Bleach 1. Prologue:Future of the Fifth Squad

_Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of the character contained herin. All rights go to their respective owners. I repeat This is a fan made fiction that can not and will not make any profit whatsoever, but has been created for the enjoyment of fans of the series. __Anyone who reads this should immediataly go out and purchase the lates Episode of Bleach Manga, read it and support its distributors. That is all._

Prologue: Future of the Fifth Squad

In the town which should not have been where it was, in the city which no living man should ever see, the last two warriors stood facing each other in the final moments of the day. They cast long shadows over the broken and scorched ground that had been their battlefield. The sun was slowly sinking over them, lingering just above the horizon to catch one last glimpse of the final battle. The warriors stared at each other in that last moment, daring the other to fall first, while ordering their bodies to hold on just a little longer till the other fell. Despite their many wounds they both radiated an obscene power that seemed to shake and crack the ground beneath them. Many eyes watched them but none could come within a hundred yards of them and still breathe.

One warrior stood tall and proud, he was clothed in a white robe and his skin glowed with a faint by noticeable light. His sword was elegant and beautiful, simple but perfect in every sense of the word. His shining face only served to highlight his dark black eyes that seemed to hold infinity within them. Over the whole in his chest there was a white cross, and out of his back grew six elegant wings. The brightness of his body was soiled though by the countless scares that covered him and black burns on his wings. He swayed back and forth trying to keep his balance as blood and shadows ran over him.

The other warrior was as dark as his enemy was light, clothed in a long black robe with well tanned skin sitting on top of a red velvet lining; he seemed like some great burning shadow. Through the whole in his chest one could see his long orange hair fluttering in the breeze like his back was on fire. His sword was jet black from handle to tip and a short broken chain ran down the end it seemed utterly unremarkable compared to the shining elegant sword of his foe. His face was covered by a white mask that looked a bit like a human skull with long red lines running down the mask over the eyes like the warrior was bleeding through them. From the top of the mask came a pair of long horns which even now still burned with a faint red flame. Blood ran down his arms and over his chest he had been well paid for the wounds he placed on his foe.

The two warriors glared at each other with great intensity. The white warrior had a pained by determined look on his face as he looked down his nose at his foe. He was convinced that no enemy could ever stand against him. The black warrior drove his sword into the ground and steadied himself. His face was unreadable through his mask, but his eyes radiated of hard won power and obstinate defiance against the world. It was as if God and Satan had warred against each other, but who would've guessed that Satan wore white?

As the sun sank beneath the horizon the last of its life giving rays left the battle field as night fell like a final curtain to this long battle. As it descended the battle ended. The white warrior slowly fell foreword and he breathed out his final words as he collapsed, "Damn you Kurosaki." And then it was over.

As he hit the ground, blood exploded from his wounds and the power that had been holding them closed collapsed completely. And instant later his heart beat for the final time, as death stole over him. The black warrior sighed with relief as his mask shattered and his long hair evaporated and flowed into the whole in his chest and closed it up. He was left with short spiky hair that had never truly known a comb. His face was sharp and well defined with an obvious look of relief on it. His sword began to shine out and its image became distorted for just a second as it radically changed. The guard to the hilt disappeared and the black portion of it grew wider and thicker as a pure white bit grew out from it. It looked like a massive cooking knife with a bit of white cloth wrapped around its steal handle. At the same time his black clothes changed into a black kimono. He smiled faintly and he began to fall.

_I did it._ He thought to himself as he slowly fell his thoughts drifted back to all the friends he had left in Hueco Mundo. _I did it everyone, he's dead. It's over. Orihime you can come home and they will never trouble you again. I'm just sorry that I won't be with you there_. He slowly closed his eyes and drifted off into the abyss of unconsciousness and near death.

"Wow, there boy. Don't you go dying on me just yet." A strange almost country drawl said to him as a thin hand grabbed him in the chest and held him up, dragging the warrior back from the edge of death. He looked up and saw its owner. He looked like a snake. His body was long and thin and did not fit well in the baggy white clothes he was wearing. His hair was short and thin, and silver with a purple tint, like it was an afterthought, a stubborn piece of humanity that clung to him and refused to let him go bald. He squinted so much that you couldn't see his eyes at all, and he had a wide grin like he knew something funny and rude which he both did and didn't want to tell you.

"Gin Ichimaru," the black warrior said as he looked up at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I believe that I am healing you, boy." Sure enough, as Gin held up the warrior with one hand he ran his other over the many wounds that the warrior had taken in the battle. A faint light issued forth from his hand and caused the cuts on him to close up leaving neither scab nor scar behind. His hand nonetheless felt like a dagger's edge going over him.

"Why? I just killed your boss." The warrior protested in a weak voice.

"I never liked him really." Gin said.

"You defected to Hueco Mundo with him. You fought against me back on earth for him."

"I did that because there are only two people who could have killed him, you and me. You were to weak back on earth so I had to stop you and he had to trust me to give me a chance. In the end I couldn't kill him, but my fight with you kept you far enough away from him for you to finish him off."

"But…." The warrior started.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, stop protesting me and get healed already. You're alive, he's dead, your friends are safe, and nothing else really matters right now so shut up." Ichigo went silent not because of what he had been told but because he didn't really have the strength needed to protest any further. After some time Gin spoke again.

"Right then, that will keep alive till someone more skilled than me shows up. Now if you'll excuse me I have other people that I need to heal and see. Bye-bye." Before he left he turned to the ruins of the town around him and spoke again, "Ya'll can come now. It's all right, Aizens dead and the local boy won out."

Slowly, by ones and twos people started climbing out over the rubble. Most of them simply stared at the sheer destruction visited on the town's center. Dozens of buildings were destroyed and had been reduced to flaming rubble. Along with them came dozens of men clad in black kimonos armed with katanas. They started digging through the rubble and gathering up the injured people scattered from around the town and tending to their wounds. No one approached either of the fallen warriors. Except for four teenagers who immediately came running out to Ichigo's side. He smiled as he saw them coming, he was glad to see that they were still alive. He was even glad when one of them kicked him the side.

"What was that for Tatsuki?" He demanded of the short black haired girl who had kicked him.

"That's for running off to the fight right after you found us! What the Hell is going on here Ichigo?" She shouted at him in response.

"Yeah and what's up with those clothes?" a young brown haired boy named Keigo Asano asked as he pointed and snickered at Ichigo's kimono, "You look like a samurai, what kind of cosplay have you been up to?"

"Forget that!" A red haired girl with a pair of thin glasses exclaimed as she grabbed Ichigo and started violently shaking him back and forth, "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY PRECIOUSE HIME!"

"Don't worry, Honsho," Ichigo said as Tatsuki pulled her off of him, "She's probably back home by now."

"YOU MEAN THAT YOU BROUGHT MY HIME INTO ALL OF THIS MADNESS!" Honsho screamed as she resumed throttling Ichigo.

"No she's not here, she back home, or rather she's back at the fake home; I am not certain which one is real." Ichigo explained, with a slightly confused look replacing his usual scowl.

"What do you mean Ichigo?" The last teen asked, a youthful boy with black hair and an open cell phone named Mizuiro Kojima asked without looking up from the blank screen of his cell phone.

"It's a pretty damn long story." Ichigo said trying to avoid the question.

"Then maybe you should've told us it when it first started." Tatsuki said in a clearly annoyed voice as she turned away from him.

"I'm sorry, Tatsuki, I probably should've, but you would've never believed and by the time you could've it was my problem to deal with, not yours." Ichigo said as a very apologetic look stole over his face and he turned away from them.

"Idiot." Tatsuki said interrupting him, "were your friends, we'll believe even if you told us the moon was falling, and we'll help you no matter what's happening." She finished as all the other smiled and nodded at him. Ichigo smiled back at them a laughed quietly to himself.

"What a cheesy thing to say." He said to himself, as Tatsuki kicked him again. He laughed, they all laughed, except for Tatsuki who awkwardly hopped about rubbing her foot; Ichigo's head had felt like steal when she kicked it.

"Well I'll start with the obvious. Have you ever seen a castle like that back home?" Ichigo asked as he pointed towards the horizon. Throughout the day the horizon had been blocked by a thick line of clouds but now they had been driven away and the outline of a massive castle was now clearly visible in the twilight of sunset.

"It's called the court of pure souls." Ichigo continued as all of his friends stared at it with wide eyed wonder. "It's the capital of this land that were in, which is called soul society, this is the land of the dead where human souls come while they wait to be reincarnated."

"So are we all dead?" Keigo asked in a hesitant voice.

"No were not, Karakura town was brought here in order to protect it from that guy." Ichigo said motioning to the dead white warrior laying across from him. "There are guys called Death Gods who are in charge of protecting this place and all dead human souls who went to earth to stop him after moving everyone here so that they wouldn't get caught in the cross fire. They failed, but I was able to kill him and end this. Once the Death Gods get back they will send us all home and this will all be over."

"How were you able to succeed where they failed?" Mizuiro asked.

"Well, I am a Death God too. Technically I'm only a substitute Death God, but I was strong enough to take him down."

"How did that happen?" Tatsuki asked

"Do you all remember Rukia Kuchiki, the transfer student?" Ichigo asked and they all nodded their heads. "Do you remember that she vanished without saying a word to anyone back before summer vacation and that no one noticed her vanish or asked where she went?" when he asked his four friends looked back him with blank faces that then started to look rather solemn and pained as the realization poured over them. Rukia had been with them, then she was gone and no one noticed, then she came back, and no one noticed. It hurt to think about it, like their memories couldn't agree about what had actually happened.

Ichigo continued, "The reason why you didn't notice is because she came back here to soul society. Rukia died about a hundred and thirty years ago. She grew up in the soul society and became a Death God. See back during the spring semester I was attacked…." And he told them everything, and it was a very long story.

Skip

Gin had never considered himself to be a hero of any kind. He barely considered himself to be human. He knew that he radiated bloodlust on the battle field, or even in day to day life. He knew that he creped most people out and that those same people feared and hated him for that. Under any other circumstance he probably would've been one of the bad guys, as bad as Aizen was at least, but he got lucky. He had found someone worth saving and protecting. He knew that needing someone to rescue him was a sign of weakness but he also believed in order to be truly strong he needed a weak person to protect. Maybe Aizen wouldn't have been nearly as nuts as he was if he had found a person like that. Maybe, Gin didn't really know.

It was probably a bad sign that the only way he had to protect the one he care for was by stabbing her, but Gin had never really known the right way at all. All he knew was his way, to stand in the shadow where people were too frightened to look and do what had to be done. And what had to be done with his love was to stab her. If Aizen had thought that she was alive he would've really killed her, but Gin only broke her Soul's Chain which kept her down and unnoticeable but could still be repaired. It didn't take long to heal her, but he didn't wake her up when he was done. He still had more to do before then.

"I am sorry Rangiku, I got to save you one more time before I own up for this." He said to the wounded girl he had just finished healing as he looked down at a small black orb he held in his hand, and then he left.

The black orb was the catalyst for all this. Because of it, Aizen had gained the power he needed to attack the Soul Society with an army of Hollow Demons. It was called the Hogyoku, it had been designed by a mad scientist who did not understand what he was making, but neither did Aizen understand what he was stealing. There was only one group in the universe who truly understood what the Hogyoku was for and they would soon come to take it back. Only Aizen and Gin truly knew what they had to promise to receive permission to enter Hueco Mundo and build an army.

Gin crossed all of Soul Society as he went. It was a trip that would've taken days for anyone other than a Captain. Gin crossed it quickly with constant flash steps, he didn't want to be late. He ran far beyond the eightieth district of the Rukongai, he ran far beyond the plains and forest that lay at its edge all the way to the outer most wall of Soul Society to the infinite sea that lay at its edge. There, on the wall, was one of them.

He was standing in a circle of white crosses painted on the ground. At the center of each cross was another cross of bones standing up around him like a fence. It was an old technique used to hide their spiritual pressure which could've killed people across all of soul society if he hadn't set it up. He was as tall as a man, but his features could not be seen in the pale light. When Gin entered the circle the pressure almost drove him to his knees. But he didn't fall, he put one hand on his sword and took out the Hogyoku with the other.

"Take it and leave." He ordered the man as he casually threw the Hogyoku to him. The man nimbly caught it and smiled to himself. He then tapped the air behind him and opened up a massive black portal, threw which one could just barely see a pale crescent shaped moon. He stepped through the portal and was gone.

Skip

Three days passed in the Soul Society without much event. The great Captains of the Thirteen Court Guards returned the same night it had ended and saw to Ichigo's wounds and to Gin's arrest. Aizen's body was carefully searched and once they were certain beyond a doubt that it was him, he was turned over to the medical core and the science department for a full analysis. There was much work to be done after that though. Karakura town had been badly damaged in the battle and they had to carefully repair it. But that work had been done. The town was fixed and had been sent back to the earth. They had changed the memories of everyone who was spiritually ignorant before this event so that they could resume their lives normally. For the fifty or citizens who were spiritually aware and thus immune to a mind wipe, they explained the situation completely and sent them on their marry way under an oath of secrecy.

Now for the first time since the battle all of the Captains gathered to debrief and make plans for the future of Soul Society. There were nine of them, just over three fourths of their full number but the situation was dire. The First Captain was an old man, with a weathered face and a long beard. He squinted in the harsh light and supported himself with a long wooden staff. The Second Captain was a short girl, missing her left arm but she nonetheless walked with an aura of power and authority. The Third Captain was in jail. The Fourth Captain was a middle aged woman with the look of a caring mother about her. She was carrying a large report in her hands. The Fifth Captain was dead. The sixth Captain was a rather handsome young man, who seemed to personify grace and honor. He wore long black hair with a silver head piece, he also wore a very expensive scarf around his neck, but aside from that did not deviate from the captain's uniform. The Seventh Captain was a humanoid wolf who towered over those around him, he looked serious, and scowled slightly. The Eighth Captain wore an ornate cloak over his captain's cloak along with a straw hat. He was also chewing on a bit of straw. The Ninth Captain was dead. The Tenth Captain was a young boy who looked to be no more than twelve years old, aside from his snow white hair and solemn face. The Eleventh Captain yawned as he entered the room as if he had just woken up from a nap, his right eye was covered with an eye-patch and his spiky hair was covered in bells. The Twelfth Captain looked like a Noh actor with elaborate face paint, and a large bleu wig, he was smiling to himself. The Thirteenth Captain was out sick.

The Fourth Captain, Retsu Unohana, started with her report in a tender and motherly voice. "Good morning my fellow captains. I am not certain if we got off of lucky in this battle or if we were devastated by it." The other captains nodded at what she had said, it had been a long and hard battle against Aizen and his Hollow Demons but it was over now.

She continued, "Sosuke Aizen is dead. This has not only been confirmed by a full analysis of his body but also of his Soul Slayer, which is now devoid of power and broken. The cause of death was blood loss brought on by multiple cuts to his skin. Kaname Tosen is also dead, cause of death was sever brain lacerations, brought on by three cuts to his skull, one direct cut from the outside and two cuts from the inside. Jushiro Ukitake was severely wounded in his chest, which while not fatal, has drastically irritated his tuberculosis, I do not believe that he will ever be able to use Bankai again, and I also doubt that he will be able to use Shikai for longer than three minutes."

At this all of the captains bowed their heads. It was not easy to here that one of their allies had been so badly wounded. Even the Captain Commander's otherwise constant look of power and control faltered for just a moment as he heard of the damage done to a man he had always treated like a son.

After a brief pause she continued, "SoiFon lost her left arm in the battle and has refused medical treatment to replace it. While I don't think that this is wise, I can confirm that she will suffer little long term debilitation from this. Amongst the vice captains the wounds taken were almost as bad. Seventh Squad Vice Captain Tetsuzaemon Iba is dead, cause of death was a combination of dehydration and an overheated body temperature brought on by sustaining a direct hit from a powerful cero blast. Tenth Squad Vice Captain Rangiku Matsumoto was badly injured in the chest resulting in damage to her Soul's Chain, however all damage has been repaired and she should make a full recovery very soon. Fifth Squad Vice Captain Momo Hinamori was stabbed in several places but is expected to make a full recovery in about a week or so. The real damage is psychological in my opinion, she has been betrayed by everyone she has ever trusted and may never fully recover. I recommend that she receive a full evaluation for the first squad psychological corps as soon as possible. No other major casualties were sustained in the battle." She concluded.

Captain Soifon then said in a quick and quiet voice, "Former Third Squad Captain, Gin Ichimaru has turned his soul slayer over to the Captain Commander and is being held in the high security penitentiary wing of the Second Squad barracks under constant observation. He awaits judgment."

The Twelfth Squad Captain, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, then said with his eyes flowing around the room studying the effects of his words on his audience, "A full analysis of Aizen's body and his blood has failed to confirm the whereabouts or the fate of the Hogyoku. It is possible that it was completely absorbed into Aizen's body before his death as he finished his transformation, but I would like more time to study his corpse to confirm this."

The Captain Commander nodded. And then he spoke in deliberate and powerful voice that only an old man can muster. "We now come to the point of this meeting. The battle is over and it has cost us the lives of two captains. Over the remaining eleven two are unfit for command, we must discuss their fates and decide what is to be done about the gaps in our numbers."

The Wolf Captain named Sajin Komamura, spoke first his words had been carefully chosen, "We should bury Tosen with full honors. He was deceived by Aizen and betrayed by him in the end, we should at least preserve his honor in his death."

Tenth Squad Captain, Toshiro Histugaya, rejected his idea, "Tosen was a traitor to Soul Society and should be dealt with as such; we should burn his body along with Aizen's as soon as possible."

Sajin growled back, "Do not be so quick to judge Tosen, he was confused and injured by the death of his love. If we had known we could've saved him he should not be punished for our failure."

"It was his failure that brought this on himself. He should've been ready to accept the consequences."

Eighth Squad Captain, Shunsui Kyoraku, interjected. "Calm down Toshiro, there is no need to be so hot headed. We should take this as slowly as possible."

"Besides," Mayuri said enforcing Shunsui, "I need Aizen's body for my research this is no time to be talking of burning him."

"He was a traitor though," Soifon said, "Traitor should be dealt with under the full weight of the law."

"Especially Gin," Toshiro silently added.

"That is not our place," Sixth Squad Captain, Byakuya Kuchiki said rebuking Toshiro, "Gin actions are not as black and white as Aizen's were and he is still alive."

"He stabbed Rangiku through the chest!" Toshiro exclaimed,

"And in so doing saved her from Aizen." Byakuya responded, "None of Gins actions are strictly speaking illegal and all of them were motivated by a desire to protect Soul Society from Aizen. They were not admittedly the best or even the right actions to take, but such judgments are not ours to make. Gin Ichimaru cannot be legally removed from command of his squad without direct orders from Central Room 46."

The room went silent at the mention of that powerful name. Central Room 46 was the governing body of Soul Society. It was a council of Nobles that even the Captain Commander answered to. No captains could be punished, restrained, interrogated or disobeyed without direct orders from Central Room 46. Unfortunately, Aizen had wiped out the council before defecting.

The Captain Commander was the first to break the silence, "Captain Byakuya, as head of the Kuchiki household and the only captain here with a noble blood line, you were assigned to oversee the reconstruction of Central Room 46, how goes your work?"

"Slowly," The Sixth Squad captain responded, "Central Room 46 holds a great deal of power and most of the heads of the noble families were wiped out when it fell. Several of the Noble houses are just establishing new heads and only once they have been established can a caucus be held to appoint a new central council which will then appoint the rest of the judicial body. Reforming the body completely is likely to take a full year."

"You expect us to wait a full year before punishing that bastard Gin?" Toshiro exclaimed.

"Calm down Toshiro, there is no reason to shout." Shunsui chided, "Byakuya is right, without central room 46 it would be illegal to judge Gin, or to replace any of the captains for that matter."

"I think in times of crisis like this," Mayuri started, "We can forgo the formalities and simply act. When Society breaks down it is up to those with power to restore order. Who cares if a few fingers are stepped on in the process? I am sure the a new Central Room 46 will agree to support any decision we make after the fact."

"We cannot abandon the law," Byakuya responded, "The Law is not upheld by power, but by the consensus of all society. The duty of those with power is not to create the law, but to follow it, so that by our example the weak will follow it to. What message does it send to the wandering souls if we break the law the moment it become inconvenient for us? If we expect the Soul Society to hold together we must not try to force it closed but persuade it to stay shut."

"Very well then Byakuya what do expect us to do with the gaps in our line? Only Central Room 46 can appoint new captains, if we respect the law and wait then we will be severely weakened. Not only be the lack of captains, but also by a lack of recruits. Without a Fifth Squad captain the Death God Academy cannot open its doors to classes, and without Central Room 46's orders none of us can take it over."

"But Mayuri you forget there is a way to replace captains without Central Room 46. If a Death God kills the previous Captain of a squad in a one on one dual, in the presence of a thousand witnesses and one other captain, he takes command of that squad. That's how Kenpachi Zaraki took control of the eleventh squad, and it's just what Ichigo Kurosaki has done to Sosuke Aizen."

"But none of us witnessed Aizen's defeat." Unohana objected.

"Gin did," Byakuya explained, "If we obey the law, and simple declare Gin to be a captain on probation, we can use his testimony to appoint Ichigo into command of the fifth squad solving our only pressing issue. All other appointments can wait until Central Room 46 is reestablished. The law will be upheld and the crisis averted."

"You expect us to just sit back and let a monster like Gin walk free!" Toshiro demanded to know, and then the meeting devolved into a long argument.

Skip

Ichigo Kurosaki was resting peacefully in the Fourth Squad's medical center waiting to be released. He was eager to leave Soul Society all of his friends had already gone back home and he wanted to join them. He also wanted to forget that the whole thing had happened. With Aizen around he could slip back into a rutine of classes and beating up the uppity punks from around the school. No more chasing down hollows. No more life or death struggles with monsters that really should not be. Just a peaceful normal life like he had had before his adventures started.

It wasn't that Ichigo dislike the Soul Society, and to be certain he had enjoyed his adventures to an extent, but they weren't something he was eager to continue. He had never sought out adventure, he had never dreamed of being a hero. He just wanted to protect his friends and now that they were safe he could end all of this. He wasn't that lucky though.

Late that evening the door opened and four captains entered his room. Ichigo knew something was up when he saw that the Captain Commander was leading them along Byakuya, Gin, and Shunsui. The Captain commander took a seat opposite him as the other captains lined the room.

Ichigo greeted them, "Hey there. What are you all doing here this late at night? And wasn't Gin sent to jail."

"They let me out to do one thing," Gin responded,

"What's that?" Ichigo asked with a confused look on his face.

"To confirm that you, Ichigo Kurosaki, are the one who challenged and defeated captain Aizen in a one on one dual three days ago."

"Is there a problem with that?"

"It means that we ain't got no fifth captain no more."

"So?" Ichigo said with just a bit of worry creeping into his voice.

"That means," The Captain Commander said in a slow deliberate voice, "That in accordance with the laws of the Court of Pure Souls, you: Ichigo Kurosaki, are now the official Captain of the Fifth Squad. Here is you cloak." The Commander said taking the long white cloak with the number five written on its back out from his sleeves.

The room was silent for about five minutes, as Ichigo tried to stare down the Captain Commander and make him admit the bluff. He didn't say a word so Ichigo assumed that he must've been telling the truth and reacted as he would've normally.

"Hell no." Ichigo said breaking the long awkward silence.

"You can't refuse, this is not a matter up for debate." The Commander responded.

"Watch me." Ichigo said as he started to stand up and got ready to leave.

"We need you Ichigo," Shunsui said before the Commander could speak again. "The Fifth Squad needs a leader and you are the only one who qualifies. Without a Fifth Squad captain we can't run the Death God Academy and recruit new warriors."

"All the more reason to refuse, trust me you don't want me incharge of a school much less and entire squad."

"Want it or not, you're the only one who can take on the job, think of all the good you could do with it."

"To bad, I don't want it. I never wanted any of this. I only got my powers as a death god to protect my family, and I only kept them to protect those I could see. I am not the kind of guy to try and be the hero and save the world. I just want to go back home."

"Liar," Byakuya said interrupting Ichigo, "I know you to well to get away with such a ridiculous statement Ichigo."

"What you don't think that I don't want these powers? Cause if you do your wrong Byakuya."

"No what your lying about it wanting to go home."

"So I don't really want to go home?"

"No you don't"

"Why not?"

"Because you aren't the sort of person who puts his friends in needless danger."

"What are you talking about?"

"Ichigo, you have the spiritual power equal to that of a Captain, it is so great that you can't even seal up your Shikai and you have completely mastered your bankai. However since gaining this power you have only fought against extremely strong opponents, so its no wonder that you have forgotten about the weight of your own power. When we captain release our power it forms and intense pressure around us that we use to gauge each other's strength but if we are not careful we can kill weaker warriors with it. If it wasn't for the fact that we sealed up the area you were fighting in, you would've killed hundreds of people accidently during your battle with Grimmjow."

As Byakuya words sunk into Ichigo's mind his face went blank. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. But no sooner did he doubt the truth then his memory reminded him of the first time he fought a captain, how nearly impossible it had been to even breathe in the presence of Kenpachi's power. It had been too much for his friends Ganju and Hanataro to take, did he really produce that same kind of pressure every time he fought?

Byakuya continued as he watched his words sink into Ichigo, "Even without your bankai the pressure you release is incredible. Most humans don't notice it, but their souls are constantly fighting it. Your forcing dozens of people to release far more spiritual power then they should just to resist your power and stay alive. Now for Quincy this is no problem since they absorb spiritual energy to replace what they expend resisting you, and for people like Inoue and Sado who must've been powerful spirits in their previous afterlife this also isn't a problem since they have vast energy reserves to begin with. But normal Humans have very little spiritual energy and they need what little they have to make it through life. Your friends have probably already lost several years of life by being around you."

Ichigo was stunned he couldn't believe what he had been told. Byakuya didn't relent to still continued. "Normally a Death God with as power as a vice Captain or higher is sealed up so they can only use a fifth of their full strength, but given enough time this seal will fail and be overwhelmed by the power of its host. Even a Vice Captain can spend no more than three days in the Human worlds without returning to release their power. A typical Captain can spend about a day or so, if they practice great patience and constantly wear a Gigai. For someone like you Ichigo, with your power that rivals even the elite of Soul Society, you could spend no more than twelve hours in the land of the living before you become a threat to those around you."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Ichigo asked trying to process all of this information.

"We never thought that your power would reach this level." Shunsui said, "When you left Soul Society the first time you had the strength of an exceptional vice captain, if your power had stayed at that level you would've been no threat to anyone. But the Arrancar forced you to become far strong than we anticipated. We are sorry, you shouldn't have gotten this far."

"What if I wore an eye patch like Kenpachi's to consume most of my energy?"

"That would work, but only for a while. Kenpachi does seal up most of his power with his eye patch but even with it he can fight on par with most other captains. You would be the same case. Even with most of you power consumed by such a device and the rest sealed up with a captain's seal, you could only remain on earth for about 16 hours before becoming a threat to others."

"Which means," Byakuya said continuing for Shunsui, "You could spend mornings and your school day on earth, but at four o clock you would have to come to Soul Society and remain here for another eight hours before returning home a midnight or later."

"It would be just like a day job." Shunsui said trying to put a positive spin on it. Ichigo only glared at the floor. "Look you don't have to say anything yet. Just think about it for a day or so and then get back to us later alright?"

