Final Guardian

Ichigo's allies in the living world were completely silent. No one had spoken since Ichigo had revealed his Segunda Etapa. What could possibly be said?

Ichigo had reached his breaking point, and had given up, just waiting for death. And then his sisters had somehow reached him, and convinced him that they still needed him, that he had to get up and fight. Seeing light return to Ichigo's eyes had given Isshin hope. Witnessing the transformation into Resurrección: Segunda Etapa had taken that hope and added a sense of assured satisfaction. While he'd never heard of Segunda Etapa before, Isshin knew from long experience that whenever a weapon or person unlocked a new form, it was always more powerful than before. Given that Ichigo had been able to match Ayumu without Segunda Etapa, with it Isshin was sure that his son was going to wipe the floor with the king of Hell.

He was right. Ichigo had completely dominated the fight. It appeared though that Ichigo required some form of physical contact for his sealing technique, which was problematic since Ayumu seemed capable of a variety of suicide techniques. A Bakudō would be useful to handle such a complication, but as Ichigo had apparently lost his earpiece, they couldn't communicate that to him. Even so, it was fairly clear that Ichigo was winning, and would figure it out at some point.

But then… then Ichigo had tortured Ayumu. Had promised an eternity of pain or the utter destruction of Ayumu's soul, with a smile so disturbing that even remembering it sent chills down Isshin's spine. Seeing Karin begin to tremble, Isshin put a hand on his daughter's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "I know Ichigo's being scary, but it's probably just an act to intimidate Ayumu," Isshin tried to rationalize.

"That's just it, Dad…" Karin said, her soft voice shaking. She looked up at him, her eyes glowing white with the Eyes of the Oracle even as fresh tears made their way down her face. "I want to believe that. I really do. But I can't, not when I've seen the truth for myself. It's not an act. His Inner Hollow isn't in control. Segunda Etapa is having an effect on him, but it only brings his desires and emotions to the surface, makes it a little more difficult to think clearly. It can't create new thoughts or desires."

"That true?" Renji asked Ulquiorra, who nodded.

"Makes sense," Shinji commented, eying Ichigo critically. "Hollows are creatures of instinct. Emotions and desires aren't wholly rational, and they can be difficult to understand and control. And unless I'm very much mistaken, Ichigo's rarely wanted vengeance this badly before."

"Honestly, I'm not truly surprised," Hitsugaya asserted, drawing attention to him. "I too have someone close to me who has suffered greatly. Put myself in Kurosaki Ichigo's shoes, and her in Kurosaki Masaki's… and I am uncertain I would act differently, Hollow powers or no."

It was then that a certain sound broke through the conversation, silencing everyone else. Karin turned wide eyes upon her sister, whose giggles were growing progressively louder. "Yuzu! You've got to turn off your power!"

"But why, Karin-chan?" Yuzu asked, her smile far too wide for a face that young. "Can't you hear it? Ichi-nii's heart?"

"Karin, what's going on?" Isshin demanded.

"Yuzu's power, it let her connect to Ichigo's heart," Karin explained quickly. "That's how she could speak to Ichigo. But she never turned it off, and the connection goes both ways! Ichigo's heart, his emotions, are flowing back into Yuzu!"

"And Yuzu was completely unprepared for the strength of Ichigo's pain and lust for vengeance," Isshin finished, before putting on his best authoritative father voice. "Yuzu. Turn off your eyes. Now."

"But Dad… don't you want revenge for Mom too?" Yuzu asked. "Here, take my hand and you can listen too."

"Now Yuzu!"

The girl ignored him, completely enraptured by the sensations coming across the connection. "It almost feels like I'm the one swinging the sword. Is this what it's like to be Ichi-nii? I didn't know how good it feels to hurt someone who deserves it. No, can't get distracted. There's a plan, but I want to hurt Ayumu, I want to hurt him so much right now, but no, there's a plan, I have to keep to the plan, gotta take his power, take his power and bring back Mom, yes, Mom, just need to keep him distracted, can't let him know the plan, gotta hurt him so he can't figure it out, yes, make him feel my pain, make him HURT, make him SCREAM, make him BEG FOR MERCY…"

She was cut off when Isshin placed a hand on her head, his fingers glowing with Kidō. Yuzu collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, and Isshin caught her easily, picking her up and carrying her in his arms. "Don't worry, Karin. She's just asleep."

"Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" Renji asked disbelievingly. "Ichigo's trying to take Ayumu's power to resurrect his mother?"

"Hey, is that Ayumu?" Rukia asked, interrupting the conversation and bringing attention back to where Kensei, Mashiro and Ichibē were quietly watching the display.

"Yep." Mashiro chirped.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"You were busy with the kid," Kensei replied. "It sounded important."

As everyone rushed to get a good spot to watch, Isshin grasped Karin's shoulder. "Are you ok?" he asked.

"No," Karin confessed. "All the stuff that's happened, to Mom, to Ichigo, to Yuzu…" She shook her head, unable to find the words to express the horror and rollercoaster of emotions over the last week. "But I need to watch this. I need to make sure my brother lives."

Isshin nodded. "I understand. I love you."

"I love you too, Dad."

Meanwhile…

"Forty-four. Forty-three. Forty-two." Ichigo was forced to stop counting when a deluge of lights of all colors and countless weapons rained down upon him from above. Ichigo swung once with Tensa Zangetsu. "Getsuga Tenshō!"

The massive Getsuga effortlessly annihilated the onslaught, but Ichigo was more focused on Ayumu – he'd brought a friend. A very tall, bald black man with a bone necklace, a man whose eyes burned with hate. He looked oddly familiar, too, but Ichigo couldn't place him. "Who's this, Ayumu? You should know better by now than to think that any of your underlings can hope to stop me."

Ayumu smiled coldly at the black man. "Do you hear that? I told you he wouldn't recognize you."

The man trembled in anger. "How arrogant. Then I shall remind you: my name is Zommari Leroux, the Septima Espada. It was I who took the girl Inoue after the Noveno was killed."

Oh. Now Ichigo recognized him. "Huh. Should've realized you'd be here since Ishida killed you." He returned his gaze back to Ayumu. "This is your idea of a trump card? I could kill him in an instant."

The king of Hell ignored him, focusing on Zommari. "Kill Kurosaki Ichigo, and I will locate and restore your precious Aizen-sama."

"Agreed."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Byakurai."

It pierced Zommari through the forehead, and the man collapsed. And then another Zommari appeared directly behind Ichigo, his sword in motion to cut through Ichigo's neck. Sparks flew as it scraped off, and Ichigo turned to give him a smirk. "You can't cut through my Hierro, Zommari."

"I expected as much from my master's killer," Zommari admitted. "I merely wanted to test it."

Ichigo shrugged, and almost carelessly removed Zommari's head with a too-fast-to-see swipe from Zangetsu. Then he moved on to where he could sense another Zommari's speed clones and proceeded to do it there too. It was done in an instant.

Ayumu sighed, and with a grunt, resurrected Zommari beside him. "Enough playing around," he reprimanded. "Use your Resurrección and special ability."

Zommari frowned at Ayumu but relented. "Suppress, Brujería."

Watching Zommari turn his head in a way that would surely snap the neck of anyone actually human, Ichigo frowned, trying to recall what Ishida had said about Zommari's ability. Something about one hit and Ichigo's own Bankai would be trying to slit his throat? It obviously had something to do with control, but Ichigo couldn't remember the details. "Hey, Soifon. Throw me your communicator." A second later, as Zommari's Zanpakutō was bending into an edged spiral, Ichigo caught the device and placed it in his ear. "Oi, Ishida. I know you're there. Give me the details on this guy."

"If it's the same as before, he'll become largely immobile in Resurrección. He'll also be literally covered in eyes."

"Lots of targets." Ichigo smiled. "I like that."

"Spoken like a Quincy. In any case, his eyes are both a major weak point and the tool for his power, Amor. Each instance of Amor sends an invisible, very fast burst of reiryoku at whatever that eye in particular is looking at. If the reiryoku touches your hand, he can control your hand to choke you or whatever he wants. If he takes your leg, you won't be allowed to move it except at his command. If he takes your head, it's all over."

Ichigo frowned again as Zommari finished appearing his Resurrección form – as before, his lower half had transformed into a pink pumpkin-like structure. Immobile looked about right, unless Zommari had some feet under there that he just couldn't see… or if Zommari could bounce or something. "Sounds like a nasty form of Kidō. Maybe a form of Bakudō." Now he understood why Ayumu had chosen Zommari – since Ayumu couldn't win through sheer firepower, he was trying to turn Ichigo's own power against him. Smart. "How'd you beat him?"

