Soul Societies.
Hueco Mundo.
Aizen appears at a moon-lit plateau where several vessels of water are arranged in a two-sided trapezoid formation. "You sought my attention, Kyōka Suigetsu." He states as he looks into one that gives a reflection of him as he was before Ichigo met Rukia.
"Tōshin-sama was here earlier, Sōsuke." The traitor is informed. "He was under the impression that i had locked you away here."
"He being Yamamoto, who gave him that request. Is that what you meant?"
"I was obligated to allow him in." A reflection of Aizen as a Shin'ō student says to him.
"Of course; i would not be able to undo what the shinigami did to it had Nimaiya Ōetsu not given you form." Aizen replied, and is asked if the fact that the rest of the Zeroban-tai is watching them more closely means they should give up by the reflection of Aizen as a child, the vessel of which he shoved over.
"There's no doubt they have been watching me since my subordinates happened upon one of the nails; the fact that they did nothing then or when i hollowfied Muguruma-taichō means they are unable to."
In the Soul Society.
As Ichigo is walking down the hall of the Juniban-tai, Ukitake watches him and scowls over what he's here for. "I guess what your thinking, sir." Akon says while opening the hatch of a more conventional machine. "Having been ordered by Kurotsuchi-taichō to take part in Unohana-taichō's autopsies of those killed by the first shinigami daikō, i only know how vital it is that the second one be given this as well. Unlike the original, this badge's reiatsu absorption rate can be remotely increased in the worst case scenario.(1)" He finished as he handed over a small five-sided object with what partially resembled a skull, and a thick cord that he inserted through a hole on the top.
Despite not finding that helpful, Ukitake thanked him and left.
Ichigo rejoins his friends and heads over to the last objective. Another shinigami with glasses and his hair shaved off(2)walks into view when they get near the compound's entrance. "Seeing as how we've already met both of the sanseki's, you must be the yonseki." He says outloud, but the shinigami shakes his head.
"Rokuseki, actually. I'm Kajōmaru Hidetomo." He explains as he leads them inside. "Even so, I'll be enough to keep them off of you."
"Them?" Ichigo asks, only to see a crowd of several shinigami, including some they already met, in the courtyard with festive decorations all around.
"Wow, it's so pretty." Orihime says aloud before they all notice two other shinigami. "Kuchiki-san's taichō even changed his appearance for you." She says next about one of them.
"Inoue, that's Pendleton-san." Chado corrected.
"Oh... wait, where is Kuchiki-san?" She then asked as Ichigo walked over to a different pair.
"I should have said this after what happened at the Sanban-tai... but I'm sorry to both of you." He tells Kiyone and Sentarō. "I shouldn't have said that to you, Kotetsu-san."
Both sanseki glance to each other before Kiyone grins. "Don't sweat it, Kurosaki-san. If you hadn't, i would have never gotten my family back." She tells him as she motions over to Isane, Buford, and Thao.
"Yeahh, tall'im uh...bowt howz'ze Ish...hanane'n Byuffy ur gettin' murried a'gan." Matsumoto said, using her fellow, senior, Fukutaichō to keep standing.
"Rangiku-saaa-!" Isane shouted when that failed.
"...Maybe, but i caused Kotso-"/"Kotsubaki."/"Right, Kotsubaki-san to have his Zanpakutō impounded in the process." Ichigo and Sentarō say as the former points to the latter.
"That may be till the end of this century, but Sentarō knows it will have been worth it." The three hear from nearby while the junior Fukutaichō drags Matsumoto away.
"Taichō!" The sanseki pair say as he walks over while waving.
"We meet again, Kurosaki Ichigo-san." Ukitake says to him. "Under better circumstance, that is."
"Rukia's not with you, either?"
"She was here, but once people from other ban-tai's started showing up to this thank-you-for-saving-her party, she got too embarrassed." The rokuseki explained, which was only partly true. It took her until after parting with Ichigo at the Shiba's dwelling to get over her match with Isane enough to have one against Hitsugaya, before Ukitake spoke up.
"Speaking of embarrassing things, you should know that the Kajōmaru family is famous for it's sculptures."
Ichigo blinks at this before recalling Byakuya's room. "That, uh, wouldn't include pedestals, right?" He asks, then quickly changes the subject. "Back to earlier, Ukitake-san, what sort of Zanpakutō do they have?" He asks next while looking at Sentarō and Kiyone.
