About a week later.
The girder rang under his feet as Ichigo breathed in the summer wind. Karakura looked so small from up here.
Not as small as it used to.
The afternoon sun was shifting his spot of shadow. Ichigo glanced at steel, and stepped back into the patch where people on the ground would have to work to see him. Carefully. Very careful steps.
Nothing like visiting Rukongai to make you not want to die anytime soon.
All he really wanted was some quiet. Away from people. Strangers made him twitchy; made him want to size them up and reach for a blade that wasn't there, because he couldn't sense their spirit energy and the last person he couldn't sense had been Aizen. And people who weren't strangers-
I can't stand it anymore. I just - can't. Not today.
Orihime, Chad, Uryuu - they'd each jumped at unheard noises and pled bathroom breaks through the day. From the way Keigo had paled and Mizuiro had carefully ignored the chaos, Ichigo knew exactly what they'd gone out after each time. But no one would tell him anything.
Why should they? They know I know the Hollows are out there. And I can't do anything to stop them. I can't even see ghosts.
Glass half full, right? At least he didn't have spectral salarymen grabbing him with clammy fingers and whining about missing out on the stock market anymore. No ghosts, no monsters; plenty of time to do his homework without getting nagged by a midget shinigami hiding in his closet...
Maybe I'll just stay up here a little longer.
Though not much longer. The wind seemed to be picking up. At least the girders were ringing more than they had been-
"Wow." Someone took a deep breath; steel vibrated underfoot, as if a weight had shifted. "This is... really high up."
Who the hell would be crazy enough to come up here?
Outside of half his class, most of his family, all of Urahara Shoten-
The dark-haired guy in jeans wasn't any of the above. Ichigo eyed him suspiciously. Pale knuckles, strong hands; the sloppy green jacket hid any muscles but Ichigo could tell where they had to be as the guy pulled himself up onto the girder easy as a chin-up on the monkey bars.
Blue eyes blinked wide. "Hi! So this is why you're up here." The stranger sat down on primer-red steel, smiling. As if his feet weren't dangling over a hundred-foot drop. "It's a really nice view."
"...Yeah," Ichigo admitted. Dark hair, eyes blue as Uryuu's; he'd try to guess if the weirdo were even Japanese, but after dealing with Chad and Vizards and all of Soul Society his sense of 'not one of us' was kind of busted. "You came up after me?" Because the guy'd pretty much said he had, so... see if he walked that back, with the same kind of hidden pity as everyone else. Because there was nothing wrong with Ichigo, outside of a distinct lack of patient and half-psychotic voices in his head. Most people would say that was an improvement.
The stranger nodded. "I finished my deliveries, and I saw you up here, and - well. From the ground, this doesn't look good."
"And it looks better up here?" Ichigo folded skeptical arms, and tensed toes on one side to make sure he kept his balance. No point falling just to grump properly.
The way the guy's gaze flicked to his feet, he'd caught that reflexive steadying. Under the jacket, shoulders eased. "A lot better." He held out a hand. "Li. Li Tian."
"Kurosaki Ichigo," Ichigo said shortly, reluctant to move closer. Because seriously, Chinese? The last one he'd met had been Yoruichi's stinger-armed shadow, and-
And Li moved like an Onmitsukidou, strength and grace and never a finger out of place. This could be bad.
Li let his hand close, and bent his head. "Sorry. It's kind of unsteady up here, isn't it?"
Ichigo tried not to let his jaw drop. Was - was that-?
You have every right to be wary, because if one of us made a grab we'd probably both go over the side, and neither of us wants that. I'm not offended.
He couldn't be reading that casual movement right. Could he?
"I came up here because the way you moved looked like someone I knew once," Li went on. "She'd lost something very important. It hurt her."
Oh. So... not for him, at all. "A friend of yours?"
"Carmine?" Blue eyes blinked wider with surprise. "No. We worked together once, that was all. I didn't like her, and she didn't care as long as I stayed out of her way. But when I ran into her again, years later... she'd lost a lot, and she was hurting. So when I saw you - I thought I'd better come up here, and-"
For a second Ichigo thought his powers had slammed back unnoticed, because a growl like that had to be a Hollow.
Nope, Ichigo thought ruefully, as Li looked sheepish. No Hollow. Just somebody's hollow stomach.
"Um." Li shrugged, and flipped himself up with his hands to plant his feet on steel again. "You want to get something to eat?"
Ichigo eyed his erstwhile climbing associate as Li stopped by the edge of an alley, dropping a morsel of eel for a black cat way too chubby to be Yoruichi. The last morsel out of about eight bowls of street noodles. He had a teenage appetite, but Li was ridiculous. "Where do you put all that?"
"Climbing burns a lot of calories." Li ran a hand through unruly black hair, almost straightening it out. "And I like high places."
Well, maybe. Ichigo gave the cat another suspicious look as Li let it sniff his fingers. Still too chunky to be the Goddess of Flash. And Yoruichi wouldn't have been caught dead in a collar with a bell.
The black beast deigned to strop Li's ankles, then glanced at Ichigo with a haughty look that was all cat.
"I ate mine," Ichigo said wryly. "You look like you could use a few less treats anyway."
A flick of an inky tail announced there was never such a thing as too many treats, foolish human. With a nose in the air sniff, the cat sauntered away.
Li straightened, dusting off his hands. "Black cats aren't bad luck, you know."
"You haven't met all of them," Ichigo muttered, heading down the sidewalk. He didn't want to think about Yoruichi, being a Captain again in Soul Society which was an important job, no wonder she hadn't found the time to drag on a gigai and torment- teach a student again. Ex-student. Mortal student; and why would the Goddess of Flash waste her time on someone who couldn't even match Renji for speed anymore-
Not even thinking, he batted something light and poky away from his head.
Wadded-up flyer?
Li blinked at him, almost too mild. As if his fingers didn't have a trace of cheap ink on them. "The light's about to change."
He'd almost walked right into traffic. Great. Just great. Live through Aizen, get taken out by dump truck.
Ichigo waited for the light, feeling the weight of Li's gaze on him. Not the steady pressure of Uryuu staring at the back of his head in yet another droning class. Not the pale, lip-biting looks his sisters threw his way when they thought he wasn't looking. Just a careful, subtle feeling of attention.
So he sat on his damn temper and waited until they were by a near-empty playground before he exploded. "Why do you even care?"
"Carmine looked like that." Blue eyes darkened; glanced away. "She wanted to live. She was trying. But the things she'd seen, the things she'd done..." Li shook his head, hands shoved into jacket pockets. "It was too much. I didn't know what to do. I... hurt her." A heartbeat's pause. "And then someone killed her."
Ichigo stared at the little fountain near one edge of the playground, gripping the fence in one hand; not sure if he wanted to keep himself from hurling a punch or just hurtle the low chain and keep running. "Did - did the cops-?"
Li was silent.
"...That sucks," Ichigo said at last. "But I'm not her. I'm okay. Ask anybody."
"Okay." Li's voice was quiet. "But I thought that, maybe... I like climbing." One hand came out with a pen and a scrap of notepaper; he scribbled, then folded the slip, offering it. "Maybe you could show me some good spots around here, sometime?"
"I'll think about it," Ichigo stated, not unfolding the note. Way easier to politely claim he'd lost the number if he'd never read it. Just in case.
Li nodded, then headed off.
Ichigo waited until the green jacket was lost in the crowd before he let himself sigh. "Weird guy."
Right. Now to just toss the...
Oh, who was he kidding. Anyone who moved like that had to be trouble. And even if every move Li had made was I'm not dangerous right now, trouble and Karakura were a predictable mix.
Grumbling under his breath, Ichigo opened the note.
If you want to talk, come here an hour before sunset and bring a red origami.
"What." Ichigo turned the page, as if the characters would somehow morph into something that made sense. "You couldn't just leave a phone number?"
He didn't think about Li again for a whole day.
Really.
After all, he had a life. School. Notes. Sometimes poking himself with a pen cap to keep his mouth shut while the so-called English teacher mutilated Shakespeare. Had to keep his grades up. Teachers hadn't stopped giving him grief about his supposed delinquent hair just because he wasn't staring at ghosts anymore.
...Oh look, he'd managed a whole hour without thinking about not seeing spirits. Record.
And the day was finally over, everyone gathering up notes and bookbags and chattering away about the latest club event, or baseball practice, or-
"Do they like that part of town more than the rest?" Orihime was almost frowning at Uryuu. "We have to run over there a lot."