"Quincy techniques. Ransōtengai to counter the Amor. Not a practical solution for you since you don't have a solid grasp on Quincy abilities yet. Then I used a Quincy technique to put a wall between us and shot him through it. His Amor can't go through barriers. That might be more useful."

"Noted." Ichigo didn't know how to make Kidō barriers, but he had a couple of thoughts on how he might improvise. He glanced at the Shinigami forces, who were quite plainly not at their best. "Stay back and take this chance to recover," he ordered firmly. "None of you are well-suited to fight him, while I have both the speed to avoid his Amor and the regeneration to handle it if I do somehow get hit."

"So you think you can defeat me easily. Such assumptions are arrogant, Kurosaki Ichigo," Zommari lectured.

"Oh shut up, already." Ichigo flipped his left hand up, unleashing almost a dozen chains at Zommari's many eyes.

Zommari's hand shot forward and the chains abruptly stopped in midair. Completely ignoring Zommari's speech about his Amor, Ichigo noted carefully that exactly as the number of glowing eyes equaled the number of chains. Interesting. Perhaps he could overwhelm Zommari through sheer numbers, then.

"How many eyes do you have, anyway?" Ichigo asked.

"Fifty-eight," Zommari bragged. "Don't you see now that it's futile? I have eyes all over my body. You cannot possibly escape all of them. When I turn my Amor upon you, you cannot…"

Ichigo once again tuned him out, having the answer he wanted. Damn, Zommari was stupid, revealing his limitations like that. Flicking his eyes over to where Ayumu was, Ichigo was unsurprised to see the king of Hell looking rather exasperated himself.

While Zommari continued to monologue, Ichigo experimentally tugged at his chains, trying to work out exactly where control was suddenly Zommari's.

"… the fear that drives even the king of Hell himself to avoid my eyes, for even a…"

God damn, he was still going on about his freaking Amor? There was a difference between taking pride in your abilities and just not being able to shut up about them. No wonder he had only been the Septima – he was blinded by his own power. Ichigo cast another glance at Ayumu, trying to gauge his reaction.

The king of Hell met his gaze, and in Ayumu's eyes Ichigo could see a sort of frustrated resignation – Ayumu disliked working with Zommari, but apparently he was committed to it. That meant no matter how many times Ichigo killed him, Zommari would be revived. That meant Ichigo had to deal with him non-lethally. That would be troublesome. Then again, Ichigo had an idea…

"…"

Wait, Zommari had finally stopped talking? Ichigo belatedly returned his attention to Zommari. "You say something?"

Zommari gave Ichigo a flat look with about a dozen eyes. Then he raised his arm, apparently about to attack with more of his Amor.

Ichigo stomped on the ground, and a thin wall of what appeared to be chain mesh erupted from the ground a few inches in front of him, intercepting the bursts of reiryoku from Zommari's eyes. "You just don't get it, do you Zommari?" Ichigo asked calmly. "You can't win."

"Why… why can't I control your chains?!" Zommari demanded, outraged.

Ichigo clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "And you don't even realize the limitations of your own power. With the power of your Amor, each eye can control exactly one thing. But what does that mean? Ishida told me you could control his hand. A hand is made up of a lot of bones, muscles, tendons, sinew, the various layers of skin, and so on. They all work together, but if one thing goes wrong with the system, the hand doesn't work right. As a result, it may be considered one unit under the concept of 'hand'."

Ichigo smiled behind his wall. "That's why when you target a hand, you don't control their entire body – just the hand. A person can live without a hand, it's not an integral part of their being – in the end, for the sake of survival, a mere hand is expendable. The concept of 'hand' takes precedence over the concept of 'me'. Do you understand now? With chains, every link is expendable, replaceable with merely a thought. The concept of 'link' takes precedence over that of 'chain', and so that is what your Amor targets."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes in focus, and more and more chains erupted from the earth, joining with the chain mesh to make it taller, wider. "I have thousands of links in my mesh now. So go ahead, steal sovereignty over fifty-eight links. Tell me what difference it makes." And with a sharp flash of intent, Ichigo sent the chain mesh flying at Zommari, the edges reaching forward as if the mesh was a giant mouth attempting to swallow him whole.

