WARNING: There is implied rape and sexual abuse in this chapter and possibly a little in the beginning of the next one; if you are uncomfortable with that, please wait patiently for the next chapter. If you do not like it, do not read it.

Chapter 05

Thrive to Live

Now—

He stood next to the bag on the grass to see two store bought meals next to the tree that he had eaten a meal with the vertically challenged captain. There was no doubt in his mind that Toushirou was there since his reiatsu was still lingering in the air faintly; must have left about three hours ago. After picking up the bag of food, he began to follow the faint trail of reiatsu that led him to the parking lot where he found the gikongan and the brand new cell phone. Both were placed in his pocket while he began following the trail of reiatsu that then disappeared as he came to the sidewalk next to a street as if he went in a vehicle. Knowing that the captain did not know how to use a taxi made him all the more suspicious of the clues that were not like Toushirou; this was uncharacteristic, and too much like a mind game.

Nevertheless, instead of jumping to any conclusions, he began to trail whatever reiatsu to find him.

The scent of alcohol and cigars burnt through his nose as the sounds of endless chatters and laughter entered through his ears as he stirred. Something extreme hot was beaming down on him though he was aware that it was not sunlight—it felt as if it were Ichigo's heat lamp bearing its rays. Did he fall asleep to have him carry his body back to the apartment… no, there were too many things that did not feel right. Searching his mind, he could barely recall that boy Ichigo treated, then running into the parking lot to be ambushed by the group he was told to avoid. His eyes slowly opened to see what was around him, only to see a room full of men and women looking at him as he began feeling a draft.

'Damn it… I feel like Hell…' He tried to get up and felt his wrist bound behind him and something against his forearms as if being held. 'What is going on?' He looked at the floor that his feet barely touched, and witnessed that he was not clothed at all; his body exploited. "What the Hell is this! What is going on!"

"Ah! It seems our new pet has awakened!" A man called, and it silenced the crowd. "Feisty too, isn't he?"
"You bastards, untie me, what do you what with me!" Being stripped was completely uncalled for.
"We were going to play a game with Kurosaki, but when we found out you had a virgin body, it changed."
This angered him. "If you want to go after Kurosaki, fight him fairly and not drag others into it, Imbecile!"

"I can't do that, you see… he damages our business too much. He lives in the apartments where all of the street kids we take are." The man with his scarred face clapped his hands. "Kurosaki just got out of class, an hour ago meaning he'll find your cell phone in the parking lot, hopefully you're something important…"

Toushirou calmed down, understanding that he was the bait. "If you release me and return my clothes, I'll do my best to convince Kurosaki to show you some mercy." He knew Ichigo was very protective recently.

"Nice try kid," the then looked to the audience. "Alright, sorry, the boy had been drugged just to get him here, so let's start the introductions!" Two men that held the captain took a step back. "As you can see by his fair skin, this little guy is obviously a virgin in the back!" Two more men came over, grabbing his legs to reveal his male organ and rear directly in view of everyone in the audience. "Sadly, this little guy can't be sold to anyone—however, you can always pay to use his body, if you don't mind his fits—"

"Unhand me!" Toushirou jerked one leg away to kick the man holding his other leg. 'Damn all of this!'

He began raising his reiatsu as much as possible for Ichigo to find him, and his body was then thrown on his stomach against the floor. His body had already felt like lead that took all of its strength to get those two men off him so they would stop exposing his body to the world. The captain was just about to yell at them, but something entered through his backside as a sharp pain took his breath right out of his lungs. Toushirou bottom ached as he dared to think what just inserted him from behind as the other two men released his arms, but replaced with two hands on his hips to push even farther in.

"Oh yeah… nice and tight!" The man told everyone. "Damn… I should just keep him for myself!"
"I'll give ten million yen to sleep with his body!" A man called out, waving a stack of money in the air.
"Hah!" A woman sneered. "I'll pay fifty million yet to use his body for the night in a decent bedroom!"
"All in good time dear customers!" The man stated, pounding into the small one. "We need to train him!"

