a/n - *Waves* Surprise, im back (not really, 2/6 exams done and im over it so much its not funny =X)
"That idiot" Ulquiorra thought "Though Visera is correct, I did not expect that he would be able to pierce even Yammi's Hierro so easily, especially considering how recent his acquisition of Bankai was"
Ichigo took a step back and assessed Yammi, covered in the blood leaking from the stump of his arm and breathing quite heavily
"Damn you!" Yammi growled in between heavy breaths "Little shit"
"You can still stand? You're as hardy as you look" Ichigo taunted
"You look like you are experiencing difficulty" Ulquiorra said behind Yammi "Would you like to switch?"
"Shut up!"
Yammi grasped the hilt of the sword tucked in his belt
"Is it really necessary to use your Zanpakuto against him?" Ulquiorra said, slightly condescendingly
"Zanpakuto!" Ichigo thought with alarm "Is that really a zanpakuto… come to think of it, their reiatsu feels weird… broken hollow masks, zanpakuto… are they the same as Hirako… the same as me!"
A surge of pain rolled through Ichigo and he immediately doubled him,
"DAMN IT… he's coming… GO AWAY!"
Yammi took advantage of Ichigo's position to deliver a punishing kick to his gut
"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime yelled, running towards him
"No Inoue, stay away!"
Yammi backhanded her as she got close and she lay unmoving
"Inoue!"
"Shut up!" Yammi yelled, punching Ichigo square in the face
"I don't know why, but he stopped moving, Die you little shit"
Yammi unleashed a flurry of blows, all but the last few connecting with Ichigo
Yammi looked down in surprise at the crossed blades, one pure white and the other so black it seemed to suck in the light around it
"I made it" Layne announced, staring coldly at Yammi "Bankai"
The clear water filled gloves appeared on Layne's hands and his reiatsu signature increased significantly
"Another one?" Yammi said disbelievingly "How big is this woodwork?"
"Big enough" Layne replied curtly "Riptide Strike: Rain!"
Rather than the normal green reiatsu crescent, this Rain was black, with a darker green edging, and it felt a hell of a lot different to the usual
"What the…?" Layne wondered "The last time a saw a black one of those was when…oh shit"
Visera had leapt in front of Yammi and dissipated the crescent with his sword, which he then sheathed
"Ulquiorra" Visera said slowly "I am forced to disagree with Aizen-sama's assessment of this situation, these two here, I wouldn't bother sending the Privaron's to dispose of them"
"You can say that if you're still standing from this" Layne muttered, attempting to do something with Oathkeeper, but hunching over as a sudden pain erupted all over his body
"Let me out!"
"OF ALL TIMES, IT HAD TO BE NOW!"
"What better way to make to realize that unless you give up and let me out, you're going to die"
"Odd" Visera noted
"Another set of reiatsu fluctuations… similar to Kurosaki, and the highest point is still above mine… just what is going on here?" Ulquiorra thought, the slightest trace of alarm making its way into his head
"Again, must be my lucky day!" yelled Yammi, pushing Visera out of the way in his haste to get to Layne
Yammi rained down a torrent of blows upon Layne, who was unable to even harden his reiatsu to reduce damage
"Now die you interfering shit! I'm going to crush you into a blood pulp!"
Visera appeared in front of Yammi and stopped his fist from dropping
"Thank you, Yammi… but this one need not die yet, if he dies he will not learn anything, instead, he can taste the despair that uselessness brings before he bleeds out… if he took my hand, I'll take his eyes!"
With blinding speed Visera slashed across Layne's eyes in one fluid motion, from draw, to slash, to resheathe
Even Yammi flinched at the agony filled cry that Layne let loose, before the pain became too much and he fell to the ground, unable to move his hands to cover his bleeding face
"Suffer for your refusal!"
"Good enough for me" Yammi said, turning back to Ichigo
"I'll ground you to a bloody pulp! You piece of shit!"
