I can hardly hwhgwis. Sorry, was just pressing random keys for fun. This chapter is going to be my longest chapter yet. When I write, it takes me an entire day of casual writing and I can pound out around 4000 words a day. This chapter is dialog heavy. Enjoy this chapter.

I do not own Bleach.

XoXoXoX

Running away really wasn't Ichigo's style, but the situation called for it. The girl at the high school put the fear of god in him for some reason. He had torn apart people with his bare hands, but he would do anything in his power to avoid her. When she grabbed him, it reminded him of that time when he was a regular hollow and was almost swallowed whole by a Gillian. Danger zone indeed.

Urahara did not expect Ichigo to walk back into the store this early. He had sent him out thinking he would be gone for the entire day protecting the school and selling sandwiches. He could only assume that Ichigo was back so soon because something went horribly wrong.

Ichigo came practically rushing into the store, he set his bag on the floor, and looked out the window, almost as if he was expecting to be followed. Urahara walked up behind him, "What's wrong Ichigo?"

Ichigo looked behind him and nodded in acknowledgement, then went back to looking out the window while he explained. "Well, I was selling sandwiches, but then my very first customer came up to the stand. She made her order, and then when I told her how much it would cost, she grabbed me and threatened me. I had no choice but to pack everything up and make a run for it. I'm hoping that she didn't follow me."

Urahara almost snorted, "You got scared by a teenage girl complaining about the price of sandwiches. I didn't know that you were afraid of women."

"I'm not afraid of women!" Ichigo shouted indigently, "You should've seen this chick though. It wasn't that she looked or sounded dangerous at all, but she was tough."

"How tough?" Urahara asked curiously.

"I mixed a sliver of killing intent in with my reiatsu and she didn't even seem to notice. Now either she lives in an environment where this happens to her constantly, or she is so tough that she just powered through it."

"What did she look like?"

"She was tallish, flat chest,". Elsewhere in town Tatsuki felt a sudden rush of inexplicable anger. "and had spiky black hair, shoulder length, and it pointed downward. She also has some degree of combat experience, I'm guessing karate based on the combat stance she took when she grabbed me. She also had a larger than average amount of reiatsu"

The description Ichigo gave matched that of Ishida's friend Tatsuki. She was a girl that Urahara had been monitoring recently, like Chad and Orihime, she was showing signs that she was beginning to develop unique powers. She was harmless right now however, and Urahara decided to reassure Ichigo.

"Don't worry my valuable assistant! That was merely a friend of Ishida, she seems fierce, but in reality she is harmless right now."

Ichigo accepted this and then decided to speak up, "You've mentioned this Ishida guy a couple of times now. Who is he?"

Urahara's trademark fan snapped open and he covered his face as he began to explain. "Ishida is the towns residential Quincy. There hadn't been a shingami in town to protect the citizens until Rukia came, and before her Ishida, and his friends who possessed powers, went around and purified the hollows in Karakura Town."

"What's a Quincy?"

"A Quincy is like a clan of spiritually aware humans. They have the ability to manipulate the reiatsu and reishi around them. They use their powers to make weapons made out of pure reiatsu to kill hollows. Until just a couple of years ago, when Quincies killed a hollow, their souls weren't purified, instead the souls were compleatly destroyed. The Quincies doing this over the course of generations upset the balance between plus souls and hollows, thus earning the Quincies the ire of the shinigami. Head captain Yamamoto and the other captains led a mass genocide in order to wipe them out, so they could no longer upset the balance of souls in the world. There were very few survivors and Soul Society has kept tabs on them and their desendents for their entire lives. Recently however, an elderly Quincy found a way to purify hollows instead of eliminating them, this has caused the shingami to stop their observations of the Quincy."

"Sounds just a little harsh doesn't it. Again, reasons like that are why I feel uncomfortable dealing with shinigami. Don't get me wrong, hollows can do a lot worse, and we have, but at least we don't pretend to be paragons of justice and then immediately turn around and wipe out an entire people because we thought it would 'uphold the balance'." Ichigo used air quotes saying the last part. "If hollows were to do something like this, I can tell you exactly how it would go down."

Urahara raised an eyebrow. "Don't let me stop you Ichigo. Tell me, how would hollows have eliminated the Quincy and why."

Ichigo cleared his throat and made himself comfortable. "It would probably start with a Vasto Lorde. It would probably have had an encounter with a Quincy and the Vasto Lorde wouldn't have appreciated that. He would then call for a Low Summit. Then convince the other Vasto Lordes that the Quincies were a danger to them all personally. Then we would open a Gargantua Grande and poured all the hollows necessary to eliminate the Quincies."

