(A/N: Ugh, can I just say this was not a favorite chapter of mine in the least. I'm not a big fan of fight scenes and doing this one was hard considering all the changes that had to be made).

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Code Geass


3rd Person pov

The next day when Ichigo got to school Shinji was still there as if nothing had happened the night before. Annoyed, Ichigo grabbed Shinji and dragged him outside and threw him against a pole.

"Ow." Shinji exclaimed. "Maybe you're not aware of it, but that really hurts! What's the deal I thought we were pals?"

"Cut the crap Hirako! The only reason you came here was so you could get me to join your little club. You can forget it! I'm a Soul Reaper not a Visored!" Ichigo shouted.

"What are you brain damaged?" Shinji asked with a glazed look. "You can't honestly mean that. Once the symptoms have started to show Visoreds can never become normal Soul Reapers again. And regardless of what you may think the die is cast, you're already one of us." Sweat trickled down the left side of Ichigo's face. Shinji sighed and began to speak in a grave tone. "Orihime, the big guy, four eyes, the karate chick, they may seem like your friends now, but they'll only stay that way for the time being. Once you become a hollow that's game over Ichigo. You will lose your sanity. Your power will destroy everything around you: your friends and your future. Even your identity will be blown to smithereens. Your inner hollow is slowly starting to take over. Surely you must have noticed it by now. It's already so powerful, you can barely control it. All you gotta do is join up and trust me Ichigo. I'll show you how to save your sanity. Sure, I can go about trying to earn your trust like your old man suggested, but the longer you put this off the less chance you have of being able to do it at all."

Ichigo didn't want to hear any more of this. He left Shinji where he was and began to stomp away, emotionally tormented. He already knew about everything Shinji was telling him, he didn't need the blonde actually confirming his fears and telling him his life was over. He bumped into Soifon in his daze.

"Uh, hey watch where you're going Kurosaki!" she snapped.

"Sorry, sensei." Ichigo said in a daze.

Soifon could tell from his tone that something was wrong with Ichigo. "Kurosaki, are you okay?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about sensei." Ichigo said softly. "Could you just send Tatsuki to my place with my homework and my stuff afterschool? I'm not feeling too well all of a sudden."

Soifon had never seen Ichigo like this. Over the years she'd seen him depressed, angry, serine, in a joyous façade, and even nervous. Never before had she seen him as withdrawn and soulless as he appeared to be. She didn't have to be facing towards him to know that his face was as pale as a sheet. She had a right mind to kick him and tell him to get his butt to class, but for some reason she felt like being nice just this once.

Soifon put a hand on Ichigo's shoulder. "All right, I don't know what's bothering you." Soifon said. "Frankly it's not my business as your teacher to know, but I'm going to guess it's got something to do with your inner hollow." She took in a deep breath. "I want you to go home and get some rest. I can tell already that whatever's bothering you is just going to trouble the learning environment. Normally I'd put you in the nurses office, but I'm going to try and play the good guy for once," Soifon started to get snappy, "and not give you detention for moping and trying to skip class. I'm not going to do this again, got it? This is a one-time thing. No second day, no other breaks unless you've got a fever which you'd better not even think about trying to fake."

"I'll be good about it." Ichigo said. "Thanks sensei."

Soifon felt awful. She could only watch Ichigo walk away and stagger about. She grabbed him by the shoulder. "On second thought, I think I'll have you stay in the nurse's office till your father gets here. I can't have you walking the streets and getting jumped if you're going to be like that."

Soifon, using Ichigo's emergency contact information, called Isshin and asked him to come and get Ichigo. Since there were other teachers in the office, Soifon was vague about what was going on. She said it was due to that "special problem" she, Isshin and "UK" had discussed. On the other line, Isshin understood and came to get Ichigo. Yuzu and Karin were in the car since, as long as Isshin was driving, the man figured he'd give the girls a lift to class which began in a half an hour.

"Onii-chan are you okay?" Yuzu asked him. "Onii-chan." She shook him.

Ichigo wasn't ignoring Yuzu on purpose. He simply couldn't hear her. He was too absolved in his own thoughts. I do hear it. After I kicked him out during my fight with Stefan, I kept hearing…that guy inside…calling out to me. The sound is getting louder and louder it doesn't show any sign of stopping. If this keeps up—

If this keeps up what? Ichigo's hollow's voice rang through his head. Ichigo gripped the back of his seat. Are you trying to scare yourself Ichigo? When I'm done with you, you'll be even more scared. I'm getting closer and closer to you and not just day by day. Oh no, it's going to happen much faster than that. His hollow laughed maniacally. An image of him appeared in Ichigo's mind momentarily. See, I'm even closer to you than I was a moment ago and I'll just keep getting closer and closer until I eventually swallow you up. And once that happens, you'll disappear. Things aren't turning out well for you at all are they? More menacing laughter was heard in Ichigo's head from his hollow. See you around.

"Otou-san, stop the car, Ichigo feels warm and he's white as a sheet!" Yuzu cried out. "And his eyes look panicked. I think something's really wrong with him. I'm scared otou-san."

Ichigo coughed hard the color slowly began returning to his face. He sounded like he was gagging on something, but a few hard coughs and he was back to the regular scowling Ichigo, relatively of course. Shinji was right the problem just wasn't going to go away.

"Ichi-nii are you all right?" Karin asked.

