I would like to thank all those who took the time to read my story. I would like to thank all those who reviewed my story even more.

Notes on the text: This chapter is very dark and bloody. Contains alcohol refrences. If you squint, you might see Hollow Ichigo rear his demented head again.

Enjoy

"Oscar, this is Whiskey two, zero, we see your smoke signal. Airstrike inbound, estimated time to arrival, twenty minutes."

Chad heard the radio message, he ran to Urahara and Gunz to tell them. When they heard the news they were shocked, but they decided not to rescue Ichigo or Renji. They did not want to risk any more deaths.

Chad couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew he had to try and save them.

Not because they were his comrades...

Not because they were his friends...

But because they had become...

His brothers...

Chad took out the gold coin he wore around his neck and kissed it. Before Urahara could protest; Chad loaded his weapons and moved out towards the building, Ganju went with him. Urahara let them go, figuring it would be better for them to be killed by the enemy than by his own hand.

One of the Viet Cong was standing beside the door of the room where Renji and Ichigo were holed up. Suddenly he heard a strange "thoomp" sound coming from behind him. He looked over to see a grenade, the grenade hit him square in the abdomen and detonated. The blast separated legs from torso and made a bloody mess of the wall. Ichigo and Renji saw the explosion and cheered, not knowing of the F-4 Phantom fighter/bombers that were currently less than seven minutes from their location.

Ichigo threw his last grenade into the doorway on his right, the one that hadn't been hit by Chad's grenade. Ichigo pulled out his pistol and knife as the grenade detonated and rushed forward, stabbing one man through the ribcage while he fired a few rounds into the body of another man.

Ichigo felt something on his knife hand...

It felt warm...

It felt wet...

It felt...

wonderful...

Dark red blood flowed onto his left hand as his blade found the man's heart. Ichigo's adrenalin saturated brain sent pulses of pleasure to the rest of his body and Ichigo started to laugh cruelly. He pulled his knife out and moved on to the next room.

He saw the back of a man who was shouting in Vietnamese and guesturing wildly, Ichigo crept up on the man, leveled his pistol to the back of his head and squeezed the trigger. The man fell forward and hit the ground with a thud. As the man fell Ichigo saw who the man was shouting at. A woman huddled in the corner of the room clutching a little girl close to her. Ichigo smiled a predatory grin as he pointed his pistol at the woman and pulled the trigger...

click...

Ichigo looked at his pistol and saw that he was out of bullets. He raised his knife, blood dripping off the blade. "Payback's a bitch ain't it you commie bastards..." he said with sadistic grin, his eyes shone with demented pleasure. The woman clutched the child closer to her and closed her eyes tightly. Ichigo was about to stab the woman when he felt a very strong hand grip his wrist. He whirled around and saw the concerned face of Chad. Ichigo's smile faded as he returned to a state of relative sanity. He turned around and saw the two people he would have killed. His heart melted, his knees buckled, his weapons clanged and clattered as they hit the floor, he put his face in his hands and wept.

Suddenly they heard the roar of jet engines. "We have to get out of here!" Chad shouted, grabbing the woman and the girl and running towards the door. Ichigo picked up his weapons and ran after Chad. Ichigo, Chad and Renji were about fifteen feet from the building when fireballs erupted from it, scattering dust and debris everywhere.

Ichigo heard a loud shouting and looked back to see Ganju crying for help. Ichigo ran up to him and saw that there was a large piece of rubble crushing Ganju's left leg. Ichigo couldn't move it and Chad was too far. Ichigo looked up and saw more planes coming.

"This is going to hurt." Ichigo said as he pulled out his knife.

Ichigo took his knife and cut the few remaining muscles and ligaments that were attached to the mangled lower part of Ganju's leg as the trapped man cried out in pain. Ichigo then dragged the screaming man back to the building. The building soon erupted in another torrent of flame and debris.

Ichigo and Ganju reached the others and Urahara patched up Ganju's leg as best he could. Ichigo looked at the woman and child and wondered what had possesed him to attack them.

Ichigo and his squad pulled out of the area and slowly moved towards a field station. Ichigo and Ishida helped Ganju hobble on his remaining leg while Urahara and one of Gunz's riflemen helped Rusty. Gunz and Gin had the worst job of all, they had to carry the bodies of Twitch, Kira, and two other Riflemen on a makeshift stretcher.

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The setting sun found them all sitting around at the field hospital, Renji got a new radio, and replacements would be coming in by tomorrow. Ichigo sat on a crate, his equipment piled up next to him. Two empty beer cans lay on the ground, Ichigo opened a third and took a long drink.

"alcohol... sweet sweet alcohol..." Ichigo thought as the beer started to work its magic.

Urahara sat on another crate next to Ichigo, his pack of supplies at his side and his shotgun resting across his legs. Urahara pulled the last of his cigars out of his pocket and lit it up, taking a few puffs before looking up at Icihigo.

"I hear you almost put a knife into that mama-san Chad was carrying." Urahara said as he placed the cigar to his lips again. Ichigo didn't respond, he just took another drink from his beer and sighed. "You're lucky Chad was there to stop you." Urahara said. "Wish somebody did that during my first tour." Urahara took a few puffs on his cigar and continued. "Shot this young woman when we were out on patrol. We lost two guys to booby traps and we wanted revenge. God, the screams." Urahara gazed at his shotgun with a disgusted look.

Urahara got up and put his hand on Ichigo's shoulder saying, "Don't be like me, try and hang on to as much youthful innocence as you can. The world has enough heartless killers."

Urahara walked away, leaving Ichigo to finish his beer and think about what he had said.

Author's notes:

The M-79 grenade launcher was sometimes called the "thump gun" or "blooper" due to the distinctive sound it makes when fired.

During the Vietnam War, the line between enemy and civilian was often unclear. Women, and sometimes even children worked for the Viet Cong. Ichigo attacked the woman because he was in an adrenalin-fueled frenzy and was anxious to avenge Kira's death.

Mama-san: slang term for any asian woman