The first thing I have to do is apologize – deeply and sincerely. I'm truly, truly sorry.

The second thing is to explain.

I have to let this fic – and my other 'long' fics – go now. I'm pretty sure most if not all of you saw this coming ages ago. My updates have long since crawled to a halt. If you weren't considering this dead already, let me make it official.

Part of it may be the passage of time and the advancement of canon material. This was a divergence from the start, but really, it's not such a necessary one anymore. In fact, given how SS has actually accepted Ichigo, and not just that but helped him, trying to continue writing for a fic where they officially turn on him just sort of hurts a little, despite all the individuals still striving to aid him.

More importantly, though, there is the conflict of personal priorities my larger and more involved fanfics, such as this one, induce.

I started this fic halfway through college. Now that I'm well out of it, I should be prioritizing original writing above all else. Thing is, my original writing obviously doesn't have the interest or the pre-built fanbase that fanfic has. Therefore I have, at best, one or two people per original work rooting me on to finish it. Meanwhile my fics have so many more that it's a different sort of impact. In the end, though, it's down to guilt. I leave an original work sitting unfinished on my flashdrive for months on end, and the only person I'm really disappointing is myself. I leave fanfic incomplete and on a cliffhanger, and every time I get another review or message wishing me well and asking when I might, perhaps, possibly update again because for some reason you guys actually like what I'm doing here, I know I'm disappointing a lot more than that. So then I open up a document, try to start writing fanfic...and I'm hit by that self-disappointment. Guilt from another side. Why are you writing fanfiction? You have free time, you should be working on something which might actually get published somewhere. You want to write for work? Then write for work!

And so it goes. I'm guilty about writing original work over fanfic because I'm disappointing people. I'm guilty about writing fanfic over original work because I'm disappointing myself and my own hopes for the future. As a result, I can't bring myself around to consistently writing either one.

This was a hard decision to make. I don't like the feeling of abandoning this. I always hated it when I finally found a fic I liked only to discover that the author got halfway through the plot before stopping dead in the water. I never wanted to do that to my own readers, but...well, you know. All of that above.

So I need to put an end to this, and I need to do it immediately, in one sharp stroke. Prolonging the inevitable just lengthens the cycle and keeps me stalled, barely moving. My long fics have to go.

This is not to say that I'm retiring this account altogether. I might occasionally return with a one-shot here or there. Should inspiration ever strike again, I'll keep it brief and contained to a single stroke. Fanfiction is still fun and can still be done on the side...just nothing as involved as this monstrosity has become.

HOWEVER, I'm not leaving this just at that. One of the reasons why I found abandoned fics frustrating was the fact that I knew I'd never be able to find out what the author ultimately intended for the characters. Any trace of mystery would be left unanswered, any changed circumstances unexplained.

If you prefer to imagine your own continuation, feel free to stop reading before the break below. Afterwards I've pasted my entire outline/summary for this fic – it's better organized than most of my others, with bullet points and everything, all laid out and ready to go.

Thank you so much for your readership and your support while this fic lasted.

And now, here is the further plot and foreseen ending of The King's Law.

Yoruichi confronts Rukia to find her almost frantic to escape and help Ichigo. Rukia immediately asks for confirmation: is it true, really true, that they're…? Yoruichi replies that Ichigo and his father, Isshin, are slated for execution in five days. Rukia asks Yoruichi if she can get her out of the (comfortable) cell she's been stuck in. She needs to save Ichigo. Yoruichi asks her a few questions to test her resolve and what she's willing to risk, if she's really willing to go on the run with them after the fact, if she'd rather do as Yoruichi offered Renji and stay behind to feed them information (she'd be in constant contact with Ichigo, and that's something at least, isn't it?). Rukia refuses to consider anything but helping Ichigo herself, even if she has to break out of her cell without Yoruichi's aid. Yoruichi accepts Rukia's help but tells her she has to wait and follow her instructions; no matter how close the deadline gets, Rukia has to trust her. They will save them. (day 16)

In the real world, Yuzu and Karin are staying with the Arisawas, under the impression that their father and brother have simply gone missing for a little while, but that they'll be back. Karin, however, is smarter than that; that night, she confronts Tatsuki at last and demands to know the truth. I'll leave it up to the readers to decide whether Tatsuki gave it, though in all probability, she did, her knowing what it's like to be lied to for safety that way. (day/night 16)

Soi Fon enters her office to find Yoruichi there. After a short conversation, Yoruichi offers Soi Fon a choice: she could call her men in and try to arrest Yoruichi, attempting to stop her however she can, or she can finally have what she once wanted – she can come with them. Her choice, entirely. Yoruichi won't cast any blame on Soi Fon or hear any blame cast no matter what she decides. Soi Fon reaches for her sword… (day 17)

Chad, Uryuu, and Orihime return from Hueco Mundo successfully, having found Nel and discovered with her a way for her to help. She can open a garganta directly in Soul Society, and while the world still rejects the humans from entering it, at least it could provide with a much faster, easier, and more precise escape route than anything Urahara could manage. Now all they have to do is get in touch with Yoruichi with this information…(day 18)