"Yeah, I just need…some bed rest." Ichigo said.

"Well, if you say so." Isshin stated. He dropped the girls off at school and then took Ichigo home. Ichigo collapsed on his bed. Isshin did not like seeing Ichigo like this, not when he could do something about it. He sat down backwards in Ichigo's chair and looked at his son as he lay on his stomach with his head facing the wall.

"You know moping is as likely to fix the problem as getting angry at it will." Isshin said.

"Just go away dad." Ichigo sighed.

Isshin, as long as he was having a chat with his son, decided to share some information with Ichigo since he didn't have to open the clinic for another hour. "You know if your cousin Kukaku saw you like this she'd call you a dumbass, grab you by the short hairs and drag you to wherever it is Hirako's staying."

Ichigo sat up. "I have a cousin named Kukaku?" he asked. Isshin rarely spoke of the extended Kurosaki family. In fact he never did.

"Yeah, Shiba Kukaku." Isshin said.

Now Ichigo at least had a different reason to get angry than he was before. "Just what kind of crap are you trying to pull old man?" he shouted.

"I guess Lelouch didn't tell you that part then. Ichigo, we, the Kurosaki family, are what's known as a branch family to the Shiba clan. A branch family is a family that's connected to the main family by blood, but lost the name as the lineage passed down. Kukaku and Kaien…and their little brother Ganju are your second cousins once removed." Isshin stated.

"They're…family?" Ichigo asked, awed.

"You betcha." Isshin said with a grin. "In fact when you went there I wouldn't be surprised if they knew. When you were born, I told Urahara that no one should tell you about our history, after all, I defiled our family's name, but it sounds like Lelouch went and cleared it so that's a load off my shoulders." Isshin stated.

"What exactly happened?" Ichigo asked.

"Sorry, but that's a story for another time." Isshin said getting to his feet. Ichigo looked at him with interest. "Oh by the way," the man of the Kurosaki house said as he began to go for the door, "if this 'Geass' power of Lelouch's Kisuke's been talking about actually can compel anyone to do anything you might wanna consider have him use it on Kon to keep him on a tighter leash. I can't tell you how many times I had to bail 'you' out of a tight fix." Isshin said and left the room. Isshin stood outside the door and counted backwards on his fingers. "Three…Two…One…" He could hear Ichigo strangling Kon inside and shouting at him in anger. Sounds like operation "Defer Ichigo's Anger" was a smashing success. Isshin said and went to go have an extra cup of morning coffee.


That Afternoon

The bell rang to let school out as Tatsuki and the rest of Ichigo's nakama noted that Ichigo never came back to class. Menacing eyes were sent Shinji's way from Tatsuki as she had seen Ichigo and Shinji talking with each other before Soifon stepped in.

As the students filed out, Soifon made an announcement. "Could someone take Kurosaki's homework and bag to his house for him?" she requested. Ichigo had asked her to have Tatsuki do it, but Soifon was interested in seeing just who would volunteer.

"I'll take care of it Fong-sensei!" Shinji said, holding up his hand as he rose to his feet with a smile.

"No, I'll take care of it." Tatsuki said with a snappy tone. "Ichigo's my neighbor so I have to head that way to go home anyway."

"Don't you have karate practice or something right after this?" Shinji asked before giving Tatsuki a smug smile, "Someone like Ichigo who's in the top twenty five of the class should get his homework and things as soon as possible don't you think?"

"Don't you think you oughta want a knuckle sandwich overbite?" Tatsuki growled. Both she and Shinji were given a piece of chalk to the head for their trouble.

"You're both acting like middle school freshmen." Soifon chided. "If you can't settle on this together, I'll just pick someone." She looked around the room at the remaining students, which included the rest of Ichigo's group, including Keigo and Mizuiro. "Asano, why don't you take the responsibility of giving Kurosaki his stuff?" She tossed a manila envelope to Keigo and then went over to Ichigo's desk and gave him Ichigo's bag.

I get to go to Ichigo's house. After so much time of being excluded from activities I get to actually be useful! Keigo saluted in military fashion to Soifon. "Don't worry sensei! I'll get this to Ichigo straight away!" Keigo ran out the door as fast as he could. He felt like he had just won the lottery with how excited he was.

"You know if Keigo were a different kind of guy, I'd be worried right about now." Tatsuki said jokingly.

"I'll see you out on the track Arisawa." Soifon said to her.

"Hai, sensei!" Tatsuki responded.

While Tatsuki got in some physical fitness, Orihime, Chad and Uryu went to head out on for home. Shinji followed them. "Hey there new friends," he said with his usual overly friendly grin, "mind if I walk with you guys?"

"Uh sure, no problem." Orihime said with a smile.

While the four of them walked together, Keigo made it to Ichigo's house so fast that it was a wonder why he wasn't on the track team or competing in national track tournaments.

"Heeeey Ichigooooooo!" Keigo waved his arms back and forth frantically outside Ichigo's front door.

Ichigo, in his room, heard Keigo shouting and looked outside his bedroom window. The depressed teen had managed to get some sleep and he felt a little better. The problem with his inner hollow was still at large, but for the moment it didn't seem that big of a deal…rather it wasn't on the forefront of the teen's mind. What the hell is he doing here? Ichigo thought as he looked down at the energetic Keigo.

The brown haired student began waving Ichigo's bag back and forth in the air and Ichigo could sort of piece together why he was here.

