Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and it's characters and hence am completely going to ignore current canon.

Note: So I was supposed to upload it about two days ago but couldn't find a suitable chapter title. Also post-chapter notes - I wanted to write something substantial in those so. This chapter is easily a 4000 word vomited piece that I still think needs to be heavily edited, but can't find anything useless enough to cut out. Everything I've written has a reason to be there, something akin to mild foreshadowing for the next chapters. But if you find anything unnecessary, please leave it in the reviews. Still don't have a beta though (it would be nice if its someone who's read the previous version of the story).

Also is that really how Kubo is gonna leave Bleach? This Arc has more plot-holes than Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. And trust me when I tell you, that shit was a minefield of bad writing.

Word Count: 4001(?)

Keigo didn't realise it was dawn until Mizuho banged loudly on his door with an irritable shout.

"Wake up knucklehead. It's time for school!"

The boy was still hunched on his desk, pen scribbling furiously in his journal as he startled back to reality. He groaned, stretched back, wincing at the crick in his neck and rolled his shoulders. He glanced at the clock and was surprised to see he had half hour to leave for school.

Turning to the sleeping figure on his bed, Keigo bit his lip, wondering how he was going to execute his plan with minimal damage. He'd have to lock the windows and the door to his room first, to ensure no one entered or left it under any circumstances. Keigo couldn't afford to screw up on his first day of hollow-sitting.

He looked back at his notebook, of which he had filled several pages in just three hours, with checklists and loop-holed contingencies, items to be bought, lies to be said – the whole shebang. It gave him a sense of direction, writing things down. It made things concrete, real – a reminder that he will have to face his problems within a time limit. He went through it again, remembering what he had to do today and got ready.

He entered the living room after his shower, dressed in his uniform and dried his hair messily. His sister was already packing their lunches and Keigo felt a pang of fondness run through him at their domesticity. Sure, she was annoying as all hell when she constantly demanded errands from him at unreasonable hours, but she was the only one in his life who never disappointed him, never intentionally hurt him and when push came to shove, always had his back.

He wouldn't know what he'd do without her.

Keigo faltered at the dining table – his breakfast already plated for him – and desperately hoped she wouldn't be too mad when he told her the truth.

That was the first step in his POA. Keigo knew the poison the that flowed with secrets kept hidden from people you cared about. He wasn't willing to drive a wedge between his family and himself for a secret that wasn't his own to begin with. It took a lot of contemplation, but Keigo decided to come out with the whole truth, all of it. Mizuho will definitely give him hell for it, probably would beat him up, certainly won't talk to him after this, but she'll help nevertheless.

It was something he learned over the months in Tokyo: family always had your back, even if you were wrong.

Besides, hiding this from her won't make the danger go away. Deep down, the teenager knew that eventually he might be caught, hurt, killed even. He knew – from both experience and countless TV shows – the desperation of winning a war, the lengths people would go for it. Threatening his family would certainly be one of them. It was better to have all the resources on board instead of going half-cocked. Such were the consequences of harbouring beautiful, supernatural criminals in his bedroom.

He should totally give himself a pat on the back for his maturity.

Well done, Keigo.

Mizuho snapped her fingers in his face and he jumped, realizing that he was still standing. Keigo hurriedly sat and began eating to avoid her gaze. Mizuho's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

The silence was always overbearing with her, and Keigo wanted to just blurt everything out, but he's done that before and it only resulted in bodily harm. On him.

Just as he was about to say something — anything, really — Mizuho spoke up.

"What did you do?"

Keigo choked on his juice. "What?" he sputtered, looking like a deer caught in headlines.

Mizuho straightened, looking confident as ever as she barreled on, "You haven't said a word this morning, you haven't complained about coffee, you didn't even notice that I gave you pineapple juice! Which you hate," Keigo shrunk guiltily. His sister should be in the freaking MI6 or something. "Your shoulders are hunched, and not the 'Oshima beat me up' kind, even though I know he doesn't do that anymore. It's the one I saw last year, when you woke up from a night terror – which you didn't tell me happened to you a lot – so spill. What did you do?"

Keigo wanted the ground to open up and swallow him. He also wanted to bang his head on the table until either one broke, but he knew both those options were counterproductive to his plan. Instead he hung his head and whined loudly in defeat.

"How d'you do that?" he moaned and Mizuho furiously pointed a finger at him, eyes glinting.

"Ha! So something is wrong," She sounded smug. Keigo allowed her the moment of victory since he knew that smile would be wiped off her face by the end of the day. He sighed.

