Miss Holloway had nothing but nice things to say about the thirteen little children in the Odelschwanck Home for Orphaned Children. They had no mothers, no fathers, no warmth of a loving home — it was only natural that they were morose little things, looking forward to what few joys their life could afford them. So reasoning, she had taken all thirteen of them for a walk around the city.
Among all the thirteen orphans, however, Miss Holloway had always privately believed that there was one that would stay with them forever. Not because the little thing was malicious or troublesome — oh, no. Nelliel Odelschwanck was a sweet-hearted soul, if a little slow. She lingered where the other children would pace, lisped where the other children would speak, distracted easily where the other children could concentrate. Miss Holloway's heart panged for the little girl. She had been born into a time where most medical care of the mind was concerned with soldiers who had returned with shellshock.
While Miss Holloway fretted for Nel's future, Nel herself had no time to bother about anything but the present. When Miss Holloway had proposed a walk in the city, she'd bobbed up and down and cheered, "A walk! A walk!" When the other children had lined up neatly and followed Miss Holloway, she herself had been distracted by the big and beautiful city with its funnily-dressed people and large skyscrapers. All the street snacks smelled so good, and hawkers thrust newspapers at her whenever she walked by — newspapers with pictures of funny people doing funny things.
Eventually, the other children had pulled far, far ahead and Nel had fallen behind, gaping through a window at one of the buildings where men were doing something funny with bottles in a bathtub.
That was when the shrapnel hit her, hot and searing on her forehead as she heard a charring boom. She fell backwards, both hands cradling her head as tears welled into her eyes.
Something hit Nel, Nel thought. It hurts.
The world slowed, sounds becoming muted as Nel's heart began to race. Then, it broke. There was a sudden flurry of movement. Nel squinted as three men raced away from the scene — one with electric blue hair, like a crayon, and the other two moving too fast for her to see. The crayon man looked scary, his large set of teeth barring in excitement as fire split the building into two gigantic feathers of orange and red. Everything was hot and awful, and Nel felt something wet slide down her hair and into her forehead.
It was blood.
"That'll teach 'em to fuck with the Jaegerjaquez crew!" The men jeered, and all his friends laughed maniacally like a pack of hyenas.
Nel was scared. Nel wanted to go back to the Odelshtink Home, even if the other kids were mean and said she talked funny. She braced her palms onto the floor and looked around frantically, trying to recall the steps the home had taught her in case she got lost.
That was when she felt someone lift her into the air, two thick hands belonging to a man with a round, square-shaped face.
"Pesche!" he shrieked excitedly. "Pesche, look! It's a baby!"
"It's not a baby, you idiot," Pesche said. "It's a little kid!"
"Hey there, little kid." The round-faced, big-eyed man turned back to her. "You scared?"
Nel hesitated, then nodded.
"Why don't you come with us?" The man named Pesche said.
Nel smiled.
..
..
Ichigo stared outside his window, one fist clenched as he watched thin lines of rain slant down.
"Were there any casualties?" he heard Orihime ask Chad softly, after they parted from their brief hug. From the reflection on the glass, Ichigo noticed that she was still in her raincoat and boots, like she'd come down here straight after she heard about the fire. It was the wise thing to do. They would definitely need to go over strategy for the next few weeks.
Still, Ichigo was pissed she had to come down all the way here late in the night.
"No," Chad replied. "One civilian in the hospital, but it doesn't sound serious."
"And what about the crates?" she asked. "How many did they recover?"
"About a dozen," Chad said.
Ichigo resisted the urge to curse. "We won't last the week like this," he said darkly, turning on his heel. "We'll have to close."
Orihime's eyes softened sympathetically. "We still have some in the reserves, but it would probably be smart to shut down until production starts again." Their consumption rates had been high lately, and with one of their distilleries down, it would be tough to try and meet the demand.
Ichigo groaned. Initial reports from his men onsite confirmed it was most probably arson, though they wouldn't know it for sure unless the police ran an investigation. That was not going to happen, so the likely story was that someone had done this to send a message.
"You think it was Aizen?" Chad muttered.
Ichigo shook his head. Even if Aizen had the motives, this wasn't his style. Granted, Ichigo had taken the east without his permission, but he hadn't stepped on any toes and he was still paying commission to the man every month. If Aizen wanted to send a warning, it would be subtler and much deeper than this.
Yet, there was no part of Ichigo that believed the fire was accidental. The building was new — he had been there when the electricians had checked the wiring. The nature of the fire was violent. Ugly.
