Main POV

"I've been thinking, Uotani," Toshiro said and I paled. "About that barrier earlier, I think whatever it was that came out of that barrier.."

My heart was pounding in my chest, demanding escape while my stomach dropped to the floor. Instead of living out the ideal fantasy with my idols in the anime world, I was about to get murdered. I started to sweat and my pulse hammered in my ears This was it, I was about to die a horrible, gruesome, sword related death.

"Must have attacked you," he said and I stared at him for way to long with a demented and stupid look on my face.

"Wa-what?" I looked at him in disbelief.

"How else could you know about the barriers and end up in the same place as the rift all covered in blood?" Hitsugaya asked.

"Uh..." 'D-do I tell them?'

"Told you," Ichigo whispered.

"So... what'd it want?" I asked, trying to play along.

"Do you feel any different?" Yumichika asked.

"Has your spirit energy gone down?" Renji asked.

"Any residual injuries or ailments?" Rukia asked.

"I mean, head still hurts like a bitch," I shrugged. "Other than that, I can't really tell you anything. I remember what happened before I got to the alley, I remember arguing with Ichigo about whether or not I was okay and then I woke up in the clinic."

"Interesting," Hitsugaya replied. "Were there any clues on your clothing about what this could be? Or anything you were carrying?"

"You'd have to ask whoever has them," I shrugged. I figured the more vague I was they'd stop asking question so I had enough time to figure out where exactly in this world I could run without them finding me.

"Yuzu took them to wash," Ichgio told him. "You'd have to ask her about them."

"So, from now, what do you need from us?" I asked Hitsugaya going to sit down in my original spot, trying my hardest not to throw up.

"For now, do everything as normal, but keep your eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Trust your instincts and report back to us if you find anything. Anything at all," Hitsugaya explained.

"Great," Ichigo sighed. "I guess I'm on call then."

"So.. where's everyone staying?" I asked. Everyone looked to Ichigo and he scowled even harder, if it was possible.

"Absolutely not," he growled. Although, before he could stop her, Rukia leapt over the back of the couch and headed up the stairs, Ichigo not far behind her.

"Idiots," I smiled and shook my head up the stairs. I suppose it also begged the question, where was I staying? Isshin could argue I hadn't rested enough and needed to stay in the clinic for observation or something. But if not it was just me and the streets. I didn't know anyone else and it not like I had an apartment I could go back to.

"Kurosaki-san," I said when I saw Isshin walk past. "Could I have a moment?" I asked following him into the clinic.

"What's the problem Hikaru-chan?" he asked.

"How am I doing?" I asked. "Injury wise? Just how bad was I?"

"You didn't lose too much blood, still more than I'd like," Isshin started.

"You and me both, I generally like it if all my blood remains in my body," I joked and he gave me an amused smile.

"Well there's that and you did get knocked out for a significant amount of time. I'd like to request you stay here overnight for observation. I can call your parents if you like," he explained.

"Not necessary," How did I explained that my parents could not be reached due to them occupying a different dimension? "I don't live with them."

"Alright then, so long as you're comfortable staying here," he told me.

"That's fine, so long as you can put up with me till then," I smiled.

"That should be no problem," Isshin smiled and then went back to the clinic, where he was headed before I interrupted him.

"So you're staying here then," Ichigo said from beside me. "That's just great."

"Hey, you're the one who brought me back here," I shrugged. "You could have just left me crying in the street, or not helped me in the first place. You made your choice."

"What kind of a choice is that!" He yelled. "Ugh, I'm going to bed."

"Say goodnight to Rukia for me," I teased and I heard him groan in response before heading up the stairs.

"We're heading out, Uo," Rangiku said from behind me.

"See you then," I waved them all off and sighed when the door was closed.

I rolled my shoulders and went back through to the clinic and found the room I'd woken up in. I'd go to sleep and either I'd wake back up at home where I belonged or I'd try and find Urahara's shop and see if he could help me. Even if the guy did creep me out a bit. I sighed, how was I ever going to get any sleep with this much to think about. And I didn't even know how to get to Urahara's shop. I climbed out of bed and walked back into the main part of the house. All the lights were off because everyone had already gone to bed but I was still able to see with the anime level brightness of the night.

