The first breath when regaining consciousness was always painful, at least when he'd had his ribs pummeled again. However, Ichigo didn't think he'd ever hurt this much when he came awake as he struggled for breath. He knew there were a couple broken this time. He couldn't get enough air, and pain was slicing through his chest on the right side. He coughed and spit blood and knew he needed help with this. He couldn't heal this by himself… He couldn't just let this go and hope no one noticed. He needed Orihime, Hachi, or Tessai…one of them would work, but then they'd tell someone, wouldn't they? I mean, he could push off the rib fracture, and what he was sure was a collapsed lung as getting in a fight. But the rest? He could say it was someone that jumped him. But they wouldn't believe him. No one in the World of the Living had the power to do something like this to him unless he didn't fight back. Which, of course, he hadn't. He never did. He never would.

He let his eyes flutter open and tried to remember what exactly happened this time. That's right. This morning there was a rough client at the clinic. His father had ended up having to send her to the emergency via ambulance and she'd died in route. When he came back, everything had gone bad. He didn't remember exactly what it had been he'd said, though. He remembered his head slamming into the doorframe and stumbling after his father into his own room, and then landing hard onto his bed and trying not to scream… Ichigo shook the thoughts away. No, he needed to focus on his breathing, not the rest.

Ichigo Kurosaki refused to let anyone know what happened, what had been happening since he was ten years old. He could not let them know. Not anyone. How would they look at him? He was a Shinigami again, surely he could stop this. He could. But at what cost? People would find out. And he couldn't leave even though he was an adult by human standards now. He had to take care of Karin and Yuzu. They more than anyone couldn't know about it. That was so important. They couldn't ever know. They couldn't know that their father wasn't who they thought he was. They could never, ever find out. He would stay in this house; he would endure, until his sisters were able to leave. Then he would leave and everything would be okay. He could do this for four more years. He could. He was strong enough for that…right?

He got enough wits about him to push up to hands and knees, very sure know his right lung was collapsed. He could do a chest tube if he needed to, he'd had one before. He could re inflate it. He just needed to get to the clinic and get what he needed. He could grab antibiotics while he was there. He could do this. He could fix this without anyone knowing. He could manage to get there. He couldn't go to anyone in this condition. It was too easy to tell what had just happened.

That thought was nearly crushed when he face planted into the floor instead of standing up like he wanted to. Great, he thought, breaths heaving in his chest. He gave himself a minute and then pushed up off the floor and watched his room waver in and out of his vision.

"King?" came a voice in his head. No.

He wasn't going to let him know either. He growled and pushed Zangetsu's presences deeper and heard him scream at him. He'd had a hard time keeping Shiro at bay since his powers were returned by Soul Society. There were areas that he kept closely guarded, and this, this was one of them. Shiro had knocked at the wall a few times when he'd first gained his power, but he'd held his ground. This time, though. Shiro was more powerful, and he was scratching and clawing at that wall that protected all of this in his mind. He wanted to know what Ichigo was hiding from him. And Ichigo was hiding it very well.

He got up to his feet this time, though. He grabbed the black yukata and wrapped it around himself. It wouldn't show blood. Usually, he'd go to the shower now, but he didn't think he'd be able to do it until he'd done something about his lung. If he was lucky he could throw himself into a fight with a hollow and convince them that the injury happened then so he could heal it. He'd done that a couple times since he got power back. He stumbled down the steps, glad that the girls were at school. He had no idea where his father had gone. He always disappeared afterward. He supposed he had to come down off whatever the hell he was high on.

That was one of the things that the girls couldn't know. Ever since their mother had died, Isshin Kurosaki had a close relationship with prescriptions. He'd take one or two out of patients' scripts when he gave them out, and no one knew any better. Or he simply used what he had. It wasn't so bad when he didn't take the ones that made him angry or violent. When he took the ones that mellowed him out, Ichigo got a reprieve. However brief it was. The hallucinogenic ones, though, had led to the worst days Ichigo had had as a child and teen.

Today had been one of those days.

Ichigo knew, of course, that the effect was a combination of things. Isshin took an anti-depressant and a couple other mood things legitimately. Sometimes, he'd take amphetamines with it. The combination left him nearly incoherent with anger at the slightest provocation. That was how it started.

