A/N: Special Attack; five chapters before I disappear for who knows how long!

ANYWAY, as I was writing this chapter one of my best friends, who is a hard-core Bleach fan, asked me, "When you're done with the Thousand Year Blood War, which arc are you going to do next; the Fullbringer arc, Spirits Are Forever With You, or Can't Fear Your Own World?"

With a twisted smile on my face, I said, "Speech is silver, silence is golden."

Disclaimer: If I owned Bleach, I would not be here, now would I?

X

Ichigo slowly opened his eyes as he woke up. He didn't bother moving his body as he just wanted to lie there on the comfortable bed for now. He looked around with his eyes and quickly realized that he was in the same room he was in when he first woke up after being brought back from the dead. He had to admit, it was a very colourful room with a lot of different fabrics and decorations. The lady with the six yellow robot arms to her back, Shutara Senjumaru, loved sewing, it would seem.

"So long are you going to lie there and stare at the ceiling?" A woman's voice made itself known. The young man sat up and saw Senjumaru sitting in a wooden chair at the far end of the room and was looking at him with amusement, a nice change from the glare he received last time. "Oh I knew you were awake the moment you started to shift when you had not done so earlier."

A small smile graced Ichigo's lips, making Senjumaru blink. "I wasn't staring at the ceiling at all, Shutara-san. I was just admiring the beautiful decorations in this room. You must love sewing." He then saw her expression turn to one of confusion, making his smile grow a little wider. 'She must be confused about my change in personality.' He thought to himself.

He was right, Senjumaru was confused about his sudden change in personality. 'How strange. It is clear he is not the same boy who had a shouting match with Kirinji without realizing he was naked. He is calmer now, not to mention more polite and his smile is more… natural now, unlike the World of the Living where he would force it on the anniversary of his mother's death. Maybe he has come to terms with what Osho told him?' That would explain it, and yet she could not help but feel that something else was at play. Eventually she shrugged it off, knowing that she was not going to figure it out anytime soon, so she put it at the back of her mind and responded, "Yes, they are beautiful and yes, I do love sewing. It is more of a passion than a hobby. But enough about that for now. Come, I will tell you how things work here."

Ichigo simply nodded and got off the bed, noting that he was once again naked. He raised an eyebrow and turned his attention to the woman to ask why he was naked, when he noticed that she was looking at his nether regions and was sporting a faint blush on her face. Now normally, this would be the part where he would stutter and cover his penis and blush until he looked like his namesake, but now he did not feel compelled to do that. He did not care that he was naked, since there was only one person in the room with him and was liking what she was seeing apparently. He deduced it to the barrier (that he did not know about and was definitely going kick Shiro's ass for it) being removed from his brain.

"Are there any clothes I could wear around here, Shutara-san?" He asked. He blinked and suddenly warm all around his body. He looked down and saw that he was wearing the standard shihakusho that the Shinigami wore. He would have been staring in awe at the speed and efficiency Senjumaru created his clothes, but his awe was overshadowed by his rage. He hated it as he reminded him of the people who stabbed him in the back after everything he did for them. He may be getting more mature, but his hatred for the Thirteen Court Guard Squads still burned like a raging inferno within him, but he did not shout out his disapproval. He just frowned and said, "I would prefer not to wear these clothes, Shutara-san."

'I see. His personality may have changed, but his hatred for those below still remains. Be that as it may, no one insults my work.' She thought to herself. "You will wear that Shinigami shihakusho until I say so, boy." A dark aura surrounded Senjumaru as she spoke coldly, causing Ichigo to lose his frown. The aura then disappeared. "Besides, think of this as a test."

"A test for what, exactly?" Ichigo could not help but ask.

She turned around and faced the door. "Figure it out yourself. Now come." She then floated out of the room, with Ichigo following.

'What's her problem?' He asked himself, not expecting an answer, but the Reio answered him. 'Senjumaru takes great pride over her work, and for you to say that you did not prefer the clothes she made for you felt like an insult towards her work.'

