Warning: Fluff will occur... don't like it? *Pulls out a staff* YOU... *Raises it with both hands* ... SHALL NOT... *Prepares to slam it into the ground* PASS! *Crushes it into the ground, repelling the haters with the awesomeness*
Now... READ!
Chapter Tres: Gathering of the souls in court
Tatsuki eventually calmed down as she slept in Ichigo's arms, her emotional roller-coaster ride tiring her out immensely. Nobody noticed during all this that her spiritual presence had seemingly disappeared, much like Ichigo's.
Ichigo moved her so that she was being carried bridal style in his arms. Tatsuki sighed tiredly as she completely relaxed herself into his embrace. Ichigo walked over to where his father was unconscious. He moved his bandaged right arm slightly so that a finger was pointing at the rubble when a small amount of pure black reiryoku flowed around his finger. "Getsukage (Moon shadow)" Ichigo whispered as the black power suddenly lashed out and soundlessly destroyed the rubble covering the former-captain.
"Could everyone please come here?" Ichigo called to his friends and colleagues, somewhat tiredly. Everyone; except the Gin and Matsumoto, who were both lying together on a piece of concrete from a partially destroyed building, complied and walked over to him, not sure what to expect.
When everyone gathered they were enveloped in light much to everyone, but Ichigo and Kisuke's, surprise and slight panic, but before anyone could react further they appeared to a scene that was all too familiar to Ichigo.
The white sand stretched for hundreds of miles, the blank black sky only disrupted by the ever shining crescent moon over head. They were standing on top of Las Noches, the fortress of the Arrancar army. They were greeted by the sight of a battle of destructive magnitude. The roof had a gargantuan hole in it from a massive explosion; several of the towers were shattered and broken from the multiple clashes between the two forces. The monotony of the destruction was only disturbed by two people clad in white, one with raven-black hair, Uryu Ishida, the other with ginger-strawberry hair, Orihime Inoue.
The two people were startled by the sudden appearance of multiple spiritual pressures, all of them belonging to their friends. They both looked towards were they felt the pressures appear and saw a pocket of light unfolding to reveal Ichigo and the group.
Orihime and Uryu saw what they assumed to be Ichigo and were somewhat surprised as to how much his appearance had changed since they last saw him. His hair had for some reason become much longer and had blacks, reds and purples mixed in with the orange hair that now framed his face, as well as his previously black clothes were now white and purple, along with his entire chest and right arm being covered in hard white bandages. His face however was much the same, but it looked older, more mature.
Most surprising was who was in his arms. Tatsuki was just sleeping quietly in his arms and stirred lightly when she felt the air change blinking awake and looking up towards Ichigo, who had a distant look on his face. Her face lightened up red when she realized her position and how she acted before her emotions knocked her out.
She on instinct started struggling to get out of her childhood friend's hold, he thank fully noticed her little struggle and set her on her feet quickly while smiling wistfully at her. When she got her bearings she looked around and saw a head of orange hair in the distance which from the rest of the figure she concluded it was her best friend, Orihime.
"Orihime!" Tatsuki shouted as she got excited and worried as she ran at full speed to her busty friend who was doing the same. When they reached each other they gave they gave their friend a crushing hug as they squeezed the life out of the other.
"I was so worried!" Tatsuki cried into her friend's white clad shoulder, "I thought might have been killed, Orihime," she silently whispered with a strained voice as she sobbed a little at seeing her friend ok.
Ichigo was looking towards the gargantuan hole that he had created before when he went on a hollowfied rampage while fighting Ulquiorra, sadly, resulting in the raven haired Espada's death. Ichigo focused his senses around where he knew that the Arrancar faded away and he felt a small ripple of heavy energy still remaining, the last of his consciousness still resided.
Ichigo flash stepped to where he felt it and let loose a torrent of the Hogyoku's power to do his wish; bringing back Ulquiorra Schiffer, the Quarta espada.
Nobody noticed his disappearance until a bright light shone from where he now stood, as it soon engulfed him in its soft purple rays.
"Ichigo!" both Tatsuki and Orihime called out to said teen, both worried and wondering what he was doing.
Inside the light, a pale body was being recreated from nothing but the residual power of the stoic Espada. But as it was being created; instead of the former black hair, fur, etc. everything was now a white-ish green, and instead of the all-encompassing black batwings, there were feathery white-green angel wings.
