Just one more till the big 100...I'm getting chills already. XD A quick, but big thanks to Tuli-chan for helping me again. Thank you~! :D Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I had bit of a struggle with it at first (it took me forever cause I didn't have much time to work on it this week), but I think it turned out okay. :)

Chapter 99:

Toshiro stood on the air just above Ichigo and Grimmjow, the two down below swinging their katana's toward one another in a complete blur to the normal eye. Though the icy captain had his arms crossed, his eyes were very focused as he just watched them fight, which seemed to lean toward the orange haired teen's favor. But as they continued on, the blue haired arrancar seemed to start moving slower as his injuries were starting to take their effect.

'Jaegerjaquez will probably release his zanpakuto soon if this keeps up, then Kurosaki will have no chance at all. But Kurosaki has improved quite well. He's held his hollowfication for over-' but Toshiro's thought's were cut short as he saw Ichigo's mask suddenly crack and shatter, just as the teen seemed ready to end the fight.

The white haired captain narrowed his eyes, then sighed silently and shook his head in halfway amusement; "I guess he hasn't improved as much as I expected. But twelve seconds within less then a day is far better then I would have thought...even for him." he spoke aloud to himself.

But immediately after the mask broke away from Ichigo's face, Grimmjow suddenly took on a smirk and kicked the teen in his stomach hard. This blow sent Ichigo flying backward and directly into a telephone pole, which bent completely in half from the force. Though Ichigo let out a gasp of pain, it was also filled with exhaustion, as if showing that wearing his mask had drained him of energy. Grimmjow however was grinning widely as he came right up to the orange haired teen; "Tch! Looks like you blew your chance to beat me! Now you're finished, Shinigami!" he called out, vanishing in a sonido.

Grimmjow appeared behind Ichigo just as the teen was standing back up, to which the arrancar sent a knee straight into his back. Just as Ichigo lost his breath from this hit, he then had his face smashed in by an elbow to his face, breaking his nose and causing blood to start flowing out of it. But the blue haired arrancar's assault wasn't finished, he used the moment of both his attacks to knock Ichigo down to the ground and raise his katana for a finishing blow.

"It's over, Shinigami!" Grimmjow claimed with a wide grin, to which Ichigo looked at him with tired, weak and yet somewhat shocked eyes.

Just as Grimmjow swung his zanpakuto down at the teen, his blade was suddenly stopped by Toshiro as he immediately shunpoed down toward them and raised a single icy hand. Despite receiving a heavy glare from the arrancar before him, Ichigo had a simple expression of thanks in his eyes before falling unconscious from exhaustion. All the while, Toshiro himself just stared at the blue haired man with a blank and mostly emotionless look on his face.

"Tch...I was just thinking of going to find you. So...what? Those three weaklings couldn't hold you off long enough for me to finish this fight?" Grimmjow all but growled at Toshiro.

"Hmph, I killed the only threat if that's what you mean." the icy captain said, gaining a small smirk as he spoke.

"Ha! As if that 'freak' could be considered a threat!" Grimmjow began as he pressed his zanpakuto down harder; "I could have beaten him with a single blow!"

Toshiro merely smirked lightly as his arm barely moved under the pressure; "It's true. He was very weak...especially for the Sexta Espada." he said, his expression remaining unchanging.

Grimmjow smirked wider as he quickly pushed away from Toshiro, him jumping a few feet away before he suddenly charged at the icy captain with a battle cry. As he came closer the icy captain moved just slightly out of the way of the arrancar's blade, but then he had to raise a hand up to block a knee toward his midsection. After blocking this blow, Grimmjow smirked widely and looked at Toshiro; "I'm gonna make sure to kill you this time!" he called out as he drew back for another attack.

The white haired captain narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the blue haired arrancar carefully; 'I still have my limiter active. If it weren't for me using that technique against the other arrancar, I might have had to use some of my hollow power to beat him. But this is a different story...Jaegerjaquez fights with hakuda just like I do. And though my skills are beyond his, just his power alone might be too much at only twenty percent power.' he thought to himself, quickly having to block a roundhouse kick from the side as Grimmjow suddenly appeared there.

'But...I could simply take some away instead of even having to worry about using my hollow power.' Toshiro continued, pushing the arrancar away quickly and placing his ice covered thumb and middle finger together on both hands.

