After practicing in trying to use his magic energy Ace realized that it was truly not easy. It was completely impractical for him to even try using it for now seeing as he couldn't unleash his energy properly and it would be entirely useless for combat.
'I will have to talk with Urahara about this, he should know SOME way to help me. He made the fucking Hogyoku, something of this level should be easy for him.'
Having reached a decision Ace looked to the side and saw Orihime standing there as well as Zest. Zest was stoic and was not showing any emotion while Orihime was talking quietly with her brother.
Seeing this Ace decided that he should try and talk with Zest. Orihime would need time to give goodbye to her brother as Ace couldn't allow him to stay any longer, as soon as possible he would find some way to send Sora to Soul Society.
He will NOT deal with this sort of thing constantly, he would not allow for Orihime to be dragged to Hueco Mundo or to be forced to come when it is clearly a trap.
Regardless, he moved to Zest's side and speaks up.
"Zest, are you okay?"
"Yes, Master." She answers without hesitation, her tone almost mechanical as she does so and Ace frowns at this.
He did not like her calling him master, he wanted to foster in her a sense of independence, of being her own person, and most certainly not to have her treating him as if he was her master or something.
He was just about to tell her that when Yuki shows up.
Looking up as she was standing on the top of the walls of the candy fortress he notices how battered she truly was. She truly needs to rest, Ace realizes.
However, just as he realizes this he sees her pulling up a chain and, as Ace looks at the captured 'prey', he doesn't know if he should laugh or cry.
On one hand, those three are most certainly the most trustworthy hollows he could potentially find to serve as his familiars. On the other hand, having those three would mean Aizen would certainly notice if he was to help restore them back to how they were originally, which he most certainly can with the help of Orihime.
'Oh, fuck it. I will just consider this my lucky day and be done with it.' Ace thought and saw as Yuki jumped down and pulled Nel, Dondonchaka, and Pesche with her.
"I found these three. See which one you will make your familiar, the rest we kill." Yuki said simply and this makes Ace almost laugh a bit at the reactions of the three seemingly weak Arrancars, but that Ace knew were most definitely not THAT weak. They look horrified and they all tried to bow down in dogeza at the same time but the chains were stopping them from doing so properly and when one moved the others were pulled along.
It ended with Dondonchaka and Pesche doing a somewhat decent dogeza with Nel, who was in the middle of the two, being lifted in the air without touching the ground.
"Please don't kill Nel and her friendsh, especially Nel. The others can be reserve food, Nel is too small and skinny for that." Nel said with snot coming out of her nose as she looked up at Ace who looked at the scene funny. He honestly did not know what to say as he saw this.
"Yes, please don't kill Nel and her friends, but if you have to kill someone then do Dondonchaka." Pesche said without a hint of remorse.
"Yes, please don't kill Nel and her friends, but if you have to kill someone then do Pesche." Dondonchaka said without a hint of remorse as well.
The three then looked at each other and started an argument that made Ace end up laughing at their antics. The three were really good with each other, they all trying to survive and throw the others under the bus.
The three then started circling each other as they tried to decide who would survive and who wouldn't, seeing this made Orihime laugh as well. Their antics were simply funny.
'Well, I guess I could try that.' Ace decided before he spoke up.
"So, I have three options for you guys." Ace said, making all three stop. "First, I select one of you to be my familiar and the other two can either leave by themselves or be killed right here."
"I vote for killing them." Yuki said with a growl, she truly hated hollows. Hearing her tone made all three Arrancars almost shit themselves as they turned back to Ace, hoping for a better alternative. They liked living thank you very much.
"The second option, I kill you all right now."
"Can, can we get an option that doesn't end with death please?" Pesche asked hopefully.
"Well, the third option is for all three of you to become my familiars. You will help us be able to get back to the human world and return here whenever we need it. Heck, I will even throw a bone and tell you something, if you guys get injured I will heal you. You would be one of mine, I take care of those who work with me."
As Ace said that Zest was nodding, agreeing with those words even as she kept herself a 'safe' distance away from Ace.
The three Arrancars then bundled close together and started speaking in 'secret', the same type of secret talk that everyone around can hear plain as day.