And that's just what it did. Despite Zommari's panicked, frantic attempts to tear the chains off of himself, the chains grew over him rapidly until he was completely enveloped in them, unable to move. Ichigo worked rapidly, using the chains to seal Zommari's reiryoku and movement. It was a rush job, Ichigo knew, but it should hold for a while. He one-handedly tossed the incapacitated Arrancar in Soifon's general direction, and watched Komamura catch him and give him a nod.

"That was… very disappointing, really."

Done with Zommari, Ichigo returned his focus to Ayumu. "Did you really think that would work?"

"No," Ayumu agreed. "But there was a chance… one that was spectacularly wasted by that idiot. No matter. I merely needed to buy some time."

Ichigo was instantly on guard, as suddenly the air around Ayumu was completely full of Hell's chains. There were too many, far too many to count. "Are these… all the Togabito chains?" Ichigo asked disbelievingly.

"Yes," Ayumu confirmed. "Every single soul damned here… I have access to their weapons, their abilities, their reiryoku, their memories, everything!" And then suddenly the sky was full of Ayumu clones. "Yamamoto knows more than a few nasty spells, but there's one in particular I've this burning desire to use. It requires a bit of sacrifice from me, but luckily for me…" He gestured at the thousands of clones around him. "I've got plenty of me to work with."

Ichigo's eyes went wide. That could NOT be good. "Getsuga Tenshō!" he screamed, swinging Tensa Zangetsu with all his might. Dozens of Ayumus died, but it hardly made a dent to the majority of them as they all used impressive barriers, reinforcing against each other to block the attack. "We've got to attack together!" Ichigo roared to his allies.

"Too late!" came the collective voice of the Ayumu clones, as dozens of them got too close, their bodies blackening and cracking with intense heat. "Hadō 96: Ittō Kasō!"

Ichigo had a split second to make a decision, and he acted according to his instincts. He cocooned himself in chains just as the world itself converted to brilliant red fire. He grit his teeth as the sheer power behind the spells threatened to tear his chains apart, as the chains grew hotter and hotter. Ichigo reinforced them with his reiryoku to prevent them from being destroyed or melting away, but it was so hot he could feel dozens of blisters forming on his skin, on his face and hands. Even Tensa Zangetsu had been brought up to an absurdly high temperature, and everything from his fingers to his arm where Tensa Zangetsu's chain was wrapped around it felt like it was on fire. His high-speed regeneration was healing him, but for once it just couldn't seem to keep up.

And then the bombardment of fire stopped, and Ichigo took in a ragged breath as his regeneration finished healing him.

"No doubt you are wondering why I did not simply do something like that before," Ayumu commented from just outside Ichigo's chain mesh shield. "The truth is that never before has anyone with as much power and knowledge as Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni or Urahara Kisuke been trapped in my realm for long. Most souls that come to Hell don't have much by way of special ability. The ones that do, typically only have one or two tricks, and not one of them had anything approaching the strength and power of a taicho of the Gotei 13."

Ayumu sighed. "It always takes a bit of time for me to fully assimilate the reiryoku and memories of the newly damned. I could use Zanka no Tachi and Shinkō Maōhi only because they were still active at the instant of their wielders' demise. If they had powered down to Shikai while alive, I would have been completely unable to activate their Bankai until I fully absorbed their reiryoku."

"But now that I have finally finished absorbing the reiryoku and memories of the most powerful Shinigami in one thousand years, and the genius captain-class assassin responsible for the creation of the Hōgyoku…" Ichigo could hear Ayumu's smug smile. "Segunda Etapa or not, you're going to die, Kurosaki Ichigo. Now why don't you come out and face death like a man, hmm?"

Shit. Ichigo smacked himself on the forehead. Think, Ichigo, think! How do you win now? I can't seal him until I can get past those powers, and I can't get past those power until I can seal… wait. This was familiar. Hadn't he and Urahara dealt with almost this exact thing not long ago?

'First, bypass… and attack the wielder through the lungs.'

Ichigo didn't have an attack that could do that, and even if he did, with Urahara's memories Ayumu would be prepared for it.

'Second, turn the battle into a siege.'

Not a good idea, since Ayumu was immortal and had the power of two incredibly powerful people at his command.

'Third, disable the wielder's ability.'

