A/N: Here we go… another installment! Thanks for the reviews so far (waves at Haddrell). Please, let me know what you think of it and if I am making mistakes and what not. Review really do help me to make improvements
And now for this week's disclaimer…
I walk out onstage and begin. "This week I think we will have someone that doesn't have any stage fright problems and can be quite quick and to the point. Mr. Urahara Kisuke, please step forward!"
Urahara walks out and raises a hand to peer out at the audience. "My, my, you have quite a crowd here."
I blush a little as I say, "oh, well, not really, but thank you."
"So, you wanted me to do something for you?"
"Well, uh, yes. If you could please disclaim my story, if it's not too much trouble…"
Urahara pulls out his fan and waves it as he says, "No trouble at all. Ahem, Mystica does not own Bleach."
"Wow, thank you Urahara-san. That was quite nice and to the point. If you wanted to ah, join me in the green room for this chapter, I would be happy to let you, ah, do some research on me." I give him a wink and walk off stage.
"Hmm…A human writer… I suppose I haven't had an opportunity to study one of those before…" he also exits the stage.
On that note, let the show begin!
Chapter 3
That evening, Rukia returned home with Ichigo. Urahara opened the gate and sent Captain Hitsugaya back to Soul Society to report what had happened in the real world while Renji remained at the shop. For now, they determined all they could do was wait and see what happened.
"Hey, Urahara, where's your mod soul trio?" Renji asked as he came out of the back now in his Gigai.
"Hmm?" Urahara said as he looked up from his tea. "Oh, I sent them over to Soul Society a few days ago. There were rumors that one of the Bount may have gotten away after all that mess a while ago."
Renji made a face as he said, "That's the last thing we need on top of all of this. A Bount turning up right now would be a pain."
Urahara shrugged and returned to sipping his tea.
Yoruichi hadn't returned yet and it seemed that Urahara was waiting for her report before he voiced any of his thoughts on the situation. He did tell them, though, that the disturbance between Soul Society and the real world was getting worse and that even he might not be able to open a gate again after a few days of this.
"What could possibly be causing such a problem in the Precipice World?" Ichigo asked Rukia as he flopped on his bed. "I thought that it was a pretty sturdy place."
"It normally is," she replied. "This disturbance is unlike anything I have ever seen or heard of before. It's as if powers that are immutable are being tamper with…"
Ichigo sighed as he lay back, pillowing his head on his arms. "I hate this waiting part…" he muttered.
"Nee-san…" Kon said as he hopped down from the foot of Ichigo's bed and walked over to her. "Would it be so bad if you got stuck here in the real world with us?" he leaped up to sit in Rukia's lap, but Rukia back handed him, sending him flying across the room.
"This isn't my home, Kon," she told him as he righted himself after having landed head down against the wall.
"But Nee-san…" Kon said pleadingly. "You wouldn't have to leave us again."
"Kon," Ichigo snapped. "Even if she wanted to stay here, cutting the real world off from Soul Society would be terrible! Just think if you, me, and Rukia were the only ones left here to protect the humans from the hollows!"
Kon started, not having thought of that factor. "Oh," he said lamely as he plopped down on the floor where he was with a slight squeak.
"You're right, Ichigo," Rukia said. "We have got to find out what is causing this!"
XXX
Inoue had gone home that night around dark. She had heard that her building was given the all clear to go back inside and she was quite tired after the day's excursions. As she got ready for bed, she returned to her chair beside the window that she had abandoned and looked out at the nearly full moon that was rising outside.
She allowed her senses to seek out each of her friends to assure herself that they were still all right. She was a little stunned to sense Renji at Urahara's shop and Rukia at Ichigo's. "Why didn't Kurosaki-kun or Ishida-kun tell me that they had returned to the real world?" Inoue asked out loud.
Suddenly Shuno, Lily, and Tsubaki all burst from her hairpins and hovered in front of her. "Guys…!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing..?"