Another man, the one who had been kicked in the face, lifted up a clipboard. "Just come up here and sign these papers and pay your amount, starting tomorrow, you all will pay half ahead of schedule, and pay the rest before your time with the child!" Dozens began to line up. "Good, good! Today we'll teach him some manners in no time! See how well behaved he's being right now? Come now, come all, it's okay!"

'D-Damn it…' Toushirou gritted his teeth and kept his mouth shut as his body was being violated—his body then flipped around with the man still deep inside him. 'I would kill you if I could…' He knew the man wanted him to vocalize pain, but would not give him want he wanted, earning a flick of a finger against his hardening length that came from nowhere. 'I… I can't let Kurosaki see me like this…' His reiatsu dimmed down to nothing to make sure Ichigo could not get any closer, wherever that man was at this moment. 'He would laugh… and rub this in my face…' The captain closed his eyes. 'Damn the irony of all of this crap.'

The one single order that Kurosaki Ichigo gave him, was not obeyed, and this was his punishment for it.

'…forgive me… Kurosaki.'

Ichigo had felt his reiatsu going as high as it could while being on a limiter, which was what he had been following for the past hour on foot. Then the strangest thing happened, it died down to nothing—as if he had vanished; perhaps he decided that he would go to Soul Society. If that was the case, there was no reason for him to roam the night like a predator hunting for its next me, so he turned and went home. It was still odd to him though, everything leading to this was unlike Toushirou, even though there were many things he did not know about him. Was this about Saturday night when they talked about being friends, was he trying to rub this all in his face or something? He placed everything down as soon as he came home, noting that he did not see those thugs outside pestering others right now… it was different.

"Toushirou… you here?" He knew that there would be no response, but had to ask anyway. "Maybe I should head to Soul Society tomorrow morning and apologize for upsetting him then." The man came over to the communicator that he then turned on. "I would like to speak with Rangiku-san of the Tenth Squad immediately with no questions asked." Ichigo did not mean to snap; he was tired and irritated.

The poor person receiving the order fumbled and fell over as he tried to get things set up while also trying to summon the large breasted woman to an active transmitter. It could not be helped that he was frightened by the unannounced request so late at night, and perhaps Rangiku was asleep or something as well. A few seconds later, the channel changed to reveal a thrilled woman—only to be gloomy once seeing his face. Instantly Ichigo was aware that she was hoping to see her captain's face more than his own, which meant that it was possible he did not leave Earth yet.

"Ichigo, did you two get into a fight or something?" The woman complained instantly.
His brow rose with interest. "What would make you ask a ridiculous thing like that?"
"Taichou won't answer my calls since I told him your pictures look great together!"
'He didn't return.' He thought about it. "We had a little argument, we're not talking."
"What? Why! Go make up with him!" Rangiku roared, easily breaking his eardrums.

"You know what I'll do?" Ichigo asked curiously, smiling softly at her. "I'll let him settle down for a little while longer before I apologize to him, alright?" He carelessly shrugged. "Well… that is, so long as you and everyone else don't come over here and try to fix things. We all know how cranky Toushirou can be."

"Okay! I'll make sure everyone will stay here and not bug you!" She was thrilled to hear his plans.

Ichigo changed the subject. "On another note, how is Momo doing? Is she eating well?"
"Yes, she's doing well." The woman answered him with a smile. "She's sleeping well too!"
"That's good to hear, I appreciate everything that you're doing. Toushirou appreciates it too."
"So you're going to talk to him tonight?" She smiled with excitement, in hopes of their friendship.

The male resisted having to flinch at this. "He's probably asleep right now, I wouldn't want to disturb him." It was truth, Toushirou was probably sleeping somewhere. "I will talk to him at the first chance that I get." He brought a hand up to his mouth, giving a fake yawn. "As for you, you need to get some sleep as well."

