"Head down," Chief Kirihara Misaki told her youngest detective as the four of them made a speedy exit from that room of horror. "Don't breathe, wait until we're out-"

The front door. Air.

Detective Kouno Yutaka dragged in deep gulps of hot afternoon air, hands gripping the sleeves of his leather jacket like that was all between him and losing the greasy fries from lunch. Some of the local Karakura patrolmen had lost their last meal, after they'd found the bodies; and while Chief Kirihara might detest the contamination of the scene, Misaki really couldn't blame them.

Much.

"Oh man." Kouno swallowed, running fingers through unruly brown hair. "Oh... whoever did that's been killing for months, why didn't Astronomics find the bastard?"

"That's a good question," Misaki said briskly. "Right now, we only have two records of star activity in Karakura. The one we picked up about eight months ago, half the town away from here... and the one from two hours ago. Both BK-201."

"The Reaper-? No." A wall of suited muscle between them and curious local cops, Saitou Yuusuke shook his head. "No way."

"No?" Gray and lean, Matsumoto Kunio lounged near to block a few more eyes, regarding his younger colleagues with interest. "He may have saved the Chief's life, but he is a Contractor."

"Even Contractors have an MO," Misaki stated. "The Black Reaper kills quickly. Efficiently." She took a breath, tasting a hint of lingering death. "When he kills, it's... clean."

She was not going to think about gentle, awkward Li, and sad eyes, and the way the Black Reaper had hesitated when she'd told him to stop. Hesitated, and left Hourai alive; the first leader of the Syndicate they had in custody, and hopefully not the last.

She definitely wasn't going to think about that extremely convenient blackout in a Tong penthouse, when her childhood friend had been about to shoot her.

Why did he do that? His objective was that crystal. He didn't have to save me. It wasn't rational.

But he had saved her, and Saitou. Multiple times. As Li, and as the Black Reaper.

Why?

She intended to ask him. Possibly violently. If she could just find him.

"And we know what his kills look like," Misaki went on, forcing her mind back to the case at hand. "Those black burns- no. BK-201 doesn't leave traces like that."

"Mmm." Matsumoto nodded, glancing back toward the abandoned house. "Now, those Yakuza our local associates hauled to the hospital? Those look like his work."

"Heh. Yeah." Saitou grinned sheepishly, scratching at his neck under his gray suit. "I bet they really don't remember anything."

"Maybe that last hour," Kouno grumbled. "Don't remember this?" He waved a hand at the whole death-house. "I doubt it."

Misaki kept her face calm and professional. She didn't know, none of them knew, that those thugs had been in any way responsible for the - so far - at least seven bodies inside. But if they had been...

Section Four was polite, professional, and always worked inside the law. But she doubted she was the only one wishing the Black Reaper hadn't been so... restrained.

So why was he?

"There's something odd about this one." Misaki touched the ear of her glasses, thinking.

Gray brows climbed. "He's gone silent almost a month," Matsumoto noted, "so long we thought the Astronomics readings had to be wrong and he was out of Japan. He blew out a window and left us four unconscious Yakuza, but if any of them had been hit with that first spike, we'd have charcoal, not live bodies. The room's torn up like someone lost a fight with a tornado; something heavy enough that it flattened some of those corpses. I'd say a gravity-warping Contractor but Astronomics swears BK-201 was the only one here. Are we sure they don't have Syndicate moles inside?"

"Kanami's doing her best to find out," Misaki sighed. "She's already rooted out at least two programs that would have let them access Astronomics data directly. Why risk a mole when a computer can steal it for you?" The window. That was what had been nagging at her. "Let's look at that garden again."

It took a little work to get to the inner garden without going through the crime scene again, but it was worth it to see Kouno less green. He whistled at the near-perfect crazed sheet of glass lying across the window-frame, like a carpet of ice leading in. "Oh man. Bet you couldn't get that more straight with a ruler. I swear, just that, and you know it's got to be him."

"But why choose this entry point?" Misaki wondered. "There are windows on the second floor, and he makes entry from above more often than not. Though sometimes he's come right through the front door. We've all seen him fight; he'd rather have a clear floor, not one covered in... obstructions. To get through this window he had to get over a roof, to the glass unseen, and take the time to plant charges. Leaving obvious traces that this was more than an ordinary break-and-enter. So why come in here?"

"Because everybody thought it was bulletproof?" Saitou guessed. "So they didn't worry about it."

"Possible," Misaki allowed, watching the coroner's unit move inside. "Even likely. We know he likes the advantage of surprise."

"It could be that whatever he was after was in there," Matsumoto noted. "If he knew he was going to use his Contract, it might be worth spending more time to get in, if he could get out fast."

Kouno squinted; studying her, not the room of death. "Only the Chief doesn't think he did plan to use it. Right?"

Hah. Trust Kouno to put a finger on something she hadn't been aware she'd decided. "No, I don't," Misaki admitted, scanning the abandoned pond garden for any possible missed evidence. Not really expecting to find any; for all Li's wide-eyed stumbles, BK-201 moved like a ghost. "The smaller spikes after the initial activity are similar to other times we know he's disrupted witnesses' memories. We have no record of a spike in BK-201's star that matches the first one." Astronomics' readings on BK-201 during Hell's Gate had been corrupted, if they'd ever existed. Kanami was definitely looking for a mole, and more malware in the Dolls' programming. "He's been so quiet, so long. Something happened. Something that forced him to use his power, and cover up the evidence." Though disrupting the memories of possible witnesses was the most normal part of all of this. Most assassins would die if they left loose ends still breathing. BK-201 had another option. And had used it. Frequently. Even on her own team.

We're alive because he wanted us alive, and I want to know why! Damn it, he didn't even leave us a partial shoeprint in the mud near the... pond.

A pond. A pond in plain view of the window - and a window looked both ways.

Li was always near water. Rivers, rain-puddles, the drinks at a party, washing the dishes-!

"Chief?" Saitou blinked as Misaki balanced on the slippery rocks edging the pool, crouching to look back at the window. "What are you doing?"

"You can see in from here." Misaki hopped back to dry land before she wobbled too much. "You can't see the floor, but you could definitely see the Yakuza - and anyone else - from here."

Matsumoto sucked in a breath, looking from scummy water to shattered glass, and back. "A Doll? We know the Syndicate had them, but the Reaper worked alone."

"Do we know that?" Misaki pounced. "The Black Reaper was a rumor. A legend. The assassin who never missed. Who could find anyone, no matter how far they ran. MI6 fielded a Doll-Contractor team for special operations. Why not the Syndicate?"

"We're not looking for one guy." Kouno stepped back, raising a faint scent of battered grass. "We're looking for two."

"Three," Matsumoto said firmly. "Someone sniped that Russian Contractor. A Doll programmed for viewing wouldn't be a marksman as well."

"Too complicated, from what Kanami tells me about Dolls that Customs has seized," Misaki agreed. Paused, thinking over every last stray encounter with Li. "...And I think the Doll is a woman. I caught him buying clothes once-" Oh. Oh, damn it. She had not meant to say that.

"You know what BK-201 looks like," Saitou got out, stunned.

Because her team were detectives, and they could guess well enough the Black Reaper couldn't buy lingerie wearing a mask. Misaki slid her gaze toward the window again, making sure they were out of earshot from the locals. "Yes."

Matsumoto raised his eyebrows. Kouno and Saitou glanced at each other. "But," Kouno protested, "if you know, we could have put out a BOLO weeks ago-!"

"I'm not going to put it in a report," Misaki said sternly. "We don't know if Hourai's testimony is true, and given the names he's admitted to already, who knows how high up the conspiracy goes. If they want the Reaper back - and based on what Dr. Schroeder said about his power, they're willing to risk destroying Japan to get him back - then they do not want him in official hands. If they knew we knew what he looked like-" She cut herself off. "I know. None of you have to be at risk."

"He could make people Contractors." Matsumoto kept his voice down, but even his steady gaze was uneasy.

"Technically, what Schroeder said was that the anti-Gate molecules were changed in the same way humans become Contractors," Misaki corrected him. "We don't know if he could do that to people." Her heart was beating fast. With good reason. "But I doubt the Syndicate would be willing to bet he can't."

"Oh man." Kouno shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, as if he wanted to be hugging himself but was too manly. "Now I kind of don't want to catch him. If he got his hands on you - which would be worse? Dead, or..."

Her team shuddered. Misaki couldn't blame them. She'd cleaned up the carnage from too many people just turned. "We need to talk about that."

"We do, Chief," Matsumoto agreed, glancing back through the window-frame at too many potential ears. "But not here." He frowned. "What's that uniform doing in there?"

Misaki scanned the room, wary. The middle-aged patrolman wasn't infringing on the scene, much, but he was definitely there, lingering to talk to each of the coroner's people in turn. Some of them all but grabbed the patrolman, asking something low and intense; others fidgeted, but apparently asked anyway. Each of them glancing at the shadows, then breathing a sigh of evident relief. "Let's find out."

Ichigo gripped the edge of the clinic's examining table, trying not to flinch. Local anesthetics only did so much. "Ow!"

"Go ahead and swear," Isshin advised, bright steel diving down at his shoulder again. "This one needs stitches."

"Like hell I will," Ichigo griped. "Had worse."

That won him a minute's silence, punctuated by more needle-pinches. Ichigo took it, trading eye-rolls with Karin as she put away clinic supplies and he fretted over one jumpy black-haired idiot and his kind-of-family. Hopefully Ryuuken could be serious and cold and ruthlessly logical enough about Uncle Kuno not being moved to make them all stay put until he could get over there.

Because if Hei had the power to purify Hollows, he was going to get attacked by more Hollows. No ifs, ands, or buts. Running off who-knew-where without even basic information on what was going to try to eat him - it'd be a slaughter. It'd get all the team killed.

I'm not going to let that happen.

Hopefully Ryuuken wouldn't either. Because Ryuuken might not fight anymore, but he was a Quincy. He knew what Hollows did to souls.

Hei's his patient. And Quincies have pretty good reiatsu-sense. Unlike Dad. Ishida had to know Hei had spiritual power.

