Chapter 6 - Making Plans

"Very intelligent, specimen. I have indeed been successful in extracting this most beautiful spirit from the clutches of your disgusting soul." The Shinigami brought a hand down the side of her face, ignoring her flinch. "Pantera you say her name is? Beautiful. I will thoroughly enjoy having her. Thank you, filth, you may die now."

With that the light was gone and Grimmjow was left feeling more hollowed than he had ever been as a Menos. Rage boiled and churned in his empty stomach. Ignoring the screaming pain in his ribs from his last interaction with the Shinigami's assistants, he threw himself forward, pulling on his shackles in his attempt to get to the door. The chains rattled and he roared in mindless fury.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS, ASSHOLE!" He screamed.

Then pain exploded in the back of his mind and the next thing he knew he was falling, both physically against the tension of his chains and mentally into the soothing dark of unconsciousness. The fleeting thought that he was dying crossed his mind and with it a flash of regret that he'd never get to see his cub born or be able to really enjoy his strawberry.

In the darkest corner of the room something moved. Amber eyes peered out of the darkness, and delicate hands tore a strip of cloth from their own shirt to wipe the blood, sweat and tears from the face of the unconscious Sexta. Matted pink hair stuck out in all directions as the person tried to run a hand through it. Nervously glancing around the dirty room where all of the surviving former Espada were held, the thin male kept his form close to the ground while he slunk around the space. He wiped away what dirt that he could, and attempted to heal his companions, all the while ignoring the stinging ache where his 'wings' dragged across the floor. The bulbs along the normally white appendages were mostly lacerated and the few that weren't deflated completely were distorted by brewing infections.

The Primera was also unconscious, forcibly strapped to a table in the center of the room, his belly slashed open. In the dim light leaking in from around the door the Octavo could see that the wound had begun to fester. He hovered his hand over the area and channeled some of his own reiatsu into the area to try and stave off the infection, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. He had his own wounds, and the Tercera, both current and former, were no better off than the Primera. At least he'd gotten the Quatro and the Quinto out. Though he was certain the Quatro had gotten through to his Beta, the male Beta was uncertain whether the Quinto had been intelligent enough to run away. He had the sinking suspicion that the lanky Arrancar was still hanging around due to the fact that the former Tercera was still caged. Her ability to shape shift made her too valuable to be thrown away, but the Shinigami scientist couldn't use his poisons on her the way he could with the others.

"Sa-Szayel…" The sea-green haired Arrancar called hoarsely through the darkness and the slender male crossed under the lab table to where she huddled in a cage of steel bars. She was the only one not in her resurrection form. "H-how is he?" Her voice cracked as she tried to whisper.

"He will survive—this time." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "If we don't get them out of here soon there will be nothing left for the girl to heal. Already Halibel's broken jaw is healing misaligned and Starrk's stomach wound continues to fester. I fear we will succumb to infection before help can arrive. How are you?" He reached through the bars to run his delicate hand across her stomach.

She was lying on her back, her knees drawn up and to the side. Her left ankle was encased in a metal cuff similar to the restraints holding back the Sexta, but her right ended just below her knee. "I'll be fine. I fear more for Nnoitra than myself. He won't last long out there, and I don't think he could bring himself to truly abandon me. Not after—"

"I know, but we have to hope that he has at least the good sense to try and meet up with the ones that escaped. My brother and yours." He shook his head and sighed.

Just then there was a commotion outside the door, causing Szayel to bolt across the room, back into his hiding place. As far as the Shinigami knew he was still frozen from that 'perfection' potion. So, in the corner farthest from the door, behind the husk-statue that was his supposed form, the amber eyes peered out as light flooded the filthy space again.

This time two of the Shinigami's assistants entered, dragging an unconscious blonde form. They dumped the slim male at the end of the table and returned to the hall where something was yelling unintelligibly and the other Shinigami were shouting to each other. When the five or six assistants finally fought the thing into the room, both Szayel and Nel had to bite off a gasp. The Quinto was blinded, blood pouring down his face, his left foot dragged behind him, one of his shoulders was out of alignment, and several other arms looked broken badly. Worst was the fact that he was pushed into the floor by his own weapon as a freakishly distorted praying mantis hissed and chittered as blood welled up around the blade at the back of his neck.

Between the strength of Santa Teresa and the Shinigami, Nnoitra was wrestled against the wall next to Grimmjow and shackled as heavily, a metal cuff four inches thick around each wrist and ankle, and one around his neck that matched the one around the mantid spirit's own. All of these were attached to the wall, and by the time the captors were done the Quinto barely had enough room to take the weight off of his broken ankle. The door slammed shut and darkness swallowed the room again.

