Two Weeks Later

"In total we've identified twenty-five low-level soul reapers among those in the camps. Here is the list of names."

Ichigo took the list Kitanu offered him. He scanned quickly through the names, already guessing he wouldn't recognize any of them.

"The men in the last raid—the last ones to come through—they said they overheard guards talking about another camp where most of the higher ranking soul reapers were taken."

Ichigo nodded, having finished the list without seeing a single name he knew. "I'd guessed as much," he said to his old ally. "But having this many soul reapers here will help. Trust them, Kitanu. Once I'm gone, they'll be your best source of information on the spiritual world."

"But won't you want them to go with you?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Our best chance is to slip over undetected, and figure things out from there. Just knowing this place has been fully liberated will be enough. Then, if we find others we need to keep safe, we can send them here. If the Vandenreich ever came to check up on you, then the soul reapers would be here to protect you."

"I guess," the dojo master conceded half-heartedly. They both knew that no matter what their plan of action, their chances of success were slim. "Well the portal will be ready in less than an hour. Prepare yourself."

"I will. Thank you."

"Just one more thing."

"What?"

"Are you sure Jaggerjaques can handle this with one arm?"

"Once we're on the other side, our spiritual pressure will return. His wounds will heal shortly after that."

"If you say so."

They parted ways. Ichigo left the open yard full of recently freed soul reapers and humans from the other camps. The only person Ichigo wished he could see before leaving was Sato, the school teacher, but he remained the main communicator between Head Quarters and their camp.

He left the open yard for Command and the still putrid scented meal hall. He spotted the blue head of hair at once and headed for the far corner where two beds were closely pushed together.

"Grimmjow," Ichigo started as he neared and saw he was playing cards with a heavily bandaged Ihara.

"Shut up," Grimmjow barked, nose to his cards. He'd only learned the game a few days ago but it appeared he was already a match for Ihara who also played using only one hand to hold cards and exchanged them. "I've almost got him."

"Grimmjow, it's time to go."

At this, the espada glanced back at him. He saw he was serious and relented, dropping his cards on the small table next to Ihara's bed. "We'll finish this when I get back."

"You may never come back," Irahara said, looking up from his bed. He still hadn't walked on his own since waking a few days ago and much of his body remained bandaged.

"Fuck that," Grimmjow threw him the finger. "I ain't dying after all that shit."

Ihara offered them a smile, but his eyes drifted to Donovan in the bed next to him and Ichigo stepped that way, placing himself in Donovan's direct line of sight. He did this daily, but it never succeeded in eliciting a response. Beneath those bandages, Donovan's expression always remained blank, and he seemed never to hear what Ichigo said. Ichigo's eyes wandered to Donovan's empty sleeve for a moment, then back to his bandaged face. He dropped his eyes and sat on the edge of the bed, gripping Donovan's remaining hand.

"I'm going to keep my promise, Donovan. I'm going to face him again, and this time, I swear to you I'll win."

Blank eyes gave him no response, but just before he rose, he could have sworn he felt the slightest of squeezes in that hand.

He and Grimmjow left the dining hall, and everyone else behind. They collected their packs that had been ready for days in anticipation of this moment. Then they went to the open place just outside of Command, where they'd first come through months ago.

"Take this," Kitanu pressed a radio into Ichigo's hands. "We're not sure, but we think it's designed to pass a signal back through to this world. If it works, we expect you to keep us updated."

"I will," Ichigo promised. "If we find people who need to be kept safe, we'll send them to you. Make sure to follow all the radio codes. Hopefully the Vandenreich will never catch on to what's happened here."

"Hopefully," Kitanu agreed and clasped his hand. They shook and separated. Grimmjow and Ichigo stood alone in the yard, facing the place where the gateway would form.

"I can't fucking wait to have my powers back," Grimmjow said, rocking on his heels with anticipation.

"It may take some time," Ichigo warned.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. We keep our heads down until we're back up to par, then we destroy that son of a bitch."

Ichigo nodded. "Agreed. But don't forget what we discussed: this is it, the last shot. We can't waste it. We're gonna need back-up and that means finding and freeing our allies, building a resistance, making a plan that cannot fail. "

Grimmjow sighed, "I know all that shit, but I'm trying to get psyched up here."

