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Undisclosed Devotion	By : horrorgal Category: Bleach > Yaoi - Male/Male > Ichigo/Ishida Views: 7352 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor the characters. I do not profit from this story.

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
Chapter 17

Urahara stood in his position within the trees, studying the old hospital, unable to shake the feeling that something wasn't right. Yoruichi watched from above, sitting in a tree to get a better view of the roof. He trusted the shinigami that he placed in the surrounding area around the building, confident that all exits were being watched. However, the silence and unnatural stillness concerned him.

He looked at the receiver when he heard Ichigo. "Hey, can anyone hear me?" He sounded agitated.

"I hear you, Ichigo, what's going on?"

"Chad, Orihime!" Ichigo said, either ignoring him completely, or unable to hear his response.

"Strange," he mused.

"Can any of you hear me?" Uryu cut in next. Again, Urahara attempted to give conformation, but his response was not acknowledged. Yoruichi jumped from the tree and landed beside him.

"There is some kind of interference, I'm just not sure what it is yet," he said, staring back at the hospital as if the very building itself was his enemy.

"Should we go in?" she asked.

"No, we need to trust they can take care of the problem. Besides, if they are in some kind of trap, we would just be stepping into it as well. All we can do is listen and wait, and that's something I really hate to do." He gripped the cane hilt of his hidden zanpakuto. "But, this fight is meant for Uryu and Ryuken above all others. It's their people in danger, and I won't interfere in their battle unless I have to."

"This whole thing feels like a calm before a storm," Yoruichi said, keeping her eyes ahead and focused. "Something bigger is coming, and I know you can feel it too." Urahara's uneasy silence was answer enough. They both heard Renji's voice through the receiver. Urahara didn't bother to answer him either. He wouldn't have heard him anyway.

~~~

"Dammit, this thing is useless," Renji said, repeatedly pushing the button on the bracelet with manic fury, like a impatient man pushing a button on a elevator.

"Doing that isn't helping. Besides, we need to concentrate on our situation and hope everyone else is alright," Rukia said as she looked around at what appeared to be a familiar forest in Soul Society. One that she had no fond memories of. Storm clouds darkened the sky. She knew that this couldn't possibly be real, but the illusion was impressive enough to make her doubt her instincts. "Are you seeing what I am?" she asked.

"One of the outer forests in Soul Society. There's no way we're here though," he answered, giving up on the bracelet to look around. "Whatever this is, it's a safe bet everyone else is having the same problem." He looked up at the trees that surrounded them. "This is almost like Aizen's power."

"Not quite," she said. "Aizen's power is more subtle, and much deadlier. This is more like we're being mocked." She frowned as the first few drops of rain fell. "One minute we're in a old hospital, and the next in a forest in Soul Society. Blatant, if you ask me."

Lightening flashed above, followed by a ground shaking rumble of thunder as they moved cautiously forward. What was a soft drizzle, quickly turned into a downpour that left them both drenched. Rukia was disturbed by how effective this hallucination was becoming, shivering from the chill of the falling rain. She caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye and halted.

Renji was just as quick to stop, Zabimaru already clenched tight in his hand. "You saw it too?" he asked, eyes darting to find their stalker.

"Yes," she said. "Be ready." She pulled her own zanpakuto free of the sheath. A booming wail, so high that it vibrated the very ground they stood on, blasted around them. The storm was a whisper in comparison.

"A hollow, and it sounds like a really pissed off one!" Renji yelled, just as a large monstrosity pushed through the forest and approached them in a slow gait.

Rukia caught the same movement again and looked upward to the treetops. A lone shinigami hovered there, hooded like a wraith. Renji was already charging at the hollow, his blade splitting the skull open in one swift motion. Another took it's place behind him. She caught the sound of laughter through the gale of a storm as the figure moved through the trees around them.

Renji was already after the other hollow, but another was coming their way. Rukia turned to face it, jumping up to get a better advantage, avoiding a swipe from it's clawed hand. Where were they coming from? Her blade broke through the skull and the hollow fell with a death howl. She heard Renji cursing behind her and another stomping approach. She moved higher up along the trees to catch sight of the enemy that was toying with them. Lightening flashed, exposing a group of hollows coming towards their position.

"Renji!" she yelled down to him, just as he was slicing through the skull of the hollow he was fighting. He looked up and took to the air to join her. "They just keep coming. He's using them to keep us distracted."

"Where is he?!" he yelled over another rumble of thunder and the angry wails of the group of hollows standing below them.

"I just lost sight of him, but he's here somewhere. We need to concentrate on finding him and taking him down!" A gnarled fist shot up at them and they both jumped apart to avoid the attack. Another flash lightened the sky and Rukia saw him once more, his silhouette crouched near the branches of one of the trees. "There!" she yelled and pointed to his position. The enemy took off and the both of them gave chase, the stampede of the hollows following behind them.

