Here's the fourth chapter! Sorry it took so long, I didn't know where I wanted to go with it until last night. I gave some attention to some of the less obvious characters that have a relationship with Ichigo in this chapter, as well as a regular :) Hope you enjoy and thank you so much for the reviews!

4. Lost without the Moon

To say it was an all-out, no-holds barred fight could easily have been an understatement. The Soul Society was in chaos. A myriad of espada, arrancar and numeros had gotten into the Soul Society in the middle of what had been a Captain's meeting. Ichigo and Renji had happened to be on their way back from sparring at the Squad Eleven barracks when the hollows attacked.

It was unexpected, to say the least, that they would attack seeing as they'd defeated the Aizen over a year and a half ago by now. It was Ichigo's first time back in the Soul Society since losing his soul reaper powers from the final Getsuga. But now he was back and better than ever and due to stay in the Soul Society for a couple days while he reacquainted himself. Obviously, the remaining Hueco Mundo hell spawn had different plans about how he was going to work his way back into the Gotei 13.

The espada, a far cry from the original espada in organization, had strengthened in numbers. It seems the remaining pieces of Hueco Mundo put itself back together surprisingly well. And if Ichigo was honest with himself, during the year and a half he'd been helpless, the Captains and Vice Captains had lessened the gaps between his and their powers. As he was now, Renji would be a formidable opponent, one that he wasn't sure who would have victory.

He parried a blow with Tensa Zangetsu, flash-stepping around him to cut the espada's back. Such an aggressive move had its downfall, and he was caught on his calf with the hollow's blade trying to make his escape.

His blade arm was already severely injured, when he got a chance, he'd try to bandage his hand to the grip but he hadn't gotten the opportunity.

"What's that?" Renji pointed out anxiously. Ichigo followed his gaze to a bulky hollow that had made its way into the seireitei during the attack. It was as tall as a Menos Grande and three times as wide. It had been shrieking constantly but now it was silent, quickly sucking air. Its gray body was riddled with holes, did nothing to release the air it inhaled and it started to balloon. Within a minute, he was the size of Komamura's Bankai. Then, with a hurricane exhale force, a torrent of wind shot out at all directions and Ichigo felt himself bodily thrown on heavy air currents. He was vaguely surprised when he didn't start to slow or did he lose altitude, he was still being thrashed around with the power of a tornado. It was too windy for him to open his eyes but he felt like he was flying along at Yoruichi's top speed. It felt like five minutes before he was slammed into the dirt without warning at a hundred miles per hour and he felt the world behind his eyelids darken to black.

"Ichigo!" He felt someone prod his side and he groaned, sitting up and opening his eyes.

"Renji?" His own brown eyes looked at his pineapple-haired friend in surprise. "You got caught up in that current too?"

"Everyone did. I bet everyone's out in the Rukongai. Actually, I think we might be past the Rukangai." Renji stated, wiping dust off his hakama. "Whatever threw us out here was strong. And is probably planning on attacking us while we're divided." With that, he hefted the shikai Zabimaru onto his shoulder and stepped back.

Ichigo nodded and reached out for his sword to help him up. His eyes widened and his hand fumbled around for the slim black blade.

"Huh? Where's Zangetsu?"

"What do you mean? I didn't move him, you idiot!" Renji protested. Ichigo looked down at his lacerated arm, slick with blood and experimentally tensed the muscles a couple times. His fingers were barely responsive and his arm was numb.

"I think…I might have dropped Zangetsu." Ichigo realized, his stomach dropped too. He knew better than to expect that he could normally hold onto a sword through what felt like a typhoon.

"You dropped your Zanpakuto?" Renji looked at him incredulously, making Ichigo wonder if anyone had ever done that before. And shit, if Zangetsu was really back in whatever was left in the Serietei, it would be bad news for fighting until then. His eyebrows furrowed.

"You should probably wrap that up or something, Strawberry." Renji said when Ichigo didn't answer him, staring blankly at his arm, which was not looking good by any means. At least a couple important things had been severed and Ichigo himself was looking a little pale. He looked up at Renji for a second like he'd forgotten he was there before nodding and pulling the cloth belt from his waist of his Bankai form and wrapping it tightly around his arm.

Almost immediately after he'd finished wrapping his arm, Renji realized that Ichigo's belt had started re-materializing around his waist. "What?" Renji leaned forward in confusion, jabbing Ichigo's side. "What is that?"

"Oh, my uniform is repairing itself. It does that in Bankai form because my uniform is an indicator for my reiatsu. It'll heal itself in accordance to how much reiatsu I have left."

"You're so weird." Renji said, shaking his head. "Substitute soul reapers, man."

