Chapter 2: Three Years Later

It had been a horrible time for anyone who knew Ichigo after that day. News of Ichigo's capture spread like wildfire as everyone wanted to go and rescue the teen from whatever twisted torture Aizen would put him through. Everyone had taken to the news differently. Some, like Orihime, cried to no end of Ichigo's fate with that horrible man. Others, like Chad and Uryu, trained rigorously for the inevitable day they would march into Hueco Mundo to rescue their friend. Rukia and Renji were in the same boat as well and also trained harder than they've ever trained before to rescue Ichigo. Yoruichi had shut herself off from anyone for a few days as she remembered that it was her fault Ichigo was captured. Her thoughts still on that arrancar woman who captured him. She vowed that when the time came, she would make that arrancar suffer greatly for taking her Ichigo away from her.

A few weeks after Ichigo was captured, these six individuals converged to Kisuke to get ready to head out on their rescue mission, and that was when they heard the worst possible news.

"I can't open a garganta there." The shopkeeper said to them with his head hung in shame.

There was a deafening silence for a few moments before Yoruichi went to her best friend and demanded to know why.

"I don't know what Aizen has done, but somehow he's locked away all possible ways of entering Hueco Mundo." Kisuke explained to the shocked group.

"What do you mean he locked all possible ways Urahara?!" Uryu shouted to the man as he didn't want to believe they couldn't go to rescue their friend.

"I mean just that." Kisuke started again with a deep sigh. "I've been trying in every waking second since Ichigo was taken to find a way to get there, and getting the same result. Aizen planned this whole thing through. He made it so that only his arrancar can get in and out of Hueco Mundo freely while other hollow classes will simply be stuck here until they're killed."

"So all we have to do is find an arrancar and force them to open a garganta so we can save Ichigo. Right?" Renji asked the former squad 12 captain only to get a grim expression in return.

"Aizen is a lot smarter than that to allow any of his arrancar to leave Hueco Mundo knowing that I'd already think of that type of plan." Kisuke saw everyone's wide eyed and terrified reactions to what he was suggesting. "i won't sugar coat it at all. We can't save Ichigo."

The six ere absolutely stunned and dumbfounded by what they were just told. After this short amount of time since Ichigo's capture, all this hard training most of them had done, and wanting to save their friend desperately, it was all for nothing. Was Ichigo really truly gone forever? Was saving him now impossible for any of them to do? What kind of sick and twisted plan does Aizen intend to do to him? Would he forgive any of his friends for not trying to rescue him if they were to ever see him again? These questions flowed through everyone's minds as they all stood there, defeated and in a daze of despair for their friend, Ichigo Kurosaki.

1 Year Later

A lot changed within a year for the group. They had all taken the fact that getting to Ichigo was nigh impossible and had to unfortunately accept that as reality, but that didn't stop them from training for when the war would start. Word spread to the soul society of the situation with Ichigo and many of the people there had mixed reactions. Some thought that they should still try and save him while others had decided to prepare as hard as they could for the war and hope to see the teen in time. The central 46 had issued that it would be best to either consider Kurosaki dead or a traitor in which case he shall be executed. That news did NOT go over well with a certain purple haired flash goddess who wanted to beat so much sense into the old fools. She was stopped by both Kisuke and the head captain when she was informed that not a single soul would do any such thing if they saw the orange haired teen again. This was at the very least reassuring for her to know that not a single captain or lieutenant would kill or capture him in any way. This news spread to the group in the world of the living as well, and a certain father who was very irate when he was told all too late of his son's fate.

To say that Isshin Kurosaki was angry at his friend Kisuke was a severe understatement. He was completely furious that the former squad 12 captain hadn't told him of his son for an entire month at first. He was livid when he had to hear it from Orihime of all people and marched straight to the shopkeeper to give him a piece of his mind, and a few fists as well. Kisuke had told him everything and how Ichigo was lost to them with no way of getting him back. Isshin couldn't believe his ears. True, Kon was a good replacement that could fool his own daughters and the school kids, but Isshin knew that he wasn't his son. His real son, and that thought tore him up inside. After he was told this from Kisuke, he made a vow to get his powers back, save his son and make Aizen suffer a fate worst than death itself.

Orihime and Chad had decided that the best course of action in training themselves was to seek the help of Uryu's father, Ryuken Ishida. He had trained Uryu to perfect his Quincy abilities and had proven to be a great, if not brutal, teacher that the two needed. And since Yoruichi was too brutal now and Kisuke was too busy working on inventions, Ryuken was the next best thing. He agreed to train them and put the two through hell to prove they deserve their power. During the Bount invasion a year prior, the two could barely take on a single Bount let alone a few, but after a year of training, the two could take on both Uryu and Ryuken at the same time. Uryu had joined in the training to better improve his own power with the eventual goal of rescuing Ichigo much like the other two had sought as well.

