3. Interlude I – He, Too, Shall Live


The next early morning, Yoruichi left for Karakura Town, as it was the day of Ichigo's trial. That feeling of something going wrong, nothing being guaranteed in spite of the plan they devised, had increased a tenfold since she left. Kisuke had the strangest harrowing feeling there was something they didn't know that would be a deciding factor in the success of the plan. This was just too easy...

Many hours after Yoruichi had left, Kisuke was alerted by yet another device hidden on Ichimaru that was only to activate in the event the man left the house. When he arrived at the infirmary, however, he saw Ururu looking out the window. The bed on which Ichimaru slept bedded wire leads, pads, and the oxygen mask instead of his body. All of the equipment was shut off. He immediately figured Ururu had let him go, and stood idly in the doorway for a minute or so. He remained calm, knowing that, although ditzy, the girl would only do such a thing if she had a legitimate reason. And a legitimate reason she had...

-:Edth:C:-

The girl froze in the hall. Slowly, she turned to her left where the slanted eye watched her from within the room.

Unlike Jinta, who generally avoided the infirmary as if it housed the plague, Ururu Tsumugiya wasn't hesitant to approach Ichimaru. The one thing that frightened her about him, however, was his strange aura. Somehow, though she knew he was a Shinigami, he felt somewhat...off; sometimes, he felt powerful in a distantly familiar way, sometimes, he felt foreign...

...but it was something entirely different to see him moving on his own, especially in what was clearly the motion to leave the infirmary through the window.

Caught red-handed, Ichimaru simply stared back at the girl, standing before the window with his zanpakutō in hand. In the second he had sensed the girl approaching, he decided he could do one of two things before she came into view.

He could cast Hakufuku on her, but it would be unwise to "attack" the girl. He could immobilize her, but that went with the former option. Or...he could just try to..."appeal" to her.

He went with the latter.

"...Ururu," he nearly sang, smiling deeply, "I won't tell if ya don't."

At this, her eyes slightly widened and she nervously grasped at her dress. That could have been a not-so veiled threat. "...Um...I don't—"

"I've got ta go, ya see," he interrupted, glancing out the window, but keeping the girl in his peripheral vision. "Today's the day y'all were plannin' fer Ichigo ta leave Karakura Town, right? Well, that ain't gonna work. The Secret Mobile Corps probably got to 'im already."

The girl's lips parted as she was either about to say something, or, though it was somewhat hard to decipher with her vague expression, in slight surprise. She then glanced away, blinking in thought. "...You want to...help Ichigo...?" she asked carefully.

Instead of answering, he simply grinned. "Y'all didn't plan this very well," he playfully scolded.

She met his unseen gaze once more. At first, she was going to risk it and alert Kisuke, in his lab, or Tessai, somewhere outside. But then she realized...Ichimaru's eye.

To his surprise, she slowly stepped into the room, her posture nervous and he could practically feel her tension, but her gaze was keenly focused on him. As she did, he seemed to take notice of what she was doing in a heartbeat, as his grin was replaced with a smile, which slowly dissolved into a thin line the closer she came.

Soon they were just a few feet apart, and his expression was void as he looked upon her. With a child's curiosity in her voice, head tilted to the side, she softly asked, "May I see your eye, sir?"

But he knew she knew. It wasn't too much of a surprise, when he thought about it; children usually noticed things that the mind of an adult could only realize at the last moment. She wouldn't be too much different, if not better...

Though he would later analyze his action after she spoke, in the moment, he couldn't help himself. A smaller smile, more serene, but no less eerie, spread on his lips.

And his eye completely opened.

-:Edth:C:-

As Kisuke looked out the window, watching a garganta close in the distant sky, he considered this enigma that was Gin Ichimaru. Dangerous; he had indeed threatened Ururu. Uncanny; how in the world did he manage to unhook himself for the second time? And then, of course...

...who would have initially guessed that was the reason why he kept his eyes hidden from the world...?


On the border of Naruki City and Karakura Town, Ichimaru stood on a street pole, eyeing the streets in the far distance. His usual smile was upon his face, eye slanted in the manner that gave him one of his most common nicknames, "fox-face". Shinsō hung from the belt about his waist, and his fingers idly caressed her hilt. He was still wearing in the white yukata Tessai had dressed him in, and wore bloodstained, once-white sandals, the very same sandals he wore when Kisuke found him in the alley...It came as a slight shock that he found them at all...