"Hey, the bully boss is saying weird things. What is a familiar?" Nel asked.
"No idea, and what of you second best best friend?" Pesche asked.
"No clue, but it is either accept or we deal with the blue one." Dondonchaca said.
"The blue one is scary." Nel said.
"Scary the blue one is." Pesche confirmed. "So, we take this deal?"
The three stopped to think about it and after a moment they turned to Ace, their face determined as they confidently took one step forward.
Dropped to their knees.
And dogeza.
"""Please have mercy on us, oh benevolent overlords!""" All three spoke in unison and one had to wonder how beings like these could survive in Hueco Mundo.
But, to be fair, Yuki really could be quite scary when she wanted to.
After one glare from Yuki, the three felt a shiver down their spine and Nel spoke.
"We swear to serve your every need from this point on."
"*YOUR* *EVERY* *NEED*" Pesche said in a tone that supposedly should be sultry but ended up more along the lines of giving shivers down the spine of those who listen to it. Seriously, the thing's 'flirtatious' tone could give anyone the creeps.
"... Very well, let's do this then." Ace said while ignoring the shivers he felt when Pesche spoke just now. Ace noted that this guy is a bit creepy, but if healed from his injuries he should be around the same level of strength as a regular Arrancar, which means quite strong for sure.
If he has him as a familiar and has him consume a Devil Fruit then he should be quite a good helper if nothing else. Also, Ace intended to heal Nel as soon as he could ensure her loyalty or at the very least that she would not kill him or something. She was, after all, someone who was the third Espada and, even without the Hogyoku boost, she could handily defeat the fifth Espada who had said boost as if he wasn't even close to her own level.
That is to say, amongst all Hollows, she is most likely in the top 5 amongst all of them. Having her support would mean a whole lot, but having her as an enemy would be a shitty idea.
Seeing as it was time Ace spread his magical energy forward, drawing what he could use and sending probes of it into those three hollows. At first, when they entered in contact, the two energies were clearly antagonistic. It was like if both energies were fire and water, the hollow spiritual energy and the magical energy produced by Ace not mixing well.
As Ace noted this he feared that the process wouldn't work. However, soon after it seemed like something changed. It was like if two people were distrustful against one another until they remembered each other and became best of friends. It was that sort of weird situation as the contract that by all accounts shouldn't be possible happened all the same.
As the four felt the contract being sealed they all felt the connection formed. It was rather unique, to say the least, and, to the three Arrancars, it felt especially unique.
One must understand, a hollow is a spirit that always feels a sense of longing and loneliness. Their instinct of becoming stronger is born in their desire to fill that longing and they turn into an Arrancar also serves this purpose, but it never is quite enough. However, as they felt this connection now, this bonding, they could feel as if their loneliness was diminished a truly great deal since now their very essence was connected to someone.
They were not alone.
While Ace did not yet comprehend the importance of such a thing it was unquestionable that these three who were forced to become his familiar would have to have someone try and force them to stop being Ace's familiar.
While Nel didn't understand what she was feeling due to how shattered her mind currently was, the same wasn't true for Pesche and Dondonchaka who both went to their knees at Ace.
"What do you need us to do?" The two asked Ace who was surprised by their change of ways of acting.
"We need you to open a portal to the human world." Ace said easily enough and the two Arrancars nodded as they moved their hands, a Gargantua opening up instantly.
Proceeding into it the group moved through dimensions with the help of Pesche and Dondonchaka. After a while, they finally arrived at Karakura Town much to the relief of everyone, especially Orihime and her brother.
"Guys, now we are safe." Ace said before turning to the others. "Zest, Yuki, please take my familiars back home, Orihime's brother needs immediately to be sent to Soul Society and I will need to see a certain mad scientist to see what he can figure out about this weird sealing in my magic core. If anyone can fix this sort of thing then it should be him." Ace said with confidence.
Yuki was about to protest when Zest spoke up.
"Ace-sama, I believe you should have some protection as well. Letting you alone in this town could be dangerous and you are still recuperating and in no condition to fight."