Ichigo half smiled. "Sorry. But like you said, Grimmjow, winning this place was just the first step to winning the war, and look how long that took. This isn't going to be easy."

"You really think I don't know that. Just shut up will ya and let's get this show on the road."

He gave a wave of his hand back to HQ. The signal was understood and in seconds a black, swirling portal opened up before them.

"Just make sure you're ready," Grimmjow warned, looking back at the teen.

"For what?"

"To see you home world in ruins. Whatever the situation, you gotta keep your head."

Ichigo stared at him. His words weren't intended for their cruelty, just their practicality. He nodded.

"Good, then let's go."

"Yeah." He came in line with Grimmjow. They stood shoulder to shoulder, in face of the whirling vortex, until Ichigo gave the final nod and they stepped forward as one, into the waiting darkness of a world under Vandenreich rule.

11 months later—Post-Vandenreich War.

The black portal shut, and the last captive soul stepped out of the Vandenreich prison world. Those who'd come through were now gathered in the sands of Heuco Mundo, sheltering together against the harsh desert winds.

"Come on, move your asses."

"Grimmjow! These people have been prisoners for months!"

"An' I gotta hold the fuckin' Garganta open. Besides, these ones weren't prisoners, they're from our camp, right?"

Ichigo looked away from the espada back to the mob of people. Too many had already gone through the Garganta, assisted by soul reapers, and he didn't recognize any faces.

"So are these the last ones?" Grimmjow said tiredly, not very interested in the whole process of righting the worlds now that the fighting was done.

"Yeah, but there's still a lot to be done."

"Is there?" Grimmjow cast his eyes around the empty desert around him. "Looks like everything's back to normal to me."

"Don't be an asshole."

"I'm always an asshole."

"I noticed. Come on."

The humans had all gone through, and now so had the soul reapers. They were the only two left in the desert world. Grimmjow looked like he had half a mind to argue, but after another moment he gave a nod that told Ichigo to go through and he felt him follow at his back.

On the other side, they followed the trail of human survivors being ushered from the streets into one of the many facilities established to treat the wounded, house the homeless, and try to reunite refugees with families and homelands.

"Ichigo." He turned at the familiar voice. Rukia smiled up at him, but her face turned serious within seconds and her eyes returned to the clip board in her hands. "We have more mouths than we can feed and half of these refugees aren't even from this part of Japan, or even Japanese at all. It's going to be a nightmare trying to situate them all."

"Relax Rukia. Soon this won't be your problem."

Her eyebrow raised. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean the war's over, I killed Ywach, and now it's the rest of humanity's turn to step up and take care of themselves. The rest of the world suffered much less than Japan. Other countries are already organizing aid campaigns."

"I see," she lowered her clipboard. "Then what would you like us to do?"

"Just keep looking out for those who needs it, okay?" He clapped her on the shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze, "Everything will sort itself out soon."

"If you say so." She started away but turned back. "Oh, I got what you were looking for." She pulled a note from out of her robes. "It's not far from here. She said she'll meet you there."

"Thanks, Rukia."

She left them. Grimmjow leaned over Ichigo's shoulder to read the note. "Where's that?"

"Just over the river, come on."

They walked the broken streets of Karakura. Tokyo center was even worse, but since Karakura had always been so closely linked with the other worlds, it had been the entry point for most spiritual beings, and thus the setting of many of the initial battles. As the rebellion grew and the war spread, the most populated parts of Japan became the greatest targets, and then, following the Vandenreich's success, many of the world's greatest cities had seen catastrophes enough to subdue any remaining resistors.

Now, he and Grimmjow walked streets they'd skirted in the dark of night, or crawled under, through sewers. They passed buildings in which they'd spent cold, hungry nights, hiding their spiritual pressure from their hunters. They walked along the banks of a river, where both of them had nearly died in their early days after their escape when they'd been caught by some human Vandenreich supporters.

