Rebirth In Bleach - 107 Light and Shadow

The two faces looked at each other as Itsuki turned around,

“You should be getting back to your fight.”

The opposite party didn’t say anything as he also turned around. Itsuki started walking and only a few short steps later,

“Oof.”

The cool moment was immediately ruined by an all to familiar noise. Nel looked surprised as well as she looked down,

“Itswuki-sama, you’re stepping on something.”

The other party was also curious as it was a rather unexpected noise. The being turned around only to see what Itsuki was stepping on. Itsuki looked down a rather familiar sight entered his vision. A slight sadistic smile appeared on Itsuki’s face as he quickly hid as a chill went down the toy that Itsuki was stepping on. Droplets of sweat appeared, leaving Itsuki wondering where it came from as it was a toy.

Kon, who had somehow ended up in Hueco Mundo was lost and scared. He had felt many scary auras here and there with the fluctuations caused by their fighting. It was like he was walking on pins and needles while even the slightest wind freaked him out. It didn’t help that he was frightened out of his wits whenever a small breeze brushed by ever so often. His mentality had taken a cruel hit as he would scream and jump back whenever it happened. He was tired and exhausted, and he didn’t even know when, but a rather familiar foot stepped on him. It was a feeling he would never forget, as a jika-tabi wasn’t worn by just anyone.

Still though, he had his hope up all the way until he felt a chill go down his imaginary spine. He knew at that moment, the person that stepped on him was the last person he wanted to meet. All of a sudden, those scary auras weren’t scary at all, the were pleasant and nice, as if they were where home was.

Itsuki, on the other hand, was wondering how the idiot was here.

‘Wasn’t he supposed to be on Earth fighting hollows with that Don Kanonji-guy and the kids?’

A raised eyebrow was the second reaction the toy garnered from Itsuki before it was picked up. Holding it by the scruff, he turned it to face him, only to see it act like a regular toy.

‘Why does he think this will work?’

Before Itsuki could open his mouth, Nel’s rather sharp words echoed in the toy’s ears,

“Ugly…”

“Oi! Who the hell are you calling ugly?!”

With a fist raised up and a furious face, saliva flew out of Kon’s mouth as he retorted Nel’s evaluation of him.

“Wah, it twalked.”

Nel simply ignored the words before reaching for it. Itsuki did not say anything as he gave the toy to Nel as she scrutinised it. Holding it by the leg, she flung it around as Kon’s scream filled the atmosphere. Itsuki’s sight left the child and toy before it turned to the forgotten being. Ulquiorra was rather calm, it seemed that he wasn’t worried to losing to Ichigo. Frankly, Itsuki didn’t care but he urged the arrancar on with his eyes. Although, outsiders couldn’t tell, the other stoic being got the former’s message as he turned around to leave. It was like a secret communication method between stoic people.

Itsuki turned back around only to see Nel opening her mouth wide open and biting down onto Kon. The latter screamed in despair, but Nel continued,

“I wondwer how thish tashtes?”

“NOOOOOOooooooo, stoooooopppp ittttfffffmmmmmm.”

Itsuki looked on as Nel started chewing with the toy’s arm grasping her cheeks trying to pull himself out to no avail. With his legs flung around, desperately looking for something to latch on to, Kon’s muffled screams were the only thing heard.

This didn’t carry on for long as Nel’s face scrunched up and spat him out rather rudely.

“Blech,”

As if having tasted the most disgusting, Ne continued spitting it out, before looking down at Kon. With her face held high, she looked down with disgust,

“Nwot only ish it ugly, bwut it’sh alsho disgwusting.”

Her words only pierced Kon’s heart like an arrow as Itsuki turned to leave. Rather dramatically, Kon laid there in a spotlight and got up as if a maiden had been taken advantage off.

Itsuki heard Kon muter a few things as his monologue began before he shunpoed away. He then appeared, above Las Noches, and looked at Ichigo’s fight from afar. He placed Nel on top of his shoulders and pulled out his Kiseru. Breathing in, Countless thoughts went through his head and he couldn’t help but sigh, inadvertently breathing out. The smoke left his mouse and covered Nel, who started tearing up and coughing from the second-hand smoke.

The sudden coughing pulled him out of his thoughts as he hurriedly put away his Kiseru. Nel on the other hand started pulling at his hair for revenge. Itsuki didn’t pay heed even when she bit him as he was lost in thoughts.

Ever since he came to this world, he had thought that his greatest enemies would’ve been Aizen and Yhwach. That’s why he trained and trained until he realised that there was more to this world than he had expected. Looking up, he looked at the vast moon that lay in the sky. At the beginning, there was only one world, and things like hollows were naturally formed. Even a Vasto Lorde level Hollow would spontaneously form out of nowhere.

This was Yhwach’s goal. To go back to that time. Where the soul king reigned supreme. Now, the current ‘soul king’ was an empty vessel, neither dead nor alive, its sole existence was to keep stability in the realm.

Remembering the records, a hint of disgust appeared in his heart which quickly faded away. He didn’t know the enemy’s forces, but he had a feeling that they were not simple at all. A faint premonition inside of him, hinted that he was partially responsible for those changes. Looking back to the manga, most likely after the Quincy Blood Arc, the one to replace the Soul King would most likely have been, Yhwach. Suffering the same fate of a puppet like his father, with no thoughts of his own.

