Chapter 7

Ichigo punched the roof in frustration as he let another friend get taken away again. Renji scowled even more heavily than before. "What are we gonna do now?..." he muttered.

"Guys, get back in here quick!" called Ishida urgently. The two guys looked at each other and quickly shot back into the house where Ishida was rummaging quickly in a first aid kit he had found and quickly withdrew a large roll of bandages. "You guys get a bowl of warm water and a clean cloth! Yue's bleeding badly!" he instructed Ichigo and Renji when he saw them. The two guys nodded and quickly rushed into the kitchen. In a flash the guys appeared again with the said items. Ishida wasted no time using using the cloth and water to dab away the blood pouring from Yue's shoulder. Yue growled a little in pain but relaxed quickly as she felt the Quincy's gentle hands bandaging up her wound.

"There, can you get up Yue?" asked Ishida as he used a piece of tape to fasten the bandages in place.

The kitten pushed herself up and swayed a little. She limped slightly as she tried to walk. "I'll be fine, you have my thanks Ishida-dono,"she bowing her head. "And please forgive me..."

"Huh?" asked all the guys in confusion.

"I felt something was off with Orihime-dono, but I didn't do anything. It was my own incompetence that Sado-dono was taken..." said Yue burying her face in her paws with her ears drooping. "Gomenasai, gomenasai, gomenasai!" she cried, bowing multiple times.

Suddenly, Yue felt a large hand on her head, making her stop. She slowly looked up to see Ichigo looking at her sternly. 'Now see here Yue, its not your fault that Chad got taken. You saw through the fake Inoue right? And you did your best in trying to save Chad! If anything, we were the incompetent ones, not you."

'Ichigo-dono...' sobbed Yue as her eyes got all watery. "Waah! Ichigo-dono!" she cried as she hopped into Ichigo's arms and began to cry. Ichigo and the others smiled as they stroked her fur a little. Yue quickly ceased her crying as she rubbed her eyes with her paws and looked at Ichigo with new confidence.

"Well, let us hurry Ichigo-sama!" Yue said as she jumped over a surprised Ichigo's shoulder and out the window transforming.

"HOLD UP!" exclaimed Ichigo as he ran to the window and stuck his head to see Yue in Winged Beast form. "Yue, did you just called me 'Ichigo-sama'?" he asked in disbelief.

Yue simply turn to him and smiled. "Why Ichigo-dono, what ever do you mean?" she asked in such an innocent voice making Ichigo wonder whether he was hearing things.

At Urahara's shop, Urahara and Tessai were calmly sipping cups of tea when they heard a commotion outside their shop. The screen door burst open with Ichigo, Renji and Ishida followed by Yue still in Beast Form dragging in a protesting Kon in Ichigo's body by his shirt. Once inside, Yue finally dropped Kon on the floor and held him down with one large paw, silencing him with a snarl. "SILENCE! The only reason I have not chewed you to pieces is because you are in Ichigo-dono's body!" Yue snarled baring her fangs.

Kon gulped loudly and nodded, too scared to move. Suddenly, Ichigo whipped out his Shinigami Badge and slammed it against Kon's/His, chest, forcing a small green pill to pop from the body's mouth. Ichigo quickly caught it and jammed it into Kon's stuffed toy's body, making the rag-doll come to life.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOIN'?" demanded Kon only to be silenced by Yue stepping on him, muffling his word as he flailed about under her paw.

"Urahara-san, could you take care of my body for a while?" asked Ichigo, ignoring Kon.

"Ah! Nyanko-chan from before! If it weren't for your spiritual energy I wouldn't have recognized you in that form!" exclaimed Urahara in surprise, stroking Yue's head before turning to Ichigo. "Not really, no. What's this about?"

"Chad...he got kidnapped as well..." replied Ichigo sadly, causing Urahara to narrow his eyes.

"The enemy's coming after us one by one, it's too dangerous to leave my empty body lying around," explained Ichigo handing his body over to Tessai.

"And what about me?" asked Kon out of curiosity after finally getting free from Yue who de-transformed.

"You're coming with us," came the reply, surprising Kon.

