AN: First character storyline change this chapter, and thank you so much to the followers and to those who favourited this story!

Chapter 3 - Obscurity

Character Storyline - Kisuke Urahara (K-A)

Small clicks from fingers rapidly typing in codes broke the creeping silence in the lab. Sharp, determined grey eyes glinted in the dull light from the surrounding monitors. It was time to shut them down, he knew it would come to this ever since that day when he'd encountered the true plans of the "company".

- 1 week earlier-

It was a crisp autumn morning, the leaves had drained of their vibrant green and been replaced with a dull orange. Ready for the cold, impending end that was brought with the beginning of winter. The blonde grasped a fragile maple leaf between his fingers, watching it crumble under the most gentle touch into shards of what it once was. Today was the day that he would apply to that company. Sure he'd heard rumours of their shady dealings, plus the fact that no-one had ever seen the 'big boss' kind of bothered him, but it was time to find out just what they were hiding. Shrugging it off he placed on a smile, laced with false pretense. He was here for his own reasons, but applying as a medical scientist was the perfect alibi.

He slid through the rotating doors, smiling pleasantly and greeting each person with an appropriate "good morning." before finally stopping at the front desk. "Hi, I'm here about the position you're offering." The attendant had smooth dark purple hair with a black tint that was pulled back in a neat braid with thin bangs resting at either side of her face. "Good morning sir, your name?" She asked, her aqua-green eyes watched him almost lifelessly, waiting for his answer. "Urahara Kisuke." He replied "I'm applying for the-..." He was unable to finish the sentence before a strange man entered the room. "Nemu, what's keeping that-" He paused mid rant and stared at the blonde, his expression already conveying his disgust. "You're the new employee to my lab?" He inquired, his eyes coldly analysing every move the blonde made.

"Yeah...that's me." Kisuke replied while looking around the sparse room, his fake smile ever present on his face. Wow, this guy's strange. He thought as he watched the man come closer. His opinion only becoming more clarified as the man leaned in close to his face "You may address me as Kurotsuchi, I am the head of the science division here." Kurotsuchi said as his eyes narrowed at the blonde before he walked away. No sense of personal space either...and what's with the face paint? Kisuke thought as he stood there staring at the strange application of the black and white make-up across the head scientist's face. A single stripe of white was drawn along and up the bridge of his nose, then another two half way up either side of his face and the rest was completely black.

"What are you staring at?" He inquired, making Kisuke flinch as he snapped out of his daze. "Uh," It probably wasn't wise to inquire about that right now "Nothing. Maybe you could show me around?" He smiled as he rubbed the back of his head. "I suppose I should show you the lab. Do not touch anything... or you'll be the next specimen that I'll have the pleasure of taking apart." He turned away with an insanely creepy smile drawing slowly across his face. That was close. It's best to make a good first impression. That might be hard with this guy, it seems like he hates me already. The blonde thought as he nonchalantly brushed off the last part of the sentence.

-
Time had traveled quickly, it was his third day already and everything seemed normal so far. Except for the psychotic head scientist who always seemed a little too creepy for anyone's comfort. The lab looked fine, the people seemed pretty genuine and the tasks he were assigned were rather basic, nothing beyond what was expected. The place felt too well run, too perfect to not be hiding something. He had to trust his instinct, and it didn't help that every time he passed a certain hallway near the basement floor he got cold chills, something was definitely not right.

"Urahara. I need you to stay back later tonight to help me with some follow-ups." Kurotsuchi announced while slipping around the corner. This guy was not the kind of person that he wanted to be alone with...especially at night. Then again if he didn't accept the request, he was sure Kurotsuchi would make his day-to-day life a living hell. "Sure thing, Kurotsuchi-san." He replied while stacking away some papers.

-
He breathed a sigh of relief as he finished the last of his assigned work before looking at the time "It's eleven already?!" He audibly questioned while staring blankly at the clock. He'd been working on this mountain of paperwork since six. "Kurotsuchi-san, I've finished up here! Can I go home now?" He asked in a defeated tone, his face was lined with exhaustion, dark purple marks had silently crept under his tired, shadowed eyes.

"Kurotsuchi-san?" The blonde called again. No reply. Kisuke flinched as he heard a blood chilling scream, his heart pounded as if it were going to break free from his chest. "What the-" His words were spoken under his breath. This place wasn't so normal after all. He began quickly but silently running towards the source of the cries. Please don't be that room... He begged in his mind, that area of the building never failed to make his skin erupt in goosebumps. His chest tightened as he stopped before the room, concealing himself in the shadows. Of course it's this room.

