Sighing, the irritated prodigy of the tenth division wondered how he ever managed to get stuck with this bunch of brainless buffoons. They had been walking around the town of Karakura for a good 2 hours and still no sign of the Kurosaki residence. As he turned his gaze to face the root of this problem, the busty blonde continued to babble, as would a remote without a mute button, or perhaps a phone that never ceased to ring. Though her powers as a lieutenant were quite the adversary, he wondered if it was a good idea to bring her along on this mission. While his silver hair definitely stood out from the norm, along with Renji's hair and Ikkaku's lack of such, he would bet that Rangiku was the black sheep in their group based solely on her habit of always standing out in a crowd. She just never knew when to stop drawing the attention to herself, even in an unknown area where she had no clue as to what she was doing. The constant arguing and bickering between her and Renji was starting to get to him, and finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He stopped walking and turned to face them; "Would you two shut up?! Your bickering isn't getting us anywhere but even more lost than we already are!"
Rangiku looked to him with a pleading gleam in her eye, whining in his ear. "But captain! That's what I'm trying to tell him! Why can't we just stop and ask someone for directions to the Kurosaki Clinic? I'm sure someone has to know where it is, and then we wouldn't have to keep walking around aimlessly like this! Besides, my feet are starting to get tired… this gigai is so tight and has almost no flexibility to it! I get tired and sore so easily in it!"
Hitsugaya felt a twinge of embarrassment when he caught the strange looks the bystanders were throwing them. He sighed, rubbing his temples to try and ease his aching head. Why could things never go the way he wanted them to? "Please Matsumoto, stop speaking so loudly… you're only drawing more attention to yourself…"
"But captain!-"
"You see Rangiku?!" interjected Renji, "If YOU hadn't lost the original directions, we wouldn't have gotten into this situation in the first place! Besides, we don't need to stop for directions. We'll come across the place eventually. We just need to follow our instincts, which, apparently, is something you can't do! What is it with women and losing all the important things, like the directions?!"
"What is it with men and asking for directions!?" she retaliated.
As the two were butting heads, ready to tear each other's throats out, Toushirou contemplated the pros and cons of permanently freezing them in a block of ice and noticed that both Ikkaku and Yumichika were awfully quiet. Turning to them, he asked, "Is everything alright, Madarame?"
Ikkaku looked to him, sighing. "Of course it is. Why wouldn't it? We don't really care, as long as we just do whatever the hell we need to…"
Sighing, Toushirou realized that Ikkaku was probably just as irritated as he was, only he knew how to deal with it better than he. As the captain turned to the squabbling pair, he walked over and yanked them apart, yelling at them. "What is the matter with you two?! What did I just tell you? Stop squabbling like a couple of children and you might be able to figure out a plan of attack! Rangiku!"
The blonde scrambled to her feet, looking strait at him. "Y-Yes captain?!"
Toushirou knew he'd regret this later, but if it helped them find their way, he would have to take the blow this would do on his masculinity. "Go ask that boy over there for the directions to the Kurosaki Clinic."
In a loud 'hein?!' of protest from Renji, Rangiku happily skipped over to the young boy, calling out to him and waving. Toushirou did a face-palm when he realized that was not the best idea considering that Rangiku loved to be flashy, and that her uniform did little to cover herself. Needless to say, the young man was quite shocked when he turned to see a beautiful goddess skipping over to him, a bright smile on her lips, and her breasts bouncing happily in her shirt. "Yoohoo! Could I just talking to you for a-" began Rangiku.
However, the poor boy had fainted in the next second, not allowing Rangiku to finish her sentence, or even get to him for that matter.
"Poor kid" whispered Renji.
"Never knew what hit him" added Ikkaku.
When Rangiku rejoined the circle, she had a disappointed look on her face. "How rude! Not even allowing someone to ask you a simple question without fainting on you. I thought the humans couldn't become overwhelmed by our reiatsu while we were in our gigais."
"Believe me Rangiku, it wasn't your reiatsu that overwhelmed him." said Renji in a sarcastic tone.
