Everlasting Spiral

Review Replies- ShadowofLight: Don't diss the spoon man! Do you know how many cheerios you can get in that thing!?
MasterAkira: That's totally the real reason he had six arms.
Tiramisu: haha, thanks!

This chapter skips ahead a bit to the ‘big battle.’ For those who have read the manga, there are differences in what happens. For those who only watch the anime, there may be a few spoilers for the manga.

Beta’d by Warrior Nun- merci!

Everlasting Spiral: Chapter 4

Starrk gazed neutrally at the shinigami captains. He had released Ichigo before he left, but he was really pissed. It helped that he brought Ichigo’s zanpakuto and gave it to him (that Aizen would be angry about later, no doubt), but Ichigo still glowered at him with those brown eyes that held so much passion. Starrk wished that they held passion for him.

He turned his attention back to the shinigami captain he was supposed to be fighting against. He didn’t want to. He wanted to go back to sleep; maybe cuddle Ichigo a bit while Lilinette handled his affairs. But instead he was facing off against this droopy-eyed shinigami instead of with Ichigo. It kind of made him pissed too.

So he thought to himself, why bother? The vizards had arrived and sure maybe Aizen could still win, but Starrk just wasn’t interested in that. He had already gone into his first release mode and Lilinette was bitching at him for not fighting hard enough. The wolves he had called were getting impatient for blood and Starrk actually felt a spark of worry go through him for Ichigo.

“Lilinette?” He mumbled in question and knew she understood.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, go after him already.”

Starrk didn’t need to be told twice. He opened a negacion gate to Hueco Mundo and stepped out onto the white sands. Immediately he could feel the clashing reiatsu of Ichigo and the fourth espada. His heart, or wherever his heart should have been, tightened and his sonido’d to the spot.

Ulquiorra was just about to put his fist through Ichigo’s chest. With a blink of the eye, Starrk had decimated him with a cero blasted from Lilinette. Ichigo blinked at him while the other two with him (one he recognized as the chick Ulquiorra kidnapped and the other he didn’t know).

“Ichigo…” Starrk murmured and looked Ichigo up and down. He looked beat up and tired, but he wasn’t fatally injured. His shihakusho was barely hanging onto him and Starrk drooled at the sight of his bare chest and leg.

“Starrk?” Ichigo asked in confusion and took a step toward the primera espada but stumbled. Starrk quickly grabbed a hold of him and held his slim but powerful frame to his body.

“Who is this, Kurosaki?” The unknown male with the glasses said in disapproval and Starrk sent him a dark look.

“This is Starrk, he’s, er…” Ichigo didn’t really know what to call the espada who was supposed to be their enemy but had killed the man who was trying to kill Ichigo.

“An ally.” Starrk answered for him and made no move to let go of Ichigo.

“We need to go help the others.” Ichigo said with a frown and turned to look where he felt Chad and the other’s spiking reiatsu. There was also a massive reiatsu attacking them and Ichigo was worried about his friends. The arm tightened around Ichigo and Starrk clung to him.

“No, you have to stay here.”

“I have to help my friends, Starrk!” Ichigo protested and tried to shove him away but Starrk held on.

“Let me take care of it.”

Ichigo stopped his attempts to escape for a moment and furrowed his brown in confusion. “…What?”

“Yammy is the Zero espada, there is no way you can kill him. So let me handle it.”

“Why would you do that?” Four-eyes asked with a frown, making Starrk instantly dislike him. Although he hated him on sight on principle that he was a man alone with Ichigo.

“I protect what is mine.” That was Starrk’s only answer. Without saying anything else, he lifted Ichigo up and threw him over his shoulders despite the protests. He stepped off of the high pillar the loomed above the dome Aizen had put up and landed on the ground. Ichigo let out a grunt at the sudden impact and Starrk attempted to soothe the hurt by stroking his back but Ichigo kicked him in the stomach.

“Let me go!” Ichigo shouted and Starrk reluctantly set him down on his feet. He instantly ran off in the direction of his friends, making Starrk sigh and sonido to him. He grabbed Ichigo by the waist again and then sonido’d to the location of the fight.

All of Ichigo’s friends were defeated and sprawled on the ground. The large, mutated version of Yammy was above them with his fist raised and ready to squash Rukia.

“No!!!” Ichigo shouted and lunged forward but Starrk was faster. He had already decided that if helping Ichigo’s friends made Ichigo happy, he would do it. Plus this gave him points towards getting Ichigo to fall in love with him.

Before Yammy could react Starrk appeared in front of him with his guns raised. He fired without thinking and Yammy let out a shriek of pain as his arm blasted apart. Yammy may have been the zero espada once he released into this form, but he had only one release. Starrk would say they were about equal in terms of power in his own first release. But unlike Yammy, Starrk had his second release. He didn’t want to waste time messing around with the big idiot when he could be napping, so he slipped into his second release easily.

The wolves he called snarled as they rushed for Yammy. Yammy lunged and went to go brush them away, but the wolves easily dodged the clumsy movement and leapt for him, exploding. Yammy threw back his head and howled in pain while he tried to bat them to the side but it was no use.

“Rukia!” Out of the corner of his eye Starrk could see Ichigo running to one of his friends’ prone forms and anger raised with him. He narrowed his one visible eye and turned his rage onto Yammy who was now being swarmed by the wolves like ants. He felt two captain-level reiatsus coming from behind him but he didn’t pay them any mind.

“Damn, it looks like someone else got the fun one.” One of the men growled and Starrk turned his head to look at him. He was a tall, muscular man with spiked black hair and an eye patch. There was another man beside him that looked like he thought everything and everyone was beneath him.

“Kenpachi! Byakuya!” Ichigo called out and the one with the eye patch turned to grin at him. Starrk instantly didn’t like the way he looked at Ichigo. It looked like he lusted for Ichigo’s body and blood and it made Starrk feel jealous and possessive.

