One-Shot
The Soul King Palace stood like a cracked skeleton under the twilight sky, filled with remnants of divine stone and shattered dreams. What once held the key to the realms was now only silence and ash, disturbed by the distant sounds of battle. Lightning flashed overhead, and the wind howled. At the heart of it all was a storm made flesh: Kaien Kurosaki.
His silhouette hovered among the ruins, blue flames surrounding him, casting long shadows that moved like ghosts of the fallen. He stood atop the broken dais of the Soul King, his golden eyes fixed on the empty space that once held the heart of the spiritual universe.
He had witnessed its fall—viewed every possible future where it collapsed and every one where it survived. In every vision, his Father stood either victorious or broken. In every one, his siblings suffered.
Kaien tightened his grip around Kokuen no Ōji, the black-bladed zanpakutō that hissed with controlled rage.
A flicker of reishi caught his attention.
"Found you," a voice said, familiar yet despised.
Ichigo Kurosaki stepped through the haze, wearing tattered robes, with blood on his brow and resolve in his eyes.
Kaien's jaw clenched.
"So, the prodigal twin comes to face his superior."
"I came to bring you home."
---
"You think this is home?" Kaien's voice was low but heavy. His blue flames flared, scorching the air.
"You think the place that allowed our mother to die, that consumed her and cast her aside, is worth saving?"
Ichigo stood firm.
"I think she wouldn't want this."
Kaien laughed bitterly. "You don't know what she wanted. You don't understand what I saw that night."
"I do," Ichigo replied quietly. "I saw you. You blamed me."
Kaien narrowed his golden eyes.
"You froze," he spat. "She jumped in to save you. And she died."
Ichigo looked down. "Yeah. I hesitated. I was a kid. So were you. We both lost her. But you let that pain linger."
"I made it mean something!" Kaien shouted.
"You let it be twisted!" Ichigo countered, his voice rising. "You let that bastard turn you into his weapon."
Kaien pointed his blade forward. "Don't speak of Father that way."
"Then don't speak of our mother like she's a martyr for your anger."
The clash was immediate.
Kokuen no Ōji met Zangetsu in a burst of blue-black flame and golden light. Shockwaves tore through the ruins, destroying the remaining towers. Flames wrapped around Ichigo, searing his flesh, while his Getsuga Tenshō erupted, carving canyons into the rubble.
Kaien moved with precision. Every strike and parry was deliberate. The Almighty showed him countless futures, and he aimed to collapse them all.
"You're slower in this one," Kaien observed, eyes darting. "Weaker in that one. Already bleeding in that one. It's over."
Ichigo grunted in response as he ducked, spun, and unleashed a series of attacks.
Kaien deflected them. Parried. Countered.
"You don't understand," Kaien said, his voice cold. "This world doesn't deserve to survive. The cycle of life, death, rebirth—it's a slaughterhouse. Yhwach saw it. I see it. And I will end it."
"So you'd burn it all?" Ichigo growled.
Kaien's flames blazed.
"I'd give my life to create something better. Eternal. Safe."
"And everyone else's lives?"
"If that's the cost."
A blast of blue fire hit Ichigo's side, sending him sprawling. He crashed through a pillar and hit the ground hard. Blood dripped down his cheek.
Kaien advanced slowly and deliberately.
"You don't have what it takes," he said. "You never did."
Ichigo stood, panting and bleeding, but he smiled.
"No, I just never stopped believing in people."
He vanished, reappearing behind Kaien. Zangetsu shone, wrapped in dual energies.
Getsuga Jūjishō erupted—a cross-shaped blast of dark and light.
Kaien was engulfed.
Silence.
The flames parted.
Kaien stood, scorched and coughing. His wings of reishi flickered.
He raised his blade, but it trembled.
"Why?" he asked. "Why do you keep fighting for a world that destroyed everything we love?"
Ichigo stepped forward and dropped Zangetsu.
"Because it's the world she loved. The one she wanted us to live in, not to destroy."
Kaien's breath caught.
"She used to hum while cooking," Ichigo whispered. "She'd pull us close when we had nightmares. She chose this world... even if it hurt her."
Kaien fell to his knees.
"Then I failed her," he whispered. "All this time..."
"No," Ichigo said. "You just lost your way."
Kaien's blade fell.
---
The battle ended not in death but in a quiet embrace.
Ichigo wrapped his arms around his brother, holding him as the sky cleared. Kaien sobbed, decades of pain pouring out.
Yhwach was gone. His dream was dust. But Kaien remained.
And he was not alone.
---
Months passed.
The Kurosaki Clinic reopened. The world slowly healed.
Kaien now lived above the clinic, sleeping beside the window where he used to gaze out as a child.
He helped patients. Trained with Ichigo. Listened to Yuzu's piano and Karin's complaints.
He watched.
He lived.
One night, Ichigo found him on the roof.
"You okay?"
Kaien nodded. "Still looking at futures. Not as many bad ones lately."
Ichigo smiled. "Good. You're part of one of them now."
Kaien looked at the stars. "She would've liked that."
They sat in silence.
And for the first time since Masaki's death, the night was peaceful.
---
The End.