He palmed his face. I thought I asked sensei to have Tatsuki bring my stuff over. A thought then dawned on Ichigo. Oh that's right, I forgot Tatsuki has practice today. Ichigo sighed and went for his bedroom door to go down the stairs to exit his house. Still sensei couldn't get anyone a little bit more reliable and less likely to disturb the peace than Keigo? Ichigo grumbled to himself. He opened the front door to where Keigo was standing at the end of his driveway.

"Ichigoooooo!" Keigo dashed towards him and stopped, by skidding to a halt, mere inches from the front steps when he saw Ichigo's face. Despite the fact that Ichigo didn't feel troubled, his face still looked somewhat pale and he looked like someone who had just come from a funeral. "Hey man you okay, you look awful."

"I'm fine." Ichigo said and extended his hand for his bag. His palm was rather tensed up, like an old man with arthritis. "Can I have my stuff and today's homework?"

Keigo gave Ichigo his things, but quickly became concerned. He had never seen Ichigo like this before. "Are you sure you're all right, you sure don't sound it." Keigo broke out into his overly cheerful self. "Come on, turn that frown upside-down!" Keigo stretched out the corners of his own mouth to get Ichigo to naturally do the same.

"Just go home." Ichigo sighed as he prepared to head inside.

"Hey come on Ichigo, quit being such a stick in the mud!" Keigo waved his arms frantically up and down. "Let's go do something fun like go to the old arcade or go to the park and toss a Frisbee around and get it out of trees when it gets stuck!" Ichigo went inside and shut the door. "Fine! Go be a loner! I'll go have fun by myself!" Keigo shouted at the door, putting the side of his hand up against his face. He began to stomp away only for the door to open and Ichigo to step outside.

"The arcade you said right?" Ichigo asked, stepping up to Keigo.

"Huh?" Keigo was confused at first, but just the idea that Ichigo, after turning him down on so many occasions, finally was accepting one of Keigo's proposals to go hang out was exhilarating. "Yes! The arcade!" Keigo slung his arm around Ichigo. "Come on let's go check out that machine that no one's ever beaten before and high scores are determined in terms of levels completed. Let's go best pal!"

What Keigo didn't know of course was that Ichigo was only accepting his proposal to get his mind off things. Going to the arcade or the park would surely be a welcome distraction from worrying about his inner hollow.

At the arcade, Ichigo and Keigo began playing on the machine Keigo had mentioned that no one had been able to beat. The game had nine levels. Keigo got up to level seven before he died and ran out of money.

"NOOOOOOO!" Keigo began wailing in front of machine. "I was close!"

You were two levels off. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"And if I had gotten just a little farther I would've beaten the high score, it's not fair!" Keigo whined.

Ichigo, sighing, pulled a few coins out of his pocket and put them on the machine. "Here." He said. "Keep going."

Keigo's mouth dropped open in excitement and he held up one of the coins. "Thank you Ichigo!" He made to hug his friend only to notice that Ichigo was nowhere to be seen. The door to the bathroom, swung back and forth. Shrugging, Keigo went back to playing, just in the nick of time before the countdown reached zero. He got by level seven and only wasted three out of the seven coins Ichigo had given him on level eight, not including his initial coin to beat seven. He had only three coins with which to beat the ninth and final level. Tongue sticking out and curved upwards, licking his upper lip, Keigo's left fingers and right wrist worked fluidly as he played this incredibly tough game. He had long since beaten the high score, now he just wanted to win. A crowd began to gather when someone noticed that Keigo was on a level that no one recognized. Keigo ignored the oncoming crowd. He reached the final boss. He was on his last coin and he wasn't about to screw this up.

When Ichigo came out of the bathroom he saw the crowd gathering and Keigo still plugging away at the machine. Rather than pushing his way through the crowd, Ichigo just hung off to the side and watched. From his distance he couldn't see the game all that well, but he could see the boss' health meter go down…and down…and down…and down…and down…and down…and down until finally after what seemed like an hour, but was really only a few minutes, Keigo won. People cheered and Keigo put his name in. He began doing a victory dance. The arcade manager came over and gave Keigo a free pass for all the food, drink and game pass tokens he wanted for a full month for being the first person to complete the game. Keigo saw Ichigo in the distance and ran up to him and put his arm around his neck. "Well hey, I wouldn't have been able to win if my best pal Ichigo hadn't given me a few extra lives."

"Please," Ichigo looked to the side, unenthusiastically, "I just gave you some coins, it's not because of me you only needed seven coins to win."

"Then as an assister to this fantastic achievement, you sir get a free beverage and meal of your choice with this meal voucher." The manager declared. Ichigo gracefully accepted the voucher and put it in his wallet.

Things died down a little bit after that. Keigo was out of money, but Ichigo had yet to spend the rest of his coin on a few games and went to one of the fighting game machines just to vent out his teenage anger. Ichigo just kept getting frustrated because the computer was pulling off combos and attacks he didn't know how to do. He angrily walked away from the machine and made to leave the arcade. "Let's go, you said you wanted to go the park right?" Ichigo asked.

"Uh, yeah, but let's go get the Frisbee from my house first." Keigo said. "Come on let's go!" Keigo began to run off only for his face to collide with a big burly guy about as tall as Ichigo, perhaps slightly taller.