"Oh really, so that means you recognize my talents, huh?" exclaimed Kon with a flourish of his paw before getting slapped down by an annoyed Yue.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Ragdoll..." said the kitten, sitting on him this time despite his muffled protests.

Urahara smiled to hide the sweat drop behind his head as he turned his attention back to Ichigo. "I understand your situation, I'll take full responsibility of your body while its in my care," promised Urahara just as Tessai disappeared into the back room with Ichigo's body.

"Damn! Just what are those bastards? They make fighting them impossible!" growled Renji in frustration, sitting down at the table.

"That just shows frontal attacks are not the only way to attack. We have to use our heads a bit more..."said Ishida sitting down next to Renji.

"Well we know it's not Aizen's doing, so who are these guys?"

"Who knows? Urahara-san, have there been any leads in your investigations?" asked Ichigo, turning to the shopkeeper.

"Well, it is kind of strange. When I analyzed the voice, I couldn't get a spirit print which is an equivalent to a voice print for humans," replied Urahara.

"So what your saying is they are neither shinigami nor human am I correct?" asked Yue, who sat in the middle of the table.

"Bingo, Neko-chan!~"

"Hmph, I thought their spirit energies felt weird..." commented Yue bluntly as she began to groom herself.

Ichigo looked at the kitten in surprise. "I didn't know you could sense spirit energy!"

Yue gave her paw one last lick before glancing at the teen. "There's lots of things you don't know about me, Ichigo-dono..but then again, I happen to be a very special cat," she said, giving Ichigo a coy smile.

Urahara whistled in surprise while the rest of the guys gave Yue dead panned faces. "You're not very modest, are you Yue?" asked Ishida bluntly.

"Maaaaay-be?" purred Yue just as Tessai came back with cups of tea and a small saucer with tuna fish. Yue's eyes practically lit up as she mewed happily and rubbed her head against Tessai's hand in thanks as he set the plate down in front of Yue.

Tessai patted Yue on the head before distributing the cups around the table. "If I may...if the enemy is using demonic magic, I don't think the powers of Shinigami or Quincies would be able to stop them. Perhaps maybe if could find some people with powers that differ from yours, you might have a chance," suggested Tessai.

Yue paused in between bites of her meal and glanced up at Tessai. Somehow, she was getting this feeling that Urahara and Tessai have more knowledge than they let on.

"Oh come on! And where do you think we can find such people?" demanded Renji.

"Nekojiwa Kaori..." Yue began to say catching everyone's attention. "Yamanaka Ino, Inuzuka Kiba, Akamaru, and Uzumaki Naruto...they can help us..."

"Huh?" went Ishida and Renji in confusion.

"Yue, you can't be serious?" asked Ichigo incredulously. Just then, the phone rang, turning everyone's attention to it. Nobody made a move until Urahara decided to to answer it.

"Hello? Urahara's Shop, how may I help you?" greeted the man. There was moment of silence before Urahara gestured to Ichigo. The boy nodded and took the phone.

"It's me," said Ichigo into the receiver.

"Our game continues at the Karakura Museum, see you all there! Bye-bye!" was all Ichigo heard the girl say before hanging up.

"So what she say?" asked Renji as Ichigo put down the phone.

"The Karakura Museum, let's go!"

"Alright! I finally get to be part of the action!" cheered Kon confidently.

About a few hours later...

"This what not what I had in mind..."muttered Kon , folding his arms in disappointment."WHY AM I A BACK PACK?"

True enough, thanks to Ishida (who was carrying him by the way), Kon now had straps on his back and a zipper on his tummy.

"Urusai, Ragdoll! We need someone to watch from the rear and be thankful that we're not forcing you to walk," snapped Yue who rode on Ishida's right shoulder.

"Oh I'm sorry, who was it that said 'I happen to be a very special cat', huh?" retorted Kon who edged his way up Ishida's back and rested on his left shoulder.

Ishida's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as he practically saw the spark of hate flying across his face as the kitten and ragdoll glared at each other growling. Ignoring the two, Ishida sighed heavily. "So, remind me why am I carrying these two again?"

