Third chapter, yay! Ichi-berry talks to Urahara about his theory and his dreams and we see two more of the animals(Batty, and Tigger) not much else to say… so on with the story I guess.

Edited: 2/16/14

Fixed some spelling added some description stuff

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Chapter 3: Odd Dreams, Insightful Bats, and Hidden Stripes

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"Oi, Urahara!"

"Yes Kurosaki-san what is it?"

"I need to talk to you about… something." Ichigo motioned for the blond to follow him away from the group. They sat down on a bench just out of ear shot. Ichigo wasn't sure how to begin explaining and Urahara seemed to understand so he started the conversation for him.

"Is there something bothering you? You seem a bit on edge." His voice was serious, he could tell from the look on Ichigo's face joking around would not be appreciated and would earn him an elbow to the face. He like not having a flat face like Shinji's.

"Well…it's these new animals… I mean I know we've only seen three of them but that leaves three to see yet. So I could just be-"

"The point Ichigo." Urahara stopped the younger male before he could start rambling too much.

"Right sorry, well they give me this weird feeling… like I've met them before. Inoue felt it too with these two here." Ichigo said motioning in the direction of the coyotes. "Not only that but they keep staring at me. I'll try and move and they'll turn so that they can still see me."

"And you think it will be the same with the other three?" The older man asked intrigued but still confused as to what Ichigo was getting at.

"Yes. I told Rukia-only to get in another argument- that I think they could be the few espada that weren't ever found and Gin." He explained hoping Urahara wouldn't give him a lecture too. Rukia wasn't the only one he talked to about thinking some of them were still alive, and wasn't the first to argue with him about it either.

"Well as I'm sure you know, and I'm sure Rukia made sure to point out. Human souls can't come back as animals." Ichigo gave defeated sigh slouching on the bench. "But," Ichigo looked up at him in hope, normally he hated when Urahara said 'but' however at the moment it was the most amazing thing he could've heard out of the shopkeeper's mouth. "That doesn't mean there aren't other explanations, or that something else could be going on other then the rebirth cycle." Urahara watched as the hope in his young friends eyes lit up, he wasn't sure what else could be going on but he couldn't for the life of him leave Ichigo looking so down, "Just to make sure we're on the same page I need to know who it is I'm looking for and where. You said Gin right?"

"Yes. Gin-the fox, Stark and that girl he was with-the coyotes, Ulquiorra-the bat, Gigo- the tiger, and Grimmjow-the panther." At the mention of Grimmjow Ichigo saw a flash of something on the older man's face. 'Sadness maybe… no not quite…he probably feels the same as everyone else when it comes to me and these guys but it's always a worse reaction when I mention Grimmjow for some reason. So annoying.' Ichigo though as he tried to decide if he really wanted to tell Urahara about his strange dreams. Urahara made the decision for him though.

"Is there something else you want to tell me Ichigo? I'll do my best to listen and help." Ichigo knew Urahara only used his given name when he was really worried about him.

"I know Keisuke it's just…awkward I guess…" he scratched his head tyring to figure out how to explain.

"After everything we've been through what could possibly be awkward?" Urahara joked lightly.

"True enough… though a lot of that stuff was your and Yoruichi's doing." Urahara chuckled nervously as Ichigo took a deep calming breath before explaining what was making him uncomfortable. "So for the past two weeks I've been having these dreams. And every time I have one it gets clearer and more real, it's still hard to hear though. Rukia told me that I'm apparently talking in my sleep as well, which I've never done before. But anyway in the dreams it's always me and someone I know, but as it continues it's like we change. I'm still me and they are still them, but we're not us. Does that make any sense?"

"To a point… maybe try and explain it through one of the dreams you've been having…also is it always the same or always different?"

"Well some I've only seen some once or twice but most are on repeat or something. Which one should I tell…? The one I have most and that is the clearest would have to be the first one I had. It's Grimmjow and me, at first we're fighting but it's not one of our death matches it's more like what me and Renji do, really fierce sparring. But moving on we stop sparring and just start walking together and we're in like a forest or something. We're talking too, about what I don't know but it's friendly whatever it is, we laugh at the jokes we're apparently telling each other and playfully push at each other. It's like we've been friends for years. Then all of a sudden I'll stop walking and he'll pat my shoulder and start walking away, and as he does so he…changes, and I can feel myself changing as well. Clothes mainly for the most part but other things as well. I'll call out to him, it's the only clear thing I can hear in the whole dream." Ichigo pause to take a breath as Orihime came over with the water he had asked her for earlier.

