The Science of the Soul

A/N: Just a note, this is another old fic in rewrite, so if you think you've seen it before you may have. I'll be reposting chapter two and continuing with it.

Chapter One

Three Kidnappings

"Oh dear!" the man in the striped hat said with a frown.

The hat shaded his eyes, but if it hadn't, a knit brow would have been definite underneath there. In front of him, his current experiment had exploded, glass and liquid flying around him. Again. He sighed. Such was his luck. He tapped his blonde stubbly chin and looked around. What would help make it more stable? He scratched his messy blonde head under the back of the bucket hat. Well, maybe some tea would help. He headed up the stairs into the tea room. He looked out the window. Sometimes he forgot how high up he was in this building. The view of the moderately sized city of Karakura Town was magnificent. The sun was just going down. He smiled. Ah well, at least the view was a lovely thing from here.

"Kisuke?" came a questioning voice from behind him. He turned to see a thin man with garishly pink hair and square wire framed glasses.

"Szayel! How are you? I know you missed yesterday due to your brother being ill, yes?" Kisuke said smiling at the young man.

The man smiled. "Yeah, Illfort's doing okay now. But I was wondering if the experiment was going well? The serum? Have you had any luck yet?"

Kisuke frowned, and sighed. "I can't keep it stable. And if it isn't stable, it's no good, you know that Szay… I'm doing my best, but without the other half of the formula, I don't know that I can do this."

"What are we going to do if we can't stabilize it? We're almost out of time, you know. And we're not even sure how many we're dealing with…" Szayel said, wringing his hands.

"We've got no choice. If we don't stabilize them…I don't even want to think about it," he said with a frown. "And that includes you and your brother too, you know, Szayel. I don't want to lose either of you."

The pink haired man bit his lip. "But how many were implanted with it? Me, Shawlong, Illfort, Nnoitra, Stark and Lilynette, but how many more? You keep saying there are others, but you have no idea how many do you?"

"There are some like your brother that won't show any change, but you, Nnoitra and Stark I know will have more difficulties. You were all exposed to more of it that Illfort and Shawlong and those fellows. I'm most worried about the three that were given the highest dosages. I haven't had much luck with them," Kisuke said with a sigh, staring out the window with a frown. It was beginning to rain outside now that sun was down. He needed to find those three quickly. Before it was too late to save them.

Kisuke Urahara thought for a long moment. How did he end up here? How did he end up looking down on the town he'd loved so much instead of being in the middle of it running a simple candy store? Had it really been almost ten years ago that things got so messed up? If the experiments hadn't been taken too far, this would have never happened. Staying in the hypothetical stage and debating with others, that was fine. But when you actually got the idea to start playing God and implementing the ideas, then you had trouble. Like he was having now. He hated even more that the research had been his and then twisted to someone else's use.

In all his thirty-two years, he would have never guessed that he'd be standing here, the head of a multi-billion dollar scientific research facility, founded by him and his former partner. Ah, that former partner. The thought sent a chill down his spine. He wondered what he was doing now. Perhaps ripping apart some other child's gene sequences and splicing into them again? He frowned, an uncharacteristic look on the usually passive faced scientist. Well, more than that, he was a genius. He'd graduated with a doctoral degree at the age of 21 from MIT in Genetics. His partner had been a few years older, 26, and though still a genius, he had felt threatened by the younger man, feeling his inexperience was a hindrance. But in the end, they worked well together, so it was that they skyrocketed through the scientific community and founded the Seireitei. Considering the work they did with genetics, the name was appropriate.

Ah, his old partner. Sōsuke Aizen. Now his only competition. He'd opened his own research facility, Las Noches, a few years ago, but it didn't have the backing that came with the Seireitei. Aizen ended up focusing on genetic modification of animals and crops. But still, Kisuke had to wonder if he had stopped his human experimentation after all. He didn't think he would. He was too driven. Just thinking of the human experiments that had led to him breaking their partnership made Kisuke sick to his stomach.