Today, his thoughts revolved around one young man. To his surprise, he awoke feeling oddly disappointed and conflicted. So much he tried to ignore was facing him head on, just by simply existing. At the thrum under his fingertips, he tilted his head to the side.

"A debt, perhaps?"

The words of his zanpakutō came to the front of his mind. He hummed softly in dismissal, but they lingered.

The thought of owing a debt irked him. Everything he did in his life he had accomplished on his own, through many sacrifices and the loss of many lives. "Help" and "assistance" weren't in his vocabulary, not in that way. Yet how easily did he require that mere child's help that day, the day all he had done was meant to come to fruition? And so this child, this young man, was the subject of his thoughts. In this situation, to eliminate the ties that bound him to another and rid him of this nagging sentiment, he was to resort to a foreign tactic: assistance.

He had gone over the ways he could do such a thing, filtering through his knowledge. Whatever Kisuke and the others had planned for Ichigo was not going to work, not as long as the teen carried his badge; he meant to say something of it the day before, but had fallen asleep before he could remember to do so. Everything they ever said, anything Ichigo ever did, was all overheard by the Gotei. He thought otherwise in the beginning, but bearing in mind the captain who authorized the badge's functionality, Ichimaru was quite sure not even Kisuke fully understood its true nature.

His eye slanted open as he saw another Hollow appear from out of a garganta. Something was indeed amiss. Such a fact wasn't obvious by the over-abundance of Hollows or black flits that were the Onmitsukidō troop about. Even at his distance, the massive reiatsu of Kurosaki Ichigo fluctuated in and permeated the air. With such abnormal fluctuations, his reiatsu was on the brink of waning to nonexistence. It would be a terrible time for him to enter a fight, which would be ideal for whoever was sent to kill him.

With an audible sigh, Ichimaru unsheathed his zanpakutō and disappeared from immediate sight, using shunpō to reappear some distance on the ground, and sped into the fray. He took advantage of the Onmitsukidō troop's distraction with the Hollows to easily slip past them, though if any were in his path, he didn't hesitate using Shinsō to forcibly remove them. He would wait until there were no other witnesses, then appear behind them and cut their jugulars. But he had to be fast, pressuring himself with flash steps to remain out of sight, out of mind...

Just a few miles out from his initial starting place, his chest began to burn, and he ignored it, continuing to breathe from his nose to slightly ease off the pain. He reached out with his senses to the distance ahead, the source of Ichigo's reiatsu, and frowned upon sensing the Gotei 13's 2nd Division Captain Suì-Fēng near him. In the teen's condition, someone nimble with a two-hit deathblow was his perfect adversary. Scoffing softly at the thought, Ichimaru dodged behind a tree, nearly catching the eye of an Onmitsukidō trooper. His back to the trunk, he took this moment to catch his breath, slightly grimacing while the burning in his chest increased. He then disappeared, overexerting himself to use superbly fast shunpō and reappear behind the trooper. The man didn't even have a chance to orient his location before falling to ground, head nearly cleaved off. Reappearing on the ground again, Ichimaru pressed on.

This continued —dodging, weaving, and killing— as he approached Ichigo's location. And as he continued to use shunpō and exert himself, the weaker he became. Soon, he was nearly upon the teen, and the abrupt raise in Ichigo's reiatsu nearly blew him off his feet. He steadied himself, stopping only to reorient his bearing and rest against a tree. Panting, his brow furrowed as he took this into consideration. It felt as if Ichigo had gone into bankai, something unnecessary if the teen were at his normal level of strength. Grimacing, his slanted eye glanced up as an Onmitsukidō trooper spotted him. Quickly, even for one in his condition, he shifted, planting his feet firmly on the ground and thrusting his arm forward as Shinsō shot out to impale the man in the dead-center forehead. As the dark-clad figure fell to the ground, he dashed away, pressing forward.

