BLEACH: The Dusk In Red

Kai woke up in a familiar place. It was his inner world, yet it was somehow much different than before.

The land was still dryer than the back of your throat, but this time there were rivers of lava bursting from them, with it's ash dying the sky black. The purple gate still hung in the sky, and the sun had become an eclipse.

It was a place that could only be described as hell.

His head began to hurt as he struggled to remember what happened earlier.

"Ow!? What's going? What was I doing? Why can't I remember?"

He looked around for bit before noticing his Zanpakutō, Mitsuna Hoshi watching him from a distance. He smiled as he waved to her, but she just looked at him expressionlessly.

"What's wrong? Do you know what's going on?"

She just raised an arm to point at him, and that was when he finally realized it. His face felt wet and exhausted, and when he looked at his hand, tears fell onto them.

"I'm...? Crying? But why?"

-Seireitei

The Hollow quickly jumped back while also tossing his sister aside. He was surprised by his own actions, but the instincts he felt were something he was aware of, but surprised he was even capable of feeling these things.

Without her even noticing, Kai flash stepped towards Shinten's body faster than Yukiko could perceive. He had left his Zanpakutō behind.

He pushed Shinten's body onto his back, before putting two of his fingers on his neck to for a pulse. Even just the smallest possibility that he could be saved would be enough for him, yet there was none.

He helped Shinten close his eyes before finally laying him to rest.

The jungle, laws of nature, survival of the fittest. These all screamed an absolute law into the world. Only the strongest could survive. Even humans too, despite being largely ignorant as they were, are still being enforced by those rules.

Cats eat mice, Wolves eat pigs, and Hollows eat humans.

The hollow, Kenshi who was undoubtedly the strongest hollow of today, stood at the top of the food chain. As a result, even when confronted by the likes of Kenpachi, Kurosaki and even the captains of Soul Society, he felt frustration rather than fear. But for the first time since his birth, the emotion, the instinct to run away had finally been introduced to him.

"What the hell are you?", he asked Kai, but he wasn't even listening to him. He was too busy mourning, but even then he could feel the on coming storm. He tried to attack, but if he did, he felt as if he would die sooner. If he tried to run away, then he would die even more painfully. There was nothing he could do, except wait for that man to come.

"I SAID WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!"

Kai suddenly started to release an unimaginable amount of Spiritual Pressure, the likes of which the Hollow hadn't experienced before. He took hold of the Wakizashi Zanpakutō which he had sheathed earlier, and once again his white Shihakushō began to turn red. The more it changed, the greater the power he released, and he even developed a purple Haori too. Yukiko could only watch from behind, scared of even him as well.

Just his mere words were enough strike fear into all that heard it.

"Why does your kind exist to do nothing but cause and spread misery? Is the purpose of your existence really just to be a blight on everything that you touch? If that's the case, I'll wipe you all out."

He flash stepped in front of Kenshi before grabbing by the neck with his free hand. He then slammed him into the ground before dragging through the dirt, and all the way across Seireitei.

The still fighting soul reapers all flinched as they felt this spiritual pressure. It was unnatural, more like a calamity, but they all had already experienced this four months ago now. And the captains already knew who it belonged too.

Mayuri and several others tried to chase after the two, but they were moving around far too quickly.

Kai threw Kenshi into the air, to which it used the momentum to gain distance away from him. It fired a powerful cero at him but the attack was split in half by Kai's sword. Seeing this, the hollow activated the ability of the Soul King part he absorbed. Time appeared to stop for him, but for everyone else it continued as normal.

He quickly flew in front of him, and desperately tried to kick him, yet his leg never made contact with his body. Instead it had been severed, and the body part flew away.

It screamed as it quickly shifted back while shouting,

"WHY CAN YOU MOVE IN MY TIME? THE ONLY ONE WHO SHOULD DO THAT IS ME! WHAT ARE YOU!?"

Kenshi quickly grew back his leg and tried to escape from Kai once more, but he simply flash stepped in front of him once again, but this time he cut of his left arm as the hollow fired a point blank cero.

They could only watch in both fear and awe of what was happening before them. Mayuri then asked,

"Kurosaki, tell me what you can see."

"That kid, he's somehow keeping up with him, and his Spiritual Pressure is almost as big as mine too. Even when the hollow does that weird thing with it's legs, he's still catching up to him."

Mayuri had solved the mystery of the hollow, but when it cam to Kai, he couldn't think of anything.

"Our legs help us move through physical space, but the soul kings are different. They possess the ability not to just move through space, but through time as well. He is a balancer of the three worlds, and as a balancer he does not pick sides. His left hand and heart belonged to the Quincy's and his right took the side of Soul Reapers. But the hollows who were an enemy of both, were allowed his legs. This hollow appears to possess both of those legs, and they've granted it the ability to move in a different level of time compared to us. But of course, special beings like you Kurosaki, were able to observe that time, weren't you?"

Ichigo thought something was off. For some reason he could see the movements of the hollow at certain times when the others couldn't. Was it because he was a Soul King candidate? But if that was true...

"If that's true, then how come that boy is interacting with it? I was only able to slightly see where that hollow was moving, but that boy can not just observe, but attack it directly? I don't even sense any other Spiritual Pressures coming from him?"

Mayuri went silent, not even he could explain way. Perhaps Kisuke already knew but thinking about it annoyed him. This was something he had never seen before.

The hollow was about to regenerate its lost arm, but then a black light flickered as it was suddenly set on fire. It quickly cut off the part, but then it realized that it could no longer regenerate.

"That sword! It's burning away my Reishi! A sword like that shouldn't exist!"

Kenshi activated the power of the Soul King, and began to attack Kai while existing in another state of time. He tried to leg sweep him but Kai jumped and avoided the attack, to which he fired another Cero which managed to hit him this time. The attack flung Kai away a decent distance, but then he responded with an attack of his own.

