§ x § x §
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
SECHSUNDDREIßIG
TIMELINE X + N + 1
Isshin had a long day at the clinic, hands full juggling household burns, flu season's last hurrah, and painstakingly plucking light bulb shards out of a woman's foot. He was glad to finally turn the sign to closed and join his girls in the house. As he approached the kitchen, he noticed a third, unfamiliar reiatsu with his daughters— power on par with Karin's, if not greater. All three signatures felt... tumultuous? Hmm. When he rounded the corner into the kitchen he found a girl he had never seen before peering over Yuzu's shoulder at the stove, paying serious attention to an apparent cooking lesson. Karin was lounging at the table by a stack of closed text books and completed homework. Unusual— the girls usually waited until after dinner to do that.
"Well, hello, girls!" Isshin called with a grin.
The three looked up at him. Yuzu said, "Hi, Daddy!" and Karin said, "Hey, Dad. 'Sup?"
Dad. Not Goat-Face. If that wasn't a sign something was wrong, he didn't know what was. He kept smiling. "Busy day at the clinic. Ah, I'm so glad to see your lovely faces at the end of a long day! Makes all the burns and stitches and snot worth it!" Karin rolled her eyes, but it seemed forced. Yuzu gave a strained giggle. The new girl looked up at him with a melancholy frown and something like regret. Worrisome. "I see you brought home a friend! Hello, I've never met you before," Isshin said cheerfully. "What's your name?" If he hadn't already been alert for signs of something wrong, he may have missed the brief flash of hurt that crossed her face.
The girl stepped away from the stove, bowed politely, rose, and brushed long dark hair over her shoulder. "I am Homura Akemi. It is a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Kurosaki," she said gravely.
"So formal!" Isshin laughed. "Don't worry about that. It's nice to meet you. Make yourself at home."
Homura's face stayed serious. "Thank you, sir," she said in a distantly polite tone.
"Daddy, Homura's staying for dinner," Yuzu declared. Zero room for argument.
"Oh?" Isshin decided to try to argue anyway. See if he could tease out what was going on. He looked at the solemn girl. "Won't your parents miss you?"
"My parents are dead," Homura said in the tone most people used for disinterested talk about the weather.
Awkward. "Ah, I'm sorry." The girl shrugged slightly. "You must live with someone who will miss you for dinner, though?"
"No." Homura tilted her head and watched him keenly. "My uncle is out of the country on business most of the time. I live by myself and usually eat takeout."
Isshin frowned hard. "That's no way for a girl to live. Someone should be taking care of you. You're too young to be on your own."
Satisfaction briefly crossed Homura's face before she shrugged again and looked away dispassionately. Strange. Karin squinted at him with her I Am Judging You face. Yuzu glared with the fierce heat of twin lasers. They clearly wanted him to drop that subject and shut up. Ouch.
Isshin sighed. "I'm sorry. Of course you're welcome for dinner."
Homura murmured something conciliatory and went back to observing Yuzu's skills. Yuzu sniffed that dinner would be ready in ten minutes. Isshin mumbled something and shuffled away to go change out of his work clothes. He nearly felt dismissed from his own home.
Dinner was stilted. The girls tried to make conversation about school subjects, but were obviously on edge. Isshin noticed the small looks directed at him in quick flashes— wariness, dread, and what might have been shame from his daughters; inexplicable sadness and caution from Homura. The longer the meal dragged on, the more raw Isshin's nerves got. When all three girls furtively hurried to busy themselves doing dishes, Isshin just sat and openly stared at them while trying to figure out what was bothering them. His presence? Schoolgirl drama? Something else?
Karin noticed his stare and defensively snapped, "What are you looking at, Dad?" before going back to drying plates with a rough turn.
Dad again instead of Goat-Face. He didn't like it. "Is something wrong, girls?"
Their stillness was as absolute as it was sudden. Three faces turned to him and looked like deer in headlights.
Isshin scowled his concern. "Don't bother trying to deny it. Something has you all nervous. Are any of you in trouble?"
The girls traded cautious glances. Yuzu looked to her father and spoke for them. "We need to talk to you, Daddy." She and her sister looked grim with shades of the guilt they had shown when they had broken something when they were small. Homura's face had gone unreadable and her reiatsu felt forcibly calm.