But it was all behind them now. Even though blood and bullet holes still specked the bridge they crossed, there was nothing more to fear. After months of stealthily recruiting resistors—humans and soul reapers alike—their victory had been complete. There was no chance of Ywach returning after Ichigo defeated him, and very little chance the humans and soul reapers hadn't routed out any remaining Vandenreich and supporters.

"Here it is." Ichigo nodded up to what was once an elementary school.

"Didn't we camp out here that time you busted your ankle?"

Ichigo read the characters above and nodded slowly. "Oh yeah, I think it is. We ate those cans of cafeteria pudding for days."

"Ugh…" Grimmjow shivered, "I'd forgotten that part."

They entered through the windowless front door, into a lobby transformed into a triage center. Twenty or so people were on the floor, sitting or lying, bandages and braces around wounds. But none of them were life threatening. This was a treatment center for freed prisoners, who probably all suffered one ailment or another after what they'd been through.

Ichigo looked to his note from Rukia and saw the room number. He hoped the information was good and they wouldn't have to sift through this entire building to find what they were looking for.

"Geeze it stinks," Grimmjow grumbled at Ichigo's back.

"It reminds me of back then…at the camp, right before we left."

"Mmm," Grimmjow grunted. They walked up three flights of stairs, to rows of brightly coloured classrooms. Ichigo definitely remembered camping out here now, going to sleep one night laughing to himself at the image of Grimmjow sleeping on colourful mats and using a children's plush toy as a pillow.

"This it is," he said when he saw the number. The door was shut. He glanced through the glass to see several patients on mattresses on the floor. He took a breath and hesitated before taking the handle.

"Geeze, after everything we've done you're nervous now?" Grimmjow grabbed the door handle and shoved it open. He'd brushed past Ichigo but paused a moment when the scent of the room hit him. He'd complained about the lobby but in here, it was clear certain patients were incontinent or unable to take care of such things themselves and there were not enough helping hands to keep things clean.

"Fuck," Grimmjow didn't hide his disgust, putting a hand up to his face. Ichigo entered behind him, and surveyed those on the ground. He saw at the very back of the room, the African American on the floor, and the heavily scarred man sitting cross-legged next to him.

His eyes didn't lift until they were standing above him. Even then, it seemed to take the old soldier a long time to register who was before him.

"Well fuck," Ihara said, smiling up at them. He gripped the wall behind him and stood stiffly, moving as if he'd aged twenty years since they'd last met. His hands shook from nerve damage, as he stretched out to take each of theirs in turn. His grip weak but his eyes firm.

"Well boys, I gotta say I thought you were dead men that day you left."

"I told you I wouldn't fuckin' die," Grimmjow spat back.

"Yes, as I recall we had a hand of cards to finish, hollow. Thing is, though, I don't have a pack on me."

"I ain't playing cards in this shit-hole anyway."

"Grimmjow!" Ichigo whacked his arm.

"What? It fuckin' stinks in here."

"Just shut up." Ichigo ignored the scowl he got and looked to the man on the floor. "So he…never improved?"

"He hears me sometimes, I can tell. But he can't speak, and I've never really been sure if he doesn't understand the Japanese, or if he just doesn't understand because…well, you know."

Ichigo looked down at Donovan's face. The last time he'd seen him most had been hidden under bandages but now his torn-up features were open for all to see. Half his face was sunken, probably mostly from the missing teeth, but that skin was also pockmarked with scars and it made his whole face seem misshapen.

"He doesn't walk?"

Ihara shook his head. "He doesn't really do much of anything. I expected him to slip away on us for weeks, but he never did. It was as if was waiting for something. Maybe that promise you made him."

"Well, it came true now. Have you told him?"

Ihara nodded but he stepped away from Donovan's side. "But maybe you should tell him yourself."

"I will. Hey Grimmjow…could you—"

"Yeah, I felt her spiritual pressure. I'll be back."

He stepped past bodies and left the crowded room. Ihara stepped away to get some water. Ichigo knelt down and picked up Donovan's limp hand. He looked down the sheets. He could see enough of the American to see how much his body had wasted in this year. He could feel the slackness of his muscles, and knew they hadn't been used much or at all.

Being trapped like this, in a broken body, it was the ultimate suffering in Ichigo's eyes. He'd been through what most would consider Hell, but it was nothing, compared to this.

