Chapter 03

Inescapable

- Now –

Danger stalked Soul Society, hiding within the Rukongai somewhere while watching for an opportunity to enter the walls of Seireitei to unravel its terrifying wrath against the Shinigami inside, the desire of causing panic and mayhem as it was once told to do two very long years ago. Piercing golden hue orbs glowed through the night as it crept along the walls for a simple solution to enter the fortress without so much of a peep, claws dug silently through the dirt, as it preferred to walk on all four rather that bearing weight on the hind legs, and a tail swayed powerfully with temptation of striking. How rude the foul creature might be if it were to disturb the Shinigami whilst they slept, but was that not what a demon was to do; were they not supposed to wreak havoc on less unfortunate souls that should be taught to stay on their toes even through their peaceful slumber? Everything was complete and in motion for the demon to enter Seireitei, now the only was how to enter it without causing any trouble—simple; there was no such way, for once it entered, alarms would be sounded and everyone would be after it to either kill or retrieve. Glowing eyes searched the area one last time before deciding that now was as good of a time as ever and blasted an enormous was of cero at the walls, alarms were immediately sounded off and squads began to stir awake while night patrol Shinigami were rushing towards the scene. Several called for the gates to be lifted so that they could communicate with the stranger to see who would dare strike the walls that would protect Seireitei, and all of them froze in fear at the horrifying creature that now stood before them after the gate opened for it.

"Thanks for opening the door." The beast's voice echoed, and vanished.

"H-H-Hollow!" The frightened Shinigami yelled.
"Hollow at the North Gate!" Another called.
"A Hollow at the—" the next could not finish.

The Hollow struck all Shinigami at the scene with a mere claw for bothering to speak its location, and it again vanished from the Northern Gate to appear on top of a shop in Seireitei, so it gazed around stoically while a grin hid beneath the mask while a huge reiatsu came rushing forth. A heavy explosion attacked the shop that the Hollow was on that made it jump into the air and search for the one that caused this to happen, and a large captain appeared behind the Hollow while laughing maniacally when finding out that this would be a good match indeed. It seemed that the Hollow had no interest in Kenpachi Zaraki however, and merely threw the large captain down with the strength of its tail and vanished to a new location while low ranked officers helped the now unconscious captain, and then beautiful pink petals fluttered through the air. Before thousands of the miniature blades attacked the Hollow, it had disappeared and attacked the wielder of the pink petals head-on by clawing at his chest—throwing the sixth squad captain ten miles out before crashing into a large building within the walls of Seireitei. How it pained the beast to strike two captains so quickly without giving them a proper greeting, but there was nothing that could be done by it when it was obvious that they wanted to kill it, and just as the beast turned to leave, there was an ambush of the second squad captain's Stealth Force, causing it to hiss. Nevertheless, it was actually quite surprising that so many of them were up and about already to come and attack, it was probably three in the morning for them or something; who knew how time worked within Soul Society, perhaps those whom live within the world.

"Everyone, attack!" Soi Fon yelled, pointing at the Hollow.

It rose to its hind legs and brought up a clawed finger to summon another powerful wave of cero that had all Shinigami fleeing a couple of yards away before they could be killed, and so Soi Fon jumped into action by attacking it head on, so it ceased off cero and vanished from her sight. The Hollow merely used speed to leave the area and appear near the Southern Gate where there was much less commotion, and waited patiently for the Hell Butterflies to be sent out to the captains that were available, and then something caught the Hollow's attention. A red-haired man was holding hands with a raven-haired woman's, and snarls echoed behind the mask as it came towards them in a flash which caused them to jump back in surprise, it the stood tall on its hind legs as it bore golden orbs towards the eyes of the redhead's. Renji threw Rukia behind him so that he could grasp his zanpakutou at his side—and then that Hollow placed a clawed hand against the skin of his cheek, but instead of feeling a gentle caress from them, it was painful scratches from each claw that spilt Renji's blood. Rukia would not stand for this and brought out her own zanpakutou to attack the Hollow, and the blade was broken in two before she could call out the name of her zanpakutou, now the two Shinigami were in deep trouble... but she watched as Renji placed a hand on the Hollow's mask. Both Shinigami noticed that the mask was a little familiar to them though it took a couple of minutes due to the beast looking like a full-fledged Hollow, and then it finally came to their senses that this was no ordinary Hollow, but their long lost friend that was said to have died two long years ago.

