Orihime had gotten used to having a group of Shinigami hanging out at her house.
Rangiku Matsumoto was the only one who slept there, but Jushiro Ukitake was there often during the day to use the large screen to communicate with the Sereitei, and the other Shinigami would come by to receive orders or visit their friends.
Even so, Orihime was surprised to see just how large the crowd gathered in her living room was when she came home from school that day.
Ukitake, Rangiku, Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, and Yummichaika were all there.
It was highly unusual for them all to be there at once. One Shinigami was always out on patrol, and Ikkaku and Yumichika usually kept to themselves.
What was more, they had a guest with them.
A young boy was standing in the middle of all the Shinigami. He had brown hair and brown eyes and wore a yellow shirt. He had a band-aid over his nose.
"Who are you?" the boy asked when he saw Orihime. "Are you with these old people?"
"Oh?" Orihime said in surprise. "Well, I live here. This is my house."
The boy looked around at all the Shinigami. "Are you serious? Why did you bring me to some teenager's house? Are you old people homeless?"
"For the last time, we're not old!" Yumichika said, barely containing his disgust.
Ukitake laughed a little and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I definitely qualify as old, even by Soul Society standards."
"Excuse me," Orihime said, "but what are you all doing here? There's no space to move with so many people in the living room."
"My apologies, Orihime," Ukitake said. "It's hard to find a large space where we don't have to worry about people not knowing who we are."
"And we need to find out if that Arrancar that appeared today was sent by Aizen," Rukia said in a serious tone.
"Arrancar?" Orihime asked, growing concerned. She knew a hollow had appeared when Rukia had suddenly ran out of class earlier that day, but she had no idea the situation was that serious. "I didn't feel anything."
"It was a lot weaker than the ones we fought a few weeks ago," Renji said. "So we're not entirely sure what's up with it."
Ikkaku glared at the boy. "We were hoping this kid could shed some light on the subject, but he's being rather uncooperative."
"Why would this boy – " Orihime stopped when she saw the chain sticking out of the boy's chest. Her hand covered her mouth as she gasped.
The boy was a spirit. He was dead.
Ukitake knelt in front of the boy.
"When that hollow first appeared, did you hear a strange whistling noise?" he asked.
All the Shinigami nodded.
"Yeah, that was really annoying," Ikkaku said.
"I'll say," Renji added. "It made it pretty hard to concentrate on what I was doing."
Ukitake ignored them and continued to look at the boy.
The boy looked to the side. "Yeah, I heard it," he said in a defiant tone.
"Did the hollow say anything to you?" Ukitake asked.
"No. I was just minding my own business when that thing came out of nowhere and attacked me!"
Even to Orihime it sounded like the boy had rehearsed that line in his head.
"Looks like there's no point in asking any more questions," Ikkaku said, "not if he doesn't feel like being honest."
"Yes," Ukitake said. "I guess we should perform the konso now."
"No!" the boy screamed. "I still have things I need to do here! I don't want to go anywhere now!"
Ukitake began to pull his sword from his sheathe.
"Wait!" Rangiku said suddenly. Ukitake stopped, but did not resheathe his sword.
"This boy is just feeling scared and confused. I'm sure that if we give him some time, he'll be more willing to answer our questions in the morning."
Ukitake smiled slightly.
"All right. He'll stay with you and Orihime tonight. We'll pick this up again in the morning."
The Shinigami began to leave. Orihime had to step out into the hall to make way for them.
Rukia was the last the leave the living room. She looked at Orihime.
"Looks like you've got another guest tonight. Sorry about that."
"Oh, it's ok," Orihime assured her. "I'm sure I've got enough food for the both of them."
Rukia looked at her sadly. "Dead souls don't eat. They can't even touch food in this world."
"Oh, I didn't know that."
Rukia looked back at the living room, where the boy had already gotten into a heated argument with Rangiku. "With any luck this will all turn out to be nothing and we can send him to the Soul Society tomorrow."
"Do you think we should get in touch with Toshiro and let him know what's going on?"
Rukia shook his head. "What Toshiro's doing is very important, and any one of us would be strong enough to defeat the Arrancar that appeared today. We shouldn't disturb him if it isn't absolutely necessary."
"I guess."
Rukia put her hand on Orihime's shoulder.
"See you tomorrow," she said before leaving.
"That brat!"
Orihime was startled awake by Rangiku's screams. She ran downstairs.
"What's wrong, Rangiku?"
"He's gone! He ran away! And he took my zanpakuto with him!"
Orihime looked around the living room. There was no sign of the boy.
"But why would he – "
Rangiku gritted her teeth in frustration. "You stay here. I'm going to find that pain in the ass and give him a piece of my mind."
"Um, ok," Orihime said as Rangiku stormed out of the house.
She waited for about fifteen minutes when she began to hear a strange whisting noise.
'What is that?' she wondered. 'A flute? No, it sounds more like an ocarina.'
She felt a strange reiatsu appear.
'Is that a hollow?'
Within seconds the reiatsus of all of the Shinigami flared. They sensed the same thing she did and were already on their way to deal with it.
Ordinarily there would be no need for Orihime to get involved, but Rangiku was the one closest to the hollow, and the lieutenant did not have her zanpakuto.
She ran out of the house.
The strange noise continued as she ran through the night.
Orihime stopped as she felt something appear behind her. It had the same reiatsu as the hollow she had been running towards.
She turned around.
The hollow looked like an armadillo with dull purple skin and brown fur. It stood on all fours, and its hollow mask was huge. It had a large mouth, but no eyes.
