Hello guys! So, as I said in the last chapter, this is the last chapter. It's taken me a while to write this, because, well, I kept getting people asking me to keep this story going. And I had to think about that, it made me kinda sad, but I came to a decision. I'm afraid I can't keep this story going, if I did it wouldn't have that great a plot from here out. BUT, with help from my cousin, also decided that I shall make a sequel to this. Please enjoy this chapter, and please read my authors note at the bottom. I do not own Bleach.

Katsue lay on the ground, unable to move even though she was conscious, but she didn't feel any pain. The light from the moon was so bright, the white light burned her eyelids. Her mouth was cotten dry from the air. The sand was being blown around by the wind, even into her injuries, causing them to burn. But she didn't feel the pain in any of this, simply because she knew she was still alive. Ichigo was too. But, Aizen wasn't.

The dark haired girl could feel Ichigo's familier reitsu levels in the air, they were weak, signiling he was most likely sleeping. But Aizen's forceful, thick, reitsu wasn't around, it was gone. Katsue could breathe peacefully again.

Shadows blocked out the light of the moon. Two, human-like shadows. One of them leaned over Katsue, and softly kissed her forehead.

"Goodbye Katsu-Chan." The voice said in a forlorn, yet peaceful, voice. As that shadow pulled away, the other shadow also leaned over and did the same. Only they said;

"See you soon, kid." Before they ruffled her hair and stood up straight. The two shadows started to converse.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" One of them asked in a feminine voice. Harribel.

"Orihime said she believed she would. Besides, I'm sure our girl is strong enough to make a recovery." The more manly shadow assured Harribel. It was Starrk. There was silence for a minute, then Harribel spoke again, but not to Starrk.

"Hey Orihime? Is it working?"

Orihime's voice was audible, Katsue had forgotten that the girl had been there. "He's not showing any response." Orihime answered sadly. Katsue heard footsteps walking away from her, and a grunt from Starrk.

"What are you doing?" Orihime asked.

"We'll take him with us, leaving him here would be disgraceful." Harribel told her.

"Where will you go? What will you do?" Orihime questioned.

"Who knows?" Starrk was the one to reply. His voice then changed to one of endearment, Katsue figured he was answering Orihime's question while speaking to Harribel. " But don't worry, we'll be fine. As long as we aren't alone, we're much stronger than before."

"Awww. How sweet." Orihime cooed.

"Right?" Harribel chuckled, then took a more serious tone. "We'll bring you back to the sereitei, from there I'm sure you can get help from the soul reapers."

"Yes ma'am."

"HEY!" An obnoxious voice yelled loudly. "ARE YOU FORGETTING SOMEONE?"

"Oh. Grimmjow. I forgot you were still recovering in the tower." Starrk said monotonously.

"Yeah. If I had known that those three were out here fighting, I would have came and kicked Aizen's ass!"

"You mean you didn't hear them?" Orihime asked, bewildered.

"Tch. No. I was sleeping, how would I?"

"Heavy sleeper much?" Harribel chuckled. Grimmjow just offered a grunt as a rebuddle. Harribel saw Grimmjow look towards Ulquiorra, who was over Starrk's shoulder. The blue haired Espada seemed to be contemplating about what he was going to say, but it seemed as if he decided against it since he remained silent.

"So Grimmjow, where are you gonna go?" Starrk asked.

"What kind of stupid question is that? I'm just gonna go where I want. Who knows, maybe I might even end up in the sereitei." He admitted the last part quietly. After recieving a surprised look and two raised eyebrows, he continued. "Hueco Mundo only stays interesting for so long. I mean, kill hollow, eat hollow, kill hollow, eat hollow. They don't even put up a fight. At least the Soul Reapers may provide me with something interesting."

"Good to hear. Since you think you'll end up there, would you mind taking Orihime, Katsue, and Ichigo back?"

"Why not." He mumbled, pretending to sound inconvienenced. Katsue, who was regaining some of her senses, felt herself be lifted into the air and onto someone's shoulder. Based on the groan from the man who picked her up, Katsue could tell it was Grimmjow. "Jeez. These two need to lay off the food."

That caused a laugh from Orihime, Starrk, and Harribel.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye." Starrk finally said.

"But who knows, maybe we'll meet again someday." Harribel added to Starrk's farewell as she took her place next to him.

"Goodbye then. I do hope our paths will meet." Orihime waved as she stood next to Grimmjow.

"Smell you guys later." Grimmjow said as he opened a garganta. Orihime and he stepped through, leaving the cold night of Hueco Mundo behind them. They entered the soul society, and were instantly greeted by several soul reapers. Of course, some of them recognized Orihime and Ichigo right away, and took Ichigo and Katsue to the squad four barracks.

