Updaaaaate!

Bet you're all glad now huh? Well ya should be. I finally managed to finish this chapter from what I had written months ago. At least I finished it.

So yeah. New chapter. Great.

Oh yeah, those of you who reviewed after last chapter that if I made this yaoi you'd stop reading? How nice for you, it isn't going to be. I decided against making this a romance around the same time that I realized this story was going to be longer than I expected. So yaoi-haters rejoice.

Sad for those of you who wanted romance but sorry, not happening. I feel like this story doesn't need it, and I'd rather spend my time wracking my brain for more plot ideas for this story than trying to figure out how to insert romance. It's just easy for me. If I write a story with romance it has to be because I REALLY want there to be romance, and for this story I don't.

But at least I updated. Which is good for you all.

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING. If I did Bleach would probably not be as popular and I'd make it a yaoi, just cuz I COULD. Plus I'm not that good at writing to have a long term manga. Also can't draw so I got nothin.

"What did you just say?!"

The collective shout emerged from more than one throat as Ichigo's human friends stood facing the huge screen showing Captain Ukitake, who had sent a request for Urahara to set up the communicator so that he could speak with Ichigo's friends.

"We believe Ichigo-kun was killed after he entered the Rokungai. The Soutaicho sent out the willing captains and vice captains to search for Ichigo-kun once he entered Soul Society but all they found was torn bloody clothing and no sign of him. After the party arrived at the point where Ichigo had been, a large wolf appeared. We have reason to believe the wolf may have killed and…. Eaten Ichigo."

The gathered humans and Urahara Yoruichi were shell-shocked. That Ichigo had been killed right after entering the afterlife was unlikely enough; that he was killed by some wild animal was even harder to believe. And that it ate him? What the hell kind of animals lived in Soul Society?

"It ate him? How big of a wolf could it be for it to eat a person without leaving any remains at all?" There was Ishida, taking the logical route while his friends were still speechless. Not that he wasn't shocked, he just hid it better.

"It was easily over six feet tall at the shoulder. It loomed over Captains Zaraki and Komamura with its head raised and looked like it was all muscle."

"But still, Ichigo wouldn't be taken down by some ordinary animal even if he was getting used to new surroundings!" Tatsuki defended her oldest friend, having known him best. There was no way Ichigo would have been killed by a measly wolf, even if it was unnaturally large.

Ukitake sighed, he knew Ichigo's friends would have trouble believing him; they were as stubborn as he was. Had been his mind reminded, the past tense making him grimace. "The wolf had considerable reiatsu, strong enough to bring several lieutenants to their knees even though it was foreign. It was some sort of strange mix of shinigami, hollow, and something else….. Completely different than an Arrancar or Vizored. There are no records of any similar reiatsu in any of the databanks so it is completely foreign. I have sent a sample of it to Urahara for your take on it; Kurotsuchi is still searching for the beast to 'study' it."

Ishida grimaced at the term 'study,' he knew full well what that term involved, since Kurotsuchi's favorite method of finding information out about something was by taking it apart.

"Hmm, very interesting…." Urahara murmured, making everyone in the room and Ukitake on the monitor turn to look at him.

"What is it Urahara-san?" Ukitake asked, hoping the ex-captain caught on to something, even though it wouldn't help Ichigo now. His heart still refused to believe the frightfully strong boy was not dead but even he was becoming disheartened from the lack of knowledge of the new beast, like if it was a friend or a foe.

The captain-turned-shopkeeper turned the reiatsu sample in his hands before he glanced at Yoruichi, who was standing next to him, "This is slightly similar to Yoruichi's reiatsu when she is in cat-form. It has the bestial reiatsu mixed in to it, but this one is much more wild and inconsistent. It also has the hollow tint to it, which warps it further, but it might be an individual who can change their shape like Yoruichi. Perhaps they cannot control their shift? Or they are not aware of their surroundings? It might even be a relatively young soul who is not in possession of their memories and do not know what is happening."

