Chapter 01

 Transcendence 

 Chapter 01: Delirium 

The first sound he heard when he roused himself from his slumber was a great roar, not one of a lion or of a bear, but a roar of an unknown creature, whose bellow was both powerful and menacing at the same time, its roar alone made the ground and air quake with its intensity, and its steps only aided in further unhinging the ground beneath their feet. He felt the dark overwhelming force of the creature power press down upon him, in his current condition he could barely stand let alone look up to see what was happening around him, and even that was hard, his vision was impaired and his ears were still ringing from the portal and the crash.

“The demon is loose! Quickly we must restrain him!” called out someone, their words hard to pick up through the ringing that had only begun to pass, whoever it was wasn’t alone nor where they the same as that demon he was fighting. There was then the sound of crackling fire and an unknown echoing, he could tell that there was something happening but not what, and he heard another roar and several explosions and then intense heat nearby, it looked like whoever else was here was fighting the ‘demon’. But he had no idea if it was the same demon he had been fighting only a few moments ago or if it was something else entirely, either way there seemed to be a large battle taking place around him, he wonder who was winning and if he should make the effort to try and open his eyes to see for himself.

When he was finally able to open his eyes his blurry vision showed him a sight beyond words, he was in the middle of a battle, on one side was a group of yellow and blue robed people –with long ears, purple skin and outrageous hair colours, who were wielding fire, ice and some sort of blue and purple energy- and a massive demonic hound. He could see fireballs being cast at the massive black scaled creature, the fire doing nothing but enraging it beyond what it already was, it was an understatement to call it huge; it was well over twenty feet in height and maybe half as much again as long. It had a large upper body that supported its massive arms and two craniums – they were round headed with a crown of grey spikes that ran from around the top of the skull down both necks and then down the lengths of their spine –, in the centre of each of their foreheads was a large red eye with black slits for pupils and beneath were law maws with many razor sharp jagged teeth. While its head had only one eye each, on its back were dozens of tentacles which sprung out of its neck and upper back which each had one of its own eyes, the tentacle ranging from a few feet long and an inch or two thick with an eye as big as a basketball, while others were as thick as a full grown tree and just as long as one and had an eye as big in diameter as a person’s body.

Its body took a great deal of punishment from these sorcerers, shaking off explosive fire bolts and unknown energy attacks that looked able to incinerate or maybe destroy a normal person’s body with ease, even he would be seriously injured with the type of Kido they were using.

With a roar it latched onto a nearby sorceress and Ichigo grimaced in disgust at the fate that awaited the screaming woman, as he heard her bones crack and break with then her flesh and body being ripped apart by the beast large teeth, before there was one final chomp and then her body disappeared into its throat. Another roar was heard and the beast just disappeared, in a flash it was in one place and then it was behind another unfortunate victim, and was that sinodo? No that thing actually teleported behind the poor man that was now being torn apart by the two head. Putting these thought behind him Ichigo went to escape, he put his hand under him and slowly lifted himself up to his knees, all around him he could hear shouting and screaming, all about keeping the demon at bay, don’t let it escape and bring the price, but he blocked it all out trying to get to his knees. After nearly a minute and two failed attempts he was on his knees, he was panting heavily at the excursion along just to get where he was now, what came next was likely going to be even harder, taking another look around he saw the battle was going in the demons favour, several bodies sprawled across the floor in pieces.

Not letting the sight discourage him he then fought to lift himself to his feet, his legs shaking and his body resisting his attempts to push itself any further, but his will to survive overrode any other thoughts of staying where he was, with Zangetsu as a crutch and a groan and he was on his feet, barely. He looked around the area; and was shocked by its massive scale of the structure he was within, over a hundred and fifty metres in diameter easily and walls that were maybe forty metre high; he was in the centre of a large cylindrical amphitheatre that sat in the centre of the massive complex. The amphitheatre had many alcoves carved into the stone, making it appeared as if it was a forum of some sort, but based on what was going on here it was likely a prison of some sort for that large demon over there, but how did they keep such a thing contained? As he asked that question he felt a strange sensation brushing against his skin, it some form of energy that practically saturated the stones on this amphitheatre, which made the stones within glow a light blue that illuminated the inner ring, he could actually feel it within the stones beneath his feet, and it didn’t feel anything like Reiatsu. Maybe this is what they used to keep it from escaping; the opening in the alcove couldn’t fit it through but just barely, so this place was likely meant to keep the thing here, but what purpose would they have to keeping such a dangerous and evil being in their presence.

