Chapter 5. Crystal Soul

As the afternoon sky transformed into twilight dusk at the Karakura hospital, there were two men were sitting in the office. One wore an orange windbreaker and blue jeans with dark khaki boots. While the other one with a white powdered hair, wore a mint cream long sleeve shirt with a sky blue tie and raven black formal pants. He carefully examined the paper.

" So let me get this straight. Ichitaro went missing in the middle of the cemetery, whilst trying to figure out the meaning of this message?" a man asked, sitting down on his office desk and reading the piece of paper.

Neji, whose sitting the opposite side of him, nodded and asked :

" But my remaining question is, why?"

" Maybe, he was trying to find out about the past, or maybe it's just a hoax. He'll find out soon, eventually." he said.

" Ryuuken, you don't understand. Ichitaro's gone somewhere. We won't be able to find him and keep him safe. I'm just worried about him___."

He disturbed him just before he stood up and said :

" He'll be fine, trust me."

Neji looked at Ryuuken and realised that he was right. Even though they're both fathers, their friendship grew closer since the triplets were born and Ichitaro's `fraternal` relationship with Uryuu.

Ryuuken looked at him before he calmly stormed out of the room, while fixing his glasses. Neji, then glanced at the ceiling and asked himself : ' Ichitaro, where are you?'

Ryuuken went towards a room where Uryuu was. He saw Orihime talking to her aunt, whilst covered in bandages on her right eye after he walked out from his office. As soon as he reached out towards a room, he opened the door and saw Uryuu, carrying his favourite novel with his hands.

He was wrapped in bandage all over his head and his left eye. Thankfully, his glasses were unharmed, yet he didn't wore them. He leaned against the door and knocked. Uryuu looked at him and asked :

" Father, what are you doing here?"

" Just checking up on you." he answered.

"....."

Uryuu looked away to the window. He was afraid that he might had found a crucial evidence. Then, he saw his father took a chair just to get close to him.

" Dad I___"

Ryuuken stopped him from continuing even further and said :

" There's no need, Uryuu. I know."

Uryuu was shocked and tried to look away, but it was no use. So, he continued :

" I want you to tell me what's going on. Even though our relationship isn't good, at least you could tell me what really happened that afternoon."

Eventually, Uryuu finally said :". Alright, I'll tell you everything. Just promise me that we should keep it as a secret, alright?"

" I will. I promise. " he said.

