Well, more reviews! Glad to read 'em! Thanks a lot! (That means YOU, AlleluiaElizabeth, I like when people are detailed in their reviews :P) More reviews are always appreciated, and I'll answer them with more chapters! :D Fair deal, no? Also, you may have noticed I've stopped using italics for certain pronouns. It's tedious, even if it is grammatically correct. Well, I'll stop being boring and say:
Bleach is not owned by me, I simply write fanfiction for it.
Enjoy!
Ichigo turned to face the now-revealed captain but was met with nothing but a quickly forming darkness. Suddenly, there was nothing. No sight, no sound. Ichigo couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face. Ichigo yelled out to the captain,
"Where are you, Tousen!?" He was shocked to find that he couldn't even hear his own voice! Ichigo snapped his head around in every direction, but saw darkness at every turn. Without any warning, a huge blast of pain seared through his chest, as Tousen had sliced him diagonally across the chest, from the right to the left, from hip to shoulder. Ichigo staggered, turning to wait for the next attack. But Ichigo realized he couldn't wait, so he fired off a nameless Getsuga blast in front of him. He realized the folly of this quickly as he remembered he couldn't even see anything. A moment afterwards, Ichigo felt a second, mercifully smaller cut appear on the outside of his right arm and grasped it with his left hand. Letting the hand leave the wound, Ichigo swiped it across his face, conjuring his striped Hollow mask and shooting his reiatsu throughout the darkness. Ichigo pulled his zanpaktou across his left, holding his sword as Grimmjow did against Ulquiorra prior to releasing. Instead of transforming, however, Ichigo spoke the soundless word "Getsuga", and, pulling back even farther, screamed out silently,
"TENSHOU!!!!!!!!!" as he spun in a circle, blindly releasing a Getsuga Tenshou wave in a circle around him. He next swiped directly above him in the fashion of an 'X', launching Getsugas with both swipes. Ichigo blasted off, following the arc-waves as he swung madly with Tensa Zangetsu, hopefully colliding with Tousen as he went. But it wasn't Tousen that he found. Ichigo began to see the darkness fade as he rose, and saw the twin Getsuga Tenshous he had fired. Ichigo had escaped the darkness, and he glanced downwards. A great ebony dome stood there, tied off with cables to various points around it. Is that. . . Tousen's Bankai?? Ichigo had little time to think as Tousen appeared to his right with Suzumushi raised above his head and heading down. Ichigo swiped out and upwards with Zangetsu, deflecting Tousen's attack as he began to unleash a flurry of blade strikes upon the ex-captain. Tousen was struggling to keep Ichigo in check, as the masked assailant made hits more times than Tousen was able against him — if at all he discovered the opportunity! Tousen was caught off guard by a back-handed and sky-bound swipe that knocked Tousen's zanpaktou above his own head, freeing some room for Ichigo to thrust his palm into Tousen's chest. The captain slid through the air, pressurized pockets of oxygen following his path. Tousen sheathed his sword as Ichigo charged forward, declaring,
"Cry, Suzumushi." The sheathed zanpaktou was partially drawn, and, before Ichigo could reach Tousen, Suzumushi shrieked as the world turned to black and white. Ichigo stopped dead in his tracks as his ears went haywire, making him grasp his head, urging the pain to cease. As color returned to the world, Ichigo's Hollow mask snapped, spilling into a myriad of pieces that fell to the ground. Thankfully, the pain had ceased, but Ichigo was now brought to an even level with Tousen. Tousen fully drew his katana, dissolving the scabbard simultaneously. Ichigo, his aching past, swiped his zanpaktou through the air, pointing it at Tousen as he brought it to rest next to his head in an aggressive sword fighting stance. Tousen brought his own blade up directly in front of him as Ichigo charged forth like a battering ram, zanpaktou pointed forward like a pike. Before Tousen and Ichigo could clash blades, Ichigo shifted out of existence with Shunpo, escaping Tousen's sight. The orange-haired Substitute reappeared on the other side of Tousen, then to his left, right, front, until he was suddenly everywhere at once, circling around him with immense speed. Tousen couldn't fix on a target as it was gone the moment he managed to single it out. Ichigo tauntingly sped around him as he commented,
"You guys seem to know so much about my friends and me, but did you have intel enough to prepare for this??" Ichigo began to appear right next to Tousen and land strikes, most on Tousen's zanpaktou, but some attacks hit their mark with swift effect. Tousen was being quickly worn down and so, in the midst of the strikes, Tousen used his secondary attack.
