Chapter 33: The Test That Stumped Them All

"Hey, Danny!" Ichigo called. "You gonna eat your rice cake?"

Danny scowled at Ichigo as he brought his food more protectively to himself. He knew better than to leave his food unattended around the Strawberry. It had taken him three lost rice balls before he'd wised up. "Yes, I am. Keep your eyes off my food, glutton!"

"Well, then ya better eat it! At this rate, a fly is gonna come by and ruin it."

"What do you care, Strawberry?! Pay attention to your own lunch!"

"I can do whatever I want, Casper!"

"Guys!"

Ichigo and Danny rounded on Uryu with eyes glaring in fury. "What?!"

Uryu fixed them both with a deadpan stare. "Look, you two have gone so long without getting into a fight. Do you really want to ruin all of this progress on something so trivial?"

Danny turned to glare at Ichigo, who in turn did the same. Slowly, Danny could feel the annoyance drain out of him as he sighed. His hand twitched in an attempt at a familiar movement, but he stopped himself. He couldn't touch his hair or else he wouldn't hear the end of it from Vlad. "I guess so. I'm sorry, man. I've just been so stressed lately."

Ichigo leaned back on the rooftop railing, nodding at him. "No worries. I've been feeling the same way."

"About Aizen?"

Ichigo's face darkened at the snake's name. "Among other things."

Before Danny could respond, Orihime cocked her head, cutely at him. He hoped his cheeks weren't as red as they felt. "You can't get too worked up about Aizen, Danny-san. Yoruichi-san and Urahara-san are already working on it with the others. We can only control what we can!"

Danny's face definitely flushed as he looked down at his uneaten rice cake. He was thankful that he'd long since gotten control over his powers and become more familiar with Orihime, otherwise he'd have been losing his pants around her all the time. . . That sounded way more inappropriate than intended. "Yeah, I know. You're right. I just can't help it."

"We will all be there behind you."

Danny blinked slightly as he turned to face Chad, who even while sitting down was still a head or three taller than him. He'd never said much to the friendly giant or heard much from him, but if he was nothing else, he was loyal. "Thanks."

Not long afterwards, they returned back to their meals eating in peace. Until Ichigo had to go and break it again.

"What was with your face getting red when Orihime was talking to you?"

Danny's face flushed again as he glared at Ichigo. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"What do you mean? I'm just asking a question!"

A loud smack could be heard as Uryu's hand met his forehead.

"Well, it was nothing!" Danny growled, ducking his head slightly. He may have gotten closer to the group of teens, but he wasn't about to admit his problems with talking to pretty girls. Especially not in front of said pretty girl. . . who was also a part of the group of teens he'd been getting closer with. "There, you happy?!"

"See, that wasn't so hard now was-"

A green mist began to waft from Danny's open mouth, similar to his blue Ghost Sense.

Silence.

One blink.

Two blinks.

"You guys feel that too, right?" Danny breathed. He could feel the hairs starting to stand up on his skin at the surge in reiatsu he was sensing. It was disgusting and artificial, like it was breaking laws just from existing.

"I was hoping that I was mistaken," Uryu replied.

"No, I'm sensing it too, Uryu," Ichigo said, rummaging through his backpack, likely for the stuffed animal Mod Soul that he'd shoved in there.

"It feels like a hollow, doesn't it?" Chad asked, in a hushed murmur.

"It feels a bit like a hollow, but it doesn't feel like any hollow that I've ever met."

"Do you think that it's Aizen?" Orihime asked.

Danny opened his mouth to respond when he once again breathed out the green mist. His eyes widened further as two new powers joined the first one. The only times that he'd released green mist was when he ran into Plot and the spider hollow. They would have to be hollows and strong ones at that to trigger his "Hollow Sense" from so far away.

"These new powers. . ." Uryu trailed off, his eyes narrowing.

"We need to go out there!" Danny said, shooting to his feet.

"B-But right now?!" Orihime asked. "Lunch is almost over!"

"There's no time to lose. We have to go check it out. You, Chad, and Uryu can cover for us."

