Blades of Resolve

Written by Scarredbyshallowness

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Final Fantasy VII, or Devil May Cry.

Author Notes: I know that I didn't really go into significant detail into WHO crossed over last chapter. Don't worry. This one will.

Note: This story takes place after the Bounto Arc (the filler).

Chapter 2

The Death of Ichigo

-Bleach World-

"Yeah. Yeah. Seems like I'm promising something to everyone today." Ichigo sighed, removing himself from the embrace a tad too early for some. "Let's go home."

"Mmm hmm." Was all Rukia could manage to squeeze out as she pulled herself together. "God I hope Kon hasen't fooled around with my gigai."

"I wouldn't worry about that." Ichigo beamed, pulling out a small green pill from his shirt. "I thought the little pervert might try something with your gigai around. Not to mention my body is in the same room…"

A deep, DEEP, red crept across Rukia's face.

"S-smart move. Let's go."

The Next Day

School seemed to go by in a flash. It always does tend to move a little faster when you have several other things on your mind. And, as expected, Chad, Uryuu, and Orihime looked exhausted in class. An all nighter of hollow extermination is not for those seeking the healthiest lifestyle. Even when it was time to walk home, the looks in their eyes was draining.

"So how did it go last night?" Ichigo questioned half-heartedly. It's not like he didn't know the answer.

"We managed just fine without you, Ichigo." Uryuu snapped, positioning his glasses once again. "Although we did expel quite a bit of our spirit energy last night."

"Well aren't you a little crabby." Kurosaki quipped to his pack of shadows. Seriously, it didn't matter where he went; these four would follow him to the end of the Earth. Annoying but, in a way, also extremely comforting.

"Shut up, you jerk! Ishida retorted before hearing a loud commotion. "What's going on over there?"

Everyone silently viewed a man floating in midair. He had waist length long silver hair, wore only black with platinum shoulder guards, and had sheathed the absolutely longest katana that they have ever seen in their lives. But the oddest thing of all was he wasn't a spirit. Proven by the near unbearable amount of confusion and comments erupting from the people below.

"Who is that guy, Rukia?" Ichigo immediately questioned. If anyone would know…

"I have no idea." Rukia spoke without thought. Despite having no spirit energy, the sensation of terrifying strength that emanated from this guy was almost incomprehensible.

"How is he up there, mommy?" a little boy questioned his mother lightly. "I wanna fly too!"

"That is hands down the GAYEST looking guy I have seen all day!" a punk joked amongst his crew. Laughing hysterically, they attempted, several times, to try to hit the stoic man with rocks and empty cans from the festering alleyway they resided in.

He stood in complete silence, not even bothering to open his eyes. His response to the harsh words from the towns people was a simple wave of his arm.

Confusion was amplified as the sky began to bend, curving and twisting abnormally. Opening his eyes violently, he spoke but one word.

"Die."

The space in front of him ripped apart, releasing a flash flood of bone scorching hellfire.

In an instant, the fire consumed everything in it's path. The pure amount of screams that emitted from his victims was enough to make one mad. Incinerated remains of hundreds of innocent people littered the streets as the flames continued to swallow everything in sight.

Chaos at this level, witnessed in full by the group, was unbearably heart wrenching. There was nothing they could of done to prevent that attack.

"M-Monster!" Chad quivered, clenching his right fist. So many pointless deaths. People like this shouldn't exist!

"He hasn't even drawn his sword yet…" Uryuu fearfully thought to himself. This was unlike anything they had ever faced before. Defending wandering souls is one thing, but everyone? There is a magnitude of difference.

"All of those people…" Orihime sobbed tearfully; hating herself for not acting fast enough.

"That B-STRD!" Ichigo roared, immediately using his badge to become a soul reaper. "Orihime, take my body and run."

"But - !"

"You need to GO! You don't have any spirit energy!" Kurosake yelled in truth. With all of the blasts from the night before, she barely had a drop left.

"Ichigo, Uryuu and I have enough energy to fire a fully charged blast once. But…" Chad briefed as simply as he could. Time was short.

"Don't worry. I'll get you an opening." Ichigo spoke in an alleviating calm voice. Turning to Rukia, it was obvious worry as overtaking her again. "Rukia, help Orihime get my body out of here."

"Ichigo - !"