Orihime stood firm. She'd faced hollows like this multiple times before. It was no longer something to be afraid of.
"Tsubaki," she said calmly. The diminutive figure appeared next to her head.
"Koten Zanshun, I reject!"
Tsubaki shot forward at tremendous speed, striking the hollow head-on. Orihime watched as the creature disintegrated.
"Hahahaha," a gravely voice began to laugh.
Orihime looked around, attempting to locate the source of the laughter. It seemed to come from all directions.
Which it was.
Another, hollow, identical to the one Orihime had just killed, appeared on a roof to her left. More gradually stepped out of the shadows, until there were at least five of the same armadillo hollows surrounding her.
"You're not a Shinigami," all of the hollows said in unison. "What are you?"
"I could ask you the same question," Orihime responded.
The hollow on the roof leapt to the ground and stood on its hind legs, towering over her. "No matter. Once I consume you I'll know all of your secrets. And then your power will be mine as well."
Orihime backed up as the hollow came closer, attempting to get close to the nearest building so she would not be surrounded.
"Santen Kesshun: I reject."
The orange barrier appeared. Over the course of her training with Toshiro, Chad, and Rukia, Orihime had learned to mold her simple force field into a dome which covered her from any angle.
"What? Are you not going to put up a fight like the Shinigami are?"
Orihime glared at the hollow with a resolute expression.
"Tsugi no mai: Hakuren!"
A wave of ice flowed down the street at blinding speed, enveloping all five copies of the hollow.
Protected within her shield, Orihime looked to the side. She recognized that attack.
"Rukia."
Rukia Kuchiki approached, sheathing her sword. "I'm glad I got here in time."
She looked at Orihime with a serious expression. "I've been in touch with the others. This hollow has dozens of copies all over the city, maybe more."
"The situation has changed. We need you to get Toshiro now."
Orihime nodded. "Right. I understand."
"I'll come with you, just in case," Rukia said.
They had hardly begun to move when a cold wave passed through them.
Orihime turned to Rukia. "Do you sense that too, that cold feeling?"
Rukia smiled. "I sure do."
Rangiku ran into the park with the boy, whose name she now knew was Shota.
She had her zanpakuto back, but it did not matter against so many opponents.
She and Shota were backed up against a tree as over forty of the copies surrounded them.
"You have nowhere left to run," the hollow sneered. "It's over!"
The copies moved to attack, but Rangiku looked up.
A large blue dragon of flowing ice and water was hurtling at the ground. Rangiku shielded Shota as the dragon struck the hollow copies, creating a tremendous wind.
When they looked back, all of the hollows were completely frozen in a gigantic formation of ice.
They watched as the figure descended to the ground, sheathing a long sword on his back.
"Who is that?" Shota wondered.
"Toshiro!"
The substitute Shinigami looked up as all of his allies converged on the park. Captain Ukitake arrived first, followed quickly by Orihime and Rukia. Chad came next, followed quickly by Renji. Ikkaku and Yumichika arrived last.
Ukitake looked at Toshiro skeptically. "So you've been pretty close by this whole time."
Toshiro did not respond. Instead he looked at the ice formation he had created.
"What's the story with that Arrancar?" he asked.
Before anyone had a chance to answer, Shota began to walk away from the group.
"Hey, where are you going?" Rangiku called out after him.
Shota approached a bench at the other side of the clearing, where a little girl was sitting, fast asleep.
"Yui!"
If Orihime's apartment was crowded before, now it was practically bursting.
Shota's younger sister, who had a chain of fate attached to her chest as he did, was spread out unconscious on the floor of the living room while Rangiku and Ukitake examined her. The humans, Orihime, Toshiro, and Chad also stood in the living room while the other Shinigami all waited outside.
"I can't find anything abnormal about her, sir," Rangiku told Ukitake.
"I see," the captain said. He turned to Shota. "So that's why you were so adamant about refusing the konso earlier. You were looking for you sister."
Toshiro noticeably stirred at Ukitake's words.
Rangiku kneeled down in front of the boy's spirit. "Shota, please tell us what happened."
Shota looked down sadly.
"We'd just left the park. We were all in the car. Mom and dad were up front, Yui and I were in the back. She was playing her toy ocarina, then this truck came out of nowhere and hit us."
"When I woke up, this chain was attached to my chest, and I knew my mom and dad were gone."
Yui stirred and opened her eyes.
"Yui"! Shota yelled, leaning over her. "It's me!"
"Shota," Yui said softly, "my big brother."
Ukitake got up and moved towards the door.
"Hey, where are you going, Captain Ukitake?" Rangiku asked.
The captain made a small motion with his head in Toshiro's direction, signaling that he wanted to talk to the substitute outside.
"I'll get right to the point," Ukitake said quietly after they stepped outside. "We need information from those two. How did Yui just appear right after you destroyed all of those clones? What is their connection to this hollow, and what do they know about it?"
"And you want me to try to get that information out of them since I'm closer to them in age," Toshiro observed.
"To tell you the truth, I'm not comfortable with the idea of interrogating children, even if it is necessary and I wouldn't do anything beyond asking them questions," Ukitake said.
Toshiro looked inside. Yui was laughing at some remark Shota had made at Rangiku's expense.
"I understand," he said.
Ukitake motioned for Rangiku to leave when they reentered the room. He left as well, leaving only the humans.
Toshiro sat down next to the siblings.
"Hi," he said awkwardly. "I'm Toshiro."
