Chapter 3

The Invasion-Part 3

Inside the castle, the PL-6

"That was a rude way to wake up a lady," Rier commented, as she rested her hands on the back of her head. She was still upon the couch that she had planned to get some sleep in, but unfortunately, the shouting of one Kurosaki Ichigo had all but dissipated the first ounces of sleep she was getting. Annoyed, she decided to wake up and discuss with her comrades for the first time in a while how to deal with the threat that had just encroached upon their territory.

"And who was the dumbass who said they didn't leave any traces of reiatsu in the World of the Living?" Aizer commented idly, his face on his hands and one of his eyes open. A vein had popped on his forehead regarding how his peaceful time had been interrupted with by these unknown new enemies, and the only one to blame for the current situation they were in was the human who had snatched Inoue from the Real World.

"Tch…then why didn't you suggest to be the one to go grab her? I'm sure you would have done such a fine job at it," Repu remarked at his comrade. While it was certain that he had definitely messed up at one point or another with the mission he had been assigned by Copyla, their current interim leader.

"Bring it on! While I'm at it I'll teach you a thing or two about reiatsu control!" Aizer snapped back at the human, clearly at the limit of his patience owing to Repu's refusal to take responsibility for his actions. He clearly did not seem to hold any tinge of pride within him, since if he did he would admit to his mistake rather than trying to avert the matter altogether. Irate, he made to grab for his bow, before another voice spoke out in the midst of the five members.

"Enough squabbling among you, Aizer, Repu," Copyla said, in a more commanding voice than requesting, and at this was enough to capture the attention of the two. While they had their differences among each other and the other members of the PL-6, with Copyla it was a different matter. He was the embodiment of respect and authority, with his ever commanding voice, and somehow they did not even dare wonder what would happen to them if they dared cross him or any of the orders he gave out. Slowly, Aizer let go of the bow he was about to arm and folded his hands on his chest, looking away from the others in a bit of embarrassment.

Rier, on the other hand, just giggled at how easy it was for Copyla to scare both her human and Quincy comrades. Their antics were just too amusing to watch each time. However, this time she would not have the pleasure to dwell in her happiness for long, as she placed her hands on her shihakusho and said to the others, in a serious tone," However, with what has just happened; does that mean we can assume Primra-san was beaten?"

The silence that followed her suggestion was deafening. Repu looked at her as if it was the first time he was seeing her. However, it was Aizer who voiced the doubt and disbelief that was nurtured in his heart from that statement. Closing his eyes in concentration, the Quincy said, in a much calmer tone," No, that doesn't seem to be the case. There seems to be quite a strong reiatsu headed to his location at a fast pace as we speak. Not only that," he continued, as he scanned the area outside the castle for the signs of the invaders. It was the first time in so long since he had decided to sense for reiatsu, and in the beginning he was afraid his skills would be too rusty to check for anything, but as he got the hang of it, he was glad that his reishi manipulating skills were still intact," there is one weak reiatsu that is a few leagues away from here. It seems to be beating away at the Hollows summoned by Primra. Heading this way to the castle are four reiatsu signals, and each of them seems to be of equal strength-Wait," he suddenly paused, a bit alarmed as a bead of sweat formed on his visage.

"What is it?" Copyla asked the man, as he took in the information relayed about the intruders. He was clearly not happy at the chance that their plan would be ruined, but he decided not to show it, instead tapping his foot on the ground in a show of growing impatience.

"Among the four, there seems to be someone with an exceptionally high reiatsu. According to this level of reiatsu, it's probably-""Kurosaki Ichigo," Repu finished his comrade's earlier statement. And all the others agreed in silence. Ever since the defeat of Aizen Sousuke at the hands of Kurosaki Ichigo, the orange haired boy had grown into somewhat of a legend among the three planes of existence, Hueco Mundo, The World of the Living and Soul Society. And the current residents of the Siphoned World, who were previously all residents of the great three worlds, were none the less excluded from the information. While they had been somewhat grateful to the orange haired man for getting them revenge against Aizen Sousuke, they still were not going to let him ruin any of their plans. Not while they were already so close to achieving them.

"I see," Copyla commented, ever giving out the maddening impatience he was feeling at the moment. Silently, he stood up, now facing the other three members that were present in the room with him," Kurosaki Ichigo and a group of his has entered our realm. According to Aizer's information, they seem to have left behind two of their comrades to combat Primra and his army of Hollow. Primra will be more than enough to handle them; I don't think he needs any help. Now as for the rest of his group," at this point, he turned to each of his subordinates, looking at each in the eye, before continuing, "we will combat them in our realm. Make sure that each of you gets a mark on at least one of them, and then further ensure that none of them leave this area alive." He concluded his statement with a darker tone. He was already at the limit of his patience.