Just as Rangiku was about to respond, she looked over Renji's shoulder to see an elderly woman walking out of a small flower shop. Rangiku decided to try again and ran over to the old woman and asked her. Maybe she wouldn't faint on her like that boy over on the side of the road. When she approached, the woman smiled to her. "Excuse me, Ma'am, but could you tell us where the Kurosaki Clinic is? My…" she looked to the others and decided to use her captain as the excuse in this one. "My little brother is a new patient there, but I'm afraid we've lost the directions."
The older woman looked up to Rangiku's eyes and smiled. "Oh my, you must be new around here, after all, how could you not notice?"
When she spoke, Rangiku's expression turned to a questioning look as she asked the old woman, "What do you mean, 'how could we not notice'?"
The elderly woman laughed at her childishness and it was loud enough to stir the others who were waiting in the group. As they all looked over to Rangiku and the old woman, the busty lieutenant glanced back at them, shrugging her shoulders before she turned back to hear the woman's response. "Well child, to get to the Kurosaki Clinic from here is quite simple, in fact," she poked her head around Rangiku, glancing behind her and down the street, "It's right over there."
As Rangiku turned her head, the other Shinigami followed and all gasped, gawking when they saw the huge, bright blue sign that read 'Kurosaki Clinic' just a few doors down the street. Toushirou did another face-palm, ready to freeze the first person that dared to laugh at their predicament. How naïve, how stupid of him! It was right down the street! All he had to do was look up! How embarrassing…
Just as he was trying to get his shattered dignity back together, Toushirou felt a tug on his arm as his lieutenant yanked him away, racing towards the house. Just as he protested, he figured it best to just go along with her and avoid further humiliation. Rangiku turned back to look at the rest of the party, calling them over. "Come on now you guys! It's no use standing out here, let's go!"
Between a share of groans and mumbles, the other Shinigami followed Rangiku to the front of the Kurosaki Clinic, feeling the embarrassment spread between them like a virus. As they stood in front of the building, they glanced over to see the old woman cackling as she walked away. The party simply stared at the building, unsure of what their next move was going to be, until the captain spoke up. "Alright, well we should probably wait for Kurosaki and Kuchiki to come back… I guess we will just have to stand here and wait for-"
"Taichou! How boring!"
The small captain was taken by surprise when his lieutenant appeared right beside him to whine in his ear. He sighed. Why did Rangiku always have to make things difficult?
"Well, what do you suggest we do in the meantime, since you seem to be the smart one around here?!" he snapped back.
Then, he regretted it when she got that devious smirk on her face. Having worked in office with Rangiku for so many years, Toushirou knew that when she had that look on her face, it meant either trouble, or she had so sort of sneaky idea that was bound to get THEM in trouble. As she spoke, his thoughts were confirmed.
"I have an idea…" she said, "Instead of just standing here, why don't we hide and wait for them? We could hide in Ichgo's attic and jump out when he least expects it! What do you say?"
There was silence for a moment until she glared at the group for being so unresponsive. The boys just sighed and all but her captain answered with a unionized, "Whatever…"
Rangiku smiled and looked to her captain. She knew that it was always he who was the hardest to convince of anything that she brought up. The two stared at each other for a moment before the boy genius replied with a solid, "No."
"But taichou-!"
"Absolutely not! I will not be a part of your silly little game! If you want to get yourself into trouble, be my guest, but do not include me!"
"Taichou, you're such a spoil sport!"
"I don't care!"
"Fine!" growled Rangiku, "I'll just get Yuki-chan to come with me!"
"Go ahead!" he barked back.
"Alright then, come on Yuki-chan-… Yuki-chan?"
The group stopped. In that moment they all suddenly noticed. Yuki was no longer in their group. All was silent until Rangiku shouted, "YUKI-CHAN!!"
