Kukaku Shiba was just as impressive as Orihime remembered, if not more so. There was something about her-the sprawl of her legs, the ease at which she leaned back into her pillows, the casual hold on her pipe, her smirk, any of it, all of it. Something that made Orihime go, ah, yes, this person knows what they're doing more so than anyone else here.

That was saying something, considering her profession.

"Yoruichi," the woman said with a grin. "Long time no see."

The party: "Kukaku… is a woman?!"

To be fair, Orihime had been surprised the first time, too.

Kukaku understandably didn't look entirely pleased by the fact that Yoruichi had company. It may have had something to do with the fact that the two had used to engage in what Yoruichi called "a fair amount of freaky sex."

"Who…" Kukaku frowned. "Who are these kids?"

Yoruichi sidestepped the question, padding closed to Kukaku, where she took a seat with her tail neatly crossed over her paws. "Kukaku, I actually came here to ask you for a favor."

"I thought so," the woman said with a smirk that said the 'favor' was usually not of this nature. "Isn't it the same every time you come?" The double-entendre was clear in the way she put emphasis on the last word in her question.

She sobered when Yoruichi didn't laugh.

"Is it really complicated?" Kukaku asked.

"I think so," Yoruichi answered.

She leaned forward, laughing beneath her breath. "It's been a long time since we've had this kind of conversation… So tell me, then, what's the job? I l ove complicated stuff."

The cat relayed the mission quickly, sparing a few details, but otherwise explaining their general need to break into the gotie thirteen. Kukaku listened quietly, nodding now and then as she smoked her pipe. When Yoruichi had finally told her everything, Kukaku stood.

"Alright," she said with finality. "I think I understand. I'll take the job."

"Really?" Yoruichi sounded surprised.

"Yeah. I guess since Urahara is a part of this, I can't really refuse. Gotta say, though… Just because I trust you doesn't mean I trust these kids. I mean, look at carrot-top over there. Looks like he got clawed in the face by a kitten like some kinda idiot."

Ichigo, who had, in fact, been clawed in the face that morning by Yoruichi for idiotic reasons, shifted in his seat, uncomfortable.

"I'm sending one of my men on the job, just to be sure no one screws this up. You got any objections to that?"

"Of course not," Yoruichi said.

Ichigo cleared his throat. "What do you mean by 'one of your men?'"

"My kid brother," she said, and started toward a sliding door. "He's still a punk, not good for much." She knocked on the door. "Oi! You ready?" She didn't wait for an answer before sliding it open. "I'm opening the door! Be courteous, got it?"

The voice from within: "Y-yes, onee-sama."

From within, Ganju was revealed. He'd cleaned up since the night before, and was smiling politely, bowing his head. "H-Hello, everyone. My name is Shiba Ganju. Pleased to meet you."

It was then, of course, that he noticed exactly who he was bowing to.

"AHHHHH!" Ichigo and Ganju both screamed. "YOU!"

"So then you two know each other?" Kukaku droned.

They attempted to begin fighting again. Orihime dropped her head into her hands and groaned. This was really what her life had come to? Watching her ex-husband-to-be get into pissing contests with everyone he met?

Kukaku stopped the two of them before they could get very far. A fist in her brother's head, and the heel of her foot in Ichigo's. "Cut that shit out! The hell is the matter with you two? Starting to fight the second you see each other!"

"B-but Onee-sama! It was. He. I!"

"You dare talk back to me?" She kicked him soundly in the jaw, furious. "And you, punk!" She turned on Ichigo, who had been pouting and muttering under his breath. She grabbed the top of his head and forced him to meet her eye. "This is my home. If you don't like the way I run the place, then you can get the hell out!"

Ichigo blinked at her, surprised. "Oh. Um. I'm sorry."

"That's better." She released him. "As long as you get the point. Now! Everyone else, this way!"

They followed Kukaku through a hallway.

"Wow," Ishida said. "It's so bright even though we're underground. And I don't see any electric lights or switches anywhere. How do you do it, Shiba-sama?"

"Oh, that. I planted some light vines between the walls and ceilings."

"Light vines? Are those a type of special soul society plant?"

She ignored him. "Alright. Here we are. Open the door, Ganju."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Uryuu turned to Orihime, opening his mouth.

Ichigo grabbed him. "Hey, remember what she said. If you don't like the way she runs things, you leave."

"Wh-I was just asking about the plants!" "

"Yeah Kurosaki," Renji said. "You're the one who was tearing down her house fighting with her kid brother."

Ichigo didn't get a chance to reply. The doorway had been opened, and so the sky cannon was revealed to them. It was tall, polished black marble, shooting straight up through the rest of the Shiba manor. The lot of them stared at it, slack-jawed with awe.

