A/N: Please read!

A warning for all the newcomers, this story is an AU. A certain event happened before the beginning of canon storyline changing it, however many events still happened (like Ichigo meeting Rukia, Aizen with his magic rock, the last arc, and so on) even if they happened differently. The story starts after all this happened, but the flashbacks and interludes will show just what exactly is different from canon, but in no particular order.


Chapter 1: What the Hell Happened?

Ishida Uryu blearily opened his eyes and stared in confusion at the familiar black sky and countless sand dunes. What was he doing in Hueco Mundo? …And why did his head feel like it was filled with cotton?

With a groan he tried to move when an answering groan nearby attracted his attention. The Quincy barely managed to turn his head and focus his gaze on a familiar orange-haired figure dressed in a black coat.

"…Kurosaki?" he rasped, his throat feeling drier than the desert around them.

"Ishida?" His friend stopped moving and turned to him with a blank look. "…Why did you activate Vollstandig?"

Only when it was mentioned did Uryu notice the bright blue glow and he stared at the constructs splayed awkwardly at his sides. The reishi-gathering wings twitched slightly under scrutiny but refused to move. The brunet tried to find some reason for using the ultimate Quincy technique, but his treacherous memory showed only empty space in place of recent events. Unable to find the answer, Ishida replied with a question of his own, "Why are you in Resurreccion?"

"I'm not-" the orange-haired hybrid started to say raising one hand to his face automatically but paused as his fingers brushed one curved horn. "Oh, I am," he said in wonder. "Why?"

"That's what I'm asking, Kurosaki!" Ishida bristled trying to sit up. If only his head stopped spinning so much…

Trying and failing to stand up, Ichigo once again fell to his knees and growled, "Quit yelling, Ishida!" Unfortunately, raising his voice proved to be a mistake. At another stab of headache he groaned in misery, "What the hell happened?"

Uryu had finally managed to sit up using his wings as crutches, "Question of a century, Kurosaki. I have no idea."

Ichigo rubbed his temples with annoyance and directed the same question inwards.

'Hell if I know, Kingy,' the distorted voice of his Hollow replied. 'But this place is trashed.'

'Is this why I feel like crap?'

'It is the only explanation, Ichigo. Unlike the wounds inflicted upon your body or the reiryoku depletion, the damage to your mind is slow to heal.'

Great. So some time earlier he was injured and with lower than normal reiryoku level? Not like he wasn't used to it or something, but still… 'What the hell happened?' he repeated once again.

He got the impression of Zangetsu shaking his head, 'Our memories are damaged as well. Do not worry though, they will return in time.'

With a sigh Ichigo dragged one clawed hand through his orange mane and turned to his Quincy friend, "Zangetsu says our memories will come back, but he has no idea what happened to us."

Nodding in reply, Ishida had finally managed to haul himself to his feet, his bright blue wings plowing through the sand behind him. Thankfully, in the semi-dormant state they were now, the constructs neither drained the reishi from his surroundings nor required much energy to maintain. Still, they were quite bothersome, so Uryu quickly dismissed them as the Sanrei Glove reformed on his right hand. Pushing his glasses to the bridge of his nose with one finger, he asked, "So what should we do in the meantime?"

Ichigo shrugged scratching his head. "I suppose, I can open a Garganta but I'm not sure I can direct it. Not yet anyway. And travelling through the shadows is an all around bad idea." He grimaced slightly. Navigating through shadows was a pain in the ass even without the horrendous headache he had now.

"…To Las Noches then?"

Ichigo snorted, "Yeah, right. If you tell me where Las Noches is, then sure."

"Then what do you propose?" the dark-haired Quincy snapped. "Find some Hollows and ask them for directions?"

Kurosaki froze, about to snap back. "You know," he said slowly, "That's not a bad idea. Actually, why don't we ask them to make a Garganta to Karakura? It's not like we can't bully some Adjuchas if they refuse to help us. Let's go!"


Something extremely cold was shaking her. 'The snowmen are attacking!' Orihime thought with her usual logic and forced herself to wake up, ready to fight the evil carrot-nosed, bucket-wearing, broom-wielding monsters.

"Finally, you are awake!" the snowman- no, snowwoman exclaimed.

