A.N.: This is a request by Draxon.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Chapter Seven
Shortly afterward…
Ichigo opened his eyes, sensation coming back to him. His memory came back to him slowly. He remembered training with Halibel, being alerted to Rukia and Uryu in danger, intervening and fighting the red-haired Soul Reaper, then…
"RUKIA!" Ichigo shouted as he sat up, only to realize that he was no longer bleeding out in the rain in the middle of the street. "Hey, where am I?"
"Good. You're awake."
Turning around, Ichigo's eyes widened when he saw the bucket-hat wearing shopkeeper sitting behind him, his face obscured by his fan. "Hat-And-Clogs…"
"You're lucky to be alive. I guess we should be grateful that Byakuya still possesses an iota of mercy." He saw Ichigo try to rise but held a hand up. "Careful. If you move around too much, you'll die," he warned.
"Is this…your house?" Ichigo asked, looking around. He certainly wasn't home, that was for sure.
"Yep."
"Did you…save me?" Ichigo asked, almost accusingly.
The shopkeeper was silent for a moment, his eyes fixed squarely on Ichigo as if he was trying to solve a puzzle he was missing a piece for. "You sound upset. Didn't you want to be saved?"
Ichigo merely looked down at the floor, remembering his utter failure to save Rukia and… "Uryu!" he said, his head snapping up. "What happened to him? Is he here?" he asked, concerned for the Quincy.
"Nope. He's home. He lost a lot of blood but his injury wasn't severe. A few days in bed and he'll be right as rain." He put his fan down and smiled. "He told me to take care of you. Because you're the only one who can save Miss Kuchiki."
Ichigo hung his head again, a look of defeat on his face. "Save her? What am I supposed to do? She's in the Soul Society! The one place I don't know how to go! How can I save her?" Giving into defeat, Ichigo slumped forward. "I can't. I can't do it."
"What if you could?"
Ichigo's head snapped up again, the flicker of hope in his eyes. "Huh?"
The next several minutes saw the man explain his terms to Ichigo, promising to help him reach the Soul Society provided he allowed to train him for ten days. When Ichigo protested that there wasn't any time, Hat-And-Clogs easily pinned him and made him realize that as he was now, he was virtually useless.
So in the end, Ichigo agreed.
"Then go home. Get some rest," the man instructed, introducing himself as Kisuke Urahara. "Because for the next ten days, I'm putting you through the wringer."
Ichigo stood up and walked towards the door, a black cat walking past him towards its owner. Before he left the room though, he heard Kisuke call out to him. "Oh, and Ichigo?" The boy turned around and almost froze from the accusing glare Kisuke was giving him. "You wouldn't happen to be hiding anything important from us, would you?"
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Ichigo calmed the butterflies in his belly and glared back at him. "Are you?"
The two locked eyes for a tense moment before Kisuke smiled, relenting the argument. "Touché, I guess. You can go now."
Shivering from the stare both he and the cat were giving him, Ichigo left the room. One thing was for sure, Kisuke Urahara was not someone to be careless around…
The shopkeeper and the cat heard Ichigo leave before Kisuke turned to his feline friend. "I do believe our dear Ichigo is keeping something from us."
Had anyone normal been present, they'd have been knocked off their feet when the cat spoke. "Yes, I noticed it too. For some time now I've felt something off about that boy." The cat got onto Kisuke's lap. "His power growth is too rapid to just be coincidence."
Sitting back on his cushion, Kisuke thought deeply about the matter. "Yes. Uryu told me what happened. Ichigo not only disarmed a lieutenant but was on the verge of killing him. No lowly Substitute with only two months of combat experience, fighting Hollows no less, could achieve that on his own. Miss Kuchiki was a good teacher but she mainly focused on teaching him the bare basics. And even before that…" he scratched his chin and thought hard. "There's no way he should've been able to defeat the Menos Grande that came here. True, he was bolstered by Uryu's power and true, it was also just a Gillian but he should have been able to do nothing more than hurt it. Obviously, a third party is involved."
