[Three Years Ago]
"He's not breaking," Ichigo heard as his eyes fluttered open.
"No. His will is too strong even still," he heard and looked up.
He saw Byakuya and Mayuri beside standing over him. Mayuri's face was adorned with his usual manic grin. Ichigo flinched, pushing away toward the corner of his mat away from them. It was pointless, of course, he was bound.
"Pet, we have some new bracelets for you," Byakuya said, advancing until he reached out and yanked Ichigo's arms forward. "These are special, like your collar," he said, holding it up, displaying the Kuchiki clan seal carved into the silver metal.
Byakuya reached forward and unsnapped the cuffs that Ichigo was currently wearing. They fell to the floor with a heavy clink. Ichigo gasped as his power rushed back for a moment and he heard a vague voice in his head screaming at him to move, to run, quickly, he had to go.
Mayuri quickly replaced them with the new ones, though. Ichigo's world burned hot. He stared as to his horror they began to sink into his flesh, seeming to melt the flesh and muscle underneath it. He tried to yank away but Mayuri had a death grip on his forearms above them, his fingers leaving bright purple bruises in the flesh. It burned, and he started to scream despite himself as the pain started to fire every nerve in his body. His head fell back and his body began to convulse violently. He could still hear, though, even though he had no control over his body.
"Hrm, he may die," Mayuri muttered. Again, his voice was wrong. Ichigo couldn't tell why it was wrong. "But if not, it will short out his nervous system the way we want it to do so. He should stop resisting so much in the next week or two. Make him repeat things to you, over and over, that's how you'll imprint it on him once his brain starts shutting down. He'll become a shell, just the way you want."
Byakuya snorted. "He had to make it difficult. He couldn't just break on his own. Well, this will upset them even more, to see him like this, helpless and nothing but my, rather Byakuya's willing Pet."
Ichigo was fading in and out. Memories were slipping away rapidly. He was trying to hold to them, but he couldn't stop them. It was like lightning lashing through his mind. Yuzu's face flashed but it was gone, who was the girl with light brown hair again? The face was gone too. Then it was his father's face but it was unfamiliar, and a line of faces flashed and disappeared. His body arched painfully, a sharp pain shooting through his head.
"Pet, you are pet, now, Ichigo is gone, pet, only pet," he heard whispered in his ear.
Who was Ichigo? He thought as his brain spun out of control. Everything was crashing into each other and he was shivering as the hot breath on his neck kept whispering, reminding him he was a pet, he was their pet, and he would be their pet forever, he had no name, no name, and if he thought he did for a moment, he'd be punished, severely. He didn't want to be punished. He wanted to be a good pet for his master. The face of Byakuya melded with the word master and there was no other in the world.
"Who are you?" the voice asked softly as his ringing ears finally could hear properly once more.
"Pet, Master's good pet," he whispered, the spark in his eyes gone completely. The fire was gone now, extinguished.
Renji stood at the doorway, a frown creasing his brow. This turn of events was not what he would consider appropriate. Fucking the Shinigami was one thing, but the fire every time, the fighting, scratching and biting no matter how many times he was beaten down, that was what drove the creature under Renji's face. And what he was looking at was not the same thing anymore. He kept watching as the others left, as he lay on the mat, his body twitching every now and again as the cuffs that had imbedded into his wrists sent out a spark of power. Blood was seeping from the edges of them, and from his nose, mouth and ears. The look though, the look of complete emptiness, was unsettling. He couldn't look anymore, and turned to leave.
Behind Renji's face, he watched. He did as he was told, taking the boy when he was told to punish him, but always felt sick afterward when before his dominance gave him a rush over the enemy who deemed to look on him with such looks in his eyes. Now, he left the room, wanting to retch. It wasn't his enemy anymore. He wasn't even sure what that was. It might as well have been his human body, the soul gone.
