A/N: Thanx for your review again Substitute Deathberry, I'm glad you liked the cliffy. I think I didn't mention this before, but Hjouru's about Rukia's hight so he does look like a little child, even if he isn't one.

Disclamer: I don't own Bleach, just my OOC's.

Enjoy and leave your thoughts in a review after you have read! :D

- Chapter IV: True Appearance -

"What is your business here!" Ichigo yelled towards the Espada, his voice sounded a bit twisted due to the hollowfication.

"That, you don't need to know," Was the simple response he got from the man "because you will die here and now!" With that, he made a finishing movement with his arm, allowing his subordinates to sever the boy's body as much as they wanted.

One released Arrancar attacked him straight on and he lifted Tensa Zangetsu to block the incoming blow. Then out of nowhere another released one went for his unguarded back, he tried to push away the first Arrancar and then move his sword to block the other one… but his sword didn't move, the Arrancar in front of him held his sword in a firm grip, it didn't even budge when he pulled. He couldn't even let go of the zanpakutou, since the enemy's free hand was squishing it tightly to the handle.

It didn't matter if the hand was badly cut up, the Arrancar refused to let go of the sword. 'Shit!' Ichigo thought helplessly, he couldn't evade the incoming blow, he could only wait for the blade to chop off his head. Instead he was greeted with the clear clang of a blocking sword. 'I… I was saved?'

XXX XXX XXX

"Yo! Thought you needed some help." A very familiar voice called out behind him.

"W-what? H-Hjouru, why're you here?" Ichigo asked utterly confused, for the first; they were standing in mid air, second; he had two zanpakutous and three; he wore what looked like a torn white shihakushou. "I thought I told you, I came to help." Said person said while looking back at his friend. It was then Ichigo saw it; 'A mask fragment?'

"Out of the way damn traitor!" The Arrancar he just blocked roared at him, which in turn pissed the boy of. Much. 'Why does he call me traitor? I haven't done anything, besides I don't even know this guy.' "What the hell are you talking about?" Hjouru asked him in a very rude manor. He didn't even bother to sound polite to someone he hated at first sight.

"You heard me! You're siding with the enemy! You should be loyal to Aizen-sama!" The Arrancar continued to roar, his face was crimson due to the anger he felt.

"And who the hell is that? I don't know anyone by the name Aizen." The black haired boy said truthfully, he had never heard the name, yet it sounded familiar and gave him a bad feeling. "Besides Ichigo ain't my enemy, he's my friend!"

The Arrancar didn't like the answer at all. "How dare you being so impolite against Aizen-Sama!" He continued with his yelling and launched another attack against Hjouru, who barely blocked it thanks to his instincts. Fortunately, he had blocked the blow with one sword, which left him with one arm free and used that chance in giving the opponent a shallow cut across the chest. The arrancar backed off in surprise and to get out of the sword's range, this action was followed by many nasty curses from his mouth. 'Damn him! Who is he? He's one of us, so why is he against us?' The Arrancar thought confused and enraged.

"Hjouru… thanks, but you shouldn't be here, it's dangerous." Ichigo said thankfully and tried to make his friend understand the danger in this situation. But it was just as useless as 'telling Kenpachi you don't want to fight'. The boy turned around towards Ichigo, "Even if it's dangerous you're still here-," He barely dodged the sword, meant to chop off his head, instead of his head it got a little of his black hair.

A vein throbbed on his forehead and he quickly turned around surprising both the carrot-top and the Arrancar. "I wasn't done yet!" He yelled and gave the Arrancar a hard round house kick, to his surprise the Arrancar flew like a glove and crashed in the park below their feet. "Oops! Errr… Who are these guys anyway? And how the hell did I do that!""

The Strawberry just stared 'He doesn't know?' "Arrancars." Was the only answer he gave the black haired boy. "Whaaat! These are Arrancars, I thought they would look different, you know like those monsters stalking me!"

'The vest he's wearing is sipped all the way up, so I can't tell if he has a hollow hole, but the mask fragment on his left cheek and those red markings on his right, plus his reiatsu, indicates on an Arrancar.' 'Finally, I wondered how long it would take for your thick head to figure that out!' Ichigo pretended he didn't hear that. 'So if he still suffers from the amnesia, it would explain why he doesn't know he's one himself… Wait, how come he hasn't asked me about my mask? He'll probably ask me about it later, now isn't the time.' Suddenly a thought hit him, "What about Rukia and Renji! They might need more help than I do!" worry spread in his eyes and face. "Don't worry; I saw Chad and Uryuu hurrying to Renji's location, so my guess is that Orihime is on her way to Rukia's." Hjouru explained, to make his friend less worried.

