Dislcaimer: I do not own Bleach.
A/N: Thanks to all my splendid reviewers. I'm sorry it's going a little slow but I'm trying to explain Ai-ni's past as well put him into the timeline. Don't worry, everything is going to out of wack, very soon.
Also, due to spoilers, if you haven't gotten past the Rukia Rescue Arc, I'm really spoiling the story for ya.
Okay. It is epic. It is the fight.
I owe to the readers to draw this fight out to it's awesomeness. Like in several parts.
Sorry for the delay…had to work out the scene. Hope you guys like it.
(Edited parts of it)
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Ichigo coughed, fingers digging small furrows into the earth. He hated feeling helpless and right now, he was helpless, despite all his training and all his power he could not stand up to this monster before him. How could he protect those he loved if he could not even stand up?
He had the will it was just his body could not support him. Why couldn't he have regeneration powers? That would really have helped him right now. With regenerative abilities then he could stand up and fight again. It was for Rukia, for his pride and for his friends. He could not let them down.
All he had done, all he had worked out summed up to nothing. This Aizen, this shinigami, was leagues beyond him. It burned at his ego and his pride to be so easily defeated. How could this happen?
Maybe he got too cocky and Aizen just got past his defenses. But no matter how he looked at it, Ichigo knew that Aizen was beyond him power and ability. There was another level. He was going to reach it.
He focused his eyes on his brother. His brother was a shinigami. What's next? His father? Ichigo was tempted to laugh at that notion. His idiot of a father can't be a shinigami. He might as well suspected his brother was one.
Then again…..seeing how the evidence is blaringly clear now.
Of the two, Ai-ni too took martial arts vigorously and sword lessons with a great fervor greater than even Ichigo. Ichigo didn't even take sword lessons, preferring karate. It said something to Ichigo; something like his brother was in some sort of gang or joined an underground duel ring or something. Never had he ever suspected his brother knew about shinigami and hollows before him. His brother was too plain and unassuming to ever to be suspected about anything supernatural.
In truth, Ichigo acted more like the older brother than Ai-ni. Maybe it was because Ai-ni knew that Ichigo had to protect. It was his namesake after all. Just because you were born first doesn't mean you have to be first. After all, there was this famous saying of first in line is first to die or something like that.
Ai-ni was a pessimist at heart. If something will go wrong, it will. Optimism had no place in his mind for optimism was something that Ichigo had and he wasn't one to deprive Ichigo. He didn't need power or fame, he need his siblings, he needed Ichigo's unwavering courage and moronic prattling. It just felt right. He had to know everything in order for his plans to work, for his revenge to work.
That did not mean he was an emo or paranoid. He laughed; he cried and he glared at people when they pissed him off. Growing up in the Kurosaki household meant he seen some of the strangest things ever and still turned out rather normal. Well, as normal they can turn into when their father has a poster of the deceased mother and cries to it on a frequent basis.
That made Ai-ni happy to go to a different country, across a continent and a new school. It gave him perspective. It would be so much more fun if he hadn't met Them. But hey, that was a different story for a different time.
One would consider Ai-ni to a strange child. He had several seals in his soul and mind. Those seals weren't there for fun. They have done something to his mental development.
He never really noticed how the seal affected his mindset. During the process of the first, the oldest seal, it had made Swiss cheese of his memory banks. He was incomplete, so his mind naturally filled up the empty holes. What made Aizen Sosuke was now bits and pieces of Aizen Kurosaki and Aizen Sosuke. How else was he so distant? There were times he would stop what he was doing and try to grab at the snippet of distant memory that danced at the edge of his mind.
He never really knew where he came from so at times he would doubt his past. He would try to find out who his birth parents was and why he was left in the ocean. He also wanted to find out how royally screwed over his zanpakuto so he could punish them. Ai-ni cared greatly for his family. Mess with them, and you'll have one angry genius mad at you.
It was suppose to be this way. So that when the memories came back, if they come back, there will already be a strong personality and set of memories there so then they will merge and the one set of memories will be on top. There was caution to be had. Why would Aizen Sosuke regress into a child, his power intact but no memories what so ever? Especially when there was another Aizen Sosuke in Soul Society?
Exactly.