"Hey Donovan," he said, leaning lower. "It's me, Ichigo. I'm back now, because I kept my promise. I did what I said and I took him down. The world's free now. We're all free. We won."

He kept that hand held tight, but he got no reaction. Ihara limped back his way and used Ichigo's shoulder to help him lower himself back to Donovan's side.

"Sorry, kid, but he just not with it."

"You've been with him this entire time, haven't you, Ihara?"

"He's one of my men—the last of my men, other than that coward Raito. I had to stay with him."

"Thank you. And I'm sorry. I never told you how sorry I was, about Ogawa and Shen."

"We all knew the risks that day. The thing is, we all went in not knowing if our sacrifices would be worth it. But it was—all of it—everything we did was worth it because you did what you said you would. You freed the entire world, kid. You're a hero."

"No more than the rest of you." Ichigo lowered Donovan's hand. "And you both deserve better than this."

"Unfortunately this is the cost of war. This is just the way things are."

Ichigo smiled sadly at him but while Ihara looked at him his expression slowly changed. "I thought you had a scar there," he pointed to his forehead and then cocked his head, "and didn't you lose that ear?"

The classroom door opened, Grimmjow returned with someone else in tow.

"You're right, Ihara, war has a terrible cost, but this time, things don't have to be this way."

"What are you talking about?"

Ichigo stood. Ihara looked up at him and watched him interlock fingers with the newcomer, still bewildered by Ichigo's flawless features.

"I want you to meet someone, Ihara." Ichigo drew the girl next to him closer. "Her name is Orihime."

"Orihime," Irhara repeated, "we'll I'm glad you found such a pretty young girl, kid, you deserve to be happy."

"Thank you, but Orihime isn't just my girlfriend, she was one of the most essential soldiers in this war."

Ihara's eyebrows raised, surveying the softly-smiling, slender young woman who looked far from a hardened warrior. "Really?"

"Oh get on with it, will you?" Grimmjow barked behind them. "Do your thing, woman."

Ihara's eyes creased with confusion. He looked to Grimmjow now, and the espada's scowl turned into a slow smile. He stretched out his hand, and flexed his fingers. "Did I ever tell you, old man, how I once lost my arm?"

"What? You're making no sense."

"Orihime," Ichigo let go of her hand. "Please."

"Of course," she said sweetly and looked down on Ihara and Donovan. "It's nice to meet you both, I've heard so much about you," she raised her hands, "now please, don't move."

"Um…what—"

"I reject!"

The communal bathroom with its low sinks and urinals meant for children below age ten was hardly private, but at the moment, only two people occupied it. Ichigo stood behind a man who was staring at himself in the mirror, touching along his rigid jawline in disbelief.

"It's like a dream," he said for the second or third time, backing away from the mirror and inspecting the rest of his body which had been wasted and immobile an hour ago. "A nightmare really…I wasn't…it was like I was there but not. You say it was less than a year, but it felt like ten."

The tall, young American turned away from his reflection and back to Ichigo. "I don't know what to say, Ichigo."

"There's nothing to say. You sacrificed yourself for me, Donovan. I owe you everything. The world owes you everything."

"As I remember it, I failed. You should be dead because of me."

"Shut up, Donovan. I'm not just talking about that moment. You got me through a lot."

Donovan brushed these heavy words aside and opened his arms. Ichigo stepped into the broad embrace, feeling the renewed strength in the arms that closed around him.

"I'm sorry it took so long," he said. "But I'm glad you hung on until Orihime could heal you."

"Me too." Donovan stepped back. "But what now?"

"Why don't we talk about that with the others? You ready?"

Donovan nodded. He followed Ichigo back to the room where he'd been, now full of jubilant, incredulous men and women. Orihime had already moved onto another room, but Ichigo saw Ihara still here, trying to help other men cope with their miraculous recoveries. He himself was looking better than the first time Ichigo had met him. He even looked a shade younger, but that might just have been because the weight of so much pain had been lifted.

"That's quite the girl you've got there, Kurosaki," he grinned and stepped away from the man he'd been speaking with. "Could have used her a while back."

