Chapter 1: I Want It All
Greed.
A powerful feeling, one that corrupts even the strong-willed warriors. Whether it's drawing two cards at once or refusing to decide on one girl from a group that's giving you attention, Greed corrupts.
Ichigo had faced greed before in his life, wanting to be able to save everyone, wanting to be the hero and not need help, but receive the help he's always wanted. But Ichigo has never allowed greed to corrupt his morals, stop him from choosing the greater good. Greed has never ruined his friendships, Ichigo has not had a girlfriend before but even if he did, he wouldn't allow greed to ruin it.
Today, Ichigo sensed greed all around him, emanating from one being; the reiatsu being released around him. It had a powerful stench, one that gave away all the inner thoughts of the enemy. Power. Survival. Revenge. Initiative. Happiness. Love. A sense of accomplishment. Lust. Pride. Passion. Health. So many contradictions within the Hollow's reiatsu, confusing Ichigo on what it wanted. Could it perhaps be two different hollows that are somehow able to combine their reiatsu? It wouldn't be the first time, Ichigo remembered Ishida telling him how Pesche and Dondochakka were able to accomplish that feat with ease. But Ichigo saw the crack.
Ichigo stops and investigates the sky. The rainbow-shimmering garganta is opening and Ichigo guards himself, not knowing what is causing this immense reiatsu to blanket the city.
"Hopefully I can take down this enemy without any civilians getting hurt."
The purple tentacle is the first to come out, throbbing and pulsating, disgusting in every one of its movements. Ichigo looks at the appendage and just cringes, feeling more disgusted by its appearance and movement than Renji's "big sword" jokes, Ichigo instinctively takes a step back.
Aaroniero's head eventually comes out of the garganta and he drags along his bloated, heavy body out. His lower half being reminiscent of an upside-down sea anemone, the six tentacle-like legs are solidifying the reishi around Aaroniero, allowing him to climb out of the garganta without a problem. Ichigo stares at Aaroniero with genuine disgust, this being the first time they've met.
"Kurosaki Ichigo. You look far too different than I remember, but it must be your way of trying to hide your Quincy form." The eerie dual-synced voice throws Ichigo off. He's sure he's never seen this ugly creature before, he knows he didn't fight it when he invaded Las Noches, and the Quincies didn't use him as fodder in the war. At this point, Ichigo just sighs and realizes there's no point to even try to recognize that face.
"Yo. Have we met?" Ichigo just rolls with it, the obvious arrancar may have a large spiritual pressure but it isn't enough to intimidate Ichigo. The arrancar must know this as well since it still hasn't bothered to attack.
"… Maybe you are not the Kurosaki Ichigo I know. How… odd. This world is also different as well. I seem to be in the human world, but it doesn't seem on edge with me around like usual. Is this a territory outside of Quincy control?" Aaroniero just continues speaking between his two heads which just makes Ichigo more confused. Is it two-in-one? And why does it not have a mask fragment? Are the heads the fragments?
However.
Ichigo notices something that should not be in the possession of this hollow. There's a small jewel, that looks extremely close to a Hogyoku. Ichigo tries to hide the panic in his eyes, the possibility of a Hogyoku helping an arrancar evolve is not something that Ichigo will need to deal with. He also needs to let Urahara know, since it could be possible that Aizen could have had "lesser" Hogyoku's stashed in Las Noches.
Aaroniero notices what Ichigo is looking at and just laughs.
"Kurosaki Ichigo, I don't know why you're tense staring at this Hogyoku, but my mission is to kill you, and I won't fail it this time!" Aaroniero lifts his tentacle-arm and a purple energy forms, and Aaroniero laughs, the deep and high-pitched voices both causing Ichigo a headache.
"Cero!" Aaroniero launches his purple Cero towards Ichigo, but Ichigo just raises his reiatsu and blocks the attack, bringing Ichigo memories of his fight against Ginjo. Aaroniero looks flabbergasted and uses his sonido to gain distance between himself and Ichigo.
