I do not own Bleach

Chapter 18 Resolve

Kisuke looked up at the sky. He had felt the rise in hollows and now, as he looked up at the sky, he watched as several more gargantas appeared in the sky. Someone must have released hollow bait, and a strong one at that. His eyes went wide. "Shit!" Running back into the store, he yelled, "Tessai, Jinta, Ururu, grab your gear. We have a mission!"

Rukia shot up from the table. "What's the matter?" Kisuke ignored her. She grabbed him by the front of his overcoat. "What's happening?"

He glared down at her. "Look outside."

In less than a minute, his team was out the door. He chose to ignore Rukia as he prayed that the gigai that Hinata was in would prevent her from giving into her hollow instincts, causing her to kill the whole town.

. . .

Hinata awoke to someone shaking her. As her eyes came open, she felt a pressure of spiritual energy just under her hollow hole that was growing very painful. She saw Kuon standing over her, looking frantic, but he stopped shaking her when she looked at him. He fell back on the ground.

"Thank goodness, you're awake! I was starting to worry that you had died."

As she sat up and took deeper breaths of air, she felt the pressure below her hole lessen. "What's going on?"

Before Kuon could even answer, there was a deafening roar. She looked up to see a garganta open in the sky with hollows streaming out. It all came back to her. Ichigo and Uryu were fighting. She could feel their anger all the way from over here, and she shrank a little on the inside. The feelings of anger made her sick. She needed to stop the hollows, but she was so confused that she didn't know what to do. She started to cry and pulled her arms over her head.

She wasn't like that long before Kuon cried out. She peeked up to see Kuon frantically trying to beat back five hollows that seemed intent on trying to eat her. She watched in horror as one of the bigger ones pinned Kuon down. She tried to jump to her feet, but her body collapsed to the ground.

"Nooooooooooooo!"

She was startled to see the hollows disintegrate. Then suddenly, Kisuke was in front of her, grabbing her arms and looking her all over before giving her a hug. "You're still you! Here, take this." She opened her mouth as he shoved a piece of candy in. She felt the pain below her hollow hole grow tight before all of a sudden it was gone.

Tears pricked her eyes. "Uncle Kisuke!" She threw herself into his chest and cried. He gently rubbed her back until she had calmed down enough to talk, "I. . .I. . .I don't know what to do. . ." she sniffled. ". . . Ichigo and Uryu. . . they're both so angry. . . it hurts! They didn't listen to me. . . I don't know where to go!"

"Shhhhh, it will be okay, Hinata. It will be okay." He hummed soothingly into her ear.

She looked up at him with those big brown eyes full of tears. "They're going to kill each other, Uncle Kisuke!" she sobbed. "I don't want them to get hurt . . . and Uryu . . . I felt so sick . . . Ichigo was so mad . . . I don't know what to do!"

Kisuke didn't know what to say. It was hard to understand her babbling through her tears.

"What do I do?"

Thinking it through, Kisuke grew angry again. "You go show them that you are stronger than they are. Don't go to either of their sides. Go and save the people. You have more power than you think you do, Hinata."

Hinata clung to him. "What if I can't save them all? There are so many! And then Ichigo . . . Uryu . . . I can't just leave them!"

Kisuke gently wiped her tears away. "They'll have to work it out on their own. Your job right now is to take care of everyone in Karakura town. Can you do that, Hinata?"

At his words Hinata began to feel a little better. "Thank you, Kisuke. I'll protect Karakura town." She gave him another hug before standing up and turning to Kuon. "Kuon, I need your help."

Kuon ran over to Hinata, giving her a hug. "I'm glad that you're okay."

"Kuon, I need you to carry me throughout the town so that I can shoot Hollows. Can you do that?"

He seemed to think about it, and then crouched down. "Here, get on my shoulders. It will give you the best shot."

She smiled before climbing on. As Kuon stood, Kisuke stepped forward, touching her knee. "When this is all done, come to the shop." She gave him a nod before Kuon jumped into the sky and her hunting began.

It was fun; Kuon would climb into the sky and Hinata would get off several shots before they hit the ground again. When they had first started, she had missed a couple of times, but an hour into it, she had gotten to the point where she didn't miss anymore. They would stop every so often to give Ichigo's body a rest while she would send sniper shots at hollows nearby before taking off again.

Several hours in, she became worried about Uryu. His spiritual pressure had weakened, and it felt to her that the only thing that kept him on his feet was his anger. Around that time, he met up with Rukia, soon followed by Ichigo. Before long, Uryu left them, but didn't make it very far.

