(With Harribel)
"Ulquiorra... you defected?" The female Espada gasped in surprise, seeing the most loyal of Aizen's army turn traitor. Not only was that shocking to her, she sensed that her fellow Arrancar grew immensely more powerful since she last saw them. She had no trouble believing in Toshiro's claim that Aizen was afraid. Especially when the hybrid immediately went for the man and viciously attacked him.
"That's what Ichigo does." Toshiro responded as he got beside her, ready to freeze her at a moment's notice. "He gains the respect of almost everyone that fights him because he does not quit and often prefers a fair fight. Not that there's a lot of people that can match him as he is now." 'Especially since he seems to have gained more power.' The ice dragon thought as he looked to his ally, getting attacked by many copies of Aizen. Soon the Tres Bestias and their opponents appeared by the two, looking beat up and exhausted.
"That's insane." Apacci said, barely keeping tracking of the fight.
"Should Ichigo win, we lay down our arms." Harribel ordered, content with watching how the fight to settle this war would end.
(With Starrk)
'That kid!' The primera Espada thought in shock as Ichigo attacked Aizen. 'Is he really that strong, just to be able to protect? Can he show me how to control mine?' He turned his focus to the Arrancar that came with him, Grimmjow attacking Tousen and Ulquiorra attacking Gin. 'And they've gotten stronger as well. Is it really possible?' Lilynette soon appeared at his side, sensing his internal conflict.
"I did not lie, Espada." Isshin said, gripping his sword and ready to aid his son despite the years of training leading to this one point in time. A father should be able to protect his children after all. "My son is incredibly powerful. So strong that the Captain Commander, who refused to relinquish his position to anyone weaker than him, has stated that Ichigo is his successor to the position." The pair returned their gaze to the hybrid as he and the other two captains fought with the growing number of Aizens.
"I really was unlucky to be born a Hollow. Wasn't I?"
(With Grimmjow and Ulquiorra)
"Well, looks like his majesty started without us." Grimmjow said with a savage grin, watching Ichigo charge at his previous master. "You worried?" He asked Ulquiorra, who regained his stoic expression. "Or at least a little conflicted?"
"I was conflicted when I was fighting Ichigo." The bat returned, finishing his analysis of the two combatants. "Now, I am content. I protected him when he was weak and I follow him now that he is strong." The shifting of Reiatsu drew their attention to Tousen and Gin, who were resuming their fights.
"Dibs on that blind bastard!" Grimmjow called out before dashing to the masked Tousen.
"You do that." Ulquiorra said, knowing Grimmjow couldn't hear him anymore. "I'll focus my energy elsewhere." He looked to Gin, who was holding his own against two of the more veteran captains while glancing at Aizen. 'Those three aren't really fighting.' He observed before moving to join the fray.
(Tousen Fight)
'Damn it all!' The blind Vizard thought as he parried an attack from Kensei, barely avoiding Komamura's bolas as he tried to tie up the vengeance fueled man. 'Everything is crumbling around us, but I cannot fall. Justice, CANNOT FAIL!' He took advantage of his other, more enhanced, senses to land a devastating cut on Komamura's arm, severing the tendons that let him use his bolas. He was about to block an attack from Kensei when he heard Grimmjow call out.
"Dibs on that blind bastard!" Then the Arrancar in question appeared next to him and punched his head, sending him down through a building. "That felt good." Grimmjow said, cracking his knuckles with the two Soul Reaper captains standing beside him.
"What did Ichigo do?" Kensei demanded, wanting to be sure the hybrid won the Arrancar's loyalty. The conversation prematurely died as Tousen stabbed Grimmjow through the back, kicked Komamura away, and blasted Kensei with a Cero. After coughing up blood from the attack, Grimmjow grabbed the blade and pulled it further into his body. Tousen, being pulled along, got struck with a headbutt and elbow from the Arrancar before being kicked off by Grimmjow, who's massive wound was healing.
'So glad I got that healing factor back.' He thought as he saw Tousen's mask. "Well, well, well. Looks like you wanted to play Hollow. Too bad you won't top the original." He taunted, feeling Tousen actually glare at him.