Ichigo glanced at the all too familiar bunch in the corner; Orihime, Uryuu, Chad, and Tatsuki, with even Keigo and Mitsuiro hanging around the edges, obviously discussing battle strategies before they headed home to more spiritual chaos. Obviously, because Tatsuki had caught his glance their way and was trying to subtly wave a hand in front of the redhead's oblivious face. Oops.
"Maybe there's a lot of upset people?" Orihime charged on, as Tatsuki's waves grew more frantic. "What if we threw a street festival to cheer everyone up, with dragons and lanterns and masks... well, maybe not masks, they could blend in- Kurosaki!"
A for effort on the smile, Ichigo thought. But brown eyes were too stubbornly not-sad to be real. He slid his glance to the quietest of the bunch. "Think you're asking the wrong guy if you want to cheer up the town. Chad? Don't they have some wild street parties over in Mexico?"
Shaggy brown hair dipped as Chad nodded.
"There you go." Ichigo slung his bag onto his shoulder.
"But you could stay!" Orihime said hastily. "And give us ideas for... the party..."
"Like a martial arts demonstration!" Keigo jumped in, all eager waving fists. "You and Tatsuki, drawing all comers, we could clean up on the bets-"
Uryuu sighed. "Idiot."
"What?" Keigo said defensively. "They're both good!"
The Quincy adjusted his glasses. "I'm sure Kurosaki doesn't want his ribs broken."
Ichigo bit back any challenging snark, because damn it, Uryuu was right. Tatsuki was a good fighter, she knew how to spar - but anywhere near him she raised her own spirit pressure by reflex, and he had nothing left to resist her. All it'd take would be one distraction and broken ribs would be the least of his problems. "You guys have fun. I've got to pick up some things for Yuzu. She's trying some new recipes."
Nobody tried to stop him this time.
Escaping into Karakura's streets, Ichigo took a deep breath, mentally wadding up the last few minutes and tossing them in the dustbin. It wasn't their fault. He'd chosen what he had to, to stop Aizen and keep everyone alive. It wasn't their fault.
Sometimes the world just sucks.
Funny how the Quincy who hated shinigami was the easiest of them all to be around. Uryuu didn't pretend everything was okay.
...Though it was okay. Maybe not the best, maybe he couldn't protect people the way he wanted to - but they were alive. His family and friends were alive. That was what mattered. Seeing Karin's glance of careful relief when he showed up to cheer on her soccer games, Yuzu waving a mock-stern spoon as she scolded him for sampling the sweets batter - those were worth everything.
Speaking of sweets. Ichigo took the shopping list out of his pocket, and ran down the list of items. Yep, confectioner's sugar, not just regular sugar. Yuzu must be up to something special.
That, and that, and... okay, definitely grocery store stop.
Inside was cooler than the summer streets, enough of a difference he almost wished he had his school jacket on. Snagging a cart, he headed for nonperishable stuff first; not that it'd make that much difference, but getting Yuzu's vegetables as fresh as possible made him feel better-
Ichigo stopped in the middle of the canned soups and noodles, brain spinning to a screeching halt. "You!"
Jacket discarded for one of the mart's green aprons over jeans and a white buttoned shirt, Li blinked at him, hands still working to stock the shelves. "Kurosaki. Hi! Did you find any new climbing spots?"
This was not happening. Not happening. How was this even his life? "What are you doing here?"
"Um..." Li looked down at the package of spiced noodles in hand. "Restocking the beef ramen?"
Ichigo was not going to slam his head into the shelves. Mrs. Sasajima who ran the place was old, sweet, sometimes terrifying to would-be shoplifters, and probably completely innocent. He'd hate to make more work for her. "You... have a job."
"I have a couple," Li agreed, as if that were a completely normal thing to ask the guy you'd met on top of a construction site. "All part-time. We'll see which ones work out."
Okay, scratch his wild theory that Li was another escapee from Soul Society in a gigai. Outside of Urahara and his dad, Ichigo hadn't met a shinigami yet who could hack normal society's nine to five. And neither had those two, come to think; they'd each made their own jobs. "You have a job and you don't have a phone?"
"It's hard for a foreigner to get one in a hurry," Li said easily. "Can I help you with anything?"
"Um... no, I come here a lot..."
Words ran dry, and Ichigo bit his lip. Any second now, Li was going to pounce, and talk to him, and he was just so tired sometimes.
Any second now.
Silence, broken only by the soft shfff of plastic on plastic as Li transferred noodles from box to shelf. Blue eyes glanced at him, curious - but only a glance. Not a look askance. Not a measuring stare.
He's just... checking that I'm still here. Checking if I want to talk.
Quiet, deadly patience. It made Ichigo homesick with the memory of a tattered black coat, long hair blowing in the wind of sideways skyscrapers.
Li's hands stopped. "Are you okay?" His voice was quiet; too low to hear even an aisle away. "Do you need some ice water? Somewhere to sit down?"
As if he had heatstroke, not a damn messed-up head. Ichigo stiffened his shoulders, ready to snarl. There was no way the guy who'd climbed a skyscraper bare-handed was that stupid-!
But Urahara had pounded into him to weigh opponents before he moved. And Li's stance was...
Li's stance was casual and relaxed as Captain Ukitake; the white-haired shinigami smiling as he tried to talk the situation down just one minute more. Before he unleashed shikai.
"Sometimes you can be so focused on making sure everything comes out right, you can make yourself sick before you even notice you're in trouble," Li stated. Blue eyes went innocently wide. "Er, not that that's happened to me... in a while... hi, Mrs. Sasajima. Is Kurosaki one of our usual customers? He looks like he knows what he's doing."
"Hmph! He ought to; been shopping here since he was a little mite." The pepper-haired store manager gave Ichigo's cart an assessing look. "Yuzu's making desserts? Lucky boy." She turned back toward Li. "Two more aisles."
"I'll have it all done before the hour, yes ma'am," Li bowed respectfully.
"You'd better." She waved a scolding finger. "After all, you still need to call a cab. You're not letting your uncle walk home from Karakura General in this heat!"
Ichigo frowned as she headed back to the front of the store. "Your uncle's in the hospital?" You actually have an uncle?
"Workplace accident," Li said sheepishly. "He's going to need to check in with the doctors for a while, so... we moved here for now." He ducked his head, looking as harmless as a wet kitten. "Ah, do you know where there's a pay phone? Mrs. Sasajima says the store's is just for company calls."
We?
But Ichigo's hands were already moving, offering his own phone. Because that sudden bout of harmlessness was... not a show, exactly. More like - camouflage. A mask.
Li hadn't used that mask with him. And he wanted to know why.
The part-time stocker blinked, harmlessness sliding off his face like snow off a roof. Dark brows flicked up, a silent question: Are you sure?
Ichigo shrugged, and let him take the phone.
Li flipped it open and punched in numbers without looking anything up, or even a pause to think.
What, did he memorize the cab's number? Weird.
A few concise sentences arranging for a car to be at Karakura General's walk-in entrance in about an hour, and Li breathed a sigh of relief, handing the phone back. "That should do it. Thanks."
Ichigo nodded, thinking things through. "You don't have a car, either?"
Spots of color bloomed on Li's cheeks as he went back to restocking the ramen. "Well, we did..."
Ichigo raised a startled brow. "Must have been some accident."
"Came out of nowhere," Li said solemnly. "I, um, think the insurance company is going to write it off as a total loss."
Which felt like the truth. Just not all of it. Ichigo drew in a frustrated breath, ready to pounce, because he was so sick of people not telling him things-
Wait a minute. Think about this.
Li was pulling on harmless when other people got close enough to overhear. That wasn't not telling. That was, I don't want other people to know this.
Whoever he was, Li had secrets.
Climbs girders bare-handed and moves like a shinigami ninja. Damn right he's got secrets.
Ichigo stared at the not-harmless guy, and took another look at Yuzu's grocery list. "I should get this stuff and get home."
"Family is important," Li said solemnly.
Normally that would have sounded like just another adult platitude, trotted out for rebellious teenagers. But from the guy who'd apparently moved and gotten new jobs so his uncle could get looked after... "Yeah," Ichigo agreed, gripping his cart to head for the next row. "Family's important."
Time to do some very fast shopping.
This is crazy, Ichigo told himself yet again, trying to loiter near the entrance to Karakura General without looking like he was loitering. It wasn't easy. The security guard inside was starting to give him suspicious looks, and he'd only gotten here a few minutes ago.
This is crazy. Li's making me curious on purpose. Tossing out little breadcrumbs and watching me follow the trail. He's up to something, sure as Sandal-Hat ever was.