Ichigo said nothing, he simply rolled over in his bed and stared out the window into the night. The other captain left with out pressing the subject further but the left the captain's cloak behind. Ichigo was rather angry at the world. He didn't want this. He just wanted to be another normal teenager with normal teenager problems. He didn't want to lead a squad, he didn't want to be a full time Death God, and he definitely didn't want to be in charge of some academy. But while he didn't want to save the world, he wasn't such a jerk as to ignore the problems in front of him. So he swore under his breath and took up the mantel of the man he had killed.

End of Prologue.


	2. Chapter 1:A New Day

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach on any Character contained within. I also do not own any of the Characters contained herein who were barrowed from various other manga. All rights go to their respective authors. Please support the official release of all Manga in the Unite States. The only character I claim any rights to is Uri Takeda a character of my own invention, any similarity he has to any persons, real/fictional/living/dead is complete coincide. _

_Note: Wow, this has been up only two days and I already have five reviews. Thanks Everyone for your support and criticism. Ten points to anyone who can name which four Manga I am barrowing Characters from._

Chapter 1: A New Day

Hinamori opened her eyes on a cold winter day in the early morning. It was not the first time she had woken up, in fact it was the third time that night. The last few days had been hard on her, since she had regained consciousness. She had half expected to wake up and find that everything had been a long bad dream and that she would see Captain Aizen in his wide brimmed glasses sitting by his desk like he had on that last fateful night. He wasn't. Instead she was still trapped in the Fourth Squad's medical center. She was still trapped in a world without Aizen.

She had been in a world that was lacking Aizen for a few months by that point. Ever since he had stabbed her and left Soul Society it had seemed like there was one giant hole in her heart where he should have been. She tried her best to get on with her duties and the other captains had been very kind to help her out, but it was almost too hard. Now it was nearly impossible. She wasn't just in a world where Aizen was gone, she was in a world where he was dead and never coming back. She had heard that news four days before when she first regained consciousness. She still couldn't believe it, that a whole week had passed since Aizen's death. She couldn't stand it.

Her dreams didn't really help her out either. They haunted her every night, and nearly every morning. She had the darkest nightmares of that most horrible day when the last of the solid ground she had built her life on had slipped away. After Aizen had left the only thing that she had, had been her friends and the other captains, especially Toshiro. But on that last final day, the first time she had seen Aizen since he left, she was attacked by Toshiro and the other captains and now she was broken. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see them coming. Warriors stronger then she could imagine cursing her and charging her with all their strength and that last horrible moment when Toshiro cut her down. It hurt just to think about it.

So she didn't think about it. She refused to sleep or to let her mind wander. She focused on other things. Like what she would do tomorrow when they finally let her leave and get back to work. She thought of all the things she would have to do for her squad. All the paper work that would be piling up, and all the assignments that had be given out; it was a lot of work but there was no one else to do it. So she lay in her bed and quietly thought over everything she would have to do in the coming morn.

The sun rose the next morning very slowly as if it had much better things to do that day then provide the Soul Society with light. As it crested the horizon all the members of the fourth squad made their way in and started to divide up their chores. Captain, Unohana came in to personally check on Hinamori's wounds and then sign her release forms. After that Hinamori dressed herself very quickly and left the medical center. She was careful to only walk back to the fifth Squad barracks like Unohana had ordered her to. She was surprised that no one came to meet her as she made her way back. It made her feel rather lonely and kind of depressed.

The Fifth Squad main office was empty, but it was already late in the day by the time she got there so most of the Death Gods would've already received their assignments or retired to the barracks for the day. She made her way over to the main office to get started on her paper work. She was surprised to see the light on in the room and the door slightly ajar, inside she saw the Fifth Squad third seat: Guts Griffith seated at the main desk quietly doing paper work.

Griffith was a man of a man. He stood well over six feet tall and he body was a patch work of old cuts, bruises and well defined muscles. He had black hair and dark eyes with a sharply defined face. He always closed his right eye and squinted through his left. He wore the standard Death God uniform of a black Kimono and kept his sword tucked on the inside of his cloak. He was missing his left arm and had a look of frustration on his face as he struggled through his paper work with only one hand. He made no attempt to either great or recognize Hinamori as she entered and only looked up when she first spoke to him.

"Good morning Guts, need any help doing my paper work?" Hinamori asked in as chipper a voice as she could muster. Guts glared at her with a look that could've sliced through stone. He had lived with his disability since he first went to the living world forty years earlier; he had never allowed it to keep him from doing anything.

Hinamori laughed to herself and took the seat opposite him and got to work. After a while he calmed down a bit and spoke to her. "I heard you were out of the hospital, I didn't think that you would come here so quickly. You should go visit with some of the other Vice Captains I can handle things here."

"I am surprised you're doing them at all, it's been years since I last saw you file a report." Hinamori responded avoiding much of what Guts had said.

"It's one of his changes." Guts hissed to her without thinking about what he had said.

Hinamori caught it though and asked, "Whose changes?"

"They didn't tell you?"

Hinamori shook her head, none of the captains or many people at all had visited her in the medical center. She hadn't heard heads or tails of anything that had happened since the battle, other than Aizen's death.

"The Commander decided it would be wiser to cover up Aizen's rebellion then to deal with it. All information about the last few months has been covered up. The official statements say that Kaname Tosen has been promoted to the Royal Special Forces and that Aizen was challenged to a dual by the substitute Death God Ichigo Kurosaki and slain in fair combat. Ichigo has since taken over the Fifth Squad. Aizen will be given a full military funeral this afternoon."

Hinamori was stunned. She had known that Aizen would be replaced for betraying Soul Society but she hadn't thought that it would come so quickly and she had never imagined it could've been a former intruder. It didn't seem fair. Aizen wasn't even buried yet and they were already giving his squad away to some newcomer. But she tried not to let this show on her face.

"That's good." She said calmly, "Aizen will be remembered for all the good work he did, it's too bad I can't go to the funeral though. I'll have to do a lot of work to get the squad ready for Ichigo's new Vice Captain, and I need to put in a transfer request to seventh squad. I hear they need a new Vice Captain soon. And I'll need to…"

Guts interrupted her: "Ichigo has actually requested that you stay on a Vice Captain here. He thinks at least one person in the command structure should know what they're doing."

Hinamori was stunned again, she thought that Ichigo had a thing for Rukia Kuchiki, or at least that's what all the rumors said. She wasn't sure she liked this though. "Well then I need to get ready to meet my new captain. When will he get here?"

"Not till the late afternoon. Ichigo still lives in the living world. But he comes in every day at four o'clock or so. But he told me yesterday that he doesn't want to see you till tonight."

"Why not?" Hinamori said a little concerned and relieved at the same time,

"He's ordered you to go to Aizen's funeral and get some 'closure' with him. He said he doesn't want to see you till you're ready." Hinamori was silent. She was eager to go see Aizen one last time and at the same time she dreaded it. Guts continued, "It'll start in about twenty minutes you should get going."

She paused for a moment still not entirely certain of what to do and then she said, "I will be back as soon as it's over to meet with the new captain."

"Don't bother, the Funeral won't end till five and by then the captain and I will already be over at the Academy for an official inspection and he doesn't want to be disturbed during it."

"But the Academy was closed when Aizen left, when did you all reopen it?"

"We sent runners out this morning. They all should be there by now."

"A lot of students won't be ready, what was he thinking? Aizen wouldn't have…" Hinamori caught herself just before she uttered what she was thinking.

"No he wouldn't have," Guts said finishing her thought, "Aizen assumed you were weak till you proved that you were strong. Ichigo assumes you're strong till you prove him wrong."

"That's strange." Hinamori said grasping for something more to say.

"He's strange. He complains all the time about the work he has to do, but he does it all extremely well. He's slow to start doing anything, but once he starts he does it quickly and single-mindedly. He's impulsive and a bit reckless but he's also impossible to stop. It's like he doesn't know how to do anything any other way then perfectly, and he assumes that you don't either. You'll see what I mean later."

"I probably will. I should get going. See you later Guts."

"See you later Momo."

Skip

Earlier that morning several members of the Fifth Squad went out and ordered all of the teachers and students of the academy to prepare to return to class later that day. For the most part the operation went without a hitch. They showed up and were answered by an adult of one kind or another said what they had to say and left before everyone started complaining. But there were a few incidents of note. The first happened at a building that couldn't be called a house in the same sense the Mt. Everest can't be called a hill.

Most houses are places where people live, but this was a building where places lived. It was huge. It dwarfed every building around it and was itself full of many kinds of buildings and all kinds of different room. It had a lake, a garden, a game room, dozens of bed rooms, a bath house, a zoo, several dining rooms, two forges, three visible kitchens and not many people at all. The messengers had knocked on the door and it had opened up without there being any one there. They came in and no one greeted them, they wandered around and no one scolded them, they called out and no one answered. Eventually they saw some smoke rising from a distant chimney and rushed over to it.

At the chimney they found a large open kitchen that seemed as if it could've housed an army as well as fed one. There were dozens of ovens, several of which were lit and all joined together into one giant chimney. There were a dozen boiling pots and several red hot frying pans. There were two sinks full of dirty dishes, and several stacks of clean dishes. There was also one boy moving amongst the whole thing. The boy was not moving faster than the eye could follow but he was moving far faster than the mind would believe. He did not run, he did not disappear between steps either. He walked far faster than a sprinter could've run as if he was crossing less space then he seemed to. He moved and he arrived and very little time passed between the two.

After a few moments one of the two men spoke, "Is this the residence of Hayate Ayasashi?"

"Speaking." The blue haired boy said as he froze mid dash, with two red hot frying pans in his hands, a pot of boiling water on his knee and a half dozen plates, two glasses and a tea pot balancing on his head. All of which didn't seem possible since the boy was barely five and half feet tall and was built like a twig with a fairly effeminate face.

"Is this also the residence of Nagi Sazenin?"

"Yes but she's still asleep."

"Is there anyone else living here?"

"No."

"Then why are you cooking so much?"

"If I do all the cooking for the week this morning then I have more time to clean the rooms, fish out the pond, tend the smithies, do the laundry, replace the winter furniture with the new spring furniture, feed the animals, tend the garden, and…" Hayate explained as he set the pot of boiling water down on a stove, removed his shoe and started flipping a frying pan full of rice with his foot.

"And what does Nagi do during all of this?" One of Death Gods asked sensing that this could go on.

"She studies and reads up on current events."

"That seems a little one sided doesn't it?"

"Well I can't study for her now can I? I believe you gentlemen have something to tell me."

"Ah yes, we have been sent to tell you, that by order of Captain Ichigo the Death God academy is to resume classes to day and you all are required to attend."

"Oh good, I am certain that Nagi will be happy to hear that. Thank you gentlemen, now if you'll pardon me, I have to get back to work."

"Right then, sorry to bother you." The Death Gods said as they quietly left and Hayate resumed his dashing run.

A dozen streets away another pair of Death Gods came upon a much smaller building and knocked on the door. They were greeted by a teenage boy who had black hair and sharp green eyes. He was wearing very little and looked like he had just woken up.

"Is this the residence of Takashi Kumori?"

"Speaking." The boy responded as he yawned.

"By order of Captain Ichigo the Death God Academy will resume its classes today and you are required to come."

"Who the heck is Captain Ichigo? I thought that Aizen was in charge of the academy."

"He was. Ichigo defeated him in a dual and has taken control of the squad."

"That so huh? Well you hear that Rei? We're going back to school."

Behind him a girl sat up in bed also with rather little clothes on and smiled at Takashi and said, "Oh good, I will get dressed right away."

The Death Gods turned red when they saw her, but quickly recovered themselves and said to Takashi, "Wait a minute are you sleeping together?" They demanded to know.

"What?" Takashi said, pretending not to hear properly, "You're sleeping together. Well congratulations."

"No, we asked if you're sleeping together."

"Wow, that's a big confession for two men to make even in this day and age. But why do you think they're telling me this Rei?"

"Maybe they want you to spread the word for them." Rei suggest snickering to herself.

"What a bother, why can't two gay guys tell their friends themselves. Well I guess we can make some flyers and spread them around the court of pure souls but it seems like an awful lot of work." Takashi said as he closed the door in their face.

"Wait a moment don't you close this door!"

"What? Did you say your wife's a whore? Well I'll tell her that to if you insist."

One of the Death Gods gripped his sword and swore under his breath, the other one simply laughed and called his friend away. There was no point going any further with a couple like them. A few streets further on they came up to another house and banged on the door. But there wasn't an answer, so they banged again. Still no answer. So they turned to someone nearby and spoke to him.

"Is that the house of Uri Takeda?" they asked

"It is." The old man responded.

"Could you tell us where he is we have a message for him."

"Oh, he's still home, just shout at him and he'll answer, soon or later."

The Death Gods shrugged and turned back to the house, cupped their hands together and shouted, "URU TEKADA! BY ORDER OF CAPTAIN ICHIGO THE DEATH GOD ACADEMY IS TO RESUME CLASSES TODAY! YOU HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO ATTEND."

There was no response from the old shack of a house. The Death Gods looked at each other and repeated the message. Still there was no response so one of them yelled, "THAT MEANS YOU HAVE TO GET READY AND LEAVE!"

"Do you think he heard us?" One asked the other.

"I don't know, maybe we should go in."

"And risk walking in on a situation like the last house? No thank you. Just shout it again."

The other one cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled "URU TAKEDA…."

Just then the door opened and a tall boy with short red hair came out dressed in the typical white and red uniform of male students yawning to himself. He walked past them scratching his head and turned to them and mumbled to them, "I heard you the first time." And then he left.

Skip

Hayate finished preparing that week's food shortly after the Death Gods had left. He honestly enjoyed his work. He felt that hard work was the salvation of his soul and he was always happy to get to do any work at all. In his life his family had been gambled into incredible poverty, he had worked hard to feed himself but his parents even gambled away that money. He had died alone, poor, over worked and hungry. He had hoped that the afterlife would be different but when he first came to soul society it had been a huge let down.

Most people never got hungry in soul society so most people didn't have to work. Since few people worked few people had money to buy anything. Since no one really bought anything there weren't many jobs to go around. Hayate had spent more than a year trying to find a job, at first he wanted to keep busy but later on he started getting hungry and then he really got in trouble. He probably would've starved to death in a land without hunger if it hadn't been for Ms. Nagi. Nagi had found him on the streets and given him food. After finding out the story of his life and after life she allowed him to come and work as her butler and for that he was eternally grateful. It was that gratitude which allowed him to put up with a lot of things about Nagi which would've broken any lesser worker. Like her impeccably good throwing arm and surprising accuracy in the early mornings.

"It's too early!" Nagi said groggily as she threw a small bust at Hayate at a speed which a quarter back would've been jealous of.

Hayate dodged to the side as the bust flew out the window. "You have to get ready for classes Nagi, or else we'll be late."

"Classes have been canceled for months." Nagi countered as she grabbed the fire poker and hurled it like a javelin at her caretaker.

"The Captain said to come back this morning and so you have to come." Hayate said as he caught the poker an inch or so away from his eyes.

"You can't make me!" Nagi declared as she grabbed her throwing pillow which was had a seven pound led weight in it.

"Good Morning Ms. Nagi!" A crystal clear voice called out from outside the window. In a flash Nagi rushed over to the window and glared out of it down into the courtyard beneath. Down there, just outside of the compound itself was her eternal rival. Hime Lillian was the second daughter of a powerful noble in the western court of wandering souls. They had known each other their whole lives and had fought over everything. Any other pair would've slugged it out by now, but since they were both nobles they had to be chillingly and icily polite to each other instead.

"Good Morning Ms. Hime! My don't you look lovely this day!" Nagi called out as she waved to her 'friend'.

"Not as good as you Nagi! Is that a new pair of PJs? They look so good on you." Hime responded, she had blond hair and deep blue eyes. She radiated a calm attitude but her words had been carefully chosen. Behind her stood a normal looking boy who only smiled awkwardly at Hayate as if to ask for his patients with her. Hayate returned the look.

"Thank you! I see you're wearing out spring uniform, so it's off to school for you?" Nagi asked as she smiled brightly.

"Oh yes, I am sure to see you there. Well bye for now Nagi." Hime said as she left.

Nagi's smile died in an instant as she quickly turned to Hayate and swept through the room. She grabbed her School uniform and changed in an instant as she threw her old clothes to him.

"Burn these." She ordered and then went down stairs to eat.

"Yes Ms. Nagi." Hayate said sighing to himself. But instead he buried them in her closet once she had left. He knew her better than she did in truth. A few moments later he came downstairs and the moment he hit the floor Nagi jumped up on his back.

"Carry me to school." She ordered, "We need beat those two there."

"But Ms. Nagi they already have a five minute head start and I can't flash step."

"Yes but you can out run Takashi who can without it. Now get us there before they do."

"Yes Ms. Nagi." Hayate sighed and took off at a run. It wasn't flash step to be certain. Flash step doesn't lift up a girl's skirt when one goes by. Hayate could close and open doors as he went past them.

Skip

Maka Alburn sat on top of the south gate to the academy. The south gate faced the court of pure souls so not many people used it except for people that Maka happened to like. Once such person was Uri Takeda. Why Maka like Uru was beyond any of the teachers. Maka was a genius, and a dedicated worker to boot. She was the youngest sixth year student and stood out in a crowd no matter which way one figured it. From her blond hair to her authoritative walk and attitude Maka was a born leader. Uru was a born rebel. He never worked unless in a pass or fail situation. He never studied even then. He had been at the Academy for over seven years and tended to blend into a crowd with his black hair and bad hunch. But they liked each other nonetheless.

As the clock came closer and closer to sounding the start of classes, Uri turned to Maka and said, "They're not going to make it."

"Yes they will." Maka answered without looking up from the encyclopedia sized book she was holding.

"Nagi and Hayate will make it here first." Uri added.

"No they won't." Maka denied.

"I'll bet you my lunch they will." Uri said.

"You're on." Maka confirmed. A few moments passed without much event till Maka looked up and said, "Here they come now."

From up the road came Hime and her shadow walking slowly down the south road. They could've come through the north gate far faster but they never did, they preferred the south gate.

"Good morning Hime." Maka called out as she saw them.

"Good morning Maka, did Uri bet on me or on Nagi this morning."

"He bet on Nagi."

"Bad bet."

"I wouldn't be too sure Hime." The boy behind her said as they approached, "The bets not over till we cross the gate."

"To true Hiro." Hime responded, "But Maka never loses a bet." As if to prove Hiro's words Nagi and Hayate came charging out from down the road and quickly started to overtake Hime and Hiro who were just feet away from the main gate. Victory for them should've been impossible but Hayate came at them at full speed and crossed they huge distance between them in mere seconds. For a moment it seemed that they would pull a come from behind victory when disaster struck.

"Maka Chop." Maka said calmly as she brought her book down on Hayate's head driving him into the ground mere inches away from victory. Hime and Hiro crossed the gate a second later to secure victory yet again.

Uru didn't even look up, he simply said, "that's cheating Maka,"

"No it's not." A new voice declared as Takashi and Rei rounded the corner and spied out their friends. "Hime crossed first so you owe Maka your lunch."

"She interfered." Uri responded.

"Hayate should've ducked." Rei said. The group laughed as the warning bell rang and they entered the academy grounds.

"Not a whole lot of people here." Rei observed,

"They didn't give us a lot of time to get ready." Nagi explained.

"That's rather unlike captain Aizen normally he gives us fair warning before the break ends." Hiro commented.

"It wasn't Aizen, it was some new captain named Ichigo." Takashi explained.

"What happened to Aizen?" Hayate asked who now remembered that the Death Gods had said something similar to him.

"I heard Ichigo killed him in a dual." Takashi said, priding himself as the source of information, but the look that Uru sent him could have melted ice. It was too late though, Maka had heard it and she started to look depressed.

"Don't worry Maka, I am sure that Aizen is fine, he probably got promoted." Hime said encouraging her friend.

"Yeah after class we'll find out what really happened." Nagi said to reinforce Hime.

"Speaking of classes," Uru said just as the thirty second bell rang, "We had better hurry."

End Chapter 1.


	3. Chapter 2:Old Classes and New Captains

_Hmm, A full day and no one can name which manga the bulk of the students come from, how interesting. Prize is now raised to twenty points and the right to decide what one character's released Zanpakuto is. I'll make it easier to, the third seat Guts Griffith is the grizzly one armed protagonist from Berserk, all though his last name is actually the name of one of the main villains from the same series._

Chapter 2 Old Classes and a New Captain

Aizen's funeral was simple but elegant. It was also rather long. The standard practice for the death of captain was to have an open wake for him while a person read out the entire list of his accomplishments in his life. Aizen had been a Death God for over a hundred and fifty years and had been a captain for almost a hundred. So it took a dang long time to get through this part of the ceremony alone. When it was done, several hours after starting, two captains would read prepared statements praising his work and regretting that he had been called on. Then two more captains would carry his body away from the shrine around him and the captain commander would burn the body with his Soul Slayer. Then it was over. The Funeral started at about ten o clock and ran to about five in the afternoon. Hinamori was there for the entire thing.

She didn't cry, which surprised her, and she didn't say a thing, which surprised everyone else. She simply watched him silently, lost in her own thoughts. She was too tired to grieve, and too sad to do anything else. So she simply watched and experienced one of the most surreal moments in her life.

She was watched the whole time by Captain Toshiro. He didn't think she should've been there. He thought it was far too much for her. But he couldn't bring himself to say anything to her. He simply watched from a distance and when the time came he got up and carried Aizen's body over to the altar and watched it burn. He resisted the temptation to say good riddance to him and he felt guilty for that. He had trusted Aizen as much as Hinamori had and was manipulated just as badly by him. If only he had seen it coming. If only he could've done something before Hinamori found out what was happening. If only. He hadn't.

When the ceremony finally ended he went over to Hinamori and sat next to her like he had before they both joined the 13 court guard. It was a long awkward moment. Histugaya had never known how to be kind or warm to anyone before. He had always been cold, despite his best efforts to warm up to people. But it didn't do him any good. He was a king of ice, but Hinamori needed fire.

"It's good to see you out of the hospital." He finally managed.

"Yes." She answered

"It was a very nice service that they gave him." He mentioned, and did not mention that it was better then he deserved.

"Yes," She agreed.

"It's a shame it had to end this way." He lied.

"Yes." She affirmed.

"I heard that you all got a new captain, already."

"We did."

"Have you met him yet?"

"No he spends his mornings in the human world."

"Don't you think you should be getting ready to meet him?"

"He ordered me to come here."

"Ah." The long heavy silence returned as Aizen slowly burned.

"If you don't mind Toshiro I have something I need to do."

"Right, don't let me detain you." Toshiro said noting that she didn't call him by his old nickname. He had always hated that old nickname but he had loved the fact that she had given him one, now he missed it more than anything. She shouldn't have come here. Ichigo was going to pay for sending her.

Skip

The classes at the Death God academy were fairly simple. There were only three of them. There was basic magic and the combat classes which rotated between kendo, flash step and physical combat. And then there was their history class which taught them the finer points of being a Death God. Finer points tended to be really fine points, like on what day did the seventh Kenpachi slay nine hundred hollows while blindfolded. Not what the date was of the event, but weather it was a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Magic class and History class ran at the same time, and then all the classes came together for one big physical class and then ran their other history and Magic class in the afternoon. This was then followed by an elective period in which one could take, a history, magic or physical class.

Hime, Hiro, Hayate, Maka and Nagi were all in the first class, which had history in the early morning. Takashi, Uri and Rei all were in the second class which did magic in the morning and history in the afternoon. Both classes were in truth very boring. History had no application and magic class only experimented once a weak. So it was all theory for about three or four hours at a time.

Uri lasted about five minutes before falling asleep in Magic. Hiro would've lasted about ten minutes longer if Hime hadn't poked him in the back to keep him awake every three minutes. Maka had snuck a book into read while the teacher talked. Takashi and Rei passed notes to each other, and Nagi took just enough notes to make it seem like she was paying attention without actually listening to the teacher. Hayate took copious notes because he always took copious notes on everything, but he honestly wasn't paying attention to the class either.

It wasn't that they were bad students. In fact in the whole school those eight held the top spots in all of their classes. It was that they had bad material to cover. The teachers had assumed, as all teachers do, that brain sucking aliens had descended on their students over the break and they had forgotten everything they had ever learned in their lives. So the teachers were reviewing ancient history like the first years were learning and level ten akido spells. Level TEN! Hime and Nagi had been doing level thirty spells by the end of their first year and even Hiro and Hayate, who had no magical talent at all, could do level twenty spells. So there wasn't much to hold their attention and even less to interest them in what was happening. Most teachers knew this, but there are certain things which teachers simply have to do.

In the number 2 magic class the teacher threw a piece of chalk at the sleeping body of Uri who had started snoring about thirty minutes into the class. He caught the chalk in mid air and looked up at the teacher. The classroom applauded his skill and the teacher blushed with anger.

"Mr. Takeda!"

"Yes Teach?"

"Since you obviously have no problem with this class perhaps you would like to recite the incantation the destructive art number 31?"

Uri held up his hand pointing in the general direction of the teacher and looked back at the ceiling like it was such a bother to raise his hand. "Destructive Art Thirty One." He said in a loud voice as a feeling of power surged through the room. "Blue fire wave, CRASH DOWN!"

There was a loud cracking sound as the world turned white for a brief moment and a wall of blue fire erupted from Uri hand and tore across the room at high speeds in the general direction of the teacher but specifically towards Takashi. Takashi had seen it coming, he brought his hands together and quickly mumbled, "Binding art twenty five, unseen void." The fire wall crashed over him harmlessly. He quickly jumped up in a blaze of anger as the smoke cleared around him.

Uri spoke first though, "Oh I am sorry I forgot the incantation and just used the spell. My fault."

"You idiot!" Takashi screamed at him, "You could've killed someone with that!"

"I am sorry, it's just that you empty head looks so much like a target that I couldn't help myself." Uri challenged

"Better to look like a dummy then to actually be one." Takashi responded.

"Better to be a dummy then to be a whor…" Uri said going a step too far.

"Say that again you bastard!" Takashi yelled reaching for his none existent sword.

"Maybe I will." Uri said as he stood up from the desk. "I said your girl friend's a whor…"

"Binding Art number 1: Winding Binding Chains!" The teacher called out with a snap of the fingers as the spell brought both of the boys to a standstill as their arms were pulled back behind their backs and held there. "Takashi sit down this instant, I will not have any fighting in my class. Uri the discharge of destructive arts inside this building is strictly forbidden. Report to independent study room three this instant."

Takashi sat down and Uri nodded as he slowly left the room. Takashi scowled at his old rival as he passed by. Uri only glared back as the teacher resumed the lesson without undoing either of the binding spells. Takashi continued to scowl as he was forced to remain seated and suffer through the awkward position. But Rei did her best the cheer him up.

"Don't be so glum Takashi you know that Uri doesn't mean what he says about me." Rei said.

"That only makes it worse. Will the Teach just hurry up and dispel the spell already?" Takashi said in an irritated voice.

"If we're lucky maybe she won't and we can have a little bit of fun later while you're like that." Rei whispered to him and Takashi brightened up a bit.

Skip

By the combat classes rumors were starting to circulate. News had spread around as more and more people realized that the orders to restart the academy had come from some guy name Ichigo and not from Aizen. It confused a lot of people, since Aizen had been a fairly popular captain. It was understandable that Aizen would've been promoted but no one knew who this Ichigo guy was and why he had taken over the squad after him. Then the rumor that Aizen had lost a death dual started to circulate and that caused quite a few more waves than anything before it. When combat classes actually started very few people were talking about anything other than the rumors.

