"They turn you into a monster and then call you one."

"You know, you both will likely die if you go with your friends. You don't have powers," Kisuke states with lazy waves of his fan towards his face. He keeps smiling jovially, even when Keigo and Mizuiro turn to glare at him.

Chad and Orihime were training with some talking cat, Uryū was training with Tatsuki by making her dodge his constant arrows, and Ichigo was stuck inside a deep pit with his arms restrained behind his back–and not in the fun way. Keigo and Mizuiro sat across from Kisuke in the impossibly large basement, leaning against some rocks while they listened to Ichigo cussing up a storm.

"I've got spray cans and lighters. And if there's a vase, nails, and matches, I can make a bomb if need be," Keigo says with a shrug.

"I've taken out the kneecaps of people three times my size more than once and at the same time with a crowbar." Mizuiro smiles innocently before taking a sip of his tea. "Besides, Tatsuki's forcing us to learn martial arts and Ichigo's been showing us how to fuck someone up based off of human anatomy. I think we can handle a military organization with magic swords."

"It wouldn't be the first time..." Keigo mumbles from the side, making Mizuiro hum in acknowledgement.

"They were just a simple yakuza based out of Yokohama and those weren't magic swords. They were guns. And you were drugged and drunk."

"Well you didn't exactly help, if I remember one thing correctly! You were too busy talking to the rats!" Keigo snarks back with a pout.

"I was drugged too, Asano-san!" Mizuiro points out cheerfully before focusing on a silently bemused Kisuke.

Keigo sighs dramatically before his expression grows solemn. "Ichi's the boss of our little pack. Where he goes, we follow. We ride together or we die together. All of us, got it, Geta-bōshi?"

"I've already agreed to Kurosaki-kun's deal to train you all. I just had to make sure you two truly know what you're getting into. Death is not something to be taken lightly," Kisuke continues to fan himself even as he speaks seriously.

Keigo and Mizuiro glance at each other before they both snort out varying degrees of laughter; the brunette cackling louder than Ichigo's echoing cussing and Mizuiro almost giggling like a high school girl with a crush. They forgot how fun it was to deal with new and unsuspecting adults.

"What'd you have planned for us, creepy Geta-bōshi? Something as crazy as dropping Ichigo into a deep pit, yeah?" Keigo asks for them both, grinning like he's the cat that got the canary.

Kisuke smiles, seemingly unperturbed by the grin. "Something like that. May I ask... how are your abilities to dodge something completely silent, but faster than a bullet?"

"I would think it'd be pretty good. Getting shot at is a biweekly ritual of ours." Mizuiro leans forward with his chin resting on his palm.

"Well then," something pierces right through Keigo's shoulder as Kisuke smiles with all of his teeth, "I suggest you both start running then!"

Tatsuki collapses to the ground with a heaving wheeze. The nearly imperceptible pale blue finally fades completely away from her hands and arms, leaving a bone-chilling freeze behind.

Something rings in the back of her mind and makes her snap her head up. Her eyes barely catch sight of the electrifying blue shape nearly inches from her face before she forcefully rolls out of the way. It grazes her already cut up cheek before piercing through the tree behind her.

"Uryū, you–you whore! That could've killed me!" Tatsuki almost screeches in her rage before she suddenly rolls backwards to dodge another arrow. She uses her momentum to swing her body above and over her head, sharply curving her back as her feet land on the ground. She pushes off the ground with a heavy breath, flying up into the air.

"Yes. That's why you need to dodge or hit them away," Uryū speaks surprisingly calmly for the amount of exhausted pants leaving his mouth.

"I'll show you a fuckin' hit!" Tatsuki hisses as she lands on her feet. She sneers before taking a deep breath and forces the pale blue aura appear once more around her fists.

The tomboy sprints forward, ducking her head to avoid the two arrows aimed at it, and spins to avoid a third arrow aimed at her shoulder. She hisses and stumbles when it pierces through before completely disappearing. She keeps her balance before she fully falls and continues charging towards Uryū.

"Shit!" Uryū shoots off another three arrows, even as his bow warbles and flickers. Tatsuki narrows her eyes, letting two of the arrows pierce her leg and shoulder and she gets even closer.

