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A Shadow of What Was	By : katami Category: Bleach > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 49594 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Author's Notes: For the purpose of this story I am taking some liberties with how Quincy age. Ryuuken will be nearing eighty or so but he will appear to be only in his late forties or early fifties and can be expected to live another eighty years or more. Why am I doing this you might ask? A number of reasons. First, in the interest of plot, as we shall all see. Second, while exploring people and trying to understand their motives, I have developed a certain fondness for the bastard. And finally, well, let's just say everyone deserves a chance. I'll let you decide at what. If any of that bothers you, feel free to take it up with the chaplain.

* * *

"Still all the subtly of a bull in a china shop," murmured Ryuuken, lighting a cigarette rather than bothering to glance up at his unexpected and unwelcome housebreaker.

"Still as warm and welcoming as ever," retorted Kurosaki Isshin as he gave up on stealth and closed the door. He took a few steps and glanced around the other man's living room before sprawling on Ryuuken's couch. He was at least in his gigai, which was probably going to be the only good thing that could be said about his visit, decided Ryuuken with a sigh. Frankly, he just wanted the other man out of his house as quickly as possible. Having Isshin around reminded him of things and times he would rather have forgotten.

The last thing he needed was someone, like his son or Uryuu's lover, to notice that he had a Shinigami associate. Abarai was tenacious and seemed to feel that Ishida family relations needed to be improved upon; something he and Uryuu had so far managed to avoid. Given the slightest encouragement however, and Abarai would see to it that he found himself in counseling with his estranged son and said son's lover.

"Did you feel it?" demanded Isshin, a hint of excitement in his voice.

"No, because I'm blind, deaf, and stupid," snapped the elder Quincy with a drag on his cigarette. "Of course, I felt it, you moron. Honestly!"

"It was Kisuke. It had to be him. I recognize his reiatsu. Is that why you called me about pink spirit threads?" continued Isshin, brushing off his insult. Nothing new about that, he had been insulting the other man for nearly fifty years and none of them had ever seemed to faze Isshin. The man was worse than Kisuke when it came to brushing things off. "Did you sense him?"

"The pink threads was Uryuu's doing. He stopped by wanting information on them. I couldn't tell him anything conclusive and he didn't ask about any theories I might have had," murmured Ryuuken, his smile a touch cutting. "Clearly, the company he's been keeping is starting to show."

Isshin chuckled. "Still pissed about that one, huh? They're cute together, Ryuuken. Flexible as hell, but cute. Ichigo brought them to dinner once," he explained as the other man's eyes grew wide at his comment.

Ryuuken took another pull on his cigarette and wondered what he and Ishhin had done to have children like Uryuu and Ichigo. Children who seemed to take up with the most unlikely, and unacceptable, of partners and thrive with them. Uryuu had his Shinigami, Abarai, and Ichigo had chosen Kisuke of all people. Both were eminently unsuitable and yet...Uryuu was happy. Far happier than he had ever been in his marriage, thought Ryuuken morosely. And from all accounts Ichigo still loved Urahara as fiercely today as he had twenty years ago.

It was baffling and a bit infuriating. It was hard to object to relationships, that while inappropriate, worked. It was also...sweet. It was reassuring to know that his son had found happiness despite all his shortcomings as a father.

"I don't need to know, thank you. And can we stick to the topic at hand? It's been twenty years since you felt Kisuke's reiatsu, you can't be sure it's him. And anyway, I would think you would be less than pleased to see him," murmured Ryuuken. "What with your son and all." Isshin couldn't not know that their old friend had been fucking his son. Even Isshin couldn't be that willfully blind. Hell, he knew and he hadn't seen Ichigo since he was an infant.

"You can't be sure it's him, Uryuu wasn't sure and he was right next to the boy," he muttered, although he was all but certain it was Urahara. The man was a bloody menace and even death wouldn't have thwarted him for long. Frankly, Ryuuken would have expected him back far sooner. Nothing stopped Kisuke for long, although just once it would have been nice to see the blonde look a little before he leapt.

