Author explanation about the status of Ganju and Hanataro:

Given the nature of the world I am depicting, 'dead' is a really bad term to use, since you know, there already on the otherside. However I've found a way that best describes them and it's as follows: Ganju Shiba and Hanataro Yamada's souls have returned to the cycle of reincarnation.

To my understanding, when you die in the human world (unless your eaten or killed by Quincy) you are destined to go to either SS or hell (removing you from the cycle of reincarnation). From SS you will stay until your soul is guided back into the cycle of reincarnation, returning you back to earth, unfortunately you lose your previous identity and remember nothing of the past so it's a bit mixed for the survivors and friends of the dearly departed.

That's why I say dying is a bad word to use, since no one really dies permanently, unless of course you are killed by Quincy [like that one guy last chapter] or are condemned to hell. By the way I also believe this extends to Hollows and Arrancars too, case in point Orihime's brother and Nel and Nnoirta's interactions suggesting they were once human, and Hime's brother getting konsoed


Author's acknowledgment to unknown reviewers:

To Jason

Well, I guess I'm allowed a little more lead way in killing people off because, this isn't my lively hood where people can die willy nilly (though if you read my take at the top, maybe it might give insight.)

Now for the Bankai idea, I have to thank-you for bringing that up, as it let me think of a few other ideas. But I do think yours would be interesting, a healer who could focus purely on healing herself and keeping her Bankai out, while the sword fights until it 'breaks'. I will take it into serious consideration, maybe it could be put together with other bankai's after all like Byakuya it could have multiple stages.

So I hope you enjoy.

As for everyone else, still accepting ideas.


Aizen: Where are you, you staring at your internet capable device reading a pointless story that involves a magnificent man named Sosuke Aizen. Stop. Don't roll your eyes. Pay attention to your screen. You'll see the reflection of someone in it trying to kill you from behind. Look back, no ones there, look to the screen. You'll see that I was just messing with you. Sadly while you were listening to me you missed that noise. What noise you ask? Investigate. Check your closet. Did you? You might already be dead as Gin was waiting with Shinso to skewer you.

Aizen: You probably scrolled down and read the next text and avoided death, as I had planned. Blink once, now blink twice, now breathe. Don't you see you've been under my command this entire time. Read on, now stop. Look in a mirror now back at me. You'll notice, sadly, you are not me but I can be you.

Aizen: Look down one sentence.

Aizen: Now once more.

Aizen: Stop. Breath. Check your mind and ask your self are you really in control? Stop reading, Think to yourself. Now look back. You'll see me smiling, because I've been using you this time. Look I have a Hogyoku and you have played an important role in allowing me to obtain it.

Aizen: You thought I was done? Ha. Fool, now go on and read. Remain ignorant as I take over the world.


Infil-traitors: Understanding my heart and finding my path.

(Day:4)

(morning: Ichigo)

Prying open his eyes the main fugitive of Soul Society raised his head from the hard ground as his internal clock informed him that it was time to get up; by allowing his body to move again and get back to training. Pushing himself off one of the vast rocks in the area, he grabbed Zangetsu and made his way back to the center of the huge training ground, that had served as a death arena for him in the last two days.

Once he stretched his muscles and limbs to work out any kinks, he started to make his way back to the Tenshintai; while his mind travelled back to what had first transpired shortly after arriving at the cavern.

(flash back: Day 2)

"All right Ichigo. Now that you're all better, I'm going to explain how this works; before, I step back to make some plans in regards to what to do." The golden locked shopkeeper instructed. His and Ichigo's hair returning back to their natural color from the hot spring's water. He walked over and clasped a strange white shaped object that he slanted against a nearby rock. "This is the Tenshintai." He said as he raised and brought his hand back down against the vaguely humanoid-doll's shoulder "This is the device that's going to help you master Bankai."

"So what exactly do I do with it?" Ichigo asked with a questioning look

"As you know, it takes close to ten years of dedicated training and understanding to manifest ones Zanpaktou and attain Bankai. This method I've created cuts that time down immensely, by forcing your Zanpaktou spirit out of you and into our world."

Ichigo's eyes widened at the claim "That's incredible Urahara." He said with a smile, already imagining the look on Aizen's face against the millions of Bankai users he'd have to fight. "With an invention like this, we could have everyone on our side learn Bankai."

"Not quite." Kisuke reproached waving his finger in a 'no' motion "While this does cut it down substantially, it's probably even harder than the ten year method. This way actually requires you to have completed it before three days are up, any longer than that and you're probably going to die due to spiritual source severance (1), which is when your Zanpaktou is away from the soul scape for an extended period of time then your current abilities allow thus causing you to have unfortunate circumstances." He said while knowing that it also had a chance of causing hollowfication from Reishi needing a substance source which after a contained mishap that had helped lead to the breakthrough, called: Hogyoku. "That's why I never standard issued this as a substitute for the ten year training." Kisuke then shrugged disenchantedily "But we don't have that luxury, so we need to get started almost immediately, because knowing Aizen, he'll do everything to get that execution to pass as quickly as possible."

Ichigo nodded his head silently understanding the graveness of the situation. Urahara backed up a bit and then pointed at the center of the white doll-like device "Now, stab your Zanpaktou in the center and we can begin."

Walking purposefully to the device, Ichigo pulled Zangetsu out and stabbed it into the dolls chest in one fluid motion. The creature's dull eyes lit up, and reishi started to flow out of it at an alarming rate. The doll started to then vibrate and shake before it was enveloped in a pillar of light that reached the top of the ceiling, forcing the two men to cover their eyes from the glare. As the vertical supernova lowered in intensity, the two men looked back to see a man with wild black hair and stubbles of facial hair around his chin. The man was wearing a brownish visor that his eyes looked through. The man's clothing was similar to the Hakama in terms of color and design the difference was the jagged edges of the collar and jacket's ends.

The man looked around allowing himself a moment to look at his surroundings then focused in on Ichigo, giving him a slight nod of respect.

Ichigo returned the slight tipping of the head, and was about to speak when he felt something, wrap around the back of his neck and, dip down after something rested on his shoulder. Turning his gaze he saw a white limp arm casually laying there like it was all the business in the world. Turning in the other direction Ichigo had to really fight back the urge to groan when he saw a certain full white specter with golden eyes looking at him smugly

"Hey King, how ya been?" his face then immediately jumped to feigned surprise as he removed his arm from Ichigo's shoulder and held it in front of his open mouth "Oh wait, don't answer that! You've been 'fucking' busy haven't ya! HAHAHA!"

Ichigo glared at him menacingly "Shut up with your lame jokes, you piece of sperm."

"Now what's up with that?" Hichigo asked obviously annoyed with analogy, as he took his arm from around him "Didn't you know I was helping you and rooting for ya too! Shit, how do you think you knew what you were doing?" The creature smiled while jutting both his thumbs at himself in a cocky manner "Simple man, I'm the horse. I'm built like a god damn stallion, and I KNOOOW what women want! You didn't think I was lying when I said I can bed any woman, did ya!"

"Good lord…" Ichigo said as he turned to face Hichigo, his teeth gritted revealing his vexation "I swear; if your ever growing ego could make you get any more big-headed, you'd be a damn bobble head before the execution is over!"

As Kisuke witnessed the two hot heads bicker back and forth, he was instinctively measuring up the strange creature he saw. He was easily able to deduce that this creature must have been a type of hollow, due to the extremely clashing personalities but identical physical appearance and structure as revealed by Shinji when he first described the experience after the betrayal by Aizen. The scientist stared harder and also noticed the trade mark gold eyes similar to the original Vizards he had fought to subdue and later helped. 'I better keep an eye out, only the Hogyoku should allow something like this…' his eyes narrowed in contemplation remembering those who had survived the hollowfication process, and cross examining with the childish nature the teens were acting in 'but the way their acting it's almost like the hollow's domesticated…it could be a Kurosaki thing as well.' A chilling realization swept through him. 'Then if that's the case I'll have to check on Senna too'

"That's- (hack)…why I- (cough) tell..in ya ki..ng…should…pounded harder…(koff) (Koff)…and called her…a naughty maid… she'd…have…called you…Goshujin…sama." Hichigo choked with a huge smile despite the fact that Ichigo was in the middle of crushing his hollow's wind pipe. The perverted demon closed it's eyes as it wheezed out "Just…thought for next time….totally do it!"

"How about I break your neck and walk away!" The orange haired teen replied darkly as he enjoyed seeing the breath of life escape from his inner hollow, it was good stress relief in his opinion.

"Ichigo." The older man dinged in getting Ichigo's brief attention, since he really really really wanted to watch Hichigo foam at the mouth for what he was saying about his girlfriend so shamelessly

"Yes?" he grunted out as he released his kung fu grip on his inner hollows throat, sending the creature to the ground with a dazed look since it was lost in it's own fantasy of what would have happened if HE was in control when they met. His erection was short lived as Ichigo kicked it, already sensing the demon's thoughts. Returning back to Zangetsu he spoke "Yeah, sorry about that, what's up?

"We should begin at once." The black garbed man said as his white counterpart quickly recovered back unto his feet "Are you ready?"

"Yes." Ichigo said as he raised his sword to fight, the older man smiled and walked over and touched the steel blade. The weapon glowed before shattering like glass and shooting the fragments out in every direction. As each individual piece of the collective Zangetsu touched the ground a weapon, specifically another sword, emerged from the spot embedded into the ground by it blade. It was then that Hichigo left his spot and a dark energy started to develop in his hand then swirling and shifting before taking the shape of a ball which he then cocked back and proceeded to hurl it into the air darkening the roof by sucking light towards it. The golden ball hung silently in the sky as it stabilized itself, acting as overseer to the fight that would soon take place.

"What's all this?" he questioned to Zangetsu as the two Zanpaktou spirit's reached for the nearest sword and retrieved it, while Kisuke flash stepped on out of the way determined to do his own thing while Ichigo dealt with this.

"If you truly desire the power of Bankai, Ichigo then we will do it upon my own terms; which you must overcome." The dark clothed man extended his hand encompassingly to the large collection of swords that could graciously outfit good sized army "Somewhere within this resting ground of blades lies the only sword that can be used to defeat us. Only it can force our submission all others will succumb and break to our will eventually."

"However it's not as easy as pickin' a blade to get a test feel. You've gotta find it before we cleave you in half got it? You gotta run and gun while trusting your instincts."

'Instinct is the way to go huh.' The Shinigami then looked up into the sky "And that?" he asked about the strange golden orb.

"That is the moon phase. For this test, you merely need to defeat one of us, as our powers are the same, as you already know. As we continue to clash and engage, the moon's phase will change the fuller the moon becomes the stronger I will become, where as the other will become proportionally weaker."

"So this isn't just a test of body, and combat instincts but it's a test of mind as well."

"Got it in one Ichigo. You have to find the right weapon, and then overcome one of our might before the three days grace is over. Lucky for you since the both of us are out here, we won't be able to heal should time run out for today. So we'll be as banged up as we left off, the only saving grace you're gonna get."

"So why are you here?"

"Aww, you didn't want to get all buddy-buddy with me?" the creature said rudely and then shook his head disappointedly "That's cold you got me right here." He said tapping his heart in a low beat "But in all seriousness, the reason I'm out here is to see how strong you've truly become. I was forced out because both of our powers have come very close to being comparable to each other. Once this training ends, you might actually be strong enough to kill me…I'm looking forward to giving you a hard time."

Ichigo scoffed "Tch, whatever. More like, you just wanted to take this chance to go skirt chasing." He replied dryly, making the inner hollow laugh aloud

"Funny man."

"If you are prepared Ichigo on guard." Zangetsu replied as he pointed his sword to Ichigo who grabbed the nearest one and settled in a battle stance

"Let's go!" he replied quickly as the pair rushed at him

(flash back end)

"Ichigo." A voice called from behind him. Turning around the man was quickly pulled into a hug by a slightly smaller person in Shinigami Hakama with purple hair and a red ribbon in the back of her head.

"S-senna?" he asked confusedly, as his own arm wrapped around the woman's back automatically, returning the gesture "When did you get here? And how in the hell did you find this place?"

Senna pulled away from him just so she could cross her arms with a puffed up pout "That's mean. You're not even going to ask if I'm ok mentally, what my journey here was like or if I'm hurt possibly dying? You're a lousy guy Ichigo, one big meanie." She said in a good natured tone despite her façade of unhappiness

Ichigo couldn't help but chuckle at her way of trying to get attention, since it did seem to remind how some sibling Shinigami acted back at school "Haha… alright, alright. I'm sorry. So let's try this again how have you been Senna?" he seemingly reset everything with a tilting of his head to the side, genuinely interested in her words

Senna looked back at Ichigo analytically, and faked a moment to consider if she should answer the question, before smiling bemusedly coming clean with the act "I've been good, Ichigo-kun. But you look kinda busy so I'll just give you the synopsis now and tell you every detail later. I'm perfectly A-okay and Subaru-chan has been helping me keep out of trouble. In fact she, me, Shinjiro-san, and Abarai-san happened to find this cave yesterday thanks to Yoruichi-sensei. But you were busy fighting those two guys so we went around the sides to not disturb your training."

The smile on Ichigo's face stopped beaming and began to work downwards as he stared at her wide eyed. His mind going quickly imagining a multitude of bad scenarios this could turn out towards "You saw that?" Ichigo asked with hidden shame stemming from the fact that she might have seen Hichigo, and with possible further inquiry learn him to be a hollow deem him a monster "Did you…see everything?"

A look of shock was something the High school student hadn't expected from the start of the recap "Y-yeah, I saw you guys fighting. But I thought you were doing spectacular!" she then started flailing her arms up and down "Y-you were so strong, and fighting against two guys at once, you were really something even if it was a tie."

