Ichigo wafts the smoke away from his hand after blasting Nnoitra in the chest with that cero. The blast had sent the giant espada flying backwards and careening into a sand dune sending dust and snow everywhere. Grimmjow turns and glares at Ichigo jumping in on his battle but the orange haired vizard doesn't shift his attention away from Nnoitra. The espada slowly stands up from the attack, feeling his stomach being burned from the attack further enraging him. "How are you ants even scratching me?! Much less making it hurt." Nnoitra protests as he forces himself up off the ground. "So, Kurosaki Ichigo you're the little shit that's supposed to be engaged with the zero espada? You don't look like much, you sure can pack a punch though."
"This coming from the guy who came fifth place in a dick measuring contest with 2 women in it?" Ichigo asks after having pulled the mask from his face for a moment. "With all six of those scythes you're definitely overcompensating."
"Hahahahaha! He's got you on that one bug boy." Grimmjow laughs.
"You're the one in sixth place." Ichigo says, causing the cat Espada to turn and glare at him.
"I'm going to enjoy cutting out your tongue." Nnoitra growls as he stomps hard on the sand causing more of it to be scattered. "Die." Nnoitra declares before sticking out his massive tongue and pointing it towards Ichigo. From the point of his tattooed tongue a glowing gold ball of energy begins to appear from his mouth before firing towards Ichigo.
The vizard puts the mask back over his face before lifting a single hand up to block the attack. The golden cero slams into his hand causing his muscles to flex under the strain of the blast. Though Ichigo stopping the cero with a single hand shocks both Grimmjow and Nnoitra, but that shock turns to astonishment for Grimmjow and horror for Nnoitra just as quickly. The gold spirit energy is pulled into Ichigo's hand before forming a small ball. He clasps his fingers around it causing the captured cero to turn red under the influence of his spirit energy. Clasping the captured cero harder in his hand the spirit energy expands outwards forming a European style arming sword with a flared handguard. "Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws!" Ichigo chants before flash stepping right in front of Nnoitra, grabbing the espada by the face with his palm over the espada's eyepatch. "Hado number 33, Sokatsui!" An explosion of white blue flames erupts from his hand through the eye of the espada turning several miles of sand behind him to glass from the heat.
"Fool." Nnoitra says before punching Ichigo in the stomach with his clawed hand piercing his skin before he clenches his fist and rips out a good part of his abdomen before kicking him to the side. "Pathetic." Nnoitra growls before flicking Ichigo's blood off his hand.
Ichigo grinds his feet into the sand as he clutches a hand to his side in pain, the attack nearly ripped out his liver. Nnoitra looks intrigued that Ichigo is still standing but he watches as the shinigami focuses his hollowfied reiatsu to the injury on his side causing it to heal rapidly. Ichigo stares shocked that the attack didn't kill the espada but his unsaid question is answered when Nnoitra lifts the mask fragment eye patch from over his left eye revealing the hollow hole through the center of his head. "I'll give you credit, soul reaper, that sure as hell didn't tickle." Nnoitra gloats before putting the eyepatch back in place over his eye. "Quit with the magic you pussy, and hit me like a man or is that something you can't do?" Nnoitra smirks, but Ichigo raises the cero blade in his hands preparing to attack next. "And what about you kitty cat? You actually managed to cut me earlier and now you're standing around watching."
"If you want this to be a two vs one then be my guest." Grimmjow says happily as he flexes his fingers and extends his claws. "Frankly, I was kinda hoping you two idiots would just tear each other apart. Would save me the trouble."
"Whose side are you on here?!" Ichigo shouts at Grimmjow which prompts the hollow to just shrug at him.
"I'm only here to gut that moron, I told you I ain't on anyone's side. Now are we gonna stand around playing pat ass all fucking day or are we just gonna kill this asshole and get the fuck out of here. You're supposed to be on a time frame dumbass." Grimmjow shouts before using a sonido to close the distance. "Let's see how you handle close quarters Asshole."
With Rukia.
