Chapter 59

Why am I here...?

Ichigo has been asking himself that for a while now. He is currently in the middle of what appears to be a forest. Much of it was burned down by something recently, leaving ash on the ground. Ichigo had no doubts that a fire user had to burn the place down. Most likely, it was Bazz-B.

Yet, he could not find anything resembling an army here. The Quincy army would be around here according to what he sensed. After his visit to that place, he decided to pursue someone in particular. Someone who would not only know more about the current situation, but someone who could end up being a temporary ally.

Yhwach. The First Quincy.

Ichigo thought that he killed him during the end of the last war. However, he recognized the energy that he sensed. The King has seemed to be somewhere far, but Ichigo was determined to find him. He kept walking down the forest when he sensed something off. He saw several men and women in a campsite, tending to each other. They looked wounded, and they all had the cross symbol attached to their uniforms.

"So this is where the Quincies are at," muttered Ichigo. He stepped out into the open. Immediately, they looked in fear of him, getting up and assembling their weapons. "I'm not here to harm anyone," Ichigo said. "I'm here to help you. What happened here?"

"Lies!" shouted one of the wounded women. "You Shinigami have a knack of lying to everyone you talk to!"

"If I had the intention to harm you, I would have beaten you all up already before you even got up. I'm here to help and to talk to the King."

The Quincy was about to fire her bow, but suddenly a hand was on her shoulder. Bambietta Basterbine's presence calmed the whole situation down.

"All of you, lower your bows. That dude isn't here to do anything."

Immediately, all of them lowered their stances and went back to healing themselves. Bambietta walked up to Ichigo.

"So, why did you come here?" she asked.

"I need to speak to Yhwach," Ichigo said. "I also came here to help you guys."

"Really?" Bambietta was unconvinced but she decided to trust him. "Well, follow me."

Ichigo followed her as she went further into the camp. He was curious about plenty of things - how did the Quincies prevail and survive? How did Yhwach survive? Why did he hide here out of all places?

"How have you been?" Ichigo said, trying to start a conversation.

"Your conversation is not with me, fucker." Bambi glared at him. "I don't want to talk to you."

"Why not? I'm just trying to piece together what's happening here, and I want to help you guys. I thought when the war ended, we wouldn't have to go through being enemies again."

"It's pretty convenient for you to forget why we were enemies in the first place," answered Bambi. "Remember, Soul Society has been purging us for an eon. Don't pretend that we had no reason to do what we did."

"Except that half of you did forget that." Ichigo was pretty annoyed at this. "I'm not here to justify what the shinigami did. However, most of you had your own reason for doing what you did. You guys were at each other's throat. One of your own friends used you!"

Bambi stopped, suddenly remembering that moment. She clenched her teeth, remembering her experience as a zombie...

"I'm sorry to bring that up, but you know it to be true. On top of that, Yhwach used everyone's soul to stay alive forever. He can't be all just if he used his own troops to elevate himself above all else."

Bambi stayed silent, and then said, "Don't talk to me like you understand the situation."

"I don't. I can't pretend that I do because I really don't get why Soul Society did what they did. But we are trying to make the situation better - or we were until this whole thing happened."

"That's enough talking for now." Another man put his hand on Ichigo's shoulders. It was Askin, grinning at Ichigo. "It's obvious that your words aren't going to reach, Ichigo-chan~"

"Askin." Ichigo gave an disapproving look. "How did you get here?"

"Jugram can answer all your questions. Let's hurry up and head there! You have to come too, Bambi-"

"I KNOW ALREADY, YOU ASSHOLE!" Bambi looked pissed off upon Askin talking to her. Ichigo wasn't surprised at that, Askin was very similar to Urahara in how they talk, and they both are annoying.

"Alright then, let's head to his place already, they're waiting on all of us." Askin looked serious, pointing up ahead. There was a small building shaped like a dome with a welcome mat placed in front of the entrance.

