Disclaimer: Everything in this story belongs to Tite Kubo except for the storyline

Okay, it's Winter Break and there is no special event happening tonight so I finally have some time to write something… ahem… this chapter may seem a tad, bad, so forgive me and don't hesitate to yell at me. I need some good encouragement to update faster.

Chapter 10 – Lost and Found

"Damn it, where the hell is that blond-haired sissy," Ichigo growled angrily. They had been walking for what seemed like ages but they could find no trace of Kira's reiatsu at all. In fact, the whole building seemed empty, then again it was the same the last time Ichigo had been here. Empty. Desolate. The orange-haired young man sighed and angrily hit the wall with Zangetsu, much to the swords distaste.

"Calm down Ichigo, that boy's gotta be here somewhere," Isshin muttered, Ichigo's dad was obviously just as annoyed as his son was.

"We can't do much if we can't even find a trace of his reiatsu, where could he have gone anyways? There has only been one pathway so far, we have to run into him sometime…" Hitsugaya muttered, his words were not very encouraging.

"You are forgetting that the pathways can be manipulated, for all we know Kira is in some completely different direction, but no matter what we have to keep going forward, stopping doesn't do anything."

"How do you know we're not in some sort of illusion?" Ichigo muttered darkly.

"Well… you never actually saw Aizen's release, we blindfolded you remember?" Yoruichi replied.

"Maybe it's his bankai or something, maybe he was just tricking us, you never know with that guy!" Ichigo countered. At this point, Yoruichi was getting just a bit annoyed, but she didn't reply because she had just felt a familiar reiatsu and gasped.

"Kisuke!"

Isshin grunted, "You feelin' it to huh?" The dark-skinned woman didn't answer. "Well, c'mon, don't want to lose him. Maybe Kira's near that ole perverted scientist." His feeble attempt to lighten the mood didn't work, and instead the group wearily ran off towards the direction of Urahara's dungeon. Isshin and Yoruichi were extremely energetic but Ichigo and Hitsugaya were beginning to lag behind, the two really just wanted to kill Gin and get out of the place before anything else bad happened. Kira had been completely forgotten.

---

Kira walked aimlessly through the corridors of Las Noches, he had no idea where he was going but he knew he had to find his ex-taicho. That man was who Kira idolized, and he couldn't understand why Gin would go over to Aizen's side TWICE.

"Taicho…" Kira murmured sadly, his hands trailed along the cold wall of the fortress and wondered dimly what could be hidden behind those walls. The blond-haired fukutaicho was extremely surprised when he heard someone speak behind him.

"Ah… Kira-kun!"

"Aizen-Ta… er.. Aizen-san!" Kira exclaimed, startled. He quickly placed his hand on the hilt of Wabisuke but found surprisingly that his sword was nowhere near him. A fear gripped at Kira's heart and he began to panic as he felt a crushing reiatsu all around him, threatening to destroy his body.

"Yare yare… Kira-kun, so weak…" Kira's eyes bulged as he suddenly saw Gin's face in front of him.

"Taicho!" the fukutaicho shrieked, he was already caught up in Aizen's illusions. Kira whimpered slightly in fear as he felt Gin's ice cold fingers across his face, they burned his skin and then the fingers suddenly wrapped tightly across his throat, strangling him.
T-Tai-… Taicho!" rasped Kira as he struggled to breath, his throat hurt, he was seeing spots in his eyes. Why would his captain do this?

"Pitiful, weak... you are no son of ours," Kira blinked startled, that sounded like his father. Impossible, his father was dead, but there was his parents standing before him, scowling.

"Oba-san, Oto-san…" Kira whispered, his hands reached out slowly and he took a tentative step forward, but he found he could not move. His parents turned and began to walk away, the blond-haired boy screamed in frustration. "OBA-SAN! OTO-SAN! IT'S ME!" they didn't even acknowledge him. A large pain began emerging from Kira's head, and suddenly he heard cruel laughing all around him. "Stop… please… stop…" the young man whimpered helplessly as he fell on his knee's gripping his head tightly. His eyes were shut but the images played themselves in his mind. His parents walking away, the grinning face of his captain and then the face of Aizen as he stood grinning triumphantly in front of the shinigami.

"Would you like me to stop Kira? Have you had enough?" Aizen whispered quietly to the shocked and half-crazed shinigami.

"Yes… please… stop…" whimpered Kira, his voice was high, only the whites of his eyes showed.

"Of course I'll stop, I am always kind to my underlings, you are my underling correct? My faithful servant… if you aren't…" the man trailed of suggestively, a cruel tint had entered his voice.

"NO, please… don't hurt me… yes, I'll help," Kira had no idea why he was saying these words. He wanted to say no, he didn't care if he died, so then why was he so weakly saying yes to Aizen like a little puppy?

"Ah, good… good… your first task as my servant…" Aizen paused, he gently lifted up Kira's face until the boy was staring at the man, "Kill Gin," the king of Las Noches smirked at the shocked, confused and then dazed look that flashed, in order, through the poor fukutaicho's face.

"H-Hai…" Kira slowly stood up and turned, walking off towards a random direction, but he was obviously going towards Ichimaru Gin, his taicho and the man he looked up to.

"Weak… weak boy.." Aizen murmured amused. He turned and smiled, albeit cruelly, at an espada standing just behind him. "Thank you Saiten, you have been very helpful,"

"Thank you Aizen-sama," replied the espada.