She pulls up her fist, the pale blue aura expanding like a flame that starts to creep up her arm. Uryū nocks another arrow and almost manages to shoot it before Tatsuki throws her fist towards his stomach.

He coughs up bile as the flames hit first, pressing through his stomach. The physical fist hits next with the force of Ichigo on a bad day. Uryū releases the arrow, not even watching it weakly fly through the air, and stumbles back with an arm around his stomach. He still keeps his bow up, even if it was warbling like a slinky.

"Fucking bastard!" Uryū snarls before spitting the remaining bile in his mouth. Tatsuki collapses in front of him, gripping her wrist tightly with a pinched expression.

"You started–" Tatsuki heaves loudly, curling over her stomach. She leans forward with clenched eyes and attempts to swallow back the sudden acrid taste in her mouth.

"Shit–Tatsuki, are you okay?" Uryū slides forward on his knees and hovers his hand over Tatsuki's shoulder, close but not touching.

"Mm." Tatsuki shakes her head, only to heaven again when it makes her nausea worse. "Fuck. This sucks!"

"You only just started to control your powers. It'll take some getting used to," Uryū says, tensing up when Tatsuki gently presses her shoulder up into his hand. She lowers herself back down not even a second later, only doing it to thank the Quincy.

"Only 30 minutes!" Tatsuki hisses roughly before groaning with a hand pressed against her stomach. It's easy enough for her to stop herself from throwing up, she just fucking hates it.

"It hasn't even been one full day of training–and, it's your first time training with something like this. No one expects you to be able to handle it well," Uryū reassures, voice slightly cold and indifferent.

He scowls slightly and raises his hovering hand towards his glasses to push them up. Expressing proper emotions is still something that fucking alludes him!

"What a way with words," Tatsuki states sarcastically, but she lifts her head to give her fellow black haired teenager a grateful smile. "I'll be fine sittin' here for a bit. Get goin', bastard."

"I'm going to have to hurt people... won't I?" Orihime's question puts a pause on Chad and the talking cat, Yoruichi. She stares down at her trembling hands, gazing at the delicate hairpins resting inside them.

"You will be invading Soul Society and going against an entire military organization to save your friend from an execution. They will either kill you, or you will kill them. That is what you're signing up for," Yoruichi states, not unkindly but coldly. Orihime continues to stare at her hairpins even when her posture suddenly relaxes.

"I refuse to kill anyone," Orihime declares coldly, finally lifting her gaze to point it at the black cat.

"If you aren't prepared to fight, then you will just be a burden. You'll get yourself killed!" Yoruichi meets the stubborn gaze of the ginger.

"Just because I refuse to kill anyone, doesn't mean I'm not prepared to fight!" Orihime retorts in almost offense.

Chad places a gentle hand on Orihime's shoulder, making her jump. She looks up with wide eyes as Chad looks at her with understanding and determination.

"You're a pacifist, but Rukia's in danger. Just because we're probably going to fight to the death to save her, doesn't mean you have to kill anyone." Orihime smiles with a sigh before nodding her head in agreement.

"Yeah... okay. You're right." Orihime gazes back down at her hairpins. "I still don't like it, but... Rukia is meant to be here–with us. I'll do anything to bring her back."

Chad nods silently, releasing his gentle hold on Orihime's shoulder. Orihime knows what she's getting into... it just didn't hit her until now, and that's okay. Being the only pacifist of their group made her come to realizations in a harsher way than most.

Yoruichi watches the interaction with a narrowed gaze before huffing. "You may not be given a choice, Orihime. Mercy is not a common rule for Shinigami, but your determination is as clear as day."

"Chad, let's fight against each other," Orihime states while turning around. Her shoulders were squared and straight, and her eyes were dark with determination.

"Fighting is better for you to grow and I need to make my shields stronger–my attack stronger," She continues, staring into equally determined eyes of the gentle giant of their little group.

Chad nods with a hum. He widens his stance, his arm glowing brightly. Orihime's hairpins glow and separate in her hands, shooting out to float around her shoulders.

Yoruichi sits on the overturned cabinet and watches the two teenagers with narrowed eyes. Ichigo–and Rukia–must mean a great deal for them. To go against their morals and values is a hard thing to do, but they did it so easily, it was like they were brushing off some dust instead. They have thrown away their own morals for Ichigo once before.