Urahara had been out to save the world. What was Li up to?
Won't know unless I find out.
And honestly, he was probably the best person for this. Somebody like Urahara did half their work by leaving tantalizing hints for people with power to get them riled up and charging straight through the enemy. Ichigo didn't have any power anymore-
The green jacket seemed to appear, as Li stepped out of a concealing knot of pedestrians and headed for the entrance. Inside Ichigo could just make out an approaching wheelchair, pushed by a white-dressed nurse and occupied by a balding guy in a sport jacket and cap who radiated cranky.
Doesn't look like Li. Uncle by marriage?
But the smile on Li's face was as wide as if he'd known the man forever. He bowed to the nurse and gripped the chair to steady it, letting his uncle stand for his first breath of not-hospital air in who knew how long.
So now what do I do?
He'd gotten Yuzu's groceries, dropped them and his school stuff at home with a few hurried words about heading back out for a walk, and gotten here in time to confirm that yes, Li did have an uncle who had been in the hospital. So... that much was true.
Doesn't mean he's not lying about other things. I should get home - heck, maybe even get to Urahara Shoten, tell them there's a weirdo-
The cab pulled up, and Li waved. "Kurosaki! Hi!"
Busted.
And Li's uncle had just done a double-take that reminded Ichigo so much of Tessai confronted with yet another of his boss' mad inspirations. Only way more cranky.
He wasn't surprised when Li's uncle pulled him down for some quick and possibly rude words. He was kind of surprised nothing exploded.
Li's uncle rubbed at what had to be a headache, shook his head, and got in the cab. Alone.
Um. Now what?
Li headed over to him at an easy amble, casting an innocent smile the security guard's way that had the suspicious man ducking sheepishly back into the hospital. "I didn't know if you'd come. Don't worry; my cousin Kirsi's going to be there when Uncle Kuno gets home. She'll look after him. She even got some of his favorite cigarettes."
Hospitals were no-smoking. No wonder Li's uncle was cranky- No, wait. That was a distraction. "You invited me," Ichigo said cautiously. "I think?"
Li nodded. "Want to take a walk?"
...He wanted to be surprised that Li's idea of a walk included ducking through alleys, casually hopping fences, and at least once snatching stray hard hats to walk through another active site like they belonged there. He really did.
Nope. Not surprised.
Though he was a little surprised he could keep up. Even if he was winded and Li - well, Li definitely wasn't.
Li casually dropped the plastic hats on a pile near their exit, and tilted his head as they cleared the sound of jackhammers. "What do you want to know?"
For a moment Ichigo flailed for words. He couldn't be serious. Urahara would never offer a blank check for information like that.
He's not Urahara. He's not Soul Society. Which means... he's probably exactly as old as he looks. No way could he be half as twisty when it comes to plotting things.
"What do you want?" Ichigo managed at last. "Why leave a trail for me? I'm just a high school student, I don't have anything anyone wants-"
"My family's in trouble." Blue eyes gave him a sober look, possibly lingering on orange hair. "It might be your kind of trouble."
No. Just - no. There was no way some stray spirit-haunted soul had found his way to Ichigo when he didn't have powers anymore-
...Then again, Ichigo realized, feeling at his hair, he'd been getting in trouble way before Rukia had kicked her way into his life. "It's not dyed. I'm not with the gangs, and I'm definitely not with the Yakuza."
"But you know who they are."
Damn it. Yes, he did. Matter of self-preservation, living in Karakura, where everybody and his idiot younger brother thought his mom's not-black hair meant juvenile delinquent. "What do you want, an introduction?"
Li shook his head. "I want to know who and where they are so we can avoid them."
Oh man. Oh man, his luck sucked. "The Yakuza's after you?"
Li's lips twitched. "Not yet."
Ichigo gave him a flat look.
Li shrugged, a fainter echo of the innocent look he'd turned on the guard. "There are worse things than the Yakuza out there."
"No kidding," Ichigo deadpanned. "What did you do, rob a bank? Kill the Prime Minister? Steal the national treasures?"
"Stopped an explosion."
That... sounded serious. But. "You said your uncle had a workplace accident."
Li nodded, blue eyes glinting with just a hint of humor. "We had an interesting workplace."
Ichigo kept walking, not sure if he should be glad or worried they were currently cutting through a dark alley. "So you're in the criminal underworld and you're stocking shelves?"
A shrug. "Who looks for a dangerous criminal doing part-time jobs to get by?"
Ichigo rubbed his head, sympathizing so much with Uncle Kuno's headache. Because Li actually had a point. If he hadn't met Li at high altitude, he'd never have looked twice. "But if you're a crook, why stop an explosion?"
"Well, it would have killed us, too."
Urk. Ichigo glanced at Li, taking in that utter lack of humor. "Did, um, your bosses know you were there?"
"That was part of the plan." Li's expression was definitely not a smile. "We just happened to get some good intel before it went off. And got lucky- Breathe. Head down. Breathe."
Li wasn't touching him. Li was definitely not touching him, which was a good thing, because explosion and our leaders tried to kill us was ringing in his head with Shinji's gut-wrenching story of Hollowification and the day he'd had to fight every. Damned. Vizard. To get his own Hollow under control before it killed him, or anyone else, and there was no one in his soul anymore...
"Kurosaki. Ichigo. Hold your breath. Count to ten. Let it out. Panic makes you hyperventilate, and you don't want to pass out here. I think somebody smeared fish guts under that pile of papers."
Eww. No, he didn't want to fall into that...
Ichigo blinked. The world was still... gray around the edges. But he could breathe. And think. "Thanks. I just- Never mind."
Li's face was unreadable. "I'm not a nice person."
Huh?
"When you've been through hell, it's easy to grab onto someone who's a little kind. Or knows how to fake it. I am not a good person. None of us are. We've left bodies behind us. The people who set up that blast didn't stop because someone asked them to." Li hesitated. "...Kirsi's innocent. But she watches for us. So - she's an accomplice. We're not good people."
"Sometimes the criminals have better morals," Ichigo muttered.
And did a double-take, because from that flicker of blue eyes, it looked like he'd actually surprised Li with that one.
Ichigo tried to shrug, honesty strangling him like a shirt two sizes too small. "What, you think killing somebody's the worst thing you can do to a person?" Oh shit. "Not that I'd know anything about that..."
Li let his flailing die a merciful death. "Okay."
Ichigo was not going to gape. "Okay?"
"You don't want to go to the cops. I don't want to go to the cops. Okay."
He didn't know how Li had jumped from death's not the worst to both of them being on the wrong side of the law, but-
But he'd banged his head against all of Soul Society's laws too many times. Kon, Rukia, the Vizards; Aizen getting away with worse than murder for centuries. That didn't even begin to get into the Quincy Massacre and Kurotsuchi's ongoing scientific eww.
If Ichigo could pick one moment in Soul Society to go back and fix, he wished he'd been there when Uryuu had faced the 12th Division's captain. Heck, he'd trade Grimmjow's life for that bastard's in a heartbeat - and Grimmjow had been a soul-eating Arrancar.
So no. He didn't want to go to the cops. Not for a guy whose worst crime Ichigo had seen was breaking into construction sites for creative recreation.
But Li didn't know that. Li didn't know any of that. "Why do you trust me?"
Li's gaze flicked up and behind him; relaxed as a pigeon landed on the power lines.
...Looked like he'd relaxed. Ichigo could see his stance, easy and deadly as Urahara's waving his sword-cane, as Li turned and headed on through the alley. "Come on."
He saw something, Ichigo realized, matching Li stride for stride. Something that made him think someone could be listening? Who? How?
Li waited until they were under the trees in another small park before he breathed a sigh. "There's some interesting surveillance equipment out there. Light enough for a bird to carry."
Ichigo blinked. "You're serious."
Li nodded.
Ichigo rubbed the hairs down on the back of his neck. "I'd say you're paranoid, but..." After Kurotsuchi had bugged people with spirit bacteria? He wasn't about to call anyone too paranoid.
"That's why I trust you."
Ichigo had to blink again. Gave the man a long look.
The oversized jacket made Li's shrug look far more sheepish than any guy his age should. "That, and... you probably don't look in mirrors much, anymore."
Ichigo swallowed hard. How the hell did he know that?
"I don't either. Not for years." Li's gaze was even. Steady. "It's your eyes."
What?
"You don't know how to hide it yet," Li went on. "Learn fast. The numbers-runners and the street punks, they won't know. But if a Yakuza hitter comes to town, if one sees you - he'll start asking questions." Blue eyes went dark. "The kinds you don't want your friends, your family, to have to answer."