"How can a Quincy not try to dodge a cero? How odd."
Ichigo stares at his hand and tries to sense the reishi particles from that attack. He was able to boost his defense with his larger amount of reiatsu, but the attack still left a tingling feeling in Ichigo's hand.
"He called me a Quincy earlier and asked if this was Quincy territory… is this hollow's ability extra effective against Quincies? Did his Hogyoku give him that ability to help him survive the Quincy invasion in Hueco Mundo? Things just aren't adding up."
Ichigo looks to Aaroniero's location and shunpos closer to him. Aaroniero raises his defense and covers the glow from his Hogyoku. He waits patiently for it to activate but he can't provoke Ichigo. Aaroniero is weary of this world, it is different than what he's used to, and he sees two Zanpakuto in Ichigo's possession. It is an odd situation that he isn't able to process properly.
"Yo, I don't think we need to fight. You already know who I am, and you should know I have nothing against Arrancars, I even have a few arrancar friends. So, just tell me what you're doing here and why you have a Hogyoku."
Ichigo tries to be diplomatic, however Aaroniero just raises his guard more and soon, his reiatsu skyrockets. Ichigo is caught by surprise and the memories just hit him, Aizen used the Hogyoku to boost his strength in their fight, why wouldn't this Arrancar do the same thing after Ichigo just stopped an attack with one hand?
"Shit! I guess he won't just leave peacefully."
Ichigo senses another Reiatsu spike and sees a purple light. Ichigo doesn't have time to try to match his reiatsu with the cero's so he launches a Getsuga Tenshou, hoping it will cancel out the attack. The impact of the cero and the Getsuga cause a violent explosion of energy, and Ichigo notices humans down in the city passing out from the immense reiatsu.
"Dammit, I'm gonna have to move this fight elsewhere." Ichigo shunpos towards Aaroniero, ready to slash his heads, trying to avoid raising his reiatsu too high. However, Zangetsu is caught by three tentacles, and Ichigo realizes that this isn't a weaker Hogyoku prototype, it is a genuine Hogyoku and it is in the hands of an ever-evolving, violent enemy.
"Kurosaki Ichigo, you're going to die by the hands of the espada Aaroniero Arruruerie! Then, I'll kill your other Quincy friends!"
Ichigo freezes, thinking he must have misheard. Espada? Aaroniero Arruruerie? He knows all the espada minus Nel, Grimmjow, and Halibel are dead, and Rukia killed Aaroniero herself. There is something wrong, and Ichigo needs to get to the bottom of this fast.
Raising his reiatsu, Ichigo breaks free from Aaroniero's hold but is hit point blank by a purple cero. Aaroniero laughs and charges another cero, denser than any of the others so far, Ichigo is getting ready to charge up a Getsuga Tenshou but notices that Aaroniero points his attack at a street, filled with innocent civilians.
Ichigo panics and goes to the area Aaroniero is aiming for.
"CERO!"
The purple beam launches, a greater speed thanks to the evolved spiritual pressure increased from the evolution.
"Getsuga Jujishou!"
Ichigo countered the attack and sensed Aaroniero move from his spot and is now in the crowded street.
"So, I have concluded you are not the Kurosaki Ichigo I know. That's great since you seem to care about these humans. You ready to watch them die, Ichigo?" Ichigo rushes to him but can't attack from a distance, he would hurt too many people. Ichigo moved as fast as he could, but didn't make it in time.
"Glotoneria!"
Aaroniero launches an attack at full power, a pink wave of liquified reiatsu and tentacles flooding the streets, killing the civilians and Aaroniero is absorbing their souls, trying to bolster his strength once again. Ichigo realizes he just failed to protect a street full of people. All those families broken apart in a quick second.
"Getsuga Jujishou!" Ichigo shot his reiatsu up, larger than Aaroniero's. The attack cut into Aaroniero's tentacles, bypassing the hierro. Aaroniero is shocked, he used the Hogyoku to evolve himself to have a larger reiatsu than Ichigo, but he didn't expect Ichigo to be holding back this entire time.
