The next few chapters are going to be fun. I'm curious as to how many of you are going to piece together exactly what's going on before Ichigo does (though I do make it fairly obvious in this chapter; never let it be said that I'm subtle).

Chapter 10

After grabbing a quick snack from his apartment - and filling a backpack with some supplies he could use while scouting - Ichigo headed to the DWMA. He could sense Maka and Soul nearby, though he was careful to avoid them. He wouldn't mind talking to them, but at the moment he had far more pressing matters to deal with. The same situation applied to Black Star and Tsubaki, and for a few minutes Ichigo swore Black Star was actually following him until the substitute Shinigami managed to shake him off.

Ichigo reached Death's room and, before he could signal his presence, Sid opened the door.

"Come in," the undead teacher said. Death was waiting by his mirror with his blocky hands clasped behind his back, and Ichigo stopped a few meters away from the Shinigami.

"Do you know about the hollows to the north?" Ichigo asked immediately, discarding politeness in favor of efficiency. The sooner he got out there and evaluated the force of hollows, the better.

"Hollows to the north?" Sid repeated, sounding concerned. "What are you talking about?"

"Ah, I sensed those brutes only a few hours ago," Death replied. "They appeared quite suddenly; I nearly spilled my favorite tea when they arrived!"

"So they didn't travel here by any detectable means?" Ichigo pressed. Death shrugged.

"Well, I would assume they did, but I have no idea how they managed to do so. I would have known if they came too close to this city at any point before this, though my senses are limited when it comes to the world too far away from here. However, I did not know they were here. In short, I suspect a witch."

Ichigo let out a breath. "Damn. So that's how it is, huh?" He glanced at Sid and then back to Death. "When I was investigating the nearby towns in search of witches, I came across several villages, some of which had been attacked and a few that had been destroyed. I managed to corner several witches but most of them had no knowledge of what was going on and were just as confused about the hollows as you are. When I was finished with the last witch on my list, I managed to intervene in the middle of a hollow attack on a town. I fought and defeated an arrancar, a higher-level hollow, and before he died he told me about the army to the north."

"That's why you came back?" Sid asked. Ichigo nodded.

"That, and I was running low on food and information."

"And none of the witches had any idea about this army?"

"Yeah. Only the arrancar, and he died before he could give me any more information."

"What do you plan on doing about those hollows?" Inquired Death, tilting his head. "They are a bit of a problem, and with the number there is reason to be concerned that some could attack the city!"

"You shouldn't sound so nonchalant about that," Ichigo muttered, recalling how different Death had been the first time they had met. Now, the masked Shinigami was even harder to read than he had been before. "Anyway, I'm going to scout out the army and see what I can discover. Then I'll come back here, and if I need anything, I'll ask for help."

"Do you have anyone in particular in mind?"

Ichigo glanced at Sid. "Maka, Black Star, and Death the Kid. With their partners, of course."

Sid glanced at Death for approval and then turned back to Ichigo. "Anyone else? That's a pretty small force to contain an entire powerful army."

Ichigo frowned, thinking and mentally kicking himself for not remembering that warriors in this world were not at the same level in terms of ability as the Shinigami he used to fight alongside. "Yeah, you're right. What about Stein and you, Sid? You can work as containment with whatever people you think you'll need. You know the area and your people better anyway. It would be bad if any hollows slipped through; it's best to stamp them all out quickly."

"If Lord Death says so," Sid replied, glancing to where Death was standing.

"I think that's a wonderful idea!"

"Great," Ichigo said brusquely, turning to leave. "I'll let you know the details in three hours."

"That's a pretty long distance to travel for such a short time frame," Sid cautioned. Ichigo smirked.

"I'm pretty fast."

With that, the substitute Shinigami left, quickly leaving the DWMA and, soon after, Death City. His Shunpo carried him swiftly to where the hollows were gathering, and once he got close Ichigo was careful to mask his Reiatsu to make sure that the hollows did not notice him. He didn't want to bring them to Death City, after all.

The orange-haired teen crept through the forest (and it was somewhat odd to see one within a fairly short distance of Death City, which was surrounded by sprawling sands in all directions). He was careful to use a pad of Reishi to avoid stepping on sticks or leaves and his breathing was almost inaudible.

