The Lengths One Will Go

By: Kuroi Atropos

Warnings: AU, None for this chapter specifically

Summary: When Ishida goes missing, Ichigo, Orihime and Chad begin a search that leads them to Mayuri, where they uncover far more than their missing friend. Ironic that a Quincy would lead to the breaking of the Seireitei.

Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns Bleach, and he gets paid for it, not me.

AN: Okay no comment on the delay. RL was nuts and yeah….. Still not a good reason. This story isn't abandoned, and I will finish, the next chapter is mostly written and this is kinda fillerish….. Please don't hate me.

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Chapter Ten

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Hiyori had kept tabs on the other Vizard and Urahara as they joined the fighting. Luckily for them they faired alright. Then the intruder alarm went off, and she threw her senses wide to encompass more than the fight, feeling the mass of Hollows. And she felt the shield of the Seireitei opening rather than locking down like it should at the alarm. Opening in three spots, directly where three of the Gates were.

She saw the horror on the faces of those who realized what was going on. "Keep working!" She quickly activated a seal, and barely looked at Unohana who was flying past her towards where the main battle was. "Everyone listen up! We've got a bunch of Hollows incoming but it'll take a while for them to reach us and they have to go through a crap load of fighters to do it! Work until you lose your nerve then finish the patient you're working with and get through the gate and out of our way!"

She actually felt a bit of pride as nearly everyone kept working despite the incoming threat. She herself began grabbing packs of medical supplies and Shunpoing them to the Gate, back and forth, even as she redirected all incoming Squads from the hospital to dump their cargo and start getting anything else they could think of on top of that. Extreme stress had always helped her focus even more.

One of the good things about having as many large fights as they'd had in the last several hours was that most Shinigami in the Seireitei were already heading in their direction, she winced as she felt several of the guard stations fall and small pockets of fighting broke out in several other places as well.

Hiyori couldn't stop looking at the walls of the Black Hole and the seals that were glowing madly on them.

She had taken over handing out assignments for the teams of 4th Squad members and Hachi and Inoue. She was also managing which arriving patients went where, and was using the work to stave off shock and panic. They had barely arrived when the blasts of Reiatsu from the fights started. Hiyori had wanted to strangle Urahara after she had seen the nightmare in that building, but she couldn't blame him because she had been with him so often that it was nearly impossible to believe he'd had any major part of this, which left Hikifune which was also an impossibility to believe. But still, one Captain being in ignorance, she could believe; two, not so much.

They'd had maybe two or three minutes after arriving when call for help came and Unohana had waylaid them all from jumping into the fight. She'd kidnapped Hiyori and Hachi, saying she remembered them and wanted their help for specific things even as she waved Urahara and the others out, telling them to make sure at least someone made it to the Fourth Squad hospital and to make sure that everyone who needed to leave Seireitei made it out ok. Then she'd put Hiyori to work as personnel manager in place of her third Squad Iemuro who was on the other side of the gate, and Hiyori didn't mention that she thought that Iemuro was the guy that had been attacked when the first supplier woke up. They'd been really careful with the other ones because of that, but very few had had any major reactions aside from shock, fear, and confusion. The few that had other reactions were still weak enough that the on hand fighters were able to bring them down long enough to be calmed.

Snapping back to the present, Hiyori took the latest list from the 4th Squad member working with a stinking, shivering mess of a 12th Squad Member and Hiyori was half tempted to order him to act like a man. She might not have much respect for the Gotei 13, but still had some pride in her old Squad and this…thing was a disgrace!

She quickly called for an update and while she checked the teams off she sent on the next three patients for Orihime, the three for Hachi, and the five for the first of the two teams of 4th Squad members and the four for the second.

An hour and a half after the intruder alarm went off they were at 432, just over half, and according to Kotetsu-Fukutaichou, Orihime, who was at 157 people, had already drank one mega juice and was asking for a second, which was risky for a Shinigami, much less a living being. The girl would have to stop soon unless she wanted to burn out. Hachi was a bit quicker at healing, even if it was just from experience. He'd already gotten 93 people. The two teams had been able to stabilize 182, they weren't actually completely healed, but could be moved to the other side of the Gate where they could be fixed up at relative leisure.

