Bleach (c) Kubo

Story (c) Yours Truly

No. That's not Hichigo. It can't be. Hichigo wouldn't murder.

No matter what Ichigo said, he knew he was lying to himself. That monster he saw was Hichigo.

He had hoped that Hichigo wasn't the one who murdered all of those people, but he was. Now he was tasked with detaining his brother, not rescuing him like he had originally planned. He could only hope that Hichigo would cooperate. After all, he didn't know exactly how much of Hichigo there actually was inside the monster he had become.

What am I going to tell Orihime?

He shook his head. He would tell her the truth. It would hurt her, but he'd rather tell her the truth than lie to her.

"Ichigo?"

He turned to find Yoruichi behind him.

"I've got a mission, don't I?"

". . .Yes."

"Alright. What is it this time?"

"A night-shift officer found something that he thinks might be important to us Detective Specialists."

"Does it pertain to Hichigo?"

"We don't know but it might, which is why Urahara wants you to go."

"Got it," he said as he began to walk back into the warehouse.

"Ichigo," Yoruichi called after him.

He stopped.

"I'm sorry about Hichigo, truly. If there is anyone out there who might be able to help him regain control of himself, it's you."

Ichigo turned back around and gave a half smile, "No, there's someone else who can do it much better than I can."

"This is where we all went to high school, and just down the block is my favorite bakery. It's where I'll be working starting next week. We should stop and get a treat there." Orihime said as she and Uryu were giving a tour of Karakura to Tatsuki.

Or at least Orihime was giving a tour, she was doing all of the talking after all.

"Sure, I could go for a bite to eat. What's the best think they've got there?" Tatsuki said.

"Well all of their bread is good, but they have pretty good cakes and tarts too. My favorite is the honey lemon tart. It taste really good with red bean paste too, but I don't have any with me this time. Their blueberry cake is pretty good too. I like it with wasabi."

Tatsuki was used to Orihime's strange taste in food because of the time spent together in Tokyo, but she still couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Ah, I'll just look to see what they have," Tatsuki replied.

"What are you getting Uryu?" Orihime asked.

"Oh, I'm not particularly hungry right now."

She frowned, "But their food is so good."

"If I get hungry I'll get something, I promise," he replied as the three of them walked inside the bakery. The bell on the door jingled, announcing their presence.

"Welcome!" the clerk said, smiling at the three of them. What can I get for you?"

"I'll have a lemon tart, please," Orihime replied. "What would you like, Tatsuki?"

"Ah," Tatsuki scanned the menu, "I'll have a slice of your chocolate macadamia nut bread."

"And you, sir?" the clerk asked Uryu.

"Oh, I'm not hungry, but I will take a water."

The clerk rang the three of them up and gave them their treats and the three sat in a corner both at the far end of the bakery.

"Mmm!" Orihime hummed as she took a bite of her tart, "How do you like yours Tatsuki?"

"It's very good. So, do the two of you think it's possible that Hichig-" She cut short when Uryu kicked her under the table.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

Orihime looked concerned, "Uryu?

"Keep your voice down. Ichigo told me that Aizen actually owns quite a few shops in town but he doesn't know which ones. It's best to keep your guard up." He said quietly.

"He owns a bakery?" Tasuki questioned.

"I'm not sure, but I'd rather proceed with caution."

"You were going to ask if it was possible that Hichigo killed those people, right?" Orihime asked quietly.

"Yes."

She smiled confidently at the two of them, "It's not. Hichigo may be brash, and he did get into fights more than necessary back in high school, but he has a good heart," She began rubbing his black charm between her thumb and forefinger, "I have faith in him."

"Damn it. I am so hungry," Grimmjow complained as the rogue Espada lounged around in Hichigo's old home.

"Well then go outside and find something to eat." Hichigo replied, getting tired of Grimmjow's complaining.

"Oh yes, that sounds like a brilliant idea. Why don't I just waltz into the nearest supermarket and buy some groceries? I'm sure I won't draw any unwanted attention."

"I meant you could scrounge through the garbage. That's what cats do, right?"

Grimmjow sneered, "You little-"

"Enough!" Nelliel snapped. "All of us are hungry and irritable and your bickering is only making it worse. Look, Hichigo has a point, when nightfall comes we'll dig through the dumpsters behind every restaurant and bakery we can find. The three of us did well enough with that when we were camped out in the sewers."

Ulquiorra made a face, "Again?"

"Until we find an alternative means of getting food then yes, again."

"I don't think Grimmjow had such a bad idea though, we could all just waltz inside and demand they give us food. After all, everyone is frightened of us anyway," Hichigo mused.

