A/N: So...again, I was impressed with the reviews. Although they weren't as many as last time, they're still pretty good. So, it inspired me to write another chapter. Usually, I'd take a day to update my other stories, but I like where this is going. PLUS, this chapter is gonna be badass. Just sayin'...

Shout-Out's:

S'laughterSalvadora: I'm not going to ruin the surprise now, but I think you'll be thoroughly satisfied with this chapter.

RAHbooks: Yeah, that's what I meant. I think it was my spell-check that did that for some reason...

Hands in Red Paint: Yeah, I tried that out for this chapter, to make it less confusing. Like you suggested n' all. I have to say, I like it WAY better.

No Time For Cameras: Yeah, you're about to witness a beat-down that was WAY overdue.

Chapter 3: Surprise!

Something was off. He wasn't sure what, but something told Ichigo Kurosaki that there was something wrong with today. There couldn't be, though, could there? After all, the Espada were all destroyed, Rukia was no longer in danger of being executed, Shusuke Amagai had taken his own life, and so none of those could be the problem. Then what was it?

Sighing, Ichigo tipped his chair back, looking out the window that belonged to his class. Today was an unusually gloomy day. There were clouds covering the sun, and they looked full of rain water. But that still wasn't it. Perhaps it was Urahara and Yoruichi planning something. If confronted about it, though, the creepy store manager would probably just laugh it off.

'Who, me? Now now, Ichigo, when did I ever plan anything and not tell you guys about it?' He could practically hear Urahara say, fanning himself, with Yoruichi nearby just nodding in agreement. Ichigo's eye twitched as he surveyed the scene. Those two...they were just so irritating. Why couldn't they ever be just upfront about everything?

Sighing again, he shifted his attention to the rest of the class, watching them, as there were some people taking notes, some doing their homework, and even one kid was picking his nose. Ichigo's eyes fell on a certain red-head, whose life was changed dramatically last fall. She had been the unfortunate victim of a cold-hearted killer, locked away in a cell, with no form of social interaction or way to know her friends were alright.

Ichigo's fist tightened without him knowing, as the thought of Ulquiorra made him angry. The man was powerful, without a doubt, but that did not give him the right to kidnap women and treat them like prisoners. , even if it was under somebody else's orders. Luckily, Ichigo had managed to defeat him. Even if he hadn't been his own self, Ulquiorra was still defeated. It was lucky that his hollow had interrupted when he did, too. Ichigo may not have made it, what with Ulquiorra's Segunda Etapa being as powerful as it was.

Even still, Ichigo probably would have found some way to handle it. He didn't notice when the bell rang, still lost in thought. After a few moments, he heard a cough behind him, and turned to see who it was.

Leaning over him, was the very orange-haired princess herself, Orihime Inoue. Ichigo looked up to see her smiling. Although there was a smile on her face, he could see the deep sadness in her eyes. It was because he didn't get to Las Noches fast enough, Ichigo figured. He forced a smile back, still feeling guilty about her being kidnapped.

"Hi, Ichigo." She said a bit bashfully, not blushing like she would have last year.

"Uhh, hey, Orihime. What's up?" He asked, concern etching his features. He was curious. Lately, she was unsociable, taking shelter in her home after school rather than hanging out with her friends. It was weird, seeing as she was usually the bubbly one. Nobody expected her to have any sort of sadness lurking in her. It wasn't just sadness, but it looked as if she had lost something, something valuable.

Ichigo couldn't help but be reminded of Ulquiorra's last moments, when he had thought he found the heart. This phrase, to this day, still confused him. Was he talking about Orihime, or the feeling?

"Well, I was wondering, if...I...umm..." Orihime started, her face growing red as she poked her fingers together. Ichigo just stared at her flatly, waiting for some sort of question or something. Orihime lowered her head so her hair covered her face, before saying, "I was wondering if I could hang out with you guys after school." She sucked in a large lungful of air, having talked quite fast to get it out.

One of Ichigo's eyebrows slowly rose, before he shrugged. "Yeah, fine. I don't care." He said, before standing. "Well, I'm supposed to meet everyone else outside. So...let's go I guess." Ichigo said a bit awkwardly, grabbing his books and walking outside, to where Chad and Rukia were standing.

"Yo', Chad, Rukia. Where's Uryuu?" Ichigo asked, raising his hand in greeting. Chad stood passively, his curly brown hair covering one eye, while Rukia looked a little more intense.

