Hey everyone, I don't have much to say here except that the updates with almost definitely be slower from now on. I always try and update as soon as possible but life is life and sometimes you don't get a lot of free time. Anyways, enjoy chapter 4!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Highschool DXD, nor any of their respective characters.

Guardian of the Dead

- Chapter 4 -

~ Ichigo's Inner World

'The.. art of killing?!' those four words seemed almost too hard to comprehend at first. Ichigo had definitely heard his Zanpakuto spirit correctly, even as he shifted his gaze between the two of them their expressions remained grim, their eyes nor wavering once.

'They're being serious?' he realized with wide eyes, 'but why?'

There was a soft fluttering of cloak and quiet footsteps as the old Quincy approached the still prone Ichigo, "I can see that you are confused by my words, however, my wisdom and fortitude have never led you astray. If you truly wish to protect, then you must learn to kill."

"I- I don't understand, Ossan, shouldn't it be the opposite?" he asked, voice shaky.

A deep, dual-toned sigh filled the space the three occupied causing Ichigo to shift and tilt his head so that he could meet the hard gaze of Zangetsu, "Ichigo, why do you think I always dominated the opponents that you couldn't beat whenever I was forced to take over your body?"

The teen quickly adopted a look of contemplation upon hearing the question, but no matter how much he thought about it he could only come up with one answer, "because you were stronger than me?" he said, drawing a frown from his inverted form. Ichigo found that reaction curious, he assumed that his inner hollow would've loved to hear the orange-haired teen admit that.

"And here I thought you finally understood." he started, rolling his eyes at his wielders stupidity. "You realized that both the old man and I are Zangetsu, but that isn't all. What is Zangetsu, Ichigo?"

'What is Zangetsu? What kind of question is that? Zangetsu is the name of my Zanpakuto, but that cant be what he was asking, that's too simple,' he thought, exhaling sharply through his nose, 'Okay, let's start from the top. What is a Zanpakuto? With the exception of a few artificial blades like Hyorinmaru and Ryujin Jakka, a Zanpakuto is born from a Shinigami's soul as the manifested form of their own unique reiatsu signature. So essentially, that would mean that the Zanpakuto IS the Shinigami, or at the very least a direct extension of them,' Ichigo huffed to himself, the answer was pretty obvious now that he actually thought about it.

With a grimace and no small amount of pain he managed to get himself into a seated position before giving Zangetsu a grin, "Zangetsu is me," that answer brought a matching grin to his hollow's face.

"Exactly. And, since both the old man and I are you, then that means we've only ever been as strong as you are, as you grew, so did we. So once again, that begs the question, why did I so easily defeat enemies that you struggled with."

"I don't know," he replied slowly. Truthfully he felt like he did know, only his mind was blocking the answer, most likely because he wouldn't like what the answer was.

Zangetsu and the old man knew this of course, though it didn't change the fact that it needed to be said, "It's because you never fought with the intent to kill. Byakuya, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Aizen, hell, even me, you were so afraid to actually kill someone that you unconsciously hindered yourself. You put restraints on your own power so you wouldn't accidentally overdo it and take someone's life. But for me? I never had any such issues, every time I took over your body I did it with the intent to kill whoever it was that put you in that sorry state."

Ichigo closed his eyes and inwardly sighed, that was the answer he was afraid of. There were many things buzzing through his mind right now, many questions he wanted to ask, some positive, some not. But, right now none of it mattered because over it all there was one question he needed the answer to, it had been poking at the back of his mind ever since Zangetsu said Aizen's name.

"If I had fought with the intent to kill my enemies from the very beginning, and I didn't hinder myself- if I'd done that, would I have been able to defeat Aizen without using the Final Getsuga Tenshou..?" the words, 'would I still have had to lose you,' were left unsaid but still heard by both Zangetsu's just as clearly.

His theory was all but confirmed when the two of them stayed quiet, refusing to meet his gaze.

The old man was the first one to actually reply, "If, you had fought with the intent to kill since the awakening of your powers, and, myself and Zangetsu did not hold anything back from you, then yes, I think you would've had a very high chance of killing him without the use of that technique." even now both of the Zanpakuto spirits refused to say its name, they hated it and what it stood for that much.

Ichigo nodded silently, knowing that he'd lost both the old man and Zangetsu because of his own naivete hurt, it hurt a lot. "Is the reason Aizen was sealed and not killed when I used the Final Getsuga Tenshou because I held myself back?"

"Yes."

That was all the response he got, all the response he needed in this situation. He could feel the guilt, the sadness, the anger, the depression all beginning to take hold of his heart, he could feel his resolve once again starting to wane. Then he bit the inside of his cheek. Hard. He could taste the tang of blood in his mouth and feel the tears beginning to prick at the corners of his eyes from the sudden pain but it was necessary.

He sighed deeply once again, something he found himself doing a lot lately if he was honest, 'No more. No more will I waiver, no more will I despair, no more will I hesitate.'

"Ossan, Zangetsu.." he began softly, directing the words he was about to speak at the both of them, "Even though Byakuya openly stated that he would hunt down Rukia and kill her, I still couldn't raise my blade against him with the intent to kill. When Kokuto tried to kidnap Yuzu and Karin, succeeding in getting Yuzu while almost eternally binding her to that infernal place in the process, I still couldn't raise my blade against him with the intent to kill. When Grimmjow so effortlessly put his hand through Rukia's stomach, nearly killing her once more, I still couldn't raise my blade against him with the intent to kill." he paused for a moment, he couldn't help but grimace as he talked, hearing himself say all of this showed how truly weak he had been.

"When Ulquiorra took Inoue and then, even more, implied that they had done something to her, once again, I couldn't raise my blade against him with the intent to kill. Aizen wanted to sacrifice all of Karakura Town, my home, and the thousands of innocent people in it just to create the Oken, so he could try and fulfill his dreams of being a God, even after all of that, I still couldn't raise my blade against him with the intent to kill."

"It was because of this that I always either barely managed to win, getting beaten and bloody in the process, or I would flat out lose and in the case of Ulquiorra die, resulting in me needing to be saved by you two. This whole time I've shouted proudly that I'm a protector, a fighter of evil and bringer of justice.. but Ryujin Jakka was right, I'm just a foolish kid who has no clue about the reality of this world," he continued dejectedly.

