I DO NOT OWN BLEACH.

Chapter 10 – Second Chance?: Part 1

RECAP

He reached the cemetery where not only his mother was buried but also where he had buried his wife, his 3 sisters and the rest of his friends. He went to where his friends – Urahara, yoruichi, tatsuki, uryu, chad, mizumiro & keigo were buried. He took out a big bottle of whisky and a number of plastic glasses from the plastic bag he was carrying. He poured a glass of whisky for all his friends and kept it on their tomb stones. Then he poured one for himself and gulped it down. He stood there in front of those tomb stones for 20 minutes crying and asking for forgiveness.

He then got up and went where his family was buried. He kept orchids he had brought on all his sisters tomb stones and then he kept a bouquet of roses on his wife tomb stone and sat in front of it.

As he sat down, he felt something moving behind him, trying to hide its presence. He hoped that it was an enemy and it would put him out of his misery. But he had no such luck. He instantly recognized the spiritual pressure, even though the individual was trying to mask it.

"What do you want…

.

.

.

Jushiro?"

"To Give You A Second Chance."

"FUCK OFF!", said Ichigo not even turning to look at the man.

"Excuse me?", The Soul King said slightly baffled at such an unexpected response.

"You're excused." Came Ichigo's snide reply.

"Hey Kid, Watch your tongue. You are talking to The Soul King. Show some respect.", Ōetsu Nimaiya of the Royal Guard said in a pissed off tone from beside the Soul King.

Ichigo turned around and with a bow and fake politeness said, "Dear Highness, Kindly Fuck Off."

"Why you little brat!", Ōetsu rolled up his sleeve and took a step forward to knock some sense into the brat with his fists. But before he could take another step, he found soul king hands on his shoulder. When he looked back he saw the soul king shaking his head disapprovingly asking him to back off. Getting the message and accepting it, although begrudgingly, Nimaiya stepped back.

The Soul King stepped forward, looked Ichigo in the eye for about 10 seconds with a stern expression on his face and then did something the Orange headed man hadn't expected. The linchpin, the one holding all of the realms together, the king of afterlife - bowed.

"I am your culprit Kurosaki-san. I took the last thing away…. the last thing you had left. Revenge. I am sorry. I ask for your forgiveness Kurosaki-san."

This humbled Ichigo. This also made him feel very guilty for acting like an ass towards the Soul King himself. He knew it wasn't Jushiro's fault for what Aizen did. And after what he had done in Soul Society, Jushiro and the Royal Guard must have thought he had lost control and he was going to destroy the Royal Realm in a fight with Aizen. Even he didn't know what would have happened if he had gotten a chance to take his revenge. For all he knew, he might have actually lost control if he fought him so angry.

"No Jushiro, I am sorry."

Ōetsu Nimaiya would have cringed at such a casual use of Soul King's first name, if it had been anyone but Ichigo. Ichigo was a 'gone case', when it came to honorifics. But he also knew that, Ichigo and Soul King went way back. Plus he felt for the boy. So if the Soul King was okay with it, then so was he. After all he was supposed to be the fun one in the Royal Guard. Even though all the fun part of his personality had evaporated in the last 2 years.

"Look….", not knowing what to say anymore, Ichigo looked down at the bottle in his hand. He brought it up to the eye level of the now upright Soul King and asked, "Want a drink?".

"I sure could use one.", the Soul King replied smiling. He walked towards the tomb stones where Ichigo's family was buried and where Ichigo was standing, trying to find a glass in the plastic bag for the Soul King.

Soul King bowed and paid his respects to Ichigo's family, while also feeling the guilt for the part he played in that massacre. He again apologised mentally to Ichigo's fallen friends and family.

Once done, he turned to look at Ichigo who was ready with a glass filled with whisky and handed it to him.

"Oye Nimaiya. You gonna stand there all day like a flag pole or take your drink?", Ichigo said to Ōetsu Nimaiya while soul king took a sip from the glass handed to him.

"This is very…..", Jushiro was finding it very hard to compliment the liquor, because it was unusual from the stuff he drank in Soul Society with his friend Shunsui. "….Mild?", Ichigo completed the Soul King's sentence.

"Yeah, liquor that humans drink is way milder than anything soul reapers drink up there…..", Ichigo said pointing a finger towards the sky. Then he stopped himself mid-way and corrected himself as the realization dawned on him. "Sorry…. used to drink"

Ichigo looked down sadly, looking in the direction of hiyori's tomb stone.

Ichigo recalled the memory of him, Orihime, Yuzu & Karin going to visit his father in Soul Society a year before the attack when Hiyori tagged along. When Ichigo decided to go grab a drink with Shinji, Renji, Ikkaku and others that night, hiyori had insisted to come. She made the case that Ichigo was a baldy and she was hundreds of years older than him, so he had no right to stop her. But being away from Soul Society's liquor for over 100 years had its effect on her. Hiyori was out of control by the end of the first bottle of sake and had put on her mask and done some minor property damage when the bar keep cut her off. Much to his dismay and to the fun his friends were having, laughing openly at his situation. Ichigo had to cut the night short to take her back to his father's barracks where they were staying. Next morning Hiyori woke upto a very pissed off Ichigo/sort-of-older-brother who put his foot down and said 'UNTIL YOU'RE NOT TALL ENOUGH TO RIDE A ROLLER COASTER, YOU'RE NOT TALL ENOUGH TO DRINK.' She begrudgingly accepted but not before she stabbed Ichigo in his foot for 'putting his foot down', and then she proceeded to tell him not to act like a baby and heal it.

