Me: Back from the cliffie! Couldn't sleep for whatever reason, started typing this at 3, and an hour and 24 minutes later, here it is!
Ichigo: Thank God for insomnia. That cliffhanger just about made me wanna stab my eyes out with a fork.
Me: 0_0 ...Lovely. Thanks, Ichigo. (Slides plate of Awesomesauce Cake away from me) Made me lose my appetite, you bastard.
Ichigo: Hey, take it easy on me! My girlfriend just got kidnapped!
Me: ...Oh. Right. Sorry! Here. (Hands Ichigo strawberry-flavored cake with never-melting strawberry ice cream on top, ALSO courtesy of Squee)
Ichigo: Oh hell yes! I officially love Squee!
Me: Y'know, she ALSO nearly fell off her bed when she saw that commercial for new Bleach episodes! Good to know I'm not the only one who had a total fangirl-cardiac-arrest moment!
Ichigo: (Busy eating cake) OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM
Me: 0_0 (Sweatdrops) ...Enjoy.
Ichigo was not-so-shockingly the first to get there, Rukia and Nel not far behind. Peyton's window was wide open, and he knew as much as anybody that she wasn't there, but he went up to look anyway.
While climbing up after him, Rukia noticed some blood on the ground. It wasn't enough to be even close to fatal, and decided it would probably be best to not mention it at all.
Ichigo losing his head this soon was the last thing anyone needed.
But after seeing her room, she couldn't help but wonder out loud, "Doesn't it look like foul play was involved?"
Ichigo sweatdropped. "Actually, it looks like throwing off the covers and stomping towards the window thinking it was me was involved."
"Has that happened before?"
"Don't EVEN go there," he replied, shuddering at the thought. Rukia sweatdropped. "O...Kay then."
"Ichigo, Rukia! You felt it too?" Matsumoto called softly from the ground as Toshiro tried not to stare at the same blood Rukia found.
"Gee, what do YOU think?" Rukia replied, jerking her thumb in Ichigo's direction.
Matsumoto and Rukia surveyed the area around the same time Urahara, Yoruichi, and Shinji came into view off down the road.
"You all felt it?" Toshiro wondered.
"We were monitoring it out of concern for her safety. Tell them, Kisuke."
Ichigo's gaze snapped over to Urahara. "You knew this was gonna happen? Are you fricking kidding me? And you didn't DO ANYTHING?"
Hat-And-Clogs held up his hands in surrender. "Gimme a chance to explain this all to you, Ichigo. We weren't POSITIVE this was going to happen, and if we were, what good would we do? We can't see the Iga Clan with our own eyes, and would be completely useless against them. Peyton would still be gone."
"Wait, the Iga Clan? I thought they were pretty much wiped out," Rukia said carefully.
"They were. Just like they were 700 years ago, when they found it easy to manipulate and form alliances with Hollows," Yoruichi replied, her tone dead serious and laced with worry.
"Hollows. Are they...taking her to Hueco Mundo?" Toshiro asked.
Matsumoto sighed heavily, rubbing her temple. "Ohhhh DAMMIT, they pulled an Aizen and she pulled an Orihime!"
Everyone sweatdropped, while Shinji sighed and shook his head. "You Soul Reapers. Don't understand these things, do ya? Think about it. We all know what she can do, correct? What if they could harness that power, as WELL as the Hollows? That would satisfy not only their craving for power, but their craving for revenge...revenge against the person responsible for leaving them without a leader or clear sense of purpose."
They were all silent for a moment, and Nel squeezed Ichigo's neck tighter as he closed his eyes, searching desperately for any sign of her reiatsu.
Any sign at all. Please.
...Nothing. Not a thing. Just like what I did: not a thing. I knew something was wrong, and didn't do a damn thing about it. And this is what I get.
...What kind of deep shit did you get yourself into this time, dammit?
"So...How we gonna rescue Itsygo's girlfwiend?" Nel asked nervously.
"That's the problem. We don't know where she is."
"What? You just said something about Hollows," Ichigo accused, beyond pissed off at this point with their confusing answers.
"So what? Just because Hollows are involved, doesn't mean they're in Hueco Mundo. They could be keeping her somewhere else, maybe somewhere in Soul Society, even. Somewhere we wouldn't expect," Yoruichi snapped.
Urahara held up a finger matter-of-factly. "OR...They might have figured we would suspect as much, and are keeping her in Hueco Mundo, as Toshiro suggested. But we have no way right now of knowing for sure."
