Chapter Two:

The walk back home was a depressing one. Once this place had been a well built and colorful town when Ichigo was very young. These days it was a broken down wreck of shattered masonry and fallen beams. Bullet holes could be seen shot into the walls, and bodies could be found every so often. Sometimes they would have spirits, and Ichigo would have to console them.

As he journeyed through the ruins, he came across a massive Mexican boy. The giant was using his strength to pull great stones from the ground, larger than his torso. He set the great stones down and turned to what lay beneath them. Beneath those stones had been a woman and her child. He kneeled down and helped her up. 'You should get somewhere safe,' He said 'do you have any relatives?'

'Y-yes,' She said 'I'll go find them.'

'Do you need any help?' Asked the Boy.

'No, I think I can make it on my own. Thanks.'

They parted ways, and Ichigo approached the boy. 'Hey, Chad.'

'Hey Ichigo,' said the massive boy, before for a time silence engulfed them. 'I'm glad you're alive.'

'What the hell kind of way to greet someone is that?' Asked Ichigo, scowling. 'I'm not gonna get killed out there that easily Chad. You helping with the cleanup?'

'Yeah,' Said Chad 'a lot of buildings got wrecked. Someones going to have to clean them, I think I'll be able to get some work that way, at least.' He paused. 'Ichigo, have you seen Keigo and Mizuro around? They were heading into Shinjuku when the attack fell.'

'No,' Said Ichigo 'they got away. They're smart enough to avoid Britannian hit squads.' Another pause. 'Trust me.'

Chad remained silent. 'Yeah, you're right. Are you looking for Rukia?'

'Yeah, we got separated.' Said Ichigo 'She's taking care of my body, I think. Have you seen her?'

'I saw her leading a group of people into that warehouse over there.' Said Chad 'Two Britannian soldiers came by looking for them.' He hesitated. 'I killed them. I snuck up behind them while they were talking about some of their murders. They were laughing about them and my vision went red.' He sounded genuinely disturbed, and his arm flickered into being. 'There aren't even bodies left. I made a promise to my abuelo, and I can't even keep it.'

'Look Chad,' said Ichigo 'I know we promised to only throw our punches for each other, but you don't need to feel guilty. Those men… they were more monsters than the hollows. They would have killed everyone and laughed about it later.' He paused 'The bastards deserved to die.' Mentally he realized that there should be a group of spirits hanging around here. He'd need to perform some consoles later. Though he couldn't see any here. 'Listen, I should probably check in with Rukia. Keep an eye out for Mizuro and Keigo, and tell me if you see them.'

He rushed off without another word.

He found the warehouse Chad had motioned. Taking ahold of the door he entered it and found a great many people with her, huddled in darkness. Terror was in their faces, and they looked at him like caged animals. Rukia was kneeling over his body some ways away, with his head in her lap. She looked at him silently as he got back into his body, and opened his eyes to find himself on her lap. Her eyes looked distant as he got to his feet.

'Ichigo…' Said Rukia, absolutely still. 'I need to talk to you.'

'What about?' He asked.

'Outside, away from these people.' Rukia pressed him. There was an edge in her voice, and she seemed rather unsteady. After a moment they made their way outside where the sun was setting. It was a morbid view after the bloody events of the day.

For a moment they looked at the sunset. Then Rukia punched him across the face, causing him to step back a few paces in surprise. It force was sudden and painful and he reeled. 'You idiot!' She yelled 'What were you thinking?! Do you have any idea what you've done?!'

Not really, what had he done? Aside from killing a lot of Hollows, and some of the soldiers that made them. Awareness dawned, but Ichigo didn't feel particularly sorry. 'Yeah, I've reduced the population of complete monsters of this planet by about half a dozen.'

'You killed humans!' She shrieked, obviously disturbed. 'You used your Shinigami powers to butcher living people!'

'If this is about them becoming hollows later,' said Ichigo 'I sent them to hell right after I finished them off.' He slipped his hands in his pockets and walking forward to look at the waning light of the horizon. 'Its no big deal.'