"I'm Orihime, but you already know that."
"And I'm Chad."
"Um, and what are you people?" Shota asked. "Are you like superheroes, or something?"
"We're students at Karakura High School," Toshiro answered.
"But I suppose you could say we're superheroes in our free time," Orihime added.
Shota looked at the little boy who dressed like those Shinigami, to the girl who actually looked like she should be in high school but who seemed to own the house they were in, to the man who seemed too big to be in school.
"You're all in high school? That doesn't make any sense."
"I skipped ahead a couple of years, and Chad's just big for his age," Toshiro explained. "We all just started ninth grade recently."
"And do those old guys just let kids join them and get those swords? Could I get one too?"
Toshiro regarded Shota closely. "Is that what you want? To go out hunting monsters with a zanpakuto?"
"Or is it just this particular hollow you want to kill?"
Shota opened his mouth in shock.
"Your sister is safe," Chad observed. "You have no reason to seek revenge."
The siblings looked at each other. "I guess," Shota said.
"Besides," Toshiro added, "they don't give these powers to humans. The process by which I got mine is technically illegal. They're not going to do it again."
Orihime bent down and smiled at Yui. "I'm sorry," she said. "This must be all so confusing and overwhelming for you. All this talk about powers and hollows and stuff."
The little girl nodded.
"What were you doing at the park when we found you?" Toshiro asked. "Were you playing there?"
"I was looking for my big brother," she answered.
Toshiro put his hand on his chin in thought. Yui had been asleep when Shota found her, so it was possible that she had been there the whole time and no one noticed her because of the fight. But at the same time, the sounds of battle would have woken anyone up.
"Did you two get separated there at the park?" he asked.
Shota nodded.
"How? How did you get separated?"
"That's none of your business!" Shota yelled, suddenly getting angry.
"We shouldn't push them to relive traumatic events," Chad warned.
'He had no problem talking about them getting killed in a car crash,' Toshiro thought. 'What could be more traumatic than that?'
He put his hand together in front of his face. "Sorry. Guess I'm not in a good mood today. That Arrancar looked a lot like the one that killed my sister."
Orihime and Chad looked at each other, and Shota calmed down.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know," he said.
"It happened about two years ago," Toshiro explained. "It was long before I got my powers."
He stood up and looked at Shota with a serious expression.
"You let us worry about the hollow. You two just need to look after each other. You can't go wandering off, and you can't go looking for that hollow.
"Two years ago, I was helpless. I'm not helpless anymore. I won't let what happened then happen again."
As Toshiro stepped out of the room, Orihime rose to follow him.
"Are you all right?" she asked. "That's the second time you said Momo was killed by a hollow. We all thought it was an accident."
"That's what I thought, too," Toshiro replied. "It was only two months after I met Rukia that I found out the truth."
He stepped out of her house and looked up at the stars. "That was the day I decided I had to be a Shinigami."
"It's hard to believe," Orihime said, "that a hollow took something so precious from us so long ago."
Toshiro looked at Orihime out of the corner of his eye. Momo would have been the same age as her, Chad, and Uryu if she had lived. She had been in their class for years before Toshiro had skipped ahead to their grade.
All the girls in the class were friends with Orihime, including Momo.
"She was protecting me," Toshiro said.
"Momo was obsessed with you," Orihime said. "Even when we were in kindergarten she was always talking about her baby brother and all the things he did. It got to be really annoying after a while."
Toshiro chuckled a little.
"I didn't know that."
"I think a lot of big siblings are like that, especially with the first of their younger siblings," Orihime said. "Everyone had this picture of you in our minds because of everything Momo told us, but when you joined our class you were nothing like we imagined."
Toshiro closed his eyes as he remembered an earlier time.
He had been very nervous when he was advanced up several years in school and began taking classes with kids who were so much bigger and older than he was. Looking back he had probably overcompensated by acting older than anyone else in the class.
It had not been entirely an act. He was advanced for his age and had just begun to understand that the spirits he saw were in fact the ghosts of the dead.
After Momo was killed, it ceased to be an act altogether.
Toshiro had expected Momo to return as a ghost. After all, he saw ghosts regularly. But he never saw her again. He had assumed that her spirit just left because she blamed him for getting her killed.
He knew better now, but it did not make those feelings of guilt go away.
"I can't help but wonder what would have happened if she was still alive," Orihime said, bringing Toshiro out of his reverie. "Would she have developed powers like me and Chad? Would she have gone to the Soul Society with us?"
"Or maybe she'd have been the one to get Shinigami powers, and I'd be a normal kid."
"You were never a normal kid."
That was true enough. He could always see spirits, and the Soul Society thought he was a prophesized warrior.
Could his story have played out differently, he wondered? Or was he always destined to be this heavenly guardian?
"I'd better get going," he said. "I need to tell Jushiro what we've learned, even if it isn't much."
Orihime went upstairs to her bookshelf. Most of the books there had belonged her brother before his car accident, but she had a collection of manga, romance novels, and young adult novels.
She pulled out what was the newest book in the collection, her middle school yearbook.
The yearbook was only a few months old, having been made shortly before Rukia had been taken back to the Soul Society.
She opened the book to the class pictures. There were pictures of the class from each year from kindergarten through eighth grade. In most of the pictures Orihime recognized the face of a smiling black-haired girl.
Momo's smile was different from picture to picture. In the kindergarten picture she was laughing hysterically, while in the sixth grade picture she was beaming with pride at a small, white haired figure sitting in front of her with an expression somewhere between a scowl and a confused look, as if he was not sure what he was doing there.
