He followed Yoruichi's instructions precicely. The gateway opened and the vaccum of the space between Hueco Mundo and Soul Society pulled him within. He lept through without complications and flew out into the open sky above a new city far below. He wasn't sure yet which city it was, but he had time to find that out later. He descended in the darkness and landed atop an electrical post, pausing there to gain his bearings. He felt strangely disconnected with the living world, moreso than he'd ever noticed before, like he truly had no place there anymore. He focused, closing his eyes, hoping he could do what he was told without any on-hand guidance. He pictured Yuzu and Karin, as well as his father, in his mind...hoping that the memory of them from fifteen years ago was enough to find them now. He felt something weak to the southeast and turned to face that direction.
"They must have a new clinic there." He said to himself, taking off along the rooftops. It was winter there and snow was all around. People were in the streets, playing and running, going to stores and laughing happilly. Ichigo couldn't remember what it was like to be with them. All he knew now was Soul Society and life as a Shinigami. He got closer to the reiatsu he'd been drawn to, and paused in the streets before a large building. A hospital. A really BIG hospital.
He looked up, reading the huge kanji that titled the establishment.
"Ishida-Kurosaki New Kyoto Hospital." He was perplexed, "Kyoto huh? They sure went far."
He heard people approaching from behind, but knowing they couldn't see him, he barely turned to watch them pass. Instead, he jumped to a light-post nearby, then up to a veranda on the fourth floor. From there, he entered, seeing a wave of bright light and breathing in that long-known smell of antiseptic. It was all incredibly nostalgic to him, but he pressed on, perhaps finding his father first. There were a lot of people going through the halls, nurses and other doctors alike, looking at charts and disccussing other things amongst themselves. Not a soul was aware he was there.
Moving forward, he looked at a map near a stairwell, checking for offices. There, on the 8th floor, he saw "Office of Kurosaki Isshin" and a large purple block to show what it looked like in respect to the other rooms on that floor. He let ouf a nervous sigh and made for the next four floors, darting up the stairwell relatively quickly. To his disappointment, the entire floor was dark, no one working there.
"...Why did I sense a reiatsu if there's no one up here?" He heard a shuffle behind him, and a half-moment later he found himself with his chin on the floor and his legs pinned above his head, "Wh-what the Hell!?"
"ICHIGO!" Someone yelled above him, the man pinning him to the ground obviously.
"WHAT THE HELL!?"
"You let your gaurd down! Didn't you learn anything!?"
"Dad!?"
He got a smack to the top of his head before Isshin let him go, a rather painful one at that. Ichigo couldn't be mad though, he was far too shocked for it anyway. He found his feet and rubbed the lump starting to form, gleaning one eye at the man that had so easily eluded his senses.
"...You got me again, even after all this time.."
"And you still leak reiatsu like an over-full bucket." Isshin answered, "You'll bring Hollows from all over the country if you don't learn to control it."
"Sorry.."
"So you finally managed to come back after all these years." Isshin said calmly, looking mostly the same as Ichigo remembered save the addition of some grey to his hair, "Where have you been?"
Ichigo took a deep breath, the situation still a little overwhelming to him, "I've been stuck in Karakura. Rukia only found me there a week or two ago. It's been madness since then..."
"People are terrified to go there." Isshin said, "Karakura, that is. Since Aizen used the people to make his key.."
"I know, dad...believe me. I was alone there the entire time."
"Hah, what a subject to get on after we haven't spoken in over a decade. I should be asking a hundred other things...but there's one question that stands out above all...what brought you here?"
"I need to know something. Apparently only you know the answer."
"It's about Neliel, isn't it?" Isshin had a smile on his face, "Relax."
"So you do know! What happened!?"
"It's a bit of a long story." Isshin said, "Let's at least sit down for it."
They found themselves on the roof of the hospital, sitting over the far northern ledge to look at the city. Ichigo remained standing.
"You were still an Espada when it happened." Isshin started, "I was still a distance away, but I saw Ichimaru show up south of Aizen. He just stood there for a while, then Aizen spoke. Yamamoto was killed instantly, and then Nell tried to attack...Gin got her next. Unlike Shinigami though, Hollows are capable of a few tricks."
"You don't mean to say she's still alive!?"
"Let me finish." He shook a finger at his 'dead' son, "She was killed on the spot by apperances. Ichimaru ignored her after that. The other Espada started fighting you and the two exCaptains went down into the core of Seireitei. I rushed to Nell's side while the coast was clear and took off with her, in case the place was destroyed by you guys. I couldn't let her disappear like I let Masaki..."
They were both silent for a moment, the memory of that much-loved woman still in their minds. It was a hard thing to get past even though the Grand Fisher had been killed.
"I took her to where I knew she might be safe, leaving the others behind. She bled pretty badly from where Ichimaru's zanpakuto struck, but to my surprise, she seemed to be alive still. I had hope that if I got far enough away, I'd be able to help her recover, so I stopped in a big clearing and set her on the ground. The entire left side of her mask had been smashed apart and the wound from Ichimaru's blade was deep. By all accounts, she should've been dead...she took a direct hit to her head like Yamamoto did. I have to credit her being an Arrancar for her ability to survive. I used every trick I knew to try to help her, desperate to save her if not anyone else. But...she went quiet after a while. I thought I had failed."
