La dee da, I’m seeing all these reads, (for which I’m grateful for) but no comments… Hmm, I wonder, are your keyboards broken? Heh, heh, I’m just kidding. But still, some conductive criticism would be nice. I’d even pop in a few OC’s, you know, just for some spare parts here and there. SO COMMENT, DINGLEBATS, I KNOW YOUR REFRIDGERATOR IS WORKING—I CALLED.

PLEASE START COMMENTING IT”S LIKE YOU DNT EVEN CARE ANYMORE
I KNOW YOU”RE THERE
DON’T PRETEND YOU”RE NOT
I’LL GET SLENDERMAN TO KIDNAP YOU

Abaron: ¬¬* what a psycho.

ME: SHUDDAP, LIKE SRSLY ABARON

Third Person~ Squad 1; the Head Captain’s Office~

“Former Squad 5 Captain, Sosuke Aizen, Former Squad 3 Captain, Gin Ichimaru, and Former Squad 9 Captain, Kaname Tōsen.”

Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto—Head Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, and the Captain of Squad 1. Being faced with a problem such as the replacement process for the three Squad Captains whom decided to abandon their posts willingly by betraying the Soul Society isn’t one that can be dealt with so nonchalantly.

Even several weeks after the fact, the disarray between the members of all thirteen of the Court Squads have only become more situated, to the point where the Head Captain decided to call daily Captain’s Meetings to discuss their possible next steps.

“The whereabouts of these men are still unknown,” he went on, “According to the reports from the Department of Research and Development, the Hōgyoku known to be in Aizen’s possession is still dormant, and will require quite a bit of time before it can become completely resurrected and used by him.

“It is my conclusion that there is no immediate danger. However, there is no doubt these three men still pose a great threat to the Soul Society, as well as the World of the Living.

“Therefore, to deal with this danger, I have formed a task force to hunt down the three and bring them to justice! In the meantime, by the request of Squad 12 Captain, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, I have permitted ex-Third Seat of Squad 5, Abaron Kakaku, to travel to Hueco Mundo to retrieve both her zanpakutō and specimens for the Department.

“That is all for today. You are all dismissed.”

Abaron’s POV~

Even after having two straight hours of sleep last night, I still wasn’t able to figure out what had happened. Where did that huge gate come from? And what were they, anyway? The gates of Hell? Even more, what did they want with Orihime? Just what did they want with her?

I blame myself for letting this happen. Instead of waiting for Renji and Ichigo, I should’ve gone ahead to see what was going on.

“Damn,” Ichigo cursed, looking up from the ground he was crouching on to look around at the four of us. The dark circles underneath his eyes were proof enough to me that he hadn’t slept at all. I had no doubt that he was still trying to figure everything out. “We’ve been searching all night and we haven’t even found a trace of her!”

“I don’t sense her spiritual pressure at all anymore,” Chad said.

“If only we knew what that strange gate was,” said Uryū, pushing up his glasses.

“To me, it looked like the gates straight into the Underworld,” Renji muttered, sounding incredibly unnerved.

“Is there such a thing?”
“You’ve never heard of it?”

“Well, I have.” I glanced over at Ichigo, who still seemed downcast. “I saw it once before, in fact.” I searched through his thoughts, and found exactly what it was he was talking about. It was a large purple gate instead of red, and even though it was similar to the one who stole Orihime last night… it still just didn’t add up.

“That wasn’t it,” I concluded, earning expectant looks from the others. “And besides, there’s no way Hell would just make off with a human.”

“I sure hope you’re right,” Ichigo said with a nod. “So, what are you two doing here, anyway?”

“What do you think?” Renji asked, narrowing his dark eyebrows at him. “They gave me responsibility for this town. If anything strange happens here, it’s my job to deal with it.” And then he looked at me.

“The Head Captain’s sending me to Hueco Mundo, so I’m helping out until I have to leave.”

“That’s all well and good, but that isn’t what he asked you,” Uryū said pointedly. “We already know why you’re here in general; he just asked you why you’re here at our school.”