"I was too naive, I believed that I could stop everyone without killing them, I hoped that if I spared their lives then they would change, and everyone could live peacefully, without fighting. Honestly, I was just being really arrogant." releasing a humourless chuckle he threw his head up so that he could look at the sky, "As grim as it may sound, I now understand that true peace is impossible. As long as people exist, as long as they have emotions, there will always be conflicting beliefs, those conflicting beliefs will lead to fights, and those fights will lead to death.

I know I can't protect everyone, and I won't live forever.. but while I am alive, I want to fight so that others don't have to. I want to carry those heavy burdens, carry the pain and suffering in this world so others don't have too."

"Please Zangetsu, Ossan, teach me how to fight, to kill, so that I may truly become a protector."

There was a brief moment of silence where both spirits looked hesitant to agree, even though that was the reason they had originally been given another chance to manifest and teach him. One undeniable fact though was the immense pride each of them felt for the young man before them. To be able to admit all of that, he was truly maturing.

Eventually, the old man nodded solemnly, "Ichigo, even though I said this would be our final lesson, you already know how to fight, and deep down you already have the honed instincts to kill. The art of killing is not something that can really be taught with a blade, it is something that is taught with the mind.

You already have the knowledge on 'how to kill' as well as the knowledge to use all of the techniques you possess which we were never able to teach you before, the only question remaining is, will you be able to find it?"

'I already have the knowledge?' pausing from that thought, it was then that his mind registered something the old man had said, in fact, he had said it at the beginning of their conversation as well. "What do you mean our final lesson, Ossan? Aren't you guys back for good now?"

The regal spirit shook his head in the negative, "No, truthfully we should not be here right now, and for that matter neither should you," immediately he noticed Ichigo's face fall, he knew that the boy wouldn't want to hear this, however, the fact of the situation couldn't be changed.

"We, as Zangetsu died when you used the final Getsuga Tenshou. We should have never appeared again, and you should have died from the wounds you received not too long ago during your test. But, the same being that postponed your death was also the one who gathered the memories within your reiatsu to allow us one final meeting together."

Even though Ichigo just told himself that he would no longer despair, this was different, he thought that he had the old man and his hollow back again. To now find out that after this meeting he would have to say farewell to them once more, this time for good, it was a tough pill to swallow. "Who saved me? Us?"

"That we can't tell you, you'll meet them sooner or later, but for now we've got more pressing matters to attend to. Or did you lose your resolve already?" Zangetsu asked, flashing his King with a challenging smirk.

"Heh, no way, I'd say it's about time I got around to kicking your ass once and for all," Ichigo responded, his confidence returning once more as the small amount of despair which clawed at his heart already began to fade away. 'Right now, Zangetsu, Ossan, I promise to the both of you that I will no longer despair, nor will I hesitate, I will keep moving forward.'

"It's all well and good to say that King, but you don't really look like your in any position to fight right now."

"I-" the young teen immediately closed his mouth after that, he had nothing to say. He could barely sit straight right now, let alone fight, and he was still missing one of his arms.

"Che, guess there's no helping it," Zangetsu spoke cryptically.

Before Ichigo could question what he'd meant his body stiffened at the phantom feeling of his hollow mask resting on his face, even though he instantly brought his hand up to feel for it he was shocked when he felt nothing actually there. 'Wait, I shouldn't have been able to move so fast,' glancing down he noted that while his arm was still missing and most of his more serious wounds were still there, he had been healed quite a lot. He looked over towards Zangetsu again who was looking smug as ever.

"There, I helped you out a little but that's all your getting. If you want your arm back and the rest of those injuries healed, well then I guess you'd better figure out how to use my powers, before you really do die."

With a small grunt, Ichigo stood from his place on the ground. He tried to stretch out his body once more however sharply recoiled upon feeling his wounds starting to open up, "So, how are we going to do this?" he asked both his spirits, voice tense. To add to his unease both of them merely smirked before being concealed in raging pillars of reiatsu, the old man's blue, and Zangetsu's white tinted red. When the over the top displays of power finally receded he could only groan, this was going to suck.

"Tensa Zangetsu," they both called out simultaneously. Zangetsu was wearing his usual white version of their Bankai cloak with tufts of fur around his collar and wrists, in his hand was the white Tensa Zangetsu. The old man, as usual, had reverted to his younger self, he still wore his black cloak, however, he now held the black version of the sword which Ichigo was so familiar with.

He could tell by his hollows shift in footing that he was preparing to attack, unfortunately though before he could question about his own lack of a sword to defend himself the young Quincy spirit flickered from view, only reappearing once more when a few strands of his orange hair fluttered down before his eyes.

"There is no more time for talk, Ichigo, all the answers you need can be found in our blades."

Before the teen could blink his hollow had planted a foot in his side, sending him shooting through the air and right through one of the many large buildings that made up his inner world, though the impact had jarred him he quickly regained his footing and stepped off the building mere milliseconds before a white Getsuga Tenshou ripped through his world. 'Okay, first things first I need a sword,' he grunted out in his mind as the black blade from his Quincy powers narrowly missed him once more.

He could tell that both of them were giving him a short time to figure this out, however, he could feel that the both of them were gradually picking up the pace and with each slash or stab that he dodged the gap in between was getting more and more narrow. 'Alright think, technically they died after the final Getsuga Tenshou and thus shouldn't be here, however they said that whoever saved me used the memories within my reiatsu to give them temporary life again.. so that-'

"Arrgh," the teen cried out, frustration clear on his face. He had just felt the distinct pinch of steel on his side, he wasn't sure which one of his spirits had got him, he was too lost in thought, but that was just one more injury he needed to be wary of now. "Dammit," he grunted out, he needed to try and focus on his issue of not having a sword which was difficult because at the same time he needed most of his concentration on both of the people currently trying to cut him.

