The Secret Which Is Revealed

After situating myself under the blankets, I reached over and placed my palm over my Combat Pass, expelling my soul from my body. I slipped out my window and met Momo and Ichigo outside of the house.

"Let's get these bastards." Momo voted, clenching her hands into fists.

"I second that." Ichigo agreed.

"Motion carried, let's go." I flash stepped down the street, heading towards the river.

Orihime, Uryū, and Renji were already there, waiting for us.

"So, what do we do now?" Orihime asked.

Momo rubbed the back of her head, "Do you remember anything about your kidnappers?" she asked, raking her fingers through her ponytail.

"There is one thing I remember." Orihime answered.

"What is it?" I pressed.

"We had some tea." she replied.

My head sunk as I let out a exasperated sigh.

"They gave you tea?" Uryū repeated.

Orihime nodded. "And that's not all, there were muffins too." she added.

"Orihime that doesn't really help." Ichigo informed.

"Sorry." she apologized.

Well, back to square one I guess. I rubbed my temple, brushing my orange bangs aside.

"How can we rescue Chad if we don't kow who these people are?" Uryū pondered aloud.

"We know they're Mod-Souls, which I find insulting." Tsuki huffed, hanging over my shoulder.

"They're making us look chilldish and stupid." Cactic added, crossing her arms over her chest.

"It's driving my up the fricken wall!" Kon exclaimed.

"What's bothering me is that we haven't heard back from Urahara." Renji said. "And what got Yoruichi in such a panic."

"I say you all should listen to-" Kon ranted, before being silenced by Cacti and Tsuki, who jumped from Momo's and mine shoulders and pounced on his head.

"Quiet you little bastard." they scolded in unison.

"What gets me are these games of their's." Uryū admitted, making us all look at him. "Why won't they just get to the point instead of having us running all over town?"

"That's the part that pisses me off." Momo huffed.

I nodded in agreement. "It's one sick game, that's all I know." I agreed.

"There's alot we don't know." Ichigo admitted.

Renji walked off in another direction.

"Where are you going?" I asked, halting him.

"There's no need for me here." he answered. "I'm gonna go back to Urahara's Shop and wait."

"But what about Chad and all the kids from our school?" Ichigo questioned.

"I don't think they're in any real danger." Uryū stated. "So far they seem to be following the rules of the games. The worst they would probably do to Chad and the others is give them some sort of challenge."

"Of course with these Mod-Souls, that's open to just about anything." Momo muttered.

Fireworks suddenly went off, starteling us all. A little slip of paper floated down, which Ichigo caught.

"What does it say?" Orihime asked.

"You have 30 minutes to destroy the gate, Ririn." Ichigo read.

"What gate?" Momo questioned.

A gust of wind blew and then a large gate appeared. "I'm guessing that gate." I threw out.

"It's huge." Renji gaped.

"Way to huge to be real." Ichigo added. "It's gotta be a hallucination."

The gate slowly began to open, and a vacume like gust nearly pulled us all in. Knowing what would happen if that gate opened all the way, we all ran towards where it hovered.

The gate was ten times larger when you were standing underneath it.

"It looks pretty damn solid to be just a hallucination." Renji noted.

Three familiar giggles echoed around us, and we saw the five Mod-Souls standing on the lower left corner of the gate. The gate edged open and began to suck us all in.

"Everyone, hold on to something!" Ichigo called, as we scattered to the sidewalks, gripping onto telephone poles and iron gates.

"Guess this part of the game is almost over now." Ririn guessed.

The wind continued to blow, and soon Kon, Cacti, and Tsuki were sucked into the gate.

"Well, how about it?" Kurōdo asked from above. "You ready to admit defeat?"

"Hell no!" Momo, Ichigo, and I yelled in unison.

The vacume increased and soon Uryū and Orihime were sucked in. Trying to save them, the rest of us jumped into the vacume. Ichigo looked between Momo and myself, and I could read the plan in his eyes.

I unsheathed my Zanpakuto and unsealed her.

"If you three use your Bankai here, the whole town will be destroyed." Uryū called to us.

"And if we don't, the entire town will be sucked in there along with us." Ichigo rebuked.

Ichigo held his blade out in front of him, while Momo held her dual swords at a right angle, and I held my scythe downward, focusing my spirit energy.