Ichigo frowned and placed his hand on her shoulder, making the teenager wonder what was wrong with him "That's not what I mean. I was talking about specifically about the person that looked like me, except was all white in color."

"I did." Senna answered softly, calming down due to his touch and seriousness in mood

"Do you know what that is Senna?"

The younger girl shook her head in a negative response "I don't know one-hundred percent what it is or called Ichigo, but…if it makes you feel more comfortable around me, I promise I won't say anything. In fact I do think I have one too."

"Really?" Ichigo said as he took in a breath

"Yeah." She then looked at his Zangetsu and pointed at it "You called him 'Hichigo' or 'Zangetsu' on occasion, so I guess mines called Mirokumaru or…the dark half at least."

"Hmph…I guess we're more alike with each passing second." He then laughed "hehe it seems were bound to be outcasts by any normal standard given certain legal issues."

Senna shook her head "That's ok." She reassured as she moved both her hands behind her back and smiled sweetly "even if we were outcasts my feelings about you wouldn't change." She replied as she swayed between the tips of her toes and balls of her feet

"Feelings?" Ichigo quoted in a shocked matter by what she said

Seeing the sudden distress, Senna quickly sputtered out "Dah...uhh, I mean kindred-ship! Yeah, feelings, family feelings! Y-ya know, brother-sister camaraderie…eheheh…" Senna said with a blush and then turned around and ran off while saying "You're busy so I better go! Take care Ichigo-kun!" 'I can't believe I just said that!'

Ichigo only had his hand raised partially as she fled, but brought it back down with a puzzled look over what he just witnessed "What was that all about?" he then sighed and shrugged not having the time to dwell on the little things "Whatever, at least she's ok." Turning back around he returned back to Tenshintai and placed his sword back into the doll and it sprung back to life revealing the scarred and dirty covered Zanpaktou spirits that made up Zangetsu.

(Senna)

Having fled at the speed that would make Yoruichi proud to call her a student, Senna came to a grinding halt to catch her breath. She allowed herself to look back in the distance before crouching down and pressing her hands against the sides of her head "What the heck was I thinking for blurting that out!" she yelled to herself as she dug and twisted her fists in hard against the side of her head "I made things totally awkward between us, ughh…" she then removed her hands and rested it against her knee caps "besides why am I so caught up about it all of a sudden? And why did I have to say it like that! I know he loves that Soifon chick, so whhhy did I say it like I was confessing my love to him." Her tone then dropped slightly "And speaking of that girl why do I feel angry about her?" She muttered contemplatively. She kept thinking as to what could make her feel and think that way until she painfully found her answer. "Uggh…" she groaned out in denial as she brought her hands back against her head and closed her eyes in frustration "…stupid, stupid, stupid!"

As Senna agonized over the slip up, the light half of her Zanpaktou spoke to her "Senna-sama can you hear me?"

"Huh?" she replied as she tilted her head upwards "Oh, hey Miroku-chan what's up?"

"" the good sage opened her mouth and closed it, she knew the reason of her odd interaction with other's recently, and would tell her later, but for now she had to stay focused "I need you to come back inside for some training. It is time that I will teach you ultimate art of myself. It will greatly aid you in your fight against the dark half. Your inner hollow, to be precise."

"So it is my inner hollow." 'I guess that explains why she keeps saying I'm her and she's me.' "Alright, but I want to talk to her afterwards."

"Thy will be done, your ladyship. Now please return back to my domain."

(Shinjiro and Subaru)

Shinjiro gave his wife a kiss on her lips, as they separated from each other's embrace "Have a good day and please promise me that you'll stay safe Subaru-chan. I don't want any more things to have to worry about." He politely requested, making his concern for her safety known.

Subaru pulled her face mask up and nodded "You can rest easy, I'll be careful." She said as she held his hand "And I both apologize and thank-you for waking me from my nightmares again. I'm really sorry for burdening you Shin-kun, but you know you're the only one I can turn to, who'd actually understand my situation."

"Don't fret. It's not a problem for me." Shinjiro looked tenderly at her. Accepting of the unneeded praise while washing away her doubts as best he could "Anyway," he said growing solemn "You can bet I'll protect the medical supplies you brought back from fourth."

The woman nodded again in understanding but replied "Depending on how things go, you or I might be holding onto it. So long as it stays safe, we can possibly procure the time necessary for Ichigo to defeat Sosuke, though it's still a gamble."

Shinjiro took the bag from her other hand and muttered as he turned away to go check in with Urahara and Yoruichi "We'll see…personally speaking, I'd rather not depend upon Ichigo's abysmal luck in catching breaks."

"Neither would I, so we need to do our absolute best; as sister is also at risk." The spy replied as she headed off in her direction to return back to the barracks for all the information she could obtain

Unbeknownst to her Shinjiro gave one final glance back at her rather morose 'The guilty is really doing a number on her.' He turned away to try and focus, but the image of his stressed and tired wife remained at surface of his thoughts "Subaru…"

(Renji)

From where the fiery ex-fukutaicho of squad six was sleeping the previous night, he looked over to where the battle between the guy, he originally thought responsible for all of this, and his Zanpaktou were battling. Renji smirked and turned away to go finish his own Bankai training with Zabimaru, knowing that should something fail or go wrong with the kid at least he could rescue Rukia.

(Soifon)

Having received a detailed report from one of the spies that Subaru recalled, she was quite unhappy to hear what had happened to Hanataro Yamada at the penance tower. The female Taicho sighed, as she got up from her chair to put on her Haori. As she finished putting it on, showing all that she was prepared for duty much to her annoyance, she looked back unto her squad's movement reports and could see that almost all her squad was in the ambush zone, with the exception of the seated officers who were doing various duties. 'Hmm…this is going to be difficult. I don't have a solid idea where Ichigo is going to be coming in from and even less on where the other Taichos are in relation to me. Hmm…perhaps I can eliminate some guess work.' The twin banded captain then reached into one of the nearby cabinets and thumbed through looking for something.

Having found it folded up she pulled out a map of Seireitei and laid it beside her other pieces of paper on her desk. Her fingers pressing lightly against the map as her eyes darted back and forth, co-relating each spot around the execution ground. 'The execution grounds to the north has high sheet-like cliff, getting up there would be impossible even with climbing gear, so that's out as I doubt anyone is going to be guarding there.' She moved her hand down to the large sea of green 'Here's me. My soldiers haven't spotted any other forces moving passed or towards them either, so then Yamamoto-Sou-taicho must not be suspecting them to hit by the sides. He must trust my forces to be able to handle anything or distrust me what with my previous association with Ichigo and have me in a spot away from any possible rendezvous point. A very rational decision that will unfortunately still bite him if I have anything to say about it.' sliding her finger to the south she frowned as that would reasonably be the area of heaviest resistance 'Right there is the only stairwell leading up to the execution ground. So, more than likely a strong central group will be there with the rest in the corridors in front of it to protect it.'

"All right, this should be all I need to know. I'll have my forces blindside that central unit after the execution has commenced, knowing Ichigo and his knowledge of the wilderness, he's probably going to come through the forest of squad two and head my way following along the same path as me. Perhaps if I'm lucky I might be able to deduce where Ichimaru is, and find out the truth once and for all." She recited the impromptu plan

'What are you going to do if Ichigo was really just playing you like a flute?' Suzumebachi asked cautiously of her mistress, since it was still a possibility even if the captain might not want to admit

"Patience Suzumebachi I must be patient. It is something I have learned from this experience, and it is now, more than ever, must I exercise it. His actions will speak volumes here, and should he prove false, I will eradicate him." The captain then smirked and spoke with finality "But I assure, it will never come to that because he does not ever break a promise, especially to me."

The Zanpaktou spirit remained quiet, as a knocking on the door signaled someone waiting at the door "You may enter." Soifon commanded as the door opened up to reveal her troubled third seat that walked in and stood at attention. Her eyes closed, head bowed submissively, and arms folded behind her back.

"Third seat Subaru Kujo reporting for duty, Soifon-taicho."

The captain put on a false smile, and while she was very annoyed underneath with the visual distance in greeting, she knew that she had to keep up the appearance of the woman who wanted this rebellion ended at once; since that had been what Subaru would come to expect. "Acknowledged, take a seat." The bluenette replied gesturing to the chair that the spy took automatically

Once the spy was settled in the seat, Soifon got up from her desk and walked over to the door locking it to make sure no one could barge in, before heading to the windows and closing the blinds. With her precautions done she walked back to her desk and sat back in her chair to address the third seat "Sorry for my paranoia, but I can't risk anyone hearing what I need to say here."

"So should I swear an oath of silence, Taicho?" Subaru asked her tone lying somewhere in-between seriousness and sarcasm

The Chinese woman shook her head in a negative with a small smile "There's no need to do all that. All of the squad members knows what I am about to tell you, I just can't risk unneeded ears listening in." when Kujo nodded her head again in understanding, Soifon launched into her explanation "Yesterday around 18:37 hours [Tran: 6:37 PM], we had a breach in the penance tower by our opposition. The ones who broke in were a Ryoka whom according it Captain Kuchiki was previously of the Shiba Clan, and the other was, our comrade and friend, Seventh Seat Hanataro Yamada of squad four."

Subaru's eyes widened and she leaned forward, already understanding what this meant if she was saying it so calmly "How did it end?" she asked fearfully not wanting it to be true

Too bad the surrogate sister's voice and facial expression didn't change as she continued "I'm sure you already know. Kuchiki-Taicho showed up, and eradicated the opposition…there was no survivors aside from Rukia Kuchiki, who has allegedly agreed to be executed, provided that we, the Gotei 13, not kill anymore of the 'traitors'. That request is still pending upon the central 46's judgment." The captain informed as she watched Subaru bow her head and close her eyes, giving a moment of silence to their friend. An action she would have scolded in anyone else, for showing pity or regret to those who wronged the law, but, wouldn't, not this time around. "I also have a lead that might end the conflict here."

'A lead?' the androgynous spy thought to herself "What do you mean by that, Taicho-

"Shaolin," Soifon corrected quickly, having gotten fed up with the constant avoidance in speaking to her normally, effectively cutting off the spy mid sentence, "From this moment onward you are forbidden to refer to me as 'Taicho', 'Captain', 'Soifon-taicho', or any other dialect of speaking that does not involve my real name."

'That's not what I anticipated from her…' Subaru pulled back slightly, not expecting her to correct her as she did "But why? I don't wish to appear rude and it's very informal if I were to say that in public."

The other woman shook her head, keeping an even look at her subordinate and said "You misunderstand. I find it inappropriate and highly insulting, if you did not address me as such. We have been friends for well over fifty years, I'm quite sure I know everything I should know about you, but…" the captain got up from her desk and looked sympathetically at the woman in front of her "I do feel as if something has come between us."

"What makes you think that?" Subaru said unknowingly diverting eyes from the woman, which Soifon clearly saw as an admission of guilt.

"Right there," she said calmly, pointing her index finger to Subaru "you didn't so much as look me in the eye when you said that. So now I know something is burdening you." She closed her eyes and placed her hand against her wooden desk, taking a deep breath in the process for the hard part "I do admit my fault on that. I've probably put you under a lot of pressure, and I apologize for that. Yesterday after you left, when you called me Soifon-taicho I-I-I…" she momentarily struggled to think of a way to say it without having to mention certain incidents "I had an epiphany of sorts." She half-lied, since it was partially in thanks to Ichigo for allowing her to see things unbiased, that she was now able to spot Subaru's own odd behavior and reflect upon her own conduct. Since it could be a catalyst or even worse the cause for it "I don't know where along the line things happened, but we're not as close as we used to be. You're hiding something from me, and I you."

"We…both have our own problems, it is understandable." The masked spy answered trying not to crack from guilt, so was doing her utmost to avoid the subject

"Understandable? Yes, but not forgivable. So I wish to apologize to you, I'm sorry for how I have been and would like your forgiveness."

Subaru looked at the woman thoughtfully as she brought her hand to her mask, a quiet smile found itself upon her along with some needed relief from the tension, brought the mask down to reveal herself, and she embraced the woman "You are forgiven Soi-Shaolin." The women separated now on friendlier terms, but both could still tell the other wasn't being entirely honest, though neither was going to push it since the peace was ever fragile "So what is this lead you have?"

Soifon in took a quick breath and looked at the third seat with a sharp eye "I believe the source of the conflict lies with one Gin Ichimaru. A certain…source gave me such information, and I was wondering if you have any firsthand experience." She alluded to Toshiro Hitsugaya, though it was lost to the spy

The other Onimitsukido member fiddled with her fingers for a moment as she contemplated what to say, "Yes," she said finally after a short wait "I was attacked several days ago by Gin."

"And why did you not report it?"

"I did report it." she said and then continued a little weaker, wincing at the next part "Just not to you. I told Hitsugaya-Taicho about the odd behavior, since he was looking for possible suspects. I didn't tell you because…well…weren't exactly…" she frowned and left the statement hanging

"Very well. I understand your predicament, but don't let it happen again." Shaolin replied sternly; not fond of being kept out of the loop like that. She was about to continue speaking when she saw that Subaru looked a little more fidgety "Is something the matter, Subaru-chan?"

"I was merely wondering about something." She said softly "Shaolin-sama, you treat me like your own sister would, correct?"

"If I had one, then yes. I would treat you exactly the same as I would treat her."

"So does that mean you would forgive me; if for instance, I did something that seemed bad at first, but was ultimately good for you in the end?"

