Countdown till final: 5

Ichigo quickly took a look at the papers Matsumoto had brought and found an autopsy report of the S.I.N. that was found yesterday among them.
Shiro and Rukia were just about to leave, when he stopped them.
"One more thing. I already got the autopsy report of our John Doe."
The pale stopped and turned back around.
Ichigo skipped over the report and read out the important parts.
"Name; Kirge Opie. S.I.N. stage 1, in rehab program. Cause of death; unknown. No injuries on the insides and only light bruises at the throat on the outside. No traces of narcotics in his blood."
He stopped and closed the file.
"It's as if he just dropped dead out there."
Shiro said and Ichigo nodded as an answer.
"It seems like it, but it's not that simple. I'm certain that man who was with Rukias uncle is connected with it somehow. He's something even more dangerous than us."
Rukia silently listened to them, until eventually she blurted out.
"He doesn't suck ones blood, but the soul."
Ichigos eyes widened at that and he jumped from his seat.
"That's it!"
There wasn't anything else that explains a Vampires sudden death more fittingly than that.
Especially when mentioned Vampire had no lethal injuries.

Ichigo stepped around his table and began to pace from right to left in front of it.
If he remembered right, he caught the smell of burned flesh right after that man had cut his eye.
Something must've touched him, that caused a chemical burn, like holy water did when it touched a Vampire.
Realization hit him just when he finished that thought.
There was just one thing, that could have touched the man, in that very moment.
Ichigos blood.
So, either the man was weak to Vampire blood or slayer blood.
Or it even was the mixture of both.
What ever it was, when Ichigo would use his own blood to turn it into a weapon against the man, he could be sure that it worked.
On the other hand, why did he even get the chance to fight him another time?
What was the mans objective?
Ichigos eye fell upon Rukia, whom he stared at while thinking on.
He knew that he had been attacked with the intend to kill, but as soon as the man failed one time and discovered his allies corpse, he lost interest.
Could he be a mercenary that was hired to assist Hidemotos revenge?
How did he survive, when he was stabbed into the heart?
"The only way to defeat a monster is to be an even greater one. Huh."
Ichigo mumbled, still staring at Rukia who started to feel uncomfortable under his boring gaze and fidgeted around.

Shiro overheard his words.
"I'd like you to thoroughly explain that, after I put her through the mill."
He told before he finally left with Rukia right behind him.

They went to the same training room they used before.
Once there, Shiro stopped abruptly after walking a few meters into the hall.
Rukia jumped into a defensive stance instantly.
"What are we going to do?"
She asked, watching him uncertainly.
"Nothing. I want to see it first."
"See what?"
Shiro rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and closed the distance to Rukia, until he was just a step away from her.
He stretched out his right hand and rested it atop of her head.
"I want to see, what happened yesterday and all the memories you have of that man who raised you. Don't try to think anything. Even the faintest thought can create walls that block me from your memories. I don't want to hurt you, because I'd have to tear them down."

A minute after saying that, Shiro started searching through Rukias memories.
Soon he found what he looked for.
The moment she went missing.

Rukia just stepped outside of the V.A.S.T. tower and caught sight of Ichigos and Shiros backs, when someone dragged her away while shutting her mouth with a hand.
A few hundred meters farther, the hand was removed and Rukia started to protest.
Upon identifying her kidnapper, the protests grew in volume.
"Let go! Why are you doing that?"
A cold glare was send her way and her mouth shut with duct tape.
"Stop ruining everything with your ranting."
The two reached the park, Hidemoto bound Rukia with tape once they reached the clearing.
A second, cloaked man appeared.
"How is it going?"
"So far very well. The prey just has to take the bait, and we're as good as finished."
The stranger left toward the trees again.
"Your plan can't fail, or I have no seed to bear fruit for my own."
"I'll drag him to hell, without fail."

Shortly after Ichigo appeared and Shiro watched from Rukias memories, what he's already been told about.
After he knew all of the recent event, Shiro searched for older memories of Hidemoto in Rukias brain.
Everything he found, were the same cold glares and that distant treatment directed to his niece, from her toddler age onward.
Shiro was surprised that Rukia grew up to the mental healthy person she was, despite all that.
He retreated from her mind and opened his eyes, once he was fully back in his own body.

Out in the real world, the woman was covered in sweat and knocked out from the burden of living through everything again.
She half leaned on Shiro and half laid on the ground.
The Vampire only could think to himself that she really was a strong person, with a very cute appearance.

Chapter 23
End