Ichigo's temple throbbed. "What the hell are you trying to say? We should just hold off?"
"Actually, that's exactly what I'm saying. Good call, Ichigo, you're catching on!" Urahara praised, sounding almost...cheerful. Which, what more could you expect from him, but Ichigo felt his anger boil to the surface nonetheless.
"Are you KIDDING ME? Am I the only one who notices that Peyton's GONE? She could be hurt, she could get killed any second!"
"She could get killed if we rush in without knowing where the hell to start looking, too!" Shinji snapped, making Ichigo shut up.
He cleared his throat before continuing, glancing at the blood on the ground and hoping Ichigo didn't notice it. If he had, the kid woud probably have a seizure.
"Urahara, Yoruichi, Tessai, the Vizards and I will monitor everything carefully and try to find something that could pinpoint her location as fast as we can. Until then, we don't wanna risk falling into a trap and getting stuck in the wrong world as they murder Peyton, now, do we?"
Everyone fell dead silent at that, glancing in Ichigo's direction as discreetly as possible. His fists clenched for a few moments before he took a deep breath, sighing deeply and tiredly.
"Dammit, I hate it when you're right."
"Funny, I said the same thing when her reiatsu disappeared!" Shinji said as if that were hilarious.
"We could probably use the spare time we have to catch up on training, make sure we're ready for going up against something we can't see," Renji pointed out, making everyone jump.
"WHEN THE HELL DID YOU GET HERE?"
HOURS LATER...
For the first time in her life, Peyton woke up with her hands bound at the wrist and not having a clue as to where the hell she was.
All she knew was that her head hurt, and if Ichigo was the cause of the pounding ache, she was cracking skulls.
It was dark. "Ichigo?" She called out. Nothing.
"Ichigo, I swear to Chappy the Demon Bunny, if you're the reason I'm tied up and have a huge headache, if this is some twisted fantasy of yours or something, I just might throw you into Nanaw's room BEFORE summer, and for much longer than thirty minutes!" She threatened.
Peyton winced, all that yelling making the pain worse.
She looked around, noticing there was nothing to help her understand her surroundings. No windows, not enough light to see the room itself.
...It was about that time she felt panic rising in her throat.
Where was she, honestly, and why was Ichigo not there? Who else would be under her window, interrupting her sl-
Under my window! So she DID remember something as to how she got here. Not a huge something, but at least a something.
Now if she could just remember MORE somethings, she'd be all set. But until then, she was fighting the extremely strong urge to panic.
She would not lose her head. She would NOT lose her head.
...But that did not mean in any way that she couldn't let her eyes get wet just a little as she realized wherever she was, Ichigo and Karakura were far away and she was more-or-less helpless as far as she could tell.
MEANWHILE...
School. The institution that sucks the very life out of its victims, from about grade 4 up. It was even worse when your girlfriend, your best friend, had gone missing the night before.
And you couldn't do a damn thing about it while knowing good and well what could happen to her if Hollows were involved.
She could be tortured.
She could gain her own personal Hollow, and have to suffer through the same hell as him.
She could...he couldn't even think about it anymore.
In less than five hours, he had actually managed to worry himself sick. Fricking fantastic. It only got worse as Lindsay hurried into Ms. Ochi's room, searching the desks before heading straight for Ichigo and Rukia.
"Hey guys. Have you seen Peyton? She wasn't home when I woke up, I figured she snuck out or something...What's wrong with you?" She asked Ichigo, who was dangerously pale.
This was the part where he was supposed to insist he was fine, right before telling her that thanks to his stupidity, her sister was missing and could potentially get tortured to death.
Or worse.
Shit, he was thinking about it again.
Needless to say, he was rendered speechless at the moment. Rukia didn't look so good herself, she must've been thinking the same thing as him.
Either way, she spoke for him. "Lindsay...This is gonna be hard for me to say, and even harder for me to explain...Where's your brother, and can we talk to the two of you alone?"
She eyed her suspiciously. "Why? Rukia, where's my sister?" She looked at Ichigo. "You're not eloping in Vegas or something, are you?"
"What the- NO!"
"Just checking. Well, let's go get Seth," she said cheerfully.
Telling her was NOT going to be easy.
LATER...
"What're you doing home so early, you two?" Miya asked as Seth opened the door, Lindsay right behind him.