The first time, Ichigo was ten. He sat with a bloody nose in the bathroom; scared out of his mind as his father stood and told him how it was his fault he'd gotten hurt. He should have kept his mouth shut and stopped crying. He'd turned eyes up on the man he didn't know anymore. An hour later, he'd come and doted on him, apologizing to him and cleaning his nose gently, and sitting for a long time with him afterward. Ichigo had been confused, so confused.

It didn't happen again for nearly a year, but then it happened more and more often. No matter what he tried, Ichigo couldn't seem to avoid making his father angry. And then one day the truth of what was happening fell from his father's lips, and he understood, everything was his fault after all.

"If she hadn't given birth to you, she'd be alive still. You killed her with your first breath."

Once Ichigo understood, he began to realize that he did deserve it. His mother died protecting him, after all. And he was the cause of everything. When he found out the truth, about how his father was a Shinigami, and that he had essentially been what called the hollow Grand Fisher to them that night because of his uncontrolled spiritual energy… He realized he was indeed the cause of all their suffering.

His very birth had led to his mother's death. He'd been the power that the Grand Fisher was looking for, and it had caused her death. He had been taken away their mother. He'd taken away everything from his sisters just by existing. He'd taken the heart of their family. And when Isshin raged at him, he never failed to remind him of that fact. Again and again. Karin and Yuzu never heard it. The whispered comments when no one was looking. The accusing stares that followed him. Those quiet moments that were full of more meaning than words could ever say would stretch on forever before him.

The first time he'd come into his room when things changed, he'd been thirteen. And thinking of that, he nearly threw up because in some ways he couldn't excuse that. But maybe that's the way it was supposed to be. The things that Isshin showed him, it seemed to be something that happened often in the world. He wasn't going to be with anyone else in his life, he knew.

He stumbled through into the clinic and went to the cabinet with the supplies he needed. This was going to hurt like hell, he thought to himself. He pulled down the chest tube equipment and pulled open the yukata. He winced at the massive purple bruising that was rising on his side. He swallowed and felt down to a spot between his ribs where it needed do go and cut into his side. He gasped out as the blood ran down from it. His hands were shaking so much that he was having trouble with the tube. He heaved a breath and finally got it to slide between his ribs. He panted as he slipped it into position. He waited as blood ran out of the tube for a second and he gasped, hoping the stupid thing re inflated. He suddenly could breathe easier, and he coughed up another glob of blood and leaned his head back with a thump against the wall. He had a mess to clean up, though. But first he needed to shower. He couldn't have the girls get home and see him like this. He reached down and realized the blood was starting to dry on his legs. Great…that meant it had been an hour at least. He needed to hurry before the girls got home from school.

By the time the girls came home, Ichigo had managed to clean up any traces of blood in the clinic and the house, shower, and have a snack set out for them. Since he was between high school and college, he had a little bit more time. He wasn't even sure he wanted to go to college, though. That would mean leaving Yuzu and Karin. And Yuzu looked way too much like their mother for him to let that happen.

If you didn't look so much like her, I wouldn't want to do this. Yuzu looks like her, too. So much like her.

Ichigo shook away that memory quickly. He smiled as the girls came in and chattered about school. To the outside, they had no idea. He smiled, joked with them, and tried to act like everything was normal. It was normal, at least, his normal. His father came back in as Yuzu was cooking dinner and he talked to all of them like nothing was wrong. Ichigo saw his eyes weren't red and dilated now. That was good. He did everything he could to keep him away from the girls when he was on something. Sometimes it was a struggle, but he managed. He usually paid for it in pain and blood, but if it helped his sisters, he'd do anything.

Nothing was out of place all evening, and everyone went to bed like normal. Ichigo, though, was in a lot of pain, and he wasn't sure if he was out of the woods, so to speak. He knew, very well, that draining the blood and inflating his lung was temporary. He needed to get healed as soon as possible. He swallowed thickly and got up, nearly passing out. He grabbed a jacket as he slipped out of the house and headed…where?

If he went to the hospital, they would know him. He was Isshin Kurosaki's son. But this late, maybe he could convince them that he had been mugged, and leave before they got anything substantial. He could go to Orihime, but she always knew what injuries someone had when she used her sun sun riki. And he couldn't have that. He bit his lip and thought that the others, Tessai and Hachi, would have the same thing. They'd do a scan before they used healing. Shit, that left the hospital as the only option, because he was still coughing blood, and his breath was getting tighter. He could leave his human body, but it wouldn't help, and if his human body died…he wondered what would happen to his spirit body?

