"Bounts?" the orange-haired girl blinked at him, wide-eyed. Kisuke leaned back from the table, fanning himself slowly and nodding. Ishida frowned, mouth opening to speak, then thought better of it, and closed it. Chad continued to sit silently.

How to explain this? He snapped his fan shut and tossed it from hand to hand, thinking. "Bounts are...a sort of mutation of the human gene. They call themselves a tribe, much like the Quincy." he glanced in Ishida's direction, and found that the boy was staring intently at the table. He sighed, shaking his head. "The Bounts have almost immortal life-spans, though they are being hunted down by the shinigami. They have been referred to as 'vampires' in the past, but that's not quite accurate. In reality, Bounts eat the souls of humans, usually going after 'easy' prey such as souls that have already left the body, but lately..." he trailed off, eyes narrowing. "Lately there has been an increase in Bount activity, involving the act of consuming live human souls. You can imagine what this does to the living body."

Orihime covered her mouth in shock, and blinked. Chad grunted and uncrossed his arms, his hands clenching into fists. Ishida narrowed his eyes and stared straight ahead. "...So they're here." Kisuke's eyes darted to Chad, this being the first thing the boy had spoken this whole time they had been sitting there. He nodded once, confirming their suspicions.

" I have created three mod souls with the ability to sense Bounts. I-" he stopped, seeing confused looks on each of their faces. "What?"

The girl frowned, and glancing at her companions, she shrugged. "What's a mod soul?"

Oh. "A modified soul. I forgot how little you three actually know, given your spiritual abilities." he bit his lip, pushing his hat back from his face. "A modified soul can be used for combat, scouting, or just to hold a gigai while the shinigami is away. These three function as Bount sensors, and also have a few combat abilites. I introduce to you: Ririn, Noba, and Kurodo." The screen behind him shifted open, and the three mod-souls saluted the teens.

"Ririn! I specialize in illusions!" the blonde girl waved.

The tall man bowed at the waist, his two-tone hair falling into his face."Kurodo. I can transform into any likeness and mimic their abilites!"

"Noba. Inter-dimensional portals." a hand reached up to zip his mask across his eyes.

Kisuke huffed with annoyance. I thought I told them to act..normal. "Each of you has been assigned one of the mod-souls. Orihime-chan, Ririn is with you." the blonde squealed, and Orihime laughed nervously. "Sado-kun, Noba is with you." Noba unzipped his mask to nod at Chad. Urahara smiled inwardly, oh the irony. "So Ishida-kun, Kurodo is with you." the Quincy paled visibly, and the mod-soul flinched, slouching slightly.

He expected an outburst from Ishida, but none came. So maybe he is maturing, after all. He shook his head and flicked his fan back open. "You are to be on alert for the Bounts at all times, but you are not to seek them out. That would be more trouble than it's worth." he shot a glance towards Ishida and Ririn, knowing the two of them to be the most likely to ignore that. Which was exactly why he didn't partner them up. That and they were of the opposite sex, which would make the two of them rooming together awkward to say the least, and even if Ririn was a gigai...he grimaced and pushed the thought away. "And-" whatever he was about to say was cut short when a loud crash accompanied a black-clothed form falling through the ceiling and landing on the table.

"Ow ow ow..." the shinigami sat up, rubbing the back of his head and glaring up at the broken ceiling. He turned to face Kisuke, brow furrowed. "You should really get your shop inspected. Crappy roof couldn't even hold my weight."

Kisuke's brow twitched and he smacked the intruder on the nose with his fan. Then, realizing that everyone was staring at the two of them, he chuckled nervously. "Ah...Everyone. This is-"

"Abarai Renji." he was cut off again, the shinigami getting to his feet and standing up on the table. "Lieutenant of Division 6 of the 13 Court Guards of Seireitei." the red-haired man glanced around at all the unfamiliar faces. "Pleased to meet you all."

Kisuke sighed, defeated.

xxx

He kept his eyes on the other arrancar seated around the table. He wasn't used to behaving civilly around other Hollows, much less around potential threats. But the Espada were forbidden from attacking each other, unless it was just to spar. Their numbers were from 10 to 1, or 9 to 0, depending on the circumstances. At number 5, Ichigo held a middle position, and he was just fine with that, for now. It wasn't worth getting into trouble with Aizen, and in the meantime he could focus on training and building up more power in secret. He was, after all, going to rule Hueco Mundo himself.

His biggest threat within the Espada, he figured, were two members: one right underneath him and the one right above him. The Sexta, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, had a notoriously short temper, and was always picking fights with Ichigo. He didn't mind, he considered sparring with the blue-haired man to be valuable training, and the thrill he got from it was worth it. Grimmjow was the closest thing he could get to entertainment, so he took whatever the Sexta could dish out. The Cuatro though...

His yellow eyes darted to Ulquiorra, and he found emerald eyes staring back. Snarling, he looked away, the man's dead stare was enough to get his blood boiling. Something about him was just too distant, too cold, too cruel. He didn't know Cifer in any past forms, but something told him that the man hadn't even started out as a human soul. But he was pretty sure Grimmjow wasn't human either, so why did only Ulquiorra give him the creeps?

Number Nine creeped him out too, though, if he was being honest. The two suspended heads were just freaky, and worse was that fake covering of flesh that resembled him in pretty much every way but hair color. Eight-Nnoitra was perverted, but not creepy, and Seven- Syazel didn't really bother him at all, just frustrated him that someone like that could even make Espada. Numbers 3, 2, and 1 he had never made any effort to talk to, feeling outclassed and not ready to make such a powerful enemy but saying something he shouldn't. 10 or 0, Yammy, was probably the easiest to get along with and just hang out with, other than his tendency to blow things up, but calling him a friend?-no, he didn't think so.

No, Ichigo had no friends. He was used to that though. He wasn't sure why he had thought it might change with his transformation into an arrancar, but somewhere deep he had been hoping. Which was unsettling: Hollows like him didn't feel hope. There was no hope for him.

Right?

XXX

As promised, here is today's chapter. Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts on my writing, storyline, etc. However, if your review is "I like whisky" or something else not relevant to the story, I will be inclined to remove it. So...it's pretty obvious by now that I have cut the things that I didn't deem important to the story. I love Kon to death, but he just doesn't fit in anywhere just yet. We might see an appearance later on, I haven't decided. I know that the Bount arc can be considered filler, as it is only found in the anime, but I actually really liked it, as it adressed the question of both Ichigo and Ishida struggling with inner demons. That being said, we don't see Ichigo in this position here, and Ishida has an easier job with the fact he never lost his powers in the first place. I hope, though, that this will still make sense in the end, and that it is fun to read. This is mainly for character-building of Ishida, Chad, and Inoue, as we didn't see any of that in Soul Society since they never went there. We also get to see more Renji! This little mini-arc won't be too long though, so don't worry. As for our Espada Ichigo... yes I changed some numbers around. Nnoitra is not 5, but 8 (as he used to be, anyway). 9 is the same-creepy two-headed guy, 10 or 0 is the same-Yammy. 8 was removed (mainly cause I didn't think him interesting or important, as Chad's fight was super-boring). Syazel is bumped up to 7, which is because I liked his character and thought him interesting. 3,2,1-I haven't seen these guys in action yet, so I still don't know much about them, but I'm getting there. And the plot thickens!