A/N: We go somewhat back in time to the end of Chapter 4 and bring it forward to line up with the end of Chapter 5. Thank you to Lightningblade49 for the reviews, and thank you to everyone who's favorited and followed, as well as all you other readers out there!

Bleach and all products thereof are copyright to Tite Kubo, et al.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Ichigo arrived at his school's roof during the last quarter-hour of lunch. He could both sense and see that was where Chad, Ishida, and Inoue were, while everyone else had congregated down below on the school grounds beneath a tree. It didn't take much to guess why they had split off: they were discussing the previous night.

He put on his best ticked-off face before opening the door to the roof itself and shoving himself through it, muttering "Sorry I'm late, I was sick with something or other," as if irritated that someone would dare to care about his physical health.

Ishida and Inoue seemed to jump at his sudden appearance, while Chad only jerked his head up in surprise. The reaction was enough to confirm what he'd thought had been going on. "K—Kurosaki-kun! It's good to see you're feeling better!" Inoue suddenly exclaimed, laughing. Chad nodded and grunted in agreement.

"You had everyone worried there, Kurosaki," said Ishida. There was something about the way he was looking at Ichigo that made the orange-haired teen feel he was being analyzed.

Ichigo countered by tilting his head to one side with a give-me-a-break look "It's nothing, it's not like I'm about to fall apart or something!"

Ishida's eyes narrowed slightly and he could feel the reiatsu of all three tense, could see it happen in the glasses. I see, he thought, thinking back to his first meeting with Alan, this is what that guy was talking about. How did I not notice it before? Is this what it's been like the whole time?

"Anyway, where's Tatsuki and everyone else?" Ichigo asked, looking around as if he didn't know.

"Eh…we're really worried about the first test that's coming up in Literature so we split up to do some studying," Inoue said.

Chad added "That's right."

Have they always been this bad at lying?! Ichigo shouted inside, feeling one of his eyes twitch. "I—Ishida, you feel worried about a Literature test?"

The Quincy, with visible difficulty both physically and spiritually, pulled himself to one side and clenched a fist, looking up at the sky before stating "…It's scary."

Ichigo could hear the wind howl and very obviously pulled out his phone to look at the time, saying "Right, well, lunch is ending, so let's get to class" to bring the ridiculous theater to an end. With that they all went back inside and went to their classroom.

He fended off questions regarding his health and once he was sure he wasn't on the receiving end of much attention, engaged in jinzen to access his inner world. He had felt, more than anything else, Zangetsu and the Hollow in his conscience, although neither had said a word to him since he'd woken up. There was no sign of Tensa Zangetsu or his Hollowfied form.

He found himself on the side of a skyscraper as usual. Looking down at where the streets would be he saw they were flooded, but not to a great depth. Looking up, there were only a few wispy clouds. There was no sign of anyone else.

As he was remembering how to even go about searching, he felt a presence, and even as he was turning around heard Zangetsu's gravelly tones greet him with "Ichigo."

"Zangetsu," Ichigo replied. They stood looking at one another. Ichigo smiled slightly, "You don't seem surprised."

"I am not," the entity said.

"Hate to break up the reunion, King, but you can't be forgetting me," his Hollow said, stepping out from behind Zangetsu's billowing cape.

"If only I could," Ichigo replied, a look of disgust on his face.

"Aw, don't be like that," the Hollow replied, waving a finger, "Think of all the fun times we'll get to have in the future."

"Tch, anyway, I just wanted to make sure things were alright in here. Later, Zangetsu," he said, and disappeared as suddenly as he had arrived.

Although he'd been addressing the older man and not his inverted double, it was the Hollow who replied "Yeah, see you later too, King!" After a moment he halfway turned to Zangetsu, a smirk on his face, saying "He suspects."

"That may be so," replied Zangetsu, but they both knew it. Ichigo had seen the blue lines feeding into him from the Morning Star just as clearly as the red, yellow, and white ones. Even the King wasn't so bad at color theory as to not know that fuchsia was what you got when you mixed red and blue. Add yellow and white in equal proportion and you'd get a rather eerie looking purple, but he'd figure that out soon enough.

"I've only been trying to tell him since forever!" the Hollow said in sudden irritation, ignoring Zangetsu staring into the distance. "Don't be so mopey," the Hollow murmured, "at this rate we might even get to see the Queen again soon."

Zangetsu looked up at the sky. Perhaps it was so. The rain had once again stopped.