Silently assenting to their stand-in leader at the moment, each of the members got up from their comfort zones. Rier lazily grabbed her Zanpakuto, heading out to the eastern side as she rubbed her shoulder blades. When this was all over she would go back to getting her beauty sleep, she thought to herself, as a yawn escaped her palate. As Aizer was about to grab his Spirit Bow and head out to the southern side himself, someone tapped him on the shoulder. Disgruntled, he turned his head back only to find Repu looking at him, a smirk adorning his visage.

"What is it? You need something? "Aizer grumbled at the man, his displeasure showing in his voice. He wondered what the human wanted from him currently.

"I found a way for us to settle things between us once and for all," Repu replied, the smirk on his face growing ever so wider. The idea had just occurred to him moments after Copyla had issued their orders.

"How?" Aizer asked a hint of curiosity present in his voice. Clearly he had not expected Repu to come to him with such a suggestion.

"Let's see, how about, whoever takes out his enemy first wins. As simple as that. How does that sound?" Repu replied, his voice brimming with excitement and yet at the same time, satisfaction. Well, it did seem to be quite a fun way to compete, Aizer had to admit. Still, he would not voice such a thought to his comrade, so without saying a word, he shifted his glance away from his opponent back to the path he was intent on taking earlier.

And just like that, he was gone, using his Flying Screen Step. Repu was left in the room grabbing at thin air, and a grin breaking out on his face, he immediately made for the western side of the castle. The competition was on.

Outside the castle, Ichigo's company

"Now, now, what do we have here?" Neliel tu Odershvanck commented as the quartet edged nearer and nearer to their enemies' headquarters. It was unlike any structure she had seen before, even after staying in Las Noches during her life as an Arrancar. The building was definitely smaller than Aizen's castle, assuming a more square like structure. It seemed to be suspended in mid air, since there were no traces of ground anywhere near the base of the castle, which they could see from their current mid air position. Atop the castle, there were numerous human-sixed openings, all evenly spaced out along each dimension of the building. The openings were what perplexed everyone in the team, before Neliel had decided to voice their puzzlement.

"What's with that structure? It's like they are practically letting enemies in?" Ishida commented, as he adjusted his glasses near his temple. As a man who lived by principles of aesthetic, he simply could not comprehend the reason for having such a poorly built structure. Somehow, Hueco Mundo seemed much more dangerous than this world due to that single factor. And that was saying something.

"Perhaps it's for letting in air or something," Neliel commented, a finger to her chin in thought. Her eyes drifted from place to place as she scanned whether there were any oddities in the area they had just found themselves in. Luckily, there seemed to be no one around, which meant they would not be caught by surprise like they had been earlier when they were swarmed with that multitude of Hollow.

The bespectacled Quincy let out a huff as he resigned from pondering over the matter altogether, but then Sado Yasutora called out to him, "Ishida, do you think you can pinpoint Inoue's location within that huge thing? " The dark skinned man did not look at Ishida as he said this, his blood tingling with mixed feelings of anxiety and at the same time, excitement.

"The castle made be made of SekkiSeki stone, don't get your hopes up," Ishida commented, still, he got to trying to get a feel of Inoue's reiatsu. To his astonishment, however, he was able to feel her reiatsu perfectly, even the exact location of the castle she was in. Was it a mistake by the enemy, or perhaps, a trap? No. It certainly did not seem that way. Then again, this was a recently discovered realm, so perhaps the residents of this place had not been under siege ever since they had first taken shelter here. Perhaps this was the reason for the laxity that they were experiencing at the moment in breaching the enemy base.

Still, this meant that saving Inoue might probably be easier than they had first surmised before coming here, Ishida thought. They still had to keep up their guard. He adjusted his glasses once more as he stopped focusing on Inoue's reiatsu within the castle, shifting his focus back to his friends. "She's at the northern part of the castle. Her reiatsu still seems the same way it always is, so she's probably unharmed," the Quincy informed everyone in the team.

Ahead of them all, the orange haired Substitute Shinigami gritted his teeth. He had moved considerably quicker than the trio he was currently with, his worry over Inoue growing by the minute. While Ishida's reply just then set his heart at ease and relieved him of some of the worry he was feeling, he still could not find himself completely content with what the Quincy had said. He had to see her for himself. To touch her, and feel her warmth on his hand, in order to make sure that she was really okay. Words alone would not suffice. Grimmjow's words as they fought in Hueco Mundo a while back echoed in his mind, and he found a cold sweat threatening to break over his entire body.