"What's a Low Summit?" Urahara interrupted, curious.

Ichigo explained, "A Low Summit is when a Vasto Lorde yells at the top of his lungs that if the other Vasto Lordes don't show up in his territory for a meeting, then he is going to cause problems for everybody else. The Vasto Lordes travel there and basically complain about their problems or declare war over territory. Vasto Lordes claiming territory in Hueco Mundo is important because all Vasto Lordes have the ability to control all of the normal hollows and Gillian in their territories, this means that if Vasto Lordes go to war with each other, it's mass warfare. Entire tracks of land can be destroyed in the process. It's like a freaking civil war in Hueco Mundo, somebody is always fighting somebody."

Having Ichigo describe the power struggles in Hueco Mundo clarified a lot for Urahara. It also revealed to him that Vasto Lordes were not only extremely powerful hollows, they were also all tatcticians on some level. He only had one more question for his employee. "You were a Vast Lorde as well. What is your experience in fighting in these wars."

Ichigo leaned back against a nearby wall. His black and yellow eyes locked onto the ceiling as he reministed about his past.

"There have been over 300 wars that have happened while I was a Vasto Lorde. I have only been involved in 3." Ichigo took a look at Urahara to gauge his reaction, but he was using his fan to cover his face. "I had a smaller amount of territory than other Vasto Lordes, but I also had the reputation as the most bloodthirsty Vasto Lorde. I was known for killing every living thing I came across. This meant that people didn't want to fight me too much. If they tried to declare one of their wars on me, then I would hunt them down and fight them personally, instead of hiding behind a wall of Gillian serving as artillery."

Urahara furrowed his brow. "How bloodthirsty were you?"

"I've mellowed out in the last couple of years, but for the rest of my entire career, the only time I didn't kill everybody I met was I was on my way to a Low Summit. As far as I'm aware, only one other person knows my actual name. At the summits I was only called 'Slaughter', that's how scary I was."

Urahara didn't expect anything less from his new employee. He fully expected the hollow to be a warmonger, and all of his plans involving him took full account that he could lose control of himself and attack everybody around him. Ichigo saying that he wasn't like that anymore however was reassuring to Urahara. It meant that he could now entrust Ichigo with more delicate tasks.

"Talking about the past doesn't really show people to move forward Mr. Cool-Hat Dude. So lets get back on track. Where is Ishida right now?"

"Ishida and his friends are currently infultrating Soul Society right now to rescue their friend Rukia after she was falsely accused of murdering her squad mate Kaien Shiba when a hollow killed him and took his form."

"Ishida must have an army behind him if he expects to tackle the shinigami in Soul Society. I assume you must have helped them because I don't think there is another person in town who can open a spirit gate to Soul Society."

"How very astute of you! I knew the reason you got paid so much was valid!"

Ichigo looked confused behind his mask. "I'm getting paid for my job? How much?"

Urahara snapped his fan shut so that Ichigo could see his smiling face, "It doesn't matter to you Ichigo! With the debt you've accumulated from the gigai and the limiter, you'll never see a single yen of your labours! Well, since selling sandwiches is a bust, just take a broom and sweep up outside. We need the shop to look presentable after all if we are going to attract any customers. Sweep until dark if you please, also, instead of sleeping in a tree tonight, you can sleep in the basement. My treat!"

"Thanks a lot Mr. Cool-Hat Dude." Ichigo said with sincerity.

Glad that he wasn't going have to deal with selling products for the time being, Ichigo gladly took a broom and began sweeping outside. Unknowingly imitating two certain youths that also worked for Urahara.

XoXoXoX

Ichigo had slept in some bad places. He had fallen asleep only to wake up to be surrounded by enemies, hanging upside down, sneaked attacked by assassin hollows who wanted a piece of him (literally), on fire, and just recently rolling downhill at top speeds through shrubs only to stop on a road where he got ran over. Ichigo just accepted that almost every time he fell asleep he was going to wake up in a horrible situation. It surprised him greatly when he woke up and... he was safe.

Skeptical, he decided to play it safe and examine his surroundings. He had fallen asleep on top of one of the numerous boulders strewn across the large landscape that Urahara said was his shop's 'basement'. Ichigo wasn't not paid to question his employer however and didn't ask any questions about it, much to Urahara's disapointment.

The only things sticking out in the basement were his cleaver up against a rock, and Urahara standing in the middle of the training grounds, looking up at the middle of the air where Ichigo could faintly detect reiatsu swirling around.

