The First Kenpachi
Ichigo feels the warm blood created by Yachiru's bankai seep into his socks, the disgusting feeling annoying him further but he shouldn't let himself get distracted by something so insignificant. Grabbing his sword by the handle, he moves his arm backwards slightly before lifting it up to shoulder height pointing it right at her. "BAN-KAI!!!' He roars and his body begins to glow with bluish white light, prepared for her to attack him mid transformation. The release of his bankai meets her level of power as the blood around him is sucked up into a tornado created by his bankai release. The bloodnado surrounding him sloshes the liquid created by Minazuki around the entire Dangai further painting a deep crimson, the winds so strong that Yachiru has to widen her stance to help her resist the winds. She feels his power grow even greater now threatening to eclipse hers in might alone. "You might not be hopeless after all." she thinks as the tornado explodes outwards instead of dissipating calmly. Standing in a dry patch of the Dangai, Ichigo's Bankai attire has changed as well.
Gone is the red fabric within his coat, instead it is now white with four coat tails spreading out from the top of his tight shihakusho. Down his chest several crossing pieces of fabric overlay the white robes he wears beneath it. His arms now have white vambraces protecting his forearms with the same crossing X pattern across the top of his forearms, his neck has two black straps of fabric along the back of it to protect from sneak attacks. His blade has gotten a length and a half longer than it originally was in Bankai. It now curves towards the tip of the blade with four flared points along the spine of the weapon. The manji symbol handguard now flares to spikes for added protection and damage when bashing. Within the darkness of the Dangai, the blade is almost invisible to Yachiru, only able to see the faintest of reflections along the ebony blade created by the light that their reiatsu creates. The blade's chain is now just as long as the blade itself, and presumably can be willed to extend to any length when needed.
"So this is the extent of your power. Untainted by hollowfication, unrefined but massive. I feel within you the essence of an ancient enemy of mine. Perhaps you could further tap into his bloodline." Yachiru thinks as Ichigo vanishes, attacking first, denying her from opening the next phase in their battle. His speed has gotten even greater, and she can sense that rather than relying on his hollow powers outwardly by conjuring a mask it's as if they fused with his soul reaper abilities becoming one in the same. She watches with pride, bloodlust and wicked desire as he dances around the bloodied room. Moving so quickly that over thirty versions of him materialize for brief instances as he begins his assault. Yachiru gives into her instincts, weaving her sword behind herself deflecting rapid strikes that are just as strong as they are fast. She feels her bones rattle at each swing of his blade, the force reverberating through her bankai but his footwork and movements so light and fast that he isn't disturbing the surface tension across the blood. Pure elation, and almost ecstasy is written on her face, brought about by their battle. Her blade countering him just as quickly as his strikes.
A dozen hand movements in less than a second shroud her in a dome of red death as each swipe of Minazuki leaves a slash of blood around her the liquid as sharp as any blade. A dome of a hundred slashes, her arm moving so fast it appears as if her right hand had completely vanished. Ichigo himself slams his blade against the dome trying to penetrate the barrier she has created around herself. The smallest opening imaginable allows him to slip past, but it costs him a deep gash above the knee and deep into his thigh muscle as he makes a pass at her. Slashing deeply across her face and torso before being caught by her blade once more this time catching him across the back. The swipes against him cause him to back away slightly giving her the opportunity to counter him. She slashes her blade violently up, across and then down launching three massive red waves right for him that he vanishes away from as they slam into and shred the wall behind where he was. He appears floating above the bloody floor behind her before both combatants lunge for each other. The resounding clash of blades echoes through the Dangai, almost loud enough to be heard in each of the realms.
The resulting pass causes more blood to spray from Ichigo's wounds as she had caught him across the midsection again. He also caught her in that pass, flaying deep into her sword arm just above the thumb, across her wrist and all the way through her shoulder. "I feel no pain..." Ichigo thinks to himself as he glances at his body for a moment, noticing that his hands appear skeletal in this strange realm of blood. "She's melting... I'm melting... what is this feeling?" he wonders, as he looks up towards her, seeing the skeletal visage holding a hemorrhaging blade in her skeletal hand. "Is this... what hollows crave? The rush... the feeling... I need more of it." He wonders before darting towards her again. He watches as her skeletal body dances about the bloody floor, creating three distinct ripples as she blitzes diagonally towards him. He uses his blade to protect himself, catching her in a blade lock before kicking upwards, slamming his foot against her ribs before following through the motion with a back handed strike with the pommel of his sword. The handle catches her in the temple as it sends her flying backwards, this time he managed to land two successful hits without taking any damage in return. Grabbing the weapon by its chain, he spins the weapon around himself, appearing like a windmill of death before its blade catches fire.