'I see.' He thought. 'I'll find a way to apologise to her.'

As they walked out of the castle and towards the platform where he would be sent to the next island, the orange-haired hybrid could not help but notice that there were people with tight, black clothing wearing strange masks everywhere. He could not help himself but associate them with ninjas from those movies he saw. What really intrigued him was the fact that they all bowed when they walked past them.

"Are these your soldiers, Shutara-san? They must hold you in high regard if they bow wherever you go." He asked the floating woman. After silence for a few seconds, Ichigo was sure he was being ignored but inwardly sighed in relief when she finally answered, "These soldiers are known to the Royal Guard as the Blade of the Almighty Reio. Their duty is to protect the Royal Palace and the Reio himself… and they were not bowing at me."

"Huh?"

She turned her head around to look at the young man over her shoulder. "They were made aware that the first Reio sacrificed himself to resurrect you from the dead and give you his power and knowledge, so they see you as his successor and the future King. They were actually bowing to you, not me." Stunned by this piece of information, the former Substitute Shinigami stayed silent until they reached the launching platform.

When he stood on the launching platform, one of the bigger soldiers raised the giant mallet and was about to bring it down, when Ichigo stopped them. "What is it?" Senjumaru asked with a hint of irritation in her voice. What she heard next was something she never though she would hear come out of his mouth.

"Before you send me off to the next island, I would like to apologise for what happened earlier. It wasn't my intention for my words to offend you. I'm sorry." He bowed, waiting for a response. What he heard next was a… laugh? He looked up and saw that Senjumaru had her mouth covered by one of her robotic hands while laughing softly.

Once she finished, she spoke, "I never thought I would see the day that you apologise to anyone in a formal manner. You are full of surprises, aren't you?" She smiled softly. "Apology accepted, Kurosaki Ichigo." She then nodded to the soldier, who brought down the mallet and sent Ichigo flying to Kirinji Tenjiro's Kirinden.

'How interesting.' She thought as she watched him fly off until he became a dot in the sky. 'I may have been imagining it, but I could have sworn I saw the image of his father, even if it was just a moment. It would appear as though this new personality is causing him to unknowingly behave more and more like his father when he was pretending to be a goody two-shoes within the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. I wonder what the others will think when they see him now.' Her soft smile grew wider.

'Kurosaki Ichigo, what an interesting young man… and bearing many gifts as well.' A faint blush once again appeared on her face as she thought about what she saw below his equator.

'It should be quite an interesting experience.'

X

Something was off.

That was Kirinji Tenjiro's thought when he saw the kid with the orange hair soaking on the other side of White Bone Hell as if it were a regular bath. When the Ichigo kid came flying in, he had expected to hear some screams of panic and frustration at potentially crashing on the concrete platform. But not only did he not hear those screams, he landed with both feet and suffered minor injuries to his legs, and not once did he scream out in pain and agony.

The thing that bothered him the most however, was the fact that the kid was calm. As far as he knew, Kurosaki Ichigo could be calm in certain situations, but even then it did not take this long for to suddenly say something annoying. As he continued to observe him, he noticed that the kid has his right eye closed with the left eye staring at him, as if watching his every move. It was interesting and irritating at the same time. Hell, he never even asked about the purpose of the baths!

"Hey kid!" He yelled out at Ichigo. Seeing his other eye open, one of the fastest people in the Soul Society continued, "Go jump into Blood Pond Hell, stay there for thirty seconds, and come back here."

Ichigo turned his head to the left and saw the boiling pit of red blood named 'Blood Pond Hell' and turned back to look at the tall man who was chewing on his stick ever since he got here.

"Why, Kirinji-san?"

"Just hurry up and do it, will ya? There's something I want to see."

Ichigo continued to stare at him before shrugging and walking towards the boiling blood. Without warning, he just dived into Blood Pond Hell, clearly hearing the older man's startled cry of "What the fuck!?"