"No, we are not going to scare people into giving us food. We are not monsters," Nelliel retorted.

"Says you."

"Hey, why don't we turn ourselves in to the Detective Specialists? I'm sure they'll give us food." Ulquiorra suggested.

"We don't even know where their headquarters is," Hichigo replied. "Besides, if anything they'll detain us first. My brother's goal might be to find me, but I'm almost positive that his main priority now is to protect the people against threats like us. Well, to protect the people he cares about at least, which isn't very many." He laughed to himself a bit as he said that last part

"And you don't think he'd protect you?" Nelliel asked.

Hichigo snorted, "Ichigo should know that I don't need protection. He knows people need protection from me."

"Well, you certainly think highly of yourself, don't you?" Grimmjow smirked.

Hichigo glared.

"Hey, Hichigo, do you think it's possible for your brother to come look for you here?"

"I highly doubt it. He probably avoids this house like the plague."

"And why didn't you?"

"Because I had nowhere else to go."

"And you don't think your brother will come here when he runs out of places to look?" Ulquiorra asked.

"In my opinion this would be the first place he'd look," Grimmjow added.

"No, it wouldn't, because he thinks I'll want to avoid this place. And he'd be right. I want to leave this fucking house, but I won't have anywhere else to go. They all want nothing to do with this place."

"Who are 'they'? Are you talking about that boy and girl that showed up on Aizen's surveillance of the school when he told us he planned on bombing it? Grimmjow asked.

"Yeah."

"Who are they?"

"Uryu Ishida and Orihime Inoue. They were our friends."

"Oh I remember you talking about Orihime. She was your girlfriend, right?" Nelliel teased.

Hichigo glared, "She was never my girlfriend."

"But you wanted her to be, right?" Ulquiorra asked, his lips curling upward slightly.

"Tch. Look, I'm saying none of them will come here. Ichigo won't come here because he most likely thinks I'm avoiding the place, and Orihime and Uryu won't come because the two of them probably aren't even in Karakura anymore."

"Orihime, is this?"

"Yeah, this was the Kurosaki's house."

Hichigo rushed to the window at the sound of the voices. The others followed.

Below, he could see Orihime, Uryu, and another girl he didn't recognize standing on the porch. Orihime was a holding some flowers in her hand.

"Orihime. . ." Hichigo breathed her name. She looked even more radiant than she did four years ago.

"Oh wow, no wonder you like her. She's much better looking in person."

Nelliel elbowed Grimmjow in the gut, warning him to be quiet.

Hichigo on the other hand ignored what the others behind him were doing and instead focused on Orihime and what she was doing.

She placed the flowers down at the foot of the porch stairs and bowed her head slightly as if she were in prayer. And then, with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes she began to speak:

"Hello, Isshin, Masaki, Yuzu and Karin. It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm sorry I haven't come to visit, but Ichigo insisted that Uryu and I go away for a while until it was safe to come back to Karakura. Neither of us wanted to leave, but we ended up making a new friend while we were away. Her name is Tatsuki. But anyways, Ichigo's become a Detective Specialist now. I'm sure you're not surprised though, huh? He's always protecting people. I'm sure you'd all be very proud of him. I know I am. Hichigo is. . .Hichigo is still missing, but Ichigo's been looking for him. He and I both know that Hichigo is alive. But. . ." Orihime paused and Hichigo waited with baited breath.

"Hichigo. . .he might not be who he used to be. Ichigo said that Aizen took him away and probably made him into some sort of monster. But I don't believe it. Hichigo wouldn't hurt anyone."

There was another pause.

"Well," Orihime continued, "that's not entirely true. He did get into a fair amount of fights when we were in school. What I mean is, he wouldn't hurt anyone without a reason."

"Orihime," Uryu said, "The only reasons Hichigo got into fights was because A)people looked at him funny, and B) people would hit on you. If you recall it was mostly the latter."

The rouge Espada looked at Hichigo, eyebrows raised.

"What? They were all unworthy anyways."

"All of them?" Nelliel questioned.

"Tch."

He continued to watch Orihime, as if he were a love-struck teen. Which he was, only older.

"Well, we better get going. I'll come back again," Orihime said, bowing to the house once more.

As Uryu and Tatsuki turned to follow Orihime, Tatsuki stopped, her eyes narrowing at the upstairs window. Did she just see something move? No, the house was abandoned. Right?

"Are you coming, Tatsuki?"

Yeah. Yeah, I'm coming."

"Ichigo this is Chad, from the 8th division. He'll be helping you this afternoon with the investigation." Urahara said.

