Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no 

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Four: Guinea Pig and Arguments.

52 Hours and 25 Minutes Left

Ichigo, Ishida and Chad made their way towards the noble's house in silence, Chad and Ishida kept giving Ichigo side-long glances as they supported him in his walking, Kurotsuchi had taken at least 20 blood samples from Ichigo over his time in the Lab and the blood loss had taken a toll on the Shinigami.

Ichigo stumbled yet again as they stopped outside the gates to the Kuchiki residence and waited for the doors to be opened. He muttered under his breath and the two could only assume that it was about Kurotsuchi.

The doors opened and they were greeted by two women, a black-haired servant in a plain brown kimono who bowed and welcomed them, and an orange-haired woman in a shinigami robe…

"Inoue?" Ichigo asked, surprised. Ishida looked and then blushed a little, he had forgotten how good she looked in Shinigami robes, the last time she had worn them was in their invasion of Soul Society.

"Hello Chad, Ishida, and Kurosaki-kun" she said, smiling at them.

"Why are you wearing those again?" Ishida asked as Captain Kuchiki motioned them to follow him and they began walking again.

"Oh, apparently we should look more like Shinigami when we are here to draw less attention to ourselves" Orihime said as they began walking through the old style house.

"Draw less attention to what?" Ichigo asked as they passed out of the house and began walking around the outside of the house past the gardens.

"Were hero's here" Ishida answered for her and the girl nodded, giggling.

"The males are in this room" Byakuya interrupted stopping outside a room, Chad and Ishida bowed and towed Ichigo into the room before he could say something stupid. "Inoue-san, Rukia has expressed a wish for you to share her room, it's down here" he continued and walked away with her.

Chad and Ishida deposited Ichigo on the middle futon and settled themselves either side of him. Ichigo was about to lay down when another servant came into the room with sleeping yukata for them and then left again. The three got changed with little spoken and went to sleep soon after…

48 Hours Left

Ichigo opened his eyes and sat up quickly. He looked around the pitch black room; he could feel someone there,

"Whose there?" he asked the darkness,

"It's me Ichi" answered a beautiful silky voice,

"Don't call me that" Ichigo growled, "who are you?"

"Can't you guess?" was the reply

"…Hisa?"

"Correct Ichi, I see you are still fighting me and I find that very good, it means you are strong…and soon that strength will belong to me"

"Show yourself" Ichigo said, standing up and raising his reiatsu slightly.

"I think I will wait for the grand reveal, I want to see your face glow when you see me for the first time" she replied.

"What do you want with me?" Ichigo sighed, sitting down again. He couldn't seem to keep angry at her for long.

"I see your nearly in my control…and that is what I want…you, my own right-hand man, a personal body guard to begin with, but you will eventually be the head of my army." Ichigo jumped up at this, angry again.

"I refuse to be a guard for you, you bitch, and I won't head an army for you either. What would you need an army for anyway?!" he said in forced calm.

"For my reign" she answered simply. "And I will begin making my army soon, only 2 more days Ichi, I have been kind…giving you three days to say your goodbyes, you should thank me, you will have a high position"

"REIGN?...OF WHAT, SOULD SOCEITY, THE WORLD…" Ichigo shouted his reiatsu rising with every word.

There was no reply.

"ANSWER ME!" he continued and was about to start again when she spoke,

"I will take me leave now Ichi, 2 more days and I will tell you everything" she said.

Ichigo heard a swishing of a robe and was suddenly was blinded by a light. He shielded his eyes from it.

"Ichigo?....Ichigo?"

The light was gone and Ichigo found himself in a room full of people. He looked around and found all the Captains and half of the Vice-Captains standing in the tiny room along with Inoue, Rukia, and his two friends that had been in the room to start with, Ishida and Chad.

"Ichigo?" he turned to the speaker and found it to be Renji.

"Yeah?" he sighed.

"You wanna explain that little fit you threw?"

