Chapter Four

A Visitor from the Past Comes to Call

Ichigo thought he was seeing things. But there was no mistaking that green and white bucket hat and the pair of geta he wore. He looked just the same as he had three years ago when he'd last seen him. Of course, he wouldn't have changed. He wore a Gigai, and Shinigami didn't age like humans.

"Ichigo, I've been looking for you," he said in a soft voice as he came closer.

Ichigo dragged off the cigarette, wondering if there was something else in it for a moment. "You can't be here."

"I'm here, Ichigo. I never stopped looking," he said.

"No, look, I'm busy. I've got to go back in. I just came out for a smoke," he said softly, looking back at the motel room door.

"If I get a hotel room, will you come and talk with me?" Kisuke said, looking him over.

"No, look, this guy paid already. I can't just walk out."

Kisuke looked pained at that, but he nodded. "Tomorrow?"

"I'll be doing the same thing, so no, just go back. I don't need you anymore. I'm fine."

He sighed. "I can make you come back."

Ichigo licked his lips. "I know you can, but you won't, because that's not you, now get out of here." He turned his back dropped the cigarette and crushed it with his foot. "I can't go back," he said over his shoulder and went back in the room.

"Everything okay?" his client said. "Heard you talking to someone."

"Yeah, fine, just a guy looking for directions, that's all." Ichigo slipped the shirt back off and kicked his shoes off slowly, still reeling from seeing Kisuke.

The rest of the night was a blur. He did what the client wanted and left come morning. He didn't get to sleep much, but he was used to that most the time. He left, grabbing his bag and walking outside to make sure Kisuke wasn't there anymore. He swallowed because part of him had wanted him to be there. No, he thought, he couldn't think like that. That was a life he couldn't go back to.

He had to find a place to sleep, though, before tonight. He counted his money and decided he had enough for a hotel and lunch, so he went to the cheapest one in the area and got a room for the day. He dropped his stuff and fell into the bed with a deep sigh. Imagine, seeing Kisuke Urahara. Someone he only saw in his dreams now and then. He wondered if it had to do with the fact his ability to see ghosts was coming back. He swallowed. Was it coming back to him after all this time? It had been three years since he got shipped overseas to America, and he'd been twenty when that happened. So, six years or so since he gave up his power.

No, it couldn't be coming back. That couldn't be it.

But was it? How else did Kisuke find him? He couldn't answer that one. He struggled to sleep with the thoughts racing in his mind. No matter what, the dreams of his inner world still haunted him. He still saw the spirits inside his inner world, and he just couldn't hear what they were saying. It was frustrating and when he dreamed like that, he felt like he hadn't slept at all. So, what if it wasn't a dream at all?

He flopped over on his stomach, adjusting because his pocket was full of condoms and lube and he hadn't taken off his jeans. He didn't know what to do, so he eventually fell asleep. Again, he was visited with dreams of his old life, no doubt triggered by Kisuke showing up. He woke sometime later, just as the sun was going down, and got out of the warm bed. He had to eat something, as he hadn't eaten really in a couple days. Granted, he didn't eat a lot as it was.

He went to the bathroom and started the shower, spending a long time in there washing up because no one wanted to spend the night with a dirty whore. He got done and toweled off, finding a t-shirt that wasn't dirty in his bag and his other pair of jeans. He'd need to wash soon, as it had been too long already. He dug out the deodorant, another splurge he never went without, and applied it. He headed out, walking back to the corner he usually worked. He waved at the girls as he passed them. He sniffed a little, as he was coming down with something as the days started to get colder. His hip ached a lot, so he knew the weather was probably changing soon.

It didn't take long before someone pulled up and he leaned in the window. "Looking for a night fun?" he asked, overexaggerating his Japanese accent. He'd found that some clients liked the exotic nature of sleeping with a foreign sex worker.

"Ichigo." He heard a familiar voice and turned around.

"You again?" he said.

Kisuke held out some bills. "For your time."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at him. "Hey, I was here first!" the man in the car protested.

"Yeah, he was here last night," Ichigo said, dropping the accent he'd put on. "Go on, I'm sure there's another guy willing to let you fuck them tonight."

Ichigo reached out and took the money, noting it was the right amount for a full night. "How'd you know how much?"

"I was watching last night before I got my Gigai."

