Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Morning Rain ❯ You're NOT OKay ( Chapter 4 )

(A.N.: Sorry I have been really slow on the updates. I've just been so hella busy lately! @_@I had two jobs this summer and theatre camp. NO NORMAL 16 YEAR OLD WORKS TWO JOBS DURING THE SUMMER! IT'S UNATURAL!!! *AHEM* Anyway, I will be trying harder to get my chapters in sooner. Thanks for all the great reviews guys! Oh, and sorry if this chapter sucks. ~Ichi)

 

Ch.4

 

“No Ururu! That's not how you do it, you dummy!”

 

The small, big-eyed, pig-tailed girl stopped what she was doing immediately, and brought her head back, like a turtle retreating into it shell.

 

Jinta threw a box of colored candy at her head, which she dodged easily.

 

“Now try organizing it again!” The red headed boy leaned against one of the shelves in the dusty store.

 

Ururu clutched one of the small boxes in her hands, and looked at him with the expression of an abused puppy.

 

“But, Jinta, Tessai said this was your job...” She moved her head to the side as another box of sweets sailed by her ear.

 

“Who cares what he said! I'm telling you to do it!” He held up more assorted goods as a threat.

 

“But-”

 

Jinta brought his arm back, ready to hurl some mint flavored chocolates. “NO BUTS!”

 

Just as he was about to let the candy go, an iron hand wrapped around his wrist, giving enough pressure to make him drop the goods to the floor.

 

“Huh? What ar-!” Jinta stopped in mid sentence, a look of dread falling upon his face.

 

Mr.Tessai towered behind him, casting a dark shadow over the boy. The tall, apron-donning man lifted the red haired kid by his wrist, and stared at him through gleaming eyeglasses.

 

“Mr.Kisuke wouldn't like you throwing merchandise around his store.” Tessai said in a deep, dangerous voice.

 

“I-I was just helping her organize!! I swear!” Jinta reasoned frantically, kicking his legs in a futile attempt to get down.

 

“This place is just as rowdy as ever...” Rukia strolled in through the front doorway, casually looking about the room. She noted that nothing had changed since the last time she came...or the first time as a matter of fact.

 

“Ah, Miss Kuchiki. We weren't expecting you.” Mr. Tessai dropped Jinta back down to his feet. The boy quickly scuttled away to the corner of the store and tried to look like he was dusting to avoid another scolding.

 

“It's an urgent matter.” Renji said, appearing in the doorway, now suited with his gigai.

 

“Is Kisuke in?” Rukia inquired, looking toward the backroom door.

 

“Yes, I'll go and get him for you.” Mr.Tessai turned to get the manager, but the scruffy blonde man was already shuffling out of the back room, a large box under his arm.

 

“Ah Miss Kuchiki, Abarai...what brings you to my humble shop?” Urahara set the box down on the floor, and looked at them with a half-awake smile.

 

“It's Ichigo.” Rukia explained. “We've got a small problem with him.”

 

Urahara reached into his sleeve quickly, before drawing his hand back out, holding a fan.

 

“Don't tell me its teenage hormones acting up. I thought the boy should have been past that by now” Urahara flicked the fan in front of his mouth, covering the goofy grin plastered on his unshaven face.

 

“Cram it!” Ichigo snapped, dragging himself into the familiar shop, his hands rammed deep into his pockets and the usual perma-frown creasing his face.

 

“Speak of the devil! Mr.Kurosaki! Pleasure to have you join us!” The shop keep snapped his fan shut.

“I hear you're causing problems.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Ichigo stopped next to Rukia and looked down at her. “Can we please just get this over with...this isn't exactly how I wanted to spend my vacation.”

 

She looked at him sourly. “We're doing this because there's something wrong with you, idiot. Would you rather spend your vacation having seizures?”

 

Ichigo simply ignored the question and turned his attention to the wall, giving it an irritated look.

 

“So, it's his health that's troublesome, eh?” Urahara asked, looking over his fan at Ichigo. “Can't fight hollows if your sick, Ichigo. Why didn't you just have your father take a look at you...he is a doctor after all.”

 

Rukia cut in. “Because we believe this may be beyond human care.”

Ichigo mumbled “We...that's what you believe-' just before receiving a sharp elbow in the ribs.

Rukia continued. “That's why we came to you.”

 

Mr.Tessai's face brightened somewhat.

“Oh, I've got some wonderful medicines for any ailment! Is your stomach bothering you, or perhaps a headache?” He started to rummage through an assortment of outdated cold remedies.

 

Ichigo smiled nervously. “No, really it's fine...”

