatsu. The pressure was so massive that the cracks of the barrier reached to every part. Hachi was forced to use his mask to keep the barrier active, but the spiritual pressure just kept climbing higher and higher without end. They felt their knees buckle and give out from the weight of it. Even the former Captains were having a hard time just standing up.
If it couldn't get worse, Ichigo rose his spiritual pressure in opposition, coating himself in black and red reiatsu. The spiritual pressure doubled and the Vizards were forced to resort to their masks just to prevent themselves from passing out.
The two geysers of reiatsu lifted and the barrier shattered like nothing. The Vizards dared themselves to look up at the pair. Once they did, they knew not even Kami would save them. There were no longer Adjuchas standing there.
(Que Bleach ost "Cometh the Hour")
There were two Vasto Lordes.
The wolf Adjuchas transformed into a humanoid with pitch black skin and purple veins running along her skin. Pitch black eyes with blood red pupils stared coldly out of a wolf mask, lipless to show terrifying canine teeth that could shred flesh apart, and two white ears stood atop the head and two horns curled like a ram's from each side where human ears would be. Some of Ruby's outfit was shredded, revealing her midrift that was also as black with tufts of fur mostly covering her as well along the crook of her neck. Her limbs were toned, tufts of black fur covering her shoulders, arms, antecubital, thigh, legs, and heels. The hands and feet possessed sets of claws instead of human fingers. A Hollow's hole was set between just below her chest almost hidden by the remnants of her clothes and fur. Her red-tipped black hair became spiky and longer. Her red cloak was veined black from the vile reiatsu.
Ichigo looked like the devil incarnate standing at. His skin was white with red tribal markings going decorating his body. His shinigami uniform was torn up that his entire torso was bare and a Hollow hole was visible in the center of his chest. Yellow eyes stared out of a lipless mask with sharp teeth, and two jagged white horns crowned the top of his mask pointing forward. His fingers were bone white with sharp claws sharper than daggers. His orange hair was longer, and they were tufts of orange fur on his wrists.
The spiritual pressure they produced was absolutely god-like. The Vizards knew they were just ants before them. They couldn't let out a single word.
(Kisuke's Shop)
Ren, Senna, and Kisuke were going over some Kido practices when massive spiritual pressure flooded all of Karakura Town. The look in Kisuke's darkened in shock, and Senna and Ren were paralyzed on the spot with wide eyes. On instinct, their heads swiveled in the direction of the spiritual pressure.
"Okay, I'm not good at sensing but I can feel that." said Senna, "What is happening?"
"We," announced Kisuke, "are ######."
Ren didn't say anything, but he just knew that in the origin of the spiritual pressure was Ruby. Without a second thought, Ren disappeared in shunpo with Senna close behind him.
Ruby was in troube, and it was the obligation to help the team leader.
(Soul Society)
"Emergency! Emergency!" cried a member of Squad 12 barging into the barracks of Squad 1. Most of the captains were present, excluding Soi Fon and Mayuri. All the captains present set their eyes on the visibly shaking and sweating Squad 12 member with a pamphlet of sensor recordings.
"What is the reason for this interruption?" Yammamoto demanded.
"Yammamoto-sotaicho." said the Squad 12 member, "We've detected two massive Hollow signatures. Easily Vasto Lorde. And-"
The member choked on his own terror, the pamphlet shaking in his hands.
"Abandon your reluctance and inform me what ails you." Yammamoto demanded, banging his cane on the wooden floor.
"The spiritual pressures of the Vasto Lorde we detected." said the member, "They rival your own."
For the first time in a thousand years, Yammamoto's eyes widened to their peak in shock. Shunsui dropped a bottle of sake, Ukitake stopped coughing in the middle of one of his episodes, and Unohanna looked visibly uneasy. A crack turned all heads to Kenpachi, who made a smile so big his jaw stuck in that smile.
"Someone get Kenpachi to Squad 4." said Yammamoto. He was seriously getting too old for this crap.
Gruby certainly threw crap into the fan. Consider this chapter and the following my gifts for the end of the year.
Up next is Chapter 27: Existence Vol. 2
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