The Bleach (madness) belongs to Tite Kubo.

Enjoy! :) I can not and will not guarantee your sanity, or insanity.

~ 1 Year Later ~

"Missing"

Grimmjow had come far enough that he had the shop in view and could see Ichigo walking out. 'Perfect', he thought while grinning like mad. Though, the espada quickly noticed there was something odd with the teen. He could not feel even a drop of Ichigo's reiatsu he realized. Either he had gotten really good at hiding his reiatsu or... Could he have mistaken him for someone else? That is impossible Grimmjow concluded, he knew those eyes he hated with passion. However he found himself hating Ichigo's eyes less than he did during their fight in Hueco Mundo. They had lost their spark and clearness. Not that it mattered much to the blue-hair but he found himself less intrigued by the boy this time. Despite this he carefully watched Ichigo walk onto another street and disappear out of the shop's view and more importantly; out of the old shinigami's view. Grimmjow then proceeded to carefully continue to mash his presence and used sonido to get past Urahara.

He caught up with his target immediately, of course, with his speed and landed with a soft thump right behind Ichigo. To his surprise the teen took no notice of him at all, he only continued to walk in a carefree manner. Grimmjow proceeded with an attempt to grab Ichigo's shoulder but to his surprise his hand just went right through Ichigo.

"What the hell?!" he yelled both surprised and a bit frustrated by the discovery. He looked quickly at Ichigo when he noticed he had spoken out loud. 'He didn't hear me either', Grimmjow thought. He could not feel Ichigo's reiatsu and could not stop him from walking. The espada felt his annoyance skyrocket and was about to go rampage when he finally noticed a small, very weak pulse of reiatsu. It was so small that it could have been mistaken for a normal human. On a whim he moved to get to Ichigo's left side, following the pulse, and saw that the teen wore a white bracelet - it glowed slightly.

"Hmm..." In all honestly, the espada had no idea what this meant but assumed Ichigo had somehow, by a sick twist of fate, lost his powers, or gotten them sealed. The blue-hair growled slightly, he really wanted to fight the teen again, yet it was no longer possible. Although, he figured that the very weak bracelet surely must have some kind of purpose or connection to this. With that the espada came to the conclusion that since he was bored, got the time, he would follow Ichigo to whatever his destination was for the moment.

Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows. He felt awkward after the visit at the shop. The small pulse from the bracelet that stuck to his very soul was beginning to get annoying. The energy was dense even if small and he had over the course of time gotten used to having an almost none-existing reiatsu.

"Curse him and his weird ways", Ichigo said out loud, startling Grimmjow a bit. Ichigo then brought up his left arm and watched the bracelet and paled a bit when he thought of Urahara's words. "Saying that it might explode, that bastard... I bet it does before my reiatsu would ever be restored... I'll haunt him in death then", Ichigo smiled deviously at his own comment, sarcastic as always with his own joke, followed by a dejected sigh.

Grimmjow on the other hand had broken out in mad laughter. It turned out that following the strawberry was a good idea. He was immediately in a much better mood than before. The rest of the walk he spent smiling amused seeing how Ichigo looked to his sides several times. He felt like he was being watched but finally shrugged it off when he saw the vaizard's hideout.

. . .

Urahara watched the shinigami's. Still waiting for the reply to what their business here were.

"This matter involves the group who calls themselves vaizards too. Can you rely them the message later, Urahara Kisuke?" Byakuya asked in a voice which really refused a no, in other words; it was more of an order than a question. Urahara nodded. The captains that were here were the following; Kuchiki Byakuya, Hitsugaya Tōshirō and surprisingly enough; Kyōraku Shunsui.

'An odd group', Urahara mused to himself. "And that matter is..?" Urahara began but soon got cut off.

"By order of the Central 46 Chambers Urahara Kisuke, Tsukabishi Tessai, Shihōin Yoruichi, Hirako Shinji, Ōtoribashi Rōjūrō, Kuna Mashiro, Aikawa Love, Sarugaki Hiyori, Yadōmaru Lisa, Ushōda Hachigen and Muguruma Kensei shall be freed from their sentences. Hence, you may enter Soul Society at any time as long as you keep a friendly relationship with Soul Society", all three captains said in unison. They must have practiced that...

