9 Bleached Fate

"So, let me get this straight" Ichigo said exasperated.

"King Arthur, in your home dimension, is a woman. Not that there is anything wrong with that, she wants to change the past so she never became king.?"

Zelretch nodded at Ichigo.

"And in order to do so, she needed to win in this death competition for a chance to wish on the holy grail, of which she forsake and destroyed so she could be with her lover?" Ichigo asked.

"You glossed over almost every important detail I spent the last hour explaining, but yes." Zelretch replied while holding the bridge of his nose.

"Awesome, when do we go" Ichigo said cheerfully.

Zelretch could only let out the biggest drawn out sigh he could muster.

"Its fine Grandpa, we were actually listening and can point him towards who to fight." Yoruichi said while smacking the substitute Shinigami on the back of the head.

"My grandson is blessed to have found such wonderful women" Zelretch said while shedding a clearly fake tear.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Were you actually listening or just trying to annoy that old troll?" Rukia asked after Zelretch left.

"Just wanted to annoy him a bit" Ichigo said with a smirk.

"I'm actually excited about meeting this Emiya Shirou, he's a lot like me If I'm being honest" Ichigo said while looking towards his girls.

"You do remember Zelretch described him as an idiot right?" Rukia responded.

"A heroic idiot" Orihime added in with a chuckle.

"So we can all agree he's an idiot?" Yoruichi decided to chime in.

"Which one?" Rukia asked

"Is there a difference?" Yoruichi responded without missing a beat.

The three of them started to have a laugh at Ichigo's expense.

Ichigo glanced over at Tier and noticed her being more distant than usual.

"Something wrong Tia? He asked the hollow queen.

"Oh sorry, was just thinking about some stuff…." The hollow replied with a sad expression.

The other girls took this as a que to head to bed.

"You know you can talk to me, right?" Ichigo said while approaching Tier.

......"You should know how I fell in love with you right?" Tier asked.

"I have the general idea" Ichigo replied.

"You look at me with the same eyes that you do the others, I can feel your genuine care and concern. But I don't understand, why do you look at me like you do them? We haven't known each other nearly as long."

"Is it my looks? Do you lust after my…."

Ichigo abruptly cut her off, "Your heart"

"Don't make fun of me…." She said quietly while shying away from Ichigo.

"Grimmjow cared about fraccion due to pride, Nel's was due to her childish nature, you cared about yours out of love."

"You treated your fraccion as family. In a world where the strong quite literally eat the weak, where beings live who's hearts were supposed to be ripped from their chests, yours continued to shine, brighter than any I have ever seen, regardless of race."

"That is why I fell in love with you Tier Harribel" Ichigo said while looking her straight in the eyes.

"......I miss them…." She finally broke down and mourned for her loss.

She dove into her mate's chest and bawled her eyes out for the first time in her life. Her muffled screams and yelling that it wasn't fair that her family was gone. Ichigo said nothing and just held her as she finally let her emotions out.

This continued for several minutes before Ichigo finally broke the silence. "I can never replace what you lost….but you are not without a family"

Tier finally caught her breath and calmed down after a few moments.

"Carry me" She said, not daring to meet his eyes.

"huh" Ichigo could only ask in confusion.

"Tonight you belong to me, so carry me to my room" She declared.

"Yes my Queen" He said with a smile as his picked her up in a princess carry and walked towards her room.

The last words spoke in that room for the night, "Please be gentle, it's my first time" a certain queen said.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The morning played out identically as the previous, Ichigo was currently making breakfast.

Yoruichi, Orihime and Rukia were currently at the table waiting for their plates.

The last one to join the group elicited a surprised expression room group.

Tier was no longer wearing a turtle neck sweater like she always had been and she also changed her hair, it was currently loose and flowing behind her.

"Morning Tia" Ichigo said while peeking out from the kitchen.

"Good morning…. honey" Tier said with a slight blush on her face.

Ichigo smiled, Tier was finally starting to come out of her shell.

"You look great" He said towards her new look.

"Thank you" Tier responded with the most genuine smile she ever showed to her new family.

Ichigo had just finished cooking and set the table as Tier joined in with the group.

"So tell me Tier how was your first ti….."

Yoruichi froze up as Ichigo grabbed the salt shaker while staring right at her.

"I think we have more important matters to discuss" Rukia interjected in the tense atmosphere.

"How are we going to deal with this King Arthur problem?" She asked looking towards ichiog.

"Figured we would just wing it" He said without even looking up from his plate.

"You wanna run that by me again?" Rukia said with annoying in her voice.

" I agree with her Ichigo, one doesn't simple go against the King of Knights without a plan" Tier added in.

"Your're thinking about this wrong" He explained.

"We're not going against her, I want her and Shirou to join us without any bad feelings. I don't want to scheme, I don't want to force obedience, I want a comrade that I can trust my back to. "

"Besides, shes much older than any of us, she would be able to smell a plan or scheme a mile away." The hybrid finished.

"That's surprisingly well thought out for you Ichigo, I'm impressed" Yoruichi said, without the sarcasm for once.

