Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the following work. All recognizable anime characters belong to Tite Kubo. All others characters are adapted from a diverse spread of cultural and mythological lore. I am making no profit from this story.

Author's Note 1: Select portions of the dialogue are drawn from manga chapters 239 and 240 (and I believe I flop between the OneManga and Maximum7 translations-not that those exist anymore anyway).

Chapter 3: The Low Road

Oh, you'll take the high road

And I'll take the low road

And I'll be in Scotland before you

-Loch Lomond

Folk Song; Original Author Unknown

Nights Since Orihime's Disappearance: 1 / Karakura

He left his body in Kon's care, with clear instructions to avoid Tatsuki, Keigo, and Mizuiro at all costs. If anyone—especially Tatsuki—came around to resolve the earlier fight, Kon's presence in his body would only compound the disaster. Either Kon would spill his guts about everything, or the mod soul would pretend to be him. Tatsuki, no doubt already suspicious, would surely see through the ruse; whether Kon-pretending-to-be-Ichigo attempted to argue with her further or apologize, all scenarios ended in Tatsuki pounding his deserted body into liquid.

And anyway, he wasn't about to let Kon explain or apologize to any of his friends as his proxy. It was his responsibility, and he would do it himself. Never mind that I have no idea what I'd say. He'd ford that river when he reached it.

Upon rubbing the back of his borrowed head, Kon had found scalp lacerations still oozing blood and did not argue. Ichigo left him to take care of the wounds; if he had asked his father to stitch them before he departed, there would be questions that he did not want to answer. Then he'd never be able to leave.

When he was in sight of the shop, he was unsurprised to see Urahara leaning against the exterior, a lit pipe dangling from his fingers. Almost like he had been waiting for him.

"Welcome," said the man in clogs and a hat. "I was thinking it was about time you showed up, Kurosaki-san." Suspicion confirmed.

Ichigo decided he would take the bait. "Why did you think that?"

"You thought that I might know 'The Way to Hueco Mundo,' right?" Again, no surprise here. There had been many times that Urahara seemed to know what a person was thinking before they thought it.

When Ichigo didn't respond, Urahara drew from the pipe he was holding and released the smoke in a long, lazy exhale. Leaning further against the building, he continued, "I had feared that Aizen might be gunning for Inoue's abilities, so I took her out of the battle." An expression ghosted his scraggly face that may or may not have been regret. "I was too late. Taking her feelings into consideration and not removing her sooner was my mistake.

"It is for this reason that I intend to assist you any way I can." The look on the man's face was difficult to decipher. Nevertheless, Ichigo knew instinctively that the words were genuine.

"Then…you are able to open a portal into Hueco Mundo for me to pass through?"

"No."

The simplicity of the denial actually prevented Ichigo from responding for a good ten seconds. And then, "WHAT?!"

Urahara only chuckled and waved his fan in front of his face. "I used to be able to open the portal the arrancar pass through—Garganta. However, since Inoue's disappearance, that opening has been reinforced from the inside." The head within the stripped hat tilted slightly to the side. "Someone doesn't want you following, Kurosaki-san."

Ichigo clenched his hand tightly, until his fingernails were drawing blood on the inside of his palm. It was not enough to keep him from an outburst. "Then why the hell did you say you'd help me?! What the hell was that all about?!" The unnatural calm he had been maintaining was cracking, and the fear and anger beneath its surface was leaking through. I did not come all this way to hear that there's nothing I can do. That Inoue's stuck there forever. That I alienated my friends for nothing. Like hell I'd accept all that.

"Calm yourself, Kurosaki." With much effort, Ichigo did—though the insufferable, knowing smirk on the other man's face did not make it easy. "I said I could not open a portal. However, lucky for you, I happen to know that there is another entrance. Harder to reach, but just as reliable once you have managed to find it."

"Tell me," he said immediately, the command in his voice nearly outweighing the request.

The fan came back out and hid Urahara's face. "Ho, ho. 'Tell me,' he says. Very well. But first, are you aware that Soul Society sent out a call to other death gods, beseeching their help with the Winter War?"

Though annoyed that Urahara had changed the subject, Ichigo's mind couldn't get past the part about "other death gods." "What other death gods? Are there…are there more squads aside from the Gotei 13?"

