Just so you all know I love you, I thought I'd tell you that before you all kill me because I left you with a cliffhanger and now am ignoring what happened. I'm sorry! *hides* Yay~! Thank you to Yashiru Kusajishi, Phantom Claire, Elvenlaughter, urufushinigami, and AngryHitsu for you lovely reviews. Lets get on with this yes?

DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN BLEAH. I OWN THIS PLOT AND MY OCS!

Toshiro was sleeping fitfully. He was tossing and turning, something he never did. There was a sense of uneasiness that had settled in his stomach. He hadn't been able to get rid of it. When it first came it had made him nauseous and he lost his appetite. He had gone straight back to Ichigo's room.

He had figured that just resting would get rid of the feeling but it remained. He felt like he had just drifted off when something gripped at his heart. It took him a few seconds to realize it was fear. He couldn't make head nor tails of what he was afraid of. Was it just worry over Ichigo? But then that prompted the question about why he'd be so worried over Ichigo he wouldn't eat.

Something was humming at the back of his head, it was odd a first but then he realized that he didn't mind it so much. It was comforting in an odd little way. There was a wave of nostalgia that passed over him, but he didn't know why.

Toshiro tilted his head to the side. Just as he was getting used to the humming in the back of his head he felt Ichigo's reiatsu surge suddenly and then plummet dangerously. He sat up straighter, the humming had gone away as well. He was wide eyed searching for something anything to calm him down.

Not really caring that this would be considered odd he rushed over to Ichigo's dresser, he was in nothing but a tank top and boxers, it was hot outside to him. He opened a draw and grabbed he first thing he could.

It was a long sleeve button up shirt, it was a flannel material and her would probably be melting in it but he didn't care. He stuck his arms through the sleeves, not surprised they were a few inches longer than his arms. It also hung halfway down his boxers. Despite it being to big for him, he was calmed down slightly. The shirt still had the scent of Ichigo clinging tightly, it also felt warmer than it should've.

Its like being hugged by him. Toshiro smiled, then he caught himself. How would he know how hugs from the substitute shinigami would feel? He hadn't ever been hugged by the teen. He thought back to the time when he had defected from soul society and gotten badly hurt, Ichigo had to carry him, but he was aware at the time so that shouldn't even count.

He was calmer but he was even more confused. He climbed back on Ichigo's bed. He was able to get comfortable fairly quickly, and he was even getting drowsy. But he still knew that something had happened to Ichigo- Kurosaki! What he wasn't sure but he knew that it couldn't be good.

Snuggling into the pillow and pulling the shirt tighter around him he fell into a slightly more restful sleep. He felt like Ichigo was behind him, he could imagine how it would feel to have the carrot top pressed against him, cuddling into him. He was perhaps the most content that Toshiro had ever felt. Though he wasn't sure how this calmed him down, he would take it.

Urahara was a man who was known to stay up for days on end trying to solve a problem. Yet his problem seemed to not want to be solved. He was once again reading over the wavelength for the passage way. He'd been staring at the screen for two days straight.

The "Demon Cell" had come through the dangai like regular shinigami, but from what he was reading they were walking above it. He wasn't sure how, and without much more research he wouldn't be able to get the group there.

He had stolen the research done by the twelfth squad but it had been for naught. It had all been random scans, nothing he didn't already have. He needed exact locations on the anomaly in order to start planning the gateway. He heaved a sigh and Tessai came into refill his coffee mug but said nothing else as he left the room.

The bulky man passed the purple haired woman as she walked into Urahara's computer room. She knitted her brow. Stealthily she approached the area behind him. She leaned on one of his shoulders.

"Nothing?" She whispered quietly.

"Nope." Urahara groaned. "I haven't made a shred of progress."

Yoruichi shrugged. "Can't expect anything right away."

The man rubbed his eyes. "No. But I need things right away."

"Go to sleep. Maybe you'll think of something in the morning." The cat-woman prodded gently.

"Can't. What I need is the position. I can't just think of something."

She rolled her eyes. "You need rest. Regardless."

"Nothing short of a miracle or searching the entirety of Hueco Mundo is going to get me anywhere!"

