Author's Note

And I made it. Got this done before the month ended. The Bleach manga has been quite the roller coaster ride this month and I just can't wait to see what comes next! Speaking of the manga, I've gone back and edited chapters 19 and 20 here to match Ichigo's new style of hollowfication revealed in ch. 676. So, you know, if you want to see that slight difference in aesthetics, go back and read those again.

PLEASE READ THIS. You've probably noticed that I use "[this]" to denote speaking in a foreign language, namely Japanese. Part of this chapter occurs in Hueco Mundo with English speakers being present. When the story is occurring in Hueco Mundo "[this]" denotes English speech since Japanese is Hueco Mundo's spoken language (even though everything has Spanish names. \(-.-) /manga).

Anywho, on with the chapter!

"[Oya? A garganta's not that simple, Kurosaki-san. You'd need two people cable of using kido, which you don't have-]"

"[Which is why I'm telling you to just walk us through it over the phone! I can try, so we'd at least have a chance then!]"

"[…You didn't let me finish. You'd also need a set of coordinates for where you'll connect to on the other side. Unlike natural garganta where the hollow's desires and instinct set the exit point, artificial ones require coordinates because of their basis in senkaimon technology. We don't have Inoue-san's coordinates and I don't need to tell you how big Hueco Mundo is.]"

"[Do we really need coordinates? 'Cause I seem to remember that you sent Kenpachi in right next to my location when I wasn't anywhere near where you dropped us in.]"

"[I placed trackers on all of you when I sent you through because I knew that the soutaicho wanted to deploy taicho into Hueco Mundo as well and, given your penchant for trouble and fights, I figured using you as coordinate markers was the way to go. Inoue-san doesn't have a marker and we have no idea what area she and the girls were taken to. For now, if you want to help, sit tight and wait for me to get back. I have a few ideas on how to modify some of my equipment into cross-dimensional radar so we can try to ping her to get coordinates, but it's delicate work. So just be ready to head out at full tilt.]"

"[Dammit, Urahara. If she doesn't make it…]"

"[There'll be blood to pay. Voldemort-san will find that getting those girls killed was the worst and last mistake he'll ever make, I promise, Kurosaki-san.]"

"So…?" Harry asks as Ichigo stops pacing around Urahara and Shinji's shared office and hangs up.

Ichigo lets out a frustrated breath. "Urahara-san says to wait for him to get back. We want to drop in somewhere at least slightly close to where they are, so we have to wait for him to get back here to locate them."

"How long will he be? I mean if-" Ron croaks, worry having set in past his shock.

"As fast as he can. Don't think about the what ifs or failure. Inoue is strong. We'll make it in time." Ichigo calmly replies, even as his clenched fists tremble.

"Sumimasen. I should have realized that the attack was more than a test of our abilities. It was an obvious distraction and I should have known they would try to get past us without actually confronting us. I should have insisted that one us stayed behind to guard Harry-san and the other students." Uryu says, fingering his pendant and thinking about the troubles of the last time he didn't voice his suspicions.

"Don' beat yourself up over it. I shoulda seen it myself, what with all my experience. After all, if you want cubs, your best chance is when the lions are out on the hunt. They lured us out and we fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Simple as that." Shinji says.

"It wouldn't have made a difference." Ichigo states, leaning back against the wall near the open window and staring at the ceiling. "Inoue has the best defenses and I would have trusted her to protect them." He lets out a bitter laugh. "She did protect them. We were the ones who let our guard down."

Uryu and Shinji have no reply. Ichigo's right, defense and healing is exactly what they trust Orihime to do without fail. With so many hollows it was only logical to deploy all fighters to mop up that mess while she held down the fort, but the regrets of hind sight can be hard to shake.

After ten silent and tense minutes, Urahara slips in through the window, a black cat jumping off his shoulders. Urahara quickly rifles through assorted boxes, removing wiring, tools, and several other gadgets to set upon Shinji's clear desk, seeing as his own was already buried under a pile of circuitry and electronics. The jumble quickly becomes a small box with an array of antennas on top of it and a wire leading away to Urahara's holographic computer stand.

Urahara begins to type in commands when there is a ripping sound.

"ICHIGOOOOOOOO!"

"Oof!"

"Ah! Kuosaki-kun!"

Ichigo had turned around just in time to take a tackle hug to the gut that slammed him back into the wall, hard enough to leave a crack in the stone. The others looked back to the garganta that had just opened to see Hermione and Ginny come out, followed by Orihime who headed over to Ichigo with a worried look on her face.