'If my mystery saviour can use the memories within my reiatsu to create life, then surely I can recreate Zangetsu using those same memories. I may not have it anymore, however, my soul still remembers it.' His left arm rose out slightly in front of him as he set his hand in the rough shape it would be should he have been holding a blade and then he focused. 'Remember. Remember the feeling, remember the weight, remember the sense of ease I got when I held that blade.' He couldn't help but crack a smirk as he felt an all too familiar and welcome feeling in his hand.

"Well done, Ichigo," the younger version of his Quincy powers stated, a pleased smile on his face, one that his hollow tried to match, though he was much more bloodthirsty and menacing. Ichigo knew what this meant, now that he had a blade to defend himself with, his soul would no longer hold back.

After a brief stare down each spirit twitched and shot off, Ichigo's blade quickly connected with his hollows white version with a loud clang that reverberated through the otherwise silent world. The teen quickly noticed what his hollow was about to do when one of its hands parted from the white hilt, instead he moved it upwards towards the tip of the white blade, smirk ever widening as he did so.

'Shit, I can't get hit by that so close in this state, it could kill me,' he thought to himself, panic slowly starting to set in as he felt the familiar buildup of energy along the blade, however then it hit him and he took one deep breath on, and let it slowly back out.

'I just need to trust my instincts..' he said simply to himself, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

And trust them he did. Without warning, Ichigo's body lurched forward and his head connected brutally with that of his white counterpart temporarily dazing him, although Ichigo wasn't sure if it was so much the headbutt that did it or just the shock of him doing so in the first place. With a small flick of his wrist, he removed the white Tensa Zangetsu from his path and slashed his hollow deeply across his chest and stomach, just barely ducking down quick enough to avoid having his head removed from his shoulders by the cloaked young Quincy.

Ichigo spun quickly, trying to meet the downward strike that followed the first which aimed for his neck, he was partially successful, Only having access to one of his arms meant it was impossible to fully nullify the two-handed swing his Quincy powers slammed into him. He could feel the shock right into the depths of his bones and in that moment of hesitation, his hollow returned the previous wound back to him.

The cut he received on his back was small however when a kick quickly followed right after and planted itself right where the fresh wound lay, the pain was intensified immensely and once more he was sent shooting through the air into another one of the many skyscrapers.

He jabbed his blade into the side of the demolished building to help himself stand and gazed up to where his two spirits stood in mid-air, they were looking at him with blank expressions, he couldn't gather any information of what they may have been thinking from their eyes, something which bothered him.

Ichigo's eyes narrowed further as his hollow shot him another one of its arrogant smirks, though he didn't need to question why, not just a moment later he could feel his eyes widen again as he watched a white substance started bubbling out of the wound on his hollows front side, quickly disappearing right after and leaving behind not even a scar. 'High-speed regeneration?! Now that I think about it, that bastard has always possessed it. that's how he saved me after Ulquiorra killed me back in Hueco Mundo.'

He cast a sideways glance towards his missing arm again and recalled the words that Zangetsu had spoken to him before this fight had started 'He said that if I want to heal myself I would need to learn how to use his powers, this must be part of what he was referring too, and if he could heal even my internal organs back then, then an arm should be simple now.'

With a small nod of his head, he pressed off the roof, quickly closing the distance between himself and his two spirits and the dance of blades continued. The minutes flew by as the three clashed swords, even though the teen had started on the aggressive the battle quickly switched tones and he was continually being pressed by his two attackers. He could feel it right away, both of his spirits were easily as strong as their combined form was during the Dangai training, they were fighting with speed and strength that Ichigo was having great difficulty keeping up with.

Ever since the first wound which he inflicted on Zangetsu, he had yet to land another on either of them, yet they had been slowly adding up tallies on his body and it was taking its toll. That coupled with the fact that he could only use one arm to try and block their brutal two-handed slashes meant his arm was quickly tiring along with the rest of his body. It had been slowly getting worse as time went on and the fight dragged out, he wasn't sure how long they had already been at it, but he knew it wouldn't last much longer if this brutal onslaught continued as is.

Though this hadn't been a complete waste of time with only him catching wounds, he was slowly but surely starting to understand how his powers worked, and even more so he had a theory about high-speed regeneration. He had noticed it after they had been exchanging strikes for a few moments, every time their blades connected he could feel something in the back of his mind. It felt like he was becoming calmer and more level-headed, thinking things out more in the heat of battle instead of overreacting to things which would normally cause him to.

Everything just felt so much clearer, like he had a blanket over his senses his whole life that was finally, slowly but surely being removed.

"Don't lose focus, Ichigo!" His Quincy yelled out as their blades met again, "You still have yet to learn any of our techniques and your body is deteriorating quickly, you have no time to space out!"

Ichigo merely grunted in response as he watched another small piece of metal chipped off his black blade, pretty soon it would strongly start to resemble Kenpachi's jagged Zanpakuto. He would admit, even with his calmer head he had internally freaked out when he noticed his Tensa Zangetsu was breaking, however, after thinking about it, it made sense. This blade was only made up of the memories within his reiatsu, technically it did not exist anymore, thus it was nowhere near as durable or powerful as it once was.

Ichigo broke the blade lock and jumped back, creating distance between himself and Zangetsu, it looked like both of them were about to continue their assault, however, paused upon noticing.. something off about Ichigo, so they decided to wait and see what was going on.

Ichigo meanwhile was completely ignoring everything else, for quite some time now he had been doing something he never had before, learning to actually control and use his reiatsu more efficiently than just pushing some into Zangetsu and firing off a Getsuga Tenshou. Of course, he was nowhere near able to fully control and suppress it, that would take a lot of time and training, but after much effort, he was now able to at least visualize his power and somewhat move it around.

After finally learning to visualize his reiatsu he had momentarily stumbled mid-battle after seeing how nearly infinite his reserves were. It was astounding, now he understood why everyone always called him scary. It wasn't as if he had ever seen another person's reserves before, he just knew that his weren't normal. His stumble meanwhile had earned him a fairly nasty wound on his leg but it was worth it, and if his theory was correct then he wouldn't be feeling it for much longer.