Kisuke needed to solve this problem. And it wasn't like he hadn't been working on it. But with Illfort and the others suddenly starting to fall ill, he had to do something. But he was most worried about the three that had been experimented on as children. And they shouldn't be hard to find, because after the experiments, they had all acquired some unique physical characterizes. He had a feeling he was going to have to call him muscle on it. And he hated that.

He picked up the phone to call downstairs. "Can you send up Kenpachi and Yachiru?"

He waited. Soon enough the door burst open and a small pink haired ball of energy came bouncing in followed by an enormous man wearing an eye patch and spiky black hair. He wore a simple black shirt and jeans with simple boots. Yachiru was wearing a bright pink skirt and a white shirt with a pair of Mary Janes. He smiled at the two. Never in a million years would he have put these two together, but Kenpachi took care of the young woman like he was her father. No one really knew how they met, but Yachiru had been one of the original test subjects in some early experiments, hence the reason her hair had turned naturally pink.

Fortunately for her, that had been the only outcome of the genetic manipulation that physically manifested other than her seemingly eternal childlike appearance. Mentally, she had become a powerhouse of memory and processing speed. Kenpachi, also one of those involved in the early trials, had acquired unnatural height, strength, and thick skin that made cutting him difficult. The early trials had been a mix of positive and negatives, unfortunately, the negatives outweighed the positives and he had abandoned them.

"Kenpachi, I need you to track down these three. These are pictures of them at the ages of 8, 9, and 11. They are now ten years older. It is imperative that you locate all three and bring them here as soon as you can," he said. "Be careful and don't count on the obvious, any one of them may have altered their appearance to cover up their unique characteristics. Unlike the others I've had you bring in, these three may be unaware of what has happened to them. They were far too young to remember most of it."

Kenpachi looked over the files, Yachiru looking over his broad shoulder at them. She clung to his back like some kind of spider. "What if they don't wanna come?" Yachiru asked.

"There's no choice, if we don't find them soon, they may all die, or worse, take a few people with them," Kisuke said with a sigh.

"Got it, Urahara-sama. How long do I have?" Kenpachi said, fixing him with his one eyed glare. Kenpachi had lost his other eye when he got in an altercation with a lion while in Nigeria. The lion was unharmed, but would think again before attacking something that looked like Kenpachi.

Kisuke smirked. "I needed them last week, because I'm hoping it already isn't too late."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

He was wet and he hated to be wet. Really he did, but he'd forgotten his umbrella again. He ducked under an awning. He looked to see he was standing beside a shivering man who was also waiting out the rain. He looked down at the small man, and the man quickly left. The taller man snorted. So he was tall, and big, at 6'1", and he had blue hair. That generally put most people off. But he didn't care. If they didn't like him, that was tough. He beat the crap out of anyone that dared say anything to him. Most people thought he was a punk and dyed it that color. He didn't argue with them.

He was leaning against the post at the university bus stop when a girl came walking up to him, and he did a double take. She had pink hair. She was short, really short, but she had a broad smile.

"Hey, I like your hair!" she said cheerily, not seeming to mind that she looked like a drowned rat.

He grudgingly returned the smile. "Yah, yers ain't too bad yerself, kid."

"Can you come with me, huh? I'd really like it if you could, I could use some help?" she questioned.

He quirked an eyebrow. "What in the world for, its pouring rain?"

"Flat tire and I gotta get home!" she said with a frown.

He shook his head and grumbled under his breath, but followed the short girl up to the road. When they got to her car, well, van really, he frowned as there was no flat tire. He turned to say something and found himself looking up at a giant of a man.

"Sorry," said the girlish voice and he looked over just in time to see her plunge a needle in his arm. For a minute he has time to wonder what the hell is happening and then the world fades away.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

He was wandering, as he often did at night. No reason really. He wears a black hoodie and covers his extremely pale skin. He would be classified as albino by most, but he had the most piercing green eyes. He wore a lot of black too. No real reason again. He walked through the rain, wishing he had remembered a raincoat or an umbrella. But oh well. He ducked into a convenience store.