Urahara waits till she heads back over to the rest of the group to ask his question. "And what is it you call out?"

"I tell/ask him to come back, saying I can't do what I need to on my own that I need his help." Ichigo tried to get away with not saying the exact words.

"I meant the exact wording Ichigo." 'Damn…'

"Right… 'Silane wait! I need you to stay with me, you can't leave me on my own! I need your help with this, don't leave me please!' the weird thing about that is Rukia said I say the first half of that out loud but I say Grimmjow not Silane like I do in the dream."

"First off the fact that you're asking for help is rather odd." Urahara joked as Ichigo gave him a half-assed glare. "So Silane…An interesting name… I wound what language it is? It's doesn't really sound Japanese does it?"

"Well neither does Grimmjow."

"Yes but that sounds German or European. Silane I can't place it anywhere at the moment. Does he do anything or does he just keep walking?"

"Yeah he stops and turns to look back at me with this sad smile, then he says something the only part I ever catch is 'You have to' then it blurs out then I can hear the last bit, '…to us again.'."

"So you have to do something, in order to… get to them maybe or find them…?" Ichigo nodded having already figured that much out himself. "And you said you have other dreams like this?"

"Yes." Ichigo looked over at the rest of their group, they had moved one pen over but he couldn't tell what was in it. Rukia was glancing over every now and then and talking with Renji, he figured she was telling him they argued again from the look on his face. "I know everyone thinks I'm obsessed with these guys, and they may be right, but I don't care. I just can't help but feel that they're not gone, and that to stop looking for them would be bad. Very bad, like Aizen bad." Urahara cringed at the thought that something could be that bad again, "I didn't get that feeling till I mentioned it like what two years ago?... it was weird I just had this feeling…that they were still here…" Urahara nodded understanding what he meant as Ichigo's eyes landed on Shinji and Kensei. "I miss Shiro…"

"Shiro?"

"I uh… I said that out loud didn't I?" he blushed slightly at his mistake.

"Yes. Who is Shiro?"

"He was…" He hesitated, this was probably going to be even more touchy a subject then normal. "My Hollow." Urahara had a shocked look on his face, not that Ichigo could blame him. As far as anyone knew he hated his hollow half. "Don't tell anyone I said that especially the visords, they wouldn't understand." Ichigo looked down at the ground in front of himself an almost painful look on his face.

"But why? Why would you miss someth…one like that?" Urahara asked trying to understand what had made his young friend miss the very thing that used to haunt his every step.

"Back when I was trying to learn the final getsuga, we ended up bonding, he was more like a brother by the time I learned the technique. You should have seen his face when I called him Shiro for the first time it was like he was in shock but beyond ecstatic that I would bother to give him his own name." Ichigo laughed at the memory but it was a very sad laugh as he continued speaking, "You've no idea how hard it was to lose them both like that. And then when I got my powers back and I learned only Zangetsu and his power had returned to me…It hurt…" His voice showed his pain but he didn't care, this was the first he had talked about Shiro to anyone.

Urahara gave him a moment, mainly so he could process the information that was just thrown at him, before asking another question. "Have you seen Shiro in any of your dreams?"

Ichigo nodded and leaned back on the bench looking up at the few clouds drifting overhead. "Yes he's in one or two. One is me and him though we are young maybe ten or something which really doesn't make sense since he didn't exist till I was 15 almost 16. That one's pretty short it's the two of us playing near a lake he pushes me in then holds his hand out to help me out but I pull him in as well the two of us share a laugh and the dream ends. The other one we're the age I am now and Grimmjow is there too. We're all running through a forest as fast as we can trying to out pace each other. And like in the first one that I told you about it's us as you know, but at one point I see Grimmjow coming up beside me getting ready to tackle me, I'd close my eyes reading myself for the impact, it would come and then we would get tackled by Shiro –who now looked different- and the three of us would begin wrestling-Grimmjow was different now too. We would wrestle a bit more laughing at each other then they would stand and offer me their hands to help me up, but then they would leave. I'd try to follow but it was like my feet were glued. I'd call out to them, things like 'Don't leave.' 'Come back.' 'What am I supposed to do?' I'd say their names too, I'd call out the one from the other dream 'Silane' and then another, 'Si'ine.' Shiro would say something but I couldn't make it out, and then Grimmjow would say pretty much the same thing as in the other dream."