"Ichigo," Renji started, "I—" Before he could say another word, the Hollow punched him in the face and sent him flying backwards.
"Oh no—Renji—" Rukia was interrupted as well by being punched in the stomach and spewed before falling to the ground out cold.
The Hollow raised its head when the sounds of the Hell Butterfly were sent loose, 'it is about time,' the thoughts echoed.

Before either of the Shinigami could wake and rise to fight again, the Hollow disappeared from the location and appeared at the center of Seireitei where the execution grounds were, gazing at the familiar grounds where this had come forth to it, and so it left the scene by walking towards the meeting chamber. All that jumped in the way of the occupied beast was swiped to the side with the powerful tail attached to it while continuing towards the meeting where all the captains were, but dozens of guards then entered the hallway simultaneously and were all about to attack the beast. Lieutenant Sasakibe Choujirou used flash step to interfere with their attacks and sent them on their way before turning around and bowing respectfully towards the Hollow, and silently led it towards the meeting room where all of the present captains stood waiting at their positions. Two of the captains were wounded and dirtied due to the attacks from the Hollow, one was ill but still showed, then the rest were confused right now except for Soi Fon who was angry that the beast had slipped from her grasp so easily, and the doors were opened to the monster.

"Soutaichou, allow me to finish off this Hollow." Soi Fon went into a ready position.
"Keh, this guy is mine to kill for knocking me down earlier," Kenpachi stated with chuckles.
"Nonsense, allow me to run tests on it, I've never seen this type before." Mayuri demanded.
"I see that you are alive and well." The Commanding-General stated calmly, and the Hollow nodded.

Suddenly, Renji had burst through the doors, "please wait soutaichou!" He came over to the Hollow and stood before it. "This thing isn't a normal Hollow, I swear!" His arms spread out widely to protect the foul creature behind him. "This is a Shinigami we all know!" Just then, the lieutenant was grabbed by the nape and thrown aside without care before walking forth. "W-wait..." He spoke weakly.

All captains stared at the fallen lieutenant with questions of why he defended the Hollow, even after the Hollow grabbed him by his neck and threw him to the side, why was it that the Hollow was trying to commit suicide by entering a room with all of the captains in it? It stalked forth towards the Commanding-General and everyone watched as the creature flexed those long sharp claws with its tail swaying more rapidly than when it hit the Shinigami down earlier, the captains wondered if the Hollow would be so foolish as to attack their superior head-on. After a seven minutes of staring down between the Commanding-General and the Hollow, the masked beast stood tall in silence while its tail laid to a halt, and it reluctantly went down into submission by crouching like a four legged pet that was told to sit down by its Master...

"I am aware of who and what this creature is," the Commanding-General stated, "I had requested his appearance years ago." His eyes opened to look at the Hollow. "But it seems that you took much more time than expected. Call upon your zanpakutou now."

A clawed hand extended out, and the Hollow's voice echoed, "Zangetsu."

In a split of a second, that all too familiar zanpakutou of the fallen substitute Shinigami came into the Hollow's possession, and it was held on tightly by the Hollow who then stood up with silence as its form began to crack, it looked like a shell that was breaking due to grasping this item. Soon, the Hollow called forth its bankai and the shell shattered instantly to reveal an orange-haired man that was known to be dead for two years, and everyone became a little more relaxed when seeing the true identity of the fearsome monster, but they were worried of why the transformation happened. Out of all of them, Toushirou was the only one that would not look up to the orange-haired man that returned because of remembering just the night before when he had the urge to ask the sky to return this man to Soul Society or the Human World, whichever they would be satisfied with.