"It can't be helped. No one can see me or Renji as Shinigami so it would be weird if anyone saw a floating cat or backpack..."explained Ichigo.

It wasn't long before the group had reached the museum and entered without problem. Once they were in the lobby, the familiar voice of Lilin was heard ringing through the air through the intercom system. "Welcome! Let's play Hide 'n' Seek! You boys are 'It'! If you can find us, we'll return your friends!"

"Fine! Lets get this over with!"

"Oh yeah, leave your weapons over here!" indicated Lilin's voice to two large vases with badly spelt cards for Zabimaru and Zangetsu, much to their annoyance.

After letting the two shinigami rant, the group finally made their way in to the first room, which was brightly lit. Just then Yue felt a weird chill up her spine as she passed the doorway with Ishida. 'What was that?'

"What the hell is up with this room?" exclaimed Renji.

Everyone looked about and saw what he meant. Aside from the doorway they just came through, there were three other's each of them leading into a long stretch rooms, all exactly identical to the one they were currently in. "It's the rooms are perpetually repeating themselves..." stated Ichigo, shocked at the situation.

"Something indeed feels strange..." noted Yue.

"Yeah, I've been gettin' the same feelin' since we got here," added Kon picking his nose.

"Kon, Yue, tell us if you sense anything else ok?"

"Hai, Ichigo-dono!"

"Leave to us!"

Suddenly, Lilin's giggling could be heard broad-casted from all over the place. "I'm over here~!" she taunted her voice echoing from all directions.

Yue's ears twitched madly trying to pinpoint the source of the voice while her nose sniffed the air to try and detect a scent different from her group but to no avail. Her fur began to bristle up in frustration. "I can't pinpoint anything, that might help us."

"It's alright, which way Ishida?" asked Ichigo.

"I suggest the right would be a good choice," suggested the Quincy, as the group made their way through the maze. As he suggested, the group made a right turn at least three times when Yue suddenly perked her head.

"Stop!" she said all of a sudden, making the group freeze in their track.

"Yue? What's wrong?" asked Ishida.

The kitten didn't reply as she jumped of his shoulder and walked back in the opposite direction which they came from much their confusion. Yue sniffed the ground as she walked into the next room when a raised her head with a slight scowl on her face. "This can't be right..." they heard her mutter as she continued sniffing the ground.

"Yue?" asked Ichigo walking up to the kitten.

"Something's wrong, our scent trail is gone..." she informed Ichigo.

Suddenly Ichigo scowled as he dashed into the room which they started in and gasped. "The entrance has disappeared!"

"WHAT?" exclaimed the other two, dashing into the room after him to find that the entrance was indeed gone as they stared down multiple duplicate rooms once more.

"That's weird, I didn't feel any change.." informed Kon when suddenly Lilin's giggling was heard once more.

"Hey now, you can't clear it like that!" giggled Lilin, much to the annoyance of the group.

Yue was growling while Ichigo was gritting his teeth. Renji was already getting prepared to bust down a wall when Ishida spoke up. "She was talking about 'clearing it'. Since this is a game, I think there might a riddle we have to solve or something of the sort..." Ishida pointed out.

"Hee-hee! It's just Four-Eyes said~" confirmed Lilin.

"Stupid brat..." growled Renji in annoyance.

"Let's just ignore her, she just wants a reaction that's all," said Ishida. "My guess is their trying to lessen our power and strengthen theirs. If we don't use our heads, we'll be sitting ducks."

The others nodded in agreement. "That's true enough, let's go!" said ichigo as he and Renji were about to make a move when Ishida stopped them once more.

"Hold it, I have an idea," he said as he reached behind him and unzipped Kon, removing a ball of red yarn and tying the end of it to a nearby pole. Kon held on to the ball on the other end. "Kon, whatever you do don't let go of that yarn, it'll help us get around the maze," he explained.

"Sure thing, kid but.. you might wanna do something about the cat..." replied Kon.

The guys turned to see Yue staring intently at the ball of yarn in Kon's hands. Her pupils had grown so big you could barely see her eye color as a loud purring was emitted from her while her ears flattened themselves against her head as she got into a crouching position. Her tail swished from side to side as she wiggled her hips. "NYA~!" she mewed loudly as she pounced in the direction of Kon, who flinched.

