22 – Light of Heaven 3

"…What can I do for you, Kurosaki-kun? Uryu has not returned yet, but if you truly need to find him urgently, you should be able to track down his spirit pressure." Ishida Ryuken said to Ichigo from his chair upon Ichigo's entrance into his office.

"Ah, no, I came to ask you about something else. Did a girl named Bambietta come to you about a serious health problem recently? She's a friend of mine and also a High Spec human." Ichigo took a seat on the opposite side of Ryuken's desk.

Ryuken gave Ichigo a contemplative stare. 'High Spec human is an odd way of putting it. Perhaps he doesn't know her heritage yet?'

"Yes, she did. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I just found out that she has some kind of terminal illness, but she won't tell me anything more about it or let me help her. She mentioned that she already came by and consulted with you though, so I figured I could come ask you—"

"To break doctor-patient confidentiality after she explicitly denied permission for you to know?" Ryuken interrupted with an unimpressed expression.

"Uh…I didn't mean…I just want to help her! Besides, she said you couldn't cure it either, right? So if I'm gonna look for other ways, I need to know what's wrong!"

"So you wish to save her?" Ryuken asked.

"Of course! She's my friend, how can I just let her die without doing anything?"

"And if there is no way?"

"There has to be! Whether with modern medical science or spiritual powers, there must be a way!"

"I admire your optimism. Unfortunately, even if I wanted to, I'm afraid that I can offer you no useful information," said Ryuken.

"Why? Come on! Can't you break that confidentiality rule or whatever just this once, to save her life?! At least tell me how much time she has left!"

"I can't tell you anything because there is nothing to tell. As far as I could determine, her body is perfectly healthy, and I was unable to detect any abnormalities in her soul. The only symptom she exhibited was one that should not be life-threatening and has no impact on everyday life. So unless her condition noticeably deteriorates, she should not be at risk of dying any time soon," said Ryuken. "But whatever ails her, it was beyond my power to discern, let alone heal."

Ichigo was momentarily stunned into silence.

"I have a couple of hypotheses, based on the symptoms she described to me, but without access to any specimens of her compatriots which have succumbed already or patients with later stage symptoms for further analysis, there is simply no way to make further progress in this case. And she cannot provide me with such, so unfortunately, we are at a dead end."

"…do you think Urahara might have a way to help her?" Ichigo asked quietly.

"I will be frank. While I am grateful to that man for helping Masaki, I do not trust him. And I can assure you that in regards to Bambietta and her kind, I am far more knowledgeable than he, even if I cannot disclose to you the specifics without her permission. I cannot discount the possibility that Urahara may offer you a viable solution, but I would consider it extremely unlikely, and certainly not without requiring the same access to investigate other patients or specimens with the same apparent condition."

"What do you mean her kind? Is she a special type of being beyond a human with high spiritual awareness?" Ichigo asked.

"If you are unable to discover that on your own, I'm afraid I cannot disclose it to you, as that would be a violation of my oaths as a doctor on two counts. Firstly, my duty to protect her privacy when she has evidently did not see fit to disclose that to you herself, and secondly, my duty to protect her from potentially dangerous consequences that may arise from any rash attempt by you to seek her compatriots on your own. I hope you are aware that there is a reason she cannot give me access to others with her condition."

"She ran away from home, I know. I guess she probably wasn't allowed to just leave, so she can't just take you with her to meet them, right? Judging by the fact that you used the word compatriots, it's more than just friends or family that she ran away from. It would have to be an organized group of some kind, and considering the fact that they're hiding from enemies that want to exterminate them, they probably have strict rules of secrecy to protect the group as a whole from discovery."

"Impressive deductions, Kurosaki-kun," said Ryuken, praising the boy without confirming or denying the statements. "I apologize that I cannot be of further assistance at this time."

Ichigo stood up. "Thanks, anyway, Ishida-san. If I can somehow bring you another patient, or find a…specimen for you to analyze, though, you'd be willing to help?"

Ryuken nodded. "As a doctor, I will not fail to render assistance to a patient if the means exist."

"And you said she's not at risk of dying yet, and won't be any time soon?"