Which brought up all kinds of questions Ichigo was going to get answers to, as soon as he could nail Hei's feet down long enough to talk-

Isshin finished tying off the knots, swabbing with alcohol one more time for luck. And maybe because it stung. "What were you thinking, fighting a Hollow? You know better."

"I wasn't fighting a Hollow!" Ichigo grabbed the clean t-shirt Yuzu held out, breathing in the scent of sun-dried cotton to try and calm himself down before he pulled it over his head. Because he hadn't fought the Hollow, damn it. He'd tried to do the smart thing. Seriously. "I went looking for a missing kid. And then it turned out he was kidnapped. By evil idiots with guns. Which I could handle. And I did. And then the damn Hollow turned up, and I grabbed the kid and ran."

"Should've run faster." Karin held up his ruined shirt, obviously studying the claw holes. "Oh boy, this must have been fun to explain. What'd you tell the cops? This is a mess. They should have dragged you right down to the station."

Huh. She had a point. The beat cops had been definitely relieved to see Asao Hideyo back in one piece, but they'd given the blood hard looks. One of the newer patrolmen had started to say something like, you'd better come with us-

And then his older partner had not-so-subtly nudged the rookie. "Kurosaki's a good kid. I'm sure he's got an explanation."

Ichigo'd tried not to drop his jaw. Because sure, he'd been avoiding more fights than last year, but since when was an orange-haired school-skipping delinquent on the cops' list of good kids?

Maybe Li's looking innocent is contagious?

"I told them Hideyo hid behind a dumpster and passed out," Ichigo said now, "and I kind of screwed up crawling back in there 'cause I was scared, he looked awful. Like heatstroke."

"Sure, heatstroke." Washing his hands off, Isshin shrugged expansively. "Why not?"

Ichigo tried not to twitch. Why not? Because you could do things about heatstroke. Get cooled down. Grab ice. Dump water over somebody's head. Even put them in the hospital, if it was bad enough. Anybody could stop someone from dying of heatstroke, so long as they used their heads and moved.

Regular people can't stop a Hollow. They don't even know they're there. And whose fault is that?

Soul Society. Meaning the captains. And their dad was an ex-captain and didn't see anything wrong with lying to people about what was out there trying to eat them.

Sometimes Ichigo felt like all the lies in this house would strangle him.

"Not heatstroke," Karin deadpanned.

"No," Ichigo grimaced, jarred back to here and now. "He passed out when the Hollow howled. I kind of hope he doesn't remember anything. The guns were scary enough."

And now he was the guy lying. To his own family. Even if most of it was just... leaving stuff out. What kind of lowlife did that make him?

Hei - no, Li, better use Li around people - he has to stay out of sight. Doesn't make lying to the twins right, but... it's keeping people alive. And the team trusted me. What kind of rat would I be if I told the girls the whole story without their okay?

He'd have to try. It could work. Convince the twins to keep a secret from Goat-Face? Easy. Convince Hei's team that the girls wouldn't talk? Definitely not easy.

Maybe if I bring them some of Yuzu's cooking?

It would work. Because if there was one thing Karin and Yuzu understood, it was sliding under people's attention. Yuzu's hair, Karin's fierce soccer skills; oh yeah, the twins knew all about making sure you didn't take credit for what you did in a way that upset people's neat little view of the world. Asao Hideyo was alive. Didn't matter who had found him. Or how.

...Ichigo was just really, really glad it'd been daylight. Because Hei's coat was a black that drank the light just like Zangetsu's, and if he hadn't been able to see that weird green lining, the neat, clean edges not ragged as wind-

Well. Even then, it'd hurt.

Almost more than it hurt now, feeling his sisters' stares lock onto him like heat-seeking missiles.

Yuzu swallowed dryly, hands twisting on the bow she was tying on a bento box. "You heard the Hollow?"

Karin's eyes were sharp enough to cut. "You heard it, and you didn't pass out."

Ichigo met black eyes anyway; it was so much easier than looking at Isshin. "Um. Yeah. Didn't want to say anything until Ishida was sure, didn't want to get anybody's hopes up... he says it's slow, but it looks like it's working. I can see blurs." He took a deep breath. "It was just enough to let me dodge the Hollow. Then - I guess someone must've been on the job. It went boom."

Oh he was leaving so much out. And the twins could tell, he knew it from the way Karin's eyebrow twitched. Hopefully she just thought he was leaving out how scary and dangerous it'd been. Which, fair, he was. Guns and Yakuza and giant Hollow teeth, gah.

That one was way too close.

...Yuzu was frowning at him. Why was Yuzu frowning?

Isshin wasn't frowning. But his eyes were kind of glittery. "Ryuuken should've told you that was no excuse to get mixed up with a Hollow. Why didn't you call one of your friends? They could have handled it."

Ichigo squinched his eyes shut, shook his head, and stared at his dad again. Are we even having the same conversation, here? "Um, because there wasn't time? Kid being carried off by guys with guns. Chad's not bulletproof, unless he pulls out the armor, and would that even work on Yakuza? I'm not sure I want to see Uryuu's arrows on living people, and mob thugs are the last guys who should find out about Orihime's fairies. Maybe Tatsuki could've helped, she's awesome karate girl, sure - but she was halfway across town. And then it was bam, Hollow, claws everywhere."

Karin nodded thoughtfully. Yuzu scrunched cloth between her fingers again. "But you tried to get away, right? Because... even if you can see blurs like me, I can't fight Hollows..."

"I know, and I'm not looking for them, I promise," Ichigo said soberly. "I've got a phone, I'll call Uryuu. He can gripe at me and kill monsters; it'll make his day. This time it just showed up right on top of me and the kid. I couldn't run and leave him there."

"Damn right you're not looking for them." Isshin straightened his doctor's coat with a firm yank. "You've been in enough danger for one lifetime."

Definitely not having the same conversation. Ichigo tried not to growl. "You want a second opinion on Ishida's second opinion? 'Cause he's right. Call and ask him."

His father's jaw set, with an anger Ichigo had almost never seen. "Ishida Ryuuken is not part of Soul Society, and you are not hunting Hollows anymore."

Ichigo's pulse jumped. "Look, I already said I wasn't-"

"You're not trained, no damned unseated shinigami screwed up and left you with an emergency, you are not fighting anymore," Isshin declared. "Leave it to the professionals."

For a moment Ichigo couldn't hear anything. There was too much roaring in his ears. "Did you just say Rukia screwed up?"

Yuzu's eyes widened as she clutched wrapped cloth. Karin pursed her lips in a soundless whistle, and edged back out of the most likely path of a vicious kick.

"She saved my life. She saved the twins' lives. She saved your worthless hide," Ichigo got out, wondering why he hadn't thrown a punch already. Could you actually be too mad to start a fight? "She did everything she could legally; and when that wasn't enough, she did what she had to, to make sure people lived. And you're calling her a screw-up?"

Isshin hesitated, but didn't step back. "If her captain had been doing his job right, none of this would have happened-"

"How long do you think Aizen would have left me alone?"

Ow. Even Ichigo's own ears rang from that one.

"I'm not trained," Ichigo snarled; and he didn't like this, he hated how his sisters paled, but fury and rage was sweeping through him like Zangetsu's bankai, and damn but he had a target now. "Well, guess whose fault that is. Who could have told me how to get in and out of Soul Society quietly, so we stood a chance of pulling Rukia out before the execution and not all getting half-killed trying. Who threw me at Aizen with nothing but a couple weeks of Sandal-Hat's training and a couple months getting taught how to burn up your own soul. Who didn't tell me ghosts were real, and not human anymore, and get me help to tell the difference before Mom-!"

No. No, he was not going down that road. Not now. Not ever.

Isshin's jaw worked. "Son, I- Oof!"

Karin pulled her fist out of their father's solar plexus as Isshin coughed, an angry glint in her eye. "Call Rukia a screw-up, huh? One of the shinigami who's actually doing her job?"

Ichigo almost pulled up short, no matter how much he had to get out of there. Because Karin shouldn't have to do that alone-

But she gave him a wink, and visibly wound up for another gut-punch.

...Karin was the best.

I'm gone.

Shunpo would have been nice, but he made it to the front door in seconds flat anyway. Blinding fury tended to do that. And maybe he should find a place to just put his head down and run until sunset sank into full dark, just exhaust all the poison and anger and grief sluicing through him like icy floodwater-

The door opened onto a brunette lady in a blue suit and thin-framed glasses, fist raised to knock hard and stern as a sentencing drum.

Ichigo stared at her, then the three guys past her; older and younger man in suits, one maybe twenties in a more casual leather sport jacket thing, all of whom somehow looked very official. "Um... Dr. Kurosaki's in the clinic?"

"Actually, we were looking for you." The lady lowered her hand, reaching into her jacket and coming out with a police ID. "Chief Kirihara Misaki, Section Four. An Officer Nakano from your local station said you might be able to clear up a few details on the Asao Hideyo case?"

Nakano? Who was- oh, that poor guy. Sheesh, if he'd had any idea how nasty all the Arrancar and Vizard and captain throw-downs in Karakura were going to be to people who'd been living nice, sane, ghost-free lives, he'd... well he didn't know what he would have done, but he'd have tried to do something. How many cops on the force could see spirits these days?

Which was when his brain caught up with his eyes, noting that was Section Four from Tokyo, according to the ID. Oh hell. Innocent, innocent, he had to play - ah, no way he could pull that off. "You're here about- Are they okay?" Ichigo demanded.

Can't do innocent. Try teenager worried about idiot good kid. 'Cause I am, right?

"His mom looked so freaked out," Ichigo barged on. "And... well, I dunno how to handle that, figured it'd be better just to go home... they are okay, right?"

"They're fine," the gray-haired detective reassured him. "Officer Nakano said to pass on that the force is glad you were there."

O...kay. Weird. "There were a lot of people looking," Ichigo shrugged, hearing soft steps that had to be Yuzu coming up behind him. "He got found, that's what matters. What'd you want to know?"