"People tell me you beat Demons and Devils." He spoke angrily to Keigo.

Keigo swallowed. "Um…yes." He squeaked.

The big guy grabbed Keigo by the head and shouted in his face. "I spent three years practicing on that game and I came here today to finally win. And now I find out that my dreams have been crushed by a spineless worm like you. That just makes me so angry that I just have to punch something!" He took a swing at Keigo's mug, but Ichigo punched the guy in the side of the face before the thug's fist connected.

"Hands off the idiot." Ichigo stated, arm still outstretched.

"Thank you Ichigo!" Keigo exclaimed. "You're a real pal."

The thug got up. "Damn bastard! How dare you hit me!"

Lazily, Ichigo just picked up his foot and kicked the guy in the face. He then grabbed Keigo by the shoulder. "Let's go before we start attracting a crowd." He said. Ichigo didn't go more than five steps outside the arcade when his combat pass began blaring. Aw crap, why now? Dammit! Ichigo let go of Keigo and tensed up. "Keigo, go home and stay safe. There's something I need to take care of, something important." Ichigo said and began to dash off.

"Ah, hey Ichigo wait where are you going? Don't leave me here!" Keigo began to run after Ichigo, but lost sight of his friend when he began sneaking through alleyways to his house. Keigo, however could figure what Ichigo was up to, but as the caffeinated teen sped towards Ichigo's house, he saw the protective teen's window open and a black garbed Ichigo go jumping out of it and into the town. Keigo stopped short, skidding to a hault. "What the—that was Ichigo, but he…he freaking flew through the air! And where'd he find a change of clothes and a giant sword so fast!" He began rubbing his head furiously. "Rrrr, this isn't fair, I'm always being left out of the greatest secrets!"

Halfway across town, Tatsuki was taking a relaxing cool down jog through the park. She had been inadvertently caught in an attack by two Arrancar: Yammy Rialgo and Ulquiorra Schiffer. The former was a big stocky guy with a frame as large as one of the Omaedas, but muscles to outclass the family. He also had tan skin and large sideburns and a black ponytail at the back of his head. Strangely enough he had orange colored eyebrows. He had a hollow bone around the bottom of his jaw, complete with fake teeth, acting like a chin guard. The latter had pale quite skin with hollow bone making up half of a helmet on the left side of his head with black hair, green eyes and teardrop makeup down them. Both wore white robes with black socks and white waraji. Yammy, the big dumbass between the two, found the incessant staring of people at him and Ulquiorra, despite the fact that these spiritually oblivious people were staring at the giant crater the pair made upon entry with the world of the living, to be rather irritating and "pissing him off" so he used Gonzui to suck out their souls.

As mentioned, Tatsuki had been caught by this attack, but rather than collapse into a heap like the affected people she held steadfast on her feet and turned around to the direction the strike came from. There were trees in her way, but she could sense strong spiritual pressure just past it. Rather than charge through, she suppressed her own power and looked from afar to try and see what was up.

"Blech!" Yammy stuck out his tongue after his Gonzui was complete. "Awful taste."

"What did you expect Yammy?" Ulquiorra asked, walking closer to him. "Weak souls like that will always taste nasty."

"Well I only did it cause they kept staring at us, like we were part of some freakshow."

"Those people weren't looking at you." Ulquiorra said. After a slight pause he added. "In fact, they couldn't see us at all."

"I know, but they were still pissing me off!" Yammy scowled. "So, how many in the world of the living are we supposed to kill this time?"

"Ten." Ulquiorra said. "One primary target and nine secondary targets."

"Bah, only so many." Yammy said, scratching his ribs. "There have got to be over thousands of people in this city and we're only supposed to kill ten?"

"According to Lord Atrumier there are only ten spiritual entities capable of putting up a fight: four Soul Reapers, a quincy, three spiritually powered humans, this area's Soul Reaper representative and of course Substitute Soul Reaper Kurosaki Ichigo. The rest are just trash." Ulquiorra stated.

"So is that how it works?" Tatsuki said, coming out of hiding. She threw her towel to the ground. "You guys come in here acting all high and mighty and you've got orders to eliminate us, including my best friend and on top of that you cause collateral damage of dozens of innocent lives. Sorry, but that's not gonna happen." Tatsuki said, holding up her arm and bending her fingers so that the tips touched underneath the base of her knuckles.

"Hey, Ulquiorra, is she one?" Yammy asked.

"Why don't you try activating your pesquias for once?" Ulquiorra asked. "Or use simple logic. She survived the Gonzui and she can see us. She is also secondary target Arisawa Tatsuki. Kill her."

"Yay!" Yammy said with a gleeful and very evil smile.

Tatsuki in response held out her arm at her side as she created a disc of fire and then threw it at Yammy.

"Ooh! It's a Frisbee Ulquiorra! I'm going to catch it!" Yammy said as if he were a child with ADD.

"Yammy, if that 'Frisbee', as you call it, hits you it's not going to be painless. You really ought to use your brain once in a while."

"But Ulquiorra I eat plenty of fiber." Yammy said with a big grin.

"I said brain not bran you…" Ulquiorra paused and sighed, realizing it wasn't worth correcting Yammy. He spoke again with the same emotionless tone he always used. "You know what on second thought Yammy catch it. Catch it with your teeth." Ulquiorra encouraged. Ulquiorra had begun to find his companion rather trying on his patience as of late. Yammy was already a moron to begin with. The brain damage he suffered about a week ago from a particularly tenacious Soul Reaper didn't help matters. Ulquiorra had brought this to Talbumosuke's attention, but was unable to persuade the leader of the Arrancar to do something about it.


