Bleach: The Alternate Tale

by blackout2010

We all know that Ichigo Kurosaki was a human who became a Shinigami, but what would happen if he was always a Shinigami when the events of bleach happened, perhaps an altered story. Very minor crossover with Sakura Wars. A/U A/T. Contains incest in later parts.

16. Decisive moment! Hearts connected

Hello, everyone out their this Blackout2010, just giving a few announcements. Firstly to my absence, the reason this chapter took so long was because it's roughly 2.5-3x the normal amount of text in a single chapter I do, not counting this, the pre-fic banter, acknowledgements and the omakes and informative at the end (which you can skip if you wish.) Second to why it took so long is because, my writing time has been cut to ¼ the amount of time I previously had, because I'm in summer school and will attend fall, some of you already know this as I had informed you during our various talks (nod your head you know who you are…). Lastly I would like to thank the many, many, kind souls who I talk to when I can and continue to encourage me as write this so too,

Mako-Hero-san, Grinja-san, Music Watch, Cittyno2-chan, Sinister curt-san, ice wolves (thought it's been a while), A man of many faces-san, dthegrimm-san, afrothunda!, golferguy, Hanzo the salamander, Bleachboy95-san, Zecross, Digzzz-san, Seiei-san and lastly (without having to look) Akira Stridder-san

Thank-you for continued support and all around vocalism when you find the time!

Let see, I think that's if for now…so here's to hoping I get 20 more reviews to hit the coveted (to me at least) one hundred fifty marker! Go team! (though I still want a development team so please apply!)

PS. For senna's weapon I put it under the illustrative photo's section so you can see what it looks like, to give something more solid.

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Author's acknowledgments to various reviews

To Screen name thjm18-san

Since you have a screen name I would appreciate it if you could turn on your PM so that I could respond to you (unless you desire otherwise).

If you read the top you'll know why Update speed is slow. I can only work as fast as I can if I'm feeling it, otherwise it can be a struggle. So I can only update when I'm done and feel it's good. As for the rest I'm glad you like it, and hope you continue to enjoy the rest of what FF has to offer!

To Screen name ArchRaphael

Starts the same with thjm18, if you could please turn on your PM so that I can talk to you for information that would be great. To answer your question, the time length is completely and utterly erratic, there is no time frame just ask Mako-Hero-san and 'The man' they could tell you first hand. Anyway since I'm sending nearly as soon as I finish it (I caught up) it could take a while, that's all I can say.

To unknown reviewer known only as 'Golferguy'

I'm glad to have made you chuckle on the intro, I try. I suppose I should apologize, if you had to go back and re-read something, obviously I'm doing something wrong unless I intended it to make you think.

For the meeting between Ichigo and Soifon, it won't happen for at least a bit longer unsure when. I will try and live up to your expectation, and for being responded back, well ahh, your welcome? I thought I should at least be courteous since you decided to review. Anyway can't wait to hear more from you!

To unknown reviewer known only as Hitmanforyou'

I sent a PM to you already, I hope you received it.

To Afrothunda

People are really technologically savvy huh? Well it paid off for you since you still get to read mine and any other story you love (but do rest your eyes from time to time otherwise you'll get a headache.). Well nothing too major happens except a glimpse into Ichi and Sens training.

All right! Now on to the next point!

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Author's apology for the female audience (such as Cittyno2-chan and other who I don't know)

Ahem. I, Jeanluc Ocasio aka Blackout2010, would like to formally state this now that what occurs in this chapter, particularly the events of Senna do NOT in any form, fashion, or way express my own personal beliefs of women, in terms of mentality, station or attitude.

I was doing this merely for the comical factor because well it's been a while since a good laugh has occurred. So I would like to say if ANY women out there are offended by this chapter, PLEASE let me know in either a REVIEW OR PM (to which I can respond). That way I can offer you my sincerest apology and I will try and avoid that in the future. While some things might not change such as a certain spirits personality, I will none the less strive to make it…less…I won't say stereotypical cause it ain't but more…restrained. I just wanted to say this now, so I don't get called sexist later (not that it'll stop some people if they chose to comment). Anyway, thank-you for reading my story and hope you continue to enjoy it!

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?: His name! His name IS BLACKOUT! 20100000000! (points at audience) But You! (slyly) You…you, you knew this already! (starts talking overdramatically) You knew that it is his DESTINY to continue writing this story, just like you knew when you got up this morning, that you had to see this story, because it was YOUR DESTINY to have continued reading this story. So without any more ado what so ever, continue reading this gift! The story of the magnificent protagonist of ICHIIIIIGOOOOOOOO KUROSAKIIIII! (1)

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Ch. 16 Decisive moment! Hearts connected, but path separated!

(next day: Ichigo's room)

'Ichigo…are you there?' a voice called to the sleeping man within the deepest recess of his mind. 'Ichigo…Ichigo!'

'Z-zangetsu?' he called out as he started to stir from his rest. Slowly awakening from his rest, the young Kurosaki opened his eyes dazedly taking in the sights of the room as he started to recall where he was, in Keisuke's shop back in the human world, not his sleeping quarters back in squad two or the bed back at Senna and Ein's apartment.

'It is good to see that you are well again. We were worried that we might have lost our ability to contact you after reviving you with the stored spiritual power' the dark cloaked man said to his master 'Have you noticed anything wrong with your body?'

'Nah, old man. I'm fine.' replied Ichigo as he sat up from the bed, his previous tiredness billowing away from his body now that he was conscious and well rested again.

The knocking on the door drew the teenagers eyes to the source "Ichigo, get up we need to get ready." Keisuke said from the other side in his chipper tone that almost never seemed to vanish from his normal speech pattern.

"I got it. I'll see you in the meeting room." He responded back gruffly to the traitor since even though he owed him and was his fellow conspirator in this loose alliance between, didn't mean that he had to like him or his carefree attitude for serious things.

The shuffling of feet told him that the man on the other side of the door had accepted the answer and proceeded along. When he couldn't hear the noise from his clogs anymore Ichigo returned back to his previous conversation with Zangetsu 'Zangetsu, I wanted to thank both of you for sticking by my side. And now more than ever I'm going to need you to help me fight with all my strength against everyone I encounter when I return home again.'

'I understand.'

'Ha! As if they'd walk all over you with me here! But you damn well better get stronger otherwise I don't think I'll be willing to help you out anymore!'the smirking phantom of Ichigo's mind declared defiantly, since he knew that there was more power Ichigo had but that damnable limiter needed to be dealt with first

Having reassured himself, Ichigo exited the room full of vim and confidence knowing that things would be different this time around, and that his name would soon be cleared of whatever slanderous accusations were laid upon him. Opening the door to the meeting room, he saw that Senna had yet to arrive, while her father Ein was seated in a chair in the round table with Uryu sitting silently across from him.

"Keisuke, Uryu, Ein." Ichigo said each name with a subtle bobbing of his head in recognition to all of the people in the room. His eyes slowly drifted to Ein who was decked out in a white karate Gi, with a black head band running across his forehead that had the kanji for the word monster on it.

"Hey Kisuke-"

"Say no more Ichigo." said the smiling shop keeper who saw the brief look of skepticism and concern when he glanced at the karate-wearing father next to him. "I'm going to have Tessai 'train' him while I deal with you and Senna. That way he won't be a hindrance when things get started, we already talked it over earlier this morning. Speaking of which hey Tessai!" the blond man called out which caused the man to appear from the door Ichigo had entered in from, decked out in his apron and muscle shirt.

"Yes?" the hearty man replied confidently in his deep voice, awaiting his friends command

"If you would please take Mr. Kung-fu here out to a remote part of the training field for practice and the basics that would be appreciated." He gestured to the at least looking the part warrior, though the jab at his appearance didn't go unnoticed by Ein.

"Very well, sir." The tanned giant responded with a nod before turning around to leave with Ein getting up to follow

As the pair hit the door the blond man threw in one more request before they got too far out of ears shot "Oh, don't forget to raise a barrier we don't want mine or the kid here's spiritual pressure to affect him too much."

The momentary stop and nodding of Tessai's head gave his acknowledgement to his words, and without any further ado the pair departed to the training field that Kisuke had been mentioning.

"Now, as for you two." Kisuke said as he got up from his chair and stretched his arms before swiftly grabbing his cane "Uryu, your good to go, so you can do some training on your own today, and tomorrow you can help out with Ichigo. As for you Ichigo, well you get to sit in the room for a little bit while I go get Senna started in getting some powers to manifest, once she's off running you and me can have a little one on one."

"Very well, Uncle till next time." The navy haired boy excused himself so he could return back to the abandoned hospital since as his uncle described would be quite similar to what Soul Societies interior looked like

"Fine." The orange haired Shinigami grunted as he crossed his arms, since Keisuke seemed to have a plan in mind so he wouldn't interfere and would just go along with it since he needed all the help he could get…minus Ein since they both seemed intent on ditching him if they could.

"Right be back in a few." The blond said contentedly as he vanished in a flash step to go deal with the human girl, while Ichigo decided to meditate and prepare himself for his fight against the former captain.

(Underground training facility: Keisuke)

As the green clad ex-Taicho, came walking down the stairwell to the training area he saw the human clothed Senna talking with the little artificially created girl Ururu that he had created out of boredom one day. "Ah, miss Senna so glad to see you are you feeling well now?"

The girl turned her attention away from the soft spoken girl that lead her to this giant wasteland like area "Yeah, I'm fine Urahara-san. Thanks for saving me." The girl bowed out of respect

"Good, now that we got formalities out of the way let's get to the important stuff." He said quickly, as he pulled off his hat and grew more serious "As you may or may not know, your good buddy Ichigo has unfortunately gotten into a spot of trouble with the wrong people and wants to prove both his and Rukia's innocence."

The girl cast her sight away from him in slight guilt "Yeah, I know, but that's why I'm going to help him." She returned her gaze back into Keisuke's eyes and continued with more confidence "I owe the both of them my life literally, and now's my chance to pay them back." She answered while in the back of her mind she thought of how it would also explain who or what she really was by traveling to Soul Society the land of Shinigami.

The blond hmmed to himself, and inwardly chuckled since he got the feeling she wasn't going to budge any time soon which was good for what he had planned "Well, if you're dead serious, then I'll train you but first take off your clothes and put these on." He said tossing two articles of clothing to her

The purple ribbon wearer caught the garments and glanced at them for a full three seconds before blushing extremely hard "Y-you you want to me to wear this!" she exclaimed as she stretched out the vibrant red bra and panties in front of her

"That's right and only that." He affirmed with a serious poker face even though on the inside he was grinning up a storm

"You can NOT be serious!" she yelled at her Sensei, for her perceived lechery the man had

"Fine don't believe me." He shrugged nonchalantly that caused the girl to sweat a bit from his action. Since she had now started to think that he was doing this for her safety and she was ignoring his precautions. "Ururu get ready." He commanded to the human looking AI girl, who took a few steps back before shifting into a karate stance

"Ready for what?" she muttered nervously

"Well Ururu here is going to chase you around for five minutes, and attack you. Those undergarments we're designed to both increase your speed and protect you should she hit you, after all you dying would be a bad thing. But since you won't do it we'll just continue on…"

"W-wait!" the woman exclaimed getting a chuckle from Kisuke "Do I really need to wear this…?" she asked reluctantly at the thought of being in only this risqué outfit

"Yep, and unfortunately that's all you can wear since other garments and stuff interfere with it's frequency so it's that or what you got on now."

After hearing the statement, the girl looked at her clenched hand that held the revealing undergarment, with a mix of shyness and disdain "Fine! But turn around I'm not going to get naked in front of you!" she declared pointing her index finger at the man, who laughed before slowly turning around

Once he was fully facing away she looked over at Ururu and asked her to cover her eyes, to which the android complied and brought both of her fist in front of her face and opened them to shield herself from the visual display.

As Keisuke started to hear the shifting of garments a sly idea hit him, as he slowly turned around "By the way I forgot to mention-" he started as his eyes got a good view of her legs, stomach and underboob as she was in the middle of lifting her bra off from her shoulders

The girl froze from his sudden turning around and puffed up before bring her arms back down and gave a look to kill despite her embarrassed red face "Turn back around you damnable pervert!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, as she started striding towards him

"I'm sorry but I was ju-"

He never got to finish as Senna had finished trekking over and delivered an ear popping slap to the side of his face resulting in the man flipping over the side twice before collapsing to the ground in a broken heap.

The man pushed himself up with one hand while his free hand touched the tender bright red spot that had a hand print marking on his cheek 'Ok maybe not the best idea I've had yet' he rubbed it to lessen the stinging sensation before tilted his head slightly 'still after a view like that definitely a great idea'

Getting back unto his feet, he turned back around to see Senna covering her breasts and nether region with her arms, and glared at him with bared teeth like a dog whose territory had been invaded by an intruder.

Though in this case it wasn't too far from the truth.

"Ok well you look ready to go." He said suppressing the urge to laugh at the pissed 'lady' in front of him "And begin."

Not a second later, did the little girl with pig tails jump from behind to clobber the older half-naked woman, who dodged to the left to avoid the jab. The moment the fist touched the ground Senna's eyes widened in fright to see that rather large crater had been implanted unto the rocky ground.

As her feet touched the ground, the girl immediately tore off in another direction, while the android girl shifted her head and locked unto her target before giving chase.

With the two at it, Keisuke Urahara walked over to one of the larger rocks and took a seat on top of it. A smirk etched on his face, as he watched the half naked girl duck and dive out of the way from the tyke bomb 'Ohhh yes Kisuke, my boy.' The man bobbed his head in an even tempo, still looking on at the sexy teen and her curves 'best plan ever.'

Senna herself was not enjoying the little marathon trial Kisuke had imposed on her with these garments, as she bended into a backwards flip to avoid another bone crushing punch from the girl named Ururu. 'Damn it, she's got smaller legs than me but she's just as fast!' the girl concluded before looking over to the stupid grinning Keisuke "Hey, jack off!" she yelled at the man to get his attention as she ran in the opposite direction of Keisuke to put some more distance between her and Ururu "How come this thing isn't working!" the girl questioned as she moved to the side again to avoid a powerful punch

The thoroughly enjoying the show, Keisuke whipped out his trademark fan to hide his grin while he pulled out a small camcorder with his right "Well you see poor Senna-chan, it's not working because you haven't activated it yet."

"Now you tell me!" the indignant woman hollered back in anger as she silently made the commitment to thoroughly thrash the man when she was finished with this test…

If she lived…

Keisuke closed his eyes and shrugged "Well I was gonna tell you but you decided to give me quite the back hand so I figured hey, she must not need my help."

'You little-!' the woman thought angrily, as she pushed past Ururu arm and swept behind her, using the momentary reprieve to send a death glare at the man. 'rgggh, if this girl hit me, I'm finished and I still have two minutes' to go!'

"Fine will you please help me!" she pleaded

'Hook, line and sinker.' The dirty man thought happily, as he was now going to get some prime footage with his mini-camcorder that thankfully the woman hadn't noticed due to the fighting. "Well…" he started grandiosely "What you got to do is put your hands on your knockers, massage them real quick and yell 'super armor of kinky-ness activate' (2)."

"Are you kidding me!" the already pride crushed woman yelled

Keisuke shrugged at her declaration to further seal the deal "eh fine then. It's not like my advice has been helpful so far…"

"Agghh damn it! Your gonna pay you ass-hat!" roared Senna as she grabbed her chest and started to grope herself "Super armor of kinky-ness activate!"

'Today's a great day to be a man.' The thoroughly amused blond noted to himself while tears of joy ran down his face, as he planned on enjoying this little production and might actively sell it in the shop later on. He could see the title 'high school girl gone wild'.

"I-is it working?" the desperate woman asked the inventor since she really had no clue, and so far Keisuke hadn't done anything…too illegal.

"Hmm…try grabbing your boobs harder and saying it louder, maybe it didn't recognize your audio or bodily commands." He lied under the guise of diagnostics

Even though she felt a wave of skepticism at this point she none-the-less complied. When nothing happened again she looked over at Keisuke for an explanation to the problem. "Keisuke…!" she guttered out, her temper picking back up

"Oh…heh…must have grabbed the wrong one…oh well." He said care freely. Senna was about to really give Keisuke a piece of her mind when the blistering noise of an alarm clock garnered the trio's attention.

"It seem the five minutes are up." commented Ururu, speaking for the first time since the exercise started between Senna and herself

"It seems your right Ururu-chan. Senna successfully managed to last the duration of the exercise." He said happily with his eyes closed as he turned to Senna and was about to speak, but the words were lost in his wind pipe as Senna had seemingly charged from her spot all the way to where he stood and gave him a vicious cloths line to the trachea stopping the man cold, and leaving him to the unbridled angry fury of a embarrassed maiden.

Ten minutes a reclothed and still pissed Senna stopped her assault and left Kisuke to getting nursed back to health by Ururu for the next half-hour. Having just barely survived, the man slowly via limping, had the human girl follow him further into the strange underground wasteland until they came to a giant hole in the ground.

"What's this ass-hat? The tentacle rape plunge?" the unamused teenager queried mockingly to the officially dubbed by her ass-hat, her patience and respect for the man looking exactly like the gaping hole in front of her, lacking of substance.

The man scoffed before turning back around fully, with a serious glint in his eye "Not quite this time it's serious so you better be ready, little Ms. School girl. But first…" he turned around and jabbed the tip of his cane against her forehead launching her spirit from her body.

The girl blinked momentarily in confusion as she brought her hand up and flexed it "What the?" she questioned as she looked at the strange crumpled woman on the ground who looked like her if she was asleep.

"Step one done. Now unto step two." The blond chirped as he made a quick motion of his hand and pointed at Senna, who instantly felt her back straighten before her arms folded behind her back and her legs gave way forcing her to the ground, the chain that she now noticed that was attached to her chest rattling weakly.

"Hey what's going on! Answer me Keisuke!" the woman demanded of her instructor who whipped out his fan in front of himself

"Keep your panties on exhibitionist-chan and I'll explain. What my cane here did was similar to removing your soul from your body as if you were going to become a Soul reaper again, which is why your body is right there." He answered as he pointed to the chain on her chest that snaked over to her body "Unfortunately since you don't have any Shinigami power otherwise known as Reiatsu coursing through you, you haven't changed. In fact your borderline dead."

