Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/3262271.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con,
      Underage
  Category:
      F/M, M/M, Multi, F/F
  Fandom:
      Bleach
  Relationship:
      Aizen_Sousuke/Kurosaki_Ichigo, Ishida_Uryuu/Sado_"Chad"_Yasutora, Abarai
      Renji/Kuchiki_Byakuya, Kuchiki_Byakuya/Kuchiki_Hisana, Aizen_Sosuke/
      Ichimaru_Gin, Aizen_Sousuke/Kuchiki_Byakuya, Mabashi/Kurosaki_Ichigo,
      Choe_Gu-Sung/Kurosaki_Ichigo, Shiba_Kaien/Shiba_Miyako, Aizen_Sousuke/
      Urahara_Kisuke, Shihouin_Yoruichi/Urahara_Kisuke, Ichimaru_Gin/Kira_Izuru
  Character:
      Kurosaki_Ichigo, Aizen_Sousuke, Kuchiki_Byakuya, Abarai_Renji, Kuchiki
      Rukia, Kurosaki_Isshin, Kurosaki_Karin, Kurosaki_Yuzu, Urahara_Kisuke,
      Mabashi_(Bleach), Souma_Yoshino, Yoshi, Ishida_Uryuu, Ukitake_Juushirou,
      Choe_Gu-Sung, Ichimaru_Gin
  Additional Tags:
      Child_Abuse, Alcohol_Abuse/Alcoholism, Drug_Use, Non-Consensual_Drug_Use,
      Physical_Abuse, Childhood_Sexual_Abuse, Sexual_Abuse, Emotional/
      Psychological_Abuse, Protector_Ichigo, Ichigo-centric, Alternate_Universe
      -_Modern_Setting, Rape, Rape_Recovery, Survivor_Guilt, Uke_Ichigo, Seme
      Aizen, Abused_Ichigo, Drug_Dealing, Anal_Sex, Oral_Sex, Forced_Orgasm,
      Forced_Prostitution, Past_Underage_Sex, Past_Rape/Non-con, Past_Violence,
      Anal_Fisting, One_Night_Stands, Violence, Bounty_Hunters, fake_suicide
  Collections:
      bleach_fandom
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-01-31 Completed: 2017-06-18 Chapters: 20/20 Words: 97918
****** Whispered Chaos ******
by phoenixreal
Summary
     Alternative Universe- University
     Sousuke Aizen left behind a private counseling practice in Kyoto to
     teach at Karakura University, where he had graduated a couple years
     before. He was looking forward to quiet, and less stressful situation
     so he could deal with his own personal problems he was going through.
     Then, he comes face to face with someone that strikes the deepest
     chord inside his soul. He wants to help, but Ichigo Utagawa is not
     interested in anyone's help. Sousuke finds his way into a story of
     intrigue, drugs, violence, and blackmail, and somehow, along the way,
     the person he just wants to help survive, works his way into his very
     heart.
Notes
     Available on Smashwords:
     https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/733945
See the end of the work for more notes
***** Chaos in the Fall *****
===============================================================================
                                        
Maple leaves were falling in a raining cascade all around the campus as he
approached on his first day of work. He paused and stared at them. Such beauty
in the seeming unstructured nature of it all, he wondered. He always found the
beautiful trees to be one of the best things of Karakura University when he’d
attended. The buildings were relatively modern, mostly brick, but there were
some aspects that seemed old. The school itself had been built in the
seventies, so it wasn’t terribly old, and had only recently had the celebration
of fifty years. He smiled softly, and brushed the slightly curling brown hair
from his face as he entered his building. He’d been away a few years, and now
he was coming back home it seemed.
Sōsuke Aizen was a new assistant teacher this year, teaching Introduction and
Abnormal Psychology classes with his mentor and friend. He’d left his position
as a junior counselor in a large counseling group in Kyoto a few months
earlier. Sōsuke had graduated his master’s program at twenty-three, having
attended an intense program that combined six years of school into five.
Sōsuke’s specialty was in counseling psychology. He’d ended up taking the
additional extra seminars to become certified in both trauma counseling and
sexuality over the time he had been with the counseling practice. He had left
the practice due to issues with his own mental health. Through his various
connections, he’d picked up an assistant teaching internship with his mentor
and counselor Jūshirō Ukitake. Jūshirō has suggesting that one of the ways
working through his anxiety and depression was to try his hand at teaching
while he worked on his own doctorate degree with him.
He settled into the large desk and waited for the first class to arrive. Each
of the rooms was equipped with about twenty-five small desks with chairs and
one large teacher’s area in the front of the room. They still had old style
green blackboards underneath the projector white screens that could be pulled
down over them. Some of the newer rooms had white boards or smart boards, but
for the associates and junior teachers, they often used the oldest rooms in the
school.
It was the intro class so it would be a the larger of his two intro courses.
His Monday/Wednesday/Friday abnormal psychology had eleven in it. Jūshirō
taught the regular sized classes, but had decided rather than co teaching, he
wanted Sōsuke to fully run two smaller classes. The students all began to file
in and chatted idly. He really didn’t pay much attention what they talked
about. He knew that being new to the school he would be a topic of
conversation. He was worried, however, of course. He feared that there were
things that someone would bring up from his past that he would have to explain.
Considering why he had left Kyoto and come back to Karakura, he wasn’t sure how
he would handle it. It had been several months, and he had been working with
his mentor and counselor at that time. Still, the thought that he was going to
have to explain things bothered him a bit.
“Good morning! My name is Professor Sōsuke Aizen, your teacher this year for
the introduction to psychology. I’d like to welcome you to a fun and
interesting semester,” he said, pushing his black wire framed glasses up his
nose as he leaned back against the desk. “Now, since I’m new to this school,
and many of you are as well, we’ll have a bit of introduction. I did, however,
graduate here, so I do know a lot about this school and the city in general.
So, we’ll start here at the front row, and give your name, major, why you’re in
this class, and one fact about yourself.”
Sōsuke pointed to the first student. “Um, Rukia Kuchiki, Language major, um,
it’s a requirement to graduate, and…um…I’m not interested in business at all.”
 Sōsuke’s face nearly showed the sudden rush of emotion at the name. He
wondered if Jūshirō realized who Rukia’s brother was. He smiled and pointed to
the next student behind her, a red headed young man with facial tattoos and
some running down his arms.
“Yo, Renji Abarai, I’m a business major, and I used to date this midget,” he
said, kicking the back of Rukia’s chair. She looked back and glared at him. He
laughed at her and winked.
Sōsuke smiled, going to the next person behind the loud redhead. This student
had very long blonde hair pulled back away from their face. “Shinji Hirako, um,
I’m a Sociology major, senior, and I’m in here because I kept putting off the
class and I want to graduate in December.”
Sōsuke nodded looking to the student sitting next to him, a shorter girl with
blonde pigtails. “Hiyori Sarugaki,” she said, glancing at Shinji. “I’m
undeclared now, and I will punch anyone that says something about my height.”
Shinji rolled his eyes.
“Okay, next?” Sōsuke said, moving to the next student in front of Hiyori. “My
name is Cirucci Sanderwicci, I’m a theater major, and I’ve been cast in a local
production of Midsummer Night’s Dream as the fairy queen.”
“That’s wonderful,” Sōsuke said, smiling. “I heard that the school was putting
on Shakespeare this year. “Next?” he said point to the next student, a girl
with dark hair in long pigtails.
“Name’s Loly Aivirrne, I’m an art major, graphic design, and I hate cheese,”
she said with a smirk. There was a collective giggle about her fact. Sōsuke
smirked and moved to the girl in front of her with short blond hair.
She smiled and nodded and spoke very softly. “Um, I’m Menoly Mallia, and uh,
I’m in the creative writing program, and I want to be a teacher.” Sōsuke nodded
and indicated the boy with black hair and glasses sitting next to her.
“Oh, um, Uryū Ishida, Fashion Design major, requirement to graduate of course,
and I have been sewing since I was six years old,” he said with a smirk.
“The fashion design program is new to me, they didn’t have it when I graduated,
how have they been doing?” Sōsuke asked him thoughtfully.
Uryū nodded. “So far I am enjoying it.”
“Good, good, next?” he said, pointing to a girl sitting behind him with short
dark hair and bold eye makeup. “Emilou Apacci, I’m a business major, so I have
to put up with that red headed brat over there in most my classes, and I’m a
committed lesbian in a very long-term relationship, so I will punch anyone that
hits on me.”
Sōsuke smiled. This was perhaps one of his favorite things when teaching. He’d
taught a couple classes at a small college in Kyoto, and getting to see some of
the students and their personalities during introductions had always been the
thing he liked best. He pointed to the student behind Emilou and nodded. He was
a shorter young man with platinum blond hair that might have been dyed silver.
“I’m Toshiro Hitsugaya, I’m a senior international studies major, and I live
with my grandmother and take care of her cats,” he said, not really looking up
as he spoke. Sōsuke nodded, seeing that the last boy in this row was sitting
with his head down. “Ah, next, you there, in the hoodie?”
A pair of brown eyes looked up from the inside of a tattered gray hood. Sōsuke
had noticed him when he came in, head bowed and avoiding contact of any sort
with his fellow students. At first, Sōsuke had thought he might simply be shy
or introverted. Sōsuke’s brows knitted as he waited longer than the others for
Ichigo. The boy swallowed nervously.
“I-Ichigo Utagawa,” he said, almost too low to be heard. “I’m a psychology
major, so I have to take the class, and um…” he stopped, thinking about what
kind of fact he could share. “I have a big family,” he muttered, putting his
head back down. Sōsuke moved on, marking the behavior in his mind.
“Yes, next?” he said to the student in the end of the next row, a young bald
man. “Yeah, Ikkaku Madarame, I’m a criminal justice major, and I’m planning on
being a police officer.” Sōsuke smiled thoughtfully. Such a lot of variety in
this class. There was only one more in this row, close to the middle, a young
man with long black hair and a baseball cap. He also appeared to have red
tattoos, quite an unusual choice, Sōsuke thought.
“Abirama Redder, I’m undecided on what I wanna do yet, and I…uh…I’m helping my
dad run his mechanic business,” he said, smiling wanly.
“Yo, dude, you should totally come over to the business side,” Renji piped up
from across the room. “We are fu…fun!” he said, glancing at Sōsuke.
Emilou glared at him. “You would say that, Abarai. You are a pain in every
single class we’re in.”
Renji stuck his tongue out at her, which Sōsuke saw had a tongue piercing. He
arched a brow because the type of piercing it was, a large ball in the center.
“Now, now, let’s not argue,” Sōsuke said. Next?” he asked, pointing over to a
shorter boy with blond hair and rather vacant expression.
“Name’s Di Roy Rinker, everyone calls me Di, and I’m a football player, so I’m
here on sports scholarship, and ah, sorry Prof, but don’t plan on doing work
except to pass.” Sōsuke nodded. “Well, thank you for being honest, Di. Next?”
he said, pointing to a shorter boy with dark hair.
“I’m Ggio Vega, and I’m a chemistry major, and I want to be a forensic
analyst,” he said with a nod.
Sōsuke nodded, gesturing to the next one up in the row, a young man with short
blonde hair and an eyepatch. “Tesra Lindocruz,” he said softly. “Ah, I am in
the program for medical sciences, and I don’t like public speaking.”
Finally, Sōsuke pointed to the last student in the middle of that row, a young
man with facial tattoos, one of which was a 69 on his cheek. “Shūhei Hisagi,
I’m a music major, and I have my own band.”
Sōsuke smiled and nodded. “Alright, thank you so much. As far as myself, I
introduced myself, and I’ll say that I completed the accelerated bachelors to
masters counseling program here a few years ago, and my fact is that I used to
be in private practice until I came back. My specialty was dealing with post-
traumatic stress disorder. I’m here working on my doctoral dissertation with my
mentor, Dr. Ukitake.”
He glanced around, seeing most his students looking at him. Only Ichigo seemed
to avoid looking up at all. He was staring at the notebook he was scribbling
notes into from the text. Sōsuke cleared his throat, went through everything to
do with the class for the semester, including the syllabus, and major tops they
would cover. He had the students fill out note cards with their names, phone
numbers, email and addresses so he would have the information at hand.
“Now, students, we’ll pair up and continue with our first day activities for
the last fifteen minutes of class,” he said, smiling and pairing the students
by row. He was left with one extra, so he had one group of three. He grouped up
everyone and paired Uryū and Ichigo together.
“Now, get together and figure out three new things about your partner or
partners. And no groaning, this is a psychology class, so there will be a lot
of interactions between you all.”
Everyone paired off and he went back to planning the rest of the week’s lesson
plans.
Uryū looked up at his professor and nodded at getting put into a group with
this boy he hadn’t met before named Ichigo. He moved and sat down by his
partner and blinked thoughtfully as he nodded at him as they sat together. Uryū
smiled. “So, um, Ichigo, right?”
“Yeah, um, let’s just do this, okay?” he said. “So, three things about me, I’m
adopted, I hate the nickname Strawberry or any variation of it, and I like to
be alone.”
Uryū blinked and stared at the notes he was taken. “Um, okay, ah, I’m estranged
from my father, I want to be a fashion designer, and I am going to design
gender neutral clothes.”
Ichigo nodded, taking down the information. Uryū still didn’t get a good look
at him until he reached up to scratch the back of his head under his hood. Uryū
blinked thoughtfully for a second because his hair...his hair looked horribly
familiar to him. A long time ago he’d known an Ichigo.
“So yeah, you said you were adopted, do you remember your name before then?” he
asked, trying to sound casual about it.
Ichigo glared at him, brown eyes nearly glowing inside his hood. “Not your
business,” he muttered as he glanced at the clock. “Class is over,” he said,
standing.
Uryū winced at the odd smell that came off his clothes. It wasn’t a bad smell,
but he couldn’t quite place it. Like smoke, but not cigarette smoke.
Uryū watched him leave thoughtfully, but didn’t catch his teacher staring after
him as well. Both knew something was strange about the young man, but neither
could put a finger on what it was.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo stood outside the large house and could tell the night was going to be
bad. He could hear the laughing and yelling from the inside as well as the
thumping music. This type of thing never boded well for him. Especially if a
certain guest was there. However, he was supposed to be in jail. He looked out
into the yard, but didn’t know any of the cars. He would know soon. If he could
get in the door and down to the basement without being noticed, chances were,
he’d be fine, and so would the rest of them. Once they all go drunk and high,
they tended to forget that Ichigo and the others existed.
Ichigo sighed and looked away and knew he could run, he really could. It would
be so simple to just not go home. It would be easy, to just not go inside that
house. How hard could it be to just walk away? He swallowed thickly and felt
his heart in his throat. He could…he could just go and never ever come back. Or
he could go to the police. He could tell them the truth. But his head drooped
at the thought. It wouldn’t work. They wouldn’t touch them. She had too much on
too many people. And if he ran, then the others…the others would suffer. He
closed his eyes. It was his choice to stay. He had to protect them as much as
he could. If he left, there would be no one between them. He sighed, glancing
back at the road again. How many times in the last year and a half had he done
this? Stood here and wondered about what would happen… But the sharp memory
that reminded him what would happen if he left surfaced. He still had scars. So
did the others.
Ichigo sighed and opened the door even though the idea of leaving was
attractive. Then again, who would have anything to do with him anyway? He was
nothing, nothing at all. Even going to school was a farce. He’d finally
convinced Yoshi to let him go this year, telling her that if he went to school,
maybe he could make her contacts. It wasn’t like it cost them anything; his
school was paid for by the state. Of course, the guy that had come by over the
summer to “check in” on how he was doing since he’d left the system had
encouraged her to keep up appearances, especially since the twins had left.
Mabashi slammed him against the wall as soon as he shut the door behind him.
Mabashi almost had hair the color of Ichigo’s but it only served to make him
more interested in Ichigo. Ichigo grunted, dropping his bag to the ground, both
out of shock and pain. He could tell Mabashi was already high. He always got
more violent when he was on hopped up coke.
“Hey, Strawberry,” Mabashi said, slurring thickly as he spoke. “I woulda
thought you’d have gone while I was gone, babe.”
Ichigo sighed a bit because he was also drunk. He could smell the booze on his
breath, but the smoke on his skin and hair made him gag. Opium smoke had such a
distinct smell to it, somewhat sweet and slow, and it was something that had
started to make him nearly sick. Mabashi himself didn’t smoke it, but the smell
permeated most the rooms in the house. He only really noticed it when someone
got in his face anymore.
“Mabashi,” he said, looking at him and chewing his lip. “Long time no see,” he
said, knowing Ryō would have a fit if he was rude to one of his “guests.” If he
was upset, he’d tell Yoshi. Then Yoshi might do something to him. Or worse she
would do something to the others.
“Heh, got locked up for a few months, so you know what that means, I’m fucking
horny as fuck, ya know?” he said, blinking blearily. Ichigo winced. “And I
heard that yer pop got some nice, fresh ones in the last couple months. I’m
surprised yer still here, ya know,” he breathed on him.
“Ah, I can’t leave my family,” Ichigo said, swallowing hard. “I didn’t…I didn’t
want them to get hurt like when Ho and Ban ran away…”
“See, I saw that prissy little girl earlier. She’s a pretty little thing,
what’s her name, Momo?” he said, still crowding him against the wall. “And that
little thing, Rin, was it? He’s a ripe one. He’s about the age you were when I
got you for the first time, isn’t he?”
Ichigo reacted before he thought. “Don’t touch them!” he shouted his back
straightening and then he gasped, seeing Mabashi’s eyes go wide. “I’m sorry,
I’m sorry, I didn’t…” he started. Shit.
Mabashi moved so damn fast, even when he was high like this. His fist connected
Ichigo’s chin solidly, sending him to his knees.
“Did you just fucking yell at me?” he said, his voice less slurred now that he
was angry.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he muttered, feeling the blood dripping from his mouth
already.
Mabashi reached down and grabbed him by the back of his hair and yanked him up,
dragging him through the entry into the first bedroom. A couple others were
sitting around with opium pipes. Ugaki and Ryō were sitting in the large chairs
on the side of the room as Ichigo was tossed into the floor.
“Ryō, this bitch is mouthy tonight,” he said.
Ryō looked at him with bleary eyes. “So, teach him a lesson,” he muttered,
sucking the smoke in slowly. “He’s been going off to college still, thinking
highly of himself, bring him down to the level he deserves to be at. I told
Yoshi letting him go to college would be bad for the little shit,” he said,
exhaling smoke slowly. “But she thought if he got to go off to college he’d
stop whining and crying so much.” Ryō
Mabashi grabbed Ichigo by the hair again, pulling him up into Ryō’s lap almost
as he sucked in a long breath from the pipe before puffing it out into Ichigo’s
face. Ichigo, like always, tried to hold his breathe until the cloud
dissipated. He hated that more than anything. He hoped they wouldn’t do what
they usually did. He grunted and sucked in all the smoke around him as Mabashi
punched him squarely in the ribs. He coughed as the opium smoke filled his
lungs and then his head started to float.
“There you go, that’s better,” Mabashi said, feeling him relax against his
hold. “So much better when he don’t fight as much,” he muttered before slamming
his elbow into Ichigo’s face, knocking him backward.
Ichigo hit the ground with a thud; he didn’t even try to catch himself, after
all there was little point. He tried to distance himself as Mabashi slammed his
fists into his ribcage until he felt a sharp pain. He nearly sobbed as he felt
himself being lifted again and thrown onto the single bed. He couldn’t move
because of the pain, but also his arms and legs felt like lead as he stared at
the ceiling. He felt his clothes being taken off but he didn’t care much. The
world was spinning and he couldn’t stop it. He felt his right hip pop painfully
and thought he might have pulled it out of the socket again. These days it came
out of the socket rather easily, having had it pulled out several times.
Mabashi was perhaps the more violent of the guests when he was high like this.
He would rather it be him than Momo or Rin. Another gout of smoke into his
face, and the pain just faded away. He lost track of time and who was there,
and it didn’t matter, really, he couldn’t feel a thing.
He came around sometime later and he was still somewhat out of it, but he could
tell he wasn’t upstairs on one of the good beds now. He heard panicked voices
around him as his eyes fluttered open. He was looking at a very scared Hanatarō
and Rin. He saw Momo and Ririn, and behind them Nozomi and Noba. The others had
been watching him carefully. Between the damage to his ribs and the drugs, his
respiration was far from normal.
“Ichigo, are you awake?” Hanatarō asked, putting a cold cloth on his head.
Ichigo smiled. “Hmm, fine,” he said softly.
“You aren’t fine,” Ririn said from the next cot. “Mabashi again? I thought he
was locked up.”
“He got out yesterday,” Nozomi said quietly, not looking up from her hands.
“Drug charges didn’t stick.” The fifteen-year-old girl didn’t speak much.
They had all been somewhat relieved for Ichigo when Mabashi had been picked up
selling drugs to kids around the college. Unfortunately, after five months,
just as the trial was about to start, the evidence vanished from the locker at
the police station. No one really knew what happened, but without the evidence,
or a witness that would talk, they ended up letting him go.
“Does this…happen much?” Rin said quietly. Rin had just been adopted a couple
months before. “I thought they were good people, they said…”
“They buy out the staff at the orphanages, and whoever they don’t buy out they
blackmail with us. They use us for money, and well, for other things,” Ririn
answered, not looking at the younger boy as she spoke.
The fifteen-year-old had been adopted by the Utagawas when she was eleven. Noba
and the twins, Ho and Ban, had all three been adopted the same year as Ichigo.
Ho and Ban were gone; they’d left when they turned eighteen and no one knew
where they’d been for the last couple years.
“Why don’t you leave, dammit?” Ririn said to Ichigo, tears collecting in her
eyes. She’d already asked him so many times. He was nineteen. They all knew
that he was in a dangerous position.
“He was gonna come for Rin or Momo…I couldn’t let him…” Ichigo said and reached
over and put a hand on Rin’s cheek. “He’s too young,” he said, smiling goofily.
“I…I’m…not leaving you…someone hasta protect you from them,” he said softly,
wincing as pain sensation started to come back especially in his hip.
Rin started to cry immediately. Momo turned away. Of them, only Rin and Momo
had managed to go without being used to sate the perverted appetites of the
house guests, and only because Ichigo would put himself on the line for them.
It didn’t happen all the time, but there were some that took things far beyond
smacking around one of them when they wandered too near their party areas.
Mabashi was often one of the ones that enjoyed new fosters in the household, as
he enjoyed breaking them into the life. Of course, the ones that had been there
for a while knew that Mabashi had a thing for Ichigo, and had been singling him
out for five years already. Ichigo faded off the sleep again, not really
noticing when Ririn had Noba and Hanatarō help her put his hip back into place.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
 Sōsuke so far was enjoying his classes. He liked the way teaching was
engaging, but at the same time allowed him to distance himself from the
students. Thursday came and he tried to remember names as they came in. He did
a double take when the Utagawa boy came in with an obvious limp. He was bundled
into his hoodie again, hood pulled down over his face. Uryū came in afterward
and noted the way the other boy was sitting. Sōsuke saw that Uryū looked at
Ichigo, and he had to wonder if there wasn’t a problem somewhere.
Sōsuke went around and passed out worksheets for them to complete on the
chapter they were supposed to read before this class. It was the first of a
series of worksheets on perceptions that he wove through the classes he taught.
Relatively simple, but revealing as they moved through the semester.
As he passed Ichigo’s desk he stopped, and glanced down to get a better look at
him.
“Hey, Ichigo, right?” he said softly so the other students couldn’t hear him.
“Um, yeah,” he answered and looked up at him. When he did, Sōsuke frowned. His
face was bruised and he had a split lip that had just started to heal.
“You doing okay?” he asked.
“Fine, just…bike accident,” he muttered, shifting in obvious discomfort in his
seat and looking down at the paper which he started to fill in.
Sōsuke nodded, catching a very sweet smoky smell from his clothes when he
moved. He blinked, wondering where he’d smelled that before. He shook his head
and moved on. A bike accident?  He supposed that was believable. The class
continued, and Ichigo didn’t speak any further. He saw a lot of signs that made
him suspicious. Perhaps he was far too attuned to these things than he should
be.
So far, he had seen that the boy was reclusive and quiet. By itself, those
things weren’t warning signs or anything. He may have been shy and introverted,
which would explain a great deal of the strange symptoms he seemed to show.
However, what worried Sōsuke was that he was hapnophobic, anxious, and very
jumpy when other people came close to him. While it could be the boy’s
personality, he feared something else. He swallowed and then pulled the card
from the file. He pulled up the family name on the computer to see what he
could find.
Ryō Utagawa was apparently a child born into wealth. He used his wealth to take
cases adopt older children that would otherwise be left in orphanages. He was
known for making charitable donations to the orphanage that the children came
from. However, the more he dug, the more he found that things didn’t add up.  
Sōsuke looked up as his buzzer for the end of class went off and watched as
everyone left. He was curious, even more now than before. However, what could
he do? Unless there was something illegally wrong, it wasn’t like he could
interfere in the life of a college student. 
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Uryū stared at his phone for a long time before he dialed the number for
Karakura General. He asked for his father and was connected quickly. Of course,
he was connected quickly. He was asking for Dr. Ishida.
“Dr. Ryūken Ishida speaking,” came his father’s harsh voice.
“Father?” he said wondering if he’d hang up.
There was a long pause, then the voice came on that sounded somewhat
bewildered. “Uryū?”
“Father, I am sorry to bother you at work but I no longer have your cell or
home number since you changed it.” Uryū felt his chest tighten. “So, there was
something I needed to talk to you about. This had driven them apart, after all.
To bring it up again was a dangerous thing. He honestly was waiting for him to
hang up at any moment.
“What is it?” came the terse reply.
“What happened to Uncle Isshin’s oldest child?” he asked quickly.
Ryūken didn’t speak for a long moment. “Why would you ask a question like
that?”
“Because I think he may be in my psychology class.”
Another long pause occurred. “That’s impossible. Masaki and Isshin’s children
were taken in by his cousin, Kaien Shiba and his wife after the incident
happened. All three should all three be now be in Tokyo.”
“Father, there is a boy, my age, and he had obnoxiously orange hair and his
name is Ichigo. I don’t know how many other people have that crazy hair color
and that name,” he said, chewing the inside of his cheek and wondering if he
would, yet again, be dismissed.
Ryūken started to dismiss indeed it but stopped. “That…would be unusual.”
Another boy the exact same age with the exact same name and the exact same hair
color? What were the chances?
Ryūken felt his heart ache just thinking about what had happened, and there was
a big piece of him that wanted to just hang up the phone on his estranged son.
Ryūken wanted to go back to his solitary, lonely, and quite uneventful life.
However, something happened when he had answered the phone and heard Uryū’s
voice again. But now, he realized that he missed his son. He wanted to see him
again, and he wanted to fix what he’d done.  The overly stoic and proper doctor
had no idea where it had come from, because it was sudden and overwhelming.
Ryūken had never imagined hearing Uryū’s voice would do this to him.
“As I thought. His last name is Utagawa, aren’t they some well off people?”
Uryū asked.
“Yes, but why would he be with someone like that when he should be family?”
Ryūken asked slowly. “He is a well-to-do man, and should be well taken care of
if that’s the case.”
Uryū bit his lip again. “He’s messed up.”
“What?” Ryūken said. “What do you mean?”
“He’s messed up. Something is wrong with him and he stinks like an opium den,”
Uryū said, having realized what the smell was when he smelled it again. More
than once he’d smelled different drugs, mostly in the times he’d done costumes
for some of the local clubs.
Again, there was a pause. “Um, son, perhaps we can meet for dinner and talk
more,” he said.
Uryū blinked and was speechless for a long moment. “Um, yeah, sure, meet you at
the café on fourth street?”
He almost heard the smile in Ryūken’s voice. “Yeah, sounds fine.”
“See you then,” he said, and waited for him to hang up. He stared at the phone
for a long moment.
It happened almost ten years ago. His father, Ryūken, had a younger sister
named Masaki. Masaki had married Isshin Kurosaki, and they had three children,
a boy and then a pair of twin girls four years later. Ryūken had been
incredibly close to his sister and then to Isshin and his nieces and nephews.
Then, one night, Masaki was murdered in front of their oldest, Ichigo, who was
also shot during the attack. Isshin had contacted his cousin, Kaien Shiba and
told him that he wanted him to take his kids. He then had left a suicide note
detailing what was to happen with his children and thrown himself into the sea.
They had never recovered the body. Kaien’s wife, Miyako couldn’t have children
of her own. Uryū had lost track of what happened, but he was very angry at his
father that he didn’t care.
Uryū sat down on his bed with a thump. What could he do now?
***** Family Chaos *****
“Father,” Uryū said as he sat down at the table. The place had met at was
somewhere that, at one time, had been very special to both. It was just a small
out of the way diner that served the best ramen in town. It seemed low brow for
the doctor and his son, but there were many memories associated with the place.
The last time they had been at Daikoku Ramen had been a long time ago. That had
been the day Ryūken had crossed a line with his twelve-year-old son that
severed their relationship for good. It had been the day that Ryūken had
completely missed Uryū’s play at school that he’d designed the costumes for. It
had been so very important to the young man, but the last three years Ryūken
had grown very distant after the murder of his sister and suicide of his
brother in law. He’d dove into his work and rarely spoke to Uryū. The play had
been the last straw. He called his grandfather to come pick him up and asked to
stay with him. His grandfather had hesitated, but Ryūken had told Sōken to take
Uryū and go, he didn’t want anything to do with family. From that day forward,
he did not. Uryū had spent the years since then trying to forget that he had a
father.
“Uryū,” Ryūken said, still in his suit and tie from the hospital. He
looked…different, but Uryū supposed time had passed for both. His father seemed
aged, but the look on his face was anything but stoic as he expected.  There
was emotion written there, which was perhaps the most telling feature of the
entire experience.
Uryū looked at the ramen bowl on the table Ryūken had ordered for him already.
“You remembered my favorite, after all these years.”
Ryūken sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said suddenly, looking up. “I want to start with
that. I was sorry the minute you left seven years ago. I couldn’t say anything
and I couldn’t do anything. There just was no way. My heart was pulled from my
chest when Masaki died, and I lost everything she’d contributed to the world
when Kaien to those children to Tokyo. I suppose in a way, I’d hoped that
Isshin would have sent them to me, and that was a pain I couldn’t erase. I
understand, of course, why, Kaien and his wife could offer a mother and a
father, and I could only offer a father for them.”
Uryū was speechless. That, he did not expect. To be honest, he had been sure he
would have been met by the same man from seven years ago. He had assumed he
would be treated with dismissal and have everything he cared about given little
value. He expected the man who had told him that designing clothing was a
woman’s field, and he refused to participate in letting his son do something so
devaluing.
“I’m sorry too; I should have understood what you were going through. Aunt
Masaki was very important to you and…and I guess I forgot how close you and
Isshin were. You grew up with him after all, I can’t imagine what it was like
to lose both like that. I never thought about how much it would hurt that your
sister’s children wouldn’t have come to stay with you,” he said thoughtfully,
truly meaning it.
Ryūken nodded. “Yeah, I think we both could have done better.”
They sat and ate in silence, letting the memories of the place fill them. Uryū
had more than once thrown ramen back and forth with his Uncle Isshin and his
cousin Ichigo. He remembered the babies and how cute they had been. Ichigo had
been seven when he fell out of the booth in the far west corner of the place
and needed stitches in his chin. Uryū looked up.
“Father, Ichigo would have a scar, wouldn’t he? On his chin?” he asked.
Ryūken nodded slowly. “Yeah, when you and he decided to try and compete to
climb the back of the booth and he fell out and busted his chin on the floor.
It wouldn’t be very noticeable, I did the stitches, after all, but it would be
there, just about here,” he said, leaning over and tracing a finger just over
the right side of Uryū’s chin.
Uryū nodded. This was the first time he’d felt a touch from his father in seven
years. “I can look. But father, what are the chances of there being another
person like this age with that name and hair color?”
Ryūken shook his head. “Not very likely. So, I got information on the Utagawa
family to see what I could find out.”
Uryū nodded. Ryūken reached into his briefcase and pulled out a file folder. “I
looked up their medical records. Not strictly legal, but no one is going to
find out and if they did, they won’t say anything. Most of the people at the
hospital walk on eggshells around me.”
Uryū shook his head. That was his father, alright. “I guess some things don’t
change.”
Ryūken looked up and him and gave subtle smile to his son.  “I get things done
faster than the other department heads,” he said as he opened the file folder
in his hand.
“Anyway, the Utagawas take in foster kids and adopt them. They are usually
older, ten to fifteen years old, so kids that rarely will be adopted and would
normally stay in the system until they’re eighteen. Now, on the surface this
seems like a good thing for these kids, but I got to wondering how they
afforded so many kids and how they donated money to places like the hospital
and the other charities. Well, something interesting came up. I did some
snooping. Well I didn't do it, I had it done, but that doesn’t matter. Ryō
Utagawa and his wife Yoshi were officially disowned and cut off from their
families. Ryō handled his finances with such blatant irresponsibility, his
father decreed that he wasn’t to have access to the family’s wealth. He had
gone through his trust fund before he was twenty-two. The woman, Yoshi, it
seems there are conflicting accounts. Some say she had a falling out with her
mother, but there’s an arrest record for disorderly conduct and reports that
she was incredibly violent. Another account listed that she’d nearly killed a
maid in their household and that’s what got her disowned,” he said, frowning at
the papers he’d been given by Chojiro Sasakibe.
Ryūken had known him for years, and if there was something he wanted found,
Chojiro could find it. He was a private investigator that Ryūken typically
employed when he needed something found quickly. Unfortunately, he knew now
that if he had realized that something was going on like this, he could have
had him working on it the entire time.  Chojiro conducted himself in a very
British manner, and was often much politer than many other he’d worked with.
“So, I was curious how they got this money and how they could take in kids.
Well, look at this,” he said, handing a sheet to Uryū. It was a financial
statement sheet sometimes required when there was state paid insurance like
foster kids had. “The foster kids get income under their names. It’s supposed
to be used to take care of them. They have upwards of six to eight kids in
house at a time, and when they adopt they get a stipend and a continued
payment, plus complete insurance coverage for them. So essentially, they earn
income to take care of the kids. However, I’ll say it is nowhere near enough to
account for the money they donate to other places. I don’t understand how this
hasn’t come up, because they don’t list any income except for the kids they
take in. This means that the large amount of money they have coming in that
they donate to charities is coming from somewhere else, most likely less than
legal since it is unreported,” Ryūken said pointing out that the numbers didn’t
match between the listing of their contributions and their income. “I thought
at first it was because they come from rich families, but knowing that they
were both cut off, it seems more than a little suspicious to me.”
Ryūken moved the papers and pulled out a different folder of what looked like
medical records. “Now, what I find interesting, they never come into the
hospital. I looked them up in the system, and the only doctor’s visits the
Utagawas adopted children and fosters have been the required checkups on a
yearly basis, and even then, I think they’re forged or something.”
“Why do you think that?” Uryū said, looking over the collected papers. He
paused. Ho and Ban Utagawa. That was the name of the boys that one of the other
tenants at his fourplex took care of. Could it be them? How many sets of twins
named Ho and Ban could there be? There were too many coincidences in all of
this, he thought to himself.
“Because the reports are minimal, and there are never any problems that
commonly occur with children of their ages,” Ryūken put away the papers after
another few minutes.
“So, what does it mean?” Uryū said, completely confused by all this
information. “What are they doing?”
Ryūken shook his head. “I have no idea, but nothing good, I’m guessing. Kids
this age have accidents, broken bones, and there’s no reason for them not to.
Something is going on with them, and if this is your cousin, we have to do
something, for Masaki and Isshin. I can’t let their son suffer if what you say
is true and he is in a bad state.”
Uryū nodded. “We have class Tuesday; I’ll see what I can find out from Yoshino.
She said something about the Utagawas the other day, technically they are our
neighbors, but I can’t think of what it was.”
Yoshino was like a surrogate mother to Uryū. She was a confidant and had always
been there for him. When he had trouble dealing with the fact his father wasn’t
around, she was the one he talked to. She had been there when his grandfather
had passed, and had helped him learn how to do things for himself like pay
bills and grocery shop. She had also been the one to put him in contact with
his roommate Chad. She was more than a landlady to him. She would help him; he
knew that for sure.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Yoshino Sōma owned a very nice fourplex. The grounds around it were nice as
well, Koga, one of her tenants, paid part of his rent by doing the yardwork and
landscaping for her. They’d installed a small duck pond, a set of benches
around the pond, and a large trellis where climbing flowers grew. They’d also
planted several cherry trees a couple years before, and this year they should
bloom and fruit. Koga did landscaping for a living, but because of the varied
demand, he often had times he was short on rent. She also let him do most of
the maintenance when needed in exchange for taking some off his rent. He needed
the money for his two wards more than she needed it to pay the bills for the
fourplex. She was sitting on the balcony of her apartment and watching below as
Koga sat by the pond as his two charges played catch with each other.
Hō and Ban Utagawa were almost twenty years old, but neither one of them were
capable of working, so Koga took care of them. Yoshino had her suspicions of
what had happened to those two boys, but she had never confirmed it. When it
came to the Utagawas, she quickly found out that asking questions caused a lot
more problems than it solved. She knew Koga from before her ex-husband had been
put away. Koga had been one of the few people that helped her when the bastard
tried to pin a con on her. If it hadn’t been for him, she might not have turned
the tables on Jin Kariya (she had taken her name back after the divorce was
final, of course). She waved down at Koga who waved back as he was reading a
paperback.
She saw that Yasutora Sado, one of the college boys that lived in the apartment
underneath hers, was crouched under one of the cherry trees playing with the
local cats. There was a pack of them that all had clipped ears. Everyone at the
fourplex took care of them. The clipped ears meant they had been a part of the
catch and release program to control the stray population, and were all
neutered and spayed. Yoshino noticed that two of the regulars were missing. Her
eyes went to the east, where the next house was just out of view. The next
house belonged to the Utagawas, even if she never saw them. Her fourplex was on
one side of a divide and their huge farmhouse on the other. A fence ran between
the properties, and the road did not run through. However, sometimes the cats
that lived around her place wandered over there and didn’t return. Considering
she often heard gunshots, she had a good idea what happened to them.
She sighed and looked down at the young man, Chad as his roommate had nicknamed
him. He was what she would call a gentle giant, and he adored the cats and the
other animals that came around. His roommate was Uryū Ishida. Uryū was a rather
dour looking boy, but he was a fashion design major who always wore impeccable
clothing, and she tried to take care of him. She knew that he was on some quest
to find his place in the world, especially after his estrangement from his
father., She smiled as his car pulled into the parking area and he came out,
waving at Chad.
He headed up to where Chad was sitting and spoke with him for a moment before
Uryū looked up and waved at her. There was a bit more between him and Chad,
then Uryū came running toward the building, scaring poor Hō and Ban nearly into
the pond. He stopped and apologized to the boys and walked slowly this time.
She smiled to herself. Whatever he wanted to talk about must be important. He
seemed quite excitable.
A few minutes later he came onto the balcony and flopped into a seat beside
her.  He had a strange look on his face, somewhere between thoughtful and sad,
but he had the flush of excitement on his face at the same time. She smiled at
him. “So, you’re in an excited mood,” she observed. She couldn’t pin down his
mood other than that, though.
“So, first, my dad and I spoke today,” he said with a slight smile.
Yoshino arched a brow. Uryū had lived in her place for nearly five years, his
grandfather living there with him until he passed the year before and later
when Chad moved in to help with the rent. In that time, she thought sure the
rift between the two would never be sealed.
“What brought this on?” she asked, leaning toward him, her dark brows knitting.
“I called him because I think…I think my cousin is in trouble. And I need to
know something. What do you know about the Utagawas? I know they live over
there, and that you talk about them now and then, but his last name is
Utagawa,” he said, looking up at her.
Yoshino paled a bit. “You’re sure?” she said, pushing her long dark hair behind
her ears.
“Yeah, and Hō and Ban were named on some paperwork father had about the
Utagawas…” he said, looking up at her.
Yoshino nodded. “Yeah, they were adopted there,” she said, glancing down at the
pond where Koga was having to deal with a fight between the twins most likely
one of them had one of the extreme mood swings they suffered now and then.
“Something happened to those two there, but please don’t talk to them about it.
You might ask Koga, but don’t ask them. They’re enough for him to handle as it
is.”
Uryū nodded, looking down at the two. Sometimes they acted like ten-year-olds.
He bit his lip. “Yeah, I’m gonna go down now, I’ll come talk to you if I find
out anything,” he said, standing and kissing the top of Yoshino’s head.
He headed down the stairs and saw that Luppi and Wonderweiss were sitting on
their deck. Luppi was painting and Wonderweiss was playing a video game. He was
utterly silent and engrossed in a DS game, not looking up when Uryū approached.
The blond-haired boy didn’t talk, and tended to make people uncomfortable. Uryū
waved at them and wandered onto their porch and glanced at Luppi’s painting. It
was, as usual, surreal and strange, with a lot of plant looking things. Luppi
smiled at him.
“Hey Uryū, how was your first week at school this semester?” he asked, pausing
to clean his brushes.
“Good, you’re taking abnormal psych with the new guy, that Aizen?” he said,
smiling at the much shorter man.
Luppi nodded, dipping into his palate again. “Yeah, figured it might help
understand my bipolar a bit better. Meds are working lately though, huh
Wonderweiss?”
Wonderweiss nodded without looking up. Uryū smiled. The pair was unusual, but
they were good neighbors. “Okay, I’ve got my own homework, so I’ll talk to you
later!” he said, heading into his own apartment to see Chad had come in while
he was upstairs talking to Yoshino.
“Hey Chad,” Uryū said, flopping onto the couch with a sigh.
“Are you well, Uryū?” Chad asked, coming to sit in the chair across from him.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know. If this guy is my cousin, what should I do?”
he said, taking off his silver framed glasses and pinching the bridge of his
nose. “He might be in trouble, and I just…I can’t put up with drama right now,
you know?”
Chad had been the first person he’d told, and Chad had encouraged him to talk
to his father about it. Uryū had no idea who else would know anything because
he’d lost contact with everyone since his grandfather had died.
Chad was silent a while. “If he is family, you should help him. I will help
you, Uryū.”
Uryū smiled at Chad. “Thanks, Chad, I know I can count on you,” he said, and
got up to head to his room. Uryū didn’t catch the strange look that crossed
Chad’s face as he walked away.
“You can always count on me,” Chad muttered, turning and looking out the
window.
Chad never spoke much, but since Yoshino had helped him by introducing him to
Uryū, he’d become protective of his companion. He had seen Uryū suffer with the
loss of his grandfather, and having lost his own a few years before, he had
tried his best to help him. Chad wanted to help Uryū with whatever he wanted in
life. Despite his attempts to ignore the budding feelings in his chest, Chad
was finding himself more and more drawn Uryū. He was fragile in so many ways,
and other people didn’t seem to realize it. Chad was the only one that Uryū
confided it. He’d speak to Yoshino like a mother, but with Chad it was
different. Chad had helped him through three failed relationships. He’d been
there and helped Uryū when he didn’t have the strength to help himself. He
didn’t think, however, that Uryū would ever realize that Chad felt this way.
The truth was, though, it didn’t matter. Chad wanted Uryū to be happy, that was
all. So, he’d be her for him. He knew Uryū didn’t care about him in the same
way, but that was okay. He was happy to be the person he came to when he needed
someone.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Sōsuke couldn’t concentrate on the papers he was grading. His mind kept
spiraling to the troubled boy in his psychology class. He rubbed his head and
wondered how he could help him. The first step to doing anything would be to
get the student to talk to him. He wasn’t sure how to do that though. He had
the sense that the boy was being abused in some fashion, because quite frankly,
he didn’t buy the bike accident idea. Also, there were some startling things
that seemed too familiar. He sighed and put his hand on the lower left side of
his abdomen.
He got up and walked around the small apartment he’d rented just a couple weeks
ago. He finally settled into the sofa and turned the TV on when someone knocked
at the door. He frowned and stood up, considering that only a couple people had
his address since he’d moved back to town. He opened the door to find the
unlikeliest person, or perhaps he should have expected to find him there.
Byakuya Kuchiki stood in a pristine suit and tie, and his usual almost
emotionless face.
“’Kuya,” Sōsuke said, surprised. “Come in,” he said, letting the other man into
his apartment.
“Sōsuke, I hope you’ve found things to your liking,” he said, walking in with
his hands tucked at the base of his back.
“Yes, of course, ‘Kuya.” Sōsuke had called Byakuya when he needed help. Of
course, Byakuya owned the building that this apartment was in, and had arranged
to provide him a decently furnished one. “I assume your younger sister informed
you of being in my class,” he said with a soft smile.
Byakuya nodded, looking around the small apartment. “She did. Of course, she
doesn’t know who you are…or were…to me,” he commented, turning back to glance
at Sōsuke’s forearm.
Sōsuke glanced at his arm as well and smiled softly up at Byakuya. He had his
sleeves rolled up on his shirt, his tattoos exposed. Sōsuke went to the bar and
poured a drink, scotch neat and clean, for Byakuya. If nothing else, Sōsuke
knew very well how the stoic man took his drinks.  Byakuya took it, and sat
down on the sofa, glancing at the TV which was playing a random news show.
“I would hope not, ‘Kuya. I doubt you discuss your sex and romance life with
your little sister,” he said, sitting down beside him with his own drink.
Byakuya sipped his scotch. “Well, yes, since my grandfather is dead now, I
don’t have to keep my relationships a secret anymore. I’ve already inherited my
shares of the Serietei, and they can’t be taken away at this point, unlike when
we were in school together. Of course, besides that, I’ve made a name myself on
my own. I no longer have to depend on the Kuchiki name to be recognized.”
Byakuya and Sōsuke had gone to undergraduate school together briefly. Sōsuke
had been a seventeen-year-old freshman in college when Byakuya had been a
business graduate at almost twenty-five himself. The romance had been…heated,
to say the least. Byakuya had been a very needy partner, and Sōsuke, though
eight years younger, had been the more dominant of the two of them. Byakuya, as
a rule, preferred younger men, and the worst part was that he had to keep the
fact he preferred men completely secret from his grandfather, or he ran the
risk of being written out of the will. Byakuya had married a woman, a lovely
girl named Hisana who had been Rukia’s biological sister. When Hisana had
passed from inoperable lung cancer, Byakuya had taken in Rukia as his own heir.
Of course, Sōsuke and Byakuya’s illicit relationship had come to an end when he
married Hisana. Hisana, however, knew of her husband’s preference for men, and
knew that the marriage was solely to appease the Kuchiki family. She, however,
had not minded, and when she became sick, she had Byakuya promise to care for
her little sister, which he had.
“You know, I’m not interested in, you know, rekindling that…” Sōsuke began,
looking up at him.
Byakuya shook his head. “I know; those days are past. I hurt you deeply when I
left like I did. I should have handled things differently.”
Sōsuke arched a brow at him. Differently? he thought. “Kuya, you disappeared
and then sent me an email telling me in a very formal way that you were getting
married and could no longer carry on with our clandestine affair. I believe you
also said it was merely about sex, and you didn’t love me and never had.”
Byakuya had enough shame at what had happened to turn away from Sōsuke. “Then,
you proceeded to act with incredible jealousy when I started dating Kisuke. I’m
just glad you weren’t around when I dated Gin. It was as though you wanted me
to be as miserable as you were.”
Byakuya sighed, looking away. “You know that isn’t true.”
“I know, it still hurt,” Sōsuke said, smiling softly. He had forgiven him, of
course.
“I don’t want you to think I’m seeking approval, but I know that you teach the
class with my sister. Um, I also wanted to explain that someone else is in that
class, someone that you may hear talk of me, especially with Rukia…” he said,
sipping the drink slowly.
Sōsuke nodded. “You have a new boyfriend?” he said with a subtle smile.
Byakuya nodded. “He’s a few years older than Rukia, actually, she was his high
school sweetheart, and I knew him very well. He spent more time at our house
than his own, I think, and perhaps that’s why in the last three years we
started to become closer to each other. You know younger men always carry favor
with me, and he is incredibly intelligent and kind, but he has the forceful
nature that is pleasing to me. He, like you, does not allow me to push him
around, and refuses to bow to my every will,” he said, looking up and Sōsuke
recognizes the subtle semi-smile that Byakuya often wore when speaking on
matters of the heart. “Don’t worry, he’s twenty-one, so I am not robbing the
cradle as you said.”
Sōsuke grinned. “You’re still eleven years older than him, Sōsuke. But I’m sure
if he’s been around, he knows what he is getting into. And I’m happy for you,
at least now you can be yourself in the world without fear, ‘Kuya. It makes me
happy that you have found happiness.”
Byakuya nodded. “His name is Renji Abarai, the red headed boy with the tattoos
in your class,” he said, looking up to see if judgment crossed Sōsuke’s face.
Sōsuke, to his credit, didn’t laugh. It was the ideal match for Byakuya. “Oh, I
see. Not only do you out yourself as gay, you out yourself as favoring young,
rebellious men nearly half your age.”
Byakuya smiled. “Yes, indeed. I just wanted to see how you were, and I wanted
to tell you about Renji before you heard elsewhere,” he said, standing slowly.
“I’m meeting Renji for dinner, and he will be cross with me for being late,” he
said, putting the glass down.
Sōsuke stood up and kissed Byakuya’s cheek. “Thank you for coming by. Please,
send me the happy announcement should it come,” he said with a sly grin.
Byakuya smiled in return. “And you as well, if you should find someone.”
Sōsuke shook his head. “I doubt that someone will just come falling from the
sky for me, ‘Kuya. There aren’t many like you out there, headstrong and tough,
and wanting someone to keep them in line. Kisuke was close, but Gin just wasn’t
what I was looking for. He was far too…ravenous…for me.”
Byakuya looked at him for a moment. “You never said what happened between you
and Gin when you called me. You said he did something unforgivable.”
Sōsuke shifted uncomfortably and shook his head. “It…was complicated. I don’t
want to go into it, but he did something that I can’t erase, and he did it for
reasons that he still thinks were justified. Beyond that, he lied to me about a
very important issue, and that alone is enough for me to have left him.”
“You didn’t say why you were hospitalized either,” Byakuya said, looking at him
thoughtfully. “You know I still worry.”
“Leave that, ‘Kuya, I don’t wish to speak on that right now. It is still too
close,” Sōsuke said with a sigh. “I’ll probably be alone from now on, so don’t
worry, I won’t fall into my old habits.”
Sōsuke walked Byakuya out to where his car was waiting at the curb. His driver,
as always, was patient, a pale man with long dark hair that fell around his
face. Sōsuke noted the long, manicured nails with black polish.
Byakuya sat down into the back of the car and smiled at Sōsuke. “You never know
when you’ll find someone, ‘Suke. You might be surprised where you can find
love. You had no idea our one night stand at that bar was going to turn into a
two-year long love affair.”
Sōsuke nodded and watched him go. He was slightly unnerved by the encounter. He
felt that Byakuya was trying to gauge him. He knew he probably was. Byakuya had
an irritating habit of trying to know everything about everyone. Perhaps the
least attractive thing about that man was how entitled he was. He certainly
hoped that red head put him in his place.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo was hoping the weekend was quiet. Of course, it wouldn’t be; he wasn’t
an idiot. He hoped he’d grabbed enough food for the weekend, because it was
looking like a full party and none of them would be safe upstairs. There was a
bathroom in the basement, and Ichigo kept the small mini-fridge packed with as
much food as he could, and he had a loose board on the floor that he hid dry
goods under. Sometimes the rats nibbled on them, but they couldn’t worry about
that. The noise from upstairs was so much that even in the basement, it was
loud enough it made sleeping nearly impossible for the kids hiding down there.
It was Sunday afternoon when Rin pulled on Ichigo’s sleeve as he slept. He came
immediately awake. “Ichi, we’re outta food,” he said quietly so the others
couldn’t hear. Ichigo winced. The party had started Thursday night, and for
some reason they seemed intent on keeping it going through Sunday. Usually,
Sunday was a lazy recovery day, but he guessed for some reason, people didn’t
work on Monday or something.
“Okay, buddy,” he said, swinging his legs over the side of the cot.
Momo was curled up asleep still where she’d been sleeping against his back.
They had a strange kinship to each other over the time they were together. The
only comfort they had come from each other and never from their “parents” no
matter how much they may have wanted it. They rarely slept alone, most of the
time piling together for comfort.
“I’ll go find something for us,” he said, smiling.
He could go without for two days, and they had water in the bathroom, but he
didn’t think Rin and Momo could do that yet. They were still new to the way
things worked. Hanatarō also struggled going without. Even after almost a year,
the young one was deeply affected by hunger.
“Ichi, you should stay down here,” Ririn said as he got up. “Mabashi was up
there, I heard him earlier yelling at someone.”
Ichigo nodded. “I’ll keep an eye out for him,” he said quietly as he moved up
the stairs.
He was barefoot, and he hoped that the absence of music and yelling meant that
most of them were resting. If he could get to the kitchen and grab something,
anything, and get back to the kids, he would be fine. He just had to avoid
Mabashi and especially Yoshi. Yoshi got violent when she caught him getting
food. He made it to the kitchen without incident, though, passing several
unconscious out people, including Mabashi who was laying in one of the chairs
just inside the biggest bedroom. He was relieved that that violent bastard was
asleep. He wasn’t so bad if he wasn’t high, but if he had his usual dose of
coke he was horrible. He was just opening the cabinet when he felt someone
watching him. He turned around in time to get a full backhand to the face from
his adopted mother.
“The fuck ya doing in here, boy?” she said, and she stunk of alcohol. It would
have been different if she smoked opium like Ryō. She didn’t. Coke was her drug
of choice, like Mabashi, and that with alcohol made her even more violent than
normal.
“The kids were out of food…I just…” Ichigo’s explanation was cut off by another
backhanded slap. He felt his lip split again. It had not recovered from where
Mabashi had elbowed him. He quickly reached up and put his hand over it so
blood didn’t drip on the kitchen floor again. That would lead to very bad
things.
“Snot nosed brats, what do they fuckin’ do to deserve food?” she asked, eyes
narrowing, as she turned around, and Ichigo winced to see she had one of her
pistols in the back of her pants. Shit, she was in one of those moods.
“I’m sorry, I’ll just…go back, I won’t…” he started again before she turned
suddenly, pulling the gun and pressing it against his temple.
She backed him against the counter, slamming him into it. Ichigo took a shaky
breath. Perhaps if it was the first time he’d had a gun to his head, it might
had done more to frighten him.
“Shut your fucking whore mouth,” she whispered to him. “Do you want to end up
like that other little fuck?” she said leaning in and whispering right into his
ear.
Ichigo swallowed, not answering. She smiled and licked his ear, sending a
shiver down his back. He hated when she did this to him. Everything she did was
simply to humiliate them. Then she took the gun, that he could see was
obviously cocked and loaded, and traced it down his face, neck, and then down
his side until it reached the front of his loose jeans. She shoved the barrel
down into the front of his pants sharply, the sight on the end scratching
against his skin.
“Remember that; remember what happened to him, I could do that to you or any of
those brats at any time. No one came to find him, and no one would notice any
of you if you disappeared.”
“I know,” he said, trying not to shake.
It was impossible to predict her. He was pretty sure one of these days she’d
kill him. It didn’t matter, if he could take care of the others as long as
possible, until they could get away from her. That was his place in the world,
he’d decided. It wasn’t like he could do anything else.
“Good,” she whispered, leaning back and putting the gun in the back of her
waistband. She grinned. “Oh, by the way, Mabashi, he’s all yours again,” she
said, leaving through the other door.
Ichigo’s eyes widened and he turned to see that Mabashi was leaning against the
doorframe with his arms crossed. Ichigo swallowed hard. He hadn’t really
recovered from the last go round with him. At least that time, he’d been stoned
out of his mind and didn’t feel much until the next day.
“You were so much fun the other night; I wanted a second round, with ya Berry-
boy. I missed you while I was in lock up. Every time I found myself a fuckboy,
I imagined it was you I was fucking into the beds,” he said, moving toward him
slowly. “So, let’s go, strawberry. But this time, no drugs, I wanna hear you
scream,” he said, pinning him against the counter and he could hear Yoshi
laughing under her breath. Ichigo could see the white powder residue still on
his upper lip.
Ichigo’s hands gripped the counter behind him and for a half a second he
thought about the knives in the block. One move, one simple move, and Mabashi
would be dead, and Ichigo could run, and never come back. He swallowed as
Mabashi grabbed him by the hair and yanked him away from the counter. He kissed
his cheek and then slammed his face into the table making pain explode in his
head and stars shoot in front of his eyes. He couldn’t kill him and run away
though. He couldn’t, because Yoshi would kill the others, and then what would
he have lived for? What would he have suffered for? He was going to protect
them. That’s why he stayed. That’s why he went upstairs when he knew he’d
probably get caught and beaten or fucked by one of them. If it was him, it
wasn’t one of the others.
Mabashi wanted to hear him scream this time. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only
one who heard it, and it would have broken Ichigo’s heart to see the state his
brothers and sisters were in, knowing that their needs had led to him being
hurt again. Ichigo couldn’t think of that, though. No matter what happened to
him, if it saved any one of them a moment of pain, it made it worth it.
Blackness was so soothing when it happened, at least in the dark he didn’t have
to think.
===============================================================================
 