1 year later. In the sereitei.

Katsue walked down the road, basking in the light of the sunny day in the Sereitei. Her black hair was shiny under the bright rays on sun. Her silver eyes glittered. It was a good day, a happy day. As she walked, she spotted a familier blue haired friend and a white haired captain walking together across an intersection up ahead.

"Oi! Grimmjow! Toshirou!" Katsue yelled as she waved her hand and ran towards them.

"It's Captain Hitsugaya to you!" Toshirou growled when Katsue stopped in front of him. The girl just giggled and started chattering.

"So, what are you guys up to?" She asked curiously.

"Well kid," Grimmjow chuckled as he placed his hand on Katsue's head and ruffled her hair. "that's business for Captains only."

"No fair!" Katsue pouted. "You wouldn't even be the new Squad five captain if I didn't put in a recomendation."

Grimmjow just laughed as she pouted. "Yeah yeah. I'm sure I could've 'wowed' them enough to become a Captain on my own. So, what are you up to?"

Katsue shrugged "Not much. As a third seat I don't get to do much." She looked at Toshirou with raised eyebrows and made a face.

"Don't look at me like that!" The small white haired boy yelled at his subbordinate. "I told you, you can do Matsumoto's paper work if you want, but that didn't seem to strike your interest."

"Well duh. It's just a bunch a paper! You never send me on missions or anything!" Katsue whined. Grimmjow looked at Toshirou with a questioning look.

"You don't send your third seat on missions?" The blue haired captain then said to the third seat "Maybe you should switch to my squad. You'd be my liutenent, and you'll get plenty of missions."

Katsue's eyes glittered as she ate up her friends words. She was about to jump for joy and beg Grimmjow to switch her. But Toshirou stepped in immediatly and furiously, "What? Are you trying to steal my third seat, Jaegerjaques?"

Just to match Toshirou's tone, Grimmjow also started yelling. "Well maybe you should keep your squad happy and I wouldn't feel obligated to offer them a good spot!" Katsue sweatdropped as the two started fighting.

Since Grimmjow had come to the Sereitei, and become a captain, he and Toshirou had become friends, despite their differences. After all, they both seemed pretty laid back, until you pissed them off. They were both really protective, especially of Katsue, who they thought of as a sister. And, they both started yelling when they got mad. Whenever they had arguements, it seemed like they might even be having fun.

"WELL I'VE TAKEN ORDERS FROM SEVERAL PEOPLE NOT TO ASSIGN HER DANGEROUS MISSIONS!" Toshirou roared. Grimmjow was about to reply, but Katsue turned bright red and responded instead.

"What! Who said that?" Katsue yelled.

"Kurosaki had asked me not to assign you anything to dangerous yet, not until he thinks you've gained all your strength back. Jushirou happened to be there and also expressed his concern." Toshirou explained in a come tone. The dark haired girl turned bright red and growled. As if on cue, a familiar orange haired soul reaper appeared from around the corner. He saw the group of friends, and waved.

"Hey guys! What's up?" Ichigo greeted as he sauntered over. Grimmjow snickered when he saw Ichigo's happy face and Katsue's expression at the same time. The dark haired girl turned around to see her friend.

"ICHIGO!" She yelled as she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and jerked him forward. She was shorter, but that didn't make her any less threatening as she growled in Ichigo's face. She started shaking him so rapidly he looked like a bobble head. "I am perfectly fine to go on missions!"

"Nice job, selling him out like that." Grimmjow elbowed Toshirou as the observed the squabble.

The white haired boy just shrugged and said "I did as I was asked. I wasn't told not to tell her. It's Ichigo's problem anyways."

Katsue finally stopped shaking him and let go of him. She just crossed her arms and glared up at him, clearly wanting an explanation. Ichigo sighed and started to speak "Look, after that whole fiasco a year ago, I thought you would need time to recover. Besides, theres no need for you to work now. All that's going on are regular hollows and stuff."

"But I'm bored!" Katsue moaned as she slumped down, dissapointed. Ichigo, moving slowly as to not cause another tirade, patted her head.

"Aww come on, I'll find something to entertain you! You can hang out with Me and Renji tonight. We're gonna go meet Rukia at a place in the human world!" Ichigo tried to catch her interest. He failed. Katsue turned away from him and crossed her arms.

"No." She said flatly.

"I hope you don't mean drinking, Kurosaki." Hitsugaya growled protectivly. Ichigo whipped around to see the boy standing behind him.

"Of coarse not! I would never! Not only are we under drinking age, but I wouldn't let someone like Katsue drink! Do you know what that does to someone's head?" Strawberry yelled back.

