After things calmed down and the enemies were dealt with both Zest and Yuki came back to the fort. They would have to move soon as they didn't want to risk staying for too long but they needed to recover their strength before they had to move again.

As they got comfortable inside Orihime was talking with her new fairy friends and her bird.

"So, you guys are my power?" Orihime asks.

"Yes, I am your sacred gear, a weapon made by the Biblical God long ago to help humans have a fighting chance when faced with devils and other forces. I am Freezing Archaeopteryx, an avatar type sacred gear. I can control and create ice." The big bird said.

"And we are Shun Shun Rikka, we are part of your own power." One of the fairies said. "We can do three things, one is for attack, another serves to create a shield, and the final one is to hea-"

"If you can heal, then please heal Ace-kun," Orihime said before the fairy even finished speaking, which made some of the other fairies giggle and one huff in annoyance.

"Tch, the girl didn't even wait to listen to everything." The annoyed fairy muttered but was promptly ignored by the others.

"For that, you must first call the names of the two responsible for the aspect of healing, they are Shun'o and Ayame. After that you must say the incantation 'Santen Kesshun, I reject'."

Orihime nodded and the others, despite their exhaustion, all turned to her and, before Orihime was to do that with Ace, Zest spoke up.

"Wait, we don't yet know how well your powers work or how. We should test it in someone else." Zest said logically. After all, testing a new and yet mostly unknown power on someone who was barely hanging on thanks to their natural healing was not ideal.

Orihime looked a bit torn as she wanted to help already but acquiesced to Zest's idea and did just that aiming her healing at Zest herself.

"Shun'o, Ayame, Santen Kesshun! I reject!"

As she said this the two fairies went to Zest's sides and an energy field emerged between the two. It covered Zest's whole body and soon Zest could feel not only her cuts vanishing but also her energy restoring as if she didn't use it before.

Zest was marveled at this power, it was something she never thought possible and the eyes at which she looked at Orihime changed from before, no longer seeing her as a liability that she would discard if needed to save the one she cared but, instead, as someone she would not discard unless absolutely necessary considering her rather unique powers.

Having proved her powers, Orihime now aimed it at Ace and began to heal him.

It was a much longer time until Ace returned to normal, his injuries only stopping being created after a considerably long amount of time and by the time it happened Ace opened his eyes and gasped, his head hurting immensely but under the power of Orihime's healing it quickly receded.

"Did someone note the number of that freight train that hit me and then went over me again for good measure?" Ace said as he shook his head. While the pain was receding it was still terrible and it was only after some time did he fully recover and Orihime could stop her healing.

As soon as she did every female went over to him, a thousand and one questions flying around as they all tried to talk at the same time and none could be really understood in the chaos it caused.

Ace, wanting to understand what happened and wanting especially to stop this chaos, he raised his hands, and spoke up.

"One at a time, I can't understand you all if you talk with one another like that."

Finally, after they stopped, one of them managed to step forward.

"... Are you well now?" Yuki questioned, her understanding of what might have happened much greater than that of Orihime or Zest. As such she could more or less understand just how bad things were and her annoyance was truly terrible at a certain someone she sword she would either run through with her blade one day or, at the absolute least, slap senseless for what she did.

'She did this, she is the cause of this. Damn her!' Yuki thought in pure anger as she looked at Ace looking a bit dazed for a moment before speaking.

"Oh, right, yeah I am alright. Just a little light-headed, is all." He said as he shook his head, trying to focus but not being able to do it quite right.

Seeing this Yuki put a hand on his forehead, wanting to make sure that Ace was okay. When she did so she realized two things.

First, Ace's temperature was extremely high. It could be because of him having been using the healing powers of the Phoenix fruit for so long so she did not overly mind that. However, she also noticed with her senses something even more troubling.

Ace's body was absorbing the reishi in the air.

It was not a lot, if anything it was a minuscule amount, to be honest, but it was there nonetheless.

That was, worrisome.