"Damn you Quincy, why were you holding back?!" Aaroniero yelled, trying to get away but Ichigo stayed on him, not allowing Aaroniero to escape. Ichigo used another Getsuga Tenshou to cut off the tentacle holding Aaroniero's Hogyoku. Ichigo uses a Getsuga Jujishou to obliterate the Hogyoku, not allowing Aaroniero to recover it. Aaroniero uses that moment to fly back and is getting ready to launch another Glotoneria but Ichigo closed the distance between the two and used both his Zanpakutos to cut through Aaroniero's heads.
"Ah, he really isn't a Quincy… I guess this one is a Shinigami. This world is different…" Aaroniero's final thoughts were based on the world, while Ichigo had a face filled with regret.
Aaroniero did not have his soul purified, instead he turned to black ash and flew into the sky. A small rainbow-colored Garganta appears in the sky and the black ash flies into it and it shuts itself off.
Ichigo is staring into the sky where the Garganta was, not saying anything. He just watches. Soon, he senses Isshin's reiatsu flaring and so Ichigo heads back to the hotel.
⃰ ⃰ ⃰
Aura watches Ichigo leave the battle area, and smiles.
"He's as strong as everyone said. Well, at least he'll survive to the end. Hopefully he'll be distracted long enough." Aura then disappears, giggling at her objective being complete.
⃰ ⃰ ⃰
Ichigo goes back into the hotel window and looks at Isshin. Ichigo then looks down, a sense of guilt overflowing within. Isshin goes up to Ichigo and gives him a tight hug, making sure Ichigo can't run away.
"It's not your fault, Ichigo. You don't have many abilities to protect against a giant energy wave of an attack like that." Ichigo stays quiet, and Isshin hugs him tighter. Karin and Yuzu stay quiet, not knowing how they should approach Ichigo. They're not used to Ichigo acting like this.
"Thank you for protecting us, Ichi-nii. I know you did everything you could." Karin slowly walked up to Ichigo and hugged him. Yuzu followed her sisters idea and hugged him as well.
The moment is interrupted when the hotel room's phone starts to ring. Karin went and picked it up. After talking to the front desk representative, she let's the family know that Ishida, Inoue, and Chad are in the lobby. Karin goes give them access to their room.
"Ichigo. What did you fight? It felt like an Arrancar but it's spike of reiatsu felt different." Isshin questioned Ichigo, hoping to figure out what happened during the fight. Ichigo sighs in defeat and rubs the back of his head.
"Old Man, let's wait for everyone else to get here –" A Senkaimon appeared, interrupting Ichigo. He sensed familiar reiatsu and saw Rukia and Renji come out.
"Yo, Ichigo! We were told that there was a large reading of Hollow reiatsu, anything happen? You need help?"
Ichigo smiles at them and Karin walks in with Ishida, Orihime, and Chad. Ichigo looks around the room and sees that everyone got comfortable.
"Alright, everyone, sit down. I'll tell you all what happened before you all got here." Everyone nods, Karin and Yuzu sit next to each other, Isshin sits next to Karin, Ishida and Chad sit on two seats in the room, and Ichigo notices that Renji and Rukia are sitting next to each other on the bed. Ichigo looks away and tries to find a seat. He sees Orihime and sits down next to her. Orihime smiles at Ichigo and he smiles back.
"Alright guys, so I fought an arrancar. He said he was an Espada. His name was Aaroniero Arruruerie, and he somehow had a Hogyoku fused within him." The room was quiet, everyone staring at Ichigo, confused at this revelation. Rukia, however, looks like she just saw the gates of Hell opening, hating the idea of Aaroniero somehow being alive again. Ichigo continued on retelling the event and his fight.
Ichigo ended his story and Renji was the first to speak up.