Both ex-captains looked at each other. All sounds faded away into a dull murmur. Urahara's face grew into a large grin. Yoruichi stared blankly at him, unsure of what he was plotting. She arched an eyebrow.

"That's it! I've got it." Urahara cheered.

Yoruichi crossed her arms and watched the man celebrate. "That's great, because I don't."

Urahara calmed himself but he still had a small grin on his face. "Searching Hueco Mundo, top to bottom."

"Won't that take ages?" The flash-goddess tilted her head.

"Normally yes. But I can create a device that will be attuned to the reiatsu anomaly, and getting somewhere high will be able to get them in the general direction then they can go that way."

Yoruichi was finally starting to catch on. "So you'll send them to Hueco Mundo to find the anomaly from the outside, then bring them back. Then we enter using the front door?"

Urahara nodded. "I don't know how long it will take for them to find the outside of it, so I'll equip them with badges that let me know when they want back."

Urahara turned around he was about to begin messing with tools and things mumbling to himself. Before he was completely lost to the world Yoruichi grabbed him. "Bed. Now."

He started to protest but saw the look in her eye and thought better of it. He slowly got up. The former captain grabbed onto the genius' arm and lead him to his room. She was used to doing things like this all the time.

"Thanks." Urahara mumbled once they reached his bedroom. "Where would I be without you?"

"Dead in a ditch." She deadpanned.

Urahara scratched the back of his head. "Probably."

She bade him a good night as he started to head to her room. She couldn't believe how dense the man was for a genius. She was dropping hints, some small others as bright as day. She was running towards a cliff with no one to catch her.

Urahara watched as his former captain and long time friend walked down the hallway. He wondered if she would ever catch the drift that he wanted to be more than friends. But she was called the flash-goddess for a reason. She was to fast for him to catch her.

He walked into his room, to get ready for bed.

The premiers were gathering in the throne room. All were standing around, some were looking around, others were staring straight ahead. The doors in the back swung open. Sachio walked into the throne room. All premiers suddenly stood at attention.

The king walked until he was standing at the head of the circle. A few premiers risked glancing at him to see what mood he was in. They had all heard of what happened to the substitute shinigami, the king had been merciful and moved him into the cell he had been in when he was first stayed.

Sachio was in a good mood and seeing his followers stand to attention when he had entered made his mood lighten even more so. He waited a few minutes, making sure he had their full attention before he spoke, he didn't like to repeat himself.

"We're proceeding with the plan ahead of schedule. We should be able to put our plan into action a month before we previously thought."

The reaction of the premiers varied. Some looked pleased, some looked surprised, and others didn't appear to care either way. Sachio shrugged, he hadn't been expecting an uproar, his premiers were better trained than that. He kept his smile plastered on his face.

"The only hiccups we have had thus far is the shinigami that are snooping around and have confirmed our existence. The other one was losing the ability to use Ichigo Kurosaki, we'll put plan B into action."

Everyone looked at the two captains in charge of those parts of the plan. Yuna looked slightly abashed but still stood confidently. Enyo however did nothing to betray her thoughts, she remained looking as elegant as usual.

Masao spoke up. "Milord, shouldn't we continue with the original date? If we have to replace part one of our plan then that should set us back."

"Normally yes, but those who were part of this plan were to be working on plan B in a case such as this. There was no way to guarantee that Kurosaki would live, or even be of use once we got what we wanted from him."

Masao quieted down now that his question was answered. "Of course milord would plan of something such as this."

Sachio ignore the comment, it should've been obvious that he would have a plan for this. They had been planning this for so long it'd be a tragedy for it to fail. The premiers would perform without a flaw, and nobody should forget what they were doing, this would be a performance of a life time.

With the main business they began talking about the overall running of the Neo-Gotei, Yuna had replace those she lost. She wasn't entirely pleased about it but she said she'd deal with it. Tadashi was complaining that his squad was fighting with each other far to often, to which Enyo made a snide comment and those to got into a heated argument.

Sachio didn't want to hear the bickering of children dismissed them. They filed out.

Just like when I was a captain. They all bickered and ignored any side plots presented to them.