"Yeah, but-,"

"No buts! They're strong enough. They went with you the last time these guys attacked. Have fate in them Ichi, like they have in you." He said, looking straight at Ichigo with sad eyes.

'He's right!' With anew resolve in his eyes and with a calmed mind, he heard his hollow urging him on to finish this, 'Go get 'em king. I would do it myself if I could, but ya still have me in a pretty tight leash…' Ichigo just smiled inwardly, they still worked on working together, but they were making progress. "Let's get this over with Hjouru!"

Said boy went up next to him and nodded in agreement, "Yeah, let's do this."

XXX XXX XXX

'Damn… I put down one of these bastards and another takes its place instead, there's no end of them!' The red haired man thought bitterly. One of the Arrancars used its sonido and actually got through his guard with a raised sword, ready to take his life with a single blow. Renji couldn't stop what was happening, he could only watch as the opponent's sword got closer and closer. "Crap…" He whispered and looked straight into his soon to be killer's eyes.

Around hundred small blue arrows flew by his face and many stuck into the Arrancar, who gave up a death shriek and crashed into the ground where its body cramped a bit before it stopped moving forever. It wasn't a pretty sight; the Arrancar's body looked like a ragdoll where it laid, bones broken and where in odd angles. "I knew the day would come when a Shinigami needed a Quincy's help."

"Ishida? You could've hit me too with those!" He shouted out pointing at the archer, who only adjusted his glasses and replied calmly. "Please, my aim is not that bad and you're welcome." Even if the hot-headed Shinigami didn't say it out loud, he deeply appreciated the help in keeping his head on his shoulders.

Instead of another Arrancar, four Adjuchas took the defeated rag-doll's place. The hollow's advanced towards them, maws open widely while the sharp teeth's reflected in the bright sunshine. "El Directo!" A deep masculine voice called out, this was the only warning the hollow's received before a bright green-bluish blast collides with them and they were destroyed.

"Chad? You're here too?" A chocked Renji called out, a nod was the respond he got. 'Well, I ain't complaining, we got a big chance to survive this and actually win this battle!'

XXX XXX XXX

They moved like insects around her, they were everywhere, swarming was a very good word to describe it and it was quite literally too. The Adjucha, who joined the fight, could make minions resembling bugs the size of a human skull. Then the fact that she had to dodge and block swords, kicks and punches, while avoiding the venomous bugs, didn't make the situation any easier.

The leader of this group of Arrancars advanced swiftly towards her and hit her fast and hard in the stomach. The blow to a sensitive area caused her to loose her balance slightly, but that was the only thing the Arrancar needed to grab her neck and swords arm. Rukia looked closely at the Arrancar, he had a mask helmet with three sharp spikes in a line on the middle of his head.

"Now now, how shall I do this? Should I finish it quickly or slowly? One gasp for air for 'quick'" His grip tightened around her throat, making it hard for her to breath, "and two for 'slow'", his grip loosened slightly, but not by much, "Hmmm? You choose, Girly." He smirked madly at her. Oh, how he loved to torture women before he killed them, painting the surrounding area in their Sweet. Red. Blood. And their screams were the best, so high pitches it aroused him.

"How about none of them?" Another female voice interrupted and threw something small at the Arrancar's back. He gave up a sharp cry of pain, dropping Rukia in the process when he grabbed his shoulder and pulled out a small throwing knife from the wound.

"You BITCH!" He yelled and looked truly lunatic, crazy eyes looked straight at the dark skinned woman. She returned the gesture with a cocky smirk and raised eyebrows, challenging him into fighting her.

"You don't mind if I take over this one, now do you Kuchiki-san?" The woman asked, not taking her eyes of the Arrancar.

"Y-Yoruichi-san? N-no, just go ahead, I don't mind." Rukia managed to say while massaging her soar throat. She then turned her attention towards another Arrancar, suddenly a golden glowing projectile speeded past her head and sliced all the bugs into two pieces, then took aim at the responsible hollow and split its mask in two. The shining projectile turned out to be Tsubaki, Orihime's only offence option.

"Kuchiki-san! Are you hurt?" Inoue called from behind with a worried voice, waving her hand to get to get the other girl's attention.

"Yeah, but I'll let you look at it when this is over!" Rukia called back, the targeted Arrancar realised his disadvantage and hissed out. "Estrangular, Víbora (Strangle, Viper)!"