Senna nodded her head in understanding things so far, allowing Keisuke to continue "That chain on your chest is your chain of fate and is what tethers you to life which is why it's connected to your body. What I'm going to do is cut it and effectively end your life." He explained

Senna bit back her words and held her anger in check since she knew he wasn't done explaining his plan, to which Keisuke noticed and smiled that she was being understanding so far "By cutting you chain of fate your body will start to release Reiatsu which is needed to become a Shinigami unfortunately that's where the hard part starts. You'll have about twenty-four hours to become a Shinigami or you'll turn into a hollow. Luckily for you since you've experienced what Shinigami power feels like it should be easier to locate the power inside of you and activate it." the man moved his fan out of his face and narrowed his eyes at Senna to display his seriousness "If you fail to activate it, I will have to end your life. So I give you this ultimatum: Do you have the guts to risk your life and soul to help Ichigo or do you wish to return to your previous life?"

For a brief moment Senna's eyes widened before returning to normal size, while she paused for a moment. Not out of hesitation but to show Keisuke her true resolve "I promised I'd help Ichigo no matter what, and I have no intention of letting Ichigo go it alone any longer. I accept so bring it on!" she said defiantly

The owner of the Shoten nodded his head and picked up the reiatsu bound soul and held her up to him "See you later Senna." and turned tossing the girl into the giant chasm below. Surprisingly the girl didn't bother screaming at all during the descent.

Waiting a second or so, the man unsheathed his Zanpaktou Benihime and severed the chain of fate of Senna Kurosaki.

'Good luck girl.' He mentally added as he turned away from the hole to return back to Ichigo "Come Ururu, we got things to do." He commanded to the AI girl as they went to go see Ichigo

(Ichigo)

The sound of a sliding door informed the meditating man of someone else's presence upon turning around he saw Keisuke and that little girl with the two pony tails from earlier. "Well Ichigo we're going to get started momentarily but first I need to check up on your limiter and see how that's doing."

"Why? I thought it was no good after nearly getting killed back there in the streets."

"While that is true Ichigo, there is a chance that could still be functioning, and if it is we need to deal with it now since, I won't have the tools available to disable it over in Soul Society. Anyway the main reason I want to get rid of it is because I need you to not only be able to fight at 100% but I can't-

"You don't want them to be able to track us while we're in labyrinth of the Seireitei." Ichigo finished seeing where he was going.

"Glad to see you catch on. Now what I want you to do is to simply relax while I put some anesthesia in you so I can remove it, without you flailing around." He replied merrily his smile still remaining on his lips

The Ichigo followed the duo out of the room and back into the room he had spent the night in, and removed his shirt and lay down on the bed, but still kept a hard glint in his eye as he watched Keisuke, not wanting to be a part of any funny business the guy might have in mind.

Once the patient was fully lying down, Keisuke reached into his jerkin and pulled out a small needle, and brought next to the teenagers neck before puncturing the skin and releasing the liquid chemicals into Ichigo's blood stream. Within a matter of moments, Ichigo's vision started to become impaired as the colors of the room started to get darker and darker, and the sounds of Keisuke's breathing slowly became fainter. Ichigo's eyes kept drooping down and after the third attempt to remain open closed permanently no longer obeying the owner of the bodies will.

Keisuke waved his hand over Ichigo's sleeping face for a couple of seconds before tapping the orange haired boy's cheeks with the back of his hand two more times to make sure he was out like a light, satisfied that he was resting the ex-Taicho turned to the doorway "You can come out Yoruichi-chan." He said aloud

The door to the room creaked open as a small black cat lazily entered the room and strutted past the cyborg and leapt unto the nearby bed post and sat upon it's hind legs, it's gold saucer eyes observing the resting Shinigami in the room "Thanks it's been rather stuffy to have to hide in my own home when you brought the Shinigami in a few days ago." The cat said in a rather masculine tone "Hmm so this is the one that's hell bent on finding me. I really can't see why, it's not like we ever met before, though he is kinda cute."

Keisuke gave a small chuckle and picked up the cat and started to make it dance in his hands "Flirtatious even in the face of danger aren't you Yo-chan. Hehe yes you are."

The cat's eyes narrowed at the person manhandling her even though her feline face showed evidence of a smirk "Put me down now or I'm going to have to scratch you. Now tell me what you wanted me for now that the kid's in dreamland."

The blond man pouted his lips for being at least to him yelled out and set the black cat back down on the bed "Well, firstly we need to get back my Hogyoku that unfortunately gotten taken away to Soul Society. Which is why I'm going to need you to train that female girl if she does manage to get some soul reaper powers."

The cat brought it's paws to it's head and scratched her head "alright so that mean we're heading back to our old home town right? Well why not, but what are you going to do in the mean time Mr. Know-it-all?"

The blond man removed his hat and leaned on his cheek on his fist "Well since Mr. Kurosaki wants your skin for reasons unknown, I'm going to take to training him, maybe if we're lucky get Bankai out of him to help our success rate."

"So who's going?" the cat asked lazily as it arched it's back to stretch before crumpling down and resting with her tail wrapping around her body

"Well you and I need to go just in case, Aizen is involved in all of this, which considering how things have been going between us and him is pretty high. Uryu of course since we need all the help we can get and the boy and girl."

The cat opened one of her eyes "And what about that older man Ent or something was it." she asked guessing the man's name since she didn't bother to pay attention to him since he didn't look all that aesthetically appealing to her and so was ignored.

"Well for this 'Ein' fellow" he corrected the cat, but saw that the cat wasn't going to be bothered in remembering the man's name anytime soon "He's going to have to tag along for a bit but once we get to Rukongai specifically Kukaku's place were going to bench him so he doesn't get in the way." He informed having thought over his decision since they didn't need unnecessary people or risks. "By the way how's his training with Tessai coming along?" the man asked since, for this plan to work they did have to make it look real

The cat let out a soft chuckle "According to what I last heard, Tessai was teaching the old guy the 'Fist of fury'." She reported getting a chuckle from the business man since he knew watching all those kungfu movies would pay off one day.

"ahhh, I love it when things go my way." He said gleefully, as he stroked the cat beside him "Alright, why don't you got check up on the girl and see how she's doing in all this…be ready for a fight just in case." He warned off-handedly

The cat sat up and hopped off the bed "Right. Right." She muttered as she slinked back out the door and headed down the stair back to go see her latest trainee or possible victim.

Turning in his chair he looked at the silent Ururu "Would you go get me tools for me Ururu-chan?" he asked to which the android quietly walked out the door in acknowledgment to her master's command. "Time to get rid of that pesky limiter and maybe if your still sleeping, I'll have time to finish my word scramble." He mused to himself aloud.

After all it had been a long time since he'd been this busy for something.

([Same time] Free fall: Senna)

After being dropped down into the abyss, Senna herself had come to the realization that she didn't have the proper idea of what she was doing. Sure she told herself that she knew what it kind of felt like to have the power of the Shinigami running through her veins, it felt exhilarating, fierce and at the same time cold and detached. Right now she was feeling the rush of adrenaline going through her and had maintained a calm demeanor on the surface but she didn't have any control over what the hell she needed to have control over.

The girl grunted as she tried to move her wrists ignoring her whipping hair that ascend away from the ground that was coming up behind her. "Damn it." she cursed as still found the spell on her arms to remain firmly in tact despite her efforts.

Turning her head to see the ground fast approaching she closed her eyes and curled her body up to lessen the damage that would no doubt be inflicted upon her impact. With a loud crash, the human base jumper slammed into the ground.

Opening one of her eyes, the girl to her amazement found her body didn't look any worse for wear from the rather steep fall. 'I guess this is one of the perks of already being a spirit.' She commented in her inner monologue. Turning from her side to her stomach she tried to wiggle her hands free again to no avail 'figures it wouldn't be that easy.'

A creaking sound broke her of her thoughts as the severed part of her chain came crashing down in front of her. The purple haired girl looked at it briefly before returning back to her thoughts of how to get out of this spell and re-awaken her Shinigami powers. "It's can't be this hard, I already have a clue. I know what it feels like but I just tch…I don't know." She whispered to herself

The girl remained on her stomach as she continued to think on what to do, when an idea hit her. Having seen her friend Don Kannoji constantly channel the spirits around him to form his golden cannonball attack, she decided to follow suit and try and concentrate on the emotion that she had felt, since they we're the closest thing to simulating Shinigami power which would hopefully stimulate the real thing.

The bound girl drew in a cold breath of air to relax herself and closed her eyes as she tried to imagine the feeling she had felt when she was wearing the Shinigami attire. Her memories from the fear of the first battle, to her more courageous if futile defending of Ichigo and Rukia. Letting out a slow breathe, the ribbon wearing girl reopened her eyes and once again tried to budge free.

It didn't work.

"Damn. I thought that would work." The girl muttered as she looked back around the darkness to try and keep her distracted from venting frustration on herself which would only stress her and make the situation even worse.

"…"

Senna perked up her ears when she thought she heard someone or something speak. Adjusting her head she began scanning her surroundings a second time, it was then that her eyes landed upon a pair of golden eyes hovering in the infernal darkness. The eyes seemed to hold extreme malice and loathing within them, almost like it was mocking her for her current predicament. The golden iris moved along the shadows never getting to close to the light that came from the florescent light up above, it kept going until it was look at Senna from the side, who had kept both her face and eyes firmly attached to the only other thing inside this hole with her.

The two stared at each other before a loud nightmarish laughter pierced the silence between the female and creature. "Pathetic." A voice commented which Senna assumed came from the pair of eyes

"W-what?" she asked in confusion her face contorting, since she didn't know if this was a hallucination or what happened when one choose to become a Shinigami.

"Do I really need to explain?" the voice said in a cool voice with a seemingly snide attitude underneath "Tell you what let's see what your actually capable of Senna."

Another loud piercing laugh erupted and soon the eyes disappeared into the darkness, leaving Senna alone again. The rattling of a chain drew Senna attention to the chain in front of her as it started to move on it's own. Slowly teeth started to appear on the chain and the gaping mouths of the locks started to chew upon the lock above it trying to deteriorate it and shorten it's overall length.

"Daggghhh!" Senna yelled out in pain as the chain's bit into each other, for the girl it felt as though each time the metal was bitten into someone took a rusty metal pipe studded with nails and slammed it into her chest before sliding it across her torso to have each nail rip into her flesh.

The girl fell over to her side as she closed her eyes to stop from screaming further. Once the pain had subsided, the teenager let out a labored breath as she closed her eyes, to rest and recover from the unexpected pain. Within a matter of minutes Senna's breathing had slowed down considerably as a sense of peace fell on her.

The sound of chirping and bright lights caused the girl to stir. 'Wait a second…Birds?' Senna questioned as she opened her eyes and was staring at a sight that wasn't previously there. Instead of a dark shaft with a pair of creepy eyes glaring at her, she was now viewing a verdant green forest with birds in the trees. Shifting her weight, she found it much easier to move, in fact as she moved her shoulders she found that her hands were no longer bound by the strange spell that Keisuke had placed on her.

Slowly getting unto her knees she touched her wrists. 'Strange. I couldn't do that back in the tunnel.' Standing up fully the girl looked around and then looked down to see if she was wearing a hakama. Too her disappointment she was still in her civilian clothes, though she was happy to see that the chain that was attached to her was gone. Turning her head to the right she saw that she was standing on a dirt path that lead in that direction seemingly infinitely turning to the left also seemed to bring her to that conclusion.

As she continued to stare off into the distance a nauseating sensation flitted inside her head, causing her to clutch it from pain. Once the feeling past, she brought her head back to normal height level, and saw a dark cloud approaching from the west.

"Run!" a voice yelled out to the girl from the forest around her "That cloud is evil, get away from it!"

Almost in response to the command did the cloud start to hang lower and lower that it began to touch the tree tops. The moment it did the leaves and soon branches we're lost into the darkness and unable to be seen. Not wanting to find out what was dangerous about that cloud any further Senna started to tear of in the opposite direction.

"That's it keep going!" the voice encouraged to the fleeing girl who was coming up to a four-way intersection "Turn left!" the soft voice told her leading her still away from the cloud.

As she kept running she saw the entrance to the mouth of a cave and continued inside until the strange voice called to her again. "Keep going straight. I await you at the end."

"Who are you?" asked Senna to the guiding voice

The voice responded again only the tone seemed to have changed from nice to fierce "Hurry up!" the voice commanded to her as it's anger resonated through the cave.

After a moment's pause, Senna continued walking straight since it was the only way forward at this point. She kept walking until she started to hear the sound of water falling unto puddles, glancing to her left she saw the perpetrator of the noise. 'I must be in some kind of subterranean cave.'

"You are partially correct, your ladyship." A strange mixed voice said from above her having easily heard her thoughts since they were inside her head

Turning her head to the voice's direction which was overhead she saw what looked like a girl riding a golden staff with strange rings on one end that seemed to loop around giving it a key-like appearance. The girl or woman sitting on the levitating staff didn't appear to be very old maybe around Senna's own age, not that she could really tell by the figure since the flying woman was wearing a long flowing white and black Happai with the yin and yang Taoism symbol in the center of the chest. The person's face was obscured by the traditional witches hat over her face, but the long hair was clearly visible though it had shades' of three different colors the strands we're either black or white with the strand next to it being the other color but when it reached the end a tiny portion was a sandy brown. The only part of her skin that was exposed was her slightly pale colored feet and legs as they dangled over the edge of the weapon she sat on.

The girl blushed at the beautiful but strange looking woman, who seemed to regard her with such high regard, as she slowly descended back down to the cave floor and dismounted from her odd floatation device "Ummm, who are you and why did you call me 'your ladyship'?"

"I didn't say that you dumb bitch!" a snide voice rang out but to Senna's surprise in came from directly in front of her, where the witch wearing girl was whose face was hidden underneath her tipped hat

"Oh, my apologizes Senna-san, but unfortunately I am rather complex and complicated individual." Spoke the witch again in the first tone and informing Senna that both actually belonged to her, which didn't make sense since while her normal tone seemed pleasant if not odd, the other felt malicious. "Is their some way that I could be of assistance to you? Though I have an idea."

Senna took a reflexive step backward and bit her lip as she contemplated what to ask first "Can you tell me where I am and who you are?"

The nameless hermit let out as small chuckle before turning away "Please follow me, Senna." Doing as instructed Senna followed the witch further into the cave "This Senna, this cave and everything in here, is you mind scape. Your so called inner world where all is right a type of happy place where you mind and soul unconsciously wander to in times of strife." The yin yang bomb explained as they passed by some more stalagmites and we're soon approaching the exit, which was herald by the light at the end of the tunnel

Senna looked to the side at the cave wall as she walked behind her guide's long strands of mixed hair "Really? It's kind of disappointing. I mean I love high places and being able to see all the world, why am I comforted by being underground?"

The witch stopped at the edge of the light and moved to one side of the cave wall "Then please step into the light and see your answer." She said softly as she held her hands out gently towards the exit

After hearing the response from the underground hermit Senna walked past her and shielded her eyes from the penetrating light, when it was safe for her to see she saw a gigantic mountain in t distance. The mountain didn't seem extremely tall and looked like it could hiked up if it wasn't too steep.

"That Senna is the highest point in this place, it is also the center and where you should be." The girl in white said "As of now you are only a naïve fool with barely any understanding of the world around you, but by the time you reach the top of that mountain and conquered it, you will finally understand your place in the world as a whole."

The dark red ribbon wearing girl looked back at the girl in white only to see the hat bob up and down in a nod. Senna glanced back at the mountain in the distance this time with much more awe, at the fact that the mountain could be akin to her life. Letting out a breath in renewed vigor Senna turned back to her tour guide "That's truly amazing but I don't know if that helps me yet, see I still don't know who you are or where do I got to obtain my Shinigami powers."

The hat wearing Taoist hmmed aloud as she thought what to say exactly to answer the young girl's question, with a nod of her head she smiled as she prepared to answer "firstly Senna, I am better part, I am what you wish to become."

"Huh?" the girl asked awkwardly as a sweat drop slid down the back of her head "I want to be a strange no face revealing, Yin-Yang wearing flying on a staff person with multi-colored hair?"

"You're too literal you damn broad, think with you head not your tits!" the angrier side of the unrevealed girl gritted out, a shaking of the head and the girl muttered a quiet apology

"What I mean to say is, I am what you wish to become in the sense that I know what I wish to do with my life, I know the reason of why I would fight if I must, I know the reason why I would give my life for another, I know where I wish to go with my life. You don't. You are like a lost lamb without it's shepherd, wander without purpose or reason until you die."

Senna grimaced and her face fell at the words the apparent wise woman said, for the most part it was true, but she wouldn't let her get her down. Bringing her head back up to masked face level of the wise woman Senna spoke with conviction and determination "You right. I don't know the reason for what I'm doing entirely. Maybe I'm a lost sheep but it's only by wander can one truly see the world and understand it. The reason I fight or rather I guess wish to gain the power to fight, is so that I can discover myself. My friend Ichigo, he, he could be my long last family for all I know, and now I have this chance to learn about him and my heritage of the afterlife, and protect him just like he protected me and Rukia. So I'm not just going to wait for my 'Shepherd' to come save me, I'm going to make an effort and go out to find the answers on my own!"

"Ahaha…your very amusing. You speak so naively in the face of danger yet your word seem to retain their pureness in intent. Very well, I shall assist you in gaining this power to protect your family as you so call it."

Senna's face lit up in elation "Really? Thank-you so very much!" suddenly a thought hit her and her happiness was brought down a level "But how?"

The witch gave an unseen smirk "Simple. I am your Zanpaktou, the source of your Shinigami powers."

"But I thought Zanpaktou's were just swords. I didn't know you were people too."

"We're not people persay." The Zanpaktou spirit said sagely, as she tried to think of a good analogy "Rather we're spirits who personify you as a person. Ichigo has a Zanpaktou spirit in his mind scape as well, I believe his name is Zangetsu since he called his sword that before once or twice in mentioning."

"So who are you then?"

"My name? As I said before I am you Senna, but I suppose that would be rather confusing for one so young. You may address me as Mirokumaru."

"Mirokumaru?" Senna repeated slowly "Isn't Miroku and maru typically reserved for boys?" she asked dryly, silently wondering if the reason the so far female spirit hadn't shown it's face was because it was possibly a cross dresser.

"You will also find that Ichigo is typically reserved for girls but whose keeping count." The unseen smiling face of Mirokumaru answered knowledgably getting a girly chuckle from Senna "Now then Senna, seeing as you were able to hear my name which is rather odd since most first timers can't, I will tell you my release command to assist you in fighting from now on. So please repeat after me. 'Bring them to the twilight, Mirokumaru!"