Reaching deep within his soul he felt for his powers and each aspect that made them up. The light blue reiatsu representing his Quincy powers, the red reiatsu representing his own Shinigami powers, and the black reiatsu representing his hollow powers. With his lack of control, he wasn't able to just solely grab onto his hollow powers but he figured that it wouldn't do any harm if he used more then just his hollow reiatsu considering they were all his powers after all.

Deciding to test it out hopefully without alerting his two companions Ichigo pushed the hollow reiatsu through his body and into his back, directing it to one of the nastier cuts he had been given by the two stood before him. He couldn't help the grin that came onto his face as he felt a slight tingling along the length of the cut before it was completely gone, "heh, about damn time I got something," he murmured to himself.

Meanwhile, his two spirits had been watching him closely and they were very confused when they saw him grin and start muttering to himself. "Do you think he's lost his mind?" the white Ichigo asked his brown-haired partner, a confused expression on his face.

"Fool, we would know if something like that were to happen," although he couldn't deny his wielders attitude was.. odd to say the least.

Wanting to hopefully give then a big surprise he pushed even more reiatsu to the stub where his right arm should have been however when nothing happened he frowned. His hollow had said it could be done, did he perhaps need more control first? 'No, that doesn't make sense, my control is terrible already yet the small cut healed. Perhaps I need too..' and just a few more seconds later the same white substance that formed his mask exploded from his stub of an arm. It lasted a little longer then it did with the cut on his back, but, when it did disappear after a few seconds Ichigo couldn't keep the large smile off his face as he once again had both of his arms.

He just continued to flex and stretch out his new muscles, completely ignoring the looks of astonishment from his Zanpakuto. It was only the low whistle coming from Zangetsu that actually got him to shift his gaze up.

"Well colour me impressed, I didn't think you'd learn how to regenerate your arm so fast."

"I'm glad because you could do with a little more colour," Ichigo said with a smirk, earning a frown from his hollow, although he could tell his hollow wasn't actually mad, it was just good-natured banter.

"Though I am curious Ichigo, how long have you known how to use high-speed regeneration? I would assume you've been able to for a while since you could already regrow your arm, but at the same time it makes me wonder why you let injuries keep building on your body if you had known how to heal yourself."

Ichigo nodded silently, "Well, I had a theory on how it worked for a while now, I would have attempted it sooner but I had trouble finding and separating my reiatsu, even now I couldn't do it completely." he started earning a pleased nod from his Quincy powers, "I actually just tried it for the first time on one of the wounds on my back and it worked, I figured next it would be best to do my arm however nothing happened the first time when I just tried pushing the reiatsu into it like I did with my cut, so I thought about it for a few seconds and I came to the realization that healing a limb is different than a slash or stab wound," the teen then paused briefly.

"With a cut you're just stopping the blood and stitching the wounded flesh back together, however with a missing limb there isn't actually anything to 'stitch together' so to speak, and so I realized that I needed to visualize my arm, remember the feeling of it, and remember how it felt to move it and use my muscles as I was pushing hollow reiatsu into the area." he finished, he would admit that he felt a slight tinge of heat spread to his cheeks at the looks of pride he was receiving from his two spirits.

"As expected, your growth rate and ability to adapt were always astronomical, now that you have access to all of our knowledge as well I won't be surprised if you are able to learn everything before our time is up." the younger version of his Quincy powers noted while lightly shaking his head in amusement.

"Well, I'm glad I know how to do it but I feel so drained now," the young teen stated, voice sluggish with fatigue. He had just finished healing the rest of the wounds present on his body as his Quincy and hollow mulled over his words, he couldn't help but fall to one knee in an attempt to catch his breath.

"Of course you're tired, you didn't think high-speed regeneration would come without a cost, did you? As you learn better control and precision it won't be so bad, but regenerating wounds, especially limbs takes a lot of reiatsu."

"Indeed, however since we are in a realm much similar to your inner world it is impossible for you to exhaust your reiatsu reserves, you can take injuries and feel fatigue however you will not run out of reiatsu. Now then Ichigo, stand!" he spoke, voice raised slightly as he held his sword out in front of him, "We are far from finished here."

~ Muken, Ichigo's Inner World, Two Weeks Later

Calling it his inner world still would be quite the stretch, none of the original towers remained, now it was just a wasteland of debris and destroyed buildings. The harsh sounds of steel clashing, explosions and other various impacts that plagued this normally silent world for the past couple of weeks had temporarily stopped. The three combatants knew that the end was near, it was almost done.

Ichigo was slightly hunched over and panting heavily, his hair had grown out more, it was still not as long as it had been after the dangai training, two weeks was a lot less time than three months, however, it was still much longer than before. Most of his clothing had been destroyed, only small scraps remained which covered his nether regions. Small cuts were placed out over his body though he had no serious wounds, he was able to instantly heal them as soon as they came, and these smaller cuts were nothing more then a nuisance thus he left them to save energy. His blade was missing the tip and both the flat side and cutting edge of the blade were horribly jagged from all of the strikes he had intercepted over their long battle.

Oddly enough both of his spirits had their full outfits on still, though they had many tears and rips throughout which showed the heavy wounds they had been dealt over the duration of this battle. Each of them was hunched over as well, mimicking their wielder, trying to regain some composure.

"Shit.. I really wish I had.. high-speed regeneration right about now," his hollow spoke between breaths.

Ichigo quirked an eyebrow at that, he had been curious about why his hollow hadn't healed any wounds after he had originally learned the technique, actually now that he thought about it, with every new technique he learned from their blades they had not used the same one again. "I've been meaning to ask, but why haven't you guys been using any of your techniques anymore?"

"Hm? I thought you figured that out already," the manifestation of his Quincy powers questioned with a curious tone, though brushed it off, it wasn't a big deal in the long run. "As you know there were two purposes for this, the first, was to teach you the art of killing, something that we have yet to determine the success of, and the second and less important reason was so that we could finally impart all of our knowledge into you. But, we are you, so really you are just taking back the knowledge that was rightfully yours in the first place. As you regain the knowledge for all of the techniques you possess we are from that point on unable to use them anymore."

Ichigo's eyes widened at that, it was not the answer he had been expecting, however, it made sense. Since a Zanpakuto is born from a Shinigami then logically all of that Zanpakuto's techniques would rightfully be the Shinigami's, however, Shinigami aren't ready to handle so much power all at once that is why they train and are gradually over time taught their own techniques by the Zanpakuto.