As Grimmjow landed on the ground, he narrowed his eyes on the white haired captain, him wondering what his opponent was about to do. Though Toshiro was waiting for the blue haired arrancar to come at him, the attack never came; 'He's not taking me lightly. Smart.' he thought quickly as he allowed a small smirk to curl his lips.

After a brief moment of silence and unmoving, Toshiro suddenly scrapped some of the ice from his fingers with his clawed thumbs and vanished, yet he never shunpoed or even sonidoed. While one of the ice shards landed on the ground far off to Grimmjow's right, the other dropped only a few feet off to his left. But he wasn't able to pay any attention as Toshiro had appeared right in front of him, to which he raised his blade up to block whatever attack was coming.

But as Toshiro's fist came forward, ice made contact with steel, yet the steel cracked heavily and knocked Grimmjow back dozens of yards before he was able to balance himself. Once he did, his eyes widened as he heard Toshiro shunpo directly behind him, to which he moved his zanpakuto to his back. This action allowed him to keep the icy captain's clawed foot from ripping his back open, but the force had still knocked him forward a few yards before stopping.

Grimmjow quickly spun himself around and narrowed his eyes on Toshiro, whom had just stood there after landing on his ice covered feet. But the blue haired arrancar didn't bother to wait for another attack as he held out his zanpakuto clutched fist and charged a cero; "I don't know how your speed and strength suddenly increased, but it won't help you now!" he yelled out, firing the cero quickly.

Toshiro merely held out a hand and blocked the crimson red blast, but he quickly brought his other icy hand up and blocked a second cero that came from his side. As he did this, Grimmjow merely smirked as he sonidoed from one side of Toshiro to another and fired continuous ceros. This made Toshiro narrow his eyes and block or deflect each one; 'His attack strategy changed. He's favoring long distance attacks...or is he?' he thought to himself as he looked up, despite a new cero hurling toward him.

The moment he tilted his head up, Grimmjow appeared there in a sonido, swinging a powerful downward kick toward him; 'I thought so.' was all Toshiro thought before he stuck two of his fingers from either hand toward the cero and Grimmjow.

Once the cero made contact, it seemed to be absorbed into his hand, to which it was suddenly shot right back out of his other two fingers, only it was twice as powerful. This made Grimmjow's eyes widen slightly, but narrow quickly and sonido out of the way; "Tch! Not bad. I had no idea you could do something like that." the blue haired arrancar spoke from off to the side.

The icy captain looked over to Grimmjow with an emotionless expression, but then he raised a brow to him and shifted his body to face him completely; "Tell me something Jaegerjaquez...why do you follow Aizen?" he asked, making Grimmjow to raise a brow in confusion.

"Eh? Why? Because I'm going to become King! He's on the winning side so of course I'm gonna join him. Once this war is over I'll-" but the blue haired arrancar's words were cut off by Toshiro's.

"Be left behind in Aizen's rule." the icy captain began; "Once you've fulfilled your purpose to him...you'll be disposed of."

Grimmjow narrowed his eyes on Toshiro and ground his teeth together; "Tch! I don't think so...I'll kill him before that!" he exclaimed, jumping at his opponent with a powerful swing of his blade.

Toshiro swiftly moved out of the way of this attack, then continued to repeat this action as Grimmjow kept his attack going; "I'll become King and cut down anyone in my path!" the arrancar called out as he continued his barrage of slashes and thrusts.

"How foolish." the white haired captain muttered, grabbing Grimmjow's blade as it swung at his head, stopping it immediately.

This made Grimmjow narrow his eyes and ready himself to block or dodge an attack, yet nothing ever came. But as he was about to make a follow up attack, he was slightly taken off guard as Toshiro just spoke to him calmly; "If you kill everyone...then what good is a 'King'? A ruler needs people to rule or there is not even a point of one existing."

Toshiro's words caused the blue haired arrancar narrow his eyes even more, but then he grinned widely and gave his response by retracting his zanpakuto and started swinging it toward Toshiro once more. Though he simply restarted his swinging and thrusting assault, it was at a much faster rate then before and made the white haired captain move faster.

