Blades of Resolve
Written by Scarredbyshallowness
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Final Fantasy VII, or Devil May Cry.
Author Notes: Gory. I know. But, then again, so is the show. I know I tweaked Sephiroth's powers slightly in the last chapter, but think about this: Who else have they shown him fighting other than Cloud? And no, Sora from Kingdom Hearts DOES NOT count! But enough of that. On with the story!
Note: This story takes place after the Bounto Arc.
Chapter 3
Break
-Bleach World-
"ICHIGO!" Rukia screamed passionately as she witnessing Ichigo fall … in pieces.
Rain began to pour.
As the new fallen drops relentlessly pelted her vision, Rukia ran instinctively to Ichigo. The word 'protect' cycled in her mind as memories of key moments the two had shared blindingly flashed repeatedly.
Despite having his right arm torn off, ripped apart from his chest to his hip, and having coughed up pieces of rather vital organs; he still breathed.
His will to live surpassed the expectations of many, but this was just ludicrous.
None of this mattered to Rukia.
He was alive.
"Ichigo!" Kuchiki yelped with a hint of hysteria, carefully placing his head in her lap. Her guilt amplified. His skin already felt cold to the touch just as the life in his eyes slowly began to dim.
"Ru..Rukia… you…" Ichigo spoke lightly. Nothing hurt anymore. Blindness was grasping his vision.
And in his mind…
"YoU CaN't HoLd Me BaCk MuCh LoNgEr, IcHiGo…"
The rain continued to pour.
"You have…to… run"
"Don't…don't speak." Rukia spoke with a soothing tone, softly hugging what remained of his upper body. Shaking; it took all she had to restrain herself from a complete breakdown.
This is Ichigo! The man who took on all of Soul Society! This…this can't be happening…
His blood began to pool.
She didn't care.
She was with him.
The only thing on her mind was regret.
Looking up in the toxic looking sky, Rukia couldn't help but wonder about this sadistic man. Even the rain seemed to fear him. Not a drop touched his skin. It was as if the water was deflected by his aura of maddening strength.
"Shall I end his suffering?" the silver haired monster smiled coldly from the murky sky, calculatingly lifting his sword. Diving from the air above, he sliced straight for Ichigo's rib cage.
Moving quickly, Rukia immediately placed herself in front of the oncoming blade. Blocking the attack with her pure white katana, the steel of her sword screamed in pain.
"You…you aren't taking him away from me!" She cried intensely, using every bit of strength she had to hold Sephiroth back.
"Are you so in love with him that you can not bare to live without him?" Sephiroth questioned completely emotionless, crushing her defense and breaking her blade into pieces.
Seeing the razor sharp katana set up for another slash, Kuchiki acted without thinking. In desperation, she threw herself in front of Ichigo.
The blade came. Blood spewed in the air.
Breathing heavily, Rukia lifelessly fell on top of a helpless Ichigo. The rain pooled with the blood that seeped out of a dangerously deep cut across her back. The pain that struck her disabled any possible movement.
All she could do now was glare through the curtain thick rain and feel Ichigo's failing heartbeat.
Was this their destiny? To die by the hands of a stranger?
"I grant you oblivion." Sephiroth spoke with such vicious intent that Rukia's mind nearly froze with fear.
Using his katana to turn flip her over, and away from the fallen teen, Sephiroth raised his blade's tip to an inch from her throat. She remained still; clutching onto Ichigo's remaining arm.
With a thrust, the lengthy katana shot forward like a bullet. This was the e-.
"I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!" Ichigo suddenly roared to life, grasping the blade with his bare hand. In an intense burst of rejuvenated strength Sephiroth's attack was halted on the spot.
A miracle was happening before Rukia's eyes.
Ichigo's upper and lower half attracted to one another, reconnecting themselves with a blazing speed as each intricate fiber repaired themselves. Then, walking with his reattached limbs, grabbed his blade out of the clutches of his detached right arm. But, instead of connecting his right limb, a new arm shot out from what was once nothing but a blood soaked open socket. A white, armored, arm of a hollow.