"I apologize for being late." Ichigo spoke; his voice was calm but serious, "I completed my training."
"Very good," the Commanding-General replied, "will you care to demonstrate you're training?"
"I would rather not." He bowed. "I did as you requested, and now I'm leaving, goodbye."

"Kurosaki Ichigo." Shigekuni called out, stomping his staff against the ground. "Everyone else may be dismissed." As everyone began to leave the room, he added at a late notice, "Hitsugaya taichou, please stay behind for a moment as well."
The little white-haired captain turned to look at the Commanding-General stoically as he stopped in place, "yes sir..." Toushirou came over to stand a couple feet behind the substitute Shinigami to be talked with afterwards, and everyone left the room.
"I can see that surviving on your own in Hueco Mundo has changed you in more than one way." The elder spoke with a scolding tone to the orange-haired man. "You have indeed become stronger, and yet it seems you will be more defiant than ever."
'This entire thing was planned from the start?' Toushirou looked upwards at the man, watching his expression intently as he did not falter for any reason. 'Kurosaki Ichigo was thrown into Hueco Mundo in order to become less immature or something most likely.'

"My answer still stands, Gramps." Ichigo turned around and started to leave. "I will not become a taichou."

"Kurosaki Ichigo!" The Commanding-General bellowed furiously. "You will not ignore the fact that you are a threat to Earth now."
"My mission is to protect my friends, not to serve as a taichou for Soul Society." He added angrily, "it is not my place."
"It was not your father's place either, but he had done a fair job as a taichou." The elder stated gruffly. "Soul Society needs you."
"That's why you had me keep secrets about it, so why is it that you are letting Toushirou know this information?"
"You had him cover for you after two months," the elder stated, "so I think that it would be more appropriate for you to stay at his lodge for the night, and then you may go back to the human world tomorrow afternoon. It seems that you and Abarai fukutaichou—"
"Understood." Ichigo hissed and began walking out and stopped at the doors while tensing as he gritted, "please excuse me."

After the man left, Toushirou looked to the Commanding-General, "sir, why should he stay at my lodge for the night?"
"Isolation for two years may have weakened him as well as strengthened him." Shigekuni stated calmly to him.
"That doesn't really give a valid explanation of why I should do this and not Abarai." He hinted.
"Abarai fukutaichou is seeing Kuchiki Rukia. The betrayal may end in blood and tears."
'What, Abarai said that he was a homosexual, not a bisexual. Damn these Shinigami.'

Toushirou bowed his head and left the room to see that Ichigo was down the hallway while rubbing his forehead for some reason, and so the small one came over to find out what was going on, and Ichigo tensed at the presence next to him, but he turned to look at the captain. He nodded his head to continue down the hallway and started to walk off in order to have the obviously annoyed orange-haired substitute Shinigami follow him, much to his dismay though, the man did not follow him as he had wanted, and so the captain turned to glare at the distracted Shinigami. Ichigo reverted out of his bankai stage and back to his normal attire with his zanpakutou turning back into the shikai form, and then suddenly Renji came over to him in hopes of explaining himself to the one he expected to be completely furious with him, but there was no hope.

"You'd be better off staying out of my face." Ichigo scowled. "I might kill you otherwise."
"Ichigo, you were gone for two years without any information—I thought you were—"
"Dead?" He mused at the lieutenant. "Good, now get going, Rukia will worry about you."
Renji angrily grabbed Ichigo's clothing, "it ain't like that! She's been keeping me company!"
The substitute grabbed him by the neck, tightly, "well now you can sleep with her all you want."

"Kurosaki, release him! He is a fukutaichou of the sixth squad." Toushirou demanded instantly at the grasp.
Renji tried to speak out, but the hold on his throat tightened too badly to make even a small peep, "...!"
"Fine," Ichigo threw Renji to the side and began to walk off, "I won't burden you by staying at your lodge."
"Shut up, I told that old codger that I would let you." Toushirou announced, and then glanced at the lieutenant.
"All I'm going to do is ask for a check up and go find a tree to sleep in," he attempted to smile, "don't worry about it."
"Then why do you keep rubbing your face? Sleep now and get checked on later." The captain offered.