"Were you relieved to see she was unhurt, or at least looked like it? You're as naïve as they come. Maybe she got hurt on the 'inside.' "

As these words replayed in his mind, he found his grip on his sword tightening until his hand was covered in sweat. He had to confirm her safety for himself. Without warning, or even bothering to turn back and thank the Quincy for the information he had just relayed, Ichigo took a heavy step, then amassing all the force he could in his body, churned himself forward with a great leap. There was no time to waste, and he would apologize properly to the others and allow them to meet their punishment on him as was in order. However, he needed to do this now.

There was a huge gust of wind that blew in Ishida, Nel's and Sado's location, and suddenly they were brought back to the reality of what had just occurred, as they watched Ichigo's form disappear in the distance. Nel was the first one to call out to him, although she was part sure that he would not be able to hear her, or the other two, with the distance he had just created between them.

"Wait, Ichigo!" She stretched out her hand in gesture, but soon all they could see was a glint in the distance, which most likely displayed his drawn sword. He was already far gone.

"That idiot," Ishida muttered, as he watched him separate himself from the rest of the group," the minute Inoue-san's name is uttered he charges off like a madman." Still, Ichigo had a fair idea of Inoue's current location, so there was little chance that he would get lost. In a best case scenario, he would probably manage to rescue her in the nick of time and they would head out as soon as that was done.

"Will he be okay? I mean, he doesn't need any backup in saving Inoue?" Neliel asked the two men she was currently stuck with. Her hand was placed to her chest in worry, and she shuddered to think what would happen if Ichigo encountered an enemy who was more than he could handle. The scene of a lifeless Ichigo lying on the ground after Ulquiorra brutally defeated him replayed itself in the green haired girl's mind, and she clenched her fingers tighter. For a moment, she contemplated taking on after him, and positioned her foot in order to do so. However, at that moment the Quincy spoke up again, having caught wind of what Neliel was planning to do.

"Nah, he'll be okay. I don't think he needs any of us there when he reunites with Inoue," Ishida commented, a small smirk gracing his facial features. His eyes were closed and his face was turned towards the dome, as they were now a stone's throw away from it. Sado chimed in, agreeing to the blue haired man's response," Yeah. Especially when it comes to Inoue," the dark skinned man said a small smile on his face. They would leave saving Inoue up to Ichigo, while they focused on what they could do for him in order to make sure that he won't get ambushed by a large number of enemies. Even if he had massive levels of reaitsu, there was no way he would manage handling a large number of opponents, whose strength and level of skill was still unknown.

"So for now," the Quincy said, his eyes open again and a stern expression upon his face, "what we can do is make sure that there are no enemies lying in wait in order to ambush us like back then." He then began descending towards the dome, seeing the first opening and making to dive through it. The other two looked at each other for a split second, and Neliel, noticing the calm auras emitted by Ichigo's comrades, allowed a wave of satisfaction to wash over her. If they trusted him that implicitly, it would be an insult to the orange haired boy to doubt his potential at that point. Ichigo would probably bite her head off if he got wind of the doubts she felt concerning him at the moment. Releasing her hand from her chest, she heaved a sigh of relief, and then unanimously, her and Sado took on after Ishida and dived into the dome themselves.

And with that, each of the members of Ichigo's party dispersed, each planning to face off against their own trials.

Further outside the headquarters, Arisawa Tatsuki

The spikey haired girl, for what seemed an eternity, continued beating on and on after each Hollow that attempted to attack her. They came from all directions, and she found it a bit hard to keep on with her current pace. After her first Deadly Magnum, which had only worked owing to the distance between her and her enemies back then, she resorted to her martial arts. Luckily, even with all that occurred, her black belt skills remained as sharp as ever, and she still proved with every devastating blow she landed on the enemies, she was still the strongest woman in Tokyo. However, normal martial arts weren't enough to deal with Hollow, she knew very well, so she made sure to temper each of her blows with a considerable amount of reiatsu. It worked wonders, with each blow she landed eliminating yet another Hollow that came in her path.

Even with all that, Arisawa Tatsuki was still just a human. She had not been bestowed upon powers like Inoue Orihime or Sado Yasutora, all she had was the luck of getting some of the excessive reiatsu from her childhood friend, Kurosaki Ichigo. Her reiatsu levels were probably the highest a normal human would have, and as she pounded away at what might have been the 30th Hollow, she paused for a millisecond in order to catch her breath, breathing a bit too heavily for someone who was still not even halfway done with the enemies presented before her. As the Hollow appeared in swarms again, she gritted her teeth and cursed, wondering why their numbers did not seem to be dwindling even by how little.

"Damn! Why aren't they reducing?" She thought to herself, as she punched at a Hollow that attempted to make a leap for her. Her mind raced with thoughts as she tried getting a grip of the current situation, before she remembered the blue haired man that had charged on ahead in order to confront the source of this calamity.