Ichigo made it through the rest of the school day without incident and went on his way to work without haste, dialing Alan's number once he was about halfway there from the school. He walked as it rang. It only did so twice.

"So, you have a decision to make now. Several decisions, actually," Alan said immediately, as if their conversation had already begun.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked. He didn't bother commenting on the man's poor phone etiquette as it wasn't surprising in the least.

There was a pause on the other end, then "I took the liberty of encrypting your cell phone when I modified it, and given your age I don't feel bad about saying this: your first decision is whether you want to walk away. You can give me back the 'homework', take what you have now, and work at getting back to how things were with you and Soul Society. Given the timing, several people will probably be able to connect the dots, but only about three people will have all the pieces and could see the whole picture, and the two that matter have a vested interest in keeping you on their side. Ichigo Kurosaki regaining his powers could just be yet another mystery in a story filled with them. Meanwhile, I write you off as a sunk-cost and move on, and we probably never interact again. What you know isn't worth starting anything over. Japan is fairly peaceful, and Soul Society is relatively self-regulating."

Ichigo didn't bother to think who those three would be, although he could guess. "Probably?" he asked in a way that wasn't really a question. He added "Fairly?" and "Relatively?" to that, calling out the man's qualifiers. "The way you say all of that, I don't feel very confident in it," he said. A frown sat upon his face. He had read enough already that he had some idea why Alan was qualifying his words so heavily.

"I can't promise anything, and really, there's nothing to promise," Alan replied. His voice had been flat the entire conversation, but it was somehow becoming more so. It reminded Ichigo of watching the surface of a pond become completely still.

"If I don't get stronger, there's nothing to say that something worse than Aizen doesn't come and knock over Soul Society one day, and I can't do anything about it, yeah? Or maybe, by the time I can, a whole lot of people get hurt?" Ichigo asked, again not framing it as an actual question.

There was silence on the other end.

"I don't walk away from things," Ichigo stated. There was steel in his words that carried over the phone.

"Then you have a different decision to make," Alan resumed, "Which is when and how you inform Soul Society of your new status—if you do at all. There are little to no conflicts between working with them and working with us: you could probably do both at the same time while they were none the wiser without issue."

Ichigo found himself remembering Byakuya laying on Sōkyoku Hill after Aizen's reveal, the man forlornly relating "…I made two vows that I should not have made…" and closed his eyes. His memory shifted to the day after he had first become a Shinigami, of Rukia demanding his commitment to their rules. He had said "At the very least…I…will be different!" to her then. He let those words ring in his mind before opening his eyes. Had anyone of a spiritual inclination been watching him they would've seen them flash a cold blue. "I will definitely inform them," he said.

"I see," Alan replied, and Ichigo sensed that placid surface stir from…amusement? "And you'll do that no matter what it changes, hmm?"

"Nothing that actually matters will change," Ichigo stated, staring straight ahead of him, as if looking through the entire world.

Somehow he could suddenly practically see Alan's smile, but it didn't bother him. "I understand. In that case," Alan started, only to sigh as if in disbelief, his tone becoming like that of an exasperated friend, "I guess I have no choice but to help you out!"

Ichigo glanced sideways at the phone at that. "What does that mean?" he asked. He was by now in the lot immediately in front of the Unagiya Shop.

"Don't worry about it for now," Alan vocally waved it off, "You should instead be thinking about exactly how you're going to tell her!"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed and he was about to ask who when a wave of familiar reiatsu flowed over him and he found himself instinctually turning toward what he knew was the direction of the Urahara Shop. "Rukia…!" he muttered, in shock.

"Have fun, but have the contract done by Saturday afternoon," Alan said far too cheerily, adding "Bye-bye!" before terminating the call.

Ichigo scarcely noticed and let the arm he'd been holding the phone up with drop to his side, for a moment just basking in the sensation of Rukia's familiar presence. Although he would never admit it, he was happy at how much stronger she seemed. He had never been good at sensing reiatsu on the fly, and at this distance, Urahara, Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu would all be faint in his perception, but Rukia stood out like the moon against a starry sky. He could hardly sense anyone else at all next to her. He could feel his legs suddenly start as if to take him in her direction, and forced himself to remain where he was. He hated himself for waiting even one second, yet knew it was the right thing to do for the moment.

