Resurrection

There was silence in the living world as they stared at what Ichigo had just done. Finally, Renji broke the silence. "OK. I'm not even going to pretend to understand what just happened. By all appearances, they're not in Hell anymore. What world has sideways skyscrapers hanging in midair?" he asked bluntly.

"Eien no Tensa. The world of the Final Guardian," Ichibē answered, his voice simultaneously surprised and impressed. "Kurosaki Ichigo has achieved it – I did not anticipate this, but it is quite a pleasant surprise."

"Wait a minute," Rukia said slowly. "Ichigo said that he was the Final Guardian. Are you saying that Eien no Tensa is…?"

"Yes. He has materialized the world of his heart," Ichibē finished matter-of-factly. "Just as a Shinigami may materialize the spirit of their Zanpakutō, it is also possible to summon forth the world in which the Zanpakutō resides – the world of the heart."

"How is it that we've never heard of this technique?" Kensei demanded.

"We have," Shinji reminded him firmly. "We all have. Just not so explicitly. That briefing about Hell… don't you remember? Ayumu created Hell."

"Yes," Ichibē confirmed. "It has been warped, distorted by the numerous souls he holds captive in addition to the changes within himself, but it is his world in every way." He shook his head sadly. "It has changed greatly from how it once was."

Ishida stared for a moment at the leader of the Royal Guard, his eyes narrowed. "You were there when Hell was created."

Ichibē's face split into a self-satisfied smile as he crossed his arms and straightened up, jostling his giant bead necklace. "I hold the title of Monk Who Calls the Real Name. I have a very special power over names. It was I who named your blades Zanpakutō, their first release Shikai, and their evolved form Bankai. No name is ever hidden from me – I know them all. I have merely to look upon you and I know not only your name, but the name of your Zanpakutō.

"Because of this," Ichibē continued, "I was asked by the Reiō to witness Ayumu demonstrate this ability, the power to manifest one's Inner World, and name it. The name I granted that power is… Jikai. What you see now is Kurosaki Ichigo's Jikai: Eien no Tensa."

Lightning lit up the sky in Eien no Tensa, but neither Ayumu nor Ichigo paid it any mind as they fought with all they had. Ayumu's voice was unceasing as he uttered spell after spell, all the while doing his best to remain at a distance.

Ichigo wasn't stupid – he could see immediately that Ayumu had had to change tactics. Before, Ayumu almost always had at least one melee weapon in his hand, as a precautionary measure to handle melee attacks since he was hardly unskilled. That he did not have one now was significant. Ichigo took grim pleasure in finding his suspicion vindicated – Ayumu did not have access to the various weapons of the damned if he was out of Hell. That was why he had wanted Ichigo to lead the attack on the Reiō – Ayumu knew he would have been no match outside of his world.

That said, Ayumu did have access to all the accumulated reiryoku and knowledge of the Togabito. That amounted to a truly impressive repertoire of abilities, especially counting Urahara and Yamamoto. Ichigo reflected on that for a moment as he Sonido-ed out of the path of a dozen conjured flame lances and retaliated with a half-dozen chains from his left hand. Discreetly, he also sent three chains around the underside of the floating skyscraper to attack the bastard from behind.

Ayumu leapt back and flipped his hand up. "Sōren Sokatsui!" he cried out, unleashing a gigantic blue beam of destructive energy that obliterated the chains in front of him and roared towards Ichigo.

Ichigo raised Tensa Zangetsu and swung it down sharply. "Getsuga Tenshō!"

As before, Ichigo's Getsuga tore through the spell, carving it in two and sending the pieces to either side of him, where each piece promptly reduced another section of floating skyscraper to rubble. But the sound of Ichigo's chains hitting their mark reached his ears, and the prompt swear that Ayumu uttered brought a cruel smile to his face. Ichigo promptly channeled a Byakurai through his chains, and Ayumu's roar of pain tore through the air.

Ayumu then unexpectedly appeared in front of him, the skin on his hand blackened and burnt far worse than the Byakurai should have done. Recognizing the spell immediately – how could he not, since he'd just been blasted with it repeatedly not long ago – Ichigo vanished with Sonido, leaving a speed clone behind to take the blow.

"Ittō Kasō!"

The brilliant red fire erupted where Ayumu stood, annihilating the skyscraper they had stood on. Ichigo was getting quite tired of his enemy doing that, so the moment the fire was tolerable Ichigo Sonido-ed above Ayumu, grabbed him by the back of his head and threw him straight down with all his might.

