Fanfic / Zenith Bleach

‘’’Zenith’’’ is a two-part Bleach Time Travel fic series by Shapooda.

The story begins 11 years into the future in an alternative universe where Ichigo failed to defeat Aizen. After finally cutting him down, he fuses with the Hogyoku and uses it to travel into the past to save his friends. However, the journey back has a cost, and Ichigo soon finds himself in a timeline far different from the one he remembers. Now swept up in a battle against ancient gods long forgotten, Ichigo must fight to preserve his life, his humanity, and the people he loves.

”Zenith” provides examples of the following:

• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Grimmjow, being part feline, has this trait.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • While never forgiving Aizen for what he had done, Ichigo grows to understand the pure unpleasantness of being the strongest person in the world.
  • Kyoraku toward Ichigo after he enabled Shinigami in slaughtering countless unseated shinigami and several captains – including Ukitake. Despite all that, Ichigo’s hysterical sorrow over losing his lover made Kyoraku feel sympathy for the grieving demigod.
• Crapsack World: while we don’t see much of it, Ichigo’s original timeline ends up as this. Everyone he knows is dead, and over the 11 years, his fight with Aizen seem to have destroyed most of the known world.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • The gods certainly are this, either in imagery or in action (or both)
    • Alteza first began whispering in an ancient language constantly inside Ichigo’s head, nearly driving him mad. It forms as an all-encompassing darkness blocking out the sky of Hueco Mundo, and eventually, a dark bottomless pit full of reaching hands. Yikes.
    • Die Königin, being the Light to Alteza’s Dark makes her just as much of a horror to deal with.
    • Shinigami, while never shown with a physical or metaphorical form like the other gods, has powers that are downright unnerving. His way of consuming his prey by sucking out their souls is quite uncomfortable to read. He cannot be reasoned with, threatened, or negotiated. Throughout the entire series, Shinigami was the only one who managed to make Ichigo despair.
  • Ichigo himself qualifies. Even before [[spoilers: merging with the gods]], the fact that he carried the Hogyoku from his timeline meant his appearance was quite monstrous to his human friends, and his reiatsu unfamiliar to those spiritually aware.
• Fate Worse than Death: The 11 years in Ichigo’s original timeline was beyond unpleasant. Having to watch the deaths of his allies, friends, and family was bad enough, he was also tortured by Szayel for months before escaping.
  • Grimmjow after being possessed by Shinigami. To be aware while your body is being controlled by another is a nightmare all on its own, but Shinigami completely disregarded his body’s limits and was ripping it apart by consuming far too many souls for him to contain. In the end, even Grimmjow himself was begging for Ichigo to kill him and end the misery.
• Ironic Nickname: While taking over Hueco Mundo, Ichigo tells everyone to call him White.
• Morality Chain: As Ichigo becomes increasingly unstable he begins relying on Grimmjow to stay in control. After Grimmjow dies, he loses nearly all previous moral restrictions.
• There Is Only One Bed: Except... there is no bed. Still, circumstances often force the boys to sleep next to each other.
• Oblivious to Love: Neither Grimmjow nor Ichigo are aware of their feelings for each other until the second fic, with Grimmjow thinking what he felt was hatred.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Reizei was defeated, but Orihime is dead.
• Undying Loyalty: there are multiple examples of this.
  • Most notably Ichigo and Grimmjow to each other. After being made Ichigo’s fraccion, he appears to all outsiders as a devoted and loyal general of the Hollow King. In private, Grimmjow acts as a sanity crutch. As Ichigo becomes more unstable, this becomes obvious to outsiders as well.
    • Quite literally in Grimmjow’s case, as he died for Ichigo, twice.
  • Zangetsu to Ichigo. Arguably even more than any other seeing as he is physically a part of Ichigo. Zangetsu even says that anything he does, he does for Ichigo, even when he has to disobey orders.
  • Tesra to Nnoitra. Even after the Espada was defeated, the loyal fraccion still fought back even though he knew it was suicide.