Chapter 16: Rejection


Things changed after the battle a few days ago. Captains Soi-Fon and Hitsugaya, who were back in the soul society during the attack, were ordered to bring Ichigo Kurosaki to be imprisoned until further notice. The news was devastating towards the group as the fact that quite a few espada class arrancar were able to easily break through any defense that was set up just to capture one girl was a shock to the majority of the soul reapers. They viewed Ichigo as a threat now and wanted her imprisoned this time. Isshin and Kisuke tried to defend her by saying that she is a powerful ally against Aizen, omitting the fact that Ichigo now calls the rouge 'father' as that would have made them all double down on the order as well. Yamamoto did not want to hear any more protest as his orders came from the Central 46, and they wanted the girl locked up so she wouldn't be a factor in the coming war. In their minds, whatever Aizen had planned for the girl would most likely mean destruction for the soul society. This didn't go too well by the group.

Isshin was the angriest out of everyone as the Central 46 had essentially damned his son - daughter - to a life in chains. He was no fool though. Isshin knew that sooner or later after that, Mayuri Kurotsuchi would get his disgusting hands on her and try to find what made her tick. The thought of that man laying a hand on his daughter made Isshin's blood boil as that was the most likely scenario.

Kisuke was not surprised by the order coming from the Central 46 instead of the head captain himself. This made it almost impossible to defend Ichigo's actions, or lack thereof in some cases, as the words of those old men were final and even overwrote anything the head captain decided. Kisuke didn't like this decision and knew it was only because of what Ichigo was now more so than what happened earlier. He easily admitted to himself that if they wanted to win this war, then they would need Ichigo and her power to do so.

Yoruichi was also pissed at this decision as she saw no real reason to lock Ichigo up, but then she had to remember that to the Central 46, Ichigo was always a liability. An unknown that they would not mind using and disposing of like so many other things and people before. It angered the werecat to no end that they would do this to someone who had been put through hell for the past three years of their life and just to imprison them once more. She wanted to do something about it all, but even Kisuke knew there wasn't much they could do now.

For Orihime, Chad and Uryu, they all had a similar reaction. Mainly outrage at what those old men wanted to do to their friend. Chad, though he never showed it, was angered by this decision as he didn't want his longtime friend to be locked up once more. Orihime was also angered by this in her own way as she called out the Central 46 and even badmouthed them. Though it sounded very tame in reality. Uryu cursed the soul reapers in general, remembering why he should never have trusted any of them to begin with. While he and Ichigo never fully got along, they still respected each other and had each other's backs when it came to defending their hometown.

Both Renji and Rukia couldn't say anything about the decision by those old men. It was their job not to, but even they knew that this was not the best course of action. They were at war and needed every advantage they had to win, yet those old men were too stuck in their old ways to actually accept help from someone like Ichigo. Ever since his invasion, they had been looking for anyway to rid themselves of the boy. It came as no surprise that now since Ichigo was a perfect arrancar that they would use this and the fact that she was with Aizen for three years as an excuse. Both of them knew something had to be done to save their friend.

Surprisingly, the only one not even the least bit perturbed by this was Ichigo herself. She seemed to expect this to happen and didn't even bother to fight for her freedom. It was something that disturbed the group to no end as they at least thought she would say anything to the ones brought in to bring her in, but all she did was stand there and let Soi-Fon place restraints on her wrists. Everyone was on edge once Toshiro opened the Senkaimon and went to grab Ichigo's arm to bring her through. They were just about to warn him until Ichigo moved away from him and closer to Soi-Fon. It wasn't sudden, it was rather slow, so Soi-Fon decided to lead her in instead. They entered and before the gate closed, Ichigo turned to her friends and family and simply smiled a weak smile to them.

"Get moving." Soi-Fon ordered as she pulled Ichigo by her arm. Ichigo didn't resist, which put both captains on edge for some reason. They both knew that Ichigo was strong before, but now she was far beyond the two of them. They didn't know why she seemed so complacent and dare they say timid to the whole situation she was in.

They walked on for a few minutes in silence with the both of them prepared for whenever Ichigo decided to attack or struggle. It never happened as they neared their destination.

"Why are you so calm Ichigo?" Toshiro asked as the quiet girl was making him uneasy. "Don't tell me that Aizen numbed your emotions in some twisted wa-"

"He told me this would happen." She cut him off as she stopped mid walk. Soi-Fon sighed in frustration as she pulled on Ichigo's arm to get her to move, but the girl didn't budge an inch.