When he was within fifty meters of where the hollows were gathering, Ichigo paused. Something brushed against the edge of his sixth sense. Making sure that he wasn't being observed, Ichigo slipped farther into the underbrush and quietly followed his intuition, trusting that there was a reason behind the odd feeling.

It took him five minutes to isolate the source of the odd sensation and even then he nearly missed it three times because it was so well hidden.

"What the hell?" Ichigo muttered, crouching and gently pushing aside a pile of leaves that mostly obscured something shiny on the ground.

"Oi, King, careful. That stuff doesn't feel right."

"Yeah . . . "

Ichigo stared at the writing, now clearly visible without the leaves covering it. It was a series of concentric circles, runes and other writing sketched in and around each circle. The entire design seemed to move and fluctuate, and Ichigo got a headache just from looking at it.

At the same time, however . . .

"This looks familiar."

"Indeed. We have definitely seen this design - or at least something similar to it - before."

"Where? I don't remember it."

That's because your memory sucks.

"It does not!"

"Now is not the time for this."

Ichigo and Hollow Zangetsu dropped their argument, suitably chastened. Old Man Zangetsu sighed before continuing.

"Now, Ichigo, think. We've seen these markings before. Extremely recently, in fact."

The substitute Shinigami stared at the markings harder, ignoring the slight pain in his temples that came from the moving patterns and formulas. Slowly, he recalled the pattern.

I saw it in a cave - the one with that one witch.

"The hallway witch?"

"Keep going, Ichigo."

Ichigo abruptly stood, his eyes going wide. Moving quickly (yet still remaining impressively quiet), he followed the runes and strange symbols, slowly building a map of the interconnected rings of symbols in his mind. It took him over an hour to locate them all and at one point he had to kill a wandering hollow that had gotten too close. It had been weak, however, and no alarm had been raised.

"They make a complete circle around the camp," Ichigo muttered, back to his position at the first collection of circles that he had noticed. He frowned, speaking aloud to help organize his thoughts. "And the power within them is fading with each passing minute."

He reached out and held his hand just over the symbols, feeling power prickling at his skin. It was a very similar feeling to when the witch's Vortex Shot got too close.

"I don't understand. What's the point of having these runes? Was that witch the leader of this thing?"

"Unlikely. The hollows are still here, and even after you killed the witch the arrancar was still killed by a different power."

"Two witches working together, then. That's probably not entirely unheard of."

"But it isn't likely, since most of the witches we found were isolated."

"It's possible the vortex witch assisted whatever witch is leading these hollows with disguising her forces in exchange for wealth."

"That earring she had did look pretty expensive."

"You should've stolen it."

"No, he should not have. It was not his."

"But he could've been rich!"

"Wealth does not matter."

"Yes it does!"

"Honestly," Ichigo said, sighing and standing, "I feel like a parent with two children. Save it for later, you two."

He could practically feel Old Man Zangetsu's frosty look. "I recall breaking up an argument between you and the hollow recently."

Ichigo scowled. "Touché." He looked around, his eyes following the path of the markings for as long as he could see them. "So, the vortex witch was in league with whatever witch is leading this. If she was capable of creating new dimensions, it's highly possible that she could have accidentally opened a Garganta and allowed hollows to come in."

"There are a few problems with that theory."

"Yeah, I know. I can still sense an open Garganta, so when that witch died it didn't disappear. Which means a hollow must've accidentally missed its target and come here instead of the World of the Living." Ichigo sighed. "Damn; I should've believed Kisuke when he said that there was a chance that the Dangai connected more than just the three main realms."

"Oi, King. It's not a very stable Garganta. The wrong destination probably is the reason the weird vortex which needed to help keep it open. It's close soon enough."

"But right now it's close to Death City and it's open, and there are a hell of a lot of hollows coming out of it. There are people that would be hurt by the hollows that have already come through it. Actually, how could one witch control so many hollows?"

Ichigo's Zanpakutō spirits offered no responses and Ichigo sighed before pulling off his backpack and rifling through it. He pulled out a notebook and pencil and then shouldered the pack again, wincing at the slight noise it made. Fortunately, there were no hollows lurking close enough to hear.

