Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor make any money from this fan-made fiction.

6. New Horizons

Sora Shiraki was on his way to the Urahara Clinic, not as a patient, but on behalf of his daughter. When she heard the clinic was closing down, Yuki sent some sake, gift cards and letters for him to deliver to the regular doctors and staff there. Sora had been confused at first until she told him what had happened to her. He remembered the time she wore an eye patch but originally assumed it was just a phase. He decided he would add some tea and sweets and threw everything into a large wicker basket.

Approaching the building, he could see he was just in time: there was a large moving truck parked out front that was completely filled with what looked to be medical equipment and various boxes. Jinta—who was identified based on the descriptions Yuki gave him—was carrying a box out of the main entrance. "That's the last of it," he heard the teenager say.

Sora also saw 'Dr. Kurosaki', whose hair was just as bright and orange as Yuki's friend Fuku, come from the other side of the truck and reach up and pull on the strap that hung from the bottom of the truck's roll-up door. Once the back was closed, Ichigo and Jinta both turned and watched as Fuku walked out of the building. Just behind her was 'Dr. Urahara' wearing a hat that looked as dumb as he was told.

"Hello!" Sora called out. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but could I please have a moment of your time?"

They all looked at him before Fuku called him over. "It's nice to see you Mr. Shirayuki. How is Yuki?"

"Yuki is doing fine. I didn't know you worked here."

"I lived here, too. I kept it a secret because Yuki didn't want anyone knowing she was a patient. I take it she told you?"

"She did; she also sent this gift basket for all of you."

"Thanks!" Fuku said, taking the basket before turning to Ichigo. "Ichigo, this is Yuki's dad. You know, the girl I hang out with whose eye you replaced."

"Oh, yeah, I remember her," Ichigo said. "She's in school to become a doctor, right?" He turned to Sora. "How's she doing?"

Sora smiled brightly. "She is doing very well, among the top of her peers after three years of college."

"That's good to hear. Wish her good luck and high test scores for me."

Ichigo had originally forgotten about her, but Yuki had returned to thank them one day and hit it off with Fuku. It was through that connection Yuki had spoken with Ichigo and Urahara a few times; they had inspired Yuki to become a doctor.

Fuku looked into the basket with a wide smile plastered across her face as she looked through the contents. "Oh, I can't wait to get into some of this. Oh, and letters, sweet! Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome, and thank you, all of you, for your service. Well, it's been a pleasant surprise to see you again, Fuku, but I have some other things to do. Have a good day and future, everyone."

"Thanks, you too!" Fuku cheerfully replied, the others giving their own farewells.

Once Sora walked away Kisuke pulled out his hand fan and used to to cover the lower half of his face. "So, while you and Fuku do what needs to be done here, I will go back to my shop, Dr. Kurosaki."

"Hold up, what's going on?" Kisuke never used his official—and now fully legal—title.

"Oh, nothing. You deserve a vacation. How do you feel about Brazil?" The man sounded like he was about to send Ichigo into trouble.

Ichigo's eyes narrowed. "Why do I feel like you're setting me up?"

"My, my, Ichigo," he said, fluttering his fan and putting a hand across his chest, "so little trust. You wound me."

Ichigo wasn't impressed with the acting, but still... "Just a vacation, right?"

Kisuke immediately brightened up as he snapped his fan closed and began to speak quickly. "All expenses paid. You and Fuku deserve it."

Ichigo saw that Fuku looked excited. "You know what? Fine, but you better not be sneaking anything in on me."

Kisuke opened the fan and made it flutter once more. "You worry too much. I guarantee the both of you will have a full month of rest and relaxation."

Kisuke never guaranteed anything, which meant either really bad things or he was telling the truth. "So when do we go?"

"It starts next week. Fuku, remember, make sure Ichigo has fun." This elicited a scowl from Ichigo and a laugh from Fuku.

"See? I am the fun one." She stuck out her tongue in triumph to some argument they had some time ago.

"Hey, I can have fun," he replied, crossing his arms and scowling.

Kisuke made good on his promise of a month full of rest and relaxation in the beautiful Brazilian city of Recife. And both Fuku and Orihime made sure he had more fun than he would have had on his own, bringing him on their explorations of everything that seemed even remotely interesting. The catch came on day thirty-two when the sky was smashed apart by an explosion that coated the city in corrupted energy.

A month later Ichigo sat in his office looking over the evidence of a difficult case, creating a hypothesis based on one of the new cases that had been treated: a hollow mask visible to normal people forming and maintaining on a living human. He was interrupted by one of the many doctors under him who approached him with a tablet—on it was a patient's case.