But how? Ayumu had access to their abilities because they had died in his world. Wait. In his world. If Ichigo could take him out of Hell, would he still have access to the powers? Pouncing on that idea, Ichigo quickly ran through the list of worlds he could potentially access.

Living world. Bad idea.

Soul Society. Also a bad idea.

Hueco Mundo. That was a possibility.

The Dangai. No. Urahara had some pretty extensive knowledge of the Dangai, so Ayumu would have the advantage there. Even without that, Ichigo did not want to know what would happen if Ayumu tried to blow up the Dangai.

The void between worlds. That sounded like a great idea, except that it would be very easy for Ayumu to make to any of the other worlds, which was bad.

And… that was it. Shit. Now what?

You're forgetting one, dumbass. What about OUR world?

Ichigo blinked, and then his eyes went wide. That… that sounded just about perfect. Ayumu had demonstrated the ability to control and limit traffic to and from Hell. If Ichigo could get him into Ichigo's own world, then Ichigo could prevent him from escaping.

"I know you're still alive in there," Ayumu's voice, amused, cut in. "Is this truly how you want to die? Huddled and trying to hide from me?"

Ichigo ignored the stab of rage that rushed through him, instead focusing on the immediate concern: bringing out the world of his heart. With a moment of focus, Ichigo retreated into his Inner World so he could speak with his spirits face to face. Hopefully it would even buy him a little time, since time flowed a little differently.

As Ichigo opened his eyes in his world, Akio's voice rang through his mind, the memories of a dream. 'A true world springs into being all at once… You must achieve enlightenment, my friend… I have brought you out here so that you might know yourself. True power is borne of wisdom, and wisdom is borne of understanding. You must reach true understanding of who you are… only that can grant you the power and ability to share the world of your heart.'

Ichigo was silent for a moment, looking out into his world as heavy rain continued to fall through it. It would not stop raining, he knew, not until Ichigo could defeat Hell and bring back everyone who'd fallen. "True understanding of who I am… But, don't I know that already?"

"Do you?" Tensa Zangetsu questioned calmly from a few feet behind him. Ichigo turned to meet the gazes from his inner spirits. "Then who are you?"

"I am Kurosaki Ichigo," Ichigo answered quietly, simply.

"And what does that mean, idiot?! Words alone are nothing unless they have a meaning! WHAT AM I?!" Cazador raged.

Ichigo met Cazador's gaze readily. "The embodiment of my instincts. My mask. My comrade. My friend. Part of me."

The Inner Hollow seemed surprised by the admission that Ichigo considered him a friend, but then Tensa Zangetsu stepped in. "And I?"

"My vision of true strength. My sword. My trusted advisor. My teacher. Part of me."

"And Zen'i?" Tensa Zangetsu pressed.

"My desire to protect," Ichigo answered simply. "Part of me."

Tensa Zangetsu nodded. "Yes. However, have you ever considered what you are to us?"

Ichigo blinked. What he was to them? He was… Ichigo drew a blank. What was he to them? Their boss? Their wielder? Their King? Their Shinigami? No. They were so much closer than that. But… Ichigo lacked the words.

"Listen carefully, Ichigo." Tensa Zangetsu looked Ichigo dead in the eye. "Just as you see us as part of you…"

"…We see you as part of us," Cazador finished quietly. "Don't you understand yet? We are one soul, Ichigo."

"You are the part of me that dictates when and how to use our strength."

"You are the part of me that decides when to defy our instincts in favor of reason."

"You are he whom we wish to protect!" both of Ichigo's spirits cried out in sync. "You are he who ties us together, he who binds us to a purpose!"

As if the spirits had summoned the words to his lips, Ichigo could not help but repeat the revelation he'd had not even an hour previous when his sisters had begged him to protect them. "My life's purpose is to protect. My humanity compels me. Thus is my soul bound, and thus is my will binding."

"YES!" Tensa Zangetsu and Cazador de la Luna roared together, their forms blurring and merging into their fusion form. "You are our heart, both the source and wielder of our power!"

Ichigo's eyes were wide, and he nearly fell over as he took a step backwards. "I… I am the source and wielder? But that… that would mean that I was always the limiting factor. The only thing stopping us was… me? If I had been ready, we could have had all this strength at the very beginning?"

"Yes. Tell us why you could not hear us from the moment you became a Shinigami."