Ichigo had long since become strong enough to handle everything his Hollow and Quincy powers could teach him thus why he was able to learn it all over the past couple of weeks. While this was good, it was also a sad thing because it meant that without anything else to teach him the final lesson was nearly over, it was time for Ichigo to show them that he understood the main purpose of this fight.

He gave one final sad nod before lifting his broken blade out in front of himself, signalling that it was time to finish this. Once each half of Zangetsu rose their own blades in response Ichigo flickered from existence, the only proof he had ever been there was the sound of his modified flash step echoing throughout the world.

Shunpo, which allows the user to move at great speeds by covering vast distances in a single 'step' and Sonido, a technique akin to the Shinigami's Shunpo which allows its user to temporarily vanish from a person's senses thus making it seem like teleportation. In just two weeks Ichigo had mastered both forms of movement, combined them together and mastered that new form, it was nothing short of incredible.

So when both of their blades shattered and blood arced out from the deep new gashes on their chest before they could even finish blinking, both Zangetsu's could only give a pained but happy smile as they fell backward knowing they had succeeded, and they could fade away happily knowing Ichigo would be safe.

With one more sound high pitched static blanketed by a soft swish Ichigo was once more stood before them, blood dripping off his broken blade as it fell from his hand, time seemed to move slowly as it fell to the ground with them, their backs making contact with the rubble as his blade stuck into the earth. Immediately he was between the two of them, one of his hollows hands held in his left, and one of his Quincy's hands held in his right, he didn't care if this was sappy or whatever else they would call it, they had been with him through everything, they were the reason he had succeeded so far, he wouldn't just leave them to fade away alone.

There was a brief flash of blue reiatsu as the younger Quincy teen reverted to his older state, the 'Bankai' having receded.

A tense few moments of silence passed, none of the three really knew what to say. Ichigo was losing his Zanpakuto for good now, the hollow half of Zangetsu, while bothered about the current situation, wasn't much for sappy statements and thus was content with the silence as he slowly faded from existence. The old man and Quincy half of Zangetsu, however, looked troubled, and Ichigo was about to find out why.

"Ichigo.." he started slowly, trying to find the right words, "I never wanted you to become a Shinigami, and it was for that very reason I did everything in my power to suppress your latent potential, even going so far as to become your primary source of power." The old man started, all the while staring Ichigo in his eyes, immediately receiving the unspoken question of 'Why?'

"I wanted to keep you safe," he answered the unspoken words. "Becoming a Shinigami would mean risking life and limb and always exposing yourself to numerous perils, you would write in pain, experience suffering. I couldn't allow you to become a Shinigami, doing so would mean I was throwing your life away."

Even as tears formed in the corners of his eyes, he couldn't help but crack a joke, "heh, bet you didn't think I'd be so damn stubborn, never caring about myself." he said with a smirk.

The old man cracked one in return and let out a small chuckle, "Indeed, as time passed you did become a Shinigami, you jumped at the chance, trained diligently, and in spite of experiencing your fair share of pain and suffering you continued down that path. All those times I saw you struggle and persevere I must admit it made my heart waiver, before I knew it, instead of trying to impede your progress all I wanted to do was help you and watch you succeed." The old man's voice was starting to lose its steadiness, and Ichigo was surprised to see a tear running down his cheek as he continued to talk.

"Ichigo, you have become strong, this entire time standing next to you, I've watched proudly as you became a man, the pride I feel is indescribable, I can leave in peace knowing that you will stay safe and live on. I'm sorry that I lied to you all this time, Ichigo."

Ichigo couldn't believe the ridiculousness of what he had just heard, "Old man Zangetsu, you don't have anything to apologize for," Ichigo started, finding it hard to keep speaking, he was doing he best not to break down, "You just said it yourself, you wanted to protect me, I could never hold that against you, either of you," he continued, throwing a look towards his hollow who met his gaze evenly.

Ichigo couldn't help the tears that started falling down his cheeks now, this was so much harder than after the final Getsuga Tenshou, at least back then there was hope that he would see them again, but now, to be here with them as they disappeared, forced to say goodbye, he couldn't hold it in.

His eyes widened as he noticed both of their forms start becoming transparent, their bodies becoming spirit particles, "It was just as you both said after the dangai training, all you ever wanted to protect was me, and even though you won't be here physically, you will always be with me, because you ARE me, and I am Shinigami," he said first, looking between the two, "I am Hollow," he said this time meeting gazes with his white counterpart, "and, I am Quincy,' he said finally locking gazes with the old man, they both had surprised looks on their faces, his hollow more so then the old man.

Ichigo always expressed a massive hate for his hollow powers, so to hear him accept that he was part hollow, it made Zangetsu happy. The old man wasn't any less happy himself, however Ichigo didn't even know he was Quincy until just recently and even more than that, his Quincy powers had deceived him since their first meeting, to know that after everything Ichigo would still accept him so easily, it would make his passing all the more peaceful.

The young man gave each of their hands one more squeeze as both of them fully vanished from view.

His knuckles went white as he held his fists tightly together, the hands of Zangetsu no longer filling them, his eyes were screwed tightly shut even as tears continued to stream down his face, he felt an unimaginable pain within his soul, but at the same time he felt the fires of determination as well, he had meant what he said earlier, no more would he waiver, no more would he hesitate and no more would he despair.

However he would allow himself this last chance to do so, and so he stayed knelt there for who knows how long, silently letting out the cries of his soul until there were no more tears to shed and he had made as much peace with the reality of the situation as he could. He would miss them, terribly so, but they would always be with him until the day he died because they were his powers, they were him.

Clearing his head of the depressing thoughts he stood back up from his knees slowly and stretched his body once before allowing his eyes to open themselves, his destroyed inner world was gone, now he was back in that cold, black space, except this time there were small blue particles floating around his form and slowly drawing near him before disappearing on contact.

