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Reflection of the Moonless Sky	By : etherpants Category: Bleach > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 1277 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleahc or make money from this fanfic

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"Here you go, five silvers and twenty-five coppers!" The banker said cheerfully, stacking the coins on her desk. "Your aunt is rather generous!"
"Heh, yeah thanks again," Ichigo muttered, repouching them and leaving the bank. He only felt like breaking one gold piece. Any more than that would be a suspicious amount in his small town. Luckily the banker had bought his story that it was a birthday gift from a relative. If they needed more money they would just break another in a town where nobody knew them.
"Ichigo! Over here!" he turned and saw Orihime coming round the corner, weighted down with burlap bags.
"Orihime what's with all this?" Ichigo ran up to her and started revealing her of the heavier looking ones.
"There was a long list of things to get before we left so I tried to get everything at once to save time," she smiled and rubbed her neck a little with her now free hand.
Ichigo sighed, but he was just glad to see her smiling again. One night ago he'd felt like he'd never see her happy again.
-One Night Ago-
The figure was there, just as he had been the earlier. If Ichigo hasn't seen him leave he would have thought he hadn't moved the whole time.
"A Quincy? That's rather nostalgic."
Ishida's eyes narrowed as he pushed is spectacles up. "Just because I fight with more rudimentary methods of slaying does not make me a Quincy. I don't mindlessly slaughter every vamp that crosses my path."
"A good decision. It has been decades since the massacre, but it is hard to tell how much disdain they will have for someone who even appears to be a Quincy. For the sake of your own life take extra caution to conceal your bow. As for you young lady...?"
"I'm their healer," Orihime stated very plainly. Ichigo glanced off in her direction, a tad concerned. It was rare to see her be anything but cheerful and bubbly. She could compose herself and stiffen when appropriate, but neither Ichigo or Ishida liked to see her so out of her element. They realized at that moment that the somber manner she had taken on suddenly would be occurring quite a bit during the mission.
"Fair enough. Do you think you'll be able to handle what you may come across?"
"Yes."
"There will be many vampires, both the feral and sane kind where you're going."
"I understand."
"If you stray away from these two will you be able to fend off the constant hunt for your blood?"
"I've always stayed by their side no matter the fight. They can trust me to heal them with my Gift if needed and I can trust them to protect me," she said with a rare edge of hardened determination, but try as she might there were still a couple crackles of fear that pierced through her words.
There was a long, cold pause. Finally the figure shifted and pulled out a large, flat leather pouch from his cloak and slid it down the table. Ichigo picked it up and flipped it open to see it was the papers from the night before.
"You may leave now. I'll be in contact when the job is done."
They turned and made their way out of the private room without hesitation, not wanting to spend another second in the tense atmosphere. Ichigo just hoped any questions they still had would be answered by the information they now held.
-Present-
They made their way back to her home and found Ishida at the table surrounded by their sheets of information. He finished scribbling away at something furiously before glancing up. "Good, you're both here. We have a few issues to work out before we go."
"Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Orihime asked as she started unloading food and cloth from the bags they dragged in.
"I'm already going to be gone for awhile if we're doing this, they can run the tailors for one extra day without me. Besides they need to stop relying on me for the big jobs anyway."
"What's the issue?" Ichigo asked picking up what looked like a massive flowchart covered in cross outs and rewrites. "Geez, have you been working on this since last night?"
"It looks like with have a couple choices," Ishida stated snatching it back from Ichigo and smoothing it back over the table. "We can use stealth the entire way, but then we need to figure out if we travel by day or night. We could travel by day, but then we'd be at risk for getting attacked in our sleep. If we travel at night we have to be extra careful to stay hidden, but their night vision is much better than ours. The other option though..." he paused a bit and adjusted his spectacles. "...is we disguise ourselves as vamps and pass through as one of them."
"Wait you call that an option? More like freakin' suicide," Ichigo grumbled.
Ishida shot him a glare and pointed to a row of maps. "Let me finish, I'd never suggest anything like that unless I had a good reason. First of all we've been given several detailed routes that lead to and through their hidden villages and strongholds in the western mountains."
"So Die Nächte..."
"Yes, its somewhere in there. But it looks like its in the higher peaks and far off from any human settlements. So its no wonder the Order has never been able to locate it. Now while there's a lot of ways to travel the distance there aren't many options for actually breaking in. I don't imagine even vamps can exactly waltz in as they please."
"Our options are limited to either we get caught by the right blood harvesters that supply the palace..."
Both Ichigo and Orihime's faces drained white at the sound of that. As long as vampires didn't bite their victims directly and sucked from otherwise afflicted wounds the same humans could be used again and again without succumbing to the vamprism toxin themselves. While the three of them had only found and freed a couple blood slaves in their lives, all of them were still deeply scarred, broken people, even several years after the experience.
"...Or there's a contact we can approach in a city a few miles into the mountains. Apparently she can get us in, but only if we find her in the next two weeks."
Orihime wrung her hands a bit, "Does it say anything else?"