That had been the year Toshiro joined their class.
Orihime smiled when she saw the obvious affection Momo had for her younger brother in that picture. She had always been a good student herself, but she never resented Toshiro for being a genius like others in their class had.
Orihime's smile turned to sadness as she moved on to the seventh grade class picture. The smiling blavk-haired girl was not there, as Momo had not lived to start that school year. Toshiro was still in front as befitted his height, that time with the full scowl that had always scared Orihime and much of the rest of the class.
"That's Toshiro's sister?" she heard Chad ask behind her.
Orihime nodded. "That's Momo."
Chad took the yearbook from her and looked at the pictures.
"I didn't know he had an older sibling."
"We didn't really talk about her much after it happened. You remember what it was like after Makoto had that car accident."
Chad first appeared in the seventh grade picture. He had first joined their class partway through that year.
He handed the yearbook back to Orihime.
"I would have liked to meet her."
"She was very nice," Orihime explained. "Always smiling, outgoing. In some ways she was the complete opposite of Toshiro."
She rubbed her eyes.
"The kids are asleep," Chad told her. "We should get some sleep as well. We still have school in the morning."
Orihime put the yearbook back on the shelf. "Yeah."
Ukitake briefed them all on what the Soul Society had determined about the Arrancar's capabilities.
"Each clone shares the exact same reiatsu. This means that they all share the same intelligence and are being controlled remotely by the original hollow from a safe location."
"Using its clones, this hollow is able to consume a large amount of souls in a short period and increase its power quickly."
"So we've got to find and kill the main hollow," Toshiro observed
"Exactly," Ukitake said. "Everyone is to split up. We're going to cover as much ground as possible and try to flush it out."
"Yes sir," over half a dozen voices said in unison.
Ukitake left on his own, as did Renji. Rangiku would stay with Shota and Yui while Orihime and Chad were at school. Ikkaku and Yumichika stuck together.
Rukia chose to go with Toshiro, who gave her a look of satisfaction which surprised her before they leapt onto the nearest roof to begin their patrol of the city.
"You seemed unusually pleased to be taking orders from Captain Ukitake," she said as they ran across the rooftops.
"I was just thinking, this is the first time everyone is actually working together. You, me, Chad and Orihime, and all the Shinigami here. It's good that everyone's finally on the same page."
They leapt onto the roof of the tallest building in the neighborhood and surveyed the city below.
"But it's not everyone," Rukia observed. "Uryu's not around, and I couldn't help noticing you didn't bring any Visoreds with you."
Toshiro grimaced. "Uryu can't help us."
Rukia's brow furrowed in thought. She had been under the impression that the Quincy had simply refused to fight alongside the Shinigami. But Toshiro's use of the word 'can't' implied there was something more going on.
"What about the Visoreds?"
"They didn't want me to come," Toshiro said.
That was an understatement. The moment he sensed the dozens of reiatsus emitted by the hollow clones Toshiro knew he had to get back. Of all the Visoreds, only Hachi seemed to understand. The rest ranged from angry to livid that he would even consider leaving them even for a short while. They had taken it as a betrayal.
Toshiro had likewise been disappointed in their refusal to come help when the entire town was clearly in danger.
But other than Hyori, who had threatened to kill Toshiro if he stepped out the door, none of the Visoreds had attempted to stop him. He had given them his word that he would come back.
"I still think they'll help us when Aizen attacks, if for no other reason than revenge."
"I hope you're right."
Rangiku was surprised when Chad entered the house alone.
"Where's Orihime?"
"She got detention for falling asleep in class," Chad answered.
"I see," Rangiku said. None of them had gotten a proper night's sleep after Shota had run away with her zanpakuto.
"She should be back in about an hour. How are Shota and Yui doing?"
"About as well as can be expected, under the circumstances. Yui's been very quiet. I guess she's just scared and overwhelmed."
Neither of them noticed Shota peering at them from behind the corner.
"If you don't mind my asking, why haven't you sent them on? I thought that was your job, and as long as they stay here they'll be in danger. Wouldn't they find their parents if they were sent on to the Soul Society?"
"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way," Rangiku answered. "There's no way of knowing exactly where in the Soul Society a soul will end up wen it is sent on. We can't even say for certain that their parents are in the same place, though it's more likely since they died together, and the konso is less reliable. We've decided that since they just found each other again we want to give them more time here before they have to be separated again."
Chad looked down in thought.
If he understood her correctly, people who died would not see their loved ones again unless they died at the exact same place and time.
All of their group had lost someone close to them, but even if they went back to the Soul Society to search, they would mostly likely never see their departed family again.
The sun had gone down when they heard the whistling noise again.
"That's the Arrancar!" Rukia said. She and Toshiro flash-stepped in the direction of the reiatsu which had suddenly appeared.
They found one of the clones bounding across the rooftops in the financial district.
The clone turned its head and spotted the two small Shinigami heading towards it. It leapt down onto the street below and turned into an alleyway.
Toshiro and Rukia landed in the alleyway, but the hollow was gone.
"Where'd it go?" Toshiro asked.
"I don't know," Rukia said. "Its reiatsu completely disappeared."
They heard moans of terror and looked at the nearby wall. A man in his thirties was sitting there with his head between his knees, shaking uncontrollably.
"A soul," Rukia said. "Maybe he saw where it went."
She bent down to talk to the soul. "Hey."
The soul nearly jumped out of his skin upon seeing Rukia.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know if you saw where that monster went to. We won't let it hurt you."