He turned and walked to his office, he still had paperwork to do. He would not be the leader of some ragtag band of rebels. Aizen thought that he had planned for everything, when he hadn't done his research thoroughly. He had a small army of people that were only powerful alone, but together they were nothing more than infants squabbling amongst themselves, Aizen didn't have that much power, he was the person they called leader in name but nothing else.

Aizen was but a whelp, but a useful whelp. He was able to see the captains at their strongest and he didn't even have to get his hands dirty. His premiers knew what to expect, and so far Enyo and Yuna's shikai had been revealed, nothing more than that. He thought that he was doing pretty good on keeping the shinigami in the dark. They had no idea that this military force even existed, until he sent his advance force to retrieve the substitute shinigami.

He sat smugly behind his desk and read a few reports. He felt like it was best to get his troops used to what it was like in the Gotei 13. They were going to become the new one protection squad. He leaned back, reading a report. It was written by one of the premiers he had in one of the squads in Soul Society. Their part of the invasion was complete and were awaiting further orders. The one thing that puzzled him, was they said that Isshin Shiba was dead, but there was no doubt that the now comatose teen was his son, he had seen the former captain, his subordinate, battling Aizen.

After he invaded Soul Society, his first goal was to capture Isshin and kill him. His face broke out into a pointed grin as he thought about plunging his blade into the man and feeling as his heart stopped.

One week later; 16 days since Kurosaki was kidnapped.

Urahara had been holed away in what the six shinigami figured was his lab. Toshiro had been growing increasingly restless. The team was aware of it. He would spend minutes at a time pacing wherever he happened to be. Renji had watched him one day and he did it about fourteen times periodically. The others would ignore it or watch it.

Truth be told they were all aching for something to do. It had been 16 days since Ichigo had gotten kidnapped. Rangiku was the only one Toshiro would talk to, and not look like he was going to kill the next thing that breathed. Renji and Rukia had taken to searching on their own time, anything would be worth something.

Ikkaku and Yumichika disappeared the entire day and returned at dinner time. Nobody questioned them. All of the officers were wasting time as they waited for Urahara to finish whatever project he was working on, it was, according to Yoruichi, something that would help them find Ichigo.

Toshiro remembered when she said that a week ago.

The group was moping around the candy store. Nothing had happened since the conversation they had yesterday. Toshiro, Rangiku, Rukia, and Renji were all standing around in the training ground watching the two eleventh squad members spar with each other, if the ferocity they were fighting at could be called a spar. Ikkaku and Yumichika showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

The flash-goddess climbed down the ladder, jumping from the last few steps. She strode over to the four. Her face showed interest in the spar, but Toshiro could tell her mind was elsewhere, he had seen this face on several captains and he himself was using it more often these days.

When she reached them. She acted like she was only present to watch the spar, but she cleared her throat after awhile. "If you two can stop your killing each other, can you come over here?"

Toshiro was surprised at how much authority was in her tone, then again she was Soi Fon's former captain so there must be some form of authority within her. Though she liked to listen to Urahara's plans and followed his orders, albeit in her own way.

The two males joined the others. They both were panting, Ikkaku wasn't taking any care to disguise it like his partner was. Yumichika was trying to even out his breathing.

Rukia cocked an eyebrow at the cat. "So, what is it you have to tell us."

Yoruichi shrugged. "I think he's found a way that he can locate the extra space in Hueco Mundo."

"Meaning?" Yumichika guided.

Yoruichi looked disinterested, she was pleased that they had a way to find the space. She had no doubt that Urahara would be able to get them there once he knew everything. "We should be able to enter the space once we find it."

She only had to wait a few seconds before Toshiro's eyes lit up in understanding. "That means we can find Ichigo!"

The others stared for a second before most of them broke out into wide grins. Rukia and Rangiku's being the biggest. Renji and Ikkaku's were closer to smirks, and Yumichika had a pleasant smile on his face. Toshiro had an almost smile and an odd look in his eyes.

"How?" Renji asked.

"I don't know everything yet." The purple-haired woman shrugged. "I just know that much."

The group was in considerably higher spirits afterward. The good mood had been evident to every one that was within the candy shop. It lasted for a whole two days before the spirits started to droop with the lack of progress.

The icy captain hadn't felt that humming since the night seven days ago. He had done his own bit of research in the past few days. Taking advantage of the older copies of Soul Society history books that Urahara had, he noticed that the older a piece of history got the less was written about it.