Nodding her head Senna took a step back and calmed herself "Bring them to the twilight! Mirokumaru!" Senna exclaimed

Not a moment after a dark energy erupted around Senna and engulfed her. When the light died down, Senna looked down in surprise to see herself drapped out in a Shinigami uniform back when Senna had received her temporary power from Rukia. The outfit looked exactly the same the differences between the two was the red sash that draped around her hips and had the loose part fall to the side and the weapon in her hand.

The weapon was an exact replica of Mirokumaru's Shakujo. It was a bright gold staff, with a separation mark about three-fourths of the way up which confused Senna. The right end had a strange design in that it was a small circle with three golden rings on each side that served as chimes but what made it strange was the extension between the circular parts bisecting it and keeping the rings from all running into each other.

"Hehe, just like you." Senna chuckled childishly as she stuck her tongue out playfully

"Quite right. Now before you return to whence you came, it seems the angry voice has some parting words for you."

As soon as the words left the spirit's mouth, it's hand darted forward and grabbed Senna's left arm. Not strong enough to hurt it but enough where she couldn't pulled away even if she tried "Alright. I don't like you and you don't like me. But I'm making one thing clear if you die, I die. I don't want that. So I'm gonna help you out real quick first this." A dark energy swirled around the dark mirokumaru's arms and around Senna's left arm and dipped underneath her skin. When Mirokumaru's hand pulled away, a small symbol was left on the newly Shinigamified woman. The symbol consisted of a black snake coiled in a circle biting it's tail with a small H in the center.

"There." The angrier Mirokumaru said "And don't give me that look bitch, I'm only doing this because it helps you and me." She continued surprising Senna that she could see her face despite the hat hiding Senna's face from view "That symbol will allow you to use the sword mode of your Zanpaktou. All that you need to say when you have you Zanpaktou released is 'Mugen dai: Kyōfū ken' (Infinity: Gale Saber) and your blade will be released. Try it."

Senna raised her Shakujo to chest level and assumed that the small circular ring on the staff was where it would separate. Placing her right hand in the center of chime end she held the sword like a samurai sword awaiting to be unsheathed "Mugen dai!:Kyofu Ken!" she yelled as the ring lit up and allowed the girl to easily separate the golden rod-like end from the sword.

The blade of the sword wasn't as long as the golden sheath that surrounded it losing in length by about two feet, rounding out at about 2 feet. The blade had a silver color to it with an emerald gem on the center. The edge wasn't particularly sharp, but it would be effective in fighting off hollows and giving small cuts.

The only problem that Senna noticed about the sword and pipe combo was simply the weight. Unused to fighting with two weapons and having the larger metal pipe in her off-hand, Senna struggled to hold up both weapons at once, which also didn't go unnoticed by the snider of the Zanpaktou spirits.

"Tch. Wow you suck, one of the only times I might help you and you can't even handle it. Geez…I wonder if brother has to put up with this…" she said aloud in obvious disgust, which was starting to piss Senna off

"Look what is your problem?" Senna asked her mood dampening rapidly around this particular Mirokumaru

"You honestly expect me to be all buddy-buddy, when you've been ignoring me for the past seventeen years! Is your brain broken or something!"

The news of Mirokumaru being inside her for as long as she apparently claimed came as a major surprise to her, one of the main reasons being if what she said was true that means she would have to have been inside of her since the day she was born. Senna didn't know exactly what to think or say "I don't understand. You say you've been with me for seventeen years and that I've been ignoring you, but I've never once met or heard of you before." The girl replied in naive honesty since she wanted the spirit to at least explain itself clearer to her

"You should not be so critical…she could not have known." The light side of the Taoist witch said to itself

"Excuses, excuses, excuses! You'd think that having the ability to see spirits since you were a kid would at least make you think you weren't normal! But nooo…she just accepts it and thinks herself special!"

Seeing that the spirit was apparently…arguing with herself, the newly made Shinigami interrupted to get some more answers from her "Hey if what you said was true just now, does that mean I really am part Shinigami. Does that mean I really am from Soul Society!"

'Does that mean Ichigo is TRULY my brother?'

The taciturn spirit stopped arguing and raised it's face to where Senna could only see the extremely pale neck of the girl "Yes Senna-chan. The words your father spoke the other day ring true. You are indeed a Shinigami born child but…you are also more."

"Hey hold up goody-two shoes!" the dark half yelled out stopping the conversation again "I don't think we should just give her information without something in compensation!"

The outburst caused Senna to frown at having to give something up to a spirit that obviously had an distaste for her "Why should I? You work for me don't you?"

"Dahaha! That's a good joke!" the dark side laughed coldly as it gripped it side from the obvious comedian in front of her "Listen little girl you don't seem to know your role in this place, so let me break it down nice and easy for your peanut sized brain to comprehend." The darker Mirokumaru extended her hand to the left and slowly moved in a circle "This place might be YOUR mind but it's MY world. That means I'm in charge and rule over everything in here. And since your in here that makes you my bitch, got that you little chiwawa?"

Senna scrunched her face up from the stuck up nature of her Zanpaktou "You think I'm scared of some…cosplay otaku wannabe that can't even have a conversation with herself before busting out in anger? Please! Your the bitch here who doesn't know her place!"

Another fit of laughter erupted from the dark side "And you prove my point again. It's always the smallest specks of dust that try and make themselves out to be bigger than they are and suck at doing it! But…" the dark Mirokumaru stated bring her finger to her unseen chin "You do captivate me in more than one way…hmmm…tell you what." Mirokumaru snapped her finger as a sadistic grin stretched across her face, she lifted her arm up and pointed to the mountain in the distance "See that, mountain there. I think it was mentioned by my less than desirable side that it's center of your world. How about a bet? If you can reach the top of that mountain and defeat me, I'll do whatever you want. You can make me fight for you at full power, hit me, kick me, hell even kill me, I won't complain one bit!" the yang side of the Zanpaktou offered giving considerable amounts of incentive to the 'supposed' master of this domain "But if you fail to reach the top of that mountain, fail to figure out a good deal of yourself, or fail to beat me, well…" she gazed up and down Senna's body "I think that I should get the chance to strut my stuff and be the real ruler of this place. But don't fret, I'm sure I could find a use for you."

Senna's eyes hardened at the demand, while she was still going to accept the deal since it would shut the mouth of this…idiot in her head. She could easily figure out that getting up that mountain would not be as easy as it seemed now. "Fine, but I request a handicap."

"Oh and that would be…?" Mirokumaru said mockingly in a off-handed flick of her arm, as if she knew the result for this bet was already in and just waiting to cash in on her winnings.

"I want the light half to help train me, that way if you do beat me which would be a very big IF in that regard, we can both live with the results of me truly not being good enough to be your leader!"

The witch hat wearing girl fell silent as she thought it over "Heh! You got spunk, I like that. I can't wait to beat it out of you, after a well deserved thrashing. So the deal has been struck, you have until the end of the year to reach the top and defeat me!"

Grabbing her staff, the multicolored stranded girl pointed it behind Senna and with a loud static like crackle a strange rift opened up, the inside of the rift revealed the pit that Senna had gotten thrown into earlier, but what made this different was the fact that nothing was in the center where she had previously laid, though the fact that her soul was here and not out their helped with the attribution of this being all in her head.

"Well time to take what's mine…" the voice behind Senna whispered just loud enough. Senna was about to turn around when something large and black draped over her head and blocked her vision. Moving her hands to take whatever got up on top of her off, she unknowingly left herself wide open to Mirokumaru

Within a second something smooth and hard crashed into Senna's lips something that felt like skin, but the realization that something was molesting her mouth didn't come until something slimy entered her mouth and started to play with her own tongue.

'What the hell!' Senna's mind blasted to her brain from the lewd actions of Mirokumaru. Commanding her body to push the obvious perpetrator back, she shoved the other woman back and proceeded to rip the hat off her head to really give this depraved being a piece of her mind. However what she saw when the large witch hat came off was the extending leg of the other girl flying towards her mid-section.

Unable to move or catch the attack, Senna took the brunt of the blow which was powerful enough to knock her clean of her feet and sent her flying to the rift, sending her back to the real world while the rift closed itself back up it's purpose done.

Seeing that her guest was gone Mirokumaru went over to retrieve her hat that had cart wheeled down to a nearby puddle of water. Deciding to take this opportunity to see what the dark side was thinking, the less psychotic one probed for an answer "Was all that truly necessary?"

"Heehee! Of course, besides the fact I couldn't just let an attractive person go on by without making a pass despite the fact I'm gonna own her one day, in fact you could tell the little miss that everyone and everything belongs to me!"

"And where does Ichigo fit in all of this, surely one inner hollow can sense another, especially given the fact that your spiritual pressures are very similar in terms of feeling?"

The last thing that the good have would have expected from the dark half was to let out a very contented sigh and blush with a hungry look on her face "Brother will always be king." She said reverently "He can own anyone or anything…even me. Haaah…to be his queen even if we are blood…so wrong…so right…so decadent…fuufuu"

Mirokumaru's face returned to neutral when she changed voices again "I'm also concerned with the bet, I have no problem training her into using the weapons but what guarantee do I have that you won't try kill her before she masters them and possibly beats you."

The neutral face broke out this time in a smug smirk "Well right side of the law, I promise not to interfere with your training, besides the longer she's in control the more attractive people we seem to run into. Once I take over, no one will desire to be around her, so let her have her time, that way I can remember all the faces of my future slaves."

"I thought you were mad? You tried to kill her with your presence earlier." Referring to the cloud that engulfed everything

"Well, I am still a little sore at her about ignoring me, but…" her voice dropped an octave, and brought her hand over her mouth to hide her infernal grin "who could stay mad at my pretty little servants face? Ahahu…"

"I see. Well let us see if you lustful nature will be either your or her down fall…"

"What can I say?" Mirokumaru said as she bent over and picked up her hat, her multicolored hair parting from the gravity revealing a very pale face with gold colored eyes "I'm a narcissist." finished the creature that had the same face as her master Senna Kurosaki.

(Outside the pit: Human world)

It had been roughly three hours since Yoruichi had left Keisuke and waited at the top of the circular canyon, with nothing to do since she couldn't sense the girl down at the bottom, she had decided to curl up and take a cat nap. She would have continued her resting if not for the sound of a loud crackling noise and loud yell from what Yoruichi assumed to be the girl.

Getting upon her paws she stretched her back out to work the kinks, as she peered down the shaft. She couldn't sense any hollow like energy signature, which made the cat smirk, seeing that she'd finally have something to do with the Shinigami below.

(In the pit)

"I AM GOING TO KILL THAT BITCH WHEN I GET MY DAMN HANDS ON HER!" yelled an irate Senna as she got from her back after being kicked through the apparent portal back to the real world.

'Stop your bitching and pick us up cause you dropped us!' the re-grumpified Mirokumaru grunted out from inside her head

Senna gritted her teeth as she walked over to retrieve the sword and staff end of her soul blade. 'Leave me alone. I don't want to be reminded I have rapist living in my head!'

The dark side was going to respond but was pushed away by the better mannered side taking control 'Listen to me Senna-chan. We need to get out of this hole in the ground, and back up top. What I want you to do is focus your spiritual energy and focus it on you legs. You recall what it feels like correct?'

Senna affirmed, and closed her eyes as she began to imagine the cold embrace of death, and attune herself to the wavelengths of her…better halfed Zanpaktou. Reopening her eyes, Senna crouched down and prepared to jump. Pushing her feet off the ground Senna reached up to about 30 feet before her body slowed down and gravity took over once again dragging her back down to the bottom.

No less discouraged Senna concentrated even harder and jumped once again reaching about a third of the way. After the third attempt, Senna fell to her knee as she tried to catch her breath. 'This sucks. I never actually tried to jump something the size of an apartment complex.' She thought bitterly. After a moment an idea hit her 'Wait like an apartment complex…' Senna looked around her and saw that the circular hole wasn't too wide across 'or maybe like roof hoping…I wonder…'

Picking herself back up Senna refocused her energy, though this time instead of jumping straight up she ran forward and kicked herself off the wall, a huge smirk burst across her face when she saw that her apparent plan was working, going back across the otherway Senna braced herself and kicked off the far side wall sending back. 'Like a charm!' Senna thought gleefully as she approached the wall again unfortunately for her she wouldn't be met with the same results.

The reason being was the reishi she was using on her feet and legs to assist her finally gave out, so when she tried to kick off again her foot slipped and she fell back down to the bottom of the pit. With a loud and dust crash, Senna slammed back into the bottom kicking up lots of dust "(Hack) (cough) ahh…owww…oohh falling on your butt still hurts…" the purple haired Shinigami said with a wince as she moved her hand to soothe her sore bottom.

Unfortunatley for her, her actions didn't go unnoticed "Ohh~ baby, baby work that hand!" the inner demon mocked seductively, getting a look of annoyance from Senna was mentally noting to hurry up and get stronger so she could beat the crap out of the female Taoist witch thing. "Aww…don't stop touching your ass on my account!"

'Shut up…' Senna replied bitterly as she was back to square one again in her escape attempt

'Tch…whatever.' Mirokumaru replied with a rolling of her eyes, as she decided to talk with her other half 'So why exactly don't you just have her use her staff and-

"The staff!" The Shinigami girl exclaimed remembering her weapon from the dark half's casual mentioning of it, walking over to the wall Senna re-sheathed the sword back into the hollow golden rod end, transforming it back into Shakujo mode, with her hands gripping the center with the ringed end facing away from the wall Senna thrusted the weapon like a spear. The metallic end pierced the rock wall and after penetrating about six or so inches stopped.

Giving a slight tug, Senna smiled seeing that the weapon was held firmly in place. Placing her foot against the rocky sheet she concentrated her energy again and pulled out the rod. "Alright, this time for sure." She reassured as she walked back to the center, and grasped the staff firmly with her two hands.

Closing her eyes once more she focused herself on resummoning up her Reishi, when she felt it back on her feet again, she sprinted to the wall once more and kicked off it turning her body in mid air to launch herself again. After the second kick Senna felt the power once again give out but this time she was ready. Raising the blunt end above her head Senna stabbed the staff into the earth as she collided against the wall. Despite the shock that caused her left hand to fall to her side her right arm clung tightly to the handle.

"Good." Senna panted from the mounting exhaustion, as she dangled just below her staff. Swinging her arm up the ribbon wearing teenager gripped the weapon with both her hands and tried to pull herself up. With a small grunt Senna swung her right arm over the other side and hoisted herself up, until her stomach laid upon the golden metal of her staff, with one final push Senna flipped herself over until she was sitting on the top part of the staff just like the light side of Mirokumaru had been in her mind

"(Sigh)…it's a lot harder going straight up rather than across." The sweating teen said to herself, as she wiped the sweat that had been building from her efforts away from her forehead while she used her Hakama to clean her hands so they wouldn't lose their grip ability when she would kick off again. "I guess my body is still adjusting to my own power since I'd always been using Rukia's…" she whispered to herself, as she tilted her head back and looked up to where the light from the room she had previously been in was shining from "Rukia…" she said sadly remembering her friend who saved her life, at the cost of her own "Just you wait. Once I can stand on my own, I'll save you no matter what." The girl reaffirmed with a small smile built from her growing confidence "But first." She let out a sigh as she lowered herself down done with her small break "I need to get out of here."

Senna placed her foot against the rock wall and reconcentrated her reiatsu again and once it was at sufficient level kicked off the wall pulling her Zanpaktou out with her and flew across the otherside, and repeated her wall jumps and resting.

About thirty minutes and ten more wall jumps later, Senna could see that she was very near to the top, as she sat taking a well deserved break and wiped the dust and sweat off her face while her matted hair clung tightly to her flesh from the level of effort needed to escape the pit. "Almost (pant)(pant) there (pant)" Senna said gleefully that her steady work was getting ready to pay off, as she lowered herself back down.

Using what she felt must have been the last of her energy Senna kicked off the wall and ascended yet again, as she rose up from the second jump she saw that she could pull herself up from here, after she dug the Shakujo into the rock wall. The fatigued Shinigami tiredly raised herself up on to the staff, and sat on it tiredly taking a moment's pause so she could prepare to leave.

Using her hands to keep herself balanced Senna calmly moved her leg unto the ringed end of the Shakujo and paused to allow her sense of balance get accustomed so she could stand upon the staff to get out. Once she was sure that it wouldn't wobble under her weight, Senna let her right hand leave the staff and slowly feeling the wall to help give herself the support to stand. Slowly rising up to where she was crouching on the staff with only her left hand, that was in the between the distance of her legs, gripping the staff. Finally sure that she wouldn't fall, Senna allowed herself to smile as she slowly stood, using her natural agility and balance to maintain herself while her right hand scaled up until it touched the outer edge.

"Perfect." The girl whispered to herself as she felt she could pull herself up from here. Glancing back down, the red obied Shinigami maneuvered her foot into the Shakujo's rings and concentrated her running on fumes spiritual power, and jumped up pulling the Zanpaktou out while she used the last of her physical strength pull herself up.

With a stranded grunt Senna powered out of the tunnel her left foot that had her Zanpaktou still dangling over the side, while she remained face down on the ground exhausted from her climb. "M..mad…it" she forced out congraduatedly to herself as she flexed her left leg, causing her Zanpaktou to bang into her side, not that she cared at this point since she was finally out.

"Hmph. You certainly took your time." A voice said to the barely conscious girl, who against her bodies plea for rest looked up and saw in front of her a cat.

Senna stared tiredly into the creatures eyes, before she shook her head. "No way cat's don't talk." She rationalized figuring her mind was playing a trick on her from the mental and physical exhaustion placed unto her from the accumulating traumatic and stressful situation she'd been having so far. "But you are a pretty kitty." She teased as she brought her shaky hand to scratch the ears of the black feline

"Thanks for compliment, but unfortunately for you we don't have time to rest." The feline said again, making the downed girl freeze in terror, since she had literally watched the cat's mouth open and heard the words spill out of it.

Senna's unblinking gaze continued to bore into the face of the cat until she sharply dropped it back down unconscious her mind unable to cope all of what had transpired so far.

