A/N: G'day my dears, hope this chapter finds you well

Ichigo jerks awake with an aborted breath that almost has him reeling. He's not sure where he is or why he was sleeping in the first place until things slot into place and he can focus on the ceiling of his bedroom. He is in the room he slept in for many years, in the Kurosaki Clinic situated in Karakura, a town in Japan that belongs to the Human World. As Ichigo sits up, he doesn't even have to focus to know that the next room over has Karin's stronger reiatsu signature and Yuzu's smaller one. On the first floor, his Old Man's flickering and small reiatsu can be found too, but Ichigo is aware that the older cannot really use it yet.

Any moment now he will get a message from Urahara Kisuke that will leave splatters of red on his wall making it looks suspiciously like a murder took place. Once that happens, Ichigo will make his way to the Shop where he will rendezvous with Chad, Uryuu and Orihime to go storm Soul Society and rescue Rukia.

Again.

Again!

Again!

Â̷̻̦ģ̶̪͚̯͉͚̫̠̣̹̊́ả̷͉͈͍̗́̃̎̃̍̓͘͠͠i̸̤͂̀̂̈́̀̏̋̚n̴̡̛̛̥̤̖͉̬͔͊͌͂͛̿͗̿́.̴̢̫͈̊͑͜!

He's tired, so, so tired that he could drop dead from it all. How many times now has he done this song and dance? How many times has he rescued Rukia, defeated Aizen and Killed Ywach? He's not quite sure anymore, but if he really wanted to know, he could go into his inner world and count all the tally marks they had taken to marking on the side of a building to keep track.

Even though Ichigo hasn't counted them in a very long time, they still do it, but at this point he is honestly frightened to see how many times he has relived that cycle. Maybe it was sixty-seven? He knows it's been at least more than fifty for sure as the last time he had swallowed his fear and asked his spirits they had been very close to fifty and it has already been many cycles since then.

What strategy should he attempt this time? Last cycle he had gotten tired and just killed Aizen the moment he got his bearings before running off to relax a couple months and then found Ywach and killed him too. He's tried so many things, but no matter what he does, the moment he irrevocably kills the Quincy King, he is once again opening his eyes to the visage of his room and inside his fifteen-year-old human body.

Ichigo's told so many people of his looping already that frankly he's grown to find it bothersome now. He has to deal with millions of questions ranging to figuring out if he's not delusional, to how long he's been looping and what he has tried and what he hasn't.

It's been so many years now too. At the beginning lopping those three years was easier, less like he was just going through the motions and more like every second counted. Now Ichigo is so much older than he was when he first got introduced to the Shinigami world, and while he isn't as old as people like the older Captains, he certainly feels like it.

So what to do now? Should he ignore Rukia's execution and start to infiltrate the Wandenreich again? Last time he tried, he had been able to gather some interesting information about Ywach's abilities and his creation into the world. While it doesn't seem like the man is doing this looping, the fact that Ichigo restarts every time he kills the man makes him think that it may at least be related.

He's not sure if there is more information to gain though, and while a part of him has grown numb to the idea of sacrificing people for the greater good, he's always left with a foul taste when he has to do so. In the end, saving Rukia makes Aizen reveal his hand, so maybe he should just go with that. Ichigo doesn't really know what he should do anyway, and in the meantime he could at least get some balls rolling.

Who to tell of his looping this time though? Sometimes Ichigo doesn't tell anyone, but when he doesn't have any plan or option in mind, he usually tries to tell someone to at the very least get an outsiders input and observations. He's cycling through people, and at this point he's running out of "obvious" options like Kisuke, the Captain Commander, Shinji, Shunsui, Jūshirō and other assorted figures. He even told Isshin once, and while that cycle he hadn't really gleamed any useful information from the man, Ichigo promised himself he would never do so again. The man hadn't really been what one would call fatherly with Ichigo, but the heartbroken expression the raven head had given him that day had stayed engrained in his memory even now.

Now back to his previous conundrum. Who to tell?

Maybe he should go look at his unofficial bingo card of people. When he's stuck on who to chose he goes back through his first memories and who he encountered first and double checks if he's told them of the looping.

Of course, he's told Rukia, the rest of his friends and Kisuke, but after them he met Renji and Byakuya. He's told the two on sperate occasions as well, so they're discarded, and he's told Yoruichi too so who's next? Ganju? Much as he likes his crazy cousin, Ichigo doesn't think he would have anything at all to gain by telling him. Thinking of Ganju, he met Kūkaku shortly after, didn't he?

