The group of five moved along quickly, through the biting, whipping sands of Hueco Mundo. They consisted of three shinigami, two humans with spiritual powers and a Quincy. These three had arrived to save their friend, captive for five years in this hellish world. The leader was none other than the famed substitute shinigami Ichigo Kurosaki, wielding a monster of a Zanpakuto strapped to his back. His tiger orange hair was pulled back into a ponytail; it had grown out over the years and was left long for the whims of a certain woman. Said woman was running at his right, short black hair kept in shape and length through a blueblooded routine. Rukia Kuchiki, princess of the Kuchiki dynasty. She and Ichigo were not sharing glances or even acknowledgements of each other's existence at the moment; the two had been doing that a lot lately.

Behind her ran a heavily tattooed man with fire red hair, Renji Abarai. His Zanpakuto was at his hip, as was Rukia's on her. In recent times, Renji and Rukia had been spending more time together than she and Ichigo had. It was causing obvious tension between the two men, and they had ceased talking as of recent as well, only exchanging orders or a few words. Uryu Ishida was running beside Rukia, his white Quincy outfit blending with the sharp glass-like sand crunching beneath their feet. His hair was the exact same length, fastidiously monitored and kept short to stay out of his face. Behind him ran not the remaining member of the group that had raided Soul Society to save Rukia, Chad, but instead Tatsuki Arisawa. Chad had been killed awhile back in one of Aizen's surprise raids on Karakura; instead of his soul, which was training in Seireitei to aid in the delayed war, Tatsuki came along. She had been training with Urahara in the time they had been waiting for Aizen to make his move, and now had enough control over her powers to be allowed to come along. Finally the last member of their group who was currently hiding their reiatsu to nil was none other than Keigo Asano. His own powers had developed as well, and he had insisted on coming along; he could completely hide his reiatsu and was currently doing as such to keep the enemy off-guard about the number of invaders.

"Wow…look at that."

Keigo marveled at the large white castle that was Las Noches. Rukia looked up in slight awe. She slowed down a bit; Ichigo reached back and grabbed her by the forearm, dragging her forward roughly.

"Keep up, dammit!"

He half-shouted at her, and she snapped back at him while jerking her arm away from him.

"Go to hell, Ichigo. I'll run however fast I want to!"

The tension had been thick between the two, and Renji gave Ichigo a shove.

"Hey, not her fault Kurosaki. Quit being such an asshole."

Ichigo, Rukia and Renji came to a stop and began to quarrel, just below a shouting match fit for Jerry Springer.

"Don't touch me, Abarai. She's a slow ass, I'm going to damn well tell her!"

Uryu, Tatsuki and Keigo kept on running past the three, knowing that if they stayed behind then there'd be a whole lot of shit to deal with.

What nobody wanted to talk about was how everything had turned out after Orihime had been kidnapped. In those five years, they had all grown up considerably. Tatsuki was more adult than giving into fits of violence and tantrums, and was now able to see more clearly about her friends. She had become the master of a karate dojo in Tokyo, and was doing very well. Keigo was able to rein in the random weirdness, and could be as well-behaved as Mizuiro when he needed to. Which he did often, considering that he was in law school. Ishida and his father were still on fragile ground with one another, but it was a wonder Uryu had been able to get the time to come here at all. He was waist-deep in medical school right now and setting himself up to take over his father's hospital when the time came, while simultaneously balancing it with his Quincy career. Chad was dead, and last they had heard, he was going to become a shinigami with his own powers functioning instead of a Zanpakuto.

Renji shoved Ichigo back a couple steps, moving to stand in front of Rukia.

"Back the fuck off, Kurosaki."

He warned, and Ichigo was already in his face with a sudden shunpo.

"Make me, fucker."