 

Rukia cut in once more. “No offence, but I doubt any regular cold medicines will be much help.”

 

Urahara snapped his fan shut. “Well, then. We'll have no choice but to run some tests.”

 

“Tests?” Ichigo lifted his eyebrows.

 

“Yes, just some physical examination. We'll need to check your vitals, spiritual energy, and so on.” Urahara put his fan away and bent down to open the box he had set down when he walked in.

 

Ichigo crossed his arms, looking somewhat skeptical of this whole examination. “Do we really have to do that? I mean...I probably just had an allergic reaction to something and went into shock...”

 

“Well, if that's the case, then this examination can tell us that too...” Urahara continued to dig around in the box.

 

“But, do you even have the right equipment for that kind of thing?”

 

Urahara stopped and looked up at Ichigo, raising his eyebrows this time.

“You forget that I used to be the Head of the Bureau of Technology, already? Honestly, I'm better equipped then any human hospital in all of Japan. A-hah!”

Urahara drew out a syringe and tapped the side.

 

“We'll first have to take a blood sample.”

 

Ichigo shook his head. “No way!”

Even though he had grown up in a hospital, he had never liked needles one bit.

 

“Oh, don't be a baby.” Renji snickered at Ichigo.

 

Urahara also pulled out a bottle of a clearish purple liquid. “Oh, and we'll need to knock you out for just a few of the tests.”

 

“That's it. I'm gone.” Ichigo started to head for the door. Rukia yelled after him.

 

“Where do you think you're going?!”

 

Ichigo just kept walking. “This is stupid. I don't need any tests done-AUGH!” Suddenly Renji had jumped on him, trying to pull him back.

 

“Just be a good boy, and get it over with!” Renji struggled to keep a hold of him once he started to fight back.

 

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!”

 

“STOP STRUGGLING!”

 

“GET OFF, DAMMIT!”

 

“RUKIA, HELP ME PIN THIS IDIOT DOWN!”

 

Renji could barely hold him down at all. They were pretty evenly matched in physical strength.

 

Rukia was just about to help, but Tessai beat her too it. He simply grabbed Ichigo's hands, twisted them behind his back, and sat down on him.

 

“OW OW OW!”

 

There was no contest...Tessai was holding him with one hand. Urahara suddenly appeared in front of him.

 

“You need to calm down, Ichigo. We're doing this for your own good. Now stick out your tongue.”

 

“What?! I'm not sti-UEHH!” Urahara grabbed his tongue before he could even finish.

 

“LE GO OF MY TONGNN!” Ichigo was disgusted with the very fact that Urahara was touching his tongue with his bare hands. He didn't know where that thing had been.

 

He brandished the bottle of purple liquid, and put one drop on Ichigo's tongue before releasing it. He also motioned for Tessai to let him go.

 

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?! VITAMINS?!” Ichigo sprung to his feet, spitting and trying to get that awful taste out of his mouth.

 

“You should really sit down. It's not good to stand...”

 

He started to storm out once more. “My ass, I'll sit down! I'm getting the hell o-”

 

It hit him like a brick wall.

 

Ichigo started to teeter and lost his balance. Rukia threw her shoulder beneath him just as he fell forward. She grunted a little as he completely collapsed on her shoulder.

 

He was out cold.

 

“This moron is heavy...” She shifted underneath his weight.

 

Suddenly, his hair brushed her cheek and a chill ran up her spine. His body was pressed down so close to her...heavy and warm.

 

She started to get that knotted feeling in her stomach again.

 

Tessai took him from her, slinging him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

 

Renji glanced over at Rukia, and noticed the slightly shaken expression on her face.

“Hey, you alright?” He pointed his thumb at Ichigo's limp body tossed over the large employees shoulder. “If you're worried about Ichigo, don't be...Urahara may be a little crazy, but he knows his stuff. You know that.”

 

Rukia nodded up and down. “Yah, I know...” Of course, that's not why she was so flustered. She was started to worry about her own health.

 

Maybe I should have the checkup.