"Just a name, description and a code word for when we find her."
"Well whatever that plan involves it can't be worse than being carted around like livestock." As much as Ichigo hated the idea of having to go undercover as a vamp he knew that it would a lot less trouble for them in the long run.
The sound of trotting outside got louder and louder until it stopped nearby the house.
"That must be them!" Orihime cheered gleefully and swung open the front door. A black carriage had pulled up to the house and the next thing they knew Orihime was squealing and hugging a severely shorter girl.
"Rukia! Oh my goodness its been forever since we've seen you!"
Rukia replied in some muffled high pitched noise and pulled away panting. "Orihime tell your boobs to stop growing you nearly suffocated me!"
"Sorry I didn't think you'd be eye level with them," Orihime rubbed her neck nervously and helped Rukia out of the heavy black cloak of the Order, the back emblazoned with a silver cross tapered into a blade.
Renji eventually came trudging through the door, weighed down with several pieces of luggage. "Rukia, did you really need this much crud?"
"Of course! We don't even know how long we're going to have to stay! At the very least we had to make it look like we're going on a lengthy mission!"
They had met Rukia and Renji a few years ago when the Order had sent them out to Karakura to take care of vampire reports. But many times they found the problem taken care of before they even arrived. It was only after the fourth time did they end up running into each other. Since the trio were more efficient these days at hunting it was rare that the Order sent them. When they did, however, they let Rukia and Renji take the credit so that they wouldn't raise any suspicions with the higher ups.
Not knowing how long they were going to be gone Ichigo had sent a message to the Order headquarters requesting they stay in Karakura as the temporary guardians. However, considering the number of vamps their town had to deal with on a regular basis was well less than once a month it was more so that Orihime and Ishida could have house-sitters.
Once everyone was settled in Ishida lit the fireplace and everyone gathered around. Ichigo gave Renji and Rukia a brief run down of their assassination mission and how they would need to infiltrate vamp territory, though made sure to leave out certain key details. Orihime and Ishida worked on sewing cloaks that were sufficiently hooded and pocketed to lessen the need for baggage.
"I might be able ta help ya out some. We don't carry as much in the field as they did in the old days. Ya know, the Quincy issue 'n' all. But we have these in case of emergencies," Renji pulled out a small case and Ichigo raised an eyebrow. Tucked in the red velvet lining was a small jar of something and two long, polished fangs.
"Are those...real?"
"Nah, they're actually wolves fangs that've been reshaped to vamp size. They got a small indent in the back to fit over yer own canines. This gummy stuff holds it on pretty good," Renji opened the jar to show off some yellowish waxy looking substance. "We're supposed to use them if we get stuck in enemy territory and need to blend in. They'll work fine on civil vamps if you're careful, but they won't fool the feral ones. Since they go by scent 'n' all."
That was one of those things that the Order and freelance hunters alike could never seem to figure out. When a human became an unfortunate victim of a vampire's hunger and survived two fates awaited them. Either they kept their sanity as the toxin morphed them into another sly and mostly sane creature of the night. Otherwise the vampirism turned them something vicious and uncontrollable that would tear their victims limb from limb. And there was nothing that indicated what created one or the other.
The ferals lurked in the mountains and forests and were the main reason Ichigo knew they would be safer traveling through the vamps settlements at night rather than sleeping under the stars. Worst of all it was a hard call whether it was worse to fall victim of a civil vamp's cunning or a feral's insatiable hunger.
"Are you sure you're allowed to just give these things out?" Ichigo carefully plucked out one of the "fangs" and felt the smooth surface.
"Normally I wouldn't let Renji pull something like that, but you guys will need it more than us," Rukia slumped over against Renji, sipping her cocoa and facing the fire. "The Order is too efficient these days and the policy is to avoid settlements as much as possible. I can't think of one time we've needed to use them. You can use mine too."
"Yeah...but then we only have three," Ishida groaned.
"Oh! Uh...here gimme a sec..."Renji started rooting around in his bag. "Here's one..." he pulled a loose fang up and let it clatter on the table. "...And...there's another. You can share the gum from the other kit or something."
"Well, gee this kind of organization really makes me feel confident in the discipline of the Order's finest hunters..." Ichigo rolled his eyes and tried cleaning gunk off them with his shirt.
"Don't worry my brother and I keep make a point of keeping him in line," Rukia reached up high to flick his ear.
They spent the rest of the evening sharing war stories and Ichigo felt great to just be able to get in some time with close friends for a change. He didn't even remember falling asleep, but the next thing he knew he was groggy and getting shaken awake by Ishida.
"Get up. It's time to get moving."
"Huh. Wuh what's going on?" Ichigo groaned and sat up on the couch, the sun wasn't even up and everyone was gone.
Ishida sighed sharply and stuffed some things on the table into his pack. "I told you last night we've gotta get up early so we can start readjusting our sleep schedule."
"Oh great, my dad's gonna freak out." Ichigo rubbed hip temples then wrenched himself up to grab his stuff and shouted behind him. "I'll meet you guys at the west gate!"