By the time he arrived at what was left of the verdant and land where the fight was occurring, he could only sense Suì-Fēng. Ichigo was still fighting, but Ichimaru had lost his reiatsu shortly after sensing him use bankai. Fortunately, there were no Onmitsukidō troopers in the area, likely because of Ichigo's high reiatsu and how senseless it would be for anyone not captain-class to fight against him. Practically wheezing from overexertion, Ichimaru held Shinsō limply in his hand and leaned against a tree once more to stabilize. Giving himself a mere second of respite, he took a few more flash steps forward, only to abruptly halt and collapse to his knees. The merciless force of dark reiatsu overwhelmed him, and with a wide eye upon hearing the wailing Hollow cry, realized it belonged to none but Ichigo. With a grimace and a bloody cough, he forced himself to his feet and continued.

Just abruptly as it came, the reiatsu disappeared, causing him to stumble. He could see Suì-Fēng's prone form at his distance and the Arrancar-like being that was inevitably Ichigo if the orange mane was anything to go by alone. Watching Ichigo go still and fall forward, he paused, slightly opening his eye. For a moment, and being unable to sense him making it seem all the more likely, it seemed almost as if the teen had...died. The very possibility was enough to spur him on; he rushed towards the fallen body, and had just the mind to sheath his sword, much as he wanted to run it through the woman, as Suì-Fēng readied the death blow.

He appeared behind her, so close he was practically talking in her ear. "...I wouldn't do that~"

She froze and swiftly spun around, but he nimbly danced out of her sight. That was barely necessary, however, as she collapsed to the ground, pushed to her limit. To keep her there, he quickly raised his reiatsu, focusing it on her, and she once again began to choke from the overpowering pressure. While she struggled, he glanced over Ichigo's body. The teen was bleeding rather heavily, even from his mouth, and the telltale butterfly symbol in the center of his chest indicated where he had been stung.

"Ah..." Frowning, Ichimaru looked down upon Suì-Fēng's shuddering form, moving to stand in front of her. "So ya really tried ta kill 'im after all," he mused aloud.

She couldn't even look up with the tremendous pressure upon her. "Y...you..." she began weakly, her voice barely a whisper, and she tried to move her head, but to no avail.

Seeing her so weak and helpless caused a soft chuckle to escape him. The new Central 46 severely underestimated the teen if they thought he was so helpless she would be enough to defeat him. As she was no longer a threat or of interest, Ichimaru cast Hakufuku, slightly grimacing when the feat stung, before coming to Ichigo's side. "Bye-bye~" he chirped, ignoring her. When she went still behind him, he let off his reiatsu and kneeled beside the teen's body, only to nearly keel over.

Grasping his chest, he grimaced, trembling with pain. Every inch of his body felt alight with a tingling, burning flame, and his vision slightly blurred, but he fought against unconsciousness. He had pushed himself far beyond his limits, today...

"Ichimaru?"

He shook his head. "I'm...fine...Shihōin..." He smiled weakly at Ichigo's unconscious form, Yoruichi's figure appearing by his side. "...We need...ta get 'im home..."

Though she frowned, surprised he was even there, she briefly scanned his shaking frame before looking over the teen's body. He may have carried shallow wounds, sans the stab in his chest, but she saw the fight at a distance, so knew most of Ichigo's wounds were internal. Lips pursed in thought, she observed the three incapacitated bodies around her and shook her head. Suì-Fēng would be all right; her troop was approaching, alerted by her initially fading reiatsu. Ichigo's condition was unknown; he needed to be examined and immediately placed back in his body. Ichimaru, on the other hand...

Before she had the chance to form words, Ichimaru softly chuckled, head lowered and breathing with great effort. "...Well...guess we're...equal, now...Ichigo-kun," he murmured to the unconscious teen in Japanese, as if he could be or might be heard. "Ya killed Aizen...and I saved yer life..." He swayed on his knees, but didn't fall over.

Narrowing her eyes, Yoruichi watched this one-sided conversation with interest. So that's what this was all about. "How did you know...?" she asked, kneeling to lift Ichigo into her arms.

Ichimaru heaved a sigh, grimacing, and slowly stood up. "...Urahara," he responded softly, eye still slanted, but his smile was gone and there was a noticeable sheen from sweat upon his skin. "I meant...ta tell y'all yesterday...but ya gotta get rid of his badge." He ran alongside her with shunpō as they left the area, ignoring his protesting body.