She had felt powerful fighters fan out in a loose circle around them, even as a few more split and took off for the area that contained most of the noble houses that another section of Hollows seemed intent on. The ones that had headed for the Hollows were already fighting, Shinji and Love among them. Most of the Hollows felt powerful, but there were a few spots where even she couldn't tell the spiritual level of the monsters. Shinji, like usual, had forgotten to call her and let her know what was going on in the fighters' ranks before he'd run off like an idiot, and she could tell a couple of people were starting to look to her as well as Kotetsu-Fukutaichou for direction as Unohana-Taichou had rushed to the battle scene to begin healing the main fighters.

Risa, Misaharu and Tessai had heard from the other side of the Gate and were wanting to come through to help fight, and a few of the wakened Suppliers had turned out to be Quincies or other spiritually powerful humans and Souls. A few were Shinigami and they'd wanted to help as well when they'd gained consciousness. The 4th Squad was, of course, shouting nay to this since most of them were still pretty weak and most of the Quincies had been just as awake as Kurosaki's friend had been when Mayuri took him apart.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

About an hour after the alarm had sounded Mayuri had been brought in, showing marks from several high level wind attacks that were almost like Kensei's. Hiyori had made the 4th Squad members carrying the man stop for 30 seconds so she could pelt him across the face with a sandal. That was all she did right now though, she wanted him to be awake for the rest of it. To think she'd worked for nearly ten years next to this monster! It was enough to make Hiyori as furious as the thought of Hikifune having something to do with the Black Hole.

He'd gone through the gate, and Hiyori had insisted he get a high guard, and be separated from his Zanpaktou, firstly so that the Suppliers on the other side wouldn't tear him apart, and secondly so he wouldn't be able to escape. And that was if he woke up from the sedatives she'd insisted they feed him.

Hiyori was still determined to make his trial, and be one of the ones to execute him. She scowled when a crash distracted her from her thoughts and flipped her sandal off to go pelt the idiot that had just dropped whatever he had dropped when she was this nerveous. She didn't need crashes near her when she couldn't fight, especially when Shinji and Love were, and Kensei and Rose would be soon enough.

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He knew what his friends would tell him, that the mass of Hollows bearing down on them wasn't his fault. That Hinamori, far smaller and paler than usual in Hitsugaya-Taichou's arms, wasn't his fault. If Rangiku, Renji and Shuhei got even an inkling of what he was feeling right now, they'd tag-team him into the ground and beat him over the head.

But Kira couldn't help but feel just the smallest bit guilty. The fact was that he should have pushed himself harder, thought more and trusted his friends more. Instead he'd let himself be used by the false Captians that ruled the force currently barreling towards them.

He caught a shinigami that stumbled next to him in their rush and with a quick nod he wisely ignored the look in their eyes since it was one of empathy rather than sympathy or hatred or expectation of failure or weakness like he'd seen on so many others, including most of the Captains these days. Kira knew he was stronger than people gave him credit for. He hadn't worked himself half to death this past while just to let Renji, Rangaku and the others down again. He'd never leave their side again, literally or figuratively.

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Rukia felt the Hollows and had to will herself to stay where she was. She desperately wanted to fight. It would be better than helping the 4th Squad prep people for a move to a more defensible location while listening to her two third seats bickering. But she would do as ordered, no matter how much as it galled her things needed to be done here.

"You, make sure that goes with the next group to the Gate. Where'd that guy with the concussion go?" she snapped.

She was getting exasperated with how many people of every damn Squad were panicking now with the Hollows coming close. It wasn't like any of the fighters around them would let them get through, and even if that did happen, they were Shinigami for goodness sake!

Rukia couldn't help but look over in the direction her brother and Ichigo were fighting in. They'd ended up near the Noble Houses, and she could feel more Shinigami scouting around them and reinforcing the barricades protecting the Great Noble Families, the Lesser Noble Families and the Central 46's areas. Everyone over there should be safe.

So should everyone near her, since Zaraki-Taichou was obliterating everything in front of him; hence the reason why he'd been assigned to the Hospital. The presence near him, one that felt a bit like Ichigo's when he…when he…well, it felt a bit like Ichigo and was doing just as much damage. They were slowing a little from wholesale destruction through and she could feel them settling into actual fights now, one or two strong Reiatsus around each of the fighters, with the smaller ones playing spoiler.