So, Uryuu told his father everything. Even what really happened that afternoon. He understood his son and started to believe him. However, a mysterious man with bruises on his left eye stood at the doorstep. Not willing to be detect nor let anyone else spying on him, his wicked smirk appeared in his face, knowing very well on where in the spirit world could Ichitaro be.

~~~~~

{ Ichitaro's POV }

Meanwhile at the spirit world...

Ichitaro's deep slumber had gotten the best of him. In his dreams, he was in a world where it's dark, cold and scary. It was nothing, but dead trees and withered grasses and flowers. Not even a single sunlight, just clouds marching all over the sky. Ichitaro looked around although there was no one there.

While lifeless skeletons were also lying around he spotted something or someone, sitting on top of the bigger branches. Even though he saw a person, it doesn't take couple of hours before he could hear arguments. Those arguments grew larger and louder like a stampede.

By the time he looked at the figure sitting in the dead trees, it disappeared from the surface before Ichitaro finally opened his eyes. To his surprise, he saw something a bit odd.

He could see two people arguing over something and Ichitaro was more concerned about it. He could see a middle aged man, with curly brown and no beard, while he could see a woman in her 30s, with a beautiful long blonde hair. They were probably had some sort of a `personal` conflict.

" What is that spirit demon doing her, Himawari?" he asked.

" I didn't know that he could be here. Could I be repeating myself all over again?! " she answered.

" If he's here, then I'll be asking your daughter the same question." he asked.

' Wait a daughter?' Ichitaro though.

" Hey, you leave her out of this!" she shouted.

Ichitaro was still in a house by a cloaked girl, now he had to find that he's been scamming her this whole time. Where on earth could she be? Why are there two people in this house? He got up, but got tripped by a weird-looking fuzzy grey carpet from the couch and hit himself on the coffee table. Thankfully, it did caught up their attention and stopped the argument.

The woman hastily went to Ichitaro and checked on him, which also made a girl with a blue cloak appeared from her bedroom after hearing a bump coming from the living room. The woman noticed that Ichitaro had a small nosebleed, while the man was standing next to the coffee table, folding his arms.

" Iruka, please help. That poor kid is bleeding." she said.

" Okay, fine. But since you're my sister, I'll help. But I want him gone. I don't want anymore trouble." said Iruka before he left.

Himawari looked at Ichitaro and said :

" Don't mind my brother. He can be his typical self, you know. So tell me, what brings you here?"

" Well, I'm actually Ichitaro Kagami and I'm from Karakuda Town____." Just as he was going to finish his story, Iruka quickly went back and asked with a puzzling tone:

" Wait, you're a Kagami? "

" Ummm.... Yeah."

" As in Keitaro's kid?"

" She is my mom so___."

Himawari and Iruka were stunned to the bone. They couldn't even believe who Ichitaro was. Ichitaro was being more and more puzzled when he looked at those two. " What is going on here? " he asked.

" Well, I don't know if anyone had anyone told you this, but.... You have to go back to the human world. It's not safe for you to walk around this place." said Iruka.

" What are you talking about? Am I in danger or something? "

" Yes, you're in danger. If they've find you, I'll be in trouble again., " he continued, " So it's best for you to go back. "

" So that lady can tell me that I should forget about everything?" he asked.

Iruka was shocked about this and asked :

" What lady are you talking about? "

" I don't know. But she said that she was a friend of Mom. She has dark gold hair and blue eyes like mine and___.

However a girl who is the same age as Ichitaro went closer to them to hear any conversation between them. She later asked Ichitaro as if she had knew him for years :

" Ichitaro?"

Ichitaro turned around and saw incredible shocking. He didn't believed what he saw that the girl with a blue cloak, had the same voice. Worst of all, he, emotionless, looked like he had seen a ghost .

" Kumori? "

Excitedly and with a smile on her face, she ran towards him and gave him a warm hug that Ichitaro hated the most. He could see her gorgeous long rose hair with a slight hint of silver streaks. " It's nice seeing you too, Kumori." he said

" Wait, you knew this guy?" asked Iruka.

" Uncle, I had known him since were five." she answered, harshly.

" We didn't know you had a friend." said Himawari, cheerfully., " But isn't he a little bit too old for you? "

" Mom! We're the same age!" she said, as she finally letting him go.

" Well, since Ichitaro is from the world of the living, I might say that ___."

Ichitaro disturbed as he finally said :

" Listen, lady. I have things to do, right now."

" Ichitaro, you're still bleeding. Let mom help you to heal." said Kumori.

" Don't worry, I'm fine." he said. As soon as he was about to tell them something, he senses another spirit energy. And it seems more powerful than a fullbringer. He saw her healing his bleeding nose, yet it heals faster than Orihime's healing techniques. As soon as his nose stopped bleeding, Ichitaro was able to find a way out. Kumori, looked at him and asked :

" Ichitaro, where are you going?"

Ichitaro stopped for a few seconds and said without answering her question:

" I have to do something about it on my own."

" But this is Crystal Soul. It might be more legendary than the Soul society." she said.

" Come on, I have to find a Yamagata heir."

" Why are you saying that?" she asked.

Those words had made him more and more uncomfortable. He didn't want to tell her about Koro's death, some weird looking lady who wanted to silence him and the worst of all, finding out about Koro's diary containing ancient letters. So, he simply said before he was reaching out to the door:

" It's a long story."

" Listen, kid. I know what really happened to him." said Iruka.

Ichitaro once again stopped. " What do you know?"

" I was reading that diary of yours, while you were asleep. I'll let you stay here until things are settled. "

As he stood back and all the way to the window, he saw that there are neither cars, lights, people with cellphones, roads nor any other things that humans have. Just normal people walking around with their horses, which made Ichitaro thought if he wasn't in Karakura.

" What is this place?" he asked.

" It's called the Crystal Soul. Not so fancy, but the Phoenix leader once named that place 450 000 years ago, a little bit older than the Soul society." said Iruka.

Silently, he decided to stay. But, he'll never allow anybody else to know his grave kept secrets. However, since he knew that they'd have magical powers, similar to Ichigo and his friends, he'd may get to know a little bit more about this place and what really happened to the spirit demons.

Ichitaro sat down and reaches his phone. He saw that the network is in balance, so he text his father to tell him that he's okay. He wrote :

<I'm fine, don't worry about me. I'm< p>

at some weird spirit world. So don't go out and send dogs. :-|

Ichi >

Everyone seems to be curious about Ichitaro's phone. They didn't know it even existed until now. " You know you can't just bring random objects from the world of the living." said Himawari.

" Listen, I have to tell my dad about this. I didn't know the bars are at three. Don't worry, I'll never allow anyone sees it, ma'am."

" Oh, you can call me Mrs. Mishima. I'm Himawari, by the way. I'm actually Kumori's mother. And this is my.....big.....brother Iruka Nishimiya." she said as she continuing slapping her brother's right arm with her hand.

" Ouch! That hurts!" he said as he rubs his left arm for `healing` purposes, while poor Kumori was blushing with embarrassment.

" Oh, it's nice knowing you, Mrs Mishima. Is your husband there? " Ichitaro asked, seeing if he wasn't even on an awkward situation between siblings.

" Oh, he's not here. Because he's dead." she answered.

Despite getting to know Kumori's parents, he's pretty bummed to know that her dad isn't here to see this.

" Well, Ichitaro and I are better get going. But I promise that I'll be back back before sunsets. " said Kumori. She got up and grabbed Ichitaro's arm just as he was putting his phone back and went outside.

" Alright, be careful out there." she said confidentially and waving her own daughter.

As soon as they'd gotten out, Kumori asked him something : " Alright, wanna go out somewhere?"

" Well, I do want to get to know more about the Yamagata clan." he answered.

" You know, we can go to the library. It has a lot of information, especially about the Soul society."

" Really?"

" Yeah, let's get going."

Kumori quickly grabbed Ichitaro's hand before they took off. Iruka stand behind an open door, which he knew that his niece forgot to closed the door. Then, he senses a spirit energy, which is someone much stronger than him. When he looked back at the mysterious figure, there was no one there.

" Himawari, I have to go.... Somewhere." he said before he took off.

" Hey, where are you going? Man, what is wrong with him these days." she said when he peeped out of the door and closed it.

Iruka ran to find them. He's worried that something bad is going to happen to Ichitaro or worse. ' Don't worry, I'm coming.' he thought. Meanwhile, the entity's cruel smile appeared at his face before he could follow him.