so, a shorter chapter, but there's a bit of HK if you squint, and setup for the first real action of the CFYOW subplot. enjoy.

Ichigo had found Orihime and Rukia among Rangiku and a group of other women, one of them being now Captain Lisa Yadomaru.

Everyone but her was absolutely sloshed.

"-hic- 'Hime, you have such -hic- nice hair," Rukia was on her back behind Orihime playing with her long auburn hair. Her speech was much slower than normal and slightly slurred, along with the occasional hiccup.

"Thank you," Orihime was also showing an indicative blush on her face. Though it was clear that she wasn't as far along as Rukia.

"I guess you're here to rescue your girlfriend and her bestie again," Rangiku let out a slight chuckle as she spoke. Her plain kimono falling down one of her shoulders. Ichigo noted how Rangiku didn't specify who was which as he had pulled both of their asses out of the fire.

"Orihime, Rukia, can you both still walk?" Ichigo asked mainly to ascertain whether or not they should be cut off or not.

"Yeah," Orihime responded with only slightly slurred speech. Rukia however…

"I can… -hic- I can get up…" Rukia could in fact, not get back up on her feet. The moment she did she stumbled a little before Ichigo caught her.

"Apparently not," Ichigo looked her over. She was absolutely hammered. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Seven *hic* saic… say… saucers," Rukia had trouble saying what she meant.

"Only seven… Lisa, how big are the saucers?" At Ichigo's question, Lisa simply raised hers up. Ichigo was surprised at how big it was. "Wha… you could damn near pour out half a bottle into that!"

"They're Rangiku's," Lisa was clearly nowhere near as drunk as anyone else was.

"Lisa baited Rukia into joining our little contest," Rangiku, however, was hammered herself.

Ichigo looked over at Lisa accusingly. In response, Lisa simply shrugged.

"Whatever," Ichigo then looked back over at Rukia and Orihime. "Since you can't walk yourself," Ichigo then picked up Rukia so she could ride on his back like the times they were patrolling together.

Ichigo then started walking back over to where Tatsuki and the others were. Rukia being as drunk as she was would probably not want to be near the rest of the Kuchikis until she at least started to sober up.

"So, why did Rangiku abscond with you two and didn't bring Tatsuki along?" Ichigo found that weird.

"Rangiku didn't know her as well and…" Orihime started to form a cover story as she didn't want to have to explain a private conversation.

"We asked -hic- her for advice…" Rukia however, in her inebriated state shattered that plan.

"You know what? I'll leave it there," Ichigo figured since Orihime had tried to lie about it that it wasn't exactly something she wanted to talk about. That was fine in his book. Whatever they wanted advice over wasn't his business.

"Are you sure you don't want to know?" Rukia's slurred speech wasn't interrupted by a hiccup this time, but it was clear that she was still as drunk as she was before.

"Nope,"

"Fine,"

The silent treatment Rukia decided to give him persisted until they got back to the part of the main courtyard where his friends were, only occasionally interrupted by the stray hiccup.

"Oi, Kukaku, can you make sure Rukia stays hydrated? She got dragged into a drinking contest with Lisa and Rangiku," Ichigo sat Rukia down at the table in an open seat that they left in case she decided to drop by.

"Oh, playing knight in shining armor Ichigo?" Kukaku teased him. He did carry Rukia all this way after all. Though it probably wouldn't have fanned the rumors as much as if he had done with a bridal carry.

"I'm just trying to make sure she doesn't have a shitty hangover," he didn't know how much she had had to eat prior and she also didn't have much mass for the alcohol to diffuse through. Tolerance be damned anyone of her stature would be smashed.

"It's fine, I'll make sure she's taken care of," Kukaku then took a drag from her pipe. "By the way, the Yayahara head would like to speak with you."

Ichigo groaned as he turned to go speak with another noble. Kukaku looked over at Orihime. Yes, the Yayahara head did want to meet Ichigo, but she also wanted to get him away from them as it was clear that Orihime was not exactly enjoying herself.

"You doing okay there?" Kukaku looked over at Orihime. She had been holding a poor posture and had her arms closer to herself than one normally would. Usually a sign of fear or anxiety.

"I… no," Orihime was not okay, but she did have clarity.

"You caught feelings for him," Kukaku knew the situation. She had seen it many times in her days in the academy.

Orihime only nodded. Rukia was passed out and the others were engrossed in their own conversations.

"And Rangiku helped you realize he doesn't return those feelings?" Kukaku knew that hurt a lot. She didn't know much about the young woman, but she knew she was a bleeding heart. Almost like another young woman who laid passed out nearby.

"Yes," Orihime said quietly. It hurt so much, but it made sense in her mind. Ichigo was at his happiest in those five months, and Rukia gave that to him. How she wished for a simpler situation, where the one who competed with her for Ichigo's attention wasn't also her best friend and someone she deeply admired.

"And Rukia has feelings for him as well?" Kukaku peeced the situation together from Orihime's body language.

Orihime's silence was all the answer she needed. Kukaku sighed, there were better ways to receive news like this. A love triangle was a shitshow on its own, but one between friends can very quickly lead to hurt feelings and there no longer being a friendship, though she didn't think Rukia would go there. No, she would sooner sacrifice her own happiness to nip the whole situation in the bud.

"So, what are you going to try to do?" Kukaku looked over at the auburn-haired woman. She was young, way too young in Kukaku's mind for the world she was thrown into.

"I don't know," Orihime's reply was again said quietly.

Kukaku simply nodded along.

