Yay~! Another early update~! Sorry about the same change. So if you didn't read the author's note its because I plan to have a sequel for this story called To Protect the Protector, because it fits better they way. So as of right now how would you guys feel about a sequel? Anyway thanks to Yashiru Kusajishi, Phantom Claire and Mer Mer! I love hearing from you. Disclaimer and chapter? I think so~. See you at the bottom!

Toshiro had claimed Ichigo's vacant room. He wasn't entirely sure why but he just knew that being surrounded by Ichigo's scent calmed him down, but it did, and he was willing to do anything so he didn't get so stressed that he snapped at his away team. He was laying in Ichigo's bed. He had thought the teen would smell like strawberries, he was pretty sure Matsumoto had gotten the idea in his head, but the teen actually smelled like chocolate and a hint of strawberries, surprisingly enough.

Either way, the bed was still a few inches to big for him, even though he had gown a few inches himself. The first day that they had been searching Urahara had come to Ichigo's house and taken his body to a safe location, leaving a note saying that Ichigo was on a school trip. He thought about how the body had taken up much of the bed, leaving just enough room for a smaller body to slip into, not for the first time the bed felt so much emptier.

Preferring to not dwell on those thoughts, he close his eyes in an attempt to get some rest. Just as he was on the brink of sleep somewhere in the back if his mind he heard a voice that didn't belong to him or Hyourinmaru. It uttered only one word, yet it was unmistakable about what it uttered. The word utter was 'protect.'

Somehow, even though the voice had nothing substantial to it, he knew that it was Ichigo. How he wasn't sure. He found himself acting on an impulse and reaching out his reiatsu towards the origin of the voice but he couldn't find the source.

Whatever weariness that Toshiro had faded away with this discovery. He sat up in the bed. Looking at the wall he tried to recall everything about that one second. There was a minuscule amount of reiatsu that had flared up, to small to tell who's it was, but it was large enough that he got the most prominent feelings in it, fear and pain.

Though this event brought more questions than it answered. Protect who or what? Also was he the only one to hear it? But he was certain that it was Ichigo's, how he didn't care, but it did tell him that Ichigo was currently alive, but in pain. Toshiro felt an unknown rage build up. Toshiro had never felt this strong of anger before, not even at Aizen who almost killed Momo.

Someone was hurting Ichigo, and he could do nothing about it since he had no clue as to where the stupid strawberry was. Wait... did I just think of him as 'strawberry?' What the hell! He mentally screamed.

He let out a low growl in frustration. Hyourinmaru did this soft cooing noise to try and calm down his master. It worked only the smallest amount. Toshiro flung the window open hoping that the night air would cool his head. The question of wether or not Ichigo did this when he was upset popped into his head. He shook his head, thoughts like that would only serve to distract him.

Sure the young captain felt a kinship to the substitute shinigami, both being fairly young and already so powerful, and admittedly they both had a lot to learn. He also admired the teen's loyalty to his friends, that type of loyalty is something Soul Society desperately needed, especially in captains.

He wondered if Ichigo would accept being a captain. If they found him Toshiro would make sure that Ichigo was asked if he would consider being a captain. As Toshiro gazed off into the distance he didn't notice the reiatsu of his Vice-Captain until she was nearly on top of him.

She landed next to him. "Oh! Captain you look deep in thought."

He sent her a half-hearted glare. She looked at him with something akin to pity, but wisely did not comment on it. She knew when her captain wanted to talk, or when he acted like he didn't want to but just needed prodding. Rangiku wasn't stupid, she just acted like it most of the time, she was a Vice-Captain after all.

She decided that she would try to get to the heart of the subject the long way.
"Captain you should sleep."

"Not tired." He replied coldly.

She rolled her eyes. Sometimes her captain acted like a young child. "Even so, being tired won't help us find Ichigo."

Something flashed in her captain's eyes that she wasn't familiar with. Seems like I'm nearing the subject that's got him so riled.

Toshiro kept his gaze on the skyline. "I can't sleep if I'm not tired."

"Did you even try?"

The slightest of nods was all she got back in return. She leaned against the wall. "Are you sure you're not tired? You're awful crabby."

Toshiro felt his irritation grow. Normally he'd be able to deal with his vice-captain, but there were too many things going on inside his head. He knew what the strawberry-blonde was saying, he just couldn't sleep, not after what happened.

Ah. He stopped talking. Rangiku raised an eyebrow. "Captain... I don't mean to pry." There was a mumble of "Yes you do." She bit back a chuckle. "But could it be that you're worried about Ichigo?"

Her captain's eyes widened. She allowed herself a small smile at the victory. "He's strong. He'll be fine. I bet he'll be complaining about how long it took us when we arrive!"

Toshiro looked away. "I know he's strong, too strong sometimes not only in power but in personality. Its those types of people you have to watch the most, because if they fall they fall hard."

