Ashido's mask shattered into pieces, but luckily he wasn't hurt. He and Asa landed on the ground where they were surrounded by the Gillian. "I'm sorry, senpai." said Asa, who was guilty about having him save her, which resulted in his mask getting damaged.

"Don't worry about it." he assured.

The Adjuchas laughed mockingly, making them look at him. "It looks like you're dragging along some dead weight this time, Ashido!" he taunted. "You should worry about yourself!"

The two Shinigami stood up, and Asa, who was feeling guilty about endangering Ashido, said, "Senpai, it's my fault you were injured. I'll finish off that Adjuchas."

"What are you babbling about?" continued the Hollow. "I'll kill you first!" He leapt up from his spot, which gave her the cue to charge at him, and as he began to land, his hands turned into stakes that extended to pierce her, who managed to dodge them. She leapt up high and attempted to get closer to him, but his shoulders extended as well as it tried to hit her, only to miss.

Once Asa landed on the ground, she unsheathed her Zanpakutou and muttered, "Asobi (Play), Kage Odoriko." Her Zanpakutou, at that moment, turned into black sword and then created another identical one that quickly dissolved into the thin air. While using Flash Step to charge at the Adjuchas, she gashed his left upper arm with her Zanpakutou, and at the same time, something gashed his other arm, leaving him to have two wounds. Before he could comprehend what was going on, she continued inflicting fatal wounds on him with her Zanpakutou while the invisible one followed in the opposite direction, creating double the amount of damage.

"Think about it again, and then tell me whether or not I'm a dead weight." she taunted before giving the final blow by slashing across his torso and the other Zanpakutou slashed in the other direction, creating a huge X on his chest before he succumbed to his wounds and disintegrated into nothing. With the Adjuchas dead, the Gillian turned around and left.

Asa waved her Zanpakutou to release the Shikai and sheathed it back before making her way towards Ashido, who was crouching in front of his shattered mask. "I'm sorry, senpai." she said guiltily. "This was your friend's..." But he didn't respond and kept his gaze to the ground. Asa hesitated to say something on her mind to him, but eventually, she reluctantly did. "Senpai. I know it's not my place to say this, but don't you think you should return to Soul Society? I understand how you feel about your friends. But the situation is changing. Everything's different than it used to be. And most importantly, you're alive. I think your friends will forgive you if you leave."

Ashido stood up with his gaze still fixated on the ground and simply remarked, "Everyone chooses their own paths to follow." At that moment, he and Asa heard something from far, which sounded like the roars of Gillian. "Let's move on!"

"Right!" responded the latter before leaving the place with him. While running as they searched, she picked up the familiar spiritual force again and glanced over her shoulder. "This reiatsu-!"

Ashido, too, glanced at where the spiritual force came from before looking back ahead. "Move it!" he ordered.

"Where?" she asked.

"The exit." was his reply.

But before they could progress, they were stopped by a large Adjuchas-class Hollow. He had a large shell-like appendage on his back, which was also where his tail stemmed from. His Hollow hole was located on the left side of his chest, and he wore large body wrap around his waist.

"Whoa, there!" he said with his arms crossed. "Where do you think you're going, Ashido?" The said man exchanged uneasy glances with Asa. "Some Shinigami are fighting over there. You can sense their reiatsu easily from here, can't you? Do you want to go save them? Too bad. I won't let you pass! You're going to feel it as your friends get injured, and be helpless to do anything as they die." Despite the taunts, Asa wouldn't allow herself to be affected by them, because she believed that Ichigo and the rest were stronger than he actually thought. The Adjuchas' gaze then landed on the male Shingami. "Let's settle things once and for all, Ashido!"

"Get back." ordered the said man to Asa. "I've fought with him countless times. Las Noches gave him the position as Guardian of the Forest, but he doesn't even compare with the others that we've gone up against."

"But..." trailed off Asa as she watched his hand gripped his Zanpakutou's hilt.

"I'll defeat him." he declared. "It will be my last task here in this forest."

Asa's eyes widened with shock. "Senpai, you...!" she trailed off once more, as she couldn't find the right words to say.

The said man rolled his eyes to look at her through his peripheral vision and gave her a small smile. "Tell me all about what's going on in the outside world later." he said, which caused her to gasp. Once his attention returned to the Guardian of the Forest, he leapt up high and headed straight for him.

