Welcome back to the next chapter of TSTS, yay for patterns! Look I'm actually on time, that's great for me, and I suppose it's a good thing for you all. Thanks to Kurie-tibiti, Kage Kurai, ctofi1, Phantom Claire, AngryHitsu, and Mer-mer. To those of you that missed my last author's note at the end of chapter 14 the creator of the character was Kage Kurai. Those of you that have submitted OCs they will come into play, just not yet. Now, onto the disclaimer and the chapter.

DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN BLEACH ONLY THE PLOT AND SOME OF THE ORIGNIAL CHARACTERS

24 days since Ichigo went missing

The man in the striped hat stood in front of the Kurosaki Clinic. It had been nearly a month since the eldest Kurosaki had been declared missing. The excuse of a class trip worked for at least two days, three at the most. The man looked at the front door. He knew Isshin wasn't a man that was shook easily, and that his son gone for this long wouldn't bother him. The man had debated with himself for a long while trying to debate as to whether or not he should inform the ex-captain. The researcher had told himself that he would only inform Isshin if it got bad, and since he had lost contact with the away squad, he figured that it got bad.

Steeling his resolve he walked to the front door and knocked. Praying that the father would be the one to answer. It looked as though his prayers would be answered when a familiar spike hairdo appeared from beyond the door.

"Welcome to the Kurosaki clinic!" The voice chimed. "What can we do-?"

Isshin stared at the man. "What do you want? You never visit unless it's important."

Urahara shrugged. "I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop to say hello."

He received as doubtful look from the bearded man. Urahara waved his hand. Hoping that his voice would betray the true severity of the situation. "I come with news on your son."

Isshin's face became more concerned with that statement. "What about him?"

"Can I come in?"

Isshin stood aside to let the other man in. He then led the scientist to the sitting room. Yuzu and Karin where in bed sleeping, so he tried to be as quiet as possible. He sat down and waited for the other man to do the same.

Urahara wasted no time in sitting down, nor did he wait for permission to continue before he launched into his explanation. "Your son didn't run off on his own accord this time."

"Eh? What do you mean? Soul Society forced him?" Isshin pondered.

"No." Urahara replied sharply. "He was taken."

"Taken?"

"By a group that calls themselves the Neo-Gotei."

"Neo-Gotei?" Isshin spoke as if recalling a memory.

"Do you know it?" Urahara sounded almost hopeful.

"Maybe." Isshin shrugged. "I do know that they're dangerous. But there was once a shinigami by the name of Sachio. He served in my squad for a short time before I turned him in for doing evil deeds and plotting against Soul Society."

"Sachio?"

"He didn't give his last name. He recruited a few people then vanished when the authorities came the case was dropped and they hadn't been a problem sense."

Urahara raised an eyebrow. "Do you know anything more?"

"Evidentially Sachio has been periodically infiltrating Soul Society himself to recruit for about nine-hundred years but my meddling put a stop to him doing that. So I assume he hates me because he has to trust his underlings."

Urahara nodded. He had suspected that this would come down to Isshin and something in the past. "This doesn't bode well for your son."

"No it doesn't. I can't say that I'm not worried. I am, I know he's strong but this is something that's beyond him."

Urahara nodded once more. "There's a group looking for him. We're close to finding him."

Isshin shrugged. "If you're close to finding him that's good, but can you guarantee that he'll be alive when you find him."

"No."

"That's what I thought." Isshin sighed. "I should've expected this when we returned his powers back to him."

Urahara remained silent for once. He knew that Isshin would still have reservations about giving his son his powers back and taking away and chance of having a normal life. To hear that his son was taken captive by his meddling years ago was something that Urahara couldn't imagine hearing.

The two sat in silence. Isshin apparently lost in thought and Urahara not sure whether or not to leave or remain in case the other had some sort of other detail. To some it'd be a companionable silence. Urahara knew better than that, it was awkward. Though there was one bright side to this visit. Urahara now had one more name to work with. Sachio. By the sounds of it he had figured out the name to the nameless King. Something of an accomplishment. If he could learn the last name he'd be able to learn what power they would be up against.

Providing that Soul Society had records as far back as nine-hundred years. Also that Sachio stuck around long enough for him to get a zanpakuto once they were invented. There were a lot of variables that needed to be eliminated or solved and finding out one piece was only raising more questions. It seemed like a never ending puzzle.

