Whispered Chaos

Chapter One

Chaos in the Fall

Maple leaves. That was the first thing that really made an impression on him as he approached the campus. There were so many maple trees here, and their leaves were falling in a raining cascade all around the place. He paused and stared at them. Such beauty in the seeming chaos of it all, he wondered internally. The brilliant shades of red, gold, yellow, and orange, all making no sense, but no matter what, leaving a beautiful pattern in the air and in his mind. Something about the leaves of the maple trees had always fascinated him. They began as delicate, fragile buddings, and then they grew into bright, green, robust leaves that lasted throughout the summer. Then, come fall, their colors changed into something beautiful, but at the same time so very fragile. They were lifted on the wind and swept up and away, and even though they were so fragile, if they were carefully handled and cared for, they would remain beautiful forever. Then, the tree would once again bloom once spring came around again, replacing the lost fragility of the leaves. He smiled softly, and brushed the slightly curling brown hair from his face as he entered his building.

The fall semester always meant a lot of work for the teachers at Las Noches University in Karakura Town. Sōsuke Aizen was a new teacher this year, teaching Introduction to Psychology and Abnormal Psychology. He was glad to have gotten a job like this as quickly as he did since he'd only ever taught part time up until now, and to be honest he was very young to be given a full time position. He was somewhat of a prodigy, having graduated with his degrees necessary to teach college at the young age of twenty five. He settled into his desk and waited for the first class to get into the room and seated. It was the intro class so it would be a full class, but as the school was relatively small, he only had seventeen students. Granted, his abnormal psychology class only had nine. He glanced up as students started filing into the room slowly, some quietly and some chatting as they went. He really didn't pay much attention as they entered the room and stood as soon as he counted seventeen students.

"Good morning! My name is Dr. Sōsuke Aizen, your teacher this year for the introduction to psychology. I'd like to welcome you to a fun and interesting semester," he said, pushing his black wire framed glasses up his nose as he leaned back against the desk. "Now, since I'm new to this school, and many of you are as well, we'll have a bit of introduction. So, we'll start here at the front row, and give your name, major, why you're in this class, and one fact about yourself."

Aizen pointed to the first student. "Um, Rukia Kuchiki, Language major, um, it's a requirement to graduate, and…um…Byakuya Kuchiki is my older brother."

A few murmurs followed her announcement. Byakuya Kuchiki was a well-known and very rich business man in the area. Everyone knew of him, of course. He ran the corporate law division in the largest company in the area, Seireitei Associates, which employed more people than anywhere else in the town. Aizen smiled and pointed to the next few students. He came back to the second row with the first student and gave him a nod.

"Oh, um, Uryū Ishida, Fashion Design major, requirement to graduate of course, and I have been sewing since I was six years old," he said with a smirk.

Aizen nodded, continuing back to the last student in the row. A pair of brown eyes looked up from the inside of the sweatshirt hood. Aizen had noticed him when he came in, head bowed and avoiding contact of any sort with his fellow students. At first, Aizen had thought he might simply be shy or unused to large classrooms. Aizen's brows knitted as he waited longer than the others for Ichigo. The boy swallowed nervously.

"I-Ichigo Utagawa," he said, almost too low to be heard. "I'm a psychology major, so I have to take the class, and um…" he stopped, thinking about what kind of fact he could share. "I have a big family," he muttered, putting his head back down.

Aizen frowned and continued on until everyone in the class had spoken. He glanced around, seeing most his students looking at him. Only Ichigo seemed to avoid looking up at all. He was staring at the notebook he was scribbling notes into from the textbook. Aizen cleared his throat, went through everything else, and had the students fill out note cards with their names, phone numbers, email and addresses so he would have the information at hand should he need it.

"Now, students, we'll pair up and continue with our first day activities for the last fifteen minutes of class," he said, smiling and pairing the students by row. He was left with one extra, so he had one group of three. "Alright, Rukia and Toshiro, Renji and Menoly, Uryū and Ichigo, Loly and Shinji, Hiyori and Emilou, Tesra and Ggio, Di Roy and Cirucci, Abirama, Ikkaku, and Shūhei, you'll be a group of three. Now, get together and figure out three new things about your partner."

Everyone paired off and he went back to planning the rest of the week's lesson plans.

Uryū sat down by his partner and blinked thoughtfully as he nodded at him as they sat together. Uryū smiled. "So, um, Ichigo, right?"

"Yeah, um, let's just do this, okay?" he said. "So three things about me, I'm adopted, I hate the nickname Strawberry or any variation of it, and I like to be alone."

