Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! I appreciate each review and look forward to further feedback. Anyhow, here's your Saturday update! Enjoy!

"Chad!" Ichigo shouted as he saw his friend standing on his doorstep dripping blood. He reached out to steady the other man by his shoulders as he seemed ready to fall. "What happened?"

"Inoue." Chad muttered, slumping against the door frame. It wasn't that the wound was particularly deep but it had been gushing blood for a solid thirty minutes while he had wrestled himself away from Orihime's attack and made his way to the clinic. His breath was shallow as he looked at Ichigo in concern. "She's gotten worse."

"Hold on. Let me get my dad to take care of this and then we can talk about it." Ichigo said, pulling Chad into the home. After waking his father and having Chad tended to, he sat alone with the other man in the clinic and let out a heavy sigh. "I called Ishida. He's on his way over here now."

"He didn't need to come." Chad replied. "I'll be fine. Your father said the wound is superficial."

"We still need to discuss what we're going to do about Inoue." Ichigo said, his brow crinkling in thought. "You said she's gotten worse. How much worse?"

"It's bad." Chad said, placing his hand against his bandaged wound. "It's like he's in there trying to claw his way out. The hand that did this to me was not Inoue-san's. Her fingers split open and his claws came out."

Ichigo's eyes widened at Chad's description of what happened. "Her fingers split open?"

"It was horrible." Chad spoke quietly. "The entire apartment was a mess. There was blood everywhere. He hasn't been eating and her body is wasting away. If Orihime's body doesn't get some sort of nutrition it's going to die. That's assuming she doesn't bleed to death first. He's killing her."

Ichigo grit his teeth and clenched his fists. "That bastard." He looked to Chad quickly and started toward the door. "When Ishida gets here, tell him I had to go."

"Ichigo! Wait!" Chad called out to the other man. "I know you're planning to go there. Don't."

"I can't just stand by while one of our friends it torn to shreds!" Ichigo shouted, turning back to look at Chad. "Inoue never did anything to that bastard to deserve this! He's the one that dragged her to Hueco Mundo! He's the reason everyone questioned her loyalty! Everything bad that occurred between them is his fault, not hers! Inoue has never harmed a single person so why? Why her? If he wants to come after someone... if he wants to hurt someone then why doesn't he hurt me?"

"Because he knows that hurting Inoue-san is the best way to hurt you." Uryū answered as he stepped into the clinic. "It's the best way to hurt any of us; by going after those we care for."

"Ishida." Ichigo whirled back around to face the other man in shock. "You got here fast."

"I used Hirenkyaku to get here. This isn't a matter where I can just walk leisurely. We're already running out of time as it is." Uryū replied. "From the sound of things on the phone it's gotten worse."

"He's destroying her body now." Ichigo said furiously. "What's the point in doing that!?"

"Like I said, it's not about hurting Inoue-san as much as it is about hurting the rest of us." Uryū answered, adjusting his glasses. "After our conversation the other day I sat down and tried to figure out exactly what would make Ulquiorra do what he is doing to Inoue-san. It just didn't make sense to me. After all, you and I both saw the way he reached for her that day in Hueco Mundo. It almost seemed as though he had some sort of attachment to her. Like he cared for her. Those feelings were clearly reciprocated. She cared enough about him to accept his soul into her body and he cared enough about her to allow it to happen so it became difficult to understand why he would do this to her now. After reasoning over everything I came to the conclusion that he is doing this to punish us, not Inoue-san."

"Then why is she the one suffering?" Ichigo said with a growl. "Why is it her that he's destroying?"

"Because of the way it makes us feel." Uryū said, sighing heavily. "That's the only reason I could come up with. I couldn't think of any reason that he would go to these lengths to hurt Inoue-san when he seemed to care for her, at least to some extent. But with the way he's spoken to us it's clear he feels vengeful. I helped Inoue-san to stop thinking about the past and you were the one that ended his life. He doesn't have access to us, however, so he's using Inoue-san to get to us."

"No, I'm not buying it." Ichigo said with a shake of his head. "There has to be more to it that we're not seeing. You don't hurt someone you supposedly care for just to get to others."

"I thought that too." Uryū agreed. "But then it occurred to me that Inoue-san herself might not be in any actual pain. The wounds, the hunger, none of it is getting to him and he's the one in control of her body. It's quite possible that Inoue-san isn't feeling any pain at all. At least, I don't think she's felt any pain since she lost control of herself."

"That doesn't make it okay." Ichigo said angrily. "He's still killing her! Why would you kill someone you care about?"

"Because he's already dead." Chad spoke quietly. "It's not justification in our eyes but it could be in his eyes. Think about it. As Inoue's friends we obviously care for her and don't want to be without her. Maybe he's decided that it's time to move on. But if he cares about her then he, like us, doesn't want to be without her either. If he can hurt us and take her with him when it's all over with then that would probably be the best outcome for him."

Ichigo looked between Chad and Uryū, his anger building. "I'm not saying I don't understand your reasoning but it just doesn't make sense to me. Something isn't adding up with this logic."

Uryū sighed and shook his head. "It's the only reason I could find that Ulquiorra would do this to Inoue-san. Kurosaki, it may be hard for you to understand how a person could willingly hurt someone they care for but it's often those we care for most that we end up hurting the most. But whether my theory is correct or not is irrelevant. Ulquiorra's true reasoning for this doesn't matter because at the end of the day we have to stop him before he takes Inoue-san's life. From the looks of it we have very little time left before that happens."

Ichigo grumbled irritably. Uryū's theory wasn't making sense to him and he couldn't shake the feeling that something more was going on under the surface that they weren't aware of. Uryū was right about one thing, however. It didn't really matter why Ulquiorra was doing what he was doing. All that mattered was that they had to stop it and he intended to do whatever it took to do so. "Guys, I have a plan."

Chad looked to Ichigo and cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. "Why didn't you mention it sooner?"

Ichigo looked up at Chad before turning a smile at Uryū. "Because you're not gonna like it."