"Wh… is that?" Ichigo blinked at it.

"It's huge!" Renji said.

"This," Kukaku slapped the side of the cannon. A hollow echo rang out within it. "Is how we're getting you to seireitei. From the sky!" She grinned at their baffled expressions. "I'm the ambition wave of the sky crane; first class fireworks master!"

~(o0o)~

The plan was to use kido to create a shell to puncture through the shielding around soul society, after being blasted above the wall using the fireworks cannon. This was a relatively simple, though brazen, plan. Orihime hadn't had any trouble creating a barrier the very first time she'd tried it, but she made sure to keep her shell simple enough to be a beginner's. As before, Ishida was able to make one, though the shape was off, and Chad was able to make a very powerful, if not unstable one. Even Renji managed to make one despite struggling slightly with the new form of Kido.

As before, Ichigo was the only one who couldn't pull it off.

She almost felt bad for him. He was a natural at everything else, and he had nothing to draw on when it came to building skills that didn't come to him naturally. He put the effort in, certainly, and trained far longer than any of the rest of them did, but his shield continued to be a wispy, incomplete mess. She didn't know how to help him, so she did what she'd done the time before-nothing.

It was difficult as it was to keep things from getting too out of hand. It was clear that Ganju resented not only having Ichigo in his home, but Renji as well. As before, Ichigo seemed to be the one he focused his antagonistic nature on, but Renji wasn't spared his ire either. Orihime wanted to tell Ganju that his hatred of the shinigami was for all the wrong reasons.

Ganju still believed his old brother, Kiane, had been killed in cold blood. Little did he realize that not only was he about to join a mission to save the very person who had put a sword to his older brother, but that Kiane had asked her to in order to die with the dignity of a shinigami after being possessed by a hollow. She felt that sharing these things would either raise too many questions, or mark her as a liar and traitor to the Shiba clan. She kept silent, even well into the next day, when Ganju finally told their group about his older brother.

"But you two…" He shook his head and Renji and Ichigo. "You're different."

They were. Even Renji, who just days ago was the same as any other, had changed. It was in this way that Orihime did still find Ichigo to be a remarkable man. He was able to sway people to his side, to change their very nature, simply by being around. Certainly, it had been Orihime that had gotten Renji to defect, but it was Ichigo who had changed the redheaded lieutenant in such a short amount of time. There was a loyalty, a code of honor, that seemed to follow him wherever he went.

She admired him for that. It had always been her wish to connect other together, but no matter how she tried, it seemed that often times she fell short of that goal. Ichigo met it without ever even trying.

The launch was just as before. It all was. Even with the addition of Renji, time changed very little. They were launched from the cannon, and they pierced through the shield above the seireitei, and just as before, they were seperated. Orihime allowed it, knowing she would never be able to carry out her plans in a large group. She changed it just barely from the first time, and instead of allowing Yoruichi to fall by herself, tossed the cat to Ishida.

They were separated thus:

Ganju and Ichigo.

Chad and Renji.

Uryuu and Yoruichi.

Orihime, alone.

Orihime fell from the sky by her lonesome, neither frightened nor overwhelmed. She felt, if anything, merely ready, and when she finally hit the ground, she simply stood and brushed herself off.

She pulled her spiritual pressure into herself, masking it completely. She knew that Yoruichi and Renji would likely notice, so she let it out very quickly once more before pulling it in, so that they would know she had not died all of the sudden. With that measure taken, she quickly looked around, trying to figure out where she was.

Much of Soul Society had changed since the beginning. She knew approximately where she was, but couldn't remember the exact layout as it had been in the beginning. She wondered if Yoruichi had encountered the same difficulties upon returning to Soul Society.

It hardly mattered. She had to find Gin.

Already the streets were crawling with shinigami, looking for the intruders. As before, Orihime waited patiently in a clump of foliage. It didn't take long for a single shinigami to go running past. With a quick breath in and a quick breath out, she leapt from the bushes and quickly knocked the unnamed man unconscious. She looked to the sky and sent off a silent thank you to Tatsuki as she dragged the man into the brush, where she quickly stripped him of his uniform.

She'd worn a white top and a pair of black pants to Soul Society, both of which she'd sewn herself. They were both durable and stretchy, and what was more, light enough to wear underneath the new uniform she'd acquired.

"Sorry," she whispered to the guy as she began to dress. He was a tad bit bigger than her, so she had to roll the sleeves up to her elbows and tie them, but she otherwise fit in his clothing. His shoes, though, were far too large. Orihime hoped the low hems of the hakama pants would disguise her cheap black flats until she could find another pair of sandals to swipe.