"What-" Ichigo had to clear his throat. "What are you talking about?"
"Your clothes say high school student. Good." That chill never left Li's gaze. "But your eyes say you've seen a war."
Ichigo's heart was beating way too fast. If this had been the alley - dark, closed in, tight quarters like so many places he'd fought in - he'd already have run.
But the little park was green and open, city noises hushed but still there, reminding him there were other innocent people in the world. He could hold on. Just barely. "You... planned this," Ichigo got out. "Got me here before you talked."
Li nodded once. "When I was your age, if someone had cornered me in an alley, they'd be dead."
Ichigo's heart skipped a beat. What the-?
"So I won't do that to you." Li scanned the greenery and the sky, then turned his attention back to Ichigo. "You're - sixteen? Seventeen?"
"Sixteen," Ichigo agreed, dazed. Was... was Li admitting he'd killed people? Not just to stop whatever bomb had almost gone off, but when he was a kid?
I killed... Arrancar. But they were people, too. Murdering, angry, evil people, but...
"Sixteen." Li's gaze went distant. "I already had my name by then. And the year after that-" He stopped, like someone hitting a glass door.
Ichigo sucked in a breath. Because he knew that stop. That moment when everything in the world just balled up and socked you in the gut with, that happened and I couldn't stop it.
I couldn't save them. I barely saved me. I wish I'd died instead of - of what I had to do, I had to come home to my family...
"I don't know what to do to help." Li's words were quiet, like someone dropping pebbles in a still pond. "I just know it hurts. And - if I can't fix it, I can tell you things that might keep more trouble from looking for you. They're not easy. They feel a lot like lying. But you have a family. If I can help you keep them..." He looked away.
It hurts. I don't know what to do to help.
Ichigo had to close his eyes, panic or no panic. Because if anybody in his family had just said that...
Maybe I should talk to Dad again. He's not good at being serious, we all know that. But if I tried again, told him about the nightmares - maybe.
But that'd be later. Right now, stranger or not, Li had opened up his own pain and let it bleed. Ichigo couldn't walk away. "...Could I meet your family?"
Li straightened, eyes lightening. "I think they'd like that."
"Ah hell, Li. What did you just drag home?"
Ichigo stopped scanning the small apartment to give Uncle Kuno a second look. The guy was even more homely up close, warts and a craggy face and a string tie years out of style. But he was also pale, with the undertone a doctor's son associated with bloodloss and serious injury. And even so, he'd planted his chair so he was between the door and Kirsi.
Pretty. But oh man, if people are looking for them - she's like a blinking neon sign, "Here we are." White hair, pale skin, and those eyes; albino?
Which explained the dark blue wig on the shelf by her hand, Ichigo would bet. With that on, she'd look like an otaku Goth. Still odd, but not nearly as memorable.
...Were those black cat hairs on her skirt?
"Kurosaki offered us information on the local Yakuza," Li stated. "So we can stay out of trouble."
"You did, huh?" Kuno's glance raked him so hard, Ichigo swore he felt scrapes. "An' what kind of trouble do you know we're already in?"
"Li said you stopped an explosion," Ichigo shot back. "And that your bosses meant you to go up with it."
Kirsi nodded. "You would have, too."
What?
"Kiddo," Kuno warned her.
"He should know." Her face was almost expressionless, but violet eyes had a stubborn spark. "Everyone should know what the- what almost happened. So they can't do it again."
Ichigo spun on Li, noting that the man hadn't locked the front door. Good. "Is she serious? Who'd want to bomb Karakura?" Outside of Aizen, and maybe some surviving Arrancar, and who knew what Soul Society was up to now, but - nobody human would, right?
"She's serious," Li nodded. "But do you really want to know?"
Ichigo sputtered, then squared his shoulders and glared. "Someone tried to blow up my hometown? Of course I want to know! Who are they? Why haven't you gone to the cops? Yeah, sure, maybe you're criminals but if you brought them a bomb plot they could give you a plea deal-!"
"Ah, hell." Kuno took off his hat, ran fingers through thinning hair. "Kurosaki. Kid. Some of 'em are the cops."
Erk. But- "You could be lying." About everything.
"Good, you got a brain." Kuno actually grinned at him, even if it was tobacco-stained and rough as sandpaper. "Thing is, we ain't lying. Karakura? Nobody gave a damn about Karakura. They were after Tokyo." Kuno paused. "You an' your hometown woulda been what we call in the trade, collateral damage."
"Along with all of Honshu." Li's hands were stuffed deep in his coat pockets, but something in the lines of cloth told Ichigo they'd curled into white-knuckled fists. "If they'd succeeded, if she had-"
"Ah!" Kuno's hand slashed the air. "You stop thinking about it. We got in, you stomped their plan to nasty little mad-scientist bits, we got out. So stop feeling guilty over that crazy blonde. She had five years to figure out maybe she was gonna need your help and pick up a damn phone. Instead she went on a suicide run that would have left all of us except you dead. Maybe I'm just a paranoid old man, but I got a sneaking suspicion that wasn't an accident."
Li blinked, wide-eyed. Looked away.
Skirt swaying, Kirsi made her way to Li and held out her hand. "I'm sad, too."
Slowly, Li took it.
Ichigo pressed fingers to his own pulse to make sure he was still breathing. Because he might not have much more in the way of facts, but the snark and prickliness and pure grief reminded him so much of Shinji and the other Vizards, it hurt. "I want to know what's going on."
That had everyone's attention. With the same razor edge as the Vizards, too.
"I want to know," Ichigo said again, quieter. "But I'm not going to ask. You're in trouble. You think I'm in trouble. If you want to trade help for help - that works." He paused. "But don't you dare disappear without telling me who tried to kill my family. Because they are not going to try it again."
"Kid drives a bargain," Kuno mused. Glanced at the other two, before turning a measuring look on Ichigo. "Can't promise you that. We might have to run like bats out of hell." He let a breath pass. "But if we do up and vanish, and we're still alive - tell Li your mailbox. We'll make sure something lands in it."
Not the promise he wanted. But maybe better than he deserved. "Fair," Ichigo allowed. "So what do you want to know about the Yakuza?"
"For a teenager, he seems remarkably well-informed." Mao stalked out from the shadows of a bookcase, ear cocked as if making well and truly sure Ichigo was out of hearing range. Shook his head, and jumped up onto the table to look over the Karakura city map now marked up with pencil and sticky notes. "How do you find them?"
"I watch." Hei turned to Huang, who was absently tapping a finger against a coffee mug gone lukewarm. "Will this help?"
"If we're pulling out, eh, not much. If we're staying..." The ex-cop grimaced.
Yin's fingers gripped her skirt where she sat. "Ishida helps." She took a breath. "And you're still hurt."
"Gonna be hurt for months, kiddo. No matter what spirit-stuff the doc pulls out of his sleeves. I ain't as young as I used to be." Huang shifted in his chair; winced. "Could stand another week or two not running, sure. Question is, who thinks that's a good idea?"
"Hmm." Mao walked the map from uptown to downtown, paying particular attention to the train stations. "Like it or not, the original arguments for hiding here still stand. Though the longer we're here, the more likely it is what's left of the Syndicate in Japan will get its act together enough to start hunting us. If they haven't already."
True. All true. "That's why we should keep an eye on Ichigo," Hei said steadily. "And find out who ran him."
Mao's fur bristled. Yin started.
Huang gave him a very narrow look. "You think that kid is Syndicate."
"Why not?" Hei met his gaze, knowing how cold his eyes were. "I made my first kill when I was twelve."
Huang flinched.
"But you weren't a Contractor until- Oh." Mao blinked rapidly, whiskers flared and appalled. "That's... I didn't know humans could do that."
"Most of us can't. Thank god," Huang muttered. "You're playing with fire, Hei."
"No." Hei glanced at Yin, and away. "I wouldn't risk you that way. I don't know if he's Syndicate, but he's not active. He's... abandoned. You can see it. He hates what he did but he misses the adrenaline. He doesn't even know what he's missing."
"Hmm." Mao sat on the map. "If he's not active, why bother watching him?"
"Because he's sixteen and he's lived here all his life," Hei answered. "Either he lies so well none of us caught it, or someone in this town taught him to kill. I want to know who. And how many others there are." For a moment he wanted to shiver. Why? The room wasn't cold. "People who train child assassins don't stop with just one."
"...Damn it," Huang grumped. "Life was a hell of a lot easier when I was just babysitting monsters."
Yin looked up. "You want to help him, too."
