A half-dozen figures stood in the air high above the battlefield.

"Man, those guys got wrecked."

"What did you expect? Those were two of Aizen's most elite warriors."

"Hey, why don't we just grab the boy and be done with it? It's not like he can do anything to stop us now."

"Don't be ridiculous, Hyori. Kidnapping won't help us achieve our goals."

"So what should we do?"

"Hachi, can you heal them up a little? Just enough so they can move."

"Of course, but why not just heal them completely?"

"We've got a reputation to uphold. Can't have people thinking we're nice now."

Ulquiora and Yammy walked slowly as they entered the throne room. Two dozen pairs of eyes watched as they stopped before the marble throne.

Yammy dropped to one knee and bowed as Ulquiora spoke.

"We have returned, Lord Aizen."

"Welcome, Ulquiora and Yammy," Aizen said. "What have you to report? Show what you experienced in the world of the living, all of it."

"Yes, sir."

Ulquiora reached up and removed his own left eye. He held the eye out and crushed it in his hand.

"Here you are. See for yourselves."

A trail of energy spread out from the crushed eye, reaching all others gathered in the throne room. Aizen closed his eyes as he watched the events of the previous day play out.

"How curious. Kisuke Urahara did not make an appearance. How out of character for him," Aizen observed.

"I, too, expected Kisuke Urahara to make an appearance," Ulquiora said.

Aizen smiled. "It would appear that he and the boy are not on friendly terms at the moment."

"I see that you have decided he wasn't worth killing," he continued.

"Yes," Ulquiora replied. "The orders were to kill anyone who might be an obstacle, and we learned that there was no one."

"You're soft!" another Arrancar yelled.

Ulquiora turned to look at a blue-haired man sitting to his right.

"If it had been me, I'd have killed all three of them with the first strike," the man declared.

"Grimmjow," Ulquiora said calmly.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Grimmjow yelled. "If 'kill him' was part of the order, then obviously you and that oaf should have killed him, right?"

"I agree," a female voice said. "The boy has grown exponentially stronger since I fought him. I believe we should kill him now."

"You correctly grasp Lord Aizen's concern, Halibel," Ulquiora said. "That boy is no danger to us, yet."

"Explain yourself!" Grimmjow demanded.

"Lord Aizen isn't worried about what his current abilities are. It is his growth rate that is the problem, as Halibel said. As we learned, the boy has tremendous potential. Right now his powers are unstable, but if he does not self-destruct I believe he will prove useful to us in the future. That is why I let him live."

"Is that it?" Grimmjow sneered. "It looked to me like you were scared of a little thunder."

"Ulquiora is right," Aizen declared. "The boy will prove useful to us. The Soul Society looks to him as their savior. Kill him too soon and they will simply conclude they were wrong."

He looked at Halibel. "But if we wait for the right moment, when they have grown desperate and believe him to be their last hope, then the despair they will feel when he falls will crush their ability to stand against us."

Halibel closed her eyes and nodded in acknowledgement. Below, Grimmjow could barely contain his fury.

All eyes were on Toshiro as he entered the classroom. The bandages wrapped around his forehead stood out.

"What the heck happened to you?" someone asked.

"I got beat up," Toshiro said in a manner of fact manner.

He sat down at his desk and sighed.

He had thought that his human body would remain unaffected no matter what damage his Shinigami form took, but all of his injuries had transferred over when he returned to his body.

'I guess I know now why Rukia always healed me with kido every time I got hurt,' he thought.

Chad, Orihime, and Tatsuki had all taken off that day. He'd have to check on Chad and Orihime after school. He was not friends with

Tatsuki, and she had seemed more shaken by the previous day's events than hurt.

Toshiro looked up as he heard a commotion. The other students were pointing at the window in shock.

His eyes widened as he saw the figure standing in the window.

"Long time no see, Toshiro," Rukia Kuchiki said with a wide grin. "You look like hell."

"I'm glad to see you," Toshiro said as they walked home from school, "but what are you doing here?"

"I've been sent to assist you after the Arrancar attack," Rukia said.

"I see. Does that mean your powers are finally back?"

Rukia smiled. "They are."

"That's good, I guess."

Rukia looked at Toshiro curiously as they made their way to his house.

"I heard you killed the Grand Fisher."

"Yeah."

"So you got your vengeance."

"I did, but he's the least of our problems."

"That's true enough," she said.

Zilla would have cried if he could shed tears when he saw Rukia enter Toshiro's bedroom.

"Rukia!" he screamed. "You came back!"

Toshiro allowed himself a small smile as the diminutive stuffed lizard waddled over to hug Rukia's leg.

