The Bleach (madness) belongs to Tite Kubo.

English is not my first language.

No pairings in this story.

Spoilers for those who have not read chapter 423!

The story is currently being edited and slightly changed so that I may continue it, 2014-06-19. Enjoy! :)

I can not and will not guarantee your sanity, or insanity.

~ 1 Year Later ~

"Aftermath"

Kurosaki Ichigo was depressed, something he openly denied because what were there to be depressed about? The loss of his powers? Missing a certain annoying-as-hell midget and the rest dressed-in-black maniacs? Although he said that he was not depressed, or down, in any way he just could not erase his memories or push them away which led to further suffering. Well, he could ask hat-and-clogs but it was important memories to be treasured. Sad memories, happy memories, fighting memories... He had some difficulty not thinking about the world which was now hidden to his eyes, hidden to most humans' eyes and even thought. Some days he was emerged in the now, his every day life, but it was not to be every day.

Those around him him noticed his ordeal, of course they did. To read Ichigo's emotions was as easy as reading an open book however, his thoughts were not. Urahara was kind enough to once mention that Ichigo could see any of his shinigami friends if they used gigai – fake bodies. He had told him pretty soon after the war. At that time Ichigo had, in a very direct manner, asked Urahara if he thought he was an idiot, the insane and still exiled shinigami merely waved his stupid fan in front of his grinning face. Ichigo remembered walking away quite pissed though slightly amused none the less by the never changing man.

. . .

'Today is a new day, new possibilities', Ichigo thought forced himself to think positively when he woke up but got pissed right away at his previous thought mumbling something about "new day in hell" in dark humour. Shortly afterwards he saw his door getting kicked down by none other than his own father who then dashed towards Ichigo and jumped into the air, kick aimed at the red-hair who simply laid back from his previous sitting position in his bed. A crashing sound and a broken window later Isshin found himself on the ground; two floors down. Ichigo merely sighed at his, once again, broken window and moved to the wardrobe to change. His father had yet to learn how costly the windows actually were. He got up for a shower and change of clothes. Casual jeans and a blue t-shirt with the words "Attitude" in striking orange was the choice as there was no school - for a week.

"Holiday huh..." he said to no one special as the room was empty. Suddenly Yuzu knocked on the wall beside where the door ought to have been and entered the room shortly afterwards.

"Oh, dad broke the door and the window again..." Karin followed in Yuzu's steps. "Yuzu has finished preparing breakfast, Ichi-nii." Yuzu light up and Ichigo nodded silently while stretching his arms slightly, still feeling a bit out of it.

They ate in silence, even Isshin was silent which was unusual but the silence soon shattered.

"You should make a visit to Urahara..", the usually childish man started in a voice split between causality and seriousness. Ichigo chew on his toast and blinked a few times, trying to process the sudden change in the air. "He actually asked for you yesterday but it was quite late and I figured you would be sleeping at the time", he continued before Ichigo had the time to reply. The teen sighed slightly and scratched his head.

"Might as well go then", he announced nonchalantly. The others smiled slightly knowing the man's madness often managed to get the teen back to his usual self, often slightly pissed and irritated though is to be mentioned. The last time he had seen Urahara was a few months ago.

Ichigo finished eating and left the house after telling Yuzu before leaving. He did not want them to worry about his whereabouts after all. He walked slowly as he was in no real hurry. If it was important then he did not doubt for a second that Urahara himself would had climbed through his window in the middle of the night and hit the teen's head with his cane or rather; disguised zanpaktou. Alternatively send that creepy murder-scene-message again, Ichigo had no clue as how they were made or what they were made of. He shivered at the thought.

He stopped walking as he arrived in front of the Urahara Shoten Shop, he stood absolutely still for several minutes; weighing the two options of going in or actually walking away against each other. 'Oh, the endless possibilities', he thought with a sarcastic remark. He finally heaved a sigh and started to walk closer to the shop, just when he was about to open the door he heard an explosion and immediately lowered his hand.

"On a second thought..!" he said out loud and turned away, face pale. Sure, he was curious however.. curiosity has killed the cat too many times already! Urahara's inventions can be rather, correction, they are plain scary. They were made to be feared. Last time the exiled shinigami had invented something so powerful it had ended in exile, death and war. Just about when he started to reconsider his "walk turned to dangerous mission" and not casual visit he suddenly heard someone jerk open the door behind him, successfully scaring the living hell out of him. Slowly the red-hair turned around just to catch a glimpse of the all too familiar striped hat, he turned away just as quickly much to the other's amusement, pretending he did not see or hear anything. Face pale, for the second time today.

"Oh, Kurosaki-san. What may I help you with?" Urahara asked while not caring to hide the still clear amusement in his voice at the teen's worry. It almost made Ichigo crack a smile, almost. Ichigo once again turned around to face Urahara and his ridiculously crazy shop, though with a deeper frown than before.

