Main POV

"Uo," I heard Yuzu say softly as I came down the stairs, going back to the kitchen. "I'm sorry if I upset you."

"It's alright," I told her, pulling her in for a tight hug, holding her close and breathing in the scent of her shampoo. "You didn't upset me, I promise you. Truth is, I'm still trying to get over what happened. I'm okay, I'm healed, physically, but I still need to heal mentally. Ichigo and I, we both do."

"Okay," she nodded. "I love you so much onee-san."

"I know," I kissed the top of her head. "I love you lots imouto-chan."

"Are you ready to go?" Ichigo said, and then cleared his throat, trying to get the heavy feeling out. I'd done a number on him, crying myself out upstairs. His eyes were still a little red and puffy. I could only imagine what I looked like.

"Yeah," I nodded, pulling away.

"Where are you going?" Yuzu asked.

"Toshiro and Rukia are taking Uo and I to the Soul Society. They think if she's there they can't hurt her anymore," Ichigo explained. "So we're going to keep her there until we can work out what to do about these guys."

"That's good, I know Toshiro-kun will take good care of you," Yuzu said. "And Ichigo will be able to protect you if he's with you. I want you to be safe Uo."

"I will be," I smiled. "Can you take care of things here for me while I'm gone?"

"Of course Uo!" She yelled excitedly, like I'd given her a special task. Really what I'd told her to do was keep calm and carry on.

"Are you guys going now?" Karin asked as she stood behind me. I smiled and nodded. I pulled her in for an unsolicited hug and held her close. Surprisingly, she wrapped her arms equally as tightly around me and held me, for a few minutes. "I'll miss you," she told me.

"I'll miss you too," I told her. "Make sure you kick those guys butts in soccer, and don't be afraid to ask for help. It doesn't make you weak. Remember that?"

"I will," she nodded. "When you come back I'm going to ask you for help with everything."

"Until then," I smiled and pulled her back in to kiss her crown and hold her one last time.

"I'm going to kill him," I growled as I looked at the stack of files in front of me.

"What?" Ichigo asked, coming into the back room where Urahara kept all the paperwork and stuff for the accounts. "Wow."

"Yep," I grumbled. "There's no way I can get through this before we go," I told him.

"What do you wanna do then?" He asked.

"I'm gonna have to call the accountant and reschedule so I can work on this when I come back," I sighed.

"You could ask Urahara if you could take all this stuff with you," he suggested. "At least it would give you something to do."

"You want me to take a bunch of valuable papers that are virtually irreplaceable across dimensions?" I asked irritatedly.

"No, dummy," he replied taking a page from my book. "Get Urahara to scan them all into a computer for you to look at while you're there."

"And how am I supposed to charge said computer in the land that still hasn't invented the pen?" I asked him, folding my arms over my chest.

"That's where I come in my dear," Urahara poked his head into the room. "I happen to have a reishi powered laptop that you can use. And the benefit of it being reishi powered is the soul society is full of reishi. Now, Tessai and I will start scanning those documents and you can work on the spreadsheets and reorganise all the papers into the right order from the comfort of the seireitei. And when you're done, we'll print them all out and take them to the accountant."

"And since they'll all be in the right order, you'll have a guide to reorganise this pile here, then we'll have two copies," I smiled sinisterly. "You will fix this mess Urahara."

"Of course Uo-chan," he waved his fan at me.

"And send me all the invoices too," I told him.

"Are you almost ready to go, Uotani?" Hitsugaya asked, although he was being much more gentle with me than he normally was.

"Yeah," I nodded. I wanted to ask him about what he thought about all of this. I wanted to tell him the truth, I knew I couldn't hid it from him forever, he was too smart. I respected Hitsugaya, he was my first Bleach crush after all. I trusted him, I did, but I knew if I told him, me Hikaru Uotani who wasn't a friend to Hitsugaya, he'd be forced to report me and wouldn't lose much sleep because he didn't know me.

"Hey," I started. He turned back towards me, curious about what I was going to say. I chickened out. "Thanks." He looked a little disappointed, but he didn't say anything.

"It's alright," he replied. The door slid open and in it's wake, stood Ichigo, smiling softly, warily at me. As if any moment I might relapse and break down.

"Hey," Ichigo said as he walking into the room. His hands slid around my waist and he kissed me, holding me softly yet firmly to his body. I couldn't draw my lips away, even if I wanted to. I felt so secure, so settled, in that moment.

"You feeling up to going soon?" He asked as we pulled apart.

"Yeah," I nodded. "As long as you're with me."

"I'll be with you," he told me.

"Good, because I'm still as terrified of the soul society as I was when I met you and I couldn't go if I didn't have you," I replied.

"Shunsui is running things now, he's a good man. He'll never let anything happen to you," he assured me.

"It might not be his choice, you know there's Central 46 and they regularly make choices to screw people over," I explained and he rolled his overconfident, brown eyes at me. He was sure, so sure, of everything and everyone he believed in.

"Is that why, you weren't honest with me, Uo, you were afraid of the soul society? You were didn't trust me?" Hitsugaya asked, I didn't notice he hadn't left like he usually did when we kissed. Fuck, I slipped up.

"I trust you," I told him.

"But not my superiors?" He prodded.

"Who said I wasn't honest with you?" I replied. "I'm serious on the front that up until now, up until what happened to my face, I hadn't been attacked."