The cat was silent as it processed Kisuke's words. "Yes, and there's something even more unsettling." The black cat sniffed the air and bristled from Ichigo's lingering scent. "He reeks of Hollow."
"I noticed too. And while I was recovering him I noticed something rather peculiar…"
"How so?'
"His wound. While it wasn't healed I sensed that something had caused some of the damage to lessen. Not enough to save him though. Whoever did it didn't have the capacity to heal him fully, just lessen enough so he could die in peace."
"…Do you suspect Aizen?" the cat asked. "This screams of his involvement."
"No, it's something else. But as much as if pains me to say it…" Kisuke's expression hardened as he came to one inevitable conclusion.
"Ichigo Kurosaki is not to be trusted."
The Next Day…
Halibel stepped into the World of the Living, a bouquet of flowers in her hand. She'd had her subordinates gather them for her after telling them about the incident with Ichigo. They were all heartbroken to see her so shaken up and did as she requested, gathering flowers for her. Once they'd gotten enough, Halibel ventured alone into the World of the Living. She had to see him, one way or another. If the ex-Soul Reaper was unable to save Ichigo, she'd lay the flowers at his grave.
If he was still alive…
She reached for the bracelet on her wrist and poured her spiritual pressure into it. It was the trigger that activated the gem in Ichigo's bracelet, the signal that she wanted to meet with him. "Please be alive…" she prayed.
Last night had given Halibel plenty to think about. She searched the labyrinth that was her thoughts and emotions and came to a conclusion. Ichigo was her friend. She'd found the companion she'd so desperately craved and now she'd lost him when he was on the verge of standing side-by-side with her. If Halibel still had a heart, she'd feel like it'd been ripped in two.
She came to their training spot and waited, giving Ichigo till nightfall. For hours she waited and waited, wondering what she could say to her student. 'What is there to say?' she thought to herself, riddled with shame. 'I let him go into battle knowing that he would lose. What teacher would do that to her pupil? Saying sorry isn't going to fix that.'
The sun began to set and Halibel began to imagine that the worst had come to pass. "He is dead then…" she said, her eyes misting.
Then she heard footsteps.
Setting the bouquet down, Halibel stood up and turned to see Ichigo walking through the woods towards her. Her sigh of relief was soured almost immediately when she noticed him in his Human clothes. "That's right," she remembered. "He lost his Soul Reaper powers."
Due to his powerlessness, Halibel was a ghost to Ichigo. He had the faint feeling that she was here with him but he had no way of knowing. Eyeing the bouquet of flowers, Ichigo picked it up and sniffed them, finding the gesture to be touching. "Halibel," he called out. "I don't know if you're here but…" Ichigo looked around before saying what was on his mind. "It's not your fault."
Halibel blinked. She didn't know how her conversation with Ichigo would go if she could speak to him but she expected anger or condemnation, feelings of abandonment and betrayal to be thrown at her. This, however, was not anger.
This was forgiveness.
"It was my choice to make. I know that you couldn't have helped me even if you wanted to. If the Soul Society knew that you were helping me…" Ichigo let the prospect linger, not wanting to think about any consequences. "My friend, Rukia. She's been taken by them. She…" Ichigo stared at the ground, remembering the night that changed his life. "She's going to die for saving me. I have to save her." He looked around, not realizing that Halibel was right in front of him. "I'm going to save her. The man who saved me, he promised to help me get my powers back in ten days. I don't know if you're here or not but…I'll be back here ten days from now to see you again. I just…I just wanted you to know that I don't blame you for anything. You're my friend, Halibel. And I'm going to set all of this right."
Halibel watched Ichigo leave with the bouquet in his arms, stunned by his words. Her emotions for Ichigo grew from hearing him talk and seeing his firm resolution, the determination that drew her to him in the first place. As the sun went down, Halibel sat herself on a stump and got comfortable.
It would be a long ten days of waiting. But Halibel was willing to wait as long as it takes until Ichigo came back to her…
To be continued