"You called us," Shuno said to her and flew over to sit on her left shoulder.
"N…no," she said, wondering how she could have called them. Not only had she not called on them, but these three didn't even all work together.
"Your heart called us out," Lily said as she went and settled on Inoue's right shoulder.
"My heart?"
"We're part of you, Orihime," Shuno said. "So when you are confused about something, we want to help you figure it out."
"Confused? What am I confused about?" She was actually feeling quiet confused now by their presence, but she couldn't think what she could have been confused about before they had appeared.
"Ichigo, of course!" Shuno exclaimed, taking off and flying around Inoue's head once before hovering next to Tsubaki in front of her. "You're in love, Inoue. You need to tell him!"
Inoue gasped but didn't get a chance to say anything since Lily also took off and flew around her head saying, "You're only going to get hurt, girl. Best just forget about him." She joined the other two in hovering in front of Inoue's face. "He's clearly more interested in another."
"You should fight for him," Tsubaki told her sternly. "If you want something then you have to fight for it!"
"What!" Inoue gasped as she stood up, looking at her three helpers. "What is this?"
"You're feeling bad about Ichigo not having checked up on you today," Shuno said.
"You're feeling jealous that he was probably with Rukia instead," Lily piped up.
"You're wondering how to get Ichigo to notice you when Rukia is around," Tsubaki finished.
"N…no… that's not it at all… I just…" she was backing away slowly from the fairies, wondering what had gotten into them. It just wasn't like them to confront her like this.
Lily flew up to her and said, "You know that's what it was, don't you… It was Rukia that distracted Ichigo from you. It's her that he's interested in so you should save yourself the heartache and move on, Orihime."
"I…I know he cares for Kuchiki-san …" Inoue stuttered. "They are very close and I know I can't come between that…"
"You're weak," Tsubaki said as he swooped in towards her. "Take a stand, take out the competition, do something proactive to get what you want."
"But Kuchiki-san…"
"Don't worry about Rukia," Shuno said. "What matters is what you want and what Ichigo wants. You need to talk to him, find out what is really going on inside his heart."
"No…" Inoue said, feeling like she wanted to run. "Please, leave me alone. I don't want to do anything right now. I…I know I love Kurosaki-kun…but…but I can't…"
"You can't what?" all three of them asked simultaneously.
"Can't you trust Ichigo?" Shuno asked her.
"You can't trust Ichigo," Lily said.
"Trust him or not, but do something," Tsubaki snapped.
Inoue stared back at the fairies at a complete loss for words. Suddenly all three of them flew at her. She ducked, thinking that they were about to attack, but they followed her movement and popped back into place on the flowers at the side of her head.
She knelt down on the floor, holding herself and trying very hard not to cry. Is that really what I'm thinking? She wondered to herself. Am I really that upset about Kurosaki-kun that I've become jealous of Kuchiki-san? Should I just give up and move on, or should I tell him… but she didn't want to complete the thought.
She took a deep breath and tried to brush all of it off. It didn't matter whatever it was that was going on inside of her. Ishida had warned her that something big was happening again and she needed to be there for all of them. It didn't matter if she was in turmoil over her feelings for Ichigo… she had to push that aside to do what she could for all of her friends.
That decided, she went and got into bed thinking that that would be the end of her misgivings… The next week would prove that she was quite wrong.
XXX
For Ichigo and Rukia, the week went by quite slowly. It seemed that the disturbance in the area between the gates of Soul Society and the real world was also affecting the space between the real world and Hueco Mundo. Ichigo and Rukia had had nothing to occupy their time other than classes for that entire week.
Normally when Rukia was in the real world, it was because something was going on and that meant that they would be either buried in hollows, or taking care of something even worse. Both of them were going nearly stir crazy waiting for something to do.
Renji too was getting antsy. Especially since he had to do a bunch of chores around Urahara's shop, having been guilted into it with frequent reminders of how he was freeloading. He was ready for something to happen… anything at this point would be better than sitting around there.
