Chapter 16: One last chance

As the group made their way towards Sokyoku hill, they could hear the sounds of battle going on all around. It would have to wait as they made their way over towards the hill and could see the faint visage of Kageroza standing proudly while watching the chaos throughout the Seireitei. The group of Ichigo, Renji, Chad, Uryu, Orihime still on Ichigo's back, and Rukia rushed down to see Kageroza, weapon in hand, grinning straight at them.

"Ahh, Kurosaki." He spoke, seemingly amused with seeing the former substitute. "Why am I not surprised to see that you're still alive."

Orihime got off of Ichigo's back and stood back in a defensive manner, ready for anything. The others readied themselves as well as they knew that this would be a hell of a fight coming their way.

Ichigo stood tall as he stared Kageroza down in realization. "You fused Nozomi and that other Kageroza together, didn't you." It was more of a statement than a question as Ichigo narrowed his calculating eyes upon the man.

Kageroza continued to grin to the group, only now it was more manic as he began to cackle in delight. This took the group by surprise, except for Ichigo who just continued to glare at the man. Ichigo had a feeling this may be an outcome. If Nozomi was already captured by Kageroza, then saving her would have been in vain by this point. Whoever this man was before he split himself into those two, Nozomi and Kageroza, he was once again whole, and that could only mean one thing.

"Nozomi is gone now, isn't she?" Ichigo spoke with a steel edge in his voice that took his friends and his girls by surprise.

The man in front of them stopped his near insane laughter and grinned once more to the group. "Yes," he started, never taking his eyes off of Ichigo, "she is."

That was all Ichigo needed to hear for confirmation before vanishing in an instant. He appeared in front of the man, Nozarashi drawn, and swung down only for the man to block him with his weapon. Ichigo glared down at the man as they began to engage in battle. The group watched in amazement as Ichigo's speed was on a whole other level now. One minute he was standing next to them, the next he was already engaging the man in battle. Not wanting to stand around doing nothing, Uryu looked towards the rest.

"We need to help Ichigo out. I don't think his powers will be able to defeat Kageroza." The quincy spoke up.

"Why wouldn't it?" Renji started, confused by Uryu's statement. "He's essentially a walking army at this point."

Uryu shook his head. "That may be so, but remember that Kageroza's ability with his zanpakuto is to encapsulate and redistribute any attack sent his way."

"Meaning that Ichigo wouldn't be able to get a clean shot off of him." Rukia said with wide eyes as she looked to the ensuing battle and saw that true to what Uryu stated, Kageroza was redirecting everything Ichigo was giving him. Both she and Orihime were worried for the man they loved as he kept trying to find some sort of way to get past Kageroza's ability.

"If he still had his hollow powers, then maybe this would be different." The young quincy continued, gaining everyone's attention once more.

"What do you mean Uryu?" Orihime asked as she had to hold up her shield in front of the group to block a massive shockwave of ice from the battlefield.

"If Kageroza was able to absorb energy from soul reapers and even mine and Chad's power, I don't doubt that he accounted for all of us to join the fight!" Uryu yelled out admits the shockwaves. "But Ichigo was a total unknown to his plans since he was powerless at the time and also had hollow powers on top of his soul reaper powers! That was why Kageroza tried so hard to get rid of Ichigo in the precipice world, but since Ichigo's powers no longer are hollow like and imitating other soul reapers, he's vulnerable like us!"

The shockwaves finally subsided as they watched and saw Ichigo standing away from the man and on one knee. The man was further away and standing tall with a smug grin plastered on his face. They could tell that this was not good for them as Ichigo was struggling to land a decent attack on the man. If this continued on, then all would be lost.

Renji gritted his teeth and stood tall. "Then lets even the playing field. BANKAI!" Renji released his bankai in the usual explosion of power that clouded everything.

