"I bet that was Koko prodding at the captain again." A male voice said which could be heard from outside Ichigo's office. "Yeah, I hope he didn't kill her, at least the barracks seem to be in one piece this time" said another voice.

"Koko…Koko, can you hear me?"

"Yeah. But I'm feeling like crap. And alright da- Ichigo. Point taken. For now…" she said before clutching her side, Ichigo broke a few of her ribs. She started groaning from the pain, and tears formed in her eyes, she cried from almost any injury, unless it was self-inflicted like a kido backfire, or stabbing herself in the foot, which she had done on more than one occasion, which Ichigo had abused that reflex of hers far too many times, although she didn't seem to care. She was very attached to Ichigo, despite his bad habit of breaking her bones from time to time.

"Inoue, can you please heal her, I think she got my point and I don't feel like staring down Retsu again, at least not today, I feel like she would melt my brain with some sort of kido if I go back there so soon."

"Of course I will, but do you have be so rough with Koko-chan? She's so fragile, she breaks easily." She giggled childishly as she bent over and started healing Koko's broken ribs. "Now Koko-chan, I should warn you that Kurosaki-kun will still probably break a few more of your bones, but don't worry, he won't kill you, he's very attached to you too.." she said gently and then leaned in to whisper something in her ear. "But he's mine, okay?" she stood up and just stood there smiling. Ichigo came up to them and picked up Koko out of the bed of rubble she had been laying on and stood her up, rustled her hair a bit, which was just about the only thing he could do that bothered her, she was fine with broken bones, and explosions, but her hair was off limits. He stood up and walked over to his lieutenant and pulled her into a tight embrace, which she happily returned.

"you know, if you want, Inoue, I could train you along with Koko, I'm training her personally because of her disposition, to cry at any injury, the other squad members go easy on her, which is why she gets so injured all the time, because I don't go easy on her, I have faith that she can take it. She just needs that push, I care enough to give her that push, even if the gets injured, she doesn't give up. Ever. I could help you practice something if you like." He said with a smile that was reserved for her, he smiled at many people, but this certain smile, was just for her, warm, welcoming, loving, unburdening.

"As much as I would love to, I can't, I was talking with Uchiakeru, and he said I needed to do some training for a new technique, which he said he would teach me soon, and Yoruichi said I can use her training ground that you used in the past.

"That's great! But watch out for her, even though you are a girl, she undoubtedly will just appear naked in front of you, and will probably try to kill you on a couple occasions." He said still smiling. The two got startled by a loud crash which Ichigo immediately thought that Koko tried to do that same kido again.

"Captain! Koko exploded again!" a female voice could be heard from outside the giant hole in the wall. The two Shinigami released from the embrace and immediately looked over to where the injury waiting to happen had been sitting.

"Dammit, where did she go?" The two ran out of the hole, only to see a giant smoke cloud with a few other Shinigami around it, looking completely surprised. As the two orange haired teens ran over to the crowd, they were shocked with what they saw. Koko was just standing there looking at Ichigo. But she was different, her shoulder length jet black hair was replaced with waist length white hair, which seemed to literally glow, her blue sash was replaced with a red one of the same style, but with a zanpakuto nestled between it and her hip, which normally, the sword didn't seem to exist, and just appeared out of nowhere when she wanted to fight, her zanpakuto was named Shinzo, it looked exactly like Ichigo's zangetsu did in Bankai form except looked like it was made of pearl and bone. Her once short gold chain that barely went past her hand no was slightly dragging on the floor, her eyes, which used to make Ichigo uncomfortable were now both a soft blue. She used to be very short; Ichigo could rest his arm on her head before, now she comes up to his chin.

"Koko?" Ichigo said with disbelief.