Ace honestly disagreed with the sentiment that he would need protection in this town. Of the inhabitants of this town, he knew at least 12 that were comparable or stronger than Satan class and was friendly with all of them. Heck, Ace was quite sure that Karakura would be safer for him most of the time when compared to Kuoh, as long as Aizen wasn't invading that is.
Regardless, Ace had to consent to Zest's point, he wasn't in a perfect state and the less he pushed himself the less danger of some shit happening with this seal in him.
"Okay, so who will come with me? We need to send these guys" Ace pointed to the three Arrancars. "Away from here since this town has plenty of beings that can most likely kill them and would do so out of sheer principle."
As Ace said this both Zest and Yuki turned to glare at one another, both wanting to go with Ace. Strangely enough, the two tried to call dibs at almost the same time.
"I will go with A-"
"I will go with Ace-sama." Zest said a moment faster, her eyes sparking inn desire to try and fix what she considered her mistake. In her mind, if the resident mad scientist could fix whatever it was that was wrong with Ace, whatever it was that she helped cause so much pain for him, then she would do anything for it.
Yuki just glared and moved to leave, she was not satisfied but she would have her talk with Ace soon enough regardless, it was well past the time for that.
"Can we go with the not scary lady, please?" Pesche asked in hope.
"Blue one ish shcarry." Nel wined with fear in her eyes.
As for Dondonchaca, he could not say anything about it seeing as, before he spoke, Yuki had already made a rope out of spiritual energy, used in his mouth, and was dragging him and the other two Arrancars along with her. Yuki's mood was non too pleased and Nel, Pesche, and Dondonchaca simply were unlucky of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Three hours later one could see Ace, sitting in the Kurosaki residence in slight irritation.
He had tried going to Urahara's shop, but the man in question wasn't there. He would have waited for a bit but after one hour with no signs of Urahara Ace decided not to wait. While his own situation could wait the situation with Orihime's brother couldn't wait much longer and, as far as Ace knew, Urahara could be in a brothel, trying to create plan 6743-C on how to beat Aizen, doing something weird, or all of the above possibly at once.
As such, waiting for the shopkeeper/supernatural dealer/former captain of the Gotei 13/hobo look-alike was not in Ace's best interests seeing as he did not want to destroy Sora's soul if he turned into a Hollow and Ace cannot purify hollows as Shinigamis can do when slashing them.
Following that Ace, Orihime, and Zest went searching for Ichigo. Unfortunately, that seemed a tad pointless when they could not find Ichigo anywhere, Ace even tried asking Ichigo's friends he knew off like Chad and Tatsuki, Ichigo's 'not really but sometimes seems like' girlfriend, but no one knew where Ichigo was.
Due to this Ace, seeing as it was his second to last resort, went to the Kurosaki clinic. Isshin still had his Zampakutou and would be able to purify Sora.
Remorsefully, Isshin was in the midst of an operation and would require another hour before he was free to help out. Thanks to that Ace was now suffering under the endless teasing of Ichigo's mom, Masaki.
"So, Ace-kun decided to show how much of a ladies man he is bringing both Orihime-chan and a foreign beauty to my house. Ma, ma, such a daring boy and interesting boy, wouldn't you say girls?"
"I dunno, he still is an idiot regardless." Karin said as he ate a potato chip from a bowl in the table while looking at Orihime and Zest, more specifically at how much more well endowned both of them were when compared to Karin herself.
"... So boys do like them bigger." Yuzu said in a very small voice while looking at her own smaller chest and then back to the two women beside Ace.
Orihime was not paying attention and Zest was acting as if she was not hearing anything, but whenever she turned to speak with Ace something her breasts would sway and some killing intent would leak out of Yuzu and Karin when they saw that.
"Ma, ma, it seems like you are making my little angels rather jealous, Ace-kun. I hope you will take responsibility." Masaki said with a sickly sweet tone that made Ace feel a shiver ran down his back.
At this momoent Ace felt like things could not possibly get any worse. And, for once, it didn't... for him at least.
Back at the mansion where Mio and the others lived Yuki had just arrived back, the fact she was covered in sand, clearly irritated, and returned alone raising all possible red flags for the others who just got a whole lot more nervous thinking something bad happened.
"What happened?" Mio asked and Yuki was just about to answer when the doorbell rang.