Rangiku looked at her captain with a surprised face, he sounded well past his age. But it would seem that he wasn't done. "Whoever took him, they almost killed him in two hits!" Toshiro cried. "They aren't our common foes."

The Vice-Captain nodded. "I know, but I still think there was something about the fight we missed. I don't think that they're that much more powerful than Ichigo."

Toshiro gave the slightest of shrugs. So there's something else as well.

"Captain? Are you sure you're alright?" Rangiku asked him with a concerned tone.

Toshiro turned to look at the unusually serious Rangiku. She did look concerned, She's actually pretty preceptive when she wants to be.

"I guess I'm stressed out." Toshiro said after a few moments of silence. "I mean so much had happened and its been a relatively short time period. It seems like we found Aizen was a traitor yesterday."

Rangiku nodded. That wasn't the whole problem yet. She'd wait until her captain spoke again.

"Matsumoto?" She perked up at her name. She never had managed to get him to call her Rangiku. "What do you know about bonds between people?"

She paused, pondering the best way to respond. "I know that a lot of bonds are strong, but not strong enough to stand the test of time. The few that are actually do last forever, because those soul's have found their soulmate. Well that's what I've heard anyway."

"What about those with reiatsu?" Toshiro prodded.

"Eh?" She asked, she thought about it a moment. "I suppose you mean shinigami? A lot of times if they've found their soul mate, they tend to be more in tune with their partners reiatsu. The partners can tell what their partner's feeling, and will probably be the first to know if their partner dies. Why?"

Toshiro figured that since they were on the topic he might as divulge what happened to him. "I was trying to sleep and all the sudden this voice in the back of my mind uttered one word and disappeared. There was enough reiatsu I could tell what it was feeling but not who it was. But somehow I knew it was Ichigo."
Rangiku listened with interest. She had never heard of this happening but it would actually explain why her captain was interested in Ichigo when he first showed up in Soul Society, but he didn't get much of a chance to investigate with the whole Aizen problem. It also shed light on her captain's behavior when he found out that Ichigo was injured and missing.

"You could feel his emotions?" She finally asked.
A stiff nod. "Not pleasant ones."

Rangiku decided she wouldn't push any farther. "Don't worry, maybe you'll be able to get a better read on Ichigo's location if it happens again and then we'll be one step closer to rescuing him!"

Toshiro gave her another curt nod. "Perhaps."

"Well I should be getting back to where I'm staying for the time being. Try to get some sleep. We'll start looking in the morning again."

With that the10th squad Vice-Captain leapt from the window, leaving Toshiro alone to his thoughts. The white haired captain gave a frustrated sigh. He shut the window and flopped on top of the bed.

He tried to get the voice out of his head. That stupid word, he would never be able to sleep like with the feeling of hopelessness that was slowly settling in his gut. Toshiro growled and forced himself to sleep.

On the other side of town a certain Red-haired Vice-Captain was scanning the buildings. He knew that there was no way he'd be able to sleep if they didn't have a single lead on Ichigo's location. At this point he didn't care if they got something vague like the went to the west. Renji wasn't a fan of how little they had to go on.

Then again he always felt like it was better to leave the planning and ideas to the people who were able to do it and he would carry them out. But at the moment Renji really wished that he was able to put things together. He knew that there was something that they had to be missing in order for them to not be any closer to finding Ichigo than they were.

This brought him to the problem of why he was so desperate to find the teen. They were best friends sure, they've fought together and against each other several times, so they were sure to have a strong bond, but Rukia, who had been with the kid since the beginning wasn't out here at 'o dark thirty standing on a telephone pole searching for anything. He decided that it was because they were best friends and Ichigo would look for him without hesitation.

It was distressing to think that Ichigo was somewhere alone, probably in pain. Renji knew that the kid was strong, but he wonder just how strong. He also wondered if Ichigo was placing as much faith in his friends as they do to him. Renji did have a lot of faith in the kid himself but with his personality it'd have to be pretty bad for him to actually ask for help.

He closed his eyes and focused on strong sources of reiatsu. He ignore the ones that he knew were the members of the search team, also he ignored Urahara's reiatsu as well. The first night that he did this he found a reiatsu that was similar to Ichigo's on investigating he found out that it belonged to Ichigo's father, which he found odd. There were no reports of Isshin having reiatsu before, especially that strong.

Going further than he had he previous night there was still not a trace of Ichigo. He was getting frustrated. There had to be something! They had checked the park for any anomalies, that turned up nothing. They searched further, but it was becoming more apparent to Renji that Ichigo wasn't in Karakura town anymore.

