Author notes:
- This chapter will have minor graphical scenes in terms of blood spilling from a character.
- From my original outline, I have deterred a little from it especially in these past few chapters.
- With the upcoming events to occur in this work, expect to see some longer chapters as I have a lot planned not just for Tatsuki and Ichigo, but for some characters as well.
- I was originally planning on having a final story after this, but I might just add it as part of this story, we'll see.
- This story is set before the current arc that is going on in the manga now.


Urahara sat at the table lightly waving his fan, the moon brightly shined through the window behind him. Yoruichi was sitting to his left eating a light pastry. Ishida sat to his right, quietly drinking from his cup of tea. Yamasaki stood at the far corner of the room opposite Urahara. Ichigo had just arrived. After a brief conversation with Ishida, he took a seat as Urahara called the meeting to start.

"Yoruichi, tell us what's been going on in Soul Society." He said as he glanced over at her. She had a small grin on her face as she took the last bit of her pastry. After chewing her food and swallowing it, she began.

"From the looks of their preparation, it seems like they are planning to come sometime tonight to take Tatsuki away and lock her up." Yoruichi began.

"It doesn't matter." Ichigo interrupted. "They can send whoever they want, I won't let them take her." He slammed his left fist onto the table, causing Ishida's cup to slightly jump up.

"That's the problem, Ichigo." Yoruichi crossed her arms as she continued. "They know that Tatsuki's your girlfriend and just how protective you are of all your friends. Soul Society isn't going to hope that you'll let them take Tatsuki. They know you will try to put up a fight and not let Tatsuki go." She paused for moment before she finished with her next sentence.

"That's why they are sending three captains to the human world." The shock from the news impacted everyone as they were stunned by Yoruichi's words. There was a moment of surprised silence as both Ichigo and Ishida, showed their expression. Urahara sat there no longer smiling but with a grave look on his face. Yamasaki, though not as expressive as the two teens, had eyes wide as he stood there letting Yoruichi's words sink in. After a brief pause, she continued.

"They are planning on sending Captain Komamura, Soi-Fon, and Captain Ukitake to retrieve her."

"What?" Ichigo finally spoke. "Why are they sending those three?" He asked.

"Because out of all the captains, they are the three who you haven't had a big impact on. So, they can easily carry out their objectives without letting their personal feelings get in the way." Ichigo closed his eyes, his usual scowl turned into a dark look of anger and irritation.

"That's not all, Ichigo." Yoruichi began talking again. "It looks like they are fortifying their defenses in Soul Society. I guess they aren't taking any chances. They know you can easily make your way into the Seireitei with the help of Urahara and they are planning a counter-strike should you actually make it into Seireitei. Urahara, do you still have an outline map of the Seireitei?" She glanced over at him. He nodded as he beckoned for Ururu to come into the room.

"Ururu, sweetheart, can you find my map of the Seireitei for Yoruichi please?" Urahara asked innocently. Ururu, who did not show any emotion aside from her usually stoic face and light blushing cheeks, nodded as she disappeared into one of the other rooms to search for the map. After a small moment of silence, she returned with the map, entered the room, and handed the map to Yoruichi who smiled and thanked Ururu as she disappeared into the hallway.

As Yoruichi unraveled the map, a small pen fell from within it and bounced around on the table before coming to a complete stop. She picked up the pen and placed it in her mouth as she lay the map on the table and unrolled it. She ran her hands across the map to combat the paper's natural urge to roll back up. When the map decided to cooperate, she ran her hands across it one more time with one hand as she reached for the pen with the other. She flicked open the pen letting the cap fly and smack Yamasaki on the head. He let out an irritated grunt, but she paid him no mind. She began drawing, on the map, the defensive formations that Soul Society were putting together in case Ichigo decided to follow and rescue Tatsuki.

"They created a perimeter around the Seireitei." She began as she drew thirteen dots surrounding the Seiretei. "At each of these thirteen points, they placed a vice captain there along with some of the other seated officials from their squads. The captains that are left, are watching the skies with the Captain Commander watching everything from the middle. The only captain not participating would be Unohana who will be in her squad barracks ready to heal anyone who might be injured." She drew eight more points, creating a smaller perimeter around the middle of Seireitei. Ichigo carefully studied the map for a second before speaking.

"Do you know who is at each spot?" He asked as he continued to study the map. Yoruichi took a deep breath before she replied.

"The problem with that is, I don't know." She responded slightly defeated. "From what I was able to gather, they are moving around the captains every few hours while the vice-captains changed every hour. They don't want to have any weak points in their defenses so they are trying to rotate them around to make sure we can't come up with a solid plan of attack." Ichigo gritted his teeth lightly as he watched Yoruichi continue explaining what she had seen on Soul Society's preparation. Deep down inside, Ichigo knew. He knew what was in store.

Drowning out Yoruichi's voice, his mind began wandering back to the first time he visited Soul Society. It was the rescue mission to save one of his closest friends, Rukia Kuchiki. He remembered the struggle he went through having to fight all the captains and vice-captains and almost failing to rescue Rukia from the Sokyoku. He thought about how it would now. Last time, Soul Society wasn't prepared for Ichigo's arrival and were scrambling everywhere to try and capture him and his friends. Now Soul Society has prepared for him and are waiting to attack.

"Ichigo!" Yoruichi's voice brought him back to his senses. He blinked rapidly and lightly shook his head as he focused his attention back to Yoruichi, who looked mildly irritated as he wasn't paying attention. Yoruichi glared at him for a moment before she continued.