And as the light faded, the face of the stoic Espada was revealed to be one of confusion as he looked around, noticing all of the figures, and his eyes fell upon a head of spiky orange hair, with a multitude of colors mixed in. and he saw the face of the owner of the hair, 'Ichigo Kurosaki', was all he could think before the fatigue of his recreation hit him full force and he collapsed into a well-endowed chest as he faded from conscious thought.
Within a moment of seeing Ulquiorra about to collapse, he decided to have a little fun and picked up Orihime and put her in front of the formerly raven-haired Espada to catch him, which she instinctively did. And to her it felt Nice to hold the unconscious Espada in her arms; While Ichigo flash-stepped beside a baffled Tatsuki, with a joyful smile on his face as he watched his busty friend and formerly black-haired enemy together.
Tatsuki was astounded at the speed at which Orihime seemingly just appeared in front of the white haired man. She then felt Ichigo appear next to her and she turned to see her friend's watching with a happy smile.
"Ichigo, why di-? wait! Why the hell can I sense you now?!" she quietly exclaimed to her friend, confused as to why she could now sense her friend's presence.
"Eh?" Ichigo smartly replied as he turned his head to look at her, "That shouldn't be possible..." he wondered as he watched Tatsuki intently and the veins around his eyes pulsed a light purple, catching Tatsuki's attention.
"I-Ichigo... y-your eyes-s..." she stuttered as she looked at him wide eyed. Ichigo brought a hand up to his eyes, "Oh, the veins... thought someone would see before..." he trailed off, taking on a thoughtful expression, 'or maybe they can't,' Ichigo thought to himself. He turned around and looked at Urahara who was looking at the prone form of the older Kurosaki.
Ichigo flash-stepped into a blur to stand beside Urahara and instantly moved him to stand with him and Tatsuki. Urahara whirled his head around as he was moved and he looked at Ichigo. "What is it Ichigo?" he asked sounding slightly serious, then saw a wide-eyed Tatsuki and smirked, "Girlfriend problems?" he questioned teasingly, only to get a double-punch in the jaw from Ichigo and Tatsuki, both of whom were red-faced from embarrassment, followed by simultaneous silent yells of "Pervert!" from both of the embarrassed teens.
Urahara rolled on the ground for all five seconds crying about the cruelty of the world, before getting back up on his feet with a serious expression, "So what is it really Ichigo?" he asked again as the hat shadowed his eyes.
"Alright, just wanted to ask, can you see any kind of veins on my skin?" the transcendent teen asked as he held out his arm for Urahara to study. The shop owner looked over Ichigo's arm and noticed light blue lines running under his skin that he recognized from somewhere, "Well I can see a set of light blue lines going under your skin... I remember seeing something like this before, but..." he trailed off as his eyes widened slightly, remembering seeing these same lines on Ichigo's own mother. "Blut Vene..." he whispered in awe, "Ichigo... I know what this is," Urahara said as he looked up to his former pupil, eyes wide and alert.
"Then what is it?" Ichigo asked impatiently, getting annoyed with the hat-wearing man, "I can't tell you, this is your father's responsibility" said man replied in a business like tone, "I don't know why he didn't just tell you already when you were younger, but that is neither here nor there," he said in a somewhat playful manner.
"Alright, third question," Ichigo said and pointed to Tatsuki, "Can you sense her reiatsu?" he asked looking at his old mentor with a critical eye. Urahara looked puzzled for a moment before nodding and trying to feel the spiritual pressure of the young woman, and found... nothing, not a trace of her reiatsu could be felt. He blinked a few times and checked again, to once again find nothing. He looked to his pupil with an incredulous expression, "Is this some cruel illusion cooked up by Aizen?" he almost cried, "There's jus- no... Not even gonna be surprised anymore!" he said loudly as he spun in a circle for some unknown reason and then turned to his pupil again. "To answer your question, no, I can't feel anything from her except what I can see and hear at the moment," he answered with a deadpan expression.
"Ah, confirms my suspicion..." Ichigo said thoughtfully. "And what suspicion would that be Ichigo?" the former captain asked.
"Tatsuki... you absorbed some of my reiryoku when you were releasing a lot of your own... ," Ichigo started explaining, "seems your body used some of my own overflowing power to add to its own... and since you were already used to by spiritual pressure before," he paused "... all of 'this' happened... you simply accustomed yourself to my new power without thinking and can now feel it, as your power is in a similar state of transcendence, this could also be reason for you being able to fully see my veins." He finished as he drew a breath, "that sound about right, Hat'n'clogs?"