Urahara blinked once, twice and even a third time. "Come again?" was all his now rasp voice managed to produce in his very shocked and confused state.

"Don't make me repeat myself." Byakuya stated coldly, the other two only sighed at the noble's comment.

"Then..?" this time the shopkeeper only got out a whisper. Shunsui nodded and Urahara finally registered the news. It had been so long, he didn't expect them to lift his sentence only because Aizen finally had been convicted. The vaizards perhaps because they had not done anything wrong; they had assisted Soul Society in the end of the war even though Soul Society had betrayed them. Urahara on the other hand was the one guilty of creating the small and powerful orb; Hōgyoku. He also created untraceable gigai. Although he was happy that his sentence had been lifted... Could he leave Karakura town behind after so long? Probably.. not, he concluded.

The captains watched the former captain in silence. "That was all", Hitsugaya said with a bit of finality to it. Urahara nodded and thanked them for coming to him with the news, apparently the reason for the long wait had been that it took a great deal of time to remove the "blocking seals" for the former convicts which had before stopped them from entering Soul Society and the captains had to wait until the seals had been removed to deliver the news.

The captains bid farewell to Urahara and left shortly after opening a seikamon gate. Urahara decided not to deliver the news to the vaizards until later that day since he figured that Ichigo's stay would be quite long. He laughed when he remembered Shinji's desperate face from the day before.

. . .

"Kidnap who?" Ichigo asked, deciding to make his presence known. Everyone turned to the red-hair and eyes went wide, both smiles and angry glares could be seen coming from the vaizards. However, oddly enough, the smiles and glares quickly turned into surprised faces as they seemed to look at his left... His left? Ichigo turned to look at his left only to see nothing unusual. The only thing of notice was his bracelet. His mouth formed a quiet "oh" and he raised his left arm and pointed to the bracelet with his right hand. "This?" he asked, feeling slightly confused as they continued to glance a little further to his left. The vaizards all tilted their heads slightly as they shared one thought only: 'Idiot!'

They all saw the very much grinning and amused blue-haired espada on Ichigo's left side. He was hiding his reiatsu but had quite obviously not made any attempts to hide from the group. Grimmjow was not dumb however and took the more wise action of two in this situation; to speak up.

"I'm just here to bug him." Grimmjow said in a all too carefree and casual manner. Which actually made the small audience crack a smile in turn. They did not say anything though; that would ruin the fun.

Ichigo, still clueless, started to believe that the vaizards, finally, had gone insane after their long exile. Hirako smirked knowingly, Ichigo would suspect something sooner or later, often contrary to his actions he was in fact quite clever. Give it a second thought and it would be more fun to see Ichigo knowing that someone or something were at his side without him knowing who or what it was. Without warning Hirako Shinji started to laugh, oh deary there is a limit to how much madness you can contain for a few minutes.

"Ichigo", he said after his laughter had died down. The teen looked at Shinji, prepared for anything by now, well, that was what he though at least.

"I'm not gonna ask you about the friend beside you ~, but what are you doing here?" Shinji stretched the first part, teasing Ichigo with what he could possibly not know about and definitely could not figure out by himself. Poor kid, he probably did not even register the question.

Ichigo's eyes had gone wide in an instant, he slowly but surely looked to his left. Oh, how he wish he could see. It showed in his eyes, some of his former determination returned – with comical timing. Grimmjow could almost not contain his laughter, same went for the vaizards. The situation was too comical, it was simply too much for the poor souls.

"Ichigo", Shinji tried to get back the former substitute shinigami's attention. "Ichigo!" Still nothing. "ICHIGO!" The human almost jumped at the sudden loud voice. Grimmjow could no longer contain his laughter but the vaizards ignored the blue madness.