He scanned the shelves impassively. Nothing really interested him. Interestingly, nothing ever really interested him. He grabbed a pack of crackers and a soda from the fridge and went up to pay for them. He looked around but did not see the cashier, and he wondered briefly where he could have gone.

"Hello? I would like to purchase a couple items!" he said loudly. There was no answer.

He turned around nearly running into a man over a foot taller than he was. The man looked down at him with a grin.

"Can I help you?" he asked softly, his face belying no emotion at the sight of a man so much larger than he.

The man nodded and pointed out to his van. "Need a flat changed."

He looked out. "Well, I'm sure you are suited to such tasks than I am. I am on the small side, and I am afraid I am not very strong compared to a man such as yourself."

The man looked irritated, and he looked over his shoulder. To the green eyed man's surprise a pink haired girl popped up. His face, however, was impassive as ever.

"Please, mister, I'm so cold and wet out there!"

He shook his head. "I can call someone to help you," he began, pulling out a phone. Then the large man grabbed his wrist. He looked up in time to see the pink haired girl lean over and stab him with a syringe. He looked up and felt slightly dizzy. And then it seemed that sleep claimed him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Damn!" he muttered as he sloshed through puddles on his way to his dorm. Why'd it have to downpour right as he got out of his only night class? He made it into the dorm hall and headed up to his room that he shared with his friend Keigo. He brushed his bright orange bangs out of his face. He saw the Keigo wasn't in yet. Oh well, probably found some female companionship for the night. He started peeling off his wet clothes and grabbed a towel from his closet when he heard a knock on the door. He frowned, wondering if Keigo had left his dumb keys again.

He opened it and looked down to see a young girl with pink hair smiling at him. "What? Hey, who are you?"

He clutched the towel tightly around his waist. She smiled sweetly. "Can you help me?"

"Um, well, I would but I kinda need to get dressed, why don't you ask the resident down the hall?" he said, knitting his orange colored brows together. "Um, hang on, okay?" he said when she just stood staring for a few minutes without moving or blinking.

He rubbed his head as he shut the door. He turned around and grabbed a pair of boxers and slipped them on, and was grabbing for his jeans when the door slammed open and instead of a pink haired girl there was a massively large man standing there glowering at him. He had spiked black hair and an eye patch covering one eye. He was scary looking to the much smaller college freshman.

"Um, what, who?" he stammered stepping back and dropping his jeans. He reached behind him, trying to grab for his cell on the dresser but he ended up knocking it down behind it instead.

"I'm tired of waitin'. Yer commin' with us," he said matter of factly.

Extremely self-conscious he shook his head and tried to back up. "What?" he managed before the guy had grabbed him roughly by the hair making him hiss in pain.

"Um, Keni, I lost the other syringe…" the pink haired girl said with a pouty face from beside him.

The large man looked at Ichigo then to the girl. "Do I knock him out?"

"Keni, I don't think that would be good, just cover grab him and let's get out of here. Here, this will work!" she said, grabbing a tie off the table and tying his hands together with incredible speed. Then she grabbed another one from Keigo's dresser and gagged him with it. She stepped back and admired her work. "There we go!"

And then before he knew it, he was hefted up and over the huge man's shoulder, his muffled complaints going unnoticed by the enormous man. He tried kicking only to have his feet held down at the ankles by two very strong hands. He finally managed to reach out enough to bang against a door though, and he felt a flood of relief when it opened to see his friend Tatsuki's head pop out. He locked eyes with her and reached out with his bound hands. She gasped and wasn't sure what to do.

"Ichigo!" she called out reflexively, making the large man turn around and look at her. He smirked and waved as he continued, carrying the struggling man over his back.

