The next time Genesis saw Ichigo, he had Hollander on recording with his answers to what exactly he was injecting in him and Angeal, as well as his 'answers' to what was happening to him. Ichigo, after hearing the recording looked pissed.

"Refuse any further injections. Hollander either knows that the injections are wrong and doesn't care, or he's deliberately setting you up for something nasty and will likely use it against you for his own purposes," she said flatly.

Genesis became pissed.

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Right now, whatever is in your body is only being sustained by the injections. Are the changes made by the initial Soldier injections temporary or permanent?"

"As far as I know, they're permanent."

"Your best option, from a medical standpoint, is to go cold turkey and hope your body can ride it out," she said honestly. "Since we have no idea what exactly is in the injections beyond these J-cells and you've openly told me that you've been feeling worse to the point your body isn't healing the way it was originally, the best method is to give your body a chance to flush out what it can naturally and go from there."

Genesis made a face.

"Hollander won't like that. He's already pissed I made up an excuse to avoid the last set."

"Tough shit," said Ichigo flatly. "You have a right to what is put in your body and the worse they can legally do is fire you over it. And if that's the case then you could just as easily make a living hunting monsters like I have been. The only hitch is that until your body flushes everything out of your system and stabilizes, you're going to be vulnerable. And there's almost a guarantee that you're going to be experiencing withdrawal symptoms and mood swings."

Genesis when he was sick was a pain in the ass...he knew full well he would be an absolute asshole until this was over with.

Still, he knew this needed to be done.

When he went back, he had a serious talk with Angeal and Sephiroth. They knew how worried he was about potions not working as well as they should have and taking too long.

It all came to a head after a training exercise gone wrong. Genesis did his best to hide from Hollander, despite the fact his arm was hurting like hell. The hi-potion wasn't working at all, and his natural healing factor was acting far too slow for a First.

Genesis had enough. It was clear he needed to flush this crap out of his system sooner rather than later, and that the injections weren't working.

Angeal and Sephiroth agreed to cover for him, on the condition he did the same.

Ichigo, to his relief, agreed to help him through the withdrawal process as she was the only person he knew that was trained in medicine that wasn't already part of Shin-Ra and had no obligation to report anything to them.

If it was anyone else, Ichigo might have balked at the idea of having to help someone through something so intensive. However she was a realist... Genesis literally had no one besides Angeal or Sephiroth to trust with something so important, and with how far reaching Shin-Ra's power was, it was almost impossible for him to go anywhere else. Especially during a period which he would be highly vulnerable and open to dangerous levels of manipulation.

She stocked up on the medicines she knew would help, though not by much. She also made sure to get plenty of food and to find an area where he could ride out the worst of his symptoms in peace.

Finding someplace not under Shin-Ra control was the hardest part. She didn't want to do this in Genesis' home because that was on record and she didn't think he'd appreciate someone bursting in to find out what was really going on.

She took her duty of making sure he made it through this seriously, mostly because she wanted to be a doctor once she graduated school. What kind of doctor she wasn't sure yet, she just knew she wanted to go into the medical profession.

Genesis arrived, and she showed him the room he'd be staying in. it was a fairly nice enough place, but it was clear that it was only temporary.

There was plenty of food, water, and the room was quiet and dark. Genesis looked at her curious.

"Considering that you mentioned Soldier injections come with heightened senses, it's almost guaranteed that while you're going through the withdrawal process it's going to make you extremely sensitive to lights, sounds, smells and the like."

Genesis was a little taken aback at the fact Ichigo honestly cared enough to think of that ahead of time. She had him strip down to a pair of boxers, mostly because she knew for a fact he'd be sweating profusely, among other things. Plus considering mutation was a factor, there was no telling what would happen while he was allowing his body to work this crap out of him.

It was going to be a rough couple of weeks.

Some time later...

Genesis felt like utter shit, but at the same time his body didn't feel as heavy and the pervasive whispering had finally shut up. The first thing he wanted was a hot shower, followed by a real meal.

Ichigo already had the water heated up and a small stool in case his legs weren't feeling up to standing for long.

While he was in there, his nose picked up something that smelled absolutely heavenly to him. Considering Ichigo had been giving him mostly broth and easy to swallow foods, he was really craving something solid.

Genesis had to blink at the spread before him.

He ate like a starved man, and Ichigo had to caution him to go slower because it would let his stomach adjust to real food. She didn't say a thing about his manners though.

The fact it took him two hours to come to terms about the wing was fairly understandable.

Ichigo didn't look at him any differently, which was a relief.

"How long?"

"About fifteen days," she replied. "It was pretty nasty, but you got through it."

"And the wing?"

"At the height of your fever, I had to turn you on your side because you were throwing up pretty bad. I had to move pretty quick, because your back began to bulge and that showed up. It used to look far worse, because the feathers took about three days to grow in."

Genesis didn't look happy, but he also knew he owed her big time for this. So you could imagine the surprise and secret relief he felt when she pulled him and gave him a hug.

"You're not a monster, and there is nothing wrong with you. If anyone tries to claim otherwise then pin the blame where it belongs...on Hollander's stupidity and the fact the President keeps hiring shitty scientists that know jack about basic medicine and science."

