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

7. Headspace

A year later Fuku was chasing her dream of catching up to Ichigo as a doctor and researcher. It wasn't her only dream, but it was the most feasible one to chase while Ichigo was so busy and they were both quarintined. Her favourite part was the patient interaction, and being Ichigo's surgical assistant allowed her to join him in speaking to patients or their families. So far, she could only assist Ichigo as she wasn't quite to the level she needed to be in order to match the knowledge expected by the average surgeon in this particular hospital. If this were a normal hospital, or if part of her time hadn't been dedicated to learning Portuguese, she would have already gotten to that point.

If nothing else, learning the language allowed her to take part in whatever conversations she wanted while stationed here in Recife. She was walking beside Ichigo when she spotted one of the doctors who had been away for a while; Ichigo noticed him too.

"Dr. Coelho," Ichigo said, "how was the honeymoon?"

"It was wonderful, Dr. Kurosaki. Thank you so much for the time off."

"Getting married is a big deal. Sorry we couldn't make it to the wedding."

"Oh, that's alright, I know how busy it is here. Still, you two should make some time for each other and Miss Inoue. Say, when are you going to marry one of them—maybe both?" He said the last part while wriggling his eyebrows as obviously as he could.

Fuku burst out laughing. "C'mon Ichigo, marry us both!" she jeered between laughs. Both of their lives were already like something out of a manga; a harem would be a comically fitting turn in their lives regardless of how welcome it would actually be.

Ichigo chuckled. "As you can see, I already have one onboard," he joked.

"A lesser man would be very envious; thankfully I'm married now. Have a good evening."

"Thanks, have a good shift."

"What Ichigo said," Fuku followed up, still smiling wide and only a funny noise away from the next bout of laughter. "Good luck!"

Fuku wasn't surprised when Orihime came to her—the two had become friends at this point and actually liked each other as people—but she was surprised Orihime came to her for medical advice for one of the clients she counselled as a psychologist. The young man in question was obviously part of the growing cult scene: he was both a criminal and someone with connections that allowed him to avoid jail despite being arrested with direct evidence. His last known crime was a kidnapping but he and his friends all embraced their corrupted conditions to the point even the public was too scared to do anything about it.

"I'm sorry, Orihime," Fuku began, "eye crystallization isn't the kind of infection that alters the mind." She looked up to the ceiling and tapped a pen to the side of her head. "We just tell people that because we don't want them to know the wholes and hollows they see are real." She bit her lip a bit. "So you think this guy is going to come after you?"

"He seems more reserved when he visits; I was just wondering if his mental condition could be caused by his spiritual corruption." Orihime got up to leave the research room Fuku shared with several other doctors. "Also, please don't tell Ichigo."

"Hey," Fuku said, grabbing Orihime's arm and stopping her, "I know you aren't helpless, but don't hide this from Ichigo. You know how much he hates being kept in the dark."

"It's not that bad."

It was easy to see that Orihime wasn't quite as sure as she was claiming, so Fuku called her bluff. "You said he's already kidnapped someone and gotten away with it."

"I'll deal with it. Now that I know it isn't a mind-affecting condition I know what direction to take his treatment. Please don't tell Ichigo, I don't want to increase his burden, he's already extremely stressed about work."

Fuku sighed. "Fine, but only because I trust you and know you've got the education for it."

Over the next six months Orihime didn't say anything more about this individual, but Fuku was called in to help convince a few of her other more stubborn clients about getting treatment for their corruption diseases.

Then, one day, now able to assist the other doctors in surgery, a severe anger crept into Fuku from her soul. It took a lot of effort not to let it affect her job performance—she was thankfully only ten minutes away from being able to leave—and she rushed to Ichigo as soon as she could. An organization called Rainbow was supposed to have sent several teams and today was their expected arrival date. She figured one of them might have angered Ichigo and wanted to calm him down before something bad happened.

She arrived to see carnage: bodies were strewn about the floor contending with broken glass, a lot of blood, and fragments of whatever finishes once covered the walls and ceiling. Some of the women were crying and Orihime was trying to comfort them while wearing a lab coat. And as much as Fuku wanted to jump in and offer her assistance, she first needed to attend to Ichigo—sans lab coat—who had just told one of the Rainbow operators to take several people in cuffs to the basement.

He turned to her. "Sorry Fuku, I've got a lot of work to do."

"This is an emergency, I'm helping. Now, what happened?"

Ichigo almost growled as he huffed out a breath. "One of Orihime's clients got all his cult buddies and attacked the hospital. Three dead patients, seven dead family members of patients, two girls raped and Orihime won't say what happened to her other than 'nothing serious'."

Fuku took a long look at the carnage once more, her own anger rising. "So what about the bastards who did this?"

"Can you ask Orihime? She won't tell me, but one of them called her by name and said he was going to... Just ask her."

"Sure."

Fuku was able to confirm the lead culprit, Connor Amor, was the dangerous person Orihime asked about months ago. She also confirmed that the most that had happened to Orihime was her shirt had been ripped off. Fuku took this information to Ichigo once he had finished talking with local police.