~~~

"Did you hear that?" Isshin asked Ryuken as he stopped to listen closer to what he thought was yelling in a distant part of the hospital.

"Yes." Ryuken looked around the room they stood in, contemplating where they should head next. "At least someone is having more luck than we are at finding these shinigami."

"Or they were the ones that were found first." Isshin suggested with a grunt as he knocked down a stubborn door with a hard kick. "It's possible the enemy is watching us as we speak." He stepped through the opening into the next room with Ryuken following behind him.

"Probably so," Ryuken said, ignoring the old plaster and grime that fell atop him from the ceiling. "I loath cowardly tactics," he said, scanning the sparse room with displeasure.

"They've been cowardly with their attacks since the beginning. Doubtful that will change now," Isshin said. He pressed the button on the bracelet he wore. "Urahara, have you seen anything from out there?" Silence greeted him. "Urahara?"

"Typical. They aren't working again, I see," Ryuken muttered.

"Strange. Urahara wouldn't have made a mistake fixing these." He pressed the button again. "Ichigo, you hear me?" Nothing. "Dammit."

"Let's just press on. I'm not relying on outside help." He moved ahead down the hallway, stepping around trash and old equipment that littered the floor.

"Fair enough," Isshin said, cautiously following, halting suddenly when Ryuken raised his hand and stopped mid-step in front of him. He heard it then, a soft shuffling sound behind the door to their left. It stopped as Ryuken's hand neared the door to push it open. Isshin didn't sense reiatsu coming from the room, but that meant nothing. Ryuken motioned to the door and raised his bow, the blue brilliance of a arrow drawn and ready to fire. Isshin kicked the door open and moved to give him his shot.

A squirrel scurried across the floor and jumped up on a old hospital bed and out through the broken window across the room, chattering angrily the entire way. Ryuken cursed and lowered his bow, the arrow vanishing along with his intense gaze. Still, they searched the small patient room only to find trash and animal droppings.

"This place isn't fit for a dog to live in," Ryuken said as they moved on in their search. "Ironic they chose this place as a base. Fitting for filth like them."

"We should start heading downward."

"It's unnerving that we haven't been attacked yet," Ryuken mused as he led Isshin to a stairway at the end of the hall. The stairway exit door was half broken off it's hinges. Isshin stepped ahead and pushed it aside, peering down the rounding stairwell that led below. "See anything?" Ryuken asked.

"Not a lot with no power. Got a light?"

"Of course." Just as his son had, Ryuken pulled reishi to his palm, the blue glow enough to light the space around them. He went first to lead the way. Their footfalls echoed in the stairwell as they made their way downward. "What do you think is driving them, Isshin?" Ryuken asked.

"I'm not sure. The balance is stable as far as my knowledge goes."

"Ah yes, the balance," Ryuken said bitterly. "I am fully aware the shinigami saw fit to wipe out our kind before. I suppose it is a small miracle they didn't completely succeed."

"Ryuken, I didn't mean to stir up the past."