"That is predicated on her condition not having deteriorated from when I last saw her, which was two days ago."

Repeating his thanks, Ichigo prepared to leave, but then Ryuken spoke up as he was moving out the door.

"Wait, Kurosaki-kun. A few words of advice before you go."

The teen turned back slightly.

"If you pursue this in the manner I suspect you will given your personality, you will undoubtedly learn of things best left forgotten, and involve yourself in an eons-old struggle. Your new friend has chosen to leave her former life behind, but it was a choice borne of hopeless desperation. Even if you do find the cure you seek, she may desire to return to her roots, and rejoin her brethren. Will you then attempt to save her friends as well? After that, will you protect them from their enemies, even if it means to join a futile war against the world itself, whom has deemed their very existence a crime?"

"That's a pretty ominous warning, Ishida-san. You must know a lot more than you let on. But the more you warn me away, the more I feel like I absolutely need to know what's going on," said Ichigo.

But Ryuken had not finished. "Is it really worth it to go that far for this girl whom you've just met and know nothing about? If you insist on going down this path, there may come a time when you will be forced to choose between whom you wish to protect more, for to save one means that you condemn another. Are you prepared to face the consequences of your wish?"

Ichigo chuckled lightly at that. "I call myself a protector, but I've always resorted to violence at the first opportunity. The teachers say I'm a delinquent, and I blamed my orange hair for it, but thinking back, they weren't really wrong about me. Did I really have to beat up everyone that had a problem with me? I remember clearly the day right before I got Shinigami powers, I tried to help out a ghost and I did it by kicking those bikers' faces in without even trying to talk to them first. It's funny, you know, I grew up in a clinic and yet I knew jack shit about healing before I learned kido, instead I sent people to the hospital every week. So if you had said that to me two days ago, I'd have agreed wholeheartedly, saving someone by condemning someone else is what I've been doing my whole life."

'If Bambietta thinks herself a fraud, then what I am? Something infinitely worse than a fraud, an ignorant buffoon that didn't even know he'd been living a lie, a damn hypocrite!'

Then Ichigo's expression gained a new strength as he raised a clenched fist up to his face, seemingly seeing something profound in that limb. "But yesterday, I watched Bambietta work for hours to save a complete stranger with nothing but impassioned words and earnest effort. And, for the first time in my life, I felt like I understood what it means to protect someone with something other than my fists."

Finally, he turned a firm gaze to Ryuken. "Maybe you're right that I'll have to make a hard choice. I certainly have enough on my plate already, and far too many powerful enemies. Whether it'll be worth it or not, I don't know yet…but I do know that if I close my eyes to this and cover my well after seeing a glimpse of the wider sky beyond, I'll definitely regret it for the rest of my life."

Ichigo turned and waved goodbye. "Thanks for the advice, Ishida-san."

O O O

After another solo training session, Ichigo in his new clocked spirit form stood at the top of the unfinished building where the old ghost had been at before passing on. At its highest floor of twelve, he had a good view of much of the town.

He'd entered Jinzen and asked Gesshokuro about what happened last time when he didn't answer, but what Gesshokuro had told him wasn't satisfying. Apparently the spirit simply hadn't heard his thoughts calling out. It didn't make sense…was it just his fear working against himself then? But he couldn't really do anything about it, so he just moved on and tried not to think about it after discussing it with the Old Man. Even if this world was only a fantasy…he was here now and he had no way to break the illusion so he would just have to act as if it were real.

He'd kept his training session today shorter. As a relatively quiet place, he settled on this building as somewhere peaceful to get his thoughts in order, while practicing his spiritual senses, to feel everything going on in Karakura town and looking for some specific people.

He easily felt his friends starting to train with Rukia in their old spot by Karasu river on the outskirts of town.

At one point he'd found the trail of Uryu's spirit pressure, and got an idea of where he was doing his secluded training. It was probably training with the Sanrei Glove, so Ichigo decided not to disturb him.

He'd also found the Visored again, which was easier because they occasionally actively pushed out spirit pressure towards him, beckoning him to join them.