As he floated on the blood, he began to think about his drastic personality change. If he was being honest to him, this was completely unnatural. A change in personality should not have been this quick and this drastic, and yet he had done it. Even the completely lack of fear was jarring to him. Before this, he had fear. Fear is what helped him survive against Grimmjow, Ulquiorra and Aizen, and now he was taking things in stride. He realized that he was becoming just like that man. The man who would stay calm and collected regardless of the situation he found himself in.

"ICHIGO!"

His eyes shot open as four arms grabbed him, removed him from the Blood Pond Hell and tossed him into White Bone Hell. He got out of the water and before he could say or do anything, he got socked by a punch that was so strong he skipped on the water before he stopped.

"What the hell is the matter with you kid?!" Tenjiro shouted as Ichigo got out of the water.

"What the hell was that for, Kirinji-san?" Ichigo asked in an angered tone that was subdued and calm, briefly glancing at the twins wearing strange tight clothing.

"Listen kid. No more games this time." The Hot Spring Demon spoke in a serious tone. "You weren't like this yesterday. You're too calm and quiet, not to mention terrifyingly fearless. You sound more mature and polite, which would be fine by me if it were not for the fact that it takes place hours after you nearly destroyed the Royal Palace with your reiatsu alone. And you just dived into a boiling pool of blood that should have killed you without hesitation and spend nearly five minutes in there. So I ask again, what the hell is the matter with you kid?"

Ichigo sighed. How distinguishable was his personality that these people would know that something was wrong? He opened his mouth to answer, when he was suddenly hit by a wave of memories that he knew were not his. It felt like an eternity as he saw and went through all of them; memories of events that he never knew existed, events that opened his perspective about the three worlds and finally…

Memories about his heritage, and about his parents.

"Kirinji-san." He growled as he stared at the confused Royal Guardsman.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Are we done? If so, I want to go to the next island. Now."

Tenjiro stared at the young man who now seemed pissed off all of a sudden, and just shrugged, "Yep, we're done here. Go on to the next island." He was not about to deal with a human teenager's mood swings. When Ichigo was sent flying by one of the twins, he grunted. "Well, that's that." He then turn his attention towards his helpers. "Ok you two. We're done. Thanks for your help today. You can go ahead and take those off now."

The two men nodded and took off their clothing that burned to ash the moment it touched the ground, revealing that the twins had minor burns all over their body and their muscle were bulging repeatedly, as if they wanted to get out of the skin.

"Whoa." The first twin, Kazuo, breathed out. "We never would have survived if it were not for these protective bathing robes."

"Yes, but that guy was not wearing anything, and yet he survived both the White Bone Hell and the Blood Pond Hell, even if it was just a few minutes. It's unbelievable."

"You're right." Tenjiro spoke while soaking his fractured hand in the water. "I knew he had potential but not that kind of potential. That little punk, not only did he survive that punch I threw at him, he blocked my fist out of poor reflex, and fractured it too."

"What?"

"No way."

"Yep. People used to call me Lightning Fast Tenjiro because of my Hoho skills, and I'm pretty sure I haven't lost my touch. So yeah, that kid is something else alright. I can see why the Reio was so fond of him." However, there was one thing that was still bothering him.

'What made the kid so pissed of back then?'

X

"Why did you show him those memories, Father?" Zangetsu angrily asked the Reio as rain began to heavily pour down on them within the Inner World.

The god-like being took note of his son's tone, but ignored it as he continued to stare at the heavens. "It was necessary."

"Why, why was it necessary to do that to King when he wasn't even ready?!" Shiro growled at him, struggling to stop himself from closing the distance and running his Zanpakuto through him. It's because of him that it was raining.

Oh, the Hollow was back. At least he would not have to explain more than once. "The island that he will be travelling to after Hikifune Kirio's Gatonden will be Nimaiya Oetsu's Hoohden. There, he will get an Asuachi, find out the truth about you two misleading him, and finally gain access to his true power, with some minor adjustments I will add to it. If he did not know about his roots before then, no Asauchi would have accepted him. That is why I showed him his roots."

