"Come on! Can't you lend us a hand here?! These guns are heavy!" A couple of gang members were seen carrying a heavy set of boxes, as they were seen in the corner of a back alley.

"I'm the one in charge of this, so that makes me the boss!" another gang member, who was presumably the leader, rebuked in annoyance. ''So quit complaining and get to it already! Besides, we're almost done anyway!"

"Asshole…" one of the street members grumbled under their breaths, grunting as they struggled to carry one of the boxes in his hands. ''Can't even bother to help with a simple task."

Unknown to all of them, Ichigo was seen crouching on a rooftop building in his vigilante costume. Now that the short invasion from the Arrancars had been dealt with for now, he had enough time to catch up on his new activities. Although he was confused, just what exactly were these guys doing? And what was with the boxes? Well, he wouldn't be getting any answers just by standing here, so what better way to find out then use force.

"That's an interesting set of boxes you have, mind telling what that's about?" all the thugs on the ground looked up in shock to see a black blur moving down at them. Ichigo already got between two gang members before they could fully register his appearance, and shoved them out of the way with his hands, making them get pushed over before they hit the ground.

"What the hell?!" another gang member exclaimed in shock, not believing what just happened. "Oh shit, it's that costumed guy!"

"I have a set of questions to ask you guys." Ichigo saw the leader pull out a gun from his pocket and aimed it at him, but Ichigo reacted much faster as he got in front of the gang member and crushed the gun with his bare hand and backhanded the thug, knocking him unconscious in doing so. "So then, now it's just you and me." The teen looked over to see the last member remaining.

The last of the members clenched his teeth in fear, and he proceeded to run away. Ichigo merely fired his web at the guy's back and pulled him with enough force to make the gang member get to where Ichigo was standing before he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up in doing so. The gang member was frightened, desperately trying to get out of Ichigo's grip, but he could hardly so much as make him budge from his spot. "What do you want with us?!"

"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you too badly if you give me the right answers that I'm looking for." Ichigo already pinned the member's back against a concrete wall from behind. "Let's just say I got some interesting information from someone that told me some mobs are becoming more armed than they should be, and I couldn't help but see that you and your friends were doing something in an alley like this, carrying some boxes with you. So, mind telling me what all of that is about?"

"Oh hell no! I can spill a lot of things, but I can't tell you that one!" the delinquent profusely shook his head. "Especially not to a costumed weirdo like you!"

Ichigo's brown eyes glared venomously at the gang member. He tightened up his grip as he pressed the thug harder against the wall, showing cracks in doing so. "I don't think you understood me clearly, what I said was not a question, but a demand. So either you're going to spill everything you know, or…" the orange haired youth clenched his other hand into a fist before opening it again, revealing a sharp set of claws and brought it close to the thug's face. "Otherwise, I'm going to tear your skin off…" he threatened as he brought them closer to the criminal's eyes, trying to make his bluff seem as intimidating as he could.

This turned out to be more than enough to the gang member, as his eyes widened in horror. Fearing for his life, he had to spill everything he knew. "Alright, alright! I'll tell you everything! Just don't kill me! Listen, you wanted to know what those boxes there were for, right?" he pointed out the boxes that were left with his index finger. "We need those to increase our firepower with what we're already going through with the cops tracking our asses down and for the gang war that we gotta fight against those American assholes!"

Ichigo's expression showed confusion from his eyes, and his grip somewhat loosened. "Wait… gang war? What do you mean by that?" he turned his head to look over at the set of boxes that lay on the ground. "And, Americans?" He didn't understand this. He remembered what Toomes told him about at the end of their fight, but he never knew to what extent this would escalate. "Wait, what exactly are they doing here? How did you even get into having a gang war happening or whatever you call it?"

"I-I'm not really sure myself of the full details, in fact they just came outta nowhere and ganged up on us, so we just had to fight back! Those morons are taking over our territory, and we have to teach them who they're messing with!"

"Hold on a minute, how come some outlaw foreigners managed to get into Japan without so much as being noticed?" Ichigo asked.

"I just said it, I don't know how, they came out of nowhere. Also, I don't know if you know about this or not, but there's a rumor going on that the gang on the side of the West is being led by someone dangerous." the gang member answered. "According to the rumors, he was some criminal of the underworld in America, but for some unknown reason he moved in here." he waved his hands in front. "B-But it's just a rumor, nobody knows if that's true or not!"