After a few more swings of his blade, Grimmjow suddenly threw in a powerful, roundhouse kick toward Toshiro's head. The icy captain ducking away from the attack and delivering a strong palm into the arrancar's chest, knocking him back and into a side street. Once Grimmjow recovered, Toshiro seemed to take on a very confident smirk as if he had just accomplished much more then just knocking the blue haired man back with his blow.

Yet this seemed to go unnoticed by Grimmjow as he simply charged right back toward the icy captain and slashed down at him. Toshiro moved out of the way of the blade, but as it hit the ground, it shattered the pavement around them and kicked up a thick cloud of dirt. Though neither was able to see the other, Toshiro could sense the blue haired arrancar sonido to his side, to which he turned in that direction. But as he narrowed his eyes to make sure not to miss the attack he knew would be coming, his eyes widened slightly as instead of a blade a ball of red spirit energy came right toward him.

'Bala!' he thought quickly, swiftly moving away from the attack, yet a small portion of the blast caught part of his face.

This had burned that part of his skin, yet he immediately had to duck out of the way of a slash from behind. Toshiro narrowed his eyes slightly as his eyebrow twitched from the burn just off to the side of it; 'I guess I let my guard down a bit after placing my ice shards on him.' he thought to himself in a split second.

Grimmjow grinned down at him as he jumped into the air and shot down another bala toward Toshiro, whom flipped himself out of the way. The white haired captain once again took on an emotionless expression as he quickly spun around and sent a roundhouse kick right at where Grimmjow suddenly appeared in a sonido. Though the blue haired arrancar was unable to dodge, he reduced the damage by firing off a bala right into Toshiro's foot as it connected with him.

As Toshiro's opponent flew backward and into the side of a building, the icy captain appeared directly in front of him; "You're quite good, Jaegerjaquez. You managed to catch me off guard for a brief second there. But then I think it was more of my own fault then it was of your doing." he said looking down at the arrancar as he quickly got himself back up, despite his injuries from both Ichigo and Toshiro.

"But you're definitely tough...I'll give you that." Toshiro continued before he raised one of his ice covered hands.

Grimmjow quickly jumped into the air as he readied for an attack, yet Toshiro slightly surprised him once again as nothing ever came. This simply making Toshiro's small smirk come back to his face as he pointed his hand toward Grimmjow once more; "Sorry...but you're finished." was all he said before Grimmjow suddenly started falling toward the ground.

Once the blue haired arrancar's feet hit the pavement, it shattered slightly and left him seemingly stuck in place; "Wh-What the hell did you do to my feet?! They feel heavy as hell!" he exclaimed in a growl.

"Hmph...you really should have payed more attention to those ice shards I scraped off." Toshiro began as he easily walked toward him, yet stayed out of his katana's reach.

"I placed them in precise locations so you'd step on them. But I guess that still wouldn't explain why it's so hard to move." he continued, letting out a sigh as if he were tired of explaining something simple.

This had only made Grimmjow narrow his eyes even more as he dragged his feet closer as to try and still attempt an attack. Yet every inch he made forward, Toshiro would just take back as if he was keen on keeping just the right distance away from him. But after a moment, the blue haired man seemed to give up for the moment as he just settled on a glare toward Toshiro. The icy captain of which had now crossed his arms as if to show that he wasn't going to fight any further, yet he also appeared to be on guard in case of any surprise balas or ceros.

"I won't go into details, so I'll just tell you outright...I can control not only the flow of water and ice, but it's density as well. But though there is a limit...just one of those shards can weigh up to three hundred pounds, or about one hundred and thirty six kilograms...which ever you prefer." Toshiro said, making Grimmjow's eyes widen slightly.

"So right now...its as if you have enormous weights on your feet. You have no chance of winning even if you do manage to get used to it. The added weight will slow your movements and allow too many openings." he continued on, now making the blue haired arrancar to narrowed his eyes heavily on him.

"Damn it..." Grimmjow muttered as he raised his katana up slightly, it blade starting to glow a faint blue; "Damn you! I'll kill you! You son of a bitch!"

But just as the arrancar was about to say something, a pale hand suddenly grabbed his wrist and stopped him in his tracks. He quickly turned his head toward the newcomer, but his glare only turned deeper as he saw that it was Ulquiorra, who's name he immediately growled out angrily. But the pale espada remained emotionless as he looked at Grimmjow and spoke; "The mission is complete. We're going back."