Part of her is astonished at how fast she can move with her new powers as an espada, she moves so fast that the air around her heats up as she moves through it not even using a sonido. From the ground she looks like a comet burning through the air towards Aizen's palace throne room. The traitor captain was at least true to his word, as she feels the hum of her zanpakutos from within the castle. She also feels Ichigo near the palace entrance but she can't sense Ulquiorra anywhere. While his rank might be the fourth espada, she can tell that he's leagues stronger than Harribel and Barragan. Aizen's ace to keep them in Hueco Mundo for as long as possible in order to prevent them from interrupting him in the real world. She blasts through the large double doors of the palace entrance and evaporates two arrancar that were still stationed here to stall them with her spiritual pressure alone. Now in the throne room she scans the halls with her pesquisa sensing for anyone nearby. Not feeling anyone again, she sonidos through the hall and to the small room behind Aizen's throne to his study.
In a glass case in the center of the room sits the white and red blades of her zanpakutos. Seated elegantly on a simple black sword stand. The display sits on top of Aizen's desk and in front of it is a small folded envelope with a wax seal on the front of it. Not sensing any danger from the room, she hesitantly steps forwards towards the desk having a feeling that Aizen would leave one last trap for her though nothing happens. She picks up the envelope and reads her name written across the paper prompting her to break the wax seal in order to read it. She gently pulls the paper from within the envelope then unfolds it, recognizing Gin's handwriting.
Kurosaki Rukia.
If you are reading this, then the invasion has already started and I may already be dead. I am confessing this to you in the chance that you and Ichigo can defeat Aizen. When I was a child, I witnessed Aizen kill a soul reaper and injure Rangiku tossing her aside like a piece of rubbish. I have spent two centuries plotting to kill him for hurting her and thousands of others through his experiments. He knows something about you, something that he didn't even tell myself or Tousen. The display for your zanpakutos is unlocked, take them and get out of here as fast as you can. You need to get to Soul Society, he knows the karakura town in the human world is a fake. Send Ichigo to the human world and you go to soul society, if he can't defeat him then it's up to you. I know that a mere apology for aiding and abiding in Aizen's plans and killing in other souls but I hope my sacrifice is enough to atone for this.
Sincerely Ichimaru Gin.
She folds up the letter and places it back into the envelope before putting it into her robes. After tucking it away she punches the glass display case and smashes it freeing her swords allowing her to grab the two handles and tie them to her waist. Now with the familiar hum of her blades at her waist she lifts Zangetsu into the air and taps the handle from the base, dissipating it to spirit particles and returning it to its owner. She draws the red blade from her scabbard, feeling for where Ichigo is, she turns and vanishes, using a sonido to teleport through the palace to join the fight.
With Ichigo.
Nnoitra slams his scythes downwards trying to impale Ichigo from above and bypass the block with his cero blade. However, despite Nnoitra's brute strength Ichigo's speed is far too much for him to contend with. Grimmjow is just as fast, the apex hollow predator daring about the battlefield and lunging in for scratches and jabs through the course of their fight. Unable to keep up with the sheer speed of his opponents, Nnoitra resorts to flaring his spiritual pressure as high as he can in order to create a barrier around himself to keep them from getting too close. His opponents have figured out that he is weak at close range due to the shapes of his weapons and are trying to take advantage of it. As he makes another slash towards Ichigo with three of his scythes, something catches his eye. A long string of spirit particles are drawn in towards the soul reaper before coalescing in a long sheathed Nodachi on his back. Feeling his sword return to him, Ichigo condenses the energy blade back into a cero then aims the ball at Nnoitra. The espada growls seeing this, annoyed with the soul reaper's use of magic and energy based attacks but he sticks out his tongue in order to counter this blast.
"Desscaron." He hears Grimmjow speak from behind him, feeling the panther's spiritual pressure rise above his own. From behind Nnoitra, Grimmjow streaks his claws through the air slowly causing long blades of spirit energy to form attached to his claws. He raises his arms and lunges forwards, pouncing and swiping towards the espada. The pounce launches the blades towards the espada slamming into him cutting deep into his back and partially through him severing two of his arms in the process.
