Ichi Guo could hardly breathe. It was an illusion. It had to be. He couldn't be there. Aizen couldn't still exist. He knew that the man had been able to force him to see things. He had conjured up smells and sounds to mask reality. But no matter how much he tried to rationalize that the one standing in front of him was nothing more than a delusion, it didn't make him go away.

Ichi Guo closed his eyes tight and tried to find a hole; Some way of getting out of this nightmare. "You aren't real! You're just an illusion!" Ichi Guo's fingers tightened around his weapon, but that didn't stop a small tremble. For the first time in his new life, he was feeling genuine fear.

"An illusion, am I? Is that what you believe? Are you really so foolish?" Aizen's voice kept coming. "You are trying to deny me, because I exist beyond your understanding. But no matter what you say, I control everything. I am god. Blind yourself if you wish, it will not stop my power."

"No! You're not here!" Ichi Guo shouted, rushing forward and performing a jumping slash for where Aizen stood, expecting to either pass straight through or cut the man who was casting the illusion. But rather than disappearing, Aizen lifted the single remaining hand, and stilled Zangetsu, stopping the heavy blade underneath his lone index finger, the same way he had when they had first seen each other on execution hill. Ichi Guo found himself staring straight into the man's eyes. Seeing the cold confidence in them. Then he noticed it. He could feel the man's presence. "This... this pressure... You... you really are..."

"So you are finally looking properly, and now you see." Aizen said, his voice as cocky and cruel as ever. He put more and more pressure on Zangetsu and then, to Ichi Guo's shock, it shattered. Pain shot though his body as his spirit felt the damage dealt to its essence, causing the boy to collapse to the ground, unable to force his body to steady itself. He could taste blood and bile in his mouth. "Pathetic, to think an insect like you delayed my ascension to godhood. But it doesn't matter. I will now reclaim what is mine."

"What... what are you talking about?" Ichi Guo said, his mind still racing around in circles. His heart was beating so loud. He couldn't do anything.

Aizen just stared at Ichi Guo for a small instant, and then a small grin spread across his lips. "Do you really not know what I am talking about? Could it be that you haven't noticed? You honestly couldn't tell, could you?" Aizen said with some mirth in his voice. Then, he looked away from Ichi Guo and off to the side. "Then again, you never knew what was happening. You were just a tool in the events that played out around you. A blind follower, dancing to the tune that Urahara and I played for you. A puppet in our game. But to think that you would not notice, when it has been standing next to you all this time."

Ichi Guo's head slowly turned to see where the monster was looking, and to his horror, he saw his sister. Rukia had fallen backwards and was staring up at Aizen, too scared to move. The bastard had turned away from Ichi Guo and was walking slowly towards her. "Rukia, run!" He shouted, but she couldn't seem to move. He tried to move. Tried to force his limbs into action, but they refused.

He watched as the stub arm started to leak out a sort of black liquid and a demonic looking arm started to form in its place. Five jagged pillars sprouted up out of the ground, forming a circle around Rukia, who screamed in pain as red coils of electricity came up out of the ground, wrapping around her body. Aizen stopped right in front of her.

"Leave her alone dammit! Your fight is with me!" Ichi Guo shouted in a desperate attempt to stop the man from killing his reason for being.

"My fight? You are not worth my time." Aizen said in a dismissive manner. Then he drove the demonic arm into Rukia's small chest.

Ichi Guo's ears were filled with her screams of pain. He saw her writhing about, unable to do anything about it. Then Aizen slowly withdrew his arm, and her small frame fell to the ground, completely motionless.

Ichi Guo screamed, tears coming to his eyes as he cursed Aizen, but the monster simply grinned and turned toward him, holding up the demonic arm and uncoiling his fingers to reveal a bright jewel, one that gave off an energy like nothing else in the world. "And so, the Hōgyoku is mine once again."

He pressed it against his chest, and the jewel disappeared into the man's body, his power exploding.

Ichi Guo could feel it. It was the same as before. Power beyond anything else in the world. Power that defied all reason. The power of a god.

He watched, as everything fell apart right in front of him. His heart was broken. His will to continue lost. Fear and misery had taken hold of him completely.

He was unable to hear the one calling out his name.

"Ichi-nii! Ichi-nii! Please snap out of it!" Rukia cried as she shook her brother's shoulder.

Screaming. Everyone, everywhere was screaming out in fear and pain. Shi Nian was kneeling a few feet away, laughing like a man who had lost his mind. Her brother was lying on the ground twitching violently. His eyes were wide open, but the sharp gold eyes seemed unfocused and tears ran down his cheeks.

It was the first time she had ever seen her brother cry. He had always been confident and controlled. She had never once seen him afraid of anything. Seeing him this way, it made her scared.

"Aizen... Aizen... damn you." He moaned through choked breathes. Rukia shuddered at the pure despair in his voice. It wasn't like the screams of terror from the others, it was more sorrowful than afraid.

"That's right! Suffer! All of you stuffer!" Shi Nian shouted. "Let this world of nightmares take you, the Illusion of Shura! Enjoy your deaths!" The man had lost his senses and was starting to foam at the mouth.

Rukia looked at him. She was afraid. He was giving off more spiritual power than she had ever seen before in her short life. But her brother was suffering because of what this man was doing.