Still the one that appeared to be Renji watched. "Kill me," he whispered so softly that he almost missed it. "Please…kill me…"
The man behind the mask of Renji Abarai almost complied, but as he was about to squeeze that thin column of flesh hard enough to snap it, he heard the door open and he relented, leaving heavy, black bruising above the ever-present collar. He gasped hard. He was aware at some level. He knew. And somehow, that left the monster above him feel even sicker. He finished his job and stumbled out of the room. They had said he shouldn't remember anything; only what he was trained to remember. But if he was able to summon the thought to request he kill him, that meant that he was still in there. Somewhere, the vibrant fighter that never backed down, was in there, begging to be released, if only in death.
Grimmjow walked past Wonderweiss who stood outside the door waiting for Szayel to leave. He almost continued but then he turned back in thought. He turned and put a hand on the small Arrancar's shoulder.
"He's going to die one day."
Wonderweiss had watched him leave with his head tilted to the side. When Szayel left, he went into the room again. To him, of course, the room was one of the typical white colored rooms of Las Noches. Ichigo was chained in a corner and the rest of the room was filled with Szayel's equipment to make sure he didn't die. He went and sat down beside his limp form. Tears were streaming from his eyes again.
"Friend?" he said quietly.
"No friends for Pet," Ichigo's quiet voice responded. "No friends or monsters…"
Wonderweiss sighed and ran a hand over Ichigo's head. "Pet, then," he said. "I'll help you," he said with a different voice than his normal one. "I will help you, when I have enough power," he said. "I can't yet. But I will."
Another three years would pass before Wonderweiss entered the room with his friend. Aizen had been angry about something, and had abused him terribly with Ulquiorra and Nnoitra. He could still smell the tang of burnt flesh and the copper smell of blood. He reached up and unlocked the collar and put it down beside the chains as he quickly unhooked them. He sighed and saw that they had put a dark blanket over him. The small Arrancar nodded to himself as he rolled Ichigo's slack body into the blanket, and picked him up carefully. He was light, and he smiled to himself. He would help his Pet friend.
Grimmjow saw Wonderweiss walk past the gates and out into the sands with the bundle. He was curious but part of him knew already what he was doing. He smiled. The explosion from Aizen would be huge. He snorted. He'd rather not be around for that. He got up and wandered outside Las Noches himself, flicking his own garganta open to the World of the Living and stepping through.
After some time looking for the Woman he instead followed the reiatsu that matched Ichigo's father. He had only sensed it briefly, but it was easy enough to detect. They were distracted when he entered the house through the window and waited while they debated things. He swore every one of these people was an idiot…
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Kon gripped Aiko and Seras's hands tighter as they followed Renji and Rukia through the Dangai. They had stopped quickly at Urahara's to leave their Gigai, and Kon had taken a few moments to explain a little about what had been happening. Isshin followed behind them as they moved quickly through it. They exited and Renji and Rukia led them to the fourth division.
Isshin led them into the waiting area where Orihime, Chad, and Uryū waited. They all stood when the group entered.
"Kurosaki-san," Uryū said and nodded.
"Anything more than what Rukia and Renji know?" Isshin asked and realized that all the others were staring at Kon and his companions. "Oh, I'm sorry, um, Seras and Aiko, correct?" Isshin said looking toward them.
Kon nodded. "Yeah, um, this is Uryū Ishida, Chad, or Yasudora Sado, and Orihime Inoue. This is Aiko and Seras Sato. Um, they're…ah…." Kon blushed and wasn't sure how to explain it. "My…significant others…" he settled on as the two of them grabbed his hands.
Orihime blinked. "Like…both?" she asked, a blush rising to her own cheeks.
"Yeah," Seras said and leaned up and kissed Kon's cheek. "We met him about three years ago, and we couldn't help it. He won't come live with us, but I think I understand why now," she said with a gentle smile.
"Well, I can't…you know…just commit with a body that isn't mine," Kon muttered and looked away.
Uryū smiled, though. "Kon, you know that Ichigo would want you to be happy, even if it is in his human body."
"But he's alive, so now…I won't have a body anymore, and I'll be stuck in that stupid stuffed lion," Kon muttered.
"I would keep you close if you were a stuffed lion, Kon," Aiko said and put an arm around his shoulders. "It doesn't matter what body you are in, we'll still love you. The body is nice, but not why we love you."