As he looked up he saw something moving towards him, he didn’t know what to call it at first, some sort of apparition or maybe some form of demon, but he didn’t know what it was, the thing was a large glowing creature of purple, pink and blue. It had a large upper body and no feet, it appeared to be floating just a few inches off the ground, making it appear as a revere teardrop it had large arms and claw which had metal gauntlet with glowing purple crystals, obviously that was the only thing that was corporeal on the creature. The thing wasn’t like a living creature it felt more like energy, similar to that inside this room now, maybe it was some sort of manifestation of the energy rather than a living creature. As it drew closer he could feel it seeping the energy from around it and absorbing it, almost like it was some sort of leech, when it passed him he felt his reiatsu being pulled out of him and into the creature, he almost lost his footing if not for Zangetsu. He looked over his shoulder and saw what its target was, not the demon dog or any of the other people, but the demon that had fallen through the portal with him, he was only a few feet away from Ichigo, and he was on his feet and bleeding lightly. But apart from that he was completely unharmed, and from how he was staring at Ichigo, very angry, he looked like he was about to attack but was stopped by the strange energy creature, which latched onto the demon and started to tear into him.

“Damn mindless beast, out of my way!” he shouted at the strange energy creature, before sending a bolt of energy at it, which it quickly absorbed and resumed its attack, forcing the dreadlord to take his attention away from the wounded Ichigo in order to prevent the Mana Surge from draining his power.

Ichigo turned away from the battle and slowly began to move toward the nearby alcove, this was probably his only chance of escaping this place without being attacked, so why wait around and see who wins. He walked forward as a snail’s pace, dragging his feet along with Zangetsu against the floor; he didn’t even have the energy to lift his sword and sheath him or even his feet to take a normal step, he was completely drained, he didn’t even have a handful of reiatsu left. But what surprised him was that he could feel any of it nearby, he could sense a single particle of reiatsu, true he may not be able to sense or supress his spiritual pressure but that didn’t meet he could feel it around him, something was horribly wrong here. As he climbed up the stairs and then moved out through the alcove he grabbed hold of the wall and tried to catch a breath and keep himself from falling down, he had never felt so drained before and he almost say that the energy here was affecting him, almost like his body was having a bad reaction to it. He didn’t know why but the energy he felt around him seemed to be seeping into his skin, he like his body was trying to restore his Reiryoku, but since there was no Reiatsu around, his body wasn’t accepting this new energy, it was like putting oil in water and thinking they were going to mix together. Every time it tried to absorb it his body would react by expelling it, and that would only exhaust him more, he had to get out of here, this energy was going to do more damage than good if he didn’t escape it. He took in another deep breath and moved off the wall and tried to continue, but before he could take another step be was halted by one of the sorcerers, he looked up at him, and could only make out the colour of his skin and the fact he had glowing eyes.

“You! You caused this! You released the demon from his prison!” he screamed; Ichigo couldn’t make out his appearance aside from the green and blue robes and his snow grey hair, but he could see he was a good two head taller than him. The unknown sorcerer raised his large crystal staff and two tornados of wind manifested by his side, but they were not just wind and magic, they were living beings, and they were creatures of crackling clouds and gale force winds. Lightning coursed through their nearly transparent forms and their eyes were glowing orbs of electrified gold, with two columns of mist shooting from their tornado-like bodies like giant arms, each one encircled with blue metal bracers.