Ichigo finally sat, letting his legs dangle over the edge of the roof like his father's.
"I kept watch for hours, waiting for some sign that she was quietly healing, seeing none. That's when she came..."
"She?"
"Yoruichi."
Ichigo's eyes widened, "Really!? She must've.."
"She told me the only way to help her anymore was to anchor her spirit to something tangible. In other words...for her to live, she would have to die."
"I don't think I.."
"I used my zanpakuto for the last time that day. At the same time, Yoruichi used some sort of device, and it gathered all of her spiritual particles into a tiny sphere. Hah, that clever lady managed to fit all of Nell's departed spirit into a Soul Candy ball. I'd never seen something like that in person before, but I had to give them credit where it was due. It explained Kon at any rate. Where is he anyway?"
"Not important right now. What happened after that?"
"Oh...well, Yoruichi gave me the little ball and told me to take care of it. She said it was Urahara's way of saying he was sorry. I never understood what she meant by it, but just as quickly as she had arrived, she disappeared again, just like the wind. I was left there with nothing but a bit of Soul Candy and a couple rocks. So I did the only thing I knew to do that could explain what had happened to Nell without drawing negative attention. I dug a fake grave and put a large, unmarked stone at the head of it. I feel bad lying about it, but I didn't want anyone to come after her. I couldn't risk losing someone again. Maybe it's my nature as a doctor or maybe it was just my way of trying to forgive myself after you'd yelled at me...but I was determinned to make sure Nell was safe from then on."
"What did you do then?"
"I went back to Seireitei. The fight had been over and you were gone when I arrived. They said Captain Kuchiki had used Konso on you, and that the other Espada were all dead, having dropped like birds from the sky, shriveling into tiny husks, shadows of their former selves. I hoped that you would be reborn somewhere better in the living world, or that maybe you would wander Soul Society as a blank slate that someone might find someday. Konso has never done anything but brought peace to a lost spirit. I had faith in it."
"So much for that idea." Ichigo muttered, leaning forward, his elbows propped on his knees, "All it did was send me back to that empty, dead city, hardly remembering anything or anyone I'd known before. It took years for me to recall anything, and then when no one ever came, I just stopped caring. I couldn't even hurt myself with my own zanpakuto, and as pathetic as it sounds, I really wanted to after a while. But then Rukia came..."
"Why for? Obviously no one else was there."
"That's just it...like you said, people were scared of the place. Rukia said she'd been sent there as a first-time scout to look for any lost spirits that might've accumulated there over the years. I don't know why she didn't decline. But there she was, and as soon as she noticed me, she hunted me down. Heh, she thought I was some other spirit. We didn't recognize each other for a while."
"It must've been overwhelming to reunite like that, at each other's sword-points."
"It served to remind me why Plus' from back in the day were so scared of Shinigami. Without knowing that the hilt would be used, it'd be easy to think they might be cut down instead. I honestly thought she was crazy! Coming at me like that...and yet, despite how miserable I was before, I didn't want to end my life by someone else's blade. I couldn't believe it when I realized it was her. After all my hopes of being found had left me, and everything else feeling numb and empty...there she was."
"It's hard to accept something so drastic." Isshin said, "I'm still thinking I fell asleep on my desk and this is a dream. I can't believe you're really back."
"It's more of a nightmare to me." Ichigo said, "You've probably noticed my eye by now."
"I have." His father answered, "What's going on?"
"I don't know. Everyone's pointing fingers, saying my Hollow is returning to take me over again and destroy Soul Society. I just can't accept it, no matter how much it looks like it, because Ochigi hasn't said a word in the fifteen years he's had the opportunity. Not even Zangetsu talks to me. I think he's tried but I couldn't ever really hear him."
"It's a strange situation, for sure." Isshin nodded, "Maybe Nell can tell you more?"
"You used the Soul Candy?"
"Obviously." Isshin laughed, "It'd be pretty heartless of me to keep someone's soul trapped in a candy dispenser, right?"
"Well, yeah...but I mean...where is she then?"
"At home." Isshin explained, "It took a little while to track him down, but when I did, Urahara agreed to make a gigai to put Nell's soul into. He made it look more like a regular human kid, so she wouldn't get picked on for having green hair or anything. I don't know if you would recognize her now."
"Maybe not." Ichigo stood up, "Where do you live now?"
Isshin searched around in his long white labcoat for a moment, then pulled out a business card, "I trust you can still find a place in the living world?"
"I should." He took the card and looked it over, seeing the address marked on the bottom of the reverse side, "I guess I'll see you again later on?"
"If you stay at the house for a while, probably. I have a few things left to do here. Not going to say hi to Uryuu while you're here?"
"Maybe later. Right now I still need to find some answers. Soul Society's in a bit of a cluster right now and knowing what I might be in for may be critical to stopping this problem...and maybe saving Byakuya's life." Ichigo nodded, then pushed off the edge of the building, going into a free-fall before pushing off from the vertical wall and disappearing into the night again. Isshin watched him go, but then turned back to the building. He was still having trouble believing he'd just experienced the last few minutes. He suddenly paused, then ran to the edge of the roof.
"BE CAREFUL, YUZU AND KARIN ARE THERREEEE!!"
He wasn't sure if Ichigo had heard him or not.