"Hi, Ichigo, I guess I should explain about this." She said with a smirk. "Have you ever noticed how I never released my zanpakuto? Well, this is my Shikai, and it seems that the release of spiritual pressure, alters my appearance, I'm sure it isn't permanent. It isn't as if I chose not to release it, it was because I couldn't. I don't know why I couldn't, Shinzo said it was because I was locked in my emotions, I had no idea what that meant, until now, I heard what you said about me, it made me so happy, I actually just wanted to go outside so as I wouldn't ruin the moment that you two were sharing. As for my zanpakuto's appearance, I'm not too sure myself, but It looks exactly like your Bankai I think, I've only seen it once when you showed the entire squad, but quickly sealed it when only seven of them were left conscious."

Ichigo had a horrible flashback of him being stared down by the captain of squad four.

"Captain Kurosaki…" she said with that evil smile that feigned harmlessness. "Do you mind telling my why my barracks are filled with your unconscious squad and why your third seat is laughing uncontrollably just outside?"

"I used my Bankai, they had insisted that I should show it to them in a small room with nowhere for them to run to instead of outside where they could at least have had a chance to escape and tell me to seal it. And as for my third seat, I'm not too sure why she is laughing like that, she was literally standing a few inches from me, and she didn't even so much as blink when I released it, she's a curios one…" He said trailing off as his eyes met with the ominous captain in front of him

"That's fine, just don't let it happen again, now they know what you can do, hopefully they won't make the mistake of pushing your buttons"

"Yes ma'am." He replied almost instantly.

…

"You look terrified Ichigo, I assume you remembered your talk with Captain Unohana?" he nodded and she laughed. "Well anyway, I'm glad that you saw this, because it makes me very tired to use, I'm not sure how much I can keep this form without passing out, but you'll help me with it right? I want to start…tra…training...Ri…right awa..." and she started to fall over, Ichigo noticed this, and flash stepped to her, catching her. His mind seemed to still be processing how she looked now, because he didn't even notice that she changed back into her petite form, and he was holding her like a baby. He heard a few chuckles and then realized how he looked immediately he straightened out, slung her over his shoulder and spiked his spiritual pressure to silence the chuckles. It seemed his spike in pressure woke the girl on his shoulder and she said loudly something that the rest of the squad thought Ichigo would throw her through another wall for saying.

"Hey dad! Put me down please" She said as he dropped her down, but she didn't stick the landing and fell over hitting her head hard, but not hard enough to be serious, she just sat up, and started crying. Sighing he helped her up and bent down to ask her something.

"Why do you call me dad? I just realized I never asked." He said while staring into her eyes, something he never managed to do for more than five seconds.

"I never had any parents growing up, and when I was put into your squad, I was still a shy little shut in, not wanting to do anything involving people, but something about you, your spiritual pressure, seemed to feel like a hug, a nice large warm embrace, I eventually found myself being happy when near you, but even though I was happy, I felt sad. Then somehow I ended up calling you dad, and it made me feel completely happy, and even though you broke my bones repeatedly, I knew it was because you cared, I was right. And I love you Ichigo. Obviously not like Inoue loves you, but I love you as a father figure." She was still teary, but the smile on her face was huge. She was happy, her oddly colored eyes widened as Ichigo picked her up in a huge embrace.

"You know what? You can call me dad. As long as you call Inoue mom." He said with a smile looking from Koko to Orihime. "As long as that is okay with you?"

"Of course! But we can't just have her call us mom and dad, we should adopt her!"

"That's a great Idea, but we aren't married, how about I'll adopt her as my daughter, and eventually I will marry you?" His red headed lieutenant blushed heavily at the thought of marriage.

"Y-yes that's a good Idea Kurosaki-kun" She said meekly. Ichigo then turned back to the small girl still in his arms looked at her and smiled.

"Koko you can call me dad. Although, just because you are my daughter, do not expect me to lighten up on you, expect much more, I will be tougher, because I'll be damned if my daughter wasn't as tough as her father." He spoke to her with a soft voice. He stood up and noticed that his entire squad and even the ever flamboyant Shunsui Kyoraku, the Captain Commander himself had been an audience to his show of affection.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Shunsui?" He asked as he put down his new daughter trying to regain his composure.