Ayumu hit the water less than a second later, the speed at which he was traveling creating a sonic boom. If Ichigo remembered his physics right, at sufficient speeds hitting water was no different from hitting concrete, so he really hoped that hurt.

Then again, it probably wouldn't hurt as much as what Ichigo was about to do next. Ichigo charged up a Cero and immediately fired it straight down at Ayumu's impact point. Then he materialized a couple of dozen chains from his body and sent them in the water. None of them hit Ayumu, which made Ichigo frown in contemplation as he looked at the ocean. He hadn't been able to sense Ayumu before, but that was before Ichigo had managed to bring out Eien no Tensa. Surely now they were on the same level? One god to another?

Experimentally, he reached out his senses… and smiled. "I can sense you…" he whispered. He Sonido-ed several dozen feet away and lashed out with his left hand, grabbing Ayumu by the throat. The illusion of invisibility that Ayumu had been using shattered.

But Ayumu didn't panic, and instead tapped Ichigo's wrists rapidly. Instantly, yellow rings of energy encircled Ichigo's wrists, and Ichigo's eyes widened as he recognized Urahara's spell. "Fūsatsu Kakei."

"Shit!" Ichigo swore, letting go of Ayumu and leaping back. He raised Tensa Zangetsu, preparing to cut off his hands to prevent the spell from burning him from the inside out with his own reiryoku, but was interrupted by the rings shattering from simultaneous sword-strikes.

"What?" Ayumu gasped.

But Ichigo could only grin as his saviors were revealed. "Cazador de la Luna. Tensa Zangetsu. About time you showed up."

"Keh! Did ya think we'd let you hog him to yourself?" Cazador asked cockily.

"Be more careful," Tensa Zangetsu scolded lightly. "Ayumu is still a dangerous opponent."

"Got it," Ichigo acknowledged.

A strangled sound – not quite a shriek, but definitely louder than a general exclamation – of pure frustration emerged from Ayumu's throat as the king of Hell leapt away. A multitude of clones materialized and leapt at Ichigo, but they were instantly obliterated by a Cero from Cazador de la Luna. "You gonna let him get away, King?"

"Hell no. Come on, let's finish this!" Ichigo flashed away in a burst of Shunpo, knowing without looking that Tensa Zangetsu and Cazador were on either side of him.

"Sekienton!" Ayumu snapped, creating a gigantic plume of red smoke around his position. The smoke cleared only seconds later, due to the heavy rain, but Ichigo paid it no mind, instead tracking Ayumu by his reiatsu.

He flicked his hand at Ayumu, conjuring another few chains that struck out like snakes, but they were swiftly blocked by a giant transparent barrier. "Dankū dankū dankū dankū…!" Ayumu chanted over and over again, swiftly creating a large number of enormous barriers between them.

Cazador made to fire another Cero, confident in his ability to destroy any barrier in his path, but Ichigo grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. "Let's not waste too much power here. We're gonna need all the strength we can get after we're through with him."

"Ya got any better ideas?"

"Yeah. Pincer technique. You go left, Tensa goes right. Go, now!"

Cazador grinned and then the three blurred, going in altogether different directions. Ichigo himself dashed upwards into the clouds.

Immediately seeing the tactic, Ayumu switched gears and dove backwards towards the ocean, trying to keep all three of his opponents within view. "Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō!" he thundered, unleashing an enormous blast of brilliant blue-white lightning at Tensa Zangetsu.

The Zanpakutō spirit merely raised his sword and cut through the Kidō just as Ichigo himself had done repeatedly in Hell, sending the fragments off to either side. But it had been enough to blind him momentarily to Ayumu's actions, and the king of Hell had not waited to see the results of his attack. He was gone. Tensa Zangetsu narrowed his eyes, but right at that moment he felt more than heard the impact of Cazador de la Luna's Cero against another explosive spell. He immediately darted in that direction.

Ayumu was trying to get away Cazador de la Luna, but the Hollow, in Ayumu's opinion, had a terrifying combination of insanity and mastery of his weapon, using a deadly style of throwing his blade around and changing its trajectory with its chains, creating deadly arcs that were difficult to predict. All the while, Cazador was also darting in between the chains to engage in hand to hand during those brief instants that his sword was flying back to him.

He needed to get away, and quickly. Ayumu grit his teeth and spat out the name of his next spell. "Ittō Kasō!"

