AN: Hay haaayyy(:. I've been on quite the uploading spree lately, with all my Bleach xovers; my writing muse has been back full force. I hope you enjoy the chapter, probably overdue as it is.
"Do you believe in the afterlife, Orihara-san?"
Ichigo cringed at starting with such a lame, corny line. He could just imagine the way that Rukia and Renji would snicker at him if they were here. The image was enough to make his heart pang; if his human friends apparently didn't exist here in the Transient World, what were the chances of his Shinigami friends existing in Soul Society? What if Soul Society didn't even exist here?
Urahara and the Visored were Ichigo's only link to the Shinigami; if he couldn't find them, he had no way of checking on the status of his non-living friends. He had no way of getting to Soul Society without Urahara's senkaimon, and he had no way of figuring out if Urahara was even here, because the guy had no human identification, and his base, Karakura Town, had vanished off the map!
Or had never been on it, whatever.
Point was, Ichigo was stuck. And now here he was, about to reveal dangerous information to possibly the worst person he could have revealed it to. Even after knowing the guy for only a few hours, Ichigo could just tell that Orihara was a dangerous sort of person. He actually reminded the teenager quite a bit of Urahara; he was shady and suspicious, and he knew far too much whilst revealing far too little.
At least with Urahara, Ichigo could trust that his motives were generally in line with Ichigo's own (minus that one instance where he almost got Rukia executed). With Orihara, Ichigo got the feeling that he would need to be extremely on his guard at all times.
So why the fuck was he currently trying to figure out the best way to explain things likes Shinigami and Soul Society?
He hadn't a bloody clue.
It was too late anyway; Ichigo had already started with that lame-ass question, and he just knew Orihara wasn't going to let him take it back. So onwards it was.
The information broker was leaning forward, elbows on his knees and chin resting on his clasped hands. His pale face was passive, but those dark eyes were alight with an interest that made Ichigo uneasy. This guy really was creepy.
"As it happens, Kurosaki-kun," Orihara started. "I am an atheist. I don't believe in higher powers, or life after death." Despite his words, the keen glint in his eye didn't disappear.
Ichigo leaned back, stretching his arms out and tipping his head back. Would Orihara even believe him? Of course the guy had to be an atheist; nothing could ever be easy for him, could it?
He decided to be blunt. Orihara would either believe him or he wouldn't, but Ichigo wasn't going to lie. "I don't know if this applies here, but where I came from, there was an afterlife. It was called Soul Society."
The huge grin that split Orihara's face wasn't just crazed, it was unholy. Ichigo was suddenly reminded much less of Urahara, and uncomfortably more of Kurotsuchi Mayuri. The human man was giving off a lot of 'mad scientist' vibes. He wondered if this feeling of eye-violation was how Ishida felt every time he had to face the Captain of the Twelfth. Ichigo was suddenly feeling a lot more sympathy for his Quincy cousin.
"Do go on, Kurosaki-kun," Orihara purred. "You've got me intrigued~"
Taking a deep breath, Ichigo pushed on, despite vague feelings of doom. "You were asking about my powers before, right? How did you know that I even had any?"
Orihara tilted his head. "Kurosaki-kun, I don't know if you know this, but walking on thin air is not considered a typical human ability."
Right. Yet another thing that told Ichigo that he was very far from home; the people here could see him. In his Shinigami form. Well, most of them could. Back in Ikebukuro there had been a few times where people had squinted at him as if they couldn't properly focus on him, and even several instances where Ichigo had spoken to somebody, and the person with them had looked at them like they were crazy when they replied. Ichigo couldn't quite tell what it was that was allowing certain people to see him and not others; reishi and reiatsu seemed to work differently here. Urahara, or even Ishida, or Rukia with her stupid bunny drawings, would have been able to analyse it better, but all Ichigo knew was that he could still use all his powers (an assumption: he had not yet tried to use Getsuga Tenshō on anything), and that he could still feel reiatsu in the air. There was just nothing that even came close to feeling like a familiar reiatsu signature, nor anything anywhere near the size and strength of Ichigo's own.
He shook his head. Theorising could wait; Orihara was still waiting for his story. Ignoring the jeers from Hollow-Zangetsu about the state of his intelligence, Ichigo resumed his explanation. "I hadn't actually realised that people could see me doing that, you know. It was an afterlife thing; once you've passed on, you fade from the sight of the living. I'm not dead," he added hastily, noticing the odd look forming on Orihara's face. "I'm an exception. But anyway, Soul Society. That's where the souls of humans go once their physical body dies, and some of those souls go on to become Shinigami."
"Kurosaki-kun," Orihara interrupted, smirk twisting at his thin lips. "Are you trying to tell me that you are some form of god?"
Ichigo jerked his head irritably. "Of course not. I'm human. Now shut up and let me finish, or this is going to take all night."
The information broker leaned back, smiling in (fake) apology. "Please, continue."
Ugh. 'This guy…'
Narrowing his eyes a little, Ichigo regathered his train of thought. "I didn't mean Shinigami in the literal sense of the word," he said pointedly. "It's just a title, kinda. I think. It's what they call the souls with high levels of power, the ones that are able to go back to the Transient World and send on the ones that are hanging around as ghosts." It was a little more complicated than that, and Ichigo had no doubt that Orihara would find a way to pry every single little detail out of him, but for now, he wanted to keep it simple. "Shinigami can use reishi, the stuff that everything spiritual is made up of, to walk on by gathering it in mid-air. That's what I was doing, back in Ikebukuro. Reishi is invisible and untouchable to regular humans, which is why it looked like I was walking on the air."
"Interesting." Despite calling himself an atheist, Orihara didn't particularly look as though his entire worldview had just been shattered. In fact, he was looking rather pleased with himself. "But you, Kurosaki-kun, said that you were a not-dead human. And yet here, you are, doing supposedly Shinigami things." Black eyes seemed to be attempting to bore into Ichigo's skull with an unnerving intensity.
'This,' Ichigo thought tiredly, 'Is probably why people kept looking at me funny when I mentioned I was looking for him.' Still though, he couldn't regret it, not even if Orihara had him spilling every single one of his deep, dark secrets. The guy had a reputation for knowing everything. If Ichigo had any sort of chance at finding a way home, Orihara Izaya would be the one to find it for him.
AN: Feedback welcomed! Don't worry, there will be some form of extra explanation from Ichigo in the next or later chapters; he's not just jumping around at random. I just don't really wanna write out the whole spiel, if I'm being honest. So it will either be quick, or post-explanation summaries. Feedback welcome on this too, let me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading!
- Kelly