'No big deal?!' She seemed almost insulted. 'Do you have any idea how much trouble this could get us both in if, no, when the Soul Society finds out?!'

'Look what did you expect me to do?!' Asked Ichigo, whirling on her. 'Just stand by and let them machine gunwoman and children. You said before that if I committed to helping one person, then I must commit to helping them all. Well, I did commit, and I did what I had to do. The people they killed were becoming hollows. Because they saw their loved ones dying all around them! I had to do something to stop the flow!' He stopped as he realized that he sounded quite disturbed himself. It had all happened so quickly he hadn't had a chance to figure out how he felt about everything.

'I… look Ichigo,' said Rukia 'I realize that this wasn't exactly your choice or anything. I know you were part of the resistance against those oppressing your countrymen. But… a Soul Reapers blade was not made to kill humans, even evil ones. It's against the law for a Soul Reaper to kill mortals, unless…' She stopped suddenly. 'nevermind, it's not important.

Just don't do it again. Please.' She spoke almost at a whisper.

'Fine, whatever.' Said Ichigo, wondering what she had been about to say. Unless what? 'As long as Britannia doesn't make any more mass slaughters for no reason, we should be golden. Which might actually happen, since Clovis is currently a resident of hell. I saw the gates shut on him personally.'

'You didn't…' Horror crept into her tone. 'Ichigo, please tell me you didn't kill the Britannian Prince?!'

'Relax will you, I didn't kill him.' Said Ichigo 'Someone else beat me to that particular public service. Did a real number on the Britannian Military while they were at it. Wiped the floor with a host of Southerlands.'

'This is bad,' Said Rukia, leaning against a wall. 'and it's only going to get worse from here. With a Prince dead, the resistance is going to step up its operations. That means-'

'More dead people.' Guessed Ichigo. 'More work for us.'

'Yeah,' Said Rukia 'look lets just head home, okay.'

Home was a fairly well insulated and well-constructed house. It had been kept in fairly good repair. It wasn't painted. Nobody painted their houses anymore for fear of attracting attention. But inside was fairly nice. Or at least it was in normal situations. As it was, it was also a clinic, which meant that it was filled to the brim with wounded people. The smell of death was in the air, and blood was on the floor, as the injured were everywhere from the halls to the kitchen. Ichigo could see his sisters bandaging wounds, while his Father was working.

He looked up as Ichigo approached, looking tired. 'Thank goodness you'rr alive.' His voice held none of the energy which Ichigo normally associated with him. Then he turned his attention back to his work. Ichigo remained silent for a moment.

'Is there anything I can do to help-'

'No!' Snapped Isshin in sudden fury. 'Just assume the fetal position and stay out of the way!' It was unwise to speak with his Father when he got like this. Ichigo sighed before tried to find a place to stay out of the way. It was far more difficult than he had expected it would be, as the clinic was loaded with the injured and dying

Rukia put her hand on his shoulder. 'Maybe we should see how the others are doing.'

'Yeah,' said Ichigo 'I think you are right. We'd better head to the hideout and speak with the other resistance groups, see if anyone made it out beside us.' He had a sudden, grim, forbidding feeling in his gut. He could not shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.'

The smart thing for Tatsuki Arisawa to do would be to lay low. Her family lived far away from Shinjuku so the chances of them getting caught up in that mess were low. The smart thing to do would be to stay where she was, huddle together in the darkness, and not get involved. However, it wasn't in Tatsuki's nature for her to abandon her friends. Plus she knew of at least one who couldn't take care of herself.

She had sprinted the whole way,. Even though she was in peak physical shape she still felt winded by the efforts of running. As she ran, she tripped over something, and fell down, landing hard on the ground and having the wind thrown from her. Even so, she pulled herself up and rushed onwards.

Finally, she came to the house, and to her relief, there was no sign of a break in. She rushed up the steps and knocked. 'Orihime!' She said 'Orihime are you all right?!'

The door opened, and an auburn haired girl peered out. 'Tatsuki, is it over?'

Tatsuki remained silent for a moment. 'Yeah, it's over for now, can I come in?'

