With a Silent Step

Ichigo came to in a huge cavern of a room. Various things around him were beeping and twinkling, and his entire body felt as though he'd been run over by a semi that backed up over him and run over him again.

The icy chill in the air was reminiscent of something, but he couldn't quite place it. A noise in the corner distracted him from trying to remember the last place he'd been so cold. He turned his head with effort, and saw a pretty girl in a Chinese dress pressing buttons on some sort of massive machine. She turned to look at him, and he realized it was the twelfth division's fukutaichou, Kurotsuchi Nemu. Beside her was the monster who'd stolen him right from under Urahara's nose.

"Welcome back, boy," the scientist said cheerfully. Or as cheerfully as he ever got, that was. Ichigo suddenly had an urge to look down and make sure all of his limbs were still attached. There wasn't much that could make the madman that happy, although disembowelment and permanent disfigurement ranked high on the list. "Yamamoto-soutaichou had such high hopes for you. The rising star of fifth division, appointed to bring fame and fortune back to the unlucky. Well, I have other plans than letting you get in my way."

Kurotsuchi advanced on him, and Ichigo shrank back in horror.

---

Yoruichi had been summoned from Ichigo's house, and the group of them - Urahara, Yoruichi, Chad, Ishida, Keigo, Mizuiro, and - to Ishida's disgust - Shinji - were gathered in the sitting room, trying to break the tense silence about what to do.

"Well, he wants him alive," Shinji offered after several long, silent moments. "If he wanted to kill him, all he'd have to do would be just sneak in and kill him. No sense dragging him off to do it."

Urahara inclined his head. "That is one way of looking at it."

"Another is that he wanted to torture him before killing him," Yoruichi added darkly. Ishida flinched, and she shot him an apologetic look. Was everyone aware of his crush but Kurosaki?

Chad shook his head. "I can't believe that. He's obviously been planning this for a long time. One does not simply go mad and then kidnap the most powerful captain in Soul Society."

"Mad people might," Keigo interjected. "I mean ... if something set him off just last night, it could have been something that just got into his head.."

"No," Rukia said, suddenly appearing through a gateway from Soul Society. "I just checked. The dates on that notebook we found were... quite old. This has been something he's been waiting for."

Yoruichi frowned thoughtfully, and then climbed to her feet and began to pace. "It's clear he left the book behind on purpose, especially if everything else was cleared out." She turned her attention to Rukia. "What was the exact nature of the things written in this notebook?"

"That's just it," Rukia said helplessly. She looked around at the faces of Ichigo's gathered friends and felt she had never been more useless in her life. "It's all in short hand. The entire thing is completely useless, because no one can figure out what he was talking about. The only things written out were Kurosaki and something about the wrist."

Urahara looked interested. "I wonder if perhaps they would allow me to look at it?"

The house shook as the gates to Soul Society opened outside, and the spiritually aware members of the party gasped. Keigo demanded to know what was going on, and whether or not they were having an earthquake, when a rumbling cackle reached through to their ears. Yoruichi was on her feet and out the door in a flash, followed by Ishida hot on her heels. The small hole opened in the fabric of space closed, but not before the two of them had a good chance to identify the caller as Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

Ishida knelt down beside Ichigo, who had been thrown to the ground in front of the Urahara shop front.

"Careful!" Yoruichi warned. "He wasn't gone long, but anything could have happened to hi-" She was cut off as Ishida gathered Ichigo up into his arms, only to nearly drop the Shinigami captain as he spasmed violently and groaned in obvious pain. It passed after a few moments, and Ishida brought him inside.

Urahara was reluctant to touch him before Tessai completed a complicated scan of his reiatsu.

"The only thing different is this," Tessai said, and lifted Ichigo's wrist to display the leather strap that was wrapped snuggly around his forearm. Protruding from it were ten small silver knobs; two of them were flush against the leather, and as they watched, Urahara leaned over to brush Ichigo's hair off his forehead. The simple act brought another of the knobs shooting down into Ichigo's arm, and another groan and spasm. This one seemed more painful and longer lasting than the one Ishida had witnessed. Tessai dropped Ichigo's wrist, afraid that contact with him would cause it, and in the process grazed his fingers. Another knob plunged downwards, and sweat began appearing on Ichigo's face and chest as he began shaking uncontrollably.

"Nobody touch him!" Urahara commanded. "Not until we figure out what this is and how it's affecting him!"

Already four of the small metal pieces had been lowered. Urahara risked another touch, but found that nothing happened. It appeared that once was enough. But what was the trigger?

His mind racing, Kisuke examined the leather bracer. It appeared innocuous enough, but clearly whatever it was was causing Ichigo some pain.

Rukia gasped. "That design! That's what we found in the note book of Kurotsuchi's! What could it be for?"

Urahara began pacing, his clog-less feet making no sound on the wooden floors. Could it be fingerprints? No, that would mean that we'd have to touch the leather. I touched his forehead and it set that thing off. It's got to be something that's unique to each person, but can be sensed without direct contact. Auras? No. "Reiatsu!" He shouted suddenly, drawing all eyes. "That has to be it. It responds to people with reiatsu, when they come into contact with him." He repeated his warning for no one but Tessai, Ishida, and himself to touch Ichigo, and then wondered who the first trigger had been. Had to have been Mayuri or Nemu. That's the only explanation. But where did they take him? Clearly not here in the human world. Hueco Mundo perhaps? But there's nothing there. Unless he rebuilt his lab in that desolate place.... Damn. If only I had more answers.