He didn't want to find out. He managed to get to the emergency and looked around. The night crew didn't have any faces he knew. He walked up to the counter, clutching his side.

"I think…my lung…collapsed…" he said breathily, teetering very nearly on the edge of passing out.

That put everyone into a flurry of motion as he was put in a wheel chair and whisked into the back. Everything blurred out for a while, but when things came back this time, he wasn't in excruciating amounts of pain. He blinked and found himself looking up in the face of a very pretty young nurse.

"There you are, sweetie," she said and smiled at him. "You scared us for a minute there. Did you do try to put in a chest tube by yourself?"

Ichigo nodded, blinking. "I know how to do it, just…was shaking, might have messed it up…" he said as he realized he was drugged up on pain meds. "Wait, I can't…can't stay…gotta go…"

"Oh now, sweetie, you aren't going anywhere. You've got the start of a nasty infection, and the police are going to want to talk to you, they're in the waiting room," she said and smiled at him.

"Uh uh, no, m'fine, let me out of here, where's my clothes?" he said as he realized he was in a hospital gown. His badge had been in his pants pocket.

"They're put away safely, sweetie. Can you tell me your name?" she asked.

"No, no, just…I can't give you my name," he muttered and sat up suddenly, pulling all the IVs and lines off as he slid to the floor. His head was spinning, though and he stumbled and fell to his knees. "Why…what…" he muttered as he felt hands on him and he saw the pretty nurse coming around with a syringe. "No!" he gasped out.

He needed his Shinigami form right now to get out of this. But he couldn't get out of his body like this. He didn't think about the fact that if he released his soul form, his body would still be here, in the hospital, only 'dead' for all they could tell. He didn't know why he thought this was a good idea. He should have known they wouldn't just treat him and let him go. It was stupid on his part. Completely stupid. At worst he thought he could sneak out. He didn't count on them giving him medicines. He tried to pull away again, but there were two more sets of hands that seemingly materialized when he wasn't looking.

"Hah, no…lemme go…" he muttered as he managed to slip their grip and nearly got to the doorway. He may not have been in his Shinigami form but he was still faster and stronger than humans. He fell to his hands and knees and scrambled to his feet and felt someone catch him under his arms. He gasped and looked up, locking eyes on Ryūken Ishida who was holding him under his arms and staring at him with a very confused expression.

He yelped as the nurse managed to inject whatever she had into his thigh. He felt his eyes roll up into his head. "Don't…don't tell him…don't…tell him I'm here…" he said as he felt the last vestiges of consciousness slip away.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Shiro sat in water that was waist deep. He was worried again. Ever since he'd been returned to King, the walls had gotten closer. Everywhere in Ichigo's inner world was accessible to the two spirits except for a small building that sat outside the range of everything else. Zangetsu stood beside him.

"Whatever is in there is important," Zangetsu said softly. "Whatever he's hiding is why this world is flooding."

"Something is different since his power returned," Shiro said as he looked at the plain looking house. It was completely out of place among the sideways skyscrapers. It was Ichigo's house in Karakura town. Only, it was completely inaccessible to the spirits. There was a hedge around the place where all the leaves had turned black and died, and each black leaf was edged with frost. It was covered with thorns. Shiro walked around to the front where the door was covered by a barrier of what looked to be ice. The area around the door was starting to freeze moving outward. Between the barrier and the door was a nearly translucent looking butterfly was madly fluttering around trying to escape.

"This house has always been here, but I never thought much about it," Shiro said and looked at the door, feeling the reiatsu react violently when they neared it. "But now, it is bigger and more visible. I need to get into this place. We need to find out what he's hiding. Whatever it is, it's causing the rain and the ice, and I have a feeling that it is going to eat him alive. Look."

Zangetsu looked where Shiro was pointing. The black thorny vines were creeping away from the house and beginning to overtake the building next to the house. Zangetsu frowned. "This is deep. This is old, Shiro. What is here…I am unsure the results."

"He is actively blocking me from even being able to see what's happening at times. He is putting all his power into hiding what is currently happening. If we attack this while he's putting his energy into hiding what's happening in the present, we may be able to breech the barrier," he said with a deep sigh. "I think it might be the only way. Wait, he's unconscious," Shiro said as he went back to being able to sense the world outside Ichigo's body.

"Can you take control from him?" Zangetsu asked.

Shiro glared at him. "You want me to take control?" he asked confused.

