Hey, I am late, again, sorry. The inspiration for writing just hasn't been flowing through my fingers lately. Thus anything I produced was low quality, and frankly, embarrassing. So, huge thanks to my Beta Anchora, without her, this chapter would have been umpublishable. Thanks for all the support from all of you guys. So without further ado Chapter 10.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Diagnosis

"Honoka!" Ichigo leapt forward, his heart growing heavier by the second. He laid his hand upon her chest, silently hoping for a pulse. There was none. "NO!" Ichigo yelled. Ichigo let his head fall down and he released it all, everything that had been building inside him, in one large push of reiatsu through his hands. The second Ichigo lifted his hands, the flow reversed, the reiatsu surged right back into him, however, the reiatsu that returned to him felt a little alien to him.

"N… Nii-san," A voice croaked. It was weak and cracked, but it was there. Honoka was awake. Her eyes were bloodshot and scared, but they were open. Her breaths were raspy and irregular, but they existed. Honoka was alive. Ichigo reveled in that feeling, in the way its warmth blanketed and comforted him; she was alive, and there was still hope.

"Honoka!" he cried breathlessly, the relief evident in his voice. "Are you okay? I mean... never mind, that was a stupid question H-how are you though?"

Her smile was weak and her eyes were tired, but there was an almost child-like whine in her voice when she said, "Nii-san, I feel tired."

After a few seconds of awkward silence she spoke again, albeit with a much more serious tone. "I don't think I can be a shinigami anymore."

"Wh—"

"Out of the way all of you!" A voice commanded as three division 4 shinigami and Unohana-taicho entered the room. With a critical eye they looked around the room, before unleashing a torrent of words that Ichigo couldn't understand for the life of him. It wasn't the meaning of the words that eluded Ichigo; it was the intensity and the speed that made them fly straight over his head.

"What's going on?" Ichigo voiced. Honoka was awake and no longer convulsing—wasn't that supposed to be a good thing? Yet, the dire tone that the medics held suggested no such improvement.

"She is the last one. The other boy managed to wake up as well, but died shortly after. We don't want that happening to her." Unohana spoke grimly with her mouth set into an equally-grim line.

"Taicho, will she be all right?" Ichigo's adoptive mother asked.

"At the moment, her situation does not seem as severe as the others, but we need to keep her under observation for a little while more. Anything can happen." came Unohana's reply. She attempted to keep the graveness out of her words, but the false serenity of her speech seemed to discomfort everyone further.

"Taicho! You have to see this? It is just like the other ones-her reiatsu is fading, and quite quickly! It's… it's almost like its being eaten away." exclaimed one of the younger medics, completely bewildered.

Unohana turned to the family, "If you would please, "she spoke as she gestured to the door, "You can return tomorrow."

With one foot out the door, Ichigo turned to look back at the girl in the bed. "Honoka," he proclaimed, "Don't you dare forget about your promise."

"You cannot visit her," his adoptive father blocked. His arms were crossed and his face was stern.

"And why can't I? I have to be there!"

"You have classes; do you think Honoka would want you to skip?"

"I…" Ichigo was left at a loss for words. He knew he was done with schooling, but no one else did, for their sake. So, without ifs, ands, or buts, he trudged back to school. Classes monotonously passed, and the other students, or at least the ones who had been cleared by the fourth division to return avoided him like a plague. Ichigo could not blame them. The circumstances had painted a deep scowl on his face, one that was much more foreboding than the one that usually rested on his visage.

"Is there any new information!?" Ichigo yelled as soon as he entered the training ground.

"W-whatever do you mean, Ichigo?" Kisuke spouted.

"You know as well as I do that Honoka is nearly dying and the other students' passing away was no mere accident!" Ichigo narrowed his amber eyes, teeth clenched.

"And... why would we suspect such a thing?" Yoruichi smiled coyly.

Ichigo sighed, thoroughly exasperated, "This is no time for jokes."

"Alright, alright, Ichigo calm down. We do know that much. Here are the reports."

All of Ichigo's previous frustration melted away, turning into confusion instead. He was completely dumbfounded, "Why give them to me...? Shouldn't someone more experienced handle this?"

"It simple really, we are turning this into your final training exam. We will monitor your progress on the case and decide your future afterwards." The dark haired woman's smile then turned warm, "Good luck Ichigo."

"This is it, then? Wh-what about Hakuda proficiency or… or attaining shikai?"

"Ichigo, after the show you put on the other day it really doesn't seem at all necessary to give you such tests. As for shikai, not every officer attains shikai before joining, it is only required for seated officers. Are you complaining?"

"Not at all," Ichigo denied. "I'm just wondering why." This was a prime chance to move forward and find the culprit, and he really would not have been comfortable with letting someone else handle this. "I will also need the files on who had access to the students along with the files on the students that were ordered to stay overnight."

"You shall have them by tomorrow morning."

"Then that is when I will begin, for now I must visit my sister."

Fortunately, Honoka was awake when Ichigo walked into the room, sitting up and animatedly talking to Yui. It appeared as though the other girl had been there for a good while. "Looks like you're doing better." Ichigo smiled.

"Ah, Nii-san! You're here! And here I thought you were going to chicken out." smirked the younger girl, arching her eyebrows in amusement.

"Chicken out of what?"

"I won didn't I? We had a field trip to the living world and you said that it my theory was stupid."

"Didn't we already have this discussion?" Ichigo sighed. "Don't I already owe you my first paycheck?"