"Ichigo…" She called softly, earning his full attention. "I really appreciate you doing this."
This took him by surprise since he had not done anything to deserve praise. "Doing what?"
"Trying to get through to him." Rangiku laughed softly. "He really does put his faith in you…"

His chest felt knotted when hearing this, but he cleared his throat to wash any visible guilt, "goodnight."

The transmission ended, and he rubbed his face to throw off his agitation.

Toushirou was not at the university…

Not at the parking lot where he found the cell phone…

When he found a trace of his reiatsu, it instantly vanishes and stops him…

"Getting angry won't find Toushirou…" Everything made sense to him now, only making him angrier by the second. "He was raising his reiatsu to tell me where he is, damn it." The trail was probably cold now, but he was exhausted from classes, and he would have to skip tomorrow as well just to find him. "Why did he go somewhere without telling me… if he's testing me… he's doing one Hell of a job at it." He lied down to go to bed. "Either way, I can't do anything if I'm not well rested." His eyes closed, and he fell asleep.

Never knowing what was happening…

His body ached and throbbed as he lied on his side against the cold concrete curled into a ball to cover himself to keep whatever pride he had left. Arms and hands were bound together, making it impossible for him to escape the gigai, otherwise he would have done it hours ago. All he knew was that it was late at night with all five men somewhere sleeping in comfortable rooms after throwing themselves on him. It was all burned into memory; the painful feeling, the horrid taste, everything was so disgusting that he just wanted to burn this body. Nothing could become any worse unless it was Kurosaki Ichigo that came walking in suddenly to find him lying naked on the floor in some cell—

"Have you learned your lesson?" A female voice called after a garganta opened.

Toushirou's eyes widened in remarkable dreaded fear as his head lifted up. "You…"
Piercing green hues stared down at him coldly. "You disobeyed Kurosaki-sama."
"Kuro—" he almost sat up but remembered his situation. "It was you then…"

"I was order to be your protector, but you needed to be disciplined." She then firmly kicked him in the stomach, causing him to cough out blood from the impact of her foot. "I was born through sacrifices, and therefore I'm willing to sacrifice myself to teach you a lesson about your attitude towards Kurosaki-sama."

What was her name… she was not like this the last time they had met—she had been killed by Aizen Sousuke… but what did she call herself? Her body showed that she was no longer something so high and powerful, and instead, an Adjuchas leveled Menos like the other. Her blonde hair… her fierce green cold hues… the Hollow bones covering her face as it once did before—the name finally clicked.

"…Tia Harribel…" Toushirou seethed, almost wanting to laugh. "You were summoned to protect me?"
"I was, but your attitude towards Kurosaki-sama is unforgivable." She answered, ready to kick him.
He curled up more in case she did just that. "What are you going on about, that's how we are."
"After your reiatsu died, he went home to go to sleep." Harribel snorted. "You're nothing to him."
"Somehow, it seems my life has more valuable to him than yours do." He chuckled; earning a kick.

Another garganta opened, a small child appearing. "Harribel, Stark said to come get you!"
"Humph," she took a step away from the captain. "Is there another fight, Lilinette?"
"No, Kurosaki-sama gave us orders to block off all paths to Karakura Town."
"What?" It did not sound like she had expected this sort of news from her.

"Grimmjow said that Kurosaki-sama wants the gates to Karakura Town to be blocked off until he finds Chibi-taichou." The small female stated. "If you're there helping, you might not get in trouble. He just wants to make sure Shinigami won't come looking for Chibi-taichou to make sure he's there." She then shrugged. "I don't know… something about not wanting them to accuse him of betraying Soul Society."

"H-How are you two alive?" Toushirou could not believe his eyes.

There was a long silence between the three, and the small female that had appeared through a garganta did not once look at Toushirou or step foot on the ground. She knew that, if she did either, that she was in high chances of getting herself and Stark killed for associating themselves in Harribel's plot. However, Toushirou's question needed to be answered or else he would cause grief for Kurosaki Ichigo, the one that placed himself on the line for them.