"We can help too!" Orihime said, standing up.

"You can't," Ichigo said. "Not against these guys."

Orihime pouted but returned to her food tray.

"We'll see what's up," Danny replied, softly. "Who knows? We might not even need to fight!"

Ichigo snorted as he pushed his spirit badge to his chest, causing his body to crumble, like a sack of potatoes. Ichigo stuck his hand into his backpack and dug out a very indignant-looking stuffed animal. It was pretty impressive how expressive a toy lion's face could be. And also disturbing.

"I do not appreciate getting stuffed into a backpack prison!" the stuffed animal shouted. "It's inhumane and humiliating!"

"Yeah, yeah," Ichigo said, stuffing his hand down the thing's mouth and pulling out the Mod Soul pill. "Tell me about it later."

After popping the pill into his prone body, Ichigo was off with Danny following shortly after.

Danny didn't know what he was expecting to see when he got to the location, but it definitely wasn't the hollow clown show going on in front of him. There were three beings standing before them of differing statures.

The first, and most powerful, was ironically the shortest in stature. He looked like a borderline goth, scene kid with his shoulder-length, dark hair streaked with green highlights, black streaks that ran down from his eyes like tears, and pale skin. His clothing was a stark contrast though. He was dressed in a plain white. . . kimono? Jacket? Danny wasn't all that up to speed with Japanese clothing. A black sash was wrapped around his waist with a thin sword hanging at his side. With the Phantom of the Opera mask hanging from the side of the dude's head, the new guy looked like a real hoot.

The next guy was a lot taller. He was a giant, probably somewhere around eight feet tall, and bald with small protrusions coming from his head. He wore a similar getup to the shorter guy with the only difference being his jacket's zipper was down exposing his broad chest and ripped torso. Dude probably ate at least three gym rats if his body and bony jaw were any indication. Danny wasn't talking about a thick jawline, mind you. No, the giant had a literal jaw of bone. He also had a sword hanging from his black sash, as if he didn't need any more weaponry.

The last guy was the tallest. It was a hollow in the most obvious sense, but he had the height of a Gillian class hollow rather than a regular one. The power coming off of it was the weakest, yet also the most unstable. There was something off there in its reiatsu. There was green fur all over its body like it'd grown moss, an opened mask revealing its human face, and it held a giant sword in its large hand. Its burly arms were taut as it gazed down on them.

The one thing that they all had in common were their partial hollow masks and hollow holes.

"Shoot," Danny muttered. "I didn't realize the circus was in town."

"Grand Fisher!"

Danny's brows furrowed as he turned to see Ichigo's teeth gnashed together as he glared daggers at the hollow people. No, wait, he was glaring at the tall one.

"You know that guy?"

"He killed my mother."

Danny's eyes widened as his eyes snapped back to the towering behemoth. He didn't know much about the odds of encountering the same hollow multiple times over the period of years, but he imagined that it couldn't have been very high. "No way!"

"Kurosaki," the behemoth spoke, his voice an echoing baritone. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

In one swift motion, Ichigo drew his zanpakuto and disappeared with a roar. The murderous hollow's form flickered briefly before gaining a familiar translucent color as Ichigo reappeared behind it. Ichigo landed carefully as he spun back to face the hollow. "What the heck was that?!"

Danny blinked in surprise. "Intangibility? Since when can hollows do that?"

"You'll have to do better than that Kurosaki-kun!" the hollow laughed.

"What the hell was that?!" Ichigo snarled. "You couldn't do that before!"

"You are correct. I've been granted a new power by Aizen-sama. A power which has made me truly strong!"

"We should move the fight."

Danny's eyes locked onto the short hollow's deep, green eyes. He was soft-spoken, which seemed to fit his shorter stature. His eyes gave him the creeps, though. "Who are you people?"

"We'll answer that later," the second hollow thing answered with a sneer. He cracked his neck before punching a fist into his palm. "Let's get a move on so our battle can begin!"

Danny spared a glance over at Ichigo and shrugged. "Works for me."

Ichigo never took his eyes off of Grand Fisher. "Lead the way."