She felt a weight lift off her chest as, not even ten minutes after Ichigo joined Rukia, Ichigo's anger dissipated. It flared a couple more times when Ichigo left Rukia to go be by Uryu.

She gave a smile when she felt that they had made up. The immense anger was gone, replaced by a shaky friendship. Hinata smiled. She couldn't see any more hollows, so she gave a smile. "Kuon, can you land on a tall building?"

He just gave a big smile before taking off again. Once they had landed, she decided to try the ribbon thing that Uryu had used. She felt around and felt a click when the ribbons appeared. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see that there were more ribbon colors than when Uryu had used it. Kuon's eyes had gone wide too. "Wow, Hinata, your ribbons are colorful." She smiled at him before counting how many hollow ribbons were where. "Who's this one?"

She looked over to see Kuon holding a ribbon that was black, white, red, and blue. "That one's Ichigo." She reached out, pulling a purple ribbon and handing it to Kuon, "That one's yours!" She smiled at his shocked expression as he tenderly held it. He didn't look up until all the ribbons vanished again. "Well, it looks like we got all of them except for the ones Ichigo and Uryu are fighting. Let's head that way, Kuon."

"Sounds good, climb on up." He knelt down again, allowing her to climb onto his shoulders before standing and taking off again.

Hinata felt the moment a Menos Grande made its approach through the garganta, slowly entering Karakura. She felt Kuon stiffen to as he felt it too. They stopped and looked up at the sky as it broke through. "We need to hurry, Kuon," Hinata said in barely a whisper. He gave a nod before taking off faster than before. Hinata noticed that Uncle Kisuke and the rest of his family were close to Ichigo. She gave a smile as the hollows around Ichigo began to vanish faster. Her family was helping Ichigo and Uryu.

They stopped on a roof overlooking her family. Kisuke looked up at her and held his finger to his lips and smiled. She looked up to watch Ichigo and Uryu fight the Menos Grande. She would just watch unless they needed help.

She turned her head when she felt a familiar spirit pressure. Orihime and Chad; they were looking out the window towards Ichigo and Uryu. She smiled; they had finally realized their power.

It was funny to watch Ichigo and Uryu fight the massive hollow; even Kuon joined in with her laughing as Uryu's bow kept becoming massive. She watched Ichigo raise his spiritual pressure to be able to finally send it back to Hueco Mundo. He didn't kill it, but it wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.

"Kuon, can you take me down to them?"

He looked at her. "Are you ready for that?"

She gave a nod. He picked her up princess style and with one big jump landed right next to them. They both looked up, startled by her sudden appearance. She looked each of them in the eyes before giving each of them a big hug.

Ichigo started mumbling that he was sorry for hurting her, and Ishida seemed to be avoiding her eyes. She grabbed each of them by an arm and pulled them together. "It's okay because now we are all friends!"

They both tried to jump back but she held them firm as they began to adamantly refuse that they were friends. Hinata's laughter pealed out.

. . .

Aizen pushed away from the monitors, frustrated. It had been over a week since he'd felt that incredible spiritual pressure while in Hueco Mundo, but none of the arrancars had been able to find its source. He had only gotten two reports. One was from Starrk and Lilynette about a large indestructible sand castle, and the other was from Ulquiorra, who'd reported even more peculiarities that had occurred in his absence. Yammy, one of his newest and strongest arrancars had been vanquished shortly after his return to the Soul Society.

"Who killed him?" Aizen had asked, showing more interest than anger. "How was he killed?"

"I'm still investigating," Ulquiorra had said in that serious manner that he had. "We'd all separated to search for the source of spirit pressure, as you had requested. It seems that Yammy stumbled across the source of that power, but was no match for it. You can ask just about anyone in Hueco Mundo; there was a blinding flash of light, and then Yammy's pressure vanished. The source of the light vanished along with him."

Who? Aizen had been obsessing over it as he prepared the next stage of his plans for Ichigo Kurosaki. Adding to his frustrations was a young orange haired girl that was often around the Kurosaki boy. There were times that the girl never left his side, and other times where his sensors couldn't seem to pick up her presence anywhere. It was almost as if she would just vanish altogether.

Really, the girl was insignificant, but it was an irritation that lingered in the back of his mind. Even more pressing was the matter of the elusive arrancar. Since he'd requested that the arrancar be found, rumors had begun to spread across Hueco Mundo. Surely someone had seen this arrancar before, and he wanted that arrancar's power.