"Wait why are we planning an attack on Soul Society?" Ichigo asked. "She's not going to be taken away. I'll make sure of that." He balled up his hand into a fist as he brought it close to his face as one normally would when making a promise they intended to keep by using their power. Yoruichi grinned slightly as her and Ichigo looked at each other and nodded.

"I like your enthusiasm Ichigo, but we can't take any chances. If for some reason we fail, we need to have a plan to rescue Tatsuki or else we won't have any chance to get her back." Suddenly Yamasaki sneezed.

"Bless you." Ishida said by reflex as Yamasaki rubbed his nose. He sniffled lightly as he let out another sneeze, to which Ishida responded again.

"Man, what is that smell?" Yamasaki said as he looked around. "Goodness it's bothering my nose." He complained as he continued to rub his nose trying to find the source. The sudden outburst caused the rest to stop discussing their strategy and join in on trying to smell the scent but to no avail.

"What are you talking about?" Urahara said as he sniffed lightly. "I don't smell anything at all. Maybe you're just imagining things." Yamasaki moved towards the balcony and into the open air.

"Hmm that was strange, now the scent is gone. Maybe you're right." Yamasaki said as he took a deep breath of the cool evening air. A half moon lit the night sky as many of the stars were being blocked by the lights coming from the city. Afterwards, Yoruichi continued.

"As I was saying, our best bet is to attack when both the Captains and the vice-captains are changing positions. This will create the best opening to attack as they will all be stuck in their rotation and it'll cause the most chaos." She continued drawing out the plan as the rest watched and listened.

"What we should do is..." At this point Yoruichi drew an "x" at the west point of the Seireitei. "I'll enter through a Senkaimon gate here and try to draw their attention towards me." Then she drew another "x" at the north-north-east point of the Seireitei before explaining the next step.

"At this point, Yamasaki will come in from the Senkaimon gate here and draw the rest of their attention towards him. This should leave the whole southeastern section of the Seireitei wide open for both you and Ishida to enter with the least amount of resistance. I would deduce that maybe Kyoraku would realize something is wrong, but hopefully we can catch him as the captain that is in the northwestern section at the time of our attack." She drew an "x" at the northwestern part of the octagonal shape and drew a circle around it.

"He's the captain I'm worried most about. If he is the captain that happens to be in the southeastern part of the Seireitei when we get there, then we might run into some problems." Yoruichi said with a small concerned looked on her face.

"It doesn't matter." Ichigo said with the same reassuring tone of voice that he had earlier. "Even if we do have to go to Soul Society, no captain will stop me from rescuing Tatsuki and bringing her back home safely." He had a small grin on his face with that same look of determination in his eyes. Yoruichi felt a small sense of relief within her. Ichigo's determination and will had proven itself to be almost unstoppable in the past. From saving Rukia to going toe to toe with Aizen, Ichigo pushed himself to the brink of death to defeat his enemies and protect his friends from harm.

Urahara was the first stand, he stood straight up and began shaking his legs to loosen up his muscles. The rest followed suit, Ichigo stood up and then crouched down to let his knees crack while Yoruichi stood up and hopped in place a little. Ishida mimicked Urahara's technique and lightly shook his legs to loosen them up.

"How long do you think it'll be before they show up?" Yamasaki asked as he turned around to face the group once more.

"Knowing Soul Society, they'll try to wait a little longer for us to grow tired and fall asleep or something before they come to Earth." Yoruichi answered. She chuckled lightly as she crossed her arms together. "I really would like to know why they are going this far to take and imprison Tatsuki. Is her power really that great?" She asked glancing over at Urahara.

"Well, I'm still doing some research." Urahara said. "I'm trying to check through Soul Society's database on similar patterns of reiatsu that Tatsuki had emitted, but it's taking awhile to go through all that data. Let me go check on that now." He exited the room without another word as he headed to his underground facilities.

"I'm going to go step outside for a moment." Yoruichi said. "I hate being cooped up in a room for too long. I'll be back shortly. Don't start the fun without me." She smiled as she took a step out onto the balcony and then disappeared.

"Tatsuki's not asleep? Is she waiting for you to read her a bedtime story?" Yamasaki joked. He noticed Ichigo had his cellphone out and was texting away on the device. Ichigo flashed a small grin as he closed his phone and placed it back in his pocket.

"Funny." He simply said as Yamasaki grinned widely at him. "She said she could sense all of us here at Urahara's shop and was wondering what was going on."

"Tell her we're having a guys night only and its a sleepover party at Urahara's place." Ishida joked. Suddenly, his cell phone began to vibrate indicated he had received a message. As he reached into his pocket, Ichigo suddenly grinned knowing just what occurred. Ishida glared at him as he opened his phone. He looked down at the screen and opened his messages. Suddenly his face grew pale and he had a scared look on his face.

"What's wrong Ishida?" Yamasaki asked, curious as to what he was looking at.

"Orihime just sent me a picture of a dish she just created." He said as he read the message accompanying the picture. The two walked over to look at the picture, their faces suddenly growing pail as well. He read the message aloud as it described what the ingredients were.

"She put strawberry flavored ice cream on a hotdog bun and topped it off with relish, onions, ketchup, and mustard." The three of them suddenly grew sick to their stomachs as they imagined all those flavors mixed together and what it would taste like.

"She has a weird taste in food." Ichigo commented as he looked away from the screen. Ishida replied trying to shake the taste from his mouth. After the message had sent, he quickly put his phone back in his pocket trying to stop thinking about that. He grabbed his cup of tea trying to wash away the taste from his mouth. Yamasaki headed back out onto the balcony trying to let the fresh air clear his mind of the strange and uncommon food item Orihime had come up with.