All this was done behind his back, when they first found him. When he went to Urahara again they reinforced what they already had and changed it. They also found the original seal and didn't tamper with it. That seal was a work of several high skilled kidou masters. When he finally broke the seal, all his power came back first. His brain had to find equilibrium all over again and his reiatsu was fluctuating like mad.
He had to pin it down with his will, shove it deep into his core and hoped he wouldn't make any mistakes. Right now, he couldn't exactly control it. He was certain that he used all his power; he could annihilate the hill entirely. He had pure, raw power pulsating under his skin, glowing faintly in his eyes. He was dangerous! Yes he was.
If it only weren't for the building headache was having right now.
His head felt like someone ran it over with a steamroller. He wanted no more than to sit down and get an ice pack. Ai-ni really wasn't in the mood to fight. It seems all the travel and time zones caught up with him. Either that or it was the bean burrito he ate for breakfast.
Ai-ni clutched the right side of his face as a lancing pain appeared. He felt something was creeping up his side, latching onto to him with needle like fingers. He flared his reiatsu in response, making the ground break into pieces.
He took deep stabilizing breaths before looking at Aizen, his eyes darkening. Stupid seals. Stupid Urahara. Stupid Aizen for making him to such a stupid stunt without medics on hand.
Stupid.
Stupid.
Stupid.
There were days in which Ai-ni wondered if he was channeling Ichigo.
Whenever Ai-ni tries to master his powers, he never could. He was always fighting with a quarter of a deck, quarter of his heart, quarter of his power. So now, with all this power, all these strange feelings, he was in no shape to be killing anybody. His job right now was to make sure Ichigo, Rukia and the red pineapple didn't get offed by accident by the crazy older twin person.
"My resolve is to string you up by your intestines." After he spoke his rather dark words, Ai-ni paused. "I'm sorry. Today has been a really stressful day."
"You see I have low blood pressure and I hate getting up in the morning." Ai-ni explained. "So I got really pissed off that and I just want to crush your skull and watch your head cave in on itself as your eyeballs pop like grapes."
He paused. "Crud." He sighed. "Stupid Jet lag."
"Side affects." Noted Aizen. "From whatever suppressant you were taking."
Ai-ni peered at Aizen. "You know something about it?"
Aizen tutted at him as if he was a child. "Why should I tell you?"
"Cause that's what good people do?" The sardonic tone in his voice was easy to detect. "Then again, good people don't try to bisect other people's little brother.
Aizen merely smiled. Ai-ni felt shivers run up his spine. The person before him was a crazy bastard. Someone who you really shouldn't cross. Just like him, but more homicidal.
"Ni-sama!" Ichigo shouted out, catching his older brother's attention. "Aren't you blind without your glasses?"
That was random. Really.
Ai-ni scratched his head with his free hand. "Uh yeah. I am." He frowned. "Turns out my human body is really blind while my shinigami self has perfectly fine vision."
"Does that really work?"
Ai-ni shrugged. "Well, I'm not wearing my glasses…so yeah."
He flickered, reappearing behind Aizen, spell on his lips," Byakurai."
The bolt of lightning fires from his forefinger only to pass through Aizen, bastard was still smirking, and into the air, it was an illusion. He heard the whooshing sound of blade cutting air, dangerously close to his head. With his other hand, he caught the blade, the sharp edges cutting into his skin.
It was then that he heard it, through his mind, a strange echo of sorts, a void of thought and emotion. There was no thrumming, no energy but Aizen, no other being. How puzzling.
"Can't you hear it?" Ai-ni asked.
"Hear what?" Aizen didn't hear anything but the persistent buzzing of fly that needs to be swatted.
Ai-ni paused before groaning. "Never mind." That was just stupid, he thought pushing away the blade and jumping apart, hand dripping in blood.
The two stared at each other, each scrutinizing each other.
Ai-ni decided to out on a limb, he needed to stall for time. "I think I know your fear. You know the thing that when you're training your zanpakuto tells you not to be afraid of and in the end you are able to hear your zanpakuto's name?"
Aizen paused, amused at his audacity.
Ai-ni took a deep breath. "You're scared of…" Oh crap, what is this jerk scared of? "Of being forgotten, of vanishing into history without a footnote next to your name. It's not whatever you're doing right now but the fact that no matter what you do you will be forgotten. All your work, all that you have done, nothing will come of it. But as…uhh…" Ai-ni paused again. What is so great that nobody will forget? " As God, there is no chance of that happening. That is your fear. It is not out there and it's very underneath the underneath, hidden behind all the intellect and plans. That's why you're doing everything with great aplomb. Cause deep deep deep down inside, you want the power not just because it's power but because people will remember you."
