Bleh.

Chapter 3

Great, Ichigo thought sarcastically. Two hours on the clock and I'm already kidnapped. Make that two hours of avoiding going in to work, throw in a bunch of angry women, and there you have Ichigo's life.

But was it really his fault if he didn't want to catch a person's cat? The thing probably ran away for a good reason! Like what Ichigo was doing now, as he shoved a bunch of people out of the way.

He glanced back to see if he had lost her and ran into a wall. Ow. He stepped back, absentmindedly rubbing the side of his face, and contemplated the wall. Brick. Solid-looking. There was no way in hell he could have missed it. Could he have? He was sure there was an archway here before.

In his moment of confusion, she thought to catch him unawares. Hah! You do not have a father like Isshin without long-lasting trauma—er, reflexes. He turned on his heel, dodging her hold, and ran parallel to the wall. One step, two steps— he felt his leg get caught on something and he crashed to the ground. He rolled with it, trying to bounce back up, but she had him cornered. One trip was all it took for his boss, Ikumi Unagiya, to grab him in a hold by his hair and pull his head back. Then she started to drag him away. That lady was scary strong. Ichigo ceased resisting.

"You will never escape," she slowly enunciated. "I believe you have work to do." Her voice promised a world of hurt.

She paused in her dragging of Ichigo at the stretch of wall he had run into. He kinda expected her to laugh. That's what scary bosses did, laugh at the pain of their employees. She just frowned at it and moved on. She was probably still mad at him for not showing up.

Eventually Ichigo promised he wouldn't run away and that he could walk on his own 'cause this fucking hurts, and that if she didn't let go he'd be bald before he was twenty. That finally got a quip out of her, saying that it was too bad he couldn't train his hair to be super-tough, then he wouldn't be in this mess. Ichigo responded kindly that he wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for her. Ikumi let loose a few choice words about the predicament they were in, then got quiet.

"I'm giving you a two week leave of absence," Ikumi finally said.

Ichigo said nothing about the fact that he probably wouldn't have shown up anyway. He had studying to do. Yes, actual studying. Fortunately, Ichigo had managed to catch the last few days of his last year of high school. Unfortunately, he had basically missed everything in the middle. That made studying for college entrance exams… challenging. He still debated whether it was worth it at all.

As a shinigami, his life was basically set. He was the top of the top, the best of the best. Fighting hollows for a living, purifying souls, it sounded great. Until you get to the dead part. See, Ichigo was a living person. He had a living body with a… dead… soul. You know, it was way too complicated for him, thinking on it wasted brain energy.

Anyway, since Ichigo was alive he might as well live, which was the exact argument he had given Urahara when he told him that Ichigo's reiatsu levels were on a different plane than that of the World of the Living. Going there would rip a hole in the fabric of space-time, or something involving huge explosions and apocalypses. Of course, Urahara had used technogeek mumbojumbo and long words that sounded like obscure diseases until Ichigo smacked him and he spoke plain Japanese. Afterward he presented a solution, as Ichigo knew he would.

Urahara had put some strange kido binding on his body (they just looked like tattoos to Ichigo and he doubted anyone with more knowledge of kido would see anything different), and brought his body to Soul Society with the particle converter. Then Ichigo entered his body as usual, left through the particle converter, and was forbidden from ever leaving his body. If he ever did, well, boom, apocalypse. Urahara had seemed really nervous for some reason.

After that, smooth sailing. Ichigo couldn't really move that well, like his movements had been restricted (though he quickly adapted), but other than that, no other symptoms had shown. He could still see ghosts and hollows. He just couldn't do anything about it. Unless he used his Fullbring. Though when Ichigo brought that up, Urahara seemed nervous again… He didn't say no, so Ichigo figured it was fine. Probably. As in, the world might not explode into a fiery ball of ruin. Ichigo had a complicated life.

Now his boss was giving him vacation time. The world must be ending, there was no other explanation, and the end of the world had nothing to do with him! Actually it did, just not in the way he expected. He sighed.

"You?! Giving me vacation time?! I thought you were short staffed enough as it is!"

Ikumi refused to look at him. "I've got a few associates coming over, and I don't want them to see my lazy employees dicking around!"

The question was, should Ichigo be the jackass friend that teases her relentlessly or the understanding friend that respects her privacy? Who is he kidding, that wasn't even a question! "Oh? Does the mighty Ikumi have a boyfriend~?"

She punched him in the face, fist almost moving too fast to be seen. "You fucking twerp! Say that again and I'll bend your spine sideways!"

Ichigo now sported two wounds on each side of his face. That tended to happen any length of time he spent with Ikumi. He wasn't sure which side to rub and settled for the more recent wound.