"Yeah, it's a lot milder than the stuff, me and shunsui used to drink. Also it was the same stuff that you and shunsui used to drink near my tomb stone."

Ichigo was brought back to the present by what Jushiro said.

"He told me you could see us, but I never believed him though.", Ichigo said gobbling down the drink in his hand and then pouring himself and Jushiro another. He looked behind to see if Nimaiya needed a refill but he hadn't touched his drink yet.

"Of course I could, Kurosaki-san. In fact, whenever you both sat to drink beside my tomb stone, I poured myself a drink in the royal realm and tuned into your conversation. It made me feel I was back with my friend, relaxing in a lazy afternoon & drinking sake, like we did many times."Jushiro said, taking another swig at his mild drink. But after every sip, he began to like the taste. "You became close, didn't you? Shunsui and you, I mean.", Jushiro added.

Ichigo nodded and took another sip.

"It's good that you did. Shunsui and I were best friends for more than a millennia. Even before we went to the academy… I thought, me leaving would make him very lonely. But because of you Kurosaki-san, he found a good friend again. I thank you for it." Jushiro said and then looked over to Ichigo who was facing the ground and his head between his knees and his legs in a X-shape, giving his hands support.

Jushiro saw Ichigo crushing the plastic glass in his hand and say, "Was Aizen telling the truth? Did he know? Did he… Did he cover it up?", rage and sadness in his voice.

"Yes he did Kurosaki-san.", Jushiro said in a grim tone preparing for the worst. But he was ready for it.

"And you….? Did you know…? You could see everything, right…?", Ichigo asked in a dangerously low tone that sounded a lot like his hollow.

"Yes…. Yes, I did. I gave him the permission to cover it up."

Ichigo saw red. He jumped The Soul King and started punching him in the face.

"You…" PUNCH. "Bastard…" PUNCH. "You did this…" PUNCH. "They are dead…." PUNCH. "They are all dead….because of you and him." PUNCH.

He again raised his hand back to punch the face of the Soul King, lying on the floor. But stopped midway, as he realized how fruitless the endeavour was. He had his powers sealed and Jushiro was in his spirit form. Nothing could hurt him.

He got off of the prone form of the Soul King. And asked just one question breathing heavily.

"Why?"

Jushiro told him about Shunsui's letter and all the reasons he had stated that it had to be done.

"YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!", Ichigo yelled at the Soul King after the hearing the explanation.

"YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME! YOU COULD HAVE ASKED ME TO GO AFTER HIM COVERTLY. I WOULD HAVE DONE SO! I WOULD HAVE FOUND HIM AND ENDED HIM BEFORE…", Ichigo just couldn't stop himself and punched the soul king again and this time breaking his hand on his face.

Soul King was unmoved but still smiling sadly. He knew he was wrong, even though he had his reasons for doing what he did years ago. But at least doing what he did right now, gave Ichigo some closure.

"No we couldn't Kurosaki-san. Even we considered that plan. Sending some of our selected officers and even you on a covert search and kill mission. But there were a lot of problems with that plan. The major one was the news of Aizen's escape leaking out to the rest of the forces. Which would have created the problems, Shunsui had mentioned in his letter.

Second, we just didn't have anyone who could take on Aizen except for Shunsui himself and a couple more captains. Even that was a big maybe, because he said he had become stronger than he was during the winter war & everyone had seen his shikai, which put them at an instant disadvantage against him.

Also everybody would notice an absent captain or a captain commander, especially during a period when Seireitei had lost two thirds of its forces and there was major rebuilding to be done. Captains are needed on their post for that. If they would have not been there, rumours would have definitely started flying, which again could have led to panic, chaos & anarchy.

And third, we didn't even know for sure he was alive. For all we knew, he died but there was just no one around to witness it. And we could not have expected you to waste your human life searching for a dead man."

The Soul King, gave his sincere explanation of reasoning behind a plan, which had cataclysmically backfired.

"I understand your motivations Jushiro, but that isn't an excuse for not telling me. If you had told me, I would have immediately know it was Aizen, when Rukia told me seireitei was under attack. I….. I could have saved them….. I could have saved them all… And this…..", Ichigo said, pointing at the graves of his friends and family, "…. Is just as much yours and shunsui's fault…" ichigo took a long pause to calm himself and bring himself to a low calm tone from an high and angry one, "…as it is mine."

"I know Kurosaki-san. And I know, I don't deserve this. But again, I ask for your forgiveness. You are right. We should have told you.", the Soul King said bowing his head.

"You do realize, that bastard played the same trick on us he did in the winter war." Ichigo said.