"So it might be someone who died recently?" Orihime said and they all thought of Ichigo.

"Could it be Ichigo-kun?" Ukitake was afraid to let him hope that the young boy might still live, if in a different form, just in case he was wrong and the boy was really gone.

"Hard to say, it doesn't feel like him but the reiatsu is so warped it completely hides any individual reiatsu signatures."

Ukitake sighed, of course. "Well then there isn't any more we can find out without finding the beast. I am hesitant to allow it anywhere near people for their sakes."

"Has it attacked anyone? Did it attack one of the people in the search party?" Ishida wondered, if it was strong enough to injure one of the highest ranking shinigami in Sereitei there really was something to worry about.

Ukitake shook his head in the negative, "No it did not, it growled at Kurotsuchi and Abarai-kun when they got too close but then left the area and we couldn't follow it."

"You couldn't follow it?" Tatsuki questioned with a frown, "How is that possible?"

"It moved too fast for us to follow and by the time anyone tried to sense its reiatsu it was already out of range. It used Sonido." The thirteen squad captain was solemn as he finished, knowing what his last statement meant.

The trio who had been to Hueco Mundo with Ichigo flinched while the other humans who had only heard about the hollow technique from their friends looked confused. "So it obviously is part hollow if it can use Sonido. Did it use any other techniques? Like any shinigami ones?" Ishida asked.

"No it did not. It didn't stay longer than a minute at the most. It just showed itself, growled at anyone who tried to approach, and left. it's jaws were bloody and it was very close to where Ichigo-kun's torn clothing was found so it might have injured him, but there were no other traces of blood in the area so if Ichigo-kun was attacked and left the area, he was without clothes and there are no ways of tracking him, since his reiatsu disappeared moments after he entered Rokungai."

"So he might really be dead then," Ishida muttered.

Tatsuki immediately rounded on the Quincy, "How dare you say that! There's no way Ichigo would get himself killed by a wolf of all things! He beat Aizen for Christ's sake!"

"His reiatsu is gone!" Ishida defended, "It's nowhere to be found in Sereitei and Ichigo doesn't know how to control his reiatsu! That means he's either dead or not in Soul Society and since no one's opened a Garganta or a Senkeimon there's no way he could be anywhere but there!" Even as he defended his theories with cold hard facts there were tears in his eyes, threatening to spill over even as he tried to stay composed.

"Enough Tatsuki-chan," Orihime surprisingly spoke up, her voice quiet and full of sadness, "If Sereitei can't find Kurosaki-kun then there isn't anything we can do." She choked on a sob at the thought of her friend truly gone for good. She owed him so much and now there was no way for her to possibly pay him back.

"We can go look for him." Chad rumbled, his voice uneven, showing how upset he really was even if his expression didn't change other than the fact that his jaw was tensed.

"What a wonderful idea!" Urahara chirped in an attempt at his usual jovial tone, but it was ruined by how empty it sounded. "I can set up the portal for you all after school is out for the week."

The humans exchanged looks, they wanted to go to Soul Society right away but knew that they had a responsibility to attend school, they were seniors after all.

They finally agreed and left for home, leaving Urahara to turn a suddenly serious face on Ukitake, who had watched the humans' reactions in silence. "What do you think this wolf is?"

The white haired captain just sighed, of course Urahara would cut straight to the point once no one could see him being serious, "I truly do not know, it is clearly powerful since it could bring lieutenant level shinigami to their knees. Shunsui was there, I was told to stay at my division because my condition had worsened recently, but he said it seemed like the beast wasn't even straining to release that much reiatsu, which means…."

"It has much more reiatsu than a lieutenant," Urahara finished, seeing Ukitake nod. "Where did it come from? There's no way something with so much reiatsu could hide for long."

"We don't know. Kurostuchi is very interested in it, saying it was some unknown breed of creature. There are no records of any such creature containing similar reiatsu in any of the records as I said before so we have no knowledge of what it may be. It seems likely that it is some creature that can shapeshift like Yoruichi, but that doesn't explain the hollow reiatsu."

