Although it had taken twenty minutes to get to Urahara's shop, the group had made it with time to spare. Takuya pointed out a trapdoor on the floor, where a charcoal black cat sat eyeing them intently.
"Girls, we have to go into the basement for a full explanation." he said, meaning he was going to tell them why he hadn't been there. Then he saw the cat. "Oh, Lady Yoruichi. I didn't expect you to be waiting for us up here."
"You'll not want to delay any further." the cat said, a deep male's voice sounding from its lips and startling the girls. "The encroachment is almost upon the girls."
"Ta-Kun..." Miyako was a bit frightened by the talking cat, identified as Yoruichi, as were Momoko and Kaoru, but the blonde had actually grabbed onto her boyfriend in fear.
"Don't be afraid, Miyako-Chama." he said. "Lady Yoruichi is able to transform into a black cat. She's a nice person, but she also happens to be right. Unless I get you down to Urahara-San, you'll be in danger far worse than Lepodalia."
Yoruichi's ears twitched at the mention of Lepodalia by name, but she opened the door with her jaws and hopped down. Takuya motioned for the girls to follow, and said he'd be right behind them. As they climbed down the ladder, the girls were astonished by the sheer size underground basement, which looked large enough to hold the entirety of the Utonium Lab, as well as Karakura High, which Miyako had visited once, and still have room left over. Once at the bottom, they noticed that Yoruichi had sat down on the stone and waited for them. However, there was a fair-skinned man with sandy blonde hair and wearing a slightly faded forest green shopkeeper's robes standing next to the cat, a simple cane in one hand, and the other holding a fan before his face, which was also partially hidden due to the striped hat he wore.
"Looks like you made it, kids." he said. "I want you to hold still for a moment, alright?"
"What the hell for?" Kaoru asked, only to have Takuya place his hand on her shoulder. "Just who are you, anyway?"
"That's Urahara Kisuke-San. He's going to place a binding spell on you so that you won't fall closer to a more permanent death while we explain what happened." Takuya said.
"..." Karou looked skeptical, but she crossed her arms and sighed. "Alright. But if he tries to put me in a skirt, I'm killing him."
"That's fine by me." Urahara said. "Anyways, here goes."
His voice took a more serious tone as he chanted the simple spell, high level though it was.
"Carriage of thunder. Bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six." He pointed at the three girls. "Bakudo number sixty-one, Rikujoukuro."
In a very short time, all three girls were visually impaled by six thick bars of light, which Momoko soon discovered meant they couldn't even move. However, it caused no physical damage to the girls, just as Takuya had promised. Then, after laying his hands on Momoko and Kaoru at the same time, Takuya placed his forehead against Miyako's and quickly muttered a single chant, one they'd heard him use more often than not during kendo classes.
"Voice of the wind, heart of the samurai. Silver wolf. White tiger. Black falcon. Coal serpent. All motion resumes its flow, time continues onward. Bakudo number seventy-seven, Tamashii no Kyomei."
The Rikujoukuro that held them in place remained, but the girls found they had regained their movement.
"What's going on, Takuya?" Momoko asked. "I'm so confused..."
Takuya was quiet. He made no attempt to respond even when Miyako asked him about the recent events, but when the blonde mentioned the Hollow, Urahara seemed to tense up.
"So you ran into a Hollow. That's why you were behind schedule." he said. "Even so, you shouldn't have had trouble."
"It called itself an Adjuchas." Kaoru said. "What the hell is that, anyway? Some sort of title, like the Shogun?"
"It's a bit more complex than a simple Shogunate." Yoruichi said. "But that explanation can wait. I believe you had promised the girls the answer to your absence?"
"Give me a minute." Takuya said, then sighed. "I would like to get back into my body now."
This single line confused the girls so much that even Kaoru was silent. The silver-haired boy walked off and vanished behind a rock. There was a distinct clatter of his katana dropping, followed by the thud of his head hitting the rock.
"Itai..." he muttered as he came back into view, wearing his usual street clothes, the bandages on his chest visible due to the tailored skull-shaped hole of his band shirt. "Stupid rock."
"Ta-Kun? How'd you change clothes so quickly?"
"Have a seat, and I'll explain." Takuya said, taking note that Yoruichi was tugging Urahara away from them to give them some privacy. "Anyways, the primary, and probably most crucial, reason I was absent from the showdown with Kare was because Mother had been forced to bring me to the hospital again. I only got out yesterday."
Kaoru opened her mouth to complain, but Takuya gave her a single look, and she instantly clammed up.
"The second reason I didn't make it ties into the first. I couldn't even transform into Lunar Blade without being put on the brink of hospitalization. This has also led to one particular, um...mutation, for lack of a better word."