Kirihara hesitated. "It's just a little background to clarify matters, but technically we should have your guardian present-"

"Dad's going to be busy," Yuzu said firmly, inserting herself under Ichigo's arm to hand him the freshly-rewrapped bento. Heavy; how much had she packed in there? "I think Karin would say he needs a crowbar to pry his foot out of his mouth." She gave the chief a serious look. "Are you going to arrest my big brother? Because he didn't do anything wrong."

"No," Kirihara said solemnly. "No, he definitely didn't."

"Then there's no problem," his little sister said confidently. "If you really need an adult, you can call Dr. Ishida. Our families know each other. If you just want to ask questions - dinner's going to be a little late, we need to talk to Dad, I know Ichigo's hungry by now, and if you're like the cops I know, you've been too busy chasing bad guys to eat! There's a good place to grab a snack down the street."

Misaki neatly slurped her noodles, watching the tired orange-haired teen polish off his own with the efficiency of a patrol officer aware that any lunch break could get cut short by criminal stupidity. Saitou and Kouno were two booths away grabbing their own well-deserved snacks, and Matsumoto was nursing a coffee in the next booth over, making sure they'd have no curious eavesdroppers. Which left her free to compare the youngster to the picture painted by his police files.

Not a delinquent.

Ichigo might look it, between the hair and the tri-colored wristband and the sometimes-rough speech, but... no. Young thugs didn't head off with the cops like a bunch of detectives simply could not possibly make their day any worse. And they didn't have little sisters who adored them, the way Yuzu obviously did.

Not an abuse victim, either.

Though the reports of borderline suspicions of child abuse were still in Ichigo's file, along with various notations of bruises, before the officer assembling the information had added that none of the Kurosaki siblings flinched around their father, along with wry details of Isshin himself being tossed out a second-story window. Official department conclusion: despite the yelling, the alarmed neighbors, and the occasional property damage, the senior Kurosaki simply had an idiosyncratic way of training his son in self-defense.

Very effective self-defense. The Day of the Thug Ambulances was still part of departmental jokes.

Self-defense the Karakura PD was very grateful Kurosaki Ichigo knew, given their suspicions about exactly what had happened today. Which, much to Section Four's amazement, probably hadn't involved Contractors at all.

Well. Except one.

I wonder if BK-201 was as surprised as we were?

Ichigo sucked out the last drops of sauce, and put his bowl down. "So what did you want to know?" He shrugged, almost hiding the wince as it pulled at the bandages under his shirt. "What's Section Four, anyway? Never heard of you before."

A bright kid, striking with a question right after that apparent offer. And cautious. She'd kind of expected that, given the interesting details on just who'd been involved in the search for Asao Hideyo.

Misaki set her own empty bowl on the table; little Yuzu had been right about cops ending up too busy to eat. "We're based out of Tokyo, but we can go anywhere in Japan. We investigate a certain specialized subset of crimes. And criminals. That's why we were talking to your local officers. We thought they'd stumbled into something in our specialty, and they weren't sure they hadn't. We had an interesting discussion."

Very interesting. Because given those of her superiors who hadn't been locked up were now seriously considering set dates to officially tell the public what was going on, Misaki saw no reason not to start providing other police officers with information relevant to ongoing cases.

Of course it was relevant to the Karakura police force. Given the amount of pure oddness the local detectives had admitted had gone on this past year, they needed the information. If only to rule Contractors out as suspects.

Watching people's faces as they realized just what Section Four had had to sit on was just an unexpected bonus. Really.

Ichigo eyed her, one hand sneaking toward the back of his neck to flick hairs away from the edge of white tape peeping out under his shirt collar. "That, um... still doesn't tell me much."

Very bright kid. "Did you know the Karakura force has a squad something like my section? Only it's unofficial. It has to be." Misaki paused, weighing the teen in her gaze. "They call what they're working on the ghost murders."

Brown eyes stared at her. Not quite Li's wide-eyed "who, what, how?" And definitely not the usual teenage, are you kidding?

He knows something.

A lot more than he'd told the cops, Misaki was sure. So how to get him to admit it?

As Yuzu said, he didn't do anything wrong. And the locals would like to make sure he can keep doing it. Carefully. So... the best weapon is the truth.

"Section Four cases are all related, directly or indirectly, to Hell's Gate," Misaki stated. "By definition our crimes are ten years old, or less. Karakura's ghost murders go back at least to the Meiji era. That's as far back as the department keeps formal homicide records. They even have a few ancient black-and-white photos of the typical burns." Deliberately, she let her gaze drift to his bandages.

It took long seconds for Ichigo to blink. "The cops... have photographs. Of burns made by ghosts."

He definitely knows, Misaki thought. And that was the face of a teenager who didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or find something to punch.

He knew, but he didn't know the cops knew. He's been dealing with this alone.

Dealing with murders. As a teenage kid. Alone.

That was going to stop.

"They have hundreds of cases," Misaki stated, letting him see the cool, professional calm on her face. She'd needed it, faced with all those files. So many of which showed the very same burns she'd seen on bodies today. "You're young, but I imagine with an adult's permission you could get a temporary internship to help out at the police station. There couldn't be any harm in, say, allowing you to help organize and re-file cases over half a century old. Fresh eyes can give an unexpected insight." She let one hand rest on the edge of the table. "From what they know, there's no one suspect. It seems to happen in cycles. Someone will die. Sometimes even of natural causes. And then, months or even years later, people connected to that person will start dying, and those burns are left behind. If it keeps on happening, it seems to spread to completely random people in the wrong place at the wrong time. And then it stops. For a while."

Ichigo swallowed.

"The really frightening thing," Misaki admitted, "is that some people survive whatever it was that attacked them. But they don't remember it. They talk about trucks crashing through walls, gas explosions, localized earthquakes; Mafia showing up for prize fights with boxing gloves. Things that anyone can prove did not happen. Yet that's what they remember." She couldn't blame Ichigo for being wary. Hearing how much the Karakura PD already knew about someone using memory manipulation was professionally disturbing. To put it mildly.

How long has the technology existed? How many times has it been stolen? Is it really related to the Gates at all?

"The only thing your officers have to go on is the reports of people who were near a ghost murder, but not directly on the scene," Misaki went on, "the nightmares of the surviving victims, and a very few people who've been willing to admit they sometimes see ghosts. All of them - all of them - say the perpetrators are... ghostly monsters."

She could see why Karakura PD didn't talk about it. She didn't want to believe it herself. Ghosts? Not just ordinary lingering spirits, but monster ghosts that ate people? It wasn't rational.

But BK-201 had fought something. Something too huge to be human, that hadn't spiked any star activity, that hadn't left a body.

Something that Officer Nakano was sure had been there. And wasn't, now.

Ichigo had nerve. He might have been quivering a little, but he didn't flinch. "So why are you telling me this?"

"Because Asao Hideyo would have been the next victim," Misaki said bluntly. "That's the professional opinion of the officers in charge of that carnage in Boss Yanase's house. They can't put it on those thugs' arrest reports; they'll have to get them for whatever they can related to the other eight victims. But they know. And they hope this round of deaths has stopped." She breathed out, and bowed. "They wish they could say this officially, but... thank you."

Ichigo's ears went bright red. "I didn't - I mean, it wasn't - there were a lot of people looking for the kid, I just got lucky..."

"I doubt it was just luck." Misaki straightened. "They don't want to ask you, because they don't want to put pressure on you; not when they know your own family has been targeted in the past. But I'm a visiting officer. I can be gone in hours. So I'll ask. Is there anything they can do to stop these murders? Anything at all?"

Ichigo looked away.

Wait, Misaki told herself. This isn't an interrogation. He knows the risks and we don't. Wait. He's a good kid; he wants to talk.

"...I used to be able to stop them." Ichigo shifted his water glass, traced the faint ring of condensation from summer-thick air. "About six months ago I - got hurt. I can't anymore."

Them. Multiple suspects. Just as Karakura PD thought.

And six months ago. She'd be willing to bet that matched, to the date, the time the Karakura PD said everything went crazy. To the point the whole town had been dead to the world for an entire day. "But you went after Hideyo anyway."

"I thought he was just missing," Ichigo gritted out. "And then I thought it was just Yakuza, sheesh, I could take them-" He cut himself off, and looked sheepishly at her. "Um. Sorry. Not you, I- Sorry." He swallowed. "If I'd known it was a Hollow, I'd have called... one of the people who can still deal with them. Which might have been too damn late, but..." He winced. "I got lucky. I should have been dead. Damn near fed me and Hideyo to it, if it hadn't been for-" He looked away.

Oh.

Misaki let him breathe a moment, hastily revising plans in her head. The scene had been too messy to tell if Hideyo had actually been there. But if he had - if Ichigo had... "You did get lucky, then." She took a breath. "Is Li eating all right?"

That earned her a teenage snort. "Are you kidding? People say I eat a lot, I've never seen anybody put it away like that. How the heck does he keep that up on part-time pay..."

Jackpot.

And from the way Ichigo blanched, he knew it.

Move fast. "I'm not looking for him," Misaki stated. "We came to investigate a scene. We did. Obviously, whoever we were looking for had the common sense to leave town after incapacitating several angry Yakuza."

"...Right," Ichigo managed. "'Cause that'd be the smart thing. 'Cause Yakuza."

"Exactly." Misaki made herself breathe, forcing down the mix of anger and worry and - she didn't know what she felt. Outside of like an idiot, for missing that the awkward part-timer was the very same assassin she'd been hunting for months. "I... won't say I'm happy with him. We have - disagreements. But I would like to talk to him." With handcuffs - no, stop thinking that. Where are you going to get plastic cuffs that would hold him, anyway? "So you met him in the market?"

"Actually..." Ichigo shifted over to the window, and pointed. "See that new office building going up over there? Week ago, the tenth floor wasn't finished."

Misaki looked, and frowned. It still wasn't quite finished yet. "And...?"

Ichigo shrugged. "That's where I was."

Misaki stared at him.

Another shrug; a poor fake of teenage nonchalance. "I was having a really bad day."

The chief of Section Four considered that, normal teenage rage at the world, and ten floors of empty space. Adding in the fact that Ichigo knew there were murders happening in Karakura. Murders he couldn't stop anymore. "Do you need to talk?"