Ichigo sighed, wondering why he hadn't seen him. He guessed maybe his spirit sight wasn't back all the way yet. "Alright, let's go."

Ichigo walked him to a motel that was nearby. "You're buying the room," he informed him.

Kisuke nodded and walked in to rent a room for the night as Ichigo waited outside, leaning against the wall and smoking a cigarette. He came out with a card key and Ichigo walked beside him as they took the stairs to the second floor and opened one of the rooms. Ichigo tossed the cigarette over the rail and walked in behind Kisuke. Ichigo dropped his backpack and looked around.

"So, you want to do it with me? You paid for it," he asked, looking at him.

"I don't expect that," Kisuke said as he sat down on the bed. "I wanted to talk to you and I figured this was going to be the only way to get you alone."

"You're wasting your money and your time. Nothing is going to change," Ichigo said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You can come home. Or to Soul Society. Your powers are already returning. That's how I found you. You're releasing low level reiatsu. I managed to detect it," Kisuke said, looking at him.

"After three years, and after what I've been through, you expect me to up and go back just like that?" Ichigo said, starting to get annoyed.

"This isn't a good life," Kisuke said.

"Why do you say that? It's good enough. I make enough money to get rooms and sleep during the day, and get enough to eat. What else can I do?" he growled out.

"You can go home. Everyone still misses you," Kisuke said.

"You have no idea what's happened to me," Ichigo said, turning his back on Kisuke and facing the window. "You can't just expect that to go away."

"Tell me, then?" Kisuke asked. "All I could find out after you disappeared was the Yakuza sent you out of Japan. I had no idea where and no way to find out, so I focused instead on developing a way to detect you despite being without your powers."

Ichigo looked over his shoulder. "You want to know what happened to me?"

"Yeah, I do." Kisuke wasn't budging it seemed.

"No, you don't, and I don't want to tell it," Ichigo snorted and looked away again.

Kisuke got up and stood behind him. "Ichigo, you've been through a lot. I can only imagine what that has been like, but there's an option. You can get the rest of your powers back. We developed a way to reignite them."

Ichigo turned around to face him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Kurotsuchi and I developed a Zanpakutō. It's imbued with the power of the captains and vice captains of the Gotei 13. We think it will reignite your Shinigami powers completely," Kisuke said, reaching out and putting his hands on Ichigo's shoulders. "Then, you can come home."

"You mean, Soul Society," Ichigo said, staring at him.

"I do."

Ichigo looked away again. "As I am now, I'm not worth all that."

"Don't be like that, Ichigo. I'm sure you've done what you've had to do to survive," Kisuke told him.

"Look, I murdered someone, alright? I outright killed a man because he… he…" his voice choked and he turned around again, crossing his arms over his chest. "I just killed someone."

"Ichigo, I'm sure it isn't as simple as that. It never is." Kisuke put his hands on Ichigo's shoulders and squeezed. "I don't care if you've killed someone. I know you. You did it because you had to."

"I didn't have to. I could have stayed there and taken it. He wasn't trying to hurt me when I did it. He'd already done that. It was murder." His head drooped and Kisuke ran a hand up the back of his neck. It felt good, to be honest.

"Ichigo, whatever he did to you, you didn't deserve, and I know you only killed him because it was your only option."

Ichigo didn't see it that way, though. While it was true, at the moment he killed Russo, he was trying to kill him, he only did that because Ichigo was going to try to kill him in his sleep. He was a murderer, he felt, and there was nothing that Kisuke said that would change that feeling.

"He held me captive," he said softly, feeling Kisuke's hands still on his back. "He accepted me in trade for some company with the Yakuza. He hated anyone who wasn't white, so he took out that hatred on me. He tied me to the bed and raped me the first night I was there. I was so naïve. I didn't know what was coming. He let me try to escape, then he just had me tied and beaten by these men of his who took their turns too. They used me like I was some thing for them to have, and I couldn't get away." He felt Kisuke's hands flex on him.

"I decided the only way to get out was to gain his trust, so I started doing what he wanted, and eventually I figured out how to manipulate him. He started letting me out of the room. And I got a knife. I was going to kill him in his sleep. But he woke up, and we fought over the knife, but I ended up putting it in his chest. There was a lot of blood, but I got up. His wife let me get out, but I got shot in the process of escaping." Ichigo paused. "Then I had to get out of New York. He was a mafia guy who was influential. So, I made a deal with some people that brought me here, to St. Louis."