"I'm sure we can arrange a new body for you, Kon," Urahara said as he came into the room. "Come speak with me and I'll see about making a Gigai appropriate for you. If you wish, of course," he said with a smile.
"Yes! Anything but that stuffed lion!" Kon said, eyes going wide. "I'm kinda used to this one, but…"
"Maybe we can make it look almost, but not quite the same, so you don't feel like a copy of Ichigo," Urahara said and glanced around at them.
Kon nodded and glanced between Aiko and Seras. "Can…can I see him?"
"I'd rather only a few at a time, so why don't you and Isshin come with me, so we can start easy on him. Yoruichi, Shinji, and I tried earlier, but the results were…mixed."
Urahara led them down the hall and stopped. "Um, Unohana-taichou, why is the Arrancar in the room with Ichigo?"
Unohana came out, looking confused and realized that Wonderweiss was lying in the bed with Ichigo, holding Ichigo's head against his chest. "Uh, he's supposed to be in a secure room…"
Wonderweiss looked up at them. "Pet friends?" he asked as he sat up. Ichigo stirred beside him.
Urahara gave a shrug. "He did breech the Dangai and get him here alone, maybe he has some sort of powers we don't know of. No matter."
"Wonderweiss, right?" Urahara asked as he brought Kon and Isshin into the room.
He nodded. "Pet?" he said, frowning as he stared at Kon. "Not Pet. But Pet?"
"Kon is a soul, inside Ichigo's human body," Urahara said.
Wonderweiss nodded and slipped off the bed to sit in the chair nearby. "Watch Pet Friends."
Urahara nodded and moved forward to speak to Ichigo. "Ichigo?" he asked.
Ichigo had been disturbed by Wonderweiss moving, so he looked up at Urahara. Of course, his proximity was close, so Ichigo once again went scrambling off the bed toward the back of the room. Urahara sighed, but watched as Wonderweiss went after him, sitting down beside him.
"Shush, Pet," he whispered and put his arm around Ichigo's shoulders as he stared at the three people in the room.
Isshin came forward slowly and knelt. "Ichigo?" he asked.
"No!" Ichigo said, frowning. "No, no, no, no. No! Gone, that gone, can't…Pet, master pet, monster…" he muttered, shaking his head.
Beside him, Wonderweiss stroked a hand over his head and hushed him again.
"Son, it's your father. Remember?" Isshin tried, eyes starting to mist already.
"No, no," he muttered and put his hands over his head. "Not real, no," he said as he squeezed his eyes shut.
Isshin stood up and left quickly, passing the others to get outside. Kon moved forward, kneeling in his jeans and the plain t-shirt.
"It…It's Kon," he said. "Remember? I'm in your human body, I came to see you, so you can…"
Ichigo looked up, eyes locking on his own and he reached out immediately and shoved Kon backward.
"No!" he screamed this time, much louder than before.
Kon fell back and stared as he covered his head with his arms and began rocking back and forth. He looked up to see both Aiko and Seras standing in the doorway. Kon scrambled to his feet and walked out past them with his head down. The couple turned and followed him out. Urahara stood with his arms crossed, and glanced at the other three.
"He's already agitated, so the rest of you, we can see if we can get anything out of him."
Orihime twisted her hands together as she looked at him. "Should I try…"
"Don't try anything yet, Orihime-san," Urahara said with a shake of his head. "We really don't know how deeply the effects go, and we're not sure exactly how much is physical damage, how much is soul damage, and how much psychological. I'm beginning to see there is a lot of all three."
He motioned them forward but stopped outside the door. "Whatever you do, please, do not try and touch him. It seems the Arrancar is the only one so far that doesn't trigger panic. People he doesn't know, like the healers, he'll tolerate them to a degree, but not to actually touch him."
The three exchanged looks. Urahara focused on Orihime. "Please, I know you'll want to hug him, but don't, really. It won't be a favorable encounter for either of you. You saw how he reacted to just talking to Kon and Kurosaki-san. The amount of abuse he's gone through…I honestly can't say if he'll ever stand anyone touching him again. Anything that requires Unohana to come into physical contact with him is requiring a sleeping kido to be applied to him."