He listened for any slight noise before creeping towards the door, a slight purple light emanated from within, barely illuminating the hallway from the small crack where the door was open. He slowly stepped closer, carefully peering through the gap. He could only just make out three figures, one was the attendant from earlier, Nemu. The other two were shrouded by shadows before one of them stepped closer to the subject. "Kurotsuchi-san?" He rasped as he watched the head scientist move closer to the subject, she began pleading, begging for someone to help her. Kisuke's fingers twitched as he reached for the door. Too late. His eyes widened in horror as Kurotsuchi injected her with a strange iridescent purple syringe. Her body suddenly contorted. Violently. Her cries quickly losing their humanity and becoming nightmarish screams before her figure stopped moving, a shiver inducing silence falling upon the room once again. "Well done..." The satisfied praise echoed slowly from the man still submersed in the lingering shadows. "I never expected the virus to progress this quickly."

"That must be him. The head of the company." Kisuke spoke in low tones under his harsh breathing, his chest was constricting further as his throat followed suit. He stepped back slowly, his legs were quickly going numb as the blood froze over in his veins. Stumbling in shock he accidentally knocked his arm against a rusted, dull metal pipe. Glancing momentarily at the pipe he turned away rapidly and ran as fast as he could back up the hallway moments before the door flew open and Nemu peered out, just missing sight of him. He felt like his heart was going to explode, like his legs were going to give out. But he kept going, because he knew being caught now could mean his life after what he'd seen.

"Was there anyone else here?" The mysterious man questioned as he gestured a hand towards the two scientists. "Just my lab hand. But he's busy with paperwork, I made sure of that." Kurotsuchi replied confidently as he packed up his equipment and stared vividly into the dense purple liquid of the other samples that were stacked carefully in a metal case. "What is his name?" The man inquired as he stepped forward. "Urahara Kisuke."

The next morning Kisuke stopped before the doors, coming here was less working and more trying to suppress the horrible, haunting images of that woman. How many others have they done this to? Just who was that man? His mind was buzzing with unsettling questions as he slipped through the rotating doors. He went about working for the next few days before being confronted by a tall dark-haired man, his smile was incredibly wide. His eyes dark and narrow, reflecting a wild, defiant flicker within. A sneer crossed his face as he watched the blonde nervously pass him.

People were giving him darker looks now, there was no way. No way they could have seen him...he wasn't the only one still there that night, was he just the only "unsilenced" one? The atmosphere had suddenly turned arctic in this building now. He knew what he had to do eventually.

He had to do this, he typed the codes in frantically, downloading the last of the crucial data on the virus. It was finally time to drag this company down into a hellish abyss, right where it belonged, to be engulfed in the flames of vengeance and disappear. That was nothing more than just a simple dream, nothing more and he knew it...for now that is. He could easily do this and then slip into the shadows afterwards. He smiled darkly as he pulled out a prepared supply bag, filled with medical supplies and rations. His fingers glided over the keys, pressing this one enter key would contaminate all of the samples of the virus and completely wipe all of the data from all the computers and electronics in this building. A final click of confirmation set the timer to five minutes.

He effortlessly slipped out of the room and down the hall, before long he arrived at the main entrance. He smiled as he watched the seconds tick down before uttering a final goodbye to the company "Sorry, I quit." With his final word the entire circuit board that diverted energy to the building overloaded sending sparks flying and shattering lights. He quickly ran into the darkness of the streets with all the information on the virus. Maybe I can find a cure for this...

"NO!" The man ran slender hands through his messy hair as he leaned back in his chair while the back-up generators struggled to activate. "What do you mean it's all gone?!" He screamed, his words unable to contain the rage that was fuming within. "Our research, the virus, everything. That idiot wiped it all from the database." Kurotsuchi replied, his head hung in defeat as he eyed the tall, dark haired man beside the boss, his fingers poised on a handgun attached to his waist.

A sudden, deafening gunshot rang through the room, blood was sprayed across the dark walls as Nemu fell lifelessly to the ground, the assailant only widened his psychotic grin at the sight as he re-holstered his weapon. "Nemu!" Kurotsuchi yelled towards the fallen woman, her blood was quickly pooling across the white tiles while her eyes were left hauntingly open in shock. "You will NOT fail me again. Understand that, Kurotsuchi? Or else next time it will be your life." The boss murmured as he turned to the murderous thug beside him, his grin ever present.