Ichigo turned back around to see Kisuke was just listening to him. "I started working on the docks to pay them off. It was fine for a while, but then I injured myself, and I couldn't do it anymore. I owed the people that brought me here, and there was only one way to get that much money quickly. I started doing this, and I paid them off. But now, there's nothing else for me. I'm illegal. I'm alone. So, you see, just go back and leave me to this life. As fucked up as it is, it's still mine."

Kisuke reached out to hug him, and for a minute, Ichigo didn't know what to do. But he let him after a second, and he wrapped his arms around him. It felt incredibly nice, though, to be hugged like this once again. He swallowed and felt the warmth he offered and sighed, letting it linger for a while until he pushed him back.

"Ichigo, please, you can come to Soul Society."

Ichigo looked at him. "I don't deserve to."

"Do it, for me, please?" he said softly. "I know what you've been through, and it's enough. It's time you moved on and came home with me."

"But the Yakuza…" Ichigo said, frowning.

"They're not worried about you anymore. As far as they know, you were sent to this mafia guy and that was it. No one is looking for you anymore. Not in Japan, anyway." Kisuke reached out and took him by the hand. "And I have to admit, I want you to come back. For me."

Ichigo blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, over the last three years, I've realized some things about me. And things about what I want in life, and I want you to be present in it. I've missed your presence greatly, and I would like to make you a part of the life I've made in Karakura Town." Kisuke pulled his hand up and kissed the back of it. "I will take you as you are now, knowing you're a different man from the one three years ago."

Ichigo looked at him, still overwhelmed by what he was saying. "What are you saying?"

"You heard what I'm saying," Kisuke said. "Come with me, and we'll try together."

"Together?" Ichigo asked, frowning. "I don't know if I can," he admitted.

"That's okay. You mean something to me, and I want you to know that," Kisuke said, looking at him with strangely serious eyes under his hat.

He was so used to the coy shopkeeper act Kisuke usually put on, seeing him this serious was strange. He didn't know what to think, but the offer was one he would have accepted three years ago in a heartbeat, back when his heart yearned to make those kind of connections. The question was, could he do that again, or was that time gone? He swallowed thickly and wondered what would happen if he agreed to what Kisuke was suggesting. What would his father say? What would Soul Society think?

Then, all of a sudden, Ichigo realized something.

He didn't care.

"Okay," he said and nodded.

Kisuke's serious face was replaced with a familiar smirk, and he reached out, putting his hand behind Ichigo's head and pulling him forward. He pressed his mouth to Ichigo's without pause, surprising Ichigo a little with his forwardness. He pressed back, licking at the seam of his mouth and when he opened, delving inside without hesitation. Kisuke kissed back, tongue twisting with Ichigo's in an intricate dance of breaths. Kisuke pulled back and looked at Ichigo from under the brim of his hat.

"Let's go home, Ichigo," he said softly.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

In the expanse of Hueco Mundo, a new Arrancar made his way through the wastes toward a structure in the distance. His utterly blackened human heart had been no great loss when he had become hollow, and the driving force of hatred inside him had driven him to rip his mask off. He was powerful, emitting enough power to eliminate lesser hollows that dared to approach him. The world around him was new, but he didn't care. He had one desire, one thing that would fill the emptiness inside of him, and that was to have his one desire again.

Eventually, he reached the structure, and found it to be massive. He sensed others like him, and he saw them come toward him. He smiled, yes, this would do. They were drawn to his power. They would serve him in this world as humans had served him in the last.

It didn't take long for him to set himself up as the one in power. Several others challenged him, but he defeated them easily. Soon, they turned to him for leadership. And thus, his underlings grew. Before long, he had many who were following him, and he wondered how he would accomplish his goals.

He heard stories. Stories of a Shinigami named Aizen. He listened as the Arrancar who had been in Hueco Mundo the last few years gave him these stories of what had happened, and how the one who had brought them low had been an orange headed Shinigami by the name of Ichigo Kurosaki.

Could it be? Was it possible that it was the same person? The description and name matched, and it was seemingly more than possible. It became fact. He would do as he had planned, and bring Ichigo to Hueco Mundo again, and have him under his heel yet again.

Ernesto Russo would have what he desired.