"...Why?" she asked warily, Ichigo slung over her shoulder.

Ichimaru spat out blood, brows furrowed in disgust as he ran. He really was getting tired of tasting his own blood. Normally, such a thing meant he was against a powerful opponent, something rare and honestly quite exciting, but this was a different circumstance entirely. This meant weakness. This meant inability.

Placing his hand over his chest, feeling an attack boiling within him, he glanced at her. "...The Gotei...uses that ta monitor 'im. Whatever plan...ya had...didn't work, right? That's 'cause when y'all...were discussin' what to do...they overheard everythin'," he explained at her question, continuing to speak in a slightly strained tone and murmured voice.

Though looking forward, she stole a few furrowed glances into his direction. That explained why he came in spite of his condition. "...Sounds possible," she acknowledged without a hint of hesitance, as such was true, "but how do you know this?"

This brought back the full-force of his signature smile, eerier than ever with his sickly appearance. "I got my ways o' knowin' things...~"

She made a wry expression, glancing at him once more, and was about to speak when they both suddenly stopped, eyes focused ahead. A Shinigami was approaching their exact location. Ichimaru didn't wait to be told, quickly dashing away whereas she remained impassive. Seconds after he left, the advancing Shinigami spotted the orange amongst the green and appeared before her. Safely at a distance in the branches of a heavily vegetated tree, Ichimaru observed while she began to talk to the older man he immediately recognized to be Isshin. His smile then widened as the teen was taken into his father's arms and warmly embraced before both disappeared from sight.

"...Aw," he murmured, leaning back. The trickle he felt down the side of his mouth was inevitably blood. He finally stopped fighting his body, causing his vision to swim, every muscle in his body to violently spasm, and his head to throb. Struggling for an inhale through his stinging chest, he gasped, "I think...I s-saw...some...th-thin'...r-real...rare..."

Eye rolling back, he fell over, out of the tree into Yoruichi's waiting arms.


She came to, eyes fluttering open the second she regained consciousness. Though her mind was slightly hazy, having trained herself, she immediately observed her surroundings. Upon recognizing her location, however, she merely sighed, causing her silent bystander to grace her with a small smile.

"Welcome back, Fēng-taicho," Unohana Retsu greeted warmly. She stood beside the bed upon which her patient laid in, arms hidden in her bellowing sleeves.

"...Unohana-taicho," Suì-Fēng said, "how long have I been asleep?"

"Only a few days. How do you feel?"

Brows furrowing, she growled, "As if I've slept for too long." Closing her eyes for a moment, composing herself, she then responded, "...Rested. I feel fine, thank you."

Humming in acknowledgement, Unohana watched the young captain beginning to sit upright. "You are completely healed, and have been for some time. What is the last thing you recall?" she asked.

The question froze Suì-Fēng in mid-motion, eyes staring vaguely at the sheets as her mind went back. In her mind's eye, a Hollow creature, much like an Arrancar, bore its haunting reiatsu upon her, soulless white orbs piercing into her being with rage and the desire to kill. She shuddered at the memory, and then frowned as she tried to remember what happened afterwards. The last thing she remembered was...

She looked up at Unohana, continuing to frown. "...The boy...Kurosaki. Is he alive?" she asked, but dreaded the answer.

Wisely keeping a neutral expression on her face with just the hints of sorrow, the healer nodded. "Yes, or so it is believed. However his reiatsu has disappeared and he has not reappeared in his hometown since then," she responded.

The Onmitsukidō commander scowled, looking away. Her mission was a failure, then. How could that have been? She was certain she had the upper hand at that last moment. Closing her eyes, she tried harder to remember...

"Someone else came..."

She quirked a brow at Suzumebachi's words. "Someone? Who?"

"...Someone who should not have been there..."

She inquired more from her zanpakutō, but Suzumebachi went silent. Turning back to Unohana, she opened her eyes. "Someone helped the boy," she said, "though...I don't remember who. It's likely Hakufuku was used."

Nodding, Unohana had figured such. There was a strange reiatsu lingering about the young captain when she was brought into the 4th Division...It was somehow familiar, yet...disturbingly unfamiliar.

