The Man I See

By Spunky0ne

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When Ichigo sustains an injury that steals his vision, he begins to despair that the hero in him is gone, but one person is determined to help him find that hero again…yaoi, mpreg…Ichigo/Byakuya, Kisuke/Tetsuya, Renji/Uryu, Shunsui/Ukitake.

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Chapter 1: Hero of Soul Society

(Before Aizen's fall)

It wasn't unusual for emergencies to happen during the night. In fact, since becoming Karakura Town's Shinigami Substitute, Kurosaki Ichigo had grown used to being awakened by the red flashing eyes and warning buzz of the substitute badge he had been given. So, even though it was still before dawn and he'd only gone to bed about two hours before, he jumped awake immediately, grabbing Kon and thumping his back hard to remove the soul candy inside him.

"What the hell?" Kon yelled, his words ending in a guttural grunt as the soul candy flew out of his protesting mouth and Ichigo grabbed it and hastily swallowed it.

"Duty calls," the ginger-haired man said, watching as his soul separated from his human body, and the mod soul took over, "Just go back to bed and try to stay outta trouble. You hear me, Kon?"

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you," the mod soul yawned, following his master's departing form with sleepy eyes before he crashed down onto the bed, "Get outta here so I can sleep."

"Don't forget to go to school for me!" Ichigo called back, "I've got a science test today."

"Oh," Kon repeated sarcastically, "he's got a science test today. I hope there's a lab portion on the test. I'll have fun with that."

"Just don't blow up the lab this time, stupid!" Ichigo snapped back.

His flash step engaged and he left the house behind, heading down the street and into the park that ran along the river. A low mist hung over the water, creeping onto the banks, where it was whipped by the wind that the substitute's flash step caused. Ichigo hurried to the end of the park and turned onto another street, heading past a few closed shops before reaching Urahara Kisuke's candy store. He ran inside and flash stepped down the hallway, flying down the ladder, into the underground training room, where he found Kisuke, alert and waiting for him, alongside Kyoraku Shunsui and a deeply frowning Ishida Uryu.

"What are you doing here, Uryu?" Ichigo asked, "Did Kisuke call you?"

"No, I sensed something," his friend said vaguely.

Ichigo didn't miss the little smirk on Kisuke's face, but there was no time to ask about the situation as the shopkeeper quickly got down to business.

"Sorry to wake you, Ichigo," Kisuke apologized, "but a distress call came in from Hueco Mundo, and it requires someone with very strong reiatsu to handle it."

Ichigo nodded.

"What's going on?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Juushiro, Byakuya, Renji and Byakuya's cousin, Tetsuya, were in a classified area, monitoring some really strange readings we were getting," Shunsui explained, "Seems that some of Aizen's creepy scientists are trying to mess around with something dangerous out there in the desert, a little ways away from Las Noches. From the last report I got in from Byakuya, they created a sort of tarry soup in a containment unit."

"Soup?" Ichigo repeated in a skeptical voice, "What the heck?"

"Well, it's not your everyday bowl of soup, kid," Kisuke went on, "This soup is made of the remnants of powerful souls that have been killed. They harvest the bits from the dead bodies of shinigamis they kill and comrades who fall in battle. The more powerful the souls were, the better. Then, they mix those parts with some weird compound one of their scientists dreamed up that pulls the strong reiatsu together and shapes it into whatever monster they program into the system. They hadn't had a successful test of the thing, and before they could, Byakuya and his crew went out to place a heavy seal on the compound so that they could destroy it. But something happened."

"What happened?" asked Ichigo, his eyes flaring aggressively, "Are they all right?"

"I don't know," Kisuke admitted, "I got a huge disruption, then nothing. Not a flicker from the group and the compound's gone silent too. I've got a really bad feeling about this, Ichigo. I want you two to head through the garganta and to the coordinates that I've given Uryu. Go there, reconnoiter and report back to Shunsui and me. Don't make a move until I know what we've got there, okay?"

"Got you!" Ichigo answered, "C'mon Uryu!"

Kisuke made a quick motion with his cane, and the three heard a tearing sound as the garganta opened in front of them.

"Now, remember, don't move until I tell you!" the shopkeeper called after them.