***** Chaotic Truths *****
Sōsuke felt somewhat out of place as the sun set on the beach. He wasn’t a very
social person for things like this. Despite being involved with counseling and
psychology, Sōsuke was at heart an introvert. However, being new at the school,
he wanted to make friends with his fellow teachers. When Harribel invited him
to come to a Sunday beach party since they were off on Monday, he accepted the
invitation. Harribel headed the art department at the college. She was a rather
quiet woman, with sun bleached blonde hair and a deep tan. She was by far one
of the more intimidating people at the school, mostly because she rarely spoke.
The students had a lot of respect for the woman and she always seemed willing
to help them.
“Sōsuke!” Harribel said, waving from down on the beach. He smiled and went down
where she stood, wearing a white bikini top and a pair of white shorts. Against
the deep tan of her skin, the white stood out brightly even in the growing
twilight.
“I want to thank you for the invitation, I rarely do this sort of thing, but…”
he began and stopped when one of his students came running up and tackled
Harribel to the ground suddenly.
“Emi!” Harribel grunted as she stood up, sweeping sand off her legs and hips.
“Aw, come on, come play, babe,” Apacci said with a grin, leaning over and
kissing Harribel’s cheek before she realized that she was being watched.
“Professor Aizen!” Apacci said with a grin. She, like Harribel, was dressed
minimally, a short pair of shorts and a gray colored crop top. “Tier didn’t say
you’d come!”
Sōsuke felt somewhat odd. “Ah, yes, um, I’m new to this sort of thing,” he
said, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Everyone assumed he was some extroverted,
fun loving person, after all he studied psychology and worked in a teaching
profession. The truth was far from that, however.
Emilou looked at him. “Why aren’t you in beach clothes? You’re gonna get hot
near the bonfire in those sweats,” she said, frowning as she looked him over.
Sōsuke smiled meekly. “I prefer to wear sweats when I’m out casually. I don’t
go about uncovered very often,” he said, smiling. He was dressed in a black
sweatshirt with long sleeves and a pair of dark gray sweatpants.
“Whatever tickles your pickle, Professor,” she said, smiling and shaking her
head.
Harribel smiled and patted Apacci’s shoulders. “I’ve yet to explain our family,
Emi, go play ball with the other girls. Check in with Wonderweiss down on the
beach. He wanted to get some photos of the sunset tonight.”
Apacci nodded and slapped Harribel soundly on the ass before she left. Harribel
sighed. “She’s a handful; I understand she’s in your psychology class?”
Sōsuke nodded. “Um, yes, I…”
“I understand your confusion, but to answer your question, yes, Apacci and I
are partners, but I should let you know that it is not merely Apacci and I in
our family unit. We have two others that share our lives with us,” she said,
looking out on the beach were Apacci was tossing a volleyball back and forth
with another girl, this one with darker skin and long, curly dark hair. After a
minute, she left and went further down the beach where Sōsuke saw a figure
sitting out further. “And the boy down on the beach is Wonderweiss. Our adopted
son, if you will,” she said with a smile.
“Ah,” Sōsuke said, realizing. “A polyamorous group, then,” he said, nodding. “A
fascinating concept, one that is misunderstood often, I’d imagine,” he said,
thoughtfully pushing up his glasses as he spoke. “Of course, I’ve studied it;
one of my research papers I published was in variations on family structures
and the impact on those in them. Not as extensive as I would have liked, but it
was a great deal of study. Tell me, how did you come by a son? I mean, if you
don’t mind me asking, please if I’m prying,” Sōsuke stammered, embarrassed by
the assumption he had just made.
Harribel smiled, shaking her head. “No, no, don’t worry. It is fine. He’s
actually my nephew. When he was younger, he was diagnosed with autism, of a
more profound type than my brother could handle. Financially, they were in
trouble already, and to have a child that would likely never speak and would
require home schooling or a special school to ensure he grew as much as
possible… It was too much for them. His father, my brother, as well as our
parents were supportive of my taking him on. Between me and my consorts, we
managed to make the best of the situation. I was still surfing professionally
at the time, as it was a few years before I injured my knee, but I was also
quite successful selling my paintings. My consorts, as I call my partners,
could add to his knowledge and together we made an effective team to home
school him. We were still in Australia on the Gold Coast at the time, and I
believe we spent more time outside than inside with the boy.”
Sōsuke smiled and looked down as the girls played ball back and forth. “I
imagine a diverse upbringing benefited the boy. I’ve only a passing knowledge
of dealing with autism and developmental disorders, but I understand that many
people on the spectrum can be successful when exposed to a variety of learning
styles and teaching methods.”
“It did. Each of us could use our talents in different ways. Mila-Rose is a
metalworker, often designing beautiful metal sculptures, while Apacci is a poet
and very skilled in language and prose. Her intent is to get her business
degree to be able to sell our artistic products. My little Sung-Sun does
jewelry and other small crafts and sells quite well. Between all four of us, we
managed to cover all the major subjects. Wonderweiss enjoys photography, and
though he may not speak without his assistive devices, his work speaks for
itself. It was through his photography that he entered the college on a full
scholarship. He does some fascinating work with lenses that are beyond some of
the photography teachers he’s had. We are indeed a unique family,” she said,
smiling at Sōsuke.
Sōsuke smiled and could see that she was pleased at his easy acceptance. “Come,
there are some others here you may recognize. I know that Soi Fon’s boyfriend
is also in your class with Emi,” she said, heading down toward the large
bonfire where people were scattered in various states of repose or activity. He
saw the petite little physical education teacher sitting on the ground talking
quite intimately with one of his older students, Ggio Vega. He didn’t wish to
disturb them.
Suddenly Sōsuke was grabbed from behind and startled. “Sōsuke you came! Grimmy
said you weren’t a fun guy, and look at you!” came the voice of the incredibly
bubbly and slightly annoying head of the theater department Nelliel Tu Odell.
He smiled and turned to her.
“I thought that getting to know everyone would be a good idea,” Sōsuke said as
“Grimmy”, or Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, the boys’ physical education teacher and
Nel’s longtime boyfriend said walking up with a beer in his hand.
“Well, glad to see you around here, then,” Grimmjow said with a smile, and
handed Sōsuke beer from his other hand and gave Nel one. “Nice to have some
other men around. The lesbie group tends to take over now and then. I feel like
an outcast with a cock sometimes…”
Nel smacked him on the back of the head. “Shush,” she said. “Don’t make such
comments, Sōsuke doesn’t know us that well yet, he’ll think you’re being mean.”
She looked at Sōsuke, chugging the beer and giving Grimmjow the empty bottle.
“Don’t worry, it’s all in fun.”
Sōsuke nodded. “It seems pretty relaxed around here, quite nice,” he said,
noting a few other people playing in the sand as the light faded, and a few
others coming up from the parking lot.
“We like to keep it relaxed. Grimmjow, look more males for you,” Harribel said,
seeing a pair come down from the car lot. “Ggio’s friends, Findorr and
Abirama,” she said as the blonde and black-haired men came down.
“Hi, thanks for letting us come,” Findorr, a tall, lean man with long blonde
hair pulled back neatly, said with a soft smile as he approached. “Ggio said
this was a much nicer place than the last party we went to…” he muttered,
glancing at Abirama.
Abirama snorted, Sōsuke recognized him from his class as well, but he looked a
bit older than some of his other students. He had his hair pulled up on his
head in a black ponytail. “Tell me about it. Never going back to the Utagawa’s
parties again…” he muttered, getting Sōsuke’s attention.
“Utagawa’s parties?” he said with a frown, looking up.
The new pair glanced at each other and to Harribel who gave a nod. Findorr
nodded. “Um, yeah, they tend to be heavy on the drugs and light on the actual
fun. Getting high off my rocker is not my idea of a good time. And, Yoshi seems
to always have handguns on her. She was shooting at cats the night we were
there. Thankfully, she missed them, only because she was so lit she could
barely walk. Oh, Harribel, is Szaz here?” he said, turning with a smile.
Harribel nodded. “Down at the bonfire with Sun Sung. He’s been waiting to see
you, honey.”
Sōsuke could just barely see the faint blush that dusted the pale blonde’s
cheeks and he nodded and ran down. Sōsuke recognized the head of bright pink
hair that turned when Findorr got close. He noted the slight distance they kept
as they spoke, and how they started to lean in but backed off. He smiled.
“Just started dating?” he asked Harribel.
She smiled. “I suppose you do know your psychology, Professor Aizen. Yeah, they
met here a couple parties ago. Took us forever to get Findorr to talk to him.
You know Szaz, he tends to have strong personality.”
Szayel Granz was the head of the wellness center on the campus. He was known
for being very pushy with his patients when he had to be. He was rather
effeminate, but he had no problem putting one of his patients back into bed
when he had to do so. Sōsuke liked him though, he seemed to know a lot about
the medical field, and he knew he was a Nurse Practitioner instead of a doctor.
However, he knew more than some doctor’s Sōsuke had come across.
Abirama waved and headed down the beach to talk to a few girls down by the
water. Sōsuke turned to Harribel with a frown. “They mentioned the Utagawas, I
have an Utagawa boy in my class with Emilou.”
Harribel’s face fell a bit. “Yeah, according to Findorr they have some wild
parties, but include a lot of drugs and drinking and sex. Of course, it is all
rumor, you know, no one does anything about it. I’m sure if there were serious
problems, the police would intercede, after all there are children in the
household. Findorr may be exaggerating a bit, too.”
Nel snorted, downing her third bottle of beer. “Hah! That may be but Yoshi
Utagawa is fuckin’ bitch, I’m telling you. I ran into her at the store one day
and tried to be nice and she told me to fuck off!”
Grimmjow rolled his eyes. “Nel, you turn into a sailor when you drink, come on,
let’s go sit by the bonfire, maybe start a round of ninety-nine bottles of beer
or something…” he said, ushering her toward the fire, leaving Harribel with
Sōsuke again.
“Come on down by the fire with us, we can’t just ignore this beautiful night.
Let us speak of good things and no more of distressing things,” she said,
leading him down to the beach.
Sōsuke followed and joined them as much as he could. He wasn’t comfortable
engaging in some of the activities, so instead he simply watched as the fun
unfolded around him. He felt that he would definitely need a couple days to
himself to recover for the social exhaustion of the night. After a few songs
were sung, and night was deep, Sōsuke wandered toward the surf and looked out
on the ocean. He felt someone walk up and saw Harribel watching the surf.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she said softly. “Clears the mind, and helps you think,”
she said. “I’ve been on the surf my whole life. I grew up in Australia, learned
to surf there, and the waves here just aren’t as good. I don’t surf anymore,
because of the injury I took a few years ago, so it is better to be here where
the surf doesn’t call me,” she said with a soft sigh. “I remember the freedom
on the waves though, what draws your mind, Sōsuke?”
Sōsuke smiled. “That Utagawa boy. I keep hearing things, and there’s something
wrong, very wrong with him.”
Harribel nodded. “He’s nineteen, you can’t do much unless he asks for help if
there is something wrong,” she said softly. “That’s the bad part about working
in a college,” she said and looked over where Emilou was talking to Findorr.
“However, the nice part is that students can be more than students sometimes.”
Sōsuke nodded and kept watching the surf. His mind kept returning to the look
in Ichigo’s eyes. It was a look he’d seen before, and one he didn’t want to see
again on another person. It was a look he’d seen for a long time in the mirror.
Yet, there it had been, reflecting in the young man’s eyes. Unconsciously, his
left hand went to his stomach again, fingering the scar that resided there. He
didn’t notice that he was being watched by Harribel, of course, but she saw
what he was touching when his hand went to it under his sweatshirt. She didn’t
say anything, but she started to understand the man before her a little more
that night.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Monday morning dawned and there was simply no way Ichigo could get out of bed.
He hurt from head to foot and he had no idea why things were this bad with
Mabashi. Sure, now and again, Mabashi had cornered him before, and there were
the others, but that’s why they stayed downstairs. They avoided them. Of
course, when Yoshi came down to get one of them, someone had to go up, and if
Ichigo could do it, he would make sure that the bitch took him. Noba, who never
spoke much, had been the only one awake when he’d stumbled down the stairs at
almost four am. Most of the time was a blur, but he remembered the kitchen,
Yoshi, and Mabashi’s incredible violence. He knew he’d broken at least one rib
this time. Then there was something shoved into his mouth, some pill, but it
was blissful for a while. Until it wore off, of course.
Noba had helped him to the bed and quietly wrapped his ribs since Ichigo’s
hands wouldn’t stop shaking. When he was done, he kneeled in front of him and
spoke softly.
“You know what has happened, my brother, since you turned eighteen,” Noba said
in his soft, gentle voice.
Ichigo’s brow scrunched because he knew, and he didn’t want to admit it. Ho and
Ban had turned eighteen. Less than six months afterward, they disappeared and
none of them knew what happened. They’d run away, they guessed. Before that,
they were upstairs much more, to the point of Yoshi and Ryō dragging them up
the stairs. They’d refused to talk to the younger ones about what happened, and
kept to themselves. They steadily and steadily looked worse and worse, both
physically and emotionally. The rest never spoke it, but they all knew what had
happened. They were eighteen. They no longer received money from the state for
their care in the Utagawa household. Ho and Ban were being made to earn their
“keep” in other ways. They were always willing to take money, but once they
were eighteen, they actively sought money for sex with them. When they were
underage, they served another purpose entirely, of course. And now that Ichigo
was no longer underage, he couldn’t serve the purpose that they all had been
brought into this hell for, to be used as blackmail.
“Noba, I can’t…I can’t leave you guys,” he whispered, chewing his lip as he
cradled his ribs. “You remember what happened when Ho and Ban disappeared,” he
said, tears coming to his eyes. “Yoshi broke your jaw.” One of the reasons Noba
never spoke was because it hurt him physically. “She…she nearly killed Ririn.
And she shot…shot…” Ichigo’s throat worked. “She shot that kid, Cain was his
name I think…and they buried him.”
Ichigo remembered it vividly. It had been two days since Ho and Ban had
disappeared. No one had seen them leave, not even those in the basement, and
they guessed they had left after everyone else was asleep. Yoshi had been
furious and had drug them all upstairs to the kitchen. Ichigo remembered
vividly her getting in all their faces screaming about where they had gone.
None of them knew. So, she’d ended up using the butt of her gun to pistol whip
Noba in the face until his jaw shattered under the punishment. She went after
Ririn then until something cracked in her face and her forearm. Ichigo pleaded
with her to stop but she’d gone after him as well, cracking him in the head
hard enough to make the world spin. She’d thrown him down over the kitchen
table, screaming at the others to tell her what happened or she was going to
make them watch her use the gun on him. Ichigo wasn’t unused to this sort of
thing, however, he was sure that this time, she might shoot him as he screamed
as she forced it. He could hear Ririn sobbing and he just wanted to die out of
pain and fear as she cocked the gun and threatened to shoot him.
Cain, poor sweet Cain, had grabbed her arm, pushing her and the gun away from
Ichigo and Ichigo fell onto the floor without her holding him in place. He
remembered everything seeming blurry as she knocked him in the head with the
gun but and went to put it under his chin, probably to threaten him, when it
went off. Ichigo blinked and stared because part of his head just exploded in a
shower of red less than a few feet from him. He felt the wetness as blood
splattered his face and he watched his brother slump to the floor. Yoshi had
stared for a moment, and then laughed and turned to them saying she guessed
they didn’t know what happened to Ho and Ban after all.
“What if I leave and she goes after you again? Or Rin and Hana and Momo?”
Ichigo said with tears in his eyes. “Rin…he couldn’t handle being hurt like
that. You know what she would do to him, and she would put the fault on me, and
it would be my fault.”
“You won’t last like this,” he said softly, wiping the crusted blood away from
Ichigo’s mouth. “They didn’t last like this.”
Ichigo shook his head. “I have to, for you guys. No one believes that anything
happens here, and if I go to the police, nothing will change. They’ve bought
off half of them and blackmail the rest. Hell, I think I was fucked by half the
police force before I was sixteen. I can do this; I’ll be okay. If I stay, if I
let them use me, that’s less that the rest of you will get used as much. I
can’t stop the times she wants to use you guys for the videos. I wish I could.
I can do whatever else I can.”
Noba shook his head, putting a hand against Ichigo’s cheek. “Brother, you will
die. I know it.”
Ichigo looked away. Noba had an uncanny ability to predict things. For him to
say such a thing meant that he believed it completely. “B-but if they k-kill
me, th-they won’t take it out on you because it will be their fault, so…so I
don’t mind,” he said shakily and tried to smile.
Noba started to speak again then just sat down beside Ichigo and hugged him as
tightly as he dared. There wasn’t a whole lot he could say to change Ichigo’s
mind. Noba knew no matter what he said, Ichigo would gladly give his life for
the rest of them. There simply was nothing to be done about it. All he could do
was hope someone could help, and hold Ichigo after they’d let him go. Noba
rubbed Ichigo’s wrists where they’d been burned with rope and sighed. He’d sat
with Ho and Ban at the beginning, before they’d retreated into their own worlds
and wouldn’t let the other kids close to them.
Thankfully, the door didn’t open that day, and Ichigo slept through most of it.
The others didn’t speak of what happened, but like Noba they knew. Instead,
they kept quiet and helped as they could. Noba watched him carefully, keeping a
watchful eye on his breathing and his heart rate.
Noba sat and stared at him though. At first, when he had gotten here, it was
Ichigo that took care of him. He had protected him, even then when Ichigo was
only ten. Noba had been seven. He’d cried and cried, and Ichigo had been the
one that held him, took care of him. He’d told him stories and told him about
his sisters that weren’t much younger than Noba. He would make Noba feel better
when he was hungry or when he’d been beaten for something. Ichigo, though,
didn’t cry.  From that first day, he didn’t let the other kids see him cry.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Tuesday came again, and Sōsuke was hoping that the class had finished their
weekend assignment. It was relatively simple, a survey of family members and
their experience with psychology and mental health. He watched as everyone came
in and sat down, glancing up when he realized that Ichigo had come in and sat
down so quietly he hadn’t even noticed him. He was bundled up in a hoodie
again, the front of the hood pulled down over his face and slouched in his
seat. Sōsuke frowned.
“Alright class, pass up the assignment,” he said, and everyone passed them up.
He picked them up and told them to read the next chapter quietly while he went
over them. It was mostly typical answers, this one had great experiences, this
one a bad one, this one had a family that thought psychology was crap, and then
he got to Ichigo’s paper. It was blank aside from his name. He sighed.
“Ichigo, could you come up to the front please,” he said, standing. He never
spoke to students in close earshot to others. Ichigo looked up, standing up and
coming up to the desk. Sōsuke beaconed him toward the front of the room.
Ichigo stood with his arms crossed and staring at the ground. “Ichigo, you
didn’t finish the assignment.”
He nodded, still not looking up. “I couldn’t, I’ll just take an F on it. I’ll
do better,” he said softly, turning and walking back to his seat.
Sōsuke watched, noting that when he sat down he flinched as though in pain. He
moved, wrapping his arm around his ribs and scratched his head with the other,
giving Sōsuke the first clear view of his face. He blinked. He looked worse
than he had the week before. He saw that one of his other students, Uryū, kept
glancing behind him at Ichigo, trying not to look like he was looking. Sōsuke
flipped through the papers and looked at Uryū’s answers.
“Mr. Ishida, might I have a word?” he said.
Uryū looked and came forward. “Yes, Professor?” he asked, looking a bit
worried.
“You have an interest in Mr. Utagawa, might I ask why?” he said, doing his best
to keep his face neutral.
“Um, not really, I mean, I don’t know…” he stammered. “I think he might be my
cousin. And something’s not right with him. And I want to know for sure.”
Sōsuke smiled. “Well, why don’t you ask him?”
“I tried, he doesn’t really talk,” Uryū said, sighing. “He brushes me off every
time I try.”
Sōsuke nodded. “Just don’t let it interfere with your studies, Mr. Ishida,” he
said. “And good work on the assignment, by the way.”
Uryū smiled and headed to his seat. Sōsuke sighed, glancing at Ichigo. He
obviously wasn’t reaching for help. So, he didn’t have a lot of options. He
wanted to act, though, but without proof, no one would listen, and if the boy
himself denied whatever it was, nothing could be done. He sighed. Too many
problems…and the semester just started. But there was something else, something
that he needed to shove away because his heart fluttered in his throat when he
looked at him. He had to stop this. He wasn’t that person that went from
partner to partner anymore, but this was more. This was a deep feeling that he
couldn’t push away. Class ended, and everyone filed out, but Sōsuke’s mind was
still on the worrisome situation.
Sōsuke sighed and rubbed his forehead and then jumped as his cell buzzed in his
pocket. He pulled it out, wondering who in the world would be calling him in
the middle of the day. He smiled, though, as the name came across the screen.
“Gin,” he said as he answered.
“Mah, mah! I thought I wasn’t going to catch you, Susu. I wanted to see how you
were. I heard you left Kyoto and went back home to Karakura,” Gin’s voice
sounded somewhat pained at that.
“Just too much for me. I thought I was strong enough, but I just wasn’t,”
Sōsuke said sadly. He couldn’t help it, he still felt like he had failed every
patient he was working with.
Gin snorted on the line. “You are plenty strong, Susu. Remember that. Where you
been, and where you’ve come, you are, okay?”
Sōsuke smirked. Gin always got riled up when Sōsuke tried to put himself down
in any way. “I know, but I still feel bad.”
“Susu, you were in the hospital for a month almost. After the incident at the
club, and how you felt about what I did… I’m glad you left. Please, I want you
to take care of yourself. You can’t let that happen. I know you wanna help
other people, but don’t help people so much you lose yourself, okay?” Gin said,
and Sōsuke heard the bare sincerity in his voice.
Sōsuke smiled to himself. “I’m teaching, now, so it’s different than the trauma
counseling. I don’t have to face it every day, trying help people who don’t
think they can survive. Plus, I have Jūshirō here.  I talk to him every week
now. And ‘Kuya and Kissy are nearby if I need them. Either one would help me if
I needed them. ‘Kuya got me the place I’m living in, but I won’t let him pay
for it,” he said smiling to himself.
“I was calling you because I’m…I’m coming back to Karakura. My sisters,
Matsumoto and Haineko, they need me. I guess Haineko got into some trouble, and
Matsumoto is having a hard time getting her out of it. So, I thought I’d let
you know,” he said, sounding serious again. “I didn’t want to show up
unannounced.”
Sōsuke’s heart clenched. “You know we can’t pick up where we left off,” he said
gently.
“I know, I know,” Gin said. “I…just wish it had ended differently. I didn’t
mean to hurt you like I did. I didn’t know that it would push you away. I did
what I thought I had to, Sōsuke. I don’t regret it.”
Sōsuke knew that Gin was a good man at heart, but what he had done… Sōsuke
never condoned violence, and when they had met, Gin had promised that he wasn’t
the man he used to be and that he had moved away from a life that was very
different. It turned out that he hadn’t moved on from his past, and when Sōsuke
had been hurt by something, Gin had gone right back to what he had been.
“I know, Gin, and that’s okay. I…well I haven’t been with anyone since then,
anyway,” he said softly. Almost seven months since he’d last seen Gin. “But I
can’t go back to what we were.”
“I’m with someone else now, Susu, and I want you to meet him, though,” Gin said
softly. “He’s very sweet. And he’s very shy, just like you. But he likes to be
fucked violent and hard, so we get along great. He’s also a bit of a sadist,
but we have to find other outlets for that.”
Sōsuke sighed. And there was Gin’s perversion coming out. “Ah, so he’s a
perfect match.
“But…but…um, I did want to ask…if maybe you might want to…have some fun with us
while I’m there?” Gin said softly. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to make you do
something you don’t want to do, but…I miss you. And Izuru, he’s very interested
in letting someone else fuck him while I watch, or even double him,” he said,
and Sōsuke heard the sound to his voice. It was pleading.
Sōsuke was about to turn him down flat but then he thought about it for a
second. “Aha, you’re thinking about it!” Gin said suddenly and Sōsuke felt his
face flush.
“I will think about it, okay?” he said. “When will you get into town?”
Gin’s voice was lighter when he spoke and Sōsuke, though he wasn’t sure he was
in the mood for a threesome with his extremely perverted ex-boyfriend, but he
wasn’t sure. He hadn’t had someone in a while, and considering his long string
of lovers over the years, going more than a few months without one was rare.
“Alright, Susu, I’ll be there in a few weeks, still arranging time off from
work for me and Izuru. I’ll call when it is closer and I know more. Love,
Susu.”
The phone clicked off and he put it down and thought. Could he possibly support
having a random encounter with Gin and his new partner? He sighed. Maybe it
would relieve some stress. Not like he had to worry yet, though. However, the
work that Gin spoke of was what had driven them apart, and he wasn’t sure that
he could deal with even a ghost of that past in his life
===============================================================================
***** Chaotic Beginnings *****
Thursday morning saw Sōsuke sitting in the teachers’ break room with a few of
the other teachers. Ulquiorra Cifer, the statistics and math teacher, sat
across from him reading the newspaper. He heard Nel and Grimmjow arguing on the
other side of the room over the coffee. He swore those two had one of the most
interesting relationships he had ever seen. He imagined that they had a lot of
angry sex with each other. He shook his head. Why did his mind always shift
immediately to the sexual aspect of relationships? He knew that it was because
of his past, of course, but the fact that even after all this time he couldn’t
shake the fact that sex was always his first thought about relationships. He
glanced back over and looked across at the Ulquiorra.
“Cifer, tell me, you have the Utagawa boy in your class, right?” he asked,
swirling his coffee in the Styrofoam cup. He thought he remembered seeing his
Cifer listed with him in his class.
Ulquiorra looked up. “Yes, I do, quiet kid, troubled. I’ve offered to let him
meditate with me, but he has refused,” he said quietly. “He is quite in need of
something that can calm his mind, however. I wish that he would reconsider.”
Ulquiorra was one of those people that fascinated Sōsuke. He’d done a bit of
study in his program about the psychology of religions, and the man was a prime
example of what changes it could bring to someone. He’d been exploited as a
child by his father for his math knowledge as he was somewhat of a prodigy.
He’d run away to a Zen Buddhist temple, and converted and become a monk for a
while. He was perhaps one of the youngest professors, only twenty-four, but he
was possessed of an incredible knowledge. He also used meditation a lot, and
had gotten several problem students through tough times just by using that
alone.
“Yeah, troubled, alright,” Sōsuke muttered.
The semester had only been going a few weeks, and already he could not get his
mind off the boy. Every week he seemed to have some new injury, and his home
assignments were always rushed as though he did them before class. He wanted to
say something but he was afraid of the results. He knew if there was a problem
with things, the boy might back off and never speak to him no matter how hard
he tried.
Sōsuke stood and headed to class, and noticed that the boy was even more
withdrawn than he had been the week before. He was also bundled in a larger
hoodie than he normally wore. Sōsuke let the class go on but summoned him right
before he released the others. He had to do something. He locked the door and
returned to sit down at his desk to stare at the young man.
“Ichigo, something is wrong,” Sōsuke said softly. “Please, tell me what is
going on with you,” he said. “You are constantly bruised and in obvious
discomfort.”
Ichigo looked at the professor from hooded eyes, swallowing convulsively. He
couldn’t say anything. He shook his head. “N-nothing, sir, I just am very
clumsy.”
Sōsuke sighed, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. “Take off
your hoodie, Ichigo.”
Ichigo looked up at him and Sōsuke caught sight of the bruising around his
mouth. “I don’t want to.”
“Why not?” Sōsuke asked quietly.
Ichigo’s hands were shaking a bit, he noted. “I just don’t, okay?”
Sōsuke was about to bluff his way into this, and he hoped the kid was too
rattled to notice. “Ichigo, if I think you’re having problems that might impact
your studies, I’ll go to your home and have a discussion with your parents.”
Ichigo’s eyes went wider. “No!” he exclaimed, blinking owlishly at his
professor. “No, no, please, don’t.”
“Then take off your hoodie,” Sōsuke said nodding. He had no idea why this boy
didn’t know that Sōsuke couldn’t do that, but it was telling that Ichigo didn’t
know.
Ichigo swallowed again and reached up to unzip it slowly. Again, his hands were
shaking. A moment later he stood in a white t-shirt that was at least two sizes
too small and his jeans that were far too big and only held up by the raggedy
belt he wore down to the last hole. Sōsuke stood up and moved around the desk.
“Ichigo, who is doing this?” he said quietly, not touching him but looking at
him.
His arms were covered in bruises of various shades of healing, mostly from what
looked like someone grabbing him by the arm. Around his wrists, there were deep
red gouges and what he guessed were rope burns. His neck was covered with deep,
red marks that were not just “love bites”, they were violent and harsh looking,
some of which had broken the skin with teeth. He could see finger shaped
bruising on his shoulders peeking out from under his shirt. He glanced down and
where the too tight shirt rode up on his back there were darker purple bruises
near the small of his back and hips.
“N-no one. I’m fine. Just…just nothing to worry about,” he said, crossing his
arms and shifting uncomfortably. “I’m clumsy.”
“Ichigo, you don’t get finger print bruises from being clumsy,” Sōsuke said,
sitting on his desk in front of him and staring at him hard.
“I…I…” Ichigo started and didn’t know what to say.
“If someone is hurting you, making you do things that you don’t want to do, I
can help you, you know?” he said gently. “You don’t have to go through this
sort of thing. There’s help, and you’re old enough to not have to worry about
discussing anything with your parents.”
Ichigo looked up and glare at him and Sōsuke saw something that made his heart
beat faster. There was fire there, a spark of incredible fury. “I don’t do
anything I don’t want to do,” he said with such a ferocity that Sōsuke wondered
if this had been consensual. It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d met
someone into heavy masochism like that.
Sōsuke reached out, though to put a hand on his shoulder and he flinched back
involuntarily and shook his head. “I gotta go,” he muttered, grabbing his
hoodie and his bag and disappearing out the door, fumbling with the lock before
he got it.
Sōsuke watched him go, more concerned now than ever before. Sure, such marks
could come from consensual acts. However, he had all the reactions of someone
who was suffering from abuse. Those who were involved in consensual situations
did not flinch and wince like that most the time. His behavior patterns were
worrisome, and starting to get far too close to his own past for his liking. He
sat down and thought for a long time. Without thinking, his hand went to his
lower left abdomen and rubbed the scar there. He pushed his own memories away,
he couldn’t think about that now.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Isshin sat in the bar and watched carefully. He’d gotten closer than he’d
imagined possible this time. He was literally sitting in a bar in the very city
where everything began. How was it that everything seemed to come full circle
so neatly? Everything would end where it began…
The rain had been heavy that night. Masaki, sweet Masaki, had been walking home
by the river with their oldest, Ichigo. The rain was no bother; both loved the
rain. He knew that they would have been laughing and Ichigo would have splashed
in the puddles along the way. When they got home, both would have been soaking
wet, and Ichigo and Masaki would both be covered in varying degrees of mud.
He’d been next door to their home in the clinic when the phone rang in his
pocket. Masaki’s voice was choked on the other end and he could barely
understand what she said.
“Run…Isshin…run…In…Inaba’s comin’…” and then line went dead.
He knew what it meant. He knew all too well. How stupid could he have been? Why
had he not taken even more precautions? He thought he’d never know. He thought
before he found out, Inaba would be locked away and never seen again.
His choice had been to protect his family finally. The moment his one-time best
friend and college roommate Kagerōza Inaba had turned to him and said Isshin
would continue to work outside the law or his family was dead, Isshin had gone
to the police. It was simple, they said. He was to keep doing whatever Inaba
said. Inaba, who was involved in hardcore human trafficking and drug running,
used Isshin’s services as a doctor when him or one of his associates, or even
one of his “property” needed medical attention.
He never thought that there would be a corrupt officer among those working the
case. He never thought Inaba would go through with his threat. Despite
everything he was doing, Isshin held hope that Inaba was still the friend he
had made in college. Masaki, though, had feared him. She wanted to leave. She
wanted to take their kids and run. Isshin had convinced her they were safe
because the police were handling everything and he had faith in the system to
punish Inaba. He’d been wrong. He’d run next door and grabbed the twins and
made it to his cousin Kaien Shiba’s house in Rukongai near Tokyo in a few
hours. He and his wife Miyako were unable to have children of their own. He
told them to adopt the girls and Ichigo as soon as possible so their names
would change to Shiba and Inaba wouldn’t be able to find them. Then he took off
and disappeared after leaving a suicide note saying he was guilty of putting
his wife in danger and going to jump from the cliffs. He knew they would never
look for a body from there. He had to trust Kaien to battle the courts for his
rights to his nephew and nieces. He’d detailed his wishes in the note, but he
knew Kaien would take care of any problems.
Inaba disappeared before the night was over. It began a ten-year personal
mission to find the man that murdered his wife. He’d called the hospital before
he faked his suicide, and he knew Ichigo was alive. However, as a victim in a
crime, Isshin knew he’d stay in the system for at least a week before Kaien
would get him out. He had then left to chase the bastard, always one step
behind him. All of Europe and all of Asia, as the bastard set up and ran his
illegal enterprises. He never managed to get to him, though. He slunk through
the darkest parts of the world, making friends out of Inaba’s enemies, and
chasing him through the world. Imagine the surprise when he found himself in a
bar in Karakura where the two-toned haired bastard sat at a table with another
man with dark hair. He heard them talking quite clearly from the bar.
“So, Ryō, how goes the household?” Inaba said with a smile, drinking a beer
slowly.
The other man smirked, dark eyes dancing. “Oh, my darling wife has quite the
brood these days. Got one over eighteen if you want. I know you don’t like to
fuck underage ones. It’s like you worry we might try to blackmail you too.”
Inaba snorted and he heard the other man chuckle. “Told the little fucker he
could leave, but if he didn’t, he was gonna pay his fucking way on his back.
Little bastard thinks he’s taking care of the younger ones by staying. Makes a
halfway decent whore when you tell him that you’re going to drag the younger
ones upstairs and fuck them if he doesn’t cooperate.”
Inaba smirked. “Quite nice, those twins ran off when they turned eighteen,
didn’t they?”
Ryō smirked. “Yes, but they didn’t run far. Soft hearted twit of a neighbor
took them in. Poor little things had their minds break, though. Worthless rats,
both of them. This one is tougher, though. He’s been working now for a year and
a half now, unlike those idiots who ran away after six months of the real
work.”
Inaba giggled. “Oh, my yes, yes, lucrative business, is it?”
Ryō shrugged, drinking his scotch. “I suppose. The brats bring in good monthly
checks, and they’re good for entertainment value during the parties, you know.
Such fun to get high and watch the fucking coke addicts fuck them into the
ground. The smoke makes me lethargic, couldn’t get a cock up if I wanted to
when I’m smoking. Fuck, I don’t think I could get my cock hard anytime, anyway.
Yoshi and her kind though, speed ballers and the meth heads; they got the
stamina for sex when they’re going. Yoshi has a bad habit of beating the shit
out of them, though. I’d have to care to stop them, though,” he said, smirking.
“Of course, that’s not the best part. I’m sure you can guess what we use the
videos for around here.”
“Exactly why I won’t fuck one of the underage brats,” Inaba groused. “Last
thing I need is you hanging that shit over my head like half the fucking police
here.”
“It was your idea, after all,” Ryō said, sipping his drink. “But whatever, you
got first dibs.”
“Well, I shall come by tonight. Can I be assured of some entertainment?” Inaba
said with a smirk.
“Of course, of course, though he has school Tuesday morning, but that’s a few
days off. Can’t fucking homeschool them any when they go to college. Mabashi’s
out of jail though, and he’s taken to coming to visit him every night. Stupid
fucking bastard, I think he’s in love with the kid, the way he fawns over him
and acts like a schoolgirl when he gets his hands on him. So be careful around
him, I’d suggest waiting to get your hands on him until after you’re out of
Mabashi’s eyeshot. He’s fine, but he’s decked more than one person that tried
to lay hands on the kid when he was around,” Ryō said, sipping the drink again.
Inaba snorted. “Why would you put up with that? The little fucking slut belongs
to you, right?”
“He pays, well, and not only for that piece of ass but also for the coke and
heroin I sell him. I must thank you that is some good quality shit you’ve been
sending my way lately. I’ve been cutting it though, stupid fucking addicts
don’t notice a difference, though,” he said standing and pulling on his jacket.
“Come, now, if you want to try out my household goods, you’ll have to get there
before Mabashi lays claim to the fucking brat for the night.”
Isshin watched them leave and felt his stomach turn. He looked up to the
bartender with a smile. “So, any parties of the…fun variety in this podunk
town?” he said gruffly.
The bartender smirked. “What kind of fun, mister?”
“Oh, I don’t know, something to put my mind off the real world,” he said,
winking at him. He thought he recognized the guy from ten years ago, but Isshin
was unrecognizable. His face was scarred, and covered with rough stubble. He’d
let his hair grow long and let it hang loose around his face. He was a
different man than ten years ago.
The bartender smirked and slid a card to him. Isshin laid an extra fifty on the
counter and left. He knew where to go, and found himself outside a large
mansion and heaved a sigh, knocking on the door. The door opened and a girl
with short hair and almost nude except a short skirt answered the door, joint
in hand. Isshin frowned because she had a headband with cat ears on it.
“I heard to come here for some stress relief,” he said.
The girl snorted and turned, letting him in. She had one hell of a pair of hips
on her, he thought. “Yo, Ryō, got a newbie,” she called.
“Haineko, go find yourself a corner and pass the fuck out,” someone else
yelled. “That shit you took is going to kick in soon.” The girl flipped him off
and then disappeared upstairs.
The man from the bar came out and smiled at Isshin. “You’re new in town,” he
said and Isshin recognized the reek of opium smoke. He smirked. “Yeah, been
needed a place to trip out on some shit and not have to worry about fucking
bums stealing my shoes,” he said, hands stuffed deeply in his pockets.
Ryō nodded and led him into a large living room where he saw Inaba sprawled on
a couch with a crack pipe at his lips. Isshin sat down at the chair sitting
next to the sofa he was on. “Poison?”
Isshin thought quickly. What could he appear to take but not? He smiled at him.
“Got any Lucy?”
“Oh, one of those, got any money?” Ryō asked, arching a brow.
Isshin handed him over a few rumpled bills. He had bills that were in better
shape, but he was supposed to be a junky here. Ryō took it and disappeared. He
looked up where a younger man with reddish orange hair came in and flopped into
the seat across from Inaba. “Yoshi, where’s my boy?”
A woman with long dark hair came in with a cigarette and a bottle of vodka in
hand. “Fuck if I know, Mabashi, little slut’s still downstairs,” she said,
sipping from the bottle. “But don’t get any ideas, you’ll be sloppy seconds
tonight, fucker,” she said slinking down beside Inaba. “Inaba-sama has first
rounds with the strawberry baby.”
“What?” Mabashi said, eyes turning on Inaba. “He’s mine, you said…”
“I said that he was yours as long as you had the money and he wasn’t taken by
someone more important,” Ryō said, coming in and handing Isshin a packet of
pills before he turned back. Isshin mimed taking them, sliding them under his
tongue and then blowing his nose, spitting them into the tissue before he
tucked it into his pocket. “And Inaba here is our drug supplier,” Ryō said,
glaring at the younger man.
Mabashi snorted. “Fine, you watch yourself, supplier or no, he better be no
worse for the wear when you’re done with him.”
Ryō rolled his eyes. “If you care that much, Mabashi, whisk the fucking little
whore away and make him your boy-wife,” he said, smirking.
“Fuck you, Ryō, I don’t care. I just like what I fucking like,” he responded.
Isshin could hear the tinge of something more in his voice. Isshin, in his time
doing this, had seen it many time. A john falling in love with a sex worker. It
never ended well.
“Go get him, my love,” Ryō said, looking at Yoshi. “He’s scared of you, he
won’t argue.”
Yoshi sighed. “Fine,” she muttered, disappearing. As she left, Isshin saw the
handgun in the back band of her mini skirt.
Isshin would stay as long as Inaba did. When the time was right, he planned to
kill him. For ten years he’d dreamed of getting his revenge for murdering
Masaki and forcing him to leave his kids. He would… Isshin’s thoughts ground to
a halt as Yoshi threw a young man into the middle of the room. He tumbled to
the floor with a whine. No, Isshin thought, his heart rate accelerating.
“Stop being such a little bitch, meet Inaba, Inaba, here’s our sweet ripe
little strawberry for your pleasure. Ichigo, if you so much as say a word
wrong, I will fucking beat you and your little bunch downstairs until you can’t
stand,” Yoshi said, pulling him to stand and speaking into his ear. “I’ll make
you watch while I fuck that new little slut with my biggest fucking gun,” she
nearly growled.
Ichigo nodded. He glanced toward where Isshin was sitting and Isshin’s world
came tumbling down upon him like a house of cards. Those eyes, the wild orange
hair that no brush could tame, and that scowl that creased his brow for a
second before he was tossed into Inaba. Inaba laughed. “Oh, my, what a cutie,”
he said, turning Ichigo’s face toward him. “Come now, we’ll have some fun.”
Inaba put down his pipe in the ash tray next to him and pulled Ichigo down onto
his lap, sliding his one hand down the front of his too big jeans. Ichigo
closed his eyes and bit down on his lip. “Hmm, is he good enough to cum for me
or is he one of those little passive cunt boys?” he asked, looking at Ryō who
sat sighing in the chair as he worked his hand further between Ichigo’s legs
making him wince.
“Ah, he’s young, Inaba-sama, stroke him enough, or finger his hole a bit, and
you’ll get him going if that’s what you want. I’ve seen him pop off with two up
his ass before no matter how much he cries about it. He likes it, don’t you,
Ichigo-bō?” Yoshi said, pulling his face up and smiling at him.
Ichigo’s throat worked for a second before he just stared at the ground until
Inaba did something that made him gasp. Inaba laughed a bit. “Ah, there it is.
Just gotta get your finger in there to his fuck button.”
Ichigo couldn’t have been any redder as he stared at his hands for a moment,
panting despite his attempts not to do it. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been
fingered, or even fucked, in the middle of the living room in front of everyone
before, of course. It was sheer mortification that his body would react without
him wanting to do so. Inaba pulled his hand out of his pants and he sighed in
relief for a second.
“Now, let’s go see how good a little cunt you have, huh?” Inaba whispered,
shoving him off his lap and almost making him stumble into Isshin.
Ichigo’s face paled dramatically and the fear that crossed his face was almost
tangible as Inaba stood, grabbing him by the bicep and dragging him to the
stairs. No, Isshin thought. It couldn’t be. His Ichigo was with Kaien. He
couldn’t be here. He felt his mouth go dry as he glanced to see the one named
Mabashi glaring at the stairs. Ryō had gotten up leaving the two of them the
only ones in the room.
“You don’t like to share,” Isshin slurred, pasting a goofy smile on his face.
This was the hardest act he had ever put on in his life.
Mabashi looked back at him and shook his head. “Not really. I get kinda
possessive. Fuck, man, I’m the one that took his fucking virginity when he was
fucking thirteen years old. I guess I see that as mine,” he muttered, running a
hand over his head. “Best fucking fuck I’ve ever had in my life,” he said, eyes
narrowing. “And maybe more, I don’t know,” and Isshin saw a shadow of something
else across his face. “Sometimes I feel bad, you know, when I’m done with him.
He always fucking cries. I just…once I want him not to cry.” He stood up and
walked out of the room and Isshin felt like there was a hole at his feet that
wanted to swallow him up.
It couldn’t be him. It couldn’t. Ichigo was safe. Ichigo was with Kaien and
Karin and Yuzu. That wasn’t his Ichigo.
Isshin Kurosaki knew better, though. He knew his son, ten years later, but it
was still his son. Those eyes were unmistakable, and that hair. Suddenly, he
wished he had taken that LSD. He certainly could have used something at that
moment. He stared at the stairs and he wanted to go storming up them and take
his son, his precious son, away from the man that murdered his mother. He
wanted to do anything. But he couldn’t. If he did that, there was a chance he
and Ichigo both would die before the night was over.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo’s first thought when the weird man threw him into the bedroom was he
needed to run. He had no idea why, he just had an instant of absolute terror of
this man he’d never seen before. He’d never seen him before. He hadn’t…or had
he? Ichigo froze inside the room and then glanced at him, wide eyed. Why was he
so frightened? He looked up as the man, Inaba was his name, turned and stared
at him.
“Are you an idiot or something? Or do you desire me to slam you against the
wall?” he said, a look on his face that was nowhere near kind. “Should I beat
you before I fuck you? I think that would make your boyfriend Mabashi mad
though. I think he might be a bit upset if I damage his favorite whore. Let’s
face it, if you think he likes you for any other reason, you are an idiot.”
Ichigo swallowed and shook his head. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done this dozens
of times, especially in the last few months. He moved over where the bed was
and stood shaking. His arousal still hadn’t faded, but he knew that it wouldn’t
take long once this guy started messing with him. He hated the fact that his
body was so fucking sensitive. He had a damn hair trigger on his cock, and it
was more annoying than he could have ever expressed. He had so many of them
tell him that he was such a needy bottom because he came so easily.
Inaba smirked. “You know, I murdered a fucking brat named Ichigo once,” he said
calmly, circling Ichigo like he was some sort of prey. Ichigo’s back
straightened. “Yeah, long time ago, you kind of look like him. But that’s not
possible, since I killed him and his whore mother.”
Ichigo fought the tears welling in his eyes. He wasn’t going to think of it. He
wasn’t…but then, it crashed into him. He knew this man. He knew him very well.
All the walls he had built around a horrible memory that he refused to remember
came crashing down. He’d told the others about his mother. He’d put them to bed
with stories of her face. He never told them about how he had watched her die
and could do nothing to stop it.
 “Momma, I love the rain!” the boy, not much older than nine, said with a grin
to his mother.
His mother, a woman with beautiful, long brown hair smiled at him. “I know, my
love, I know,” she answered, her eyes twinkling with the dim light. “But do be
careful, sweet Ichigo, don’t get your pants too wet…”
“Good evening, Masaki Kurosaki,” came a voice that neither of them expected.
Masaki looked up to see her husband’s friend, Inaba, and she froze. If he was
here, it meant he knew what Isshin was doing. He knew that Isshin had turned on
him. “Inaba, what brings you out in this dire night?” she asked, grabbing
Ichigo’s hand and pulling him toward her.
Inaba’s mouth turned into a mockery of a smile. “Whatever do you mean? It is
quite a beautiful night,” he said, looking up as the rain fell onto his face.
“A beautiful night, for your death. I can’t abide a traitor, you know. I can’t
stand someone that says they’re my friend and then turns one me. Just…leaves a
bad taste in my mouth, you know. So…Isshin should suffer. I’ll kill you and his
boy, then I’ll go kill your daughters while he watches.”
Ichigo felt his mother’s hand tense and he looked at the strange man he’d only
seen a couple times. Before either he or his mother could react, a silver flash
in the rain sent him to the ground, clutching an exploding pain inside his
belly. He couldn’t scream, and the world around him seemed to dim. He heard his
mother scream and there was another ear shattering crack and Ichigo was warm
again, so warm. He rolled his face up from the mud and saw the man grinning at
them. The world turned black and swam away for a very long time.
Ichigo came out of the thought when he felt a sharp pain to his cheek and
realized that the larger man had slapped him. He blinked, putting a hand
against his face.
“I said, how long have you been here, or are you a complete idiot?” he snarled
very near to Ichigo’s face. “What was your last name before Ryō took you?”
Ichigo didn’t think, he just responded. “I don’t know, I was too small to
remember my name,” he said softly. “Ryō…Ryō said my name was Ichigo b-because
my hair was red like a str-strawberry.”
Inaba stepped back. “So, you were too young to remember and your hair was
redder when you were younger?” he said, eyes narrowing at Ichigo, who nodded
slowly. It wasn’t entirely a lie. His hair was darker when it was wet.
Inaba nodded and grabbed Ichigo by the collar. “Good, I’d hate to have to kill
you when I was done with you,” he whispered before he threw him down.
Several hours later, Inaba made his way down through the household and saw
there were more people sitting around drugged or high. He saw the girl with
short hair, Haineko he thought her name was, on her hands and knees behind the
sofa being roughly fucked by someone with a bald head, but to be honest, her
eyes were so drug clouded that Inaba had to wonder if she even noticed the
fact. Ryō had asked him if he wanted to fuck her or one of the boys, and he
took the boy, mostly because he enjoyed the pure dominance over another male.
He paused beside Ryō who was reclined in a chair and staring at the ceiling.
“Quite nice, old friend. Apologies for the injury, I was a bit overzealous.”
Ryō waved at him and Inaba left. As soon as Inaba was gone, Mabashi was on his
feet and up the stairs. Injury? He saw the door was cracked and he heard Ichigo
still inside, and the telltale sound of sniffling and the occasional whimper of
pain. It was something he was familiar with; however, it was generally him that
left the brat in pain. He shoved the door open and saw Ichigo sitting on the
bed, curled into the corner against the walls, and holding his left arm over
his chest. He hadn’t put clothes back on yet, which was unusual. Generally, he
was dressed as soon as someone was done with him.
“Berry?” Mabashi said, moving into the room. Ichigo’s head popped up and he
stared at Mabashi with a tear stained face. His cheek was already puffy and
red, and his lip was split. “Berry, what…” he said, rushing forward and
grabbing his arm off his chest. Ichigo responded with a loud yelp of pain.
Mabashi wasn’t stupid; he knew a broken arm when he saw one. “What happened?”
he said with teeth gritted together.
“He…he put it on…my back, just…just…pushed too much…” he said, staring at the
arm that Mabashi held, now with a far gentler touch.
Mabashi nodded, knowing it would do no good to mention it. Instead, he ripped
the sheet and grabbed one of the loose boards on the floor. He quickly splinted
it and wrapped it enough that it would at least be able to heal enough, if they
left him alone for a while. It didn’t take long but soon he saw the exhaustion
tugging on the younger boy’s eyes. Mabashi stood and closed the door, locking
it, knowing that everyone downstairs was too drunk or high to even care, and
slid into the bed beside Ichigo. “Here, I’ll stay here and make sure they leave
you be for tonight,” he said, tugging his body out of the tight knot he’d
rolled himself into.
Ichigo was too tired to argue, he lay down around Mabashi’s body. Mabashi,
without thinking began stroking his hair as he fell asleep. Before long, he
looked down on the sleeping form and sighed.
“Why do things have to be so fucked up, Berry-baby?” he whispered to the empty
and quiet room. “I want you to stop crying,” he said, reaching to wipe the
wetness from his eyes. He never complained, only his tears spoke of the pain he
endured. “I hoped you’d run away like Ho and Ban did, you know that? I was
gonna find you, and pick you up, and was gonna run off somewhere like the
Bahamas or Spain with you. But you’re too fucking stubborn, and you wanna
protect your brothers and sisters so bad that you can’t fucking be selfish,
even for one day,” he said, stroking Ichigo’s hair gently again. “What am I
gonna do? The fucking drugs make me so goddamned horrible, Ichigo. I stopped
them; they don’t know it yet, for you. So, I’d stop hurting you. I just…I just
want to be with you and I don’t want you to cry…” he said softly.
He wasn’t lying. After the incident in the kitchen when he broke Ichigo’s ribs
again, he’d sworn off the drugs. Yoshi and Ryō didn’t realize, hell half the
time they were too drugged up to see anything. He didn’t want to hurt Ichigo
anymore. He didn’t want him to cry anymore.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
When Ichigo missed three days of school, well three classes, so a week and a
half, Sōsuke got a bit worried and decided to try and find out what was going
on. He called the number on the card Ichigo had filled out, but it was
disconnected. He thought about going to his house, but was afraid that it might
cause more trouble if he wasn’t careful. Instead he decided to go talk to his
other student, Uryū Ishida. Through the various gossip channels, he found out
that Uryū seemed to have more than a passing interest in Ichigo, and he wanted
to know why. He’d called and asked if he could meet, and Uryū had said to come
to his apartment that evening.
It was a nice little fourplex, he thought as he approached, nearly tripping
over a pair of cats as he walked up the sidewalk. He approached and knocked on
their apartment, apartment A. Uryū opened the door and smiled.
“Come in Professor Aizen,” he said, motioning him into the place.
Sōsuke smiled and saw another young man, a much larger man with darker skin,
sitting in the recliner reading a magazine on cute animals. He blinked. Oh well
there were stranger things to be interested in.  “Please, I’m not your teacher
here, Sōsuke,” he said.
Uryū nodded and sat down opposite of him and nodded toward Chad. “Sōsuke, this
is Chad, my roommate,” he said with a smile. Chad looked up and nodded to him.
Sōsuke smiled. “Roommate,” he muttered, glancing between them.
Uryū frowned and glanced at Chad before shaking his head. “Anyway, you wanted
to talk to me?”
“Ah yes, I notice you have an interest in Ichigo. I wanted to ask why, outside
the academic setting,” he said with a smile.
Uryū nodded. “Um, well, my father is still trying to get at the files, but I
think he’s my cousin, the son of my father’s sister. She was murdered when I
was young, and her son would be the same age as Ichigo. There was a debate
about whether her son lived or died. We are pretty sure that he was adopted by
the Utagawa’s even though his father’s cousin, Kaien Shiba was supposed to
adopted him and his twin sisters. Shiba has the two girls. We are unsure how
Ichigo could have ended up with the Utagawas. There are conflicting medical
records. He is listed as deceased on one yet listed as in ICU on another.”
Sōsuke nodded. “And you are sure this is your cousin for more reason than
that?”
“He looks like him, the hair is rather unique,” Uryū said with a slight shrug.
“And he has a scar on his chin that is the same as one Ichigo had when we were
kids.”
There was a knock at the door and Uryū got up and let Yoshino into the room.
“Oh, Uryū, you have a guest,” she said, smiling at Sōsuke. Sōsuke stood and
offered his hand.
“Yoshino, this is on one of my professors, Sōsuke Aizen, he’s come to ask about
the Utagawas,” he said sitting down on the sofa again as Yoshino sat on the arm
between him and Sōsuke.
“Ah, yes, the Utagawas…” she said, looking distant. “They live on the next
piece of land. We’re separated by the fence line, though. Doesn’t mean that we
don’t notice things. Koga’s wards, Ho and Ban are Utagawas.”
“Koga is another resident here, and Yoshino owns this place,” Uryū supplied.
Sōsuke nodded. “What happened with the boys?”
“We don’t speak on it much. But a couple years ago, Koga caught the two boys
rummaging through his garbage. It was a gloomy, starless night, and while it
wasn’t cold, it was cold enough. They were frightened and had been in the
elements for a while. We found out they had run away from the Utagawa
household, and while we weren’t able to get the details of why, no one came
looking for them. From what he could put together, they’d turned eighteen, and
something terrible had started going on, and they ran away. But they’re
damaged, I suppose you would say. Whatever happened, it changed and warped them
permanently,” Yoshino said, almost sadly.
Sōsuke frowned and nodded. “Your cousin is nineteen…”
Uryū nodded. “Yeah, and I don’t know what to do! I called the police when I
heard something, and they said that there was nothing to worry about, and I’m
thinking they pay off the cops,” he said, rubbing his eyes thoughtfully. He had
no idea why he was getting emotional.
Uryū felt someone put an arm around his back and he was grateful of it. He
sighed and turned into it, and realized that it had to have been Chad. For a
second he almost said something but then he just sighed into the warm body next
to him. It was either that or start crying almost immediately in front of his
professor.
Sōsuke smiled at the sight. The bigger man had immediately gone to Uryū when he
saw him breaking down emotionally. “I’ll see what I can do, Uryū. And thank
you, Yoshino, was it?” he said, standing and nodding at them.
 “Ah, yes, come, I’ll see you out,” she said, smiling as she stood up and led
him out the doorway. They spoke a little more and Sōsuke stopped and stared up
the hill at the hulking house past the fence. He wondered what secrets it held.
He was slowly uncovering them.
The next day, Ichigo was in class, but he was most certainly not doing well. He
held his left arm against his chest and it was obvious it was giving him pain.
As class ended, once again, he stopped Ichigo from leaving.
“Please, let me help you,” Sōsuke said softly, using his hand to turn Ichigo’s
face toward him. “Something is going on, and you need help,” he said, his heart
aching merely from considering those wide, infinitely sad eyes.
Ichigo’s brows knitted together for a moment, more from the gentle touch on his
face than the words he was hearing. “I…I want to,” he said, finally, swallowing
the ball in his throat.
“Then tell me, and let me help you,” Sōsuke said softly.
“I…I can’t…it isn’t just about me,” he said, biting into his lower lip as he
spoke. “I have to…I can’t run like they did. I can’t leave them…”
“Ichigo, is someone making you do things you don’t want to do?” he asked,
again.
“N-no one makes me,” he said quietly, looking away. Sōsuke knew he was lying,
but in a way that he didn’t think he was lying.
“That’s not true. You know it and so do I,” he said softly.
Ichigo didn’t know what to do. He wanted to tell someone, anyone, but he wasn’t
sure what would happen. He couldn’t be sure the others would be safe. He could
stay here, never go back, but they would suffer for it, for his own
selfishness. “I…I can’t…I don’t know what to do,” he said, and Sōsuke saw the
conflict in the boy’s eyes.
“Ichigo, I want to help you, please, let me?” he asked, softly, and there was
something about those eyes that made Sōsuke’s heart flip in his chest like
never. This close, and with him being this open and vulnerable, Sōsuke knew
that there was more to this than his own desire to help a student in need. He
wanted to take him into his arms and hold him.
“I can’t, I can’t let you…” he whispered, and practically ran from the
classroom.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
 “You don’t have Ichigo?” came the unbelieving voice on the other end of the
phone.
First off, Kaien Shiba could not believe the phone call he had just gotten.
Isshin Kurosaki had killed himself ten years ago. However, he was on the phone
asking about Ichigo, his son who was murdered also ten years ago. Ten years
ago, Isshin had brought the girls to his house and told him to keep them
because they were in danger. Then, the next day, the cops had called and said
that Isshin Kurosaki had left a suicide note stating that he wanted Kaien to
take his children and adopt them. The police explained that Ichigo and Masaki
had been murdered by a man that Isshin was trying to help them prosecute. Kaien
had agreed, infinitely sad at the loss but accepting his responsibility to care
for the girls.
“No, why would I have Ichigo? He passed with Masaki,” he said slowly. “I was
told that when the police called to tell me you killed yourself…”
“No, not possible,” Isshin said, his head starting to spin. “No, it can’t be
him, he can’t be there…”
“Isshin, what do you mean?” Kaien asked slowly. The sound in his cousin’s voice
was heartbreaking.
“My son is alive, Kaien, he’s alive and he’s been hurt, and now I don’t know
how to fix it.”
===============================================================================
***** Chaos in Reality *****
 