Urahara and Isshin released a sigh at the same time. This was something neither of them wanted to deal with.

The group woke up in high spirits. They made decent time to Los Noches. Nothing had tried to kill them or even maim them. It had been quiet so far. Toshiro tried to think of it as the deal Tier and he had agreed on but it just didn't seem right.

They were looking at the five extremely tall pillars that made up the palace. There were seven of them. They'd have to partner up.

"Looks like we'll need two partner groups." Rangiku spoke up.

"Ashido and I will be one." Rukia spoke up the moment the tenth squad vice-captain finished her sentence.

The strawberry blonde blinked in surprise before shooting her captain an I told you so look. Ashido looked confused but shrugged and walked a little closer to Rukia. The rest of the group remained silent.

Rukia sighed in exasperation. "Come on. Two of you just pair up!"

The shinigami looked around each other nervously. Toshiro could've smacked his palm to his face, if he hadn't deemed that something that a captain wouldn't do… no matter how much the situation called for it. Instead he settled for a harsh look which didn't spur the shinigami into just partnering up.

"Fine. Matsumoto and I will be the second pair." Toshiro practically growled.

Those that weren't pair up looked distinctly happy at the knowledge that they'd be alone. Toshiro sent them a glare for good measure. "Let's get this over with." He spoke.

The moment the words left his mouth seven shinigami were shunpoing five different directions. They had discussed what tower they would be heading up last night before they went to bed. Toshiro and Rangiku had the tower that was the closest to the direction they had come from. Rukia and Ashido were at the tower furthest from their starting point. Ikkaku was at the tower to the right of Toshiro and to the right of Ikkaku was z pillar. Which gave Renji the tower to Toshiro's left.

The climb was an easy one surprisingly. It was still unnerving the young captain. There should be something that was trying to kill them. Not that he was fond of the idea that they were going to be delayed once more, he still liked it better when the hollows were acting like hollows and trying to annoy him. He shook his head. He shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth as the saying went.

Rangiku looked over to see what he captain was doing. He was obviously disturbed about something but what she didn't know. She could guess, but why would she. He was worried about Ichigo and bound to be suspicious about everything that happened, or in this case, didn't happen to them.

The towers were a lot larger than they looked. From the bottom they looked to be maybe a five hundred foot structure but as they climbed the towers it was becoming apparent that they were nowhere near right. The first five hundred feet was about one-third of the actual height. If that wasn't enough it was tiring as well. It was a fully vertical climb and the fact that the shinigami were sore from sleeping on sand and not in beds didn't help them at all.

Toshiro was gritting his teeth. He had an excellent head for heights, which was too be expected with his zanpakuto, and he was used to the thinner air at higher altitudes. He was tiring quickly. He wasn't used to shunpoing up, literally. Looking back he saw that Matsumoto was fairing a little worse than him. The thin not something she was accustomed to dealing with.

He assumed that the others would be doing just as bad. He thought that there was a better way to deal with this instead of just rushing straight up. What kind of traps that they could meet once they got there was something that hadn't left Toshiro's mind? He groaned as he looked up seeing that the distance wasn't getting any shorter. Why did this happen to him?

Ichigo was annoyed. He had been for a long time in truth. This constant wandering without purpose, and probably in a circle if he was honest with himself was starting to tire him out. It didn't help that the snowstorm had picked up to its full intensity once again. There had been a short break where it was clear and he could walk without fear of crossing over his former tracks. There was still a light snow but it was covering his tracks. He felt like he made a good distance in those couple of days.

He had the feeling that he had been here before. He was sure he hadn't, Ichigo would've thought that he would remember a snowy skyscraper landscape. Though he had the notion that this was a place that he shouldn't be in without someone with him. Someone who was also welcomed to this place. There were random rocks that were made entirely out of ice, like pieces of hail that had never melted, and one of them had an engraving, it was worn and there had been so much time and snow since its creation that it was no longer legible. Though from what Ichigo could tell it was something that looked like the cravings that couples did that said "Him + Her = 4ever". Ichigo shook his head. It was a waste of energy to dwell on things such as that. He would wonder about it later when he wasn't trapped in this snowy world.

