"You have been a thorn in Aizen-sama's side for too long;" Miyabi said as he watched Tsukune's bankai retract to its fully sealed state "in here," as the shinigami tried to break the grip "no one will feel your reiatsu disappear. They won't even feel your spirit particles dissipate after you die. No one will know anything that happened in this room."

Tsukune's vision began to fail him as he fought to stay conscious. When he heard the man say that no one would know what happened in the room they were in, he made the decision without any hesitation.

"T… Thank… You;" he gasped as his grip on Akasha quickly became lighter and lighter.

Before Miyabi could question what the shinigami meant by thanking him, he felt a hand grab the arm he was using to strangle the boy and saw his own blood erupt from his body as a large gash was made from his left shoulder to the right side of his waist. He threw the boy backwards and put some distance between them as he held the deepest part of the wound he had just received.

"Ya shoulda kept that last part to yerself;" he heard from the boy in a chuckle as the shinigami rubbed his throat "'Cause now yer fucked!"

The shinigami looked at him and he could see yellow irises set blackened sclera through the long thick brown hair that hung over his face. Miyabi's eyes widened; he wasn't expecting Aono to just hand over control to his Hollow side. If that would've been the plan, then he would've had Harribel stay here and dismissed Kahlua and Akua; given he wanted the shinigami to lose control of his Hollow, but not here. The barrier that the shinigami had set up around the village not only killed Hollows that tried to enter, but had a side effect that made the spirit particles condense within the village; now that Aono had given control to his Hollow, it was most likely going to unconsciously feed on the spirit particles in the air and slowly grow stronger. Ghoul laughed as he noticed the blade in his opponent's hand while his skin turned black and a mask fragment formed on the right side of his head.

"What do you find funny?" Miyabi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"This is my second time seein' that sword;" as he shook his head "and seein' it in yer hands," as he vanished with sonido and appeared above his opponent "makes me sick!"

-Moka-

The silver haired vampire had an annoyed look on her face as she tuned out her sister's worried words. She had spent the past few hours going back and forth between being asleep and drinking from blood packets. While she was thankful that Mizore had saved her life, it irritated her that she couldn't do any damage to the mysterious blonde woman that had kidnapped her friends. She couldn't figure out what the woman's connection was to her family; she only knew that it was safe to say it was at least a mutual connection otherwise Akua wouldn't have helped her.

"Onee-sama;" Kokoa said managing to snap the stronger vampire out of her thoughts "I asked if you know where that Kenpachi coward is at so I can kick his ass for not being there to try to help fight."

"He is currently on a rescue mission;" they heard an older voice say "to rescue your friends."

The two looked over to the source of the voice and saw Fuhai standing in the doorway. Moka recognized him, barely because of how long it had been since she last saw him, and knew that he was a friend of her mother.

"Touhou-sama;" Moka said to him with what she could manage as a bow "it has been a long time."

The seal master glanced at the cross that was attached to the chocker collar around Moka's neck. At first glance he could already tell everything that was wrong with it. While it was succeeding in limiting her strength and youki, the fact that the silver haired girl was sitting in front of him and that he could still feel the power of a Shinso coming from her suggested that it could be beyond repair.

"What happened to the seal I made?" as he jumped on the bed, landed in her lap and pulled it closer to him so he could try to figure out what exactly happened.

"Tsukune used it to repair the barrier and save the school;" feeling a little uneasy about how close the elderly man was "I didn't put it back on until recently. But my outer self seems to be missing from it."

"Why didn't you remove it when you were attacked by the Arrancar and your sisters?" as he let go of the cross and looked at the daughter of his closest friend.

"Only Tsukune could remove it…"

"Not anymore;" the old man said as he fought the urge to pull out his pipe and start smoking "that seal is now nothing more than a limiter. A poor one at that, but it is still a limiter. Had you removed it you could've defeated at least Kahlua; the blood of a Shinso runs through your veins, you need to learn how to utilize it."

"ARE YA CALLIN' ONEE-SAMA WEAK?" Kokoa shouted at the old man.