"Damn you, Ishida." Yamasaki cursed. "I can't get that food item out of my head. Ahh!" He shook his head vigorously trying to stop his brain from thinking about that dish. Suddenly, Urahara appeared in the doorway. Yoruichi also appeared on the balcony and walked into the room. Their sudden appearance startled the three and caused them to all jump slightly.

"They're here." Urahara said. As if on cue, a Senkaimon gate opened up on the balcony just behind Yoruichi. She quickly turned around and took a step back as the familiar double doors slid open and the silhouette of three people appeared from the bright light. As their eyes adjusted, Ichigo and the rest saw the three figures enter the room. Captain of the 2nd squad, Soi-fon, stood to the left. The 7th squad leader, Captain Komamura stood on the right. And, in the middle, the 13th squad captain, Captain Ukitake stood in the middle.


Tatsuki stood out on her bedroom balcony overlooking her neighborhood. The atmosphere of the evening was calm, relaxing, and peaceful. A gentle breeze rolled through her neighborhood that lightly rustled her short spiky hair. The night was relatively quiet as many of the people were already asleep in their beds or out and about in the bright busy city. But for Tatsuki the evening provided another feeling within her, concern. Through the calm relaxing evening, she could feel their reiatsu all together in one location.

At first, she barely felt Yamasaki's reiatsu arrive at Urahara's shop. Thinking nothing of it, she dismissed it as him visiting a friend. But, only moments later she felt the faint pulse of Ishida arriving as well. She grew curious but nonetheless shook it off. What really piqued her curiosity and interest occurred a mere half hour later when she felt Ichigo's reiatsu in the area. At first she could sense him strongly, as he had trouble trying to conceal his reiatsu, but lost his presence when he finally stepped inside and all traces of everyone's reiatsu disappeared.

This only worried her even more, as she wondered what they were all doing at Urahara's shop. She contemplated heavily on heading over to the shop to figure out what was going on. But, she knew Urahara and Yamasaki were no ordinary people and would sense her drawing near. She gripped the stone balcony tightly as she grew even more curious now as to why they were all gathering. Then a thought crossed her mind.

'Could they be talking about me?' The thought struck her like a ton of bricks. She had spoken to Yamasaki about the strange feeling she had been having. And, the very next day she saw him and someone else standing on the cliffs above the beach before he turned to look at her and disappear. She knew he was looking right at her before he disappeared. Though he was far away, she could feel his eyes lock onto hers.

A sense of anger started to build up within did they need to meet secretly at night to talk about her? And, why are they still treating her like before? This was not the first time they had neglected to involve her in matters such as these. Ever since Ichigo had become a shinigami, she was left out of the close loop of people who knew about such matters. It left her angry and alone, a feeling so horrible she took out her frustration on the main source of her pain.

Though she released alot of the pent up anger and frustration in that punch, still some lingered within and continued to grow until Ichigo's return. Immediately after his return, Ichigo set out to do what he knew needed to be done. He visited Tatsuki, not only looking to apologize, but to tell her everything. He told her the whole story from when he first met Rukia and was given the power to become a Shinigami, to the present and sitting on her bed telling her everything she had been excluded from knowing.

Even after telling his story, a small pocket of anger lingered within her. The question "Why?" lingered within her. Why after all this time, was she the last to know about everything? Even Orihime, her closest female friend, had kept all of it a secret from her. Sure Keigo and Mizuiro had gotten the story after her, but they had only been friends with Ichigo and the rest for these high school years. Tatsuki had known Ichigo since they were elementary school kids, when she was beating him up during karate class every day.

She thought she had finally been included in this exclusive circle of trust, that was before he left her again. She remembered that day all too well, unfortunately. They had met in secret, away from everyone, where they could be together. Ichigo held Tatsuki in his arms as he looked her straight in her eyes and told her he didn't love her anymore. The sudden admission followed by his abrupt disappearance only strengthened that anger within her to limits unattainable before.

All this thinking about the past only angered her even more. She great tired constantly being left out in the dark. If everyone wanted to talk about her, then she had the right to know what they were talking about. She went back into her room and grabbed her shoes. She slipped them on quickly and made her way back out to the balcony. She looked down towards the ground, a good couple stories up was her bedroom from the street below.

Without giving it a second thought, she jumped from the balcony to the streets below. She landed on the concrete surprisingly quiet, like a needle dropping on a hardwood floor. When she landed, she looked up in awe at the fact that she landed that jump without a problem considering she just jumped from four stories up to the ground below. She sneezed lightly from all the wind rushing up her nose as she took her descent to the street. She rubbed her nose for a second before turning to the direction that led to Urahara's shop. With a fierce glow in her eyes she set out towards the shop, ready to get some answers out of them on what is going on.


The scene was fairly tense with no one within the room sitting. Ichigo stood defiantly in the front of the group with Urahara closely behind him. Ishida and Yoruichi chose to stand close behind Urahara with Yamasaki taking his spot back in the corner of the room away from everyone. Across the table, Captain Ukitake stood with a stern look on his face ahead of the other two captains who stood on either side but a step or two back. Soifon, who stood upon Captain Ukitake's right, stood there with her usual aggressive expression. Captain Komamura stood to Ukitake's left, staring out into the room checking out the surroundings, trying to pick up any scent of something that not look like what it seems.

His eyes fell upon Yamasaki, who was leaning against the wall of the room with his eyes fixed on everyone in the room. A quiet growl rumbled within the Captain's throat, yet not loud enough for anyone to hear, as he kept his eyes locked onto Yamasaki. The deafening silence grew over the group for a moment longer before Ukitake cut through it like knife through butter.