It didn't take long to reach the open clearing, a mile off from Karakura Town. The brief journey was incredibly silent. Danny, for one, thought it might have been for the best. He knew that he should say something to his friend after coming face to face with his mother's killer, but he couldn't figure out what. Somehow, he didn't think that Ichigo would be in the mood for any quips, even if they were at Grand Fisher's expense.

"Grand Fisher," the short emo said. "Eliminate them."

Grand Fisher smiled, slowly. "With pleasure!"

He drew his sword and brought it down in a powerful arc, but Ichigo and Danny easily leapt away before it could make contact. The ground split apart in chunks where the blade struck. Before Danny could say anything to make some form of a plan, Ichigo was gone in a flash step and running along the giant's arm. A few more steps and Ichigo was at the beast's head with his zanpakuto cocked back. "Getsuga. . . Tensho!"

In a flash, the powerful arc of reiatsu soared toward Grand Fisher's mask. It blasted clean through and carried on into the sky before dissipating into nothing. Normally that would mean that the hollow's ass was grass, but in this case. . .

"Wha-urk?!"

Ichigo was sent flying by a firm backhand from the hollow. Danny caught him in a skid, after a well-timed Flash Step, only for Ichigo to shove his way out of his grip as he glared at Grand Fisher.

"Gee, you're welcome, man," Danny muttered.

"What the hell was that?!" Ichigo demanded.

"That was the result of Aizen-sama's work!" Grand Fisher laughed.

"You keep saying that but the hell does that even mean?! Start making sense, dammit!"

"He has combined the powers of hollows, shinigami, and ghosts! Now I have power beyond my wildest dreams!"

"Oh, shut up!"

Ichigo went back on the attack, unleashing a flurry of strikes. To his credit, Grand Fisher proved to be much faster than his size implied. He blocked or parried every strike that Ichigo sent his way. If there was an attack that he couldn't stop, he simply turned intangible to entirely avoid the strike and deal one of his own. Thankfully, Ichigo hadn't gotten caught off guard since his first slip-up. Unfortunately, that put Ichigo and the hollow at a stalemate.

Danny glanced over at the other two. . . "hollows"? Their eyes were focused on the fight, but they didn't seem to want to help. That could change, however, if Danny himself decided to get involved. 'Damn, I guess I could try getting help. But how would I call Yoruichi and Urahara? My phone's back with my clone, and I don't have a signal or anything. . . Wait!'

Danny pointed a hand at the two hollows, bracing his other hand against his wrist. This was either going to be really genius or really stupid. "Hado number 54," he muttered, "Haien!"

A wave of purple reiatsu surged towards them at breakneck speeds. He didn't even see them move as they destroyed the attack. He wasn't sure which one of them blocked it, but he knew that he had both of their attention now. Whether he liked it or not.

The larger of the duo grinned, savagely, in a manner far too similar to Kenpachi for his liking. "If you were in such a hurry to die, you only needed ask!"

"Not today, buddy," Danny grumbled. 'Hopefully Urahara and the rest felt that blast and are on their way.'

Danny unsheathed his zanpakuto just in time to block a strike from the hulking man. He could swear that he felt every single one of his bones rattle from the impact. 'Alright, no more crossing swords with the Hulk.'

A quick Flash Step later, and Danny had put a few yards of distance between them. Distance that was easily crossed in the blink of an eye. Danny threw himself to the right to avoid a downward strike, followed by a backwards handspring to dodge a low swipe. He couldn't dodge all of the blows, unfortunately, as he was caught under the eye by a powerful swing. Danny's hand shot to the wound as he reflexively activated intangibility.

The big, dumb lug scowled as he gripped his hilt. "C'mon, coward! Stop hiding from me and fight!"

"Not a chance," Danny muttered, his mind reeling a mile a minute. 'C'mon, Fenton, what do you know? Uh, this guy is strong. Really strong. Fast too. He likes fighting head on. Grand Fisher is occupied, and emo kid probably won't join the fight. I don't have any of my ghost weaponry or my Fenton Bow and Arrows. . . I can't hold intangibility forever. . . but I don't have to!'