"Hai;" he said bluntly "she has the blood of Bloodriver Akasha running through her veins, and, because of how weak she was when she was born, the blood of a Shinso. Out of the Hades Lords," as he looked at Moka "only your mother had the strength to be able to stand up to a Vasto Lorde class Hollow and have the chance of walking away from that fight. If you can learn to turn your blood into refined and controlled power, then you can have the ability to do the same."

The silver haired vampire watched as the old man left the room and she thought about what he had said. Not just what he had said either; what the blonde woman that nearly killed her had said. She had gotten so used to no one being stronger than her that she felt no true desire to train to get stronger or to learn how to control her power. That was a grave mistake; had she trained to control the power she has within her, maybe she could've held her ground longer. Her eyes hardened as she decided to begin training as hard as she could once her leg was healed.

-Head Master-

The hooded man just looked at Yamamoto with a calm face; the current subject of their conversation being the shinigami that had just gone rogue. The seal user had played just about every card he could to ensure that Tsukune wouldn't get thrown into the Maggot's Nest or have to return to the Rukongai. There was still one card he could play, but that could very well put a strain on his relationship with the sou-taichou; however, he wasn't seeing any other way.

"I could always re-enroll him under his real name and in the year he needs to be;" he said in a monotone.

The sou-taichou cracked his eyes open at the comment. His long time friend was beginning to hint at something that could be very disastrous for shinigami if he went through with whatever he was thinking about. Shinigami have operated in the dark for countless years, even from yokai; if yokai learned of the existence of shinigami then word could spread to humans and then shinigami would no longer be operating in the dark.

"I'm sure Tsukune-kun would prefer to not have to lie to his friends about his identity. It would also reduce his stress levels if they knew exactly what has happened since he died;" as he tapped his chin.

"What are you trying to say?"

"For starters;" as he tapped his desk pointing out the two envelopes on it "all I would need from Tsukune-kun to do this is two signatures. The first on the letter of withdrawal as Kenpachi Eiyu, and the second on the application to enroll in the Academy again; since he will be considered a spirit being he won't face the dangers that he did last year. I will of course inform him that he is free to tell his friends about the Soul Society."

He could see the irritation on the old shinigami's face.

"The way I see it, we have two options. We can continue this 'pissing contest', as I've heard many of my students call arguments that are attempts to show strength; or, we wait until Soifon-taichou returns with Tsukune-kun and we discuss more options with him. Undoubtedly though, he will most likely seek out the shinigami that has Hollow powers for more training."

"Are you saying Aono has an inner Hollow?"

"Everyone has an inner Hollow;" with a snicker "Tsukune-kun's is just stronger than normal. Of course that isn't entirely his fault; the blood Akashiya Moka injected into him had some nasty side effects. When he was alive he was, in fact, a Ghoul. I had given him a Holy Locket to keep it under control, and he was doing rather well until he sacrificed himself to save the Academy three weeks before you sent him here with Soifon-taichou to do a recon mission."

Yamamoto narrowed his eyes at his friend; he knew what the hooded man was getting at. He had broken their agreement, to keep shinigami and Yokai, respectively, from interfering with each other by sending a patrol to Yokai Academy. Had he informed the seal user about the spike of reiatsu that had showed up on Kurotsuchi-taichou's detector and then planned on what to do from there, this debate would be a little more friendly and far less personal.

"You said that Akashiya Moka injected Aono with her blood?" the hooded man nodded "is this the same Akashiya Moka that is the daughter of Bloodriver Akasha?" another nod.

The oldest shinigami let out a long sigh; he still felt grief for not being able to make it to the mansion in time to fight the reawakening Alucard. Had he been able to get there sooner, Akasha would still be alive and Alucard would have been destroyed by Yamamoto's bankai since he was in a weakened state and wouldn't have been able to heal fast enough.

"I believe it may be time to blend our affairs for the events that are to come;" the Head Master said.

"It would seem so;" Yamamoto agreed "I authorized Kenpachi Zaraki-taichou to make a visit to your Academy. Before I did that though, I made him swear on his fuku-taichou that he would not destroy anything."

"The pink haired child?"

"Hai; Zaraki-taichou was livid when he heard Aono went AWOL and Unohana-taichou mentioned that Aono had given Zaraki-taichou his word that he would keep Yachiru safe."

