“We not going to step in?” I asked as powerful Reiatsu signals appeared throughout the town.

The Soul Reapers had scattered throughout the city after making contact with Ichigo. It seemed that Orihime’s apartment had been opened to the two squad ten members and Rukia had managed to shack up with Ichigo again. I had no idea where the squad eleven members had wandered off to, but Renji had been camped out in front of the shop before now. I had been a little nervous about the idea of a Lieutenant keeping an eye on us constantly but Urahara didn’t seem bothered in the least so I withheld my objections.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise the Soul Reapers split up. The presences had split to match them as well. If they were targeting the Soul Reapers then all of them being in one place would have caused an insane amount of damage to the surroundings. It was the whole reason Urahara was working on a way to clear out the town for the expected final battle.

Of course they seemed to be getting their asses handed to them and we weren’t in the best place to just drop everything and assist.

“We can’t.” Urahara said shortly, not even taking his eyes off the massive pillar in front of him. “If we don’t synchronize the pylons now we are going to have to start over entirely. That would set us back a month at least.”

Urahara, Yoruichi, and Tessai were standing in a perfect triangle applying Kido seals to the pillar in a strict order while Ururu and I had assisted them by either writing out the next seal needed or handing the completed seals to the next person to chant them. I couldn’t use the seals but writing them could be done by anyone.

“If they can’t hold them back we might be interrupted.” I pointed out.

“Jinta is keeping an eye on it. And Ururu just went to take a look. It should be fine.”

What?!

Sure enough the small girl had disappeared from the training ground we were using for the synchronization. I didn’t even notice her leave.

“I’m going then.”

I didn’t get a response. Urahara was busy with the next chant. It didn’t matter though. I had finished the preparations for the ritual, the rest was up to the other three. I had two kids to check up on. Without another word I sped out of the basement and up to the roof, only slowing down to stop next to Jinta who was looking at the sky with a concerned expression.

The scene I arrived at was a little surreal.

Renji had seen better days. He was bleeding from several places and his bankai was coiled protectively around him. Not too surprising actually, but his opponent was in an interesting position.

The blond Arrancar, one of the most powerful entities in Aizen’s army and the one who had dominated a Lieutenant for the past few minutes, was currently being choked out by an eleven year old girl. Not only that, he was also bleeding heavily from the left side of his face.

I was relieved I made it before she got hurt.

There was an ear-popping boom as Ururu damn near took the Arrancar’s head off with a monstrous left hook.

“FUUUUCCCKKKKKK!!” The Arrancar now had blood pouring from both sides of his face and angrily swiped his katana at Ururu. The girl easily avoided the haphazard attack and retreated a few steps back, standing midair for the moment.

“Shit...shit...I’ll kill you…” the Arrancar seethed. Apparently he had lost his cool after being thrashed by a middle schooler. I should probably step in now. “...I’ll fucking murder you! Charge and Crush: DEL TORO”

There was a massive explosion of smoke that covered the area around the Arrancar. The only detail that could be made out was a long ivory horn that speared through the space where Ururu stood.

“You have ‘what the hell is that?’ written all over your face.” the Arrancar said to Renji, apparently calm again now that he had released his sword. The smoke dissipated to reveal his new form. The upper half of his body had swelled in size and was covered in heavy plates of the bone white material that made up Hollow masks, his arms now long enough to reach his feet even while standing. His mask had changed from just a fragment to a large skull resembling the head of a bull. Fitting considering the name of his release. “This is how we Arrancar release our Zanpakutou, brother.”

… that was an interesting verbal tic.

“It makes you a bigger target?” I replied innocently a few feet away. I carefully handed an unconscious Ururu to Jinta, who had followed after me.

“...what?”

I couldn’t blame the Arrancar for being surprised. Instead of impaling Ururu with a surprise attack and taunting Renji with the result, I had snatched her out of the way and now stood midair on a glowing yellow spell circle, symbols rotating lazily inside the outer ring.

“Your transformation, it makes you a larger target.” I deliberately misinterpreted him. “And it makes you dangerous to be around children. You should be more careful.”

“A red and black uniform… you aren’t a shinigami. Who are you?”

… had Aizen not informed the Arrancar of me? I felt strangely offended at the thought. I could understand not going over every single Soul Reaper, there were a lot of them, and aside from Ichigo the humans wouldn’t pose much threat to them just yet. But I had fought both him and Gin at the same time, however briefly…

“Cross! Get the kids out of here!” Renji at least seemed to have his priorities straight.