"FUCK YOU ALL! JUST WAIT! I GOT OUT BEFORE FUCKERS, I'LL DO IT AGAIN!" He screamed, then more quietly, "Fucktards. All of 'em. Tch." Szayel crept out again, and approached Nnoitra, who jerked away from the noise. "Who's there? Fucker! Answer me!"

"Shh. Nnoitra, it's me." The Octavo touched the bare chest in front of him. "I'm going to wipe the blood off your face. Try not to move. I may be able to preserve your eye for later with my reiatsu, but if you jerk around you'll only hurt yourself more. Then who would care for Nelliel when this is all over?"

"Feh. Be quick, Pinky. I wanna be able ta see my baby again." His voice was quiet, and he held still while Szayel cleaned him as best he could. When the Quinto sensed the scientist was done, he called just as quietly, "Hey Babe, how ya doin'?"

"Oh, Nnoi! Why couldn't you have just left?" She almost wailed, pulling herself up on the bars of her cage.

"We tried, Babe, honest. But yer brothers—he got 'em, and when Tesla, Yylfordt an' I tried ta get 'em back he got the other two. Thought I saw Tesla 'fore Saint Bitch shoved 'er finger in mah eye. He in here?" He swung his head from side to side as though he could still see, but all it did was get a few strands of his long black hair stuck in what Szayel couldn't clean off.

"Yesss, Nnoitra. He'sss here." A new voice, strained and from the opposite side of the lab table answered. "He ssseemsss to be unconsssciousss. Ssszayel, could you check him?" The current Tercera hung, suspended above the floor by brackets around her upper arms and thighs. She had nails driven through the fins of her tails, and her right arm was missing from the elbow down, where Tiburon had been forcibly torn from her body.

"Sure, Hal, but you shouldn't talk with your jaw still broken." The pink haired Arrancar crossed the room again. He spoke for Nnoitra's benefit, "He is unconscious. A single blow to the back of his head. Otherwise he appears to be in perfect condition." He was silent for a moment. "He is also with cub. Is it yours?"

"Nah. Yylfordt's. Heh. Bastard better make it ta take care o' that cub! I ain't takin' in his strays." The Quinto tried to cover a yawn by sucking his teeth again.

"Try to get some sleep, Nnoi. With luck, now that he's got your Zanpakutou he'll leave you alone like he has with Halibel, Starrk and Grimmjow." Nel's voice was tired as well.

Szayel tried to make Tesla more comfortable, though there wasn't much he could do with the stone floor. He had to settle with using his own lap as a pillow for the other male Beta. Leaning against the leg of the table where Starrk was knocked out, he surveyed the room. Two of them were so physically beaten that even if rescue came tomorrow they wouldn't be able to handle themselves. One wouldn't awake until some way was found to reunite him with his other half. Two were pregnant. And besides himself, the only capable fighter had been maimed beyond his ability to repair her. He shook his head slightly, hoping against hope that some of the other fraccion had escaped the clutches of the Shinigami scientist.

Over the next few days both Grimmjow and Tesla regained consciousness, but within a few hours of being awake the Sexta settled himself into a comfortable position and dove into himself. He stayed that way for the next several weeks while the others around him tried in vain to avoid being used as an experiment for the surely insane Shinigami.

Deep within the jungle of Grimmjow's mindscape, the feline Arrancar lay prone on a panel of blue glass. It was one of only a few signs that he still had a Beta somewhere waiting for him. He took a gasping breath and shuddered at the pain that carried over even into this place of non-reality. Blinking up at the branches of a large tree, he could almost see what the strawberry was doing. Had it really been ten weeks since the fucking Shinigami had messed with their world…AGAIN!

How he wished he could be there instead of in this living nightmare, but time and again, as he threw himself at the boundary between his mindscape and Ichigo's he found himself forced back. The integration between the two had not been completed. So, he needed the berry to be within his own mindscape to finish the bridge, or more appropriately he needed Pantera to fuck the berry's inner Hollow. Not that it could happen anymore now that she was off traipsing around after the Shinigami fucker like a trained pet. He snorted, wondering how long it would take before his wild and untamable Zanpakutou tore the throat out of the Shinigami that tried to domesticate her.