Chad had been enjoying the quiet time. He had been worried that they were all about to be thrown into something again and was grateful for the reprieve, even if it was only to be short lived.
Ishida was also glad for the down time. He used his time to continue to train his Quincy techniques. He didn't want to be caught unprepared for whenever something did finally happen. He did notice, however, that Inoue was becoming more withdrawn from their group.
They were all sitting in class when the Quincy cast a glance over to Inoue and allowed a slight frown to pull at his lips. Inoue was staring off into space again. This was nothing new for her, but this time she had a slightly sad look to her that spoke of something that was weighing heavily on her mind. He wondered what could possibly make the seemingly carefree Inoue seem so downcast. He also noticed that she hadn't been taking her meals with the rest of her friends lately, but had been making excuses and disappearing during lunch period. Ishida rarely joined them himself, but it was strange that Inoue would withdraw from everyone like that.
What bothered Ishida the most was that the others didn't seem to notice Inoue's odd behavior. They all just accepted her various excuses and didn't try to find out what was actually bothering her. Ishida had considered asking himself, but he recognized the desire to keep one's problems to one's self. It just struck him as odd that the rest of the group, who didn't seem to understand that fact, wasn't sticking in their noses.
Ishida sighed to himself and returned his attention to the current lecture. It was English lesson and Sensei had the great idea to read a Shakespearian play to help them learn and understand the language. Ishida had read many of the Bard's plays, but in a Japanese translation. The ones he had read were interesting, but he wasn't looking forward to muddling through them in their original language. From what he understood, it wasn't even a current form of the language so he wondered how reading it could possibly be of any use to them.
Sensei hadn't picked the play that they would read yet; she was just letting them know what was coming up. The bell rang then, signaling the end of class and the end of the week. It had been determined that the gang would all meet up again at Urahara's after school let out on Friday if nothing happened before then. The shopkeeper had seemed to think that by then he would have gathered enough information on his own to be able to deduce something and they all hoped that he would have some news for them.
They all quickly packed up their things and headed out, walking together to the strange shop that had become their base of operations. Ishida looked around as they walked before asking, "Where's Inoue-san?"
The rest paused and looked around. "I thought she had followed us," Rukia said surprised when she didn't spot their friend.
"Maybe she had something to take care of first," Chad suggested.
Ichigo was getting that worried frown on his face as he looked back towards the school. "Can't you sense her, Ishida?" he asked.
Ishida blinked and then said in a surprised voice, "No, I can't…"
Now all of them became quite concerned. Ichigo was already walking back towards the school before Rukia reached out and grabbed his arm. "Rukia?" he asked her as he glanced back at her.
"I'll go look for her, Ichigo," she said. "The rest of you go on to Urahara's. I think I have an idea of where she went."
"But Rukia…" Ichigo began.
"Trust me, Ichigo," Rukia said to him with a half smile. "We'll be along shortly."
Ichigo stared at her a moment before nodding. "All right, we'll see you soon."
Rukia nodded in return and gave him a smile before running off in the direction of the school again.
XXX
Urahara walked through the back of the shop, looking for Renji. "Jinta," he asked the boy as he carried a box of stuff into the shop. "Have you seen our freeloader?"
"Naw," the boy said as he sat the box down and looked up at his boss. "Ururu said he was going out a while ago though."
"Ah," Urahara said. "He must have been feeling a little cramped here." He turned then and strolled back through the shop. He poked his head in the room Renji had been staying and saw that his Gigai was also absent. "Went into town then…hmm."
Urahara pulled out his fan and waved it a few times beside his face as he thought. "He should be all right," he finally said, closing the fan and tucking it back inside his sleeve. "Just as long as he's back before the others arrive."
XXX
Renji had decided he had had enough hanging around the old shop. All he heard all day was how he was a freeloader and how grateful he should be for being allowed to stay there. If he had to sweep another floor, or haul another heavy box, he was going to lose it.