Kaien Shiba and his wife Miyoko sat in the diner just inside Karakura Town with
the two fifteen year old girls, Karin and Yuzu.  Ten years, they had cared for
them and for ten years they had been their parents.  Not once, however, did
they replace Masaki and Isshin.  Finding out that Isshin was alive had been
hard for both of them.  They both felt betrayed by their father because he had
left and not returned to them.  So, now they had checked into a hotel room in
Karakura and were meeting with Isshin at a diner. 
Karin seemed angry, and Yuzu, Kaien couldn’t guess her mood.  She had been
quiet since they had given them the news that their father was alive and needed
them to come to Karakura Town, because apparently, so was their brother.  Kaien
was pretty sure that both of them were still suffering from shock.  They looked
up to see their father come into the diner and stared openly.  Isshin hadn’t
shaved yet, but he had gotten some clean and proper clothes instead of the
other things he had been wearing.  However, the weariness and lines on his face
weren’t hidden even by the beard obscuring most of his face.
Isshin hesitated before he sat in an empty seat as he stared at his two girls,
so grown after ten years.  He didn’t try and stop the tears in his eyes.  “I’m
sorry, I’m so very sorry,” he whispered, bowing his head.
Karin was the first to speak.  “You should be.  We thought you were dead.”
Isshin nodded.  “I know, I was trying to do the right thing, and I believed
that your uncle would provide for you better than I could ever do so.”
Yuzu spoke up then.  “Are you…are you going to be our father again?” she said
quietly.
Isshin turned to her and his eyes filled with tears and he bit his lip.  “I…I
want to be in your lives.  I don’t know if you’ll let me, because I don’t
deserve it.”
The girls glanced at each other.  Karin spoke.  “We’ll see.  Now what’s this
about our brother being alive?”
Isshin looked at them again and over to Kaien.  “I thought he was with you,” he
said softly, but he’s not.  He’s here, in Karakura Town.  It took some work,
but I understand what happened.”
Isshin had quickly found out what had happened to his son.  It didn’t make it
any easier once he knew, but he at least knew who to blame.  It all came back
to Inaba.
It took nearly a week of trying to figure out what had happened, and more than
a little money to grease the palms of some less than legal enterprise owners,
but at last, he knew.  He’d had a heart to heart with the person to blame at
the hospital. They probably wouldn’t be making it to work the next day.  Most
of the files had been smudged, ten years old now, and some were ripped and
faded, but he figured enough out of what he had in front of him.  Ichigo had
been shot in the stomach the night Masaki died.  He’d been rushed to the
hospital and that’s where things went sideways.
There were two sets of medical records. 
One followed Ichigo from the ER where it listed he coded and died at 10:31 pm
that night.  The rest of the record recorded the morgue drawer his body had
been placed in and that without a next of kin available, the body was cremated
with the remains left for future pick up in one of the back rooms at the
morgue.  The body in the sealed urn in that room, however, did not belong to
Ichigo Kurosaki.
The second, what Isshin knew now was the real medical record, was under a
different name.  Ichigo Choi.  After having his “chat” with Dr. Makoto Kibune,
he knew that the ER doctor was paid off by Inaba right after his Ichigo had
been admitted.  It seemed that Dr. Kibune was supposed to make sure he died.
Kibune, while a man with few morals and a very large gambling debt owed to the
wrong people, was a doctor first and swapped files with a young man the same
age as Ichigo, this one that did succumb to his wounds.  Ichigo was then
treated under the other child’s name, who was a child at the local orphanage
that had been hurt in an accident.
Before Kibune could contact anyone that could help, Ichigo had been taken to
the orphanage and adopted under the assumed name.  No one questioned it,
especially the family that adopted him, the Utagawas.  Kibune, though, had kept
all the original files, on the chance he would need them one day.  Those were
the files that Isshin now had.
Kibune had tried to make all traces of Ichigo Kurosaki disappear that indicated
he was alive after the accident, but changing all the records were difficult
and there were discrepancies that someone who knew what they were looking for
would be able to find.  He had no tears left for himself, but as he sat there
and contemplated what had happened to his son since that night, he found he had
tears for him.
After telling the girls and Kaien and Miyoko the story, they all sat silent. 
Karin looked at him with a look that belied that she was indeed Masaki’s
daughter.
“So what are you going to do about it?” she asked.
Isshin looked at her for a long moment and shook his head.  “I…I don’t know
yet.  I have to contact the people I was working for before I faked my death. 
I might be able to get information from the inside, but if Inaba has people in
the police, I don’t know how to help him.”
Karin and Yuzu exchanged a look, then Yuzu looked at Kaien.  “We want to stay
here, Uncle Kaien, and we want to stay until we get our brother back.”
Kaien nodded and looked at Isshin.  Isshin wasn’t really his brother, actually,
they were cousins, but they often called each other brother because they’d
spent their youth together.  Kaien, though, had been moved to Tokyo when he was
about twelve and ended up spending more time on the streets than anywhere
else.  He was a teacher now, teaching some of the rougher kids in Tokyo, and
helping them get through the things he’d gone through.
“I’ll call in for a short leave and get a substitute,” he said and looked at
his wife who was smiling at him.
“I’ll head back,” she said smiling.  “I don’t think I should take off from the
hospital,” she said softly.  Miyako was a neo natal nurse, and her services
were often highly in demand.
Kaien leaned over and kissed her cheek.  “Thank you for understanding, love,”
he said and she smiled. 
                           -oooooo- oooooo -oooooo-
Sōsuke watched for nearly two months.  It was now near November, and the
weather was turning cold, the maple leaves now all fallen to the ground, and
the trees were bare.  He was steadily watching Ichigo Utagawa decline at an
alarming rate, and there was nothing he could do about it.  He tried to talk to
him repeatedly, but the boy dashed out the door most days faster than he could
get to him.  He saw the Uryū also tried to approach him. 
Today would be an interesting class.  The topic was human sexuality and the
psychology behind attraction and love.  This one was always interesting. 
Sōsuke himself always enjoyed it.
Sōsuke stood and leaned on the front of his class.  “Alright class, what is
sexuality?”
There were a couple giggles.  “Okay,” he said, smirking.  “What types of
sexuality are there?”
Renji raised his hand which considering that Sōsuke knew about his relationship
with his ex-lover, Byakuya, made him smile.  “Um, heterosexuality and
homosexuality, and um bisexuality.”
“Right.  And what do those things mean, Mr. Abarai?” he said, eyes somewhat
hooded.
Renji glanced at Rukia who sat beside him and shrugged.  “Um, heterosexuals
like the opposite sex, and homosexuals like the same sex, and bisexuals like
both?” he asked.
Sōsuke nodded.  “Somewhat right.  But let’s change the word ‘sex’ to ‘gender’. 
Now are there more than two genders?”
There was a murmur and several nos and a few yeses.
“There are.  So, if bisexuals are attracted to their own gender and the
opposite gender, that means there are some that are attracted to other genders
as well, usually referred to as omni or pansexual, meaning all genders,” he
said, looking around.
“How can there be more than two genders, you have a penis or a vagina, that’s
it, right?” someone said from the back, he thought it was Di Roy.
Sōsuke tapped his head.  “This is gender, not this,” he said, gesturing at his
crotch.  “The biological equipment you are born with doesn’t dictate gender. 
Transgender people exist because of this reason.  There are those that are
considered non-binary, which include those that are gender fluid, gender queer,
and bigender.  Someone that identifies with their assigned birth gender is
cisgender, not ‘normal’ because that in essence says that the person is
abnormal that does not identify with their assigned birth gender.”
There were murmurs around the room.  “So that’s where pansexual comes in since
there are non-binary people,” Renji muttered.  “So if you date a transgender
woman who has the guy parts still, you’re dating a woman, but she just has a
penis too.  So if you are straight, even though your girl has a penis, you’re
still straight.”
“Correct.  You’re on the ball, Renji, but I suppose you’d have to be,” Sōsuke
said before he thought, smirking as he continued.  “Now, have these ideas of
gender and sexuality always been accepted?”
There were muttered negatives.  “No, and in fact, homosexuality, which includes
pan, bi and other orientations of sexuality other than heterosexuality, used to
be considered a sexual deviancy that needed to be cured.  Now, how many of you
in this class believe you know a person’s sexuality and gender by looking at
them?” he said, glancing around.
Several people raised their hands.  “Good, shall we play a little game? 
Everyone come to the front and line up.  If you really are uncomfortable when I
ask, you can decline to answer.  I want everyone to write a number over their
head on the chalk board.  And then, one by one, everyone is going to write down
what they think their fellow classmates are in regards to gender and
sexuality.  You don’t have to write your name on the paper, I’ll take a roll
call and you’ll all get credit as long as I receive papers for every student. 
Step forward and return to your seat if you don’t wish to participate at all,
and you’ll still receive credit.”
Everyone lined up, most of them more curious than anything else.  After a few
minutes, everyone took a turn walking down the line and writing what they
thought on their papers.  Ichigo, though huddled inside his hoodie, filled out
the paper like everyone else and returned to the line.  Sōsuke kept the papers
in a stack and shuffled them so he wouldn’t see who handed in which one.
“Now, I’ll go down the row, and I’d like everyone to give their gender identity
and sexual orientation, or decline to answer if you wish.  Remember, nothing in
this room goes beyond it, on pain of an F from me,” he said, smiling at them. 
Uryū was first in line.  “Um, homosexual, and cisgender, I guess, I never
thought of it, but I identify with being male…” he said, looking a bit flushed
at speaking in front of the others about it. 
He glanced at Menoly who was next.  “Um, I’m bisexual, I guess, I mean, I’ve
been with girls and guys and I guess I’m kind of gender fluid.  I’m also dating
Loly right now,” she said, glancing next to her at the dark haired girl.  Loly
nodded.  “Yeah, we’re dating, Menoly keeps me from doing really stupid stuff. 
I’m homosexual, pure lesbian, penis is gross,” she said, smirking at Menoly.  
“I’m cis gender I guess, never thought about it.”  There were a few chuckles at
the comments.
Renji was next and he shrugged.  “I’m gonna say I’m cis gender, I definitely am
a guy.  I like my penis, thanks.  However, I’m I guess pansexual, the parts
don’t matter much, and I definitely can handle someone else’s penis, but vagina
is okay too.” 
Rukia, standing beside him slapped him.  “I’m cisgender and heterosexual,” she
said quickly glaring at Renji for his comments.  He shrugged and muttered,
“It’s true, as your brother,” under his breath so low that Sōsuke almost didn’t
catch.
Ichigo was next and he glanced up and shrugged.  “I’m…not sure yet, on either,”
he said, and looked back down at his feet.
Shinji and Hiyori stood next to him and were already arguing.  They were
incessantly arguing it seemed.  Shinji smirked.  “Um, okay well, in case the
amount we argue is any indication, Hiyori and I are together, both genderqueer,
and both pansexual, I guess.  I’d say bi, but since we both date each other,
pan covers it.”  Hiyori glared at him than smacked him.  “I coulda said that
myself, princess,” she muttered.  Shinji rolled his eyes up.  “What he didn’t
say is that neither of us want to transition to another gender, we’re happy as
we are and with each other.”  Shinji growled.  “Happy is a relative term,” he
muttered.  Hiyori smacked his arm again.
Emilou was next and smiled at Sōsuke.  “Well, sir, you know I’m in a
polyamorous relationship, and I’m homosexual, though I experimented when I was
younger.  I’d say I’m more gender fluid than anything.”  Ggio looked up when
Emilou elbowed him.  “Um, yeah, heterosexual and cis I guess.”  There were
murmurs because most of the class knew who he was dating.  Toshiro was next
nodded and said.  “I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess heterosexual
and cisgender.”
Cirucci leaned against the wall twirling her purple hair.  “Um, guess I’m
heterosexual and cisgender too.  Never really thought about it though, just
always been okay with myself.”  Ikkaku stood next to her and looked up.  “Well,
I’m a little different I guess, cisgender but I’m heteroflexible.”  A muttering
of confusion came through the room.  “I generally like girls, but I’m with a
guy right now.  My boyfriend is the only guy I’ve ever loved, so yeah.”
Sōsuke smiled at him, having hoped someone would have something he hadn’t
spoken of.  Di Roy was next, and as Sōsuke expected, he looked up and grinned. 
“Pansexual, poly, whatever man, if it feels good, do it, I say.  Cisgender I
guess.”  Tesra shook his head.  “Bisexual, bigender,” he said quietly.  Shūhei
sighed and nodded.  “I’m heterosexual and cisgender,” he said and glanced at
Abirama next to him.  “Heterosexual and cisgender, too but I’ve got a lot of
queer and non-binary friends, so…”
Sōsuke walked down the row.  “Now, I want you all to think about this.  Were
any of you surprised by what you thought you knew?”
A general affirmative murmur went through the room.  “Return to your seats,
now.”
Everyone sat down.  Di Roy spoke up, “What about you, Prof Aizen?” he asked.
Sōsuke looked up, surprised by the question.  “Well, what do you all think?
Especially after this demonstration?”
“Um, I say pansexual and cisgender,” Renji said with a smirk.
Sōsuke nodded.  “Anyone else?”
“Heterosexual and cisgender,” Cirucci said from her seat.
He smiled.  “Do you guys really want to know?” There was a big consensus. 
“Okay,” Sōsuke said with a smirk.  “I’m cisgender, homosexual and
demiromantic.”
“A what?” Di Roy asked loudly.
Sōsuke smiled and leaned back.  “I am only attracted sexually to other men,
however, I only for romantic bonds with select people.  I can very easily
handle casual sexual relationships, however, I very rarely become romantically
involved with someone on the emotional level.”
The buzzer for the class went off and everyone started to stand.  “Weekend
assignment: I want a paper on perceptions of gender and sexuality and how
reality and perception are not the same, and why assumptions based on
perceptions like these can damage relationships!” he shouted as everyone filed
out of the room.  He sighed and looked up to see Harribel come in.
“Interesting sounding class,” she said.
“Just got to the section on gender and sexuality.  Always fun to burst their
bubbles of what is ‘normal’,” he said, smiling.
“We’re having another beach get together this weekend, will you be there?” she
asked, a rare smile crossing her lips.
Sōsuke nodded.  “I think I will, it was a great place to relax last time. 
Should I bring anything this time?” he asked as he stood to walk out of the
room with her.
Despite his incredible introversion, he felt like he needed to get out and
spend time with his coworkers.  If nothing else, it was completely self-serving
because he could get information that might help him with his student that
refused his help.
“Perhaps some beer, Nel has a tendency to drink most of it before I get any…”
she said as she gave him a sideways grin. 
                           -oooooo- oooooo -oooooo-
Ichigo was exhausted.  Noba’s words that this was going to kill him constantly
rang in his head because he was beginning to think he was right.  He didn’t
think there was anything that didn’t ache or hurt.  He had a constant headache,
and he was relatively certain that his nose had been broken at least twice.  He
also knew that his arm had healed badly and he was in constant pain where the
break had been.  Inaba had been back several times, much to Mabashi’s
annoyance.  Luckily, Ichigo hadn’t suffered any further breaks, but it was
still more unpleasant than anything else.  Perhaps the worst part was that if
Mabashi knew about Inaba having visited he would come and be twice as rough
with him afterward.
Saturday night had come again and he was curled into the corner of his cot and
hoping that everyone was too high or busy to remember him, or the others.  He’d
done what he could, but there had been a few times that Ririn and Nozomi had
been drug upstairs.  Usually, they weren’t as bad on the underage ones, just in
case there were nosy people that might be interested in their welfare from the
adoption system.  For that, Ichigo was thankful because he did not want any of
them treated the way he was treated or how the ones that traded sex favors for
drugs were.
“Berry?” came the voice that Ichigo had been hoping not to hear tonight. 
Mabashi.  He swallowed and got up, noting that the others didn’t look at him as
he left.  He crossed his arms over his chest and went up to where he waited at
the top of the stairs.
Mabashi saw it.  The rounded shoulders, the defeated stance.  He’d done this. 
He’d turned this once vibrant person into this.  Now that the drugs were gone,
he realized how sick and twisted the whole thing was.  He grabbed Ichigo by the
arm and drug him into the nearest bedroom with a lock, slamming it behind them
and locking it before turning around and seeing that he just stood there, arms
crossed across his chest, looking down at the floor.
“Ichigo, look at me,” he said, using his name for the first time to address
him.
Ichigo looked up, and Mabashi could see the dampness at the corner of his
eyes.  He always cried, always silently, and if you didn’t look, you didn’t see
it.  He didn’t want him to cry.  He moved forward quickly and grabbed both his
biceps and kissed him gently on the lips for the first time in six years of
being alone with him.  He felt him tense and gasp in surprise.  He leaned
forward and placed his forehead on Ichigo’s.
“I want you to leave here with me.  Tonight.  I can’t watch this anymore.  I
can’t see you cry anymore.”
Ichigo blinked rapidly and swallowed several times before he could manage a
shaky, “What?”
“Let me have you, just for once, and let me show you how much I love you, like
I should have a long time ago.  Let me have you, all of you, and without tears
for once.  Let me have tonight, and then, I’ll take you away from here, and if
you want to leave and go somewhere else, you can, but let me show you what I
can be to you,” he said, stepping back and staring into Ichigo’s eyes.
Ichigo was dumfounded, to be honest.  He had no words and just nodded his
ascent and Mabashi, unlike most times, leaned forward and pulled him into a
passionate and gentle kiss the likes of which Ichigo had never experienced.  In
fact, he was pretty sure he’d never been kissed by anyone like this.  He melted
into the touches and for once, let the fear go. 
Ichigo had never had him be so gentle and caring.  He had even made sure to be
a lube packet with him, and to take the time to prepare Ichigo properly.  It
was the first time Ichigo had ever been taken that it didn’t hurt, that there
was no pain associated with it.  Even as Mabashi brought him over with him, his
own body responding unlike ever before, he didn’t fear him, and he felt his
heart flutter.  Mabashi fell beside him in a heap, panting and kissed him
gently on the cheek.
“Thank you, Ichigo, thank you for that,” he said softly.
“But if I leave…” he whispered.
Mabashi shook his head and spoke quietly.  “I’ve got it planned.  I’ve got this
buddy on the police force; I’ve been working for him as a CI, a criminal
informant.  It was how I got out of lock up, and at first I wasn’t going to
help him, but after that night in the kitchen, I looked at myself in the mirror
and I knew.  I knew what I had to do.  I couldn’t spiral back into the drugs
and I couldn’t stand that look on your face when you looked at me.  I’ve loved
you since the day I met you, but I’ve been so fucked up I couldn’t do anything
about it the right way.  You’ve got no reason to forgive me.  You’ve got no
reason to stay with me, even though I’m begging you to stay.  I’ve done
terrible things to you.”
Ichigo stared at him in disbelief.  “I don’t know, I…I don’t…”
Mabashi put a finger on his lips.  “Tonight was all I wanted, okay?  To be with
you without the tears.  Just…just think about the rest of it.  There’s a long
time before things work out.  But tonight, we’re leaving to my guy.  He’ll make
sure the rest of them are safe.  Come on, we’re leaving,” he said, standing up
and pulling on his clothes.  A few minutes later, he pulled Ichigo behind him
into the living room where Yoshi was smoking a pipe and watching something on
TV.
“Yoshi,” Mabashi yelled to get her attention.
“The fuck you want?” she said, looking up to see Mabashi with Ichigo standing
beside him, or rather behind him, obviously not wanting to be there.
“I’m leaving here with him.  I’m not letting you do this shit anymore to him,”
he said, staring at her.
She blinked then slowly put the pipe down on the wooden table before she stood
up and walked toward them.  She smiled.  “Okay, go ahead.  But he knows what
happens if he leaves.”
“Mabashi, stop, no, just don’t, I’m fine, I’m here because…” Ichigo said,
seeing the crazy light in Yoshi’s eyes.  She was lit, he knew it.  She’d been
hitting all sorts of things today, and now she was smoking a pipe.  This was
always bad, when she was using the crack pipe was when she was the most
volatile.  The blow, it made her a little crazy, but to smoke it…
“No, I’m done, Yoshi,” Mabashi said loudly. 
Everyone’s eyes were on him and her now, including Ryō, and the grungy new
guy.  Haineko was sitting on the lap of one of the other regulars, Ugaki. 
Beside him on the sofa, Muramasa was high out of his mind but watching
intently.  
“You’re done, you little shit?” she said, staring at him.  “I let you fucking
come into my house and fuck one of my goddamned brats on a regular basis only
because you buy so damn much fucking cocaine that it’s hard to tell you no. 
You wanted to take this cunt’s virginity when he was fucking thirteen and I
fucking let you, do you know why?” she asked, glaring at him.  Mabashi stared
back.  “Because it was amusing to me to watch you do it.  And you know what? 
I’ve got it on tape, you little fucker.  You were fucking twenty years old, and
I have a fucking video of your sorry ass raping a thirteen-year-old kid.”
Mabashi’s grip on Ichigo had gone slack as he stared at her.  “So if you think
you can come in here and threaten me, you are more fucked up than anyone here. 
You think I let you bastards, any of you, come in here and fuck these little
underage fucking whores without a reason?” she said, looking around at the ones
in the room.  “I fucking have every one of you by the goddamned balls in one
way or another.  So if anyone decides to fuck me over, well, I can fuck you
over harder.  You want to know how I’ve managed to keep this going for so
long?  That’s why.  Half the people I have working for me are fucking
blackmailed because I have pretty little videos of them fucking underage
brats.  Sure, turn me over to your cop friend, and yes, I know about him,
Mabashi.  I’ll fuck you six ways from Sunday you little fuck.  The drug charges
won’t be shit compared to rape charges I can put on you.  Ichigo’s not the only
boy-cunt you’ve fucked here.”
Ichigo felt his stomach drop.  She knew everything.  She knew Mabashi was a
CI.  She…  Ichigo had thought she was just crazy.  She wasn’t, she was crazy
smart.  Far smarter than anyone gave her credit for.  She leaned forward and
pushed Mabashi back and grabbed Ichigo by the shirt, bringing him up to her
face.
“And you, to fucking go along with it.  I guess I need to teach you a lesson
you won’t forget, Ryō, go get Momo, Rin and Hanataro.  We’re going for a little
fun ride,” she said, smiling at Ichigo.
Ryō got up and headed toward the door to the basement and Ichigo’s eyes went
wide.  “No, anything, no, leave them alone!” he said, trying to get out of
Yoshi’s insanely strong grasp. 
“No, you little slut.  I heard everything Mabashi told you in that bedroom.  I
heard what you did, and I heard your whore ass moaning because he was nice to
you for once.  I hope you fucking enjoyed it because that’s the last time
anyone is going to fuck you without making you hurt, a lot,” she said and
punched him square across the jaw, sending him into a black abyss and dropping
him to the floor. 
Ryō had brought up the other three.  She smiled.  “Come on, kids, we’re gonna
have some fun,” she said and ushered them out the door.
                           -oooooo- oooooo -oooooo-
Sōsuke was enjoying himself, despite dwelling on Ichigo. He saw one of his
other students, Toshiro, sitting in a circle talking with Emilou and a couple
of other students from the school.  Nel and Grimmjow were out in the surf
playing back and forth despite the ice cold water.  The bonfire was warm and
welcoming and he was comfortable.  Szayel and his boyfriend Findorr were
sitting close to each other, their hands interlaced as they watched the fire
quietly.  Nnoitra had come along this time and flopped down in the sand beside
Sōsuke.
“Hey Sōsuke, man, what’s up?” he asked, scratching underneath his eyepatch.
“Oh, not too much.  Tell me, how’d you lose your eye, anyway?  I find it
interesting that we have a one eyed shop teacher,” Sōsuke said, smiling.
“Ah, this, man, when I was a kid, thought I was Evel Knievel or some shit. 
Motorcycle stunt gone wrong, I’ll spare ya the grisly details.  Put it this
way, I was damn lucky my eye was all I lost,” he said with a smile at him. 
“Seen my girl anywhere?” he said, glancing around.
Sōsuke shook his head.  “No, can’t say that I have,” he said as he glanced
around.  Nnoitra was married to an unusual girl, almost as perverted as he
was.  Lisa Yadōmaru, having kept her name, was a local police officer, and
almost always could be found reading some manner of yaoi manga or gay erotica. 
She was also more than happy to tell everyone all the details. 
“Well, tell my bitch to find me when she gets here,” he said, standing up. 
Sōsuke smiled, knowing from the brief interactions he’d had with the pair of
them, the constant banter and name calling was a form of endearment for them. 
Relationships always fascinated him in that way, though.
Twilight had just set in full when everyone heard the screeching of tires and
breaks.  Sōsuke looked up just in time to see a SUV come careening off the road
and into one of the pillars halfway down the beach set to protect beachgoers
from just such an occurrence.  Nnoitra stood up and ran toward it along with
Szayel immediately.  He glanced over and saw Franceska on the phone with
emergency services already and headed toward the wrecked car.  He could see
movement.
Behind him, he heard Toshiro’s voice.  “Momo?”
He glanced up and saw Grimmjow, dripping from the surf, helping a girl with
dark hair out of the back of the car shakily before Toshiro went running toward
her.  He glanced over and saw Nnoitra pulling out a woman with dark green hair
who was cussing and fighting him every step of the way.  Szayel was helping two
younger boys out of the back seat slowly, one had a bleeding wound on his head,
and the other looked to have twisted his ankle.
“The fuck!” screamed the woman as she shook away Nnoitra.  “Get the fuck off
me, you fucker!”
Nnoitra stared at her for a moment as the sirens began to grow closer.  “You
are fucking high as a kite, lady,” he said, staring at her.  “What the hell are
you thinking, driving around like that with three kids in the car?” he said,
stepping back as she stumbled a bit.  She had a good sized bruise on her head
from the steering wheel.
“My fucking kids, you bastard!  None of your goddamned business!” she screamed
and lunged at Momo.  Toshiro pulled her away and got a growl of frustration as
he did so.  “Let the little bitch go, you midget fucker.  She goes with me, as
do those other two fucking brats,” she said, glaring at where Szayel was
standing with Rin and Hanataro.  Both of them looked completely scared out of
their minds.  Sōsuke had no idea what was happening.
Harribel stepped in front of the two boys and glared at her.  “Yoshi Utagawa,
why I’ve never had you come to one of my bonfires,” she said dryly.
“Fuck you and your bonfires, you lesbo bitch!” she said.  “Had my fucking gun
I’d shoot your dumb blonde head off your fucking shoulders!” she screamed.
With that, she blinked a couple times and crumpled, passing out cold into the
sand, most likely from the head injury.  Sōsuke glanced at the two boys who
were clinging to each other and almost hyperventilating and at the girl that
Toshiro was clutching to him like a long lost sibling.  Things grew hazy as the
police and fire department showed up followed by ambulances.  All those present
were taken to the hospital and everyone there gave a statement.  After everyone
had left, Sōsuke stood with Harribel in the small parking lot.
“What happens now?” he asked her.
Harribel shook her head.  “We hope the right people take notice.”
Sōsuke watched her walk away and then stared at the night surf for a long
time.  A few minutes passed and something caught his attention fluttering
caught in his windshield wiper.  He turned and went to it and picked it out. 
It was a deep orange colored maple leaf.
***** Changing Winds of Chaos *****
                                        
Kisuke Urahara stood in the paced the room he was standing in with his wife,
Yoruichi.  He looked at her and smiled.  She shook her head, pulling her dark
hair up into a ponytail on her head.  She recognized the mood he was in, and
she gave him an hour before he got grouchy and went for a walk.
“What are you thinking, Kisuke?” she asked, arching a dark brow at her husband.
“Oh, you know, the usual,” he said softly, glancing at his phone.
She sighed, pulling her legs up under her on the sofa.  “Call him,” she said
finally.
Kisuke looked at her and shook his head.  “I can’t do that, you know why.”
“You honestly think I’ll be bothered by you flirting with your ex?” she asked,
stretching her arms up over her head catlike.  “You know it doesn’t bother me.”
Kisuke sighed and looked at her.  He always felt somewhat bad when he started
to pine after his past lover.  He knew she understood, and he knew that she was
well aware that he loved her beyond measure.  However, there were days that he
wanted Sōsuke back again.  There was something about the intensity of being
with another man for Kisuke.  He enjoyed all aspects of his life with his
Yoruichi, but some days he wanted to stray back to that familiar territory.
“I know, but I still feel…like I’m cheating on you in my head,” he said,
sitting beside her finally.
He had heard from Byakuya Kuchiki that Sōsuke had come back to Karakura and for
the last few months he had moments like this where he would stop and ponder
making the call.  Byakuya had given him his number in case he wanted to visit
with him.  Of course, Kisuke knew that the moment he saw him, he was going to
want to do very bad things, or rather he was going to want Sōsuke to do very
bad things to him.  So he felt like he was being unfaithful.
Yoruichi rolled her eyes.  “You know that even if you went let him fuck you, I
wouldn’t care,” she said, sighing again.  “I told you when we got married that
I understood how much you loved him still.  There are some things I can’t do
for you, you know.”
Kisuke looked sheepish.  That was indeed the one need that his wife could never
satisfy.  They’d played, of course, they had toys and things, but there was no
substitute for the real thing.  Yoruichi was definitely still the top in their
relationship, even if Kisuke was the one doing the fucking.  He was never going
to change that aspect of himself, he knew.  He was a bottom, and unlike some of
his friends, he couldn’t switch between the two positions. 
“But, you know that…” he began but his phone went off in his hand, surprising
him.
He stared at it a long moment before he answered it, not recognizing the number
at first.  “Hello?  Urahara here,” he said slowly.
“Captain,” came a familiar voice. 
“Edrad, what’s going on?” he asked, standing up slowly and glancing at Yoruichi
who had pulled her black cat, Shadow, onto her lap.
“Kisuke we got a break in the Utagawa cases,” he said simply.
Kisuke almost dropped the phone.  “What?  What happened?”
To have a break in that case, something major had to have happened.  Over the
last few years, Kisuke Urahara, Captain of the Internal Affairs division, had
been working to uncover a nest of corruption, greed, and trafficking.  It had
begun with the investigation into a runaway from the Utagawa household, an
adopted child named Cain.  The boy had never been found, and Kisuke had found
everything about them suspicious.  He had never been able to obtain a warrant
for some reason, the judges flat out refusing to issue one on the grounds there
wasn’t enough evidence.  There obviously was.  So, he knew that the corruption
ran deep.  Because of that, he had, with the head captain’s approval, built a
small team that he trusted that worked outside the rest of the police
structure.  Edrad was one of his team members.
“No one’s dead, first, I know that’s what you’re worried about, boss,” he said
and Kisuke visibly relaxed at that statement.  “But Yoshi Utagawa crashed her
car a couple hours ago under the influence of drugs and she had three of those
kids in the car with her.  The kids are scared out of their mind, and she’s
currently under watch. From what we can tell, someone’s already arranged things
so that she’ll get to go home when she can walk out of the hospital with a
ticket for reckless driving and driving under the influence, but no approval to
arrest her.”
“Gods dammit,” Kisuke growled under his breath as he headed to the coatrack and
grabbed his hat, shoving it on his head.  “Of course, the fucking booking
officer is probably on their take along with the damn judges.”
Edrad was silent for a minute.  “I think we should go up and see what’s going
on.  A couple of the witnesses are at the hospital waiting to find out what
happens to the kids.  I guess she nearly crashed into a beach party one of the
professors at the college was having, a Tier Harribel. She’s still at the
hospital along with another professor, a Sōsuke Aizen.”
At the name Kisuke froze and Yoruichi saw the look that crossed his face. 
“Sōsuke Aizen?” he said quietly.  “What is he doing there?”
Edrad paused.  “Um, he was at the beach party, boss.  Is he someone we should
worry about?”
“No, no, just, he’s an old friend, good man, he’s a psychologist actually, a
counselor for trauma survivors, he might be more useful than the department
psych, just because we can’t confirm if she’s on the take too,” he said
thoughtfully.
“So we can trust him?” Edrad asked.
“Yeah, definitely, he’s a good therapist, uh, yeah, I actually went to school
with him.  He knows how to deal with people that have been through severe types
of trauma, and he’s approachable, so these kids should be okay with him.  I…I
hate to use him, but what choice have we got at this point, I suppose?” he
asked.
“Boss, up to you.  But I think the less people we bring into the situation, the
better, and if he’s already involved…” he said, trailing off.
Kisuke felt his heart clench.  “Yeah, you’re right.  Okay, get the word to the
others, everyone meet at the hospital.  I don’t anticipate them giving us any
problems, but if they do, I’ll get ahold of Kuchiki,” he said sighing.
“Kuchiki?” Edrad said with a little surprise.  “Like the director Kuchiki?”
“Yeah, another old friend of mine,” he said, looking for his cane that was not
entirely for show. 
“Boss, you know a lot of people,” Edrad said with a smirk in his voice.
Kisuke sighed, and without thinking, said, “Yeah, well, I used to get around a
bit.”
Edrad didn’t answer immediately and Kisuke winced.  That couldn’t have come out
more wrong.  He was supposed to be in charge of this team.  “Oh, okay boss, so
see you at the hospital then.”
Kisuke sighed.  “Yeah, I’ll be there in a few.”
“So, looks like you get to deal with your burning desire for being slammed
against the nearest hard surface by your ex-boyfriend after all, huh, my dear,”
Yoruichi said with a knowing smirk.
“You watch it, wife, of I’ll come back walking funny,” he muttered, pulling his
green jacket around him and heading out the door.
Yoruichi watched him go and looked down at Shadow on her lap.  “Well, if he
doesn’t come back walking funny, I’m gonna make him walk funny for a goddamned
week, Shadow.  He needs to get fucked so he stops being so damn grumpy,” she
said, ruffling the black cat’s cheeks.
Shadow had no particular answer.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“So, Ms. Harribel, was it?” the nurse at the front desk of Karakura General
said, looking up at her.  “Relationship to the patient?”
Harribel glanced behind her at her girls, all three of which were standing
behind her.  “None, they were injured at a beach party I was hosting…”
“Then I can’t give you any information,” the blonde nurse said with a shrug. 
“Family or the usual exceptions to confidential information, I’m afraid.”
Harribel shook her head and went and sat down with the girls to wait and see
what was going on with the poor kids in the car.  They’d come to the hospital
afterward, hoping they could find out something, anything, about what was going
on.  She looked up as Sōsuke came into the waiting room and walked toward her. 
“Tier, have you heard anything?” he asked quietly. 
Sōsuke had been waiting with Tier, worried as well, considering the state that
both the Utagawa woman and those kids had been in.  He’d gone to get a drink at
the hospital food court and found that their coffee was perhaps the worst he
had ever had in his entire life.  He was grateful that when he’d been in the
hospitals he’d never tried it. 
“Nothing, they say non family can’t get information.  I’m not even sure why I’m
here in that case…” she said, looking toward the admittance door where they had
been most likely taken to.
She wasn’t sure why she had come, really.  She didn’t think she would be able
to get any information from anyone.  The idea that she should could was
ridiculous.  She wasn’t related to those kids, they just had the bad luck to
have been in that car with Yoshi when it careened off the road.  She sighed,
looking at her hands.  She couldn’t bring herself to leave, though.  She
thought that if she continued to wait, she might at least overhear something,
or someone would come and tell her something from the police.  However, the
police had come and gone and no one had said a word to her other than to take
her statement.
A couple of men that she didn’t know walked up briskly to the nurses’ station
and spoke with the blonde nurse she’d just spoken to for a moment before the
nurse pointed over to Harribel and Sōsuke.  As they came closer Sōsuke glanced
between the two of them and blinked.
“Kisuke Urahara?” Sōsuke asked, frowning deeply as the blonde haired one of the
pair came close enough that he could see his face.  He wore a bucket hat with
white and green stripes and he had almost not recognized him. He had an ornate
cane that he walked with, but Sōsuke recognized it all too well.  He’d bought
him that cane, well, it wasn’t really a cane.  It was a sword.  It had been a
few years since he’d seen him, but his heart still beat a little faster when he
came up to him.
“Sōsuke, so good to see you,” Kisuke said, coming up and hugging him tightly
for a long moment before releasing him.  Despite how hard he was trying,
Kisuke’s heart was beating in his ears.  “Suke, this is one of my team, Edrad
Liones,” he said, indicating the larger, broad man with hair that was dyed half
black and half red.  The man sort of looked at Sōsuke strangely and back to
Kisuke.
“What…what are you doing here?” Sōsuke asked, shaking his head.
“Well, I actually went into police work after I got out of school.  I’m the
Captain of the Internal Affairs division on the Karakura police, and my partner
for this case is Detective Liones, lead detective for the Child and Domestic
abuse division.  We’ll be joined shortly by…oh, there they are,” he said
looking up as two more people in tan trench coats came in the door and noticed
Urahara waiting there.
The two men came toward them, one a very large man with silvery short hair and
the other almost as large with brown hair.  They both wore serious expressions
and had hard looks to their eyes.  He imagined that they were quite imposing
especially to people that didn’t know them just yet. 
“Sōsuke, this is Lieutenant Kensei Muguruma, he’s the head of the Drug
enforcement division, and Lieutenant Sajin Komamura, head of human
trafficking.   And our final member,” he said, looking up as a very tall
silvery haired woman entered and headed toward them.  “Captain Isane Kotetsu
from Special Victims.”
“I don’t understand, what’s going on?  This is quite a team…” Sōsuke said,
glancing around.
Urahara nodded.  “It is and it seems we’re dragging you into this mess.  I
heard through ‘Kuya that he’d managed to get you back to Karakura, and I
thought I’d visit you sooner.  However, it seems we were fated to reunite under
less than ideal circumstances.  Come on, we’ll secure a conference room,” he
said just as the doors to back where the patients were burst open and everyone
in the waiting room looked up.
Yoshi, wearing a hospital gown and blood dripping down her arm where she’d
obviously pulled out her IVs, came storming out.
“You can’t fuckin’ keep me here, nothing wrong with me, fuck you and your
medical…” she started then locked eyes on Harribel.
“You…you fucking bitch,” she said, and came straight for the blonde woman. 
“You and your fucking bonfire lame-ass fucking parties.  I don’t know how, but
you’re fucking at fault!” she screamed at her.
Harribel put a hand on Edrad as he started to intercede.  “Hmm, so my parties
are lame as compared to yours, I am certain.”
“You fuckin’ cunt licking whore, I should fucking shoot you!  Where’d they put
my gun,” she said, realizing she was center stage. 
“Yoshi, you were injured, you should return to your bed,” Harribel said gently,
seemingly not bothered by the other woman’s angry yelling.
“Fuck you; you think you’re better than me!  That look on your face that
somehow you’re better than me!  Well, fuck you!  People come to me to feel
good.  They come to you to feel cultured.  Fuck that.  I give people what they
want!  All the sex and drugs and everything they want.  You…you twat!”
For whatever reason, Yoshi seemed to be teetering.  Harribel guessed she’d been
given something.  “Yoshi, you are nothing but a yabbo, and of no concern of
me.”  She turned away from her as Yoshi lunged at her falling flat.
“I’m not a…a…what the fuck is a yabbo?” she muttered, passing out finally.
“Yabbo?” Sōsuke said to her as they brought out a gurney and wheeled her away
again.
“Uncultured brute,” she said with a sigh, as she turned to the five that were
watching them.
“Well, that was impressive,” Urahara said, glancing at his team and back to
Sōsuke.  “Now, Sōsuke, my dear, would you care to join us?”
Sōsuke blinked, surprised by the request, but glad of it at the same time.  “Of
course, I…why do you want me to come with you?”
Kisuke smiled.  “Oh, I think you might be useful, in more than one way, Suke,”
he said smirking and going to talk to the nurse on duty.
A few minutes later, Sōsuke found himself in a conference room with the five
members of this team of police offices.
“Kissy,” he said, watching as Kisuke came over and grinned at him.  “Care to
tell me what’s going on here?  Why am I in here?”
“Suke, Suke, love, just let me figure some things out, you’ve tossed a wrench
into things,” Kisuke muttered, and Sōsuke sighed, sitting down and seeing the
odd looks he and Kisuke were getting from the rest of his team as they all sat
down around the table.
Finally, Kisuke nodded, coming over and planting both hands on Sōsuke’s
shoulders.  “So, we use Sōsuke to help us with this.  He’s a trained trauma
counselor, very good at what he does, and he’s relatively young and they should
be able to connect with him.”
Sōsuke turned in the chair and glared at Kisuke.  “Kisuke, I’m a teacher now, I
shut down the practice because…” he started but Kisuke put a finger over his
lips.
“Shhh, I know you, and you will help me, won’t you, Suke?” he said with a
grin.  “I heard from ‘Kuya about your problems, and that’s okay.  I know you
too well, love, and you’re here because you’re worried about those kids and you
aren’t about to let them go without someone helping them.”
“Captain,” the woman said from behind him, getting Kisuke to look up and over
him.  “If he isn’t interested in helping, we can find someone else, I don’t
think it is a good idea to bring a civilian in for this, we have our own
people,” Isane said, looking at the others.
Kisuke stood up, patting Sōsuke’s lips with his hand and grinning before he
moved around the table.  “True, but how do we know they aren’t corrupted?  You
know as well as I do that finding the root of this corruption isn’t the
Utagawa’s, there’s someone inside that is helping these things fall into
place.”
Sōsuke watched as Kisuke walked around the table.  “So there’s a kingpin, you
think?”
Kisuke grinned.  “Of course.  That’s exactly what there is.  There is someone
in our ranks that is manipulating everything from the shadows.  The Utagawas
wouldn’t exist if not for someone inside making sure that things happened the
way they have been.  I have suspicions of outside influences, and I’ve checked
a few.  Thankfully, my major concern was that the Yakuza were involved.” 
Kisuke didn’t see the involuntary wince Sōsuke had when Kisuke mentioned the
Yakuza.  The rest of the team didn’t miss it, however.  “They aren’t,
thankfully, and it seems that they might actually be ‘victims’ in this as
well…”
“The missing drug shipment,” Edrad said, nodding. 
Kisuke nodded.  “My CI inside the Utagawas confirmed that he’d heard that
Yakuza drugs had funded that house for a long time.”
Sōsuke frowned.  “You have a man inside?”
“I do; he was one of the drug dealers the Utagawas employ.  He was
unfortunately spending most of his earnings on his own habit and other things,
so he was stuck in the situation.  He went back, and now we’re trying to
organize something using whatever he can gather,” Kisuke said with a deep sigh.
Kisuke made his way around and sat down in the chair beside Sōsuke, then leaned
over and laid his head on his shoulder.  “Help me, Suke.  I really could use
your help.”
Sōsuke rolled his eyes.  “Kisuke.  You are embarrassing me in front of your
team, shouldn’t you be…professional?” he asked, sighing.
There was a communal exchange of glances between the four members of Kisuke’s
team.  “Ha, I don’t think Kisuke can be professional,” muttered Kensei.
Sōsuke shook his head.  “I see some things never change,” he muttered, patting
the hat on Kisuke’s head.  “What’s with the hat?”
Kisuke sat up and smiled.  “Yoruichi got it for me.  She said it made me look
interesting.”
“Well, it definitely makes you look interesting,” Sōsuke said with a shake of
his head.  “Now, what exactly do you want me to do?”
Kisuke grinned at him.  “You’ll do what I want?” he asked, eyes going wide and
Sōsuke instantly regretted his poor choice of words.
“Kissy, don’t you…no, not that, you are married now!” Sōsuke said going
slightly red.
“I have permission,” Kisuke said, leaning closer.  “But that’s for later, for
now, I want to go talk to these kids with you.”
Sōsuke shook his head and sighed again.  “Alright, let’s go,” he said finally,
standing, and dusting a hand over his slacks.
Kisuke grabbed him by the hand and yanked him out the door.  Sōsuke didn’t
bother to protest, knowing that when Kisuke got his mind set on something,
there wasn’t much changing it.
A few moments later, they stood outside the room where the three kids were
being roomed together. Understandably, they were anxious without each other.
Kisuke knocked gently on the door and a short young man with silver hair opened
it and stared at him.  Sōsuke recognized him from his class.
“Yes, Captain Urahara with the police, may we come in?” Kisuke asked, still not
relinquishing Sōsuke’s hand.  Kisuke had always been touchy.
Toshiro nodded and stepped back.  Kisuke came and looked around at the three
kids that had been in the car.  He finally   Sōsuke stayed next to Urahara.
“Momo?” Urahara said, looking at the dark haired girl that the boy who answered
the door went and sat by.  “I’m Kisuke, and this is my friend Sōsuke.  I’m with
the police, but Sōsuke isn’t.  I understand that there may have been some
officers and people that were less than helpful along the way because of
something Yoshi had over them, am I correct?”
Momo nodded.  “I heard her telling Ichigo and Mabashi she had videos of people
to keep them from telling what happened there.”
“Mabashi, huh?” Kisuke said, nodding.  Mabashi was the informant.  “What was he
doing?”
Momo shook her head.  “He wanted to leave with Ichigo, he said he loved him,
and wanted to make him safe and Yoshi didn’t l-like it.”
“Really?  She didn’t want Mabashi to take Ichigo away?” Kisuke said.  “Why
didn’t he take him away anyway after she was gone?”
Rin and Hanataro were sitting together on the next bed.   “She…she was really
loud.  She…she said that if Mabashi took him, she’d…she’d get him in trouble
for what he’d done.  That she had videos of what he’d done,” Hanataro said
softly.
Kisuke pulled up a chair between the two beds.  “Did she now?  What had Mabashi
done that was so terrible that he wouldn’t go through with leaving with
Ichigo?”
Rin swallowed.  “She said she had a video of him…him…”  he stopped, his face
betraying his innocence.
Momo, older than the others, though only by a couple years swallowed hard. 
“She said she had a video of Mabashi raping Ichigo when Ichigo was thirteen and
Mabashi was twenty.  Sh-she said she had more too, of the other times, and
Mabashi backed down and that’s when she took us out, to punish Ichigo for going
along with Mabashi…because she knew it would hurt him more if she hurt us.”
Sōsuke had a hard time keeping his face neutral and he was amazed Kisuke could
do it considering he was normally very emotional.  “Okay, you guys all get some
sleep, we’re going to work on our end.  Do you know who else she was holding
evidence on?”
Momo shook her head.  “I don’t know, she said ‘cops’ and the ‘right people’
when she had us in the car, she was talking about how no one could touch her.”
Kisuke nodded. “Okay, we’ll talk again.”
Sōsuke smiled and followed Kisuke out of the room back to the conference room
where the others were waiting for them to come back.
“Okay, first things first, warrants have to be issued before we can go into
that house.   We’ve got some testimony, enough for a warrant, but not enough to
go in without one.  We know that Yoshi is probably the more volatile which
matches with other reports.  Now, we book her on the Driving While Intoxicated,
but with the influence she’s got, I doubt she’ll be in jail long,” he said,
sighing.
“I don’t understand, why all this about her getting out of it?  There’s plenty
to hold her on,” Sōsuke said, looking around.
Kisuke nodded.  “Sōsuke, love, I know, I know.  Problem is those people she’s
blackmailing.  We’re pretty sure that the booking judge is one of them.  The
one we need to issue warrants isn’t, so far as we know, but we’ve got to wait
until after eight for that.  Like I said, there is someone inside that we can’t
finger.”
Isane looked around.  “Even I’ve got my hands tied.  Half of my officers are on
her list, and none will admit to it, as well as the drugs and human trafficking
forces.  We don’t know who to trust, so we’re down to the five of us.”
Sōsuke shook his head.  “How long have you known about this?” he asked, staring
at Kisuke.
“Too long.  We’ve been navigating the adoption system and trying to find the
holes that they’ve punched in it.  We’ve so far managed to get those we know of
shifted to other positions without alerting her, but time was growing short
because if we removed the rest, she’d run, maybe taking the kids with her,” he
said, taking off the hat and running a hand through his blonde hair.  “The last
clue was the drug supplier they use coming to town and staying.  We had to move
now to not only get her but him as well.”
“Ichigo is in my class and he’s been suffering for months,” he said sternly,
staring at his ex with a hard glare.
“I know, Sōsuke, I know, and I swear, we’ve been working as fast as we could. 
Would you rather I spooked them and had them take off with Ichigo and the
others where we couldn’t find them?” he said sadly looking at him.
Their affair had been short, only a year, and Kisuke had ended up falling out
of love with Sōsuke and back into love with his high school sweetheart,
Yoruichi Shihōin.  At least, that’s what he had said to Sōsuke.  The truth was
he loved them both, but he felt like he had to make a choice.   He was having a
hard time separating the man he’d once loved and the man who had put Ichigo in
danger.
“We tried, Professor Aizen,” said the tall one with blond hair from across the
table.  Sajin had been his name, Sōsuke thought.  “We did.  We found the boy
resistant to help from the outside.”
There was a knock at the door and Kisuke cleared his throat and called for them
to enter.  He smiled.  “Dr. Ishida,” he said, standing as the tall, thin doctor
entered, pushing his silver glasses up as he nodded.
“Captain,” he said.  “I’ve taken lead on the case, considering that it seems
I’m one of the few staff members that came up on a short list of people they
know haven’t been involved with the corruption from the Utagawas.”
“Of course, please, sit,” Urahara said, motioning to the seat at the end. 
“What have you found, Dr. Ishida?”
“All three have suffered systematic physical abuse, however, I’m pleased to
report none seem to have experienced any sort of sexual abuse,” he said,
looking through the files.  “In fact, the female victim said that it was
another male in the house that kept them from being hurt too often,” he said. 
“The oldest boy, Ichigo,” he said, swallowing and looking up.  “Captain, I must
admit that I may not be able to head this case.”
“Why is that?” Kisuke asked.  Sōsuke smiled.
“You’re Uryū’s father, so you think this Ichigo is your nephew,” Sōsuke said,
nodding.
Ryuken nodded.  “Of course, Professor Aizen, Uryū has said much of you.  And
yes.”
Kisuke nodded.  “It can’t be helped, Dr. Ishida, you’ll have to stay with the
case.  I can’t trust anyone else.”
***** Chaos Unfolding *****
                                        
Sōsuke was pacing in the waiting room again as he wondered exactly how he was
going to handle this all.  There was so much going on.  He had no idea what to
do with everything.  He felt someone put a hand on his shoulder and he saw it
was Harribel.  She smiled gently and gave him a cup of coffee.  He nodded. 
“How are you doing?” she asked as she steered him to sit down.  “You spoke with
those kids already.”
Sōsuke nodded, sipping the horrid coffee and sighing.  “Yeah, I just…I don’t
know what to do.  I keep dwelling on everything.”
Harribel looked up to see that Mila Rose had come in and she stood and spoke to
Harribel quietly for a moment before kissing her cheek and leaving again. 
Harribel came back and sat down.  Sōsuke sipped his drink.
“So, if you don’t mind, I was just curious, how you and your consorts got
together?” Sōsuke said thoughtfully.  “One of the things I’m working on with my
dissertation is going to be unconventional relationships and how they come
about occurring.”
Harribel nodded and smiled.  “Well, it was, as they say, a long strange trip,”
she said looking up toward the ceiling.  “I met Mila Rose as a child.  We lived
in the Gold Coast area, and Mila Rose was of an aboriginal people, the Murri. 
She had a unique life and we were great friends, of course, my own mixed
descent marked me as different from the primarily Caucasian folks we lived
among.  As we grew older, we became lovers.  It was fortunately acceptable to
our families.  This was early in our secondary school days.  Toward the end of
those years, we met Sung-Sun.”
Harribel’s face changed into a soft smile.  “She was such a shy thing, and we
took a liking to her immediately.  She had recently come out as a lesbian, but
she was struggling with her family.  They were a very traditional Chinese
family, and they kept trying to arrange a marriage for her.  She continually
turned them down.  I remember her saying how miserable they were, and how she
didn’t care when they disowned her because they only wanted tradition, not
happiness.  So it was we two became three.”
“Mila Rose’s family as well as mine were worried, asking how we could handle
two lovers, and how they didn’t think it would work.  All three of us knew that
it could be because one does not simply run out of love, you know,” Harribel
said, looking down at her hands thoughtfully again.
Harribel smirked and chuckled under her breath.  “Then there was Apacci.  The
dear was going to college, having left her family’s pig farm.  She was the only
girl of five children, and she has always been a boy in all senses that
mattered.  She found herself attracted to other girls as a teen and had the
misfortune to have a family and community that was convinced it was a phase,
and she’d grow out of it.  She still has times she wonders if she is female or
not.  She is still on that journey of discovery, of course.  You know that that
can take much time,” Harribel glanced at Sōsuke.  “She did reconcile with her
family, though, but explaining to them that not only was she a dedicated
lesbian but had three female lovers…”
Sōsuke nodded thoughtfully.  “It seems that there are so many ways that those
of us that deviate from the norms are ostracized by society.”
Harribel frowned.  “You speak from experience.”
“There have been those, along my way, that cannot accept my sexual
preferences.  Sometimes it has caused people to refuse to work with me because
I do not hide it.  I do not advertise it, either, of course, but it seems to
always be an issue in some form or another,” he said, sipping the coffee and
grimacing.  It was even worse cold.
Harribel nodded.  “That is why we come together, Sōsuke.  Sometimes finding
others on the outside of what others consider normal is the only way we can
survive.”
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
 “Please, wake up,” Ichigo whispered to the passed out man in the bathtub.  It
was almost six am, and Ichigo knew something bad was going to happen.  He knew
that the person the most susceptible was going to be Ririn.  He couldn’t get
everyone help but he could try and get her out.
With Momo, Rin and Hanataro at the hospital, he knew they were safe, at least
for now.  News had come back quickly when Ryō got the call that Yoshi had
wrecked the car and her and the three kids had all been taken to the hospital
under police guard.  Yoshi had been arrested once the doctors had cleared her. 
She’d suffered a moderate concussion but nothing else.  Ryō would have to spend
the day trying to get her out of jail, but he had said that he was going to
have no issues with it.  Ichigo didn’t doubt it.  Somehow, he was sure any
charges would mysteriously disappear.  They always seemed to somehow go away.
Three days before, Ichigo had nearly walked into a bedroom where Sawatari, the
oldest “party goer” in their house.  Sawatari, though, was only at the house to
get his hands on opioids.   Ichigo didn’t know much about the older man, as he
had to be in his seventies, but he’d heard he had chronic pain and got hooked
on narcotic pain killers.  However, when Ichigo walked in on him, he’d been
talking to Ugaki, the strange, awkward guy that was a voyeur and typically
would get high and watch people pair off and have sex.  Sawatari had been
telling Ugaki that he had a fear of dying in an opium den. 
“Please, wake up, Sawatari,” Ichigo whispered and shook Sawatari’s shoulder.
Sawatari’s eyes fluttered and he stared up into Ichigo’s face with a frown. 
“What is it?”
“Please, you have to listen to me.  Yoshi got picked up last night, and they
arrested her this morning.  She’ll be back later, and she’s going to be in a
bad way when she gets back.  They took three of the young ones, and after the
wreck she had, I don’t think they’ll come back.  You told Ugaki that you didn’t
want to die here, if you’re serious, please, leave today, and please take Ririn
with you,” he said softly.  “Please, last time, Yoshi nearly killed her when Ho
and Ban left.”
Sawatari sat up slowly, his head pounding.  He nodded slowly.  “Are you sure
you don’t wish to go too?” he asked slowly, looking at the boy.  “Or the
others?”
Ichigo shook his head.  “If you take more than one of us, there’s less chance
you’ll get away.  I’ll stay with Noba and Nozomi.  I know if she takes it out
on anyone, it will be me, so that’s okay.  But take her.  She’s down waiting at
the top of the basement stairs.  Take her to the hospital and drop her off, or
take her to the police station, somewhere, just take her and go,” he said,
insistently. 
Ichigo helped him out of the tub and to the door.  He paused and looked back
and shook his head.  How did he ever get this messed up?  He pulled out his
phone and stared at it.
“You’re a grandpa!” the picture was captioned and there was a picture of a tiny
baby girl.
No, he had to go.  He did exactly as the poor boy asked.  Maybe if he did, they
could stop Yoshi from coming back here.  He nodded and headed down to get
Ririn.  It was time.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ririn stood at the door to the ER and wondered exactly what she was supposed to
do.  The old man left her there.  He sighed and went in, going to the desk.
“What can I do for you, dear?” the nurse said.
“I think my sister and brothers are here,” she said softly.
“Oh, what are the names?” the nurse said, looking to her computer screen.
“Utagawa,” she said and the nurse looked up at her.
“Wait here,” she said softly and left. 
A moment later, she came back with the silver haired Isane, who kneeled down
and smiled at Ririn.  “I’m Isane.  You said you’re one of the Utagawa
children?”
Ririn nodded.  “Um, yeah, my brother had this old man take me when he left and
he left me here.  I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.  I told him I didn’t
want to leave him.  I told him that we had to stay together.  He said I had to
leave.”
Isane smiled.  “Come with me, first we need to see how you are and then you can
see your two brothers and sister.  They’re just fine, there was a wreck but no
one was hurt badly.”
Ririn stopped and stared at her. “Wh-what about Yoshi?  Is she here?”
“No, sweetheart.  She’s in jail right now.  They took her to jail about an hour
ago.  Just come with me, and we’ll get you checked out,” she said, and Ririn
nodded. 
A couple hours later, Ririn had been put in the room with the others, the room
set with a rotating guard of one of the five team members on the outside. 
Isane and Ryuken went back into the room while Edrad guarded the room.  Kisuke
looked over the file on the new girl that had come in.
“She said that this man named Sawatari brought her here.  She said he always
used drugs but that was all.  I looked him up, he suffers from chronic pain,
and it was recorded that his doctor refused to prescribe any longer,” Ryuken
said, passing over the file on Sawatari.
Urahara nodded.  “And her condition?”
“I’ve sent Professor Aizen to talk to her,” Ryuken said, sighing.  “He has more
experience dealing with this than most of my psychiatrists here, let alone
being able to trust them.  Medically, she’s had a lot of broken bones.  She’s
very small for her age, appearing to be fourteen when she’s really around
seventeen years old.  Severe malnutrition, and severe sexual abuse.  She’s
going to need surgery on some badly healed breaks in order to avoid lifelong
pain.  Mentally, she’s distant and avoidant.  Her only worry is for her
siblings, especially Ichigo because she said that Yoshi would blame him for
what happened.”
Sajin shook his head.  “This matches with the report we could get from the
twins.  She used them sparingly until they were eighteen and then told them
they had to pay their way.  The twins, though, they were more severely affected
and could barely communicate what had happened, so none of it would hold up
even for a warrant.”
Kisuke nodded.  “This should help the warrant, even if the warrant officer is
on Yoshi’s list, there’s no way they can deny it with this kind of evidence. 
Everyone, you know what to do.  I’ve gotten word that the longest I can hold
the woman is five this evening.  She’s already been bailed out, and everyone’s
dragging feet to keep her from leaving.  Let’s see if we can’t get this done
before then.”
Unfortunately, things weren’t finished by five, and Yoshi left, smiling, and
Kisuke and his team were left in frustration because the warrants were to be
issued the next morning.  They’d have time to run.  Kisuke nearly broke the
window in the conference room before he reclaimed his calm. 
“Kisuke, you’re letting your emotions get the best of you,” Sōsuke said from
behind him.
“Suke!” Kisuke said, spinning and coming over to him.  “I think…I think I need
your help again.”
Sōsuke shook his head and started to ask what he needed now, after all he was
already involved with every aspect of the situation.  Then Kisuke grabbed his
face and pulled him into a fierce, passionate kiss.  Sōsuke didn’t mean to
respond, he hadn’t intended to, but his arms went to Kisuke’s head and knocked
the silly hat off and started carding his hair.
“Suke, I missed you,” Kisuke muttered, leaning back and then diving back in and
sucking a kiss against Sōsuke’s collarbone.
Sōsuke’s head cleared a bit.  “Kissy, you…you’re married…I can’t…”
“She told me to go get fucked,” Kisuke panted, reaching up and starting to
unbutton Sōsuke’s shirt.  “She said go ahead.  She said she knows I never
stopped loving you or needing you.”
Sōsuke’s eyes were wide as he worked down his shirt then started on his slacks,
sliding them off his hips smoothly.  Sōsuke had no idea why he was letting him
do this, then he remembered as he reached down and grabbed Kisuke’s head when
Kisuke swallowed him to the base immediately.
“Fuck, Kisuke, have you been practicing still?” he gasped, feeling Kisuke’s
throat work around his cock. 
Kisuke was the only partner that Sōsuke had ever had that loved giving head
this much.  He was also the only one that gleefully deep throated him
repeatedly.  Kisuke cut his gray eyes up at him and grinned, spit dripping down
from the corners of his mouth.  He concentrated on Sōsuke’s now very interested
cock for what felt like forever to Sōsuke.  He was having a hard time not
cumming right down Kisuke’s throat.  Finally, Kisuke seemed to realize that any
more, and he wasn’t’ going to get what he wanted, which was Sōsuke’s cock
inside him in another location than his mouth.  He slid his mouth off him and
stood up, grinning at him with those wide eyes.
“Yoruichi has dildos....” he muttered, standing up and resuming kissing Sōsuke
with such hunger and need that Sōsuke nearly came on the spot.
“Come on, fuck me, you know you want to,” Kisuke said, nipping at Sōsuke’s
ear.  “Yoruichi said I better come home walking funny.  She’ll think you lost
your touch if I don’t.  I mean, no one’s fucked me in a long time, Sōsuke.  Not
since you…once you fucked me, I couldn’t take another one.  Had to be you.”
Sōsuke lost any semblance of restraint at that moment, grabbing Kisuke by the
shoulders and shoving him backward until Kisuke’s back hit the conference room
table.  Sōsuke kissed him for a long moment before he spun him around and
pushed him over the table.  He started by sliding his hands over his hips and
growled deep in his throat at him.  Sōsuke leaned over him, running his hands
up Kisuke’s chest, flicking his nipples as he slid under his shirt.  He slid
his right hand under Kisuke and unhooked his slacks, pushing them down enough
that he could get to his ass.  Sōsuke was already too far gone that he didn’t
realize that the door was unlocked, and Kisuke didn’t care as he felt Sōsuke’s
fingers find their way inside him.
“Fuck, Sōsuke, you always fucking fingered so good,” he muttered, writhing
backward against Sōsuke’s plunging digits.  He was already up to three fingers
without lube.
“Kisuke, you…you have been letting her peg you, huh,” he muttered, working his
fingers deeper inside.  He brushed his prostate until Kisuke was nearly
whining.  “You’re open already…”
Kisuke couldn’t answer at the moment, nodding emphatically and needing Sōsuke
to hurry before he came unglued. “Come on, please, Sōsuke,” he muttered.
Sōsuke’s head cleared a bit and he stopped, catching his breath.  “Kisuke, I
don’t…I don’t have lube or a condom…” he said, realizing that this was
completely out of character even for him.
“Don’t care, don’t need it,” Kisuke panted, wiggling back into Sōsuke hard. 
“Just fuck…” he whined as Sōsuke suddenly plunged into him without another
word.
Kisuke was starting to regret his request because that hurt more than he
wanted.  He grimaced a bit, feeling the burning stretch as he waited until his
body adjusted.  He’d spent a few minutes in the bathroom before coming back out
fingering himself because he knew that Sōsuke wouldn’t say no.  “Oh, fuck,
Suke, just move, get going…”
Sōsuke didn’t need much encouragement to being thrusting into him harder than
he intended.  There was a degree of anger, he had to admit.  He was frustrated
with the fact that Kisuke hadn’t done more to stop this whole terrible
situation sooner.  He clutched Kisuke’s hips hard and focused on making Kisuke
feel it.  Kisuke didn’t seem to mind, however, that Sōsuke was far rougher than
ever.  He had both fists balled on the table and he was concentrating on trying
to not scream.  He wasn’t entirely successful when he crested and fell hard. 
He felt Sōsuke clutch his hips hard enough that he was sure that he’d have
bruises, and he could tell his wife that he was definitely going to be walking
funny.  He felt Sōsuke go over, slamming into him hard enough that Kisuke
thought he might have to have some salve after this one, and nearly bounced his
face off the table. 
Sōsuke fell over his back, panting and clutched Kisuke, suddenly realizing how
rough he’d been with him.  “Fuck, Kissy, are you okay?  I…I…didn’t mean to…”
“I’m great, Suke,” he muttered, feeling the pain already lancing lusciously up
his spine.  “You know I like it rough,” he muttered, turning over and sliding
up to sit on the table.
Kisuke wrapped his ankles around Sōsuke’s hips and pulled him closer and
started to kiss him again.  Sōsuke continued to run his hands through the fine
blonde hair.  Of course, it was then that the door popped open.
“Captain, hey I got…oh…dear…” Edrad said, looking at the state that Kisuke and
Sōsuke were in. 
Kisuke, naked from the waist down, was sitting with his legs wrapped around the
equally naked from the waist down Sōsuke.  Kisuke’s hair was sticking up at all
angles over his head, and there were some very dark bruises blossoming on his
hips about then.  Sōsuke’s tie was tossed over his shoulder, and somewhere,
he’d lost his jacket.  Kisuke was still mostly in his jacket, but not all the
way. Sōsuke turned toward the door and went deep crimson, as Kisuke glanced
over and smirked at Edrad.
 “Edrad, grab my hat, will ya?” he said.  “My wife will kill me if it gets
damaged.”
Sōsuke couldn’t help it, he started laughing, putting his head on Kisuke’s
shoulder as he did. 
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Someone!  Help!  Wake up!” and a loud pounding came from the door next door. 
Luppi, in the middle of playing his video game looked over to the Wonderweiss
who had been up for the last hour or so.  It was almost two am.  Wonderweiss
had been at a photography exhibit by one of his favorites, Ran’Tao, and had
gotten back and fell into bed immediately at five pm.  He’d had to get up that
morning at five am in order to be there in time for the opening.  Luppi, in the
middle of a hypomanic bout, had spent the day cleaning.  Finally, unable to
clean more, he’d stopped and started playing video games until the episode
passed.  Wonderweiss had joined when he woke up and now they were playing
Guilty Gear after having gone through a couple others.  Both got up and went to
the door to see a girl standing in front of Uryū and Chad’s door beating on it
furiously.
Uryū opened the door, bleary eyed and shoved his glasses on his face and
stared.  “Wha?” he asked sleepily.
“Please, help me, she’s gonna kill him, she’s gonna kill him this time, and I
don’t know who to tell!  Just help him!” she said, staring back over the hill
at the Utagawa house.  Uryū woke up immediately and nodded.  Chad handed him
his shoes, and had already put his on.  He nodded thanks, and looked at Luppi
across the way.
“Stay with Luppi,” he said, pushing the young girl toward Luppi.  “What’s your
name?”
“Nozomi, Nozomi Utagawa,” she said, staring at him vacantly.
“Got it,” Uryū said and both he and Chad took off toward the fence that
separated them.  He didn’t need to ask who he was. Somehow, Uryū already knew.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Noba’s hands were shaking when he’d shoved Nozomi out of the small basement
window and told her to run.  He wouldn’t have fit; it was far too small even
for his thin frame.  He fumbled through the bag of found items under the
floorboard he’d hidden and winced as he heard Yoshi screaming above them
again.  She’d been here about fifteen minutes and her voice hadn’t stopped in
that time.  He found a cell phone he’d grabbed, but the battery was almost
dead.  He swallowed and dialed in emergency and he dropped the stupid thing
when he heard a resounding thump above him.  He didn’t see where it went.  He
hoped it stayed on long enough for them to trace it…
Ichigo had never seen Yoshi like this.  She was beyond angry.  She’d been let
out at almost five that afternoon, and from what Ichigo could tell, she’d spent
the entire time getting lit up and drinking heavily.  She was swinging around
one of her pistols, and everyone in the house had scattered.  Ichigo, though,
couldn’t run because she’d snatched him the moment she saw him.
He couldn’t understand much of what she was saying, but he thought it amounted
to it being his fault because she wouldn’t have left the night before if not
because of him.  He tried to weather it, hoping she’d just wear herself out,
but she’d already shot into the walls several times.  He heard the door open
and close and heard a shout.  Mabashi’s voice.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Mabashi screamed, coming over and trying to grab
Ichigo’s arm out of Yoshi’s grip.  She instead whipped Ichigo away and sent him
falling over the coffee table, his hands crashing through the glass surface and
if Ichigo’s hands hadn’t been numb already he would have felt the cuts.  Her
grip had cut off most his circulation.
“Whatever the fuck I want, you little whore loving son of a bitch,” she said,
snapping her hand up and pulling Ichigo back up. 
“Don’t,” Ichigo said, staring at Mabashi.
Mabashi stopped.  Both knew that Yoshi with a loaded gun was very dangerous. 
“Yoshi, come on, don’t do this, you don’t want to…”
She snapped Ichigo forward, and Mabashi could see his arm was starting to swell
around her grip on his forearm.  It was the same arm Inaba had broken not long
ago.  Ichigo winced, but landed on his knees beside her, holding his bloody
hands in front of him.
“I want to kill him, and you, and all these fuckers,” she screamed, but then
smiled.  “But you know, why not share the fun first, right?” she said, sliding
the gun into the back of her jeans.  Mabashi started to move, but she flicked a
syringe out of her pocket before he could get close.  “Ichigo, you’re such a
pain in the ass, but here, I’ll let you go out riding a great high, how about
that?”
Ichigo tried to jerk away but she slammed the needle into his neck and shoved
the plunger down in one motion.  Ichigo gasped as the drugs hit his system. 
Yoshi shoved him away from her and started laughing as he teetered on his
knees.  Vaguely he heard Mabashi’s voice asking what did she do?  He felt hands
on him and he looked up into Mabashi’s eyes.  He smiled, he thought he did, at
least, his face was numb, and planted a light kiss on Mabashi’s lips before he
felt the world slipping and his body began to seize.
Mabashi gasped as Ichigo started convulsing in his hands.  He laid him down and
went to grab Yoshi.  “You fucking bitch!” he screamed but stopped short, still
standing over Ichigo’s body and looked down as red blossomed in his chest. 
Mabashi blinked and looked up to see Yoshi grinning over the barrel of the
gun.  He had enough time to glance at Ichigo before he fell to the floor beside
him.
Ichigo felt his body go slack and opened his eyes to realize he was staring
into Mabashi’s.  Only they weren’t alive…they were dead, and he felt his heart
pounding out of his chest.  He felt the world tilt and darken.
Yoshi stopped laughing.  “Oh fuck.  Fuck…” she said.                     
Ryō grabbed her arm.  “We have to go now, Yoshi,” he said, grabbing her and
pulling her out of the house, peeling out and disappearing down the road in
Ryō’s black Nissan.
Uryū and Chad found the door open and ran in, seeing someone prone in the
doorway to the next room, Uryū dropped to his knees and checked for pulse,
finding none, then seeing what he’d been afraid of.
“Ichigo!” he said, gasping and jumping over the other body to take his pulse. 
“He’s alive!” he said, feeling a very threadey pulse.  “Chad?” he said, looking
up, but he already heard sirens.
***** Resulting Chaos *****
                                        