Jushiro just grimly nodded, not knowing what else to say about such a colossal mistake.

Ichigo again sat down in front of the graves, lost in thought imagining what could have been. What could have been, had he known. What could he have done differently.

Jushiro saw Ichigo turn away from facing him and again sit down in front of the graves. Jushiro thought there would be another burst of anger from Ichigo and he prepared himself for it. But one never came. Then from the back, the soul king noticed tears dripping from Ichigo's chin onto his shirt.

He noticed that, Ichigo was lost in thought and didn't even realize that tears were flowing from his eyes.

He gathered courage and sat down beside him.

Both parties acknowledged each other but didn't speak for quite a while.

"Why?", jushiro heard Ichigo speak again. When he turned to see him, he saw Ichigo was still facing the tomb stone, tears now gone and a slight look on confusion on his face.

"Kurosaki-san, I told you. It was the be…..". Jushiro was interrupted.

"Not that. Why tell me? And Why today?"

Jushiro closed his eyes as he prepared to put the fate of the world again on a young man's shoulders.

A/N: HEY GUYS. HAPPY NEW YEAR. I JUST FINISHED HALF OF THIS CHAPTER A WEEK EARLY THAN MY REGUALR POSTING TIME OF TWO WEEK AND THOUGHT I MIGHT AS WELL POST IT. SO ITS GOING TO BE A TWO PARTER.

SOME EXPLANATIONS I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE. –

WHY IS URAHARA, HIYORI & YORUICHI BURRIED? ARENT THEY SPIRITUAL BEINGS AND SUPPOSED TO TURN INTO RESHI WHEN THEY DIE. WELL YES. BUT THEY WERE IN THEIR GIGAIS WHEN THEY DIED. AND DON'T ASK ME HOW BUT THE ARRANCARS & AIZEN DID SOMETHING BECAUSE OF WHICH WHEN THEIR GIGAI'S DIED, SO DID THEY. THEN WHEN ICHIGO FOUND THEM, HE BURRIED THEIR GIGAI'S.

WHY DIDN'T SOUL KINGS BODYGUARD STOP ICHIGO FOR PUNCHING HIM? THAT IS THE JOB OF THE BODYGUARD RIGHT? YOU WILL GET AN EXPLANATION IN THE NEXT CHAP.

REVIEWS –

THANK YOU FOR THE ONES THAT REVIEWED. A SHOUT OUT TO DIANAPORTER & chimera629.

DIANAPORTER – ITS GOOD TO SEE YOU BACK. I REALLY MISSED YOUR REVIEWS. I WILL KEEP IT IN MIND. I HOPE YOU CHECKED OUT THE NEWER CHAPTERS.

chimera629 – Well, Ichigo always cared about his family. Including his sisters. But losing a parent and feeling responsible for it can leave long lasting scars on ones psyche. In ichigo's case, he loved his sisters. But atleast according to me, once he became a soul reaper he felt he needed to keep his sisters away from that world to keep them safe. The best way to do that is to lie to them. The only thing is Ichigo wasn't very good at lying. So he tried his best to avoid them as much as he could so he didn't have to lie to them. Then when he lost his powers, he was depressed that he couldn't protect them and he didn't want his sisters to see him depressed as it would make them feel hurt. So he does the dumb thing of avoiding them, which in turn also has the consequence of him hurting their feelings and being a kind of distant (but not bad) brother.

And yeah I agree with your opinion of Ichigo being retarded when it came to being attracted to females the normal way. But again his mother's case comes in. He lost the first woman he loved and he thought that was his fault. Now even thinking about attraction, which could possibly lead to love, scared the shit of him because he thought he would lose them too. So what happens to Ichigo's personality, he becomes a numb skull when it comes to ladies. Atleast until his late teens. By that time I think the supressed hormones showed their magic and Ichigo began to feel attracted to other women. The only barrier was his prudeness. Which washed away with time.

About Ichigo's soul age – It shall be revealed in future chaps.

Well I don't have a very good reason for Rukia having to wait a couple of years till she got the captains position when toshiro was allowed one even when he hadn't mastered his bankai. I was just following the cannon in that. Why renji, Iba and Ikkaku didn't get captain offers. Well I don't like Iba. I think he and his captain were a waste of characters so I am not going to promote him in my story. Ikkaku belongs with kenpachi. It's like Yamamoto and his lieutenant, together till death. He is the best example of loyalty in bleach and I would never separate him from kepachi. Plus like in cannon, he was the lieutenant and would absolutely refuse to stop being kenpachi's subordinate. About renji. The guy is a loser. He was literally the punching bag for all the enemies he faced. Plus I don't think he is captain material.

Some of your other questions might be answered in future chapters.

Also on a side note, chimera629, thank you for reviewing. Please keeping doing so. Reviews keep me going.

REVIEWS ARE LIKE NECTAR FOR WRITERS. I LIKE NECTAR.

SO IF YOU LIKE THE CHAP, PLEASE FAVOURITE, FOLLOW AND LEAVE A REVIEW.

TILL THE NEXT TIME!