A giant slash of black flame tore through the land, making its way towards the hollow, desperately trying to scamper away from it. It managed to dodge, but not without significant damage.

He tried to stand back up, but his legs were missing. It couldn't regenerate them either. All it could do was pathetically crawl like the slug it was.

"Why!? WHY!? I'M MEANT TO BE THE KI-"

An un-earthly spiritual pressure engulfed him, instantly making him freeze. If he could, he'd probably piss himself. He tried to look back but his own body refused to listen to him, or rather it couldn't. This wasn't a matter of Predator hunting prey anymore, but god punishing an unfaithful atheist. 

"Are you feeling fear? Shinten felt that just before you killed him, but he fought to protect me anyway. This distance in strength between the two of you was insane, but he didn't care. Your Sakugo's brother right? Then as her brother, you should protect her. Turn around and fight me, or I'll kill her after I'm done with you."

He was given the chance to fight once again. But in the face of despair, he was no more than a beast. He pointlessly tried to crawl away while whimpering like a coward.

With a simple slash, Kenshi was split in two. He tried to pull himself together, but the two halves were simultaneously set on fire. Dying, burning into ash, until there was nothing left.

Kai sighed as he watched him burn away, before shifting his attention towards Sakugo. He had fought the hollow a great distance away from where the colosseum had landed, so travelling back would be a pain. But then he was surprised to sense a Soul Reapers spiritual pressure appear out of seemingly no where. In fact there were 2 of them.

Tachibana and Alpha, as well as two other hooded figures who were carrying Sakugo and Senjuro respectively. Both watched as the last of Kenshi's ashes ceased to exist. Tachibana simply sighed with a sense of disappointment, although he wasn't surprised at the outcome.

"Who are you? And what are you doing with Senjuro?", Kai asked.

"I have no interest in speaking to the spirit of Sheyid. Bring out the current vessels owner."

The person in control of Kai's body was not in fact Kai, but someone very close to him. The name Sheyid was a name he himself did not remember until it had been said, but the fact that someone else did know that name, was a reason enough for them to listen. 

Kai dropped his Zanpakutō, and once he did the red Shihakushō he wore, began to turn white once more. It took a minute for him to come back to his senses, but the second he saw Sakugo he asked,

"Who..? What? Why is that girl with you?"

"Isn't it obvious? I thought you'd recognise me right away, but maybe I was mistaken. I'm Tachibana, Sakugo's father."

Kai wanted to get angry. The cause for all this death and destruction was standing in front of him, but he couldn't muster anymore strength. He was tired, but then Tachibana said...

"Hmm... Why do you think Sakugo poisoned you that day? She told you that I asked her to do it, right? But she doesn't know that the one who killed you, was me."

Kai tried to run up to him, but he tripped half way through. Even if he had enough to strength to get to him, he didn't either of his Zanpakutō's to fight with. He began to grow even more tired, until he passed out for good.

"What a shame. I was hoping I could talk to him a little longer too. I suppose there is always next time."

The spiritual pressure's of several captain class Shinigami and above began to approach them, but one in particular was making its way faster then all the others.

"YOUR THE ONE WHOSE BEHIND THIS!"

Ichigo with his Zangetsu in hand, was but moments away from attacking Tachibana. But from the ship above a yellow light suddenly collapsed on the group. When Ichigo tried to attack, even his Zanpakutō had bounced right off it.

"This is? Negación! How is it using Negación!??"

"Ichigo Kurosaki, I gave Grandmaster Yamada Fujinishin, three questions about anything before I killed her. She only ended up using two of them, but since your special, I'll give you her last one."

He was alarmed to find out he killed the grandmaster, but he was sure to not let this go to waste.

"WHY!? WHAT WAS WORTH SO MUCH THAT YOU HAD TO DO ALL OF THIS!?"

The four of them began to ascend into the light and started to approach the ship, and as they did, several other captains and lieutenants also reached it, allowing them all to hear what Tachibana had to say. Rukia even got to finally met back up with Renji, who had successfully defended Ichika along with Ikkaku who he happened to meet up with.

"I'm sure your all familiar with the primordial world. A world of chaos until Adnyeus brought order to it. But you people turned him into the Soul King to give rise to the current three worlds. The erosion of the soul and transformation into a hollow is the reason why he had to die, but I am someone who will overcome that weakness. I will recreate this world into something new, a world not like the one Yhwach tried to return us back to, but one where the fear of Hollows will cease to exist, a world where Soul Reapers won't be needed, a world of peace. I don't care if I will need to slay a god, or even take the hand of the devil, as long as I can make that wish come true, then I will happily lay down my life."

He wasn't the only one who believed he could change the world. Azashiro Kenpachi had the very same thoughts as he, but the difference between the two of them was that Tachibana didn't care about the lives lost. He could only see where the end of the path was, but not the journey it would take to get there. A man trapped in a delusion, that was the kind of person he was.

"WAIT A SECOND!"

He hit the Negación, this time with a Getsuga Tenshō, but the attack couldn't even faze the pillar of light. Eventually the group got sucked back into the ship which possessed a size equal to the Seireitei, and then a Garganta equal in size opened up above even that, casting a large shadow as it blocked out the sun.

The ship slowly rose, getting sucked into that darkness before disappearing. Before it did however, two people began to finish their conversation.

"It seems like it's my que to leave. I don't know when I'll see you again, but make sure you grow up to be strong. The future of this world will hinge on you one day."

Jin took off into the sky, following the ship into the Garganta while Yuki could only watch him leave. She fell to her knee's as the only family she knew of vanished just like that. She wasn't sad nor happy, just confused.

And just like that, the conflict had ended.