"It is going to be necessary at some point, I feel. There is no other way to deal with this. Whatever this is, it is beginning to eat away at him. And that…" he said and nodded toward the clear barrier. Shiro realized that the ice was spreading faster, starting to cover the rest of the house. The butterfly was frantic to get out of the space, but there was no way for it to get out. "That is important, but I am not sure how yet."

Shiro nodded and took out his sword and began to swing at the barrier. It resisted him, but he kept at it. Zangetsu watched impassively.

"Continue this and he must give energy to it. When he attempts to push us away from what is happening in the outside world to him, he won't be able to protect it. You will either get into this place or you will see what is happening outside. Either way, we will know more of what is causing this."

Shiro nodded and swung into the ice again. It arced and he watched as the ice began creeping up the next building.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ryūken Ishida was one of the few people in the hospital that most the other nurses and doctors gave a wide berth. He was often unpleasant and curt. To be honest, not many people liked him. However, he was on call and they had to deal with him. The emergency doctor handled most things that came in, but as the surgeon on call, he was brought in on anything requiring actual surgery. It was no surprise when a patient came in with a collapsed lung and what looked like a knife wound that he was called in. They'd prepped the patient by the time he got there and scrubbed up. To be honest, all he could tell was the patient was male with all the intubation equipment hooked up to him. The drapes and the head covering disguised the patient entirely. He frowned as he looked the wound over. It wasn't a knife wound.

"This is...this is a scalpel incision," he muttered and looked over the films. "Did…did he try to put a chest tube in himself?" he asked no one in particular. "Fractured rib punctured the upper lobe, right lung. Lower rib below major fracture is slightly cracked as well with no danger of puncturing the lung. Three other ribs are severely contused," he spoke out loud as the recording device picked up the voices in the room. "Patient appears to have inserted something through a scalpel incision in between the two ribs that are fractured. It is possible patient attempted to drain and re-inflate his lung on his own. Site is clean, however."

After everything was done he scrubbed out and let the nurses take care of the post surgery recovery. He was curious though, and looked over the films. One of the other doctors walked up, the emergency physician for the night. "Did we get an id on him yet?" Ryūken asked.

"No, no identification on him, but I'd think with that obnoxiously dyed hair someone would recognize him," Dr. Takanawa said beside him.

Ryūken blinked and started to ask what color his hair had been but Takanawa turned and headed to his next patient. He headed up to the nurses station and started going over the file and as he looked at it, something tickled the back of his mind. He looked up at one of the nurses. "Has the John Doe woken up yet?"

"No, but Dr. Jintao just came out with a PRAK," she said, looking up to Ryūken.

"A PRAK?" Ryūken said and flipped through the papers on the file. "He's been sexually assaulted recently…" he muttered. He looked over the other doctor's notes. "Why did they even check for that? Did he say something?"

"No, when he passed out, and we were getting him out of his clothes to see if he had any other injuries, he was bleeding still, wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been. Dr. Jintao insisted on a kit, just in case he'll talk. But you know how it goes with the male vics," she said sadly, shaking her head. "They never want to charge their attacker. Too bad, he's a cute thing. And weirdest hair color," she said with a smile. "Dr. Takanawa thought he had dyed his hair, but it's natural, hair below's the same color," she said with a slight blush. "He looks like he's Japanese, so I'm not sure why he'd have hair that color."

"Wait, what color…" he said as he looked up to hear all the monitors going off in the room where his patient had been taken. He saw a couple of the orderlies go in and he took off to the door just in time to catch him as he nearly got out of it.

He stared for a minute but the nurse managed to get the sedative into him from behind and he gasped out "Don't…don't tell him…don't…tell him I'm here…" right before he passed out.

Ryūken looked at the nurse. "Move him to my floor. Nothing on the record about his description, list him as a John Doe and leave it at that," he said as he helped the orderly get him back into the bed.

"What? You know him?" the nurse asked with a frown.

"Just do what I said, nurse. Or do I have to tell the head nurse that you won't follow orders again?" he snarled at her and headed to the elevator.

He had a million thoughts going through his mind at that moment. Ichigo Kurosaki just came into the emergency in a state like this. He didn't go to Orihime or one of the Shinigami healers, and he'd tried to deal with the collapsed lung on his own. Whatever happened, he didn't want anyone to know about it, and Ryūken had no idea who "he" was that he didn't want to know anything about where he was. He was tempted to call Uryū, but he worried that it might get back to whoever Ichigo was running from. Who in the world would Ichigo be running from? He knew he'd been given his powers back, so there was no reason for him to be in this shape unless it was someone far more powerful than him. But there were no defensive wounds. The only contusions were on his body, and there were none on his knuckles and arms. He hadn't fought whoever had done this.