"I was up there so I didn't have to talk," Ichigo admitted. "And then... well, then this crazy guy pulls himself right up on the girder, bare-handed, and says it's a great view, but this doesn't look good from the ground." Orange hair ducked, sheepish. "Then he asked me if I wanted to go grab something to eat."

Misaki blinked. Lifted her glasses to rub her eyebrows, and blinked again. "He... what?"

Because that didn't make sense. BK-201 was a Contractor, and he definitely had the skills to free-climb a building. But a Contractor wouldn't care.

Li would care. Clumsy, gentle, stumbling-over-his-own-tongue Li would definitely care, and want to do something, and feed a stressed-out teenage punk. He'd picked up the tab for a down on his luck PI and his pink-haired secretary, why not a teen ghost-hunter? But Li was an act. Because BK-201 was a Contractor.

Except it couldn't all be an act, because BK-201 had apparently deliberately, noticeably gone out of his way to make sure a potentially suicidal kid didn't fall off a building. And then joined the search for another kid a week later, much to the great displeasure, broken bones, and multiple bruises of the Yakuza unfortunate enough to have kidnapped Hideyo in the first place... which really did seem like Li, if Li stood any chance of fighting his way out of a paper bag, which she'd always sworn he couldn't, not when he'd almost managed to knock himself out just swinging a baseball bat, and...

Gripping the edge of her seat, Misaki started banging her head on the table.

"Oh." Ichigo sounded unimpressed, and maybe slightly gleeful. "You do know the guy."

"Aaaaugh." Misaki let out a steam-kettle of a breath, straightening up. Because fine, Ichigo had every right to be amused, if she looked at it from a distance it was funny. But it was also very, very dangerous. "Kurosaki. I know he can seem kind. But I've dealt with him under different circumstances and it's an act-"

She had to stop. Because Ichigo wasn't laughing. He looked... almost sad. Like one of her own detectives, called to yet another scene. "Yeah, I know," Ichigo admitted. "Kind of figured it out the first time he blinked at someone. You know the one I'm talking about? Skinny black kitten who hopes you've got fish, or at least good scritching fingers?"

Oh brother. Did she ever.

"And then I figured it out more when he warned me to be careful, 'cause he kind of had both sides of the law after him. Because he stopped an explosion."

Reluctantly, Misaki nodded. "That wasn't a lie." And why wasn't it? BK-201 was a Contractor. There was no rational reason to tell Ichigo anything. So why had he told the truth?

"And, um, I really figured it out when he made sure we stopped and had a plan before we went into that house." Ichigo shifted in his chair, uncomfortable. "I'm kind of not sure I should say what he pulled out for that, because there's no way some of that was legal. But what we smelled from the roof - I just didn't care, okay? There was a kid and guns and dead bodies and there was no way anybody else was going to get there fast enough."

"I believe you," Misaki said quietly. Because she did. And if Ichigo had been hunting invisible monsters... belief had probably been hard to come by.

"So yeah. Some of it's an act," Ichigo finished. "But that doesn't make it not real."

She hated to do this. "Ichigo. If he had a rational reason to kill you-"

Ichigo blew out a frustrated breath. "Ah, the hell with it. He knew you were coming."

That stopped her. "I don't understand?"

The look Ichigo bent on her could have melted steel. "We were going to die. Me and Hideyo. The Hollow had us. He could have gotten away while it ate us. He didn't." The teen paused. "He knew what he did was going to send up a flare. And he killed it anyway."

How much did Ichigo see? Misaki wondered. How much danger is he in? "That must have been a shock."

"Eh. More like static." Ichigo brushed at his hair, as if he could feel it now. "But he made sure we got loose before he really hit it."

He knows. And BK-201 didn't wipe his memory like he did the Yakuza.

"But then, once you see Hollows spit leeches that blow up, not much surprises you anymore," Ichigo reflected.

...What.

"No, not kidding." Ichigo touched the cloth bow on the bento beside him, as if that bit of home grounded him. "A lot of them are just strong, fast, and invisible. Some are smart. This one was." He looked her straight in the eye. "Look, I don't know everything Li's done, and I don't know if you've got a reason for a grudge. But I've met full-out sociopaths. And I've met pretty decent people who just have a really lousy job. Li had a job. He quit."

She... couldn't really argue that last point. Taking down Hourai and leaving him for Section Four - he hadn't needed to do that, just to run. It wasn't rational.

But BK-201 is a Contractor-

Her phone buzzed.

"Excuse me." Misaki checked the ID. Astronomics again? "Kirihara."

"Misaki. Hey." Kanami breathed a sigh of relief. "Um... do you think you'll be done poking around over there soon?"

"We're mostly finished here," Misaki admitted. "Why?"

"Good! I mean, that's..." The Astronomics researcher cleared her throat. "Okay. Since it's you... Karakura's kind of hard to scan after dark? I mean, we can set the programs for the Dolls to do it, but they're jumpy. They try to do the routes really fast." She paused. "I know it's supposed to be impossible, but... it's almost like they're scared of the place."

Misaki eyed her phone. Turned a thoughtful gaze on the teenager across the table. A teen who could see monsters. Who trusted Li. Who needed help. "Kanami."

"Yeah?"

"Star activity can be detected half a horizon away, correct?"

"Yes...?"

"But precise location requires the network to be active."

"Right."

"What would it take to remove a certain area from the usual scan routes?"

"...Why?"

"Not on the phone," Misaki said bluntly. "Can you?"

"Tokyo, not a chance," Kanami shot back. "But if you're asking for someplace else..."

A few more exchanges, and she had her answer. Misaki ended the call, scratching down a few sentences on the back of one of her cards, and shrugged at Ichigo. "I should arrest him. But I want his testimony. And if I took him into custody - assuming I was able to take him - he'd be dead in twenty-four hours."

Ichigo's face went through an odd variety of expressions, settling on bemused.

Misaki narrowed her eyes. That's, "I don't think you can catch him, and if you did there'd be a lot of dead bodies and a broken-out window, and if that didn't happen..." "Kurosaki. You're a minor. Don't even think about getting involved in illegal activities." Like conspiring in a possible jailbreak.

"No, ma'am. Chief."

Translated from teenager-ese, that meant the thinking had already been over and done, and Kurosaki had jumped in with both feet.

Do not strangle the witness. Do not strangle the annoying, ghost-hunting, Contractor-trusting witness, Misaki told herself firmly. "I'm beginning to think the two of you deserve each other." She handed over her card. "I hope you call someone before you get into more trouble."

"Got it, Chief." The nod was sober. Straightforward. Completely serious. "I'll call someone."

...Teenagers.

Trees weren't as easy to perch in for a quick exit as window ledges. But they usually had the advantage of concealment. Unless there was a flutter of movement, most people didn't look up into trees.

Although sometimes it was difficult to suppress that urge to move, because ants. Granted Japanese ants weren't half as dangerous as those Hei had met in Brazil, lacking the nasty habits of blindingly painful stings, jaws you had to pry loose with steel, or blowing themselves up.

Still. Ants.

He held himself still and waited, watching over one of the scattered picnic tables on the grounds of Karakura General. Yin was leaning on Huang as he sat across from Dr. Ishida, to casual eyes going over the ex-cop's medical file in a more relaxed setting than the doctor's office. Mao was skulking in the shadows out of sight, another set of eyes in case Hei missed a watcher. And none of them were running.

This is dangerous.

They should be moving. It'd be rational to move; to leave Huang behind if they had to, but go. Enough time had passed that most of the Syndicate should assume they were already clear of the area, especially with Section Four obviously investigating. They should move. Now.

I don't want to.

He didn't want to leave Huang; not when the ex-cop had seen something in his burn and his after-action report that made Huang forget the ex, quizzing Ishida on Hollows and victims and old case-files from Tokyo. He didn't want to take Yin away from someone who was helping her. He didn't want to walk away from people who finally knew something about what had happened to them all.

He'd spent five years not knowing about Bai, and it had nearly destroyed him.

I don't want to be that way again. Ever.

Which was part of why his nerves were screaming at him to leave, he knew it. Karakura... the town had been a gentle place. Restful. Long and odd hours, sure, but he hadn't had to kill anyone for two weeks. It'd been like enforced medical leave-

Vacation. Normal people call that a vacation, Hei reminded himself.

-And if he was on leave that meant he was not operationally ready, which meant sitting duck. Astronomics knew he'd been here, and that meant the Syndicate would know. Bribery, a mole, someone's life threatened; they'd find out, one way or another. All the Syndicate would have to do was drop rumors with his description. Contractors would come after him just for the mere threat that he existed, that he'd apparently helped the cops, that he might come after them-

Hei held his breath for a count of five, and let it slowly out. And again. Panic is not rational.

Of course it wasn't, it was a brain-body response to stress, and even Contractors had both of those...

Ishida says I'm not a Contractor. That my soul is damaged, but not the same way.

Hard to believe. For five years, he'd been so sure. What else could he be?

What else can I be now?

He didn't know. Five years he'd looked for Bai, and now he knew she was gone. It hurt. And left him adrift, like a kite with a broken string. He had no idea when he'd crash.

Can't crash. Team's depending on me. Ichigo needs answers... there he is.

Walking alone, with a fairly hefty bento, and a mix of tired trudge and impatient bounce that meant- oh, not good.

Hei slipped out of the tree in time for Ichigo to glance his direction, and suppressed a twitch of a smirk as the teenager jumped. "You were in a fight?"

"Ah. Yeah. Kind of, nobody's bleeding, my dad is an idiot, what else is new?" Ichigo shrugged, shoulders hunched, and set the bento on the table. "Um, Dr. Ishida? I'm pretty sure where Sandal-Hat probably is, but I'd never see Yoruichi coming. And, well, if she saw these guys... I mean, the first time I saw this guy move," Ichigo jerked a thumb Hei's way, "I thought Onmitsukidou, and that would just be all kinds of messy."

Hei tried to parse that word, and wondered if Karakura had its own dialect. "Demon arts ninja?"

From Huang's dubious look, no he had heard that right. Weird.

