The Strawberry Arrancar

Chapter 3

Yuzu hums cheerily as she cleans Ichigo's room, using it as a front to look for clues as to where the real one went when the imposter showed up.

"What are you doing?" Ichigo's voice asks(in the wrong tone, Ichi-nii never uses that tone!) from the doorway as she lifts the mattress, apparently having gotten home earlier than expected(if he knew what he was doing, he would know that Ichi-nii never gets home from school before 4:30 under any non-emergency circumstances!).

"Looking for dirt and trash." Yuzu says, lying as easily as she breathes. "It can get anywhere, so I've gotta check!" She explains.

The imposter nods, fully buying into her lie, before walking over to his(Ichi-nii's!) dresser and pulling out some pajamas and a change of underwear. "Anyway, I'm gonna take a shower now." He says(another mistake. Ichi-nii takes his showers at 6:00, never before then!) before leaving.

Yuzu waits until his footsteps fade, before continuing her search for clues. She, unfortunately, finds none.

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Ichigo pants, glaring at Yoruichi, in no small part because the talking cat is laughing its ass off.

"You could've fucking warned us!!" He yells, enraged that Yoruichi hadn't warned them about 'the cleaner' prior to them entering the dangai and almost getting killed by it.

"I could've, but I didn't think it would be a problem. It's also funnier this way." The cat admits. Its masculine voice still throws Ichigo off due to the fact that its soul does not smell like that of a male(hollows can apparently smell various aspects of souls. He hadn't noticed that during his 'fight' with Kisuke due to the fact that he was focused on fighting rather than anyone else).

Ichigo sighs, before turning and helping Orihime to her feet. "Anyway, where are we?" He asks.

Yoruichi looks around. "We're in one of the rukongai districts. Looks like the one closest to the White Road Gate."

Everyone stares at Yoruichi, not understanding what the cat said in the slightest, causing a sweat drop to go down the back of its head.

Yoruichi sighs. "Right, none of you have been here before. The rukongai districts are where the soul society's civilians, those without reiatsu, live. The White Road Gate is one of the 4 gates into the Sereitei, where the Shinigami live." The cat explains.

"Then lets bust down that gate and save Rukia!" Ichigo says, starting to run in a random direction.

"The gate's that way." Yoruichi says, pointing one of its paws in the opposite direction.

Without responding, Ichigo turns around and dashes in the direction he was pointed in, disappearing in a burst of sonido.

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As Jidanbō falls backward and the gate descends, Ichigo dashes forward to catch it, easily doing so.

"You guys find another way in." Ichigo says, turning his head to face the rest. "I'll get a head start, and cause a distraction to make it easier for you."

That said, he steps forward and allows the gate to fall behind him. To his shock, Gin has already disappeared, apparently having left the instant after he forced Jidanbō to drop the gate.

"Tch, damnit." Ichigo curses under his breath. "I was planning to kick his ass."

Deciding to get started, Ichigo holds his hand up and fires a cero in a direction where, if his senses are to be believed, will cause destruction and draw attention without hurting anyone. He then sonidos off, fully intending to search every building in the entire sereitei to find Rukia if he has to.

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"Captain Kurotsuchi!" A shinigami yells as they enter Mayuri's office, where he is currently busy doing some paperwork(oh how he hates this part of his job). "Our sensors have just detected an extremely powerful hollow entering the Sereitei!"

Mayuri looks up from his paperwork. "How powerful?"

"Vasto Lorde level, Captain!" The shinigami says.

A massive grin spreads over Mayuri's face. He has never managed to get his hands on a Vasto Lorde to experiment on due to how rare they are. Hell, there has only been a single Vasto Lorde to have appeared in his entire time as a captain(at least outside of Hueco Mundo, nobody aside from Hollows can actually access the dimension, so nobody knows how many Vasto Lorde there are there), and it escaped to Hueco Mundo rather than being killed or captured, even after facing down 2 captains at once(granted, neither one used Bankai, and it did lose the fight).

"Notify the Head Captain immediately." Mayuri says, for once putting his job over his curiosity and doing what he's supposed to(he still intends to personally hunt down and capture the Vasto Lorde after the inevitable captains meeting, though).

The shinigami nods, before dashing off to send the message.

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"Captain Kurotsuchi, explain." Yamamoto says after the last captain to arrive, Toshiro Hitsugaya, takes his position.

Mayuri nods. "As I was doing my paperwork, one of the people I had watching the sensors burst into my office with the news that they had picked up a powerful hollow invading the Sereitei through the White Road Gate." He says, not even bothering to try and hide the excitement in his eyes at the thought of such a test subject.

"How powerful?" Soifon asks, narrowing his eyes.

"If the sensors are to be believed, and they've never been wrong before, then it's a Vasto Lorde." Mayuri reveals.

Everyone - sans Yamamoto - stares at him in shock.

"That would explain the sudden destruction that happened over there." Retsu muses. "We're lucky that there was nobody in any of the buildings that it attacked. I doubt that anyone weaker than a lieutenant would've survived."

"Are you sure?" Toshiro asks, very concerned about such a dangerous threat as a Vasto Lorde invading. Nobody weaker than a captain has any hopes of killing such a creature. He may not be the oldest or most experienced captain, but he is certainly well read.

Mayuri glares at him, annoyed at the fact that the much younger shinigami is doubting him. "100%."

Yamamoto slams his staff on the ground, drawing all of their attention to him. "Anyone ranked below captain is to flee on sight, and to report their sightings when no longer near it. All captains are granted full permission to use Bankai when facing the hollow if they need to. Dismissed."

"Wait!" Mayuri interjects before anyone can leave. "If you encounter the creature, avoid killing it if possible and focus on capture. The secrets contained within the body of a live Vasto Lorde could be revolutionary!"

"If I see it and get the chance, I'm killing it." Soifon says immediately, before disappearing with a burst of shunpo. The other captains don't even acknowledge Mayuri's words before they leave, causing him to curse every single one of them before leaving as well.

A/N: As you probably guessed, In this chapter I'm experimenting with putting the thoughts/feelings/desires of the characters in parenthesis when they or another character says/does stuff, as a way of having the characters react without reacting. Do you guys like it, or does it harm the quality of the writing? Should I keep it, or should I not? The feedback genuinely helps.