“I will take pleasure in killing you Human!” shouted the sorcerer, he raised his hand and was about to order the attack on the young boy, when suddenly the nearby wall was blow outwards and the demon dog from hell came barrelling out with a roar, with a recently killed man in his bloody jaw. The wall collapsed and the stone above the two adjacent alcoves fell as well, Ichigo looking up to see it coming towards him and on instinct he leapt away, he landed just to the left of one of the elementals, he looked up to see one of the elementals and the unknown sorcerer defending themselves from the demon. The other elemental had been crushed underneath falling debris, its bracer shattered and the mist that formed its body dispersing into the air, he looked over the battlefield and saw the demon he had fought had dealt with the energy creature and was now likely looking for him. Seeing no other choice but to run he did, quickly getting to his feet he stumbled forward and tried to fight through the dizziness and blurry vision while searching for a way out, all the while he heard the sounds of the demon tearing through the area and its residents, if he was in any other state of mind and had the power he would have aided them in stopping the beast. But he was in no condition to fight, nor did he feel like his services would be met with thanks and a handshake or two, these people don’t seem like the friendly type.

As he waddled towards the outer wall he noticed a large crystal pylon nearby, he could see a large crystal suspended above a large metal base, and the crystal was cracked and gave off small pulses of light, but the crystal was dead and it looked like it would need to be replaced with another. Around it many different sorcerers tried to do so, pouring their own energy into the large gem and hoping their effort would work, but the reason they were trying to fix it or if it was working completely eluded the young shinigami, but it was likely a good thing. If they weren’t so occupied with recapturing that demon dog and holding of that other demon then he may have been in trouble, he could still hear the beast tearing apart their unfortunate souls and the dreadlord screaming for his blood, but he still was in danger of being eaten or torn apart by that dreadlord if he didn’t find an escape root soon. His wish was answered when he spotted a large opening not too far from where he was, he could see a long tunnel leading to god knows where, but he couldn’t be too picky about where he escaped to, and with some effort he turned on his feet and made a bee-line for the exit.

As soon as he entered the hall the sound of battle began to dim into nothing, he could make out the occasional shout and scream but it had diminished into a faint whisper, he had only been walking for a few minutes and his body was starting to sway and his vision was becoming dimmer, likely that energy he was exposed to was doing some good for him. He could barely see a few feet ahead of him, but it wasn’t because of the lighting, no, his vision was becoming dimmer and that meant that he was likely on the verge of losing consciousness, he needed to find a way out of here before the demon or those ‘elves?’ came after him, he was no shape to fight his Reiryoku was gone and he could barely walk and stand at the same time. For several minutes he pushed himself through the tunnel, which turned into halls, then into rooms, but soon his walking took him to the ramparts of the outer wall; he looked over the wall to see a massive stone city that was in ruins.

Over the wall he saw a large dense forest for miles before it halted at a wall of mountains, but from the distance they could be days if not weeks away from where he was, he could also see small towers in the distance near those mountains, just peeking out of the canopy. He then turned to look at the inside of the city, seeing only a blasted ruin of what would have likely been a grand metropolis, hundreds of large buildings and towers lay in ruins on the ground and in tatters, the ground no longer paved with stone was broken apart and covered in layers of dirt and mud. Trees and plant life now owned the city, spreading across every structure and dominating them in height, but it was more than a metaphor that nature had taken up residence in the city, for there was truly thing down there that were part of nature.

<p class="MsoNormal">Large walking trees could be seen patrolling the courtyards below, their mossy grey bark hides could easily distinguish them from the now dead trees that were planted in the ground, and around them were smaller beings, like small trees that were still growing, almost like they were its children, little seedlings. They had few leave on their branch like heads and moved by using their root like legs, they were strange creatures, but it was the small flora-like creatures that caught his attention, what kind of fairy tale hellhole had he ended up in, this didn’t make any fucking sense. As he looked down something shot up from under the wall, a massive three fingered claw, Ichigo stumbled backwards from it as it slammed into the stone over the edge, before another appeared and began to pull something up. Then from below the edge came one of the large tree-like creatures that he saw patrolling down below, it lifted itself up and stood over eighteen feet tall and was big in bulk, and as soon as it saw Ichigo, it attacked.