Aside from the rumors though the class went fairly normally. Hayate continued to dominate all the duals he fought in despite his horrible fighting technique and pitiful knowledge of kendo. Hime and Nagi dualed each other for most the class unable to get around each other's defenses. Hiro was driven back by anyone he fought till the last moment when from nowhere he would come back and defeat them. Rei fought with her strange thrusting style which remained as unbeatable as ever. The only thing out of the normal was the Uri and Takashi lost their kendo matches since they still had their arms bound up behind them. They still won their wrestling matches though. Maka was also acting a bit weird. She was obviously concerned about rumors of Aizen's death and was uninterested in sparing with anyone. She either held nothing back and beat everyone in a second or two or allowed herself to be taken down. The others were getting worried about her.

About half way through the class the school principle called everyone to come to the main amphitheater for an official announcement. The principle was an old man with a round body and a weathered face. He had a long white mustache which he waxed regularly. He was a good man, he was never harsh to the students and enforced the rules just enough to ward off chaos without ruining everyone's fun. He took to the stage and pulled down a microphone to his height and started speaking a solemn business like voice.

"Good afternoon everyone. I trust you all had and productive and relaxing if somewhat unexpected brake from the academy? Good good. Now the reason why I called you all here is because you have all doubtlessly heard the rumors that the Fifth Squad and by extension this academy, has been transferred in from the command of Sosuke Aizen to Ichigo Kurosaki. And I am here to say that this is true. Command has changed; Aizen is no longer the head of the academy. He was defeated in a Captain's challenge and has been replaced by the Death God Ichigo Kurosaki."

For a few moments the students chattered amongst themselves. It wasn't unheard of for Death Gods to take command of a squad by killing the former captain but it was very very rare. The last person to do this was Kenpachi Zaraki and even then there had been a movement to keep him from taking command of the Eleventh Squad. It had failed, but Fifth Squad was different, were people really going to sit back and let a murder teach their children?

"Captain Ichigo plans on reviewing the Academy with a personal visit and will arrive this afternoon during the second round of theory classes. I expect you all to be on your best behavior and to be ready if he comes to visit any of your class rooms. The students of the first and second classes of each year will be allowed to personally welcome the new captain but only if you all are on your best behavior. After electives Ichigo will directly address the entire academy before you all leave. Attendance is mandatory, so for those of you who have no elective classes will have to report to an independent study room until the address. Thank you all and have a good day."

With that the little round man stepped down and left the stage. The other students started making their way out of the amphitheater. Uri and the others remained seated next to Maka though who was taking the announcement kind of hard. All of the students had favorite captains, but Maka was different. Aizen had actually saved her life. She didn't just prefer him she practically worshiped him, and now she had just heard that he was dead. Slain in some upstarts attempt to gain a little bit more power. The others tried to comfort her but to no avail. The girl was on the verge of tears. But Takashi had a plan to make her smile again.

"There must have been some kind of mistake." He told her, "Aizen is much too strong for anyone to simply kill. Obviously the principle got the information wrong. And I know how to test it too. We can jump the new captain when he comes here and find out just how strong he is."

"You want to jump a captain?" Nagi exclaimed, "That's practically suicide. Even if he only replaced Aizen, captains are the strongest guys in Soul Society fighting one would be a death wish."

"Ah but you forget Nagi, the only person who has ever beaten is Hayate and no one has ever beaten him. Just leave this to me, and don't worry. I beat the truth out of this upstart in no time at all."

Skip

Across the barriers that separated that world from the living, a small group of teenagers were just ending their day at school. They were slowly but surely making their way home together enjoying the evening air. Amongst them was a fairly tall boy with bright orange hair and a patch over his left eye. He laughed and joked with his friends and slowly made his way back down various different streets till at last he came to a small family doctor's office. His friends moved on but he went inside. As he approached the door a much older man with a bad case of five o'clock shadow leapt down from the building screaming a good evening to the boy beneath him. The boy effortlessly side stepped the falling man and made his way inside leaving him behind to nurse an injured leg.

Inside he was greeted by a pair of young girls, one with black hair and another with orange hair like the boy. They talked with him for a while making polite conversation with him. Then after a few minutes the boy's watch began to wail and beep at him. He sighed briefly and apologized to the girls that he wouldn't be able to stay with them any longer.

The boy then reached behind his back and pulled out a very long katana out of thin air and stabbed it into the air in front of him. He ordered the air to open and turned his sword to the side. The air glowed brightly for a moment and then a pair of sliding doors appeared in front of him. The doors opened after a moment and revealed another pair of circular doors behind them which also soon opened revealing a massive white void. The boy stood in front of the void for a second and waited for a small black butterfly to come out and hover for a moment. The butterfly then returned to the blinding void and the boy followed after it.

The void was massive and utterly white. It was not blinding once inside of it, it was simply empty. It was an endless expanse of total blankness stretching from one end of infinity to the other. The only thing that was noticeable in the void was the black butterfly in front of him. He followed it without thinking about it. If he had thought about it he would've noticed that the butterfly did not fly in a straight line but instead fluttered back and forth. But it did know the path and it did follow that path perfectly, so the boy didn't think about it all he simply followed it.

After what seemed like a great deal of time the butterfly reached was looked like another pair of doors and paused outside of them while the boy opened these as well. They then passed through the doors together out into the world of color and shape. It was different from the door the boy was used to coming through, normally he was greeted by his third seat and one or two of the gate attendants but here there were dozens of men gathered around him in a set of long straight lines leading to his third seat. The Death Gods snapped to attention as he entered the Soul Society yet again.

"Good After Noon Captain Ichigo!" One of the guards called out as he passed by him. Ichigo paused for a moment to process what had been said. He then reached up to his eye patch and removed it in a swift jerking motion revealing his deep brown eye behind it. For just an instant his body glowed with a faint silver light, then a second later all the light surged off his body into the sky like he had been struck by lightning. There was a huge snapping sound as the ground cracked underneath him and the warriors around him went flying off into the air.

He walked past the smashed ground towards his third seat who had not been blown away by the snap in his spiritual pressure. As Ichigo walked forward his dark grey school uniform seemed to melt away and was slowly replaced by a black kimono identical to the one worn by all the other Death Gods. He took his eye patch and set it down in a pocket on the inside of his robe and pulled out a long white cloak with the number five stitched into the back. The cloak fitted over him fairly well. It had ragged edges around the arms where he had cut off the sleeves. The third seat nodded with approval as the captain approached him.

"Guts, who are all these idiots?" Ichigo asked as he walked by his junior attendant.

"Members of the Tenth Squad, Captain Toshiro wanted to give you a proper welcome."

"Is Captain Toshiro here?"

"No he's still at the funeral."

"Lucky me." Ichigo said as he walked on and started heading over to the academy.

"I see you sealed up your soul slayer into a regular katana." Guts observed as they left the tenth squad barracks. "It seems a little long though."

"Well live with it." Ichigo said dismissively.

"I thought Zangestsu was the sort of Soul Slayer who doesn't seal himself up." Guts pressed

"He isn't! The Captain Commander made me do this. He said I was cutting the cut off time for being in the living world awfully close. He told me that sealing up my Soul Slayer would give me a bit more time to be back home. It took me six bloody hours to seal the damn thing up and he absolutely hates it."

"Why didn't you get your father to help you? He's a Death God isn't he?" Guts asked,

"I did, it still took six hours though."

"I don't see what the problem is, I always had my soul slayer sealed and it never bothered me."

"Your soul Slayer isn't Zangestsu! It feels like I'm wearing a suit that three sizes too small. I can't breathe and if I life my arms up the buttons that fly off could kill someone." Ichigo complained.

"I have never felt like that sir." Guts explained.

"Lucky you." Ichigo finished. By then they had come to the academy. They entered through the south gate and were greeted by the principle. Who smiled at them and escorted them inside. They passed through two huge lines of students who were in turn flanked by a much larger forest that neatly lined the path they walked down. As they walked the principle praised the students around them and commented on what and wonderful and well established facility this was.

As they walked along the students couldn't help whispering to themselves about the odd pair. Most of the students hadn't seen a captain before and those who had were used to the dignified power of captain Aizen. Ichigo was dwarfed by his third seat who also didn't seem that impressive since he was missing an arm. Ichigo largely ignored most of what they said, but couldn't help but here several of the students claim that they could take him. One pair seemed determine to try it out. Near the end of the line where the sixth year students were standing two boys struck a rather loud conversation which each other. Ichigo couldn't only catch parts of it from a distance but as he got closer he could make out the details more clearly.

"You take out a captain?" One of the boys exclaimed.

"He doesn't look so tuff." The other responded.

"You never said that about Aizen and this boy took out Aizen."

"That has to be a mistake. I bet he lied to the principle to make himself seem more powerful."

"And how do you plan on proving that?"

"It's real simple, first a draw my sword like this, then I leap into the air like this, and then I will cut the bastard down!"

The boy leapt far higher into the air then should've been possible and started to fall down right at the advancing captain. He was screaming wildly as he went. Ichigo simply watched him fall and stood still so that the boy couldn't miss him. The principle screamed and all of the crowed held their breath but no one moved at all. The attacking boy felt really cool about himself as he came down.

"Clang!" Went the blade as sparks flew out from its edge as it hit the captain with the full weight of the boy behind it. Blood hit the ground in a few splattered drips, but the captain's cloak wasn't torn. The blood fell from the boys hand. Ichigo took his hand off the top of his third seat's sword and ran it up the edge of the sword, but the sword couldn't cut him.

"Tell me," Ichigo asked, "how do you plan to cut anyone while your blade is dulled by fear?" He then reached behind his back and grabbed his own sword resting there. He drew it slowly and with great care. The crowd held its breath as the captain swept it over their heads. Captain could deal out any punishment they saw fit to anyone not of noble blood or under the command of another captain, and for a crime like this they could kill without hesitation. The captain simply sheaved his sword again after showing it to the crowd. As the sword clicked into its scabbard the trees behind the crowd groaned and three of them fell over with long cuts running through their base.

"Fear, hesitation and pride will dull your blade," Ichigo said to the boy in front of him, "Only anger and will can sharpen it. Don't return to your classes till your blade is sharp enough to cut down a tree like one of these in one stroke." And then he walked past him. For a moment or two the crowd was stunned and silent. Only Guts Griffith had the force of will to break the silence

He put his hand on the boy and said, "Come on son, let's get the nurse to have a look at that hand of yours."

The principle recovered an instant later and quickly caught up to Ichigo. "I am so sorry for that"

"You should be." Ichigo responded

"I can't imagine what came over the boy."

"Neither can I."

"What he did was rude, and unheard of and…"

"And utterly pathetic." Ichigo said finishing the principle's thought for him.

"Pardone?" The principle said in a confused voice, he hadn't been about to say that at all.

"I mean, I can't expect a mere student to cut a captain…" Ichigo said in a disgusted way

"No I suppose not." The principle said in a confused voice.

"But the least he could do is make me focus on blocking him. I actually had to lower my spiritual pressure to keep from breaking his arm."

"That's a problem?" The principle asked.

"I can't imagine that such a pore student would think they was capable of facing a captain!" Ichigo declared.

"Well actually he is one of our best." The principle said absentmindedly.

"No!" Ichigo exclaimed, "That's one of your best? That was pathetic and he's one of your best."

"Well he almost never loses sparing matches!" The principle declared

"There is no way in soul society that a sword so full of hesitation and fear of defeat could ever beat anyone else." Ichigo said in a matter of fact kind of way.

"Well I don't know about his sword but his technique is flawless and his skill at magic is superb as is his knowledge of history."

"The hell does history have to do with being a Death God!" Ichigo exclaimed.

"It teaches them culture! Aizen thought that it was worth knowing."

"Aizen isn't here! And culture isn't going to protect these kids when a fifteen foot tall damn near indestructible demon tries to rip their heads off and eat their hearts!" There was a stunned silence following this declaration. Ichigo continued, "Oh, forgotten about that have you? Chosen to ignore the fact that everyone of these kids is going to be tried by fire and war with a week of graduating as they are sent to war against demons in the land of the living? Well that ends now. What are you teaching these kids any way?"

"M-Magic History and P.E." principle forced himself to say as he realized the implications of continued silence.

"Where do they learn about Flash Step?"

"P.E."

"Where do they learn about hand to hand combat?"

"P.E."

"Where do they learn about kendo?"

"P.E."

"Do they spend more or less time in P.E. then in history?"

"Less."

"So you're telling me that these students have to learn three fourths of everything they need to know about being a Death God in less time then they get to learn about useless culture? I suppose history counts for more on their final grades to."

"It does."

"All right then. Which of you lot are the best students in this school?" Ichigo said to the lines of students behind him who were hoping to have been forgotten by this point. There was a long awkward silence. Ichigo repeated his question while looking over them with a gaze that could melt steal. Slowly Hime, Maka, Hiro, Nagi, Hayate, Rei and Uri put up their hands.

"That's it?" Ichigo said looking them over, "Three little girls, a little boy, a boy who practically cross dresses, a panicked girl and a lazy sought. That's the best this school has to offer."

"They are all highly skilled at P.E. and magic." The principle said in their defense.

"Whoopty do. All right then, you seven are hearby forbidden from attending any classes until you can cut down oak tree in that forest with one slice. Got it? Good. Now then, Mr. Principle we obviously have a lot to talk about so let's keep going." Ichigo finished and left.

The rest of the student quickly scattered back to their classes avoiding the seven friends like they had the plague. The seven themselves simply stood still. To shocked to speak, to talkative to go away. Hime was the first to break the silence.

"What the hell was that?" She asked.

"I think we're being punished." Maka answered in a confused voice her sadness about Aizen replaced by curiosity and fear of Captain Ichigo.

"Am I the little boy or the cross dresser?" Hayate asked,

"You're the cross dresser." Nagi confirmed for him.

"I don't cross dress!" Hayate protested.

"You could." Nagi teased.

"This is all Takashi's fault." Uri complained, "He's going to die for this."

End Chapter 2.


	4. Chapter 3: Hinamori's choice

_Warning: The following contains ample amount of emotional mush that does little in the way of plot development. Normally you wouldn't be warned of this but this is the first attempt the author has ever made at writing such emotional mush. So, come what may, you have been warned._

Chapter 3: Hinamori's choice.

The day came to an end as all days do: slowly and with little purpose to it. When it had ended Ichigo left the academy leaving behind a dazed, confused, and extremely worried principle. He was greeted by his third seat and decided to make the trip all the way back to the Fifth Squad barracks rather than leaving through the Tenth Squad barracks which was much closer. Much to the chagrin of Captain Histugaya who had been waiting all day to give Ichigo a piece of his mind.

Toshiro did not like the new captain. He disagreed with a lot of the captain's decisions. He especially disagreed with his decisions about Hinamori and what she had been allowed to do. Toshiro had always seen himself as the Hinamori's guardian. So he not only resented which decisions Ichigo was making about her he also resented the fact that he was getting to make those decisions at all. Because of his order Hinamori had spent the entire day up at the execution grounds staring the man who had hurt her the most in life right in the face. She should've been down in the barracks working to forget that he had ever lived.

So Toshiro had gone back to his barracks to wait for Ichigo to show up and receive the talking to of his life. He never showed up though. By the time Toshiro was notified that the Fifth Squad's gate had opened up it was much too late to do anything about it. Toshiro had heard the rumors about what Ichigo had been doing in the academy though and he knew that he would have to come back through here tomorrow. So he was content to wait and give Ichigo hell then.

It was at about that point the Histugaya felt a surge of strange and terrible energy pass through Soul Society. It wasn't massive, in fact it was so small that he barely noticed it. But the energy had a sinister feel to it, and more importantly, felt like the absence of energy. As if a huge wave of nothingness had just passed through Soul Society. Toshiro concentrated on it and reached back following its rout home. It came from the world of the living, in fact it came from Karakura town, near if not right on top of Ichigo's home. It went from there to the execution grounds. It went to Hinamori.

Toshiro was gone in a flash as realization dawned on him. He was careful to disguise his power so no one could feel him coming but at the same time he moved as fast as he possibly could. With his flash step he reached the execution grounds in seconds and took cover behind one of the trees that bordered the massive open field. He saw Hinamori there, sitting by the burnt body of Aizen. She was alone and simply staring at it. Behind her the world seemed to crack, and dark long lines grew out from the crack straight up into the air. The world behind her then opened up into a massive black maw. It was a Garganta, a portal passing from, to or through the Hollow world. Toshiro grabbed his blade as he prepared to protect Hinamori from whatever came out of it. He was surprised to see none other than Captain Ichigo himself come through.

Skip

Hinamori had spent the entire day in front of Aizen. The number of things she wanted to say to him couldn't be numbered. And at the same time she couldn't say anything. There was simply too much, and it was all fighting to make it out of her. In the end, she just stayed silent and watched the minutes slowly pass by. She dreaded the coming dawn when they would come and take Aizen away to be buried. She also dreaded that tomorrow she would have to greet his murder as her new captain. She didn't feel the Garganta open, nor did she hear him approach, but she did hear him speak.

"Good evening Hinamori." Ichigo said behind her. Hinamori jumped slightly but quickly regained her composure.

"It never surprises me how people with such huge amounts of spiritual pressure can move so cat like." She said, refusing to greet him directly.

"I have been described as a lot of things in my life, but cat like was never one of them." Ichigo responded.

"How about as a murder?" Hinamori accused, turning to face him for the first time. Her eyes were watering with an obvious look of anger on her face.

"That's a new one to." Ichigo said smiling slightly as he grabbed the back of his head, "But… I guess it fits as well." He added. Hinamori was shocked. She had expected him to deny what he had done. She couldn't say anything in response, so Ichgio continued.

"Aizen was the second person I have ever killed. Ironic isn't it? All the people I have ever fought and only two of them ever died by my hand. And I don't think that the first one counts. Sure it was done with my body and my power but not with my mind. Aizen was the first person I chose to kill."

At first Hinamori's anger surged in her because she thought that Ichigo was boasting about what he had done. But then she looked at his face and saw the guilt welling up in his eyes. He regretted doing it. She was shocked, she had always assumed that Ichigo had chosen to take down Aizen for the sake of glory but now she realized that Ichigo probably hadn't wanted to kill him at all.

"Why?" She demanded to know.

"I guess you could say that Aizen died because he was the strongest. Everyone else I have ever fought, from Renji to Grimmjow, was beaten down before they could die. Aizen alone had the strength to keep going till the last. He was the only one who could make me kill him." Ichigo explained.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better about his death?" Hinamori screamed.

"No its not. I wish it could. I wish I could dress this up in words like 'honorable' or rave about how he was a 'worthy adversary' but no matter what I said he would still be dead, and I would still have been the one who killed him. I wish I could make excuses like that I had no choice, or that I was fighting for my life, but those aren't true. I killed him because I chose to, I sought him out and attacked him with everything I had. I decided he died. That's all there is to it."

"So what are you going to do about it? You murdered a man and you know it! What can you ever do to bring my Aizen back!"

"I can't do anything." Ichigo said as he pulled an eye patch out from his kimono. "All I can do is face justice for my actions or make restitution." He finished as he summoned a seal over his chest and removed his captain's cloak.

"What are you doing?" Hinamori asked as Ichigo walked towards her.

"In his sealed form, Zangetsu has all of his usual power to cut and slash through just about anything, but he has no will of his own. This means that while like this he can actually cut me. With this eye patch and seal my spiritual force should be low enough for you to do some real damage." He said as he handed Hinamori Zangetsu. He then turned away from her and took off his back kimono reveal a large black 'x' on the right side of his heart.

"If you stab me there, my hollow powers won't be able to resurrect me by making a hole appear in my chest. I have also focused the rest of my energy there so that when Zangetsu stabs me there it will open up a portal to the hollow world. By body and sword will vanish. No one knows that I have come here and I left a letter with Guts Griffith that I have decided to join the Vizards and left Soul Society. No one will ever look for me, no one will ever know what you did. You can get on with your life knowing that you were as loyal to Soul Society and to your captain as you possibly could've been."

Hinamor held the long Katana and felt the power in it. Even sealed up it was an awe inspiring sword. It was much longer then a normal Katana and seemed to have long black lines running through. Like all the light and darkness of heaven was trapped in this sword. She looked up at Ichigo who had now put his life in her hands.

"Why me?" Was all that she could manage.

"You're the only person who ever truly cared for Aizen. You didn't live in fear of him, you weren't jealous of his power, you weren't trying to use him to gain something. You cared for him unconditionally. That makes you the closest thing to family he ever had, and it makes you the one I have harmed the most by killing him. It is you're right to do this." Ichigo explained as he relaxed and sat down waiting for the blade. There was a long silence and he could hear Hinamori shaking and starting to sob.

"And what if I don't? What if I let you live? How will you make up for the life you stole?" She demanded to know.

"I will have to make restitution."

"What's restitution?"

"It's when one has to live to replace what they have taken. If you steal then you return what you took plus interest. If you destroy something you replace it. If you injure someone then you pay for their medical bills, the time they missed from work and work to replace any ability to work they lost when you injured them. For taking a life though the only possible restitution is for me to replace that life. To use all the strength and power I used to kill Aizen to protect and manage the Fifth Squad, see that the Academy produces the best Death Gods it could, and to see you become the best Death God ever." Ichigo spoke with simple honesty. Not like he was making a promise but simply stating what the future would be like. The silence resumed.

Hinamori was openly crying. She wanted to strike. She wanted to avenge the only man she had ever loved, and here was his murder standing right in front of her. She could do it. Aizen could rest in peace. All she had to do was thrust forward. But something felt wrong. There was something deathly wrong with simply doing it herself. Something deep within her could no more kill Ichigo than she could've killed Aizen. Her anger rallied for one final push.

"What gave you the right to kill him!" She screamed.

"Nothing did." Ichigo responded.

"What made the lives of those humans worth more than Aizen's!"

"Nothing could."

"Why did you have to kill him!"

"I didn't have to, I chose to."

"Why won't you defend yourself!"

"I can't." She went silent. "The moment I took Aizen's life, my life became yours. Snuff it out or put it to work. It's your choice."

"How can you be so calm in the face of death?" She asked in a much quieter voice, tears running down her cheek as she clutched his sword as tight as she could.

"Because I have chosen," Ichigo explained. "You can say a lot of things about my choices, but once I make then I won't turn back. So Hinamori, what's your choice?"

End Chapter 3


	5. Chapter 4:The tree Chopping Game

Chapter 4: The Tree Chopping Game

As morning broke the following day, Ichigo stood up and stretched his arms and yawned. It had been yet another sleepless night. But he didn't feel too tired. He had pulled a lot of all nighters recently, but his spiritual energy made up for the lack of sleep. He looked forward to a nice long vacation in the living world this weekend. He took his captain's cloak up off of the sleeping Hinamori who lay behind him. She looked very calm this morning. The heavy bags from under her eyes were gone. She was probably enjoying her first moment of peace since Aizen had left. That was good.

Ichigo started walking away from the execution ground and as he did he went passed the forest that grew on its edge. He reached out with his hand and tapped the air in front of him. For a moment the world around him seemed to crack as long black lines ran out through the air. An instant later the world seemed to tear open leaving behind a massive black hole in front of him. Before he stepped through he turned to forest and spoke to one of the trees.

"You'll see that Hinamori gets home safely?" He asked one tree.

"Of course," the tree responded as Captain Hitsugaya stepped out from behind it. He was scowling looking past Ichigo at the sleeping body of his friend.

"If she had killed me, would you have turned her in?" Ichigo asked out of the blue.

"It's the other captain who you would've had to worry about. We all felt you open up the Garganta," Toshiro said half answering the question.

"You were the only one who came though," Ichigo observed,

"I didn't know it was you, the other captains must have and decided to trust you," Toshiro explained.

"So you don't trust me then?" There was a short silence while Toshiro mulled the question over.

"I heard you turned the best students at the academy into lumber jacks," Toshiro replied, dodging the question.

"You seemed fairly determined not to tell me anything," Ichigo laughed. "I guess I am asking the wrong question. How about this one: seeing how you wouldn't have turned Hinamori in if she had killed me, would it have been because you hate me to? Or because you love Hinamori?" Toshiro said nothing as he stared at the ground in front of him. Ichigo laughed again and stepped through the garganta.

"One of these days I'll get some answers out of you Toshiro, but I hope you learn them first though." Ichigo said as he left.

Skip

Hinamori woke up that morning much later the day feeling far more refreshed than any day before then. She was surprised to find that she was in her own bed back at the barracks. For a moment she considered the idea that the whole of last night had been a dream. But she soon rejected such a fancy as ludicrous. It had too much effect on her to have just been a dream. She leapt out of bed ready to face the world.

She raced through the barracks greeting the troops as she went. They were all happy to see her up and about and smiling again like before. In the main office she found Guts Griffith again doing paper work with one hand and a look of frustration on his face.

"Good morning Guts. How are you doing today?" she asked in a chipper voice.

Guts grunted in response as his hand slipped again and he had to start all over again for the fifth time that day. He leaned back and signed deeply trying to literally blow off some steam. He then turned to Hinamori and spoke to her properly.

"Did you ever meet with the captain yesterday?" he asked.

"No. Why?" Hinamori lied, not very eager at all to discuss the previous night with an insensitive guy like Guts.

"He left a note for you." Guts explained.

"Does it have anything to do with the Vizard?"

"No why?" Guts responded.

"Ah, so you've read my mail have you," Hinamori retorted, giving him a playful but accusing look.

"No, no. Of course not," Guts said as he quickly looked away from her and dropped the conversation.

Hinamori took the note and started reading it. _Good Morning Hinamori,_ it said, _I hope you slept well. I had hoped to be able to coast with the academy for a while, but Aizen left the place in an awful mess. The place is practically designed to produce bad Death Gods. I left a list with the principle of everything I thought was wrong with the academy. I would like you to write up a full critique of all forty-three pages of the list. Feel free to disagree with me, but please provide good reasons for it. And please also include suggestions about how we could implement some changes. I will be spending the day in the human world so please send me a copy by sundown. Guts will also need one, and you should keep a copy to on hand for tomorrow. _

Hinamori nearly dropped the list as she read this. He wanted a critique of his fifty-page-long work in triplicate by tomorrow! How the heck was she going to be able to hand write all that in time? She kept reading despite the warnings her mind was giving her.

_Also I had some of the scheduled students perform a special exercise in the woods today. They are probably going to fail it miserably, please give them a hand and write up a full report on them for me. Guts will probably need some help filling out the latest reports on the squad's personal even if he won't admit it. Give him a hand if you have the time._

"'If I have the time!'" Hinamori exclaimed. "I should've killed him last night."

"Yes you should've," Guts agreed without commenting on how she had denied meeting him at all earlier.

"You have no room to complain about this!" Hinamori declared, "All you have to do is paper work! This is going to take all day if I get it done at all."

"Its not just paper work. Ichigo was scheduled to go down to the eleventh squad for a training match with Zaraki, now I have to go in his place. That man is going to kill me! And not only will I have to stay alive, I have to make sure the twenty weaklings that Ichigo picked out for me to take live through it too! What a bother," Guts lamented.

"Next time he comes here we are going to kill him," Hinamori said determinedly as she left the room and started heading over to the academy.

"No one will be able to blame us for it either. It's practically self defense by this point," Guts agreed as he messed up page for the sixth time and had to start over again.

Skip

Over at the academy, the eight students Ichigo had decided to challenge were about to make a suicide pact as they wasted away their morning trying to cut down a group of oak trees that were 16-18 inches thick on average. Cutting down a tree with a single hit was an ancient practice used by swordsmen to prefect their strength and technique. It was quite possibly the second best form of training in the world. The best form of training is, of course, to have a man who is slightly better than the trainee spend the day trying to kill said trainee. But this involved less bodies.

