Urahara sat outside his shop, sipping a cup of tea. His face contorted as he burned his tongue on the hot liquid. He looked solemnly at his cup, then blew on it and continued to drink, his smile restored.

Urahara leaned his head slightly to the side as a hollow attacked him from his left. His hat was knocked off, but he was completely unharmed.

"Jinta home run!" Urahara's youngest employee screamed, swinging a massive baseball bat-like object at the hollow. It flew through the air away from the shop into another hollow. Both disintegrated from the impact.

Urahara held his cup up. "Oh, good. I didn't spill any of my tea." He looked at Jinta, who was sweating profusely and breathing hard.

"That one came too close to the store, Jinta."

"That's because you sent Ururu off!" Jinta protested. "With that rocket launcher of hers she can take out a hundred at a time! It's not fair!"

Uruhara smiled at him.

"I thought you said you could defend the place by yourself."

"I can!"

"Well," Urahara said, looking back into the shop, "you won't have to do it for too much longer. I think Tessai's almost got that kido barrier up."

Jinta smirked and held his bat above his head.

"I'll kill them all before he finishes!"

Urahra smiled again as the boy through himself back into his fight with the hollows, and turned his attention to an object lying four meters away.

"Now," he said to himself, "I could go and pick up my hat, or I can be lazy and enjoy my tea. Decisions, decisions. And people think I have it easy here."

Chad could not see the creature, exactly. He could make out a hazy outline, as if the air was distorted by heat.

And he could hear it. A foul, hissing sound of breath mixed with the dripping of drool.

Chad leapt out of the way of an attack he felt rather than saw coming. He rolled behind the monster and stopped his momentum with one hand.

He watched the changes in the air distortions. The monster was turning around.

It was focused on him.

Chad looked to his right and left, and even stole a glance over his shoulder. He could go into the park, where the children were playing, or he could lead the monster into a residential neighborhood or shopping district. He found none of the options appealing.

"If you're going to show up again, Toshiro, now would be a good time."

"What did you just say about Toshiro?" Tatsuki asked.

"Oh, nothing." Orihime said quickly, trying to smile. "I just remembered, he told me about this new TV show he said was really good. I wanna go see it!" She began pushing Tatsuki away from the building. "Let's go to my house to watch!"

"Hey, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Tatsuki demanded.

"It's supposed to be even better than Don Kanogi!" Orihime insisted. She glanced nervously behind her.

'Please, let us get away. Let Toshiro show up before that thing wakes up.'

"Ughhh."

In front of them, a girl collapsed.

Tatsuki broke away from Orihime and ran to their fallen classmate.

"Are you all right?"

"Tatsuki…" Orihime said nervously, "we've got to get out of here."

"We've got to call an ambulance is what we've got to do! I think she might have been hit on the head."

Orihime cringed in fright, as all around them the rest of their karate class collapsed as well.

Tatsuki gaped at the falling bodies. "What is going on?"

Orihime looked back up at the side of the building.

'The last couple of times, there was this strong presence in the air before he came.' she thought. 'But now I don't feel it all, even though I'm trying as hard as I can!'

'Toshiro really isn't coming this time.'

"That's thirty-five." Uryu said, shooting down another hollow.

'There's a lot of them.' he thought. 'But they seem to be congregating more where Hitsugaya is. Not too surprising, but at this rate he'll pass my total soon.'

"Hellllllllp!"

Uryu shook his head as he saw that Zilla was being chased by three hollows at once. He took his aim.

"Get down."

Zilla dropped to the ground, and the hollows lunged at him.

"Ahhh! I don't want to die!"

Uryu released his arrow. It struck the first hollow, but did not stop. The projectile pierced the chest of the second hollow and continued through the head of the third.

"What's the big idea of waiting so long!?" Zilla demanded. "I could have been killed!"

Uryu pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "It takes longer to fire more powerful arrows. Now that's thirty-eight."

Uryu turned his attention to the next hollow.

'I will beat him, grandfather. I will prove our abilities to the Shinigami.'

Toshiro was swinging his sword around so much he was practically spinning.

"Damn it!"

As many hollows as he killed, more were always ready to take their place.

"I can't get anywhere with all of these in the way!"

Boom

Toshiro covered his face as the hollows around him began to explode. When he lowered his arms, the two dozen hollows he had been fighting were gone, replaced by small pillars of white smoke.

"What the?"

Toshiro spun around. Ten meters away was a little girl holding a rocket launcher that was more than twice her size over her shoulder.

"Hellow." she said, bowing. "I'm Ururu. Mr. Urahara sent me to find you."

"Uruhara? Does he have something to do with this?"

"No. Mr. Urahara said that I should tell you not to worry about your friends."

"Look what's going on!" Toshiro yelled. "How can I not worry?"

"Mr. Urahara said that by going to help your friends you'd just attract more hollows to them."

Toshiro grunted. It was true. He was fighting too hard to keep his reiatsu hidden.

"Mr. Urahara said that you should go back to the Quincy. He'll need your help soon. We'll help your friends."

