Chapter 4:

Yoruichi and Rukia entered the room where everyone else was assembled. All conversation ceased as Yoruichi went over to Orihime, who still had her Soten Kisshun up around Ichigo, to see how the young girl was holding up.

Rukia went over to stand next to Renji, who was hanging out in a corner of the room.

Renji glanced over at Rukia as she approached and gave her a small smile, to which Rukia reciprocated by punching him in the arm.

"Ow!" Renji exclaimed. "What the hell was that for?"

Rukia glanced up at the older Soul Reaper. "For telling Yoruichi about the conversation we had when you were rescuing me from Sokyokou Hill."

Renji shot an accusatory glance in Yoruichi's direction, but she was busy talking to Orihime, and didn't notice the look that Renji was giving her.

Another smack to Renji's arm brought his attention back to Rukia. She was glaring at him, and he could tell from the look that she was giving him that his glance in Yoruichi's direction did not go unnoticed by her.

"I'm no dummy." Rukia continued, somehow managing to glare down her nose at Renji even though he had at least a foot on her height-wise. "Yoruichi may have told me that she figured it out on her own, which is partly true...but something tells me she had a little help. You told her, didn't you?"

Renji looked sheepish as he said. "Well...yeah, I did." He said the next part in a rush. "But only because I was worried about you." He shut his eyes and tensed up, preparing himself for the onslaught from Rukia...

...but the blows never came. Renji cracked one eye open and peeked down at Rukia to find that she was smirking at him. "Quit smiling like that. It's creepy."

Rukia dropped the smirk, but her eyes never left Renji's. "Thank you." she finally said quietly.

Renji's eyes opened wide in shock. "What did you just say?"

Rukia did take another swing at him then. "You heard me. Don't make me repeat it. You cared enough about me to sic Yoruichi on me so...thank you."

Rukia then walked away without another word, leaving Renji staring after her, mouth open in shock. She walked across the room to stand beside Yoruichi, who was watching Orihime as she continued to heal Ichigo. "How's he doing?"

Rukia had asked Yoruichi the question, but it was Orihime who responded. "His wounds are very serious, but I'm certain that he's going to be okay." She said it loud enough for everyone in the room to hear her.

An audible sigh of relief went up from everyone in the room at Orihime's words.

Urahara, who had been standing in a corner of the room, walked to the center of the room, opening his ever-present fan with a snap. All eyes in the room trained on him as he spoke. "Now that we;re sure that Ichigo is going to survive, we need to move on to the issue of who it was that attacked him in the first place." He glanced at Yoruichi, who nodded.

"Based on what we've seen from Ichigo's wounds," Yoruichi continued where Urahara left off. "we've come to the the conclusion that a Soul Reaper was the one who attacked him."

Chad, Orihime, and Uryu, being the only ones left in the room who had not heard this suspicion until now, gasped.

"A Soul Reaper?" Uryu exclaimed. "Why would anyone in the Seireitai want to attack Ichigo? Most of them feel indebted to him for rescuing Rukia when she was scheduled to be executed." He noticed Rukia wince slightly at his words. "Sorry." he added glancing at Rukia and offering a small, sympathetic smile.

Rukia nodded, smiling back. "Apology accepted."

"is it Aizen?" Chad asked with his usual shortness, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand.

"Highly unlikely." Uryu said, just as Urahara opened his mouth to answer. "Aizen has not unlocked the full power of the hygyoku yet. It's doubtful that he'll make a move until then."

"What he said." Urahara said, pointing to Uryu.

Uryu smiled as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.

"So...if it wasn't Aizen, then who?" Renji blurted out, having finally recovered from Rukia's unusual behavior. "like Uryu said, who else in the Seireitai would have a problem with Ichigo?"

"Why don't you all go back to where Rukia and Renji found Ichigo this morning, and see if you can't find some clues as to who might have done this to him?" Yoruichi suggested, knowing full well that none of the group in front of her would be content to just wait around until Ichigo regained consciousness. "Meanwhile, I will contact Soi Fon and see if she has any information from the Soul Society that can shed some light on this situation. Urahara and I will watch over Ichigo until he wakes up; one he does, he can hopefully remember something that can help us figure out what happened to him."

Everyone nodded, relieved at finally having some kind of plan to help Ichigo.

Everyone felt a sudden drop in spiritual pressure, and turned in time to see the orange glow drop from around Ichigo/ Orihime stood, but swayed on her feet, exhausted from using her Soten Kisshun for so long.

Yoruichi wrapped an arm around Orihime's waist to steady her. "Are you alright, Orihime?" she questioned, her concern for the young girl coloring her voice.

"Yeah." Orihime nodded. "Just a little tired."

"Maybe you should stay here and rest while the others go out and search for clues." Yoruichi suggested, even though she already knew the response she would get.