Shaolin stopped and considered it for a moment, seeing perhaps the cause of the spies melancholy 'Hmm…Perhaps this is the thing that has been troubling her. I'll play it safe for now, but I better keep an eye on her. Maybe I might catch her when she stumbles and get her to open up on it.' She decided before opening her mouth to provide something of a neutral answer "That depends on what it is that you did. I'm not a saint so I can't be all forgiving, but I'm not a person YOU, Subaru-chan, should fear or be afraid to converse with. If you tell me what it is, maybe I can help you with It." she answered with warm sincerity

Subaru however shook her head, resisting the action with all her will power, denying the outwardly impassive but inwardly disappointed Taicho what she had sought from her "I'm sorry, but I just don't have the heart to tell you. You would more than likely scorn me as you did with…'her'.

"Don't you dare compare yourself with 'her'." Shaolin snapped angrily "She's nothing but a…" Shaolin's voice soon dissipated at the last word of her sentence actually registered to her, and couldn't be thrown around carelessly anymore. A word that she had now come to realize meant her as well. There was no difference between Yoruichi and the two ladies, unbeknownst to the other "traitor." She said with soft finality as she kept up an impassive front, but was inwardly considering her new status. 'I wonder…is this what Yoruichi…san felt like when she learned that bastard Urahara was a traitor? Is that why she left all those years ago? Because, she felt it was the right thing to do, just like I do now?'

"Shaolin?" Subaru whispered breaking the girl from her thoughts

"It's nothing." She lied so transparently that she couldn't believe it herself, though thankfully Subaru chose not to comment, allowing them to both drop the subject "We're getting off topic. Tomorrow is the day of the execution, and we have many preparations ahead of us. I'm giving you the rest of the day off to prepare yourself. Just let me know when you will be leaving the barracks, to head over to the ambush zone. Rukia Kuchiki will be at the execution grounds at 11:00, but the execution itself won't happen until 12:00, so we can bait the enemy. And please remember I need you at full strength so don't do anything risky."

"I understand I will ensure that I keep this information locked away." 'Till I meet the others.'

"You do that." Shaolin replied. As the spy unlocked the door to leave she was stopped when she felt her surrogate sister's hand upon her shoulder "One last thing before I let you go."

"Yes?"

Soifon's steely eyes peered intently into Subaru's violet eyes, to judge the answer to the question she sought "I know it's a little out of the blue, and may seem completely off topic, but I want you to answer me honestly. I want you to tell me when you married Shinjiro was it a 'logical decision' because it was for mutualistic survival or was it something else?" she asked wondering if her own decision was akin to something her friend had experienced with, between choosing between the heart and the head

Subaru looked back thoroughly confused, when she saw that the woman was completely serious in expecting an answer, she couldn't help but blush "W-well, in honesty it was a little bit of both. Logically, speaking being able to count on another to assist greatly increases the likely hood of survivability. I-in nature weaker organisms band together all the time, forming colonies and herds for the sake of protection."

"And not so logically?" Shaolin couldn't help but smirk at her friend's fluster, which made the world around her feel much more like the previous year. The year when she, Subaru, Shinjiro, and Ichigo were happy together, a time she cherished and was trying to get back again.

"I did it because I love him…" Subaru answered with a playful pout "he cares about me greatly, and whenever he's around I find it easier for me to smile and relax. Even if we have our rough patches, and even if we don't tell the other everything that worries us, that is one decision I wouldn't change."

"I see. Thank-you for that you may go." She said removing her hand from the woman's shoulder to allow her exit, as the door closed the captain turned around and looked to the kitty clock on her wall, the one she both adored and hated at two very different points in her life. She watched the pendulum of a tail swing back with the eyes shifting left and right, and couldn't help but smile further. "It seems even after all this time; I am still following in your footsteps. But I guess this is because you followed your heart, where I did not, but now that I am I feel much lighter because of it." she then turned away from the clock and said one more thing before returning to work "I guess even when you're not around, you are still teaching me things, Yoruichi-sama."

(Midday: Elsewhere)

Not too far away from the squad thirteen ponds two Shinigami were discussing to each other about what one had seen. The first man was scruffy with long flowing hair going out in a messy wave, atop his head rested a large wooden bowl shaped hat that travelers from the feudal era wore when crossing from country to country, the man was wearing a Haori to show captainship, and had two Zanpaktous at his sides, which were partially hidden by the pink woman's overcoat he had on.

Across from the healthy and flamboyant individual was a calm but sickly-looking, man who had long white hair. The man's paler skin wasn't as white as his Haori but could do with some extra color. The man's arm was covering his mouth as he coughed it revealed his Zanpaktou from underneath the jerkin.

"Are you sure?" the thirteenth captain Jushiro Ukitake asked, as he reached into his jacket and then gulped down a small vial of medicine to combat his flare ups

"Without a doubt, from what Yoruichi-chan told me, and from what I saw, that girl is definitely the daughter of the miracle worker." He said recalling when the Neko entered his office, and after talking him out of a fight, led him to the balcony where Nanao and her were fighting.

"But I thought she had died in that horrendous fire almost fifteen years ago." Ukitake pointed out, since Masaki had been devastated for a while, and requested the tools to erase the incident all together from Ichigo's mind, less he suffer from trauma growing up.

"You and me both. But I felt that girl's spiritual power and it's almost exactly identical to Ichigo's in every way. The only way such a thing is possible is if the parentage is the same. Take your third seat and her sister for instance. If it wasn't for the fact that there was such a huge distance between squad four and squad thirteen, then no one would be able to tell them apart just by sensing for them. When I looked at the girl going at it against my Nanao-chan from the balcony, I only sensed Ichigo in front of me."

"I guess that explains why Masaki had requested of me, you and Unohana to never reveal his sister. She must not have wanted him to grow up knowing he lived through such a tragedy, and lost a sibling. But then does this not prove that something is amiss?"

"You hit the nail right on the head, and that's what Yoruichi explained to me. Think about it, Masaki retires to Rukongai and doesn't tell you, me, or Unohana the reason why. Next many decades later Masaki has two kids and neither you nor I knows who the father is, with our only lead being he's apparently a noble which no family has laid claim too, one of them 'dies' in a mysterious fire, and the other grows alongside his mother to protect soul society. Years later Masaki is considered 'killed' and her son goes through his period of mourning. Everything's going like it should happen normally to any other individual. Suddenly Ichigo is the one being accused of being a traitor, and we have evidence backing up the claim Masaki was involved, you with me so far?"

"Yes."

"Ok, here's my problem with it so far. If Ichigo was truly telling a lie about his mourning then why is it that none of our lie-detectors picked up on it?"

"Lie-detectors?" The sick white haired man repeated, thinking on the word "You mean the second division, Unohana and Tosen don't you."

"Exactly." Kyoraku said snapping his fingers "Unohana has consistently, ever since that fire, visited the Masaki household, every free day that she could at the same time for the past fifteen years. She grew up with Ichigo around her, so she should theoretically know when something is wrong with him or when he is lying. So unless Unohana is involved with the rebellion, she shouldn't have been fooled by his false mourning considering the fact that she had been monitoring him during his recovery. Now number two Soifon-chan's forces, the entire division is made up of human lie-detectors of varying ranges. Soifon-chan's also a tough cookie when it comes to empathy so she'd easily be able to see through any lies he might have got backed up, and knowing the little lady she isn't going to turn traitor any time soon. Lastly was Tosen own admittance to the fact that Ichigo did genuinely feel disturbed in his soul over the events, Tosen is devoted entirely to justice, so in his mind to lie is to obstruct that one truth about himself."

"That is true." Jushiro muttered as he clasped his chin thoughtfully "and there is the fact, that if she were to reveal herself to be alive after the period of mourning making that tape very recent, then she'd couldn't stay in Soul Society, but couldn't flee to earth because we'd sense her and Hueco Mundo is a death trap. She wouldn't really have anywhere to run, I mean unless she had a safe house in the human world but that's pretty iffy considering how rare it is for a Taicho to be warranted down on earth."

"That's good Jushiro, now consider this. If Ichigo and Masaki were traitors as is claimed, then how does that relate back to Rukia Kuchiki? What goal can Rukia fulfill if she were alive and well?"

"Well…she knows Byakuya Kuchiki, a high ranking captain, but other than that I don't see much point, and it's not like her ice Zanpaktou is anything too special. Hitsugaya would be more appealing if we're looking at raw power."

"Good, so as you can see they get nothing out of this, at least from where we're standing, which brings me to why I wanted to talk with you." Kyoraku stood up and looked at his best friend "I have a hunch that this Rukia girl will bring about an end to the conflict, that's why I'm going to go capture her at the Sokyoku execution grounds. If Rukia is important then the enemies' actions will show through. If Ichigo's actually good we'll let him keep her, if he's not then we have no choice but to remove him."

"I suppose, but how exactly are we supposed to stop a weapon with the power of one million Zanpaktous, Shunsui? Even we couldn't do that!" the frail Taicho referred to the Sokyoku

"Let's just say that a little kitty told me quite a bit, in where to go to find a certain something, to stop it." He insisted playfully. The scruff man then leaned over and looked behind his friend and at a nearby tree "And you two stop eavesdropping, it's a bad habit. Well at least for guys, for girls that's kind of arousing and adds to the whole moe shrinking-violet thing."

Jushiro looked back and saw Kiyone and Sentaro both fall to the ground as they had been standing on each other's shoulder to stay out of sight. The friendly commander sent them a wave followed by a sigh when he saw the two of them bicker over whose fault it was that they got caught. It seems it would be a long day for the man.

(Underground training facility: Shinjiro)

Resting his back against the smooth boulder, the samurai of the infiltration group meditated to mentally prepare himself for the task ahead of him. Using the immediate silence to sharpen his mind and perform much needed self visualization of his task being accomplished flawlessly.

His attempt at finding his own inner peace was interrupted by the sound of hard boots, stepping harshly against the rocky ground disturbing the samurai greatly, who opened his eyes to see the world had faded to gray, symbolizing that time had stopped.

As the footsteps came closer, Shinjiro tilted his head to the right, awaiting this man's arrival with much distaste. Finally the footsteps came to a halt as a person appeared from the other side of the rock, the samurai was leaning against.

The figure had brownish-black hair which was done up in a spike tuff in the back of his head. The man was wearing black plate mail armor that with golden lines in a strange design on the abdominal region of the armor. In the man's hand was an ornate war sword that was gripped tightly by his gauntlets. A long flowing purple cape fell down behind the man, as he looked at his counter-part that he shared much history with, with arrogance that befitted the man of his stature.

"Oda Nobunaga." Shinjiro gritted out to the armored man beside him, the samurai's contempt for him clear as day.

"Hmph. How many times must I tell you boy?" he mocked in a heavy accent "I no longer go by that name, at least not anymore." The man smirked evilly, as he felt given their personal connection; he'd address him not by his proper name but rather his current one.

"Muramasa." The younger man corrected himself, as he turned away though not letting his guard slip in the slightest "What do you want?" he asked though he meant 'speak then get out of my face.'

"I merely wished to see how fairs your pointless struggles, foolish fencer." The man's smirk grew harder, when he received a dark glare from Shinjiro for his words "There is of course no need to answer. As I've seen how desperate you and that wench have been as of late."

In the blink of an eye the blood thirsty Zanpaktou found Shinjiro's blade pressed firmly against his neck, while the man spoke in a deathly whisper "You will never speak of Subaru's name in such a derogatory manner again, am I understood you demonic filth?"

Nobunaga merely laughed "Huahahahaha! Such insolence! Such defiance! Such HATRED!" the man then moved the weapon away from his neck "If only you had felt those intense emotions the first time around, then this might have not happened. But then people only learn through pain, agony and death."

Shinjiro removed his eyes back from the man and tried to concentrate on quieting his heart. It was the only thing he could do, and not allow himself to give in to anger.

The Zanpaktou wouldn't have it though "Tell me, do you remember that day?" he asked rhetorically, "The day I descended upon your filthy rat-infested city you called home?"

The samurai's arm shook a bit as he closed his eyes, and could only remember vague things, none of the faces of any of the people who were with him, except for one moment. The moment of the end. "I would never forget when you killed Subaru, Nobunaga." He then brought his shaking hand to his chest "The five ring mandala mark over my heart would always prevent me from forgetting."

"Do you not mean when WE killed Subaru? Had you not been indecisive, had you not been so naive in your hopes to defeat me, only one of the six of you would have died that day." The man shot a disgusted look at the not so tranquil Samurai "You are a disgrace to the Yamato name, Taiga Shinjiro!"

With the final words uttered, Shinjiro leapt back up and gripped the collar of his mad sword spirit and pulled out his katana from it's sheath. His dark black eyes turning just a hint of red, as he felt his energy pulsating inside of him, screaming to kill the murderer of both himself and his wife.

The black armored man merely smirked dangerously "Yes, yes! That is it! Give in to your hatred! Kill, Slaughter, Maim, And Destroy! Purge this world in a sea of blood; destroy any foolish aspirations of hope. Let the darkness consume your soul and forever sleep amidst the corpses of your enemies!" The man then gripped the collar of Shinjiro Hakama and spoke in a dark whisper "Do you remember what I told you, before I was sealed inside of you, before we had died? I told you that I would take away everything you held dear. First your compassion," An image of a blond white woman in a blue uniform briefly appeared in Shinjiro's mind "then your courage," which was replaced by an African American woman in a black suit "your trust," a small girl with brown hair and a green suit appeared next "your hope" a fiery red head appeared in a red suit "and finally…" the last woman was replaced with Subaru lying in a pool of blood with Nobunaga standing over her, looking back at him clearly enjoying the kill "your love."

The two glared darkly at each other, with Shinjiro doing his utmost to restrain himself. His sword arm shaking rapidly with killing intent and excitement "No." he said as he let go of his hand and back handed Muramasa's off him "I won't be you." He said with a shaking of his head "You might be sealed inside of me, but I will never lose my humanity. The very same humanity, which you abandoned in loyal Ranmaru; when you killed him in your first attempt to kill me back in Azuchi castle." Shinjiro said as the spirit faded away, returning Shinjiro's spirit back to his sitting body. He opened his eyes and tried to calm himself "I will never become like you, Dairokuten maou: Nobunaga Oda (Devil King of the Sixth Heaven: Nobunaga Oda)."