Execution day. Eleventh division is locked into its barracks. The top four officers – Kenpachi down to Yumichika – have been under house arrest for the past three weeks. They're restless, but they also know it'll be over soon and they know why. They discuss Ichigo's fate – Kenpachi bemoans the loss of a strong guy in such a way, Ikkaku's ticked that the shinigami would put so much weight in the words of a law instead of a young man's actual heart, and Yumichika states that execution is such an ugly way to die, the victim being unable as he is to even hold a sword and defend his own life to the last. They all agree and fall into a brief sort of melancholy, at least until Yachiru discovers two things which were not there five minutes before, though they saw no one. One, a note on the ground just inside the door of their cell. Two, the fact that the door, once locked, is now swinging open. (Hanatarou involved?) (day 21)

Still execution day, up on the Soukyoku hill. The captains and vice captains (the ones left after you get past the posts left empty either by traitors or by those under house arrest for the occasion) are also discussing, briefly, the impending execution from behind a kido corps-maintained barrier (supposedly for additional protection against any radiation from the kido cannon, but none of them are fooled; they know it's to prevent any of them from trying to stop the execution). Ichigo and Isshin are brought up and everything is prepared.

Brief few moments in Isshin's POV as he contemplates what he can do to comfort Ichigo, and if he can do anything at all. This can't be easy for him in the least, knowing what his son is going through behind him.

Then, as the cannons warm up, a blur appears before the execution posts: Yoruichi carrying two swords and Rukia all at once. Rukia leaps away with her own sword already in shikai; before anyone's quite aware of what's happened, both cannons are frozen in pillars of ice and Yoruichi has used Engetsu to cut Isshin and Ichigo free. The captains don't have time to react before Soi Fon suddenly leaps into action herself, startling all of them by knocking out the most threatening captains and vice captains before they quite know what's going on (Mayuri and Nemu are the first to go down, followed by first squad's VC, Isane, Iba, an extremely shocked Omaeda (because he ticks her off, really), stopping more or less with Byakuya, who is just fast enough and cool enough to block her first blow against him). Barely an instant later, another massive blur comes charging through the trees, whooping as it runs; Kenpachi on a warpath, followed by Ikkaku and Yumichika. The kido corps can't keep the barrier up; it breaks and chaos erupts along the front of the line of captains. A few of them drop back quietly in a sort of passive rebellion: Ukitake, Kyoraku, the ever-peaceful Unohana, Matsumoto, surprisingly enough Yamamoto. Of the remainder, Saijin is clashing with Kenpachi, Hisagi started forward only to face Yumichika again (and remembering what happened last time, rolls his eyes and just says that they've practically escaped by this time, so what's the point?) and Hitsugaya fires off Hyorinmaru once in the general direction of the hill's head before Ikkaku clashes with him. Hitsugaya surprises Ikkaku by backing off at that point, saying that he's done his part and if they can't stop that simple attack, then they have no business trying to escape in front of him.

Right about then, the garganta opens. At first all the captains are startled, immediately remembering Aizen and his menos escape, but the only things in the garganta's mouth are Nel and her fraccion, Kon (in his new body), and a masked Shinji, the last of which stops Hitsugaya's ice dragon with one quick cero. Kon jumps out and dashes over to Ichigo and Isshin, determined to cover them from behind as Shinji and Nel provide a covering fire of balas and ceros.

Cut over to Ichigo, who was kicked into the act of running by Rukia. He's probably feeling just a little surreal by this point; first he's barely a minute away from dying, then suddenly his best friend is there even though he knows she should've been trapped in some holding cell someplace until it was all over, and Yoruichi shoved Zangetsu at him while telling him to carry his own dang sword, and then chaos incarnate erupts all across the line of watching captains, and then the garganta splits open. Yeah, this is probably feeling like a crazy dream, and at least once he'll think that any moment, he'll wake up and it'll be execution day for real. Despite these thoughts, he makes it over to the garganta, is hauled into it by Nel, and waits there for the others. Nel whistles sharply, and the remains of the rescue team come pelting in: Yoruichi from where she'd been knocking out kido corps members and Soi Fon from a lockup against Byakuya.

Byakuya sees them making their escape and knows that, as a captain, he has to do something. He releases his shikai and sends it after them, but the garganta closes by the time the petals get there and he re-seals his sword, unable to do anything else after all. If senbonzakura travelled just a little more slowly than usual, who could tell? Brief introspective moment as he recalls what he saw – Rukia going with them – and he makes a quick prayer, wording it as a threat: Kurosaki Ichigo, Kurosaki Isshin…Never let us find you.

The group goes by garganta to HM, where they stay for a little while, sending word to Urahara via Shinji that they're all ready. Finally, after night has fallen in the living world, they leave and land on one of Urahara's flying carpets, this one much bigger than his old. Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu are all there, there's luggage strapped to the underside, and Yuzu and Karin are curled up right in the middle of the rug. Karin is awake to greet her brother and father as they land on the thing. They don't have any particular plans, only to get far away and hide out somewhere just big enough to be overlooked by humans, just small enough to avoid huge patrols of shinigami, make a new life there, find new homes. As they fly over Karakura, Ichigo promises to find a way to get ahold of Chad and the others, even the vaizard, without SS knowing, at least to tell them all that they're safe and to thank them for everything.

Thank you all, and I'm sorry.