Kisuke and Tatsuki stood with dumbfounded expressions, 'since when did Ichigo get so smart?' they were both thinking as they looked at Ichigo. "Well... yes, that theory does seem plausible; I don't see any real holes in it, except the fact that your power actually interacting with others seems nearly impossible... "He trailed off as he eyed the Hogyoku hanging around Ichigo's neck, "But the Hogyoku might just have an unusual effect on your powers, I need to study this" the last part was mumbled to himself.
"Ichigo... when the hell did you get smart?" Tatsuki asked with a deadpan expression as Ichigo just raised an orange eyebrow and a small twitch at his lips.
"Hey, I wasn't in the top 20 on the school exam board for nothing you know," he said with a smug tone and a smirk to accompany, veins pulsing purple for a moment before returning to yellow, "I just never acted smart until now. I DO have a reputation to uphold don't I?" he asked kindly as he rubbed the back of his head with his lips splitting into a big grin that hadn't graced his face for years, while the veins around his eyes flashed a bright red, followed by blue before going back to yellow.
Ichigo then looked over to where Orihime and the new Ulquiorra were sitting. Ulquiorra was now lying with his head in Orihime's lap, sleeping peacefully and actually smiling, and the others had gathered around; Chizuru, as always, was trying to grope Orihime. Thankfully, Mizuiro was kind enough to hold her back from ruining the moment between the Angel and the Princess. Ichigo again smiled kindly at the scene.
"So... Suki-chan, what were you going to ask me before you started freaking out?" Ichigo asked with the smug tone back in full force. This earned him an elbow in the rib, which, while not painful, did make him wince on reflex.
"I was going to ask why you made Orihime catch that guy..." she trailed of, "but now think I see why..." she said solemnly with a wistful smile, as she watched her best friend's happily content expression as she ran her fingers through Ulquiorra's hair.
"Looks like she finally go over me," Ichigo said as he chuckled; looking over at Tatsuki, who was currently looking unhappy with him as she scowled at him. "So you actually noticed her feelings for you?" she asked, "Then why the hell didn't you act?!" she growled under her breath, a tick mark appearing on her brow.
"Because I didn't want to break her heart, until she could find someone better to love..." Ichigo trailed off, a solemn look settling on his face as he looked at Orihime, "I... I couldn't return her love... because... I think of her like a sister... in a way..." he continued hesitantly.
Tatsuki by this point had calmed down considerably, but she was frowning at Ichigo. 'Why are you so damn hard to figure out?!' Tatsuki thought to herself, confused about her friend's behavior, 'How much did you change since you disappeared?'
The tomboy sighed to herself, letting her anger completely evaporate for now.
It was then that a familiar group of people flew out of the hole that the Cero had created long before. It was Kenpachi, Byakuya, Rukia, and Chad being carried by Renji and Isane, and they all looked tired and worn from the long and arduous battle that had gone on below the fake sun of Las Noches.
They landed on the roof of the great fortress and walked tiredly over to the rest of the group, Chad walked as well, despite his injuries that had just been quickly patched up by Isane. Renji raised a hand in a waving motion "Hey Guys!" he called as he saw the large group of people standing around.
Ichigo turned to the new arrivals and smirked, thinking of devious way to mess with his friend and rival as he disappeared using pure speed, moving fast enough as to not cause a blur, reappearing next to his Mexican friend at the back of the group.
Ichigo poked his friend, eliciting a grunt and the turn of a head, and the strawberry blond teen held up a finger to his mouth in the universal sign for 'please be quiet' and the giant just nodded his head and smiled at seeing his best friend ok, no matter his changes.
Ichigo followed the group quietly, smirking deviously, popped up behind Renji in an instant and put the red head in a head lock, eliciting a yell of "What the Fu-!" before Ichigo proceeded to give him a one-handed noogie while grinning maniacally at the headaches this was causing his loud friend as he was yelling for him to stop, not knowing who it was, due to being unable to see his face and not recognizing his clothes.
"Ow, Ow, Sto-Ow, OW!" etc. was what Renji was yelling along with other profanities. The others around him were laughing their asses off, except the ever-stoic Chad, who was smirking at his friend's sense of humor, and Isane who was worried about the Vice-captains health, frowned at the fact that this orange haired guy somehow snuck up on them and was able to get a vice-captain in a headlock. But when she checked her spiritual senses, she drew a blank on the strawberry blonde youth; it was as if he wasn't even there. Kenpachi on the other hand was
Ichigo finally let his rival go and the red-head stumbled back before he got his bearings as he rubbed his head and looking around for his attacker and he saw the visage of the strawberry blonde teen looking back at him with an uncharacteristic grin on his face. "What the he-! What happened to you?" Renji said confusedly as his brain finally caught up with what his eyes were seeing.