Ichigo decided that he had had enough sleeping and got up while dusting himself off. He grabbed his zanpakuto and made his way to where Urahara was standing. He saw him approaching, and nodded in greeting.

"Good morning Ichigo."

"Good morning boss. What're you looking at?"

Urahara reached into his coat and handed Ichigo a large piece of folded canvas. Ichigo unfolded it and read what it said, 'Welcome Home'. Behind his mask Ichigo arched an eyebrow and looked at Urahara. He couldn't see Ichigo's expression, but he sure could guess and answered "If my calculations and plot mechanations are correct, then Ishida and his friends have cleared Rukia's name of her crime, Aizen has exposed his betrayal to the rest of the Gotei 13, Ishida has been healed from any wounds he sustained from the rescue attempt, and now they are coming back home." He finished explaining with a smile. "Now take that banner and hang it up somewhere."

Ichigo used some nails and hung it next to the ladder that people had to use to exit the basement. Then he went back to where his boss was standing and stood waiting next to him.

They must have stood there for a good half hour before Ichigo let out a moan of boredom, "When are they gonna get here? It's been practically forever!"

Urahara was occupying himself by swinging his cane around, as he was equally bored, then a devious idea hit him as he remembered that he now had a hollow working for him.

"Listen closely Ichigo and follow my instructions to the letter."

XoXoXoX

Exiting the senkaimon, Ishida was glad that the whole incident involving Soul Society was now over. He was still worried about what that betrayer Aizen had planned, but for now he saw that there was no reason now for him to interfere with shinigami business. Now that the ordeal was over, he just wanted to thank Mr. Urahara for helping them, and go back home to his family mansion. Maybe have one of the maids … no, he couldn't do that. He had someone now that he wanted to be with, he couldn't spoil that relationship by having the maids wash his back for him.

Ishida was broken out of his thoughts however by the sound of Orihime screaming. Snapping himself back to attention, the sight in front of him caused him to pale noticeably.

The entire training arena beneath Urahara's shop was all torn up. There wasn't a single corner of the facility that wasn't damaged in some way, even the artificial sky had changed and it looked like there was a thunderstorm. That wasn't what horrified Ishida however.

Leaning against a nearby rock, Urahara himself was sitting down leaning against it looking at the ceiling, while the gushing wound in his midriff spilled all of his blood onto the floor.

Once Ishida had recovered, he quickly scanned the area hoping that there weren't any enimies nearby, which there wasn't, and grabbed Orihime and began taking her to Urahara knowing that her powers had the potential to save his life. When Orihime got to Urahara she began the process of rejecting the damage done to the shopkeeper while Chad caught up with Ishida.

"What happened here?" The giant teen questioned his friend, thinking that the intellectual Quincy would've come to a conclusion of what had happened much quicker then he had.

Ishida took his time, examining the damage done to the training grounds and Urahara before he answered. "I'm not going to lie, if what I think happened, things aren't looking good at all."

Ishida walked over to a section of wall where there were several holes, gashes, and a very large crater. Rubbing his hand over the damage he continued "The slashes mean that whoever did this were using bladed weapons, this makes me think that shinigami were involved somehow. The crater gives off a reiatsu signiture that is identical to a cero, so hollows were here as well. These other holes however," Ishida held up his hand and curled it up into a fist, before putting it next to one of the holes and showing that they were all vaguely fist shaped, "these holes indicate that someone with immense strength caused them."

"What does this mean?" Chad questioned.

"Based on all the evidence, there are two occurences that are plausible. The first, and least likely, is that Urahara was attacked in separate chronological waves of hollows and shinigami. This is very unlikely however and can be dismissed easily because hollow and shinigami do not share the same goal, and the hollows would've eaten Urahara." Ishida paused to push his glasses up. "That leaves the second option. In Soul Society we witnessed Aizen being transported by Menos. This indicates that he has some degree of control over them. Theoretically he and the other captains who defected with him could have caused all of the damage that we see here along with the hollows he commanded."

Chad was once again impressed by his friend. In school, Ishida had the highest grades in class, and was more than willing to help out his friends with difficult logic problems. Along with his sensing abilities, this was useful to Ishida and his friends when they were tracking hollows.

"What do we do about it now?"

"It would be smart if we wait until Urahara wakes up, then we can…"

Ishida was cut of by a new voice appearing. "Die. Then you can die."

Ishida and Chad located the source of the voice. The voice itself sounded like a hollow's so that was what they expected. What they did not expect was a teenager wearing a hollow mask leaning against the walls of the training grounds.