“And we just explained it, dumbass!” Renji snapped, glaring over at him.

“Yeah, and you’re still missing the whole point!”

“You’re not helping!” Ichigo shouted, and since I was right next to him, he was a lot louder than he needed to be. “Both of you just shut up!”

“The thing that worries me is what happened with the girls earlier,” said Chad, stopping him from getting angrier. But he was right.

When we went to their classroom before, Ichigo had asked a few of them if they had seen Orihime around.

“Who? Orihime? Is she a new student or something?”

“It appears as though their memory of her has been completely erased.”

“The same thing happened to Rukia when she disappeared,” said Uryū. Ichigo eyes suddenly widened.

“That’s it!” he exclaimed.

“What’s it?”
“The fact that someone’s gone to all the trouble of using Memory Replacement on these kids. It means that, sooner or later, they knew we’d come looking for her.”

“So then that means her disappearance wasn’t an accident,” I added. “She was kidnapped.” Ichigo nodded.

“Then I think we should go back to Orihime’s apartment and take another look,” said Uryū. “There might be some clues we missed somehow.”

“Good idea.” The four of us stood up and started walking away, leaving Renji squatting in the yard. “Come on, let’s do it.”

“Hey, wait!” he called to us. “You mean right now? I thought you guys were supposed to be in class?”

“Lighten up,” Ichigo said over his shoulder. “This is more important than school.”

***

After three rings of her doorbell and several twists of the door’s handle, it was obvious that we’d have to come up with some other idea if we’d want to get inside Orihime’s apartment.

“I guess it’s locked,” Ichigo concluded, tightening his grip on the knob.

“I’ll take care of it.” Chad stepped forward, cracking his knuckles.

“Right, what are you gonna do? Break it down?!”

“There’s no need,” I looked over at Uryū, who had just pulled out a silver palm-sized case—that had the Quincy Cross on it. Of course. Flipping it open, he pulled out a small needle, saying, “I’ll handle this!” Bending the sharp end with his fingers, he pushed Ichigo out of the way and stuck in inside the keyhole.

“H-hey,” Chad stuck his hand out as if to stop him, “I think it’s illegal to pick a lock.”

“Right now, we’ve got no choice,” he reminded him.

“I suppose it’s better than breaking down the door,” I reasoned. “Especially when we’d be doing it broad daylight; we don’t really need any attention drawn to ourselves right now.”

“Instead of jabbering, why don’t you make sure no one’s watching us?” Uryū grumbled as he continued to work with the lock.

“Alright, alright,” I glanced over my shoulder at the street behind me, but it was completely empty.

“You seem to have a knack for sneaky jobs like this, Uryū,” Ichigo said with a snigger.

“I don’t think I like what you’re insinuating.” The door clicked, meaning that Uryū had successfully unlocked the door. Turning the handle, he stood up and pulled it open. I entered first, feeling slightly anxious to be in Orihime’s house after what had happened last night.

Looking around, there were two things that I noticed just by standing in the doorway. The first thing was that the light in her living area was on and flickering, meaning that she had been awaking during her abduction. The second thing was that Orihime kept an incredibly tidy home.

So I took off my sandals, not wanting to bring any dirt inside, and slid them off to the shoe rack against the wall. Making our way into her house, we split up; Ichigo went to the living area, Renji, went to the kitchen, and Chad and Uryū went to the two bedrooms. I went to the washroom, which was just as clean as the rest of the apartment.

“Hey, you guys find anything?” Ichigo called, heading to where Renji was.

“Nothing here,” I replied, leaving the washroom to join him. I stopped in the doorway, only for my eye to begin twitching. “Renji… what are you doing?”

Taking a large gulp from what looked like a carton of milk, he sighed and pulled it away from his mouth.

“She needs to go grocery shopping,” he said, pulling the wrapper off of a pink granola-looking bar. “I didn’t have anything to eat this morning since someone rushed me out of the shop.” He sent a weak glare towards me.