Here stood a very different Ichigo from when they separated, before the war let loose in the fortress. The hair, the clothes, a majority of his physique; it had all changed!
"Well..."Ichigo started before bringing a hand to the marble of power around his neck, "I killed Aizen and the Hogyoku apparently decided that I was a more "worthy" holder of its power..." he trailed off, looking around at everyone.
Rukia stood there open mouthed a gleam of shock in her eyes at the fact that Ichigo apparently had killed the madman. The other Kuchiki had a raised eyebrow and an inquisitive glint in his eyes, while his fellow captain had an absolutely insane grin on his face and staring intently at ichigo, probably itching to fight his unwilling rival.
Chad had raised his head a little to let his hair uncover one of his eyes so he could fully see his long-time friend, while Isane had a similar expression to Rukia, but her eyes held a glint of worry.
Renji on the other had... his eyes were almost popping out of their sockets and his mouth was opening and closing, trying to formulate words before settling on being closed to save some of his dignity.
"I should probably explain "how" I did it shouldn't I?" Ichigo asked with a raised eyebrow taking in the looks on his comrades faces, "eh, I'll just show you," was all he said before disappearing to the air a few hundred meters away, with black power blazing on his arm and positioned it for a downwards swing as an ethereal black blade materialized.
He swung with a mutter of "Mugetsu" as a smaller version of the aforementioned attack darkened the already shadowy sky and tore apart the desert below, killing off a few hollows lingering in the forest beneath the sands, while sand now flooded the chasms below.
Ichigo breathed a sigh, as the attack still took quite a bit out of him, even if it wasn't on full blast.
Ichigo reappeared before his friends, "and that was just a weaker version of the attack that finally took him down," Ichigo said as he chuckled at his friends and rivals expressions. They were of collective awe at the sight, while Kenpachi as expected, had the largest grin anyone had ever seen on his face as he saw the utter annihilation that the attack caused.
"Ichigo... I hate you," Renji said with tears flooding from his eyes due to jealousy, "why the hell do you get so powerful!?" he sniffed as he laid face-down on the ground.
Ichigo just grinned, "Well Renji, I actually have no idea, maybe you just haven't been trying hard enough?" Ichigo teased his rival.
"I-chi-go," sounded a voice from behind ichigo followed by ominous chuckling, "FIGHT ME!" came the ever insane voice of the eleventh captain as the blade of his sword came down at hellish speeds, heading for Ichigo's torso.
As soon as Ichigo heard that crazy voice of his eternal tormentor calling for battle, he disappeared in a burst of speed and hid behind his red-headed friend with a look of horror on his face, "Damn you, Kenpachi, not now!" Ichigo yelled over Renji's shoulder at the battle-crazy captain.
"I think you should listen, Captain Zaraki!" Isane complained, "I don't want to have to heal you again," she said while giving the combat captain a soft glare in an imitation of her own captain. This of course had the desired effect of creeping everyone but Kenpachi out, who just huffed and put his ragged blade on his shoulder in a relaxed stance.
Renji turned to his fellow vice-captain, "Thank you Isane," he said while throwing nervous glances towards the large captain.
Ichigo sighed in relief and moved quicker than anyone could see back to where Tatsuki was standing and she covered her mouth as she was giggling uncharacteristically, "Oh, what's so funny Suki-chan?" the taller teen asked as his lips quirked a little while thinking that her giggling looked cute, 'Wait,where'd that come from!?" he thought to himself, filing the thought away for later.
"Ah, I was just thinking about how you've never shown this... mischievous side of yourself... or your smart side for that matter," she mused while still chuckling to herself.
"And I never thought I'd ever see you giggle, you should do it more often, it's cute," Ichigo said with a smile while Tatsuki blushed up a storm as she turned away from Ichigo. "A-and you should smile more often... it makes you look more handsome than when you're scowling all the time," she returned, making ichigo grin at the barb and inadvertently blush at the compliment.
Urahara meanwhile was looking between the two with a smirk adorning his face, 'oh this is PERFECT blackmail material!' he thought as he chuckled inwardly, 'I wonder what I can make him do?' he mused to himself as he grinned evilly behind his past student's back.