"Interesting…Well I'm not an expert on dreams but I'll see what I can find. For now though let's forgo the dreams and your little theory on the animals. You are here for two reasons Mr. Zoology-Major. To see the new animals, and to enjoy the first half of your birthday party. We can always come back later and run some tests." Urahara told him cheerfully.

"You're right, thanks Urahara, and yeah if it's not too much trouble I'd like to come back with you for the tests." The carrot-top stood and stretched feeling much better now that he had talked with someone other then Rukia about all this. Rukia was a good listener but sometimes she just wasn't the right one to have listen. "Thanks for listening and not lecturing me on this like the others always seem too. It's a nice change."

"Of course Kuroskai-san, I'm always willing to listen if you need someone else to talk to." Ichigo nodded and headed back to the group. "So what interesting things have you gotten yourself into now Ichigo? And what could be happening that's big enough to pull you into it?"

"Who says anything is happening?" Yuroichi sat down next to her long time friend. "Who's to say it hasn't already happened and we simply missed it?"

"True enough, we've missed plenty of other things in the past… Do you think it's possible? His theory on the espada and Gin?"

"Could be, plenty of other weird shit seems to happen around that boy. And it's been awhile since anything big has happened to all of us, four years I think. So I we're probably long over due for a new oddity to arise."

"You have a very good point." Urahara chuckled, she was right after all, all the strange stuff seems to happen to that boy drawing the rest of them in. "It was getting rather boring wasn't it? It's about time something exiting happened." The two friends stood and went to join the others as they began to walk to the next area.

Rukia came up along side Ichigo as the walked. "You guys were talking for quite awhile, what did he say?"

"That there's a chance of it being possible. And that I should be enjoying my birthday and not worrying."

"So our deal…" she sighed knowing the answer already.

"Not in affect till Urahara gives me a definite no. Oh look vultures!" He joked remembering what he had said about Rukia earlier. Rukia punched him in the arm but laughed as well.

"Hey the map says there's a bat cave near by." Shinji said from somewhere in front of them. "That's one of those habitats that you can go into right?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Yeah, there will be a cage around the cave so that the bats don't fly away but allows bugs to get in for the bats to eat. There is normally a guide to show you through the cave and give info on the different bats." Ichigo explained as they headed for the bat cage.

"Hello welcome to the Bat cave." A young man greeted as they neared the gate of the cage. "Will your whole group be going in?" Ichigo nodded. "Ok, there are a few rules. First no climbing on the walls or stalagmites. Don't try to catch the bats. If a bat does fly at you please do your best to not freak out, some are rather friendly and will try to land on you, be it on your clothes or in your hair. Again do not freak out at this just gently lift them off. If the guide tells you to do something please do it as there is a reason behind it. She is waiting at the cave entrance for you have fun."

"Thanks." Ichigo lead the group into the cage. Leaning on the rocks of the entrance was the woman that he had met earlier by the fox pen. She now had her sunglasses hanging on her shirt so he was able to see her eyes, they were a bright purple. Her hair was still hidden by her hat though.

"Hey carrot-top, didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon." She called to him as she pushed off the rock and moved to the middle of the entrance.

"Ignoring the comment on my hair," He said making her chuckle, "I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon either. I take it you're the guide?"

"Yep! Follow me." She turned and waved for them to come into the cave.

"You know her?" Shinji asked wiggling his eyebrows making Ichigo roll his eyes.

"Yes and no, I met her earlier when I stayed behind at the fox pen. She's a volunteer but other then that I know nothing."

"Ah." The blond sighed disappointed making Ichigo laugh and roll his eyes again Shinji was always bugging him about needing to find a girl, him and Keigo had tried several times to get him to go on blind dates.

"Ok from here on I'm going to ask that everyone keeps their voices at whisper level, alright?" the guide said and everyone answered that they understood.

"I'm kind of surprised that Kenpachi has been, well behaved." Ichigo said to Shinji, though it was Rangiku that answered.

"I heard that Unohana threatened him into being good. How I've no idea but it seems to have worked." She explained excitedly trying very hard to keep her voice down. Ichigo shook his head, 'That woman is scarier then…well anything I think.' He thought as he quickened his steps a bit to get nearer the guide in case he had any questions. Orihime was there as well looking around the cave and somehow managing not to trip over anything for once.