"Close enough," Ryuuken observed. "She's stealthy, but as I understand it she's a captain now. Those limiters have their own signature. I should be able to warn you."

"Who's Yoruichi?" Huang pounced. "An' what's she a captain of?"

"Um. Captain is... kind of complicated, and you have to hear a long story for it to make sense," Ichigo shrugged. "But if you see a black cat acting way too interested in overhearing you, and then suspiciously catlike? It's not a cat." He scowled. "Not a guy, either, no matter what she sounds like."

Hei kept a deliberately neutral face as Mao slunk out from under the table, leapt up to tap the bento with one paw, then leaned over to sniff it.

"Well." Mao sat back on his haunches, giving Ichigo a blink of violet eyes. "That explains a lot."

Not going to laugh, Hei told himself firmly.

It was a test of will, as Ichigo stared down a grinning black cat. Then, quietly, clapped a hand to his face.

Yin's giggle didn't sound quite right, for a girl her age. But she was trying.

Ichigo didn't lift his hand, speaking through his fingers. "If you turn into a naked person when there are perfectly good clothes available, I will punch you right in the whiskers."

"You'd hurt a poor defenseless kitty?" Mao was chuckling, tail-tip one quick twitch. "You monster."

Ichigo snorted at defenseless. "I'm not kidding. You want clothes, we'll get them. I have seen enough naked."

"Yes," Hei agreed, heartfelt. "Why can't more teleporters take their clothes?"

"Teleporters?" Ichigo finally lifted his hand, looking at all of them. "Is that what Section Four investigates? The chief never did say it straight out. 'Specific subset of crimes related to the Gate'. Hell's Gate is walled off, how can she be chasing crimes about it all over Japan?" The teen took a breath. "Unless... there's more people like you out there?"

Yes. And no. "You met Chief Kirihara?" Hei asked cautiously. "And... there aren't any gaps?"

"Yeah, I did, they rescued me from the awkward that was family, appreciated that," Ichigo shrugged. "And no, they didn't mess with my head. She said the mess in Boss Yanase's house looked like one of their crimes, but after her detectives got together with Karakura PD they decided it was one of ours." He paused. "And then she said our local PD thinks ghosts are murdering people. Did everybody in Karakura know about that but me?"

Hei weighed the startled look on Ishida's face. "You didn't."

"I had no idea anyone official knew," the doctor admitted. "There aren't that many spiritually sensitive people in Karakura. Even now, the whole force only has a few officers that can even sense ghosts. None of them have enough power to see Hollows... or so I thought."

"What's seeing got to do with it?" Huang snorted. "Cops tend to notice when people turn up dead with weird symptoms. Even if somebody is screwing with the witnesses." He leaned on the table a little. "I sure did."

Mao's tail curled around his paws. "But your memory of your partner's death was never removed."

"Wasn't talking about Isozaki, fishbreath." Huang gave the cat a baleful glance. "There were other cases. Other people that turned up dead for no good reason, with those burns on 'em. Not a lot, not like here - but Tokyo's a big place. Figures we'd have enough ghosts for a few to go rotten." He eyed Ichigo. "Never knew what it could be. And your cops have a whole squad for 'em?"

"The chief said it wasn't official. That there wasn't much they could do. But they know there are monsters, they figured out how Hollows start with family and work out - they know this." Ichigo's knuckles paled. "Doc... what can we do? That won't get people landing on the cops? She thanked me, and even if I can almost see 'em again my powers are still gone, can't even really do anything except dodge a Hollow anymore, it's not right..."

Powers? Hei drew closer, intent. What?

Ichigo started. "And how come when I say Hollow, none of you even ask? Is it- are you-?" He cut himself off. "I mean... is it okay if I ask why Dr. Ishida's treating you? You kind of know part of my deal already..."

"You hunted Hollows," Hei stated, putting facts and dropped words and Ishida's odd comment on starvation together. "You were trained to hunt spiritual monsters. But you lost your powers."

"Not lost. Burned them out," Ichigo got out. "Had to. Was the only way to take down Aizen... he was crazy. Not blood-crazy, like Kenpachi. Weird and twisted up in the head. Like he deserved to be god, and he didn't care how many people he used up to get there." The teenager swallowed. "I knew it was going to hurt. I didn't know... I'd just keep bleeding." He shrugged, shoulders tight. "Ishida - the doc figured out that if souls get stronger in danger, maybe that's what I needed to get better. Just a little danger. It's helping. I didn't see the Hollow all the way, but I saw it."

"So did I," Hei admitted, thinking of that misty flex of claws and scales. "Even for a Yakuza, that was horrible."

"No kidding. That ever happens to me, I want a shinigami with a konso, damn it." Ichigo ran nervous fingers through his hair. "Which... means you see them too, man, I figured... the doc's not just treating you guys for holes, is he? 'Cause if you just needed a doctor, they're all over the place, you wouldn't be here."

"In fact, they were here for the holes," Ishida said dryly. "I stumbled on the fact they needed to be patients when they broke into their partner's hospital room."

"...Oh."

Disappointment, in that tired slump. Hei glanced at Yin and Mao.

"Eh, why not." Mao flicked his whiskers. "Fair's fair."

Yin nodded.

Hei straightened. "If I understand Dr. Ishida correctly? Spiritual disassociation, empathic amputation, and long-term possession."

Ichigo's mouth dropped open. "...What."

"Um, not all at once," Hei assured him. "One for each of us?" He tilted his head toward Huang. "Oh, and bullet holes."

"Should have ducked," Mao observed.

Huang folded his arms, giving the cat an up and down look. "Lucky they didn't snipe you, furball. There wouldn't have been enough left for mittens."

Mao hmphed. "Didn't anyone ever tell you fur is murder?"

Yin threaded her fingers through black fuzz. "Mao. You're an obligate carnivore. And you bring me mice."

"Well, yes. But I'm a cat." Mao sniffed. "You still human-shaped humans are supposed to get bent out of shape about things like that. Why, I have no idea."

Ichigo closed his mouth, and looked at Ishida. "Do they do this a lot?"

"I find their company refreshing, in small doses," the doctor admitted. "Although in Hei's case it's actually two injuries. The possession was the most serious, but he did suffer some damage to his empathy as well. At the moment I don't have enough information to determine if that's a normal consequence of the type of power he possesses, or a result of the possession. It could well be both."

"Type of-" Ichigo sucked in a breath. "There are more guys like you. That's what Section Four's after?"

"It's - complicated," Hei admitted. "And I don't know how much time we have to explain-"

"A lot more than you think." With the air of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, Ichigo handed over one of Misaki's cards.

Can't put you in protective custody, the back read. 5 km radius of Karakura, Astronomics will not track. Have fun hunting monsters.

Hei stared. Reread the card. The characters didn't change.

"The heck-?" Huang craned his head over to read it upside-down, and snorted. "Always knew Kirihara's kid was smarter than he was."

"Oh?" Mao stepped over to squint at inked lines, and snickered. "I don't believe this. Does she think she can put you on parole?"

"Doesn't matter what she thinks, if she holds up her end," Huang declared. "Now are you going to sit down, or do we just toss the kid the basics while you run off your nerves?"

Hei gave him a flat look. "Nerves aren't rational."

"You ain't rational. Which shoulda clued me in way back." Turning his back on the card, Huang nodded at Ichigo. "You know what people say about the Gates, right? The facts, not the crazy cults and rumors. They showed up, a lot of people died, they're walled off and we still don't know what's up with them. What you don't know is what's been happening to people all over the world ever since the Gates crashed in on us. It's nasty."

"And by nasty Huang means incredibly awkward to those affected and the indirect cause of multiple homicides otherwise," Mao put in. "Not to mention almost the direct cause of mass murder two weeks ago... but you'd better have things in order, it will make slightly more sense." He tilted his head at Huang, ears perked.

Huang jerked a thumb skyward. "See the stars up there? The Messier objects, you want to get technical. Well, each one a' those is linked to somebody the Gates bit. Or at least half of 'em," he reflected, "never was sure if Dolls were tied to stars or not."

"One was," Hei said quietly, thinking of Canon, Klang, and Musik, and three falling stars. "But she was tied to a Contractor, too. So I don't know."

"The Gates bit them?" Ichigo gave Ishida a sharp look.

"I don't currently have a better explanation," the doctor noted. "The phenomena are associated. The details of how and why are sketchy." He touched his glasses. "Most of those who've done actual research on affected people are either secret government agencies, or the underworld."

"...I'm starting to not like this," Ichigo muttered. "These... phenomena being Dolls, and Contractors? Weird names."

"Smart kid," Huang said dryly. "And, not so weird when you know." He rolled his shoulders under his vest. "Now, some ways, Dolls are harder on them and easier on everybody else. The stuff that makes 'em a person - feelings, personality, even knowing what you want for breakfast - it gets squashed. All a Doll's left with is memories, buried down deep, and their specters."

"Specters?" Ichigo frowned. "Not ghosts."

"Remember the ghost lights on the power lines?" Ishida asked. "Those are specters sent out by Astronomics, working with Section Four. Looking for anyone who could see them." He let out the slightest breath of relief. "Whatever you said to Chief Kirihara, you may have saved all of us considerable trouble with the authorities."

"Because anybody sensitive could see them... damn, no wonder she said she thought this was one of their cases. Ghost lights and lookouts," Ichigo said, half to himself, and looked straight at Yin. "That was you, right? That glow over the pond."

Yin bent her head. "Most Dolls... without programming, they're helpless. Locked inside. My team helped me get better. Dr. Ishida's helping, too."

"You let us get there in time." Ichigo gave her a fierce grin. "That was awesome."

A hint of pink touched Yin's cheeks. "I... like to help? We're partners."

"We are," Hei affirmed. "Good ones."

"And you're... allied." She sat up straight, violet eyes tracing where Ichigo was. "I'm Yin. This is Mao. He's Huang."

"Ichigo. Thanks." Ichigo blinked, a little dazed, then looked at Hei and Mao. "I'm going to guess that makes you two Contractors. What's that?"