"Nobody should turn a teenager into a killer," Huang said flatly. "And for damn sure, you don't teach someone to be dangerous and just toss them out an' say, go have fun playing with the civilians. People get killed that way."
"And on the rational side, even if Kurosaki is Syndicate, he only knows your descriptions and current aliases," Mao mused. "It's a minimal risk scenario. Especially if Hei can charm him as well as he does the usual ladies."
Hei shot the cat a glare. "I'm not going to-"
"Oh, please." Mao lifted a foot to scratch behind one black ear. "We all know your personal tastes run toward adult, female, and dangerously competent. But that's a hurt young man who desperately wants someone to understand him. And that's what you're offering. Iron nails, meet industrial-grade magnet." He let his claws slip through fur, violet eyes alight with curiosity. "Can you do magnets? I know you've tampered with magnetic circuits."
"I've tried a little in the past," Hei admitted. "But so far I haven't drawn on my power here. Trying to keep it that way." Which wasn't easy. Sometimes it felt like static was prickling under his skin, sharp as rose thorns. He wanted to use his power.
Not rational. Use it, send up a signal, get caught. You were the Black Reaper for years without Bai's power. You can live like a human. Just try.
But he'd lived with that bright power for five years, and... he missed using it. There were so many things it could do that weren't killing.
Yin blinked at the map, and looked up. "So we stay?"
"Maybe," Mao said judiciously. "At least through tonight. So you'll see Ishida again." His teeth gleamed. "But first... I want to do a little research."
"Just as we did last time," Ishida said quietly, as Yin closed her eyes in his office chair. "Down the stairs, and open the door. Remember that you're not trying to fix all of your inner world. Only mend and straighten what you can, a little at a time."
Breathing out, Yin nodded.
"Good." Ishida stepped back, leaning against the desk near Hei. "It's not what would help someone from my... tradition, but given her powers have an internal source, it seems better suited for her injuries." He touched his glasses, watching the Doll as one of her hands twitched, evidently trying to sort out the wreckage Yin had described in her inner self. "But it isn't fast."
"It helps." Hei watched twitching fingers settle, as Yin breathed deeper. "She asked for what she wanted for breakfast."
The doctor frowned. "I am legitimately torn between, Ah, progress, and, So the bar is set that low." He looked at Hei askance. "And you? When you said you knew how to meditate, I thought you should have been seeing spirits long before Karakura."
"I haven't done it much." Hei looked away. "Not since I - left home."
"I would imagine not."
Hei glanced at him, nerves alert for mockery.
"A doctor makes deductions from symptoms and case history." Ishida's tone was cool, but not cutting. "Given the damage a Contractor suffers to their soul's empathy, and the usual habits of Hollows with emotional ties, family and friends would have been your sister's first victims."
Hei tried not to wince.
"However you survived, it would in part have been by not looking like a spiritually tasty target," Ishida went on. "Emotional repression would have dampened your spirit pressure, but it would also make successful meditation difficult." He looked Hei over clinically. "Still. You've managed?"
"Sometimes." Hei didn't want to say anything farther, but... if Ishida's guess was right, that his human spirit energies were tangled up in Bai's Contractor power, then trying to manipulate one would tug on the other. "I can clear my head, but it's hard to reach for energy without calling on my power. And if my star flares, Astronomics will have Section Four combing the streets inside half an hour."
Ishida's glasses flashed. "Inconvenient."
"The Syndicate's tried everything to block it," Hei agreed. "Nothing works." He glanced at Yin, still breathing slow and quiet as she worked at a mental disaster. Ishida said he was watching for any dangerous flares of her energy, so they could pull her out of trance well before a Hollow could appear... but it was still nerve-wracking, seeing Yin as still as most Dolls. "I thought I saw some blurs down by the ER... are you sure this is a good idea? I've fought blind before. I can do it again."
"I'm certain you could," the doctor said thoughtfully. "But being able to perceive a spiritual entity also affects how much damage you can inflict on them. The difference between a foam bat and a sword, so to speak. And while I believe the living should leave the shinigami to deal with the dead, I am well aware the Hollows have no such morals." He paused. "You're targets. With the damage your souls have suffered already, you're far more likely to Hollow after death than a regular human. Teaching you to see the danger is preventative medicine."
Hei balanced himself, considering that. If Ishida really believed in helping patients avoid life-threatening danger... maybe this wouldn't be as ugly as he feared. "There's another source of trauma I'd like to quarantine, Doctor."
A pale brow rose. "Oh?"
"We researched you after you made your offer," Hei began. "Your hospital has a well-known policy of taking seriously injured patients from the local Kurosaki clinic. Run by one Kurosaki Isshin, who was in medical school with you. Or so his records say. They're a little... spotty. Everything important is there, but that's all that's there." He paused long enough for Ishida's eyes to narrow. "The other day I found Kurosaki Ichigo walking the girders a hundred feet off the ground. Because someone taught him to kill - someone made him a weapon - and then left him with no mission. Do you know who Kurosaki Isshin is?"
The doctor stared at him. Slowly, deliberately, clapped a hand to his own face. "Isshin. You fool."
Hei waited, ready to call on power in the blink of an eye. Because if Ishida knew who Isshin really was, if Ishida knew about Ichigo-
Then maybe the Kurosakis were Syndicate after all. And Ishida along with them. Why not? The Syndicate had moles in Astronomics, scientists in Pandora; why not the director of a small suburban hospital? It'd be the perfect place for a team to hide out and get medical treatment. Just as his team had.
"I wondered once if Isshin's records would ever stand up to a determined examination." Ishida sighed, dropping his hand. "Apparently not."
Not an explanation. Hei kept his expression neutral. Ready to strike or grab Yin and flee.
"The situation isn't as dire as I suspect you fear," Ishida stated. "I do know Isshin. Rather more than I'd like." Blue eyes implored the heavens in pure exasperation. "He comes from a family in another tradition of paranormal hunters. They tend to avoid most of modern society. When he lost his powers and decided to become a normal doctor, certain documentation had to be... produced."
A plausible story. But there was a gaping hole in it. Hei picked his words; he wanted to hammer the point home, not insult Ishida's intelligence. And both of them knew no one human felt so abandoned unless they'd been a part of something. Unless they'd had a purpose worth their life. Or someone else's. "Someone trained Ichigo to be an assassin."
Ishida's eyes twitched. But he set his jaw, and took a deliberate, considering breath. "I would like to deny that."
Wait, Hei told himself, forcing tense muscles to relax again. Wait...
"I would like to. But when I consider the essence of the situation, and what happened-" Ishida sighed. "You are not wrong." He glanced away. "Was he - when you found him-?"
He's worried. He cares. "Ichigo was okay," Hei said plainly. "His balance is good. He has a head for heights. I think he was just tired of people. Being away from them, where they can't get to - it helps. If you know you can't hurt anyone, and they can't hurt you. Because they're not there."
The doctor was studying him like a brand-new symptom. "...You went up after him."
Hei blinked. "Yes?" Wait, wait, Ishida was acting like he'd done something dangerous. Huh. "I had my wires. A hundred feet is plenty of time to react."
One pale brow climbed. "You were willing to fall off a building for someone you didn't even know."
Hei shrugged, wishing he could slide out from under that gaze. What was the point of this when someone was training kids to be assassins? "I've fallen farther."
Ishida frowned, then let his gaze lose some of that burning intensity. "I'm asking as a doctor treating your injuries, and as Ichigo's friend. Why did you go after him?"
Hei opened his mouth... and closed it again. I could lie. I should lie.
But if Ishida cared about Ichigo - then there was someone in the young man's life who could help. "I... something about his eyes. He looked like Carmine."
Ishida straightened. "The Contractor you mentioned before. The one whose remuneration horrified Mao." His throat moved; the slightest swallow. "I have to wonder what would horrify a Contractor."
"She drank the blood of children."
Ah. That finally made the doctor blanch.
Hei had to look away. "Yes, I worked with her. Yes, I knew. Yes, I helped her... take what she needed. She was Syndicate. So was Bai. I went where Bai went."
"Dear god," Ishida breathed.
"I'm not a good person," Hei said, half to himself. "I might be worse than she was. If you don't do your remuneration you die. Slow and ugly." He shrugged. "Five years ago she was on our team. When everything blew up, and Bai vanished. A few months ago I found Carmine again. She'd lost her Contract. She was human. But the Syndicate wanted her, and... I wanted to know what she knew about Bai. She said she didn't remember." He had to breathe. "I didn't ask nicely."