"It's—" he cleared his throat, "I—I wouldn't say wrong per say. Just… an inconvenience that occurred… overnight." She waited for an explanation with a raised eyebrow. "Mizuho I—you know I would never let anything happen to you right?" he asked instead, pleading. "Like— I know you find me annoying sometimes—most of the time, but I won't hurt you ever. You know that. Right?"

His sister's expression turned concerned. "What happened Keigo? Are you—" Mizuho placed her hand over his. Only then he realised that they were trembling a little.

Shit. He wasn't supposed to lose control like this. Now she was all worried.

He plastered a reassuring smile on his face, "I'm fine. I'm not—I'm fine. Promise. Just. I have something to tell you. Are you—Can you clear your schedule... for today? After school?" Mizuho looked like she was about to probe further, but decided against it.

"Of course," she nodded.

Keigo smiled gratefully and got up, breakfast left mostly untouched. He'd lost his appetite ever since his new guest arrived. Slinging his bag over his shoulder and popping a piece of toast in his mouth to appease his sister, he bade her good-bye and a promise to bring her favourite soda that she'd asked him for yesterday – all while smiling around his toast – feeling marginally better.

Keigo's second step in his checklist was to not tell his friends about the two shinigami's visit. There was a reason why they came to him and not Tatsuki who, arguably, was closer to Team Ichigo than he. Keigo assumed it was because she'd be the first person to come under suspicion if the Quincies ever found out. He was not going to put his friends' lives in jeopardy, especially after barely escaping Aizen's clutches. Besides, involving them would end up with a lot of suppressed, conflicting feelings surfacing again which, by the looks of the War, was not something anyone needed right now.

"What's up Mr. Asano?" greeted Mizuiro without looking up from his phone. Keigo ignored the jab in favour of patting the other male on the shoulder and sat on his desk.

Keigo was never as hyper-active as he made himself to be, something he made painfully obvious even when he was fifteen. That's not to say that he wasn't occasionally dramatic – the stuff they had all gone through warranted a certain threshold of drama – but everyone was so blinded by their own demons (some even literal) and their own lives, ones that didn't involve him, that he decided save that energy to drop the act altogether.

No one noticed until a few months ago, before Ichigo left, when Keigo asked him whether he missed Rukia. And by then Keigo was too comfortable in his own skin to bring up those walls again. The whole you-get-what-you-see thingamajig was really doing it for him and people simply stopped questioning him after a week. Still, now he had surrounded himself with new, refurbished walls with little to no cracks in them. It came to a point where neither Kojima nor Arisawa could enter anymore, and for now, Keigo preferred it that way. It was certainly going to favour his current 'situation'.

It was definitely a bit unhealthy, but Keigo decided to cross that bridge when he got there.

Tatsuki came in a few minutes later, nodding at him and he greeted her in return. In spite of having assigned chairs (which. They were in their junior year for Christ's sake), Tatsuki had boldly claimed Orihime's previous spot, right behind Keigo, after a month of not hearing from her. Keigo felt a twinge of sympathy for the girl, but didn't say anything for the sake of keeping his limbs intact.

Classes began but the boy hardly paid attention, absently scribbling in his notebook, doing a fantastic job of fake-concentration, but Keigo's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts of all the events that transpired in just a few hours.

It was times like these, where a bustling environment that didn't allow anyone to take notice of him, when he found it most comfortable to think. Apart from the initial paranoia of someone in his class being a fullbring mind-reader, post-Aizen, Keigo allowed his head to go through thoughts and let his imagination run. Not too far though, what with the two most perceptive humans being his friends and all, but enough to consider possibilities of different scenarios. Usually, they revolved around Kurosaki and what they'd do when (if) he got back, whether the shinigami (Visored? Fullbring?) – would be happy to see him, if he'd finally agree to hang out at the classic arcade downtown with Keigo. Those thoughts made days both slightly bearable and equally painful and while Keigo was no masochist, the bittersweet ache in his chest was always welcome. It was a reminder that he could not forget the friends who had soldiered to another goddamned war. Another sacrificial play. God, was this ever going to end?

Aw man, now he was getting maudlin.

Pulling his brain out of the box labelled Panic-Attack-Material, Please Leave Any Common Sense And Sharp Objects Outside, Keigo mulled over his plan instead. He may have been a bit of a debbie downer today, since he almost missed roll call and ignored the feeling of Tatsuki's pen jabbing his nape playfully, so someone from the Psychic Human Squad™ must have noticed, judging by the curious looks Mizuiro was giving him during Math.