"[Haha, were you surprised Ichigo?]"

Ichigo doesn't respond to the busty woman that had slammed him into the wall.

"[Ichigo? Ichigooo?]"

"[Oh no! You knocked him out!]"

"[What?! Ichigo! Ichigooo!]" The woman starts shaking his shoulders, causing his head to flop around limply on his neck.

"[Aaaah, you're making it worse!]"

"[Nooooo!]"

"[Alright, alright. That's enough of that, I think. Let him go and I'll wake him up.]" says the cat.

Harry stares, Ron's jaw drops, Hermione looks stricken, and Ginny's legs give out on her. A talking cat just did not compute and the night has been strange enough without it. Yoruichi ignores them all, instead padding over to Ichigo.

"[It's time to wake up, Ichigo.]" And with that, she swipes her claws across his face. Ichigo's eyes snap open with a yowl, his hands coming up to cover the scratches.

"[Dammit, Yoruichi. That hurts!]"

"With that settled, I think we'd all like to know what happened. So if you ladies would be so kind as to explain…" Urahara says, a mischievous grin on his face from the little show.

"Right!" Orihime says with a nod, looking away from her inspection of Ichigo's head wounds. "So we got kidnapped and then…"

The moment the arrancar had fully touched down in Hueco Mundo, Orihime throws her head back into his nose and brings her heel down on his toes, just like Tatsuki had drilled her. He yelps and she quickly twists out of his loosened grip, deploying Tsubaki to create a wider gap and distract him while she got Hermione and Ginny out of his grip. With the girls behind her, Orihime calls Hinagiku, Baigon, and Lily into position around them.

"Why you little-! Don't think your little shield can protect you, princessa!"

He draws his sword and attacks, only for the shield to explode upon contact, throwing him back and leaving a gash on his arm.

"What?!"

"Shiten Koshun." Orihime calmly responds. "Hammer away at it if you like, but you'll only hurt yourself."

He just growls at her and Orihime hopes that it means he's a hot head like Grimmjow who likes to do things himself because if he's not, well, Hueco Mundo is full of hollows and she's only one girl. At the very least, if he does go with a hollow swarm to wear her out, she hopes that allies will arrive before she falls. Although, it may be difficult for friends to find them because Orihime doesn't recognize where they are. It's not the open desert plain that covers almost everything, certainly not the remains of Las Noches, nor is it the Negal Ruin. She thinks they must be underground or inside a cave because the ever present crescent moon is not shining down on them and the rocky ground looks natural. Wherever they are is also huge because she can't see any walls or the ceiling through the gloom, only large pillars of what could be rock or possibly trees.

The hunting howls of hollows echo from all around, the insatiable souls having caught the scent of three human souls of decent power.

The arrancar smiles. "How long can you hold out, princessa?"

"Long enough." I hope.

In minutes there is a swarm of hollows on them. Some go for the barrier relentlessly, others show more caution after a single blow, either way it terrifies Hermione and Ginny. They fear each blow to the shield because they know that no spell, no matter how foreign, can hold up forever and they don't have any defense except Orihime because their wands were left behind a world away. Each blow to their defense is countered with an attack, sometimes taking limbs, sometimes splitting the grinning bone mask of the attacker and killing them, and sometimes it only leaves a scratch or burn that just furthers the frenzy of the swarm. Even when the monsters fall, there was always ten more to replace them.

As the parade of nightmares continue to bash the barrier, Hermione's thoughts race back to Christmas time and Kon's words about spirit worlds: Another is filled to the brim with monsters that would like nothing better than to devour every being they come across. That must be where they are now and she thinks that being eaten must be a horrible way to die, that Orihime and the others must be incredibly brave to willingly fight these monsters, that she could never fight them on a daily basis, but mostly she begs the universe for rescue from this imminent death.

And with a loud crash, her prayer is answered.

"I bet I can cut through these hollows to Orihime-san first!"

"I'll take out the most hollows, don'tcha know!"

Hermione can't understand a word those cheerful voices said, though she thinks she might have caught Orihime's name in there. Then the monsters howl in agony as a whole swath of them falls dead and there's suddenly a woman bouncing up and down on the other side of Orihime's barrier.

"I win! I win! I beat you both!"

"Aaaw~ No fair, Nel-sama!"