What had his girls gotten into? What did this other girl have to do with them?
Isshin rubbed his eyes and sighed. He waved at the table. "Sit down, girls. Let's hear it out."
They quietly gathered at the table. He couldn't help but notice that all three clustered together on the side of the table opposite him instead of surrounding it like during their meal. Was it intentional or subconscious? Setting themselves in opposition to him? Using the table as defense? They sat and looked at him uncertainly. Everything about their behavior had his alarm bells clanging.
After a minute of staring, Yuzu took a deep breath and began, "We didn't mean for it to get... bad. We thought we were doing something good, but we got tricked."
Well, that was both vague and parentally terrifying. "Tricked into what, sweetheart?"
"First, we know you're a shinigami, Dad," said Karin.
Isshin's mind screeched to a halt. "What?"
"So we know you can help with spirit stuff."
"What?"
Karin rolled her eyes. "We've known for awhile. Get over it."
"Bwuh— How long?" He thought he had been so thorough about hiding that.
"Since the end of the war, Daddy," Yuzu answered.
"You know about the war?" he asked, surprised.
"Ichi-nii's an open book, Goat-Face," Karin drawled.
Isshin pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He should have known.
"Anyway, we kinda got ourselves into a big spiritual mess. Can you ask Ichi-nii to bring his friends home with him?"
Disturbing. "What kind of mess?"
"A really big mess," Yuzu answered guiltily.
"Define really big."
His girls shifted uneasily and looked at each other. Neither wanted to really broach it.
Homura clinically explained, "We have all been tricked into selling our souls for access to imperfect shinigami powers to protect the people we care about." Isshin turned to her in horror. The twins looked down at the table, not wanting to see the face he made. Homura boldly stared straight into his eyes. "The being who tricked us approached us when we were at our most vulnerable. The contract was not presented to us honestly. The terms of the contract were not fully explained. Without intervention, we will eventually... I think the term is Hollowfy. Then the being who tricked us will eat our souls."
Pasty white, Isshin thought he would throw up. His girls—
"I approached Karin and Yuzu because I gained access to key information about the being's plans and the... abilities of your son and his friends, as well as one Kisuke Urahara and the shinigami of Soul Society," Homura continued in a way that reminded Isshin of his former Third Seat giving an after action report. "I have reason to believe it would be wisest to explain the basics to you, your son, and his friends before approaching Mr. Urahara and the shinigami in general."
Isshin furrowed his brow. "Why?"
Homura glanced away uncomfortably then looked him in the eye again. "We have information that makes us think the shinigami government has been... harsh with girls like us in the past. And that Mr. Urahara can get... aggressively curious. Especially in light of certain details." She pursed her lips and searched his face. "I... I think you and your son will react better. Just in case the others do not react well. You both are strong and I have heard your son is very influential."
Isshin stared at her, mind whirling. She had openly outlined a desire to use one set of people as a physical and social shield against another. A politically sound strategy. Her neat, logical plan bespoke someone older than she looked. Tōshirō had been the same way, but he actually had been a much older, slow-aging spirit so it made sense. Who was Homura Akemi, really? And how did she know about... well, everything?
He sighed deeply and palmed his face. The girls silently let him think. After a couple minutes of racing thoughts, Isshin straightened and tiredly searched their faces— all three of them. "Why... why would you agree to such a thing?"
Karin bristled. "Ichi-nii was in danger!"
"He almost died, Daddy!" Yuzu cried.
"What?!"
"We were the only ones who could find the things attacking him! Even Urahara couldn't sense one when he was right on top of it!"
"We had to protect Onii-chan like he protected us!" Yuzu finished tearfully.
Sometimes Isshin cursed the selfless protective streak of the combined Shiba and Kurosaki bloodlines. "What are you talking about? Your brother can take care of himself."
"Now, yeah. But not last year," Karin said bitterly. "We barely managed to save him without the powers. And that was just getting him away from the danger. The Witch could have hunted him down again if we didn't contract and take care of it."
"You're talking about witches now?" Isshin asked, lost. "Black cats and broomsticks...?"