The group was in a bit of a predicament. Yuki was well known by many of the squads for having a habit of wandering off, manly because she often visited many of the squads during her wanderings. Even when in the middle of something important! Usually, she would see something new that intrigued her, or she would see someone she knew and go off to make small talk. In this case, considering that they were in the World of the Living, where the only people she knew were already with her, it was probably the first case scenario. Toushirou began rubbing his temples again. His headache was beginning to return with a vengeance as Rangiku and Renji flipped and ran around haphazardly, trying to figure out when exactly she had left the group and how long she had been gone before they noticed just now. Ikkaku and Yumichika, knowing full well of Yuki's habit, sighed at the pair, who ran around in a frenzy. The captain of tenth hated babysitting his subordinates like this. This was the reason why he didn't want Rangiku or Rukia to bring Yuki on this mission with them. Now her whereabouts would become a problem… A vein throbbed on his forehead, and Toushirou couldn't take it anymore. "That's enough you two! Stop running around like a couple of idiots!"
"But taichou!", whined Rangiku, "Yuki-chan-"
"I know, I know!" the captain sighed. "We'll just have to wait until she can find her way here… There's no other choice. Kurosaki and Kuchiki will be back any minute, and we need to brief him on what has been going on with the Soul Society and the situation with the Arrancar. Relax Matsumoto, you know Hoshino will find her way here. She always does."
Rangiku paused for a moment, then sighed, realizing that her captain was right. Every time that Yuki would wander off, no matter for how long or how far she went, she somehow always managed to find her way to where she needed to be. Although, Rangiku only wished that Yuki's habit didn't also involve wandering off with bad timing. Collecting herself, Rangiku nodded, "Alright taichou, but only because I know Yuki-chan… now, who's up for the attic?!"
Rangiku dashed about, finding a way up to the roof in order to sneak into the attic. The other four sighed before following her, all but her captain, who refused to take part in her games. He walked over and sat down next to the side of the house, above the window to Ichigo's room. He would enter when the time was right. Now all they had to do was wait…
After they waited for what seemed like hours, Rangiku's smile brightened when she finally heard the two familiar voices she had been waiting for. Grouchy as usual, she heard Ichigo and Rukia as they made their way up the stairs into his room. When the others came to see where she was peering into his room through a small hole in the ceiling, she shoved them away and hushed them so she could hear the bickering that they exchanged. She was surprised when the first thing she saw was a stuffed lion, literally throwing itself at Rukia, crying out, "RUKIA!!!"
The poor thing was instantly met by her foot and crushed to the floor. "Long time no see, Kon." she answered back.
As the poor stuffed lion was getting the stuffing squeezed out of him, he sobbed in delight. "Yeah… only one person would stomp on me without hesitation after we hadn't seen each other for a whole summer… It has to be my Rukia-nee-san!! I'm… I'm so happy… I could cry!"
Ichigo closed the door, giving Rukia a strange, yet irritated look. " Stop messing around and get in here already."
"Oh… It's been so long since I've been in this small room!" Rukia said as she glanced around for old times sake.
"Be quiet you." warned Ichigo, "It's not that small. Don't compare it to Byakuya's place!"
"Oh, sorry, it just slipped out, I guess."
"You guess? Hey! Don't just sit on my bed like that!" Complained Ichigo as Rukia took a comfortable seat on his blanket.
"It's not such a big deal! Don't be so cold-hearted!" she whined back.
"Shut up! Just sit on the floor, stupid!" he retaliated.
Then, both them and Rangiku were distracted by the murmurs that were coming from outside Ichigo's room. By the sour expression on Ichigo's face and the way Rukia giggled, Rangiku guessed that it was Ichigo's family. He stomped to the door, throwing it open with a loud, "HEY!! GET LOST!!"
Rangiku giggled quietly when she heard the family members shriek in surprise and scurry away as Ichigo closed his door again, mumbling to himself, "Seriously! Making such a big fuss like that…"
"I see your family hasn't changed either." Drummed Rukia as she kicked her feet back and forth.
"Shut up!" growled Ichigo. "More importantly, tell me about them already. What the hell are these Arrancar? And why are they after me?"
That was their cue. Rangiku shoved by Ikkaku and Yumichika as Renji was yelling from the inside of Ichigo's big room light. "Wait up!"
In haste, Ichigo's got to his feet and looked around furiously for the source of that familiar voice. "That voice… Renji! Where are you?"