Uryū blinked and stared at the notes he was taken. "Um, okay, ah, I'm estranged from my father, I want to be a fashion designer, and I am very picky about boyfriends."

Ichigo nodded, taking down the information. Uryū still didn't get a good look at him until he reached up to scratch the back of his head under his hood. Uryū frowned and wondered if it was possible. After all these years? What were the chances? That hair color and that name?

"So yeah, you said you were adopted, do you remember your name before then?" he asked, trying to sound casual about it.

Ichigo glared at him. "Not your business," he muttered as he glanced at the clock. "Class is over," he said, standing and Uryū winced at the odd smell that came off his clothes. It wasn't a bad smell, but he couldn't quite place it. Like smoke but not like cigarette smoke.

Uryū watched him leave thoughtfully, but didn't catch his teacher staring after him as well. Both knew something was strange with the young man, but neither could put a finger on what it was.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo stood outside the large house and could already tell the night was going to be bad. He could already hear the laughing and yelling from the inside as well as the thumping music. This type of thing never boded well for him. Especially if a certain guest was there. He looked out into the yard but didn't know any of the cars that were out there. He would know soon, though, he guessed. If he could get in the door and down to the basement with the others without being noticed, chances were he'd be fine, and so would the rest of them. Once they all go drunk and high, they tended to forget that Ichigo and the others existed.

He opened the door and realized immediately that it wasn't a lucky night. In fact, it was going to be one of the least lucky nights he had had in a very long time. He'd been lucky for a while, but his luck had certainly run out this time.

Mabashi slammed him against the wall as soon as he shut the door. Mabashi almost had hair the color of Ichigo's but it only served to make him more interested in Ichigo. Ichigo grunted, dropping his bag to the ground, both out of shock and pain. He could tell Mabashi was already high. He always got more violent when he was on coke.

"Hey, Strawberry," Mabashi said, slurring thickly as he spoke. He could smell the booze on his breath, but the smoke on his skin and hair made him gag. Opium smoke had such a distinct smell to it, and it was something that had started to make him nearly sick. Mabashi himself didn't smoke it, but the smell permeated most the rooms in the house.

"Mabashi," he said, looking at him and chewing his lip. "Long time no see," he said, knowing Ryo would have a fit if he was rude to one of his "guests".

"Heh, got locked up for a couple months, so you know what that means, I'm fucking horny as fuck, ya know?" he said, blinking blearily. Ichigo winced. "And I heard that yer pop got some nice, fresh ones in the last couple months. I'm surprised yer still here, ya turned eighteen last month," he breathed on him.

"Ah, I can't leave my family," Ichigo said, swallowing hard.

"See, I saw that prissy little girl earlier. She's a pretty little thing, what's her name, Momo?" he said, still crowding him against the wall. "And that little thing, Rin was it? He's a ripe one."

Ichigo reacted before he thought. "Don't touch them!" he shouted his back straightening and then he gasped, seeing Mabashi's eyes go wide. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't…" he started. Shit.

Mabashi moved so damn fast, even when he was high like this. His fist connected Ichigo's chin solidly, sending him to his knees.

"Did you just fucking yell at me?" he said, his voice less slurred now that he was angry.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he muttered, feeling the blood dripping from his mouth already.

Mabashi reached down and grabbed him by the back of his hair and yanked him up, dragging him through the entry into the first bedroom where a couple others were sitting around with opium pipes. Ugaki and Ryo were sitting in the large chairs on the side of the room as Ichigo was tossed into the floor.

"Ryo, this bitch is mouthy tonight," he said.

Ryo looked at him with bleary eyes. "So, teach him a lesson," he muttered, sucking the smoke in slowly. "He's been going off to college, thinking highly of himself, bring him down to the level he deserves to be at. I told Yoshi letting him go to college would be bad for the little shit," he said, exhaling smoke slowly.

Mabashi grabbed him by the hair again, pulling him up into Ryo's face as he sucked in a long breath from the pipe before puffing it out into Ichigo's face. Ichigo, like always, tried to hold his breathe until the cloud dissipated. At first they tried to make him smoke the pipes, but they found out that he wouldn't. Now they would blow it into his face, and he thought maybe they wouldn't… He grunted and sucked in all the smoke around him as Mabashi punched him squarely in the ribs. He coughed as the opium smoke filled his lungs and then his head started to float.