She landed a crushing kick at the skull of one Hollow that made a grab for her with its bony hands," What's taking Grimmjow so long?!" She nearly screamed in her mind. Her reiatsu levels were growing dangerously low by the minute, and she suddenly became unsure whether staying behind was a good decision after all. She was certain she was not going to be able to hold this flank for that long. A group of five Hollow appeared out of the oncoming flock, seeming to organize themselves into some weird formation as they charged towards her, and Tatsuki threw her hand back in order to prepare a Rizer Deadly Magnum. With the speed at which they were approaching, it would be easier and more efficient for her to prepare one of her special attacks in order to blow them all away at once. However, as she thrust her hands forward for a devastating fiery attack, suddenly the whole world seemed to go blurry.

The Hollows now seemed twice their actual amount as they proceeded towards her, and weakly, like a leaf in the wind, her arm fell limply at her side. Damn! I misjudged my reiatsu! She cursed again, as she tried to summon one last burst of energy from her body. It didn't work. All the energy seemed to have dissipated from her limbs, and numbly, her body began falling backwards into the abyss behind her. One of her eyes shut involuntarily, and with her now remaining open eye, she could faintly see the swarm of Hollow enveloping her. She faintly became aware of the feel of several hands pulling at her from all directions, seeming as if they were about to tear her apart, and then at that point, her second eye began shutting itself of its own accord, as she resigned to her fate.

"Sorry, Ichigo," she thought, a final thought as she was about to succumb to the swarm of incoming Hollow. She had promised to survive, to meet up with the orange haired boy and her best friend once all this was done, but now, all that seemed to be a fleeting dream. The first Hollow made a bite for her left hand, and then….

"Smash, Haguro Tonbo!

As suddenly as they had all engulfed in the area around Arisawa Tatsuki, the Hollow all vanished in one instant. There was a huge gust of wind, and Tatsuki felt her body being carried by the air pressure. For a moment she thought she would be carried off into the unknown, but then, she felt herself being caught by a soft pair of arms. Weakly, she opened her eyes to find herself staring at a pair of turquoise eyes, which were set behind a pair of red oval glasses.

The mysterious bespectacled girl shot a small smile at Tatsuki. "Need any help?"

A long way downwards from where the two girls were currently located, a visibly excited Grimmjow Jeagerjacques made his way downward as he descended to the pits of the realm, his blood boiling at the prospect of having to face off against someone extraordinarily strong. His mouth was etched into a wide open grin, and as he fought past the air pressure and the oncoming gust of wind. Suddenly, he saw the silhouette of someone a few paces away from him, who had one hand outstretched before him. He seemed to be controlling, or summoning something, owing to the completely still posture he had assumed. Bingo, the blue haired man thought. There was the one who had been throwing these entire Hollow in their path earlier. Well, not that it mattered anyway to Grimmjow, since the man would be dead in a few minutes anyway. He kicked at the air behind him, and then made a direct charge towards the man.

"Found you!" Grimmjow nearly shouted, his voice displaying the enthusiasm he was experiencing at that moment.

Primra, who was still in the process of calling forth the Hollow with his reaitsu, was now aware of the presence of a second person next to the girl he was attempting to overwhelm earlier. The second person seemed to hold a decent amount of reiatsu, so a horde of Hollow that massive would probably mean nothing to her. While he was contemplating heading upwards in order to face the threat head on, he was thrown back into the reality of the matter owing to the sudden increase in reaitsu that was heading towards him. The man, a bit perplexed, as he raised an eyebrow, drew back his hand, and then calmly, took one step sideways. Just in time, he realized, as there was a resounding crash on the area he was currently standing on, with it a whole cloud of reishi particles being thrown into the air.

There was an interval of silence, as Primra tried to make light of the situation that had just presented itself before him. The reishi particles that had been scattered into the air owing to his assailant's immediate entry all dispersed into the space before him and his assailant, and then, the man became aware of the hole near the blue haired man's waist line. His eyes widened in surprise, as he certainly did not expect to meet one of his kinds after he had deserted Hueco Mundo a while back.

"You…that wide-scale blast earlier…it were your doing?" Primra asked the blue haired man, who still had his eyes looking towards the ground he had just crashed into. Slowly, Grimmjow began turning his head in order to look at his opponent. "Who knows?" He expressed in his hearty voice, but then, he was shocked as he noticed the hole on Primra's chest. It was eerily similar to his, something which caught him completely by shock.

"You're…a Hollow?" He muttered absently to no one specific, as his eyes still displayed disbelief.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Make sure you remember all the names of the opponents since well they are the antagonists this time right now for Ichi-nii and his friends!

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