"It's him," assured Isshin with a frown for the reminder of the relationship the other man had shared with his son. He still wasn't sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, Kisuke was his friend and Isshin was sure there was some sort of rule somewhere about friends not fucking their friend's children. But Ichigo had seemed happy those last few months with Kisuke, and lord knew the boy certainly seemed to love Kisuke. That had to imply something about just how serious the two were, even if Ichigo had never brought Kisuke around or mentioned him.

"Even if it is him, I fail to see how it impacts us. Well, me," amended Ryuuken with a slight smirk. It had been more than thirty years since he had associated with Urahara.

"He was your friend once, Ryuuken." And he could hear the condemnation in Isshin's voice, felt it stir that place inside him he'd thought long dead, that place that felt vaguely like his heart.

Kisuke had been his friend once. One of his best friends. He had loved the other man like a brother, trusted him with his life, and felt the same way about Isshin. Duty and his father had torn them apart. Souken had been a good grandfather but a terrible father. His father and that stupid, stupid promise he had made the other man - to marry Uryuu's mother and have nothing further to do with the Shinigami. He had ripped out his heart obeying his father, marrying a woman he didn't love, giving up his friends, giving up fighting so that Souken could have his fucking legacy.

He had refused to take up his bow after giving Souken his grandson, too bitter at the loss of everything he hadn't known he loved. Not that it had mattered by then, Kisuke was in hiding and Isshin had been nearly human with a family of his own. They had all moved on and he had been left with an empty marriage and the bitter taste of his father's ambitions.

He sighed and offered Isshin a cigarette. "What do you want from me, Isshin?" he asked wearily.

"Help me find him. Something's happening, Ryuuken. There have been strange pulses of reiatsu all night and I felt that lieutenant, Ichimaru's, reiatsu earlier. Aizen is up to something. And if he is, you can bet that Kisuke is at it's center.

"He needs help and we promised each other that we would always help."

"How the hell do you even know that, Isshin?" demanded Ryuuken with annoyance. He was better at subtle reiatsu work than the Shinigami, than any Shinigami, and he hadn't managed to pick up any emotions from the burst of reiatsu he'd felt earlier.

"Call it a hunch." Ryuuken sighed but had to admit that Isshin was probably right. Where there was Kisuke, there was almost always trouble. The man had a gift for attracting it.

"What would you suggest we do?" he asked with a sigh.

"Well, we could start by saying hello to Rukia-chan and seeing what she wants. Going to come out, Rukia-chan?"

Ryuuken stared as a slim, wisp of a Shinigami girl slipped from the shadows. She was young, about Uryuu's age, with short, dark hair and the most entrancing dark eyes. There was lieutenant's badge on her arm and Ryuuken thought he recognized the 5th's device. She was staring between him and Isshin with wide-eyed shock that made her look somehow years younger and vulnerable. How the hell had he missed her, he wondered with annoyance and awe at her reiatsu control. Then again, Isshin's reiastu tended to be wild.

"Kurosaki-san, Ishida-san," murmured the girl with a slight nod to each of them. "Hitsugaya-taichou requests your presence, Kurosaki-san. There was an incident earlier this evening. And Abarai-taichou thought you would wish to be informed that your son was injured in the line of duty, Ishida-san," murmured the girl, her voice soft and cultured.

"No point in glaring. Come on, Ryuuken. We can see what the youngsters want and the see about that other matter we talked about." Ryuuken glared darkly at Ishhin. He wanted to argue to turn his back on both Shinigami. But he couldn't.

"We'll both be returning to the base, Rukia-chan. Why don't you run ahead and tell Renji? Wouldn't want to surprise him and Uryuu," grinned Isshin, the idiot mask firmly back in place although Ryuuken didn't think the girl bought it. She was frowning at them both, looking at them as if she knew there was more than what she'd seen but couldn't figure out how much more.

Eventually she nodded at them, "Of course, Kurosaki-san."

"That wasn't nice, Ishhin," he murmured, but there was something in his voice that hasn't been there in nearly forty years. There was amusement. For the first time since he was told of his marriage, Ryuuken found himself amused, that dead place in his chest lifting slightly.
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- 15
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A Shadow of What Was