"Well…that was interesting Ichigo. Adopting your squad's third seat? I like your compassion, but that is not why I'm here…would you and your beautiful lieutenant follow me please?"

"Of course, one second" He turned to his squad and spoke. "Stop standing around and find something to fix my wall!"

With that order he turned back to Shunsui and nodded, the three of them sped off into the distance. Eventually arriving at Sokyoku Hill.

Ah, such interesting memories I have here..." He started rambling off about Ichigo and other stuff, but was interrupted.

"I doubt you brought us here to talk about my past. Why are we here?"

"On the contrary Ichigo, your past is why I brought you here." He turns to the red headed lieutenant and smirks. "Honestly if I didn't know better I would say you two are related, but never mind that... Tamaza Mifune…is dead." The two before him widened their eyes in shock at the mention of that name. That is where I have been for the past eight months; did you not think it odd for the Captain Commander to be out for so long? There is a reason I did not want to tell you. Tamaza Mifune is…was a highly dangerous person, he can take form of anyone who he has killed and use their powers amplified one hundred times more potent. Obviously he would have taken her form if you fought. I'm sorry you two had to be the victims of him. He was suppressing himself down to the level of a Menos Grande. And I assume he was just watching you kill the Menos he was with. This would explain why you encountered him during a trip to the world of the Living, during a Menos attack. Orihime Inoue just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. But I still have no answer as to how she retained all of her memories and abilities she had when she was alive." He said as he removed his trademark hat and bowed his head as if asking for forgiveness.

"Thank…y- you Shunsui…I am forever grateful…I-" Ichigo found it difficult to breath as he tried with all his might to keep the tears from falling as he was forced to consciously remember that night but he quickly blocked the tears as His best friend, girlfriend, and lieutenant took his hand and started crying softly.

She was running down the street in the rain, she was running. Waiting for him, he promised to protect her. As she ran down the street the Menos let out a terrible scream, and she turned around, and where the Menos stood, it was Ichigo.

"Kurosaki-kun! Thank you! But there are a lot more, please be careful!" she said happily as he sped off towards the rest of the Menos.

"Why are so many Menos here, I understand one or two of them, but there's still ten more!"

He heard a scream which made him immediately spin around, there were three Menos Grande firing a Cero at him. He heard Orihime scream.

"Kurosaki-kun! Watch out! Hurry!"

As the Cero hit him, Orihime could just watch and tears formed in her eyes, as the smoke cleared though, she saw the young orange haired teen scowling his uniform smoldering a bit, then he got serious.

"BANKAI" As he said that one word, his black spiritual pressure seemed to envelope him like a blanket, and when he emerged his once huge sword was replaced with a much small but still long sword, which was pure black, on the blade itself it had small spike like grooves that pointed toward Ichigo every foot or so. The guard was replaced with a sharply pointed Manji symbol. His normal outfit was replaced with a normal Hakama and a long overcoat that extends down almost to the floor, both pure black, except for the inside of the coat being white, and white X's crossing his forearms, and three black X's crossing his torso.

"Tensa Zangetsu"

"Watch out!" Orihime screamed, causing him to turn and see another Cero firing at him.

Ichigo simply turned and held up Zangetsu. The Cero split as it hit his sword. Than after the cero was stopped, Ichigo disappeared and appeared a few feet from the giant hollow, he raised his sword and attacked

"Getsuga! Tenshou!" and he swung his sword at the hollow's face, splitting it in two as the massive wave of black tore through the hollow. The rest of the Menos were basically slain in a few more minutes. He landed near an awestruck Orihime and smiled.

"Are you ok, Inoue?" he asked with a warm smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine thank you! Kurosaki-kun, I- I- need to tell you something…." She spoke with a hushed tone which made her seem very worried.

"I have been trying to say this to you for two years now…." She trailed off trying to think of a way to get out of this. 'No! I need to tell him, I've put it off for two years!' she thought to herself. "Kurosaki-kun… I lov-" She was interrupted by a strange voice.

