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 49: Whole
(Que Story OP – Hello Sleepwalkers "Hyakkiyakou")
Ichigo is going to kill Kisuke. He is going that freaking bastard for dragging him and his friends into this mess. The perfect hybrid a strong suspicion that Kisuke was testing him and his friends ever since the time where the whole school population disappeared, done by three beings consisting of a blonde girl named Ririn, a bespectacled man named Kurodo, and a masked individual by the name of Noba. Ichigo could not call them humans or shinigami because there was something artificial about their spiritual pressures that Kon's. This is the result of his spiritual pressure in better harmony than before, and the fact as bizarre as Kisuke is he was a good man at heart and would not let a whole school disappear.
Also since the incident at the school, Senna had joined the crew in stopping the Mod Souls as Ichigo guessed. Though he was a bit put off that none of the Remnanties, especially Ruby, were not here. The Mod Souls had made it a game of sorts to guess who among them was an imposter, and they were in the the threat of the school being 'killed'. It was a tough investigation on his and even Uryu's part. Thankfully, Ichigo was able to pick up some slack due to Ruby training with him like a Huntsman. If he was the same person months ago, he would be totally lost.
Eventually, the crew found out it was Chad who was the imposter among them, revealing the faker to Kuroda who shape-shifted into him. The three Mod Souls unfortunately escaped after informing the crew of Chad's location. Ichigo was tempted to capture them, but he would rather not cause as much damage as his power right now will do, and the fact that this was a test from Kisuke. He will rather see what Hat n' Clogs has planned.
So now he found himself in the streets of Karakura under the night sky with Uryu, Renji, Senna, and Orhime being sucked into the portal. Ichigo would have destroyed it, but logic dictates that Chad was on the other side. Test or not, if Ichigo had destroyed the portal there would be no way to save his best friend. Ichigo did not bother to release himself from his physical body as he was perfectly capable of summoning his dual zanpakuto in the real world. Totally not because of the jealous glare Renji was giving him.
Through the portal, Ichigo, Renji, Senna, Uryu, and Orihime found themselves in a wasteland similar to the one in Soul Society where Ichigo trained with tall cliffs. On the highest peak, Ichigo saw Chad tied to a post within a giant hourglass filling with sand. Senna switched to her spiritual form and unsealing her wind type zanpakuto and going for Ririn. Ichigo decided to take on Kurodo who took on a mirror image of himself, and that left Noba to Renji.
With Ichigo, his only trouble with the copy of himself was that it almost perfectly matched his fighting style and summoned a copy of Ichigo's Zangetsu Y khyber blade. Emphasis on almost since no matter how perfect Kurodo may imitate Ichigo, he can't copy the enormous power and strength that Ichigo held. That same strength that Ichigo had to hold back lest he want to accidentally do more damage than necessary. In the whole time, Uryu and Orihime watched from the sidelines, the former not used to combat and the latter powerless to do so.
"Looks like this little blonde needs a spanking!" Senna shouted as she conjured multiple tornadoes around her to intersect Ririn.
Ririn's eyes widened at the strength of the winds picking up her lithe form. Senna, unperturbed by the pull of her own winds, dashed through and landed a knee to Ririn's gut. She followed up with a smack to the head with her golden staff concluding with point-blank blast of wind. Using a wordless Hado spell, Senna channeled lightning through the winds of her zanpakuto, adding electric damage to the Mod Soul.
"Owie!" Whined Ririn, now sporting several tears in her clothes.
"You are a tough cookie, aren't you?" Senna said with a frown. "Looks like I am going to up the punishment on this particular brat."
Ririn on the outside was still keeping her usual smug-like expression with that smile. On the inside however, Ririn was holding a cold shiver running up and down her spine in fear of what Senna was planning. At least the Mod Soul can take comfort in the fact that the one known as Ruby is the sadist among them, and she's not here.
Clangs of steel against steel rang through the wasteland as Ichigo dueled with his doppelganger that Kurodo transformed into. Ichigo was annoyed that the Mod Soul was copying his every move, but the hybrid still held the advantage in better strength and the fact that his spiritual pressure is entirely unique. Which meant that his spiritual techniques were not copied. But Ichigo could not use a Getsuga Tensho with the level that he was currently at unless he wanted everything destroyed. That still left him with more fun options.