Ryūken went up and found that they'd listened, moving him to the surgery floor. He grabbed the chart, noting that they'd done as he asked, removing hair color and marking him a John Doe. He took the chart with him and went in and sat beside the bed. They'd restrained him, of course. After he nearly got away before being close to being cleared to leave, they had little choice. His right arm had been strapped at wrist and elbow to keep the IV lines from getting dislodged if he did fight the restraints. Ryūken pulled on one of them. He didn't think Ichigo would be able to break them in his human body. He sighed and ran a hand over his head. Dammit. He hated Shinigami. But he knew who Ichigo's mother had been. So in a way, he was more than a Shinigami, and there weren't many of them left now.

Ryūken went over and increased the dose of one of the sedatives. He knew Ichigo would burn through the drugs faster than most, and he needed him to stay put until he could figure out what was going on. Luckily, he had no other emergency surgeries. Just as the sun was rising, Ichigo started to stir, coming off the heavy dose of the benzodiazepine he'd been given.

"Wha…" he muttered and tried to lift his arms. He seemed foggy, which Ryūken was glad of. He leaned forward so Ichigo could see him. His hazy brown eyes locked onto Ryūken's.

"Ichigo," he said to him. "You're restrained. You can't get up right now. Do you remember why you're here?"

Ichigo swallowed and blinked several times. His brain was skipping and he needed to come up with something, anything, to tell Ryūken. The problem was, any excuse he made was going to sound hollow to someone who knew him. But he'd try.

"Got jumped," he muttered. "Guy stabbed me…" he said and tried to look at Ryūken but his gaze shifted.

"No. That's not what happened. I went in and drained your lung, you tried to put in a chest tube. You told the nurse the same thing when you woke up after you came up out of anesthesia."

"I…" he stammered. "Didn't 'member that…" he said and sighed. He hated when he couldn't keep track of what he said.

"I was curious why you would come here, when Inoue is far more capable of fixing anything that might be wrong with you. A punctured lung and broken ribs should have been easy for her to deal with," Ryūken said with a sigh. He realized that Ichigo was avoiding his gaze. "And that wasn't your only injury."

Ichigo's head snapped around and he stared at Ryūken. It might not have been noticeable if Ichigo wasn't coming down off a heavy dose of Valium, and was currently on a rather high dose of morphine. As it was though, Ichigo was obviously having a lot of trouble not showing emotion on his face. Ryūken didn't even need to ask to know that he knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Who did this, Ichigo?" he asked, and he felt both angry and sad at the same time.

Ryūken looked up to see two police officers standing in the doorway. He shook his head and nodded to them. "Please be quick."

The officers nodded to him. "We need to take a statement from you about what happened last night," the first officer, a female one, said.

Ichigo swallowed and Ryūken could see he was trying to come up with an answer. "I…I went out after dinner for a walk, and I was walking past an alley…um, this guy, in a black outfit and a mask jumped out, he had a knife. I…I didn't have anything so he…he got mad."

The first officer was making notes. "The officers picked up a sexual assault kit from the doctor that saw to you. Did this man attack you?"

Ichigo swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, he stabbed me," he said and pointed to his ribcage where the chest tube was still draining from it. "Um, and then he…did that…and I got here…and that's all."

"Did this man have any identifying features?" the second officer asked.

Ichigo shook his head. "I didn't…see any…I couldn't breathe."

The officers nodded and left with their statement, and Ryūken knew that the one thing that Ichigo wasn't counting on was the PRAK that had been collected. Ryūken knew the person at the lab that would be doing the test. He intended to have them compare the DNA sample to Ichigo's own blood sample. It would take up to two weeks before the DNA results were back for it. Though as he watched the officers leave, he figured he knew how to push it through faster.

He had to give Ichigo credit; the story would have held up, if Ichigo had been a normal human, it would have been feasible. Ryūken knew it for what it was: a complete fabrication. When the police had left the unusually calm Ichigo, Ryūken went back up to the bed. He put a hand on his wrist and felt the flinch.

"Let me help you," he said after Ichigo tried to ignore him for a while. "Tell me what's happening, Ichigo. I know we haven't been around each other much, but…Uryū trusts you and cares about you, and no matter what I say, he has a good judge of character. I know that this must be hard for you, but telling me is an option."

