Chapter 2 - Ghosts of the Heart

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Gin Ichimaru was somewhat off putting, to put it mildly. His constant snake-like smile often made people wary, as they should have been. He'd worked as a private investigator in California for a long time now, mostly taking cases of mostly native Japanese speakers (a large population to his initial surprise when he had come to United States twenty years ago). In that time, he had taken on a very unusual case that he could not solve no matter what. That case was that of Isshin Kurosaki, a second generation Japanese American. His parents had immigrated pre-world war two and had ended up in the camps during the war. Isshin's parents had been laborers, but he had gone to school to become a doctor, a pediatrician, actually. Ichimaru had come over to America following a Japanese American love interest, his now wife, Rangiku Matsumoto. She was an actress now, known as Rachel Martin.

Gin had been interested in the case when presented with it because there was absolutely no trace of his son. It was like the child had vanished from the face of the earth. Gin had gone to great lengths to find the boy. He'd gone into sex trafficking rings. He'd gone into Asian fetish circles. He'd gone to almost every dive in California. He had friends in the FBI who got him information on John Does that came in either without memory or to the medical examiner. So far, nothing. Then, one of his office workers, Izuru Kira, a boy he had rescued from a fetish sex slave ring two years ago, was watching online videos. Gin had stopped and stared and called Isshin immediately, asking Kira to send him a link to the video. He'd watched it ten times already, and printed stills of the important things he needed. All this time. Right here under his very nose.

"Gin, what's going on this time?" Isshin said with a sigh as he stood outside the office door.

"I think I have something this time," he said, grinning at the obviously unamused looking man at the door.

"Just show me, it will be another dead end, I know," he said despondently, going with Gin into his office.

After twelve years, Isshin Kurosaki had lost most of his hope. The first few years, he searched, and searched, and did everything he could. Losing his wife had been absolutely horrible, but to lose his son too? It had been a double blow that nearly destroyed him. He'd spent some time inside a bottle before he could pull himself out. His girls had done that, convincing him that if he killed himself drinking, he'd never find his son and their brother. Now, his girls, Karin and Yuzu, were almost seventeen. They both graduated high school this year, and had just decided to go to Serietei University in Las Noches, CA. They said that it was a well-regarded liberal arts and sciences school with a world-renowned observatory on campus. Yuzu wanted to enter their fashion program, and Karin wanted to attend their astronomy program, and play soccer for the school team.

Gin sat down beside him at the desk and turned his laptop around, and started the video. Isshin arched a brow and looked at him. The title was "The Giant Mechanic of Las Noches".

"Just watch, I promise it is worth it," Gin said nodding seriously.

Isshin sighed and let the video begin.

On the screen a girl with green hair stood in with a grin on her face. She wore what looked like a pleated green and black skirt with a white blouse and appeared around fifteen years of age. "Welcome, Viewers! Once again, it is your favorite YouTube of all time, Lilynette!"

Lilynette grinned. "Las Noches awaits! Now, today we're going to visit with another interesting resident of out quaint little town, the gaunt and very, very tall Nnoitra Gilga! Nnoi is a great guy, peeps, so don't be scared of him. He's a little pervy, so I've asked him turn it down since we have underage viewers!" The girl moved and the camera panned onto what looked like a mechanic's garage with a house attached. The large sign said "Gilga's Custom Rides and Repairs" in very fancy script. In the background, Lillynette's voice continued.

"The Gilga's own this mechanic's shop. Teresa and Santos Gilga have lived in Las Noches for a long time, since like before I was born and stuff, and their two kids Nnoitra and Tesra. Well, Tesra was taken in by the family after being maimed terribly by his previous one, but that's another story for another day. Today, we're talking about this man!"

The camera focused on an extremely tall man leaning over a car, doing something under the hood. He looked up and smiled, which was sort of unnerving. He had a bandana on his head covering one eye, and his mouth seemed too wide. His limbs where longer than normal and his hands were very large.

"Lilynette, you're early, I thought you were coming by after lunch?" he said in a deep voice.

"Aha, but I wanted to catch you working!" the girl's voice said behind the camera. "Get a bit of slice of life into the vid, Nnoi!"

Nnoitra shook his head. "Alright, so you wanted to interview me, you said?"

The camera bobbed a bit. "Yup, questions and answers! I'm a hard-hitting interviewer, so let's get down to the tough questions first. So, tell me, why are you so tall?"

Nnoitra sighed and shook his head, not angry but as though it were a question he'd been asked several hundred times. "I have Marfan Syndrome, just like my mom," he said with a grin.

"Ooh, sounds serious, what's that?" she asked.

Nnoitra was obviously not bothered by the questions. "It is a condition that affects the connective tissue in my body. So my joints are hyper flexible, my limbs are longer than normal, and I have had heart and breathing problems. I also lost use of my left eye due to the retina detaching when I was younger."

"So…how tall are you?"

"Six foot nine," he said smiling and standing a little straighter, so his height was quite obvious. "My mother is six foot two, and has more severe heart problems that I do," he said nodding.

