Disclaimer: This man does not own Bleach.
Trascender
"He has finally awakened from his slumber. He is ready to see you, Ichigo Kurosaki."
Ichigo walked into the room, glancing over his shoulder at the door closing behind him. He turned ahead, searching around the room for the Spirit King, before a flash of light appeared before him. A deep, but slightly echoing, voice radiated through the room.
"You must be... the Ryoka that invaded Soul Society years, Ichigo Kurosaki."
"...You already knew that, Spirit King," Ichigo stated as the light cleared, revealing a human-like entity with slicked hair and unusual-shaped pupils. Robes began flowing around him, covering him as he sat in the throne that appeared behind him. A staff, with a ivory-colored gem on it's tip, appeared in his hand.
"...You don't seem to impressed to see me. Many Soul Reapers would kill for a chance such as this."
"...You know the answer to that as well."
"...Very well, Hollow warrior. I believe no explanation could hold any meaning. I'm sure Mother has told you everything."
"Not really. Hoshiihime died before she could really tell me anything."
Ichigo felt the sudden drop in temperature in the room, though the expression on the King changed very little.
"...I meant Lady Kagura. Do not refer that traitor to me in my presence."
Ichigo paused a moment to catch his breath before speaking again, "She told me about... the history with the Old One, but not much on what my role is in all of this."
The Spirit King nodded. Ichigo was shocked when the area around him morphed, transforming the floor to white sand and the ceiling to the night sky.
"This is... Hueco Mundo?"
"Up in the sky, my father is sealed in the La Luna Roja."
Ichigo turned as the Spirit King pointed into the sky, at the red moon that wavered over Hueco Mundo.
"With the one key that sealed him away, that specially-made instrument Kagura has implanted into your chest, my Father will allow your entrance."
"Wait! There are four keys! The Quincy's, The Oken, Orihime, and this! How come I don't need those?"
"Those are for simple fools. Its a ploy to make simpletons try their best to meet the old one. Many Hollows, such as Arturo Plateado, made such a foolish choice. The true key is that one in your chest. The one that traitor guarded. Father only wants to bring Kagura and himself back together."
Ichigo ran his fingers down the Hogyoku inside of his chest. "Back... together?"
"Every action created by him was for the sake of Kagura. Therefore, she made that key specifically for opening the La Luna Roja."
"...I kinda figured that. Why do I need to visit him?"
The Spirit King closed his eyes, sighing as he fell back into his seat. Ichigo waited patiently for the next words of the Spirit King.
"...I had always intended... to finish the remains of my lost father... However, upon the revelation of your existence... I realized that if men like Aizen could even attempt to enter the palace, then the pin holding everything together... is slowly failing..."
He paused, flashing his eyes open and gazing into the eyes of Ichigo. His eyes spoke a thousand volumes of the age corrupting his powers.
"Soul Society... will always be held together... but if you defeat my father... and take away his remaining power... You will become an equivalent being to myself."
"..."
"I'm entrusting... Hueco Mundo... and the human realm... to you, Ichigo Kurosaki."
"...Will you do it, Ichigo?"
"..."
"Will you become the lynchpin holding the human world and Hueco Mundo up?"
"...I don't know..."
Ichigo sat, legs crossed and cheek rested on his fist, in his throne room with Kisuke and Isshin. Both sat expectantly, waiting for Ichigo's answer.
"...I... will only get my answers... from the Old One himself."
Ichigo stood up, stepping past his father and former mentor and marched slowly from the room. Isshin and Kisuke turned and watched him.
"It seems... that he has made his own decision... for the first time in his life..."
Both groaned and rolled their eyes at the appearance of Aizen in his former throne.
"Are you going to interfere?"
"And be killed, like Arturo Plateado? No. That's the Ryoka's business."
The three shifted into silence as the door finally closed behind Ichigo.
Ichigo flew at top speeds towards the La Luna Roja. As he got closer, his hogyoku began flashing.
"Ichigo! Are you really going to my husband now!? You really think you're ready for him!?"
"No. I have no idea what's going to happen, only that my heart wants find out. Only when I see for myself can I truly understand why these Spirit gods, or whatever, are manipulating me."
