It seems some people misunderstood the ending of last chapter. I simply wanted to give Uryu some love, not introduce Halibel into a harem. I simply put what I felt her thoughts would be. Hollows are more animal than humans, and even arrancar still have that animal instinct. Animals value strength and versatility above just about anything else when choosing partners to reproduce with, and obviously Ichigo was the strongest one there. However, I specifically wrote that she knew she couldn't get with him, so she settled for the next strongest there: Uryu. Anyway, with that cleared up, enjoy.

Elsewhere

The man with silver hair and a red jacket stretched as he awoke. "Ugh. I am soooo sore right now."

A plain looking man next to him responded. "We all are. I didn't raise a whiner." He had black hair and wore a trench coat. His dark eyes were void of emotion, but it was easy to tell that he could care deeply when he wanted to.

The third figure with them sat up as well. She had shoulder length dark hair and a black jacket. She wore black jeans and had empty eyes as well. They were the eyes of one who had lost everything they had ever known and never quite recovered. "Be nice to the kid, Kiri. You know he's still young."

"Hey! I'll have you know I'm 1025!" The 'kid' said.

"Shut up, Emi. We used to be twice your age. Okay Maya, let's get going," Kiri said.

The trio began walking down the snowy mountain they had awoken on painfully aware of the being resting thirty miles away on Mount Choro. They shook off the ice and snow that had packed onto them as they walk and made small talk, wondering what had happened in the past millennium.

At the bottom of the mountain they found a Senkaimon waiting for them and stepped through straight into the back wall of the Captains hall. Assholes, they all thought as they tried to stop the bleeding coming from their noses. Walking into walls hurt. They walked around the building to the front courtyard to see quite a sight.

A humanoid hollow with only part of his mask was fighting what appeared to be the entire thirteen guard squads. And he was winning. The most surprising thing about him though, was that there wasn't a scratch on him.

The three felt that they had to help and sprang into action. Emi dashed forward as the two behind him drew blue bows of light. The two archers drew back the bowstrings as twin daggers formed in Emi's hands.

"DANCE OF STEEL!"

The trio shouted it at the same time as the archers fired arrows not made of blue energy, but pure steel infused with Reiatsu. Emi twisted his body and brought his twin daggers down on the hollow just as the arrows reached him. The holows eyes widened and he disappeared, reappearing a few feet away.

"Sonido?" Emi muttered. He paid no attention to the fact that when the hollow had dodged the trio's attack, it had instead hit the ground where he was standing and left a crater.

"Who are you?" The hollow asked. "You haven't attacked me until now, so are you just lazy like me? Or did you have to gather power for that attack? Or maybe you just arrived. No matter the answer, you should really tone it down! That would have hurt and I would never here the end of it from lily—" he frowned for an instant, but it disappeared too quickly to know if it had ever actually existed. "...Sorry. anyway, try not to kill me will you? Although I'm impressed you can utilize teamwork to such a degree that it would endanger me."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Emi asked. He was actually quite surprised this hollow could talk without the normal hatred that distorted their voices. Although this one only had part of a mask so that might be the reason.

"Emi! Don't let up your attacks! Letting the enemy recover can be fatal," Kiri shouted over to him as he fired another arrow. This time the hollow just looked at it, unmoving. Emi smiled as he realized the fight was over. No one could withstand Kiri's arrows. Then his eyes widened as the hollow raised his hand—

—And caught it with his bare hand. Suddenly, he reached to his waist. Grabbing a gun they hadn't realized he had he raised his arm and pulled the trigger. A blue Cero erupted from the barrel and hurtled towards Emi. He quickly dodged to the side only to be hit square in the chest by a slightly weaker Cero fired from the hollows second gun, which he had grabbed while he was firing the first.

"Damnit Emi, you idiot," Kiri said as his bow dissolved into midair. Then he began to speak softly, voice echoing oddly. "Where order has broken down, where cruelty and lawlessness rule, Lawbringers are justice," As he spoke, blue reishi formed into a sniper rifle in his hands. "They go wherever they are needed, and they come prepared," Kiri aimed down the sights of said rifle. "Pray you do not need them. And when they arrive, pray that you have done no wrong." On that final word, he pulled the trigger. Carnage ensued.

'Bullet' was not the right word for the projectile he fired out of his barrel. As the projectile left the barrel, anyone who was skilled enough to track it saw a ball of pure reishi, hundreds of times denser than a normal quincy arrow. The ball was wreathed in lightning as it traveled, bolts arcing off and striking the ground thirty times a second. Everywhere a bolt hit, a small explosion occurred; however, anyone within ten feet of that explosion combusted immediately. Needless to say, quite a few nameless soul reapers died.

