Chapter 4: The search for the truth

I'm gonna continue the same dialogue system for the rest of this story.

After Ichigo gave the order to Ulquiorra and said arrancar left through the shadows once more, Ichigo leaned back in his throne just as his Queens were about to start questioning him.

"Why are you letting them stay here after everything they did to you?"
Halibel asked her King as she along the Yoruichi and Orihime crowed around him lovingly.

"That little girl."
Ichigo started in a stern tone as he accepted their affection without question.
"She reminds me of Yuzu in a way. Caring for people she doesn't even know."

"That's why you even considered letting the stay?"
Yoruichi said to him as she nuzzled her head onto the crook of Ichigo's neck and purred a bit.

Ichigo smirked at her still feline-like nature and kissed her forehead.
"That's the only reason."

"Well,"
Halibel started as she leaned onto him from the other side and hugged his left arm affectionately.
"We may need to keep the others away from them if you are serious about this."

Ichigo looked to her with the same smirk and gave her a chaste kiss to her lips. Next was Orihime, who was now sitting in Ichigo's lap. She didn't say anything when Ichigo turned to her. Instead, she just kissed him with as much passion and love as possible. Once the two broke for air, she pressed her forehead onto his and smiled to him. Truly, this was going to be a very interesting three days.

Outside the palace

Kazui had regrouped with his half sisters and half brother along with Ichika. The three looked to the red headed soul reaper girl that was somehow able to convince their father not to kill any of them and were surprised that she was here with Kazui. Ryu gave his brother a devious smirk that caused Kazui to blush a bit before hitting him atop the head with his fist.

"Will you stop doing that!"
Kazui yelled to him as both Tier and Yuzu laughed at their antics.

Ichika also snickered a bit at how the four were acting. Funny. Out of everyone here and even out of everyone she came here with, these four seemed to be the most care-free and less serious. Maybe it was because they were kids like she was, or maybe it was just the fact everyone was tense here in the palace because of the soul reaper presence. Ichika didn't know the real reason. Hell, she didn't even know the reasoning behind the intense animosity between her home in the soul society and the land of the hollows. She had seen a hollow or two before when a few classified as 'Rabid' would enter the soul society, but those were rare and far between occurrences to begin with.

Why did the two sides hate each other so much? Whenever Ichika, the curious and deductive girl that she is, looked for a reason it always came back to one word. Balance. She didn't understand at first until she read on how things used to be before the event called by two names she managed to dig up: 'The Winter War', and 'The Winter's End'.

She had no idea why they were referencing the same event in different names, but whenever she would ask her mother, father, uncle or even a Kuchiki member, she would get the same answer; "It was the war that ended all wars for the soul society."

What that meant to her? No clue, but she knew it had something to do with Ichigo Kurosaki. When she found that name buried so deep in the record books that she had to find burned pieces of paper with his name on it, something just didn't add up. Throughout her studies, her teachers taught her of a few individuals that had changed the course of history for the soul society and the spiritual worlds. Names such as Genryusai Yamamoto, Shunsui Kyoraku, Sosuke Aizen, Jin Kariya, Oko Yushima, and a few others, but that name wasn't there. She asked the teacher of someone named Ichigo Kurosaki and had her question deflected, stating that no such person has ever existed with that name before. She did some more digging and found that Ichigo Kurosaki was indeed influential in the Winter War, and even other events such as the Bount Incursion, the Zanpakuto Rebellion, and the Reigai Invasion. So he does exist and now she has a face to match the name.

Now that she was here at the land of hollows and just had a full blown conversation with the man, she really wanted some more answers to her questions. Like why was he so feared? Why was her home trying their damnedest to omit him from their history? Why doesn't really look anything like a hollow from what she has seen in books and lectures? How was the land of hollows entirely covered in this red ocean? Just what happened between her mother and Ichigo back then?

"Hey?"
The voice of the dark skinned girl spoke to her while flicking her on the forehead, breaking her from her thoughts.

"Ow."
Ichika started with a yelp as she rubbed her forehead.
"Why did you flick me in the head like that?"
She asked in mock anger.

"Because you weren't answering me beforehand and I thought you were broken or something."
Tier answered her in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Oh. Sorry bout that."
Ichika apologized and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
"So what did you want to ask me?"

"I was asking you what you're name is."
Tier answered her while Yuzu stood next her, also wondering the same thing.
"You're full name, I mean."

"My name is Ichika."
She started with a big toothed smile as she continued.
"Ichika Kuchiki."
She answered with that same smile.

Yuzu smiled back at her and the three girls started to make small talk while Kazui was still chasing Ryu around the place. Speaking of places, the five were outside of the main throne room and in an open section of the palace used for some form of crops. These crops stood at least the size of a small storage building and were black roots with a sort of white seeds the size of a ball hanging off of them. Ichika was curious about these crops as she had never seen anything like them before. She had to ask Tier just what exactly she was looking at here.

"Oh this?"
Tier started as she stood next to these crops.
"These are spirit seeds."
She took one off of its root and held it out to Ichika. Said girl looked to it with wonder in her eyes as Ichika continued on.
"They have a small bit of this old power that used to flow through the last palace, Las Noches, and they're actually used for the Menos' to eat."

