Chapter 4

Sweat glistened down the raven haired soul reaper's forehead as she faced the unknown enemy. She couldn't contact soul society for backup because the power wave that he or it was emitting, although they couldn't feel it, was interfering with the communication between this world and the next.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahh!" Ikkaku attacked the beast head on as any 11th squad member would. However, the wolf-like creature grabbed him and his weapon with its tail, squeezing the man and his zanpaktou together in a very uncomfortable state. It spun around twice with its victim in hand and banged his head on a close by roof, completely destroying the building. Luckily, they were in an abandoned area.

"Damn it, what the hell is that thing?! There's no reatsu whatsoever so we don't even know how strong it is." Said Yumichika. He could release his true zanpaktou now that Ikkaku was out but there was still the raven haired lieutenant standing so he couldn't risk it.

"Yumichika, corner him, I may have an idea." She said as she flew away. The 5th seat nodded, she was a higher officer after all. He charged at the monster, slashing at an amazing speed that was however easily dodged. But, he had the effect he wanted, it was backing away. Not by fear mind, mind you, it was preparing for another huge attack. He couldn't let that happen. He accelerated his pace, his breath now quickening, as he attacked. Just a little more…Got him! Just as he was going to give one last slash, the beast opened his mouth and fired a blast straight in his face. Luckily for him, because of the proximity, the beast's aim was off and he was able to dodge the blow. It's a good thing he did: the blast continued on farther than the eye can see, disappearing on the horizon, annihilating anything on its path.

The shinigami shunpoed a few meters away, wide eyed. The beast, with the intent on following him, took a step forward, but it was too late. White beams stroke it of all directions, preventing it from escaping to one side or the other, turning the once fearsome creature into a huge block of ice. Adorning a stoic face, Rukia stood proudly from her latest attack as her enemy shot towards the ground.

"I think you got him." Said Yumichika, still wide eyed and slightly disturbed by what he saw. The lieutenant nodded: "Yes but we better make sure everyone is okay and take them to Urahara. Not only will he be able to heal them but he will probably have an answer to what that thing was."

As they were starting to move, the ice cracked, making both shinigami draw their swords and take a fighting stance. However, what happened baffled both: when the ice broke, instead of a beast, the orange haired teen emerged, unconscious.

…..

Hytsugaya woke up to the first rays of light. His lieutenant was still sleeping, as usual, but the rest of the team had unusually disappeared. Alarmed, he urgently shook his subordinate: "Matsumoto! Wake up!"

"Huh? Wha…what's going on taicho, it's way too early!" she responded. "No time for this! Everyone is gone; we need to go check with Urahara. If they haven't come back yet, something must've happened and they're getting healed."

"Fine fine…" After he waited more than 2 hours for her to lazily get out of bed, they headed out.

Arriving to the old shop, they entered without bothering to knock, only to notice that just Kuchiki, Urahara and Yoruichi were sitting at the table, with a solemn face. Although not always being very reliable, Rangiku was genuinely worried: "What's wrong, where are the others?" Urahara gave her a forced smile and nodded towards the hall: "They're resting right now, none of their lives were in danger but why don't you go check on them Matsumoto fukutaicho?" Understanding that this was her cue to leave, she stepped out of the room, towards the hallway, followed by Yoruichi.

The captain sat down, frowning: "So what's going on?" Urahara sighed: "You know Kurosaki is maturing, just as you are, right taicho?" The small captain nodded as the shopkeeper continued: "Well, we all know that Isshin, his father, was the 11th squad's captain, basically a soul reaper. However, most captains think that his mother is human… but she actually isn't." At that, Toshirou gave a puzzled face. The reason Kurosaki was a soul reaper and a hollow at the same time was because his mother was contaminated by Aizen. However, none other never-before-seen abilities have appeared so everyone supposed that his mother was indeed human. "About 20 years ago, Isshin was down in the real world when he met Masaki. As you know the story, she was bitten by one of Aizen's creations and Isshin saved her (i.e. what really happened to Masaki from the recent chapters). However, the real reason this bite was poisonous was in fact because she was a Quincy."