Starrk, being fast enough to track the 'bullet,' immediately tried to dodge. His eyes widened however, when the bullet curved in middair and pierced him precisely in the center of the chest, right above the diaphragm. He immediately caught fire, feeling unimaginable pain. Just as he felt as if he was about to pass out, he felt a great pound resonate through the ground and the pain stopped. He looked down to find the fire was gone, but he was covered in horrifying burns. Looking back up, he saw Head Captain Yamamoto wreathed in flame, Zanpakuto unsheathed. He watched as the fire swirled around him for a moment before entering into the blade of the Zanpakuto itself.

"That was a close one. A moment more and you might well have died," the Head Captain said. Luckily for Starrk, his Soulsinger had granted him rather strong regeneration, and was already slowly recovering.

"Genryusai? Is that you?" Kiri asked in disbelief. Partly because of how much his old friend had changed, partly because he had just saved this odd-looking hollow.

"Ah, Kiri! Maya! How have you been... oh, well I suppose you've been frozen for a while now," Yamamoto replied. "Emi, get up. I know something of that strength won't kill you. You might feel it for a while though."

Emi groaned as he got up, and then again as he felt his chest. Yep. That was going to bruise.

Starrk opened his mouth to speak. "Are we going to ignore the fact that I almost just died?"

The three newcomers spoke at the same time:

"Yes."

Yamamoto laughed. That didn't happen often. This simple act made it clear how happy he was to see these newcomers, though Starrk had no idea why. "I apologize, Starrk. I'm afraid my old friends here are unaware of the developments of the past thousand years."

"Whatever. Are we done here? I wanna go sleep off this pain."

"I apologize, Starrk, but I need to ask you to go find Ichigo Kurosaki and bring him here. It is time for him to meet the True Guard," Yamamoto said.

Starrk grumbled something unintelligible before lazily raising his hand to rip a hole in reality. A garganta opened up and he stepped through, sighing. Stupid True Guard. First they almost kill him, then he has to make even more effort because of them. Finally he saw a light at the end of the darkness, stepping out of the pitch blackness and into the human world. He had aimed to where the unimaginable pressure in Karakura town was coming from, so he knew he would emerge right near Ichigo.

He didn't expect for Ichigo to be on a roof. Or for the garganta to open up four stories in the air over a school courtyard. Eyes widening, he began to fall. After a second he recovered from his initial surprise and found his footing on the thin reishi in the air. After an annoyed sigh, he began flying slowly back to the top of the roof. Reaching the roof, he found Nel and Ichigo shamelessly making out, hands in each other's hair. It appeared lunch had just ended judging on the students returning to the building from the courtyard, so they were alone, but still. In the middle of school?

Once again, surprise made him pause. But as the kissing grew more intense, he realized he should probably intervene before they did something he did not want to see. He coughed. They didn't hear him. He coughed again, louder. They heard him.

The two lovebirds jumped apart, with Ichigo blushing furiously. Nel, though flushed, had a light grin on her face. She would do anything she could to get a leg up on Yoruichi. She knew how aggressive she could be, and Nel couldn't afford to get behind. Just because Yoruichi hadn't made a move yet didn't mean she wouldn't soon.

Starrk, unaware of any of the thoughts going through Neliel's head, simply said what he had come to say. "Hey Ichigo, the Yamamoto called you. It appears the True Guard have arrived." With that, he sonidoed away towards Ichigo's house, obviously going to take a nap.

Just before he made the jump however, Ichigo caught a parting grumble. It sounded very similar to 'Bastards almost killed me.' But that couldn't be right. Each of the Soulsingers were individually as powerful as Ywacht. Even if they had defeated him before, they had simply sealed him away. Only Ichigo was able to kill him, and that was only because of plot convenience shenanigans. If they really almost killed Starrk, they were strong. They deserved the presence of a god. Although he would have went anyway; Ichigo took pride in the kind, intelligent side he hid from his schoolmates. Viewing the situation objectively, it was simply the option that gave him the greatest chance to destroy Gabriel.

Linking his arm in Nel's, he tore a garganta open and stepped into the darkness, wondering what this 'True Guard' would be like.

I'm not a sellout. I swear. I didn't base the Maya, Kiri, and Emi off of certain characters from a certain anime. I would never do that. That would be silly. Anyway, props to whoever knows who they are. Make sure to leave a review!