In the end Rukia didn't know quite what to think about the sheer chaos that had encompassed the Seireitei today. She'd been forced by her brother to take care of the injured from the first fight when Ishida's Reiatsu had exploded from the 12th Squad Section, and Renji's weak within it. She'd wanted to go with her friends when that had first happened, but when Orihime and Chad had gone to this 'Black Hole' she'd really started cursing out her brother and Kurosaki. None of them were exactly wilting flowers that needed to be kept from danger. They were all strong, capable fighters.

Despite her brother's orders she'd taken a couple of minutes to Shunpo to the site that Renji had apparently learned about from the 12th Squad Fukutaichou before she sacrificed herself to bring Ishida's powers back under control. The sight had made her ill. She'd apologized to the 4th Squad member that had rubbed her back and even started to clean up after her before she'd completely snapped out of it. He'd just smiled at her and told her she wasn't the only one.

Rukia had taken one more look around at the disgusting display of people hanging in comas, trying to decide whether to stay or not, and had seen all of the Taichous and Fukutaichous rushing around or already encircling the area. The place had plenty of people to protect it, but the 4th Squad Hospital and the courtyard which had been converted into an overflow area didn't. Besides, Kurotsuchi had been taken to Captain Unohana's squad as well.

By the time she'd gotten back, though, Kurotsuchi was gone, and several of the others were being treated for paralysis. She'd warned her brother, and he'd just thanked her, stating calmly that they'd known they were in for a fight.

Then the fighting had actually started.

Then Hitsugaya had literally stormed in and kidnapped Hinamori-Fukutaichou with Matsumoto and the 13th squad's two 3rd seats who had ordered her to evacuate everyone to the Black Hole, informing her that they would sort them out there and that they needed to get as many people in danger of being turned into suppliers to safety. She'd taken to doing that while they started arguing about who should be in charge.

Then that long haired blonde in a poet's shirt had showed up, and had looked around before coming up to her and asking what he could do to help. She'd only blinked for a few seconds before asking how good of a fighter he was. He'd just smirked so she'd had him work on the protection of the teams running back and forth with patients and supplies.

Then the Hollows had appeared.

Then the Gates had opened.

Even then, from the feel of the Reiatsu and the spiritual pressure, all the bakas that dared call themselves shinigamie were still acting like idiots. She'd actually broken a clipboard in frustration from not being able to go smack a few people.

Seriously, it was just one damn thing after another today and she was getting ready to scream even as she pushed people to rush even faster than they'd already been running.

Then Byakuya and Ichigo and the others went off to fight the Hollows on their own and she'd kicked a wall, cringing at the hole it made.

Rukia couldn't wait until all these people were out of danger and she could take her frustration out on some Hollows…and Ichigo and Renji's skulls.

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Hitsugaya carefully hedged away from where he had placed a slumbering Hinamori, safe in as many Kido spells as he could manage. The ones he'd used would prevent her from leaving too, since he refused to make the same mistake twice when it came to protecting his dearest person.

Still, he thought as the mass of Hollows crested towards their location, it wouldn't protect her from everything which was why he was staying in the area this time. Especially since the Sotaichou didn't look like he was moving any time soon. With a steady hand (thanks only to the training that he had put himself through to not appear weak on top of young), Hitsugaya unseathed Hyounmaru and called out the Shikai release, leaping into the air. He carefully spun and reviewed the field, his mind temporairily cataloging Hinamori as well as the Black Hole and the portal to the mortal realm along with the treasures his squad—his former squad had been tasked with protecting.

He knew the battlefield laid out below him as he had drilled in theories and forms for decades, each minute detail falling into place before his eyes. Then, with a deep breath, he unleashed wicked ice spikes at the first batch of Hollows that had made it this far before spinning and launching Hyounmaru's manifestation at another batch.

On the ground and the roofs, more battles had started as Hollows that had survived Ichigo and the others reached them. This initial wave wasn't going to be a problem, but he was a bit apprehensous about what would happen when someone gave in even for a moment. It was inevitable really. Even Kenpachi could get distracted by someone that gave him a better fight and more Hollows would get around them and it would make everything so much harder. Hitsugaya took a second to glare down at where the Sotaichou was batting Hollows like they were nothing. Bastard still didn't even look guilty.

Toshiro pushed that thought to the side. He didn't have time for it right now. The best he could do was to take his frustration out on the hollows. So he did.

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End Chapter Ten

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