Orihime shook her head vehemently. "Oh no. I'm fine. Really." she pulled away from Yoruichi's steadying grip and headed towards the door where Renji, Rukia, Chad and Uryu were exiting. "See you later."

"Wait a minute, everyone!" Yoruichi called out.

"What now?" Renji grumbled irritably, until Rukia elbowed him in the ribs. The rest of the group stopped as well.

"What's up now Yoruichi? We're losing daylight." Rukia commented.

"My point exactly." Yoruichi replied. At everyone's confused glances, she continued. "It's getting late, so I want all of you back here before dark. We don't know who it is we're dealing with, so I don't want to take any chances. Make sure you contact us if you find anything...and be careful...stay on alert for anything. Whoever attacked Ichigo could still be around that area."

"Don't worry. We'll be careful." Rukia called over her shoulder as the group headed out of the room.

Yoruichi sighed, then turned to Urahara. "Keep an eye on him." she said, pointing over her shoulder at where Ichigo lay, who was now breathing more steadily. "I'm going to go contact Soi Fon."

The sun was just beginning to go down as Renji, Rukia, Orihime, Chad and Uryu walked onto the street from Urahara's shop and made their way to the park.

Uryu fell into step beside Orihime. "Are you sure you're up to coming with us, Orihime?" He and the young girl had spent a considerable amount of time together in the Soul Society, and they had formed a very strong bond. Uryu now noticed that Orihime's walk was still a little unsteady and her eyes were drooping closed.

"Oh, yes, Uryu. I'm fine. Please don't worry about me." Orihime turned to look at him. "Honestly, I'm fine."

"Okay...if you're sure." Uryu replied, expecting nothing less from the girl walking beside him. He then raised his voice and shouted to Renji and Rukia, who was walking several paces in front of the rest of the group. "What exactly are we doing again?"

Renji looked back over his shoulder at Uryu, Orihime and Chad. "We're heading to where we found Ichigo to see if we can find any other clues as to what happened to him, who did this to him, or why they did it."

"We're also hoping that maybe Uryu can sense the spiritual pressure of the Soul Reaper who attacked Ichigo." Rukia smiled slightly at the ex-Quincy, who smiled back.

They walked on in silence until they arrived at the entrance to the park, where Renji led the way to where they found Ichigo that morning.

They came to the clearing where they found Ichigo, and everyone stood in silence for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts.

The ground in the clearing in front of them was splattered with Ichigo's blood, with a large, coagulating pool of it where he had lost consciousness.

Uryu spoke up, directing his comment to Renji and Rukia. "Ichigo's lucky that you two found him when you did. He couldn't have lost much more blood and still survived."
Chad nodded his head in agreement.

"Are you sensing any spiritual pressure, Uryu?" Rukia asked.

Uryu nodded his head. "Yeah, I'm sensing two different pressures. One of them is Ichigo's obviously...but the other one...it feels familiar, but I can't..." he broke off, trying to figure out where he had felt that spiritual pressure before.

Rukia nodded. "Alright, Uryu. That's fine. I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually. Split up everyone. Keep your eyes open for any clues."

They had been searching for only a moment or two when Uryu's voice suddenly broke the silence from behind some bushes at the edge of the clearing. "Hey, guys! Over here!"

The others rushed over to where Uryu was kneeling down. As they got closer, they saw what Uryu had found...Ichigo's body.

"in the rush to get Ichigo to Urahara's shop, I never gave a thought about what happened to Ichigo's body, seeing as we found him as a Soul Reaper." Rukia commented thoughtfully. "I keep telling him that he needs to stop relying on his substitute combat pass so much. He's lucky that, apparently, no one has been around this clearing, or they would have found his..." She trailed off, a strange look creeping onto her face.

"What's the mater, Rukia?" Orihime questioned.

"It's just that...if Ichigo used his combat pass, then...where is Kon?"

Orihime glanced around, then spotted something brown against the green of the bushes. She knelt down to investigate, and with the rest of them watching, reached underneath the brush and pulled out the stuffed lion Kon inhabited when he was not taking over Ichigo's body. "I don't think his soul candy is in there." she observed.

"Probably not. If he was, he would be clinging to either you or Rukia." Renji quipped, chuckling slightly. "Only one way to find out for sure, though." He walked over and took the stuffed lion from Orihime. Then he reluctantly shoved his hand into the stuffed animal's mouth, groping around to feel for the soul candy. After a moment, he pulled his hand out and wiped it onto his shihaksho. Shaking his head, he said, "Nope. There's no Soul Candy in there."

"So, if Kon is not in Ichigo's body, and he's not in his stuffed lion..." Uryu began.

"...then where the hell is he?" Rukia concluded.