"Rumor or not, it doesn't make sense if some outlaws just randomly decided to attack other gangs from another continent without somebody leading them." Ichigo remarked. "Either way, that doesn't excuse you at all from what you're doing."

"Well, it sucks to be you then! You think that's all you have to worry about?! You better watch out later on, cause a whole bunch of people are gonna get involved in this gang war, and there's nothing you can do to—" the member got cut short when Ichigo forcefully pressed his head against the wall to make him feel pain.

"At what scale…?" Ichigo made a small growl. "Think carefully on what you're going to say next, otherwise I'm going to start tearing your bones apart."

The thug was making muffled screams, and since Ichigo clearly got the message to him, he let his grip more loosely. The thug took a couple of moments to get his breath back. "If I had to pick a good guess, soon enough this whole town is gonna get involved before you even know it! Hell, maybe even this entire country!"

Ichigo had enough of all that he could hear, and with that said, he punched the last of the gang members into an unconscious state before letting him drop on the ground. He couldn't believe this. At first he was trying to find justice by dealing with Orihime's shooter, but now he learned there was gonna be some gang war happening, and his town would be getting involved. If that were the case, there would be many people in danger from a senseless war happening, not just the strangers but possibly his friends as well, even the ones who didn't have any powers like Tatsuki, or Gods forbid his younger sisters. Dealing with Aizen and the Arrancars was bad enough, but now there's this? He must have been so involved in the Spiritual World that he hadn't been paying much attention as to what was happening in the Living World. He refused to let the town he grew up in be used like this.

This wasn't just a matter of principle anymore. Now it was personal.

"Alright, I'm here." Ichigo sighed as he sat down on the floor, as he was inside Urahara's shop, with the shopkeeper sitting down opposite on the table. "What did you call me in here, Kisuke? You should know that I already have training of my own to do." He wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with any shenanigans from the shopkeeper, especially after learning how he dismissed Orihime.

"Well, it's funny you say that!" Kisuke exclaimed as he waved his fan over his face, keeping a cheerful grin. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Have you been made aware that Chad and Renji have been training in my place for quite some time now?"

Ichigo queried his eyebrows at this. What did that have to do with any of this? "No shit, I came to check up on them to see how they were doing, but instead I found out that somebody pushed Orihime away because she was deemed too soft…" He then shot a sharp glare towards the shopkeeper.

"Anyway…" Kisuke moved his fan to obscure most of his face, wanting to move the topic. ''I was just watching Chad and Renji duking it out with one another like they usually do, but this time I noticed something a little… interesting with Chad's powers." He could clearly see that the young man looked at him with a mix of curiosity and confusion. "Let me ask you something, have you ever noticed that Chad's powers were rather odd? Did they look anything like a Soul Reaper's or Quincy for that matter?"

"Uh…" Ichigo scratched his hair, now that he thought about it he hadn't really paid much attention, nor had he seen Chad in action very much. "I don't really know honestly. I do know that Chad's powers are weird, but I didn't really think anything of it. I mean, as long as you have stuff that is useful and know what it is used for, that should be enough shouldn't it?"

Kisuke's expression briefly switched over to being stunned at what he just heard Ichigo say before switching it back to what it was before. "I'm afraid it's not really that simple. I may have just discovered what Chad's powers are closer to, and to make this rather simple for you to understand, it's not really like that of a Soul Reaper nor a Quincy for that matter. But rather… they're closer to that of a Hollow's."

Ichigo blinked his eyes in question when he heard about this. Did he just hear that right? He couldn't have. "They're what? Closer to a Hollow? How would that be the case?"

"That I'm not too sure on…" Urahara tipped his hat. "But what I do know is that training under me might not be best suited for him. It might be better if he was placed somewhere else in an area where his Hollow powers could improve." the shopkeeper gave Ichigo a mysterious gaze, the look on his face looked as though he got serious about Ichigo's view. "Perhaps in the same place where you're training with the same people to help you with your own Hollow side?"