"But-"

Ururu raised her rocket launcher and fired a missile into the air. It hit a hollow and exploded high over Toshiro's head.

"Get back to Uryu." Toshiro said, looking up. "Got it."

The soccer ball rolled out of the field the children were playing in. A girl ran over to get it.

As she picked up the ball, a shadow fell over her. She raised her eyes to see a giant standing above her.

"Um, can I help you?" she asked nervously.

Without a word, the giant took her in his arms and jumped away. She heard a crash and after they had stopped looked to see a small crater where she had been standing previously.

"All of you, run!" Chad commanded. The terrified children complied without hesitation.

All except one.

The girl Chad had just saved crawled backwards in terror, whimpering.

'Not good.' Chad thought. 'I hoped I could get everyone out of the park at least. What do I do now?'

Chad saw another shift in the air distortions, and brought his fist down in front of him. He felt the impact on what he guessed was the monster's wrist and heard it cry out in pain.

Reflexively, the monster swatted him away with its other hand. He bounced along the ground, coming to a stop fifteen meters away.

"Hey, Mister!" the girl screamed, finding her voice again. "Are you all right?"

Chad opened his eyes. His head was bleeding, and his vision was blurry.

'I can't fight this thing. The one time my strength should be good, and I'm as helpless as a baby.'

The girl crawled over to him and tried to shake him awake.

"Mister! What's happening!?"

If there was one thing Chad hated, it was seeing people get hurt. He especially hated being the cause of other people's pain.

But as he watched the scared girl begin to cry, Chad experienced a new kind of hatred: hatred of seeing other people get hurt because he was too weak.

'What good is strength, if I can't protect people, if I need someone like Toshiro to rescue me?'

He heard the monster roar again, and knew that it was preparing its final attack.

'If my current strength is not enough to protect myself, to protect others, then I want-'

"More!"

Chad caught the monster's fist with his own.

It backed off, and Chad realized that he could see it clearly now. A froglike creature with a white mask.

Chad looked at his right arm. It was covered in a red and black armor-like substance that was bonded to his flesh.

'I don't know what this is.' he thought. 'But worrying about that can wait until later. For now I know what I need to do with it!'

Chad ran at the monster, bringing his right arm back. He put everything he had into a single punch that connected with the monster's midsection. His fist tore through the creature's flesh as easily as if it were made of tissue paper, and the rest of the beast disintegrated.

Chad held his arm up, in awe of what he had just accomplished.

Orihime continued to stare at the monster on the wall. It was even larger than the ones she had seen before, an octopus-like creature with many tentacles.

'It's just sitting there.' Orihime thought. 'Can we get away?'

"You seem confused, girlie." the monster said, making Orihime jump. "Wondering why I'm not attacking? I happen to hate fighting, so I make other people do it for me."

"What?"

The girl Tatsuki was leaning over suddenly kicked her in the chin. Tatsuki was knocked on her back.

"Tatsuki!"

"I'm all right." Tatsukia said rubbing her chin. "What was that for?" she demanded of the girl who had kicked her.

The girl did not respond as she rose to her feet.

"Answer me!"

"Tatsuki…" Orihime warned. Tatsuki looked to see what was frightening her now.

All around, the people who had collapsed began to rise, in the same silent manner as the first girl.

"What's up with their eyes?" Tatsuki asked. "They look like zombies."

One girl grabbed Orihime's arm and began to squeeze it.

"Ow!" Orihime complained. "You're hurting me!"

"Stop it!" Tatsuki yelled, smashing her elbow into the face of the person holding Orihime.

"Tatsuki."

"I don't know what's wrong with these people," Tatsuki said, "but I'm not going to let them hurt you."

Even as they were surrounded, Tatsuki leapt into action. Her fists and legs were a blur to Orihime's eyes as she beat the living daylights out of their entire karate class.

Tatsuki took a deep breath when she was finished. "This time they're not getting up so fast. Ugh!"

"Tatsuki!"

A green lump of slime had struck Tatsuki in the shoulder with such force that she fell to the ground as well.

"Damn." she muttered. "That really hurts."

"Oh, it'll do a lot more than just hurt." the monster said, prompting Orihime to turn to it again. "That slime lets me control the body of whoever it touches."

'Control?"

Behind Orihime, Tatsuki was rising, arm first.

"Run, Orihime." Tatsuki pleaded. "My arm's acting on its own. I can't stop it!"

"She's resisting it." The monster said, impressed, "but in the end it makes no difference. Soon her entire body will belong to me."

Orihime stepped back as Tatsuki raise her arm back to punch her.

'Both of them. Both of the people who protected me. They both couldn't do it this time.'

She turned back to the monster. "Why?"

The monster laughed. "Why what? Why am I attacking you? We hollows love to eat people with high spirit energy, that's all."

'High spirit energy, me?' Orihime looked at Tatsuki again. The other girl's face was contorted in pain from resisting her arm's urge to hit Orihime as hard as she could.

'If that's true, then-then maybe I don't need Toshiro and Tatsuki to protect me.'