At that, he heard many gasps and saw some wide eyes. He then proceeded to tell them about how her family was killed by a freak hollow attack and how the Ishida family took her inn as the future wife to their eldest son, which is in fact Uryuu's father. "Anyway, after he saved her, settled in the clinic and married her, her family came back for a favor. In fact, the story fed to the Ishida's and the rest of the Quincy community was somewhat a lie. The Kurosaki name was forged as a noble family in this world by her family from a separate dimension. As you know, the king that rules over soul society, Hueco Mundo and the real world is only one of many that exist. And of course, different dimensions from ours have different hierarchies and ways to function. In the dimension Masaki was from, she belonged to a lesser known noble family. Long story short, her father wasn't exactly the happy go easy type and was angered by her lack skill and banished her."

Urahara sweat dropped at that. He was told the man was quite eccentric and harsh in his own way. Not to mention the bottle of scotch was never too far away. "Anyway, her sister married into the royal family and had a son. However, things were not too peaceful in the realm and a rebellion was on the horizon. To keep their son from harm, they brought him to Masaki, the mother's sister…."

But Hytsugaya cut him off before he could finish: "Wait! Don't tell me that child is…."

"Yes" answered Urahara, "Ichigo was brought to this world for his safety. The changes he is undergoing now may have to do with him maturing, but they are in no way similar to yours. Masaki never spoke about the abilities of her people or the stages of their growth. The only thing she mentioned was that their abilities were unlike any we have ever seen, and that there was a reason why, among all the dimension's royalty, theirs was deemed more powerful and stood on a higher pedestal than the others."

"When she made that statement, an idea started to build. Kurosaki, that would grow, would have more power than any soul reaper in soul society and would have never known Aizen. Basically, he was the perfect opponent. Aizen seemed to think that he could absorb his powers thanks to the hougyouku and so sent a hollow in his sector, knowing full well that Rukia would be there and she was a high level shinigami. And, as according to both our plans, Kurosaki's powers ended up awakened and he was introduced to soul society when he invaded it to save Rukia. However, Aizen wasn't aware of the extent of power the kid would have and ended up defeated. And, this whole time, even when he lost them, he was only using his soul reaper powers, that were in fact a way his energy used to camouflage him in our environment, so as to appear to be Isshin's son. You could call it survival's instinct in a hostile and unknown environment. His true power would activate at the age of 18. I've calculated however that if he was to mature without his soul reaper powers, as he lost them after the winter war, the waves coming from this maturation would be enough to reach soul society through the senkai gate and cause severe damage. Luckily, the fullbringers came in and I had a reason to ask soul society to give him his powers back, without revealing any of this."

After swallowing the initial shock, Rukia asked: "But how could he have such an instinct as a baby? That's simply impossible!"

Urahara sighed: "I know and I have been trying to figure it out. But, as unlikely as it seems, he is indeed much more different than any of us so I'm afraid we are in the dark as to how to handle this…"

Toshirou was puzzled: "But why are you telling us this now?"

"Because now that he has matured, he is safe from any harm that the central 46 could inflict since he is obviously too different from our kind to ignore that fact" responded the slightly older man.

A few quiet moments passed. Urahara had an unreadable expression while Rukia looked slightly worried and the captain was trying to catch up with all the new information he acquired. Finally, he rose from the table: "I'm going to report this to soul society tomorrow since the stage will be done by then. If you don't mind by me staying here tonight"

"Not at all"

"Then please excuse me" as he said so, he headed through the hallway, closing the door behind him.

"So now what happens?" asked Rukia "will his family come to reclaim him now that he is maturing or will he be allowed to remain?"

"No one knows, Miss Kuchiki. Only time will tell, only time.

Sorry for the long wait but I'll try to post more often. Reviews are welcomed!