He took the plunge. "I have news for you. Tyrants come and tyrants go. What you do here, today? It will amount to nothing because it is insignificant. If you die, if you lose time will continue, lives will continue, the dead will be mourned and things rebuilt. Life goes on."
Ai-ni waited. Aizen made a low chuckling sound. "So then what do you fear eh Ai-ni?"
Ai-ni's eyebrows knitting together before speaking. "I fear." He paused and repeated those words before continuing. "I fear that despite everything I do, everything I try I will be unable to keep a hold on those I cherish the most."
Aizen leveled a look at Ai-ni, a look that said 'you're lying' before speaking, "I see."
"Anyways…" Ai-ni turned his attention back at Aizen only to look up. "Oh wow."
Aizen did not look up. He was no fool. Besides, he could feel the raging reiatsu. What foolish moves his former colleagues make. It is no wonder he was able to manipulate them so.
A huge fox dropped out of the sky, his sword slashing downward on his target.
"Aizen!" Screamed the fox, as he swung downward, creating a huge explosion. Unfortunately for the target and for the fox, it was the wrong target.
"What the fuck!" Shouted Ai-ni, catching the fox's gigantic blade with his own, diverting the energy away from himself. It crushed into the ground, making a V- shape with Ai-ni at the crux.
The fox was physically strong and had enormous reiatsu. What the hell did he get himself into? How the hell did this happen? How did he get from one place to another without his consent? Did his body want to die?
Ai-ni strained against the blow. "Oy, what's your problem fuzz ball captain?" He had no clue why the captain attacked him.
"Aizen you will not trick me with your deceit." The fox didn't seem to happy.
A huge metal hand fell out of the sky, rocketing towards Ai-ni. He shunpo'd out of the way, cursing as he did. Aizen must've done something to make the fox man believe he was Aizen. This was unfair. Even if they do look similar, it doesn't mean they are. The captain was a freaking fox, surely he had better vision. And the nose! Don't get him started on the nose.
It wasn't as if they were twins or anything.
Ai-ni landed a few feet away, irritated enough to yell at the fox captain.
"For all your lies and all your betrayals, I will show you no mercy!" The fox captain seemed very enraged.
He cast his gaze to Tousen and Gin. "Do you have anything to say for yourself Tousen?" Tousen was silent. "Nothing?" He sounded almost disappointed. "How disappointing Tousen" Now he sounded enraged.
"Ban Kai!"
Ai-ni gulped. Oh. Shit.
Komarmura, the fox captain, glanced down as his Ban Kai started to appear and saw Aizen. Multude of thoughts whirled in his head. Wasn't Aizen just a few feet away from him? How could this happen? His eyes flickered to the other Aizen, just in time to see the illusion fade away to reveal a teenager who was decidedly not Aizen.
But their reiastu are the same!
"Blast Spell: Ninety." Aizen held out a hand as black lines appeared. "Kurohitsugi."
A black box appeared, surrounding Komamura and stabbing into him.
Pain.
"Oh. Crap." Muttered Ai-ni watching as a captain was taken down effortlessly. He knew what that spell was and also knew that it takes a lot of skill to have the spell work without the chanting. He knew they were in deep shit. Ai-ni could only say destructive spells up to 80 without the chant and binding spells up to 90. He had six long ass years to learn things. Might as well do some things to the best it can be done. Everything else took a ridiculously long time to chant.
He heard clapping sounds. "Thank you, Ai-ni for helping me." It was a slow mocking sound. It grated on Ai-ni's ears.
Rukia was safe, well relatively safe, in Gin's fingers. As Komamura slashed down, Aizen was gracious enough to take her with him when he vanished. He had switched himself with Ai-ni, leaving the young shinigami to his fate. If he survived. Good. If he didn't. Good. No matter, he had bigger fish to fry, as they would say.
Aizen side swiped Ai-ni, nearly catching the youth unaware, creating a cut above his left eyebrow. The youth caught the second slash but was unable to deflect the third one fully. Another mark was made. The two blades clashed, sparks flying as they made contact. Out of the seven attacks, he was able to block four and three got through his defense, marring the left side of his face. Ai-ni blinked out blood from his left eye, as he blocked and dodged the sword thrusts that were close to marring his body. If he thought before, Aizen was fast, it was incomparable to now.