Karin had been following her father around the entire event. It's not like she had anything better to do after all. She barely knew anyone here, and her father would probably embarrass the entire family if left on his own.

Fortunately, she wasn't alone in that sentiment. Alongside her was her father's successor as captain of the tenth and his former third seat Toshiro Hitsugaya.

"I take it dad hasn't changed much," Karin looked at the shorter captain as they shadowed Isshin.

"No, not at all," Toshiro was able to observe Isshin in his time in the living world. They had even spoken in private on several occasions.

"Figured. Kukaku shared a few stories with me," the fact she was related to the explosive woman was still something she had to get used to. Fortunately, she hadn't had to deal with Ganju yet.

It was at that moment that Isshin got tackled out of nowhere by a man who could at best be described as a younger version of himself. It seems Karin's luck had run out.

Both Karin and Toshiro sighed in stereo as they moved to stop the Shiba brand of roughhousing the two would inevitably get involved in.

"Hey you old man, you think you can just vanish for twenty years and not get a good old welcome from me when you get back?" Ganju had Isshin in a one-armed headlock as he noogied him.

"Oh ho ho, so we're playing that game now," before Isshin could begin wrestling Ganju both he and Ganju got a fist in each of their faces.

"You two are not starting that shit in the middle of a celebration full of nobles," she then grabbed her father by his collar and pulled him away from her idiot uncle.

Toshiro on the other hand was surprised. Most of what happened up to that point was normal for Isshin. However, Karin hit her father with a force that was, while negligible for a captain-grade shinigami such as Isshin, much more than he was expecting out of her.

"Hey, shorty, you coming along?" that remark immediately shut off Toshiro's brain and caused the temperature to drop by a few degrees.

"You called him short," Isshin looked at his daughter, "you shouldn't've done that."

"What, is he sensitive about it?" Karin had let the moniker slip out by instinct.

"You could say that," Isshin scratched the back of his neck, remembering the time he had made a similar mistake.

Toshiro collected himself before he did something stupid, then turned to look at Karin.

"I have a name, and I would prefer you call me by it," It was clear the comment got under his skin.

"Fine, 'Shiro, you coming?" Karin then started to drag her father again. Toshiro simply grumbled while following as she called him by his nickname entirely by accident. "Wow, becoming captain must have really caused you to calm down," Isshin remarked, entirely ignoring the fact he was being dragged by his daughter.

"It's simple really, I just think about what you would do," Isshin started to brighten up at that, "Then not do that." Isshin then deflated rapidly.

"Why must my children be so cruel to me," Isshin quietly lamented.

Aura Michibane was walking through the area she was currently set up. The air was as usual laced with the smells of gasoline and street food. She really didn't like the city, but Naraki provided her with good positioning and an easy recruiting pool. Recent events made things uncertain in Japan. The deployment of the JSDF in Iraq, the rising cost of living, and if someone looks at the greater economic picture, the world is sitting on a slowly growing property bubble. A few words here, a little fullbring use there, and she has a person thinking she's a saint, or an avatar, or even a messiah. It all means nothing to her.

All that matters is the creation of a new world. One where the world will know its true place in the order of things, no more lies, no more delusion, truth. But that wasn't why she was outside. No, one of her followers reported a strange black object embedded in the pavement of a parking garage near her base of operations, and so she was here to investigate.

And there it was. In the pavement of the third floor of the parking garage she was in was an obsidian black knife. The curious bit was the blue five-pointed cross sticking out of the blade where a tang or handle would otherwise be. She didn't think Uryu would be a player in her game, unless? She pulled her blackberry out of her pocket and then texted a message.

'Yukio, we've been discovered. Begin packing up and get everything to the safehouse.'

Once she hit send, she vanished in a blur of bringer light. If Soul Society were using Uryu and his cell as proxies, then they were expecting her to defend her 'base'. All she had to do was exactly that once things hit zero-hour. Invaders Must Die would simplify the extraction of any incriminating material as well as any critical assets.

All she had to do was wait for the quincy to strike.

A starless night had fallen over Naraki city a while ago. The lights of the larger Tokyo metro area drowned out the light of those distant stellar furnaces.

Uryu was waiting in a staging area in Naraki. Candice, Littoro, and Shaz were also with him. They were all wearing reiatsu cloaking shrouds reverse-engineered from Urahara's own cloaks by one of the Wandenreich scientists who were now loyal to him.

"Your Majesty, we have a problem," Shaz Domino spoke. He had always insisted on calling him as such. Uryu didn't like it. For once he found himself preferring the informality of the Bambis.

"What is it?" Any complication to this plan could be catastrophic given the surrounding area. He did not want to have to face prepared defenders in a dense urban environment.

"The VIP discovered one of our listening devices. We may have to accelerate our plan," Domino's response was exactly what Uryu didn't want to hear. Michibane would be alert to their presence, and every second they waited was a second that she had to deny them their objective.

"Then we act now," the stern voice of the Onmitsukido commander was clear as day. There really was only one action they could take. Act. So act they did.

"Tango, Golf, with me. Sigma, work with the shinigami to catch any runners," if anyone ran from the hideout, they had to assume they could be carrying critical information. Shaz was best suited for covering a wide area like this.

Uryu needed to pin down Aura, however. Make sure she couldn't interfere with the Onmitsukido objective. And so the operation began.

so. I hope you all enjoyed that. feedback is always welcome, and I hope you have a good coming week. now if you excuse me, *shakes violently in anticipation of Lightfall*