25. Reviewer Prompt #3 (Part 1)

Ichigo was having another bad day. (He'd been having a lot of those since becoming a substitute shinigami.)

The original 'Rescue Orihime' plan required him to sneak into Hueco Mundo through Urahara's garganta, grab Orihime, then sneak out again before anyone noticed him. If someone got in his way, he'd defeat them quickly and move on. When Ishida and Chad decided to come, they were welcome (but supposedly unnecessary) backup. Unfortunately, he forgot to take 'Aizen the Omnipotent' into account and the humans were detected the second they stepped out of the portal.

After that, things became more difficult but not impossible. Rukia and Renji showed up, they all met Nel and her 'Desert Bros', and the new multi-species group left for Los Noches (which was much farther away than expected). Upon arrival, they found themselves at a five-way fork and decided to split up to search faster.

That's when everything went to hell.

Looking back, he can't for the life of him remember what he was thinking. How was splitting their strength going to help, in the home of hundreds of powerful arrancar? Sure, there was something to be said for scouting ahead and gathering intel, but not when there was most likely an espada waiting at the end of every trail!

Now, here he was, all alone and already tired from fighting lesser arrancar, facing a fully rested and restored Grimmjow.

And maybe he shouldn't have been thinking about all of that in the middle of a battle because Grimmjow, in full resurreccion, managed to take advantage of his distraction to pull back out of reach and shoot off a powerful Gran Rey Cero in Ichigo's direction. Taken by surprise, Ichigo barely managed to dodge the blast and found himself losing concentration and allowing his mask to dissolve. Disoriented and barely able to stay aloft, he was unable to parry when Grimmjow came in for a finishing blow. The feline slipped under his guard and landed a vicious punch to his stomach. It was so hard that the visored flew backwards, impacting a building some hundred yards behind him with enough force to break through the roof and knock him unconscious.

Grimmjow was having a good day. The first in a while, actually.

It hadn't started that well, what with that kiss-ass Ulquiorra strutting around. Then fuckin' Aizen-sama decided to make an example out of Grimmjow during the espada meeting when all the sexta had wanted to do was kill Kurosaki…but then he'd actually found the brat.

And victory was oh-so-sweet.

Even with his hollow mask and bankai, the human twerp hadn't stood a chance against Pantera. It took more effort than he liked to admit, and it had been one of the best fights he'd ever had, but Grimmjow eventually emerged the uncontested winner.

And now, Kurosaki, it's time to die.

He gave a fanged grin, watching the defeated human sail through the air from his punch and preparing a cero to deal the death blow.

But his smile sank into an annoyed grimace and the cero flickered out when Ichigo landed.

Or not.

Of all the rotten luck…

But not even Grimmjow was bull-headed enough to push his luck that far. Besides, the important thing was that he'd won. What did it matter if he didn't have Kurosaki's corpse cooling at his feet, the human's lifeblood dripping from his claws? It was bad form to kill an unconscious opponent, anyway.

With an irritated, but still victorious, grumble, the sexta dropped out of resurreccion and vanished across the desert in a burst of sonido.

Starrk eyed his new 'skylight' with patience born of resignation. He'd known about Grimmjow's fight, of course; the entire population of Los Noches felt the release of Pantera; but he hadn't intended to get involved or take notice. Not until a rather large… object… came crashing through the roof and woke him up.

At least the feline hadn't pushed his luck and tried to enter Starrk's tower. Even now, the primera could feel the other arrancar's reiatsu signature dwindling in the distance, likely trying to avoid the consequences of his actions. Luckily for the sexta, Starrk wasn't quite annoyed enough to pursue him. Not to mention, he had another focus for his attention.

With a quiet sigh, he drew his gaze down from the hole in his roof to scrutinize the unconscious visored lying at his feet. The boy was in rough shape, having reverted to his shinigami form at some point during his flight. He was obviously one of the intruders that Aizen-sama warned them about; Starrk hadn't caught a name. Hypothetically, he was supposed to fight if any of them made their way into his quarters, but this one hadn't so much 'entered' as 'been forcibly thrown into' and he didn't look in any condition to fight.

Starrk nudged the boy lightly with the toe of his shoe.

"Hey, kid."

No reaction; he pushed a little harder.

"Hey. We're supposed to be fighting."

The next nudge garnered a slight wince (he must have hit a bruise) but nothing remotely threatening.

Starrk stepped back with a pensive frown. He couldn't leave the kid unattended, considering Aizen-sama's orders, not to mention he didn't want the visored destroying his home if he woke up. But the intruder was in no condition to fight and Starrk had no intention of killing an unconscious foe (and possibly not a conscious one, either).

With a sigh of irritation, he leaned down and grabbed Ichigo by the collar of his shihakusho, lifting him easily with one hand and tossing the limp body over his shoulder into a fireman's carry. He grabbed the giant cleaver-like zanpakuto with his free hand and turned back towards his bedroom. It didn't look like the human was going to be waking up any time soon, and Starrk had plenty of naps to catch up on.

Another reviewer prompt filled! Well, partially. This 'one-shot' stretched so long that I split it in half; this is part 1, part 2 will be posted in the next few days.

The original prompt (by Love Psycho) was "Ichigo was supposed to be saving Orihime, except somehow he ended up in bed with a rather lazy and probably powerful Espada. Now, he attempts to sneak away to get back to his mission. Starrk doesn't approve." (I paraphrased that a little bit, to make it shorter.) As you can see, this chapter was basically the set up; Starrk and Ichigo will interact next chapter. I actually like the result, although I'm not sure it was what the prompter was looking for.

I hope you enjoyed it, Love Psycho!

Everyone, thanks so much for your reviews last chapter! Five reviews at one time is a record , and it was amazing to hear from all of you. :) I love to hear from people who read my stories, and I've responded to everyone (that I could)!

(I should note that I can't respond to unsigned reviews, especially if you don't give me any way to contact you. Sorry (JadeDragon and Guest)! if you'd like a personalized response, let me know.)

Please review & let me know what you think!