Within minutes she was on the phone reporting the apparent kidnapping, and watched as from the window as he was tossed in the back of a white van with no plates on it.

The jarring bounce when he hit the floor on the back of the van he'd been dumped in made him cry out a little when his head hit the ground. Before he could think about what had just happened, they were moving. He rolled over to find himself face to face with an unconscious figure with blue hair. He franticly looked the other way to see another male, this one with black hair but pallid white skin. He tried to scoot away from them but there was nowhere to go. He couldn't get his hands untied and his mouth was sore. Soon enough, they'd stopped, and he saw the door open and the huge man come back with a grin. He tried to scoot back, only to be yanked out by his ankle. He was tossed over one of his shoulders, and he picked the blue haired man up and tossed him over the other.

To his surprise, the pink haired girl, petite as she was, jumped in the back and grabbed the other pale fellow. She was incredibly strong. He was along for the ride so he tried to examine his surroundings. But he had no idea where he was. Soon, they were in some kind of underground garage and into an elevator. They walked down a long plain corridor, and then he heard a door open and he was flopped down on a bed. There were three beds in the room, and the other two were also placed on them. The big man smirked, and left with the pink haired girl. He jumped up and tried the door with his tied hands but it was most definitely locked.

He slunk back over and sat down on the bed. This sucked. And they didn't untie him either. It seemed like forever before the blue haired guy started to stir. Ichigo had been lying on the bed, unable to do much else while he waited. He looked over as the bluenette sat up groggily and looked around. He then blinked and stared at the mostly naked man in the room that was bound and gagged. Ichigo sat up and held his hands out toward him, hoping he got the hint.

The blue haired guy frowned then looked around. He reached over and tried to yank the knot out but found it too tight. He frowned and moved closer and it took a few minutes of cussing under his breath before he got it untied. As soon as he did, Ichigo sighed then reached up to get the gag out, but found he couldn't get the knot out of that either. He groaned in frustration because his mouth really hurt and the whole tie was soaked with spit, which was just gross.

"Tch, lemme see," the bluenette said and Ichigo turned and soon enough his gag was gone.

Ichigo sighed in relief and franticly rubbed the sore corners of his mouth. "Oh gods, thank you."

"What the hell is going on?" the heard from the third bed, as the pale fellow sat up. He had incredible vivid green eyes.

"No idea, big freaking guy came to my dorm and dragged me out," Ichigo said slowly, then glanced down. "I guess I should be happy I got on shorts before he grabbed me."

Ichigo noted that both of the others were in damp clothes, obviously, they too had been out in the rain. Blue was wearing dark jeans and a t-shirt, and Green-eyes was wearing a pair of tan slacks and a black polo shirt. Ichigo really felt exposed without his clothes and crossed his arms over his rather thin chest, covering the fact that he had a pair of nipple piercings and a tattoo over his heart that he really didn't feel like explaining. He caught the glance at the piercing on his belly button in that hung down, thankfully, the big brute hadn't pulled it out when he threw him over his shoulder. Blue looked to be inked, but he couldn't tell yet what the patterns were. He had a tattoo on his face that looked like it was tattooed over his jaw to match the bone underneath. Ichigo's other tattoo was currently unseen where he was sitting, and with the way the Bluenette looked, he worried about him catching sight of that one. No doubt the gemstone strawberry dangle on his belly button was bad enough.

"I was helping some pink haired girl with a flat, and then she stabbed me with a needle," the blue haired one said finally after looking the other boy thoughtfully for a moment.

The pale one nodded. "Yes, he said something about a flat, then that pink haired one stabbed me. Why were you not stabbed with a needle too?"

Ichigo sighed. "She said she dropped it, so I got lucky and tied up instead. Name's Ichigo, by the way," he said softly.

"Grimmjow," the blue haired ones said and they both looked to the green eyed guy.

He nodded acknowledgement. "Ulquiorra."

They sat in silence for a bit. What more could they do?