“I’m hungry, too, but still, finding out what happened to Orihime is much more important.” At that moment, my stomach grumbled. “I sure hope Tessai has something good planned for lunch today… Um, hey, pass me that,” I added, pointing to the small apple on the shelf. Picking it up, he tossed into the air in front of me, where I caught it with my left hand. Taking a quick bite, I sucked the juice from it and savoured it in content.

To be perfectly blunt, I was starving, so right now, an apple would just have to do.

“Hey, look at this,” Uryū called from the living area. We exited the kitchen walked over to him, as he continued to stare down at a small circular table with two cups filled with tea. “Orihime had company.” Renji sighed.

“Yeah, and no cookies.”

“Why do you have to keep talking about food?” Ichigo asked.

“Because I’m hungry obviously, and your whining only makes it worse!”
“You just emptied the damn refrigerator!”
“Well, it wasn’t enough to fill me up!”

“Shut up,” I ordered, pushing them away from each other. “You’re giving me a migraine.” They stepped down, and instead they began to glare at each other. Uryū sighed.

“That strange spiritual pressure we felt last night—whoever it was, it was invited by Orihime into this room to have tea.”

“It truly was a strange spiritual pressure,” Renji agreed quietly, tucking his hands behind his head.

“She must’ve known who it was, then,” I said, grabbing the unknown guest’s cup. Shutting my eyes, I felt a small trace of a mysterious spiritual energy. But I didn’t recognize it. I looked over to the window across from us, and concluded that Orihime must’ve left it open from last night.

Orihime… where are you?

“Huh?” I glanced down at the front of my shihakushō, where something had started glowing from the pocket inside on my white robe’s chest, while sending out a loud—and incredibly annoying—series of rings.

“You have a cell phone?” Ichigo inquired in disbelief.

“It’s my Soul Pager,” I corrected, reaching inside and pulling it out.

“Is it a Hollow?” I shook my head.

“No… someone’s calling me.” Flipping the lid open, I stood up from my kneeling position and held the speaker up to my ear. “This is Abaron.”

“Hello?” a voice replied. “Can you hear me okay?”

“Could you guys cut it out?” I snapped, pushing the idiots who had crowded around me to get a listen-in. Sighing, I put the phone back up to my ear.

“I’ve got your friend!” I froze, almost having the phone slip out from my grasp. “She’s here with me right now!”

“A little girl?” Ichigo snatched it from my shaking hands. She… she took Orihime…?

“Who is this?” he asked, his tone becoming dark and harsh.

“Hmm… that question’s no fun!” she said with a laugh. “I don’t think I’ll tell you that!”

“Why did you kidnap Orihime?” The girl giggled. “Tell me why!” he demanded.

“Calm down, Ichigo,” Uryū whispered into his free ear.
“R-right.”

“You really shouldn’t break into people’s houses when they’re not home, you know! Maybe… I’ll call the police!”

“They’re watching us!” Renji, Chad, and Uryū ran over to the windows, searching both the skies and the grounds below.

“There’s no one around,” Renji observed, turning his back to glass.

“Do you want to see your friend?” the girl asked.

“Of course we want to see her!” Ichigo shouted into the microphone. “Tell us where she is!” She giggled again.

“Okay! Let’s play a game!” Ichigo’s eyes narrowed.

“What game?”
“You’ll see! And, if you win, I just might return your friend to you!”

“Hey! Dammit, I’m gonna—“”Don’t let her provoke you,” Uryū advised, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Just calm down.” Said carrot sighed.

“Fine,” he said. “What do we have to do?”

“Get to the park down the street from you in the next three minutes,” she explained. “If you show up even one second late, there’s no telling what’ll happen to your friend! Talk to you later!” And she hung up. Ichigo handed the phone back to me and sighed.

“Within three minutes?”
“So what do we do?”

“Our only option right now is to do as she says,” I answered, walking toward the front door to retrieve my shoes. I slipped them back on and opened it up. “Let’s hurry.”