"I..chigo?" Rukia questioned with wide eyes. Something wasn't right…
The name seemed to hit a nerve. With his back to her, she couldn't see his face…
"WhO?" the man that was once Ichigo answered with a deeply echoic voice, revealing a face half taken by the mask of a hollow. "Oh WaIt, I rEcOgNiZe YoU."
Walking toward her, she took a step back. What WAS this thing?
"YoU'rE tHaT b-TcH tHaT IcHiGo KeEpS ThInKiNg aBoUt! GuEsS hE nEvEr ToLd YoU aBoUt Me… " the hollow sneered, absolutely adoring the expression on her face. So precious and scared. Just ripe for killing…
Rukia had never seen this before. A half hollow and half soul reaper? When did Ichigo go through this? And why hadn't he ever told her…
As time went on, the mask grew further and further along Ichigo's face. And with so much spirit energy remaining in his body, this was the hollow's dream come true. With the exception of one thing…
There is a constant war in the mind of Ichigo. A fight between hollow and whole for position of who is the king, and who is nothing but the horse. If either one of them is knocked out, the other gains control of the body.
What usually goes on is the whole (normal Ichigo) suppresses the hollow at all times, mentally keeping him at bay. But with whole completely k.o.ed (protecting Rukia with his last bit of consciousness), it was the hollow's time to ride.
However, if one is killed in the mind, the other gains his strength permanently.
"GoD yOu SuCk, IcHiGo! ThIs BoDy GoT cOmPlEtElY wReCkEd!" The hollow complained, stretching and cracking bones back into place. Although, if he didn't have these extreme regenerative powers, Ichigo wouldn't even HAVE a body anymore.
"How annoying." Sephiroth interpreted boldly, slashing with a wide horizontal strike. Rukia painfully rolled to avoid the cut as hollow Ichigo sneered. Spinning Zangetsu by it's cloth-sheath, he slung the oversized blade straight for the silver haired man's face.
Catching the sword with ease, Sephiroth looked to his side…and got clocked right in the jaw by the hollow's fist. The contact was so severe that not only did Sephiroth eat gravel, the punch cracked every bone in Ichigo's hand.
"DoN't CoNfUsE mE fOr ThAt WeAkLiNg IcHiGo! I'm On A wHoLe OtHeR LeVeL!" the hollow sneered, instantly mending his bones. Picking up his sword that Sephiroth had so gracefully left on the ground. With an insane smile, hollow Ichigo lifted the blade into place so he could use -
"BaN-kAi!"
A compass of light encircled the possessed Ichigo, raging and dramatically increasing his strength as the dance dazed everyone with blinding light. What emerged was an odd sight. Instead of the usual black uniform and trench coat that Ichigo normally gets during bankai, they were now…white. Including his zanpakuto.
"I'm GoNnA bEaT ThE HeLL oUt Of YoU wItH mY TeNsA zAnGeTsU!" The hollow cringed with delight, teleporting twenty or so times around Sephiroth. Laughing echoing the whole way.
Every time he went in for an attack, the silver haired freak would block it. However, the same could be said for the other way.
"So now our speed matches. This changes nothing." Sephiroth spat, grasping the hollow's incoming blade.
Charging a thundaga blast through it, the sword electrified hollow Ichigo to a tan crisp.
"SH-T! YoU aRe GoOd." the hollow breathed hesitantly, yet excitedly. "GuEsS I'LL aCtUaLly HaVe To TrY."
Revamping his speed to the body's limit, creating multiple images of himself around the stoic Sephiroth, hollow Ichigo created 20 Black Getsuga Tenshos atop,below, and to every angle around the silver-haired swordsman. Escape was an impossibility.
"DiE!" the hollow screamed, launching all of the blasts simultaneously. Chuckling with the utmost satisfaction as the slashes made contact with a deafening explosion.