He then turned to look at Ayumi, who was looking at him with a sad frown. "You know this, don't you Hogyoku? The boy may be maturing at an alarming rate, but he is still a child. He needs this. He needs to understand why his father did what he did, why his mother's life ended the way it did, and why this was hidden from him. Despair is a terrible feeling, but it can be used as a very powerful motivator if used correctly."

Ayumi sighed before eventually nodding. She did understand what he was trying to say, but that did not mean she had to like it. As the purple-eyed woman continued to stand in the rain, she realized why Zangetsu hated the rain so much. It was cold and the emotions that came with it were sometimes overwhelming. There was sadness, anger and confusion mixed into one. It saddened her knowing that the man who accepted her and saved her from that man was feeling this way and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

She felt helpless.

X

"Are you alright Ichigo?" The now slender woman could not help but ask. Ever since he arrived, the young man had just sat down on the table and been extremely quiet, not even looking at the giant buffet of food that was on the table and had seemingly not said anything on her plump self. "You have not said or eaten anything. Do you not like my food?"

"It is not the food, Hikifune-san." He responded with a bitter smile. "I just have something on my mind, that's all."

"What is it then?" She asked as she grabbed a chair and sat next to him. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to, but during my days as the 12th Division Captain, I learned that it is better to talk about your problems instead of keeping them within you."

The hybrid stared at the lady for a long time, contemplating if he should tell her or not. Then again, they did say that they had been watching him for a long time, so they probably knew everything about him. Plus, she genuinely seemed to be concerned about him, and her advice was the same as what Goat-chin told him a couple of years ago.

"I'm guessing you know who Aizen Sosuke is?" A nod was her response. "And you know who my mother was?" Another nod. He sighed and put his arms on the table. "When I was at Kirinji-san's island, I was suddenly… bombarded by a lot of the Reio's memories. All of them." A single tear hit the table. "I saw how my mother died… and how… before that… that bastard Aizen tricked her into thinking he was my dad… and… then… he… he…" Ichigo tightly clenched his fists as more tears fell up, being unable to contain them while startling Kirio. "My mother, Kurosaki Masaki… was a Quincy… and my… real father… is…" His throat burned at the thought of saying those words, but he knew he had to. The words however, would not come out. They were stuck in his throat, as if they refused to be said aloud. He eventually just gave up and started crying silently, not allowing himself to mimic his nine year old self.

Kirio, who had been silently watching the young man, could not take much more of this heart-breaking scene and hugged the young man, who continued to silently cry on her shoulders. She thought about temporarily make him forget about his problems, but quickly shot that idea down as this was not the appropriate time to do such a thing, and she felt as though she would be taking advantage of him.

(The Next Day)

After a couple of hours of crying, Ichigo fell asleep on the pink-haired woman's shoulders, and woke up the next morning on a very comfortable bed that had huge pink curtains surrounding it. He felt movement on his side and felt his face getting warm when he saw the older woman peacefully sleeping next to him while wearing nothing underneath the covers. He did his best to ignore her state of dress and thought about the events of yesterday, particularly the memories.

He knew from the memories that aside from the Royal Guard, the people who also knew about his biological father were Kisuke, Yoruichi, Tessai, Uryu's father Ishida Ryuken, and the Vizard. On the one hand, he was pissed as shit that they had many opportunities to tell him but they refused to, but on the other hand he understood why they had never told him the truth. It would have been too much for him, knowing that the same man who ordered for Rukia to be executed, framed Kisuke and the others, and tried to kill hundreds of thousands of people in order to create the Oken was the same man who manipulated his entire life. His mom, however, was a different issue. It seemed she did not want to have anything to do with the afterlife, even going as far to threaten Kisuke to stay away from the family if he and the twins gained any abilities. It was clear that his mother loved him with everything she had, even prepared to risk her life for him after he was knocked out by Grand-Fisher. It was just her being at the wrong place at the wrong time, as she was prepared to fight her with something called Blut Vene, when it suddenly disappeared and she was hit by a light from above.