"That is not what I'm referring to, Kurosaki. Much more other than that." His head tilted, "You didn't think that people in kimonos performed soul burials on the Egyptian pharaohs, or the Vikings, did you?" The man's expression read, You are so naïve. Truth was, it had never really occurred to him. But now that it had been brought to his attention, he couldn't deny the absurdity of such an assumption. Talk about an anachronism. But, if it's not Shinigami…

"It's not necessary to go into too many details now," the shop keeper continued, "but know this: when it comes to Death, the realms and the gods are just as diverse as the cultures of the people living on this earth. For the most part, these worlds are separated—divided by forces that are difficult to overcome. But Aizen has found a way…he has found a person…that can help him around these obstacles."

"Inoue," growled Ichigo. "I see." But he didn't, not really. How could Inoue's powers possibly work to transport beings across dimensions? "But how…"

"Do not concern yourself with the specifics," said Urahara. Pft. He probably just doesn't want to take the time to explain it, thought Ichigo. It doesn't matter, as long as this conversation ends in a portal to Hueco Mundo. "The important bit is this. By-and-large, Soul Society does not have the same capability. At least, not in terms of capacity. We cannot ascertain a limit to Inoue's ability, so we can only assume it is limitless. If that is the case, the size of Aizen's forces will only be restricted by the willingness of others to join his cause.

"While we are far more constrained, we have managed to secure the means for a small number of powerful allies."

While Ichigo found all this moderately interesting, he failed to see how any of it provided him with a passage to Hueco Mundo. Doesn't Urahara understand that I'm on a time limit here? He could feel his impatience growing like a creeping vine, wrapping up spine.

"You may be asking what any of this has to do with you getting to Hueco Mundo."

Ichigo blinked.

A shake of the man's head. "So impatient. Listen, Kurosaki, if they planned on killing Inoue, she's already dead. But that scenario is extremely unlikely. Aizen needs Inoue. If they are to utilize her power, they need her to be alive, and relatively whole. Thus, you have some time to rescue her. And you had better keep that in mind, because the only open road to Hueco Mundo is a rather long one."

Patience? Is he kidding? "Even if they need her alive, it doesn't mean that they won't…they could be torturing her, for all we know! Don't you realize that every minute she's there—"

"Yes," said Urahara, and for the first time during this conversation, Ichigo could hear dead-seriousness in his voice. "I do. But I also realize, as you do not yet understand, that this is the only choice. And either you will jump through every required hoop in its own time, or you can wait for the Winter War, and take the chance that all the invading Shinigami are targeting Inoue as a Soul Society traitor and not as a Hueco Mundo captive."

The stare that passed between them was flinty and sharp, but Ichigo could not deny the sense of these words, infuriating though they were.

"Fine," Ichigo relented, still not quite understanding why it tasted faintly like defeat. "Fine, damn it. What do I have to do?"

He couldn't be sure, but he thought Urahara was smirking. "Down at the river banks, under the bridge that Kurosawa Street passes over, the fabric between this world and another is worn a little thin. Tomorrow, when the moon is at its apex in the sky, an ally from that spirit world is going to open the rift from the inside. She is much too old and powerful now to cross even into the human world—and I am too powerful to cross into hers. That is where you come in, Kurosaki.

"You, still being human, should be able to cross dimensions without difficulty—as long as you do not release your zanpakuto. Once there, you will give her an artifact of my design that will allow her to come into the human world, and Soul Society, without difficulty."

Something didn't sound right. "I thought you said Soul Society does not have the same capabilities as Aizen in crossing spirit realms."

"We don't. Whereas Inoue can reject the repulsion effect created between two foreign reiatsu patterns when they meet, the device I have invented converts it. It's quite a handy little creation, if I do say so myself. However, since the reiatsu anomaly doesn't actually disappear, use of more than one of these artifacts at a time would result in an uncontrollable ripping of the fabric of the universe."

Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose. It seemed like the world continued to just get more ridiculously doomed every hour of his life. "Did you just tell me you created something that could destroy the universe?"

"Why Kurosaki, how like you to focus on that part of the story," said Urahara, not answering the question.

"Whatever. I don't care," said Ichigo, throwing up his hands. "I can't care, because I'm still waiting for the part where I get to Hueco Mundo."

Urahara drew on his pipe and continued, the smoke drifting out of his mouth. "Once she has received the artifact and crossed through into the human world, her colleagues will guide you to another gate."

"I can get to Hueco Mundo through their world?"

"No."

Almost unconsciously, Ichigo reached for the hilt of the sword across his back.

