A/N: This is one of those stories that I have been wanting to type out since the Manga ended. Finally!
Disclaimer: The Bleach I own is the clothes washing kind.
#26#
Ichigo had thought, at the time, that invading Soul Society would be the most difficult thing he would ever do. Maybe thinking back to even before he met Rukia, getting good grades to get into a University of his choosing was probably the hardest thing on his mind. Case in point, the invasion and grades were definitely not the hardest thing he would ever do.
As time passed and the years progressed, things kept on popping up. Invading Soul Society became a side note once the Arrancer and Espada started waltzing into Karakura as if they were coming for a BBQ. After that, gaining control of his inner hollow and invading Las Noches seemed to take a higher place on his list, and by the time he returned to Karakura –fake, not real, not where it counted- those hurdles seemed like a walk in the park compared to evil Master Mind Megalomaniac Aizen Sosuke.
He won that fight too- kinda, with help.
Afterwards, once he had gotten back into the habit of normal human life, he would review all the things he had done in the past year and wonder 'holy shit, how did I do that?!' because so many of these challenges should have killed him –some of them did kill him. Yet here he stood, breathing and living and enjoying life once more as if he wasn't battling for his continued existence last winter.
It was surreal. So he tried to just ignore it instead.
And so he continued to live and beat up thugs and walk his sisters to school and drop kick Goat-face and do many other normal human things that he had been doing in the past when he had been a normal human caught up on normal human things.
It sucked.
He tried not to let it get to him though, and he actually had marginal success with ignoring the way his chest would tighten when Chad, Uryuu and Orihime would rush out the classroom, or the way Karin would not look him in the eye when Ichigo asked her what she had done that afternoon. He attempted to forget and somehow clawed and kicked his way towards those first agonizing months on his own before he got some semblance of balance back and started to look forward instead of back.
By the time the Fullbringers came a knocking, he had been close to not caring anymore.
So now he had his powers somewhat back, and as he learned of deceptions and of the crazy world he had suddenly been dumped in, he easily broke down with all the pent up emotions and feelings that had been brewing in his heart ever since that faithful battle.
But then… things had not panned out as he had dreaded.
He got his powers back- for real this time, he could hear his spirits!- and did a splendid job at defeating –killing, you killed him!- Ginjo and putting an end to the latest threat.
Things went back to normal –his real normal, the one he actually, somehow, crazily loved. He could see ghosts now, taste, smell, hear, feel the reiatsu around him and it was exhilarating. Ichigo could defeat hollows now, and before he knew it, he was back to his routine of keeping Karakura safe with his friends.
When the Qunicy dropped into Karakura with cocky smirks and thinly veiled insults, he wondered, perhaps ignorantly, whether this would be another crazy hurdle, or something to think back on fondly.
It was neither really, it was on its own league, the prelude to his epilogue.
He defeated the enemies in Hueco Mundo, found his way back to Soul Society, broke his bankai, learned about his parents past, regained his real Zanpaktou and found his way back to the battlefield once more.
He somehow, unexpectedly killed the Spirit King and battled Ywach as cautiously as he could, because he didn't want more collateral damage and while he probably could easily defeat the Quincy King, he may accidently destroy this plane of existence if he wasn't careful with how much power he output.
In the end Aizen helped defeat Ywach, and by the time everything had been wrapped up into some semblance of order, he was ready to just lye for a nap and wake up next week.
When Urahara waltzed in, his annoying fan out and his hat still perched on his head even when it was in tatters, Ichigo knew he would hate whatever the man had to say even before he opened his mouth.
He was right, of course he was right. How did putting Ywach's corpse on the throne in any way sound like a good idea? Sure, he was the previous Soul King's "son", but that should not have even crossed anyone's mind as a valid strategy. The worlds were crumbling to pieces, and the throne was empty awaiting its next owner anxiously. But the throne was greedy and only those with the blood –the power of all races could sit on it successfully.
Ichigo wondered, if only for a fraction of a second why no one had yet to ask him to sit on the throne. Then he realized that the only ones who really knew that he could, were people that would never ask him to take that burden.
So when Urahara moved once more towards Ywach's cooling corpse, Ichigo gave the man one last steady stare and let him see the resolve reflected in his eyes. He wasn't stopped when he flash stepped away and towards the palace, but he was followed.
When he gazed upon the tattered throne he started to hear it –the whisper of the worlds, the threads that kept them all together, the smell of the power flowing through the air, the taste of everyone's reiatsu heavy on his tongue- and that was when he realized, that this throne had already called out to him before, back when he had first regained his powers.
Ichigo stepped forward, and sat on his throne.
Not to be continued…