Four days ago

Hueco Mundo

Ulquiorra wished to have a talk with Talbumosuke regarding Yammy. The lord of the Arrancars had preferred that his troops speak their mind if they found his decisions questionable until they decided for themselves that he was fit to lead. Given the brain damage Yammy had suffered, bottom rung on the Espada or not, Ulquiorra was questioning Yammy's ability to be an Espada at all.

"Is there something I can help you with, Ulquiorra?" Talbumosuke asked as Ulquiorra stepped into the throne room.

"Sir, regarding Yammy, why is he still an Espada?" Ulquiorra wanted to know. He spoke as expressionless with his voice and gaze as always. "The damage to his brain has begun to take its toll. Yammy was already one of the lesser intelligent Espada, but he's starting to become like a child in the body of a giant. Just yesterday Ichimaru-sama put a cake in front of Yammy's door, knocked and hid. Yammy opened the door, stepped in the cake, picked up his shoe, looked around to see if no one was looking and then licked the cake off of his shoe. Can you really expect someone like that to fight as an Espada?" Ulquiorra questioned.

Talbumosuke rose from his seat. "I agree with you that Yammy has become rather…stupid as of late, but he still has both arms, both legs, still has enough intelligence to know how to use his Zanpakuto, and hasn't lost even an ounce of his power. Therefore, by extension, he is still useful."

"That is something I cannot comprehend." Ulquiorra stated. "In his current state his is likely to get himself killed."

"And that is why you are a physical embodiment of Nihilism." Talbumosuke said in a mocking tone and walked down the stairs to stand on the same altitude of ground as Ulquiorra. He held up his right hand and extended his index finger. "Yammy is still useful so long as he can kill and so long as he is strong. Unless the damage to his brain becomes so extensive that he cannot distinguish friend from foe, his strength keeps him on the Espada. If he does die, then he has lived out his usefulness to me and to the army."

"You are…very different from Aizen-sama." Ulquiorra noted, eyes narrowing slightly.

"I should hope so." Talbumosuke said. "Both Lelouch and Urahara were prepared to face Aizen-sensei and Aizen-sensei's tactics, but now that I have taken the reigns they are ill equipped to face me if I do not act the same as our master. There are some tactics they might see coming, but then again they might not see them since if I try to act different from Aizen-sensei for a while." Talbumosuke let his arm down at his side and put his hands in the pockets of his long coat. "Does that answer your concern?" he asked Ulquiorra.

"Yes…I believe it does."


Present Day

"Rargh!" Yammy shouted and made to bite Tatsuki's disc of flame only for him to choke on it.

"Play with fire, get burned." Tatsuki said.

That is so cliché. Ulquiorra thought to himself.

The smoke cleared around Yammy's face, showing he hadn't suffered very much damage at all. Some small scratches to the right side of his face were all Tatsuki had to show for her assault on the big brute.

"Agh, man that would've hurt really badly if we didn't have this hierro," Yammy said rubbing the soot off his face. He then turned to look at his partner. "Right Ulquiorra?" The arrancar just stared straight forward like he was a living statute. Yammy was sort of pointing out the obvious and Ulquiorra didn't feel the need to comment.

Seeing Yammy having just shrugged off her disc of flame like it was nothing, Tatsuki ran forward with a battle cry with an under arm punch, fist imbued with flame. She thrust it forward and made to punch Yammy right in the gut, just below his hollow hole. "Kaso Kobushi!"

Yammy, with a wide grin, blocked Tatsuki's strike with his fist. His hierro and reiatsu absorbed the entire blow. "Hey Ulquiorra are you sure this bitch can fight?" Yammy asked. "That didn't hurt at all."

Tatsuki twisted her body and attempted to tear straight through Yammy. "Kaen Ryu!" Yammy and only got pushed back across the field by the force Tatsuki was exerting. Tatsuki hardly did anything other than singe the arrancar's clothes. "Rasen Furea!" Tatsuki delivered an uppercut to Yammy's chin, but he blocked again with his arm.

"That's not a punch." He said and reared back his arm. "This is a punch." Yammy punched Tatsuki right in the chest, breaking a few ribs and sending her soaring into a tree, which she broke upon contact with it, due to the force and landed with her back on the tree. Yammy laughed boisterously. "Is that all you can muster? How pathetic."

Tatsuki began to find it hard to breathe. One of her rib bones had punctured her lung and now blood was starting to flood into it. Thankfully, the cavalry had arrived in the form of Chad, Uryu and Orihime.

"Hang in there Tatsuki-chan, I'll save you!" Orihime declared. She activated Soten Kisshun and began to heal Tatsuki. Uryu fired Ginrei Kojaku at Yammy and Ulquiorra, riddling them with arrows. The ones that hit Ulquiorra bounced right off his hierro, but the ones that hit Yammy stuck right into the arrancar's skin, creating many little puncture wounds. Chad ran right up to Yammy only to get smashed to the side, his arm mangled as Yammy flexed his powerful muscles and with a might swat severed Chad's arm off from the elbow down. "Sado-kun!" Trying not to panic, Orihime dispelled Soten Kisshun and used Santent Kisshun like a gurney to carry Tatsuki over to Chad and began healing them both.