"Benihikō," he cried, "Smash his limbs!" Ichigo was suddenly repelled by a ring-shaped perimeter of blades that surrounded Tousen. With a swipe of his sword, Tousen unleashed the swarm of swords upon the racing phantasms of Kurosaki Ichigo. The phantasms quickly disappeared as Ichigo appeared above Tousen with his sword at his side, sweeping at Tousen's head. Tousen disappeared with a swift Shunpo of his own, landing on the sand directly below Ichigo. Ichigo dashed forward, blasting though the air with his sword in hand. Once he got halfway, Ichigo Flash Stepped forward and instantaneously collided with Tousen's upraised zanpaktou. The impact sent ripples across the sand in a chaotic flurry of wind. Ichigo suddenly noticed the black dome rip apart, and, looking back to Tousen, saw him charge energy at the intersection of the fighters' blades.
"Hadō Number Thirty-Three: Sōkatsui." The spell glowed blue and thrust Ichigo back, several meters away from Tousen until it exploded, engulfing Ichigo in smoke. The Substitute swept away the smoke with a slash of his zanpaktou as Tousen came crashing against Ichigo's zanpaktou, pushing with considerably more force than before now that the dome no longer needed to be maintained. The two were face-to-face, each pushing back against the other.
"Why are you even working with Aizen anyway, Tousen!? Aren't you supposed to be a noble man, like the one I heard about from Hisagi and Komamura?? You're going to help Aizen kill everyone in Karakura Town, and for what?!" Ichigo hoped the words would somehow get to him, sparking some sort of reaction, but Ichigo was disappointed as Tousen replied,
"Karakura must be sacrificed. Soul Society's hypocritical ways must be changed. This change is not so easy that it can be accomplished through politics. The entire outlook of the Shinigami must be transformed. For this, there must be a revision like none before it. Only then will there be truly peace. The people of Karakura will save a countless many souls, human, Shinigami, Hollow, or otherwise." Tousen pushed Ichigo back, causing them both to slide through the air, "I regret that Aizen-sama's path is the one I must take, but there is no other to achieve lasting peace."
"That's not true!"
"Don't be so naïve!!! From the earliest anyone can remember, there have been Shinigami fighting Hollows, but has there been peace? No. Not true peace. And until Soul Society realizes this, there can be no peace." Tousen suddenly snapped his head to the right, and after a short moment, whispered, "Yes, sir." With a blur, Tousen disappeared, Flash Stepping away. Ichigo searched for the captain, but he was gone. Where he was headed, no one knew. Probably went back to Las Noches. . . Ichigo sighed and descended, placing himself lightly on the cool sand of Hueco Mundo. Ichigo looked upon the inert body of Ulquiorra, lying beside his zanpaktou. A buzz echoed through the midnight air, and an Arrancar's reiatsu crashed down on Ichigo's shoulders.
"Well, Shinigami, not bad at all. Not. Bad. At all," remarked a cocky Espada. Ichigo turned behind him to see Grimmjow — battered, but still dignified in his stance — standing with his hands in his pockets. "Wanna go a round against me?" smirked the Sexta.
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Concurrently. . .
"Nnoitora Jiruga. . . We, the Exequias, will complete the task set before us and eliminate all those who fail Aizen-sama." Rudobon drew his zanpaktou as he stood, along with the rest of the ilk that is the Exequias, before the unconscious body of Nnoitora Jiruga. But then the prone Quinto stirred, slowly standing up and dragging his wrecked zanpaktou up with him. Santa Teresa's blades were reduced to nothing but a stump with a single broken prong stemming forward from it, and the bottom of the staff, which had a chain attached to it, was destroyed.
"So. . . You think that I'm done for, now? You think that I'm just gonna let you kill me!?!? DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP!" Nnoitora swung his marred zanpaktou at the captain of the Exequias, who promptly disappeared with an Echoing Movement. He reappeared behind Nnoitora, who used the momentum of his first attack to swing around and collide with Rudobon's zanpaktou. "Don't you dare think I'm gonna die here!!" Nnoitora roared, shoving Rudobon back as he leapt into the air, Santa Teresa raised above his head and falling straight down on Rudobon's skull. Rudobon connected with Nnoitora's attack, Nnoitora's zanpaktou crushing Rudobon down. "I've still got enough strength to kill you and all your minions." Rudobon let his reiatsu flow outwards, waves of tight spirit energy flowing outwards from beneath him, molded to the fortress's roof. Letting his zanpaktou be pushed down, Rudobon swiped at Nnoitora's head as the Quinto's feet met the ground, but Nnoitora was swift enough to lean back in time. With a quick spin, Nnoitora used the shattered pommel of his staff to take Rudobon's legs out from under him, but instead met a parry that allowed him to swing the blade of Teresa out at Rudobon's head. Predictably, the Exequias captain ducked the blow, but Nnoitora launched him into the air with a kick directly from his left foot into Rudobon's chin. The force of the kick spilled some fragments of the mask as Rudobon slid across the roof. Standing quickly, Rudobon barked out his order,
"Exequias! Kill him!" The swarm of the Exequias charged forward, running at Nnoitora as they drew their zanpaktous. Nnoitora turned his head to the left and fumed as he watched the minions approach.