His brain caught up to his instincts a second later, the parts coming together like a schematic. He had long since figured out Alan had arranged the distraction of his friends, and while he didn't like that, he had forgiven Ishida for worse and the man seemed to have an infinitely finer control over matters than the Quincy had once upon a time. From his appearance earlier in the day, he was willing to grant that Alan had probably arranged it such that there was never any actual danger to anyone. The whole thing had once again been a piece of theater for his benefit.

The discharge of the Morning Star would have inevitably drawn Soul Society's attention, but it coupled with what appeared to be a coordinated attack would force their hand. They would've picked someone to investigate. Since that kind of decision would fall to the taichō, they would have argued about whom to send. He shoved a mental image of the exchange that must have occurred away and concluded this was Ukitake's doing. Sending Rukia just fit once that was assumed.

If Rukia was here to investigate what happened, it really meant that she was here to investigate him, she just didn't know it yet. And likewise, he shouldn't know she was here yet. He could go to her immediately, but he knew it had to be under a different circumstance. He had to get things in order and do it responsibly. By his figuring, she would seek him out, probably tomorrow, and he would be ready by then.

All of that being deducible by him, Alan must surely have planned for this as well, in which case the odd conversation they had just had must also have been some kind of test. Ichigo found he hadn't yet decided if the man reminded him more of Urahara or Aizen. For the moment, it didn't matter. "Rukia…" he began with conviction, both to himself and to that distant comforting reiatsu, "I will…definitely tell you!"

"Tell what to whom?" said a woman's voice from behind him. Its tone was terrifying.

Ichigo almost jumped out of his own body and whirled around to find Ikumi standing at the top of the stairs, leaning against the shop entrance's door frame. Her eyes gleamed with an ominous look in the shadows and colors of the setting sun, and Ichigo felt a pit in his stomach form at the sight.

"Ichigo-chan, you…" Ikumi began, before she stood up fully and looked down at him with a wicked and knowing smile, clenching a fist in front of her, "Are you really about to become a true man and confess your feelings to a girl on Valentine's Day?!"

Ichigo's roar of "Shut up!" could be heard from several blocks away and set all the neighborhood dogs to barking.

Rukia had allowed her friends to walk her back to the Urahara Shop with only modest protest once it had become clear they wouldn't take no for an answer. They engaged in mostly idle chatter and jokes as they went, and she couldn't help but notice how often they seemed to come back to the subject of Ichigo. His absence was telling, and it reflected in a general subdued melancholy.

She was feeling out of sorts by the time they arrived and actually gave each of them a hug before entering the shop. "We'll catch up again more soon!" she said, with the tone of a promise.

All of them nodded and made their own affirmations, and so she shut the door.

"It's not quite the same when the gang isn't all there, is it?" Urahara asked quietly from some dark corner of the room.

Rukia shot a glare at where his voice had come from but said nothing. She exhaled and went to the room they'd set aside for her, changing into pajamas and flopping onto the futon that had been set out, alone with her thoughts. She closed her eyes and turned the facts that Chad, Inoue, and Ishida had provided her around in her mind, examining them before starting to put them together with everything else she already knew. She was convinced from what they'd told her that the Hollows had been a distraction to hold their attention, not an actual attack.

If that was so, then where the reiatsu discharge had come from had actually been the main event, but using that kind of power to kill a single Hollow made no sense. That, combined with the missing reiatsu, made it clear that the discharge itself was also in some ways a distraction. The real purpose of what had occurred must have been to gather reiatsu. And given someone had been there, there was only one logical place as to where it had gone. But to what end? And how had the Hollows been so precisely corralled?

She sighed as her mind wandered at the dead end, becoming focused on the absence of Ichigo's reiatsu. It wasn't so noticeable in Soul Society, but here in Karakura, where it should be but wasn't, it felt like an enormous void. She opened her eyes partway and whispered "Ichigo…what are you doing right now, I wonder?" before crawling under the covers, forcing herself to go to sleep.

Ichigo sat on his bed with his desk light on, methodically working his way through the contract paperwork folder with grim determination. It was essentially just a very large list of threats about what would happen if he did the wrong things or didn't do the right things in the view of the United States government, coupled with expounding on his resultant obligations to the same. There had been a notice at the front that due to the extenuating circumstances of his nationality most of it wasn't really enforceable legally.

He knew a formality when he saw one. It was clear to him that Nightmare Eclipse didn't really play by these rules. Alan had already demonstrated that to him in his own way. If he had some minor screw-ups he would probably be able to explain his way out of them and if he had some major ones, well…he just wouldn't let it come to that, and if they happened anyway, he would deal with them then.

