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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
- 6
- 7
- 8
Author's Notes: I'd like to thank everyone for their interest, it leaves me all warm and eager to write. I'll address a few things and we will be ready to go.

First, well spotted Yume, Kyouraku and Ukitake both have two swords, but that is only when they break out the shi-kai so I didn't count it. Ichigo is the only one to carry two, totally separate zanpakutous full time.

Second, Nuska, you have an odd idea of what is safe, but you'll see. *grin*

Third, EmpyrealFantasy, I washed my hands of FFnet years ago after they made an effort to remove yaoi writers. I'm sorry, but FFnet is one place I will never go. For now, AFF is home and you can figure on a post or two a week depending on how insane my life gets.

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Uryuu's first stop had been Ryuuken, a mistake if ever there was one. He and his father had never been close and the years had only added awkwardness to the distance between them. About the only thing he could say for his father was that his disinterest in his son at least extended to his love life as well as every other sphere of his existence. He wouldn�t have liked battling his father over Renji. But Ryuuken couldn't care less that his son was involved with a man or a Shinigami and had been for more than twenty years. He had been more pissed when Uryuu had dropped out of medical school to fight full-time than he was about Renji. Which was kind of nice but also a little troubling but Uryuu pushed that aside as typical Ishida family crap.

Ichigo had once called his family completely fucked up. He had no idea how right he was.

Ryuuken hadn�t been able to tell him anything about pink spirit threads and even the few contacts he had called hadn�t been able to come up with any explanation. That door closed, he turned toward the more mundane side of things and went looking for information on the boy, meaning a visit to Inoue Orihime.

The sun had set by the time he reached the Sakurabashi district and Orihime�s home. Uyruu knocked quietly on her door, wondering if she would bother answering or if this would be the time she finally broke all contact.

They had broken with Inoue shortly after Urahara�s death. Or more accurately she had broken with Kurosaki. The rest of them had just been a side effect of that. Things had been strained since her rescue from Hueco Mundo, when she explained having willingly gone with her captors in some pea-brained attempt to protect them all. Not only was it insulting to their skills that she thought them unable to protect themselves, but it had allowed Aizen to exploit her power time and again. She had healed members of the Espada, endangering all of them and prolonging the conflict, using that same threat any time she rebelled even slightly.

That hadn�t been the worst revelation though.

No, the worse of her sins had been trying to use her powers to reject the existence of Hougyoku.

Aizen had been slowly destroying the artifact with his usage of it, forcing it into action to create his Espada before it was ready. At the time of Inoue�s rescue it was only a few weeks away from destroying itself (and taking most of Las Noches with it). When she tried to reject it, she had reset the clock on Hougyoku and opened her own power to it. She had given Aizen a repaired and nearly half charged weapon.

When she explained what she�d done was the first time Uryuu ever remembered seeing Urahara lose his temper. The jovial shopkeeper had gone still and quiet, his grey eyes flashing to ice. For one brief instant he had seen just how powerful and dangerous a man was lurking within Urahara, seen beneath the benign mask to the man who was the longest standing captain of the 12th in history. He had thought Urahara would hit her, perhaps even kill her, then Ichigo�s hand had fallen on the shopkeeper�s shoulder and the edge of violence had disintegrated into weariness. Inoue had been forgiven and after a night of drinking alone in the dark Urahara had begun making plans for the coming war.

The argument about keeping Orihime out of the fighting had been fierce and nearly shattered their bonds. It was one of the few times Ichigo and Urahara had really fought. He hadn�t understood the oddity of it then. He had been too busy screaming at Renji. It was only later, when Urahara was gone, that he realized how miserable all of them had been while shouting at each other, and the depth of feeling it implied.

Finally, he and Ichigo won and Inoue had been allowed back into the field where she continued to falter in battle, endangering others and herself. She had never been able to summon the resolve to really fight and against Aizen that resolve had been vital. The situation had come to a head shortly after Urahara�s death, after another Arrancar attack. Yet another attack where someone was injured while Inoue did nothing. That time it had been Renji. Uyruu still remembered kneeling by his fallen sometimes lover, trying to hold his guts in and stem the bleeding. He had been so sure Renji would die. So sure that he would lose the redhead.

So soon after losing Urahara Ichigo hadn�t been able to cope with the thought of losing the red haired Shinigami. He hadn�t been up to losing someone else, not so soon after Urahara, and not someone he trusted as deeply as he did Renji.

He never knew if the hollow took over or Ichigo let him out. Frankly, he didn�t really care. Whichever it was, Shirosaki had come out and he had come with a vengeance. He had attacked Orihime. Ishida remembered watching as the hollow hit her again and again, goading her to attack him, to fight back, to do something. But she never did. The hollow had beaten her until she couldn�t get up, only then did he relent; but Shirosaki had sworn to kill her if she ever got one of them hurt again and no one had doubted the grim faced specter�s sincerity.

And Ichigo had never gone against his hollow�s pronouncement.

And Uryuu could never quite fault him for it.