Ichigo looked up at the man before him. He was tall, and burly. And based on the color of his skin he looked like a foreigner, or was at least of mixed blood. But, he looked kind, and Ichigo felt he could trust him.

"It's nice to meet you," he said, holding out his hand.

"Likewise," Chad replied, grasping Ichigo's hand and shaking his hand.

"Well, I'll have to head back to the base, so I'll leave you two to it," Urahara said, getting in his own car and driving off. Ichigo and Chad got inside Chad's patrol car and drove off as well.

"So where are we headed?"

The sewers."

". . .Where?"

I know it seems like an odd place to patrol, but you wouldn't believe the number of odd things, and odd people, one can find living under the streets.

"No, I believe you. So you think you found clues pertaining to my brother?"

"Maybe. While I was patrolling one night I found some footprints, and they didn't exactly look human. Maybe there might be some other clues we could find, like hair, or something else we could use for DNA testing."

"I see. Good thinking. Thanks, by the way."

"No need for thanks, it should be natural to help other people."

"I have to admit, I'm surprised you believe that Hichigo was experimented on. The last time I was at the main station everyone looked at me as if I were a nutcase because I was with the SD unit."

"It's not that they don't believe what's happening, they all know what Aizen did and what he continues to do. I think they just can't comprehend it. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, I suppose. You know Chad, you remind me a bit of Orihime."

"Who's that, you're girlfriend?"

Ichigo began to blush, "No she's, just a friend. I'll have to introduce you two, and Uryu as well."

Chad couldn't help but smile at Ichigo's blushing face. He just met the guy and it was obvious he was head over heels for this Orihime girl.

Ichigo cleared his throat, "Anyways, how much farther?"

"We're here, actually."

Chad's car pulled to a stop next to the underpass of a bridge. On the left side of the underpass was a large metal grate. Ichigo assumed the grate was used as a drain for water runoff when it rained. As he looked at the grate he noticed it had hinges and a latch, and upon further inspection, the latch seemed worn, as if it had been frequently used.

"Ready?" Chad asked, opening the grate.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Ichigo replied, climbing down the small ladder first.

His feet stepped on to the concrete floor below him with a tiny splash. After flicking on his flashlight he noticed that the concrete floor continued on for about five more feet before becoming dirt. Chad turned on his flashlight as well, making the tunnel brighter, and led the way, Ichigo following behind.

"I can understand why people would want to hide down here. It's very secluded." Chad said

Yeah. I don't know though, I don't particularly feel safe down here. There's no telling what or who you might run into."

"Ah, here are some footprints," Chad said.

Ichigo shined his light to where Chad had his. The footprints were animalistic. One looked catlike, another Ichigo had no idea how to describe but he knew it wasn't human, and the third set was-

"Are those hooves?" he asked bewildered.

"Yeah, I thought it was weird too."

Ichigo realized that he was only beginning to step into the realm of weird if any of these prints were an indication that they belonged to one of Aizen's experiments. One of these could be Hichigo's. One of them, or all of them, might lead Ichigo to his brother.

"Did you follow these prints the first time you saw them?" he asked.

"I didn't. I just noticed them and then reported to the SD."

"Well let's follow them, I wanna see where they lead to."

Roger.

The two followed the footprints for what seemed like ages. A long the way Ichigo and chad picked up strands of hair that could possibly be used for DNA references.

"Man, they sure did a lot of walking," Ichigo mumbled. "Surely they got hungry."

"Well, given the nature of their footprints I would think it unwise for them to waltz inside a supermarket of some sort."

"Fairpoint."

Suddenly the footprints came to a stop. As if they had just vanished. Beside him Ichigo noticed a small latter like the one he and Chad used earlier. Above their heads was a grate. Climbing the latter and pushing open the grate Ichigo lifted his body out to find that they were behind a restaurant building, right next to the dumpster.

"Well, I know where they got their food from," Ichigo said, hopping back into the tunnel. "We're right below a restaurant. They probably waited until night to get their food."

"Hmm, that would make sense. And I bet they saw no point in continuing down the tunnel when food is right here, which is probably why there are no more footprints."

"Right. I'm going to head back to the lab to give these samples to Nemu. Hopefully she'll be able to help us figure out who, or what, these people are."

"Nemu, could you analyze these for me?" Ichigo asked, handing her the hairs.

"Yes. Are you having any luck?"

I think so. We found our first big clue which is a nice step.

"That's good, I'm glad. If you'll excuse me, I'll get started on analyzing these right away."

"Right, sorry to disturb you."

Ichigo exited the lab and headed towards Kisuke's office.

"Hey, Urahara."

"Hmm? What is it Ichigo? Any leads?"