"Like you can talk, you have a baboon snake zanpakuto."

"Oi!" Renji said. "Don't disrespect Zabimaru! It's the only zanpakuto we have at the moment," Renji pointed out, raising a tattooed eyebrow. Ichigo muttered to himself grumpily, pulling himself to his feet.

"Well, we've got to figure out how to get back to the Seireitei. Everyone will be headed back there anyway." He said dusting himself off. It felt so wrong to be missing his Zangetsu.

"Nothing we can do now, let's head back." Renji told his friend.

"Right."

Ten minutes into flash-stepping across the terrain, Renji still had yet to recognize anything.

"Come on, didn't you live here for like eighty years? Come on, old man." Ichigo said.

"The Soul Society is huge! And besides in soul reaper years, I'm pretty young. For us you're a baby, like literally." Renji shot back.

"For humans, you'd be a pile of dust, ojii-san."

"Hey, if—" Renji cut off the beginning of a rant as a wave of reiatsu swept over the two soul reapers. "Arrancar."

Ichigo instinctually reached for Zangetsu and flinched in surprise when he wasn't there. "Shit." He ground out, clenching his hands into fists and holding them out in front of him. Renji narrowed his eyes and released his zanpakuto.

"I'll handle this fight, dumbass." Renji said, jumping back as an arrancar appeared in front of him. Renji reappeared several yards behind him, extending Zabimaru and cutting its side. The arrancar, saw Ichigo, standing there weaponless and sonido-ed up to him. Ichigo flash-stepped away and the arrancar gave chase. It had no chance against the fleetness of Ichigo's bankai form and was stopped by Renji flash-stepping directly in front of the pursuing arrancar and slicing through its chest.

Renji and Ichigo both flash-stepped back to the ground as Renji sheathed his sword. "Well that was fun."

"Speak for yourself. I had to run." Ichigo stressed, obviously very annoyed. He looked down at his arm troubled.

"What's up?"

"Well, I thought I would have started healing by now, but…" He turned his arm over so Renji could see. The cloth belt he'd secured around his cut arm was saturated with blood. Renji realized his other wounds were probably the same, and that moving at the speed they had been had probably been bothering the wound Ichigo had sustained on his leg. Renji examined his own body quickly, wondering if it was something the hollows had done. He pulled back his sleeve to look at one of the cuts he'd gotten himself but it was already scabbing over.

Ichigo continued, dropping his arm. "I think it's got something to do with being separated from Zangetsu. It feels strange, uncomfortable being this far away from him." He shook his head. "But there's nothing we can do but hurry back and hope everyone is alright." With that, he flash-stepped in the direction they had been traveling.

It wasn't much longer before Renji started to keep a vigilant eye out for more hollows as well as fellow soul reapers. If they had all been blown back and they were all heading back to the soul society, it shouldn't be much longer until they started to run into each other again. Assuming Ichigo and him where headed in the right direction.

They'd already run into a few hollows, two out of the three were weak and Ichigo was able to defeat with a single punch. Thinking that reminded Renji of Ichigo. The carrot-top was starting to lag behind a little bit.

"Hurry up, Ichigo!" Renji called out behind him. He was surprised when his best friend came to a complete stop. Renji flash-stepped back to see what was wrong, Ichigo had already assured him that the bleeding had slowed a few minutes ago.

"What is it?" Renji was instantly on guard. Ichigo's eyes were narrowed and he looked a little pale.

"I don't know. I just got hit with this bad headache. It just came out of nowhere…" Ichigo shook his head gently to try and clear his double vision, but it did nothing for the feeling of nausea bubbling up from the pit of his stomach. Still, his vision cleared and he felt satisfied he wouldn't be running into trees and embarrassing himself. "I'm fine now, though."

Before Renji could reply (sarcastically), a flash of purple and orange appeared at their side, causing the two to step back, ready for battle again.

"Relax, boys. It's just me." It was Yoruichi, looking completely unfazed from the earlier attack. Not a hair out of place. "I've was heading back to the Seireitei but I doubled back to see if I could meet up with anyone. Looks like I found the two of you." She purred. Of course she had had time to double back, given her incredible speed.

A chorus of roars sounded behind her. And her eyes widened a little bit. "Oh, and I brought company along too."

Renji groaned, muttering something about American superstitions and black cats being bad luck. Yoruichi gave them a small smile before turning around to face the approaching fleet of adjuchas. Renji and Yoruichi skillfully dove into the swarm, destroying them left, right and center while Ichigo hung back, fighting the few off that swept past them. Since these were stronger than the ones before and it took Ichigo more than one hit each to destroy them and made it necessary to continually flash step around dodging various blows. By the time the hundred odd- adjuchas were slain, Renji wiped sweat off his forehead and Ichigo was out of breath.

