Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters and its settings aren't mine.
My name is Ichigo. Like my eyepatch? Oh, you can't see my eyepatch, can you. Can you? Trust me, it's there, it's just on the inside. If I stepped out of my body you'd be able to see it. This eye I have here? Useless, the place where the flesh eye connects to the soul eye doesn't work anymore. Shinsoed out. Can't see a thing with it.
Sorry, I'll try not to be sarcastic. You can probably tell just by looking that I'm an unhappy, bitter man.
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to be a hero? A champion? Gifted with the strength to protect everyone that mattered to you? Can you imagine being the one the monsters in the night dreaded most? Can you imagine breaking your enemies, throwing down the evil empire, saving the world? Being at the top level councils of your allies? Being a hero? At fifteen years old?
Now imagine having all of that taken away from you the day you turned seventeen.
My name is Kurosaki Ichigo, and I was a Shinigami. Together with my allies, my friends, together we broke Aizen, cast him and his empire down. On my seventeenth birthday I battled Aizen in the hall of the king of soul society and I cast Aizen down.
And then everything changed.
My name is Kurosaki Ichigo. And I am Vizard.
The toll was dreadful. Old Man Yama was forced to call back every Assistant Capitan class or better fighter he could lay his hands on. Last number I heard was over half the rank-and-file reapers had died in the conflict, along with something near three quarters of the lower ranked seated officers. Might have been rumor, I couldn't tell you. Yoruichi, Urahara, my father, they were pardoned and called in to replace Gin, Tousen, and Aizen. Urahara negotiated that deal.
I couldn't even tell you who commands the Shinigami now - my latest news is three years out of date. I assume it's still the old man. His lieutenant fell, Soi Fon's lieutenant was dragged to Heuco Mundo and made into some kind of Arrancar - Renji killed him. I know Kira and Hinamori were presumed dead, I don't know if they were ever found. It was so chaotic at the end, no one knew what was happening. Snowy was on his deathbed, though he might have survived. The others I don't even know what happened - after Aizen fell -
After Aizen fell word came from somewhere, the old man, the forty six, I don't know where. Maybe the king himself, I never actually saw him-
Someone decided the Vizard were criminals again.
I was told if I ever came near a Reaper again I'd be killed, that they were letting me go, really just letting me escape for my service to soul society. My name would never appear in any official record of events, everyone involved forbidden from talking about it. It was like Kurosaki Ichigo had never even been there.
Like someone else had given his right eye to kill Aizen.
I can't beleive it was almost three years ago. Or only three years ago.
I'm nineteen now, a student in college. A Vizard. The Vizard, rather. Aizen's cursed war cost me Chad's life. It cost Ishida-
Ishida became a litte funny afterwards. The guy with the highest grades in my high school never graduated. And Orihime-
Orihime is uncomfortable to be around. We rescued her and we thought she was fine, but she was never the same after the war. She denies anything ever happened, won't or can't admit to herself that she ever had spirit powers.
I don't know which of them upsets me more. Ishida, with his muttering and his mumbling, or bright, unfocusedly cheerful Orihime.
Orihime won't see me any more. Ishida's doing a stay in jail right now, he beat a guy up pretty badly.
And Tatsuki blames me for everything. She said she'd kill me if I ever went near Orihime again. I beleive it.
But that's all in the past. I have to go forward. I'm alone now; Yuzu and Karin were killed when I was sixteen. Or rather I killed them, I was driving. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I'd been taking care of them. Guess I loused that up, huh? This was before the end of the war; my father and I took them to the academy; more than anything Karin wanted to be a reaper, like Dad and I. It was the safest place either of us could think of for Yuzu.
My sisters and my father are supposed to kill me on sight. They haven't of course, I gather there's some some offical looking the other way at the Seireitei, but I only see them once or twice a year. That's once they're through the academy, I've seen Karin once and Yuzu I haven't seen in three years. But Dad comes.
They won't talk about business or my friends, I hope to spare me the pain. I don't like to think it's because they've been ordered not to; I wouldn't put it past the society to monitor those unofficial meetings. It's not fair to put my father or the twins in a bind that way. Karin is already a seated officer, she cleared the academy in just under three years and she's already one of the twentieth seats of Seventh. She's moving up quickly and I'm proud of her. Yuzu is still in the academy; she's currently the youngest person in seventh year. The only reason she's still there is because she's focusing on Kido. I gather Unohana-taicho is already looking to recruit her for fourth.
I've moved away from Karakura, I'm about an hour's drive now, going to school by day and killing the occasional hollow by night. The reaper assigned to my town is an older one, I guess he has unofficial orders to ignore me; certainly he's never complained when I've helped him out with a hollow or two.
It was so chaotic around the end of the war. Who lived, who died? How many people I considered friends - of a sort - how many of those people are gone now? I'll never know. I do know that most or all of the Vizard are dead. At least the ones in my group, either that or hiding. Or just gone away. Associating with me didn't do the Vizard any favors. I can see why they might want nothing more to do with me.
You know you I miss? You'd laugh at this, but Don Kanonji. Lost his life against an Arrancar he never stood a chance against. He knew that and he took it on anyway.
Anyway, that's all in the past now.