"He has his moments" Orihime added in, she had been getting better about teaming up against Ichigo.

"We're probably going to have to fight when we get there" Ichigo said with a serious expression.

"From what gramps explained, a sealing designation is pretty serious. The whole magic world will be after Shirou after finding out he has something called a Reality Marble"

"Oh by the way, gramps left a box for us, he called it our "peerage uniforms" I'm a bit hesitant to take a look without backup."

"He told us to wear them when we went" Ichigo finished with a hesitant look on his face.

"Better get it over with encase what ever he did requires time to recover from…" Rukia said.

They proceeded to the living room where they found a rather large box with a note.

Ichigo opened the box and quickly covered his face, waiting for something to happen. It took a moment before he finally glanced in the box and a smile appeared on his face.

"Thanks gramps…." He said as he picked up the note to read it.

"Dear grandchildren, I thought it would be best if you had somewhat matching uniforms. I took the liberty of designing them after a familiar look.

P.S. These are made from reiatsu, so you can absorb them into your soul and actualize them when needed. "

For Rukia, it was a haori similar to her captain one, but instead of a 13 it was a picture of 3 pawns.

For Ichigo he got something similar except a king piece. Yoruichi had one with a queen piece.

Orihime had a whole new set of cloths, her cloths looked like a black version of the cloths she wore while a captive of Aizen also with a haori with a Bishop on it.

Tier also had a new set of cloths, hers were like her previous ones except black and a bit less revealing. She too had a new haori with a Rook on it.

"Alright, grab anything you need, we're leaving in an hour" Ichigo declared.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The factions around the world that have been watching the Ichigo issue had recently received new information.

He had peerage members, and a couple of them made an appearance in a very interesting way.

There were reports of a second Shinigami, she designated herself as a captain of a squad in an organization called the "Gotei 13".

More rumors started to fly left and right, some people were speculating that this was some sort of super-secret organization or that it was a new faction of gods.

The only thing that most people could agree on, the newly announced Shinigami, was powerful.

And then there was the pillar of ice that shot up to the sky. This supposed display of power was hard to believe. It was not particular surprising in of itself, yes it was powerful, but there were many beings in the world who could put forth that degree of attack. What surprised people was that fact that it came from an unknown person.

Amaterasu was annoyed. She had been receiving visitors or inquiries from various factions for the past few hours.

They were all asking about the same thing, this Kuchiki Rukia.

From what the reports said, she was clearly Japanese. Yet, Amaterasu could not find any records of such a woman. She knew every soul born under her sun and yet, this Kuchiki Rukia did not exist.

And not only that, she had never heard of this "Gotei 13" as well.

She could only wonder if there was a splinter faction within the Shinto religion. She had sent her subordinates to investigate these rumors and he had yet to turn up with anything.

"Kurosaki Ichigo" She said in annoyance.

It all started with him, she had to find him to get some answers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Gramps recharged the dagger himself for this" Ichigo muttered to himself.

Zelretch had left a secret message in the dagger for Ichigo to hear only.

"Hey brat, I have the feeling you're going to do something incredibly stupid, so I'm filling this thing up further than usual. Be careful, the world name is Zelretch Home. "

The Magicians voice rang out in Ichigo's head when he pulled the dagger from its tiny pocket dimension.

Ichigo looked to his sides, his girls were there with him with eager faces. He couldn't help but admit he was a bit excited too. Exploring new worlds, it wasn't a bad life.

"Open portal to: Zelretch Home" He said as the dagger erupted in light and the group vanished.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shirou and Saber were running through the city they found themselves in.

Shriou was still recovering from his wounds he suffered a few days ago, trying to save his prana as much as possible to support saber. He had been blindsided when enforces stormed his home a few days after the holy grail war.

Apparently, there was a sealing designation on him because the clock tower found out about his reality marble.

They had to run, the two lovers never having a moment of rest. They couldn't even have time to mourn their friends that had fallen in the war.

Shirou and Saber had been able to escape from Fuyuki but they got cornered in the city they had made their escape to.

They could feel it, they were trapped.

The regular people were being systematically moved from the area through magical manipulation.

Though Saber was not a magus, she could notice it, the large-scale hypnosis that was taking place, the thinning of crowds, and silence that started to consume the city. She could only squeeze Shirou's hand tight as they continued to run.

They finally made their way into a large clearing, a fountain in the center and buildings on all side.

"We're surrounded" Saber finally broke the silence.

"As expected from a heroic spirit" a mysterious voice spoke.

They had been herded into this trap, enforcers and bounty hunters alike surrounded the duo.

"You can save yourself a lot of pain if you just come with us" The voice said.

"Trace On" Shirou said in response. His favorite blades appeared, one in each hand.

Saber gripped her "wind blade" tighter. They were standing back to back with enemies at all sides.

Shirou was running low on prana, he was hurt and exhausted. The enforcers made sure not to give him any time to recharge.

"Very well, the hard way it is" The apparently enforcer leader said as he gave a signal to everyone present.

The enforces started to charge their respective magical ranged attacks. They knew not to engage these two in close ranged combat.