Honoka's bright expression suddenly fell, mouth curling into a frown and her eyes cast downwards. "So you don't know yet?"

"What don't I know?" the male teen's face morphed to match his sister's.

She didn't answer, creating a thick, heavy, invasive silence. Thoughts eddied in Ichigo's mind, increasing in severity with each passing millisecond. "You aren't dying…are you?" he finally voiced, solemn and tentatively, as if saying the thought out loud would make it a reality.

It was Yui who finally answered. "No, though she can never become a shinigami again."

Honoka couldn't bring herself to look at Ichigo for a long while, and when she did, there were tears in her eyes. "Nii-san… I have no reiryoku left. Whatever is was that got into me ate it all away. I… I can never go out into the living world again." Her voice cracked near the end.

"She was lucky," a soothing voice murmured. It belonged to none other than Unohana-taicho, who'd entered the room completely unnoticed. "I still do not know how she survived. A miracle, maybe."

"Ichigo, this is Unohana-taicho. She is amazing." Honoka's voice was breathy, laced with admiration and gratitude.

"I heard crying in my special ward, so I just came in to check on my patient." the black-haired woman said lightheartedly, completely contradicting the frightening aura surrounding her and the piercing glare boring into Ichigo. "Uh, um, there-there's nothing to worry about. Everything's fine here." Ichigo sputtered. "I was just leaving."

The aura didn't diminish. "Ara, is that so? I would hate for you to leave on my account."

"No, no it's alright; I have some work to do anyways. Honoka, I'll see you tomorrow." Ichigo shuffled out, post haste.

"Here you go, all the files you requested. Once again, good luck on the investigation."

Ichigo accepted the folder, stiffly extending his arm to take it, "Tell the instructor that I won't be in class today." School would have to wait-there were more important matters that had to be dealt with.

"They won't accept that."

"Then make something up!" snapped Ichigo, not in the mood to put up with such inconveniences.

The reports were very detailed; Yoruichi had even seen fit to include the report of the encounter with the quincies. Apparently the shinigami that had been guarding and maintaining the barrier had been ambushed and slaughtered, even most of the support team that had come with Yadomaru fukutaicho had been wiped out. Among the casualties were a 7th and 9th seated officers.

Ichigo set that report aside and lifted the paper which held the information of the student which had been afflicted by this mysterious illness. The first four held little information, all of them had been had been in a stable coma when their reiatsu been dropping rapidly and started having seizures, almost like an epileptic fit. It was the fourth file that caught his interest; Kurotsuchi Mayuri, the boy who'd died just prior to Honoka from epileptic seizures.

This made absolutely no sense to Ichigo; Kurotsuchi was definitely alive in the future he came from. Certifiably crazy, but alive. He put the file in different pile; it would require some special attention later. He then lifted Honoka's file, it held a lot more information. It even had her description of the pain she had been feeling. She had described the feeling as "being eaten from the inside out."

That quote reminded Ichigo of something from quite a long time ago. Kenpachi Zaraki and his eye patch, with the immense reiatsu that the taicho possessed it wasn't a hindrance to him, but Ichigo had heard differently. Ikkaku had told him that he and tried to put on the eye patch some time ago and it had floored him. The feeling of being eaten alive was how he had described it. The resemblance was too close to be a coincidence. The 12th division had been the one to design it. It was all quite fishy.

He needed more information on Kurotsuchi, and he knew exactly where to get it. "Bakudo #26 Kyoko," he whispered. All the teachers would be in class and no student would be able to see through his kido-it was essentially the perfect cover. Ichigo snuck quickly to the main building. The hall of records was completely unguarded. This was normal; the shinigami who was normally on guard was never here during the day. He probably figured most people wouldn't be daring enough to steal in broad daylight, so he spent his days getting drunk at a near bar. Ichigo was not most people.

He was able to recover the file with ease; he even grabbed a few extras including his own to disguise his true intentions if the theft was discovered. He returned to his room for only a brief moment, now that he had stolen documents with him, it would not be good to study them in his room. He collected the earlier documents and proceeded to the training ground, it was the perfect place for him to study the files.

Name: Kurotsuchi, Mayuri

-Reiatsu in comparison to Year ave.

Yr 1- Below

Yr 2- Below

Yr 3- Below

Yr 4- Above (Well Above)

Yr 5- Above (Well Above)

-Sensei notes

-Sharp mind, but is very carefree and seems to have slightly sadistic personality.

-Academic Record

-Suspected of experimenting on other students.

-Cleared on lack of evidence and recanting witnesses.

-Background

Origin - District 51 Kakure Kao

Reading the file had brought to light some very interesting information. 'Maybe it's time to take a field trip.' Ichigo thought. But first.

Name: Amamiya Ichigo

"Ichigo!" Yoruichi had entered the hall. "Oh, did I scare you." She laughed at his face, which had betrayed his surprise. Ichigo had been so engrossed in the reports that he hadn't heard her approach.

"What do you want?" Ichigo replied irritably, "I'm busy."

"I carry a message from Unohana taicho."

"What's it about?"

"Your little stunt."

So Honoka lives. To be honest, I had not decided whether or not to let her live until the reviews came in. So by popular vote she lives. Not too much of a cliff hanger this time. Next chapter will hopefully be easier to write seeing as their will be more action in it. Well anyways, see you all next time. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I do reply to PM's and reviews, 95% of the time. Also if you spot anything grammar wise, tell me, I will go fix it asap.

-Wheel Then