"I do not put blame on you, Isshin. Nor do I blame the shinigami. Perhaps my ancestors were overzealous with their way of doing things, but something about this is too much to be mere coincidence. So, I ask again, what is driving them to do this?" Isshin had no answers for him as they continued to the lower levels of the hospital. Ryuken sighed. "I can think of no answer myself, but something is going on, and I'm not so sure we will gets answers. At least not today."

"Lets just focus on catching the bastards first."

They approached the basement, and as Ryuken pushed open the door, the air changed around them. The area was cleaner than the rest of the hospital, pristine in fact. There was a low hum of machinery throughout, computer screens sending off a bluish hue. Weapons in hand, they both moved further into the enemies territory, looking for signs of traps or movement. This was too easy, or had they already escaped before they even arrived?

"This feels off," Isshin said.

"Like it's staged," Ryuken said in agreement. "We cannot stop our search, even if they are playing some kind of mind game."

Isshin went ahead into the next area and looked around at the laboratory, but what really caught his eye was the nude woman in the large encased glass tube. Her hair floated around her head like a veil, obscuring her features, yet there was familiarity there. It made his insides feel cold when he got a much closer look. Ryuken stepped beside him, eyes focused on her. Masaki Kurosaki floated before them, like a sleeping angel in the crude, liquid filled encasement.

"A sick joke," Ryuken seethed.

"This isn't real." Isshin's eyes did not leave her, even as he spoke what he knew was the truth.

"Of course it isn't," Ryuken said as he grabbed his arm to get his attention. "Look away, and let's find them and end this!"

Isshin found it difficult to do as he said, eyes focused on her face. She floated there, like a dead thing in a formaldehyde, perfectly preserved. She was dead, and this wasn't really her body. He knew this, but the fury building within him was hard to contain. How could they have created her image and make her look so real? He forced himself to look away and move along with Ryuken. He couldn't let himself get distracted from their objective.

A heavy thump came from the glass and they both looked back to see her eyes opened and glaring. Her beautiful features began to mutate into something grotesque before them. The skin stretched over her skull as clumps of her hair fell loose from the scalp, floating through the water like some kind of twisted version of a water globe. Claws popped through the tips of her fingers, making the water swirl red with blood. The process was fast, yet Isshin felt like time had stopped as he watched this imitation of his wife turn into something monstrous.

Ryuken had his bow lifted, no hesitation in his movement as he let a arrow fly. It shattered the already cracking glass and went through the head of the creature. Bloody and foul water sprayed outward along with shattered glass. The body fell forward and lay still. Isshin did not move through it all, but flinched when he heard the sickly crack her skull made when it hit the hard surface of the floor.

"Thank you," Isshin muttered. "I froze up." He ran a hand over his face and took a breath, doing his best to ignore the pungent stench of the thing on the floor.

Ryuken grimaced. "It's alright, but Isshin, look around us."

"What?" Isshin noticed how much the light had faded first before he saw that where they stood was no lab at all, but just another dingy room of the hospital. He wasn't even sure they were in the basement. The broken glass, water and body were still there, but he doubted that was any more real than the lab that they had just been standing in. "What do you think this is?"

"We are seeing things that aren't real. A hallucinogenic perhaps, or some other mind altering trick they have come up with to keep us confused. It's hard to say when we were affected. Could have been as soon as we entered the hospital, or when we entered this room." He continued to scan the area around them. "We are most likely still being affected by whatever it is."

"I need to know," Isshin said, and without warning, stabbed through the body on the floor. It's form vanished slow like a fading ghost, along with the death odor. "Well, that answers that. Anything odd that we see will mostly likely be fake. Might make things a little easier to detect anyway."

"We don't know what our enemies look like, other than how Mayuri described Saburou, but they will look human, I would assume. That's information enough for us to find them and try to block out everything else."

"How do we know these hallucinations can't hurt us?"

"We don't." Ryuken started to walk again.

