"Chaotic magic always has the potential for unexpected results."

These were the last words the maniacal demon staring her down had uttered before she fled to her hastily constructed portal. It was a silly thing, normally only intended to displace her over short distances, and in this case, would prove useful in avoiding that horrible bolt of unfathomable power that nearly destroyed her the first time.

Vina was a clever warlock, one of the few of her number brave enough to undertake this impossible task. In the pursuit of power, spell casters turning to demons for knowledge was always a risky endeavor, but what sort of madness gave rise to this aberration of fel energy was beyond her.

Her green eyes looked back, normally an ill-advised action when running away, or so others would tell you. It was a shame that she could not afford to take her eyes off the towering, winged demon. Ultimately, it was this action, combined with her summoning of a two-way portal, that resulted in what could possibly be the biggest fuck up in the history of Azeroth, even taking into account the War of the Ancients. In taking too long to conjure her transport, her gaze lingering on the embodiment of hellish energy just a moment more than absolutely necessary, the dreaded roar of a Chaos Bolt filled her ears.

In a desperate bid for survival, Vina slammed her palms on the portal's interface, its obsidian frame coming alight with insidious runes. For but a brief moment, it almost seemed as if the spacial magic of her own creation had a fist fight with the uncontainable energy of the monster's. Soon, it ended up being more along the lines of her magic having a one-night-stand with his magic; unfortunately, it was not as kinky as Vina normally liked, but more of the fuck-your-day-up variety.

If one were to gaze upon the pinnacle of the Black Temple at this point in time, the sight of a pillar of sickly green light racing into the heavens would probably cause the viewer to promptly shit themselves. Evil magic at the top of the evil temple, whose halls once housed no less than two evil lords, was not a good sign.

Thankfully, the denizens of Shadowmoon Valley would be under slightly less peril than they already were on a daily basis. As the fel magic faded, so too did its sources.

All was dark. Maybe opening her eyes would help.

"Shit, too bright." Vina promptly closed them again, as the haunting moon in Outland's nearly absent atmosphere was suddenly replaced by a vigorous sunny day. Feeling the need to draw an arm over her lids, the fatigued woman noticed something seemed off about her usual attire.

Deciding the sudden lack of clothing was more of a pressing concern than what time of day it was, or for that matter, why the hell there was a daytime in Shadowmoon Valley, Vina shot upright, cursing whatever bastard magic the demon she had been fighting commanded. It was at this time, after forcing her eyes open once again, that she noticed the crowd she had gathered.

They were all human. All things considered, that was not unusual in and of itself, but the fact that they were all human in Outland was very curious. A shattered world, wracked by the reckless overuse of the very magic she had just been commanding and combating, Draenor (as it was also known) tended to host any number of diverse alien races. On top of that, these humans wore a very odd fashion of clothing. It was almost as if they were all nobles, but the distinct lack of armed escort shot down that theory.

Regardless of their status, Vina had to attend to her own problems. Now. In a bid to send the populace scurrying back to whatever the hell it was they were doing before, the warlock began to summon up one of her contracted demon servants. Most of her allies were reasonably uncomfortable being around her for this power alone. Soon enough, she could get back to…

Why wasn't a demon coming? For that matter, where the hell had all of her mana gone? She could feel almost nothing, as if she were a commoner.

"Damn that bastard magic!" These words, funnily enough, were sufficient to cause her audience to flinch; some backing away for fear that she was a loony. She decided to book it to the nearest tree or whatever happened to be capable of separating her from the curious, fearful, or as disturbing as it was, hungry looks she was getting.

Racing around what appeared to be rather lush, green foliage and trees, Vina's mind tried to find answers. It seemed that she was somehow robbed of her magic, though unlike the rather brief incapacitations that other fights employed against spell casters, her conjurations were remaining quite stubbornly locked. It was as if she had not only been blocked from using her magic, but that she had forgotten how.

A panic began to set in. Naked, both literally and figuratively where her spells were concerned, Vina feared for her life. She was in unfamiliar territory populated by strangely dressed people who had begun some kind of commotion after she had split, and she could honestly say that she was afraid of what was going to happen.

At least it was warm outside.

At some point, they had stopped looking for her. It was all thanks to her experience in various combat situations, countless wars, and battles beyond number. Vina had remained carefully hidden in the forest, making good practice of the techniques she had learned from one of her few friends. The art of stealth was an intricate one, requiring careful balance and acute awareness. It was only through a great deal of patience that she managed to remain undiscovered once a number of humans in uniforms had started sniffing about.

Vina was normally all for throwing caution to the wind and being showy, but stripped of her clothes and magics, even she was hesitant to make contact with the natives. When night fell, she breathed a sigh of relief, standing up rather energetically from her hiding spot. Afforded time to rest from her battle thanks to this horrid situation, she was feeling a little better.

The warlock, whose status as a caster was arguably in question at the moment, finally took in the landscape beyond the trees. There were buildings not far from where she was, great in number, though unremarkable otherwise. They looked a bit more refined and standard compared to the residential districts of Stormwind, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

The sky stood out the most, possessing only a single moon and a far cry from the alien heavens of Outland. If it were not for the fact that there was only one moon, Vina would think she was back on Azeroth. She stayed near the tree line, just in case the city's guard patrols came by, but was otherwise content to remain in the open, bathing in the moonlight. There was something alluring about the big white ball in this sky. It kissed her bare skin in a way that felt different from Azeroth's moons. Maybe a druid would be able to tell her why.

Vina crossed her arms over her chest, the lack of swell a thing she had grown used to since puberty. Even twenty years after the other girls all grew out, she remained as she had always been. Mostly. Her black hair was short, only reaching her shoulders undone, and contrasted strongly with her pale skin.