The absurdly powerful flames engulfed him and Cazador, though Ayumu rapidly made his escape, clutching where his left hand used to be – he'd sacrificed it for the spell. It would take less than a minute to regenerate fully, but that was time Ayumu knew that he really didn't have.

He was right, as in that instant a wall of chains erupted from the ocean beneath him, creating a barrier only a half-dozen meters away. Ichigo himself stood in front of the barrier with a cocky smirk. "Going somewhere?"

"Is your soul made of chains or something?!" Ayumu snarled in frustration.

"No. You couldn't understand why I have a chain affinity, but then again, the only thing you need to understand is that you're done." Behind Ayumu, three columns of chains erupted, appearing almost as sea serpents ready to strike. At the same time, the wall behind Ichigo loomed, leaning towards Ayumu. "Tell me, oh king of Hell… are you prepared to repent your sins?"

Ichigo didn't give him time to answer. The moment he finished speaking, two more chains lashed out from within the ocean, snaking around Ayumu's ankles and beginning the process of sealing. In the time it took for Ayumu to cut them away, it was too late to escape from the rest. It was over in seconds – in the end, Ayumu was encased in a giant ball of chains at four meters in diameter.

Ichigo waited a moment, then two, and then a third just to be sure that Ayumu was well and truly sealed. And then he took a deep breath, and let go of Eien no Tensa. It was an extremely odd sensation, Ichigo decided, feeling the world of his heart return to within his soul.

Ichigo walked over the ball of chains that encased Ayumu and considered his options. His original plan – draining Ayumu of reiryoku using his Quincy abilities, and then hiding him and his seal somewhere in Hell – was still valid. But there was one possibility he hadn't considered before entered Segunda Etapa.

Ichigo could eat Ayumu and consume his soul as a Hollow. If he did that, then there was next to no chance that Ayumu would be broken free again, at least during the course of his lifetime. And as a Shinigami, if Yamamoto was a decent measure, Ichigo would probably live for several thousand years. Possibly longer, if Ichigo went ahead with his other plan of turning Eien no Tensa into another permanent world for souls to travel to, considering that Ayumu sounded like he was even older than Yamamoto.

The only downside was that if something did happen to Ichigo, if he did die of something or other, then Ayumu would escape. And given Ichigo's life thus far, and his nature as the Final Guardian, the odds of that were, frankly, disturbingly high. It was unfortunate, Ichigo supposed, but theoretically his seal would last virtually forever, so he wasn't too upset about it.

Manipulating the chains of Tensa Zangetsu so the blade would sit at his waist, Ichigo placed one hand on the ball of chains and picked it up, beginning to carry it back down to the desert level with the lava pool. On the way, he carefully began to pull at Ayumu's reiryoku, with Tensa Zangetu assisting as he had before. He started slow, as he did not want to disrupt the seal, but as the seal was made of Ichigo's own chains and was designed to draw on Ayumu's reiryoku anyway to power itself, Ichigo encountered no problems.

Several minutes later, Ichigo arrived at the lava pool and set down the sealed king of Hell next to him. He approached the pool, gathering the reiryoku he'd taken, and took a deep breath. Ayumu had told him before that resurrection cycles were based on the amount of spiritual power, hate, resentment, anger and fear the soul possessed. On top of that, only his mother had been crushed to the desert sands, so the others would likely be easier. With that in mind, Ichigo had decided the order of resurrection would be based on power – that and he still didn't particularly want to resurrect Soifon, so he was putting it off towards the end.

Ichigo raised his left hand towards the pool, with his right still touching the chain seal, and began channeling the reiryoku he'd stolen into the lava. "Come forth, Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni."

The lava in the pool rushed upwards for a moment, and when it fell, a nude Yamamoto stepped out, blinking. "Kurosaki," he greeted after a moment of getting his bearings. "I assume you won and have worked out how to trigger the resurrection of Togabito?"

Ichigo nodded, gesturing towards the chain seal. "I've sealed Ayumu, but I can absorb his reiryoku as a result of my Quincy heritage."

Yamamoto considered that for a moment, and then nodded. Then he frowned. "Where is my Zanpakutō?"

"It broke." Ichigo replied blandly.

"What?"

"Ayumu was using Zanka no Tachi. Couldn't get around it properly, so we were forced to destroy it. Sorry."

Yamamoto's eyes opened fully as he locked gazes with Ichigo for a few seconds, before finally sighing and nodding. "I see. Disappointing, but I would have done the same in your place."