<p class="MsoNormal">A massive wooden claw descended towards the soul reaper, forcing him to leap away from the faded bark or be crushed under it, and he landed three metres away and looked back to see the massive hand had pierced and shattered the stone, what the hell is that thing? It appeared to be a large grey barked tree with two large stump like legs which was covered in thick grey moss and leaves, it had a large upper body and back hump that was covered as well in leaves and moss, the only part seen was it flat face which appeared mostly human. It had a large flat noise and wide eyes, a small mouth with jagged teeth jutted out from its lower jaw, it looked on with no emotion and uttered nothing except a drawn-out guttural groan or grunt. It had two long arms that were connected to even larger forearms which only grew in side as it moved toward the three fingered claw-like hands, which seemed to be able to pierce and break apart stone with little effort.

<p class="MsoNormal">Ichigo looked over his shoulder and saw the massive creature moving towards him, it raised its massive stump foot and lifted it over the shinigami; Ichigo rolled out of the way as the massive foot came down toward him, as the stump hit the stone it shattered and the force knocked Ichigo even further away than intended. He rolled several times before coming to a stop near the edge of the wall; only the battlements keeping him from falling to the ruins below, as he shook off the wave of dizziness he looked up at the walking sapling and saw a large clawed hand descended towards him, he leapt away and watched as the massive wooden limb crusted the stone battlement he was next to. In retaliation Ichigo shot up and stabbed his sword into its arm, he found it surprising that he could only pierce a few inches into the bark, even in his weakened state he should have pierced it entirely, but what surprised him even more the creature shot back as if in pain. It growled and moaned as if the attack actually did it harm, but not enough it would seem as it attacked again, he let out an indignant roar before swiping at the shinigami, it swung both arms at him, it tore apart the stone behind Ichigo, who was laying prone on the floor to avoid being struck. The battlements were taken apart but he was lucky it missed him, and as the second arm passed over, he shot up to his knees and buried his sword into its forearm, the only thing keeping him in this battle was the adrenaline going through his veins right now, the tree let out another roar and it pulled its arm away. But instead of removing the sword when he pulled away, he brought it with his arm along with the weapons wielder, Ichigo kneeled on the arm as it flew back, using Zangetsu as a clasp to prevent himself from being thrown off.

<p class="MsoNormal">When the tree stopped moving he attacked, pulling Zangetsu free before leaping towards the creature’s face and sinking his sword into its forehead, tearing away pieces of bark and eliciting a roar of pain from the creature, it thrashed around as the blade sunk into its forehead and doing whatever simulated damage it did. Ichigo grabbed hold of the wad of roots and leaves that made up its hairline and reefed Zangetsu free, bringing forth another roar and more wild movement, before he quickly sunk his blade into its eye, tree sap and bark flew out of the now disembowel socket. Its roars became louder and it’s struggling all but increased, it reached up to remove the cause of its pain, but its hand was met by the edge of Zangetsu, before another strike pierced its socket again, digging deeper into the faded wood. It tried again to remove the insect that infested its branches, only for one of its claws to be nearly cut from its hand, it dangled from the trees hand by only a few shreds of bark, and then it was lost with the sudden jolt of movement which was caused from another attack.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Just die already!” screamed Ichigo, stabbing his blade repeatedly into the creatures face, tearing away bark and wood in large portions, even though the tree showed signs of pain, it didn’t when it came to dying.

<p class="MsoNormal">Another roar of pain escaped its lips as it moved dangerously close towards the edge of the rampart, thrashing wildly to get the young substitute off its face, trying to rip it free for its hands to be cut and stabbed, it stood at the precipice with only one foot keeping from falling thirty metres towards the ground. Ichigo ripped his blade free and with another roar – from both him and the tree – he sunk it deep into the creature forehead once again, that was the final strike needed to send it caressing into oblivion, sending both the shinigami and the ancient tumbling through the air, the latter still wailing his sword at the tree face. Ichigo pulled his blade free and he was now holding on for dear life as he thrashed about against the change in gravity and the strong rocking motions the ancient body took as it fell, with another shift he sunk his blade into its cheek, and as soon as he did there was a roar. But not from the ancient or the young soul reaper, but the roar of stone and bark shattering, they had landed on top if a large stone mausoleum, the roof shattered and the one wall collapsed, stone and bark being blown away from the impact point that lay within the structure, dust and debris blocked all view of what landed within. For the next few minutes there was no sound, aside from the occasional shifting of stone as more fell from the roof and the last of the fallen wall fell away, but then through it all a small pile of rubble shifted and something began to claw its way out.

