A/N: Welcome back my lovely readers! I have good news, and funny news! The first good news is that the next two chapters, or three, should be coming out much quicker. The funny news is that this is because for the past two chapters, this has basically been one giant chapter that I've split into various parts. With that in mind I'm considering renaming the chapters of the story to reflect that. Just a heads up for all you awesome and kind people out there reading this fic. You make this the joyride that it is.

And for those of you who have wished me well, thank you very much. I'm doing well and I love making these fics for all of you. Feel free to PM me questions about this fic, and if you want, I'm putting together a list of questions to answer at the end of chapters...To be answered by a character of your choice! I am a generous God.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter! More to come soon!

In the rough center of Karakura Town...

Orihime felt an profound sense of unease from her rooftop perch. The hunt tonight had been easy. Too easy. . . She would like to brag and say that they were all such amazing ass-kickers that something like this was barely a problem anymore. There was truth in that; their skills and power had grown since high school. But there was something wrong. She would like to brag, but that was just so much hot air. Something in her gut was trying to tell her something, and she didn't know what.

Maybe she was just hungry. She probably should've had a snack before they left.

"You alright?" Karin asked. She was sipping at a beer bottle and scanning the area. Currently they were on top of the mall, one of the taller buildings in all of Karakura Town, where they could see all of their little homeland.

"I still think we should've gone up into the sky for this." Orihime said.

"Eh. If anything stronger than a normal Hollow showed up, we should. But I think we're fine."

"I hope you're right. But I don't like this." Karin held up a fresh can to her.

"Now?" she asked.

"Liquid courage. Don't worry, it's light stuff. You look like you need a sip." Orihime shrugged, then took can. Ten seconds later, it was empty. She considered the taste and shrugged. It wasn't anything special to her.

"You weren't kidding, that was light." Orihime grumbled. She crushed the can.

"Want another?" Karin asked.

"No thanks, maybe when we get home."

As the wind blew by, Orihime looked in the direction of their house. It couldn't be further than a few minutes run in her spirit form, but to her it felt as if a thousand miles were between her and her baby.

She knew Kazui would be okay. She knew he would be smart and probably even have a nice time with his friend tonight. But she couldn't help but worry about her baby.

When they were living in the city together, the biggest worry she had was learning how to change his diapers, or making sure he was burped and fed. She remembered how worried she and Ichigo had been when Kazui was learning to walk. He had so much trouble with it, and the doctors were concerned it was a nervous system problem. Then out of the blue he was up and walking about like it was second nature. Isshin joked that Kazui had wanted to surprise his parents. Orihime smiled at the image of Kazui running at her, full speed, when he barely came up to her knees.

Then there was the time when his reishi spiked.

Her anxiety must've been visible, because Karin patted her on the shoulder.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Motherhood. Angst. Hormones. you'll understand when you're older."

"Not likely." Karin scoffed. "No children for me, not ever."

"Aww, poop." Orihime sighed. "You're a good aunt though."

"I am the best aunt in the world! None can best my aunt-ness!" Karin boasted, bottle raised to the heavens. "Auntiness. I'm not sure if I'm in a good mood, or if this stuff is more potent than I thought-"

"Lightweight." Orihime said. "You got that stuff on a discount."

"-shut up, but I will go to hell and back for that little squirt. I'd take on the entirety of Soul Society if that's what it took to keep him safe."

"Really? The whole Soul Society? Do you just wanna one up Ichigo?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that." Karin burped. "'Scuse me."

Karin paused. She sighed, and looked up at the sky. Orihime saw her expression shift. Her lips became flat, and her eyes dulled. Orihime scooted closer to her.

"I know I'm grouchy a lot of the time."

"Only sometimes." Orihime chuckled.

"Good one. I know I'm grouchy, or sarcastic a lot of the time. I've been trying to figure out why that is lately, and I don't mean for it to make you or Ichigo or Kazui feel uncomfortable. I want you to know that, and I'm sorry if I seem ungrateful or like I don't care."