"Hello, Ichigo-san." Ukitake said. A small smile crept up on his lips as he spoke. "I see that everyone is gathered here, so I would assume you kinda know why we're here." Ukitake stood with his hand now behind his head with his familiar friendly smile.

"Yeah." Ichigo simply said in a cold tone of voice. Ukitake knew this was going to be rough and understood the delicate nature of his meeting with Ichigo.

"Well then. I guess we can get right down to business then, huh?" Ukitake spoke, his voice changing from soft and friendly to stern and serious. "Come let us have a seat first. Please let us explain why we're doing what we're doing." He motioned for the opposing group as well as his own pair of captains behind him to sit as he began crouching down to sit at the table. No one budged, not even as Ukitake made himself comfortable at the table.

"Ichigo, please." He lightly pleaded. "I know this is going to be difficult, but at least let us tell you why we're doing this. You need to know wh-"

"The only thing I care about is Tatsuki staying here and not being carted away so you can lock her up in some prison because you're scared." Ichigo interrupted. His right fist clenched tightly by his side, with his left hand holding his badge tightly.

"You insolent brat!" Soi-fon spat. "Why don't you shut up and know your place." She angrily yell as she put a hand on her zanpakuto. Komamura began to growl a little louder than before as he too slowly raised his hand towards his zanpakuto. Ukitake stood up and struggled to try and keep things under control. The tension in the air grew thicker with each second

"My my." Urahara spoke from behind his fan. "It seems like things may get a little out of hand right from the get go." He lifted his staff off the ground as it slowly turned into his zanpakuto, Benihime. He held it tightly to his side as he folded up his fan, revealing the wide smile he had on his face. Yoruichi smiled as she crossed her arms.

"Soi-fon. Since when did you start using a grown up voice like that?" She grinned while Soi-fon stood there, a fire starting to build in her eyes by the disrespect being shown to her. A light glow started emanating from Ishida's wrist, his quincy bow started to form as he lifted his arm. Ukitake continued to try and keep everyone from ripping each other's heads off.

"Everyone please. Calm down there's no need to be fighting amongst ourselves here." He pleaded as he tried, from his end, to keep Soi-fon and Komamura from taking things too far and causing a mess.

"Yeah Soi-fon. Listen to your elders." Yoruichi taunted her some more as she took delight in the pain she was causing her former pupil. Soi-fon gritted her teeth as she tried to hold herself back from lunging at Yoruichi for making those jokes. Komamura's growl grew louder as Ichigo lifted his badge and changed into his shinigami form. He tightly gripped Zangetsu as Ishida moved over to the side readying his bow to shoot the massive amounts of arrows he could produce.

"How dare you raise your bow at me, Quincy." Komamura began to roar as he unsheathed his zanpakuto. Ukitake began pleading heavily with Komamura, who seemed deaf to his fellow Captain. His sights were set on only one thing, the defiant Quincy who stood before him with his weapon drawn to his face.

"I think I can shoot off enough arrows to defeat you before you can even attack me with your zanpakuto." Ishida spoke in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. This caused Captain Komamura's ears to twitch lightly as he gripped his zanpakuto tightly. He let out a small howl as he started to bare some of his fangs. Soi-fon back leg started to twitch. She lifted her heel off the ground getting set to stri-

A sudden burst of reiatsu caused everyone to stop dead in their tracks. Everyone's eyes widened as the force from the reiatsu sent a deadly chill to flow through their bodies. Soi-fon's legs began to tremble, Captain Komamura's ears perked up as his fur stood as high as it could without coming out of his skin. Ukitake's face flashed a small look of fear as he was frozen where he stood.

Urahara's eyes widened as his arm, holding Benihime, started to tremble. Ichigo felt like he was about to fall on the ground due to the immense pressure pushing down on him. Ishida lowered his arm and looked behind him, while Yoruichi fell to the ground.. Yamasaki stood there, face full of irritation and disgust at the behavior of those in the room.

"Are we done yet?" He said as he walked to the middle of the room. He looked around the room at everyone, struggling to resist the immense spiritual pressure Yamasaki was emanating. The bracelet on his wrist was glowing bright as day. Komamura struggled, his wild animalistic nature started to take over as his vision grew blurry with rage. The Captain struggled to his feet as he began growling loudly, blind with anger.

"Stop." Yamasaki said. He began exerting more reiatsu pushing the Captain back down to his knees. The rest of the people were planted to the ground, grunting in pain, barely able to move. Ichigo tried to yell out but his voice was lost within himself. No one could move or speak, except for the raging Komamura. His eyes were dead set on Yamasaki as he continued struggling to stand. Suddenly Komamura felt something grab his ankle. He and Yamasaki looked down to see Ukitake crawling with all his power towards Komamura.

"Ko-ko-m-ma-mur-ura T-ta-aic-cho, ee-nou-gh." He could barely speak as the force of Yamasaki's reiatsu was so strong. Komamura looked down at Ukitake as he tried to raise his head, but to no avail. It was then he came back to his senses and succumbed to Yamasaki. When Yamasaki felt that Captain Komamura had finally decided to stop, he turned to look at the others.

"Are we all done trying to get under each others skin?" He asked, to which the group replied with a unified grunt that could barely pass for someone saying yes.

"Good." And with that Yamasaki released them from his reiatsu as he began leaving the room. Everyone was slow to get to their feet, after having what felt like tons of weight being pushed down on them. Urahara was the first to get to his feet. He sprung up with a giant smile on his face as he turned to face Yamasaki.

