Chapter Text

Chapter 1: The Soul King

Ichigo

Ichigo was falling. At least that's what it felt like. He was falling silently into a blank black void. Nothing below him, nothing above. Everything felt muted, his own limbs felt unresponsive and detached like in a dream. No, like in a nightmare. With perfect clarity he could still feel the sucking wound in his chest, right above where his heart was. Right where that bastard Quincy king stabbed him. 

Yhwach. That fucker.

He had used Ichigo to kill the Soul King, absorbed his power and collapsed the worlds together. Everyone was trapped in a monstrous half alive half dead state. It was indescribably painful. He had tried to find his sisters’ souls, or what was left of them, but all he found were shades that didn’t even recognize their own brother.

When he and the last of his friends who resisted the world merging together launched one last attack to try and reverse the damage that had been done before it became permanent, they were swept away with power by the Soul King. Just to make it hurt that little bit more Yhwach made sure to use his Quincy abilities to kill them, destroying their souls forever. 

After losing Grimmjow, Uryu, Rukia, and the others to the mad king, Ichigo wasn't too upset when the Quincy's broadsword plunged into his heart. Extinguishing his soul. Even if he had won, living in the shadow of a world he once knew without anyone he loved wouldn’t be worth it.

And so he drifted in the void of nothingness, never to exist again.

“So you’re the one that killed me?”

The bright light hitting Ichigo’s eyes stung like he was looking into a hundred suns, but it quickly passed as they adjusted. As he blinked away the sunspots he began to see the room around him. He was sitting in a comfy chair in what looked to be the stereotypical executive’s office ripped right off of a movie set. Sitting across from him on the other side of a desk was a man, late high school age just like him, mid length brown hair, thick rectangular glasses, clothed in black and white dress shirt and suit vest. It honestly reminded Ichigo of how Aizen looked when he pretended to be loyal to the Soul Society. It was only then that it hit him, how the fuck was he here or anywhere for that matter, his soul was burned out from existence? There was no rebirth for him let alone sitting across from another person in what seemed to be the living world.

Leaning forward in his chair and leaning against the desk between them, the man raised a curious eyebrow at Ichigo. “Can you hear me? I didn’t fry your brain did I?”

Shaking off the massive amount of confusion he responded uncertainly, “Yeah I can hear ya, but uh, what the hell is going on?”

With a smirk the man leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands together like he was some sort of overly smug CEO. “I just wanted to meet the person who killed me and ushered in a new age of chaos by collapsing the worlds together.” Ichigo, still not having a clue what was going on, cocked his head to the side giving the other person a blank look. “No, nothing? No idea what I'm talking about?” The playfully smug attitude faded as his eyes narrowed. Ichigo could feel him studying every last detail of both Ichigo’s physical body and his soul. “I can’t believe someone so dumb killed me.” he said exasperated.

Jumping up Ichigo pointed at the man and indignantly shouted, “Hey I ain’t dumb! And you still haven’t answered my question, I don’t even know who you are! Maybe instead of treating me like an idiot you could not act like that condescending asshole.” 

It was the man’s turn to look confused. “What condescending asshole?”

“Tch, Aizen. Sosuke Aizen.” Ichigo couldn’t keep the hate out of his voice. Even years after he had been vaporized with Mugetsu, Aizen was still rattling around his head. 

“Sosuke Aizen eh. I've heard of him. How do I remind you of him?”

The man’s brown eyes were piercing, leaving no room for half truths or misinformation. “You got the general air of an asshole who thinks he’s superior to everyone.” Ichigo let the brutal truth hang in the air a moment before adding, “Plus you look like him if he was my age.”

Seemingly satisfied with his answer the man sat back down in his chair with a contemplative sigh. “Well I’ll look into that another time. For now though, I think I owe you some answers.” With no malice he motioned for Ichigo to sit in the chair he had woken up in and so he cautiously sat down while keeping his eyes on the man opposite him. “To clarify why you are here, I pulled you to this place when I sensed your soul was weakest so I could discuss with you both why you struck the killing blow against me as well as why you merged the Living world, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo into one.” 