Ichigo growls loudly, glaring up at the taunting blue he could barely see from the bottom of the pit. He's going to kill that damned shopkeeper and put his head on a pike. He truly will. Or maybe impalement would be better for the fucking asshole through his–well, asshole.

Ichigo leans his head back with a heavy sigh as it lightly hits against the rock wall. He ignores the somewhat throb at the forceful hit and closes his eyes. He has to focus. If he doesn't get his powers back, he's either going to fail and die or he's going to die by Tatsuki for dying. He'd rather take the failure over Tatsuki any day.

He's lost track of time, but he knows it's been more than a day. It has to be. Trying to run up the goddamn walls wasn't working–and neither was meditating. Getting his brain to fucking shut up just so he could sleep was already a bitch and a half to deal with. Meditation? Good fucking luck!

"Maybe I should just fuckin' knock myself out. Better than just sittin' here and waitin' for my chain to finish disintegratin'. Probably better than anythin'," Ichigo thinks with a sarcastic eye roll.

"Took ya long 'nough, King!" Ichigo will forever deny the piercing yelp that leaves his mouth before he's seemingly sucked into a vacuum. He snaps his eyes open, only to see an inverted red sky instead of rocky walls and darkness.

"Who the–" Ichigo rolls backwards, pushing up his arms to land on his feet in a crouch. Something hard slams into the spot he was laying on, glass shattering and bursting outwards from the force.

He barely registers that his arms aren't restrained anymore before someone attacks him. Ichigo blocks a kick to his chest before grabbing a fist before it could punch his dick. Ichigo growls loudly and blindly swings out his foot, only for it to be caught by a hand before it could land any kind of bit. His eyesight finally registers the new surroundings and takes in the person attacking him.

"Who the fuck are you and why d'you look like my twin?!" Ichigo asks with a snarl, glaring at an all too familiar grin, much too wide to be a human-like feralness. Gold black eyes held an insanity Ichigo constantly keeps in check, surrounded by paper white skin and white hair.

The inverted Ichigo grins even wider, a blue fucking tongue, peeking out as he cackles. "It ain't who, bitch! It's what!"

"That don't answer the goddamn question, bitch!" Ichigo snarls before reeling his head back and slamming it against his inverted twin's nose.

POP!

"MY FUCKIN–" Ichigo doesn't give the inverted twin a chance to react to his broken nose, wrapping his leg around the arm gripping it and suddenly falling down. He uses his momentum to fall above the person, aiming his shoulder to hit the glass floor first.

CRA~AACK!

An identical, but actually humanly possible, grin grows on Ichigo's face at the scream of pain his inverted twin releases. Something rings in his ear, making Ichigo tense before he unlatches his leg and spins onto his hand.

A slash barely misses his body in its sudden one-handed handstand and the inverted twin's head, digging into the glass floor like it was butter. Ichigo brings his other hand down and pushes off against the ground to land in another crouch.

A man, middle-aged with an unhinged nature that Ichigo could never quite hide, stood above Ichigo's inverted twin, a cloak of shadows and long brown hair billowing in the wind, and a visor hiding electric blue eyes. He casually takes out the large blade out of the glass floor and rests it on his shoulder.

"You must learn to stop when something clearly doesn't work," The man admonishes the ginger, indifferent but not harsh.

"Well it ain't like anyone told me any fuckin' instructions on where to start. We got dropped in a fuckin' hole," Ichigo snarks back in his confusion about this entire situation.

"We?" The middle-aged man questions, more like a clarification for more than an actual question.

Ichigo shrugs with one shoulder, glancing between the two strangers. "Dunno, but it's right, yeah?"

"Ya think fuckin' ya know everythin' about us, eh?!" The inverted Ichigo sneers with a hand to his nose. He stands up and stands next to the middle-aged man, lowering his bloody hand.

"No, I don't. But you're both me an' I'm both of you. If ya gotta problem with it, then fight me, cunt!" Ichigo answers with a feral grin.

"Gladly, shithead!" The inverted Ichigo almost leaps forward, but the man stops him with his sword outstretched to block his path.

"If you want to fight, Ichigo has to find us first," He states calmly, making the inverted twin growl lowly from the back of his throat.