"There's still more hollows, so I'm not beat yet, don'tcha know!"

Hermione and Ginny can only stare at their rescuers.

First is the woman, who has curves like Orihime, her hair long and blueish-green with a skull-like cap with ram's horns perched on her head. There's a scar running from the cap down her forehead and across the bridge of her nose, bisecting a pink stripe under her eyes and across her cheeks. Her outfit is somewhat like a one piece swimsuit with fluffy edges, along with thigh high boots, fluffy armguards, and pauldrons while a sword rests in her hand.

Another looks like a man in a bug helmet with a small purple curtain covering his left eye and blonde hair coming out the back. He wears a lilac body suit and loincloth with a white chest plate, gauntlets, and greaves carrying what could best be described as a lightsaber attached to a katana hilt. And Hermione can only say he looks like a man because no human could live with a perfect hole through them just below their ribcage, nor would they have just three long toes on each foot.

The final rescuer seems to be some sort of tiki-headed person in a yellow onesie with black polka-dots on the back, his large, white hands and feet poking out, and a large steel club with spikes in one hand. Hermione doubts he is human either with his strange proportions and the way the tiki mask's jaw moves in time with his words.

"Nel-chan! Pesche-san, Dondochakka-san!"

"Orihime-chan! What are you doing here without Ichigo? Grimmjow didn't-"

"You dare interfere, woman!" the kidnapper roars, firing small blasts from his fists at the woman in question. She easily slices through the discs of energy with her sword.

"Excuse me, Orihime-chan. It seems this guy needs to be taught a lesson." And with that she kicks off towards her arrogant opponent, only for more hollows to fly into her way, against their will it would seem since several are scrambling to get out of there before she cuts them down. It barely takes her any time at all to cut them down, but to Hermione and Ginny it appears to be time enough, for the masked man has charged a glowing orb of pinkish-orange light in his left hand.

"Too slow, woman!" he triumphantly crows, firing the cero.

"Fool." Nel declares and Hermione and Ginny watch in amazement as she swallows the beam of energy. A second after the last wisp of energy enters her mouth, Nel opens her mouth wide, returning fire with an even larger pink beam.

"What?!"

The cero detonates upon conact, sending rock and sand flying.

"[Di-did she g-get him?]" Ginny shakily asks.

"[Maybe.]" Orihime replies, thinking back to the battle against Nnoitora. This arrancar certainly isn't as strong, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Nel also recalls that presumptuous mistake and slashes her sword, using the pressure to clear a line of sight through the cloud. The results of her attack is less than she had hoped for because she catches a glimpse of a garganta snapping shut behind the charred and dissipating corpses of several hollows. Apparently he had made a meat shield to buy the time necessary for his escape.

"He got away."

"That's okay, Nel-chan. You still saved us and that's what matters. So thank you." Orihime reassures Nel.

"You're always so nice about everything, Orihime-chan. We'll take care of the rest of these guys and get you back to Ichigo. It shouldn't take long." Nel says with a mischievous smile.

"Yes, thank you very much."

Nel readies her sword and plunges back into the fray, quickly raising the body count, Pesche and Dondochakka at her side. The hollows on the fringes start to flee in face of such superior enemies, realizing that there is no meal, only death.

"[What's going on exactly? I can see that lady is helping us, but how are we going to get home?]" Hermione asks, nerves steadied some by the reduction of the monstrous swarm.

"[Don't worry, Nel-chan should be able to get us back to Hogwarts the same way we got here, well, without us being tied up. She's just getting rid of the hollows so that it's safe for us to come out from behind my Santen Kesshun so we can leave.]"

"[And the other two?]" Ginny asks. "[They're not human.]"

"[Don't worry, Pesche-san and Dondochakka-san are like family to Nel-chan. They're very friendly and nice. Funny too.]" Orihime says with a smile, thinking of some of the pair's stress relieving antics while they were training to fight Yhwach and the Vandenreich.

There's a knocking on Orihime's shield. "We're all done here. Pesche and Dondochakka will guard the area around us while I get you guys back to Ichigo. Where is he anyway?"

"Ehehe," Orihime sheepishly laughs as she brings down her Santen Kesshun. "Well, you see…"

"You got kidnapped again, didn't you?"

"…yes." Orihime quietly answers. "Oh, it's so embarrassing! It's like I'm the only one who gets kidnapped!" Her hands come up to hide her face.