She smiled as Ichigo and Rukia came into view. "Hi. I'm surprised Peyton isn't with you...She wasn't here this morning..."
Though she looked cheerful, the worry was in her eyes. Who wouldn't be worried? What with one sibling missing, the older sister's mascara running down her face and the older brother looking about ready to kick major ass.
"She's gone, Miya. She's gonna be ripped apart and fed to Hollows!" Lindsay wailed, making Rukia and Ichigo jump back. "N-No one said that!"
But thanks for giving me one more thing to be absolutely terrified about...
Miya set down the remote and stood up as Lindsay buried her face against Seth, sobbing. "Wait, what? What're Hollows?"
She looked at Ichigo, just like everyone else had today once they realized something was very wrong with Peyton's absence.
Telling Orihime had been a close second to the worst scenario. She almost cried, and Ichigo was sure she did once he was gone so he wouldn't have to see it. He knew she was thinking of her time in Las Noches, and he himself couldn't even imagine how Peyton must be feeling at the moment.
"What's going on?"
Rukia glanced at Ichigo before folding her arms across her middle anxiously. "Miya, what all do you know about Peyton's ability to see...things normal humans can't?"
MEANWHILE...
After what seemed like forever, a light was turned on. Peyton sighed in relief, having been on the brink of a panic attack for hours.
From what she could gather, she was in a concrete room with no windows and only one steel door that probably locked from the outside.
She was perched on a bed, which was a lot bigger than she thought, considering she didn't take up all that much space.
The floor was wood, clashing oddly with the concrete and steel.
The lighting was pretty poor, but she could've sworn she saw a rat scurry across the floor, towards an almost-unnoticeable pile of bones in the corner.
Peyton tried to tell herself they were animal bones, and that she wouldn't be added to the tiny pile.
"Perhaps seeing isn't all that it's cracked up to be," she whispered to herself, squeezing her eyes shut tight.
Where am I, honestly? "Ichigo, where are you?" She asked the air for the hundredth time.
Just like the last time she asked that, there was no answer whatsoever. Nothing but the noises of the rat squeaking and sifting through bones, complete with tiny sniffling sounds coming from herself.
MEANWHILE...
"So...You're saying that you're a substitute Shinigami, a Soul Reaper, who helps the dead get to Soul Society? And Rukia, Matsumoto, Toshiro, and Renji are all Soul Reapers as well?"
"Yes."
"And Peyton has this...sort of power...to see even the auras Soul Reapers usually can't see, leading to her helping wipe out a clan of ninjas?"
"Yeah."
"And last night, what's left of this clan kidnapped her as revenge and to try to harness her power?"
"Yes."
"And...Hollows are...these creatures made from bad souls...who feed on...humans with high spirit energy, like Peyton, and ghosts?"
"...Yes."
Miya sweatdropped. "And strangely, that all makes sense. What exactly are these 'powers' of Peyton's, besides the aura thing?"
Seth held up a hand. "Miya, you know that guy from Mortal Kombat that does all that lightning stuff?"
"...Yeeeaaahhh..."
"It's like that, from what Toshiro said a while back." He sighed heavily. "I can't believe he basically told me the whole truth that day, and I thought he was seriously talking about a tv show."
Suddenly, he grinned. "Dude, can I see Zangetsu?"
Lindsay smacked him across the face, still extremely upset. "DUMBASS, did you not hear a word they said? Peyton's GONE! She could get killed, or worse, ripped apart by Hollows!"
"Wouldn't that kill her too?"
"Yeah, but it'd be much much worse."
"Oh, that's true. Could you imagine? Being ripped limb from limb like that, screaming in agony, being conscious until the very last second, and knowing you're not getting saved in time? Maybe she'd be thinking no one cared, or maybe she'd be vengeful, or-"
This time, Miya and Rukia smacked him across the face on both sides. "OW!"
They looked pointedly at Ichigo, who was currently angled so his face wasn't visible to them, fists clenched tightly. "Watch what you say, idiot!" They hissed.
Ichigo cleared his throat, trying his best to stay as calm as possible for their sake. "Um...Who's gonna...tell Mark?"
A collective shudder filled the room, and Rukia laughed nervously. "I dunno, but I will make absolutely sure you're not there when they do."
"I appreciate that," he said weakly, not being able to get the image of Mark's reaction to all this out of his head.
Lots of Ichigo's blood on the curtains was included.