Rukia had gone back to the soul society and only occasionally visited the Karakura gang to check up on them. Whenever she was there, she would always visit the Kurosaki house just to see Kon to see how he was taking care of Ichigo's body. When she finished with that, she visited Uryu, Orihime and Chad to see how strong they have gotten and to sometime train with them. After that, she visited Renji at the shop. Renji had decided to have a much longer stay in the world of the living to ensure that there was an ever present soul reaper to detain an arrancar if said time ever came. His request was granted by both the head captain and Byakuya and he's been living in the shop ever since. Rukia would train with him every time she visited and always know that the both of them were getting stronger and stronger every time. She would leave after checking on Yoruichi and Kisuke who both seemed to have changed the most out of everyone after Ichigo was captured.

Kisuke had been working on various experiments and devices to take his mind off of his failures. It was very unhealthy for him to shut himself in his lab and build so many things for days even weeks sometimes. He was never the same after telling the six about Ichigo's impossible rescue and he felt even worse when Isshin beat answers out of him. He truly wasn't himself anymore after Ichigo was captured by that arrancar. Yoruichi had fared no differently than her friend. She was angry the majority of the time, only really showing other emotions when she would remember that she couldn't save Ichigo from that woman. That last smirk that she had done to Yoruichi really set her off every time she remembered it. She would hunt down any and all hollows within Karakura town and even outside of the city limits just to release her anger and frustration out on them. The ones that could talk she tortured the worst, demanding that they answer her questions about where Ichigo was and to take her to him. All these demands were for nothing as those hollows couldn't open a garganta much to Yoruichi's intense anger.

Year 2

Now two years later, everyone had stayed the same since the year before only they had gotten stronger. Isshin had gotten his powers back and then some with his intense training with his old friend Ryuken. Orihime, Chad and Uryu had also gotten much stronger in this added year thanks to Ryuken's training. They were now at the level of a high rank lieutenant and steadily rising with each passing day. Rukia and Renji had gotten stronger as well and Rukia even unlocked her Bankai while training in soul society with captain Hitsugaya.

Kisuke and Yoruichi hadn't changed much in that year whatsoever. Kisuke was still shut in and inventing on an unhealthy level and Yoruichi was getting more and more brutal in her treatment of all things hollow. Her motivation was still to find that woman and not just defeat her or kill her swiftly, it was to completely beat her within an inch of her life and make her suffer for every second Ichigo wasn't with them.

Year 3

It had been three years now since that day and still there were no arrancar that ever came to the world of the living. It was almost like they were simply trying to bring about true despair to every single person that knew the strawberry at all times. No one had moved on, but the spark to save their friend had dimmed to a mere flicker now after all this time. Most simply wanted this war to end sometime soon and the waiting was what was really killing some people. Others still had hope that they'll one day save Ichigo no matter what. That optimism was mainly off of Orihime and surprisingly enough Uryu. Despite how he felt towards soul reapers and working with them all this time, he never once saw Ichigo like a common soul reaper. He was very proud to call the orange haired, hard headed, head strong and protective teen his friend. Chad still held hope, but not as much as Orihime and Uryu. He started to remember his promise to always have Ichigo's back no matter what and was realizing that he didn't keep that promise at all. Isshin still hadn't told his twin daughters about any of this, but he could tell that they were slowly starting to figure it out. Particularly Karin, who started questioning him on why Ichigo just feels too different and giddy all the time. Surprisingly, Kisuke had started to revert back to his old self slowly and with the aide of Tessai, Ururu and Renji. He was no longer shut in his lab for weeks and started to get some color back to his absolutely sun deprived skin. In a few months, the old Kisuke was partially back but the same couldn't be said for a certain flash goddess out and about now.

Yoruichi was leaping on solidified air high above Karakura Town with one goal in mind for tonight, the same as every other night for three years. Find an arrancar, beat him/her into the ground and force them to open a garganta to rescue Ichigo. Out of everyone, she was the only one who hadn't stopped looking for a way no matter what. She kept at it and vowed to one day find that way to saving Ichigo. Tonight had been just like any other night though for her. Small time hollows trying to get some easy souls without knowing they couldn't get back to Hueco Mundo. Yoruichi was still looking though in hopes that one day or night she would get lucky in some form or fashion. Well luckily for her, tonight was the best time for her to get lucky. A garganta had opened up in a park not too far away from her and she quickly rushed over to it at top speed when she felt it to be the energy of a possible arrancar.

"Finally." She thought to herself. "Now I can save you Ichigo. I can finally save you."