In another brief clash, Kurodo made a heavy swing to Ichigo's right flank. In response, Ichigo pretended to block it and 'accidentally' lose his grip on his zanpakuto. Kurodo smirked going in for the opening that presented itself. At the last second, Ichigo smirked before summoning the black khyber blade of Zangetsu X. The Mod Soul reacted in time, but not enough to prevent a shallow upward cut that put a shallow wound from hip to shoulder. Ichigo let himself go a little and channeled the instincts of his Hollow side, which meant no mercy or rest for his opponent.
As soon as Kurodo backed away, the doppelganger's face paled seeing the blade of Zangetsu Y coming at his like an over-sized dart. He quickly put up a defense to save himself from being impaled by the massive blade. That turned into a feint as Ichigo pulled Zangetsu Y back via the bandage and used shunpo to close in on Kurodo. The Mod Soul felt as though a hammer smashed into his right cheek from Ichigo's fist followed by a side kick that sent Kurodo into a wall.
"Nice moves." Ichigo complimented. "But you can fight like me, but you can't exactly be me. Your copying ability has to be limited to your own parameters, and unfortunately for you I am beyond your limits."
A word did not escape from Kurodo's mouth when Ichigo's foot planted forcefully on the Mod Soul's face and effectively knocking the man out. Kurodo's form changed back to the bespectacled man with blonde hair and the top hat as soon as he was unconscious. Ichigo turned to look at Renji in his fight with the portal-user Noba. The hybrid snickered when he saw Renji hit himself with the end of Zabimaru via Noba redirected the whip-like blade with a portal.
"I think you're supposed to hit the guy, not yourself." Ichigo called out amusingly.
"Ah, shut up!" Renji growled.
"KYA!"
The scream was from none other than Ririn crashing just several meters away from Ichigo. He quirked an eyebrow seeing the child-like Mod Soul rubbing her bottom. What was even more bizarre was the fact despite the skirt she was wearing, there was a crimson glow barely escaping the confines of the cloth. Senna soon showed up, calmly floating down with the winds at her feet.
"Now behave brat or there will another spanking." Senna warned, emphasizing her point with her staff zanapakuto.
"Yes ma'am." Cried Ririn with anime tears going down her face.
"See, even Senna over here is doing a better job than you." Ichigo mocked Renji. "Maybe I can tell Byakuya of your 'wonderful' performance and he can get Senna to be the new lieutenant."
Renji's only response was to glare at the smug orange-head while frothing at the mouth. That unfortunately left him open to Noba taking the opportunity to teleport a boulder over Renji's head. As soon as Renji realized the impending doom, he let out a very unmanly scream in fright. Zabimaru came to his call and split the boulder into pieces. The debris was used as cover for Noba to land an elbow to Renji's back.
"Oof." Senna said. "Poor, poor thing."
"Yeah, he's not the smartest in the apple tree." Ichigo quipped.
Renji snapped. "Oh screw you, tailed bastard."
"Hey in the short time I've had it, I've grown to like it." Ichigo retorted. "You know what? Forget this. I am going to go free Chad from that hourglass."
In a shunpo, Ichigo reached the peak where the hourglass prison stood, and with a tap of Zangetsu X the glass disintegrated into reishi particles being absorbed into the black blade. Another effect of his awakened Quincy heritage molded into a zanpakuto was the ability to turn matter into reishi that Ichigo can absorb to refuel his own reserves. It was more passive as an ability, but Ichigo was still having trouble how to harness more of his mother's side such as unleashing arrows. Zangetsu Y on the other hand came naturally to him as it was purely based on instinctual combat rather than technique and discipline. With the glass gone, the sand dispersed and Chad feel to the ground on his knees. Ichigo went down on his friend's level, examining him for any injuries.
"You okay, Chad?" Ichigo asked.
"Yeah." Chad simply said. As always as a man of few words.
"Do you need help with those ropes?" Ichigo said.
Chad shook his head. "I don't think so."
With just a few shrugs of his shoulders, the ropes simply slipped off of Chad's wrists and arms. Ichigo narrowed his eyes with his suspicions now confirmed. Stretching out his senses that were still very meager, Ichigo felt another presence besides his friends and the Mod Souls hiding among them.
"You can come out now." Ichigo called out. "You had your fun, Kisuke."
