Inheritance

-o-

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

Niccolo Machiavelli

-o-

Ni: A Fool's Resolution

-o-

When he blinked his eyes open he had the immediate urge to close them again. His dry lips parted slightly, letting the warm air of the room enter his raspy lungs.

"I see you're awake, Ichigo-sama."

Hearing the female voice next to him he snapped his head around, staring at the brown-haired woman, the pain the light brought him momentarily forgotten. Instead his brown orbs widened. "Kirio?"

Hikifune Kirio just stared blankly at him, a hint of sadness in her black eyes, and having identified her he let his gaze travel around the interior of the room he was lying in, finding it to be one of the royal chambers in the palace. Seeing Kirio brought him there that in and for itself wasn't a strange occurrence, but having her bring him there in the first place meant...

His amber eyes snapped back to her, just in time to see tears in her own. "No way..."

-o-

Kuchiki Rukia slowly came back to consciousness when she felt the odd but familiar sensation of her flesh closing by sheer force of reiatsu, the thought alone always bringing a nauseating feeling to her stomach. Her bleary eyes only barely made out purple, black and... magenta?

The magenta-haired person above her flinched when she started to move, quickly pressing a hand to her freshly healed shoulder, at which Rukia realized it was a woman. "Don't, Rukia-sama, I'm not done healing you, yet."

The weakened Shinigami blinked tiredly. "Who...?"

"That's not important now, Rukia-sama."

Before Rukia could ask why she addressed her with such politeness, consciousness slipped her.

-o-

Kurosaki Ichigo was running down the long hallways of the royal palace, amber eyes wide with anxious fear of what he might find when he opened the door that was his destination. The royal guard was following him, a sad expression on her face as she watched the orange-head closely.

The young Shinigami was gasping and panting when he finally reached the large, golden shoji doors bearing the family crest, and with one final intake of air Ichigo gripped their side, pushing them open and entering the huge chambers of the Spirit King.

There, in front of the young man, lay the sick king in his bed, weak and dying. Ichigo's arms fell to his sides, and a pained expression made its way on his face.

"Ojisan..."

His uncle's face turned towards him, a sad smile on his pale face. "I'm glad you came..."

In an instant the young orange-head was beside his sick uncle, staring at his face sadly while he knelt down next to the bed. "Why didn't you tell me it was getting so bad? Does Dad know yet?"

His uncle shook his head, coughing. "No, and I don't want him to know."

The young boy's temper flared at this. "He's your brother."

Kurosaki Ieyasu's face fell as he averted his face, frowning. "We haven't spoken in decades, it's alright the way it is." Turning back to his nephew he narrowed his eyes. "How are things going?"

He lowered his head, orange bangs covering his face as he turned away slightly. "Horrible. Kirio said they entered Soul Society half an hour ago."

Silence enveloped the large chambers then, neither speaking a word. Slowly, hesitantly, did Kirio step forward, taking an old, intricately ornated dagger from the bed's side table, closing Ichigo's slack fingers around its hilt. "It's time, Ichigo-sama."

Amber eyes were dull as they stared at the shining silver blade, his grip tightening as he rose onto the bed and hovered over his dying uncle. He took a shaky breath, biting his lip, before he locked eyes with him again. "I'm sorry."

-o-

The burning in his left shoulder blade subsided at the same time as his uncle took his last breath, and a single tear escaped his painfully composed face and fell onto the unmoving person underneath him.

"Ichigo-sama..." Her voice startled him from his silent reverie, and he quickly gained his bearings back, moving away from his uncle's dead body. With one heavy intake of air he took the deep blue haori Kirio offered him, putting it on as he made his way out of the chambers, towards the gates.

And just before he exited the room his dead uncle lay in, he whispered one last sayonara to the man he hadn't known for more than six months, yet found himself bond and relate with in less than a week.

With that he left the man he killed behind, ready for war.

And resolute to kill the man to cause this all.