"So that's a yes?"

Ikumi was… Ichigo double-checked, yes, it was happening… she was blushing. A sort of angry blush, but a blush nonetheless. "Just… stay out of it, okay?" She had deflated near the end, her quiet tone one of defeated anguish. Ichigo instantly felt his eyebrows knit together in worry.

"Is something wrong?"

"Of course not, brat! Mind your own damn business!"

And really, how else can you respond to that? Ichigo said okay and Ikumi elbowed him in the stomach. They quietly walked back to the shop and Ichigo got sent on a few odd jobs.

Ichigo knocked on the door to the Unagiya Shop at the ungodly hour of eight in the morning. Nobody should have to wake up at eight in the morning, and he told this to Ikumi repeatedly, but she insisted on making him wake up anyway.

He paused for a few moments, but got no response. Instead of knocking again, he just went in, as usual. He yelled that he was there, taking off his shoes.

It was funny that, since he made this walk every day, Ichigo had almost gotten lost. Instead of turning right at the last block, he was going left. After a little while he realized that he had made a wrong turn, and quickly turned around. But he knew this route as well as he knew his own house. Must have been the sleep deprivation. Right.

Ichigo heard the sound of breaking glass coming from the kitchen. Ikumi must be cooking. But before he could stroll over, she rounded the bend with an iron frying pan that wouldn't feel nice smashed against his head.

Her eyes looked a little bloodshot. It definitely didn't help the sane impression a good shop owner was supposed to give off. "What are you doing here?!"

"Uh," was Ichigo's intelligent reply. "Working?"

"I thought I gave you two weeks off!"

"Actually, you gave me leave."

"So?!"

"I figured I'd finish the week off."

"I wanted to get rid of you for the next two weeks!"

"Does that mean the next two weeks starting today or starting at the end of this week?"

"I thought it was obvious!"

"That's your fault for not clarifying it!"

"How is your stupidity my fault?!"

A new voice entered the fray (and it wasn't Kaoru or this argument would never have ended), "Ah, Unagiya-san, is this your employee?"

Ichigo could practically feel the tension in the air. And it tasted like sweat. This new lady was really old and small, with big glasses perched on her nose and long white hair, her face heavily wrinkled. She must've been at least twice Ikumi's age, if not more.

"Yes he is, Isayama-sensei. And he was just leaving." Ikumi started to push him towards the door and Ichigo let her. A teacher, then?

The little wrinkled lady stayed where she was in the entryway and watched. "A fascinating employee you have found, Unagiya-san, fascinating indeed."

Ichigo's sneakers were shoved into his hands and the door was shut in his face.

(o)(0)(o)

Ichigo was worried. When Ichigo was worried, it tended to be for a damn good reason. So he followed his instincts, and put on his stalking hoodie. It was really just a jacket with a hood, but anything you wore when stalking someone tended to get that adjective. Ichigo liked being honest, so he kept no illusions about what he was doing. Hence, stalking.

After walking until Unagiya's was out of sight, he got out his cell phone and texted Chad. Need backup. Ya comin?

The response came after a few minutes. Of course. whats wrong?

I think my bosses bein threatened.

Meet up where?

Front of convenience store near Unagiyas.

Leaving now.

Ichigo put his phone back in the pocket of his jeans and went to the store to wait for Chad.

After around ten minutes of waiting (Ichigo had gone inside to get a drink at some point), Chad came running around the corner, full pelt. Seeing a huge guy like that barrelling down the street like he was chased by a stampede of bulls kinda put people on edge. He stopped in front of Ichigo, panting, with his hands on his knees.

"Ichigo," he said, and was too tired to get anything else out.

"Geez, Chad! Did you run all the way here?!"

"Pretty much."

"Shit, man, that's like five miles!"

"Believe me… I know…"

After he caught his breath, Ichigo gave him the rundown on the situation. "Out of nowhere she gives me this two week vacation—"

"Paid vacation?" Chad interrupted.

"—you know, I'm not sure. Damn, I shoulda asked that!"

"Focus."

"So, I figure she wants me to finish out the week, I mean, what kind of boss springs a vacation on you the day before? Right?"

Chad looked like he was about to disagree so Ichigo moved on.

"So I get there on time, and Ikumi looks like she hasn't slept in a year, and she's got this really old lady over who's her teacher or something. As soon as she sees me she practically throws me out the door!"

"None of that sounds overly suspicious, Ichigo. She could just want some time to herself. Maybe family is coming over."

"That's just it, Chad! This isn't a normal human being, this is Ikumi Unagiya."

"Ichigo, do you know any people that are actual human beings?"