The two captains looked at each other before Toshiro reached for his zanpakuto. "Who told you what?"

"My father." Ichigo had her head down and nearly whispered that.

"Isshin told you this would happen?" Toshiro was confused by this as he recognized the man as his former captain and knew he would never say something like this.

Ichigo shook her head slowly. "Aizen." Theis surprised the two as Soi-Fon slowly reached for own weapon now. "He told me just before he placed that armor on me that if I stayed in the world of the living, that the soul society would eventually try and imprison me."

"That's because you are an unknown and an arr-"

"An arrancar now." Ichigo interrupted the squad two captain. "Because I'm different now and far more powerful than I was during the Bount invasion three years ago." She chuckled under her breath.

"What's so funny, Ichigo?" He took he blade out at this point.

"I used to think that someone who spent their entire existence with vengeance and anger in their hearts. How they could care less about their comrades and more about their revenge than anything else." Ichigo shook her head. "I used to think that type of thought process was stupid and silly. I fought Kariya with everything I had back then and still couldn't understand why he wanted to do what he did. It made no sense to me then." There was a rumble in the Precipice world now. "I didn't understand it even when he explained it to me in those final moments." The rumbling grew as the two captains knew what was coming. "But once my father showed up to me and made me who I am now, I understood it all and saw everything clearly. Like a fog in my head was finally lifted from me." The cleaner came into view and the captains began to panic.

"Ichigo! We need to go right now!" Toshiro yelled out as he went over and grabbed Ichigo's arm.

"No."

The next thing the young captain knew, he felt something collide with his shoulder and suddenly, his left arm that he had grabbed Ichigo with was lying on the floor. Both he and Soi-Fon were beyond shocked at what they couldn't even see, but that paled in comparison to what they saw next. Ichigo easily broke her restraints and turned towards the cleaner that was approaching rapidly. She held up her left hand and waited for the cleaner to reach her, ignoring the yells from Soi-Fon and scream of pain from Toshiro as the pain finally registered to him. The cleaner reached her and was ready to devour her like it had done so many times before to everything else, but once it reached Ichigo, it stopped. Well, more like it was stopped.

The cleaner collided with Ichigo's hand and seemed to hit a wall, only it was just Ichigo's hand that stopped it. The two captains were flabbergasted by what they saw, and it only got worse from there. Ichigo reared her right hand back into a fist and swung. The impact was so strong and so fast that the resulting impact of the attack didn't even register to the two until the saw a massive hole going through the cleaner. The shockwave came later as the attack sent a crevice through the ground that seemed to go on for miles. The cleaner, or what was left of it, fell lifelessly to the ground as Ichigo stood there with an apathetic look in her eyes.

"I understand what my father wants and why he is willing to do anything to achieve it." Ichigo started once again as garganta opened in front of her. Standing there was an arrancar they had never seen before, but one Ichigo respected more than most. "These worlds and everything in them are wrong." She turned towards the two as they were still stunned by what they were seeing and what they saw earlier. "He will make it all right. That's why I have to help him." She turned back and walked into the garganta. "Let's go home Stark."

The garganta closed and Toshiro finally passed out from blood loss. Soi-Fon quickly picked him up and ran at her top speed to get away from this scene. When she finally reached the end, she stumbled on the tiles of the soul society and saw all of the captains, lieutenants and the head captain looking on in shock at the state of one of their own. Unohana quickly rushed over to aid Toshiro while Soi-Fon was bombarded with questions. The head captain cut everyone off as he approached and asked one simple question.

"What happened?"

Soi-Fon then went over everything she saw and could see the looks on everyone's faces. This was going to be a long report.


Las Noches

The garganta opened up and out stepped both Ichigo and Stark. Once Ichigo set foot on the grounds of Las Noches, she breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar feeling of reiatsu in the air, something she actually missed while in the world of the living. It was soothing to her and filled her heart with the good memories of her time here.

"Ichigo." The familiar and smooth voice of the one who changed her reached her ears. She looked to the man and smiled to him. "My daughter." He smirked and opened up his arms to her.

Ichigo moved quickly towards the man enveloped him in a soft hug and felt his large arms wrap around her frame. "Father."

Aizen could only smirk down to her as he rubbed the top of her head in a soothing way. "Welcome home, Ichigo."


This was a fun chapter to write. Really showed that Ichigo is very powerful here now than before. Will have a reunion between Halibel and Ichigo in the next chapter.

Anyway, stay awesome and as always...

PEACE!