Chapter 1: Saigo no Tangan
Summary – AU. Soul society collapsed under Yhwach's boot with all Shinigami dead at the hands of his Sternritters. For nine years Ichigo fought, struggling to keep the last vestiges of his sanity alive. The last struggle, one last fight where he gave it his all and accepted every facet of himself…and nothing. With Yhwach as soul king, the world burns asunder. And what has Urahara planned? Time-Travel! Dangai Ichigo Power levels! Smart Ichigo!
Disclaimer – This is a work of purely speculative fiction. It is not intended to infringe on any rights by and of the companies and/or individuals involved in the production of any series mentioned here. The characters involved are the intellectual property of their respective authors/creators except for the ones that are listed as an OC, which are mine.
A/N – 1. Since there are many things in bleach that are a bit confusing/convoluted in their explanations, the size of seireitei, Zanpakuto, its creation and relation to its wielder and many other things, for example, I will be taking some liberties with them in this fanfic. I assure you, the things that make bleach, bleach, will all remain the same and my explanations will flow into the story rather than being dumped all at the same time.
2. I usually prefer the Japanese names of things and will do my best to write them as the creator intended but, it slows down the writing part quite a lot and if I don't, for some reason, do this every time, I do apologise for it in advance.
With that said, enjoy the chapter.
-x-x-x-x-x-
A rift opened in a withering chamber at the lowest levels of the earth, beneath a burning city. Light, red and haunting burst from the opening as it broke through the world, surging with tremendous power.
It was not something that could be hidden from one's senses as it literally tore through reality itself and thus, it should not have been present in the last safe house for the remnants of those who kept the balance.
Even now, their enemy was fast approaching with an end that had been promised to them all those years ago.
"Are you sure about this?"
The hoarse voice of his companion asked worriedly as he saw the three of them struggle to control the Kido in the barrier.
"Its…our…only shot," he replied, gritting his teeth in pain as the burden of the spell fell on his shoulders a little more.
A glance to his left and he saw both his sisters had blood coming out of their eyes pooling at their legs marring the etched runes on the stone floor that Urahara had painstakingly carved for this endeavour.
"Karin! … Yuzu!" he shouted seeing the pain in their tired but fierce gazes.
"We…can…do this, Ichigo!" Karin grunted as she flared her reiatsu once more, trying her best to hold on for a little while longer. Ichigo had protected them their whole life, she knew she could not leave this task for him to take on his own. He needed her. Looking towards her side where stood her equally suffering twin, she amended her thoughts…he needed them both.
"Don't…don't stop now, brother!" Yuzu replied echoing her twin.
Ichigo closed his eyes in defeat but before his regrets could take hold of him and his thoughts could remind him of all that he had failed to protect, he wrenched them back to the goal at hand.
It was their only chance. Their last chance to save the world and their loved ones… Even if it cost them everything.
With clenched teeth, Ichigo gave a mighty roar and pulled out all stops that kept his reiryoku in check.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH…"
A silvery glow emanated from his very being, lighting up the dark chamber with its luminescence.
The purple barrier holding all four of them inside wavered for a moment and came back alive with a renewed strength just as the blood-red rift at their front opened its ominous gates with a creek that all of them could feel in their very bones.
"It's time," Kisuke said in a weary tone, the effort to keep the barrier taking a dangerous toll on his soul.
Ichigo took a steadying breath and sharing a look with his sisters, nodded. They had prepared for this. They had made their peace with whatever happened, knowing that what they had planned did not guarantee success.
"My right hand is the stone that bridges worlds. My left hand is the blade that binds reality. The black-haired shepherd is hung from a chair. Stratus clouds come, and I strike down the ibis…Keikaigi Kuro!" Ichigo began the incantation even as his legs shook from the effort of keeping the multitudes of spells inside the barrier.
"Barrier of dust, shield of north, protector of Men! Arise from ashes and reveal our weakness. Dissolve into air and hide our sins! On altars of greed we call you. In graves of virtue we worship you. Bind, scatter, reduce to ash! Cripple, crush, dissolve...Dangai Shiro!" Karin echoed her brother, feeling the strain double in an instant.
"God of Wind, hear my plea. Take from me my stubborn heart, take from me my weakness. Through me form the winds of change and the winds of destruction. From the four corners of the world, come to me the Eastern, the Western, the Northern, and the Southern winds and let loose the might of time…Taimugēto!" Yuzu ended with a hitch in her tone that told the others she was standing on her last legs.
The effect was instantaneous.
The purple barrier shimmed and wavered away as the called upon might of time itself tore the spiritual particles into nothingness.
The Kido barrier capable of keeping even the most tenacious of beings who could boast a spiritual power surpassing those of a Shinigami Captain, could not keep the corroding touch to time from fading it away.
Kisuke Urahara, the exiled Shinigami of the Soul Society, looked upon the scene and a tired sigh left his lips even as his feet felt the thundering of the earth beneath in response to the spell the three Kurosaki siblings had awakened.