But doesn't the same thing with Ganju apply to her? Would Ichigo gain anything at all from telling her?

There was a difference though. Shiba Kūkaku was not just his cousin, she's the Head of the Shiba Family, and while the family isn't as upstanding as it had been decades past, the knowledge may still exist somewhere.

The Shiba are one of the oldest families in Soul Society as well, wouldn't they have potentially promising information too? It was worth a try maybe, and Ichigo hasn't dug into his paternal lineage before. Even if it ends up being another dead end, he'll have gained new data and that seemed to be in short supply now in days.

"A time loop." Kūkaku asserted calmly, her pipe held only loosely in her hand as she took in the information Ichigo had just given her.

He nodded. "Yes. I'd like it if you could provide any information you have on time related incidents and if I could look at your Shiba records."

Kūkaku's brow furrowed, and while she looked surprised, she didn't seem skeptical about it. "I don't have much I can tell you. But I think there's some information about similar instances in-" she cut herself off with a resounding snap of her jaw, and now she looked at Ichigo suspiciously. "That's not something I can share to outsiders though."

Ichigo breathed in gently, and while outwardly he didn't react to her affirmation that such data existed, inwardly he felt his heart swoop and drop. "You should know my Dad." Ichigo interjected rapidly. "Shiba Isshin. I know it may sound fantastical but he's-"

"Kid." Kukaku cut him off with a deadpanned expression. "You just told me about time loops. That sounds less fantastical."

Ichigo felt heat rise to his cheeks and was slightly bemused at her reactions. Sure, Ichigo has received so many different responses to his time loop before that hers isn't that odd, but usually at this point even the calm ones had finally understood what it means when Ichigo says he's time looped many times.

"You know I may be older than you." He retorts instead. "I could be."

She rolled her eyes, utterly unconcerned by this and waves her pipe languidly in the air as if to brush away that notion. "Doubt it. Unless you're more than three centuries old?" she raises a brow.

Ichigo isn't sure how old he is anymore, but as he focuses his attention inwardly the slightest, he can feel the Old Man giving him negative feelings while Zangetsu is howling in laughter -traitor.

"No." he answers, thoroughly chastised and doesn't even struggle when she hauls him to his feet and drags him deeper into the compound.

As they get launched through the canon and crash land into Soul Society, Ichigo makes sure he ends up separated from the rest of the group and promptly taps down on his reiatsu until it is completely unassuming. He changes into the Yukata Kūkaku-nesan had provided, makes sure his zanpaktou is in it's sealed state and makes his way calmly back into Rukongai.

Passing through the gates -not the same one they had tried when they first arrived in Soul Society- the gate keeper gives him a slightly baffled expression, but as they expected, introducing himself as Shiba Ichigo means the shinigami on duty doesn't give him a second glance and lets him out. In the end, security is tight if someone wants to come in, not out.

Kūkaku is expecting him when he arrives, and her toothy grin is honestly comforting as she gives his shoulder a last encouraging squeeze and shoots him through the Shiba canon for the second time that day.

It's not the first time he's been in the Spirit Palace before, and while he can't claim familiarity with it, Ichigo has been invited to this place quite a couple times that it is not a foreign place anymore.

Ichibēi greets him with a wide grin that would have unsettled anyone else, but Ichigo has long grown used to this man's erratic behavior and so he doesn't fall for the friendly expression.

This man is harder to convince than Kūkaku had been, but as it usually is, knowledge that Ichigo shouldn't have is enough to at least have the man listening to his story.

"I haven't heard of a man lost to time in many eons." The squad Zero captain muses. "The last time… well, that man never made it here."

Ichigo pauses at this reveal, but finds his interest irrevocably taken. "Why? I've died in some loops before. Next thing I knew I would wake up once again fifteen and in my bedroom."

The mans expression took a somber expression, and as he passed a hand through his long beard, Ichigo was struck by the devastation reflected in his eyes. "Listen Shiba-kun, there are only three ways to end a time loop, and none are a straight path."

"But it can end?" Ichigo asked in a hopeful tone. "It's been… too many."

"There is." He nodded. "The last person ended his cycle via suicide."

Ichigo flinched back as if he had been physically struck. There had been times, many times where he had wondered if taking his own life was an answer he could take -if it would mean an end to this loop if he made his heart stop and laid himself to rest. It's terrifying to think if he had let himself be carried away by that sentiment, that would have been the end. How many more repeats could he have taken before he broke down and tried taking that out?