Orihime placed her hand on Karin's shoulder. "Thank you. But you're being too hard on yourself Karin. I mean, how long ago did you graduate from college again?" she knew the answer, and Karin knew she knew the answer to that. But nonetheless, Karin obliged in humoring her.

"A year ago, two months, three weeks." Karin recited it like she had been practicing.

"Wait really? You basically graduated yesterday!"

"I guess. I'm still figuring out what the hell I'm even supposed to be doing. Like, they said you should know what you'll do with your career when you leave, but I don't. It's scary, you know?" And I just wanted you to know that, no matter how grouchy or upset I am, you, Ichigo, and Kazui are people that I love. I swear to you," Karin placed her hand on Orihime's. "I'd give my life to protect that kid."

Orihime suddenly felt an odd sensation in her eyes. They felt warm, and puffy. Her lip was twitching. With the speed of a flash step, she pulled Karin into a bear hug so tight it'd make Chad wince in pain.

"Uhm," Karin gasped. "Love you too?"

"Waaah! You're the best sister-in-law!" Orihime cried. She couldn't hold back her tears in the slightest.

"Orihime! Are you okay? Don't cry, please!"

"I can't stop I'm just so happy and you said such nice words and I just can't staaaahp."

"I meant them you know! I love you guys! Just please don't cry!"

"I'm cry cause I'm so haaappy! You're such a great person and you're my sister! I can't staaaahp!"

"But if you don't stop crying then I'll start crying! Damn it I can't stop now! Waaaah!"

"I love you so much Karin!"

"I love you too!"

"You're like the little sister I never had!"

"And you're the big sister I never had!" After what felt like an eternity of weeping, they eventually were able to calm themselves, but Orihime only released Karin from the hug when it actually started to suffocate her. Karin was still laughing as she wiped her eyes.

"Thanks. I needed that."

"You're welcome. Just don't be so hard on yourself. You'll figure stuff out in time. Do you think I knew I wanted to go into art when I went to college? Nope. You'll find it. Though, for real, were you serious about taking on the whole Soul Society? Or are you just super drunk?"

"Little of column A and mostly from column B. Not sure if I could take 'em though. Ichigo got the insane power in the family, not sure if I'll get the same eventually. Who knows?"

"Good question. That whole thing still confuses me. But hey you're already crazy strong." Orihime beamed. She raised her arms overhead to stretch, and felt her elbows and fingers crack like popcorn as she leaned back. Then she lost her balance, and fell on her back.

"You okay?" Karin asked. Orihime rose back to a seating position, confused. She wasn't drunk. . .

"I'm fine. Just kind of lost my-." Orihime felt a shake where she sat, and leaned on her arm for balance.

"Did you feel that?" Orihime asked.

"A vibration? Yeah, I thought I was getting tipsy. I guess not?"

Another shake passed through the roof, intense enough that it shook and moved Karin's six pack. Orihime watched as it tipped over the edge, only for Karin to snatch it up at the last second.

From their perch they saw the parked cars starting to shake as well. A few garbage cans were tipped over and spilled their rotten contents onto the street. Above that, the lamppost was shaking, causing the light to flicker as a result. In fact, that shaking was affecting every lamppost that Orihime could see.

"You're definitely not tipsy Karin."

"Where is that even coming from? Do you feel anything?"

"No." Orihime scanned the horizon. There was no Garganta in the sky, and they both certainly would've felt the presence of a Menos stomping around. Maybe it was just a simple earthquake?

Hollow or not, she should call the house and make sure Kazui and Miki were okay. She reached for her watch, only for it to beep. Ichigo already was calling her.

"Ichigo, Are you alright? We're getting some kind of quakes here."

"Yeah, I noticed!" he shouted back. There was some interference. And swearing.

"Are you okay? You sound a bit off."

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just uh, just working out some indigestion." Ichigo grunted, followed by even more swearing. Orihime and Karin exchanged a look.

"What?" Karin said.

"Ichigo, I think we have either some Hollow or an earthquake, either way you need to get back here."