"There is a difference between power and skill." Aizen said in a lecture mode. "Even if you are a clone of me you are lacking in some of the more rudimental education. I believe Urahara didn't teach them to you, he was an incompetent teacher despite his genius. And there can only be one Kyoka Suigetsu. "
A hilt in the gut sent Ai-ni flying, his grip on his sword slackened. In mere seconds, he adjusted himself, keeping his balance on the ground but the damage was done his zanpakuto in Aizen's hands.
"It is a good copy. It almost fooled me." Aizen remarked. "Useless." He whirled the sword before tossing it straight up. Ai-ni followed the sword and his eyes widened as it fell away from the hill.
Rage engulfed Ai-ni as he trembled. He could hear her yell as she was sent off the cliff. He had to go after her. He wanted to run and with a powerful leap, jump off the cliff, and follow his sword's descent. But he couldn't. Abandoning the battle only meant death to his brother and his brother's friends. What kind of brother does that?
Aizen was wrong. Kyoka Suigetsu was no copy, was no second. She was Kyoka Suigetsu. She was a zanpakuto that can entrance others and make them believe whatever he wanted them to believe.
She hated being alone. He could not abandon her. Not after everything they had gone through.
All these thoughts raced through his head as his hands clenched and a very low growl reverted through his throat.
"Sosuke-chan." He spat, not wanting to repeat the name, not wanting to say anything that connected to him. "You are one dead bastard."
He launched himself at Aizen, fist pulled back. His fist flew forward, connecting with the ground, missing his intended target. His speed was too slow. He ducked, as a blade flashed above him, spinning on his heel he lashed out with an elbow only to have it blocked by a palm.
Ai-ni jerked his head to the side, dodging a forward thrust, receiving a slight cut to the cheek before leaping down to the ground and preformed a leg sweep. His leg met air, and he rolled to the side as a blade sunk into the ground. He flipped upright, spinning his body clockwise horizontally, body already in balance.
He hated fighting in shinigami clothes. He wanted a pair of jeans right now, maybe shorts. Really. It was just too drafty for his tastes. It was almost like wearing a dress.
He knew this would be a fight he would most likely not win. He knew he was outclassed, outmatched and outnumbered. He fought because it felt right. He fought because he knew that if he gave up, there would be no tomorrow. He fought because he knew that he had been underestimated, all bark no bite. He will show this egomaniac is not all bark and no bite.
He flipped backwards, as a sword slash intent on cutting him in half missed his spine by inches. It did make a stinging cut, from one end of his torso to the other. He blocked a slash with his fist, the knuckles bashing onto the zanpakuto's flat side. Ai-ni could clearly hear the crack as his bones fractured from the force. He jumped up, landing on the blade itself before pulling his leg back to kick Aizen in the face.
A hand grabbed his ankle before he could connect, twisting it, making Ai-ni flip end over end before landing on his back, breath shoved out of his chest. Like lightning, he got back on his feet, ready to attack once more.
A hand tapped his chest and sent him flying with a push. That push was accompanied by a kidou spell to the chest that sounded familiarly easy and without a chant. In response, Ai-ni retorted with his own spell that caught the destructive power of Aizen's kidou spell protecting him from the blunt of the attack. But the sheer power of that spell sent him straight through a hard pillar and straight down off the cliff.
The entire fight lasted only a minute. All the punches, the kicks, the pain were recieved and given in a span of seconds. That just showed how powerful Aizen was, how much Aizen transcended the bars set for shinigami. It was only due to Ai-ni's borderline obsessive training and workout habits that he was able to even keep up with Aizen.
The explosion of pain as his ribs cracked and the ribs in his back cracked almost simultaneously sent jaded spikes of torture up his brain. The long fall and the crash through a building, only made him spit out blood as a rib punctured his lung. Had he been human, he would be dead within minutes due to blood loss.
Ai-ni crawled out of the broken mess of what used to be a roof and propped himself up against a wall. Now his survival depended on him keeping himself alive, waiting for healers and making sure nothing sharp or heavy lands anywhere near his head.