Quickly, the substitute Shinigami began inching closer to the camp while remaining almost completely silent. When he could see the actual hollows, Ichigo bit back a curse.

There were so many. They stretched on over an entire canyon area and didn't seem fazed by the proximity of Death City in the slightest. Ichigo counted several Gillian-class menos wandering around the camp, which were occasionally stepping on the hundreds of smaller hollows milling about on the ground. There were even a few flying through the air.

Gritting his teeth and ignoring the sense of foreboding that filled the air, Ichigo began to sketch, changing position whenever necessary to get the best possible angle on the camp. He added troop estimates, the number of each type of hollow - though most were estimates - and approximate positions of notable landmarks.

Finally, Ichigo finished drawing and waved the paper around to make the ink dry. He then crammed the map back into his backpack and ran through the woods, deftly avoiding running into a tree (and it he happened to run into one tree that caught him by surprise at one point, no one needed to know). It only took him minutes to reach the edge of the camp where the strange Garganta was.

Ichigo winced when he laid eyes on the rip between worlds. It was definitely a Garganta, and one that had to have been created by a hollow at that, though it appeared to have been artificially grown. Even so, the jagged edges and swirling darkness within were unmistakable to the orange-haired teen.

"Dammit. That thing's gonna be a pain to close."

"Look closely, Ichigo. There are more of those strange runes on the ground near the Garganta."

Ichigo heeded his Zanpakutō spirit's advice and quickly located the odd symbols, which were barely glowing on stone pillars by the Garganta.

"Those ones are decreasing in power too," Ichigo muttered. "So that witch that got killed . . . she must have been powering them somehow, and now that she's gone, the runes can't sustain themselves. Or something like that."

"Makes sense. The witch that's in charge of this thing must not be able to perform the same magic, otherwise she would've bolstered the runes by now."

"The Garganta does appear to be slowly shrinking."

"Huh. You're right. But wait - is that a hollow coming through?"

As Ichigo watched, a large hollow pulled itself out of the Garganta and fell to the ground while letting out a roar that seemed to drop the temperature of the air. Ichigo was unfazed, and he watched the next series of events with increasing levels of disbelief.

The second after the hollow finished roaring, an Adjuchas jumped out of the nearby swarms of hollows and tackled the new arrival to the dirt, quickly pinning it. After a minute of struggling, the new arrival appeared to yield, and the Adjuchas backed off. A woman walked up - the odd presence that Ichigo had been sensing. Her pink had made her distinguishable from the hollows around her as she stepped up to the new arrival and appeared to pat it on the back.

The new arrival tensed, but the Adjuchas stepped up and it yielded.

Then the witch - because there was nothing else that she could have been - stepped away and disappeared back into a cave in the cliff face that surrounded the entirety of the hollow camp. Ichigo blinked and focused his vision on the cliff face, noting that there appeared to be some kind of Adjuchas guards surrounding it and keeping the other hollows away. The entire operation seemed rehearsed.

"The hell?" Ichigo muttered. "What was that?"

"Hollows bow to those who are stronger. Adjuchas command Gillian-class Menos and lower-level hollows."

"I know that, idiot, and it doesn't explain what just happened! How can a witch be controlling so many adjuchas hollows? If she did that with every single one that came through - "

"She would not have to. Hollow, if she were to merely control the majority of the stronger Adjuchas, that would be as effective as controlling every hollow, correct?"

"Yeah. The Adjuchas would command every other hollow, even their own, provided they were stronger."

Ichigo's eyes widened with understanding. "Oh."

The Old Man sounded incredibly calm in Ichigo's mind, though the substitute Shinigami could hear the undercurrent of tension in his voice.

"Things may be worse than you originally thought. Every minute we spend observing is another hollow added to the witch's army. You must hurry."

"Shit," growled Ichigo, turning around and launching into a fast Shunpo that would have impressed the Goddess of Flash, "I guess I'm really gonna need that help after all."

A/N Who saw all of that coming? Probably most of you, but whatever. One last epic battle, people!

Review responses:

DARKREAPER72: Well, you're not wrong. Because you're completely right.

Guest: One word. No.

Crimson Homura: Unfortunately, no arrancar that we know will appear. Sorry.

Well, until next time,

-RoR

Please review.