"That you know of, but don't you think it's likely, if they've done this to you that they've tried it before?" He countered.

"No," I shook my head. "Because if they had have, the condition I was in when Ichigo found me, it would have been easy to kill me. They would have gotten whatever it was they wanted right there, there would be no reason to let me live. If they had attacked me that night I wouldn't be here."

"I still don't feel like you're telling me everything," he told me.

"That's a feeling you're going to have to make peace with," I told him. "Because you'll be feeling that way for a long time."

"Captain~" Rangiku burst into the room. "We're all ready to go."

"Good," he nodded. "We'll move out in a moment. Let's leave these two alone for a few moments and wait out the front of the shop."

"They act like we're having to say goodbye to each other," I rolled my eyes once they left.

"I think they just don't wanna watch me kissing you again," he smirked and pressed his lips to mine.

His hands cupped my jaw, pulling me towards him gently as he enveloped me in his calming aura. I felt in that moment of calmness and clarity, that there wasn't anything I couldn't do, anywhere I couldn't go. I pressed my body closer to his, wrapping my arms around him, holding him tightly as if he was the only thing anchoring me to this world. His hands slid into my hair, tangling in the strands and combing through. I could feel his breath softly hitting my face as our lips stayed connected, noses brushing against each others.

"ICHIGO!"

The door burst open and Renji burst through panting. Hitsugaya followed shortly after looking concerned.

"We're post postponing our return to the soul society," Hitsugaya told us.

"What, how come?" Ichigo asked, wrapping an arm protectively around my waist.

"They've found them," Renji explained. "We recognised their spiritual pressure popping up in Naruki city. And we're going to put a stop to them."

"I'm coming with you," Ichigo said, tightening his grip on me. "Uo, you'll be safe if you stay here. I'll go with Toshiro and the others to fight them. We'll protect you."

"Urahara is on his way here," Renji explained. "He and Yoruichi should be enough if one of them heads this way."

"Alright then, let's go," Ichigo said, arm detaching from my waist and trailing behind him as he let me go.

I worried. What if this was just a way to get them all away from here? That's what I would do if I was the bad guy. They'd know that the shinigami wouldn't move me if they didn't have to once they found a stronghold. Only moving my location for a better one and only if they had the numbers, the man power to do it. But, should they find the bad guys, a way to end it all by confronting them, they'd send as many able bodied soldiers to the front lines leaving just a few behind hoping that if they were wrong that would be enough to hold them off.

"Wait," I grabbed a hold of Ichigo's wrist, holding it tightly as he walked. He stopped, turning back to me concerned.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Don't go with them," I replied.

"What?" He asked. "Uo, I promised I'd protect you.."

"I know," I confirmed. He did, and I planned on holding him to that promise.

"Then I need to go," he told me.

"What if it's a trap?" I asked.

"What?" He recoiled. Renji and Hitsugaya looked back at me.

"You've never been able to find them before, why now?" I asked. Hitsugaya looked thoughtful, as if he already knew what I was thinking, because he'd been thinking it too.

"We could have just got lucky," Renji said. "Or because we've been searching for them for a while now."

"Or because they know there's no other reason you'd all leave," I replied. "You're all protecting me, they know that. Because I called all of you when they charged my apartment. And even before, if I wasn't with Ichigo you were in my apartment and Yumichika and Ikkaku were next door. There was always someone on me, 24/7. If you're looking for the perfect opportunity to get to someone, do it while everyone else is off somewhere else. But, if they've sworn to protect something, someone, why would they go elsewhere? Simple, you make them."

"That's a good point," Hitsugaya agreed. "I'd been thinking something along those lines for a while now, that's why we were going to leave you in the hands of Urahara and Yoruichi, so you'd be more comfortable, they're your friends, aren't they?"

"Yeah," I agreed.

"But, if you're right then we might need to split the firepower evenly between the two places," he continued. "And we might need Urahara with us if he knows how to neutralise the green fire attack."

"That's a good idea young Hitsugaya," Urahara came into the room. "I'll leave Tessai-san here in case something should happen, and inform Hachigen of the situation, have him on standby."

"Alright," Histugaya nodded. "I'll leave Maderame and Ayasegawa here with you, Tessai and Kurosaki. Abarai, Kuchikia and Matsumoto and Urahara and I will be going on the investigation party."

"Hang on a minute!" Ikkaku called. "If you're wrong Uo, we want in on the fight still. There's definitely going to be one with the investigation party, but there may or may not be one here."

"Fine," Hitsugaya grumbled. "Kuchiki and Abarai stay here, you two come with Rangiku and I."

We watched them leave, Renji and Rukia heading inside to make everyone some tea, probably to settle me down. I looked up at Ichigo and felt a little guilty. I didn't want to pull him away from the action, I knew it was important to him, I just didn't want to be here without him if they came for me.

"I'm sorry," I said, brow furrowed. "I didn't mean to pull you out of the action."

"What are you talking about?" He asked. "If you need me to stay with you so you feel protected and safe then I'll happily stay out of all the action to come. I want to protect you from these guys and if this is doing it then I'll stay by your side gladly. And if you're right, I'll be happy I'm here with you."

"Good," I replied. "I just felt a little guilty."

"Never feel guilty for asking me for what you want," he kissed me again.