"What?" he replied irritably

"Ya know the shouting and reiatsu growing 'til most for Soul Society can feel it."

Ichigo shrugged wearily and sat down,

"That woman came" he said

"…."

"What?" Ichigo said

"No-one was here except me you and Chad" Ishida said, "You were imagining it…you were talking to someone, but there was no-one here"

"She was, I heard her" Ichigo said,

"Maybe she's using the poison to get to you without actually being here" said Urahara, hiding behind his fan. "Tell us what she said, we could only hear your responses."

Ichigo sighed and began his explanation of what had happened, while Kurotsuchi took notes. When he finally finished everyone let him to sleep. Ichigo was so tired her fell asleep almost immediately with no more thoughts.

40 Hours Left

Ichigo sat up slowly and yawned, he was in the room alone and sunlight was streaming through the open door into the room. Ichigo got changed slowly and walked to the door, he stopped when he heard Ishida and Chad talking outside the room while looking into the garden, and Inoue was there also. He couldn't see her but he could hear her. They were talking about last night…apparently he was talking to nothing and getting angry and it had attracted the notice to many people because of his reiatsu. They had been scared…of him?...no…of how he acted towards Hisa…

Ichigo could stand anymore and went to get his sword, making sure to make some noise so they knew he was awake.

"Morning" Inoue said when he walked out into the sunlight. "We are meant to take you back to the Lab for neural testing today because of last night" she said brightly, standing up and leading the way. Ichigo wasn't really looking forward to it. He lost hours of time there, time he didn't have.

All too soon Ichigo found himself strapped to the table again in the Lab with the same people standing against the walls, Inoue had decided to go somewhere else with Rukia. But Ichigo privately though that Rukia had taken her away purposely so she didn't have to see Ichigo being experimented on.

Kurotsuchi came in with Urahara and together they began attaching devices to him, a heart monitor, some type of machine that watched his reiatsu fluctuations, another device that sat on his forehead that took readings of his brain patterns and machine that was inserted into his bloodstream and started pumping blood out of him and into a machine before going back into another part of him arm. Urahara explained this machine to him.

"We made it last night, we believe that it will separate the poison from your blood" he said simply. "We aren't sure if it will work but it's worth a shot" he said, smiling behind his fan.

"Great" Ichigo muttered. "Just don't put that thing on me again"

Ichigo sat quietly this time, he seemed to have withdrawn into himself and was staring at the ceiling as though it didn't exist, his eyes glazed.

"Is he okay?" Ukitake asked while Urahara and Kurotsuchi went from instrument to instrument, taking notes and passing information quietly. Kurotsuchi didn't even seem to mind working with Urahara.

"He's fine, he's just thinking" Urahara said, pointing at the large screen as he transferred the information from the brain scanner onto it. "It's showing high amounts of delta waves which shows he's thinking…quite a lot actually" Urahara said, monitoring the screen. He started writing some notes on the brain scans.

39 Hours Left

"His hair is even darker" Chad said suddenly, walking closer to him. "And his eyes look…grey." Everyone crowded around him and he suddenly snapped out of his reverie "What?" he asked, a bit creeped out that everyone was looking at him.

"Look at this" Urahara said to Kurotsuchi and everyone looked at the big monitor, the delta waves had lessened "Ichigo what were you thinking about?" he asked and everyone looked at him again. Ichigo looked away, "Where you thinking about Hisa?" he asked and Ichigo nodded slightly. "Interesting" he said and wrote down some more notes while everyone else returned to the wall.

Most people had never seen Ichigo without his customary frown, but Chad had noticed something, and so had Ishida. They caught each others eye and nodded to confirm their suspicion. His face was becoming more relaxed, he still was showing no emotion like with his frown mask, but the relaxed face he had on now was the same. He didn't even seem angry at being tied to a table, or upset about the whole situation. The only emotion he was showing was calm…composure.

A/N: Sorry its took ages to post this, and i know there is lots of dialogue but it was needed. Next chapter will be better.