Harribel and Sōsuke were sitting with Momo, Hanataro and Rin because they
couldn’t sleep that night.  All three were worried because they knew that
nothing was going to be done until the morning about Yoshi and Ryō.  They had
been joined briefly by Ririn, but she was currently undergoing a CT scan of
some of her older breaks.  Sung Sun, and Mila Rose had all headed down to the
waiting room.  They had debated heading home since the next day was Monday, but
Harribel and Sōsuke had both canceled classes and informed the staff what had
happened.  Apacci decided to go ahead and go home to be there in case someone
called while Harribel was in the hospital.  It was almost four am when the
nurses in the station burst into action.
“Something big,” Harribel said, standing and moving toward the door.  They were
in the largest room toward the front, waiting for the three kids to be
released. 
A few moments later, a group of nurses came by with a gurney shouting things as
they moved.  “Male, late teens, likely overdose!  We have no idea what,
tacacardyia and respiratory distress!  Intubated in the ambulance, almost lost
pulse twice!”
Sōsuke caught the distinct bright mop of orange hair.  “Ichigo?” he said out
loud, and one of the nurses turned toward him.
“You, follow me, you know him?” she said, Sōsuke running after her while she
was making notes in the chart.  The gurney disappeared through the next set of
doors and she stopped outside them with Sōsuke.
“Um, yes, he’s the adopted brother of the three Utagawa children.  No doubt
he’s suffered something because…he’s overdosed?  What happened?” he asked,
trying to see past her.
“Sir, I don’t know anything right now, we just know what the paramedics were
told when they arrived.  Please, if you wish to know more, I believe there are
some police officers in the waiting room with the witnesses,” she said and
nodded, going through the doors.
Sōsuke watched her go then went back where Harribel waited.  “Was it him?” she
asked quietly.
Inside the room, Sung Sun and Mila Rose had kept the three young ones
occupied.  Sōsuke nodded.  “I don’t know how bad, but it was him.”  He came
into the room and nodded.
“Kids, I need to tell you they just brought Ichigo in.  I don’t know what
happened yet, but they’re helping him.  They think an overdose.  I’m going to
see if I can find the police officers,” Sōsuke said, nodding to them.
“Ichigo doesn’t do drugs,” Momo said softly looking at Sōsuke.  “If he’s
overdosed, she gave it to him.  She tried to kill him.”
Rin and Hanataro exchanged a frightened look.  Sōsuke put a hand on Hanataro’s
shoulder.  “Don’t worry yet, he’s here and he’s alive.  We’ll go from there. 
Tier, will you stay with them?  I’m going to see if Kisuke is out in the
waiting room.”
Harribel nodded.  “Of course,” she said, sitting down beside Rin and putting an
arm around him.  He immediately turned and started sobbing into her chest. 
“Shh, now honey,” Harribel said softly.  “You know, I’ve got a son, he’s grown
now, but I took him in when he was young,” she said gently, stroking Rin’s
hair.
Mila Rose giggled.  “Oh remember when we first came home with Wondy?” she said,
smiling at Sung Sun who grinned in return.
All three of the others were watching them now.  “Wondy?” asked Momo.
“Short for Wonderweiss,” Harribel said.  “He’s biologically my nephew but his
parents couldn’t take care of him because of his special needs.”
“Special needs?” Hanataro asked, wiping away the tears collecting in his own
eyes.
“He has autism, and doesn’t speak.  He was a toddler, almost three, when we
took him in.  It was hard because he doesn’t learn like other kids, and
together the four of us managed to raise him.  He was five when he started
playing with my camera.  I went and bought him his own, just a cheap disposable
one, you know, and we found something remarkable.  Among the pictures of feet
and sideways pictures of the sun, there were some stunning pictures on that
first camera,” Harribel said fondly, holding Rin against her side as she
spoke.  “That’s when I knew that there was something special about how that boy
saw the world, and it needed to be shared.  I nurtured that in him, we all did,
and he never stopped learning about photography.  If it was a camera, he
learned about it.  He learned how to take them apart, how to develop his own
films, use the darkroom in ways that amazed me, and now, he’s at school on a
scholarship for his photography.”
Mila Rose nodded.  “It was fun, we lived in Australia, you know.”
Rin stared openly for a moment.  “Australia?  But doesn’t everything want to
kill you there?” he gasped.
The three women laughed for a second.  “Shh, not at all,” Harribel said,
squeezing him.  “We lived on the Gold Coast, and we turned everything into
learning for him because he didn’t quite fit in with the regular school life. 
There is learning in the most amazing places.  Science in the waves, math in
the sky, literature on the shoreline.”
“Sounds amazing,” Hanataro said quietly. 
“It was, and we go back every year too,” she said.  “Here, would you like to
see a picture of Wonderweiss?” she asked.
Rin and Hanataro both nodded and Harribel pulled one up on her phone.  Rin
squinted.  “Hey that’s that kid I see on roller skates.”
“Yes,” Harribel said, smiling.  “I taught him how to skate.  Holding his hand
first then tied a rope to him.”
“A rope?” Momo said, frowning.
“It worked,” Sung Sun said softly from where she sat in the large chair. 
“Never seen the like, but it worked.”
Harribel sighed and they continued telling stories to ease the mind of the
three of them until news could be heard.
Outside, Sōsuke had finally managed to track down Kisuke.  He’d been literally
outside the building with Uryū Ishida and his roommate Chad. 
“Kisuke, you are hard to track down when you turn off your phone,” he said,
walking up with his hands in his pockets.
Kisuke turned around and gave him a coy smile.  “Oh, my, my, there’s my
sweetie.  I didn’t know you were here still or I would have fetched you
straight away.”
“Yes, I’m sure, I saw they brought Ichigo in, what happened?” he asked.
Uryū was decidedly pale.  “This girl, from the house, she came running over to
our place.  And said she was going to kill him.  Chad and I ran up there, but
when we got there….” He swallowed hard.  “I’ve never seen that much blood.”
Sōsuke turned to Kisuke with a raised brow.  Kisuke sighed, chewing his lip for
a moment.  “It seems that Yoshi didn’t go home when we turned her loose.  We
had her tailed, of course.  She went to some club downtown, and didn’t come
back out.  Our best guess is she used it to drop tail.  A couple hours ago, it
looks like she went back to the house.  We’re not sure what exactly happened,
but when Uryū and Chad got there, Mabashi, the CI, was dead, and Ichigo was
barely alive, frequently seizing from whatever it was.”
“Was it self administered?” Sōsuke asked, wondering if it was a suicide
attempt.
“Not likely,” Kisuke said with a sigh, pointing to his neck.  “Injected here
with enough force to bruise.  Mabashi was shot through and through, chest
wound.  Died quick.  I doubt he really even had time to notice he’d been shot. 
His body’s already down in the morgue.  We’ve got the Crime Scene guys cleaning
up the mess and gathering evidence, and in a few hours when they clear out,
we’ll be allowed to go in and check the rest of the house.”
“And the Utagawas?” Sōsuke asked, frowning.  “Do you have them?”
Kisuke sighed.  “No, Uryū said he heard a car peel out.  Ryō’s vehicle is gone,
and we’ve got an APB out on it now.”
Sōsuke sighed, rubbing his head.  “I just…who does this kind of stuff?”
“Crazy smart people, Sōsuke.  She was crazy like a kitsune demon, I’ll tell you
that.  I’ll let you know what we find, but we’re guessing she left without her
blackmail material,” he said, sighing.  Sōsuke turned to go.  “Sōsuke,” he said
softly.  “I know you’re worried about the kid.  Just…remember that Mabashi is
dead, and was the first person who ever told him he loved him in that place.”
Sōsuke nodded.  Could Ichigo have returned the sentiment?  Could he have loved
Mabashi in return despite all the terrible things that he’d done over the last
five years?  Sōsuke, of course, knew that he would.  The first and lingering
affectionate touch he received.  A first experience in sex lays a map for the
future, and being brutally raped at thirteen would have tied him to his
attacker in a way that was hard to break, especially since that attacker had
decided he “loved” him.  The navigation of this was going to take all his
skills, to say the least. 
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
A gentle knock came on the door a few moments after Uryū left the house.  Luppi
left the distraught girl on the couch and answered it to see Yoshino standing
there concerned.
“What’s happening?” she asked.  “I heard all kinds of noise, and Uryū’s door is
opened…” she said, looking in where Nozomi sat on the sofa rocking back and
forth while Wonderweiss seemed to be taking in everything silently.
Luppi cleared his throat.  “This is Nozomi Utagawa.  She came down for help. 
Uryū and Chad ran up there to try and help,” he said, pulling his robe a bit
tighter.  “I was just about to get tea for everyone, would you like a cup
Yoshino?” he said softly.
“Of course, Luppi, of course, might I stay with you?” she asked, nodding at
him.
Luppi nodded.  “Please, this isn’t exactly my area,” he said, ducking into the
kitchen for the tea.
Yoshino sat down beside Nozomi. “Nozomi, right?” she asked gently.
Nozomi turned her eyes on Yoshino and nodded.  “Yeah,” she said softly.  “She’s
going to kill him,” she whispered.  “Noba was so scared…will she hurt them
both?”
“Shh, sweetie, tell me what happened?” she asked gently.
Nozomi nodded and set about explaining everything that had happened in the last
couple of days, starting with the fight between Mabashi and Yoshi, and ending
up with her coming back and screaming at Ichigo and swearing to hurt everyone
and everything he cared about.
Yoshino nodded, putting a hand on Nozomi’s hand.  “If Uryū and Chad went up
there, they’ll stop her from hurting anyone else.”
A gunshot could be heard through the stillness, surprising everyone in the
room.  Nozomi started to get up.  Yoshino, worried herself, tried to appear
not.  “Shh, you can’t do anything here.  We don’t know what’s happening, for
all we know the police are up there.”  Nozomi seemed to calm, but Yoshino knew
better.  She’d just now started hearing sirens in the distance.  She hoped no
one had been hurt, but she knew Yoshi’s preference for guns.
Luppi came in with a tray of teacups and a steaming pot and set it on the
coffee table.  He reached over and turned off the TV and served everyone a
cup.  Wonderweiss took his and sipped carefully as he listened to everyone
speak.
Yoshino saw that Nozomi was not faring well, the teacup rattling on the saucer
as she picked it up.  “Um, Luppi, why don’t you tell Nozomi about how you found
out about your condition?”  She knew that Luppi, fascinated with psychology as
he was, always enjoyed discussing with others his unusual mental disorder.
“Sure, that will pass some time while we wait to hear from Uryū,” he said,
sitting his teacup down.  “Well, I have cyclothymia.  The first time I had
anything happen, I was in middle school.  I just didn’t sleep and just kept
doing stuff.  It was so bad that they called in my mom because they thought I
was on something.  I’d done an extra credit project that should have taken a
week in a night, and was zipping through work at school.  They took me to get a
drug test, because no one believed me.  When it came back clean, the doctor
said that he thought it might be something else, but he wasn’t sure what, and
sent me home,” he said, sipping his tea in thought.  “Then, a few days later, I
was fine again.  My parents thought everything was over and it was just
something strange, but I hit this serious low, like so bad I couldn’t get out
of bed, and just stopped doing anything.  My mom decided to call a psychiatrist
and took me and finally got an answer.  A bipolar type thing called
cyclothymia.  A bunch of pills later, they got things straight.  Now I just
take a mood stabilizer, but tonight I was a little wound up so that’s why I was
up.”
Nozomi nodded, sipping her tea without shaking now.  Wonderweiss picked up a
tablet from beside his seat on the loveseat and began tapping on it.
A smooth female voice spoke from his tablet.  “Are you better?”
Nozomi jumped, not expecting that.  “Um, yes, thanks…” she said to Wonderweiss
who nodded and tapped on the tablet again.
“That is good,” the female voice answered.
“Wonderweiss is autistic and nonverbal, Nozomi,” Yoshino said with a smile. 
“He prefers the female voice because it doesn’t sound like a robot,” she said,
quietly.
Nozomi nodded slowly and smiled at him as she sipped her tea again.  They
continued to talk about various things until the sun started to rise outside.
Yoshino’s cell phone rang, Go Your Own Way, by Fleetwood Mac.  She smiled and
grabbed it from her pocket.  “That’s Uryū,” she said, answering it quickly.
“Yoshino, sorry to wake you,” he said apologetically. 
“I’m actually downstairs at Luppi and Wonderweiss’s with Nozomi,” she said
softly.  “What’s going on?”
Uryū cleared his throat.  “We got there too late, the one guy, with orangey
hair like Ichigo, he was dead, Yoshi’d shot him through the chest.  Ichigo’d
been shot up with some drug and was seizing bad.  The ambulance took him not
long after we got there because someone called emergency and the call dropped. 
He’s out of danger for the moment, and we’re waiting for the tox screen to know
for sure, but they think it was cocaine, possibly crack because of the
strength, and heroin she injected him with.  It was enough to kill him, just
not immediately.  Without treatment, he wouldn’t have lived more than an hour
or two.  He’s still out, and they don’t know how long he’ll be out.  Can you
lock our place?  I’m staying here, my dad’s on Ichigo’s case, and I don’t want
to leave him.”
Yoshino nodded.  “Of course, just take care of yourself, okay?” she said and
hung up.
“Ichigo is alive,” she said, and got three relieved faces.  “Someone else, with
orangey hair, Uryū said, was shot and killed.”
“Mabashi,” Nozomi said softly.  “He probably tried to defend Ichigo.  What did
she do to him?”
“They think she gave him an overdose of some sort, but they don’t know what
yet.  He’s unconscious, but alive,” she said, encouragingly. 
“Can you take me there?  I want to see him.  And what about Noba?  And the
others?” she asked.
Yoshino smiled.  “Come on, we’ll go to the hospital and see what’s happening
with everyone.”
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Kisuke looked up, shielding his eyes as the sun was rising over the horizon. 
It had been a long night.  He’d just got the okay to start searching the rest
of the house.  They had evidence they needed to find.  He stretched and glanced
back to see the others on his task force, Edrad, Isane, Kensei, and Sajin
gathering together after they exited their cars.  He waved at them and they all
gathered around him.
“Alright, the team has cleared the murder scene.  The rest of the house has not
been cleared.  We know this was used as a drug den, so there may be people
throughout the house.  No one came out when the foot patrol went in and did a
cursory check for the team but we didn’t want them going up or downstairs.  We
want those areas intact when we get there.  Now, Kensei, I want you to take
north side, I’ll take east, Isane, I want you to head to the basement, Sajin,
south, and Edrad, west.  First clear the bottom floor, check everywhere someone
or something might hide.  We’re looking for her blackmail cache,” he said,
looking at them.  “Alright, let’s get to it, weapons ready at all times,” he
said, pulling his own pistol and going in.
Everyone spread out, finding the lower level relatively empty.  Isane headed
down the basement stairs, cautiously turning on the light as she went.
“Police!” she called.  “If there’s someone down here, please come out!  We’d
like to get you to a safe place!” she called.  She snapped her head to the side
when she heard movement.  “I won’t hurt you.  Ichigo is at the hospital with
Ririn and the others.”
“And Nozomi?” came a soft voice from the shadows directly behind Isane.
She jumped and turned around to find a young man with a scarf covering his
mouth and lower jaw.  She holstered her gun.  “I don’t know yet, but we can
find out.  Let’s get you the hospital with the others.  Are you the only one
here?”
He nodded.  “I sent Nozomi out,” he said, pointing the tiny basement window.
Isane nodded.  “Here, I’ll stay with you,” she said, leading him up the stairs
and out to the ambulance they’d sent for.  She sat down on the back while the
paramedics checked him over.  She pressed her com.  “One adolescent to teen
male.”
Inside, Kisuke headed into the bathroom and found it empty, then opened the
door to the joining bedroom.  He flicked on the light and heard several moans
of displeasure and saw at least three mostly naked young women piled together
on a bed.  He pressed the com unit.  “Got three females,” he said into it.  He
headed into the room and kept his gun ready. 
“Ladies?” he asked.
“Oh, go away, I’m still sleeping it off,” murmured one with dark hair.  Haineko
couldn’t remember much about the night before.  Just that she needed one hell
of a hit to get to sleep.
One with black pigtails and bright yellow shirt and nothing else sat up and
blinked at him. 
“Who the fuck you?” she said, bleary eyes trying to follow Urahara. Suzumebachi
couldn’t remember anything from the day before at all, not even how she got
there.  “Bitch laced my blow, I think,” she muttered, shaking her head.
The other girl, a darker skinned girl with dark hair rolled over, making the
track marks in her inner arm very apparent.  “Too early,” she muttered.  Jackie
Tristan was no stranger to waking up feeling like death warmed over.  She was
not used to people she hadn’t slept with waking her up, though.
“Um, the Utagawas are gone, and you’re going to have to come with us.  Do you
have some clothes here?” he asked, looking around.
The one with the yellow shirt stood up suddenly, nearly falling.  “Yeah,” she
said, grabbing a black skirt and sliding it on her narrow hips.  The one with
short brown hair grabbed a discarded dress from under her head and slid it on
while the darker skinned girl sat up and fumbled with a pair of pants and a
thin t-shirt.  Urahara led them downstairs and out to the ambulance without any
other incident.  He saw Isane sitting in her truck with a young man wrapped in
one of the orange blankets watching the sunrise. 
“Got one middle age male,” came Kensei’s voice.
The bespectacled and awkward looking Ugaki had fallen asleep in a closet and
was now nervously chatting with Kensei as he was led out of the house.  A few
minutes later, Edrad came down with a couple more males, one very young with
dark hair and another darker skinned man.  Finally, Sajin came down with the
all clear having made a final sweep of the house.  However, in his hands he had
a lockbox.
Kisuke’s eyes lit up.  “Well, wonder what’s in there,” he said, seeing the
amused look on Sajin’s face.  Edrad smiled, pulling a lock pick set from his
pocket and going to work on the lock.  A few second the box popped open to
reveal about fifty flash drives.
“What do you want to bet this is her blackmail material?” Urahara said,
smiling.  “Where was it?”
Sajin smirked.  “The nicest and biggest bedroom, sewn into the mattress.”
Kisuke nodded, shutting the box and seeing the ambulance and a couple squad
cars taking off with the people from the house.  “Let’s get this back and see
what we have.”
A few hours later, a memo went out through Karakura Police department and on
the morning news.  Yoshi and Ryō Utagawa were people of interest and wanted. 
Anyone with information should come forward immediately to avoid prosecution. 
Those that came forward with testimony would find themselves given some degree
of amnesty for whatever incriminating evidence Yoshi Utagawa had on them.  It
was a one-time offer, though, and anyone who didn’t take it would be
prosecuted.
It was no surprise that within hours, Kisuke had several officers and
upstanding citizens sitting in his office.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
 “He dead?” Ho said, staring at the body on their lawn. 
The night before Ho and Ban had not been feeling well.  Koga had given them
some Nyquil and they’d finally gotten to sleep. Now, almost at nine in the
morning, they’d wandered outside to find someone on the lawn.  It wasn’t the
first time, but this one really looked dead.
Ban picked up a stick and poked him a couple times.  “He might be dead.”
Koga had gone in to call the police to come pick whoever it was up and came
back out and shook his head as Ban continued to poke the person.  He could see
he was just passed out cold.
Suddenly he gasped and sat up, surprising both Ho and Ban into running behind
Koga.  He snorted.  He knew who it was.
“Muramasa, why are you passed out on my lawn?” he asked, sighing.
He turned and shook his head.  “Bad trip,” he muttered before passing out
again.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Sōsuke sat in the hospital room with Ichigo.  It was almost five in the
evening, and so far, there was no sign of him waking up.  The others had all
been brought in to the hospital at last, along with some of the other drug
users from the house. Facts were coming out at a rapid pace about what had been
happening in the house.  In his hand he gripped a flash drive with the name
Mabashi etched into the plastic.  Urahara had retrieved forty-six flash drives
like this one, each one etched with the name of who she had blackmail material
on.  He looked up as Ryuken Ishida came into the room.
“Professor,” he said, looking and him and nodding.  “Any change?” he asked.
“Not yet,” Sōsuke said, glancing back at the bed.  “What do you think his
chances are?”
Ryuken sighed, running a hand over his white head.  “I can’t say.  He had at
least five seizures from the time the ambulance got him and we don’t know how
many before he was put into the ambulance.  His heart is incredibly strong,
though, because he managed to avoid full cardiac arrest.  We think he suffered
a minor stroke, though.  He’s scheduled for more tests tomorrow to confirm. 
The tox screen came back,” he said, sighing.  “He had one of the nastiest
speedballs I’ve ever had come in here.  I worked ER for a time, and had a few. 
This was straight crack cocaine and very pure heroin.  By all rights, he should
be dead.  He’ll be here a week at least once he wakes up.  And we’re not sure
when that will be.”
He nodded.  “And the other kids?”
“We’ve medically released all of them into police custody.  It’s up to your
friend Captain Urahara what happens from there.  I understand that they’ve been
moved to a safe location for the time being since Yoshi and Ryō Utagawa are
still at large.  I’ve scheduled the three with the most serious problems to
come back in the next week or two to have reconstructive surgery on various
things.  Ichigo’s arm will have to have surgery.  It was a bad ulna break that
healed wrong, and then it was broken again last night.  It is going to take
pins to stabilize,” he said, softly.  “Urahara has given a release for us to
talk to you about the case, in case you weren’t aware.”
Sōsuke nodded.  “Before I was a teacher, I was an associate rape trauma
counselor for a couple years.”
Ryuken nodded.  “Very well, I’ll leave you then.  Let us know if he wakes up,
we need to check him immediately if he does.”
Sōsuke nodded, watching him leave then glancing to the unmoving form on the bed
next to him.  The reassuring beep of the heart monitor and the constant drone
of the oxygen machine did little to ease Sōsuke’s nerves, or his mind.  He
sighed.
“I’m supposed to be your counselor,” he said softly to the still form beside
him.  “I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that.  I’m too close to you. 
Just being your teacher alone should mean I can’t do this.  I know I shouldn’t
be in here with you.  I can’t bring myself to leave, though.  Isn’t that
strange?” he said, smirking as he leaned back in the chair.  “Here I am, a
twenty-six-year-old junior college professor and past private psychologist and
rape counselor, and I’ve done what you’re never supposed to do in either line
of work.”
Sōsuke sighed again, rubbing the bridge of his nose and pushing the curl of his
brunette hair out of his eyes for the millionth time.  “I always have the worst
luck.  When I met Byakuya, we were doomed to fail.  He had to marry and produce
an heir to make his grandfather happy.  When I met Kisuke, we spent so much
time together, and then he ends up realizing he always had been in love with
his high school sweetheart and they run off and get married.  The I find out
both still care about me, and up sleeping with one of them again…  Story of my
love life,” he said, sighing.
He fiddled with the flash drive.  “I watched this drive, and some of the
others, just to see what had gone on in that house,” he said quietly.  “What
they did to you and the others…I don’t know how you endured it.  And the drugs,
how could something that toxic have survived here without people knowing?  Well
I guess they knew, they just were blackmailed into silence,” he said softly. 
He glanced over at the bed and watched the monitor.  “And here I am, infatuated
by a young man that will probably never recover completely from this,” he said,
tapping the flash drive on his leg.  “You’re never going to trust someone. 
You’re going to hate anyone that tries to help you and tries to tell you that
Mabashi never loved you, even at the end; everything he did was self-serving. 
I guess he died a hero, in a way, standing up for someone, but it doesn’t
excuse the things he did.”
“Mabashi’s dead,” a flat sounding voice said from beside Sōsuke and he nearly
jumped out of his skin.
He turned and saw a pair of brown eyes staring at him from the bed.  “Ichigo,”
he said, smiling.  “I have to get your doctor,” Sōsuke said and jumped up,
leaving him to go to the door.
Ichigo watched him, having heard everything he’d said from the time the doctor
had come in the room.  What did he mean?  What did he want from him?  He was
too tired to care as a silver haired doctor came in and started shining light
in his eyes and asking him questions.
***** Chaos Unwinding *****
                                        
Aizen wasn’t sure a couple days later when he was summoned by Urahara to a
meeting at the hospital.  He’d been stopping by every day after classes were
done to check on everyone, but had found most of those from the Utagawa house
to be reluctant to talk about anything yet.  Aizen knew that this had to do
with their placement, because after all, only Ichigo was eighteen.  The rest
needed to be placed with families as soon as possible.  Ririn and Noba were
both rooming with Ichigo at the moment, while everyone else shared another
room.  Ririn had to have a surgery to fix a badly healed femur break, and
Noba’s jaw had required a bit of reconstructive surgery.  Both would remain in
the hospital for at least a week or more until they could be released. 
Aizen nodded to Urahara and sat down at the end of the table while they waited
for the rest to arrive, silently hoping Urahara would decide not to come strike
up conversation.  Aizen was decidedly not in the mood to deal with his strange
behavior.
“Sōsuke…” came Urahara’s soft voice behind him before he came around and hopped
onto the table to sit in front of him.  Aizen sighed and stared at him, his
light eyes flickering with mischief, like usual, and his blond hair ever
hanging in his face.
“Kisuke, I don’t think this is the time…” he said, rolling his eyes at the coy
man.
“Oh come on, Sōsuke, it’s been years.  You can at least act like you’re happy
to see me. I mean, it wasn’t like you broke my heart or anything,” he said,
shrugging at him.
Aizen sighed.  “You left me for a woman, Kisuke.  How do you want me to act
about it.”
Urahara grinned again.  “Ah, you still pine for me?”
“Not in the least,” he said, watching as Toshiro and his grandmother came and
sat down near him.
“But Sōsuke, you act like you got hurt, I was your rebound boyfriend,
remember?” Urahara said, giving him a half smile.
Aizen was about to say something then sighed.  “Yes, I know, I wasn’t very good
at knowing what having a relationship broken off like that meant.”
Both men realized they were being watched by those that came in the room, Aizen
getting uncomfortable, Urahara reveling in the attention.
“Eh hem,” came Isane’s voice from the front.  “Captain Urahara, if you could
stop flirting with your ex, and come to the front so we can get going.”
Urahara turned and mock glared at her.  “Isane, you are no fun.”
“I’ll tell your wife if you don’t cut it out, sir,” she said, smirking at him.
“Ah, well, I suppose I should behave,” he said, sliding off the table and going
up front as everyone sat and watched him.  He turned and clapped loudly getting
everyone to start in their seats.  “Well as fun as picking on Sōsuke is, I’ve
got more important topics today.”
Aizen glared at him.  Urahara winked as Isane and the rest of his team sat down
in the seats at the head.  Harribel, the Ishidas and Yoshino had be invited to
the meeting as well.
“As you know, this entire situation is rather precarious.  I’m sure you can
understand.  I have a list of law enforcement, child services, adoption lawyers
and agents, and more as long as my arm that were involved with the incidents at
the Utagawa household.  All of those present, with the addition of Ms.
Harribel’s consorts, have been directly involved with the children of that
household, and as such there are several things we need to talk about.  The
first topic is perhaps the procedures that we are using to handle these
children, all of which are in a very sensitive place right now.” Urahara pulled
down a projector screen and placed a phone with projector attachment on the
table and brought up the photos from the interior of the household.
“Our first priority is the safety of all these kids.  Before anything else,
that has to be priority.  For that reason, they have twenty four hour
protections in place here in the hospital, currently by the five of us on the
team.  We’re currently vetting a secondary team.  Now, because of the fact that
Yoshi and Ryo Utagawa are on the run, and we have been unable to locate Inaba,
their drug supplier among other things, we feel that all of them are in
danger,” he explained.  “The second thing is we have some hard choices, and
that’s what you have been invited here for.  You’ve all been involved in their
lives recently or in the past and are the first choice in our minds to help
them.  We need to figure out where these kids are going.  Normally, they would
be processed through the system, but currently, with this list of corruption,
we don’t trust the system to be fair.  Therefore, I’m directly looking for
those that wish to take them in and care for them.”
No one spoke for a long moment and then Harribel spoke up.  “I would like to
ask to take in Rin and Hanataro, the youngest ones.   My consorts and I have
had experience raising a child with nonverbal autism.  I believe that handling
the trauma and abuse the two boys endured would be within our capabilities.”
Toshiro started to speak but his grandmother spoke up.  “Consorts?” she asked,
looking confused.
Harribel nodded.  “My three female significant others.  We live in a
polyamorous unit together.”
Toshiro’s grandmother quirked an eyebrow and Toshiro spoke up.  “Momo should
come live with us.  Grandmother and I already discussed it.”
Urahara nodded.  “Yoshino, I understand that you developed a rapport with
Nozomi and have been to visit her since you brought her in the other day.  She
has been resistant to speaking to anyone else.  I know that you currently own
and run the fourplex you live in, but if you would consider…”
Yoshino smiled, glancing at Uryuu fondly.  “I would be honored to take the
child in if she is agreeable.”
“Nozomi is one of the ones in the household that endured further trauma than
the three youngest,” Isane said looking at her.  “You will have to work closely
with therapists and doctors.  She also will require some minor surgeries to
repair some cosmetic scarring.”
Yoshino nodded.   “I understand.”
“What about the two that are still in the hospital?” Aizen asked.  “Noba and
Ririn?”
Urahara nodded.  “We’ve yet to decide upon a suitable placement yet, but we
have more time with them.  The other four will be released today from the
hospital.  They sustained minimal injuries and have only been here for the
seventy two hours for the psych observation.  With that said, if you are going
to take on these responsibilities, if you would go with Isane, she’ll start
getting paperwork in order for everyone,” he said standing and bowing slightly
before he left.  Isane smiled and took the others to a separate area to get
things together.  Aizen jumped up and followed Urahara, stopping him in the
hall before he could leave. 
“Kisuke, where are you off to so fast?” he asked, confused by his hurry.
Urahara patted his hand gently.  “I have to go finish the interview with Isshin
Kurosaki.”
Aizen nodded, letting him leave.  He headed down to the room where Ichigo was
sleeping and Ririn and Noba sat together on Noba’s bed reading together.  He
took up his usual seat by the door.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Urahara headed back to the makeshift station they’d set up.  Because of the
various corrupt officers, they’d had to set up a base outside the influence of
any of the actual law enforcement offices.
He went in to the custody room where Isshin Kurosaki had been put after he
showed up at the hospital wanting to see his son.  Of course, the nurses had
summoned Urahara immediately and he told Isshin that he had to come with him
first.  He smiled at the now cleaned up, and mostly clean shaven, man.  He
looked less like a criminal now with a sparse, neat beard on his chin.  He
looked up from fiddling with his shirt cuffs.
“Captain,” he said, nodding.
Urahara sat down across from him.  “Okay, Isshin.  Give me everything that’s
happened and we’ll see where we go from here.”  He reached over and turned on
the in room recorder in the middle of the table.
Isshin nodded and launched into a three hour tale of Inaba, his involvement
there, and the death of his wife, and what had happened to his daughters.  He
then told him of tailing Inaba constantly, doing trade in undergrounds and back
alleys for information on the slimy man. He explained how he ended up tailing
him all the way to Karakura and what he witnessed at the house and realized
that his son was not safe after all.
Urahara nodded.  “And you say you have the documents where this guy switched
him with the other kid that died?”
Isshin nodded.  “I have it all in a bus station locker,” he said, reaching in
his pocket and handing Urahara the key.  He took it and thanked him.
“When can I see Ichigo?” he asked.
“That’s up to him.  I’ve contacted Kaien Shiba, and he and his wife are on
their way from Tokyo with the girls.  What happens will depend on them as well
as you,” he said nodding and heading out. 
Urahara left the man, knowing he was wracked with guilt over leaving his son to
this sort of thing.  He found the documents right where Isshin said they’d be,
and took them to the hospital to compare them with Ryuken Ishida’s files. 
Everything matched up.  Ichigo Choi died the night Ichigo Kurosaki was brought
in.  Some of the original records listed Ichigo Choi as having black hair,
which was scratched out and replaced with red.  Everything seemed to be in
order.  Ichigo Kurosaki was technically never adopted by the Utagawas.  He
wasn’t sure how Ichigo would feel about that, but it was as it was.  The
records were put in the process of being corrected.
He glanced at the clock as it was just after six.  He should get the statements
he needed from Ichigo today.  The sooner, the better.  They’d already picked up
several of those on the videos, but he wasn’t sure the extent of their
involvement.  He put away the medical files into his case and removed the
folder with the mugshots.  Might as well do this now, he thought and headed to
Ichigo’s room.
He knocked lightly and heard the muttered response within.  He opened the door
and saw Ichigo watching TV with a somewhat vacant expression while Aizen, who
had agreed to help with keeping an eye on the kids until they vetted personnel
fully, sat in a chair near the door.  Both Ririn and Noba were asleep in their
beds.  Considering after their surgeries, both were on pain killers, it was no
surprise. 
“Ichigo, do you remember me?” he asked as he came in quietly.
Ichigo turned to him.  “Yeah, Captain Urahara, right?  You were the team that
went in to the house and helped Noba and Nozomi.”
Aizen watched Urahara carefully, and Urahara could feel Aizen’s eyes on him. 
He looked over.  “Sōsuke, if you’re going to stare that hard, come sit by me,
honey,” he said with a sigh, slanting eyes at him.  “Quite hard to flirt and
make you uncomfortable from here.”
Ichigo quirked a tiny smile at him and attempted to covertly watch Aizen come
sit on the opposite side of the bed from Urahara.  Urahara leaned over with a
grin.
“I know Sōsuke’s your teacher, but he wasn’t always this dour.  He was quite a
wild thing back in our college days,” Urahara said, giving Aizen a look that
dared him to disagree.  Aizen snorted and looked away.
“He was wild?  Like…with sex?” Ichigo finally said, looking at Urahara.  Aizen
groaned and put his face in his hands.
“Oh my gods, yes, there was this one time, we went out to this dance club, and
there was this little femme boy minx that kept coming up and grinding his ass
into Sōsuke’s crotch, and I swear…”
“Oh no, you aren’t going to tell that one!” Aizen said, sitting up.  “He does
not need to hear about that.”
Urahara broke into a grin.  “And I swear, before the night was over, Sōsuke had
had that boy six times on the dance floor, and disappeared into the bathroom
with him at least six more times.”
“I did not!  And it was twice we went to the bathroom,” he said, rolling his
eyes and crossing his arms over his chest.
“He used to carry about six condoms when we went out,” Urahara said, grinning. 
“The man was insatiable.”  Ichigo giggled, and Aizen, despite his frown, knew
that Urahara was using Ichigo’s curiosity to get him more comfortable talking
to him.  Aizen thought it was quite telling that Ichigo would immediately want
information about sex when the world “wild” was used.  He knew there would be a
lot about this that they had to deal with.
“I’ve got tons of stories about him, but you mind if we take care of some of my
paperwork before I tell you all about the time we went out to a party and it
turned into everyone skinny-dipping in the ocean at three am?” Urahara said
with a grin.
Ichigo smiled for the first time.  “Okay, I want to hear that one.”
Aizen sighed again.  Urahara pulled out the file of mugshots.  “Okay, so I’ve
got a bunch of people we arrested.  I need some statements from you to confirm
both their claims, and the evidence we have.  I’ve talked to the others, and I
just need to talk to you three.  I’ll come back tomorrow to talk to Ririn and
Noba.”
Ichigo nodded.  “Okay,” he said, taking the file.  “So you want to know what
they did when they came to the house?”
“That’s it,” Urahara said, sitting a recorder beside him.  “And I’ll record it
so we don’t have to do this again later in the courtroom.” He leaned forward
and spoke clearly.  “Statement by Ichigo Utagawa, pending, Ichigo Kurosaki. 
Okay, Ichigo, just tell me what you knew them as, name wise, and what you
remember about them.”
Ichigo nodded, picking up the first one.  “That’s Ryo.  Ryo never fucked
anyone.”  Aizen flinched at the tone of his voice.  It was flat, almost
clinical and distant.  That didn’t bode well.  He glanced at Urahara, and he
saw that he knew the same thing. 
Ichigo handed him Ryo’s picture.  “Ryo said he couldn’t get it up when he got
high.  Yoshi bitched that he was worthless because of that.  He’d blow opium
smoke in my face and watch though, especially when Mabashi was around.”  He
paused, his voice cracking slightly when he said Mabashi’s name.  “He did beat
me when I was little and wouldn’t smoke it myself, though.  I remember that. 
He said that I better get used to the stuff because I’d be miserable if I
wasn’t high.  He was right, of course.  But I wouldn’t do it. The worst was
crack smoke.  The opium and pot wasn’t bad, crack smoke gave me such a
headache,” he said, staring blankly at the wall before looking down at Yoshi’s
picture.
“Yoshi kind of controlled the place.  It was more her place than Ryo’s.  Ryo
was always high.  She liked guns too.  I only saw her shoot someone once,
though, that kid, Cain was his name I think.  I just remember seeing them
dragging his body out to bury it.  Mabashi said if I said anything I’d regret
it.  She shot cats that came up too.  She hated cats,” he said, handing the
picture over to him.  “She’d touch us sometimes,” he said, frowning.  “It was
weird, like she’d just suddenly get all soft and then, her eyes would change,
and she’d slap the shit out of us, and if we were lucky she didn’t pistol whip
us in the process.  She hated us, but she would tell us she loved us.  It was
very confusing.”
Urahara took Yoshi’s picture.  “Was she the one that introduced you to
Mabashi?” he asked.
A ghost of a pained expression crossed Ichigo’s face.  “Um, yeah, he was
selling drugs for her.  I came home from school one day and he was paying her
for what he was selling up at the college and he just reached out and grabbed
me, yanking me in the kitchen and asked Yoshi who I was.  She said I was one of
her brats, why, did he want a piece?”  Ichigo stopped, his eyes dilating as he
remembered.  “He just grinned at her, then shoved me away.  I went back down
into the basement, but I know what happened up there.  The next day she came
and got me and said I had some work to do for her.”  He shook his head and
picked up the next photo. 
“Ugaki liked heroine and to smoke pot.  He liked to watch, though, didn’t
matter who.  He’d stand in the corner of the room and watch anyone fucking. 
Then he’d disappear into the bathroom and jack off.  Weird guy.”  Ichigo picked
up the next one.  “Jacks, I don’t know her real name,” he said, looking at
Jackie Tristan’s photo.  “She was strung out on heroine, came and had sex with
anyone who’d buy her a fix.”  He picked up Suzemabachi’s photo.  “Same with
Suzy.  She was on either snorting or shooting coke.”  He picked up Sawatari’s
picture.  “He was a decent guy to us.  He had pain, and his doctor wouldn’t
give him pills.  That’s why I asked him to take Ririn away.”
He picked up the next and looked at it.  “Kugo, I think,” he said.  “He was
rough, really rough, but he only likes the ones under fifteen.  He didn’t come
around after Rin and Hanataro got there so that was good, but he’d taken turns
with the rest of us.”  He set it aside.  “Muramasa, he sometimes slept with one
of the girls, but mostly he just got high off the opium and pot.  Same with
this one, Wabisuke, I think they called him.  Um, this is one of the cops,
isn’t it?  I remember him.  He liked Noba… Nirgge?  I think,” he said, putting
the photo of one of the vice cops, Nirgge Parudoc down.  “And this guy, Choe,
another cop, right?” he said and Urahara nodded.  “He liked Ririn…” he said,
putting Choe Neng Poww, one of the drug strike team’s members.  “Moe?  I
think.  He slept with the girls and then bought their drug of choice…”  He
picked up the picture of the last girl they’d picked up.  “Haineko was always
there.  I don’t know if she ever left, really, she’d be passed out in the
bathroom or the kitchen; a few times she wandered down to the basement and
curled up in our beds.  She was always nice to us.”  He sighed, rubbing his
eyes.  “And um, these look familiar, but I don’t know them well,” he said,
shuffling through a few more.  He stopped at Inaba’s photo and stared at it. 
“He…he’s the one that broke my arm.  He said he killed my mother…” he said
quietly.  “He said he killed me too.  I don’t know how I know, but he shot me
and her that night…”
Urahara nodded, taking the photos.  “That’s enough Ichigo.  Is there anything
you want to tell me that would help out?  That will help put these people away
for hurting you and the others?  We’ve already got them under a slew of rape
and assault charges.”
Ichigo looked at him.  “I don’t know.  It wasn’t like I ever said no to any of
them.  So you can’t really charge them with rape on my account.  I let it
happen, Captain.  I could have left, especially when I was eighteen, I didn’t
leave.”
Urahara blinked, glancing at Aizen.  “Ichigo, you didn’t consent to anything
that happened there.”
“Of course I did.  I could have run away at any time,” he said, looking at him
seriously.  “I stayed to take care of the others.”
“That doesn’t mean you consented…” Urahara started.
“I didn’t say no to anyone, so stop saying that I never consented!  I walked
into bedrooms and let them fuck me, okay?  Totally my own choice, alright?” he
said, glaring at Urahara now.  Aizen saw that Ichigo’s face was flushing bright
red and his heartrate had jumped significantly.  “So stop this rape talk.  That
never happened to me, the others were hurt like that, I wasn’t.”
Urahara picked up the recorder slowly.  “Okay, Ichigo, okay,” he said.  “Can I
postpone that skinny dipping story until tomorrow?  I need to get a few things
done yet.”
Ichigo’s face shifted into a grin.  “Yeah, but you have to tell me, okay?” he
said.
Aizen glanced at Urahara worriedly.  “Okay, you just rest up, okay?” he said,
smiling and left. 
Aizen smiled, patting his leg under the sheet.  “I have to head home too,
okay?  So we’ll talk tomorrow.”
Ichigo nodded, laying back and clicking through the channels in silence as
Aizen left the room to stand in the hallway for a long time before he headed
down the hall.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Isshin finally convinced Urahara to let him go to the hospital to see Ichigo
the next day.  Kensei took him up to Ichigo’s room and saw that Aizen was
already there for the afternoon.  He nodded to Aizen and went ahead and left. 
Isshin stood inside the door and looked at his son.  His son.  He swallowed
hard and walked toward his bed.
“Ichigo,” he said softly, getting his attention.
Ichigo turned and looked at this man, he remembered him from the house, he’d
been there the night Inaba had come around the first time.  He frowned. 
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you remember me?” Isshin said softly, chewing on his bottom lip
nervously.  Both Ririn and Noba were watching intently.
“You were there the night Inaba came by, why?” he said, staring at him because
in the back of his brain something was tickling in his memories.
“I’m…I’m your father, Ichigo.  Your real father…” he said slowly.
Ichigo stared for a minute.  “What?”
Isshin swallowed.  “Your mother, Masaki, was killed the night you were shot,
Ichigo.  I…I didn’t know what to do.  Inaba was after me, because I was turning
him in to the police for what he was doing.  He said he’d kill everything I
loved, and…and he went after you and your mother.  I didn’t know what to do, I
took your sisters to my cousin, Kaien, and I told him to pick you up at the
hospital and I disappeared, I faked my death, and went after him because I
thought if Kaien adopted you three, he wouldn’t be able to find you, but
something happened, and you didn’t go to Kaien.  I thought you with Kaien, all
this time, I thought you were all three with him and his wife and happy…I had
no idea… At the hospital, Inaba, he went there, and he tried to make this
doctor kill you, to make sure you were dead after he shot you.  But the doctor,
he…he couldn’t do it so he switched your records with a kid that died that
night.  And Inaba left because he thought you and your mother died, and he
couldn’t find your sisters.  So he left, and I went after him, and all this
time I’ve been trying to bring him down…”
Ichigo stared at him like he was a complete stranger for a long time in
silence.  Slowly, the memories that he hadn’t let himself think about began to
surface.  Playing ring around the rosie with his baby sisters and his mom by
the river while their pop laughed when they fell.  His mom giggling and
catching him as he ran into her arms.  Pop picking him up and swinging him up
into the air.  “You’re my little protector aren’t you, Ichigo?” his voice
echoing in his head.  Crying after he lost a karate match and then his mom
hugging the tears away.  Laughing.  Happiness.  Crack.  Ichigo blinked, the
world in his mind drowning in red.  “Mommy!” 
Ichigo jerked as Isshin tried to put his hand on his shoulder.  He shook his
head.  “I don’t know you, not anymore…” he said and pulled the covers over him
and looked away from him.
Isshin jerked his hand back and stared at his back for a long time, unsure of
what to do or say.  He turned to leave and heard the girl in the other bed
speak.
“You left and never checked on him?  You just left and never made sure he was
safe?” she said, glaring at him.  “How could you not even call someone!  It was
nine years.  Nine years, and you just let him go on being beaten up and hurt
and…”
Noba, his jaw wired shut still, couldn’t speak, but held his whiteboard in
front of him.  “Leave him alone.”
Isshin nodded.  “Yeah, okay,” he said, turning and heading out the door.
Aizen got up and followed him, stopping him in the hall.  Isshin turned and
looked at him.  “What?” he asked, expecting Aizen to berate him as well.
“Isshin, right?” Aizen said softly.
Isshin nodded.  “Look, you have to give him time.  He’s locked away the past he
had with you and his mother because it hurt to think of being happy when he was
hurting so much, and not just from losing you both.”  Isshin looked at him and
nodded, tears falling unabashed down his cheeks now.  “You left to protect your
children, and you had no idea the extent of Inaba’s cruelty.  He will be caught
and pay for his crimes.”
Isshin nodded.  “Yeah, thanks,” he said, and headed to the elevator to have
Kensei take him back to the office.  He stopped by the payphone on the wall,
though.  Maybe he could do something, it wasn’t a lot, but perhaps…
He turned and dialed a familiar number.
“Hello?” came the familiar voice on the other end.
“Giriko, I need to call in that favor,” he said softly, swallowing against the
rising bile.
Giriko snorted.  “Okay, hopefully it is in my interest as well.”
“I’m sure it will net you a nice bounty, Giriko.  Three people, all on the run
from the police.  They hurt my boy, Giriko.  They need to pay,” Isshin said,
watching as nurses worked in the hallways, passing in and out of his field of
vision.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Karakura Town,” Isshin answered.
“Names?” he asked, and Isshin knew he was writing.
“Ryo and Yoshi Utagawa, and Kagerōza Inaba.  All are in the area still from
what the police know.  Captain Kisuke Urahara is lead on the case.  Talk to no
other police in the area,” he said.
“Wasn’t Inaba your quarry?” he asked.
“I don’t care anymore, he has to be caught and pay for what he’s done to my
son,” he said, tears already falling again, and he knew he was going to lose it
before long if he wasn’t careful.
“I’ll bring Yukio and Riruka.  Sounds like a three man job.  Sit tight.  How do
I find you?” he asked.
“Captain Urahara will know where I am,” he said and hung up the phone.
Isshin turned and leaned on the wall, letting his tears go as he hid his face
from the world.  Kaien would be there the next day, as there had been a delay. 
He didn’t deserve his children.  He’d ask Kaien to keep Karin and Yuzu as his
own, and he’d fade away, he deserved no more than that. 
***** Entrenched Chaos *****
Chapter Notes
     Short I know, but I'll be giving it a rest and working on other fics
     next week before I do editing and revisions on the first ten
     chapters. Enjoy!
 
