Okay Chapter 2 is a short one. But it's a set up for the rest to come. Enjoy. (Again not Beta-ed and my computer often trolls me so…)

Chapter 2

"Ichigo, can you hear me?"

Ichigo froze. It had been so long since he had heard that voice.

"Yeah King," came a jeer. "Haven't forgotten our voices have you?"

And suddenly it wasn't dark anymore. He was in a world he hadn't seen in 70 years, and it was so much different then he remembered.

"It is a nice change isn't it Ichigo?" Zangetsu asked looking over the new world.

"Nice," he agreed slowly, looking around to commit it to memory. "But why is it like this? Why has it changed so much?"

"The inner world reflects the soul Ichigo, you remember this." Zangetsu replied, taking a few steps closer to his wielder. "This world now reflects your soul as it was when you died."

They were all sitting on the covered deck of a small shoten which was surrounded by cherry blossom trees. It was situated on the top of a hill with a large river a the base. The river cut through the landscape toward a large mountain in the distance. Fields of tall green grass stretched on for miles on both sides of the river, with smatterings of trees and clusters of rocks here and there. The sky was painted with a beautiful sunset with yellows and golds blending with corals and oranges before the darker pinks, purples, and blues took over. It was so different then the sideways world of reflecting glass, concrete, and water. Ichigo smiled. It reminded him so much of the things his little ones would draw for him. He had them all over the house. Pinned up to the fridge in the kitchen, hung up in frames in the clinic and hallways, and in his room. He kept his favorite ones in a stack on his bedside table. He even wrote notes for them to open when they were older on the backs of their work.

"They made this world for me." he said with a warm, gentle smile.

Shiro gaged. "Don't go getting too sappy King. I don't think I can take it for to long."

A moment of silence passed between the three and the all looked out toward the mountains.

"It still rains." Zangetsu said. "The storms come from over the mountain and it rains. If it rains to much the river floods. The hills has gotten higher over time, so it's harder to flood this place." He gestured around at the trees and shoten. "It's been a long time since then, it had rained less and less over the years, but we fear that it may begin again."

"We want to know what you plan to do now." Shiro added. "Will you go back to them?"

"I am." Ichigo sighed. "I don't know if Yuzu joined the shinigami. There are only a few people that are currently dead that I care much for at the moment. I need to know if she's okay. If she isn't there, then I'm going to search the districts even if it takes a hundred years."

"Alright then." Shiro replied with a smirk. "But didn't you promise your little ones you would stir up some trouble?"

"Tell you what," Ichigo said with a matching smirk. "I might be persuaded to let you play with Kenpachi and Isshin."

Shiro's smirk grew with a more crazed gleam entering his eyes.

"Anyway," Ichigo said, looking again to the mountain and sky. "I guess if we want that opportunity I should start heading to the sereitei shouldn't I?"

"Get going king!"

Ichigo's chuckle echoed in his own ears as his vision faded to white. When he came to he knew exactly where he was. He didn't need the 20 or so men and women coming at him to know. He didn't need the hollow, crumbling buildings to know. All he needed was the feeling in the air and the stench of blood and the sound of cries in the distance. He was in District 80 of Rukon. Now he wasn't sure which one, knowing irony it was North, Kenpachi's district.

He felt a weight on his back, not quite familiar, so as he watched the would be attackers he reached back. His hand connected with the hilt of a sword. He pulled it forward, and saw that it was the blade-less hilt of the sword he first wielded. That was strange… Why would Zangetsu appear like this? If he wasn't in released shikai, why not appear at least as the original large bladed sword?

Ichigo slammed the hilt into the closest persons forehead, kicking another person away moments later.

Since he had first called Zangetsu's name and achieved shikai, he hadn't sealed like other swords so he hadn't given much thought about the form he would take. He vividly remembered Urahara slicing through the sword like it was butter, leaving just the hilt.

Ichigo jumped up, planting his foot into someones face and pushed off to slam his fist into someones else face.

"When you performed the Final Getsuga Tesho, Shiro and I had believed that it would mean the end of us, that your soul would have been torn apart, and we and our power would cease. That was almost the case. Your inner world was destroyed. However we didn't die. We were sealed. Your power began growing again, slowly over time, and the inner world shifted. We woke and tried calling for you but you couldn't hear us until now. When you call my name, we will be fully released again." Zangetsu said solemnly.

But if he called Zangetsu's name now, he's positive it would alert those of the seireitei despite the distance, which he doesn't want to happen.

"You know how much they hate surprises king." Shiro practically sang.

"They deserve this." Ichigo grunted, ramming his heel into someones knee. "I don't want the to know I'm here 'til I'm knocking down their gate."

