"Good; I'll let you know when everyone else is safe," Ichigo said as he began to walk away.
"Wait," Chad said. "Just how are you going to find them?"
"I have these clues," Ichigo replied, pulling out the paper. "Renji's next on the list."
"Let me see; maybe I can help," said Chad. Ichigo handed the paper to him.
Chad frowned slightly. "'The tattooed one you'll find simply needs more time; before he reaches the end of the line.'..."
Ichigo sighed. "Yeah, any ideas?"
Chad looked up with a surprised look on his face. "You're handling this much calmer than usual..."
"Yeah, I know. I've got to keep my head or else I'll never find them, though... Don't get me wrong! I'm dying to tear this whole town apart looking for them, but if I do that it will take too much time and it will be too late. It's already around five o'clock, and I only have until the end of the day!" Ichigo replied. Chad smirked slightly.
"Wow- that's very Uryu-like..." he said.
"Yeah, I know! Awful, huh?" Ichigo replied, sending them both into a tiny fit of chuckling. Suddenly, Chad's eyes widened.
"Huh? What is it?" asked Ichigo.
"The riddle. I think I know where Renji is," Chad replied. Ichigo looked up expectantly.
"Do you see this? It says that he needs more time. Maybe that means he's near a clock- or a lot of clocks."
"Chad, you're right!" Ichigo said. "But- there's no clock shops around here that aren't stuffed full of people... How could he be in one of them?"
Chad's eyes narrowed. "Perhaps, that small clock tower in the park? The one they built to be a likeness of the one in England, only much smaller? There shouldn't be many people around that- no one's allowed inside."
Ichigo's eyes widened. "Of course! Thanks, Chad!" He grabbed the note and began running towards the park. "Like I said- I'll call you once everyone's safe!"
"Oh, and these are yours! You'll kind of need them for me to call you anyway!" he added, turning around and tossing the other teen his medallion and cell phone.
Chad nodded gratefully as he caught them. "Be careful."
...
"Hey, watch it, kid!" cried a man as many others were pushed out of the way by an orange-haired teenager running through the park.
"What's his problem?" asked another one as many people stared at the teen's retreating form.
Little did they know of the teen's situation and how he was on a desperate race to save his friends from the hands of some psychopath he didn't know.
I have to hurry! Even after I rescue Renji, I still have Rukia and Uryu to go! Ichigo thought as he continued running as fast as he could through the park.
"There it is!" he cried aloud as he saw the clock tower come into view. "Lucky for me, no one's around!"
He slowed to a walk as he neared the structure. It wasn't the best architecture, but it was definitely large enough to hold a few people at a time and tall enough to nearly kill someone if they fell from its peak. Grimacing from the thought, Ichigo looked around and found a door on the side of the structure that only maintenance officers used.
"Kuso! Just my luck!" he yelled, kicking the door as he also found it was locked. Suddenly, he remembered about the Swiss army knife he always kept in his pocket. Pulling it out, he tried to find one small enough to fit in the lock. Once this was achieved, he placed it into the lock and began to move it around, hoping to hit the lock mechanism. His hopes were answered as he heard an almost inaudible 'click!'. He slowly pushed the door open, as it was quite heavy and rusted from lack of use.
Ichigo coughed as clouds of dust flew towards him from the outside breeze. After finally finding air again, he cautiously stepped into the structure.
Wow... This goes a lot deeper than I thought... he thought as he stepped up to the railing protecting anyone from falling off of the upper floor he was currently on. The builders must have made it go deep underground so that it won't collapse in on itself. There certainly is a lot of machinery... Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Ichigo remembered what he was here for.
"Renji?" he called. "Renji?"
"Ichigo?" echoed a voice.
"Renji!" Ichigo yelled, looking all around. "Where are you?"
"I'm up here! Above you!" the voice echoed once more.
Ichigo looked up and quickly spotted his friend dangling upside-down from the ceiling by means of a thick rope tied around him. "Renji!" he gasped.
"Yeah, haven't you figured that out already?" cried the red-headed Soul Reaper. "Just get me down from here! I've been hanging upside-down for ages!"
"Yeah, yeah, give me a minute!" Ichigo yelled back before lowering his voice. "Geez, I only just got here and he's already annoying..."
Looking down, however, Ichigo realized the cause of Renji's distress: at the bottom floor were various shapes and sizes of cogs and other devices- all of them sharp enough to impale anyone unlucky enough to fall down there. His eyes widened and he began to look around for anything that could be useful in getting him up there.
"Hey, Renji!" he called, still looking around.
"What!"
"Do you have any idea who did this to you?"
"No clue! I was just looking around for a strange spiritual pressure I felt, but after that I don't remember anything!"