"Now Kurosaki!" Grimmjow yells before darting in front of the espada and scraping towards his neck but missing.
Ichigo dips his fingers into the blood staining his side before allowing it to drip into the cero forming in his palm. The blood causes blue electricity to arc off of the blast before it turns a deep blue as well. Nnoitra slashes desperately at Grimmjow, who's moving far too fast for the fifth espada to land a hit. The panther espada grabs one of Nnoitra's dropped scythes and slams it into Nnoitra's knee embedding it into the ground and severing his tendons. He sonidos and cuts through his other knee causing Nnoitra to fall backwards howling in pain. Ichigo flash-steps from his spot floating in the sky before appearing right in front of Nnoitra. "Gran Rey Cero." He says calmly, before firing the massive blast into Nnoitra's face, evaporating his head. After watching the smoke dissipate he slowly removes his mask allowing it to dissipate into the aether.
"You gonna eat that?" Grimmjow asks, seeing the corpse of the fifth espada slump over dead on the floor. Missing four of his six arms, the neck stump where his head used to be still smoking and his joints on his knees severed.
"Be my guest. I gotta find Rukia." Ichigo says before taking off towards Aizen's palace leaving Grimmjow to eat his meal.
Appearing from a flash step at the base of the palace, Ichigo stops and gazes upwards at the tall tower in the center of Las Noches. At the top of a grand staircase stands a lone figure, with short black hair flowing in the breeze. As he approaches, he feels her spiritual pressure radiating from her; she now eclipses his power completely even if he was using Bankai; she'd be hundreds of times stronger than him. Her white robes flowing in the breeze, and a small perfectly circular hollow hole sits in the top portion of her chest just beneath her collarbone. Atop her head sits a smaller version of her fox like hollow mask now seated at the top of her head as a crown. On the sides of her head, the crown sports two large fox ears that Ichigo can't tell if they're real. Seeing his fiancé again, Ichigo bolts up the flight of stairs to embrace her again, and she rushes down them to do the same. He instantly wraps her up in a tight hug, pulling her into him as tight as he can.
"I thought I'd never see you again." He says, his voice cracking from anxiety and relief that she's now by his side again. "I should have gone to get them, or come with you not let you go alone."
"Ichigo…" She says his name, trailing off slightly afraid of what he'll say seeing what Aizen has turned her into. "I missed you." She says before tucking her head into his shoulder falling deeper into his embrace. "Aizen… he."
"I know." He responds before raising a hand to the back of her head, he runs his hand through her hair before abruptly kissing her. She's taken off guard with how much fervor he's putting behind it but she melts into him and kisses back. "I don't care what you are, hollow, soul reaper, human or even quincy. I'll love you no matter what." he says after breaking from the kiss for a moment.
"Even if I'm an Arrancar? He forced me to become the cero espada… permanently changed my soul with the hogyoku." She begins to cry before she's once again scooped up into another kiss. They stand there, in each other's embrace, him garbed in black, and her in white. Like the bride and groom they're destined to be.
"The Hogyoku did this, and it can undo it." He says after breaking away once again. "Once we kill Aizen I'll take it from him and use it to reverse this. To fix what he did to you." He says as he lifts a hand to cup the soft flesh of her cheek. She smiles at him holding him for a moment longer before they break away and turn to prepare to leave.
"Let's get you hom-" He's cut off suddenly, as a white skinned and black nailed hand stabs him through the chest and bursts from the other side spraying blood onto Rukia's white robes. Her eyes widen in shock seeing him get stabbed through the chest, and he looks on in fear at the white skinned arrancar in front of him. Clad in a reishi sealing cloak, Ulquiorra glares at Rukia as Ichigo slumps forwards over his arm. The fourth espada lifts Ichigo up with a single hand then throws him down the flight of stairs. "Do not waste your time with trash like that." Ulquiorra says coldly before lowering a hand to his katana. "Lord Aizen sends his regards." He says before drawing the weapon and attacking.