The light began to loosen as Renji spoke and Rangiku couldn't wait to see the look on Ichigo's face when they came through his ceiling. "We'll explain all of that to you."
The light broke off, and the four of them popped their heads out of the ceiling, letting the top of the light fall to the ground as Ichigo's priceless expression took over. He yelled out a hasty, "Waah?!" as, one by one, the Shinigami jumped from their hiding spot and landed gracefully on Ichigo's bed next to Rukia. "H-How'd you guys get in here?!... and what did you do to my light?!"
asked a panicked Ichigo.
With a cheery ring in her voice, Rangiku stated, "We tried to put in a new light bulb!" pointing to the reflecting glare off of Ikkaku's bald head.
With a hint of irritation, he asked, "With what exactly?" Rangiku, then, shoved him off the bed for ruining her sport.
Turning to the others, she said, "Don't be so uptight! Let's just relax and have fun!"
Crawling up from his earlier encounter with Rukia's foot, Kon glanced up, only to see the form of a heavenly goddess before him, Valley of the Gods and all. As the sparkles flew in his eyes, he regained his energy and jumped to her, crying out, "That uniform of yours is a deadly weapon, Onee-san!"
Once again, his attempts at perversion were destroyed when she dealt him a quick and effortless blow, not even changing her cheerful expression as she sat beside the others as the rest of the group watched the defeated Kon with wary expressions. "Is that the 'in' thing right now, or something?" asked Renji.
"No," replied Ichigo, "That's just him."
Once everyone was settled into place, Rukia pulled out her sketchbook and Renji began to explain to Ichigo the situation with the Arrancar. Flipping through the pages as Renji explained, Ichigo was more focused on sending ridiculous looks towards Rukia's terrible art then listening to what Renji was saying. "The Arrancar are Hollow that have removed their masks to gain the powers of both the Hollow and the Shinigami. They are few in numbers, and even fewer that are fully developed. But, fully developed Arrancar have now been created due to Aizen and his Hougyoku. Just like those two from the other day… Are you following me?"
With a wary look Ichigo mumbled, "Yeah, I get it… but the visual presentation leaves something to be desired."
Rukia angrily tossed her sketchbook in Ichigo's face, and once she was seated again, Renji's explanation resumed. "At first, Soul Society planned on quietly watching Aizen until he started to move. We'd just lost three of our captains, and we needed time to rebuild our forces. But the fully developed Arrancar appeared sooner than we expected… once they were sent to the World of the Living, we had to take action, so we were chosen."
"Who chose you?" asked Ichigo.
"Yamamoto-soutaichou." Said Renji. "Until the next Council 46 is built, he is the one making the big decisions. Rukia was chosen because she knows you the best."
"That's not true!" she interjected, "I was selected because of my ability!"
"And I was chosen," Renji continued, "Because out of the available fighters, I'm closest to Rukia. Then, I was told to pick out fighters I could trust who weren't of captain class, so I asked Ikkaku to join me. Then, Yumichika insisted on going too. When Rangiku heard the commotion, she said that she wanted to come because she didn't want to miss out on the fun. But, because Rangiku was coming, Hitsugaya-taichou reluctantly came along to keep an eye on us."
Eying the group, Ichigo exclaimed, "What the hell is this, a picnic?"
Suddenly, a new voice joined the band of Shinigami. "In any case," the group looked over to the window to see the young captain himself climb in and comfortably seat himself on the window's ledge before finishing his thought. "Aizen definitely has his eyes on you… Kurosaki Ichigo."
Upon his entrance, Rangiku looked contentedly at him, perking her cheeks in a nice smile. "Ah! It's Hitsugaya-taichou! The poor sport that refused to hide in the attic with us!"
Renji gave him a sarcastic look before asking, "Have you been waiting by the window this entire time? Not a very smart idea. A silver-haired elementary school student isn't exactly a common sight around here."
"Shut up!" Toushirou retaliated.
"Ah! I almost forgot!" interrupted Rukia.
The rest of the crowd looked to her as she finished what she was about to say. She glanced around the room eagerly, but didn't seem to find what she was looking for. Ichigo finally gave in and decided to ask, "Hey, Rukia, what are you looking for?"