"I'm not surprised you betrayed us Grimmjow." Tousen returned, readying his Resurreccion. "You were always just a beast. No care of peace or justice."
"Nope!" Grimmjow gleefully agreed. "Didn't care then, don't give a shit now. Well, about your justice anyway. I follow my own." Tousen paused, curious about what justice a mindless beast would follow. "Isn't justice following a law and the punishment by the law as dictated by the people? I'm a Hollow! I follow the law of Hueco Mundo! The strongest commands all! And nothing Aizen did has stopped Ichigo, or his friends! I follow justice more than you ever did! You caused more bloodshed than you had ever prevented and dare to lecture me!? I'm the Arrancar of destruction!" He activated his Segunda Etapa and let loose an ear splitting roar that shattered all the buildings around him. "And now, I'm going to destroy you." He said before glowing blue with an aura taking the shape of a panther skull.
"You will suffer for that. Suzumushi Hyakushiki: Grillar Grillo." He said before exploding into darkness.
(Aizen Fight)
Ichigo slashed a point blank Getsuga Tensho to Aizen's face, blasting him quite a ways away from the hybrid, who's instincts screamed at him about coming attacks. He moved his Hollow blade in front of a slash from a copy Aizen while the other shot him away with a Raikoho. Ichigo regained his footing, just as the two fake Aizens attacked him. He was barely keeping up with either and was soon being engulfed in a Kuroshitsuji.
"Bakudo #79, Kuyo Shibari!" Kisuke called out, trapping the spell casting Aizen with multiple black holes, while Genryusai cut the fake Aizens in half before pulling Ichigo away from the spell.
"Stay vigilant Ichigo." The old dragon advised, standing back to back with his young disciple. "This is a most troubling Bankai. Or is it the most perfect of his illusion skills?" He said, as five copies of Aizen surrounded them.
"My Bankai does not allow for hypnosis." One Aizen spoke as each one began explaining. "What it does is show my reflection. Every Aizen before you is a complete copy of the original. All the same speed, strength, skill, and power. The only difference is that the real one can be damaged while striking one of my reflections just makes more of me." To demonstrate, each Aizen beheaded one another, now numbering ten. Urahara stabbed through the Aizen he had trapped in front of him, only for another to be created. "Wrong!" The pair yelled as they all convened on the three Soul Reapers. Ichigo, on the other hand, felt something in his chest pulling to one direction. Trusting his instinct, he dashed in that direction before sensing something on the building.
"Sokotsu!" Ichigo shouted, landing a devastating double punch that shattered the Kido Aizen was hiding behind and breaking a few ribs while sending him through a couple buildings. "That lucked out." He panted, barely getting his blades up quick enough to block Aizen's next attack, which destroyed dozens of buildings around him and he was barely holding him off.
"Was that your 'Hollow instinct' that revealed me?" Aizen asked, curious and furious that his plans were practically falling apart. "You shouldn't have figured out where I was."
"If I had to guess, I'd have to say it was because of my compass." Ichigo grunted out, forcing some distance between him and Aizen. Once he had that, he opened his Shihakusho to reveal his Hollow mask tattoo. "If Urahara explained how he negated Kyoka Suigetsu's power, then you know each of us have a small amount of that blade on us. I have the most, which he used to make this tattoo on my chest. Even now, I can feel the small bits of Kyoka Suigetsu reaching out to each other. Trying to restore itself. You can't hide from me, Aizen." The traitor glared at Ichigo before a dozen copies of himself appeared at his side.
"You must be foolish to think you can still kill me." Aizen said as Ichigo brought his two Zangetsu together.
"Not without my Bankai." The hybrid replied as his black energy consumed him. "Bankai!" He shouted as the fog of darkness imploded and melted away, revealing Ichigo in his Vasto Lorde Hollow form, jet black wings of Reishi on his back, and his Zangetsu as one black and white Khyber blade with a chain connected from the bottom of the hilt to just under the tip of the blade. "Tensa Zangetsu." Ichigo said, in his warped voice.