To prove his point, he turned around, and the girls could only gape. Held close to his back so they'd been hidden from the front-view, and folded rather tightly although he now loosened up, were the very same jet-black wings that he sported once he'd become his Z-form.
"Takuya-Kun...I..." Kaoru stammered, but in the end, she only hung her head low and spoke even lower. "I'm...I'm sorry."
Making no visual acknowledgement of the brunette's apology for almost killing him earlier, Takuya unzipped the closure on his shirt, revealing the bandages in their frontal entirety.
"That's not the worst. My 'heart-condition' keeps acting up whenever there's a particularly strong Hollow nearby, and has never crippled me as much as it did before the fight against Lepodalia. Here's the truth to my heart problem. It's actually a curse placed upon me when I was an infant."
"Well...that...that still doesn't explain why Kuriko said your sister calls you a heartless lover." Momoko said.
Takuya only bowed his head slightly, smirking as he did so. He'd met Kuriko a couple times, but it was his sister, Aina, who'd always known without being told.
"That's because I technically don't have a heart, and a large portion of my lungs are missing as well." he said. "I'll show you."
He unsheathed his blade and lightly drew the tip across the bandages, which fell open like a mummy's wrappings when first removed. This revealed a nine-inch diameter hole in the boy's chest positioned where his heart should be. This hole had pierced his body completely, allowing a view of the world behind him.
Momoko and Miyako were so shocked they almost fainted. Kaoru attempted to reach for the hole, but she stopped and instead turned crimson.
"So that's it." Yoruichi said, her tail twitching slightly. "You were cursed by a Hollow, weren't you?"
While Takuya was in the midst of explaining his situation, there was another, potentially equally important, situation occurring in the Seireitei. Although there had been numerous fights occurring, there was one last battle that was preparing to take place. On one side of the battlefield atop of Sokyokyu Hill was an aquamarine-haired Arrancar, Arturo Plateado. On the other side was a ruby-haired teen boy with tanned skin and ears and tail of a cat matching the color of his hair. In his hands was a pair of cat-clawed gauntlets that had a midnight blue tint to them. At his side was a teen whose unique physique proved him to be human. This human happened to be wearing the same color-coordinated attire of the Powerpuff Girls Z, albeit a charcoal black with bone-like armoring on his chest and forearms. His golden eyes seemed to be piercing daggers at Arturo, who merely chuckled with bemusement.
"I cannot believe you Soul Reapers fell for a trick that simple!" he said. "It's almost ironic!"
"You bastard!" the redhead, Koichi, growled, the anger very apparent in his tone. "Riku-San, you ready to take this Arrancar prick to hell?"
"No shit, Sherlock!" Hayabusa Riku said, pulling a broadsword from seemingly nowhere. "Just tell me when."
"This is pathetic." Arturo said. "You, silver-haired boy. You're a human, aren't you?"
"What if I am?"
Arturo lowered himself from where he'd been hovering, the green plasma-like wings on his back flickering ever so slightly. He brought a hand up to smooth his hair out, and when he spoke, his heavy Spanish accent carried a tone that seemed to be belittling the boys.
"The two of you would defy me?" he asked, producing a black energy blade on his right hand. "For that, which is utterly sad for you, I must say that you will die."
"Heh, that's what you think, Arturo Plateado!" Koichi replied, taking an almost Wolverine-like (yes, Wolverine from X-Men) pose.
"You know my name?" Arturo was impressed. "And just how is that?"
"Well...should I tell him, Riku-San?"
"Go ahead, Kitty-Kat." Riku said, beginning to channel energy into his weapon.
"You see, Arturo," the cat-boy said, his ears standing up in a mocking gesture. "My name is Abarai-Shihouin Koichi. I'm Captain of Division Five and the twenty-third head of the Shihouin Clan, although Mother has yet to say when I become the public head."
"A Shihouin, you say?" Arturo asked. "Well, I'll have you know that the last time I was here, I fought a Shihouin woman that you remind me of."
"I know." Koichi said. "That's why I know your name. Mother told me everything about you, including your ability to mimic others. I even know that you can use Gran Rey Cero and have access to a Resureccion form."
"That doesn't change the fact that you still fell for my deception, boy." Arturo said, an evil grin beginning to tug at the corners of his mouth.
"No, but there is something that you didn't see the last time you were here."
"And just what is that, Reaper boy?"
In response, Koichi placed his left hand near his left cheek, fingers reaching towards where his ear would be if he had human ears. Riku knew instantly what the boy was doing.
"If your gonna pull that out, Koichi, let me get a good distance away." Riku said. "I'm still not used to the energy you put out in that form."