"What are you doing here?" Shinji repeated when he finally had the other's attention back.

"Huh? That's all you wanted to know? Why didn't you just ask?" Ichigo replied with a puzzled smile. Shinji could feel a vein pop on his forehead. "Never mind it, just answer."

Ichigo told them everything Urahara had said. Surprisingly enough they understood after one explanation; Ichigo felt a bit embarrassed thinking back to his conversation with Urahara.

"He's still worried about the explosion though", Grimmjow added with an amused grin after a longer silence. Shinji's smile grew at the comment. Ichigo tried his best to shrug off the unknown, he would be sure to ask one of his friends later about who is following him. He had been convinced by the vaizards reactions that it was 'who' rather than 'what'.

"Is that the reason you're here, to tell us about Kisuke's plans?" Shinji then asked, raising an eyebrow. He doubt the teen would bother coming here for that reason alone.

Ichigo's smile faltered, he knew what he wanted to say but.. pride. Shinji noticed the change of Ichigo's mood and sighed loudly which made the teen get even more uncomfortable and fidgety.

"I can tell that there is something on your mind but I don't like guessing games", Shinji paused and then continued: "I'm sure that even your friend over there has noticed something wrong with you as well." The other vaizards glared at Shinji; they didn't want to spoil the fun by giving Ichigo any clues to as who was at his side.

Ichigo shrugged. 'Just get it on with', he told himself. "Well.. I'm not quite sure myself.. It's as if I'm missing something important.. I think I miss the blade", he said, he had lowered his voice but everyone had heard him. He surprised himself with the comment as he had not known beforehand what to say but the words just placed themselves in his mouth.

The former substitute shinigami now avoided eye contact with anyone in the room and glanced to the far right; away from the vaizards and away from the unknown person. This was unknown area to them. No one in the building except Ichigo had ever lost their blade; their powers. Ichigo's normal frown deepened, he did not like to share those thoughts but he had to get some kind of help through this and the vaizard's had helped him before. He almost felt himself going mad at times, and this time there was no hollow to blame. Ichigo was used to protect people, to be drawn into battles. No, he had looked for battles. Or had he really? He himself could not answer it. Did he truly protect anything in the end? He had been unable to save himself. He lost Zangetsu and his hollow. He lost his powers. In the end the only thing he received was the life of a normal teenager. It still wasn't normal though; since he knew of what he could not see. In the end, he had lost things. It had been a heavy exchange.

Shinji only heaved another sighed as he watched the troubled teen, it was quite obvious by now what was going on in Ichigo's head. The man scratched the back of his head and picked up his zanpaktou he then jumped down from the second floor and landed softly on the first floor. "Ichigo", Shinji repeated, his eyes hidden by his hair as his head were tilted slightly downwards as he walked towards the teen. He began to pull his zanpaktou out of its scabbard. "Is it truly the blade you miss?" he continued. Shinji now raised his head a little, revealing his serious eyes together with an eerie smile. "How about the battles?" he finished as he pulled out his zanpaktou fully, tossed the scabbard to the side and began walking towards Ichigo with a presence of a powerful fighter.

The former substitute shinigami had no idea what Shinji was going on about. Well, he knew somewhat, denied it a bit, but he did not expect this of all things. He felt like pushed to the huge wall and exit behind him. Seeing a former captain slowly advance towards you with a zanpaktou in his hand and a creepy smile is not something you wish for. Ichigo did certainly not anyway. At a loss as what to do in his situation he chose to go with the flow. "What?" he asked simply as if he had no clue what Shinji was hinting at.

Shinji sighed a bit and momentarily stopped his advancement, 'brat', he added to himself. "You said you wanted to protect. In order to protect you have to fight, search for the battles. In order to win those battles you need strength and therefor search for even more battles", Shinji paused and sighed again, the kid listened for once. "You have certainly fought more than protecting anyone, Ichigo", he ended and walked a few more steps and left about the distance of two blades between them.