"You mean my Furue no kigentsume?" The taller sanseki asks, and Ichigo tells him about the slabs he had been standing on. "Ah, that... my Zanpakutō is sound based." He explains. "It has strings on the inside, so when i hit something, the cap passes against them to the front."
"Which both causes and compresses sound waves." Chado suddenly says.
"That's right, how'd you know?" Sentarō asks him.
"I work as a guitarist once a month(3) back in Karakura."
"And what about that stuff Kotetsu-san did?" Orihime then asked.
Kiyone nods smugly before a pause, then runs to her quarters and back. "Mine wo... works... like this." She says, catching her breath while holding her Zanpakutō. "Miyaru, Higahen(4)." She says next, and it turns into a foot long metallic ofuda with a kunai's handle. "It's a fire type, since the thin part gets hot enough to brew tea for my belov-I mean my respected taichō, or to cauterize any flesh-wounds from shinigami who return with flesh-wounds after fighting hollows." She described, causing Buford to twitch at the halfway point.
"Shinigami who return... you don't go out to them?" Ichigo asks, causing her to shake her head.
"Only if it's within the Soul Society. No Yonban-tai personnel have ever been permitted to go to your world."
"Likely due to being too valuable to lose; but i think the name was longer when you used it against Kotsubaki-san, or did i mishear." Uryu says to her.
"You didn't mishear a thing." Kiyone replies as she reverts it. "Konjikijiheisen o miyaru, Himawarimaru." She says, causing it to become five ofudas, which are now two-feet long, connected to a single kunai's ring to resemble a unfurled tessen. "Any Zanpakutō can have it's incantation and name shortened when a shinigami deems it necessary, but only the Yonban-tai makes that mandatory." She finished while Yumichika twitched for a different reason.
Ichigo and his friends then watch her twirl it around to show off before he looks to Ukitake. "More importantly, what about yours." He asks.
"You sure you want to know... you did run away instead of face me, who has served just as long, after all." Kyōraku reminds Ichigo, who glances elsewhere for a moment.
"Anyway, what i head about you from Rukia, Yoruichi-san, and Hanatarō made me look forward to meeting the man who helped me by blowing up that firebird." Ichigo says before bowing. "So if you please?"
Ukitake looks at him, to the feeling-left-out Kyōraku, and to everyone else who is staring at the two of them. "From what those three said of you, i accept, Kurosaki Ichigo." He says, then nods to the other taichō, who sighs before shunpo'ing to and from his quarters to retrieve his pal's Zanpakutō. "But due to health problems i have, it'll be strictly shikai."
The crowd watches as one Zanpakutō is unwrapped, and listens as another is released. "Nami kotogotoku waga tate to nare, ikazuchi kotogotoku waga yaiba to nare, Sōgyo no Kotowari." Ukitake says, then makes the first move, swinging the blade on the right as though it were a kusarigami, which Ichigo knocks to the ground. "Thanks for that." He says next as Hisagi takes pictures in the background.
Ichigo blinks again, in which time Ukitake jumps up and tugs on the rope, which causes the first sword's mini-blade to get stuck on the corner infront of where Zangetsu lacks a tsuba before he lands. The taichō shunpo's closer to Ichigo, who realizes too late what he's up to as he locks both mini-blades around Zangetsu's handle and forces it out of Ichigo's hands before Kyōraku catches it despite how fast it was spinning. "How... what just..." Ichigo asks himself while Ukitake places a hand on his shoulder.
"Your final lesson is that no Zanpakutō's design is impractical." Ukitake says as he is too stunned to reply. "Especially when you're up against one of the first two Shin'ō students to become taichōs, Ichigo-kun."
As Ichigo is given his Zanpakutō, he turned to look at Ukitake. "Kyōraku-san was the wrong guy to avoid, wasn't he, Rukia." He said as he, and the mentioned taichō, look back at her and Hitsugaya, who have both just arrived.
A month or so later, Buford and Isane have remarried, and he is at his desk when a Jigokuchō arrived. "What's wrong, Taichō?" Dang-fukutaichō asked due to seeing him stand up suddenly.
"It was from the Sōtaichō; the Juniban-tai detected two Arrancar at Karakura a few hours ago... Ukitake's yonseki was informed by Urahara that Kurosaki, Sado, and Inoue just barely survived."
Final chapter of the Soul Society arc.
1 No proof that Ichigo's badge is different that the one Ginjō was given.
2 I imagine Hidetomo would have done this to hide his resemblance to Aizen.
3 Made up scheduling.
4 Look up, Sun Flower piece.