A few words from the author: Thank you to all who read my story, and a bigger thank you to all who reviewed it.
Notes on the text: This chapter is very short, but very importaint. The author means no disrespect to anyone who fought in Vietnam, or the Vietnamese in general. Though the author has researched the topics mentioned at length there may be a few Huey-related implausabilities.
Legal mumbo jumbo: Bleach is the property of Tite Kubo.
Febuary 1, 1968, 1705 local time, 100 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam
Ichigo looked out of the side of the Huey, toward the jungle below. The trees in the jungle below wafted in the slight breeze created by the helicopter. He was feeling depressed, the events of that horrible night still weighed heavily on his heart. His memories went back to when he first met Ikkaku, it seemed like just yesterday Ikkaku was yelling at him for calling him "cueball" for the upteenth time during bootcamp. Ichigo smiled weakly as he remembered when Ikkaku went toe-to-toe with the Sergant, needless to say the Sergant handed Ikkaku his ass on a silver platter.
Ichigo looked up from his window and observed his comrades. Kira and Renji were sitting beside him resting their eyes. Urahara was getting to know Gin. Chad and Ganju were talking about what they were going to do when they got back home. He leaned back and fell asleep, listening to the rythmic sound of the helicopter.
Everything seemed to be going normal, they were now about fifty miles from their destination when the unthinkable happened. The familar "whump whump" of the Huey's blades was interrupted by the all too familiar sound of AK's going off. The bullets could be heard ricoceting off the underside of the helicopter. Tessai cried out in pain as several bullets pierced his skin...
"Doorman's hit, someone get on that '60!" Urahara said. Urahara and Gin dragged Tessai into the chopper and did what they could to bandage him up. Ichigo got onto the doorgun and started firing randomly into the jungle.
"Saigon, this is Bonnie and Clyde, come in Saigon! We are taking fire!" Kiyone spoke into the radio, while Kotsubaki wrestled with the controls.
Kotsubaki's eyes went wide as he saw what was coming up from the ground. "RPG!" he shouted, "I'm taking evasive action, hang on!" He pulled the controls and made a barrel roll to the right. Half way through the manuver they heard a scream. Renji looked out just in time to see Ichigo plummeting toward the ground below, the doorgun had broken off of its mount and was dangling by the ammo belt.
"Ichigo!" Renji shouted, as the damaged Huey limped to Saigon. There was nothing they could do to help him, they didn't want to fire for fear of hitting Ichigo and they couldn't risk getting hit by another RPG.
Time seemed to slow down for Ichigo as he fell. He saw the trees getting closer. The leaves of the canopy scratched his body, but also slowed him down somewhat. Pain shot through his left arm as it hit a branch. His right leg came down hard on another limb, sending several waves of pain through his body. He hit the undergrowth, which cushened the fall slightly.
He knew he had to find shelter, if the VC's found him they would kill him.
Ichigo grunted weakly and tried to move his arms... nothing.
He tried moving his legs... nothing.
The world was starting to get dark... Was it nightime already?
The world was getting darker and darker...
Finally, all Ichigo saw was black...
In this context " '60" is short for M-60 machinegun
RPG: stands for Rocket Propelled Grenade