"Being in a dark forest for two years... my eyes can't adjust to the sunlight quickly." Ichigo answered. "Excuse me."

The substitute Shinigami began walking off to the fourth division so that he could asked to be checked up on, and because the little captain felt that he was somehow responsible for the wellbeing of the man, he decided that it was best to follow him; besides, he had to bring in the unconscious Renji. After handing the redhead over to the lieutenant of the fourth squad, Toushirou went to check up on the substitute to make sure that things were going well, and one way or another his large breasted lieutenant found out that he was here and wanted to see what was going on. Once Unohana Retsu requested for Ichigo to remove his upper clothes, they all saw the horrid gashes and burns plastered on his body alongside terrible scars, and yet... there was not one cry of pain as she touched each wound to check on how bad each of them were. Perhaps five other Shinigami, other than Toushirou and his lieutenant of course, were watching in a separate room because they caught glimpse of all the wounds that he had, and everyone wondered why he would not make a sound when his body would occasionally twitch in pain. As the female captain was about to place a hand that glowed green against his back, Ichigo used his flash steps instantly to avoid being touched and grabbed his clothes to place on while saying that it was good enough, so he clothed himself quickly and hurried out of the fourth division as everyone stared.

"Kurosaki Ichigo must have felt threatened at that moment." Retsu suggested quietly next to Toushirou.
Matsumoto Rangiku looked at the older woman, "eh? Why in the world would Ichigo feel threatened?"
"He has been fighting for two years to survive." She replied. "It would not be a surprise if it left scars."
"Either way, I better make sure the idiot doesn't do anything foolish." Toushirou sighed and took a step—
"I'll go follow him taichou, I want to talk to him for a bit." His lieutenant smiled happily at him.
"I'm sorry Matsumoto fukutaichou; I think it would be best if Hitsugaya taichou followed him." Retsu stated.
"Eh? Why is that, it's not like he would attack me or something." She frowned unhappily at the disagreement.

"I believe it is more likely that he will attack anyone," the female captain stated. "He was trying his best not to attack me as I inspected his body." She tried to explain, "I believe he knows between friend and foe, but being alone has made him more wary about his surroundings, and more of a person who fights the instant a target is given to him." Retsu dipped her head sadly at this.

'That old codger tried to make him a killer...' Toushirou thought.

It seemed like two years ago it was easier than Hell to find Kurosaki Ichigo because he was so lousy at controlling his enormous reiatsu, but now he was so skillful at it that there was no way in Heaven he could be tracked down like any other Shinigami could be nowadays; that man had changed. Somehow every stop and turn were told by complete instincts to find this man, and so Toushirou continued on with these so that he could tell the fool to go to the lodge and fall asleep, but this was taking a lot of time for some reason and he had a lot of reports to get to very soon. After forty minutes of searching for him, turquoise pools gazed up upon a man lying down in a tree so lazily that it made the little captain sigh in a bit of annoyance, and so he tried to figure out a way to get this man down without having him assume that he was some sort of threat.

"So how did you find me?" Ichigo asked with his eyes closed.

Though the words snapped him out of his thoughts, the captain replied, "one only needs instincts to find you, Kurosaki."
"I hope not." He sighed and shifted on his side tiredly. "That excuse came from only Renji after we were together."
Toushirou bristled in disgust at this, "either way, get down here Kurosaki, you're not a wild man, you're a Shinigami."
"A wild man," his tongue rolled out the distasteful words and hopped down, "fine, what do you want Toushirou?"

"First of all, it's Hitsugaya taichou. Stop having me to repeat myself after all this time." Toushirou scolded the man as if he were a child, and then he saw that uncaring look in Ichigo's eyes, he stopped scolding and added. "You said that you were going to rest after you were checked on, so follow me and I'll take you to my lodge. At least, you'll be out of the rays of the sunlight, right?"

"There are reasons why I'm avoiding your lodge Toushirou." Ichigo stated calmly.
"A friend once told me to share my pain. How about sharing yours?" He asked stoically.
"I have no pain, just anger." The man replied. "I come back to find Renji with Rukia."
His mind had to think, 'perhaps he survived the two years to come see Abarai again?'