"We need to go back soon." Yuki said as she jumped up to observe the area. With her decision set that they needed to leave before anything could come from Ace absorbing this reishi so filled with hollow energy.

While Orihime and Zest fussed over Ace Yuki observed the area. They still had the plan regarding how to get a way out, that being the capture of a hollow and turning said hollow into a familiar.

She observed the area with a frown and wanted to find a suitable hollow but after all these killings there were no other hollows nearby and the place only had their bodies left.

'It seems like things got complicated again, rookie.' A shadowy figure said behind Yuki who continued to observe the surroundings for any possible hollow.

"If you have nothing useful to add then stay quiet, Shiroi Shikiri." She said without turning to the figure who materialized behind her.

It was a man with a slender but very tall build in knight's armor. His eyes were playful beneath the mask it was using, like if he had heard a good joke just a few moments prior, but deep within them, it was clear that those were the eyes of a being that could kill in an instant. On the top of his head, there was a very deep blue hair coming out in spikes that, at the same time, looked like they were as silky as velvet but that also looked like the hairs from the back of a hedgehog, a weird combination that simply worked on the being. He had in one hand a sword and in the other a shield, every piece of equipment being pure white except for the pair of bat-like wings on his back, 12 wings to be precise.

'Come on, don't be so serious, rookie. You know you overdid it and was just lucky that your will was strong enough. Do remember that, should your will falter too much, I just might take over. That was the deal, after all.'

"I know, don't disturb me anymore. I need to find someone suitable." Yuki said as Shiroi Shikiri shrugged.

'Oh well, it is up to you. Just do remember, the longer you keep on fighting while having me out the larger the strain you will have.'

"If you are here only to speak useless matters then do not bother. I have better things to do than discussing the obvious with you, Shiroi." Yuki said and Shiroi Shikiri gave an exceedingly fake sigh and spoke condescendingly.

'And here I was thinking about giving you a little tip regarding how to get out of this place.'

"We already have a plan and it doesn't involve your interference in any way." Yuki said in irritation at her sword.

'Oh well, can't blame a guy for trying. Anyway, maybe should check in that direction. I sensed something weird from there so it might be worth a shot.' Shiroi Shikiri said after pointing in a direction and then vanished from sight. Yuki held her sword more firmly as she turned a glare to it.

She did not enjoy the spirit dwelling inside her sword, it was unruly and far too whimsical at times. However, it was never a liar (unless it is related to that person, she would never believe those idiocies her sword said about that bitch).

Deciding to go check that out she first went down the fort to talk with the others and saw Ace being hugged by Orihime who was sobbing in his chest and Zest who looked torn between wanting to do the same or keeping propriety for whatever reason.

Shaking her head Yuki decided to ignore this and spoke up.

"I will go search for some hollow that can open a passageway for us to return from. You all wait here, I will be back soon." Yuki said as she darted away without waiting for the response of the others.

She was on a time table and she had to take care of it fast.

As she left Orihime noticed that she didn't yet heal Yuki, she wanted to offer to heal the girl but, by the time she thought of it, Yuki was already long gone.


At Urahara's shop, the said owner was facing some problems.

Namely, his latest client which was silently sitting in front of him eating his whole stock of sweets that he kept for Ururu. His cute little employee would be devastated when she finds out all her sweets were gone, but dealing with Ururu's extremely dangerous puppy dog eyes were nowhere as relevant as the being in front of him.

"So, what can this humble shop owner do to someone like you, Ophis-sama?" Urahara questioned as Ophis continued to eat as well as look around the shop.

She was just about to speak when the door to the shop was opened violently as Ichigo entered the shop.

"Hats and cogs, I need your help." Ichigo said as he entered, followed closely by Rukia who was also extremely serious.

Urahara, seeing Ichigo enter and interrupting Ophis when she was just about to talk, felt the cold sweat that was going down his back start to turn into a cold river.