The soul shook his head and made whining noises.
Rukia looked to Toshiro. "It's no good. He's too frightened to even speak."
"I might as well just perform the konso. You keep an eye out in case it comes back."
"All right." Toshiro turned around.
'This doesn't make any sense,' he thought. 'Why would this Arrancar send just one clone? It knows one isn't a match for any of us. Was it hoping one would be able to avoid detection, or was it luring us – '
His thought was cut off when Rukia screamed.
Toshiro spun around. The clone was back and standing over Rukia, who had dropped her sword while attempting to perform the konso. The soul was nowhere to be seen.
His sword still sheathed on his back, Toshiro only had time to raise his finger as the hollow opened its mouth wide to eat Rukia.
"Hado number thirty one: Shakaho!"
A burst of red flame erupted from his finger, instantly incinerating the clone to ash.
Rukia rose and picked up her sword.
"That soul was the clone."
She looked at Toshiro when he did not respond. His face was a mask of pure horror.
"Toshiro?"
"No, not again," he said softly.
He flash-stepped away, moving faster than she could follow.
Orihime arrived home just as Toshiro appeared, looking as angry as she had ever seen him.
"Hey, what's going on?" she asked, but he ignored her and ran into her house.
Only Chad was there.
"Where are Yui and Shota?" Toshiro demanded.
"They're not here," Chad answered. "Yui disappeared and Shota and Rangiku ran after her."
"Damn it," Toshiro muttered.
"What's wrong?" Orihime asked. "Did something happen?"
Toshiro glared at her, and for a moment her old fear of him returned.
"If I'm right, then Yui was never here. She's been one of those clones all along."
"That can't be!" Orihime yelled. "That's impossible."
"What makes you think that?" Chad asked.
Toshiro clenched his teeth.
"Because the Grand Fisher pulled the exact same trick on me."
Rukia had the rest of the Shinigami gathered to discuss what they had learned.
"This is very disturbing," Ukitake said. "If what you say is true, then this hollow can disguise its clones as any of the souls it has eaten, and we can't track them when they are in that form."
He looked at Toshiro. "And you suspect that Yui is one of these clones."
Toshiro nodded. "My guess is that she was sent to spy on us so the Arrancar would know what we're planning and be able to stay a step ahead."
Ukitake turned to Rangiku, who had managed to bring the siblings back. "You said you had new information. Does it support Toshiro's theory?"
Rangiku looked troubled. "I'm afraid it does. What I've learned has led me to believe that Yui was the first person to encounter this Arrancar, and it doesn't seem possible for her to have escaped."
"I see." Ukitake rubbed his chin in thought. He chided himself for not suspecting this possibility earlier. His affinity for children had clouded his judgement.
"We'll have the Department of Research and Development analyze her spiritual composition. Until we get the results she'll stay secure in a kido barrier. If we're wrong we'll apologize."
Ikkaku leaned forward. "And if we're right?"
Ukitake gave them all a determined look. "If we're right then we'll find a way to turn this to our advantage. All along I've wanted to capture one of these clones alive. This could be the break we've been looking for."
Rukia tried to speak with Toshiro after the meeting, but he brushed her off, saying that he was tired. He went up to the roof to avoid everyone else and to sleep. Rukia could sense that he had put a kido barrier around himself so that he would not be caught off guard while he slept.
His proficiency with kido had clearly improved since she had taught him the basics, and not just because his power was so much greater than it had been in the two months they had hunted hollows together. He had been practicing.
As the Shinigami scattered again, Orihime and Chad approached Rukia.
They had been disturbed by Toshiro's anger earlier. But Rukia had seen that cold fury before, and it did not surprise her.
"Is it true?" Orihime asked. "Did another hollow really make a clone of Momo?"
Rukia looked away. She did not want to talk about this subject any more than Toshiro did. It was the second worst moment of her life, behind only the death of Kaien Shiba.
But she answered anyway. "It's true. The Grand Fisher used the image of Toshiro's sister to make him drop his guard. Its recreation was perfect, down to her voice."
She closed her eyes, remembering how the Grand Fisher had stabbed Toshiro in both shoulders and the chest.
"It nearly killed him."
Orihime covered her mouth with her hand. She had never imagined that either Toshiro or Rukia had gone through anything so horrible during that time.
"That's pure evil," Chad said.
"Yes," Rukia replied, "that's exactly what the Grand Fisher was. And that's what we're facing right now."
Toshiro was walking near the river, his sister by his side.
He saw a girl who was smaller than he was standing by the water's edge.
"Momo, what's that girl doing?" he asked.
He looked up at Momo, who had not replied. She looked at him with a confused expression.
Toshiro looked back at the girl, but she had disappeared.
"Hey, where'd she go?"
He turned to Momo, who was now grinning maniacally.
"Momo?"
As Toshiro watched, Momo's mouth grew inhumanly wide and began to fill with hundreds of long, sharp teeth. She leaned down, her arms growing into long, powerful forelimbs and her body becoming covered in brown fur. Though she now stood on all fours, she still towered over him.
Toshiro was frozen in horror as the thing which had once been his sister lunged forward with its mouth wide open to swallow him whole.
"Ahhh!"
He awoke with a start.
'Just a dream,' he told himself. He was covered in a cold sweat and shaking. 'It was just a dream.'
But even as he calmed down, several horrible ideas entered his mind.
He removed his kido barrier and leapt off the roof so he could enter the house. Orihime was bounding down the stairs, having been awoken by his shout.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "What happened now?"