Orihime stepped forward and hugged Tatsuki.

"Ori…hime?"

"It's all right, Tatsuki." Orihime said soothingly. "This time, this time I'll protect you."

As the hollow watched, the girls were surrounded by a sudden pillar of smoke.

"What's going on? What just happened?"

The smoke cleared, revealing Orihime standing with an expression of anger on her face. Flashes of light seemed to swirl around.

"I won't forgive you for hurting Tatsuki!"

"What are you, little human?" the hollow demanded. "What is that power?"

One of the lights stopped in front of Orihime, and she saw that it was a fairy.

"What are you?"

The other fairies all stopped around her.

"Clueless girl." a mean looking one said. "Not even noticing us."

"We're the six flowers of the hibiscus shield, born to protect you." another one said. "We're your power."

"My power is…fairies?"

"We're not fairies." the same one insisted. "We're the power of your soul."

"This is all very interesting," the mean looking one said, but you might want to do something about that hollow first. It's not going to be patient long enough to get the introductions out of the way. You'd better learn how to control us on the spot or else we're all dead!"

"How to control you?"

"Yes. We each have names that when called unlock out powers."

"Enough!" the hollow yelled, launching another glop of slime from a pore on its forehead.

"Call out our names!" a fairy that looked like a clown said. "Hinaku, Baigon, Lily! Santen Keshunn! I reject! Say it!"

"Hinaku, Baigon, Lily, Santen Keshu! I reject!"

Three of the fairies flew in a pattern in front of her. Between them an orange barrier was formed. The slime hit the barrier and slid off.

"Oh my-" Orihime started in shock.

"No time to be surprised!" the mean one said. "It's time to attack! Say it! Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun! I Reject!"

"Right." Orihime said. "Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun! I reject!"

The mean fairy moved so fast that he seemed to turn back into a beam of light. He cut through the hollow with ease, causing it to disintegrate.

"You did it, Orihime!" the first fairy exclaimed.

"Yeah." Orihime said weakly. She collapsed from exhaustion.

Three arrows struck the closest hollow, disintegrating it.

'Something's wrong.' Uryu thought. 'By now they should be thinning out, but if anything there are more of them than ever!'

Another three arrows destroyed the next hollow.

'I've used up so much of my reiatsu that I can't kill them with just one shot anymore.'

"Hey, Quincy!"

"Rukia." He said, not turning to acknowledge her. He kept his focus entirely on the hollows.

She stopped next to Zilla. "Toshiro, good."

"Rukia!" he yelled, leaping on top of her. "There's all these hollows everywhere! I didn't know what to do!"

"Zilla." she muttered, throwing him off of her.

"Where's Toshiro?" she asked Uryu.

"I don't know at the moment." he said. "I'm going to end this before he comes back."

He returned to shooting hollows, and Rukia saw what had become of his hands.

Both were so covered in blood that a steady stream was falling to the ground.

Orihime woke up in a bed not her own.

"You're awake." she heard Chad's voice say.

"Yeah." She looked around. "Where are we?"

"My place."

They both looked up at the strange man in the dark green robe, funny hat, and wooden sandals.

"My name is Urahara, and I have much to tell you. But first, do you want some tea? This might take a while."

'It's like some greater power is attracting these hollows.' Uryu thought. 'But it doesn't matter. I said I'd protect this town, and that's exactly what I'll do! While Hitsugaya and the Shinigami watch, I'll show them all!'

Another hollow appeared behind him, and he turned with his bow to face it.

He never got the chance to fire, for the hollow's head split in half.

Leaping from behind the disintegrating beast was a small figure in black.

"It took a while to get back here, but now it looks like the gang's all together."

"Toshiro." Rukia said. He nodded at her, then turned his attention to Zilla.

"You're all right. I was worried you'd get eaten and then I wouldn't have a body."

"Rukia hit me!" Zilla cried.

Toshiro ignored him, and turned lastly to Uryu.

"What's wrong? You look awful."

Inwardly, Uryu swore.

'He's been fighting for hours and barely even looks like he's broken a sweat! How?'

"Have you realized how stupid this was yet, Uryu?"

"Hold on a second!" Orihime protested. "This is all too sudden!"

"It is hard to believe." Chad agreed. "Shinigami and hollows."

"Do you deny that the two of you were attacked just today?" Urahara asked. "By the way, you haven't touched your tea, either of you. It'll be cold by now.

"Even as we speak," Urahra continued, "Toshiro is fighting the hollows as a Shinigami. You two have been affected by the extraordinary spirit energy he radiates when he fights.

"Today, Toshiro learned that he cannot be everywhere at once, and chose to protect the town as a whole rather than just the individuals he knows. A similar choice now awaits the two of you. A door has opened before you."

As if on cue, the door in back of Urahara slid open.

"Manager," an older, bearded man who even taller than Chad said, the sky crests have begun to converge."

"Preperations?" Urahara asked.

"Complete."

"Very well." He turned to leave, but stopped in the doorway.

"Will you come?" he asked Orihime and Chad. "I will show you what lies beyond the door."