 

~~~

Urahara led them down a long hallway, and into a room that looked like it hadn't been used in ages. Lots of strange equipment lined the walls, and monitors were everywhere.

 

Ichigo had been laid down on a metal examination table that actually looked a little more like dissection platform. His shirt was removed as well as his pants ((A.N: Silly fan girls...he's still got boxers on)), and he was hooked up to probably ten different machines; One was taking a sample of his blood, one was gathering information on the output of his spirit energy, one was scanning his organs, an oxygen mask covered his face, and a couple wires were taped to his chest to keep an eye on his heart rate. The rest of the machines...well Rukia didn't have a clue what they were doing.

 

“His blood test will be done in just a minute. We can check just to see if anything is wrong there first.”

 

Right on cue, a small piece of paper printed out of the machine that had received the sample. Urahara ripped it out and began to scan over it.

 

“Hmmm...seems normal here...”

 

Rukia and Renji were sitting in chairs, waiting patiently near the door. They watched diligently as Mr. Tessai went about checking all of the output on the machines.

 

“Everything seems normal boss...he's perfectly healthy.”

 

Urahara scratched his head. He then faced Rukia.

 

“What symptoms did he show anyway to get you two worked up enough to drag him here?”

 

She recalled upon her scare earlier. “Well, when I woke up this morning, I noticed he hadn't gotten out of bed yet, so I went to check on him. He was all drawn up in a ball...and he was trembling. He wouldn't respond to anything I said...it looked like he was in pain. His eyes were open...but I don't think he was conscious of it.”

 

“I had to hit him to get him to snap out of it.” Renji interjected.

“He didn't even realize it had happened when he came too.”

 

Urahara rubbed his unshaven chin and knitted his brow. A new expression came over his face. Not a good one...just a new one.

 

He turned to look at Ichigo lying on the table.

 

“...It might be...” He murmured to himself.

 

Rukia and Renji looked at him with questioning expressions.

 

He went to a plastic case, and pulled another syringe out, uncapping the needle and returning to Ichigo's side with it. Carefully, he poked the needle into the teen's skin, and slowly drew out a new blood sample. He brought it back to his desk and pulled out another bottle of a clear liquid, which he quickly uncapped. Urahara poured the blood into the liquid and waited. After a few seconds, the solution had turned completely blue. He frowned and studied it closer.

 

“Ah, there it is...”

 

The two near the door still look confused.

 

He brought the bottle close to their faces and pointed out something barely noticeable to the human eye. The outer edges of the fluid were a different color then the rest. Instead of that light blue color...it was a slight green.

 

“What's that?” Renji asked, still focused on the contents.

 

“It's a trace of spirit energy that doesn't belong to Ichigo. The blue represents his, while the green represents some other source.”

 

Rukia spoke up next. “So, what does that mean for him?”

 

Urahara replaced the bottle.

“It means Ichigo came in contact with something...and since that spirit energy is coming from inside him...it might still be there...”

 

“He came in contact with something? Like what?” She looked unnerved.

 

“Well, it's only a guess...but perhaps something like a poison...has he fought any particularly dangerous hollows lately?”

 

“No, not at all... I was with him whenever he fought hollows.”

 

Kisuke went about to thinking again. “Then...it could be a parasite.”

 

“What?” Renji looked at him with disbelief. “Are there even such things like that around?”

 

“Well, didn't Miss Kuchiki fight a Bounto with a parasitic doll before?”

 

“Yes but-”

 

Urahara cut him off “Then it proves that something like that can exist. It's very unlikely, but I'm going to stretch the limits of possibility for now.”

 

Rukia butted in once more.

“Well, how would you be able to find out? And if it were a parasite...how could we get it out of him?”

 

“Well, considering the fact that his condition seems to be on and off, it's most likely not poison.” Urahara started to pull some of the IV's and other tubes out of Kurosaki's flesh.

 

“I actually do have one test that could tell us whether it's a parasite or not.”

 

Rukia noticed while he was talking, he seemed to be taking off all Ichigo's vital supports. She was becoming nervous.

 

“How does it work?” Renji watched as Mr.Tessai started pressing buttons on the body scanner.

 

 

“Hm...well it gets a bit complicated.” Urahara began to explain. “You see, parasites depend on their host to carry out their own life functions, so therefore if their host can no longer provide them with that, they are forced to leave the body. So all I would have to do is cut off the parasite from its energy source, that being Ichigo.”

 

Renji smirked a little. “So what are you going to do, kill him?”

 

“Well...almost.”

 

They both went pale.

 

“Don't worry. He'll be fine. All I'm going to do is drain all of his spiritual energy, bringing him very near death for a few seconds. This should cause whatever's in there to become agitated and, if we're lucky, exit his body. If not, then it will at least give off enough energy for us to find it.”

 