That was going to be a problem because while Keigo was a decent actor, even he couldn't pull off the Harbouring A Hostile act without slipping up. And considering how Kojima already noticed, the Neck-Jabber behind him would too. He tensed tighter than a coil.

Today was gonna suck.

By the time it was lunch, Keigo was hyper aware of his surroundings and his nerves were fried. He spent most of break hiding in the library under the guise of reading a 'comic-book' ("If you know what I mean." Keigo winked at Mizuiro). A bout of pacing, an anxiety attack and a handful of raw-bitten nails later, the teenager managed to gain some sense of control. He could do this, he can do this. Logically, all Keigo did was allow a stranger to rest in his house. The consequences of what that would bring wouldn't matter in the big picture. It didn't matter. So he should act like it doesn't matter to him.

Keigo shook himself, breathing in a lungful of bravado and swaggered out of the library to the rooftop. The Muggle Gang was already there, almost done with their lunches when Keigo met them. He bullshitted something about returning overdue books, which; the waggling of Chizuru's eyebrows suggested that she knew exactly what he meant by that.

Keigo would rather not have people assume he is constantly horny, sex-depraved man-child, but it was better to think that instead of the alternative. You know, the one where he's now a part of the Rebel Alliance and might die any moment.

Tatsuki kept shooting him these looks. The ones that said 'We need to talk', but Keigo ignored them in favour of getting harassed by Mahana about that one middle-schooler who has a crush on him.

When lunch ended, the brunet quickly left for their next class, thereby effectively stomping every opportunity for Mizuiro and Tatsuki to talk.

Keigo had already left for home by the time the gang met by the gates of the school when the day ended — as they learned from Reiichi Oshima of all the fucking people.

Tatsuki shot a murderous glare at the blond asshole while Mizuiro just sighed and got back to texting his date of the week.

What happened for the rest of the day, Keigo wouldn't be able to tell you if he tried. After spending 7 hours constantly avoiding his own friends and trying not to scream his frustration at the top of a building, Keigo was exhausted after his somewhat impromptu trip to Urahara's shop.

He recalls reaching home and keeping all his purchases by the front door. He kind of remembers Mizuho finishing her assignment on the computer and then promptly smacking his head because she knew he was hiding something in his room and if he could please "open the fucking door". Then there's a blur somewhere in the middle, around the time he came clean to her. He thinks the first half an hour of his explanation ended with her punching him in the gut and yelling at him. He knows the next two hours were spent in a lot pained sounds and crying. They ended up hugging, so all in all, it didn't go as terribly as he imagined.

Mizuho then insisted on 'seeing' the hollow. Again, a little rusty on the details but according to his sister, Harribel kind of looked like a hologram to her and not a solid, living (or you know, dead) entity. Which was quite impressive, seeing as Keigo was only spiritually heightened because of Ichigo's left-overs, and if Mizuho could latch on to those then, well. No one ever said that Ichigo wasn't an indestructible force of nature, almost a god really. Mizuho also wanted to read Keigo's Journal which, no siree. Instead, the boy collected all scraps of supernatural facts Ishida had given him and compiled it into a separate book for her.

What he does remember though, vividly (he finally caught up to his 5 hours of sleep), is that the next day Mizuho pretended like everything was normal. Keigo would have asked her if she had forgotten the previous evening if it wasn't for her saying she was going shopping after school to buy some clothes for Harribel for when she woke up. Something that simple shouldn't have caused an emotional breakdown stemmed by utter gratefulness, but Keigo found himself being consoled by his sister in the corner of the living room anyway.

Yeah, Keigo remembered the crying all too well.

They had developed a new routine. Planned it with skillful detail in the form of an enormous chart on Keigo's wall, accompanied with a strict timetable written in codes that would make bullet journalers weep. Most of it was simply their regular chores with added hours to research, back-up plans and nursing their new house guest. Overall, it wasn't that hectic a timetable, but by the time Friday rolled by, Keigo and his sister were well and truly exhausted.

The boy had somehow managed to escape confrontation with Tatsuki and Mizuiro the whole week, thankful for small mercies. As Fate would have it (it's been quite a bitch to Keigo these past months, mind you), his luck dried out after school on Friday. Mizuiro decided he'd 'accompany his best friend' home since his latest date was in the same direction. Unable to delay it any longer, Keigo grudgingly accepted, and so here they were, walking side-by-side, Kojima quietly typing on his phone while Keigo tried to keep his internal panic to a minimum.