"Uh, gonna need a minute on that. Crap!" Ichigo shouted. Orihime heard a sound like punching a steak.

"Damn it Ichigo be straight with us." Karin said. "What is going on? Are you alright?"

"Well," Ichigo grunted as more icky sounds came through. "I've got good news and bad news. Good news is that I'm pretty confident I've figured out the source of the quakes, and found the Hollows. Ha! Gotcha ya bastard!" Another stabbing sound was heard, along with Ichigo giving an unsettling cackle. At the same time of that cackle, the ground shook again.

"So yeah, mystery solved. In fact, you'll see the source of the quakes in a few seconds you two."

"...Why?" Orihime asked.

"Just look to where that haunted house is. The big mansion with the graffiti."

Orihime and Karin looked to the house, in the western most segment of Karakura Town. It took a moment, but Orihime could see that the streetlamps there were shaking especially hard, along with several houses and cars nearby. She could see shingles falling off nearby roofs like crazy. The mansion itself was shedding pieces like dandruff from all three floors. Wait. . .

"Didn't that place have four floors?" Orihime asked.

"I hate you with all of my hate! Sorry not you guys. Love you both. But yeah it did use to have four floors. But here's the plot twist guys." Ichigo's voice dropped into a whisper. "It's gonna have zero floors in a few seconds."

"What do you-." Orihime was hit with a deafening scream, and the bursting of the Earth itself. She blinked, and found that the old house was uprooted and shattered. In its place rose a tremendous black mound, reaching higher and higher into the sky. At the top of the mound there was a row of gigantic teeth, arranged in a perfect circle around the mound's center. She saw several dozen red eyes above the rows of nasty teeth, and scales easily the size of a car that ran along its entire form.

The mound rose at an angle, curving itself to move west. The top of the pitch black mound fell towards the ground. Orihime could see the teeth spread wide, and knew what was coming.

Like a massive battering ram, the Hollow smashed into the ground with such force it shook the ground in the entire town. Orihime and Karin fell on their backs from how intensely the ground shook. They could hear car alarms going off all over the place. It was a miracle that houses weren't shaken and crumbled into rubble. By the time they both rose to their feet, the last they saw of the creature was its tail disappearing into the earth. Orihime didn't need to exchange words with Karin; they were already on the move.

"We're on our way." Orihime kicked off an air vent, gaining enough air to glide over three blocks. Karin was right at her side as they moved like the wind towards their target.

"Have you ever seen a Hollow that big?" Karin asked. Orihime shook her head.

"I think this is Bawabawa's meaner cousin," Ichigo said. "you know, that cute worm one with Neliel."

"Wait," Orihime said. "Ichigo, what was the bad news?"

"Well, you know how big that giant worm-snake-lamprey thing is?"

"Yes?"

"That was kind of hard to miss," Karin added.

"And you guys how it had a giant mouth?"

"Yes?" they both said.

"And you know how movies portray being swallowed whole by monsters as like being stuck in a gigantic cave? Like you can see the rib cage high overhead, there's skeletons all over, and you can move about freely?"

"...What did you do."

"Yeah, turns out its more like being stuck inside a cube of jello. Only it smells terrible."

"Ichigo," Karin said. "are you inside it?"

"Actually no I'm stuck in the Harajuku district, just next to the bento store, they have this cute little- Yes! Where in the hell do you think I am!? I am stuck inside a gigantic throbbing, drooling, mucus-covered jello worm monster!"

"Are you okay?" Orihime asked. He was being sarcastic, so he couldn't be too bad.

"I'm alive, but this thing coated me with a saliva that hardens like metal. So, currently working on that problem. There were two other Hollows with this one, one's a gorilla with flail arms, the other's a giant crocodile with extra limbs. They want revenge for killing that Adjuchas. I think this giant guy is their other friend. Or pet. . . Don't know, don't care."

"Right." Orihime made a flash step to increase her speed. Fifty feet crossed in an instant. She could never match the sheer power of most Soul Reapers, but she could still move quickly.

