Hello and welcome back! This chapter is short - about 1500 words, but next chapter should move the plot along anyways. Hopefully, they'll work with me and we can get everything going.

Do not own, do not make money from this, do not collect 200$, yada yada yada.

Kitty Kat

Chapter 50

A week later, Rangiku Matsumoto and Hitsugaya Toshiro showed up at Ichigo's house unannounced. Of course, there was yelling from Ichigo involved, but everything quickly calmed down when the captain and lieutenant explained they were there because of the anomaly from a week before.

"We were sent to investigate what is going on," Toshiro commented, crossing his arms. His eyes kept glancing over at the orange cat in Ogichi's lap, wondering why it was that her simple presence was so familiar when he knew that he hadn't seen very many cats since their return several months ago. "Normally, I would send some of my officers to investigate, but considering the situation, we decided it was best to come along ourselves."

Ichigo nodded, inviting them in to his own flat, which was acquired shortly after returning. Since the two of them were trying to become separate entities, Ogichi and Ichigo got their own place, escaping Isshin's craziness (which was cranked up by ten after they returned) and allowing them a moment to breath. It worked, since they didn't have to worry so much about hiding things from their family, though the twins suspiciously and swiftly accepted Ogichi as their other older brother.

It still amused Ichigo how flustered Ogichi got at how he was essentially mother-henned by Yuzu to eat and how Karin peppered him with fifty million questions. Definitely one of the highlights of his family.

"OH SHE'S ADORABLE!" Rangiku was careful not to get too close, but she never-the-less cooed at the cat currently making herself home in Ogichi's lap. She was tempted to pet the lovely thing, but the glare Ogichi sent her way promised all sorts of death if she got close enough for that to happen.

Both Ichigo and the cat snorted at that, though Ichigo had a harder time hiding his amusement since all the cat had to do was dig her face into Ogichi's legs. No human face, but her eyes would clearly show her amusement at the situation.

Sighing, Toshiro ignored his lieutenant. "We'll be staying at a hotel for a few days and, if nothing happens, we'll return back to Soul Society. Let us know if you need anything from us." He grabbed Rangiku, waving behind him as they left the premises.

"Well… I'm surprised they didn't ask about you, Chase." Ichigo looked over at her, raising a brow at the smug aura she put off. Yeah, if he wasn't sure she and Ogichi were mates, he certainly knew it now. Their smirks were practically the same.

Even the meow that Chase echoed was smug.

Sighing, Ichigo flopped onto his bed, ready for a damn nap. The amount of reiatsu that he had to concentrate and push between him and Ogichi was exhausting, though it had been getting much easier recently. He turned to his side, facing the wall and trying to tune out the whispers between Ogichi and the mute Chase.

Ichigo sincerely hoped they could find out whatever the condition was that Chase needed to meet to turn human. He wasn't sure he could deal with the love-sick idiot that he now had as a brother.

God, that was still too damn weird to think about.

"If you're going to be cute, be quiet about it." Ichigo hid a grin into his pillow at both of their sputters of indignation. "Go away, I'm gonna take a nap."

"Yeah, yeah, whatevah." There was a purring warmth pushing up against his back now, and Ichigo was tempted to give Chase a look, but decided that the warmth was better than whatever wrath he would receive at the end of her claws. "I'm gonna nap myself, so call me whenevah ya wake up."

Ichigo just grunted.

It was the same as a yes, anyways.

"Is this going to stop any time soon?" Renji was currently baffled, staring at the ginger cat and Urahara have a stare down between them. He knew that Urahara wanted to run a couple of experiments with the cat, but Heather had immediately hissed at the ex-Captain… She had been steadily growling at him for the past fifteen minutes.

Yoru shrugged, eyes trained on the ceiling, trying to imagine the clouds twisting into entertaining shapes. "Heather has an aversion of tests of any sort – one of the things we learned about her while we were stuck in that between space."

"What is that like, by the way?"

Frowning, Yoru sat up, eyes distant as she tried to recall the time spent in there. Her hands were tapping at her wrists in a constant, soothing rhythm, but they soon turned to scratching lightly at the delicate skin there. "I don't… We don't remember." At the surprised look thrown her way, Yoru clarified with, "I know that we spent time there, long enough that we each know about our zanpackto, their name, and can achieve bankai if we trained a little more here. We know each other pretty well, and I know that we spent a long time there, but the specifics are… fuzzy, at best."

Heather hopped up next to Yoru, offering comfort without touching the now slightly distraught woman. Yoru looked down at her, her frown softening.