Shinjiro stood up and took in some much needed deep breathes, to calm himself and reaffirm himself in his beliefs, ideals and actions. 'A true warrior stays his sword, and opens his heart to serenity. Only then can he be at peace with himself.' He kept repeating to himself, still feeling guilty to this day for being a major factor if not cause in his wife's –at the time girlfriend- death.

Pushing the thoughts out of his mind, he wiped away the sweat from his brow. He was going to try and find himself a center again in mediation when a loud voice yelled out from nearby "That fucking bitch! Ooooh! I am soooo gonna use 'that' move and blow her scrawny ass to the hereafter!"

Wondering what the commotion was the samurai walked to the source not too far off. Figuring maybe it might help him blow off steam.

(Mind scape: Senna)

High upon the mountain in the center of her soul scape, A sweaty, tired, and horrified Senna fell to the ground, panting and wheezing. She was hunched over on her knees, her hand covering her mouth to stop from throwing up whatever was in her stomach. Tears were pouring from her eyes, as her free hand gripped her Shakujo for dear life.

Standing above her with a concerned gaze was the good half of Mirokumaru, who had to forcibly command herself to not move from her spot and assist Senna. This was something she had to push through on her own. The Taoist designed Miko, watched as the girl on the ground closed her eyes and then threw up unable to hold back the bile.

The female Kurosaki wiped away the drool and intestinal mixture from her mouth with the sleeve of her hakama, breathing very hard from the scene and images that flashed in her mind "W-(gulp)what was that?"

The ascetic kneeled down and forced Senna to look up to where she could only see her mouth. "What you saw was your fate, your death."

"I don't understand!" She huffed trying to steady herself and catch her breath "That older looking woman, who was lying in the pool of blood surrounded by broken glass in the middle of the street. Who was launched from the passenger's side after being slammed by the semi, that was me!"

Mirokumaru nodded "Correct. The technique that I have taught you is much different from any other attack I could bestow. The mantra to perform the attack is quite long, but the attack is nigh unstoppable. However the travesty of your action will be paid upon by your soul."

"Are you saying that…that attack, its killing me?"

The unrevealed witch hummed to herself. Trying to think of a good analogy, to answer her student's and mistress's question "Think of it like paying off death. In exchange for eradicating the opposition, it will bring you that much closer to death. Originally you were supposed to live to be about 68 years old, but going off from that vision I would say, now you will be lucky to reach 40." She answered sending a chilling shiver to run down Senna's spine, knowing she could very well choose her death "It is quite powerful, and perhaps the only thing capable of defeating your dark half. However your health is most important to me, do not use it flimsily, or you will die Senna."

Senna looked down as she continued to push the horrible scene out of her mind. Putting her free hand on her knee she steadily pushed herself up to stand on her own. The woman looked at the unrevealed face of Mirokumaru, and glanced back down to the rocky path in thought. After thinking something over, knowing of her finite time making it seem like a dwindling hour glass, the ribbon wearing girl clenched her fist and turned fiercely to face her Zanpaktou spirit

"Mirokumaru, I want to speak to the dark side especially after that. There are some things I want…no, I need to ask her, otherwise I'm going to have a lot of regrets."

"…Are you certain your ladyship?" She said uneasily, unsure if the woman was desperate from seeing such a scene

"Yes." Senna said to affirm her command and wash away an doubts she had.

The spirit lowered her unseen face back down and put a hand to the tip of her hat bringing it lower. A small breeze blew from behind her, the many strands of black and white hair riding the wind and dancing lightly in Senna's direction and with it, the female Kurosaki sensed the change inside the Seer as she flipped from Yin to Yang.

The creature removed her hand and brought her head back up, only enough to reveal a razor sharp grin on her face "Well, well, this is certainly a surprise. So what pray tell does my little servant girl want with moi?"

Senna scowled slightly at the words "This 'little servant girl' wanted to speak with you on a couple of things." She then closed her eyes and put a hand on her hip "The first thing I wanted to say was simply 'Thank-you'." She almost had to force out "Thank-you for helping me back there, I don't completely understand what you did to me, but it kept me alive."

"Huahaha! Wow, here I thought I'd never hear any praise from you." The monstrous priestesses replied, basking in the praise since it made her heat race, while her mind fill with ideas "Ahh, how I relish it. Yes, you certainly should be thankful, now I want you to show it for me, so strip naked and get down on your hands and knees then beg for me to take you, if you reeeeeeaaaally mean it."

"Don't push it, Mirokumaru!" Senna shot fiercely, which made the dark priestess laugh hard

"I'm joking, I'm joking. I'll accept that for now," she leaned in a tiny bit closer to Senna, which to her was already too close "since it's the first time you've ever complimented me in our little affair." She whispered seductively, then leaned back and spoke louder "But I won't pretend that seeing you so dark and ominous didn't turn me on. The thought of my own 'relief' was why it took a second to ensure your safety. By the way on an unrelated note; if the whole being a goody two-shoes doesn't work out, I do think evil really does become you. Just something to sit on for a bit, love."

"Thanks for the career advice." Senna replied dryly, ignoring to the best of her abilities the woman's extra commentary on what she was feeling during the Shinigami's time of mortal peril "I also wanted to ask about something, that I think I may have learned since I started this journey."

"Go on. I'm listening." The devilish creature said with a sadistic smile

"It's the fact that you never reveal your face to me. I always wondered why you never showed yourself, but after seeing Ichigo and that white doppelganger of him. I think I've come to the conclusion that you are a hollow."

"mmhmm…" the creature hummed urging her to go on

"So I guess my question is, when you say that 'you are me and I am you' do you mean that literally? And if I am right I want you to show me your true self."

The dark monster paused for a moment in seemingly contemplation, then smiled gleefully "Congratulation, you've managed to take one step forward in understand who and what you are." The woman then raised her hand up, her robe's sleeve now falling due to gravity and revealing a pure white limb that reached for hat that had remained on the creatures head for years. Within a few seconds the woman pulled the hat off and shook her head, to let her long flowing strands of black and white hair that had once been confined out. Bringing the hat to her side, she dropped it to move some of her hair out of her eyes.

As Senna watched the action, she found herself breathing a little harder as the woman's face, which was revealed to be her own face. Senna remained staring at the creature, remembering every detail of the face, everything matched the only difference was that instead of her own amber eyes, these were a bright gold with black sclera. The woman hair wasn't done up in the back like Senna's but was all in braids flowing downward. As the female Kurosaki continued to look her eyes widened even more when she saw what was wrapped around the foremost braid beside the now grinning girls face.

A single red ribbon wrapped around the strand of hair and intertwining downward.

"Y-you…really, you are me." Senna fearfully said as she gazed at this seemingly older version of herself.

"So glad you noticed." The hollow replied with palatable sarcasm "To be more precise though, I am your dark half. The Yang to your Yin. We are both one and the same. The only differences between us, is personality, morality and power, which is even then already blurred significantly by our situation." She alluded to their merger which she deliberately failed to mention.

"But if what you're saying is true, that there isn't any difference between us, does that make me a hollow like you?" she couldn't help but ask, since if she herself was a hollow, she was certainly a big oddity, since she didn't crave human souls or walk around with a huge mask on her face.

"It's complicated. Truth be told, I am not even certain as to what you are called. But I know what made you, so I will leave that part in the dark for you to investigate. Is there anything else that you wish my servant or shall I return you whence you came?"

The ribbon wearing teenager continued looking at the beautiful face of her dark half, before closing her eyes and gripping the spot just above her own heart. She thought hard about this, and decide now might be her only chance of finding out this…fact she couldn't ignore. "Mirokumaru, you've said that you are me, even though I guess were separated, right?"

"That is what I said, yes. What of it?" the pale duplicate asked with tilting of her head and a neutral expression on her face

"What do you feel about Ichigo?" she said quietly, like she didn't want to be overheard even though they were the only two sentient creatures in this world 'Maybe this might explain that twinge of…jealousy I guess?'

Senna was easily privy to watching the stoic face of her opposite suddenly bust out into an aroused and dreamy expression "You mean lord brother? Hmhmhm, He can own me. Haaaah~…I am contented in being little more than his personal chew toy that he can abuse, lick, suck and gnaw on whenever he so desires, however many times he desires, eternally at his beck and call." She said with a deep panting, while her body began to heat up from her lustful thoughts. She remembered her place before she could try and relieve herself, and instead turned a scandalous look to the troubled girl, ready to tell exactly what she wanted to hear "But then you want him. Don't you." She stated matter-of-factly with half lidded eyes, knowing it wasn't a question "You want to see him looking at you, no doubt like he looks at that girl he's always talking about. You want to be able to kiss, hug, and hold him like the man that he is, not caring for insipid and nigh unfounded beliefs of taboo actions. Don't you, you depraved little harlot?"

The accused woman looked away quickly, not attempting to dignify it with a response. This action only egged the dark shaman on "Senna, Senna, Senna. You can't hide what you feel for him; especially from me. I know he's everything you look for in a man; because, he's everything that you had been told by daddy to look for in a guy. A good person, cares about others, is true to himself, faithful and reliable, stays his anger, he makes you laugh, and most of all he makes you smile. His mere presence brings you joy. Ahahahu, He's a modern day knight in shining armor, like all those wonderful fairytales your dad used to read to you when you were so much cuter."

Senna gritted her teeth "Just stop. I don't want to cause unnecessary grief for Ichigo." She then added almost spitefully to the person who did have his heart, somewhat accepting the reality of the situation for what it was "Besides even if there was some truth, he already has someone."

Now Mirokumaru scowled "What a pathetic excuse." She said as her arm jerked Senna to face her again, not believing in the path of self-sacrifice. In her eyes if you wanted it you took it. "Senna, do you honestly think that your feelings are just going to take flight on their own? If so, you are more naive than I originally anticipated. If you love him like we both know you do, you will find a way into his heart."

Senna pushed herself out of the dark half's grip and turned around, with a slight blush but still mostly frowning face "I...I couldn't do that to him. He loves her. He's willing to go to war for her."

"Senna-chan, do you honestly think he wouldn't go to war for you?" the abomination cooed using all of her manipulative abilities to ironically deceive herself by using the truth

Senna looked down and thought the words over, her heart beating faster as she let the train of thought bring her ideas. "P-probably not for the same reason." 'Then again he's never exactly designated me into the 'friend only' category and we're 'family' in word only due to lack of evidence.'

"Hmm, perhaps you have a point." She then shrugged nonchalantly, but her smile grew into a wicked grin "But I think you should at least go for it, after all you could end up winning into his heart another way. Recall we are not on earth, who knows what they allow here." The hollow then snapped her fingers opening up a rift connecting Senna back to her body "Just something to think about."

Senna went completely rigid at the proposition. She looked back at the other woman with owl eyes, and was feeling quite perturbed. 'She…ughh I hate to say it, is right. Well…I guess I could try, I mean it's…not like I have anything to lose.' The woman would have continued her line of thought when she felt her face get pulled to the left and found her lips once again interlocked with Mirokumaru. This time around Senna didn't push the hollow back, but remained stock still, as the creature let her tongue into Senna's mouth, the teenagers eyes dropped about half-way and a blush turned on full force on her face. As the dark half pulled away, leaving the girl to return back to her correct state of mind, she quickly whipped around and kicked Senna in the stomach sending the red woman back to her body

Landing back on her feet the hollow looked back into the rift as it closed 'She didn't resist. I even think she enjoyed it.' She then smiled 'It seems kinkiness is going to be a shared trait. Ooh god, I can't wait till our fight, it will be most delectable to hear her moans of pleasure and pain. Hmmhmmhahahaha!'

(SS: Senna)

Senna's soul returned back to her body in full force. The woman blinked for just a second then loudly yelled "That fucking bitch! Ooooh! I am soooo gonna use 'that' move and blow her scrawny ass to the hereafter!"

'You know ya liked it, Sen-chan. I bet you were hoping that I'd take you right there, while you were in your dazed bliss from my kiss, and perverted thoughts of Ichigo-goshujinsama.'

A very red Senna shot back at the woman's unheard words "Screw you! You hear me! SCREW! YOU! And why do you keep kicking me! What is your obsession with your foot and my stomach!"

Dark Mirokumaru laughed 'Simple, I am practicing. I am practicing the fine art of finding the correct spot to place my foot upon you, when you lay on the flat of your back, broken and beaten into submission, staring back at your sex goddess.'

"You're fucking insane!"

"Senna-san," a perplexed Shinjiro started with a raised eye brow "Whoooo," he extended "are you yelling at?"

The girl looked up to see Shinjiro look at her worriedly, it was then that she remembered that she wasn't alone nor speaking in her inner monologue. So she sheepishly looked away and scratched the back of her head "ah..haha…n-nothing. Don't mind me."

Shinjiro sighed from the obvious lie, but let it go since she didn't seem physically distressed, though he wasn't gonna touch on mental trauma "Alright, but keep it down. I'm trying to meditate." He intoned softly

"Y-yeah. Sorry." She eeped out. The man shrugged then walked back off in another direction.

'Hmm, maybe…I should go see what bro-Ichigo is up to.' She decided now that Shinjiro was out of sight, outta mind. Getting up from her spot she went over to where the constant clashing of spiritual power was raging back and forth.

(Ichigo)

Courage

"Damn it." Ichigo yelled underneath the 'full moon', as his forty-fifth sword broke against the smooth shaven hollow spirit. He back flipped and threw the jagged hilt at his other opponent who swatted the weapon aside due to his increased strength under the 'full moon'.