Ichigo tightly gripped the arm rests of his chair, getting a horrible thought about who he might be talking to. “A: I didn’t merge the worlds together. And B….” The words caught in his throat as he began to feel the enormity of power surrounding him on all sides.

The man tilted his head up as the realization dawned on his face. “Ah, you didn’t kill me of your own free will.”

“No, I was trying to save you actually. You hold the worlds together after all.”

“So he does have a brain,” the Soul King joked while playfully gesturing to Ichigo.”Tell me how I died and who merged the worlds.”

Ichigo was still processing the fact that he was talking to the Soul King but quickly relayed how Yhwach invaded the royal palace and used Ichigo’s Quincy blood to force him to attack. He then summarized the merging of the worlds and how he and a group of allies avoided it, leaving out the part where he tried to find his family, and ending in their failed attack.

“...and that’s when he killed me. Speaking of which, if both of us are dead beyond repair how are we talking? Is this the afterlife for souls who are destroyed?”

The Soul King let out a sharp and vicious laugh, “HA! No, souls that are destroyed have nothing but the void after.” While it seemed like he was trying to poke fun at the idea of an afterlife for the afterlife an undeniable anger and sorrow crept into his voice. “We are able to have this conversation because of how I was imprisoned. The seal on my original form traps my consciousness in a single, infinite, moment that exists at all points in history.”

“That makes no sense, at all, not even a little bit.” Ichigo’s deadpan delivery made the Soul King chuckle as he stood up again and motioned Ichigo over to the window behind him. Through the window was a cityscape, much like the more urban areas of Karakura town. On the streets people were hustling and bustling about as traffic clogged the roads. It seemed like any normal day in any normal city center.

“We are inside of my soul, inside of my prison. This is the world I crafted to live in for eternity, like a giant planet scale fidget toy.” Ichigo couldn’t help but snort at that description of a god's literal soul but it seemed accurate. “I may not physically exist anymore but I can sense beyond my death and even before my existence if a time like that had existed. As for how I pulled you into my world after you had been burned away by the light of the Quincy...I got no clue.”

Ichigo looked over to the Soul King with a raised eyebrow and the linchpin to all existence simply looked back over to him and shrugged. “I'm not omnipotent, I’m smart enough with a good enough look at the entire history of existence to make it close, but some things still escape my sight.”

Wiping the annoyed look off of his face Ichigo grappled with the uncountable questions he could ask, but one took priority over all else. “What now?” 

“Now?” The Soul King asked wearily. “I don’t know that either.” He then dejectedly tapped the glass in front of them and it shimmered then faded out of existence. Taking a step out of the building he floated above the street and looked off into the distance without focus. “My hope was to talk to whoever merged the worlds and convince them to undo their work and separate them out again. With it being Yhwach there is no chance that will ever happen which renders my eternity of sacrifice null and void as existence slips into an agonizing state between life and death.” 

Joining the Soul King in floating over the city, Ichigo began to spit out ideas. “There’s nothing you can do? You pulled me back into a time where you existed and lived, can’t you time travel or something before Yhwach came back?”

“I was only able to pull you back here because your soul was so weakened it took almost no effort to slip out of my bonds to grab it. Anything like time travel or even talking to someone living like we are talking now would require breaking out of my seal, a task which I spent an eternity attempting.”

“Tch, why were you locked up in the first place?”

The Soul King sighed and began walking along the path of the road that lay below them. “The first mortal souls that helped me establish the separation between the worlds became concerned that I would eventually abandon my duty and let the worlds collapse into one once more. They completely ignored the fact that I volunteered for the task but I don't really hold a grudge about it anymore.”

Ichigo couldn’t help but scoff as he crossed his arms in petulant anger. “That’s fucking stupid. How the hell can anyone even create a seal so powerful it can trap a nearly all powerful being for all eternity?” 

