Disclaimer: The following is a fan-based parody. 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). Please support the official release.

Chapter: Awaken True Zangetsu

(Que Story OP – Hello Sleepwalkers "Hyakkiyakou")

The Vizards ascended as one, zanpakuto drawn on the Grave King. Hachi was too exhausted to support his comrades, which left Kisuke the only Kido specialist. The professor chose to go straight for the charge but also on caution to evaluate Shao's capabilities. On first glance, his bone manipulation was taken leagues beyond once he released his zanpakuto, if the chant from earlier was anything to go by.

Out of the Vizards, Kensei took the direct charge followed by Shinji to avenge himself from his earlier defeat. He didn't hold anything back, letting his already captain-level reiatsu lashing out like a wave breaking a dam. His spiritual pressure weighed down on the air as it continued to increase. The Vizards' masks were summoned, some even calling their Shikai. Kensei decided to go even a step further.

(Que Bleach ost "Treachery" or "Invasion")

"Bankai."

A lion head lunged towards Kensei and clamped its jaws shut on the burly man. It was only for a short moment before pure sky blue reiatsu tore through the head. Nothing was left of the bone creation, and in its place was a tornado of reiatsu slowly calming down. An arm swept through and parted the winds revealing Kensei unharmed and at his maximum power.

The former shinigami captain no longer brandished the trench knife of his zanpakuto. In each of Kensei's hands was a pair of large knuckle blades with the edges tapering off at either side. A purple band wraps the entirety of his arms till they make a thick band that hangs over his head.

(One of my favorite Bankai in the show, as well as Kensei as a character.)

"Tekken Tachikaze."

'Those things are awesome.' Ruby squealed inwardly.

'I need to get me one of those.' Yang thought in slight envy.

Another head of a lion charged down to clamp its jaws upon Kensei, only for the former captain to pull his fist back and punch it into dust. He kicked off the air with hoho to rush the empowered arrancar with the blade knuckles of Tekken Tachikaze. He was an arm's reach away until his instincts screamed at him of danger. Kensei broke his charge in time to avoid one of the spines that had writhed and grown intent on skewering him. Shao didn't even look at him, but his bone protrusions shifted with a mind of their own.

Any of the other Vizards that came close were swatted away as his spines grew to try and skewer them. Hiyori's small size gave her the advantage of being hard to target. She rushed passed the spines as they came forward, and none came back to chase her if Shao wanted his bones to tangle themselves. With her mask summoned, Hiyori smashed down her zanpakuto to cleave Shao's head. In mid-swing, Hiyori chanted her zanpakuto's release.

"Butcher them, Kubikiri Orochi."

In a flash, Hiyoir's zanpakuto transformed into a giant serrated cleaver larger than the blonde's petite size. At the last second, Shao blocked the giant cleaver with the back of his right hand. There was so much force from Hiyori's attack an air circle was visible in the air between them, but the arrancar's hand didn't even bleed.

"Pathetic." Shao sneered.

"How about this?!" Kensei cried, taking the small opening and launched a strong hook to Shao's jaw.

The Bankai knuckle blades held far more power than a Shikai, sending Shao far through the air. Shao gathered reiatsu at his feet and anchored them into the air itself to stop his velocity. He lifted his head, revealing a straight face with a very small bruise at the corner of his lips. There was just a slight annoyance in his eyes as Shao wiped the spot.

"Is that all?" Shao said in a bored tone.

Shao pointed a finger at Hiyori and the fingertip produced a red orb laced in red.

"Cero Obscuras."

A mighty ray of pure reiatsu like a cannon bigger than himself and holding far more power than a regular cero. Kensei pulled Hiyori out just in time for the cero to graze pressed them. It continued into t hy e distance to a far off mountain. A great bang and flash of an atomic explosion followed and the mountain was no more.

"N-No way." Gasped Yang. "He just blew that whole mountain away. "

There was so much raw power permeating through the air it felt like they were moving through mud. It seemed the heavens themselves were bending to their will as thunderclouds gathered in the sky.

The Vizards jumped into action. Kensei and Hiyori took the direct charge to catch Shao's attention while those like Shinji, Lisa, Love, and Rose flanked from behind. Shao knew he was being flanked but he didn't bother glancing back at them. His lion head constructs rose their heads at the approaching Vizards. A red glow resonated from their jaws. Love was the only one that was perceptive enough to sense the build up of reiatsu and theorzed what it could be.