"I'm surprised you're still walking what with your limiter as bright as the s-" Urahara barely finished his sentence for he was interrupted by a loud thud. Yamasaki had fallen to the floor breathing hard. He spit out a little bit of blood as he struggled to lift his body off the floor. He was able to get to his hands and knees, but continued coughing out blood.

Yamasaki's limiter works not by limiting the amount of Reiryoku he uses, but when he exerts some the same amount is used against him damaging his body. The more he uses the greater the damage he does to his body. Should the bracelet ever break, due to a high exertion of Reiryoku, Yamasaki would instantly be killed because at this point the damage being done to his body is lethal and leads to death.

Yamasaki sat on his hands and knees for a moment, blood dripping out of his mouth, as he tried to regain himself. But suddenly he fell to the ground, his arms no longer having the power to keep him up. As the rest struggled to their feet, Urahara quickly made his way over to Yamasaki's side and kneeled down next to him. He quickly examined Yamasaki's vital signs, making sure his condition was not getting worse by the minute. Captain Ukitake, as quick as he could, got to a vertical base and made his way over to Yamasaki. Soi-fon and Captain Komamura both rose to one knee for a moment before rising to their feets.

Soi-fon stretched a little trying to loosen up her body after that whole affair. Komamura shook himself a little then began cracking his neck trying to ease some small tension build up in his shoulders. Ichigo struggled to get to his feet, leaning on Zangetsu for support as he rose. Yoruichi took a moment on his knees to catch her breath before she was able to stand. Ishida, rotated his body around so that his front was facing upward, but still facing the group from where he lay. He slowly lifted his upper body until he could get his arms behind him on the ground to support him as he sat. They all were trying to catch their breaths after such an overwhelming experience.

"This is quite the role reversal." Ukitake joked. "Usually I'm the one being helped due to my sickness." He cracked a small smile, which was replicated by Yamasaki as he coughed and chuckled lightly. Both Ukitake and Urahara lifted him up off the ground, and Urahara directed them to a room where they set down Yamasaki. Urahara ordered Jinta to fetch Yamasaki some water and for Ururu to grab some bandages to wrap around Yamasaki's body. The two captains left Yamasaki to rest in the room by himself and made their way back to the meeting.

"Well. Now that we are on the same page, let's get back to why we're here?" Ukitake said, this time never softening up nor cracking a smile as he made his way back over to his side of the table. Everyone was sitting at this point as Captain Ukitake took a seat with his captains and Urahara again took a seat behind, yet next to Ichigo. Captain Ukitake cleared his throat before he began.

"Many years ago, when the Gotei 13 was first formed, there existed a clan of dragons called The Divine Assassins. They once were the most feared creatures in all of Soul Society, because of their power and aggressive nature over the souls that lived in Soul Society. Part of the reason the Gotei 13 was formed was to create a fighting force that could combat against them and stop their reign. Though the Gotei 13, at the time, were just a group of the most ruthless killers around. Individually, they possessed a great enough power to hold their own against members of the clan." Ururu entered the room with a tray of tea for everyone, which Ukitake gladly took. He thanked her and took a sip of it before he continued.

"The Gotei 13 constantly went to battle with the dragons, who used their powers to possess the bodies of souls and fight with the captains. The dragons themselves lived in their lair which was in the clouds high above in the sky." He took another sip of his tea, complimenting the young girl in making the perfect mixture of tea and sugar in his drink. Though he couldn't see her, Ukitake could feel her presence behind the door. She blushed lightly overhearing his praises from the other side of the door.

"One day, Captain Yamamoto and the rest of the Gotei 13 decided to attack the dragons lair in the skies. They were able to mount a successful assault on the lair after they figured out where the lair was. The dragons' weakness was, they were so proud of the power they possessed, they thought no one would dare try to attack their lair. When Captain Yamamoto and the rest of the Gotei 13, attacked, they didn't have alot of resistance to deal with and were easily able to destroy the whole clan, except for one. There was one dragon, the prince, that was able to get away and escape the brutal assault the Gotei 13 executed on the clan." Ichigo, finally putting two and two together realized where the story was going.

"So you believe that this prince has come back and taken over Tatsuki's body to try and exact its revenge on Soul Society?" Ichigo asked, not needing to finish the story to understand where they were going with that story.

"Yes. I have to say it, but that is the reason why we are trying to do this. We have done our research and were studying Tatsuki very closely as of late. When she exerted that amount of reiryoku a few days ago, an alarm went off in the R&D center. Captain Mayuri presented the results to the Captain Commander, and after he read over the reiatsu signature he brought all the captains together for an emergency meeting to tell us about the dragons." Ukitake could still see the defiant look in Ichigo's and the rest of the group's eyes.

"Look I understand that you guys don't want us to take Tatsuki, but we have no say in this matter. We can't leave here until we retrieve her and bring her back to Soul Society."

"Then I guess you're going to be here for awhile." Ichigo said with a scoff. "'Cause I'm not letting you take her." He reiterated that with a matter of fact tone. He tightened his grip on Zangetsu, expecting the captains to react as he would think, with hostility. But what surprised him was what they chose to do next.

"Then, there's no point then." Ukitake lifted his hands up in defeat. The three captains rose to their feet, causing the rest to do so quickly, thinking a fight was about to break out. "Soi-fon, Komamura, we're done here. We'll have to speak with the Captain Commander to figure out what to do next." Ichigo's eyes widened with surprise. Are they really just giving up after all that?