'Yes,' said Orihime 'I'd like that.'

The two of them made their way inside. Orihime's apartment would have been drab by Britannian standards. By the standards of numbers, though, it was quite well decorated. The girl had taken everyday things and somehow managed to combine them. Together they formed a decent place to live.

'Listen Orihime,' said Tatsuki 'I think you should move in with my resistance group for a while. After what happened out there-'

'You think they will blame me.' Orihime finished for her.

Tatsuki remained silent for a moment, unsure of how to answer. 'Yes, I think they will. You are half Britannian, and… well…' She paused. 'After what they did to this place, people are going to be looking for someone to blame. They will have lost friends and family.'

'Why do they hate us so much?' Asked Orihime. 'What did we do to them?'

That was a question for the ages. 'We exist.' Said Tatsuki. 'Look, you should pack anything you don't want to lose. Someone might loot this place while we're gone.'

'Right,' Said Orihime, voice filled with false cheer. 'well, I'll pack my bags.' Her voice held only a hint of breaking.

Tatsuki couldn't bring herself to tell Orihime to knock it off. The apartment was paid for by her aunt, who was the only person to take pity on Orihime and her brother. Tatsuki had never heard the full story. From what she could gather Orihime's parents had not been good people by any means. Her brother had been killed in a mugging some years ago. As Tatsuki stood there, she watched Orihime pack up all her things. It reminded her of something. Something that had happened, in a dream or a nightmare. something about a snakelike monster, grasping at her, and Ichigo fighting against it. She tried to shrug it off as nerves, but it would not go away.

'Look I can take some stuff if you need help.' Said Tatsuki, feeling obliged to offer assistance.

'That's really nice of you Tatsuki.' Said Orihime, before shoving a massive duffle bag into her arms, packed with a ton of stuff. Tatsuki staggered beneath the weight. Orihime continued to bustle around, packing everything she could fit into her bags. Tatsuki found herself amazed that Orihime had enough bags to carry all the stuff.

By the end of it, they were both burdened with multiple bags, and the apartment was nearly empty. 'Are… are you sure you need all of this?' Asked Tatsuki as they made their way out of the door and into the streets.

'Don't be silly Tatsuki, of course, I do.' Said Orihime as they made their way along. As they walked, Orihime fell silent, and after a time she spoke. 'Tatsuki, am I a bad person?'

'What?' Said Tatsuki 'Of course not!'

'But… when the gunshots started, I thought I should do something to help people, like Ichigo or you might have. But I locked the door and stayed where I was.' Said Orihime. 'I was too afraid to help.'

'Orihime, you are one person.' Said Tatsuki. 'You aren't armed, and plenty of people were completely helpless to do anything. I'm part of the resistance, and even I didn't have time to do anything.' Wasn't that a laugh. The 'resistance' was, in fact, countless smaller resistance groups. They neither coordinated plans or shared resources. Sometimes they even fought each other in turf wars. 'We should pick up the pace.'

Uryu Ishida did not enjoy standing around the unburied corpses of innocent people. However, he had decided he wanted to find out more about the assassin of Prince Clovis. To that end, he had made his way back to the beginning, where those powers had first manifested themselves. The scent of death had mutated into the scent of carrion. He had to shoo away a number of crows who had been picking from the corpses. He knew that the assassin had left the warehouse to go to the G1. He knew that the assassin had powers of some sort. However, that did not explain where he had come from.

Then he saw the subway tunnel, lying open and abandoned. There was a thin indentation of dust where someone had been lying. And another where someone had lain beside them. There were footsteps leading back, and someone had been dragged behind them. He followed the footsteps through the tunnels, making sure to mark the wall with a bit of reishi every so often. Best not to get lost. As he walked he marveled at how deep these tunnels went. They were dark and looked to have not been used in years.

Then he came into another place. Here a flatbed truck was lying broken open, with evidence of an explosion. Within the center was an airtight capsule of the sort used to store poison gas. He approached the driver's seat of the truck and saw a man lying dead. He had bled out from many large bullet wounds. Uryu made his way inside the truck and looked around.

