The Beginning of the End
Ichigo stood over the fallen warriors, his once unassuming smile now a twisted mockery of his once human self. Regardless of how he looked he was not back to normal at all. He was just another demon in disguise. He slowly kneeled down beside Rukia and grasped her chin, tilting her head up to look into his eyes.
"Rukia...I've missed you." The words were nothing but poison. Rukia couldn't resist the urge to wince at his calm expression and kind words.
"I-Ichigo...Why?" she stammered, a thin trail of blood running down from the corner of her mouth.
"What do you mean? I'm doing this for a good reason."
"What?"
"It's simple," Ichigo explained, his calm demeanour unwavering, "this is what you get for leaving me back there."
Rukia suddenly had the urge to vomit, feeling truly sick to her stomach. Was it truly her fault? Was Ichigo simply taking his anger out on her after being abandoned?
"We could have stayed together you know," Ichigo continued on, his morbid little lullaby moving on, "We could have rebuilt the world together. We could have made everything right again. But you threw it all away!"
Rukia was about to protest when her former companion threw her against the wall of the Dangai. Before she could even fall back down to the ground Ichigo charged, driving his knee deep into her gut. She coughed up specks of bloody spittle and dropped into a heap, dazed and disoriented.
"You abandoned me and ran away! You didn't care about me at all now did you?"
"You're wrong!" she pleaded, only to be quietened by a boot to the ribs.
"Silence!" Ichigo roared, his usual scowl returning. "You just used me. I was a tool to keep you alive and nothing more! A pawn you could exploit for your own benefit!"
Rukia's eyes narrowed, "No...That's a lie..."
Ichigo glared down at her, expression ashen, "Mayuri told me everything. From the very beginning you were just using me. That night we first met you only gave me your powers to save yourself! You taught me the ways of a shinigami just so I would protect you and save you from execution! You stayed with me all this time simply to use me as a shield!"
"No, I did it because we were friends! Don't you remember?"
"Don't condescend me!" Ichigo snapped, stomping on the smaller shinigami. "Your lies won't get you anywhere now! Mayuri told me the truth about your plans!"
"What plans?"
"You want to stop Mayuri and me from rebuilding the world! Together you and I were supposed to open a new chapter in the history of mankind but you couldn't go through with it. You resented me all this time and couldn't bear to create a new world with me; you simply want to bring about the end of this world and me along with it. At least be honest with me and tell me the truth!"
"But..." Rukia could no longer see, tears stinging her bloodshot eyes, "I really am telling you...Please remember..."
"I do remember, Rukia. I remember all the empty promises and fake smiles. I remember all those times I risked my life for you. But when did you ever risk your own life for mine? If we were truly friends why was I the only one shielding everyone?" Ichigo's eyes burned with fury. "Drop the act Rukia. I'm through playing our little game. I didn't set out here to play catch-up. Mayuri sent me here to kill you!"
Rukia choked on her own words before she could protest. She couldn't believe the words she was hearing. She couldn't comprehend how Ichigo could possibly believe such lies. What had Mayuri done to him?
"Ichigo...Ichigo please, you have to remember! Mayuri is feeding you lies!"
"Sorry Rukia, it's too late to save yourself." Ichigo took up his sword and raised it high, the glistening black blade poised to slice clean through her neck. Rukia tried to move but she was paralysed under his stare. His eyes truly showed a menace she had never seen before, at least not directed at her. It was the enraged glare she showed to his true enemies. She had seen it plenty of times but never had she received such a look from Ichigo.
It made no sense...
They were friends, best friends, better than friends. They had confessed their love for one another at the school when the dead were closing in on them. They had embraced each other and held each other close as the end drew upon them.
What happened? Where did those kind eyes go?
"Ichigo..." It was all she could utter, the word barely discernible from her panicked breaths and wracking sobs. She had faced death before but never had it been so terrifying. Even the rising dead seemed trivial compared to being cut down by a loved one. Even the end of the world felt empty and meaningless compared to Ichigo's sudden betrayal.