"Where's Yuki?" she asked.
At the mention of her name, the other Shinigami sighed. Rukia looked at them with confusion for a moment before finally getting the message. "Ah, I see… she pulled one of her usual habits again?"
Renji put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. "Rukia, you have no idea… we were at Kurosaki's before we even noticed she was gone."
"Really? She was that sneaky this time, eh?" asked Rukia in a playful expression. She seemed to be the only one enjoying the joke at that moment.
Ichigo stared at them, a look of total confusion on his face. He had no clue of whom they were talking about. Was this 'Yuki' person a fellow Shinigami? And if so, why wasn't she here with them? What was this about a bad habit? "Hold on a second here," said Ichigo, "What the hell are you guys talking about?"
The group turned to Ichigo, as if he was asking the most obvious question in the world, and a rather pissed off captain answered his question. "'Yuki' is something at this point in time I would rather not waste my time thinking about. We already discussed this. We all know she'll be fine, so stop worrying so much and concentrate on the task at hand, which is explaining the situation to Kurosaki."
"Hitsugaya-taichou!" both Rukia and Renji yelled to the small captain, catching him a little off guard. "How can you say such things taichou?" asked an angry Renji.
"Yes! As a lower subordinate, isn't she your responsibility?" prosecuted Rukia.
"Shut up!" he yelled back, "Don't you think I know that? That's why I'm angry! It's just another headache to worry about!"
His breath caught in his throat when Matsumoto crushed him to her in a hug, gaining him the sympathy of the others as he tried to break free from her Valley of Death. Rangiku squealed, taking on an almost babyish tone. "Awww, taichou, you care!"
"Don't go getting any funny ideas, Matsumoto! And this is hardly the time! Put me down!" he yelled out between muffled.
As the group tried not to laugh at the unfortunate captain's fate, and Ichigo regained their attention. "So anyway," he continued, "who is this 'Yuki'? I'm guessing she's a Shinigami friend of yours that apparently ran off?"
Renji and Rukia looked to each other laughing. Ichigo observed the others, and they seemed to know what the other two were laughing about, but clearly did not have as strong of a connection to this person as Renji and Rukia. They looked towards him with all-knowing grins on their faces. "Trust me Ichigo, you probably won't have too much trouble making friends with her." said Renji.
"I just hope she's alright," added Rukia, "she can get a little carried away sometimes."
When he finally freed himself from Rangiku's grasp, Toushirou huffed, fixing himself before continuing where he left off. "at any rate-"
Suddenly, a high-pitched cry was heard outside, along with the loud screeching of car tires. The room was at a stand still, but when there was no crash, the whole group released the breath they had been holding. Ichigo stood up quickly, a worried expression on his face. "What the hell was that?!" he asked in shock.
Renji and Rukia looked to each other with deadpanned expressions and simply said, "Yuki."
"What?" he answered back disbelievingly.
Renji turned around and opened the door to Ichigo's window, waving and calling out, "Hey, Yuki! Up here!"
In almost no time at all, Ichigo heard a small, feminine voice answering back, "Oh, there you all are! I'll be up in a minute!"
Renji came back in the window, a grin on his face. Rukia smiled up at him, asking, "Is she alright? She almost just got hit by that car, didn't she?"
"Naturally," was his answer, "she would get herself into that sort of dangerous situation."
Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted again when they heard a horrible screeching sound, like fingernails on steel. When it stopped, they took a moment to collect themselves, but then it came back. After the second assault on their ears, Toushirou glanced out the window, barking down at Yuki as she tried to climb up Ichigo's wall to get to his room. "What the hell are you doing? You're creating so much noise!"
"Please forgive me Hitsugaya-taichou, but not all of us are incredible climbers like you are… geez, it's hard trying to climb these walls…what are they made of, steel?"
Sighing, Toushirou decided to just help her and get her up before they wasted any more time on this foolishness. "Do you need some help?"
"Well now, that would be much appreciated, Hitsugaya-taichou." she replied cheerily.