Kagura silenced herself as Ichigo landed on the moon, overlooking the area. What he saw shocked him.
"The moon is...!?"
The moon of Hueco Mundo was, in fact, white. However, the red coloring came from the blood of the many bodies that littered the surface. Ichigo almost passed out and vomited at the stench.
"Disgusting...!"
Continuing his trek across the surface, a walked until he arrived at a black circle, filled with many designs and such.
"That's the one... the seal, Ichigo. King Hogyoku... is sealed down there."
"Alright, let's get this over with."
"Before you go... I will tell you... He is not going to explain anything to you. His Will, made of the Reishi that covers Hueco Mundo, is what speaks to you and the other Hollows, but he will not talk to you."
"Then, I'll make him talk."
"You can't... He has no speech or thought process... He was a mindless Arrancar that attacked the Soul Palace on pure animal instinct...He is nothing more than a lifeless shell of the man he used to be. He will attack you on sight."
Ichigo listened to her as the Hogyoku flashed, opening the entrance of the portal. He slowly stepped inside, confused when he was back at Hueco Mundo.
"...Wait, what?"
However, across from him was a castle-like structure, except it had no walls or ceiling. He gazed through it at the center, where he saw a blue glow and a shadowy figure next to it.
"...Is... that him?"
Ichigo began slowly creeping forward, getting closer to the light. He realized that the glowing blue was Reishi, but at the same time, the figure noted Ichigo's appearance. The figure stood from it's seated position and began to walk slowly towards Ichigo. The Reishi exploded outwards, bursting the area with light and allowing Ichigo to see the figure's face. What he saw made his eyes widen in shock.
"You're... King Hogyoku...!?"
The shadows cleared, revealing an unshaven man with messy white hair and no eyes. He wore Soul Reaper robes, which were tattered and torn, under a destroyed Captain's haori, similar to Zaraki. On his right shoulder was a rusted, golden pauldron, which held together a black cape, like his father. An equally rusted crown sat on his head, adorned with broken and cracked jewels. The Old One stood and gazed aimless at Ichigo.
"Alright, Old Man. I'm taking you down..."
Ichigo was rendered speechless when he was barely able to dodge the Reishi-covered Zanpakuto of the Old One.
"Uryu... Can you do it, yet?"
Uryu turned around to face his mother, who stared off into the distance of Hueco Mundo.
"You mean the Vollstandig? Yes. I've spent most of this time doing that. The Reishi's acting funny. You must sense it, too."
"Juhabach... he's moving soon. I'm afraid that this will all end soon..."
"Hey, Kensei!"
Kensei narrowed his eyes as Mashiro hopped around him, hugging him and kissing him all over. The Visored had appeared back at their old base for a visit.
"...Get offa' me..."
Mashiro laughed and giggled as she ran off to greet the others.
"Man, I'd swear that girl was related to Yachiru."
"I'm tellin' ya..."
Kensei around as Shinji walked up to him, dressed in gigai's schoolboy clothes.
"I wish this visit could have been more peaceful... but I think... this vacation will be cut short."
Rose pouted as he turned to Shinji.
"Dude, don't jinx us. I'm glad to be away from work. I can have some nice guitar blues time to myself."
"...I believe... we'll be singing the blues by the time this is over."
Zaraki had spent an entire hour fighting against both Ikkaku's Bankai and fighting off Yumichika's true Zanpakuto. Within minutes, he had finally crushed both.
"...Tch... how boring... you two better be good the next time we fight."
Both of them, collapsed and bleeding on the ground, jumped to their feet in salute.
"Sir, yes sir!"
"You won't get stronger by training on underlings, Kenpachi Zaraki."
Zaraki turned around as he gazed into the eyes of Retsu Unohana. The grin on his face widened, threatening to rip his face apart.
"...And you? Are you going to be the one to cure me of this boredom!?"
"...If that's necessary... I'm sure I can still show you a thing or two, Kenpachi Zaraki."
Zaraki's sword was drawn in the speed of lightning, just as ready as he was.
"Fuck yeah! This is what I've been waiting for! Time for me to get pumped!"