"What?!" Soi-fon outburst. "We're just going to leave because this punk says so?" Soi-fon lifted her hand to her zanpakuto, but was stopped when Ukitake placed his hand on hers. "That was the Captain Commander's orders, Soi-fon. If things look like they were going to escalate with Ichigo, we were to retreat and reconvene. You won this time Kurosaki Ichigo, but we will be back." The three captains turned and walked out onto the balcony. They began floating away slowly into the night sky towards the Senkaimon gate that appeared hovering in the sky. Urahara's eyes widened.

"ICHIGO GET OUT OF HERE IT'S A TRAP!" Urahara yelled. Ichigo shot a confused glance at Urahara, who was trying to beckon him to get out of the building. Ichigo turned and began running to the balcony, but by then it was too late. The trap had been set and everyone inside was caught in it's grasps.

"Bankai. Gokei Senbonzakura Kageyoshi." Suddenly the outside world disappeared from Ichigo's sight. In its place was a spherical wall that resembled japanese cherry blossom leaves. Ichigo halted in his tracks, not wanting to touch the deceptive looking blades. He was joined by the rest of the group, now looking around in utter shock.

"They got us." Urahara said as he looked around at the barrier. "I didn't think they would go to such measures, but I guess I can understand why."

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked angrily. He wasn't angry at Urahara, though, but more towards the Captains for executing what he felt was a dirty handed trick. Urahara just stared at him understanding his frustration and not retaliating at Ichigo by yelling back at him.

"I figured they were going to do more than just send three captains to the human world to take Tatsuki away, and then let the rest prepare for your invasion. Considering your strength and reiatsu, they knew that alone was not going to be enough to stop you, they had to come up with something more. Also, I'm sure by now they would have to factor in the fact that either Yoruichi or myself would have found a way to find out what their plan was and decided to plan accordingly." Urahara took a deep breath before continuing.

"After they got here, I tried to see if I could sense anyone else's reiatsu in the air, but couldn't find anything. It didn't really hit me until the very end." Urahara closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment with himself.

"It hit me when they headed to the Senkaimon Gate in the sky. I figured they had just made one right on the balcony when the came here, why would they need one in the sky. Then I suddenly felt another reiatsu and tried to get you out of here before they could activate their trap since you were the only one they seemed to be really concerned about." Urahara casted a disappointing look as he looked around at the many blades that formed a dome around them, preventing them from escaping.

"So what do we do now, then!?" Ichigo asked, the anger within him slowly starting to build.

"How about we start trying to attack the barrier and create a hole that we can escape through!" Yoruichi said as she punched the inside of her hand, grinning all the while. Ichigo began hurling his attack wave, Getsuga Tenshou, at the barrier while the rest joined in.

"Sing, Benihime." Urahara called out as he swung his zanpakuto shooting an energy wave at the barrier.

"Raikoho." Yoruichi shot a bolt of lightning at the barrier. Ishida began shooting his countless arrows from the bow on his wrist. After a moment, they were surrounded by smoke from the explosions caused by their attacks. Once the smoke cleared, they eyes widened in surprise as their attacks had no effect. Not even a small hole opened up from where their attacks hit.

"Quick!" Ishida yelled to everyone. "Let's combine our attacks and hit the same point at the same time!" Ishida raised his bow and began shooting arrows, providing a target for them to hit. Ichigo and Urahara began attacking with their zanpakutos shooting energy waves after energy waves at the same spot Ishida's arrows were hitting them.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens. Sōren Sōkatsui." Two blue explosive orbs shot out from Yoruichi's hands. As soon as the attack hit, a loud explosion erupted and the impacted area was covered in smoke. They waited for the smoke to clear to see if there was any impact. Their patience paid off for when the smoke cleared, there was an opening wide enough for them to escape. Ichigo made a break for the gap, as the blades started closing in on the hole. Right before he reached the hole, the barrier was able to close. Frustrated, he began swinging at the cherry blossom colored blades.

"Damn you, Byakuya. You bastard!" He yelled out to the Captain who was standing just outside of the barrier grinning lightly. With his arms crossed he watched as each time Ichigo swung his sword, he would see a bulge form from the barrier and then come back to its spherical form. From inside the dome, Ichigo let out a loud yell as he struck harder and harder out of pure frustration.

"Kurosaki Ichigo. I know you can hear me. Give up your attempts to escape my trap. Resistance is futile and you are only wearing yourself out. We are already close to retrieving the girl, Arisawa Tatsuki, and we will be taking her back to Soul Society." Byakuya spoke in his normal calm monotone voice. He was greeted by another loud angry yell as Ichigo took a step back and fire another Getsuga Tenshou to no avail.

"Kurosaki, wait." Urahara said. "You saw what happened when we all attacked the same spot. Let's do that again and quickly make a run for it so that we can escape before the gap closes." Ichigo looked over at Urahara and nodded. He then looked over to Ishida who also nodded and began attacking a spot creating a target for the rest. Ichigo and Urahara lifted their zanpakutos in the air gathering reiryoku for their attacks. Yoruichi began chanting the spell for her attack. The two male shinigami launched their attack just as Yoruichi was finishing her incantation.

Reacting first, Ichigo made a break for the soon to be formed gap, while the rest followed close behind. As soon as the attacks hit the barrier, the gap was formed as planned and Ichigo made a mad dash for it. The hole started closing up, but it was wide enough and they were quick enough for them to be able to escape without injury.

Suddenly, a shot of electricity jolted through each and everyone's body as soon as they reached the point of the gap where the blades would be. They all fell to the ground, just outside of Urahara's shop, lightly twitching from the electricity still coursing through their body. Urahara was the first to stand, legs still a little weak from the electricity. Ichigo stood next, using Zangetsu for support as he rose to his feet. Urahara looked over

"Oh, they are really going all out for you Ichigo." He playfully said with a small grin of amusement on his face. Ichigo chuckled lightly at Urahara's attempt at humor. Yoruichi stood up grasping her left arm, which had come in contact with the other barrier. Ishida stood up wiping some of the dust off of his clothes and adjusted his glasses. They watched as the hole they had worked so hard to create closed once again leaving them trapped once again inside the bladed barrier.