"I…" Ichigo couldn't breathe even as his brain made the connections. "I… It's like Akio said. Only those who have the will to understand their feelings and embrace that which gives them strength… only they can achieve Shikai. I… the reason I couldn't hear Zangetsu from the beginning… was because I rejected my own feelings. The feeling of strength when I held a sword in my hands, the feeling of making a difference when I saved a soul from a Hollow, the sense of rightness in my Shinigami form…" Ichigo bowed his head. "I denied them, because I wanted to be normal. I couldn't hear you because I couldn't acknowledge myself, couldn't accept that I still desired the strength to protect."

"And Resurrección?"

"All the trouble with Resurrección was my fault," Ichigo admitted, wetness stinging his eyes as he began to understand how he had held them all back. "It was my distrust of my own soul that kept us from having that power from the very beginning." He closed his eyes. "I was afraid of becoming a monster. I didn't trust us not to, didn't have faith in our ability to remain human."

"Even after you learned otherwise, you were still uneasy with using that form. You hesitated, and decided not to use Resurrección when trying to rescue your family from Hell. Why?" the combined voice of Tensa Zangetsu and Cazador de la Luna demanded.

"I… damn it!" Ichigo reached up and wiped a tear from his face. "I was stupid and selfish, alright? I didn't want to show my Resurrección to Mom or my sisters. I didn't want them to fear me! I mean, they knew I had Resurrección, but I didn't want to show them what it really meant, that I could be the stuff of nightmares. I get it, ok? Yes, I held us back. I'm sorry."

"We know." The fusion form of Tensa Zangetsu placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, and the teenager raised his head. Their eyes met. "And we understand. Because we are one. We… are you."

"And I… am you," Ichigo finished softly. "We're just all reflections, aren't we? Reflections of the same soul."

Tensa Zangetsu smiled. "Exactly. Now take that knowledge, and use it. Banish the rain, Kurosaki Ichigo."

And then Ichigo was back in Hell, with those words thrumming in his spirit, resounding in his heart and mind, clicking into place in a way that was utterly impossible to describe. Yes. Those words, that phrase… was this what Zangetsu felt when Ichigo commanded him to tear the sky asunder? Was this what Cazador felt when Ichigo allowed him to blacken the night? Ichigo could feel the spirits' absolute belief in him, could feel their power coursing through him, and suddenly, his mind was clear, sharp. He understood now. He was their heart. When Ichigo fell into despair, so too did they. When Ichigo was at peace, so too were they. Just as Ichigo relied on them to protect those he held dear, they relied on Ichigo to protect their heart.

A spark of understanding shot through him. All those years… all those fights, all the struggles, everything… In the end, Ichigo had been fighting to banish the rain from his heart his whole life.

There was only one path to him now. There was no point in fearing what may come, nor in looking back at what might have been. He had to look forward, find the way to keep moving. There was no room for retreat, for even if he escaped with his life then it would be only a lifetime of guilt as Hell conquered all of reality. There could be no hesitation, or Hell would kill him or enslave him just as surely as he had countless others. He would defeat Hell. And then he would find a way to resurrect and save his mother's soul. That was the only path.

Ichigo straightened up and allowed the chain mesh cocoon to fall, revealing him to Ayumu.

"So you have chosen to face death as a man?" Ayumu taunted.

Ichigo did not respond verbally. Instead, he reached for his power and embraced it. The feeling was there, that sensation that he'd been struggling to understand since Hueco Mundo, and it washed over him and did not pull away. His body began to tingle and glow with an azure light. There would be no sudden stop this time, no sudden failure to know the next words. Ichigo could feel it all blossoming within his mind, as he approached the precipice of enlightenment, as he came to understand himself for who he was.

"… No way," Ayumu breathed. "You can't have…"

He was Kurosaki Ichigo. All his life, he had wanted to protect and save everyone he could… no. He had not merely wanted it. He had not merely needed it. That would suggest that he could conceptualize himself not doing everything in his power and more to protect. He had dedicated his existence to guarding life. That was his chosen fate. That was his binding, his seal, his enslavement, his cage… yet it was also his path to heaven.

"I am the Final Guardian."

Ayumu shook his head violently in denial. "No. No, you are not doing this now!" he bellowed, leaping a few dozen feet backwards and sending another wave of suicidal clones.