"Hopefully nothing," Toshiro answered.
They opened the door to the living room, where Rangiku was supposed to be watching the siblings.
The lieutenant was sprawled out on the floor, fast asleep. The kids were nowhere to be seen.
Orihime bent down and began to shake Rangiku.
"Rangiku, wake up!"
Rangiku blinked several times and looked at Orihime with a groggy expression,
"Huh? Orihime? What's the matter?"
"Where are Yui and Shota?" Orihime asked frantically.
"Yui and-" Rangiku snapped awake and looked at the area where Ukitake had set up a kido barrier to keep Yui inside. There was nothing there except a child's sleeping bag.
"It can't be," she whispered. "How could those kids break through that barrier?"
Toshiro looked down and scowled. "I'm an idiot."
Orihime and Rangiku both looked at him. "What do you mean?" Orihime asked. "What's going on?"
"I should have realized when she ran away earlier. Yui's primary purpose wasn't to spy on us. It was to lure Shota away so the hollow could eat him!"
The two redheads exchanged horrified looks.
"That's it," Rangiku said. "Yui couldn't break a captain's kido barrier by herself, even if she is a clone. She used Shota's power to help her. That hollow was after them because of their high spirit energy!"
"And it became so powerful," she added gravely, "because it consumed Yui's spirit energy."
Yui led Shota to the section of the park where the crater had been formed by the arrival of the Espada several weeks ago.
"Hey, Yui, what are we doing back here?" Shota asked nervously.
"What's the matter?" Yui responded. She was more cheerful than she had been at any point since they were reunited.
"I thought we were gonna look for Mom and Dad."
Yui turned away and walked towards the crater, the same smile on her face.
"It's ok. Just come with me."
"Shota!"
The children turned to see Toshiro and Rangiku appear behind them
"You were right," Toshiro told Rangiku. "They did come back to the park."
"Listen, Shota," Rangiku said seriously, "it's dangerous here. You've got to come back with us."
Yui did not turn to look at them as she spoke.
"Don't get in my way."
"Yui?" Shota asked as his little sister became surrounded by a red glow.
"What's going on?" Matsumoto asked. "Her reiatsu is tremendous, much higher than the clones."
Yui turned to face them with glowing red eyes, producing a wind so intense it knocked Shota over and blew Rangiku back several paces.
Toshiro drew his sword as dozens of clones appeared around them.
'What is she?' he wondered. 'Could she be the original hollow?'
The majority of the clones surrounded Toshiro, cutting him off from Rangiku and Shota.
He began to cut through them one by one, but more of them appeared every second, giving him no room to perform a flash-step.
"Come here," Yui told her her brother.
The whistling noise started again, and Shota began to slowly walk towards Yui.
"What's happening?" he asked in fear. "Why are my legs moving on their own?"
"Shota!" Rangiku yelled as she was cut off by another group of clones.
Shota was helpless as he continued to walk forward against his will.
"What are you doing, Yui? YUI!" he yelled.
Yui gasped. Her eyes returned to their normal color, and the red glow around her faded.
Released from her control, Shota fell to the ground.
"Yui?"
"No … Don't come any closer," the girl said in a trembling voice.
She clutched her chest in pain.
"Yui, what's wrong?" Shota asked.
She began to glow again.
"STAY AWAY!" she yelled.
Meanwhile, Toshiro was still dealing with the mass of clones around him.
Having had enough, he held out his palm and yelled "Hado number thirty three: Sokatsui!"
A blast of blue energy ripped through the clones in front of him, finally giving him space to maneuver.
"Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyorinmaru!"
Toshiro swung his sword in a horizontal arc, enveloping most of the clones around him and Rangiku.
The two Shinigami looked at the siblings. A large shadow had appeared behind Yui.
"Run!" Yui yelled. She pushed Shota away just as the massive figure buried its claws in the ground where he had been sitting.
"So that's the original Arrancar," Rangiku said.
It looked very similar to the clones, but it was over three times there size and a pair of human eyes could be seen inside its mouth. Its forelimbs were laong, muscular arms with man-sized claws.
"You have to listen, run!" Yui shouted at her brother.
"I'm not going to run away again!" Shota shouted back. "I'm going to protect you!"
"It's too late for that!"
Yui screamed and collapsed on all fours. Her body turned into another clone.
Toshiro and Rangiku both flash-stepped in front of Shota as the Arrancar absorbed all the surviving clones in the area and powered up.
"You watch him, while I kill it," Toshiro told Rangiku.
"What's this?" the Arrancar asked. "You think you can defeat me all by yourself, kid?"
"I don't think, hollow," Toshiro replied as he raised his sword. "I know."
The Arrancar took a step back in apprehension as it began to sense the power radiating off of Toshiro.
"Who are you, boy?"
"You don't know who I am?" Toshiro asked. "Then you really aren't one of Aizen's."
Shota grabbed Toshiro's arm just before he could swing his sword.
"Wait! Yui's still in there!"
"It's too late for her, Shota," Toshiro said.
"But she's alive!" Shota screamed. "She tried to save me just now!"
Before Toshiro could respond, the Arrancar leapt into the air and disappeared into aportal.
"Hahahah. Too bad. You missed your best chance to kill me, boy. As long as I'm in this subspace, you won't be able to find me, but I can hide my reiatsu, attack souls and make as many clones as I want."
The sky was suddenly filled with clones of the hollow, hundreds, if not thousands of them.
Toshiro, Rangiku, and Shota looked up in horror. Even Toshiro did not know if he could defeat that many clones.