"Thank you for the foresight; I'll make sure to show him where the underground training area is and have Fuhai-sensei put up his strongest barrier to help keep things contained."

-Ghoul-

The darker half of Tsukune brought down the zanpakuto in his hands to make a slash down his opponent's torso, only to hear their blades ring as he was blocked. It pissed him off that this guy stole someone else's weapon; he might be an asshole, but he had honor. He lightened his grip on the zanpakuto in his hand, spun around, landed a powerful kick to the thief's head, and knocked overdressed man away from him. It didn't knock his opponent as far as he was hoping it would, but it was enough.

"Hado Number Thirty One: Shakkaho" Ghoul called out as he held out his free hand.

Miyabi barely had enough time to get out of the path of the kido spell. That was not something he was expecting a Hollow to be able to use at all; it had caught him off guard for a split second, but he recollected himself in time to keep from getting hit. Something told him that this fight was not going to be as easy as he was hoping.

"I hope ya didn't completely black out Tsukune!" Ghoul shouted out to no one in particular "'Cause I'm gonna show ya the real way to use yer zanpakuto!"

With a burst of sonido he was right in front of Miyabi again; this time taking a horizontal swing at the man. Just before the blade could touch the man's jacket, he vanished with his own burst of sonido; this time, Ghoul was the one caught off guard. The possessed shinigami ducked as fast as he could when he felt the man's presence behind him, and had a few strains of his long hair cut down to shoulder length. The removed strands of hair slowly fell to the ground before getting caught by Ghoul's leg as he kicked his opponent in the side. He mentally cursed as he felt like his leg hit something hard; his opponent had Hierro too. He followed up by twisting his body and landing a powerful kick to the side of his opponent's face. He didn't like fighting with kicks because of who it reminded him of, but right now he couldn't risk putting the zanpakuto in his hands down so he could fight with his fist.

The kick to Miyabi's face knocked him back enough to allow Ghoul to regain his footing and continue his assault. As he went to slash at the mastermind behind the kidnapping of his friends, the blade in his hands clashed against the white blade in his opponent's. It didn't surprise Ghoul that the shinigami zanpakuto in his hands wasn't able to break a piece of the blade away; the white blade that his opponent was using was a zanpakuto too.

"Ketsujin;" Ghoul said with perfect pronunciation.

The blood based attack engulfed his opponent and sent him flying backwards and through a wall. The Crimson colored fluid was splattered on the wall around the hole that was made. Before he could think to do anything else, a blade ripped through his stomach as he heard a burst of sonido behind him. Whoever this guy was, he had been trained on a whole other level; Aizen must have trained him every day, or at least had him trained every day. He could feel reiatsu building up behind him that would be used for a cero; just as he sensed it had enough reiatsu in it, the blade in his gut was suddenly pulled out with a burst of sonido. When he turned around, he saw Akua standing next to where his opponent had been with her hand positioned to where it looked like she tried to slice him.

"I didn't ask for yer help vampire;" Ghoul spat at her.

"I never asked if you wanted it;" she said back "you are precious to Moka-chan and I couldn't live with myself if I knew she was sad because of your death when I could've done something to prevent it."

"Let me put it to ya this way;" as he grabbed her by the fabric that covered her chest and turned her to look her in the eyes "*I* hate yer kind. Tsukune's the idiot that can't open his fuckin' eyes to see the truth. Now stay out of my fight or I'll kill ya instead of this fucker."

Miyabi looked at the two with a raise eyebrow. The Hollowified Tsukune just said that he hated vampires and he wasn't trying to kill the one that was standing next to him. That made him curious as to why; he was missing something. Tsukune's Hollow hadn't made any attempts to take over prior to him nearly killing Tsukune; why? The only thing he could think of sounded very absurd; the shinigami somehow made a deal with his Hollow.

His line of thought was cut off as he blocked another attack from the possessed shinigami; this was slowly getting ridiculous. He couldn't make heads or tails of his opponent. He said he hates vampires, but wasn't trying to kill the one in the room; said he was sickened by seeing the white blade in Miyabi's possession, yet he was wielding Tsukune's zanpakuto. His opponent was almost impossible to figure out; the only thing that he could think of to describe the Hollow was hypocritical. As he began to be pushed back, he could tell the difference between the shinigami and his Hollow. Tsukune didn't fight to kill, it wasn't in him; his Hollow though, it was attacking with everything and leaving very few openings that could be used against him. Then there was the power gap that seemed to exist between the two. While they both had a similar feel to their reiatsu, that slightly refined and barely controlled feel, the Hollow had more reiatsu for some reason.

