Chapter 26

"Ah, and here I thought I'd gotten away with sneaking into your sanctuary!" Urahara chirped, smiling at Kurotsuchi. He snorted in reply to the ex-taicho.

"I have made many improvements since you left this dreary place," Kurotsuchi snapped, insulted, "As if a mere intruder such as yourself would ever go unnoticed here. Unlike you, I value knowing with whom I am about to be insulted. Now, for what reason have you invaded my sanctum?"

"What makes you think I have a reason?" Urahara chirped again, smiling as gayly as ever.

"Because," Kurotsuchi growled, annoyed that he needed to spell it out for the other. As simplistic as the other man acted at times, Kurotsuchi was well aware of the intellect of his rival. This act was merely a ploy in order to get him to admit something he did not wish to share with the other, "You would not infiltrate into the heart of my division without a reason." The smile on Urahara suddenly turned predatory.

"I suppose you are correct. However… This is not simply a matter of an act of charity… It is an opportunity to study the composition of a dying soul…" Kurotsuchi felt his eyebrow twitch.

"It is the case of the daiko in which you wish my assistance then." Mayuri stated, unhappy.

"Of course," Urahara replied, still putting on his happy façade, "Think of the wealth of knowledge that you can acquire through this… The chance to study a decomposing soul… A broken link between soul and zanpakuto[A/N1] … One that the Soutaicho will approve of… In fact, he may even reward you for your work, allow you more laboratory space… More leeway when suggesting Seretei funded experimentation or perhaps allowing first pick of any potential candidates from this crop of graduates from Shino Academy…"

As much as Kurotsuchi hated to admit it, the offer was certainly tempting. More public funding in place of the private fortunes he poured into his work… And the opportunity for the Soutaicho to lift the stern hand he kept over the twelfth division. Not that those limitations had ever stopped him from exploring a concept he was truly curious about, but lifted sanctions would lessen the headache it would take in order for him to find competent assistants…

While Kurotsuchi was thinking over the proposition, Urahara allowed the happy façade to drop from his face. He would not allow his former student to die; he couldn't. She had given up too much, all with his assistance, for him to let it end like this. He would do everything he could to prevent that. However, his lab in the living world was not enough to find a solution to a problem of this magnitude. He required more intensive equipment and as much as it might sting his pride, a partner who was at least as well informed in these matters as he was.

After some time, Kurotsuchi finally agreed to assist him and the two set to work.


Unohana continued to work as best she could on the otherwise dying girl. Officers came and went, depleting their reatisu until they could no longer help. Lesser souls would have collapsed long ago, but Ichigo's soul persisted despite the immense pain that she was in. Souls other than Unohana Retsu also would have collapsed, unable to continue their work, but she worked from a much vaster reserve of dedication and ability. She was not the captain of squad four for nothing.

After some amount of time, she sensed a presence behind her, watching her work.

"Kurotsuchi Mayuri," she said shortly, not halting the work in front of her, "I trust you are not interrupting this operation for no cause. Please do not distract my attention unnecessarily. As I'm sure even you can see, this is a delicate situation."

"I have come with a solution for you," he spat back, miffed at her disrespect for his intellect, but unwilling to cross her.

"We have a solution," Urahara cut in smoothly, trying to dissolve the argument before it distracted both great minds from their work.

"Do what you must," Unohana replied, still focusing on her task at hand. A thud to her left alerted her to the fact that her current source of supplied reatisu was drained to the point where the poor officer could no longer continue. "Hanatarou!" Unohana barked. The seventh seat was there moments later and the poor soul was removed in order to recuperate.

The work continued for several more hours before it was finally finished. All three captain class shinigami staggered out, exhausted when the process was finally finished. However, they had finally reversed the process of the disintegration of the daiko's soul. Unohana had been working over Ichigo for a total of three days and still the girl was not fully healed.

However, it was better to give the body time to heal as the taicho was certain the mind would require time to heal as well. After all, torture was never an easy experience. If they didn't give her mind time to catch up to her body… Well, Kurosaki Ichigo had proven herself to be an adversary to be worthy of, whether she was in her right mind or not.

Unohana guided her comrades to cots for them to spend the night and set about securing a room for the daiko, warding it with kido so that only members of the fourth squad with her express permission could enter. Stumbling, she leant into the arms of her fukutaicho who guided her to her own quarters. The procedure had been a success, so now it was time for her to rest. Isane could be trusted to look over the daiko in the meanwhile. Unohana finally laid down on her bed and closed her eyes, allowing her exhaustion to catch up with her.