"I would end up here wouldn't I?" He groused to himself, dropping the last of the would be attackers, before looking at the whimpering group of souls. "District 80. North Rukongai." He paused, taking in a deep breath.

"I've got some walking to do I suppose," he breathed.

"Yeah so you best get moving king," Shiro sang.

Ichigo sighed again before snagging a scarf from one of the downed people. It was disgusting, but people were staring at his hair. It always had garnered more attention than he thought necessary. Already a few people seemed to be trying to sum up enough courage to attack him again. He gave them, bloodthirsty as the people of District 80 were, even some of them had some level of self-preservation, and watching one man take out some of the most vicious and blood thirsty in their population had to trigger something. He quickly wrapped it around his hair before cracking his neck. It was for show, but it made the slowly approaching figures to retreat a few steps back… and he would be lying if that didn't bring a sense of satisfaction.

And so he began his walk.

—(meanwhile)—

"Now that everyone is present and accounted for," Yamamoto began, opening one eye to stare at the madly grinning captain of the eleventh squad."We can now call this captains meeting to order."

"If I may head captain," Toshiro spoke up from his position among the others. "This meeting was called hastily seeing as we just met the other day, and we were given no clue as to what it was about."

"Yes," Yamamoto said, his voice taking on a more grave tone as he looked out over the others. "I will allow Captain Komamura to take over as he is the one who holds all of the details."

Everyone turned to the large captain and realized that he too held the same grave air about him.

"Last evening, one of my men posted in the world of the living performed a Konso,"

"Well that is what soul reapers do," Kenpachi said, voice bored and antagonizing.

"Yes well if you would let me finish you would understand the importance." Komamura growled before composing himself again. "As I was saying, he performed a Konso on an old man. He found the body expecting the soul to be near by as the death had occurred not long ago. He found the soul not far away, still in the same house near what must have been members of the family. However the soul didn't appear as old as it should have been based on the mans body,"

"Ah, a young soul," Jyuushiro said with a smile. "It's not often we see one of those. It's more often to be an old soul. But even those to manifest in such a way is very rare."

There was a murmur of agreements that swept through the meeting before Komamura cut through them.

"Indeed. However, my subordinate, Jirou, reported something interesting about the family. They could see him."

Shock left everyone in silence and Komamura continued.

"Jirou described the soul to me. He was dressed in a simply yukata, but he saw what he believed to be the hilt of a sword near his shoulder. He was a tall, broad shouldered man, but Jirou said he had one very defining feature."

"Orange hair." came a low voice.

The captains turned their eyes to the captain of the 12th squad. The man that "reclaimed" the title captain after Kurotsuchi's death.

"That was the defining feature right?" Kisuke asked. "It isn't hard to put everything together. Ichigo's time was running short. We knew all that."

"Yes." Komamura said, pulling his eyes from the blond haired man. "And Jirou somehow didn't realize this and escort Ichigo here directly."

"So he sent Ichigo to Rukongai." Shunsui said with a sigh and a shake of the head. "Which means there is a possibility of never finding him if he didn't regain any measure of his powers back in death, or he could not remember anything.." The man trailed off and the room was again left in silence.

Kisuke managed to control the pained noise that wanted to force itself past his lips. He felt like something was wrapped around his throat, and his chest was tight. He glanced to the captain directly in front of him, captain of the 3rd squad, Isshin. The man's brows were furrowed and his lips were pressed in a firm line. He looked up and the two men made eye contact for moment before Yamamoto spoke.

"Very well." he said. "From this moment forward, it is a priority of all squads to send patrols into the Rukon districts in search of Ichigo Kurosaki. This priority will only end when he is found and brought to the seiretei. Dismissed!"

With that the old man used his staff like a gavel to signal the end of the meeting. The captains began to make their way out of the meeting hall bask to their squads to begin the work for the large scale search. Yamamoto even retreated into his office. That left only two men in the meeting room. Kisuke had turned toward the windows in the room. In the distance he could make out the vast expanse of buildings and woods that made up the Rukongai.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us to find your son Isshin," he said light heartedly, pulling a fan out of his sleeve to snap open and wave infant of his face.

Isshin stared at the man. He had never actually been able to find or define the boundaries of the relationship this man and his son had had. It had been an odd friendship that had evolved from mentorship. When he had left, Ichigo often spent a bit of time at Urahara's shoten on a frequent bases and Urahara had been called back to the seieritei years after, to fill a position that the man hadn't really wanted back. He himself had been offered the captaincy of the 3rd after Rose expressed little interest in returning for it.

"Yeah…" He said, thinking about his children. His little girls and his big strong boy who grew up way to fast. "And knowing my son he isn't going to make it easy on us."

Kisuke laughed.

"Good. All the power to him."