A grin found its way onto Ghoul's face as he was pushed off of his opponent. This fight was becoming more and more fun without taking off the cross around his neck. Tsukune was an idiot to think that the damned thing only kept his reiatsu from being detected. If that wasn't enough, he could feel that he was slowly getting stronger as the fight drew out; that told him the air around him was extremely dense with spirit particles. He blocked the white blade as he took a small step back; his opponent was pushing him to his limits, and he was enjoying every second of the fight because of that. While he was enjoying the fight, he was focused on beating the overdressed man because he had his friends kidnapped.

"Something on your mind; Hollow?" Miyabi asked when he noticed the irritation on his opponent's face.

"Ya; first," as he dug his feet into the ground and retaliated against the blade pushing against his "I ain't a fuckin' Hollow. I'm a ghoul;" with a flare of his reiatsu as he pushed his opponent away "second, I don't get ta kill any vampires. And third, and possibly yer biggest fuck up;" as he began to charge a cero in his left hand "you kidnapped my friends!"

Miyabi's eyes widened as the crimson red beam ripped through the air towards him when the possessed Tsukune stopped talking. He had only ever seen a cero charge that fast before once, and that was from Ulquiorra. All he could do was try to get out of the path of the reiatsu attack and hope that the palace didn't start coming down on top of them. With a quick burst of sonido, he managed to get out of the path of the cero and watched it blast a hole the size of three Cyclopes through the wall. The head of the first sub-division of Fairy Tale considered himself lucky to have been able to get out of the path of such a large attack.

He heard a burst of sonido and readied the white blade in his hands to block. Metal clashed against metal as he began to have a power struggle with the jet black, Hollow-like creature he was fighting. Everything had been going perfectly until Aono came through the barrier; he had not only the yuki-ona he came for, but a succubus that could lure in the souls he needed to create a new Hogyoku. And in just half an hour, the shinigami had practically ruined everything; the Priestess had been freed, the barrier repaired, Aono had somehow caused both his top agents to yield, and he could now sense a shinigami taichou in the village approaching fast. If that wasn't enough, now he had very little hope in talking Aono's Hollow into joining him.

The red haired man managed to push Ghoul back and began his own assault against him. His jet black opponent went to block, but was too slow and received a horizontal cut across his chest. It annoyed him that his opponent was somehow ignoring the pain of being wounded by the white weapon; the blade wasn't a zanpakuto, it was a physical weapon. Why wasn't his opponent fearful of a physical weapon that could injure him? He blocked the blade that threatened to make a similar wound on him and was forced back as the Hollowified Tsukune kept pushing. Thinking on his toes, he blocked a vertical attack and used the blood stained ribbon to get a hold of his opponent's arm.

Ghoul's eyes widened a split second before he got spun around on the ribbon and thrown across the chamber their fight was going on in. Before he could recover, Miyabi was behind him and made a diagonal slash across his back; this caused two small wing like protrusions to be visible. But just like before, he didn't register the pain that came with getting wounded in such a way; he just blocked the next attack and focused solely on killing his opponent.

Metallic ringing was heard repeatedly as the two combatants blocked each other's attacks; much to both of their annoyance. Miyabi because he had spent fifteen years training, shed blood, sweat and even tears due to pain, and he was being matched by someone that had less than two months of true combat experience. And when he did cause an injury, his opponent just wrote it off like it was just a scratch even though he was bleeding a lot. He noticed that there was still blood on his opponent's blade, and it was being absorbed by the metal. Was this how he was able to keep going; his zanpakuto using blood to heal him? It made sense since Ghoul hadn't fired off a Ketsujin in a while.