Urahara brought out his best goofy smile. "Now, remember the conversation we had about patience, Kurosaki. It will serve you well in the future—on this trip especially. You see, many of the Underworlds, as they like to call themselves, are connected to others—but not to every other. Some are connected to only one. It's simply a matter of trudging through a few until you come to the one that is connected to Hueco Mundo. And at least one is connected to Hueco Mundo, rest assured. Not even Aizen would be able to seal it completely."

"Why are there doors between the…Underworlds…if the powerful gods can't pass through them?" For so many supposed restrictions on transdimensional travel, there seemed to be a lot of loopholes.

"I think I'll let them explain, Kurosaki. After all, it would be a shame not to take advantage of the opportunity to learn all that you can about your hosts."

The other man's smile was a little too knowing, and it made Ichigo suspicious. "And why's that?"

"Why? Because knowledge is power, Kurosaki." Before Ichigo could do more than raise an eyebrow at that statement, Urahara plowed forward. "I have already arranged a few connections along the way to help guide you. All you have to do is show up at the Kurosawa Bridge tomorrow night. I'll give you further instructions then. Are we in agreement?"

What choice do I have? It's not like the situation had ever really been in his control, anyway. "Agreed. Tomorrow, at the rise of the moon."

At Urahara's nod, Ichigo darted away into the night, uncertain where he would go for the next 24 hours, since he could not go home. It was just as well. Something about the sound of tomorrow's journey made him suspect he should get used to living like a rolling stone.

One gear set in motion, thought Urahara, and here comes the next set of cogs.

Urahara waited the few seconds it took for Ichigo to disappear from his sight, then longer still for his reiatsu to fade. When its last flicker had receded, he called the other occupants of the alley out from their hiding space.

"He's gone. Mind coming out now?"

One, two, three, they toppled from behind the garbage cans lining the retaining wall opposite his shop. If they were snakes, they would have bitten you, Kurosaki. You're still terrible at sensing reiatsu. He would have to make sure the boy worked on it in the future. Though it was understandable that his own massive reiatsu blinded him, it was a vulnerability that would sooner or later leave him open to an attack.

"When did you catch on?" asked the tallest. He was dusting off the knees of his pants, and avoiding the shopkeeper's eyes. The stance matched the nervous tone of his voice.

"Long before you decided that the garbage cans would be a good hiding place. Why do you think I kept Kurosaki out here instead of inviting him in?" He exhaled a plume of smoke, and watched as they sorted themselves out.

The shorter boy was stepping out from behind the cans, but the girl stayed where she was, the glare in her eyes hard an unyielding. Yes, her eyes said, why? Arisawa Tatsuki. He had known such a moment would come. Indeed, for all three of them, this moment was too long in coming. Although they had not yet manifested powers, he could feel the strong, underdeveloped current of reiatsu in each of them. It had been clear for many months now—especially in the girl, and he was beginning to suspect something even more interesting was at work there. Frankly, while Kurosaki might be "blinded by the light," he was surprised that the other humans, or even Rukia, had not seemed to notice.

He had been patiently waiting for something in the group dynamic to give—an explosion of power from one of them, or one of the "empowered" to finally notice and confess the situation. And when that finally happened, where else would they bring them but to his shop? But he could not force their hand. They had already made it clear they did not want anyone put in danger that didn't "need" to be, with their constant insistences that the memories of their friends be erased. If he was going to get any kind of cooperation, he knew they would have to realize for themselves the inevitability of this moment.

And yet, in spite of everything, they still hadn't. A confrontation like the one he had heard about today was also something that he expected, though admittedly he had not foreseen the confronter being flat-out denied. With the kidnapping straining everyone's nerves, he wasn't surprised.

It made no matter. Fate had put them in his hands, regardless.

He took another puff of his pipe, and tried to make his voice light, disarming. "Well, well. As usual, Kurosaki-kun is too naïve. He thinks that just by acting a bit cold, he can suddenly cut off his relationship to you all." He made it sound like a reassurance, but he was counting on them to have already figured out Kurosaki's intentions.

"Arisawa Tatsuki. Asano Keigo. Kojima Mizuiro. Welcome to my humble shop." The fan came out and hid is face. "What can I do for you?"

The boys startled ever so slightly at the use of their names, but the girl was not even fazed. In fact, to Urahara's amusement, she took the initiative to tell him so.