<p class="MsoNormal">Soon a hand shot out from the rocks and then a head of orange, which pulled himself from the rocks and took in a deep breath of fresh air, he stayed there for a moment before pulling his other hand free and then lifting himself out of the mound of stone. As he freed himself from his rocky prison he took in the destruction around him, he saw on the far side of the building was the remains of the tree; its body leaned against a fallen pillar, which showed off the damage that had been inflicted upon its form. One arm had been completely severed from its body, it now laid a few feet from the rest of its body, its two legs had been shattered to splinters, and only chunks of its legs could be seen among the ruins of this once solid and likely beautiful building. It face had been torn apart beyond recognition, much of the bark and the surface had been removed revealing the torn and splintered wood beneath, whether this was caused by the fall or by Ichigo was not known for certain. And the weapon that had caused it now lay imbedded in its forehead, stealing whatever light peaked through the now exposed roof, if Ichigo didn’t need Zangetsu, this would have been a pretty awesome place to leave his blade as some form of monument of victory.

<p class="MsoNormal">Limping down from the mound of dirt he moved towards the now dead tree, it was almost laughable that he was killed by a tree, if anyone heard about how he killed a walking tree that nearly crushed him, well they would think him a fool who took too much of something. He climbed up the back of the fallen tree until he was on top of its head, he grabbed hold of Zangetsu and with some effort he pulled it free, sadly the change in resistance made him tumble backwards on off the head and down its body before impacting the stone floor. For that small amount of time Ichigo had some peace, he fell unconscious for only a few moments, which was more rest then he had in the last four days, constantly fighting and running had done its toll on him and he was at the point where he would simply give up and just drop right then and there and rest. But when he awoke and heard the guttural sounds of something’s nearby, well better find somewhere better to sleep, be begrudgingly got to his feet and waddled/ran to the exit, hoping to escape this place and find somewhere more civilised to rest.

<p class="MsoNormal">Sadly the only civilised place seemed to be that city, for when he finally escaped it he was no in the wilderness of some unknown forest, which contains all assortments of animals and plant life that would likely be the end of him. Ichigo was panting and sweeting up a river, the overcast not helping in the slightest with the heat and humidity, he had been travelling for what seemed like hours, and he couldn’t tell anymore if it had been one hour or one minute, his entire world was spinning. After his little fight that that tree monster he had found a large enough opening in the far outer wall for him to walk out, but then he had to traverse this god forsaken jungle and the worst part was that he was calming down and therefor the adrenaline was starting to wear off and the exhaustion he was experiencing before returned tenfold.

<p class="MsoNormal">He had no idea where he was, he had been travelling through the wilds for some time, but with his vision as it is along with his mental and physical fatigue he was in no shape to figure out where he was, he just wanted to collapse and go to sleep, he didn’t care if he slept in mud at least that was cool and soft. But from what he knew this was not the place to let your guard down, he could hear wolves and bears in the distance and other things he could not match to any animal he knew, and based on what he has seen as of late, he wasn’t going to guess what else could be out here; this was something he had no idea on how to comprehend.

<p class="MsoNormal">First he ends up in some sort of hellish dimension that is inhabited by demons, which seems to not co-exist with the normal world as the law of physics seem to not work there, and then he is brought to this place and from what he could make out, this place was all kinds of fucked up. He actually watched a bunch of elves use magic to fight off a giant two headed demon dog and a very devil-like vampire, then he is attacked by a creature that is made out of wind and lightning, and finally as he is escaping he is assaulted by a moving tree. But he knew for a fact that he was not on earth or soul society or even Heuco Mundo, he could be anywhere, some sort of dimension where all those fairy tales from the dark ages came from, this had to be some sort of cruel joke, the end up in some sort of wonderland filled with demons and elves and magic.