Ichigo felt like his gut got stabbed through with those words, cold sweat running down the side of his face. How did he know about that? Was he being spied on? "H-How did you—"

"Don't worry…" Urahara put his hand in front of the boy, cutting him off before he could start being spastic. "I won't tell anybody about your situation, well except Yoruichi since she already knows them. If you would like to know how I knew about this, let's just say that the Vizards and I have a history with one another. Don't press on the details, it's a long story. But just so you know, we don't have any bad blood with one another."

Ichigo took a breath to himself to process this. First there was a gang war happening under his nose, then he learned Chad's powers were linked to being more Hollow-like, and now Kisuke somehow knew he was training with the Vizards. Although he did suppose it was a bit odd how Yoruichi acted as though she knew them, he hadn't paid much attention as he was busy dealing with Hiyori. Still, were there any more surprises to be hit by? "So why put him up with where I'm at? Don't get me wrong, I don't mind if Chad and I did train together, but how exactly is this going to help him?"

"Well that should be relatively simple even for you to understand, I figured Chad wouldn't be able to make much of a progress on training with Soul Reapers like us with the upcoming battle with the Arrancars and Aizen himself." Urahara closed his fan off and threw his arms in the air while spouting a grin. "So I figured out an idea on how to accelerate his progress, why not just put him in a different environment where his powers are linked to advance his growth."

"But hold on a second, are you sure the Vizards can even get Chad to improve his power? I mean it's not like he has an Inner Hollow of his own that can just make them get their attention." Ichigo remarked.

"That won't be necessary. While the situation with Chad might not be even remotely similar to yours, the one common thing you two still have is both of you have Hollow powers, which should be more than enough to convince them to let Chad in."

"So… if it's true that Chad does have Hollow powers like I do…" Ichigo gripped his hands onto his pants. "Then… would it be possible to say Orihime has this as well?"

"Hmmm…" Urahara hummed to himself. "It's definitely a possibility, and I do still have my suspicions, but it's a bit early to tell unless I gather more info."

"I see…" Ichigo looked down on the floor before looking back at the mysterious shopkeeper. "I'll be leaving now. Thank you for the information... I guess."

Ichigo and Chad were seen walking side by side as both of them headed over to the Vizard's territory so that they could get Chad to advance his training further, along with being another sparring partner in addition for Ichigo and Orihime.

"So… these Vizard people… what exactly are they like?" Chad asked, being rather curious to know more about the people that his friend had been training with for some time now.

"Uh…" Ichigo tried to come up with the words to say to the giant, thinking about each of the personalities he's known and coming to deal with. "They're rather noisy to say the least. One of the two constantly argue with one all the time, a guy with sunglasses keeps reading some Shounen Mangas, and another one listens to music all the time. There's a girl that keeps reading some porno magazines. Honestly one of the only guys that helps me with training is Kensei, but there's this girl he keeps butting heads and it gets damn annoying to listen to."

"Hmm…" the giant nodded to himself as he processed his friend's words. "Sounds interesting…" Sado looked over at Ichigo. "Although…"

"Hm? What is it?" Ichigo asked, noticing the look that Chad gave him.

"Well... I know this might not seem relevant, but… have you been noticing anything strange going on in our town?" Ichigo gave Sado a look of confusion. "And I'm not talking about the Arrancars, it's those gangs we deal with when we have no Spiritual activity to be involved in. I don't know if it's just me, but ever since we dealt with the Bounts and came back here, I noticed a sudden increase of numbers on those people, and they're more heated than ever before. Not only that but they're even going after some other gangs besides us from different schools."

Ichigo looked down on the ground, as his hands were in his pockets, thinking back to what that punk told him. A whole gang war where his whole town would get involved… he refused to let that happen. "I'm… not really sure what to tell you about that. Listen, how about we buy some snacks and we'll talk about this when we get to the hideout?"

"Sure." Chad nodded his head. "I don't mind."

If he was correct, now that perverted girl, Lisa was her name as he recalled, would be the one to help him out on his training this time.

"So that's the whole thing that's been happening around here. Do you know anything about it?" Chad asked, as he and Ichigo were sitting on boulders next to one another as they were eating their snacks.

"Well… not really, not to my knowledge at least." Ichigo replied as he took a bite out of a chocolate bar. "Everything just seemed mostly the same to me." he wondered if he should tell Chad about his newfound powers that he got. He wasn't sure if he should tell him right now, but he definitely couldn't keep it a secret for a while. Maybe he could tell him about this later on.