Uryu began taking on Yammy, but the arrows he fired were doing little more now than bouncing off the large Espada. Did he get stronger somehow after my first attack? What's going on? Uryu wondered. In the next moment Ulquiorra used Sonido and appeared behind Uryu and with a fearsome chop struck Uryu down as if his arm were a sword.

"Ishida-kun!" Orihime now had to repeat the process of carrying and recasting her techniques as she watched Uryu get cut down.

"Aww, Ulquiorra no fair, I was playing with him." Yammy complained.

"You're too slow to deal with someone as skilled and tactful as a Quincy." Ulquiorra said. While Yammy did constantly try his patience, Ulquiorra wasn't about to let his deeply buried desire for Yammy to hopefully die during the mission to interfere with the mission itself.

"What about the girl though?" Yammy asked, looking hungrily at Orihime, "I can kill her right."

That girl, Inoue Orihime, has a strange power. Whatever she is doing to those two humans and that Quincy, it is not the power to heal. Even so, "Of course, she's trash, just like the others." Ulquiorra said.

"Oh boy!" Yammy charged towards Orihime like a stampeding elephant, but was blocked by a Zanpakuto with a red handle and an 'I' shaped guard.

"Hirako-kun." Orihime recognized the person in front of her.

"Yare, yare." Shinji said. "What a mess. Wait for me, I said. I need to get something, I said. You guys really ought to listen to me more often." Shinji swung down and slashed a wound in Yammy's hand.

"Yeow!" Yammy backed off. "Little worm!" he made to strike back at Shinji, but Ulquiorra stopped him by putting an arm in front of him.

"Stop, Yammy. This individual is not on Master Atrumier's list of targets, but he is indeed dangerous, judging from his reiatsu, allow me to handle him." Ulquiorra said.

"That's no fair, you always get to have the fun Ulquiorra." Yammy complained.

"Then how about playing with me for a little bit." Ulquiorra and Yammy both heard the boastful call from behind them and turned to see a Soul Reaper with a cleaver shaped Zanpakuto and orange hair.

"Who's that Ulquiorra?" Yammy scratched his head with his large index finger.

Ulquiorra sighed. "That's the primary target, Kurosaki Ichigo. You may…play with him if you wish."

"Yay!" Yammy cried. He turned to face Ichigo only for a mass of spiritual power to go begin to swell around Ichigo.

He's going to use it? Shinji questioned to himself. Doesn't he realize he'll only bring himself closer to destruction by doing that?

"Bankai." Ichigo said, with a scowl and emerged in his condensed uniform. "Tensa Zangetsu. Hey! Big guy!" Ichigo called out. "Are you the one who did that to Tatsuki, Chad and Ishida?"

"Sure am." Yammy said with a big grin and folded arms.

This guy's not too bright is he? Shinji thought to himself. He knew that would just make Ichigo angry by Yammy saying that. Ichigo couldn't stand people hurting his friends.

"Hirako!" Ichigo called out. "Get Inoue and the others to safety. Guard them with your life. I'll take it from here."

"Did you pop stupid pills while you were home? You can't take these guys." Shinji said.

"Hiarko! I'm not going to ask it again! Go!" Ichigo shouted.

Shinji stared at Ichigo. He's not saying that because he believes he can win. Shinji noticed. He's saying that because he doesn't want any of us around if he loses control. Ichigo…you're smarter than I give you credit for. "Let's go Orihime-chan." Shinji said.

"Ah, right." Orihime de-cast Soten Kisshun, cast Santen Kisshun and used it as a platform to levitate Uryu, Chad and Tatsuki onto the shield and then recast Soten Kisshun over it so that she and Shinji could get to safety.

Ichigo stared down Ulquiorra and Yammy. "I am going to wipe the floor with you." He boasted. Quicker than the eye could see he charged down towards Yammy and sliced his arm straight off. Yammy grabbed his arm in pain. He took a swing at Ichigo, but the Soul Reaper dodged to the side.

Idiot, that's what you get for wanting to rush headlong into a fight. He should've mastered pesquias, but no, he just has to go and be a walking personification of trash. Ulquiorra stopped criticizing Yammy and looked at Ichigo. He is strong, just as Aizen-sama and Atrumier-sama predicted. His reiatsu is strong for someone who only recently learned Bankai. Still, even at this level of power he couldn't possibly pose a threat to Atrumier-sama or even me.

"Damn!" Yammy cursed at Ichigo. "You little runt!"

Ichigo casually put Tensa Zangetsu on his shoulder. "Surprised you can stand there and call me names. I guess you're as tough as you are ugly."

"Having a rough time Yammy, want me to intervene?" Ulquiorra offered. He had sized up Ichigo and was willing to go forward with the mission, perhaps with a missing arm he figured Talbumosuke might axe Yammy from the Espada even if he brought Yammy's arm back with him.

"Hell no!" Yammy said and grabbed his sword. "I'm just getting warmed up."

"I can't believe you need your Zanpakuto to deal with a runt like this." Ulquiorra said. Then again this is the same moron who fell for a sneak attack from a 6th seat Soul Reaper and lost a few brain cells.

"Shut up and stay back!" Yammy shouted.

"Oh so you're an arrancar too are you?" Ichigo asked.