All three nodded, worried beyond all else about what they were walking into. They followed Urahara into the dim room. The Arrancar sat against the back wall with his arm around Ichigo's shoulders. He was sitting with his arms over his head and making a strange keening sound as he rocked.
"Ichigo? I brought friends to see you again," Urahara said.
The lights were dimmed, and they could see his back was to them, orange hair wild and much longer than it had been, in fact it nearly reached down to the middle of his back and stuck out everywhere in a dingy flat color. It was still matted and dirty. He didn't move. Urahara moved forward. "Ichigo, I brought Uryū-san…Chado-san…and Orihime-san to see you."
There was still no response. Urahara sighed and looked at the Arrancar. Wonderweiss shook Ichigo's shoulders. "Pet friends," Wonderweiss said softly.
Ichigo's head popped up and he looked around. "Master come see pet?" he gasped, and not seeing him, focused at the three new people in the room.
Urahara kneeled before him. "I'm sorry, Ichigo, some more of your friends are here."
Ichigo looked up at them and shook his head. "No friends, no friends for Pet, Master says."
"Ichigo, you have friends, remember?" Urahara said gently.
Ichigo pulled his knees to his chest even tighter. "Master punish Pet for friends, no," he said, looking around again.
"Ichigo, we're going to see if you can remember them, okay? Like earlier? Can you do that?" Urahara said softly.
The frightened shinigami shook his head, and started slapping his head. "No, no memory, gone, all gone. Master said no memory."
Urahara wanted to reach out and grab his hand but knew better. He didn't want him to hurt himself. Wonderweiss however reached up and pulled his hands down. Ichigo didn't even look at him as he did it, Urahara realized.
"We're going to try anyway."
He motioned the others over who were very still and shocked. "One at a time, okay?"
Inoue kneeled first staring at him, her eyes brimming already. She started to reach out, but Ichigo flinched away violently, slamming the back of his head to the wall. She drew back her hand as though it had been burned. "Kurosaki-kun?" she whispered.
He looked up and stared at her, his eyes wide and flickering back and forth over her. "Please, Kurosaki-kun, you remember me?" He was still, though, putting a hand to his neck unconsciously, feeling for the collar that should have been there.
"In-in…" he stammered then started hitting his head again, rocking again. "No, no, bad name, no bad name, punish pet, bad name…bad pet."
Urahara looked at Orihime then waved Uryū forward. Uryū couldn't believe his eyes. Ichigo was thin and drawn, starved it seemed, and bruises covered every inch of exposed flesh or cuts and scars. Uryū frowned as he saw Ichigo drumming his fingers across his knees. Wonderweiss was watching him closely with those haunting purple eyes. For some reason he seemed to focus intensely on Uryū.
"Good grief, Urahara-san, how many times have his hands been broken?" Uryū whispered, seeing how oddly all of his fingers sat.
Urahara sighed. "We're not sure. But every bone in his hands has been broken at least twice. In fact, I'm not sure there's a bone on him that hasn't been fractured, but I haven't gone over the bone scans in detail yet. We do know he's missing two of his lower ribs, one from each side."
Uryū looked at Urahara in earnest shock. "Missing?" he whispered in abject horror. He shook his head and looked at Ichigo. "Ichigo? Do you know me? It's Uryū…"
As soon as Uryū spoke his name Wonderweiss smiled at him. "Uryū friend!"
Uryū arched a brow and shoved his glasses up his nose and stared at the blank look in Ichigo's eyes. Ichigo's eyes flickered and then he stared at the raven-haired friend, frowning. He then reached out a shaking hand and touched Uryū's sleeve where his hand rested over his knee. Ichigo's fingers brushed at Uryū's wrist for a second and made the Quincy cross fall out and dangle. Ichigo stared at it, head tilted, and for a second, Ishida swore a flicker of recognition crossed his face, then he snapped his hand back and chewed on the nail.