"There you go, that's better," Mabashi said, feeling him relax against his hold. "So much better when he don't fight as much," he muttered before slamming his elbow into Ichigo's face, knocking him backward.

Ichigo hit the ground with a thud; he didn't even trying to catch himself, after all there was little point. He tried to distance himself as Mabashi slammed his fists into his ribcage until something shot pain that he felt even through the drug haze. He nearly sobbed as he felt himself being lifted up again and thrown onto the single bed. He couldn't move because of the pain, but also his arms and legs felt like led as he stared at the ceiling. He felt his clothes being taken off but he didn't care much. The world was spinning and he couldn't stop it. He felt his hip pop painfully and thought he might have pulled it out of the socket again. Mabashi was perhaps the more violent of the guests when he was high like this, and he honestly would rather it be him than Momo or Rin. Another gout of smoke into his face, and the pain just faded away, which was good. He lost track of time and who was there, and it didn't matter, really, he couldn't feel a thing.

He came around sometime later and he was still somewhat out of it, but he could tell he wasn't upstairs on one of the good beds now. He heard panicked voices around him as his eyes fluttered open. He was looking at a very scared Hanataro and Rin. He saw Momo and Ririn, and behind them Nozomi and Noba. All had been watching carefully because of the way Ichigo had been breathing. Between the damage to his ribs and the drugs, his respiration was far from normal.

"Ichigo, are you awake?" Hanataro asked, putting a cloth on his head.

Ichigo smiled. "Hmm, fine," he said softly.

"You aren't fine," Ririn said from the next cot. "Mabashi again? I thought he was locked up."

"He got out yesterday," Nozomi said quietly, not looking up from her hands. "Drug charges didn't stick." The fifteen year old girl didn't speak much.

They had all been somewhat relieved for Ichigo when Mabashi had been picked up selling drugs to kids around the college. Unfortunately, after three months, just as the trail was about to start, the evidence vanished from the locker at the police station. No one really knew what happened, but without the evidence, or a witness that would talk, they ended up letting him go.

"Does this…happen much?" Rin said quietly. Rin had just been fostered a couple weeks before. "I thought they were good people, they said…"

"They buy out the staff at the orphanages. They use us for money, and well, for other things," Ririn answered. The fourteen year old had been adopted by the Utagawas the same year as Ichigo, Noba and the twins, Ho and Ban. Ho and Ban were gone; they'd left when they turned eighteen and no one knew where they'd been for the last couple years.

"Why don't you leave, dammit?" Ririn said to Ichigo, tears collecting in her eyes. She'd already asked him so many times. He was eighteen. They all knew that he was in a dangerous position.

"He was gonna come for Rin or Momo…I couldn't let him…" Ichigo said and reached over and put a hand on Rin's cheek. "He's too young," he said, smiling goofily still more than a little high. "I…I'm…not leaving you…someone hasta protect you from them," he said softly, wincing as pain sensation started to come back.

Rin started to cry immediately. Momo turned away. Of them, only Rin, Hanataro, and Momo had managed to go without being used to sate the perverted sexual appetites of the party guests. It didn't happen often, but there were some that took things far beyond smacking around one of them when they wandered too near their party areas. Mabashi was often one of the ones that enjoyed new fosters in the household, as he enjoyed breaking them into the party life. Of course, the ones that had been there for a while knew that Mabashi had a thing for Ichigo, and had been singling him out for five years already. Ichigo faded off the sleep again, not really noticing when Ririn had Noba and Hanataro help her put his hip back into place.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen so far was enjoying his classes. He taught a Tuesday/Thursday class so he didn't see his students every day. Thursday came and he tried to remember names as they came in. He did a double take when the Utagawa boy came in with an obvious limp. He was bundled into his hoodie again, pulled down over his face. Uryū came in afterward and noted the way the other boy was sitting. Aizen noticed the way that the Ishida boy looked at Ichigo, and he had to wonder if there wasn't something going on that he should know about.

Aizen went around and passed out worksheets for them to complete on the chapter they were supposed to read before this class. As he passed Ichigo's desk he stopped, and looked at him.

"Hey, Ichigo, right?" he said softly so the other students couldn't hear him.

"Um, yeah," he answered and looked up at him. When he did, Aizen frowned. His face was bruised and he had a split lip that had just started to heal.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

"Fine, just…bike accident," he muttered, shifting in obvious discomfort in his seat and looking down at the paper which he started to fill in.