At fifteen, Keigo hated silences. They often led to him babbling about something that made him sound like an idiot – not to say that he wasn't – but silences then meant people simply didn't want to talk to him. That stung.

Now though, silence meant no sounds of vicious, earth-shattering roars. Silence meant the ground didn't shake suddenly and the air wasn't stifling with… something. Silence meant no hollows and by God did Keigo welcome them.

(Especially after Wednesday's debacle, when a large, ugly hollow happened to appear in an area alarmingly close to Keigo's own home. He was fortunate that Afro-san decided to do his job for once and actually slayed the sonuvabitch before any damage could be done. When the brunet reach home, Harribel was shaking and screaming and the meter by the wall was going absolutely haywire. It was then he decided he needed to somehow access her reiatsu remotely, and turned to Wireless Networks For Beginners. Needless to say Keigo's been in the top 50 in school for quite some time now. Shucks).

Keigo realized he was mumbling code under his breath when Mizuiro paused typing with a "Sorry, what?"

"Nothing!" the boy replied too quickly.

Mizuiro narrowed his eyes.

"You know Keigo," Oh shit, first name first name he used the first name shit, shitshit, "You've been acting pretty out of it lately. Weirder than usual, I mean. Obviously," he smirked looking like the Cheshire cat to Keigo's fragile canary.

"Obviously," Keigo mimicked teasingly, eyes betraying his desperation for a distraction.

It was almost as if The Higher Power was waiting for this specific conversation to cue a loud roar that shook the ground. For dramatic effect, of course.

Because any distraction other than a goddamned hollow would have been welcome.

The duo stumbled, struggling for purchase from the walls of a small building. "The hell was that?" Kojima asked as the atmosphere become considerably heavier. "Another hollow?"

"Maybe!" Keigo called back even though he definitely knew the answer. Was this because of Harribel too? Shit, she's probably convulsing right now, this spirit energy felt too powerful to be a low-ranked hollow. There were so many questions that Keigo couldn't not think about right now if he needed to breathe, shit. The air was too heavy, too much too muchtoomuchtoo—

As quickly as it emerged, the force died down and the air lightened. The reiatsu was gone. Both Keigo and Mizuiro sighed in relief as they balanced themselves on their feet once again. His friend dusted the dirt off his pants and turned to Keigo, "That was…"

"Yeah." Intense was an understatement.

The fact that it disappeared only heightened Keigo's doubts and fears. The hollow could have been slain, but even local shinigami weren't powerful enough to overcome that. The Soul Society apparently still didn't give enough of a fuck about the citizens of Karakura.

Obviously.

"Well, I'm glad it's over." Mizuiro huffed, not looking at the brunet. Denial. Yep, that's what he was going for. Keigo could do denial, even though it kind of pained him to see his best friend (despite their recent differences) struggling to regain his composure from something so fucking triggering. Keigo wanted to wrap him in blankets and feed him Nutella.

Okay, scary situations clearly make Keigo sentimental.

Mizuiro unlocked his phone again, "I'm going to postpone my date, I think." The reiatsu came from the direction of Keigo's home after all.

"You do that."

"You'll be okay?" Mizuiro raised somewhat watery eyes at him and it took all of Keigo's remaining energy to not hug the shit out of his friend.

"Yeah," he settled for, instead.

Mizuiro gave him a tight-lipped smile, "Okay then. Bye."

"Bye…"

The moment Kojima was out of sight, Keigo called his sister. She picked up on the third ring.

"You alright?" was the first thing she asked.

"Yeah I'm… I'm fine." Keigo sighed, "But—I need you to check on Harribel again. There was a monster screaming match close by. Pretty strong one, from what I could tell."

"Fuck. Are you hurt? Where are you? I can—"

"I'm fine! I promise. I just sensed it, nothing more. Please just check on her, I'll be home soon."

"Doing that right now." she paused, "She's fine, meter's normal."

Another sigh relief… but—

"So why would a hollow, a strong one at that, come to Karakura? According to Yumichika, Quincies have basically claimed ownership of hollow land. There should be no reason for any hollow to come here unless Harribel was—uh—having an episode."

He could hear the gears in Mizuho's head turning. Neither said anything for a while. Then,

"Mizuho, I'm about to do something really stupid."

"Keigo, don't you dare—"

"I'll stay on line I swear. I just—"

"—you are not looking for that hollow. You are coming home this instant or I will—"

"—it could be something else! We don't know how Quincies' spirit pressure feel—"

"You said it roared. Pretty sure Quincies don't do that—"

"But the hollow could have just tagged along! This thing had too much reiatsu—"

"All the more reason for you to stay away!"

