Breath of Life
Through the Rain~

A clicking sound could be heard as Isshin set down the clipboard. The last patient had just left and he could close up the clinic for the day. The former shinigami was in a good mood as things were going well for his family and so far no one had figured out that he was alive and well in the world of the living.

He headed to the door and turned the key in the lock. His head suddenly darted up as he felt a familiar reiatsu in the area. His mouth moved, saying aloud what he was actually thinking. "It can't be. He's supposed to be dead."

Isshin pushed his lips together as the feeling of dread simply wouldn't leave him alone. Letting out a deep sigh he headed to his desk and popped a piece of soul candy into his mouth. He then headed through the front door, glad that his son wasn't there to ask what was going on. The man flash stepped in the direction of the reiatsu he was feeling as the rain poured down on his shoulders.

The man's dark eyes suddenly went wide upon seeing the young man that was fighting against the Hollow. They quickly narrowed as the young man was knocked off his feet and to the ground. Isshin found himself quickly moving to intercept the Hollow. Upon defeating the creature, he turned his head to look at the young man who had managed to stand up on shaky feet.

The young man looked as if he was going to dash off, but then paused as a look of recognition passed over his face. The man then tilted forward as his eyes rolled up into his head. As Isshin caught him, the young man spoke up. "Nii-sama."

"Kaien..." The former shinigami let out a deep sigh, before dropping down to his knees so he could lift the young man over his shoulder. "I'm kind of wishing you didn't weigh so much. You're going to break my back." Isshin then stood up and headed back towards his house, hoping that neither Ichigo or Karin would be in the house to see what was going on. "He's not supposed to be alive at all."

"You've said this before. However, this is Kaien's reiatsu. I can also feel his zampaktuo spirit in there, but for some strange reason it seems to be asleep." Isshin's zampaktuo spoke up, causing the man to frown.

The man then came to the front door and carefully opened it. He then headed towards the clinic door and opened another door. He watched as his soul candy pretended to be working and he walked over to one of the rooms and dropped Kaien onto the bed. He set up a kido barrier to make it so that Kaien's spiritual pressure couldn't be traced.

He then headed back to his desk and got back into his body allowing the piece of soul candy to pop out.

He then grabbed the phone and dialed up the number for Urahara's shop. The phone rang for a few times before the man picked up. "I am need of a favor."

"I take it you felt that spiritual pressure too?" The silver haired man let out a chuckle. "I spent enough time around the Shiba family to recognize the particular spiritual pressure."

"Nothing felt off about it though?" Isshin asked, glancing up from his desk in the direction his brother was in.

"No... it didn't feel like anything was wrong." Urahara stated. "Other then the fact bother of us happen to know that he is dead."

"How do I put this. The person I encountered looked exactly like my brother. He also recognized who I was. At least, he recognized that I was Kaien's brother." The man began to tap on the desk.

"I did pass on the message to you that when he and the hollow died it returned to Los Mundos. It was then absorbed by another hollow that gained his memories and such." A tapping sound could be heard over the phone as the man messed with his fan.

"You also told me Rukia finished her business with Kaien. He should have passed into the cycle of rebirth." Isshin had glanced down at the desk and stopped his fingers from moving, only to glance up. "And yet here he is in my clinic. I'm not sure if it is Kaien or not. I mean, it is hard for me to believe that it is possible for him to be alive Kisuke. And yet I saw him in front of me and he called me Nii-sama."

There was a pausing sound from the other side of the phone. "When was the last time you heard him call you Nii-sama. Normally he would have been more formal with you."

Isshin paused what he was doing. "He stopped calling me Nii-sama after he graduated from the academy and entered Ukitake's squad. Unless of course he was making a humerus jab at me."

"Well... if this is Kaien then something is wrong with him. There is a chance he doesn't have all of his memories." There came another flicking sound of the fan from over the phone. "Either he has amnesia, or someone has tried recreating your brother for some reason. Or both."

"And this helps me how?" Isshin found himself shaking his head in disbelief. "Kisuke... if Soul Society finds out about him he is likely to be put to death whether he is Kaien or not, simply because he is supposed to be dead."

"The laws in Soul Society have changed. I've told you that you are likely safe as are your children from repercussions for having children with a woman of the living world. They'll probably not react the way that you think they will."

"But you don't know for sure." Isshin grabbed a piece of paper and began to jot things down.

"No... I don't know for sure."

"Then I can't allow Soul Society to find out that he is here. I am going to need a gigai for him."

Urahara suddenly let out a deep sigh. "Are you sure about this Isshin, you are honestly not sure if this is the real Kaien or not. And how are your kids going to react to a strange person showing up all of a sudden."

"I take back what I said about it being Kaien or not. Even if someone tried recreating him, he is still Kaien. Plus, I've got Kon as a member of the family now, so I can't brush this off like this."

"What about a Soul Candy for him?"

"I'll need a Soul Candy to get his gigai over here without anyone suspecting anything." Isshin let out a deep sigh. "However, depending on his memories he may not need his own Soul Candy right away."

"Then I'll lend you one of my Mod Souls. Do you want Noba or Kurodo? Oh! Even better yet, let's stick Ririn in his gigai temporarily! That would be rather amusing." Urahara let out a sudden laugh.

"I'll laugh at your joke later on. Noba fits Kaien's personality the best Plus, he's got that portal ability of his that will come in handy." Isshin stood up. "I'm coming over to the shop now. How much do I owe you this time around?"

"You aren't going to treat him until you get his gigai over there? I guess that is best as it might raise suspicions of one of your children if she sees you treating an invisible patient. As for how much you owe me, I've told you before not to worry about this. The Shiba family has always been good friends of ours." The man then clicked his fan again. "Plus... figuring out what is going on with Kaien-dono is going to be interesting."

When Isshin hung up the phone and removed his white coat, the first thing he did was check in on Kaien as he lay there asleep on the bed. He then headed to the front door and back out into the rain. He found himself hurrying along, his feet splashing in the puddles. When he got to the shop, Ururu and Jinta were nowhere to be seen as Urahara had sent them away.

Isshin walked into the room and Urahara handed him Noba's plushy form in a bag to keep it from getting wet. He then turned to Noba, who was in a gigai for Kaien. "I would like you to get us as close to the house with your portal jumping ability as possible. I then need for you to pretend to be unconscious or with a head injury."

Noba nodded his head in agreement. Soon, they arrived near the house and Noba slumped onto Isshin's shoulder. The man walked to the clinic front door and proceeded to unlock it, before dragging Kaien's gigai and Noba inside the clinic. He then locked the door and moved away from the door. Once he was out of sight, Noba moved to the room Kaien was in and plopped down onto the bed.

Isshin caught the pill and removed Noba's stuffed animal form and put the pill inside. He grinned at the small stuffed animal. "Thank you."

"You need to get him out of the wet clothes." Noba pointed out. "Yourself as well."

"Yeah... I'll be back down with some fresh clothes, though I won't have any dry underwear for him." Isshin headed towards the kitchen and glanced around to see if any of the kids had arrived home from school. He then grabbed two sets of dry clothes from his dresser. "Sorry for not having clothes a bit big for you, but it will have to do.