"Can you force it to surface?" she asked.

"Definitely. Just need a minute to get this damn muck off. Agh, its in my hair, its covering my legs! I can feel it beneath my clothes! It's covering so much of me, its like being dipped in marmite!"

Orihime had a nagging feeling that Ichigo was going to need a shower after this. That and a full body skin exfoliation.

Just outside the Karakura store, on the far east side of town...

Kazui had been feeling good a few minutes ago. The headache he had felt from Dad's power had vanished pretty quickly. Soon after that, him and Miki had found the marshmallows and candy pretty quickly. Miki had perked up when they purchased the food, and Kazui had felt like the evening was going to go well.

They were getting ready to cross the street – look both ways - and then Kazui felt the ground shake. Before he could steady himself, he fell flat on his face. He felt very grateful that, according to his parents, his body was more durable than normal humans.

Miki was squealing as everything shook like the world had turned into a bouncy castle. Kazui remained on the floor, trying to keep himself steady as he rose to his feet. Then he realized that trying to stand up straight was more than he was capable of, and made friends with the sidewalk again. He could sense something else going on. This wasn't any ordinary earthquake, there was something moving beneath them.

"What is happening!?" Miki shrieked, holding onto the nearby streetlamp pole.

"I think its an earthquake." Kazui shouted back. There was nothing above him, so he figured the best course of action was to stay right where he was on the ground. He could feel the energy of a giant being, definitely a Hollow. It was on the move, but for what reason Kazui couldn't tell. What he could tell was that the Hollow was going away from the town. Several more shocks followed the initial one, but they grew less and less intense, no doubt because the Hollow was going further away. He wondered if it was it afraid of something, and that maybe it was running away.

"When did Karakura Town have earthquakes!?" Miki shouted.

"Here and there. I guess," Kazui replied. He rose from his spot. "I think we're okay though."

Miki looked at him like he had grown an extra head. She clung to the post for dear life.

"How do you know?" Miki said. "How do you know that an aftershock won't hit? I felt like I could feel something moving around here! Is Godzilla buried under the town!?"

The question gave Kazui pause. There was definitely no Godzilla, here or anywhere. But Mom and Uncle Kisuke had shown him pictures of Mom, Dad, and their friends fighting a giant monster off the coast of Hawaii. He was pretty sure that had been a Hollow, but then again he could barely remember what it had looked like. So maybe there were in fact actual kaiju.

Or, Kaiju Hollows.

Kaijows. . .

But he was getting off-topic, and he had to help Miki. He could see the fear in her eyes. She didn't know what was going on or how to handle it. He had to help her.

What did Dad to help Mom cheer up? Mom said Dad would help her with tough days by doing something for her.

Oh, it was to make her laugh!

"Hey Miki!" he said

"What?" she said back, still sticking to the lamppost.

"You ever heard about the..." Kazui's throat suddenly felt dry.

"Huh?" Miki replied.

"I'm trying to remember this one joke...It was about a donkey...I think it went...Damn it!"

"What?" Miki said. "What are you even talking about?"

As it turned out, there was no joke.

Well, there probably had been a joke at one point. But no more. The joke was dead. It had been shot in the head, repeatedly, had its limbs eaten by rabid hyenas, had its corpse buried in a shallow grave in a beach, where it resurfaced and exposed the rotting flesh to a group of children, after which it was moved into another, different shallow grave in a meadow, then the earth around the joke had been salted and set on fire, before being paved over to make way for a new parking lot that was condemned and abandoned in three months.

...The joke was dead.

"Never mind." Kazui rose to stand. "I'm pretty sure its stopped. But we can take it slow, watch where we walk, and we'll be back home very soon. Okay?"

"I don't know..." Miki said.

"Miki, you can trust me." Kazui looked into her eyes with the utmost sincerity. This seemed to make her gaze to drop in intensity, and her knuckles – previously white from the grip – regained their color. Slowly but surely Miki let go of the post to stand tall on the sidewalk. She still looked nervous, but she was taking a chance and trusting him. Kazui would be sure to not betray that trust.