That sort of thinking was only going to get him worked up again, and he needed to conserve his energy, he knew, because without her in his soul it would only be a matter of time before he started to lose his abilities the same way Ulquiorra had. So, he contented himself with watching his strawberry interacting with the other Betas in the Living World and staying as close as he could to the pieces of his mindscape that weren't his own.

Over the last several days, while Ulquiorra had begun to be able to stay awake for most of the day, Ichigo had been feeling a drawing sensation within his mind. Almost as though someone was trying to contact him, but every time he asked Shiro about it, his pale copy could only say that somewhere at the edge of things was something he couldn't quite hear or see or sense. It was like the picture on a television with a loose cable, every so often they'd get a flash of clear picture but the rest of the time all they could sense was static.

The orangette sighed. He was once again relaxing on the cushions of the 'Beta Room', but for once he was alone. The others were all out with Rukia and Rangiku shopping for Orihime. He had been invited but he had no desire to be seen in public at the moment. Hacchi and Hyori had declined as well, but both were off doing something somewhere else, and Ichigo could begin to care about finding out what.

He rolled his neck and shoulders, then ran his hand down his front. Gone were the defined muscles of his abdomen. He didn't exactly have a bump per say, yet, but his washboard stomach had smoothed out over the last week and the stretch of skin below his navel had begun to be pushed outward. Three weeks away from the end of the first trimester, according to the book Orihime obsessed over, and though he was still nauseous and exhausted most of the time, the hardest part was a weight in his heart that told him that the whole time they were sitting around waiting for Soul Society to get their act together Grimmjow and the other Arrancar were suffering the same fate Ulquiorra had before escaping. He sighed again.

"Something on your mind, Berry-tan?" Mashiro broke through his thoughts and his line of vision by sticking her face over his.

He smirked and gave into the temptation to bat at her hair, which made her giggle. She was surprisingly good to talk to, and completely ignored his mood swings. So, after a moment of contemplation, he inhaled and began speaking everything that had just crossed his mind out loud. She sat and listened, nodding every so often.

He finished with, "And now I'm starting to show, which means that if we wait too much longer I won't be able to go with them. So, what do you think, Mashi?"

"Mashiro thinks that Berry-tan is closer than he thinks. Kensei-chan and Shinji-chan were talking about breaking into Hueco Mundo themselves yesterday, cuz Kisuke-chan says there's no reason why Soul Society can't get into the place. All of his instruments and stuffs say that the problem is from where we're trying to start the Garganta, not where it's going."

Ichigo sat up, almost knocking into the green haired Visored. "You mean, the only reason we've been unable to get into Hueco Mundo all this time is because we didn't have anyone on this side who could do it naturally!"

She appeared to think for a minute with her finger on her chin and her head tilted to the side. "Uh—yup!" She nodded.

Ichigo had pulled her out of the room and down into the underground chamber faster than she could blink, but not fast enough to stop or join the group heading into Hueco Mundo. He growled his frustration as he, and Mashiro, pulled up short next to Orihime and Ulquiorra as the Garganta closed. Kisuke was standing closer to it and looked up, tilting his hat back slightly.

"Ah, Ichigo-san, I was wondering how long it would take you to get here. I'm sorry you're a bit late though." The shopkeeper began to make his way over to the newly arrived pair but the furious reiatsu pouring off the orangette held him in place.

"Kurosaki, calm yourself." Ulquiorra intoned, flicking his tail in front of the Visored's face. When the stormy amber and gold eyes focused on his, he spoke again, "Betas do not fight unless they have to, expecting Betas especially. You will notice none of your fellow Betas went through the Garganta." He gestured to where Lisa, Rukia, Rangiku, and Hacchi were gathered beyond Kisuke. Ulquiorra's tone was placating, and the feel of his reiatsu, though still considerably weaker than normal, was soothing on the seething Beta. "It is an Alpha's job to protect the Betas of the pack, Kurosaki. To deny them that right would be to emasculate them in ways that go against everything it means to be a Hollow."

"Besides, Ichigo-kun, I'm sure they'll be back before we even notice they're missing. I mean, we know they're missing now but they be back before it bothers us I'm sure." Orihime smiled, trying to help as usual with her slightly oblivious babbling. She caught the somewhat worried and lost look on Mashiro's face and laughed nervously, "Not that having them gone doesn't bother us!" She waved her hands in front of her chest with the palms out, still laughing nervously until Ulquiorra placed a black furry hand on her shoulder. Then she looked at him and her own worries crossed her face.

"Go." Was all he said to her.

