Toshiro took notice of Kisuke's return in the shop above but didn't move from his position. He was sitting at the edge of the shaft, teal eyes looking below at the panting figure of Vincent. The chain had been slowly eating away at itself and not even the demon strengthened gunman could withstand the pain. It was disturbing to say the least to hear the tall warrior scream with such pain.

But he had gotten close. A few hours ago, just after dawn, Toshiro called down to see how he was faring. Vincent managed to call back up saying he could hear the voices of his demons as well as another voice, which he assumed was his zanpaktou trying to push past the demons. It was a start at least. If Vincent could find a way to pull his consciousness into his Inner World completely the eroding Chain of Fate wouldn't be able to distract him and he could find his Soul Reaper powers.

'Chaos probably could have helped him.' Hyorinmaru rumbled softly.

'That's debatable.' Hitsugaya replied. 'And Kisuke seems to think some trace of Chaos remains.'

'It's harder to sense if that's true or not with the switch in energy, and I detected nothing of Chaos when Vincent first came here.'

'Maybe it was all suppressed by the Spirit Energy of the Soul Society. I have no idea why Kisuke seems to think Chaos is still there, but if he's right…I have a lot of questions for him.'

The dragon grew quiet, silently agreeing.

Toshiro narrowed his eyes at his charge when Vincent's Spiritual Pressure rose slightly. Was he finally getting somewhere? Then it dropped…to a level that coincided with a Soul Reaper in his Inner World. He'd finally managed to get in. And just in time, as Toshiro noticed the chain begin to eat itself again.

Vincent wasn't quite sure what he was seeing. One minute he had been at the bottom of the shaft, Toshiro watching him carefully for any signs of Hollowfying, and now he was in some kind of dark landscape. Vision clearing, Vincent realized he was back in the small room where Cloud had first awakened him from his long slumber after Hojo's experiments. The dark walls were covered in cobwebs, the floor kicked up dust when he stepped. Old and decaying furniture sat around the walls.

And to top it off, the coffin he had been pushed inside was still in the middle of the room, as black and ominous as ever. He hated that coffin. Mostly for what it symbolized for him, but it also got annoying when everyone called him a vampire.

"So you came to play with the demons, have you?" Snarled a feral tone, causing the gunman to spin around to the door behind him. It was closed tightly and locked with a heavy padlock. "It's easier if you come out of your little hole."

"Galian Beast." Vincent scowled, recognizing the wolfish voice.

"Glad to see you still remember me. Now get out here already." The voice sounded impatient now.

Vincent wasn't really willing to open the door, not to his demons anyway. Then again, his zanpaktou spirit was out there somewhere, of that he was sure. He needed to find him.

Stepping towards the door, Vincent noticed the padlock turn black and fade away. Ignoring the phenomenon for now he went ahead and opened the unlocked door. He assumed his demon would be waiting just outside the door in the hopes of scaring him, but saw that the large figure was instead at the end of the long hallway, cloaked in shadow. Glowing amber eyes looked at him before it turned away and began to climb up the spiral steps to the Nibelheim Mansion that his Inner World seemed to be based off of.

"Galian." Vincent called out.

"Come on scaredy cat." The demon jeered. "You'll have your answers."

Scowling once more, Vincent quickly walked over to the winding staircase made of old wood and climbed up after the shadowed figure of one of his three demons. It was strange, only being able to see Galian from the shadows. He had yet to see him full on since his Lifeforce had been exchanged for Spirit Energy. It was unlike the wolf demon to slink in the shadows.

Finally reaching the ground floor of his Inner World mansion, Vincent saw the other two demons, both hidden in shadow as well. He had never seen them so…reclusive before. They stood in the corners of the entrance hall, a large room overgrown with weeds and the stone floor broken up. The stairs leading to the upper floor were crumbling, leaving it inaccessible and the windows were breaking, though outside was simply pitch black.

"Haven't you figured out yet why they're being so…passive?" A deep voice echoed around them in the large main room of the mansion.

Vincent turned to the source of the voice, a humanoid shadowy figure leaning on the rail of the second story.

"That voice…" Vincent's eyes widened. "You returned to the Lifestream."