His appearance change to that of a huge snake, and as the name indicated, he got a long thin tail, perfect for strangling or to be used as a whip. The upper part of a snake skull rested at the top of his head, two sharp fangs went down to his cheek level, plus they were dripping with what appeared to be poison.

Their opponent was clearly an Adjucha, but by combining their strengths they were able to take him down. Yoruichi was almost invisible, appeared and disappeared after she landed a hard blow or throwing another knife. Rukia on the other hand, looked like she was dancing a deadly dance. Her blade met the other's blade several times, but sometimes it met with the enemy's soft flesh too. Shallow paper cuts or inch deep gashes, he received them all. Orihime defended Rukia from the snake's blade on several occasions with her golden shield and sent out Tsubaki to attack.

A kunai pierced him through the neck and a very deep gash across the chest, ended the Arrancar's existence. The battle was finally over on her side, but she could feel and hear the two other still fighting. "Yoruichi-san, what about Ichigo and Renji? We need to help them." Rukia managed to say between heavy inhaling of air.

"Don't worry Kuchiki-san, Kisuke is at it and so is Chad and Uryuu. You just rest and let Inoue-san look at your wounds." Yoruichi reassured her while sitting down to rest herself.

"O-okay…" she said while doing as she was told, then her eyes widened in realisation and she burst out "What about Hjouru?"

"Don't worry, he's with Ichigo and Kisuke… and it is as I feared…" She said and looked towards Ichigo's location with worried eyes.

XXX XXX XXX

"WATCH OUT!" Ichigo yelled when a sharp projectile shot towards his small friend; who barely dodges it in time. "T-thanks Ichi-" further than that he didn't get into the sentence, before a very deep gash suddenly appeared on his right shoulder and he gave up a painfull shrike. He lost focus due to the pain and lost the grip on his swords and started to fall fast towards the ground.

"HJOURU!" Ichigo yelled and tried to go after his falling friend, but was stopped by Sorx's minions each time. He had no other choice but to watch his friend fall to a certain death.

Said boy's vision started to blacken, he could barely feel the wind rushing around him and his best friend's shout sounded so far away. He couldn't move his right arm and his whole body was scorching with pain, especially where the blade had cut through muscle and bone. Tears started to appear in the corners of his eyes, 'Am I going to die?' was his last thought before he was caught by a pair of strong arms and he lost consciousness, the last thing he heard was his friend's hart breaking shout, then everything went black.

"HJOURU!" Ichigo yelled one last time, he couldn't believe, didn't want to believe that someone important to him died in front of his eyes and not be able to do anything about it… not again. He had lost his focus and the arrancars took advantage of that, in fact, one snuck up behind him and was seconds from cutting of his neck, until… "Nake, Benihime!" was cried out and a red beam cut the attacker in half. The one occupying Ichigo backed off in fright and surprise, looking down on the new opponent wary; who disappeared with a shunpo and reappeared next to the orange haired kid.

"Focus Kurosaki, or it will be the last thing you do." Urahara spoke calmly, holding Hjouru tightly with one arm and Benihime in his other.

"U-Urahara-san… h-how's Hjouru doing? Is, is he…?" Ichigo stuttered, not sure what to think. His friend was deathly pale, but thankfully still breathing.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. I've stabilised him, but if I leave him on the ground they'll kill him for sure… I guess you've figured out what he is by now, haven't you." A small nod answered his statement, "Then what will you do now, Kurosaki?"

"It doesn't matter what he is, he's my friend and I'll never sell him out." Ichigo replayed calmly.

"That's good to hear. Now, let us take care of these, shall we? You can take that gentle man over there and I'll take his friends." Then they charged. Urahara was up against three fractions, all of them released into their true form, let's say that he had quite the hand full there.

Sorx was pretty though for being the novena Espada only Ichigo noted. Both had received scratches and slashes of different depths and Ichigo's mask was almost gone, only the left upper part was left, despite the mask, he felt exhausted. Sorx had the upper hand since he didn't join the fight until now, but somehow Ichigo managed to make the Espada to back off a bit. He quickly gathered all his energy and yelled "Getsuga Tenshou!" and a black crescent moon crashed into Sorx, but when the smoke settled he looked way different. His back was bent and was covered by sharp spikes, even the top of his head was be-spiked and the mask now covered the whole face. His feet's had grown claws and his hands had long sharp talons. You could say that he resembled an armadillo crossed with a hedgehog now, complete with a spike covered tail and armour.

"Now you've really done it… Try and beat my new form if you can, trust me, it won't be easy." The Espada mocked and to his great amusement, the last piece of Ichigo's mask cracked and broke, changing back his eyes to their normal chocolate brown colour. He immediately started to breath very heavily, his body ached all the way to the bones. He felt like colapsing. 'Shit! I can't lose now!'

