~Chapter 1~

"… we are sorry for interrupting your regularly schedule program…" The anchorwoman's voice was solemn and demanded viewer's their attention, "This just came in… As of fifteen minutes ago, there was an explosion at Karakura High…"

Glass shattered on the floor as a viewer stared helplessly at the TV…

"… there's been no confirmed report of how many are injured or worse dead…"

A cold shudder wrecked his body as if something foul had just walked across his grave…

"… local authorities and firefighters are currently working on getting the fire under control and rescuing the trapped students and teachers at this time. The chief of police have also requested that parents and family members of the students and faculty members to remain calm -"

"Ichigo!" Isshin whimpered as he bolted out of the Kurosaki Clinic.

His son was in danger. He felt it in every fiber of his body and soul, and he'll be damned to let some human tell him to be calm.

He was a doctor. He was going to help stabilize the injured.

And he was a father. He was going to find his son, and by the heavens, if Isshin found out that a Shinigami had pass his son onto the other side, there was going to be hell to be paid!

#15#

The minutes blurred by for Kurosaki Isshin. As soon as he arrived, he showed the police his medical license and was immediately put to work. He ignored the fact that his son's high school laid half in ruins. He knew that he should be focusing on each of the injured that came to him, but he could not remember who he worked on nor how many. He knew it was selfish of him to have used his profession as means to find out about his son. One by one the injured came. Isshin helped some, but many he was too late for, and if he stopped for a moment, he might have realized that those he could not save should not have died in the first place… But his mind and heart was focused on one thing… His son… He had to find his son…

He had already failed to protect one precious person in his life. He had failed to protect his beloved wife, Masaki. He knew that if he failed again then he could not and would not forgive himself. He had to find his son… That was all that mattered now…

For hours, the brunette worked. Never taking a moment's rest, for fear of missing his son. And as the hours ticked by a new fear began to grip at Isshin's heart, his son was lost… NO! The usually carefree doctor growled at himself. His face, more accustom to wearing a goofy smile, was set in stone as he pushed himself onto the next injured that came into the medical tent.

"Ungh…" The injured grunted, catching Isshin's attention for the first time.

"ISHIDA!" Isshin gasped as he recognized the son of his cousin by marriage.

"Ugh…" Uryu groaned again while Isshin quickly checked the youth for injuries… Broken leg, a few lacerations and nasty bump on the head… he has the devil's luck, Ryuken. Isshin mentally said as if Ishida Ryuken, Uryu's father, could hear him.

"Uryu…" Isshin quietly called.

"Hey Doc, we got a couple of more…" A technician called as he pointed to a couple of rescuers, who brought in more of the injured.

Isshin recognized them immediately. They were Ichigo's friends… If his son's friends were here now… Then his son was nearby. The brunette watched as the rescuers brought in Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki… Another girl, whom the senior Kurosaki did not know but assumed she knew his son… Then the rescuers brought in two more boys… Seconds pass into the minutes… After what seemed like an hour but only was about five minutes, Isshin began to realize that his son was not being brought in.

"No… no… no…" Isshin began to mutter. If his son was not coming to the medical tent then he was at the Other…

"No… no… no…"

"Isshin! Calm yourself!" A barely calm voice ordered as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around him.

"NO! LET ME GO! MY SON! I HAVE TO FIND MY SON! THEY CAN'T HAVE HIM!" Isshin cried as he thrashed against the strong arms that kept him in place.

"ISSHIN!" His captor cried as the distraught brunette was spun around and…

SLAP!

Isshin stood still, in shock. Someone had slapped him! His dark brown eyes blinked owlishly as they slowly focused on a familiar figure of his nakama, his blood-brother.

"K-Kisuke?" Isshin muttered, doubting his eyes.

Standing in front of him and holding onto his shoulders was Urahara Kisuke, an exiled Shinigami. But not just any Shinigami, Kisuke was the former Captain of the 12th Squad of the Gotei 13 and the First Head of Research and Development. Urahara wore his usual faded grey-green trousers and gi-top with the black hoari on top. The black hoari with the white diamonds along the bottom of the hem hid the pale blonde's cane. However, the blonde's cane was no ordinary cane. It was in fact the exiled Captain's zanpaku-to, Benihime, the Red Princess. The blonde's grey-blue eyes were hidden beneath the shadows of the most ugliest hats to ever been made, but Urahara loved the green and white hat because it was a gift… A gift from the most beautiful women in the world…

"W-When..?" Isshin's voice was small and laced with confusion.

"We've been here all night with you." The geta-wearing blonde explained. Not in the least bothered that his best friend had not noticed his or the other's presence.

As soon as he heard the news, Urahara, Tessai and Yoruichi had rushed over to the school to help. The blonde knew that his best friend would use his profession as a doctor to get into the area in the guise to help… Well, it was never a guise, Isshin really did help the injured, but the brunette's true goal and focus was his son, Ichigo.

"I-Ichigo's not here…" Isshin's voice was broken.

"Isshin…" A quiet feminine voice broke through the thick tension between the two males.

Isshin stared but not really seeing the dark-skinned beauty in front of him.

"Isshin, you have to help Ichigo's friends." The golden-eyed Shihoin Yoruichi said.