Not after kneeling there in a puddle of mud formed by his lover's blood, not after begging Renji to hold on and live while he grew weaker and weaker.

Inoue had fled after that and had never come back.

She had always known there was darkness in Kurosaki, they all did, but she had never thought to have it turned on her. She hadn�t been able to accept it. It was one thing to know that a person was capable of terrible things. It was something else to witness it first hand.

The door opened as he was about to knock again and Inoue Orihime stood huddled in the doorway, regarding him warily. He had spoken to her a few times in the years since she�d left but not often. They had little to tie them together and once or twice he had gotten the impression that she wasn�t thrilled with his decision to ally himself with the Shinigami and Kurosaki.

�Inoue-san,� he murmured with a polite nod.

�Ishida-san,� she murmured. Politeness forced her to invite him in, but Uryuu could tell she was not eager to see him. He wondered if her husband was home, recalling that he had read something about her marrying. He had never met the man and didn�t care to. Her husband was as mundane as Inoue wished she could be and the denial rankled him.

�Would you like some tea?� she asked, more forced manners.

�That would be nice, thank you.� Frankly, he hoped he was gone by the time the tea was ready. He just needed information and Inoue would be the best chance of getting it.

�How is�everyone?� It was difficult to read the question, it wasn�t honest concern. More forced manners he finally decided. She didn�t care how any of her old friends were; they weren�t her friends anymore. They hadn't been her friends in years.

�Everyone�s fine. Chad has three kids entering college this year and two entering Soul Society.� The large man worked with children, in and out of Soul Society, mentoring them. He still fought when the need arouse but the children had most of his focus these days.

�Kuchiki-san has started the training needed for bankai. Her brother says it will be a hundred years before she achieves it but Renji says she�ll do it in fifty. One bet even says twenty.� That was Ichigo but he was careful not to mention the Shinigami captain; there was no surer way to shut Inoue down than to mention him.

�I came to talk to you about the high school however. There have been some odd occurrences there and I wondered if you had noticed anything? Any students acting oddly or any strange energy signatures?� he explained carefully. Inoue taught history at the high school.

�I haven�t noticed anything unusual, just the regular patrols,� snapped Orihime. She didn�t like Shinigami around the school. Didn�t like to be reminded of the fight she was no longer a part of.

Uryuu sighed and growled faintly, �Do you know a boy, about sixteen, about 180 cm, light build, blonde hair? We saw him earlier today and noticed some abnormalities in his spirit energy.� �Abnormalities you would have to be blind or stupid to overlook,� he wanted to growl at her.

�That sounds like Mizuno Hideaki. He�s a junior in class 2...but there�s nothing unusual about him,� she went on quickly. And willfully blind it was then, thought Uryuu with annoyance.

�His spirit thread is laced with pink. You don�t find that a little odd?� he demanded.

�There is nothing unusual about Mizuno-kun! And he doesn�t need you or anyone else dragging him into your war,� snapped Inoue sharply. �He�s normal. Happy. He doesn't need any lies about the greater good!�

Uryuu wondered just how long Inoue had resented Urahara. He also wondered how much of that resentment was really for involving her in the war and how much was for wining Kurosaki�s heart when she couldn�t. It put an interesting new spin on some of their earlier conversations. �He may be happy, but that boy is not even close to normal, and if you believe otherwise you�re more deluded than I thought. Thank you for the tea, Inoue-san, but I won�t trouble you further.�

She showed him to the door and Ishida could tell she wanted to say something, to tell him to leave Mizuno alone. She didn�t though because they both knew that she would never be able to enforce whatever pronouncement she made. She could order him to stay away, but she would no more fight for Mizuno-kun than she would any of the rest of them. He waited until she had closed the door before calling Renji.

It had taken six shouting matches and a visit to the bureau of Research and Development, and it would be a cold day in hell before he visited that freak Kurotshuchi again, but the Shinigami had finally given him a communicator. �Hey,� answered Renji on the third ring.

�I need you to put one of the gofers to work running down a name. I might have a lead on our mysterious young friend,� he murmured.

�I�ll tell someone but I�m not sure what sorta response you�ll get, there was a hollow attack earlier that has everyone going nuts and the 12th is screaming �bout some freaky reading they're getting,� muttered Renji, a hint of his childhood accent slipping in and making Uryuu frown. Renji's accent started getting more pronounced when he was stressed or upset.

�Everything okay, love?� he asked gently.

�Ichigo�s gotten squirrelly, really squirrelly. It's got Rukia worried. I ain�t got the story yet but something happened earlier. She says a kid was the one to kill the hollow just a little while back. You sure you wanna run the kid down alone? If he took on a hollow...� Renji let the thought trail off and Uryuu had to smile at the concern in his lover�s voice.

�I�ll be careful. See you at home in a little bit.�

�Take care of yourself, Uryuu.�

"I survived you, I can handle anything," purred the Quincy, earning a warm chuckle at the mention of their explosive early days.
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A Shadow of What Was