Danny glided backwards before returning to tangibility. The "Hulk" grinned savagely as he raised his blade. "I see you've readied yourself for battle once more!"

Danny's eyes narrowed as he gripped his broadsword hilt with both hands. "Not exactly. Reap, Karitoriki!"

In a burst of light and flames, Danny leaped forward with his double-bladed scythe. It wouldn't be at full power, like it would have if he'd said the full incantation, but it'd have to do. He swung at the hollow's head, but the man easily ducked under it. He swiped again, but only found the same results. His opponent nailed him in the chest with a push kick, sending him flying. He was pretty positive that he'd just heard his ribs crack (Clockwork knew he could feel it). By the time that he flipped over and landed with a skid, the hollow was on him again.

Danny switched back into intangibility just as the big guy tried to divorce the lovely union between his head and his body. He smirked as the "Hulk" let out a roar of frustration, stepping to the side as he returned to tangibility. At the same time, he swung his scythe into the hollow's side, engulfing him in his zanpakuto's flames.

Danny would've been appalled in most cases, but thankfully this was a hollow and not a human or shinigami. Unfortunately for him, there was a problem with the absorption and the hollow's smirk told him that it was purposeful.

"You can't get me, little pariah!"

Danny winced as he received a fist to the face, sending him rocketing over the horizon until he was caught roughly. He glanced over his shoulder to see Ichigo standing behind him as he set him down. A quick glance over the battlefield told him that Grand Fisher was gone or dead. Either way, it was a relief.

"Alright," Danny huffed, wincing as he felt his nose starting to shift as it healed, "I'll take Hulk Hogan, you take emo boy. I'd recommend jumping straight to bankai because my shikai isn't doing anything to these guys."

Without waiting for an answer, Danny gripped his double-bladed scythe with both hands, glaring at the hulking monster in defiance. "Eat this! Ban-!"

"Hado 31: Shakkahō!"

Danny just barely spotted a ball of red zoom past him and collided against the giant hollow's hide. As smoke drifted into the air, he spun to find Urahara with his smoking palm outstretched and Yoruichi charging ahead. She jumped into a flying kick, landing a powerful strike to the hollow's neck.

"Agh!"

"Yoruichi!" Danny cried, getting ready to enter the fight once more. Yoruichi dropped to the ground, clutching at her shin. Already there was a nasty bruise beginning to form.

"Stand back, Danny-san," Urahara said. "You still don't have enough control for a fight like this one."

Before he could retort, the emo kid spoke. "Yammy, we must return at once."

The Hulk, er, Yammy, looked upset. "Really?! It was just about to get fun!"

"We've fulfilled our objective. We are leaving now."

Yammy didn't protest much aside from a scowl. Danny couldn't blame him. The killing intent that the emo kid was putting out had him breaking out in a sweat. He felt like he was being targeted by one of the demons in the horror movies Sam would make him and Tucker watch. For a second, it looked like Ulquiorra looked back at Danny as if to see how he'd reacted to the intense spiritual pressure. He hoped he didn't look as affected as he felt.

Thankfully, Ulquiorra dropped his killing intent as quickly as he'd released it. He made a gesture to his right as if pointing at the air, and then some freaky stuff happened. The space around that area began to rapidly disintegrate into nothingness; an inky black void was soon left standing behind the two hollows.

"Running away?" Yoruichi sneered. It would've looked more convincing if she wasn't favoring one leg.

"Don't delude yourself," Ulquiorra said, through narrowed eyes. "Your company wouldn't be worth the effort to deal with if they could only barely take on Yammy and Grand Fisher."

"Hey!" his companion snarled.

Ulquiorra ignored him in favor of staring down Yoruichi and stepping back into the inky blackness, where Yammy reluctantly followed. "Ultimately, we will just have to inform Lord Aizen that his test subjects are useless trash."

Once Yammy's towering frame went through, the portal between dimensions began to disappear as reality stitched itself back together.

"What's going on here?!"

Danny turned towards the voice to see Toshiro and Byakuya running towards them. "You guys sure took your sweet time."