He looked down in his hand and for a brief moment doubt surged within him as the pitiful being in his hands fought for control.
The anger when he saw it though, eroded his doubts.
Pernida Parnkgjas.
Yhwach's Schutzstaffel. A Sternritter with the epithet C - The Compulsory.
The left hand of the Soul King and the only thing that had enough power to get his companions to where they wanted to go.
It had been a bitch and a half binding the thing into a barrier much smaller than its own body and he'd had to create a new Kido just to keep it from using his powers on him while the ritual was active.
Now though…now, there wasn't a need to keep it in check. For what the Sternritter was up against, even it, with all its power wouldn't be able to do anything.
"NOW KISUKE!"
Ichigo's shout brought him back as he saw the rift beginning to close.
Brining the Quincy near enough to his chest and with a single thrust, he plunged his Zanpakuto, Benihime into his own heart just as it cleaved Pernida Parnsgjas in two, their mixed blood spilling onto the floor.
He and Benihime had made peace with what they both knew, they'd have to do. His Zanpakuto spirit had been more amused by it than anything. She had said to him once, the reason he didn't harbour romantic feelings for Yoruichi was that he was already in love with her and now that he was dying with her…well, didn't it just show the depth of his feelings for her?
He hadn't really been able to deny that.
"UNGHH…" Kisuke gasped as the fatal wound tore through his chest. A small smile came to his lips as he felt the whispering voice of Benihime soothing his pain. It turned into a savage bloodthirsty thing when he saw the Sternritter's reiatsu was being absorbed by the rift as they had hoped.
"Disintegrate, you black dog… of Rondanini! Look upon yourself…*cough* with horror and then seize your own throat!" Kisuke intoned the final chant of spell coughing blood and threw the flailing limb into the rift which ate at its essence as though it were nothing.
His job done, Kisuke's legs gave away even as his Zanpakuto held him, keeping him from touching the ground. Smiling slightly at Benihime in their mindscape, he took a last look at the orange-haired man who had become his friend in the time they had struggled together and whispered his last words in this world.
"It's up to you now, Ichigo…"
-x-x-x-x-x-
Ichigo felt more than saw the life of his friend and teacher fade away into the hungry maw of the rift that they had opened as their salvation.
Seeing his body as the blood dripped on the stone floor marring its blackness with Kisuke's life-brew, a haunted look came to his brown eyes as he added another name in the long list of people who had had to give their lives because of one monster.
A whimper and strained breathing from his side reminded him of what they had to do.
"Karin! Do it!" Throwing Zangetsu from within his sheath to her, he commanded with a tone that broke no argument. Not that Karin argued with him anymore. He was her big brother, her teacher, she knew what weighed on him. She could see the pain in his eyes.
"Hai!" she answered.
And with that, she did something that would have once horrified him but only brought a single tear in his eyes now.
'It's the only way…' he thought to himself, clenching his eyes shut at what was about to come.
Following Kisuke's example, Karin took Zangetsu and whispered something inaudible. And in a single unwavering thrust, plunged the sword into her chest.
"ANNGGHHHHH…" a cry of pain burst from her lips as she spat blood at her front.
"KARIN!" Yuzu shouted, her eyes brimming with tears.
"STAY THERE, YUZU! You know what will happen if you let go of the Kido!" Ichigo broke through to her, his voice strained as the force of spell tripped on his shoulders without Karin.
It took all her self control to stop herself from kneeling beside her struggling twin as her shallow breaths and pained gasps tittered down to small whimpers.
Gathering her flailing reiatsu, she took hold of the barrier keeping them safe from the rift and glanced at Ichigo. He was looking at Karin with a look she had seen from him once in his life before.
It was the same look he had when he informed her and Karin that their father had died saving them from an ambush by the Soul King's second in command, Jugram Jaschawalth and thirteen other Sternritters.
Ichigo had been there with him when they both had fought and bled to defend her and Karin from manic Sternritters who were doing anything and everything in their power to hunt them down.
His death…it had changed him.
It had changed them all.
She saw as finally, right before their very eyes, Karin's breath ceased and a second later, her body burned into nothingness, her essence travelling through the rift.
A tear rolled from her cheeks at the loss of her twin sister.
"AAAGHHHH…Yuzu! Go! NOW!" Her brother's frantic shout alerted her that something was wrong.
Then she felt it.
The outer barrier. It had been breached.
"THEY ARE HERE! GO!" Ichigo shouted again.
Praying for all of their souls, Yuzu did as her big brother commanded.
She dropped her hold on the Kido and heard Ichigo grunt from the strain as everything that kept them safe from the red opening fell on his shoulders.
Had she not seen it before, she would have been in awe of what her brother could do. The barrier that held their souls from being devoured by time was immensely powerful, requiring, in her estimate, an especially dense and huge amount of reiryoku to form.
Hastily as she could, she picked Zangetsu from where her sister had once stood and echoed the words Karin had whispered.