The older Zangetsu leaped high into the air to cut his wielder in half, but connect with air as Ichigo quickly flash stepped down to the ground taking off to find another weapon after dodging another strike from his hollow counterpart.

Running through the trench as fast as his legs would move, the male Onimitsukido member was keeping a sharp eye for any of the swords that had that certain feel to it in nature. He didn't bother turning his head back around as he heard the four extra pairs of sandals meeting the dirty and letting him know their owners were hot on his heels.

"Get back here, I wanna murder you a little bit King!" Hichigo yelled while his fellow spirit grunted continuing to observe Ichigo's action

As the strawberry continued running, he grabbed what he knew was a worthless sword and chucked it behind him hoping to slow them down, only to see them break it with their own weapons. Allowing himself to look at his surroundings, he sensed a very powerful feeling blade to his right hand side. Utilizing his flash step he appeared beside the imbedded weapon.

The sword itself was a small narrow blade, it would have easily passed as any standard issue katana, the only really difference between it and asauchi was the guard had four prongs each bent at an angle, and the diamonds running down the sides of the hilt were red like his rosary.

Not wasting an instant, Ichigo picked up the weapon and turned to face his opponents.

Selflessness

He heard the word ring in his mind after settling in a defensive stance, taking just a brief glance at the moon that was now in the waning position. With a renewed vigor, Ichigo swung his much smaller weapon and cut into the battle scarred torso of Hichigo who jumped back and threw his weapon like spear, while the older Zangetsu locked with Ichigo blade to hold him in place for the projectile.

Letting one of his hand fall away Ichigo pointed at the incoming attack "Hado 31: Shakkaho!" and launched the weapon melting the metal of the sword and engulfing the blade in it's entirety.

Strength

He heard as the weapon faded out, letting him know what part of his soul was 'destroyed'. As he continued to fight back against the older man, the younger version flash stepped in between them and kicked Ichigo in the face launching the man in a barrel roll across the ground.

As his body crashed into the nearby rocks, he fell down slumped against it. Breathing out a ragged breath he forced himself back to his feet, stumbling slightly from his own accumulation of wounds. As the two enemies charged forwards to him, Ichigo heard a word enter his mind. He smirked devilishly, as he felt his spiritual energy begin to rise up around him until it exploded upward.

Raising his sword so that the end of the blade pointed towards his oncoming opponents, he pulled the blade to his left hand side and closed his eyes, allowing the energy to flow into the weapon. The hollow and spirit seeing what their king was doing stopped and followed suit, one with a maniacal grin the other with an impassive stare.

"Ge-" a fierce Ichigo started

"-tsu-" The smirking hollow continued

"-ga" The oldest one uttered

The three of them all whipped their arms around as they yelled the final word "TENSHO!

As the word left the men's mouth three gigantic particle beams flew out of the weaponry and collided with each other in the space between them. The attacks struggled back and forth shaking the caves walls with the intensity behind it, getting everyone's attention inside the cave. The crescent wave of energy soon erupted, both sides canceling each other out, launching up a huge cloud of dust forcing almost everyone to cover their face.

Old man Zangetsu brought his arm around to shield himself, while the hollow looked onward not bothering too, since he was so caught up in the beauty of such a devastating attack. They were about to turn around when they heard a cracking of metal. Both of them looked to see that their weapons were completely broken in half.

"You lose." A single voice uttered as it raised his sword to the neck of Zangetsu, who felt the cold steel.

Both spiritual embodiments looked over their shoulder to see the orange haired teenager, looking at them with determined battled hardened smirk. His arm holding the powerful weapon, purposefully, ready to cut down his partner, if he needed too. Zangetsu looked into the eyes of Ichigo, and saw beyond what he expected, then nodded his head, seeing his unyielding desire to protect those even at the cost of himself burning brightly within him "I yield, the victory is yours." He proclaimed softly

"Heh. Well, it was definitely fun while it lasted. I'll be seein' ya round king." The specter said as he started to fade "Because I finally think you're ready to see your true potential."

With the third party gone, Zangetsu looked at Ichigo fiercely measuring him up. Picking up his hand, he lightly grabbed the sides of the weapon with his thumb and index finger, moving it away from his neck, and brought it to his side, as he did this the man's coat started to break apart and wane over towards Ichigo's persons.

"You have grown strong Ichigo. Stronger than I thought imaginable." He uttered as his particles began to flow towards his Hakama and reshape it "But you must not allow yourself to stay complacent with your abilities." The clothes morphed until it resembled the strange black Gi that the spirit himself always wore "You must keep moving forward. You must walk without fear into the grave unknown." The blade itself turned entirely black, the red diamonds becoming much stronger in color with the new back ground, while a black coat started to billow behind the man, it's red lining clearly visible against the wind the spiritual pressure was creating "If you stand still you will age, if you hesitate you will die. Ichigo! If you desire me to fight alongside you awaken my power!" The man yelled as he completely vanished into Ichigo's mind scape leaving the man alone with his weapon and new found power

The man closed his eyes as he felt his spiritual pressure raging inside his body, and it felt incredible, like he could take on every single captain of the Seireitei and come out on top. "Open the path, Zangetsu (Cutting moon)." He stated the release command of his Zanpaktou that he had only ever had to utter once, while he shifted his arm slightly bringing the miniature sword around "Now hear me: Bankai. Tensa (Heavenly chain)." The man opened his eyes as black energy wrapped around his sword "Zangetsu (Slaying moon)!"

Whipping his blade around a huge black wave of energy fired of the weaponry and slammed against the Seki Seki wall. As it dissipated leaving a indentation inward in the once nigh-impossible to destroy rock, Ichigo felt himself go light headed before collapse upon himself. Just as he was about to hit the ground someone or something caught him, and he only heard a soothing feminine voice saying 'he'd be ok', before blacking out.

[Sometime later] (afternoon)

Dpp…

A noise registered within Ichigo's weary mind

Dpp…

The noise rang again much louder

Dppp, swwshh…

The man heard much more clearly. He opened his eyes to find his arms lying stretched out in front of him, and his body hunched forward. That's when he heard the sound of the dripping noise, and something falling and clatter against some kind of liquid surface, then he felt something soft touch his bare back and go reaching down until he stopped feeling it below a certain level. "uggh…" he groaned as he started to feel something hot at about waist height.

"Oh good, you're awake!" a voice behind him called cheerfully, then he found something extremely soft pressed against him while a pair of arms wrapped around his body pulling him into a hug. "I'm glad these hot springs work like Yoruichi-san said they would." Ichigo then felt a small peck on his cheek from most definitely the lips of a woman.

Feeling his energy return to him, Ichigo pushed himself up. Briefly touching his healed chest and stopping to breath before turning around to see a wet, naked, hair loosened Senna smiling back at him. Standing completely unashamed in her nudity with a yellow sponge in her hand, pressed slightly against her C cup breasts.

Ichigo's eyes twitched slightly at seeing the naked woman "w-w-w-w-w-wh-wha-" he just couldn't utter the words he was trying to formulate in his mind

Senna seeing the action smiled sweetly even if she was blushing up a storm on the inside 'I can't believe he's look at me, naked.'

"I-I'm happy to see that you're ok, Ichigo-kun." She uttered doing her best to strut past her nervousness

"Wha-what the hell! SENNA!" he all but yelled, as he tried to turn around to leave, but was quickly restrained by the woman, her firm mounds once again pressing against the back of Ichigo

"Please stop, your wounds will reopen. Please listen to me!" she pleaded not wanting him to end up hurting himself again

The blushing strawberry seeing her point stopped thrashing, allowing Senna to release him, but kept the annoyance clear in his tone "What the heck are you doing in here with me? What the hell was everyone else doing!"

Senna sheepishly scratched her cheek "Weell, what they said was…

(Mental flash back)

"I was gonna do it, but Senna was opposed to it for some reason. Shame really, I could have had some fun with that." Yoruichi mused with a finger to her chin "Hmm, maybe that was the reason."

"Bzzt, ah-uh, wrong answer. You're a guy, I'm a guy. I don't do that kinda thing buddy!" Renji yelled with his arms crossed in an X above his chest

"I would have, but I was too injured from earlier training, I couldn't lift you. I hope you forgive me Kohai." Shinjiro explained with an apologetic bow

"HAHAHA! That's practically brother-sister incest. Do you know how popular that is in some parts of the world? I'm not gonna deprive myself of a cash cow, you seem to be turning yourself into, my dear girl" a smiling Urahara said with his trademark fan opened up

(Mental flash back end)

"…and I was the only one who could lift the blade; because, our energies are so close to one another." She briefly summarized finishing the impromptu recount

Ichigo looked absolutely impassive after Senna finished, and then face palmed "So aside from Shinjiro, and maybe Renji. The others didn't have an excuse, why am I not surprised?" He removed the hand from his face and let it fall into the water "Well, thanks, I guess. It's appreciated." He then splashed some water on his face, rubbing the heated liquid against his features to wash away the dirt and sweat build up. As he brought his hands back down he saw the blushing woman across from him smiling sheepishly as she leaned back against the pond's rocky wall "What are you so happy about?"

The purple haired teenager adjusted herself bringing her knees close to her chest, which was now hidden underneath the waves, and behind her smooth skin "Well…it's just…this is the first time. I've ever been naked around another guy besides dad. It's a new experience." 'One I'm glad to have with you!'

Ichigo frowned just a little bit "If it bothers you so much. I can leave."

"No, no." Senna replied back quickly standing up enough where her upper body was exposed again, making Ichigo divert his eyes to the side "Please. I…I want to have this experience, with you of all people."

"What do you mean by that?" Ichigo said with a noticeable edge in his tone

The Miko easily picked up on it and spoke mostly a true statement "Well, I was the only one who could help you, and I know for a fact that you won't think of me too badly, if you were to see me."

'Hell no I won't! I think you're a Grade A woman! Hey king I know your dating "Kuno-sexy-san" so I'm calling the "Sultry Sister"! Hehehe!'

'Shut up.' Ichigo dead panned "I'm flattered that you can trust me," he said adding a quiet "I guess" at the end

The words made the woman's heart beat faster and she gave him a bright innocent smile "Thanks." She took a step forward only to trip, because of a unseen pot hole at the bottom. His instincts kicking in, Ichigo leaned forward with his arm spread out to catch her, knowing if he moved she might hit her head against the hard rocks and give herself a concussion or worse.

The sound of water splashed loudly back and forth as the beautiful naked woman landed upon the man who had one of his arms on her breast while the other was wrapped around her back, the woman's body was mostly pressed against the orange haired teenagers chest. Her legs were cut out from under her completely, while his were spread out entirely. Both people were looking directly into the face of the other, both blushing considerably, though for entirely different reasons each.

Senna tried to move down and away when she stopped mid way through having felt something really hard brush up against a certain spot between her legs, making croon her head downward and close her eyes tighter to hold back the stimulating sensation that the dark side of her was telling her to keep going and embrace. "Uhh, sorry about that," she apologized spazzing out from the sudden intimacy she perceived from the moment, "…must..musta been a rock. I'll move it." her hand then quickly went underwater and when she tried to move the 'rock', Ichigo winced and groaned slightly

"I don't think that's a rock Senna." The man painstakingly replied back making the girl freeze in her actions, while going completely red in the face now knowing what she touched. The girl gulped slightly as she looked at Ichigo and she opened her mouth just enough to take the shape of an o.

But a loud clicking noise soon caught the both of the people's attention, and they looked back to see Kisuke Urahara with a camera that spat out a very interesting picture of the two of them in that compromising pose. He then looked at them with a winning smile knowing he now had an entire market to cater to "Oh, no. Don't stop on my account just keep going." He egged on turning the camera slightly to get a land scape shot.

Senna quickly erupted in anger with having the mood ruined, right when she was going to kiss him and confess her feeling. Faster than light Senna jumped out of the water and ran after the man, who immediately turned around once things got sour; Ichigo remained in his position for a few seconds as the sound started to get further away, right when he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a humiliated Senna returned grabbed her clothing and staff, and then flash stepped off again no doubt to continue the chase better equipped.

Waiting just a little longer till he was certain she wouldn't come back, he allowed himself to let out that held sigh of relief "(sigh). That's was crazy, I'm never gonna pass out again. Man…I hope that never gets brought up, Shaolin would be heartbroken…well or she'd kill me…one of the two." He closed his eyes and leaned back to try to relax, though he did think a cold shower was in order.

(Tosen and Sajin)

Following the noise of blood splattering, cries of horrified agony, and chilling laughter, they came to their target who was swinging his sword madly into another unfortunate soul. The man's division was fighting all over the place attacking and killing whoever entered their sight.

"Are you him!" the battle consumed giant asked as he swung his sword cleaving the skull of another Shinigami in half "Guess not." He then lunged to the next one "How about you?" when this victim was impaled, the man kicked the weak piece of crap off his weapon "Which one of you is this fucking Kurosaki kid! I'm getting bored here without a decent challenge!" he yelled out over the loud sounds of battle

Turning around after kicking some nameless Shinigami in the crotch, Yachiru yelled out to her adoptive father "Ken-chan, look Bucket-chan and Visor-chan are on the roof!" pointing towards the two captains who took above the battlefield

Turning around, the demon of Zaraki district looked predatorily to his newest challengers, his sword being brought up to rest on his shoulders "Well, would you look at that! To what do I owe the pleasure of the crippled justice-faggot and his large toilet bowl headed companion? I didn't miss another meeting did I? Hahaha!"

Tosen scowled as he stepped forward "You crazed insolent beast, how dare you cut down your fellow allies!"