"That's your-" Aizen started, being very unimpressed with Ichigo's changes as he could no longer sense Ichigo's Reiatsu, until Ichigo dug his finger into Aizen's chest, "ban...kai?" He felt a sharp nail brushing against his heart with every beat, threatening to cut the vital muscle open.
"There's more, but all you need to know is there is no way you can defeat me now." Ichigo said, just before a blade erupted from his chest and into Aizen's heart.
(With Gin)
Gin was about to stab Ukitake when Ulquiorra came down, grabbing the silver fox by his head and throwing him down to the ground. Kyoraku intercepted Gin and called out a color before attacking, something Gin did as well. Ulquiorra's focus returned to Ukitake, who had a small coughing fit, before meeting the Arrancar's gaze.
"This is just a mock fight between you three." The bat said while Ukitake kept his surprise in check. "Gin was a traitor, just the same as Tousen. Why are you not making any real effort to kill him?"
"You are Ulquiorra, correct?" The captain asked, earning a nod from the Arrancar. "Isshin told us about you and Ichigo. As for Gin, we're waiting for the chance to strike at Aizen. Gin left a letter explaining his true intentions and during this fight, he explained how he plans to do so." He said as Ichigo and Aizen began to move. "Come on!" Ukitake ordered while shooting down to Gin and attacking, forcing him and Kyoraku to move along and keep Aizen near Kyoraku's power range. Soon, the world became suffocating as it felt like all the Reishi was gravitating to one place. The four looked to Ichigo as he now held a single blade and looked like a genuine god of death.
"Kageoni." Kyoraku said as his Shikai changed the game. Ulquiorra dashed to Gin's side and kicked him down to the ground, a brighter light appearing above them. Looking up, he saw a large ball of red light behind Ichigo and the many Aizens, casting a shadow that covered Gin. Kyoraku appeared next to Gin, sparing a quick glance to Ukitake to ensure his sickly friend was fine, and the two sank into the shadows.
"Bankai." Gin said as his blade shot out from Ichigo's chest and into Aizen, the fox soon appearing from the darkness Aizen's shadow made on the hybrid. "Kamishini no Yari." Before either Ichigo or Aizen could react, Gin grabbed Aizen by the throat to finish his one shot at killing the man he swore vengeance against. "Korose, Kamishini no Yari." And Aizen's body began to disintegrate from the spot Gin impaled him on.
(With the Gotei)
"Huh, that was anticlimactic." Kenpachi said as the rest of the Gotei assembled to watch the final battle.
"Not too surprising." Shinji said, seeing Gin emerge fully from the darkness. "Gin was always a terrifying bastard. Didn't think his grudge was stronger than mine."
"Hopefully we can all breath a sigh of relief and prepare for the Quincy war." Soi-Fon said, believing... hoping that the whole Hogyoku mess can finally be put to rest.
"Do you really think it's over?" Urahara asked as a very familiar light came from Aizen's chest.
"No. This final battle is just beginning." Yamamoto announced as everyone braced themselves.
(Ichigo vs Aizen)
"Well there goes that plan." Ichigo voiced Gin's thoughts as Aizen was healed in front of their eyes, now encased in a white chrysalis form. Ichigo quickly grabbed Gin and threw him out of the way of Aizen's descending blade, catching the spirit steel in his hand. "My turn. Getsuga Tenshou." He said as he slashed Aizen across his chest and sent him flying with a concentrated blast of Reishi, sending Aizen far beyond the boundaries of civilization. He took a single flash step, passing by all of Aizen's clones, and reappeared in front of the man. Aizen rose to his feet, his white shell falling apart with his Reiatsu growing every second.
"You're too late Kurosaki!" He shouted, coughing up black blood as his face was freed. "I absorbed the Hogyoku into my being before this battle. It will not allow me to die by your hands!" He stood tall, now in a pure white robe made from his former shell with pitch black eyes and long flowing hair.
"Then I'll have to keep killing you until it gives up." Ichigo growled, swinging his blade as dozens of Aizen clones appeared and attacked. Ichigo blocked the onslaught, but the rain of strikes eventually cracked and shattered Zangetsu.