"Get behind me!" Exclaimed Love, his fellow Vizards complying. "Slam, Tengumaru."

Love's zapakuto transformed into a giant, spiked iron club twice his width. He held it horzontally in front of himself. As he guessed, the tiger has unleashed a cero from each of them. Love's giant club blocked the ceros without much effort but it left them unable to move as the heads decided to close in.

"Play, Kinshara."

Rose's called out his zanpakuto changing it from a kitana into a golden, rodded whip ending in a golden flower design. With a flick of his wrist, the whip snaked around Love and destroyed the heads before they reached them. The heads crumbled into dust filled by the rest of the constructs' body.

"Thanks, Rose." Love said.

Rose smiled. "Think nothing of it, old friend."

Back with Shao, he faced down Hiyori and Kensei drawing bokkens made of bones. The short blonde was ferocious but predictable, making swatting away her cleaver easy to the Grave King. In fact, her fury grew as Shao was ignoring her like she was nothing.

Shao parried a heavy jab and directed Kensei's arm over his shoulder. He snaked his right arm to grap Kensei's shoulder and twist him around. Kensei rolled through the velocity to throw an uppercut. It impacted Shao's chin sending him a few feet into the air. The arrancar stopped himself again with hoho and lowered his chin back down from the blow. There was a visible bruise just beneath Shao's lip, indicating that Kensei had indeed dealt sufficient damage. The Hollow's regeneration quickly negated it.

"I commend you." Shao said. "You definitely earn yourself the title of a shinigami captain."

Shao disappeared in a buzz. It was only Kensei's instincts of battle that allowed him to defend the forward thrust aimed at his chest. He had to step back out the range of his own weapons when Shao summoned the bokkens again. First came an overhead slash that served as an opening followed by a barrage of quick thrusts from the remaining bokken. Kensei could keep track of the attacks thanks to his spiritual pressure at peak via Bankai, but he could not keep up with speed for long. Simply blocking them as the bone bokkens came closer to certain death would not get him anywhere.

But Shao is right; Kensei is indeed a captain for good reason. He briefly thought back to his days as a shinigami and harnessing his spiritual pressure. One such lesson involved a crucial rule when in battle. Against a battle of spiritual pressures, the winner is decided by both the superior reserves and control. Kensei was sure of himself that even before his banishment from Soul Society his spiritual pressure was impressive to give him an intimidating presence. He was after all known as the wielder of the strongest wind-type zanpakuto, but in more ways than one.

'And to think you almost forgot the most basic yet most important lesson I taught you' Spoke the spirit of Kensei's partner, Tachikaze. 'Wind doesn't just blow away. It can cut cleanly like the sharpest of zanpakuto.'

Kensei returned back to reality just as Shao was swinging a left slash. He concentrated his spiritual pressure, focused on his blade knuckles, and sharpened as a blade on a whetstone. Instead of blocking the bokken, Kensei met it with his blade knuckle in mid-swing. There was a clang of steel and to Shao's shock his bokken turned to dust on contact. He abandoned his other bokken knowing that the Vizard would not fall for it and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. To the arrancar's ire, Kensei was specialized in hakuda and, unlike Ichigo and Ruby, had decades more experience.

Kensei threw the first fist that Shao cut by the wrist. The arrancar thrusted a flat hand to Kensei's neck who tilted his head away. Before Shao could continue, Kensei sent a jab with his right knuckle blade first to crush bone under the arrancar's shoulder. Just before impact, a bone grew out of the shoulder to stop it in its path.

Interrupting the two suddenly was Hiyori as she gave a war cry that revealed her position behind Shao. The spines on his back grew branches of bone that stopped her cleaver like she had struck a block of iron. The fact that she couldn't break through it even with her mask on irritated Hiyori.

"Children should not be here among adults." Shao said, make Hiyori froth at the mouth.

She would not be able to let out her string of curses as Shao pointed her thumb at the blonde. A familiar orb of reishi gathered at the tip of the finger.

"Cero."

In a flash of red, Hiyori was blasted away high into the air. When the blast dissipated, Hiyori fell from the sky in smoke and crashed into a crater. Her mask was fractured on impact, revealing the blonde unconscious.

"Dammit." Cursed Kensei, only to stop dead as Shao put a hand on Kensei's chest.

"Your next." Said Shao before he charged another cero.