"A technical term for beings similar to Hollows," Homura interrupted. Isshin looked to her. She was disturbingly calm. "The being that tricked us is called the Incubator. When we contract, our access to our powers makes us magical girls."
"What." Could this get any more absurd?
"When magical girls deteriorate and... Hollowfy..., they become Witches. Witches exist in a pocket dimension and lure victims with low spiritual power into either entering their labyrinth whole or committing suicide, then devour their souls. As far as I know, only magical girls can detect Witches."
Isshin stared hard, gears whirling in his head. His eyes shifted to his daughters. "Lures victims with low spiritual power...," he murmured.
"We contracted a year ago when a Witch snared Onii-chan and tried to make him jump off the cell phone tower by the high school," Yuzu said quietly.
"A year ago," Isshin said blankly.
"The time we told Urahara there had been a Hollow and Ichi-nii tried to help fight it, but he forgot because of a concussion and we all passed it off as him being stupid and getting hypoglycemia," Karin explained. She looked down. "We lied. We had to fight Ichi-nii and knock him out to stop him from climbing and..." Her lip quivered. "We couldn't leave that Witch on the loose."
Isshin's face dipped down, eyes unfocused as he stretched his memory and went over what he remembered of the alleged Hollow attack. "A year ago," he echoed dully. "You... you sold your souls a year ago." And he hadn't noticed. He'd just thought their reiatsu had matured. What kind of father was he if he didn't know the difference? On top of that, if they were to believed, he had nearly lost his son, too. Feeling much older, he turned back to Homura. "Why did you... contract?"
Face mulishly cool, Homura said, "To save my best friend's life." Matter of fact. Zero regret. A shiver of muted rage in her reiatsu. Hopefully for whatever had endangered her friend or tricked her instead of at him for asking. She sat straighter and lifted her chin imperiously. "I think it would be most efficient if we refrained from further detailed explanation until your son and his friends arrive." End of subject.
Isshin looked at his daughters. They had both adopted stubborn faces to match Homura's, though theirs were less sure— following her lead. Yuzu chewed her lip and dipped her chin. "Are... are you mad at us, Daddy?"
He was an absolute hurricane of jumbled emotions, but— "No, baby." Just tired, protective, and angry at the world— and himself. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, then looked up and held out his arms. "Come here, girls." The sisters rose and hurried to him. The family clung to one another anxiously. "We'll figure this out," Isshin murmured as Yuzu's shoulders hitched with suppressed sobs. Isshin laid his cheek on Yuzu's head and made comforting hushing sounds. His eyes wandered to Homura, who was watching them expressionlessly.
The girl was functionally alone in the world. She was dealing with this mess alone. Isshin's heart went out to her. He lifted one arm and held it out in invitation, the father in him wanting to help her. Homura's eyes darted from his hand to his face, then looked aside resolutely. She sat still with her hands folded in her lap and looked at the poster of Isshin's late wife, face unreadable.
§ x § x §
"Ishida! For the last time, stop moving my stuff!"
"Stop leaving it in stupid places, then, Kurosaki," the Quincy retorted waspishly.
Chad sighed as he tuned his guitar in the living room. Orihime blithely kept arranging books on shelves.
"They're not stupid places! They make perfect sense!"
"To an idiot, maybe."
"What?"
Chad strummed a few notes. Still off. Next time he traveled so far, he'd carry the instrument himself. Baggage handlers had no respect for fragile packages.
An ear-grating ringtone shrilled through the condo. "Dammit, what does the old man want now?" Ichigo grumbled as he jogged into the living room and scooped the phone up off the coffee table. "What?"
His father didn't greet him obnoxiously as usual. "Ichigo," he said solemnly.
Ichigo's face automatically fell. "What's wrong? What happened?" His worried tone caused his three friends to stop what they were doing and look at him sharply.
Isshin sighed. "The danger isn't immediate—"
"Danger?!" Ichigo twitched as Uryū darted up and made hand gestures that implied if Ichigo didn't switch to speaker phone, he'd take the phone and do it himself. Ichigo complied to get the Quincy out of his face.
"Yes," Isshin said tiredly. "Do you have classes tomorrow?"