Immediately following his words, a garganta opened in the sky above them and shot down a beam of yellow light. This ray surrounded the two arrancar, while Toshiro was exactly a single inch from the outside of it, simply watching as they rose from the ground before him. As they did, Ulquiorra seemed to give the icy captain a very hard stare, to which he returned it; 'What is it?' Toshiro mouthed toward him.

But once Ulquiorra responded with his own lipped message, Toshiro's eyes widened, then narrowed heavily before he shunpoed away, leaving Ichigo unconscious in the street. Each of the arrancar had just vanished within the garganta when Toshiro came up to Kisuke's shop, him ignoring the look Tessai gave him as he came in. Though he had a passing thought of Kisuke or Yoruichi telling him about his past actions while he was out, it was very brief as he just kept going.

Toshiro reached the underground training area, where Kisuke could be seen nearby with Yoruichi, then seeming to be talking about something. Yet he continued on, even as both of them looked to him with slightly narrowed eyes, though Yoruichi's softened very slightly as she saw the small burn on the side of his face. But when they saw that Toshiro was ignoring them, they immediately began to follow him until he stopped in front of the area that Kisuke created his senkaimon.

This made both of the others raise a brow to one another in question, but when a set of senkaimon doors opened and revealed Rukia, Senna and Rangiku walking out, they simply watched closely. Though the white haired captain had his eyes fixed on the three, he seemed to be looking as something else, as if there where someone other then Rukia, Senna and Rangiku with them. But as they each looked at Toshiro, Rangiku was about to speak, but was cut off as he just grabbed at the air and vanished in a shunpo.

This confused all of them and made everyone look at each other with a raised brow in question; "What's up with him?" Senna asked casually.

"We didn't even get to tell him that Orihime disappeared." she continued with blinking eyes as she just crossed her arms.

-Orihime's apartment-

"He told me that he's known you for a very long time and that I would be safe while I was there." a familiar burnt orange haired teen said silently.

"You don't even have to go Orihime. I will do something about these." he said with a nearly desperate tone, gesturing to the silver bracelet on her wrist.

"He said that they would self destruct the moment anyone tries to remove them or if I'm not in Hueco Mundo by midnight tonight." the teen girl said, sounding somewhat sad.

"I know that there is time till then, but I don't want to risk anyone getting hurt over me. If there is a chance to make sure those bombs inside Rukia-chan, Senna-chan and Rangiku-chan don't go off...then I'm willing to do this for them." she continued, making Toshiro look down slightly.

"I'm sorry for making you worry about me like this. But I promise that I'll be okay. Ulquiorra-san said that if I am an ally to you then he will keep me from harm." she claimed with a small smile.

Toshiro looked to her and narrowed his eyes slightly, but nodded all the same; "Alright Orihime, this is your decision and I'll let you take it. But I will promise you this..." he began, his narrowed eyes being filled with determination.

"...I will bring you back." he finished, making Orihime blink her eyes, but then smile widely and immediately hug him tightly.

"Thank you Hitsugaya-kun. You're like my other Onii-chan." she said with a soft voice and a few happy tears roll down her cheeks.

The white haired captain gave a small smile as he returned her hug with one arm; ''Onii-chan' huh? Hmph...I should have told her about seeing her brother a long time ago...but I guess that's something best to been seen and not told.' he thought silently to himself before they broke away.

As Orihime wiped her tears away, she gave a smile to him and looked to the side briefly; "So...how is everyone? Are they alright?" she asked, making Toshiro stop midway through a nod as he suddenly remembered a certain orange haired teen laying in the street unconscious.

"Well...mostly." was all he responded before sweat dropping lightly.

And there you have it. :) I'm glad that I can continue the Arrancar arc, it's one of my favorites so I made a lot of interesting and clever ideas for it, even more so then any of the others that I've done so far. ^^ Anyway, hope you all enjoyed and remember to review...now that I think about it, there are like 203 people that favorited this story and only a few actually review. Not that I mind, I love all of my constant reviewers, you guys are awesome! :D So are everyone that favors and places this story and even me on their alerts, but I would like to see what all of you think of my story. I know you liked it enough favor it and such, but I wouldn't mind even a small review saying what you liked most about the chapter or something. ^^ Well...I think I rambled on long enough. XD I'll just wait and see what happens...so...till next time everyone. ;D Ja Ne.