She reached her destination and looked for the arrancar only to be confused and caught off guard when all she saw was some hollow with what looked like a full body armor on. The armor was completely white with red markings going across the arrancar's back and to the head. Speaking of the head, the arrancar's entire head was covered in this armor and the red markings had given it a form of what looked like the front of a mask. The hands and feet were like claws and the arrancar had some blood on them. That wasn't what really struck this hollow as strange to Yoruichi. What did was the fact that one, this arrancar was laying on the ground unconscious like it had been in a long battle, and two, it was a woman. This female arrancar was simply lying on the ground completely motionless as Yoruichi approached her. Yoruichi kept a scowl as she used her foot to flip the woman over to her back. The arrancar was still motionless, but breathing nonetheless as her large and constricted breast heaved up and down. That was all Yoruichi needed. She grabbed the arrancar and flung her over her shoulder before flashing back to the shop at her normal speed.

Back at the shop, Rukia had been on a visit and was talking to Renji when they felt a garganta open up and quickly close. They were about to head off as soon as Renji got out of his gigai, but they were stopped when they saw Yoruichi flash in front of them with an arrancar flung over her shoulder. She didn't even acknowledge the two soul reapers as she went inside followed by the two. She went into a guest room and threw the arrancar down onto the ground, hard. So hard in fact that said arrancar actually winced at the slight discomfort of being thrown to the ground. Kisuke and Tessai heard the thud and went to check on what was going on only to find Rukia and Renji standing in a doorway in a little bit of shock. The two men walked past them to see what was wrong and saw Yoruichi standing over a female arrancar.

"What the hell?" Kisuke said to himself as he examined the arrancar with his eyes.

"Found this one in a park not too far away." Yoruichi said in a hard tone to get everyone's attention.

"It looks like she's already hurt or something." Renji started as he went inside the room along with everyone else. He knelt down to get a better look at the arrancar only to see her slowly try to sit up on her own power. That failed her as she simply slunk down to the floor again.

"What is all of this armor for?" Rukia asked no one in particular but hoped Kisuke would answer her as she also knelt down to the arrancar.

"I don't know." Kisuke started as he opened his trusty fan much to almost everyone's relief that he was back to his goofy self at least. "But I might need to take a few samples just to make-"

"There's no time for that Kisuke." Yoruichi interrupted in a hard tone yet again that got her friend's attention. "This arrancar will lead us to Hueco Mundo so we can finally get Ichigo. No more waiting, no testing things. We leave tonight and we save him, end of discussion."

Kisuke would've argued but knew that was not a wise move to make with Yoruichi anymore. With a sigh, Kisuke left the room to call Orihime, Chad, Uryu and Isshin to inform them that Yoruichi captured an arrancar and were preparing to rescue Ichigo after all this time. It didn't take too long for them to hurry off to the shop to see what Kisuke was talking about. They each ran inside prepared to leave when the arrancar opened the garganta and saw that said arrancar was tied down with some kido and laid on the floor.

"That the arrancar?" Isshin asked Kisuke in a semi demanding voice.

Kisuke nodded to him and the others as they were prepared to use any method they could to force this arrancar to open a garganta for them. They all waited for a few seconds before Yoruichi started to wake the arrancar with a hard jab to her stomach. The arrancar gasped for air for a short time before Yoruichi grabbed her by the throat and squeezed tightly.

"Now listen and listen closely arrancar." She said in a dark and sinister tone that sent a cold shiver up everyone's spines. "You're going to open up a garganta for us to go through to save our friend and you're going to do that before I decide to make you suffer in the worst of possible ways. Do I make myself clear?" Yoruichi was clearly the angriest out of all of the occupants in the room as she was getting more and more frustrated with each passing uninterrupted second. She gritted her teeth and delivered a devastating blow the female arrancar's covered face. The armor took most of the blow but the damage was very clear as the markings were showing over where Yoruichi struck. There was a noticeable crack in the armor but it was starting to regenerate at a rather moderate rate. "Oh, I'm not done with you yet." Yoruichi continued as she continued her slow onslaught of pain and punishment to the arrancar.

Even though they all knew that she was an enemy and deserved no mercy, the rest of the group just couldn't watch at some points as to what Yoruichi was doing to the arrancar. Because of the armor and its ability to heal the arrancar, Yoruichi didn't hold back as she went from torture method to torture method to break this arrancar to opening a garganta. This whole thing went on for hours as Yoruichi was getting more and more frustrated with each failed method. The arrancar was breathing heavily and couldn't really move too much due to her broken bones and fractured body parts that Yoruichi dealt with. As she laid there, her body healing slowly, she felt that her arms weren't bound anymore and raised her right arm up. The group watched as she went for the part of armor that was covering her face and were confused when they saw her scratching and clawing at it.

"What's she doing?" Uryu asked Kisuke only to be met with a shrug by the shopkeeper.

