AN: Final Chapter. Thanks for everyone's that reviewed, you've really made it fun writing this story. And I know that the recent change messed up formatting but that will take some time to fix.

"I hate you." Ichigo said, after a pause in their explanation. It wasn't quite the reunion that anyone was planning on and no one was satisfied with it. They were the First Division Cells waiting to see what would be done with him; whether or not he'd been a prisoner of war or went AWOL. The option of him being a traitor was also high on the list of might-be even though they had left him there in fear.

He didn't know anything about Aizen but the war was still going on. It was supposed to be funny, he thought, if Aizen was actually a God now and they were trying to fight it. Or maybe he was just a rebel leader lost somewhere between the worlds. Or maybe he'd lost so badly that he was just a boogieman to the Rukongai now. Ichigo didn't have a clue and no one would tell him. He didn't care anyway.

God, he was so hungry.

"Ichigo, we brought you something to eat." He was only allowed some many visitors at a time and Rukia was one of them, the first one to break through the crowds and stomp over to hug him and call him a fool before the shinigami that dragged him here gave her the okay. He hadn't meant to hurt her and still didn't. She would probably understand.

His fucking Dad was here though. Wearing the uniform like it was an old hat for him and a captain's cloak. He'd told him the whole story in the first day he'd been here. That's when they made their first mistake and thought he was happy to be here. Happy to be back with everyone that was either afraid or scared of him.

It was too loud here and too busy. There were always people coming and going even in the walls of the Seireitei and it was giving him a headache. He'd had the headache's on and off since Inoue, the other person in the room, tried to 'fix' him.

She was going to make Las Noches never happen. He'd simply be Ichigo Kurosaki, the substitute shinigami that was missing for a year or two and ready to fight hollows again. It didn't matter that they were his pack or kin or whatever the hell they were called. They had been something obscurely like a family.

In the bright haze of Inoue trying to take all that away from him, Ichigo tried to remember so many things and fought against it. He blacked out and appeared in the custody of the shinigami and the way to the Seireitei but it might just be her meddling again. He couldn't have known, but he liked to image that the reason she no longer has an arm and that half her face has been scarred, like nails raking across them was Nel's doing.

He saw the rice laying on the floor but it wasn't right. He was so hungry and nothing here was filling him. A few months ago he might have denied what was happening but he was strong enough to admit it; he was more hollow than shinigami now. The taste of another persons' spiritual energy was great and it would be the only thing to fill him up now. He'd gotten too used to it at his home.

"It's not what I'm looking for, Rukia." The other two were gone now- Inoue wouldn't show her face and Isshin nearly had his hand ripped off the last time he tried getting too close to the cell doors. Rukia gave him a sad smile and slid down as close as she could.

"I can tell." Ichigo didn't know what she was doing. She looked at him then looked away to the window and down to her, then it repeated.

"While you were gone a lot of people died. There are some people that thought that if you were here, fighting, it magically wouldn't have happened."

"And what do you think about that?" His voice was scratchy from so many reasons. Thirst and disuse might be two of them.

"I think that they're right. If you were here half the disaster that happened would have never gone by. You would never have let Kira try that attack and never have left behind so many people. But that's not what's important. You haven't changed at all." His head moved so fast that he thought he would have whiplash and he looked right at her. Everything that he might have expected it wasn't that.

"Even I know that's not true. Not even my dad can look me in the eyes right now. They probably looked more like a hollows. My skin is a strong as theirs and everything tastes different. Rukia...I am different." But he could pretend if he wanted to.

Urahara could probably give him something to keep the urges to eat other shinigami away. His dad and Yoruichi would fight with him and laugh about his resilient skin- he could laugh with his family again. He could have a life her very easily.

"You're going to die one day." Ichigo felt dizzy and weak from the lack of food but Rukia wasn't making any sense. It seemed that everything she was saying was random and had absolutely no meaning what so ever.

"Everybody does."

"...I'm going to let you escape from here and go back to your home. You did it for me and I know better than to make you stay here. You're going to die one day, maybe when another hollow finally gets to you or your friends there have all died and you can't take it anymore, but it will happen." She stopped and he saw that she was crying a little.

"Then I'm going to find you in the Rukongai and beat your ass until you remember all of us. Got me, Ichigo?"

She always did have a way of making the rain stop.

"Thanks..." He didn't want to linger or say anymore. The stench of shinigami was all around him and it was starting to cloak onto him, making him feel uncomfortable. A few figures waved to him as if they knew him and he made it to the outside.

It took a few seconds for him to get used to the sunlight again. He didn't like it. Down a few streets and into the guarded entrance to Heuco Mundo (Urahara had made one stationary just in case and about a year too late).

"Sir, you can't go in there." It was a low seated shinigami that had probably been warned about him. Ichigo saw him and the flavor seemed bland but he was weak and hungry and the sun was beating down on him uncomfortably- this wasn't tolerable anymore. In barely a blink he had the shinigami on his back and being torn in two. Ichigo's released were getting faster and faster and soon most of the shinigami was devoured.

It was a short sprint home.

He was going to rip something apart if this shit didn't end soon. Neliel wouldn't stop fucking moping around in that nest she and Ichigo made. His reaistu around it had almost faded like everything else when that Woman's shinigami dogs came to drag him away. There wasn't much left of the fortress either- they made sure of that, along with wiping out several dozen of the numeros around there.

Szayel said they could make more but that wasn't the point.

"The fuck did you two let her do this for?" He thought he could have fucking trusted Ulquiorra to keep the Woman busy. He'd helped out even less this part of reconstruction than the last time; mostly looking into vacant space.

"Let who do what?" Standing there like he owned the god damn place, was Kurosaki dressed in obscenely colored clothes of blue and green. Something in Grimmjow started panting and he was itching for a fight.

"Well looks like someone's decided that we're good enough to be with again. Fuck if I still want him here."

"What'd you say about me? C'mon here and say that again." The tick in Kurosaki's eyes was back and his hand was already on that dang sword of his.

"You're shinigami coddled you like a fucking pet. Don't' think you know how to fight anymore. Ulquiorra's much better at keeping the peace here than you ever were."He didn't know to who he was speaking to but they're eyes were in dead contact and in just a few seconds they will be off and-

"Ichigo!" Battering from the side and forced down from the broken wall, that bitch Neliel tackled him to the ground and practically dry humped Kurosaki.

"Can't you fuckers get a room...?" It was weak and he knew it but there wouldn't be any questioning about him being back with them. Before it had been a lie about Ulquiorra being better- he still hated that ass kissing bastard and Szayel still creeped him the fuck out.

But Neliel was going to throw a bitch fit if Kurosaki didn't stay. Then Szayel would set him off. Ulquiorra would start angsting again about Kurosaki being happy or something. That prick would be back here everyday going nah-nah-nah at him being thrown out of Las Noches like a shinigami but still fucking with this world.

Some of it might have been a stretch in his imagination.

"Hey, I said get a room you two! None of us want to see that!" Underneath the now ripped off shirt, Grimmjow saw a scar he'd made during their fights. Kurosaki didn't let the woman take it away.

He wasn't going anywhere.