"If I recall correctly you were the one wanting to talk with me, Urahara-san." replied the former substitute shinigami. Urahara Kisuke simply smiled, his usual up-to-something-secretly-forbidden-law-breaking-stuff smile, Ichigo noted and his frown deepened even more if possible but he soon found himself grinning like the fool he is instead. Cutting to the chase he simply asked:

"So, what are you up to this time?"

Urahara picked up his fan, hiding his creepy smile or grinning face as always. 'Exactly the question he wanted', Ichigo thought and inwardly rolled his eyes at Urahara's love for dramatic revelations.

"Nice of you to ask, Kurosaki-san." he started but much to Ichigo's annoyance he did not get more of an explanation. Urahara gestured to Ichigo to step inside, and so he did.

. . .

Ichigo had actually found himself listening closely to the mad scientist for once which was a rare occurrence. He remembered the following from the explanation: bracelet, reiatsu and a bridge..? He politely asked Urahara to repeat one last time and slower this time. The man smiled. 'He never change', Urahara thought.

"Once more from the beginning then", Urahara said mostly to himself as he got up to firstly refill their teacups while explaining patiently – as if teaching a child.

. . .

Kurosaki Isshin tried his best to ignore a certain individual with blue hair that had now been standing in front of his house for about an hour. The shinigami and father of three sighed one last time and walked out to confront the blue individual. Said person moved his eyes towards the now open door. Grimmjow was still standing in the air, a few metres up as if the ground was unworthy his feet and directly facing the house, arms crossed. Isshin glared at the ignorant and carefree espada. 'At least he had bothered with keeping his reiatsu hidden', Isshin mused pleased by the fact.

"What is you business here, espada?" Isshin asked in a casual and loud voice but lingered on the espada part as to say that he should not have any business here, and especially not with him. At first Grimmjow was taken aback, the human could see him but as expected of Kurosaki's house he assumed. Well, Grimmjow thought it was the shinigami's house since the area had been filled with Ichigo's reiatsu at their first encounter and a similar reiatsu came from this house. Another clue was that Grimmjow had caught a glimpse of Ichigo on this street twice however he disappeared into one of the houses before he could act and since the red-hair might be watched by shinigami... He had played it safe with the decision to wait in front of this house until he saw the red-hair again.

As guessed he were therefore surprised by Isshin's appearance. Grimmjow grinned. Once noticed there is no need to hide, right? Right. "I'm here to find Kurosaki Ichigo", he replied to Isshin. Isshin looked slightly bewildered by the espada's intentions but soon shrugged it off making the blue one raise an eyebrow in suspicion.

"He is not home at the moment I'm afraid. I'm Kurosaki Isshin by the way." Grimmjow twitched slightly at the name, Isshin took notice of it. "Oh, and before you even think of trying something, I'll warn you; I'm a shinigami." By now Grimmjow was not entirely shocked by the fact. 'Must be Kurosaki's father', he thought. "My business is with Kurosaki only", Grimmjow replied in a less joyful voice making Isshin laugh.

"I see... If you can find your way to Urahara Shoten Shop then you'll find him. Otherwise wait until he comes back but I don't know when he'll be back today", Isshin admitted truthfully. The espada nodded in slight disbelief at the honesty and openness. "Also, if you're waiting then you might as well come in. You're scaring my daughters if you're only standing there motionless while glaring", Isshin said and then went back into the house without adding anything further.

Grimmjow was left speechless. Speechless. Last time that happened was when a certain shinigami protected him from getting killed by Nnoitra. After that Grimmjow was almost certain of the fact that Ulquiorra must not only made a hole through the substitute shinigami's chest and successfully killing him once but also made Ichigo hit his head; hard.

"That shop it is then", Grimmjow said out loud and left strolling through the air as he was in no hurry to fight and kill the other, yet.

. . .

"Now then... Please repeat everything that you have understood of what I have told you several times already, Kurosaki-san." Amazingly enough the scientist was still smiling despite how many times he had been forced to repeat himself for the teen.

"Ok", Ichigo replied and smiled at the challenge. "I wear the bracelet that have some embedded reiatsu and will gather more with time from my surroundings. The bracelet will then pour little reiatsu into my body and from there to my soul under a long period of time so that my soul starts to recover." The older male nodded and Ichigo continued neutral in voice. "Zangetsu and the hollow still exist in my soul. The missing link is my reiatsu and loss of shinigami powers." Another confirming nod. "If I restore my reiatsu to its original size then the connection with them will be back but I will not be able to use zangetsu or my shinigami powers." Another nod which Ichigo glared at. "Why?!"

"As I said earlier, Kurosaki-san, only your reiatsu will be restored. I am still trying to figure out how to get your shinigami powers back", he paused and added, "without killing you."

"It worked before." Ichigo mumbled and hinted to his first training when he turned to a hollow.

"You don't want to remain dead do you? What do you think a repeat of it would result in?" At that Ichigo paled.