“I need to release him,” Ryuken said, turning to Aizen outside the room.  “He’s
been here two weeks, and there’s no reason I can keep him in the hospital any
longer.”
Aizen nodded.  “Where’s he going to go?”
Ryuken shook his head.  “I have no idea.  He’s an adult; I can’t tell him where
to go.”
“His father is still here, he’s in a hotel down the street with his cousin and
his daughters.  Uryū would no doubt take him into his home, or if he would stay
with you, if you would offer since he is your nephew.  However, I don’t know
that he will agree to any of those considering that he doesn’t know who you are
yet,” Aizen said, looking at him sadly.
“Well, I suppose asking the boy would be the answer,” Ryuken said, heading into
the room where Ichigo rested.
Inside, Ichigo was talking with Urahara again.  Aizen groaned because he knew
what they were talking about.
“So, here I am, naked as the day I was born, pinned against a rock with Sōsuke
practically naked and pinned against my back.  Our foray into the lake to
skinny dip and make out had gone horribly, horribly wrong,” Urahara was saying
as they walked up.
“The only reason we got into that was because Byakuya was being a jealous
prick, and didn’t fill the jetski with fuel like he was supposed to,” Aizen
said as he came in and sat down beside Ichigo.
“’Kuya was pretty jealous even though he’s the one that broke it off with you,”
Urahara said, thoughtfully.
Ichigo looked between them.  “Byakuya?  You mean like Byakuya Kuchiki?”
Aizen nodded.  “Yes, we had a dalliance when we were in school.  But he had to
marry for the sake of appearances for his family.  After he broke up with me,
he felt bad, so he would let me use some of his facilities that his family
own.  However, he had some very interesting ways to show he wasn’t happy when I
started dating Kisuke.”
Urahara glanced over to see Ryuken.  “Well, that’s enough tale telling for
today, I think I’ve embarrassed Sōsuke enough for one day and he wasn’t even
here.”
“Wait, you have to tell me how you got out of that mess?” Ichigo said, frowning
as Urahara stood.
“Oh, well, we weren’t there alone, like I said, and when we didn’t come back,
our friends went looking and found us in that compromising position.  One of
them managed to dislodge the rock that had fallen against Sōsuke’s back and
pinned us to the others.  Next time I want to make out on a lake, I’m going to
make sure the sand bad doesn’t have loose rocks near it…” he said with a smirk
and headed out of the room.
Ryuken shook his head as he left.  “Ichigo, we have come to the point that I
have to release you.”
Ichigo grinned.  “Good, hospital food sucks!” he said, sighing.
“But we have to put you somewhere where you’ll be safe and monitored because
Ryo and Yoshi haven’t been captured yet, or Inaba,” Ryuken went on.
Ichigo’s face fell.  “Yeah, I don’t…I don’t have a home anymore…” he said,
glancing up at them.
Aizen nodded.  “You have options, Ichigo.  Dr. Ishida, of course, is your
uncle.  And your father is still here and hasn’t been charged with anything. 
You have your cousin Uryuu as well.  Or there’s the option of staying with one
of the families that took in your siblings…”
Ichigo shook his head.  “I don’t know them, none of them, and I don’t want to
impose on the other families, they’re doing so much by taking care of the
others,” he said quietly, examining the edge of the blanket thoughtfully.
Ryuken sighed.  “You’ll have to go somewhere, and unless you can come up with
something else, Captain Urahara will put you in a police safe house until
everything is over with.”
“I don’t want to go to a safe house,” he said emphatically.
“You could stay with me,” Aizen said almost too quietly.
Ichigo turned to him and frowned.  “What?”
Ryuken glared at him.  “I mean, if you want, I have a nice two bedroom
apartment, and it’s just me alone there.  And I could make sure you get to your
classes each day. I wouldn’t be able to be your psychologist anymore, but I
have a colleague that would be willing to take my place and come to the
apartment and work with you directly.  It might be for the best that he work
with you, as I’m technically breaking a few ethical standards by counseling
someone in my classes,” Aizen said, looking over at Ryuken, who had relaxed his
glare.
“You can stay for a few days, or more, and figure out everything.  If you
want,” Aizen said, looking at Ichigo carefully.
Ichigo’s face remained neutral for a while as he thought.  Slowly, he nodded. 
“Okay, that sounds good.  If you don’t mind,” he said, looking at him.  “Then
I’ll go find my own place once this is over with.”
Aizen smiled.  “Very well, I’ll set things up; I’ll come back and pick you up
around four after the doctors have finished discharging you. 
Aizen headed out to pick up a few things for his new houseguest.  A couple
hours later, he dropped five shopping bags on the bed in the spare room.  He’d
bought everything he could think that Ichigo might need.  He had his own
bathroom, so Aizen had picked up all personal care items he might need.  He
honestly didn’t know what he’d use so he got an assortment of things from hair
gel, body washes, toothpaste, and lotions.
He took a few minutes and hung up a few clothes that he’d picked up based on
the size Uryuu had given him.  Considering Uryuu was about the same size and
had an eye for clothing, he was sure he would have been pretty close to correct
on Ichigo’s size.  He’d also picked up a variety of snack foods and quick to
prepare items.  He had no idea what Ichigo liked, but he wanted to give him a
variety.  He glanced at the clock.  Only two o’clock.  He sighed and slid into
his chair to wait the next couple of hours out.
Four came quickly for Ichigo and he was dressed in a set of scrubs the nurses
gave him as he got together with the prescription antibiotics he was still on
and hi potency vitamins he’d been given.  Aizen showed up right on time and
then they were off to his apartment.  Ichigo found the place to be huge and
when Aizen showed him his room and what he’d gotten for him, Ichigo couldn’t
believe it.
“I can’t…I can’t pay for this stuff,” he said, turning to stare at Aizen
seriously.
Aizen shook his head.  “You don’t have to pay for anything, Ichigo.  I invited
you, and I’ll make sure you have what you need.”
“You don’t have to give me these things,” Ichigo said, pulling on the clothes
hung in the closet.
“I don’t have to, but I want to.  Now, get dressed for the beach.  Harribel is
having a little party for everyone since she’s signed the adoption paperwork on
Rin and Hanataro, and the others will be there too.”
Ichigo nodded, feeling nervous about being around people but wanting to see the
others that hadn’t been in the hospital.  Of course, Noba and Ririn weren’t
going to be there, they were still in the hospital.  But he would get to see
the others, and he liked that idea.  He picked out a pair of loose sweat pants
and a t-shirt and a pair of sandals.  He emerged and saw that Aizen was dressed
in sweats too.  He smiled and followed him out to the car and before long
they’d arrived at the beach.  It was just after six and Ichigo felt better the
moment he got out and Rin and Hanataro came running toward him.
“You came!” Rin said happily as he hugged Ichigo. 
“Of course, I couldn’t miss this!” he said, smiling and ruffling Hanataro’s
hair with a smile.
“Are you okay?” Hanataro asked, smiling at him.
“I am now, especially that you guys are okay,” he said as they began to tug him
out toward the bonfire. 
“Come on, the others are here too,” Rin said as they pulled Ichigo out where
the others were.  Aizen walked slowly after them.
Momo looked up as they pulled Ichigo over toward her.  She jumped up and ran
and hugged him immediately.  “Ichigo!” she said, smiling and hugging him
again.  “Look I want you to meet my new family.”
Ichigo saw Toshiro, one of his classmates, sitting beside an older woman.  “You
know Toshiro Hitsugaya, and this is Grandmother Hitsugaya.  I used to live by
them when I was really little, before, well, you know, and she seems glad to
have a granddaughter,” she said softly.
Ichigo nodded, smiling at them.  “It’s really wonderful to have a family like
this but I miss you and the others.  I wish we’d all gone together.”
Ichigo smiled.  “I’m too old anyway, Momo, besides, six kids to one family is a
lot,” he said to her.  She nodded.  “But we’ll get to see each other all the
time.”
Momo nodded enthusiastically and gave Ichigo an extended hug.  He saw the
Nozomi was over on the other side where Ichigo’s cousin Uryuu was standing with
a woman with dark hair.  Rin ran up to her and she turned and saw Ichigo
there.   She smiled, waving them over.
“Ichigo!” she said, hugging him tightly.  “I hoped you would be here.  This is
Yoshino, she’s taking me in; she’s your cousin’s landlady too!  And guess
what?” she asked excitedly.
Ichigo shook his head.  “What?” he asked. 
“Ho and Ban live in her building too!  One of her tenants takes care of them,
Ichigo, they’re fine! Well, relatively, you know, but still.  We can see them,”
Nozomi said, smiling.
Ichigo couldn’t help smiling back.  Nozomi was talking, a lot, and that was
good.  She never talked much, so this was amazing.  It meant she was happy. 
“That’s good, that’s really good.”
“Have you heard where Noba and Ririn are going?” Hanataro asked from beside
Ichigo.
Ichigo shook his head.  “They’ll be in the hospital for another week or two, I
think.  Noba’s still on a liquid diet after they fixed his jaw.”
Uryuu nodded to Chad.  “Ichigo, this is my roommate, Chad,” he said, smiling at
his newly found cousin.
Ichigo looked up at the larger boy and resisted the urge to yelp.  He was very
large.  And in Ichigo’s experience, that was a bad thing.  He swallowed down
his fear and nodded to him.  “Hi,” he said, looking down without thinking about
it.
“Ichigo, come meet our new brother!” Rin said, pulling him toward a group of
girls and a couple boys.
“Wonderweiss this is Ichigo!” Rin said, smiling.
Ichigo nodded at the blonde boy who seemed absorbed in a tablet in front of
him.  It looked like he was doing something with photographs.  He nodded and
then went back to whatever he was doing.  Beside him, the dark haired boy
looked up. 
“Wonderweiss doesn’t talk.  I’m Luppi, his roommate.  We live across from your
cousin at Yoshino’s building,” Luppi said, smiling at Ichigo. 
Ichigo shifted uncomfortably, the amount of people weighing on him.  “Uncle!”
came a call and Luppi looked up with a smirk as Ggio Vega came toward them.
Luppi got up and hugged him in return.  “Nephew,” he responded with a smrik.
Rin and Hanataro glanced between them.  “Aren’t you the same age?”
Luppi smiled.  “My mom was forty five when I was born.  So Ggio is my oldest
sister’s son.  We were born a year apart almost.  We used to live in the
Philippines, my dad is from there, and my mom is Japanese.  Gigo’s dad is also
from the Philippines.   We kept in touch even after we moved back to Japan, and
he came up here for school.”
“And you love telling people that,” Ggio said as Soi Fon walked up behind him.
“Of course, who believes I’m an uncle at my age?” Luppi said with a smirk.
Around them, Harribel’s consorts were talking.  After a few minutes Apacci
stood up and clapped loudly.
“Okay, everyone up to the house!  Getting a bit cool down here, we’ve got food
and drinks, but no guzzling or drunkenness in my house, otherwise, out you go!”
Apacci said, shooing everyone up the embankment to the beach house.
All the guests made their way to the surprisingly roomy beach house that
Harribel owned.  It wasn’t huge, but it was definitely spacious.  Of course,
they didn’t live there all the time, but for the summer it was nice for
parties. 
Nel bumped into Apacci.  “Why no drunkenness inside?” she asked, frowning.
“You can have a few beers, but I lost my second oldest brother to alcohol, so
you know, I don’t like it at all, but I tolerate it for you bunch,” Apacci
answered as she got everyone into the house.  She paused.  “Besides, I don’t
think the boys would react well to drunkenness.”
Nel glanced at the nervous group that had congregated together despite all the
room in the house to disperse in and nodded.  “Yeah, I think so.”
Everyone mingled and ate and chatted for a long time.  Ichigo and the others
from the Utagawa house tended to stick together, no matter how often others
tried to encourage them to move away and into the party.  Finally, Harribel
came out and checked on them before going to see Aizen.
Aizen had stayed clear of most of the kids during the gathering.  It was a
nice, easy occasion, but all of them were nervous.
“They don’t know how to act,” Harribel said as she came up beside Aizen.
Aizen nodded.  “They’re still scared.  A bunch of people meant they had to hide
from them at best, and it meant they’d be abused at worst.”
“How long will it take?” she asked as she watched them.
“Depends.  How has it been going with those two?” he asked, seeing how they
clung close to Ichigo even when talking to the others.
Harribel smiled.  “They’ve been taking food and hiding it all over the house. 
I can’t be angry, they had to do that before just to survive.  I guess it will
be a habit that’s hard to break.”
Aizen nodded.  “Yeah.”
“You took Ichigo in?” she asked, looking over at him.  “How’s he doing?”
“I just brought him home today.  He was upset because he didn’t know how he was
going to pay for the stuff I bought.  I got him personal care items and some
clothes.  He didn’t want anything to do with his other options, especially his
father,” Aizen said slowly.
“It will take time, she said softly.  For all of them.”
“Harribel, tell Rin and Hanataro what we do on Christmas!” Mila Rose yelled
from the other side of the room.
She smiled.  “We spend it in Australia, on the Gold Coast where I grew up.”
Rin and Hanataro exchanged looks.  “And we’re going to go?”
Harribel laughed.  “Of course, you are, where else would you be except with
us?”
The rest of the night was talk and by the end, Rin and Hanataro had broken away
from the cluster and Momo as well.  Nozomi stayed near Ichigo, though, and most
the night, clutched at his hand.  At the end of the night, everyone went their
separate ways.
Aizen led Ichigo to the car and noted his quiet.  As they got home, he hadn’t
said anything more.  Aizen quietly led him into the apartment.
“Ichigo?” Aizen asked as they closed the door.
Ichigo turned around.  “Yeah?” he asked.  “Do you need me to do something for
you?”
Aizen shook his head.  “Nothing, Ichigo, just have a good sleep.”
Ichigo nodded and headed to the room Aizen gave him.  His room.  Could he call
it that?  His room…he had been so small the last time he had a room.  He
flopped back on the bed and before long found he couldn’t sleep at all.  He
grew frustrated with it, and grabbed the covers off the bed and laid down on
the hardwood floor at the end of the bed covered up with a light sheet only,
with his head propped on his arms.  A few minutes, and he was fast asleep.
Aizen choked back tears when he saw where he’d slept the night before when he
checked on him com morning.  He closed the door gently and sat down at the
table.  He wasn’t sure that he could handle it.  So much pain, he didn’t know
how he’d help him.   He would try though.  He would try.
***** Matters of Chaos and Order *****
Ichigo woke up the next morning rested, but at first he nearly yelled out in
fright.  He didn’t realize where he was at first.  He put his hand to his chest
and panted several long breaths and remembered he was with Sosuke.  He didn’t
know why but he was already calling him that in his head instead of Professor
Aizen.  For some reason, hearing about his sexual exploits as a teenager had
made him very familiar to Ichigo.  After all, if someone as upstanding and good
as Sosuke had been promiscuous when he was younger, then Ichigo wasn’t such a
terrible person for the things he had done.  So, in a way, it made him feel
like sex wasn’t something to be ashamed of.  His mind, however, could not get
that he hadn’t consented to anything.  He still held onto the firm belief that
he had let them have him even though there was no way a thirteen year old could
possibly consent. 
He got up and went into the bathroom, finding a stocked shower and spent a very
long time in it.  His body still ached in many places, chief of which currently
was his back.  He was sure it was from lying in the hospital bed for so long. 
It was too soft and it wasn’t what he was used to sleeping in.  He slowly got
out of the shower and looked in the mirror.  Most the bruises were fading now,
and he was wondering vaguely if he would end up having any more.  He honestly
couldn’t imagine having a relationship with another human being that didn’t
involve him being beaten and bruised.  He couldn’t wrap his mind around the
idea that pain wasn’t a part of love, because Mabashi had hurt him but he still
loved him.
At the thought, Ichigo’s eyes filled with tears.  Not at his own pain, but
sudden stabbing grief at Mabashi’s death.  He should have died and then Mabashi
could have gone on and found someone better than him.  He swallowed, reaching
down and turning on the sink.  He washed his face, the cold water helping the
redness in his eyes from the tears.  He wasn’t going to cry in front of
Sōsuke.  Sōsuke was a good man.  He was a strong man.  He was everything Ichigo
was hoping he could be one day.
He dressed slowly and smelled something really good cooking.  He frowned and
quietly opened the door and looked out.  He heard Sōsuke humming in the kitchen
and could hear the sound of food being cooked.  He felt his stomach growl and
chewed his lip.  He didn’t realize he was hungry until he smelled it.  He
swallowed nervously and crept out of the room quietly to peer into the
kitchen.  Sōsuke was wearing his pajamas (pants that were white with blue
stripes and a solid blue tank).  Ichigo blinked, realizing that Sōsuke was
quite muscular.  He could see the defined abdominal muscles and realized he had
really thick biceps.  He always wore suit jackets and slacks at school, so it
was hard to tell that he was really quite fit. 
However, the most interesting thing to him was that he had tattoos.  And he had
a lot of them from what he could see from his position.  He was facing away and
he could see that he had a full sleeve down his left arm that ended about an
inch above his wrist, just enough that when he wore long sleeves like he
usually did it was impossible to see.  In fact, Ichigo realized he never had
worn short sleeves that he’d ever seen.  Written in beautiful scrip among the
cherry blossoms was “Senbozakura” in a way that it flowed with the tree limbs. 
Among the tree blossoms and leaves, there were other images worked tastefully
into it.  A beautifully designed woman sat on a swing dressed in a red flowing
caped robe, her face hidden.  When he moved enough, he saw that there was also
a snake winding its way throughout the cherry blossoms.  Unless he got closer,
though, he couldn’t see anything else since he was standing with his left arm
facing him, but he could tell there was something on his other arm.
“Are you going to watch me cook all morning, or are you coming to eat
breakfast?” Sōsuke said, looking over his shoulder.
Ichigo jumped, not realizing that his host had any idea he was there.  “Um,
sorry, I just…I wasn’t sure if…if you wanted me to come…come in.”
Sōsuke shook his head, dishing out two plates smoothly and setting them at the
small table.  “Come, sit, you need something that isn’t hospital food.”
Ichigo couldn’t help but pause, but he moved forward, the smell too much to
stand.  He sat down and stared at a full plate of food that was real food.   He
paused and then looked up to Sōsuke already eating his food and reading
something on his mobile.  He looked up and smiled at Ichigo. 
“Eat, Ichigo, before it gets cold,” he said, smiling.
“Um, you have tattoos,” he said suddenly, then winced, pinking in his cheeks a
bit.
Sōsuke looked up at him and smiled.  “Yeah, most from my college days, but not
all.  It’s a record of where I’ve been, you see.  The things that make my heart
stronger, good or bad, you know.”
Ichigo slowly started eating and then glanced at the arm.  “What do they mean?”
he said softly, looking at the incredibly beautiful work.
Sōsuke smiled, holding up his left arm.  “Well, the cherry tree and blossoms
are for my Senbozakura, the first person to every hold my heart in his hands,
Byakuya.  The woman in red, that’s for Kisuke, and the snake is for another, a
man named Gin Ichimaru,” he said, gesturing to each in turn.  “Then,” he said,
showing him the other arm.  “These masks represent the faces that people wear,”
he pointed to a set of white masks that were fanned out, each one making a
different facial expression.  “And, the flowing river, that’s a river of
changed, because we can all change and become different people, for better or
worse,” he said, indicating the base of his right sleeve which was a long and
winding river down his arm.
“They’re so lovely,” Ichigo said, reaching out tentatively to touch Sōsuke’s
left arm where the cherry blossoms descended.  “To do this, you must have loved
him a great deal…” he said quietly.
Sōsuke shrugged.  “I did, when we were together, he was the only thing that
mattered to me.  But that was a while ago.  I mean, not very long, I’m not that
old,” he said with a chuckle.  “But long enough to have come to be able to
appreciate all the good he gave me.”
“But…you said he broke up with you…didn’t that…hurt?” he asked, frowning.
Sōsuke nodded.  “Of course, it felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest,
that’s when I got the tattoo.”
Ichigo frowned.  “After he broke up with you?”
Sōsuke nodded.  “I decided that there was so much good in what we had, that I
wanted to remember it for the rest of my life.  The same with Kisuke.  Though,
I did add his tattoo while we were together.  The same with Gin.  These, they
are my story, you know?” he said smiling.  “I don’t often show them to people.”
“You should,” Ichigo said, fingers gently moving up his forearm touching each
and every colorful line of ink.  “They’re so amazing…”
Sōsuke swallowed and smiled at him.  “Your cousin and his roommate will be
coming by later.  They wanted to take you out for lunch with them and maybe see
about getting you a phone.”
“I don’t have money, though,” he said, frowning. 
“That’s okay, your uncle is providing it for you,” Sōsuke said smiling,
finishing his food.
Ichigo shook his head.  “No, I  don’t want him buying me things.”
“Ichigo, it is for your own safety,” Sōsuke said, his voice taking a harder
edge.  “A phone would go a long way to making sure if something happened while
you were alone someone could be there to help you quickly.  To me, it is
essential.”
Ichigo’s eyes widened a bit and he stared at him, having never heard him take
command like this.  He nodded immediately, then finished his food, not wanting
to look at Sōsuke anymore.  He would see the blush dusting his cheeks if he
did.  Afterward, Ichigo retreated to his room and hid.  He didn’t want to even
think about talking with Sōsuke again because just knowing the things he was
learning; it made him want something else, and he had no idea why.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
At close to one, the bell rang and Sōsuke called Ichigo out of his room,
dressed now in a pair of tan slacks and a long sleeved t-shirt, reading a book
on the couch.  He looked up as Ichigo emerged, wearing a t-shirt and jeans. 
Uryū and Chad were standing inside and Ichigo once more was taken by how big
the dark skinned man was. He hid his tremble as he smiled tentatively at them
both.  He crossed his arms and held himself.
“Ichigo, how are you feeling?” Uryū asked as his friend stared impassively into
the apartment.
“Um, f-fine.  Slept well, still sore and…and getting used to this,” he said
trying to keep the tremble out of his voice.
Uryū nodded and gestured for him to follow.  “Come on, my father wants to make
sure you get a good phone and we thought we’d take you to a nice pho restaurant
that’s near the phone place.”
Ichigo nodded, following Uryū but being very uncomfortable because Chad walked
behind him.   He couldn’t help it.  He felt vulnerable as it was, and then to
have this very big friend of Uryū’s near, it just felt way too familiar.  He
swallowed, remembering Choe and a couple of the other larger “partiers” that
had come to visit him and the others.  He shivered uncontrollably for a
second. 
“Are you cold, Ichigo?” Uryū asked, glancing over to him as they got to the
car. 
Ichigo shook his head and tried his best to smile as he slid into the
backseat.  Chad drove and Uryū got into the passenger.  “Chill, that’s all,” he
said, sighing, watching the world go by.
After a few minutes in the quiet car, they pulled into an electronics store. 
Uryū took the lead as Ichigo just marveled over the amazing phones that they
had. He vaguely remembered Uryū asking him questions, but he didn’t even know
what they meant.  He had seen some nice phones, of course Ryo and Yoshi had
nice phones, but he’d never thought of owning a hand me down let alone a new
phone.  While he was looking at a few of them, he saw Chad standing near him
and almost yelped. He chewed his lip and tried not to imagine how violent
someone his size could be.  He swallowed and turned around just as Uryū handed
him a phone and proceeded to snap a watch on his wrist.
“What…?” he said, looking up at Uryū.
“Well, I know you aren’t used to carrying a phone.  So this is a set.  This is
a smart watch, and its connected to the phone, so even if you don’t have the
phone, you can still send messages, listen to music, read email, monitor your
heart rate and use the pedometer…all sorts of stuff.  See, I have one too,” he
said, holding up his arm to show off a watch similar to the one he’d given
Ichigo, but the band was silver with small stones set in it. 
Uryū didn’t include the other features that were included in the extremely high
tech set.  For one thing, it was equipped with two types of GPS locators, and
the plan was under his name, giving him full access to anything to do with it. 
He didn’t intend to give Ichigo that information, but he also wasn’t hiding
it.  If Ichigo found out on his own, then fine, he’d deal with it, but he
wasn’t going to  put out there that he’d just equipped his cousin with
something that he could track him with anywhere in the world, having even
activating several features that would act as emergency beacons should
something happen to him.
Uryū had grown quite protective of his cousin since he’d been in the hospital. 
He felt guilty, somewhat, for not having done anything, knowing of course that
he was a child himself when his cousin was taken in by those monsters. He
didn’t intend to lose him again.  He could see that he was in no way aware of
anything that his new phone and watch could do, but he’d teach him over lunch.
“Alright, we’ll go eat, and I can show you how to use these,” he said smiling
fondly at him.
Ichigo nodded, not sure what to do with these things.  He knew how to use smart
phones, well, he knew how to make calls and text on them, but that was about
it.  He didn’t even have anyone’s phone number yet.  They ended up in a large
pho restaurant that was really quite nice.  They even had to wait to be seated.
Ichigo picked up the menu, sitting with the other two at a square table across
from Uryū and beside Chad.  He was already nervous, and sitting beside the
larger man made him even more nervous.  It wasn’t like he thought Uryū’s
roommate and friend would do anything, it was just his sheer size reminded him
of several less than happy encounters in his household.  
“This is too much,” he said, blinking at the prices.  “I mean, this is
expensive, I can’t…” he said, looking across at Uryū.
Uryū smiled.  “Ichigo, my father is a doctor.  He has expressed interest in
making sure that you are treated well and comfortable.  He is  your uncle, you
know,” he said smiling as the waitress came to take their order. 
Ichigo nodded and quickly ordered something, not really seeing what it was,
just to get the girl’s expectant eyes off of him.  Chad, speaking for the first
time that Ichigo heard ordered, and despite himself Ichigo flinched, knocking
his utensils to the floor.  Uryū frowned and looked at him and Ichigo
swallowed, trying to play it off that he was clumsy and apologizing for it. 
Their food came soon, and Uryū told Ichigo about the things that went on his
life, talked about his friends and the sort of things he did for fun, told him
about Yoshino and the four-plex they lived in.  He told him about Ho and Ban
and how Koga took care of them.  He mentioned that a man he knew named Coyote
Starrk had purchased the large Uttagawa house and planned to renovate it.
Ichigo ate silently and listened as he spoke.
“Ichigo, you’ve eaten only half your soup,” Uryū said, concerned when he
glanced over to see that Ichigo had already put down his spoon and was staring
at the bowl.
Ichigo swallowed and thought about anything he could talk about.  It wasn’t
like there was much interesting that had ever happened that didn’t have to deal
with drugs, sex, and pain.
“I…uh, appreciate you buying me lunch, I just…I’m not used to eating so much in
one day, and Sōsuke…ah Professor Aizen, he made breakfast…” he said, looking
over at the Uryū and Chad who had both finished their soups and a side order of
sashimi they had shared. 
“That was early, Ichigo, how much are you used to eating?” he asked, frowning
in concern.
Ichigo shrugged.  “I…well, it just depended on what we could hide, you know. 
If…If I could get to the kitchen, I’d take whatever I could carry and we’d hide
it downstairs.  There was this loose board in the floor, down there, and we had
pried it up and dug out the dirt under it so we had a hiding spot…” he looked
distant as he spoke.  “She…she never did find it, which was good, because if
she’d ever found out there was food down there…”  He paused.  “I would get
caught a lot though, so I never really got enough for everyone.  Sometimes I
was lucky, and when I went up, everyone was asleep, you know, and I’d grab rice
cakes, crackers, sometimes there would be leftover food on the counter that no
one would miss.”
Ichigo picked at the skin on the back of his hand thoughtfully.  “But I wasn’t
always lucky, sometimes Yoshi, she’d catch me in the kitchen.  If she wasn’t
too lit, it wasn’t bad, but sometimes…sometimes she would be in a mood…and
playing with her guns.  She wasn’t careful, that’s how she shot Caine, was
really by accident, but…but it wasn’t the first time she shot someone like
that, just the first time they had to hide it…” he said.  “She…she’d use her
guns too, to scare us, sometimes she’d hit us with them, you know, and
sometimes when she was really in one of her scary moods, and she caught us
she’d make us watch her load them and then…use them in…on…I mean on…” he said,
catching himself, eyes wide.
Uryū blinked and glanced at Chad.  “You…Ichigo, are you meaning what I think
you are?”
Ichigo shook his head and looked away.  “No, no, I don’t know what you mean,
just…” he muttered, not even wanting to think about it let alone tell someone
else.  “Sh-she beat us with them, that’s…that’s what I mean…she threatened us
with them…pistol whipped…p-put the hot barrel…” Ichigo’s voice cracked again no
matter how hard he tried not to let it.
Ichigo looked at him.  “Don’t look at me like that,” he said quietly, looking
at his hands again.  “Please, I can’t stand that look.”
“Did you tell the doctors this?  The police?  Professor Aizen?” he asked,
frowning.
Ichigo shook his head.  “It doesn’t matter.”
Uryū leaned over closer and spoke barely above a whisper.  “You’re telling me
that this crazy bitch raped you and the others with a loaded handgun and you
don’t think it matters?”
“No!” Ichigo said, shaking his head, and scrambling to his feet.  “Just…leave
it!” he said, seeing the bathroom and making a dash for it because he was going
to throw up just thinking about the few times it had happened, or that he had
watched it happen and couldn’t stop it.  He hadn’t been able to protect the
others all the time, no matter how hard he tried, and that more than anything
was gut wrenching to him.
He dropped to his knees in the stall and tried to control his stomach.  He
didn’t want to throw up.  He had to get control of himself.  It was too much
though, to think about these things that happened to them, the things that had
become so common and normal that he didn’t even think about them.  Now, though,
that it wasn’t normal, it was sickening to think about in so many ways.  He
spent so much time trying to convince himself he was willing, he wasn’t forced,
he had let them have sex with him.  That’s what happened, he had convinced
himself because then he felt like he’d given himself to protect the others. 
He’d given up his own dignity to save theirs.  But he hadn’t always been able
to do that.  And when Uryū said it, when he actually thought about it, he
realized no one would ever let someone do that to them.  No one, no matter how
hard he tried to convince himself of the fact.  He didn’t want to be a victim. 
He wanted to be strong. 
He was sobbing in the stall and didn’t hear the outer door open, and he
definitely didn’t hear the lock click.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Candace leaned hooked arms with Bazz, her on again off again lover.  She
wouldn’t call him a boyfriend; after all, the best thing about him was his
ability to fuck her into oblivion. When she wasn’t trying to scratch his
eyeballs out of course.  However, to their disappointment, they came to
Karakura Town for the weekend to find that Yoshi and Ryo was gone.  Their house
was closed up, and no one was there.  It looked like no one had been there for
more than a couple weeks.  It was annoying; she always enjoyed smoking up with
her and watching her beat the living shit out of those brats she kept.  Also,
it kept Bazz from being too violent with her if he got to fuck the hell out of
one of her boys.  The boys weren’t as delicate as the girls, and he got off on
Candice watching him fuck them anyway.  Of course, she got off on it too. 
So, they’d stopped in a pho place for food since they couldn’t get high. 
They’d been quiet, already feeling the need for a hit coming on them.  So when
they looked over and to their surprise saw one of Yoshi’s brats sitting at a
nearby table, they had both been curious.  They didn’t recognize the two men
with him, and he obviously was the same kid they knew.  The orange red hair was
a dead give away.
“The fuck, Bazz?” she asked, glancing at him.
He shook his head, frowning.  “He shouldn’t be out in public unless he left
her.”
“You don’t think she got busted?” she said, softly, looking around them.
Bazz shook his head.  “No way, she had fucking blackmail on half the police
force and most the judges.  No one was going to touch her,” he muttered.
“But how would he get away, then?” she said.  “She said he was her special one,
the one she liked torturing the most because he wanted to take care of the
other little shits.  She wasn’t gonna let him go.”
Ichigo got up and took off toward the bathroom and Bazz smirked.  “I can find
out, one way I know to get that little shit to talk…” he muttered, standing and
following him.  Candice smiled and nodded, leaning back in her chair.
Bazz followed him into the bathroom, a smaller one, two urinals and two stalls,
and the outer door locked so if there was a family they could use it as well. 
He smirked, hearing him sobbing in one of the stalls.  He wanted to know what
happened to Yoshi and Ryo, but he thought he’d have his own fun too.  He
quietly walked up to the stall, using his fingernail to twist the lock as
quietly as he could.  It opened, and the kid was wrapped up in his own self he
didn’t hear it, or notice when it swung back. 
Ichigo sighed and sat up, trying to collect himself.  He was about to stand
when he felt a hand clamp over his mouth and saw glittering blade flick in
front of his eyes. 
“Ichi-baby, how you doing?” came a voice he hadn’t heard for a while.  Bazz.
He swallowed convulsively, holding his hands over Bazz’s where it clamped
against his mouth.  “See, you can imagine me and Candice’s surprise to find out
no one is at your house.  Everyone’s all gone, locked up tight, so that has me
wondering what happened.  So we think, maybe she moved the operation.  I mean,
really, she had so much dirt on the cops, they weren’t going to go for her. 
But then, wait a fucking minute, how is Yoshi’s favorite little fuck slut out
and about by himself if they moved the operation?” he asked, sliding the black
over the skin on his face gently, not cutting him. Yet.
Bazz pulled his hand off his mouth.  “What happened?” he whispered in his ear,
holding the knife close to his throat with one hand while his other slid around
and started to undo the jeans he was wearing.
Ichigo was panicked but he knew better than to not do what he said.  Bazz liked
his knife, and more than once had used it on them.  He only liked the boys
though.  “She-she g-got busted…she…she and R-ryo ran…they’re gone…I don’t know
where they went, please, just let me go, I don’t want…”
The point of the knife pierced his throat enough to let a trickle of blood flow
down his front.  “No, no see, that can’t happen,” he said, sliding Ichigo’s
jeans off his hips and then pushing him down flat on the seat of the toilet. 
“I don’t believe you, so let’s see if you got a different story in a couple
minutes,” he muttered, and Ichigo wanted to scream, but he still hand the knife
against the small of his back now.
“Now, you be a nice, quiet little fuck-slut, and I might let you get up and
walk out of here without your two boyfriends knowing that I had my way with you
in here.  You think they’d like to know that you can’t even go a few days
without a fucking dick in you?” he muttered, positioning himself and pausing to
trace the knife down Ichigo’s spine.
Ichigo shook his head.  “No, no,” he muttered.  He did not want Uryū to know
about this, but he wasn’t willing.  He wasn’t protecting anyone at all now.  He
wasn’t going to let it happen like this.
Ichigo started to yell out for help but Bazz reacted fast, reaching up and
using his free hand to slap it around his mouth and yank him backwards onto him
in one move, slamming into him with more force than he would have liked.  He
screamed against his hand, mostly in shock, but more than a little in pain. 
Then everything seemed to explode around him.  There was a loud thumping sound,
something cracking and then he was falling forward, barely catching himself
before faceplanting into the toilet seat.  He gasped, feeling hands on him
again.
“Stop, no, don’t!” he cried out, pushing hands away from him and scrambling to
get away.
“Ichigo, its Uryū!” he heard and looked up to see Uryū’s face instead of Bazz.
Despite himself he grabbed onto him like he was going to disappear.  He could
hear something outside the stall but he didn’t want to know what was happening,
he just held onto Uryū, who had taken his sweater off and covered Ichigo’s lap
with it while he waited for something.  Finally he looked up to see Uryū’s
roommate standing in the open doorway of the stall.
“We need to get him to the hospital,” Uryū said softly.
“No!” Ichigo said, shaking his head.  “T-take me back home, I’m fine, really,
just take me back to S-sosuke’s…”
Uryū frowned.  “Come on, let me help you,” Uryū said quietly, helping him stand
up and watching as he fumbled with shaking hands to get his jeans back on. 
Uryū couldn’t help but notice the blood running down the inside of his thighs
as he pulled on the clothes. The fact that he was used to having this happen,
and that going about his day  afterward wasn’t much of an issue bothered Uryū
greatly. 
They came out the door to see that the man with the red floppy Mohawk was
standing at a table with a woman with long green hair yelling at the manager. 
Ichigo froze, recognizing the woman as well.  She stopped in the middle of her
insistence that they call the police because her boyfriend was assaulted in the
bathroom by Chad and came around and glared at Ichigo.  He shook in Uryū’s
grasp.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the biggest little whore ever to live?” she said with
a grin.
Ichigo’s eyes went wide, blood still dripping down his chest where Bazz had cut
him.  Uryū looked to see Chad staring at her.
“Leave him alone.  You and your friend have done enough,” Chad said, looking
between them.
Bazz came over, his eye black, and his nose still oozing blood.  “What?  You
can’t seriously be angry that I was fucking this slut?  It’s all he’s good for,
being the whore that he is.”
Ichigo ducked his head and turned away from Uryū.  It was Chad, though, that
reached over and pulled Ichigo into a protective grip, surprising him with the
gentleness in the huge man’s touch. 
“Leave here, before I make you leave.  He is not what you say because he never
asked for what he went through,” Chad said, ushering Ichigo from the room while
Uryū left his name and number with the manager along with Urahara’s number for
them to call and report the incident.
Ichigo lost the ability to stand as soon as they got out the door, starting to
heave breaths and grabbing onto Chad to keep him steady.  “Easy,” he said
softly and helped him into the car.  “We will get you back to Sōsuke.”
***** Fettered Chaos *****
Chapter Twelve
 
Aizen wasn’t sure what made him more concerned, the look of concern and worry
on both Chad and Uryū’s faces, or the fact that Chad was carrying Ichigo into
the apartment.
“What happened?” he said as Chad walked in and put Ichigo down on the couch
gently.  He looked up at Uryū.  Ichigo was out, and it appeared more than sleep
to Sōsuke’s eyes.
Uryū stared at him for a minute.  “I didn’t…I can’t…he was…but there…” he
stammered until Chad put his arm around his back and Uryū turned, burying his
face in the larger man’s chest and letting out a chocked sob. 
“Ichigo became upset at lunch after telling us something he didn’t want to talk
about.  He went to the bathroom.  Uryū said he thought he should go after him,
to see if he could help.  I told him maybe I should go since it was Uryū that
had made him upset.  The door was locked and I was going to wait for him to
come out, but I heard him yell out.  I broke the door open and found a man with
a knife in the middle of assaulting him.  I pulled him off of Ichigo and
punched him twice because he tried to get back in to him.  Ichigo refused to go
to the hospital.  He and the woman he was with said some things to him when we
left, trying to make him upset.  He passed out in the car,” Chad detailed,
petting Uryū’s head without really thinking about what he was doing. 
Chad could feel wetness spreading on his shirt.  Uryū was still sobbing, his
hands balled into Chad’s clothes.  “I couldn’t…I couldn’t do anything, the
look…he was scared but he…he didn’t want to go anywhere but back here,
Professor,” Uryū said, looking up at Sōsuke.  “I told them to call Urahara,” he
said.  “The woman, she was trying to say that she was going to report Chad for
hitting the man, but I don’t know what she was going to do.  We had to get him
away from there.”
Sōsuke nodded.  “You two go home.  What would he have told you that upset him
that much?” he said, knowing that it might come up.
Uryū swallowed, paling.  “That…that that woman, that Yoshi, she…she would use
her guns…on them,” he said, feeling a wave of nausea crawl up his throat.
“Used them how?” Sōsuke asked, frowning.
Uryū shook his head.  “Um, to rape them,” he whispered quietly.
Sōsuke’s eyes widened.  He knew that they had all said that Yoshi had done
things to them with her guns, but they had never indicated that she had done
something like that.  Sōsuke nodded and knew there was more to the stories that
the group had given.  He’d suspected, considering the level of abuse they had
endured, that there was more than what they said.  He wondered what other ways
that the woman had used to abuse them and subjugate them to her sadistic whims.
He ushered Uryū and Chad out the door before Ichigo woke up.  First things
first, though, he thought with a sigh, picking up his phone and calling Kisuke.
“What is it, dear?” came Kisuke’s cheery voice.
“Ichigo had an incident.  He refused to go to the hospital for treatment,
though,” he said rubbing his face.
Kisuke sighed deeply.  “What happened?” he asked softly.
Sōsuke detailed what Uryū had told him, adding that he didn’t think that Uryū
was really in the mental state at the moment to give him an official statement.
 He told him that Chad had stepped in, and about the woman that was there
yelling to have the police come because of what he’d done.  Kisuke took down
notes as Sōsuke spoke, making a note of the name of the place. 
As he put the phone down he heard Ichigo groan.  He swallowed and he tried to
steel up his stomach because this wasn’t like talking to a victim as a
counselor.  He was more personally attached to Ichigo than that.  He wasn’t
sure what it was, though.  Of course, between all the work he’d done studying
relationships and trauma, combined with his own past…  He stood slowly and went
over and sat down on the futon by Ichigo’s feet.
Ichigo’s eyes fluttered and he frowned, pain lancing up his spine.  He’d gotten
used to not waking up feeling like he’d been…wait… 
His eyes shot open and he gasped to see he was on the futon in Sōsuke’s living
room.  He sighed, swallowing thickly.  “Sōsuke, hey,” he said, trying to smile.
“I wish you would let me take you to the emergency, Ichigo.  They could take an
evidence kit, at least,” he said softly, watching for any signs of distress
other than the slight pain he was expressing.
Ichigo closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly.  “It wouldn’t matter,
Sōsuke, he didn’t finish, Chad…Chad pulled him back before he could,” he said
swallowing hard.
“Who were they?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. 
“Two of Yoshi’s friends,” he said, sighing.  “They weren’t blackmailed, they
were just there now and then to hang out and have the drugs.  Bazz B is what
they called the guy with the Mohawk.  And Candice Catnipp is the woman’s name,
if I remember right.  He’d been there before with me, she liked to watch while
her and Yoshi smoked  pipes,” he said, turning his face away as he spoke.
“Ichigo, Uryū told me what you said she’d done,” he said softly.
Ichigo turned and stared at him for a moment.  “I didn’t say she did anything. 
I said…I said…I said she beat us with her guys…and she sometimes shot
someone…and she…she…”
Sōsuke sighed and reached out took Ichigo’s trembling hand, moving closer to
him.  “Ichigo, don’t.  You don’t have to hide what happened to you.  Why don’t
you want to tell anyone what she did?” he asked, frowning thoughtfully.
“Because…because it’s embarrassing.  Do you…do you think anyone will look at us
the same if they knew what she did to us?” he said, eyes starting to tear up. 
“I couldn’t stop her from hurting the others often enough.  I didn’t care, I
told her to…to do it to me instead…”
“Were her guns the only thing she used to do that to you with?” he asked
softly, holding onto his hand tightly even when he pulled.  The look on his
face told him it wasn’t.
“They hurt the most,” he finally said, staring at his hand encased in
Sōsuke’s.  “She…sometimes, she’d make us watch her load them, and she’d
hold…hold us over the kitchen table, telling us if we moved, she might miss and
shoot us in the back of the head.  So we stayed still, we…we knew she’d shot
Cain by then.  Then she’d fire one sometimes, then…then she’d p-put it inside
and it would hurt so much, because that barrel was so hot, and she’d just keep
doing it, telling me…us…that if we moved any, she couldn’t guarantee it
wouldn’t go off there.  She’d laugh, and then she’d just…just…when she was done
she’d just put it away, and then would say that…that…if we told anyone,
even…even Ryo…she’d kill us…”
Sōsuke could feel him shaking, but he could tell he wasn’t done yet.  “Th-the
girls, she…she did it to them too, but she would put them in the front too…and
their back…and I would scream at her to stop…and she would and then she’d push
me down and…”  His breath caught.  “Th-there were other times...besides the
guns.  Just…just whatever she could find.  She used to say she wished she’d
been given a dick so she could just feel what it was like instead of just
holding us down while she pushed whatever it was in and out and just kept doing
it…not stopping…”  He looked hollow for a minute.  “But I let her do it,
Sōsuke.  I let her!  I didn’t say no, so it…I’m not a victim!”
Sōsuke moved and put both hands on his shoulders and held tightly.  “I want to
tell you something.  Show you something.  Okay?”
Ichigo looked up slowly and nodded.  Sōsuke smiled and let go of his shoulders
and started to unbutton his shirt.  Ichigo bit his lip slightly, both out of
fear and a sudden rush of desire at the same time that he didn’t understand
completely.  Sōsuke slipped the long sleeved button down off and Ichigo could
see his beautiful tattooed arms again.  But this time, he smiled again, and
pulled the undershirt he was wearing off, revealing another set of tattoos on
his chest and stomach.  Near his waistband on the left side there was a tattoo
of one of those awareness ribbons, the only one he had that Ichigo could see. 
It was situated under a wide rainbow, and over the rainbow were dark clouds
pouring rain onto the rainbow.  It was like the ribbon was wearing a rainbow
umbrella over it.  In script on the ribbon the word “survivor” over the curve
of the ribbon.  Under it, the words “After the Rain”.
“I was sixteen, and stupid,” he began, putting Ichigo’s hand on his stomach
over the tattoo.  Ichigo frowned and moved his fingers realizing that there was
a scar under the rainbow of the tattoo, at least four inches wide and very
thick.  “I went out to this bar, my first time out, you know.  I had a fake ID.
I’d always looked older, you know.  So no one questioned me as I went in.  I
was excited because I couldn’t tell my parents I was gay.  I knew I’d be
disowned in a moment.  So this was how I was going to get to be myself, if only
for a little while, you know.”  Sōsuke smiled sadly.  “This was well before
Byakuya or Kisuke became parts of my life.  I thought I knew everything, you
know?  I didn’t think I could possibly be in danger, I mean, there were people
all around, and I was just going to have one drink.  Just one.  I didn’t want
to get drunk, that’s not why I was there.  I wanted to be around anyone that
wouldn’t judge me, and I wanted to see other couples that were both men or both
women.  You know, so it felt normal, this desire to be with another man.”
Ichigo had sat up, wincing somewhat at the pain that lanced through his ass at
the motion.  If it hadn’t been a familiar feeling from being taken so many
times without preparation, it might have bothered him more.  As it was, the
burning pain and even the blood he’d wash away in the shower, was so normal for
his life.
“But I didn’t know anything.  You hear about people drugging women in bars all
the time.  Women getting slipped these date rape drugs.  I didn’t…didn’t even
think that it happened at places like this.  I had one drink, and I got chatted
up by several guys. I was flattered, and had studiously turned down offers for
more drinks, because I told them I had to drive.  It was just harmless
flirting.  At least, I thought so, but I got a bit queasy.  I remember I stood
up, and I got to the bathroom, but the world just skipped and I was looking at
the night sky.  I didn’t feel anything, not at first, I was so out of it, I
couldn’t tell what was happening.  Then, when he penetrated me, I screamed
because it hurt so much.  That’s when he stabbed me, out of fear or surprise, I
don’t know.  It didn’t stop him, though, he kept going as I was bleeding there,
muttering about how much of an idiot I was.  No one had heard me, and no one
came.  He finished and picked up the knife and took off.  I just remember
thinking I had to get up and get my clothes.  I couldn’t be found like that…”
he said with a sigh, placing his own hand on the tattoo.
“I was so worried about that part, the embarrassment that I’d just been raped
in the back alley of some gay bar, that I couldn’t fathom that I was literally
bleeding to death.  I tried to get up, to get my clothes and I slipped in my
own blood.  That’s when I realized it didn’t matter that I was half naked and
laying in who knows what kind of filth, I was dying,” he said, moving and
taking Ichigo’s hand again.  “He hadn’t taken my phone, so it was good I found
my clothes because I managed to get the phone out and call emergency services. 
I passed out before they even got there.  Next when I woke up I was in the
hospital and my mother and father were there.  I thought…I thought they’d be
mad, but they weren’t.  When I’d healed, my dad asked me if I wanted to do
anything and I said I wanted a tattoo over the scar, to show what I’d
survived.  I wasn’t even seventeen yet.”
Sōsuke smiled gently.  “I remember vividly walking into the tattoo place and my
dad talking to the lady, saying he’d like to have a woman do the tattoo.  They
didn’t have any female tattoo artists though.  I told my dad it was okay as I
sat down and took my shirt off.  But when the guy leaned over me I almost
jumped out of my skin.  He asked what was wrong, and I said nothing.  Then he
asked what I wanted.  I’d drawn this myself, well, obviously, not as nicely as
he did it.  But I handed the paper I had scrawled this rough rainbow and ribbon
on and I saw his eyes tear up.  This big, tattoo covered, bearded man, he had
to be at least six foot five, and three hundred pounds, you know, and he teared
up and nodded.  He looked at my dad, and he said he’d do it for free, and I
asked why he would do that, it was at least two hundred dollars of work. 
That’s when he turned over his arm and showed me the teal ribbon on the inside
of his forearm, covering the scars of a suicide attempt.  He was a survivor
too,” Sōsuke said softly.  “Survivor, Ichigo.  Not a victim.  Never a victim.”
Ichigo’s mouth had long ago gone dry as he stared at Sōsuke.  “Survivor,” he
said quietly, staring at his hands.
“It doesn’t matter if it was one time, if it was a hundred times, Ichigo.  It
doesn’t matter if you never said no, it doesn’t matter if you were drugged.  It
doesn’t matter, Ichigo.  You are a survivor, so are the others.  You didn’t
consent.  None of you did.   You didn’t freely offer up your body, not when the
only other choice was to be beaten or watch someone else be raped instead. 
Even if you begged them to use your body, it wasn’t your choice.  They forced
you, they forced you all, and that’s not okay, never okay.  You need to realize
that there is no way you could have consented.  You were a child, Ichigo.  A
child.  They beat you, they threatened you, they drugged you, and they raped
you.  All of you.  You have to realize it wasn’t your fault, you weren’t
letting them do it; they were going to do it either way.  You had to try to
survive, and that meant you had to give them what they wanted,” he said. 
“Look, I went to school to become a trauma counselor because of my own trauma. 
I wanted to help others.  But this…” he said, pulling Ichigo’s hands to his
chest and holding them there.  “This is me, the survivor, not the counselor.”
Ichigo nodded slowly and then leaned forward into Sōsuke’s arms, his breath
hitching.  “I…I didn’t ask them for it.  I didn’t do it, they made me,” he
said, his voice nearly breaking into tears at every word.  “I couldn’t tell
them no…I had to survive…I had to…we had to live…we had to survive…”
Sōsuke wrapped both arms around his back and then pulled him into his arms,
tucking Ichigo’s head under his chin.  “I’m not a whore,” he heard Ichigo
whisper.  “I’m not a slut. I’m not used.  I’m not dirty. I’m not.  I’m not. 
I’m…I’m a survivor…” he said, clutching Sōsuke’s body tightly.
“That’s right, Ichigo.  That’s right,” Sōsuke said, petting his head gently as
he started to sob into Sōsuke’s bare chest. 
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Chad got Uryū in the car with relative ease.  It seemed he had gone numb by
that point and was just sitting in the car staring straight ahead.  Chad had
even buckled his seatbelt for him because of it.  He swallowed and drove home
quickly, wanting to get Uryū to a better place before he talked to him about
what had just happened.  He didn’t know what he was going to say, but he had to
say something.
Chad didn’t speak much, he never had.  He’d been a violent child, a dangerous
thing since he was bigger than anyone else in his school.  His parents had died
when he was younger, and he was very angry.  He remembered that anger, that
fury in his heart and he wanted to take it out on the world around him.   He’d
gone to live with his Abuelo.  He’d gotten into another fight on the way home
from school, some boy that was yelling something about him being Mexican
instead of white.  He’d broke the boy’s nose and put him in the hospital.  His
grandfather and took his hands and held them, telling him he wasn’t given those
big hands and his big body to hurt people.  He was given them to protect
others.
After that day, Chad hadn’t been in another fight until today.  And despite the
fact he’d hit the other man, he knew that he had done it to protect Ichigo. 
They pulled into their parking space and Chad guided Uryū, still silent into
their apartment and sat him down on their sofa. 
“Uryū, please,” he said, sitting beside him.  “Speak to me.”
For a long minute, Uryū stared and then he turned to Chad.  “Why?  Why would
someone do those things to him?  To anyone?” he said, wide eyed and staring at
Chad. 
Chad tentatively reached over and took Uryū’s much smaller hands into his.  “I
was told by my Abuelo that I was given these big hands and this big body to
protect people.  Some people have not learned that lesson,” he said with a
slight nod.  “People do these things because they think they can have whatever
they want in life even when they have not earned the privilege.  To have
someone, in body, soul, heart, or spirit, that is a privilege that has to be
earned.  It cannot be taken.  I would spend an eternity earning such a
privilege and never gain it rather than to take it by force.”
Uryū frowned and turned his hands in Chad’s larger ones.  He stared for a long
time at those hands, cradling his.  “I…I…” he said, his breath quickening with
Chad’s closeness.  What was he thinking, he thought to himself as he felt his
heart rate skyrocket just from his hands on his.  Chad never touched him
before.  He’d never even tried to.  He looked up at him, his eyes wide and
bright.  He saw the soft look in his eyes, and for the first time, he saw it. 
The yearning.  The longing.  The things he had ignored.  He took a quick breath
and licked his lips.
“Chad…are you…do you…” he muttered, feeling Chad’s fingers moving across the
backs of his hands gently, softly. 
Chad didn’t say anything still, just kept looking deep into Uryū’s very soul. 
Uryū couldn’t take it anymore.  He reached up and grabbed Chad’s face and
pulled him to him and kissed him quickly on the lips.  He let go and sat back,
looking shocked that he had done that.
Chad smiled, a gentle, subtle thing that bespoke more than any speech ever
could.  “I have earned such a privilege, Uryū?” he said quietly.
Uryū nodded and before he could say anything else, he found himself sitting on
Chad’s lap, facing him with Chad looking up at him, hands running down his
back.  Uryū panted for a moment then dove forward, putting his hands on either
side of Chad’s face and sucking on his lips franticly.  Chad opened his mouth
and let Uryū in and began pressing back against his tongue with his own. 
Chad’s hands moved to unbutton the shirt Uryū was wearing, and it was so hot
all of a sudden, Uryū couldn’t get it off fast enough.  Chad’s hands began to
explore every bit of him, pausing to flick and pinch at his nipples before they
slid down his back over the swell of his ass.
Uryū was grinding his crotch against Chad’s as they sat there kissing and
touching for the longest time, rubbing their hardness against each other
through their clothes.  Finally, though, it seemed Chad had enough of the
teasing and slid Uryū’s pants down over his hips and then rose up to pull his
own off.  Uryū felt a rush to his face as he was fully exposed, and got to see
Chad’s endowments in full.  He gasped a bit, swallowing as his fingers danced
down his thick, long cock.  He didn’t know if he could take it, though, he was
so big…
Chad’s fingers, of course, weren’t idle, wrapping his own hand against Uryū’s
cock.  He pulled Uryū closer one his lap, trapping their arousals together and
stroking them.  Uryū gasped and panted, watching as he couldn’t stand it,
coming hard onto Chad’s hand.  He rolled his eyes back as his body relaxed.  Of
course, this gave Chad the chance to work Uryū open, sliding one of his cum
covered fingers underneath the smaller man and inside with little warning as
his other hand held Uryū in place on his lap.  Uryū gulped, feeling full just
from Chad’s finger working into him.  His hands were so big, it was no wonder,
he moaned as he felt that finger slide in and out rapidly.  He moaned a bit
then reached over to the side table.  He fumbled for a second, moaning several
times as Chad fingered him deeper and harder.  He finally grabbed it, a packet
of lube.  He had it in his pocket one day after their sex education day during
health and fitness.  They’d handed out condoms and lube packets. 
He ripped open the packet with his teeth and handed it to Chad who nodded,
pulling his finger out with a pop that made Uryū shiver.  He watched as Chad
coated two of his thick fingers with the lube then set the packet on the arm of
the sofa.  Uryū leaned forward into him and sucked on Chad’s neck a bit as he
pushed two of his thick fingers into him.  Uryū couldn’t help but moan out loud
this time as he felt the burning stretch as he worked both his fingers up
further and further into him until he struck the spongy spot that made Uryū
twitch and squeal out loud and bit down on Chad’s collar bone hard.  Chad
didn’t mind as he kept probing that spot with his fingers, watching Uryū bounce
and writhe against him for more of it.
Chad knew that he was large, in fact he’d had more than one partner reject him
for that very reason.  So he intended to let Uryū stay on top.  He grabbed the
lube packet and took the rest of it in his free hand and coated himself with
it.  He pulled his fingers out of Uryū hearing a slight whine as he did it, but
he grabbed both his hips and pressed him to lean up.  Uryū caught what he was
doing and knelt up a bit, letting Chad guide himself under him.  Uryū knew this
was going to hurt and he was going to be sore tomorrow, but he was wanting that
inside him, filling him and making the world feel real again.  He wanted Chad
inside him, and he was not going to wait for it any longer.  He took a breath
and began to slide down, feeling the head slip inside easily enough but it was
so hard to keep going.  Part of him wanted to stop and forget it because it was
more than he’d ever taken.  He panted, holding himself up, barely having moved
down onto Chad at all. 
Chad saw his reluctance and reached up and took his rapidly flagging arousal
and began to stroke him while looking into his face.  Uryū bit his lip and
closed his eyes tight, trying to relax everything as he slid down further and
further.  He was beginning to wornder when he was going to get to the base of
Chad’s huge cock when he felt he’d finally taken him all the.  He leaned 
forward, panting and tears streaming from his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Chad whispered.  “We can stop.”
“N-no…just…gimme a minute…gotta adjust…fucking hurts…” he muttered, feeling the
throbbing of Chad’s cock inside him.  It was taking longer than he wanted, but
he could feel his body starting to loosen and he rolled his hips
experimentally.  
Chad was reward with a long, low drawn out moan from Uryū as soon as he moved. 
He could feel his body trembling around him and he started to kiss his neck as
Uryū began to move, feeling every inch inside him and  brushing his prostate
with each thrust. 
“Oh god, Chad…” he gasped as he worked himself back and forth, his own cock now
completely erect and dripping on Chad’s belly.  Chad grunted now and then but
otherwise was quiet as Uryū’s pace began to get faster on him.  “Full, I’m so
full, Chad, it feels so good…” he muttered as he began to fall off in his pace.
Chad moved then, flipping them, dropping Uryū onto his back in the couch and
pulling his legs up on his shoulders.  He began his own pace, slow at first
before working up to a faster and faster pace.  Uryū was moaning and
whimpering, his hands entangled in his own hair. 
“Faster, fuck, faster Chad,” he gasped, feeling Chad’s body pushing down on his
cock and slamming right into that one spot.  “Harder, fuck me harder,” he
nearly yelled grabbing onto the arm of the couch behind his head as Chad did
exactly as he asked.
Finally Uryū couldn’t take it anymore and came suddenly with a loud yelp,
moaning out the waves of pleasure loudly as Chad held to his control for a few
thrusts then exploded into Uryū’s quivering body.  Chad fell over on top of
him, proceeding to lay kisses all over his neck and chest, his cock already
hardening inside him again.  Uryū moaned, feeling the fullness return.  Chad
flipped him to his belly, this time, pulling his hips up and slamming back into
him from behind.  Uryū felt like the world was going to come apart at the seams
as Chad fucked him into coming again, this time without touching his cock. 
Again, Uryū came with a surprised yelp and moan as Chad came with him, leaning
over him and kissing him down to the small of his back. 
As he sat there, though, panting, he felt Chad hardening a third time.  He
gasped but it was too late, Chad was already going again.  Uryū found himself
flipped to his side this time, Chad having pulled one of his legs up and over
his shoulder while he straddled the other.  It didn’t take long before Uryū had
gone over again, and this time, it seemed Chad was well and truly spent.
Uryū grimaced as he felt chad pull out of him and felt the cum drip down his
legs.  He needed a shower, he was thinking as he was suddenly swept up into
Chad’s arms and then set down in the shower on his feet.  Chad smiled and began
to wash Uryū, pausing to kneel and push him against the shower wall and finger
him while he “cleaned” him.  Uryū found himself coming again in the shower, the
repaying the favor by trying his best to suck Chad’s cock.  He’d have to get
the throat deadening spray, he thought to himself as he settled on just sucking
and licking at the head until he came. 
They managed to get dry and dressed, and though exhausted, they had to go talk
to Urahara at the station before he left about the morning.  Chad entwined his
fingers in Uryū’s as they walked out their door to stop and stare.
Wonderweiss was sitting on their porch and Luppi was standing at the railing
with a smirk on his face.  He clapped softly and stared at them, his smirk
spreading across his face. 
“About time,” he said.  “Sounded like you had fun.”
Uryū’s face turned nearly purple as he turned and buried it in Chad’s chest. 
He felt Chad’s deep laughter as he did his best to hide from everything.  He
felt Chad put his hand across his shoulders and despite the embarrassment, he
was smiling.
***** Quieting Chaos *****
Chapter Notes
     A/N: There are some discrepancies that you’ll see. I’ve changed
     Ichigo’s age to 19 instead of 18, and I’ll be altering the rest of
     the story to compensate. I’ve also given Aizen new traits, like the
     tattoos and his survivor history. I don’t want to cheat the
     narrative, so those things will be fixed in editing. Chapters may
     also be shifted around to account for some issues I noticed with
     flow.
 