"A single blade as a bankai, and so easily broken too." Aizen mocked as he raised his hand, pointing at Ichigo. "In what reality did you think you'd win? Seeping crest of turbidity. Arrogant vessel of lunacy! Boil forth and deny! Grow numb and flicker!" He chanted with his many copies as black enveloped the hybrid. The spell was interrupted when the shards of Ichigo's blades speared through Aizen.
"Mayonaka no Ha." Ichigo said, flaring his black wings as his feathers and the blade shards gathered around him, spinning as each one formed into a perfect copy of Ichigo's blade. "Hollow, Quincy, Soul Reaper. Years of training under the best and brightest of the Quincy and Shinigami. In what reality did you think I'd fail?" He threw his had out as dozens of the blades went to each one of Aizen's clones while the rest circled behind him like a serrated halo. He grabbed one of his blades and dashed at Aizen, who raised his blade to block. The second the blades collided, they sent out a thunderous clang as Aizen struggled against the hybrid.
'Is he really this strong!?' He thought in shock as another Ichigo appeared at his side, the one in front of him fading. 'Gemelos Sonido!' He blocked as another appeared behind him, leaving a deep laceration in Aizen's back that soon healed, but he could not keep up as Ichigo continued to attack in different places nearly instantly. It suddenly stopped and Aizen took the only opportunity he had to catch his breath. When he looked up again, he saw Ichigo with two Zangetsu in the rough form of a bow and an arrow notched in the chain.
"Heiliger Pfeil Null." He said as he shot the black arrow through Aizen chest, destroying his torso. Ichigo watched impassively as Aizen regenerated and transformed into a... butterfly thing. "Still not done yet? For someone that wanted to take the throne of the Soul King, you're coming up pathetically short." He taunted as Aizen began to laugh.
"This is almost perfect." He said before laughing again. "Truly! This is amazing! The artificial transcendence brought forth by the Hogyoku versus someone who was born of all the great powers to transcend them all! I truly wonder which will succeed." He pointed his blade at Ichigo while his dozens of clones willingly cut and slash themselves, creating more until they numbered in the hundreds. Now surrounding the hybrid, all of them held out their hands and charged a dark purple Cero in each of their hundreds of hands. "DIE!" All the Aizens cried out as Ichigo circled his hands around himself.
"Sklaverei." He whispered as the concentrated energy blasts broke apart as they got closer to him and restored his black wings. Before Aizen could react, Ichigo disappeared and each one of his copies were caught in a Horin Kido spell that soon bound all of them together in a single spot. Ichigo reappeared beneath that grouping, with his hand raised up and hundreds of Zangetsu blades circling him. As the blades spun over his hand, Aizen could see blood getting onto each blade. "Gran Rey Getsuga Jujisho." The hybrid said as each blade cut past each other and shot the piercing blast through him and his personal army, disintegrating the whole lot. Ichigo let his arm drop as he waited, somehow knowing that the Hogyoku would restore Aizen. The man spent too long attempting to achieve this. Or was it that Ichigo himself wasn't satisfied? Soon the sky was obscured with what seemed to be an endless horde of Aizen, having once again mutated to a black skull figure with eyes on his wings with skulls on the tips and three holes in his chest.
"You can keep killing me, I'll keep coming back!" Aizen taunted as each got ready to attack. "Stronger than before! I will win eventually Ichigo!" The hybrid threw out his arm as a chain of one of his blades attached to his shoulder and wrapped around his arm, turning into a thin blade of pure black Reishi.
"Mugetsu." He said with a simple swing, once again wiping out Aizen and his millions of clones, in an all consuming blackness. The blade reappeared in Ichigo's hand and blew away into dust, a small empty feeling in Ichigo's soul remaining. 'There goes one of the Asuachi Zangetsu absorbed. But that was ridiculous.' He thought, reflecting on the power of the attack, as once more, Aizen came back yet again. He seemed to regress into a more human appearance, without his clones coming back.
"Looks like that attack took something from you." Aizen gasped as he struggled to stand, feeling the strain of dying multiple times. "No more special tricks Ichigo." He leveled his Kyoka Suigetsu to his opponent. "Let's just fight. See which is truly the greater one." A Zangetsu flew to Ichigo's hand and soon compressed itself to a regular katana form.