Yammi's finishing blow impacted not on Ichigo, but a blood red shield which shattered as it absorbed the impact, revealing Urahara and Yoruichi
"Sorry I'm late… Kurosaki-san, Trell-san"
"What is this?" Yammi said, exasperated "They just keep coming one after the other"
Urahara and Yoruichi said nothing, just glanced around at Chad, Orihime and Layne lying in separate bloody piles and Ichigo, somehow still standing behind them
"Since you like butting in so much, I'll just kill you first!" Yammi announced, punching straight down
Yoruichi grabbed his arm and flipped him on his back, his weight breaking the ground up as he impacted it
"What?" Yammi yelped in surprise
"I'm going to treat Inoue" Yoruichi said to Urahara "Pass me the medicine"
Yammi quickly leapt up
"Damn you, hold it right there!"
Yammi reached out for Yoruichi who disappeared
Reappearing on the back of his hand and delivering a roundhouse kick to Yammi's face
Yoruichi kept walking as Yammi fell back to the ground
"Yo..Yoruichi-san" Orihime said weakly
"Yeah" Yoruichi replied, kneeling over Orihime
"Ku…ku…Kurosaki-kun"
"He's fine" Yoruichi assured her "Can you swallow?"
"BAH!" Yammi shouted, rising up again from behind Yoruichi
"What a persistent brute" Yoruichi muttered
"I am going to… KILL YOU!" Yammi repeated, opening his mouth wide, a red ball of reiatsu forming
Yoruichi's eyes widened in shock "Cero!" she muttered
Yammi fired
The blast kicked up a considerable amount of smoke and Yammi stood back, satisfied
"Serves you right, It's impossible for dodge my Cero at this range"
The smoke cleared, and Urahara was standing in front of Yoruichi, sword pointed forwards, completely unscathed
"You… who are you… how did you?"
"As you can imagine" Urahara began to explain "An explosion here would be quite dangerous for all of us… so I simply nullified your attack with a similar one"
"What?"
"If you don't believe me, then perhaps you would like to see it yourself? Cry, Benihime"
For the second time that day, a crescent of reiatsu was hurled at Yammi, this time blood red
And for the second time, it was dissipated harmlessly, this time when Ulquiorra, appeared in front of Yammi and slapped it away, like an annoying fly
"Ulquiorra" Yammi said
Ulquiorra snapped his hand back, delivering a powerful blow to Yammi's gut
"What… are you doing?" Yammi asked, doubled over
"Fool, that is Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin, for you it would be impossible to win, no matter how hard you try"
Ulquiorra turned away from Urahara and Yoruichi
He made a strange motion with his hand, and a black portal ripped open in space
"Time to retreat"
"Running away?" Yoruichi asked
A smirk tugged at Ulquiorra's lips "What a foolish taunt, attempting to fight Visera and I while defending those trash… it is obvious who would have the upper hand"
Yammi and Visera entered the portal
"I will report to Aizen-sama, that the fake shinigami he was so interested in, were nothing more than pointless trash"
Ulquiorra entered the portal and turned around
"And unworthy of his attention" he finished
Later on, the Urahara store was full of crashing and banging sounds
Layne cursed has he stumbled through the store, crashing into everything that wasn't bolted down, and the bolted down stuff too
Unable to accurately judge where the step was, Layne tripped and fell flat on his face
Yoruichi entered the room where Layne was and took note of the destruction left by his passing
"What in the world?" she exclaimed in surprise
She looked down on the floor "Layne!"
"Oh hey, Yoruichi-san" Layne said dejectedly "How's the arm?"
"I told you, you've been blinded, don't worry about anything until we work out what to do"
Yoruichi reached down and grabbed Layne's arm, pulling him up
"This sucks some major ass" Layne complained
"Come on, I'll get you some food, you can't get it yourself"
"NOOO!" Chizuru shouted "How did you get all those injuries Orihime?"
"I sorta… fell down the stairs"
"No way, you can't get that injured from falling down stairs!"
Ichigo approached Orihime from behind, bandages across his forehead
Orihime turned around quickly "What is it, Kurosaki-kun?" she asked
Ichigo said nothing for a second, and then "No..nothing, never mind" and turned away
"What did he want?" Chizuru asked, confused
"Nothing" Orihime replied quietly "Sorry Chizuru, I need to go to the bathroom"
She quickly walked off, as Ichigo sat on the back of a desk, brooding
"What the hell, Chad got hurt bad, Tatsuki almost died, Layne is blind… and it's all because I'm weak"
"Don't apologize to me, and don't give me that look" Orihime's voice floated through his head
"Don't give me that, I lost too, purely because of my own fault" Layne's voice added
"Aside from apologizing… what else can I do?"