Isshin had been provided with a moderately sized house in Karakura Town.  Kaien
had asked the girls and they had decided that they wanted to stay and get to
know their father again.  They had been five at the time of their brother’s
assumed death and their father’s apparent suicide.  The house was small, but it
had four bedrooms.  The girls had taken one, Kaien had taken another, and
Isshin the other.  Kaien’s wife had to return to Tokyo to her job but Kaien had
been able to take some time off work.  The last bedroom was where their
shinigami guard was staying.  Kenpachi Zaraki was his name, and no one in the
house thought anyone would dare do anything against them while that mountainous
man was stationed there. 
Yuzu became the household cook over the next couple weeks as they settled into
the new situation.  They couldn’t go back to Tokyo until Inaba was captured,
out of fear that he would retaliate against the girls as well.  The safest
place for them was there with the shinigami to watch them.  Kenpachi, despite
his size, was incredibly good with the two fifteen-year-old girls.  Karin had
taken an immediate liking to the nearly six foot eight inch tall man.    Yuzu
had been cautious of him at first, but soon found that he enjoyed sitting with
her when she wanted to practice her formal tea ceremonies.  He was actually
quite well versed in tea ceremonies.  He eventually told her that he had a
sister that was fourteen this year and perhaps they could meet sometime soon.
Kaien had tried very hard to let Isshin interact with the girls.  Kaien had
never told them anything but the truth.  They both knew that Kaien was one of
their uncles, and that there had been a very bad man that murdered their mother
and their older brother.  He told them that their father had killed himself out
of grief, which of course, even Kaien had believed to be true.  When he had
received the phone call, the first thing he had felt was shock, but not
surprise.  He knew that Isshin would take whatever steps were necessary to go
after the man that had hurt his family.  However, to find out that Ichigo had
not perished, and that he had left the boy to the whims of those that had been
trying to hurt him to begin with…  Kaien would never forgive himself.
Of course, no one could hurt over the situation more than Isshin himself.  Now,
two weeks later, he sat in the small kitchen as Yuzu, beautiful nearly grown
Yuzu, moved around and served food for everyone.  Yuzu had been the easy one. 
Yuzu had fallen in his arms sobbing and telling him how happy she was.  Karin,
on the other hand, had been angry.  She was so much like her brother.  It had
taken a week before she would even sit down in the same room with him. 
Finally, it had taken Isshin and Kaien sitting them both down and explaining
everything that had happened, including why Isshin thought his son had survived
and Kaien believed that Ichigo had died.  Once everything was in the open,
Karin took a bit more time, but eventually, she began to hang out around him. 
First she was still silent, but soon she began talking to him.  Isshin would
begin to joke with them and tell them stories about their mother they had never
heard before. 
They had met Uryū and Ryuken as well, inviting them over for dinner one night. 
That had been an interesting evening, but it had ended on a good note.  Isshin
and Ryuken had left to talk outside by themselves, and Uryū and his “roommate”
Chad stayed inside and spoke at length with the girls.  The two girls knew that
the two were more than roommates because of the way they stole glances at each
other, and how now and then Chad would brush a hand against Uryū in a very
gentle, intimate way on his arm or his shoulder.
Tonight, though, they were expecting company again.  Three extra places were
set at the table and Yuzu was busy in the kitchen.  Isshin and Kaien sat on the
small front porch talking.  Isshin chain smoked, they noticed, and the girls
had refrained from mentioning it to him.  They knew that he was a doctor, and
he should know how bad smoking was for him.  However, they also knew that their
father had lived a very hard life for the last ten years.  Yuzu had just
finished setting the table when she heard the door open and new voices.  She
wiped her hands and came into the living room where her father and Uncle were
leading in three…unusual people.
“Yuzu, Karin, these are some friends I made in the last few years,” he said,
smiling.
Isshin motioned to the woman in what looked to be a maid’s dress.  “This is
Riruka Dokugamine.”  He gestured to a tall, moustached man who also looked like
he was wearing some sort of serving outfit in black and white.  “This is her
partner Giriko Kutsuzawa, and Yukio Hans Vorarlberna, who helps them out
sometimes on jobs,” he said, indicating the shorter blonde man who was steadily
typing away at his phone and seemingly ignoring everyone around him.
“Jobs?” Karin said, looking up from the sofa she was sitting on playing her
hand held game.
“Um, yes, they’re bounty hunters.  I’ve worked a few jobs with them over the
last ten years,” Isshin said with a smile.  “I…I wanted to do something to help
catch those horrible people and Inaba.  I knew I couldn’t do it myself.”
Karin looked up.  “So you were bounty hunting?”
“Sometimes, when I needed money,” Isshin said.  “But let us eat, I’m sure
Riruka, Yukio, and Giriko could use a meal after their travel.”
They all retired to the kitchen to sit and eat.  For a while, everyone
concentrated on their food, until Karin spoke up.
“So, what kind of jobs do you take?  I mean, do you catch thieves or like
dangerous criminals?” she asked, tilting her head to the side and looking them
over.
The short blond spoke up at that.  “Most the time we go pick up bail jumpers,
deadbeat parents who don’t support their kids, people mostly who aren’t really
dangerous.  But sometimes, we get some dangerous ones.  And sometimes the
mundane cases turn out to be the most dangerous,” he said nodding thoughtfully.
“Yeah, our most recent catch was an identity theft ring,” she said with a
smirk. 
Karin and Yuzu looked each other and smiled back at her.  “Really?”
“Um hum,” she answered, putting down her napkin and smiling, pink hair framing
her bright face as she spoke.  “Yeah, they were a huge operation, but no one
could pin them down.  There was a good sized bounty on their heads, but thanks
to Yukio here and his magic with computers, we found them first.  It was this
hacker that was known online as ‘A2’, Aaroneiro was his real name, and his
buddies the Loyd Brothers.  Well, we got their location, and we go busting into
this beautiful, upscale apartment, thinking these guys have scammed millions of
people, so they should have something.  But no, the place is dark and really
empty.  There were like some futons, these amazing computer set ups, and some
boxes with clothes and stuff.  It was like some weird art film set or
something.”
She paused and took a drink of her water.  “Yeah, it was funny, though because
the two Loyd Brothers, when they saw the three of us just kind of gave up. 
Girinko had to pull Aaroneiro away from the computer because he was trying to
delete as much of the evidence as he could.  They had so much money, though,
and we asked why they didn’t have anything.  They just didn’t have an answer
for it though, they just wanted more money.”
“Weird,” Karin said.  “To keep all that money and not do anything with it.  I
would have at least bought something.
Riruka shrugged.  “Some criminals are like that.  They don’t even know what
they’re doing when they do it.
“What will you do when you catch the people that hurt our brother?” Yuzu asked
quietly.  “They…they really hurt him.”
Riruka smiled sadly.  “Yeah, your father told us what they had done.  And we’ll
get them.  They can’t hide from us.  I promise, we will find them and they will
be brought to justice.”
Girinko looked up.  “Have you spoken with your brother?”
The girls exchanged glances and shook their heads.  Karin sighed deeply. 
“He…he’s had a hard couple weeks, getting used to not being with those awful
people.  We’re going to see him at the place he’s staying tomorrow though, and
hopefully he’ll come here to see us after that.  He…he had a setback.”
Riruka looked at Isshin.  “A setback?” she asked.
“Yeah, a couple of Yoshi and Ryo’s friends, not the ones she blackmailed, they
ran into him and his cousin in a pho place.  The guy ended up assaulting him in
the bathroom before they figured out what was happening.  He hasn’t left this
Sōsuke Aizen he’s staying with since then,” he said softly.
“Sōsuke Aizen?” Yukio said, looking up thoughtfully.  “From Kyoto?”
Isshin shook his head.  “I don’t know where he was from, but he lives here now,
and from what I understand he went to school here.”
“Yeah, I think I remember him,” he said thoughtfully.  “A couple years ago, he
had a private trauma counseling business.  One of our clients was seeing him to
deal with rape trauma syndrome after a violent attack.  He seemed to be very
competent.  But he had told us that he wasn’t sure he’d stay in private
practice.  Something about his own trauma getting the best of him sometimes.”
Isshin frowned.  “His own trauma?” he asked.
“Yeah, I remember,” Riruka said.  “He was tall, had the wavy brown hair and
glasses.  Positively placid guy, tons of tattoos, all under his clothes though,
I remember that.  I had come in one day while he was doing something and had
his sleeves rolled up.  I asked him if he was yakuza since he had them all down
his arms,” she said smiling.
“Was he?” Yuzu asked, her eyes wide.  Was her brother in with a yakuza guy?
Riruka shook her head.  “No, not at all.  He just preferred a professional
appearance, so he kept them under his clothes.  He said they were his story,
and that was why he had them.  He had the most gorgeous cherry blossoms and
cherry tree on one said.  Now that I think of it, I seem to remember seeing a
teal ribbon on his bulletin board.”
Kaien looked up.  “Teal ribbon?” he asked her.
“Yeah, you know those awareness ribbons.  Well, I mean, he did counsel victims
of sexual violence, and that’s what the teal one means, sexual assault and
violence awareness.  So I didn’t think anything of it.  But, if he had his own
trauma…” she said thoughtfully.  Riruka was very good at putting together
things that didn’t seem to relate to each other, and extremely good at
remembering small details.  She brought those things to their small team that
often helped solve their cases and find their quarry when both Giriko and Yukio
were stuck.
“He could be a survivor,” Giriko said with a knowing nod.  “It would not be the
first time someone tried to reach out and help others that had suffered like
they had.”
“Actually, more than that,” Yukio said from staring at his phone.  “When he was
sixteen he was violently raped and stabbed behind a club not too far from
here.  He nearly bled to death before he got to the hospital,” he said looking
up.  “Seems he also left the practice in Kyoto earlier this year, citing
personal reasons when asked why he was leaving.  He grew up and went to
Karakura University until he was twenty-three.  Appears that he also used to
see Byakuya Kuchiki on the down low in college before Kuchiki married his later
wife Hisana, and also was seen dating Kisuke Urahara and someone named Gin
Ichimaru.  A few other accounts detail he had several other shorter
relationships as a college student.  This sort of promiscuity often happens
with those that have suffered sexual assault and violence.”  He paused and
looked up.  The girls, Isshin, and Kaien were staring at him in confusion. 
“What?  I wanted to find out what his story was.  I just pulled up old police
reports and newspaper articles, well and a few blog posts by people he went to
school with.”
“Yukio can find anything on anyone in a few minutes,” Giriko said with a
smile.  “Nothing can be kept hidden for long around him.”
Karin and Yuzu nodded.  “So it would seem,” Kaien said, suddenly feeling a lot
more confident in these people Isshin had brought in on the case.  He glanced
over to see Isshin smiling.  He knew if anyone could catch the bastards, it
would be this group.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo was pacing again.  He was more nervous than he thought he had ever been
before right then.  Sōsuke came up and put both hands on his shoulders and
squeezed gently.  The progress that they had made over the last two weeks was
showing.  Sōsuke’s friend, a psychologist named Jūshirō Ukitake, had been over
every afternoon to meet with Ichigo.  Ichigo found the work hard, and most the
time, he felt worse after he left and would end up crying wordlessly on Sōsuke
for an hour or more.  Sōsuke knew Jūshirō from when he had been going to
school, as he had been in Byakuya’s circle of friends.  Jūshirō specialized in
post-traumatic stress disorder of all varieties, from rape trauma syndrome,
combat related, and bystander PTSD.  Jūshirō himself had been a combat medic
and seen quite a bit.  After he had left the military with a medical discharge
after coming down with a bad case of tuberculosis that had lingered despite
treatment, he’d attended college with Byakuya.  He had gone on to get his
Psy.D. and both taught and ran his own private counseling service in Karakura. 
Ichigo liked him a lot, even if his time with him would leave him emotionally
and physically drained.   He appreciated that Sōsuke never asked what they
talked about, and he never tried to be Ichigo’s counselor like Jūshirō was. 
Sōsuke said that if he wanted to talk to him, he would be there, but not as a
counselor, as someone that cared about him as a friend.  However, the flutter
Ichigo felt every time Sōsuke touched him made him think that there was more
there than just friendship.  He’d mentioned it to Jūshirō today for the first
time.  He had been sure that Jūshirō was going to tell him that it was nothing,
it was just a reaction to Sōsuke taking him in after everything that happened,
or something else.  Instead they had spent the entire hour exploring Ichigo’s
feelings and motivations for those feelings toward Sōsuke.  He had expected
Jūshirō to ignore it, but he hadn’t. 
Now, though, they were waiting for his father and sisters.  His Uncle Kaien had
opted to stay at the house, saying that they needed time together, and he
didn’t want to interfere.  Especially since the shinigami guard stationed at
the house was coming too. 
“It will be fine, Ichigo,” Sōsuke said in that gentle, soft voice.
“I know, I just…what do I tell them?” he said, turning toward him.  “I can’t
tell them the truth…I mean…who wants…”
“Ichigo,” Sōsuke said with a smile.  “They want to hear whatever you want to
tell them.  Tell them what you feel comfortable telling them, and if they ask
something you don’t want to answer, explain that it makes you uncomfortable to
talk about it.  Okay?” he said nodding thoughtfully as the bell rung.  “Want me
to get it?” he asked.
Ichigo swallowed.  “No, I…I’ll do it.”
Ichigo was expecting his father and his two sisters.  He knew an agent was
coming too, but he didn’t think it would be a big deal.  He’d gotten pretty
good at dealing with people coming and going.  However, when he opened the door
and saw Kenpachi Zaraki, who towered over him and was more than a little
imposing with his wild black hair, scowl etched brows and taking up the entire
door, Ichigo couldn’t help his reaction.  He yelped and ran, slamming the door
to his room and panting heavily.
“Ichigo?” Sōsuke said, poking his head out of the kitchen and then looking
toward the door where he saw the  problem as Kenpachi came in, frowning,
followed by an equally confused Isshin and his two daugheters.
“What’d I do?” Kenpachi asked.
“Nothing,” Sōsuke said, putting down the cloth he was drying his hands on.  “I
think your sheer size surprised him a bit.”
Kenpachi frowned but didn’t say anything else.  Isshin and the girls exchanged
nervous glances.  “Here, here, come to the dining and sit down.  I’ll bring him
out when he’s ready,” Sōsuke said, motioning all four to the dining table he
had laid out with six settings.  Luckily, he’d placed the extremely large
Kenpachi away from Ichigo who was on his left side.  He smiled at them and
headed to Ichigo’s bedroom and he could hear him inside, nearly
hyperventilating.
“Ichigo, I’m coming inside,” he said softly as he opened the door, glad now
that the bedrooms didn’t have locks.
Ichigo was sitting in the corner of the room, where he’d put out his covers to
sleep since he still didn’t sleep in the bed.  He had both arms wrapped around
his legs and his face buried in his knees.  He didn’t look up when Sōsuke sat
down beside him and put an arm around his shoulders. 
“What happened?” he said gently to him.
Ichigo turned his head to look at Sōsuke and saw that clear, accepting look on
his face.  “He…he was big.  L-like with Chad.  There…there was this guy…Ch-
Choe.  He was one of the cops, so we all had to do everything he wanted b-b-
because she had to get the blackmail on him.  She told me when he came in the
first night…she told me that he was a cop, and it was really important that
I…I…I…fight.  It wasn’t a problem, though.  I…I didn’t act, not at all.  He was
horrible.  He was so b-big.  And he had b-big fists.  He liked to punch and
then he’d…he’d fuck you, but he had a small dick, so that wasn’t bad.  I mean,
I don’t think I’d ever seen such a small cock in all my time there.  He was
maybe this big all hard,” he said, holding up his fingers about four inches
apart.  “Then…maybe because he had such a small cock or something, he wanted to
s-s-see how much of his hand he could get inside you…”  Ichigo shivered hard
suddenly, eyes wide and vacant for a minute.  “Th-the smaller ones he liked
best,” he said quietly.  “So…so he’d come around and I…I would try to hid
them.  So it ended up being me he’d take upstairs,” he said, wincing in
remembered pain and hurt.  “He…he…he could fit it all…” he whispered in a
horrified tone.  “And…and he’d say…say I was such a slut and a whore b-because
of it.”
Sōsuke pulled him into a tight hug for a long moment.  “You weren’t then and
you aren’t now, Ichigo.  Remember.  You didn’t ask for what they did.”
“I know, but…but it is so hard to get it through my head,” he said, taking both
hands and slapping on his head.  “I told him to take me.  I told him to fuck me
with that horrible huge fist.  How…how did I not ask for it?” he whispered.
“You didn’t want Hanataro or the others to suffer.  You had to do it to protect
them.  You knew how hard it was for you, and you’d been through it before,” he
said quietly to him, running a hand over his head as he sat there.
It took about fifteen minutes but finally Ichigo got to his feet, but he held
onto Sōsuke’s hand as they left the room to go and sit down.  He wiped his eyes
a bit, but he knew they were a little red.  Kenpachi didn’t know what to do, so
he tried not to look at him.
“I-I’m sorry, um, just…M-Mr. Zaraki…he reminded me of someone else,” Ichigo
said, ducking his head in embarrassment. 
“Ichigo, it’s fine,” Isshin said.  “We understand.”
Ichigo frowned and then shook his head.  “No, no you don’t,” he said quietly.
Isshin bit his lip and nodded and glanced at the girls.  Sōsuke came in and
served everyone dinner and then sat down.
“Ah, Yuzu, Karin, why don’t you tell Ichigo about yourselves?  What you liked
to do?  Your favorite subjects?” Sōsuke said, seeing Ichigo wasn’t wanting to
talk at the moment.
Karin nodded.  “Um, yeah, sure.  I play soccer a lot, it’s my favorite sport. 
I don’t like a lot of school other than sports.  I’m okay with math, I guess. 
I’ve got a few friends, and we hang out mostly and play sports,” she said with
a smile at him.
Ichigo listened as he ate, looking up and nodding every now and then.  “I…I
used to like to play soccer,” he said with a slight smile.  “Sometimes, Noba
and me, we’d find a ball, and when they were sleeping it off, we’d sneak
outside and play.  We didn’t all go, just in case we got caught, only a couple
at a time.  Just safer that way,” he said, looking down at his food when he was
done.
“Um, well, I’m really into tea party ceremonies and cooking,” Yuzu said.  “I
like baking the best, and I love to make cookies and cakes.  What’s your
favorite, Ichi-nii?” she asked.  “I could bake you something.”
Ichigo looked up and looked confused.  “I…I don’t know.  I never got sweets too
much…they usually at them before I could sneak upstairs to take food down for
the others.  And I always gave the sweets to the younger ones, anyway,” he said
smiling.  “Ririn and Hana loved sweets, so if I found them, I’d give them up to
them.”
Yuzu and Karin exchanged a pained expression.  They didn’t want to keep
reminding him of the horrible place he’d been for ten years, but it seemed like
every memory surrounded that place.  “Ah, well, I’ll make a couple things.  Oh,
and unlike Karin, I love to go to school and see my friends.  It’s nice to get
away from the house all day.”
“Yeah, I was excited when I could start college…” he said.  “We never left
before then.  We were homeschooled, well, if you call it that.  Yoshi would
fill out the tests and send them in for us.  I…I ended up teaching the others
from the textbooks that she was supposed to use.  They would send them in these
big boxes every year, and she’d take the tests out, and dump the books in the
big trash pile to be burned.  So…so I’d sneak out at night, and I’d grab as
many as I could, and I’d hide them in this broken water heater that was in
basement.  It had a rust spot, you see.  And me and Noba managed to chip it
away until we could pull it open and hide the books inside.  They’d get mold on
them eventually, but not at first.  I…I got tetanus from it, though,” he said,
looking at his hands. “I’d cut myself on the rusty metal.  I got over it, which
was a surprise, I remember how scared Noba was when he called her down when I
was having one of the spasms.  It wasn’t a really bad one, though, I didn’t
die, after all.  She didn’t do anything, though.”
Isshin frowned and nearly sobbed out loud.  To live through a tetanus
infection…  He swallowed, reminding himself to talk to Ryuken about making sure
that Ichigo had been vaccinated for anything else.  He wasn’t sure if he’d had
even regular vaccinations.
Karin finally looked up, tears on her face this time, to Isshin’s surprise. 
“How?”  she said, looking over at Ichigo’s placid face.  “How can you just…talk
about it like…so calm?” she asked.
Ichigo looked at her and shook his head.  “I don’t understand what you mean.”
“You just…just act like its normal!  Like I talk about playing with my
friends!” she said, her hands balled up in her lap.  “I…I don’t know what to
say…I missed you so much, Ichigo.  I thought you were dead.  And then, I find
out you’re not, and I was so mad.  How could you have forgotten us.  I was so
mad.  I’d grieved.  I’d moved on with my life, how dare you come back into it… 
Then I find out what…what you went through…and I can’t be mad anymore.  And I
feel guilty, horribly guilty, because I had such a good life after our mom
died.  I had Uncle Kaien to play soccer with.  I had Aunt Miyako to make cakes
for me.  I had all my vaccination shots.  I got to go to school and learn
things and have friends. You didn’t.  And I was mad at you.”
She got up and ran out of the room toward the bathroom, leaving Isshin sitting
staring at his hands and Ichigo staring after her.  He turned and looked
Sōsuke.  “Why would she feel guilty?” he said softly.  “She…she was just a
little girl.”
Sōsuke put his arm around Ichigo and squeezed him.  “I’ll go talk to her,
Ichigo.  Will you be okay?” he asked.
Ichigo gave a glance at Kenpachi but nodded.  He couldn’t be afraid of every
big man he ever came across.  He looked to see Yuzu wiping tears from her own
eyes.
“Don’t…don’t cry, okay?” he said, staring at her.  “I’m okay, you know.  I
don’t blame you guys, or even you, Isshin.  You…you did what you had to do. 
And I’m happy, you know. I’m so happy that you and Karin didn’t have to go
through what I did.  I’d do it all again, if I knew you were safe,” he said,
smiling softly at the young girl across from him. 
Things were silent for a while, and then Sōsuke came back.  “I think she should
go home and rest, Isshin.  She’s got to deal with her own emotions right now.”
Isshin nodded and then gathered their crew up and they headed out.  Ichigo gave
each of them a hug and bid them good night.  He stood there, looking at the
door for a long time until Sōsuke put his hand on his shoulder. 
“What is it?” Sōsuke said.
“I’m glad,” he said quietly.  “I’m very glad that Uncle Kaien took care of
them.”
Sōsuke smiled gently.  “I know, Ichigo.”
Ichigo turned and looked up into Sōsuke’s eyes and wondered if he should do
what Jūshirō had told him to do.  Well, he didn’t tell him to do anything. 
Ichigo had come up with the idea after talking to him, and Jūshirō had
encouraged him to think about what his feelings meant.
“Sōsuke, how long after…you know…was it before you met Byakuya?” he said
quietly, looking at his face carefully.
“Before Byakuya?” Sōsuke said thoughtfully.  “Well, Byakuya wasn’t the first
person afterward.  He was just the one that meant something.  I…I hate to say
it, but I was at the same bar within two weeks of getting out of the hospital,
this time just looking for anyone who could make me feel alive.  I…I can’t even
tell you how many there were Ichigo.  That time, before I got started in
college, it was a blur of faces for me.  Then, I met Byakuya there one night,
and afterward, he asked me to stay with him.  He knew what I was, he knew I
took home someone different every night almost.  He…he said he wanted to keep
me forever, but of course, that wasn’t what happened.  But for a while, it was
nice, only one face to wake up to each morning,” he said, looking thoughtful. 
“I just…I had to make myself feel something.”
“Did it help?” Ichigo asked, frowning.  “Sleeping with all those people?”
“Not until Byakuya.  I felt empty, no matter what.  I tried it both ways, top
and bottom, and I just felt hollow afterward.  But I’d go back out, trying
again.  I thought that if I could make it feel right, good, that I could get
his face out of my head,” he said smiling.  “But even when I was on top, and in
control completely, his face…it just would appear in front of me, and I’d walk
away lost and even more alone than I started.  But then, with Byakuya, when it
meant something, that’s when it helped.  After that, I didn’t have the one
night stands.  There were a few short relationships in there, and I always
seemed to hop into bed pretty quick, but I had to make sure…”
“Make sure?” Ichigo asked quietly.
“Make sure they weren’t going to hurt me, you see.  Even still.  It doesn’t
really go away, Ichigo, and that’s okay.  I still feel it,” Sōsuke said, taking
Ichigo’s hand gently. 
Ichigo thought about it for a long time, holding Sōsuke’s hand in his.  “So…it
isn’t bad if I want someone I like to fuck me.”
Sōsuke shook his head and smiled.  “Of course not, Ichigo.  I mean, I wouldn’t
recommend doing what I did, and having a string of lovers.  And, I wish you
wouldn’t use that word.  If its someone you care about, it means something, or
it should.  You use that word to refer to what they did to you in that awful
house.  It should be something different now, not just ‘fucking’, like it was.”
“What could it be besides that?” Ichigo said, frowning and looking at him
curiously.
Sōsuke shrugged.  “Making love.  Having sex.  Sleeping with someone.  I don’t
know, it is your story Ichigo, you have to decide what to call it.”
Ichigo nodded and then looked up at him again.  He dropped Sōsuke’s hand and
then reached up and put a hand on each side of his face and pulled him down,
seeing the surprise in his eyes as he pressed his lips against Sōsuke’s.  “What
if…what if its you?”
***** Shelter from the Chaos *****
 
Ryo and Yoshi had done a good job so far of hiding from everyone that could
have done something about them.  At the moment, they were hunkered down in the
lesbian bitch Harribel’s beach house.  It was getting too cool even for her
bunch to come out and do the bonfires.  Yoshi knew that she spent most of the
school year staying at an on campus apartment at the University.  Still,
though, they made precautions with it.  No one could really see the beach house
from the road, but they’d made sure to close all the blinds, shutters, and
curtains, and kept the lights to a minimum. 
Ryo had been keeping track of the scanners and making sure no one came close to
figuring out where they were.  They knew that if they ran, they’d be caught
pretty quickly with as strong a presence as the police had right now. 
Apparently, they took child abuse, neglect, and sex trafficking a lot more
seriously than either had believed possible.  Even without the drugs, the two
were still honestly bewildered by how everything had gone wrong.  They had the
perfect set up, or at least that’s what they had thought for so long.  Over ten
years, and everything they had carefully crafted had fallen down because of
that fucking kid.
It was so startingly simple, and that was what made their set up perfect.  The
problem with running a drug den was nosy cops, nosy neighbors, and people
running to said cops and neighbors.  And more than anything else, Ryo and Yoshi
wanted to be able to do whatever they wanted, without the consequences.  So,
blackmail was an obvious option.  If they could manage to blackmail people in
the town, no one could touch them.  Of course, the problem was, using drugs as
blackmail wasn’t bad enough. 
Yoshi had been friends with Inaba for several years.  She’d been getting her
supply for him for even longer.  One night, as they set in one of the makeshift
opium dens that Inaba ran now and then he mused about how he’d been betrayed by
his once best friend.  This led to discussion about how hard it was to carry on
a decent drug trafficking business with people like that.  Inaba had said he
had a couple cops on the take, and that’s how he found out what was happening. 
He commented he wished he had something on him, but the guy was clean.  So
Yoshi had asked a question that set the tone for the next ten years.
“What kind of blackmail is the best to keep people in line?” she’d said,
thinking long about this idea.
Inaba had paused in his intake of smoke from his pipe.  “Underage sex,” he’d
said simply.  “You get a video of anyone fucking an underage, they’ll do
anything you want forever.  Last thing anyone wants is that shit to leak out.”
Yoshi contemplated that.  “What if all they want are the drugs?” she asked
thoughtfully.  “What if they don’t want sex?”
Inaba had grinned.  “See, that’s where the drug dealer comes in.  Lace whatever
they’re taking with a little ruffies or something and then you can convince
them to fuck anyone, especially if you throw a bit of Viagra in their shit
too.”
“That’s genius,” Yoshi had said a smile spreading across her lips.  “But where
would you get some underage brats to do it?”
Inaba shrugged.  “No idea, but it would fucking work.  You get a cop on video
fucking a fourteen or fifteen-year-old slut, he’s not going to talk about
anything, and he’ll stop others from looking into the operation.”
That had been where she got the idea initially.  It had taken a couple months
but then she and Ryo had a major sale of a bunch of pure China White (cut of
course, and stolen), and she told him what she wanted to do.  He agreed, saying
they needed to stay out of a major city, but they needed some way to get a
steady stream of whores.  He wanted to know how they were going to find anyone
under eighteen willing to do it.
“Who says they need to be willing,” Yoshi had said and grinned at him.  “I got
an idea,” she said.  “Look,” she handed him a flyer.  It was for a local foster
home that was doing a fund drive.  “Take in a passel of orphans, train ‘em up
to do whatever we say, homeschool them so there’s no questions, and then use
them to blackmail the fuck out of whoever we want.  We’ve got a ton of extra
cash right now even after we buy that run down farmhouse outside of town.  Make
a big fucking donation, and they’ll not give a shit what happens to the brats.”
Ryo had looked at her long and hard for a long.  “That’s…horrible…” he’d said,
but then grinned.  “But it would work.”
They’d left there with four kids, Ichigo, Ho, Ban, and Noba that weekend.  It
took a while before they were ready, of course.  At first, they just used the
drugs to blackmail those that needed it.  It started to look shady after a
couple years, and that’s when the first cop had come by saying he wasn’t sure
he could do it anymore.  Yoshi told him to come chill out with her, and filled
his crack pipe with a special blend to try out.  A few hours later, the cop was
passed out in the bed, and Ho and Ban were both huddled into the corner
clinging to each other in shock and horror.  Yoshi laughed, stepping up on the
step ladder and taking down the camera and checking it.  She snickered and then
left the room.
They only did it to those they knew could do something for them.  Luckily for
them, it was only a few times, at least at first.  Then Yoshi and Ryo had both
become more unpredictable.  Then the others were brought in as some left.  And
no one asked questions.
Yoshi growled under her breath and paced the room.  It had been too long since
her last fix and she needed it.  For nearly ten years she’d had a hit at least
once a day, and she was about to come out of her skin.  Ryo for that matter was
as well.
“We can do it again,” he said, watching her pace.  “Move on, set the same
operation up.”
“Don’t be stupid, we can’t do it again.  That would be suspicious.  Unless we
got out of the country,” she said, frowning.  “But I don’t speak anything
except fucking Japanese!  At least you speak French.”
Ryo nodded.  “France would be good.  More sexual freedom, and I’m sure there’s
plenty of orphans…”
Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door.  Both of them jumped and
glanced at each other.  Surly it was someone looking for Harribel and her
lesbian bitches.
“Ryo and Yoshi Utagawa!  Come out and surrender!” came a loud male voice
outside.  “We know you are in this house!  Come peacefully, and there will be
no need of violence!”
Giriko stood outside the doorway to Harribel’s beach house with Yukio and
Riruka.  Yukio had his cell phone on already filming.  He enjoyed posting to
the internet sites when they had a major bust.  And this was a major bust.
Riruka’s handgun was cocked at her hip and Giriko held his up and at the
ready.  They knew very well that Yoshi liked her handguns. 
“I don’t think they’re going to come out peacefully, Giriko,” Riruka said with
a sigh.
“I hate having to pay to have doors repaired,” Giriko said with a sigh and
stepped back and kicked the door open.
Inside there was a scramble and the back door slammed.  “Out the back!” Yukio
yelled from the front as he saw both of them take off in different directions. 
“She’s gone left, he’s gone right!” he yelled, trying to keep an eye on them
both.  Giriko took off after Yoshi, and Riruka after Ryo. 
Yukio stepped back and saw them both double back to try and get around to the
pier.  He frowned as Yoshi pulled a gun on Giriko and shot.  Unfortunately,
considering the stream of curse words, he guessed she hadn’t loaded that gun. 
He saw her throw it at Giriko and snickered despite himself.  She was slipping
and sliding in the beach sand as she slipped under the pier pylons.  Ryo almost
ran him over as he ran past, heading to the pylons as well. Riruka nearly fell
face first in the sand. 
“Yukio!  You could help!” she yelled.
“I am helping.  Third pylon to the left,” he said pointing.  “I’m spotting.”
Riruka snorted and took off, her skirt flipping up as she tripped again, giving
everyone that would see the video a nice view of her ruffled panties.  Yukio
shrugged as he watched them weave and bob between the pylons.  A few minutes
later, he saw Yoshi come running out with Riruka behind her somehow, and Ryo
was jumping down toward the beach with Giriko on his heels. 
“It’s like watching Benny Hill reruns,” Yukio muttered in the background as the
pair led Riruka and Giriko back and forth. 
Finally, it seemed they’d swapped again, and Riruka managed to get above Yoshi
on a sandbank and leaped down and tackled her to the ground.  Yukio cheered
from his position and then focused as Riruka managed to deftly zip tie Yoshi’s
wrists and ankles without much effort.  Yoshi was screaming unintelligible
profanities, but it didn’t matter, Riruka had got her woman.  Yukio switched
the view on his phone to where Ryo was running, watching behind him as Giriko
nearly caught him as he tripped and fell in the sand.  Giriko got hold of him,
but got his pant legs instead, the other man slipping out of his loose slacks
and getting up to run again before Giriko could get up.  Ryo didn’t see his
partner, and ended up tripping right over Yoshi’s struggling form, going ass
up.  Yukio got an excellent shot of his tidy whities.
Yoshi was still screaming as Yukio came up and got closer to them.  Ryo just
laid on his stomach and let his hands get zip tied he looked at her.
“Just calm down, it’s over, Yoshi,” he said with an almost relieved sound to
his voice. 
Sirens could be heard in the distance and Yukio turned the camera around and
smiled at it, a seldom seen look on the blond.  “X-cution does it again! 
Captured, Yoshi and Ryo Utagawa, bounty set by unnamed party.  Charges are
child exploitation, child endangerment, child abuse and neglect, child sex
trafficking, blackmail, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and I’m sure there’s
a few more in there.”
Sōsuke blinked and looked at Ichigo who sat next to him staring at the computer
screen.  Ichigo was just staring at it for the longest time, even though the
video was done.  Then he leaned up and ran the video again.  Then after he’d
watched it five times he closed Sōsuke’s laptop.  He nearly jumped as Sōsuke’s
phone rang.
“Hello, Kissy?” Sōsuke said, frowning.  “Yeah, I saw it.  So they’re in
custody?”  Sōsuke paused and looked to be listening for a long time.  “Okay,
yeah, so just that Inaba guy is left out there now.  Okay, sure, Kissy.  Yeah.”
Sōsuke put his phone down.  “They’re in jail.  They’re not getting out, Ichigo,
he says that there’s no bail or anything set for them.  There’s nothing they
can do.  They’ve got the testimonies of a lot of different people, those that
came forward.  And it’s looking more and more like a lot of the people they
blackmailed had themselves been drugged after they started looking over the
videos.”
“I can’t believe it,” Ichigo said and looked at Sōsuke.  “I’ll…I’ll have to
testify at their court won’t I?”
Sōsuke nodded.  “Yeah, but we’ll get through it.”
Ichigo nodded, sitting back in the sofa and leaning into Sōsuke’s strong arms. 
It was almost dinner, and after dinner, he intended to show Sōsuke how serious
he was about his feelings for him.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Isshin stood in the station with Kisuke and the three bounty hunters.  “I can’t
thank you enough,” he said softly.
“You know we owe you, old man,” Yukio said, not looking up from his phone.
Isshin smiled and ruffled Yukio’s blonde hair.  “But there’s still Inaba.  And
I’d like to find that Bazz and Candace that attacked him in the eating place,”
he said thoughtfully.  “How’d you manage to find those two anyway?”
“All Yukio,” Riruka said.  “They were careful but not careful enough.  They
left an electronic trail, and I have no idea what exactly Yukio did, but he
worked his magic.”
Isshin sighed.  “Did you find anything out?” he said looking at Kisuke.
“Well, we know that they started this after stealing a huge shipment of drugs
from the Yakuza.  I’m thinking they aren’t going to get a warm welcome in
prison when they get there.  They managed to snag a shipment that was being
moved during a bust.  The police took in the traffickers, but those two managed
to make off with enough China White to fund their little project,” he said,
frowning.  “I just…as everything starts coming out, I’m amazed at how they did
this.  We’re going to have to approach the people they blackmailed differently,
now though.”
Isshin looked at him and shook his head.  “I don’t understand, why’s that?”
“Well, we found out that a lot of them, mostly the ones they had one video on
that had never gone back again, had also been drugged into having sex with the
underage kids.  Seems like they concocted the best way to keep people from
talking was to use the most horrible thing they could hold against them, even
if they didn’t want to do it.  Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty that kept
going back after that, but there were a lot that we’re pretty sure had gone
there for drugs and nothing more.”
Isshin nodded.  “How can two people victimize so many people?” he said quietly.
Kisuke sighed.  “I’ve been working this case for a long time, Isshin.  I
started when I got out of college, started working these cold cases.  The kid
that Yoshi shot, Cain, he was my first case.  I couldn’t figure it out.  But I
started finding where people were coving things up.  I started seeing evidence
disappear on certain cases, and it all came back to them.”
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Inaba saw the video almost as soon as it was posted.  He snarled and sighed as
he paced the dirty hotel room he was staying in about twenty miles outside
Karakura.  He couldn’t come up with a good reason he shouldn’t just keep going
at first.  But then, something just seemed to snap.  He had to make them
suffer.  He had to.  Isshin had done a lot of damage in the last ten years, and
he couldn’t just leave it now.
It hadn’t been easy, but he soon found Isshin’s trail, following him, foiling a
lot of his more lucrative plots along the way.  Informants turned over, random
seeming busts on his drug rings.  No, it was Isshin Kurosaki that had been
doing these things.  If he had never interfered, if he had just kept his mouth
shut, none of this would have happened, and Isshin would be a happy family with
his wife and kids.  But no, he had to be moral and disapprove of what he was
doing.  And now, he was cut off from most of his contacts.
He growled, glaring at the phone where another text came in telling him they
couldn’t help him.  Isshin, he knew it.  Somehow, he had wormed his way into
high places in and now his people, his people,were turning on him.  He threw
the phone across the room where it shattered against the wall.  The bastard was
going to pay.  Everything Inaba had built was falling down around him and he
couldn’t stop it.  It wasn’t his doing that the Utagawas had made such a mess
of their operation.  He just their drug supplier, nothing more.  Old friends
made the worst enemies.  He growled again.  He would bring Isshin down.  He
didn’t know how.  He just would.
He paused in front of the other phone and saw it was a text from one of his few
viable Karakura contacts.
Kurosaki is under protection detail now.  One agent at the house he is staying
at.  Address to follow.
Inaba smiled.  He texted back.  I want them all there at one time.  Tell me
when his fuck-slut of a son is there with him and when security loosens.
There was a longer pause than he would have liked.  Confirmed.  May be after
the holiday.  Security is tighter due to the season.
Inaba smiled.  That was okay.  He could wait.  He would wait forever if he had
to.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Dinner was always nice with Sōsuke and Ichigo was more than grateful that
Sōsuke was so very kind.  Ichigo got up and took the plates to the kitchen then
came back out to see Sōsuke smiling at him. 
“What?” he asked, smiling himself.
“I’m glad to see you happy, Ichigo,” Sōsuke said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Ichigo nodded, coming over looking at him for a long moment.  “I’d like to be
happier.”
Sōsuke frowned.  “What do you mean?” he asked.
Ichigo didn’t answer, just leaned over and kissed Sōsuke’s lips gently then
slid to straddle his lap.  Sōsuke looked up at him with a bit of surprise.  “I
want you, Sōsuke.  I want you to be my first, my real first.”
Sōsuke looked at him and nearly couldn’t speak.  “Wh-what?  Ichigo, I don’t
know if that’s a good idea, I mean, you still…”
Ichigo put a finger to his lips.  “Shut up.  Look.  I’m making a choice.  The
first one I’ve ever made, so don’t you sit there and tell me what I should and
shouldn’t do.  I know what I want.  I want you.  I want to know that there’s
more to me than the horrible things they did.  I want to know that I’m still
worthy of someone else.  I want to know that you can handle everything I am and
even the things they made me into.”
Sōsuke looked up into eyes that were determined and blown wide with lust
already.  He could feel Ichigo’s arousal grinding into him and he was already
feeling his own desire rise to meet it.  “Ah, I don’t…I mean…I…” Sōsuke’s voice
trailed off with a sigh as Ichigo managed to slide his hand down the front of
his slacks and take him in his hand.
“Hmm, Sōsuke, you’ve got it where it counts,” he muttered, fingers slipping up
and down Sōsuke’s cock and flicking gently under the tip to make Sōsuke squirm
under him.
Sōsuke’s mouth had gone dry.  He reached up and pulled Ichigo’s face to his in
a fierce kiss that was filled with nothing but pure desire.  Ichigo responded,
his tongue pressing back and forth with him as he frotted against him, still
stroking Sōsuke under his pants.
“Bed,” Sōsuke whispered and grabbed Ichigo under his ass and stood up with
him.  Ichigo gasped and grabbed Sōsuke around his neck.  He swallowed because
he just picked him up with no problem at all from a sitting position. 
He oofed at being dropped onto the soft bed and looking up as Sōsuke stripped
off his shirts, revealing his beautiful tattoos and muscles underneath. 
Ichigo, not to be outdone, shimmied out of his t-shirt as quickly as he could
and kicked off the shorts he was wearing with nothing under them.  Sōsuke
glanced at his lack of underwear and shook his head. 
“You little bratty thing, you were planning this,” he muttered as he crawled
over him and started kissing at his neck and throat.
“Hum, oh yes,” Ichigo muttered, bucking his hips up toward him trying to get
some friction on his own aching arousal.  “I figured I’d have to seduce you.”
Sōsuke smiled, sliding one hand down Ichigo’s body and grabbing his cock in one
hand.  “Seduce me, huh,” Sōsuke said, sucking at Ichigo’s pulse points as he
worked his way down to his stomach. 
“Yeah, oh Sōsuke, inside, now,” he muttered, propping himself up on his elbows
and looking at Sōsuke with a look of yearning like none Sōsuke had ever said.
“Demanding,” Sōsuke said, kneeling up and pushing down his own slacks and
underwear, freeing himself. 
Ichigo had never seen someone take off their clothes and felt like this.  For
the first time, seeing someone naked over him excited him.  There was no
dread.  There was no fear.  There wasn’t anything he’d ever associated with sex
before.  He wanted Sōsuke.  He wanted him to fuck…love…him.  He wanted to see
Sōsuke’s face when he came.  He wanted to arch under his touch.
Sōsuke reached over toward the night table and pulled out a bottle and a
condom.  Ichigo grabbed the condom and tossed it over his head.  Sōsuke frowned
at him in confusion.
“No, I wanna feel you.  I got a clean bill, and they used condoms all the time
anyway.  ‘Cept Mabashi, but he only barebacked me,” he said, panting.
Sōsuke thought for a minute.  He knew he was clear, and he knew that all those
from the house had surprisingly been clean of any sexually transmitted
diseases.  He was about to argue, but Ichigo sat up and sucked Sōsuke’s cock
into his mouth suddenly and Sōsuke lost all rational thought.  He stared down
at his head as he cut his eyes up to Sōsuke and that was it.  He pulled his
mouth off him and threw him over onto his back, slicking his fingers with the
lube as he looked down on him. 
“You’re sure?” he asked, looking down and back to Ichigo’s face.
Ichigo nodded.  “I’m sure.  I gotta feel something again, okay?  Show me what
it’s like to be loved and not just fucked.”
Sōsuke nodded, leaning over him now and sliding a finger into him.  Ichigo
bucked a little, letting out a little gasp.  It felt kind of nice, he thought,
that feeling, and even when Sōsuke slid a second finger inside, he didn’t feel
that burning sensation that he usually felt.  He winced a bit when Sōsuke’s
third finger slid inside him but he just arched toward him and moaned.  Sōsuke
slid his fingers up until he slid the pad of his middle finger against that
spongy center of nerves.  Ichigo arched again, his body tightening around his
fingers.  He smiled.  He slid his fingers out and coated himself quickly.  He’d
love to spend even more time on Ichigo, torturing him with pleasure, but he
couldn’t tonight.  It had been a long time, and he had never had a partner
nearly as feisty and needy. 
Sōsuke pulled Ichigo’s legs up and pushed htem gently toward his shoulders.  He
found him to be very flexible, gasping as he slid the tip into his slicked
entrance.  Ichigo threw his head back and whined low in his throat as Sōsuke
slid all the way into his body.
“Oh, fucking hell, baby,” he muttered, holding his hips still.  “You’re so…so
tight and…hot…ugh…are you okay?” he whispered looking up at Ichigo.
Ichigo was biting his lip, watching as Sōsuke slid inside him with ease.  It
hurt, but just a little, not too much this time.  He nodded, entranced by
Sōsuke’s body and his heart fluttering in his chest at how concerned he was
about him.  Didn’t he remember he was a whore?  Ichigo closed his eyes for a
second.  No, he wasn’t.  He wasn’t.  Sōsuke wouldn’t be with him if he was. 
His eyes opened and as Sōsuke began to slowly move, he stared at the tattoo on
his stomach.  The word survivor was bright and reminded him that he was just
that.  And he wasn’t going to let them hurt him anymore.  He was going to have
love.  He was going to be loved.  And he was going to have a lover like Sōsuke
and he wasn’t going to be ashamed of what had happened to him. 
“Sōsuke, come on, fuck, harder, I know you can,” Ichigo moaned, beginning to
get annoyed by Sōsuke’s gentleness.  “I’m not going to fucking break!” he
sniped, frowning at Sōsuke.
Sōsuke nodded.  “Sorry, baby, sorry, I’m trying to be careful…” he said, and
Ichigo knew he was holding back.
Ichigo growled, grabbing him around the waist with his legs and locking them
behind him and pulling him in hard, letting out a loud moan as he slammed
against his prostate.  “Fuck, Sōsuke, goddammit, just fucking do it!  Stop
being careful!  Just fucking make me scream your name and fill me with your
cum, okay!  That’s what I want, so stop treating me like a goddamned flower!”
Sōsuke’s eyes went wide, and he nodded once, not saying anything else as he
pulled back and slammed into him hard.  Ichigo screamed out in pleasure as he
slammed right into the right spot.  He reached up and grabbed onto Sōsuke’s
shoulders as he proceeded to pound into him harder than he thought he would. 
Ichigo was a moaning mess as he gripped Sōsuke’s back, nails slicing into the
skin.  Sōsuke didn’t notice that there was blood running down his back as
Ichigo practically shredded the skin there.  He didn’t care, he felt Ichigo
starting to tighten around him and then clamp down on him as he came with a
scream of pained pleasure.  Sōsuke slammed into him a couple more times before
he could hold back no longer, going over, squeezing Ichigo’s body against him
as he came into him.
Sōsuke immediately began kissing him again, thrusting shallowly inside him as
he ravaged his mouth languidly.  Ichigo was panting and out of breath.
“Oh, gods, Sōsuke, fucking hell,” he gasped, still holding him as he came down
off his orgasm. 
Sōsuke pulled out, sliding down beside Ichigo and kissing his arms as he laid
beside him.  Ichigo felt something sticky on his hands and looked over Sōsuke’s
shoulder.
“Shit!  Sōsuke, are you okay?  I scratched you!” he said, gasping, seeing that
his nails and fingers had a good amount of blood on them.  “I like, fucking
scratched the shit out of you…I’m sorry, gods, oh…”
Sōsuke smiled.  “I know,” he said softly.  “You can bandage it for me, if you
want, but it’s okay.”
Ichigo reached out and put a hand against Sōsuke’s face.  “Thank you,” he said
quietly.
“For what?” Sōsuke said, grabbing the cover and pulling Ichigo’s naked form
against him.
“For everything.  For being there.  For being someone I can love and someone
that understands.  For being you,” he whispered, kissing Sōsuke’s lips gently
again.
Sōsuke nodded, pulling Ichigo into his body and letting him fall asleep against
him.  Sōsuke wondered if he’d done the right thing or not.  Part of him, the
counselor, was screaming at him that he was a complete idiot for sleeping with
someone who was still recovering.  The biggest part, though, the survivor, knew
that sometimes, a loving touch went a lot further than all the talk therapy in
the world.
***** Holiday Chaos *****
Chapter Notes
     Okay so here's the deal, I'm pushing through the story to completion
     except the epilogue. When I've finished editing, I'll post the
     epilogue and list it as complete. So things might change some more
     along the way.
 
Things were quiet for a seemingly long time.  It was, in fact, only a couple
weeks until the winter holiday began.  Ichigo and Sōsuke spent much of their
time together and in the apartment.  After the incident with Bazz, Ichigo had
developed more than a small amount of agoraphobia when it came to leaving. 
Because of this, he quickly became familiar with using his phone to keep up
with everyone he cared about.  Ichigo, of course, was quick and intelligent,
and it didn’t take long, despite his rudimentary technology knowledge, to
figure out how to do everything he wanted to do on his phone.  He took great
care of it, and had gotten a new case and screen protectors for it, as well as
for the smart watch.  Sōsuke had offered to get him a computer but he had said
the phone and watch were enough for him.
There was a planned holiday party at the end of the break.  They had decided to
wait until Harribel and her bunch returned before they got together.  Until
then, though, Ichigo kept up with his family through the internet on his
phone.  He found that Harribel and her group used Instagram a lot, as well as
Toshiro, and shortly Momo as well.  He created his own accounts on all the
social media things, but used a fake name on all of them.  He knew that for one
thing, Inaba was still out there.  But more than that, he felt disconnected
from everything about his identity.  He’d picked out the name Zangetsu
Shirosaki.  It was different but somehow he felt a kinship to the name. 
He smiled when he saw pictures of Momo in a new kimono that Toshiro’s
grandmother purchased.  The kimono was nice, but what made Ichigo happy was the
smile, the genuine smile, on her face.  He loved to see that, and it was one of
the ones he saved to his phone of her.  There were others, of her and Toshiro,
playing games, talking, of her and Toshiro’s grandmother.  And he was so happy
because she was happy.
Nozomi, as well, was doing better.  He kept up with her as well, as she had
started blogging about things, including her experiences in the household.  Her
blog began to get very popular.  She had picked out various names for everyone,
because she of course didn’t want to reveal anyone’s real identities.  She’d
taken to calling Ichigo Strawberry, which if it had been anyone but her, he
might have minded.  Noba she referred to as Mime, Ririn as Chickadee, Momo as
Peaches, Rin as LittleOne, Hanataro as SweetPea, and Ho and Ban as Yin and
Yang.  She called Cain LostBoy.  She called the blog “Recovery of Hope” and she
called herself Hope.  She referred to Yoshi as Hornet and Ryo as Viper.  Ichigo
thought all the names were fitting.  He was amused at the others too, Uryū was
named Couture, and Chad was called TeddyBear.  It wasn’t like Nozomi said who
they were, but having met them, he recognized them immediately.  The one she
called Ivy he thought was Luppi, and the quiet kid Wonderweiss had to be
Silence.  Mama of course was what she called Yoshino.  Finally, Ho and Ban’s
caretaker must have been Handyman since he seemed to do repair work.
Ichigo, even though she often wrote about the painful and horrible things that
had happened to them in vivid detail, felt better after reading them.  She was
telling her story, all their stories, and it was helping her heal.  He
especially loved her entries on what happened with her new caretaker Yoshino. 
There were apparently cats around the fourplex.  She said that there was a
beautiful blue/cream tortoiseshell cat that frequented the area where Chad fed
the cats every day.  Even as gentle as Chad was, he could never get her to come
out.  Dusty was the name they had given her.  She was missing a front let, it
seemed, and Yoshino had said she was pretty sure that Yoshi had shot her at
some point.  She’d recovered, though, on her own, and still hung around where
she was fed.  Nozomi wrote that she was sitting on the porch one day and the
cat was watching her from the stairs.  She had sat there and waiting.  Finally,
the cat had come up to her, tentatively at first.  Nozomi put her hand down and
the cat came to her, sniffing for a minute before letting her pet her head. 
Before long, the cat had crawled up into her lap, meowing in a very pretty
voice.  Nozomi said that she had a feeling that Dusty needed her as much as she
needed Dusty.  She said Yoshino let her take her inside and keep her there. 
She wrote that she would only come out for her, though, hiding under furniture
if anyone else was around. 
He knew that Ririn and Noba were also in a safe house, having not decided who
they wanted to stay with.  Both of them, of course, had taken to getting online
as a way to interact with the world without actually having to leave their
safety.  Ichigo found out that Kisuke Urahara had been staying at the safe
house with the most often, him and his wife.  Ririn seemed to like her quite a
bit, and liked the fact that she took her black cat everywhere, including
carrying it around in a backpack that had a bubble on it for the cat to see out
of. 
Noba, like Nozomi, had taken to blogging, but his work was all poetry and
stream of consciousness prose that really had no narrative to it.  It was heart
wrenching, though, and Ichigo knew what all those words meant when he read
them. 
Ririn, on the other hand, had taken to getting involved in survivor groups
online.  She had invited Ichigo and the others to few, and Ichigo had accepted
but hadn’t gotten up the nerve to post.  He felt out of place with some of
them, noticing that sometimes there were lots of female rape survivors, and
very few male ones.  In fact, he had to leave one when Ririn had posted about
their experience and someone had said some horrible things about how male rape
victims didn’t belong in their group because their experience was not the
same.  Ichigo had been distraught by it, but Ririn had been positively livid,
calling them out on their bullshit and leaving as well.  Ichigo was finding
that there were good places to visit in the world, and some bad ones.
However, his favorite place, out of everywhere, was in Sōsuke’s arms.  His love
and his touches offered him peace and something that no one could give him
before: stability.  He knew that Sōsuke would love him and make him feel
whole.  It was more than he had ever hoped.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Harribel stood on beach and watched as Rin and Hanataro built sand castles with
some other younger members of her family.  They had been here almost a week
already.  She smiled to see them interacting so well with the other children. 
Harribel liked to travel through most of the area in and around Gold Coast and
northern Queensland, visiting a lot of the nature reserves and the
hinterlands.  She also had various family in the area to visit and introduce
the boys to.  So far, the two boys had enjoyed themselves.  They had opted to
stay away from theme parks and large crowded areas, of course, because neither
Rin nor Hanataro were up to that yet.  She could see Rin was recovering
slightly faster than Hanataro, but Rin had suffered less abuse than the other
boy. 
Franceska came up with a smile, looking down the beach fondly.  Today they’d
met a few members of their family on Currumbin Beach in Gold Coast.  It was a
fine day, and the sun was beautiful.  She had slathered both boys and
Wonderweiss with a ton of sunscreen.  She, of course, thanks to her Samoan
mother, had the natural deep tan color and rarely needed it.  Apacci, Sung Sun,
Wondweiss and the boys needed a lot of care, however, when it came to the
strong sun in the area.  It was a bit of a stressful situation at first for
Hanataro, but he had eventually become willing to let them put his sunscreen on
instead of wearing long sleeves and pants to protect himself from the sun.
“They’re doing well,” she commented.
Harribel nodded.  “Yeah, I told everyone to tone it down for them.  I think
they did really well,” she said smiling.  Her family was generally very
enthusiastic and happy, and mostly loud, when she and the girls and Wonderweiss
came to visit over the “winter” holiday.  It was winter, of course, in Japan,
but it was summer here.  They were just outside Gold Coast at a relatively
quiet beachfront. 
“I heard them talking to the pelicans before my father released them yesterday
at the reserve,” she said smiling.
Harribel’s father was a marine biologist, and worked at a local reserve to
rehabilitate injured animals.  He specialized mostly in marine mammals and
birds, and often helped out when they were shorthanded.  There had been a
recent storm, and the reserve had a large influx of injured animals. 
“Talking to them?” Franceska said, looking at her.
Harribel nodded.  “They were laying down by the cages when I went to help
Father release them, and he stopped me and told me to listen and wait.  Rin was
telling one of the birds about how he had felt so sorry for Ichigo while he was
there, and how much it hurt that he couldn’t do anything.  Hanataro was telling
another one about how horrible he felt when he had to help one of the others
put Ichigo’s hip back into place not too long ago.  We went up and they looked
at us and asked if they could let them go, because they were carrying their
pain away.”
Franceska frowned, eyes tearing up already.  “That’s so sad,” she said, looking
on where the two boys played and acted so normal.  “Are they ever going to be
okay?  I mean really okay?”
Harribel sighed.  “They’ll get through it, and we’ll help them.”
Harribel had known this would be go for them.  They were away, and they were
having fun. 
And along the way, Appacci kept a steady stream of photos uploaded to her
Instagram account, because she knew that Ichigo worried about the two young
boys.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Luppi flopped onto the couch beside Nozomi in Yoshino’s apartment with a sigh. 
Yoshino came over and handed him a tea.  Nozomi had Dusty on her lap, happy
that she no longer ran from everyone all the time. 
“I’m so very glad to be home,” he said with a sigh.
“I thought you were looking forward to visiting family?” Yoshino said, sitting
across from him.
Luppi nodded.  “Oh I did like it, but too many noisy kids.  Ugh.”
Nozomi smiled, petting the cat idly.  “Well, it must have been nice to see
everyone, right?” she asked.
“Definitely.  But there’s a reason I live here the rest of the time.  I like my
peace and quiet,” he said, turning and smiling at Nozomi.  “I saw on your blog
that you’d managed the impossible and got that cat to be friendly.”
Nozomi smiled down at the purring ball of fur in her lap.  “Yeah, still
surprised me.”
“Kindred spirits find each other,” Luppi said yawning.  “I’m tired, though, so
I’ll see you tomorrow night at the party?” he asked standing.
Yoshino nodded.  “Yeah, Harribel brought Wonderweiss home a couple nights ago
so he could get some rest after their vacation.  The boys are looking forward
to seeing everyone after their vacation.  Poor Hanataro got sunburned though,
even though they slathered the poor thing with sunscreen the whole time.”
Luppi smirked.  “Ouch.  Well at least they had fun.  I’m going to be trying out
a new paint set and easel my family got me soon.  It’s a nice one.  Good to see
they finally realize that I’m not going to ‘get out of the art phase’ and are
going with it.”
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Are you ready, Ichigo?” Sōsuke called from the front room.
Ichigo was nervous.  It was the first time he’d left the house in a while.  In
fact, he’d avoided leaving at all costs.   He came out, having dressed warmly,
wearing a pair of jeans and a long sleeved sweatshirt.  Sōsuke was waiting by
the door, a bag slung over his back with gifts for everyone that was attending
the party tonight.  It was going to be a lot of people, Ichigo knew, but it was
all people that he knew.  He was looking forward to seeing all the others as
well.
“I’m ready,” he said, seeing that Sōsuke was wearing a Holiday sweater over his
usual button down dress shirt but he was at least wearing jeans.  Ichigo’s eyes
were drawn directly to his ass because they were nice and snug. 
“Oi, now, now, you come on now,” Sōsuke said, seeing that Ichigo’s gaze had
settled on his rump.  “I’ll give you a nice holiday gift when we get back if
you want,” he said with a wink.
Over the last few weeks, they had become closer than Ichigo could have
imagined.  Every evening had ended up with them falling into exhausted sleep
together.  Ichigo had found that he helped a lot with the nightmares that he
often woke with.  He also found that being held and having someone care about
his feelings and pleasure was purely amazing.  He realized that he had a high
sex drive, and perhaps it was because of his experiences so early in life, but
Sōsuke was capable of dealing with it.  He was even okay with the occasional
outbursts of completely irrational anger Ichigo had.  He’d felt bad after a
particularly rough night once where he’d given Sōsuke a black eye.  He hadn’t
meant to do it, but Sōsuke was trying to help him in a panic attack over
something ridiculous, and he’s punched him square. 
Ichigo was quiet on the ride to Harribel’s house.  It was a large enough venue
and though too cold for a bonfire, it had plenty room for everyone to get
together.  His father and sisters would be there, his uncle having gone back to
Tokyo.  He was nervous, as he had not really done much more than talk to his
sisters and his father on the phone recently.  He just couldn’t, he needed time
and space still.
When they got there, Harribel and her consorts were busy putting out food on a
couple buffet tables while Rin and Hanataro sat on the futon excitedly telling
Nozomi all about their time in Australia.  He saw that Yoshino, Chad and Uryū
had all gotten there already, as well as Luppi and Wonderweiss, both who were
sitting in the kitchen on their phones.  Chad and Uryū came up as Sōsuke and
Ichigo entered and Ichigo saw that their hands were entwined. 
“Ah, hello everyone!” Sōsuke said, putting down the bag he’d brought with
presents by the buffet table.  “Brought a few things for later,” he said
smiling.
Uryū smiled at Ichigo.  “Hey, you have been scarce, have you even left the
apartment?” he asked, frowning.
Ichigo shook his head, seeing Sōsuke had went into the kitchen, probably to see
if they needed help.  “Ah, yeah, well after…after the pho place…I haven’t felt
like going out.  I don’t think they found Bazz.”
Uryū winced internally and squeezed Chad’s hand.  “Oh, yeah, I’m so sorry that
happened, Ichigo, I didn’t think…”
Ichigo smiled.  “There’s nothing to be sorry for, it was his fault, not yours. 
Just like the others.  It wasn’t anyone’s fault except the ones that did it.”
Uryū frowned, looking at him.  “Well, I’m glad you seem to be doing okay with
this…” he said softly.
“It has been a lot of work,” Ichigo said.  “If it weren’t for Dr. Ukitake and
Sōsuke…I don’t think I could have gotten through a lot of this.  It’s been
hard, and I’m not better yet, not all the way, but I’ll get there.  I…I just
have to keep going,” he said, smiling softly. 
“I’m glad,” Chad said, nodding.
“I see you guys finally decided to do something about the sexual tension you
were exuding,” Ichigo said smirking.
Uryū blushed immediately.  Ichigo just smirked and then laughed as they looked
up, seeing that Kisuke and his wife had come in with Noba and Ririn.  Ichigo
went over to see them, hugging them both in turn and talked for a while with
each of them.
“Did you guys get a home yet?” he asked, frowning.
Ririn shook her head.  “I don’t know, we’re staying with bucket hat over there
at the safe house.  Yoruichi is nice, though.  We get along.  She said
something about maybe going with them because their only kid is their cat.”
Ichigo nodded and looked at Noba.  “What do you think?”
Noba nodded.  “He’s nice.”
Ichigo looked up to see his father and his sisters had come in and were talking
to some of the others.  He stiffened without realizing.  Noba put a hand on his
shoulder. 
“Brother, are you okay?” he asked softly.
“I just…I don’t know how to act around them,” he said softly.  “They’re my
sisters, but they haven’t been through what we went through.”
Ririn sighed.  “Just do what you feel, Ichigo,” she said.  “Let’s go chat with
Hana and Rin, I bet they’ve got a bunch to talk about.”
For a while, the six sat down together away from everyone else and talked. 
Mostly, it was Rin and Hanataro telling them about their trip.  Ichigo didn’t
talk much, but he enjoyed hearing about their stories and the things that had
happened while they were gone.  Eventually, they had food, everyone just
walking around and mingling while they ate a buffet of various foods from
different places.  There was sushi and sashimi, tofu turkey which was really
strange looking, different Australian foods that Harribel had made, and all
sorts of sweets and random snack foods.  After everyone had eaten, there was a
gifting for those that brought something.
Sōsuke took his bag and passed out a gift to each of Ichigo’s siblings,
including Karin and Yuzu.  He smiled as they all opened them.  Noba had gotten
a set of fantasy books that Ichigo said he would enjoy.  Ririn had received a
stuffed animal that looked like a cute chicken in a dress.  Momo had gotten a
lovely kimono with peach blossoms all over it.  Nozomi had received a fancy
journal and pen set.  Hanataro had gotten a photo album so he could print his
pictures from their trip and put them in it.  The cover had sweet pea flowers
on it.  Rin received a large stuffed bear because Ichigo knew that he liked to
sleep against something.  Yuzu and Karin had each gotten a photo album that was
empty, Karin’s with a cover decorated with soccer balls, and Yuzu’s decorated
with tea sets.  The first page had a paper that read “For Memories of a Family
Remembered”.
Everyone took turns hugging Ichigo and thanking him and Sōsuke for what they
had given them.  Everyone there, except perhaps Isshin and the girls, knew
about Sōsuke’s relationship with Ichigo.  So when Sōsuke turned and showed a
small package to Ichigo with a light blush on his cheeks everyone in the room
started to giggle and whisper.
Sōsuke set the box down on the table and pulled Ichigo up to stand and then
shimmied out of the sweater he was wearing in front of everyone.  Ichigo’s eyes
went wide as he watched him start to unbutton the white shirt.  He knew what he
was doing, had he done something one of the times he’d left to go get food?  He
knew, he knew already, but he didn’t want to think that he’d done something
like that already.  Everyone stared because this was not what they had
expected.  Except Harribel, of course, who had known that Sōsuke had this
planned and she just stared and smiled.  Her consorts glanced and saw that she
was staring with a subtle smile and guessed she knew what was happening.
Sōsuke stopped with his shirt hanging open and smiled at Ichigo.  “I told you
already, that my body is my story.  And you’ve added to my story, so I wanted
to show you, and everyone, that another page is written,” he said, pulling off
his long sleeved shirt and pulling the tank top over his head to stand there
naked from the waist up.  Ichigo gasped in awe.
Sōsuke had taken his right arm which had the river wrapping around it but
nothing else, and covered it with strawberry vines.  They wound around his arm
and up over his shoulder, and across his chest, where a large strawberry sat on
a silver shield on the left side.  The shield was teal in color, like the
ribbon on his stomach, and above the shield, the words “Together” and below it
“We Survive”. 
Ichigo reached up and touched it, feeling the heat because it was freshly
done.  His skin was still red and puffy around the inking.  He looked up into
Sōsuke’s eye.  “When…when did you do this…you didn’t have this last night…” he
whispered.
Sōsuke smiled.  “Well, you didn’t think it took all day today to pick up a few
presents on the list you gave me, did you?  This is why I was gone when you
woke up.  I left at about six, it took about seven hours for them to finish
it.  They were quite happy with the tip I gave them for finishing in time,” he
said smiling and watching as Ichigo traced fingers over the vines.
“I can’t…I can’t believe you did this…” he whispered.  “But what if…what if…?”
Sōsuke leaned over and kissed Ichigo’s forehead.  “What if we don’t stay
together forever?” he said quietly.  He motioned to the other arm.  “They are
my past, and you are my future.  And just like them, you are a part of my
story.  You are as much to me as Byakuya, or Kisuke over there, or Gin.  And it
doesn’t matter if we’re together for another month, another year, or the rest
of our lives.  You’re in my story now, forever.”
Ichigo felt tears welling and almost started to cry until he shoved the box
into his hands, grabbing his undershirt and slipping it on.  No one there had
missed the tattoo on Sōsuke’s stomach, even those that hadn’t know about his
history.  Ichigo pulled the paper off of it slowly and opened it to find two
things.  The first was a small envelope.  He opened it and saw it was a coupon
for a tattoo place, the one where Sōsuke had gone.  The note read that it was
him to use if he wanted to write his story upon his skin.  The other was a pair
of silver men’s rings.  Ichigo’s eyes went wide and he looked up at Sōsuke. 
“A promise,” Sōsuke said with a smile.  “Just a promise.  A promise to stand
with you as you heal.  A promise to stay with you even when you want to scream
and when you give me a black eye.  A promise, just to be here for you and only
you.”
There was a collective gasp around the room and Ichigo nodded, pulling out the
rings, taking the smaller one for himself and giving the larger to Sōsuke. 
Sōsuke smiled and kissed his cheek gently and began to put his shirt back on. 
There was a loud bang, and Ichigo and Sōsuke looked to see that Isshin had
stormed out of the room.  Ichigo frowned deeply, seeing his sisters looking
after where he’d taken off.  Ichigo put down the box and went after him. 
Sōsuke hesitated but followed, as did five other figures.
“What’s your problem?” Ichigo asked when he got outside to see Isshin standing
and smoking on one of the pylons near the house.
“My problem?” Isshin said, turning to look at Ichigo.  “You were supposed to be
staying with that bastard because he was safe.  Because he wasn’t going to take
advantage of you.  And now I find out that he is.  He’s too old for you.  He
was your professor, for kami’s sake.  Can’t you see this?  He’s doesn’t care
about you!  He’s just using you!” Isshin was incensed, obviously.
Ichigo was taken aback, to be honest.  “What?  Why would you say that?  You
have no idea what Sōsuke has done for me.”
“What Sōsuke has done for you?  It looks like he’s deciding to take advantage
of a young boy, my son, who can’t make a clear decision about his life right
now because he doesn’t understand how people like this guy work!” Isshin
yelled.
“What?  What?” he said again, not believing that this man who had been out of
his life for ten years was trying to tell him the man he probably loved wasn’t
a good man.
“I’m still your father,” Isshin said, looking at him.  “This is not going to
continue.  You’re coming with me and your sisters and we’re going to your Uncle
Kaien’s in Tokyo, and you are leaving this…this…whatever he is.”
Ichigo just stared in utter shock until he felt hands on his shoulders and saw
it was Noba.  He looked at the younger boy, his eyes already brimming with
tears.  He didn’t want to leave them, and he didn’t want to leave Sōsuke.
“No,” Noba said, his voice, for the first time in a long time, strong and
loud.  Ichigo blinked and stared at him.  “No, you don’t get to tell him
anything.  You left.  You let him go a long time ago.  You left and never
looked back, so sure that your plan would work.  It didn’t work and you never
came back.  No, you don’t get to come back after ten years and tell your adult
son what he can and can’t do with his life.  You don’t get to be angry that he
fell in love with someone that actually gave a damn and stepped in when he saw
something wasn’t right with him.  You left.  You lost the right to tell Ichigo
anything.”
Ichigo couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  Noba had never said something
like this before.  He looked to see Isshin staring with disbelief at the
younger boy standing with Ichigo and then saw the others that had come out of
the hell hole he’d been in and he realized something.  He could never make up
for lost time.  He could never be the father that Ichigo should have had.  He
swallowed and put the cigarette out with a shaking hand and nodded.
“I know,” he said quietly.  “I know,” he said.
With that, he turned and left, the girls running to catch up with him.  Ichigo
broke then, falling to his knees.  Noba, though, knelt beside him and held him,
and the others surrounded him and let Ichigo do the one thing he’d never done
in front of them.  They let him cry.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Gin and Kira stood outside the rehabilitation center with his sister Rangiku. 
She was wringing her hands.  Gin put a hand on her shoulder.  “Mah, calm down,
what are you so worried over talking to her?”
“It’s just, I haven’t talked to her since…since…well…since the thing that drove
her into the drugs,” she said with a sigh.
Gin sighed deeply.  “Rangi, you can’t dance around it.”
She looked at him.  “I know, but it hurts that she wouldn’t let me help her
afterward and pushed us all away, and then she got into the drugs, and that
awful place…”
“Well, now we deal with today,” Gin said, ushering his reluctant sister into
the building. 
In a few minutes they were sitting at a visiting area table as Haineko came
out. She smiled as she sat down, wearing the scrub looking clothes that they
were issued here.  She looked rough, of course, having been off the drugs for a
while. 
“I didn’t expect you both,” she said softly, and glanced at Kira.  “Is this
your new boyfriend, Gin?”
Gin nodded.  “This is Izuru.  He wanted to come meet you.  We’re…we’re planning
to get married next year, and I thought you should meet.”
Haineko smiled.  “Oh, that’s wonderful!” she said.  “I’m going to be out of
here for it, and I want to be.  I want to get off the drugs, and I have for a
while,” she said sighing.  “I just…I was stuck.”
“How did you get mixed up with those horrible people?” Rangiku asked softly. 
“I mean, what they did to those kids…”
Haineko sighed.  “I felt so bad for those kids.  I used…used to go down there
and sleep on the bed with them sometimes, just…just because they needed someone
sometimes.  I would let them cry on me sometimes, and it made them feel
better.  I wanted to help them, but…I needed the drugs so bad to deal with what
was going on in my head.  I don’t know why…I just couldn’t think about the fact
that they had the exact same thing happening to them that had happened to me.”
She leaned over and patted Rangiku’s hand.  “I’m sorry I pushed you away,
Rangi.  I know you only wanted to help me.  But after the rape, I just…I
couldn’t feel anything anymore.  The drugs, they made it all go away.  And
then, when I could sleep with someone and get the drugs without having to pay
for them, I felt…I was in control, you know.  I was choosing to have sex, and I
was getting something for it, it wasn’t taken anymore, you know,” she said,
sighing deeply.  “He…he took everything I was that night.  And I never
recovered.”
Rangiku remembered it vividly.  Her sister had called her from the hospital
telling her something had happened but she was okay.  When Rangiku pressed her
to bring charges against the man who had assaulted her, Haineko pushed her
away.  She didn’t want to go through it again, she said.  She wasn’t going to
testify against him, what would it matter anyway?  The more Rangiku tried to
help, the more she pushed her away. 
“If you knew it was wrong, why didn’t you do something?  Or call us?” Rangiku
asked, clutching Haineko’s hand in hers.
“Yoshi.  I was scared to death of her.  I thought…I thought she was going to
kill anyone who tried to leave.  Once you were in…you were in.  She shot that
one boy, and then she always shot those cats from the neighbor’s house…  She
even had a flamethrower in the shed, and she burned a weasel that got into one
of the back rooms alive with it.  She was dangerous and you never knew what she
was going to do,” she said softly.  “I couldn’t just leave, none of us could.”
“But now you’re out,” Gin said, smiling.
“Yeah, and they’re in jail, and they’re gonna stay, because me and the other
girls that got pulled into that place, we have dirt on the bastards.  And we’re
not gonna be quiet anymore.”
 
