Afire Love (Bleach: Ichiruki)

XXVII

that following evening

"You WHAT?!" Mayuri Kurotsuchi screamed in anger.

Kisuke Urahara placed his hands in front of him in defense, laughing nervously.

"I swear, Kisuke Urahara, I will KILL you for messing with my equipment without my permission!!" Mayuri screamed in his face.

"Hey now! It was my Department first, and I was the one who created it!" Urahara said in defense, still laughing nervously.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT, I WILL E-

-shut up. I'll kill ya both." Zaraki stepped in, crossing his arms in annoyance.

Mayuri's eyebrow twitched. "Zaraki you-"

-shut up." Tōshiro muttered as he walked by them.

Urahara tiptoed away from the scene as Mayuri's and Zaraki's heads snapped to Tōshiro.

"Hello! Let's get started!" Kyōraku called out. All the Captains and a few Lieutenants stood outside the door in which Rukia was stored in.

Mayuri rolled his eyes, walking up to the door and unlocking it with his tongue print. The iron doors creaked open, revealing a complex control center in the middle of the large, circular room.

There were three huge tubes of liquid in front of the control center, Rukia's body in the center tube.

Ichigo's eyes widened at the sight of her as they walked in. She had cut her hair, and her expression looked rather peaceful.

Ichigo's mind was still cluttered from everything Urahara had told him in the past few hours.

He (Urahara) had created a weapon that could totally eliminate a soul from existence. And like the hogyuko, he hid this weapon in Rukia's soul.

And Rukia's soul is in Ichigo's body right now.

Urahara told Ichigo that he would have to extract the weapon from within Rukia's soul. Since Rukia's soul combined with Ichigo's to create one huge soul with immense power, the process of removing the weapon would be more painful and risky.

Risky in that if anything went wrong, the weapon could be triggered and Rukia's and Ichigo's souls would be eliminated from existence in mere seconds.

Urahara told Ichigo that they would have to paralyze his body from head to toe, so Ichigo would feel no physical pain. A huge needle, filled with the key to finding the weapon, with kidō cast on it would be thrust into Ichigo's heart, piercing the veil to his soul.

And that's when Ichigo would feel the spiritual pain.

Once the drug to find the weapon and extract it from Rukia's soul would be found, Urahara would have to thrust his hand within Ichigo's chest and remove it with his own hand.

That would be the most painful part.

Zaraki had even offered to take out the weapon himself, since he was thrilled at the idea of sticking his hand in Ichigo's chest.

Ichigo stood in front of Rukia's paralyzed body. She looked peaceful, frozen within Mayuri's paralyzing liquid. He even slightly questioned wether Yhwach was in there.

But of course he was.

"She's a sight for sore eyes, isn't she?" Jūshirō snuck up on Ichigo, causing Ichigo to jump in alarm.

"I uh yeah.. Yeah. She is." Ichigo said.

"Kurosaki! Come over here so I can strap you down!" Urahara called from a few feet away.