"If its alright with you I'm going to walk closer to the houses and shops, in case we need to get under a door frame faster." Her words came quiet and rushed, but Kazui had understood clear enough. She slipped under an awning.

"Works for me." he said with a smile. "Look on the bright side, it could be worse. Could be raining."

Then, several thousand gallons of water dropped from the sky.

Miki was protected from the rain; Kazui was not. He was drenched in seconds. With a sigh he wiped his hair out of his face. Miki was staring at him with wide eyes and pursed lips. She covered her mouth with her hands while her face twitched. Kazui could hear a choked giggle coming from her. That giggle exploded into uncontrollable, heavy laughter. The only thing that Kazui could do was stand in the waterfall. Yet despite that, he smiled.

At least Miki was laughing.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, atop a roof...

Two pairs of eyes followed the orange-haired boy and his friend, the black-haired girl. They were eyes of hunger and rage. They were the eyes of Hollows. They watched the boy and girl turn the corner, and quickly moved their position. The first crawled on powerful legs that were deceptively quiet for a being its size. The second did not crawl along the street, for it glided all the way to their new perch just after the first arrived.

The gliding Hollow, Darkfang, watched her assigned prey with great interest. She had hunted live humans a few times before. Their souls always had a more filling taste to them, one that already dead souls seemed to lack. She could still remember the taste of a family she had eaten soon after she had transformed.

Just thinking about her first live kill was making her mouth water, because the boy and girl smelled like the finest of gourmet dishes to her. She wasn't even hungry, and she wanted to devour them whole.

"Darkfang," her handler growled. "I know what you're thinking. You're not to eat them. Understand?"

"But Needler, can't you smell them?"

"Of course I can. I smell danger. You are not to eat them. Follow them, scare them, maybe scratch them, but under no circumstances are you to eat them." Needler growled.

Darkfang returned this with her own growl. How could her handler, one so far above her, be so weak as to deny himself a delicious and powerful meal such as this?

"Do not bare your teeth Darkfang, especially not at me." Needler flexed his long tail. Darkfang felt a weight form on her shoulders, and she met with the eyes of Needler. His eyes pierced her soul with an icy precision. She bared her teeth at him.

"Or what-." A long and tight cord wrapped around Darkfang's neck and slammed her to the ground. The cord felt like a steel cable as it gripped tighter and tighter. She could make out the instrument of her torture: Needler's tail. Despite what the underlings said, it was not just for show.

The base of Needler's tail twitched, and spikes emerged from the tail. They first grew from the base, and rose up along the tail's length up to just below her neck. One spike could pierce her body like a Zanpakuto. Darkfang realized that if he wanted to, he could kill her in seconds.

"No. Eating. Understand?" he growled, like the voice of a hellhound.

"Yes sir! I understand perfectly!" Darkfang choked out the words.

"Follow them. When you get the signal, scare them." Needler's tail retracted from Darkfang's neck. She took several deep breaths and rose back to her feet, all the while trying not to make eye contact with her commander. She could feel his breath, and hear his growling.

"Go." he barked.

Darkfang jumped from the rooftop. At the peak of her jump she extended her wings and drifted silently down the street, her eyes trained on her target the whole time. She landed on a lamppost. The pole creaked with her landing, but the children didn't hear it through the furious downpour.

Back at his own perch, Needler took a deep breath, and reminded himself of their leader's plan. The Boss wasn't known for his tactical miscalculations, but Needler still had to remind himself that this was all according to plan. He watched Darkfang follow the kids, and felt a deep swelling of pity for his attack dog.

One of these kids felt like a dense stone; the strength of a mountain condensed and concentrated into the body of a child. The other felt like it was one of Needler's own kind, and yet not. That the Living World could produce such creatures sent a chill up his spine, and he was a goddamn Hollow.

If he had a choice in the matter, he would give those children a wide berth. Let them have this stinking town, he was not going near them willingly. Either one might bring Darkfang to her inevitable demise, and if they didn't, the abominations guarding this town certainly would. He couldn't even imagine what those beasts were capable of, especially not when a child was threatened.