"I know," Ichigo admitted. "She and some friends of mine did the same as me and hid their identities when they were captured. It took me a long time to track her down. I could have used her a lot sooner too."

"I bet." Ihara looked Donovan over and smiled wider. "But I guess later is better than never. I don't think I'll ever quite grasp this spiritual realm shit. But what now? You gonna tell us how you did it? How you won?"

"You know most of it already don't you? And it wasn't just me. It was people like you who stood up when I needed them to."

"Well that was a bullshit response," Ihara jabbed. "We want more details than that, kid."

"You'll get them," Ichigo conceded, "but not right now. I want you to go back to my family's home. It's a bit crowded right now, with everyone staying there, but we'll make room for the two of you. Stay there for now, and I promise I'll give you the whole story when I can."

"Okay, deal. Show us the way," Ihara answered.

"Actually, can you go back with Orihime? I have something I have to do before I go home."

"Of course."

"Thanks." Ichigo shook Ihara's hand and Donovan gave his shoulder a squeeze.

"You know this means you'll have to take me up on my offer now right?" he said. Ichigo thought a moment, before remembering.

"America?"

Donovan nodded. "When everything is settled, you'll come visit. I'll show you all the sites."

Ichigo smiled, remembering the dream he'd once thought to be an impossible future. "I'm looking forward to it."

They parted ways. Ichigo spoke with Orihime briefly but left her to her work. He knew no matter how exhausted she might become, that once she'd started healing people here she wouldn't be able to stop until everyone was well again.

When he got outside, he spotted Grimmjow on the front steps.

"I'll meet you at home," Ichigo tried to say casually but got no more than a foot away before the argument came.

"What? I ain't hanging out with your loser family by myself."

"Grimmjow you've been sleeping there for two weeks. You should know them well enough by now you can go there without me."

"That ain't the point! I don't wanna deal with your idiot father or those brat sisters of yours."

Ichigo didn't even bother getting offended. He stopped on the steps and turned back. "Then go hunt hollows or something. That's your responsibility now, remember? All those hollows who escaped to hide in the World of the Living during the war still need to be rounded up and sent back to Hueco Mundo. Soul Reapers don't have time to do it and we can't risk them getting killed and upsetting the balance."

"You don't have to fuckin' explain it to me, I know. I said I'd take care of it and I will, but I want to know where the fuck you're going."

"I just have to take care of something."

"What something?"

His eyes swept over Ichigo's tense stance. He was back in human form now, hands in pockets, sweat on his neck and brow.

"I see. This place wasn't the only location Rukia gave you, was it?"

"No, it wasn't." Ichigo drew the old, wrinkled photo from his pocket. "I owe him this much."

"You paid that back when you ended Ywach."

"It's just different, okay, Grimmjow? I have to do this, and I have to do it on my own. I'll see you back at the clinic."

Grimmjow stared him down a moment longer before relenting. "Fine. Later."

He sonidoed away. Ichigo looked down at the lined photograph, those soft, sad features he'd long ago memorized in anticipation of this day.

It took him two hours to walk to the district Rukia had written on the sheet of paper. In soul reaper form, he could have gotten here in minutes, but he didn't think that was right. This was a human matter, and he intended to resolve it through human means.

He was tired and the sky was darkening by the time he reached the rural outskirts of the Tokyo sub-district he'd been looking for. He walked through a devastated park, past smashed shrines and the shambles of a bridge into a housing district that had suffered damage but still contained several intact homes. With relief, he found the one he'd been searching for even still had lights on the inside.

He stepped up to the porch and knocked on the door. He heard voices on the other side, then curtains pulled back, and finally a young woman whose face he knew so well, stood on the other side of the door before him. Older people hovered in a kitchen behind her, probably her parents. They listened, but somehow she knew Ichigo had come to see her.

His voice failed him those first few seconds. Instead of addressing her, he reached out and held the tattered photo before her.

Her shaking hands pulled it from his. She held her own image, eyes welling up with bright, crystal tears and turned it over to see what was left of the message she had written there long ago.

"Where is he?" She asked finally, through choking breaths. "Where is Satoru?"

"Satoru Yoshida saved my life," Ichigo began. "We were taken to the prison world at the same time."