"Not if there's trouble," Ichigo replied immediately. "What's going on, Dad?" His father was silent for a long minute, which instantly told all four teens it was something grave. Isshin generally wasn't one to shut up.
"It's your sisters—"
"What?! Are they hurt?"
"No, no, they— well— they're okay for now, but— it's difficult to explain—"
"Did something attack them?!"
"No— well, depending how you look at it—"
"What happened?!"
"It's complicated, plus I don't have all the information myself yet. They don't want to explain everything in full until you get here. That worries me— what they told me is terrible enough."
"Cut the vague crap, old man! What did they tell you?!"
A rustling came from the phone, Isshin apparently scrubbing his face tiredly. "Karin and Yuzu were tricked into selling their souls."
"WHAT?!" Ichigo roared. The phone creaked in his hand. His friends reared back, wide-eyed. "WHO?! WHO TRICKED THEM?!"
"Ichigo—"
"I'LL FUCKING KILL THE BASTARD!"
"Ichigo!" Isshin snapped.
"What?!"
"Calm down. I need you to focus. You won't accomplish anything if you can't stay calm long enough to figure out who we're going to be destroying." There was murder in his quiet growl.
Ichigo gestured frustration with the phone, put it on the table, and collapsed onto the couch with his head in his hands. "How did this happen?" he asked brokenly. "How could we— how could we not—? They're supposed to be safe now."
"I know, son," Isshin sighed. "What's done is done. We need to move forward."
Ichigo took a shaky breath as Chad lay a supportive hand on his shoulder. "Right. Right." After a silent minute to gather himself, he looked up at the phone. "What now?"
"Now we get the girls to tell us their story," Isshin answered grimly. "There is an odd thing. They brought home a girl their age I've never seen or heard of before who also got tricked. She said she approached the girls because she heard about you and your friends, your abilities and influence. She wants us on her side in case Kisuke gets carried away with his curiosity or the Thirteen Divisions react poorly."
"My influence?" Ichigo asked, confused. "What influence?"
Uryū sighed deeply. "Kurosaki's ignorance aside—"
"What?"
"—How would a random girl your daughters' age know about social politics in Seireitei?"
"That's what I want to know," Isshin answered. "Have any of you heard of her? Her name is Homura Akemi."
Ichigo's friends made thoughtful sounds. Ichigo stared flatly at the phone. "You know me and names, old man."
"Girl with long dark hair and violet eyes. Very well-controlled reiatsu that feels like... actually, it's difficult to describe. Makes me think of night, though. And kind of... spinny? The way she speaks makes her sound older than she looks. Very serious."
"Nope," Ichigo answered immediately. He looked at his friends. "You guys?" They murmured negatives.
Isshin sighed. "I had hoped there was a simple explanation. We'll have to tease it out of her, I guess."
"If there's someone besides Karin and Yuzu who got tricked, does that mean there are more out there?" Orihime asked worriedly.
"I don't know. There's a lot I don't know. Just... come home tomorrow so we can figure this out."
Ichigo stood, determined. "We'll come right now."
"There aren't any trains until tomorrow," Chad murmured.
Ichigo's face fell, then he squinted suspiciously at the phone. "You called this late on purpose."
"Yep," his father replied. "I want the girls to sleep so they can't try to get out of questions by saying they're sleepy. They won't sleep if you and your reiatsu are here."
"What?"
"Kurosaki, your reiatsu is so angry the neighbors are probably waking up feeling like something's going to jump out at them in the dark," Uryū explained drily. "There's no way your sisters will sleep if they sense that." He pushed his glasses up on his nose. "It wouldn't be a problem if you had even a modicum of control."
Chad frowned disapprovingly at Uryū as Ichigo sputtered.
"So I'll see you tomorrow?" Isshin asked.
Ichigo growled. "Yeah, we'll take the first train in the morning." After he ended the call, Ichigo just sat with his head in his hands.
Orihime carefully sat next to him and wrung her hands. "We'll all help, Ichigo. We'll help them."
Ichigo looked up at his friends, whose faces were grim but earnest. "Yeah," he said. He scrubbed his face and drew a deep breath. "Yeah."
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
This chapter was replaced with an edited version on November 1, 2019. Reviews with timestamps before that date refer to a slightly different version of the chapter.