Ichigo's eyes glowed bright with power as he raised his left arm forward. Emerging from his back came dozens of chains, lashing out at the various clones, stabbing through them, slicing them apart, rapidly eviscerating the numerous clones.

Ayumu stared on at Ichigo in utter disbelief as the Vizard began to walk slowly, steadily towards the king of Hell. "My life's purpose has been to protect."

"What are you waiting for?!" Ayumu demanded of his clones, and the many hundreds of clones remaining began to unleash countless spells at Ichigo, only for the chains to move even faster, intercepting the spells, melting, freezing, being blasted apart… only to grow right back almost instantly before destroying the clones.

Seeing this, approximately twenty of the clones attacked Ichigo directly with a variety of weapons in their hands – war hammers, swords, lances, and far more. The Vizard didn't even bother to dodge. Instead, even more chains erupted from Ichigo's very skin, blocking the attacks before immediately wrapping and binding the assailants. Paying them no mind, Ichigo continued to move forward, slowly but purposefully walking towards the true Ayumu. "Never may I hesitate. Never may I retreat."

Trying to buy some time, Ayumu jumped further back and stomped once, hard, on the ground, resurrecting over a thousand various soldiers to fight for him. Kurosaki had to have a weakness. He had to.

The Vizard barely looked at the deadly combination of arrows and magic and steel rushing at him. It didn't matter. Masaki was dead, and Ichigo refused to stop until he had exacted payment, and resurrected her soul. These… minions… wouldn't even slow him down. "Always fighting to banish the rain."

Ichigo flickered away just before the attacks would have hit him and materialized behind the army, swinging his sword. A wordless Getsuga Tenshō ripped through the battlefield, and when it faded not one of the army had left a trace of their existence.

"Use it!" Ayumu's voice ordered. Ichigo turned around to see Ishida Haken had apparently been resurrected right beside Ayumu. He took the scantest of instants to wonder why, but resolved that it didn't matter. Haken was going to die too.

"Yes, sir." With a piercing pulse of power, Ishida Haken shredded his block robes, revealing his true form. His facial structure was somewhat similar to Ishida Uryū, clean-shaven with eyes haunted by madness. Dressed in the traditional Quincy battle outfit, Haken made for a striking figure. "Quincy: Vollständig."

Blackened wings erupted from Haken's back, and a dull red pointed halo materialized over his head. But that was as far as his transformation went, as Ichigo instantly appeared right in front of him and diagonally sliced him in two, from shoulder to hip. "I know better than to let an enemy complete a transformation if I can avoid it."

The two pieces of Haken's body fell to the ground with a dull thump. "Go, boy," the ancient dead Quincy whispered, lucidity returning once more to his eyes from the pain. "If any of my family still lives… tell them I'm sorry. Save my descendants."

Ichigo looked into Haken's surprisingly serene eyes, and gave a curt nod. "Having abandoned a protector's pride, my humanity compels me. Thus is my soul bound, thus is my will binding."

"Good luck…" And the light faded from Haken's eyes as his body disintegrated.

With that, Ichigo turned around to face Ayumu, who practically shook with rage. "So, this is it, eh?" the king of Hell demanded quietly. "Fine then! Show me what you have, Kurosaki Ichigo! Show me the true form of your soul!"

Ichigo raised Tensa Zangetsu to point at Ayumu, his left hand lightly supporting his right arm as the light blue aura grew brighter in anticipation. "My life shall remain… Eien no Tensa!" And with those words, the world changed. From Ichigo's body, a black wave of power washed over the area, and as it passed, the sands of the desert disappeared, giving way to a different reality.

Ayumu looked around. Heavy rain fell from the dark storm clouds of the heavens, pattering on the windows of broken sideways skyscrapers that littered the world as far as the eyes could see. The world was dark, only dully illuminated, and what little visibility existed was hindered by the rain. It was only as lightning struck that Ayumu could see that far below the skyscrapers he and Ichigo stood upon, there was a replication of Karakura, apparently covered in rising water.

"You stand upon the towers of my broken hope," Ichigo announced gravely. Lightning crashed once more, illuminating his face, full of hate and determination as rain traced its way down his body. "Fitting, as this is where your hope ends."

"It is fitting," Ayumu agreed, "but because I will finish what I have begun and crush your hope entirely!"