Before she could do what she must, her brother's voice caught her ears.
"Stay safe till I get there," he said with a strained smile and closed them again as the pressure from holding the spell got too much for him to speak.
Despite herself, that one statement from him made all the difference. With a teary smile of her own, she replied, "Hai, oniichan…"
Ichigo kept his eyes closed firmly, unwilling…unable to see anymore. He knew Yuzu would know the reason. She always did. She was the one who always took care of their family. She knew their needs.
When he heard the now agonisingly familiar pained gasp, he flinched.
Another one…gone.
His blood boiled as he thought of the sacrifices their little sisters had to make.
'They shouldn't have had to do this… It was not their time!' He raged inside his mind.
A pinprick at the back of his mind informed him of the last broken barrier that the Quincies had just broken and he thrusted his anger aside with frightening control.
Kisuke had said it all… It was all up to him now.
"Scourage of fire. Devourer of souls. Raging winds of North, hear me. Thirteen black horses in firey pits call upon thee. Free the chains that bind thy servant. Open the gates. Flood the earth. I unleash myself. Hachi-taibo…Tamashī Gisei!"
The final remnants of the barrier shattered as his incantation ended and for a moment, just one, he could breathe as though everything that had weighed on him had faded away.
With a vengeance, the force returned and pushed him down into the cold floor.
He only had time to call Zangetsu back to him before the fire from the bloody rift snatched him in its hungry maw.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH…"
His screams echoed in the empty chamber as everything began shaking. A quake of such magnitude hit the hole in the ground as the roof caved at the entrance.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH…."
A white orb of light came from his chest and disintegrated before his blood dripping eyes, its essence being eaten by the red opening in the air.
Ichigo clawed at his throat as it burned from within filling his being in excruciating pain.
'You're nearly there Ichigo…' A voice whispered in his head.
Even in pain, he recognised that voice.
"Zan…Zangetsu," he breathed.
'The hollow within you…its purged. I can feel its absence.' Zangetsu informed him.
Ichigo held on. The pain was nothing when he reminded himself what he would gain if he endured it as he must.
"ANGGGHHHH…."
A blue orb of liquid-like substance burst from him just as his legs burned to ashes. It held on to him though, doing its very best to get back within his soul.
Finally, with a feeble attempt to return back to its owner who sat on the Soul King's throne, the soul fragment in his being that made him a Quincy, crumbled into nothingness as the rift devoured it whole.
A bloody smile came to Ichigo's lips seeing the final remnants of taints leave his being.
It had been a gamble.
Kisuke had told him not to do and to follow the plan, but he knew, as long his soul was tainted, even going where they intended would not help in the slightest.
The sacrifices of these powers only added more stability to the opening as its fuel.
And more importantly…
Zangetsu was finally free. His true Zanpaktou spirit.
He saw, with searing pain behind his open eyes, as his Zanpakuto finally unravelled itself and settled within his chest as a part of him, as it was always meant to be.
He knew he was finally complete.
Ōetsu Nimaiya may have created all Zanpakuto's in existence, but even he had not understood what Zangetsu craved above all.
To be Ichigo's true partner.
And Ichigo knew that he could not be an amalgamation of every kind of being there was and become what Zangetsu wished him to be.
He was…what he always had been…
A true Shinigami.
With only one thing left to do, Ichigo triggered the final spell Kisuke had embedded in the chamber halls as a surprise for their guests.
"Saishū Kuyō Shibari…"
Thirty black holes came into existence at the buried entrance and held there by his will.
The bastards would not be able to run back to their master and tell what they had done. He would make sure of it!
With nothing left to do…he waited.
Burning…It had a distinctly different feel to it than anything he had ever felt before. The way his flesh sizzled and melted right before his eyes. The smell of it…his screams…his very life being lifted out of his body. He could feel every second of it. Could see it as if he was an outsider, watching his body being scorched asunder. It was almost easy at this point, despite the pain involved, to let go. The end would either bring him to the judgement of his cruel existence or would take him towards his only chance at redemption.
A sudden pull came and he gave in.
The last sounds he heard as the red opening engulfed him were the screams of his enemies dying as Kisuke's final surprise ended their days.
-x-x-x-x-x-
~ Review please ~
A/N – 1. Legend –
• Keikaigi – Garganta opening
• Dangai – the way to Soul Society
• Taimugēto – Timegate
There will be many things that will be unclear and there is a reason for it. Treat this chapter as a prologue and continue to the next one. I assure you, things will clear up in a while.
2. The search for a cheap-ass domain is now over. I was finally able to get my hands on one. What does this mean for us, you ask?
Well... The website for all my stories and other writing pieces is now up and running.
Please visit "www.neatStuff.in" for all the latest chapters that are posted there a day before. I have put a lot of effort into it. Hope you like it.
And a reminder, the twitter feed is now Live, again. Follow the news at neatstuff5on twitter. Read the latest updates on the edits, excerpts from the released and unreleased chapters and other tidbits that I will be posting.