"But-" he began shakily. "that's not the only answer, right?"

"That should not be considered an answer." Ichibē retorted. "The second option, is to get the one who cast the loop in the first place to stop it. The third is to do what you were meant to do when the loop was placed."

Ichigo felt his hope crumpling and the desperation rearing its ugly head again. He didn't know who the originator of the loop was, and he didn't know what he was supposed to do either!

The man smiled, small but kind as if it were all just a minor inconvenience. "Don't despair Shiba-kun, one of the few candidates that could have placed you in the loop is the Spirit King, and even if it wasn't him, he will know at least who did it. You did right to come here."

Would it be that simple? After all these years fighting over and over again, was the answer finally within his grasp?

"Can I see him?" Ichigo asked instead, because voicing any of those thoughts would have him choking up with emotions.

Ichibē leaned forward, obviously excited. "You must.

'Of course it was me.' Was the first thing that greeted Ichigo upon his entrance into the Spirit King's chambers. Honestly, this was the first time he has met the being since their first 'introduction' where he had accidently murdered it.

"What?" Ichigo replies eloquently, his steps halting at the edge of the steps leading up to where the being is still set in his crystalized form.

'It was me who set the loop, who else would it be?' it elaborates, his tone puzzled as if it doesn't understand why Ichigo didn't guess on his own.

Ichigo in turns finds himself ticked off by this comment, and really, he's miles away from the hot-headed teen he was so many loops ago, but there is still a part of him that has a fiery temper that matches his hair even though it's rarely roused now.

"If you had left some clear instructions," Ichigo returns sassily. "than maybe it would have been more obvious."

The eldritch being's laughter echoes in Ichigo's mind, and if it were literally anyone else not already used to noisy inner spirits, he would have outwardly jumped at the sound.

'I did tell you this would happen.' The Spirit King states vaguely. 'I told you.'

Ichigo finds a migraine forming behind his eyes, and sighs a world weary sigh that has him feeling his mental age. "You're not making sense."

It hums, the tone languid and as if to show that this was not his problem, so he didn't need to take it seriously. Really, if Ichigo had an actual person to strangle instead of a disembodied voice in his mind, he would have been contemplating murder already.

'Do not worry Childe, you have done well to make it here, and I can now finally bring forth your memories of our first meeting seventy-two-time loops ago.'

Ichigo's not sure he's understanding the situation, and while a part of him is still frustrated at the vagueness of this all, another part of him wonders if it has really been seventy-two loops. That must be the case since the all-powerful God is saying so, but a part of him still doubts and so he takes a slight mental step backwards and visualizes the side of the building with his tally.

"Seventy-one." Ichigo corrects out loud, confused and frightened all at once at the notion that he could be well over two centuries at this point. "Counting my first go through, that's seventy-one."

Ichigo gets the impression the being is smiling at him but doesn't have an actual face to corroborate his notion. Its voice does sound amused, and while part of him wants to bristle indignantly, the main part of him only feels dread. 'Seventy-two.'

"Did you find your answer?" Ichibē asks as Ichigo exits the Spirit King's room with an unreadable expression and tall posture.

He's still slightly confused, but the answers now lay within instead of unreachable. Ichigo did find his answer, but it was not what he had expected and part of him wishes he could go back in time and punch himself in the face due to how stupid he had obviously been.

"I don't like it." Ichigo answers the man, his tone absolutely dripping with disappointment -it's still baffling to think he's most disappointed in himself.

"Most times the answers we seek are never one we like." The Zero Division Captain consoles. "But it is the answer, and we must learn to accept it as the truth."

Ichigo inhales a reishi filled breath and counts to five before releasing it. He has things to do, places to be, people to talk with and plans to put into action. He really shouldn't be having an existential crisis when there is so much that needs to be done.

"I asked him to do it." Ichigo reveals, blurting it out as if it were a shameful secret. "Me. That's who started the loop."

Ichibē looks quizzical at this, but doesn't seem to want to judge Ichigo for his past actions. Ichigo wouldn't have blamed the man if he had, but maybe that's just because he's judging himself anyways.

"Do you know how that came to be?" the older man asked.

He takes another breath, holds it much longer and feels the reishi fill his lungs until they burst before answering. "Because of a mistake."

Not to be continued…?