Hello...

This one is so late... I'm so sorry... Maybe it's because of the exams I've been having. Or because I've been having too much free time to literally waste. I dunno. But this chapter is really late. Not planning on having that happen often or anything -_-;

So, here's another chapter anyway. Stuff starts happening in Karakura - as long as one doesn't consider a giant Jell-O wall surrounding the town as 'stuff happening' of course ^^;

Thank you so much to my proof-reader (GrowingAHead), once again! She's awesome, I swear she finds ways to fix stuff I'd never have thought of for some reason T_T


Theme: "Nocturne in C-sharp minor" by Chopin


"I'm home!" called Ichigo before entering the kitchen. "And I'm with a patient!" he added for good measure.

Only then did he walk through the door.

As expected, Goat Face had stopped dead in his tracks. Ichigo took the opportunity to slip past his father as he stuck his head through the door and searched the corridor for the said patient.

"Where...?"

"Right here."

Ichigo held up what seemed to be his lunch box, and Isshin would have thought his son was kidding if it wasn't for the gentle pulsing of life he felt coming from inside the bundle.

He took it cautiously and gently undid the cloth.

The lid had been taken off, and the food Yuzu had prepared that morning had been cleaned thoroughly. The bottom had been fitted with a perfectly-sized quilt stuffed with a full inch of cotton. On it lay a small bird with a bandaged wing.

It chirped up at him.

Yuzu glanced over and let out a surprised little gasp. She put down her wooden spoon and hurried over, peering inside the box.

"Aww, it's so cute!"

"What happened?" asked her sister from over her shoulder. "Did it navigate itself into a branch or something?"

"Karin!" reproved Yuzu, outraged.

"Uryū said its wing probably got torn when the wind picked up," replied their sibling. "Orihime found it on the ground and immediately went to get him. He's also the one who made the quilt."

"Shouldn't she have taken it home then, since she was the one to find it? I mean, it doesn't actually need to be taken to a clinic, with the wound already bandaged and all?"

"Both she and Chad argued that the bandages would have to be changed eventually, and Uryū backed them up, so there was no way for me to get out of it..."

He couldn't exactly tell Karin that he'd gladly have entrusted the bird to Orihime, if his friend hadn't already exhausted herself healing the wounded after a war that happened barely a few weeks ago...

After taking down Yhwach, she, Chad, Uryū, Rukia, Renji and Ichigo had regrouped and helped clear the last of the troublemaking Quincy, gather the wounded and make sure they were in safe hands - all this while the SRDI worked at getting Seireitei and Soul Palace back in their original places. After a few hours, half of them had started dropping from exhaustion - the others still standing and moving around as slow as zombies - and the Fourth had ordered them to rest for a few days.

Then somehow someone decided - *cough* - that the "living individuals" weren't needed anymore - despite the obvious lack of helping hands - and were to be sent back.

Gotta love Soul Society's logic, thought the Substitute.

"You sure it will eat those?"

His sister's voice snapped Ichigo out of his thoughts.

"Sure!" Yuzu chirped at her twin. "I'm gonna put some on a plate."

She gripped the handle of the cupboard door as she reached for a jar of pumpkin seeds.

The chair under her feet wobbled and Ichigo sprang forward.

"Woah, hold on let me get that."

Unfortunately, the sudden movement awoke his headache and he had a hard time ignoring it as it pounded against the inside of his skull. He helped Yuzu down from the chair, took the jar and set it on the counter. And cringed at the pain pulsing at his temple.

Karin studied his face.

"Yuzu, do we have any Aspirin left?" she asked, her eyes locked on her brother.

"Sure, why?" Her sister's expression suddenly turned worried. "Karin, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just go get it, and then give me a hand holding Ichigo down while I stuff it down his throat."

Her older sibling spun around.

"Wait - What?!"

-=-=O=-=-

Yuzu made them curry that evening. That would have been enough to put Ichigo in a particularly good mood if it wasn't for the eye contact she made with her sister as she placed the pot on the table.

One that meant: We're doing it tonight.

Until that point, somehow, the topic just hadn't come up. But as they started making the curry disappear, Karin asked out of nowhere:

"So, are you gonna tell us where the both of you were?"

Isshin and his son munched on innocently.

"Karin and I were worried you know," continued Yuzu, "especially when that orange jelly appeared while you were gone."

"And since apparently we're the only ones left out, we want to get an actual answer this time. Now, what are those Jell-O fortifications outside?"

"No idea," the pair replied simultaneously.

Ichigo immediately turned to his father.

"Wait, you don't know?!" he asked him incredulously.