"I've got to be honest with you, Rukia. I don't see how you can help against those Arrancar I fought yesterday."

"That's fine," Rukia responded. "I didn't come alone."

"Yo!"

Toshiro looked up at the ceiling. Several people were coming in through the light fixture.

Renji Abarai, Ikkaku Madarame, Yumichika Ayasegawa, and a woman Toshiro did not recognize dropped down from the ceiling.

Toshiro rubbed his forehead. "Are doors too subtle?"

"Now that's no way to greet your guests," the woman said. She had light red-orange hair, a large chest, and seemed to be the oldest person there. "I'm hoping we'll have fun here."

"Fun?" Toshiro asked. "Dozens of people were killed yesterday and you're worried about having fun?"

"Don't mind Rangiku. She likes to tease people, but when it comes to battle she's as serious as they come," a mature male voice said. Everyone turned to see a man with long, white hair sitting in the windowsill.

"Ukitake," Toshiro said.

The Twelve Squad Captain smiled and waved. "Hi there! It's good to see you again, Toshiro."

Toshiro took a deep breath and sat down on the floor. "The Soul Society must be serious if they sent a captain to the world of the living with a group of seated officers."

"I'm afraid the situation is quite serious," Ukitake said. "I want to ask you about the Arrancar you fought yesterday. What did they look like?"

"They looked like people. One was big, a lot bigger than Chad. The other was like a normal man, just with white skin. And I think he was a lot stronger than the big one."

Ukitake looked at him with a grave expression. "Then this is our worst fear come to past. Aizen has turned Menos Grande into Arrancar."

"Menos?" Toshiro asked in shock.

Ukitake nodded. "While any hollow can become an Arrancar, the power they gain from the transformation would not be enough to threaten a captain or lieutenant. You yourself saw this when you faced the Grand Fisher. But when dealing with something as powerful as a Menos, there's no telling what could happen."

"That skyscraper-sized hollow became man-sized just by taking off its mask?" Toshiro asked.

Ukitake shook his head. "I'm afraid its much worse than that. What you are referring to is the Gillian, the lowest form of Menos Grande. There are many of them in Hueco Mundo. They are created when many hollows are merged into one. The Gillian are powerful, but they are slow and lack intelligence, lashing out on instinct."

"When one personality begins to become dominant over the others, a Gillian may evolve into another form, the Adjuchas. These are far smaller than the Gillian, and they are both intelligent and powerful. Adjuchas often command legions of Gillian.

"There is one final form of the Menos Grande, the Vasto Lordes. They are rare, and they are the size of a man, but they are by far the most dangerous. It is said that the Vasto Lordes are even more powerful than the Shinigami captains."

A lump formed in Toshiro's throat.

"From your description," Ukitake continued, "it would seem that you encountered one Adjuchas, and one Vasto Lordes."

Toshiro took a deep breath to keep himself calm. "What does that mean?"

"I'll be honest with you. With Azien's betrayal we're down to ten captains. If Aizen has more than ten Vasto Lordes under his command, the Soul Society is doomed."

The Shinigami looked at each other nervously. Even Rangiku had a serious expression.

"Oh, I almost forgot!"

Toshiro gaped as Ukitake began to take various candies and snacks out of his sleeves. "These are for you. I picked up some interesting sweets at a local store earlier today."

"This again?" Toshiro asked incredulously as Ukitake filled his arms with the snacks. He looked at Rukia for help, but saw that she had covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile

He looked at the other Shinigami. Rangiku was chuckling softly. Even Renji and Ikkaku seemed to be in slightly better spirits than they had been a minute earlier.

Toshiro sighed. "Thank you, Captain Ukitake."

"Call me Jushiro," Ukitake said with a wide smile. "After all, we're both Shiros!"

The captain looked at his subordinates. "All right. We've intruded on Toshiro's hospitality long enough. It's time we all found a place to sleep until our mission is done."

"Aww, why can't we stay here, Captain Ukitake?" Rangiku whined.

"You, especially, cannot stay with young men."

"Aww, you're so mean!"

Toshiro turned to Rukia.

"Think you can help me take some of this to Orihime's place? I meant to check on her and Chad later, and she'd be thrilled to save you."

"Sure," Rukia said. "And maybe she'd agree to let Lieutenant Matsumoto stay with her."

Orihime practically leapt on Rukia when she opened the door.

"It's good to see you too," Rukia said, dropping the snacks to return the one-handed hug.

Toshiro grimaced as he saw Orihime's arm in a sling. He thought she'd have been the worst off of those who fought the Arrancar, but it was still a shock to see the extent of her injuries.