Ichigo showed a hasty thumbs up over his shoulder and kept on running. The shopkeeper watched the garganta close behind them, and he let out a jealous sigh at being left behind again.

"Good luck, kids."

"I hope they're careful," Shunsui added, "I don't know. Do you think I should've gone with them?"

"Nah," Kisuke replied, "You know old man Yama doesn't like that we've already risked two taichos and a fukutaicho on this mission. It leaves forces too thin in other areas and might give our old pal, Sosuke, a reason to poke at us."

"Yeah, I know," Shunsui admitted, pushing his straw hat back slightly with his fingers, "I just don't like that there hasn't been so much as a hell butterfly. I wonder what happened to them."

"Well, you know that those two we sent have got some powerful reiatsu and they've proven themselves. They'll be fine, Shunsui. They'll have that group back here in no time."

"Right," Shunsui agreed, "I'm sure they will."

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Ichigo moved in blazing flash steps, laying out a thick path of his reiatsu as he and Uryu ran through the underground cavern, known as the garganta. Uryu frowned at having to make little leaps and course alterations to avoid the jagged little bumps his friend's power formed.

"Can't you make the path a little smoother?" the quincy complained, "You're making a mess!"

"Yeah, well, if you want to come up here and do this, you're welcome to try."

"That would only slow us down," Uryu sighed, "I admit that your flash step is faster than my hirenkyaku. Still, I'm worried I'll trip on all of these bumps."

"Sorry, I'm doing the best I can," Ichigo said ruefully.

"Yeah, I know," Uryu sighed, "It's just with your powerful reiatsu and lack of control…"

"Hey!"

Uryu smirked and moved faster.

"Say, Uryu," Ichigo said conversationally, "you said before that you sensed something. What was it you sensed that woke you up?"

The quincy considered for a moment, pushing his glasses up with a delicate finger as he continued running.

"You know that Renji and I have been helping out at Kisuke's shop and training together some?" Uryu asked.

"Right. So…?"

"So, because we've been training together, I have a sense of when Renji's reiatsu gets disturbed, kinda like I can sense disruptions in yours."

"Is it because Renji also radiates powerful reiatsu, like I do?" Ichigo asked.

"Eh, something like that," Uryu said cryptically.

Ichigo would have continued questioning, but his thoughts were interrupted as they reached the exit from the garganta and dropped down into Hueco Mundo. Uryu studied the landscape for a moment, reaching out with his senses.

"Kisuke said to head this way," he directed the substitute, "It shouldn't be far. He just wanted to make sure we landed in a safe area. Now, there are probably guards around here…a lot of them, so…"

He heard a flash step and suddenly realized he was alone.

"Damn it, Ichigo!" Uryu snapped, "Wait for me!"

He hurried after, carefully watching the landscape around him and drawing in reishi from around him to prepare for any fighting.

Weird. I still don't sense the group. I know they can't be far away, so I should be picking up something…especially from Renji, since we might be…

"Uryu!" Ichigo called out from a short distance ahead of him.

Just yell like that and attract every hollow around for miles…Uryu thought dryly.

He caught up with the substitute and skidded to a stop, staring at the odd scene in front of them.

In the distance, four glowing pillars stood around what looked to be the hollow's containment unit. At the top of each pillar was a large glassy bulb that held suspended inside, a floating male body. Peering up at them, Uryu recognized one of the encapsulated forms.

"Renji!" he hissed.

Ichigo gave him a furtive glance.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Uryu said with certainty, "and see? There's Ukitake."

"Yeah!" Ichigo agreed, "and Byakuya and…? Who is that?"

"That must be Byakuya's cousin, who went along," Uryu deduced, "Tetsuya."

"They seem to be out cold," Ichigo observed, "Do ya think that's on purpose? What're they doing up there?"

"It looks like they're containing whatever's in that unit," Uryu reasoned.

"Well, we need to get them outta there," Ichigo said, starting to flash step away.

"Wait!" Uryu cautioned him, grabbing him by the arm, "Ichigo, I think they did this on purpose."

"Huh? They knocked themselves out on purpose? Why would they do that?" Ichigo asked skeptically, "In any case, the green fog in those globes looks dangerous!"