She nodded and took Mashiro's arm, who in turn pulled Ichigo, leading them both over to where the other girls were lounging. Rukia and Rangiku were pouring over the bags of baby stuff they'd bought, Hacchi was meditating, Hyori was playing some sort of game with Ururu and Jinta, and Lisa was trying very hard to read one of her manga tankobans. It was to her that Orihime brought Ichigo and Mashiro. The four sat in a small circle slightly separated from the others both in distance and position, as only these four really felt the loss of the Alphas.

It was some time before anything really changed. Kisuke and Tessai brought a fold-up table, cushions, food and drinks down from the store, then engaged Yoruichi and Renji in a game of cards. Byakuya returned from Soul Society but said nothing as all but Ichigo had been aware of his informing Yamamoto of Shinji's plan to storm Los Noches without Seireitei's help. The stoic noble brought a book of classic haikus out of a pocket in his haori and settled to wait slightly separated from everyone but closer to the girls than the table.

The peaceful air continued until Toshiro and Karin burst into the underground like the gates of Hell were trying to catch them. Everyone looked up at the intrusion with mixed levels of curiosity and alarm. The captain of the Tenth was missing his hakama-himo and sword belt, opting to carry Hyourinmaru by the sheath. Karin was wrapped in his haori and nothing else.

"Karin, what happened?" Ichigo asked, but didn't leave the safety of his circle of Betas.

Surprisingly the black-haired girl dove at him, hugging him tightly and as close to crying as he'd ever seen her. Toshiro followed behind, but was wary of approaching what he was sure to be an overprotective older brother.

When neither gave any sort of answer, the orangette scowled. He felt the girl in his arms trembling, though from rage, fear, or withheld anguish he wasn't sure. Looking from his sister to the shortest captain, his demanded with a slight growl, "What happened, Toshiro?"

The change in his voice brought closer attention from the girls he'd bonded with. Lisa, Mashiro and Orihime joined him in staring down the white-haired captain, who gulped and suddenly found himself more nervous than before.

"Uh, it's yer dad, Kurosaki." Toshiro wiped his palms on his shihakusho, feeling much closer to his physical age than his true one. "H-he caught us—uh—yanno." He cleared his throat.

"Ichi-nii, he's horrible!" Karin whipped her head up to catch her brother's scowl. "He threw us both out of the house. Told me that if I was gonna whore myself out like y-you did that I didn't need to be living at home." To her credit she only hiccupped once, but the trembling of her shoulders never stopped.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you're sitting on my lap after having just had sex, but didn't he even let you grab any clothing?" Disbelief was written across the faces of most of the people gathered around the young couple. Ichigo shook his head, already aware of the answer to his question, "At least tell me you used protection?"

Karin scoffed, "Of course! Y'think I'm stupid? I don't wanna be a mom yet." To which Toshiro blushed deeply.

"Urahara-san, would you and Yoruichi-sama come with us to get Karin some clothes?" Ichigo looked over at the two.

"Why don't we all go?" Orihime asked, and Rukia and Rangiku nodded in agreement.

Ichigo shook his head again, "No, somebody has to stay here for when the Al-uh-others get back." He sighed deeply, which had a mixed effect. The few other Betas that were getting worked up with him relaxed, but Karin winced, as the button on his jeans popped, shooting her in the side.

The siblings looked down, the older blushing and the younger smirking. Before he could say anything she pulled his tee shirt up, "Lemme see! Yuzu's gonna be so jealous!" This motion forced the orangette to lean back on his hands, his little sister holding his shirt up around his ribs with one hand while laying her other hand against the smoothed skin of his midsection. With the button on his jeans popped, the fact that the flesh there was beginning to pooch out was more obvious because of the indentation where the top of the zipper sat pressed against his skin. Karin squealed, he was sure for the first time in her life, and gently drawing her hand around the change in her brother's stomach.

Rangiku chirped, "You've finally popped, Ichi!" and Rukia joined the squealing.

Before he could answer her, Mashiro cooed, leaning over his shoulder with a smile, "Just wait 'til later, right, Berry-tan?"

Orihime smiled too, rubbing her own bump. "Yeah." She giggled, "In a couple weeks he'll really be showing."

"I can't wait." Ichigo rolled his eyes, his tone half sarcasm. "Can we go get Karin clothing now?"

"Yes, please?" Toshiro looked downright uncomfortable, trying to focus on anything other than his girlfriend's position as the way she was kneeling gave him a wonderful of her posterior draped in the white fabric of his haori.