Once the 2nd Division captain was up and about, all captains were summoned for a meeting regarding the supposed failed execution of Kurosaki Ichigo. There, discussions of who killed the Onmitsukidō troopers during that time and where Ichigo had gone, as his body was missing, were prevalent. Eventually, after debating the culprits of the killings being any of the many exiles and criminals, it was eventually agreed the Vizards most likely did the deeds, including taking Ichigo away. There were no other orders from the Central 46 but to keep a distant eye on Ichigo's family and friends in case they began to act strangely or give hints to the teen's possible whereabouts.

Also, a certain 12th Division captain was told to keep his curious findings of the Kurosaki children away from the Central 46, at least until their involvement became necessary. Interestingly, he had little qualms about this, except of disappointment that he wouldn't be able to do anything with his new discovery...


The coolness of the oxygen in his mouth registered into Ichimaru's wakening consciousness. The hiss of the respirator and familiar echoic beeps from the monitors came next, followed by a watery resonance he had come to associate with the sound of someone speaking. He remained still, allowing his senses to recover, though somehow his caretaker knew exactly when he regained consciousness.

Slowly, the congestion in his ears cleared, and he could hear his own breathing. He could sense he was once again hooked up to all of his life support, indicating he must have been asleep for a long span of time. He cracked his eye open, vision blurred, and saw the familiar figure sitting beside him in the chair.

"...Urahara..."

There was a heavy sigh before the man responded, "Mr. Ichimaru. I hope you realize you've violated your probation..."

Ichimaru made a soft sound akin to a scoff or curt chuckle. "Is that wha' this's called...?" he slurred in a murmur to himself as his eye closed. They were probably even warier of him than before, not that he minded. "...'Course I do," he acknowledged to Kisuke's statement.

"Why did you do a thing like that? What if you had an attack that left you incapacitated?" Kisuke asked, slowly fanning himself with that damned fan of his.

A lapse of silence ensued as this question took Ichimaru by surprise. He was expecting wary words or something of that nature, not worry. Before answering, he considered the various new reasons why Kisuke was being "nice" to him. "...Then that...would've been it...I guess," he said nonchalantly with just the beginnings of a small shrug. "...Ah...how long've I been out...?"

Not oblivious to the change in topic, the storeowner slightly raised a brow, but said nothing of it. "A few days," he answered.

Figuring such, the albino hummed quietly, somehow still exhausted despite his long slumber.

"Do you want to know how many times you flatlined?"

"Nope."

"...Well...Mr. Kurosaki will live, thanks to your...timely intervention."

Lips quirking by Kisuke's choice of words, he went silent, uninterested in conversation and with nothing else to say, simply content the gnawing, annoying compulsion was over and done with. His caretaker, however, had other ideas.

Kisuke was told of everything that had happened those days ago in Karakura Town, including Yoruichi's deduction that Ichimaru was repaying a debt to Ichigo. Thanks to Ururu, the proposition didn't come as a surprise and Kisuke would have let the entire incident slide were it not for the unnecessary lives taken as a result. An estimate of nine Onmitsukidō troopers were "mysteriously" killed during the time Suì-Fēng was confronting Ichigo, and, despite the obvious suggestion the killing blows were from Hollows, the last troopers to see those killed could only confirm a few were confronting Hollows before they wound up dead. That and, of course, the fact that the troopers weren't devoured.

"Regardless of your reasons for helping him, it was unnecessary to have killed members of the Onmitsukidō. They were no match for you and could have been dealt with without bloodshed," he said, calm and stern. Watching his patient carefully, he then asked, "Why did you kill them?"

His eye slanting opening, Ichimaru glanced at him, indifferent. "They were in the way," he said simply, albeit slowly, as if the question confused him, or he regarded it ridiculous.

Frowning, Kisuke flipped his fan over his mouth and nose. The words were said evenly, almost casually, without the slightest twitch of an eye or the smallest suggestion of any other nonverbal emotion. "...That is your justification?" he asked, careful to keep his voice neutral.

