Yeah, fully aware that the last chapter was just about as exciting as trying to eat a can of un-opened soup. Heheh, I was kinda stuck inbetween chapters, and felt weird tossin' somethin' in too early. Thanks fer toleratin' that last chapter.

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Chapter 5
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"Does everyone fully understand what the purpose of this mission is?" questioned Aizen, to the arrancar and hollows present in his throne room.

All of the underlings nodded, in understanding. Grimmjaw stood in the back, bored; he had already been informed and was just waiting for his group to be ready.

"Good. Now, within the next hour, I want all of you to meet back infront of your barrack. Grimmjaw will be leading this first strike; but do not allow his thirst get in the way of our goal. If his orders become faulty, you have my permission to continue with your job, and I will deal with him later," finished Aizen before indicating that everyone leave him alone.

The group of about a dozen left the room, the teal haired arrancar silently fuming from Aizen's earlier comment. Ulquoirra remained behind, always staying with his master, unless told otherwise.

"Aizen-sama, are you sure that sending Grimmjaw is a good idea?"

"Why? You think he'd actually go and kill someone against my wishes?"

"I'm worried his thirst for vengeance will cloud his judgment and cause the mission to fail."

"Not to worry, Ulquoirra. I've already made him aware of the punishments he'll receive is he acts on his own."

- - - - -

"Really? That's why Ulquoirra-sama was here?!" stammered Peshe.

"Yeah, surprised some of us too. Not all of us were prepared to go ta Earth. Ah well, at least we'll finally know what it's like out there after all these years in this damned place," replied an arrancar, casually. "You act like you don't want ta go."

"No," the skinny hollow piped. "I'm just shocked. I really wanted to go."

"Well, your just lucky that Ulquoirra-sama didn't call for you when you were out."

"Yeah, I did get lucky."

"I've never seen you around here before now that I think about it. What barrack were you from, before you got transfered here?"

Peshe was starting to get nervous, he had never expected the arrancar to be this observant. The skinny hollow didn't even know which numbered barrack he was in now.

"Oh, uh, I've always been in this one. I just, kinda, kept to myself a lot; not to comfortable in big groups of people."

"Really? I thought I knew everyone from this barrack."

"Eheheh, well, now you do," Peshe said, nervous laughter coming out now and then.

"Yeah."

The skinny arrancar wandered away from the taller arrancar he had asked for information. He was looking for another way out, knowing that Nell would get worried and come after him if he was gone too long. Fortunately, he found a small hole in the corner of the room, and crawled through it, unseen to his relief.

- - - - -

Ichigo jumped off of his roof, his smirk slowly fading. He had decided to help Nell, before he went near the human realm to see what was going on. The orange haired hybrid went into his house, and prepared himself for his trip. His hollow transforming no longer destroyed his clothes, they just kinda fused with his body, and under his skin.

He grabbed his cloak, which had a large hood on it, looked like a long-sleeved shinigami's captain robe, and shredded in a similar fashion as his bankai robe. It was completely black, as was his whole attire. His socks and 'undershirt' (A/N: please, someone let me know what the proper terms are here, I'm a clueless idiot when it comes to terminology) were black as well. No white clothing was worn on his body, other than the bandages he always had wrapped around his abdomen, hiding the hole in his stomach.

The orange haired hybrid lifted his hood, covering his hair, and shadowing his upper face. He focused his reiatsu, and his zanpakuto began to shrink in size. By the time it was done, a short katana, in a black sheath, with a black guard and hilt, was in his hand. Zangetsu's guard was done in a similar fashion to that of Kuchiki Byakuya's, slim metal bars that attached to a 'base', which was connected to the blade (1). The blade was the same silver color as any other zanpakuto, and a long red cloth was tightly tied near each of the ends of the sheath tightly. Ichigo had discarded the red beads that used to hold Zangetsu to his back, and tied the clothe around his waist. The sword fell behind him, a few centimeters above his knee joint. Over the years, Ichigo had gotten used to running and working with his zanpakuto the way it was now.