“It’s not about raw strength Ichigo, it uses my own power against me, making my raw spiritual strength into the bricks of my prison. For every ounce of power I put into breaking out it’ll take an equal amount of power from me to repel that attack.The seal itself is only the cement holding it all together.” 

Ichigo looked down at his hand and flexed his muscles, both physically and spiritually. “Do you think I could break the seal then, it should be possible so long as you sit on your ass and just let me do it.”

The Soul King shook his head, “Even if your power came back in a timely manner, it would still take strength on an unimaginable scale to loosen my bonds, let alone break them. I doubt even my son would be able to do it without the power he stole from me after my death.”

“But if I can!” The yearning in his voice surprised both of them. “If I can, will you send me back in time to save everyone?”

The Soul King looked at him with a sad pity and nodded his head. “Yes. If by some miracle you can free me from my imprisonment I will help you. If for no other reason than I want Yhwach to not be able to collapse the worlds.” 

Ichigo quickly regained his composure and looked off into the distance with the Soul King. His Shihakusho blew in the wind as he looked at the soon setting sun. There was a chance, however slim, that he could save his friends. He had faced bad odds before, this would be no different. He would win, he would save everyone.

Turning to the Soul King he felt hope for the first time since he had killed the god. “So what do I have to hit?”

Beginning to laugh, the Soul King snapped and a wave of energy radiating from his fingers engulfed the entirety of his inner world. The people and cars below slowed, then froze, then faded from existence entirely. Meanwhile many dozens of golden threads began to appear all over the Soul King’s body. They intertwined with limbs, wrapped around each individual finger, over his torso, and even criss crossed his face multiple times. “This is the physical manifestation of the seal in my inner world, the only way you can damage it is to hit me as well.” Grinning ear to ear he added, “Plus I have to fight back otherwise the seal will just use my excess energy to repair itself.”

Ichigo drew both his khyber sword and trench knife, feeling both Zangetsu and Ossan resonating in his grip. Despite the stakes he couldn’t help but match the Soul King’s smile at the thought of fighting a god. “Heh, you sure I won’t kill you when I break it? Even my own swords told me I don't know how to hold back.”

With cockyness befitting that of his look-alike the Soul King manifested a blade roughly the length of his arm that looked like a mix between a Quincy’s arrow and a Soul Reaper’s Zanpakto, and responded, “Oh don’t worry, the energy it would take to kill me in here is a thousand times what it would take to destroy the seal.” The god pointed his blade straight at Ichigo’s heart and continued, “Come Ichigo Kurosaki, give me a good fight. Show me the very same power that killed me!”

They rushed towards each other in a massive clash of soul pressure. When their attacks connected their strikes were so fast that their blades couldn’t even stay in contact, just glancing off each other at ludicrous speeds. They dueled for a minute, each matching the others strikes blow for blow and no one gaining an advantage. Eventually Ichigo pulled back for a massive overhead attack that would have sliced clean through the blade of anyone below capitan level but the Soul King raised his reishi sword and met the attack head on. When the blades locked Ichigo pushed down as hard as his muscles would go but when his blade began to move down it wasn’t because he was breaking the Soul King’s defense, it was because the Soul Kings blade was cutting into his own like Kenpachi’s had done years ago in their first battle. Quickly retreating, Ichigo put distance between him and the Soul King to form a new plan.  

“Oh come now Ichigo, is that all you have? I didn’t think you’d actually be able to break the seal but this is so much less than I was expecting. I can see how Yhwach was able to kill you so easily.” While still playful in tone the biting insults were meant to be attacks straight to his pride, and they were working.

“GETSUGA TENSHO!” 

The Soul King didn’t even have a chance to look surprised before the wall of blue energy plowed into his right side, slamming the god straight into the office they had used for their conversation earlier. Pushing the rubble that had been his desk, the Soul King sat up completely unscathed. As he looked around his destroyed office a flash of anger crossed his face but before he had a chance to say anything one of the golden threads on his right side snapped, with an audible crack similar to thunder. With equal parts surprise and happiness the SOul King said, “One thread down...” the god's eyes flicked from his right arm straight to Ichigo in an invitation. “ninety-five to go.”