She really needed to find some damned clothes.

Before she could ponder the thought further, a strange feeling crawled up her spine. It was a familiar shiver, one that pleased her greatly, but it did set her on alert none the less. Turning her eyes one way to another, she searched for the presence she knew had to be there.

Finally it caught her eyes.

And she caught his.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Vina jumped to dodge another strike that seemed to shatter the soil beneath them. Whatever this monster was, it was damned fast, and she cursed her lack of athletic ability for the first time in years. It wasn't like she had stamina problems; in fact, she could easily outlast most any of her opponents in a battle of attrition. The problem here was sheer muscle mass. She had very little. Consequently, running for her life was made somewhat difficult considering the sheer predator-like musculature of the beast after her soul.

Right, that was another thing. It had made explicitly clear that it wanted to eat her soul.

"Give me your soul!"

See? There it goes again. Honestly, stealing souls was supposed to be her thing, so why of all times did she have to forget how to use that aspect of her powers? For that matter, why had she forgotten any of them? For all the hours of her life she had spent with her nose buried in dusty old grimoires, was this all it amounted to? Vina never forgot how to cast a spell, so why now?

"Damn it to Hell! Can't I at least conjure a single measly Shadow Bolt?!" As if on cue, perhaps helped by her reflexive flailing, dark energy seemed to spring from her palms. A tiny skull-shaped amalgamation of muted colors and pure blackness erupted from her hand, slamming headlong into the masked creature that had nearly dug its claws into her back. The blast ripped through its body, taking with it a good portion of its innards as it exited the additional hole it created (there was already one clean hole, for some reason).

"Gaaaaah!" It expressed its severe displeasure at being disemboweled by her most basic spell. Hard to blame it really, her Shadow Bolts tended to do nasty things to her enemies. Vina gasped as she realized what had just happened. She had successfully casted a spell.

Ichigo Kurosaki was rather glad to be patrolling again. It made him feel like his life was back to normal. That was an odd thing to say considering it was anything but normal for the average teenager, but being reduced to average had not worked out well for him. His Shinigami powers had been returned to him by his friends among the Soul Society, who had come to his aid in his time of greatest need. In a way, they did it to repay their great debt to him, but he knew a lot of them were true companions.

It felt good to be on patrol again. He smiled as he hopped along in the sky, seeking out would-be dangers to the lives of innocents, dangers which usually turned up in the form of Hollows.

Usually.

A spike in spiritual pressure alerted him to something going on in Naruki, a town very close to Karakura. The Substitute Shinigami promptly changed course and broke into a series of flash steps, intending to stop whatever fire might have started while it was still small.

Judging by the energy he felt, at least one Hollow was involved. But the other one…

He could not be certain. It felt unlike anything he had ever experienced. The energy was dark like a Hollow's, but felt far too different to be anything like one. It was almost…alien.

Deciding that different usually meant a load of new problems he had to deal with, Ichigo picked up the pace. The last thing he needed right now was some new type of enemy whose only purpose in life seemed to be fucking his right up the wall. Again.

After a few minutes, he finally arrived on what looked to be the scene of the battle. There were a lot of patches of torn up ground, a few split trees, and a naked person fighting a Hollow.

He did a double take.

'Is that a…woman?' Seriously, it wasn't that hard to tell after getting closer, it's just, most women he encountered these days tended to be like Rangiku. This one was more like Rukia, apparently. Usually they weren't naked though.

Regardless of her highly concerning state of undress, she looked to be fighting the Hollow. Or at least, she had been, up until the point where she shouted some strange word and suddenly the fallen soul was lanced through the gut by some sort of energy blast. Before he could be sure what she had done, the Hollow had been disintegrated.

"Hey! Are you alright?!"

That got her attention. It also got her shouting that strange word again and lobbing one of those black things in his direction. It was at this point in the story that the new, unfamiliar foe would rip him a new one, and he would be forced to undergo some sort of special training to unlock another power that up until that point he had been conveniently unaware of.

Yeah, no, he just sidestepped the thing. It moved rather slow for someone with his experience, and even if it had power behind it, it would not be nearly enough to defeat someone of his caliber.

"Just wait a sec' will you?!"

Ichigo couldn't tell if she was mad because he saw her naked or just hostile in general. In reality, it was the latter. Vina had seen a strange man standing in the sky with a mean looking sword, and her instincts took right over. Now that she had her powers back, or at least one of them, she was more than happy to indulge anyone who looked at her wrong in a fight.

Vina didn't even bother trying to cover up. She was too busy lobbing Shadow Bolts one after another, thinking that maybe, if she kept at it, she would get the rest of her powers back as well. It had occurred to her immediately that the damn thing only worked when she said its name, but for the life of her, she could not seem to recall the names of her other spells. It was a mind boggling thing; years of study and practice, for what? Even if she was only in her early twenties, she had memorized countless pages of arcane text.

At some point, the boy had managed to get behind her. She lost track of how exactly he did that. Was he some kind of Rogue? Before she could turn and lay into him with her shadow magic, he had already grabbed her wrists in an iron grip. What strength!

"Hey Ichigo, I know you're at that age and all, but this is a little out of character for you, isn't it?" Standing a distance away from them, watching the admittedly risqué spectacle of their not-battle, was Kisuke Urahara.

Across Japan, in a rather remote region of the wilderness, a dark energy churned and swirled to life. Alongside the mountain, a dreary marsh with withered woods only seemed to grow more ominous as black shadows swarmed over its lands. The mud itself began to weep in sorrow at the approaching dangers.

What horrors had these chaotic magics unleashed upon the world?