"But he didn't come back with you?"

Ichigo shook his head. She bowed hers, streams of tears running down her face, but after only a moment, she raised her head again and stepped back from the door.

"Come in."

He did. He didn't know how much to tell her about him. In truth, all he knew was that he'd been injured before being put in the prison world, and that it had taken him two painfully long days to die, while Ichigo had been unconscious just a few feet from him. He knew his body had been burned while wearing Ichigo's clothes. He knew there was nothing left of him now but a memory and the photo he had given the girl.

"How did he die?" She asked.

He told him what he knew.

"So you didn't really even know him?"

"No."

"Then how did he save your life? How did you have this photo?"

"Because I became him. I was Satoru Yoshida for weeks. I had to hide who I was, and so I took his clothes and his identity. It's a debt I can never repay."

She stared at him. She set the photo down on the table between where they sat and looked to it for a long moment before returning her gaze to him.

"You're Ichigo Kurosaki, aren't you? The one who returned to lead the rebellion. The one who defeated that terrible man."

He nodded.

"Then you've already repaid it." She rose, wiping her eyes. "Thank you."

"Wait," he rose too. She stood stiffly with her back to him. She was trying to contain her tears in front of a stranger. "There was another photo in his wallet. He had a little sister right? And parents. I went to their home but there was no one there. Do you know how to find them?"

Her shoulders tightened. She only half turned back to face him. "I guess…they're all together now."

She left the room. He stood alone, in the house of a stranger, in place of a young man who would never return here again.

"I thought you were taking hollows back to Hueco Mundo."

"I thought you were done crying," Grimmjow returned, dropping from the roof where he'd been perched a few blocks from the young woman's home. Ichigo wiped his eyes.

"Why'd you even come here?"

Grimmjow shrugged. "Why did you come here in human form?"

Now Ichigo shrugged.

"Come on, get out of your body and we can move faster."

"No," Ichigo protested. "I don't want to get back to the house too fast. Let's just walk."

"I guess," Grimmjow shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants. Since the end of the war they'd been so busy he hadn't even had time to go back to Las Noches for new clothes so he continued to wear human ones. Ichigo wondered if he'd return to that style, or even to Las Noches for that matter. After all this time together and with their allies, it seemed impossible for him to return to that isolation. But Ichigo didn't think about that now. There were too many other things on his mind and it would be a long while before Grimmjow finished his work in rounding up stray hollows. He wouldn't worry about it until then.

"Where are Donovan and Ihara gonna sleep?" Grimmjow asked, annoyed. "It's already fucking crowded in there."

"Grimmjow, I'm not going to make them stay at a shelter after everything. We'll find room."

"Whatever. Your world is a fuckin' mess."

"I know."

"It's gonna be hard for hollows to catch a meal, now that everyone can see 'em."

"Great, that's what you're worried about?"

Grimmjow shrugged. "I just mean it's all gonna be different now."

"Yeah, it is."

They walked in silence after that. It took even longer to make the walk this time, because Ichigo was tired and several of the streets in the direction of the clinic had been cut off. They passed the ruins of Urahara Shoten. Grimmjow's eyes drifted that way, Ichigo's did not. They had to clamber over the ruins of a bridge that now lay in the river bed, just above the water enough to be a treacherous walkway to cross. They passed the place where Ichigo's mother had died years ago, on the day that was perhaps really the beginning of it all.

And then they came to the one place on their street full of life. Many of the damaged homes nearby had been abandoned, but here, the lights were on, the house was full of life, the sounds of talking and cooking spilled out to the street. Grimmjow sighed in feigned annoyance.

"Better be Yuzu cooking and not Orihime," he muttered.

"Grimmjow."

"What?"

"I never thanked you for—"

"Oh fuck off with the sentimental shit, okay?" Grimmjow grabbed his coat collar and hauled him up the steps of the clinic. "Let's just fuckin' eat something."

"Grimmjow—"

"What?"

"I want to go back."

"Where?"

"You know where. I want to go back and make my peace with that place. With Satoru Yoshida, Kaito, Ogawa, Shen."

"There's no point."