Soft hands turned her head, ever so slowly shifting it this way and that. She wanted to protest, but everything felt so weak. The hands stilled and slowly the sound of quiet snips met her ears. It sounded like…

The hot tongs clashed together, the quiet clangs coming closer and closer to her arms…

It sounded like scissors. She had to be very firm and believe that. It sounded like scissors. Increment by increment, she forced her eyes open. At first, everything was blurry and the only thing that stood out to her was a mop of grey, leaning over her.

"Kurosaki-san?" the grey mop asked, surprise and worry present in the tone of voice. Slowly, Ichigo's eyelids drooped again and she didn't have the strength to open them again.

She drifted, sometimes feeling as if she were awake, but just lacking the conviction to open her eyes. Other times, she was sure that Aizen had merely taken all of the lights out of the cell and that Grimmjow's fingers were inches away from her skin. However, that didn't seem quite right. When she was almost certain she was awake, there was a comforting feeling in the air around her. Something that seemed very familiar and very foreign at the same time. She could even swear that there were murmuring voices around her, ones that she should know.

On one particular instance after she wasn't sure how long, she recognized the feeling around her. Oyaji was sitting next to her. She didn't know how she didn't realize that before and suddenly she had the motivation she needed to try and pry back the weight of her eyelids.

It was dark when she finally managed to open them, but it wasn't the pitch darkness of a prison cell with no light. Instead, it was merely someplace where it was nighttime. A dark head rested by her arm and with a start she realized there were hands clamped over hers that she couldn't feel. Panic started to rise, but then she forced it back.

Panic brought a lack of control. She couldn't afford that. She couldn't let Aizen- Suddenly the whole event came crashing back and the pain suddenly flared in her wrists and her back and her soul and everything was fire around her-

And before she even realized that she was, her scream died in her throat as her oyaji woke up and saw her.

"Ichigo!" Everything was frozen for a beat. Two. Three. Then the world exploded into motion as he swept her up in his arms and held her so tightly. "Ichigo!" he sobbed, "Ichigo, Ichigo!" It seemed to be all he could say as he buried his face into her chest and clung to her so tightly she felt like she would break in half.

"H-hey…" she managed, "Why the long… face?" It was a poor time to joke. Panic was still thundering in her veins and she could feel her power roiling unevenly around her and she couldn't do anything to settle herself, but she didn't do tears. Tears weren't an option.

"Ichigo…" he sobbed again, ever so slowly loosening his hold on her. "I thought… You were…" It took some time, but he finally seemed to remember himself and let her go. "I need to… Hold on!" He was out of his chair a moment later and stuck his head into the hallway, shouting for help.

Ichigo let her eyes wonder the room and with a jolt she realized she was in the fourth division. Soul Society. She hadn't been here since… Images of the Saiga jumped through her head and she shook it, trying to clear the start to the disaster out of her head.

"Oyaji…" she said instead, letting her thoughts spiral around one question, "How long has it been?" He stilled in his efforts to get someone's attention as footsteps began to pound down the hallway outside of her room.

"Too long," he answered, "Far too long."

"Dad…" she pleaded, needing to know. He bowed his head, eyes shadowed over and haunted by all the things he should have done, could have done, but didn't do.

"Almost a year…" he admitted finally.


[A/N1]As far as Urahara knows. All he knows about is the saiga no Getsuga tensho, not that Ichigo was able to retain the bond at the cost of being able to contain reatisu or reirkyou and damaging the coils at the center of her soul.


AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS

Um... I'm alive? I'm sorry for the delay and the time off, I've been dealing with real life and the struggle of classes while working full time and getting diagnosed with ADD on top of everything else. So I didn't keep to the every other week update schedule. I'm not going to promise I will. I don't know when I'm going to post again as I don't know when I'm going to feel well enough to.

However, I would like to give a sincere thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed this story in my absence. I might not have answered you, but I promise you all that I saw every single email from and that it made a huge difference to me. It might be only online and it might only be an interest in where this story goes, but a few people cared enough to give me feedback and let me know someone was out there. So thank you all.

On a less sappy note, this chapter is about half again as long as a form of apology for taking so long to get to this point. Thank you for still reading, please remember to review!