"Glad you see it that way." Ichigo blinked – he was forgetting something. Oh, right. The Togabito chain. With a quick swipe of Tensa Zangetsu, Yamamoto's Togabito chains were destroyed. "Now do you mind moving out of the way? I've got other people to resurrect."

Yamamoto obliged, stepping well out of the way and watching in interest.

Ichigo once again raised his hand towards the pool, channeling more of Ayumu's reiryoku. Resurrecting Yamamoto hadn't taken much at all – probably because the old sōtaicho was so powerful. "Urahara Kisuke."

A few seconds later, the ex-taicho genius assassin stepped out from the lava. This time, Ichigo was very prompt about destroying the Togabito chains. "I see… you won, Ichigo. Mind if I ask about the new look?"

"Maybe later."

"What about my lovely Zanpakutō?"

Ichigo gave him a flat look. "You know perfectly well what happened to it. You booby-trapped it so it would explode if someone besides you tried to use it."

"Ah, so that safeguard worked! It was impossible to test properly, you know, since I didn't want to leave myself without my Zanpakutō."

"And you didn't want to kill someone unnecessarily."

"That too."

In short order, Ichigo finished resurrecting Yoruichi, Zaraki, Komamura, Soifon, Ikkaku, Iba and Kotetsu. After Komamura was resurrected, two haggard-looking 12th Division members appeared, carrying a large bundle of clothes that the newly resurrected Shinigami promptly put on.

Ichigo then resurrected Harribel and her Fracción, each of whom took one look at him and fell to one knee in submission, completely disregarding their nudity. "Your orders, my liege?" Harribel asked.

"Return to Las Noches, and bring your Fracción up to date on what has happened. I shall return to Hueco Mundo soon."

"Yes, Kurosaki-sama." They rushed away, presumably to the Gates of Hell.

Finally. It was time. Ichigo took a deep breath and channeled his will into his words, using every ounce of the reiryoku he'd drawn from Ayumu. He would need it to resurrect someone from the desert. "Return, Kurosaki Masaki!"

Nothing happened. After a couple of seconds, Ichigo swallowed and tried again. "Kurosaki Masaki!" Once again, nothing. The lava pool wasn't even taking his stolen reiryoku. Ichigo had been afraid of this – while dead Togabito were capable of being resurrected at the lava pool, Togabito personally banished to the desert were somehow beyond its grasp. There must be a different method of resurrecting people from the desert.

Ichigo turned to Yamamoto. "Apparently the technique won't work on those whom Ayumu banished to the desert. Any ideas?"

The wrinkles on Yamamoto's face deepened slightly as he furrowed his brow in thought. "These sands are the remains of those Togabito, correct?"

"Right."

Yamamoto knelt to the ground and placed a hand on the sand, closing his eyes. "… Yes. As I suspected. Each particle of sand in the desert carries an imprint of the original owner's reiryoku."

Ichigo didn't understand. "Is that not normal when a spiritual being decomposes?"

"It is indeed abnormal. Normally, when a spiritual body decomposes, it does not carry such an imprint, as the soul has already moved on to the cycle of reincarnation. An imprint can only exist so long as the soul is exerting some influence. I believe that each particle of sand carries a tiny fragment of the original soul."

Urahara coughed, bringing the attention to himself. "If you may recall, sōtaicho, before I was banished, there was an investigation regarding mysteriously disappearing souls? It was theorized that their human form was being annihilated while they were still alive. Of course, while we later learned that it was Aizen's Hollowification experiments, I was making a Gigai prototype that would, theoretically, allow a broken-down soul to stabilize and recover. Of course, it would be useless if we were unable to gather the pieces of the broken soul to place them into the Gigai. No Kidō existed to do so. So I made one."

Ichigo's eyes went wide. "Are you saying…?"

"Yes." Urahara spread his arms wide. "I have a spell that, again theoretically, should be able to gather the broken-down soul pieces. In this case, as they're attached to the sands that made up the original body, once the soul is reunited, it should be capable of reforming its body appropriately, negating the need for a Gigai. There is one problem, however."

Ichigo knew it – there had to be a catch. "What's that?"

"There were some technical limitations I had to work around when I created the spell. The biggest issue was that I had no way of knowing how many pieces a soul might be in, so I had to instead define a range that expands every time it finds a soul fragment. The further the range increases, the more reiryoku is required." He looked around pointedly at the desert. "My reiryoku alone is not up to the task."