"I wouldn't really be so sure, you do remember what happened to Orihime, don't you?" Chad reminded Ichigo, and it made the redhead stop taking a bite of the chocolate. "We never saw them doing something as dangerous as that before, so why are they going to such crazy lengths like this?"

"What are you two talking about over there?" Ichigo and Chad looked up to see Lisa walking over to them.

"Oh, uh, it's nothing." Ichigo brushed it off with his hand. "We were just… talking about some high school stuff."

"Oh really? Like what exactly?" Lisa wrinkled her eyebrow as she bent forward.

"Just some idiots that we deal with after we're done with school." Ichigo answered. "There's some other punks that bother either me or Chad on the streets and get to pick fights with one another and cause a bunch of problems. But as of lately they've gotten more loose."

"Really? Is that all there is to it?" Lisa looked to be rather disappointed by this. "I would have thought you guys had something more interesting to talk about. Maybe about some cute girls in your school?"

"What?!" Ichigo nearly jumped out of his seat from this. "Why would we wanna go over that?!"

"Well it's only natural, isn't it?" Lisa then stood straight as she put her hands on her hips. "After all, boys your age do tend to talk about this type of stuff. Besides, you don't see me acting flustered when I get asked about this type of stuff."

"That's because we're not perverts like you!" Ichigo exclaimed as he pointed an accusing finger at Lisa. "I don't need to be reminded that you read pornos!"

"And I already told you that I'm not a pervert!" Lisa rebutted with a glare. "I'm just really curious! I even told you that you can borrow them!"

"And I already told you that I won't do that!"

'They seem to get along well...' Chad thought to himself as he minded his own business. 'I guess this place won't be so bad after all.'

"Hmph!" Lisa huffed as she folded her arms. "Fine then, you can keep it to yourself. So what was it you were talking about before? You mentioned something about some gangs?"

"Why exactly are you interested in knowing something like that?" Ichigo asked.

Lisa shrugged her shoulders. "Well, truth be told I'm a bit bored right now, and we still have time before our training starts anyways, so why not chat for a bit?"

"Well…" Ichigo scratched the back of his head, thinking of any way to continue the conversation on the punks he occasionally dealt with. "They're just these delinquents that just love causing trouble around the town and tend to pick fights, and I'm usually the target for those idiots. Usually I deal with them after I'm done with school. But now they've gotten more violent around the streets and even caused trouble to some of my friends." his hand was clenched onto his thigh, gripping it tightly as he remembered the same gang that shot Orihime and nearly murdered Tatsuki in an alley. It made him wish he got more information out of Toomes, if only he hadn't kicked him so hard like that.

"Well… that certainly sounds a bit troublesome." Lisa replied before taking samples of food into her mouth. "So, big guy, how about you show me that power that Kisuke told me about? I would like to see it for myself."

"Uh, sure thing." Chad nodded before he manifested his right arm.

Lisa made a careful observation on the human's arm. It would look like that Urahara was right after all, it wasn't anything she ever saw before. She walked over to Chad and put her hand on his powered up arm. 'Looks like Kisuke wasn't wrong, this human's power does resemble that of a Hollow. It's as if he has a mask of his own but it's focused specifically on his arm.' The Vizard girl looked Sado right in the eye. "Tell me, does your arm have some sort of a time limit you can use in a fight before it's drained?"

"Uh… not to my knowledge, no." Chad shook his head. "I don't think it has a time limit on how much it could be used. Usually when I can't use this arm anymore, it's either because I get tired and don't have stamina anymore, or if I'm too injured and can't fight."

"I see then. Well your arm definitely has traces of Hollow energy, that much is guaranteed." Lisa remarked as she backed away a couple of steps.

"So… are you gonna be able to help me?" Chad asked.

"Well, we can certainly try at least. I was thinking of having you and that Orihime girl be put through the same type of training that Ichigo is going through. Although you could try to talk to Hachi and get your power examined more closely and figure out what works best." Lisa remarked. "If you don't know, Hachi is the big guy of the group and the tallest one out of the Vizards. You can go ahead and talk to him now, he's just over there." She pointed her finger to where Hachi was.

"I see then, thank you." Chad nodded his head before he went to walk over to where Hachi was.

"So then… are you sure there aren't any cute girls that you're into?" Lisa asked this once more in a blunt manner. ''Or at least any that exist in your school?"