"Kurosaki-san, I understand you might be needing something, but now is REALLY not the time. I already am with a very special client so could you wait just a little while?" He questions, hoping the kid would understand and listen to what was being said.

Ichigo looked like he wanted to complain but he saw Urahara pointing at the person in front of him.

Seeing how she looks and how empty his eyes were he quickly arrived at a conclusion.

'Oh no, did some pervert took this little girl, put her in this ridiculous sexualized clothing, and was about to do terrible things to her only for her to run away and end up here? Damn, maybe I can wait for just a little while to hear this out, if there is really such a pervert running around he might target my sisters and I will need to castrate the one who touches them.' Ichigo thought, completely misunderstanding what was going on.

However, he was willing to wait for just a bit, even if just a really tiny bit. Urahara was satisfied with this, even if not so much with the interruption.

He needed to make sure, after all, that the dragon god sitting in front of him didn't get pissed and accidentally leveled Japan as a whole.

However, it was not just Ichigo that entered the store.

"I apologize but this is urgent." Rukia said, stepping towards Urahara and standing in front of him and right in front of Ophis, in the middle of the space between Ophis and the sweets.

... You know the river of cold sweat? Yeah, try a cascade right now.

'Note to self, create wards around the entire shop that made absolutely sure NO ONE enters when I activate them, not just the security room.' Urahara thought in anger.

"We have detected several hollow signatures and one of them was in Orihime's house. after dealing with the several hollows throughout town we went to the rescue of Orihime, but when we arrived it was too late. We realized how it went due to the many other hollows and the house is extensively damaged and there were reports from the citizens that there were some explosions and other such forms of destruction in the area. According to what we found we believe Hyoudo Ace is present and possibly was most likely taken to Hueco Mundo with Orihime considering his motorcycle in the outside of the house. If you could explain to Ichigo that trying to go to Hueco Mundo is impossible it would be great." Rukia said easily.

"And I just said that we won't know for certain until we try. We just force a hollow to take us there and then hitch a hide back, easy." Ichigo said in irritation.

Irritation that was mirrored by Rukia in the next moment.

"And I just said it CAN'T be done! Countless Shinigami tried it over millennia and no one could do that. Going there is a suicide sentence, simple as that!" Rukia says in frustration having told this to Ichigo multiple times already.

The two began to discuss and neither seemed to notice Urahara's quickly deteriorating mood as he noted the quickly deteriorating mood of Ophis.

Ophis stretched her arm and Urahara felt like pissing himself. If she tried anything then he was sure to die together with all his plans of vengeance on that bastard, Aizen.

However, unlike what Urahara feared, Ophis simply reached out to Ichigo and pulled on his clothes.

Ichigo, stopping for a moment, turned his eyes to her.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked, his temper flared from his 'talk' with Rukia.

"I was talking with this man first about needing his help." Ophis said emphatically.

"Look, I get it but there are lives at risk here and we need Urahara's help if we are to get to Hueco Mundo to rescue my friends." Ichigo said.

"Hueco Mundo?" Ophis said and Urahara felt like a light bulb flashed on his head. Yes, sending Ophis to Hueco Mundo to discuss whatever would be great since, this way, there would be no risk of her accidentally destroying the town.

He was about to suggest going there when Rukia spoke up.

"It is a terrible place filled with many monsters of all sorts and no one returns from there." Rukia said the exact words she heard many times in the academy, the doctrine of the Shinigami.

"We still have to go. I can't and won't simply abandon my friends." Ichigo said and was about to restart when Ophis pulled again.

"I need to talk with this man about helping me getting baka red out of my home." Ophis said.

"... Did someone steal your home?" Ichigo questioned.

"Yes, baka red came and kicked me out of my home. I can't go back until I get him out, but I can't do it alone. I need help." Ophis said and Ichigo felt for her, truly, she was clearly (in his head) just an innocent and weak little girl that was likely thrown out of her house because of some red-haired bastard. He was probably also the pervert who put the girl in this slutty outfit that made looking at her difficult for fear of seeing something he really shouldn't.