Sighing, Toushirou hung his arm out of the window, trying to grab hold of hers. Sometimes, he just didn't know about Yuki. To him, she seemed like a girl who thought that life was one big game and never knew when the time came to take things seriously… almost like Rangiku. However, when he didn't feel her hand making contact with his, he looked down to see what the problem was and groaned. Both of them were too short to reach the other. They realized the irony of their situation and sighed. Yuki tried to laugh it off, and managed to whisper a small, "awkward" to herself.
Just then, Toushirou glanced up when someone poked him, and saw Renji. Hitsugaya frowned, not wanting the red-haired lieutenant to point out his height disadvantage. "What is it Abarai?"
"Hitsugaya-taichou, may I please help her up since you seem to be having some trouble?"
Sighing, Toushirou gave up rather easily, responding with a flat, "Go ahead. I won't be much help here."
"Thank you captain!"
And with that, Renji reached down to grab Yuki's hand as she was starting to climb the siding of the house again, which made Renji dive for her hand quicker. They didn't need to go through that ear torture again. When he finally pulled her into the window, she tripped on the ledge and rolled in, making her land in an awkward position. As she stood up, straitening her braided pigtails, she wasn't even aware that Rukia was doing introductions until she saw Rukia staring at her. She hesitated for a moment, then noticed Ichigo looking at her. She perked up, smiling to him in her usual manner of friendliness. "Yosh! I'm Hoshino Yuki! It's very nice to meet you, umm… uhh... F-Forgive me, your name was…?"
"Kurosaki Ichigo" replied Ichigo, taking her hand and shaking it in a friendly greeting.
"Well, Ichigo, it's nice to meet you!" She smiled to him before taking a seat next to Rukia, who quietly questioned her about her whereabouts. Then, they realized that the whole group of Shinigami was staring at them, and knowing that this was all her fault for letting her habit get the best of her, she uttered a nervous, "sorry" to the group before going back to her discussion with Rukia.
"For all the trouble she put us through, she better be sorry" grumbled Toushirou.
"Oh taichou, stop being so grumpy!" teased Rangiku playfully.
"IN ANY CASE!" yelled the captain, getting the attention of the entire room. Finally, he could resume his important discussion.
"Arrancar are certainly born when a Hollow tears off its mask, however, the resulting maskless hollow is not much of a threat. If he really wanted to create an army of Arrancar to wage war on the Soul Society… then Aizen's objective in creating Arrancar is to come up with something even greater than the Menos."
"Greater than the Menos?" Hitsugaya glanced over to a perplexed Ichigo. "What do you mean? It sounds like you're implying that there is an even higher level than the Menos." stated a rather nervous Ichigo.
The substitute gasped when the small captain said, "Yes."
"Well, more specifically," said Toushirou, turning from the windowsill to face the rest of them, "there exists three classes of Menos. The first are the Gillian. They're the lowest level, and in human terms, you might liken them to foot soldiers. They're numerous and they all look the same. Gillian are the Menos Grande you usually see in Soul Society textbooks. The Menos you fought shortly after gaining your Shinigami powers and before coming to the Soul Society was a Gillian."
With a shocked, almost disbelieving expression, Ichigo stared at the small captain. "He was… just a foot soldier?"
"Although they appear to be big," continued the tenth division captain, "their movements are slow and their intelligence level is that of a beast. It wouldn't be difficult for someone at captain class to defeat one. The next class is more problematic. The second are the Adjuchas. They're smaller than the Gillian and fewer in number, but the are highly intelligent and several times more able than the Gillian in battle, therefore much more dangerous. They look after the numerous Gillian. Then, the third are the Vasto Lordes… They're the greatest of the Menos. They are about the same size as humans. There are very few of them, only a few in all of Hueco Mundo… Bluntly put, a Vasto Lorde's battle abilities are even greater than a captain's."
The entire room sat in shock, waiting to hear the end of his soliloquy.
"By changing the Menos into Arrancar, they come into possession of an incalculable amount of power, and we have yet to know just how much stronger they become in the change. With three of our captains now on their side, commanding all those Menos, all we can say is this: If, at this point in time, Aizen manages to bring ten Vasto Lordes under his control,
it's the end of the Soul Society…