Zaraki lifted his head back and laughed even harder "What are you talking about? I'm looking for the traitors." He turned and then impaled someone else on his sword, then looked back smugly "See he would have said 'Stop Zaraki-Taicho, I'm innocent'. I'm just doing my duty as a Taicho!" Zaraki then pushed the man off his sword and looked back at the two men "In fact you guys might be traitors too."

"You try and cover up your actions with thinly veiled lies. Deplorable." Sajin snarled, disgusted by the way this man was killing Shinigami left and right for little more than his own amusement

"Thinly veiled Lies?" Kenpachi repeated with no small amount of contempt at the insulation "I'm calling it as I see it. I honestly don't even know who the hell the bad guy here is, so I'm just doing what I do best." The man spiritual pressure flared considerably as he charged forward at them "Destroying everything!"

The two captain's jumped away as the mad beast crashed through the wall, going elsewhere to fight these opponents who were much stronger than the fodder he'd been swathing through for the past while. Just maybe he thought it might lead him to Ichigo.

Yachiru seeing Kenny go off turned to Yumichika "Peacock-chan, you watch over baldy while I got chase down Ken-chan. He's gonna get in a fight and I need to cheer him on!" she said bubbly ready to sit down and watch the man go at it attentively

'Peacock-chan' tilted his head in consideration, narrowly dodging a wayward sword strike "Hmmm, that does sound interesting, and I'd hate to miss out on watching our Captain fight elegantly, but I have my hands full. So be sure to cheer him on for the both of us!"

"Ok, bye-bye!" she yelled back waving her hand behind her before darting off at incredible speed

"What an energetic girl." He mused to himself as he automatically brought his hand back around to block a sword strike. He then turned back to his opponent "Ohh, right. I had forgotten about you ugly swine. Shame, why couldn't you have stayed out of my mind for a little longer?" The fifth seat shook his head disappointedly and then pushed the man back "I guess we'll pick back up where we left off. You said something about an execution, right?" he asked resuming the fight against the ax men

(evening: Gin Ichimaru)

The perpetual smiling Captain of squad three was slinking through the corridors of Seireitei. He had just recently went to go visit Byakuya-chan, who was watching over the penance tower. After a short proving that he was in fact not there to pull a rescue attempt, like had happened yesterday to two…pathetic souls, he engaged in some small witty banter with the cold captain. Lofting praises off how he was able to keep a cool head despite his sister's imminent death, and going further on to say that if the nobleman ever needed a word of friendly advice he was only a butterfly away, to even further show his good will, he promised to accompany the man, noting that with two captain's it would scare off any would be 'saviors', even pointing out that whenever he was around Rukia didn't seem quite so talkative, so it helped with remaining unnoticed. It was a win-win for sure.

The man allowed himself to chuckle oh so lightly as he walked through the tormented Seireitei around him, the sheer confusion, the routing out of the weak, the fight for survival, was a melodious orchestra to his fine tuned ears, all thanks to him and his fellow allies to Mr. Godhood himself. As he kept walking forward, one leg at a time, he stopped and snickered "You shouldn't follow someone like you do, its pretty creepy." he turned around as his smile grew wider at whom he saw "People might also get the wrong idea about us and start rumors. I, for one, rather appreciate the light people portray me in, don't you agree Toshiro-kun?"

The white haired boy stepped forward his sandal hitting the ground so hard, that it cracked underneath the spiritual power that was fluctuating around the boy "I've been looking for you for quite some time, Ichimaru." His face morphed into a fierce scowl "Or should I say traitor? You've certainly been playing everyone for a fool so far."

Now, Ichimaru turned fully, his smile growing just a fraction wider, yes he was clearly enjoying the attention he was receiving "Me? A traitor?" he said curving his index and forefinger at himself, with a curious tone "That's a bold claim." He then shrugged and spoke a little higher "But if that's the case kid genius, then tell me, why are you still alive? If I was a traitor, like you insinuate, I would have used Kamishini no yari to put a hole in your heart a long time ago." The silver haired man put a hand over his mouth "In fact maybe you are a traitor. I've been doing a little looking into this business myself, and I've got plenty of information that points to you."

"Really!" The white haired captain snarled sarcastically, doing his best to not laugh "I would just LOVE to see this information, you so boldly tot around!"

"Hmmm, nope! Can't trust ya, you might just ice it up and destroy it." the man said smoothly, turning back around to get ready for the next part of the plan "Tata." He waved off

Toshiro immediately flared his spiritual pressure "You're not going anywhere, Ichimaru." As he jumped into the air and attempted to cleave the man in half, only for Ichimaru to calmly block it, and push the man away.

Ichimaru's grinning face turned to a neutral look as he tilted his head and pointed in Toshiro's direction "I think I should, she seem to be a bit irritated, and I don't want to be around when she snaps."

Using his sixth sense, since he wasn't trusting of taking his eyes off the guilty traitor, he did sense someone behind him. Not wanting to risk being caught by something that might be worse than Gin, he wiped around to see the vacant face of Momo Hinamori

"M-momo?" he questioned startled not expecting her to be here when she should be back in squad two detainment block "You shouldn't be running around! You-

The friendly reunion was apparently lived only on Toshiro's side as his friend pulled out her sword and pointed it at Toshiro "I'm sorry Toshiro. But I can't let you kill Ichimaru-Taicho, he and Captain Aizen are going to bring down your and your masters rebellion."

"What!" Toshiro snapped reeling from the words she was uttering "Aizen's dead. Momo, we…all saw him…" his voice faltered, not wanting to bring up the painful memory to the girl who loved the man for his outstanding kindness and dedication

"You're wrong." She shot back getting the white haired boy attention "Aizen came and set me free yesterday from the cell I was forced into. He told me everything. He told me you were the one who framed, Ichigo Kurosaki. You were jealous of the fact he had the power to become a Taicho, and would replace you as the title of genius." Momo closed her eyes and spoke softly "I…I couldn't believe it at first, but I know that Aizen-Taicho would never lie to me. He then took me back to his office and showed me all his documented proof. He admitted at first he thought it was Gin Ichimaru because of his odd behavior, so he confronted the man and forced him to admit the truth. Ichimaru told Aizen that he was investigating it himself and showed him all the proof he had. When combined both of their findings pointed to another suspect: you."

"That's insane! Your being lied too, can't you see it!" he yelled ready to go Bankai and tear this place apart, knowing that Ichimaru must have screwed with her in some way, maybe drug her to where she saw Aizen instead of Gin

"Captain Aizen said you'd say that." Momo frowned and let her sword's point touch the wooden floor "Back when that red crystal was first discovered, you were there along with the others. Ichimaru claimed to have received this letter from Rangiku who also suspected you of acting weird, why don't you read it?" with her free hand she pulled out a small envelope

Letting his guard down he picked up the letter and in a rapid haste started scanning it like his life depended on it. He looked at the date and time finding it to be about two days after the incident, the hand writing itself, was undoubtedly Ichigo's. He read over the document, reading how it thanked him for the save at the hot springs, and telling him how the crystal was impeding them from calling for help, but also asking why the cold treatment after the battle was over and wondering if he did anything wrong?

"Still not convinced? How about these?" she then threw at his feet a photograph of the squad two member that had visited him, delivering his requested documentation and who shared that story about being attacked by Ichimaru "Ichimaru followed this girl, after she attacked him, and noticed the interactions between you both. He came to the conclusion that you had someone who was in the Onimitsukido give you information on the layout of Soul Society so that the enemy could invade."

"That's not true!" Toshiro yelled at her "That second division member delivered only the asked documentation of Ichigo's mission report during his time at squad two. I requested it to see if he had an interaction with squad thirteen's Rukia Kuchiki."

"You can't lie to me. Aizen took me to your office, he used his Zanpaktou to make Rangiku go with Shuhei and Kira to find out what you were doing, while we went inside and found a battle plan detailing everything that's happening right now. In. YOUR. Desk. Drawer." She then re-raised her sword and stared at her clearly shocked, and in her eyes, guilty friend. "The final nail was when both Aizen-san and Ichimaru-san noticed you over heard their conversation, so they decided to lead you into a trap. They had to know how you would react, which Ichimaru reported was definitely an anomaly in that. You let yourself become personally involved and abused your power, the first signs of tyranny. Which made them both put together that you were insecure of anyone who could challenge you, but they both came to the conclusion, you're just another pawn being used by someone else."

"That doesn't make any sense! I've been trying to prove Ichigo has been innocent this entire time! You know that!"

"You have but then, after looking at it from another perspective, it's just an empty gesture in the end. Of course there would be no hard proof to make your claims reality. You just did it to maintain the persona you had always shone, particularly in front of Rangiku-chan, since she would have thought something wrong with a sudden cold turn of denial by association."

"You can't seriously believe that, can you Momo!"

"I…honestly don't want to believe. I just find out my best and oldest friend is really a traitor, my Taicho is still alive and had to trick us to find the truth. I can't trust anyone just yet, but Captain told me, that I can't let Ichimaru die. He's the only one who has the ability to find the truth and save Soul Society. So I'll fight even you to save this place."

Now it made sense to Toshiro Hitsugaya. Gin must have grave robbed Aizen of his Zanpaktou, as he clearly remembered in the demonstration that it allowed him to use water fragments to confuse opponents, also taking into consideration that a Zanpaktou could be used after someone's death provided the weapon accepted the person, since it was entirely possible for two people to command the same spirit. Ichimaru could very well be alike to Aizen, but this brought a strange splitting point, as to whether Aizen was like Gin, or Gin was like Aizen.

'Was Gin suspecting something all along and went to investigate, but accidently misread it and came to me or…' his eyes hardened 'Is Aizen-Taicho more than meets the eye?' Taking a split second to glance over his shoulder he found the poisonous viper long gone, no doubt using the distraction caused by Momo to get away, he turned back around only to see the cold hate in Momo's eyes apparently she didn't seem to register the fact that she was being used or that Gin was no longer there.

"Momo stand down! I know how this looks, but I know for a fact that Gin-"

"Snap, Tobiume!" she cried not listening to another sentence of her ex-friend. As the katana morphed into its tri-pronged attack mode, Toshiro quickly pulled his sword around to counter the woman's attack

"Momo, you need to stop!" he yelled as he blocked another attack from the girl "Look, Ichimaru isn't even here, he's just using you."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Hinamori cried as she clutched her head "All these voices in my head. I don't want to hear them anymore." She then looked at the perturbed captain and launched a large fire ball at him

"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyorinmaru!" Toshiro released the ice dragon swirled around him intercepting the incoming attack 'Voices? What did that bastard do to her!'

The white haired captain didn't have much chance to continue the thought as the woman started to send a barrage of fire balls at him. Not seeing much else to do, Histuguaya cloaked his body with Hyorinmaru to endure the attack, then flung it around freezing the ground below her to keep her in place, and weaken her to where she couldn't resist his spiritual force.

The bun haired woman saw what was coming and jumped into the air to avoid the attack, high enough to avoid the upward grasp of it. She was wrong though to believe she was safe, as Toshiro used his long chain to wrap around her foot and bring her back down to him.

Momo crashed to the ground on one leg, but quickly snapped the metallic whip with her weapon, and then charged at the cold captain, who remained steady awaiting her attack so he could effectively stop her safely and pursue Ichimaru.

Toshiro's ice cold blade once again stopped Hinamori's wooden saber, the delusional and manipulated girl trying with all her strength to kill her friend. The girl's face continued to glaze over in anger as she put more effort into her task.

Squelch

The sound of weapon piercing flesh made both of them look to see who was struck. Hitsugaya's chilly turquoise eyes saw that their blades were still in a dead lock, he then felt something touching against his Hakama, looking down he saw a blade protruding just in front of him and going through the body of Hinamori. "Momo!" he yelled looking back to the girl who spat out some blood as she slumped forward her strength fading. Hitsugaya caught the girl and watched as the blade retreated back into the distance, far beyond his line of sight. "Damn you Gin." He cursed since he was the only one he could think of that had a Zanpakatou of such length.

"Ai..zen…tos..hiro…" the girl croaked out, while her body started to shake, feeling incredibly cold

Hitsugaya sheathed his weapon and scooped the girl up in his arms "You did the one thing I told you not to Ichimaru." He said with a deathly chill "Next time I see you, I'm going to leave you trapped in an eternal ice age!" he then departed to get her some much needed medical attention.

(Gin)

As he retracted his Bankai, verily impressed that he could hit someone from over five kilometers away without looking, he moved towards the central 46 to hide out and lay low, until he would show up tomorrow, since Toshiro would either be hurt and die if he attacked him, or would be ok but still unable to attack him since to do that would get him killed for treason. Aizen had already worked out the plan, and would be sure to get out of dodge once the Hogyoku was safely in their grasp, as he already had a legion of followers that just needed to cross the barrier and give him the army needed to clear the path to his dream.

The smiling snake continued his steady gait "The weather is certainly lovely this time of year…" he mused to himself, his smile growing wider and wider to the point where it looked like he could swallow someone's soul "has that certain feel of…change in it."

(Kenpachi)

With another slash with his sword the captain of squad eleven dead locked with the now revealed animal face of Komamura. Zaraki smirked at the strength the dog-man possessed even after the various cuts on him.

Komamura was equally impressed in that the demon of Zaraki district was not only able to force Tosen to retreat from his wounds, but also keep up with him, and he hadn't so much as taken off his eye patch yet. "Come on, you can do better than that right, dog breath!"

"Silence, wretch." The large wolf answered back as he pushed the excited man sending blasting through one of the nearby walls. He wouldn't get a breather however as the scarred man just came back through the wall, making another entry point.