The man looked over with an uninterested stare as the large bone weapon approached him fast. With a simple twirl of his weapon, he absorbed the attack like all the others beforehand. Once he did, it did come as somewhat of a shock when the rest of the group ran toward him, attacking as well. Rukia utilizing her powers to launch pillar after pillar of ice in his direction while Uryu fired a barrage of arrows and Chad launched blast of energy. The man leapt high into the air, absorbing each strike and firing them back all with that smug look on his face. Renji launched his bankai towards him from behind, hoping to catch him off guard, but the man simply vanished in a shunpo before the attack hit. Renji widened his eyes as he was now standing in front of Renji. He grabbed Renji by his top and threw him with intense force through one of the pillars of ice, canceling Renji's bankai in the process.

While all of this was going on, Ichigo was trying and failing to come up with a solution to stop this man. All of his attacks and tactics weren't working in the slightest since they all were a part of Kageroza's scheme. Even Kyoka's hypnosis had no effect. The teen had thought of the reason why Kageroza was trying so hard to be rid of him and like Uryu had explained, it was because Ichigo used to have hollow powers. It made him an unexpected obstacle to Kageroza's planning. While the man had already known of everyone else within the soul society and how to counter their powers with his zanpakuto, Ichigo's power would have been impossible to do so. This made Ichigo grit his teeth in anger as that was the one thing that made him unique as compared to others. Now that he has other zanpakuto spirits and not his own, it meant he would need some sort of solution to beat this man, and fast as he could see his friends losing.

"Dammit." He growled to himself as he stood up. "What the hell do I do now?"

Ichigo's inner world

While he was saying that to himself and trying to come up with a solution, his zanpakuto spirits were also panicking within his inner world. None of them had a solution as their master had exhausted everything in the early parts of the battle. They even began to argue as to what to do as they didn't want their master to die. While they were arguing though, Kyoka stood away from them in deep thought. She had heard her masters plight as if he had his original powers then he could easily overpower the man, but now as he was wouldn't be possible. There wasn't much they could do to win this fight and she knew it. That's when something hit her. She turned to the still arguing spirits.

"HEY!" Her voice voice boomed out, gaining their attention. Since she was the first, she held the most say out of the others. "There might be a way."

Back at the battlefield

Ichigo was about to rush in to save his friends and fight this man till his last breath to protect them, everything be damned.

"Wait Ichigo." Kyoka spoke up from his inner world.

"Kyoka?" Ichigo started. "If you or any of the others have any ideas, I'm all ears. Just hurry."

"We do." She and the others materialized around him, stopping time in the process.

Ichigo relaxed as he saw each of his spirits staring directly at him, all with a near solemn vibe to them. Ichigo turned towards Kyoka who looked down at his gaze. "What's going on?" He started. "What are all of you thinking?"

Kyoka spoke for everyone as she took a deep breath and looked up to look her master directly in the eyes. "We think the only way to defeat this man, is for you to use bankai."

"I though we agreed that that was a bad idea." Ichigo spoke, looking towards the others to see their solemn expressions once more.

"It is, but not for the reason you think."

"What?" He started. "What are you talking about?"

"I told you that if you used bankai with so man spirits linked to your soul that it could cause more damage than anything to you." It is true. Not long after he had gotten Hyorinmaru from the fake Toshiro, Kyoka did mention that activating bankai could do more harm to him than good. He trusted her words and has mainly utilized shikai of each spirit for his fights, swapping between each one to throw his opponent off, but he had wondered just what would his bankai be or even do for that matter. "That was a lie." She continued, surprising the teen.

"What actually happens then?" Ichigo was dreading this response.

With a sad sigh, Kyoka gave him his answer. "I honestly don't know, but a working theory we've all thought of was that if you activate your bankai, we would all cease to exist."

Ichigo widened his eyes at this before sighing and holding his head down. It was true, whatever power he had that allowed him to essentially steal a zanpakuto spirit from the user and have them be apart of himself was truly a mystery. Who knows just what will happen to him after a while. He barely had this ability for month and there was already thoughts of losing it all once more. To become powerless again after this fight was something he didn't want in the slightest, but looking up and seeing his friends and two of his girls fighting for him was giving him second thoughts. True, he knew nothing of what might happen or even if this stunt wouldn't tear him apart as well or even if he could do such a thing to begin with, but one thing was clear, hid friends needed him. The soul society needed him. His girls needed him and he would be damned if he wasn't going to get back up and beat this bastard down. With a sigh that caught all of his spirits attention, Ichigo looked to each and every one of them with a look of determination and resolve, something that filled them all with the will to follow him once more.