"Woah hold it, Yue!" said Ichigo catching the kitten and holding her by the scruff on her neck.

"Nya! Ball of wool...must...play with it!" she strained as Yue wiggled and tried in vain to scratch at the ball of yarn which Kon kept out of reach while Ichigo held on to her tightly.

"Well, she maybe a talking cat that spits lightning, but I guess she's a cat all the same.." muttered Renji as Ichigo kept a tight hold on her while he walked in front, followed by Renji and finally Ishida with Kon letting the wool trail behind them.

This time the group changed their tactics and decided to go straight instead. However they barely even passed one room when they saw a doorway that was darker than the rest. Considering how it stood out, the group decided to enter that particular room. It was dark and empty, save for three tall glass cases. "Ichigo-dono, that case has your name on it!" Yue exclaimed, her night vision spotting a name plate on the center case.

The three guys quickly took a closer look to find out it was true. "This one has my name on it!" exclaimed Renji, inspecting the one next to it. "And this one has Ishida's!"

"Look, there one with Yue's name!" pointed out Ichigo to a small case on a stand which indeed had Yue's name on it.

Suddenly, Ishida let out a startled cry as he stumbled back into Ichigo. "Inoue-san!" he exclaimed. The rest turned their heads and gasped as they saw Orihime looking through a glass exhibition case blankly. Her expression was zombie like and there was no light in her eyes at all.

"And Chad!" exclaimed Renji alerting the group to turn around to see Chad in a similar state.

Suddenly, a thick black mist began arising from the ground, clouding the group's vision. Before they could do anything, all three boys ground themselves in the glass cases. "Ichigo-dono!" a muffled cry of Yue's was heard as the boys turned their heads to see Yue trapped in the smaller glass case as well. The space inside was small and narrow forcing Yue into a sitting position. Lilin's giggling was heard once again as Yue saw a brief image of her through the fog. It was then the group realized that they couldn't move their bodies at all, much to their horror.

Just when Yue felt her mind almost go blank, she felt a sharp pull on her tail, making her yowl in pain. "WAKE UP YOU STUPID CAT!" screamed Kon, revealing that it was him who had given her tail the tug.

Yue turned and hissed loudly at Kon before slapping him with her paw. "THAT HURT!" Yue snarled angrily when she realized that she could move her body and that she was not in the case anymore. In fact all the cases had disappeared. "Ichigo -dono!" Yue cried when she saw Ichigo unconscious on the floor next to Renji and Ishida. She placed a paw on the boy and sent a small electrical shot into his body.

"YAAAAAAAH!" screamed Ichigo as he got jolted awake. Kon was able to wake up Ishida and Renji by repeatedly pummeling them.

"Winged Beast Jutsu!" exclaimed Yue as she transformed and scooped the boys onto her back and ran out of the room with Kon attached to her tail.

Once outside, the guys all slid off her back and sank to the floor panting hard. "Man, suddenly collapsing on me like that, you scared the heck out of me!" exclaimed Kon as he explained to them how he had un-clipped himself from the strap and woke Yue up first before present time. "You guys owe me big time!"

'That black mist was very similar to genjutsu,' noted Yue mentally as she decided to remain in her transformed state in case anything happens.

Once the guys had calmed themselves down they began making their way through a different room, this time with Renji in the lead. "This one seems ok!" he informed the others after inspecting it before making their way to the second one when he suddenly stopped. "Don't move!" he exclaimed.

The others looked over his shoulder to find that the floor in the next room had disappeared, forcing the group to take another route. The guys gingerly stepped on the floor in the next room. Since it felt solid enough, they decided to proceed through it. Ishida appeared to be very deep in thought as he lagged behind. "It's strange..." he said. "Considering the size of this building, an infinite loop like this is impossible..."

"That's easy to say..." muttered Ichigo as Yue began sniffing the air and ran to another room before gasping.

"Ichigo-dono! Look!" she said pointing with her paw.

The guys ran to her side and looked into the room to see the pole they had tied with the red wool. The group quickly ran up with Ichigo inspecting it. "Ishida, let Kon down," he ordered.