So when he was sure that no one was looking, he popped into his Gigai and decided to take a walk around town. He planned on being back before the others got out of school and showed up for their meeting, but he needed to get away for a few hours.
He had already spent a few hours downtown and hadn't really found anything all that interesting to do. He found himself wandering back towards the shop after a while. He knew he was headed in the general direction of the shop, but he was taking a slightly different path than normal just for a change of scenery. It really was strange being in the real world with no hollow activity going on. He was only sent there when there was an issue to take care of. Being idle for this long just wasn't his style.
But Renji thought that his luck was about to change for the better as he began to near a large, old, abandoned building. It was at that moment that he sensed something… He wasn't sure what it was, but it was some kind of strong spiritual presence. He also was sure that it wasn't Shinigami or hollow.
He smiled to himself as he took off in the direction that he could feel the spiritual disturbance. He hoped that he had found something that might give him a little hassle just so he could shake off this feeling of uselessness that had been setting in ever since he had arrived in the real world.
Renji found himself drawn back in the direction that he had come from. He paused and glanced back at the building. For a moment, he thought maybe there was something else there, but the presence back towards town was much stronger. He shook his head and headed after the stronger signature.
As soon as he arrived where he thought he had sensed the presence, though, the spiritual presence disappeared. He stood there a while, wondering what had just happened when all of a sudden he could sense it again. This time it was heading into the downtown area. Renji sighed and ran after the feeling.
He spent the next hour feeling as if he was on a wild goose chase. He kept following the disturbances through the town, but every time he thought that he had gotten close, it would disappear and then reappear further away.
He was standing in the back of an alley in a rather deserted part of town when he decided that the chase was pointless. He was just turning to leave when all of a sudden a wind rushed at him, knocking Renji back and into the wall at the back of the narrow alley.
When the wind stopped, Renji groaned as he picked himself up from the ground and looked around for what could have caused such a commotion. He was just preparing to pop his spirit pill to leaving his Gigai when a voice spoke.
"So, there are even more of you spiritually aware humans…"
"Human?" Renji asked with a smirk. "Who said I was human?" He popped the pill in his mouth and was quickly cast out of the Gigai body. He stood beside the body that was now inhabited by a temporary soul. Pulling out his Zanpakuto, Renji took a step forward and called out, "Abarai Renji, vice-captain of sixth protection squad. And who are you?"
There was a soft chuckle that seemed to fill all the air around Renji. "A vice-captain? In the real world… My, I must have created quite a stir." The voice was smooth and silky as it spoke.
Renji was looking all around, wondering where it could be coming from. It seemed to fill the entire area. "Show yourself, you coward!" Renji snapped. "Howl, Zabimaru!" he called, transforming his Zanpakuto.
"As you wish," the voice said. Suddenly a tear formed in the air in front of Renji. The Shinigami gasped as he took a step back, watching two bright blue eyes appear in the darkness inside the tear. "We will see who the coward really is…" the voice said, now coming directly from the tear in front of Renji.
XXX
Rukia quickly returned to the school grounds and into the greens behind the building. She had noticed Inoue sneaking off that way yesterday when she had said that she was going to go to the library during lunch. Rukia went to the back where a few trees had grown up and began to look around for her friend. After a moment, she spotted the soft yellow glow of Inoue's rejection shield coming from the other side of a large tree trunk.
"Inoue?" she asked quietly as she stepped around the trunk to face the girl.
Inoue jumped up with a gasp, dismissing the shield she had been hiding behind and quickly wiping a tear away from her cheek. "Kuchiki-san!" she said. "What… What are you doing here?"
Rukia looked the girl over, wondering what it was that had gotten her so upset. "I was looking for you," she said. "We were worried when we noticed that you hadn't followed us after class."
"I was coming, I just… I just needed…" Inoue faltered, not knowing what to say.
"Inoue," Rukia said softly taking another step closer to her friend. "I think I know what has been going on."