"Well, I better change on my way there. Lucky I decided to find most of Aizen's cameras a while back," Ichigo mumbled to himself.

He was completely cloaked in black, completely contrasting him to the light colored sand below him. To add to his good mood, the moon was once again rising, laying claim to the sky. Ichigo smirked, and flash stepped away from his home. There was nothing in there worth stealing in his opinion, so he never bothered locking it up; not that he had a lock to begin with, his reiatsu was more than enough of a warning to creatures in passing.

- - - - -

Aizen looked at the group, and Grimmjaw. They were all ready and anxious to leave, the teal haired arrancar was probably the most eager out of the bunch of about a dozen.

"It's good to see you are all ready, and awaiting your chances to return to the humans' world. I hope you all remember each of your individual roles in our first step towards victory. You must also remember that some of you will be working as partners, since some of the targets may be together during our strike," the brown haired ex-shinigami announced. "Grimmjaw, remember your place in this movement. I will not allow screw-ups from you."

The teal haired arrancar bowed his head deeply to Aizen. "Hai, Aizen-sama."

"Good. You may leave now."

Grimmjaw jumped up to the top of the nearby building, and opened the black road that lead to the human world with his zanpakuto. His subordinates quickly followed him, all going through the portal before their leader. The teal haired arrancar scowled a little, before jumping into the darkness as the gash began to close.

"Come Ulquoirra, let's see if the new monitor is working in Kurosaki-kun's district."

"Hai, Aizen-sama."

The odd couple left the lower grounds, and took their time returning to the viewing room.

- - - - -

Peshe quickly, yet cautiously, returned to where Nell and Dondo were waiting for him. He snaked up the surrounding dune, and slid down, landing next to the large hollow and across from the small arrancar.

"Pethe is back," squealed Nell.

"Yeah, and I know what's happening over there."

"What happened, yansa?"

"Well, apparently, Aizen has sent a group to the human world; in order to kill all the humans with a descent amount of reiatsu and the residing shinigami."

"Tha... that'th Aizen'th plan?!"

"Yeah, I'm nervous about Ichigo-san's friends."

"We needth to tell Ichigo-than! Thith is really important!"

The group of three ran quietly through the dunes, to Bawabawa. When they got to the meeting spot, the giant worm slowly lifted itself out from under the sand. It had buried itself in there, to avoid detection.

"Come on, Bawa! We need to go to Ichigo-than. Fast!"

Bawabawa let out a knowing grunt, and wiggled its way back to Ichigo's house.

- - - - -

A few miles away from his home, Ichigo slowed to a rapid walking pace. He held this pace, just in case Nell came back with information. Ichigo knew the path Nell traveled, since it was the one he had showed him. The trail was extremely out of the way, taking it while in a rush wasn't the smartest of choices when heading toward the white palace. However, length alone wasn't its only problem. Hollows found a common liking toward a peculiar space of land on the path, flocking there by the dozens.

The dark veiled hybrid continued walking through the highly packed hollow grounds. To his dismay, one hollow was stupid enough to walk right in front of him, and stare at him. Its confident nature seemed to grow, as it was well past three times bigger than Ichigo.

"What's a tiny little pest doin' out here, were it's dangerous?" it asked, sarcasm and superiority dripping from each word.

"Get out of my way, hollow," the orange haired hybrid said, casually, but warningly.

"My, my, aren't we a cocky little brat."

"I said, 'get out of my way,'" Ichigo's voice rising slightly, and more edge added to his voice.

"Tch, and why would I listen to you? You don't have an aura, and if you do, it's microscopic. I don't think you're in a position to be giving orders."

By now, more hollows began to appear from their lairs, watching in interest. This tiny being was challenging one of the strongest hollows in the area, and he didn't seem to care.

"I'm not in the mood to deal with a shit-head like you, now move," Ichigo said, sounding like he wanted to end the pointless conversation.

