Chapter 21
Ossan and Shiro were there suddenly, reaching into the mist that had yet to condense.
"Die you bastard!" Shiro shouted, pouring her energy into a cero that seared off the power of the hogyoku.
"Die!" Ossan shouted again, as he did earlier. The telltale blue energy of the Quincy arrows shimmered out from Ossan's hands to injure the hogyoku's manifestation as well.
The lights shone against that of the hogyoku. The mist of the despicable gem rose up in protest and separated from Ichigo, leaving her panting and trembling where she hung. Shiro and Ossan poured all of their energy into their various attacks and the hogyoku shook once before exploding into a rain of violet energy. The remnants flowed down towards the crimson river and Ossan was once again after them. Ichigo had never seen her elder spirit with such horrible vengeance for anything, living or dead. Blue arrows rained down, completely obliterating the mist while Shiro charged the largest cero she'd ever created, including while in her maddened possession of Ichigo against Ulquiorra.
"Ichigo!" Ossan shouted, "Someone's reatisu is getting closer!"
"I can't move!" she called back, still struggling against the chains suspending her in midair. Ossan responded by shooting a few arrows back at her. They sizzled against the metal, slowly burning holes through the constraints. Finally, they broke and she fell to the ground. Wasting no time, she pulled herself out of her inner world.
Quickly, she realized that it was Grimmjow's reatisu closing in on her. She pushed the pain back and leapt to her feet, shunpoing away. It was the first time she had done long distance shunpo in who knew how long. She realized she didn't know how long she'd been in Hueco Mundo. She had no clue.
Grimmjow's energy was getting even closer to her and she pushed whatever she had left into moving forward. She made it out of Las Noches and was running through the sand. With every step she took, she moved farther forward, dragging herself along and trying to keep from collapsing where she stood. In the distance, she saw a smaller hollow opening a garganta.
Ahead of her, the portal was slowly closing. With the last of her conscious ability, she moved. Whether it was shunpo or sonido, she didn't care and she doubted her inner spirits did either. She barely made it, well, most of her did. She could feel the weight from the back of her head disappear. If she had the ability to process it, she would guess that her long hair was now very short. However, every inch of will power was forcing her forwards at speeds she was unable to process.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of darkness, the light shone in front of her. The sun fell on her pale skin, warmth unexpected. She fell back to normal human speeds, unable to keep up the speed of the movement.
"I… I'm home." Slowly, she limped and stumbled her way towards the Kurosaki Clinic. Unfortunately, the garganta had opened on the wrong side of the town. She had no energy to gripe though, she was grateful to be gone from that hell.
Ossan and Shiro finally managed to put down the last bits of the hogyoku within her soul, relishing in the joy of being home.
She kept going, slowing as her path grew shorter. Halfway across the town, she collapsed. Within her soul, Ossan had been keeping half an eye on her progress. He released the last bit of her power to send up a spiritual flare. Anyone worth mentioning would feel it. He could only hope that they would recognize it after so long.
The vial in his hand dropped to the floor, shattering and sending acid splashing everywhere.
"…Ichigo?" he asked, eyes wide and clearly visible under the lack of striped hat. Moments later, he was out in the front of the shop, only to be caught be his assistant.
"Kisuke," the large man murmured, "We don't know if it's her. Aizen could be using her as a trap. Remember what was happening as she was taken!"
"I don't care!" the man returned harshly, taking Tessai by surprise with the ferocity of his struggle. Urahara was out of the front of the shop a moment later.
"Stay here!" he yelled to Ururu and Jinta as he took off after Kisuke. After a moment, his gigai fell to the ground. Moments later, he passed Kisuke's gigai as well. Already, people were beginning to gather around it, but Tessai didn't have time to hide the false bodies from view and wipe their minds. He would deal with the repercussions later.
"Ichigo!" Urahara called, shunpoing as quickly as possible to the location of the barely detectable reatisu spike. It had been strong for only a moment, but now was dying out, rapidly. It was almost as if… He pushed himself faster. However, he was not prepared for the sight that met his eyes.
Her body lay, broken on the pavement, blood seeping onto the cement around her. What was once long, beautiful hair was now cut brutally short, as if someone had grabbed her locks and sheered them all with fire. Her clothes were ripped up and down her back, blood caking the cloth to lash wounds. Quickly, he dropped to his knees. Her blood soaked into his hakama, but he paid it no mind. Ever so carefully, he rolled her onto her back to see where all of the blood was coming from. The lash wounds were severe, but they were dry and closed over with infections.
"…Ichigo!" he was stunned. Her wrists… There was no skin there. Muscle showed in some places, but the majority of her flesh was gone from halfway down her forearms to the ball of her thumb. It reminded him of the wounds of someone struggling against shackles. However… It went much higher up her arms than should be expected from that.
Tessai appeared behind him at that point and forcibly pushed past Kisuke. Carefully, he began to cast a complicated kido. Urahara watched in silence, horror fighting with fury in his soul. After several tense minutes during which each second seemed to be hours, Tessai had finished with the basics of his kido.
"I can't heal her, Kisuke," Tessai murmured, reatisu reserves already beginning to strain from the multiple diagnostic and healing kido he was running on the girl, "We need Retsu-san." Urahara nodded, ever so slowly, forcing both the horror and rage to take a back seat. Right now, the best thing was a rationale mind.
"Is she stable enough to transport back to the shop?"
"Unfortunately, no. Several of her internal organs are failing and I fear extensive movements may make healing her wrists impossible."
"Alright. Stay with her. I'll be back." He took off in the fastest shunpo he could manage back to the Shoten. Quickly grabbing one of the denreishinki he had on hand, he dialed a number and prayed.
AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS
I'm posting on time! Be proud of me! This is the first time in like two months! I'm proud of me! You can't pitchfork and torch me! Well, you could, but I hope you won't!
So, Ichigo finally escaped from Hueco Mundo! She made it back to the world of the living and Urahara finally is in the picture! I've had at least one person egging on commentary about Urahara breaking Ichigo out of Las Noches. So... Yeah. He didn't end up breaking her out, but he did find her and so now Urahara is calling Unohana in for backup on Ichigo.
AnonymousGuest: I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Please let me know what you think of this one as well!
Andrey258:Well, Ichigo is very distrustful of the hogyoku as it helped Aizen do horrible things. I know in the past you've suggested Grimmjow bust Ichigo out and I just wanted to let you know that he is not out of the picture just because Ichigo has broken out. I'm glad you liked the last chapter
So the story is by no means done, but this is the end of this particular arc. I hope you all keep reading and let me know what you think! Write to you next Thursday!