Guardian Angel III:

Neo Arcus Angelus

Chapter 1

Three Years, Still Awkward

Okay guys, this is it, it's back. The last Guardian Angel story I'll ever write (probably). By the end, everything should be completely wrapped up and all questions answered. I was working on Fateful XIII: Rewind before this, but due to the fact that I have massive writers block concerning that story, I've put it on hiatus until I can figure out what the hell I want to do with it.

Putting that aside, for all those who read the first two, you know what you're getting, and be prepared for more. I plan on making this a longer, bigger, better story that it's previous installments, and I hope you'll all come along with me for the ride.

Get ready for a wild party, and let's rock!

Did you ever have a day where the sun was shining right in your eyes even though you had the curtains closed and you knew instantly this day was gonna be a handful? Well that was the sort of day that Matt was expecting, and as he got up and check his mail, his thoughts were confirmed.

It'd been three years since the fiasco with Astaroth, and Matt had settled in well in the Soul Society. He had his own place in the Seireitei, his relationship with Koshino couldn't be going better, he got a few days off to visit Holly every now and then, and he and Nathan got to hang out almost every day. He'd gotten pretty popular in the thirteenth and tenth divisions, and knew almost everyone of interest to some degree.

He was most beloved though, in his own position. See, Yamamoto got to decided just exactly where he ended up after they decided he was staying in the Soul Society. He figured Matt needed more discipline, so he stuck him in the most strict organization in the Soul Society; he stuck him in the Special Forces. They definitely weren't an easy crowd, and despite him having achieved bankai, he was placed at the bottom of the barrel. He was able to rise quickly in the ranks, having exemplary reports both on and off duty. After three years of busting his ass, he'd climbed the ladder of ranks.

His current job was alright, he was what you called a Field Commander. The basic definition of the job was leading a regiment of Special Forces soldiers on missions and such. Of course, due to the fact that almost nothing that would warrant the Special Forces deployment had happened, his job was limited to paperwork, paperwork, getting yelled at by his captain, and more paperwork.

Yes, his wonderfully cheerful captain; Soi-fon. To say the two of them didn't get along was about a big an understatement as saying that Grimmjow was just a little insane. She was very distrusting of him at first, both because he had been a deputy soul reaper, and because he had disobeyed a very stern order from the captain-general himself. On top of that she was demanding, stiff, stubborn, short tempered, and a hell of a lot of fun to pick on. Matt was by no means the traditional subordinate officer who would follow the orders of his commanding officer. No, he much preferred to give her as much of a hard time as possible.

He would do his job, nothing got in the way of that. It was just that he did things that he knew annoyed her, like turning in his paperwork an hour late so it backed up her entire workload. He even went so far as to make up a nickname for her that he made a point to call her by whenever in front of the division. Sort of like what he did to Toshiro.

Speaking of Toshiro, ol' Frosty couldn't have been doing better either. After he'd gotten back to the Soul Society, they were able to replace his arm and he was in tip-top fighting condition again. Matt made a point to visit him at the barracks every once in a while and usually ended up publicly humiliating him in front of his division. It was something he'd become quite famous and popular for.

As for his other friends in the human world, he'd been keeping tabs as best he could. Ichigo he saw the most, seeing as he had the occasional business to tend to in the Soul Society, and he was up to date on all the happenings in his life. Apparently he had graduated college and was now helping his father run their family clinic while soul reaping on the side. Also, he heard from a particular blue haired former Espada that Ichigo and another raven haired soul reaper, one Rukia Kuchiki, had been spending a bit more time together as of late. It didn't surprise Matt in the slightest; he could always tell those two had a thing for each other. Ukitake had mentioned she had been requesting more missions in Karakura town, and now he finally knew why.

Acedia, the only immortal in Astaroths inner circle who Matt was one-hundred percent sure was still alive, was…well no one was sure where the guy was. He came back to the Soul Society for a few days, thanked everyone for being so kind to him and apologized to both he and Koshino for the whole "trying to kill them" thing, and then he just disappeared. He said he was going off to travel the world and see if he could do some good as a drifter.

He dropped Holly a line every few weeks; she was the closest thing he had to a friend, so he made a point to keep in touch. Matt wasn't worried though, Acedia could handle himself out there and he didn't really have any reason to go evil again.

Matt continued personally training Koshino for a year after he settled into the Soul Society, and she was currently on her way to achieving bankai, with his help of course. She was still beautiful as ever, but neither of them had really changed physically. Soul reapers didn't age very fast, and neither one of them would look more than fifteen or sixteen for…well he wasn't about to do the math, but it would take a while. It didn't matter to him though; she was still the most amazing girl he'd ever met.

A few years ago Holly would have held that position, but the fact that he was in love with Koshino sort of influenced his judgmental abilities a bit.