***

“Whoever this is, she better not’ve hurt Orihime.” Ichigo was in both a state of shock and a state of denial. He was so royally angry that the small headache I had gained during his and Renji’s little spat before grew into the size and volume of Sokyoku Hill. “Abaron, it was your pager she called, do you know who this person is?”

“I have no idea,” I answered, wishing that did. “Kisuke gave it to me so I could contact him while in Hueco Mundo if I needed to. But it’s only standard issues, so anyone could’ve gotten that number.”

“One minutes left,” Chad said from behind us. “We’d better hurry.”

“Alright, then.” And before I knew it, I was suddenly being outrun by Renji, and in turn, Ichigo sprinted ahead to get ahead of him. Oh, no…

“You been working out?” he asked, panting. “You’ve gotten a little faster since the last time I ran with you.” Renji laughed half-heartedly.

“I haven’t gotten faster, you’ve just got slower!”
“Oh, yeah?!”
“Think you can keep up?!”
“Keep up?!” Ichigo started screaming as he picked up his pace. “You’ll never beat me!”

“Ichigo quit your yelling!” Uryū shouted after him. “You’re acting like a madman! Everyone’s gonna think you’ve lost your mind!”

I guess that Renji and Ichigo competing with each other to see who would get to the park the fastest was the main reason why we were able to get to it in time with more than twenty seconds to spare. Panting heavily, we stopped in the middle of the park, across from a strange-looking structure that looked highly climbable.

“We made it in time, but…” Renji looked around. “No one’s here.”

“Then was it a trick?” Uryū wondered.

“We made it here in under three minutes!” Ichigo yelled. “Come on out!” And that’s when a phone started ringing. It was inside a small glass stall, next to a set of yellow chutes. We ran over to it with Ichigo in the lead. Stepping inside, he answered it.

“Hello?”               
“Congratulations!” the girl cheered. “You passed the first test!” Ichigo gasped.

“What do you mean the first test?”
“Are you ready for the next one?”

“What?! We did what you said! We got here on time, now give us Orihime!”

“Ohh, that wouldn’t be any good, silly! The game’s no fun if it’s over so quickly!” She giggled.

“Damn it, you stupid brat!”
“Next, I want you to go to the Supermarket at the big shopping mall! You’ve got three minutes to get to the phone, okay?”

“But that’s miles away!” he exclaimed. “We’ll never get there in time!”

“You better,” she warned. “Or something bad’ll happen to your friend.” The moment she hung was the moment we took off running again, sprinting as fast as we could out of the park.

***

The Supermarket was really just as far as Ichigo said it was, and while he, Chad, and Uryū were unable to flashstep, it was going to be near impossible for us to get there in time.

“Renji!” He looked back at me from over his shoulder and nodded. Taking hold of Uryū’s and Chad’s arms while ignoring their questions, he broke into a flashstep in the direction of the Supermarket.

“Come on,” I grabbed onto a confused Ichigo’s hand and began racing after them. “Let’s hurry!”

***

I’m almost positive that, from a human’s perspective, where they’re unable to see me and Renji as Soul Reapers, would be mildly concerned as to why they were seeing three other human get dragged through the street.

And I was right.

Ichigo was getting the exact same looks he got when he and Renji were racing each other on the way to the park before. Thankfully, when we turned the corner, the Supermarket I had seen in my partner’s head came into view.

“I think we’re gonna make it!” I heard Uryū shout from up ahead. Squinting through the sunlight, I saw another phone hanging up on the wall beside the store’s entrance. And that’s when it started ringing.

“Oh, no!” Ichigo tore from my grasp and went ahead to try to stop a man wearing a thick blue apron from answering it, instead. But he was too late.

“Yeah, hello?” the man said. I was suddenly knocked aside by Chad as he bolted forward, successfully scaring the man away. Ichigo grabbed the phone from the air and pressed it up to his ear.

“H-hello?” he said, sounding mildly frantic.