Everyone watched as she continued to scratch and try to break the shell around her head to no avail. They hadn't bothered to tie her arms up again as right now Yoruichi was giving herself a break at the moment. The arrancar continued as everyone watched only to see her arm go limp and her breathing race. They watched in shock as the arrancar started to strike at the armor around her head. They watched as the shell started to crack and that she started using both hands to pound into it. They had no idea what was wrong with this arrancar and simply backed away when she started to flail her legs about to get leverage. Even though she was clearly in a wounded or most likely tired state, she was using whatever energy she could grab at the armors cracks. She sat up and grabbed at the cracks to pull as hard as she could. As the shell started to crack, a familiar black/red energy started to resonate off of this arrancar. Everyone looked on in shock as they easily recognized this energy as the one they were ready to go and rescue.

"Ichigo?" Was the only word that came out of everyone's mouths as the female arrancar stood up and they could hear screaming coming from the head of the shell.

The screams were those of pain and the others quickly sprung into action, taking shots at trying to break this armor and release Ichigo. It took a long time, roughly ten or so minutes, for them to finally tear away the shell that held her head. When they did, they saw Ichigo, but he was completely different. For one, he had the face of a girls and long orange haired that started to sprawl out of the shell and onto her lower back. She had a scar that went over her left eye, some type of mask fragment above her right eye in the shape of and eagle eye, and something shiny hanging onto her neck, almost like some type of necklace of sorts. This surprised them but what surprised them more was when the armor started to move towards her head at a quick pace, trying to reseal her once more.

"Damn!" Isshin yelled out as he tried to rip away at the armor to no avail just like the others had tried.

"Hit me." Ichigo said to them in a low and weak tone.

"What?" Rukia asked her as she was still trying to break through this armor.

"Hit me, now." Ichigo said with a little more power in her voice as she sunk to the floor in exhaustion.

Everyone looked at one another before Yoruichi decided to start. Before she did, she spoke to the near unconscious teen. "Ichigo, this might hurt you a bit."

The next words Ichigo said had put a bit of venom in everyone's hearts towards Aizen as she told them in a weak voice. "Been through worse."

Yoruichi gritted her teeth and put all her force into her next attack as she struck at Ichigo's chest to find a center for the armor. Ichigo winced in pain at the strike and the armor gave a crack large enough for everyone to try and pull off of her. With enough force and strength, the armor was finally ripped off of Ichigo to reveal her body to them. She was slender with curves in all the right places and wearing a tattered arrancar uniform with a red sash around her waist. She was covered in bruises and scratches and had what looked like a stab wound in her right side. She was bleeding from her wound to which Kisuke, Isshin and Tessai worked quickly, pushing everyone out of the room so they could work. Orihime offered to help and was let back in to assist them in any way possible.

The armor, or what was left of it was collected by Kisuke and he quickly took it back to his lab for study later. Right now, Ichigo was all that mattered. He did take a few blood samples and some energy off of her to study while Orihime and Isshin worked on her just to truly make sure it was indeed their strawberry. To his joy but also horror, this was indeed Ichigo Kurosaki. The horror was from this female arrancar being Ichigo Kurosaki.

Everyone waited outside the room and had a mixed reaction to this whole thing. Some were surprised and some genuinely happy to have Ichigo back, but it was Yoruichi who felt awful. She had just put Ichigo through hours of torture in the hopes of saving him, and now he was. A woman who she had just put through hell not too long ago.

After an hour of waiting, the door opened and everyone outside saw Orihime stepping out and panting in exhaustion.

"Orihime, is Ichigo okay?" Rukia asked.

"Will she be alright?" Yoruichi.

"Well can we see her?" Renji.

"I think we should probably stop asking so many questions at the same time." Uryu stated as the three stopped their questions and waited for Orihime to answer.

"Well." She sighed out and smiled as she stepped aside to show Ichigo laying on a futon asleep. She was now in a dark blue robe that covered up her body and was also covered by a blanket. Her injuries and wounds were healed and she was just resting now. "Ichigo will be just fine, as long as we give her some time to rest." Orihime stated, her new nurse role at the hospital taking effect of her.

Isshin was sitting next to his son- er daughter and simply looked at her with worry in his eyes. Worry that everybody saw, clear as day.

"What did that sick fuck do to you Ichigo?" He said to himself as he watched Ichigo sleep peacefully.

Hope Ya'll Enjoyed That Fairly Long Chapter. Next Chapter Will Have A Bit Of Back Story To It. I'm Debating On Making The Next Chapter Just A Flashback Chapter Or Some Of It Being In The Present And Some As Flashback. I'll Figure It Out Later.

Follow/Fav, Review, PM.

You Guys Are Awesome, And As Always,

Stay Sexy Out There, PEACE!