As the Soul King rose back into the air he summoned a second blade of Reshi and prepared to attack once more, but this time Ichigo felt a bloodlust that had not been there before. A bloodlust that could kill him if he wasn’t careful. “I suppose you’re gonna stop going easy on me eh?”

“Of course, what kind of battle would this be if I didn’t take it up a notch. You need to stop holding back too. Put everything you have into it!”

Taking his sword off his shoulder Ichigo swung the blade around to point in front of him, then raised the trench knife up to match, both pointing right at the Soul King. “I guess I should. BANKAI!” 

The two blades merged into their larger true form with a massive release of energy, even pushing back the god a few feet in the air. Once formed Ichigo let the larger sword swing in a large arc as the very reishi in the air seemed to split, not wanting to be near the edge of his blade. “TENSA ZANGETSU!” Without losing a beat the Soul King was rushing him with quick jabs from his reishi blades, the huge grin on his face failing to hide the viciousness in the attacks. Ichigo used the speed boost that his Bankai granted him to quickly dodge the god’s attacks before responding with a fully powered attack of his own. “GETSUGA TENSHO!” Even though the Soul King was ready for his attack this time he could only block so much of the black and red wave of energy. As the Getsuga engulfed the god, Ichigo heard the distinct sound of two or three more threads snapping.

Not relenting, Ichigo quickly closed the distance and turned the battle back into a sword fight. Using the extra accuracy and focus granted to him by his Bankai, Ichigo aimed his attacks at specific threads on the Soul King’s arms and legs. Only one attack in a thousand were slipping past the god’s defenses but every time he struck home another of the seals were broken. 

Meanwhile Ichigo himself was taking two or three times as many hits from the Soul King as he was dishing out. His new reforged Bankai was a lot more unwieldy than his old one, and while it granted him better power and access to both his hollow and quincy powers his sword skills with the blade were lacking. The Soul King’s blades were constantly slipping past his defenses and getting in little nicks and cuts on his arms, legs, chest, and even a deep gash on his cheek. While not life threatening they still stung and slowly weakened him.

After trading blows for hours Ichigo was running on fumes, cuts seemingly covering more of his body than skin. The entire top half of his Shihakusho was gone, leaving him shirtless, while the bottom half was barely staying on as it was nearly as shredded. Meanwhile the Soul King’s clothes had nothing then a few scuffs and some of Ichigo’s blood staining it. He had also dissipated one of his blades, possibly just to give Ichigo a chance, but he hadn’t slowed down even a little bit and was still striking with a viciousness similar to Kenpachi.

Pushing Ichigo into the street the Soul King forced him into a kneel, only able to try and block the rapid overhead strikes that the god was raining down on him. “Is this it Ichigo?” The Soul King launched another massive attack that broke the concrete beneath his knee. “I’ve still got ten threads left, where's all that power you had earlier?” On the god's next blow he locked their blades, cutting into Tensa Zangetsu again. “If you don’t beat me now, the seal will just siphon my power and reform.” The reishi sword cut further into Zangetsu, making it to about the halfway point in the blade. “You’ll never be able to help your friends or your family. You’ll be trapped here until I get bored and send you back to the oblivion you came from. You. Will. FAIL!”

Ichigo could not contain the roar of anger that welled up from the pits of his heart. His reitsu danced around the pair in a violent and unpredictable tornado, destroying the buildings around them and shattering the windows of all others. Getting both of his feet under him he stood up, shoving back on the Soul King’s sword Tensa Zangetsu not only began to push the reishi blade out but began to repair itself. He felt the hole in his chest expand as the hunger and rage kept consuming his thoughts.