"If by that ya mean 'why'd ya kill 'em an' nobody in the past', I was ordered not to kill nobody in the past, unless I was, o'erwise, o' 'course. Now...I can do what I want..." Ichimaru seemed almost content with this, as if a weight was lifted from his shoulders at the realization he could "do what he wanted". After speaking, he closed his eye and continued to rest, but that was fine. His answers were all Kisuke needed to deduce just where he was, mentally.

His initial simple response proved he wouldn't hesitate to kill and would have absolutely no concern for what the reasons were, if there were any, if he had his own. From his manner about it, killing seemed like such a common thing, done so many times, and was perhaps as natural as breathing. To him, there was absolutely nothing wrong with taking someone's life.

Briefly closing his eyes, Kisuke sighed to himself. The man was just as dangerous as he had figured, and then some, as only after the second response did he realize a saddening and unfortunate fact about Aizen's former accomplice...

"Mr. Ichimaru."

"...Yes...?"

Suddenly, the once calculating expression on Kisuke's face turned darkly serious. "I do not trust you, nor do I tolerate a threat to this household. You might not have noticed, but there is a device around your neck that will serve as your aid, alerting of any impending attacks, as well as a monitor," he explained, lowering his fan. "You are no longer permitted to leave the premises of the house without my or Mr. Tessai's explicit permission, is that understood?"

As he spoke, Ichimaru's closed eye had slowly slanted open, shown by the formerly downward crescent somehow seeming to slightly turn upwards. Just as slowly, his lips spread into a wide, face-splitting smile after Kisuke finished speaking. "Like the hauntin' presence o' Death itself, Urahara," he responded with the familiar playful, mocking inflection in his voice he was so known for.

"Also...I want to perform tests on you."

At this, his smile turned to a grin. "Oh? Ya believe me after all?"

Standing, Kisuke responded, "Yes, to an extent. It is at least obvious that you surpass the typical Shinigami. I'd like to find the answers to this myself." He then turned and wordlessly left the room, leaving his patient suddenly alone and lost in his thoughts.

Smiling, Ichimaru looked to the ceiling. Kisuke wasn't too much different from Aizen, after all. No wonder it was so easy to become used to the man's presence...

This thought swept the smile from his face. He then reached up and felt the smooth surface of a collar-like device around his neck. His hand then lowered to his chest, which throbbed at his touch. Slightly grimacing from the sensation, he closed his eye, sighing quietly as his mind wondered to the same dead-end, foreign and melancholic internal conflict Shinsō said his soul screamed of.

What was to happen now...?

How could he go about his intentions from here...?

And...was this so-called "living" worth it?


A/N: Thank you all for the reviews. I'm glad so many are interested in this story. Your various theories as to what is happening to Ichimaru are...intriguing. A little random personal complaint: the next chapter is driving me up a frigging wall...so it may not be uploaded during the first week of next month...

Interlude chapters, such as this, will consist of story content with long end-chapter commentary and explanations, perhaps until a forum is created for the series. I currently have five interludes in mind, and they will occur every three chapters or so. Don't bother doing the math; you're wrong, regardless...

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First and foremost, you may have noticed the previous chapter greatly differed from the end scenes parallel to it in Lenighma's prequel story, Echough [Remix]. That is because this is version 6 of this story...and that story is a third version created during the time I made version 4 of this fic; that version (4) also contained what is now Echough [Remix]'s Hidden Track. The changes will become even more apparent in the next chapter, but go with the flow. Lenighma intends to make another (yes, another) version of both Echo and Echough to make amends to this. They will be considered "special editions", even though calling an "album" of songs a "remix" doesn't make sense (Echo and Echough)...

I've also come to notice I have a wretched habit of using the word "as" too damn much...

When in England, Ichimaru and the others clearly speak English, however, the scene in Karakura Town between Ichimaru and Yoruichi was in English as well. The conversation(s) with Ichigo are, obviously, in Japanese, and unless stated otherwise, so will all conversation with him and those in Japan; Japanese honorifics will be used as an indicator. Names of attacks, locations, etc. from the original source will or might switch between English and their original language(s) in general narration; depends on how I want to emphasize it. Names of people, weapons and zanpakutō will remain in their original language(s) unless used as an explanation (e.g. Ichigo explaining that Shirōgetsu and Zangetsu are his "White Moon" and "Cutting Moon")...

