Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor make any money from this fan-made fiction.
3. Glorified Janitors
Orihime Inoue, Tatsuki Arisawa and Yasutora "Chad" Sado had several things in common: They could see spirits, they had gone to both middle and high school together, they were good friends with Ichigo Kurosaki, and they were using their vacation to help Kisuke Urahara for the next two weeks. It had been more than 2 years since they graduated high school and they had all followed different career and education paths. Under normal circumstances they wouldn't care to spend their vacations working, but two things had set their minds: the pay was too much to pass up; and it allowed them to meet Ichigo in person for the first time since they went their separate ways.
The area Ichigo and Kisuke had gone to live and work in had been cordoned off from the rest of society through some combination of psy-ops, special ops, government cover up and supernatural intervention. Everything had been done, both inside and out of the quarantine, to ensure there was minimal change to most of the citizens' daily lives; even businesses had been set up to give work to employees who normally worked outside of it. It was costing a lot of government money but it was considered well spent despite Orihime offering to fix all of it immediately early on.
This was because it was a learning experience: one meant to determine procedure on both the human and soul sides. What was learned here would be archived and used for similar events in the future beyond Orihime's expected human lifespan. And so far everything was going extremely well, as the only people aware enough to care about the restricted zone were the citizens inside the restricted area or those related to them with normal health concerns like elderly parents and such.
Still, no one from the outside was allowed to visit without also stranding themselves within the restricted area. Hence the reason Orihime, Chad and Tatsuki hadn't yet visited. Had college not been an issue, Orihime and Chad would have moved in. And while Tatsuki wasn't too bothered, Orihime, who had fallen in love with Ichigo years before, was eager to take this opportunity to visit without sabotaging her schooling. Chad just wanted to catch up and help his best friend out.
They would work as 'cleaners', helping trained government agents eliminate corrupted filth and contamination. The classified explanation was that a small dimension had collided with theirs and released odd spiritual particles that warped matter and caused mutations. Kisuke had somehow managed to work things so that he was in charge, and from this day moving forward, everything was on track to be cleaned up within the next two years. He had provided equipment and training, and while effective, there was a significant drawback: if an area was too corrupted, the agents would become victims themselves; even with special suits. Chad, Orihime and Tatsuki were being hired to hit most of the areas labelled 'Too Dangerous', because as it turns out, each one of them had enough spiritual power to make themselves more resistant to the corrupting influence of the most dangerous areas.
It was about nine in the morning when they met Agent Rin Sano at the border of the blockade. "You three Arisawa, Sado, and Inoue?" They nodded. "You look a bit young—let me see your identification." They handed her the cards that Kisuke had mailed them, and she handed them back after confirming they were the special agents she was expecting. "Alright then, I'll take you to our first location."
It was a short drive and they arrived where a few white vans were parked in front of an apartment building. There were several other people in white hazmat-style suits, and each one of them was busy setting up a perimeter and several containment stations, including a research materials handling station. The three friends stepped out of Rin's SUV and went over to another agent who waved them over. "Here are your suits," the man said, handing a package to each one. "The carrier plate goes underneath the suits and the changing rooms are any of the green tents; they're all empty."
Minutes later everyone was wearing the appropriate gear and entered the building. A special environment cleaning kit, which looked like a suitcase with a gas cylinder attached to it, was in the hands of everyone who wasn't armed with specialized close quarters assault rifles. All was clear at first: the walls were clean and cream coloured and the floor was covered in mostly stain-free blue carpet; nothing looked too old or new.
The floor above was also clear and so was the next but corruption started to become detected soon after and agents dispersed and began clearing and cleaning. The agents kept cleaning with only a few stubborn people left who had not already evacuated the building needing to be suppressed and sent to the Urahara clinic. There were a few corpses on the floors above and it kept on like that until they got close to the top floor and the accompanying agents' alarms went off and they stopped, leaving Chad, Orihime and Tatsuki on their own to advance.
The lights on the floor were dim and glowing various shades of pink, green and yellow. The cause was various barnacle-like structures, each one a different colour. They oozed a brown fluid and, following it down with their eyes, Chad, Orihime and Tatsuki saw that the floor was covered in the muck. Carefully, they began taking a sample of each unique thing.
"This is so gross!" Tatsuki said, prying one of the barnacle structures off a wall. "Why are we doing this again?" The radios in the suits were surprisingly clear.
"It's to help Ichigo," Orihime replied. Chad grunted, but it was obvious he wasn't comfortable in the environment.
Tatsuki moved to the next barnacle. "It's a good thing that shady shopkeeper pays well. I don't know if Ichigo's worth it."
"Tatsuki!" Orihime chided.
"Hey, you're the one who loves him; not me."
"It's... not that bad," Chad interjected, scraping his next barnacle.
"Hey, I'm just saying; this is worse than I imagined." The squelch of the goop that held the growth to the wall only accentuated her point.
Once the samples were collected they activated the environment purification kits which released a smoke that killed the corruption and caused it to fall to the floor in sheets and dissolve into a fluid which was sucked up by the base of the environment cleaning kits and sent into bags that needed to be constantly changed.
It took two hours and over a hundred large bags filled before all the remaining floors became safe enough for the regular agents to take over. A spray-off in a bio-hazard shower later and they were on their way to the next site prepared for this day.