"No, no, bad name, bad pet."
Uryū stood and moved back, allowing Chad to kneel, Chad who was one of Ichigo's oldest friends. Chad unhooked the coin around his neck and held it out to Ichigo. Ichigo reached forward tentatively and looked at it, fingers hovering over it until he touched it. "Ch-ch…" he whispered staring at it then again snapped his hand back like he was burned. "No, bad pet, bad name, bad pet, punish pet…"
He covered his head and rocked back and forth. "Please Master, please Master…"
Urahara sighed. He stared at the Arrancar who just seemed to be watching Uryū intently and then spoke to Ichigo. "Ichigo, what does master do to you?"
He looked up and blinked slowly. "Master punish pet. Master teach pet. Master love pet."
"Ichigo, what do those things mean?" he continued, finding this one of the more lucid times.
Despite the three who were behind him, he couldn't let the chance to receive information. They needed the information in order to know how to treat him. As it was, they were blindly treating his physical symptoms, but doing nothing for what was happening to his mind.
"Master teach," he said and pointed to a large bruise on his arm. "Others teach pet to be good pet. Teach Pet. Good Pet."
Urahara nodded. "So, he would hurt you when he did this? He hit you?"
He shook his head. "Master teach!"
"And what else, Ichigo?" he asked quietly.
"Master punish bad pet," he said softly. "Other punish bad pet. Bad pet. Monster."
Urahara frowned. "If this," he said, pointing to the bruising on his arm he'd gestured to. "This is teaching, what his punishing?"
Ichigo frowned and lifted the yukata, causing Orihime to turn away from his nakedness. He ran his fingers of the burn marks and the places where the skin had been flayed away. He looked up at Urahara and nodded. "Punish bad pet."
Urahara nodded. "You said he loved you?"
Ichigo nodded. "Master love pet. Bad pet love punish. Good pet love not punish."
Even Uryū understood that statement and turned away to hide the grimace on his face. Urahara nodded. "How?"
Wonderweiss looked at Urahara directly then. "He made him hurt."
Urahara blinked and looked at him. The Arrancar's voice even had changed from when he was speaking monosyllabically. "What?"
"He used things. And told him he loved him. Told him that his love was special. But if he was bad he made his love hurt him so much. His love was not love," Wonderweiss said sadly, brushing a hand over Ichigo's head. "Pet friend doesn't understand."
Urahara bit his lip. "You were there for a lot of it."
"Pet friend," Wonderweiss said, his voice returning to the strange sound.
Suddenly, Ichigo's fingers began to dig at his throat. He was looking around desperately. "Is master mad? Master mad. Pet collar gone. Master punish pet," he whispered, looking for his master.
"Ichigo, please, you have no master, you're safe now," Urahara said with an exasperated sigh. "We're all your friends."
Ichigo stared at him for a long moment. "No! No friends for pet, no friends for monsters, monsters are dirty, monsters disgusting, monsters used, trash," he whispered, beginning to rock back and forth. "Master said monsters need punished."
"Ichigo, you aren't a monster," Orihime said softly. "You never have been."
He looked at them, shaking his head violently, as if trying to dislodge the thought. "No, can't…can't…hurts to try, hurts to try…can't think…"
Urahara stood up. "Okay, Ichigo, that's enough for now. Will you let me get you into bed? I'll have to touch you to do it."
He looked up with wide eyes and thought about it, then shook his head. Wonderweiss, though, stood up with him. Ichigo stood with a somewhat surprised look, but did so without resistance. Ichigo's knees nearly bucked under him as the covers slipped down. He'd been dressed in loose shorts and a loose shirt, but the shorts rode low on his hips, and there was an audible gasp from Orihime as her eyes fell on the still deep purple bruises on his hip, large finger marks in the flesh blossoming out. When he'd lifted the cover earlier, she hadn't looked long enough to see them, none of them had. He wobbled slightly as Wonderweiss led him to the bed. He sat down and Wonderweiss gently pushed his shoulder to let him lay flat. Ichigo stared at the ceiling, then rolled over, curling up on himself, pulling his knees to his chest and clutching the pillow. Wonderweiss knelt beside the bed and rested his chin by Ichigo's face.