The cave itself looked rather large it would take a few minutes to get through the whole thing. It was rather dark besides the few small lights scattered everywhere, not that Ichigo was complaining the dark had never bothered him. After about thirty seconds of walking they heard the chirps and squeaks of the bats on the ceiling. A few flew down and past Orihime one landing on her shoulder, she jumped and squealed scaring it making it fly away. She was now clinging to Ichigo's arm while he patted her head and told her it was alright, and tried not to laugh.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to get scared like that." She apologized to the guide. "It was just really sudden and stuff…sorry."

"It's ok you couldn't see them, they just kind of dropped on you." She waved it off before laughing a bit. "Hey you goof you're gonna fall off." Ichigo looked up at her to see her pulling a bat from her hat. "You wanna see the newest addition to the bat cave?" she asked after finally detaching the small creature.

"Yes please." Ichigo said without hesitation, though he felt Orihime shrink back and tighten her grip on his arm. "It's okay Inoue they're just as afraid of us as we are of them. If you're calm so are they."

"Ok."

"Ready?" The woman asked holding out both hands one covering the other to hide the bat in her palm. Orihime nodded and the guide took her top hand away carefully as not to startle the bat. "Here he is."

He was a bit bigger then her palm, about three inches give or take. Even in the dim light Ichigo was able to make out a decent amount of his markings. Its fur was a mix of white and black. Its ears were shaped like pointy eggs and were moving swiftly to catch all the sounds around it. The tips of the ears were white, and on its face starting from below the eyes it had white stripes that Ichigo guessed ran the whole way down to its most likely white stomach as its back was also white. There was some white on his forehead as well but the rest was black. On its lower body it had tufts of black fur on either side of a four inch long skinny tail that had a tuft of fur on the end of it.

The tiny animal looked back and forth between Ichigo and Orihime, in those glances Ichigo caught sight of green in its eyes. 'An odd eye color for a bat.' It 'jumped'-more like purposely fell- off the woman's hand and flew around them in a circle before coming to land on Orihime's upper chest, she flinch a bit making him slid down but he managed to settle himself right above her heart.

At first she was still freaked out but remembered Ichigo's words on being calm. She took a deep breath and slowly reached up and stroked its back to find extremely soft fur. It chirped at the contact and nuzzled into her before looking over at Ichigo. It started to try and climb over to him but couldn't get a good hold on Orihime's shirt. As this was going on the guide spoke up, "See what I mean by intelligent? Those other bats just wanted attention too but this little guy was smart enough to come to me first."

"Yeah…Do they have names? The new animals I mean." Ichigo asked holding a hand out to the bat as it seemed to get frustrated that it couldn't go where it wanted to. It chirped and carefully transferred itself over to his hand.

"Well they don't have official names if that's what you mean. But I do have nicknames for them all. This guy I call Bat-man, clever right? And he lives in the Bat cave." Ichigo shook his head at how bad the joke was. "What it's funny… well ok not that funny but still. Anyway, the fox I call Kit, short for Kitsune." She started walking again leaving everyone to follow. "I would call him Kurama –the name of a character from Yu Yu Hakusho that's a fox spirit- but he's a tail short for that. The big coyote I call Dozer, since he is always dozing off, and his cub is Electra."

"Electra?" Orihime asked.

"Yeah electric but with a feminine touch. She's rather wild when she's fully awake."

"Oh, it's pretty."

"What about the tiger and panther?" Rukia asked coming up on the other side of Ichigo. He gave her an odd look. "What? I'm just as curious as you." She looked down at his hand that still held 'Bat-man' who he was petting absentmindedly. "Why are you still holding that?"

"He's not a 'that' Rukia, he's a bat." 'And he's way more awesome then Chappy.' He added in his head but didn't dare say out loud for risk of getting hit, he didn't know how she managed but her hits hurt almost as much as getting hit by one of the captains sometimes.

"Um… Kurosaki-kun… doesn't he kinda remind you of Ulquiorra-san?" Orihime asked quietly, the bat looked up at her and squeaked at the name, though went unnoticed by everyone but a certain scientist walking behind them.

"Yeah kind of," 'A lot of 'kind of' actually.' "Maybe it's the same with him as with Stark." Rukia gave him a sideways glare but he just shrugged, he didn't want to scare Orihime.

"Yeah that makes sense." Orihime nodded staring at the bat in his hand.

"You guys wanna know the names or am I just talking to myself over here?" the guide asked good-naturedly.

