In the World of the Living

(Y/N)'s POV

(Y/N): Lost track of her again...

(Y/N) was struggling to find any sort of hint of Roka's whereabouts. This wasn't a matter of having a problem feeling her spiritual pressure like with the fullbringers. It was almost like she completely disappeared off the map and reappeared in a completely different location.

(Y/N): She seemed to have avoided any hollows that I summoned. Almost as if she knows where they are...

Just then, (Y/N) saw a golden thread in the corner of his eyes.

(Y/N): And what are these golden threads? It's obvious that it's coming from her but they don't actually lead to her location.

(Y/N) attempted to follow one of the golden threads before but to no luck. (Y/N) tried to brainstorm what those threads were used for.

(Y/N): Are these threads some sort of tripwire? Interacting with them does nothing to me... Maybe it's an alarm. Something to alert her of our location... Is that her ability? If so, that may explain how she's able to out maneuver us so well. But even so, how does she change locations so fast...

(Y/N) stood on top of a building as he continued to put together any small information that he could collect.

(Y/N): Think, (Y/N)... Is it speed? Is she using Sonido? If so I should be able to theoretically keep up. No it couldn't be. Do those threads give her some sort of instantaneous movement? That could be a possibility. Or maybe...

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...

(Y/N): She's traveling back and forth between worlds... But that would take too much spiritual energy to pull off. To do it in rapid succession like that, she must have a huge pool of spiritual energy. I have to find a way to corner her the next time she enters the Garganta.

(Y/N) was once again racking his brain thinking of ideas.

(Y/N): Man... it's like no matter what she has us wrapped around her finger. Why did she make herself known to us in the first place? Was it an accident? Did Szayelaporro tell her to reveal herself to throw us off of his trail? If he did, what would happen if we went after him instead of her? *sigh* I feel like I'm getting nowhere. If only I could keep her in place...

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!!!

(Y/N): I just had an idea... Man I wish I knew Tenteikūra to make communication easier in this instance.

(Y/N) took out his phone and started to make a call.

(Meanwhile) Ichigo and Orihime POV

Ichigo was feeling a bit frustrated. The search wasn't getting anywhere at the moment.

Ichigo: We're basically on a wild goose chase.

Orihime: According to (Y/N), this is the best we can do right now. The situation seems pretty serious.

Ichigo: Yeah, but it's still annoying to have to run around with no sense of direction.

Orihime chuckled at Ichigo's behavior. Seeing him back to his normal self was nice to see.

Orihime: How does it feel?

Ichigo: Huh?

Orihime: To have your powers back?

Ichigo: Oh. It feels great. If I'm being honest, I almost gave up hope of getting them back...

Orihime: Before you met Ginjo, you said you were content with a normal life, but you were just trying to stay strong weren't you?

Ichigo: Yeah, I tried to convince myself that I was alright with it... But I guess all of you saw right through me.

Orihime: Yeah, there wasn't anything I could do to help you get your powers back so I focused on getting stronger so that I could protect you.

Ichigo: That so? Well I could tell... I wasn't expecting you to reflect that attack from Ginjo during training.

Ichigo thought back to his final stage of fullbring training with Ginjo. Orihime walked in and demanded Ichigo be healed before continuing training and forced Ginjo back with her abilities.

Orihime: You give me too much credit. I'm sure Ginjo was holding back...

Ichigo: Either way, Ginjo was pretty tough. You shouldn't sell yourself short.

Orihime: W-well if you say so...

Ichigo then looked down to himself, almost observing himself.

Ichigo: But I gotta say... (Y/N) and Mr. Urahara are incredible. To do what they did to give me back my powers, I mean.

Orihime: I agree. (Y/N) never told us he had a way to return your powers.

Ichigo: He didn't tell you guys?

Orihime: Nuh uh. Sounds like he wanted to be 100% sure everything went well before he allowed anyone to know.

Ichigo: Yeah, he did say something about Central 46 potentially getting involved if they found out.

Orihime: I wonder how (Y/N) got them to agree.

Ichigo: I doubt he did, must have been the Old man who did something...

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...

Orihime: So...

Ichigo: Hm?

Orihime: W-well... I was just wondering... Once we're done with patrol, would you like to... You know what, nevermind...

Ichigo: It sounded pretty important.

Orihime: Uh... Umm...

Orihime was then saved from her embarrassment as Ichigo's phone rang.

Ichigo: It must be (Y/N). I hope he found the arrancar.

Orihime: Y-Yeah.

Ichigo answered his phone and just as he predicted, it was (Y/N).

Ichigo: Please say that you found who we're looking for...

(Y/N): Unfortunately not, but I think I have a plan to lure her out and possibly catch her.

Ichigo: What did you have in mind?

(Y/N): We'll need to switch our positions a bit.

Ichigo: Huh? Like how?

(Y/N): Well it's more like, I need either you or Orihime to take my spot.

Ichigo: And what are you going to do?

(Y/N): In the middle of Karakura Town. There I'll summon multiple Menos Grandes.

Ichigo: And now you lost me...

(Y/N): Simply put, we bait her into running into a Negacion.

Ichigo: So... you're going to send her back to Hueco Mundo? Wouldn't she just come back?

(Y/N): I have a plan for that. I know two people who'll be able to prevent her from leaving.

Ichigo: Who?

(Y/N): This may come as a surprise to you but...

(Meanwhile) In Hueco Mundo

Wiz, Harribel and now Mayuri were in Szayelaporro's lab.

Mayuri: I've collected all that I wanted from this Espada. Why bring me back here?

Wiz: Because there's more to him than we think.

Mayuri: Is this because of his sudden reappearance?

Wiz: What?

Mayuri: You mean you don't know? Just yesterday that man found himself in my lab, attempting to take the body we had in our possession. I'll admit, his strength during his invasion of Soul Society was much more impressive than it was during the Hueco Mundo invasion.

Harribel: That means he's slowly regaining his full power and hid it until he was ready to retrieve his body.

Wiz: Did you capture him?

Mayuri: Unfortunately not. He made his escape when he realized that Zaraki was on his way to the lab.

Wiz: So he's scared of Zaraki?

Mayuri: Perhaps he's still in need of power as Ms. Harribel suggested. But nevertheless, your ignorance on his reappearance means you didn't call me here to talk about that.

Wiz: Yes, it's about an arrancar that may be working with him.

Mayuri: Ah, you must be referring to the arrancar that's been present in the World of the Living.

Wiz: Yes. I found some of his notes on her but they're all riddled in code. He made sure to make it difficult to decipher.

Mayuri took the notes out of Wiz's hand and took a look at it. His eyes scanned the notes for a few seconds before handing them back.

Mayuri: Despite your... "abnormal practices", I'm sure this is something you're quite capable of doing yourself.

Wiz: You'll speed up the process. These aren't the only notes he has on Roka Paramia.

Mayuri gave Wiz an intrigued look.

Mayuri: There's more?

Wiz walked towards a cabinet and opened it. Papers spilled out of the cabinet, falling to the floor.

Mayuri's face then gained a toothy grin.

Mayuri: Coming here wasn't a waste of time after all. Fine, I'll bite. Hand them over. I'll assist you this one time.

Harribel: Well I guess I'll leave it to you two. If Szayelaporro is truly alive then no doubt he'll make his way here to eventually regain access to his lab, and that won't spell well for any of us.

Wiz: You're going to get everyone to regroup in Las Noches?

Harribel: Correct. Although it sounds like (Y/N) requested the help from two others.

Wiz: Really? Who?

Harribel: Nelliel and Grimmjow.

To be continued.

Happy TYBW Cour 3 day everyone.