"I told you! I still got enough strength to take down you AND your puppets!" Nnoitora glowed gold as his reitasu focused around his body. Ignoring that injuries that lined his body, Nnoitora focused his power into the zanpaktou, and the blade immediately burst in flashes of yellow shaped like the missing pieces of the zanpaktou. Bringing Teresa across his chest with a single arm, Nnoitora focused his power once more to disperse into miniscule orbs of light the energy surrounding the zanpaktou, revealing the full blades and chain of Santa Teresa. The Exequias were now upon him, but a step away, and Nnoitora swung his weapon outward, tearing through the horde. The defeated ones were flung backwards into those still running forward, and Nnoitora cackled with a new-found energy. Rudobon suddenly appeared in front of him, sword thrusting forward at Nnoitora's face. Jiruga tilted his head to the left, but swung the flat edge of Santa Teresa straight up into Rudobon's zanpaktou, smashing it upwards, Rudobon's hand along with it. Nnoitora kicked the bottom of the sword's hilt upwards, sending it flying out of Rudobon's hand. The Quinto Espada then bashed the bottom of his staff into Rudobon's rib cage, sending him flying through his legion of Exequias, who charged forward with killing intent. Nnoitora leapt backwards into the air, rising high above the masses of skull-wearing Exequias. Letting go of the staff, Nnoitora clutched Teresa's chain and spun the giant zanpaktou over his head, faster and faster. The impetus of the staff was sufficient enough to send wind flying everywhere, making it difficult for the Exequias to reach him, slowing them down. Nevertheless, they charged forward, trying to strike Nnoitora down. When the wave of them were close enough, Nnoitora pulled down on the chain and hurtled the zanpaktou sideways into the crowd of Calaveras, cleaving them into halves. Nnoitora restarted the deadly windmill, waiting for more targets, but the Exequias waited below him with their captain, who had his zanpaktou in his hand again. Nnoitora smirked, amused by the pitiful Exequias.
"That was a total waste of my time," Nnoitora spat, "I'm just gonna kill you now!!" Nnoitora slowed the spin, instead making sure he put as much force as he could behind his swing. "DIE!!!!!" Santa Teresa was flung straight at Rudobon, shooting like a ballistic missile towards him. Before Teresa could reach her mark, the pack of Exequias pooled in front of Rudobon to stop the blade, but she plowed through and made an opening. There was a clang, but it wasn't Rudobon who blocked the assault.
"Nnoitora, cease your hostilities and head to the infirmary," said Tousen, holding Nnoitora's blade back with his own, "Rudobon, gather your troops and return to your regular duties." Rudobon sheathed his sword as Nnoitora pulled Santa Teresa back towards himself.
"Yes, Tousen-sama," Rudobon bowed, turning to his remaining troops, "Exequias, to me." The captain of the Exequias left with his troops as Nnoitora glided down to the ground, headed for the hole in the roof. Tousen was already at the hole, heading down. Nnoitora let out an exasperated sigh. . . I'm gonna kill 'em. . . Tousen, Rudobon, Ulquiorra, the whole lot! I'll crush them!!!
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"Grimmjow. . ." Ichigo raised his zanpaktou, scornful eyes gazing into Grimmjow's own. The Sexta's smirk widened as he walked towards Ichigo,
"I said, do you wanna go a round or not!?!" Ichigo was unchanged in his demeanor, and replied coldly,
"Not interested. I have some other priorities right now, Grimmjow." Jaguarjaques had noticed Ulquiorra lying in the sand earlier, and was quite frankly amused.
"So, you're protecting Ulquiorra, huh? I have some flashes of what happened after our battle. I saw Tousen attack him, but after that, I was unconscious. So, did he manage to get the girl out?" Ichigo stared at Grimmjow, but answered nonetheless,
"Yeah. . . He did." Grimmjow smirked. Ulquiorra, the Savior. What a hoot.