With her hair tied up in a bun and her hairpins secured to the collar of her uniform, she quickly set off between rows and rows of buildings. All over Soul Society, she could already feel several of her friends engaging in battle. Ichigo and Ikkaku, Ganju and Yumichika, Uryuu and… well, she couldn't remember his name, but it was the same man they'd first encountered. Jiro-something. Renji and Chad were fine so far, it seemed.

If she was feeling their spiritual pressure correctly, all the captains had been gathered in one place. That made her job a little complicated. She hoped like hell that by the time she got to their location, the meeting or gathering would disperse, and she'd be able to get Gin alone. She frowned, remembering that Kira Izuru had been Gin's little shadow back in the day. She could tell the lieutenants were all gathered in one place, too. Hopefully it took time for them to get back to their captains.

She was admittedly worried. Renji had been quite the milestone for Ichigo the first time around him. Their battle had really pushed Ichigo to new heights, and counted as one of his very first major victories. Ichigo had trained with Renji extensively, but they had not tried to kill each other, no matter the awkward feelings between them. (After all, Ichigo blamed himself for Rukia's sentence, and it was very likely Renji did, too.)

She was prepared to intervene and, at the very least, help shield him in coming battles, but she knew that this entire operation-the fate of the world, even-was up to him. It did not matter how powerful Orihime was herself; her powers were defensive, and though she'd cultivated her offensive powers quite a bit, she was still by no means the force that Ichigo was. Too much depended on him to shelter him from harm, as much as she wanted to preserve his childhood. Because at the end of the day, he really was still a child.

Everyone's favorite hero, and his voice still cracked when he got particularly pissed off.

She sighed. Still running, she reached into her robes and fished for the folded piece of paper in the front pocket of her pants. Drawing it out, she reviewed the plan, carefully laid out on one of her cutesy weekly planner pages. The plan went thus:

Aug 1. Arrive, Ichigo vs. Jidanbo, meet Ganju, stay night elder's house. CHECK

Aug 2. Arrive Kukaku's practice barrier, stay night. CHECK

Aug 3. Ichigo vs. Ikkaku, Ganju vs. Yumichika, Uryuu vs. Jio guy... can't remember his name? Chad vs. random guys. Go Chad! FIND GIN

She was relatively certain she'd gotten the timeline right. She folded the note carefully and tucked into her uniform, hurrying towards where she could feel the Captains were beginning to disperse. Soul Society was huge, but whenever she was alone, she used her version of flash-step to propel herself further along the walkways. It was easy to navigate, now that she was disguised. She wondered why no one had thought to wear disguises the first time, when the outcome of their rescue mission hadn't been certain. Something as simple as hiding Ichigo's hair would have saved them a hell of a lot of trouble.

Oh well.

She slipped into an open courtyard, at the mouth of the shinigami HQ. She was panting and out of breath, but she'd at least made it before Gin could disappear. Gathering herself, she strode with purpose, collecting a random hell butterfly from the air so as to look like a messenger.

She felt the hair on the backs of her arms raise as Tousen strode passed her. He did not notice her and continued on his way. She took in a breath to calm herself and continued to where she could see the shine of Gin's silver hair.

"Captain Ichimaru!" She called. "Message for you, sir!"

He turned at the sound of her voice. He paused immediately, recognizing her from the gate. Still, if there was one thing she could count on with Gin, it was his curiosity. He folded his hands behind his back and grinned, waiting for her to catch up to him.

"A message, hm?" He tilted his head and leered down at her. "Straight from the top, I s'pose?"

Despite the crawling feeling she got from his care-free smirk, she kept a serious, though cowed, expression, trying to appear like any other officer to the outside world. "Yes sir. Sensitive material. Is there somewhere we could talk?"

"Now people 'round here are already a might sensitive about my intentions." He cracked open and eye to fix on her. "Not sure how it might look to be receiving random messages all by my lonesome."

She kept her cool. "You're not exactly taking steps to make yourself look innocent, though, are you?"

The eye closed. Orihime felt a little bit better with the ghost of the blue eye hidden away once more. "Well now that's just mean. Right this way, officer…?"

"Inoue, sir," she said. She followed a step behind him. "I just graduated."

"Ah, did you?" He smiled wide. "Well congratulations! And let me guess, ya got yer eye on squad three? Well, we're a merry bunch, made merrier by our company. You've got the manipulation right, you might like ta join us."

She swallowed. "Yes, sir."

They proceeded to a nearby building. It was not squad three, but rather, the barracks. There was no one around, but Orihime looked about anyway, worried about being spotted. No one was the wiser, though. The entered without encountering a single soul.

It wasn't until Gin was unlocking a door that Orihime realized, with a start, that they were about to enter Rangiku's chambers. She was unfortunately not surprised to see that Gin had a key to her place-if anything, it was a measure against the man breaking in whenever he so felt like it.