"He's got that sewing class today." Chad said in his deep monotonous voice. Ichigo nodded, forgetting Orihime was behind him.

"Hello Kuchiki-san, Sado-san." She said, trying to bright up. She waved as she greeted Rukia and Chad, a large smile on her face. This reminded her a lot of last year, when it was just them four, plus Uryuu, of course. "So...what do you usually do after school?" Orihime asked, truly curious. She hadn't been talking to them very much.

"We usually go to Kisuke Urahara's." Rukia said, turning on her heel. "Ichigo can't seem to be satisfied with all that power he has." She added, dryly. Ichigo's mouth fell open, before he started yelling back.

"Well, it's not my fault I want to protect my friends!" He yelled, walking up behind her. He put his hand on her shoulder, which was a big mistake. Out of pure reflex, Rukia turned halfway and managed to kick him on the face.

"Watch what you're doing, idiot!" Ichigo yelled, a large purple bruise forming on his forehead. This only seemed to infuriate Rukia even more.

"Now now, can't we try to get along?" Orihime asked, trying to smile and break the small squabble apart.

"Well, you shouldn't have tried coming up to me with my back turned! You know what some of my reflexes are!" Rukia yelled, which caused Ichigo, in turn, to go red in the face, a dirty thought crossing his mind.

"Oh...not that way!" Rukia yelled, throwing her backpack at him, hitting him square in the face. Exasperated, Ichigo sighed in defeat, before looking ahead.

"What the...? A Garganta?" He asked incredulously, knowing that only Arrancar and Mayuri Kurotsuchi could do that. His eyes widened when he saw a single foot step out, not at all like the traditional Shinigami haori, or even the Captain's robe. It was too form-fitting, and like the reverse of the haori. As the foot stepped in the air, Ichigo's eyes widened further when he saw the pale face with the green-colored streaks on it. Even though he was withholding it, Ichigo could easily tell who that reiatsu belonged to.

"Ulquiorra!" He snarled, glaring at him. Ulquiorra looked around for a moment, looking at his scenery, before noticing Ichigo yelling his name.

"Oh...it's you again." He said, frowning slightly. Honestly, he had expected Ichigo to be killed by Gin or Aizen, seeing as Tosen would probably fight the wolf-man, Komamura, since he talked about him so much. But, apparently it was not to be. "I figured you would have died. Perhaps luck saved you again." He said hollowly, his gaze roving around each of the people standing before him, before it finally stopped at Orihime.

"Woman, I wish to have a word with you." He said. Only the most perceptive of people would notice that his voice held a softness it hadn't before. Orihime, on the other hand, seemed rooted to the spot. He wasn't dead...? This thought kept replaying through her mind over and over and over.

"Like hell you will!" Ichigo shouted, pulling his spirit from the Gigai, and charging at Ulquiorra. Last time they had fought, Ulquiorra had had the upper hand, but this was ridiculous. It actually seemed as if Ichigo was moving slowly. Ulquiorra moved to the side when Ichigo's zanpaku-to was raised above his head, chopping down.

While Ichigo tried to recover, Ulquiorra used this moment to attack himself. He slammed his fist into Ichigo's chest not hard enough to break anything, but hard enough to send him flying back a few yards.

Ichigo got up, holding his chest, gasping for air. Ulquiorra really didn't want to hurt anyone that was close to Orihime, especially if he was to talk to her at all without her hating him. He used sonido to appear next to her, standing directly behind her. "I do not wish to hurt your friends, woman. So tell Kurosaki to stand down."

Orihime was rooted to the spot by fear, not even blinking an eye before Ulquiorra was behind her. She shivered slightly, which turned into a trembling as Ulquiorra walked around to look into her eyes. What he saw shocked him. He saw fear. Pure, unadulterated fear. For some reason, it caused a pain in his chest, the kind he would never be able to describe. Not in a million years. He turned around in time to see Ichigo charging at him again.

Thinking quickly, Ulquiorra grabbed Orihime, pulled her against him, and walked back a few steps. Although she was deathly afraid of him, Orihime couldn't help the blush that dusted her cheeks. Ulquiorra let go of her, and stepped back.

"Very well, Kurosaki. If you wish, we can fight." Ulquiorra said emotionlessly. Of course, he wouldn't kill him. Because that would hurt Orihime, and for some reason, he got this odd feeling whenever a negative emotion crossed her face.