"That's besides the point. Ikumi doesn't have any family, and friends of hers have come over before and she doesn't give a shit if I meet them. I think she's purposely making it so I don't meet any people who come over these two weeks. And why would this be?"

"Um, you're embarrassing to look at?"

Ichigo gave Chad a deadpan look. "These people are dangerous. Dangerous to me, and dangerous to her. It's the only explanation."

"You might be blowing this up larger than it actually is."

"I've got a gut feeling about this, Chad. Something bad is going to happen."

Chad looked at him for a second, then nodded. Friends like that you can't find anywhere else.

"Ichigo, is this hat really necessary?" asked Chad to the rustling of leaves.

"Rukia said it was," Ichigo responded.

"Then why aren't you wearing one?"

"I have a hood. It's practically the same thing."

Chad looked at his leaf-and-branch-covered cap, then at Ichigo's perfectly normal hood. "Somehow I don't think—"

"Shhh! Someone just appeared."

"Where? No one approached from the street."

"Backyard."

"Backyard? How'd they get in?" Chad was monitoring all the possible entry points.

"Don't know. It's like shunpo."

Chad redirected his binoculars towards the backyard. He saw a blurry figure in a black cloak standing in the middle. Moments after another appeared with a similar cloak and blue scarf. He grunted in surprise. "I didn't feel any reiatsu…"

They were quiet again, observing safely from a tree in the lot next to Unagiya's Shop.

Chad finally asked, "Are your binoculars fogged up? I can't see that well for some reason."

"I can see fine. Wanna switch?"

They switched and Ichigo reported that Chad's binoculars were working fine and Chad reported that Ichigo's had started fogging up. They looked at each other, both knowing nothing was wrong with Chad's vision or the binoculars.

"Maybe they've got a barrier up and you can see better because you've got more reiatsu."

"That can't be it, Chad. Urahara got me sealed up tight, I can barely use my reiatsu in this form."

"Maybe it works the other way, then. People with more reiatsu are affected."

They thought on this for a while, and no one else showed up besides the two in the yard, both of whom quickly retreated inside.

Ichigo finally got fed up and threw down his binoculars. He regretted this instantly as his binoculars fell down to the ground. "Gyah! This is useless! Let's just attack whoever shows up next!"

"But we don't know they're doing anything wrong."

"They're doing something suspicious!"

"There's a difference."

"Excuse me, guys, have either of you dropped this?" said a heavily accented voice from below.

Ichigo and Chad snapped their heads downward. Ichigo with hostility, Chad with confusion.

The man was a foreigner with brown hair and a blue scarf. He wore black robes that were not so much formless as they were old fashioned. "Please don't attack me. I'm not much for hand-to-hand."

Ichigo refused to show this man any sign that he was embarrassed. He hopped down the tree, a measly twelve foot drop (nothing compared to the drop from his second-story classroom), and snatched the binoculars from the man's hand. Chad remained in the tree.

"What're you doing here!" Ichigo demanded.

"Well, I'd like to say that I was invited, but—" Ichigo's face slowly darkened, "—I get the feeling that won't be the right response. So, instead, I'll give you a warning. Keep your distance these next two weeks."

Ichigo glanced up at Chad with a triumphant expression, then quickly reasserted a scowl. "And why should I? Ikumi's my friend. I worry for her."

"You need not worry for your friend. She is in our hands now."

"Who's this 'our'?"

The man smiled infuriatingly. Ichigo decided to call him Perpetrator #1. Or Jackass for short. "They are my friends. I won't ask you to trust in me, but I do ask you to trust in Unagiya-san."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes. Those words sparked a wave of dread in the pit of his stomach. It renewed the feeling he got when Ikumi gave him the vacation.

But there was nothing for it but to beat a hasty retreat. He and Chad hadn't found any evidence that this group was doing anything wrong. "C'mon, Chad, let's go."

Jackass did this quick double-take up at Chad, like he just noticed he was there. Ichigo guessed Chad was just quiet and easily missed, despite his size. Chad jumped down, and they walked out of a random guy's lawn, Jackass watching them the entire way.

Once they were on the street a good enough distance away, Chad finally asked, "Ichigo, who were you talking to?"

Ichigo stopped. "What do you mean?"

"You jumped down the tree and started to talk to the air."

Ichigo's breathe caught in his throat. This wasn't supposed to be happening. Ichigo wasn't the crazy kid who talked to himself anymore. He wasn't. That part of his life was over now. Everyone else could see them too! So, why?

"I was talking to that guy who materialized in the backyard. You really couldn't see him?"

"I didn't see or hear anything."

They walked back home in silence.

(o)(0)(o)