Ghoul was irritated because he couldn't get through his opponent's defense as easily any more. Just using his skills with the light blade was making this very difficult for him; he'd have to use Tsukune's skills, he'd have to fight like his weaker half. That thought was not very appealing to him since he was trying to prove he was stronger than his supposed 'human' half. He flipped the long blade around and held it in a more defensive manner just in time to block another attack; pushing against the blade, he was able to move it so he could get closer to his opponent and put all his strength into a punch.

The hit not only broke through Miyabi's Hierro with a powerful crack, but Ghoul's own as well. Miyabi felt like his jaw had been cracked thanks to that punch, but it wasn't going to stop him from killing the possessed shinigami. His plans had been pretty much ruined thanks to the once living person, and now he had to come up with a plan 'B'; he hated having to come up with a plan 'B'. First thing he'd have to do, kill Aono; after that it should be smooth sailing for him.

Ghoul grit his teeth as he felt his knuckles crack because of the hit he just landed. It was enough to push the older man back and slam his knee into the red head's gut causing him to let out a grunt of pain. This pleased the dark Tsukune a lot; he was causing this person to regret ever messing with him and his friends. He didn't care if he would have to sleep for a month to get his strength back; he was going to make a point to whoever this person worked for that fucking with him was a very bad idea. The possessed shinigami used the new opening to quickly slice the overpriced jacket to shreds, and make a few more wounds.

Miyabi started to charge a cero in his hand, and saw his opponent do the same. He knew that the two ceros could cause the palace to collapse and leave no one alive. While he had faith that he could still get out through the hole in the wall that his opponent made with a cero not too long ago, he feared that his opponent might be able to get there too. Without taking a second thought, he fired his cero at the black skinned teen; causing said teen to fire his own cero too.

The two ceros collided and an explosion sounded as smoke filled the chamber. The entire palace shook violently as the remaining support beams struggled to handle the stress of the entire foundation being rocked like that. Immediately, Miyabi began to head for the hole in the wall, fearing the collapse that he was positive would follow.

"Where the fuck do ya think yer goin'?" he heard next to him.

His eyes looked to the source of the voice and saw that his opponent was keeping up with him; just not easily. The red haired man's eyes widened as he watched Aono vanish and reappear in front of him mid way through throwing a kick. He didn't have time to dodge the attack and took the full power of it on top of his own speed that sent him closer to the attack. Ghoul didn't let up just because his opponent was flying through the air; no, it was an incentive for him to hit his opponent where it hurt. Sure he needed to remove the cross from around his neck to be able to move so fast, but right now he didn't care.

With his once small wings now fully expanded, which had a span of eight feet, he flew up above his opponent and came crashing down on him. As he smashed into the overdressed man, he pinned him to the ground with Tsukune's zanpakuto by putting through the man's stomach just below the diaphragm. He didn't want to kill him just yet; he had something special planned for him. As he withdrew the zanpakuto from the man's stomach, he picked him up and launched him into a wall; his eyes saw the broken white blade, which was in five pieces, on the ground and wondered how a zanpakuto could've been broken so easily. Pushing the question aside, he quickly pierced through his opponent's chest with Bloodriver. Hearing him let out a sharp cry of pain brought an evil grin to his jet black face. Miyabi tried to charge a cero in his hand, but had the arm broken when his opponent saw the red glow beginning to form.

"Where's the shinigami ya stole that zanpakuto from?" Ghoul asked in a dark, foreboding tone as he pointed at the shattered blade.

"I didn't steal it from a shinigami;" Miyabi rasped back.

Ghoul could hear the truth through the fear in the man's voice; that made him grin again. Now he could just kill the man without having to search the palace top to bottom for someone that wasn't there; although he was hoping the shinigami would've been there. He does owe her a thank you after all.

"Good;" as he held out his index finger and charged a cero on its tip "now you die."

Before Miyabi could protest, the small cero shot through his living heart and killed him instantly. Normally one would be furious that they died in such a way, but he was glad. That meant that he was guaranteed to become an Arrancar thanks to the Hogyoku's affects on him. Ghoul removed the blade from the corpse's chest and lazily threw the now soulless body aside. He knew that the dead man could've lied about not taking the white blade from a shinigami, but he hadn't sensed any shinigami in the palace.

