Title: Second Life

Author's note: Thank you to Ryoka Mika, mei-tan13, michi-nolet, AsBlackAsNight, Shirosaki Ichigo, Ookami no Kurayami, and Murcielago44 for following. Thank you AsBlackAsNight, Shirosaki Ichigo, Ookami no Kurayami, and Murcielago44 for favoriting. Thank you to Shirosaki Ichigo for reviewing. Your appreciation will not go unappreciated.

Warning: Revealing the situation, mild swearing, nostalgia. It is all a flashback as well where Yamamoto explains the situation.


Chapter One: How it all went down.

"Kurosaki Isshin!" Yamamoto Genryuusai's voice boomed through the hallway, "We don't call people back that have been banned from Soul Society for no reason."

The captains all stood around. Byakuya, for the first time, looked like he cared about the conversation going on in the room. Isshin Kurosaki was smiling at first, but slowly and surely, the smile reversed itself. That same concept applied to every captain in that room at the moment.

Shinji, who had been glad to his friend at first, slowly heard what was going to happen and he couldn't believe it either.

"Kurosaki Ichigo has to die!" The captain-commander yelled at the top of his voice.

"What are you talking about, ya old geezer?" Isshin questioned, not understanding what the Captain-Commander was saying.

"I mean, you have to kill him." It was serious now. Nobody was joking. There were no giggles in the audience. Only blank stares.

"Ya must be off your rocker, Genryuusai," Isshin just dusted it off of his shoulder like no big deal, he can't possibly be serious, right?

"This is a battle preparation," Genryuusai slammed his staff into the ground, "Kurosaki Ichigo has to die. Sadly, he is our only hope, again. But he hasn't been up to his potential."

"So, how the hell is killing him going to help a damn thing!" Isshin raised his voice. At first it was a game. But now, was it a life-or-death situation?

"The reason he's not a super power is because he hasn't touched his hollow mask. He hasn't needed to which means he is regressing! No person who deserves of the substitute shinigami badge, no person who is given a Zanpakutō, no person who can be labeled 'Savior of Soul Society' can regress!"

"So what? I can just teach him or train him," Isshin was still under the impression that the other's tone wasn't serious. There was no reason to kill his son.

"We cannot. The only person who can train Kurosaki's hollow is Kurosaki himself. We need to send him to Hueco Mundo. Or else, he, along with all of Soul Society, will be obliterated."

A lot of the captains were taken back. This was by far the most far-fetch'd order the Captain-Commander had dished out. Obliterated… just what had the old Captain-commander been hiding from them?

Nobody was manned enough to talk back to the first-division's captain. Kenpachi was too occupied by thoughts of killing to care.

"What the hell are you talking about, Genryuusai?" Shinji spoke up.

"I am talking about Aizen's return!" Genryuusai bellowed and opened one eye to show the intensity and worry in his eyes.

"A-Aizen's return…?" Every captain in the room was in shock. No one had ever heard of this, until now. There was a pregnant pause. No one spoke.

Finally, the commander said a few words, "Yes, this is true! Aizen broke out of the Maggot's Nest."

If one wanted to know the extreme of tension, that person would have to be in that room. There wasn't much trust between the two sides. No one knew how this had been kept as such a big secret. Soul Society had been so peaceful that it was criminal. Now, the peace had been broken.

"His whereabouts are unknown," Yamamoto elaborated before anyone can ask. "Now, we know that the only strategy he can't resort back to is using hollows as his pawns. That is why we must send him to Hueco Mundo."

"Why can't we just transport him through the gargantua?" Byakuya said a few words for the first time that went against the commander's thoughts.

"We cannot do that. I have consulted Kisuke Urahara about this. I did not tell him that we are planning to kill Ichigo as Kisuke would never allow that. There is no way around this. If Kurosaki Ichigo and his hollow do not train and comeback, there is no place for him to go. He will just become a wandering soul. after being killed by that evil man. And if Kurosaki dies, there is nothing standing between Soul Society and oblivion."

"I will not kill my son!" Isshin was on the verge of strangling the captain commander. To begin with, Isshin did not have as much respect for Yamamoto as the others did.

"DO IT, Isshin, and you will have every single ounce of my respect," to have Yamamoto's respect was not a small thing.

"I don't want that lost respect, I want my son!"

"Isshin! I believe your son is the bravest, most determined shinigami that I have seen in my years as a captain. That is no small detail to be overlooked. He will return. And when he returns, he may have anything, and I mean anything, that his heart may desire. He can become a captain or even have the Soul king's Key. I have spoken with the people of the Spirit king's castle, they agreed that they will even grant him a place in Squad 0."

There was a mixture of astonishment and fear that floated through the air. No one could believe what was happening. Squad 0… And to someone who had only realized their shinigami powers for 5 years. It is insanity. But there was no doubt that if Ichigo didn't die, there was no way that Soul Society would survive another assault from Aizen.

"This is wrong!" Ukitake yelled at Yamamoto. He knew that if the news were to be broken to Rukia, she wouldn't be able to handle it.

"I agree," Kyoraku accorded with Ukitake, "It is one thing to send someone somewhere for training purposes. But having them killed in the hands their own father? That is just cruel, old man."

"How am I supposed to tell Rukia? How are we supposed to tell Renji? Or any of Ichigo's other friends like Sado-san, or Orihime-chan, or Ishida-kun? There will be a giant revolt on Soul Society."

"Explain everything that happened to them. This is not about them."

Yamamoto's sight shifted to the shaken-up man in front of him. "Kurosaki Isshin, do you want your son to die?"

"No."

"Then kill him."

Author's note: I hope you understood what happened. Ichigo hasn't used his hollow in forever. This is a gateway that Aizen can use to kill him. So he must die and go to Hueco Mundo. I promise it will make more sense later.
I am doing something a little bit different: I am going to post shorter but more frequent chapters. They will have around 1000 words. I'm sorry for not putting this in the original time I uploaded this:

HichiIchi warning in a few chapters.

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