Urahara scanned his notes on the reiatsu sample once more, "it seems like whatever it is has an equal amount of shinigami and hollow reiatsu, but the unknown reiatsu mixed in with it is warping the whole reiatsu signature so it's impossible to read."

"Could it be an Arrancar?" There was a bit of fear in Ukitake's voice, he had hoped they were done with dealing with the powerful Hollows.

"Not likely. If it was an Arrancar that somehow could change its form, it would have had to open a Garganta recently and there aren't any readings of one being opened since the ending of the Winter War. If it came through before the War was over it would have had to been hiding for over a year which is practically impossible, Hollows can't shield that well." He smiled a bit at the instant relief in the captain's face before he was serious again, "Just in case though, I think I'll accompany the kids to look for Ichigo. We wouldn't want anything to happen to them would we? Plus I can possibly get a firsthand look at whatever this is so we can deal with it. Hopefully we can find Kurosaki-kun."

Pain

Painpainpainpainpainpainpain painPAIN!

That was all the creature felt as soon as it opened its eyes to get its bearings. It had been surrounded by light after something hit its head. It wasn't sure what it was, it couldn't remember.

Then the pain hit. Centering in its chest, a burning sensation so strong it couldn't breathe. It was unable to move as the pain washed over it, running down its limbs and paralyzing it. It could feel its extremities twitching in the aftershocks of pain.

It thought it was over but then a second wave of unrelenting hurt washed over it, something in its chest tightening to the point no air was entering its lungs. It curled into a ball on the dirt ground, not caring about the rocks digging into its body, they were nothing compared to this crippling pain in its chest. Something wet and warm surged up its throat and expelled from its mouth, staining the dirt blood red. It continued to cough, expelling more of the liquid from its chest cavity.

It wasn't sure how long the tremors lasted once it stopped coughing, body tensing sharply before relaxing until the next tightening of strained muscles.

It scrabbled at the dirt, trying to right itself, but only fell back to the hard ground and decided to stay where it was, trying to gather its strength to try again later. It gasped as much air as it could into its ruined lungs, trying to slow its pulse. It wasn't sure how it knew its lungs had been damaged, it just could sort of tell, memories of pain and weakness all a blur at the back of its mind.

Just as it was pushing itself weakly to its feet it heard a rumbling sound. It whipped around to look around the clearing of trees it was in, searching for the source of the sound. There was no sign of any sort of movement of any kind. It was tense for several more minutes, holding still in case there was a threat nearby, before relaxing, assuming whatever it was had left.

Then the sound came back with a vengeance, snarling into its ears as if it was directly behind it. Turning sharply revealed nothing there, but now it was wary. It recognized the sound as something made by a canine, more specifically, a wolf. If there was one wolf around it knew there had to be more, wolves traveled in packs. It again didn't question where this knowledge came from, just accepted it and followed it.

Nothing again. No further sounds, no rustling that might give away the wolf's position. Nothing.

Then it felt a sharp pain in the back of its head and fell to the ground, front limbs tucked in close to its chest to try and stop the pain that had suddenly struck up again. It whimpered quietly, pushing down on its ribcage to try and minimize the pain. It did nothing to help.

A rushing sound filled its ears along with a vicious snarl before its entire body erupted in pain, feeling as if it was being torn apart, bones breaking and skin tearing, then everything faded to black.

The hollow snickered to itself, complementing its genius. It had found an excellent hunting ground, farther from Sereitei and therefore less populated with those blasted shinigami.

It was crouched on the flimsy roof of a building, staring down at the crowded souls passing in the streets below, searching for the best target. Currently it was in one of the farthest districts of the Rokungai. It wasn't sure what it was called but it apparently was about as far away from Sereitei as possible, perfect for hollows to hunt in.