"However, if you restore your reiatsu then you will be able to become a shinigami when you die as you will have plenty of it. Of course that is only if they allow you to join the Shinigami Academy", Urahara added. Ichigo nodded and knew what Urahara asked of him; one step at a time. First priority; restoring his reiatsu levels.

Urahara picked up his fan when he regained his madness, wait, did he ever lose it in first place? No.

"The bracelet?" Ichigo asked curiously. Urahara laughed nervously for a bit, he had almost forgotten to give it to Ichigo. He stood up and went off to another room, soon a "poof" sound could be heard then he came back a few minutes afterwards. Ichigo was still worried about the initial explosion and now a "poof"...

Urahara returned unharmed however. 'Unfortunately', Ichigo added. Urahara reached out for Ichigo's left arm and before the red-hair could react a white plain bracelet was around his wrist. It was clean in design and quite thin. The outer part was of some solid material and the inner part was of white chains. He would never be able to get it off he realized, it really stuck to his wrist despite there being chains at the inside of the wrist. Ichigo's frown grew.

"Kurosaki-san, don't worry. It will shatter the moment your reiatsu have returned." Ichigo nodded, worried still clear which only earned a soft laugh. "That's all I had to say and share, this matter took longer than I expected", Urahara finished, Ichigo sweat dropped. 'I know I need a lot of explaining... No need to rub it in, old man'', he thought to himself and boiled inside but he was truly thankful for this chance, even though it was not guaranteed to work in his case.

. . .

Before Ichigo left the shop Urahara told him one more thing about the bracelet. "Please do not let anyone attempt to cut it; it would explode", he said and gestured a silent "booom" and threw his arms outwards in something that looked like a description of a nuclear explosion. Ichigo's jaw dropped. 'That damn.. He should have told that earlier if it was that dangerous!' Ichigo shouted in his head.

"Shinji-san came by yesterday", the man said when followed Ichigo who had gotten to the door to leave, the red-hair waved his hand in silence and left without turning back even once. He got the message.

Urahara exited the shop as well and watched the other disappear onto another street. The shopkeeper then frowned and peaked from below his hat to his left, catching something disappear behind his new visitors that arrived out of thin air. "What may I help the captains of the Gotei 13 with?" he asked politely while cautious.

. . .

"DAMMIT SHINJIII!" a blonde with two ponytails roared.

The whole group had been on the edge lately, angry, irritated and sad since a certain someone stopped his frequent visits after the war. They were fully aware that the former substitute shinigami had lost his powers but a normal friendly visit to his old friends would have been appreciated.

Shinji had even went as far as contacting Kisuke after a good number of years. Urahara however had not seen the moody teen for months, a statement that made Shinji growl inside. "It would seem like the idiot is back in his old pattern", the vaizard had muttered during his visit. Urahara had not said anything. Shinji understood Ichigo better than him when the red-hair had been depressed and scared of his hollow inside.

As the visit to the mad scientist did not give anything so was the group more lively than ever, much to the ever calm Hachi's disappointment. Hachi got quite frequent visits by Inoue Orihime though. Mostly since she wanted to learn more about her powers. She had gotten stronger in Hueco Mundo after all.

Through her they could receive some news regarding the former substitute shinigami. Not much had changed but he seemed quite absent and down though he always denied such if his friends or classmates asked about his mood. This worried the vaizards slightly because they had seen in his eyes how scared of his own hollow he was during their first encounter. Shiniji knew even better as he had also visited Ichigo in school when they first tried to recruit him. Hopefully the loss of his powers did not hit as hard as it had back then.

"DAMMIT SHINJIII!" a blonde with two ponytails roared.

"Don't blame me!" he shouted back, finally getting annoyed by the kid-look-a-like but he knew better than getting too riled up. "We can't exactly force him to come here.." he began in a low voice.

"YES, WE CAN!" Hiyori shouted with triumph and a big grin from which followed; "Lets kidnap him!"

The vaizards was either busy either planning together with Hiyori or watching the madness spread that they all failed to notice the footsteps on the floor beneath them.*

Hachi and Shinji watched the others with disbelief. Did they really plan to kidnap the poor teen? "Why not just make a phone-call?" Shinji asked.

All eyes turned to him and Hiyori broke out into another smile. "Great idea for once, dick-head", she said and smiled deviously; "A phone-call is the perfect distraction while one of us sneaks up behind him."

"Language", Kensei added at Hiyori's first comment in a tone of finality. Shinji hang his head and sighed, massaging his temples. 'What kind of curse am I under?'

They still had not noticed that someone had entered their hideout, Hachi had not bothered to keep the barrier up for a while as they did help Soul Society during the war, and was watching them with a frown.

"Kidnap who?" Ichigo asked tiredly, deciding to make his presence known to the otherwise alert vaizards.

To be continued...

* The vaizards were on the second floor that had full view of the first floor. See their first meeting with Ichigo in the anime for better understanding.

Thank you for reading!

Sincerely, Yaana.