Inoue stared in confusion at her enemy who looked somewhat familiar. Very familiar, actually…

"Hey, Orihime, are you alright?"

The concerned voice had finally registered in her mind, and the bright-haired girl nearly facepalmed at her own stupidity. "Rukia?" she asked weakly. "Why are you in Yugo no Bankai?"

"I woke up like that," the other girl responded. "No idea what happened, but there has to be some reason for it, so until I find it, I'm not going to power down."

Inoue nodded in agreement and glanced around. Just where were they? It was a small forest clearing, the tree trunks blocking sight in all directions. She looked up at the clear blue sky. Maybe if she went above the trees…?

It seemed that the Shinigami had followed her train of thought. "I couldn't see anything from up there either, just this forest. The only thing I know is we are somewhere in Rukongai." At the confused look from the human, the youngest Kuchiki explained, "The Living World does not have this many spirit particles and it's obviously not Hueco Mundo, so we have to be in Soul Society. There are no forests in Seireitei, so we must be in Rukongai, not that it helps our case much. This place is enormous."

"So we are lost?" Orihime whispered sadly but quickly perked up, "Then let's become unlost!"


There was something lying across his chest, Chad noted absentmindedly and opened his eyes. He found himself on the stone floor of a cave, and the thing on top of him was- actually, he had no idea what it was. It was long, thin, and segmented. The gray segments looked similar to vertebrae and felt like bone to the touch. To his left they kept getting smaller and the strange thing was only a foot long. To his right though the segments were slowly growing bigger and the snake-like thing curved away from his field of vision, so he couldn't see where it ended.

Chad wrapped both hands around the strange thing and tugged it slightly. The segments separated with ease but a few seconds later glowed with red light that snapped them back together. Interesting. He tugged them apart again and watched as the thing repaired itself. Something was very familiar about it, but for the life of him, Chad couldn't remember what.

As he separated the segments for the third time, the young man gripped them firmly keeping the vertebrae from reattaching. The thing twitched.

"Let go of my tail, dammit!" the irritated voice snarled and Chad was suddenly face-to-maw with enormous snake skull. The jaws snapped open at almost 180-degree angle revealing the familiar tattooed face inside the skull-like helmet.

"Renji," the gentle giant greeted finally recognizing the Yugo no Bankai form of his friend.

"My tail, Sado," the Shinigami growled.

Chad lowered his gaze to where he was still holding the segments separated. Feeling slightly foolish, he let go of them. The red reiatsu threads rejoined the disconnected part of the tail with the main body, and Renji rubbed the abused segments glowering at Chad with suspicion. "The hell was that for?"

The embarrassed blush went almost unnoticed on the dark skin. "I apologize. I don't think I was completely awake."

"Huh. At least you are awake now," the Shinigami paused. "…Or are you?"

The tall man stood up and shook his head slightly trying to clear his thoughts then nodded decisively, "I am."

"Good for you," the redhead said coiling his long snake-like body. "Because we are in Hueco Mundo. Menos Forest, I think."

Chad took a few seconds to process the information. "What are we doing here?" A moment later he did a double take finally noticing his own arms. "…Why am I in Fullbring?"

Renji shrugged, "Beats me."

Silence stretched again as both young men tried to find the answers to those questions in their patchy memory. Finally the Sixth Division Lieutenant asked, "What's the last thing that you remember?"

His companion tilted his head to the side then frowned. "Nothing much," he admitted. "I remember the one-year anniversary of the end of the Blood War, but…"

"…But not much else, right?" Renji sighed crossing his arms in irritation. "I remember that we were celebrating. Did we honestly get so drunk that we can't even remember anything?"

"It could have happened, but I don't feel hangover. And it doesn't explain why we are here of all places."

"…Drunk people do stupid things?" the currently snake-like Shinigami offered.

Chad thought this over then shrugged, "Until we have a better explanation."

Renji tapped his bone armor with one claw, deep in thought. "How do we get out of here? I don't remember where the passage from here to the desert is, and Senkaimon won't open in this place."

"We search," was the only answer that Chad offered before he vanished in a green flash of Bringer Light. Yelling angrily for his friend to wait, Renji snapped the jaws of his helmet shut and followed with Shunpo.