The Sealed King of the Quincy.

After nine hundred years, he would regain his heartbeat.

After ninety years, he would regain his intellect.

After nine years, he would regain his strength.

After nine days, he would regain the world from the power of all Gemischt Quincy in the world.

And in a single day, he would die by Kurosaki Ichigo's hands for taking the sun of his universe away from him.

With that vow, he got up from the bed and took a nice, hot shower. After that, he got dressed and headed to the diner room, where the food was still there and somehow had not spoilt or smelled bad. He sat down and took a bite of the meat, before he was hit with an amalgamation of flavour and tenderness. After that it was wraps, the whole table filled with food that could feed at least ten people disappeared within a couple of hours.

"Oh my." The chef exclaimed as she walked in the room in her plump form, dressed in her Royal garb. "It seemed you had an appetite. You need any more food, young man?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No thanks, I'm full." He stood up and deeply bowed, shocking Kirio at the formality he was showing. "I wanted to say thank you, for yesterday. You gave me your shoulder to cry on, even though you didn't have to."

Still stunned, she merely coughed before smiling again. "Come now, it was nothing really. I used to look at all of my subordinates as the children I never had, so it comes naturally. There is no need to thank me, young man. Now, I need to tell you something before you leave." Ichigo stopped bowing and paid close attention to what she was about to say. "I need you to be careful out there. You probably remember that the first time we met you, we gave you names before our real ones. That is because all of our rituals, are combined with the history of the Soul Society. Each and every one of us in the Zero Division has contributed to the Soul Society by creating something new. It is for that reason, we were recognized by the Reio as part of its history, and invited by him to join this division. The concept I created that had never been thought of; the concept of an artificial soul."

Ichigo's eyes widened as he thought about Kon, but she continued, "A Gikon. I even created the technology to insert it into a body. This Gikon tehnology, was later used by others to develop the Soul Candy. But the main purpose of a Gikon, is to increase one's power by inserting the essence of a completely foreign reiatsu, into one's body. The food you just ate, was infused with just an essence, your body now contain reiatsu that you have never felt before."

Her expression became serious. "You may have the power of the Reio now, but that does not mean you shouldn't be careful. There's no telling what you will have to go through at your next stop; Hoohden. In that palace you will have Nimaiya Oetsu to deal with."

Ichigo suddenly felt a pit of uneasiness form in his stomach.

"The man who created Zanpakuto."

(Karakura Town)

Yoruichi was not a woman who was easily annoyed. She did live with Kisuke and the kids, who had unfortunately annoyed her to no end for the past century, but she quickly grew accustomed to it. They did sometimes made her want to choke them until they turned blue in the face, but it was nothing she could not handle. Now there was a new source for her annoyance, and it was not Kisuke and the kids.

It was her Little Bee, her former student Sui-Feng.

Over the past three days, she had been finding ways to leave her division and come talk to her, and she had been avoiding her as much as she possibly could. When she told Kisuke what was happening, he merely laughed which led to her kicking him in the nuts, but eventually told her that Sui-Feng was not going to stop until she spoke to her. Even though she wanted to smack that irritating smile off his face, she knew her friend had a point and even she knew that she could not avoid her forever.

That was why she was currently waiting for Sui-Feng at the same park where those Arrancars, Yammy and Ulquiorra, had appeared the first time. A couple of hours later, when Yoruichi was about to leave and actually thought that her former student had given up, she felt her reiatsu gaining on her location quickly, proving that Sui-Feng had in fact not given up on her. A couple of seconds later, she appeared right in front of her, panting slightly and sporting a slight smile on her face. The nerve, she thought angrily to herself, but kept her face neutral on the outside.

"Yoruichi-sama." Yoruichi fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"Shaolin."

Sui-Feng noticed and flinched at the cold tone her personal goddess was talking to her with, but spoke, "I have been trying to find you for days now, but it is if as though you are avoiding me."