With a small wave I motioned for Jinta to hide behind Renji for the moment. Miraculously, he went without a word. Though it probably had a lot to do with his unconscious friend in his arms.

“Apparently not important enough for you to be warned about.” I replied to the Arrancar and mostly ignored Renji. “But that's fine. Just blame Aizen for what's about to happen.”

My body is made of stars.

Unquenchable is my spirit.

Unconquerable is my soul.

Mana flooded my body as I pulled deeply from my reserves. Once again a ridiculously long Japanese blade formed in my hand. Unlike the first time I manifested this blade, it wasn’t a struggle to keep it materialised. Instead MonohoshiZao seemed almost eager.

“Captain… Renji… The limit release has been approved!” Rangiku’s voice rang out suddenly. I looked at Renji to see a determined light in his eye and figured I should end this soon. He was on his last legs by the look of it.

“Don’t bother Renji.” I told him. “This won’t take long.”

“For someone not important, you sure seem arrogant.” The Arrancar said, amused. “I wonder how long…”

The bull-like Hollow kept talking but I stopped listening. Instead I focused on my blade and brought it to rest near my cheek.

Aizen stopped me from actually managing to use this against him and oddly enough it felt like an insult that I had not used this technique against anyone else. Something I was going to correct in a moment.

Power flowed into my limbs, the world sharpened and slowed down, and with a powerful kick I launched myself forward...

Hiken: Tsubame Gaeshi!

… and came to a stop a few steps past the Hollow.

No one moved for a moment, the others probably shocked at the lack of any visible results to my attack, me because my legs ached from the sudden strain. One day I would get used to high speed movement. Maybe not today, but someday.

The Arrancar was the first to move, “Wha..” and then promptly stopped when three massive gashes burst across his chest simultaneously.

Shortly after I heard one of the other Arrancar shout for a retreat. A call that came too late given that the presence of all the nearby Arrancar suddenly vanished.

I guess that was the end of that then.

I turned to see Renji had collapsed on the street. While his wounds weren’t life threatening it was obvious that had the fight gone on any longer he would’ve been in trouble if the fight had gone on longer.

“Are you okay there?” I asked, landing a little ways off. “Give me a second and I’ll get you patched up.”

He brushed my hand aside, “No time for that… what about Ichigo?”

Oh shit, what about Ichigo? I couldn’t feel anymore battles going on, but as I had firmly established my sensor abilities were shit. And just because an enemy wasn’t hanging around didn’t mean he wasn’t bleeding out somewhere.

Without another word the two of us ran off towards the place Renji last sensed Ichigo fighting.

-o-

The two of us found Ichigo in relatively decent shape, blood dripping from his head excluded. Emotionally he was probably a mess considering the listless way he was staring into the sky.

“Did he… leave?”

Excellent opener Renji. That wouldn’t be a blow to the ego, not at all.

“Did you lose?”

Christ, how about you just don’t talk anymore.

Ichigo stayed silent as I checked him over for wounds. He actually was better off than Renji despite fighting longer.

“I lost.” Ichigo said hollowly. “I can’t protect the people I want to protect. The people who were injured… I can’t even heal them. I lost.”

Nope, not listening to this anymore.

I seized the idiot by the front of his shirt and practically held him off the ground. “So what? That's it? You lose another fight and it’s the end of the world?”

“You don’t get it. I’m not strong enough.” Ichigo said dispassionately. “And thanks to that guy I can’t even get stronger without him fighting me.”

I wished I hadn’t killed that Arrancar so quickly. Ichigo was certainly doing a good job of making me want to kill something and I was out of acceptable targets.

“I told you how to deal with that already, dumbass! You don’t need to suppress your inner hollow, you need to control it and accept it!”

Ichigo said nothing and the look in his eye told me he didn’t believe me.

I snorted in disgust at his hard headed attitude and threw him to the side. He stumbled a bit but recovered quickly enough. “Fine, if you are going to ignore me I won’t bother anymore. Let’s go check on the others.”

Luckily we really needn’t have bothered. The others had gathered the injured and brought them over to Orihime in short order so everyone would be completely fine in no time at all.

Well everyone except for the squad eleven members. No idea where they ended up but Toshiro didn’t seem concerned. So I was comfortable guessing that nothing had changed too much and they were alive somewhere.

Ichigo was still moping around and for that reason I was avoiding him like the plague. I made sure no one needed my help for something and excused myself. If the Soul Reapers wanted an accounting of my battle, they could simply ask Renji. I was going to check up on the kids, make sure they were okay, and then see if Yoruichi was free for a spar. I needed to blow off some steam.

The next day we found out Ichigo went missing overnight.