Ichigo was dumbfounded by the entrance. "Are you for real? A welcome mat that shows where the entrance is? Who set this up?"

"It was Askin," Bambi said. "He's the only one stupid enough to do it."

"You got it rough, huh?" Ichigo sympathetically nodded to her as she facepalmed at the entrance.

"You all need to chill," Askin said. "The welcome mat exists for our culture to be better! We don't want Quincies to be downers all the time, like Bambi here!"

"This just makes them more of a downer than anything," said Ichigo.

"Screw you! Anyways, let's go down...here." The entrance of the place led to a set of staircases. Ichigo descended down the steps with Bambi and Askin, wondering where they were headed to. At the end of the staircase, the sight of the room stopped Ichigo for a moment.

Somehow, the room was much larger than he thought. It was as big as a school gym. There was a throne in the middle, and this was what made Ichigo freeze. A dark figure sat in the throne. No, that wasn't the right word. The figure was encased in a crystal, and it couldn't move no matter what. Jugram stood in front of it, sitting down on the ground and staring at Ichigo.

"Well then, you seem to have come to us," Jugram began to speak. "We were about to take you to us instead."

"I figured as much," Ichigo said. "I sensed his energy, so I decided to come here and see what it was all about."

"He's currently asleep. After the battle, he was put inside of this crystal by Division Zero. He awakens at certain times. He had a couple of things that he wanted to pass onto you, and after I am finished with what I have to say, you can talk. Is that fair?"

"Fair enough." Ichigo was curious as to what was about to be said.

"He first wanted to congratulate you on winning, as odd as it sounds. He has had time to think things over since he was trapped, and he has seen his errors."

This puzzled Ichigo. The man did not seem like he would ever say that in his lifetime.

"As I said, it would sound odd coming from me. You seemed to have changed his desires plenty. A certain action was undone because of you in that Quincies now send souls to heaven instead of being destroyed." Ichigo was shocked at that. If that was true, then this would help relationships more. "However, Yhwach still despises plenty of shinigami. That's just the way it is. He wanted me to tell you about what he learned."

"The truth is, these neithermen were born a long time ago. Heartless and Nobodies were not a new thing - they always existed in one form or another. Other beings also existed too. However, neithermen are a by-product of the complexities surrounding the heart. It is not just some new thing that was created from the air. They existed and evolved long before Yhwach was even born. They had their own societies, worlds, places that belonged to them in particular."

"They've existed for eons?!" Askin chimed in. "Wait a minute, we never saw any records of this? Why didn't you tell us this?"

"You know full well that we are still gathering intel. Yhwach only knew about them from remembering myths and legends that he heard as a child. Surely you can't blame him for remembering this data and comparing it to what is going on right now. Anyways, the neithermen wiped each other out with war, but a couple of groups survived. They ended up creating a society that seethed at the worlds for growing right. And now, the worlds are in danger because of this jealousy. Now they seek to create a perfect world where their existence is justified."

"So they are crazy. Either that, or there's plenty missing from the story." Ichigo took all this information down with ease. "Was this all Yhwach had?"

"Correct. He said that he could only figure out that much. It is still very much unknown if they have a reason for so much chaos."

Ichigo sat and pondered at this. He decided to look into the history more after this. Especially since what he just heard might come in handy down the road.

"So can you answer a couple of questions for me?" Ichigo asked.

"Well, most certainly."

"How did you guys escape to this planet?"

"We teleported here with our own technology. Division Zero came to our place and gave us a warning to keep Yhwach safe, no matter what."

That threw red flags in Ichigo's mind immediately. "Wait, you saw them? What happened to them?"

Jugram looked to the ground. "It was very brief, but they just left him with us and went away."

"Went away...where?"

Jugram gave Ichigo eye contact. The next sentence that Jugram said shook Ichigo to his very core.

"They said that they were going to be undone. Everything in this universe is going to be undone and pure once again."