I headed quietly up the stairs and looked for the familiar '15' sign on Ichigo's bedroom door. There was a light coming out from underneath the so I felt comfortable walking towards it. I knocked gently on the door, at least with him being awake it meant I didn't have to head back to my room at the clinic and sweat by myself over what was going to happen to me.

"Come in," I heard from the other side of the door. I pulled it open and stepped inside. "I thought it'd be you," he said when he saw me.

"Huh?" I asked. He was sitting at his desk when I came in.

"No one else in this house knocks, not even Yuzu," Ichigo explained, putting down his pencil. "What do you need?"

"Uh a favour if you're feeling generous," I started, closing the door behind me. "Could you please give me instructions on how to get to Urahara's shop?"

"You're going now?" He asked, raising a brow.

"No," I shook my head. "I figured when I leave here tomorrow I might as well try and get some answers on what happened to me and the person with the best bet of understanding all this stuff is him. Even if he is a creep."

"Why don't I take you then, tomorrow?" He asked as turned fully around in his chair to face me.

"Don't you have school or something?" I asked.

"Yeah, don't you?" He countered.

"No, I'm 20," I answered. "You'd have to be pretty stupid to still be in high school at 20."

"You're 20?" He asked.

"Yeah, how old are you then?"

"I'm 18," he replied. "This is my final year."

"Ha!" I laughed, thinking back to my final year. "Good luck. That's easily the worst one. And it only gets worse from there, then you have to enter the real world."

"Oh yeah?" He snorted.

"Yeah, the real world is scary, you got college, debt, finding your own apartment, trying to get a job to pay for all that," I shrugged. "It sucks."

"I guess I'll look forward to it then," he said and I smiled.

"If it makes you feel any better, I haven't done even half of that stuff," I said softly. "No college, so no college debt and I still lived with my parents up until now. And I'll probably have to find a new job now. Still, it's less scary the more you get used to it."

"So, do you want me to walk you to Urahara's or not?" He asked, getting back on topic.

"How about I pick you up from school and you walk me there after?" I asked.

"Sounds good, but what are you going to do until then?" He replied.

"I'll think of something," I shrugged. "What are you working on anyway?"

"Ugh," He ran a hand over his face. "It's math homework. There's just this bit that I can't wrap my head around."

"Really?" I asked. "I did advanced math in high school, it was my best subject. Let me take a look."

I walked over to his desk and scanned over the problem he was doing and then looked at his work. For the most part he seemed to understand what he was doing, he was meticulously following the steps up until the last part where he was running wildly off course for no reason.

"Ichigo?" I asked.

"Yeah?" He leaned in to where I was pointing. "You figure it out?"

"Why do you hate this step here?" I pointed to the part at the end of the problem.

"What do you mean? I don't hate that step," He tried to see where he was going wrong.

"Can I see your notes?" I asked.

"Here, Kon finished taking these for me the other day," he said handing me the notes he was using to work out his problems.

"That explains it," I scrubbed out the bottom half of the steps he'd written down for the problems and rewrote comprehensible notes. "Try this problem again with these notes."

"Last time I leave Kon in control of my body. This was much easier when I could just copy Chad or someone else's notes when I got back from hollow slaying," he said glaring at his work book and re doing the problem for the umpteenth time. He flipped to the back of his book where the answers were and started correcting the problem he'd just been doing and checked it twice.

"Hey, that really worked," he said sounding surprised.

"No worries," I smiled. "Just let me know if you need any more help, heck I'll even give you my old note.. oh. Never mind.."

"Right," he said awkwardly. "Well, I'll remember that next time I need a hand. Uh, thanks Uo."

"Sorry I can't be more help," I shrugged. "If I'm up when you leave for school tomorrow I'll go with you so I can find it to pick you up."

"You know 18 is a little old to need someone to walk me to and from school," Ichigo said and I laughed.

"Sorry," I smiled sheepishly. "If it's too embarrassing we can meet back here, it just seems stupid to be doubling back all the time."

"No it's not embarrassing, I was just kidding," he told me.

"Well, I better get going back to the clinic before your dad wonders where I went and starts making assumptions," I told him.

"Yeah, the last thing I need is him kicking down the door in the middle of the night to find out if he's going to have grandkids or not," he groaned and I laughed.

"Goodnight Ichigo," I said heading to the door.

"Yeah, goodnight," he replied.