"Nnoitra, I want you to find and kill Urahara Kisuke. Now. Spare no expense and bring me his corpse!" The man yelled in a furious rage. He wasn't used to failure, this much was obvious as his once calm demeanor had finally cracked and revealed glimpses of the demonic being hiding behind it. "He... he really was a fool to think that we didn't have a back-up of all the data." He had his face buried in his hands, his expression mirroring near complete insanity before he let out a laugh infused with every meaning of the word "insane". It echoed menacingly through the halls, as if it were a signal, a warning that the first day of the apocalypse had begun.

Kisuke kept lashing through the streets, avoiding the masses of humanity while fighting to block out the distant screams ringing in his ears. By this stage he wasn't sure if it was reality or just delusion, a repeated nightmare burnt into the darkest reaches of his mind. A shiver chased the length of his spine as the temperature plummeted, light specks of snow were beginning to blanket the city he'd left behind. He took a few minutes to survey the surroundings, by now the ground was rapidly losing the dead, dull green of the grass and being replaced by pure white flakes. Winter had finally arrived.

He glanced around looking for somewhere to shelter for now, the city was far too dangerous after what he'd just done. Time was needed to erase his presence and hopefully begin to ease the hatred he'd sparked. Dull crunches gave way from the snow beneath him, his shoes sunk into the thick layer of soft ice before he spotted something in the distance. A person? No, that couldn't be right. He thought as he cautiously drew closer, wary of the dark figure while observing the crimson snow surrounding them.

He leant down carefully beside them, lightly sweeping snow from the side of their face to try and identify them. "Hey, can you hear me?" He questioned. No reply. This person was completely unconscious. Kisuke's fingers were shaking slightly from the freezing snow, at least that's what he tried to believe. Finding a dead body in the middle of the forest was not another problem he wanted to add to his list today.

Attempting to stop the shaking he pulled his coat in closer and pressed his ear to the man's chest, listening carefully for a sign he was alive. A heartbeat. Kisuke pulled back once confirming the man was alive, he glanced to see the man had started breathing again, the cold air making his breath visible now. "Well at least you're not dead." The blonde breathed in relief, his body unforgiving as the cold was quickly breaking through his clothes and making his trembling worsen.

He watched the crimson liquid draining into the snow, the once pure white of the ground now clouded and corrupted by a haunting deep red. The blonde sighed and opened his medical supply kit, searching for bandages and disinfectant.

"I didn't become a medic to stand by and let people die..."

He grimaced as he saw the massive gash along the person's leg, the severity of it was obvious, the flesh was torn deep making it difficult to stop the bleeding. His attention was drawn to the man's right back, the thick material of the jacket was split into small holes. Bullet wounds. The strong sickening scent engulfed the blonde as he quickly kept working, carefully removing the thick, metallic bullets while attempting to ignore and endure. He'd done this so many times before but it had been a while, he'd dropped his medic career to try pursuing his other ambitions. His skills were still as sharp as ever though, he'd taken to keeping them refined through ambulance work on the weekends he was free. His week was pretty full with two jobs but at least he kept busy.

He exhaled deeply, the vapour traveling off in visible white clouds as his mind returned to the biting cold closing in from every direction. He'd successfully bandaged and stitched the wounds and now sat there watching the person blankly, unsure of what to do next. He knew he'd need to move to a warmer location but there was nothing for ages, the surroundings were bleak and discoloured from the snow, if he tried to head in any random direction now he'd just get lost and make the situation worse.

He was still sitting close to the man, his dark brown hair wavering slightly in the freezing gusts of wind. Kisuke flinched as the man's hand locked around his wrist, chilling dark brown eyes met his as they suddenly snapped open. Kisuke inhaled sharply, sending a shooting pain throughout his lungs from the freezing air forced into them. The brunette remained there silently, his vice-like grip unwavering as the blonde felt his hand losing circulation. He quickly pried the man's fingers from around his wrist, breaking free and shuffling back to gain some distance, unsure if the dark figure was dangerous or not.

He waited in silence, the harsh razor wind lashing across his exposed skin as he watched the figure sit up and turn towards him, his eyes darkened like a criminals yet they lacked the wildness, instead he seemed composed... as if he were a perfectly normal person. The blonde finally managed to speak up as his words began to flow again, no longer imprisoned by the initial fear.

"Just who are you?"