He had scanned the books for anything that would resemble his situation. He had even asked his Vice-Captain, who had been a shinigami longer, and she was clueless. She said she'd check up on it, but so far the duo hadn't found anything.

Renji was complaining about something, and Rukia was looking steadily more annoyed with whatever it was the red-head was saying. She hated the waiting just as much as Toshiro. She hadn't even drawn any of the bunnies Ichigo used to complain about.

The petite shinigami had been struck the hardest of all those who knew about the abduction. Ichigo had been her charge, she was the one who brought him into this world. She blinked rephrasing that sentence, she was the one who introduced him into the world of shinigami. What made it worse was she was actually do to report into Karakura town in a month.

If Neo-Gotei had held off the attack a little longer, until I got there... Would I have been able to save him?

She had thought the same thing over and over. Reaching the same conclusion every time, she would've been killed. There was no way she'd be able to fight the premiers, more than one at a time at least, like Ichigo. She could barely handle the third seat. Not to mention the other leaders, and their powers. They hadn't even reached the extent of Yuna's power.

She watched her commanding officer. There was something about him that was making Rukia wonder. He was way too involved in the mission, emotionally. The prodigy was known for being emotionally challenged, but seeing him react in the ways he was. It was interesting to her. She had expected the captain to hide any emotional response.

She had tuned out the red-head beside her. Being one of her closest friends, and a good friend of Ichigo, she knew Renji was seething on the inside. She knew because they were close friends and the fact he was way more animated when he talked.

She zoned back into the conversation. Toshiro had an odd face, out of curiosity, she stealthily snuck next to the captain. Rangiku and Renji were talking about sake or something and it was easily.

The ice-wielding captain gave her a raised eyebrow. Clearly asking what the other ice-wielder was doing. Rukia shrugged. She was waiting to make sure the other vice-captains were engaged in a conversation before she would speak.

She chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully. How would she best phrase her statement. Taking a page from her tactless friends, also known as Ichigo and Renji, and spoke bluntly. "Do you care about Ichigo?"

The young captain looked taken aback. He was left gapping trying to think of a response. "How do you mean?"

"I mean, there is something about Ichigo that you are drawn to. You've never acted like this before. You're involved with the mission."

"I always am." Toshiro grunted.

Rukia shook her head. "That's not what I meant. You've never been one to get emotional about a mission before. I know this from working with you and hearing people talk."

"And?"

"I want to know why." The raven hair girl crossed her arms.

Toshiro stared at the girl incredulous that she saw through him so easily. Then again she must be feeling something similar to him. He hadn't put a name on it however. But he would find that orange-haired teen, even if it killed him.

Rukia watched the emotions flicker through the young captain's eyes. She smiled dimly her theory was correct. She thought about it however. Ichigo somehow always formed strong bonds with anyone who got to know him. It was an interesting thing to watch. He'd die for someone he barely knew. He had a pure soul, and that might be why she had met him.

He was destined for something beyond that of what a human was capable. He'd saved the world, isn't that proof enough, slowly but surely, he had started to change the strict thinking of the Gotei. A few of the captains started to lower themselves and not hold themselves so high, after being humbled by a human.

Thinking about Ichigo only made her morose. She shook her head, she needed to focus on preparing herself for the next skirmish with the Neo-Gotei. She hoped that Urahara finished whatever project he was working on, and soon. The longer they wait the more danger Ichigo would be in. Also the more danger Soul Society would be in. They had reported the skirmish to the captains. Most of the away squad looked awkward and weren't looking at the screen. They now had the task of finding out whatever they could about the Neo-Gotei so they could start preparing. The captains were the only ones who knew the entire story, the head-captain had ordered it so.

Outside it began to rain and Rukia glanced out of the window. Her face was unreadable, she was worried and infuriated at the same time.

Don't worry Ichigo. We'll save you for once.

At least I gave you a cute Toshiro? Like I'm said I'm sorry! But Ichigo got two whole chapters and these guys were feeling abandoned? I'll get back to our favorite carrot top next chapter I swear! Wait if kill me I won't be able to finish the story! Ha! Later! ~IF