Ichimaru was taken under Aizen's wing at, what, ten years old in human ages? Probably even younger than that. Genius he may have been, Ichimaru was still a child raised by a twisted, devious man. There is no way in hell something in his mind was not messed up from that, and it's crucial to take account of his ownindividual self as well. Remember, even before meeting Aizen, he was obviously willing to a) kill people without a shred of hesitance, b) betray his entire world, doing God knows what he's done by doing so, and, to sum it up, c) just about sell his soul to the Devil for his own personal aims, all at the drop of a hat. His goal may have been innocent, honorable, even, but...must I go on about this? In his own right, in this fic, he's a twisted bastard more than slightly off-kilter and even he doesn't know how badly so. Thus, take note of his personality and mannerisms throughout the story...It may be a little more than disturbing at times...And, yes, that is a warning for future content.

Smart readers know what is in his chest, as it may be a little more than obvious, and the reason I haven't used its real name yet is because...I haven't. You may have also noticed I haven't explained what color his eyes are, though continue to use intense, unsettling adjectivesand heavy emphasis to describe them, i.e. uncanny, "those eyes". There is a legitimate reason for this. As for Shinsō...Ah, dear Shinsō. The very moment I thought of what his zanpakutō would appear as, I thought of two things, aside from female. One was this form; the other was a white female nāga (in this instance called nāgini). I'm still debating whether or not to include the latter form, going with that popular element inspired by the Zanpakutō Unknown Tales arc. Though recently I'm speculating on going with something oddly inspired by a demented reimagining of the Cheshire Cat...~

Speaking of which, I've been inspired by a fanart to perhaps give Zangetsu an "animal" form as well, as we always see him in his "human" form...Ideas, anyone...? Huh. I just realized I'm giving away a ridiculously premature spoiler...

There are scenes or lines throughout the story that may change in the future.

...And seriously...Back-Alley Shoppe? Couldn't I have come up with something else...?

Ichimaru's collar has the same thickness of a typical collar, like ones with large/medium-sized d-rings. Kinky~

For narration, unless for specific reasons, I've decided to use the characters' first names instead of their last. If you recall, so far I have used only Aizen, Ichimaru and Unohana's last names. Have you figured out why?

On that note, there is also a reason why Ichimaru calls Yoruichi, Tessai, and Kisuke by their last names, and vice-versa. Wouldn't have had Kisuke call Tessai "Mr. Tessai", but...Japanese is one thing, but English is completely different...But at least he isn't calling him and Yoruichi by their last names; Mr. Tessai and Ms. Yoruichi is better than nothing, I suppose...

"Town arrest" just sounds like something Kisuke would say and come up with.

I am doing research for this fic. All of the medical shit I used/am going to be using came from Wikipedia and/or other sources, and the locations used in the UK thus far actually exist, though I will take some liberties with visuals. The exact location of the Back-Alley, is...well, somewhere close enough to Fleetwood for Ichimaru to have gotten there and not go too far to "violate his probation". The best route may be to create a fictional town or street...

The medical shit is "shit" because I'm having a very hard time deciding what the hell to use, considering Ichimaru's condition does not exist and he cannot die. Intubation, or respirator? And in the future, BVM, or a portable oxygen canister? Tracheal intubation, or not? How the fuck does he move about with the hole in his chest from the chest tube? In the end, I gave up on what to use for what I've used thus far. Also, as for how the hell he even unhooked himself in the second chapter and during the scene with Ururu in this one...My excuse: he's a genius, he figured it out. Yes, I completely evaded offering a possible explanation.

The -:Edth:C:- breaks separate flashbacks (written in italics between two of those breaks) or other scenes, but not scenes requiring the line breaks, which indicate a completely different location/present time. For instance, having these text breaks between normal narration and the narration of Ichimaru in his inner world...Technically, he's in the same physical location, thus line breaks are not used. Edth:C is an acronym for the name of this fanfic.

If you like the idea of the interludes, please vote on my profile poll:
1. Yes, they are entertaining and/or informative
2. No, they are long and/or ruin the pace of the story
3. Yes; no comment
4. No; no comment

Thank you for reading~