His mind was still on the conversation with Ryuken though, which had been rather enlightening, even if it wasn't what he'd hoped for. It was a relief however, that Bambietta was in no danger of dying just yet. That could change very easily, but it did take off a bit of the pressure, since he was expecting imminent action from Soul Society. As much as he'd wanted to help his new friend, he had to prioritize the more urgent problem of defending Rukia from whoever was sent next.

As he thought over everything Ryuken had said, he had the thought that maybe Bambietta was actually a Quincy. After all, Ryuken claimed to be extremely knowledgeable about her people, and a few other facts lined up, with the whole hiding business and having an enemy that wanted to wipe them out. Uryu did tell him that the Quincies all retreated somewhere hidden, and the hostility that Uryu showed for Shinigami was something Ichigo still clearly remembered, it having been directed at himself.

But it was a bit far-fetched to think that the Shinigami and Soul Society still wanted to exterminate them, wasn't it? They hadn't seemed to want to kill Uryu as a Quincy that much in either timeline.

Moreover, why wouldn't Ryuken just tell him in that case? Ichigo himself was a Quincy, so it was obviously his business to know.

He shook his head. Assumptions were dangerous. He knew that his mind went to Quincies largely because he simply didn't know of any other types of living human beings with spiritual powers. But that didn't mean that they didn't exist, and Chad and Orihime's powers were proof that living humans could have spiritual powers even if they weren't Quincies.

That then, was probably the best place to start investigating. What other types of humans with spiritual powers were there? What category did Chad and Orihime fall under, if there was a type more specific than High Spec human?

"Huh? That looks like…?"

Ichigo muttered with squinting eyes as he saw two figures in the far distance, entering the Karakura amusement park.

He flashed towards them, and eyes widened as his suspicions were confirmed. "What the hell?"

There was his body accompanying Bambietta to the ticketing booth.

"Kon! What the hell do you think you're doing…?!" Ichigo muttered to himself with a snarl. "How dare you take advantage of her for your perversions? See if I'll ever let you out again!"

He rushed closer, then a thought suddenly occurred to him.

'Isn't Soul Society actively trying to destroy all mod souls still?' With the exclusion of Ryuken having no particular reason to know more about mod souls than Urahara, everything that he knew about Bambietta's people also potentially fit mod souls. They were under threat of extermination, possessed human bodies, were designed for combat, and would presumably be hiding themselves somewhere if an organized group existed. Considering that Soul Society originally created them to combat Hollows, they might also have been programmed with the knowledge of how to help Pluses pass on, since they weren't equipped with Zanpaktou to do Konso.

He mulled over the thought while finding a spot to hide and monitor what the perverted mod soul was doing with his body.

'Still, it would be very strange for Ishida-san to know more about them than Urahara. Mod Souls were a Shinigami invention, right? And I think Urahara was the head of some sort of research department.'

That hypothesis could be easily confirmed or disproven by using Rukia's Soul Glove, but that was too aggressive. He had to do it in a way that didn't alert Bambietta that he was trying to investigate.

For now, all he could do was keep monitoring them secretly if he didn't want to show up in spirit form and let Bambietta see two Ichigos.

Meanwhile…

'I can't believe this chick agreed to come with me! Ichigo, you dog, thanks for leaving your phone lying around, hehehe…' Kon thought to himself as he led Bambietta to check out the rides at the park.

"Where would you like to go first, Bambietta-chan?" Kon said with the most gentlemanly tone he could muster, holding one hand to her back and the other gesturing forwards. "Something simple and relaxing, or something more exciting to get the blood pumping?"

Bambietta looked around and found the tallest thing, then pointed towards it. "That one."

They watched momentarily as the group seated at the top just dropped vertically toward the ground and screamed.

Kon blanched. "A-are you sure? Shouldn't we warm up a bit first or something?"

"Nope! Don't tell me you're scared, Kurosaki-kun?" Bambietta said teasingly. "Isn't the guy supposed to be the tough one in a relationship?"

"O-of course I'm not scared. Let's go then!" Kon said resolutely.

'You can do this, Kon! I just need to survive this and look good, and maybe she'll let me do a lot more later…! Those heavenly valleys, I'm doing this for you!' Kon thought while imagining the things they would do later.