"I told you Kurosaki Ichigo." Byakuya said from outside of the barrier. "You will not escape from this barrier until we retrieve the girl and head back to Soul Society." Byakuya was greeted by a Getsuga Tenshou striking his barrier and exploding, causing nothing more than a bump to form and then explode into a cloud of smoke. Though he would never admit it, it brought Byakuya a little joy that he could do something to irritate or anger Ichigo.

"Try as much as you want." Byakuya began taunting. "Gokei is nearly impossible to penetrate. There are millions of blades surrounding you as we speak and on top of that, I have infused Danku with a little electric kido should you find some possible way to penetrate through the blades."

"Screw you!" Ichigo yelled out to Byakuya, who never showed any reaction to any insult or praise given his way. Ichigo lowered his sword as he began trying to think of alternate ways to escape. Urahara moved away, closer to a part of the barrier wall, to do some research. Uryuu leaned upon a nearby fence, taking out of his pocket a small handkerchief to wipe away some of the dirt from his glasses. Yoruichi moved over to the balcony and sat atop of the railing. As everyone went about their business, Yamasaki stepped out onto the balcony.

"I don't know about you, but it looks like we're stuck in a trap." He called out from behind Yoruichi. They all looked over to find Yamasaki looking around at the barrier surrounding them. He had his shirt removed showing the bandages wrapped tightly around his stomach.

"Yamasaki." Ichigo called out. Both Ishida and Ichigo headed over to him as he slowly made his way over to the railing, Urahara glanced back for only a moment before returning to his research.

"How are you feeling?" Ishida asked. Yamasaki gave them a weak grin as he placed his hand on his stomach.

"I could totally use a drink right now, but other than that." Yamasaki jokingly began. "I could be better. What happened here?" He asked.

"It was a trap." Ichigo began. "Byakuya came along as well, but didn't show his ugly face until they were done talking." He answered in an irritating tone of voice. Yamasaki understood his frustration, this was an underhanded trick on the part of Soul Society in not being direct with Ichigo and pulling a trick such as this. Yamasaki let out a small sigh as he shook his head lightly.

"So what have you tried to try and get out of his trap?" Yamasaki asked as he struggled lightly to walk over to the railing to lean on.

"We just tried to attack it all at once with everything we've got, and we were able to get through this barrier." Ichida placed emphasis on the word "this" when explaining their attempts to escape. "But, it seems they also have another barrier behind this which we didn't quite notice."

"So that's what that loud thud was just a minute ago." Yamasaki deduced as he glanced over at Urahara who was lost deep in his own thoughts as he calculated something in that brain of his.

"So, my question is, Ichigo why haven't you call upon the powers of your hollow while in Bankai mode to attack the barrier?" Yamasaki asked. The question hit Ichigo like a ton of bricks. Yamasaki blankly looked at him, wonder if the thought even crossed Ichigo's mind.

"When you guys were attacking, I could feel all of your energies being used. But, I didn't know what for at first until now. I was wondering why it seemed like everyone was going all out, but Ichigo still had more power to give." Ichigo looked away, hand behind his head, lightly laughing nervously.

"Well..." Ichigo began. "The thought kinda sorta never crossed my mind." He answered disappointingly. He was suddenly met with the long fan of justice smacking the top of his head viciously. Urahara appeared behind him, with his and attached to the other end of the fan as it brought it down upon his orange hair.

"That's a brilliant idea, Ichigo!" He spoke with an upbeat tone of voice as he flashed a giant smile. Ichigo fell to his knees nursing the giant bump on his forehead as he quietly yelped in pain.

"Hey what's the point!?" Ichigo yelled out. "My bad, I didn't think about it until just now when Yamasaki said it. Give me a break!" He was all over Urahara, who only stood there with his usual goofy smile which Ichigo was fuming from the ears and nose. Everyone began chuckling lightly at the scene unfolding in front of them. Yamasaki chuckled a little before coughing, a sudden feeling of pain coursing through his abs.

"It hurts to laugh." Yamasaki said as he gripped his stomach trying to catch his breath. The others were all smiling, though he was in pain, Yamasaki was still smiling while the others were still smiling at the ridiculousness Urahara and Ichigo were displaying for them to watch.

"Ichigo!" A sudden call from a voice outside caused them all to stop laughing and stare in the direction of the voice. Even Byakuya had opened his eyes in surprise as he looked down to see a head of spiky dark hair with hands cupped around their mouths to amplify their voice.

"Tatsuki!" Ichigo yelled back as he tried to head over to the part of the barrier he heard the voice from. 'Crap! What is she doing here. Byakuya is out there!' Ichigo thought to himself as he tried to call out once more to get a better approximation on where the voice came from.

"Ichigo! What happened?" Tatsuki called out. When he heard her voice the second time, he was able to get a better idea of where to stand to communicate with her best.

"Tatsuki, you need to run and get out of here!" He yelled out to here. "They're trying to kidnap you!" Suddenly the brief momentary light atmosphere turned heavy and dark. Tatsuki looked up to see Byakuya standing there staring at her. She balled up her fists as she glared right at the Captain, coiled and ready to strike.

"What luck." He calmly spoke. "The girl came to us, you have saved us the trouble of trying to find you." He lowered himself to the ground, a few yards away from where Tatsuki stood. She went into a defensive pose, ready for any attack Byakuya would try to use against her.