It seemed her second chance was only designed to make her suffer more. But why? Why was she to suffer so much? Why was everyone and everything suddenly against her? Why did the world want nothing more than to break her down and destroy her? Why did Ichigo hate her?
She stared at her terrified reflection in Ichigo's sword as it swung downward. The blade of fate crashed down, arcing towards her. She was helpless to watch on, morbidly transfixed upon the weapon that would ultimately end her existence for the final time.
A curtain was about to descend on her long life. One hundred and fifty years of torment were about to finally come to an end.
So this is it...The end...
I'm sorry Ichigo...
Sorry I could not save you...
Ichigo's blade soared through the air, inching ever closer to Rukia who remained trapped her doll-like stare fixated on the blade of fate crashing down upon her. She felt the air before her very eyes sliced clean through by the swinging black sword. She felt the air brushing against her face and then-
'BOOM!'
Ichigo's deceptively calm figure vanished behind a bright red blast. The sword swung wide and buried itself in the ground by her feet. Rukia fell back, eyes wide, staring at the thick plumes of smoke spewing from the statuesque frame of her former companion.
Ichigo snarled beneath the haze and swiped it away with his hands before setting his sights on the intruder.
Urahara stood some distance away, his sword drawn and at the ready. The two stared down one another for a moment before both disappearing in a flash and colliding with the sound of thunder. Urahara pressed his blade through Ichigo's defences but the lithe young boy simply used the momentum to spin off from his back leg and swing his sword around from the side. Urahara blocked it with his own weapon and used his free hand to let loose a small fireball from his open palm.
Ichigo barely reacted and simply pushed on, shoulder-charging the former captain and lifting him up off of the ground. As Urahara hovered momentarily Ichigo spun around on his back heel and drove his other leg into his opponent's stomach. Urahara slammed into the wall of the Dangai and barely had time to get up when the fearsome predator was already upon him.
The black blade crashed down upon Urahara's own blade and sparks rained down upon them as a deadly stalemate was reached.
Ichigo backed off and allowed the man to stand before rushing in for the kill yet again. Ichigo swung his sword like a madman, each strike getting successively stronger than the last until Urahara could barely maintain his balance and was thrown back into the wall again.
Left cornered, Urahara had no choice but to launch a counter-attack. He rolled aside from the young demon's downward slash and dived again to avoid Ichigo's follow-through swing. Now with his body awkwardly positioned Ichigo was left with holes in his defences.
Urahara rushed forward, a great roar escaping him. As he came within mere centimetres of running through his foe a hand suddenly struck out from nowhere. Urahara made the fatal mistake of hesitating as Ichigo's free hand reached out and clamped down on his throat.
"Kisuke!" Ururu cried from the sidelines, charging towards him.
Ichigo swiftly lifted his opponent up off his feet and promptly drove his face through the ground. Urahara struggled to recover but was rescued by the pint-sized assistant Ururu. The tiny girl barrelled into the Kurosaki boy and the two were thrown back a few paces. Without letting up Ururu unleashed a vicious onslaught of punches and kicks, using her bare hands to pummel her foe into submission.
Or so she had hoped...
However even with seemingly mortal wounds, Ichigo simply laughed it off. His torso was visibly dented from a particularly heavy punch, no doubt broken ribs and fatal injuries. The boy didn't even wince and simply struck her with the back of his hand.
Ururu stumbled back and was momentarily dazed.
Ichigo moved in for the finishing blow when his hand was knocked back by the force of a high-powered bullet. Vaguely irritated, Ichigo craned his neck to glare at Alice who had propped herself up against the wall of the tunnel to get a better aim with her M4.
"Hmm...Interesting...That's what a bullet feels like? No wonder it never stopped them..." Ichigo said this almost as an afterthought. Then he laughed, "Alice...I thought we had gone over this before..." He vanished.