Ichigo stared at the floor, until he heard people being noisy in the hallway
"So which room is it?"
"No idea"
"What? Didn't you bring the note with you when you left?"
"Ah, I lost it"
"Lost it?"
"Stop arguing, we can just search for their reiatsu"
"But it's the first time I've been in this stupid thing, I can't sense reiatsu properly"
The voices continued arguing, coming closer and closer until
"This is it"
They rounded the corner into the classroom, Renji, Ikkaku, Matsumoto, Yumichika and Hitsugaya
"Osu, how's it going, Ichigo?" Renji asked
"You guys?" Ichigo exclaimed in surprise
"Well… on the bright side, this saves me the trouble of closing my eyes to go to sleep" Layne thought dejectedly, lying on the floor of the Urahara store
Layne heard the door to the store slide open, and assumed it was Yoruichi returning
"Layne?" Joel said, entering the room in the room in his street clothes, a black and white checked hoodie, brown shorts and white shoes "You in here?"
"Joel?" Layne asked, getting to his feet "Whats up mah brudda?"
"Not much brolaf, how about you, the blindfold isn't such a great look for you, works better with my Bankai"
"It would, I don't get reiatsu sight with this one" Layne said to the air in front of him
"Ok Layne, you can stop joking around now" Joel said, from behind Layne
"Who's joking around, I'm dead serious" Layne said, in a confused tone
"Take the blindfold off, and open your eyes"
"I'll take the blindfold off, but it's sort of hard to open my eyes when I have no eyes to open"
"What are you talking about?"
Layne took off the blindfold and faced forwards
"Uh dude, I'm standing behind you"
"That would explain it"
Layne did a one eighty degree turn, facing Joel, showing the sockets where his eyes once were
"Holy…what happened?"
"I lost" Layne said simply "And this was the consequence"
"But Orihime should be able to…"
"Can't heal what isn't there dude""
"Shit dude…what are you going to do?"
"The human body is a resilient thing, my hearing and smell are going to increase to make up for the loss of sight… and I'm hoping that reiatsu sense will join in, but for now… I've been reduced to relying on others to do everything basic for me… and it sucks Joel, the sheer amount of ass this sucks is comparable to how bad Moll is at picking good computer games"
"Whoa, let's not get crazy here" Joel said "Nothing can be that bad"
"Renji!" Ichigo exclaimed "Ikkaku… Yumichika… Rangiku-san… Toushiro!"
"That's Captain Hitsugaya to you" Hitsugaya muttered, irritated
"What are you guys doing here?"
"Orders" Renji replied "They said to prepare for a confrontation with the Arrancar, we were to go to the human world, and combine forces with the acting Shinigami group"
Ichigo nodded
"What's an Arrancar?"
"What?" Renji asked "You didn't even know what they were and you started fighting already?"
"Idiot" A familiar voice said, one which made Ichigo widen his eyes in surprise and turn around, to see a small figure standing in the window "They're the ones that you got your ass kicked by a few days ago"
"Rukia" Ichigo said softly
"Long time no see, Ichigo"
"So why are you here Joel?" Layne asked, having been lead down to Urahara's training area and now sitting with him at the top of a cliff face, overlooking Layne's house
"Orders, Me, Ikkaku, Renji, Matsumoto, Yumichika and Captain Hitsugaya are now 'Hitsugaya's advance guard' against the Arrancar"
"Arrancar?"
"One of the things that blinded you?"
"Ah, they're called Arrancar"
"I was really surprised to hear that you and Ichigo lost a fight to be honest, I've always thought that you of all people wouldn't lose to anyone… you've proved it again and again, Me outside the Senzaikyuu, Kieran on the Sokyoku Hill… and later against Kira"
"These guys were different; it was like banging my head against a stone wall"
"You've changed… if you were you, then you wouldn't give me crappy excuses, you'd say 'It doesn't matter how much stronger they are, I won't lose even to strength itself' something that didn't sound weak"
"Well excuse me for losing my eyes" Layne said, offended
"Must suck, having a hollow eating inside of you" Joel said offhandedly
"Yeah it… wait a sec, how do you know?" Layne asked, shocked
"You hear things in my position, I made the mistake of trying to kill you once Layne… I'm not retarded enough to try it again"
"Well then you should have an inkling of what my situation is"
"The Layne I know would say, 'Fuck my Eyes' without it sounding too prison porno-ish and 'Fuck this inner hollow, stupid stuff like that can only fail at getting in my way"
"Joel"
"Yeah?"