Cutting down a tree was by no means easy. It was extremely challenging. While trees didn't move like normal humans did they were much harder to cut down. Even at its thickest point, the human body is little more than a group of sticks wrapped in rope. Trees however, have some extremely thick sticks and several tons of weight bearing down on them to trap any sword that tries to cut through. Cutting through a tree takes perfect technique combined with an obscene level of strength and blinding speed. If even one of these three is not perfectly unified, the tree either won't be cut, the sword will bounce off or get stuck half way through.

Of the eight, Hayate was the only one who was strong or fast enough to get the job done. He had never lost a sparring match in his life for two reasons. Anyone dumb enough to try and stop his sword got a broken arm and no one was fast enough to doge him. Hayate, however, had all the skill and grace of a small, blind, tailless rodent suffering from an inner ear infection. Even on his best days in P.E. Hayate would drop his sword, or trip up after even the simplest swings. His strength and speed was great enough to always beat his opponent before then but this didn't help against a tree. He could get through about six inches laterally of the tree before his sword turned straight up and went another six inches up the tree.

If Hayate had the power then, Hime and Nagi had the technique. There was nothing in the school's curriculum they hadn't mastered and that included swordsmanship. Their style was flawless, their defense impenetrable, their attack unavoidable, but the tree didn't care about how good their styles were. In the end they were still a pair of thirteen-year-old girls with all the upper body strength of an armless chimp. Nagi could barely cut passed the bark and Hime could only go about an inch farther.

Maka might have had the combination of strength, skill, and speed needed to get the job done given enough time. But she couldn't focus on the task at hand. Her attention was split because of Ichigo. On the one hand, she respected him as the only man in a long time to actually challenge her, but on the other he had probably killed the man who had saved her life so she hated him. This distracted her and she couldn't strike properly because of that. Her sword bounced off the tree the first time she swung and since then she was only getting more frustrated with herself.

Uri, Takashi, and Hiro had yet to even try and cut down a tree. Hiro never did anything till Hime had already tried and succeeded. He even waited to start tests until Hime had already finished hers. Not that it mattered. Hiro was even weaker than Hime and so if she couldn't cut through a tree there was no way he could either. Uri and Takashi were too busy trying to kill each other to bother with some tree.

Takashi and Uri were opposites when it came to fighting. Takashi was similar to Hayate; he had little skill but a lot of power. He did excel at one thing though. He was a master of drawing techniques. So while he had no idea how to use his sword he certainly could get it out quickly. Unfortunately, after drawing it he used it more like a baseball bat than an actual sword. Uri knew technique, but he knew the wrong one. He used his sword with only one hand like a western fencer, and he never attacked with his sword either. He simply used it to push his opponents sword out of the way and then he would grab them with his left hand and use Judo techniques to throw them to the ground and Pankration wrestling techniques to then rip their arms off while they were down.

Rei had cut through the tree, just not the right way. Rei had never realized that a sword could be used to slice through something as she always used it to jab through her opponents. In sparring matches she held her sword at the base and quickly lunged at the enemies to stab them and beat them quickly. Against a tree she had simply jabbed it and cut through all 18 inches of it. But that wouldn't take the tree down. So the eight of them wasted away the morning trying to slice through these trees or in the case of Takashi and Uri, through each other and met with no success at all in any of their endeavors. They were fun to watch though.

"This is all your fault you bastard!" Uri screamed out as he grabbed Takashi by the collar, threw his shoulder into his gut, lifted him up off the ground and slammed him down. "If you hadn't attacked a captain we wouldn't be wasting our time like this!"

"Maybe if you had taken care of Maka like you should I wouldn't have gone to such lengths to make her smile!" Takashi responded as he grabbed his fallen sword and swiped at Uri's head.

"Who ever asked you to make her smile? Worry about your own whor…" Uri said as he dodged the blade but then was silenced as he jumped off of Takashi to dodge the following jab.

"You lazy bastard, we will never get anything done at this rate!" Takashi said as he sheathed his sword and charged. He drew and sliced at Uri with such speed that the thin blade of his sword was replaced by a massive silver arc. Uri leapt up and back to dodge the slice, leaving himself been wide open to a following attack, but Takashi had driven his sword seven inches into a tree when he swung and now it was stuck there.

"You can't even cut down a tree and you're blaming me for this?" Uri taunted him.

"Shut up! You couldn't even get the sword this far in if you tried!" Takashi challenged his rival as he tried to yank his sword out.

"Ha! Watch me!" Uri sliced at a tree and got his blade four inches in before it got stuck. He tugged at it trying to get it out, but it wouldn't budge. He put all his weight into it and it still wouldn't move.

"What's the matter Uri? Is the wood too strong for you?" Takashi said as he climbed up on a tree and tried to use both his legs to pull his sword out.

"Look who's talking!" Uri retorted unoriginally. Behind them Hiro took out a stick and drew a line in the ground as started talking to himself.

"Uri vs. Takashi, total battles thirty three, total victories for Takashi: none, total victories for Uri: none, total draws and mutual knocks: 33. Ms. Hime can't we leave yet?" he moaned to his friend.

"Quiet Hiro, this tree will not beat me!" Hime responded as she made a perfect cut diagonally downward at the tree trying to use her weight to increase her force. The blade got stuck four inches in and Hime was lifted up off the ground as she put all her weight into the strike. Off to her side Nagi and Hayate were trying to reason through the problem.

"Right, so we both know that teachers never give us impossible assignments," Nagi said as she was doing most of the reasoning.

"Uhuh, Uhuh," was Hayate's contribution as he nodded in approval with his hand over his chin in a thoughtful way.

"Teachers only give us assignments that look impossible until we learn the lesson they're trying to teach," Nage continued.

"Uhuh, Uhuh," Hayate encouraged.

"Now one of the lessons that Teachers are always trying to teach us is teamwork."

"Uhuh, Uhuh."

"So obviously the real solution to this problem will come through teamwork, right?"

"Uhuh, Uhuh,"

"All right then! Let's go!" she exclaimed as she took up a stance to the side of the tree and Hayate jumped several yards to her right so that he now stood perpendicular to her intended cut. "SUPER SAZENIN TEAM TAKEDOWN!" She yelled out as she swung at the blade and Hayate charged her own blade. Nagi's blade went about an inch into the back with perfect form as usual and then Hayate hit the blade adding his horrendous strength to the perfect cut. The blade started to go through! Then Hayate tripped, turned his blade flat so that it ran down Nagi's sword instead of into it and Hayate clotheslined himself into Nagi's sword. Which did make it go another inch or so into the wood but still very far from actually going through.

"You idiot!" Nagi screamed as she turned red with anger. "How could you trip at a time like this?" She demanded to know. Hayate could only smile as blood started running down his head into his eye, but he didn't notice it at all.

"Look I already cut through the tree. I am done here." Rei said to Maka as she pointed towards her sword impaled in one of the nearby trees.

"No, you stabbed through it." Maka explained, "You're supposed to cut through it," she added, demonstrating a proper cut through the air with her sword.

"Like I said, I cut through it," Rei debated as she shoved her hand forward as if she were jabbing with a sword.

"That's stabbing!" Maka insisted. "You need to cut it, like this." Maka took a swing at a tree and once again her sword bounced off.

"I didn't know we were supposed to make our swords bounce off like that!" Rei said in a playful manner, teasing Maka.

"You know what I mean!" Maka replied heatedly.

The arguments and fights continued as the group was carefully studied by an onlooker up in the trees. Hinamori had decided to check on the group in the woods after she had picked up her captain's list of complaints. She studied over several notes he had made about the eight students in front of her. Based on all school records this should've been an easy assignment for them. So why were they struggling so badly? _Maybe the captain cast a spell on the trees to challenge them,_ Hinamori thought. She took out her own sword and swung at the tree next to her. She didn't even think about the swing, she swung it like she always had, and just like it always had, it cut through the tree like there was nothing there. Now she knew there were no spells on the trees but the students also knew that she was there.

All of the looked up at her with wide eyed shock as the destroyed tree crashed down to the ground and what looked like a little girl with her hair held up in a bun stood there with a drawn sword. The silence was thick enough to cut with a knife. Eventually Hinamori laughed to herself like she had just told them all a joke or something and spoke to them.

"Sorry about that, am I interrupting something?" she asked them as she casually jumped down to the ground from fifteen feet up in their air. Just then the realization that she was wearing the black cloak of a Death God dawned on all of the students and the quickly bowed their heads.

"Pleased to meet you Mistress," they chorused as they had been raised to.

"No need to be so formal!" Hinamori said. "What are you all doing out here?" she asked again, trying to play the role of an inquisitive stranger. One of the boys who had been trying to yank his sword out of seven inches of wood spoke up for the group.

"We have been ordered by Captain Kurosaki to try and cut down one of the trees with one stroke and it is proving rather difficult."

"Perhaps I could be of some assistance?" Hinamori offered. "Show me how you all are doing it."

The students nodded and all picked out eight undamaged trees and tried to cut them down. All of them failed. Hinamori asked them to do it again, and again they failed. She closed her eyes and asked them to do try one last time. Still none of them could do it.

"I don't understand." Hinamori said after their third attempt. "I don't sense any killing intent from you all, how are you hiding it?" The group looked at her with blank stares. "Don't you all know what killing intent is?" They shook their heads. Hinamori pinched the bridge of her nose in slight frustration. Were they really that ignorant?

"Killing intent is when a Death God sharpens their sword to a point far beyond what they are normally capable of. We use this technique to cut through the iron hard skin of Hollows. It's one of the necessary techniques of all Death Gods. It works by first focusing spiritual energy into your swords and then sharpening that energy with your emotions or your will."

"Why is it called killing intent?" Nagi asked.

"It gets its name from the change it creates in your spiritual pressure. Normal spiritual pressure feels like a massive wall or weight bearing down on you. But once you sharpen it with killing intent it starts to feel like a blade pressed to your throat."

The student nodded at the explanation and turned back to their targets. They first raised their spiritual pressure creating a great feeling of weight around them. Hinamori barely noticed it as several twigs and small plants snapped around them. Then they allowed their frustration to flow into their spiritual pressure giving it a sharp edge. Finally, after concentrating for some time, they swung their blades and cut into the trees. They failed again.

"This isn't working!" Maka complained.

"It should." Hinamori said, "Your killing intent is more than strong enough to take down a few trees. It's almost like your energy isn't flowing into your swords at all."

"Well, how do you do that?" Hime asked since she was ready to try anything at this point.

"It should be easy. All you do is…." Hinamori started and then suddenly stopped and stared at her sword for a moment. She couldn't think of how she did it. It had just always happened. Whenever she tried to cut something the energy had always flowed into her sword without her really thinking about it. "I don't know." She admitted after a few moments.

She started swinging her sword about experimentally. Even without an explanation the students could see a difference in the swing. Their swords barreled through the air, forcing the air out of the way. But with her sword it looked like the air couldn't even touch the blade. It radiated sharpness, but only when she swung it. Whenever the blade stopped moving it seemed to dull and calm down, as if the blade was only tame when it stood still. After a few swings Hinamori snapped her fingers.

"That's it. You don't!" she exclaimed. All of the students looked at her with puzzled faces. She explained, "You can't focus energy into a blade, your sword has to take it from you."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Uri asked.

"You all know that a Death God's soul slayer is alive right?" They all nodded, "Well then think of your sword not as a weapon but as an attack dog. You can't make a dog angry whenever you want it to, you have to wait for it to get angry. You can train it to get angry at certain things, but ultimately the dog has to get angry at something in order to attack it. The same applies to your sword. You can't force energy into it, you have to offer it energy and wait for it to take it from you."

"But we're just students!" Nagi protested. "We don't get soul slayers till we graduate."

"That's not true," Hinamori said. "A soul slayer is born from within you. All of you have one already waiting to come out, they wouldn't let into the academy if you didn't. Extremely powerful Death Gods, the kind which will become captains within a decade or so, can draw their soul slayer out of thin air, but everyone else has to slowly grow their own. The practice swords used here are designed to facilitate this. Over the years your energy will gradually grow into them replacing the old useless sword, with a living soul slayer. For most students this happens during the sixth year, you've doubtless realized that there are certain practice swords which simply feel right, correct?" Most of the group stared at her with blank faces, but Maka and Uri looked away from her and eventually spoke up.

"That's true actually," Maka admitted as she held out her practice sword and studied it carefully, "I have noticed that this sword is the only one that sounds right."

Uri nodded in support and added, "I always get angry when I see other people using this sword."

"You all have swords like that too," Hinamori said, "though they're not far along enough in their growth for you to notice it yet. If you stop and listen though, they will make themselves known. So, go to the armory and listen to the swords for the one which is yours."

After the group scattered she turned to Uri and Maka who already had their favorite swords with them. "Your problems though come from a different source altogether. You lack any focus to your power," Hinamori said to Maka, "And you lack true killing intent." She said to Uri. "Both of you need to calm down, and clear you minds of everything that doesn't involve your desire to cut the tree down."

Skip

Nagi and Hime faced the massive wall of swords that stood in the academy armory with a completely blank look on their faces. Rei and Takashi had grabbed a pair of swords after a second or so, for no reason other than that they felt right. Hiro and Hayate were watching them to see how they would select their own swords.

"This is stupid." Nagi said, as Hime nodded in agreement.

"None of these swords are any different from any of the others." Hime said, as Nagi nodded in agreement.

"All of them feel the same!" Nagi exclaimed,

"All of them sound the same!" Hime added,

"There is no difference in them at all!" they concluded together.

Hayate looked over the wall of swords, closed his eyes and breathed deeply. When he opened them, he focused on one sword rather than any of the others and grabbed it without a second thought. Nagi and Hime stared at him as he grabbed the sword with a questioning look in their eyes.

"Maybe you're the ones making them all identical by over analyzing this." Hayate said with a shrug. Hiro nodded in agreement as he grabbed his own.

"It's not a hard choice," he said. "There is only one right one."

Hime and Nagi glared at the two boys. They had never done anything first, but then the though dawned on them, they only did things first when the answer was staring the girls in the face but they refused to choose it.

"So it's a sword that feels right then?" Nagi inquired as she started running her fingers over the backs of the blades and started walking across the long wall of swords.

"Or it's a sword which sounds right?" Hime asked as she started flicking the swords to hear them vibrate and made her way towards the center from the opposite wall as Nagi.

They passed over every sword without a second thought about any of them till at last then came to the center and felt and heard the last two blades. Then they stopped. Hime flicked the last sword Nagi had touched and Nagi felt the last blade that Hime had flicked. They then grabbed the blades at each other's side and said in unison, "Then this one must be mine."

Skip

Away in the forest, Maka and Uri were sitting in the tree watching the sun reach its zenith over them. Hinamori's last words were still ringing in their ears as the others selected their swords and made their way back. Maka was looked rather dazed and confused as she pondered how to resolve the conflict in her mind. Uri was simply watching the clouds like all of this was just one big bother to him.

"So," Uri finally said after he saw Takashi and Rei run underneath the tree and back to the training field. "How long are you going to mope about Aizen's death?" he asked point blank.

Maka was stunned. She had never known Uri to tackle any conflict or problem so directly. She remained silent for some time thinking of why he would ask that. He got tired of waiting for her.

"I asked why you're still moping over the guy? You didn't even know him that well."

"He kind of saved my life," Maka responded.

"Yeah, two years ago," Uri pointed out.

"It still counts though. I was trapped in the 60th district without any family or any friends, starving to death, when he came out of nowhere to bring me here where there's food and friends and people who care about me. He gave me everything so I owe him everything. And now he's dead," Maka exclaimed, telling her friend what he already knew.

"You don't owe him everything," Uri said in a casual tone like they were making a bet.

"I kinda do," she denied.

"You don't owe him your death. And you don't owe him your failure." Uri said simply. Maka made to object but Uri didn't give her time to. "Wouldn't it be a crying shame and the greatest disrespect if he went through all the trouble of saving your life and giving you this great opportunity just for you to turn around and waste it away?"

Maka was silent so Uri continued without her, "You have a life, use it. It doesn't really matter what you use it for, but you have to use it. Hate Ichigo if you must. He's a captain; he can take it. Or love him; it won't make a dead man turn over in his grave. Just do something and do it well. And your debt will be filled."

Maka looked over at her friend and smiled at him, her eyes watering slightly as she thanked him; she had needed to hear that. "What about you?" she added. "What can possibly make you angry?"

"Oh, you know me, I will get angry at whatever makes you cry."

"Ichigo made me cry."

"No he didn't, he stunned you and made your eyes water and that doesn't count."

"What about the trees though? I can't cry at such lovely trees. How will you ever get angry at them?"

"I don't have to, killing intent can be made either through anger, excitement at the prospect of battle or sheer grim determination to cut down an opponent," Uri explained as if he had always known.

"Wait, so if you already knew that why didn't you cut down the tree when Takashi challenged you to?" Maka queried as she realized that Uri probably could have passed this test at anytime.

"Maka, what's the point of having a rival if you're going to crush all his hopes of surpassing you in one moment?"

"That seems kind of rude, giving him false hope like that."

"He does it too. Takashi has long since surpassed me in Demon Magic. The other day he stopped a level thirty spell I fired with a level twenty spell. But he's trying so hard not to embarrass me so I can keep on challenging him like he challenges me. Sometimes the value of having a rival is far greater than the sweet taste of victory over him."

"Well then oh wise one, how about we pass this stupid test already?" Maka suggested.

"Yes let's." Uri agreed. And they both leapt down to the ground and returned to the testing area. Everyone had a different sword than from earlier and they seemed much more comfortable with them then they had with the others earlier. Takashi and Uri glared at each other as Nagi, Hime, and Maka all smirked at each other. Hinamori had one last thing to say to them though before they started.

"Remember to hold back at first. Listen to your blade and wait for it to cry out with anticipation. Listen to your blade and let it tell you how to strike down the tree. Listen to your blade and ignore everything else that might hold you back. Listen to it and strike down those damn trees already," Hinamori told them.

The eight of them took their fighting stances. At first they all held their swords in the same way and allowed their powers to grow. Soon, however, their swords began to glow and they all took up different stances as they prepared to strike. Nagi held her sword in one hand low at her side and flipped the blade so that it pointed towards her. Hayate held his sword upside down in a boxer's stance. Hime turned her sword away from her target like she had sheathed it, and she turned her shoulder towards her target. Hiro held the blade casually in front of him like it didn't really matter at all. Maka held her sword high above her head. Rei held her sword like a pool cue ready to jab out with it. Takashi sheathed his sword but removed the sheath from his belt and held it to his side as he gripped the sword and prepared to draw it. And Uri held his sword back behind himself with his left hand stretched out like he was holding the tree reading to strike at it.

They waited for just a moment longer till their swords seemed to shake with anticipation. There was a dead silence in the air as they waited for anything to break the tension. Hinamori soon realized that nothing would if she didn't.

"CUT!" She ordered and all eight of them swung at once. Uri brought his sword straight through with a swift right slice. Takashi drew his sword and came at from the left. Rei jabbed the tree and twisted the blade to the side. Maka brought her sword down with a strike that twisted her whole body in one fluid motion. Hiro brought his sword straight up through the tree. Hime swung her body around and brought her sword in from the right. Hayate simply punched the tree with the pommel of his sword. And Nagi jabbed her sword forward and swept it to the side as she went.

There was one thunderous crack and seven silent swipes as each of the eight trees slowly fell over and thundered to the ground. Once they had hit the ground the tension ended and the eight students started jumping up and down for joy. Hinamori smiled at their success and turned to leave and make her report. As she went they turned to her though and bowed.

"Thank you so much for your help!" Takashi said for the group. "Ms…?" He said silently asking the name of their unknown helper.

"Momo Hinamori," she said to them. "The Fifth Squad Lieutenant," She added with pride.

End Chapter 5.


	6. Chapter 5: Speeches and spectacles

_Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any character contained herein. Nor do I own Guts Griffith, a character from berserk, Hayate and Nagi: From Hayate the Combat Butler, Hime and Hiro: from Princess Resurrection, Takashi and Rei from High School of the Dead or Maka from Soul Eater, all rights go to their original creators._

_Note 1: Everyone give a big round of applause for Eternal Love's Eclipse my Beta, without whose editing none of this would be possible. _

_Note 2: Attention Princess Resurrection fans, and people who have an idea for a good Shikai but no characters to give it to, I need your help. Hiro's shikai has me stumped and I am open to any suggestions or ideas you all have. I have everyone else planned except for him. Please PM me with any ideas you all have, thank you. _

_Note 3:1500+ views and 21 reviews wow! Thank you all for making this the most successful story I have written to date._

Chapter 5: Speeches and spectacles.

The days passed by slowly and with little purpose. The academy fell into its usual routine of magic, history and combat classes. There were only a few changes following its first encounter with Captain Ichigo. First was that the students had found the captain to be the best new topic of gossip ever. Word had already made its way around the school that Takashi couldn't even cut him. Other students soon added more amazing tales about Ichigo, ranging from him taking down the entire court guard by himself, to speculation about what kind of pajamas he wore. The teachers changed to. More specifically their eyes changed as they gained massive baggage. It was clear that they were getting little sleep, though there was no official word as to why. Finally the top eight students in the class changed drastically.

The first day they seemed like their old selves, but much more energetic. They seemed to have a fire to do anything. They completed all of their assignments with a fury. Uri even turned in homework for the first time in years and Hiro actually went first at the magic classes' firing range. But this all died after a day or so. It wasn't that they were overwhelmed or anything, in fact one could say that they got bored. They completed their first day back to school so easily that nothing really interested them in it. To make matters worse their attitude was becoming infectious.

Other students were calling out their teachers on how basic many of their lessons were. History class practically ended as all the students echoed Ichigo's accusations and questioned the very need for such a class. The teachers were losing control, but some of them were adapting. Especially the combat classes, who now saw the first honest chance for an increase in their budgets and were eager to prove themselves worthy. Despite these few successes though the general air of the school took a general turn towards dissatisfaction and thus became ripe for change.

That change seemed inevitable when it was officially announced that Ichigo would be returning to address the student body on the first day of the next week. The excitement that infected the air was palpable. Everyone from the teachers to the students was giddy with anticipation for what changes would be made to the school and how they would be implemented. Even the eight started taking their assignments seriously again as they mentally and physically prepared for the return of the captain.

As the fateful day approached the school was cleaned from top to bottom and on the day itself no actual schoolwork was done as teachers and students spent the day speculating on the meeting to come. At noon, all of the classes emptied out into the courtyard and flanked the long path that led from the official north gate to the academy main building. Everyone stood at strict attention as they waited for him to come. When Ichigo entered the campus the lines fell silent as everyone turned to watch the approaching captain. For just a moment the silence came from awe, but then it was gradually replaced by stunned silence.

Ichigo entered the campus with a casual walk as he quietly whistled to himself. To his left was Guts Griffith towering over him and revealing his missing arm to the crowd around him. To his right was little Hinamori carrying a massive stack of paper in front of her. The crowd just couldn't process the scene. Was this scrawny boy with a crippled attendant and a tiny girl for a lieutenant the same hulk of a man they had been hearing wild rumors about for a week? As Ichigo made his way through the sixth year students, Takashi decided to prove at least one of those rumors right.

"ICHIGO!" he cried out as he leapt from the crowd and blocked the captain's path with a drawn sword. "I bet you thought you crushed my spirit but your little challenge has only made me stronger!"

"Good for you!" Ichigo said with a smile. "Who are you again?"

"I am the man who will kill you!" Takashi declared as he charged the captain with his sword drawn back ready from a wide right swing. He swung his sword with all his might and all his energy focused into it to sharpen it as much as he could. The blade came within an inch of the captain, who then calmly leapt over the sword and kicked Takashi in the face knocking him to the ground.

"Nice killing intent, and much better spiritual pressure than from before," Ichigo complimented, as he stood over the falling boy and stomped on his fallen body with his right foot. "But your technique sucks. Still don't give up, in a year or so I might have to draw my sword." He concluded as he stepped on and over the fallen attacker and quietly entered the building.

The stunned crowd then rushed over to Takashi and crowded around him trying to see what damage the captain had done to him. Hime, Nagi, Hayate and Hiro quickly formed a ring around him though to keep the crowd from trampling him any further. Rei tried to help him up while Uri stared at him and shook his head.

"What in all of Soul Society possessed you to try that again?" he exclaimed as Maka started giving Takashi some first aid. "Didn't you learn from the first time?"

"I don't learn, I improve." Takashi said, with his voice full of pride, "That time I was good enough for him to take the time to beat me. Next time I will make him draw his sword."

"Why so that he can kill you?" Uri asked then shrugged, "You sir, have some seriously messed up goals in life."

Skip

Later in the day, after the student's afternoon classes, Ichigo took the stage to the main auditorium. Everyone was silenced with in a moment or two as the waited for him to speak. Ichigo reminded himself to go easy on Takashi next time for giving him such a captive audience. He then took a deep breath and plunged straight in.

"The most important thing to remember about being a Death God is that there is no most important thing about being a Death God. There is no sure fire way to gain a position as an officer. Nor is there any one way to guarantee that you will be a successful soldier. There is not combination of things that will guarantee success either. There is no trick sheet, there are no short cuts. This is both a blessing and a curse.

"It's a blessing because this means that there is literally any way to become a successful Death God. If you focus solely on strength, you can do it. If you focus solely on technique or magic, you can still do it. Even if you have nothing on your side but speed you can still race to the top. Any skill you already have and are proficient at can lead to success if used in the right way.

"This fact is also a curse though. Mainly it makes it nearly impossible for the academy to teach you how to be a successful Death God. Even if you pass all the tests and graduate the perfect student, if you haven't learned how to harness your talents you are going to die the first time you fight a hollow and there is no way around it. This means that the Academy is going to have to change. It can no longer be an academy. It can no longer be a place which says 'if you pass these tests you can kill hollow' because we can't guarantee that. Rather the academy has to become more like a grand library where you can come and say, 'teach me to be strong.' And we give you ten instructors who can make that happen.

"This does not mean you all will get to pick your classes, nor does it means that you can skip out on the classes you already have. What it will mean is that over the next year or so the academy will establish a baseline of what skills you have and don't have and then build a specialized training program around those so that you can get better and better at your strengths.

"So if you're a very strong individual but you have a poor memory, you can choose to avoid magic classes and focus on kendo and hand to hand combat. So that you learn to bring your power to bear and smash your opponents quickly. If you're fast but lack strength, you can choose to focus on flash step and your agility so that you can run circles around your foes. If you're really smart and can learn spells effortlessly you can focus on magic and learn to blast your foes into oblivion. The idea will be to identify your areas of strength and build on them to the point that can overcome any challenge using them.

"This does not mean that you won't have to take any class you don't like ever again. Quite the contrary. Over the first year or so we are going to test you on everything so that the academy can find out what you are good and what you aren't. But even after that you will have to take classes you're bad at so that you can learn skills to cover your weakness and learn how to fight outside of your element.

"Here's how we are going to do this. First, History class is going to be gradually retooled into a theory class that uses history to give you practical examples of how to use your skills and how not to. Its time will be greatly reduced and its material will be streamlined which in turn allow us to restructure the combat classes. Second, combat class will be broken into three separate classes: Kendo, Close Quarters Combat, and flash step which will be taken separately throughout the day: a class in the morning, a class after lunch and a class in the afternoon. Third, magic class will split its time between practical theory on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and application on the firing range on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. After this year has established a baseline for what skills you all do and don't have, next year you will have a more personalized schedule centered around developing your talents. All of these changes are going to be implemented over the next two years.