Both Ikkaku and Yumichika eyes widened as they saw the dark smile of the motherly Fourth Division Captain. She moved her right hand over to her left, where they finally noticed the Zanpakuto of Unohana.
"Holy shit, she's serious...! Oh god, their fighting! Yumichika, get the rest of the squad here now!"
Zaraki's blood thirsty gaze locked onto to Unohana's gaze. His smile almost wavered when the beautiful visage of Unohana darkened, her eyes narrowing to thin slits.
"Please... allow me to see... if you should be worthy of the title, 'Kenpachi'."
"So, you heard what happened to Ichigo, Rukia?"
Rukia, diligently working on her paper work, gazed up to Renji, who was lazily balancing his Zanpakuto on his finger.
"What happened to Ichigo...?"
"...The Royal Guard went and kidnapped him... brought him to the Soul Palace and the Spirit King."
Rukia's eyes widened as she dropped her pen. She shook her head to clear her mind, her Kenseikan bouncing around her head.
"Wait, when did this happen!?"
"...Like a day ago... Heard it from Hidetomo, who heard it from Aizen. Can't believe you didn't know about that..."
Rukia turned away, her arms crossed as she stared out of the window. Renji blinked as he sat up on the couch.
"...What's wrong...?"
...It's like... Ichigo's moving forward... and he won't turn back to realize... that I'm still here. It's hard to swallow... that even after I had to bring him to this world... in the end, he's the one leaving me behind... for an entirely new world... that not even I understand. I can only hope that even after you reach to the top... that you never forget where you came from...
"No, Renji... It's nothing."
Rukia stood up and walked around her desk. However, she tripped over Renji, who had stood up to stop her to see what was wrong. Both collided and fell to the ground. Renji slowly got up after rubbing his head, staring forward and seeing only black. However, he saw the white coat tail fall to Rukia's side, realizing that she had fell face forward... and that he was looking at her behind raised in the air.
"...Makes you think of peaches..."
Renji was subsequently kicked in the face.
"...Kurosaki has probably gone to visit the Old One, Vater."
Vater turned to look at Juhabach.
"I know. He might defeat him... but that is something we can worry about later."
"Yes... the next assault shall be commenced."
Vater looked back at the map Juhabach placed on the table, detailing the entrances of their next plan of attack.
"Ichigo Kurosaki has the power of Kagura and most likely the Old One. Hoshiihime is nowhere to be found... Only one deity remains..."
"Prince Kido... the current Spirit King."
Juhabach turned around, surrounded nine figures dressed in white stood waiting. Vater rolled up the map containing the invasion of the Soul Palace.
"Let us go, my Letzt Himmelreich... The end approaches... The Final Holy War..."
Trivia:
-One big error about my story that I just noticed (Which makes me epic face-palm everytime I see it) is the red moon thing. I swear I spent this entire time describing Hueco Mundo as having a red moon, not realizing that I was 'PICTURING' Itachi's Tsukiyomi World every time, and I felt like an idiot when I saw all of the pictures of Hueco Mundo having a normal moon. For the sake of this FUBAR moment, moon is red in this story.
-Old One's appearance in the story is based from Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, the final boss of Dark Souls. Kagura telling Ichigo he won't speak and attack on sight is a reference to the fact that in the Dark Souls game, Gwyn has no cutscene nor does he make any remarks before, during, or after the fight. He simply dives at you and attacks until he kills you or the opposite. He is also why all of the Captain's wear haori's.
-Arturo Plateado is not important in this story, his name was just a mention. I did include him to be an Espada at one point, but decided I didn't need someone to compete for the top Espada Ranks of the four most important Espada.
-Prince Kido (Current Spirit King) is the founder of Kido, hence his name.
-Letzt Himmelreich translates to 'Last Kingdom of Heaven'. They are the rest of the members of Vater's council.
-"...Makes you think of peaches..." is probably one of my top ten funny one-liners of all time in Bleach. I gave Tenjiro 50+ cool points for saying this.
-Badass "Kenpachi" Yachiru Unohana is badass. Just saying.
-Title and last line of the story is a reference to the promo picture of Thousand Year Blood War arc.