Inoue looked extremely worried at that and put her hands up in front of her as if to ward Rukia off. "No, it's not that… it's just…"
"Inoue, you don't have to fear anything from me," Rukia explained carefully. "Nothing. You are one of my best friends, Inoue. And I have no plans to come between you and Ichigo…"
Inoue froze in place, stunned almost in to catatonia. "You… you know…" she stammered.
"I know the way that you have looked at him… I know the way that you have looked at me when we're together. You don't want to come between us, but it hurts for you to think of someone else with him… Am I right?"
"I…I…" Inoue didn't know what to say. She could feel hot tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes again.
"Inoue, Ichigo and I are only dear friends. As I said, you have nothing to fear from me." She took another step towards Inoue and reached out her arms to the shaken girl. Inoue didn't resist as Rukia pulled her into a hug, but she didn't return it either.
"Kuchiki-san…" she said softly.
"I will always be your friend, Inoue. If there is anything that you ever need to talk about, you can come to me. I don't ever want you to feel like you can't."
Slowly, Inoue came out of her stupor and wrapped her arms around Rukia as well, trying desperately to disperse her unshed tears. "Thank you, Kuchiki-san," she whispered into Rukia's ear.
Rukia pulled away and was about to say something else when she suddenly gasped and turned around, staring off towards town. "Renji…" she breathed.
"Kuchiki-san?" Inoue asked but Rukia didn't respond to her. The petite Shinigami suddenly popped her spirit pill and stepped out of her Gigai and took off at a run without saying another word to Inoue.
The girl stood there a moment with the rather ditzy temporary soul that had replaced Rukia, wondering what had just happened. "Kuchiki-san," she muttered before running after the Shinigami. Clearly Rukia had just sensed something and Inoue felt she needed to be there for Rukia. She knew, though, that she was no match for the Shinigami's speed so she was probably not going to be of much help when she reached wherever Rukia was headed.
XXX
Ichigo, Ishida, and Chad all walked into Urahara's shop and called out for the owner. "Oi! Urahara!" Ichigo said, walking through the shop and into the back.
"Ah, welcome," Urahara said as he came from another room. "Right on time…" he looked around and said, "Well, some of you anyway… Where are Kuchiki and Inoue-san?"
Ichigo exchanged a look with Ishida and Chad and then turned and shrugged. "They should be here soon," he told Urahara.
"Well, let's have some tea while we wait," Urahara said with a smile and gestured for them to sit down at the circular table in the center of the room.
Ichigo and Chad sat down with Urahara. Once they were kneeling at the table, Ichigo looked up and noticed that Ishida was still standing. The Quincy looked as if he was concentrating on something as he looked off into the distance.
"Ishida?" Ichigo asked.
"Don't you feel that?" Ishida said.
"Hmm," Urahara said, also standing again. "Now that you mention it…" he hid the lower half of his face behind his fan. "Something has just appeared."
"What?" Ichigo asked, standing up.
No one answered him as Chad slowly stood as well, also facing the same direction as Ishida and Urahara. "It's the same as before…" Chad said.
"Yes…" Urahara said as he slowly closed the fan and put it back in his sleeve. He glanced around the room a moment and then sighed. "Abarai…" he muttered.
Ichigo glanced around and said, "Renji? Where is he? I thought he was here?"
"He went out earlier," Urahara said.
"He's following it…" Ishida said as he headed for the exit.
Ichigo was about to follow behind the Quincy when he felt a sudden tap on his back. He glanced back and realized that Urahara had just used the end of his cane to knock his Shinigami form out of his body. "I think you'll be of more use like that, don't you think?" Urahara said to Ichigo.
Ichigo nodded and then turned and quickly followed Chad and Ishida out of the shop. "Has it started?" Yoruichi asked in the deep voice of her cat form as she slowly walked into the room.
Urahara narrowed his eyes and replied, "I don't know. I think this might be the root of our problem rather than the fruit…" he said softly.
Yoruichi jumped up onto the table and turned around to face Urahara. "What are you going to do?"