"Tell me about life here in Las Noches."

"Well, most people know my family, but new comers are a little surprised by me and my mom. I don't mind though. There's not a whole lot of crime or drama around here most the time. Last night was a little exciting, though."

"Oh! What happened last night? I heard there was a commotion here and someone tried to break into the shop!"

Nnoitra nodded. "Yeah, no idea what happened, came out and dogs were barking and…"

The camera caught a figure in the doorway and turned toward it. "Hey, who's that, Nnoi?"

Nnoitra turned and shook his head, covering the camera with his hand. "No one, can we finish later?"

The camera flipped to the girl again, somewhere else. "Hey viewers, sorry that got cut short, but we've got a mystery guest in Las Noches! More details when I find out!" The camera blanked out and a scroll came up with suggested videos, including one about the local university, and something about the vampire scholar of Las Noches.

"Was that…?" Isshin said, looking at Gin.

Gin handed him the stills he'd printed. They showed a boy's face looking around the door into the shop with a wild mop of shaggy, bright orange hair. The eyes were brown and almond shaped.

"Maybe, I can't be sure, could be a coincidence, and after twelve years, I don't know for sure, but…" Gin said with a nod.

Isshin kept the prints. "Find out. I don't want to tell the girls until I know for certain."

Gin nodded, having already sent Kira out to gas up his car.

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Uryū had left and not returned home. He had gone straight to his professor's house, the one he had arranged to take Ichigo to for the night. When he knocked on the door, the white haired man answered and sighed. "Something went wrong?" Jūshirō Ukitake said with a sigh.

Uryū nodded and Jūshirō let him into the large house and led him to the living room where his husband, Shunsui Kyōraku sat lounging on the sofa with a glass of wine. Shunsui looked up. "No good?"

"He caught us, and Ichi was so scared he just ran, father took off after him…I got scared and left. I couldn't…I should have followed them, Professor. I'm such a coward!" he said, sitting down with a hollow look on his face. "I…I…"

Jūshirō sat down beside Uryū and put a thin arm around his back. The white-haired dean of students and psychology professor sighed. "You are not a coward. You decided to put an end to what was happening."

"But too late, Professor. Don't you get it? I should have…I should have told someone a long time ago! How could I possibly lie and pretend he didn't exist and…" he said, shaking his head.

"Uryū, you can't blame yourself for what your father did."

It had been two weeks ago when Uryū had been approached after class by his concerned teacher. Jūshirō Ukitake had retired from his job as a child psychologist a few years previously when his health took a turn for the worse. He and Shunsui had lived in Los Angeles and opted to move to the quieter Las Noches when the job opportunity came up. Jūshirō had noted that since he had Uryū in his class this semester, the boy showed obvious signs of some serious mental health problems. Jūshirō was worried that he was more than simply despondent. He showed some worrisome signs that could be abuse related. He was often hyper vigilant of his surroundings, kept to himself, and became very uncomfortable when anyone entered his personal space.

The thing that had made Jūshirō finally say something to the young man was a sudden drop in his grades as well as his mood.

"Uryū, can I speak with you after class today?" Jūshirō had said when Uryū turned in his paper for the day.

Uryū had nodded in surprise, going back to his desk and worrying. He glanced at his returned paper, a big red C on the last page. He guessed it was about his grades lately. He had no idea how to explain things to his professor. The semester was coming to an end in the next month, and finals were approaching. He had no idea how he was going to manage.

After everyone had left the class, he approached the professor's desk and avoided his gaze. "Sir, I know that you want to talk about my grades but it's just some stress at home and I can and will do better…"

Uryū was surprised when he felt his professor put his hand on his shoulder. "Uryū, this isn't only about your grades. Your grades are only a symptom. I would like to hear what the problem is," the quiet professor said.

No one had ever approached him like this. He swallowed. "Sir, I…I don't know what you mean."

"You do, Uryū. You are despondent, isolated, and I think there is something that is making you feel this way. I would like to help, if you'll let me," Jūshirō said with a soft smile.

"I…" Uryū said. "I…how can I even…" he said slowly. "I'm twenty-one years old and I've got no idea how to fix something that is terrible and wrong but became normal to me…" he'd said finally.

Then, all at once it came out, the whole story behind his mother's death, Ichigo, and his father's cruelty. The absolute horror of watching his mother and her best friend die and then be completely powerless when his father had come running down the beach and turned on Ichigo. At nine, Uryū hadn't understood what was happening.

The sun had been beautiful and felt wonderful as the two boys played together in the sand. Their mothers sat in lounge chairs and under umbrellas and chatted with each other about the things that mothers often do. The two boys were much more concerned with building the ultimate sand castle and then destroying it. Ichigo often looked at his mother and smiled, obviously very much attached to her. It had been just after noon when Ichigo had stood up and ran toward his mother about something. Uryū had turned, smiling at his own mother.

The world slowed down as the two boys watched as first Ichigo's mother, then Uryū's mother, had a sudden small explosion of red in their foreheads. There was no real sound, just utter silence, and then Ichigo began screaming, clinging to his mother's body. Uryū stood and stared at his own mother, slumped in the lounge chair, eyes wide, blood oozing from a perfectly circular hole in her forehead above her right eye. He couldn't hear, he couldn't even breathe.