The Urahara clinic was still open for normal service when Ichigo's friends had finished their jobs and arrived at the back door, Agent Rin having dropped them off at the back door and told them to enter the lunch room, which would be the second door on their left once they got in. As soon as they got near the door, however, a young woman with hair as bright and wild as Ichigo's opened it and let them in. "You must be Tatsuki, Chad, and Orihime!" She was quite enthusiastic. "I'll bring you up to our apartment; Ichigo will be done work soon."
They all followed the girl who eagerly led them, slowing down several times once she realized she was leaving them behind. After three flights of stairs they arrived on the fourth floor and went to the apartment furthest away. The girl unlocked and opened the door, going through the living area and moving to a kitchen before bringing a tray of food back to the coffee table and inviting them to sit down.
"It's so awesome to finally meet Ichigo's friends!" the girl said. "He's told me stories about you, and I gotta know: what didn't he tell me?"
"Hold on a sec," Tatsuki interrupted, "Who are you?" She had an idea but wasn't quite sure as a lot of people had been moved into the area for the upcoming special operations.
The girl seemed to have an epiphany, realizing she hadn't introduced herself. "Oh, right, sorry! I'm Fuku, Ichigo's, uh... superposition, I think. We still haven't figured out a better term for that. Anyway, nice to meet you!"
Orihime, being a psychology student, heard what Fuku said and fought hard to sound normal. "A-are you dating Ichigo?" Was 'superposition' the new, hip, word for dating?
"No," Fuku said, "we're not dating."
Orihime breathed a sigh of relief.
"We're closer than that... I think? I've asked Mr. Urahara and some of the patients about it and that seems to be the consensus. Anyway, what was invading the Soul Society like?"
Fuku knew about Soul Society, so that meant she was at least someone Ichigo trusted, but that didn't mean Orihime was ready to do the same. "Fuku," she asked, "how did you come to know Ichigo?" Ichigo had mentioned the girl in passing a few times during a couple of video calls, but not much was actually known about the woman in front of her. And "closer than dating" set off all the wrong bells in her mind.
Fuku paused in motion as she looked off into space and thought about it. "Oh!" Fuku exclaimed, suddenly worried she might have said too much. "I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say that, but..."
They were Ichigo's best friends, Ichigo had said as much. Fuku took a moment longer to consider it and ultimately decided it was fine for them to know. "I'm Ichigo, but I'm not Ichigo; thus, I'm Fuku. I can't call myself a clone, because I'm not the same, but Ichigo is the reason I exist and we're connected. Same soul, different bodies, two people. It's all hard to comprehend."
The three friends were stunned; no one knew what to say and an uncomfortable silence enveloped the room. Fuku didn't like it so she spoke up. "Is something wrong?"
Orihime was the first to respond, shaking her head as she started to reply. "I'm sorry, as you said, it's difficult to understand."
Fuku sighed. "It's fine, no one really gets it. Just think of me as a not-clone."
"So if you're not a clone, what are you?" Tatsuki got out, starting to mentally return. Chad also seemed to be more focused now.
"A superpositional soul. It's a term borrowed from quantum mechanics."
"Yeah, that doesn't help."
Fuku shrugged her shoulders. "I figured. Look, do you mind if we change the topic? I wanna hear about your adventures with Ichigo. You can discuss all this other stuff with Ichigo."
"We can do that," Chad said.
"Sweet!" Fuku declared, pumping her fist.
Orihime also wanted to move on, but she also felt she needed to know something. "Do you mind if I ask if you're sleeping with Ichigo?"
Fuku tilted her head in confusion. "Yeah, but I don't know why—oh, you're asking about sex. No, we aren't having sex. We just need to recharge at night."
This confused everyone, though Orihime was the one to put a voice to it. "Recharge?"
"Yeah, we have the same soul; sleep is much better the closer we are. Also, it's a good time to talk about stuff after being in the clinic all day. I mean, I was created here and even I get freaked out. Ichigo's really good at helping me deal with it."
"I... I see." Orihime felt some relief but was still uneasy about what she heard. Tatsuki was right, as it turned out—subtle flirting was never going to work out—so she decided then and there to become increasingly bold over the next two weeks while they all lived together in Ichigo's apartment. Hopefully there would be enough opportunities.
The door opened and everyone heard Ichigo speak. "Hey Fuku, you aren't bothering my friends, are you?"
Fuku looked over to see a bit of a smirk and returned it. "Only getting as much blackmail material on you as I can."
Ichigo chuckled and looked to each one of his friends. "Hey Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki. It's good to see you." Each one of them responded in kind; all were glad to see him as well. Orihime got up to give him a hug which he hesitantly returned due to how tight it had been.
"So, Ichigo," Tatsuki began, "when were you planning to tell us Fuku was a 'not-clone?'"
"Ah... I was waiting for a time when we were both able to go on a video call at the same time before bed, but between everything going on this came first, I guess."
The surprise on Tatsuki's face was evident. "So you're really that busy?"
"Yeah, I got lucky we're getting some backup over the next two weeks; it means we'll actually have an hour or two to hang out every day."
"Exactly," Fuku interjected, "which means I can hear about your adventures in Soul Society."
"I didn't go," Tatsuki said, "but these two did." She pointed her thumb to Orihime and her index finger on her other hand to Chad.
"So what was it like?!"
Fuku's enthusiasm swept the room, and with Tatsuki's desire to hear the full story from all angles, this night would become one she would never forget.
A/N:
This chapter saw significant portions rewritten. Also, quantum mechanics are fun.
Have a great 'until next time' and may God bless you,
SomethingAncient