"Very, very nasty," Mao said cheerfully. "I'm not sure what caused it. I'm not sure any Contractor ever is. Although we do all seem to have some kind of massive trauma hit us weeks, even months before it happened. Mostly violent trauma, but not always; I researched one Russian Contractor whose trigger seemed to be the accidental death of her child." A furred shrug. "One day - night, whenever - there's just a shock. And part of you, the part that cared and laughed and hated people and wanted to be with them forever... it's gone." Fur trembled. "And in its place there's a star in the sky, a power that wants to be used, and a price you have to pay for it. The Contract, and the Remuneration."

"Empathic amputation." Ichigo swallowed hard. "It sounds almost like..."

"A soul becoming a Hollow?" Ishida finished. "As far as I can tell, it is. There's severe damage to the plate connecting the soul chain; the metaphysical heart of every emotional tie we have to other human beings. Yet they still have physical bodies. I believe that allows them to maintain rational thought, where a Hollow would be raw spiritual hunger. Dolls and Contractors are the closest beings I've seen to living Arrancar."

Hei tensed. Ishida had used that word before, but he'd been too focused on Yin and Ichigo's background-of-holes father to ask. What?

Mao slid a glance his way, then stalked closer to the doctor. "You told us what Hollows are; spirits who by obsession or attack lost their hearts, and now try to eat anyone they can get their claws on. But what are Arrancar?"

"Majorly strong Hollows - Adjuchas-level or more - who rip their masks off and get more powerful," Ichigo rattled off, quick as Hei could run down caliber differences. "They look a lot more human, and they are damn dangerous. Aren't many of 'em. Thankfully. About a dozen of them just about took Karakura apart, even with everybody fighting them." He stared at all of them. "You guys aren't anything like Arrancar, though... well, maybe like Nel. Kind of."

"Nel?" Ishida beat them all to the question. "Who was Nel?"

"Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck," Ichigo shrugged. "She didn't want to fight anymore. She was strong enough she could just hang out in Hueco Mundo and live on the reishi in the air. She didn't need to hunt humans. So she just didn't. All she wanted was to live with her Fracciones, have fun playing tag, stay away from shinigami. Then Aizen had to screw with everybody." He waved a hand; what can you do about homicidal idiots. "She saved our lives a couple times. She was... nice. Dangerous as heck, she was an Espada, but if Aizen had just left her alone she would have kept her Fracciones safe and stayed out of it. He didn't, we needed help, she helped us." Ichigo hugged himself, as if the summer night had suddenly been invaded by a winter breeze. "I hope she's okay."

Ishida, Hei noted, looked as if someone had bashed him on the head with a lead-cored newspaper. "Are you saying an Arrancar can have feelings for other Hollows?"

"For other people? Yeah." Ichigo didn't even blink. "I mean, it sounded like it took her a while to get there, first other Hollows were just kind of handy, but - yeah. Hallibel was like that, too; wouldn't fight unless she got orders, or her Fracciones were in danger. Starrk joined up with the other Espada so he wouldn't be alone. Grimmjow was a nasty bloodthirsty punk, but he didn't want to fight anybody unless it was fair." He scowled. "The others were kind of assholes, though. And don't get me started on Szayel."

"...I need to sit down," Ishida said faintly.

Huang made room for the doctor to collapse onto a bench, trading glances with the rest of his team. "So. Kurosaki. How come you know this, and the doc didn't?"

"Part of that long story," Ichigo admitted. "I've been to Hueco Mundo. The other dimension Hollows are in when they're not here. One of my friends got kidnapped, so - I spent a while there, looking for her." He gave them a crooked smile. "It's full of Hollows. What kind of crazy maniac would go there and talk to the monsters, right? And if the only Hollows you ever meet are the ones coming here to eat people..."

"Yes," Ishida agreed, still dazed. "I need a moment. If Hollows can recover their ability to connect to other beings, to even have nonhostile interactions with humans..." His voice died.

"It changes everything," Hei said quietly, feeling that wince in his own soul. "Because then you have to think. As long as they're all monsters, everything's easy. Fight and survive. Nothing else matters. But if they're not? If some of them might not want to fight, if you could just talk? It breaks... everything." He had to look away. "Why didn't they just tell me?"

"Ah." Mao's voice was very dry. "Haven't you figured that out? If your files are accurate, you were Bai's bodyguard. And Amber's, half the time. It wouldn't be rational for those two to tell you Contractors could feel. The Black Reaper might hesitate."

"Cat," Huang warned.

"No. It makes sense," Hei admitted. "Bai didn't trust anyone else to watch over her."

"Wait a minute," Ichigo was muttering, elbows propped on the table. "Wait, just - no, this makes no sense. If you're a Contractor why would anyone have to tell you, and-" He choked. Eyed Ryuuken. "Long-term possession."

"I don't know all the details," the doctor stated. "And what I do know, I will not mention without explicit permission."

Ichigo swallowed, looking at Hei. "It's bad?"

What do I tell him? What should I tell him?

...I don't want to lie.

"Yes," Hei admitted. "It's bad."

"My Messier code is BK-201." Hei pointed up and slightly north, face cold as it'd been hunting the Yakuza. "That one."

Ichigo craned his head back enough to see the first glimmer through sunset, mind racing. What was it like to feel a star? Or, well, something that at least looked like one.

"If you hear it mentioned by someone besides Section Four, run," Hei advised. "The people who know that code know it's one of the early Contractors; the star appeared less than two weeks after the Gates. Ten years of experience means a very dangerous power, or a skilled survivor. Usually both." He took a breath. "But I've only been BK-201 for five years."

Out of the corner of his eye, Ichigo watched Mao sit in carefully casual feline attention. Kirsi - Yin - was close to Hei, but not quite touching him. And Huang had that listening air Ichigo'd seen doctors pull out when a patient needed to talk to get at symptoms. So they hadn't heard this story either.

"Ten years ago I was Li Tian," Hei said simply. "I had a little sister. Xing."

Fact. No emotion. Which matched stuff Ichigo'd seen Rukia and Toushirou and Byakuya pull, shutting everything down so they could get through the next minutes and survive-

What the hell. "Li Tian is your real name?"

"Why not? It's the name the Syndicate won't look for." Not a smile. "They declared us dead ten years ago. There are a million Li's in China."

Declared us dead. No, that wasn't ominous. "Okay?" Ichigo tried. Because Hei'd said he had a sister, not that he had one now, and possession - he had to be wrong, right? He really hoped he was wrong.

"Xing was the first BK-201." Blue eyes were flat. Dead. "When it happened, I pulled us out before the police got there."

Mao frizzed, tail one thick poof of black. Yin looked down. Ryuuken and Huang... winced.

Ichigo weighed that, and what they'd told him, and tried not to swallow too obviously. Hei's little sister had become a living Arrancar. Which was all well and fine to think about from the comfort of having spiritual powers and a sharp zanpakutou, but as a powerless human? The hairs on Ichigo's neck were trying to crawl away.

And that wasn't even because of the cops, man, meeting China's equivalent of Section Four just sounded scary as all heck-

One of the first Contractors. Nothing like Section Four would have even existed.

Oh my god he saved their lives.

Because a Hollow could just pop back to Hueco Mundo when the odds got too great, but something with a physical body couldn't. Guys like Karakura cops versus a trapped Hollow? It'd have been a slaughter, if Hei hadn't-

Then the words hit, and Ichigo froze.

I pulled us out.

Like it'd been another mission. When Ichigo knew Hollows. Knew how they fought, what they wanted, how they hungered. He'd gone to the Vizards and demanded help not so much for himself, though he'd been terrified, but for his sisters.

A Hollow's first target was family.

His sister became a Contractor, and she killed - god, who knows. Their parents? Anyone else there? The whole damn neighborhood? Hei can do lightning bolts; a Hollow with that power wouldn't have held back. And Hei - Tian - he picked up the thing that killed their parents and ran...

And the worst of it was Ichigo couldn't blame Hei at all. If Karin had changed one day, and he hadn't know about Hollows... oh hell, even now, knowing all he knew, he'd have done the exact same thing. Because Karin was his sister. And big brothers protected their little sisters. Always.

Only he'd have tied her up and run straight to Urahara. Because if anyone on the face of the planet could fix a mess like that, Sandal-Hat would.

Tian hadn't had an exiled shinigami to run to. Just his own wits, and barely-teenage guts. Against a living monster.

Wait. That doesn't make sense. "How are you alive?" Ichigo demanded.

"All Contracts have their price," Hei shrugged. "She needed to sleep. I watched over her. She knew I would."

Chalk one up for Ryuuken, Ichigo thought, trying to ignore his goose-bumps. Living Arrancar was right. A Hollow wouldn't have been able to think that far ahead.

"The Syndicate found us a few months later."

"A few months?" Mao's ears went up. "How did you keep the body count that low?"

"Arguing. Rationally." Hei didn't blink. "I told her, leaving bodies in the street made it harder to keep her safe." A breath. "The Syndicate wanted to wipe my memory and take her. Xing didn't believe them. She wouldn't go without me."

"Mmm. Lucky for you," Mao mused. "Memory modification wasn't good enough to cover months; not then. They'd have left you dead in a ditch."

Hei nodded once. As if he'd expected as much. "She was Bai; I was Hei. They trained us as a team. I cleared the way; kept her safe after she used her Contract. We had missions... and then there was Heaven's War."

"The acts of terrorism in Brazil?" Ryuuken asked, very quietly.

"Every government wanted the Gate," Hei stated. "The Syndicate had another plan. Amber - one of our team - found out about it, and made her own plan with Bai. I didn't know. All I remember is light, and pain." A breath. "I woke up... I don't know how much later. Bai was gone. Everyone was gone. Only BK-201's star said Bai was right there. The Syndicate interrogators wanted answers." Hei blinked. "I killed at least a dozen of them, before I knew what I was doing."

Another shiver crawled down Ichigo's spine. To go from human to waking up with that kind of power at your fingertips, and no warning?

"Given the circumstances?" Ryuuken's glasses shone. "I would call that incredibly rational."

"It got them to stop," Hei agreed. "And the activity pattern - they didn't believe me, but they had to believe that. Bai was gone. I was BK-201. Only-" He cut himself off.