He could feel his reiatsu steadily rising with each particle that connected with him, right away he understood, this was Zangetsu returning to him, becoming one with him again, one with his power. He could have sworn he heard faint whispers of 'release the seals' and 'true power' in the back of his mind as it rose higher, the ghostly sounds of shackles clinking accompanying it. He had long since learned not to brush such things off and thus immediately set out to explore the meaning of those words.

Even though this realm he was in consisted of nothing more then darkness he still shut his eyes once more and concentrated on his reiatsu reserves, the nearly infinite pool that they were, however, he ignored what was on the surface and dug deeper, much deeper, until he reached what he would call the 'core' of his soul.

He looked on in awe at the massive multicoloured sphere of raging energy before him, black, blue and red all twisting in on each other violently, each one wanting complete domination of his soul but unable to grasp it. Surrounding the sphere of energy tightly were multiple glowing white links of chain, each one creaking in displeasure under the massive pressure they were barely succeeding in containing, right at the centre where all of the chains met was the same jagged and broken Tensa Zangetsu he had just used holding it all together.

Ichigo now understood what old man Zangetsu had meant when he talked about suppressing most of his powers.

He took one tentative step forward, the sphere pulsed excitedly in reaction, he took one more step and once again the sphere pulsed in anticipation and continued to do so until he was stood right before it, yet even once he was next to it, it didn't return to its former state, now it continued to churn violently, wishing desperately to lose the chains that bound it and explode outwards.

Slowly his hand rose to grasp the hilt and the response was immediate, a power which he hadn't felt in a long time flooded his body and threatened to overtake his soul, he couldn't help but recoil in surprise. It was a mix of the dark, heavy and instinctive power he held on the roof of Las Noches, when his hollowfied body completely dominated Ulquiorra, and it was partly the transcendent power that not even Aizen could sense which he held after the Dangai training that allowed him to destroy mountains with a small flick of his wrist.

He paused just as his hand was about to grip the hilt once more, this was a dangerous power, one that would hurt or kill many innocent people should he be unable to control it, but it was also a power he would need to protect those he cared about and so much more. Aizen was no more then a nuisance to some of the powerful beings out there, and if Ichigo were to have any chance at all against them he would need the power he had when defeating Aizen, and so much more. His eyes flicked back to the hilt that lay just below his hand and he let out a deep sigh, 'Well, I did say I would no longer hesitate,' he thought wryly to himself before grasping the blade once more and pulling.

The effect was immediate, he was once again thrust back into the blackened world however currently it was shaking tremendously with the amount of reiatsu being forced from Ichigo's body. The teen could actually see the blackness around him distorting from the sheer density of it, it was much like the first time he met his hollow and had to earn back the right to wield Zangetsu. Ichigo shook his head lightly, this was no time to reminisce, focusing every bit of the meagre amount of reiatsu control he possessed he tried to rein in at least some of this wild energy but it was no use.

Even as the teen tried to reach inside of him and pull some of it back within the confines of his soul it wouldn't slow, the reiatsu continued to rage around him. Seconds turned to minutes and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't pull it back into him, sweat dripped from his brow and his face almost hurt from how tightly it was scrunched in concentration, however, no matter how hard he tried nothing changed, 'Dammit! Why the hell won't this stop?!' he screamed internally.

He wasn't sure if releasing this much reiatsu constantly would be bad for him and at the same time that wasn't what concerned him, they small distortions in the air around him been steadily growing as his dense reiatsu burned at the atmosphere, he was no expert but he knew that if this continued it could potentially cause a rip in whatever dimension he was in right now, or even more cause permanent damage.

'Alright calm down, getting pissed off won't fix anything,' he reasoned with himself as he sat in a cross-legged position on the 'floor', truthfully he didn't know what he was sitting on. "Now then, the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one, and I can say with utmost certainty that I have no clue whats going on right now. I can't go to the Soul Society for help, eventually they would find out my powers are back but, that's not really a headache I want to deal with right now. I could go to Takama-ga-hara, however, I don't really want to destroy that beautiful world, not to mention Amaterasu probably thinks I'm dead right now and even though I survived there is a high chance she will kill me just for worrying her so much. A mother's love can be a dangerous thing," he couldn't help but shudder at that.

"I could go to Hat n' Clogs, but that might put the humans in danger if I do, his underground training room can conceal a lot of reiatsu, however, I don't know if it could honestly hold mine right now." Ichigo sighed in frustration as he ran a hand through his long and very dirty hair, in the past two weeks of constant fighting he had sweat a lot and been covered in no small amount of dust and dirt, he could really use a shower he noted with some distaste. It wasn't that he had a problem with being dirty per say, just that it sucked to feel so filthy when he was sat here doing nothing.

A couple more minutes passed in silent consideration, the young man just sat there playing with a few strands of his hair as his reiatsu continued to destabilize the world around him, he may not have appeared so on the outside but inwardly he was still very much panicking, he just had no clue who to go to for help right now. Then it hit him, 'Ryujin Jakka,' that name brought a frown to his mouth, he had already been planning on paying that Zanpakuto a visit once more, not necessarily to try and wield him, but just to talk once more.

Also there was no questioning the Zanpakuto's knowledge so he would most likely be able to help, thankfully Ryujin he had already brought him to his own inner world thus he could easily travel there again with his ability to manipulate the Schatten Bereich, one of the more useful abilities he had gotten from his Quincy spirit if he was being honest.

The old man actually told him that few Quincy were able to fully manipulate the Schatten Bereich like he could, and he should feel lucky as it was far superior to both the Shinigami's Senkaimon as well as the Hollow's Garganta. As long as he had been somewhere once and could clearly picture where it was he wished to go the only limitation would be if there was actually a shadow in that nearby vicinity for him to emerge from.

Sighing again he stood up, he was really not looking forward to this but it needed to be done. He crouched down on one knee, setting his palm flatly on the ground, he didn't have enough control yet to just will the shadows to follow his command, so for now, he would have to do it the simple way. Grasping onto the darkness below him he stood slowly pulling the shadow up with him until it was tall enough to step through, he gave himself one quick nod, hoping he did this correctly before stepping through. As soon as he stepped into the black world, it immediately stopped shaking. That was another benefit of the Quincy Shadow, it allowed for 'quick escapes' so to speak, you could open one immediately upon finding a shadow to exit from at your destination, and they were undetectable unlike the Senkaimon or Garganta.