'This doesn't add up,' He said 'if poison gas had been released within this place, there would be hundreds dead. The news reports-'

'Hey! Who are you!'

Uryu glanced up to where a red-haired man was pointing a submachine gun at him and sighed. He was part of Kagame Oghi's group if memory served. 'I am a soldier with the resistance like you. Do you have any idea how many people died for the contents of this truck?'

'I don't need to take that from you!' Snapped the Red Haired Soldier. Obviously, Uryu had hit a sore spot. 'It's the Britannians who killed everyone. Now step away from the Truck. Everything on this thing is ours.'

'Yes, yes, I know.' Said Uryu. 'I was just looking around. I'll be on my way.'

He headed away from the truck as the red-haired man looked in the driver's seat. 'Poor Nagata, he deserved better.' The man said.

Uryu kept on walking, heading for the resistance hideout. As he walked he turned the matter over in his head. 'This does not add up,. He thought. 'Kaname Oghi is not competent enough to pull off the kind of victory which has been achieved in Shinjuku. It is also unlikely that the assassin was a part of the group. Even if he did let a Britannian into the resistance it doesn't make sense. If that guy was part of the group, he would not have headed into the Britannian settlement.'

He would need to do some more research.

By the time everyone had gathered Uryu Ishida had been surfing the web for an hour. Everyone was waiting for him, and after a moment he turned around in his swivel chair to regard them. 'I believe I have solved our riddle regarding the assassin, Kurosaki.' Said Uryu.

'What assassin, what are you talking about?' Asked Tatsuki, who was not in the loop.

'Oh,' Said Ichigo 'Uryu and I went to try and assassinate Prince Clovis while his defenses were crippled. However, someone else beat us there. We're trying to figure out who it was, and where he came from.'

'What have you got?'

'Well, he's a Britannian.' Said Ichigo ruefully.

'No kidding,' Said Tatsuki 'well that's… unexpected.' Her gaze went to Orihime, before turning back to Uryu.

'We now know more than that.' Said Uryu 'As I will explain.

I backtracked to the place where he killed Clovis' royal guard. I've concluded that he must have gotten there through the old subway tunnels. Following the trail, I found my way to a truck where a poison gas capsule was lying open. I did not have time to examine the wreckage in greater detail. But it was enough to know that the assassin came from inside the truck.'

'What makes you say that?' Asked Tatsuki.

He sensed the spiritual pressure. That was the first answer that came to mind, but that would go straight over Tatsuki's head. 'Because the Britannians attempted to cover up their massacre. They put it under the guide of an urban renewal. Supposedly the civilian casualties were result of terrorists unleashing a poison gas attack. We all know that no such attack took place. It stands to reason that Kaname Oghi's resistance group stole something. Something they thought was poison gas. But it was actually a top secret project.

Whatever this project was has now gone loose.'

'…So you think that some kind of Britannian monster is on the loose.' Surmised Tatsuki, raising an eyebrow.

'Possible, but unlikely,' Replied Uryu 'no, monsters don't need to use guns. Whoever did this killed Clovis with a bullet to the head.'

'Yeah, but you'd have to be really badass to kill an entire unit of Royal Guards.' Replied Tatsuki.

Uryu and Ichigo shared a brief glance. 'They committed suicide.' He said 'Some sort of experimental psionic power, or perhaps mere eloquence. Whatever the reason, there is another element I have yet to reveal.' He picked up a print out of a picture he'd found online, taken by I Phone. 'This,' He passed it to Tatsuki, who passed it around.

'Uh, Uryu,' Said Orihime 'how does someone trying to help people in a car crash relate?'

'Because that truck is the same one which I saw in the crash.' Replied Uryu 'Also the boy bears an uncanny resemblance to the person we saw leaving the G1. He fell into the truck when it went into reverse. His body was nowhere to be found on the truck, and I was the first person there.

My assessment is that the Royal Guards attempted to kill him in order to tie up loose ends.' He paused. 'Obviously they got more than they bargained for. From here we can narrow down who this person is, based on his uniform. After some searches, I concluded that he attends Ashford Academy.'