Urahara turned and walked further back into the house. "Nothing, for now," he said and disappeared into one of the house's many rooms.
XXX
Rukia had been running towards where she had sensed her childhood friend's reiatsu suddenly spike. In an instant, Renji's spirit pressure suddenly disappeared. Rukia stopped for only a split second and then switched to Shunpo, flashing across the town towards where she had just sensed her friend. "Renji…" she spoke softly, praying that he was still alive.
She reached an alley in the run down part of town just as a blast of wind rushed out of it. She was sure that a second before she had arrived, there was a sense of some strange spirit energy that had been incredibly powerful of which she didn't know the nature.
All thought of that, though, was quickly washed from her mind. "Renji!" she cried out as she ran to the back of the alley. Renji was lying crumpled face down on the ground, unmoving. His Gigai appeared to have been torn to shreds and was leaning against the back wall, blank eyes staring straight ahead. "Renji," she said again, dropping to her knees beside Renji's spirit body. His Zanpakuto was lying on the ground beside him.
Rukia slowly turned Renji over. There was a deep, bloody gash across his chest and what appeared to be claw marks all around it, shredding both skin and fabric to ribbons. "Renji!" she cried again, as she placed her hand over her friend's chest and tried to settle her emotions enough to use what little healing Kido she knew.
She didn't even realize that she had begun to shed tears when she heard a slight gasp from the end of the alley. Looking up, she saw Inoue standing there, hand covering her mouth, looking at the scene.
"Inoue!" Rukia cried. "It's Renji! Please, help me!"
Inoue quickly shook off her shock and ran down the alley, throwing her healing field ahead of her and covering both Rukia and Renji with it. Rukia never stopped her own healing, but she could see the wounds beginning to close now that Inoue was using her own techniques.
"Renji," Rukia called to her friend. "Come on, Renji… come back to me."
All the while, Rukia never felt a flicker of Renji's reiatsu. He was still breathing, albeit shallowly. He still had a weak pulse. But there wasn't a bit of spirit pressure coming from him. "Renji…" Rukia said in a near whisper.
Suddenly Ichigo and Ishida appeared behind Inoue. "Renji!" Ichigo exclaimed upon catching sight of the wounded Shinigami.
"Ichigo…" Rukia said, looking up at him with slightly teary eyes. "I… I don't know what happened. I… I found him… like this."
Ichigo stared back at Rukia, feeling as if he had just failed her. He was supposed to be the one to protect them, and now Renji had been hurt.
"Inoue-san…" Ishida said softly. "How is he?"
"I… I don't know," Inoue replied, still concentrating on her healing. "I can heal his wounds, but… but I can't sense him… I'm not sure what's going on."
Chad came running up from around the corner at that time with the armor already covering his right arm. He couldn't run quite as fast as Ichigo with his Shunpo and Ishida with his Hirenkyaku. "What happened?" he asked as he saw the scene at the end of the alley.
"We don't know," Ishida said. "I suggest we get Abarai back to the shop quickly. Maybe Urahara-san or Tessai-san will be able to do something for him."
Ichigo watched as Rukia tried to bite back a sob when she looked back at her injured friend. "I'll take him," Ichigo said, stepping forward and lifting the wounded Shinigami from Rukia's arms.
"Thank you, Ichigo," she whispered to him.
They exchanged a pained look before Ichigo turned and then vanished. Rukia sat on the ground as if in a trance. "Kuchiki-san…?" Inoue said softly to her. "We should go too."
Rukia nodded numbly and stood up slowly. Her foot brushed against something on the ground, causing a slight clatter sound. She looked down and saw Renji's Zanpakuto. Slowly, Rukia bent over and picked the blade up and held it in front of her.
"Zabimaru…" she said softly. "I don't sense Zabimaru anymore either…" She turned to face the other three and asked in a distant voice, "What is going on?"
A/N: ok, yeah, I might have a crush on Urahara… so sue me