Aizen nodded, catching a very sweet smoky smell from his clothes when he moved. He blinked, wondering where he'd smelled that before. He shook his head and moved on. A bike accident? He supposed that was believable. The class continued, and Ichigo didn't speak any further. He saw a lot of signs that made him suspicious.

So far, he had seen that the boy was reclusive and quiet. By itself, those things weren't warning signs or anything. He may have been shy and introverted, which would explain a great deal of the strange symptoms he seemed to show. However, what worried Aizen was that he was hapnophobic, anxious, and very jumpy when other people came close to him. While it could be the boy's personality, he feared for something else. He swallowed and then pulled the card from the file. He pulled up the family name on the computer to see what he could find.

Ryo Utagawa was apparently a child born into wealth. He used his wealth to take in and in some cases adopt older children that would otherwise be left in orphanages. He was known for making charitable donations to many organizations, and had even donated a large sum to the college. However, the more he dug, the more he found that things didn't add up. There were some rumor blogs saying that there were often parties involving sex, drugs, and alcohol happened at the large mansion outside of the city limits the Utagawas lived in. The closest neighbor was a four-plex that was situated on the next plot of land owned by a woman named Yoshino Sōma.

He looked up as his buzzer for the end of class went off and watched as everyone left. He was curious, even more now than before. However, what could he do? Unless there was something illegally wrong, it wasn't like he could interfere in the life of an eighteen year old student. He knew something was wrong. He could sense it and he wanted to help him. Something about him, something as fragile yet strong as the fall maple leaves.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Uryū stared at his phone for a long time before he dialed the number for Karakura General. He asked for his father and was connected quickly. Of course, he was connected quickly. He was asking for Dr. Ishida.

"Dr. Ryuken Ishida speaking," came his father's harsh voice.

"Father?" he said wondering if he'd hang up.

There was a long pause, then the voice came on that sounded somewhat bewildered. "Uryū?"

"Father, I am sorry to bother you at work but I no longer have your cell or home number since you changed it. I need to ask something," he said with a tightening in his chest. This had driven them apart, after all. To bring it up again was a dangerous thing. He honestly was waiting for him to hang up at any moment.

"What is it?" came the terse reply.

"What happened to Uncle Isshin's oldest child?" he asked quickly.

Ryuken didn't speak for a long moment. "Why would you ask a question like that?"

"Because I think he may be in my psychology class."

Another long pause occurred. "That's impossible. Masaki and Isshin's children were taken in by his cousin, Kaien Shiba and his wife after the incident happened. They should all three be there now."

"Father, there is a boy, my age, and he had obnoxiously orange hair and his name is Ichigo. I don't know how many other people have that crazy hair color and that name," he said, chewing the inside of his cheek and wondering if he would, yet again, be dismissed.

Ryuken started to dismiss it but stopped. "That…would be unusual." Another boy the exact same age with the exact same name and the exact same hair color? What were the chances?

"As I thought. His last name is Utagawa, isn't that the guy that donated a bunch of money to the hospital and the college a few years ago?" Uryū asked.

"Yes, but why would he be with someone like that?" Ryuken asked slowly. "He is a well-to-do man, and should be well taken care of if that's the case."

Uryū bit his lip again. "He's messed up."

"What?" Ryuken said. "What do you mean?"

"He's messed up. Something is wrong with him and he stinks like an opium den," Uryū said, having realized what the smell was when he smelled it again. More than once he'd smelled different drugs, mostly in the times he'd done costumes for some of the local clubs.

Again, there was a pause. "Um, son, perhaps we can meet for dinner and talk more," he said.

Uryū blinked and was speechless for a long moment. "Um, yeah, sure, meet you at the café on fourth street?"

He almost heard the smile in Ryuken's voice. "Yeah, sounds fine."

"See you then," he said, and waited for him to hang up. He stared at the phone for a long moment.

It happened almost ten years ago. His father, Ryuken, had a younger sister named Masaki. Masaki had married Isshin Kurosaki, and they had three children, a boy and then a pair of twin girls four years later. Ryuken had been incredibly close to his sister and then to Isshin and his nieces and nephews. Then, one night, Masaki was murdered in front of their oldest, Ichigo, who was severely injured in the attack. Isshin disappeared without a trace, and the Kurosaki kids were put into the foster system. Isshin's cousin, Kaien Shiba, and his wife were going to take them in since his wife couldn't have children of her own. Ryuken though had become completely out of hand over the whole situation and it drove a wedge between him and Uryū. Uryū had lost track of what happened, but he was so very angry at his father that he didn't care.

Uryū sat down on his bed with a thump. What could he do?