"Only she wasn't gone," Ichigo finished, stomach sinking. "Dead. Not gone. She- are you okay? No, forget it, stupid question..."

"She left me two weeks ago," Hei stated. "In Hell's Gate. The Syndicate planned to do what they'd tried in Brazil: destroy the Gate, kill every Doll and Contractor with it. Amber tried to repeat her plan; use Bai's power to warp reality so no one could get near the Gate again."

"Calculating the same radius as Brazil, Japan would have been obliterated," Mao observed.

"Anyone who wasn't a Contractor would have died," Hei said quietly. "But I'm not Bai. The Syndicate needed special particles to destroy the Gate. I... changed them. It's safe now. At least until another eclipse."

"Ten years if we're lucky," Huang grumbled. "Five if we're not. You need to stay alive, kid."

"I'll try." Hei met Ichigo's gaze. "You asked what I am. I don't know."

"You don't? But-" Ichigo shot a look at Ryuuken. Because of course. No wonder the Quincy doctor had tried to throw them together. It made sense. Ichigo had lost his powers, just like Isshin had. But he wasn't just a shinigami. And if a shinigami like Isshin needed a shinigami's reiatsu to recover, then- "You didn't tell them about Arrancar. Did you tell them about Vizards?"

"I know less about Vizards than I do Arrancar," the doctor said plainly. "In this area, you are the expert."

Ichigo swallowed, mouth dry. "A Vizard... is what happens when a shinigami gains Hollow powers," he explained, to way too many intent eyes. "Kind of the inverse of an Arrancar. It messes you up real bad inside. But if you can beat it down, get it to come to terms with you... then you've got both sides to draw on." He drew himself up straight. "A year ago, a Hollow attacked my house. The shinigami fighting it, Rukia - she was hurt. She let me borrow her powers. And then things got... complicated." He brushed back his hair, and gave the team a shrug, trying to lock down all the fear and hurt and loneliness. "Substitute shinigami and Vizard, Kurosaki Ichigo, kind of attached to the Thirteenth Division of the Gotei Thirteen; the shinigami who're supposed to keep all the Hollows from eating souls. Karakura used to be my patrol. Only... I can't anymore. Until - if - I ever get my own powers back."

"When," Ryuuken said, in a doctor's tone of, I will hear no more of this nonsense. "You're showing marked improvement already. Given that's happening now, when it hasn't for all the months you've been in Isshin's house under the cloak of his reiatsu, I would say your Vizard status has been a complicating factor. You need exposure to shinigami and Hollow energies - and Isshin has been extremely careful to ward any more Hollows out of the clinic."

Ichigo tried not to bristle. "Well, yeah, he should, my sisters-"

"Your sisters," Ryuuken cut him off. "Precisely. Your father will go to great lengths to protect your sisters. Even at your expense." His mouth was a thin line, as he turned to Hei. "I can't say it's an exact correlation, any more than Contractors are exactly Arrancars. But from what I can read of your energies, even with the damage you've taken, your soul would most likely have become a shinigami after death. Not a Hollow. You have the Contract; you also have your own spiritual powers. You are the closest person I've found to another Vizard, and since they've all absconded to Soul Society there has been no one in Karakura who can help Ichigo the way he needs to recover."

A little life sparked in blue eyes. "You want me to stay. That's dangerous-"

"Six months ago Karakura got yanked into another dimension because a power-hungry bastard wanted to wipe out every soul in it and take over as Soul King," Ichigo cut him off. "Whatever trouble you've got, whatever nasty powers they've got, we can handle it." He gave Hei his best rescuing idiot shinigami scowl. "You're alive, like I am, for the same damn reason. We had people who cared, and put their lives on the line to make sure we had backup. Now let us help."

Hei's gaze slid aside.

Damn it, I'm not getting through, why- oh.

Oh. And hell. Hei had said his sister was gone. He hadn't known she was dead until her ghost left him, which meant...

"I'm going to tell you something my dad told me, once," Ichigo said quietly. "You couldn't save her. She chose to protect you. You knew her better than anyone. You think your sister would die for someone who wasn't worth saving? You were worth everything to her. Don't you dare think you can stop living now."

It was wry, but that was definitely a smile on Huang's face. And that was an amused flick of whiskers, as Mao leaned up against Yin's arm until she stroked his ears.

Good, Ichigo thought. They want him to get better, too.

Though he could tell right now that coaxing Hei back into it's okay to be alive was going to take a lot more time. The guy wasn't walking an empty riverbank, but he'd bet two of Yuzu's sweets that was mostly because Hei wasn't a kid anymore. He had responsibilities. He couldn't fall apart. So he just... wouldn't let it happen.

Going to have to get through that, too. No way am I letting him get as crazy as Dad.

How was the question. He'd fixed Byakuya with a good bankai-on-bankai clash and a punch in the face. But the very noble head of Kuchiki had gone all self-sacrificing ice prince because of the whole upper-crust tangle around bringing Rukia into the clan in the first place. Once a few of those nobles just plain weren't around anymore - thank Aizen for inadvertent favors - Byakuya had gradually loosened up to human again. Or, well, shinigami. Close enough.

Hei, though... Hei had gone from witnessing murder to bodyguarding the murderer to child assassin and who knew how much worse. He'd walled himself up in ice just to stay sane.

No wonder the guy thought he was a Contractor.

So. Knuckle sandwich wouldn't work. Time to bring out the Kurosaki family's unstoppable secret weapon.

Ichigo thumped Yuzu's bento down on the table. "Okay! Enough gloom and doom. You're going to eat, and I'm going to tell you everything Chief Kirihara said." He grinned at them all. "Because you should have seen her face."

Cinnamon, sugar, a heady scent of chocolate icing... wow. Mini-donut things? Looked like at least five different kinds; Yuzu had been experimenting. And she'd packed this to the gills. Thank goodness. If Hei was as bad with sweets as with noodles, he could probably inhale the whole thing.

Hei did take three as Ichigo handed the box around. Seemed to sniff them, then handed off spicy cinnamon and chocolate-on-plain to a bright-eyed Yin. "You like these kinds?"

"Yes." Yin closed her eyes as she nibbled down cinnamon-dusted bites. "Oo. Sweet."

"Hmph." Mao leaned against her arm, casually not looking. "Cats can't taste sweet."

Yin licked the last cinnamon off her fingers, then bit carefully into the chocolate-iced round. Stopped, thoughtful. "This one has cream in it."

"Mraaoww!"

Mao caught their glances, and detached himself from Yin's sleeve as she held out a lump of cream filling. "Ahem. Thank you, don't mind if I do..."

"So you're letting BK-201 run around loose in Karakura because there are invisible monsters stalking the citizens, and the cops want the help." Folder in hand, Ishizaki Kanami leaned back in Misaki's guest chair, curls more frazzled than usual. "If it were anyone else, Misaki..."

"I'm not letting him run around loose," Misaki said primly, toying with her cold lemonade. Even ice didn't seem to cut the heat today. Though maybe that was having taken the past few days to think through what she'd asked Kanami to do, and what the consequences were likely to be. "If he leaves that radius he's back on the list. I'm just advising you that Doll analysis of the Karakura area is not cost-effective if you're likely to lose the Dolls in the process." She glanced at the file Kanami was looking through, copies of some of the most relevant Karakura cases, and shuddered. "And you just might. The creatures - the Hollows - apparently will target coma victims that catch their attention."

"I see that-" Kanami stopped. Swallowed.

Misaki eyed how far she was through the file, and made a guess. "The Yanase house?"

"...Whoa boy." Kanami sagged back, a little pale. "That kind of damage to the bodies, and no other Contractor there besides BK-201?"

Misaki nodded.

"Okay, they've got a problem," the Astronomics researcher stated. "And no, I don't want my boys and girls scanning anywhere near it if it might come looking for them. We've got defenses against Contractors. How can we protect them against things we can't see coming?" She looked up, gaze intent. "And why would BK-201 stay where these creatures are, even if you are giving him a safe spot from scans? It's not rational."

Misaki had been thinking that through, too. "No, it's very rational. First," she held up a finger, "think about who we've caught in the Syndicate so far. The power and influence they have, the people in other countries they've implicated... the Syndicate reaches worldwide. Any move he makes, he has to calculate how likely it is they'll have a kill team in place to catch him. Odds are he can't leave Japan without someone picking up his trail. BK-201 is good, but the Syndicate can hire dozens of Contractors."

"But if he stays here, anyone they hire has to get into Japan - and past Section Four," Kanami realized. "Wow. That's..."

"Ruthless? Rational? A perfect Contractor?" Misaki suggested.

Kanami gave her a mischievous grin. "I was going to say, sounds like he thinks you're really good at your job."

Misaki was not going to blush. "And... there's a second reason. Karakura General is one of the closest hospitals outside Tokyo that has a major trauma center."

Kanami sat up straight. "He's hurt?"

"I doubt it," Misaki grumbled. "This is tentative, based on the evidence." And strictly speaking was Section Four business, but she wasn't putting it in a report. Kanami could keep a secret, and she had to talk this over with somebody. "We don't think BK-201 works alone. He has a team. A Doll for observation and reconnaissance, and a sniper."

Kanami's lips pursed in a silent whistle. "That's not usual, is it?"

"The MI6 team has a Doll, July," Misaki allowed. "But no. Usually the Contractors Section Four has faced are working with other Contractors. Sometimes with a human handler. Even that's rare."

Kanami nodded. "But you still think you're right."

"I told you about BK-201 apparently rescuing that lost boy, Hideyo." Misaki sipped her drink, getting her thoughts in order. "What I didn't tell you is that Karakura PD had more details on the search. Apparently the civilian effort was organized by an injured ex-cop - an ex-detective - who called himself Kuno. With his young niece, Kirsi, who is very shy, doesn't make eye contact, finds lost pets... and always held onto a glass of water." She glanced at Kanami. "There was a garden pond overlooking BK-201's point of entry. A specter from there would have been able to see the boy. And Kuno-" She winced. "The name seemed familiar. I looked in our files. Seven years ago Detective Kuno Kiyoshi resigned, after his partner Isozaki was killed by a Contractor. Other associates and Isozaki's wife are on record as having had their memories altered. Kuno is not. And he was rated an expert marksman."