Yoruichi sat on her hind legs and scratched her ear before walking closer to the girl who was out like a light. A bright idea came to the nekomata, taking a glance around to make sure the coast was clear, the cat transformed back into her human form. As the last of the mist parted, the now fully naked and volpturious goddess of flash picked up her newest protégé and in the blur of a flash step headed in the direction of the emergency exit to continue the training of Senna.

(Same time: Ichigo: mind scape)

The banging and clanging of hard edged metal rang throughout the silent city of Ichigo's inner world. The black clothed Shinigami in charge of this sacred place was currently jumping from one building to the next to close the distance between himself and his inner hollow.

Not being one to let this opportunity to train against a powerful foe slip by, he had challenged his darker, though ironic lightly colored half to an interesting game of 'king of the hill', with the older of dynamic snide and wise team serving as the observer, referee and reluctant cheering section.

Knocking away the cloth thrown blade of Hichigo, Ichigo continued his charge forward to close the distance and re-engage in close quarters since he wasn't as good with the whole throwing your blade with enough force to rip people in half thing yet.

"The home team takes the lead at two minutes and thirty-five seconds" chimed in the observing black clad glasses wearing old man from his perch higher up the building, a safe distance from the vicious fighting between the two, silently informing Ichigo that he needed to kick hollow Zangetsu off that particular building to regain more point to reach the five minute goal.

Making the last jump needed unto the building his inner hollow was on Ichigo gripped his Zanpaktou with both of his hands, while his opponent tugged his arm back to retrieve his wayward blade to engage in an old fashioned sword match, while the old man stopped counting in his head since the 'hill' was now under territorial dispute.

Swinging with intense force Ichigo's Zangetsu collided into the lower end of the white specters blade just above the hilt, knocking him completely off balance, pulling his arm back he reversed his swing to horizontally clip his opponent.

The white specter despite his insane grin had no choice but to back pedal to avoid the returning slash. Hoping back half a step, the hollow adjusted his grip on his Zangetsu and launched himself forward as his foot came in contact with the glass window underneath him.

The two swordsman's blades clanged and clinged against each other as the both combatants violently slashed against the other trying to find an opening to inflict some serious damage and take the lead in their deadly game. Soon an opening presented itself, as the hollow phantom swung his sword to cut Ichigo in half, the teenage Shinigami wisely decided to side step instead of guard. As the blade lowered past Ichigo, he removed his right hand and pelted a right hook into the hollows face, sending him twirling about which was followed up by a kick to it's stomach launching it cleanly off the building.

"The away has taken control, Ichigo now leads at two minutes and forty-two seconds." The impromptu referee declared, while his other half erupted from the smoke and debris of his crash landing. In an almost arrogant fashion the white hamaka wearing mirror image got back to his own feet and ran his hand through his hair to get rid of some dust before brushing away at his hakama.

Picking his blade back up and resting it against his shoulder the inner hollow decide to give a little praise "Not too bad king. Ya got me pretty good." his pale thumb nicking his left side of his lip, revealing a tiny amount of blood that came from the side. "Tell ya what…remember that one move I said I'd help you with when you were getting the little ring for Mrs. 'Own your sack'?" he lowered his sword back down and grabbed it by the cloth as he started to swing the blade in a circular revolution until it looked like a buzz saw attached to a cloth "Why don't I show you it." he yelled out maniacally as he threw the blade at Ichigo who stood at the ready "Make sure to take some damn good notes!"

Reacting on instinct, Ichigo's body narrowly dodged the projectile blade by rolling away to the side. The blade slammed into the wall like it always did but this time it seemed to be much more ominous then before, turning his eyes back at his attacker, he saw his inner hollow hunched over a bit with it's head down.

Ichigo would have continued to wonder what was going on but he lost that luxury when the grinning white doppelganger snapped it's head at Ichigo, his normal yellow eyes glowing a very dark golden almost like a full moon in the evening sky. With a slight jerk of it's arm a violently dark aura engulfed the creature's form and in one fluid motion thrusted the cloth forward as if it was trying to strike someone with it's fist.

"Gotta move!" Ichigo realized as the dark purple-ish energy had started to whip through the cloth and race down to where the enemy Zangetsu rested, the cord flipping in a circular motion in the air as it continued down it's path.

Utilizing his speed and skill with flash step, the man raced to the edge of the building and jumped away from it as the dark energy touched the hilt. The result was instantaneous as the energy soon erupted into a dark nuclear explosion like attack, the roar was deafening to Ichigo who was so close to ground zero of the attack the only thing that could be heard even above the devastating move was insane laughter of Hollow Zangetsu.

"Close…" Ichigo whispered as he turned back around and his eyes widened when he saw the results. The building he was on…was no more all that remained was a small pole that the older Zangetsu was still standing on, and more than likely the only reason the pole was still there in the first place. Out of the corner of his eye a flash of white caught his eye as the inverse Zangetsu sword sailed through the air and back into the waiting hand of it's monstrous master.

"Well look at that you lived! Hahaha…" the pure white looking Ichigo chuckled darkly, as both he and Ichigo got ready to re-engage the other

Unfortunately before they could continue Zangetsu broke their concentration with his words "Ichigo it seems your body is starting to wake up again. We'll have to postpone this…and the goal was destroyed so we can't continue the game."

Hichigo contorted his face in disgust at having his fun ruined "Bah! That's bull shit! Fuck them and their training regiment, I'm all Ichigo needs to kick all of Soul Societies undead asses!" he retorted, before pausing a moment as an epiphany dawned on him and decided to amend what he said slightly "Well except for the women, I'll kick the male half asses during the day and tapping the female half at night starting with little miss twin bands."

Ichigo sighed in disbelief "Nothing is sacred to you is it?" he asked futilely

"Pff…whatever just beat it…"

"Farewell Ichigo."

With a nod of his head Ichigo focused his mind to the sounds of the outside world so he could return back to consciousness. When Ichigo's body fully disappeared, the dark shady wearing old man jumped from his perch and landed beside his younger blood thirsty counter-part. A serene look on his face, a look of resignation.

"He's quite strong…"

"Heh..tell me about it."

The older man looked away "It's a shame you may not live to see his full potential."

The all white phenomenon gave a sour look at his black clothed half "Yeah well…considering what he is, it's not a big surprise. I mean he could have ended up either way for all we both knew, but he ended up a Shinigami, my end was decided that very moment, he didn't end up a hollow." He then turned his face away and faced the empty city sky line and sighed "Hell, all he needs now is the Getsuga Tensho and maybe a Bankai and he could easily overpower me, doesn't help that he's absorbing mine and your power."

"True, though you do realize we will have to come together again someday, if he is to unlock his true potential."

"Yeah…well we'll see I mean if I beat him, his body will decay and die with me since I'd be in control and it's absorbing me." The dark half said bitterly, since while it didn't want to die, it couldn't allow Ichigo to beat it with earning the right to be king "Bah! Enough of this depressing shit, I want ask you about something else, Zangetsu."

"I have a feeling it pertains to Senna and her relationship to Ichigo correct Zangetsu?" the man roughly gauged since he was for all intents and purpose talking to himself. His only response was a crossing of the arms and a rude nodding of his partners head "I think…that she is in fact Ichigo's sister, reason being aside from the story we were told, her spiritual signature is extremely similar to Ichigo's which could only be reforged by someone with the same parents, though Ichigo hasn't completely accepted or understood the fact because her spiritual energy is so similar to her, he thinks it's his."

Hollow Zangetsu scowled slightly "If that's true then that unknown signature that seemed hollow like in nature…could have been Senna's inner hollow, but would that make her…?"

The older figure tilted his head upward in thought "It is possible but will require more observation. She had only recently awakened to her power…who's to say how she will turn out."

"Regardless, make sure that King's got no problems with killing her, last thing we need is someone ungodly strong and the only one who can stop doesn't have the balls to do it."

After the statement was said, silence fell upon the pair as they gazed over the city. One contemplating his own death at the hands of his master, while the other was forced to think about the uncertainty of the future, though both would agree, the catalyst, Ichigo, would be the key to what the future would hold for both himself and Soul Society.

(Ichigo's room)

Having finished surgically removing Ichigo's limiter about an hour ago, the semi-well mannered proprietor of the establishment Keisuke Urahara was sitting in back in an office chair with his legs propped on the nearby desk, while he took a swig of his cup of Joe. The man let out a contented sigh from the rich taste and aroma of the drink, as he placed it back down on the desk and continued to work on his word scrabble since he wasn't sure when the sleeping teen would come back to reality.

"Hmm…a seven letter word for something long and hard…" the tinkering thinker said aloud "Arousal…" he came up with saying the first thing that came to his mind "mmm…but I don't really see what that has to do with something long and hard, ah well put down for now." He said with a shrug as he moved in to fill in the blank

"Well if you can't figure it out now, I doubt you ever will." chimed in the voice of Ichigo groggily, as he adjusted himself up and with a shaky hand pulled the ruffled blankets off of him and raised himself from the bed, and glanced towards the hazy form of Keisuke.

Closing his book and throwing it back unto the table, the blond man turned to his fellow infiltrator "Well, well, nice to see that you decided to join us here I was thinking you were gonna take a dirt nap on us."

Ichigo rolled his eyes "Sorry to disappoint." He responded sarcastically, as he moved his legs off the bed and brought his feet to the wooden floor "You ready?" the orange haired teen asked since he needed to get a move on training if he wanted this plan to work

Pushing his feet off the desk, Keisuke turned in his chair and got up and picked up his cane "Course, but before we start I want to know how far you've come in terms of understanding your Zanpaktou."

Ichigo gave a sideways glance "I can use my Shikai no problem, unfortunately I haven't completely master it."

The blonde traitor hummed as he tapped his cane in front of him. He was inwardly cursing that within the limited amount of time they might not have the chance to get started on Bankai training since he hadn't fully master Shikai, and to try and force that could be dangerous to not only Ichigo but also himself. 'Well, I suppose I can take the Tenshintai, Zanpaktou materialization doll , and have him use it maybe at Kukaku's…no, no bad idea the reapers would sense us. I know at me and Yoruichi's playground, no one could sense us and we'll have the full three days to bring out his Bankai.'

"That's fine for now, we'll just spend our time improving your Zanjutsu-ship, and getting you to learn whatever you haven't learned yet of your blade." The blond said as he tapped his chin "Still how did you make fourth seat without having mastered you Zanpaktou?"

Ichigo hesitated slightly at the question since he didn't want to give him the wrong idea "Originally, I was a sixth seat prior to learning my Zanpaktou's released form. Unfortunately when transferred divisions, it wasn't to master my Zanpaktou it was to reign in my spiritual pressure since it would affect others around me."

Keisuke's eyes narrowed in suspicion 'Odd…if that's the case then why wouldn't the R&D just issue him a device in the mean time and have him learn how to control it.' his eyes widened a fraction as the answer came to him 'Aizen. Probably wanted him and his power, and considering all that's happened to the kid, I'd say it didn't go as planned so he tried to tie up loose ends. Very clever…'

"So after the transfer, the sixth seat wasn't open so I was placed as a fourth seat, and after a year the Taicho in charge decided to let me keep the seat and sanctioned my chance to become Fuka-Taicho, which unfortunately because of this mission got shot to hell." finished Ichigo, who planned on beating the answers out of that silver haired Taicho after he rescued Rukia Kuchiki.

"Well, after this little invasion, let's see if they'll change their mind on considering you." said Keisuke as he beckoned the young man to follow him down to the training area.

The two walked in silence, since Ichigo was preparing his mind to focus entirely on fighting and if possible defeat Keisuke, while Keisuke was hoping enough time passed for Yoruichi to have taken Senna to the riverside near the south side of town since he had made a guesstimation that the girl would either succeed or fail within three to five hours since her body and soul hadn't fully recovered, thus giving her a much smaller window of success but also less interference/resistance within her inner world.

Reaching the stairs to the desolate training field, both Soul reapers detected the unique spiritual barrier of Tessai to the far right hand side that to Ichigo's surprise was completely out of his range of sight giving him a small healthy respect of the sheer size and design by the mad scientist beside him. Taking a moment to gander at his new found environment, Ichigo saw a barren dust-ridden plain that looked like the ruins of an old battle field minus the building one would expect to be found in such a hellish locale.

Unknown to the awe-struck strawberry, the blond scientist smirked as he didn't sense Yoruichi but more importantly a hollow signature which meant that Senna had succeeded in regaining her once borrowed power and made it her own. "All right Strawberry, get ready to defend yourself." declared the martial researcher as he dipped his hat down and pulled out his as of yet unnamed Zanpaktou

"One question before we start Keisuke." said Ichigo as he still kept his lingering gaze out into the expansive emptiness. The token silence being the indication on Urahara's part to continue "Out of everything you could have made this room look like, why did you settle for little more than scorched earth and some rocks?"

The blond arched his eye brow at the question, and took a moment to allow his eyes to peek to the ends of his peripherals. He silently brought his grey eye's gaze back to the currently unarmed man, a smirk dancing unto his face as he raised his partner threateningly at Ichigo "What you afraid that there might be something out there?" Keisuke chided

Ichigo remained for the most part impassive, though he had to suppress the urge to scoff at the man coming to the wrong conclusion like that "No. I just wanted to know why the architect would choose something so…sad." He said solemnly as he pulled Zangetsu from it's resting place, the cloth binding giving way as if sensing the up-coming battle between the conspirators.

Keisuke kept a fierce gaze on Ichigo, unwilling to let him out of his sight since he didn't have a great idea of what Ichigo could do and going solely on what his beloved grand-nephew told him, but replied none-the-less since curiosity gave rise to knowledge. "The reason the place is so barren is so that it leaves who ever enters focused on one thing: Their enemy. With nothing around to distract your senses or mind with movement your mind will become acutely focused on your task, further more the other reason is because this place is most-like the hollow world Hueco Mundo. Nothing around as far as the eye can see, and should you die just a cold place to leave you body until something comes along to devour you." Keisuke answerer coldly, giving the younger Shinigami the exact reason for such a design in mind "Now…enough talk, let's see what you can do, Kurosaki-san."

With the time for question and answers over, Ichigo pulled out his giant sized clever from his back which was answered by Keisuke and his sword closing the distance between them, leaving just a small window for Zangetsu to intercept.

As the blades screeched against each other, the blond dipped his blade downward with a twist of his hand and thrusted forward using the larger sword's edge to keep it straight on it's course to Ichigo's heart.

Seeing the blade edge closer, the Shinigami jerked his arm to the side sending the blade away towards the ground. What he didn't expect however was for Keisuke's sword to implant itself in such an angle that it allowed Keisuke to jump on top of the blade and deliver a spinning kick to his head, sending Ichigo flying in the opposite direction.

Landing back down on the ground, Keisuke smirked as he pulled his blade out and charged after his opponent who was using his hand to slow his skidding body to a halt. "Is that it? You're boring me here." Keisuke taunted as his opponent got back off his knee, ignoring the stinging sensation in his hand

Letting his opponent waste the energy in charging him, Ichigo grounded his stance to prepare for the onslaught of the ex-taicho and traitor to soul society. The blond man's blade entered back into another dead lock with the cutting moon for a few more seconds before the pair broke off and started striking and parrying each other moves with their Zanpaktou

'So this is the strength of a captain! Well I won't lose!' Ichigo declared in his mind, as Zangetsu stopped another cut and absorbing the shock from the strength behind it

'Well, well, he's certainly picking up the pace.' The opposing man denoted as he stepped backwards to block the young man's counter attacks 'But…this still isn't enough, I gotta get him to dig deeper.'

As both thoughts concluded themselves within each's respective minds, their blades arced backwards forcing both men to put some distance, in case the other decided to try something in the momentary break in the fighting.

As Ichigo was jumping back, he swung Zangetsu in a low upward swing dragging the blade against the rocky ground, causing some of the earth to split underneath it and launch it forwards as an rocky storm at his enemy, and propel him even further backward to switch us some tactics.

'Clever.' Keisuke thought with interest at the surprising in not futile technique, as he flicked his hand at each large boulder and cleaving it in to pint sized pebbles, as it approached his persons, with the last one promptly destroyed he gazed over at his opponent who stood in an odd stance, as his hand were no longer gripping the hilt but instead the cloth wrapping at the butt of the sword.

Having finished his preparation due to the distraction, Ichigo swung his right arm in a quick circular motion and tossed the massive great sword towards it's human bulls eye with great easy but deadly force.

His curiosity caught Keisuke decided to take the attack head on, to see if this particular attack and possible fighting style might be efficient at all. Raising his guard up, he braced himself as the blade crashed into him forcing his body back by the impressive strength behind the attack. When he stopped moving he momentarily allowed himself to recover, which almost got him fatal results, as the moment the blade began to fall back to the ground allow him the reprieve Ichigo twisted his forearm and raised it upwards, causing the sword to flip itself over and jump upward like a snake.

Due to Keisuke having not fully let his guard down, he only lost a small portion of the hair on the side of his head and had his hat get knocked off, a small price to pay he supposed but a lesson learned as he began to formulate a plan to remove that long range attack from the equation that was this battle.

Tsking, in annoyance Ichigo tugged the cloth back hard to return it back to him for another volley, glad that the current distance would give him the time needed to relaunch it.

As the blade sailed through the air back towards Ichigo who didn't waste a second sending it in a circular motion to give it more strength while Keisuke started his advance forward again keeping an eye on the sword for when the next attack would come.

He didn't have to wait long as the soul reaper heaved his weapon back at the Taicho. The result were much different this time around as Urahara flash stepped past the blade and with a rotating spin and back swinging arc cut the cloth of Zangetsu leaving Ichigo defenseless, while the blade dragged against the rocky ground.

With another succession of flash step, Keisuke closed the distance with a cocky smirk. "Good first time but the not the second." He chided childishly, but then grew deathly serious "If this is all you got, I gotta say that Soul Societies really gone downhill, and whoever your captain was…" he swung his sword to cut the man in half as he finished his taunt knowing it could get him more motivated "must have been really pathetic to give you your seat."

As the words left the traitors mouth, Ichigo's anger soared high at the insulting of both his friends Toshiro Hitsuguaya and Shaolin Fon. Quickly breaking his eyes away from the snide face of his opponent he focused in on the katana, and in a show great dexterity and strength, clasped both his hands on the flat end of the sword keeping it from going any further towards his persons.

With a violent convulsion of his body, Ichigo sent the sword skyward, disarming Keisuke. Using the small window of opportunity, Ichigo's elbow shot out and struck the man in the face smashing his head backwards from the collision, as he moved to follow up his opening with enraged vigor, Keisuke himself started to perform some unexpectedly skilled Hakudo of his own.