Yachiru recovers from the two blows he had managed to land, gazing at him through the exposed eyes in her skull's sockets. The ever-present grin on her skull displaying her madness as she sees the blade now burning white and black. This time the projectile that he launches isn't a singular massive wall of energy, no instead it's thousands and thousands of cuts slashed through the air as he sprints towards her. Each white and black slash of energy barrels towards her at breakneck speeds. She copies a similar flurry of movements, creating dozens of blade waves of blood to combat this onslaught let on by Ichigo. Through the midst of the onslaught of micro getsugas and splashes of blood, he blitzes through his own wave of attacks with the point of his blade directed right towards her. Seeing this she flips her blade upwards so that it's held parallel to her face with its tip aimed directly for him. Both combatants run each other through, for Ichigo it's the spot where Rukia had stabbed him when she gave him her powers and for her his blade pierces through the gnarled scar that Zaraki had given her so long ago.
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Days seem to blend together, weeks maybe even months though here even time seems strange. A single hour on the outside world is 85 days inside the Dangai, and both fighters had long since lost track of how long they've been cutting each other apart for. Clash, cut, slice, stab, rend, Rip and Tear. It always ends the same, the two now cutting each other in a near fatal manner and then Ichigo wakes up in the middle of their fight once again. Slowly though, through the countless hours of their battle he's gaining the upper hand. "You can feel it can't you... You're getting close but you still aren't ready. You're still missing one important thing, your other half of your power." he feels her thoughts conveyed through a clash of blades. "It's time we end this, it's time you confront yourself." Their conversation passed between slashes and scrapes rather than pursed lips and annunciation. "Don't disappoint me." He hears her voice again, this time as his blade slams hard against hers, boiling away the blood leaching out of her sword.
Breaking off, Ichigo lands with his back towards her, and she is just the same. The white on his clothes long since run red with blood, of his own, from her and from the strange bankai. He turns to the side and lifts his blade out in front of him, now gesturing it into a Kendo stance with both hands on the handle of the wicked blade and it protruding forwards in front of him. She holds Minazuki to the side, allowing its crimson form to drip onto the floor. Without a word both of them lunge for each other, the expressionless skeletons of the fighters clashing in one final pass. Closer and closer they near each other, preparing to swing and as quickly as it started it ends, Ichigo facing the exit of the Dangai, his blade extended out to his right side, covered in blood but his body seemingly untouched by her attack. Behind him, almost to where he had started, Yachiru stands with her blade upwards towards the air held aloft over her left shoulder. The blood of her Bankai dripped down the handle onto her stained bones. Their battle was so vicious not a scrap of clothing survived on either fighter. A brief moment passes before he hears her speak for the first time in what felt like centuries. "Well done." She says prompting him to stand up and turn to face her. The blood of Minazuki begins to flow in reverse seeping back from whence it came. It covers their naked skeletons, regenerating their torn flesh, melted from either the strangeness of her Bankai or sheared from bone by the ferocious battle. Her blade begins to dry as she turns to face him. Her naked body was blemished by a new wide bleeding cut across her abdomen. His blade had caught her across the right hip, up her stomach and chest, across her left breast and exited through the top of her left bicep. "Magnificent." She says before falling silent. He watches her slowly sheath her weapon then begin walking away, back towards the world of the living. The only sound in the Dangai now is her naked footsteps slowly getting softer before finally dissipating into nothingness.
"Ichigo." a new voice, sounding similar to Old Man Zangetsu pierces the nothingness of the Dangai. "It's time." He doesn't respond to the voice of his quincy half. Instead, he stabs the blade of Tensa Zangetsu into the ground before folding his legs underneath himself and sitting. He folds his hands into each other as he relaxes into a meditative pose.
Almost the moment he closes his eyes he finds himself in his inner world, however something is immediately amiss. While he can still see the forest off in the distance, he sees it covered in snow, and the sky a deep purple and orange like that of sunset. He cannot sense her zanpakuto anywhere within their inner worlds but that's the least of his worries. All around him, his entire inner world has been plunged into water. A massive ocean has overtaken the sideways city, floating above Rukia's inner world. In front of him is a man he doesn't recognize, he is shorter than Old man Zangetsu but wears a similar cloak. He recognizes the pure white short that Gramps wore under his cloak but this man has a hood over his head. "You haven't come here before in Bankai before. I don't expect you to recognize me in this state."
"So... what exactly is it time for?" Ichigo asks, as a white blur rapidly swims past him appearing behind Tensa Zangetsu.