“Awh, too bad,” I heard the girl say, sounding falsely upset. “You failed the test this time!”

“What do you mean?” I asked, taking the phone from him and ignoring the scared cries from behind us as the humans walking by marveled at a phone floating in midair. “We got here in three minutes again, just like you said!”

“S-orry!” she sang, recovering from her fake sadness. “Someone else answered the phone, so you lose!”

“But you never put that in the rules!”
“Too bad! It looks like your friend’s gonna die, after all! So long!” And the line went dead.

“Hey! Hello?! Dammit, come back!” Ichigo pried the phone from my tense fingers and slammed it down onto the hook. Undoubtedly, if I held onto it for any longer, the humans from before would probably start asking why a floating phone had just suddenly shattered into pieces.

“What do we do now?!” I shouted, crouching down and holding my head. The migraine was now the size of the Seireitei. “Orihime!”

“Damn this sucks!” Ichigo cursed loudly, gritting his teeth so hard that I had begun to feel it, myself. “I feel so helpless!”

“Calm down, you two.”
“That’s right,” said Renji from above. “The only way to get through this is to keep a cool head and think.”

“But we can’t do anything,” I argued drily, struggling to create more saliva in my desertly-dry mouth. “She’s gone!” I still didn’t understand how I could get so attached to someone in a month’s time. But the one thing I did understand was that I wouldn’t let anything happen to Orihime while I was alive. She’s my friend now, and she’ll be my friend for a long time. And now, I wonder when I had actually begun to care about people. Shōri, Gin, and Rangiku were the first people I had ever considered a family; not even my own mother or father. But when Gin betrayed us all, that’s when I finally managed to cut our ties so finely that they would never be able to be stitched back together.

But of course, this time was cut short, as the phone rang again.

I sprung up, mentally praying that it was the brat before picking it up.

“Yeah, hello?” Please…

“Ha, ha, fooled you!” I sighed in both relief and irritancy. “Are you ready for the third test?”

“I swear, when I get my hands on you—“”Abaron,” Uryū had placed his own hand on my shoulder, bringing me away from my built up rage. “We have to keep her on the line until we know Orihime is safe.” I nodded stiffly, and he stepped back again.

“Alright,” I said, lowering my tone to about an octave just above a whisper. “Listen, we need to know that Orihime isn’t hurt. Please, just let me hear her voice.” She giggled.

“I’ll let you hear her voice if you pass the third test!” I sighed, trying to think of a way to release my frustration without jeopardizing Orihime’s and the phone’s well-being.

“What do we have to do?”
“Well…”

No way. 

I dropped the phone and started running. Hearing several pairs of footsteps and pants that belong to the mouths of the others, I knew that they had caught on and started following me, with no questions asked.

Thankfully, the third destination given to us was one that was in our general vicinity, and one that I was surprisingly quite familiar with.

Turning the corner, I ran over to Ururu and Jinta, who were lazily sweeping the drive out front of Urahara’s Shop.

“What are you guys, crazy?!”
“We need to use your phone,” I said quickly, leaving absolutely no room for debate. “Where is it?”

“Yeah!” said Renji. “It’s a life or death emergency!”

“Well, look who’s here,” I looked over the two’s heads to see Tessai and Kisuke standing in the Shop’s doorway. “Welcome, Ichigo and friends,” Kisuke greeted. “What’s all the excitement about? Oh, the phone is inside if you need to use it,” he added with a grin.

Was I the only one who found that extremely strange?

At that moment, a phone began ringing, and we ran inside to their living area. This time, Ichigo picked the phone up.

“Yeah, I’m here!” We all sat down.

“Wow! You made it just in time!”
“Yeah, but how’d you get this number? Where are you calling from, anyway?”

“Oh, I can’t tell you that!” she replied cheerily. “That’s not how the game works!”

“Doesn’t that phone tell you who’s calling?” Renji asked quietly, to which I replied with a shrug.

“Can we trace it?” asked Chad.

“I think only the police can do that,” Uryū answered. What are… police?