"Oh, sorry names yes, please." Ichigo was glad it was dark as he blushed slightly at having been sidetracked from his own question.

"Hmm… well the tiger I call Gold, I think you'll understand when you see him. And the panther… others at the zoo do have a name for him but it's not the one I use."

"Why not?"

"Because of why they call him what they call him. They call 'im King-"

"King?!" Ichigo's eyes went wide.

"Yeah, it's because of the rock he likes to sit on. It looks like one of those lounging thrones. The kind you pretty much lay on instead of sit in like a chair. And he never let's anyone else on the rock. He's so weird sometimes."

"So why don't you call him that?" Rukia asked confused, if he's sitting on a throne like rock and keeping people away the name sound very appropriate.

"Because he doesn't sit all the way on it. He sits more at the side and towards the bottom, not on the 'top' in the middle."

"So what do you call him then?" Ichigo asked still holding 'Bat-man'.

"Captain. He's the King's right hand ma-, uh, cat heehee. I've know idea who the 'king' could be though." She shrugged.

"Have you ever tried to go up on the rock?"

"You kidding me? I like having all my limbs attached thank you very much. The last person needed fifteen stitches from the bite Captain gave him. I mean I've gone up to the rock and unlike with other he'll let me sit at the bottom and pet him. But no one else can he growls and lashes out at them. Some are surprised that they haven't done anything to him for attacking the handlers but it's always pointed out that they were the ones that pushed the boundaries."

"It's definitely an interesting theory though, with his name I mean." Ichigo commented.

"Ya think so? Everyone else seems to think I'm nuts. They're all like 'he's just a cat there's no way it possible for him to think that way' idiots can't see what's right in front of their noses." She scoffed.

"Trust me you're not alone." Ichigo said as he looked at Rukia out the side of his eye and she huffed and looked away.

"What do you mean?"

"Ichigo thinks that the new animals are some people we knew who died awhile back." Rukia said nonchalant expecting the guide to laugh it off or ignore it.

"What like reincarnation or something?"

"Uh, yeah I guess so."

"Hmm… well I don't necessarily believe in coming back as something else but I do believe in the supernatural, like ghosts and stuff. So I guess anything is possible. And like I said to, Ichigo was it?" He nodded, "They are very intelligent." Ichigo gave Rukia a cocky smirk earning another punch to his arm. "So that Ulqui-whats-it and Stark-person, are they the names of your dead friends?"

"I wouldn't say fr-" Rukia started to say.

"Yes," Ichigo interrupted, "Ulquiorra was pretty big on bats and Stark's daughter loved coyotes so he in turn had gained affection for them too." He lied as the truth was rather outlandish for a normal person. As an after thought he added, "Is there somewhere we can pause so I can sketch this guy?" He held up Bat-man who seemed more then content to not go anywhere.

"Sure, can I ask why out of curiosity?"

"My major in college is zoology. So it's for extra credit."

"Nice, over here. If you sit on that rock you should have a decent amount of light." The woman pointed over to the side of the cave.

"Thanks" He sat down and carefully placed the green-eyed bat on his leg and pulled out his sketch book. Bat-man simply sat and watched him draw occasionally looking over at the others in the group that were looking around the cave. After a bit Ichigo paused and looked between the book and the bat a few times. "I don't suppose that you could spread your wings out for me?" He decided to try and ask just for the heck of it.

Bat-man tilted his head a bit and made a soft clicking noise. Then he propped himself up on one wing and held the other out fully extended at about five inches. He looked up and Ichigo and gave another click that almost sounded as if he was asking if that pose worked.

"Perfect." Ichigo said after getting over the mild shock the scene had given him. Those in the group that were paying attention were stunned at the bat's behavior. A certain blond scientist on the other hand watched with extreme interest if you listened hard enough you could actually hear the gears turning a million miles an hour.

The guide knelt down in front of the carrot-top watching the bat amazed as Ichigo once more asked for a different position. It complied yet again and one more time after that, Ichigo then switched to his note book and she decided it was ok to speak. "I've never seen anything like this. I mean I've seen animals do outrageous things, and these new guys even more so, but this. This is on par with what I witnessed yesterday with Capt'n." Ichigo looked up from his writing waiting for her to continue, if the panther had done something he wanted to know what it was and he was all ears. "Somehow a little girl ended up falling into the pit, he raced from his rock -faster then I've ever seen him move- jumped up to lessen the pain of her fall. She landed on his back and he carried her over to the handler's entrance making sure to warn off the other cats from getting too close. Besides from being terrified the girl was fine. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen."