"I... see." Ishida was very pale. And angry.
"No, you don't," Hei got out. "She was human, but she was - starving. Weak. As if... as if what was left of her just wasn't enough to live. No matter how much she tried." He made himself meet those cold eyes. "She tried to help me. She tried to remember what'd happened to Bai, even if it cost her... everything." He swallowed. "MI6 killed her right in front of me. I wasn't fast enough."
The doctor let out a long, slow breath.
"And she was glad," Hei said quietly. "She was glad she was dying human, instead of a Contractor."
Ishida lifted a hand, as if unsure whether to strike or comfort; let it fall. "And you sense the same starvation in Ichigo."
Sensed? If reading body language and empty eyes was sensing, then maybe supernatural hunters weren't as supernatural as they liked to think. Not that Hei intended to mention that, as he leveled a wary look at the doctor. Being Carmine's teammate should have been a conversational bomb going off. Instead it'd been fzzt, and he wasn't eager to walk up and check what'd gone wrong with the fuse.
Ishida met that stare with what couldn't possibly be a glint of dry humor. "I am shocked. And appalled."
Forget the fuse, Hei thought. This would be the time to scrub the mission, throw a flashbang, and run like hell.
"For someone who's seen so much horror, you are remarkably skittish." Ishida adjusted his glasses. "But then, you are still alive. I doubt many people could survive ten years among the nearest living equivalent to Arrancars with any of their morality intact."
Someone was confused in this room, and Hei wasn't sure it was him. "You think I have morals."
"Yes." Something small, metal, and angular flashed near Ishida's hand; Hei automatically registered which knife would be best to target the odd, five-pointed star. "Or I'd kill you before I let you near Ichigo again."
Ishida evidently believed he could, too. Interesting. "But whoever trained Ichigo is still alive," Hei stated. Otherwise the teenager wouldn't be lost. He'd be hunting.
Ishida looked at him askance, as if he'd said something completely out of context.
Weird. But maybe he just had to clarify. "You haven't killed them."
"Ah. No." Ishida made the star vanish up his sleeve again, studying Yin for a long moment. "I would advise you not to approach Urahara Kisuke with hostile intent. So far as I can determine he did his best to give Ichigo the tools to survive the utter disaster the young man landed in. I don't know why he seems to have stepped back now..."
If that was the same Urahara as the local candy store on the map, Hei was going to be very, very cautious getting Yin treats. "But you think you have an idea."
The doctor almost grimaced. "Kurosaki Isshin is an intelligent, well-meaning, boisterous idiot."
That sounded like half of an old argument. Hei waited.
"Ichigo is not my patient. Technically I could discuss his case. I will tell you he suffered grave injuries." Ishida gave him another look. "But those injuries are very personal. If you want more details, you should ask Ichigo yourself. Given you haven't even trusted the young man with your own name..."
Hei wasn't his name. It was just the alias that felt the most like a person. Ichigo actually did know his birth name... because that was one of the few IDs he'd had that the Syndicate didn't know existed.
He'd been loyal to the Syndicate. If they hadn't turned on him, he still would be. But he'd always known his hunt for Bai might pit him against whoever had her - because he couldn't imagine Bai out there, free, and not trying to get back to him. And if whoever had her was the Syndicate...
For the past five years, he'd been prepared to run. He'd just never expected to do it without Bai.
Still. Ishida had a point. Hei inclined his head. "It might make him a target. I don't want that." He breathed out, trying to gauge the interest and wariness in Ishida's face. "Is there anything that would stop him from climbing? I asked him to show me places around town."
"Climbing." Ishida's lips thinned. "No. His physical injuries are healed, for the most part. Is that all you plan to do?"
No. No, it wasn't. Because he couldn't just walk away from desperate eyes and do nothing. "He's had to dodge the Yakuza," Hei started, feeling his way through what he could do, what he couldn't, the gentle things normal people would do that he knew he could never in a million years make work. "I could - show him things that would help. How to shake a tail. Avoid being seen. Get through locks if everything's gone wrong and they've really got you cornered..."
Was it his imagination, or had blue eyes thawed a little behind that glass?
"That," Ishida said, half to himself, "might be some of the best medicine I could prescribe. The young man is well aware of what he can't do." Lenses gleamed. "It could be beneficial for him to discover there are things he can."
Could be. Ishida wasn't sure of him. Which meant the doctor was properly paranoid about the safety of a teenager he knew. Good.
"Isshin is an old friend," the doctor stated. "He's told me Ichigo was fine. But Isshin can also be an oblivious idiot, and I should have remembered that." Fingers twitched, as if ready to grip that star again. "I believe I'll be making a house call."
According to Japanese government websites, absolutely nothing had exploded in Tokyo about a week ago. Nada. Nope.
And if it had, it definitely hadn't been at Hell's Gate. The containment wall was perfectly secure. The distortion in reality was being studied, same as always. Top scientists, finest minds in Pandora, and so on, and so on.
Having narrowly escaped some of Soul Society's finest minds with his limbs and sanity intact, Ichigo did not find any of that reassuring.
And then there was the video clip.
...Well, actually, there were a ton of video clips, each more fake and paranoid-conspiracy-theorist than the last. But one had grabbed Ichigo's attention most by what it didn't show. No army tanks, no improbable missile launchers used inside city limits, no car chases cribbed from a dozen movies ending in an exploding van. No; the interesting clip was obviously shot from a shaky phone camera through a high-rise window, catching a white glow coming through the walls of Hell's Gate, engulfing building after building in an incandescent tsunami as the phone's owner gasped about what the hell-?
It didn't look like an explosion. It looked like a bankai.
Bankai are spiritual power. There's no way one would show up on camera... is there?
All Ichigo knew for sure was that something had happened in Tokyo. Something big enough the government was Not Talking about it.
...And now he was wondering exactly who Li and his family were running from. Because if it wasn't just from criminals, but from the Japanese government...
No wonder they gave him Vizard vibes. Though Li's family didn't seem half as angry as Shinji's crew. More just glad to be alive, and trying to plan what to do next now that whatever their criminal jobs had been had gone up in smoke.
Why aren't they angry?
He wanted to know. Because if Li had been angry-
I wouldn't have come near him with a ten-foot pole. Angry people want something.
Li wasn't angry. He was worried. And sad.
I want to trust them. I know they're criminals, I know they're probably breaking the law right now, but...
But Li had been the first person to look at him and say, You're not okay.
...Okay, Ichigo might be just a little swayed by the fact Li had climbed a building bare-handed just to make sure he wasn't going to jump. Because for a mortal who couldn't walk on air? That was badass.
He had to look away from the monitor, hand mousing the videos closed on automatic. Because that'd been a weird twinge, when he thought about Li and hundred-foot drops and what little power living humans could manage. He'd gone up on that site because even with their powers, if his classmates had spotted him, they'd have had to think twice about getting up without being seen. They weren't invisible shinigami, after all. Walking on air got you noticed.
Li had climbed. Knowing he could be seen.
Hadn't called the cops. Hadn't pretended to be an ordinary guy and wrung his hands. He'd just... seen someone in trouble, and moved.
Wouldn't have happened in Seireitei.
Maybe somebody like Rukia would have stepped in. Or one of the captains. Someone everyone knew had the power to do something.
Li had gone to save someone with no power at all. Just skill and determination.
It felt so weird.
I... used to do that. I mean, I could see ghosts, but - that was all I could do for them. See them, help them try to pass on themselves.
It'd helped. Maybe not all of them, maybe it wasn't fighting off the monsters that would eat them - but it had been something.
Li had climbed up to talk because he'd seen someone in trouble, and he could do something about it.
Damn it. Ichigo thumped his head on the desk, hard. Because how could he have been so stupid? Stupid and selfish. So what, he didn't have huge overwhelming powers anymore? Most people lived their whole lives without them. And sure, maybe most of them ran screaming from the monsters, maybe most of them should, but some of them-
Some people tried to help anyway.
He thumped his head again, hoping that would knock out the idiocy he'd obviously been infected with the past six months.
Right. So. Ichigo breathed out, chin still propped on the desk. Not going to live the rest of my life this way, just waiting while everybody else handles the Hollows. I need to do something.
Just wish I knew what...
Wait. Wait, that thudding he could feel through his jaw wasn't him, it was something outside-
"-Even a complete stranger can see there's something wrong, Isshin!"
Was that Uryuu's dad?
He opened his bedroom door in time to see Ishida Ryuuken arm-bar Isshin into the wall; glasses gleaming, tie just slightly askew.
The tie with the crosses on it.