The prissy man flash stepped to the girl that Ichigo was hunkered beside and didn’t give Ichigo another glance. Starrk forced himself to return his attention to Yammy, who was thus far unsuccessfully trying to fight off the wolves.

The only reason that Yammy was the zero espada was because of his sheer strength. Other than that he had no intelligence, agility or skills to speak of. Therefore it was almost child’s play for Starrk to finish him off.

Another shinigami captain had arrived by then and she must have been some kind of medic because she got to work healing the injured shinigami. Also the man and the woman that were with Ichigo before when he was fighting, Ulquiorra arrived as well. Starrk was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable with all of the Shinigami that were hanging around and he shifted closer to Ichigo.

“Why haven’t you killed the espada yet?” One of the male captains asked Ichigo coolly who frowned at him.

“He’s on our side; he just killed one of them!!!” Ichigo shouted which made Starrk feel all tingly that Ichigo was standing up for him. Luckily that tingly feeling didn’t go to his groin because otherwise he would have had to take Ichigo right then and there.

“He’s on your side.” The man said.

“You’re such a prick, Byakuya!” Ichigo shouted and Starrk felt a little better now that he had a name to put to his face.

“We need to get back to the real world to defeat Aizen.” One of them, a red head, drawled. Starrk didn’t like the way he looked at Ichigo either. “Shinji should be there now.”

Ichigo frowned and looked over at Renji. “Do you think they will be coming? I thought they didn’t want to be involved.”

“That was before they kidnapped you.” Renji growled and reached forward to grab Ichigo’s shoulders. “You shouldn’t have run off like that.”

“Fuck off, Renji.” Starrk smirked when Ichigo knocked Renji’s arms away. “Starrk, can you get us to the real world?”

“I think I can be of more assistance than some espada.”

They turned to see captain Mayuri and his lieutenant walking toward them, his lieutenant dragging some sort of device behind her. Mayuri did his speech about being just as smart as Urahara while Starrk grew slightly nervous about sending Ichigo to the real world by himself.

“I’m going with you.” Starrk said and ignored the looks that were sent his way.

“Why would an espada want to help us? It sounds like one of Aizen’s traps.” Byakuya said, making Starrk want to kill him.

“I’m not helping you.” Starrk threw his own words back at the man. “I want to help Ichigo.”

“But why!?” Renji asked incredulously. Starrk smirked and sonido’d over to Ichigo who yelped in surprise as Starrk wrapped his arms around his waist and kissed him deeply. Shouts of outrage resounded around them, but Starrk ignored it in favor of kissing Ichigo passionately. Despite his initial reluctance, Ichigo melted into the kiss and held him just as tightly.

“I hope that answers all of your questions.” Starrk said and continued to hold Ichigo close.

Renji had to be held back by Chad and Ishida as he lunged to attack Starrk. Ichigo turned red but said nothing as they got ready to travel through the gate to the real world.

“This is it.” Ichigo murmured and Starrk smiled softly before they stepped through the gate.

…

The rest of the espada were already defeated by the time they arrived, and that left only Aizen, Gin and Tousen. Ichigo and Renji had freaked out when they saw Hiyori was severed in half, but luckily Inoue was able to heal her, although it took a lot of energy.

The rest of the vizards were pissed off. They as well as the other captains easily took down Gin and Tousen, but Aizen was the problem. Ichigo was the only one who hadn’t seen his sword’s shikai form and was therefore the only one who had enough power to defeat them.

But then came the tricky part. He had to do it so that Aizen didn’t have time to release the seal on his sword, which would be really hard. Luckily he had enough people around him to protect him that he wasn’t doing it alone.

While Shinji and Starrk distracted Aizen, Ichigo donned his mask and went into bankai. Aizen didn’t even know what hit him as Ichigo cut through him, almost severing him in half. Aizen let out a gurgling sound as blood spurted out of his mouth and he fell to the ground. Dead.

Ichigo passed out from exhaustion immediately after and therefore wasn’t there to defend Starrk who Yamamoto immediately turned on. Starrk was barely able to escape back to Hueco Mundo before they could gang up on him and kill him.

Ichigo was brought back to the real world to recover and despite Inoue’s help, it took him two weeks to recover from using his power so much and for his wounds to heal.

When he woke up he was in Urahara’s shop and he immediately felt like something was missing. He was still in his shinigami form and Zangetsu was beside him so it wasn’t that. He sat up slowly and felt slightly weak but other than that could find nothing wrong with him.

He picked up his sword and settled it on his back before walking out of the room to find Urahara.

“I see you’re awake, Kurosaki-kun!” The man cried joyfully. “Your friends were so worried about you.”

“What happened to Starrk?” Ichigo asked immediately and Urahara’s expression turned solemn.

“You mean the first espada?” Ichigo nodded. “Well Yamamoto thought that he was too much of a threat and decided to destroy him-”

“WHAT!?” Ichigo shouted with wide eyes and Urahara waved his fan at him.

“But he managed to escape and he hasn’t caused any more trouble so they haven’t sent anyone to kill him.”

Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief and Urahara studied him closely.

“Do you love him?”

“What!? Of course not!” Ichigo yelled with a red face. Why would you think that?”

“Hm, I wonder.” Urahara hid his smirk behind his fan. “Would you like to go to Hueco Mundo and make sure he is okay?”

Ichigo shifted nervously and bit his lower lip in thought. On one hand he wanted to see his family and friends, but Urahara could tell them he was okay and he really wanted to thank Starrk. It was only right.

“Please let me use your gate.”

LINE

Yes, there will be a happy ending for these two so please don’t worry! You will see how in the next and final chapter!!!

Please review, they make me happy.