~ Realm of Fire and Ash

Ryujin Jakka, the oldest and most powerful fire type Zanpakuto, and arguably the most powerful Zanpakuto in all of history was not one which startled easily. He had seen many of things in his thousands of years of life. He had been present for the creation of the Shinigami Spirit Academy and Yamamoto's years as a teacher, then his eventual founding of the Gotei 13 where he had served as Captain Commander for a thousand years now. He had been present for many happy and sad moments, times of great frustration of anger as well as many great atrocities that were now told about in history classes. His blade had been the cause of many large genocides, most notably the mass extermination of the Quincy some two hundred years ago, and the great Quincy war another eight hundred before that.

It was not easy being the Captain Commander, often times you have to make decisions that you may not like, that may put you in a bad light with your subordinates however that is the downfall of holding such a position. All your life your good deeds will be overlooked by the bad, and when you die you will be remembered more for the terrible things you did instead of the good that came from those same terrible acts. Shigekuni is the perfect example of this, but that is the sad reality of positions of power.

Ryujin Jakka let out a tired almost sad sigh, it was time to go back to sleep it seemed. He was glad to have been wielded by Shigekuni, and he didn't hold any ill will towards the man for being unable to use his power much over the past years. But, he was a Zanpakuto like all others and he wished for his power to be used, that was why he had contacted Ichigo Kurosaki immediately upon the child's arrival in the higher planes. He would admit the prospect of being wielded once more thrilled him, it was a shame that things ended the way they did.

As he was about to fall back into his hibernation-like state he felt an odd sensation behind him, it was one he hadn't felt since Shigekuni fought Yhwach all those years ago, he actually tensed upon seeing that all to familiar shadow rise from the ground, such a thing shouldn't be possible, yet here it was. Not but a few seconds later a crushing reiatsu pressed down on the land around him, The once flowing lava seemed to still in place and some of the more fragile rocks crumbled under the immense pressure. It wasn't enough to make Ryujin Jakka kneel, but he would admit that most Captains save the elder four would probably be on one knee right now or at the very least trying to keep their breath steady.

The most shocking thing, however, and that which made him open his eyes in shock was the person this reiatsu belonged too, the same one which stepped out of the Schatten Bereich right before his eyes. "Ichigo Kurosaki?" he asked, his usual monotone voice laced with confusion.

~ With Ichigo, A few moments prior

Upon stepping into the shadows Ichigo scoffed at the scenery, he exchanged one black world for another. Old man Zangetsu's knowledge of the technique didn't really tell him much about the shadows themselves, just that you were to keep walking until you reached your rough destination. The opposite side would open up for you automatically with the shadow nearest to your desired location, it was basically the Garganta except for no dangerous path which would kill you should you fall off.

After a very boring couple moment walk, he could feel the heat rise drastically as he was once again stood inside that world of fire and ash. He could see Ryujin Jakka a few feet away from him, staring at him like he had a second head, it was actually pretty interesting seeing another emotion on the stoic's spirits face.

"Ichigo Kurosaki?" he heard the Zanpakuto call out to him.

"Yo, Ryujin Jakka," Ichigo replied, holding up his right hand in a gesture of hello. The teen's voice was flat, but not in a threatening manner.

Ichigo wanted to crack a smirk as the face of the spirit took on an even stronger look of bafflement, clearly, he had not been expecting to see the orange haired teen ever again. He also knew he had to play this cautiously though, even though Ryujin didn't have muscles per say he could still see the spirit tensed, while he didn't seem to be affected by the vast amounts of reiatsu Ichigo was letting out this also could be seen as an act of hostilities, 'and all because I can't control my power.. Hat n' Clogs would probably be laughing at me right now if I went to him.'

"I had assumed you were dead, this is quite a surprise. You are.. far stronger since the last time we met, have you come to fight me?" the Zanpakuto asked, its facial expression and voice having gone back to normal.

Ichigo scoffed at that, "Yeah.. well lets just say it's harder to kill me then most people think," he then paused before continuing, taking on a more sheepish look, "As for your question, no, I didn't come here to fight, I came here for your help."

Ryujin didn't respond, so Ichigo took it as a sign to continue. "As you probably noticed I got a slight power up for lack of a better term, however, I- I can't suppress it for some reason and I couldn't risk putting innocent's in danger from being to close to my reiatsu, so I came here." Ichigo wanted to hit himself, he felt like such an ass. All this power and he has so little control that he has to ask someone who almost killed him just two weeks ago for help.

"I understand, and you wish to ask me why you cannot contain it?" he asked, receiving a nod in return.

Ichigo looked curiously as Ryujin's posture straightened and his hands clasped themselves together behind his back, if he had to describe it he would say that the elder Zanpakuto looked like one of those old teachers you would see in an anime, it was.. odd, to say the least.

Taking a deep breath, the Zanpakuto began it's short lecture, "A good way to describe someone's soul, is that they are very porous, each person has many small holes that constantly release and absorb energy from your surroundings. When one learns to suppress their reiatsu they are essentially blocking off those holes so that no reiatsu can enter or escape your soul."

"Now then, first I would like you to imagine your soul as a dam, with the water inside representing your powers, once you have that picture in your mind I want you to imagine that it is raining over this dam, this is your soul replenishing it's reiatsu. But, if you only absorbed energy and never released it back out you would quite simply explode, I believe that Kisuke Urahara attempted to kill Sosuke Aizen in this fashion. So to keep this from happening your dam has many small holes around its perimeter which release the water inside so that it doesn't overflow."

Seeing that Ichigo was following along he continued, "A Shinigami's main form of combat is with their Zanpakuto, their Zanpakuto is also the main way in which they channel their reiatsu. So, with that said I would now like you to imagine that one of your dam's walls has a large floodgate on it, this gate will represent your Zanpakuto. When it is closed, your Zanpakuto is in it's sealed state, when you release Shikai, the dam will partially open, and upon releasing Bankai, your dam's gate will fully open. Now tell me, what would happen should someone lose their Zanpakuto?"