Always look forward, do not look back. Stand strong and tall, firm grounded and sways with the wind. Don't get uprooted, don't get disillusioned. Don't make a box to live in, don't fortify your castle. Be prepared to move like nomads through a tundra. There is no one ground, there are many. You are the illusionist, and no one tricks you. Fear is an illusion. What stops a person is themselves and their own boundaries. Seek the moon in the stars not in the pond for its reflections are empty and hollow. There is no substance. All this, ran through his head, a mantra to keep himself conscious.
Life expectancy is linked to the will to live. That is why depression isn't really a good thing to have. Ai-ni stuck on one thought in his mind. The will to live, the will to see Kyoka Suigetsu again, the will to give Ichigo a noggie. The will to yell at Ichigo for doing such a hair brained scheme. The girl must really be something…then again Ichigo was always somebody he protected others. He kept his mind on things that made life living and why he really shouldn't die because regret was a painful thing to go through.
Also losing all his memories and reliving his life was too much effort and too much of a waste of his time. There was his first broken brick, his first attempt at flying and failing miserably, his first black eye, his first failure and his first success.
Heck, he didn't get to have sex yet so that was something to look forward to. Now that he was on the topic of things he didn't do, he never really gave anyone a swirly whirly or smacked a girl or even totaled his first car.
As his thoughts swirled in his mind, bringing the loud roar of pain into a dull throbbing, he started thinking back on kissing a girl. Kissing a girl…..
As his mind floated about through images of kissing a girl it narrowed on the image of Masaki. She was a wonderful woman, raising him up like he was one of her own. When she died, he was devastated. She was a good person. Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why?
As the thoughts went swirly, they turned orange and grey. That girl. He couldn't get his mind off that girl. There was a bruning feeling in his chest, a strange want to know the girl to speak to her. He felt admiration, pity and satisfaction. That girl brought on such strange emotions from him. His on and off dating with the girls at his school didn't seem to fill in the emptiness in him. Not until he met that girl.
Inoue Orihime.
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A sword fell through the air before sticking in the ground, hilt parallel to the ground. The shinigami crowded around the blade, wondering whose it was. They knew it was a zanpakuto of a shinigami and so, in careful thought, took it and decided to tell their squad captain after this fiasco was over. After all, as long as the zanpakuto is still there, that means the shinigami is still alive.
The unseated shinigami kept the sword with him until he was able to report to his captain.
"Ukitake-taicho," The shinigami bowed. "One of the shinigami had dropped his zanpakuto."
Ukitake looked up from his work, eyes blinking in confusion. "Do you know whose?"
The shinigami shook his head before showing his esteemed captain.
Ukiitake's eyes boggled from his head.
"Captain?" Asked the worried shinigami.
Ukitake slowly took the zanpakuto before turning. "Make sure none spoken here passed here spoken again unless ordered to."
"Yes sir."
Ukitake had to go see the Captain-General on a very important matter.
In his hands was Kyoka Suigetsu in sealed form, Aizen's zanpakuto. There was no mistake of the shape. The question was what was Aizen's zanpakuto doing here? Would this answer why there was two similar reiatsu signatures?
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AI-ni opened groggy eyes to see a familiar orange spiky head. "Hey, Ichi."
Ichigo sat up. "Hey dolt."
Ai-ni struggled to sit up before falling back down. "Ow."
"Like I said, dolt."
Ai-ni peered at Ichigo before grimacing. "What's with the clothes? Whatever happened to what you were wearing last time?"
"No it's my Bankai form."
"Ohhh…" Ai-ni paused. "What?"
"You don't know what Bankai is?" Ichigo asked incredulous. Just when he thought his older brother was smart, it turns out he really wasn't.
"Well…" Ai-ni shrugged. "I never tried Bankai."
Ichigo scowled. "Loser."
"Afro head."
"Urchin head."
"Citrus."
"Dumbass, a strawberry isn't a citrus."
A smirk came to Ai-ni's lips. "Strawberry.'
"Twit."
"Virgin."
Ichigo sputtered for a few minutes. He calmed himself down. "So how long have you been a shinigami?"
Ai-ni closed his eyes, drifting away. "Around six years…you?"
Ai-ni didn't heard Ichigo's indignant squawk as he passed out again.
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Oh and um…Do you guys like it?
Show some appreciation for the chapter please, you know you want to do it.
smirks
Or else I'll sic both Aizen's on you!
BAUAHAHAHHAHA