XXX XXX XXX

"Why're you protecting that traitor? You should just let us kill him!" One of Urahara's attacker yelled, slashing at the foe and only landing a hit at the green striped hat, knocking it off of its wearer's head.

"Oh no, not my hat again…" The blond man sighed as the hat sailed down. He looked fine otherwise, only a couple of minor scratches and some tears in his clothes. The same went for the boy in his arms, his clothes was more tattered than before and a few new scratches at the arm and lower part of the face. He created a red beam with a slash of his sword and killed the noisy opponent, but at the same time two other voices rang out, "Souten ni zase, Hyourinmaru!" and "Unaru, Haineko!. An ice dragon crashed into one arrancar, trapping it only to break apart into small fine ice crystals, breaking the arrancar in the process. A greyish cloud of ash slashed up the other one, making it into a bloody pulp and then letting the body fall to the ground… both enemies dead in seconds.

"Who is that?" The young captain demanded to know, glaring at the boy in Urahara's arm. Matsumoto on the other hand, only looked on with a childish curiosity.

XXX XXX XXX

"What's the matter? Can't land a good hit?" Sorx mocked as a dodged yet another deadly swing. "Face it. You're too exhausted to fight me. It doesn't matter if you know your opponent's weak spot if you can't hit it." Ichigo had found said spot by only looking at the Espada's new form. He looked exactly like an armadillo… or a hedgehog, and they don't have any protection on their belly or chest.

"Then maybe he just needs a good distraction, ne?" A familiar voice said and something long and sharp hit the Espada's back, making the target losing his concentration… his stance faltered and he was wide open. Ichigo plunged Zangetsu into Sorx's chest, but didn't go without further injuries. Sorx knew he couldn't block or dodge and therefore rose on clawed hand, piercing the Shinigami's soft flesh, hoping the wounds would be fatal and bring him to the grave.

XXX XXX XXX

"Oh? Who this is? This, dear Hitsugaya-taichou is Zenro Hjouru… or maybe it's Hjouru Zenro now? Anyway, he was recently discovered as an arrancar." The former captain said cheerily, with Benihime back in her unreleased state. He then placed Hjouru carefully on the ground and put his green coat under the boy's head as a pillow. Then he started to tend the injuries on the small boy; who had gotten a raging fever.

I didn't take long before Ichigo and Ichimaru joined them. However, Ichigo had to lean on Gin's shoulder to be able to walk, but hey, exhaustion and blood loos tends to do that to you. "Sorry if we took too long Hitsugaya-taichou, but Ichi-chan here needed some medical attention. We should let Inoue-san have a look at him- oh?" Here two pale eyebrows rose and his lips formed into a sincere smile. "My my, isn't it little Hjouru. I haven't seen you for a while and definitely not in such bad condition." Everyone just stared dumb-founded at him, well, Hitsugaya didn't, he just looked really annoyed and irritated.

"You know this Arrancar, Ichimaru?" The young captain growled while pinching his nose bridge, eyes closed in suppressed irritation.

"But why of course. Full of life that kid and quite friendly too, he's nothing like the other Arrancars. I wondered where he took of and left his friend behind… but now when I see him I guess Aizen was behind his disappearance. You see, he openly showed his dislike to his so called 'creator' and didn't follow his given orders, I told him to be careful but…" He gave up a deep sigh and the rest of the words were left unsaid, but they weren't needed, it was obvious what he meant. "I know where he is now at least!" He finished cheerfully. Ichigo just stared up at him, wondered if this guy really was sane.

Their "happy moment" was interrupted when the others arrived. You could say it was quite the stare when they saw Hjouru laying there in full arrancar attire. Only Uryuu and Yoruichi had a knowing look in their eyes, while the others were just dumb-founded.

Renji eyed the unconscious kid wary, not trusting this development at all. Orihime hurried towards her injured friends and Ichigo shifted from a sitting position to a laying one when she activated her Souten Kisshun. A golden cupola surrounded him and Hjouru and their injuries slowly but surely disappeared. Unfortunately, she couldn't heal them completely, she had used way too much reiatsu already, but she managed to stabilize them further and Hjouru's shoulder injury was shallower now.

Okay, I feel I have to explain Hjouru's behaviour here. First; he doesn't know his own strenght and second; he tends to be rude to people doesn't like.

I'll try to have the fifth chapter ready for the next week, I'm so freaking slow in writing, but hopefuly that will change. Next chapter will be called "Let the truth sink in", see you then! ^^