All in all, everyone was living peacefully and doing their best to make the most of the peace. He almost missed that little campaign against Astaroth those years ago though. Sure it was life threatening and dangerous on an apocalyptic scale, but he had every one of his friends in one concentrated group fighting together as a well oiled unit. He missed the kind of unity they all used to have.

Anyway, putting the nostalgia aside, he opened his front door to check for any mail that might have been dropped off. To his surprise, there was no mail at all, which he found odd, but it wasn't completely unheard of. He shrugged and turned to head back inside, when he felt a slight tickle on his left shoulder.

He looked over and saw a small Hell Butterfly, slightly fluttering its wings. Matt took it in his hand and opened his mind to the message. At first it seemed like nothing to worry about, but he was soon proven wrong, and his eyes shot open. He needed to tell Koshino about this; Nathan too, but Koshino first, mostly because she was closer and he could find her faster.

He slipped on his standard soul reaper robes with his Field Commander badge on the left sleeve. It was sort of like a Lieutenants badge, and he was close to the same rank, but the job was slightly different, and there were two other Field Commanders besides him.

Dressed and ready to go, he swung Gabriel over his shoulder and strapped it in. He instantly began using shunpo to get across the Seireitei quickly; the place was just so damn big. He was pretty fast though, and it wasn't long before he could see the Nagasawa estate. It was big and luxurious as ever, and the fact that Koshino had become quite well known herself what with helping with the fight against Astaroth and her victory over Luxuria, her family had only gained fame. Not only that, but she'd also gotten herself a big fat promotion along with it; she was now the thirteenth divisions fifth seated officer.

As soon as he leaped over the wall and landed in the courtyard, he was attacked by a rushing black and brown blur, and before he knew it, he was on the ground. He was surprised at first, but then relaxed as he felt a familiar pair of lips press against his own. When Koshino finally did move off, Matt could only laugh.

"Are you going to greet me like this every time I come over?"

"Until the day you stop being so handsome," she laughed back.

She quickly stood up and gave him a helping hand as he rose.

"Look Koshino, I'm glad to see you, but something big just came up. We need to get going as soon as possible. I just got a message this morning and we have a huge problem," he said urgently.

"What is it, what's wrong?" asked Koshino.

"There's a new arrival in the first Rukon district," he said, a look that was a mixture of worry and frustration.

Koshino raised a curious eyebrow.

"So; why would they issue you a message for something like that?"

"The new arrival…is Holly"

"Holly, seriously!?" asked Nathan.

Matt and Koshino had darted out of the estate after Matt explain how got the message that Holly was in the Soul Society. Nathan saw them rushing through the streets and got curious, so he followed them. The three of them were now making their way to the gates that led out of the Seireitei.

"Yeah, I just got the message. She dropped right into the first Rukon district and apparently Rukia was down there and got someone to call me up. She should be waiting there for us, so she should be fine until we get there."

Nathan smiled. "Well mate, it'll be good to see Holly again."

"Yeah, but while that's true, I can't help but wonder what happened."

"I know, it's too bad that she got here this soon; I can't help but be a little concerned as well." said Koshino

Matt nodded. "Yeah, there aren't a lot of things in the world that could kill Holly."

"What are you saying exactly?" asked Nathan.

"I'm saying either something so completely random happened that there was no way she could see it coming, or someone killed her, which is also extremely unlikely."

Nathan slowly nodded. "I see your point. If someone did kill her or something though, I can only imagine what you're going to do to them."

"I'll deal with that later, but you're right, if that's the case then I'm not going to let this go easily, not by a long shot. For now though, let's just get over there and see what's going on. Holly is here to stay now, so this is still sort of a happy occasion in my book."

As he finished his sentence, the gates of the Seireitei were in front of them and already open. Matt wasted no time in using shunpo and darting through the gates and into the Rukon. He jumped atop one of the wooden buildings and looked around for the familiar face of his friend. It didn't take him long to single out Holly's blond hair in the sea of brown and black hair, and found Rukia close by. With a sense of overwhelming excitement he made a few large leaps and finally came in for a landing right next to Rukia.

"Finally made it!" he exclaimed happily.

"It's about time mister Field Commander, keeping your poor best friend waiting," she teased.

"Hey, don't patronize me, I out-rank you now ya know," he joked back.

He shook his head and stepped forward, looking at Holly

"It's great to see you again," he said with a smile.

Holly came up and hugged him immediately, having not seen him for almost half a year. He'd been too busy to visit, much to her frustration. She had grown quite a lot since their battle against Astaroth; she was now taller than him, her hair was longer, and she was an all around normal looking nineteen year old.

"Matt, I missed you!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's good to see you Holly."