"Huh? You've heard of us?" Yammy scratched his head.

"I dealt with one of your own just last night and that's the reason I went straight to Bankai. Of course judging from your injury I'd take it that was a bit overkill." Ichigo said with a smug grin.

"Oh you think so, do you?" Yammy said and got out his sword. He took a swing at Ichigo. the teen blocked. Yammy took a few more slashes at the teen before Ichigo started getting bored. Lazily he slashed up Yammy's front and made a nice little gash.

"Like I thought, child's play." Ichigo said with his Zanpakuto on his shoulder. He held up his sword to the sky to deliver a finishing blow. As he did though, he could feel a suffocating sensation coming from within his body. Dammit! He's here.

That's my technique you're about to use Ichigo. His hollow said to him. If you wanna finish him off with that, you'd best switch with me.

Frantic, Ichigo began swinging violently back and forth, panting like a dog and backing away from Yammy. Go away…go away…go away…I…don't need you.

"Huh? What's up with him?" Yammy scratched his head.

"Who cares? Kick him while he's down. You have an opening you idiot." Ulquiorra told him.

"Don't tell me what to do." Yammy said, but did as Ulquiorra suggested nonetheless. He kicked Ichigo right in the stomach and sent him flying back. He then punched Ichigo in the side of the head as he spiraled back and knocked him to the ground. "This is my favorite exercise: punching bag!" Yammy said with glee. He continued to mercilessly smack Ichigo around.

I rejected you, Ichigo thought to his hollow, so now you wanna get in my way and sabotage me? Damn.

Something's odd about his reiatsu. Ulquiorra noted about Ichigo. It keeps fluctuating. When it's low it's inconsequential, but when it's high it reaches my level or higher. So very strange.

Yammy continued to pound Ichigo into cake until Ichigo went limp. "Aw, he stopped moving." Yammy picked Ichigo up by the head. "Too bad. I guess this was his last day." He threw made to throw Ichigo, but in an instant a new fighter appeared on the scene and drove their elbow into Yammy's abdomen.

The new fighter was a woman. She had raven colored hair with two cloth-wrapped braids. She was wearing a yellow vest and a black sleeveless shirt. She was also wearing black jeans with a hornet's crest emblazoned into her pant legs in golden embroidery. "Sen…sei." Ichigo looked up at Soifon.

"I thought you were going to get rest." She said. Ichigo just groaned weakly. "Well, it doesn't matter." She said. "I'll take it from here. You just lay there." She looked at Ulquiorra and Yammy.

"Who's she Ulquiorra?" Yammy asked.

"Her name is Soifon. She is the former executive militia commander of the stealth force. She is also one of our secondary targets." Ulquiorra said.

"Can I kill her?" Yammy asked.

As much as I'd like to see you try I think Atrumier-sama would be mad at me if I so blatantly disregarded an enemy's ability. "Do you have any brain cells left?" Ulquiorra asked. "At your current level, especially with your arm loped off she'd wipe the floor with you in less than five minutes."

"Says you!" Yammy said and made to charge.

Ulquiorra sighed. I guess he's the type that has to learn through example.

He's so weak. I don't even need my Zanpakuto for this one. Soifon smirked. Yammy was so slow, to her, it was like he was standing still. As he charged forward she slid her body underneath him and drove her knee into his stomach sending him flying into the air. With a flash step she appeared above him and smashed him over the head with her arms locked together and swung her arms like a hammer, slamming Yammy into the ground. As he bounced off the grass from the impact, Soifon reappeared and planted the bottom of her foot into the side of Yammy's abdomen and sent him bouncing along the ground. She took a left lead stance and looked at Ulquiorra. "You wanna go too?"

"As much as I'd like to, I don't think you really have the time or option do you? Without medical attention your 'precious student' isn't going to last long is he?" Ulquiorra asked.

Yammy got up. "No! Come on! I wanna fight her one more time!" Yammy shouted.

"Idiot." Ulquiorra said and appeared by Yammy and smacked him in the gut with the side of his hand, causing Yammy to go down on one knee. "Get your arm and let's go." Ulquiorra said. He opened a garganta.

As much as I'd like to kill him right now, Kisuke and Yoruichi-sama said not to engage recklessly against the arrancar until reinforcements arrive. Soifon sighed before folding her arms and boasting to Ulquiorra. "Tell your lord that if this is the best he could muster that he'd better come up with some better flunkies."

"Please, if I had been the one to face any of you in combat, rest assured you would've all been destroyed like the trash you are." He and Yammy then disappeared into the garganta.


That Evening

Urahara Shoten

Chad, Uryu, Tatsuki, Orihime and Ichigo were all gathered at Urahara's place so that healing could be done. Shinji had joined them and Soifon was with them. Out of his entire nakama that had fought, only Ichigo was conscious for the moment. It was also pouring out, complete with thunder. Urahara had phoned Isshin to let him know where Ichigo was.

"So, Ichigo, what did we learn today?" Shinji asked Ichigo as the teen sat next to him covered in bandages and gauze.

"Kiss my ass, Hirako." Ichigo grumbled.

"Ha." Soifon delivered a fierce chop to the back of Ichigo's head.

"Ow, what the hell sensei?" Ichigo rubbed his head.

"How's this for an answer: I learned that I'm going to continue to get my butt kicked until I learn how to control my own power?" Soifon snapped. Ichigo just growled and turned his head away.