"I think I understand you Aizen." He said as the two settled into a dueling stance. "All this power, this strength, why should people like us bow to others when we are so much stronger?" The two rushed at each other and shot into the sky before their blades clashed and cleared the sky of clouds. "All this power and yet we're expected to bow to this Soul King?!" They pushed one another back and continued the assault. Aizen went for a stab through Ichigo's chest, who swerved around it with a slash counterattack that Aizen deflected with a quick twist of his blade.
"Truly absurd!" Aizen yelled in agreement as the separated and swung again, dancing the deadly dance of the sword. "An abomination that sits on a meaningless throne!" Ichigo blocked an overhead attack, where he slid his own blade down Aizen's and cut into the man's chest. Something Aizen returned with a quick cut to Ichigo's armpit, cutting through nerves and the brachial artery and killing the arm. They regenerated almost instantly and collided again.
"And yet, that's the way things are." Ichigo growled as he pushed the two of them apart. "The Soul King exists to keep the different worlds separated. He dies, the world crumbles."
"We can change that!" Aizen returned, thinking to extend an olive branch to someone that understood their place with great power. Someone he was able to relate to. An equal. "We can make the world as it should be!"
"No, we can't." Ichigo said, freezing Aizen in shock and disappointment. "In the end, there are things that are not meant to be changed. We are not gods Aizen. We're just really powerful."
"And here I thought I finally found a kindred spirit. You disappoint me yet again Ichigo." Aizen lamented as he raised his blade. "It's time to end this."
"This fight was over the second I touched your heart." Ichigo returned as he held out his empty hand to Aizen. "The strongest aspect of my bankai is not that vast increase of power or the manipulation of Reishi. It's the worst parts of my bloodline, infection and absorption." Ichigo returned as Aizen felt like his soul was being pulled from his being. "Auswahlen!" The hybrid roared as Aizen was enveloped in blackness, all of his power being drained, and going to Ichigo until he closed his hand and Aizen was powerless. The Hogyoku was now in Ichigo's hand.
"What... what happened!?" He wheezed, trying to comprehend the utter loss of his power. Ichigo looked at the man, almost pitying him with a measure of self loathing.
"I took back my power. All throughout our fight, you've taken more and more of my Reishi into your own being. If I had to guess, it converted your Hogyoku to my will as I wanted you as strong as possible when I drained you of your power." Aizen, with great effort, forced himself to his feet while still glaring at Ichigo. "I sympathize with your plight. You never had anyone on your level, in some way you wanted to fix what is honestly a broken system, and you wanted to undo some great mistakes Soul Society made. But if half the stories I've heard about Yhwach are true, I need all the power I can get." Ichigo turned away, fully confident that Aizen was no longer a threat and, if Ryuken told him the truth, was going to die soon anyway. He dispelled his Bankai before doubling over as the influx of power took its toll on him.
'Ichigo!' Aizen thought in anger, shambling towards the vulnerable hybrid. Fully aware that he'd likely be destroyed just from the presence of Ichigo's power, but no longer caring about his safety. As he neared the hybrid, he saw a brief flash of light from the sky and what seemed like a burning sword flying to his enemy. Unconsciously, he found enough energy to push Ichigo out of the way of the attack and was impaled by the Reishi blade. Ichigo came to reality soon afterward and saw Aizen with the fading blade buried in his chest.
"Aizen!" Ichigo cried out, subconsciously suppressing his power for the time being, and cradling the man. "What happened!? Why did you do that!?" He demanded, feeling Aizen dying in his arms.
"Not... too... sure. Kind of... regret it now." He coughed out, blood pouring from his wound. "I suppose... I couldn't allow... my greatest achievement... to just die like that." The light faded from Aizen's eyes as he grew weaker. "At least... I finally found... an equal..." He said his last as his body grew limp. Ichigo gently laid his body down and let his aura disintegrate Aizen's body, leaving behind Kyoka Suigetsu and some silver dust. Both of which he quickly collected.
"Goodbye, Aizen." He said as he left the battlefield.