"Oh, I do hope I'm not interrupting anything." This voice said calmly

"Who the hell are you!?" Ichigo screamed at the strange man who seemed to materialize in front of him. All he could see was a cloak made of cloth, he couldn't see any type of weapon, and all he could see were those cold white eyes.

"My, that is no way to talk to someone you have just met, you filthy hybrid."

Ichigo was about to attack him, but he disappeared in an instant and he heard the sound of someone falling over. He turned around instantly, to see if Orihime was fine, but when he was turning it felt like an hour, before he finally turned and saw Orihime lying in a pool of her own blood, still smiling as if nothing happened. Ichigo's tears started to stream down his face. His tears felt like acid, he kneeled over and held up her body, his tears falling on her face.

"Ichigo. Snap out of it. It's okay." He heard Shunsui say as he put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Ichigo wasn't crying at all anymore, he managed to keep the tears in his eyes, but was shaking furiously

"Right. I'm sorry, I had a brutal flashback. I'm not going to ask about the fight, I don't want to know…" He cleared his mind. He still had a question he was going to ask from earlier. "Shunsui, I was wanting to know, if there is a way to officially adopt Koko Mitsu? She considers me her father."

"Well actually, that is already taken care of, while I was watching you two share that moment after she activated her Shikai, I sent a message to someone, you don't need the details, but, I believe that you will get some papers to fill out tomorrow, then she is yours. I am, however, concerned about her zanpakuto, Shinzo. It is as if it's an opposite of yours. I wonder what it does? Who knows, time will tell. But I expect she will want to live with you now. I'm aware you just sleep in your office; maybe you should get her a bed and put it in the corner? While on the subject of sleep, please try to keep yourself from randomly sleeping in Squad four, Retsu might just kill you if you're in one of those beds again and not injured." The flamboyant man stated, with a chuckle at the end. Ichigo nodded and his eyes gave away his fear of Retsu Unohana. But he regained his posture and turned to Orihime as she started to say something.

"Thank you. For everything, Captain Commander Kyoraku." Orihime said as she seemed to regain her posture and held her head up high and smiled. She turned to Ichigo and simply said "Can you please go easier on Koko-chan, you play too rough." She said with a smile and a laugh

"Orihime-chan…" said Shunsui. "…as I said, I'm not sure how it was that you were able to keep all of your memories, all of your powers, and somehow your spiritual pressure increased as if it was multiplying rapidly, I remember Ichigo wanting to send you to the academy, and you graduated in a year, and had skills on par with most of our lieutenants. The previous squad five lieutenant didn't like Ichigo at all, and she requested to be transferred to squad ten, and Ichigo immediately requested you become his lieutenant. but anyway, I will have Captain Kurostuchi look into it for you…What don't give me that look, he knows what he's doing most of the time, I'll make him agree that you are to stay in one piece. But for now, don't worry about it." He said as he laughed at her face which was filled with fear at the thought of the squad twelve captain experimenting on her.

"Well, today was interesting…to say the least. See you later, Shunsui. I'm headed back to my squad and see what they have done about the hole in my wall" With that the two orange haired companions ran back to the barracks, they saw that the hole in the wall had been fixed, so they had to go into the barracks to get into the office, as they were walking through the halls, everyone who happened to be walking around, stared at Ichigo, who just made a few nods of acknowledgement at a few of them, he had a long day, he wanted to just get into his office and sleep. Orihime went off somewhere, to go do something. So he was walking alone, very tired, and when he got into his office, he was shocked. Koko was sitting at his desk, asleep, looking peaceful as she possibly could. Ichigo walked up to her and he smiled, he picked her up, not slinging her over his shoulder, but like a father would pick up his daughter. He walked over to the couch that was on the other side of the room, and he set her down so she would be comfortable, he took off his captain's coat and placed it over her like a blanket, and he went to his desk, smiled, and immediately fell asleep with his head on the desk.

AN: This chapter was to explain the death of Orihime, but how she retained memories, abilities, and her spiritual pressure multiplying, will be explained in the future. As well as to explain why Koko called Ichigo 'dad' so much.

I hope you enjoyed!