As the last of the mask formed on his face and his eyes turned black and yellow, Ichigo used the surprise of the Soul King at his transformation and his newly formed horns to gore the god, sending him into retreat. The next roar he let out was not one of anger as it had been before, but one of animalistic fury. Unlike when he took this form in his battle with Ulquiorra, he was now at peace with Zangetsu who held all of his hollow powers and was able to stay in control somewhat, but he was still now more animal than man.

Before the Soul King could get his footing back Ichigo reared back and hit him with a Cero. The blood red beam of energy launched out from between his horns at top speed but the god was able to dodge at the last second, the attack only grazing him. Nevertheless it still destroyed another thread of the seal.

“Ichigo.” Called out his Quincy spirit, “Do not let your rage wholly consume you, it makes you weaker. You can access all of your powers now, not just those of the Hollow.” 

“Come on King, fight this pretentious fuck with everything you got!” Zangetsu cried in agreement.

Both halves of his whole Zanpakto resonated in Ichigo’s hand. With a monstrous and raspy breath he let go of the death grip on his hollow powers and allowed the light of the quincy to fill his veins. As the webbed pattern of Blut Vene spread across his body it cracked his hollowfied skin, creating a crisscrossing pattern of blue veins in white shin. Then, the once wild tornado of spiritual pressure surrounding him, slowed and calmed until it was just a mass of energy sitting on top of him. Ossan’s critical and logical nature allowed Ichigo to temper the urges of Zangetsu, giving him just enough clarity to remember what the true nature of the Quincy powers he had. 

Wherever the bright blue light of the quincy shone through Ichigo’s still stable hollow form, it sucked in the massive amounts of reishi in the air surrounding him. Just as Uryu had done in the soul society, he could take the power out of the very world around him. Considering this was also the Soul King’s inner world, he would also be copying the strategy the seal itself was using, taking the god’s power and using it against him.

One third Hollow, one third Quincy, one third Soul Reaper. This is what he was. A mutt. A perfect mix. 

Planting his foot hard enough to crack the ground hundreds of feet around him, he steadied himself and gripped his sword with both hands. Rearing back for one last attack he collected as much power as possible into Tensa Zangetsu, still absorbing more from the very air around him. With the power and reverb of all three inner voices, Ichigo shouted, “GRAN REY CERO, GETSUGA-JUJISHO”

Slicing his sword forward at the Soul King, three distinct waves of power left his blade, one red, one gold, and one blue. As they slammed into the god they merged together, creating an explosion that decimated the remainder of the city they were fighting in.

When the smoke cleared the Soul King’s once pristine suit hung off his back like rags. His reshi blade had dissipated, being wiped away by the overwhelming power of Ichigo’s attack, leaving him defenseless. Looking down, the Soul King noticed that of what had been ninety-six intertwining golden threads that held him captive, now only one, wrapping around his torso from his left shoulder to right hip, remained. 

“Now I see why Yhwach used you. You don’t even know how-”

Before the god could finish his sentence Ichigo had silenced him by impaling Tensa Zangetsu straight through his chest, causing him to hack up a spurt of blood, but also cutting right through the final thread.

Returning to human form Ichigo looked into the Soul King’s brown eyes and spoke as the world began to shake around them, “It’s done. Now hold up your end of the bargain.”

Beginning to laugh, the god hacked up more blood onto Ichigo as he grabbed hold of Tensa Zangetsu’s hilt, impaling himself further on the balde. “Well done Ichigo.” His voice was weak but the conviction was never more clear. “You have earned your reward, besting a challenge even I myself could not.” Hacking up more blood he put his free hand on Ichigo’s shoulder, gripping it tight even to break the bone had he not still been in Bankai. “Hold on tight, this will be a one way trip for both of us.” 

As the bonds of the world around them unraveled, it revealed a white void that began to engulf the pair. As the light overwhelmed his vision and the roar of the world’s collapse blew out his eardrums, all he could think about was his friends and family. Rukia, Uryu, Renji, Chad, Orihime, Grimmjow, Yuzu, Karin, and more. He would see them all again. He would save them all.