Then again, that was the plan.

Before catching fish, one had to study them.

Meanwhile, fifty miles outside Karakura Town...

Tracking a giant worm beast wasn't hard. Its path was as loud as a thousand car horns, and the sheer destruction was impossible to ignore. Entire trees were uprooted like weeds as the ground collapsed and folded in on itself. The sound of this destruction was deafening to all within several miles, as the wrath of nature tore its way through the countryside. Hollows were many things, but rarely were they subtle.

Tracking the thing would've been a simple, if bumpy, task if they were on the ground. But in the air? Karin could literally track this thing blindfolded and just follow the sounds, it would've that easy. Which was good, because tracking it was about the only thing they could do.

"Ichigo, you okay?" In response Karin got muffled status and a series of grunts. "What?"

"I said 'I'm covered in saliva and muscle tissue.' Extrapolate from there."

Karin slipped around a tree that went skyward. The thing had to be very deep inside the ground and yet it was sending things flying like this. There was no way they could get to it through the ground, not even with her shikai.

"Why is it doing this?" Orihime asked. She was slipping around a few stray boulders that became flight worthy. "And where are those other two Hollows?"

"Well they did say they're trying to kill me." Ichigo shouted, spitting up something as he did.

Karin struggled to work this puzzle. Killing someone via digestion wasn't exactly efficient, much less if the person being assassinated was still alive. Maybe that was why the Hollow was heading away from the town, it was trying to buy time to digest Ichigo. Somehow.

"Hang on Ichigo, we'll get you out." Karin said. "Orihime, can you maybe pierce the ground and the Hollow with Tsubaki?"

Before Orihime could reply, one of her hairpins lit up with gold light, and a small orb sharing that same light burst forth. It took up flight between the two of them, and quickly formed into the little sprite, Tsubaki. The little guy looked none too pleased with Karin for some reason.

"What kind of question is that!?" he shouted. "Of course I can!"

"Well then lets just have him fly around, pierce the thing until we hit a vital organ." Karin said.

"I'm right here." Tsubaki protested.

"I already thought of that." Orihime said. "But doing enough internal damage to kill it would take a while, the Hollow is so ridiculously huge that we'd be at this all night before we slowed it down."

Their communicator watches scratched with static as Ichigo's voice came in muffled. Tsubaki flew in near Karin's head to get a better listen, while Karin raised the watch closer.

"You don't need to kill it, just get me loose and I'll handle the rest. All I need is my hands free."

Karin realized the truth in that. All Ichigo needed to get out was his hands free. If he could punch, or use a Kido, or just touch Zangetsu, he would be outside of it in no time. Ichigo only needed to be touching his Zanpakuto to use the Getsuga Tenshou. It was a feature Karin had to admit that she was slightly jealous off, as her own Zanpakuto required a different method of attack.

But it really was that simple, and then they could tackle the other two Hollows, wherever they were.

"Orihime, can you target Ichigo's hands?" Karin asked.

"How is that a real question?" Tsubaki asked. "Do you doubt my master's abilities?" Tsubaki was quickly summoned back into Orihime's hairpins.

"Yes." she said. "Might be a touch tricky, but I can sense his location, and Tsubaki can do the rest."

"Ichigo, you ready?" Karin was afraid to guess at the worst case scenario here. Maybe Ichigo could wind up getting stabbed in the chest, or through the chest.

"Yes! At worst I'll get stabbed, and that's nothing new."

"Honey, this is not encouraging." Orhime said. Karin had to agree.

"I'm joking sweetie. Haha funny jokes from your funny hubby. Just please just get me out now! Its in my scalp! My beautiful silky scalp is covered in oil and muck and probably bits of undigested gunk please just do it!"

Karin laughed. Hearing Ichigo so snappish and frantic was kind of hilarious.

"I heard that!" Ichigo said. "Karin, I'm shaving you bald when this is over!"