Saber could only curse the cowards in her head, she didn't have the luxury of losing focus for even a moment.

Normally She could easily dispatch all these people without much effort but she was running dangerously low on prana due to Shirou's condition, she couldn't even activate Avalon to heal her lover in this situation.

A large amount of magical and physical projectiles shot towards the duo. Saber had innately high magical resistance so she focused on the physical ones that aimed at Shirou.

The clock tower wanted his body to study, it didn't matter if he were dead or alive and if he did die, she would be forced back to the throne.

It was the correct strategy she reluctantly confirmed in her heart no matter how much she despised it.

Shriou opted for his kanshou and Bakuya, the married blades. They had a decently high magical resistance and he was familiar enough with them to lessen the drain it took the create the set.

They both stood there, back to back, deflecting and dodging as many attacks that came their way as possible. But they were only delaying the inevitable.

It was moments later that Shirou was finally struck, a fire based attack hit him in the shoulder. This opening was not missed as a bullet lodged itself in his abdomen.

Blood flowed out of his mouth as he fell back.

The boy was finally down, they thought. They just had to wait for the heroic spirit to disappear.

"SHIROU" Saber screamed as she unleashed the built-up prana she had in her sword and swung it towards the group of enforcers nearest her.

The force of the swing knocked well over a dozen away.

She took up a defensive stance over her lovers' body.

She knew the end was coming, she wanted to cry but she held herself together. Her last moments with Shirou would not be ones of pity and weakness.

"I love you Shirou" She worked up the courage to say finally.

"That's sweet" a female voice could be heard in the surroundings.

It caught everyone off-guard.

Saber tensed up slightly, if the reaction of her enemies was any indication, they were not allied.

Saber finally saw a little hope, maybe these two groups would engage and give her an opportunity to escape with Shirou.

As she finished her thought, they appeared.

In a flash in front of her, standing between her and the group that would harm her most precious person. But what surprised her the most, their backs were turned to her. Either they were arrogant enough to look down on her…..or they didn't consider her an enemy.

She prepared for the former….but prayed for the latter.

They all wore matching clothes, in-front of her was an orange haired man, she didn't take the time to gawk at his hair color and but instead tried to analyze these new people.

He wore a black Japanese style kosode, not unlike the samurai of old. And over his clothes was a white coat that had a picture of a king piece originating from chess.

The other ones that were clearly his accomplices wore similar garb, also with a white coat with different chess pieces.

"These four that took defensive positions around them were warriors, battle hardened and steadfast" she though to herself.

They gave off the aura that one could only have after numerous battles.

She tensed a bit more as the 5th of their companions approached the duo. An orange haired female, a different shade than the man in-front of her though.

She was not a fighter, Saber could tell from her stance and walking. This women's eyes showed that she had seen conflict but she wasn't a fighter.

"I can heal him" the women said.

Saber could only hesitantly nod to her.

It was then she heard the strange incantation the women spoke

"Sōten Kisshun, I reject" Saber heard her say.

And then she saw, an orange transparent shield shot from the girl and covered Shirou. His wounds began to heal at ridiculously fast rate. The bullet in his abdomen was pushed out of him and the wound closed. The burns on his upper body disappeared, and his breathing stabilized.

Shirou opened his eyes, his body felt great. And he saw the orange shield around himself and the strange girl kneeling at his side. He could make the correlation that the girl healed him.

He mouthed a "thank you" to the girl which she responded with a heart felt smile.

Saber was astonished at what just happened. She had realized that the strange girl did not heal Shirou, she reversed the damage that happened.

"…Time reversal" Saber muttered to herself but loud enough for most of the people present to heal.

She then heard the man in front of her chuckle with his back still facing her.

"Nothing so mundane" he said.

"My Hime doesn't reverse time, she rejects phenomenon. She rejected the damage your lover's body sustained." Ichigo gloated on her behalf.

Orihime couldn't help but show a small blush at the words of praise.

It was then that Ichigo focused his attention to the people in the encirclement.

"I'll give one chance, you can leave with your lives and never return. These two are now under my protection." He said with eyes sweeping all the enforcers present.

A few moments passed but no one made a move.

"Very well, your lives are now forfeit" Ichigo declared.

Before anyone had time to process what was said, the orange haired man disappeared. He reappeared a good distance in the air above a large group of enforcers. A bow was in his hands, it was made with a strange energy

"Licht Regen" He called out.

A hail of blue arrows filled the sky, and they shot to the ground in a fury.

The fight ended quickly all around. It took Saber several seconds to gather her wits. She looked around the battlefield. The one with the purple hair was was surrounded by craters, several building near her were also shattered. Saber winced at the thought of what occurred there only moments prior.

The blonde and the petite girl merely used their speed to cut down all their opponents.

She couldn't help but be surprised at their strength. They were easily at the level of heroic spirits.

"Who and what are you?" Saber said while readying her weapon.

"I don't mind telling you, but you have to promise not to attack us after." Ichigo replied.

"I hereby vow I will not attack with unjust cause." Saber swore to her savior.

"Alright….well technically we're a lot of things but the most prudent in this situation….we're devils."