"She's right you know." Shinji said, swirling around the iced tea he was holding before picking it up and taking a drink. When he swallowed he said, "You need to learn how to control that beast and I think you learned today that mentally suppressing it isn't going to work."

"That's not true. I just let my anger get the better of me." Ichigo excused.

Shinji sighed and got to his feet. "You are by far the most stubborn person I have ever met." He paused and then added. "No, wait…I take that back, you're the second most stubborn." He sighed again and began to walk away. "It doesn't matter. You'll come crawling to me eventually. I'll see you tomorrow in class I guess."

Before he left, Ichigo said. "Hey, Hirako."

"Hmm," Shinji looked over his shoulder.

"Thanks for saving Inoue and helping my friends. I appreciate it." Ichigo said.

"Hey, what are friends for?" Shinji smirked.

"Don't think I trust you just because you did one good thing." Ichigo said.

"Didn't think you did." Shinji began to walk away.

"I…chi…go." Ichigo heard Tatsuki's voice. He went over to where Orihime was healing her, Chad and Uryu, the latter of which were still unconscious.

"Tatsuki…are you okay?" Ichigo knelt down by her.

"I'll pull through." Tatsuki groaned.

Ichigo sighed. "Don't do something that reckless again okay? I don't like seeing you get hurt…even if Orihime can heal our wounds."

Tatsuki just chuckled to herself.

"I think I'll head on home." Ichigo said as he got to his feet.

"I'll walk you back." Soifon said. "You're in no shape to fight if you get jumped in that condition."

Ichigo just glanced to the side. "Yeah…thanks."

With her black golf umbrella opened over the both of them, Soifon walked her student back to his house. She'd rather be at home with Yoruichi getting a nice massage, but tending to her students came first. They were her responsibility and her job, pleasure could come afterwards.

The walk was silent until Ichigo and Soifon were halfway to the clinic. "Thanks for saving me sensei." Ichigo said. "I might've been killed if you hadn't shown up."

"I would've arrived sooner. I thought you'd do fine when I sensed your Bankai, but when Hirako told me about the trouble you were having when I passed by him I picked up my pace. If you weren't having trouble you would've sliced through that one guy like papier-mâché. That guy was weak. That other guy though, the pale one, I don't know if you could sense it, but he had some serious power to him." Soifon said.

"I couldn't sense it. I'm really bad at sensing reiatsu. You're a meter from me and I can barely sense yours at all. I'm bad at a lot of things. Maybe I should just stop being a Soul Reaper all together." Ichigo said.

"Well that would solve the issue temporarily," Soifon said and then got snappy, "But you know how I feel about quitters. I don't understand why you can't just go and get help from Hirako?"

"I don't need anyone's help suppressing this damn thing! I can do it on my own. It's my body so I can damn well take care of it if I try hard enough!" Ichigo shouted.

"You're just scared to lose your mind, admit it." Soifon said.

"I admit it." Ichigo said depressingly.

Soifon let out a short sigh. "Look, moping about it isn't going to be good for you. Clear your head and think about this. Tomorrow's Friday and since you missed yesterday I want you in class. Saturday there's no school. First thing in the morning you're to go to Hirako's place and get this sorted out am I understood?"

Ichigo simply growled and walked out from underneath Soifon's umbrella.

"Goddammit Kurosaki! Stop being so stubborn!" Soifon punched Ichigo in the face. He didn't even retaliate. He just kept walking. "You know what, fine, be a quitter see if I care. Don't expect me to do favors for you anymore though. I hate quitters!" she shouted after Ichigo.

Later that evening, after midnight, once Tatsuki, Chad, and Uryu were well enough to go on home and Orihime went with them, Soifon went back to her house and she walked in the door slightly damp. The rain had really started to pick up from the start of the evening. "Stupid Kurosaki," she mumbled into the cushion, "I swear I oughta…"

"Something the matter Soifon?" Yoruichi asked. She was in the bathroom brushing her hair.

"It's nothing." Soifon said, collapsing on the couch. "Kurosaki's being an idiot as always. It's nothing new. The apple obviously doesn't fall very far from the tree."

Yoruichi laughed and walked out into the living room. "Ichigo's still a little kid. He may look like a teenager, but he still tries to think that he can solve all of his problems on his own and he only needs help to fight his battles."

Soifon simply growled.

"I just spoke to Kukaku a little while ago. Reinforcement should be here tomorrow afternoon. Judging from who I heard is being sent, there's no doubt Ichigo's gonna get pulled out of whatever funk he's been in for the last few days." Yoruichi stated.

"I hope so." Soifon said. She turned over onto her back. "We're going to be down a powerful asset without him for the upcoming battle. We need all the hands on deck we can get and he's captain class."

"He just has to learn from experience, that's all." Yoruichi said. "Now, how about that massage I promised."

Soifon happily flipped over onto her back.

End of Chapter 52


(A/N: Next time on Soul Chess the reinforcements arrive at last. I am rather disappointed with this chapter since ending it was a pain in the ass, but did enjoy turning Yammy into a psychopathic manchild and making him about as dumb as Nappa from DBZ abridged. I swear with the way Soul Chess is going I'm like doing the inversion of Cerberus syndrome. The series has gone from serious to silly somewhat haha. Anyway tomorrow's Friday and that means FREE TIME! See you allow tomorrow. For now me = bed).