Ichigo didn't even need to answer, he understood what Ryujin was getting at, it probably wasn't a good time to think of such things but Ichigo would admit that the Zanpakuto spirit was a really good teacher. He let out a small sigh and fell ungracefully onto the rock behind him, resting his elbows on his knees so that he could hold his head in his hands. 'What a pain.'

A few moments passed in complete silence, Ichigo was content to just think to himself for the time being, and thankfully Ryujin seemed to be in no rush to kick him out, for now at least. Now Ichigo wasn't stupid, he did realize that there was a potential Zanpakuto stood right in front of him, he just wasn't sure how he wanted to approach such a thing. He had failed Ryujin Jakka's test once and was deemed unworthy by said spirit, but he understood what it was that Ryujin was testing him for now and he was sure he met the criteria.

He wasn't an overly prideful person but the thought of essentially asking for a second chance rubbed him the wrong way, and he didn't necessarily want to just attack him either and prove his strength with violence.

He knew Ryujin obviously wasn't stupid either, and would already know what was running through his mind, so it seemed like the best course of action was to get a feel for Ryujin Jakka's state of mind right now. Removing his head from his hands and straightening his posture he met gazes with the spirit before speaking, trying to keep his tone as neutral as possible. "So basically, unless I can get another Zanpakuto to plug the dam so to speak I'll be stuck in a permanent Bankai like state and pose a threat to all those I wish to protect just by being near them?" he asked with a raised brow.

"Correct." was the simple reply he got in return, however, he could see light tones of curiosity and amusement in the eyes of the spirit.

'It seems I won't be able to fool him,' the orange haired teen mused to himself as he stood up once more, his gaze not leaving the strongest Zanpakuto's for even a second. He held his right hand out a little to his side and once more the broken Tensa Zangetsu materialized in his hand, it was in even worse shape then he remembered. Looking back up to see how Ryujin would respond he couldn't help the small smirk that cracked his lips when a purple-hilted Katana materialized itself in the Zanpakuto's hands in a burst of flame.

The air trembled briefly and the next second Ichigo was shocked stiff as another immense pressure came crashing down on everything around him. The very ground they stood on shattered instantly, molten lava floated in the air around slowly falling back to the ground, almost like it was moving through quicksand. Ichigo couldn't help but shake his head in amazement at how easily and quickly Ryujin Jakka had matched his reiatsu level, 'I'm really glad I never had to fight the old man, Amaterasu did say Ryujin Jakka was powerful but this.. this is crazy.'

He shook his head lightly as his leg muscles tensed, Ryujin Jakka matching his movements in front of him, 'I almost wish I was going up against Aizen again. Almost.' And, with that final thought he pushed off, bringing his blade down in a two-handed overhead slash, when his blade connected with that of Ryujin's a small orb of energy formed at the point of contact before abruptly releasing, indenting the ground below them even further and sending a powerful shock wave over the land.

Ichigo's and Ryujin's eyes never once left each other even as their own reiatsu levels continued to rise and the world around them fell further into chaos. Ichigo couldn't help but wince when he heard his black blade chip further, the silver one of Ryujin Jakka cutting halfway through it, but, even still his eyes never left Ryujin's.

Finally, after some of the tensest seconds of Ichigo's life, the standstill ended, Ryujin putting more force into his upwards swing forced Ichigo backwards, then, much to the young mans relief, he let his blade dissipate back into flames, "Interesting, Ichigo Kurosaki.. it seems you understood after all."

Ichigo could help the excitement he felt when a pillar of fire erupted from the ground before him, dimming back down seconds later to reveal the purple-hilted Katana that he knew to be the representation of Ryujin Jakka. He gave a long look down at the familiar blade in his hands, it would most like be the last time he would ever see it, however, it didn't matter to him, 'Zangetsu is me, even if he is no longer physically with me.' he let the black blade dissipate and slowly, very slowly reached out for the purple hilt, he could feel an immense heat coming from it, 'look forward, move forward and never stop, if you pull back you'll age, if you hesitate, you'll die.' and he grasped it.

Immediately he was flooded with warmth, a comforting warmth, he glanced back up at Ryujin Jakka and he seemed slightly tense, his eyes screamed of excitement, Ryujin was waiting for something, and Ichigo wouldn't disappoint. Pulling the blade from the ground he held it out diagonally in front of himself and spoke the words that would signify change and the next big chapter in his life.

"Reduce all creation to ash, Ryujin Jakka."

~ A/N:

And that's that. I wanted to put more in this chapter as far as other characters went but as I wrote the scenes with Ichigo, Zangetsu, the old man and Ryujin they just kept getting longer and longer and so I decided to keep this all as one chapter and then the next other characters will come in again.

As for the end, I know some people are going to think he got Ryujin's blade a little too easy but try and think of it like this. Ryujin Jakka has power, he doesn't need anymore. When he chooses a wielder I don't think he cares how strong they are because he will make anyone incredibly strong, to me he would care more about the mental state of the person. He would want someone who had matured, who understood the truth's of the world, and that understood that if you really want to survive and protect what you wish to protect, you need to fight with the intent to harm and kill. If you fight with the intent to just knockout your opponent you will be hindering yourself and you will either lose the fight or win but at a heavy cost.

One of the other readers that I talked to said it perfectly. They said "Ryujin Jakka is literally like the apocalypse in a sword," and I agree completely. If Ichigo isn't mature enough then even if he gets Ryujin's blade he will injure and or kill a lot of people due to his lack of understanding and control.

A side note. If you want to know what his Shunpo sounds like then re-watch his fight with Ginjo during the fullbring arc, that's the model I'm going for. It was a mix of high pitched static like Sonido and a soft swishing like Shunpo which is perfect for him. Also, I would like some opinions on his outfit, I will be keeping the Shinigami theme for Ichigo but I want it to be unique, Should he have the regular Shinigami garb with a haori over top or maybe should he have a similar coat to his old Bankai?

If you have any thoughts on the chapter than feel free to leave a review, I'm always looking to improve my writing and so constructive feedback is appreciated. If you have any questions then feel free to message me, I always reply when I can.

- Vertius