Ryuuken had shown up as a Quincy.
What. The. Hell?
Isshin pushed back a little; dark hair mussed, face scrunched into a still-amiable scowl. "If my son says he's fine, then he's fine!"
"I intend to get a second opinion." Ryuuken let go, glancing back at Ichigo. "I believe my son is worried about you."
...Wait, what?
Because Uryuu and Ryuuken didn't talk to each other. It was a law of nature. Like gravity. If Ryuuken was saying Uryuu had actually asked him for help, it was time to start looking for flying pigs.
"I've recently been reminded that while Urahara Kisuke is an excellent scientist, he is not a doctor," Ryuuken went on. "I'd like to examine your spirit energy."
Ichigo couldn't stop the scowl. "What spirit energy?"
Ryuuken's glasses gleamed. "You're still alive. By definition, you have spirit energy. And I have not seen the extent of the damage. If there has been an amputation, I would like to determine that the wounds have at least stopped bleeding."
Ichigo bristled, ready to throw the guy out - maybe he didn't have the power to do that but Isshin did-
But Uryuu was the only one who admitted something was wrong. If he had gone so far as to talk to Ryuuken, Ichigo wasn't going to slap him in the face. "Okay. In the clinic?"
"Here would be better," Ryuuken noted. "You consider it safe."
Heh. Safe as anywhere else, given he'd once been attacked by a Hollow in his own bed, but...
They sat on the bed, Isshin stealing his desk chair and tapping his fingers as Ryuuken rested a hand on Ichigo's head. The pale green glow wasn't healing, not like Ichigo had seen Rukia do too many times to count. But it was... cool, somehow. Like leaning into a fan on a hot day.
Minutes passed.
The tapping grew louder.
Ryuuken did not roll his eyes. "Isshin."
Tapping stopped.
Finally, Ryuuken lifted his hand. Squinted, mouth a thin line.
"I told you," Isshin said impatiently. "He's fine."
"You are nominally an adult and his guardian, so legally I can't throw you out of a medical consultation." Much as I would like to, Ryuuken's tone said. "He is not fine."
Ichigo swallowed hard. "So... what's wrong with me?"
"In medical terms, it might be considered a low-grade infection." Ryuuken folded his hands. "There's a reason we avoid the use of cauterization in surgery whenever possible. It causes major damage to the surrounding tissues and leaves the area open to any opportunistic bacteria. Just as there is a normal human bacterial ecology, there is also a normal spiritual ecology. Minor spirits, youkai, odd passing ripples in spirit power; all of those will strip some energy from living humans. Usually without long-term harm." He frowned. "A better metaphor might be that you are the only one on a summer night walking around without mosquito repellent. A few bites are no trouble to a healthy individual. But a thousand bites, to someone already anemic?"
There was a furtive motion near the edge of Ichigo's doorway. Damn it. Ryuuken had better not say anything that would upset Karin and Yuzu. "So how do we fix this?" Ichigo said pointedly. Get his sisters focused on what mattered, not scared at their big brother being hurt. Again.
Light gleamed off glass. "I understand you still have problems with gang members."
Ichigo shrugged, wondering what the point was. "Some idiots just won't listen."
Leaning back in the chair, Isshin folded his arms. "We could do something about that."
Ichigo tried not to sigh. "Dad..."
"That wouldn't solve the problem." Ryuuken glanced back at Ichigo. "Are you familiar with the principle of hormesis?"
"Um..." Ichigo racked his brain. "Something about lead in Egyptian kohl being a good thing, 'cause it got the immune system revved up to kill off eye infections?" Which was weird.
Isshin sat up straight in his borrowed chair. "That's biochemistry, not souls."
"Is it? I was under the impression that is exactly why Urahara applies deadly danger to shinigami in need of more power. Low doses of a toxin, precisely injected, can rouse the body and spirit to clear out damage that would otherwise continue to poison it." Ryuuken held his fellow doctor's gaze. "We've seen it work."
"My son's seen enough danger for a lifetime!"
"As has mine," Ryuuken said sharply. "And yet, if you starve a mammal of background radiation, their immune system weakens, and can eventually fail. That is scientific fact, Kurosaki."
Isshin growled under his breath.
Ichigo rubbed at a twinge that wasn't quite a headache. Yet. "Hold on, are you saying I should go looking for trouble?"
Ryuuken looked at him a long moment. "Your spirit is badly scarred. Burns are the nearest physical analogy I have. And while a few months of avoiding danger was likely wise, just as you would not send a patient out with uncovered third degree burns... now you need to put gentle stress on the scars." He paused. "You might start with rollercoasters. Or climbing walls. Anything that would provide a mild exposure to danger to strengthen your soul's immune system, without the risk of further spirit injuries."
Mild exposure. Yet Ryuuken had specifically brought up his ongoing clashes with gang members. And Uryuu's dad never did anything without a reason-
He's the Director of Karakura General. A surgeon. What if he worked on Li's Uncle Kuno?
"Rollercoasters," Isshin snorted. "Come on, Ryuuken. That's kid stuff-"
"And by the laws of modern society all your children are still legal minors," Ryuuken cut him off. "The mortal world has laws against child soldiers, Isshin. Very specific ones. There are times I'd like to hit all of Soul Society with their penalties. My son will have nightmares for the rest of his life because the Gotei Thirteen couldn't clean up their own damned mess."
Ichigo was not going to flinch. "Uryuu told you-?"
"He didn't have to tell me." Ryuuken's gaze never wavered from Isshin. "I know what he went through. I know how close he came to death; not once, but multiple times. If he didn't have nightmares, he wouldn't be human."
Isshin started at that. And looked at Ichigo, as if he'd just walked into the room after weeks gone.
Ah, man. I could have gone forever without bringing that up. "They're not that bad," Ichigo muttered. Most of the time I don't even scream. And I get back to sleep. Most of the time. Eventually.
Granted, a lot of the times he did get back to sleep, was because Yuzu and Karin had swiped the blankets off their own beds and snuck into his room. So he could hear someone else breathing. So he knew they were alive.
"Ichigo." Isshin leaned forward, bushy black brows scrunched down in worry. "You never said..."
"It's over, right?" Ichigo shrugged. "No point in talking about the past."
After all, when had they ever? Nobody talked about the fact that Isshin had been a shinigami; that he still could be, when Hollows came calling. Nobody talked about how he must have hated being powerless years back, when one particular Hollow had gone hunting for a boy and killed his mother instead.
Nobody talked about Masaki's death. Ever.
And nobody admitted what all of them knew by now; what ex-shinigami captain Isshin had to have known all along. Ichigo had attracted Grand Fisher. His own damn leaking power had killed the heart of their family, and they all knew it. What were some nightmares next to that?
From the doorway, he heard Yuzu stifle a whimper.
"Injuries affecting you in the present are not past." Ryuuken took a Karakura General card out of his suit pocket and wrote down a time. "Come see me after school. I have more specialized equipment at the hospital."
Gingerly, Ichigo took it. "If there's needles, I'm gone."
"No needles," Ryuuken hmphed. "I need a baseline reading on the damage, so we can chart improvement. And head off any further injuries."
"Ishida." Isshin crossed his arms, dead serious. "We can fix this. Right?"
"A few more months and the prognosis would not be as good," Ryuuken noted, rising. "But yes, I think we can." He gave Ichigo a nod. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Seated in a chair in Ryuuken's office the next afternoon, Ichigo eyed the piece of quartz the doctor was dangling from a silver chain. "Your specialized equipment looks an awful lot like a pendulum."
"It is." Ryuuken flicked polished facets with a fingernail, setting it spinning. "I don't need to use it often, so I prefer to keep it where I can store it in a controlled environment."
"And you're just going to... check out the damage." Ichigo fought the urge to squirm. "I don't feel damaged."
The doctor gave him a look askance.
"They're not damaged, they're gone," Ichigo said harshly. Missing the gleam of amber glasses, even the maniacal cackle. "And nothing's going to fix that. I just need to get used to it."
"We'll discuss that." Ryuuken lifted the chain. "In about ten minutes."
Some of the most boring, annoying ten minutes of his life. Ryuuken would move the crystal over a chakra. Take notes. Move. Take notes. And on, and on.
Leaning back on the padded headrest, Ichigo dozed.
"That should do for now."
Ichigo cracked an eye open in time to see Ryuuken slip the pendulum into a silky blue pouch. "That's it?"
"This will establish a baseline. We should take new readings at least once a week to monitor your progress." Sitting behind his desk, the doctor gave him an assessing look. "But first I need to be frank. My son is not the one who informed me you were injured."