"Sixth year students you all present the problem. You all will join the Thirteen Court Guard this fall whether you're ready or not, and unfortunately there is no time for us to establish a baseline for you and help you specialize. So this is how it is going to work. Your schedule will change tomorrow rather than over the next few months like it will for everyone else. You all will have your EOGs in May and they will cover an entire year's worth of material. After that you will return here over the summer to specialize your skills and prepare to enter the Thirteen Court Guard. Understood? Good."

The auditorium was stunned into silence by the implications of what they had been told. Everything was going to change for them. The sixth year students were scared out of their wits. They had hoped that Ichigo was going to be fun captain who did away boring classes not the malevolent jerk who suddenly dropped a year's worth of work on them and expected it done by the semesters end.

"Now then," Ichigo continued, "while there is no one way to guarantee success as a Death God there are ways to guarantee failure. In fact there are three, three central vices that can get any Death God killed without exception. While we can't have an entire class centered around combating these vices you all do have to know about them. So what we are going to do is that I am going to explain these vices in three special gathering like this and they will be followed by an exercise in preventing them.

"Today's vice is hesitation. Hesitation is a natural response to fear designed to make the mind take a step back and evaluate their decisions before plunging forward into certain doom. Which is fine for civilians who encounter such danger once or twice in their lives but for Death Gods it is not a luxury we can't afford. Hesitation not only creates openings in you stance it also holds back your blade and keeps you from fighting at your full potential. Remember your sword is a living being that reflects your emotional state and desires. If you hesitate to attack, then your sword will hesitate to cut the enemy and no matter how hard you swing, how fast you move, or how many spells you know, you cannot kill a foe you can't cut.

"Hesitation is born from fear and doubt. Fear can either be of your enemy: that they will cut you, or of yourself: that if you cut you will become some kind of monster. Either fear is crippling. Even worse is that of self doubt: if you assume that the enemy is going to win you will be proven right. Hesitation is overcome with anger or determination. Anger of your enemy will overcome your fear. Hatred and a desire to destroy will over power any and all hesitation sharpening your blade and empowering your spirit. But this comes with a risk, anger makes you reckless and cool headed hollow can take advantage of that. Determination is far better, it overcomes fear and doubt while keeping you in control, but it's not something that can be learned, determination has to be made and that is what we are going to do together today.

"Allow me to introduce to you all the captain of the eleventh squad. Kenpachi Zaraki." Ichigo said as three men walked on stage from the right. Two of them were of average height but looked really weird. One of them was bald and had red eyeliner on, the other had strait black hair with really weird eyebrows, but no one really noticed them. Everyone eyes were focused on the giant that walked before them in a captain's cloak. His black hair was fixed up into spikes and there were bells on their tips. He wore an eye patch and had a long scar over his other eye. His cloak was battered and torn and dozens of scares could be seen over his body.

"In the words of my mentor," Ichigo concluded, "'please try not to die.'"

"All right you maggots!" Kenpachi exclaimed as Ichigo left the stage and everyone leapt to attention. "Form up into pairs and make three lines in front of us. Go on now hurry." Everyone quickly obeyed.

"Now then face your partner and raise your sword. When I give the word all of you are going to cut your partners with that sword and then hold still while they cut you. If I think that any of you aren't swinging with your full force I am going come down there and cut you myself. Got it? Good. This is called the head chopping game and we're going to play it 'til there isn't an ounce of hesitation left in your swords! Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life! Begin!"

End Chapter 5.


	7. Chapter 6: Rivalries and Races for Life

Chapter 6: Rivalries and Races for 'Life'

Students can be many different things, depending on how they feel at the time. They can break a teacher by fighting them every single step on the long road of education. They can also make years of thankless work worthwhile with one realization, with one moment as their faces light up as a lesson truly clicks. Most of the time though, they are similar to mules.

Mules will do what you tell them to do, largely because the mule has nothing better to do. Mules will carry far more weight than any traveler ever will, and they will do it without fighting the traveler every step of the way. But mules will ensure that the traveler knows that it is unhappy and if it had any alternative it wouldn't be doing this at all. Mules will also kick the traveler given the opportunity, but are too stupid to see any but the most obvious ones. Students are basically the same way.

So while no one openly disobeyed Ichigo's changes to the curriculum, no one was quiet about it either. All the students complained that all the safe familiar classes they were used to were being stripped away. All the students complained that the workload was too great and that everyone was going to fail. All the students still did their work though and they were getting better at it. Everyone still complained though and everyone still insisted that if they complained loud enough Ichigo would go back to the old ways.

He wouldn't though, largely because he never heard their complaints. This was because the complaints either had to first get through Guts Griffith, who had about as much tolerance for any kind of complaining- other than his own- as Japan has for the Atomic bomb; or through Hinamori, who would kindly point out that the students were doing their work so obviously no one else took the complaints seriously so why should she? Not that Ichigo would've changed his ideas if the complaints did reach him. In fact, Ichigo probably would've taken the complaints as a sign that he was getting the job done.

So life changed. It changed quickly for the sixth year students, who suddenly had a great deal of work to do, little time to do it, and teachers assigning it who were in an experimenting mood. Most students complained but did the work. Others complained, refused to do their work, and then were failed because of it, causing them to change their minds. Others actually enjoyed then new challenge, but didn't want to stand out and so they complained too, but not nearly as enthusiastically as the others did. Some students started circulating rumors that Ichigo was a hell-spawned demon sent to make everyone's lives miserable so all the captains could laugh at them. A few counter acted counteracted these this by saying that this was all part of one big plan and it was all going to work out in the end.

The only people who were largely silent for throughout all of this were the top eight. They didn't make any comment about Ichigo or the work level. For Hiro and Hayate, this was because they had to work their butts off the keep up with the workload and didn't have time for anything else. But the others were kept silent out of fear. Fear that if they complained Ichigo might actually change it, and fear that if they praised it he most certainly would.

Generally the school adapted and soon fell into a routine of change. It experimented and hemmed and hawed till it was blue in the face and then it started the whole thing over again. Soon all the changes were little things, minor critiques as the teachers nailed down a consistent way of doing things. This made the students wrestles though as they realized that the time was coming for the next big change. The time was coming for another visit from Captain Ichigo.

The dreaded day was announced to take place four weeks after the last one, and slowly but surely the day approached. Most of the students were caught between a silent dread and a strange anticipation. Change had become routine, they were expecting it and they secretly wanted it to happen. The school was not cleaned this time around, except for the auditorium; and classes were taught that day, but albeit not very effectively. The students were distracted by the event and trying to distract themselves from it.

Once again everyone gathered outside and waited for Ichigo to enter. Once again they were treated to his casual walk up the road flanked by his one armed third seat and his little second seat carrying a massive stack of papers. This time though there were fifteen other Death Gods behind him. Most of them looked like typical soldiers; they had a weathered look on their face and a tense stance that seemed to suggest that peace wouldn't last much longer. They moved in mob formation and were quietly chatting to themselves. The students watched them walk by with utter silence that simply made their indifference to the situation palpable. Takashi refused to be ignored though.

"CAPTAIN ICHIGO!" He cried out as he leapt in front of the procession, "Once again you have come and once again I will challenge you!"

"And once again you will fail." Ichigo said as he walked forward largely ignoring the challenge.

Takashi took off at a sprint at his target with his sword in its sheath and his sheath in his left hand. He grabbed the handle with his right hand and prepared to draw and strike. He focused his energy to sharpen his sword and he focused his eyes right on his target, he would not miss this time. He came within range of the captain and drew his blade in a strike. Ichigo simply stepped forward and grabbed his hand in mid swing ending his strike before it started. He then pulled his arm down and slammed it into Takashi center flipping him over his own hand and forcing him to drop his sword. After he landed Ichigo drove the boy's sword into the ground next to him.

"Well, you have made some considerable improvement.," Ichigo complimented him,. "But be careful about drawing arts as they make it painfully obvious which way the attack is coming from. They should only be used if you're much faster than your opponent or have the element of surprise on your side."

"You just don't learn do you?" Uri commented from above the fallen Takashi.

"No he learns. He just has a large gap to cross," Ichigo said in Takashi's defense., "Besides it's not like you could do any better."

"Is that so?" Uri asked as he drew his own sword and swung down at the captain with a quick one-handed stroke. Ichigo grabbed the base of the blade and twisted it up and out of the student's hand, pointing the blade at his own throat.

"Europeans can get away with one handed strikes because they cover the handles of their blades in basket guards." Ichigo commented as he drove Uri's sword into the ground in front of him, "With a two handed samurai sword, you're better off attacking by hand." And then he left and entered the building.

As the crowd dispersed, Takashi got up and drew his sword from the ground. He then smashed the handle into Uri's head.

"What was that for?" Uri demanded to know.

"For stealing my bit!" Takashi responded,

"Oh so you're the only one allowed to be stupid in our group? Besides he challenged me to do it." Uri declared.

"You lazy sought! You're so incompetent you can't even come up with your own ways to get attention!"

"At least I'm not so starved for attention that I go around campus with a whor…" Uri said about to go a bit too far as normal.

"MAKA CHOP!" Maka yelled as she stuck both of the older boys on the head with a large book, ending their argument.

"Come on you two!" Nagi said as she grabbed Uri's ear and pulled him inside.

"Yeah, if we don't hurry we won't get good seats for the lecture," Hime added as she grabbed Takashi's ear.

Skip

Ichigo once again took the stage to a silent audience. They were scared and eager to hear him and he could feel it. Not that he cared, between the fifth squad and the Academy he was getting used to public speaking. He took a deep breath and plunged straight in.

"I trust you all enjoying the changes being made to the school?" He asked as he looked over a general chorus of shaky yeses brought on by the knowledge that they were speaking to the guy who could make everything worse if they said 'no'.

"Good. So then we'll get right to the meat of the lecture. Today's vice is the vice of isolation. It is a great temptation for all Death Gods to ignore the need for team actions and to resist the leadership of a team when forced to act in a group. This is a great danger, not only to yourselves but also for your future team mates. I am going to be clear about this. There are more hollows out there than can be numbered and all of them could snap you like a twig. Most of them are stronger than you could possibly imagine and no matter how strong you get there will always be some of them who are stronger than you. The only way to counter the greater numbers of the hollow and their tremendous power is to operate as a team.

"Isolation is brought on by pride. Pride comes from a stubborn and stupid belief that you know better and are stronger than the rest of the team. Pride is a normal feeling of accomplishment brought on by doing a job well. It is also a preemptive feeling of self-confidence that allows us to do the job well in the first place. Pride develops into a problem though, when it downplays the contributions of others to build yourself up. It also becomes a problem when the feeling of pride becomes your goal and not your tool. Rather than being the means to do something, you find yourself doing something so that others will recognize your success.

"Pride makes a Death God question the need for a team. It also makes you think that even if you do need a team, you should definitely be in charge of it. The first response puts you at danger by isolating yourself during times of crisis when you need a team. The second response endangers the team by destroying the chain of command. Even if you're in charge of the team, pride can still isolate you, elevating you up to the point that you no longer hear the potentially lifesaving suggestions of your comrades.

"There are two keys to destroying the vice of isolation. First is to cultivate the virtue of humility. Humility is not the ability to downplay your own contributions, nor is it an assumption that anyone can do a better job than you can. Humility is an appreciation of other's skills and a desire to help them with your own. A humble man is as proud of another man's work as he is of his own. A humble man is eager to help in any way he can, not because he wants to prove that he's the best, but because he is eager to give others a chance to shine. Humility is a difficult virtue to foster. It takes years of personal, soul-searching work, which, quite frankly, we don't have time for here in the academy. Don't worry though, humans are self-humbling creatures; pay attention to your own mistakes and you will slowly grow.

"The other key to overcoming isolation is learning how to function in a group. All groups have to have a clear leader who is obeyed no matter what happens. All groups have to be able to read their own movements. You have to be able to guess what the other members of your team are going to do before they do it. A group has to be able to form and execute a plan without saying a word to each other. Groups have to be able to mold into a specific chain of command and they have to be able to make their own. This is what the academy can teach you. And this is what we are going to pound into your heads before the day is out."

Ichigo then grabbed a cloak behind him and removed it to reveal a large robot standing behind him. The robot was about four feet tall and nine feet long. It had long spider -like legs and its head was covered by a white mask. It had black cameras for eyes and a pair of antenna coming out of its head.

"This," Ichigo said waving at the machine, "Is is a hollow drone. It can't attack you, it's not very fast and it's about as smart as the stuff we serve you in the cafeteria. All it does is go from point A to point B. It's made out of steal reinforced with a light amount of destruction stone. None of you has the strength or power needed to stop one of these things. But if you all work together you might just stand a chance.

"We are going to the living world today. And you all will be assigned one of these Hollow drones and you will have to take them down. As I said you don't have the strength to do it alone you will have to form into groups of three to four members and hunt down the Hollows together. But that also means that after the group takes down one Hollow you will have to help the others take down the other Hollow. You will be graded based on how long it takes you to kill your Hollow and on how well your teammates ranked your contribution. You all will also have to track down one of these,." Ichigo said holding up what looked like a cardboard cutout of a human.

"These dolls have sensors on them which will attract your Hollow to them. Which is good because I have no intention of telling you where they are. You will have to find them and you will have to deactivate them with a Soul Burial. If you take too long to do this other Hollow drones will be released to hunt them down. If your Hollow reaches your human you fail the test and so does the rest of your team. Understood? Good. We leave in one hour." He concluded and leapt down from the stage. He didn't exit to either the left or the right but instead walked up the center aisle to where the eight were sitting.

"One more thing," He added to that group alone as the rest of the students left to get ready for the excursion. "Nagi, Hime, Uri and Takashi, you all are one group, and Maka Rei, Hiro and Hayate are another. And of your two teams, the one that finishes last gets to play five rounds of the heard chopping game with Captain Kenpachi." And then he left.

As he left the eight simply sat there staring at the space he had once occupied and then turned to each other with a look of horror as the all thought together, "I am on a team with/without her/him!"

Skip

The real world was surprisingly boring. It was the strangest shade of grey- blue that seemed to suck all the color and spirit out of the world. It was also surprisingly deserted. All the students had come to a massive industrial complex that seemed to have been abandoned. Nonetheless most of the students were amazed at the sights which that greeted them. Gone were the familiar paper and wooden houses of the soul society, gone were the white stone buildings of the school. The living world was a world of iron and brick and it was awe-inspiring.

The Death Gods who had come with Ichigo circled around the students and started handing out pieces of paper to them all. Each one had their name of the student on them with a set of coordinates a direction and a distance on them. The students took their papers and soon gathered into their teams as one of the Death Gods called out to them.

"Listen up!" He shouted, "The papers you all have give the coordinates that your Hollow drone is starting from and the distance it will travel to reach its target. The direction is the general way the Hollow will be traveling to reach its target. Hollow drones are rather slow, so it will take them a minute to cover a distance of 100 yards."

On the fringe of the group, Hime Nagi, Takashi and Uri were comparing their papers. Maka Hayate, Hiro and Rei were not far away from them. Nagi did some quick calculations in her head and then spoke.

"Takashi's drone is the farthest away and the closest to its target. So it should be our top priority."

"They have given us all the information we need to find the target without having to follow the Hollow drone," Hime said, "We should take them down quickly and then go back and deactivate the target."

"If we take too long to deactivate the target more drones will be sent after them," Nagi argued, "We should take care of them right after we take care of the Hollows."

"If we follow the hollows to their targets and then take them down, we can do both at once." Takashi observed.

"But then if anything goes wrong we won't have a lot of time to correct the problem," Uri pointed out. "Letting them get that close to their targets is very risky. We should take down the Hollow from a way out and then send someone to get the target. The rest of the group can then go after the next Hollow while they catch up."

"That will split our forces up and waste too much time. It will be easier to simply kill the Hollow and then rescue the targets later," Hime declared.

"And it will be easiest simply to do them both at once," Takashi retorted

"And you're all about what's easiest, aren't you Takashi?" Uri provoked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Takashi demanded.

"Well, any real man would've owned up to the challenge of marrying Rei by now instead of living with her like whor…" Uri said baited just as Takashi kicked him in the face, and the discussion went downhill from there. The other group wasn't having much luck either.

"Well," Maka started, "Hayate's Hollow is the closest to us, we could get to that one really easily."

"But," Rei said, "My Hollow is the closest to its target we should go after that one first."

"On the other hand," Hiro offered, "Maka's Hollow is traveling towards us, so if we go after that one we will reach it the soonest."

"Maybe, we should go after Hiro's Hollow," Hayate said in an excited voice., "It won't be expecting us and we can take it by surprise!"

"I don't think you can take a Hollow drone by surprise Hayate," Hiro retorted,

"Oh, right!" Hayate said, "Never mind." A short silence passed as the group stared at their papers.

"We should do your plan." They all said at once.

"This is getting us no where!" Maka lamented, "We need to appoint a leader and just do whatever they say." The others nodded in agreement.

"I think you should be the leader," They all said, pointing at each other.

"No you should be the leader," They said pointing at back at the person who had pointed at them. Another short silence passed.

"Well, there is only one way to decide this." Hayate said as he slowly drew his sword. For a moment everyone panicked as the thought of having to fight Hayate passed through their minds.

"We'll play spin the sword!" He concluded as he placed the sword on the ground and spun it around on its guard. The sword moved far faster than their eyes could follow quickly changing into a white wheel in front of them. After a minute or two it finally started slowing down and then it stopped, pointing at Maka.

"The sword has spoken!" Hayate exclaimed, "Maka is the new leader!"

"I don't think it's a good idea to let a sword choose our leader.," Maka said, hesitant to take the responsibility as the group turned to stare at her.

"SHUT UP!" Hayate ordered with a look of fire in his eyes, "Do not question the sword! The sword knows all!"

"Hayate," Hiro interrupted, "You can't tell the leader to shut up."

"Oh right." Hayate realized, "Never mind then."

"ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS!" One of the Death Gods bellowed at the top of his lungs,. "THE HOLLOW DRONES WILL BE ACTIVATED IN ONE MINUTE! SO GET MOVING!"

"Crap!" Nagi cursed, "We don't have time to argue now, we have to get going to Takashi's Hollow." She took off, as the others nodded and followed her.

"What are your orders leader?" Rei asked questioned Maka.

"We'll start with Hayate's Hollow, it's closest and we'll make a better plan after that." She said determinedly. The others smiled at her change in attitude and they left together.

Skip

Above the students, on the top of a huge smoke stack which over looked then entire area, Ichigo and Hinamori were sitting together following the students beneath them by sensing their energy. It was peaceful up there even as the students beneath them rushed about in a near panic. Hinamori smiled to herself as she looked over the invoice for all the Hollow drones they had requested from the 12th squad. Something caught her eye though.

"Captain," She said,

"Yes Hinamori," Ichigo answered.

"According to this, eight of the hollows the 12th squad built are made with titanium mixed into their steel. Those drones would be nearly impossible even for full squad members to cut."

"Huh," Ichigo grunted, "I guess eight of our students down there are going to have a real fun time with their Hollows."

"Eight students, or two otherwise highly successful teams?" Hinamori inquired suspiciously,

"Wouldn't know," Ichigo said with his best poker face on.

"I bet," Hinamori snuffed.

Skip

Uri was the first to spot the Hollow drone. He smiled to himself as he watched it slowly crawling along. Ichigo may have forced them into a squad but he could still take care of this without any trouble at all. He drew his sword and filled it with killing intent. Holding it till he could hear the sword scream with eagerness to cut his foe. He swung with all his might as he came within range.

"CLANG!" Went his sword as it struck the Hollow's side, leaving nothing more than a dent in its side. Uri was stunned and quickly jumped back away from it.

"Hah!" Takashi laughed., "Can't even cut the damn Hollow can you? Let me show you how a real swordsman does it." He drew his sword and sliced at the Hollow in one sweeping motion. Sparks flew from his blade as the Hollow lurched forward oblivious to the attack and undamaged by it.

"It's made of metal, you idiots." Nagi said as she stepped in, "Swords won't take it down. But let's try this on for size. Destructive Art Number 31: Red Flame Cannon!" She cupped her hands together and cried out as a large red ball of fire leapt from her hands and smashed into the hollow's side. It exploded leaving behind nothing but smoke and a Hollow drone that continued to march forward undeterred.

"That might work." Hime said blandly "-If we had all day. You need to concentrate your powers like this. Destructive Art Number 4: White lightning!" She pointed her hand straight out and a massive blast of white lightning surged towards her foe. The lighting crashed on its side, arced over its back and flew harmlessly away.

"What are these things made of?" Nagi asked herself as she fired another Red Flame Cannon and Takashi and Uri slashed away at the machine.

Skip

The other group came upon their Hollow much sooner than Nagi and her group did. But they held back and watched it advance from their position on top of a building. Rei turned to Maka and asked her what the plan was.

"The plan?" Maka responded., "Right the plan. The plan is… The plan is… Hayate smash it!" She finally ordered with an outstretched hand.

Hiro and Rei just stared at her with while asking themselves if she was serious. But Hayate only nodded and leapt down to the streets below. He took off at a mad dash at the Hollow drone and punched it with all his strength right next to the mask. He left a good sized dent in the Hollow which then tried to walk over him. Hayate pushed back against it and dug his feet into the ground trying to stop it.

"Hayate!" Hiro exclaimed as he saw his friend in danger. He then rushed down to help him push against the machine, but he tripped just before he reached it and got caught underneath the drone in its legs. The machine slowed to a crawl.

"Come on," Rei said to encouraged Maka., "We had better go rescue them." Maka nodded and they both jumped down.

"Destructive art 33: Blue Fire, Crash Down" Maka called out, as a wave of fire rushed from her hand and struck the droid. But it kept on pushing forward against Hayate and through Hiro.

Rei rushed down without saying a word and jabbed the machine with her sword, but it skipped right off. The smooth metal frame made impossible for her to strike the machine with all her strength. No matter where she jabbed it and no matter where Maka shot it the blade and the magic passed right over it. Then Rei saw something; there was a small box shaped plate on the very top of the droid held together with several screws. She jabbed her sword into the thin gap between the two metal plates. Her sword got through it! She then threw her weight against the blade and pried the plate open. It resisted her for some time, but then it gave way and she fell off of the machine.

"Maka!" She called out, "Shoot the plate it's a weak spot!"

Maka didn't need to be told twice. She released a Blue Fire Wave at the opening, it rushed over much of the machines shell, but some of the fire poured through the small opening. For just a moment the machine froze. Then it exploded in a roar of flame as its fuel ignited. Its mask and legs blew off and it fell to the ground, trapping Hiro under it. When the smoke cleared, Hayate grabbed the edges of the burning machine and lifted it up so that Hiro could crawl out.

"Are you all right?" He asked, concerned.

"Uhuh," Hiro responded, "Don't worry about me, I may not be very strong but I don't break easily."

"That's kinda weird," Hayate commented,

"Says the man who lifted the machine up to save me!" Hiro retorted.

"Maka chop!" Maka yelled as she smacked both of them on the back of the head, "You're both too strong to be human. But that's why we like you. Now come on, we have work to do!"

"Where are we going leader?" Rei asked, helping Maka regain control.

"Your Hollow will reach its target soon, we have to take that one down next."

"What about the target for this one?" Hiro wondered,

"Good point. Hayate go and grab the target and take it with you, it should be about five hundred yards or so in that direction. Meet us at Rei's Hollow." Hayate nodded and took off from the group, he moved at a slow trot, then at a fast walk, then he was running, then he was sprinting, then he was moving far faster than any human should ever go, and then he probably broke the sound barrier just as he left their sight.

Skip

The other group was having a much harder time taking down its Hollow. They had been wailing on it for what seemed like hours to no prevail. The machine was covered in nicks scratches and scorch marks, but it hadn't even slowed down. Now it was in sight of its target and they were running out of ideas. All thoughts of their former rivalries and petty arguments had been lost in the midst of the burning drive to take the damn thing down. Then they finally got lucky.

Takashi sheathed his sword and charged the machine with an upward draw. While Uri came at the thing from behind with a powerful downward strike. The connected at the same time and the machine went flying up into the air. With its head up and its tail down, and its legs grasping wildly at the air, it was defenseless. Nagi and Hime came down in front of it, staring at the flat black armor that was underneath of it.

"Destructive Art 31: Red Fire Cannon," They shouted as two blasts of fire flew from their hands and combined into one massive blast. The fireball shrieked through the air and hit the machine in its black armor and tour tore through it like butter, utterly destroying it. All four warriors then fell backwards onto the ground, all but exhausted from the long fight.

"We have to destroy three more of these things?" Nagi asked the world.

"The heck are these things made out of?" Uri demanded to know.

"Definitely not steal steel and destruction stone. They must have titanium in the mixture too," Hime guessed, "But the armor on the bottom appears to be much weaker, they must not have imagined that we would find a way to flip them."

"Yeah," Takashi concurred, "We should split up," He then suggested, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Why?" Nagi queried. "Captain Ichigo told us to work together."

"No," Takashi said, "He said we were on the same team, that doesn't mean we have to work together. See, I've been thinking."

"There's a first," Uri said, mainly to himself.

"We wasted half our strength fighting each other," Takashi continued, ignoring Uri. "If it had just been Hime and me or Uri and Nagi we would've figured out that we should try flipping them ages ago. Instead we just now stumbled on it. We would work better if we split up."

"But if you're on the same team you have to fight together!" Nagi insisted.

"Think about it, if you had a team with a man made of water, a man made of fire, a man made of earth, and a man made of wind it would be stupid to make them work together. The water man would put out the fire man, the fire man would burn the earth man, the earth man would block the wind man and the wind man would scatter the water man. It would be better if the water and earth man worked together, since they can protect and sharpened each other and wind and fire man worked together, since they enhance each other. I think that we are the same way. Uri and I can't work together, and Nagi and Hime can't work together. We would be more effective if we split up."

"Won't we get in trouble if we break up our team though?" Hime asked,

"I don't think so. I think that half the purpose of this exercise is to teach us that who we make a team with is just as important as how we work together."

"This may be the best idea you have ever had Takashi," Uri said after pondering it over, "But if we get in trouble for this I am blaming it all on you."

"I can live with that. Now, we have three targets left. Nagi's is the farthest away from here but it was the farthest from its target to begin with so it can wait. We should split up, Hime and I will go after Uri's Hollow and Uri and Nagi will go after Hime's Hollow. Got it? Good. See you all at the finish line."

"Yeah you will," Nagi said as she and Uri left., "But only through our dust."

Skip

Despite his detour, Hayate was the first to reach the second Hollow. This time he had at it with his sword instead of just his fist. He spotted a large seam in the metal plates coming right away from the mask. He drove his sword in between them and got it firmly in there. Just then, Hiro jumped down onto his blade from a nearby roof top. Their force combined to lift up the hollow's armor. Maka dropped down behind them and fired another Red Fire Cannon into the gap destroying the hollow drone instantly. Behind her Rei came running out of nearby building carrying the target that that hollow had been chasing.

"Next is Hiro's hollow! Let's go!"

Skip

Uri's hollow had almost reached its target when suddenly a yellow wall appeared in front of it. But the wall was at a slant so the Hollow drone simply climbed up onto it. Then suddenly the wall got thinner and the drone's spider legs had nothing to stand on so it fell forward onto the shield. Hime dropped down right in front of the droid and touched the yellow shield at one spot. That spot then opened up into a small hole leading right to the hollow's soft under belly.

"Destructive Art Number 4: White Lightning.," Sshe chanted as a blast of thunder shot from her finger and ripped through the thin armor and started rattling around inside of the drone till it finally exploded. She then turned to the cut out and did a soul burial on it, disabling its tracker. Takashi soon joined her from his hiding place where he had created the yellow wall.