"What are you doing here?" Orihime asked.

"The Soul Society sent us to help you fight the Arrancar."

"Us?"

Orihime looked past Rukia to see the woman standing behind her.

"Hi, I'm Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto! Rukia said I could stay here with you!"

"Oh … sure, I guess?" Orihime said as Rangiku stepped forward.

The lieutenant stopped next to Toshiro and looked down at him.

She reached out her hand and pinched his cheek.

"You know, you really should smile more, kid. I swear, you've had the same stupid frown the whole day!"

Orihime giggled at that, but Toshiro did not care.

"You know I can kill you, right?" he asked Rangiku.

"Oh sure. But you won't. That wouldn't be heroic."

She let go of Toshiro's cheek and entered Orihime's house. Toshiro rubbed his now sore cheek.

"I don't like her," he said to Rukia.

Rukia smiled. "Don't be so quick to judge. I seem to recall you didn't like me very much when we first met."

They said their goodbyes to Orihime and went on their way.

Toshiro turned to Rukia and looked at her with an even more serious expression than the one Rangiku had criticized.

"I need to ask you something, but it has to stay between us."

"Sure."

"I mean it. You can't tell anyone else. Not Renji, not even your captain. I told know what the Shinigami would do if they got word of this."

Rukia looked troubled, but nodded.

"What is it?"

"Have you heard of a group called the Visoreds?"

"No. I've never heard of them."

Toshiro was disappointed, but not surprised.

"They're a group of former Shinigami who gained hollow powers."

"Like you?"

That surprised Toshiro.

"My brother informed the other captains of what happened in your fight after he was sure the Head Captain was serious about not executing you, and Captain Ukitake thought I should know before going on this mission."

"I see," Toshiro said. He looked ahead. "One of these Visoreds approached me and tried to get me to join them."

"Sounds like something you should speak with Urahara about."

"No," he spat. "I am not dealing with Urahara again. Do you know what he did to us?"

Rukia looked to the side uncomfortably. "I've been piecing it together. Who was it that approached you?"

"Someone named Shinji Hirako."

Rukia stopped.

Toshiro turned around. He saw that Rukia's eyes had widened in shock.

"Say that name again," she said.

"Shinji Hirako. You know him?"

Rukia shook her head. "We've never met. But I know of him. He's the former Captain of Squad Five."

Toshiro\s brow furrowed in thought.

"Isn't that the squad Aizen led?"

"Aizen was his lieutenant when he was captain."

They began walking again.

"Sounds like there's a story there."

"Something happened a hundred years ago. The details are classified, so I don't know the whole story myself, but a whole bunch of captains and lieutenants disappeared at the same time, including Captain Hirako."

"A hundred years ago, we made a decision similar to the one you made when you came here."

"Were Urahara and Yoruichi involved in that?"

"Those two disappeared at the same time. Central 46 blamed Urahara for the whole thing. They said he carried out illegal experiments on his fellow Shinigami, though the nature of the experiments was kept classified. The rumor is that Yoruichi broke him out of prison and that's why she went on the run as well."

"If Urahara was the one who was accused of a crime, why did the others have to flee as well?"

"I don't know. But for the last century there has been a standing order to execute Shinji Hirako and all other victims of the experiments on sight. There hasn't been an order like that against Urahara. Central 46 seemed satisfied with him being banished from the Soul Society."

Toshiro shook his head. "Your government is really messed up."

"The experiments were obviously to give them hollow powers. I wouldn't put it past Urahara, but I doubt it. He was a captain himself and he wouldn't be stupid enough to risk his position by doing that to a bunch of captains and lieutenants. His experiments with merging Shinigami and hollows probably made him easy to frame.'"

"For Aizen's crimes," Rukia added.

"Exactly. And by getting his captain out of the way he'd secure his own promotion."

He put his hand on his chin in thought.

"Toshiro, you're not seriously thinking of seeking these people out?"

"Why not? You heard Ukitake. If these Vasto Lorde have gained the powers of a Shinigami and are stronger than captains, then a group of captains who have gained the powers of a hollow should be the perfect way to even the odds."

"That may be, but it's been a hundred years. There's no telling what their motivations are now."

"There's something else," he said. "The reason I lost yesterday is because of that hollow inside me."

Rukia stopped and stared at him in worry.

"I need to get this thing under control if I'm going to be of any use – "

He stopped. Both of them looked up at the sky.

A wave of pressure had passed through them, making the air feel heavy.

"The Arrancar," Rukia said. "They're here."