"Did you forget that Kisuke only told us to reconnoiter?" Uryu scolded him, "Besides, if they did set this up on purpose, it's probably because there was something even more dangerous being made in that containment unit. Look at all of the bodies lying around. Did you notice? Only some were affected by the shinigamis. Some of the reiatsu on these things is strong hollow reiatsu."

"Yeah, well I don't sense anything that you and I can't handle," Ichigo argued.

"But, they're using the power of four taichos to hold whatever it is back!" Uryu objected, "Maybe that tarry stuff is just hiding the reiatsu of whatever they saw in there!"

"Uryu, let me ask you something," Ichigo said, lowering his voice and taking on a deadly serious tone, "I want you to look at their faces. Look closely and tell me if you think that green gas in there is hurting them."

"Ah…!"

"I think maybe the four of them killed the guards and took over here," Ichigo postulated, "And then, they set up the pillars and surrounded the unit. I think that they were successful in trapping something in that containment unit that was trying to get out. That thing had already killed a bunch of the hollows that were working here, even before the shinigamis took out the rest of them. Our buddies contained whatever the thing was, but something went wrong. Don't you feel it?"

Uryu swallowed hard, staring at the pillars and the bodies that floated within the globes at the top of each.

Damn it! I think he's right. They look like something is attacking their sealing power. It is hurting them.

Renji…

"We have to do something," Ichigo said firmly.

"But Shunsui…"

"Uryu, he was assuming that we'd have time to reconnoiter and go back to them. He wasn't thinking that the lives of Juushiro, Byakuya and the others would be directly in danger. And it's the understanding that, if they are in direct danger, we've been sent to protect their lives. That's part of our task too."

Uryu gritted his teeth and nodded.

"Yeah," he said gruffly, his voice full of misgiving, "You're right."

"Okay," Ichigo said, rising into the air so that he was hovering over the until and looking down into the tarry soup, "I'll keep an eye on this, and you do what you need to do to get our friends out of there."

"But…"

"They're not doing well. You can see that," Ichigo said sternly, "Get them out!"

"Right," Uryu said, using his hirenkyaku to rise up to the pillar that held Renji.

He extended his senses, reading the reiatsu of the globe and the green gas inside it.

Ichigo is right! The gas is attacking them. It's trying to wear them down. It's going to kill them if we don't do something fast! I have to break the globes to free them. It'll let out the gas, and when their power is removed, it will cause the seal to fail. I just hope that Ichigo can hold back whatever's in that soup until we can all get outta here!

Uryu summoned his bow and aimed at the globe that held Abarai Renji. His heart pounded as he stared at the redhead's floating body and billowing, unbound red hair that streamed around him. Eerie green light cast odd shadows and gave him the creepy look of a zombie.

"Time to get you out of there," the quincy muttered.

He loosed a volley of carefully aimed arrows that struck the glass of the globe, shattering it and releasing the glass in an outward shower, aimed away from Renji's body. The shinigami dropped like a rag doll onto the floor of the chamber at the top of his pillar. Uryu rushed to his side, taking a moment to swiftly check his vital signs.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Ichigo called out.

"Yeah," Uryu panted anxiously, patting Renji's tattooed face, "He should come around, now that the gas is gone. But Ichigo, did you feel it? The seal is weakening. Watch that tank!"

"I got it!" Ichigo called back, "Get Byakuya and the others!"

"I will!"

Uryu moved to the next of the globes, carefully shattering the glass and freeing Juushiro, who collapsed on the top of his pillar. After checking to make sure the white-haired taicho was all right, he moved on to Byakuya's globe. As he reached the Kuchiki leader's globe, a powerful rumble went through the area.

"Uryu!" Ichigo cried out.

The quincy looked down into the tarry soup, and he felt his insides go icy and cold as long black tentacles shot out of the soup and began to wrap around the four pillars.

"Get them out of there!" Ichigo howled, drawing his sword.

"Ichigo, don't let that thing touch you!" Uryu warned him, "It's reiatsu…it's…it's really disruptive."

"I've got it!" Ichigo assured him, "Now, get them out of there!"