'What is there to fear?' Rukia froze as she heard a deep voice. She turned her head around, expecting to see someone standing behind her, but there was no one. 'Cast off your fear. Never stand still.' The voice continued to urge.

"Who..?" Rukia said confused, for a second forgetting what was going on.

'Fear is useless. It will only dull the blade.' Rukia found her eyes slowly being drawn towards the massive sword that lay next to her on the ground, her brother's sword spirit; Zangetsu. Her brother's grip on the sword was loose. 'No matter the storm that rages, your inner world must be tranquil. There is no room for doubt.'

Rukia's hand closed around the hilt of the blade and slowly pulled it out of her brother's hand. Though the sword was easily three times her size, it felt unbelievably light in the small girl's hands. Her hands found the grip, the same way her brother had shown her with the practice swords. She channeled her spirit into it, and found that it easier than before, her will quickly sharpening the blade. It felt so right to her. It felt like her brother.

Shi Nian was still laughing like a mad man, and he was still leaking an amount of spiritual power that was beyond what Rukia had imagined was possible. But with her brother's sword in hand, she didn't feel afraid. Whatever technique he had used, it was soaking up all his power to maintain it, so his spiritual barrier was all but gone.

Rukia lifted the massive blade, prepared for what she was going to do.

Ichi Guo took a few seconds to become fully aware of where he was. His eyes stung from tears and his throat felt like he had swallowed a mouthful of sand. But where a moment go, he had been staring at the plastered white body of the godly Aizen, feeling the weight of the unbelievable power, now all he could see was blue sky, and he couldn't sense a trace of the monster around.

He blinked a few times before checking again, focusing his sixth sense out, but still couldn't find a trace of the monster. But he did find something else. "Rukia!" He said, his throat stinging as he spoke. He pushed himself up as fast as he could to find her standing a few steps away from him, tears falling from her eyes.

"Ichi... I... I..." Her voice came in short bursts. But before she could say anything real, her brother was up, and had thrown his arms around her.

"You're alright. Oh thank goodness you're alright." He said a numbing relief passing over his body as his mind tried to make sense of it all.

"I... I killed him..." Rukia said, her voice breaking into a sob.

It wasn't until then that Ichi Guo realized that she had Zangetsu held loosely between her fingers. The blade was completely covered with blood, from the tip of the sword half way down towards the hilt. Then he saw the Spirit Master from before, the one who he had seen turn into Aizen; the fact that it had all been a dream brought about by the man's spirit essence slowly dawning on him. Not a true illusion that blinded the senses, but a prison formed within the mind.

He had a massive wound in the center of his chest. It looked as though Rukia had impaled the man on the end of Zangetsu. Unlike the swift cuts that Ichi Guo himself had used, Rukia would have been right in front of the man as he died, rather than having already moved past. And with the lack of speed in her sword swing, the blood hadn't moved off of the blade.

The little girl was shaking, probably trying to stop herself from vomiting from the smell of so much blood. Ichi Guo recognized it. The reactions brought on when you realized that you had just taken another's life for the very first time.

"Oh, Rukia." He said, pulling his sister's head into his shoulder, where she started to cry more openly. He slowly took Zangetsu out of her hand as he patted the back of her head. "You didn't do anything wrong. It will all be alright. I promise you." He said on the outside. But his mind was thinking something completely different.

'A hell of a world we have been born into. A place where a five year old girl has to kill a man.' He thought miserably. 'I'm going to take you away from this place. I will make sure that nothing like this ever happens to you again.'

He heard movement and whispers behind him and turned his head to see the remaining Spirit Masters starting to stand up; the students looking in shock at their Principal's dead body. Ichi Guo turned around to face them, his blade raised.

Though Ichi Guo was still outnumbered, these guys weren't nearly as strong as their elders. Not to mention they all seemed to have had their powers drained in order for that madman to pull whatever hypnotism that he did. Even better, they themselves had suffered the effects of the mental attack.

The students looked from Ichi Guo's blood stained sword, then to their fallen principal, then back again. "I suggested you all scram." Ichi Guo growled at them. The humor of a seven year old boy threatening them somewhat undermined by the blade he was holding and the bodies of those who fell by it in clear view.

Several of the grown men and late teens took steps back at the sight of the white in Ichi Guo's cold golden eyes fading to black. It wasn't a true activation of his beast spirit, but the intimidation factor was there.

One of them turned and started to run, pushing his fellows out of the way as he did so, screaming in panic. Then another started to run. Soon every single one of the spirit masters were out of the village limits, heading for the hills, leaving their carts, horses and the bodies of their teachers behind in their desire to get as much distance between themselves and the monster in guise of a child as they could.

It wasn't until every last one of them was out of sight that Ichi Guo let Zangetsu disappear, giving a short sigh. He could have probably killed the lot of them, but there had been enough death that day.

Besides, he still needed to see to his little sister, and make sure that he reached the village elder before the monsters did. Even if his body and soul were tired, he couldn't rest. Not yet.

He had to prepare.

There was no reason to believe that would be the end of it. He would leave the village, take his sister and get as far away as they could go. There would be no looking back. This chapter of their lives was over.

Ichi Guo's subconscious is telling him something he doesn't want to confront.