"We got time! I wanna pummel his ass to the ground!"

"What'd you mean find? What am I findin'?" Ichigo asks with a narrowed gaze, suspicion and dread filling his stomach. A familiar calm smile, promising chaos for anyone in the vicinity, crawls up the man's face. Ichigo's own face grows pale when he sees the crack from the sword start to grow wider.

"You must find us if you want your powers back." The man's smile becomes almost predatory. "If you fail, we'll all disappear."

Ichigo looks down at his feet, finally noticing the spiderweb cracks below. "Oh, you motherfuckin' cu–uUUUNTS!"

Ichigo falls through with his yell. Nevermind! Everyone's getting their heads on pikes!

A soft hum echoes through the detainment cell of Kuchiki Rukia, reverberating all around but not leaving the room. She wouldn't want to cause a nuisance, even if she was just a bit bored.

Her eyes, grim but bright, stare through the tiny window of her cell even when it's useless. It was much too small to see anything other than blinding light. Even if it were bigger, it was much too high to even gaze at clouds from her chair.

She's going to die. There's no stopping it–except Ichigo, but she doesn't want to think about Ichigo–and even if there was, it was too late for anyone to do anything. Even her brother–Byakuya, not Ichigo.

"People will think you're insane if you keep humming, Rukia," A familiar voice, harsh and nonchalant, speaks a familiar statement from behind the bars of her cage. Rukia's humming only stutters in her surprise before devolving into a chuckle.

"And they'll think you insane if you try to stop me," Rukia speaks the familiar retort of their shared past of Inuzuri.

The Rukon Dog that never stops singing, even when fighting, when surviving, when killing, and the Rukon Dog that only plays with his food, with his fights, with his victims.

Rukia doesn't turn around, even when she doesn't continue humming. "Fukutaichō, hm?"

"...happened while you were missing."

Rukia smiles coldly at the unspoken parts of Renji's statement. She hums in acknowledgement, leaning back into her chair.

"It's a good fit. Nīsama may be cold, but he'll treat you fairly," Rukia compliments softly.

"He won't let you die. You're his sister! Unlike that human–"

"Ichigo was correct when he said he was a better brother in the two months I've known him than the 40 years I've been in the Kuchiki Clan," The raven haired Shinigami interrupts coldly. It was a harsh reality, but one that she never denied.

"Besides," Rukia continues with venom filling her voice, "Nīsama cares more about his clan's reputation, that I tarnished, and the laws of Soul Society, that I broke, than his own sister."

Silence follows after the venomous statement. It was almost like the tension held everything in stalled time.

Rukia sighs heavily, suddenly tired by Renji's very presence. "I've accepted it, Renji. It's best you do too. This is the end of the road for me."

"And your human friend?" Renji questions simply. Rukia reacts physically, shoulders twitching and hands curling into fists.

"...he'll be coming. Like he'd leave his sister to die alone!" Rukia snorts wetly, tears silently falling down her cheeks. "And everyone else will follow after him, the idiots!"

Rukia finally turns around, smiling with a hopelessness she hasn't felt since Inuzuri. "I've made my peace with my sins and the seven deaths that I will be at fault for. If he becomes a problem, he won't be for long."

She desperately doesn't think about the hope still burning in her chest, or the way her mind screams that she's the foolish one. She must prepare for her death, not hope for survival. It's too late for wishful thinking. Rukia already knows she'll break down the moment she sees Ichigo and his family racing to save her, but she wants to delay it as much as possible. She has too.

Hey! Hope you all like the new chapter! Sorry for not posting the past two/three weeks. I've been having inconvenient health problems combined with work and it's been a somewhat wild ride for my start of the year. I actually intended to post a chapter last Sunday with my other story's chapter, but I didn't get to it in time.

Next chapter, the Invasion! Or the start of it, at least.

Ichigo's ready to murder some people, Tatsuki's ready to kick some dick, Orihime's ready to subdue some bitches, Chad's ready to punch some authority figures, Keigo's ready to light this bitch up, Mizuiro's ready to take some kneecaps, and Uryū's ready to be a little shit. Woo! Time for fucking chaos, my dudes!

I hope you all are enjoying the story so far! Bye!

WhovianWhoudini