"I just love your optimism," Isshin said with a chuckle as he followed his friend into the unknown.

~~~

Chad stood in quiet contemplation as he decided which way they should go next. The dull ache in his shoulder was fading as Orihime healed the gaping wound there. She was calm for someone who had just been attacked by something that looked like her dead brother. She had more strength than others gave her credit for at times, and he saw it more and more each day he spent with her. Her eyes were wet, but focused on her task.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked.

She nodded soft. "I know my brother is resting in peace, somewhere is Soul Society." The light dulled and disappeared as she lowered her hands. "I know that wasn't him."

Still, he could see the pain in her eyes, but it was understandable. He kissed her cheek and her expression relaxed as she gave him a appreciative smile. She looked at the three way intersection and became as perplexed as he was. They stood in some kind of maze, the halls solid, black and without doorways, or so it appeared to be. They entered the hospital, and had since been trapped in this endless mass of hallways. They found early on that their communications were not working as well.

"We'll try left this time," he suggested. She stayed close to his side as they continued on. Busting through walls hadn't helped. It was the first thing he tried to break the weird cycle they were in. It had only led to another empty hallway, and the hole he had punched through the stone had sealed up behind them. He expected they would be attacked again eventually. Maybe it would be his dead grandfather this time, a hollow, or a enemy of the past. The only thing he wanted to see was the shinigami they were hunting for.

A soft glow from above lit the pathways, keeping them from moving blindly through darkness. It was a small consolation to this strange situation they were in. Part of him wished he had not brought her here, but he wasn't going to deny her when she wanted to help. Her hand brushed against his and he took it. She wasn't trembling, or complaining about the odd circumstance, even after what she had seen. He, on the other hand, was becoming more confused and angry. This maze had to be some kind of fabrication, but he wasn't sure how it had been achieved. Then a thought came to him.

"Orihime?" He stopped and turned to her.

"Yes?" She had to look up to meet his eyes.

"I know I'm not as smart as Urahara, or even Uryu, but I think I might have a idea."

"You are smart." She put a hand on her hip and gave him the cutest scolding look he had ever seen. "What is it, Chad?"

"Use your shield around us both and lets see if anything changes."

Orihime stayed close beside him, activating Santen Kesshun around them both like a protective shell. At first, there appeared to be no change in their surroundings, but the longer the shield stayed, the maze they stood in began to waver and vanish before their eyes, revealing a patient wing of the hospital. Orihime nearly shouted with happiness, and he smiled, the love for her hidden behind hair that shadowed his eyes.

"It worked," she said. "I'm still worried about the others though."

"Me too, but we have to move on. Hopefully we will run into them along the way."

"Oh, maybe they work now too," Orihime suggested, motioning to her bracelet.

"Maybe." Chad pushed the little button on his to try it out. "Can anyone hear me?" They both listened, but received no reply.

"Aw, well, it was worth a try," she said.

"Could be because we are still inside the hospital, even if we are under your shield." He looked down the corridor. "How long can you keep it around us?"

"For as long as we need," she said confidently.

"Once we find the enemy, maybe we won't need it. We'll see how it goes, okay?"

"Got ya," she said cheerfully as they moved on to search.

The hidden shinigami watched them move down the hall with the strange glowing shield around them. He should have personally attacked them sooner, but he was having too much fun watching them struggle with the illusion their leader had created. Either way, these two seemed the less dangerous of the intruders. Killing them would be easy. He waited until they were further ahead before he followed.

AN: Sorry for the wait for this chapter. I haven't been super inspired to write lately. Real life things going on, and the usual stuff. Sorry no Ichigo and Uryu in this chapter, but I wanted to just show what everyone else is experiencing. It's different for all of them, as you can tell.

I rewrote and shifted around this chapter for a while now, and it's one of those ones I'm not incredibly happy with, but I thought I needed to get a little something out after so long. This fight is going to end soon. I'm not going to drag it out by any means. The ending to the story will also be finished in the near future, depending on my inspiration and what I have going on. I still have two other stories I'm working on, so it depends on which one I am in the mood to write for. Bye for now.

Squallfan
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Undisclosed Devotion