Byakuya appeared next to the pile of Betas and peered down at the orangette in the middle, "Kurosaki, perhaps you would like to change first?"

The object of everyone's attention blushed deeply and muttered something that only Karin could hear. So while she fell back onto her heels laughing, Lisa raised an eyebrow, "What was that, Berry-chan?"

He gritted his teeth, avoiding the entertained eyes of both Kisuke and Renji, "I said it's more comfortable this way, so no, I'm not going to change." That set off another round of fangirl squealing and laughter from the less feminine females. To their credit the boys mostly looked amused, except Toshiro, who still looked like he'd swallowed a lemon whole.

The orangette took the moment of mirth and freedom to stand up, thankful that his tee-shirt covered the fact that his pants were unfastened. He straightened his shirt and sighed as it clung in places it normally wouldn't. He supposed he should get used to it, but damnit all if he wasn't going to give that confounded panther a piece of his mind when he finally got his hands on the sex god. "Come on, Karin, let's go." He walked with a purpose that sent chills down the spines of most of the Betas in the group.

Just before Kisuke, Yoruichi and Karin followed him, Lisa made the comment, "He's finally coming into his power." Which drew Mashiro into a fit of giggles, and sent knowing smiles on both Orihime and Hyori's faces. Rangiku and Rukia looked a little confused, but a look at Byakuya, who raised an eyebrow of the edge of his book, made them turn to each other and mouth the word 'oh' with a smile.

Outside the Kurosaki residence, Ichigo took a deep breath and strode up to the door with Kisuke and Yoruichi flanking him. Karin hung back, still wrapped in Toshiro's haori, while the orangette pounded on the door. It was a bit surreal having to knock on his childhood home, but Shiro whispered in his mind that he had to be invited into the non-family Alpha's territory after having been chased off the last time he was here.

When Yuzu opened the door his stance softened somewhat and he returned her hug gratefully, but the peace was broken when Isshin cleared his throat behind his blonde daughter. The ex-Shinigami looked older than Ichigo remembered, lines around his eyes and mouth more pronounced and a weariness in his eyes that had always been kept at bay by his goofy antics and overall optimistic attitude. Sensing the tension between father and son, Yuzu pushed her way past her brother and the candy shop owner her friends lived with to get to her sister.

"I know why you're here." Isshin stated, standing firmly in the doorway. "She'll be allowed to come home if she stops seeing that boy."

"No." Ichigo met his father's eye with a deep scowl, his resolve the only thing in his eyes and only his markings showing that there was anything different about him. Before his old man could say anything more, he said, "We're just here for clothing. We whores have to stick together."

Yuzu flinched and clutched her sister tighter. She marveled at the strength her brother seemed to have built since last she saw him. She could hardly pay attention to what Karin was muttering in her ear, but she smiled nevertheless when she heard about his pants button.

Ichigo was still talking, "If you think for one moment that I'd let either of my sisters stay here when they aren't wanted you've got another thing coming. Your words don't scare me, old man." He took a step forward, pressing into his father's personal space slightly. "Now, move and we'll be gone before you can even come up with an answer."

The power radiating from his son was enough to make Isshin pause, and that was all the moment Ichigo needed as he brushed past his father. This left Kisuke and Yoruichi to glare at their comrade. "What?" He snapped.

Yoruichi shook her head, and Kisuke clucked his tongue. "You're making a mistake, Isshin. Completely ignoring this thing with Ichigo, you hand chose Toshiro to succeed you in the Tenth. You can't tell me you don't have faith in the boy?"

"I chose him for my division, Kisuke, not for my daughter. My still human daughter! You know for a fact he wouldn't be allowed to do what I did, and I refuse to lose all of my children to the Soul Society." The years weighed on the man in the doorway.

"Just because things were such that you couldn't handle the distance when you were younger doesn't mean that things haven't changed, Isshi-kun." Yoruichi reached out to put her hand on the dark-haired man's shoulder, but he flinched back. "A lot has happened since Aizen's defeat, and most of it has to do with your son. You know how strong he is, how powerful. Why does it matter who—"

"Save it. He won't listen." Ichigo pushed back passed his father, glaring out of the corner of his eyes. "Here, Kare-chan." He held out a duffle bag. "I brought enough that you could come with us, Yuzu, but I won't force you." His eyes said he wanted her to, but he knew in his heart that she'd stay.

"Somebody has to take care of Otousan." She smiled sadly. "Daisuki desu, Onii-chan, Karin-chan. I'll swing by after school sometimes to say hi." She gave them each a hug, and spent a moment petting her brother's stomach. "Take care of Mei-chan." Then she moved back to stand in front of their father.

