Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters and its settings aren't mine.

Kurosaki Isshin woke up, put a hand to his head.

Kids these days. Rumor had it there was a time Rangiku preferred tea to sake. Apparently Shunsui had remedied that.

Ow.

Thankfully there was nothing pressing today. He'd just take things... slowly.

Until the shaking and the pain behind his left eye went away.

He reached for his cell, the light was flashing. Urahara had some other name for the stupid things, to Isshin they were telephones, nothing more.

Time in the real world had changed him. For the better obviously.

Message from Ichigo! At least he assumed it was from Ichigo, the message was from another Reaper but it started with Ddd. Karin and Yuzu always spelled out Dad, and they had their own phones anyway.

Surprising to hear from the boy. Isshin hoped he was all right, he hadn't had a message from Ichigo in what? Three years?

He suspected that 12th had been ordered to block Ichigo's phone from the network. Well that was his boy, smart enough to figure out how to get Dad a message.

Ddd, M ded. at morgue.

Isshin read the first line a second time, then read the message through.

His son needed him.

Isshin stood up and put the pain aside. Ichigo was monitored around the clock, the message would be a matter of public record in hours, if it wasn't already.

Dammit the message was already three or four hours old. Well, one joy of being a captain was Isshin didn't anyone's permission to go to the living world.

Luckily he'd slept in his clothes.

Isshin shut the door behind him and flash stepped towards the nearest gate. They'd have to make arrangements fast or this could get messy. Ichigo would be confused, he was probably still in shock.

Had to get to him before he did anything stupid. With any luck old Yama was still deciding his next move.

If he were lucky Isshin could keep this from getting ugly. The old man wouldn't send anyone but captains if the Seireitei were going to have dealings with Ichigo, no one talked about it but Yama didn't seem to trust many of his younger officers where Ichigo was concerned.

If Gotei 13 strength weren't so far down Isshin suspected a lot of the younger officers would be reassigned immediately, the old man had a thing about his troops being disciplined to the point of stupidity. Shinigami were to do what they were told, even if it was wrong.

If Yama sent the wrong captains-

Isshin didn't even want to think about that. Shunsui, Jushiro, even Zaraki would be fine, Zaraki might even be best, he and Ichigo could work through Ichigo's frustrations with their swords. But if Yama sent Soi Fon, or Byakuya, or Komamura-

And the old man wouldn't send just one captain, he probably wouldn't send two captains either.

The one he should be sending was Retsu, she was the only one who always got a san or a taicho out of Ichigo. If she asked Ichigo to stand up straight and tuck in his shirt Ichigo would probably do it.

Shit. If they drew their Zampakutos Ichigo would too, in the sort of mood he must be in. If they raised their Zampakutos Ichigo would too. And if they started swinging, lord help them all, Ichigo would too, one thing the boy had never learned was restraint. Isshin had no desire to see his son struck down or made a murderer and the moment Ichigo raised a blade against a captain the old man would have him swarmed, or worse yet, order everyone back and go in himself.

Isshin had to get there first.

Twenty minutes later Isshin was looking around the neatly packed apartment. It had an empty feel he didn't like; even with his eyes shut he couldn't feel Ichigo anywhere. Isshin should have been able to feel him even with the eye patches, Ichigo was his son.

The boy was nowhere within a hundred miles of where Isshin stood. He'd be harder for others to track now that he wore the power limiters, and if he'd gone three years without sending a message he might not send another anytime soon. Ichigo hadn't wanted to talk, he'd simply wanted his family to know what had happened.

The question was what Yama was going to do about it?

Was it worth a quick run up the coast? No, no time. Ichigo was incommunicado and twelfth division's equipment would find the boy a lot faster than Isshin could.

Friends, what about friends?

Ichigo didn't have any friends. Ishida, Inoue, Chad. The others? He could reach out to Tatsuki -

She wouldn't help.

Isshin paced the little room. His official options were limited. Think! Where would Ichigo go? The boy had always known he was watched, but he'd also known he couldn't hide - they'd find him eventually. Anywhere on earth - even Ichigo wasn't fast enough to evade the watchers forever.

Unless he had a way to hide.

Isshin felt his stomach sink. Oh no, not-

Urahara couldn't lie to him, not on this. Kisuke was sly but he'd never-except he already had, hadn't he? Despite his motives he'd almost turned Rukia-chan into a human in one of his cursed gigais. Urahara had no compunctions about putting someone in his untraceable gigais. He was also crafty enough to get away with it, the man spent most of his time tormenting Mayuri, just daring the twelfth division's captain to catch him at something. In the past three years Mayuri had been made to look like a fool so many times he'd taken the number two spot on Yama's shit list.

Even Ichigo would be devoured eventually inside one of those cursed things.

But if he felt he had nothing more to lose-

Oh damn oh damn oh damn.

He had to talk to Urahara. Then the old man.

Isshin hoped and prayed it was a gigai. He had to get this settled before anyone started talking about Heuco Mundo.

Fifteen minutes later Isshin stood in Urahara's office. "Kisuke, I need to talk to you."

"Certainly, Isshin-Taicho." Bucket Hat grinned.

"None of that Kisuke. I need to know what you've done with my son."

Start off strong, let Urahara think he already knew.

Kisuke looked genuinely surprised.

"Done? I haven't done anything. Why, did something happen to Ichigo?"

Isshin just glared at him. Sometimes Urahara's tendancy to play games was trying.

"No, seriously Isshin-san. What are you talking about? I haven't seen Ichigo since he left Soul Society three years ago. Has something happened?"

Left, as though Ichigo had a choice.

"He texted me to look him up at the morgue, Ichigo is dead." In his years as a human Isshin had relearned a human perspective on death, Kisuke hadn't, hidden away in his shoten. To him Ichigo's death was an inconvenience, like misplacing something.

"Well surely Kon-"

"Kon is dead too. Crushed, according to Ichigo."

"His body, you mean? Well," Kisuke seemed confused. "Where is Ichigo now?"

"I don't know! That's why I'm here!"

"I can punch into Mayuri's system from my terminal here," said Urahara. "We'll find him in a moment."

"Don't bother. The scanning network is down, I just had twelfth on the phone. They lost track of Ichigo hours ago. Does Mayuri know you can access his network?"

"Of course not. Where would the fun in that be?" Urhara looked at his screen, punched a few keys.

"No portals to the real world were opened last night Isshin-san. Ichigo-san is still in the mortal world."

Isshin could tell what Urahara was thinking, but Kisuke wouldn't be the one to mention Hueco Mundo.

"Dammit. Could you prepare a gigai? And let me know if he contacts you. I'll be back." Isshin stared at nothing for a moment. "I have to go to the morgue to identify my son."

Could he even go to the old man? If he did he might be ordered not to tag along with whomever was sent after Ichigo. What was Yama planning? And how the hell was Isshin supposed to break this to his daughters?