The duo's hands and legs connected with each other in quick violent frenzies as each one tried to gain the upper hand, their Zanpaktou's both laying on the ground forgotten in the pugilist's brawl. Unfortunately for Ichigo, his spiritual power and strength was not at the level of captain, so with each blocked blow, his energy reservoir dropped a little bit more and his anger left him more vulnerable to attack as he was becoming too focused on taking off Keisuke's head than defending himself.

"Damn it." Ichigo cursed under his breath as he deflected another kick to his side away 'Gotta get to Zangetsu…'

Keisuke's calculating eyes noticed the slight twitch on Ichigo's face and assumed a momentary distraction 'Too bad you lose kid.' With a lightning fast gut shot, he grabbed the outer edges of Ichigo's hakama and tossed him over his shoulder, allowing the opportunity to unleash Benihime on his enemy.

As Ichigo was thrown through the air he flipped sideways to correct his body, and with a brief scan of spiritual power located Zangetsu before flash stepping to his fallen partner. As his feet touched the floor heard the voice of Keisuke Urahara yelled out something and a violent roar erupted from the distance and could be heard screaming towards him at high velocity. He was only allowed a fleeting glance as a humongous red wave crashed into his body.

The explosion that followed was quite impressive sending huge clouds of dust, rock, smoke, and spiritual particles flying everywhere. Inwardly the mad scientist was glad Tessai had erected that barrier around them, surely something of that magnitude would have had negative effects on that Ein fellow who was inside learning "the way of the fist" as the movies proclaimed.

As the smoke cleared, Keisuke found himself on one end of a giant linear crevice with the other end containing whatever was left of Ichigo's spiritual power and a big pile of rubble. Placing his sword against his shoulder he decided to pause to see if the kid was still alive for his patience, Ichigo Kurosaki broke through the stone prison with Zangetsu at his side breathing heavily with his hakama torn to pieces and blood running down his forehead, sides of his mouth and numerous cuts and burn marks on his chest and forearms. Ichigo with a slight stumble exited the ruins and grasped his sword with what little strength he had left, as he fought against gravity's attempts to bring him down to the ground to rest.

The hat-and-clog wearing manager was amused to see that Ichigo did in fact survive and still wanted to go, but he still had a feeling that Ichigo hadn't been pushed all the way yet, something still wasn't there. But now he knew the right buttons to press to get him riled up, and set out to do just that. "You know, Ichigo I hate to say this but you should quit while your ahead." He said condescendingly grabbing the beat down man's attention "because if you can't even really hurt me what chance do you have at beating Yoruichi? For all that you've supposedly endured so far just to get a shot at her makes me question your conviction on the matter, and I've come to the conclusion on one thing." He felt Ichigo's spiritual pressure begin to spike rapidly at the words, unbeknownst to Ichigo, whose blade was starting to become enveloped in a white light "That your reasons for wanting to kill her are simply…pathetic."

"You…" he gritted out as his temper and spiritual pressure continued rise upward "You know nothing!" he yelled out as he gripped his cutting moon with both his hands to bring it up to waist level, as he stared down the man almost as if he wanted his eyes to incinerate the walking corpse before him. "If to get to her I need to walk over your corpse," he yelled out as his mind flashed a faint image of both Yoruichi and Shaolin "Then I'll kill you here!"

Launching his arms up past his head, Ichigo's Zanpaktou screamed out it's power as the blade was fully engulfed in a white light that seemed to steam from the blue spiritual aura covering Ichigo. "Die!" he yelled as the sword descended down ward, releasing a gigantic wave of light towards the excited scientist.

From a rough guesstimation on his part Keisuke easily deduced that it was roughly 10 times the size of his Benihime crimson wave, which meant precautions needed to be made, such as defense and evasion. "Blood mist shield" he called out as a triangular red mist shot out of his weapon and stood in between him and the vastly approaching energy wave

The two spiritual forces collided and raged against each other, as each tried to overpower the other. Keisuke noted that unless he started putting more energy into his shield it was going to give out and leave him on the receiving end of an attack that he was pretty sure he might not survive. So he started focusing more and more unto the center to keep it stable the white energy shooting past the sides of the barrier.

Near the bottom corner a small portion slipped around and rushed towards the man and clipped his legs, sending him to his knees as he ignored the pain and remained focused on his task. Within a matter of moments the light died down, leaving the kneeling man to catch his breath behind his crimson barrier.

"That was pretty good. We might have a chance yet." He chuckled to himself as he got up on his feet, and looked behind him to check out the damage. He let out a low whistle at seeing two giant streaks go off in separate directions at roughly three or four feet across, turning back around he lowered his shield and looked amusedly at the still barely standing Ichigo, who soon collapsed unto his knees, his sword clanging against the ground.

Ichigo was gasping for air from the attack that had been released by his blade.

…Tensho!

He blinked dumbly at hearing the word in his mind though it sounded incomplete so far. Ichigo winced as pain shot throughout his body "Better worry about that later." He whispered as he prepared to use some kido to mend himself.

Seeing Ichigo start to heal himself Keisuke flash stepped over and gave his assistance to bring the young Shinigami back to health, and off the brink of death. Once he was finished he took to treating his own leg. "Well kid, I gotta say you did quite well."

"Thanks." Ichigo replied with a grin, and then not a moment later head butted Keisuke in the face sending the man crashing to the ground "and that's for saying she's pathetic." He declared while the scientist rolled around on the floor clutching his face

'Geez, I get beat up by student's twice in one day, ah well…their stimulating to say the least.' Keisuke thought half-amused as he rubbed his forehead with his hand since that was the part that absorbed most of the damage "Well, let's go over a few exercises and then call it a day."

So for the next hour and a half Ichigo trained under the careful eye of Keisuke Urahara, feeling that he might need to recover he ended up cutting it short saying that they had all week to get him above and beyond par. So the pair headed back towards the stairwell, both noticing that the barrier Tessai made was gone meaning he and Ein were long gone. Climbing up the stair one weary step at a time the two entered back into the circular center room where Uryu was busy cooking with Ururu and a small red haired boy that Ichigo didn't know, and Tessai was sitting next to the proverbial karate kid, who had taken notice to the newly arrivals.

The head band wearing martial arts wannabe jumped out of his seat and moved over towards the two with a friendly smile "Ah Ichigo-kun, Urahara-sensei! How goes things on your end of the training? I myself feel truly invigorated and feel that I can take on anything thrown at me!" the older man let out a hearty laugh

"Ahem forgive my apprentice, he's still green." apologized Tessai continuing along with the charade which made his 'apprentice' give a sheepish look at being called out "Anyway, return tomorrow at the same time so we could pick up at the 'screaming angry wombat' stance."

"Yes, master." He declared with vigor before turning towards Ichigo with a fire in his eye "Then I entrust Sen-chan's safety to you Ichigo. No kid sister is ever more safer than with her older brother."

Ichigo was flabbergasted at the man for practically talking about private things like that out loud with no regard for who might be within ear shot, like the idiot scientist beside him "That's still…unsure at the moment."

The dark haired man look no less dissuaded "None sense, you must have a striking resemblance to one another."

"You can't even see me." Ichigo dead panned with a huge sweat drop at the man's faulty logic

Ein merely laughed "Hahaha! But my princess is quite the looker at her age, so I'm guessing if your related you two must be quite rugged and handsome, I mean you have such a strong manly voice filled with such vigor."

The male Kurosaki merely face palmed, while Keisuke decided to throw his two cents in "Ohoho! If he could only see your face Ichigo. That'll give him a new meaning to 'rugged'." Unfortunately it wasn't for the betterment of Ichigo and his argument

"Shut up, hat and clogs." He retorted with mild annoyance, as he went to go sit down and get something to eat, while Ein bowed before exiting the room.

(Store entrance: Senna and Yoruichi)

Senna practically limped her way back to the Urahara Shoten using her Shakujo staff as a walking stick with the nekofied Yoruichi resting on her shoulder comfortably enjoying the ride. The poor girl so far had not had a very great day, after being abducted while unconscious by the cat she took her down to the Samgawa river, stripped her off her Hamaka and chucked her into the river to wake her up.

After breaking the surface, and flashing the world around her it took fifteen minutes of intense consultation and talking to get it through that she was in her spiritual form and that nobody could see her…probably, which earned the ire from the teenager and the despair that would soon engulf her from being trained by the jokester.

After the side-show introduction was over, Yoruichi stated that they would work on the basics of swordsmanship today, and skip all of Hakudo since it would take too long for a novice to pick up and use it efficiently unlike a sword. The training itself was easy the hard part was ignoring the peanut gallery in her head that was making itself quite vocal at having been, so teased and aroused by the whimsical nature of the cat girl, which was then stoked even further when the nekomata started to tease Senna over every little detail.

Back to the present as she came closer to the house she wondered if her sanity would last the week and training before she would snap and probably kill everyone around her within a hundred mile radius, and given her Shinigami powers it was damn well possible, in fact Dark Mirokumaru was actively encouraging the idea.

As she approached the house she decided now would be a good time to wake up Yoruichi "Hey Yoruichi-Sensei, we're here." She said tiredly as her hand shook the cat lightly, while she wanted to grab the cat and beat it senseless she just couldn't find the strength or energy for the task what with all the mental trauma inflicted upon her persons.

The cat stirred from it's slumber as it opened one of it's eyes and got up on it's legs and hopped off her Senna express, down to the ground and transformed back into human shape. Her once nude body covered up by a orange flak jacket with a purple shirt underneath and skin-tight black pants with white running shoes, a weird ruby necklace and a golden ribbon to tie her ponytail backwards.

Yoruichi's face lit up in a cat like grin "Thank-you little witch." She teased saying that she looked like a witch from Halloween with her Shakujo.

As the pair prepared to enter, the door opened up and out came the karate man himself, Ein who seemed to be in thought. "Hey dad." Senna said amicably her mood picking up for the better from seeing her, human world father still alive.

The man's head picked up "Hmm? Oh hey Senna didn't see ya there."

Senna grinned childishly "Well that's because you can't see spirits silly!" enjoying the small talk, while Yoruichi decided to leave them alone and entered the premises

The rugged man puffed up as he stroked his goat tee "I'll have you know Senna, that your old man has been learning the fine arts of Kung-fu, I'm telling you when we get to Soul Society, Your really gonna see your old man shine. I'll have everyone singing praises of Ein the divine! Hahaha!"

"I'm sure they will dad." Senna replied a little willing to stroke his ego just a bit "So you'll be back tomorrow?" she asked a bit hopeful since this could be their last week together as family since they could die for real in the world that was Ichigo's home.

"Of course, but you must promise that when we win, that you'll continue to grow strong, and that you'll marry a fine young man, and then bring him home to me so I can intimidate him with my fists of fury, and then you can go to the bed room and-"

He never got to finish his long winded speech as Senna 'accidentally' lost her grip on her Shakujo staff which caused the golden rod to smash hard into the skull of the lunatic she was now disgraced to call a father. 'Maybe I can become a nun now; I at least look the part…perhaps a Miko in some mountain village far away from society.'

She picked up her staff tiredly and stepped over her limp father's form with a tired expression "Later dad." She said as she closed the door behind her.

Picking himself up, he rubbed the sore spot that the rod had bumped into. Taking his hand off his head, he continued to look at the door, and then finally smirked as he put his hands in his pockets and walked off away from the chaos that was taking place inside

(Inside the Shoten: Moments earlier)

Yoruichi had strolled on by the human duo, leaving them to have a precious tender moment in privacy for their sake. Since it was easily within the realm of possibility that either of them die by either Soul Reaper, Kukaku or any other combination of things.

Hearing her stomach growl in it's want for food the brown goddess decided to follow her feline nose towards the smell of something good being cooked 'Looks like Uryu returned early, hehe maybe there will be fluke tonight.' The woman thought to herself as a bit of drool started to come out of the side of her mouth for delicious fish that might soon be inside it.

Turning the corner, she opened the main room door and walked in "Hey Keisuke!" she chirped cheerfully with a close eyed smile. When silence met her, she opened her eyes and saw that everyone was looking at her. Tessai looked extremely hesitant as sweat began to roll down the side of his face, Uryu had stopped cooking and asked the boy and girl to leave much to Jinta's detest since he was gonna miss an apocalyptic battle between neko-chan and girly man, Keisuke merely looked at her and silently cursed as his hand gripped Benihime, and the final occupant Ichigo looked at her with a slight peacefulness since he had expected someone else.

Ichigo's gaze remained fixed on the face of Yoruichi Shihoin, as his mind started to reboot up that the person in front of him was here.

Almost instantaneously did Ichigo kick himself off the table using as a spring board as he jumped at the cat, ready to draw Zangetsu and cleave her head off her shoulders. His attempt failed when the other three men sprung into action with Tessai flash stepping and pinning his arms down to the ground, while Uryu sat on his lower body and restrained his legs so he couldn't use a flash step of any kind, while Keisuke walked over and tapped Yoruichi on the forehead with his fan and placed his sword against Ichigo's neck.

"Settle down kid. Don't do something you're going to regret." Keisuke commanded, as his sword's razor sharp edge met the flesh of Ichigo's neck

"Like hell I'll regret it!" the strawberry blond teen spat out, while he mentally commanded for Hichigo to get ready to take over so he could break the grip the other's had on his body and use that small burst to snap Shaolin's ex-mentor's neck

"My apologies Ichigo, but me and the old man are too beat from fighting off that captain and keeping you alive from that one attack. Sorry, but I can't take over and get you out of this!" the inner hollow reported reluctantly since this would have been a great win-win situation for him. He get's to fight all these strong enemies and if by some miracle Shaolin did forgive him, she'd have been more than willing to sleep with him, which again was mutualistic for the phantom since he'd essential be getting laid as well

"What are you doing!" yelled out Senna as she entered into the scene her sword drawn and pressing against the back of Keisuke, wanting answers as to why Ichigo looked like he was about to be executed

"Stand down, Senna. I'm sure we could come to a reasonable solution to all of this." Said Yoruichi as she raised her hands up to try and play peace maker

"I agree it's called you standing still and me lobbing your head off!" Ichigo snarled out from his human lock scenario as he tried to break free again to no avail

Slightly annoyed the goddess of flash put her hands on her hips as she frowned slightly in misunderstanding "Ok what's with the hostility? I don't even know you so what's your deal?"

Ichigo glared at her and tsked "Fine, but I'm still going to kill you. One way or another."

Yoruichi laughed amused by his conviction "That's fine, I don't mind having a tussle with young rowdy boy like you. In fact, I might teach you a thing or two."

Senna sweat dropped from all the innuendo in her statement and decided to just remain quiet and ignore the lecherous gaze of Dark Mirokumaru between Senna and Yoruichi, as she resheathed her gale saber back into Shakujo mode.

Casting a quick kido, Tessai created a rather strong barrier around Yoruichi and her side of the room while he and Uryu got off Ichigo's back allowing the man to get back to his feet. Ichigo gaze a linger hate filled glare at Yoruichi before turning his back and walking towards the chair at the far end of the room, making a rough guess they wouldn't be lower the barrier until there was a considerable amount of objects and people in the way to intercept Ichigo.

As he propped himself down, he saw Senna come and take the seat next to him with her staff raised over the table in a make-shift defensive position that came from the concern and his need to have to abandon his weapon by his 'executioners'.

Keisuke and Uryu came next and sat on opposite ends of the table serving as a pair of living gate keepers, Tessai came next followed by Yoruichi taking the seat on the opposite end of the table.

The tension of the occupants of the room was stifling, as each one was stressed from the hard training they had done, sought answers to questions, and feared for the lives of others. The silence linger on as Ichigo stared across the table acknowledging no one else in the room besides Her. Keeping his hands underneath the table to ensure he didn't lose them to Benihime or a barrage of Quincy arrows, he started his story.

He explained in elaborate detail who he was and what brought him here, he then went on to explain how he knew who Yoruichi and Keisuke were by bringing up the relationship status of his girlfriend Soifon, though he and everyone else supposed the correct term would be ex-girlfriend because of what happened.

All of the room's occupants had varying ranges of opinions and expressions on their faces. Senna who had heard some of his background from back at the cemetery that they had visited nodded her head, and noted that he must have really cared about his girlfriend Soifon if he still aimed to accomplish that task despite the current situation, though she did think that maybe it could have been put on hold…for at least a little while longer. 'Then again this is his first chance to get her so it's understandable…' she countered herself with since she knew anger made people do strange things

A thoughtful looking Keisuke was mixed as he could understand where he was coming from so he knew that if they told their side of the story, then maybe they could defuse this loose cannon and gain a more loyal ally, though it would mean explaining the real reason that Keisuke and company we're going something he didn't want to do anytime soon, but felt there wasn't much of a choice now.

Uryu's opinion of Ichigo changed slightly for the better, since while a good majority of Soul reapers were assholes: case in point the extinction of nearly 99% of the Quincy race, Ichigo had shown a strong sense of loyalty and duty, the bespectacled boy easily recalled the Shinigami saying he would protect all innocent souls including Uryu's, despite their pretenses and misgivings at the time.

Tessai remained impassive and merely gave a "hmm…" his own thought's not readily explained

The final occupant, Yoruichi, looked visibly troubled by what Ichigo had told her had happened to her star apprentice and first choice bodyguard. "I understand." She said in a soft serious tone of voice that wasn't normally used except outside of important times "Before you speak though, hear my reasons and hear our side first before you jump to conclusions. Ok?"

Ichigo said nothing but nodded his head his gaze still unblinking at the former commander of Onimitsukido, while Senna moved her staff out of the way since it wouldn't be necessary at this point in time, but she didn't slacken her grip on it.

"I guess the cat's outta the bag…" said Keisuke as he leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms out since this could take a while and was now unavoidable "oh well, I suppose you would have gotten suspicious and started asking questions soon, kid."

Yoruichi leaned her cheek against her fist as a look of boredom dawned on her face "Let's start from the top. According to Soul Societies history records, Kisuke, Tessai and myself should be listed as traitor's roughly 52 years ago. However I'm not sure what the given reason they gave to you was, could you tell us."

Ichigo shook his head "I wasn't around then and for most part that incident was considered hush hush, even amongst squad two."

"Very well orchestrated Aizen." Kisuke said off-handedly, getting odd looks of confusion from the two Kurosaki's though for different reasons.