<p class="MsoNormal">Then there were his powers, he was completely drained that was true, but still he shouldn’t be, he had been travelling for some time now, he should have at least regained some of his strength, but he hasn’t. He could sense or feel and reiatsu in the world around him, there was nothing, which was bad, that meant that he had to allow his body to recover it naturally, and if he was as drained as he was now, then there was no telling on how long it could take before it returned to full strength. His Reiryoku had been drained completely and with no spiritual particles in the air or world then it could take who knows how long for him to recover, even if he sleep it off it could take months still, this wasn’t good, not good at all. But there had to be something here they were using for their spells and that energy creature, it absorbed energy, including some of his reiatsu, so that meant that there had to be a similar energy source around here that he could use. But what could it be, was it the same as that energy that saturated that amphitheatre? If so then how could he harness it? And could it be used to send him back to where he came from? As he asked himself these questions he heard tapping. Stopping for a moment he looked around slowly, his weary eyes looking for anything that may have caused that noise, but he saw nothing, he then looked down to see some stone beneath his feet, which in fact was a rundown but serviceable road.

<p class="MsoNormal">He had found a road, thank Kami for that, he looked down at it and could see the faint outlines of hoof and shoe prints that were imprinted in the dirt alongside the pavers, obviously people had passed through here, he looked at the direction and saw that they were moving westwards, he gazed down the road and could barely see anything a few metres ahead of him without it getting blurry. Sighing he walked down the path, taking slow and heavy steps, all the while keeping himself from falling on his face, but after the drain on his Reiryoku from his fights and the fatigue of travelling without rest, he was fighting a losing battle. For what seemed like hours could have only been just a few minutes, his eyes kept bugging out and his mind was playing tricks on him, he was seeing and hearing things, first he thought he saw a hollow and then he though he heard maniacal laughter.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Good Bye Shinigami!” he heard from behind, he looked over his shoulder and saw nothing but forest and the paved road he had been travelling for god known how long. He turned back and he thought he saw someone ahead of him, he could barely make out who it was, and he stopped and did what little he could to ready himself for a fight.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Kurasaki-Kun” whispered the definitely female voice, he looked on and tried to discern who she was, how she knew his name, she wore white form fitting clothing; she was shorter than him and had long flowing burnt orange hair.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Orihime?” Ichigo said in shock, she looked up at him, he couldn’t see her face, but he did see the hand that was reaching out for him, she was here, she needed to be saved.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Kurasaki-Kun” she whispered again, Ichigo increased his pace and reached out to her with his free hand, but even with every step he took he couldn’t reach here, he moved faster, trying to reach her, trying to save her, but still she was out of his grasp. With every step he took words bombarded him, taunting him, unnerving him, his heart beating all the harder, while his body protested with intense pain, and trying to force him to stop his foolishness.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Too slow” he was being taunted at, the same words as the Quinto, Orihime started to drift away faster. Ichigo ran faster, trying to catch up to her retreating figure. Eventually he fell over, his foot catching a slightly raised piece of stone in the road, he slammed into the ground and felt his head connect with the stone, as he lifted himself up he felt blood flow down his face and over his eye.

<p class="MsoNormal">But as he looked up Orihime had stopped and was standing there looking at him, then another shadow appeared behind her, the shape and appearance could only match that of one person the Quinto espada, his crescent axe in hand, a sneering smile on his face and his single eye boring into him.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No! Don’t touch her!” Ichigo screamed as he fought to get to his feet to protect Orihime, but still his body protested, trying to make him understand that he cannot keep doing this, but his mind screamed for him to get up and fight.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Just what makes you think you can stop me!” he taunted, the same smug smile on his face as always, he raised his leg and then kicked Orihime in the back, she screamed as she hit the hard earth with an audible thud, Ichigo’s heart wrenched itself at the sight, beating all that faster, he tried desperately to stand and rush to her defence.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Leave her alone or I’ll make you!” screamed Ichigo, he was not on his knees and still trying to get to his feet, using both hands and Zangetsu he was able to stand up, but only just, a single shift in his weight and he would fall to the ground.