Yoruichi turned to face Ichigo in slight annoyance. "Did you decide to let your mentor take care of that herd? You could have thrown in a Getsuga Tensho and thinned them out a bit." She pointed out, not that she had difficultly fighting them off.

Ichigo helplessly showed her his empty hands. "I got separated from Zangetsu in vortex. Sorry, Yoruichi."

Yoruichi stepped closer to him. "You got separated from your zanpakuto?" She asked in total exasperation. "My student is hopeless." She sighed to herself, pinching her nose. "This isn't good at all."

"It's a pain, but with the two of us, we can make our way through any amount of hollow," Renji pointed out, gesturing to the empty space the adjuchas had been minutes before.

"That's not the point, the point is that—" Yoruichi admonishment was cut off by a small 'oophf' from Ichigo. Yoruichi spun her head around to the substitute so quickly, her ponytail whipped behind her. Ichigo breathed hard, standing standing despite a dizzy spell and held the side of his head.

"That's the point." She said seriously. "Ichigo, during Bankai, you and your zanpakuto are constantly supposed to share information and power. Bankai is the balance and understanding between the two of you, to be in Bankai without your zanpakuto, well, it would be very straining even for short periods of time. Have you tried to revert to your regular form?"

Ichigo hadn't thought of it that way. He took a deep breath, pushing his spiritual pressure down like a tide, but found it was stopped from moving from its condensed Bankai form. "It's not working. It's stuck."

"That's what I was afraid of." Yoruichi sighed. "Your soul reaper form is being damaged by your own spiritual pressure without Zangetsu to equal out the power flow."

Renji tried to hide his own shock. He had no idea, but admittedly, Bankai was as new to him as it was to Ichigo. "How's the headache?"

Ichigo's face set into it's normal stern expression. "Tolerable. Let's keep going, the sooner we retake the Seireitei, the sooner everything will be back to normal." It wouldn't have been as bad had he not needed access to balanced spiritual pressure to heal himself, or had he not had such powerful spiritual energy in the first place.

—

Yoruichi and Renji both knew Ichigo was putting up a front. They also knew the last thing he wanted right now was to be called out on it. Sweat dripped close to his eyes as he continued to flash-step, careful not to fall behind the soul reapers. He didn't want to give them anything to worry about it. And now that they knew they were going in the right direction, he could start sensing many spiritual pressures all converging on their target, the Seireitei.

Suddenly Yoruichi stopped and Ichigo and Renji stumbled to a stop near her. "I feel the spiritual pressure of Soi Fon and others coming from there." She pointed to the right. Sure enough, there was a large concentration of spiritual pressure radiating from there. I'm going to stop here for a few minutes but give this to her. She'll know what do to." She handed a small slip of paper to Renji, who took it in surprise. He looked at Ichigo, then back at Yoruichi before deciding he was in good hands, nodding and flash-stepping away.

Yoruichi didn't say anything before turning to look at Ichigo. "Better or worse?"

Ichigo paused for a moment. "Worse. I hoped it would get better as we got closer, but now I think it's the amount of time we're apart." He muscles were starting to hurt from his misfiring spiritual pressure and his arm had pins and needles sensations running across it. Yoruichi noticed him touch his arm and came close to him to grab it. She pushed him down to a sitting position and followed suit, carefully pulling off the entirely saturated make-shift bandage.

"If we're going into a battle like this, you can't be hindered any more than you already are." She said, her sharp yellow eyes watching lazy drops of blood seep from the laceration spanning from his wrist to the pit of his elbow. She wiped as much blood from the wound as she could before pulling off her own scarf.

"Yoruichi, you don't have to do that." Ichigo protested, putting out his hand to try to stop her, then pulled back quickly, blushing when he realized he'd touched her collarbone. Yoruichi's eyes widened mischievously at his reaction.

"Ichigo, you prude!" She laughed musically, leaning in closer to him. "You didn't even touch—"

"Yoruichi, please!" Ichigo didn't know his cheeks could flush this much when he was suffering from blood loss.

She finished removing her scarf and wrapped it tight around his wrist, moving upward. It would have stung more if he had feeling in his arm at this point. "My silly pupil is embarrassed because of his own manly desires!" She purred.

"I'm not, I just didn't want you to ruin your scarf—" Ichigo cut off his words abruptly as a his heartbeat suddenly pulsed through his temples like a gong, sending electric resonance up and down his spine. His mouth parted as he tried to recover from the effects.