O O O

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Kon screamed as they started falling, his legs dangling in the air and unable to find purchase anywhere despite their incredible strength as an Underpod mod soul.

Once they got down safely, Kon tore off the straps and found solid ground to stand on again while panting.

'I…I survived!' Kon pumped a fist in accomplishment.

Bambietta patted him on the back with an evil smirk. "That was fun. Let's do it again!"

"Eh?! Again?!"

O O O

Hours later, Kon collapsed sitting down on a bench, his skin unusually pale, eyes wide. His date sat beside him enjoying an ice cream cone.

"Hah…" she sighed happily. "The simple joys of life. I'd almost forgotten how nice it was to just mess around. Would've been better if they had bigger and faster rides though, don't you agree, Kurosaki-kun?"

Ichigo slowly crept closer and hid in the bushes behind the bench.

"Ah…" Kon replied unintelligently before putting a hand to his mouth, resisting the impulse to vomit after those nauseating rides.

"But I guess I can't expect too much from a small town like this," said Bambietta, finishing her cone and tossing the wrapping to the nearby trash. "Thanks for taking me out, Kurosaki-kun. Maybe I should give you a reward, hmm?"

Kon perked up instantly, his queasiness forgotten.

"Oooh? What kind of reward?"

"Maybe…a kiss?" Bambietta said slyly.

"Oh! That sounds perfect, Bambietta-chan!"

"Close your eyes, then." Bambietta grabbed the sides of his head and moved closer.

Kon closed his eyes and puckered up, at which point Bambietta did too.

Ichigo stood up furiously, preparing to stop the sleazy mod soul, but then Bambietta shifted slightly and quickly gave Ichigo's body a light kiss on the cheek instead.

The disembodied soul shot back down to hide when both of them began to open their eyes.

Kon in Ichigo's body had a disappointed expression on his face when Bambietta let go.

"Thank you, whoever you are," said Bambietta.

"You…you know that I'm not Ichigo?" Kon asked with surprise.

"I never called you Ichigo, did I?"

"How could you tell?"

Ichigo was wondering the same thing.

"You smiled too much," she said simply.

"Oh. I was too eager, wasn't I? Did I come across as fake? Tch, I'll have to work on that some more," said Kon.

"No, it's because your smiles were genuine that I knew you weren't Ichigo. He wouldn't have been so happy to be with me and he never smiles anyways. Besides…," Bambietta said, holding up a hand. Then she snatched at something in the air, and materialized it. "Your spirit ribbon is grey, like an artificial soul."

Ichigo saw that, and realized that Bambietta couldn't be a mod soul if their spirit ribbons were grey, because hers was white like a human's.

"While Ichigo's is—"

She snatched out another ribbon, which was red.

"—red."

O O O

Crescent cut 101: Yes there's an interesting connection there with the Final Getsuga and I will probably do something with it.

Emrys Akayuki: I think the Sun Gates were mentioned in the manga, they use them to get around the real world with their shadow power. Many weren't active, though I'm not aware of any canon that says they were in stasis either.

Kronus18: It sometimes takes a while to update on FFN or the app.

thomascastillo9987: That's right.

Premium kawai: Yes I see a lot in various fandoms people bash on the idea of revealing power ups instead of going all out in the beginning, but realistically, going all out in the beginning is a big gamble, you either win fast or fail and get rekt if the opponent's defense survives and now they know what you can do but you don't know what they can do.

Death Lantern: The normal repair rule is that a state can be instantly repaired by releasing a higher "true" state, or slowly but naturally repaired if reverted to a lower state as long as the highest "true form" was not broken. Sealed asauchi is repaired by releasing Shikai. Shikai is repaired by releasing Bankai. Bankai cannot be repaired because there is no higher level. But a Shikai can be repaired by reverting to sealed state as long as Bankai isn't broken, it just takes a long time. They cannot be repaired while staying in the Shikai state, nor as effortlessly as Rukia's.

Toph the Trickster: Thanks, appreciate the feedback.

OdeClock: You're probably right. Bleach is a pretty unique story/setting.

And thanks to all other reviews too!