Precipice World or Truth's Gate (Remastered)

Chapter One: Fork

He laid on his bed after throwing his badge and bag on his desk, tired from a long day. He placed his arm over his eyes to block the light that was glowing from his ceiling. He let out a sigh of relief as he finally had a chance to relax. It'd been a while since he could just lay down and breathe. There'd been a lot more hollows around lately, but he'd been taking care of them, meeting a few new soul reapers in the process. He smirked thinking about the faces of the new recruits that were assigned to take care of his town. They were always surprised when he appeared and took care of the hollows they were trying to exorcize. They never expected him, they were never told of him, so he was always a surprise. The young man chuckled just thinking about it.

His eyes still under his arm widened as he felt something familiar yet unexpected. He sat up in his bed a little annoyed. His brain swiped through some possibilities as to why she would be here in the world of the living. He got out of bed and grabbed his badge, ready for the worst. He stepped back into the middle of the room, as a short, black-haired girl phased through the walls of his room.

"Rukia! Is there something wrong, what are you doing here?" The young man's voice rang out with worry. He studied her face for a second trying to read her seemingly blank expression.

Rukia's eyes narrowed at the tone that his voice gave, "Why does something have to be wrong for me to drop by? Honestly Ichigo, you're so on edge whenever you sense us it's a wonder how you can even sleep."

"Look, the last few times you've called for me, it's been a mess, and to be frank I haven't been sleeping well! I'm exhausted after getting my powers back, and that whole mess with those Xcution bastards." Ichigo said in a truly tired, fed up tone.

Rukia rolled her eyes at this, it'd been weeks since Ichigo had regained his Soul Reaper powers. She thought he was just being dramatic, so ignored the tone he gave her. She took a deep breath, stood up straight and looked him square in the eye, "Your presence has been requested by Head Captain  Yamomoto." Rukia kept her tone official when speaking of this.

Ichigo was taken aback and relaxed his posture. He scratched his head, thinking. "That's what you needed to tell me," He let out a sigh of relief, "Alright then fine, but why doesn't he come down here.

The Soul Reaper's eye twitched and held out her fist towards Ichigo, "Listen, I just follow orders! You can't expect me to question the Head Captain of the 13 Court Guard Squads, can you!?"

"All right! Fine," Ichigo sighed, slightly annoyed, "I'll go to the Seireitei... Wait, how am I supposed to get there? I can't go through the Senkaimon."

"Are you really that dense, you've gone there multiple times." Rukia glared at the human, annoyed, "We'll go through the Precipice World. You can't use the Senkaimon because you don't have a Hell butterfly to accompany you. Worry not, I will escort you through the Dangai."

"Tch... I don't need a damned escort!" Ichigo snapped.

"Fine, I'll just let you go through that dark place all on your own without any company." Rukia crossed her arms and climbed towards the open window.

"Ugh, fine you can come with me. I guess it would be nice to have some company in that damned place. We don't need to rush anymore because the cleaner was destroyed." Ichigo let out a defeated breath.

"Even if the Cleaner was active, it's not its day to go through the Dangai." Rukia shrugged in reply. "Well we might as well go now, come on." The reaper drew her zanpakuto and pointed it in front of her.

"Alright, alright." Ichigo pushed the badge against his chest and was ejected from his body. He arranged his physical body on the bed to make it look like he was sleeping. "Okay, let's go."

Rukia nodded, "Open!" She turned her sword like a key and summoned a Senkaimon. The doors open and a single Hell Butterfly flies towards Rukia. She waves it off dismissing it so she can continue through the Dangai with Ichigo. As they stepped through the bright door they were thrown into the Dangai. Rukia sighed after letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. "Okay, time to start walking. Let's go, Ichigo."

"Yeah, I'm coming..." He followed the Soul Reaper Lieutenant, "Oi, Rukia, what does Old-man Yamomoto want anyway?"

"I'm not sure, he just told me that he wanted to speak with you, so I came to get you." Rukia replied nonchalantly. "If I had to assume... It might have something to do with possibly joining the 13 Court Guard Squads, but I can't be sure."

"Me joining the squads..?" Ichigo questioned.

"Like I said, I'm not sure. They were only rumors, but you'll just have to hear it from him." Rukia shrugged. Ichigo nodded to his friend and continued in silence for a few minutes. He studied Rukia for a few moments, as usual she was confident, standing tall as if she had everything under control. Rukia's purple eyes widened in confusion and that confidence wavered as he was watching her. They both stopped and Ichigo looked ahead of him. What he saw was something that couldn't be explained. There was a fork in the path ahead of them.

"Damn it, what now? Has this ever happened before?" Ichigo looked at Rukia for an answer.

"Not that I know of... Regular Soul Reapers don't use the Dangai, because of the hell butterflies, so if it has we wouldn't have known about it." Rukia went over and studied the fork in the road. She looked around before pulling out her soul pager. After messing with the buttons for a few seconds she cursed and put it back into her Shihakusho. "I'm not getting any signal in here. We might have to split up."

"What, are you crazy? Rukia!" The soul reaper looked at her in shock, not enjoying the thought.

"Listen! The Dangai is a self-contained dimension, it's only exits are the World of the Living and the Soul's Society!" Rukia sighed to contain herself, "Even if the Dangai has forked, it should either lead to a dead-end or the Soul's Society."

"Are you sure?" Ichigo seemed a little nervous about this assumption. He closed his eyes and thought for a second, running his hand through his bright orange hair that looked brown in the darkness. "Okay, fine. I'll go left for about 10 minutes and I don't see anything, I'm coming back and going the other way."

"That sounds like a plan." The woman held out her hand and Ichigo took it, shaking firmly. "Be safe, Ichigo."

"You too, Rukia." He made his way towards the tunnel, nodding towards Rukia before taking his separate path. Ichigo did as Rukia asked, walking for a long while counting his steps and seconds he was taking forward into the dark tunnel. After about 7 minutes of silence he saw a bright, white light a head of him, supposedly marking the end of the tunnel. Ichigo let out a relieved sigh and headed towards the light.

Ichigo reached the exit and waited an amount of time for Rukia to come his way. Ichigo grew impatient and worried that Rukia wasn't appearing. This grew more intense as his mind raced with what could possibly happen to his friend. Ichigo thought if Rukia was right, the tunnel should open to the Seireitei and he could get assistance to look for her. Ichigo turned to face the light. He put his foot forward to leave when sheets of black arms shot out through the light wrapping around  his arms and legs. Ichigo yelled in surprise but couldn't move as the arms pulled him into the light. He shook trying to get free staring at his arms. Ichigo gasped as he witnessed his arms disintegrate into the light. Then the pain started, he felt his body shatter and peel away from his soul before blacking out.