Rangiku's room smelled of sake, sakura laundry detergent, and her ever-changing perfume. Her futon was messy, the blankets strewn all over the floor, dirty clothes in a pile next to the almost-empty laundry basket. Next to the pillow of the futon were three empty bottles, and on her desk, four more.

"Now." Gin pulled the little chair at the desk out, motioning for Orihime to sit. She did, releasing her hell butterfly as she did so. Gin opened the window and it fluttered away. He shut the window as soon as it was gone and then reclined in Rangiku's messy sheats, casual as he leaned his head against his fist. "What's the message, Inoue-san?"

"You have to kill Aizen."

Gin stiffened immediately. For a moment, he was silent, but then slowly he uncoiled from his lax position and sat facing her, hand on the hilt of his sword. "Now why would I do a mean thing like that?"

"Your plan was good," she said. "But you made a mistake. You think that when Aizen joins with the hogyoku, it will make them both vulnerable for a moment. It happens with the arrancar, in a way, so of course the same would be said for both pieces when Aizen joins them. But you're wrong. The hogyoku will become indestructible the moment it has a body to fuse to, and Aizen will be immortal. You'll turn on him just in time to be killed."

Gin's eyes were open. He was listening.

"I know you want to destroy the hogyoku to return the missing pieces of Rangiku's soul to her. But it won't work. You see, the only person in the universe who can destroy the hogyoku and free the souls inside of it… is me."

"Now what I'd like to know," Gin said, drawl gone, voice like ice. "Is where a nice girl like you learned about such nasty things."

"We don't have time to get into that." Orihime said. "In three days Rukia Kuchiki will be rescued from her execution, and Aizen will reveal himself to soul society. You, Aizen, and Tousen will flee to Hueco Mundo."

"A shinigami in Hueco Mundo? Now that doesn't seem to wise, does it?"

"Just listen," she said. "I'm not here to threaten you. I'm trying to help you."

He waited.

"You should carry on exactly as you were going to. Follow Aizen's orders, betray your friends, I don't care. But don't wait until the last minute to kill him. It will be so, so long from now, but when Aizen finally decides to make the key in the living world, and leave Hueco Mundo, attack him then. As soon as he goes to retrieve the Hogyoku, kill him. I'll have the rest taken care of, Hogyoku included."

He was silent, for a moment, before finally he once again resumed his lounging position. "That's a nice story an' all," he drawled. "But there's just one problem. I don't think you can destroy the hogyoku. Fact is, I think yer tryin' to play me, and I gotta say, I don't like it much."

"I can't tell anyone about your position," she said. "Least of all Aizen. It will ruin my plans."

"Never did care much for schemers."

"You're a schemer!"

He laughed a little, beneath his b

reath. "Well ideally, I'd like ta be the only one."

"What, so, I'm supposed to believe you're just going to kill me? Here in Rangiku's apartment of all places?"

His grin broadened. "You cert'enly wouldn't be tha first."

Good point. "Listen to me," she snapped. "You can cooperate with me, or do your own thing. I'm only telling you this for Rangiku's sake."

"And what does Ran have to do with any of it?"

"Well she's gonna have her heart broken when you die, for one."

"... When, huh?"

"When," Orihime repeated.

"So then you're from the future," Gin mused. "Is that right?"

"Yes," she said.

"Prove it."

"Your bankai's name is Kamishini no Yari. Its real ability is the power to leave a shard behind in whoever you stab, and poison them."

He regarded her for a long, long moment.

"No one knows that," he said, finally. "Not even Ran. I believe you."

"So then do we have a deal? You'll kill Aizen before he joins with the hogyoku?"

"I s'pose I gotta."

She stood. "I'm going to try to mitigate all the damage you three are trying to sew. I'll be sure to get in your way, but I won't stop you from leaving. I… I've thought about it, and I can't stop the arrancar from being created. As horrible as it is, they're people too, and so Aizen will just have to create them with his hogyoku."

"And if he decides to feed Urahara's to his early? Become a god on a whim?" He tilted his head. "Assumin' ya know about that."

"I do," she said. "Don't worry. I've got it handled."

There was a noise as the lock on Rangiku's door began to jiggle.

"That'd be my six o' clock," he grinned wide at her. "You best be leavin'."

Orihime rolled her eyes and stood, heading for the window. "You better be good to her, Ichimaru, you hear me?"

He just stared at her, smiling pleasantly.

Orihime narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head, just before jumping out the window. As she floated to the ground, she could just barely make out Rangiku as she purred Gin's name. The window shut a moment later.

In the street and finished with the day's mission, Orihime found the nearest manhole and took to the sewers, where she was certain to be hidden until her next encounter.