"He…did it…" Rukia stood in awe. Although, with that monstrous spirit power emitting from him, it was easily passable.
"NoW…wHaT tO dO WiTh YoU?" hollow Ichigo spoke demonically, giving Rukia a very disturbing leer.
"W..What? ACK!"
Not giving her a second to defend herself, the hollow teleported right up to the petite soul reaper and grasped her viciously by the throat.
"IcHiGo MiGhT hAvE a ThInG fOr YoU. BuT tO mE…" He tightened his grip. Rukia used what remaining spirit energy she had to lessen the pain. Even with the defense, the squeezing turned her face to a light shade of purple."YoU'rE nOtHiNg BuT a DiStRaCtIoN! "
"I..chi..go.." Rukia cried desperately. Tears, along with her remaining spirit energy, fell on his completely unaffected hydraulic grasp.
Blood poured heavily from the cut her across her wounded back.
Consciousness was blurred.
Hope was fading…
"LiKe He CaN hEaR - "
"GET THE FU-KING HAND OFF OF HER!" Ichigo's voice violently echoed in the hollow's mind.
In a pulse of intense strength, Ichigo's clothes flashed between black and white viciously until finally returning to normality. Releasing an unconscious Rukia immediately, Ichigo used both of his hands to grasp the mask formed over his face.
"YoU mOrOn! I HaVeN't KiLlEd ThAt SiLvEr HaIrEd PaNsY yEt!" the hollow yelled desperately, jerking his body around as the hands continued to rip the mask off.
In the air, the sword slashes' lasting effect had finally ended. Through the darkness of twisted air revealed a rain-steaming protective bubble of green and blue intertwined around a severally aggravated Sephiroth.
"This boy…"
"Shut UP! You weren't really after him at all! All you wanted to do was kill Rukia!" the ture Ichigo screamed, taking a chunk more off of the mask
"YoU'rE tOo WeAk!"
"Would you just…" Ichigo gritted, pulling the hilt of his sword upward. "SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Cracking the blunt object upon his face, the hollow's control was completely broken. As pieces of the mask fell with the rain, one phrase emanated in Ichigo's mind.
"YoU wOn'T bE kInG fOrEvEr…"
"-Whew- That was way too close. Ru - CRACK!"
"I will NOT allow anymore GAMES!" Sephiroth howled. A lethal hate growing in his deadly eyes as he crushed Ichigo's face with his palm. "You WILL die!"
The filth colored air gathered around his arm, condensing and forming a deadly poison aura. A move elegantly called Doomaga.
What does it do? It simply causes unavoidable, incurable, and unpreventable death in a short amount of time. That time, however, is completely dependant upon the strength of one's soul…
Feeling the toxins begin to burrow into his soul, there was nothing Ichigo could do. Lugging away with everything he had left, his spiritual power had been so drained that Tensa Zangetsu wasn't even sharp enough to cut through flesh.
"AahhaAAAAHHHHAHHHHH!" Ichigo hollered as the poison relentlessly, continuously, circulated through his body. His skin's nerves stood on end. His body had been through so much trauma over the past hour that it was a miracle that he still had a heartbeat. And yet, he had to make one more demand from it.
"Come on! Move! Move!" Ichigo screamed to his body to no avail.
He had reached his limit.
"THAT'S ENOUGH, SEPHIROTH!" yet another unknown man yelled from behind the hopeless situation.
His appearance was yet another oddity. He had light blonde, spiky, hair that coved parts of his shimmering blue eyes. He carried an ENORMOUS sword that was twice the width of Zangetsu's shikai size. And to top it all off, he wore a dark red cloak that masked the top half of his body.
"So…" Sephiroth focused completely on the new guy, chucking Ichigo to the ground like a child who's lost interest in an old toy.
"You've finally arrived, Cloud."
And so arrives the hero of FFVII. Poor Ichigo. I know I tortured the hell out of him, but don't worry. He'll be getting some happy moments soon...