"I told you everything," he muttered, refusing to meet his gaze. "There's nothing more to tell."

"You've told me nothing," Ryūken said with a sigh, his mind working on who it was that Ichigo was protecting. "I know that you're trying to hide who did this to you. You have some idea that they deserve your protection, but they don't. Whoever did this needs to be held accountable. This…this isn't the first time this has happened is it?" he said suddenly, surprising himself by making such an accusation.

Ichigo's eyes, though, revealed everything Ryūken needed to know. The report had indicated as much, aside from the current injuries, he had older recently healed injuries. This was consistent abuse. This was more than he was willing to admit.

"Just go!" he said and Ryūken saw his heartrate skyrocket on the monitor. "Leave me alone, I don't want to say anything to you! Leave me alone! I'm fine and I just want to leave!" he said and Ryūken nodded, leaving the room and shutting the door. He heard the distinct sound of the monitors starting to lower, but he didn't mistake the sound of someone trying not to sob out loud.

Ryūken headed to his office a few doors down and sat down for a long moment. He swallowed and pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialing a familiar number.

"What do you want, Ryūken?" Uryū said sleepily. "It's like seven in the morning."

"I need you to come to the hospital. Now. Please."

There was a long pause. "Alright, what's going on?"

"Just get here, I don't want to talk on the phone."

He put the phone down and waited. About a half an hour later, he heard the knock on his door. "Enter."

Uryū came in, looking concerned. "What's happening?"

"Sit down," Ryūken said as he gestured to the seat beside his desk.

Uryū was confused, but he did as he asked, sitting down and watching his father. The call out of the blue was unusual. Even more than that, he said please. That was out of character. He waited.

"I had a patient last night," he started.

"You aren't supposed to tell me about your patients, remember?" Uryū said, not wanting to deal with the legalities of his father giving him information. He was starting school to become a doctor and he didn't need his father messing that up.

"Uryū, just listen," he said softly. He pushed the file to him. "Just…look."

Uryū picked up the file. He glanced at Ryūken for a moment, then looked down. He shook his head as he read through it. "What…what is this? This is one of your patients, it says John Doe. Who is this?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki."

Uryū looked up and stared at Ryūken. "What?"

Ryūken shook his head. "He won't say anything. He gave a ridiculous story to the police that he was attacked by someone and stabbed. He wasn't stabbed. He tried to put his own chest tube in, and admirably well, considering the pain he had to be in."

"I don't understand, this says…this says he was sexually assaulted, and they did a PRAK on him, and collected enough evidence to possibly get a DNA sample. And it says that he has other recent scarring. I don't…he has his powers. No human could do this to him."

"He didn't fight whoever it was, Uryū," Ryūken said. "The police are going on what Ichigo told them. They're not looking further. Nothing will come of that. He has no defensive wounds. None."

"Why…why would he let someone…" Uryū started. "It would have to be someone important, someone he didn't want anyone to know was doing it, and he didn't want to get in trouble. Someone…wait…you don't think…" he started and looked up at Ryūken with a shock.

"I do."

"But…but…I…" Uryū couldn't even think at the moment. "But…he's a Shinigami too! And his father! You can't…you…" Uryū said as he looked over the contusion map. Nothing on the extremities. Targeted damage to the ribs, hips, sides, and back. Older contusions were present. Older breaks that had healed were present. "How…how did he…"

"I don't know everything, Uryū," Ryūken said. "But I need you to handle this. Without him knowing I've talked to you about it. You need to find out for sure. We can't just accuse Dr. Isshin Kurosaki of abusing and raping his own son. Ichigo's not going to talk, that's obvious. He's come up with a cover story, and he's sticking to it, verbatim."

Uryū nodded. "Can Orihime come heal him when you release him?"

Ryūken nodded. "Send her to see him tonight or tomorrow. I'm clearing him for release soon since I know she can take care of it. I want you and anyone else you trust to stay close to him. We need proof before we can deal with this."

"But…his father is a Shinigami. He can't be dealt with here," he said, looking up at his father.

Ryūken shook his head. "No, he can't."

Uryū swallowed dryly and stood up. "I'll contact Rukia," he said as he headed out of the office.