"What does Aizen-Taicho have to do with anything?" asked Ichigo not getting the connection

"Ahh…who's this Aizen fellow?" asked Senna as she, being human was ignorant of the top dogs of the afterlife

Keisuke leaned forward over the table and quickly asked Uryu to move the food of the stove while he explained "To answer both your question, Sosuke Aizen is one of thirteen court guard squad captains, that essentially run soul society, though I don't know who else has been replaced or if that number changed. As to how he fits into our story is this, he's the one that caused our banishment."

"How?" asked Ichigo, as he prepared to find any holes in the man's story that could break apart any well constructed lies.

"It all started with an invention of mine called the Hogyoku. What this little baby did was break down the limits between Shinigami and Hollows, allowing one to have both sides and increase their power exponentially. For easier terms for you Senna, it would be like having a machine gun and a shot gun given to you instead of one or the other. Anyway, after successfully creating it, I decided to test it out." Keisuke shifted back into his chair and let out a breath of frustration "The result was mixed, but in my opinion it was a failure. I tested it on a young trainee, and while he did gain hollow powers…he…also turned into a grotesque monster. He was killed shortly thereafter, and we told his family he died in an accident, not entirely a lie."

"Oh my god." Senna said under her breath, her mind imagining what could have happened to that poor soul

"Oh, it get's better, which is where Aizen comes in. Shortly afterward, I went into a slight depression and so I had gone to see previous captain of the fifth, Hirako Shinji. As I told him the result about what had happened, it was at that moment that Sosuke Aizen made his presence know, he apologized for having eavesdropped as he brought the tea and formally asked if he could join the discussion. I didn't know him all that well but decided that he looked like an intelligent man, so might have a solution, so we invited him though Hirako was wary of Aizen. We had talked but I could never forget the suggestion that man made…"

(Flash back)

"Forgive me for saying Hirako-Taicho but I don't believe the problem, lies in this "Hogyoku" itself but rather the individual." Aizen said in objection to Hirako-Taicho's remark of the Hogyoku being too dangerous, and should be destroyed

"The individual?" the other two blonds asked questioningly at the brunette fuka-taicho

"Precisely, if the test subject wasn't strong enough to handle the strain then you should try someone even stronger who could resist and endure the process whilst maintaining their human form. Someone along our caliber."

"You're suggesting that I should use it on someone like a Taicho or Fuka-taicho?" Keisuke asked concernedly "No, I won't allow it. I think I'll go with my fellow captain's on idea and seal it, while it will be a huge loss I cannot in good conscious run the risk of sacrificing valuable members of Soul Society, for a process that might not work. I had already lost one member, I don' plan on losing another."

Aizen sat in silence for a moment as he held his tea in his hand, then proceeded to take a sip of it letting the contents stroke the fire inside him 'So be it Keisuke. I had hoped that you would see things my way despite knowing it would be a fool errand, never the less I came prepared for this outcome.'

"I understand. It's regrettable but it's you decision." said Aizen as he got up and left the two occupants alone, while he went to go set forth his plan into action.

Shinji and Keisuke watched the fuka-taicho leave and both had to fight back the ominous feeling that something terribly wrong was a foot, and it all started with Sosuke Aizen.

(flash back end)

Keisuke took a quick sip of the tea that Tessai handed him, while Uryu had left to go serve the food he had been cooking to Ururu and Jinta, and keep them out of the adult conversation, to which he had already been privy to know. "It was about a week or so later that a break in occurred at the soul society main gate, drawing most of the captain's and squad's attention. During the confusion, Aizen obtained the Hogyoku in it's still unstable condition, and when the captain's and vice-captain's meeting ended, him and some of his cohorts captured some of the high class Shinigami, which included my at the time Fuka-Taicho, Hiyori Sarugaki. Upon discovering that it was missing, and fearing the safety of Hiyori due to her absence, I sent a hell butterfly to Tessai and Yoruichi asking that they accompany me, in finding her."

Keisuke took another sip of his tea while Yoruichi picked from where he had left off "Little did we know we were playing right into Aizen's plans. Upon following an abnormal trail of spiritual power near the north gate, we came across the hollowifying bodies of the missing people, along with the Hogyoku. We did our best but not all of them survived, however worst came to worse when several squad members of various division arrived at our spot, with the Sou-Taicho in tow. We had tried to argue and inform what had happened, when the Sou-taicho arrived and declared us traitor on accounts of trying to obtain forbidden powers, and attacking several high seated officer and forcing our way into Soul Society."

The blond manager interrupted so he could continue "Naturally, we had surrendered without a fight, to which all of us would be taken into custody, and keep this entire incident hush-hush. I had intended to explain what had happened and how we found them as they were, but we were never given the chance. Almost immediately after being taken in, the central 46 declared my invention as well as our action heretical, which lead to me believing that only one person was behind this: Aizen. Aside from Yoruichi, Tessai, and Hirako Shinji not a single soul knew of it's existence or power. It was at that moment that we decided to break out from the penance tower, as they came to deliver us the news of our impending execution alongside the remaining survivors of the hollowification, Yoruichi and myself used our Hakudo to escape whilst Tessai performed a powerful but subtle barrier to keep the wardens inside. We grabbed our fellow executes, gathered our things as well as my research notes, and fled, to the human world, spending the last fifty years laying low and keeping out of soul societies watchful eye, and then you came along (3)."

"If what your saying is true, how can we win? Aizen has this invention that will increase his strength exponentially and he was already strong enough to take out several captains. Do you have a plan for that?" asked Ichigo, since this brought a new powerful foe into the picture, one who wasn't bound to Soul Society

"Aizen can't use it right now. See one of my early experiments regarding it, was to see how it would affect a Gigai before testing it on a live person. After several experiments, my results showed that Gigai actually inhibited the Hogyoku's power and in fact if left in their long enough would actually make the Gigai a real body. Naturally I had to extract it from the Gigai before it could happen, but the main conclusion I've come to is also the reason I believe we time to train to rescue Rukia."

"The closer to death the Gigai is, the easier it is to retrieve, however it also takes an enormous amount of spiritual power to retrieve it, since that is what loosens it from the body. As head of R&D, I could explain it away as energy needed for experiments, Aizen doesn't have that option so he has to look elsewhere, and only one other source produces more energy than an entire division combined."

"The Sokyoku." Ichigo said as the epiphany hit him "He's going to have Rukia executed with that so he can retrieve it from her charred corpse, and if that silver-haired bastard works for him, then he must have been the one to set us up to look like we were traitors as well!"

Keisuke nodded his head contented that Ichigo was catching on "So we can kill a week because no matter how fast Aizen will try and advance it, which he will since more than likely he'll have a backup plan of some kind if you survived."

"Ahh…question." asked Senna as she raised her hand to call their attention "I know this might be a little off topic but how exactly did you retain the Hogyo-thing if you were captured? Wouldn't they take it from your persons?"

Yoruichi smiled her cheshire grin "It's was rather fun experience, see me and Kisuke were both apart of second squad which specializes in stealth. He slipped it to me, and put it in my mouth and swallowed it. Once we got thrown in the penance cell, I changed to my feline mode you're so familiar with and threw up a Hogo-ball."

Urahara turned back to Ichigo semi-ignoring the side conversation between the women, a hard look on his face "So now you've heard our side of things. Do you still wanna kill Yoruichi now? Or are you going to help us save Soul Society from an homicidal maniac."

The carrot top turned his gaze away from Keisuke and settled over to the ebony goddess behind him. His mind divided between his promise, what he felt was right, and the simple need to put aside difference for the greater good. "Fine." He said "Yoruichi Shihoin, Keisuke Urahara, I'm sorry." He then lowered his head so that it touched the table in a bowing gesture "I now understand the circumstance your under and will say that I wouldn't have acted any differently." He raised his head up but kept his gaze on Yoruichi "However Yoruichi-san, YOU better set things right with Shaolin or else…" he threatened flexing his spiritual muscle on her, who while impressed with what he still had left in the tank didn't get affected by any means.

Yoruichi crossed her arms over her orange jacket covered chest "I'll do it when I get the chance, but knowing her she'll definitely be at the Sokyoku grounds the day of the execution. I'm sure I'll have an enlightened 'chat' with her."

"So how do we get to Soul Society exactly? Is there another way then when Ichigo-kun came here this time." Senna wondered thoughtfully, since she was curious to how travel between earth and the afterlife would take place for them

The resident mad scientist removed his hat and scratched his itching hair "I believe I mentioned this to Ichigo once before, but I have a prototype Senkaimon unit. It's looks exactly like one of those portal things from the sci-fi mangas you'd see in stores, it was made prior to the Senkaimon units. We took it with us because, if Soul Society ever found this place, only someone with technological knowhow of how the early models worked could use it, and by then we'd be long gone." He placed the cap back unto his skull "Only draw backs are that since it was mostly faulty and only served the basic design, it could only teleport to one place as well as making it one-way. So once in you can't go back, then there's also the time displacement which fortunately works to our advantage."

"Time displacement? You mean like time travel?" Ichigo asked for clarification, since it sounded rather absurd. But at the same token he did try and keep in mind who the inventor was.

"Kinda, sorta, not really. It sends people where they want to go, though a week in the past." Keisuke clarified

"So why didn't you just use it to change what had occurred!" roared out Ichigo as he slammed his hand into the table since this entire phenomena could have been averted if he stopped Aizen before things got hectic

"I would have if not for the doppelganger phenomena, which states that how two people can't occupy the same space at the same time. For instance if I were to have done that I would occupy that space, which would cause the unfortunate effects to have kicked in on myself, which I'll tell you what happened to the twenty volunteers that had agreed to do it, they all ended up inside out at the evacuation point and blew up." He stated coldly, getting a freaked out look from Senna and Ichigo

"Then how are we supposed to use that! We'll die!" Senna yelled out fearfully, not intrigued of being unmade from a nice girl into a walking flesh bomb

"No, we won't." corrected Urahara as he got nice big smile that would soon come from flaunting his genius level intelligence "You see, I realized the problem, the volunteers we had were inside Soul Society a week ago meaning they occupied the same dimensional plane: The afterlife. The 'us' from today is in the human world, where as the ones to go are going to be in soul society. The doppelganger effect can't occur because since this is one-way we can't interact with the past selves meaning we're safe, and since we'll be longer than a week in our rescue attempt, the timeline flows the same, with no interruption."

Ichigo and Senna exchanged a wary look, but both decided to let the resident genius do his area of expertise and focus on training, so that when they got to Soul Society they could really start kicking ass, and get the son of a bitch Aizen.

"Whoa! Look at the time!" a shocked Keisuke exclaimed at seeing that the hours had flew on by "Damn the food's probably cold and we haven't eaten yet!" he got up from his chair and headed into the kitchen area followed by everyone else as they helped themselves to some dinner.

The meal was ate rather quietly, as Ichigo began to ponder ways to deal with Aizen as well as their overall chance of saving Rukia what with all of SS breathing down their necks, Senna was eating her dinner at a relaxed pace a stark contrast with her racing mind telling her of all the laws of physics and reality the afterlife seemed to contradict. Sometimes it paid to be simple. Keisuke was hurrying to finish his meal so he could go get some supplies from the nearby convenient store, while the cat goddess Yoruichi was making some small talk with Senna and trying to make Ichigo smile at one of her jokes, but it was lost since his head was in the clouds.

With dinner done, the quartet exited the room and parted ways, with Yoruichi heading to her room, Keisuke heading out for an errand, and the two apprentices to head back to their almost adjacent rooms.

(Ichigo and Senna)

"Wow…" an awed Senna whispered with her hands clasping each other as they were pressed against the back of her head "It sounds like this Aizen fellow is a real piece of work. I feel bad for Yoruichi-san, and Keisuke-baka, they had their lives ruined because of him."

Ichigo bobbed his head in agreement with her statement "Yeah, I never would have thought Aizen was the enemy…but now that I look back on it. It really does seems odd that he wanted me to just join him out of the blue, then there was what Subaru and Shinjiro said about being wary around him I wonder if they knew?" he sighed in frustration "That doesn't make any sense though, they had no clue that Keisuke and Yoruichi we're innocent otherwise they would have made an effort in an ensuring Shaolin DIDN'T hate Yoruichi."

Senna turned to her taller companion, and unsaid blood relative "Well no use thinking about it right now. Let's just focus on getting stronger that way we'll have a chance to tell them to their face the truth." She stopped and turned fully with a sweet smile on her face "So stop being mister broody frowny face and smile, I don't need a brother whose all doom and gloom!"

Ichigo quirked an eyebrow, and soon snorted and erupted into laughter as she stuck out her tongue playfully and closed her eyes tighter. "Fine, you win, happy, Senna-chan?" the male Kurosaki asked feeling more energetic around the teenage girl

"Say, Ichigo can I ask you something?" The ribbon wearing girl asked since he seemed to be in a better mood, he might indulge her "You said you have a girlfriend what's she like?"

'Scoping out the competition Sen-chan?' Dark Mirokumaru said mockingly adding extra sarcasm on the sen-chan 'Ooooh, someone's jealous, don't worry once I run the show, he'll have eyes for me…but don't worry I'll still love you too, ehehehahaha!'

Ichigo saw that Senna's smile seemed to drop in plasticity, which caught his attention but he decided to keep it quiet for the moment and answer the girl's question "As you know her current name is Soifon, though her real name is Shaolin. On the outside she seems extremely cold and ruthless, she not all like that on the inside. She's…a little like you, she's temperamental like anyone, but when she's happy you know it. She's got a slight complex about her height, since she's just half an inch short of breaking five even."

Senna laughed as the seemingly mental images drew together to make a short cheery-frigid person who was infatuated with her girly named brother "Well I'll keep an eye out for her, and let her know you said hi."

Ichigo smiled wryily as his hand ruffled Senna's ponytail "By the time you'd get to say hi, you'd be laying on the ground with her foot on top of you. But still the sentiment is appreciated." He earnestly replied back to the huffing girl who crossed her arms after swatting his hand out of her hair "Anyway Senna, if you're having trouble with anything, let me know. Your important to me, just like you are to your father Ein, I'm here if you need someone to lean on."

Senna straightened up and blushed slightly "Ah…t-thanks. I..I h-hope that I help return the favor!" she said slightly embarrassed but equally full of conviction. She then took a step back and firmly grabbed Ichigo's hand "Let's do our best brother!"

Ichigo paused at the word the girl used but decided to roll with it as he returned the smile the girl was giving "And nothing less, sister."

(Soul Society: Shinjiro)

In the night air of the ninth division, the third seat was sitting lazily on top of the roof gazing at the crescent moon that hung just above the sky line. His eyes mixed with a sense of regret and anger as he stared at the celestial body, reminded of the fact that the object looked like a cleaved moon which brought his mind to the owner of the cutting moon.

The samurai let out a resigned sigh, as he reached for the small bottle of sake he had pilfered from one of his fellow Shinigami, an act he knew he should regret as a samurai but lost out to his apathy in his current humanity.

"How odd seeing you like this Shin-kun." A voice called out from behind, though Shinjiro knew that voice above all others.

"Subaru." He said aloud, not bothering to look in her direction, and continued looking out over the edge "Why don't you take a seat and tell me what brings you this way." He requested patting the shillings of the roof top next to him, which rattled under his touch

The soft pattering of feet crept closer, until the man's wife sat down beside him her own legs dangling over the edge as she placed a small folder between them. Looking into her unmasked face she definitely looked like she had seen infinitely better days. "Sake huh? How unlike you…" commented Subaru upon seeing the bottle of alcohol in her husband's hand

The tan skinned samurai let out an amused chuckle "You think this is bad, just wait till I tell you how it got it." he then sighed and shook his head discontentedly, unable to feign enthusiasm at this time

The pale girl tried to force down a frown but couldn't force the anguish out of her eyes "I've seen you hanging around outside the second, and have been seeing you in the training fields more often than not recently, why is this?" she asked rhetorically, even though the content and subject were easily found in her own thought process

The boy tilted his head to just keep Subaru in his peripherals and silently offered her some Sake to which she declined. Putting the lid back on top he decided to humor her since she'd probably just get her answer somewhere else if the super genius didn't already know. "The 'thing' with Kohai and sister. If we had to be honest, it's partially are fault that Shaolin is hurting like she is…hell I doubt she'd ever trust anyone or anything ever again, not that she could be faulted for it."

"Yes…I see." The other third seat responded back, trying to avoid the memory of the tense awkwardness of being around her constantly "But that doesn't explain you recent actions."

"I haven't been in the office because…I'm just not feeling it given circumstances, as for showing up at your door step, well…I've wanted to go in and apologize to Shaolin, but every time I get to the door step I just freeze. I want to go in, but mind and heart just stop. Talk about pathetic huh? A Shinigami, whose faced hordes of monsters and demons on almost a daily basis, get's cold feet when it comes to apologizing to someone he cares about."

Subaru shook her head in disagreement as she clutched her husband's cold hands "No, we were human once, it's ok to feel fear. In fact to be perfectly honest, I too have been having reservations around her. It's always so unbearably quiet, with sister's tense anger and pent up frustration, and Ichigo's absence, in fact the reason I'm here right now was because I was on my way to give some documents to Hitsuguaya-Taicho."

Subaru's husband looked at her slightly confused, at the fact that she would do a delivery mission since it wasn't her job but quickly figured it probably was one of the few times she could get away from it all "Can I ask what the documents are about?"

"It pertains to Ichigo." She said softly as she moved some hair out of her face "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I think you'll hear about it eventually, the Gotei 13 is planning to execute Rukia Kuchiki on the ground of affiliation with a traitor and plans to overthrown Soul Society. I'm giving these documents to Toshiro Hitsuguaya who seems determined to prove Rukia's innocence of the crime, perhaps out of guilt for not being able to protect his friend Ichigo, whom they held a candid rapport with each other."

Shinjiro scoffed amusedly "Heh. Someone still believes in Ichigo and is defiantly trying to prove his innocence huh? I gotta say, they hold more courage and faith then I ever could."

Subaru nodded her head as well as she pulled back her hand from Shinjiro "Yes, though I do wish this was just another time I was right on something. For such a noble soul to have fallen is truly disheartening, especially considering all he's done."