"You mean those really weird looking ones?"
Ichika asked as Yuzu crawled under her arm in a cutesy way.

"Yeah, those guys."
Tier answered.
"They use the energy within to assist in a being inside of it separating from the main body. Once said new body is released from the main body, they're already in an arrancar-like state. Dad asked for these seeds to be in full development until ever single Menos is down to a single body. Once that happens, Uncle Szayel can do whatever he wants with them."

"Uncle Szayel?"
Ichika asked in confusion as she petted the smaller girls head while Tier continued.

"Yeah, he can be a little weird at times, especially when he has something that catches his attention,"
Tier stopped for a second to see the boys still doing what they were doing and chuckled before continuing.
"but he's one of our weird uncles. Can't say many bad things about any of them if I'm being honest."

After they had a quick laugh, Kazui came over while having Ryu in a headlock. This caused the girls to burst into a laughing fit at their antics.

"Uh huh, laugh it up."
Kazui said to them while looking away from Ichika.

"Anyway,"
Ichika started as she wiped away a tear from her eye because she laughed too hard.
"Why exactly are we here?"

"Oh, well-"

"Because we like to play here sometimes."
Yuzu interrupted Kazui and answered with a happy smile on her face.

"Yeah, but knowin' how dad is sometimes, he'll probably send someone to come and get you in a little while."
Ryu spoke up while standing next to Ichika.

"What the-"
She spoke in surprise as she turned to Kazui and saw that he was now just holding onto Ryu's shirt.

"I'm a lot faster than you think."
He answered her unanswered question.

After that, they all felt a presence appear behind them. The four weren't any at all surprised at this energy, Ichika was though. She turned rather quickly and saw a tall, muscular man with long blue hair and a white, bone tail sticking out of his lower back. He had sharp canines, claws on his hands and feet, two ears coming out of the top of his head. The man had on a similar outfit to the few arrancar they saw when they came inside. Red with black trimmings, but he had no shirt on, instead just having a jacket on that was open. He gave a hard glare to Ichika which caused her to shudder a bit at the man.

"I'm here to take you to your parents, girl."
He spoke with a hint of anger in his voice. the anger was gone the second Yuzu jumped into his arms and nuzzled her head onto the mans long hair.

"Uncle Grimm."
Yuzu started as she continued her motions.
"Your hairs super soft today."

The man couldn't help but smile as she continued on.
"Heh. Thanks Yuzu, but right now, I have a job to do. Okay?"

Yuzu stopped and nodded to him before jumping off and landing near Ichika. Ichika looked to Yuzu before looking to the man again. He wasted no time as he walked along, giving Ichika a 'follow me or else' look on his face. She quickly followed the man to another door she hadn't noticed on the opposite wall they arrived at. Before she went through, she turned and waved to the four. They all waved back except for Kazui, who just looked away with a blush on his face. She thought he was kinda cute doing that. She turned and followed the tall man out of the room and they continued to walk along. She walked closer to the man and looked up at him as he continued on. The man looked down at her for a brief moment before turning a corner. Ichika followed and started to ask the man questions.

"So, you're their uncle?"
She started off.

"Mhm."
He muttered out.

My names Ichika. Ichika Kuchiki."
She introduced herself with a smile as she said this and the man briefly glanced down to her.

For a single second, his eyes went wide at just who she reminded him of with that smile.
"So that's why Ichigo's allowing them to stay here."
He thought to himself as they continued on.
"The names Grimmjow."

Ichika smiled on as she was able to at least get some small talk from the man, but that surprised look he gave her didn't go unnoticed by her. Right as she was about to ask, they arrived at their destination. Another door. Grimmjow opened it and Ichika saw her mother, father and the others all in various areas around the room. She saw her parents sitting on a bed together, holding the scarf that her uncle Byakuya wore all the time. She saw her mother sobbing over the bloody garment and her father trying to console her. It broke Ichika's heart that her uncle and clan were all either gone or most likely gone by now. She didn't know what to make of all of this. This situation they were currently in. The fact that their home has been most likely destroyed. Their friends and family most likely dead or fleeing with all they have to try and stay alive. She didn't know what to think now as the entire predicament donned on her. They were all alone and on the run now. There was nowhere to run to that they knew that they would be safe in, nor was there anyone who would help them. What should they do now? What is going to happen to them after three days? Even though Ichika had no idea about the three days that Ichigo gave them, she had a pretty good feeling that their time here would be very limited.

With a huff and wiping away her tears, she ran into the room and towards her parents.
"Mom. Dad."

Both Rukia and Renji looked up to see their daughter running towards them, past everyone else that were happy to see her.
"Ichika!"
They both yelled out in unison as they met her half way and the now family of three hugged each other tightly.

As they hugged in the middle of the room, Ichika couldn't help but ask the two a question that had been bothering her ever since they had entered this world. Breaking way from her parents' grip, much to their hesitance, Ichika looked to the two and asked the important question.

"Mom. Dad."
She started in a sombre tone, causing the two and even the others around them to stiffen at the young girls voice.
"What exactly happened during the Winter War that involves Ichigo?"

I know, short, but to the point. With this one done, I'm planning to update Forgiveness through Punishment next on Friday.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. The next one will be an entire flashback chapter explaining the events of that day and explaining certain events.

Till then, stay awesome and as always,

PEACE!