Shinigami rarely came this far out so it was sure to be safe. It had come across a shinigami a few days ago but the weak fool escaped before it could strike. It was upset at the loss of a meal, since the souls this far out weren't very strong. The hollow figured quantity could make up for the lack of quality, so it was just bracing itself for the attack. It wanted to strike at the busiest time to eat as much as possible before it would have to move on to prevent shinigami from finding it.

It knew that the shinigami who escaped was likely to return with reinforcements so it had to make its move soon. It rose a bit off the roof to get a clearer view of the street but froze when a mournful howl split the air. The hollow ignored the worried whispers of the souls and focused on the sound, hollows didn't make that noise, it had to be some sort of animal. It had never seen any animals in the Rokungai, there were no places to hide in the plains of the district and no beast would be able to last long here, if it was a domestic animal, most of the souls were starved to some degree, there wasn't enough food available to waste it on measly animals.

It dismissed the animal as unimportant, seeing the souls beginning to withdraw from the streets, fleeing whatever sort of beast produced the sound. This would not do! The hollow dropped to the street and began its assault on the unsuspecting souls nearby, their screams music to its ears. It needed to hurry and eat as much as it could, it could already sense several strong reiatsus approaching from Sereitei, the reinforcements. It sensed a single powerful reiatsu signature coming from the opposite direction of the shinigami but the hollow had no idea what it was, no shinigami that's for sure, but then it disappeared without a trace and the hollow figured it was imagining things.

It turned back to snatch up a woman with one three-toed hand and her child with its other, but was suddenly rammed into on one side, making it drop the victims and fall to the ground harshly.

The hollow whipped around, its glowing yellow eyes widening at the sight of its attacker. A gigantic dog stood in front of it, pitch black fur rising in agitation. Impossible! Was its only thought for the animal was easily the size of the surrounding buildings, which, granted, were kind of small, but stood at least seven or eight feet tall. The beast's gleaming orange eyes narrowed as lips pulled back to show sharp teeth. A harsh snarl burst from the beast's throat, a challenge.

There was no way it would let a mangy dog beat it even if it was abnormally huge! It shot to its feet and struck out, its hands gaining knife like claws that cleaved the air towards the dog. It stumbled a bit as they met nothing but air, the dog having shot backwards unnaturally fast. The hollow roared at being avoided and slashed out again. This time the dog grabbed one of its arms by the wrist and bit down, the sharp teeth sinking in with barely any resistance despite the hollow's thick skin.

The hollow shrieked when the dog jerked its head to one side and tore off the hollow's hand before licking its lips. It snarled another challenge that the hollow instantly responded to by ramming into the dog. They wrestled against each other, the hollow's teeth and claws barely scratching the dog's skin through the thick fur while the dog's fangs and sharp nails dug deep gashes in the hollow's hide, drawing streams of red blood. They separated with a clash of fangs and claws and paused for a second, taking in the condition of the other.

Before the hollow could react the dog shot forward with a buzzing sound. It could only twitch when sharp teeth drove into its neck and ripped out, tearing the white throat out. The last thing the hollow knew was sharp fangs ripping into its body while the shinigami finally arrived on the scene.

Kiyone Kotetsu paused in her constant arguing with her rival third seat Sentarō Kotsubaki to wonder what her precious captain was thinking assigning them to search South District 78 for strange reiatsu pressures. Before he had mentioned the part about reiatsu, she had thought their short mission had something to do with her new vice captain, since she and vice captain Abarai grew up there. But apparently not, so now she was stuck having to work with the buffoon of her co-third seat to try and find something releasing strange reiatsu that may or may not be present.

They were currently responding to a report of a hollow sighting in the nearby town and were on their way to deal with it when they sensed something wasn't right. Kiyone sent out her reiatsu senses to see if there was another source of reiatsu other than the hollow's. She had heard of course, about Winter War hero Kurosaki Ichigo dying in the Living World and then suddenly disappearing once he entered Rokungai, Kiyone dearly hoped they found him, since it was making her beloved captain rather depressed. She had heard from fukutaicho Kuchiki about the strange wolf-beast and was slightly curious, though she doubted that it really was a wolf, considering its apparent size.