The click of wooden sandals behind the wooden post followed the appearance of Kisuke Urahara with his signature bucket hat. An amused yet curious smirk was on his face as he looked at Ichigo. The remaining conscious Mod Souls ceased their attacks, and the rest of Ichigo's allies came up to the peak with confusing stares aimed at the former shinigami captain.
"Ren was right. Ruby really did sharpen that mind of yours." Kisuke asked. "What gave me away, Kurosaki-san?"
"Every time we faced each other, they always had the chance to kill one of us." Ichigo noted. "Yet they always made it seem we barely escaped with our lives. Then the game at the school where the students were transported away as though they were killed. You're many things Kisuke, but I know for a fact you would give your life then let something like that happen. Unless that was your doing and they are all okay. Lastly, are these three here. Their spiritual pressure felt somewhat artificial. I've only felt that from Kon, so that gave them away as Mod Souls as we discovered from that maze test last night, and the only one who can make Mod Souls to my knowledge is you."
"Spot on, Kurosaki-san." Kisuke confirmed, sighing. "That's a damn shame. I was hoping I was going to have some fun messing around with you, but it seems Ruby's really done a lot of good for you."
Ichigo smiled. "Yeah, she kinda does that to you. Speaking of, where his Ruby-hime?"
All of them except Kisuke did not notice Orihime fidget at Ichigo referring to Ruby with the affectionate honorific. Poor girl indeed for having her feelings bottled up inside and too late for the subject of his affections to have given his heart for another.
"Ruby Rose and her fellow friends from Remnant have been helping Yoruichi-chan investigate a strange phenomenon going on in Karakura." Kisuke answered. "It was serious enough to make the Soul Society close off the gates until the situation has been identified."
"Does it have something to do with Aizen?" Uryu wondered with trepidation.
"I would not count on that." Kisuke denied. "Yes, Aizen is indeed a looming threat, but he needs a lot more time to mature the Hogyoku that he stole. Besides, there are other threats in the world other than Aizen, so it's best to keep an open mind about all this.
"You know, Ichigo, this whole test was for you." Kisuke switched topics. "I wanted to test you on the mind such as your situational analysis. But you have told me and what you've shown in your recent fight is that I have no need to test at all. I had fully expected you to use the full power of your zanpakuto, yet you wisely held yourself back and handled the situation appropriately. Not every battle is won with brute force."
"I can attest to that." Ichigo said, dispelling that khyber blades. "With my spiritual pressure in harmony with itself, it has also become a lot more destructive. That's why I didn't risk using a Getsuga Tensho at all since coming here. Heck, just using my Shikai puts a strain on me. If I don't stop using it more than ten minutes without anything else, I can rip myself apart. In Bankai, I can only hold it in for a minute."
Kisuke hummed in thought. "You are right that your spiritual pressure has harmonized to your liking, but you are still missing a key component. What you lack is a proper conduit of the asauchi to channel that whole ocean of power within you. It is like you are trying to gather it through a straw rather than a funnel. Admittedly, that was my fault."
Instantly, the mood became a lot colder. Ichigo's expressin darkened considerably and a very violent aura of his spiritual pressure surrounded him. Cold brown eyes narrowed on Kisuke, who could not help but sweat nervously. Those very brown eyes that took on a mix of a yellow and blue hue.
"Mind repeating that, Urahara?" Ichigo hissed. "Because I think I just heard that you forgot something that I seriously needed."
Kisuke's body was fidgeting. "W-Well, y-y-you are r-right about th-that. I-It was a harmless mistake, h-honest. But you've been d-doing fine without, right? A-And s-so as a reward f-for passing the test, h-here's your asauchi."
It was a miracle with Kisuke's hands fumbling about in his fright that he was fast enough to pull out two blank asauchi blades from his coat. The scientist approached warily toward Ichigo still locking his cold gaze on the shinigami. Poor Kisuke was having the illusion that the hybrid's Vasto Lorde was standing there in place of Ichigo instead. The only way it can get worse is if Yoruichi had a reason to be mad at him. Again.
After placing the swords in front of Ichigo (the devil) and scampering back to hide behind the Mod Souls, Ichigo let go of his cold gaze and switched his attention back to the asauchi at his feet. He grabbed the hilt of the blades, channeling his reiatsu into them. White, black, blue, and red reiatsu seeped off of them respectively, and once fully transformed into proper zanpakuto the tsuba and blades gained the same colors as Ichigo's sealed form. Yet, he could feel that something was different, like the power in his hands flowed more perfectly. Not necessarily in better control, but rather the strain he felt was more or less gone.