"Senpai!" called Asa.

When Ashido was close enough, the Adjuchas whipped his tail at him, who managed to block it with his sword, although he struggled to push back. Eventually, he managed to get away and attempted to slash the Adjuchas' face, but he managed to dodge it and skidded few steps back. As soon as he landed on the ground, he whipped his tail again and this time managed to hit Ashido, sending him flying in the air but flipped himself around just in time to have his feet planted on the tree trunk. He kicked it to use it as a support to charge back at the Adjuchas, who manifested sharp spikes on the end of his tail with each of them extending to attack Ashido. The Shinigami dodged every single one of them and tried to land a blow on the Adjuchas, who got away in time.

Ashido joined him in the air, making the Adjuchas to manifest more spikes to extend and tried to attack him. The Shinigami waited for them to come until they were close enough for him to use Flash Step to dodge then. Once he returned to the side, he swiped his sword and was able to slice some of the spikes. Angered by this, the Adjuchas retracted them and fired Cero at Ashido. When the clouds of dust cleared up, Ashido wasn't there, and by the time the Adjuchas looked up, the former was heading towards him with his Zanpakutou ready and swung it, cutting off one of his arms. The force sent the Adjuchas back and he landed on the ground harshly.

"Have you noticed?" asked Ashido once he landed in front of the Guardian of the Forest, asking him. "Your friend's reiatsu has vanished!" The Adjuchas sat upright and, growing desperate, dug his tail underground. "This fight is over!" All of a sudden, spikes emerged from the ground, attempting to hit Ashido who also dodged them. But much to his horror, the attack was heading towards the other Shinigami. "Get out of the way, Asa!"

However, instead of avoiding it, Asa unleashed her Shikai once more before muttering, "Dai nii-ji, musubu. (Second stage, bind)" This time, the Zanpakutou didn't clone itself. Its wilder wedged it into the ground, and tendrils-like shadow shot out from it before heading straight towards the Adjuchas. When the shadow reached him, it began to engulf him and completely immobilised him.

"What?!" exclaimed the Adjuchas. Taking advantage of his immobility, Ashido delivered the final blow, killing the Hollow and watching his body disintegrate into dust while the shadow returned to Asa's Zanpakutou. She removed it from the ground and released the Shikai before sheathing it back.

"Are you okay?" she asked concernedly.

"Yeah." he assured. "Let's hurry."

She was about to make a move until she noticed a gash on his thigh. "Wait!" she said. She made him sit on the ground and showed her the wound he got during his battle against the Guardian of the Forest. Asa then proceeded to use healing Kidou to close up the wound.

During the whole time, Ashido watched without saying anything until he broke the silence. "Sorry." he muttered.

"It's okay." she assured.

Meanwhile, Renji activated his Bankai to exterminate many of the Gillian while Ichigo killed off the remaining ones by firing off a Getsuga Tenshou. "That's the last of them." said the former.

"Yeah." responded Ichigo before looking up at the top of the cliff where the rest of the group was. "Everyone okay?"

Uryu, Sado and Rukia each responded with a "yeah" while the Arrancar trio sat next to each other with relief written all over their faces. "We're safe." sighed Pesche.

"Don'tcha know!" added Dondochakka. Once everything had settled down, the group reassembled at the bottom before Dondochokka pointed to the top where a gap could be seen. "That Hollow said that there's an exit up there."

"Really?" asked Uryu.

"Yeah, it's for real!" replied Pesche.

"Wait, we can't leave Asa-dono behind." pointed out Rukia.

"Yeah." agreed Ichigo. "Now that we've found the exit, we can go look for her."

At that note, someone approached them from behind and stopped. "There's no need for that." said the person, grabbing everyone's attention as they turned around to look at them.

"Asa-san!" responded Uryu with surprise.

"Asa-san, you're-!" said Renji with relief.

"Thank goodness you're safe, Asa-dono!" chimed in Rukia.

"I'm sorry to have made you worry." she said with a sheepish smile.

"Who's he?" asked Ichigo when someone joined her from behind.

With a smile still plastered on her face, Asa looked at the person from the corner of her eyes. "His name is Ashido." she introduced. "He and I went way back many years ago. He's a Shinigami, just like us."