The pair then sat in silence, both unsure of what to say or do since neither of them had actually experienced such a violent betrayal in their personal lives, sure there may have been hearsays about suspicious people or dissenters, sure they had been left behind by 'her' though at the time they weren't particularly close, but not one so close to them. "I still feel conflicted…" Shinjiro said aloud to try and break the awkward silence that had fallen into their conversation

"What about?" asked his wife in genuine interest to keep the mood from going sourer

"Ichigo." He summarized in one word, as his hand scratched the side of his head a worried and annoyed trait that Subaru had learned to identify over the years "Fighting alongside him, working with him, even talking to him. It was peaceful, almost like he was hope incarnate for better things. I know he's been labeled as a traitor, but no matter how angry I get at him at all he's done, I just can't help but believe him innocent, at least on some small level. I wonder if it's because we never physically saw the proof."

The violet haired girl closed her eyes as she thought of an unbiased explanation to her husband's dilemma "Perhaps," she started as she got up from her impromptu seat "it's because he's similar to you in terms of your aspects and beliefs, that you have lingering doubts Shin-kun. You both desire to see your friends and loved ones, healthy and safe, and the fact that he's been labeled as a traitor, has left you a reminder of yourself, that anyone could turn their back on others. Birds of a feather flock together after all."

"I see." said the unhappy samurai "I suppose we can't keep running forever then."

"Running?" asked the shinobi Shinigami, her significant other's words seemingly odd

The confusion in his significant other's voice brought a wry smile to Shinjiro's face since he could still on very rare occasions leave her clueless. "We still have to apologize and reconcile with Shaolin." He stated which brought the crushing reality back unto the resident second division member "Still we don't have to do it immediately, since I doubt I'm going to be going to work, let's both take a walk around Rukongai to keep our mind of Soul Society and focus on what to say."

Subaru chuckled lightly "I can't even think of the words to shoot down your plan, on the fact alone of insubordination and blowing off your duty. Still I suppose it'll get me out of the office for a day."

"Good, we'll go to tomorrow then." He said slightly more cheerily than before, since they both could use some non-stress related company

The pair's quiet bonding was abruptly ended, sensing something approaching Subaru picked up her paper work "I must depart." She said quickly and vanished immediately, much to Shinjiro's disappointment that she was leaving in such a hurry.

Not a second later did the Samurai turn around hearing the approaching footsteps of another person. He was about to call out to the person, when the robed visage of his captain emerge from the darkness. "Ah, Taicho." Shinjiro said in surprise as he bowed before his superior officer, who waved off the loyalist's formality "What..ahh brings you up here?" he asked cautiously since he hoped that his captain hadn't over heard the conversation, as it could potentially be misconstrued as traitorous by some.

"I had sensed something to be off within your persons. I had thought that since I had a moment, I should try and alleviate it as carrying a burden within one's self to be more damaging than good." The blind captain stated to his third seat. He then side stepped to turn away "However, if you do not wish to be disturbed third seat Taiga, I will respect your wishes."

"No, that's fine Taicho." He said in a low even tone, while his body started to relax itself "I do thank-you for your concern though."

The scarf wearing blind man faced his head back to his third seat "It is only the right thing to do. So what may I ask troubles you?"

Shinjiro drooped his head as his mind began to construct the words and voice his concerns, without being too inviting of certain subjects "It is about the absence of one Ichigo Kurosaki from Soul Society. As you know, my sister's well being mean more to me than anything else." He said gaining the captain's full attention, since Tosen was well aware of his, Subaru's and Soifon-Taicho's relationship with each other "The fact that Ichigo still has not returned, and her sudden…fling off rage makes me wonder what is wrong." The samurai stated carefully avoiding the fact he wasn't supposed to know that Ichigo had been labeled a traitor since it was, from what he assumed, to be announced when maybe the heat died down or something else happened.

Kaname Tosen furrowed his brow, since he wanted spin his words just right "Perhaps, people are not what they seem to be. It's from my understanding that Ichigo had the opportunity to embrace our cause and ideals and join hands and heart with us, ultimately it seems that we would have to part ways because of…certain weaknesses."

Now it was Shinjiro who would frown from the African American's words, the dull respite that had enveloped them broken by the younger of the pair's rise in anger "I don't believe that for a moment Tosen-san. One doesn't just break from ideals and ideology so easily, besides on the battlefield or in a spar the sword never lies. I felt no weakness only his strength."

The older man stopped and considered the third seats words, as they held a certain measure of truth to them "Be careful with such ideology, it could prove to be your undoing." Kaname warned cautiously

Shinjiro shrugged apathetically and got up "Maybe, but then again I'm either a psycho with a sword or one to be feared, which by the latter blurs the lines of a tyrant. And with tyrants, there is never any peace." He said ominously as he walked back inside the division barracks, which the blind captain followed behind him, curious of his words.

(Subaru)

Having left Shinjiro due to her mission and sensing of a another spiritual pressure, the third seat was running through the maze like streets using the moon and starlight to help her see. As she turned the next corridor she saw someone up ahead, making her come to a screeching halt.

The person was wearing a white Haori and had silver hair. It was obviously a male from the size difference and body structure. Narrowing her eyes, the third seat let out a frustrated breath of who she had run across "Gin Ichimaru." The girl spoke the name of the affronted man

Said man continued his even gait towards her, his 'friendly' smile still on his face "Well, well, evening there Kujo-chan. What brings you out on such a fine evening as this alone?" at about twenty feet away he stopped and crossed his arms, but the spy could see that his hand could easily flash out his Zanpaktou if he felt the need

"I do not answer to you, Taicho." Subaru said simply her patience for this man seemingly non-existent

"Aww, you don't have to be so mean." Gin pouted with a sad face at being rejected so harshly by a subordinate even if they weren't one of his "What happened to being friendly and loyal to others to build camaraderie?"

Subaru reached into her sleeve and pulled out a very short sword, and while the gesture may have seemed threatening she twiddled with it in her hand to make it pass of as a semi-normal gesture "I do not believe, I ever agreed to nor expressed a desire to be friendly or loyal to you, or most others, Taicho."

"What an ice cold lady, I wonder what Soifon-Taicho and Shinji-kun see in you." The silver haired fox said thoughtfully, as his right hand touched his chin to make it seem he was deeply concentrating to find the answer to the informal question he asked himself

"I would request that you allow me to pass, as I'm currently on the clock." The pale third seat urged forcefully

"Going to see Toshi-bozu?" he asked dangerously, as he too drew his sword and made a few practice cuts with the air. The silver haired man opened his eyes revealing the crimson sphere's inside and spoke in a much sweeter, though Subaru could tell more sinister voice "Well I don't want to hold you up and get you in trouble Kujo-chan, so please carry on."

The female quietly stared at Gin's smiling face before she decided to continue onward. She didn't even take one step when something came whistling towards her, giving the third seat barely enough time to jerk her head out of the way.

The third seat let out a frightened exhalation of air as she saw the Taicho in front of her Zanpaktou stretched all the way out towards her with the blade beside her face, dripping with fresh blood from her cut cheek. Her eyes glazed over in fear at the sudden unwarranted attack by her superior, who seemed to be exuding a dark aura about his persons. "Whoopsey, my bad." The still grinning man said childishly "You see there was an annoying bug in front of me, and I just felt the need to kill it, hope you'll forgive me for my aim being a little off."

Bringing a dark scowl unto her face Subaru looked at the blade with apathetic disregard, as she touched the top and bottom with her hand and moved it away from her head, and watched as it slowly retracted back to it's wielder "That's quite alright Taicho." She said as she flash stepped to his side "I find foxes to be much more annoying than any bug, since they tend to cause unneeded mischief and scavenge through garbage, you would do well to bear that in mind for your own life and property Taicho." And with her peace spoken the girl vanished again towards her destination

Gin watched the girl leave, and when she was out of sight he heard a ripping sound. Casting a quick eye at his garment he saw nothing wrong. He soon discovered the problem when he tried to remove his Haori and found that it was cleaved down the middle and through his number. For a strangely odd reason he couldn't help but be amused "Attacking my pride as a captain, ohh Kujo-chan you wound me. I'll have to pay you back someday." He grinned manically as he proceeded back to his division, having the time of his life

(At Toshiro Hitsugauya's office)

Currently the tired pint sized captain was less than pleased with the lack of results so far in his crusade to prove Rukia Kuchiki's involvement was merely coincidental or that the dubbed 'Kurosaki Rebellion' was indeed falsified at least on the part of Ichigo, which would also annual the currently surviving victim in this tragedy, and help bring perhaps some level of peace to his departed friend.

The boy ran a hand through his hair after putting down yet another document, that didn't seem to be able to help his cause. "Hey, Matsumoto!" he called out to the busty fuka-taicho, but silently cursed in remembering that he had sent her away, so that he could do this task since he still hadn't broken the news to his division yet, though in his defense all the other captains so far seemed to have been tight lipped as well. He did however recall the momentary odd pause from Rangiku when he told her to take the night off, for a second time this week, obviously sending off alarm bell inside her. Thankfully he guessed, she didn't voice her opinion or concern.

His eyes wandered over to the small pile of paperwork that he had neglected to finish, since he was so absorbed in finding out as much information as possible. Not wanting to look at the eye sore on his desk any longer the short boy, got up from his chair and transported the paperwork to the nearby couch.

'Out of sight, out of mind' the Taicho quoted as he used this rare moment to stretch his tense body from the constant sitting, and shifting through files upon files of useless or partial but subjective information

His moment of relaxation was broken when the light tapping of his office door reached his ear "Who is it?" he asked cautiously since while he could search for information as it was granted by the Sou-Taicho, despite the frowning looks of some of his fellow captains, he couldn't allow others who didn't have the right to know to see such things, as they would start asking questions or as feared by Yamamoto, give information to any remaining enemies within Seireitei.

"This is third seat of the second division, Subaru Kujo, here to deliver requested documentation, to the Taicho of tenth division, one Hitsuguaya Toshiro." A feminine voice answered from the other side of the door

Toshiro perked up at what he heard his weary bodies fatigue slowly eroding within a burst of adrenaline at getting another chance to turn things around. "Please enter." He said professionally keeping his excitement to a minimum

The door swung open to reveal a slightly around his height person wearing the formal garb of the Onimitsukido and mouth mask, in the persons hands was a tan looking office folder. Stepping to the side the Shinobi-like officer closed the door to give some privacy. "Good evening Hitsuguaya-Taicho." Subaru said politely as she bowed in respect

"Kujo-san if I could please have the documents." The albino genius requested equally as politely with as he extended his hand out for the folder.

Subaru handed the documentation over but couldn't help but comment on the busy captain's actions since her eagle eyes spotted the unattended paperwork laying on the couch "It seems as though you're quite focused, on trying to save Rukia Kuchiki from impending execution. It's admirable though I wonder for what reason you do it though."

"How do you know about that? That's classified information." asked Toshiro seeking an answer to the breach in protocol

Subaru shifted her body to lean more on one of her legs as she answered "I am a member of the stealth and punishment force, executions and information are our business. We will be the ones who help set up and ensure the execution goes smoothly, so Soifon-taicho would have needed to tell this otherwise we'd be neglecting our duty, which is unacceptable."

Hitsuguaya tipped his head up slightly as he walked the length of his desk to return back to his seat "Soifon-Taicho is certainly something if she can remain so calm about being betrayed, and focus solely on the execution."

However the thoroughly stressed and tired Subaru took the comment the wrong way and despite her normal demeanor practically shot back at the captain "You know nothing of how she feels!" she said hotly, the words leaving her mouth before they could be possibly processed.

"How she feels?" Toshiro asked in confusion not seeing how the cold captain of two's feeling fell into the picture at present. The girl however froze on the spot at letting that slip out, she mentally berated herself for letting that of all things get thrown out there.

Before the androgynous woman could come up with something to follow up the Taicho crossed his arms and threw the situation into nightmare territory for her "Explain." He unknowingly condemned her with but a word

"Ahhh…" she started dumbly her mind backfiring from fatigue, when nothing came out she closed her mouth and bit the side of her lip in her desperate stall for time. She remained silent under the Taicho's unflinching stare for a few more moments 'It's not entire like it matters now…' she begrudgingly concluded to herself, as she knew fleeing the scene could cause the boy in front of her to go take it up with her Taicho.

"Fine." She muttered as she walked over to the couch and sat down like a student would after being called into the principal's office for something. "As you know, last year, you allowed the transfer of Ichigo Kurosaki into our division."

Toshiro nodded his head as he adjusted himself in his chair "I did and do recall the event it was about close to two years now."

Glad that the timeframe and point of reference was established she continued her explanation "While he was with us, he spent a significant amount time near our Taicho in order to learn how to suppress his energy. The task was for the most part successful, but an unexpected side effect had occurred."

"Side effect?" he said with a measure of uncertainty since that never sounded good

"Not necessarily an unpleasant one." She clarified "As the two continued to interact with each other, Ichigo's demeanor and qualities began to have an effect on Soifon-Taicho. She…started to open up to him, and they became very good friends with each other. Shortly after returning from his first trip to the living world, the news of Masaki's death…or I should say supposed death, knocked him off balance; though, I don't know if it's truly an act devised by another since he seemed so very distraught, and to fool three close friends who know the inner workings of the human psyche is not something any amateur can do."

"Tell me about it." replied Toshiro who was absorbing this unrelated but interesting information, while simultaneously recalling the day the sixth turned fourth seat sat in his office after hearing the news of his mother's death "He looked empty, like he was just told the world was going to end it and it was his fault. It's part of the reason I find it extremely difficult to believe that recording and what Kuchiki-Taicho saw. So far from what I've found during my searching is that there hasn't been any prior encountering of Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki."

An idea struck the third seat at hearing the last part of the youngest Taicho in histories statement "Hmm, tell me what you found and I'll see if it holds water."

The boy nodded his head as he leaned forward unto his desk his fingers interlocking as he started to present his evidence so far "I know of Ichigo's current mission records and with request from Ukitake of Rukia Kuchiki's mission records, I've concluded that at no point have the two ever been on a joint mission of some kind, further more I know Ichigo is very strong, but since the eleventh division would hassle him into a fight, I've ensured that any delivery missions or request services to the 11th, 12th, and 13 divisions be passed off unto someone else to minimize casualties on both fronts, so he's never been that way, and since he finished the academy he's been signed on with me."

"Alright everything seems sound so far…" Subaru said in a neutral tone, not finding any holes in the defense so far, which was a good sign for both the captain and herself

Seeing that he still had the green light Toshiro continued "During his stay here, he bonded with some of the other men and women, but he kept things on a friendly but professional level, the only exceptions would be Matsumoto and myself, since well…Matsumoto being Matsumoto…" he alluded to which Subaru nodded her head in understanding, she didn't need to be in charge of a spy network to know about the tenth's fuka-taicho problem, though she did silently speculate if it was as bad the seconds fuka-taicho.

"Anyway, as soon as I get the chance to read Ichigo's mission report for the second division, maybe I might be able to come up with something, with Ukitake-Taicho." The Haori wearing boy said as he tapped the folder with the back of his middle and pointer finger. "By the way if I may ask you a rather personal question Kujo-san."

"…very well." The dark purple haired girl said albeit hesitantly

"You described that Soifon-taicho opened up to him, and befriended him. Yet she was the one who condemned the both of them the most, why is that?"

Grimacing at being asked the question, Subaru sighed in resignation to the fact she probably couldn't dissuade the young genius from pursuing the matter. It was both a gift and curse for the talented. "She condemns them, well more specifically Ichigo, because…she fell in love with him and vice versa." She explained getting an odd look from the young man since he never would expected that from captain Soifon, then again he supposed it was Ichigo "Right now, she's extremely agitated by her feelings of anger and sadness, but more importantly loss. She needs to reach some level of closure to move on, even a tiny step forward would help, but she's in denial and I don't know what to do."

The young man at the desk glanced away in thought "I can't say that I know the feeling, or what you should do. I guess she just she needs to find the strength on her own, though I doubt she'll let anyone know if she ever does reach that point or that she even has a problem…just ride it out, and hope you can return to speaking terms."

As he turned his eyes back toward the woman he was surprised to see her standing up and bowing very graciously towards him "I thank-you for that Taicho." The girl said just barely above a whisper, as she re-elevated her upper body she spoke in a more firm and controlled voice "Allow me to return the favor. In regards to your investigation, one or two of my spies mentioned upon heading to their posts that they saw Ichigo Kurosaki on his way to the human world gate where Rukia was, and on the way there he encountered a captain with silver hair and the Haori for three."

"Gin Ichimaru." The captain surmised since he was the only one to fit the restrictions

Subaru shrugged "I wouldn't know Taicho, this is merely a rumor. He says, She says. So I can't go on record for telling you such things." She said making the captain smirk as he pulled out a paper and pen and got ready to jot some more things down

"Supposedly they had a conversation with one another making him the last person in Soul Society he talked to within the Seireitei walls. All I'm saying is that maybe, just maybe, this man might have some knowledge about what was going on with the 'Kurosaki' rebellion, and might be a fellow conspirator or…" she trailed off allowing the captain to catch up and get the really important information down "maybe if extreme enough one who might have framed him, in maybe a sick plan of his own, after all so long as things are in ruination he is contented. But like I said Taicho it's merely a rumor, so I couldn't tell you how much of it is valid or not."

With a click of his pen, Toshiro smiled at his new possible lead. While he knew that even if he pursued this and Soul Societies decision was overturned, Ichigo wouldn't come back. He was gone, but he would try to honor his friends memory by saving an innocent life after all it was the very least he could do.

"Thank-you Kujo-san, you've been immensely helpful." The captain thanked to which the third seat nodded and made her way to the door.

"I wish you luck." She said as she prepared to leave 'Not that it'll change things now, but…I hope he does prove both of their innocence, such faith should be rewarded.'

(Soifon)

"And that is what I have done, Soifon-Taicho." The blunderingly incompetent fuka-taicho Omeada declared as he stood straight giving his report of the 'mission' he had in the maggot's nest

"I understand." She said in a biting tone "If that is all then leave my sight."

Marechiyo winced at her words, his pride stung, but he decided to continue playing nice for just little longer. At least until she was all his "Very well, then Taicho. But if I may say something."

"And that is?" she asked with a dangerous glare as her temper was boiling over by this point

The giant of man swallowed the lump in his throat "If something's ever bothering you feel free to let me know!" he said quickly throwing in a cheesy smile

The much smaller girl however was far from amused, and in fact decided to vent some steam off him "You wasted precious moments of my life to tell me something that I would have no reason to confide in you with. I am your superior officer, and you are underneath me, to think that you would even have the right to try and understand me is the epitome of arrogance. Get out my sight immediately, I am not in the mood for your antics today or in the foreseeable future." She barked out doing her best to bite the man's head off

"Y-yes. T-taicho." The man said weakly as he turned away to leave, though his thoughts were less than pure 'Just a little longer Soifon-chan, and soon you won't be the superior, I will be.'

