A/N: Hey everybody and welcome to another chapter! I hope you enjoy.

A/N2: I don't want to be annoying, but this story officially has more alerts than reviews. And while it's absolutely amazing to know that people want to read my story, I'd also like to know more directly what you guys think about what I've written. Constructive criticism is the only thing that will help this story to improve, so please: leave a quick comment.

Chapter one: When Up is Down

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"Hello, is-? Yes, I'll hold. Thanks."

A staccato rhythm tapped out by nervous fingers.

"Hey… Yes, it's working. He has no clue."

A beat of silence.

"You should complete it as soon as possible, that way it will be over with before further complications can arise."

The dull thud of a body collapsing heavily into a chair.

"Tomorrow? Yes, that's fine. I'll see you then."

The soft click of a phone being put down. A deep sigh.

"I'm so sorry, Ichigo…"

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The sky outside was a nearly perfect shade of blue—deep azure above but fading rapidly to palest teal in the distance. Already the gibbous moon hovered over the horizon, and the faint breeze played joyfully with branches and leaves as it passed by.

Ichigo didn't see any of these things, though he stared out through his bedroom window fixedly and had been for some time. His mind was consumed by thoughts more troubling than idle curiosity over the cycles of the moon or the exact shade of blue in the sky.

What had happened? Why was he still so tired three days after waking up in the clinic? And, most troubling by far, when had Karin and Yuzu grown so tall?

His father had explained it all to him of course. Isshin had sat with him and told him over and over what had happened, as many times as he needed to hear it. He answered all his confused questions and displayed a level of patience Ichigo had never dreamed the eccentric man capable of.

None of that made what he heard any easier to accept.

These were the facts: he had been sick. Deathly sick. He had spent the last five months in the hospital in the long-term ward. And then, just when everyone had given up hope for his recovery, there was news of a trial for a new experimental treatment, and—as it was his last hope—his father had snatched up the chance. And it had worked. Multiple blood tests had shown he was well on his way to recovery, but…

But of course it hadn't been as simple as that. He had reacted negatively to the drug: it had caused severe seizures, coma, and, as they had discovered upon his waking, memory loss.

And he had been one of the lucky ones. Many of the patients who had received the drug had died, their bodies unable to handle the effects of the drug after the trauma of the protracted illness it was designed to cure. In fact, he was the only one from Karakura Community Hospital that had survived the reaction.

He grunted and turned from the window, focusing instead on his hands where they lay fisted in his lap.

'Damn it. Sulking about it isn't going to change anything; I should just move on already. Try to put what's left of my life in order. Besides,' he thought determinedly, 'Goat Chin said the memory loss might get better.' What his doctor-father had actually said was that the memory loss was probably a side effect of the mild brain damage he had suffered because of a lack of oxygen while he was seizing, and that at his age his brain was still elastic enough that it might improve—but he was trying to make himself feel better, not worse.

He grunted again and turned on his side. At this point he'd settle for anything, even a single vague recollection of anything that happened in the past eight months—the part of his life the drug had stolen from him.

He let his head sag into his pillow and ran a tired hand through his hair. 'I shouldn't be so bitter. The treatment might have stolen a few months' worth of memories from me, but it also gave me the chance to live to a ripe old age and make more.'

He was broken out of his thoughts by Yuzu's voice; she called his name from where she stood at the side of his bed. Once she had his attention, she smiled softly and took his hand in her small fingers.

"Hey, Ichi-ni. Are you feeling any better?" Not wanting to worry her with complaints of his still weak limbs, he nodded an affirmative. He was rewarded with a broad grin. "That's great! You'll be up in no time now!"

Yuzu had been hovering worriedly over him since he woke from his weeklong coma. Karin, in contrast, had adopted the habit of hanging back in the corners of his room and seemed uncomfortable meeting his eyes. But then there were the times she would fling herself at him and refuse to let go, sometimes for hours at a time. Goat Chin hadn't been much better.

Sometimes he felt like he had failed them. By causing them all to worry so much about him, by still being a source of such worry, by not being strong enough…

"Oh!" Yuzu exclaimed, breaking Ichigo's train of thought for a second time in as many minutes, "I forgot to tell you why I came here to start with! Daddy's finally letting your friends come over to visit you!"

Ichigo stared dully for a moment. "What?"

Yuzu blinked at her brother, her smile faltering at the edges. "Your friends, Ichi-ni. Daddy wouldn't let them come over when you first woke up because he thought you needed rest, but now he says you're well enough for visitors." The small girl brightened at the mention of her sibling's increasing health. "They should be here in a half hour or so. They've been really worried."

Ichigo carefully forced a reassuring smile onto his face as Yuzu skipped from the room, but he let it drop as soon as the door closed behind her. Collapsing against his pillows he thought morosely, 'Great. More people that I've worried sick. Aw, hell, at least it'll be good to see Chad, Keigo, and Mizuiru again. Maybe Tatsuki will even drop by.'

With those heartening thoughts in mind, he let himself fall into a light doze while waiting for his visitors.

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The sun was warm on the side of his face, but the cold breeze raised goose bumps along his arms regardless. Groggily, Ichigo reached up to wipe the remnants of sleep from his eyes and cracked his jaw in a yawn. He rolled over onto his back and opened his eyes.