Akua watched as the jet black, Hollow-like creature turned towards her. His top was sliced to pieces and barely holding on to his shoulders and that was just because the blood had dried with the material there. She could see white marks on his torso that resembled pictorials and abs, all of them had blood running down them; she also noticed red marks that resembled cracks leaving his eyes, at first glance she thought it was blood. Then there were those massive, demonic, bat-like wings that were clearly visible; they made him look even more menacing because of their look, but it only made him look better. His hands had clawed fingers that looked sharp enough to cut through just about anything. His ankle length hair was splattered with blood; she could smell it coming from his entire body, but his hair held a surprising amount.

All together, she thought his current look was hot and if it weren't for the fact that her sister wanted him she'd be going after him; especially after the fight she had just witnessed. If she had to pick one thing to change about the demonic looking boy, it would be the eyes; she'd change them from the creepy yellow that seemed to be trying to torture whoever they were directed at to a vampiric red that looked like they'd kill instantly. A vampiric red would fit him better than the yellow; especially after what she had just witnessed. He fought viciously and refused to hold back; maybe he didn't because the fight was personal, but regardless he was a vicious fighter.

As her eyes continued to examine the battle ready body she noticed something missing; the usual Hollow hole. It wasn't anywhere on his torso and his pants sat low enough to where she could tell they weren't covering it up. Aono truly wasn't a Hollow or a shinigami; that must have been how he was able to pass through the barrier without getting extremely weakened or killed. He must have been altered somehow. Even with that, it was very tempting for her to offer herself to him; watching him fight and the smell of all the blood, topped with his looks, had gotten her really excited.

Ghoul reached down, picked up the cross necklace that hide his reiatsu and put it back on. As he slid it over his head, he felt all his hair being pushed against his neck; an annoyed growl escaped him as he pulled his hair from under the thin chain. He didn't understand how some women dealt with their hair being this long; it annoyed the shit out of him. The entire time during his fight he had to limit certain movements to keep the hair from falling into his face. When he turned to look at the vampire that had been killed, pain shot through his entire body as he coughed up blood. Fear began to find him as he wondered what the hell was happening to him.

"You…" Akua said with disbelief at what she was seeing "were Charmed… throughout your entire fight…"

"Just what the fuck does that mean?" Ghoul demanded to know as he held where he was stabbed through the stomach and winced in pain.

Every muscle in his body ached, every wound on his skin burned and stung, and he could feel his legs starting to give out. He quickly used the blade in his hands to support himself as he glared angrily at the vampire.

"Every injury you obtained when you fought Miyabi-dono was being flooded with power;" Akua explained "that allowed the pain to become almost none existent until you put that necklace back on. Your body must have gotten used to the level of power you had when the necklace was off, and when you put it back on, the sudden drawback of power must have doubled the recoil you normally would have felt."

Ghoul swore loudly as he held the injury in his chest. Now he had a vampire's ability; that was just great, he was slowly becoming the thing he hated. His gaze returned to the vampire that had informed him about his new ability; she was still hanging on to the world of the living. That was bad, if she continued to linger as she was she could become a Hollow and her first target would be the person he was going to kill; he was not going to let that happen!

"Come here vampire;" he ordered in a disgusted tone "time for you to move the fuck on" as he summoned all the strength he could in his legs to hold himself up.

He supported himself as he held the zanpakuto in his hand so he had the dull side of the blade against his shoulder with the butt of the hilt exposed to the vampire. Akua only looked at the blackened figure with confusion.

"Why are you willing to Konso on a species you hate?"

"'Cuz that was the fuckin' deal I made with my idiotic other half;" Ghoul spat at her "I behave while he pushes through this place, and I get to kill one person; the only other catch was that I had to Konso any other souls. I could always just devour you right now;" with a hungry grin.

That phrase made Akua's heart freeze; she had her fair share of being threatened by Hollows, but none of them were able to do any real damage to her. But something about the dark, hungry, and serious tone in how the possessed Tsukune said that put an alien fear in her; maybe it was because of the glutinous grin on his face, or the how his piercing yellow eyes were ripping her apart, or perhaps it was because she could practically see his mouth start to water.

"Could you please do me one favor?" she asked as she looked to the ground and then over to her once living body "there is a necklace on my body. It was a gift from Moka-chan; please return it to her when you tell her how I was killed, otherwise she won't believe I am dead."