“The mystery is the only thing that’s fun about it! Maybe I’ll give you some hints!”

“I can record the call if you think it might help,” Kisuke offered, hovering over us. I nodded, and Tessai rushed over to us, reaching into the wooden cabinet the phone was resting on, where he pulled out a machine with a black-coloured tape inside it. Pressing two buttons on it simultaneously, the tape began to spin.

“Okay, I’ll tell you what,” the girl began. “Try going back to your friend’s apartment at eight tonight! Who knows? You might find her there!”

“Why should we wait until tonight?” asked Ichigo. “Why can’t you bring her back now?”

“My, my, you’re such an impatient boy!”
“At least let me hear her voice!”
“Tonight! See ya!”

“No! Don’t hang up! Hello?! Hello?!”

“What’s all the racket in here? Are you having a party?” Turning around, we saw Yoruichi standing in the doorway, her golden eyes perfectly contrasting with her dark fur. She walked over to us, only to climb up and into my lap. Tessai replayed the tape for her from when it had begun recording.

“It certainly does sound like a kidnapping, doesn’t it?” Kisuke said when it ended.

“Of course it is,” said Ichigo. “What else could it be?”

“I seriously doubt that whoever’s behind this is just going to give Orihime back to us tonight,” said Uryū. “I’m sure that it’s a trap.”

“And the fact that she knew the number to call here at the Shop also means that it’s not an ordinary person we’re dealing with,” said Yoruichi.

“So, she’s a Soul Reaper?”
“I didn’t say that. I just don’t think there’s enough information for us to act upon.” Ichigo turned to Kisuke.

“What do you think?”

“I have to agree with Yoruichi,” he said, pulling out his fan, keeping it folded. “We don’t have enough to go on yet.”

“There must be something you can do to help us,” I said, carefully turning around to look at them without knocking Yoruichi off my lap.

“I suppose I can try, but don’t expect too much, though, because I’ve never done this kind of work before, so I don’t really know what I’m doing.” We smiled at him gratefully.

“Thanks a lot.”
“So, eight o’clock tonight, right?”

“Yeah,” Ichigo said with a nod. “I’ll see you there. We’re gonna get Orihime back, and then they’re going to pay.”

“Alright, then.”

“Eight o’clock sounds good,” I heard Jinta say, lowering his voice slightly.

“You’re not going with them, are you?” Ururu asked him.

“No, but…” He lowered it even further, but we could still hear him. “If they’re going out, that means that Abaron and Renji won’t be here, so we don’t have to cook dinner for the moochers.” I started feeling a little dizzy as soon as he finished his sentence. No dinner?! Renji fell over, just about as blue in the face as I was.

“Guys…?”
“How pathetic.”
“Hm.”

***

Later That Evening~

“Any signs of life inside?” Uryū asked.

“Nothing yet,” I answered, keeping my eyes locked on Orihime’s apartment building.

“Hey, Uryū, where’s that cape of yours?” Ichigo wondered. I glanced over at the Quincy, who just happened to look over at me at the same time. I shrugged and turned back to the house. It was his choice to keep the loss of his powers a secret, so he can handle his own problem, well, on his own.

“I-I took it to the dry cleaners,” he fibbed hoarsely.

“Your cape is ‘dry-clean only’?” Chad blinked. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, so? W-what’s wrong with looking good?”

“Guys!” I shouted, pointing up at a window. It had begun to glow a blindingly bright gold, making it difficult for me to see.

“What the hell?!” Ichigo gasped. “That’s Orihime’s window!”

He ran through the gate and up to her front door, where he hastily turned at the knob.

“Damn, it’s still locked!”
“Do you want me to pick the lock again?” Uryū asked hurriedly, pulling out his pin.

“No, there’s no time for that! Come on, Chad, break this door down!”

“Right—“ But before he could so much as pull his shoulder back to launch it at the wood, the light dimmed out and disappeared, and the door swung open.

“What’s going on, guys?” It was… Orihime. I just… I couldn’t believe it.