"Awe, Ichigo, worried about your girlfriend?" Grimmjow snickered. Katsue turned around, her face cherry red, the same color as Ichigo.

"WE ARE NOT DATING!" Both of the taunted teens roared at the blue haired captain at once.

"Matsumoto would say otherwise." Grimmjow chuckled.

"I wouldn't trust everything my liutenent says." Toshirou advised.

"Thank you Toshiro!" Ichigo exclaimed, slowly fading back to his normal color.

Toshirou chewed his lip, clearly angered Ichigo, like everyone else, yet again failed to call him 'Captain Hitsugaya'. In a strained voice, the boy said "All though I do trust the words of Izuru Kira and Shuhei Hisagi."

Katsue and Ichigo both hung their heads in irritated shame. In unison they muttered, not very convincingly, "We are not." Grimmjow just burst out laughing thinking it was hilarious. Toshirou just shook his head, until a hell butterfly caught his attention as it fluttered in front of his face. He listened to the message and nodded as he sent the butterfly off.

"Katsue. I just recieved word that there is a hollow running around the wall of the sereitei. Could you take care of it?" The girl's face brightened up as she reached for Naitomeapurinsesu instinctively, but then her smile faded. She looked towards Ichigo with big, pleading, silver doe eyes. The orange haired boy seemedd to ponder this for a moment. Eventually, he sighed and nodded.

"Yay!" Katsue yelled as she took off towards the gate, excited to finally be able to do something again. The four boys watched the girl as she ran off. Once she was gone, Grimmjow walked in front of Ichigo and spoke.

"Hey, Kurosaki. Take care of her, got it? She's gotten hurt a little too much. After the whole Ulquiorra thing..." His voice trailed off. Even though Grimmjow had taken little emotional damage to the death, no, murder, of his fellow Espada, he knew how fragile Katsue was on the subject.

"Of course." Ichigo nodded, then joked. "Wow Grimmjow, I didn't know you had a soft side."

"Oh shut up Kurosaki." Grimmjow snarled as he gave the boy a forceful nuggie. Finally, he let him go.

Ichigo rubbed his head, and he could only smile. "Catch ya' later, Grimmjow."

"Same to ya'. And remeber, treat her well, or I'll castrate you." Grimmjow gave a threatening, but heartful laugh. Ichigo turned pale as the blue haired captain disappeared. He finally took a breath again, still scared, but relieved. Then the ice captain walked by and spoke as he left.

"Ichigo, as an addition to Grimmjow's threat, if I find out you hurt Katsue, I'll take you to Unohana and have Grimmjow-inflicted injuries healed." He paused for a moment before continuing. "And then I shall inflict the exact same treatment to you, using a piece of sharp ice. I hope I have your word."

Ichigo could only nod as Toshirou walked away. He could only croak out "You have my word." He stood there in silence, just thinking. The threats he was recently dealt, were the last thing on his mind. He was thinking about everything. His friends, himself, his life. He looked back on his life. Something in his head told him, the worst was done. But something else in his head contradicted that thought. He couldn't tell what it was, but something just didn't seem right.

Katsue appeared at his side, out of nowhere.

"You killed the hollow that quick?" Ichigo asked, surprised.

"No. Izuru and Shuhei beat me to it. Darn them." Katsue sighed.

"Then what took you so long?"

"Well, just cause I couldn't defeat the hollow, doesn't mean I couldn't give them a piece of my mind about telling Toshirou about you and I." She smiled sweetly, with that devious sparkle in her eyes. Ichigo just laughed. Katsue looked towards the sky and thought allowed. "The sereitei may be my home, but I think I'll always be the Espada's guest." Ichigo just smiled.

Soon, they walked off, hand in hand. With smiles on their faces. Yet, Ichigo couldn't get that nagging voice to leave his feeling of peace alone. Something was going to happen. There was no other explanation. But, the feeling started to fade away as he thought about it. It simply disappeared. But that was okay. Everything was good and everyone was happy.

*Wipes tear away* Oh guys, I have to thank you for reading this all this time. I'm sad to be ending it here. But alas, I can't go any farther with this, at the moment. As I've mentioned before, I'm going to make a sequal. What's it going to be about you ask? Well, I wonder what Ichigo's feeling was about. I wonder if there is some kind of dormant evil lying somewhere. How will this affect Katsue and the gang? You'll have to read when I come out with the first chapter of the sequel (I'd put the name, but I don't have one yet.). If you want an in depth summary, inbox me. I should have the first chapter up in no longer than a week. Goodbye guys! Thanks for all the reviews!