"Then lets hope that it's just a theory." He started. "Listen guys, I don't know what'll happen once this is all over, but I do know that each and every single one of you is a part of my soul now. A part of my will, my resolve, and you know just how stubborn I can be." A few chuckles came from them after that statement. "One things for certain though, if that happens or something even worse with all this power and spirits inside my soul, then we go out in a blaze of glory the likes of which has never been seen before." Nozarashi and Kazeshini grinned maniacally at that. "We fight and we win!" Hyorinmaru, Sode no Shirayuki and Benihime nodded. "No one stops us here!" Both of Katen Kyokotsu smiled at this. "And we make sure they all remember, forever, what our resolve is!" He looked back to Kyoka with a smile. Kyoka smiled to him and nodded. He looked around and held his hand out. "WHO'S WITH ME!?"

"HELL YEAH!" Kazeshini shouted as he laid his hand on top of Ichigo's, his dark green energy going into Ichigo's.

"Lets do this." Hyorinmaru spoke as he placed his hand down, an icy blue energy going into Ichigo.

"It's been an honor if this is the end." Katen spoke as she and her other half placed their hands in. Inky black energy.

"YAY!" Nozarashi bounced as she placed her hand." Yellow energy.

"Quite the speech, Ichigo." Sode no Shirayuki placed her hand down. Light lavender energy.

"Ought to be interesting." Benihime placed her hand down. Vibrant red energy.

Finally, Kyoka placed her hand down and purple energy went into his hand. "Thank you Ichigo. For everything."

Snap back to reality

The man was cackling once more as the small group was laying all around the area. All except Orihime, who was healing Renji since he was the most injured at the moment.

"Do you see how pointless this is now?!" He shouted out as if to let everyone in soul society hear him. "Only those with true power need no one with them to weigh them down! I have true power and I have the will to do what needs to be done to this retched place!"

Before he could do whatever he was about to do, a massive amount of pressure dropped down onto him and the Seireitei as a whole. He turned to find the source and saw Ichigo building up his energy.

All around the Seireitei, everyone stopped their fighting, even the Reigai. Rangiku and Yoruichi recognized this particular release of energy and quickly rushed as fast as they could through the intense pressure to reach him. At that moment, both Halibel and Neliel had returned with the real Toshiro and also rushed off as well.

Back on the Sokyoku hill, the man was staring in awe of the amount of energy Ichigo was releasing. If anything, this power rivaled the head captains in sheer, raw energy alone. Was the teen planning to launch a final attack towards him? No, this was different in a way. This was a gathering of energy he had never seen before.

Ichigo was glowing with all of the various energies he had currently and stood in place with none of his zanpakuto's in hand. He didn't know what would happen, but one thing was for sure, he was gonna kick this guys ass all over this hill. After several more seconds of gathering this energy, it suddenly stopped as did the pressure around them all. Ichigo stood tall and looked up directly at the man, eyes shining a brilliant blue, and with one word, turned the tide of this whole battle.

"Bankai."

Whoo that felt good to write something so long for the first time in a while. This story is quickly approaching its end as the I only have three chapters left for it. An epic battle is next as Ichigo unleashes his own Bankai on this fool to end this whole thing. Will he lose all of his spirits that he has gained?

Like I've said in my previous updates, I plan on posting a chapter for a story every Thursday from now on. The only reason this one is on a Friday is because some friends of mine took up all of my time yesterday and we hung out for way too long. Lol. The next story I'm updating is gonna be the fan favorite on my profile, Ichigo in a world of women. Hope to see ya'll there.

Till then, stay awesome and as always...

PEACE!