"How did he live through this?" Ishida said, his eyes on his back now, striped with various degrees of healing bandages, some coming loose, others soaked through already. The bruising on his lower back was even more apparent in that position, extending up from the band of the shorts he was wearing. Ishida stared at his legs, chewing his lip as he could see the distinct striping of healed burns better now.
Urahara reached over and dropped the cover over him, and Ichigo grabbed it and pulled it tight. He resisted the urge to touch his head, only swallowing and walking out, the others following him to be met by Unohana on the outside of the room.
"You did well, Urahara-san. Each bit of information is helpful, and I don't know what will be left once we get the cuffs off," she said. "I'm sure now we can remove them, but I'm not sure what will be left when we do."
Uryū glanced back where Wonderweiss was stroking his head. "We should find out who Ichigo thinks hurt him in Soul Society so we can figure out who can help him."
Without another word he went back in the room and looked at Wonderweiss. "We need to know who he thinks hurt him."
Wonderweiss looked up and shook his head. "Faces?"
Uryū nodded and came out. "Is there something with the captains and lieutenants photos on it? Maybe the Arrancar can point out those we need to keep away from Ichigo."
Urahara nodded. "That's good thinking, Uryū-san."
A few minutes later, Uryū took a folder into the room where Wonderweiss had left Ichigo sleeping on the bed and sat down on the floor beside him. He was watching the door as though guarding him, he realized.
"Okay, can you point to the ones that Ichigo will be scared of? I'm not even going to ask how you know this…" Uryū said.
"I saw," Wonderweiss said with a smile. "Through Pet Friend's eyes."
He pointed to Unohana. "Drugs." Then he pointed to Ukitake. "Needles." Next he pointed to Kyōraku. "Water." His fingers hovered and he pointed to Zaraki. "Love and pain." Uryū flinched a bit. He stopped on Kurotsuchi. "Heal and pokes." He pointed to Byakuya. "Master." He looked around then stopped on Ōmaeda. "Hammer crunch." He wiggled his fingers for emphasis and then pointed to Soi Fon and made a face and crossed his legs. "Pain," he muttered and rubbed between his legs for a second. Uryū winced. He touched Ikkaku. "Cuts and dripping drinks." His finger slid to Yumichika. "Peeling." He touched Renji. "Love and pain. And burns," he said as he touched Rukia's picture. He looked up, then touched Toshiro. "One visit, no more."
Uryū felt a bit ill as he stood up and went out and spoke with Unohana. She sighed. "As difficult as this is, there is some good. We can get those that he wasn't tormented with to help us."
She summoned Isane. "Can you retrieve Komamura-taichou, Hisagi-fukutaichou, and Kira-fukutaichou? Just on the off chance we need someone of lieutenant or higher to help with him. Even with his reiatsu sealed…we can't be too safe with him."
Isane nodded. "Of course, Taichou." Unohana excused herself to continue working on some possible solutions.
Just as she left, they saw Byakuya coming toward them. Despite the stoic expression, all present could feel he was furious. "What have we found out, Urahara-san?"
Urahara sighed. "I think I've deciphered what some of the things he's saying might mean. He keeps saying that he was taught, punished, and loved. He shows us bruising when he says teaching, and he shows us the things like his burns and where the skin has been stripped off his body as punishments. I would guess that when he was trained to do and say things they wanted, he was beaten. When he transgressed, the more intense things were done. We've determined who he perceived as his tormenters, thanks to that Arrancar and Uryū's idea to ask him. Hey says that he was 'love punished' for being bad, and 'love not punished' when he wasn't bad. The Arrancar indicated that he was violently assaulted often, and also that he suffered genital torture as well," Urahara said with a sigh. "I am certain that what he thinks of as 'love' has to do with sexual tortures."
Byakuya bit his lip, and nodded. "So when he says that…" he tapered off, not even able to continue the thought. "How often did this occur, has Unohana determined the extent?"