Luckily for Kensei, Shinji arrived in time to push Kensie out of the way before Shao unleashed a cero that only struck the earth. Shao summoned another bone bokken and engaged Shinji in kendo. Shao could tell that out of all the Vizards, Shinji was overall the most powerful as he able to keep pace with Shao with just his mask on as of now. Smirking, Shao manipulated the spines on his back to stretch and grow around and over him, striking him like vipers. It pushed Shinji to his limit parrying all the attacks from all angles when he just wielded on blade.

'Sakanade, why couldn't you be a duel-type zanpakuto?' Shinji whined internally.

"Impressive skills you have with a blade." Shao complimented

He held out both arms that grew thick, sharp spikes all across their length. Shinji widened his eyes as after a static buzz he was clotheslined. His only saving grace from being a pincushion was his zanpakuto, but he felt the bones in his arms rattle from just the strength alone in the bone. Shao gave a heave before sending Shinji back to the earth with a tumble.

Shinji dropped right by Kisuke's feet, who has done nothing but watch the fight. The blonde's eyebrows twitched in annoyance. He knew that the scientist was up to something but his antics were infuriating when he just stood there.

"Aren't you going to do something?" Shinji barked.

"I am doing my part." Answered Kisuke nonchalantly. "I am observing."

"You're just watching getting our asses handed to us." Shinji snapped.

"Well, I'll help once I find a weakness." Kisuke retorted, a shadow casting over his eyes. "His defenses are outstanding. Whatever power over bones the arrancar is using, he doesn't need to directly control them. They can act on their own accord if he is in imminent threat."

"That would explain how he could control those heads." Shinji reluctantly agreed.

Either the bones had big ears or Kami hated them, several more lion heads crashed out of the ground. Their fangs glowed with reishi to effortlessly rend whatever was in their way. Shinji let out a string of curses holding out his blade to fire a cero of his own. Hollow reiatsu channeled into the sealed form of his zanpakuto, giving it a rich red glow.

"Cero."

Unlike a massive laser of pure reiatsu, Shinji's cero fired off his blade like a broadside of blasts from the edge of his blade smaller than a cero but bigger than a bala. Shinji had a little triumph that his cero was able to kill the first that came in contact with the cero before a cloud of dust hid the scene away. But the some of the lion heads as they used the dust cloud to hide away their charge before it was too late with ceros at the ready in their jaws.

A hail of silver reishi bullets blasted over the heads of Kisuke and Shinji crumbling the rest of the lion heads into dust before they could release the reiatsu blasts. Kisuke glanced behind him to Ruby on her glaive aimed forward like a gatling gun. Her limbs were shaking like jelly and her breaths were labored unable to fully recover the much needed energy she needed for the fight. Already, her left knee gave out from the stress and Ruby was forced to use her glaive like a crutch to keep herself straight.

"Barely... hanging on..." Panted Ruby.

Ichigo especially wasn't idle. Pure willpower was the only thing that kept his body from collapsing from exhaustion. He lazily waved his hand over his face, but waited for Shao to make an opening knowing full well that he needed all the power to strike at one point. Anything else like using shunpo was at this point a detriment and would only cost them the hope of victory if Ichigo didn't have the reserves.

"I don't care what it takes." Cried Ichigo. "We just need an opening. One opening and I can throttle him with everything I've got."

Ruby smirked, bending down in a stance. "I think I may just give you that. I might not have enough reiryoku left, but that doesn't mean I'm out of tricks yet."

In the blink of an eye, Ruby dashed away at non-shunpo but still blinding super speeds with her Semblance. She circled around the battlefield while eyeing above to the fight as she saw Lisa momentarily clash with Shao. It turned on the Vizard as bone pikes sprouted out of random parts of the arrancar's body to try and stab her. Kensei joined the assault smashing through the bones with his Bankai. Shao's attention switched almost exclusively on the former captain since out of the Vizards he revealed to be the most important threat since he was going on full power with both Bankai and his Hollow mask summoned.

Seeing his attention focused, Ruby took her chance and fired a low-level shot of reishi to grab his attention. Unfortunately, her reserves were still too low to even match a Dust bullet and the reishi didn't even reach Shao. Ruby gritted her teeth in frustration and aimed her glaive again like a rifle. Sweat poured down her face forcing more reiatsu into the glaive even as her body practically screamed to stop. She was about to fire until a hand from an outside party stopped grabbing Ruby's attention.

The hybrid looked to her right and widened her eyes seeing Qrow standing right beside her. He hid it well behind a smile, but even he was panting keeping himself straight under the spiritual pressure going wild. Hardened experience and tolerance were what kept the Huntsman on his feet.