"There, there." Nel comforts, patting Orihime on the head. "No one thinks any less of you for that. So back to Karakura then?"

"Um, no." Orihime answers, peeking out between her fingers before lowering her hands. "We've been helping some friends of Urahara-san in England. Could you take us there?"

"I'll do better than that! I'll take you straight to Ichigo! Let's go!" And with that, Nel rips open a garganta.

"[Orihime…]" Ginny voices concern at seeing that blank darkness again.

"[Oh! Nel-chan has agreed to take us back to Hogwarts.]"

"[But that… thing place…]"

"[It's the only way back.]" Orihime says, trying to sooth the girls' frayed nerves. "[It won't take too long. We'll be back before you know it.]"

Reassured by Orihime's words, Ginny and Hermione hop through the rip in space onto the glowing path Nel has started for them.

"… and that's how we came back." Orihime finishes explaining. Ginny and Hermione nod in agreement with her version of the story, having remained quiet since they got back, Ginny nestling into her brother's arms while Hermione sat herself snuggly between Harry and Ron, receiving no objection from the boys.

"Arigatou, Nel." Ichigo says, thankful that at least one group of people in Hueco Mundo could be counted on for help.

"[It's no problem. Orihime-chan is my friend too, silly.]"

"[Still, thanks.]"

"[Yes, yes. You're such a nice person.]" Nel waves his thanks off, hiding her pleasure at receiving praise from him. "[Well, I better get back to Pesche and Dondochakka.]"

"[Tell them I said 'thanks' too.]"

"[Will do. See ya, Ichigo, Orihime-chan.]" Nel says as she leaves through the garganta.

"My, what an eventful night, but all's well that ends well, I suppose." Urahara says. "I think it's about time we get you kids back to bed."

"What? No!" Ginny says, gathering everyone's attention. "I- what if he comes back?"

"Don't worry, we'll be keepin' a sharp eye out for him and anything else that might try to get in." Shinji reassures her. "And if they do get in, they're gonna regret it real fast."

"But he got past you before." Hermione quietly says, still scared some herself.

"It'll take a little while, but by morning I'm sure I can have something rigged to block incoming garganta. You should be safe." Urahara says, already tinkering with equipment. "Besides, it would be very foolish for him to return tonight when he's already riled everyone up." A quick glance reveals resolute faces from the Japanese, ready to fight and defend again.

"Come on. You'll feel a bit better after you sleep it off." Uryu calmly suggests, guiding the Hogwarts students out of their seats and towards the door, Ichigo and Orihime trailing behind them.

Once back at the dorm, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and Harry find themselves sleeping fitfully, moments of terror from this night flashing across minds. But whenever they jolt awake, a quick glance allows them to find one of the Japanese students, calmly awake and keeping watch, their simple presence soothing away some of the fear so that they can try to sleep again.

"I see you've failed."

"My apologies, my lord. I came out slightly off course and they were stronger than I thought and they had allies and –"

"Enough! I'm not looking for excuses. If I gave you another chance, could you do it?"

"I fear not, my lord. I…" He could not admit to the fear he felt faced with that monster, that he fled from the prospect of that fury, nor that he fled again when faced with yet another strong opponent. His new master would scorn him for such weakness. "They will be on guard for any repeats of this incident." He can see the disdainful disappointment anyway. "But, I believe, master, that if we could lure one away, the others would come chasing after them. Their concern for one another is strong."

"I see. Such information does have its value, so your mission is not a total failure… but you still failed my orders. Crucio!"

His screams echo through the house until Voldemort is satisfied, leaving him a panting, sweating mess on the floor.

Author's Note

Tadaa! Most comments figured Ichigo was gonna open a garganta himself and go chasing after them, but I never intended for Ichigo to perform this rescue in the first place. Were you surprised? So yup, I got to slip Nel, Pesche, and Dondochakka in with this. I had to spend a while figuring out Nel's outfit since Kubo-sensei hasn't given us any clear, full body shots and I got the surprise find that Pesche's eyepatch has switched eyes between the Arrancar/Hueco Mundo Arc and the Thousand Year Blood War Arc. The things you find. And I wrapped it up with how Voldie treats his subordinates and kind of why they fear him. I mean he's a cruel bastard with magic torture lights that they can't really defend against, so he can look strong if it's not a straight up fight.

Anywho, hope you guys enjoyed the conclusion of the mini-kidnapping arc.

Please comment/review.