That didn't sound good. "So who did?" Ichigo asked. "Chad? Orihime?" He bit his lip. "Karin?" Yuzu might be Isshin's dutiful little nurse, but Karin was skeptical enough of everything their father did that he could see her coming to Ryuuken.
"I believe you know him as Li Tian."
Urk.
This was no time to panic, Ichigo told himself firmly. Kuno had been in Karakura General, Dr. Ishida had probably at least heard about his case, and any competent doctor would want to know the name of the family member making sure a patient got home alright- Wait. "What do you mean, know him as?"
"We both know that's an alias." Ryuuken didn't turn a hair. "Though given the amount of lead my team pulled out of his Uncle Kuno, they have good reasons to be hiding. Their employers apparently meant his to be a permanent retirement."
He knows. Though somehow that didn't hit as hard as- "Workplace accident."
"You could call Kuno's survival an accident," the doctor mused. "Or the result of very quick thinking by coworkers who were expected to let him die... and refused."
Ichigo swallowed. "But... Li wouldn't..." Would he?
"Oddly enough, I think you're right," Ryuuken nodded. "Li has a conscience. Damaged, but it exists." He leaned his elbows on the desk. "Which means you have a choice to make. I'd prefer it if it was an informed one."
Doesn't sound good. "What kind of a choice?" Ichigo asked warily.
The doctor inclined his head. "The methods I described to your father probably would help, over an extended period of time. But the longer you take to heal, the more damage will occur in the meantime, and the more easily you could be injured just by the backwash of a Hollow attack. And no matter how skilled and determined your classmates are at taking up Kurumadani's slack, eventually they will miss one."
Ichigo sucked in a breath. Because damn it. His friends were good, they were trying-
But he'd fought too many Hollows not to know the odds. Dr. Ishida was right. Blunt as a ten-ton boulder dropped on someone's head, but right. "So what's the other option?"
"More danger, more quickly, with someone prepared to pull you out if the hazard is too great," Ryuuken stated. "Someone whose ethics see no problem in bringing a teenager into mortal peril, yet whose conscience would drive him to rescue you if you got in over your head. Ordinarily I would say that was an impossible combination."
Outside of Urahara and a bunch of people now busy in Soul Society, Ichigo had to agree. "You think I should go climbing with Li."
"He's offered to teach you quite a bit more than that." The doctor adjusted his glasses. "This is a risky course of action. Li is a very dangerous person. Possibly one of the most deadly living souls you will ever met."
Ichigo swallowed. "I know he was a criminal-"
"He was an assassin." Cold eyes bored into him. "And he deduced you'd been trained as one, as well."
Ichigo froze. What?
"I believe I've talked him out of paying your father a late-night visit," Ryuuken went on, as if he diagnosed people as killers every freaking day. "But I'm not sure Li himself understands how angry he is, seeing another young man taught to kill. Li has been immersed in the criminal underworld for almost half his life. In a sense, our world is just as alien to him as it would be to any shinigami fresh from Soul Society." The doctor shrugged. "That's what makes this dangerous. For both of you."
Ryuuken's office was suddenly swimmy. "Li would have gone after my dad?"
Glasses gleamed. "He gave the option serious consideration."
Okay, Ichigo knew enough of Uryuu's body language to know that was an Ishida contemplating mayhem. "Hope you did talk him out of it. Li could've gotten hurt."
The doctor gave him a long look.
Ichigo felt his ears burning. "What? Dad's an ex-captain in a gigai. Li's, well... not."
Seriously. His dad was a shinigami, which meant he was already dead. The absolute worst any human assassin could do to Kurosaki Isshin was leave a bloody mess on the floor he'd have to return to Urahara for repairs. But that might make Yuzu cry, and then Ichigo would have to punch Li for the honor of big brothers everywhere, and everything would get messy.
"That's true," Ryuuken mused. "And yes, I think I have, once I explained that the gaping holes in your father's records were due to archaic family traditions, not a criminal cover."
Wow. That was... wow. "He really thought Dad was some kind of underworld guy?"
"The way he laid out the evidence? Li had good cause. And we may need to take precautions to make sure no one else jumps to the same conclusion." Ryuuken grimaced. "Ichigo. I know you care about your father. I imagine you've forgiven him - though possibly not as much as you think. But what Isshin and Urahara did was wrong. No one should put the responsibility for killing a murderous criminal on a child." He folded his hands together. "The fact that Li can see that, and want to stop it, makes me think he's salvageable after all." He paused. "Of course, reintroducing him to normal human society would take considerable effort. From someone compassionate enough to forgive Li's mistakes, but trained enough to protect himself if the situation did turn dangerous."
Now I'm really confused. "Who's supposed to be treating who, here?" Ichigo demanded.
"You are both my patients," Ryuuken noted. "I think you can help each other."
Li was Dr. Ishida's patient? He was climbing buildings. "What's wrong with him?"
Ryuuken's glasses gleamed. "That would be confidential."
Doctor-patient confidentiality. Argh. But- "So how come you told him about me?" Ichigo asked pointedly.
"I didn't." Not one white hair out of place. "Li made his own observations, told me his conclusions, and volunteered."
Ichigo gave him a sideways look. "What, just like that? He's a criminal, you say he's dangerous, I know he's hiding from people - and he just, what, said that kid's in trouble, how about I help out?"
Ryuuken almost smiled. "Yes."
Ichigo was not going to flop against the chair. No matter how bewildered he felt. "...People don't do that."
"I have it on good authority you've made a habit of it." Ryuuken steepled his fingers. "I can't divulge medical details. But from a purely personal perspective, it seems to me Li is suffering from years of denying that he has a conscience. Even to himself." Pale brows rose. "I wonder why it's surfaced so thoroughly now."
"Maybe he got shocked out of it," Ichigo muttered. "They were in Tokyo, right? Can I borrow your computer? Think you ought to see something."
It only took a minute to find the right video. Ryuuken watched the tsunami of light reach out from Hell's Gate. Stopped. Replayed. And again.
Ichigo bounced once in his chair, then told himself to behave, this was serious. "It looks like a bankai."
Ryuuken frowned at the frozen image. "So it does."
"I didn't think you could film a bankai."
"So far as I know, you can't." The doctor leaned back in his chair, thoughtful. "This may give me a place to start."
"Start on what?" Ichigo pounced. "Can't you tell me something?"
"In relation to your own case, yes." Ryuuken closed the video. "I'm told your father used the same finishing move you used on Aizen, years ago. It took over a decade and a significant infusion of power, but he did regain his spiritual abilities. The obvious conclusion is that if we treat your injuries, you should be able to regain them as well."
That's not an answer- what?
He couldn't think. For a minute, Ichigo almost couldn't breathe. "Sandal-Hat said they were gone."
"Urahara Kisuke," Dr. Ishida said, very deliberately, "is a scientist. Not a doctor."
Oh god. Oh man, the room was trying to be spinny. Not good. "Ten years."
"Possibly. Possibly longer; you also had Hollow energies, which at the very least would complicate any course of treatment," Ryuuken observed. "But if the only medical attention Isshin had was Urahara? I intend to treat this now, not leave it to fester." He drew a breath, and nodded. "Let's give this a week, and see what happens."
A/N: Hoo boy, Carmine. AKA Havoc. She deserves a tag warning all by herself. Power: Creating vacuums (possibly small black holes). Remuneration: Drinking the blood of children.
And yes, she, Hei, Bai, and Amber all worked together in South America. Years later she surfaced, completely powerless and with her human emotions back; the only known time that's happened to a Contractor. And given she was one of the last people to see Hei's sister alive, and he was trying desperately to find her...
Ichigo heard, "I hurt her". He's probably thinking emotional hurt, or a slap, or just failing to say the right thing. Something relatively innocuous.
...Not so much. Torture is, unfortunately, a tool in the Black Reaper's trade. Hei's not a sadist, he did stop when he was sure Carmine was telling the truth. Still. Ow.
"Workplace accident" - technically true. Mostly. Sniped through your own windshield while working for the Syndicate by that same Syndicate. Given they intended Huang to be dead, yeah, kind of an accident. (And yes, after a bullet wound like that Huang shouldn't be out of the hospital yet with normal medicine... but Ryuuken is very motivated to get him mobile and away from more innocent patients. So our Quincy doctor is cheating.)
Section 4 specters ride the power lines. ;)
Sorry, Ichigo. Your conspiracy-fu is weak. There were indeed tanks, missile launchers, and a car chase ending in explosion, canon.