"Two down, one to go," He said commented as the two of them took off.

Skip

Miles away, high up in the air, the sky cracked. The cracks slowly grew outward till they could've been visible from the ground. Then the sky shattered as a hand reached through. Another hand soon followed it through the cracks and the two hands in turn opened up the sky like they were opening a window. Then a man stepped through, and he was smiling.

He looked around and felt the pressure of the air for a moment. He took everything in with his large light blue eyes. He liked what he saw. He liked what he felt. He had originally though he would have to draw his prey out with a little wanton destruction but he saw that his target was already here. He added a second smile to the one that permanently covered half his face.

He took in a deep breath and screamed, "KUROSAKI!" Into the night.

The word died out after a few miles or so, but the message and the pressure that carried them continued all the way to Captain Ichigo. Ichigo turned as he felt it, then glared back at his challenger, who was too far away to actually see. In a moment energy surged through his body, as the meaning behind the pressure became clear to him. White sparks jumped across his muscles as his whole frame lit up with a faint white glow. The scabbard that held his sword vanished as Zangetsu woke up in response to his master's power. The long sheath was replaced with a white piece of cloth wrapped around a broad sword sized cooking knife. All of that energy then surged through his eyes, returning the hunter's roar with the prey's glare.

Though still miles apart it was still like the meeting of a wolf and a moose. One was hunted the other was a hunter. Both were unspeakably lethal, both were infuriated and ready to kill. Neither was willing to leave till the other was dead. Hinamori noticed the change in her captain instantly and saw his soul slayer change in an instant. She gripped her sword and asked what was wrong.

"Nothing Hinamori," Ichigo responded, "Just an old friend, who needs a proper welcome. Stay here and keep the students safe. And please ask the Soul Society for permission to break our seals." Then he vanished and Hinamori made the call.

Skip

Hiro's Hollow was also approaching its target and would soon be done with its work. When suddenly, Maka and Hiro appeared in front of it. They drove their blades into the thin gap that Hayate had exploited earlier, and started wiggling their blades up and down as they slowly worked the armor apart. Hayate then drove his sword into the large gap and used it like a leaver to open up a much larger gap. Rei appeared a bit behind him with her hand at the ready.

"Destructive Art Number 31: Red Flame Cannon!" She shouted as she shot a ball of fire into the gap in the machine, destroying it instantly. She then grabbed the target and took off after the others.

"Last but not least, my hollow," Maka said determinedly as they made their way over the rooftops.

Skip

Hime's Hollow drone was still a bit away from its target when it spotted Uri charging it head-on. The droid still headed forward though, because that was all it was programmed to do. Uri brought his sword down from the left right directly on to the head of the drone. The strike was full of energy but no killing intent, so instead of cutting the head off, the strike forced it down into the ground and lifted its left end up a bit. Uri then grabbed the left side of the drone and threw his weight into its side to flip the droid completely over.

Nagi jumped on to the bottom of the helpless droid and said in the sweetest voice she could muster, "Destructive Art 33: Blue Fire Wave, Crash Down," As the resulting shot fired into the thin armor of the droid's under side and blowing it to pieces.

"One more," Uri panted as he finished the soul burial on the cutout.

Skip

The last two drones didn't know what hit them. Maka's group surrounded theirs and drove their swords into the seams of its armor. They then used their swords as leavers to completely lift the metal shell off of the droid. Hayate then grabbed the shell, lifted it up into the air, flipped it over, and slammed it back down onto the drone's delicate innards.

In the other group Uri and Takashi slipped underneath the drone and lifted it up off the ground before they threw it into a nearby lamppost. Nagi then fired another Blue Fire Wave, while Hime coated the wave in White Lightning. Both spells combined and smashed into the thin armor of the droid's bottom, obliterating it in a spectacular flaming glory.

Both groups then performed their last soul burial and took off for the gate and the finish line for the captain's little game. Both groups entered the final stretch of their run at the same time, but Hime, Nagi, Uri and Takeda were in the lead by a long ways. Hayate could've passed them all, but all of the team had to get back not just one member so he held back and ran with his teammates. They came within sight of the crowd of students who had already returned after either failing or triumphing. This long excursion was about to end.

Then the pressure hit them. It fell on them all like an ocean of water raining down from above. It was an obscene force, and unspeakable power bearing down on their lungs, fighting their every breath, and on their legs rooting them to the ground. It was like walking in mercury. The air got hot from its own friction and all around them the ground itself strained to hold the sea on top of it. The students had always tossed around the phrase 'spiritual pressure,' but they had never known it like this. It was all they could do to stand, it took all of their strength to breathe and they were still miles away from its center.

Skip

"It's good to see that you will come when I call." The challenger quipped to the captain before him, "I thought I would have to root you out."

"You should've known better, I said I would fight you anytime you wanted," Ichigo said in a defiant voice to the power in front of him., "Isn't that right Grimmjow Jeaggerjaques?"

"You sound surprised, Ichigo. Didn't you expect to see me again?"

"Well, Noitra did nearly cut you in half the last time we met. Not that it matters. You're here and I am here so I guess that means we have to fight."

The blue haired espada laughed at Ichigo as his smile only got larger, "Yeah I guess that's right isn't it? So then Kurosaki, are you ready to die?"

"I also told you before Grimmjow, I can't afford to die,. tThere are still too many people counting on me. But I will fight you as many times as I must.," Ichigo said declared as he drew Zangetsu and allowed the cloth around it to fall off.

"You will fight," Grimmjow stated, "and you will die." He then raised the palm of his hand towards Ichigo and spoke one word, "Cero!'

End of Chapter 6.


	8. Chapter 7: Rematch

_Note 1: Once again I would like to thank my fabulous beta, Eternal Love's Eclipse for making all of this possible and readable. _

_Note 2: While all other attacks and moves in this fanfiction will be written in English, Espade get their techniques written in Spanish, because Spanish is awesome. See the end of the chapter for translations. _

Chapter 7: Rematch

There was a ghastly noise: like a razor blade playing a violin that also made of razor blades. A long drawn out scream that shattered all the air around it. Then there was an eerie silence. Not the regular sort of silence which is merely the absence of noise, this was an aggressive silence. The kind which that takes a nine iron to the skull of any sound dumb enough to disturb its drama. It could make even the everyday normal occurrences of the blissfully ignorant, like a couple passing the salt miles away, into tense and dramatic. Then there was another ghastly noise, like a thousand man chorus screaming out the word "THUMP!" while in a battle of the bands with a radioactive mutant accordion player. And the accordion player was winning.

Grimmjow's hand burned red as the silence came to an end and as the second great noise started the fire in his hand poured out over the world. He blinded everything in a wall of crimson light that blanketed the sky. The noise and the light roared and swept over the sky, then their passion died and they dissipated. Ichigo stood right where he had before with his hand outstretched and slightly burned.

"Huh," Grimmjow said to himself, "I would've thought that you were smarter than to try and block my cero bare-handed without your bankai."

"I didn't," Ichigo responded, "I used my cero to block yours, but it still hurts though to use it without my mask."

Grimmjow lost his grin for just a moment as he became very serious, "What are you talking about Ichigo? You don't have a cero. No matter how much you dress up to be like one you aren't a Hollow."

"You know, Ulquiorra said the same damn thing, before my hollow half killed him. Please don't make the same mistake Grimmjow," Ichigo said warned as he held out his sword out at his foe, and the long white cloth at its end wrapped itself up his arm.

"Bankai." He finished as his sword erupted in a blinding flash of light that shot across the sky like a laser. Grimmjow sidestepped it easily. Then all the shadows on the ground leapt up into the sky and enveloped Ichigo in a wall of darkness. An instant later he was right in front of his enemy with his sword less than three inches from his eyes.

Grimmjow ducked and rolled to the side just barely dodging the blade. He drew his own katana and swung at Ichigo's side. Ichigo brought his sword back around and blocked the attack, but Grimmjow wasn't done, as he balled his left hand and fired another cero. Ichigo vanished just before the red light reached him. He reappeared right behind his foe in mid swing. But his enemy had seen it coming; -he blocked the attack and twisted around the strike to kick Ichigo.

Ichigo blocked it with his one hand and jabbed at his enemy's head with the other. Grimmjow dodged it at the last second, but Ichigo pressed the attack and jabbed continued to rapidly thrust at his enemy's head. For a while they repeated the dance; jab and dodge, jab and dodge as Grimmjow was forced farther and farther back. Then he fired another cero to force Ichigo back. He leapt up and punched the air in front of him, firing a small red ball from his hand which that vanished from sight as it raced across the air. Ichgio swung his sword in front of it, as shadows seemed to bleed off of his blade and formed a short black wall which that deflected the attack. Grimmjow fired another cero trying to catch Ichigo off guard.

"Getsuga," Ichigo whispered at he swung his sword at the on rushing attack,. "TENSHO!" He screamed as a massive wall of shadows roared from his sword and collided with the red wall of light. They struggled against each other for a moment., then Grimmjow smiled and tensed up his arm, pouring more and more energy into the attack.

"Getsuga," He suddenly heard from behind him, "Tensho." Ichigo finished as he fired another black arc at his foe's back. Grimmjow turned and blocked the massive black blade with his own sword and cried out as the two forces collided against him. The darkness overwhelmed the light and the whole sky went completely dark as Ichigo stared at the destruction he had wrought.

Grimmjow soon emerged from the darkness though, relatively unharmed. He looked down at his foe and punched at the air again, firing another small red ball from his fist. Ichigo dodged it by quickly jerking to the side. His enemy fired another one, and this time Ichigo swung his sword in a small spiral as he released another black wave from it. Rather than forming a wall, the shadows formed a long corkscrew shape and twisted through the air. He then swung his sword and fired a small black arc above the screw.

The red ball hit the screw and rolled up into it. It swung around the attack and then was released into the air just above it. It then collided with the black slice behind the screw and was reflected back at Grimmjow. He had to side step to avoid his own attack but that only put him in the way of the screw. He was forced to jump into the air to dodge the screw and then quickly bend over backwards to keep the blade behind it from taking his head.

Ichigo appeared above him and swung his sword right at Grimmjow's head. He fired a cero to force Ichigo back, but Ichigo simply rolled to his left and dropped down behind Grimmjow.

"Getsuga Tensho!" He screamed roared as he released a massive wave of shadows right at his enemy at point blank range. The shadows parted and Grimmjow had jumped back far away from Ichigo. But there was a massive scar on his side and his heavy breathing revealed his exhaustion. He was breathing heavily.

"Damn!" He cursed. "You've gotten better."

"You didn't expect me to just wait for you to surpass me did you?" Ichigo said sarcastically.

"Doesn't matter though, you're not the only one who gotten stronger."

"Oh? Has your resurrection improved from our last battle? 'Cause this is getting you nowhere."

Grimmjow threw his head back and laughed at his foe. He spent a few moments cackling to himself and then answered. "Resurrection? You think I came all this way just to try a new resurrection against you? Ichigo, please, resurrection was the technique Aizen forced on us to keep the espada from surpassing him. Real power comes from our Death God half."

Ichigo tensed up as he sensed a sudden spike in his enemy's power, and readied his sword for an attack. Grimmjow grabbed his own sword both above and below the hilt and smiled.

"Tear him up," He ordered. "Garras de Pantera!" He then pulled his hand up across his sword like he was trying to tear the blade out. For just a moment the sword glowed, and then his hands parted. In his right hand he held a claymore saber with an etching of a panther on the basket hilt and lightning bolts running up the blade. In his left hand he held a twelve- inch long dirk with a hand guard made of claws running around the hilt and swirls etched into the blade.

"Getsuga Tensho!" Ichigo howled as he appeared right in front of his foe before he had any time to think.

"Escudo de Viento!" Grimmjow cried in return as he thrust his dirk into the wall of darkness before him. All the air around him seemed to swirl around the blade and harden into a single great wall which that the attack flowed harmlessly over.

"Blade de Trueno!" He added in another defiant cry as he sliced forward with his claymore at Ichigo's head. The blade sparked and seemed to glow with a faint blue light. As it hit the black wall between them a great blue thunderbolt tore from the sword and rushed at Ichigo, but he wasn't there.

Ichigo had appeared behind Grimmjow the instant he attacked with his sword coming down at his head. The espada turned quickly and blocked the attack with his dirk and then quickly counter attacked with a swift slice. The captain twisted his sword to the side to ward off the strike and then retaliated with a quick jab. Grimmjow leapt over the sword, twisted around in the air and flipped the dirk around so that its blade pointed down. He swept the blade at Ichigo's head, but his foe backed off., then he then continued his flip to bring his foot down over Ichigo's head, and Ichigo continued to give ground and dodged the kick. He saw the claymore coming after the kick and quickly retreated completely out of range.

"Getsuga Tensho!" He cried from a distance, and released a dark wall at his foe.

"Blade de Trueno!" Grimmjow yelled back, firing his own burst of lightning. The lightning cut through the wall, but the darkness flowed right past the thunder, so both warriors were forced to sacrifice their position and dodge. Ichigo went up into the air, and Grimmjow fell down to the earth. As the light and shadows faded they looked at each other with hatred in their eyes and charged at each other. Their blades collided with shadows and lighting dancing over each other as both warriors grinned at the other in determination to win.

Skip

The students on the ground weren't having such a tough time to breathe anymore. At first the pressure from the battle had been overwhelming but now most of them had realized there was a pattern to it. The power came in waves, crashing down on the ground and pulling back like there really was an ocean above them. When it came down, they had to exhale and put their feet forward; when it went back they could inhale and take a step. The eight had been amongst the first to realize this and were slowly making their way towards the exit. Along the way they ran into Guts Griffith who was giving some students pointers on how to breathe.

"The hell is going on?" Nagi asked him while fighting for her breath.

The third seat, who wasn't having that hard of a time breathing, looked up at the sky and replied, "Feels like the captain is fighting someone, I am not certain who though."

"Ichigo is causing this? He's not human," Hime declared.

"No one ever said that captains were," Guts shrugged.

"Takashi," Uri said, "From now on, no more trying to get Ichigo to fight you seriously. I don't think anyone in the school would live through it."

"Agreed," Takashi responded and started to say something else but he quickly ran out of breath.

"At least he's making it easy for us to breathe." Guts observed, unwilling to let anyone other than himself complain about anything.

"This is easy to breathe?" Rei said, surprised, "I would hate to feel what it's like when it's hard to breathe."

"You just might. So far the captain has been equalizing his breathing with his foe, but once they start getting serious even I won't be able to stay here."

"Their equalizing their breathing…what does that mean?" Hime asked.

"When a warrior exhales, his energy surges out of him. I don't know why, it just does. That's why people scream when they attack someone, to release that energy. Normally when two warriors of this scale fight each other, their energy moves in opposite surges since their breathing is different, but Ichigo has shifted his own breathing pattern to match his foe's which makes these nice convenient gaps in pressure for us to inhale in."

"Well that's awfully nice of him," Hayate said in a way which might have been serious, or extremely sarcastic.

"But it's not nice of us; it means that we're holding him back. If he has to devote that much attention to his own breathing he won't be able to fight seriously, so all of you need to get back to Soul Society so he can take that bastard down."

The students nodded and continued to walk towards the gate. Maka hesitated for a moment and looked up at the sky around them. She seemed worried and strangely tense.

"Don't you think it's strange that the first time we come out here this opponent shows up to fight Ichigo?" She asked Guts as the group walked on ahead.

"Captains tend to make quite a few rivals on their way to the top and not all of them are Death Gods. This one was probably waiting for Ichigo to come out here to challenge him," Guts answered.

"Then why wouldn't he attack when Ichigo goes home to the Human World at night? Why now when the students are here?"

Guts patted Maka on the head to comfort her, "Don't worry about it, it's not like this is some giant trap to attack the students or anything, someone has a bone to pick with the captain and that's all."

Maka stared past the third seat at the air behind him with wide-eyed shock. She tried to scream but her body was suddenly paralyzed with fear. Behind Guts, between her and her friends, the air seemed to tear open and turn black as a massive hand came out of nowhere in mid swing. It smashed into the man in front of her and sent him flying off into a building. A second later the mask emerged.

"**ROOOOOAAAARRRRRR!**" The mask screamed as its full body stepped through the tear in the air. The other eight looked back at the thing. It was massive, towering above them all, well over twenty feet in height, excluding the horns coming from the mask on it head. From its brown body, four long legs protruded to support its enormous weight while another four limbs were used as arms and ended in what appeared to be boxing gloves. Overall, it looked like a mutated spider specifically engineered for crushing people.

"**ROOOOAAAARRRRRRR!"** Another creature cried out as two more rifts in the air opened up on either side of the eight and two more giant beasts stepped out into the world. One looked like a scorpion and the other like a man with bat wings coming out of his back. Both of them were as massive as the first.

The students stood rooted to the ground as they saw the Hollows emerge. Power radiated from their bodies that cut through even the intense ocean above them. Hunger defined their eyes as they greedily looked over the children. The scorpion on their left was the first to move. It leapt at the eight with its claws and tail at the ready, but was interrupted in mid flight as Guts emerged from the pile of rubble he had been thrown into.

"FLY YOU FOOLS!" He screamed as he sliced off the tail of the scorpion and knocked it to the ground. The spell over the eight was broken by his words and they took off. Their own spirits rose to the task of holding the pressure around them at bay and they ran for the gate.

Maka also started to run, but the bull Hollow still stood in front of her so she ran off towards a factory trying to escape it. The Hollow chased her, fortunately it was also having trouble running in the intense pressure around it so it couldn't quite catch her, but it was only a matter of time. Guts jumped after her, but the bat Hollow grabbed him in mid air and flew him through a building, while the scorpion Hollow leapt after them, eager to avenge its wounded tail.

"MAKA!" Uri cried out as he saw his friend being chased and turned to run after her.

"Wait you idiot, there's nothing we can do!" Nagi cried after him and went to grab his hand.

"Leave him," Takashi ordered, "He knows what he's doing."

"He's going to get killed!" Nagi exclaimed as Takashi grabbed her and held her back.

"He knows, it's his only choice now." Takashi then turned to Uri was already running after the huge hollow before him. "Don't you dare die on me Uri!"

"Keep them safe!" Uri yelled back as he ran. Takashi nodded, lifted Nagi off the ground and took off after the others.

Skip

Despite only having one hand, Guts Griffith was no push over. He still kept up with the two Hollows hammering him from both side, but he couldn't gain the advantage. Every time he beat one off and went to chase after Maka the other slammed him from behind. Soon he found himself pinned to the ground by the bat Hollow. He held the creature's claws at bay with his sword, but its mouth was getting closer and closer to him.

Suddenly there was a bright flash and a clashing noise. Hinamori appeared behind the Hollow with her sword in one hand and one of the Hollow's wings in the other. The monster reared up off of Guts in pain, who then kicked it to knock the creature far back.

"Don't worry about me!" He ordered, "There's another Hollow going after those kids, take it down!" Hinamori nodded and leapt away. The scorpion Hollow turned to follow her as Guts stood up. "Now then, where were we?" He asked no one in general.

"Bury them, Foe Hammer." He added as his sword transformed and regained the attention of the Hollow. For a moment in vanished in a bright white light and then reappeared. It was now much longer and wider, taller than Guts was and almost as thick. It had no guard and its edge seemed dull.

"Soft Wave," he all but whispered as he drove his sword's tip into the ground. The concrete they were all standing on became as soft as top soil and both Hollows sunk into it slightly. He then whipped his sword up into the air and all the ground beneath them followed it forming a wall of dirt to one side. The Hollows lost their footing and fell over, at the same moment Guts waved his sword over them and brought tons of dirt down on his foes burying them instantly.

"Hard Grave," He said as he jumped on the dirt mound with his sword thrown casually over his shoulders. As he did the ground seemed to shrink as the dirt contracted back into the concrete with the Hollow still inside. After a moment they began to scream in pain, then they went silent as their lungs ran out of air, then after a few more second there was a popping sound as both Hollows died and began to dissolve. A second later, Guts took off after Hinamori.

Skip

Maka tried in vain to escape her pursuer. The Hollow was slightly faster than she was thanks to its longer gait, so she ducked into a factory, hoping the low ceilings would slow it down. They didn't, the factory didn't have low ceilings and so the Hollow came right after her. She tried to run towards an exit and get back towards the gate home, but the Hollow leapt in front of her.

She drew her sword and stood at ready, but she knew it would be a pointless battle. The Hollow was stronger than she was in every way and she knew it. She tried to blind it was a red flame cannon, but the Hollow dodged it easily and charged. The monster lunged at her with a quick punch that she just barely managed to dodge, but the second one came too quickly, and she couldn't get out of the way in time.

"Get away from her!" Uri cried out as he leapt in- between the two. As he did he swung his sword down on the Hollow's hand with all his might and left a good-sized gash in its hand, but not enough to take it off.

The Hollowed reared back in pain, and as it did, Uri grabbed Maka and ran passed it towards an exit. But the Hollow recovered quickly and soon smashed the exit with its arm and forced the two back into the factory. Uri stood between the monster and his friend with his sword at the ready.

"What do we do?" Maka asked,

"I don't know, it's too fast; we'll never get away."

"We'll just have to fight it then." Maka concluded as she brought her sword to the ready. The Hollow charged with its mouth wide open and its fist flailing at random. It was ready for the kill, and Uri knew he couldn't stop it. To his side though, he noticed a stack of propane tanks. He had an idea but he had no time to do it.

_I am sorry Maka,_ He thought to himself as he charged the Hollow before him. _I might have to make you cry. _

"Binding Art 16: Rushing wall!" He cried out as he shoved his hand towards Maka. As he did so Maka flew backwards out of a window into the street. Uri then clashed with the Hollow stopping its bite with his sword as its arms reached out to grab at Maka but couldn't reach her. As it did, Uri grabbed the Hollow by its massive neck and flipped it onto its own back and rolled it to the propane tanks.

"Destructive Art 33: Blue Fire Wave Crash Down!" He screamed as he shot the tanks with the blue fire and smiled as the deadly flamed rushed over him and his foe.

Skip

Hinamori reached the scene at about the same time that Uri fired and watched in horror as Maka flew out of the building as it erupted in flame. She landed next to Maka who was dumbstruck by the sight of the red and orange flame filling up the grey-blue world with their deadly lights.

"Is anyone still in there?" Hinamori demanded to know, Maka nodded. "Don't worry, I'll get them, you get to the gate, understand?" Maka nodded and slowly started running away.

Hinamori leapt into the fire but the heat was so great she couldn't get very far. All she could see was the faint black outline of a man standing next to the dissolving frame of a Hollow, whoever it was; they quickly took off towards another window. Hinamori followed them and made he own exit through the wall. Outside she still couldn't make out who it was that had been trapped in the fire. Their body looked completely black and still smoked in the cool air. She quickly grabbed them and flash stepped towards the gate back to Soul Society. It only took her a few jumps to get there and even less time to get through it.

On the other side she threw the burnt body into the hands of the fourth squad members who were attending to the other minor injuries of the students. They looked shocked at the sight of the boy and could only nod before rushing him off to their barracks. Himamori then turned to the white-cloaked members of the twelfth squad who were setting up the protective barriers that could allow her and Ichigo to fight at full power.

"Set them up now!" she ordered one of the scientist.

"We're working as fast as we can Ma'am." He answered. Hinamori then grabbed him and held him up to her face and glared at him with stronger intensity than she had ever mustered before.

"SET IT UP NOW!" She shrieked, and the scientist could only nod as Hinamori tore back through the portal. This time she was not sealed by it and arrived on the other side ready to use her full strength.

On the other side she quickly ascended high up into the air and overlooked the training area. There were dozens of Hollows beneath her, charging after students and fighting with the other Death Gods. Most of them were fairly weak though, and even the students could out run them, Guts had taken down the only really strong ones it seemed.

"Snap," She ordered, "Tobiume." Then her Soul Slayer changed almost instantly. It abandoned the curved form of a katana in favor of a straight sword with two long hooks coming out of its side, which gave it the look of a tuning fork. She dragged the edge of the sword across the air and left a small red line in her wake around her. Every now and then she would twist her sword slightly and put a knot in the line.

Then she struck the line with her sword and lit it a flame. When the flame reached one of the knots it grew into a large fireball and rushed through the air to the ground. Within a moment there were dozens of fireballs screeching towards the ground and towards the Hollows. All across the world beneath her, plumes of fire and smoke lit up as she banished the Hollows from this world in one fell swoop.

Skip

Miles away Ichigo sensed Hinamori's surge in power, as he twitched his head to the side and dodged another thunder bolt from his foe. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the sealing walls form up around him and prevent his energy from reaching his students. He took up a fighting stance and readied for the final blow.

"About damn time," Grimmjow declared as he felt his foe shift his power. "I was wondering when you were going to start taking me seriously."

"Shut up Grimmjow," Ichigo said, as he removed the seal from his body and allowed his energy to flow freely through his body. Zangetsu responded instantly, his hilt formed into a swastika, a black glove covered his right hand, and the short chain at its hilt grew up around his arm.

"Before this day is done, you will regret that I took you seriously." He added as he drew his hand across his face and drew up his Hollow mask. His mask was all white with two long red lines running through his eyes, and a pair of large horns coming from his head. At the same instant a large hole appeared in his chest and his hair grew to an absurd length.

Red light began to gather around his horns and the world was once again silenced by the awful noise that that started the battle. As the first noise collapsed into the noise killing silence that followed, one sound could be heard. Ichigo spoke, but his voice was different, it sounded like three people were speaking at the same time, one voice was high pitched and erratic, another was low and powerful. As they spoke the world was torn in two.

"_**CERO!**_" Then the world turned red.

When the light faded Grimmjow was on the ground. He had changed as well. His blue hair hand grown very long, the white jaw on his face had been replaced with a small crown and pair of cat ears sat on his head. His clothes were gone and most of his body was covered in a pale blue bone- like armor. His arms and legs had long spikes coming out of their backs and his hands had long claws on them. His feet had been replaced by cat paws and a long tail could be seen driven into the building behind him. He still held his swords, and he was covered in wounds and burns.

"Damn," he breathed out as he slowly stood up. "No wonder, Ulquiorra and Aizen lost to you. You're insane."

"_**GET UP.**_" Ichigo ordered, "_**WE'RE GOING TO END THIS NOW.**_"

"Not today," Grimmjow said as he opened up a garganta behind him. "I am not your final opponent. Soon he will come for you, and he's going to kill you."

"_**WHO?**_"

"You'll never see him coming." And then he was gone.

End Chapter 7

_Translations: _

_Cero: zero_

_Escudo de Viento: Wind Shield_

_Blade de Trueno: Lightning blade_


	9. Chapter 8:Answers and Questions

Chapter 8: Answers and Questions.

There was a great panic at the fifth squad gates following the attack. All the senior officers on duty were on the other side of the gate when it happened and no one really knew what to do. Fortunately there was very little which could be done. There were very few injuries and Captain Ichigo and Hinamori soon dealt with the Hollows themselves. All that really could be done was for the students to be sent home and what few injuries there were to be treated. Nonetheless, everyone felt like they should be doing something and so everyone was rushing around trying to do anything and getting nothing done in the process. When the first few officers showed up on the scene they were immediately swamped with so many requests for orders that there first challenge was simply to get to the gate itself and take command.

This proved especially difficult for Hanataro Yamada, the fourth squad seventh seat. Hanataro wasn't used to any kind of command. The Fourth squad really didn't need much instruction beyond which injuries needed to be treated first and none of the other squads ever considered the Fourth squad worthy of noticing much less giving orders. But Hanataro had known Captain Ichigo for some time and the squad knew that and therefore they respected him and promptly swamped him with requests for orders once he arrived.