"I might soon," said the older man. Or rather, Urahara's working on finding out."

Just then, his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and soon, Ichigo's keen hearing picked up the shopkeeper's playful voice. Karin reached over the table and quickly turned the speaker on before the greetings were even over. Nobody stopped her, and she went on eating seemingly undisturbed.

"So," said Isshin when he managed to get an opening in the continuous flow of (unnecessary) information pouring from the speaker, over his fingers, wrist and dripping onto the table. "How is the LCOTSJORO going?"

"Oh, the Let's Check Out This Suspicious Jell-O Ring Operation, you mean?"

Ichigo nearly choked on his water. The LCOTSJOR Operation. Of course.

"Ah, but isn't that the young Deputy Soul Reaper I hear coughing over the line? Hellooooo there!"

The addressed Deputy Soul Reaper felt like punching the phone. How did the guy even know who was coughing, anyway?!

"Hi," he replied with the most annoyed tone he could muster.

"Oh dear," said the voice, "what did poor innocent little me do to anger you?"

Isshin cleared his throat.

"So, how is the Operation going?" he asked again.

Note that the full name of it was dropped pretty quickly... thought Ichigo.

"Well, about that," the shopkeeper said. "As you know, it was to be launched this morning. I thus hung the CLOSED sign on my door and set off East at dawn."

Ichigo's first reflex was to sigh, but he had to hold in an amused chuckle upon noticing Yuzu's captivated stare.

She has no idea, he thought.

"Urahara..." sighed Isshin.

"My, my, just as impatient as your son! Must run in the family."

Now there were two people in the room who wished punching the phone would do any good.

"Anyhow," continued the voice. "As accurate as I can be standing at the foot of it, I'd estimate that Jell-O wall to be around 80 feet high. As for its width, one would have to dig through it to know. It's too opaque to see through beyond a few feet, ten or fifteen at most."

Karin had looked up from her plate of curry.

"You tried digging through it then?" she asked, ignoring her sister's astonished 'OMG-she-just-talked-to-that-awesomely-professional-sounding-scientific-guy-on-the-phone' face.

"Well, that's what I would have done," replied the shopkeeper, unfazed, "if it wasn't for some unexpected safety measure I had to put in place first."

Yuzu's eyes lit up in wonder.

Ichigo put his chopsticks down for a moment.

"You mean that thing is dangerous?"

"Not necessarily. But it seems to have the property of sucking in spiritual pressure. Which leads me to the issue I'm calling about in the first place."

"Which is?"

As small as the room was, Ichigo's voice seemed to ring in the sudden silence. It had a tense, practically icy undertone to it.

The shopkeeper took a moment to choose his words carefully.

"We don't know how wide the barrier is, but depending on how quickly it appeared, it may - or may not - have covered houses and trapped people inside. Taking into account how it seems to eat up Reiryoku, it may be wise to attempt digging through it, to try and access the potential -"

Urahara heard the scraping sound of a chair against the wooden floor.

"Ichigo, you should -"

"Where are you?"

"Ichigo -"

"Where are you?"

The shopkeeper hesitated.

"East of my shop, by the Chorizo Club. I've sent Ururu and Jinta to get a couple of shovels."

"Dad, do we have a shovel?"

Isshin hesitated as well.

"Under the stairs, along with the brooms and stuff..."

'Along with the brooms and stuff'? thought Karin. Thank goodness I know Goat Face's been using it for God-knows-what, I'd be worried for Yuzu if she'd been the one to put it there

"Ichigo, you should stay -"

"Look, Urahara. I can't just -"

"You should -"

"I SHOULD NOTHING!" He was on the verge of shouting. "I can't just stay put while people may be stuck in their homes, getting their energy sucked out by some unknown orange... orange... thing! What if their Reiryoku gets depleted? They could die from this!" His voice fell. "They may already be dead. But it's worth a try."

He stormed out. The room was silent for a moment.

The shopkeeper laughed apologetically.

"Whoops... There he goes again..."

Isshin sighed.

"It's not your fault. How many shovels do you have?"

"Well, I see that Ururu and Jinta are coming back with... oh, I'd say about a dozen of them."

"Alright. Don't send too many back, I'm coming to give a hand as well."

Yuzu - who had gone all sad from her brother's outburst - suddenly perked up, and chirped:

"Save one for me - I'm coming too!"


The cover is a photo by Nine Kopfer this time.

Review? Something I can feed on? :)

Note: After posting this once, I noticed kanji (or something alike) had somehow slipped into the text... So I took them out ^^;