Ichigo only looked at her with an annoyed expression. "I already told you that I'm not like that! Would you stop bugging me about it?!"

"I thought people your age would be interested in that type of stuff?" Lisa gave an amused grin at seeing Ichigo's reaction. ''After all, wouldn't it be more interesting if you were to talk to another girl like me about this instead of just boys?"

"Why do you even wanna know about this to begin with?! And besides I have more important things to deal with than just talking about some girls!" Ichigo retorted.

"Well excuse me but I'm just very curious about both sides of the gender." Lisa rolled her eyes over this. "And besides it's not like there's anything wrong with talking about some girls you like. You don't always have to prioritize things above yourself, it's not always such a bad thing to focus on yourself from time to time." the Vizard teen then gave the Substitute a grin. "Tell you what, how about I lend you a couple of my dirty magazines to clear your mind off some things. I like to at least read them twice a day to clear my mind."

"Yeah, great for you!" Ichigo exclaimed in a sarcastic tone while his face began to brighten a shade of red. How could anyone talk so casually about this type of stuff? "Now if you excuse me, I would like to get back to my training!" the youth got up from the boulder and walked away from the Vizard.

Renji sighed as he sat on Urahara's floor, contemplating what he should do next now that Chad had been moved to someplace else. As of now he was in his Gigai and ate his lunch.

"What's the matter, Renji?!" Urahara got behind the redhead, covering his face with a fan as he hid a goofy grin. "You look rather down!"

The Lieutenant of Squad 6 turned his head to give the shopkeeper an annoyed look. "Did you really have to send Chad to somewhere else?"

"Well, it couldn't be helped." Urahara shrugged his shoulders as he softly swung his fan over his face. "Training with you simply would not improve Chad's power very much. And besides, I thought you didn't want to train with him to begin with. What's the sudden change of heart?"

"Because I don't have a sparring partner right now, you idiot!" Renji rebuked. "I guess maybe having someone help you out wasn't really such a bad thing after all."

"Well you could just try training on your own. After all, the final battle is gonna pass by before you even know it." Urahara closed off his fan. "Or you could just ask one of your squad members you came with to the World of The Living to help train with you. That could work."

"Hmmm…" Renji thought about it and realized that Kisuke may have been right about this. It didn't really sound like a bad idea, but one problem steamed from the fact that he didn't know who he could train with. There was Ichigo, but he had no idea where he was at right now. "That might just work. I'll go look for Ikkaku, he might be better suited as a sparring partner." he got up on the floor before he began to leave the shop.

"Awwww, so does that mean you'll stop coming in here?!" Urahara made a childish pout. "We had so many fond memories in this place!"

"Cut the crap, Kisuke!" Renji exclaimed in annoyance before he slid the door open to Kisuke's shop. "I'll just find somewhere else to train!"

"Wait, are you sure that you wanna leave and not train here anymore?" Urahara asked out of curiosity.

"Once I find a suitable sparring partner, then I will!"

"Well it's your choice, but just so you know the next time you wish to come back here, you're gonna have to pay me a ton!"

"Huh?!" this got Renji's attention as he quickly turned his head, giving off a face of worry. ''What do you mean by that?! Why do I have to pay?! And by how much?!"

"Well it's only fair, isn't it?" Urahara opened up his fan and hid most of his face once more. "I don't mind giving you hospitality here, but I don't really do this stuff for free, especially for moochers like you. I got a shop to run around here."

Renji wanted to come up with some comeback as to why he shouldn't do that, but he couldn't come up with anything. "Fine!" the redhead exclaimed before he started to run off. "I'll just see that I don't have to pay!"

It was then that Tessai came out through one of the rooms in the shop, carrying a box in his hands as he saw the moocher running off, and he heard just about everything. "You made the moocher run off?" Tessai asked. "And by having to pay you? Sir, you know we never did anything like that—"

"I know." Urahara hid an amused grin behind his fan. "It's just a game, I'm waiting to see how long it's gonna take Renji to find out."

"Are you serious right now?!"

"Look, Renji, I'd love to help ya out, but I got some other problems to deal with right now." Ikkaku remarked as he rested his wooden sword on his shoulder, and behind him were a couple of students doing a workout session on getting to the top where they were at. "Keep going at it! I don't wanna see any of you maggots start slacking off!" the bald headed officer yelled out.