Alice panicked but found herself unable to move. In an instant Ichigo was standing over her with a venomous smile, "You're supposed to aim for the head!"
Before Alice could scream his bony fingers enclosed around her head and clenched tight, threatening to shatter her skull. Her muffled cries of agony prompted the others to quickly run to her aid but this only spurred Ichigo on.
As Ururu reached him, Ichigo launched Alice forward like a missile and the two tumbled over each other to land in a heap. Urahara dashed past them and brought his sword down over Ichigo's shoulder only to have his sword arm caught in mid-air and wrenched around behind his back.
Karin opened fire into her brother's back in an attempt to distract him and in a sense it worked, but Ichigo still failed to relinquish his grip on Urahara. It was only when he smelled his flesh singeing and glanced down at the hand pressed against his heart that he loosened his grip. Kisuke's kido scorched Ichigo's chest and left him with a faint rasp to his breaths.
"Damn!" Kisuke snarled, "This isn't working at all!"
"Of course not," Mayuri declared proudly from his safe vantage point further up the tunnel, "Kurosaki Ichigo holds the key to the new breed of man! He is the Adam to bring about the new age of life. His unmatched abilities shall prove him worthy to propagate the species and birth the next glorious stage in man's ascent to absolute dominion over life and death!"
Ichigo seemed pleased with the praise but everyone else simply glared at the raving lunatic.
"Kurosaki is the prototype for the ultimate being! A creature transcending the laws of nature which bind humanity! Death cannot control him, rather he controls death! Truly Kurosaki is as close to perfection as can be. And I...I have finally found the power to be as one with the Gods! This plague, the final test of man...This was my judgement! The rebirth of man through the ashes of apocalypse, so too is my diving creation! I have the ultimate power in my grasp! All life in this world and the next, all exists according to my will! Existence itself rests in the palm of my hand!"
"You're a fool Mayuri! What point is there to any of this? You have destroyed everything just to play god? Why?"
"You yourself should understand Kisuke. I am a scientist. My whole reason for being is to uncover the secrets of this world. I live to solve the mysteries which have plagued man for centuries! Has the concept of death and creation not been the greatest secrets of our time? Is it not true that the answer to our life and death has always lingered just beyond our grasp? I have done what no other could ever manage. I have demystified life and death with my latest creations! Not only that, I have discovered a means to bypass such troublesome things and advance man's existence further than ever before!"
"You killed millions of innocent people for your selfish desires! Such atrocity is inexcusable! I won't let you get away with this!"
Mayuri simply grinned from ear to ear, "Oh but I already have! As we speak my legions are assembling outside the gates of Sereitei, ready to attack. Ukitake may have managed to hold Soul Society together for so long but his grasp cannot withstand a large-scale invasion. No matter how many of those fools lived through the initial outbreak their fats are now sealed. Soul Society will be cleansed of the impure and the truly worthy shall remain. Furthermore, the World of the Living is on the verge of total destruction! World leaders have united against the scourge but it has all been for nothing. Many nations have been wiped out entirely! Only small pockets of resistance remain but with an organised invasion force each one could easily be trampled underfoot as my minions tear a new bloody leaf on Earth's history!"
Urahara glanced back at Rukia and the others and softly whispered a parting message. The girls were all stunned by his words but nodded gravely without protest. Intrigued Mayuri waved a hand towards them while addressing his slave, "Kurosaki, they are plotting against you. Destroy them and be done with it! We have more pressing matter to attend!"
Ichigo nodded and took up an offensive stance.
Urahara was suddenly smiling.
The others appeared to be wearing brave faces for the next phase of the battle.
Mayuri paid no heed to their confidence, preoccupied with delusions of grandeur and a world drowned in blood. He did not pick up Urahara's subtle little movements or the hushed murmurs of the other warriors. So blinded by his own ambition, Mayuri didn't notice anything at all until it was too late...
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I actually went through five different versions of this chapter, all leading in different directions and such but I felt this was the right one to go with. Please review.