"Dr. Kurosaki, this growth is as hard as steel and it grafts perfectly into the back of his knee and leg bone. I'm thinking of a replacement of everything from the knee down, but the manual says to cut the bone out and use as much of the original as possible. If I did that there would be weeks of healing to be done." This was translated by the full-time Portuguese tutor that was teaching Ichigo whenever there was time.

"It says he first got hurt by kicking around a corrupted ball? And he's thirty?" The translator relayed the question.

"Yes, that is the case."

"Do it by the manual. The time it takes to heal ought to give him some time to think before he tries to drink water from a corrupted puddle or something even more stupid next time."

"Yes, Dr. Kurosaki."

As the doctor left, Ichigo once again continued to write his hypothesis. The person in question might have been attacked by a hollow that got corrupted. Thankfully, zanpakutō were perfectly capable of purifying any corruption when it came to hollows, but he needed to develop a treatment even non-soul reapers could use successfully. He got up and left the room, walking past his secretary.

"I'll be in the live research block," he said in broken Portuguese.

The young man at the desk pondered over it before he understood what was said. "Yes, Dr. Kurosaki."

Ichigo then texted Fuku to meet him. One short trip down the elevator to the fifth floor had him walking past a nurses station and turning the corner to the middle hallway and into the room containing the victim in question.

The door opened up behind him and he was greeted by a voice that helped him feel a little less stress. "Your sexy research assistant here," Fuku began with full cheek, "what are we dissecting next, Ser mad doctor, Ser?" Her extremely stiff salute added to the comedy.

Ichigo couldn't help the short chuckle that broke out of his stomach and violently escaped his nose, his resulting grin not going away too quickly. "Well, the patient has a hollow mask despite being a living human. Either he's a zombie, someone evil, or someone who's been hollowfied while alive. I'll show you how to check for each one and your homework for this week will be making a basic essay on which one you think it is and why.

"Right!"

Ichigo hooked the man up to at least twenty different wires from the spiritual stability detector, and upon seeing the readings he realized the man's soul was completely hollow. Upon removing the hollow from the body Ichigo grabbed it and observed the junction of the chain of fate that connected soul to body: it looked like there was a spiritual fungus that was trying to restore a constantly eroding soul sleep.

"Shit, he's already dead. Fuku, take a sample of the substance on his soul sleep."

Fuku did as asked and Ichigo materialized his zanpakutō and slayed the hollow, causing all related corruption to purify. This was going to suck hard if the now former patient had family. And according to the information on the tablet, he did.

"Great," Ichigo let out in exasperation.

Ichigo, through a translation app, texted the nurses station to contact the family as he oversaw how Fuku recorded preliminary observations for her own training as a medical researcher.

By the time their twelve hour shift was finished, Ichigo and Fuku both got to their apartment as soon as they could, showered together to save as much time as possible, and fell asleep on their bed as soon as they hit the mattress. There was no time for meals or anything else, only sleep with the hope nothing went wrong for at least eight hours—being on-call sucked. They would eat after they woke up if there was time.

The day had its ups and downs but at least wasn't as messy as last week when a patient literally exploded. One of the nurses screamed and was now getting regular counselling.

Orihime walked into the bedroom to see Fuku embracing Ichigo as they slept like dead logs. The sight stung more than she would admit aloud: sure, she was dating Ichigo and Fuku had kept her word to keep things platonic with Ichigo, but the two were so naturally close it made her jealous. Then she remembered how far the relationship had come; maybe she just needed more time. She laid down on Ichigo's other side, embracing him as she drifted into sleep. There were at least two years before she'd be able to get out of the quarantine, anyways.

Tomorrow was supposed to be an easier day—the middle of the week tended to see less stupid behaviour—maybe they'd all get to go to the beach together. Sure, the warship blockade was noticeable, but it looked cool and there was still plenty of room to swim and enjoy the ocean views.

A/N:

So the first half of this chapter is where the story originally ended. Most of that story's plot is intact to that point, even if a lot of it was changed. The part afterwards is a result of me not being satisfied with lampshading Orihime so hard in my author's notes; then I got the idea for another outbreak in a South American country, and now there's another two chapters. I'd almost prefer to put them into a sequel story, but then this chapter would be unacceptably short and the new story would basically be missing a beginning, so it wouldn't be its own complete story.

"Ser" is the correct spelling for the intended use, and is of Spanish and Portuguese use (it never modernized to 'sir' like it did in Europe), which I thought fit Fuku's attempt to be outrageously goofy and the setting really nicely.

Expect the new chapters very soon.

Have a great 'until next time' and may God bless you,

SomethingAncient