Even so, he read what it all said and signed his name, initials, and date as required on each of the pages. He found it increasingly odd as he went that despite having been told that Nightmare Eclipse was a "joint operation," between the American services, the paperwork was written as if it was a US Air Force contract. He chalked it up as being like the rivalries between the Divisions of the Gotei 13.

He came at last to the final section which enumerated and detailed entitlements and benefits and was mildly surprised at the generosity after all the doom and gloom that had preceded it. He stopped suddenly as he found himself forced to re-read a section over and over again. The entry "Acting-Rank: E-5 (Staff Sergeant)" didn't really mean much to him, nor did "Acting-Pay Grade: O-1 (1st/2nd Lieutenant)" but the line that followed, "Monthly Salary: $2,183.70 (approx. ¥260,870)" certainly did.

There was a post-it note below which read, in hand-written Japanese, "Since you're still in high school they wouldn't agree to an acting-officer rank. I had to twist some arms to get the pay grade as high as it is; contractors usually make a lot more. Anyway, I figure you'll be amenable to it."

Ichigo just pointed and stammered at the idea of making a quarter-million Yen a month for a minute before finishing the rest of the forms with redoubled speed. At last he closed the completed folder and called Alan, only looking at the time after dialing: it was 11:37 PM.

"What?" asked an irritated voice from the other end of the line.

Ichigo smirked at having annoyed the man, considering it payback for being woken up the night previous. "I completed your paperwork," he said with satisfaction.

"Put it on the window sill, I'll pick it up now," the voice replied, suddenly much more sanguine and…surprised?

"Eh?" Ichigo asked.

"Just do it," Alan said, hanging up.

Ichigo looked over at the window and back down at the folder and sighed before placing the latter against the former. With that he got up to brush his teeth before bed. By the time he returned the folder was gone. "Creepy," was all he could think to say. A yawn suddenly overwhelmed him and he turned out the light, determined to get as much sleep as he could.

Friday, February 14, 2003

Rukia was awoken by a soft but insistent knocking on the door frame to her room, along with the occasional utterance of "Kuchiki-dono." She sat up, recognizing the voice as Tessai's, and after discerning it was morning from the sunlight filtering through a window, murmured "Ah?" groggily.

"There is a visitor here to see you," Tessai replied, before she could hear him stand and walk away.

Rukia yawned and stretched before rising, wrapping a blanket around herself to ward against the cold and going to the door. She slid it open partially and stuck her head out into the foyer the room adjoined. There, sitting at the kotatsu, in a lime green coat and cap, bundled up in a scarf and woolen tights, all over her school uniform, was Inoue, sipping at a cup of tea. She lifted her head at hearing the door and turned to face Rukia, smiling and waving.

Rukia stared before pulling out her cell phone, looking at the time it displayed. As sweetly as she could she asked "Inoue, why are you here at 7:12 AM?"

"We have to go shopping for chocolate!" Inoue said in a loud whisper, looking about conspiratorially before adding "It'll be suspicious if I miss more than the first two classes!" Rukia felt a sudden intense weariness as though something inside her had just broken. Knowing the girl would not be dissuaded and not wanting to disappoint her after she'd made such an effort, she simply sighed and said "Okay," and turned to go to the bathroom that had been set aside for her use in order to quickly get clean and dressed.

It had been somewhat over half an hour since Rukia had left when Jinta and Ururu began their usual task of sweeping up the lot outside the Urahara Shop. It was early, and both were still focused on the job when they heard the telltale crunch of shoes on dirt and looked up.

A man stood before them, dressed in a strange dark blue suit neither had ever seen before. There were several silver devices on the shoulder straps and breast of his jacket, and on the left side a large and colorful panel of ribbons featured prominently. Opposite, on the right, was a polished name tag reading "Hayward." He had lapel pins on either side of his collar that read "U.S." Beneath the jacket was a light-blue dress shirt and dark blue tie. He wore black aviator sunglasses beneath a dark blue round cap that had thundercloud and lightning iconography on its black shiny brim, carried a black leather attaché case, and was wearing similarly colored shoes and a silver-looking watch. His posture was commanding, but not rigid. He seemed to regard them languidly.

They found themselves staring at him in confusion before he gave them a smile that showed off unusually white teeth and lifted his free hand to remove the sunglasses, revealing bright blue eyes. "Excuse me," he said, "is Kisuke Urahara available?"