Urahara sighed. "She estimates daily, perhaps more, due to the amount of current and healed damage. The amount of internal scarring is pretty severe. They healed him, but apparently didn't care if scars were left behind."
Urahara noticed the clenched fists at the side of Byakuya. "He used my face to do that to him. Me."
If it weren't such a serious situation, Urahara might have snickered because the image of Byakuya as a wild tempered young man flashed through his mind. "He did, and I don't know how we're going to get him to see you in any other way. Your image, your voice, is melded so deeply with his concept of his Master that it may never be possible to convince him any different."
"Master?" came a soft voice from the doorway down the hallway. Byakuya looked up to see Ichigo standing in the doorway, staring at him wide eyed. Wonderweiss was obviously trying to get him to stay in the room, hands on his shoulders and muttering at him.
Urahara groaned under his breath. He'd been asleep, he was sure of it, before he'd even covered him with the sheets. Ichigo ran toward Byakuya and dropped to his knees. He was gasping at the legs of his hakama and burying his face into the fabric.
"Master mad at pet!" he cried out. "Punish pet, bad pet, master!"
Byakuya gulped, feeling the hands gripping his legs through the hakama. "Ichigo, please, stop!" he said, perhaps too loudly, because then Ichigo looked up, eyes wide and full of tears. "Master mad! Pet love Master, Master happy." he gasped and dropped his eyes but began to press more into Byakuya's legs, hands reaching up and groping through his hakama, grasping his crotch.
Byakuya's eyes couldn't have widened any more as he pushed Ichigo back, blinking. "What are you doing?"
"Love Master, master mad…" he said, looking up confused, hands tangled in the fabric of Byakuya's hakama near the waist.
Urahara kneeled and took Ichigo's hand. "Ichigo, Byakuya does not want to do that to you anymore."
Ichigo looked like he was about to hyperventilate. "But…but…Master doesn't want pet! Pet bad, master leave Pet!"
Urahara grabbed a healer walking by. "Bring me Unohana-Taichou, quickly!" He couldn't use the kido himself because he was trying to keep Ichigo from bolting.
Wonderweiss had come out and took Ichigo's hand from Urahara. He was trying to calm the gasping and panicking boy, but to no avail as Ichigo cried out and beat his hands on his head. Unohana came out and blinked at the scene and frowned toward Byakuya but noticing the horrified look on his face, she opted to not give him the stare of death she was well known for. She knelt and pressed a hand to his head. Ichigo was too panicked to realize he was being touched before the kido washed over him and slumped into Wonderweiss's arms. To their surprise, the Arrancar picked him up and took him back to the room, this time shutting the door behind them.
"If we don't do something soon, there's going to be no saving him," Urahara said as he watched them go, sighing.
There was silent agreement. Unohana looked at him seriously. "Have you and Kurotsuchi-Taichou come up with anything for the cuffs other than my idea to sever his arms at the elbow?"
"We may have. But to do it we're going to have to put him into a death state, which is in itself risky if we can't revive him. Removing them while he's 'alive' will rip apart the entire nervous system. But it feeds on his energy, so if he is technically 'dead', they will no longer be active, and I should be able to extract them. But we must do it quickly. I'd like to have Orihime-san on hand to heal his arms once I take them off. Then we'll need to assess how much organic brain damage there has been. I'm hoping though that once his inner hollow can become active, he may be of some assistance healing it. He has instant regeneration from what Shinji has said," Urahara said softly.
Unohana nods. "But won't the cuffs feed off the ambient energy and everyone else's reiatsu?"
He nodded. "They would, but I intend to do this within a dampening field."
"How will I help heal him, if I can't use my powers?" Orihime asked softly, her face still somewhat shocked looking from seeing the incident with Ichigo and Byakuya.
Urahara nodded to her. "You will be outside the field, with your flower fairies ready. The moment I have extracted the cuffs, Kurotsuchi drops the field and you heal the wounds left from them, and bring him back from the brink. I'm hoping that your shield is strong enough to pull this off, but we have no choice now. If he doesn't get some function of his mind back…"