Ishida wanted to dismiss him as just a regular person, but all of the factors suddenly clicked in place. The teen had bright orange spiky hair, and the only thing that his skeletal mask didn't cover were his eyes, which were black with yellow irises. A hollow's eyes. The teen, no, the creature, in front of them gave off hollow reiatsu. He didn't wear a shirt, instead bandages were wrapped around him so he could keep his modesty, except for the center of his chest, where a very discomforting sight could be seen. A hollow hole.

Forgetting that he had a human shape, the individual in front of them gave of all appearances of being a hollow. This meant that as a Quincy, it was his responsibility to attack and purify it.

Without further ado, Ishida raised his hands and summoned his bow. He took half a second to aim before he could fire his arrows… and that was all the time his opponent needed as he covered the ground between them and planted his fist into Ishida's gut, sending him flying.

The flips Ishida had taken in midair had disorientated him and when he rediscovered his center if balance, he saw his foe holding Chad up in the air by his throat, while only using a single hand.

Ishida couldn't afford to waste any more time and he released a salvo of arrows at the hollow. When all of his arrows struck their target there was a large dust explosion. Chad came rolling out and the Quincy archer assumed that his foe had been slain by the barrage he had unleashed. He had after all, never met anything yet that withstand even a single hit by one of his arrows.

Thinking that his enemy was slain, Ishida dismissed his bow and began making his way over to Chad to make sure that he was alright. He was forced to stop however as he was grabbed by his coat and turned around. Not only was the hollow still alive, he was compleatly unharmed and he now held what looked like a giant cleaver as large as he was. Said cleaver's point was aimed at his throat and the hollow spoke once again.

"Well, that was anti-climatic. I wanted some cooler fight with explosions, beat downs, drunken brawlers, and the sleepy village of Cornwall. What I got instead were two exhausted warriors who couldn't even put up a half decent scuffle, let alone a fight." The hollows reiatsu changed adruptly, as did his voice, losing the watery echo that hollows possessed. "Oi! Mr. Cool-Hat Dude! I'm done with the introductions."

Ishida was about to question what in the hell the hollow was blathering about, when his surroundings began to waver and change. As if they had turned to steam and were now floating away. When the landscape solidified again the basement looked like it had before Ishida had left.

A slow monotone clapping drew his attention to his right where a compleatly fine and not bloodstained Urahara stood next to Orihime looking concerned and Chad with his hands clenche into fists, but otherwise compleatly fine.

Urahara spoke up. "Welcome back Uyrū! Did my newest employee surprise you! Wasn't it a great idea to attack you when you were relaxed after just coming home again. Aren't you thankful that you gained this valuable combat experience!" Urahara had to very quickly dodge to the left to avoid getting hit by the incoming blue arrow.

"What was that." Ishida asked calmly, his voice in complete contrast with the combat stance he had.

Ichigo walked over and helped his boss back to his feet. "Why would you do such a mean thing Uyrū? I just wanted to slightly punish you for being so slow with a prank that me and Ichigo set up."

Urahara notices that Ishida is still eyeing Ichigo wearily and hadn't lowered his guard at all. Witch was understandable given what he had seen Ichigo do, even if almost all of it was the product of a machine Urahara made that produced low quality illusions. He decided that the air needed to be cleared and indicated for Ichigo to introduce himself. Ichigo raised his hand to get everybody's attention and he began.

"Hello. My name is Ichigo, no last name. I am an arrancar. My likes include hunting hollows, killing hollows, eating hollows, eating things in general, manual labor, and confusing people with my comebacks. My dislikes include finding places to fall asleep, not being able to show people my face, baths, cats, giving cats baths, shinigami fighting me, the Dewey Decimal system, and girls with flat chests and black hair beating me up. My hobbies include stargazing and playwriting. My dream is to find something that satisfies me in my life." Ichigo then let out a bright big friendly smile so that they could see that he was a friendly guy, but it was covered by his mask so they were just confused by his introduction which contradicted with the behavior he had just shown them a few minutes ago.

Chad, surprised everyone, and asked a question. "What's an arrancar?"

Ichigo facefaulted at the fact that no one seemed to even know what he was and brooded about it while Urahara began his explanation of hollow evolution and arrancars to Ishida and friends.

XoXoXoX

Ya, it took me two days to write about this because I had stuff going on. Next chapter will probably be filler while I struggle with myself to include the bounts or not. Give me some feedback on that please, and also what do you guys think of a Bleach/Dishonored crossover. I'm psyched about that so I'm probably just going to go for it. Have fun folks and see ya next time.