"A Shinigami wouldn't understand," Lilinette stated. "We were given power by that bastard, Aizen. Only to be killed and not cared about." Her head dipped down. "Kurosaki-sama… he feels our true pain of it—"
"Don't confess everything to him," Harribel hissed at the short one. "He is, after, just a stupid Shinigami."
"I came here to do as told, I have no part in this." With that, the other left through a garganta in silence.
"Kurosaki-sama revived us, but returned to our previous forms since the Hougyoku no longer exists." She stated before opening the garganta for herself. "Therefore, we serve Kurosaki-sama, unconditionally…"

"So then… he only revived four of you…" Toushirou could count them, Stark, Lilinette, Harribel, and that Grimmjow they mentioned. "That four-legged Menos that watches Hinamori must be Kurosaki's favorite."

"Four?" Harribel seemed mused. "His favorite pet, has yet to be summoned."

"There's five?" He then winced; yelling hurt his body.

"Until you swear on your pathetic life that you will treat Kurosaki-sama with respect, I will let these petty humans do whatever they want with you." She then half-laughed. "Unfortunately, the only thing that I cannot let them do, is to let them kill you. Luckily, you Shinigami are resilient when it comes to death."

Harribel then walked through the garganta to allow the little captain to think things through during his own time since it seemed that he would have a lot of it on his hands. Who would have thought that Kurosaki Ichigo would have several former Espada as 'pets,' as they were calling them apparently. That was what Rangiku had meant, so that meant that there were four others that were aware about these …pets… excluding her. One was obviously Momo since that Grimmjow creature jumped through Soul Society to protect her from the drunken officer. Two others would have to be Kuchiki Rukia and Abarai Renji since Ichigo could not keep things from them—as if he would try though. The last one had to be the Commanding-General due to recalling the conversation that they had during that second day when Toushirou was introduced to the university. They had to be the four that were aware of it, though it seemed that Rangiku knew what she was getting herself into, and now Toushirou joined the little club.

"My body hurts too much to think… I just… need… to…" overexerted, Toushirou collapsed. "Sleep…"

After he collapsed, another garganta opened, revealing a new pair of firm looking dark green hues that held no emotion. It looked over the captain as its tail flickered around rapidly due to the desire to kill him just because it was Hollow instincts. However, the only reason why it was there to check upon things was to let Ichigo know that Harribel was up to something mischievous due to jealousy. After all calculations were mentally drawn up in his mind, he turned and left the cell to give the report of Harribel's actions.

"You are indeed, one unlucky Shinigami." It stated before leaving through the garganta.

Toushirou, whom was still sleeping uncomfortably against the concrete floor, was completely oblivious.

It was five in the morning, the sun's rays barely touching the horizon though enough to lead him through the morning after waking up two hours ago. He did his usual routine of taking a morning shower despite it being three hours earlier than he usually would, and ate a piece of toast. Brown hues were not pleased about the fact that the small captain not there; it had only been five days since he had to live here. Now he was nowhere to be found and his things were not in his possession, so Ichigo had to think about the situation a little more. His mind retraced everything while he was asleep due to his Hollow side, and the scents of other that touched the cell phone came to him; those thugs. That was why he woke so earlier today and began the hunt after meeting his most trusted pet who warned him of the danger he was in.

'I'll deal with Harribel later.' He thought to himself, retracing his steps from yesterday, backtracking to the point where he stopped his search. 'Of course…' He looked up to the sign. 'Somewhere in Tokyo, huh?'

Ichigo passed through the border, not bothering to go in his Shinigami form because he would most likely need to attack humans. Not to mention that he would need to keep his anger contained if he did not want any Hollow to terrorize the area while he was busy. The men took the little vertically challenged captain out of the town to somewhere, forcing him to play their game of chase now. He thought Toushirou was at least smart enough to listen to him—to the one single order that he gave him, but he had to wait. There were no reasons as to judge the situation without knowing what had truly happened, until then, he had to reserve judgment for a while. This was not going to be ending well on one side or the other, and Ichigo could swear on his life that it was not going to be his side losing. The carrot top only now regretted never going after them; never following the group to the place where they were operating their disgusting plots.