"So. . . Did he tell you why he did it?" Ichigo blinked. That was a strange question to ask at this juncture. "He didn't, did he? Come on, Shinigami, Schiffer there is a human now. You can't tell me he just did it 'cause he could." Ichigo lowered his sword, letting himself relax for a bit, but he was confused by Grimmjow's questioning.
"Come to think of it, he was about to tell me when he. . ." Ichigo trailed off, turning to Ulquiorra as he contemplated the meaning of it.
"Well, Kurosaki? He was gonna tell you when he what?" Ichigo turned back to Grimmjow to answer his question,
"He was about to tell me, but he began turning into a Hollow." Grimmjow's eyes widened a fraction, but then they were opened wide, Ichigo's eyes as well, for a massive reiatsu had suddenly appeared, and it was coming from neither of them. The duo turned their heads to Ulquiorra, who was pushing himself off the ground with his arms. White wisps of fluid congregated at his right eye and the upper half of that side of his face. A horn formed from the wisps, spreading outwards from its placement to arch around Ulquiorra's closed right eye. Schiffer opened his eyes and glared at the two rivals.
The irises were painted gold and surrounded by sclera of black. A hole opened in Schiffer's chest.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
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"Are you alive?"
Ulquiorra awoke, sand acting as a cushion below his prone body. He had been lying face-down in the sand, and so, he slowly brought himself up. Where am I? Ulquiorra stood, faltering for but a moment before righting himself. Upon first glance he could tell that wherever he was, it was not Hueco Mundo. While the sand that lay below him looked just like the sand in Hueco Mundo, everything around him was quite different. Firstly, Ulquiorra was in an enormous, Colosseum-sized arena ringed by some strange rock-like structure. Ulquiorra deemed the structure to be made of the same kind of quartz as the trees in Hueco Mundo. The structure surrounded the arena with spires that rose up and curved over the sand field. The area gave off the feeling of some sort of erosion that had taken place. Ulquiorra looked further up. A pale full moon shone against a background of stars, and from Ulquiorra's perspective, two of the spires seemed to flank the moon in such a way that their tips seemed to hold the satellite up. A shadow forming on the ground between the spires caught Ulquiorra's attention. The shadow had a caster, and Ulquiorra looked up at some strange, dark figure that he couldn't distinguish. He couldn't even tell if it was vaguely humanoid. A second figure on the ground walking towards him from the deepest part of the shadow now took Ulquiorra's attention. The figure's hands were in its pockets as it walked forward, and Ulquiorra's eyes widened as it approached. It — he — was clad in white, with white hair and equally pale skin. His coattails flittered behind him as Ulquiorra noticed the details of his face: black eyes with golden irises, with solid black tears streaked down his cheeks. This was some twisted replica — a warped duplicate of some sort. Ulquiorra was just staring, eyes gazing wide with confusion. The clone stepped from out of the shadow and stopped, matching Ulquiorra's confused gaze with his own cold stare. The clone spoke, in a voice similar to Ulquiorra's, yet distorted and echoing in an eerie manner,
"I see you're confounded by what your eyes are showing you, Ulquiorra." Ulquiorra, at this point, managed to find a voice for himself, and responded,
"To a degree, I am. What are you? What is your purpose here? What is this place?" The clone closed his eyes for a moment before answering, his eyes never breaking contact with Ulquiorra's,
"I am you. Your antithesis, negative, inverse, pick what title you will, but I have no name. In the end, I am just your opposite. Even our clothing represents this." Ulquiorra looked down at what he was wearing and was shocked to see that in place of the ebony-trimmed white Espada clothing he normally wore (and what the clone was now wearing), Ulquiorra was clad in ivory-trimmed black, much like the clothing of a Shinigami. While the color scheme had changed, the shape of the clothing hadn't shifted from the Espada clothing he usually wore. The clone in the meantime, spoke again.
"As for my purpose," he said, drawing a sword Ulquiorra hadn't noticed before, of a purple weave hilt, opposite Ulquiorra's green zanpaktou hilt, "It is to destroy you, Ulquiorra." The clone brought the sword across himself diagonally, one hand on the hilt. Ulquiorra drew his zanpaktou, keeping his sword tip forward with two hands on his hilt. The clone spoke once more, cold enmity evident in his voice,
"Prepare to die. . . Ulquiorra. . ."