Having finally dismissed Omeada and his incessant idiocy coupled with his unwarranted request of letting him know if anything was wrong with her, Soifon locked the door to her office and returned back to her desk. Her irritation and annoyance clearly visible to any one if they could see her, a stark contrast to the much more frigid than normal attitude she'd exuded for the past two days.

Reaching over her desk, she picked up her Zanpaktou and went to the door on the side. Her private room. Opening the shoji door quietly she stepped into the room, however the moment she finished crossing, she snapped.

Her pent-up anger and aggression hit it's boiling point as her hand lashed out at the door handle and whipped the paper door so fast across the track that when it hit the other side it recoiled back leaving it open after a resounding whack. Turning her eyes away from the entrance she proceeded further into the room, which was also out of the usual norm.

The room looked like it should belong to Fuka-Taicho Matsumoto. The small knick-knacks that had previously been on her dresser were flung across the ground. The lamp that she had lay broken on the ground, as the petite captain swept on by using her night trained eyes and single candle light on the far side to find her away in the dark and lonely room. Her bed which was always orderly and neat, was in total disarray with a pillow on the carpet beside the bed and the blanket half-way off the side.

Stopping about half-way to the bed, Shaolin's left hand flung out automatically and struck the wall in a loud powerful thump, like it had the previous three times before. "Damn it!" she cursed aloud, her anger smoldering within her "Why does it bother me so much!"

Removing her hand from the wall, she opened her palm and glanced at it longingly "He's a traitor, a filthy liar, a deceiver! But then why!...Why do I wish things were different?" She asked herself sadly, which soon gave way to anger "God damn it!" she yelled slamming her hand back into the dresser beside her as she had done the previous night before.

A little bee inside the bigger bee's head decided now might be a good time to speak "Calm down, Soifon."

Her words were drowned out however, as the enraged woman turned her ire on her spiritual companion "Quiet, Suzumebachi! I am in no mood for your chatter."

Suzumebachi was caught off guard momentarily, since this out of equilibrium Soifon spoke with much more passion even if it was misguided. The young bee however wasn't going to get yelled out without at least letting her voice be heard too "Now you listen hear kid. Stop acting so tough and unapproachable and be honest with yourself! You loved him didn't you! And you and everyone else found out something unacceptable, and after everything was said and done you too had to part ways."

The painfully slow cooling Soifon gritted out "So what is your point? You merely tell me something I know, about something already done! Ichigo Kurosaki is dead!"

"What I'm telling you is that you should just admit to yourself and be proud of who you loved. You keep thinking about him, and cursing his name as a traitor, continuing your own self infliction. I'm telling you to quit it, and to come to terms with it! You genuinely loved him, and enjoyed all the happy times you had together, regardless of him being a traitor." Stated the red haired girl in her head

The Chinese captain however wasn't going to buy any of it though, as she twisted her face into one of absolute disgust as her hand reached for something to throw across the room "I WOULD NEVER believe that! Yoruichi Shihoin was my world and she left me for little more than a traitor! That bastard fourth seat of mine, decided to become ambitious enough to desire to kill the spirit king and possibly take over the afterlife. You know what they both have in common; they care about no one except themselves. Any genuine time we spent together or words exchanged nothing more than honey suckled gestures!"

Having finished her yelling, she waited patiently for the reply from the spirit. Right now she was on a anger high so great, she was sure she could challenge Zaraki and defeat him without breaking a sweat. Suzumebachi, for her part was merely preparing to slap the captain with some reality due greatly in part to the object she had unknowingly grabbed "If what you say is true. That the bonds between you, were never truly their and even to this moment, why don't you destroy the object in your hand and prove me wrong."

"All too easy." The captain said arrogantly as she unsheathed her Zanpaktou with her free hand and turned to the soon to be cut in half object, before she paused in complete hesitation for what was in her red palms. "The Ihai," She whispered to herself, having now saw the testament of both her and Ichigo's bond that they had both built together

"Well, I'm waiting." The hornet said impatiently, even though she knew the results before the gauntlet was cast

Shaolin didn't even seem to hear the taunt as she continued to stare at the hand-held memorial tombstone. The one she bought for Ichigo for their anniversary, the one that was to be given in memory to his departed mother and HER dear friend Masaki Kurosaki. She had spent days trying to think of something meaningful, to give since it was the first time she had such joy since the departure of Yoruichi, the first time she could just be Shaolin Fon around the one she loved.

The girl gripped the mini-statuette firmly and raised her wakizashi directly next to it. Her hand froze once it was next to the object, and she saw the steel edge of her sword begin to wobble directing her eyes further down to see it was her own hand shaking. 'Am I afraid?' she pondered silently, unused to such a strange phenomena

"Thought so. It's a lot harder to break something emotionally invested yourself, than if other's do it." the spirit replied before wisking out to leave the mistress alone

No sooner had the words left Suzumebachi did Soifon's hand weaken in strength as her Zanpaktou clumsily fell through Soifon's fingers and clang against the ground. The girl kept her eyes square on the Ihai as she slowly soften them, while she maneuvered her body to sit upon the bed.

Soon the reason dawned on her why she had been so out of whack, like the Ihai in her hand, she had forgotten. Forgotten to even mourn the loss of Ichigo, her ex-Yojimbo. She hadn't allowed herself the chance to move on, she had been swept up in unbridled anger like with Yoruichi, but had forgotten that unlike the former, this actually had a conclusion, justice had been served and he was not out there doing whatever he desired. She kept herself chained to anger, believing that if she admitted loving him aloud, that he might show up again in the future to threaten Soul Society and use her weakness against her.

"I'm such an idiot." She said bitterly as she continued to gaze at the Ihai, her grip tightening on it, as streams of liquid started to run down her cheeks and dash themselves against the memorial tomb "I-I love you…I love you so much Ichigo (4)." She admitted as she slowly curled into a ball, the tips of her Haori catching some of her airborne tears.

She kept crying for another ten minutes straight, before she could semi-compose herself again. Stepping off her bed the red-eyed girl gently placed the Ihai of Ichigo and Masaki back unto her dresser, and gave a weak smile, as she bent over to open one of the drawers to use a kimono for rest. She picked out the very same red Kimono that she wore on her date, and proceeded to take off her clothes so she could wear at least once more.

With her task done, the twin banded girl undid her bands and let her long flowing navy blue hair flow freely and proceeded to the candle next to her bed, the only light in the room so. Casting a final glance she muttered one last slightly whimsical desire "I wish I could say it to you one last time Ichigo-kun." And blew out the candle and went to sleep.

---

Ichigo: What the hell was up with that beginning?

Subaru: I'd like to take this moment and point out that it was NOT the reader's destiny to read this story. Whoever that was needs to realize that every time the story is updated an e-mail is sent out.

Ein: hehe, I thought it was rather manly! (oh yeah I'm awesome.)

Soifon: I bet you it was Blackout2010…

Blackout2010 (walking in): Alright I'm back from my walk so let's get ready for chapter 16 people…

Senna: It's kinda over already boss.

Blackout2010:…

Everyone:…

Blackout2010 (angry): Aizen! What have I said about messing with things you don't understand! (storms off)

(Omake: Welcome aboard?)

Blackout2010: Friggin' Aizen…geez.

?: ahem.

Blackout2010 (turns around): Oh hey Senna (see's Mirokumaru too) and Taciturn.

Senna (annoyed): Tell me why exactly is the guardian of my mind a rapist in training?

Blackout2010: Well I can easily explain that. You see that chart over there.

Senna (seeing no chart): No

Blackout2010: Wonderful that means I can BS it. Now the really high bar on the left is our action meter. As you obviously know there's been a lot of action in this story so far…

Senna (sweat drop): I see (what an idiot…)

Blackout2010 (oblivious): Wonderful, now the really tiny bar next to it, is our romance meter which, unfortunately is extremely low. Since Ichigo and Soifon can't be near each other for an indeterminable amount of time, so that leave YOU.

Senna: Me?

Blackout2010: You are one of the few plot important female right now, meaning you gotta help pick up the slack, in that department!

Senna: That makes no sense and it still doesn't explain why Dark Mirokumaru practically molested me!

Blackout2010: The reason you have a literal Juri Han(5) in your head is because she would do any and everything that walked as well as in slave it, you as of right now in this, your sexual orientation is…ambiguous.

Senna: Ambiguous!

Dark Mirokumaru (lecherously): Interesting…

Blackout2010 (off-handedly): Honestly even I don't know, if you're going to end up being straight, bi, or lesbian. I've gotten a couple of request to see you paired off with Shuuhei, I was originally gonna intend for you to be with Hanataro, or maybe in a harem with Hanataro since he hardly get's any love or mention.

Senna (exasperated): Seriously?

Blackout2010: Hmm…maybe I can make you have mixed harem of your own…(smiles) yeah that might not be a bad idea, it would certainly boost the comedy aspect. Yeah, thanks for the idea Senna. (walks away)

Senna:… (face palms) Is my luck really that bad…?...a harem girl is what I'm going to end up as?...I need to sit down and cry for just a little bit.

(Omake: Welcome aboard…? End)

(Informative: An honest reason)

Senna: Seriously though why is she like…(looks over at Mirokumaru who strikes a seductive pose)…like her?

Blackout2010 (sweat drop): I guess I can see your head ache. Well I guess it's not too much a spoiler and it's more along the ideology that sprung her forth from your soul, so I'll explain.

The trio sit down

Blackout2010: Now, as stated the vulgar one (sticks her tongue out) is your dark side.

Senna: I get that, but why is she so…ahem (mockery) "Everyone I see is my love servant now! Ahaha!"

Dark Mirokumaru: Because I can and have no compunction not too.

Light Mirokumaru: I am sorry to disgrace you like that your ladyship.

Blackout2010: That can be explained. You see as stated in your inner world, you like to be in high places, so that you can see all the world around you. She (points to the spirit) is the dark interpretation of that.

Senna: huh?

Blackout2010: That's why the center of your mind scape is a giant mountain, from their you can see everything, unfortunately when your at the top of the world, to view things you have to look down on it.

Senna (understanding): Oh, I get it. 'Look down' as in look down on others.

Blackout2010 (happily): Good now you get it, so the sooner you get to the top of that mountain and beat her the sooner…

Dark Mirokumaru (singing merrily): I just wanna get next you girl, I just wanna make a mess of you world…(6)

Blackout2010 (sweat drop): yeah, that stops…

Dark Mirokumaru: Ahahah! You think her beating me will change this? I don't hate her, I LOOOVE her. I could just. EAT. HER. UP.

Others:….

Blackout2010: Sounds like your screwed either way…Oh well do you prefer to be on top or bottom?

Senna: You both suck!

Light Mirokumaru (bows sincerely): I apologize your ladyship.

Senna: Stop that it makes harder to stay mad at you!

Dark Mirokumaru (snidely): If you can't stay mad at me, then you can admit to loving me!

Senna (snapped): That's it your finished! (attacks her)

Blackout2010: Whew! Girl love is scary!

(Informative: An honest reason end)

(Omake: Intrepid Genre journey)

In a wide room all the characters are gathered together and sitting down at a table with Blackout2010 sitting at the head.

Blackout2010: Thank-you all for attending this meeting. Now I would like to congratulate you all for another job well, done.

Everyone: [cheer]

Blackout2010: Yes, now settle down. What I wanted to ask you all is this what genres have we covered and what genres need to be covered still.

Subaru: Well, the obvious should be fantasy and action.

Aizen: Mystery, and science.

Blackout2010: Ecchi!

Senna (angrily): Yeah believe me I know!

Ichigo: Comedy.

Soifon: Kung-fu I suppose.

Unohana: Romance.

Blackout2010: Ok that's good, so any ideas on how to incorporate other genres so that their something for everyone.

Hichigo: What about magically girl?

All the men stop and think…

[imagination]

A group of five girls were running towards the spot where their dreaded enemy the super dark overlord Aizen would show up for their final battle.

Coming down from the clouds, the great ruler of infinite darkness adjusted his glasses as he eyed his archnemesises. "You've come Shin-scouts."

The leader Yoruichi pulled out her transformation device "I hope you're ready to lose, dark one let go girls!" and with a command the girls transformed into their…magical form.

(Censor explicit changing scene)

With their actions done the girls announced who they were. "Shin-scout yellow! Nun sense!" declared Senna as she cluthed her Shakujo staff, while her miko uniform danced in the wind

To her left Unohana had finished transforming and was wearing a pink nurses outfit with a stethoscope around her neck "Shin-scout pink! Sweet medicine!"

To the far right hand side of the female entourage was Matsumoto who was wearing a school uniform and miniskirt that barely covered her figure "Shin-scout black! Star pupil!"

Beside the leader was the now decked out Soifon wearing a maid outfit with a tea tray in her hand "Shin-scout blue! Honey bee!"

Finally the female team's leader finished and looked at her adversary in her red night club outfit "and finally the leader of the Shin-team, red! Lucky Neko!"

The girl all then pointed to the overlord with their index finger and declared in one voice "and in the name of the Shinigami we shall punish you!"

[imagination end]

Hichigo (huge smile): I'm telling you if that doesn't boost ratings nothing will!

Blackout2010 (trying to ignore the death glares of the female staff): Food for thought…anyone else…please.

Mayuri: Well I think…

Blackout2010: NEXT AND QUICKLY!

Shinjiro: How about a high school?

[Imagination]

The lone carrot top of Yasogami high, stretched his muscles as he approached the cafeteria line where Renji and Toshiro were waiting for him.

The white haired teen looked up at his friend "Are you ok Ichigo-san? You look beat."

Popping his shoulder in place the junior addressed the pint sized senior "I just got finished with Kenpachi-sensei's gym class." He stated which got some concerned 'oohs' from the two friends since they knew the guy was rough. Really rough.

"I think I'll skip that class and one after it." said Renji as he moved forward keeping their place in line

"Oh? Why?"

Renji sighed frustratedly "That show off, Uryu the archery team captain, is such a whiz kid. Hell he was teaching Yamamoto-sensei some things in history class earlier."

"You pay attention in that class?" Hitsuguaya taunted since he sat next to him and usually saw him drooling on his desk when he wasn't making eye contact with Rukia beside him. "I got it worst then both of you, I got Mayuri for Science class after this. Last week he picked some random guy, and made him throw up his lunch so he experiment on him, I hope the guy pressed charges."

The school bell rang telling everyone that lunch was over!

"What that's BS I just got here! Forget next class I'm skipping."

"Same here."

"Me too."

[Imagination end]

Blackout2010: Well…it's rather tame.

Omeada: How about a harem with all the girls and myself!

Blackout2010 (speechless):… (I'd kill myself before reading that, actually I'll kill him should he try it)

Shaolin: I still have that book, and I am still not happy with you. So keep your thoughts that affect me and any other female to yourself Omeada.

Senna (slyly): How about a Yaoi harem (7)

Yoruichi: That's a good idea.

Blackout2010 (considering): Well…

[Imagination]

"Alright, by uncles Ukitake and Kyoraku." The young voice of Toshiro Hitsuguaya bidded to his uncles as he departed for school. As he walked along the street he found his childhood friends the Kurosaki twins, Ichigo and Hichigo. The pair stopped and gave a smirk to their pint sized friend.

"Hey, their Toshi-kun. Still as short as ever I see." remarked Hichigo, which ruffled the feathers of the teenage boy

"Shut up! I don't need to hear that from you." He declared back

Hichigo laughed before he kneeled down to eye-level with the young but handsome man "No need to take my words so badly Toshi-kun." He said seductively sweet "I wouldn't want you to be any more than 'personal sized'."

Toshiro knocked his friend's hand away from his face but couldn't back the blush on his face "Stop that Hichigo. Honestly why can't you be more like your brother."

Hichigo's face fell a bit as he looked over to his counterpart and saw a satisfied smirk on his face which annoyed him, but one came to his own face as his eyes started to go down to the bulge in his crotch area. He turned back to mr. pretty boy infront of him "Oh, I'm pretty honest and straight forward with what I want unlike others." He said getting his brother's undivided attention

Before a fight could break out a loud whistle sounded bring their eyes over to source of the ear piercing noise "Indecent interaction between students is strictly forbidden!" yelled Shinjiro who was wearing the school clothes like the other just with the hall monitor arm band on his right arm. He walked over and grabbed Toshiro by the collar and began to drag him off in the direction that was not the school "I need to take you in for questioning."

"Oh, hell no!"

"Get back here!"

The two boys chased after their friendly affect- aquaintence. Not seeing the shadow of to older boys, one named Gin Ichimaru and the other named Kaname Tosen. "That boy with the white hair is quite handsome."

"Shall I go fetch him for you?" asked Kaname

"No. Let them have their fun after all I always get what I want…"

[imagination end]

Blackout2010 (honest): they'd be at it like rabbits.

Toshiro: I think I'm going to be ill…

Senna: Serves you boys right.

Blackout2010: All right take five everyone so we can cool our heads before continuing.

Everyone departed the room.

(Omake: Intrepid genre Journey end)

---

Directory guide to understanding the numbers and meanings!

1. This is how the wrestler Alberto del Rio speaks in his promos. It's certainly…over the top. Though I still say he can't hold a candle to Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. All bow before the great one m(-_-)m

2. The idea actually originated from Sakura Wars: So long my love. One of the character's had a lecherous samurai sensei, and was taught by him that if she ever reached a problem that she couldn't solve, she should grab her chest and massage it to clear her head. Shinjiro was deeply disturbed after hearing that, but didn't comment.

3. I know it's not 100% what happened in bleach canon, but I wanted to have some fun with, it's not like I haven't messed with much in this story.

4. To clarify. Soifon hasn't forgiven Ichigo's actions, she still (mostly) hates him. She's merely taking a step forward to feeling a sense of closure and allowing herself to accept the loss as a lover, before continuing to live her life (well…afterlife). She has not gotten over it.

5. Juri Han is a character of street fighter 4, she's very…loose. So most fans interpret her as perpetual rapist, which given her occasional interaction could hold some water.

6. Lyrics from the song 'One night stand' by Ligeia, given the character it fits.

7. As I've said I try to be fair, so since their has been a lot of man fan service, I should give something to the females. I could only stand to write that because it was hilarious.