Ichigo was moved into Urahara's room with him, both so that he could be kept watch on and also because Kisuke had the only western bed in the house. Urahara slept on a spare futon, beside the bed. The entire attack - from Ishida's first tingle of warning to the time Ichigo had been dumped outside the shop - had taken less than two hours. It had been masterfully orchestrated, and now only time would tell if Ichigo would be alright.

-

Shinji snuck into Urahara's room, scoffing silently that the older man hadn't even bothered to lock his door. The hollow inside him was urging him to mischief, and as much as he admired Ichigo's strength - and loved to see Ishida squirm by flirting constantly with the other vizard - he couldn't stop himself from reaching out and gently grasping the closest part of bare skin he could find. Another knob depressed, and Ichigo's body went rigid. Shinji, suddenly aware that Ichigo had friends who would kill him for something like this, vacated the room, leaving a sleepy Urahara to puzzle over how another of the metal pieces had fallen when no one was close by.

The next morning, everyone slept late. Urahara woke before anyone else, sometime before noon, and made phone calls to Isshin and the other parents, letting them know that their children were safe. Even at twenty years old, parents still liked to know where their kids were.

Ururu, having slept through most of the night's disturbances, entered Urahara's bedroom silently. She couldn't figure out why Ichigo was in here instead of his own room, or why he was still sleeping when it was time for brunch. She reached out and shook his shoulder, and then jumped back and screamed when Ichigo arched off the bed and shouted.

Jinta was the first one in the room, concerned for her - not that he'd ever admit it, not even to himself - and he immediately felt for a fever. This sent another of the knobs down, out of sight from the two powerful children, and Ichigo began thrashing in his sleep. Urahara appeared moments later, glowering like the Shinigami he'd formerly been.

"Did you touch him!?" he demanded. Ururu looked shamed.

"I just wanted to wake him up," she murmured. Jinta scowled.

"He looks sick. Why the hell is he here?"

Urahara ignored them both, and turned Ichigo's wrist over. Only the last three spikes were still raised. Kisuke swore softly.

"What are those?" Ururu asked quietly. "What's happened to Ichigo?" She turned her huge eyes up trustingly to Urahara. In them, he could see her thoughts. You're his master. You know everything. How could you let something like this happen to him right in your own home? What's going on? There's nothing you can't do, so why aren't you fixing him? Why is he still like this?

"I... I don't.... I don't know," Urahara said. His hat shadowed his eyes, and his mouth was set in a grim line. "I don't know what's happening to him, and I don't know how to stop it."

A roaring in the distance signaled a hollow. Ichigo shifted slightly, frowning as though he could sense it too. Urahara looked down at him fondly, then heard Rukia and Chad ignite their powers - Rukia leaving the gigai she'd been occupying, Chad bringing his power arms into play. Urahara felt their reiatsu fill the the house as they prepared for battle, and then turned a horrified glance downward.

Two more silver pellets had pushed down. Ichigo's face was damp with sweat, and he moaned softly, his face scrunching up in pain. Urahara eyed the last knob with uncertainty. The scientist in him wanted someone to push the last one in, to find out once and for all what this was about. His good sense told him that it was Kurotsuchi's doing, and that they should be thinking of a way to get that thing off him before it depressed and possibly killed him. Several blocks away, Chad and Rukia made short work of the hollow that had appeared to prey on innocent souls. He felt their return, but simply sat beside Ichigo, turning his options over in his mind.

Yoruichi appeared in the door, shooing Jinta and Ururu out. They left sullenly, Ururu still pleading silently with Urahara to do something for Ichigo.

The Flash Master padded silently over to the prone boy on the bed, lifting his wrist gently by the leather manacle that contained whatever poison was felling him. "One left," she said needlessly.

"Yoruichi..." I may never forgive myself if this kills him, but I absolutely must know what will happen when that last one goes down. I can't ask anyone else, and it only works once, apparently. You're the only person who hasn't come near him with reiatsu yet. Just gently brush his face or make it look like an accident, we'll tell them it was the hollow that did it.

"Kisuke." I won't ever forgive you if it kills him either, but I trust your judgment and abilities. I'll do this thing you ask, but if it harms him I won't speak to you for another hundred years. I don't like lying to those kids about things like this, it's their friends life hanging here. This isn't one of your scientific discoveries, have you forgotten that it was Mayuri who did this in the first place? Do you even know what you're doing or is this just another one of those whims?

She reached out silently and pressed one finger against his upper arm. The last knob plunged into his arm, and suddenly the leather armlet snapped open and began growing. It was over in less than two seconds, and Ichigo's body was entirely covered in the leather straps.

"KISUKE!" Yoruichi shouted angrily, her tone accusatory.

"He's still alive!" Urahara snapped back at her. Something popped out of the leather and unfurled like a flag.

"And for my final trick: A complete physiological transformation! -- Kurotsuchi M."

The two former leaders of Seireitei gaped at it stupidly, then turned to look at each other.

"That bastard!" Urahara swore. Ishida nearly knocked the door over in his haste to enter the room.

"What happened?" demanded the Quincy. "What did you do?"

"It was the hollow," both Yoruichi and Kisuke said in unison. Urahara continued. "When Chad and Rukia-chan defeated it, it released a wave of almost undetectable reiatsu and triggered the button. Then that thing went crazy and covered him up."

Ishida looked down in horror at his mummified rival-turned-friend. The only thing left to do now was wait and see.

-[TBC]-

I'm much better with dialogue than I am with actions. XDD And I apologize for being out of character. I realize that I'm horribly, horribly OOC with these guys. I just don't know them well enough yet, but I needed to get this out of my head.
Also, this chapter is dedicated to Baroqueangel for being the first reviewer!

Also, some of the things that have happened - Shinji's kiss, the bracer with the metal spikes... these things were MUCH easier to simply imagine than they were to write out. XDDD