“And Ichigo...” Rukia wanted to hear the rest about him.

 

“Will be fine once we restore all of his energy” Urahara finished. He stood next to the table and stuck a large band across Ichigo's chest.

“So then...shall we?”

 

Rukia started to wring her hands as Urahara started punching in a few buttons on the machine that was now hooked up to Ichigo's chest.

“Here we go.” Urahara pulled a large switch.

 

Ichigo convulsed quickly like he had just been shocked with a defibrillator.

 

“His energy is reaching minimum now...”

 

The scanner was still showing nothing of what they wanted, only that Ichigo's vitals were starting to become of concern.

 

Renji glanced over at the blonde man behind the machine. “Maybe it's not a parasite.”

 

“Or maybe it's just resilient...just wait a bit longer.”

 

The color was starting to drain from the teen's face.

 

Rukia started to shift in her chair. “I think we should stop. Nothings happening, and if this goes on much longer, he could-”

 

“Trust me; I'm not going to let him die. It's not like I could kill him even if I wanted to.” He cocked a smile a Rukia. “You know first hand the will to live in this guy.”

 

SKREEEEEEEEE

 

Everyone's attention flew back to the table to see what had caused the spine tingling noise.

 

The scanner started to beep wildly as a foreign reiatsu started to pour into the sensors.

 

The screeching had been caused by his fingernails being raked across the metal table. His muscles began to twitch and tick once again, just like they had early this morning.

 

Mr.Tessai quickly ran over to pin his arms down when he started to flail wildly. Renji jumped up to help as well, and just barely missed getting a foot smashed right into his mouth.

 

Ichigo started to growl once he had been pinned.

 

Rukia quickly appeared next to Urahara. “What's going on?! Shouldn't he still be under the anesthetics?! He should be able to fight back!”

 

“It's not him fighting back, Miss Kuchiki.” He pointed to the monitor. “Look...”

A small thin cord was showing up on the screen. It was wrapped and intertwined with Ichigo veins and organs. The largest part seemed to branching up his neck. Its spiritual energy was clearly spreading through his body, forcibly moving his limbs and taking over the sleeping functions.

 

“Just what the hell is that thing?!” Rukia looked horrified.

 

“That's our parasite.”

 

“Grrr...RRRRR GRAAAAAAAAAA!!!!” Ichigo surged under Renji and Tessai's strength and let go of an inhuman yell. His eyes opened wide with a dark green replacing his regular chocolaty color.

 

Renji tried to keep him pinned, as he continued to scream to jerk.

 

“Boss, he's getting stronger somehow! We can't hold him down much longer!” Mr.Tessai's glasses had slipped down his nose.

 

“Alright.” Urahara flicked the switch back up.

 

In a matter of a few seconds, the flailing boy started to calm, the green cord fading away from the screen as Ichigo's regular spiritual energy flooded back.

 

The two men released him as his body slowly climbed back up to stability and the strange reiatsu vanished. He blinked as the green faded away from his eyes as well.

 

“Eh...” He looked at the ceiling with a utterly confused expression.

 

“What the...where...” He sat up and was suddenly met with everyone about an inch away from him, with concerned expressions. It also brought him to sudden realization that he was in only his boxers on an elevated metal table.

 

“WAGH!!!” He nearly fell off the back of the table.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!” He ripped the sensors off and scrambled to cover himself with the clothes Renji had so kindly tossed him.

 

“Well, he's back.” The red head stated flatly, a hint of relief showing through.

 

“Back? What are you talking about?” Ichigo questioned, pulling his shirt over his head.

 

“Well, we've managed to figure out what's wrong with you.” Urahara crossed his arms.

 

“Good, then did you fix it?” Ichigo fiddled with the belt around his waist.

 

“Well, not yet.”

 

Ichigo looked up. “Whaddya mean `Not yet.' Aren't you supposed to be an expert or something?”

 

“Ichigo, do even remembered what just happened a minute ago?” Rukia cut in.

 

“You mean when you guys were hovering over me like a flock of vultures just now?” He looked very displeased.

 

“Before that.” Rukia was starting to become irritated with his lax attitude about it.

 

“Well, no. You creeps knocked me out, remember?” He put a fist on his hip.

Suddenly, he started to feel lightheaded, and he swayed. He grabbed the edge of the table so he wouldn't fall over.

 

“Whoa, there. Don't push yourself. Your body has just gone through a lot of stress right now.” Urahara offered to give him a hand, but he stubbornly declined. Urahara opened the door to the hallway.

 

“Well, then, why don't you come lay down in the back room and rest a bit. We can tell you what's going on then.”

 

He sighed. “Fine.” He carefully made his way to the door, everyone else tailing behind.

 

Urahara grabbed the data sheets, before he shut the door behind them, leading everyone down the hallway and to the back room, to catch Ichigo up on the horrifying bind his existence was in. The only thing that bothered Urahara the most now was...how was he possibly going to fix this one....