"Fuck my eyes, fuck this inner hollow… stupid shit like this is only Nature's attempt to balance my greatness with the rest of the world"
Layne shouted and held his fist up
Joel stood up, and bumped knuckled with it
"That's what I'm talking about!"
Ichigo had returned home, Rukia's reappearance and sudden kidnapping of him from school had reawakened his fighting spirit
"Ok, now explain something to me… What are those Arrancar's? Why are they after Layne and I?" Ichigo asked
"Let us explain that" a muffled voice said from above
The light cover popped off, and Ikkaku, Yumichika, Renji and Matsumoto poked their heads through
"Whoa!" Ichigo shouted as they all entered the room "What are you doing up there… no, now I want you to fix my light!"
"Well, we do have a spare bulb I suppose" Matsumoto said
"Are you talking about me?" Ikkaku growled
"As far as Arrancar's go" Renji said "They are basically just hollows who have taken off their masks, and gained Shinigami powers, usually the end result is only a little more powerful than a normal hollow, but Aizen was able to finish their transformation, resulting in the two you saw earlier"
"With you so far… apart from the terrible illustrations"
Rukia, who had been drawing said illustrations, threw the book at Ichigo
"Anyway, we planned to quietly observe Aizen, though Captain Ukitake and a few of the vice captains disagreed with this, and before we knew it… Aizen was done and the Arrancar were here… so here we are"
"You guys were chosen?"
"Yeah, by Head Captain Yamamoto himself, Rukia initially because she knows you the best"
"That's not true, I was chosen because of my abilities" Rukia objected
"After Rukia, I was chosen, as well as Joel, probably due to our possession of Bankai, and after that I asked Ikkaku-san to come with us… and then Yumichika wanted to come… and Matsumoto overheard and said she wanted to come… and since Matsumoto wanted to come so badly, Captain Hitsugaya felt like he had to come"
"Is this some kind of picnic to you guys?" Ichigo muttered
"Moving on" Hitsugaya said, appearing in the open window "Aizen has you in his sights, Kurosaki, and while it's true that Arrancars are simply hollows that have taken off their masks, if an ordinary hollow does this… he's no threat at all, to fight in Soul Society, the hollows have to be stronger than a Menos"
"Stronger than a Menos?" Ichigo asked, slightly alarmed "But there's no hollow stronger than a Menos is there?"
Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes and hopped off the window sill
"What I should say, is that there are three classes of Menos, The first, Gillian are what you fought before you entered Soul Society… they are just soldiers, gigantic… but slow and stupid, Captain class won't even break a sweat against those"
Ichigo said nothing, and Hitsugaya continued "The second class is Adjuchas, much rarer than Gillian but exponentially stronger and intelligent, the only thing that Gillians have up on them is the fact that their population outnumbers them one hundred to one, and lastly… the third class of Menos is Vasto Lorde, the most powerful, and the most human like… their numbers are so small, and they exist deep within Hueco Mundo… but a single Vasto Lorde… is stronger than any of our Captains"
Ichigo looked shocked, but didn't break his silence
"This isn't counting the Arrancar, which we don't know how many there are… and we are down three captains, discounting yourself and Trell, we've told you all about the Menos, so I'll give you my personal prediction… if Aizen has ten Vasto Lordes on his side, then we might as well abandon hope now"
Deep within the bowels of Hueco Mundo, Ulquiorra, Visera and a cleaned up Yammi walked into a dark room
"We have returned safely, Aizen-sama" Ulquiorra announced
"Welcome home, Ulquiorra, Visera, Yammi" Aizen replied graciously "Come, relate the tales of your expedition to your family here"
A/n - This author's note has been left suspiciously blank, by a certain lazy sod that goes by the name of v1r1d1an... we apologize for an inconvenience