She cut off her thoughts as she picked up on two reiatsu's nearby, heightened showing signs of a fight. One was familiar, that of a hollow, and a pretty strong one, for a normal hollow anyway, it wasn't even a menos though it seemed close to being that strong. The other reiatsu made her hesitate, it was completely foreign, some strange warped reiatsu that gave her a feeling of wrongness. It was a twisted, bestial reitsu, completely uncontrolled and incredibly wild.

She exchanged a look with her fellow third seat and, seeing the understanding in his eyes, nodded as they entered into shunpo together.

They were not prepared with what they were faced with when they arrived, they had sensed the hollow reiatsu drop rapidly but hadn't expected the reason for that to be a giant wolf eating the hollow. The beast was massive; easily the size of the nearby houses even when it wasn't standing straight up, it had thick glossy black fur with a crimson sheen. They couldn't see the wolf's face since it was facing away from them and muzzle-deep in the carcass of the hollow but they could hear the cracking of bone and the tearing of flesh as the creature devoured the fallen soul.

If it weren't for their long service as shinigami, Kiyone was sure she would have been sick. The scent of blood was thick in the air and just the sounds of the wolf eating were making her a bit uneasy. Suddenly the sounds stopped and the wolf lifted its head away from the body, turning to face the third seats, ignoring the remainders of its meal disappear into spirit particles. Kiyone sensed her partner flinch even as she did so herself, those burning orange eyes were full of wild energy, the blood on its muzzle dripping down off its chin. Kiyone took an involuntary step back when the wolf turned its body to face them, lips soaked with blood drew back to reveal deadly sharp teeth stained with fresh blood.

Kiyone took a step forward, her hand inching its way towards the katana at her belt and felt Sentarō do the same when the wolf snarled, a vicious, terrifying sound that was enough to freeze the shinigami long enough for the wolf to move. And move it did, it flew towards them at a speed thought impossible for something other than a shinigami or a high ranked hollow, it moved too fast for either third seat to react and for a moment Kiyone was afraid they wouldn't make it back to their precious captain.

The wolf didn't slow down as it reached mere feet away, but it didn't open its jaws to attack either, it barreled straight through the small space left in between them, a space far too small for the wolf to pass without making contact.

Kiyone felt like she had just been thrown into a stone wall, the wolf's body did not feel soft like that of a living creature, it had no give when pressure was put against it; its body was completely hard, as if the wolf was a moving statue. She was sent flying to the side as the wolf passed, not even changing its direction once despite using such force to move Kiyone and Sentarō away.

Kiyone used the wall she had been thrown into as a crutch as she stood, looking to see where the wolf had gone and only seeing the faintest blur of black before it disappeared. Sentarō made his way over to her, brushing himself off from being tossed in the dirt, "We need to talk to the captain."

And Kiyone could only nod her agreement, what the heck was that wolf anyway?

Another chapter, another cliffhanger. I love being evil. *smirks*

Have absolutely no idea for next chapter other than Ukitake talking to Urahara again and telling him the most recent information about the wolf. And I may or may not have something stop the humans from coming to Sereitei, I'm not sure yet. And I do plan on having another Captains meeting, maybe at the time I decide to have to wolf break into Sereitei, lets see how they deal with THAT.

Reviews and suggestions are not only welcomed but strongly encouraged. I do love help, I really really do. I love feedback since it helps me write more since it tells me what you guys like about the story and what you'd like to see more of.

So yes, reviews please! Tell me what you like, what you hate, and please refrain from the flames? They hurt my feelings and make me not want to write any more.

Also! Shoutout to Tango Dancer! I know you read this fic! Why haven't I seen any updates from you recently? I'm waiting for my next chapter of Dawn of the Moonfang! I've been waiting for months! Gimme! *makes grabby hands*

OK I'm done now. Reviews please! Hope you liked it! Other than the hatred from me leaving you with another cliffhanger. Ciao!