"Arisawa Tatsuki, surrender yourself and come peacefully with us to Soul Society." Byakuya spoke calmly as he stood there with an outreached hand. Tatsuki stood there unmoved by his offer.

"Tatsuki run! Get out of here!" Ichigo screamed from within the barrier. She looked over behind her and then back to Byakuya who continued to stand there with his hand out expecting Tatsuki to hand herself over quietly. Her face turned from concern to anger, ready to fight Byakuya without worrying about the consequences. Her eyes suddenly lit up with a golden light, which surprised Byakuya as he lowered his hand back down to his side.

Suddenly she disappeared from Byakuya's sight as a sharp pain developed in his stomach. He looked down to see Tatsuki's elbow buried deep into his stomach with her eyes still glowing with their golden brilliance. He began losing consciousness as his body flew backwards several feet back causing him to crash unto a few trees before sliding to the ground.

Soi-fon suddenly stopped in her tracks, her squad of assassins reacted to her sudden halt a split second later. She quickly turned around, back towards Urahara's shop, where she felt Tatsuki's sudden explosion of reiatsu. Captain Komamura and Captain Ukitake headed back to Soul Society, their part of the plan of delaying Ichigo completed, while Soi-fon's part had just started.

'How did I not sense her presence?! And what is with that immense power ?! 'She thought to herself as she stood there in shock.

"Quickly, head back to Urahara's shop and apprehend the girl!" She shouted to her subordinates pointing back towards the shop. They all nodded their heads, and soon began heading back to the shop where Tatsuki stood tall while Byakuya laid in the dirt a small pool of blood near his mouth where he spat the liquid out. He slowly rose to his feet struggling to stand on his own two feet. He had his hands planted on his knees as he tried to catch his breath, his eyes firmly planted on Tatsuki. Soi-fon and her squad quickly backtracked from going to Tatsuki's residence to heading back to the shop. 'Hold on Byakuya taicho I'm coming.'

Byakuya was slow to regain his composure, trying to withstand the sudden pain that shot from his stomach to throughout his body. The attack was so quick, he had no chance in defending himself. A thought that sickened him coming from a royal lineage as one of the top four noble families of Soul Society. Tatsuki stood there, a giant grin on her face as she was surrounded by a dark golden aura. Her eyes still glowing with a bright golden shine.

"This is not good." Urahara spoke, his face full of concern and fear. Everyone else within the barrier shared his statement as they felt the reiatsu emitting from Tatsuki, a sinister and vile presence standing just outside the barrier.

"Ichigo, quickly transform and use your Bankai. We need to get ou-"

"Look out!" Yamasaki yelled as he pushed Urahara to the side, causing him to fall and crash to the ground next to where he stood. Everyone's eyes widened in shock, the flat ground where Urahara had stood was replaced with a long, half-piped trench leading to the far end of the barrier. The source of the trench was a hole in the barrier, where on the other side was Tatsuki's fist was clenched tightly as she had just punched a hole destroying both the outer barrier and Byakuya's Bankai. The pink dome dispersed as the outer barrier cracked and then shattered like glass before disappearing.

"Tatsuki..." Ichigo barely whispered as he stared at the glowing aura surrounding her body. Her physical appearance had not changed at all except for the bright golden eyes that replaced the natural dark color. The rose pedals suddenly formed a barrier around Tatsuki and Byakuya, and brought Ichigo back to his senses. They turned into four circular walls of swords, trapping the two inside.

"I don't know what kind of power you used to disrupt my Senbonzakura's Gokei, but I must thank you since it would have been a little difficult to fight you without my zanpakuto. I can sense a great deal of reiatsu coming from you, which means kido spells alone may not be able to stop you. But now that I have zanpakuto, it would seem the tide has turned." He spoke with his normal calm voice as his eyes never left Tatsuki's, making sure she does not catch him by surprise once more.

"You talk too much." She spoke, grinning as she lifted her fists ready to fight. Her voice was slightly altered, an effect aside from the eyes from the dragon prince possessing her body. From outside the barrier, Ichigo could only stare at the battle about to begin from within. Yoruichi had been tending to Yamasaki, who pushed Urahara out of the way of Tatsuki's attack only to be hit by the force of her attack. He flew backwards several feet, crashing hard to the ground multiple times as he tumbled to a halt. He breathing was labored as the force of the attack hit him in his already injured stomach. She slowly helped him to his feet, trying to get him back inside so she could treat his injuries.

"Yoruichi..." Yamasaki struggled to speak. She had gently and carefully brought him back to the bed he was in, and laid him down carefully. "We can't let Tatsuki go to Soul Society." He quickly turned his head and coughed into his hands, small traces of blood flew into his hands, as some began to trickle out of his mouth.

"Don't worry, Yamasaki. We'll make sure they don't take her away." Yoruichi said, trying to reassure

"No." Yamasaki said. "Not just that.."

"If she goes to Soul Society, we're all going to die."


A/N: Just in case some are curious about this paragraph:

"She thought she had finally been included in this exclusive circle of trust, that was before he left her again. She remembered that day all too well, unfortunately. They had met in secret, away from everyone, where they could be together. Ichigo held Tatsuki in his arms as he looked her straight in her eyes and told her he didn't love her anymore. The sudden admission followed by his abrupt disappearance only strengthened that anger within her to limits unattainable before."

In the first story, Ichigo had to go back to Hueco Mundo and take care of business and did not want Tatsuki to come with him. So he had to do something, and the first thing to cross his mind was doing something like that.