"You gotta be kidding me, you're helping a bunch of kids to win some kendo tournament or whatever instead of preparing for the final battle at hand?"

"Look… does it look like I wanted any of this to happen to begin with?!" Ikkaku looked at Renji with an irritated look while keeping a forced smile, as a vein bulged out of his forehead. "That woman wanted me to do all this, and I just can't stand at how weak those little brats are! Someone needs to teach them to grow a pair, and I'm the right man for the job!"

"That depends if you don't kill them by overworking them…" Renji looked down with a sweatdrop appearing on his head before looking back at Ikkaku. "Well, what about Yumichika?"

"He can't, he's supposed to be my assistant." Ikkaku replied in a glum manner. "So he's practically stuck doing this until they win that tournament."

"Well that's just perfect." Renji grumbled to himself in a sarcastic manner before he jumped off in the air. "I'll just ask Captain Hitsugaya then!"

"Come on! Not you too!"

"Look, Abarai, I already have my hands full on focusing on the duties I was assigned to here in this town, and it doesn't help that I have to deal with Rangiku as well, and I have to train with her on top of that." Toshiro answered as he kept mashing buttons on the phone he was given, sitting on top of the rooftop at Orihime's apartment in his Soul form. "Go ask someone else."

"Well can I ask Rangiku? Do you know where she is?" Renji asked.

"How should I know? All I remember is that she went off somewhere to some shopping mall."

"Which one exactly? Cause there's more than one shop that exists in Karakura Town."

"I don't know, she just said she wanted to try out more clothes, I was never informed which shop she would go to."

"Well why didn't you just ask?!"

"How would I have known you would come here and ask me about this?!" Toshiro shot an annoyed glare at the Lieutenant. "And besides, aren't you supposed to have training of your own?"

"I know that, but let's just say that my sparring partner had to move somewhere else." Renji scratched the back of his hair. "So I have to find someone else."

"Well you already got my answer, maybe you can go ask Ikkaku and Yumichika and see if they can help you." Toshiro looked down to focus on his report again. "If they can't for whatever reason, then maybe you can go and ask Rukia to help."

Renji sighed. "Guess it can't be helped. Thanks for the suggestion, Captain Hitsugaya." he said, right before he leaped off in the air. Ikkaku and Yumichika couldn't really help him either, so the only person that could help him would be Rukia.

To Renji's relief, Rukia had agreed to train with him. But now that Renji couldn't go back to Urahara's unless he were to pay up, they decided that their best course of training would be in the Soul Society. The other Soul Reapers should be able to handle Hollows while they are gone if there weren't any other Arrancar threats. They would get to train in Rukia's squad barracks, and if for whatever reason Jushiro couldn't allow them to do that, then they would just go over to Byakuya's barracks and train there.

"Sorry to bother you, Captain Ukitake, but I have a personal request for you to ask." Rukia bowed her head in acknowledgment to her superior as she was inside the Ugendo Quarters.

"A personal request?" Jushiro was stunned by this. What did Rukia want to ask him? He was surprised in general that she even came back here to begin with, considering she was up to the task of going to Karakura Town. ''What would you want exactly?"

"I want you to authorize the opening of the training ground behind the barracks for my use." Rukia requested.

"Opening the training ground? What do you need it for?" Jushiro asked.

"Sir, a friend and I would like to use it in preparation for the upcoming showdown in Winter." Rukia answered.

"Uh, is this a good time for me to show up now?" it was then that Renji appeared through the open space, bowing his head in respect to Rukia's Captain. "Sorry to barge in like this, Captain Ukitake, but I really need this training in order to become stronger." he looked at his ranked superior right in the eyes. "So if you don't mind, would you allow me and Rukia to train for as long as we can in here until the battle in Winter?"

Jushiro blinked his eyes from this. If the situation were to be that dire, then he didn't really see any problem with letting the two of them use the training grounds in this place. "Well… this is a bit surprising, but by all means you can use this for as long as you want." he gave them his answer.

"Thank you for this, Captain Ukitake!" Rukia bowed her head in gratitude before she looked up at Renji. "You heard him! We have to start training right now!"

"Right!" Renji nodded his head as he openly clenched his fists.