"I'm doing it." Keigo said resolutely, jogging towards the source. He had learned to hone his acquired Spiritual-Spidey-Senses over time after all. There were traces of hollow by the park.

"Keigo—"

"No listen, this might sound like the worst idea right now, but at least if I investigate, we'll know what's coming for us."

"So you're just going to bait yourself? What's wrong with you?!"

"If it's bad I'll tell you. And you'll have time to run."

"What about Harribel? She's still—"

"Fuck her. You're more important. Okay, I'm at the park. It's pretty strong here." Keigo continued, "The warehouses. The air gets heavy there." He walked with trepidation. The reiatsu was almost overwhelming his senses, not enough for his knees to buckle, but enough to irritate.

What was the thing doing in the warehouses? If it was a hollow, its first target should be a spirit-sensitive human, which Karakura was saturated with, thank you Ichigo. If it was a shinigami then it should have come from Urahara's shop, ideally. If it was a Quincy, well, Keigo wouldn't live long enough to call his sister. There definitely was a roar, why would a hollow stay in an enclosed place?

Unless…

Unless it was hiding.

Shit, why was it hiding? What was scary enough to compel a powerful hollow to take cover?

He voiced his concern over the phone, which Mizuho replied with her own string of swears and urging Keigo to get away.

Keigo's brain finally caught up with his body and he began feeling nervous. Suddenly, his curiosity simmered to a familiar fear he hadn't felt for ten months. His breaths came in short gasps and pants from running too much as his palms turned sweaty. The reiatsu was coming from the warehouse in front of him. "Mizuho?" he called.

"What? What are you seeing?"

"Nothing, I'm outside the warehouse. I'm gonna enter now, and my conscience is telling me I'm screwed."

"Does your conscience, by any chance, have my voice?"

"Worse, my therapist's."

"Lovely."

"I'm going in." he said and opened the warehouse door (unlocked. Well, lock broken, but whatever). This was definitely the source. The remaining rationality his mind preserved berated him for not at least carrying a weapon. Even pepper-spray sounded appealing. Rookie mistake.

He carefully trudged over the broken glass pieces and pieces of metal that littered the floor and walls, trying not to make a sound as he headed towards wherever his senses took him.

After a good fifty meters into the warehouse, Keigo finally saw a human figure on the floor. It looked unconscious.

Keigo sighed in relief; it was a person.

When he approached it though, Keigo gasped.

Said person was lying on his stomach, with his face planted on the floor.

It wasn't the toned, muscled body or the mop of striking blue hair that confounded Keigo.

It was the hole on his abdomen, just above a large, black, tattooed '6' that did.

"Mizuho?" he said shakily.

"Keigo! Is everything—"

"We're so screwed."

A/N:

The previous version of this chapter had a lot more drama and dialogue, mind you. Mizuho and Keigo's relationship in that version was definitely more close to canon Bleach than this one. But since this is Aizen-arc + seventeen months, I've taken artistic license to change the dynamic of their relationship as well. She's still demanding of him, he's still meek, but now its more of a game between them than genuine annoyance. Let's just assume that Mizuho had noticed Keigo's change in behavioural sobriety over the months and - for the sake of normalcy - both decided to keep this back-and-forth snark a part of their relationship. Tatsuki and Mizuirio's characters are the same. Canonically, we've seen Tatsuki trying to force Ichigo to talk to her because he always shuts her out. Here, I haven't used that because this is Keigo, not Ichigo, so naturally she's not as close to Keigo. However, I feel, despite all the character development over seventeen months, Tatsuki will still treat Ichigo the same way.

There will be more Mizuiro I think, because for as long as we remember Keigo and Mizuiro came somewhat as a package deal and I won't neglect that fact.

Also Keigo goes to Urahara? Wha-? What's happening?

Grimmjow in da house. Woo.

Also bleach is ending/ended with the worst arc ever (I kid. Fullbring-Arc was pretty shit. Not to mention 'Shusuke Amagai' from the anime. Ugh) and I am so thankful for my past self to have made this story in the human world 'cause I'm not touching the soul society and its canyon sized plot-holes and cliched tragic backstories with a ten foot pole. I will only pick up some important points from the 1000-year-blood-war Arc, otherwise, this story is officially diverging from canon.

If you have any more questions please leave it in the reviews. Please do R&R, it'll be great feedback!

-SA