Ichigo narrowed his eyes. So whoever this guy is, he definitely has significant enough of spiritual pressure for Renji to notice...
"Oi! What's taking so long?"
"Just be quiet! This is hard enough without you yelling at me!" Ichigo shouted back. Renji grunted, but stayed silent.
Come on... There's got to be something around here that I can- ah ha! Ichigo ran over to the metal ladder on the wall next to him.
"Don't worry, Renji! I'll be up there soon! Just hang in there!" he shouted as he began to climb.
"Is that supposed to be a joke?" cried the other, swinging himself around so that he could see Ichigo. "Ichigo! Be careful! That ladder looks pretty old and rusted!"
"Oh! So now you care, huh?" Ichigo huffed as he continued to climb.
"Look! I'm just saying that it could easily-" but Renji's comment was cut off by a loud, ominous creaking that echoed through the room followed by Ichigo's surprised yelp as the ladder broke, making him lose his grip and begin to fall backwards- straight towards the sharp mechanisms below.
"Ichigo!" yelled Renji.
Thinking quickly, Ichigo grabbed the bar of the railing with one of his hands as he fell past it. He jerked to a stop, pulling some of the railing down with him under his weight. Wincing in slight discomfort, he pulled his other hand up to grasp the railing as well; but as he tried to pull himself up, the railing creaked under the pressure. Kuso! What do I do now? If I stay here much longer, it'll break!
Suddenly, an idea struck him. He started to swing slowly, back and forth... back and forth... back and forth... The railing swung along with him, creaking loudly with each movement. Finally, Ichigo swung high enough and pulled one of his legs up, planting it firmly on the floor of the ledge he had been on when he first arrived. He secured the leg around another bar of the railing just as the one he had been holding onto with his hands finally broke. He let out a sigh of relief as he lifted his other leg onto the floor as well. He let himself hang backwards for a moment in order to catch his breath before pulling himself completely back onto the ledge. He heard Renji let out a loud sigh of relief as well.
"I told you," he said.
"Get over yourself! I was nearly just impaled!" Ichigo yelled back. He let out another sigh as he looked up towards the ladder where he had just fallen. His eyes widened as he saw something right next to the spot where it broke. Are- are those-?
"Renji! Do you see what I see?" Ichigo yelled, standing quickly.
Renji spun himself around and gasped. "What- what are those? Are those- floating pliers!"
"What the heck is going on here? The ladder didn't break! It was cut by- whatever those are!" Ichigo yelled.
But as suddenly as the pliers appeared, they disappeared as well.
"Hey! Where'd they go?" yelled Renji.
"I don't know! I just blinked and they were gone!" Ichigo replied.
What IS going on here! he thought angrily.
"I saw - or rather didn't see- the same thing when I rescued both Orihime and Chad! I have no idea what it was!" Ichigo said.
"Wait! The others were taken as well?" Renji asked. "How? When?"
"Same as you, last night. It's a long story, but here goes: it all started this morning when..." As Ichigo began to tell the story of the mysterious being and his challenge, he found a long pipe stretching from the ground up to the platform where he could pull Renji up and untie him. There were many spaces along the pipe, so it didn't take long for him to climb it and jump onto the platform.
"So now, here I am," Ichigo finished, gasping for air after having to climb a long pipe while also speaking nonstop.
"So then, you've rescued Orihime, Chad, and now me... That only leaves Rukia and Uryu, right?" Renji asked.
"Yeah; and I only have a few hours left, so I'd better hurry up here," Ichigo replied, grabbing the rope that Renji was tied to and beginning to pull him up.
"Ugh! Renji! You weight a ton!" Ichigo grunted as he continued pulling.
"Shut up! You're just weak!" replied the other.
"Well, excuse me! I just had to climb a long pipe, you know!" Ichigo stated, finally managing to pull Renji up completely.
"Yeah, whatever, just untie me!" Renji said.
"With pleasure! Once I'm done here, you need to go back to the Soul Society and tell them about all this-"
"No! You must be joking if you think I'd just up and leave Rukia out there somewhere! I'm going with you! No excuses!" Renji replied as Ichigo finished untying him.
"No! That guy just wants me to rescue them; it's a challenge he made for me! If you come along, he may hurt Rukia and Uryu..." Ichigo said, trailing off at the last part. Renji closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, then stood up and offered Ichigo a hand.
"Well, then, what if I say you have no choice in the matter? I'll just follow you anyway?" he smirked.
Ichigo looked up and smiled, grabbing the hand. "I'd say, all right then! He can't do anything about that, now, can he?"
"Right; let's get going then!" Renji said.