"But Ichigo I-!"
He hurried home through the brisk morning air, luckily already knowing the way by heart as the streets were dark and empty. Finally he got to his home attached to his father's small clinic. Carefully as possible he unlocked the door and crept in quietly. Damn...I haven't even told them anything yet. Ichigo thought as he crept across the kitchen. Don't really wanna wake them up to tell them though. I guess I'll have to leave a note. I don't want to have to tell them that way but may be it'll just be eas-SMACK!
"ICHIGO MY SON! Please tell me you were out this late making grandchildren with some poor girl and not getting yourself killed!" Isshin Kurosaki came shouting as his kick connected with his son's head, leaping down from the stairs.
"Dad! Don't say that when you could've killed me just then!" Ichigo rubbed his head, not so sure a kick and punch to the head in the same twenty-four hours was doing anything great for his mental health.
"Don't worry," Isshin said, his tone suddenly shifting to serious. "I know you're leaving soon. Orihime let a few things slip when I ran into her at the market today."
"Great..." Ichigo reached under the kitchen table to grab a few sheathed knives he kept there and slid them into his belt. "How much did she tell you?"
"Enough to know you might be gone for awhile."
"Uh huh..."
"And you might not be coming back."
"Hey now that's..."
"Not the most encouraging thing I could say right now?" Isshin folded his arms and sighed.
"You could say that." Ichigo's eyes grew dim, staring blankly at the surface of the table.
"Wait here a moment," Isshin said before turning and heading back upstairs. Ichigo shook himself out of his funk and took the time to search for his best travel boots and laced them on. When he was done his father was coming back down the stairs with the last Ichigo expected him to be holding.
"Dad that's..."
"It's yours now," Isshin gave his son a firm pat on the back and handed over fairly large sword, wrapped tightly in linen cloth. "Tötenmond has been in our family for generations and I think it's your turn to wield him. Besides, you're only going to have so much luck shanking vamps with just yer boring old daggers."
Ichigo took the heavy weapon in both hands, trying to adjust to its unfamiliar weight. At first he was overcome that, even though his father knew where he was going he entrusted him enough to pass this on. But then he suddenly didn't feel so great.
"Um, Dad...this isn't exactly what I'd call stealthy..."
"Pfft yeah yeah hold yer horses I've got something for ya," Isshin produced what seemed like an ordinary velvet pouch, no bigger than a breadbox. Nothing particularly strange about it except it was a warm coppery gold tone. "Alright put it in."
Ichigo blinked. "Come again?"
"You heard me," Isshin said with a wolfish grin.
Hesitantly Ichigo lifted up the sword and placed the tip into the pouch as his father held it open. Slowly he lowered it down and expected it to hit the bottom, but instead it just kept going. Dumbfounded Ichigo kept lowering it until it finally held the whole thing.
"It was your mother's. I'm sure she'd want you to have it, so take good care of it. Kinda handy, eh?"
"Thanks...for making this easier Dad." The bag in Ichigo's hands weighed nothing compared to Tötenmond, but he suddenly felt a great weight in his chest as he glanced around the kitchen where he had shared breakfast with his sisters for as long as he could remember. He could even scrape up a few faint memories of his mother's smiling face as he helped her pour vegetables into the stew pot.
"I'll give the girls a good excuse for you, alright? Maybe I'll tell them you went off and eloped or something," Isshin said with a cheesy grin.
"Yeah yeah don't get Karin's hopes up about getting my room. Oh, and before I forget I've got something for you Dad..." Ichigo dug through his pack and grabbed two platinum pieces and pressed him into his hand. "Promise me when I get back you'll have used those to make the clinic into the pride of the town."
Isshin looked a bit stunned for a moment then gave Ichigo a bear hug, "As long as you promise to come back son."
Ichigo sighed and smiled, hugging him back "I'll try dad." He took a deep breath as Isshin let him go and he made his way back into the street.
"Hey! And maybe you should go ahead and bring someone home then the elopement thing won't be a lie!" Isshin shouted out the front door. Ichigo sighed, but smiled as he found his way to the west side of town.
Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the thick walking stick Ishida was carrying when he came into view. "What the heck do you need that for?"
"Urahara gave it to me a few years ago, I just haven't had a need to use it yet." Ishida undid some sort of lid and tipped slightly. Ichigo saw that it was hollow and held his unstrung bow and a few of his arrows.
"Ah, yeah he would have something like that," Ichigo muttered pulling up his hood.
"Are we all set?" Orihime asked, taking a deep breath.
"The sooner we move forward the sooner we can get back," Ichigo stated, taking the first step out of the town where they had grown up.
Ishida and Orihime followed behind without hesitation, the sun rising behind them as they went.

Man if I thought the last chapter was dry then this was piece of toast in the desert. More to be coming soon since I found myself working on future chapters more than this one the past week.
Oh and to follow with the small renaming theme Tötenmond is the German equivalent of Zangetsu to the best of my knowledge.
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Reflection of the Moonless Sky