The group of soul reapers in the meanwhile had grouped together with the others and you could hear some shouts of panic coming from the more emotional members of the newly arrived group, e.g. Renji, Rukia and Isane. Ichigo sighed and sped over to his friends and colleagues, "What's the problem?" Ichigo asked boredly.
"What do you mean is the problem!? What is he still doing alive!?" Renji exclaimed and pointed at the formerly black haired Espada, "We even felt his spiritual pressure disappear over an hour ago!" Rukia continued for her friend.
"Calm down! Geez," Ichigo sighed, "I brought him back just a few minutes ago, don't worry, the guy only followed Aizen because he had no other purpose... he even stopped being emotionless before he died, and well... he didn't deserve his fate, so I recreated him with the powers of the Hogyoku before his spiritual power faded away," Ichigo explained and looked down at the angelic Espada.
This calmed them somewhat, but they were still throwing doubtful glances at both Ulquiorra and Ichigo.
Orihime just frowned at the group of soul reapers as they were arguing over the person in her lap, 'he may be an Arrancar, and an Espada,' she thought, 'but he's just misunderstood' she thought as her frown deepened.
"But... what will we do when he wakes up?" Renji questioned, "You can't guarantee he won't attack us!" Renji said vehemently, this caused the teen princess' mood to darken as she glared at the red-headed vice-captain.
Ichigo sighed, sensing the waves of ill intent coming off of his busty friend; which somehow escaped Renji's senses, "And can you guarantee he will?" Ichigo replied with nothing but a little irritation, "No, Renji, you can't, besides..." he said as he glanced over at the irate teen, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," the teen hybrid muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Renji and a few others to hear.
Renji just tilted his head in confusion, and then glanced in Ulquiorra's direction when he noticed the person holding the espada, which was a very angry looking ginger teen. And that anger was directed at him. He shivered as the full meaning of Ichigo's words hit him and backed off from the topic.
Everyone's mood darkened for a few seconds until... "ICHI!" a blur of bubblegum pink and black crashed into Ichigo, who skidded on his back with a yelp of surprise as the pink blur giggled and rose its head and revealed it to be the ever hyper vice-captain of squad 11, Yachiru Kusajishi with a huge grin on her face and a cheerful giggle sounding from behind it.
"Hey, Yachiru!" greeted the burly captain, as he had small smile on his face, one that only came out around Yachiru having fun, a gentle smile.
"Kenny!" she squealed and jumped off of the strawberry blonde boy and back to her captains shoulder while she was still giggling.
"What took you so long?" Kenpachi asked.
"Oh, I just had to say good bye to Nemu," she said happily, "but she was being stingy and not talking" she finished with an extremely cute pout.
"The large captain just shook his head at girls antics and smiled warmly at the young girl he had taken in over a hundred years ago, that she never ceased to bring a smile, psychotic or otherwise, was surprising to many but himself.
Ichigo stepped into the middle of the group, "I think it would be best if we all started to get moving," he said in a loud and clear voice and disappeared for a split second, only to reappear the next with Tatsuki, Urahara and his father, Isshin, next to him. Isshin, still being unconscious due to fatigue, was lying on his back.
Wordlessly, Ichigo engulfed everyone in light again before anyone could react, and the next moment they were in the fake Karakura town, standing in the ruins of a random building.
Urahara looked at Ichigo, "You've got to let me study that sometime."
A/N, Hello Guys! well... two weeks? I'm getting better at this! but anyways, does anyone seem OOC to you? it feels like it to me but whatever! My Story! My RULES! and as You've noticed, there is Fluff a plenty here! I think it will mellow out during the next two chapters, but we shall see.
Anyways, do I plan on giving Tatsuki powers? duh, yeah! I want her to be able to fight those damn Quincies later! And as you've guessed, the third party in the relationship is Momo Hinamori, third most adorable thing in the Bleach universe! but how do you people think I handled the Ulquiorra part of this story? it has to be better than just sticking her with Uryuu, right?
And bringing people back to life (or unlife as it may be) seems impossible? One word: Hogyoku! that thing is the freaking deus ex machina of the Bleachverse!
But now we have one location to go before we are able to do any kind of location/time skipping, so just one more chapter.
but anyway, Read, Follow, Favorite, Review, etc. do one, do none, it does not matter, just fave fun! Ciao!