A test wouldn't hurt.
"Black God, redeem your sins; White God, kill on instinct - Zangetsu."
In a brief explosion of reiatsu, the dual Shikai in Ichigo's hands revealed itself. Surprisingly, they were still the same khyber blades, but they were now much smaller, just longer than the asauchi itself, as to not hinder his motions while in body. While indeed he can perfectly wield a blade the size of himself with relative ease, but he will admit that despite the weightlessness that it was still cumbersome to use it effectively.
'Oh, I get it.' Ichigo thought. 'It's similar to the reason why when I first had my powers that my zanpakuto was so huge. Even when I had my own powers, they were still too huge to wield properly. I just didn't have the right funnel to begin with to have the proper shape. How does it feel, Zangetsu?'
'Feels nice and cozy in here.'Zangetsu Y said with Zangetsu X giving an agreeing grunt.
"This feels better." Ichigo noted, dispelling the blades into particles. "I don't feel that strain any more. Maybe I can also last longer in my Bankai."
Kisuke nodded. "And now with the asauchi to manifest your zanpakuto properly, you are hereby complete. All that's left to you now is to fully master your power, Ichigo. We are going to need it to counter Aizen when he makes his move eventually."
In an instant, Kisuke's mood went back to his goofy self with the smile and his fan waving at his face. "That concludes the lesson for today, so let's head upstairs where Tessai has whipped something good to eat."
However, several blurs five in total instead rushed down the ladder that led upstairs. Ichigo recognized an orange blur to Yoruichi in her orange jacket, and three others trailing behind her were members Yang, Weiss, and Blake from Team RWBY. That meant the red blur trailing rose petals that made it difficult to see who it was can only be...
CRASH!
... Ruby who had clamped all four limbs upon Ichigo like a gecko and was currently forcing her tongue into her fellow hybrid's mouth in a heated kiss. The sight alone made Kisuke and Urahara have several nosebleeds. Uryu instantly turned away, but Orihime looked like a kicked puppy at the scene. Weiss was gaping, Blake was struggling to stay conscious, but Yang and Yoruichi sported proud grins on their faces.
With a slight smack, Ruby ended the kiss and backed up so Ichigo could see the sly expression on Ruby's face. Brown eyes met silver that flashed that crimson red, causing a primal response within Ichigo with his Hollow. For a split second, crimson and gold stared at each other before the pair's eyes went back to their normal, with Ichigo having a small blush on his face.
"Miss me, sexy?" Ruby said, her tone alone made Renji pass out, and Yang fell to the ground laughing.
"Where have you been?" Ichigo asked, a bit of growl from his Hollow side underlying his tone.
'Why yes indeed where has sexy Queenie been for all your life?' Zangetsu Y commented. 'Just bang her already.'
BOP!
'Uncalled for.' Zangetsu X said after hitting the Hollow zanpakuto spirit over the head.
Ruby smiled. "Well, me and my team helped Yoruichi with the investigation. We met some lady trying to suck up people's reiatsu. I don't what was really going on, so..."
Ruby trailed off, looking towards Yoruichi expectantly. The former head of Squad 2 of the Gotei 13 shifted her expression to be more serious and professional. That garnered the attention of Kisuke, and the rest straightened their posture in attention.
"Kisuke," Yoruichi informed, "our attacker in the night is a Bount."
...
...
...
"What is a Bount?" Voiced Yang, and the serious mood took a nosedive as the very same question hanged over the teenagers. Yoruichi couldn't help but sigh in exasperation and was due for a lengthy explanation.
HOLY SHIT, it has been quite a while since I uploaded a chapter for this story. It was just because The Sins' Return and Rose Dragon Empress were getting such hype and I couldn't help uploading more and more chapters for those stories. I know not much headway was made in this chapter, so I hope you find it satisfactory. And yes, all that happened basically in this chapter was a redesign of Ichigo's Shikai to be smaller because there is no way you can dual wield with such enormous swords. I was tempted to make them look like Kanshou and Bakuya from Fate/Stay Night, but it's more important to keep the traditional khyber blade design.
Up next is Chapter 50.
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