"You think he went Syndicate? That's..." Kanami swallowed, and looked away.

Misaki frowned.

"I was just thinking." Kanami tapped a finger on her own drink. "If something happened to you, and people said they were going to make me forget you... you're going to stop that, right?"

"Section Four's not wiping anyone else," Misaki said firmly. "If the government wants that to be a continued policy, they can find someone else. I'll resign first. The whole Section will."

Kanami nodded, satisfied. "So let me see if I have this straight. The Syndicate tried to wipe out all the Contractors. Somehow they knew BK-201 would be a threat to that-"

"Brazil," Misaki said simply. "Readings say he was at Heaven's Gate."

Or at least, readings had said BK-201 was at Heaven's Gate. Yet according to Dr. Schroeder, five years ago BK-201 had been assigned to a woman.

How is that even possible? One star, one Contractor. That's how it works.

Li was BK-201, and he was definitely not a woman. Something was fishy here. And she couldn't even ask what, because the government had squirreled Schroeder away for his knowledge of the Gates and no one would even admit where he was.

"Okay, wow, yeah that'd do it," Kanami reflected. "So... they use BK-201 to set things up, then take him out before their big ka-boom. Only they miss. And hit his handler instead. He tears through the Syndicate like a hot knife through butter, blows the anti-Gate stuff sky-high, saves you, and then goes to ground and hides. In the one place it's worth it to the cops for him to hang out hunting monsters. So they'll cover for him." She shook her head slowly. "Wow. I wonder how long he's been planning to get out?"

Misaki stared at her.

Kanami raised both eyebrows. "He found a place right near Tokyo where you'd rather have him loose. Think how much research that had to take. This guy? He's not just dangerous because of his power. He thinks."

Misaki had to agree. But it was so hard to sort a ruthless, patient planner with the image of the flailing waiter in her head.

That's what makes it a good cover, right?

"Though if we're talking about rational thinking, why would he save you?" Kanami wondered. "Well... outside the fact that if he was telling the Syndicate, I quit, having you there to catch them would make sense."

"It would," Misaki agreed. "The odd thing is it wasn't the first time. Or even the second."

Kanami blinked. "It wasn't?"

"Alice's party." It was still hard to talk about. "She had me at gunpoint in the penthouse. And then... all the lights blew out." And she'd almost tripped over Li getting away, and actually put her hand over his mouth to keep the supposed civilian from making a sound-

The memory gave her cold chills. BK-201 could kill with a touch. Or even just touching something conductive. Water, wire, blood soaking thick carpet - they'd seen it happen.

She'd touched him, and she was still alive.

"And then he broke in just when Wei was about to kill Saitou," Misaki stated. "If he'd waited even a few seconds more, we'd both be dead."

"Well, Contractor or not, he is a guy." Kanami leaned forward, eyes impish. "Maybe he just thinks you're cute?"

Misaki rolled her eyes. Yes, from what they knew about Contractors some were still interested in sex, but that would hardly outweigh all the rational reasons not to confront Wei. "There's something else. I couldn't get at Kuno's medical records directly, but Outsuka was able to hack his likely admission time." It didn't make sense. But so much about this didn't make sense. "It was before BK-201 came after the Syndicate."

"Before-" Kanami cut herself off, eyes narrowing as she thought that over. "Are you saying a Contractor - a rational, doesn't-care-about-anything-but-surviving Contractor - saved his handler first? And went after the guys who shot at him later?"

"And currently seems to be looking out for both Kuno and the Doll," Misaki nodded. And a stray lost child and too-brave teenager, but she wasn't inclined to muddy the waters any more than she had already. After all, if Kuno was BK-201's handler, it'd probably been his decision to get involved in the search for Hideyo.

He knew what he did was going to send up a flare, Ichigo's voice rang in her memory. And he killed it anyway.

Misaki breathed out, and took another cold slug of lemonade. So many pieces, and none of them made sense.

"There is no way I ever want to have your job," Kanami started.

The apartment buzzer rang.

Kanami didn't say a word when she picked up her service weapon to answer the door. Thankfully.

The welcome mat was empty, except for a small cardboard box addressed to her. The return address was... a greeting card company?

Kanami peeked out past her. "Someone apologizing, or they want to get on your good side?"

"I don't know." For a moment, Misaki weighed the pros and cons of calling the Bomb Squad. But Section Four was on thin enough ice as it was, if it looked like the young woman in charge was panicking...

And it was such a small package.

Gingerly she picked up the light box. Brought it inside, placed it delicately on her desk, and carefully slit the packing tape.

Inside was a crinkle of wadded sheets of paper, padding a three-inch-thick paperweight of clear acrylic. Misaki picked it up, squinting at it, but the block didn't change; not a mark on the outside, yet someone had somehow sculpted a feathery tree-shape inside the clear plastic.

"Ooo, a Lichtenberg figure!" Kanami looked alert and delighted, studying the tracery from all sides. "And it's a paperweight? Someone must really have guts to send you this."

"Why?" Misaki pounced. "What's a Lichtenberg... thing?"

"Awesome," Kanami declared. "They charge the block up with electrons, and then they just poke it with something conductive. Usually a nail. All the electrons blast out at once, and - zap." She tapped the plastic with a painted nail. "I knew there were places in America that made figures for decorations, but when did they start making paperweights?" She turned it, letting light catch the feathery shimmers. "You never heard of them? I thought you would. I did, after you told me BK-201's power was electrical. It's frozen lightning."

Brown eyes met in utter silence. Misaki caught her breath, and dove for the box.

Nothing, nothing, just more paper, what am I even doing, this could have been a trap, it still might be... why isn't there anything in here but packing paper-?

Paper crinkled loud as cicadas as she unfolded the pages. Writing on the inside of the crumpled balls, how was she supposed to sort this out, how did the Syndicate even train people if BK-201 expected this to make sense-

Oh. He numbered them.

Terms accepted, the first page started. Situation more complicated than local PD is aware. Continuing to gather background info.

Hollows preferentially target victims with emotional, psychic trauma. Depression, recent loss, traumatic experience. Local practitioners refer to "soul wounds". Contractors and Dolls fit this category.

Misaki had to stop for a moment. Because she'd heard the whispers about Contractors and Dolls not having souls anymore, who hadn't, but that was superstition. Soul wounds? Really? And he expected her to believe this?

Soul injuries known to affect emotional expression, morals, and ability to see other people as human beings. Gate-affected victims have catastrophic injuries. Expert opinion, "lucky to be alive".

Misaki almost crumpled the paper all over again. The things she'd seen Contractors do, and he was referring to them as victims?

Under certain circumstances, some degree of recovery is possible.

"What?" Kanami blurted out.

Argh. She should have known Kanami would read around her shoulder, her friend had an incurable curiosity. "I don't think you want to know this-"

"Are you kidding?" Kanami cut her off, shifting to keep the page in view even as Misaki tried to drag it away. "Of course I do! Is he saying Dolls can get better?"

Of course not, Misaki almost said; BK-201 was talking about Contractors-

Except he wasn't. He'd specifically mentioned both.

Specific circumstances known to date: Recovery requires long-term allied, non-harmful social interactions with a stable group. Group must have some common goals. Survival reliance enhances healing. See MI6 Contractor/Doll team.

"Those are the guys you talked about. With July. A Doll who can act on his own." Kanami sucked in a breath. "The one where November 11 killed his team's handlers. And you thought he found out about the plan to wipe out the Contractors."

His handlers, and somewhere over a dozen armed guards, Misaki knew, armed with just frozen brandy. Dying himself in the process. "I know. It was weird then; it still is now. He could have just gone along and gotten out. Taking on those odds wasn't rational."

Informing you for Section Four's safety, BK-201's note ran on. If you encounter lone Contractors, or Contractor-only groups working together temporarily, your usual tactics of appealing to rational self-interest will apply. But a Contractor who has been part of a team for months may not be rational, and a Doll will not be passive. If a team member is threatened - have seen both altruistic suicide and berserk frenzy.

If further updates would be useful, I could see you at the noodle shop.

...And that was apparently it. Argh.

"Noodle shop?" Kanami said in disbelief. "Which noodle shop? There have to be hundreds in Tokyo!" She blinked. "Wait, but if he knows he's safe in Karakura, he won't come to Tokyo..."

"I know which one he means." Misaki tried not to bury her face in her hands. Because damn it, BK-201 obviously knew where she'd taken Ichigo. So either he'd been watching all along and she'd missed him, or the two were definitely talking. Or both.

"Oh, good," Kanami reflected. "So can I come with you?"

Misaki narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Kanami. You know he's dangerous."

Kanami blinked like she was the one who'd suffered temporary insanity. "Of course he is. But he's also getting better. Wow, that must be weird, caring about people again after years of just being rational." She raised an eyebrow at Misaki's look of disbelief. "Come on, you're the one who said he's part of a team. And he doesn't act rationally. I want to talk to him. And his team. If there's some way to help Dolls be people again, I want to know about it!"

And that was Kanami being fierce. Cross at your own peril. "You want to put yourself out of a job?" Misaki asked wryly.

Kanami drew herself up straight. "If it means all my girls and boys get to have real lives again? Yes."

Misaki pictured the government's reaction if all of Astronomics' Dolls suddenly woke up and demanded their own lives back. It wouldn't be pretty.

Then again, letting ordinary people find out Contractors existed was going to be enough of a mess. Maybe whatever Kanami could do would just get ignored in the chaos.

"Noodles." Misaki hefted the paperweight. "He'd better not expect me to pay."

A/N: Augh. Why must you have the same surname as Rangiku, Detective Matsumoto?

The exploding ants are actually in Malaysia. Bunnies headcanon that Hei's been in a lot of jungles.

I'm inventing details around how Xing actually became a Contractor and what happened afterward. Canon gives us nothing save some of Hei's memories, that seem to hint she was about nine, and he was twelve, when it happened.