"A Shinigami?" repeated Renji with surprise.

"He saved me, and agreed to accompany me all the way here." continued Asa while looking back at her team.

"All the way here?" questioned Ichigo. "So then the exit really is this way?"

"You didn't really believe us?!" asked Dondochakka sadly.

Suddenly, everyone heard the roar of several Gillian from far. "Damn it, they're persistent!" cussed Ichigo while the three Arrancar began to panic at the thought of getting killed by the Menos. "Don't give up! We just have to totally wipe them-"

"Wait." called Ashido, interrupting him mid-sentence. "They're still a ways off."

"Ichigo, we're here to rescue Orihime." reminded Asa. "We need to get out of here. Ashido-senpai knows where the exit is. Let's hurry before they catch up to us."

"Got it!" responded the said boy.

Without wasting them, the group climbed up the wall and reached where the exit of the Forest of Menos was. Ashido turned around and said, "It's up ahead." Upon hearing that, they followed his gaze that landed on the exit.

"Is this where we came in?" asked Ichigo.

"No, it's a different area." corrected Ashido. "Once you get out of here, follow the flow of the sand. You'll reach the surface."

"Okay, let's go!" said the orange-haired boy before running towards the exit with everyone following behind. But before they could, Ashido felt the presence of a Gillian behind, making him turn around to see it fire off a Cero at them.

"They're here." muttered Renji after clicking his tongue.

Just then, the Adjuchas that Ichigo defeated before appeared again with few more Gillian. "I won't forgive you, cursed Shinigami!" he growled.

"You bastard, you're still alive?" questioned Ichigo with disbelief and annoyance.

When the Gillian began to power up their Ceros, Ashido gripped the hilt of his Zanpakutou and was about to charge at them when Ichigo and Renji went ahead with their Zanpakutou drawn. They halted in their tracks when Ashido appeared in front of them with a new Hollow mask, using it to deflect the Ceros fired at them.

"Go back!" he ordered. "Hurry up and go!"

"But!" argued Ichigo, but failed when Ashido had used Flash Step to quickly arrive at where another Cero was about to make contact and deflect it.

"Ashido-senpai!" called Asa, who rushed over to help him.

"Get back!" he yelled while deflecting another Cero caused the passageway to cave in.

"Shit, it's gonna collapse!" cussed Renji as rubble began to fall between them and Ashido.

"Hurry up, guys!" yelled Uryu.

"Ashido-senpai, come with us!" called Asa.

The said man deflected another Cero before responding, "I'll catch up with you! Go on ahead!"

At that note, the Adjuchas approached him. "Damn you, get out of my way!" he ordered. He raised his fist and attempted to land a blow on Ashido, who managed to dodge it in time. Unsheathing his Zanpakutou, he charged at the Adjuchas and swung his Zanpakutou, only to have the Hollow's tail blocking it before pushing him away. Ashido took a step back before stabbing the Hollow in his abdomen, killing him as he fell backwards and off the cliff, screaming his final words, "Aizen-sama!"

"Senpai, hurry up!" called Asa, who was the only one waiting for him to join them even though the passageway was caving in even more. However, the said man used Flash Step once more to reach to her. He gently cupped her cheek with his free hand and placed a tender kiss on her lips, catching her off guard as she stood there looking stunned. After a few seconds, he pulled away and stared into her eyes, no longer being the "senpai" she had admired since the days before he disappeared. Standing in front of her, was a man showing his love for her ever since the beginning of time, the one that she failed to see until now. "A-Ashido..."

The said man gave her one last smile before saying, "Save your friend." With that, he let her go and charged towards the opposite direction, going back to the forest to battle the Gillian all by himself again.

"ASHIDO!" screamed Asa as the place collapsed in on itself, just in time for the group to escape to the surface.

While Nel and her friends were cheering at the fact they've gotten out, the rest looked at Asa, who was staring at where she last saw Ashido, with concern. "Are you alright, Asa-dono?" asked Rukia quietly.

The said woman heaved a soft sigh. "Yes." she replied. She looked back at the rest and gave them a look of assurance. "Let's go." They nodded back at her before making their way towards Bawabawa. After taking a few steps, Asa stopped walking and looked back at the closed passageway. 'Thank you, Ashido.' she thought. 'And farewell.' With that, she continued her journey with the group.