Renji sighed and opened his eyes. He honestly didn't know what to do anymore, Karakura town was clear of Ichigo's reiatsu, and there really wasn't a place anyone could travel to in this town that would be able to hid reiatsu, they had checked any possible places. From what he had been told Ichigo had gone through a portal, and hadn't ended up in Soul Society, so unless there was another world he didn't know about there was only one other option: Hueco Mundo. But they couldn't go there without special permission, and on just a whim, they needed proof. Which they had yet to obtain.

Letting out a throaty growl, he turned and shunpoed to his temporary residence. There was nothing else he could do tonight, dawn was nearly upon them and while he wouldn't get any sleep, he didn't want to worry Chad that he'd disappeared, doing his own thing.

Just come back in one piece you stupid Strawberry.

He could almost here the retort coming back at him with his nickname of pineapple tacked on to the end of the sentence.

Ichigo normally moved around in his sleep ending up in a different position than he started in when he woke up. Rukia had commented on it a few times. Yet he was still in that curled up position he fell asleep in, which was a testament to how injured he was.

He groaned, his muscles were stiff from sleeping on the floor, whatever poison they had on that dagger, he was starting to think of it more as a drug, was still in his system. His sore muscles, while under normal circumstances would be only stiff and tender, all felt like they were torn. His other injures that he had on his body were already to start to throb as he woke up more.

Ichigo took in an evaluation of himself, he was hurting, badly. His stomach also was starting to feel a little empty, he noted that his mouth was dry, he worked up what little spit he could to get it to moisten his mouth, just so he didn't have that feeling of his mouth being filled with cotton. All in all he could be worse.

Someone must've heard his groan as the door was screeching open five minutes later. In walked Daichi and Yuna. Daichi wore a stern expression, giving off the air that he really didn't want to be here. Yuna however scowled at him, showing him her full displeasure. Yuna's hair was pulled back and she had a box with her. Daichi took the box from her and walked over to the opposite wall. He took a few things out and the cell was then filled with sounds of metal being driven through stone. The loud noises and echoing was giving Ichigo a headache, but he couldn't just ask for aspirin or for them to leave him alone, he'd have to deal with it.

Yuna stared at him. Her head tilted to the side, and once again her face had something innocent about it, but he knew what she was capable of. He wasn't fooled for a second. She leaned closer and he pulled back. She pouted. "Aw. Why are you flinching?"

He stubbornly said nothing. While there wasn't something binding him so he couldn't talk but he chose not to talk, it was a small act of rebellion that he enjoyed profusely.

She straightened herself, the pout still adorning her face, yet it was slowly being perverted into a smirk that held so many secrets. "Not talking? Oh well."

She turned her head to see the progress Daichi had made. She returned her russet gaze back to him. She observed him, studying him like an art work. "Shame we'll have to eventually mark up that pretty little face of yours. You're truly a handsome man Ichigo, but maybe we can avoid any further damage to it, eh?"

Ichigo pressed his lips into a firm line. He didn't like what she was hinting at. Daichi finished doing what ever it was he was doing. Glancing over to the opposite wall he saw shackles hanging there threateningly.

"Done? Wonderful!" Yuna cried.

Daichi stepped foreword, and to the best of his ability, Ichigo pushed himself backward but he was already pushed against the wall and there wasn't much else he could do. Daichi leaned down and yanked him up by his arm, a yelp of pain escaped his lips as the movement jarred his injuries, causing them to bleed, and the drug also intensified the pain where it felt like his arm was being ripped off.

Daichi's face grew satisfied when he heard the yelp. He dragged the teen over to the other side of the room. He shoved Ichigo roughly against the wall. It was then ichigo saw what was impaled into the wall. They were shackles. His arms were quickly locked up and they were placed stretching out from his body, leaving his torso exposed.

"Now that's hot." Yuna said, joining Daichi at his side.

Daichi grunted. "Now what?"

Yuna stopped, placing his finger on her chin, deep in thought. "Good question." She tapped her chin. "What do you think?"

Daichi looked at Ichigo, then he walked over to the chest in the corner, he grabbed something, it was a smaller version of the cat-o-nine-tails. Daichi unwound it. "How about this?"

Yuna looked disapprovingly at him. "Huh? Whipping him? That's so boring! Not to mention it seems like a lot of hard work."

"Anything that involves moving is hard work to you." Daichi responded.
"Not true. Fighting involves moving at that's not hard work." Yuna whined. "Besides whips cause bleeding that's Tadashi's job, we can't risk our prisoner bleeding out."

Daichi placed the whip back in the crate. "What do you suggest then?"

"Beating him?" Yuna titled her head.

"With just out fists?" Daichi inquired.

"Why not? I always wondered how fast a human bruises." Yuna waved her hand around in a circle. "Knock yourself out, I may join in."

Yuna leaned against on of the walls, her eyes were closed . Daichi sent a harsh look her way, then turned his gaze onto Ichigo. The teen stared back, there wasn't much he could do strung up like this. His body was completely unprotected,.