"I will go answer." Maria said and moved to the door, she also wanted to listen as to what happened but she had good enough hearing and, if she lost anything, she could just watch whatever was taped in the hidden camer... ask the others for information.
Of course, there was no way she implanted several hidden cameras all throughout the house just so she could catch any possible sexual act that could occur in this mansion. Maria was a succubus but that didn't mean she would do such a succubus like-thing, nope, no way.
Regardless Maria went to the door and opened it as the doorbell rang again.
In the door stood a beautiful girl. She could be described as a lovely, beautiful girl who captivates whoever sets their eyes on her. Her figure is rather slim, slender without looking unhealthy, but more like something straight out of a painting of an ideal girl. Her face was perfectly symmetrical to the point it could naturally arouse the envy of most any girls that looked at it, her hair was a perfect glossy black with big eyes of the clearest, most dazzling, and beautiful blue.
By all accounts one could not find even a single flaw in such a girl, even Maria had to admit that she was one of the prettiest women she has ever seen and, considering she is a Succubus and knew her own family, that was saying something.
"Hello, is Ace Hyoudou here? I need to speak with him at once." The girl said and before Maria could answer there was a sound of something moving quickly behind her.
Maria turned and saw Yuki moving, her eyes blazing in fury as she darted at the newcomer, sword in hand and a yell of rage in her mouth as she tried to cut the beautiful girl in half.
The girl created a magic shield and blocked the attack. Her eyes, unlike the burning fire existing in Yuki's golden eyes, were a deep and aloof artic could as she looked at Yuki.
"So, someone like you decided to approach Oni-sama again? How shameless." The girl spoke.
"Shut up, it is because of you that he forgot about everything, that he can't remember anything! That he suffered so much! I will cut you in half for it, Miyuki!" Yuki said in a rage as Miyuki snorted, loathing and disgust in her eyes as she pushed, sending Yuki back.
"Don't act like you yourself are innocent. I may have done something bad, but you are worse, after all-
"YOU ARE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR PARENTS DEATHS!"
Omake:
Meanwhile, in Hueco Mundo
"So, we will just keep waiting here?" Ichigo asked as he scratched his head. He had not seen any danger in Hueco Mundo yet, it was almost as if all hollows in the area were killed or something.
"We could go home now, but-" Urahara said before pointing ahead as Ophis continued eating through a wall made out of candy.
"... I said I'd help to search for your friend. They could be inside." Ophis said as she noticed the others looking at her. She then proceeded to continue to eat away at the candy.
"This, this is stupid. This whole thing is stupid. If we did not find them then that is it, we shouldn't stay around here and should just leave the area before someone notices us here." Rukia said.
"Sure, tell that to the girl eating the candy." Urahara said and Rukia snorted before going to Ophis to tell her they have to get moving.
"Why did you told her to do that?" Ichigo asked and Uraharaa just chuckled and said to wait and see.
Rukia went to Ophis and started to talk, being promptly ignored. Rukia, getting annoyed, tried to physically pull Ophis who just shot her a look. After that Rukia went ramrod still before releasing Ophis and walking away.
"So? How did it go?" Urahara asked as he saw the fearful expression of Rukia.
"It was like seeing Kenpachi-taichou when he is suffering from battle hunger and desire to fight no matter what, in other words, it is like standing before Kenpachi." Rukia said to which Urahara chuckled.
"Yeah, that sounds about right. Do remember, never stand between a young girl and her sweets, they can be just as dangerous as Kenpachi I tell you or, in this case, more dangerous." Urahara said.
"Humph, I can still beat this 'Kenpachi' guy with one hand behind my back." Ichigo said with Ophis turning, giving him an inquisitive look as she remembers people mentioning Kenpachi and how the man was strong, if Ichigo could defeat him with a hand behind his back then Ichigo would certainly be a great help in kicking Great Red out of her home. However, such thoughts lasted but a moment, and then she continued eating her candy. Normally, nothing would beat obtaining strong help to take her home back, but she could wait to focus on that after just a bit.
She wanted her home sweet home back, and if she couldn't get the home part for now then she will at least take the sweet for her.