Soon enough he heard the familiar voices of Nathan and Koshino. He turned around to see his best friend and girlfriend jumping over the roofs to meet up with him. They leaped and landed in a similar fashion.

"Perfect timing you two," he said.

"Hey guys!" Holly waved.

Koshino exchanged a hug with the girl, and Nathan slapped a high-five. However, Matt's expression changed from happy to serious as the reunion finished; this was a question he'd been dreading, but was none the less curious about.

"Look; Holly," he said, "I hate to ask you this, but I want to know; how did you die?"

She shrugged. "I don't have the foggiest idea; I went to bed last night, and now I'm here, so I'm assuming whatever happened to me, it happened in my sleep."

He nodded, but for now he pushed it out of his head; he'd start investigating it first thing tomorrow, for now though, he was going to enjoy his time with his friends. He looked back at her with a smile.

"Well anyway, thanks, I'll take a few people and look into it first thing tomorrow. In the meantime, let's go back to my house. I can get you settled in and then we can catch up."

Matt and Nathan leaped into the air and began to shunpo back to the Seireitei; Koshino, Holly, and Rukia followed from the rear. With the speed of shunpo, the trip only took a matter of minutes to get all the way back to his house, which was a good ways into the Seireitei. It was decent sized, two stories, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room, and a basement. They came to a stop in their shunpo party right in front of the front door.

"Come on in, there's plenty of room," he said in a cheery and inviting tone.

Everyone walked in past him, and lastly he stepped in and slide the door closed once more; he had a lot to talk about.

Matt was a glad to see his childhood best friend again, but even he was glad that the three hour conversation of what had happened over the six months they hadn't seen each other was over. Most of it wasn't actually even about catching up on events, it was just Holly and Koshino jabbering while he and Nathan sat in a corner, bored and annoyed as hell.

He was about to blow his top when his watch started beeping. Both he and Nathan knew what that meant…it was time. He silently thanked God; he'd been saved by the bell.

"I'm sorry if we have to cut this short, but its 3 o'clock, and Nathan and I have this little tradition we need to keep."

"It's time for our daily sparring match!" said Nathan happily.

Holly was pinching the bridge between her eyes and groaning. She knew all about their sparring matches, thought they could hardly be called that. They started out in a serious fight, but it usually just dissolved down to childish wrestling and biting.

They both hopped out of their seats with smiles as they headed out of the room.

"You're welcome to watch!" Matt called.

Holly, Koshino and Rukia headed out into the back, where Matt had his own sparring field. It was riddled with craters and cracks from constant use. Matt took up a position on one side of the field, and Nathan took the other, the other three of the group sat on the ground and watched.

"Alright, so you wanna use Shikai, or just keep the sealed?" asked Nathan.

Matt shrugged. "Let's keep it simple, sealed it is!"

They both chuckled and drew their blades. Matt's claymore shone in the sunlight like a crystal, refracting the light in all directions. Nathan drew his sealed katana and held it at the ready.

"So…any bets on the "winner" this time?" asked Holly.

"Twenty on Matt," said Koshino.

"I'll go with that," agreed Holly.

"Fine, twenty on Nathan then," said Rukia, "I highly doubt he'll actually win, but he's my Lieutenant so if I don't bet on him, he'll complain to me about it."

"I can hear you over there, and don't think I'll forget that!" shouted Nathan.

The raven haired soul reaper hung her head and groaned, much to the enjoyment of the other two girls.

They were caught by surprise when they heard a loud clank of two metal blades slamming into each other. They looked over to see Matt and Nathan's blades locked. Matt was, obviously, pushing Nathan back easily.

Nathan pushed back at Matt, and the two broke apart, and Nathan quickly used Shunpo to appear behind Matt. The raven haired soul reaper threw his blade over his shoulder and blocked the attack without even moving from his stance. He used his own shunpo, which was much faster, and re-appeared to Nathan's side, nailing him in the chest with his right foot using a roundhouse kick.

The redhead was blown to the edge of the ring before sliding to a stop. He rose up and charged Matt, and he mirrored the action. As Nathan sliced with his katana in a horizontal fashion, Matt jumped over the attack, and planted his foot on Nathan's face, then cart-wheeled back.

Nathan growled angrily while wiping away the blood from his nose.

"Come on Nathan, at least make me sweat a little."

"Matt, quit teasing Nathan!" scolded Koshino.

"Sorry," he groaned.

Again, he could hear Holly, Rukia, and Nathan all snickering.

"Man you're whipped," laughed Nathan.

He continued his laughing until Matt picked up a stray rock and nailed the redhead in the forehead with it. He scowled as he rubbed the point where the stone hit his head.

"Ah, you bastard!" he shouted.