Uryu shattered the glass surrounding Byakuya and watched as the taicho collapsed onto the top of the pillar. He surged forward, grabbing Byakuya's fallen body and he carried it quickly down to a tall sand dune, set carefully back from the area. He returned and collected Juushiro, then Renji. As he returned for the last of the shinigamis, the area shook harder, and with no help from him, the globe around Tetsuya shattered. The slender body inside fell towards the floor, but as it did, another rumble shook the area, and the pillar began to crumble. Tetsuya's body tumbled towards the edge, looking to fall into the dangerous black muck.

"No!" Uryu shouted, running forward.

His breath caught as another black tendril shot out of the tarry soup, and it wrapped around Tetsuya's falling body. The tendril whipped back and forth, bringing the captured shinigami closer and closer to the black soup. Uryu fired a hail of perfectly controlled arrows that shot towards the tentacle, but as they approached it, they quivered in the air and went off course, some of them impacting the tentacle, but more of them falling uselessly to the ground. The tentacle dipped and as Ichigo and Uryu watched in horror, a nightmarish round, black mass rose out of the soup, opening what looked to be thousands of glowing eyes and focusing on Tetsuya's unconscious body. Its huge, fanged mouth opened, and a jarring shriek made the two young men cover their ears. Trapped in the grip of the beast's tentacle, Tetsuya came suddenly awake and began to struggle.

"Th-this creature can disrupt your f-focused reiatsu!" the trapped shinigami cried, "Don't use your sword. Just fight it with raw, unstructured power!"

As if to punctuate his words, Tetsuya's body began shimmer, radiating with the young man's rising power. Still holding him, the beast sensed he was about to escape and lowered the tentacle quickly towards its gaping mouth.

"No way, you bastard!" Ichigo howled, firing his body forward and loosing his power in a wild, uncontrolled wave.

It struck the beast in the face, causing the monstrous creature to flail its tentacles, sending Tetsuya's still trapped body into a perilous dance over the beast and its soupy lair. Tetsuya released the power he'd been gathering, sending it directly into the black tentacle that held him, making it explode. He flash stepped to the top of one of the swaying pillars and fired his reiatsu at the beast, while Uryu and Ichigo did the same.

The desert lit with their combined strength, and the horrible beast in front of them screamed in fury as it began to be overwhelmed. Desperate, it pulled in its tentacles, at the same time trying to snatch up one of the attacking enemies. Uryu and Tetsuya evaded the flailing arms, but as the monster's body swelled with their attack, one of the tentacles wrapped around Ichigo and pulled him towards the black soup.

"Ichigo!" Uryu and Tetsuya cried together, watching with terrified expressions as the beast's body exploded and their friend's body splashed down into the muck.

Tetsuya flash stepped to the edge of the containment unit, releasing what looked like a huge glob of water that sank into the soup and quickly fished out their friend. They retreated to the top of a distant hill, where they laid Ichigo's body on the ground with the others and Tetsuya swiftly examined him.

"What did that stuff do to him?" Uryu asked in a panicked voice.

"It's causing all kinds of disruptions in his body," Tetsuya said worriedly, "It was even infecting the waterform I used to free him. I had to be careful not to let it infect me. We need to get him back to Urahara Kisuke's shop quickly!"

Uryu looked from Tetsuya's battered face to the four unconscious men on the ground.

"These guys are gonna be okay," he reasoned, "I can protect them from anything that comes this way. We're far enough from that unit that, even if Aizen sends people, they won't be looking for us this far out. Get Ichigo back and send reinforcements."

Tetsuya's sapphire eyes looked down at Byakuya's unconscious form, then moved to look at Ichigo.

"Normally, I am bound to remain at my cousin's side," Tetsuya answered, "but given this…I know he would want me to take care of Ichigo. I will go, but…"

Uryu heard a little whinny and made a sound of surprise as a tall black Arabian stallion appeared in front of them.

"This is Arashi," Tetsuya explained, "He is bound to me, and he will assist you in protecting everyone until they wake. You will be safe."

"Thank you," Uryu said gratefully, "Now please, get Ichigo back to Karkura Town!"

Tetsuya nodded, then he used his power to wash the substitute's body carefully clean of any remaining muck from the containment unit. He lifted Ichigo's unconscious body over his shoulder and with a last nod of reassurance to Uryu, he flash stepped away.