After a long time of wading through people asking him what to do, Hanataro was almost glad to have an injured body in front of him free to concentrate on. He had heard that the boy was the worst injured of all the students and had been badly burned in a fire in the real world. Hanataro was secretly excited by the challenge. He felt very sorry for the boy and was eager to help him but it had been a long time since he faced a serious burn wound and was ready to try his skill against one.

Since there were only a handful of fourth squad members there and there were many people to be checked over and treated, Hanataro sent his attendants away to personally deal with the boy. Burn wounds were rare but they weren't that difficult to treat; the damage would mostly be superficial since he hadn't been in the fire long enough for the smoke to damage his lungs or for the heat to harm his internal organs. In fact, Hanataro figured that some of the damage would already be healed as his body absorbed the ample spirit particles from the air in Soul Society.

Once he reached the body, Hanataro covered his hands in a long pair of gloves, set his tools to the side and laid his Soul Slayer down where he could reach it. He didn't think he would need the healing powers of the sword but he couldn't be sure. He took out a sturdy pair of scissors and cut away the burned remains of the boy's robes and looked over his body. He was shocked. He had never seen anything like this before. Hanataro backed away slightly as a mild panic over took his body. Just before he could run off to tell someone, a blackened hand reached up and grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down to the boys face.

"No…. One….Must….Know..." The boy managed in between gulps for breath and rests to regain his strength.

"N-N-N-No!" Hanataro stuttered. "I have to tell my C-Captain, t-t-t-t-this could kill you!"

"Risk….It…." the boy ordered as strength drained from his arm.

"I can't, you need help," Hanataro pleaded with the boy.

"Hide….It…" The boy looked at Hanataro dead in the eyes. It was a look with power and ferocity behind it. Hanataro had seen it before in the eyes of men who were ready to risk their lives for the sake of their pride. The look lasted only an instant though before the boy drifted off into unconsciousness.

"Damn it!" Hanataro cursed as he stood up and rushed for the door.

"Why did he have to do that?" he lamented as he paused in front of the door and looked back at the boy. He was sworn to protect the boy's body but he had learned that many times this meant healing his pride first.

"Oh Dear!" He lamented as if it was a curse and returned to the room to grab a mass of bandages. He stood over the body one last time and looked back at the door. Then he looked again at the awful, and frankly amazing sight that was the boy's 'injuries' and got to work.

Skip

In the real world, Hinamori was experiencing the closest thing to bloodlust she had ever known. For a brief period of time she had forgotten everything pressing on her mind save for an overwhelming desire to kill as many Hollows as possible as quickly as possible. She was doing very well. She swung her sword before her and launched another fireball in front of her and struck down another Hollow. Immediately another one tore through space and time to appear behind her, but she sensed it and turned in an instant and cut the monster down. No sooner had in vanished then four more appeared behind her again. She turned and glared at them just in time to see their destruction.

"Gestuga Tensho!" Captain Ichigo cried out above her and fired a shining white arc of energy down on the Hollow blasting all four of them out of existence at once. The captain landed next to her an instant later. His face was slightly more weathered than it had been when he left and there were a handful of scars scattered across his body. His sword had returned to its Shikai state and his energy had lowered dramatically, but he still radiated enough power to snap Hinamori from her rage.

"Report," he casually ordered.

"Sir!" she responded. "All students have been evacuated with only one serious injury and no casualties. Guts has rallied the other Death Gods around the gate, but the Hollows just keep on coming. I've already slain dozens of Hollows as there are many more in the area."

"Aye," Ichigo affirmed. "They don't seem to have noticed that the students are gone. Still, an infestation this size has to be dealt with. Take Guts and his men back to Soul Society and give them a rest, then bring five of the on-duty teams back here to wipe these Hollows out. I'll keep them from leaving this area."

"Yes Sir. I can't believe they would do something like this." Hinamori said indignantly as her rage rose up once more.

"Neither can I," Ichigo replied suspiciously.

"What?" Hinamori asked, noticing his strange tone.

"Grimmjow is many things, but subtle isn't one of them. He's barbaric, brutal, lethal, unpredictable and relentless. But he's also very, very direct, and frankly, he wouldn't care about any of the students, they're not strong enough for him to even notice much less attack. I doubt he would even agree to a plan like this much less organize it." As Ichigo ranted, Hinamori dumbly smiled and nodded; she had never even heard of Grimmjow and knew nothing about him. But she assumed that her captain knew what he was talking about.

"Do you think someone else is behind this?" she offered.

"Possibly. I don't know though, it's hard to think with all of these damn Hollows about. And what the hell is that stench?"

"What stench?" Hinamori asked, puzzled.

"Don't you smell it?"

"I don't smell anything out of the ordinary."

Ichigo paused to consider this. The captain was the sort of man who wouldn't notice a freight train till it blew its whistle after hitting him. His younger sisters, who could barely see Hollows, often recognized changes to the spirits of the world before he did. He couldn't believe that he had noticed anything before Hinamori could've. He concluded that this smell must therefore be something that is blatantly obvious to someone like him but undetectable to Death Gods.

"Hinamori?" Ichigo asked after considering all of this.

"Yes Ichigo?" she answered.

"Does Soul Society have any compounds that can reverse the effects of Hollow bait?"

"Yes it does," she told him in a slightly confused voice.

"Good, bring some back with you, and seven teams that are on active duty."

"Yes Captain," she nodded and left. It was going to be a long night.

Skip

It was a long night. Over 500 Hollows entered the living world and had to be driven off by just over a hundred Death Gods. But it wasn't just a long night for them, it was also a long night for Hanataro who had the misfortune of being utterly convinced that he did the right thing and knowing he was going to get in trouble for it later. Kiba Yamamoto was also having a long night. She was one of the Fifth Squad's logistic officers and she was currently the sole focus of one very angry Nagi Sanzen'in.

"I told you before," Kiba pleaded as she tried to push Nagi's face away from her own with her clipboard. "I don't know where anyone specifically is, all sixth year students have been sent to D block."

"And I told you he's not there!" Nagi yelled as she pushed back the clipboard and looked Kiba dead square in the eye. Normally Nagi was a well-mannered girl who respected other people's space and stupidity, but now she had lost all patience.

"He has to be, all the students are back and have been sent to their respective classes and are now being sent home; which is where you all should be going."

"Well, one is missing because we can't find Uri Takeda anywhere."

"Maybe he already went home," Kiba suggested.

"Maybe you should just do a recount," Nagi retorted.

They went on. The night was getting very long. All the longer since this was the second time that Nagi had berated the young logistics officer. The first time she was looking for some girl name Maka Alburn. After a while she had stormed off to find her, which she did, and then she came back with some new crusade to fight for. It was all getting on Kiba's nerves but she was too good-natured to do anything about it.

"Maybe Uri was injured," Maka suggested behind Nagi. Kiba looked over the girl, and wished for just a moment that she had spoken a bit sooner and prevented this. But then she saw the girl's eyes and the realization that she was shell-shocked dawned on her. That was probably the first thing she had said since she got back. Her friends around her nodded gravely.

"So where are the wounded?" Nagi asked in a slightly less irritated voice.

"I wouldn't know, you would have to ask a Fourth Squad member." Hime nodded at this and leapt away from the group towards a nearby medic nicely set apart from the other Death Gods by the green sash across his shoulder.

"Pardon me sir," she asked in the sweetest voice she could muster, "but I was wondering if one of my friends, Uri Takeda, had been injured and is being treated by your very capable hands."

The Fourth Squad member was taken aback by her for just a moment but he quickly recovered. He checked his clipboard and then answered, "Yes, an Uri Takeda is being treated by seventh seat Hanataro."

Hime looked back at Nagi and smiled mockingly at her as the medic turned away from her. She quickly looked back as the medic addressed her directly. "That's good, Hanataro should be able to easily handle even burns that severe."

"What?" Nagi said flatly, dropping all pretense of sweetness and taking the man completely off guard.

"When the boy was brought in his entire body was blackened by the burns. It looked very bad." The group was shocked as this. Maka looked like she had been struck and was ready to faint,

"But don't worry!" The medic quickly added, "Our seventh seat is one of the best in Soul Society. If anyone can help him it's Hanataro!" The seven looked at each other. The decision was made instantly.

"We have to help him," Rei declared.

"Right," the others chorused.

"Quick, let's get going," Takashi urged.

"Yeah, before Guts Griffith finds out," the man himself said as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere right next to Takashi and Rei. His black uniformed with stained with pale green blood and his one arm was casually holding up a sword that was larger than anyone in the group. Guts looked rather miffed.

"But he's our friend!" Nagi cried, preempting the inevitable command from the third seat.

"I don't want to hear it!" The massive man cried out, "The Fourth Squad has enough on their hands right now without you all getting in the way! Now go back home, you all can see him when the good doctors say you can see him and not before."

"We have to help him," Rei repeated.

"The best way to do that is to go home and let Hanataro work. But if you all insist on going to the medical center I can send you all there right now for emergency surgery!" The seven looked down and gradually dispersed. Guts spit as they left and then turned to the men behind him.

"All right you lazy buggers; ain't no way we're letting the captain and Hinamori fight all those Hollows themselves so let's get going." The men behind him nodded, grabbed their swords and made their way over to the gate. It was going to be long night for everyone.

Skip

That long night inevitably ended in a surprisingly quick morning. It was the weekend in the real world and Ichigo didn't want to risk another attack coming to Karakura town so he spent the night in Soul Society. The seven woke up quickly and rushed to the school to hear if there were any reports of their friend. Uri awoke and lay in bed for a long time and weighed his options for the future as he slowly learned how to breathe again. Hinamori woke up and got right to work.

Her first job involved a quick trip over to the Fourth Squad barracks to sign off for the students that had been brought there. Since the students were still civilians, the Fourth Squad had to charge for them and the Fifth Squad had to foot the bill. It wasn't exactly difficult or important work but an officer had to do it and Hinamori needed time to think.

The attack from the previous night puzzled her. It was too massive and well-timed to have been random but she couldn't think of anyone who would want to attack the students. Ichigo had enemies to be certain, as did Soul Society but there were greater targets out there than the students. If the Hollows had taken the students hostage to weaken or distract Ichigo that she could understand, but Grimmjow hadn't allowed Ichigo to even realize what was going on. While her Captain was the most important person there, he wasn't the target of the attack.

It didn't seem like the students were either. The moment the Death Gods counterattacked, most of the Hollow lost interest with the students and instead chased after the Death Gods. There were no reports of Hollows hunting students, nor did the Hollows try to break in Soul Society through the gate—they hadn't even attacked the gate. It seemed as if the arrival of the Hollows had been well planned but their actions once there were random and uncoordinated. She just couldn't wrap her mind around that.

"Good morning Ms. Hinamori," Hanataro said as he walked by her with a broad smile and a shaky step.

"Mmmm," Hinamori grunted in response. She barely noticed him, but then she paused as Hanataro laughed nervously and tried to edge away from her. As an officer of the Fifth Squad, Hinamori knew almost every officer in Soul Society personally, and she was always ready to take an interest in anyone. To make matters worse for Hanataro, she had worked and lived with three of the best poker faces in all of Soul Society and Hanataro had the second worst.

"Hanataro?" she asked, freezing the seventh seat in his tracks.

"Yes Ms. Hinamori?" he responded, all but shaking under her glare.

"Is there something you're not telling me which you ought to?"

"No of course not."

"Something with my squad perhaps?"

"Not with your squad or your students," Hanataro said and quickly slapped a hand over his mouth in a desperate attempt to pull that last word back in.

"Something's wrong with one of my students?"

"Of course not."

"Is it that Uri Takeda boy?"

"No, he's alright."

"Even with all of those bad burns on his body?"

"Well, there are those. Hinamori? Why are you looking at me like that? Ow. Hinamori could you stop pushing me back into that closet? Wait, what are you doing with that feather? No Hinamori you know I am ticklish there. No, stop Hinamori stooooooop!"

Skip

Maka had opted not to attend classes that day, though she did make a trip to the Court of Pure Souls. She had other business to take care of. Security within the court was not nearly as tight as it could've been, and the Fourth Squad never even posted sentries. She made her way into the hospital without being seen or stopped very easily.

Uri wasn't that hard to find either. She had always been good at following spiritual signatures and was very good friends with him. She could always find out exactly where he was whenever she wanted to. After making sure he was alone, she entered his room. The sight that greeted her was a little hard to believe at first.

Her friend was sitting by a window completely wrapped in bandages from head to toe. She couldn't see one square inch of his skin, but that was probably for the best. He stirred slightly when she entered and slowly turned to look at her. Maka looked her feet. Uri nodded slightly and motioned at a chair nearby. She took a seat a carefully studied. He was breathing slowly and looked exhausted, his eyes were weathered and cloudy.

"Are you….alright?" he asked between deep gulps of breath.

"Thanks to you," she responded guiltily. He nodded.

"It's funny," she continued. "My life debt to one man ends and another begins to you. I guess I am kind of pathetic, eh?"

"Don't…say such…things," Uri labored.

"What should I say? It's true."

"So what….are you…going...to do…about it?"

"What should I do? It seems that every time I turn around someone has to save me or cheer me up," Maka lamented with a tear running down her face.

"Smile…Fight...Dream," Uri ordered as he wiped the tear from her eye. She smiled and left a moment later. As the door closed and Uri felt her getting farther and farther away, he let out a deep breath and fell out of his chair.

The floor cracked slightly under his weight, so he eased up off of it a bit and then started doing pushups. He worked quickly and breathed slowly. Breathing was the hardest thing right now; he had more strength than he knew what to do with but breathing was impossibly hard. He could feel it though—he was gaining control. Control was what he needed, he had lacked it in the fire but soon he would have it. He couldn't go back till he did.

Skip

"Our Uri has done that?" Ichigo exclaimed as Hinamori finished telling him what Hanataro had told her as they walked along the streets of the Court towards the Twelfth Squad barracks. "Damn."

"What should we do about it?" Hinamori inquired. "He could seriously hurt himself of someone else like this."

"Hmmm," Ichigo grunted as he thought about it. "Does Unohana know about this?"

"Probably, she knows everything that happens in her squad."

"So what is she waiting for?"

"She must be waiting for you to act."

"Damn, that must mean I have to do something, doesn't it?"

"It does."

"Well, Uri seems like he knows what he's doing, so let's give him till summer's end to come to terms with this."

"And if he can't?"

"I'll think of something."

"Which probably means that I will have to instead."

"That's what you're here for."

The Twelfth Squad barracks was nothing but one big research lab. It was also a very confusing place. Most of it had been jury-rigged together and then later abandoned as needs developed and changed. A scientist had to be sent to guide the captain and his lieutenant through the maze of labs and equipment. The guide was named Akon. He had black hair and an uninterested look on his face. He also had several small horns on his forehead that everyone wondered but never asked about. He talked with them in a monotonous voice as they walked.

"Our tests confirmed your suspicions, Captain Kurosaki. Hollow bait was released into the area to attract the swarm. It was released shortly after you went off to fight Grimmjow and went into effect once you had started fighting," Akon explained.

"Great, call me Ichigo though," Ichigo ordered.

"Is it possible that Grimmjow himself released the bait?" Hinamori asked

"Unfortunately no, it isn't. Hollow bait has a very limited range and Grimmjow was too far away to have released it. It's also unlikely that any of the Hollows themselves released it. Hollow bait is difficult to make and the materials needed for it are very rare, most Hollows lack the intelligence needed to even find the materials much less actually assemble it. And no Hollow portals aside from Grimmjow's opened up in that area during the time in question."

"So how could the bait have been released? You don't think one of our Death Gods could've done it?" Ichigo asked.

"The captain thought of that so we checked the clothing of all fifteen Death Gods in the human world at the time, and none of them checked positive for Hollow bait contamination. Right now the most probable answer is that a human released the bait." Ichigo was slightly shocked about this.

"How could a human have known that Grimmjow was coming, or that my students were?" Ichigo wondered.

"Chances are that you told them." A short man in white face paint and outrageous blue hair said as the group rounded a corner into one of the many labs. He had a strangely wild look on his face and a wide smile. He was also flanked by a girl behind him with a straight haircut and a smart dress.

"Hey there Captain Kurotsutchi, I was telling Captain Kurosaki some of your conclusions," Akon introduced subtly.

"What do you mean 'I told them'?" Ichigo demanded to know,

"The only known individuals in that area with the ability to make Hollow bait are your Quincy friend and Urahara. either one of them is working with the former espada or his arrival was a coincidence," Mayuri accused.

"Couldn't have been one of them though," Ichigo insisted.

"Why not?"

"Ishida spent the day with Orihime and never left her house that night. As for Urahara, you're welcomed to question him, but you will have to go to America to do it."

"America?" Mayuri repeated, his voice full of curiosity.

"Yeah he had some mad scientist convention or something to go to, he's been gone for about a week."

"Hmph," Mayuri grunted in an insulted manner. "Well then he ought to have lots of witnesses to support him them. What was the name of the convention?"

"It was like 'Greatest Minds in the Universe' or something, I don't know, now what was your big discovery which I had to come all this way to see?" Ichigo said in a mocking way, as if to press the point that Mayuri hadn't been invited.

"Foot soldiers should always come out to see what the real minds have discovered. Still I suppose I can show you my brilliant discovery. Look at this Hollow bait." The scientist said motioning to a microscope. Ichigo examined it for a moment.

"Looks perfectly normal to me," Ichigo concluded.

"It is," the other captain confirmed. "Now look at this one."

"It looks kind of different, almost like its twisting inward instead of outward like the other one."

"How observant for a grunt; but it's not quite so simple. Normal Hollow bait is made to scatter around as large of an area as possible, this bait is made to scatter and then contract around a certain point. In other words, while most bait is made to target an area, this bait is made to target a single person, or a single group."

"Was this the kind used on my students?"

"If it had been, then only one group of students would've been hit by waves of Hollows. No, the kind used on your students was a mixture of the two. A general to affect the entire area and a specific bait to paint one person as a high priority target."

"But none of the students reported being attacked by multiple waves of Hollows, most students only saw them from a distance then left," Hinamori pointed out.

"Not surprising. The bait they used was a failure, too much of it was the general kind. The target probably would've only been attacked by one relentless Hollow that crossed over first and then they could've escaped. If you want Captain, we can test the students—"

"No way in hell," Ichigo interrupted.

Mayuri cackled and ushered them out of his lab. "Well then, good luck with solving this mystery, Captain Ichigo."

As they left, Ichigo returned to questioning Akon. "Could another former Espada have entered the area before the test to plant the Hollow bait?"

"No they couldn't have. An Espada's Garganta is different from a regular Hollow's tear in space, we would've detected it and warned you."

"Could they have crossed over with a normal Hollow and hidden themselves?"

"Possibly, but we would've had to recall the Death Gods in the field to find out. Any Hollow that comes over is attacked by a Death God, and since no one reported finding an Arancar of any kind out there, we would have to look for any missing Hollow reports."

"What's a missing Hollow report?" Ichigo asked.

"You're a captain and you don't know?"

"I am new at this."

"When a Death God is ordered to find and kill a Hollow and he goes to the area where it was detected and can't find it he has to file a Missing Hollow report. Since it was gone the Hollow must've quickly caught its prey and consumed it. Such Hollows are rare and likely to become very powerful given enough time, so the First Squad tracks them."

"Huh. Well no need to bother with that, I am sure I can figure this out on my own, thanks for the information though," Ichigo said as they left the barracks.

"What should we do Captain?" Hinamori asked. "We can't let an attack like this happen again."

"Don't worry about it," Ichigo brushed off her concerns. "I'll take care of it."

"How?"

"I'm not that good with mysteries but I can get some information fairly easily. After all, I already know who I have to beat up to get it," Ichigo concluded as he tapped the air in front of him and opened a Garganta. "I'll be back tomorrow."

"Wait Captain!" Hinamori shouted, but he was gone in an instant. "Damn that's annoying."

Skip

On the other side of the Garganta Ichigo appeared in front of his house back in the World of the Living. There were two men standing there waiting for him. The first was a very tall man with massive muscles covering his body, long brown hair obscuring his face and well tanned skin that seemed to give him perfect looks to match his perfect strength. Next to him was a much shorter man with short black hair, a thin body and sharp glasses he was dressed all in white and had an Irish Cross dangling from his wrist.

"Hey Chad, Ishida. I guess you sensed my scrap last night."

"Only a blind man could've missed the light show you put on Kurosaki," Ishida answered scathingly as Chad nodded. "I guess you want to go after him now don't you?"

"I was thinking about it. Would you all like to come with me?"

"We have considered it." Ishida confirmed.

"Let's get going then." Ichigo said, and then they were off through another Garganta into the world of Hueco Mundo.

The great world of Hollows was not all that impressive. It was nothing more than one giant desert stretching off into infinity in every direction. When they first came here, they were untold miles away from their target but Ichigo was getting better with the Garganta so they appeared right in front of their goal; Los Noches. The building was the size of a small country and certainly had a third world look to it now. The once proud giant dome that covered it was smashed to pieces. Holes littered it, and whatever wasn't cracked or busted to bits was scarred black from the shadows and flames that had danced over it.

The three of them entered the building through one of the massive holes in the dome and soon found the scenery to be quite different. The desert was still present, but it was midday inside the dome and midnight outside. The desert was no longer barren either; it was now littered with massive towers and red stone obelisks. It would've been an impressive sight if half of those towers weren't destroyed and the desert wasn't littered with craters. They took in the view quickly and then moved on.

Los Noches was all but deserted. There were only a handful of life forces in the area, and most of them were blotted out by the sheer enormity of the life force the four of them emitted. The group picked out one particularly great force and moved towards it. It took them a while but they finally found it amongst a small cave created by several collapsed red pillars.

"Grimmjow!" Ichigo bellowed into the cave. "Come out and face me!"

"Quite your screaming. I sensed you coming," The former Espada responded. He soon exited the cave and the group gasped at the sight of him. His clothes were ragged and torn, his chest had a deep scar running across it and both of his arms were held up in white slings.

"So Ichigo, have you come to break my legs too?"

End Chapter 8.


	10. Chapter 9:Conversations

Chapter 8: Conversations.

Four men were sitting around a poker table, although only two of them could really be called men. And neither of those two were any more a man than a 725 pound liger is a cat. The other two might have once been men but they certainly weren't anymore and in truth they hadn't been.

The one who most likely was a man was an odd one. He was a young man, no older then thirty-five. He had blond hair under a striped hat that had seen more life than most men had and a bad case of a five-o-clock shadow. He wore a green cloak over his back and mid-length pants and he also carried a cane for no apparent reason. He looked all the stranger since there were about sixty-seven men behind him who were all helping him play his hand.

Those men all looked very familiar, though one couldn't quite say why. They were quite a collection of different men and a handful of women. Most were Asian, a handful were African, and a dozen or so were Caucasian. One of them was a teal color with red stripes on his face. They were of all ages and while most were middle aged, some were quite old and one of them would've proudly said that he was seven and three quarters. Some were blond, others were red heads or brunets, some had black hair some had white hair, one of them had a hair color that most civilized worlds had outlawed. They wore all kinds of clothing; there were even a few black robes with white cloaks scattered amongst them. But there were certain constants about them.

They all wore sandals and no matter what kind of coat they wore it seemed almost comically too large for them. They all had hats; wide brimmed, well worn hats that had seen the falls of empires. They all carried canes despite the fact that not one of them needed one, and they all had basically the same look on their face.

It was a look that was young enough to be optimistic about the future. It was weathered enough to say that it had seen most everything the world had to offer and quite frankly, found it all lacking. It was childish enough to say that it had no idea what the future might hold, but it was also smug enough to say that it knew a bit more about the future than you did. It was a look that not only could have stopped a raging bull elephant but made the elephant embarrassed enough to turn around and tidy up the place a bit before now. It was, in short, an amazing poker face.

It didn't change the fact that he was losing the poker game. Any other game against any other opponents he would've mopped the floor with them and left them all naked in the streets, but frankly his look was out of its league with these three. One of them was a skeleton in a black cloak with eyes so deep and dark that one could lose a solar system in them, and the faint blue pin pricks in their centers suggested that he already had. Next to him was what a skeleton in a black robe would look like if Disney animators ran the universe. And while his white skeleton mask could be expressive when he wanted it to be, it's default shape was utterly blank.

"CHECK," the first skeleton said in a tone that sounded like led falling on a block of granite.

"Open," the second said in a high-pitched, nasally voice carefully calculated to make him sound as ridiculous as possible, while he deposited a sizeable stack of chips on the table.

The fourth player was an old man. Save that the word 'old' really doesn't do him any justice at all. Old implies that there was a time when he was 'young' and frankly with a man as ancient as he was that simply wasn't possible. The amount of time he had spent while 'young' was so miniscule in comparison to the amount of time he had spent while 'old' that it no longer really counted. He didn't have a poker face, he had something that was three time better than a poker face—he had an 'old man stare'.

This was no ordinary 'old man stare' either, it was the 'old man stare' that all other 'old man stare's aspired to be, and were unabashedly called whippersnappers by. It could bore through granite and lead. It could not only stop a raging bull elephant, but also get it commit suicide and grind its own teeth down into piano keys.

"Raise," he commanded in a voice that had lived much too long under the influence of the stare as he doubled the stack of chips on the table so that it was now the size of all the chips the first player had left.

The first player held up his hand to the men behind him. They looked it over for a moment or two. Several of them shook their heads while looking disgusted. Several others nodded vigorously while smiling broadly. Most of them never took their eyes off the other players.

"You should fold Urahara," the old man advised.

"I have never been too good at that," he answered and deposited the remainder of chips in the pile.

"TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD," the first skeleton concluded and threw his cards on the table.

"You don't have any blood," the second pointed out.

"I HAVE MORE THAN YOU DO THOUGH," he responded.

"True," the second one admitted. "I fold."

"Let's see what you've got," the old man invited.

"Just two pairs, minister," Urahara lamented and smiled. "A pair of kings and another pair of kings."

"Well I suppose that beats my four queens," the minister admitted as he put down four cards. "And a king."

The room went deathly silent. Several of the men behind Urahara tried to looked disgusted at him while backing away. Others grabbed their swords and stared at the other men around the table, but most simply continued to stare blankly at Urahara, pretending to be spectators to the whole affair. The first skeleton broke the silence with a deep rumbling laughter that was as creepy as it was dramatic.

"HOW STRANGE," he said as he took up the cards he had thrown on the table, "I AM GLAD THAT I DROPPED OUT SINCE ALL I HAD WERE FOUR THREES AND A QUEEN."

All the eyes in the room shifted back to the old minister who reflected their glazes back with his stare and drew a single beam of light into his hand. The silence was twice a heavy as the ante was upped. This time it was the second skeleton who broke the silence.

"Stranger still, I had four sevens in my hand and a three."

"Then I guess it's only logical that fifth card in my hand should be a seven." Urahara concluded as he turned over his final card that he had kept hidden this whole time.

All the eyes at the table shifted back and forth from one another nervously. The old man's light elongated into a sturdy staff which seemed to somehow declare that it was good for whacking. The second skeleton drew a scythe that was long and simple, the blade was black with a lightened crescent running opposite its edge as if the scythe was smiling at them. The other skeleton drew a sword that was so sharp that light itself seemed to bend around its edge, making it appear impossibly thin and slightly blue. Urahara and all the men behind him pulled on the heads of their canes and drew them out from their staffs, revealing long curved swords hidden inside.

"THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION TO THIS." The first skeleton observed. The others nodded in agreement, turned and killed the dealer.

Skip

It was noon in Soul Society. The students had finished their first round of classes and were now settling down to enjoy their lunches. Maka had returned to her studies the class before with the excuse that she had been feeling sick but now felt much better. Her teachers didn't ask any questions {but} her friends knew better. They also knew her well enough not to have to ask her where she had gone.

"How is he?" Hime asked the moment that lunch started. Maka told them that Uri was badly burned and covered in bandages. The group fell silent as they listened. Several of them looked sad, Takashi seemed completely unaffected, Nagi was shaking with rage.

"That idiot," she cursed quietly. "How could he go off and nearly get himself killed like that?"

"What should he have done? Left Maka?" Takashi asked.

"We could've gone with him!" Nagi shouted.

"You saw that thing, we would've been no better off."

"You don't know that!"

"Yes I do, and so do you Nagi, you're smarter than that."

"So why did he have to sacrifice himself like that? We're all friends, we should all have helped or all run away."

"Uri never would've taken us all to defeat. He had no choice but to go himself," Takashi defended, a bit of irritation showing in his voice.

"There's always a choice."

"You don't know him."

"I know him as well as you do!" Nagi declared, but then the power in her voice died as she saw the glare that Takashi gave her. There was death in that glare.

"Not even close," he sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "Come on Rei, I don't have to sit here and explain this to anyone."

As they left, Nagi's anger slowly returned and she punched the floor in frustration. "Who does he think he is?" she said quietly.

"Uri and Takashi knew each other in the Living World," Maka explained as she finished her lunch and stunned the group. Where one landed in the Soul Society depended on how righteous they were in life, so almost no one ever met the people they had known in life.

"They weren't friends or anything," Maka continued, "but their sisters were. So they knew each other pretty well. They all died together in a car accident and so Uri and Takashi came over together and by a stroke of luck landed in the same area."

"I didn't know that Uri or Takashi had sisters," Hime stated.

"They don't. Their sisters didn't make it, they were eaten by Hollows. Uri and Takashi want to become Death Gods so that tragedies like that never happen again."

The other four went silent. They would never have guessed that such a tragedy had befallen either of them. But Nagi was slightly puzzled.

"So if they both swore never to let a friend die again, why didn't Takashi go after you too?"

"Partially to protect you all, but mainly because they changed their oaths after meeting Rei and me. Uri says we're the spitting image of their sisters. When they met us they swore to themselves to always protect us. When I first found out I thought it was kind of creepy, but in the Living World I had been an orphan, so I let him do it. It made me feel like I really had a brother watching out for me." As she finished she stood up and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Hayate asked.

"The gym is usually empty during lunch, so I'm going to practice."

"Why?"

"That was a real Hollow we faced in the living world, we're going to face a lot more of them if we graduate. I don't want Uri to have to constantly look after me, so I'm going to get stronger. You all are welcomed to join me if you want to." Then she left.

Skip

"No doubt about it," Uryu Ishida said as he examined Grimmjow in the shattered remains of Los Noches. Neither of his arms can even move. His left shoulder has nearly been cut clean through, severing several major blood vessels, nerves and muscle tendons to the arms. His right shoulder has been crushed, broken and fractured in seven different places. He could move it but the pain would be unthinkable."

"Thank you captain obvious," Grimmjow said sarcastically and then turned to Ichigo. "I don't why you had the doc-in-training look me over—you were there when both of these happened. In fact, you're the one who messed up my left arm all because Inoue said you couldn't get hurt anymore."

"I seem to recall you moving your arm a lot after that," Ichigo said suspiciously from his seat on a nearby fallen obelisk.

"My resurrection restores some movement to my arms, but I couldn't do much after that hit if you recall," Grimmjow defended.

"I thought that Arrancar healed themselves when they switched between forms," Chad pointed out.

"Damage we take in our resurrected form is permanent. And as I said before, Ichigo should know all of this. The moment that Nnoitra smashed my shoulder in I was done for once and for all. I haven't fought anyone since then and I doubt I ever will again."

Ichigo looked over at Ishida, who had lived his whole life in a hospital and, unlike Ichigo, had actually learned something from it all, for confirmation.

"It's true as far as I can tell," Ishida said. "Arrancar seem to heal a lot faster than Humans do, but these wounds are much older than just a night."

"Why are you all so obsessive about this?" Grimmjow asked, getting very annoyed with his visitors.

"Last night you attacked me," Ichigo bluntly stated.

"Impossible," Grimmjow declared, getting deathly serious. Ishida nodded at this.

"Well if it wasn't you than it was someone who looked exactly like you, with your name, sword, clothes, attitude and resurrection with a detailed knowledge of our history."

"What color were his ears?" Grimmjow suddenly demanded to know.

"What?" Ichigo stammered, taken by surprise.

"My ears are blue on the inside with a green lining; what color were his!"

Ichigo just stared blankly at him for a moment as he reached back into his memory. Ichigo, as has been stated, is not the sort of man who pays attention to details, but by no small miracle he managed to pull this one out.

"They were green on the inside with a blue lining," he finally managed, and Grimmjow broke down in laughter. The laughter reached far beyond the stones around them and somehow managed to reflect back off of the distant roof over their heads. It was a laugh that could've been a roar, it was the laugh that Loki would've laughed as he stole the sun and unbound his son. It was a world splitting laugh, and it hit them in the bones.

"So," he stated after finishing his nice long laugh, "you met the bastard too then? I didn't know he had become an Arrancar as well. Good luck with him."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you know how Hollows evolve, Ichigo?"

"No I don't."

"We eat each other. After a Hollow eats enough Humans it stops hungering for human hearts and starts to long for the sweet flesh of other Hollows. Of course the Gillan won't let them hunt each other so they have to gather where there are no giants and they fight and eat each other. Then their bodies fuse and they become Gillan themselves. The Gillan still hunger for the flesh of Hollows, but they're too stupid to see any difference between themselves and the Gillan around them. If any do, they eat the others and become Adjuchas. The Adjuchas have to eat each other or else they devolve back into Gillan. If an Adjuchas eats more than a thousand Hollows it stops growing, if it can manage to eat five thousand Hollows it will stop feeling hunger and are no longer in danger of devolving.

"To evolve into a Vasto Lorde you have to hunt down one specific final Hollow. A rival. Not just any rival, a true honest to goodness rival, someone with all of your powers, your personality, your style, your very nature. An opponent who is only one degree removed from you. In other words you have to fight yourself. Now for any other place in the whole universe this would be totally impossible—no matter how long you searched you could never find another true rival, but Hueco Mundo is no ordinary place. It is the single largest place in the whole universe; there are hundred of billions of Hollows down in the forest, millions of Gillan guarding them, tens of thousands of Adjuchas running over the desert and one of them, only one is your perfect rival.

"I met mine about a hundred and five years ago, but I had only eaten about five hundred Hollows and wasn't ready to take him down. We fought and I did manage to wound him, but he escaped me into the desert. I swore I would find him again and that I would become one of the Vasto Lordes, but I never found him again. Its not surprising really, there's only like five Hollows that have made Vasto Lorde in all of history."

The group was stunned, partly at the implications, partly at how disgusting the life of Hollow really was. They slowly recovered as Grimmjow smiled to himself and resumed his laugh. Ichigo was the first to speak again.

"But wait, Aizen was the only one who had the skill needed to create Arrancar, so how could your true rival ever have become one?"

"I don't know. Maybe somehow the two of us are linked, so when Aizen changed me he changed as well. Maybe he made a back up set of Espada in case any of us betrayed him or were defeated before his transformation was completed. Maybe there is someone else out there who can make Arrancar. Rumor has it that Aizen gave the Hogyoku to one of the Vasto Lordes just before he died. Maybe a lot of things, but he's out there and I doubt that you'll find him though. Its best if you just wait for him to show up again."

"I've noticed that when you mention the Vasto Lordes it is in a slightly reverential tone," Ishida observed as Grimmjow gave him a look about how thin the ice he was treading on was.

"The Great Lords are the gods of Hueco Mundo. There's only a handful of them and they've never been defeated, the whole world bends to their will. It's the goal of all of use to become one and until we do we live in perpetual fear that one day they will descend and smash us to pieces. Even Aizen feared them."

"I thought the top four Espada were Vasto Lorde," Ishida pressed.

"Ha!" Grimmjow laughed. "Ulquiorra, Harribel and Barraggan were all close. They had stabilized, but they weren't quite Great Ones yet. Stark might have been—when Aizen found him he had already become an Arrancar—but I doubt it. If even one Vasto Lorde had sided with Aizen you all probably would've lost."

After stating this Grimmjow went silent, and his three visitors were as well. After some time Ichigo got up and opened a Garganta back to the real world. Before they left Ichigo said one last thing.

"Why don't you come back with us, Grimmjow? Inoue could heal your arms for you."

"As if I need a human's help with anything. What kind of Panther asks its food for something? Go away. And Ichigo?"

"What?"

"Beat the hell out of that bastard. If I couldn't beat you I don't want anyone else to have that honor either." Ichigo nodded, and then left.

Skip

At about the same time, Urahara was walking with the old man from his game as he prepared to return home. The convention was fun as always, but he had work to do. As he walked the old minister broke the silence.

"For a moment back there I was afraid you really were cheating."

Urahara, flipped his wrist slightly and a pulled a King out of his sleeve. "I was," he answered. But so were you, and so were the skeletons, but they never cheat on the same level as you and I do."

"Lucky us. Still, that worries me though."

"What kind of mad scientist would I be if I didn't cheat fate once in a while."

"Even the maddest don't tempt me though," Fate answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, and you should fold already, you have no chance this time."

"I had no chance last time too."

"That was a miracle. It won't happen twice."

"Why not?"

"I won't let it. I stood by when you blocked the first heir, but two is simply ridiculous. It's not your place to choose and he has to come from below."

"You do support the boy though."

"The kings won't."

"Screw them."

"Urahara, there is bravado and there is madness, you are on the path of madness with that last comment."

"They aren't unbeatable, and they will support him as well."

"They damn near are and they won't. The last one came from heaven and they had a thing or two to say about that. They want this one to come from hell."

"He isn't from heaven, he's from earth and will go through hell before this is over. I willing to bet they will support him."

"I won't make that bet."

"So you'll support a foreigner?"

"Urahara, I was alive for the last war, you weren't. I won't risk another, so yes, I will support a foreigner."

"I will be dead before I see him on the throne."

"And I told you not to tempt me. Hell needs a few months to sort this out, so you have until the end of Fall to come to your senses. If you still insist on this madness I will remove you from the game."

"You will try."

Skip

It is amazing how different a story can be if the characters so much as look in a different direction. Fortunately for most authors, very few people look at what they already know the shape off. A seven-foot tall skeleton can walk through a crowd because no one will ever believe that a skeleton could and so they won't see it. It is impossible to make a mountain invisible but if it get's painted hot pink then not a single map will ever list it. There are however, some people whom this never works on.

Grimmjow was one of those people, largely because his senses were far more cat-like than he would care to admit. Like any cat, Grimmjow likes to look at things even if he already knew what he would see. And he would really look at them, not simply glaze over them like most people would. This gave him the most curious of powers. He could see things that were really there. Not that he always liked this power; he really didn't like what it was showing him right then.

If Ichigo and the other had turned around when they entered Hueco Mundo or had looked away from Los Noches they would've seen it too. But they had known that there was nothing but desert around that building so they never bother to confirm it. No one in Los Noches would've looked either but Grimmjow liked looking at the desert so he did see it.

There were trees in the desert. Massive black trees. Growing very slowly thousands of miles away, without branches or bark. Tall black trees, every now and then he could see one of their masks. It wouldn't be much longer. Harribel joined him after a moment of contemplation.

"You didn't tell him," she stated. It was the third thing she had said since then end of the war.

"He doesn't need to know," Grimmjow responded.

"It's his own fate, I think he has a right to know it," she remarked.

"Not if we want him to actually do it. Ichigo will never do what fate tells him to do. Its better to just sit back and let it happen."

"Have you heard from your brother?" She asked.

"Don't call him that," Grimmjow ordered slightly annoyed. "He says the four of them will be ready by Fall's end. We have to keep the two of them from meeting 'til then."

"Will the kings let us do that?"

"They only gave him a thousand troops, we should be fine."

"How long 'til they attack?"

"God only knows."

"Let's pray he doesn't."

End Chapter Nine.


	11. Chapter 10:Calm Confrontations

Chapter 10: Calm Confrontations.

The spring days brought a great sense of peace to the academy following the sheer weirdness of the winter. Everyone made their way through the rest the quarter with little incident of note. Ichigo never returned to give another lecture and many of the changes he had made soon became normal and were swallowed up into the abyss of routine. Soon it was very hard to tell that most anything had happened at all.

This was a curious realization for Hinamori. She had expected the captain to be full of vigor; over eager to return to the real world and hunt down those responsible for the attack on his students. She had expected the fifth squad to be up in arms seeking war and every opportunity for violence. None of that happened. Ichigo returned following his last disappearance as if nothing had happened at all. He had returned to his paper work and building closer relationships with in his squad and with the other captains. He acted like he had already solved the problem and whenever Hinamori asked him if he had he simply shrugged his shoulders and changed the conversation.

He lost interest in the academy shortly afterwards. While Ichigo still demanded weekly reports on everything that happened he made no comments on them and made no changes to the school. Not that he needed to, Hinamori had to admit. The academy was functioning very well and the students seemed to be making real progress, not just in their studies but towards being real Death gods. All and all the world seemed to be honestly peaceful these days. And Hinamori remained so blissfully ignorant right up to the point when the firing range exploded.

It was not too terrible of an explosion. It was just great enough to be noticeable and just loud enough to snap her head to the left just in time to see the blue flame leap out of the building's windows. She reached the entrance before they had flickered out of existence.

Inside she found a half dozen or so men scattered across the ground missing their eyebrows and with scorch marks on their clothing. Almost all of the targets in the room had been incinerated and the roof over head was starting to crack. Only one target still stood in the midst of a narrow sliver of undamaged ground leading backwards to her captain who was standing perfectly still with an outstretched arm and singed clothing. He had a very curious look on his face as everyone else in the room looked at him dumbfounded.

"What the hell just happened?" Hinamori demanded of a fallen man next to her.

"The captain came in and was inspecting us when suddenly he asked me what the incantation was for Demon art number 33. I recited it to him perfectly and he then said it back to me and fired at one of the targets. Then there was a very bright flash of light and now I'm back here against this wall." The soldier explained a little bewildered and confused.

"Uh-huh," Hinamori responded as she took her eyes of him and onto the captain who was now looking at his hand quite perplexed. "Can you make it to the Fourth squad on your own?"

"I think so."

"Then I suggest you take the rest of the day off."

"Thank you mam."

Hinamori made her way over to Ichigo very slowly as the men left on their own. When the room was empty save for her and him she looked at him very seriously and took a deep breath.

"A friend of mine once taught me a trick for Demon magic." Ichigo preempted her, "He said all you had to do was picture a very large dark circle and imagine throwing yourself into it. I guess real spells are more difficult than that."

Hinamori paused for a bit taken aback by this, she then closed her eyes very tight as she wrapped her mind around what he had just said. "No it doesn't work like that at all."

"I figured."

"Your Soul Slayer is a magic type, how can you not know how even most basic magic works?"

Ichigo shrugged, "Zangetsu doesn't need any control, you simply feed him power and he releases it as it should be, and I was never educated in Demon magic, there wasn't any time for it."

"So why try and figure it out now?" Ichigo didn't respond, Hinamori continued regardless, "Its that Grimmjaw character isn't it? You couldn't find him in Hueco Mundo so you're trying to become stronger for when he comes back."

"Something like that." Ichigo said, "Zangetsu is as strong as he will ever become and my Hollow half has stalled as well, so I figured magic would be the next level to pursue."

"It's taken you the better part of the semester to conclude that?"

"My Hollow half was rather difficult about admitting that he didn't know how to improve any further."

Hinamori shrugged, she didn't understand much about her captain and that part of him. "Generally speaking there are two types of Death gods those that excel at magic and those who are a danger to themselves and those around them with it. It all comes down to a level patience and control that is typically innate to your personality. To be honest you don't seem like the sort of person who could safely use magic." She said letting her eyes wandering around the room and the destruction he had wrought.

"Figures." Ichigo said taking a seat on a slightly burnt bench behind them. "How are the students at the academy doing?"

"You've seen the reports."

"That measures everything except the things that will matter in the long run. So what do you think?"

"They are improving quickly. And they all seem to be very motivated to get ready for their exams and finish the semester. They've taken to the changes you've made and seem to be making real progress not just in their courses but they seem more like real Death Gods every day. Give it a few years and it should run like clockwork and produce the highest quality Court Guards seen in decades."

"What about the eight?" Ichigo asked leading Hinamori to role her eyes slightly, she still didn't really get why Ichigo all but obsessed about the top eight students in the academy. They did have potential, that was certain but she wasn't sure that the deserved this much attention from him, they couldn't have done anything that bad in life.

"They've lost interest."

"In being Death gods?"

"No just in the academy. They're still the top eight, but there no longer really working in class, the teachers are struggling to just to keep them awake half the time. From what I've been able to gather they've taken up practicing on their own outside of class and have probably surpassed what their teachers are trying to teach them at this point. Actual class work just doesn't challenge them anymore."

"And what about Mr. Takeda?"

"You mean Uri? I've placed him on the injured list so that he could be excused from physical practice and work. He seems to have quietly accepted this and has all but stopped working at school."

"What about at home?"

"He's not working, at least not on the level that the others are. He doesn't seem to have their motivation and is making little progress in any way."

"What about the rest of the sixth years?" Ichigo asked causing Hinamori to exhale deeply before continuing.

"One more year and they would be ready, maybe even just a semester if you put the fear of god in them. But as I figure it if any of them are sent to the real world come August and they will probably die after their third or fourth Hollow fight."

Ichigo nodded, "The Eleventh squad needs about half our graduating class the moment they're done and the Third, Sixth and Seventh squads desperately need men as well. The Captain Commander has made it clear that we cannot afford another year out of action."

"We could fail them all, giving exams beyond their ability wouldn't be too hard." Hinamori suggested.

"The Commander is aware of that and has decided that any student who fails us in this time of need isn't worth recruiting in a time of plenty. Any sixth year students who fail this year won't be coming back."

"He can't order that, it's your call on who gets into the academy and who gets dropped."

"But it's his call on who gets into the court guard."

"So we either crush their dreams or send them to their deaths." Hinamori concluded.

"Yep."

"Why is the commander doing this?"

"Mainly to test me, he wants to see what I would do in an impossible situation. From what I gather from the other captains the Commander wasn't to certain that I was worthy of this post."

"So what are you going to do kill their pride or their lives?"

"Neither, I'm going to change the question."

"You can't cheat the Commander."

"Watch me, the rules say they have to graduate but they don't say that they have to graduate in May. Technically they don't have to graduate till a week before they join the main squads in August."

"Yes but that rule only applies to students who have to retake their exams."

"Exactly."

"But the only reason why a student would have to retake an exam is if they missed the first exam because they were sick or otherwise indisposed."

"No, the only reason why a student can retake the exam is if the score is invalidated such as by sickness or extenuating circumstances."

"So what are you going to do? Get all the students to skip the exam?"

"Nope I am going to be evil. Bwahahahah."

"You're being vague again."

"Yes I am."

Skip

In the academy classes were proceeding as normal. Not by the old normal, if any of the students had been told that they were would be working like this last year none of them would've believed it. But now all of the radical changes were in place and people had applied their most unique of all talents: making the extraordinary boring. So students went about their daily lives. By now even the horror of the attack in the living world had worn off and everything was business as usual.

In 6b Uri sat on the side of the sparing arena as Rei scored the winning hit in her duel eight feet from her opponent. As the clock shifted on the classes moved from teacher to teacher. From the arena they went to track where Uri watched Takashi break the school record by a full tenth of second, which in the hundred meter flash step was a very impressive achievement. From the track they went on to magic and finally to history where Uri slept through the class undisturbed. He did very little these days, he had done very little since he left the hospital.

6a was a bit more interesting, so long as one did track the students during the actual classes. During class little was done that was truly impressive. Hayate still hadn't lost a match, Nagi and Hime still hadn't had anything other than a draw in their matches, Maka and Hiro won their matches as well though no one was quite certain how they managed to. In short little had changed for them, while school was in session.

Out of session seven of the eight met together in the woods outside of the school and practiced on their own. There the duels were more intense and elegant. The races were longer and faster. They practiced spells from stolen books by firing on each other. They also were gradually decreasing the population of tree in the forest as the continued to focus their killing intent and improve their spiritual pressure.

Uri didn't join them he made his way home following classes. He knew what they were doing but never asked to join and shrugged of any requests to join them. As far as he was concerned the school day and in fact most of the day itself was just a long time between his dreams at night. There was little he wanted or was willing to do.

However, school was going on, though it was almost over, so Uri was awake and the other seven weren't taking things very seriously at all. It was almost over though, all the classes were down to their final teacher and were learning a bit of history to give context to the skills that they were mastering. The teacher was just finishing up as the bell rang to signal the end of the day. The students got up and were ready to go when the teacher ordered them all back to their seats.

"One last thing." He said to them all, "We've received word on how the final exams will be held in two weeks. I hope you all are excited about them, I know we in the faculty are. First all I am sure most of you will disappointed to hear that there won't be a history final this year." He said as the students smiled to themselves, "Though we will have a cumulative test before the year is out." He added as the students moaned.

"The Physical classes will have physical exams this year, you will have to demonstrate the major forms of swordsmanship and fighting styles you have been learning to your teachers. There will also be a very large mandatory tournament and marathon that you all will take to gauge your skill at fighting and flash step. And you will have to flash step though it My Hayate.

"The Magical exam will have a written and demonstration portion. You will have to write out the incantations to several spells and then release them without saying the incantation. Finally there will be one so called mystery exam that they haven't told us anything about." The class erupted in righteous indignation at the sound of this, how could they take an exam they knew nothing about.

"You're wasting time on me students. The exam schedule has come to us from Captain Ichigo himself. Though I have been assured that you will be able to take and pass this exam without any preparation at all."

Skip

The spring air swept through the court of wandering souls. It was warm enough that one didn't have to bundle up anymore but still cool enough so that one couldn't really work up a sweat in it. As it drifted over the houses it picked up the thousands of smells of human life. The sweet perfumes of young girls the sweat of real men hard at work, even the smell of cooking meat every now and then as students to the academy and those who would soon join them sat down to a good meal. It was in short a perfect day like so many others in Soul Society.

Which was good for Uri Takeda, he was still covered in the heavy bandages that covered and protected his injuries from the fire. He had been released from the hospital weeks earlier and had come back to an interesting time at school. His injuries meant that he was officially excused from physical work and now that most of what the academy did was physical work that mean he did have anything to do with most of his classes. As for the other classes, well, Uri had always been able to get all of his mental work done with minimal effort so in truth he spent of most of the school days asleep.

So today, like many days, he left school on his own well rested and refreshed and was enjoying the cool breeze even through the several layers of bandages around his skin. He made his way through the crowds with little difficulty. It always amazed him how people would get out of the way for a mummy with a cane. He could all but close his eyes and still make it through the crowds perfectly well. He was in fact closing his eyes when someone suddenly crashed into him and knocked him down.

The ground was warm, it had been baked by the light of noon sun and the constant friction of a million souls pressing down on it. Uri always remembered how warm the ground was that day. It even kept him from looking up for a few seconds to see why he was on the ground.

"Hey Takashi," He finally said as he looked up at his rival standing overhead, "How's Rei?"

"She's fine," Takashi answered as he drew a practice sword and casually threw it back and forth between his hands, "She's visiting her mother out in the 53rd ring."

"That's nice."

"You know I think that's the first time you've called Rei by her name to my face since we made our oath all those years back."

"If I didn't know any better I would say that you miss me calling her a whor-"

"I almost do. I also miss the days when you could count on a cripple you knocked down to cry out in pain."

"I wouldn't know, I never knocked down a cripple before; but to each his own I guess."

"Uri, cut the crap already. Why are you still putting up with this?"

"What do you mean?"

"If I had hit you like this before you would've twisted me around and thrown me into the next ring."

"I don't get what you're talking about."

"Fine I say it clearly, why the hell are you still on the ground? Why haven't you been practicing in the sparing matches? Why are you letting Maka cry when she sees how miserable you've been acting since the attack?"

"You would be surprised how warm the ground is." Uri answered and then quickly moved his head aside as the sword driven into the ground a faction of an inch from where he was. Uri was up in an instant after that, rolling to the left to get out from under Takashi who quickly drew his sword out of the ground.

"How dare you say something like that? Why won't you fight like you used to? Why have you been dead since you went to the living world?"

"Give me a break man, I'm injured."

"I told you to cut that crap out. Even if I ignore the fact that you're moving just as easily as ever and didn't even notice being knocked down, injury would never hold someone like the Uri I used to know back. You remember the time when we arm wrestled throughout an entire three day weekend? And how the match ended with us both breaking our arms? We came back to school the next day and still trained just as hard. You even dueled me with your broken arm just to prove that you could. What happened to that? Why are you still lying down?"

"All these questions are getting bothersome, I'm just as free to change as anyone else I don't need to live up to your standards."

Then Takashi rushed him, sword out stretched in a forward thrust. Uri sidestepped the blow and stepped back. Takashi came back at him with a quick slice to the left, but Uri blocked it with his cane and continued to give ground. The crowds parted around them in stunned silence, violence was rare in this part of the wandering court and the sight of a boy and a cripple fighting each other was just to shocking to believe. Takashi pressed on swinging wildly at his foe, killing intent radiating from his sword, but his every swing was parried by Uri who continued to give ground and never lashed back. Finally the crowds came back to life and surged forward. Eight men grabbed a hold of Takashi and held him back while several more gathered around Uri protectively.

Takashi broke past the fist men and collided with the second. He spirit surged against them and forced them down, it would only take a few seconds before he broke past them as well. His eyes focused solely on his target before him. Uri held his cane before him expecting the next strike to come at any time now. His breathing was random, ragged and difficult; he cursed in between breaths and held his cane at the ready.

"Binding Art number 30, triple beam prison," an unseen Maka called out from beyond the crowd releasing three golden triangle through the mob that crashed into Takashi and sent him flying backwards pinning him to the wall behind them. The mob stopped in it tracks looking back at the young girl who had so effortlessly stopped the fighting.

"Evening all." She calmly greeted them as she walked through the mass of people like she was queen of the streets, "I would like to thank you all for helping in this training exercise, I am sure my partners will benefit from the experience of have to fight through a large group of people. You may all return to your routines."

The mob backed off slowly not entirely sure what to make of all of this. Within a few moments though they had all dispersed back into the ever present tides of the streets. After that Maka made her way over to Uri who nodded at her.

"Thanks a lot Maka…" He managed between gulps for breath, "Looks like you saved me that time."

"Maka Chop!" Maka declared as he brought her hand and a very large book that came from nowhere down of Uri's head sending him down into the ground again.

"What was that for?" Uri demanded to know form the ground.

"Takashi may be an idiot but he has a few good points. You've changed Uri for the worst. I am going to get stronger, we all are. What happened in the living world is never going to happen to use again. It's time to stop hiding behind those bandages and start working to become stronger again."

"I don't see what that has to do with me." Uri said looking away from the girl standing over him. Maka's face actually turned red as she raised the book back up into the air. As she brought it down one of the oddest things they had ever seen happened. The sky above them all shattered and fired a white rocket down into the ground.

End Chapter 10.


End file.