A shrill noise from the telephone made Ichigo, Orihime and Chad flinch. Ichigo immediately stepped around the desk to pick it up.
"Ichigo," he said in greeting.
"Oh, good." It was Uryu. "Can you come down to the hospital right now? I'm with Guatiche and Birstanne —"
Ichigo made a face. "Who?"
"For fuck's sake, Kurosaki, don't tell me you forgot about them!"
Ichigo had totally forgotten about them.
"Pesche," Uryu stressed. "Dondochakka."
Ichigo frowned and beckoned Chad closer. "I think he's making up words or having a stroke or something, I don't know what the fuck he's talking about."
Chad held the phone to his ear. He hmm-ed. He ahh-ed. "He's talking about the guys," Chad explained slowly. "Gilga's guys."
Surprisingly enough, Chad's explanation jogged Ichigo's memory slowly. Back when they were still expanding and needed foot soldiers, Ichigo had had the bright idea to hire some of Gilga's old crew who were out of jobs. The decent guys, the guys who were in it for the money and not out of loyalty to Nnoitra. Guatiche and Birstanne had been two of the recruits, and Ichigo had assigned them to manual labor. They were young, they couldn't read and they weren't very bright but they did their work, so he was satisfied with keeping them at the distilleries, even though they irritated Uryu often with their questions about basic things they assumed were legal things. Uryu usually left any room they were in with haste, so his annoyance suddenly became clear.
Ichigo took the phone back. "What's up with them?"
Uryu sighed heavily through the phone. "Apparently they were the ones who rescued the witness at the fire. They're with her right now, in the ward. They've grown…rather protective of her."
Ichigo's eyes narrowed. "They called you?"
"Mine was the only number they remembered." He sounded annoyed about that, all nasally and indignant. "Anyway, the witness was a child," he continued, "a six-year-old girl. She says she saw everything. When we asked her who was behind the attack, she said the man called himself Jack-O-Lantern. And that he had blue hair." Uryu paused. "There's only one person we know who could fit that description, and it's Grimmjow Jaegerjacques. Aizen's man."
Grimmjow Jaegerjacques, Ichigo thought grimly. That was the second time he'd heard that name now in the span of a few weeks. He'd never met the man in person, but he knew it couldn't be good news if one of Aizen's capos was burning down his distilleries. Moreover, even if the fire didn't suit Aizen, it definitely suited Grimmjow going off of what Ichigo had read in the papers the commissioner gave him.
"Does anyone else know she's there?"
"Just us for now, but if anyone in their camp catches word of a witness, she'll be in danger. It's not safe here."
Ichigo nodded at Chad to get a gun from the locker. "We'll be there in a few. Get her shifted to a private ward. Do you have anything on you?"
"...No," Uryu said, sounding regretful. "I left home in a rush."
Ichigo sighed. "Sit tight, I'm coming." He slammed the phone down, then blinked in surprise when he remembered Orihime was still here. "Miss Inoue. It's late."
Orihime grinned sheepishly. "That's okay, I wanted to check in anyway!"
Ichigo shook his head. "I'll have a car come around for you." He turned to Chad, but Chad frowned.
"We only have one left in the lot. Everyone else is at the distillery."
Ichigo frowned. "What, everyone?"
Chad shrugged.
"Fuck," Ichigo muttered.
"It's okay, Mr Kurosaki," she said, standing up. "What you said on the phone…it sounded like serious business."
Ichigo swallowed, thinking she was going to suggest going home by a cab or — God forbid — a bus, but the words that came out of her mouth instead stunned him.
"How about I come with you?"
..
..
Uryu was having a very strange night.
First, there was the issue of having to get a consistent story out of Dondochakka Birstanne and Pesche Guatiche. Then, there was the issue of reminding Ichigo who Dondochakka Birstanne and Pesche Guatiche were.
Now, there was this.
"Chad is at the entrance," Ichigo explained. "Keigo and Mizuiro are on both fire exits. I pulled a few guys from the bar and asked them to watch the intersection. Anything else?"
Uryu sighed, glancing around his environment surreptitiously. A flock of nurses passed them, seemingly innocuous. Even though they were in the private ward, there was still a beehive of activity in the corridors outside. "Unless they've already made it in."
"Touch paranoid, don't you think?" Ichigo asked, but he pressed a gun into Uryu's hand anyway.
Uryu glanced at Orihime, who was reading a pamphlet on tuberculosis with rapt curiosity. "Miss Inoue, you should stick to us. It's not safe to be wandering off on your own."