"Now why would I do that?"

The large hollow raised its large claws, and slammed it down on Ichigo. A large dust cloud grew from the sand from the impact. Laughing soon began to be heard, and it was coming from the hollow.

"Sorry, I'm failing to see the humor in this situation," a voice said casually, with irritation apparent in the tone.

The hollow's eyes widened, as the cloud of dust began to dissipate. Ichigo's arm was raised, and the hollow's fisted claws were stopped by it.

"Wha... what the hell?!"

"I told you to get out of my way."

"What the hell are you?! How could you block that?! And with your non-existant reiatsu?!"

Ichigo looked up at the hollow's face for the first time, his frown was deeper than normal. His hood falling back slightly, revealing his eyes, but still hiding his hair.

"You're a fucking human soul?! If that's the case, then I'll just eat you!"

The hollow's huge mouth went straight for the cloaked hybrid. Ichigo jumped out of the way, and landed on the hollow's back; just as the fallen soul's mouth went plowing through the sand.

"Like I said, I'm not in the mood for you," Ichigo mumbled.

"What was that?!"

Ichigo raised his left hand, and had his index and middle finger pointing at the back of the hollow's head.

"Byakurai."

A loud explosion sounded, as the reiatsu made contact. Ichigo continued to stand on the hollow, as it disintegrated. He landed gracefully on the ground below him, and looked around, a little curious if anyone else wanted to waste more of his time.

The hollows that were watching had all backed away from the hybrid, all of a sudden, very scared. They watched as their 'guest' fixed his hood, before continuing on his way.

"I think that was a shinigami," one hollow whispered.

"No way. What would a shinigami be doing here?" another one replied.

"Maybe he was banished..." yet another said.

"Nah, did you see what he was wearing? I'm guessing he's with Aizen."

"How'd you figure that out?"

"Did you see his feet? He had black socks, shinigami have white."

"So?"

Ichigo stopped, and walked a bit closer towards the group of about five hollows arguing over what he was. The ones who saw him come up to them, froze on the spot, staring at him; the others turned around, and imitated their 'friends.'

"What'cha talking about?" the orange haired hybrid asked, faking a happy, yet curious tone.

"Uh, nothing," one sputtered.

"Well, that's good. And for future reference, I ain't a shinigami or with that bastard Aizen. I have no wanted attachment to either side of that petty war anymore," Ichigo said, as he walked away.

All the hollows remained quiet after he left, and made sure they couldn't see him before they started talking again.

"I hope I never get on his bad side," one of the more moderate sized hollows murmured. All the others nodded their heads in agreement.

- - - - -

Grimmjaw and the others had gotten out of the garganga as soon as they could, so as to make as little of an announcement of their arrival as possible. The teal haired arrancar turned to his group, and nodded. They all dispersed, all going towards different people.

"Let's begin this game of hide-and-seek," whispered Grimmjaw, as he looked at the city, a big smirk on his face.

- - - - -

Kon shivered a little, while walking with Rukia on the way home from the store. He looked up at the sky, feeling very nervous all of a sudden.

"You okay Kon?" inquired the black haired shinigami.

"I don't know why, but I getting a bad feeling."

"Can you describe it? I've been feeling kinda excited yet fearful these past few days. Maybe they have something in common."

"It feels like we're going to be fighting again, but something good will come out of it."

"Yeah, I've been getting that feeling for a couple of days now."

"How should we take this, Nee-san?"

"I don't know, but we better ask Urahara. I'm pretty sure he'll know something."

"You're probably right."

The couple quickened their pace, and walked towards Urahara Shoten.

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Ah, a better chapter than the last one. Yes, so far I'm keeping Aizen's plot the same, but as the story porgresses, it'll change. Read and review, please.

(1) I drew a picture of it, but fanfic won't let me put up a url. So, go to photobucket, look for Cougarkun (there is an under-strike after the 'r'); and then follow my unique way of organizing. (Tite Kubo - Bleach - it should be the first one)