At such thoughts, righteous fire flashed deep within Ichigo's eyes and made him speak up.

"How about this, after we save my friends I will go and kick out this 'baka red' from your house so you can live there again."

'Ishin, Masaki, I am sorry but your son just REALLY wants to die.' Urahara thought, almost tearing up looking at Ichigo and thinking that, should Ichigo actually try, then there would be more chance of Aizen suddenly showing up walking the streets of Tokyo wearing a ballerina's tutu, than of finding any remains of Ichigo's body.

"Really?" Ophis said as she had hardly ever had anyone simply offer to help her without her needing to give the person some of her snakes before.

"Sure, no problem. Just need to go save my friends first."

"But, are you strong?" Ophis questioned as she, much like any other Supernatural being, could not sense spiritual energy.

"Sure am, strongest person in town without question." Ichigo said and Ophis turned her eyes to look at Urahara, then at Ichigo, then back at Urahara and nodding.

"If you are the strongest person here then it is good. Thanks, for helping me." Ophis said before turning to Urahara. "Send us to Hueco Mundo."

Urahara wanted to say no, he really did, but he did not dare to say no to Ophis.

As such, after a little while to set up everything correctly, they took out to Hueco Mundo with Urahara leading the way as someone would need to create the pathway for them to walk by.

Ichigo holding the hand of Ophis as they walked by, Ophis refusing to stay in the shop so Ichigo decided he would protect her as they went to Hueco Mundo. Ophis quite enjoying the fact she got someone strong in her side to help to kick 'Baka red' out of her home, if he was the strongest in town then he should be stronger than Kisuke who was well known for being quite powerful.

'Now I have a new help for my Chaos Brigade, just you wait Baka Red.' Ophis thought to herself and almost smirked at the thought of kicking Great Red out of her home.


Back in Hueco Mundo Ace was trying to understand what has happened to him. He could sense his magic core now, the place that would serve to produce his magic energy, but the thing was not quite like what he expected.

Normally, according to his research, it should be like a sphere inside one's body that would release and produce a steady amount of magic energy to use, however, he could sense that his sphere was larger than what the human race should have and, to make matters more complicated, it was like there were chains made of ice all over it and just a part of the chains broke down. The parts that the chains no longer covered were shining with an intense yellow and red fashion, it was quite troubling for Ace to understand it.

Taking a deep breath he decided to try and experiment with his magic while he waited for Yuki to return, he would have wanted to go with Yuki but whenever he tried to move his magic core would react some and there would be some spikes of pain from him. Even with Orihime having healed him and with his Phoenix fruit still in effect he could still not fight like he would have preferred, going out to hunt hollows being thus out of the question.

Opening his hand Ace tried to concentrate on drawing energy from his core, it was a slow process considering most of it was still sealed off, but it worked overall in the end. It was highly interesting for Ace as he tried his first ever spell, a simple fireball.

His reason for trying this was very simple, he was already mixing phoenix fire and his Mera Mera no Mi's fire, what would happen if he could then mix magic fire into the mix?

Despite how hard it was to draw magic from the small openings from his core the spell came out almost instantly when he tried to use it. It was ridiculous how easily the ball was created and launched in the end, from his studies he should have needed to have multiple processes to create a fireball for his first time and practice to be able to launch it more easily, but releasing that fire was almost as easy as when he tried to use the fire from his Mera Mera no Mi.

Continuing his testing he saw that he could also use light magic as easily as fire, his earth, wind, and thunder took some concentration and was about as hard to use as the books said it should be, and as for water and darkness, well, they were downright terrible.

Like, he needed to spend twice as much energy to produce the desired effect, needed a lot of concentration, need four times more time than what the book said it should take, and overall just not work for him.

That was especially so for water who just did not agree with him at all and he could only produce an honestly quite small amount of. At least it was enough for him to use his Fishman Karate for some strikes.