Daichi took a step foreword and lifted his first, a solid punch landed on his eye his head recoiled from the force of the impact and smashed against the wall. He was surprised that someone would be able to throw away their honor in order to punch a defenseless man in the face. Ichigo knew that he had a concussion, there was no doubt with a blow like that.

The next one was even more painful than the last hit. The man had followed up quickly with a jab to Ichigo's stomach. For a few seconds Ichigo thought he was going to lose whatever food he had left in his stomach. Just as the struggle began to regain his breath another jab followed through to his stomach.

Daichi was soon in a rhythm delivering blow after blow to his stomach. A few times Daichi had struck in his rib area, leaving more than one rib broken, and leaving Ichigo even more breathless. The pain was enough to make Ichigo want to pass out, but he was unable to, it felt like he was being repeatedly struck in the torso with a baseball bat.

On one particularly nasty punch it had actually gotten Ichigo to cough up some unknown fluid. Daichi didn't even hesitate to punch him again. Ichigo wasn't sure how long he was being used as a punching bag but it seemed like forever before Daichi finally stopped his assault on his body. Daichi released his shackles which had rubbed his wrists red and raw. Ichigo crumpled to the floor in a heap, ever breath painful and a struggle.

As Yuna opened the door, she walked over to him and delivered a sharp kick to his gut. Ichigo coughed up blood. Then like nothing had happened Yuna turned on her heel and left, Daichi was only a step behind her.

The door swung close and locked with an ominous bang. Leaving Ichigo bathed in the poor light of his cell. He was struggling to catch his breath. The pain was something he hadn't even encountered before. He couldn't figure out why though, his brain was groggy and he wanted to sleep. Afraid that he had a concussion he fought to stay awake, but there was nothing to keep him occupied. The pain was helpful to keep him awake, but his pain tolerance was being surpassed exponentially.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought he felt a twinge of worry and of anger, but he couldn't be sure. He had lost the fight of staying conscious and was falling quickly into the black.

Meanwhile

To figures stood still surrounded by endless skyscrapers. The rain hadn't stopped in what seemed like years as it was now up to most of the skyscrapers second floors. It was raining so hard it was actually getting them wet. Yet it seemed that the figures didn't mind it one bit.

They were both looking up at the sky. One face, who's eyes were covered by glasses had a pronounced frown on his face. The other, whose face was normally adorned with a cocky smirk was merely blank.

"I cannot access my link with him, he's in too much pain to listen." Said the shaded man. He normally able to contact the young shinigami through their link, even if the teen didn't have Zangetsu with him.

He didn't know what was causing his wielder to be in so much pain. Zangetsu wanted to materialize next to Ichigo to see what his condition was exactly and maybe try to help, but if he could get Ichigo to listen and open their link he was unable to.

The hollow that resided in Ichigo's inner world was strangely quiet. It'd be a blessing on normal days, but now it just proved how much trouble Ichigo was in. Concern wove its way into Zangetsu's link, hoping that a strong emotion would break through the barrier.

Hichigo was looking up at the sky. Leave it to him to get stuck in a human, at least then he had been strong and could've taken over but the human was strangely resilient. He hated the rain, it was annoying when it was only lightly drizzling, but now it felt like a feakin' monsoon.

Hichigo's link with Ichigo was fragile at its best and no existent when it was at its worse. Ichigo didn't fully trust his hollow, with good reason, so they were never able to get that connection like he had with Zangetsu. The hollow didn't care, the teen left him alone and most of the time he left the teen alone, they borrowed each others powers and tolerated each other's existence.

When Ichigo lost his powers, Hichigo did as well. Then Ichigo regained his shinigami powers but not his hollow powers. The only reason Hichigo didn't vanish was because of Ichigo's fullbringer powers. He was still a powerless hollow and it annoyed him.

He was angry at whoever was messing with his landlord. The teen was in an agony that made the hollow surprisingly unhappy. Hichigo figured it was because he knew that if the teenager was fighting Zangetsu wouldn't have such a strange aura around him, so that meant he was in pain and not fighting back, and if Hichigo had to guess, he wasn't fighting back because he couldn't.

That's what really got him, here he was just another occupant of Ichigo's inner world, standing around, doing nothing, and his landlord was being put through a pain that nobody should be forced to feel.

Expect the people who are doing it in the first place. Hichigo was powerless and he was pissed. Yet the only thing he could do was feel through his feeble connection with the orange haired teen and feel what he was feeling. Also he was trying to think of a way that he could get his powers back so that he could take over Ichigo's body and rip these bastards limb from limb.

We're at the bottom and I see you! How's it so far? Leave your thoughts below! Any guesses on what's going to happen next? Leave a review! I'm really excited and hyper! I love you all~! Off to write Chapter 5! Later! ~IF