And with that, Riku sped off to the very tip of Sokyoku Hill, generating a triple-thick barrier between him and the pair of fighters. Arturo gave the human a look of annoyance, then turned his full attention towards the neko-Shinigami (Soul Reaper) when he detected a hint of familiar energy.
"You are a Soul Reaper, and yet I feel Hollow energy coming from you." he said, letting his energy blade dissipate. "Explain yourself, boy."
"Let this do the talking." Koichi said, pulling his hand across his face.
As he did, a silvery-blue light appeared, then vanished. When it did, it revealed something that made Arturo know fear. It unveiled a skeletal mask that had four stripes that formed a large 'X' on the upper portion. The jaw had a single stripe that zigzagged across in a lightning bolt pattern. All of the stripes were a midnight blue. Beneath it, the whites of Koichi's eyes had become completely black, and his golden irises had become a darker, more corrupt (for lack of better words) gold. When he next spoke, his voice carried a warble that only a Hollow would have.
"Now you're going to vanish for eternity, Arturo Plateado!"
What Koichi and Arturo didn't know was that Riku had been bluffing about not being able to stand during the Hollowfication's output of 'd only constructed the barrier to fully power his weapon, and now, as Koichi vanished from sight, a sudden peal of thunder accompanying him upon both vanishing and his reappearance behind Arturo, Riku dropped the barriers.
"Eat this, you Hollow mother!" Riku called, charging forward with his blade, which now hummed with a pure energy. "Howling Breaker!"
At the same time as the jet-black beam rocketed forth from Riku's sword, Koichi called out four words in rapid succession, launching a midnight-blue beam of equal strength to Riku's at Arturo.
"Protect, Zangetsu!" His gauntlets transformed into a perfect replica of Zangetsu, albeit with a midnight blue wrapping instead of the pale linen tan. "Getsuga Tenshou!"
Arturo quickly dropped a Cero in both directions, effectively slowing the attacks, but not nullifying them. Then he drew his own blade.
"You have defied me enough!" he said, his voice giving way to a feral rage. "You see, there is no mercy for worms! Rise up, Fenix!"
In an explosion of flames, that was visually enhanced by the replicated Getsuga Tenshou and the Howling Breaker nonetheless, Arturo transformed into his Resureccion state. His wings became a blood-red and death-black coloration, and the mask fragment on his face shifted into a pair of skeletal wings, to which the energy wings seemed to fuse.
"I will send you into eternal darkness!" Arturo yelled, beginning to charge up his Gran Rey Cero.
"Reduce all creation to ash! Ryuujin Jakka!" Came an elderly man's voice. "Fifth head: Kuzuryujin!"
Arturo never got a chance to finish charging it. In a flash, almost literally, Arturo Plateado was engulfed in flames so hot that it burned the two boys, who were at least a dozen feet away from the Arrancar. He turned to see the owner of the eternal flames that had defeated him twice in the past, and scowled as he was finally erased from life.
"Damn you...Yamamoto..."
As the flames finished their job of reducing Arturo's ashes to ashes, the Captain-Commander and Captain of Division One, Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryusai glanced at the boys with a look of gratitude.
"Hayabusa Riku, Abarai-Shihouin-Taichou, thank you for keeping Arturo distracted." the old man said, the flames behind him granting him a legendary silhouette. "But for now, Koichi, please remove that mask. There is a matter of urgency that must be attended to."
"What's up, Jii-San?" Koichi asked, his voice and eyes not changing, even though he'd lifted the mask off of his face. "Am I in trouble for Hollowfying?"
"No. I'm actually grateful for it this time. I need you to go and fetch Zaraki-Taichou and his son from Hueco Mundo. Once you return, I will inform you of your part in the recent events."
"Hai!"
In an instant, Koichi replaced the mask on his face and tore open a Garganta under his feet, taking him directly to Hueco Mundo. After it closed, Yamamoto turned to Riku and sighed.
"As for you, Hayabusa Riku, I must ask that you return to the Human world. Your companions and fiance are in danger far worse than anything before. If not for Former Captain Urahara Kisuke's intervention, I dare say that they would all be lost."
Riku didn't need any more urging. In a heartbeat, he ripped open his own variant of the Senkaimon Gate and tore through like a bat out of hell. If the hidden undertones of impending death were true, he didn't have much time. Especially since he knew that if a woman who was with child were to become a wandering soul, the child in her womb would have only 48-hours to have some form of life to be restored, or the child was permanently lost. He knew that if he didn't make it in time, not only would he be the victim of death at the hands of the other members of his team, but Momoko would drag his soul back to his body numerous times, just to kill him again.
"Momoko..." he muttered. Then he raised his voice to a near yell as the Cleaner came chasing after him, as it always did. "I will not lose my baby!"