<p class="MsoNormal">“How? How will you stop me?” the Quinto asked in a smug tone, then he raised his axe the intension behind this action clear in the souls reapers mind, Ichigo’s eyes widened and then with what was left of his strength he moved forward. He took long strides and reared back his sword, the Quinto made no move to stop or dodge the attack, and when Ichigo swung Zangetsu at the Espada, his bladed passed through him as if he was air. “Trying again you loser”

<p class="MsoNormal">Ichigo tumbled forward and fell on his face again, pain and exhaustion taking holds in equal measure, he lifted himself to his hands and knees and tried to stand up again, he looked over his shoulder to see the Quinto looking down on him with contempt. Ichigo matched his stare with one of anger and resolve, he wouldn’t allow him to hurt her, and he would fight with everything he had to make sure she was safe.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Why don’t you give up?” he said, before turning around and moving back to the grovelling Orihime, Ichigo’s eyes widened at what he was going to do, he raised his crescent axe overhead and stopped a few feet from her.

<p class="MsoNormal">“NO! Leave Orihime alone!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Sorry to keep you waiting, now it’s your turn” the Quinto spoke down to the frightened Orihime, she looked on in horror at the large axe that was above her, ready to be brought down to obliterate her, she turned towards Ichigo and screamed her final words to him before the axe descended.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Ichigo!” she screamed, tears in her eyes along with fear, the one she called to matched that fear, he watched helplessly as the axe came down on top of her, then, just as the axe was to make contact and she was about to meet her end, they were gone, they disappeared without a trace, nothing there but him. He was kneeling there facing towards where he last saw them, remembering that fearful face and weepy eye, the image haunting him; he looked around desperately, trying to look for them, to see if it was not an illusion, to see if she was alright, to see that it wasn’t true. But there was no nothing for him to see, it was just the road, he looked around and was surprised to see the ocean in the distance, and that he was on a stone bridge connecting a gap over a waterfall, the fear that he felt disappeared, replaced with grief and despair, he was not supposed to be here, he was meant to be in Heuco Mundo. He was meant to be there so that he could rescue her from Aizen, he was meant to go in and save her from the Espada, he wasn’t supposed to lose, he couldn’t lose, but now he was in some unknown land with only a few second left of consciousness before he finally keels over.

<p class="MsoNormal">She was never meant to be a part of this, she should still be going to school and learning, she should be back home cooking her strange cuisines, she should be with Tatsuki and having fun with her life rather than fighting hollows and getting involved with soul society, she shouldn’t have been kidnapped and forced into serving Aizen. He looked down to the water below, his visions turning for the worst, his body finally giving in to all the pain and fatigue, he swayed lightly from side to side, his vision slowly blurring and then consumed by darkness every few second before it returned, there was little point in fighting it anymore. He had enough, he just wanted it to end so that he could forget about it, as his vision darkened, he heard something off in the distance, the sound of someone calling out to him, but he couldn’t make out what was being said.

<p class="MsoNormal">He looked to his right and saw someone approaching, he could barely make out the shadow of who it was, but he could see he was moving quickly towards him, then his vision faded once more, darkness took him and the next time he woke up he was weightless. He opened his eyes to see water particles falling past him and the bridge he was on overhead, and it was moving away from him quickly, he had fallen from the bridge and was going to fall within the river below, even though he would be fearful for his life, he couldn’t even muster the strength to do that. The shadow of the man who was moving towards him peaked over the side of the bridge, he couldn’t make out anything about him, and then his vision turned black again.

<p class="MsoNormal">He awoke only for a moment when his body connected with the water, he could feel himself being dragged beneath the surface and then pulled out to sea, he lost consciousness many times throughout that, but one caught his attention more than anything. He saw a large splash and then many bubbled, he didn’t know what it was at first; and then he felt something grab hold of his arm and pulled him against the current, he could make out a large gauntlet around his arm, and then he felt air rush into his lungs as he was pulled above the surface. Then his vision darkened once more, he awoke one last time to see a large shadow looming over him, he couldn’t see it clearly but he could see two large protrusions on what he could only assume was his head, and he heard a hard gravelly voice say to him.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t worry young one, you are safe now.” Those were the last words he heard before darkness took him completely.