"Make sure Gin does die, oh and kill the girl as well, actually kill everyone except for Urahara if you could,"

"Hai, Aizen-sama,"

"Thank you Saiten," Aizen turned and walked away, Saiten hid back in the shadows where he suddenly disappeared. Aizen smirked, merging arrancars with demons was extremely interesting.

---

"We're lost aren't we…" Ichigo muttered. The group had been walking for hours but it seemed that Urahara's reiatsu, if it was indeed his, didn't seem to getting any closer, or farther.

"It seems we're being toyed with…" Hitusgaya grumbled.

Yoruichi didn't respond, she seemed extremely frustrated and her eyes constantly darted one way or another, as if trying to see which was the right way to go. It didn't matter though, the group had been going straight forward for the better part of 3 hours. Nothing seemed to change, forward and back, the walls, everything was the same.

"We're going in circles I bet… I mean, there is no way a pathway could be so long and not lead anyways!" Ichigo continued angrily, he glanced at his dad who seemed to be thinking just as much as Yoruichi was.

"Let's leave a mark and see if we see it again then, if you think we're going in circles," Isshin commented suddenly, Ichigo glanced at his dad.

"What you mean blast a whole in the wall?"

"Precisely son,"

"Wait, why didn't we think of doing that before?" Ichigo asked.

"Well, it did take us a while to realize we were actually stuck in some sort of problem," Hitsugaya pointed out, if a bit grudgingly, it took a genius a lot to admit they hadn't noticed something so obvious.

"Right well, stand back people," Ichigo took out Zangetsu and aimed it straight at the wall. "GETSUGA TENSHOU" he roared, only a small scratch appeared.

"I don't think knocking down a wall is going to be so easy anymore…" Hitsugaya grumbled, the young captain took out his own sword. "Soten ni zase, Hyorinmaru!" he whispered, and then swung. A large dragon smashed against the wall but nothing happened. The wall didn't even crack, in fact the wall didn't even FREEZE.

"Reinforced, or maybe we really are in some sort of illusion," Isshin sighed. "What you think Yoruichi?" The man turned when there was no answer. "Yoru-… what the…"

"What's wrong dad?" Ichigo asked, he turned towards where Yoruichi had been standing before.

She was gone.

---

"Ah… Gin-kun! You just walked in on me and Rangiku's interesting conversation!" Urahara commented lightly as Gin walked into the room with a strangled expression on his face.

Gin didn't even notice Urahara at first, his eyes were mainly focused on the little strawberry blond haired girl standing before him. God I feel like a pedophile… he thought as he felt his stomach do flip-flops.

"Uh…" Rangiku muttered, she was afraid of the man, yet she wasn't. Something in her burned, some sort of hate. She couldn't place her finger on it though, she knew she hated this guy, she knew she was afraid of him. At the same time though she felt… something else. Something warm and bubbly. She had asked Urahara-san what a 'warm bubbly feeling' was called but he hadn't answered her.

"Urahara-san!" Gin smirked, he had regained his composure at last. "Long time no see, nice ta see ya again sir!"

"Mm… I bet, you'd better run while you can, she's right here for the taking and I don't think your little 'Aizen-taicho' is very happy with you," Urahara responded with a smirk of his own.

Gin frowned, he was beginning to feel very frustrated and annoyed with the whole situation.

Why didn't I just kill her when I first found her… then she would've gone to Rukongai… Gin thought warily.

"Um… Gin…san?" The silver-haired man nearly jumped when he heard the soft voice of a little girl so close to his feet. He looked down and tried to put on his scariest smirk, it was hard as his mind didn't want to do a scary smirk. His heart and mind were both telling Gin to do a nice and warm soft smile so that the girl before him wouldn't be scared out of her wits. Gin told his heart and mind to shut up and go die since they hadn't helped him at all in his long life.

"Ah… Rangiku-chan is it? Hehe, so this is where ya've gone and run to…" Gin was surprised his voice didn't catch in his throat.

"Uh… uh… hai…" Rangiku muttered, she suddenly felt extremely shy.

"Heh, this isn't a safe place ta be Rangiku-chan!" Gin continued, trying to sound as scary and evil as possible.

"Urahara-san was nice to me."

Gin glanced at Urahara and glared, "I'm sure he was Rangiku-san, but he's going to die soon… they're gonna come and take 'im and when they see you wit' him they gonna take you to and lock ya back up!"

Rangiku paled, why in the world did she like this guy when he was so abnormally scary?

"Um… um…" she whispered, her eyes were beginning to burn but for some strange reason her mind yelled at her not to cry. NO CRYING! NO CRYING IN FRONT OF GIN! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

"Hows about I take ya outta here ne? You'd like that Rangiku-chan?" Gin asked. His mind was contemplating whether he should just kill her right now so that her soul could go to Rukongai, then again she was in Hueco Mundo and would probably just turn into a hollow.

"B-But… you'll die!" Gin's eyes nearly flew open at the girls sudden concern for him.

He laughed to brush off his shock, "No one's gonna kill me, I'm Aizen's right-hand man!"

"Not anymore, Ichimaru Gin, prepare to die!" Kira growled angrily, his zanpakuto already raised.

Oh, Ichigo and crew will become more interesting next chapter (I promise :D)

Ok, I honestly don't know when my next update will be. It's Winter Break and my English teacher (who is also my socials teacher) decided to assign some homework and I want to get it all done soon or else I'm going to panic.

Is anyone still reading this by the way? Well anyways R&R )

-Griƒƒen