"Yeah, I'm having Nemu analyze some hairs for DNA. Listen, do you still have that sketch of Hichigo?"

"Yes, I have it right here," he said opening a drawer of his desk and taking the sketch out. "Why, do you need it?"

"Yeah. I need to show it to someone."

Uryu grumbled as someone knocked on his apartment door.

"Ugh it's late, what the hell do you want?" he mumbled while opening the door. Upon seeing Ichigo he blinked in surprise.

"Ichigo? What are you doing here so late?"

"I have something to show to you and Orihime. I called her earlier so she should be over-"

The door burst open again, "Excuse my intrusion. I came here as fast as I could Ichigo."

"-soon."

"So, what's the problem? Uryu asked, setting tea in front of Orihime and Ichigo while they all sat at the small dining room table.

"Remember how I told you two that I had a mission to find out who slaughtered a couple of families? Well one of the victims survived and was able to describe the attacker well enough for us to get a sketch of his face."

"So what's the problem? You have a lead meaning you can catch the guy, right?"

That's not the problem. The problem is who the attacker is."

"Ichigo. . ." Orihime whispered in a horrified tone as if she knew what was to come.

With a grimace he placed the sketch on the table.

Uryu dropped his glass in shock, spilling tea all over the floor. Orihime's hands flew to her mouth, her eyes welling up. The distorted face of Hichigo stared up at her with a warped and twisted smile. Not able to look at the sketch any longer she bolted from her seat and out the door.

"Orihime!" Ichigo called after her.

"Ichigo, don't."

"But-"

"You'll only make things worse by going after her. She needs to settling things within herself on her own."

"Shit," Ichigo cursed, wishing he hadn't shown her anything.

Orihime ran. She just ran and ran and ran until she couldn't and stopped to rest by a bridge. Hichigo was no longer the boy she fell in love with those many years ago.

Hichigo was now a killer.

Hichigo was a monster.

No. Those people, they made him that way. I have to find him. I have to remind him of who he is.

She gripped the black and white charms around her neck.

I have to protect him.

Letting go of the charms she didn't notice that they had become loose from the chain around her neck until they began to fall into the river below her.

"NO!" she cried, reaching out desperately to grab them. She leaned over too far. Her eyes widened with panic before shutting tightly, and she embraced herself as she hit the cold water below.

Orihime heard creaks and crickets and other noises around her. She bolted upright. The last place she was in was the river. This place wasn't a river. She was in a room of some sort, but she didn't know where.

Have I been kidnapped?

"Oh, you're awake now, huh?"

She jumped at the raspy voice that came out of nowhere. She looked around the room, but there was very little light so she couldn't see much of anything or anyone.

"W-who's there?"

"You're rescuer."

"What do you want?" she asked coldly.

"Heh. What's with the cold tone? You should be grateful that I saved you. Why'd you jump off the bridge anyways?"

"Wha- I did not jump. I fell when I was trying to grab something that fell out of my hand."

"Oh, you mean these?"

The black and white charms were thrown in her direction from the darkest corner of the room, landing beside her with a clink.

"You had them?"

"You were holding on to them pretty tightly when I pulled you from the water. I was just curious to see what it was that was so important to you."

"Oh. Well, thank you."

Orihime couldn't believe what she was doing. This guy could be dangerous. She could be talking to a serial killer for all she knew.

"You know, you're lucky I was the one that found you. Who knows what sort of person might have come across your unconscious body."

"Are you not a dangerous person?"

"I never said I wasn't."

Orihime felt a shiver creep up her spine, "then what makes you any different from them?"

"Simple. I have no desire to harm you."

"And you expect me to trust you because?"

"Just because."

"Ah. Well as convincing as your logic is I'm going to take my leave now."

"You don't even know where you are. Besides, it's late. It'll be dangerous for you to walk around at night."

"I don't exactly feel safe with you right now."

"I told you already, I have no desire to harm you. You can trust me, Hime."

". . . What did you just call me?"

There was silence.

"Only one person in this world calls me by that name. Step out into the light so I can see you."

"No."

"Please."

"I don't want to frighten you."

"Please."

She heard a sigh come from the corner. As he stepped out into the light Orihime's eyes widened.

"Hichigo."

Hichigo smiled slightly, "Yo. It's been a while, Hime."

Author's Note:

Yo, been a while huh?

Anywho, look who finally met again! *throws confetti*

Sorry for not including anything particularly romantic about their meeting, but you guys should know how much I like cliff hangers now :)

The next chapter will be. . . sometime. I don't know when, honestly. I started grad school so I'm pretty busy.

Reviews are appreciated as always :)

Take care and God bless,

Rose