"Ichigo, I know you didn't intend to, but you let all those people die. Why didn't you just kill that espada as quickly as possible?" Ichigo glares at Renji, annoyed that he's trying to make Ichigo feel worse about his mistake, as if Ichigo didn't already know how badly he screwed up.
"Simple, I didn't expect him to have such a wide range for his attack. He also kept calling me a Quincy and even asked if this was Quincy territory. I wanted answers, but once he became too dangerous, I killed him. It's not like I was waiting for him to attack! He just did it!" Ichigo's voice was rising, causing Rukia to get annoyed.
"Fool! That's not an excuse! You saw something as dangerous as a Hogyoku on his person and still didn't immediately kill him? That was a mistake! A big one!" Rukia got up from the bed and walked outside to the balcony while pulling out her Soul Pager. Renji followed Rukia outside. Ichigo was about to go out but he felt someone grab his hand. Ichigo looked down and saw Orihime looking at him, with pleading eyes.
"Kurosaki-kun, I think it's a good idea to let them be alone for a while. Rukia-san was getting angry throughout the entire story, so maybe she just doesn't like Aaroniero?"
Orihime waited for a response from Ichigo but he just sighed and sat down. Orihime lied her hand gently on top of Ichigo's, and she smiled at him again. "Kuros – no, Ichigo-kun… I know that you didn't mean to let those people get hurt. Don't be so hard on yourself, okay?"
Ichigo nods his head at Orihime, thinking about her words, comparing them to everyone else. His dad tried to cheer him up, Orihime is trying to help him cope, but Rukia was acting differently. Her calling Ichigo a fool didn't bother him, he was used to the verbal abuse from his friend, but she and Renji were acting cold. They didn't stop by Karakura Town as often, they didn't fight together during the war with Yhwach and his Quincies. Ichigo couldn't even tell if they were okay until they came up to him after losing to Yhwach initially. It was a strange feeling, as if things around him were changing, and not in the way Ichigo wanted them to.
Renji and Rukia are alone together more often, but Ichigo didn't understand why that was bothering him. It's not any different than Rukia and Renji being together in the Soul Society, so Ichigo shouldn't be surprised that they're close. But this felt different. Renji's words from the war kept repeating themselves in Ichigo's head, and he couldn't find a way to get rid of them.
"Ichigo-kun."
The gentle, whisper caressed Ichigo's ears, being the calm in the storm building within his world. Ichigo has always heard the voice before, but now it's a new sensation. The difference from Family and Given names are too powerful, even for Ichigo. Ichigo looks at Orihime, who has worry plastered all over her face, not understanding why Ichigo has been quiet and staring at the floor.
Ichigo flinches a little, realizing he's close to Orihime, but he's always been close to Orihime. Why does he feel so different now?
"I'm okay… Orihime. I'm just wondering about a lot of things." Ichigo stood up, hoping to calm down his heart and head as much as possible. Ichigo headed towards his body and went back inside, then walked into the restroom. Orihime's face is redder than a strawberry, thinking over Ichigo referring to her by first name, without either of their lives being in danger.
"Maybe Tatsuki was right…" Orihime smiled, wishing for the best.
In the bathroom, Ichigo looks at himself in the mirror. He wanted things to go back to how they were, before the war. Before the 17 months of being alone. Before he saw the evil Aizen did to Hueco Mundo and the espadas, all for the sake of trying to end the feeling of loneliness.
Ichigo wanted it all to go back but that would erase the positives that came out of those events. Ichigo learned about his mom and her heritage, Ichigo saved the soul society again, he helped Ishida get rid of a destiny that would've been too terrible to handle on his own. But Rukia wasn't the same around him. But he enjoyed how Orihime changed and is now more at ease around him and he is more relaxed around her too. Why couldn't things go back the way they were with Rukia but stay the same with Orihime.
A laugh echoed in his head, one Ichigo hadn't heard since the war against Aizen.
"King, you're being greedy. Ha ha ha ha!"
End of Chapter 1
Author's note: Well, here's the first chapter! Make sure to leave reviews and tell me what you think. Enjoy!