"Toshiro!"
Ukitake, Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, and Yumichika all appeared.
"We came as soon as we sensed the Arrancar's power," Ukitake said.
"It's no wonder there was no end to them," Ikkaku said as he surveyed the army above them.
The Arrancar roared in triumph. "Try as you might, you'll never be able to defeat them all! There aren't even enough souls in this town to feed all of them, so I'll just have to have them eat living humans instead."
The hollows turned and leapt off in all directions.
Ukitakje turned to his men. "Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika. You go and deal with those clones. Do whatever you have to to protect the civilians. Rangiku, Toshiro, and I will deal with the main body."
"Right."
They flash-stepped away, each in a different direction.
"Sir," Rangiku said, "the Arrancar said that it's hiding in an area of subspace."
"I know," Ukitake replied. "The Department of Research and Development is working on a way to locate it as we speak."
Multiple battles were being raged across town against the clones.
In the residential district, Orihime and Chad stood back to back as they protected homes from the onslaught. Chad's blasts took out up to ten clones at a time.
While Tzubaki could only kill one hollow at a time, Orihime's shield could protect an entire house and prevent any number of clones from breaking through,
Renji had followed a large group to the area around Urahara's shop. With Zabimaru in its released state he was also capable of destroying multiple clones at once.
Rukia had gone to protect the area around Karakura high school. She found the most effective way of combatting so many opponents at once was to use kido, and so was firing off repeated blasts of the sokatsui spell.
Ikkaku and Yumichika had gone to the financial district. They fought as they were taught in the Eleventh division, with pure swordplay.
Ukitake was on the phone with his contacts in the Soul Society. Rangiku knelt down to comfort Shota, who was sobbing over his sister's fate.
"Shota, I want to tell you about this hollow we've been fighting. Hollows are fallen souls. Our duties as Shinigami are not just saving souls, but purifying and saving hollows as well. Our zanpakuto cleanse the spirits within the hollows of their sins so they can be reborn. When we defeat this Arrancar, all of the souls it consumed will be sent to the Soul Society."
Ukitake removed his phone from his ear for a moment to think. Ordinarily a soul which was consumed by a hollow would itself become a hollow in turn. But the way this Arrancar absorbed souls to increase its power seemed to prevent that from taking place. In all likelihood Rangiku was right.
"I'm so sorry that we couldn't protect your sister," Rangiku said, "but it's not too late. We can still save Yui's soul."
Toshiro put his hand on Shota's shoulder. "She's right. You say Yui's still in there, somewhere. This is the only way to get her out."
"All right," Ukitake said, putting away his phone. "We have an idea of where the Arrancar is."
The river.
Toshiro grimaced as they ran past the river's bank. Going to the narrow section of the river that cut through the park had been one thing, but this wider section which cut through the town itself was an area he had avoided for the last two years.
It was the site of his first true encounter with a hollow, where he had first tried to save a young girl.
It was the site where he had suffered the greatest loss of his young life.
"So how do we find the Arrancar?" Rangiku asked as they ran. She was carrying Shota on her back.
"According to the data we've collected, the Arrancar has to stay connected to this world to control its clones and receive the energy of the souls they consume," Ukitake said. "So it's hiding nearby behind a subspace barrier. If we hit that barrier with enough spiritual energy we should be able to brake it and flush the enemy out."
"That's where you come in, Toshiro. Your powers are best suited for that sort of thing. When it comes out, Rangiku and I will finish it off."
"I understand," Toshiro replied.
He held up his sword arm.
"Bankai!"
Toshiro was quickly enveloped in his ice wings and flew up. He hovered over the river in front of the largest bridge in town.
He closed his eyes. The last time he was in that location, he had gotten his sister killed. Far more lives were at stake now. He had to keep his power under complete control even as he released it. There was no margin for error, no room for a single mistake.
Toshiro screamed as he released a burst of power in all directions.
Dark clouds gathered overhead. The entire river instantly froze over, as did the grass along the river's banks.
Within its barrier, the Arrancar was buffeted by the sudden release of reiatsu.
"What's this?" it asked. "Is it that little Shinigami from before? How did he figure out I was by the river?"
"It doesn't matter," the hollow assured itself. "He won't be able to find me just by aimlessly releasing his reiatsu!"
Rangiku moved farther away with Shota to protect the boy from Toshiro's reiatsu. Shota may have had strong spirit energy, but he could not stand up to the reiatsu of a captain-level Shinigami in Bankai form.
Toshiro continued to release his reiatsu in short bursts, afraid to release too much at once. But as the minutes passed he grew more and more exhausted. He was expending a great deal of energy in addition to the toll his Bankai was beginning to take on his body.
"It's no good," Rangiku said as they watched. "He needs to know where it is so he can hit it with a concentrated attack."
Ukitake frowned. 'And Toshiro's the only one of us here whose power isn't limited to twenty percent right now. If he can't break through there's no way I'll be able to without gentei kaijou, and that will take far too long to get approved!'
He looked up as a now-familiar whistling noise began to fill the air.
"That noise again."
"It's Yui!" Shota said excitedly.
"Where's it coming from?" Rangiku asked.
Shota listened. He had heard his sister play her ocarina many times, and often knew where to find her by the sound.
He pointed at an area in the sky high above the bridge. "It's there!"
"Toshiro!" Rangiku yelled, pointing at the same place. "Concentrate your power on that spot!"