"Bamkai!" the three of us shouted, but our blades never changed.

"What the hell?" I gasped.

The wind increated and everyting blacked out around me.

"Zakuro, wake up." I heard someone plead.

I stirred awake and opened my eyes, and was met with Renji's looking down at me. "What happened?"

"We were all sucked into that weird gate." Renji answered, helping me to my feet. "You okay?"

I rubbed my head and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." I assured. "Where's Ichigo and Momo?"

"Hey guys!" Momo called, her and Ichigo running up to us.

"Right there." Renji aswered me.

I rolled my eyes. "Thank you Lieutenant Obvious." I scoffed.

The four of us saw a faint orange glow not far from where we stood, and ran towards it.

"Orihime! Uryū!" Ichigo called.

"I'm so glad you guys are alright." Orihime sighed in relief, once we rejoined them.

"Nice to know that all six of us made it." Momo noted.

"You mean nine." Kon corrected, running up to us with Cacti and Tsuki.

"Where have we ended up?" I asked, looking around. "Could this be the alternate dimension you were talking about Uryū?"

"Possibly." he answered.

Ririn's giggle echoed around us. The five Mod-Souls stood on a plateu, looking down at us.

"I'm surprised they're all still alive." Neko chuckled.

Momo gritted her teeth, clenching the hilt of her Zanpakuto. "Get down here right now." she ordered.

Kitsune waved her index finger back and forth. "Temper, temper." she scolded. "You'd better watch that little Soul Reaper."

"Because look who we have." Ririn added. directing our attention to someone tied to a large wooden stake.

"Chad." Momo gasped, her eyes widening.

"Since you've all survived this long, I'll give you a bonus round." Ririn giggled. "Welcome to the challenge stage."

Something fell over the stake, resembling an hourglass.

"And to make it even more fun, Neko, Noba, Kurōdo, and I will join in too." Kitsune chuckled. "But, tell them the best part Ririn."

"You only have five minutes." Ririn exclaimed. "Now, let the challenge state, begin!"

The four remaining Mod-Souls charged towards us. Ichigo took on Kurōdo, Renji took on Noba, Momo took on Kitsune, and I took on Neko.

As we fought our separate battles, the Mod-Souls individual powers came into play. Kurōdo could make himself a perfect copy of anyone, Noba could redirect attacks fired at him and fire them off from another direction, Kitsune could redirect attacks directly back where they came, and Neko could create hallucinations.

"Okay, this is starting to piss me off." I growled, swinging my scythe, creating a storm-force wind, which didn't do as much damage as I thought.

Neko's mouth curled into a cat-like grin. "You're gonna have to be better than that, Zakuro." she purred, slashing at my Shihakusho sleeve.

Out of nowhere, Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshōnearly hit me from behind. I jumped out of the way and watched the attack destroy half a boulder. The four of us Soul Reapers re grouped and stared down the Mod-Souls.

"Did you forget about the time limit?" Ririn giggled. "It's almost up."

The sand nearly covered Chad, and from the looks of things, we only had less than a minute. Suddenly, the gravity changed and everything was tinted red.

"Use your Bankai." Renji told us. "It's the only way."

Momo held her blades at a right angle, Ichigo held his sword forward, and I gripped the pole of my scythe, jamming the blade into the ground. We pooled our spirit energies together, "Bankai!" the three of us shouted. And again, nothing happened.

The glass shattered and everything returned to normal.

"Chad!" Momo called, running up the plateu to him.

The rest of us followed. The ropes binding Chad came loose, freeing him. Momo embraced him in relief.

"Chad, do you remember anything about what happened when they took you?" Momo asked, still keeping her arms around him.

Chad pondered the question for a few seconds. "There was tea." he answered.

"See I told you." Orihime confirmed. "You guys laughed, but there really was tea."

I rolled my eyes and that's when I noticed a familiar white and green striped hat not too far away from us. Suddenly everything made sense. I walked a few steps and picked up the hat.

"Alright Kisuke, come on out." I called, tapping my foot on the ground. "You're not fooling anyone."

Kiskue appeared from behind the wooden pole and stood by the five Mod-Souls. "What gave me away, Zakuro dear?" he questioned.