'This is not Hell,' was the first thought of a Demon by the name of Kokuto. His second thought was, 'What the fuck is this thing?'

The thing in question was big, shapeless, and moving. The former Togabito warily reached for his sword. Whatever it was, the thing was alive (for a given definition of life that included spirits like him) and seemed dangerous with those tentacles, claws, fangs, and who knew what else. Holding the wickedly curved blade in both hands and trying his best to ignore the pounding headache, Kokuto slowly inched away, ready to escape at a moment's notice. The shadow travel was hard, especially in the state he was in, but if worse came to worst…

"And what are you going to do with that sword?" the thing asked derisively in a vaguely familiar voice.

Startled, Kokuto lost his grip on the shadows and nearly stumbled cursing his current weakness.

"Oi, don't tell me you don't recognize me!" the thing yelled indignantly and started shrinking quickly taking on a humanoid form.

The thing became a white-clad man with two swords at his waist and four tawny wings sticking from his back. The writhing purple tendrils grew from his wrists and a layer of glistening glass-like substance covered his feathers and black hair. His legs below knees took the shape similar to the tree roots.

"Wait, Kaien?" the surprised Demon asked lowering his weapon.

"And you know so many shapeshifters… Of course it's me!" his companion snapped. 'You moron,' went unheard but remained almost tangible in the air.

The former Togabito shook his head trying to clear the cobwebs that seemed to cling to his mind but groaned at the sudden wave of dizziness. "What happened?" he bit out.

The Espada ran his clawed hand through his needle-like hair with a scowl. "Why are you asking me? I don't even remember how we met!"

"What do you mean you can't remember?" the white-haired man growled. "We-" he paused as his eyes widened. "…But I know you!"

The shapeshifter studied the odd form that his legs chose to take and tried to transform them into normal shape. After several unsuccessful attempts he turned his attention to the Demon. "Same here. I know who you are and I know that I trust you, but anything else…"

Kokuto dragged his hand over his face covered with a black scarf, "Great. What do you know then?"

The Arrancar had finally managed to get rid of his wings though one of his arms became similar to a serrated scythe of a praying mantis. Kaien scowled at his uncooperative body. At least his legs looked normal now. "I know that we are in the Living World," he said gesturing at the nearby buildings and the people who were unable to see the two spirits, "but I have no idea where exactly. Doesn't look like Karakura though."

The Espada paused then continued, "We should find someone who knows what happened, so…" with one swipe of his hand he opened a rip in space, "…Where to? Seireitei? Las Noches?"

The Demon narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Are you sure you can direct it?"

Kaien gave him a withering look and surreptitiously tried to get rid of his tentacles. He almost succeeded too. "Of course I can!"

"Just like you can change your shape?" Kokuto deadpanned with a pointed look at his blade-like arm.

The white-clad Arrancar bristled, in his irritation somehow managing to return to human form completely. "I'll show you!" he snapped lunging at the Demon.

Still feeling more than a bit dizzy, the former resident of Hell dimension was unable to dodge and yelled indignantly as his companion hauled him into the Garganta. "Where are you dragging me, you bastard?"

"Menos Forest!"

"What?" Kokuto yelped. "Why there?"

He was answered with a wide grin. "Because I'm hungry, of course. We are going Hollow-hunting!"


A/N: I hope the readers are less confused than the characters even though writing them this way is a lot of fun.

'Yugo' (融合) means 'Fusion', I'll explain it in future chapters in more detail, but it's the Bankai form of a Zanpakuto fused with Shinigami. It is much weaker than normal Bankai but has several benefits which I'll also explain later. In this form Renji looks like more humanoid Hihio Zabimaru only with tail instead of legs. Rukia can still freeze things but her touch is not deadly, hence why she could touch Orihime.

'Togabito' (咎人) means 'sinner' (literary 'criminal'). They are the souls that are too evil for Soul Society so they get sent to Hell. Kokuto was a Togabito. He is a character from the fourth movie 'Hell Chapter'.

Sorry about fragment with Rukia and Orihime being shorter than the rest, I'll try to give them more attention later. Oh, and 'Bleach' is not mine, who could've guessed?