"Let me finish, darn it! Find a safe place for my body and your gigai then get back here."He demanded in a fashion that was very unlike him. He was scared. Not for his own life, but for everyone else's. "Hurry! Until then, this guy is mine!"

With that said, they were off. In the exact same instant the group flew, ran, and activated twin powers all in a synchronized order. Time was of the essence.

Flying near the man of mystery with his blade drawn, he appeared to not sense Ichigo at all. Although, his next move was a strange one. With the same arm that was used to cause such destruction, he eerily lifted it toward the sky.

"If he can't see or hear me, this going to be - "

SKEEISH!

"I see you clearly." the man spoke in a voice as piercing as the blade in Ichigo's left shoulder. "Weakling."

At that moment, the blade pulsed, chucking Ichigo off of it's tip at mach speed; forcing the soul reaper representative to smash into, and through, a nearby rooftop.

"Ichigo!" Chad hollered, preping to fire at the inhumane man.

"Chad! We have to combine our shots! More than likely, our individual beams won't even phase this guy!"

"Grr…What the…?"

The sky began to warp again, but this time changing and become seemingly poisoned by the man's touch. The once light blue sky was now a shade of dark, foggy, green.

"This world is mine."

"LIKE HELL IT IS!" Ichigo furiously screamed as he flash stepped himself right behind the intoxicating monster.

Swinging his sword down with all of his might, he cut straight through the man's … after-image.

"Your speed is fairly decent." the silver haired swordsman commented, with seemingly no emotion, from right behind the soul reaper. "But nowhere near as fast as me."

"SHUT UP! GETSUGA TENSHOU!" Ichigo roared, spinning around with intense power as the slash attack erupted from his sword. With a dead on hit, the cresent beam crashed into it's target with an ear-shattering KOOM!

"Pathetic, boy." the man spat as the debris cleared. The slash's beam was dissipated by a mere wave of the man's ridiculously lengthy katana.

"Who are YOU?" the soul reaper grittily questioned. Whoever he was, this guy was really ticking him off.

"My name is the last thing you'll ever hear." the man of mystery quipped, raising his sword in ready.

"Tsh. Like I give a sh…UGH!" Kurosaki yelped as the man's blade tore halfway through his stomach horizontally. If he hadn't used flash step to escape the rest of the strike, he'd been cut in half.

Not giving Ichigo a chance to breathe, the silver haired swordsman struck again with an overhead slice; but was blocked by this time by Zangetsu (Ichigo's sword for those who don't know).

"Holding this guy back is like trying to stop a train! He doesn't stop freakin' pushing! And worst of all, he's only using one arm!" a perspiring Ichigo thought to himself as sparks began to fly from the fricition.

As expected, the man placed his free hand to Ichigo's chest. Using flash step at the last moment, Ichigo narrowly avoided a barrage of vertical chains of lighting.

Reappearing right beside the long haired attacker, Ichigo horizontally sent his sword slicing through yet another after-image.

"Grr! Not again!" the tempered teen swore to himself, trying to hone in the guy's whereabouts.

UGH!

"WHAT? CHAD! " Ichigo hollered, seeing the muscle man get slung through several fiery buildings from the exact same slash attack that was used on him earlier. An airborne Ichigo stared in disbelief as the man went from the ground to a foot away from him in a blink of an eye. "How can he be THAT fast? No choice. I'll have to use…"

"Sode no Shirayuki: DANCE!" Rukia screamed as her zanpakutou transformed itself into a pure, snow, white blade. (A/N: For those completely lost, this is Rukia's shikai.)

Catching the man completely off guard, ice formed over his entire body; plucking him from the sky and plummeting him down to earth.

"Uryuu! HIT HIM NOW!" Rukia demanded a little late as the Quincy had already been charging up an enormous arrow.

"I don't need a soul reaper to tell me what to do!" Ishida grinned to himself, gathering up every bit of his remaining spirit energy.

"Just shoot him, idiot." Rukia winced in disbelief. How could he be so - " ICHIGO!"

"Hey." the orange haired teen stated completely nonchalant. Though he would never admit it, with the blood pouring from his abdomen, shoulder, and face; he looked pretty bad. "Looks like you saved my butt again."

"I've only been gone for five minutes!" Rukia spoke with a hint of despair. Guilt was rearing it's ugly head.

"This isn't the time to get sentimental. He's tough. Real tough."