Renji and Rukia were still shinigami. Abarai remained the Lieutenant Captain of Sixth division, under Byakuya. Rukia had, after the appeals of Ichigo and Renji both, finally been granted a seated position. She had advanced to Lieutenant of Thirteenth, and had proved herself more than capable of handling the position. At the moment, she and Ichigo were supposedly in a relationship. Two years to the day Orihime was kidnapped, actually, Ichigo and Rukia got together after Ichigo came and asked her personally. Renji had gone through a bout of binge drinking after this, telling Ikkaku and Yumichika over drinks that he was sure that Ichigo wasn't who he used to be. That the substitute shinigami had…changed. And sure enough, it had been proven true; not long after they got together, problems were very visible between them. Ichigo wasn't the nice guy anymore; he had changed to war, to the world he had been thrust into. Isshin had wanted him to take over the clinic, but Ichigo had instead moved out of Karakura to Kyoto and begun working the clubs there as a bouncer. Good money for an easy job. And over time, he had advanced past a bouncer to bodyguard certain shady people that Ichigo Kurosaki had no business being around. He and Rukia had been apart for a while, meeting every now and then in the short spans of free time they had between Ichigo's life and Rukia's shinigami duties.

And he was totally different when they had met up again a year ago, back in Karakura to aid in the protection of it. Tatsuki had a job to take care of and therefore couldn't be there the entire time. When she did return, however, she returned to see a more violent, short-tempered Ichigo that wasn't afraid to let his displeasure with Rukia be known. The two of them fought constantly now, though Rukia attempted to hide the evidence of anything physical. Bruises here and there, nothing that could be seen without close scrutiny. Nothing that couldn't be explained away by fighting hollows. Byakuya, however, was much colder to Ichigo than he had been beforehand, and the two were openly hostile to one another. Renji himself was hanging around Rukia more often, and she was shutting Ichigo out more and more. It was obvious that Renji and Rukia were more than just friends now; just not obvious enough for Ichigo to be able to explain away any sort of violence he might want to inflict on the two.

"Hey dipshits! They'll find out we're here if we don't fucking hurry!"

Tatsuki shouted back, and the three stopped. They glared at each other, before Ichigo grabbed Rukia around the waist and pulled her against him while glaring at Renji.

"Come on Rukia."

In a flash, he was shunpoing away from Renji with a combative Rukia in his arms. When he thought that nobody would see, he gave her a good hard jerk that no doubt gave her whiplash at such a high speed of movement, acting as if he didn't notice. Rukia glared up at him through tears of pain, choosing not to say anything right now for the mission's sake. She would handle Ichigo later, she and Renji together. Right now, Orihime was captive and no doubt still waiting for them to save her. Poor Orihime, undoubtedly still tormented with being around the...things...that she'd been a captive of for years.

Saving Orihime was exactly why they had all come. Most often, it was for the same reasons. Tatsuki had missed Orihime terribly, though she had been able to replace the girl with new friends and for a good while, was happy enough to forget about Orihime near completely. Renji and Rukia had been tied up in their duties when that brief window of opportunity back right after Orihime was kidnapped had closed. And Rukia had been busy with Ichigo and his temper. Uryu had been tied up in medical school, though he had been so busy with work as to be able to press Orihime out of his mind for a while. He wanted her back, because he owed her. Keigo just tagged along to help out, and a little bit of it was so that he could play hero, like Ichigo did.

Why did Ichigo come? Nobody knew, because he wouldn't tell anyone and they didn't ask. All they knew was that he had kept in touch for the past month, the group setting up for a raid to save Orihime. Even though they had no way to know if Orihime was even still alive, they were all willing to risk it. For the past month, Ichigo had kept in contact with them and Urahara, who was setting up the Gargantua. A week ago, they had all returned to Karakura and converged at Orihime's old apartment, empty after the complex had been condemned. They had met up, caught up, began to plot and scheme. And it had all resulted in this: They were making an attempt on a veritable fortress, for someone they didn't even know was living or not. But they were here, each for their own reason. Each to kick some ass, respectively.

"I can feel her reiatsu!"

Ishida shouted, running ahead for the white building. All kept running, target set and one thing in mind:

Save Orihime.

Unnoticeable to all, Ichigo smirked viciously at the statement.

"Yeah, me too."

He had come here for his own reasons, and damn it if they wouldn't play out correctly. They would. He was going to make sure that in the end, he got what he wanted.

A princess.