"Yer askin' the wrong person;" Ghoul growled at her "I have no desire to be near that bitch except to kill her. But," catching Akua's attention "I would love to see the look on her face knowing that a family member was killed;" with a dark chuckle "such a close family, so easily separated. Fine, I'll do this favor of yours; but only 'cuz I'll get a kick out of it. Now pass the fuck on;" as he poked Akua's head with the butt of the zanpakuto in his hand.

Warm; that's what Akua felt as she saw the hilt get taken away from her forehead with the butt glowing blue. The warmth made her feel safe and at peace with everything; she felt herself being lowered through the floor as a seal made itself known to her. She wasn't going to hell, like she had expected too, for some reason; regardless of that reason, she was happy.

When Akua finally vanished and was on her trip to the Soul Society, Ghoul looked over to the vampire's corpse. He saw the thin chain that he was sure belonged to the necklace the deceased woman had mentioned. Using what strength he could, he lifted the head up and pulled the jewelry from around her neck; it was a simple onyx pendant held by white gold, which was the same material as the chain. As he secured the item on the sash around his waist, he noticed that the eyes on the corpse were still open. For some reason, he found himself kneeling down and carefully using his clawed fingers to close the eyelids. Maybe it was because he found some respect for the one he just Konso and believed that he should show that small respect; or maybe it was because he could feel Tsukune starting to wake back up and slowly taking control again.

As he stood up, he heard one of his massive wings begin to crack and then fall to the ground. The sound of a vase shattering against the ground rang through the horribly damaged chamber as the wing became small pieces that littered the ground. Pain shot through his body as the second wing began to crumble as well; the slash across his back might not have been that deep, but it was close enough to the second wing to be made deeper as the appendage fell to the ground. Using the zanpakuto in his hands to support him, he made his way to the set of doors Akua had pointed out to Tsukune before she was killed; he came here with a purpose and was going to fulfill it. Before he even got half way to the doors, they were busted open by five Fairy Tale agents; all of whom started to rush towards him.

"SO YOU FUCKERS WANT SOME TOO!" Ghoul shouted at them as he held the zanpakuto in his hands in an aggressive manner.

Before any of them got remotely close to him, they froze in place as Soifon appeared in front of Ghoul facing him; he noticed she had her Shikai released. The five Fairy Tale agents suddenly had what resembled a butterfly tattoo appear on their chests just before erupting into that same mark that hung in the air. Soifon caught Ghoul as his legs started to give out and more of his black skin broke off.

"You're too injured to continue fighting;" Soifon warned him.

"I…" he panted "don't care. We came here to save them;" as he tried to support himself and go closer to the door "so that's what I'm gonna do."

Just as he got around his taichou, she grabbed his arm and whipped him around to look him in the eyes. She could see the determination they held; they were the same as when Tsukune dropped out of the Academy to come to the village. Ghoul really was more like Tsukune than she originally thought; while he was a lot like Jagerjaquez when it came to mannerisms and attitude, he was also like Tsukune when it came to protecting someone. Ghoul could see the concern in his taichou's eyes; she really cared about him and it was easy to see for him. Even after what she had probably just witnessed, Tsukune willingly giving him control to kill someone, she still cared about him. Now he had to do what Tsukune wouldn't.

"'Cuz Tsukune's too much of a pussy to do this himself;" as he grabbed the back of Soifon's head.

Before the petite taichou could protest, Ghoul had smashed his lips against hers with bruising force. Her breathe hitched as she felt the raw hunger behind the kiss as he held it for what seemed to be forever; not that she was complaining. While it was completely unexpected, she had wanted to do this with the chocolate haired boy for a while. The boy might be strange, but he was also caring and always addressed her how she told him too; which made her wonder if he wanted to address her without the suffix. With how close she felt to the teen, she believed she could allow him to call her something other than taichou. After a few seconds, the kiss became tender as she started to return the gesture. Sure she felt weird to be kissing Ghoul, but he had said that Tsukune wanted to do this too; she was imagining Tsukune anyway.

"Wow…" was all the taichou could say when Ghoul finally broke the kiss.

Her insides were fluttering as she felt a smile grow on her lips. She had never felt so good after anything, except when Yoruichi held her.