"Alright," Ichigo said, pulling out a receipt from his wallet, "take this, then get the plan we talked about yesterday from my office. I want you to get the rest of the Rainbow operators set up in the hotel across the street. There should be some Brazilian military commanders there already."

"On it."

Fuku took the elevator up, walked past Ichigo's secretary—who was on the phone and seemingly involved in two different conversations as he wrote things down—and then grabbed a brown briefcase. The trip down in the elevator was accompanied by two doctors who were coming down to help with what happened in the lobby.

It took a minute to gather everyone who wasn't replacing the deceased guards and another to walk across the street and get set up in the hotel's community room, then an hour to go through the plan that would unfold over the next two weeks. This operation would hit major corruption hot-spots throughout the city that the normal special cleanup crews couldn't handle. There were a lot so cleaning them up would, theoretically, reduce the average severity of incoming patients.

Fuku felt hungry and took a detour to pick up some food for her and Ichigo; back at the hospital she caught him in the morgue furnaces, his anger somewhat abated as he was filling out several death certificates; one of them was Connor's.

"Come on, I got you food."

"Just put it down on the desk in front of the elevator. I'll eat it later."

"No way. You're eating with me—finish those certificates quick and join me or I'll dump your food over them right now."

Ichigo sighed, annoyed. "Fine."

They talked about what needed to be done before the day was out and Fuku took on everything that didn't need the official authorization of the hospital director, which was about a third of Ichigo's workload. Talking with families of the deceased or injured on Ichigo's behalf took up most of that, and Ichigo's stress only went up by the time she next saw him. His anger was about the same. She stuck to his side like glue for the rest of his workday, then convinced him to go on a run with her.

They returned to the penthouse coated in sweat-drenched clothing, Ichigo far less stressed than when he first learned of what happened, though there was still too much and now he was showing signs of being depressed. Fuku's own mood was much better, thankfully.

Ichigo found a note Orihime left on the kitchen island saying she had taken Tatsuki out to catch up and wouldn't be back for a while. Ichigo called Orihime, just to make sure she was alright. He asked when they wanted to be picked up since they were drinking, but her response set an edge into Ichigo's tone as the call ended, cutting him off.

Ichigo slammed his fist on the island's granite top, causing it to crack.

Fuku winced, partly because she could feel it through their soul. Still, she looked up at Ichigo with an easygoing smile. "What's got you so glum, chum?"

Ichigo looked over at Fuku and raised an eyebrow. She was standing where the floor went from tile tile to hardwood, arms crossed. "Chum?"

Fuku shrugged her shoulders, letting her arms fall to her sides. "I'm trying to lighten the mood; just roll with it."

Ichigo sighed. "Orihime didn't like how I handled the hospital's attackers, or that she wasn't allowed to use her powers to restore or resurrect anyone. I don't think she's going to be home tonight." It was amazing how much could be communicated with a frustrated sigh and extended silence followed by a sudden call hangup.

Fuku tilted her head. "You didn't let her use her powers?"

"No," Ichigo said, sighing, "it's what she agreed to when she was put on the payroll, and besides that, we can't risk letting Rainbow know about Orihime's ability to rewrite reality. Tatsuki may be trustworthy, but special military organizations like that are too much of a wildcard and far too connected with the wrong sort of politicians. I don't even know what Kisuke was thinking by hiring them. And then there was me executing the cultist terrorists who kept getting away with every crime they did. She understands why, she just—"

"Doesn't like violence, and it came across the wrong way," Fuku finished.

Ichigo let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah."

"Well, don't let it get you down, you stopped something worse from happening in the future."

Ichigo let out another heavy sigh. "I know." But somehow he didn't feel like he knew. "You going to shower first?"

"We're showering together."

"Orihime would be more upset if she found out."

"She won't find out unless you do something stupid; besides, I hate it when it rains in our soul, and I'll do anything to keep you out of your head right now."

Ichigo stared at Fuku, dumbfounded. "You're literally threatening me with a good time."

"Damn right. Now join me or we'll both stink up the house."

Fuku managed to keep Ichigo actively engaged in distracting conversation, which meant he wasn't in his head, nor inside her—which, for five different reasons, she had mixed feelings about at this point in her life—and the hot water helped both of them calm down. Fuku could see Ichigo visibly relax and the rain was no longer threatening to drench their soul. They decided to head to bed and sleep off what they could; tomorrow was another extremely busy day, after all.

A/N:

I had originally had this chapter done in Orihime's perspective, but it made her kindness seem like she was falling for Connor, which would be entirely out of character for anyone who knows Orihime. In order to avoid that misconception, I rewrote it... again.

The next and last chapter might be out as soon as tomorrow or a couple weeks away depending on if I decide to rewrite it. I've already thrown out maybe three quarters of this entire story just in first drafts of this chapter and the next. Yes, this rewrite is what's been bothering me enough to delay all my other stories. I hope to get back to Mythics Online and The Double-Date as soon as I can. I can't wait to finally get my major project completely out of first draft territory, too. And then my original stories that I hope to get published one day. And two different Batman and Bleach crossovers. And a LoL crossover. And an Avengers crossover.

I may have a problem.

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

SomethingAncient