"I see." Yamamoto nodded. "All taicho, you will lend your reiryoku to Urahara Kisuke for the duration of this spell. Am I understood?"

"Hai!"

"I'll help too," Ichigo volunteered, approaching Urahara.

"Alright." Urahara waited a moment while everyone gathered closely, and then began to chant. "Black and white net. Shattered mirror, dark abyss." Urahara moved his hands in front of his chest as an orb of swirling crimson and brilliant white slowly swirled into existence between them, growing larger with every word. "A blind man's sight, impossible yearning hidden in the night! Holy will, cast your purifying light on this broken soul! Return and know once more your true form!" He suddenly shoved his hands up, throwing the orb above their heads. "Tenkei no Tamashifuku! (Heavenly Light of Soul Recovery) "

The orb shattered more than a dozen feet above their heads, sending out a white pulse of reiryoku. And then Ichigo felt the drain on Urahara, felt his reiryoku disappearing faster than blood could spray out of an artery. He quickly pushed his reiryoku towards Urahara, even as the others did the same.

Several seconds later, Kotetsu faltered, followed shortly by Iba and Ikkaku. Almost a minute later, Soifon finally fell to her knees, completely drained. The reiryoku demands on Urahara had yet to slow in the slightest, and Ichigo was beginning to get a bit worried. This feeling quickly grew as Komamura fell to one knee, panting, leaving it down to Zaraki, Ichigo and Yamamoto to keep Urahara supplied with reiryoku.

Thankfully, the reiryoku demand suddenly halted, and Urahara breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like we're clear."

"So… how long does it take to – GAH!" Interrupting Ichigo, the desert itself seemed to whirl into a fury, a massive sandstorm appearing out of nowhere. Immediately, the four standing Shinigami took guard around the downed ones, protecting them with their bodies from the sudden storm.

After almost a minute, the sandstorm suddenly ended, and then, surprisingly, unknown voices were heard. "I… I'm alive?"

"How the…?"

"What's going on?"

"Where'd the desert go?"

"It's so crowded! Where am I?"

Hearing the voices, Ichigo grunted, unsteadily standing up. Not wanting to crush any souls under the weight of his presence, he quickly undid his Hollowification and Bankai, returning to Shikai state. "Someone's got to take control of the crowd, or someone's gonna get angry and start slaughtering people," Ichigo muttered.

"I agree." And then Komamura bodily picked up Ichigo, placed him on top of Ayumu's seal and waited expectedly.

The action apparently caught a lot of people's attention – Ichigo supposed that one person being suddenly visible above everyone else would do that. Now what? His brain blanked for a moment, before he decided to just wing it. He took a deep breath and spoke, projecting his voice as best he could. "I am Kurosaki Ichigo," he called out, drawing Zangetsu and raising it to the sky. "And I am the one who sealed the king of Hell!"

And just like that, the desert fell silent. Belatedly, Ichigo noticed that no one in the crowd that he could see had weapons. He wondered for a second whether they were afraid that he was going to cut them down, before his mentally shook himself and returned to the present situation. "It is my opinion, and that of my comrades, that with the king of Hell sealed, everyone deserves a chance for redemption. For this reason, we banded together to resurrect every soul we could in the desert."

"But what about our chains?!" a random Togabito demanded. "What's the point of resurrection if we can't ever leave?!"

"I killed myself because I couldn't bear the torment any longer!" another agreed. That seemed to be enough of a trigger, as suddenly dozens were loudly proclaiming their agreement, cursing Ichigo for resurrecting them.

"Enough!" Ichigo roared, calling for silence once more. "We have the power to break the Hell Chains binding you here!"

"But what about those who deserve to be here?" yet another Togabito asked quietly.

"We're working on a method to distinguish those whose hearts truly wish for redemption, and those who…" Ichigo blinked, catching himself. A heartfelt desire? He glanced at Urahara, who seemed to have caught the same brainwave. Urahara gave him a discrete thumbs up before vanishing in a burst of Shunpo. "Scratch that, we have a method now. I'm sending someone to fetch it now. Once he returns, I should have it set up shortly. In the meantime… there's going to be some changes here in Hell."