Ichigo smirked, before running at Ulquiorra, raising his zanpaku-to as soon as he was in front of him. "Getsuga Tensho!" He yelled, bringing the zanpaku-to down in an arc, a wave of black energy flying from the blade, also in an arc-like fashion. Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed slightly. He remembered this attack very well. It was similar to Kisuke Urahara's own technique in his shikai. Ulquiorra remembered blocking it when Kisuke sent it to Yammy, potentially killing him.

Ulquiorra wasn't nearly as surprised when he noticed that the wave seemed slower, also. In fact, everything seemed to move slower to him. He put his left hand in his pocket, before he shoved his right hand into the thick of it, splitting a path down the middle so it went around him. Ichigo raised his head, not too surprised that he managed to not get hurt, but slightly astonished that Ulquiorra could split right through, with what appeared to be minimal damage.

Ulquiorra inspected his hand, finding it not burnt or damaged in the slightest. Before, when he would have tried blocking the Getsuga Tensho, he would be able to feel the pressure pushing on his hand, but couldn't at all this time.

"Fine, if none of that will work, then I'll just have to do this." He shouted, thrusting his zanpaku-to in front of him. "Bankai! Tensa Zangetsu!" Immediately, a black cloak-like wear appeared on him, the bottom torn up. His zanpaku-to had become far slimmer, becoming completely black. "Now die!" He yelled, which merely caused Ulquiorra to sigh.

Ichigo disappeared in the blink of an eye, not even fazing Ulquiorra. Ichigo appeared behind Ulquiorra, zanpaku-to at his side, before he quickly tried slashing Ulquiorra vertically. Ulquiorra pulled out his own zanpaku-to, Murcielago. With a flick of his wrist, he deflected Ichigo's own attack, before hitting him in the stomach with the dull side of his zanpaku-to.

Ichigo held his gut for a moment, before straightening up angrily. "Damnit, that's it. Now you need to die!" He put his hand over his face, seemingly pulling something down. As he did, a mask started visualizing where his hand was pulling, as if he were pulling a mask over his face. Ulquiorra held his zanpaku-to at the ready, waiting for Ichigo to attack.

Ichigo, in a quick burst of speed, ran to Ulquiorra. He raised his zanpaku-to, and was about to strike, Ulquiorra's own already raised to deflect it, before they heard a scream.

"Stop it, both of you!" Orihime shouted, staring at them. She turned to Ichigo, before saying, "He already said he meant us no harm, now why can't you just quit attacking him for a moment?" She asked angrily.

Ichigo was at a loss for words, before narrowing his eyes. "Fine, I'll leave you with this-this monster." He spat in disgust. He disappeared without a trace, leaving Rukia to slap her hand to her face, and Chad to sigh.

"I'll go find him, try and calm him down..." Rukia said, before she started running off in the direction Ichigo's house was at. Chad merely stood still, for a moment, before saying,

"I'll accompany her." He knew it was a bad idea to leave those two alone, but it was obvious to Chad, if no one else, that Ulquiorra could have probably defeated Ichigo fairly quickly. After all, had Ichigo landed even one hit on Ulquiorra? No, and to top it off, Ulquiorra landed a few on Ichigo. Chad still didn't trust him, but he knew that Ulquiorra wasn't here to cause trouble.

"Woman..." Ulquiorra began, averting his green eyes as he came back to the ground from her own brown eyes, before saying, "I think we should talk." His green eyes flicked to hers for a moment. What was that, nervousness? Was Ulquiorra, the Arrancar representing Emptiness, really nervous. The thought amazed Orihime.

"Orihime." She said, which caused Ulquiorra to look up directly into her eyes, shocked to find there was no hatred or ill-feelings. "My name is Orihime Inoue. You may call me Orihime." She clarified, waiting to see if Ulquiorra cared enough to call her by her first name.

"Orihime...I would like to talk to you..." Ulquiorra said, a little bit hesitantly. Orihime's face turned a little bit red, which was clearly visible to Ulquiorra, but other than that she made no move for a moment.

"Alright. We'll get you a Gigai from Kisuke Urahara, and then we can talk over coffee." Orihime said brightly, smiling at Ulquiorra. She wasn't too sure why she was, in fact, she thought she should hate him for keeping her locked up. But, for some reason she couldn't understand, she could not find any hate towards him, not even bitterness. Ulquiorra nodded, which made Orihime smile.

"Alright, this way!" She said cheerfully, grabbing Ulquiorra's hand and dragging him to Urahara's, much to Ulquiorra's amazement.