"Ichigo?" Yoruichi's teasing was cut from her voice in a second. She touched his shoulder, now finished re-bandaging his arm. She frowned. "It's worse than I thought." She said, pulling him up. "We need to get you back now."

"Ah, right." Ichigo groaned, turning to the side to spit a glob of blood from his mouth. For a moment, it was like Zangetsu called out to him, reflecting the pain of a sword left alone on a battle field, powerless without a hand to wield it. Ichigo had never though of it that way, so he knew he was experiencing his zanpakuto's feelings. "I need to get back to Zangetsu. Then we'll rejoin the battle so I can make up for the trouble I'm causing." He said, simply.

Yoruichi nodded, grabbing the shoulder of his uniform, and pulling him back into a flash-step.

"What did you send Renji to do?" Ichigo asked, moving as fast as he could alongside Yoruichi. She was helping him along as the weakness he felt in his arm and leg spread and his vision was starting to get fuzzy.

"I asked Soi Fon to follow your sword's spiritual pressure once they infiltrate the Seireitei."

"You make it sound like we're Ryoka again," Ichigo grunted.

"Force of habit, I suppose." She said good-naturedly. "Anyway, I know Soi Fon will get it done for me. After all, stealth is the art of finding while not being found."

"You didn't need to do that, Soi Fon would be much more useful fighting the intruders." Ichigo pointed from here, were they could just make out distant gates, they could sense the clashing spiritual pressure of a doubt, the battle for the Seireitei had already begun.

"Of course she would, but," Yoruichi slowed them to a stop again and Ichigo gratefully huffed for breath. "You're getting worse. While I was still a captain, Kisuke told me a story of a soul reaper whose zanpakuto had been taken. Kisuke did what he could, more than he should have, to keep the man alive but he died badly." Ichigo looked at her, sweat dripping down his face. "I won't allow it to happen to my precious student." She told him, matter-of-factly.

"…Yoruichi…" Ichigo could only say, stumbling slightly.

"And we're going to need to go faster than you're moving. Without another word, she hefted Ichigo onto his back and took off again. Ichigo could have tried to resist, but all the scenery was starting to blur together around him, leaving him numb and nauseous. He hated being a burden but he'd allow it for now, just until he had Zangetsu back. Then he'd defend the place he thought of as a second home to his last breath.

Several minutes passed by in a blur, until Yoruichi stopped at the East Gate to the Seireitei and set Ichigo down gently against the massive wall. He eyes were closed, he'd slipped unconscious after another attack, stronger than the last. Yoruichi found his pulse with practiced precision. It felt thready but not weak. Not that anything about Ichigo could be considered weak, after all he managed to use Bankai in three days. He'd defeated Aizen and every other obstacle he'd come across.

She stood up as a familiar pressure came by her side.

"Master Yoruichi," Soi Fon appeared at her side, giving her a small bow. "I'm so glad to see you."

"Same here, Soi Fon. Do you have Zangetsu?" Yoruichi smiled brightly at the appearance of her former protégé.

"Of course, Master Yoruichi." Soi Fon pulled the look, black steel blade from behind her and presented it to Yoruichi before looking at Ichigo.

"Kurosaki's in bad condition. Is it from being away from his zanpakuto?" She inquired as Yoruichi lay Tensa Zangetsu on Ichigo's lap and laid his hand on its hilt. He was in bad shape, his bleeding had restarted and his breathing was shallow, but somehow he seemed at peace as soon as his fingers touched the hilt.

"Yes, but he should be alright now," she said.

Soi Fon stared at her mentor in shock. She had almost sounded motherly when she said that, like she was putting a sick child to sleep. Soi Fon pushed that strange thought aside in disgust. The substitute, despite his pluckiness, was endearing to almost all the captains and lieutenants, among others. His determination had at one point, been the driving force behind their will to fight. It certainly didn't help that to most the soul reapers, he was less than a toddler in age. For many, the human hybrid was fun to have around. If Soi Fon thought 'fun' was ever something a military organization ought to have, she might be inclined to tolerate his company more.

Ichigo stirred slightly, opening his eyes. "Yoruichi? Soi Fon? You're here?" Soi Fon stiffened immediately. She hadn't even realized that her features had softened slightly looking at the injured substitute soul reaper.

"How dare you address a captain without their title? Especially to Master Yoruichi!" She yelled. The moronic substitute may be incredibly young and determined but she remembered all the reasons she couldn't stand him. "You moron!"

She was so caught up in her anger, she didn't notice her former captain's proud smile.

There will probably only be one more chapter after this although I'm open to more ideas. Anyway, the last one is the one I'm most excited about :) Please leave a review if you liked it or have suggestions!