The dog man jumped back landing on the roof top a ways back. He gritted his teeth as he weighed his options in his mind, and seemed to come to little choice but to use his Bankai. He raised his sword to perform the art when his nose detected the scent of more people coming towards him all of them mixed with the smell of blood and Kenpachi's own foul odor. 'Damn. It seems I am too late to assist those troops. I have no choice but to retreat.' He begrudgingly admitted since his Bankai while powerful left him open to multiple attackers, and given that all of the Zaraki Squad were powerful fighters, it would be suicide which would deprive Soul Society a much needed Taicho.

"This is far from over Zaraki!" the wolf howled as it disappeared in a flash step, executing a tactical retreat to lick his wounds.

"What! Wait hold the-" he yelled at the cowardly Taicho "Damn it!" he cursed as the man had vacated, leaving the thrill seeking captain into a huge let down state of being. The man tsked as he brought his sword around to rest on his shoulder since there was nothing else he could do. He turned around, and saw the forms of Yachiru, Yumichika and Ikkaku along with a few other men running towards him.

"Booooo, Bucket-chan's ran away too!" Yachiru loudly disapproved as she started to climb the back of her captain to her number one perch

"It not like it's my fault!" Kenny said angrily, as he looked over his shoulder "The first one couldn't take more than a couple of hits, and the stronger one just punked out a second ago, it's friggin maddening!"

"Haha! Well then I think I've got some good news for you, Taicho!" Yumichika said in a swooning sing-song voice

"Oh really?" Zaraki said with an interested sharkish grin, knowing that the weirdo number five only seemed to have hearts in his eyes like this when it was something worth cheering about.

(Soifon)

As Soifon sat at her desk meditating mentally preparing herself for tomorrow, a soft knock brought her attention to her wooden office door. "It's open." The woman said opening one of her eyes while remaining in her spot

The door opened up revealing a neutral looking Subaru "Shaolin, I just came to let you know that I'm heading out." The woman half-lied with her hand still on the door knob

'Alright, now maybe I can see what's got you so worried.' The Captain nodded "Very well. I will try to be along later, Subaru-chan. Stay safe." She said as she re-closed her eye, feigning going back to meditation. As she heard the door creak to a close, the Onimitsukido master opened both her eyes intently and killed all her senses with the exception of her sixth, keeping her mind focused intently on Subaru's signature. Easily knowing the layout of her fortress, she grabbed her things when she saw the woman's spiritual pressure head down to the west towards the training field.

The captain, upon exiting the room, killed her spiritual pressure to the point where she blended in with the background around her, for anyone trying to sense her. Using her expert stealth skills and control on her power, she proceeded to tail Subaru staying far out of sight of the spy, who was unaware that she was being followed. The spy walked to the far end of the training ground and went down the dirt path. 'Just where is she going?' Shaolin asked herself as she continued following her, since she originally hoped that maybe she might catch the woman in a moment of disturbed doubt and show up, pretending to be passing through, and get her to talk about it. Now she wasn't so certain that her plan was going to go like she had intended.

Though she was most unwilling to turn a blind eye, since she didn't want to worry that Subaru might get attacked especially in her funk. She continued following her further into the forest, the buildings and tile grounds being rapidly replaced by green trees and patches of shrubbery. The Onimitsukido master continued to follow her spy being mindful of where she stepped, as a single wrong crunching of grass or snapping of a twig would set off the third seat's evasion instincts, and she would be unable to find out where the heck she was going.

For the next twenty minutes, Subaru kept walking and then suddenly making sharp turns and zigzagging in another direction, then walking a few more minutes before making another ninety degree turn and going somewhere else. She kept repeating the action over and over, and Shaolin was starting to wonder if Subaru had actually gone out for a walk to clear her head or was completely lost.

Shaolin now much closer, but hiding out of sight because of a tree, was debating on whether or not to leave, when her patience was rewarded, as Subaru stopped walking and then quickly looked around her, checking to see if anyone was following her, and then turned to the right and started running briskly. The captain waited a moment and then silently ran off in the direction as well. She kept moving her spiritual focus still on Subaru when suddenly Subaru's spiritual pressure disappeared entirely.

'What the? She's gone.' captain Soifon concluded as she came to a halt, looking around in her immediate vicinity she saw nothing but trees in every direction. She kept looking around until she decided to try and follow her spiritual trail before it suddenly cut off, raising her reishi output just a fraction she closed her eyes and called up a bunch of spirit ribbons and grabbed the one that had her sister's spiritual signature.

With her newfound guide the woman picked up the path and continued until she came to an easily miss able cave, that even she didn't know of 'What's she doing here? And why has she never told me about this place?' the captain wondered as she released the spirit ribbon and placed her hand at the entrance of the cave mouth. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she entered into the dimly lit entranceway and followed the linear but snaking tunnel until she came to a giant well lit cavern.

The woman looked around and spied some rocks that she could use for cover. Crouching down she stalked her way, and once she was close to it quickly turned her back to it to sidle. She stopped for a second to catch her breath, and listen in for the sound of anyone approaching. When she heard no footsteps, the Chinese spy slid to the edge of the rock, allowing just half her face to be exposed while she looked past it.

Down past some rock formation she saw Subaru conversing with a taller woman with purple hair, a red ribbon and a bigger –in comparison to her and Subaru- bust. Soifon gripped the rock harder when she saw a large golden Shakujo in her hand. 'That's the woman Jidanbo mentioned. The one with Ichigo back at the gate!' she moved her gaze back to her third seat 'How do you know her?' she asked herself, then it hit her.

All the avoidance of contact, all the feelings of melancholy and guilt, that widening of the distance between them in so short a time, the constant lack of communication; it was all because she felt the guilt of betraying her, that every moment beside her was a constant reminder of what she was doing behind her back. The captain pulled herself back behind the rock, and let out a tired exhalation "That explains it. (Pfff) I wonder how long this has been going on, days maybe? Guess I can't be surprised she'd hide this, what with my initial infuriation at Ichigo and my history with traitors and backstabbers."

The woman got back up on her feet and slid back around again, this time her eyes widened considerably and her heart nearly stopped. Standing next to the initial traitor who always made her blood boil, Kisuke Urahara, was a dark ebony colored woman pulling at the collar of her orange sweater and wearing black pants, adorned with tennis shoes of some making she couldn't discern, was her. The goddess of flash. Her Mistress and teacher. Her Yoruichi-sama.

Unable to control her surprise the captain's spiritual pressure rose just an inch, but that was all it took. "Hey did you feel that Subaru-chan?" the lighter skin toned purple haired girl asked Shaolin's surrogate sister, looking over in Shaolin's vicinity, the compromised spy able to hear them despite the distance.

"Stop calling me that!" an irate Subaru grunted correctively, not happy at being called that by anyone she hardly knew "It's Subaru-san, Kujo-san or Subaru-kun. Not Subaru-chan or Subaru with no honorific." She shot back angrily before calming herself and looking in the direction Senna was "But to answer your question, yes I did feel that. I couldn't tell who or what it was because of the Seki Seki rock though."

"Let's check it out." The first woman said "Better safe than sorry."

As Shaolin's ears heard the approaching step of the two women coming closer, she cursed as she was stuck where she was behind the rock. She couldn't try and sneak to another hiding spot on account that there was only open air for two or so feet around her, before another rock. So since the two women were looking her way they'd see her crossing, which also tossed out the option of using her throwing knives and tossing it somewhere else to distract. Her option of flash step would also be nothing more than a proclamation of 'I'm here! Just kill me now'.

"Shiiit." She mumbled to herself as she brought her head back to rest against the rock. Hoping that something distracted them, they didn't find her, or they gave up. Though as they continued approaching, her luck didn't seem to be holding up 'I could always surrender, but can I take my chances with Yoruichi and Kisuke? They could be manipulating Subaru for all I know.' she then twisted her frown to one side considering things harder 'But that wouldn't make sense since the staff girl is with Ichigo. So either they're with Ichigo or that woman betrayed him to work for another organization.'

As the duo came closer Shaolin closed her eyes and clenched her fists, mentally gambling she could try to knock out the two and get out before Yoruichi could catch her, but they'd need to be just a little closer. The noise of footsteps suddenly stopped from her position just a few meters away

"Huh? What are you guys looking at me for?" a rough and cocky male voice said in a questioning manner, clearly not expecting the two girls to be looking for him

"(Sigh) It's just Abarai-san we sensed." Subaru confirmed sounding relieved that it wasn't a dangerous enemy, while Shaolin was ready to thank her lucky stars. "I must say Senna-sama, your sensory skills are impeccable. When did you find the time to hone it?"

"Mirokumaru taught me something dangerous. So I spent a while learning how to get precise amounts of spiritual power, before she taught it to me. It was hard, but I managed to do it, though it has to be pretty close to where I am." Pause "I hope one day to be able to do it from the skies above Karakura or Seireitei, I'm sure it'd be helpful."

"Indeed."

"So did you guys want something?" the voice of Renji asked in a brash manner

"Oh, nothing." Pause "Oh hey it looks like Yoruichi-sensei and Ass hat-" at this Shaolin smirked deviously from her spot, liking the girl already, and looking forward to maybe being able to work alongside her against 'Ass-hat Urahara' "-are calling us. We better go find out what they want."

As the collective sound of their footsteps began to fade with distance, Shaolin peeked out from her spot, seeing Yoruichi and Kisuke by a table near a series of rock formations by pools of water, she looked around and found a path covered in a plethora of rocks which she knew with her expert ability and now not having any more surprises, would be able to find out what the other people were being called to together for.

Waiting three seconds she quietly zipped to the next rock, and then got down on her stomach and crawled using a large, flat but stool sized rock collection to sneak on. Once behind a larger rock she peered out and saw Shinjiro now who quickly embraced Subaru in a hug, more than likely elated to see her unharmed. 'Even Shinjiro is in on this? Now, I am worried.' Turning away, she jumped down into the nearby trench, that from the looks of it was not natural of any kind, and ran all the way to the end. Then she climbed up the stone wall out of the rocky gutter which put her only a small ways off from the steamy ponds, which she now recognized on closer inspection to be hot springs of some kind.

Edging closer to one of the ponds, and the area where the meeting was taking place, Shaolin crouched down and pressed her body against one of the larger rocks not too far from the trench to listen in.

"All right, looks like everyone's here." The annoying, to her ears, voice of Kisuke Urahara chirped "It's about time I unveil the last part of our plan. As I've heard from Yo-chan the execution is gonna be tomorrow. I had to throw a real curve ball at our enemy." A small crisping sound of paper was then heard by the Taicho "This here is the Sokyoku grounds. Considering who were dealing with, I'm sure the enemy is going to be heavily focused on the center area right here. What their current strength is, is uncertain. Since, we've all had various different exploits done different amounts of damage."

"If I may," spoke Subaru deciding to thrown in some needed bad news "I think you should all know two things: the first is that the exact time for the execution is to be at noon tomorrow, and the second is that a pre-emptive rescue will be impossible to mount because Byakuya Kuchiki is more than likely going to be at the penance tower along with any of his forces. Hanataro-kun and Ganju-san managed to break in to save her but…it…ended in failure."

Shaolin felt the rock she was pressed against shake violently from an impact of some kind, followed quickly by the cursing of 'damn it' by a familiar voice.

"I…see." The voice of Kisuke said deflated "Well, it was bound to happen. We all knew the risks, even Uryu, who apparently also couldn't join us." He said with audible disappointment mixed with worry

Shaolin turned her head to look over the ponds, practically feeling the somber mood of the 'traitors'. Allowing herself to think about what they were actually feeling, but remaining engaged enough to still pay attention.

"We need to make do with what we can. We owe them that much." The voice of Shinjiro said, even though it sounded bummed from the news.

"You're right. So let's get back to the meeting. (ahem) The majority of the enemy is going to be guarding the main entrance. This stairway is the only constructed path up to the Sokyoku."

"What about it? Knowing that ain't gonna get us up there. More than likely all the divisions are gonna have order to kill anyone who gets even remotely close to the stairs." Renji pointed out

Kisuke nodded affirmatively at the criticism "I know that's why we're going to do this." He placed his hand against the green area on the map "Yoruichi, Subaru, Myself, Senna and Shinjiro are going to go through the forest beside the hill. We'll then break up with Yo-chan and Subaru engaging the squad that was probably placed right around here: keeping them busy. While we attack whoever's over here in separate places sending everyone in a panic." The man then ducked down underneath the table and pulled out what looked like a cape with the Shihouin seal on it. "Yoruichi also brought along the Tentoken. What this little cape is gonna do is fly both Ichigo and Renji up the hill. Where Renji will get off about three-fourths of the way up, while Ichigo picks up Rukia and, using his speed and strength, throw Rukia to Renji who will get her outta there. Knowing who were dealing with, we won't have to worry about a certain pair being anywhere nearby. And with what we're doing, Unohana would be compelled to go treat the wounded, while leaving you alone Ichigo."

"I also spoke with Kyoraku, so he'll probably fully support you in dealing with the old man, so you'll probably only need to deal with Byakuya." Yoruichi said calmly from her spot

"I don't know is this plan really going to work?" said the voice of the unknown girl

"Trust me Senna. It'll work. The thing about this plan is, we need to give our adversary an opening. Sokyoku hill is the spot that has the largest spiritual pressure in all of Seireitei, so if he's to make his escape route it's going to be there. He also won't show up until he believes the time is right, which is about when the battle is in full swing and both sides are wounded. That'll also be the time where we'll be counting on you Renji to be able to hold out."

'Who are they talking about? Ichimaru?'

"Once everyone sees him, they'll be able to put it together, and that will nail him. He'll either have to fight all of us and pray he can win, or retreat without the Hogyoku."

"What about his Zanpaktou?" asked Shinjiro "It's Shikai and Bankai abilities, can we defeat him before everybody kills each other?"

