The pain was gone. That was the first thing he noticed when he awoke. He had not been without pain in so long, it was foreign to him. Alien. Terrifying. The pain meant he was still himself. It meant that he could still fight.

The next thing he noticed was that he was not alone. Instantly, he was on his feet, reaching for his Zanpakuto before he remembered it was no longer there. Instead, he took a fighting stance and prepared to enter Shunko.

He was facing a young, unarmed man. He slowly lowered his fists and lost his offensive stance in favor of a more defensive stance. The man reminded him simultaneously of all the innocent lives lost to this war. He had Hanataro's uncertainty and resilient optimism, and Yuzu's kind smile.

"Ichigo Kurosaki… Our meeting is long overdue. I have much to thank you for, and even more to apologize for." The young man sat cross legged on the ground and motioned for Ichigo to do likewise. After a brief look around with both eyes and his riatsu sense to ensure he was not about to be ambushed, Ichigo sat.

"Who are you?" He wanted to ask how the man knew his name, but he was under no illusions. He was famous or infamous in every spiritual realm. Even those who had been imprisoned in hell long before his birth knew his name, and shivered at the very whisper of it.

"I am the spirit and avatar of the Soul King." The young man gave Ichigo a sad smile. "I know you have many questions, and a great deal of well deserved anger… You have sacrificed much and asked for very little in return. No one deserves the life you have been put through, and yet you have carried your burden well. I regret that I can not give you the one reward that would erase your pain."

"Why have you brought me here? Why interfere now?!" Ichigo clenched his fists. He should have recognized their surroundings immediately. The ruins of the Soul King's palace. Yet another field of battle left desolate by endless war.

"I have brought you here because of your family and friends. I have brought you here because you have surrounded yourself with men and women of the very highest caliber. Strong. Brilliant. Kind. And every single one of them, loyal beyond measure to the one at their center. I have heard the last words of each of them in turn. Every one of them has begged for the same thing. That I give you peace and happiness, and the strength to protect those who remained before them. All but one."

Ichigo froze and stared. What was he talking about? Why didn't they all ask to be brought back so he could protect them! That would have been the only way he would have ever found peace!

"Kisuke Urahara, the last to die, knew you had no one left to protect, and that peace and happiness were forever beyond your reach. He is a clever man. I dare say, the smartest I have ever had the fortune to meet. A mind made for solving puzzles. Strategy and tactics, science and magic. There is nothing that he could not find a solution to, and no impossibility he would discount easily."

"He was… An incredible man..." The pain in his heart returned as he remembered the scientist's last moments. Devoured by the Hogyoku. Converted into even more power. His mentor and friend, consumed by one of his own creations.

"Indeed. In his last moments, he put his mind to work, and tossed aside all restrictions of time, power, and scientific possibility. He allowed his mind the entirety of its resources to come up with a solution even as his heart beat its last. By the time he reached me, he had a plan mostly formed. It took only a brief explanation of what I can and can not do for him to come up with a solution. He asked that I do this, as a parting gift to his student. I owe him a great debt, for in his brilliance, he has given me the chance to do good in this world, if only once."

"I… Don't understand… What can you do now that you couldn't do before?"

"Ichigo… Aizen and Yhwach were mistaken. I am not all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful celestial being. I… I was just an arrogant foolish boy who was deceived into cage disguised as a crown. The shinigami have only the vaguest notion of my purpose, only that I am necessary. Allow me to explain just what it is I am, and why I have done nothing before now."

"I'd love to hear it." Ichigo fixed him with burning eyes, but inside he wondered, if a man who reminded him so much of Yuzu and Hanataro had stood by and done nothing as millions of souls were destroyed, could it have really been out of malice or neglect?

"I am a filter and an arbitrator. I am the incarnation of balance, and the reconciliation of contradictions. I am a lynch pin for the universe, nothing more… There are rules written in the foundation of the universe which no being can violate. Rules that govern everything that has ever been and will ever be. Unbreakable rules. Unchangeable rules. I am a victim of those rules as well. Maybe more than any other."

"I still don't understand..."

"Imagine… Imagine that by driving a blade through Aizen's heart, you would in that same action drive that very blade through the heart of the one you love most in the world… Could you do it then? Knowing that if he lived, hundreds of thousands would die, knowing that he had already destroyed innocent lives, could you sacrifice good to eradicate evil?"

"I… No… I would find another way..."

"You would. You have that luxury, while I do not. I am balance. If I kill an evil man, a good man dies as well. I can not change the balance. My hands are bound. I absorb the memories and pain of every soul that passes through me. I pass judgment and with my limited wisdom and endless experience, I try to place them where they will do more good than harm. I am even forbidden from explaining to the souls below. I may select a counsel of five, but I may not speak to them… I am condemned by this crown to watch and do nothing as events play out. Until today."

"Kisuke found out how to let you help?" If anyone could, it was Urahara.

"He did. Do you know the principle of a paradox? An action, which through its exitance prevents itself from existing, or causes its own existence? I am confident, now more than before, that he is correct. I am breaking the rules by speaking to you, and that would indicate I will be successful."

"A paradox? Like time travel? Kisuke's solution was time travel?!" Was he going to be sent back to assassinate Aizen and Yhwach before they rose to power?

"In a manner, yes. If I place you in the timeline at a point in the past, and you change the future, then we will never have this conversation. I will never break the rules." The man looks ready to laugh. "I have waited more than 1500 years to be able to help, and that man came up with the solution in a matter of seconds. No other mind would have thrown out the traditional paradigm of avoiding paradoxes and instead deliberately created one."

"Yeah… One of a kind… I bet he even decided when and where to send me, didn't he?"

"Of course. And what's more, he took into account your own peace and happiness. I must warn you, your life will not be what you remember. I can insert you in an instant, according to Urahara's plan, but I must work with the context of the time and place."

"Will I have my family? My friends? Rukia? Will they live?"

"Yes."

"Then to hell with the rest. If I can protect them, nothing else in my life matters." Ichigo stood and then looked thoughtful. "What about… Zangetsu?"

"They will be restored. However, only you and Zangetsu will have your memories of this timeline. Even I will not, as is necessary for the paradox to work. Are you ready, Ichigo Kurosaki?" The young man stands as well and extends a hand to the orange haired hero.

"Yeah. I'm ready." He takes the hand, and the world around him shifts.