"Hmm…it's kind of cloudy today," he mumbled sleepily before letting his eyes drift shut again. A moment passed before Ichigo furrowed his brows and decided he was missing something obvious, then jerked upright to stare towards the sky.

"Where the fuck is my ceiling!?"

After several minutes of horrified gaping, Ichigo ran a hand through his sleep-mussed hair. "I swear, if Dad did this as some kind of-" and that was when he noticed that not only was his ceiling missing, but so were his walls. And his floor for that matter. And his bed. Instead he seemed to be sitting on…glass? No, a window. A sideways building?

"Dad didn't drug me again, did he?"

He slowly got to his feet, half afraid his shifting weight would break the glass beneath him and he'd fall (sideways?) into the building. Once he was sure his footing was secure, he glanced up again and realized that the clouds were drifting vertically across the sky.

"Well, Dad did say I was brain damaged or something, right? I guess this makes about as much sense as anything else." He was tempted to put the entire episode down to dreaming, but the glass had been too sheer under his hands, the wind too cool on his face for that.

"So…brain damage." His eye twitched violently, "I'm going to sue that damned hospital!"

After glaring angrily at the world for several eerily silent moments, he let his hands relax from the fists they had formed at his sides. He took a few deep breaths and then attempted a wild stab at optimism. "At least I have the strength stand here." It only served to depress him further.

Tired of standing still, he slowly approached the edge of the glass tower and leaned precariously over the side to see what was out there (below him?).

It was more of the same. Of course, in this instance that meant more sideways skyscrapers, reaching out as far as his eye could see in every direction. Somewhat fascinated he stepped forward…into empty air.

He pinwheeled his arms wildly, trying to regain his balance, but was unable to. Just as he inhaled—so he would be able to scream as he plummeted to his death—he was yanked backwards to safety by the scruff of his collar.

"Careful the'e, King. Wouldn' wan' ya gettin' hu't."

The voice was odd, high-pitched and strangely familiar, but his heart was pounding too loudly for him to focus on what was being said, let alone the voice that said it.

"Hey," Ichigo turned to look over his shoulder, "Thanks for-"

The world froze, then cracked down the middle.

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Ichigo woke up panting, wide-eyed, and clutching at his chest. Those eyes…

"Ich-iiii-goooooo!"

Without looking, or even thinking, Ichigo instinctively raised a fist, which Keigo proceeded to smash into face first.

The bedridden teen let a smirk stretch across his face as he stared down at his friend's crumpled form. "It's nice to know some things never change."

"Ichigo!" Keigo cheered as he sprung back to his feet, "Your dad says you're almost all better! You know what this means?"

Ichigo blinked in response. "I…have to go back to school?" he hazarded to guess.

"No," Keigo looked vaguely insulted at the notion, but quickly regained his grin, "Beach trip celebration par-tay!" the enthused teen crowed, flinging his arms wide and smiling broadly.

"…Right. You do that."

Mizuiru pushed his sidekick's wilted form away from the bed to have his own chance to speak with his friend.

The short boy clapped Ichigo on the shoulder. "We're all really glad you're feeling better."

"Yes," Chad added seriously as he moved to Mizuiru's side, "You should take it easy for a while after this."

Ichigo smiled in answer and began, "Yeah, I-"

No longer able to hold herself back, Orihime pounced. She attached herself to his side with a cry of, "Kurosaki-kun!"

Unsure of what to make of the girl on his arm, Ichigo stammered for a bit and blushed to the tips of his ears.

"H-hey, Inoue." That was odd, he hadn't expected her to come…

"That's enough Orihime," Tatsuki said, pulling the taller girl from Ichigo's side and patting her head lightly, "You don't want to give the boy a heart attack after everything else."

"Yes," a new voice spoke, "his father probably wouldn't appreciate that."

At the unfamiliar voice, Ichigo turned to see a skinny boy with glasses at the back of the group gathered around his bed.

"Um… Do I know you?" Ichigo asked awkwardly.

Everyone froze.

Then the boy who had been addressed meet his eyes and nodded faintly.

"Of course, how silly of me. Kurosaki-san mentioned you suffered from memory loss. My name is Ishida Uryu. My father is a doctor at the hospital you stayed in; I meet you while I was waiting for him about four months ago."

Keigo looked confused, "But, Ishida, you've been in our class for two years…"

"Oh calm down," Tatsuki said dismissively, "you know how Ichigo is with faces. There's no way he would have recognized him from school."

"Hey!"

Everyone shared a laugh at the orange-haired boy's expense.

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"Feel better, Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime called cheerfully as she shut the door behind herself. With the door firmly closed she hesitated a second longer before releasing the cold metal of the door handle, and then slowly turned around to face the others.

The smiles that had been gracing every face as they waved their goodbyes were gone now, replaced with heavy silence.

"I don't like this," Ishida said quietly.

"Shut up," Tatsuki grated out, voice barely a whisper, "You think any of us do?"

Chad, for the first time in years, had to actively restrain himself from punching through the nearest wall with one of his large fists. "Seeing Ichigo like this… Is it really-"

"Yes, " Orihime cut in and then made sure to meet each individual's eyes, if only for a second. "It doesn't matter how we feel. We… We have to do what's best for Kurosaki-kun."

And that was that.

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