“Are you alright?” I asked, looking her up and down. “You’re not hurt, are you?” She wasn’t injured, thank goodness. But I still wasn’t sure she was completely okay.

“Did she bring you back like she said she would?” Ichigo asked her.

“Huh? Hurt by what?”
“Orihime, you were kidnapped last night,” I said worriedly

“Huh? I was what?” She laughed. “No way!” She doesn’t remember what happened. How is that possible? Did they erase her memory? Just what the hell is this?!

“Orihime, I want you to think back to last night. What was the last thing that happened to you?” She shut her eyes and put a hand on her chin.

“Well… The first thing that happened was school, since the first semester started today. I remember seeing all my friends, and after that, Tatsuki and I got ice cream and gave ourselves headaches from eating it too fast. Then I went home, did my homework, and after that, had dinner and went to bed.”

“But the new semester started yesterday, Orihime,” Chad told her.

“They erased her memory, too,” said Renji. “She lost a day.”

“At least they didn’t hurt her,” I sighed heavily in relief. I’d been so stressed out that it just felt great to find out that she was fine. “She’s okay.”

“So then we’ll stick around, too, and keep our eyes open.”

***

It was now ten after eight, and nothing had happened. I was getting anxious. I thought that the people who kidnapped her would’ve at least been here by now.

“Should I make us some tea?” Orihime asked. I shook my head, glancing out the window behind Renji. What is this feeling…?

“Something’s coming!” And I was right.

The still-flickering light had finally gone out, and then, the ground started shaking. The glass of her windows shattered, and the curtains were swept off to the sides by the sudden gust of wind, only to get pulled off through the ends of the rod that held them up.

“What the hell is this?!” I heard Ichigo shout as the wind started circling the apartment building like a tornado. And it wasn’t a normal one.

“I don’t know!” I shouted back. “Everyone stay away from the windows!” Renji ran past me and to the front door leading back onto the balcony, trying to get out. But the force and strength of the wind wouldn’t let up.

“It won’t open!”
“What are you doing?!” I spun on my heel at Uryū’s elevated tone, only to choke on my words due to what I was looking at. Chad was being strangled by… by… Orihime?! No, that can’t be Orihime! Orihime’s eyes don’t glow, let alone be red.

“Let… go,” he pleaded weakly, trying to pull the fake Orihime’s arms away from his neck. “Ori…hime!”

“Orihime, what are you doing?!” “Let him go!”

“What do you think?” it relied calmly, grinning at over at us. “I’m killing him.”

“That isn’t Orihime!” I yelled, glaring at the fake. “Just who are you?!”

“…can’t… breathe…”
“Chad, just shake her off!” Ichigo urged with his fists clenched. “Can’t you just tear her arms away from you?!” And that’s when he started screaming.

“Chad!”
“Chad!”

“No!” Uryū threw his arm out to the side to stop Ichigo and Renji from taking out their zanpakutōs. “That is Orihime’s body they’re possessing!” The fake Orihime laughed. Letting Chad go, it kicked off of him and jumped back, causing Chad to crumple to the floor. He began heaving, and clutched at his throat. And that’s when the most bizarre thing happened.

The fake Orihime, yeah, uh, he turned into an old man in a top hat.

“What the hell?!”
“It’s about time you showed your face, you bastard! You’re the one who called us!”

“How ignorant,” he said, puffing out his chest. It was obvious that he wasn’t the girl. “Do you really think that little voice could come from someone like me? I am Kurōdo, and I’ve been looking forward to this for some time…”

“The time for talking is over!” I pulled up my sleeve. “Bakudo 63, Sajo Sabaku!” Pointing my finger at him, I let the kidō fly. And with a smirk, he spoke once again.

“…but I’m not the only one here.” Before my Bakudo could even reach him, another tall figure appeared in front of him and… sucked it up with a shield?

“What… what did you just do?!” He made it disappear! What the heck are they?!

“Pleased to meet you,” he said, nodding at me.