Now it was Matt's turn to laugh while Nathan fumed at the antics of his younger best friend.

"Only a little over a minutes and it's already boiling down to a childish argument, I see nothing has changed at all," sighed Holly.

The other two nodded. "Every day of the week, twenty-four hours a day it's the same thing," said Rukia, "We come into work every morning and have to listen to him complain about something Matt did the day before."

"So any change in career for you two?" asked Holly.

"Nope," said Koshino, "Rukia and I are still in the same division. She's still the fourth seat, and I'm still the fifth seat."

"What about you Holly," asked Rukia, "How was your work going…you know, up until now?"

She shrugged. "Well, you know, annoyingly smug soul reapers who won't accept the help of a human whose obviously stronger than them, and even more annoyingly smug hollows who are weaker than the weak soul reapers; the usual. What about Matt, he's still a Field Commander right?" she asked.

"Matt is still part of the Special Forces, yes; of course, it's been very peaceful lately, so he hasn't had to do much fighting," explained Koshino.

"Yeah," piped in Rukia, "so basically it's been reduced to a desk job, which means mounds and mounds of paperwork."

A short silence fell over the air…well except for Matt and Nathan's bickering. Holly then leaned forward and gave Rukia a sly grin.

"So Miss Kuchiki, any guys in your social life?"

She instantly stiffened and grew red in the face.

"N-nope, no one yet; I'm just picky like that I guess! Heh heh heh…you two aren't buying this at all are you?"

They both shook their heads.

"Don't worry Rukia, we've know for a while; Matt told us. Ukitake noticed it, and then told Matt, and Matt asked Ichigo. He's an even worse liar than you, so it didn't take him long to crack under the pressure."

Rukia scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed.

"Wow, even Matt was able to piece it together, I can't believe we were that obvious."

They all got a good laugh at Matt's expense, who was too busy arguing with Nathan to even hear his own name being mentioned.

Their girl talk was suddenly interrupted, when they suddenly snapped their heads over to the spar between Matt and Nathan. The word "spar" could be used lightly though, because spar usually involved punches and kicks, which this particular struggle had none of. The epic battle between Matt and Nathan was simply Nathan holding Matt in a headlock, and delivering a noogy.

Matt flipped his friend over violently and stepped on his…special area, then began laughing victoriously as Nathan yelped out like a pre-teen girl.

"Ha, I win again! FEAR ME, I HAVE BANKAI!" he shouted like he was king of the world.

The brunette girl quickly stood and grabbed Matt by his ear, yanking him off the older redhead. She sat him down in front of everyone and began scolding him like a small child.

Matt wore a humble and fearful face, while Koshino lectured him in frustration. Nathan snickered again until Rukia and Holly kicked him in the back of the head and shut him up. The two ignored his whimpers and whining, but instead looked on as their friend was being put in his place by his girlfriend, and both agreed that those two were as perfect for each other as they'd ever been.

Back in the human world, Seattle to be specific, a hooded figure in a brown cloak too atop a high skyscraper. The wind flapped against him and the fabric whipped back in ripples. He looked down at the streets of the city in thought. Right behind him stood a brown haired man in a white coat with a blue sash fastening a katana to his waist. Behind him were two others.

One was a dark skinned man in a sleeveless white coat with a similar sash and katana; he also had a visor over his eyes and long dreadlocks. The other was a tall, pale, white haired man with a similar white coat as the brown haired man, and, once again, with a similar sash, but with a sword reminiscent of a wakazashi. His eyes were barely slits on his face and he wore a wide grin.

"So what exactly was the point of killing that girl?" asked the white haired man.

"Because, it's better to have them all in one place right now; the less mobile they are here, the better. Holly wasn't much of a threat in terms of actual combat, but her precognitive abilities would have made her a good spy. Now that she's in the Soul Society, we won't have to worry about her." said the hooded figure,

"What of the boy you mention?" asked the dark skinned man, "If he was trained by Kurosaki, then he is obviously a threat of nearly the same caliber, if not the same level; he won't be an easy opponent."

"Not to worry Tosen," said the brown haired man, "You won't be the one fighting him, at least not to the death."

The hooded figure nodded. "Exactly Aizen; though I am wondering just how much stronger he's gotten over these three years. We'll have to find out. We should lure him here to the human world; it will be a much better and more private arena."

The hooded figure turned around to face the white haired man, "Gin, I have a little homework assignment for you."

His grin grew wider, "Of course Ira, what would you have me do?"

Yeah...they're back. I know, Ira just had to bring those three back, but look on the bright side, at least the Espada didn't came back with them. Now, note that I have another story in progress as well (Caught in the Middle), so updates might take a while, but be patient and I'll do my best to make them worth the wait.

Anywho, drop some reviews and tell me how I started out.