Anyway, feeling satisfied with this he wanted to see if he could unlock the rest of his magic, but any tentative would end up with pain, lots and lots of pain.

Meanwhile, at a great distance away, one could see Yuki coming back from her 'hunt'. She created a large chain using spiritual energy from her surroundings and used said chain to pull along the cargo.

"W-What will happen to ush." Came the crying voice of a girl as two bigger figures tried to calm her down. The little girl's eyes are incredibly wide, the canines on her lower jaw are even larger than usual for kids, and the remains of her Hollow mask make up a cartoon-like skull that sits on the top of her head. A crack runs along the left side of the mask and four teeth on the left side of the skull are broken off. She has a large scar coming down from her forehead to her nose and a crimson line that stretches horizontally across her face below her eyes.

She was so cute one would never want to hurt this little girl, but to Yuki that was not relevant, and having someone to open the path to the human world was more relevant.

As the little girl's eyes watered one of the others with her spoke up.

"D-D-Don't worry, we will protect you, Nel." The one saying that has a large, heavyset, but dumpy body with short appendages with small, white hands and feet. He wears a hooded yellow bodysuit which is covered with black polka dots of varying sizes. In all honesty, he looked ridiculous, but he was trying his best to calm down the young girl as he talked with her, his Tiki-like mask looking at her as if he was nervous.

"Yes, as Dondonchaka said we will protect you no matter what." This other hollow has a mask that resembles an insect-like head with large mandibles and horns. His large left eye, yellow in color, is visible through an eyehole on the front of his mask, however, his right eye is concealed by a purple eye patch, which is attached to his brow. The majority of his body is purple, but he wears a white, armor-like vest that covers the upper part of his torso, as well as white armor on his forearms and shins. He also wears a loincloth around his waist, which is a lighter shade of purple than the rest of his body.

Nell, captured by the chains, looked to her two friends/protectors and said.

"But, Dondonchaka, Pesche, you both were captured as well," Nel said innocently and the two looked like they took a direct strike to their hearts.

It was true, they were soundly defeated and captured, but it was not their fault. They were severely weakened after having been kicked out not too long ago and they had to hide away in the hollow forest. They almost died many times and needed to spend a lot of their energy there to protect themselves. It was not even five days since and they were faced with Yuki.

Their luck sucks, that is for sure.

Yuki looked back at them as they began to talk and glared.

"I just need one of you, stop talking now." She said coldly, she truly hated hollows and her hatred was enough to shut up those three who could only silently cry in their hearts about the injustice of it all.

As they moved Yuki saw an opening in the distance, a Gargantua being opened but decided to not go over. Better to go back quickly than risking losing the hollows she has just captured.

She did not see the people that just came into Hueco Mundo, but those people actually saw her and Ichigo said to follow. Not wanting to go slowly and not wanting to make Ophis have to run and possibly trip and scrap her keens he decided to put her on his back and run while giving Ophis a piggyback ride.

Rukia running right beside Ichigo while Urahara was behind them, his heart dying out a bit at the sheer gall of Ichigo by giving Ophis of all beings a piggyback ride.

"Balls of diamond, Ishin I don't know how you did it but you gave your son balls of diamond. Fuck the Shiba clan and their guts, Yoruichi owes me money as she lost that bet. I did say it would be a Shiba's guts that would kill me one day, I just thought it would be Kukaku managing to explode Soul Society as a whole with one of her fireworks." Urahara said as he followed, his words little more than a whisper.


AN:

... Sorry for the delays. I had my finals in college and it is rainy season so I had a lot more work where I live. I also had some writer's block which is somewhat better now XD

Anyway, yeah Ichigo ended up screwing himself due to being too heroic and not looking before jumping. For what will happen next, it is with the next chapter with which I intend to finish this mini arc and go for CANON. Hope everyone enjoys what I have planned but if anyone has any suggestions for potential plots then please speak up.