I held up his hat. "You're hat." I answered. "When I saw it just now, I knew."

"You never finished us off or severly hurt us when you had the chance." Ichigo added.

"So, Chad was never in any real danger, was he?" Momo asked, interlocking her fingers with Chads.

"Nope." Kitsune answered. "In fact, we spent most of the time playing checkers."

"She beat me every single time." Chad informed.

I rolled my eyes. "I still don't understand what whole point of this was." I admitted.

"If you give me back my hat, I'll be happy to explain." Kiskue informed.

I tossed him back his hat and he put it on.

"I have a found that certain games can be useful for training purposes." Kiskue told us. "It builds teamwork skills, tests intellegence, and can even strengthen the bond between friends."

"Do you really think we need all that?" Ichigo asked.

Kisuke nodded. "For starters, Ichigo, Momo, and Zakuro, your Bankais don't work, do they?" he questioned.

"No way." Orihime gasped.

Momo, Ichihgo, and I glanced at eachother and our shoulders sunk.

"Remember, you three are Substitute Soul Reapers." Kisuke told us. "Not quite full-fledged Soul Reapers. You may have been able to access your Bankais in the Soul Society, but now you find it more difficult since returining home. You can't just rely soley on your Bankai when situations get too tough." he took a breath and exhaled. "On another note, did you know that Yoruichi was here conducting an investigation?"

"Yeah." Ichigo answered.

"We were wondering what's got her so concerned." Momo added.

"I don't know all the details, but whatever she was investigating was enough for the Soul Society to close the Senkaimon for a while." Kiskue added.

"I bet it has something to do with the Aizen incident." Renji accused.

"Doubt it." Kisuke rebuked. "Aizen and his acomplises escaped with the Hōgyoku, but it will take time for it to mature." he continued. "Which is good because right now, you all to weak to fight him. However, the time will eventually come for you all to face Aizen; and you won't be able to beat him without your Bankais. Will you three try to learn to use it again?"

Ichigo looked between Momo and I and we all nodded. "Yes." we agreed.

"Excellent, glad to hear it." Kisuke chuckled, fanning himself.

"That man could sell a refirdgerator to an Eskimo." Uryū muttered.

"Ichigo, you really need to use your head more." Kisuke informed. "You let your opponet's take advantage of you far to often. The same goes for you Momo and Zakuro." he glanced at us. "Ironically, the member of your group who's great at that kind of critcal thinking is Uryū, who doesn't even have his powers anymore. Right, Uryū?"

I gasped and turned to face him. "Uryū?" I questioned. "Is that true?"

"Yes." he answered, meeting my eyes. "I lost my Quincy powers back when we were fighting in the Soul Society."

"What the hell." Ichigo scolded.

"So all those times you didn't use your powers was because you couldn't?" Momo questioned.

"You freakin idiot." Ichigo insulted.

"What did you say?" Uryū yelled.

"By not telling us, you put all our lives in danger." Ichigo told him. "I'm not saying you endangered us by not having any powers. But fighting as a team, we all have different things we contribute. You were a crucial part of the group when we were in the Soul Society."

I stepped up, standing between Ichigo and Uryū. "Look, you should have trusted us, your friends, enough to tell us that you didn't have any powers." I said, taking his hand. "We would've found a way to compensate for that, and still be a team."

I leaned up and pecked his lips, squeezing his hand. When I pulled away

Kisuke started clapping. "Well that concludes our lesson for today." he said.

"But what about the town?" Renji asked. "And all the kids from the High School?"

"They should be waking up any second now." Neko answered.

"Kisuke!" came Yoruichi's voice.

A second later she appeared before us along with another Soul Reaper who had green eyes with brown and gold flecks, and long brown hair in a high ponytail with bangs of a lighter shade of brown.

"We have something to report." said the new female Soul Reaper.

"Satsuki?" Renji questioned, walking up.

"Oh, hi Lieutenant Abarai." she greeted. "So, you're who they sent to this cute little town."

"Who is she?" I asked Renji, motioning to the brown-haired Soul Reaper.

"Satsuki Uzaki, 4th seat of the 11th Division." Renji answered.

"So, what did you two find?" Kisuke asked.

"The intruder is a Bount." Yoruichi answered.

To Be Continued...