"Uncle Qrow?!" Exclaimed Ruby. "What are you doing here?! Why are you here?! You can't-"

"Shh, shh, shh." Qrow hushed putting his finger to Ruby's lips. "Be it life, death, or whatever in between, you are still that little knucklehead."

"But why are you here?" Shouted Ruby, her voice slightly drowned from an explosion as Shao fired a cero and a lion head crashed into the earth. "As you can see, I - I don't know what you can do. This is a fight I don't want you getting mixed up in, and you - you could get hurt and I - I don't know if I can save you in the middle of all of that."

"Ruby," Qrow interrupted sternly, "do you know what we Huntsmen and Huntresses are meant to do? You know it, and I know it. It's not just killing Grimm or upholding justice. It is as simple as this. We help people when they need us wherever they needs us, no matter the cost or the danger. Doesn't that sound familiar?"

Ruby's head hinged to the ground thinking back to her first encounter with Ozpin that got her into Beacon. It seemed that turning point in her life was years ago, leading up to the formation of Team RWBY and the journey across the world to Haven.

"Alright good talk." Qrow said, nonchalantly and unfolded Harbinger into its gun form. "So what suicidal tactic are we trying?"

"I was going to shoot at him to draw his attention." Ruby informed.

"That's it?" Qrow exclaimed incredulously.

"I don't know!" Cried Ruby. "I'm trying to get an opening on him. Maybe distract him or make fun of him. I'm just making this up as I go."

Qrow sighed and mumbled. "Be it a good day to die I guess."

Qrow took aim at Shao and Harbinger thundered as it unleashed its buckshot soaring through the air. It was invisible to naked eye, probably due to the use of Air Dust in Qrow's weaponry. The next second Shao was clouded away in an explosion of smoke in time when Kensei and Lisa disengaged.

The smoke cleared and of course Shao didn't have a scratch on him but the explosive Dust rounds tore apart his shirt leaving the Grave King topless. His gaze was solely on the uncle and niece pair with the former having a nervous smile.

"I think you made him mad blowing up his clothes." Ruby said.

"Don't point the blame on me!" Hissed Qrow.

"So even the insects bother me, the God King of Hollows." Said Shao.

A metaphorical light bulb lit up in Ruby's head. She stepped forward in front of Qrow and glanced back to him to mouth, 'Prepare to run.'

"Is this really the best the power of a god can do?" Ruby goaded. "It is quite frankly... disappointing."

Qrow instantly paled at Ruby's words getting the desired effect. Gold reiatsu brimmed off Shao's body and released waves of pure foce through the air. His hands tightened to the point his very joints were groaning under the pressure. Veins of rage bulged on his temples and his brows twitched over veined eyes. Out of his back grew wide branches of bone forming into giant hands three times his own size. In each palm was prepared a sharp nail of bone thicker than Ruby's torso all aimed to skewer her.

Qrow was already long gone into the scene.

With a flick of his wrist, the bone nails came down like missiles. Ruby concentrated, sacrificing her use of her reiatsu to focus on her Semblance and her eyes as they glowed white. In a burst of petals Ruby disappeared from the ground as the first plowed into the ground where she once stood. Ruby felt her body was burning pushing her Semblance to the limits while using said Semblance on dangerously low reserves. Her form was blurry appearing only as a cloud of rose petals jumping from nail to nail to reach Shao Kin. The gold eyes of the arrancar were glaring down at the ground but oblivious to Ruby's approach in his rage. It was too late to realize that less than ten second later Ruby was right in front of the arrancar, her silver eyes unleashing blinding light.

"NOW!" Ruby signaled.

As Ruby used the last of her light to blind Shao, Ichigo put on last charge with Zangetsu burning in black reiatsu. Shao, in his rage, surrendered to the instincts of the Hollow and lashed out backslapping Ruby back to the earth. At last moment, Shao extended his right hand towards Ichigo and in his rage formed a black-laced red cero while cutting his arm via his bone manipulation to draw blood into it.

"Getsuga Ransu."

"GRAN REY CERO OBSCURAS!"

The wind was swept away across the city has the two spiritual pressures battled for dominance. But it was for a moment before a loud crack echoed across the field followed by a black cero splitting the sky in two. A squinted eye could see the smoking body of Ichigo falling from the sky and into the ocean.

But Ruby did not need to see it. As she stared broken at the direction of the cero her eyes trailed to a fallen black shard that used part of Tensa Zangetsu, now shattered into pieces.

"ICHIGO!"