***** Chapter 16 *****
Chapter Notes
     A/N: Okay, for one thing, the Gin scene here at the beginning seems
     to come out of nowhere, for that I’m sorry.  I’ve been editing and
     this connects with a couple parts in the revisions where Gin has
     called to talk to Sōsuke about meeting for this very encounter. 
     Ichigo is also having a lot of thoughts on what he’s feeling, and has
     become confused as to if he really loves Sōsuke or if he just loves
     that he’s nice to him and makes him feel good.  Ichigo’s trying to
     work out the difference between love, lust, and all these things in
     his head. 
      
 
 
Sōsuke woke up when someone was beating on his door.  After the incident at the
holiday party the night before, Ichigo had frankly been exhausted and they had
climbed into bed immediately.  He blinked and rolled out of the bed and pulled
on a robe as he yawned.  He glanced at his phone to see it was already after
ten in the morning.  He went to the door, and opened it to find, to his
surprise, Gin.
“Gin?” he said, looking between him and the petite blond man beside him.  “Wh-
what are you doing here?”
“Mah, did you forget, I said I was coming to see my sisters, remember?” Gin
said, coming into the room and pulling the other man behind him.
“But…but you were supposed to call first…” Sōsuke said, closing the door behind
them.
Gin smiled and sat down on the futon in the living room with a flourish.  “I
did, you didn’t answer,” he said smiling as Kira sat down demurely beside him. 
“This is Kira, remember, I told you I was with someone else.”
“Yes, I remember, and you also had said some other things that aren’t really
appropriate at this time,” Sōsuke said, hearing the covers rustling from his
room.  He was willing Ichigo to remain asleep.  He didn’t want him running into
Gin right now. 
“Sōsuke?” he heard and groaned inwardly as he looked to see Ichigo padding out
of the bedroom wearing one of his button downs that he liked to sleep in. 
Ichigo rubbed his eyes and blinked at the two new people in the room.
“Oh, I see,” Gin said, a smile splitting his face.  “You didn’t want me to know
about this sweet thing you’re keeping to yourself.”
Sōsuke sighed, knowing where this was going to go very quickly.  “No, Gin,” he
said firmly and put an arm around Ichigo’s shoulders.  “No.”
“Aw, come on,” Gin said, crossing his legs in his loose hakama he wore.  “You
didn’t even ask him if he was interested.”
“It isn’t a good idea,” Sōsuke said, feeling a ton of dread in his stomach.
“What’s he talking about Sōsuke?” Ichigo asked, frowning.  “And who are they?”
Sōsuke sighed.  “Ichigo, this is Ichimaru Gin, whom I’ve told you about.  And
his new boyfriend, Kira, I believe,” he said, trying not to let annoyance color
his words at Gin right now.
Ichigo smiled and nodded at him.  “Gin, yeah, you’re the snake!”
Gin started to say something but smirked instead.  “Yes, yes indeed.”
“Snake?” Kira said beside him with a frown. 
“Sōsuke dear, why don’t you show my sweetie here what he means,” Gin said.
Sōsuke sighed, slipping off the robe and laying it on the table beside him to
stand in his sleep pants and the sleeveless undershirt.  He held out his arm
toward Kira where the brilliantly colored snake twined among the cherry
blossoms.  “The snake,” he said with a sigh.
“Sōsuke!  This is new!” Gin said, jumping up and coming to look at his arm
where the new tattoo was starting to heal up.  “That’s insanely detailed, and
you did it in one setting, didn’t you?”
Ichigo was a little nervous with this especially when Gin was up and running
his hands all over Sōsuke’s arm.  “Strawberry leaves and vines…for him…” he
said smirking at Ichigo.  “How sweet,” Gin said, then saw that they ran under
his shirt.   “Hey, there’s more,” he muttered grabbing Sōsuke’s shirt and
pulling it over his head to both Ichigo and Sōsuke’s surprise.
“Gin!” Sōsuke protested as he started using his fingers across the vines to
where the final piece was on his chest. 
“Oh, so lovely,” Gin said, smirking then leaning forward and kissing the
shield.
Ichigo growled under his breath loud enough that Gin heard him.  Gin turned and
smirked, not moving his hands off Sōsuke’s chest.  “Oh, he’s such an adorable
kitten, but he has teeth, huh,” he muttered, kissing Sōsuke’s collarbone now
and grinning even wider at Ichigo’s annoyance.
Sōsuke sighed and rolled his eyes, very much used to Gin’s perverse pleasures
in life.  “Gin, please.  Ichigo is not in the mood to deal with your incessant
flirting.”
“But I don’t want to flirt, you remember why I brought Kira by…” he muttered,
winking at him.
“And I said then I wasn’t sure about that idea, and I know now I am sure the
answer is no,” Sōsuke said, pushing Gin back by his shoulders.
“What idea?” Ichigo asked, confused.
“I wanted to play with Sōsuke and Kira together,” Gin said with a smirk.
“Play?” Ichigo said with a deep frown.
“Like a threesome, love,” Gin said, sitting back down and pulling Kira into his
arms again.
Ichigo blinked and looked between Sōsuke and Gin.  “What?  You were going to do
that?” he asked Sōsuke. 
“I told him I’d think about it, as I had not had a boyfriend since Gin and I
broke up, and I was, at the time, feeling a bit frustrated sexually.  But it
isn’t something I will consider now. As you can see Gin, we’re together, and I
don’t feel it is fair to ask Ichigo after recent events to do something like
that,” Sōsuke said.  He really wished Gin had not come by today.
Gin sighed.  “Sōsuke, you are no fun.  Kira here was dreaming about having your
cock up his ass with mine, poor boy’s dream will never come true.”
Kira had blushed and lowered his head in embarrassment at Gin’s crassness. 
“Gin, it’s okay,” he said quietly.  “He doesn’t want to do it, that’s fine.”
“Wait, what?” Ichigo said with a frown.  “You…you want to do it with both
them…inside at the same time?” he asked, surprised by the idea.
Kira looked up with a shy smile.  “It…it’s always been a fantasy of mine. 
And…Gin showed me pictures of Sōsuke, and…well…he’s so beautiful…  I don’t want
to cause problems,” he said quietly.  “We didn’t know he had a boyfriend, so…so
it really is okay.”
Ichigo started.  Was that what he was?  Sōsuke’s boyfriend?  He blinked and
looked at the promise band on his finger and Sōsuke’s. 
“I’m your boyfriend?” he said quietly and looked at Sōsuke.
Sōsuke put his arm back around him and hugged him against him.  “Of course,
you’re my boyfriend, what else would you be?”
Ichigo frowned again and shook his head.  “I’ve…I’ve never been someone’s
boyfriend.”
“Well that’s unfortunate, you’re a sumptuous piece of ass if I’ve ever seen
one,” Gin said with a smirk.
“Gin!” Sōsuke said, sighing.  “Please, Ichigo’s been through enough recently,
he doesn’t need to be brought into your perverse fantasies, Gin.  Why are you
even here?”
“I told you, I was visiting Rangiku and Haineko.  She’s in the rehab center
right now,” Gin said sighing deeply.
“Haineko?” Ichigo said, looking up at him suddenly.
Gin looked at him.  “You know her?”
Ichigo nodded.  “Yeah, she was always so sweet to us, and she took care of us
sometimes.  I always liked when she crawled into bed with me and Momo, she
smelled nice most the time.  I felt bad for her, she always was trying to help
us.  She was scared of Yoshi, they all were,” he said thoughtfully.
“Wait, you were at that house?” Gin said, brows creasing and looking up to
Sōsuke.  “You were one of those kids they had?”
“He’s not a kid, he’s nineteen,” Sōsuke said with a sigh, knowing that Gin had
a huge problem with anyone coming near crossing the line of being with someone
underage.  “He was adopted there when he was about nine, and he’d been there
about ten years when everything happened.  He’s been staying with me…and
well…we developed a connection in that time,” Sōsuke said, running a hand over
Ichigo’s head fondly.  “So you can see why it is not the best idea to be making
overtures at this time.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” Ichigo said softly, looking up at Sōsuke under hooded
eyes.
Sōsuke blinked.  “I…Ichigo, what…no, it’s not a good idea.  I know you’re still
experimenting with these things, but…”
Ichigo glanced at Kira who was watching him intently.  “He’s cute,” he said
softly.  “And…I…I might like playing with someone else.”
Sōsuke closed his eyes and resisted the overwhelming urge to put his foot down
and say that it was not going to happen.  He had to be careful because he
couldn’t tell Ichigo what to do.  He had to make sure to let Ichigo make the
choices about his own sexuality and what he wanted to do with it.  And if he
was interested in playing with others, then he would take him seriously.
“How about we wait a bit,” Sōsuke said, smiling gently at Ichigo.  “Gin and
Kira won’t be going home yet, he’s staying for a few weeks, at least that is
what he told me when he called before, and it will give you a chance to get to
know them a bit and then we can decide if that’s what you want to do.”
“Why don’t you come here a second, though,” Gin said smiling and motioning
Ichigo over to him.  
Sōsuke glared at Gin but Ichigo walked over to him, and Sōsuke noticed that his
shirt barely covered his ass when he moved.  It was hot and sexy and now Gin
was whispering in Ichigo’s ear.  He couldn’t hear what he was saying but
Ichigo’s face started to redden immediately.  Sōsuke crossed his arms and
watched him.  He saw Ichigo nod slightly and Gin slid a hand under his shirt to
rest it on the swell of his ass before whispering to him again.  Ichigo again
reddened a little and nodded, and this time, Gin grabbed him and pulled him
onto his lap.
“I think he likes me,” Gin said, smirking at Sōsuke. 
Sōsuke sighed and shook his head.  Ichigo was red faced and he saw what Gin was
doing, but Ichigo was in control of the situation.  The one thing he didn’t
fear from Gin was him taking anything without permission.  Gin’s hand slid over
Ichigo’s thigh, rubbing up and down over it.  Ichigo was watching Kira,
though.  Ah, that was it, Sōsuke saw.  He was wanting to see what Kira did when
he was being flirted with by Gin.  Kira’s face had blushed and he was watching
Gin’s every move, his tongue darting out now and then to lick his lips as he
watched.  Gin whispered something else to Ichigo, and Ichigo reached over and
touched Kira’s face gently, and Kira turned and sucked his fingers into his
mouth, reaching up to hold them with his hands as he sucked on each of them in
turn.
Ichigo gasped, surprised by such a motion actually happening.  He didn’t know
what to think of that.  Gin’s hands on his legs felt nice too, but what felt
really nice was that he had asked permission before he did anything, even
touching his hands.  Ichigo wouldn’t have thought that the way he acted Gin
would have done such a thing, but he didn’t stray from his permissions.  First,
he’d asked Ichigo to take his hands.  Then, he’d asked if he could put his hand
under his shirt on his back.  Then he’d asked if he could put him on his lap
and touch his thighs.  Then he said if he wanted to touch Kira, he could, that
Kira would like to suck on his fingers.  He had no idea how Gin knew that’s
what Kira wanted, but he had.
“Hmm, Sōsuke, I think he likes the attention, he’s dripping down onto my legs,”
Gin said, fingers still dancing up and down the inside of Ichigo’s thighs
gently.
“Ichigo, are you okay?” Sōsuke said, moving to sit on the arm of the futon and
looking at him.  He nodded slowly.  “Are you sure?”
“I am, it feels nice, that there are other…other nice touches…that you aren’t
the only one…” he whispered wriggling on Gin’s lap, and Sōsuke could see the
obvious bump under the front of his shirt where he was more than a little
aroused.
“Are you sure that you want to do something like this?” Sōsuke asked,
frowning.  “I don’t want you to feel like you have to…”
Ichigo turned and glared at him.  “I can make a choice on my own, don’t start
telling me what to do like Isshin did last night!  I’m a damn adult, and if I
want to fuck every man I meet I will!”
Sōsuke was taken aback a bit and a look of hurt crossed his face enough that
Ichigo immediately regretted it.  He turned and cupped Sōsuke’s face and his
look softened.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that, I mean, I know what I want to
do and what I don’t want to do.”
Ichigo also had to find out for sure that his love for Sōsuke was more than
sex.  He thought he loved him but if he felt the same way after “playing” with
Gin and Kira, then he’d know that it wasn’t really love, but lust twisted up in
his head.  If he still felt the same way about Sōsuke then he’d know.  He knew
it probably wasn’t something Jūshirō would have approved of, but he couldn’t
help it.  And he was curious about what drew Gin and Kira to Sōsuke.
“I wanna see you do what he wants, Sōsuke,” Ichigo said, glancing over to Kira
who was still sucking his fingers and watching him.
Sōsuke glanced at Gin who nodded at him.  “Okay,” he whispered.  “Why don’t you
prepare him for us?” Sōsuke said, kissing Ichigo’s ear gently. 
Kira was already up and stripping his clothes off before he could say anything
else, showing a well-toned and pale body.  “You mean…do the thing with my
fingers like you did...” Ichigo said softly, looking from Sōsuke to Kira.
“Yeah,” Sōsuke said, and stood up, opening the side table and grabbing a bottle
and giving it to Ichigo.  He nodded and Kira crawled onto the sofa, leaning
over the back and watching Ichigo as he moved behind him, sliding his hands
over his ass slowly.  Ichigo looked at Sōsuke who was watching him intently as
was Gin.
Ichigo flicked the bottle open and put the lube on his fingers before he slid
one down and against Kira without notice.  Kira gasped a bit and wriggled as
Ichigo pushed into him with a wide eyed expression.  He began interested,
though, and quickly worked in three fingers and was feeling around inside him. 
He felt something, and he brushed it and Kira moaned loudly.  That was the
spot, he thought to himself, feeling it again and pushing on it.  Kira was
about to come out of his mind, though.  He stepped back and Sōsuke sat down
against the arm, pulling Kira over as he pulled himself free and slid a condom
on.  Ichigo guessed he’d done that when he got the lube.  He kneeled down and
watched as Kira lowered himself down slowly onto Sōsuke and Ichigo’s hand went
to his own throbbing arousal. 
He'd never watched before, of course.  But sitting there, seeing Sōsuke’s cock
disappear inside Kira, he nearly came then and there.  Then he looked to see
Gin moving toward them as Kira settled with a flushed look to his face as he
straddled Sōsuke and leaned over him, writhing just a bit.  Sōsuke held his
arms around Kira’s waist and leaned his head back as Kira hovered over him then
Gin was free of his own pants and pushing his cock in behind Sōsuke’s.
“Will…will that fit…” Ichigo whispered, watching intently as Gin pushed
forward, inching all the way inside beside Sōsuke.  Ichigo’s eyes bugged and he
looked to see that Kira was gripping the arm of the sofa and biting his lip. 
Ichigo didn’t think, he just got up and moved to the end of the couch and
climbed up on the arm, picking up his shirt and presenting himself to Kira’s
slack mouth.  Sōsuke looked up in a bit of surprise but Kira leaned up and
sucked Ichigo into his mouth feverishly.  Ichigo’s eyes went wide as Gin began
thrusting into him from behind, pushing him forward onto him and Kira’s eyes
kept locking on him.  They were open and blown wide with desire.  He was
moaning and sucking and Ichigo felt himself go over so hard he had to hold onto
the back of the couch to stay standing.  Kira didn’t move away, just sucked him
until he was dry.  Ichigo slipped backward just as Kira’s face contorted in
pleasure and he moaned loudly.  Gin made very little noise as he and Sōsuke
both found their fall at nearly the same time.
Ichigo blinked as Kira reached up and grabbed Ichigo by the face and started
kissing him.  Ichigo returned it, tangling tongues with the blond, tasting
himself on him.  It was strange but at the same time arousing.  Gin had already
sat back, grabbing tissues from the side table and cleaning himself off before
handing some to Sōsuke.  Sōsuke looked at him and pulled him into a side
embrace and whispered. 
“I guess you enjoyed watching?” he whispered, kissing Ichigo’s jaw.  Ichigo
nodded and looked at the completely blissed out blond who had gone to snuggling
with Gin.
Ichigo looked at Gin and Kira.  Kira had pulled his pants back on and was
kissing Gin on the neck and whispering thanks to him for letting him do
something like that.  Ichigo then looked at Sōsuke, sitting back, having pulled
his clothes up again.  He slid into Sōsuke’s lap and snuggled into his neck. 
It was different, the feelings he had for Sōsuke and for the others.  Gin and
Kira had been pleasurable, and fun, but Sōsuke made his heart flutter.
“I love you, Sōsuke,” he said softly, and he meant it. 
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Isshin sat in the bar with a scotch and soda.  He didn’t notice when someone
sat down beside him and he didn’t care.  He’d left that shinigami agent back at
the house with the girls, but he had to get out.
“You look depressed, man,” a voice beside him said. 
He looked over to see an unfamiliar man sit down beside him at the bar.  He was
blue haired and had a leather coat on.  Isshin, himself dressed in jeans and a
black t-shirt nodded.  “Yeah, I think I fucked up,” he muttered.
“Girl trouble?” the guy asked.  “Well, I guess I shouldn’t assume that, let’s
say, partner trouble?” he said, ordering himself a jack and coke.
“Nah, son,” he said with a sigh.  He nodded to him.  “Isshin.”
“Grimm,” the other man said.  “Well, Grimmjow but everyone calls me Grimm. Tell
me, what did you do to fuck up so much that you’re in here drowning your
sorrows?” he said, sipping his drink.
“I screwed up and I hadn’t seen him in a decade,” he said, sighing.  “I mean,
how could I have decided to try and tell him anything after ten years.”
Grimmjow nodded.  “Well, I guess it depends on what it was about,” Grimmjow
said with a thoughtful look.  “I mean, and why.  If you just wanna control him,
then that’s not cool, but if you were trying to do what you thought was right…”
“It’s just, he’s with this guy.  And he’s older than him, right, like not a
whole lot, but he’s only nineteen, so someone that’s twenty-five is a lot
older.  I mean, six years, I guess it isn’t much, but after what he’s been
through…” Isshin said with a sigh.  “I just…I missed most of  his life, and I
want the best for him now, but I ended up alienating him even further.”
Grimmjow frowned, taking a better look at the man beside him.  “Isshin, you
said?” he asked.  Isshin nodded.  “You’re Ichigo’s pop, ain’t ya?” he asked,
sipping his drink again.
Isshin looked at the man.  “How do you know my son?”
“I work at the school, I’m a coach.  Hadn’t had the boy yet, but my girl Nel
and Harribel were helping Sōsuke figure out everything, met him a couple times,
he’s a good boy,” Grimmjow said with a nod of his head.
Isshin nodded.  “You’re friends with this Sōsuke Aizen then?”
Grimmjow shrugged.  “Not really, I mean, I know him, but he’s kinda the type to
keep to himself.  We got him to come out a couple times to our bonfires in the
fall, but he was always quiet and kinda hung out.”
Isshin nodded.  “I just…after what Ichigo went through…I don’t want him making
a bad choice.  He’s fragile and broken and he’s not well,” Isshin said softly.
“Well there’s your problem,” Grimmjow said, sipping his drink and looking over
at him.  “You obviously forgot who your son is.”
Isshin frowned and shook his head.  “What do you mean?”
Grimmjow smiled.  “That kid’s something else from what I hear.  Nothing kept
him from doing what he thought was right.  He stayed there, man.  He stayed
there because he wanted to keep those others from getting hurt.  He knew he’d
be taken advantage of, beaten, raped, sold, all of that, but he had to stop the
others from getting hurt.  He coulda walked away a lot of times.  He didn’t
because he’s one fucking strong kid.  He took it, everything that bitch Yoshi
did to him and more because he put himself between her and those other kids who
weren’t as strong.”
Isshin frowned and looked into the clinking ice cubes in his glass.  “But he
was so little when they took him.  He was ten.  And…and they were doing such
horrible things to him…”
“Man, that kid’s got metal in his backbone,” Grimmjow said, arching a brow at
him.  “Those other boys, Ho and Ban, they broke, man.  Those poor kids may
never fully recover.  And Ichigo went through it longer.  What they did, that
would break the strongest person.”
Isshin sighed, running a hand through his hair.  “I just…I wanted my son again,
and he’s…he’s not the boy I left.”
“Of course not, he grew up,” Grimmjow said, shrugging.  “That kid’s long gone. 
He grew up real quick there, learning to take care of those other kids. 
Listen, he didn’t even fucking go to school, do you even understand that?  They
snuck books in and hid them, and he not only taught himself well enough to get
into college, but also taught those other kids.  He did that while he was
spending his days sneaking upstairs to take food and feed six other kids, going
without when he had to do so.  He taught himself everything he needed to know. 
All the while, risking being beaten or worse because he knew he couldn’t let
them wilt away in that basement, not just him, but those others.”
Isshin swallowed hard and nodded.  “Yeah.  I just…I’m guilty of so much…and…”
“Look, man.  I don’t know you or even him much more than just what Nel’s said
around our place, but I know this much, if you care about him, stop trying to
make up for lost time.  He don’t need the man who left ten years ago anymore. 
He needs a father for the person he is now, not a father for the kid he was ten
years ago,” Grimmjow said, slamming back the rest of his drink and dropping the
bills on the bar.  “Good luck, man,” he said and headed out of the bar.
Isshin sat there for a long time and thought over what he’d said.  Was it
really as simple as that?
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Sōsuke came into the living room a couple days later and handed Ichigo his
phone.  Ichigo looked up and frowned and Sōsuke nodded so he’d take it.
“Hello?” Ichigo said, confused a bit.
“Ichigo, um, its Isshin, I…uh, wanted to talk to you, if it’s okay with you.  I
talked to Sōsuke a bit, and I…I was hoping you’d talk to me,” Isshin stammered,
and Ichigo could hear Yuzu and Karin in the background whispering encouragement
to him.
Ichigo scowled at Sōsuke who shrugged at him.  “Yeah, unless you’re going to me
that I don’t know what I want again.”
“I’m sorry about that, I just…I was surprised.  I thought that you wouldn’t
want someone to be with like that after what had happened.  I thought you’d
take a lot more time to get over it and I made the mistake that you were still
that little boy I left ten years ago,” he said softly, sighing slightly.
Ichigo frowned again but tucked his legs under his body and hummed.  “Yeah,
well, I’m not that little boy.”
“Yeah, I know, and I have to come to terms with that.  I know that this is hard
for you, too.  But I thought, maybe, we could have dinner over here tomorrow. 
Yuzu would like to cook for you, and maybe we can talk about things and how
this is going to work.  I mean, Yuzu and Karin are trying to decide what they
want, and they both want to stay here in Karakura so they can get to know their
brother.  And…and I’d like to get to know my son again, and my daughters,”
Isshin said, and Ichigo could hear the tightness in his voice.
Ichigo looked at Sōsuke who smiled encouragingly.  “Can Sōsuke come?”
“Of course, if you and he both want him to come,” Isshin said.
Ichigo was quiet for a long time.  “Okay, I’ll come over.  I’m not sure if
Sōsuke will come with me or not, but he might.”
“Okay son, that’s all I ask, thanks.”
Ichigo nodded.  “Okay, see you tomorrow, Pop,” he said, and touched the end
call button. 
Sōsuke slid down beside him on the sofa and hugged him gently.  “I’m proud of
you, Ichigo,” he said. 
Ichigo nodded and snuggled into Sōsuke’s arms.  He was scared and he didn’t
know yet if Sōsuke should go with him or not.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Dinner with Kurosakis all present tomorrow night.  Shinigami agent still in
house.
Inaba grinned.  So they’d all be there.  He tucked the phone back into his
pocket and glanced at his duffel bag.  There were two handguns, a baseball bat,
and several sets of the big zip ties.  He was going to make them pay.  He was
going to show Isshin Kurosaki what his son had become, and he was going to show
the fucking slut what he was good for and nothing more.  He’d have his revenge
for good this time.  No more botched jobs and depending on others to do what he
should do himself.  He should have put a gun to the fucking brat’s head and
ended him beside his mother.  He should have tracked down those girls and done
the same to them.  And then he should have figured out that Isshin hadn’t died
so he could watch him suffer. 
He smirked, looking out the window at the stolen car in the parking lot.  They
wouldn’t know what happened, and then he’d have them all.  He’d play the game
with the police when they got there, telling them he wanted transportation in
exchanged for hostages.  He didn’t have any plans to give them up for anything,
and he’d leave them all in a bloody pool on the floor, except of course
Isshin.  He’d make him watch as he murdered all three of his children in front
of his eyes.  Inaba’s smile grew wider.  But maybe not until he’d had his fun
with them first…
***** Breaking Chaos *****
 
Sōsuke smiled as Ichigo fretted over what he was going to wear to dinner with
his family.  He looked at him with a keen eye, watching for any negative
effects from the encounter with Gin and Kira.  That pair were still in town,
from what he understood, they’d picked up a long term hotel room for an
indeterminate amount of time.  Sōsuke knew that Gin was often crass, vulgar,
and loud, but more than anything he loved his sisters and would do anything in
the world for them.  So, for him to leave before he knew they were both okay
was unheard of.  Sōsuke had loved that about him, the complete dedication.
But when he’d shown up with Kira, he had still worried.  And now, as he watched
Ichigo move about life as though the encounter had just been normal.  What he
worried about, of course, was that Ichigo was used to sexual advantages being
taken of him and going about as though nothing was wrong.  He worried that
Ichigo might feel that Sōsuke, and Gin for that matter, had taken advantage of
him when they shouldn’t have. Jushiro hadn’t said anything to him that
indicated that Ichigo had come out of the encounter worse than going in, but
then he knew Jushiro wasn’t going to tell him what they talked about every
afternoon.  He just knew that whatever Jushiro was doing with Ichigo was
helping him more than he had hoped.
“Ichigo, um, we never talked about what happened with Gin,” he said tentatively
as Ichigo changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.  He looked up at him with
a frown. 
Sōsuke sat slowly on the bed, their bed now, and looked at him as a confused
look crossed his face.
“I don’t know what there is to talk about, Sōsuke,” Ichigo said, coming and
sitting on his lap.  Ichigo looped his arms around Sōsuke’s neck and kissed his
cheek.  “It was fun, that was it.”
“But…I don’t understand why you wanted to do something like that so soon.  Gin
would have backed off if you had said no,” Sōsuke said, reaching up and
brushing stray orange strands out of his face.
Ichigo nodded.  “I…I guess I should be honest with you about why, I mean, I
just…things are all fucked up in my head.  This thing, between us, it…it feels
so weird.  I thought I loved Mabashi.  I thought that was love.  I thought that
love was something that could hurt and that that’s just the way it was.  I
thought that love was…was…fucking nicely.”
Sōsuke frowned at him and looked concerned.  “Fucking nicely?” he queried.
“Yeah, you know, not hurting me.  Fucking…er, having sex where it felt good. 
When…when Mabashi had said he loved me, when he actually admitted it, we were
together, but it was nice, and he wasn’t mean and hurting me.  So…I wondered if
I could tell the difference, you know, between love and fuck…er…sex,” Ichigo
said, staring down and flushing a bit.  “I know it doesn’t make sense, and
Jushiro thought it was a bit of an unusual way to figure things out, but…”
“But he said that it was your choice on how you went about figuring things out,
didn’t he?” Sōsuke said, smiling gently at him.
“Yeah, and…I had this idea…if I felt the same way about Gin or Kira, after we,
you know, did that, then I wasn’t in love with you like I thought.  But I
didn’t.  I mean, it was hot, and nice, and watching you and Gin fuck him
together, that was amazing…and I wouldn’t mind that again…but that isn’t the
point.  I just…I know that what I feel for you is here,” Ichigo said, putting
his hand on Sōsuke’s chest gently.  “It isn’t about sex, though I really,
really like that part.”
Sōsuke smiled and leaned over and kissed Ichigo’s nose on the tip.  “You are a
little minx in bed, you know,” he said softly, sliding a hand down between
Ichigo’s knees and slowly up the inside of his jean-clad thighs.
Ichigo’s eyes went wide and he blushed immediately.  “Sōsuke, I just got
dressed, we have to be there in like two hours…” he whined. 
“Two hours, that’s such a long time,” Sōsuke said, leaning forward and nipping
at Ichigo’s collarbone.  “We can go take a shower together, then you won’t be a
mess after we’re done…”
Ichigo started to protest but growled instead, sliding off Sōsuke’s lap and
grabbing his hand.  “Come on, then, you know that it takes almost an hour when
we shower together, and that’s after we’ve already gone at it in here,” he said
softly, his eyes fluttering in a way that made Sōsuke bite his lip.
“Oh, really?” he muttered, and moved quickly to grab him and throw him over his
shoulder.
“Sōsuke!” he screeched and slapped Sōsuke’s back.  “Dammit!”
Sōsuke giggled, sitting Ichigo down on the large double sink.  “Oh, you’re so
cute when you’re mad,” he muttered, pulling the t-shirt off and beginning to
nip and suck at Ichigo’s collarbone.
“Ugh, Sōsuke, stop it, you’re…dammit…” he muttered, squirming already.  “Just
turn on the shower already.  You aren’t doing me in cold water.”
Sōsuke reached over and turned on the water before shucking his clothes then
sliding Ichigo off the counter.  He slid his jeans off and before he could kick
them away, they were entwined in each other’s arms.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
 
To say that Isshin Kurosaki was nervous was an understatement.  He was worried
and he was feeling like there was nothing in the world he could ever do to make
up for the horrible way he had acted.  He had wanted it to be just him and the
girls, but he’d realized after he got off the phone the night before, he
couldn’t do this alone.  He’d called his cousin and asked if he could come down
for the weekend from Tokyo.  Kaien had of course agreed to come and help out. 
Kaien knew that Isshin was trying his best, but he knew also how hard it was
going to be for him to figure out how to be a father after so long living on
nothing but revenge fantasy and hatred for the man that murdered his wife. 
Yuzu had been busy in the kitchen all day already when Kaien got there and
stepped out of his small car.  He knew that the girls were going to stay in
Karakura as long as their brother stayed there.  That was fine with him.  He
and Miyoko had spent ten years being mother and father to the girls, and now
they had a brother and a father they needed to get to know.  He smiled to
himself as knocked and was let in by Karin.  He smelled the food wafting
through the house already.  It was about an hour before Ichigo would come to
the dinner.  He wandered into the kitchen and saw Yuzu had made several
different dishes and several cakes and rolls to go with them.  He smiled, going
back into the living room where Karin was playing on her DS.
“How’s it going?” he asked, smiling at her.
“Ah, you know, old goat face is beside himself, but other than that, Yuzu has
just been cooking her brains out,” Karin said shrugging.  “But that’s to be
expected.  Pop screwed up the other day pretty bad with him.  He knows it.  I
think he’s ready for whatever Ichigo says tonight.”
Kaien nodded.  He’d spent two hours on the phone with Isshin after the holiday
party.  Mostly he’d let the older man talk, but he had told him a few things
he’d learned over the last ten years of taking care of the twins, and he had
hoped it had helped at least a little.
Kaien looked up to see the big Shinigami agent, Zaraki.  “I’ll be out on the
front porch for a bit.  I’d like to keep an eye out on things outside,” he said
with a nod and headed out onto the front porch. 
It was another half an hour before the door opened and Zarki let Ichigo into
the house.  Ichigo stopped at the door and leaned up and kissed Sōsuke on the
cheek.
“You sure you’re okay by yourself?” Sōsuke asked.
“I’m sure.  You go on and check in on Kisuke and the others.  I’ll be fine
here, besides, with that mountain outside, what could possibly happen here?” he
said with a wide grin.  “Besides, I think…it should be a thing between me and
then, you know?”
Sōsuke smiled and nodded.  “Okay, give me a call if you want me to come and
pick you up, okay?”
Ichigo nodded and waved as he headed back out to his car and Ichigo came in
nervously.  “Hey,” he said nervously as Kaien and Isshin stood up when he had
come in.
“Um, hey, son,” Isshin said, smiling.  “Uh, Yuzu has been cooking all day, so
let’s make her happy and eat her food while it’s hot.”
They all moved into the dining room where the table was positively loaded with
various foods.  Yuzu smiled at them.  “Ichi-nii, I didn’t know what you liked,
so I made a lot of different things.”
Ichigo nodded.  “It all looks so wonderful,” he said, smiling as he sat down.
Everyone dug into the food and Ichigo was amazed at what a good cook his sister
was.  He complimented her on several things and asked her what other things
were that he’d never encountered.  He tried to avoid talking about things that
would bother them.  As they finished, and the girls cleared off the table,
Kaien stood up and nodded to Isshin.
“Girls, why don’t we let your father and Ichigo talk, okay?” he said with a
smile.
Yuzu began to protest but then nodded and left with Karin and Kaien to go sit
in the living room and gave Isshin and Ichigo some privacy.
“Son…I…” Isshin began.
“Stop, first, I…I need to tell you some things, and you…you are just going to
have to choose if you think you can handle them.  If you can’t, then we both
move on, on our own.  But…but if you think you can handle them, then…then…we’ll
see what happens,” Ichigo said, turning the silver and black ring on his finger
thoughtfully.
Isshin nodded, knowing that more than anything, he needed to give Ichigo
space.  “Of course.”
“Okay, so, the thing is, I remember.  I remember you.  I remember Karin and
Yuzu.  I remember everything about them from the time I was with them.  I used
to tell stories to Noba and Ririn and the others, I used to tell them about you
and momma.  I used to tell them how beautiful she was, and how she would hold
me when I cried, and how you were funny and would make her face light up in
laughter. I would tell them how the girls used to laugh and giggle at the
things you did.  They…they were their bedtime stories, you know?” Ichigo said,
his fingers twisting around each other and not looking up.  “I…I didn’t want to
say I remembered when I met you.  I thought…I thought that there was no way
that person I remembered would want me anymore.”
Isshin felt tears begin to well in his eyes but he nodded.  “And, well, I felt
like I was worthless.  You have to understand…I was thirteen when…when Mabashi
took me for the first time.  I thought…I thought that everything I was had been
destroyed.  And then, I watched as the others, the ones I was taking care of,
putting to bed with stories of my mom’s smiling face, were drug upstairs and
had the same thing happen to them.  I…I couldn’t take it.  I couldn’t watch
them cry, you understand that?  I couldn’t.  I had to stop it.”
Ichigo stopped, looking toward the window.  “I figured out that if I stepped in
between Yoshi and whoever she came downstairs to get, if I said something, if I
mouthed off, she’d get mad, and she’d take me instead. Not all the time,
because sometimes whoever it was wanted a girl, and then I’d just end up
getting the shit knocked out of me.”  Ichigo snorted.  “I never lost a tooth,
you know, I ended up getting them all knocked out before they fell out on their
own,” he said softly.  “She was more careful with my grown up teeth though,
because she said if I was ugly, no one would want to fuck me.”
Isshin felt his hands clench under the table but he still didn’t say anything,
letting Ichigo talk.  “I…I wanted to learn, but she faked all our school stuff,
because she wasn’t going to let us out of the house.  We were bruised and
beaten all the time.  There would have been questions that she couldn’t pay off
or blackmail so she had the books sent.  I’d take them, and then we’d learn
things together.  It wasn’t easy, because there were gaps, you know.  Stuff
that I had missed or books I hadn’t gotten to before she burned them.  But I
taught the others.  I wasn’t going to let us rot down there in that basement. 
We played games, we did things to occupy ourselves.  It wasn’t a lot, but I
kept them as happy as I could.  I stole food and medicine and bandages and all
sorts of things.  And I got caught a lot, too.  But I had to do it,” he said,
chewing his lip a lot.  “And she’d do things to us when she caught us.  I…I
know Uryu knows about the guns, but she’d fuck…”  Ichigo paused.  “She’d put
other things in us.  And then she’d laugh if we cried out.  This one time she
had this big…big purple jelly dildo…and she made Ririn suck on it until she was
choking on it and crying, saying she needed to learn how to deep throat a
proper cock if she was going to be her slut.”
Ichigo sighed.  “It didn’t matter what it was.  She did it to humiliate us. 
She wanted us to be too afraid to ever leave, and too ashamed of ourselves to
walk away even when we were old enough to do it.  She did something horrible to
Ho and Ban, and I still don’t know what it was, but it broke their minds.  And
as fucked up as it is, if it weren’t for Mabashi, she would have broke my mind
the same way,” he said, running a hand over his head with a sigh.
“I’m still figuring out this, okay?  Dr. Ukitake and I meet every afternoon,”
he said, staring at his hands again as they twisted together on the table. 
“I…I have a lot to figure out.  I mean, I just dove into a fucking threesome
the other day to find out if I was so fucked up in my head that I thought I
loved Sōsuke because he was nice when we had sex.”
Isshin frowned a bit but didn’t comment.  “I know,” Ichigo said.  “I know. 
But…Sōsuke, he understands this part, and I don’t expect you to understand it,
okay?” Ichigo sighed, looking up at him.  “I…need to control me.  I need to
know that I can choose, okay?  If I want to sleep with someone, I can, and if I
don’t want to, I don’t have to feel like I have to.  It…it hasn’t felt safe
before, and I’m trying to get to the point where every time I lay with Sōsuke
that he’s going to change and hurt me.”
Isshin supposed that it made sense in a way.  Ichigo chewed idly on his thumb. 
“See, Dr. Ukitake told me that a lot of times, people like me have their sex
lives kind of programed by their early experiences, and so that becomes their
safety zone.  For me, it was all violence and pain, and they would make me
orgasm, so the pleasure and the pain became all wound up together.  I…I need to
feel in control but at the same time, I need it.  I need to feel someone
sleeping against me, and I need to be able to have that release, because that
was all I could have that was good at the end of the day,” he said, sighing. 
“It…it doesn’t make sense, in a way, to spend like seven years being used on a
regular basis to still want to have sex, but…but Dr. Ukitake said that not all
survivors avoid sex, and that a lot of them seek it out.  Sōsuke did that too,
he slept with lots of guys, both top and bottom, and he said he felt like he
was searching for something to fill a hollow hole in his stomach.  I…I felt
like that too, but Sōsuke…Sōsuke can take what I give him.”
Isshin nodded slowly, starting to understand things a bit more now.  “I get so
angry sometimes, and I scream at him, and I tell him to leave me alone, and
then sometimes I just want to sit in his lap and be held for hours on end
without talking at all, and other times, I just want to throw him on the bed
and have sex with him for hours at a time.  He’s been through it himself, and
he understands the anger and the pain and the need and everything.  It is so
much more than just someone taking advantage of me.  He’s helping me, taking
care of me, in ways that no one else can.”
Ichigo stopped talking and sat there with his hands on the table in front of
him.  He looked up when Isshin reached both his hands over and put them on top
of his.  He knew he had to do this right.  “Son, I’m sorry about how I acted. 
I…was more mad at myself than anyone else.  I…I left and I never looked back,
Noba was right.  I shouldn’t have done things the way I did, but I was so
angry.  I was so riddled with guilt and pain and grief, that I could only see
one thing, and that was taking revenge on your mother’s murderer,” he said
softly.  “I want to be in your life.  With you, and Sōsuke, the girls, and I
want to make a family and I want to get to know the Ichigo in front of me now,
because the Ichigo I left ten years ago did this really annoying thing and grew
up into a man.”
Ichigo smiled, nodding at him.  “I would like that, pop,” he said softly.
“Well, if that isn’t just the sweetest thing?” came a voice from the doorway to
the dining room. 
Ichigo and Isshin both snapped their heads to the side with complete shock and
terror.  Inaba was standing in the doorway with both Yuzu and Karin standing in
front of him, their hands ziptied together in front of them and cloth gags tied
on their mouths.  He was holding a gun against Karin’s temple and smiling at
them both.  Ichigo and Isshin both stood slowly.
“Isshin, good to see you, you know, you fooled me that night at Ryo’s when I
took your boy back and fucked him senseless, you were watching me finger him
right there in the room and didn’t do a damn thing about it, some father you
are,” Inaba said, shoving Yuzu forward, but holding the gun against Karin’s
head.
“Inaba,” Isshin said.  “What do you want?  Where’s Kaien?”
“Oh, the other guy?  He’s tied up in the living room, and don’t count on that
big agent.  I’m not sure, but I might have killed him, I had to hit him three
times with a baseball bat to get that big bastard to fall down.  He’s tied up
inside the door too, just in case.  Now, take those chairs, Isshin, and line up
four there against the wall, or this little feisty girl gets her brains
splattered,” Inaba said, pushing into Karin’s temple hard enough to make her
grunt and frown.
Isshin stood up and pulled the chairs around like he’d asked.  Inaba motioned
with the gun to him and Isshin sat down.  He motioned to Yuzu to sit, and then
Ichigo.  He reached in his pocket and tossed a few zip ties to Isshin.
“Tie the girl’s legs to the chair, and tie Ichigo’s hands.  Then tie your feet
to your chair,” he instructed, keeping the gun on Karin the whole time. 
When he was done, Inaba pushed Karin over to sit in the chair and then zip tied
Isshin’s hands together, and secured Karin’s legs to her chair.  Inaba stood
back and smiled.  “Now, Isshin, we’ve got a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Uryu was surprised when his phone rang with Ichigo’s ringtone on it.  He
frowned, thinking that Ichigo had been at dinner with his father, and hoped
nothing had happened between them.  He answered it and his eyes went wide.  He
pulled it away from his ear and muted the call.
“Chad, quick, I need your phone!” he called, running from the living room into
the bedroom that they had started sharing.
Chad turned, handing it to him with a frown as Uryu started dialing
frantically.  “We have to get in the car too,” he said and took off again. 
Chad followed without question, of course.
“Kisuke Urahara,” came the voice on the other end.
“Urahara, Ichigo’s in trouble,” he said frantically as Chad started the car. 
“Where are you?”
“Meet me at the station, what’s wrong?” he asked, voice serious now. 
“Listen,” he said, turning the speaker phone on his phone and Chad’s.
“…so you know, I had to do something about the person that completely ruined my
entire operation,” came a voice from Uryu’s phone.
“It’s coming from Ichigo’s phone, well the watch, anyway,” Uryu explained, both
to Chad and Kisuke on the other line.
“Inaba, what are you trying to accomplish here?  Let them go, I’m the one that
was turning on you, they had nothing to do with this,” came Isshin’s voice
through the tinny speaker phone.
Kisuke was listening still and Uryu could hear him getting in a car and other
voices in the background.  “Keep the line open Uryu, and use the other phone to
record if you can, I’ll meet you at the station.”
Uryu nodded, hanging up on Kisuke and flicking to the recorder on Chad’s
phone.  He was going to record everything because they had to help Ichigo, and
now the others.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo chewed his lip, hoping that he had managed to get the right buttons on
his watch without looking.  As weird as it sounded, he’d actually practiced for
that very thing, doing things without looking at it.  He watched, scared at
what Inaba had planned.
“So what is your plan anyway?  You could have gotten away clean already,”
Isshin said frowning.
“Ah, yeah, I thought I could.  But you…you sneaky bastard…you ruined most my
contacts along the way, and I only had one person left I could trust here in
Karakura.  Yammy was always a good boy, even when I was paying for his blow and
hookers when he was fifteen years old,” he said, walking past them all. 
The phone rang on the counter and Inaba grinned.  “Hm, seems they figured out
something was going on,” he said, picking up the phone.
“Inaba,” came the voice on the other end.  “I’m Kisuke Urahara, and we’re
willing to negotiate for the release of the Kurosakis.”
“I’m sure you are,” Inaba said, smiling.  “I want a car, a clear route to the
airport, and a private jet fueled and ready.  I take one hostage with me to the
airport, and release the last one when I’m on the plane,” he said with a smile.
Kisuke swallowed.  “Okay, I’ll need sometime…”
“You have an hour, otherwise, I’ll put a bullet in each one’s brain,” Inaba
said, hanging up the phone.
Isshin glared at him.  “You won’t let us go, will you?”
“Well, see, I’m going to do something, alright,” he said, stepping forward and
grabbing Ichigo’s shrit collar and hauling him up to his feet.
“Put him down!” Isshin growled. 
“No, see, you are going to suffer, Isshin.  That’s what this is about. So, I
heard your little heartfelt talk as I was coming in, but the truth is, your son
is nothing but a fucking faggot cunt, and he always will be, you know that,
don’t you?” Inaba said, pulling him up to his face.
Ichigo was scared of course, but nothing this guy could do would scare him. 
Yoshi had done this and more to him.  “Fuck you, you fucking rapist bastard.”
“Rapist?  I’ve never fucked anyone who didn’t want it,” Inaba said, growling
into Ichigo’s face.  “You were moaning like a fucking whore if I remember
correctly, I’d call that consenting.”
“I didn’t consent, you fuck.  You broke my fucking arm too, I’d say that’s not
fucking consenting,” Ichigo said with a snarl at him.
Inaba’s eyes went wide and he moved and slammed Ichigo onto the table hard.  He
leaned over his back and pressed the gun into his temple.  “How about this, I’m
gonna pick one of you three, and you’re coming with me on that jet that your
friends are sending for, and they’re gonna be my special fuck buddy.  So how
about you decide…”
“Me,” Ichigo said immediately.  “Take me, I’ll go with you and do whatever you
want me to do,” he said, closing his eyes. 
Ichigo saw the horror on both girls’ faces as well as Isshin’s.  “Inaba, you
bastard, if you touch my son again…!” Isshin screamed, but stopped when the gun
cocked loudly in the room.
“Isshin, I think you should be quiet when I have a gun at your slut son’s
head,” Inaba said, grinning as he stood up.
Ichigo started to stand, but Inaba slammed him back over the table.  “No, I
think your dear daddy gets to see what a fuck slut you are before we run off
into the twilight,” he said, using his free hand to reach around and unbutton
Ichigo’s jeans.
Ichigo’s face was a mask as he closed his eyes.  “Get it over with, fucker, and
quit talking,” Ichigo said finally.
Isshin was trying desperately to get the zip ties undone but he’d made sure his
hands were together instead of crossed when he’d put them on him.  Inaba did
know how to tie up a person, that he’d already known.  Isshin didn’t want to
look as Inaba pushed Ichigo’s jeans down.  The only consolation was that he and
the girls were facing Ichigo instead of where they could actually see what was
happening. 
“You little fuck slut,” Inaba said suddenly as Ichigo’s face pinched.  “You’re
still wet here, you can’t even go a day without a fucking cock inside you?”
Ichigo bit his lip and felt the gun press into the small of his back.  “Who was
fucking you?”
“Sōsuke,” Ichigo growled out.  “He’s my boyfriend, after all,” he said finally,
wincing as the gun barrel pressed harder into his spine.
Inaba grinned.  “Ah, you don’t have a boyfriend, you’re nothing but a hole for
him to use, just like you’ve always been.”
Ichigo tried to ignore it but when he slammed into him he still yelped partly
out of shock and partly out of pain.  His hands fluttered under his stomach
where he was bent over on top of them, but he didn’t dare move with the gun
right in his spine.  He turned to see his sisters and his father staring in
horror, and he couldn’t stop the tears then.  After all the work he’d done, he
was feeling it all crashing down around him again.  The walls were falling
down. 
Finally, Inaba slammed back into him hard enough to make him yell out again and
Ichigo felt the sickening sensation of him coming to completion.  If he hadn’t
had the gun at his back, he would have tried to slam his head back into him but
he couldn’t the way he had pushed him over the table.  The gun moved and he
felt his clothes moved back over him and Inaba slapping him hard on the ass. 
“Still a nice little fuck,” Inaba said.  “You’ll make a good permanent fuck toy
when we get to a nice private Caribbean island.”
Inaba was about to pull Ichigo to his feet when there was a flash above him and
Inaba stumbled backward in shock, and Ichigo looked to see his uncle Kaien
standing in the doorway unsteadily with blood running down both his arms. 
Ichigo stood, turning to see Inaba was standing with a butterfly knife
protracting from his right shoulder.  He frowned and then switched his gun to
his left and reached for Ichigo again. 
Ichigo shook his head.  “No more,” he growled and dove bodily at Inaba,
knocking him backward off his feet.  Ichigo followed over, dropping to his
knees where he’d fallen onto his back and was trying to get up.  He picked up
his bound hands and slammed both into is face, feeling his nose crunch sickenly
under the force and feeling blood spray. 
“No more!” he screamed, pulling his arms back and hitting him again and again
until he felt the gun pressing under his chin, he hadn’t realized when he’d
gotten to his feet again, he was just hitting him.  “Go ahead you fucking
bastard!  You tried to take it all and you can’t take what I won’t give you!”
Ichigo said as Inaba stood, his face bleeding profusely.  “You don’t scare me!”
he yelled, and then Inaba just turned and bolted out the door as Ichigo fell to
his knees, panting heavily as he heard people moving behind him.
He didn’t recognize the passage of time at all, all he knew was the next thing
that happened was he felt someone reaching for his hands and he tried to push
them away only to hear Sōsuke’s voice telling him it was okay, that he had him
now, and that it was over.
***** Before Chaos Ends *****
 
