Ichigo returned home. He was so worn out from his training with the Vizard that Hiori had sent him home to recuperate for a few days. Karin and Yuzu were overjoyed to see him, as was Isshin who promptly kicked him in the head, leaving him unconscious for several minutes.

Karin and Yuzu didn't have much time to enjoy Ichigo's company however. They were late for school. They were running through the streets when suddenly, Karin felt a reiatsu so oppressive she found it difficult to breathe. She grabbed her chest and fell to her knees.

"Doshde Karin-chan?" Yuzu asked, worried. She also felt the reiatsu, but it wasn't as oppressive. Yuzu didn't have enough of her own reiatsu to fully comprehend what she was feeling.

A figure appeared before them. He had a white face with green eyes, green lines down his cheeks like a crying clown, and a hole in his neck. Karin knew what he was at once-an Arrancar.

"Yuzu, run away!" Karin screamed, unable to move herself.

"That's very admirable of you, trying to save your sister," Uloquirroa said calmly as he walked slowly towards Karin. "But you don't need to worry about her. It's you I came for."

"Yuzu!" Karin screamed. "Get Ichi-nii! Tell him the Arrancar are here! Haiyaku!"

"You talk too much," Uloquirroa told her. And with that he grabbed her arm and dragged her into Hueco Mundo.

Yuzu stood rooted to the spot. She couldn't see Uloquirroa or the door to Hueco Mundo. She just saw her sister disappear in midair. She decided to do what Karin had told her to do, even though she didn't understand, and raced home.

"Oniichan! Something terrible's happened!" Yuzu screamed bursting into Ichigo's room. While trying to catch her breath, Yuzu told Ichigo what had happened. Ichigo didn't know how Karin knew about Arrancar, but that was hardly the point. As he filled in the gaps in Yuzu's story all he could think about was one thing-Karin's been taken to Hueco Mundo.

Injuries forgotten, Ichigo ran out of the house. He couldn't get to Hueco Mundo on his own, he needed help. His first thought was Urahara. Then he remembered-Matsumoto and Hitsugaya were staying at Inoue's, and that was much closer.

He reached the apartment and burst in. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto were sitting at the table. It seemed like they were celebrating something. They started when Ichigo barged inside.

"Kurosaki, nani…?" Hitsugaya began, but Ichigo didn't let him finish.

"Karin…my sister Karin…she's been kidnapped and taken to Hueco Mundo!"

"Nani!?" Hitsugaya's eyes widened in shock and fear. He hadn't really sorted out his feelings for her, but if she was kidnapped he didn't really have time to think about that sort of thing.

"What happened Kurosaki?" Hitsugaya asked, trying to keep his voice steady. "How do you know this?" Ichigo rushed to explain what Yuzu had told him, adding in what he assumed actually happened.

"We have to go after her NOW!" Ichigo insisted.

"Matte, Kurosaki," Hitsugaya said, thinking hard. "We can't just rush into Hueco Mundo without…"

"Urusai!" Ichigo screamed frantically. "I don't care what you think, this is my sister and I won't let her just…" Hitsugaya slammed his fist on the table, knocking over a tea cup, and stood to face Ichigo.

"Kurosaki!" Hitsugaya shouted, his eyes flashing dangerously. "You are not the only one who cares about what happens to your sister!" Silence fell. Except for the slow dripping of tea onto the floor, no one made a sound.

"Taicho," Matsumoto whispered. He rarely lashed out quite like that. She could hear an emotion in his voice that had never been there before.

"Anyway," said Hitsugaya regaining his composure and sitting back down. "This is obviously a trap."

"Trap?" Ichigo asked confused.

"Soda. Why would the Arrancar kidnap your sister, a human girl with no special abilities that might be useful to them? She must have another purpose. She is bait."

"Bait!" Ichigo cried, alarmed.

"Hai. As your sister, she is one of the few humans Aizen knows we will go to any lengths to rescue. She has no special powers, so she can't resist. And they chose Karin over Yuzu because Karin's reiatsu is higher and she'll be easier for us to track." Hitsugaya wanted to believe that this was all true, and it was…but, he realized with a sinking heart, that these were probably not the reasons why she was taken.

"There will be an ambush when we try to find her. Demo, Aizen is no fool. He knows we'll deduce this. All I can say is…"

They all felt it at once. That intense, foul reiatsu that could only mean one thing; Arrancar. But that wasn't all Hitsugaya felt.

"Kurosaki," he said "can you feel it? The other reiatsu." Ichigo closed his eyes and concentrated. He was so bad at this. But then he felt it, a tiny reiatsu, barely present, coming from the same place as the Arrancar's.

"Karin!" he yelled.

"Ah," agreed Hitsugaya. They looked at each other. "Let's go."