The Lieutenant and the Horn

Deep within Hueco Mundo, in Las Noches, Aizen Sosuke, former captain of the Gotei 13 and leader of the arrancar watched as the Hogyoku turned black and sent tendrils into his fingers. With little effort he used his spiritual energy and the orb began the process of creating another arrancar. Aizen was fortunate in finding a vasto lorde class menos and decided to see what kind of arrancar could be created from such a powerful menos.
Though his plan required more vasto lordes he couldn’t help himself as the mummified hollow was filled by the hogyoku’s power. Aizen remembered how he nearly lost the orb to the traitorous Orihime after she was rescued by her friends and returned to the human world. Aizen lost a few Espada and needed to create more. An army needed generals after all and that’s what the Espada were for. Aizen smiled as the orb finished and went back to its resting state. The glass surrounding the mummified hollow cracked and shattered, spraying glass everywhere. Then the body cast covering the menos began to crack and fall off.

“Perfect, simply perfect.” Aizen said watching the new arrancar stand up and shake off the remains of the cast, its spiritual pressure was overwhelming but Aizen was no ordinary shinigami and matched it with his own.

“What is your name?” Aizen said with a smile, watching the arrancar stare at him with one unfeeling purple eye.

“…Ryoji, Ryoji Mitsuhorun”

**Karakura Town**

“ORIHIME!!!” Kon yelled as he jumped but was cut short by Ichigo's foot and slammed into a wall.

“…ow…the pain” The poor stuffed animal twitched knowing it would never get the chance to put his face in between her breasts like he so wanted to.

“Knock it off Kon! Dealing with you is the last thing Orihime needs after all she’s been through.” Ichigo was tired and didn’t want to deal with the perverted mod-soul but he did admit (to himself anyway) that he missed Kon.

“ICHIGO!” Lillin screamed as she latched onto Ichigo and sat on his left shoulder.

“Hi Lillin, has everything been okay since I left?”

“Oh you know, same old same old. Hi Orihime!”

“Oh, hello Lillin.”

“I’m so glad to see you back safe and sound! Ichigo…why is she here? Why didn’t you take her home?” Lillin asked with curiosity. For as long as she had known Ichigo, only Rukia ever stayed in his room, unless Matsumoto came by with her captain.

“Because it isn’t safe there, Orihime needs to be kept safe in case Aizen tries to get her back.”

“You sure that’s the reason Ichigo?” Lillin giggled though she hoped that wasn’t the case.

“UNLIKE KON I’M NOT A PERVERT!!!” Ichigo screamed glad that his sisters and father were not home.

Ichigo felt a tap on his shoulder and turned towards his female friend. “Um, Ichigo?”

“Huh? What is it Orihime?” Ichigo was concerned about her after the rescue and it showed in his features.

The loud sound of a stomach growling pierced the air, causing Orihime to wrap her arms around herself. She became embarrassed at her stomach’s reaction but she hadn’t eaten since Ichigo had rescued her and gotten out of Hueco Mundo.

“…Guess you’re hungry huh? Well let’s go get something to eat, how about ice cream? I’ll buy.”

Orihime stared at Ichigo as he grabbed his wallet and his shinigami badge. Ichigo paying for meals was a rare thing but she didn’t care about that, she was going to eat ice cream with the man she loved and nothing could ruin it.

**Meanwhile in Soul Society**

Renji Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki kneeled in front of the commander general awaiting their punishment. They were called back to Soul Society when Orihime was captured and forbidden to go to Hueco Mundo to try to rescue her but after being brought back to Seireitei they decided their friend’s life was worth more than punishment. General Yamamoto was furious with the pair, though he knew they were following their hearts in the matter, they still broke the rules which he abhorred.

He began tapping the end of his cane against the ground for a few seconds before addressing the two shinigami. “You both know what you did was wrong, I gave specific orders for none of you, even Ichigo to go into Heuco Mundo to rescue that girl. Since he is not an official shinigami I can’t punish him, but you two I can.”

Rukia was first to speak. “Commander General, I know we disobeyed orders but Orihime is our friend and we couldn’t stand by and let her suffer at Aizen’s hands.”

Renji, gaining confidence from Rukia then spoke. “Sir, because of what we did we weakened Aizen’s army. Four of his Espada are dead and Tosen was critically injured by Captain Zaraki in the attack. We were successful in not only rescuing Orihime but also buying Soul Society time to prepare.”

Yamamoto listened to the two and stood silent for a few moments. Both Rukia and Renji waited patiently for his verdict. After a few more silent moments he tapped his cane on the floor and spoke.

“I will admit you are right, you were successful in rescuing Orihime and you did buy Soul Society a little more time to prepare. But that doesn’t change the fact you both disobeyed my orders. I will go easy on you both since you immediately came back to face punishment. You are hereby both sentenced to four weeks in prison, after this situation with Aizen has been dealt with. I would send you to prison sooner but due to the fact that Aizen was not killed in your attack, and therefore is still a threat I can’t afford to send you to prison now. That is my verdict, now go.”

Both Rukia and Renji were relieved to have such a light sentence and stood and bowed to the commander before leaving. Yamamoto sighed and sat down in a chair, allowing him full view of both Seireitei and the Rukongai. No matter how old he got, the view calmed his nerves and allowed him to think. He knew he should have given them a harsher punishment but they were just following Ichigo. He sighed again. His grandson was a real handful, he couldn’t figure out how his son Isshin could handle him. The fact that Ichigo was his grandson was the second biggest secret he kept, the first being the location of the king’s key. He knew he acted the same way when he was Ichigo’ age. Headstrong, arrogant, and cocky, but it was that attitude that nearly cost him his life once so he changed and acted as he did now. The wind blew outside his window and he smiled watching Soul Society go about its business, knowing that most of the souls residing in the Rukongai had no idea of what would happen if Aizen was able to rebuild his army and find enough vasto lordes to invade the Soul Society.

“Peace such as this should be maintained always.” He said watching the clouds go by.