"Patience... Ichigo." The echoing voice of White comes from behind a monstrous new appearance. Giant in statue, with a black horned bull mask and tufts of fur coming from his bankai attire. "Haven't I taught you that?" he asks as he pulls his mask off of his face to gaze at his wielder.
"We've brought you here to tell you the truth, and that the road ends here." Zangetsu says as he removes his hood, revealing a young man's face. Unblemished not even by stubble of a developing beard. "The answer you seek will only bring you heartache. I had wished that this forever remain a secret but... events have forced our hand."
"You want a technique that can kill Aizen in one swift strike. You want to fix your mistake in not killing that fool on your first attempt." White explains as he folds his arms, standing beside his counterpart. "Buts that's not something I can give you. Not something Either of us can give you."
"Why?"
"Because it'd only lead you to your demise." Zangetsu answers. "The name of the technique you're after is The Final Getsuga Tensho... but we cannot teach it to you."
"Especially now with the news that the queen is expecting." White adds.
"How come" Ichigo questions.
"You'll sacrifice too much. You'll sacrifice everything and you will never get to see them. Ever again." Zangetsu explains. "The Final Getsuga Tensho, is you. The attack requires becoming the Getsuga itself... sacrificing your entire essence, everything except your life for a single attack."
"We cannot allow you to continue down that path. As it will undoubtedly result in our demise. Either by you taking your own life out of the deepest depression imaginable, or being devoured by a hollow who thought to kill and eat the slayer of Aizen." White's response is blunt as usual but the mere thought feels like Ichigo had been stabbed. "We both know you'd stop at nothing to see her and the child. Should you sacrifice your powers, the only thing you'd wish for is death so that you can see them... but you've already died Ichigo."
"If you are to die again, after sacrificing all of your spirit... you'll be gone forever. Not even a blank soul waiting to be reincarnated. You will cease to exist." Zangetsu declares tightening the grip on his zanpakuto. Suddenly, half of his body vanishes in a blinding light, and the same with white leaving only the right half of Zangetsu and the left half of White remaining. The two spirits vanish into spirit particles that merge together. The fusion lasts for a brief moment, the white glowing mass of spirit particles collects itself into a human form. As it breaks from the shell of its transformation, White and Zangetsu have fused.
Atop the fusion's head sits the top left half of White's bull horned helm. Zangetsu's eyes are now heterochromatic with a hollowfied black and white left eye and his normal blue on the other. His long dark cloak is bright white lined with the black fur of White's resurrected form and the fusion wears Young Zangetsu's face. His hands ending in black claws and the white and black blades fused into a long white sword with a black handguard. "You will go no further." White Zangetsu declares as he levels his blade at Ichigo. "We refuse to sacrifice everything just because you want to protect everything. What you want to protect isn't what we want, Ichigo!" White Zangetsu yells as he levels his sword at Ichigo.
"No." Ichigo responds. "That will never happen. I won't throw my life away. I wont let Aizen win! There has to be another way! I didn't come here just to get stopped!"
"I don't care about what you want to protect Ichigo! It's not what I want! What we want! I never wanted you to ever know about the world of the dead! It's just brought you pain! It's only ever brought us pain! Since I walked the world as Yhwach Bach and as White, I've suffered imaginably! I refuse to let that happen to you!" White Zangetsu roars before charging Ichigo.
"You idiot." Ichigo says as he drops his blade, White Zangetsu's eyes widen when it falls away and he allows himself to be pierced by his sword. "The Final Getsuga Tensho will not be the last one I will ever use... I came here to become strong enough so it will be the last one I will ever need to use. To hell with that technique!"
"Heh." White Zangetsu laughs as he pulls the blade out of Ichigo's stomach. "You knew that my blade could never hurt you." he says before lifting the sword to his right side, unblemished by the hollow within. "Very well then. I, the spirit of Yhwach Bach, father of the Quincies and White the Original Lord of Vasto Lordes... will grant you your wish." he says as he cuts his right wrist, the blood beginning to leak into the water. "My son... born in the . Drink my blood and I will grant you a Schrift."
Ichigo cups a hand to the blood leaking from White Ywhach's wrist and pulls it to his mouth, drinking the blood of the Quincy emperor. "I grant you the letter 𝛀 Omega. The End. Your power will end all threats, and steal away the strength of those who threaten you and yours." The symbol burns itself onto his soul, emboldening him with the last gift of the Quincy emperor. "Here, I will teach you everything. You've mastered the Way of the Shinigami, the Wrath of the Hollows. Now I am to train you in the Quincy Arts. When you are ready. You may fight that monster... and slay the False God; Aizen."
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