"We can recall specifics if asked, but beyond that, I can't tell you."

"It's probably best to ask Chase's zanpackto, since he was the one who set us there." Heather huffed after a moment, remembering that only two other people there could currently understand her. Not like Maria was paying much attention – not like a cat could when taking a delightful nap.

Urahara hummed at the information, tapping his face with his fan. Heather was pretty convinced half of his habits were concocted purely to piss people off, which Heather could understand why but it was irritating non-the-less. "Can you summon your zanpackto in this form, Heather?"

She nodded her head, tail flicking in irritation. Heather didn't understand how that was relevant information.

Yoru piped up with, "we can each summon our zanpackto, but we're limited in what we can do. We can't access Shikai or Bankai…" She frowned here. "It's like having a sword with a couple of fancy extra powers, though I know I bypassed that rule thanks solely to Night… I wonder why…"

"Probably best not to hurt ourselves over it." Renji yawned. "Just glad you're here now, though we gotta figure out what to do with your other three friends. Any clues about their conditions?"

Heads shook all around the room.

"Any idea about who your mates could be?"

Same response. Renji sighed.

"Ah, there you are." Everyone looked up to see Toushirou and Rangiku traveling down the ladder. "We have been looking for you everywhere." Urahara grinned, unrepentant at the extra work he made the short captain do to find their little hovel. "Renji, I do believe it is time for you to head back to the Sereitei…. Wait, is that Yoru?"

Yoru waved in response.

Toushirou simply blinked at this, sighing. "I see… Then I am to assume the cat staying with Ogichi and Ichigo is Chase?"

"Got it in one!" Urahara pointed to the other two cats in the vicinity. "And these are two of their friends apparently – Heather and Maria." Heather hunkered down, meowing in greeting.

Unfortunately, Maria was a little preoccupied… staring at Rangiku.

"Heyyyyy, a little distracted there?" Heather smirked, reveling in the way Maria instantly went and hid her face in her paws. "While they are great assets, it is rude to stare, ya know."

"Shut up…" Marie sounded highly embarrassed, so Heather observed her job as done and stopped the slight ribbing she was giving the blonde cat.

"I'm not translating for you, so don't ask." Yoru was slightly exasperated, but she would probably have done the same thing if she was Heather. She did remember Maria's preference, of course, but if Rangiku turned out to be one of her two mates….

Wait, hold on.

"This is rich!" Night cackled in her head, enjoying Yoru's revelation. "I can't believe Maria's soulmates are going to be easy to find if THAT is all it takes to get her going."

Yoru didn't bother hiding her sigh, shaking her head at Renji's questioning look.

Byakuya turned to Urahara. "Is there a way to bring Yoru with us without alerting Yamamato?" Urahara hummed.

"Give me a week, and I'll see what I can come up with. For now, I do believe Captain Hitsugaya is correct – we can't have too many of you here without causing suspicion."

Byakuya nodded, though he didn't like leaving Yoru behind. "Renji and I will report what happened to Yamamato – hopefully, we can gain some insight into this new hollow." It still slightly disturbed him that the hollow-or-whatever-it-was got so close to making it into the town, causing that much damage. Of course, Karakura Town was still repairing the buildings, but the people were calling it a freak earthquake and had already moved on from the event.

Renji grinned at Yoru. "We'll be back."

"You better be."

With that, the captain and lieutenant duo left, traveling back to the Seretei. The three of them already missed each other, but there were still priorities and duties to be done. They would see each other again.

Rangiku sighed. "Well, there's that. We'll be here for a little while, but I don't know if the Head Captain will send someone else to replace us, or expect us back and have Karakura Town return to normal patrols. Either way, it'll be interesting to see what happens here."

Toushirou nodded in agreement. "I assume this new development is being kept secret as well."

"Well of course!" Urahara sounded way too happy at that prospect. "It's the way things must be!"

"I'm out." Yoru was already climbing up the ladder. "If you're going to be weird, I'll find someplace else to stay. Maria, Heather, let's go."

Thank you for reading the chapter! Sorry it's not interesting, but I have been struggling hard core with just writing in general. I have the ideas and everything, but getting the motivation after working for 10+ hours a day, it gets really difficult. I am trying to get back into writing more often, but I do worry that working is just draining me of everything I love.

I promise I am going to do everything I can to keep going with this story, but I apologize in advance if it seems forced in some places. When I go over and edit this, it should be better.

Thank you to DragonMaster789 and DragonJinchuriki20 for being both loyal and just dealing with my bullshit concerning this story. Thank you so much!

Until next time!

Tiryn