"The reason why I don't want to go to your lodge is because I might attack you." Ichigo admitted. "I've been quick to kill because of my time in Hueco Mundo, and so I had to learn quickly in order to come back alive for everyone." He sighed and rubbed his neck. "I thought that Renji would be thrilled to see me back, but I can see in his eyes that he wants Rukia more than he wants me."

"I can protect myself from you easily, that I'm sure of." Toushirou crossed his arms. "If you sleep out here, you'll be pestered."
"It seems you really want me to sleep at your lodge, you're rarely this determined if I remember right." He yawned tiredly.
"I'm not determined to have you sleep there, but the order was from soutaichou, so there's no other way around it."
"Still the uptight brat I remember." The man stretched and cracked a few stiff bones. "Alright, I'll bite. Let's go then."

Toushirou started to walk off in the direction of the lodges and stopped to make sure that the orange-haired man was following him, which he slowly was, and so he continued towards the lodges with thoughts of the man that was behind him, but he had a feeling that he was not following him anymore. He turned around to look at the substitute Shinigami, only to see that Ichigo had stopped walking and was looking around for something, this really confused the small captain because there was nothing around to be worried about—but then suddenly the alarms went off. His attention went looking around their surroundings when the Commanding-General said that there was a cloaked Hollow had killed three Shinigami, and he watched Ichigo jump up on a building top, which made no sense whatsoever for the white-haired boy that was getting annoyed. The captain widened his eyes when Ichigo vanished so quickly and appear right at his side with his zanpakutou in hand—stabbing the air next to him, and suddenly the reiatsu of the Hollow became acknowledged just as the cloak on the Hollow wavered on when it collapsed onto the ground.

"Shame, I liked that Hollow, too bad he was about to kill you." Ichigo snorted, and then looked at Toushirou. "Are you alright?"
"How did you sense that Hollow when even I couldn't sense it?" The little captain scowled in annoyance, then thought about it, "y—"
"It doesn't matter." He answered defensively. "We were going to your lodge right? Mind if we hurry up, the sun is rising."
An eyebrow rose at the attitude of the taller one and watched walk forth, "you can detect Hollow with your inner Hollow..."

"I can detect them, I can summon them," the orange-haired substitute Shinigami turned to him, "I can control them. Can we go?"

Eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the tone that he as receiving from him, but Toushirou decided to not get involved and merely show the way to his lodge while the substitute Shinigami followed in silence, so they took flash steps to speed it up a little more for the both of them. Somehow, it turned out that Ichigo beat Toushirou to the lodge, and this really confused the little captain even though he did not want to admit in any manner, so the little one sighed lightly and opened the sliding door for the orange-haired man and allowed him to enter first. Brown orbs searched cautiously through the entrance as if something might jump out at him, and his ears twitched ever so slightly when the wooden floor creaked beneath his feet; Toushirou could understand that this man would be quite edgy for a while until he adjusts to being around allies.

"You need sleep, so you can use my futon. Don't make a mess or I'll kill you." Toushirou then closed the door and left.

"Aw, come on taichou, I want to say 'hi' to Ichigo, I missed him and you lied to us." Rangiku frowned as she followed the boy.
Her superior sighed, "and what if he attacks because he thinks you're a Hollow before figuring out who you are?"
"Wow, you really don't trust him anymore, do you taichou?" The large breasted woman frowned. "Ichigo's our friend."
"I'm not saying that he is or isn't, what I am saying is that he's different—sharper and less rowdy." He scowled.
"In the living world he's seventeen years-old, I believe that might be adult age in his world, or maybe that puberty p—"
"Matsumoto," Toushirou bellowed in order to contain his yelling. "I can't say that Hueco Mundo changed him for the best."
"But Ichigo hasn't attacked us, so that means that he's our friend still." Rangiku frowned. "Just let me see him."