His legs gave out on him sending him crashing to the ground. The substitute shinigami groaned, but made no move to get up. Instead he flopped onto his back. He looked up at the sky, he couldn't see it because of the whirling of the snow. He shivered, not because he was cold, he had grown accustomed to that long ago, but because there was something that had invaded this small world. It didn't feel like an intruder however. It was more of an unexpected guest but it wasn't unwelcome.

It looked like the ribbon that had saved him. It was bright white and snaking across the sky. It circled above him. It was powerful he could tell that much. It seemed to stop and it looked down at him, two specks of red staring directly at him. It made a noise that sounded like a relieved moan. Ichigo arched an orange eyebrow at it. The ribbon spun around again.

There was a noise coming from it. Ichigo pushed himself up, the act taking much more effort than it should have. The humming noise that Ichigo had heard before was back, but this time he could hear that it was actually saying words. They were faint and it sounded like they were coming from a radio that had static and was the tiniest bit out of range.

One… returned…

The humming sound continued but Ichigo couldn't get any more from it. The sound was fading fast, as was the ribbon of light. Then in a brilliant flash both the sound and the ribbon were gone. All that was proof that something had happen was the confusion that Ichigo felt and the two words he was left with.

"One returned?" He whispered. His voice was scratchy and strained from disuse. It hurt to even speak with it.

He sat cross legged the storm whipping around him. He couldn't get up even if he wanted to. He was too baffled to even try to stand up. Questions where whirling in his mind. What had just happened? What was that ribbon and the humming? Though the most prominent one, and the one that was causing him more confusion. Why does my heart ache with longing?

Considering that there was only one person that Ichigo had ever longed for. That being his mother, and that was only because he wanted her back. He was smart enough that he could decipher the difference between the two. The longing that he had felt for him mother was the irrational one created out of grief but could was no longer a possibility. The one that had seized his heart was a rational, how he knew it was he wasn't entirely sure, the thought that he wasn't sure about a lot of things recently flitted through his mind lingering for a split second.

This feeling was something that was lighter with hope he assumed, instead of the weight of despair. He thought that this must be the difference. In some of the American movies he had watched, mainly because he was bored, the wives of the soldiers always acted so hopeful when they knew their husbands could die at any moment. Ichigo thought that this is what he must be feeling. Though comparing himself to a wife was a little degrading.

The question was what was he longing for? To be out of this place, a goal but he wasn't truly longing for it. What was going on? Something he would like to know but if this could be resolved without that knowledge then he really didn't care about what it was. He stopped. He didn't even blink, the thought that popped into his mind was something he didn't even think he could come up with. It was the answer to his question. He was longing for someone! Not something. The revelation wasn't exactly comforting. It meant that there was someone that he was missing. That someone could easily be a family member or friend. Though his brain supplied that he would be longing for them this intensely if was someone platonic such as that. Which meant he had done something that he hadn't ever planned on doing. He had a romantic inclination to someone. That scared him, he had seen how people in love acted. He knew it was dangerous as well. He had seen shinigami that were happily married with kids get killed in an instant. Being a shinigami was dangerous, it was even worse when you had someone who depended on you entirely. Loving as a shinigami was setting yourself up for failure, failure at what he wasn't sure but he knew it was a possibility.

As much as he didn't want this longing for an unknown person it also spread a warmth through him. This had given him something a little less dreadful to think about. The first step would be finding out who it was. That would take the longest. Thinking it through. He knew he would be able to tell if he had all of the possibilities standing in front of him. He did wonder how he developed this, he despised the word but couldn't think of another, crush without him knowing. One would think that a person would be able to tell things such as this. It could've developed and he noticed it but shoved it to the back of his mind, because face it, he was pretty busy with trying to stop Aizen and losing his powers. So he thought it was also fair that he wouldn't recognize it.

As he thought more and more about it the more it scared him. Of course he was scared that should he figure it out he could really screw up a friendship, but he was also scared that because of what happened to him. He shook his head. He would try to figure out who it was that he had a crush on. The other things that came with his discovery would have to wait. One step at a time.

Enyo wasn't one for sentiment. But as she was bored and her King was favoring Yuna at the moment, she scowled at that, she thought she'd see the state that the teen was in. She walked through the halls, drawing looks from the males and some females. She smiled, she did enjoy the good tease once and awhile, she loved playing with people, and it was just too fun.