Ryūken stared at the office phone for a long time. He couldn't put it off any further. He needed to call Isshin. The police had his name and everything, so there was no hiding it. Ryūken changed the information to Ichigo's name and sighed. If Ryūken found that Isshin was at fault…he wasn't sure he could handle this. He sighed and dialed the number.

"Kurosaki clinic!" came the cheerful voice of one of Ichigo's sisters. Sudden realization hit Ryūken about why Ichigo might not resist his father hurting him blossomed in Ryūken's mind.

"I need to talk to Isshin," Ryūken said sternly.

"Okay, just a minute," she said and there was a change of hands.

"Isshin Kurosaki, can I help you?"

"Isshin, it's Ryūken. I've got some news…" he started.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Uryū stood outside the hospital and nearly shook with…something. Anger? Hurt? He had no idea. He pulled out his phone and stared at it for a long time before calling both Orihime and Chad to meet him in a coffee house so he could tell them what had happened. When he was done, both were staring at him openly.

"We need to talk to Rukia," he said, finally. "After you've healed him, we need to get him away, to Soul Society for some reason that Isshin will believe is a valid one. Maybe he'll talk when he's not here."

"Can we…can we trust Urahara-kun?" Orihime asked with hopeful eyes.

"I'm not sure," Uryū said with a sigh. "I think we need to assume no. So we need to get Rukia here for another reason."

"I'll do that," Orihime said with a nod. "I'll go now."

"You can't let on you suspect anything," Uryū said and looked at her. "We have to be careful. Isshin Kurosaki was a captain before he left Soul Society. He's not something to be trifled with."

After Orihime left, Uryū looked at Chad. "Is there anything you ever saw that might have happened?"

Chad shook his head. "Ichigo never said anything to me. He always has been fine, just would get into so many fights…"

They sat together for a long time until Uryū's phone rang. It was Ichigo's father. He looked at Chad and answered it. "Ishida," he said.

"Ishida-san, it seems Ichigo got into a human scuffle. I tried calling Orihime to help, but she didn't pick up. Do you think you and her could come by tonight? I have to pick him up at the hospital, but once he's home, she can take care of it. He got stabbed in the side of all things!"

"Yeah, sure," Uryū said and hung up. Uryū stared at Chad for a long time.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ryūken went down to get Isshin when he arrived. He took him up to the room Ichigo was in, giving him the story that Ichigo had given the police. Isshin listened.

"That boy will never learn how to avoid a fight," Isshin chuckled. "Good thing he got his powers back, now he can go burn off some of those desires on some hollows," he said as he pushed opened the door to Ichigo's room. Ryūken didn't miss the fact that his son reporting he'd been raped didn't seem to faze him.

Ichigo looked up when he came in and didn't say anything for a minute. "Hey, Pop," he said and smirked suddenly. "You should have seen the other guy."

"I bet, son," Isshin said and ruffled his hair gently. "Ryūken's arranged for me to take you home in a few hours. Orihime and Uryū are going to meet us there, and we'll get this mess sorted out, alright?"

Ichigo nodded, and Ryūken saw something that began to concern him even more. Ichigo wasn't afraid of him. In fact, he was looking at him with genuine emotion, not just faking it. He left to get the paperwork and looked back at the room. Ichigo was staring at him and when he leaned over and patted Ichigo's cheek, there was no reaction to the touch. He came back with the discharge papers and got him discharged. Isshin helped him into the requisite wheelchair.

"Ah, my boy, you should do better next time," Isshin said with a grin. "You let that guy get in too close, can't let that happen."

If Ryūken hadn't been on the alert for things, he would have missed the slight bow to Ichigo's head at Isshin's words. He watched them leave and felt more worry now than he had before.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Uryū and Orihime got to Ichigo's place just after dinner. Isshin answered with a grin. "Hey, he's up in his room resting. Thanks so much for coming by to help him. Don't wake him up, though," he said and the two headed into the room. They hadn't brought Rukia with them, but they had told her everything. She was waiting at Orihime's apartment until they got done at Ichigo's house.

Ichigo was deeply asleep when they went in. Orihime used her shield and winced as the information was relayed to her. The reports weren't exaggerating. After a while, she stepped back. Ichigo was still completely out. They both wanted to wake him up, but they also didn't want to do so.

Orihime looked at Uryū. "It was true, what you said," she said quietly. "I don't think Kurosaki-san knows that I can read injuries like this. That…that might be why he wanted me to do it."

Uryū nodded. "Do you think it could really be Ichigo's father? To do this…" he whispered.