"So can you still fight?"

"Of course I can! What do you take - OOMP! " Was all that Ichigo could manage to say before Rukia's fist smacked him upside his head.

"IDIOT! Use ban-kai while you CAN!"

TWEEEPH! KABOOM!

The Quincy hit the frozen swordsman dead on with all of his might, creating a shockwave of intense winds strong enough to extinguish the remaining flames, as light encompassed the area.

"-huff- Got'em -huff-." Uyruu faintly whispered to himself the moment before he lost consciousness. He literally did put everything he had in that shot. And it wasn't in vain. He drew first blood from the guy's cheek.

"DIE!" Echoed from the newly created crater as a glimpse of something could be seen soaring from the destruction. And straight for…

"RUKIA!" Ichigo yelled, snatching her and flash stepping out of the way of the man's lengthy sword slashes.

A dodging dance ensued as the thunder of the colliding swords' sparked in what remained of the sky. Masterful manuvers left Ichigo with several scratches upon his body that would of otherwise been devestatingly deep cuts.

"Darn it…-huff-." Ichigo spat, flash stepping for the 32nd time while carring Rukia. "Can you hit him with that ice attack again?" he carefully whispered into her ears as he continued to block and counter all of the silver haired man's slashes.

"Mmmhmm." Rukia replied with a slight blush. They normally weren't this close to one another. Especially for this long

"The moment I see an opening, follow my lead."

RRRRAAAAHHHH! BLAM!

"So you lived?" the man spoke with frost tipped words, blocking the sudden beam of light from the muscle bound teen with his katana with ease.

"Perfect. Thank you, Chad!" Ichigo grinned, tossing Rukia as planned.

"Oh? A team attack? How sadly desperate." the man of darkness commented with a sinister sneer crept upon his face.

While continuing to block the rather prolonged blast from the human with the odd right arm with his blade, the mysterious swordsman raised his free hand toward Rukia's approaching subzero assualt. Calling forth the hellfire from before, he countered and easily overcame her icy attack.

"Unnnn AHHH!" the petite soul reaper screamed as the shear force of the flames sent her flying toward the surface. Although the effect of the fire wasn't nearly as bad as it could of been since she used her spirit energy to block most of the attack.

To her surprise, she was nabbed by from the air by Chad; who used his body to absorb the impact of the fall.

Unfortunately knocking him out…

Raising his spirit energy as fast as he possibly could, Ichigo pointed his zanpakutou straight at the seemingly unstoppable opponent; praying to hit him with the burst of intense energy dispelled when he achieves…

"BAN-!"

"It's pointless." the man seethed in a venomous voice, grasping the soul reapers' blade wielding arm. Pulling with a force that was simply indescribable, the cracking of bone and tearing of fiber screamed down Ichigo's spine until…

SQRUNCH!

"Chad! CHAD! Wake up!" Kuchiki tried desperately to revive the rock solid human to no avail. Both his endurance AND his spirit energy had been completely used up. "Great…"

CHINK!

Rukia, having heard the sound of metal hitting falling, questioned what her eyes saw. Instinctively looking up, she witnessed a maddening sight that should only, ONLY, be seen in her worst nightmares.

"No…"

Tears began to flow freely; for you see the 'metal' that fell was Zangetsu…along with Ichigo's right arm. And what's worse, the man's katana had pierced ALL the way through Kurosaki's chest.

"U..Ughh…" was all that Ichigo could manage before coughing up a chunk of blood.

"You wanted to know my name." the sadistic silver haired man spoke with poison laced words; lifting Ichigo's limp body with his ease with the hilt of his sword.

"I…can't move. I can't speak. I…I…" Turning to see Rukia's face was absolutely heart shattering. So much pain in her eyes. "I'm sorry…Rukia…"

"My name…" the deranged man continued, moving Ichigo closer and helplessly closer.

" is…" Right up to an inch from his own face. As Ichigo forcefully stared into his eyes, his content to kill was eerily obvious.

He was going to die…

"Sephiroth."

With that said, he viciously ripped his sword through the teen's body; slicing him in two.

"No…No…Not again…" Rukia helplessly sobbed, not wanting to believe her eyes.

Streams of tears poured down her face as she screamed with every fiber of her being.

"ICHIGO!"

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Tell me in your review! The next chapter is being writing and will be up soon.

-Scar