Orihime glanced up, then smiled—almost mischievously. "Oh, I can take care of myself just fine, Mr Ishida. I took a self-defense class once, you know, and they said there's many different things you could use from your surroundings to fend off an attacker, even if you're not physically strong enough." She tapped her temple. "Play smart, not rough."
Ichigo snorted and exchanged a look with Uryu. "Yeah? And let's say one of Jaegerjacques' crew walked in through that door right now and shot both of us. How would you defend yourself against that?"
Orihime looked at them like they were stupid. "The fire extinguisher." She pointed to an area behind her shoulder, and sure enough, there was a fire extinguisher. It looked heavy and you could always spray one—quick, easy, effective.
Uryu looked stumped. Ichigo coughed, as if to conceal a laugh behind his fist.
"You don't live in New York without having a few tricks up your sleeve," Orihime said proudly.
Ichigo couldn't help but agree. "You have a name or number for this class you took? I should put some of our guys in, seeing how often they get their asses kicked."
Orihime perked up. "Oh, I should still have the posters they gave us, if you're interested!"
This time Ichigo really couldn't stop smiling. "I was only joking, Miss Inoue."
"Oh." Orihime flushed prettily but held his gaze and smiled back, a little self-conscious. The moment was broken only when a doctor popped his head out of Nel's room and called them in.
"We had some stitches put in on her forehead," the doctor explained. "Nothing serious, but it'll probably leave a scar." He hesitated. "The receptionist said to send you in, but are you uh. Are you her folks?"
"Just a few good samaritans checking in," Uryu assured the doctor. "Would it be alright if we spoke to Miss Odelschwanck now?"
The doctor still looked reluctant. Ichigo wanted to scowl. They wouldn't hurt a child.
"Sure," he said eventually. "Go ahead. I'll be right outside if you need me."
Ichigo and Uryu nodded, while Orihime thanked the doctor. Inside, the scent of antiseptic was strong, but like the doctor said, the child didn't look too grievously injured. When Ichigo approached the bed, her eyes lit up in curiosity. It was almost like she could sense what the doctor himself couldn't — that she had nothing to be afraid of.
"Hello Miss Odelschwanck." Ichigo smiled. "How are you doing?"
Nel tilted her head curiously. "Good. They stapled my forehead."
"Did they?" His eyes flicked up to her mop of hair, where it parted around a patch of bandages. "That's too bad. Does it hurt?"
"Not right now," Nel said dubiously. "It did when the 'splosion happened."
Ichigo's smile turned warm, amused. Children were always a soft spot for him. Although Miss Unagiya had looked out for them when they were young, Ichigo felt like he had raised his sisters himself and he missed that youth, that innocence that had to be protected. In many ways, he saw in them what he irrevocably lost at a very young age.
The same part of him that melted, however, sparked in anger when he looked at the bandages again.
Nel frowned. "What happened to the guys who brought me here? Pissy and Dorodonny?"
"They're waiting outside," Uryu said, and Ichigo realized he had taken a beat too long to reply.
"I liked them." For a while, no one said anything. Then, Nel's face softened in fear. "Are Jack-O-Lantern and his friends gonna hurt me for telling on them?"
Ichigo's face darkened, because there was no way she could expect that without having experienced it in the past.
"No," he said firmly. "No one is going to hurt you. We'll make sure of that."
The only question was — how? Even if Nel was safe right now, with all their guys guarding the hospital, she would be discharged soon and have to return to the orphanage. Though Ichigo hadn't met Jaegerjaques personally, he wouldn't put it past the man to hurt a child to cover up his tracks.
Ichigo felt something soft on his hands and looked down to see Nel, clutching onto his torso like he was a lifeline. "I wanna stay with you, and those two other guys. They were nice."
Ichigo raised a brow. "Miss Odelschwanck—"
" — Nel," she interrupted.
"Nel." Ichigo glanced back at Uryu, who looked tired and Orihime, who shot him a helpless shrug. "You can't stay with me. You don't even know me."
"I don't want to go back to Odelshtink. Everyone is mean there."
Ichigo hesitated. He recalled Commissioner Kuchiki's harsh words about his lack of responsibility. He could leave Nel off at the orphanage with a guard. He could send her to a better one. He could send her to a boarding school abroad, where no harm would ever come to her.
Or he could give her something deeper, something more profound. Whether an orphan was six or well over twenty, it didn't change the fact that they would always look for a family to belong to. Ichigo could relate to that. He had spent his whole life chasing after it.
"Alright, Nel," Ichigo said, resting a gentle hand on Nel's hair. "Let's go home together."
Nel looked up, startled. Then, her face broke out into a happy grin.