There was a long, long, pause as this sank in. Finally, Tatsuki sighed. 'We've got to step up our game. A lone Britannian Schoolboy has gotten more done yesterday than we had in years.'

'To be fair, we should be in school anyway.' Replied Ichigo. 'He's older than us.'

'So what do we do now?' Asked Chad.

'Now,' said Uryu 'we will have to demand answers from Kaname Oghi. I don't believe for a second that he just happened to come across Southerlands. Or that he just happened to gain the skill necessary to defeat the Britannians at their own game. I want to hear from him exactly what occurred from his perspective.'

'So do we tell him what we learned or-' Began Tatsuki.

'Of course not.' Said Uryu, blinking in surprise. 'We're not the ones who lured the Britannians into Shinjuku, so we are not the ones who must explain ourselves.' He paused as Rukia stood up. 'Yes, Ms. Kuchiki?'

'I need to speak with Ichigo alone.' Said Rukia.

'Are you kidding me?' Said Tatsuki. 'We're in the middle of a meeting here!'

'It's important,' Said Rukia. 'sorry.

Uryu remained silent for a long moment. 'Very well Ms. Kuchiki, I take it you will not be able to attend our meeting with the other resistance groups.'

'No, sorry,' Said Rukia, 'Ichigo, let's go.'

As the two of them walked out, Tatsuki turned to Chad. 'What the hell is going on Uryu?'

'I'm not allowed to talk about that.' Replied Uryu. 'I need to check in with the hospital, see if I can coordinate some help for the people who were injured in Shinjuku.' He stood up and walked out himself.

'Well, we're out of the loop.' Said Tatsuki in frustration. 'You have any idea what's going on here, Chad?'

'It's pretty complicated.' Said Chad.

'Don't tell me you know what they're up to too.' Said Tatsuki 'Is anyone here out of the loop except me?!'

'Erm…' Said Orihime.

'You've got to be kidding me.' Said Tatsuki 'Where the hell is Mizuro and Keigo?!'

'I haven't seen them.' Said Chad 'Ichigo told me to look out for them, but no one I've talked to has seen any sign of them.'

'You don't suppose they…' Tatsuki paused. 'Nevermind, I'm going to give them hell when they get back.'

'…I'm going to go volunteer at the Kurosaki clinic.' Said Orihime after a moment.

Night was upon the Tokyo Settlement now, and the air was crisp and cold as the moon rose high over the ruined streets. Ichigo waited a moment. He remembered the days before Britannia arrived. Then he turned around and faced Rukia.

'All right,' Said Ichigo 'what's so important that it can't wait till after the meeting.'

'I was thinking,' said Rukia 'about this assassin. He's spiritually sensitive, so he would be a prime target. What if what was unleashed in the gas capsule was a Hollow?'

'Wouldn't it have eaten him?' Asked Ichigo.

'There are other kinds of hollows, though they're rare.' Said Rukia. 'Some of them latch onto humans and merge with their souls, like what happened with that parakeet.'

'Then you think he's become a hollow?'

'It would operate through his personal desires. It would make him do things he never would have or could have before.' Said Rukia. 'You should head into the Tokyo Settlement tomorrow and see if you can find this assassin. It could be very important.'

'Fine,' Said Ichigo. 'but I am not going to blow my whole week on this.'

Authors Note:

Well, here we have the second chapter of Code Bleach. This Chapter had several parts of it rewritten several times. The real trouble was that I had to balance the characters as they were in Bleach and adapt them to Code Geass. This chapter ended up focusing far more upon the aftermath of Shinjuku. Rather than Zero's campaign. The reason for this is because I needed a reason to involve Ichigo in following the trail of Lelouch. That was a chapter unto itself.

The next chapter will not be posted until I have marathoned Code Geass Season 1.

A side note; I am pleased to note that some people picked up on Ichigo killing real people. The reason that Rukia didn't make a bigger deal about it is that she grew up in the Rukongai. She has just spent months in a place that is worse than the Rukongai. Orders are one thing, but she doesn't have the heart to go on a tirade, given what happened.