Sighing once more before opening the sliding door, he gave a small nod and told her to stay quiet for their sake as he shifted the sliding door open ever so gently until there was enough room for his lieutenant to enter, and then himself, and he quietly slid the door closed afterwards. Rangiku was already on the hunt for her male orange-haired friend until she came across the empty supply room that humans would call a closet; the man was sitting upwards leaning his head against the wall with his upper attire draped over his body and revealed the nasty wounds on his body. The little captain finally entered the room and saw that Ichigo had fled to the darkness of the supply room that he never used for anything and wondered why he was in there after he said he could use his futon, and then he wondered where the man's zanpakutou was lying around. After gathering his lieutenant's attention, the two of them began looking around the lodge to find the missing item, only to have Rangiku find it right next to the entrance of the room next to the table that Toushirou would occasionally work at, and both wondered why he was away from it. She mouthed the words, 'I'm going to wake him up,' and even though Toushirou tried to decline to his subordinate, the large breasted woman was already back in the room heading towards the small little room that Ichigo hid himself in, and Toushirou hoped nothing bad would happen.

"Ichigo," Rangiku called out softly, "are you okay?"
Brown orbs were slowly revealed, "...Rangiku-san?"
"How have you been?" She smiled happily. "I missed you."
The man placed a hand at his face, "thank you."
Her head tilted in confusion, "thank you for what?"

He looked up at her and smiled lightly, "thank you for missing me." His eyes crossed with Toushirou who was behind her. "Sorry, I'm used to sleeping in trees, under trees, or on rocks, not futons." After receiving a nod from the boy, he then asked. "Is it tomorrow?"

"No, it's only noon of the day you returned." Toushirou replied. "Why do you want to leave so badly?"
"I don't, I might harm my family by accident." His hand lowered from his face. "Hurting them will kill me."
Rangiku smiled weakly, "you're so sensitive still!" She reached into the supply room to hug him.
The man used a flash step to escape her grasp, and cringed, "I am... not used to the company anymore."
"Aw, now I want to cry, Ichigo is so coldhearted now." Rangiku whined. "You're so insecure too."

"Living on my own for two years, it makes you forget who and what you are... the big things in my life became small, and the small things in my life disappeared into the back of my mind." Ichigo sat down and thought about. "I promised... to explain, didn't I?"

Toushirou crossed his arms with amusement, "so that must've been important if you remembered that. How stupid are you?"
"A man's stupidity is another man's brilliance." Ichigo looked up at the boy. "Can you say I'm stupid when even you remember?"
"..." Rangiku stood there with her eyes widened in surprised and her mouth slightly gaping, and then she turned to Toushirou.
The captain snorted at the attention he was receiving and looked away, "whatever, are you going to explain yourself or not?"
"Are you angry at me, Toushirou?" Brown eyes turned away as well. "Both times you screamed at me when I left you standing—"
"I was not screaming," his tone became dark, "I may have yelled angrily at you, but I did not scream, understand Kurosaki?"

"I suppose you're right, I'm sorry." Ichigo then hiss and practically clawed at his leg painfully. "Damn it."
"Kurosaki, what is it? Is it a wound?" Toushirou asked as he uncrossed his arms hurriedly.
"Zangetsu..." he called out, starting to get up, "I just... need to get Zangetsu."
"Ichigo, you're bleeding!" Rangiku called out in surprise. "Let's take you to—"
"I'm fine." Ichigo almost snarled. "I fought some Adjuchas this morning, I haven't healed."
"Why don't you want Unohana taichou to look at the wound then?" The female frowned worriedly.

Those serious brown orbs looked into those soft blue ones, "I do not want to take up anymore time of hers than I need to, I injured a number of Shinigami included Byakuya, Kenpachi, Rukia, and Renji." He then looked down submissively. "Unohana-san is busy..."

'Kurosaki Ichigo left because of insecurity of having his wounds touched, or because he didn't want to take up her time that would be placed on other patients that she had at the time. He was aware that I brought Abarai to the infirmary so that he would be taken care of, but which is the proper answer?' Toushirou watched the two talking. 'Which one is the real truth? Or is there a hidden reason?'