"'Til next time;" Ghoul said with a slight smirk as his eyes closed.

When his eyes finally closed completely, the last of his blackened skin fell to the ground and shattered; she caught Tsukune as his legs gave out and he fell into her, unconcerned about the blood that was getting rubbed onto her taichou haori. She pulled him close so she could hold his heavier body easier; uncaring about the blood that was getting wiped onto her taichou haori. She carefully laid him on the ground and did what she could to conceal the X shape scar on his chest; while it really didn't matter if his friends found out he was back anymore, she was sure he wanted to wait and tell them for himself. She knew that he had been extremely stressed with having to lie to them about who he was, but he managed to keep that stress under control; she just hoped it wasn't in the same way that his Arrancar mentor did.

She looked to the door that Ghoul had been heading towards and knew why he was going that way; it was where his friends were. While her mission was to bring Tsukune back to Yokai Academy so he could be escorted back to the Seireitei, she knew that he wouldn't forgive her if she just left his friends. But she couldn't just leave Tsukune here where anyone could come up and kill him while he was in such a vulnerable state. If she carried him with her, it would hinder her if she had to fight someone; not to mention that if she had to set him down he could become the target.

The sound of someone panicking as they ran through the halls could be heard. When she looked further down the hall, she saw someone running with a look of fear in their eyes. On pure instinct, she readied herself so she could fight in case this person tried to attack her or Tsukune. When she saw that the person continued to run at her, she vanished with a swish of shunpo and knocked him out with one hit to the head. It was only after that that she noticed the two students Tsukune had come here to save heading down the hall; both of them in their true forms.

"At least that makes this easier;" she mumbled to herself as she went back to Tsukune and started to heal the few wound that were still on him.

She had finished healing Tsukune and had used her taichou haori to cover him up just as Mizore and Kurumu got near her. When she turned around she could see the look on their faces; both of them were completely surprised at the amount of damage that had been done. They had heard the guards start to leave their post in a panic; saying something about the paycheck not being worth having to fight a one man army that had already gotten past the assassin they hired. The few that refused to leave had to try to get the yuki-ona and succubus back into the room when they started to make their escape.

"Look at what that thing did to my palace!" the Priestess shouted in anger as she entered the chamber "it even destroyed our founding priestess' weapon. That was a sacred item to our people;" glaring at the unconscious boy.

Soifon looked at the angered yuki-ona and knew that getting out of the village wasn't going to be as easy as she had originally hoped.

"This rogue shinigami came here to rescue his friends;" Soifon explained "I was ordered to hunt him down and take him back to the Seireitei for his trial" she half lied "now that I have apprehended him, I will complete my assignment."

"That thing is no shinigami;" the Priestess said back "you, a taichou of the Gotei Thirteen, should know that. Just feel the youki in the air; it is more Hollow than shinigami. You should kill it NOW!"

"My orders were to apprehend him; since he is unconscious and not resisting, killing him would be in cold blood."

"Then get out of my palace;" she said as she turned her back to the taichou and left the chamber.

Soifon collected Tsukune's zanpakuto, picked him up in her arms bridal style, and carried him out of the palace with Mizore and Kurumu following. She just knew that things were going to get far worse at Yokai Academy now.

…Shinigami Cup: Golden…

Soifon had placed Tsukune in the front seat of the bus and made sure to keep the yuki-ona and succubus a slight distance away to keep them from seeing the scar on his chest. Since she wanted to wait for Tsukune to tell them his identity, she had to make sure they didn't see the thing that could easily reveal who he is. It was bad enough that the one yuki-ona had exposed the fact that Tsukune was a shinigami; that was going to make it hard for him to explain himself to his friends if they ask him about it. She looked back at the two girls, actually hoping they would ask her something that would take her mind off worrying about Tsukune; the silence was killing her.

"You two seemed to handle being kidnapped well;" she said.

"I handled it fine;" Mizore replied back "Kurumu" pointing at her friend "not so much…"

When Soifon listened closely, she could finally hear the succubus muttering to herself.

"I'm friends with a princess…" the succubus repeated to herself.

"I'm not a princess;" the yuki-ona pointed out with a slightly annoyed look on her face.