Ichigo could only stare at her in amazement as she spoke, by the end he was dumbfounded. 'Gri- no we don't know if it's him yet-but still a panther saved a little human girl. Maybe it's the protective nature towards cubs that cats have. She was probably small enough that she would register as a cub. And if it was/is Grimmjow then that means he…saved someone…' that thought made him smile, "Wish I could have seen it." He thought aloud.

"Well you could 'accidently' fall in and see if he tries to catch you?" the guide joked.

"Ha, ha, ha… no." Ichigo finished his report and began to put his books away as Bat-man began to climb up his shirt and into his hair. "Hey where do you think you're going mister? Get out of there." He chuckled as he attempted to get the tiny but stubborn creature from his hair.

"Let me." The guide offered chuckling as well as she carefully pried the bat from orange locks despite his squeaks of protest. "Now go chase your buddies around." He chirped again but jumped/fell from her hand and flew once around her and Ichigo and the once around Orihime the off into the darkness.

"Why did it crawl into Kurosaki-kun's hair like that?" Orihime asked confused.

"It was probably warm." The guide shrugged, "The head is one of the places of the body where heat escapes from fastest, those with thicker hair keep that heat closer for longer. Shall we?"

It took another two or three minutes to get out of the cave and make sure they had everyone. As they went through the purple eyed woman –Ichigo kept forgetting to ask for her name- told them about the different kinds of bats they had. Ichigo, Ikkaku, and Shuhei took to teasing Renji about the vampire bats saying that they might come after him since his hair was the color of fresh blood.

"Bug off jerks!" he told them trying to be as nonchalant as he could but his quickened steps told them that they had gotten to him making them have to try harder to stifle their laughter.

"Ichigo." The guide pulled him off to the side as they exited the cage. "In an hour at the Jaguar cage where Capt'n is, there'll be a 'show'."

"A 'show'?" Ichigo repeated confused by how she said it.

She sighed, "Yeah one of those guys who thinks they know better then everyone else with be giving off facts to people and showing some of the tricks that the trained jaguars can do. But the idiot's going to try and get on that rock even though I warned him not to. I figured you would want to see the reaction he gets from Capt'n first hand."

"Well I do love watching people make fools of themselves." He looked over at Keigo who was being his usual noisy self now that they were outside of the cave. "So see ya there in an hour?"

"Definitely, later." She ran off just before Ichigo was going to ask her name.

"Crap." He went back over to the others, "Hey Inoue what's next?" she was the closest to him with a map.

"It looks like bobcats are next and the tigers aren't to far from there, three for four habitats depending on how you look at it." She told him as they all started walking.

"Thanks." Urahara came over and poked his arm repeatedly to get his attention. "What?"

"Over a bit." They two went to the edge of the group leaving Orihime and Tatsuke to lead everyone. "That bat was rather interesting wouldn't you say?" Ichigo nodded. "It was far too intelligent to be a normal animal that's for certain. The way it chirped when Inoue-san said Ulquiorra's name..."

"And what did you think of what she said about the panther and little girl?"

"Even odder considering who you think it is. After all Grimmjow was the most destructive of the espada was he not?"

"Yeah his aspect of death was destruction." Ichigo remembered from what Rukia had told him from the report Soi Fon had given, at least that's what the second espada had told her anyway.

"Yes for him to have saved a little girl is very odd… though if you add the fact that he is a cat."

"Yeah I already had that thought go through my head, thinking maybe instincts showed her as a cub."

Urahara nodded, "Correct. Though until we actually see this 'Captain' we can only guess, so for now the bat. He seemed to favor you quite a bit didn't he? Which is weird if he is Ulquiorra as you are the one who killed him."

"Yes but he favored Inoue too." Ichgio reminded looking over at the mentioned girl.

"True. I guess for now all we can do is observe since I don't have any equipment with me for this sort of thing." Ichigo nodded his understanding as they came up to the bobcat pen. All the girls were cooing over how cute they were, while the boys cheered on the few males that were wrestling off to the side. Once more Ichigo gave random facts to everyone and then Yachiru dubbed Tatsuke a bobcat.

They started walking to the next pen only to have Keigo stop them all because he wanted food. Of course much to Ichigo's displeasure everyone agreed food would be a good idea. However no one could decide on one single food place –there were no real restaurants in the middle of the zoo- so they split up and decided to meet up in the common area that the food places surrounded.

Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji just bought some pretzels and Dip'n Dots as they only wanted a snack. "I can't believe Keigo stopped us like that. We were almost to the tigers." Ichigo complained as he viciously tore a piece of his pretzel off with his teeth. "He could have waited a few more minutes."

"Chill dude. It's not like they can go anywhere. 'Sides I was getting tiered." Renji said as he propped his feet up on the chair across from him.

Ichigo glared down at the feet that were now next to him and pushed them off as he spoke. "This coming from someone who can run more then halfway across the Seratai and not be out of breath. Am I the only one that sees the contradiction here? Walking for an hour," He held out one hand then the other when he named the other half of the contradiction. "running faster then a normal person could dream of for a ten minutes. Hmm? Some how I don't think that adds up to you being tired right now." He finished playfully making Rukia laugh and Renji steam.

"Well that's because of, uh, I'm in a gigia right now. So not as much stamina and stuff..." Was the lame excuse that Renji came back with.

"Uh-huh… well we believe you don't worry Renji." Rukia said still giggling.

"Yeah sure we do! I mean it's not like Urahara hasn't been tinkering with them for the past four years to make them easier for you guys to be in and keep your speed and stamina and use your kido and other such things." Ichigo listed as he went to grab the last pretzel only to have Renji snatch it away just to spite him. "Oi you already had three!"

"Whatever Dolittle."

"Tarzan." The two began bickering only stopping once Rukia hit them both in the head.

"Since we're done eating how about we get moving and head for the tigers." She suggested as she threw her trash out. The boys nodded and the three headed back to where they had stopped. They eventually came to the tigers where Ichigo immediately began searching for the new one. There were several bangles but they were nothing new to his eyes.

"Where is he…" he mumbled as he looked around for anything he might have missed in his first look through. In the far corner of the habitat there were some bushes that he had glanced over the first time, but this time he caught a glint of yellow within the green leaves. Looking more carefully he saw a pair of golden cat eyes staring up at him. An image from one of his dreams flashed through his mind along with a name. "Tazin…" he whispered not really realizing he said it, and not a second later the tiger belonging to those eyes stepped from the cover of the leaves.

The base of his fur was a very dark yet rich golden brown, the stripes a vibrant yellow-orange, but close enough to the gold in the tiger's eyes that the color almost seemed to have leaked out from them. His chest and belly were a slightly darker shade of brown the then base of his fur. His muscle build was much more like that of a leopard as in he was more streamlined then bulky though he was still very much a tiger in size, shape, and markings. He was also a bit bigger then the bangles whom he shared the habitat with.

"He's beautiful…" Rukia whispered in awe of his colorings and markings.

"Not falling for a cat now are we Rukia?" Ichigo asked, "I thought you were more into monkeys." He teased nodding at Renji who wasn't paying them the least bit of attention. "Although if you think about it his tattoos do kinda look like tiger stripes." She blushed at his words and growled at him.

"Shut up you stupid strawberry!"

"I am not a strawberry therefore your order is invalid and can not be put into action." He said in a robot like voice as he got his sketch pad out making her huff and turn away. Ichigo shrugged having had his fun and set himself to drawing, once more finding himself being stared at. While it was still unsettling after talking with Urahara about his theory and having him say that it was possible they weren't normal animals made it easier. He switched to his note book as everyone else arrived. Every now and then he'd stop writing to answer their questions. As soon as he put the book away Gold -as the woman from earlier had called him- went back to his hiding place.

"Maybe he's shy?" Orihime said sadly as she watched him disappear.

"I doubt it he probably doesn't like people too much and with so many around it most likely got annoying." Tatsuke guessed, "What's next on the list?"

"Antelope." Shinji said being the first to look at his map.

"Is it just me or does this zoo have a rather unorganized planner?" Tatsuke asked no one in particular.

"Yeah the layout is rather weird. Putting antelope next to tigers is pretty odd. But as long as they have what they say they have there'll be no complaints from me." Ichigo answered as he checked his watch. 'Twenty minutes to the 'show' she told me about, we should be there by then.'

()()()()

And so ends the third chapter. Not feeling very chatty so no long author note this time. But I do have two questions for all of you.

Why do you think Ichigo is having weird dreams?

And,

Why was Bat-man so cuddly with Ichi-berry?

Till next time!