Ichigo glared at him and his eyes widen slightly in anger when he heard the last sentence and got its meaning. He took an aggressive step forward about to go into a fit. "You-!" Shinji raised his left hand and held it in front of him, effectively silencing Ichigo. The teen's frown deepened at the action but he stayed put. "Think about it - calmly", Shinji said with a low voice.

It was Ichigo's turn to sigh and so he did. The vaizard was right though, Ichigo admitted to himself. He stood still and scratched the back of his head for a few moments and closed his eyes in thought. 'Battles, huh..' he thought absently. He opened his eyes and growled in a low voice. This was leading him nowhere and he had a pretty good idea that the other was well aware of that.

"Eh?" Ichigo said, not meaning to say it out loud. Shinji grinned for some reason though and replied to Ichigo's thoughts; "yes?". The red-hair really wanted to strangle him now and held back a sadistic smile but settled down with sharing his thoughts instead. Ichigo pointed to Shinji's zanpaktou and asked; "What were you trying to do?" Shinji did not reply right away and Ichigo paused. Just when Shinji was about to reply Ichigo continued; "With that?" The reply was laughter, the former captain really tried to hold it back but it was impossible. 'So clumsy...' Shinji thought to himself with a wide grin and held his left hand in front of his eyes in attempt to hide some of his amusement.

"Ah-ah.. Alright, alright.." he said when he finally removed his hand. Revealing eyes that always would accept a good fight if he was in the mood. And clearly, he was in the mood for it.

"Lets go." he suddenly announced and in a very slow motion began to lift his lowered zanpaktou with his right, still grinning. The former substitute shinigami felt immediately felt very cold inside and panic began flowing into him. He did not have a zanpaktou!

'Dammit, Shinji! Wait a moment!' he screamed inside. Hiyori, who had chosen to only watch them this time, tossed a nameless zanpaktou, used for training, to Ichigo from a distance. He fumbled some when trying to catch it but finally got a hold of it. He did not expect a zanpaktou out of nowhere, at least not thrown at him. "Chop the bald into pieces!" she shouted at him. He smirked, that was exactly what he had in mind. 'Though, I can't possibly beat him.' he thought sarcastically and rolled his eyes to himself and unsheathed the zanpaktou. He was ready.

Hiyori smiled creepily, looking forward to see the fight or whatever Shinji had in mind. She looked at Ichigo and suddenly noticed that the espada still stood motionless beside him. It looked like the espada tried to decide if he should wait outside or move further into the enemies den in order to avoid being in the way of the fight. Grimmjow took notice of Hiyori who looked at him and he caught her eyes, questioning her. She turned her head slightly, still holding his eyes, in a quick motion asking him to join them on the second floor. He took one step forward and disappeared to reappeared beside the group of vaizards, with a little distance of course. The espada was here for the former substitute shinigami and nothing else after all.

Down on the first floor Ichigo had just unsheathed the zanpaktou he had gotten, Shinji therefor wasted no more time and quickly with a raised arm he cut down with his blade aiming for Ichigo's shoulder and down. The teen was happy that he still had his reflexes from his time as shinigami; he blocked the cut with ease, the other's zanpaktou bouncing back slightly. He took a very small step forward with his newly found resolve and pulled the nameless blade back slightly and brought it back at the vaizard, aiming to cut him horizontally over his chest. However it stopped there, Shinji pulled back quickly with a satisfied smile. The red-hair felt momentarily confused by Shinji's course of action but soon understood why the other had decided to pull back.

It was simply too much to take in at once for Ichigo, he could not keep up.

He felt his hands vibrate slightly from the shock of the blocking, yet they were shaking because of the excitement, the grip so strong because he did not want to lose the one thing which allowed him the ability to fight. He tried to force himself to calm his breathing, to hold back the rising feelings in his soul. To hide from himself but he failed and curse him if he had succeeded. 'Damn.' He felt the grin slowly appearing in his face. An unbelievable amount of happiness from something previously so small of an action.

"Welcome back", Shinji said, grinning.

To be continued...

Thank you for reading!

Sincerely, Yaana.