Byakuya looked affronted while Toshiro merely ignored him, in favor of looking at Urahara and Yoruichi. "What is the status, Yoruichi-san? Urahara-san?"

"Let's talk back at my shop," Urahara said, sheathing his blade. "There's no telling what type of lingering eyes may still be out here."

Danny and the others were meeting together inside Urahara's shop. Ichigo had secluded himself off to a corner of the room, away from the action but still able to hear. His parents had tried to convince him and Ichigo to return to school, but he and Ichigo wouldn't hear of it. Since they already had clones/mod souls in their places, there wasn't much that they could say so they were allowed to stay until the discussion was over.

"I see," Toshiro muttered after the explanation, rubbing his chin. "This is troubling."

"This reeks of the hollowfication incident," Byakuya scowled.

Danny frowned as he sat nearby. "Hollowfication incident?"

As per usual, he was ignored.

"Yes," Urahara said, an unusually grave tone in his voice. "It is remarkably similar. He's finally gotten his Hōgyokus to work."

Danny's eyes widened. 'Aizen made one of those too?!'

"We must return our findings to Captain-Commander Yamamoto," said Toshiro. "We will let you know if we need anything new from you and keep you all posted."

"Of course, Toshiro-san," Urahara said, his fan back out.

As Danny watched them leave, he couldn't help the sinking feeling in his gut. His mind couldn't help but drift to the monster that attacked days before. He'd never seen anything so unbeatable like it before outside of Pariah Dark. 'That thing that attacked before. . . was that another arrancar?'

He hoped it wasn't because if Aizen was creating monsters like that and the guys that he and Ichigo fought, he wasn't sure how they would win.

Aizen's attack was not unexpected in its timing, but rather in its short time span. Of course, Toshiro realized that even with two Hōgyokus, Aizen was not foolish enough to launch an immediate large-scale attack. Captain Commander Yamamoto thought much of the same after hearing Byakuya-san and his own testimony. Still, Aizen was not an enemy that they wanted to underestimate.

After seeing his first move, Toshiro imagined that the Captain Commander would be sending some more officers to Karakura in case of another attack. He could make a vague guess as to who would be deployed when the time came. Also, there were some that he knew would be chomping at the bit to go out to the Human World for a chance at fighting Aizen's forces.

"Hey! You can't just- Hey, are you listening to me?!"

Toshiro frowned. 'What was-?'

"Hey, stop!"

Toshiro pushed out his senses to the immediate vicinity. It did not take too long for him to sense the erratic reiatsu of the culprit.

Toshiro heaved a deep sigh as his office was barged into and his door impacted violently with the wall (thankfully still on its hinges). An out of breath Momo was standing in the doorway, her stare determined despite her heavy panting and her white cloth that tied her bun being messily put together. It didn't take too many guesses to figure out why she was there.

"Toshiro-kun, what's this that I've been hearing?" Momo asked. "Aizen's returned?"

Toshiro rubbed his forehead. "No. Aizen sent out some foot soldiers to test Fenton-san and Kurosaki-san."

Her hands shot to her mouth to stifle her gasp. "Oh no! Are they alright?"

"They're fine. Kurosaki-san managed to eliminate one of the threats. Fenton-san was unable to defeat his adversary, unfortunately. However, considering the power that Aizen's fighters held, we should count ourselves lucky that there were only minimal injuries."

Momo nodded, rubbing at her arm. She had undeniably gotten better over the past couple of weeks, but she still had a fragile, doe-eyed stare that looked so unnerving on her face. Not that he'd ever say such a thing out loud. He didn't even want to think about what her state of mind would be if Fenton-san had been grievously injured. To his understanding, she was beginning to befriend the boy and his sister.

"Toshiro-kun?"

"Yes, Hinamori-chan?"

"If you find out anything about the Aizen situation, could you let me know?"

Toshiro sighed. "You know that all of it is on a need-to-know basis-"

"I know but-"

"-And you're still not cleared yet."

"Please, Shiro-kun."