He would deny profusely that he was crying or that he clung to a freaking teenager like a child. He just silently accepted the hug and knew he had to take an extra day to come to terms with things.

Having someone to talk to that wouldn't judge helped a lot, and Ichigo was very sensible for a seventeen year old girl.

When he returned, he felt infinitely better than he had in ages and with a much clearer mind than before.

"How are you feeling?" asked Sephiroth.

"Better, the fever got pretty bad but I got through it. I hate being sick," said Genesis honestly. He sounded far calmer than he had before he went on sick leave.

Sephiroth looked relieved to see Genesis was looking better. Genesis made a face at the paperwork on his desk, but got through it without complaint.

Angeal could tell a major difference as well.

"Hollander wants to see you," said Angeal.

"Screw him," said Genesis vehemently. "It's because of that bastard that I was sicker than a dog for two weeks!"

Unfortunately Hollander managed to corner him an hour later. He did not look happy at the way Genesis looked fully prepared to bring his rapier out on his ass.

Either way Hollander could 'demand' Genesis visit his lab all he wanted. Genesis refused to go near the bastard for an 'overdue injection' knowing what he did now. He'd sooner go to Hojo!

Angeal was now extremely curious about meeting this "Ichigo". He could tell right away that his friend was definitely interested in her.

So was Sephiroth, if only because he wanted to know her motives for helping Genesis. You didn't work for Shin-ra and not develop a healthy paranoia regarding people's intentions.

Sephiroth was a deeply suspicious person. As such when he finally ran into the mystery woman who helped Genesis, he felt it necessary to have a little...chat. Ichigo didn't bother with her main sword, which was a buster sword that was rather well maintained, and immediately drew a katana instead.

If Sephiroth expected her to be a swordswoman who specialized in overpowering their opponents, he was greatly caught off guard by the sheer speed she displayed after the switch. It was easy to see why the men had taken to calling her the Masked Demon if she was naturally strong enough to use a buster sword with no issue, only to become faster than even Sephiroth at full speed once she used a much lighter sword.

He found himself smiling with abandon, and could easily see why she had fascinated the lower ranks so much. It was rare to find a female capable of fighting on par with a Soldier that showed no fear of them in any way. There were no female Soldiers for reasons that Hojo refused to elaborate on... most simply chalked it up to the fact that the President had a bad habit of picking up any woman who looked reasonably attractive and that they would make better money working at the Honey Bee Inn than fighting monsters.

Which...would possibly explain why she wore the mask in the first place. Her looks once she removed the mask were exotic enough to get attention, her chest was decently sized for a girl her age and her frame was rather lithe, considering she used a large sword that most men had trouble with.

All in all she was definitely the President would have tried to act as his new 'secretary', age be damned. And if she refused, he would continue to pressure her until she submitted or the Turks made her 'disappear'.

So yeah, wearing a mask and acting as a solo monster hunter rather than go anywhere near Shin-Ra made absolute sense.

Still, he wanted to know why Ichigo had helped Genesis.

Ichigo raised a single orange eyebrow.

"You're kidding, right? The fact Hollander clearly doesn't know the first thing about how vaccines work and was giving Genesis and Angeal injections with dead cells would be enough to make any medical professional appalled."

He didn't know how she did it, but he found himself sitting down, answering similar questions Genesis had and for once getting clear answers to certain subjects he had wondered about but refused to ask Hojo or any of his lackeys.

He found her rather relaxing to answer some rather personal questions, because Ichigo maintained a calm, professional demeanor throughout the whole time.

"I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. It seems that unlike Genesis, you are not suffering the same side effects from the injections. It seems that whatever Hojo is putting in you likely has some sort of long-term, subtle side effects."

Sephiroth winced.

Ichigo didn't want to tell him this, but she felt she had to.

"To be honest, I may have a lead on what to look for. The problem is gaining access, or at least faking it," she said.

"What is it?"

"While I was visiting some mountains...mostly to deal with some dragon causing trouble, I found this town called Nibelhiem. After I talked to the locals I heard there was a mansion once occupied by Shin-ra scientists for several years until there was an incident. About how old are you exactly?"

Sephiroth told her.

"That matches up with the rough timeline I was given. I'll head back to Nibelhiem and see if I can find anything," said Ichigo. "I make no promises... we are literally grasping at straws here."

"Anything is better than nothing, and you at least has proven to be a reliable source of information."

Which was true. Despite being a relative unknown, Ichigo had given them straight answers that when they had the chance to look it up themselves, were proven to be fact. And when she was unsure of the answer, she would state as such directly and not beat around the bush.

It was nice to get a straight answer from someone at all, considering the sheer amount of backstabbing and nonsense he had to put up with.

Ichigo mentally prepared herself for what was almost guaranteed to be a long stay in a cold hell. However she was resigned to do this, as it was abundantly clear that the Soldiers didn't have anyone that was really on their side. It didn't help that the scientists injecting whatever was in those shots to them rarely had the bare basics of a medical degree.

She felt only empathy for their situation, and felt that if no one was going to stand up for them, then she would. If only because she remembered all too well how she had basically been thrown into the clusterfuck devised by Aizen long before she was even born.