"I just want to okay? So much happened there. I just need to go, one more time. Will you go with me, when things are settled here?"

Grimmjow stared him down a moment and shook his head. "You're so weird. It's in the past kid, just let it all go."

"I plan to, but that's how I think I can do it."

Grimmjow rolled his eyes. "Fine, if it means you'll stop acting like such a cry-baby I guess it would be worth it."

"Thanks."

"Whatever. Can we fucking go in now?"

"Yeah, let's eat."

They entered the house and shut the door on the broken streets, the empty houses and all the reminders of this world's suffering. They joined friends and family and enjoyed everything they'd fought so hard to save.

And in the end, it took more than a year for things to stabilize enough for them to travel back to the prison world. And it was harder than either expected, to see everything just as it had been left, an entire, silent world that stood a monument and everlasting reminder of what had happened.

It took even longer, for Ichigo to make the trip to America, and by then he was no longer a kid, and hardly even a Soul Reaper since Grimmjow kept the Hollows in line in Hueco Mundo and strangely, after the worst war of their time, there was virtual peace among the worlds.

And stranger still Grimmjow never really left for good, even after years passed. He took over Hueco Mundo, but Ichigo often found him on the porch of his new home, late at night, just watching the sky, or the life that now filled re-built streets and buildings. Ichigo knew that part of the reason he always returned was simply the habit that had formed after years at each other's side. But more, he knew it was because Grimmjow had never really stopped counting. He was always watching for signs of the next thing that would try to rip the world apart.

But Ichigo did not. He'd stopped counting long ago. He'd learned what humanity was capable of doing—from its darkest soul to its purest. And he knew now, how that played out, every time. He trusted in that narrative—the age-old triumph of good over evil—and if he ever began to feel the smallest doubt, he comforted himself in knowing Grimmjow was always watching.

And that was perhaps what he trusted in most of all.

Ichigo never forgave himself for killing that last soldier in the prison world, but he learned to live with it, just as he learned to live with peace, and a wife, and the responsibilities of a human life. Most of all, after everything that happened, he simply learned how to balance the good with the bad, the right with the wrong, who he used to be with who he'd become.

Ichigo Kurosaki became a name in history books, but for him, he'd never really found that person again after the day he became Satoru Yoshida. But that was okay, because Ihara had once told him there was a cost to war, and he knew that was it for him.

He accepted it, because with that burden came freedom for everyone he loved. With that price, came a future that had been nearly wiped away.

Even though it took him years to accept all this, on that night that he and Grimmjow returned home and dined with his family and friends, he knew happiness again. And later, when he and Grimmjow sat outside on the front step, he turned to his friend and smiled.

"What now?" Grimmjow said as he struck a light.

"Nothing. I'm just glad we didn't miss the meal."

"Yeah, no thanks to you," he sucked back on his cigarette. They didn't speak again for a while. When Grimmjow's smoke was done, he stretched and rose. "Well, I got a card game to settle."

"Good luck."

"As if I need it. You want in?"

"No, that's between you and Ihara. I'll stay out here a little longer."

"Suit yourself."

Grimmjow went in. Ichigo settled back on the step and stared at the sky.

Things weren't perfect, but right now, he thought maybe someday they could be.

The End

Thank you all so much for your support in this story. It took me a while (as usual) to decide on how to do the ending. I decided to do it a little differently than my other endings, in giving a bit larger scope of their future from the ending on. Hope you liked it. I almost didn't want to show them outside of the prison world, but that wouldn't have concluded everyone's story properly. I also didn't want to show them in the midst of battle with all of their spiritual powers, because I felt that would be out of place after the rest of this story. I am tempted to write some scenes about Grimmjow and Ichigo building the resistance, but I don't think I will. I think I'm done with this story, and I'll probably be taking a little break from writing for the holidays, maybe even a bit longer. I intend to come back to my two unfinished stories and add some more chapters to them when I'm back in the writing mood, but I don't have plans for publishing any lengthy stories at the moment. I have lots of stories started, but none are really grabbing me right now, so it's probably best to take a break for a while.

Thanks everyone, please leave your final thoughts on this story in the reviews. I wish you all a happy holiday season!

Riza Winters.