Ishida quickly did so as Ichigo held on to the wool. "Hang on Kon!"

"Wait, wha-!" yelled the Mod soul as Ichigo gave the string a sharp pull, yanking Kon in the other other direction. It took Renji and Ishida almost all their strength to restrain Yue from running after him considering she was in her Leopard form.

After hearing Kon screaming as he got dragged down the rooms he soon reappeared back in the room they were in. "This is like a Mobius Ring!" exclaimed Ishida as Kon landed at his feet with a splat. "All the rooms are connected!"

"That means we've been circling this place repeatedly..." said Renji grimly while Yue poked at Kon on the floor who twitched.

"They can do that?" asked Ichigo incredulously.

"I can't think of another explanation. Anyway, we should better figure out this game soon," suggested Ishida as he reached down and pulled out a notepad. "If I draw out the path we've taken so far..." he muttered as he began sketching. He then placed the book down on the floor for everyone to look. Ishida had drawn out the layout of the path and shaded out two corners where they had encountered the traps. "Looking at this, we so far only encountered traps when we took straight routes."

"Contrarily, when we took L-routes, there weren't any traps at all," added Yue.

"Great! Now that we've figured it out, we can get out of here!" exclaimed Renji jubilantly.

"Yeah!" agreed Ichigo as the two began walking away.

"I sure hope so..." muttered Ishida, closing his notebook and picking up Kon once more.

The group continued walking once more only this time making sure to take L-routes. The group continued this method repeatedly for what seemed like ages until they all finally collapsed to the floor feeling tired.

"This is ridiculous!" complained Renji loudly.

"We're missing something here," Ishida said as he rummaged through Kon and pulled out a large water bottle, much to the shock of Yue and Kon.

"How long are we gonna be stuck here?" complained Renji once more.

"Pipe down! With all your complaining I can't believe you're actually a Lieutenant!" said Ichigo in annoyance.

"What did you say?"

"You're supposed to be in charge of this town! If you were more reliable, this wouldn't have happened!"

"Trying saying that again, I dare you!"

"SILENCE!" roared Yue loudly, stepping in between them. "You two are acting like children! Don't you see? They want us to argue! It's their way of toying with us!"

The two men scoffed at each other and began walking in opposite directions angrily making Yue slap her head with her paw.

"Hee-hee! 5 points to the huge kitty!" giggled Ririn's voice.

Yue growled loudly at the girl. 'I am so gonna eat her for lunch...' she snarled when Yue noticed something was weird with the room up ahead. It appeared to be warping before her eyes. Ishida happened to noticed this to as he began to work things out in his head.

"I got it!" he exclaimed, alerting the others. He began to whisper his plan to them.

"It's that simple?" exclaimed Ichigo incredulously.

"Yeah, but I need to borrow your Badge for a moment," replied Ishida.

"Sure, but what are you gonna do?"

"Just watch," was the reply as he began running towards the room with Yue close behind. The moment his feet touched the floor, it began to crumble but Ishida didn't fall at all even when the floor was completely gone. He just kept running with the others quickly closing in behind him until they were out of the room. It was then the rooms disappeared and the group found themselves in the dinosaur exhibit.

"Correct~!" exclaimed Lilin who giggled some more. Everyone quickly looked to see the girl sitting on top of the model T-Rex Skeleton looking down at them smiling cheerfully in an annoying sort of way. "So how'dja figure it out?"

"The key was in how the rooms were arranged. I noticed it when I drew out a map," explained Ishida pushing up his glasses. "There were 9 rooms in total arranged in a 3x3 formation, all of them infinitely looped with each other. Whether vertically or horizontally, if we could cross 3 squares, we win."

"But in order to mislead us, you had illusions set up in the third rooms so that we would take another route, believing they were traps," continued Yue, narrowing her eyes. "Had we not have realized it, you would made us walk a never-ending route. But what you did not count on was Ichigo-dono and Renji-dono splitting up, therefore resulting in three squares being occupied at once."

"At that point you panicked, which caused the space to warp a little. Although to be honest, that was just by accident. That was when I realized your game," finished Ishida smirking confidently.