He never knew where the enemy was, they definitely weren’t in Soul Society. They were in the shadows while he was in the light. To draw them out, he would have to become the abyss and swallow those shadows up.

“RWWWOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!”

A maniacal roar brought his out of his thoughts as he looked towards where the fight was happening. A berserk Ichigo entered his view as he started thrashing Ulquiorra. If it were before his breakthrough, Itsuki would have made a move and instantly supress Ichigo but now that thought had never crossed his mid. His thoughts of hunting Ichigo were actually the manic remnant thoughts left by the hollow he had consumed. Now after the hollow was fully absorbed, such thoughts had vanished. Plus, his Mystic Eyes were now permanently activated. Seeing the world in this perspective was naturally unsettling but Itsuki considered it normal. His will had been trained and all his powers seemed to have integrated with him.

His thoughts acceleration and memory partition were no more and were permanently activated. It seemed all those perks had just melded into him. Itsuki closed his eyes and ‘looked around’, those lines and dots were still there. The mystic eyes of death perception was just a name, the true power of death didn’t come from his eyes but rather himself. If he ever lost those eyes, he would lose his powers, the only thing the opposite party would get Itsuki’s normal ice blue eyes.

Thinking back to Aizen, he remembered the decreased lines on Aizen. Due to this, he wondered how many lines the soul king would have.

His thoughts were interrupted by a cero being shot in his direction. Seeing the destroyed Ulquiorra, he realised that Ichigo was about to finish the former off, so he made his move. He appeared behind him, Ichigo and before Inoue and Ishida could think, he knocked Ichigo out. The teenager was already not in the right state of mind and a little trick was all it needed to make him fall unconscious. He then appeared next to Ulquiorra and dragged him off by his hair. As for the others all they saw was a flash and Ichigo collapsed with Ulquiorra having disappeared.

However, the vanished Ulquiorra was thrown out of their minds and they hurried to Ichigo.

Nel was in the middle of biting Itsuki’s head when she saw a flash and a half dead arrancar was being dragged by Itsuki. Leaving Ulquiorra at the village of the elves, he then returned Nel to her companions amidst her protests and left Hueco Mundo.

Back in the real world, the battle between the Gotei 13 against the Arrancar was full blown. With the addition of the visored they seem to have taken the upper hand. Itsuki appeared behind Yamamoto right after that latter’s short conversation with Shirako.

“He rejected you.”

A rather unfamiliar teasing tone left Itsuki’s mouth. Only Aizen and Yamamoto felt his entrance as everyone else had their minds occupied by the recently arrived visored.tItsuki then looked at Soi Fon and felt relieved seeing that she still had both her arms. In the anime, that arm had rotted, well disintegrated from Barragan’s power of age.

The fights went in the same direction with canon. Itsuki appeared next to Rangiku and made sure she was fine. Rangiku slightly opened her eyes and a face she longed for appeared. A hint of smile appeared on her face as her eyes closed once more, this time with a relieved expression.

Seeing that everything was fine here, Itsuki turned his attention to Soi Fon and Omada that was next to her. Hachigen, the big kido expert from Visored, sealed Barragan while Soi Fon used her bankai to destroy the espada. Soi Fon started falling from the lack of energy from the attack. As she was falling, she felt someone’s arms around her, and she felt a familiar sensation from her back.

Looking up, her quivering voice was heard,

“Its-Itsuki…”

Coming to her senses, she hurriedly, corrected herself,

“Captain Itsuki.”

As they weren’t alone, officially they were still captain and vice captain. Itsuki rubbed her head and placed her on to the side. Omaeda appeared and kneeled while Itsuki left disappeared,

“Take care of her.”

Omaeda looked down and replied with determination,

“Yes!”

Looking up he only saw Soi Fon looking at him as if he were an idiot while there was nothing in front of him. Thinking that they had defeated Barragan, the three let out a sigh of relief. However, contrary to their expectations, Barragan survived the attack and arrogance clouded his mind.

“…I am God. I am immortal…”

The cube that was sealing broke apart as a dark black miasma broke the kido shield apart. As soon as he appeared it could be seen that the only harm done to him was that a portion of his skull was missing. Barragan was a rather large skeleton, it reminded Itsuki of a lich from all those other novels he had read. A crown rested on his head while he wore a large purple robe.

Laughing heartily,

“…My power is the only thing absolute in this world…”

“Absolute, huh?”

A calm voice pierced his ear or eyes or something, however skeletons hear things. Barragan jolted with the unexpected voice as a shiver ran down his spine. He hadn’t felt this existence at all as he quickly turned around, swinging his staff filled with the power to age.

Itsuki didn’t move but caught the staff with his bare hand. Barragan was at first scared, then surprised and then happy when Itsuki caught as a relieved feeling was felt.

“Hahaha, you idiot, to dare catch with your bare hands. You are just begging to die…”

Laughter erupted from Barragan but was immediately cut off. He couldn’t move his staff at all, and he slowly looked at the existence that was still sending chills down his spine. Azure blue and pink eyes looked down at him as flashes of rainbow colours could be seen phasing in and out. The strange yet deadly eyes caused him to freeze and only one thought filled his mind.

Death.