Then everything sped up to an incredible pace as he saw his father running toward them, stopping and falling to his knees and holding his dead wife to his chest. Uryū didn't understand, though, when he started screaming at the other boy, then tore him away from his mother's body. To Uryū's shock, he watched his father wrap his hands around his best friend's neck and squeeze until he stopped moving.

"The murderer took him. Understand?" his father had said, his eyes looking very bright.

Uryū, in such a state of complete shock, refused to speak at all. Then, afterward, he remained mute for four more years. It had taken until he was almost fourteen before he found his voice again. To his horror, it was after his father had told him to punish Ichigo. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he blamed him just like his father. He didn't want to be hurt anymore. He didn't want it. So he kept it secret, because after four years, this was the way life was.

When Uryū finished, he'd been crying openly, in the ugly way that only happens when everything comes out at one flood of emotion. Then and there, Jūshirō had made a plan to deal with things as safely as he could. He'd asked his husband, Shunsui to help, and he had of course agreed.

Now, Uryū sat on their couch rocking back and forth, the overwhelming urge to stop communicating sitting at the back of his throat threatening to take over his tongue again.

"Uryū, you need to calm yourself," Jūshirō said softly. "You are as much of a victim as Ichigo is, you must remember this."

"But I could have…" he started, his voice wavering in and out as he spoke.

Shunsui sighed and stood up. "Don't do this to yourself, boy. Listen, you were a child, you were traumatized, and that trauma never ended. You did what you were told to do by your father. Breaking his hold over you took time."

Uryū tried but he couldn't believe that entirely. Here he was, twenty-one years old, and for the last three years he'd sit idly by while it continued. He'd gone to school. He'd pretended nothing was wrong. He avoided home as much as he could and went about his life. He stayed with friends, and he didn't think about the other person in his apartment, suffering more than he had.

"It…it took me realizing what he was doing to him," Uryū finally whispered. "I…don't know what to do now…" he said quietly.

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The Firecracker Diner was an interesting place. In a college town with a huge astronomy program and telescope as well as a planetarium, it was no wonder that science fiction, UFOs, and aliens were often a topic of conversation. Paranormal stuff was always fun to theorize and discuss, and they often did so at length. Of course, people took varying interest and belief in these things. One, however, was beginning to make the rest of the group a bit uncomfortable.

"The message was so clear," Kūgo Ginjō said, smiling at the others around the large round table. "Las Noches, it was here, and that's why I got here," he said, his eyes flittering quickly from one person to the other.

Kūgo was more than a little convinced that his communication with aliens was real. He said he heard them in his head because they had taken him when he was a child and implanted a communication device in his head so they could speak to him. Several of the more rational of the group were relatively sure that he was delusional and needed help. Others felt that he was harmless and that indulging his wild fantasies of aliens coming to earth one day led to interesting discussions.

Around the table today, the gathered group were discussing a book they had all read recently called Chariots of the Gods?. The book had been interesting and posited the idea that ancient technologies were actually the product of aliens that made contact with humans and helped create things like the pyramids, Stonehenge, and other major technologically advanced things. Kūgo had read the book as well, and of course, he was convinced his aliens could have been like the ones described in it. The others, though, through their discussion had come to agree that aliens weren't involved in ancient civilizations. They decided that most likely the technology was more advanced than previously thought by people like the author of the book.

"So, then do aliens actually exist, you think?" Riruka Dokugamine, a local resident of the area, asked the rest. Beside her sat Moe Shishigawara, Giriko Kutsuzawa, Shūkurō Tsukishima, and a high school student named Yukio Hans Vorarlberna.

Tsukishima nodded emphatically. "They exist, but they'll only reveal themselves when they're ready to do so, and when they think we're ready."

Kūgo frowned. "Of course, they're real! I've seen them!"

Everyone kind of let Kūgo's comment go because none of them really believed in his story. Giriko checked his pocket watch. "I must be going soon," he said with a sigh.

"Look, Lillynette's got a new video out," Yukio said, picking up the remote and turning it up so they could hear. The rest of the diner looked up, but no one really paid a lot of attention to the TV since it was usually on the station that was run by the high school students at the free school. They watched and at the end, they heard Kūgo gasp loudly.

Everyone turned and looked to him.

"It's him, it's him! Did you see! They said they were going to send an emissary to bring the star child to earth and that's him!" he said excitedly.

"What do you mean?" Riruka asked, turning toward him. She honestly had no idea what he was talking about now.

"The orange hair, the pale face, that's what they look like! Their skin is white, their hair is the colors of the sun, yellow, orange, and red. He's the one! They're really coming, this time! Well, they will, I have to get to him! Once I have him, they will be able to tell that it's time! Then they'll come. I have to get ready to receive him!" Kūgo said and swept out of the diner leaving everyone speechless.

"Maybe we shouldn't invite him anymore…" Moe whispered.