"Don't think I'm surprised that you know my name," she said. Harshly. Too loud. Anger, right from the start. This will be interesting. "I know we've met before."

As I suspected. "Oh?" said Urahara, the fan still aflutter. "I believe I would remember such a pretty girl."

The comment, meant to unsettle her, did not have any effect. "I know you've been erasing my memories. Our memories," she accused. Urahara thought he could hear her teeth grinding. "Do you deny it?" Her fists clenched at her side in subtle threat.

Yes, it's exactly as I thought. Her reiatsu is too powerful for the erasures. Her memories have resurfaced.

He thought he might as well tip his hand. "I wouldn't say we've met before, Arisawa-san. You were unconscious both times." Though the boys made surprised faces, the girl held her face in a stone mask of anger. But she couldn't hold back the look in her eyes. The one that said, with equal parts triumph and rage, I knew it.

The boys fidgeted, looking with uncertainty between the pair of them. There was a silence in which he could tell she struggling with the instinct to lash out. He could feel it in the reiatsu that danced in the air around her, low-level, but with a hint of something else that he would have to ponder. He was impressed that in the end, she prevailed over herself. Kurosaki would not have.

"You asked what you could do for us?" she said, her voice under strained control. "Well, you could tell us everything. Everything that's being hidden from us. Everything that has almost cost us our lives multiple times."

Urahara respected the gravity of her stare by giving her a serious expression in return. "The people you hold in your heart have gone out of their way to keep you innocent of the dangers the spirit world holds. Would you really throw their efforts back in their faces, just to satisfy your curiosity?" The words were harsh, but he had to be certain. If they only wanted reassurances from him, if they were only after the truth for truth's sake, they had come to the wrong place. He would only offer what they wanted if they intended to use it.

He found his answer as her face first drained pale and then flooded a bright red. "CURIOSITY?!" she might have lunged at him if the taller boy hadn't stepped forward to hold her back. Even as it was, the smaller one had to grab her other arm. "CURIOSITY?! My best friend is kidnapped by a sadistic, supernatural bastard who wants to use her for evil, and you call my fear for her curiosity?! A boy I've known my whole life acts like I'm crazy when I confront him about it, and then tells me to get lost when I catch him in the lie, and you call my anger curiosity?! I almost die on my knees outside my dojo, and you call the burning sensation I feel in the pit of my stomach when those things are in this world curiosity?!

"Well I call you a scum-sucking bastard! And I'll have my answers from you if I have to strain your clotted blood through my teeth to get them!" Even in the boys' grasp, she lifted a fist to shake it at him. Not for the first time tonight, he saw clear parallels between her and Kurosaki, with her near uncontrollable outbursts and stubborn spirit. Why must I be cursed with two of them?

He held his hands up in front of him. "I surrender, Arisawa-san, I surrender." Not that she was in any way calmed by these words. He turned to the boys. "And you?"

Asano rubbed the back of his head. "Those weird guys that stayed at my house…these things we've been seeing. They're not…they're not just going to go away, you know?" The boy looked up into Urahara's eyes for the first time that evening. "We're not gonna stop being in danger just 'cause we're oblivious to it. We're just gonna keep stumbling into it, making ourselves more of a nuisance if we don't know what's going on."

Kojima nodded his head. "We may never be able to fight," it did not escape Urahara's notice that Arisawa huffed in the background at these words, "but at least we could help by keeping other normal people out of the way. And ourselves too."

Urahara wondered how it hadn't dawned on these kids that they were clearly not normal. Maybe the girl tasted it, but the boys still did not understand what their newfound awareness meant. I supposed I can't expect them to draw conclusions from the nothing they've been told. Still, couldn't they feel they were different, even without knowing precisely what was going on?

He mentally sighed. This would be a difficult conversation. He would have to tailor it in a way that would convince them to maneuver themselves into the proper places for what was to come—without knowing it. Difficult, but a far cry from impossible. Don't kid yourself, Kisuke, you thrive on a challenge.

"Very well," he said aloud. He folded up his fan and pointed it at the entrance to his shop. "Step into my office."

Author's Note 2: Thanks go to Sironblood1, megrim, CWolf2, Veggiemite, and red lilies for their reviews, and a gi-normous thank you to InfiniteDragon for an ultra thoughtful critique and some helpful suggestions. As always, I will readily accept (and be grateful for) all commentary and critique (or even just prods to keep working, those are great too). Thanks for reading!