One last look from Kisuke and Yoruichi and Isshin turned away from the foursome. Ichigo moved off with Karin, not looking back even once until he felt his father's reiatsu back away from the door. Then he turned and smiled with a wave at Yuzu. Karin followed suit and at that their sister returned inside the home.

"Ichigo-chan," Kisuke started while they walked back to the shoten, "I don't mean to be a rainy cloud on your wonderful new strength but I think it might be prudent to point out that things are getting a bit crowded back at home?" He waved his fan in front of his face as the orangette turned to look at him with equally orange eyebrows shot up into spiky fringe.

"I didn't even think about that." The hybrid looked between the shopkeeper and the feline woman, "With Karin here now, she and I can move back into my apartment if that would make things easier." Yoruichi paled at that idea.

"Oh no, no, I didn't mean anyone had to leave, Berry-chan." Kisuke waved his fan again, and Karin snickered at the nickname. "Just that I think we'll have to start a tent city in the underground if we get any more bodies lying around the shop."

Ichigo still looked worried, his brows now furrowed, "But, if there are that many mouths to feed, it can't be easy on your stores, Urahara-san. I suppose I should get a job anyway." He put his hand on his stomach lightly, "I mean I'll have to support myself on my own eventually, right?" Again he looked between the two.

Yoruichi flung her arm across the orangette's shoulders, "Ichi-chan, you don't quite get the idea of being part of a pack do you?"

Karin had tears running down her cheeks from holding in her laughter at her brother's vacant expression. "Geez, Ichi-nii, you're so clueless!" That earned her a glare of her own, but all it got him was another round of side splitting laughter.

"What your sister and Yoruichi are trying to say, my dear boy, is that you will never be alone in this. Even should the worst possible thing happen, you will always have the other Betas you've bonded with to support you. On top of their physical help, the Soul Society still has you on their payroll, yes?" The orangette nodded, and the shopkeeper mimicked him, "They have stipends and bonuses for expecting mothers and parents with children. I dare say you won't be able to live like royalty but between your salary, and your extended family, you'll do fine. You could probably even move out of that drafty apartment you were calling home." The target of their conversation absently drew his hand across his stomach again, frowning lightly in contemplation.

They stopped at a noodle shop halfway between the shoten and the house, and brought dinner for the mob staying with them back to the underground. Nobody had moved much, except for Toshiro who was trying desperately to not be drawn into Rangiku's re-hashing of the baby things she and the other girls bought.

Orihime took her bowl from Kisuke and she and Ulquiorra retreated to their bedroom to eat and have some time alone, since while the shopkeeper was gone, Ulquiorra was the only Alpha acknowledged by all of the Betas in the cavern. That meant he'd felt obligated to keep an eye on the rest of the crowd, and it had been taxing on the still recuperating Arrancar. Byakuya did something similar, taking two portions to a more secluded corner near the main gathering fully expecting his life-partner to follow him. The red-head did quickly, leaving Rukia to snicker and Rangiku leaned over to whisper, "Whipped" into the ebony haired midget's ear. Toshiro dished two servings for himself and Karin, then decided to include Ururu, Hyori and Jinta since his girlfriend was friends with them. Though the red-head and the Visored got into an argument over which seat they'd take. By the time Karin came down to join them his eyebrow was twitching. The rest of the noodles were divided equally among the rest, ignoring the protesting from various places around the training ground. Soon enough all the voices were quieted in exchange for the sounds of chopsticks and spoons against the sides of bowls as dinner quelled all arguments. And when dinner began to wind down, quiet descended as each person went back to doing whatever they had been doing before the disruption.

At least, until a Garganta tore itself across the basement and spat Shinji, Halibel, Szayel, and Tesla carrying Nel onto the rocky ground. As soon as they all touched ground, Shinji rushed to gather Mashiro and Lisa to him while Szayel and Halibel took Nel, who was unconscious, from an openly weeping Tesla. Sensing something similar to what Ichigo was going through, Yoruichi was the first to wrap the blonde Arrancar in an embrace, though the orangette felt the same pull to comfort the newcomers.

The confusion in the air brought Shinji's head out of the circle of green and black hair. He, too, had tears in his eyes when he spoke, "We have proof, Kissu."

Belly Report:
Ichigo – 10 weeks
Orihime – 29 weeks
Nel – 5 weeks
Tesla – 4 weeks