Light seemed to finally shine on Chaos's form and the demon smirked. However, he seemed a little different than Vincent remembered him. For one, the wings weren't there, or at least Vincent couldn't see them, replaced with a tattered black cape and the golden claw that used to be part of his left arm due to his fusion with Vincent was gone, revealing a normal looking demon claw that matched his right arm. Other than that he still had eerie similarities to his host while being completely demonic.

Chaos's golden eyes looked down upon the gunman turned Soul Reaper.

"Well, with as long as we've been stuck together, don't you think it makes sense I come back when you leave Gaia?" The demon pointed out.

"Not really."

"I feel so loved." Chaos frowned, leaping over the railing to the same floor as his host and taking a few steps towards him. "Thanks to Hojo and Lucrecia we're eternally bound. We have no choice but to stick together, just like the Ice Leviathan and his brat of a host."

"Then why did you seem to vanish after the Omega Incident?" Vincent crossed his arms, watching as Chaos seemed to fumble for an answer with narrowed eyes.

"Well, considering we used all of our power together to stop the beast from rising, I was rather exhausted. I returned to get my energy back, but the minute you started leaving for Soul Society, I got thrust back into you. Not my choice."

"And now you're my zanpaktou, just like the Ice Leviathan is Hitsugaya's?"

"It's the only answer I could come up with. However, that also means my name changed." Chaos scowled as though not agreeing with this. "Just like the Ice Leviathan became Hyorinmaru, I became…."

"I…didn't hear that." Vincent pointed out and Chaos sighed.

"Right, there's a method to all this." The demon scratched his spiky haired head in thought. For a demon, Vincent thought he was acting suspiciously human. "Damn Soul Reapers have to be so complicated."

Snickers from the demons were heard but Chaos silenced them with a glare. As a Weapon, they could not stand against him. Doing so would be folly, not to mention risk the health of their host. Their lives were tied together, and as much as they liked torturing Vincent, they never killed him.

"Guess we get to have a nice heart to heart chat, then." Chaos smirked, a fierce growl toning his words with evil intent. Now that was the Chaos Vincent remembered as a shiver raced up his spine.

Outside, Toshiro sensed Vincent's energy flare. What was going on in the gunman's Inner World to stress him out so suddenly?

'Hyorinmaru, have zanpaktou ever been known to travel to the Inner World of another?' Toshiro questioned the ice dragon.

'Not that I've been told.' He rumbled back. 'However, I'm not a normal zanpaktou. I can try.'

'Don't interfere, simply watch. I'm starting to wonder about Kisuke's theory with Chaos and if I remember right, Chaos and those other three demons tended to get…violent with him.'

Humming to show he understood, Hyorinmaru's presence faltered slightly. He'd never tried to reach out to other Soul Reapers before and vaguely wondered if it was possible even for him. He thought he could sense Zangetsu nearby with Ichigo, the teen actually perking up slightly as he felt something stir in the air around him. But while he seemed more in tune to Zangetsu's most prominent emotion, which at the moment was curiosity and a vague excitement from Hichigo, he could not communicate with the being let alone travel to their Inner World.

'This may take some practice, but it might be do-able.' The dragon gave up to avoid strain on Toshiro and reported in.

'That's surprising. I had a small hope but I didn't expect it might be possible.' Toshiro looked up from his watch for a moment and his eyes glazed over as he focused more on his inner conversation.

'Don't underestimate me, master.' Hyorinmaru chuckled slightly.

Allowing himself a small smile, Toshiro returned to his watch.

Off to the side, Kisuke watched the whole scene, hiding his Spiritual Pressure even though Toshiro probably already knew he was there. Benihime, his zanpaktou, had also noticed Hyorinmaru reaching out but had hidden herself from him.

"So Shiro's dragon is finding new powers. He really does have the capacity to become one of the strongest Captains in history at this rate, not to mention a prodigy." Kisuke whispered to himself. "As for Vincent…well, Mr. Valentine seems to have found his way to where his zanpaktou resides. If the presence I felt was what I thought it was, which I'm sure since it had a similar feel as Hyorinmaru, then he's in for a rough time. Chaos won't know a thing about how to get Vincent to hear his blade name."

With a long day ahead of him, Kisuke went to get in a short nap, Ichigo already deep into one, before the next day's training began.

Back to Vincent! Doesn't have his zanpaktou yet but he has to do it the hard way, and his revealed zanpaktou isn't any help, haha. Chaos is used to being a demon, not a sword. Oh boy, this will get interesting :)

So yeah, Enjoy!