Dark brown eyes blinked again as focus returned to them. Isshin turned to look at his son's fallen friends.

"You're right… If I don't… He'll never forgive me…" Isshin mumbled and immediately went to work.

"Thank you…" Urahara whispered to the purple-tinted raven-haired heiress.

"Go, Kisuke…" She turned and ordered, "Go find your godson… And… And if a Shinigami had taken Ichigo to the other side, I want that bastard's name!"

Urahara gave the beautiful Assassin a rueful smile. The blonde knew that despite her calm demeanor, she was raging on the inside. She wanted to kill something or someone.

Urahara nodded his head and quickly left to find his godson.

After navigating around rescuers, debris and wailing mothers and fathers, Kisuke found the Other tent. He stood in front of it, not really knowing what to do. He did not know if he really could walk into the Other tent, knowing that all around him were the dead. The blonde let loose a humorless chuckle at the irony of it all… He was a Death God… An exiled Death God but a Death God nonetheless, and he was afraid to go see the dead… They're just kids… The blonde realized the horrible truth to his fear. Those that lay beyond the tent's flaps were just children… Especially in comparison to how long he had lived. Even the oldest faculty member was a babe compared to the dozen plus life times Kisuke had lived.

"Eh… Can I help you?" A voice broke through the blonde's thoughts.

"Eh… Yes, I'm sorry, but I'm looking for someone…" Urahara quietly said, "… My godson… Kurosaki Ichigo… He's hard to miss… Orange hair… A scowl on his face…"

The young man looked around then approached closer to the blonde.

"I'm not suppose to do this…" The young man whispered, "But I've seen you helping Dr. Kurosaki…"

Kisuke nodded.

"We're still recovering the…"

"Injured." Urahara replied, understanding the young man's hesitation. To say 'bodies' meant no hope, but to say 'injured' there was still hope that someone was alive. And at this moment, hope was all they had to continue.

"Luckily for us, this school is one of the schools that had implemented a biometric system…" The young man rambled.

And Urahara let him. As much as he wanted to know the truth, the blonde also feared it. So he let the young man ramble on about the system that had an electronic scan of every student and faculty member's fingerprints on file. It was truly ingenious… As the rescuers pulled out more and more 'injured', their fingerprints were scanned and their identity known immediately. It gave those who were waiting an immediate answer…

"Kurosaki's son is among the missing… Still unaccounted for…" The young man whispered.

"He's still in there…" Kisuke whispered as he stared at the ruined high school hopefully.

"I don't know… The bomb guys are saying that we might not recover everyone…" The young man cringed at the hard glare from the blonde, "I mean… I heard them say that the fire from the explosion was hot enough to… To…"

Kisuke looked away as he understood the young man. His eyes scanned the ruins behind the young man; however, he did not believe that would be the case for Ichigo. After all, they had found the teen's friends, and Urahara knew his godson well enough to know that Ichigo would never be too far away from his friends. No… They will find the tawny-haired Shinigami. It was just a matter of time.

"Eh… Excuse me, Sir." Another voice broke through the blonde's thoughts as Urahara looked back at the speaker.

It was a rescuer, carrying another body. The young man by the exiled Captain's side politely walked around the blonde as he pulled the young woman's hand and placed a finger on the scanner. Suddenly…

"Sir?" The young man gasped as he felt the iron grip of the lithe blonde.

Grey-blue eyes narrowed as he observed the young woman's corpse. The metallic scent of blood hung around her since she had a copper pipe lodged in her abdomen. Her eyes were beginning to cloud. A sign that she had been dead for a while. However, it was not the cause of the death that caught Urahara's attention, but a sickly sweet odor that was hidden beneath the coppery scent of blood. Kisuke leaned in closer, and unaware by the rescuer and the young man, a piece of Kisuke's black hoari fell into the young woman's blood.

"Excuse me, Sir!" The young man called.

"Oh… I'm sorry." Urahara stated as he pulled out his fan from the sleeve of his hoari, "For a moment, I thought I knew her…"

"Oh… I understand…" The young man replied then asked, "Do you?"

"Thankfully, no." The blonde answered, "I better go."

And without another word, Urahara walked away. Immediately his fan disappeared from sight as the blonde carefully removed his hoari and folded it neatly, protecting the stained sleeve from further contamination. That scent… He knew he had smelled it once before, but he could not remember where… However, he did know this… No human should have that scent on them… Something was not right…

"Kisuke…" Yoruichi whispered once she saw her friend come into the tent.

Urahara shook his head.

Tension immediately left the Shihoin Princess' body, but she began to nibble on her thumb in worry.

"Yoruichi, I need you to stay with him." Kisuke suddenly whispered as he watched his best friend tend to another injured.

"Of course… But where are you going?"

"There's something I need to check out." Urahara simply replied as he quickly slipped out of the tent.

Yoruichi frowned as her playmate's odd behavior.

Then her frown melted away to confusion as the wind changed course, carrying with it the scent of blood and another… A sickly sweet scent… Golden eyes grew wide… She recognized that scent! … Quickly she turned to find her friend, but he was already gone… Silently she prayed that she was wrong, and that the blonde's search revealed something else was amiss…