His hand lifted to snap his fingers to summon his— 'No…' he thought to himself quietly as he lowered his hand. 'If Toushirou is in trouble, he wouldn't want them to get involved with them.' Ichigo continued forth through Tokyo, only to be bumped into every now and then. 'Damn it… it's too crowded in this city.'

Before he knew it, his Hollow side began to heighten, causing him to make a sharp turn in an alleyway to find the scent he found on the ground. Toushirou's blood, just trickles of it that was obviously planted to throw him off because there was nothing that he could trace that had anything spiritual. This made him angrier than he was a minute ago as he became to walk out of the alley dangerously and down the street.

His blood was boiling with each step that he made as these beasts were playing with him since they knew that he was some enhanced human. Another person bumped into him, but he did not falter in which had the man fall over in complaint to his rudeness that went unheard. He felt himself becoming angrier by the second until he saw a large garganta opening above his head, and so he snapped his fingers, it vanished.

"I know that you're listening." Ichigo stated firmly in a low whisper. "Devour all who come for my reiatsu."

The creature then flew above his head to stand on a building, watching over the Master that it had that replaced its previous owner. Large green hues were now focused on its very first instructed order in seventeen long years that it had been long awaiting for. Ten Hollow then appeared in a group due to the delicious sensation of Ichigo's reiatsu that was leaking out, and they were all annihilated instantly. Nothing was going to interfere with its order of destroying any life force, dead or alive, that went after this man…

Its attention flickered when feeling itself being summoned by another that was back in Karakura Town, however, it did not falter to ignore the call. True, if it were not for her, they would not have been created again and given a chance to ignore the world Aizen Sousuke created. The only thing was that she was given the request to do the task, and with them bared her loyalty while they gave her some respect. They knew though that they would have to choose Kurosaki Ichigo over Inoue Orihime without a thought after everything that he was doing for them. Plans had been set and in motion, given them immunity from the Shinigami so long as they minded their own business and backed off.

Another group of Hollow appeared and struck down instantly.

"Foolish primitive creatures…" It spoke with a male tone, flickering his tail before jumping from building to building as Ichigo passed them one by one, watching over him just in case. "I will not fail this simple task."

Ichigo almost smirked when hearing him say this. 'He's surprisingly pumped that I gave him something to do after never giving him an order after all this time.' This was somewhat planned even thought there was a lot more to it than just some petty neglecting purpose. 'Sorry Inoue, but I need him to destroy all Hollow and Menos upon sight so that Soul Society won't catch wind of the disturbance.' He kept on walking forth.

A Hollow then appeared in front his face, only to be cut down before Ichigo had to stop in place, it was a shame that he had killed him once before. On the other hand, having killed him and interesting him had made him all the more obedient and submissive—the others were the same. After having made a deal with the Commanding-General in Soul Society, they were allowed to live despite what they were once used for. Five of them were granted permission to flow through the barrier because Ichigo trusted them the most, however, only two were allowed to enter that realm. As stated previously, Grimmjow was the guardian watching over Momo, and was allowed to defend her or take actions in her favor. Stark and Lilinette would stay outside of the realm to make sure no one would attempt a surprise attack on Soul Society as rare as that was—they still had enemies. Harribel was more of a wanderer whom kept things under control in Hueco Mundo; making sure that the Gillian would not produce too many Adjuchas.

'As for you,' Ichigo thought, staring at the fifth creature. "Keep up the good work, Ulquiorra."
Ulquiorra Schiffer turned to look at him. "Yes, my Lord." With that, flew into the sky.
'Hang in there, Toushirou, I'm coming soon.' He stated in his mind.

"Hey Chibi," the scar-faced man called, Toushirou glared. "Kurosaki ain't gonna find you." The captain did not speak, and he continued. "After all, you're almost half way across the damn country, got it, Chibi?"