Toshiro stared at her pleading eyes. There was no way that she was going to accept no for an answer. He knew her much too well to even bother trying to deceive himself otherwise. ". . . I'll do what I can."

Momo nodded with a soft smile. It wasn't as bright or as warm as he was used to, but it was a start. "Thank you, Shiro-kun."

Toshiro simply nodded before returning to his paperwork. As he heard the door softly close behind him, Toshiro placed his hands underneath his chin. Paperwork was the last thing on his mind as he stared a hole into his desk as if the man responsible for all of the mess was right there. In his sights. "Aizen, I will end you. Mark my words. I will end you for all you've done to Hinamori-chan."

The day went by pretty quickly after the whole Aizen debacle. Ichigo was pissed for the rest of the school day and simply went home without a word to the rest of the gang. Danny couldn't blame him, but it unfortunately meant that he was the only one who could explain the situation to the rest of them. They all took it surprisingly well, although Orihime claimed that she would visit Ichigo and drop off some of her cooking. He couldn't explain for the life of him why his friends' faces blanched at hearing that thoughtful statement.

After all of that was over, he simply went back to Vlad's. He didn't dare tell him about the fight, but it turned out to be fruitless. Apparently, his dad called asking how Danny was doing and spilled the whole situation. Needless to say, Vlad was less than pleased that his "protégé" had been bested so easily. He promised to up his training tomorrow.

He wasn't opposed to it, but he had to admit that training at the moment felt unappealing. Aizen's forces were making their move and he had no access to Karitoriki. Sure, his zanpakuto still functioned properly, but it didn't feel like it was at full strength. The sword felt out of balance in his palm as he held it. He felt like screaming just thinking about it.

So, as he laid in his bed for the night, he tried his best not to think about it. Instead, he cast his gaze around his temporary room. It was quite spacious although barren. He only brought his essentials, after all, which meant he had even less of his stuff than he'd come to Karakura Town with. None of his posters or astronomy figures and nick-nacks that could ease his stress. Not for the first time, he felt a pang in his heart.

Just as he was about to drift off into slumber, Danny jerked awake as he felt a sudden flare of reiatsu. It felt. . . tainted? It wasn't exactly the reiatsu of a hollow, but it wasn't the reiatsu of a human? With a huff, he turned on his side and faced the wall. He could ignore it. There was a shinigami posted in Karakura Town who could deal with it.

And then it happened again.

He frowned as he felt its proximity. It felt like it was just outside of his room. With a huff, Danny shoved off his covers and climbed out of bed. Carefully moving to the window, he peered down.

'Is that a. . . girl?'

He couldn't see much out there outside of a mess of blonde hair barely tamed by two pigtails and a glare being directed up at his window. Despite the glare, she did seem to have feminine facial features. She also seemed to have pretty decent reiatsu control as the sizable energy he'd been sensing was only detectable if he focused on her. 'No hollow mask either, so maybe not one of Aizen's? Either way, she's here for me. . . apparently.'

Danny sighed as he let the black rings run over his form, shifting into the loose garbs of his shinigami form. He phased through the roof before landing in front of the girl with his zanpakuto in hand. To her credit, she didn't flinch, not even moving to grab the sword he could now see sheathed on her back or show any surprise at the sight of him. "Alright, what's the big idea?"

She looked him in the eye with her hands on her hips. She didn't look too threatening in her red tracksuit, but if there was one thing he knew by now, it was that looks could be deceiving. "About time you got your ass down here! Thought I'd have to break in there and drag you out!"

Danny's eye twitched. "What are you doing here?"

The woman's scowl deepened (if that was even possible) as she muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "annoying ass kids these days". Danny tried his best not to look offended considering she looked like she wasn't much older than he was. Then again, appearances could be deceiving. "Well since you asked so nicely, brat, I'm here to talk to you about the Visored."

A/N: Wow so yeah. Sorry this took so long, but school had to be my first priority. Summer's here now tho, so I should get way more time to write. Also, I'm coming closer to the end of one of my other fanfics which should free up even more time to write!

With that have a good one and don't hesitate to leave feedback! I love seeing it!