He suddenly had a thought. He looked around then went to Ichigo's desk.

"What are you doing?" Orihime asked in a hushed whisper.

Uryū rummaged until he found a small journal tucked all the way at the back behind a strip of wood. The drawer had a hiding space Ichigo had made into it. The notebook was tattered, torn, and looked to have been through a lot since it had been bought. Uryū slipped it out and into his pocket and kept looking in the space he had uncovered.

"You can't take his things!" she whispered, looking at the door and back to him.

"I'm going to find out what's going on," he muttered as he found a small bottle with pills inside it. He pulled that out and pocketed it. His fingers brushed something small and plastic. He pulled it out to see it was a flash drive. He put that in his pocket too.

"Won't he miss those things?" she asked.

"If he does, he won't say anything, he's hiding them for a reason."

They headed down the stairs and told Isshin that he'd been healed up but he was still asleep.

Isshin thanked them again and saw them out. He headed up to Ichigo's room and went in, locking the door behind him. The girls had gone to a friend's house for the night. He sat down on the foot and looked at his son. Despite so many attempts to quell it, an inexplicable rage rose in his chest. He shook Ichigo's leg and his eyes fluttered open. He looked down at him. In his mind, what he saw was a copy of his dead wife in many ways. It wasn't a child, it was a thing, a creature. He knew of the hollow, of course. He had suspected his son had inherited the thing when he was born, and had it confirmed when he saw the Vizard mask for the first time. He was a defiled creature from the day he was born, to be honest. Tainted by the soul of Aizen's creation, Ichigo would never truly be a Shinigami. Never. He was filthy, ruined.

"Inoue came and took care of your wounds. Now, why did you go to the hospital?" Isshin said softly.

Ichigo pulled to sit up against the wall. "Lung collapsed, I tried to fix it, but it didn't work right, so I went there. I thought…I thought I could leave after they treated it. I…I didn't think about them giving me pain medications and sedatives."

"Of course you didn't think. That was a stupid mistake. You realize how stupid that was?" he said, that same eerily calm voice that Ichigo was so used to. "You never think. That's how you get into these messes. You act before thinking. Kami, I'm glad your mother isn't here to witness how stupid her son is."

Ichigo swallowed and nodded, biting his lip as he looked to the window. "I'm sorry."

"You should be," Isshin said as he moved to sit closer to him. "You should be very sorry. You almost got us into trouble. You weren't being daddy's good boy. And if that happens, all your friends will find out what you are."

Ichigo swallowed again and nodded. "I know."

"Do we need to discuss what happens if you can't keep things to yourself again?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No, I know," he whispered.

"Let's have a refresher, why don't we?" Isshin said and smiled at him.

If Ichigo didn't know better, he would have thought that smile was for him. He knew it wasn't. At least he was sober right now. That was good. It meant being berated verbally would be all there would be tonight. Unless he decided to do it while he was clear headed. He had a few times, but with Karin and Yuzu in the house, Ichigo didn't think he would do anything besides talk.

"Tell me what they are, Ichigo. Tell me our rules."

Ichigo looked at him for a minute. "Don't…don't talk about what happens in here," he said quietly. "Don't…don't go to a hospital. Don't leave a mess. Don't be a bad boy," he said and stared at a spot on the blanket between him and his father.

"Who is the only person that cares about you? And who will take care of you no matter how useless you become?" Isshin said and moved closer again, placing a hand against Ichigo's face.

"You," Ichigo answered tightly.

"Right. No one would have you, no one but me understands you, remember? I'm the only one who can handle you, the only one you are a part of. You are mine, my good boy. Why?" Isshin said and Ichigo winced as his hand clutched his face tighter.

"Because of me, Karin and Yuzu don't have a mother, and you don't have a wife," he said and that statement was something he truly believed. "And I didn't deserve the short time I had with her."

"That's right," Isshin said, smirking. He reached into his pocket and tossed two pills into his mouth, dry swallowing them.

Ichigo looked at him. It didn't take long, his eyes went black almost and Ichigo knew what he was going to do. Again.

"Please, Pop," he whispered as he looked up into eyes that were not the father he remembered from so long ago. "Please, don't."

"Oh, that's not good," he said and Ichigo could tell it was one of the bad ones. "You look so much like her, you know," he said and ran his hands over Ichigo's head. "Now, show me what a good boy you are," he muttered.

Somewhere in between the pain and humiliation, Ichigo was certain he forgot how to breathe again.