(Ichigo's Mindscape)

Ichigo woke up with a startle in his mindscape. To his absolute horror, he was drowning in a bottomless sea unable to move his body to reach the surface. All around him he saw that even the towers of the once mighty city that made up his mindscape weren't able to spared from the flooding. He found he still had a grip on his daito but when he looked to his hand all he saw was the guard, grip, and a black jagged shard.

'There's no way!' Ichigo thought frantically as he stared at the broken blade that used to be Tensa Zangetsu. 'That seriously didn't just happen.'

"Unfortunately, that is what happened." Spoke the voice of his partner, Juha Bach.

Ichigo felt his body lift through the ocean until he broke the surface. There was no light from the sun that used to shine down now that black thunderclouds hid it away and sent down a terrifying storm of the likes of the wrath of Susanno. His eyes picked up the tattered cloak at the corner of his vision. He turned expecting Juha Bach but was not expecting a completely teenage version of the imposing Quincy spirit himself. This younger version of Juha Bach had a more adolescent jaw-line structure, flowing black hair, and smooth skin but still kept that piercing gaze.

"J-Juha Bach!?" Said Ichigo. "You look... different."

"He's not the only one."

There was a buzz of static followed by the appearance of a second figure. He was as tall as Ichigo wearing a white version of Ichigo's Bankai outfit with black fur lining the neckline. The most eye-catching was the terrifying horned mask with black marks going down and above the eyes and the horns pointing forward to further increase its intimidating presence.

"Let me guess, I look damn handsome looking like this." Joked Zangetsu with a soft chuckle.

Ichigo widened his eyes when he had a sense of familiarity with the mask. "I-Is that what I look like-"

"When you go bat shit crazy, yes." Zangetsu said. "For all intends and purposes, I think it's badass."

Ichigo's only response was to twitch his brow in irritation.

"Don't give that look and pretend you don't like it." Zangetsu said. "I'm part of you, remember?"

Ichigo decided to drop the subject and stare at his broken Bankai blade. The feeling he got from it was entirely different when his Shikai breaks. This time he felt it to his very soul. It always seemed that his Bankai was unbreakable.

"Did this seriously just happen?" Ichigo said.

"Indeed it has." Said Juha Bach. "Unlike a Shikai, when a Bankai breaks it can never be repaired and your soul loses the power it once had." Before Ichigo could frown in slight depression, Juha Bach continued. "But given your unique situation, you still have hope to regain your power. In fact, that isn't the true limits of your zanpakuto, and even your Bankai was nowhere close to your full potential."

"Not even my full power?" Gasped Ichigo. "Let me guess, your work."

"Regrettably so." Juha Bach said, extending his hand. "But now I realize conflict is inevitable, and I will not let you stand alone. The time has come, Ichigo Kurosaki, to realize your full potential."

"It's time to make a choice, King." Said Zangetsu oddly sagely, also extending his hand. "You are the embodiment of the impossibility of Quincy, shinigami, and hollow, but will you choose? What path will you walk knowing you have power like no one else before?"

If it was a different Ichigo from a few months back, the choice would leave him stuck in his own mindscape. But Ichigo was not one to think so narrowly. As a being of three spiritually powerful entities, Ichigo needed to be open-minded to the world around him. He knew, unlike some shinigami, that the world is not black and white. Shinigami and possibly even Hollows have the capacity for both evil and good.

"It's obvious." Ichigo answered, grabbing both Zangetsu and Juha Bach. "I need both of you. I can't function without the other. In order to protect what I value precious, I must be willing to inflict pain as well. In my eyes, you are both my blade, my partner, Zangetsu."

Juha Bach smiled as he and the Hollow Zangetsu transformed into black and white reishi gathering into Ichigo's hands. More and more spiritual gathered as the reishi slowly solidified into definite shapes while at the same time the ocean the flooded his world began to drain away. Instinct from his Hollow side gave him the needed knowledge of both worlds of his power. Blue, red, black, and white swirled around Ichigo's body like a maelstorm. His hands tightened on a still-forming grips of his new zanpakuto, and he received a calling from them in response that they were ready to answer to the guardian's call.

I'm so sorry that I've been late in updating this story. It all comes down from final exams, my start of college life in September, and then the occasional writer's block. I've also been dedicated to the other stories on my profile, and have even been thinking of starting new ones despite the increased workload. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and the next is the final clash.

Up next is Chapter 42: Black God and White God

Stay in touch. Please, please leave a review.