She hated the blandness of the uniform she was forced to wear, but since she was off duty she was allowed to walk around in casual clothes. She had on a mid-thigh length dress, it was a teal color it had a light shade of teal band stretching across It., and it was of course strapless. She had on a pair of black stilettos.

She walk confidentially towards her goal, she was just down the hallway. As she reached the door she pulled at her dress readjusting it slightly, she pushed back a few odd hairs from her face, today her hair was in a bun. She deemed herself presentable and pushed the door open. Walking inside it quickly she pushed it shut behind her.

She crinkled her nose at the smell. The room smelled of infection and of unwashed bodies. It wasn't a surprise since the teen's wounds had ended up getting infected after all, not that they were trying to stop infections now that he was unusable to them. There were a few people that were assigned to check on the teen's condition, and if they felt like it they could administer something to the teen. She though that the orderlies just enjoyed extending the torture as long as possible for they kept their patients just well enough that they weren't on the edge.

A quick scan of the room and she saw that there was an old IV bag that was connected to the teen's hand. She then allowed her gaze to look over the teen himself. He hadn't been very broad when they brought him in, but he had been well muscled. She could see that the muscles were starting to lose their firmness. The skin was also waxy and ashen. The wounds were turning yellow or green, a few oozing pus and other things that Enyo cared not to know the name of.

Her eyes when to his face. Not eating for a month took a lot out of a human. The face was showing the first signs of malnourishment. His cheek bones were starting to protrude the slightest amount for it to be noticeable. The hair had grown a bit in the time that he had been here, it was matted and covered in filth. It was also plastered to his face with sweat as he was running a significant fever.

His chest was heaving. Every breath that he took was shallow and wheezy. She knew the conditions that he suffered in where deplorable. With injuries as he had, the only thing that kept him from dying because of sickness was the shinigami form he was in. She knew that if she were to get close enough she would be able to smell the sickness on his breath, something she cared not to do because that was beneath her.

Out of curiosity, that was why she was here in the first place anyway, she walked foreword a step and placed two well-manicured fingers on his throat. She felt the pulse after a few seconds of not feeling anything. It was weak, rapid, fluttery, and barely noticeable. She wondered if it was the infection of sickness that was causing the heart act as like that.

Since she was closer now she could see the quickest movement underneath the boy's eyelids. The eyes did a quick movement then were still for a minute or two and did it once again. Enyo pursed her lips, which meant there was little brain activity. She knew that there should be no eye movement. By every rights she should've made him brain dead, you can't be thrown in the pit underneath your soul and still have brain activity.

She furrowed her brows the slightest amount, then corrected herself, she couldn't get wrinkles that would be bad. She simply lost interest in the boy. He was completely screwing with her now. She hated that, she turned on her heel with such force she cause a strand to fall out of her bun and hang in her face. She pushed it behind her ear and walked out of the room. She knew that he was weakened severely now, it'd be easy to get the hollow out and under their control, there was also a good chance that it could kill him now. His body wouldn't be able to support the hollow, and as the hollow takes over the physical body, if the body was too weak to hold the hollows power it would literally be torn apart. Something she cared not to see.

She walked back to her wing. Perhaps a discussion with the king was in order. He would want to hear this news without a doubt. She was also curios as to see what he would do as well. Of course there was another reason that they had the boy other than his hollow, and killing him would give the King great satisfaction. It was win-win for the Neo-Gotei's ruler. She couldn't see how he could complain.

How did you all like Chapter 15? I thought it was nice and may have answered some questions? Any who, ready for your preview? Let's go!

Enyo made good time making her way to the King's office. She was sure that he was there, where else would he be? After all he was sure to be getting busy with all of what was going on and about to take place. She nodded to the guards who saluted her as she walked past. She gave two sharp taps to the door, she was gentle as she didn't want to bruise he knuckles but they were loud enough that she knew wouldn't be mistaken as random thumps.

"Enter." The silky smooth voice called.

Enyo opened the door and stepped in with grace. She bowed low to the King once she was fully inside. She wouldn't dare raise her head until the King told her to do so, even if this was going to cause unsightly wrinkles in her dress.

"Rise." He commanded and the Grecian girl did as she was told. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Milord, I have something interesting to report." She spoke gently fluttering her eyelashes for no apparent reason other than it was flirty and something she deemed acceptable for her to do.

I hope that leaves you all wanting for more. I'll see you all in a week or so. Later! ~IF