“Goddammit I want to leave already, Sōsuke!” Ichigo sniped from his position in
the hospital bed. 
Ichigo wore a scowl, which Sōsuke was beginning to think was a permanent
feature on his face nowadays.  Sōsuke sighed and shook his head.  Ichigo was
sitting on the hospital bed with a gown waiting for the doctor to come in and
examine him and collect an evidence kit.  Ichigo, however, was not keen on
either of those things happening.  Sōsuke had insisted, and so did the police
that had made sure to get into the ambulance. 
Sōsuke and Kisuke had both gotten to the house the Kurosakis were at about the
same time.  Kisuke had been with him at the safehouse where Noba and Ririn were
staying.  Sōsuke had wanted to discuss Ichigo’s worry about what was going to
happen with them.  When Uryū called, Sōsuke and Kisuke had both went to their
cars and headed to the station to get officers, Kisuke calling the house line
to try and “negotiate” with Inaba.  Of course, they were soon listening to the
feed from Uryū’s phone, and had told the two to stay put at the station until
they took care of it.  Luckily, Sōsuke had been in his own car and hadn’t heard
what happened with Inaba.  Kisuke however had, and Isshin had of course seen
it.  So when Ichigo tried to say he didn’t need to go to the hospital he was
met with heavy resistance.  Finally, with both Isshin and Sōsuke siding
together against him, he’d relented and gone to emergency.
Ichigo kicked his feet without looking at Sōsuke.  Sōsuke moved and put his
arms around him softly.  “Hey, it’s okay, are you nervous about this?”
Ichigo looked up and Sōsuke realized that he was more than a little nervous, he
looked terrified.  “I…I wasn’t awake last time,” he said finally, biting his
lip.  “That was…was when Yoshi had overdosed me and tried to kill me, so…so I
wasn’t awake when they…they did this exam.”
Sōsuke’s face softened and he pulled him into a hug.  “Oh, I didn’t realize
that,” he said, rubbing his back.  “I didn’t think about the fact that you were
out for it.  I was, too, when I was stabbed.”
Ichigo nodded.  “Um, wh-what will they do?” he asked, looking up at Sōsuke.
“Well,” Sōsuke said, thinking for a moment.  “If they use the procedures I’m
familiar with, the doctor will come in and ask you to lay down a certain way
for them.  They usually brush out your hair, for any evidence, down there, and
then they’ll put you…” Sōsuke stopped as there was a knock at the door and a
pair of people entered, one man and one woman.  Sōsuke felt Ichigo’s hand
tighten on his arm.
“Ichigo Kurosaki?” the man said, looking up at them.  “Ah, if you would please
leave, Mr. Aizen, correct?” he said, looking at Sōsuke.
“No!” Ichigo said, pulling Sōsuke closer.  “I don’t want him to leave.”
The man arched a brow.  “We usually don’t let anyone stay in here with
victims…”
“Out.”  Sōsuke’s voice was strong and forceful.  “You go find another doctor to
do this.  Preferably a woman.  You are not going to do this exam.”
The doctor frowned and glared at Sōsuke.  “What?  You can’t just tell me what
to do, I’m the on call…”
“I don’t care,” Sōsuke said, feeling Ichigo’s hands trembling on his hand. 
“You will go and find another doctor, if you have to locate a nurse
practitioner, that’s fine as well, they are well within their ability to
perform this exam and evidence collection sufficiently, and if you knew
anything about sexual assault survivors then you would not have come in here
with this attitude.  I don’t care what you’re on call position is, you find
someone else.”
The doctor looked quite offended and shook his head.  “That’s not how this
works around here, Mr. Aizen…” he began, not appearing to move.
“I think it is,” Sōsuke said with a smile.  “Because my ex-boyfriend is outside
in the waiting room, and he can have your job before I leave for the way you
are choosing to treat my current partner in this delicate situation.”
The doctor frowned and shook his head.  “Who are you talking about?  There’s no
one here with that kind of power over anyone at this hospital.”
Sōsuke glared, pulling his cell phone out and texting a quick note to Byakuya
who had come in while they had been in the waiting room.  About half a minute
passed of the doctor obstinately refusing to leave and refusing to do anything
until Sōsuke left until there was a knock at the door. 
The nurse behind him opened the door and stepped back as Byakuya pushed the
rest of the way in.  “’Suke?” he asked, frowning, looking from Sōsuke to Ichigo
and to the doctor.
“Mr. Kuchiki!” the doctor said.
Byakuya’s company was a pharmaceutical company, of course.  However, this also
meant that Byakuya sat on several boards, including the hospital’s board of
directors.  In fact, he was the chairman of that board of directors.  His
pharmaceutical company had merged with the hospital and that was where all of
the company’s research was done, including in house drug trials and studies.
“Dr. Sung,” he said thoughtfully.  “What is the problem here?”
The doctor cleared his throat.  “Um, Mr. Aizen refuses to leave and let me do
the exam on Mr. Kurosaki,” he said, trying to look innocent.
Byakuya frowned and took one look at Ichigo and turned back to him.  “Why are
you doing this exam, Dr. Sung?  You aren’t in the gynecology department.  You
are emergency on call staff.  And it is quite obvious that Ichigo and Sōsuke do
not want you to be the one to do this exam.  Not only that, you should have had
enough basic training in emergency procedures to respect the request for
another doctor, and my guess is knowing Sōsuke as well as I do, he requested a
female doctor to do the exam.”
“Um, but Kuchiki-sama, it uh…there is a…” he stammered not really sure how to
answer the man in front of him.
“Now, I suggest that you locate a female doctor from the OBGYN department, as
soon as possible because the police are waiting for the evidence collection to
be expedited due to the nature of the ongoing investigation,” Byakuya said,
glaring at him.
“Um, and I’d listen to that request to hurry, too,” Ichigo said quietly. 
“Kisuke Urahara is Sōsuke’s other ex-boyfriend.”
Sōsuke couldn’t contain his smile at Ichigo that time.  The doctor blinked at
Ichigo then looked at Sōsuke and to Byakuya.  Sōsuke grinned.  “Yes, I do get
around, before you ask, Dr. Sung,” Sōsuke said cheekily.  He glanced at
Ichigo.  “At least I did, before.  And you really don’t want to find out who
else is my ex-boyfriend, because that, dear doctor, wouldn’t end well for you.”
Byakuya arched a brow.  “Gin is in town?” he asked.  “I did not realize he had
come back, but I understand why.  I take it he is still…ah…involved with the
same people he was when you were with him.”
Sōsuke grinned.  “Yeah, his ‘work’ hasn’t changed.  So, best you keep him and
Kissy apart, ‘Kuya.  I honestly don’t want him arresting, Gin.”
The doctor nodded and disappeared out the doorway, leaving Sōsuke to start
laughing and shaking his head in mirth.  “’Kuya, thanks.”
Byakuya nodded and stepped forward and took Ichigo’s hand gently.  “Ichigo,
please, know that Sōsuke will be there for whatever you need.  My biggest
regret in life was letting things end with him like they did,” he said and
kissed the back of Ichigo’s hand gently.
“What the hells are you doing, Bya?” came a voice from the doorway.  “Don’t go
kissing other mens’ hands like that, dammit!”
Ichigo looked over and saw the redheaded guy from his class standing in the
doorway with Rukia who was in his class.  “See, I thought I heard your voice,
Nii-sama.”
“Hey, yo, Ichigo, what’s up?” Renji said with a smirk, coming and slapping
Byakuya’s ass hard enough to make the stoic looking man flinch. 
Ichigo blinked, sitting in a hospital gown.  “What the hell, this isn’t an open
room for everyone to come in and out!” he said finally.  “Why are you here?”
Renji grabbed Byakuya’s waist with both hands and leaned against him and put
his nose in his hair for a second.  “Came looking for my bitch boy,” he
muttered into Byakuya’s ear.  Byakuya’s face colored slightly.  “Urahara said
he’d come back here when Sōsuke texted him.”
Ichigo’s eyes went a little wide at the way Renji was talking about Byakuya. 
He glanced at Sōsuke who had a bemused look on his face.  “Well, I will leave,
before Renji becomes irate with me,” he said smiling and nodding to Sōsuke and
Ichigo.  “Please text me if the doctors give you any further trouble.  I will
remain in the waiting room until Ichigo has been sent home to ensure things go
smoothly.”
“Oh, you will,” Renji said, tightening his grip on Byakuya’s hips.  “Hm.  Just
wait until I get you home, you’re gonna pay for being so much a fucking pain in
my ass tonight,” Renji groused, letting go of Byakuya’s hips and grabbing his
hand possessively and leaving with him.  Rukia smirked and shook her head and
followed.
“Sōsuke,” Ichigo said as the door swung shut.
“I suppose I should explain, Byakuya is a masochist and enjoys being humiliated
and talked down to like that,” Sōsuke said with a smile.  “It was…one of the
only aspects of him that I didn’t like, because I have trouble answering those
needs when they are as…extreme as ‘Kuya’s…”
“But…but Renji isn’t much older than me, and he’s like…” Ichigo started.
“Renji’s twenty-one, and he’s thirty-six.  He prefers younger men, which I of
course, am younger than him as well,” he said with a smirk. 
“What did you mean?  About Gin and Kisuke not being able to be around each
other?” Ichigo said with a frown suddenly.
Sōsuke sighed.  “I guess, since you enjoyed them I should let you know exactly
how Gin can show up here and stay for a long period and seems to enjoy all the
benefits of being moneyed while doing it…” Sōsuke and Gin had split up for this
very reason.  “He’s Yakuza.  He didn’t take off his shirt when we were with
him, but I’m sure you noticed that Kira has the beginnings of two tattooed
sleeves on his arms.  Gin has been with them since he was sixteen years old,
and he’s quite the accomplished business man in their name.  Kira is his
assistant, and that’s how they met each other.  What drove the wedge between us
was when I found out he had lied to me about no longer working for them.”
Ichigo nodded and then jerked as there was a knock at the door again.  This
time two women entered, one older woman with long dark hair in braids and the
other was shorter with large gray eyes and an overabundance of breasts.
“Ichigo, I’m Dr. Retsu Unohana, and this is my nurse, Orhime. How are you
feeling right now?” she asked gently.
“N-nervous.  I don’t…don’t remember anything when I had…this kind of exam
before…I was out,” he said. “And that other doctor, he was really rude…and I
didn’t like him and…”
Retsu smiled.  “It is fine, I assume you are Ichigo’s partner?” she said,
looking at Sōsuke.
“Sōsuke, and yes,” he said, liking her immediately.  “I’m sorry, but I insisted
the other doctor leave, he…he was not good for Ichigo.”
“You speak from experience?” she asked, turning and moving the cart nearer to
the table with the collection kit and her tools on it. 
Ichigo’s hand tightened on Sōsuke’s hand infinitely more when he saw the tray
of medical equipment.  The nurse began opening the sealed container and started
laying out the items.  She moved around, a blush rising as she got nearer to
Ichigo. 
“I need to see your hands, please,” she said. “I’m going to scrape under your
nails.”
Ichigo frowned, giving her his right hand.  “But…why?  I don’t think it will
matter, I was punching him, there might…”
“Ichigo, its okay, just let them do their job, okay,” Sōsuke said, putting his
hands on Ichigo’s shoulders and squeezing them rhythmically.  “They have a
whole list of things they have to do.”
After the young nurse was done, Retsu smiled.  “Now, I’ll need you to lay on
your side on the table so that we can collect any evidence from the hair in
your pubic region.  And Orihime well comb through your hair for the same
thing.”
Ichigo nodded slowly moving to lay down and swallowing hard.  “But why my
hair?  I mean, he didn’t…”
Sōsuke moved around and took both his hands.  “Fibers and trace evidence,” he
said softly.
“But…but why, I know who it was, and so does everyone else, there’s not like
any way that he could say it wasn’t…” he stammered, wincing as Retsu slid the
paper sheet under his hips and began working on combing through his lower
hair. 
“Ichigo, please tell me if you become too uncomfortable, we can give you a
sedative if you need it,” Retsu said softly, finishing up and sealing the
evidence collection. 
The nurse at his head did the same thing and then Retsu looked at Sōsuke. 
Sōsuke knew that this would be the hardest part for him. 
“Ichigo, I’ll need you to lay on your back, and scoot down to the end of the
table here,” she said. 
Ichigo rolled to his back and scooted down until his knees were at the edge and
he watched as she moved the metal stirrups open and nodded to him, dropping a
sheet over his thighs.  “Put your feet here, and then come all the way down,
dear,” she said, nodding gently at him.
Ichigo wasn’t sure how he felt as he put his feat in the stupid things and he
suddenly was hit with a wave of panic that the position induced.  He squeezed
his eyes closed and held tight to Sōsuke’s hand and slid down as she had asked,
trying to hide the trembling in his legs at the exposure.  The young nurse,
stayed up by his head, thankfully.
“Now, Ichigo, I’m going to tell you what I’m doing as I do it, okay?  And if
you need to stop, I want you to tell me,” Retsu said, patting his knees
reassuringly. 
“I don’t know why we have to do this,” Ichigo said, his breath hitching a bit. 
“I mean, why do you need evidence when…when my father watched what he did…”
“We have to have the DNA evidence to back up the witness account,” Sōsuke said,
rubbing Ichigo’s hands.  “Just bear through it, and we’ll be home in no time, I
promise, Ichigo.”
Ichigo nodded and Retsu smiled.  “I’m going to be touching you, and you will
feel something cold and slick.  Just try and hold still for me.”
Ichigo nearly jumped when he felt her touch him.  He bit down on the inside of
his cheek and resisted the urge to slam his knees together.  It was different
though, and he could tell there was some kind of really slick lube being used. 
“Alright, Ichigo, are you still okay?” she asked, looking over his paper sheet
covered knees.  He nodded at her.
Retsu patted his knee again and picked up something metal.  “Okay, first I’m
going to insert something called a speculum inside you, it will be cold, but it
shouldn’t hurt.  It is so I can check for any internal tears, perforations, and
collect the semen sample.”
Ichigo’s hand again tightened as she put it inside him and frowned as it felt
really weird.  “Ah,” he breathed.  “Ah, that feels weird, can you take it out…”
he said, his heartrate skyrocketing.
“Almost done, Ichigo, can you hold on a few more moments, otherwise I’ll have
to reinsert it again to finish.  Are you in pain?” she said, looking at his
face.
Ichigo swallowed, shaking his head.  “I-I’m okay, just please hurry.”
Sōsuke rubbed his hands until she finished, putting down the instruments and
cleaning him off.  She turned, stripping off her gloves and tossing them and
patted his knee.  “Alright, you can sit up again, dear.  You did very well,”
she said with a smile.
Ichigo was sitting up and clinging to Sōsuke as soon as she said it.  He was
heaving heavy breaths.  Sōsuke looked at her.  “Dr. Unohana, can you give him
something, I think he’s going to need it,” he said quietly.  She nodded,
turning and taking a capped syringe from her cart, moving around and patting
Ichigo’s leg.
“Ichigo, I’m going to give you something to help you calm down, okay?” she
asked. 
At that point, Ichigo couldn’t even think he just nodded, burying his face in
Sōsuke’s chest.  He didn’t even flinch as she injected his thigh.  After a few
moments he felt kind of heady, and his shoulders started to slack.  He looked
up at Sōsuke and smiled.  “Sōsuke, I’m tired,” he said softly.
“Take a nap, love, I’m going to talk to the doctor, okay?” Sōsuke said, kissing
his forehead.  Ichigo nodded already falling asleep.  Sōsuke laid him back on
the bed and looked to Retsu.
“How bad?” he asked softly.
Retsu sighed.  “I’m sure you know already about the scarring he has,” she said
and Sōsuke saw the younger nurse pale at it.  Sōsuke nodded.  “There are a
couple minor tears from the current assault, but nothing that should give him
much trouble.  I’d refrain from any anal sex until he has fully recovered, just
out of fear of infection if the healing tears reopen.  From his file, I saw
that when he came in last he had no current tearing.”
Sōsuke smirked, glancing at Ichigo’s sleeping face.  “He’s not gonna like
that,” he muttered.
The nurse colored red and Retsu arched a brow.  “I take it he is not a sex
repulsed survivor.”
Sōsuke shook his head.  “Not at all,” he muttered, “But then, neither was I,”
he said, lifting the edge of his shirt to show her the tattoo on his stomach. 
“I can understand why you did not get along well with Dr. Sung.  He tends to be
off putting toward male survivors especially.  He is…what you would call a
very…inconsiderate sort,” she said with a sigh.
“Well, after Byakuya gets done with him, he better reevaluate his ethics,”
Sōsuke muttered, leaning over and brushing his hand over Ichigo’s head.
“Kuchiki?” Orihime said from where she was putting the seals on the evidence
kit.  “The Chairman of the board of directors?” she said slightly surprised.
Retsu smiled softly.  “Yes, I heard he was in the waiting room, seems the
hospital is in an uproar about him being here unannounced like this.  I
understand now, though, why he’s here.  He had told me that he used to date a
dashing young brunette man with a tattoo on his stomach that covered a vicious
knife wound.”
Sōsuke smirked, seeing the complete shock on the nurse’s face.  “He…Chairman
Kuchiki…he’s gay?” she asked suddenly.
Retsu sighed, shaking her head.  “You did not see that feisty red haired man
earlier?”
“Th-the one that was cursing at the receptionist about where his…his…um…” she
said, blushing again.
Sōsuke giggled.  “Boy-bitch, I believe, is what he calls Byakuya,” Sōsuke said
finally.  “I’m surprised he didn’t use the loudspeaker when he was looking for
him.”
Orhime stared at him.  “You…you dated Chairman Kuchiki?” she asked softly as
there was a knock on the door.
Retsu opened it and Kisuke came in with a grin.  “Is the collection kit ready?”
he asked, and saw Sōsuke.
“Suke!” he said, running over and grabbing him up in a hug.  “I was afraid I
had missed you!”
Sōsuke groaned.  “Kissy…please…I’ve already had to explain why ‘Kuya was
running around with Renji smacking his ass…can you get off me…”
“Dammit, get off your ex, you coy bastard,” someone said from the door.  Sōsuke
saw it was Yoruichi. 
“Hey,” Sōsuke said, still being gripped tightly by Kisuke.  “And Kisuke!  Get
your hand off my ass!” he said, growling as he pushed him back.
“Can you not feel him up in front of me?” she asked, punching Kisuke in the
shoulder.
“Aw, why not, if he was just willing to play with a woman, we could have such
fun…” Kisuke said with a grin.
Sōsuke rolled his eyes.  “You know I’m not interested in your fantasy
threesome, Kissy.”
“Spoilsport.  I heard you had one with Gin and his fiancé,” Kisuke said,
crossing his arms and pouting.
“They’re both men!” Sōsuke said with an exasperated sigh.
“Well, you don’t have to even touch her!” he said, grinning.
Yoruichi slapped the back of Kisuke’s head, knocking his hat off.  “Bastard,
you don’t go making threesomes without consulting your wife!” she said.  “Now
hurry up and get the kit so we can take those kids back to the safe house.”
Kisuke turned to the mildly amused looking Retsu and took the sealed box. 
“Thank you, my lovely Dr. Unohana.  Enjoy your evening.”
Yoruichi sighed and followed Kisuke out and left the young nurse with her jaw
hanging.  Sōsuke couldn’t help but starting to laugh long and hard.  He had to
laugh, otherwise he would have cried, he thought.
                           -oooooo- oooooo -oooooo-
Kisuke dropped Ririn and Noba off with Yoruichi at the safe house for the night
and headed to the station.  He had a couple interviews to conduct, and he had
another arrest to make before the night was over.  He knew Yammy worked nights,
and he was going to make sure to be there when the arrest was made.  He stopped
in front of the doors and sighed.  Everything had been so messed up.  So many
of his people, the people he thought were the best at their jobs, had been
brought down by the Utagawas.  First, he thought, he wanted to see if they had
any idea where Inaba might have gone, so that meant he’d deal with Ryo and
Yoshi. 
He dropped the evidence kit off with forensics and set up for them to arrest
Yammy when he came in to go onto his shift tonight.  He’d asked one of the duty
officers to grab one of the tranq guns because he had a feeling Yammy was going
to get violent.  Especially if he was indeed on drugs like he suspected as
well.  He headed down to Interrogation room one where Ryo was waiting. He
flipped on the recording device for the room and went in and sat down.  He was
leaning back in the seat and staring at the ceiling tiles.
“Ryo Utagawa,” Kisuke said with a sigh.
“Didn’t we do this already?” Ryo asked with a sigh.  “I mean, I told your head
captain everything I knew.”
“Well, I want to ask some questions again, now that you’re not strung out and
see if you changed your mind on some of the things you claimed to have no
knowledge of.  You know that we can try to cut you a better deal if you provide
us with the appropriate information,” Kisuke said, staring at him.
“What do you want to know, Captain Urahara?” he said, smiling at him.
“First off, I read your statement.  I want to hear from you why,” Kisuke said
with a sigh.
“Why what?” Ryo asked, looking truly confused by the question.
“Why would you have sat in that house and let Yoshi torture, sell, rape, and
confine those children,” Kisuke said, frowning.
“That wasn’t my idea, and I told her it was horrible,” Ryo said sighing
dejectedly.  “I wanted to do something else with them, but she shut me down
because it was too much work,” he said with a shrug.
Kisuke raised an eyebrow.  “What did you want to do with them?” he asked,
preparing for a horrible and degrading idea that had to be worse than what
Yoshi had done.
“Well, see, I thought they could be a little gang for us.  And if we gave them
all the finer things they wanted, and pampered them, then they’d do whatever we
wanted.  I wanted to get them to do stuff because they wanted to, not force
them to do anything.  I wanted to run white collar stuff, you know, scamming
people outta money, using the kids as bait and teaching them to pickpocket on
the side.  I thought we could train them to be perfect little plants, bat those
cute eyes and then when we got money, just buy them all the stuff any kid could
want, you know.  Then they’d want to help us, and then we’d be set for life,”
he said, smiling at the idea. 
“Why didn’t you?” Kisuke asked, frowning.
“Ah, well, Yoshi didn’t like the idea of giving them stuff they wanted.  I
might have cared more, but the drugs…the drugs just got their hooks in my head,
and I just didn’t want to think about it.  It was easier, sucking down some
opium smoke and just forgetting about everything for a while.  She was always a
bitch when she didn’t get her way.  I told her that this scheme wasn’t gonna
last…but she was convinced we could run with it.  I knew it was gonna end like
this.  She just thought she could take out her nastiness on those kids, and
part of me was glad,” he said, rubbing a hand over his head thoughtfully.
“Glad?” Kisuke asked. 
“She didn’t take it out on me, you know?” he said with a frown.   “I just…we
got together when we were kids.  We fucked up together and both of us got
disowned.  She was all I had, and she was mean and angry all the time, and the
drugs just made it go away.”
Kisuke blinked and cocked his head thoughtfully.  “What did she do to you?”
Ryo looked at Kisuke and shrugged.  “Nothing, really, I mean…just when she was
strung out she’d say things, and she shot me once,” he said, his hand going to
his shoulder unconsciously and rubbing it.  “She blamed me for us not having
money like we should.”
Kisuke could see where this was going and he sighed.  “Okay, Ryo.  I’ll have
the bailiff take you back so you can sleep.”
Ryo nodded and Kisuke left, stopping outside the room and sighing.  He saw over
to the side that one of his officers was watching through the glass. 
“So…domestic abuse too, even between them.  She’s a piece of work,” Kisuke said
and walked down to the other interrogation room.  He entered and sat down
across from her and she gave him a glaring look.
“What the fuck do you want?” she asked.  “It is well past lights out, and I was
trying to sleep.”
Kisuke sighed.  “I wanted to ask you something.  I’ve had a long day, and I’m
dealing with your buddy Inaba, so tell me, where would he go if he was injured
and running?”
She smirked.  “He giving you a fight, huh?”
“Just give me the information I need, Yoshi, and maybe your sentence can be
lightened.  It’s already heavy enough.  You know that I can help you if I
want,” Kisuke said, leaning back and staring at her for a long moment.
She snorted.  “You have no idea.  You shouldn’t have got involved.  We had a
good thing.”
“Good thing?” Kisuke said, frowning.  “You were abusing and torturing helpless
kids.”
She shrugged.  “They were orphans, no one cared what happened to them.  How
else could we have run this for ten years?” she asked, smiling at him.  “If I
hadn’t let that little bitch slut go to college, we’d still be doing the same
fucking thing.”
Kisuke ground his teeth.  “I’ve been onto this for a lot longer than you know,
Yoshi.  You think everything was so carefully done, but you don’t realize how
much of a trail you left,” he said softly.  “I was already following the
corruption.  It would have ended eventually.  All Ichigo Kurosaki’s case did
was bring it to an end a little faster.”
“They liked it, don’t let them tell you otherwise,” she said, looking at him
long.  “Every fucking time, they liked the attention.”
“No one likes being tortured, Yoshi. No one,” Kisuke said, nearly growling.
“Oh, don’t give me that.  See, it’s Ichigo that you got so upset about, wasn’t
it?  That little bitch was such an easy brat to manipulate.  He’d put his ass
on the line at the drop of a hat.  He liked it.  Every time I went down there
to pull one of those little brats up for their starring roles on my tapes, he’d
try and get me to take him instead.  He liked being fucked.  He liked having
those strange men throw him down and fuck him again and again.  He liked it
when I took my gun and shoved it up his boy cunt.  He liked that so much he’d
just come upstairs to get caught just so I could fuck his ass with whatever I
could find,” she said, smiling at him in utter calm.
Kisuke fought the urge to vomit.  “He did that so you wouldn’t hurt the others,
Yoshi.  He didn’t like it.  He was protecting them because he felt like he had
to stand between them and you.”
Yoshi rolled her eyes.  “Whatever makes you and him sleep better.  I know what
a slut he was.  I bet he’s already sleeping around to get that hungry little
whore hole of his filled every chance he can.”
Kisuke glared at her for a long time.  “You know, it doesn’t matter what you
say, Yoshi.  There’s no excuse for anything you did to those kids.”
She shrugged.  “Like I give a fuck.”
Kisuke stood and then turned and looked at her.  “You know, that drug shipment
that you and Ryo got your hands on ten years ago, the one you used to fund this
little enterprise,” Kisuke said, looking at her.  “Wasn’t that a Yakuza
shipment?”
Yoshi frowned, looking surprised at him bringing that up.  “Yeah, so what?” she
asked.
“I’d keep an eye on your back in prison, Yoshi.  Yakuza have a long memory,” he
said, nodding to her.  “And you never know who knows that it was you that stole
it.”
With that Kisuke turned and left, heading out into the main bullpen.  It was
almost eleven.  He sighed, looking up as he saw Yammy come in, talking with
another officer that was coming on duty.  He swallowed, hoping that this went
smoothly.
“Yo, Yammy,” Kisuke said, motioning him over toward him.
“Captain Urahara,” he said, coming over.  “You need something.”
“Yammy Riyalgo, you’re under arrest for aiding and abetting and for obstruction
in an investigation into Inaba…” Kisuke started, only to be flying across the
room before he finished his sentence, slamming into the wall.  He groaned where
he landed and scrambled to his feet just in time to see Yammy topple.  Near the
receptionist desk, Iba stood with the tranq gun in his hand. 
“Fuck,” Kisuke said, wobbling for a second before collapsing.  He was hoping
that ringing was in his head and not actually in the room.
                           -oooooo- oooooo -oooooo-
Sōsuke sat beside Ichigo and sighed.  When he woke up, they’d been cleared to
go home.  He just hoped Ichigo was feeling better then.  He looked through the
bag with the prescriptions inside it.  Anti-anxiety medicine, anti-biotics,
pain medication, a salve, and some more potent anxiety medications in case of a
severe attack.  He sighed, then jumped hearing his phone ring in his pocket. 
He pulled it out and saw it was Gin.
“Gin?” he asked, frowning, wondering why Gin would be calling him at this odd
time of night.  It was almost midnight.
“Susu, hey, I heard what happened to Ichi-baby.  How is he?” he asked.
“Gin, how the hell…I’m not even gonna ask,” Sōsuke said with a sigh.  “He’s
going to be okay.  We’re leaving when he wakes up.”
Gin paused for a minute.  “This guy, was his name Kagerōza Inaba?”
Sōsuke blinked.  “Ah, yeah, how do you know that?”
“And, the woman and man, they were Ryo and Yoshi Utagawa, right?”
Sōsuke felt the frown moving across his brows.  “Um, yeah, but we probably
should talk about it, they’re in custody and it’s a viable investigation…and…”
“Don’t worry, Sōsuke.  Don’t worry,” Gin said, and Sōsuke heard that sound in
his voice.  It was that sound that he’d had when…
“Gin, don’t.  Please, you can’t do this.  Let the police do their jobs,” he
said, biting his lip because a part of him wanted Gin to do just that.  Even
though this had been why he and Gin hadn’t stayed together.  Even though he
knew that what he was going to do was almost as bad as what had already
happened.
“Hey, you know, I’ll always love you, Susu.  And I want you happy, and I want
to see your Ichi-baby happy.  If that means that I can’t see you again, that’s
okay, because I know that you’ll be safe, and so will he,” Gin said, and Sōsuke
knew he was going to do whatever he had planned no matter what Sōsuke said.
Sōsuke shook his head, eyes wide.  “Please, you’ll get hurt and…”
“Baby, I won’t get hurt.  This is what I do, remember?” Gin said, and the phone
went dead, leaving Sōsuke staring at his shaking hand for a long moment.
About ten miles away, Gin put his phone into his too tight jeans and smiled at
Kira.  Kira smirked and snapped the riding crop he was holding in his hand. 
“Can I?” Kira said with a tone of ultimate excitement.  Gin smirked, shucking
his shirt.
“Shall we tell him who we are?” he said, as Kira came up and ran his hands over
Gin’s ink covered body. 
The only places devoid of the intricate tattoos were those that would be seen
when he wore his suit.  They extended under the band of his pants.  They
weren’t complete, of course.  His legs hadn’t been done yet.  Kira’s had
started on his shoulders, but of course, he was new.  Kira smirked, wearing
only his slacks now.  They walked into the next room where a man was hanging by
his wrists from the ceiling.
“Well, Kagerōza Inaba, it seems we’re going to get to know each other,” Gin
said, smilng.  Inaba looked up, seeing the trademark tattoos covering Gin’s
body.
“What…I never…I never did anything to Yakuza.  Never!  I never crossed you!” he
said frantically, staring between the two blondes.
“Well, that isn’t entirely true,” Gin said, sitting down in the chair that sat
before him.  “You see, Sōsuke Aizen is my ex, who I might add I deeply and
truly love with all my heart.  And it seems you had the absolute worst idea and
not only raped his current lover once, but twice.  Now, that alone, I couldn’t
sanction as official action,” Gin said, staring at his nails.  “However, what I
could sanction happened when I found out that your associates, Ryo and Yoshi
Utagawa had made a tidy profit after stealing from us.”
Inaba’s eyes went wide.  “But…but I didn’t steal it!  They did!”
“And there’s the problem,” Gin said, watching as Kira circled the man hanging
by his wrists.  “See, I was wondering if you knew that they’d made their
fortune on Yakuza product.  And you did.  I really wish you’d said you hadn’t
known…” Gin said, looking up and locking his bright blue eyes on Inaba’s. 
“Actually, no I didn’t wish you had.  Because now, I’m going to enjoy this
personally, and professionally.”
“If you kill me, your pussy ex-boyfriend and his cunt boy toy won’t forgive
you, they’re both too soft!” he yelled as Kira started stroking his back with
the crop.
Gin smiled.  “Oh, I know that.  But the pleasure I get from this, and knowing
that you, nor those Utagawas, will never hurt him, or another soul, that is
good enough for me.”
Kira grinned with sadistic glee as Gin nodded to him.  Inaba screamed for them
to stop.  Like those that he himself had victimized, though, his words meant
nothing.
 
***** Without Chaos Interfering *****
 
Sōsuke sat exhausted against the headboard of the bed and read a manga on his
phone’s reader.  He and Ichigo had gotten home just after three am, and Ichigo
of course had fallen into a sleep of the dead immediately.  Between the stress
and the medications he’d been given, it was no wonder he couldn’t stay awake. 
Sōsuke, however, couldn’t bring himself to get up and go in the next room.  He
sat on the covers where Ichigo sprawled across perhaps three quarters of
Sōsuke’s king sized bed.  Now and then he would snort and wheeze in his sleep
and Sōsuke smiled and kept reading.  It was well after noon already, and he bet
he perhaps slept for three hours during the night.  He’d woke up everytime
Ichigo had moved.
He was almost ready to get up and fix food so that he could get Ichigo up and
give him his medicine this morning when the doorbell rang.  Sōsuke stood,
stretching a bit before he went into the front and opened the door to see
Isshin standing there nervously.
“Ah, Ichigo is still asleep, I’m afraid, after the events yesterday…” Sōsuke
said, glancing back at the bedroom door.
“I…came to talk to you, actually, Sōsuke, if that’s okay,” he said quietly. 
Sōsuke blinked.
“Of course, come, I’ll put on some tea,” he said, gesturing for the other man
to come into the room and follow him.
Isshin saw that he was in an undershirt like he usually wore, the sleeveless
style.  He could see that the tattoos he’d gotten recently were starting to
heal up, only peeling a bit in a couple places.  He couldn’t imagine how much
the man had paid for that much tattoo work.  Isshin himself had never worked up
the to have them done.  He sat down and watched as Sōsuke went into the kitchen
and started a tea kettle.
“Um, so the tattoos…” Isshin said, looking up.  “I never managed any, do they
hurt much?”
Sōsuke turned to him shaking his head.  “Actually, the worst part of tattooing
is the healing period.  It feels like a sunburn when it starts to heal, you
see, and you mustn’t scratch or peel at it otherwise the inking will be
damage,” he said, putting out a tray of teas on the table and getting two cups
for them.  “I suppose the pain is sometimes an attractive part of the process
for some people.  I know many of my clients had tattoos and piercings after
their assaults.”
“So…you…you counseled people professionally…that had this stuff happen to
them…” Isshin said, picking out a jasmine tea from the tray and looking up at
him.
Sōsuke nodded.  “I did.  When I started school, I was so certain that I was
going to help people get through the things that I had gone through.  I wanted
to change people’s lives.  I was very idealistic about it, which wasn’t a bad
thing.  I had quite a thriving practice for nearly two years.”
“Why did you close it and move back?” Isshin said as Sōsuke sat to wait on the
water. 
Sōsuke sighed and looked thoughtful.  “Well, I didn’t anticipate the harm that
dealing with other survivors would to my own mental health.”
“I don’t understand,” Isshin said, chewing on his lip.  “And I mean that
sincerely.  Because I don’t understand this and I don’t know how to deal with
it all.  I’ve said and done things that I shouldn’t have, and I’ve had even
more thoughts that I haven’t spoken because I don’t know if I should say them. 
I…I don’t want to hurt Ichigo.  He’s been hurt enough as it is.”
Sōsuke saw the sincerity written on Isshin’s face.  Sōsuke nodded.  “Well,
Isshin, you are indeed in a better frame of mind than some of the families I’ve
worked with,” he said with a deep sigh.  “Rape, sexual violence, sexual
assault, intimate partner violence, these things aren’t easily put into nice
little boxes.  A person that survives these things can have a myriad of things
happen to them, and in today’s society, male survivors are often fearful of
coming forward, and that goes double for non hetero male survivors.  There’s
this idea that to be a man, you have to protect yourself, and that by having
another person force themselves on us, they are somehow devaluing us, removing
our dignity.  The situation runs far deeper than just simple concepts of
violence, because of the way our world as a whole equates weakness with
femininity, and therefore anyone that shows weakness is equated as not ‘man
enough’ to be considered a man.  Being weak is the worst thing that can happen
to a man in the current status quo’s mind,” Sōsuke said with and nod of his
head.  “It…it is a societal deep issue.  I cannot change those things, however,
and that is why dealing with male survivors is difficult.”
Isshin nodded slowly as the kettle announced with its shrill whistle that the
water was boiling.  Sōsuke got up and poured them each a cup and returned the
kettle.  “Because of this, for male survivors, we have to come to terms first
with the idea that having something as abhorrent as being raped by someone does
not make us less of a man or weak in any fashion.  We come to this in different
ways.  Ichigo reacts with violence and anger, which I’m sure will continue.  He
tries to push away all that could help him out of his perceived inadequacy. 
Further than that, he put responsibility for everyone in that basement on his
own shoulders, and each harm that befell them, he felt was his shortfall.”
Sōsuke stirred his tea, a calming chamomile green, thoughtfully.  “I knew the
first day I met him in my class,” he said finally.  “I just…there was something
in his face.  And no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. 
Every class, he would come in and would suffer through whatever pain he was in
silently, and he only ever missed assignments that required participation from
family members.  I felt…discomfort.  I was…attracted to a student.  Granted,
he’s not that much younger than me.  So I put all my interest in helping him,
thinking that if I could just get him help, and move on, then I could also move
on.  Because there was something about him that struck an all too familiar
chord in me.”
Isshin sipped his tea quietly.  “So, you could tell he’d been hurt, or was
hurting,” Isshin said quietly.
“In a way,” Sōsuke said, running a hand over his brunette hair.  “I wanted to
save him, you see.  When I recovered, I slept around.  A lot.  I told Ichigo
about it, but I don’t think he understands the scope of what I did.  I was
confused and wanted to make myself feel something besides numb.  I can’t…I
can’t even tell you how many, Isshin, I’ll be honest.  I’m sure you’ve run
across something here or there about me, considering the reaction you had to
our relationship.”
Isshin sighed.  “I…did.  My friend, Yukio, the bounty hunter that caught Ryo
and Yoshi, he had found some things and showed me.  There were some…very
unflattering accounts.  I believed that you were using Ichigo as another
conquest as sorts.”
Sōsuke nodded.  “I freely admit to that,” he said softly, glancing at his cup. 
“But then, Byakuya made me feel again.  And we had a good relationship for a
long while.  When we broke up, Kisuke and I started dating.  And I felt like I
couldn’t go without someone in my life.  I felt that if I wasn’t with someone,
I was going to die.  I thought that I needed someone all the time and I had a
horrible fear of being alone.  I ended up moving to Kyoto after I graduated,
leaving Kisuke to his now wife Yoruichi.  I met Gin in Kyoto, and had a couple
short relationships along the way.  Then I started seeing Gin.”
Sōsuke stopped and took a breath.  “Then, the thing that led me to leave Kyoto,
the final straw if you will, happened.”
Isshin looked at the pained expression Sōsuke wore.  “You don’t have to…” he
began.
“No, I do,” Sōsuke said, smiling softly at him.  “I do.  I plan to stay with
Ichigo, and you should know these things.”  Sōsuke appeared to collect himself
and closed his eyes for a moment.  “I had been out with Gin again at a club.  A
big club, of course, and we were dancing and having fun, drinking a little but
not too much.  Well, I had started feeling ill, and thought I had just drunk
too much and made my way to the bathroom.  After I’d thrown up, I felt a
horribly familiar feeling that I knew.  I panicked, trying to get out the door
only to find my way blocked by someone who kept telling me to calm down.  I
knew I’d been drugged, and there was no way that Gin would realize what had
happened until it was too late.  The guy pushed me into one of the stalls and I
tried to get away from him, but I just felt so weak…  Everything was a blur,
but the next thing I remembered was sitting on the floor beside the toilet with
a very tall, very made up drag queen trying to get my attention.  He had helped
me up and out of the bathroom, and I realized he had completely knocked the
shit out of the guy who had followed me in there.”
Sōsuke paused, sighing.  “It…it was terrifying, that feeling again, and I can’t
even tell you the guy’s name that helped me.  Time skips when you’ve had one of
those date rape drugs, I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced it.  Well, for
me it does.  And I remember Gin yelling at the guy that was holding me up and
then when he heard what had happened, he got me out of there as quickly as he
could.  But the damage was done.  I’d gone to the bathroom that night after Gin
was asleep and there was a bottle of Percocet in the cabinet from when Gin had
a surgery on his wrist a couple months previously.  Of course, Gin being who he
is, had a lot left since he’d refused to take most of them.  I don’t know how
many, I just took the whole bottle.”
Sōsuke sipped his tea again and thought for a long moment.  “I woke up in the
hospital.  Gin was there, and told me he was going to fix it.  He wouldn’t tell
me what that meant, but I stayed in the hospital psychiatric ward for three
weeks until I got things under control.  When I got out, I found out what Gin
had meant.  See, he had told me that he was ex-Yakuza, and I didn’t think about
the fact there are no ex-Yakuza.  He wasn’t, of course, but he’d lied to me. 
He’d told me he was done with that life.  He’d instead called in favors, and
he’d found the guy.  They found what was left of him in the ocean a month
later.  So I left Kyoto, closing my office, and calling Byakuya for help.  He
put in a word for me with the University, and then helped me get this
apartment.  So I came here because in my life, that has been how I’ve dealt
with pain, just to move on from it.” 
Isshin nodded, thinking on what he had said.  The things Yukio had shown him,
blogs from his previous encounters, versions of the things that they’d seen him
do, the parties and things that he had attended less than two years ago, had
been enough to make Isshin feel very worried about his son.
“So this was a fresh start again,” Isshin said, sipping his own tea.  “But, if
you were a professional and a teacher, how could you become attached to my son
like you did?”
Sōsuke smirked.  “I don’t know, he’s just this person that makes me feel
complete.  His youth, but more than that, his fire.  Despite everything, that
spark of anger and that strength that he exudes, especially when there is
someone else at risk.  He…is wise beyond his years and far more mature than you
realize.  He…he had to be a big brother, father, teacher, and protector to
those other kids.  And he learned really fast how to take care of them, each
and every one.  He feels weak, and he feels inadequate, when the fact is that I
believe he is the strongest person I’ve ever met.  He is so much stronger than
I could ever be.” 
Isshin smiled.  “I’m…I’m sorry that I didn’t talk to you before I came to
conclusions.  I…I talked to one of your coworkers, a Grimmjow, at a bar and he
said something that I didn’t realize.  I saw the boy I left.  But he grew up. 
And the boy I left is gone.  I can’t be the father that left ten years ago
because that boy is gone.  When…when I exploded at him…that was the father that
was speaking.  And I had to change.  I had to try and figure out how to be a
father to the man that is now in front of me,” he said softly, stirring his tea
thoughtfully, letting the jasmine scent fill his senses.
Sōsuke nodded and sipped his own cup.  “Thank you,” he said smiling at him. 
“It means a lot that you feel this way.”
A short distance away, Ichigo stood just inside the doorframe to the bedroom
listening.  He’d woken up when the doorbell rang.  He reached up and wiped away
tears and considered going in there to talk to them, then decided not to. 
Instead, he slid down the doorframe and sat against the wall, listening and
feeling his heart pounding in his ears.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Kira was positively glowing the next day as Gin fixed breakfast.  Gin glanced
up at him as he came into the kitchen and kissed Gin’s cheek.
“Well, love, you seem to be in a good mood,” Gin said smiling. 
“I am, I am!” Kira said, sitting down while Gin put out breakfast for them.  “I
so enjoyed our fun last night,” he said, eating as soon as the food was put in
front of him. 
“You had been depressed for a while, my love,” Gin said with a smirk. 
Kira was an interested creature, Gin had decided.  He was an extreme sadist,
making him the perfect partner for Gin in the enterprises they engaged in
occasionally.  However, these days, those skills were needed less and less, and
Kira very rarely got a chance to truly enjoy himself.  They dabbled, of course,
in some bondage scenes where Kira could relieve some of his needs, but there he
could not go as far as he wanted.  Kira’s fetish for giving pain went far
beyond what the world deemed acceptable, for his glee came from blood and flesh
ripping.  Kira had actually ben who Gin had requested when he had dealt with
the man that had attempted to assault Sōsuke in the club two years ago.  Gin
didn’t like to get his hands dirty, so to speak, but he did enjoy watching Kira
work.
Gin had been recruited into the Yakuza at fifteen because his father had been a
lifelong member.  When he had met Sōsuke, he had honestly stepped away.  He
hadn’t really lied, but no one really leaves them.  He just had gone on his own
to pursue his own interests.  Then when he was attacked, he’d contacted his
father and he’d sent Kira.  Then he was back in and there was not leaving
again.  He was a cleaner, and Kira was his assistant.  After a few times of
watching the little sadist work, they’d started sleeping together after their
jobs.  And he found completion. 
Kira however got depressed when he didn’t get to enact his love of torture and
dismemberment.  So, this diversion had been a welcome change. 
Gin glanced at see his phone was ringing.  It was Sōsuke.  He nervously picked
it up and tried to sound cheery.
“Susu, how are you today?” he asked, smiling at Kira.
“Tell me what happened,” Sōsuke said quietly. 
Gin grimaced.  “It honestly is better that you not know, my dear.  I…wouldn’t
want to implicate you in anything.  Just know that your problem will no longer
be a problem.”
“Did you kill him?” Sōsuke asked a little louder.
Gin glanced at Kira who was eating still.  “We did not,” Gin said, feeling
somewhat proud of himself and Kira.  “He wishes we had, I am sure.”
“What happened to him?” Sōsuke asked and Gin could hear the relief in his
voice.
Gin sat down slowly.  “He was left outside emergency this morning.  I’m certain
that he will heal…in a few weeks…and be able to stand trial, if others do not
get to him first for his involvement in the missing drug shipment.”
“That doesn’t tell me what you did,” Sōsuke said tightly.
Gin sipped his orange juice slowly. “You really don’t want to know, but I
didn’t touch him.”
“You didn’t touch him,” Sōsuke said doubtfully.
“Not one finger, now Kira on the other hand had a delightful time showing him
the wonders of his particular talents,” Gin said, smiling at his positively
glowing fiancé across the table.  “Kira enjoyed himself, however, I got the
impression poor Inaba did not.  He was quite literally babbling nonsense when I
left him, so we might have broken the poor man.”
Sōsuke sighed deeply but didn’t comment.  “Alright, I…I can’t believe I’m
saying this, but, thank you.  And you can still visit me and Ichigo.”
Gin grinned widely.  “Well wonderful!  Haineko is doing better, now.  Now, are
you taking Ichigo to the group meeting tonight?”
Sōsuke paused.  “Yeah, I think it would be good for him. Will you be there for
Haineko?”
“I shall indeed, so I will see you there, my dear,” Gin said, making a kissing
noise before he hung up.
Kira looked up.  “So he didn’t tell you never to show up again?”
“No, actually, I think he’s come to terms with the fact sometimes, the things
we do are necessary, and of course, fun,” Gin said with a smirk.  “Now, you
violent little shit, get over here and sit on my cock.”
Kira stood up, sliding his robe off and moved around the table to do just that.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo was nervous as he glanced at himself in the tall mirror in Sōsuke’s
room.  Their room, he corrected himself in his head.  Their.  He saw that
Sōsuke was smiling gently at him.
“Are you ready?” he asked, smiling at him and brushing a hand over his head.
“Yeah, I think so.  You will stay, right?” he asked, nervously.
Sōsuke kissed his forehead.  “I will be in the next door meeting room with the
other friends and family who are going to be working with Dr. Unohana.  I’m
helping her counsel the family and friends on dealing with the particulars of
the situation.  Jūshirō will be leading the group, as he’s been working
individually with several of you.  So there’s no reason to be nervous.”
They headed out to the hospital where they were meeting in a couple of the
larger conference room.  Byakuya had set up everything with the board to ensure
that treatment and counseling was offered free of charge to the people
involved.   They arrived to find that both rooms were already filling with
people.  Ichigo was a bit overwhelmed though, as Sōsuke led him into the first
room for the survivor group.  They were planning on meeting once a week until
they felt they didn’t need the meetings anymore.  The same was said for the
supporters group next door. 
Sōsuke kissed Ichigo on the head and smiled as he headed over to the other
room.  In the family room he saw Gin and Kira already there, as well as Isshin,
Karin, and Yuzu.  He noticed that Ryuken was standing in the back, and Uryū and
Chad were sitting in the front.  Yoshino and Koga were there, as well as
Wonderweiss and Luppi.  He glanced and saw Ragiku Matsumoto and several others
that he didn’t know.  Toshiro and his grandmother were there, as well as
Harribel and her three consorts.  So far, everyone who was closely involved
with any one of them were.  He looked up in surprise as someone kissed his
cheek. 
“Kisuke!” he exclaimed, smiling then frowning, glancing over to where Gin and
Kira sat talking to each other. 
Kisuke saw where he was looking and smiled at him.  “Don’t worry, I’m not here
to arrest your ex, sweetie.  I’m here…ah…we decided to take in Ririn and Noba.”
Sōsuke smiled.  “I’m glad.”
Next door, Ichigo sat down and waited as the other kids from the house entered
the room and greeted him.  He hugged each of them.  He hugged Noba tightly and
thanked him.
“So, where are you guys?” he asked Ririn as they sat down.
“Kisuke is taking us in,” she answered with a smile.  “They’re good, and I
think Noba wants to go into the police with Kisuke.”  Noba, who still didn’t
speak much, nodded.
A few minutes later Ichigo looked up to see Jūshirō walk up to the front and
clap loudly.
“Welcome to our first group session.  We’re going to go around the room and
introduce ourselves, and then we’ll just talk a little bit,” he said and
watched.
Ho and Ban had come, but they were sitting off to the side clutching each
other, and of course they didn’t speak.  Haineko and several of the others who
had been in the house on a regular basis had also come.  Everyone spoke up
almost, and then it came to Ichigo and he froze staring straight ahead at
Jūshirō.  He moved on and then asked if anyone wanted to speak.  Ichigo
couldn’t believe he was so scared of nothing…
He came out of his dazed state when Noba spoke beside him.
“I want to talk about the things that were good,” he said, glancing around.  “I
know there wasn’t much good, but there was some.  We…we became a family through
our pain.  Ichigo took care of us all, and Haineko and some others would care
for us.  We aren’t broken. We aren’t.  We’re each other’s strength and hope and
love.  It doesn’t matter what we went through.  We are family.”
Jūshirō  smiled and nodded.  “That’s true.  Tell me, what makes family?”
“Ichigo took care of us,” Hanataro whispered, looking up.  “He got us food.  He
got us toys and books and he tried his best.  That’s family.”
“We cleaned each other’s wounds,” Nozomi said, looking around.  “We bandaged
each other and we held each other when we needed it.  That’s family.”
Ichigo’s heart ached but he smiled to see them all speaking up in turn.  “We
kept each other sane,” Ririn said softly.  “Through it all, we knew we had each
other.”
Momo nodded.  “I…I never had a real family but this was my first family and
I’ll always be grateful for what it gave me.”
Ichigo smiled.  “Family is protecting the ones we love,” he said finally, his
eyes tearing up.  “I didn’t ever let you see me cry,” he said, looking at his
hands.  “I always, always cried, just…not around you.”
Ririn frowned and put a hand on Ichigo’s back.  “What?  Why not?”
“I thought…I thought I had to be strong enough not to cry, but when they took
me up…when they did those things, I always would cry…” he said, and he felt
Noba put an arm around him.
“You didn’t have to hide your tears,” Noba said gently.
Ichigo nodded, wiping the tears that now fell.  “I thought if you didn’t see me
cry that you’d think I was strong.”
“You were strong, even if you cried all the time, you were still the strongest
one there!” Rin said, looking up at him. “You stopped them from taking me up,
you let her do horrible things to you instead, because you didn’t want them to
hurt me.  That’s…that’s so strong,” he said, looking down at his hands.
Things continued for almost two hours as everyone talked about small things at
first.  No one really broached any difficult subjects just yet, but they all
felt united together.  Jūshirō would be seeing everyone on an individual basis
as well, and some, like Ichigo, he was still seeing daily.  When they were
done, everyone hugged and bid each other goodbye.  Ichigo waited with Sōsuke
and saw his father and sisters leaving. 
“Hey pop,” he said softly, smiling as he stood holding Sōsuke’s hand in his.
“How was your first group?” Isshin said, smiling at him.
Ichigo nodded.  “Good.  You?”
“Same,” Isshin said, smiling.  “Sōsuke really knows his stuff,” he said nodding
at him.
Kisuke walked up just then, scratching his head as he approached.  Sōsuke
frowned at him. 
“Suke, you wouldn’t happen to know what happened to Inaba?” he asked, arching a
brow.
Sōsuke glanced at Gin and Kira as they were leaving and back to Kisuke, who
looked after the two men leaving with Rangiku.  “I see.  He was dropped off at
the emergency door this morning.  He was severely beaten and we believe
tortured.  He’s been admitted to the psych wing, though, he’s not speaking
coherently,” Kisuke said, looking back at him. 
Isshin glanced at Sōsuke and back at Kisuke.  “Wow…”
“Oh, how is your agent?” Karin asked, looking at him.  “That big Kenpachi guy.”
Kisuke smiled.  “Oh, he’s fine.  Didn’t even have a concussion.  That bastard
could take on a train and come out barely scratched.”
Karin and Yuzu smiled at each other.  “Uncle Kaien went back to Tokyo today.  
That Byakuya guy said we can stay in this house as long as we want, too,” Yuzu
said with a grin.
“Oh, really?” Sōsuke said.  “Was your uncle injured much?”
Karin shook her head.  “Nah, he broke his hand, though, getting out of those
zip ties.  Good thing he kept that knife in his pants pocket all the time.”
“I’m glad,” Sōsuke said with a smile.  “We should get going, it is already
late,” he said, pulling Ichigo into a tight hug and smiling.  “We’ll see you
later this week for dinner?” he asked.
Yuzu smiled brightly.  “Yes, seven on Thursday!”
Everyone exchanged farewells and headed out to their homes.  Ichigo sat in the
car and watched the world go by and was amazed at how much things had changed
in such a short time.  He swallowed hard and was glad that he had Sōsuke.  He
reached over and took his hand as he drove and he wondered exactly how things
would go in the future.  He didn’t know, but he had Sōsuke, and Sōsuke would
help him. 
***** Blissful Chaos *****
Chapter Notes
     Final edits will be forthcoming, but for now, this is the end of
     Whispered Chaos! I'll post a link when a pdf version is available,
     but I have plans for it to go up on Smashwords as well so you can
     download any version.
Ichigo watched as the waves on the Australian coast came in and went back out.
His toes were buried in the sand, and he was thoughtful. He could hear
everything and nothing all at once here. The sky was expansive and went on
forever and ever it seemed. The sea here was blue-green, and not dark colored
like he’d expected. Being landlocked for so long meant that he had longed for
the sea. He wasn’t sure, but he was beginning to like it more and more. Could
it be that he’d change so much in the last four years?
Four years. It had been four years since he walked into Sōsuke Aizen’s
classroom for the first time. Four years since his entire life was turned
upside down and inside out. He sighed as he looked at the sun setting. The sand
was getting into the formal slacks he was wearing. He knew that someone would
come fetch him soon. He was supposed to be getting ready, not sitting on the
beach watching the sun begin to dip down in the sky.
“You’re not supposed to be out here,” Karin’s voice said from behind him.
He turned and smiled at her. She’d grown a lot in four years, becoming an
amazing person. “Yeah, just some last-minute thoughts. You know how it is.”
Karin rolled her eyes. “You are being ridiculous, Ichigo. He’s gonna wait as
long as it takes for you to walk in there, so the longer you wait, the longer
it takes to get to the reception and that amazing cake. Come on, I’m starving!
We spent all morning in the ocean.”
Ichigo nodded, letting Karin help him to stand up. He brushed the sand off the
slacks, and straightened the suit he was wearing. “I know. I just was thinking.
Four years, and so much has changed.”
“We got you back, we got our Pop back, and you have perhaps the coolest man in
your life of anyone I know,” Karin said with a smirk. “I mean, Yuzu and Jinta’s
baby is cute, and I’m sure that eventually I’ll have a person to love, but
Sōsuke is famous.”
“Don’t tell him that,” Ichigo said as he slipped his hands into his pockets.
Four years had meant his body was filled out, muscled, and he took martial arts
to keep himself busy. There were some things that Ichigo couldn’t do, and for
those things he had Sōsuke. He had found his anxiety was too bad for him to
work outside their home. Sōsuke had been fine with that, and had helped him
start a career in journalism at home. Ichigo ran a blog and reported on what
Sōsuke did. Of course, after Sōsuke had written a book about Ichigo’s
experiences, he became incredibly famous. No one knew that the people in the
book were Sōsuke and Ichigo. He’d written it and called it The House of Chaos:
The True Story of Modern Day Child Exploitation.There were already talks about
turning it into a movie. The publisher was the only person that knew that the
story Sōsuke had written was about himself, and they hoped to keep it that way.
Sōsuke had gone on to write more books, mostly about other child exploitation
rings and the people that ran them. Because of their popularity, Sōsuke and
Ichigo ended up employing Gin and Kira full time as bodyguards and aids. Kisuke
and Byakuya had decided not to acknowledge their obvious Yakuza ties. No one
ever asked what happened when Kira appeared to be in extremely good spirits.
They all knew that he’d done something gruesome. Sōsuke’s current book project
was Gin’s story.
Ichigo stopped outside the gazebo and smiled. Inside, everyone was waiting. He
saw Sōsuke standing before the official. Karin clapped him on the back and
Ichigo waited at the entrance until his father came up beside him.
“There you are,” Isshin said with a smirk.
They’d gotten to know each other better in the last four years, and Isshin had
stayed nearby. He’d started a free medical clinic, and he donated all his money
to it. He lived above the clinic in a small one bedroom apartment, and kept his
life to the minimal of essentials. Karin and Yuzu had become close to their
father, and while Ichigo didn’t think he could ever truly treat him like a real
father, he’d become closer with him.
“Hey, just wanted to watch the sun set on my last day as a single man,” Ichigo
said with a sigh.
“You act like you two haven’t practically been married for the last four
years,” Isshin commented as the light music they’d picked for the approach
played.
As he walked the short aisle, Ichigo saw his precious people. They had all done
so well in the last four years. Hō and Ban had come a long way in that time,
now beginning to speak to others. They still lived with Koga, but with therapy
they had progressively gotten better. Hanatarō and Rin were now nineteen and
eighteen and starting college. Hanatarō was going to be a nurse, and Rin was
going into science research. Nozomi was also starting college, but she hadn’t
settled on exactly what she wanted to do. Ririn was going to become a crisis
and rape counselor and she said nothing would keep her from that goal. She said
after seeing what everyone had gone through, the only thing she wanted to do
was help others. Momo eventually decided to start her own family, marrying a
young man she met in her school. Tōshirō became the world’s proudest uncle.
Noba had recovered most of his ability to speak, and now was two years into an
advanced creative writing program. He was already winning awards for his poetry
and short prose, and it didn’t hurt to be good friends with the up and coming
New York Times Bestselling author, Sōsuke Aizen. Ichigo was so proud of all of
them.
Still, the person he was proudest of was standing in front of all the rest of
these people. He reached the end and smiled at Sōsuke. He was wearing a
matching suit to Ichigo’s, the only difference between the two being the ties
were different colors. Both suits were white with blue accents. Ichigo’s tie
was red, while Sōsuke’s was green. They entwined their fingers and the official
smiled at them. The official was a small woman with a very bright smile.
“Welcome to this wonderful confirmation of love! Today, we gather to celebrate
the wedded bliss for Sōsuke Aizen and Ichigo Kurosaki. Both have decided to
write their own vows,” she said, ducking her head and looking at them.
“I’ll start,” Sōsuke said with a smile. “Um, so four years ago, I felt like a
complete failure at life. I started a new job, and then to make everything seem
even worse, I went and fell in love with a student in my class. Now, that’s got
to be the worst thing, ever, right?” he said with a smirk. Ichigo blushed. “We
went through a lot, but in the end, we came out on the other side. I would
rather have done without the pain you suffered, but it happened. From now on,
though, I will make sure that your life is as painless as I can make it. You
are the one good thing in the world to me. I love you more than words can
express. And I want to give you this ring, as an even stronger promise than the
one I gave you before,” Sōsuke said and took Ichigo’s left hand and slipped the
platinum ring on his finger.
Ichigo smiled at him. “I didn’t know what to say. I really didn’t. How can I
thank someone who brought me out of the darkness and into the sun?” Ichigo’s
eyes rested on Sōsuke’s brown wavy hair. “You let me be myself, and you let me
explore things even though it hurt you. And now, we’ve become in love deeper
than ever, and we learn to navigate ourselves. You are everything to me, and
you have been since the minute you stopped me in your class. Perverted old
teacher.”
Everyone laughed at that and Ichigo pulled out a ring of his own. “So, I’m
giving you this one,” he said and slipped the black colored platinum ring on
Sōsuke’s finger. “And if you take it off, I’ll chop off something important.”
There was a collective snicker and Sōsuke smiled at Ichigo. The officiant spoke
again. “Now, I’m going to ask the important question. Do you, Sōsuke Aizen,
take Ichigo Kurosaki as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and hold, in the
good and the bad, in sickness and health, as long as you live?”
Sōsuke nodded. “I do.”
“And Ichigo Kurosaki, do you take Sōsuke Aizen as your lawfully wedded husband,
to have a hold, in the good and the bad, in sickness and health, as long as you
live?”
“I do, or I wouldn’t be here,” Ichigo said, blushing a bit.
“Then today, I pronounce these two wed together! You may kiss!” she announced.
Sōsuke grabbed Ichigo by the shoulders and pulled him close, kissing him deeply
enough that Ichigo’s hands went around him.
“Save it for the wedding night!” Gin snarked as they broke apart. Ichigo
flipped him off.
Everyone gathered for the reception, and there was cake and champagne, and
everything seemed a dizzy buzz of activity. Ichigo didn’t know what to do with
himself as they opened presents from their friends. Most of them were photo
related, and everyone was so excited for them.
When everything was over, Ichigo took Sōsuke’s hand. “Can we walk the beach?”
“A moonlight beach stroll?” he asked with a smirk. “Of course.”
They left the gazebo and headed down the empty beach. The stars were bright and
seemed to be lighting their way. “I can’t believe I’m here,” Ichigo said as he
looked to the sky.
“Seems amazing, when you think of it. Everything we’ve gone through to get
here.”
“Do you think I’ll ever be able to walk into a store without panicking,
Sōsuke?” Ichigo asked suddenly, stopping with a sigh.
Sōsuke walked around in front of him. “What’s this about?”
Ichigo looked down. “It’s just, the wedding, everything, I’m happy, believe me.
But will you always be happy with me?”
Sōsuke sighed, sitting down and dragging Ichigo down onto his lap. He faced
them to the ocean. “Did you know that the ocean is in love with the beach?”
“What?” Ichigo asked.
“Yeah, see, every day, the ocean reaches out, grasping at the sand of the beach
because the ocean is so in love. The ocean can’t let go, but the ocean also
can’t hold the sands of the beach it so loves. So, each day, it comes in,
covering the sands of the beach as much as it can, then it recedes into the
deeps again. But for that brief moment, the sand and the sea are connected.”
“You’re a dork, Sōsuke,” Ichigo muttered.
“What I’m saying is that no matter what, the sea comes back to the sands of the
beach. It moves back when it must, yet it returns, and sometimes brings
treasures with it. So, this is dumb, I guess, but my love is like the sea.
Always yearning for you, even when I can’t touch you, and covering you as much
as I can when I can be close,” Sōsuke said as he stroked a hand over Ichigo’s
longer hair. It was over his shoulders now.
Ichigo shook his head, turning his head back to kiss Sōsuke’s lips for a second
before looking out at the dark ocean again. “I can’t go with you to book
signings, to conventions, or even to speak to the publisher. Four years, and it
seems like my problems with leaving the house only have become worse. Is that
okay for you?”
Sōsuke kissed Ichigo’s temple. “Ichigo, I wouldn’t care if we never stepped
foot outside our home again. As long as I have you, I have enough. And we don’t
know how things will work. You’re still working with Dr. Ukitake. And the new
medications seem to be helping. You made it through the wedding without a panic
attack.”
“That’s not the same. These are people I know and consider friends. I don’t
know how I would react to being around others,” he said with a sigh.
“I had to tell both Kisuke and Gin that tonight was just for us, by the way.”
“What? Both of them?” Ichigo said, turning his face up to Sōsuke again. “Didn’t
we just play with Gin and Kira last week? And Kisuke the week before?”
Sōsuke shook his head. “They are insatiable. I suspect that there will never be
a time those two want to join us for a bedroom romp. But it isn’t just me. Kira
is quite smitten with you. He told Gin that he loves the way you taste,” Sōsuke
smirked.
“Ugh, that’s so embarrassing,” Ichigo muttered. “Especially since last time he
tongue fucked my ass. I’ve never imagined that before,” he muttered and looked
up at the stars again. “Our live isn’t really normal, is it?”
“I told you before that it is fine if we’re not ‘normal’. Just because we play
around with others it doesn’t change our love for each other. I wish you’d let
me marry you sooner, but you were too worried things would go bad,” Sōsuke said
as he nuzzled into Ichigo’s neck.
There was a long silence, but it was a good silence. No words were needed, and
there wasn’t a real reason to break it. The world was cruel, but they had
survived. No matter what, they had survived. Now, they stared into a sea
together, stars making the world twinkle around them. They both knew that what
they had wasn’t easily defined, but they knew that they would handle whatever
the world threw their way together.
Together they were survivors. And together they would continue to survive.
===============================================================================
End Notes
     Resources
     Autism Self-Advocacy Network
     • info@autisticadvocacy.org
     • http://autisticadvocacy.org/
     National Alliance on Mental Health
     • 1-800-950-6264
     • http://www.nami.org/
     Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
     • 1-800-826-3632
     • http://www.dbsalliance.org/
     Transgender Youth Equality Foundation
     • 207-478-4087
     • http://www.transyouthequality.org/
     Trans Student Educational Resources
     • TSER@transstudent.org
     • http://www.transstudent.org/
     Stopbullying.gov
     • https://www.stopbullying.gov/
     PACERS National Bullying Prevention Center
     • 1-800-537-2237
     • http://www.pacer.org/bullying/
     Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
     • 1-877-SAMHSA-7
     • https://www.samhsa.gov/
     National Suicide Prevention Hotline
     • 1-800-273-8255
     • https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
     Suicide Prevention Resources
     • http://www.sprc.org/
     American Foundation of Suicide Prevention
     • https://www.afsp.org/
     The American Association of Suicidology
     • http://www.suicidology.org/
     Crisis Text Line
     • Text "Start" 741-741
     • http://www.crisistextline.org/
     S.A.F.E. Alternatives
     • 1-800-DONTCUT
     • http://www.selfinjury.com/
     Trans Lifeline
     • US: 1-877-565-8860 Canada: 1-877-330-6366
     • https://www.translifeline.org/
     GLBT National Youth Talk
     • 1-800-246-7743 (M-F, 4pm-12am EST/Sat, 12pm-5pm EST)
     The Trevor Project
     • 1-866-488-7386 (24/7)
     • Text “Trevor” 1-202-304-1200 (F 4pm - 8pm EST)
     • http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
     Disaster Distress Helpline
     • 1-800-985-5990
     • Text "TalkWithUs" 66746
     National Sexual Violence Resource Center
     • 1-877-739-3895
     • http://www.nsvrc.org/
     RAINN- Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network
     • 1-800-656-4673
     • https://www.rainn.org/
     National Sexual Assault Hotline
     • 1-800-656-4673
     The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
     • 303-839-1852
     • http://www.ncadv.org/
     The National Domestic Violence Hotline
     • 1-800-799-SAFE
     • http://www.thehotline.org/
     The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
     • 1-800-537-2238
     • http://www.nrcdv.org/
     Warm Ear Line
     • 1-866-WARM EAR (927-6327)
     • http://warmline.org/
     National Human Trafficking Resource Center
     • 1-888-373-7888
     • Text BeFree (233733)
     National Runaway Safeline
     • 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929) (24/7)
     • http://www.1800runaway.org/
     USA National Child Abuse Hotline
     • 1-800-422-4453 (24/7)
     National Safe Place
     • Text SAFE and your current location to the number 69866 (24/7)
     • http://nationalsafeplace.org/
     National Eating Disorders Association
     • 800-931-2237 (M-F, 11:30 am-7:30 pm EST)
     • http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/
     ANAD: National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated
     Disorders
     • 630-577-1330 (M-F,12 pm-8 pm EST)
     • http://www.anad.org/
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