Meanwhile, within the throne room of the royal palace

'Hmmm,' Askin hummed as he looked over to where Yhwach and Ichigo were talking '...it seems everything is going well enough. What do you think, Lille ?'

Then white-haired African man shrugged. 'As long as he is still fighting on our side, I honestly don't damn how well it goes.'

Askin then sweet dropped. 'But...wouldn't it going well increase the chances of him staying on our side ?'

Lille then snorted. 'We could always threaten not to send him home or something. Playing nice isn't the only thing to make a person do what you want.'

Gremmy then smiled. 'Oh, so you want to provoke him into fighting us, Barro, is that?' He said with anticipation, but Lille just growled

'Look, it doesn't matter to me how we convince him or beat him into submission to help us. I just want it done, alright?' he spat in irritated. But then his expression soften. 'After all...given all we heard what that kid is willing to do for others...why should we even worry at this point?'

Genard then walked in front of the group. 'Well, I am sure that whatever it is, it will only further convince this Ichigo to join our cause. The giant of a man then turns to look at Robert. 'Right Accutrone?

Robert remains silent for a moment and continues to watch the conversation between the shinigami and the king. It is now becoming much tenser.

'Perhaps...' he said in a tone of uncertainty.

Later with Ichigo and Yhwach.

'What do you mean he would abandon his friends and family?' Ichigo shouted. 'Doesn't he realize what would happen if he does that? Doesn't he even care that he is letting them all die?!'

Yhwach then remained silent at Ichigo's questioning and then sighed. 'He does...and he finds it all the more worth it...'

Ichigo then looked at Quincy in disbelief as he shook his head. 'No, that...I heard that he could be a jerk at times, but alternate or not, no version of me would ever do that!'

Yhwach then raised an eyebrow at Kurosaki. 'Really, Ichigo...is it that much of an impossibility to accept?'

The enraged shinigami then looked at the Quincy king in confusion while the latter continued.

'Ichigo...you may have an inborn trait to protect and care for others, and through tragedy and despair, you have become stronger...but for our Ichigo, such things merely crippled him, despite also having that inborn trait,' Yhwach explains while the youth lowered his head. 'For no matter how many times I have seen my men or even his friends try to make him empathize with others, the results were always the same in threats: Either you go out of your way to save people, or we abandon you. But when it came for our Ichigo to inherit the throne...even that was not enough to sway him.'

The shingmai then huffed in anger. 'Then...couldn't you try to use your almighty to foresee a future and pick one in which he-'

'Ichigo...' yhwach interrupted the boy with a snap of his voice. 'The power of the almighty can only change and influence my choices and future, no one else's.'

The teen then quite himself, and the king continued.

'Indeed, it can allow me to pick a future in which I can make a different action on myself and others and bring it to the present...but it has no power over changing a person's actual decision in the same way that no one can decide their future, but their own' Yhwach then stretched out his right hand. 'At best, it can show me a possibility of Ichigo changing his mind through my choices and suggestions in some futures...but they can only happen unless he decides to choose those futures.'

The king then closed his eyes and gripped his hand. 'But...he rejected every one of them and made it all too clear...that for all the love he had for his family and friends...he chose his hatred over those that wrong him instead.

Ichigo then remained silent...completely speechless by all that Yhwach had to say.

'I...am sorry but...I still can't understand how even a different version of me could do that,' he spoke hesitantly. Then the king walked right in front of a troubled teen.

'So tell me, Ichigo...do you find me impossible to care for someone?' The king asked, and the soul reaper was taken aback by that question.

'What?!' Ichigo questioned, and then Yhwach smirked.

'Do you find me impossible to care for someone?' The king repeated, and the teen looked at him in confusion.

'I...no...I mean from what I have heard and seen for myself. You care a lot about your people, with Robert himself saying he might care too much,' Ichigo responded uneasily.

Yhwach then frowns. 'Really...and do you believe I can become just as cruel as your counterpart of me?'

The soul reaper stood stunned at the question and took one long look at the Yhwach before him and then compared it to the Yhwach that he fought in the past in his universe.

Though they had the same spiritual pressure and voice and even shared the same positions...such things did not change that they are as different as night and day. For this, Yhwach, the one he talked to and allied to. He was kind, understanding, humble, and cared for his people live hoods. While the one he fought and killed was cruel, delusional, arrogant, and apathetic to the deaths that he committed on his people.

Even their circumstances attaining the Reio's power can't even be comparable as the Yhwach of this universe inherited it to maintain its balance and follow the wishes of the soul king...while the latter wanted to destroy the world and remake it into his image.

Despite being the same person, they are nothing alike, and then Ichigo begins to compare himself to his counterpart. He cannot help but find similarities.

After all, when he first started, he never cared about being a shingmai when he had to take over Rukia's job as one and wanted nothing to do with it as he was only interested in saving his family...just like his alternate. Yet, unlike him, he chose to save others, not just those closest to him, and he was willing to place his life on the line to protect his entire world from destruction.

But if he chose differently...would he become just like his counterpart?

He didn't even want to know...if only because it does seem all that so unlikely anymore.

'Ichigo Kurosaki...' Yhwach spoke out, and Ichigo turned away from his thoughts.

'Regardless of our heritage and traits. Only our choices decide who we are. Just as your choices defined you as a protector, The other one's choices define him as an outcast, and in the end, it was because of that very choice of his that we were a force to abduct him from your universe...and replace him. With you.'

The teen's eyes then shout out. 'What so...your Ichigo is now in my world...living my life?'

Yhwach then shook his head. 'Oh no...he made it very clear he wasn't interested in taking over your life and is probably hiding somewhere within the living world. But once we made contact with him and you help us defeat Barragan...you will be able to go back to your reality.'

'Really?' Ichigo questioned. 'But what about me being your successor?'

'My boy,' Yhwach said solemnly. 'Regardless of how desperate our situation is. It was wrong to force you out of your world without your consent, and whenever or not you wish to become the soul king of this world...that is a choice I leave only to you.'