“Renji! Abaron!” But before I could so much as blink, we were once again blinded by a bright light, one that was red this time.

“We’ll be taking this one,” I heard Kurōdo say. Squinting through the light, I saw that he had a foot propped up on Chad’s back, keeping him from getting up. And then they disappeared. Running to the open window, I noticed a small ripple in the sky, and from it, the gate made its second reappearance, where I saw them.

“Chad!” I slid open Orihime’s living area window and stepped out onto the sill. Jumping onto the railing that lined the balcony, I leaped for him with my hand outstretched, praying that I’d be able to save him in time before he, too, was taken. I was less than an inch away from him when I felt myself falling. My fingertips skimmed his, and as he fully disappeared past the now closed gates, I was left with his haunting screams and the feeling of guilt smothering my conscience. “Dammit, no!”

And I rather hear Chad’s screams than that annoying laugh again.

“It’s that kid,” Ichigo jumped up beside me. “But where?”

“Hi there!” My eyes shot up to the top of the gate, where the girl who that annoying voice belonged to was sitting on the edge, right in between the other two.

“Who the hell are you?” Ichigo asked, glaring up at them. “What’s this all about?!”

“My name is Lirin!” she replied, ignoring his question. “Nice to meet you, too!”

“What do you want?” Because she didn’t answer, my frustration was increasing by the millisecond. “Why are you doing this?”

“Do you like my game?” she inquired, as Renji appeared beside me.

“That does it,” Ichigo took Zangetsu of his back. Renji squirmed in his sandals.

“I don’t think I can kill a kid, though.”

“I know I can,” I offered. “I’m not as entirely moralized as you two, so you guys go after the clowns on the side, while I send that brat back to school!” She’s going get a private lesson in not kidnapping people.

“Alright.”
“Sounds good to me!” We jumped off the roof and into the air.

“Such silly kids…” As we brought our swords down over their heads, they disappeared into thin air.

“What the—?” I spun around, only to get flicked in the forehead by Lirin. And then she was gone again, along with her friends.—taking both Orihime and Chad with them.

“I’ll see you later!” I dropped onto the roof, clenching my free hand so tightly that blood was no doubt drawn.

“Just what the hell is going on?”

I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter (but I wouldn’t know, ‘cuz you guys NEVER TALK TO MEH >.<), I can’t say I worked extremely hard on it, since I have a good feeling that I’m gonna suck bad during the Bount and Abaron’s Adventures Arcs. You never know, I may just give up on writing them and skip to the end by doing a quick summary of them—HA, I’d never do that—but yeah. So, VOTE, COMMENT, actually INTERACT WITH MEH SO I’M NOT LONELY, YOU LITTLE TURDS O////////O”

Please, let me know if you want me to update a certain story, I just really want to move out of this Arc so I can begin the first Arrancar Arc (Oh, and if you’re wondering, YES, I’m doing all of the Arcs, including the Thousand Year Blood War Arc. Has anyone besides myself read the latest chapter with Captain Komamura? OH MY FISH, I RLLY DNT WNT 2 SPOIL IT BUT KOMAMURA à  HUMAN).

I’ll just shut up now.

Abaron: GOOD.

Illustrated Guide to Soul Reapers! GOLDEN!

Renji: *slides door open*

Abaron: *peeks inside* ¬¬….  looks like the coast is clear.

Renji: *whispers* <^w^>then let’s go get some rice!

Abaron: ~^-^~ yes!  

(Sneaks in on their tippy toes)

Renji: can’t make a sound… (*rice lid* *starts drooling* heheheheheee….

Abaron: *grabs spoons* *starts drooling* >*o*>--E

*Le random rubber bands appear)

Abaron: huh? *hits her hand* ow! *drops spoon* (;*△*;) (MY FOOD)

Renji: (;*△*;) *rubs hand* *cries louder*

Jinta: *sits in doorway* (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞ HAHAHA

Kisuke: *pulls out fan* ^_~  that was just too easy…