"Unfortunately, I can't say. As Hanataro, Ganju and possibly Uryu have demonstrated, death is very real. No matter what scenarios I can think up, there is no guarantee of success, least of all survival. The plan will work in eventually flushing him out just maybe not succeed with us still alive." Kisuke shot back grimly, which made everyone including their eavesdropper think for a moment "We could all go out there and be annihilated before we even get started or we could emerge completely unscathed at day's end. It's not up to me or you. We can only do our best. Whether it's our time to go or not, we'll find out tomorrow." He finished

"Then there's no point in worrying about it." the voice that Shaolin now recognized as Ichigo's "We have to win, as simple as that. We go in, do our thing, and walk out with no regrets." He said almost like it was a command from a general to his soldier

"Heh, you don't have to tell me twice." Renji snorted in a cocky tone

"Wow…that was pretty smooth Ichigo. You looked really cool there." The woman known as Senna replied amicably

"Certainly know how to take command Kohai." Shinjiro commended

"A fine leader indeed. People will need that." Subaru complimented

"Oooh, looks like Mr. Strawberry is stealing your thunder, Kisuke. Better win your troops back over before a mutiny occurs." Yoruichi cooed

"Haha, very funny." He replied dryly before speaking in a puffed out tone "BUT what can I say he certainly learned from the best. He's probably been studying my tapes, taking notes, a true student of the game."

"Whatever it's all natural." Ichigo replied with near feasibly seen rolling of the eyes

'I see.' Shaolin thought to herself, processing the information she heard. She then started to slip backwards to retreat out of the cave before anyone would notice. She backed away slowly, keeping as low to the ground as possible, turning her head back just enough to where she could see the edge of the trench so she could lower herself back down.

Taking another step, her eyes widened in terror, when she felt a rock slip behind her and fall off bouncing off the wall. While it was just a normal cracking noise, to the woman it sounded about as loud as her Bankai being fired at five paces from a wall.

"What was that!" Ichigo yelled as he looked around the rock Shaolin had spent the better part of the conversation hiding behind. The strawberry saw nothing on the flat surface behind him. Turning over fully he jumped on top of the rock to scan the nearby vicinity. While he saw nothing he still had the nagging feeling that something was out there, so he jumped off the rock and started to walk over near the trench he made during his clash for Bankai.

Ichigo pulled out his sword as he came to the edge of the cliff, and looked out over it seeing nothing, his weapon's blade dangling over the edge. Directly underneath him holding her breath was Shaolin. The petite captain was taking small almost inaudible breaths through her nostrils while she clung her back to the Seki Seki wall, watching Zangetsu wave back and forth, it's user no doubt turning his body to scan for her.

Ichigo from his spot turned back around to his audience and made a gesture with his hand for them to carry on. "Guess it was nothing." He said to himself as he returned Zangetsu back to his resting spot.

Shaolin closed her eyes, and waited for the sound of footsteps. She inwardly smiled hearing the joyous noise of feet shuffling going a little further off. Pulling herself off the wall, the woman quietly ran to the end of the trench desperately not wanting to push her luck any further. The woman turned to face the wall and jumped up so her hands clasped the ledge to pull herself up.

"Busted." A voice ominously called from above her making her go wide eye at being caught.

'Damn it. When he walked off it was to the end of the trench, not back to the group!'

"Either you come up here, or I'll cut your hands off, whoever you are." The voice of Ichigo said fiercely, placing the steel of Zangetsu against the person's hands to show he was serious.

Silence passed over them, and Ichigo was about to carry out his threat when he heard a small grunt and from the channel emerged one dusty, dirt covered, Shaolin. Moving on autopilot, he kneeled down and gave her a hand up, but kept a firm grip on her arm "What are you doing here? How did you find this place Shaolin?"

The woman sent him a dirty look "I'm almost insulted that you don't bother to ask 'how I've been?'. It's unlike you."

'Wow, twice in one day.' The carrot top rolled his eyes, and helped her to her feet, freeing her arm allowing her to dust herself off "I take it you heard."

"More than enough, but some things are a bit hazy still." She said simply, then sent an even look at Ichigo "So when were you going to mention that you were working alongside, Kisuke-baka and Yoruichi?"

Ichigo grimaced "Possiblllllly never." When he saw the woman furrow her eye brow, his voice dropped a bit "Don't give me that look, you wouldn't have trusted me, hell you barely listened to me when we fought. If I had thrown in a 'oh yeah, the woman you've been hating on for the past half-century is helping me!' probably would've gotten me killed."

Shaolin at least had the decency to look apologetic "Iii…ahhh…(sigh). I concede. You have a point."

"Ichigo, are you coming back anytime soon?" the voice of Senna called out wondering where he was and what was taking him so long

"Yeah, just a minute. I'm double checking to make sure no one's here." He yelled over to them and then looked back at the intruder in front of him "So what now?"

"I have to return back to where my squad is. The only reason I found this place is because I followed Subaru." The spy captain quickly summarized the events leading up to now "I'm on your side, but don't let Yoruichi-san or Subaru-chan know that I know what's going to happen." She then smirked viciously "It'll be more fun that way, when I see them tomorrow."

It was with that statement that Ichigo was able to detect, somewhat of a small change in her "You're calling Yoruichi by her name. What prompted that?"

The captain closed her eyes and folded her arms behind her back "I had a revelation. You see after we parted, I had started to think on, who I was pushing away. I realized that it was all the people who mattered to me. You, Subaru, Shinjiro, Hanataro and others, it was only after seeing that distance that I attempted to reconcile. Which led to an interesting talk with Subaru, she compared herself to Yoruichi, and I snapped saying that 'Yoruichi was nothing but a traitor'." Shaolin opened her eyes and looked out with an impassive frown "That's when I realized that I was indirectly referring to myself as well. For the first time since she had left, I was able to draw a reason for why she left. For years I hated her, unable to comprehend why she would throw away everything for a traitor. The Yoruichi…sama that I had loved and known about all my life was skewed by my spite. I was so caught up in the moment of betrayal, that I had forgotten what she was like. She cared about people, especially that insufferable lazy idiot Urahara, she would walk willing through fire for a friend. So in unbiased retrospect, I really shouldn't have been surprised that Yoruichi had left all things considered." 'I just wish she would have told me why, or let me know she would have been back. I could have lived with that.'

The once impassive captain looked back at Ichigo with a small look of concern "And that is where I draw the parallel. I'm doing the exact same thing she did over fifty years ago. Both of us had a friend who was accused of being a traitor," the small concerned frown turned upward just a bit as she spoke a little more amused "I also astutely hold unto the belief that she kicked his ass, much as I did yours at the first opportune moment."

"Keep telling yourself that little lady." Ichigo rolled his eyes, and then winced when the smaller woman kicked him in the shin, sending a heated glare at him for his choice of words, which then melted into a kinder smile at reliving the better times

"And both of us decided to do what we believed to be right." She finished

"You told me I was important to you above a lot of things actually. Even above your pride, something you invested quite a bit of your life into, I don't want to see it go to waste because you defected and then I died." Ichigo said quietly clasping the woman's dangling hand "You deserve better."

"Hmph. You misunderstand, little boy." The older woman said with an arrogant smirk on her face now "I don't NEED Soul Society. Soul Society NEEDS me. My pride is to my duty, my duty is to do what is right for Soul Society, and what Soul Society needs to set it right is a certain rebellious teenager. So I'll be vigilant in protecting that teen, everything else is either irrelevant or will figure itself out, with or without my direct involvement."

Ichigo looked at his best friend's face, and smirked when she said it as contently as she did "You're always thinking about duty, pride, and honor. I wonder if you'll ever loosen up. A simple 'I love you and will always protect you' will suffice."

The captain scoffed "I will go on record and say this once and only once. I will never, ever, even at the possible chance of salvation for Soul Society, say that 'I am in love with a traitor and will protect them'." The captain then turned away, holding Ichigo hand a bit harder, averting her eyes with a small dash of pink on her cheeks "Though I do admit to having a soft spot for heroes."

The woman then felt a peck on her cheek and quickly looked back with Ichigo giving a spirited smirk "You really are the cutest girl, I've ever met." He said, while the girl puffed a bit and silently shot down his words. The man then draped his arm around the woman's back and pulled her into an embrace, which the girl returned "I'm glad to see you again. Stay safe, Shaolin."

"I'm very careful. It's you who I can't afford to take eyes off of." She replied back in her usual confident tone. Then she gripped the edges of Hakama tighter, and spoke quieter "So stop making me worry, you big dumb idiot."

The two separated and stared at each other for a moment longer, then both nodded and Soifon retreated back the way she came, while Ichigo headed back to the camp. As he stepped back to the meeting ground he sighed and stretched his arms out trying to play things cool "It was nothing, just some rocks that fell. I went to go check out the entrance to make sure it's still ok for us to leave through."

"Oh, well that's good. I'd hate to be trapped underground for god knows how long." Renji commented not wanting to experience being buried alive first hand, the others thinking the possibility over and each gave their own thanks to Ichigo for looking out for them, which felt like tiny invisible jabs for his lie.

"Alright, everyone rest up we got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Kisuke claimed clapping his hand to help shoo them off. Ichigo watched the groups disperse, Shinjiro and Subaru going off talking animatedly amongst themselves, Renji rotated his arm to work out the kinks before heading over to the hot springs to chill out, Yoruichi morphed into a cat and jumped unto Kisuke's shoulder as the pair disappeared out of sight, the last member Senna stretched her arms and walked over to Ichigo.

She smiled as casually as she could and grabbed Ichigo's arm dragging him with her "Whoa! Hey! What's up! Will you stop pulling I kinda need my arm!"

"Just a second, I want to make sure no one hears us." The woman said trying to justify her actions, once she was sure everyone was out of earshot, she turned around and looked at Ichigo "I know this is sudden but I want to talk to you about something."

"Sure, but I don't see why you couldn't say it back there Senna."

Senna childishly puffed her cheeks up and started to wave her arms up and down like a kid "Well I was really embarrassed to say it anywhere near ass-hat!" when Ichigo gave a confused look she clarified that she was talking about Kisuke "I ahh…w-wanted to apologize. In retrospect, maybe I should have waited till you woke before dragging you into the water like I did." She felt her face heat up at the memory of the event, and it did kind of excite her despite the embarrassment "And well, I know you like that one girl Shaolin-

Ichigo raised a hand up "It's ok. I forgive you." He then slinked an arm around her and gave her a hug "You were worried about me and thought I was gonna die. It's cool, I would have done the same thing if I was in your shoes." He answered completely missing the point

'I would have done the same thing if I was in your shoes.' She mentally repeated, the word almost making her jump for joy "I'm glad, just really worried is all." The woman then twisted her sandal against the ground and tapped the tips of her index fingers together, fidgeting just a bit "Umm, I was j-just wondering, if ahh if you know w-would you s-sleep with me." She then panicked and spoke much louder "I mean n-not 'sleep with me sleep with me', you know I'm tired, your tired, we can sleep nearby the other an-

She was silenced as Ichigo brought his hand down karate chopping her in the head "You're babbling, and I don't understand you. Take a breath, and tell me again." He commanded his a wry look on his face 'She's really trying to fit into that whole kid sister thing ain't she Hichigo?'

'I'd sleep with her.' the creature commented care freely, when he found himself immediately slammed against a building he looked up to where Ichigo was 'Hey don't blame me! She's a fine woman, and you don't plan on sharing that sexual urge raging, fine piece of ass, you call a captain, anytime soon. So don't go hating on me, just because I make observations and my boner agrees with them.'

'Note to self, never ask Dark Zangetsu for advice.'

"Are you even listening?" Senna asked as she saw a glazed over look on Ichigo's face, one that Subaru mentioned she had on occasion. The girl put a hand on her hips and tilted her head curiously "Was your mental chat, so amusing you'd ignore a beautiful woman in front of you making a request?" She asked a seemingly rhetorical question in her mind

"Yes." 'Hell no!'

The female Kurosaki closed her eyes and felt her smile twitch, while she tried to calm down her nerves "I hope you know, I'm going to hit you after this conversation is over. But going back to what I was saying before, I wanted to know if you'd please sleep beside me." The woman opened her eyes and spoke seriously "We could very well die, and I'm a little scared because of it. So I'd like to at least know the feeling of sleeping next to a…wonderful person, before I might die."

'Wonderful person? Doesn't she mean brother?' Ichigo asked himself, not sure if she made a mistake with her wording. He shrugged it's not like he was cheating on Shaolin, Senna had a point they could die tomorrow and she wanted to sleep easy next to her brother. Easy as pie. "Sure, why not."

"Wonderful!" Senna exclaimed cheerfully and quickly grabbed his arm "I found this great spot over here!" she claimed as she led the way for the pair

"Wait! 'Great spot'? Why do you have this all planned out!" Ichigo yelled as he was dragged off by one energetic girl who was doing a bad job at passing herself off for tired.


Aizen: So it ends. Now hit the review button.

Aizen: Did you do it? Foolish. That was the self destruct button for your house. Quick run outside. When you get there read on.

Aizen: I lied, go back inside. Then read more.

Aizen: Did you feel that breeze just now. I did. Do you know what it was? That was me passing by you and subtly touching the back of your neck before letting the thought of strangling you go. Stop. Try and rationalize it. Think. Am I lying? Or do I speak well. Sleep easy, and I bid you ado. I will be watching you in your sleep tonight. And remember anything is possible when your name is Sosuke Aizen. Look this chapter is at an end. (2)


Guideposts of numbers.

1. I made it up. I mean Yoruichi didn't get a chance to tell Ichigo what would happen if he didn't finish within the three day period. So I had to think of a horrible fate that seemed plausible.

2. After watching an old spice commercial, I wanted to try one with Aizen given his egotistical nature at times.


Happy Turkey day from me to everyone out there!

-Blackout2010