Toshiro turned to the location they directed and pointed his zanpakuto at the source of the whistling noise. A bolt of lightning released from the tip, creating an explosion where it struck the barrier.
When the smoke cleared, the Arrancar floated there, exposed.
"How dare you!" the Arrancar screamed. "You'll pay for that!"
It drew its massive sword.
"Crush him to bits, Dientise!"
The Arrancar released its zanpakuto. When its transformation was complete, it had grown several times larger.
The top half of its mask had disappeared. Its arms had grown and were now shaped like clubs which large spikes. And it had a new, snake-like taile with was more than twice as long as the rest of its body.
"Prepare to die, boy!"
But before the Arrancar could attack, Ukitake appeared between it and Toshiro.
"I'm your opponent now, Arrancar."
"Who are you?" the hollow demanded.
"I'm the captain of Squad Thirteen, Jushiro Ukitake!"
"A captain!" the Arrancar exclaimed in fright.
Ukitake drew his sword.
"All waves, rise now and become my shield, Lightning, strike now and become my blade, Sōgyo no Kotowari!"
Ukitake's zanpakuto split into two blades connected by a chain.
The captain and Arrancar launched themselves at each other. The Arrancar swung both of its massive arms, but Ukitake was able to block both blows with his twin blades.
Ukitake leapt above the Arrancar and sliced at the base of its tail with both swords, cutting it off completely.
With its tail severed, the Arrancar was unable to remain in midair and fell into the icy river below.
"What's going on?" it asked as it struggled to escape the ice. "Why won't my legs move?"
Seeing that the hollow was trapped, Ukitake turned to Rangiku. "Finish it off now!" he yelled.
Rangiku drew her sword. "Hold onto the handle of my zanpakuto," she told Shota. "We're going to save your sister together."
"Right," Shots said as he grabbed the hilt.
They leapt into the air, coming down straight onto the hollow.
"I won't be defeated by you!" the Arrancar yelled. But even it knew its protestations were in vain. With its limbs completely entrapped in ice, there was nothing it could do as Rangiku's zanpakuto pierced its skull.
All across Karakura Town, the clones all disappeared at once.
Each of the Shinigami sheathed their blades and looked in the direction of the river in satisfaction.
"They did it," Chad said.
"Of course they did," Orihime said with a big smile. "Toshiro was fighting alongside a captain. There's no way they'd lose."
Hundreds of little blue lights emerged from the Arrancar's body as it dissolved into nothingness.
"Look, Rangiku said as the lights rose into the sky. "All the souls the ollow devoured are being released."
Toshiro and Ukitake both sheathed their swords as they landed. Shota bent down to look at something which had fallen when the hollow faded away.
It was Yui's ocarina.
He started to cry.
"Rangiku," he asked, "Yui got to go to the Soul Society, didn't she? She can be reborn now, right?"
Rangiku smiled at him and nodded.
"That's right."
He turned to her with a determined look. "Then I want to go there as well."
Rangiku stepped forward to perform the konso.
"All right."
Head Captain Yamamoto was most pleased when he spoke to them on the large screen in Orihime's living room.
"Excellent work, Captain Ukitake. This cloning Arrancar could have grown into a serious threat if it was allowed to keep consuming souls."
"It was a team effort, Head Captain," Ukitake responded. "Without Toshiro and his friends, we may never have figured out how to stop it."
Yamamoto addressed the three humans in the back of the room.
"I extend my thanks to you as well, Chad Yasutora, Orihime Inoue, and Toshiro Hitsugaya."
"Now that this matter has been dealt with, we can redirect our efforts back to preparing for the upcoming battle with Aizen," the leader of the Shinigami declared.
"I have decided to train the Shinigami with me in order to increase their battle power for that day," Ukitake said. "None of them are at their peak yet. I recommend that all squads do the same."
"Very good, Captain Ukitake," Yamamoto said before ending the transmission.
Ukitake turned to Toshiro. "Is that what you've been doing all this time, training to become stronger?"
Toshiro nodded. "I'm afraid I have to get back to it now, but when Aizen makes his move I'll be ready."
Ukitake nodded back at him. "We'll try to be ready as well."
All of the Shinigami began to leave except for Rukia and Rangiku.
As they left, Orihime turned to Toshiro.
"Are you all right?"
Toshiro sighed. "This whole thing brought back a lot of bad memories. But it's also reminded me of how far I've come since then. I'll be fine."
He turned to Rukia and for a moment he looked unsure of himself. A question had been weighing on his mind since his nightmare earlier."
"Rukia, there's … " he began, but stopped himself.
"What is it?" Rukia asked. "Is there something you want to ask me?"
"Forget it," he said. "I've decided I don't want to know the answer. Either way, there's nothing I can do about it."
Rukia looked at him thoughtfully. "All right."
Toshiro then turned to Rangiku.
"I guess I owe you an apology."
"What for?" Rangiku asked, genuinely taken aback.
"I thought you were just an airhead who didn't take anything seriously. But today I saw that you really do care."
Rangiku smiled. "And I suppose I should apologize for treating you like a child and not an ally."
She held out her hadn. "Let's start over."
Toshiro reached out and shook her hand. "I'm Toshiro Hitsugaya."
"I'm Rangiku Matsdumoto. I look forward to working with you again in the future, Toshiro."
Author's note. There was one vote to go for this 'filler' chapter compared to none against. I ended up deciding to go for it because I wanted to have one instance where Toshiro and the Shinigami worked together when they were all in Karakura. It took a while, both because of things that kept me from writing and because it was one of the more difficult chapters to write