Lilin applauded the group a little. "Bravo~!" cheered the girl before a dark look covered her face. "But you know... the game isn't over until you catch us..."

Before anyone could react, Nova appeared behind Ishida and held him in a choke hold. The others wanted to help their friend but Nova was holding Ishida in a way that can allow Nova to snap Ishida's neck at any moment. Despite the position he was in, Ishida did not lose his smirk. "It is over..." he said as he gripped Ichigo's badge and slammed it against Nova's leg.

Suddenly, the man went rigid as he threw his head back and a familiar looking pill popped out of his mouth as he collapsed to the ground.

"Hmph, I knew it you guys are Mod Souls," confirmed Ishida massaging his neck.

For once, Lilin's smile had dropped. "No way..how did you-?"

"Your spirit energy has a similar feel to that rag-doll, it didn't take long for us to figure it out..." said Yue who had appeared behind Lilin. "and since you are not a real little girl.." WHAP!

"KYAAAA!"screamed the girl as Yue whipped around and slapped the girl off the T-rex skull so hard that she flew and hit a nearby wall with a thud before hitting the ground hard.

Just as Yue was about to pounce on the two, Cloud appeared out of the shadows, grabbing Nova's body and Soul pill as well as Lilin's unconscious form and ran out the door.

"Get back here!" yelled Ichigo as the group quickly ran ahead with Yue being the fastest but Cloud was easily keeping distance between them as he burst through the museum doors.

Yue was about to spread her wings to fly after when she saw two familiar people standing outside. "Inoue? Chad?" exclaimed Ichigo in surprise.

"Kurosaki-kun!" replied Orihime in relief as the group came running up to them forgetting about Cloud. Yue was so relieved that she finally reverted back to her original form and jumped in the girl's arms rubbing her head against hers while purring loudly before doing the same with Chad.

"How-What happened?"

"I don't know, we both just suddenly appeared here," replied Chad when suddenly a shadow was cast over then causing everyone to turn around to see the gate which the trio before had used.

"So they're trying use that gate again, huh?" exclaimed Renji.

"That's not the case this time..." came the soft reply from above. Everyone looked up to Nova back in his Gigai carrying Zabimaru and Zangetsu while Cloud carried an unconscious Lirin on her shoulder. Without a word, Nova threw back the swords to their respectful owners, who caught them. Yue narrowed her eyes at the two.

Cloud and Nova jumped down with Lilin as the gate opened behind. Nova went in first while Cloud remained. "You might have won this game, but the next one is about to start," said Cloud.

"What are you talking about?" demanded Yue, snarling loudly.

"School is about to start, you better go or else your friends might disappear one by one..." said Cloud simply as he nodded his hat at them before disappearing into the gate which disappeared shortly after, leaving a group of very confused teenagers and a leopard.

R.F.: And we're back after another long period of writer's block!

Kon: *Appears with a cape* Osu! Ravena-neechan! I'm ready!

R.F.: Ikuzo KON! *Grabs Kon and flings him threw the air*

Kon: SHINIGAMI ZUKAN!

Rukia and Matsumoto: GOLDEN!

Back in Soul Society...specifically Captain Toshiro's office...

"HOW CAN YOU LOSE 4 KIDS, YOU BOOBUS FREAK?" screamed Rukia while shaking Matsumoto back and forth.

"I DON'T KNOW! THEY JUST..DISAPPEARED!" retorted the older woman.

"In any case we have to find those kids!" exclaimed Rukia as the two woman began to search all over for the four genin and pup.

They searched high and low, asking around places.

"Oi, you four! Come out wherever you are!" called Rukia running down a street when suddenly- WHAM! she collided with someone hard making the person's groceries fall on the ground.

"Itai..." groaned Kiyone amidst her dropped groceries.

"Kiyone-san! Gomenasai, but I'm in a rush!" said Rukia hurriedly before dashing off.

Kiyone shook her head and sighed heavily as she cleared up the fallen goods. "What a shame, I was going to tell her about our new guests. Oh well!" she said cheerfully, picking up her stuff and going on her way to her Squad's headquarters.