This time, Yoruichi did roll her eyes. "Maybe that was because I was avoiding you. Now what do you want? I do not have all day."

Another flinch. "Yoruichi-sama, I would like to apologise for what I did to Kurosaki Ichigo. It was wrong of me to end his life." She bowed, hoping that this apology would bring her back into her good graces.

"Was that it?"

She rose up from her bow. "Yoruichi-sama?"

Yoruichi just stared at her with a deadpan expression. "That's all? You track me down as if I were your enemy, only for you to apologise? You wasted my time." She turned around and was about to disappear, when she felt a hand grab her wrist. She turned around and saw Sui-Feng grabbing her. "What do you want now?"

She bit her lip, as if contemplating what to say but then spoke, "I know you hate me for Kurosaki's death, but you have to understand that I was doing my job. Yamamoto-soutaicho ordered us to end his life-"

"I know that!" She shouted, startling the petite woman and unknowingly loosened her grip on her arm. "I'm not stupid! I'm mad about the fact that you did not object to it, just like his so-called 'friends' in Abarai Renji and Kuchiki Rukia! And to do that to your fellow student without hesitation pisses me off! And then you had the nerve, the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to look down on him and removed your leg like that when he stopped you!"

"…How did you know that?"

"I have my ways." Yoruichi scowled, before sighing in disappointment. "I cannot forgive you, Sui-Feng. Not this time."

"…" The chocolate skinned goddess heard Sui-Feng muttering under her breath.

"What's that?"

"What is it that that boy had that I didn't?!" This time it was Yoruichi's turn to be startled. "I was your first student, Yoruichi-sama! Not him! I learned almost everything in your arsenal, he DID NOT! I HAVE LOVED YOU MORE THAN HIM! I LOVED YOU BEFORE HE DID WHILE HE COULD NOT EVEN LOOK AT A WOMAN WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE A FUCKING STRAWBERRY! SO WHY? WHAT WAS SO SPECIAL ABOUT HIM THAT HAS MADE YOU HATE ME THIS MUCH!?"

Yoruichi stared at the leader of the Omnitsukido in shock at her Little Bee's confession. She knew that Sui-Feng had a sexual, possibly romantic interest in her, but he had no idea that she was also this jealous of Ichigo. She blinked. It now made so much sense now. She had always been jealous of Ichigo, which transformed into hate for the young man. The execution was merely the catalyst for her to act and remove the competition. Was she that petty? Was she that pissed off of the fact that Ichigo had gained her interest? Yoruichi could not believe it, but all she had were speculations. All she had to confirm them.

"Is that why you killed him, Sui-Feng?" She whispered, stunning her former protégé. "You were jealous of him?" Yoruichi hoped that it wasn't true, but seeing Sui-Feng turn her head sideways in shame, she clenched her fists in anger and punched her in the face. "I can't believe you, Sui-Feng. You were jealous of a human boy, who only wanted to protect his loved ones. You've disappointed me. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I hate you. For taking the life of a brother, friend and son. For killing a boy who saved you from Aizen." Her expression turned emotionless. "For killing your fellow student."

"Yoruichi-sama-" A slap echoed throughout the empty park as the former Clan Head slapped the captain.

"Don't you ever call me that, ever again Shaolin Feng, you have lost the right. Just go back to the Soul Society where you belong, and I hope to never see you again."

Sui-Feng's eyes widened before watering and eventually letting a few tears fall down her face. Without another word, she vanished from the park, along with her reiatsu. Yoruichi sighed in sadness and exhaustion.

This has been a long day.

X

A/N: So yeah, I did that to Sui-Feng, and it is about to get a lot worse for her down the line. The last part fought me because as far as I know in canon, Yoruichi adores Sui-Feng as a student, while Sui-Feng adores her mentor in another manner. The only fic I have read where Yoruichi and Sui-Feng kind of hate one another and it made sense, was Whackybiscuit's The Defeated. So that exchange was the best I could come up with. I'll rewrite it once I am done with this story.