Karakura

Cometh The Hour

Chapter 6

Cometh The Hour

Ichigo opened his eyes and was greeted with a clouding sky. Feeling unrestrained, he surveyed his surroundings. Yet, he did not need to survey it, for he instantly recognized it.

His inner world.

"It has been a long time, Ichigo," the voice, the one he had long trusted yet now doubted, greeted him.

There, with his long black coat that billowed in the wind, was Juha. The man who represents his Quincy side and who had long deceived him.

"Juha..." It was more of a mutter than a greeting but that was all he could muster.

After all, it was his first time seeing a familiar face from his world in weeks.

"Miss me as well, kingy?"

And there was the voice he dreaded to hear. Once he craned his neck to his left, his eye twitched a bit. "Y-Yo..."

There, for all his bastardized stolen glory, was the real Zangetsu that also represented his hollow side. "What the fuck is with that fucking weak greeting? Eh, king?"

"Oi! You shut up you white bastard!"

"You are a fucking racist now?! What the fuck did I miss?!"

As he bickered with Zangetsu, Ichigo felt... Fulfilled. As if he was made whole again.

In a way, it brought him closer to Zangetsu. And he was sure his zanpaktou felt the same based on that shit-eating grin on his face.

Yet, now that he was more familiar with his setting, he noticed the rain. He really hadn't felt anything so he didn't notice immediately, but after bickering with Zangetsu, he noticed it.

It was a thunderstorm.

Juha took notice of his revelation and decided to enlighten him. "It is as if we were on a ship, in the middle of the ocean, sailing," he started, his eyes looking up, "then this thunderstorm arrived and we had worked to keep this ship afloat lest we are consumed by sharks."

Zangetsu remained silent, his rude remarks and arguments no more as he too looked up. "It began when you came to this world."

"When you became mournful, it was only slightly cloudy. Then, it became thunder quickly after you had that dream. From there, it escalated." He brought his eyes to Ichigo. "Now with us slowly drowning, the shark is coming. Not even our swords could drive away the infinite."

"Infinite?"

"The Ouroboros, the Dragon of Infinity, whatever this world calls it. It wants you and is coming," Zangetsu gave a short sigh as he brought his eyes back to the storm. "We had tried to keep you out of the supernatural as much as possible so we suppressed your powers. After all, you wanted a normal life, did you not?"

Ichigo remained silent, his eyes now glued to the sky.

"So... You guys were the reason... The reason why I lost?" he murmured.