Ichigo nodded to himself, as though he wasn't making this up as he was going along. "First, there are no more Kushanāda. With no unbeatable enemy to keep the more violent Togabito in line, there needs to be a method of management, of government, to keep this place from becoming a constant bloodbath." Ichigo glanced down at Yamamoto, and extended a hand. Yamamoto took it and climbed up onto the seal of chains as well, standing beside him. Encouraged, Ichigo continued. "This is Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, the sōtaicho of the Gotei 13, the military of Soul Society. It was only with his help that we were able to defeat the king of Hell today." Ichigo took a minor step back, allowing Yamamoto to take the lead. He didn't feel comfortable making promises regarding the Gotei 13, and it was probably not a good idea to promise protection with Hollow forces.

Yamamoto cleared his throat. "It is the hope of Soul Society that the worlds remain at peace, and in pursuit of that hope, Soul Society will aid in construction of habitable settlements for Togabito. Until a local government can be formed, Soul Society will place a small force of Shinigami in Hell to keep the peace. This force will mostly be made of volunteers, but be aware that they themselves are unable to cut the Hell Chains, and so it is pointless to ask."

Right then, Urahara reappeared behind Ichigo and handed him a small box. Ichigo discretely opened it, then gave Urahara a nod and moved beside Yamamoto once more. As the wizened old Shinigami took the cue and stepped back slightly, Ichigo pulled out the object inside the box and held it up for the Togabito to see. "This is the method by which your souls will be judged! The Hōgyoku!"

Ichigo sent a tendril of his reiryoku towards the Hōgyoku, and felt it questioning him, reading his spirit. What did he want? What was his heart's desire?

After a moment, Ichigo threw the jewel high up into the air, and it shone brilliantly before creating a giant arch dozens of meters high and at least 8 meters wide, where it rested securely atop the arch. Inside the arch was a night blue surface with shimmering lights that flickered merrily like the reflection of stars across a rippling lake. "When you step through this gate, your heart will be assessed," Ichigo explained to the stunned crowd. "It is not enough to want to leave Hell. It is not enough to feel that you have repented enough. If and only if you truly wish for forgiveness, for redemption, for a chance to set things right… only then will your soul be purified and sent to the next life. No longer are you bound to Hell forever!"

The roar of approval nearly sent Ichigo off of Ayumu's seal. And then a familiar voice, a voice that instantly had Ichigo's attention, cut through it all. "What about those whose actions in life didn't damn them, those who died fighting Hell and those the Togabito kidnapped? They have no reason to wish for forgiveness, so what about them?"

The world was suddenly silent as the people pondered the question, and in that silence Ichigo locked eyes with the speaker – his mother. "The gate will know," he replied simply. "And it will judge accordingly. But I can see how that could be a concern. So, over the course of the next week, anyone who feels that those circumstances apply to them may submit a request to either me or any of the Shinigami who are stationed here. That request will be forwarded to me directly, and I will personally cut your chains and perform the Konsō ritual on you. Konsō will judge your actions in life, and if you don't deserve Hell, you'll be transported to Soul Society."

Masaki smiled, and Ichigo's lips twitched upwards as well.

Yamamoto cleared his throat, and once the attention was back on him, he began to speak once again, giving no indication that Ichigo's actions and promise had been at all unexpected. "As you may have guessed, the Hōgyoku is an extremely powerful device, dangerous in the wrong hands," he intoned. "For this reason, this gate, henceforth to be known as the Gate of Purification, must be guarded at all times. No one will be permitted to scale the Gate, on penalty of death. As death is not permanent in Hell, a second attempt will result in being sealed away."

After waiting a moment to verify that Yamamoto was finish speaking, Ichigo nodded and raised his voice. "Now if you'll excuse us, it's been a very, very long day, and we must see to the arrangements for the Shinigami task force, as well as reassure our comrades and families that we survived."

Yamamoto glanced at his forces, assessing their status. "Zaraki-taicho. Komamura-taicho. Third Seat Madarame. You three shall remain in Hell and await relief. You are not to impede anyone from using the Gate of Purification, but ensure no one approaches the Hōgyoku."

"Hai!"

Ichigo took the opportunity to jump off of Ayumu's seal and walked steadily towards Masaki, the crowd parting for him silently. "Mom..."

"Ichigo…"

Ichigo didn't know who initiated the hug, but the next moment they were clutching each other, laughing and crying at once. They had done it. They had won! Hell was sealed away, and Masaki was resurrected and rescued. Ichigo's family was whole once again.

After almost half a minute, Ichigo was able to regain his composure and removed himself from the embrace. "Come on, Mom. Let's go home."