Does Man Make the Monster?

Things We Remember

(A/N So this like a little side story. It was supposed to a chapter on its own but I couldn't find the right place to put this. So I just decided to turn this into a side story instead. Is it relevant to the actually story? Yes. Yes, it is. Do you have to read it to understand things later on? It wouldn't hurt. It wouldn't hurt at all as these are flashback mostly of different things. Might be a good idea to read this. For placement purposes I would put this story right before Amon, Akane, and the others have their critical meeting about the Horned Phoenix.)

SOUNDS/sounds

Thoughts

Akane sat in her therapist's office like she had several times before for various different things. The blinds were slightly open, casting bars of light onto her from behind. The room was heavily decorated with bright colors and inspirational pictures. There were plenty of books on the shelves and odd little nick-knacks accompanying them.

"Good morning, Hayashi, how, uh… How have you been?" the therapist asked, picking up his clipboard and a pen.

She pointed sarcastically at her damaged left arm that hung securely in a light blue sling. That was clearly a stupid question. He let out a long sigh.

"I suppose that was little bit of an unnecessary question. Mind telling me how you hurt your arm?"

"I-I… I faced down one of those new—creatures. A devil. During our fight he grabbed me and tossed me about the ground like some cheap ragdoll."

"And what was the damage done, might I ask?"

"I'm going to be out of work again for a long while. He tore my rotator cuff completely and a few other things. I can barely move my arm and it hurts like hell. Surgery is my near future and chances are I won't be a field agent anymore. Surgery's only about 2 days from now."

"That is horrible indeed. Tell me… If you can't work in the field would that bother you?"

"Yes, of course. During that fight—that devil took Tsume away from me. That was Ichigo's quinque. More than anything I want to get it back! I want to do it personally! I want to make sure that bastard suffers for everything he's done to me!"

She grabbed her shoulder and lightly squeezed it. She prayed that after the surgery and a bunch of physical therapy that maybe, just maybe, she could return to active duty and slice that bastard's head clean off his shoulders. The therapist sat quietly writing down the information.

"I know I can't ask too much about this devil but how did this thing come off to you?"

"What do you mean…?"

"Well, I mean what are your actual thoughts of him? How do you feel about this new devil personally?"

"How do I feel about him? I hate him passionately, I know that much. And if I see him again I'm going to kill him. As far as the actual fight and the interaction between us… It's an odd mix. He tried to talk his way out of the fight at first but when I finally started to become a threat he fought back. He put up a fight, even with the sedative I put in his body but there was no killing intent in him unlike fighting a ghoul. He even told he didn't want to fight me because I'm a woman."

"Wow that's… Huh. He seemed to have some moral code. That is rather peculiar. No ghoul that I've heard of has shown that before," the therapist mused, rubbing his chin. "With them it's just 'you're trying to kill, I'm going to kill you' attitude. Ghouls don't care if you are a man or a woman."

"I know. That thing is certainly no ghoul that's for sure. Now, I'm not supposed to say this to anyone so keep your trap shut. I mean it," she warned and the therapist put down his pen. "Before he stole Tsume from me he had this… Strange power he manifested and it formed a nearly invisible giant sword. What I managed to make out of this manifestation was that… This sword looked almost identical to Tsume. It was thinner and had a curve to it. Tsume is wide and straight edged. Both, however, were the same length and had serrated tips. The parallels are a little unnerving."

"Now that is odd. Did that bother you to see something like that?"

"The hell it did! I felt like he was mocking…" Akane clinched her teeth tightly and balled up a fist in her good hand. "He was either mocking Tsume or it was a strange coincident. I don't know which but I didn't like it!"

"Anything else about him that bothered you in the fight?"

"One point he seemed incompetent. It put me in some sort of maneuver where he was on his back and he had me suspended above him using his legs," she growled. "He got that far and then just stopped. He told that he didn't think that idea all the way through. It was awkward to be honest."

"That's… He just held you up in the air and just—blanked out?"

"Yeah, I was a little confused and aggravated. He wasn't putting me down so I did the only thing I could think of. I spit straight into his eye. He kicked me up and over him and I landed hard onto my back. I'm in brace for that too under my clothes."

"He certainly did a number on you," he said, looking worried for her.

"There was also this strange…" she paused. She remembered that the energy blast that she had seen was top secret and she couldn't tell anyone. "Sorry, I can't disclose that part. I've already said too much on the other thing."

"Oh, it's fine. I understand," he said, jotting down some more notes. "Anything else?"

"Well there was something that bothered me more than anything," she said, reaching up and touched her forehead and clicked her tongue. "When we were both pretty much at our limits he broke off the bottom half of his mask. He held me down, leaned in close to me and… That son of a bitch kissed on my forehead! Actually kissed me!"

The therapist looked at her like she had two heads. He shook his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose. She sat in the overstuffed chair, looking like she wanted to maul something, like an enraged cat.

"He… He kissed you?" the therapist did a slow blink.

"Right here! His mouth was cover in blood to boot," she pointed right at the spot. "I feel violated just remembering that. It wasn't even that long and he even apologized right before he did it! I don't understand this monster!"

The therapist noticed how fluster she had become. Her face was almost the same shade as her hair. Perhaps a slight changed of subject was in order.

"So you said you were using Kurosaki's quinque that night? I know that must have hurt you deeply to have it stolen from you."

She looked at him with an aggravated look. Clearly he wanted a change of subject. She sighed.

"Yeah… A lot more than I can express with words. I wanted… I guess I still wanted him to be by my side. I figured the closest feeling to that was to use Tsume," she said, looking back at the light gray carpet. She rubbed her eye. "I keep feeling like I'm being robbed of everything dear to me. I lost my eye, my partner, his quinque, and now my ability to fight. Everything has just hit me all at once. I can't seem to get anywhere lately. I take one step forward and get knocked back by four."

"How do you think you are coping with everything that's happened?"

"I'm not. I'm angry. Very angry," she sniffed a little and rubbed her eye again. "There was nothing I could do to stop what happened. It's everything… I'm just mad at this world right now. I feel like this world is wrong somehow."

"Wrong in what way?"

"I don't know… Just that… There's this nagging that… I really don't know how to explain it. It's just this odd sensation I have at the back of mind."

"Does this have to do with Kurosaki?"

"Partly I guess… Something is wrong… That's all I can say. I don't know what and don't know why I feel this way. I feel like something is happening behind a smoke screen. Everything is blurred and unclear even though it's happening right before me."

"Like something sort of deception?"

"I'm not sure if th-that's it or not. I just… C-can we change subjects again?" she sighed and rubbed her nose.

She started cry a little bit more. The therapist nodded and started to shuffle some papers around on his clipboard.

"Of course we can. You remember your last assignment I gave you? I wanted you come up with some of your best memories of you partner. Something that meant a lot to you. Things that you can go back to and have comfort in."

She sniffed again and drew in a shaking breath.

"I-I have a couple actually. We'd only been working about half a year at the time. I begged and begged him to show me how to use Tsume. Finally one day he just caved in."

"Like this, Ichigo?" she had Tsume in her hands with Ichigo standing right behind her actually doing the holding of the large quinque.

"Fix your stance a little, Akane."

She adjusted her feet to match his.

"Is this better?"

"I think so. I'm going to let go now. Tsume weights a lot more than you think. So brace for it."

"He can't be that damn heav—EEEE!"

KLUUUNK!

Akane accompanied the large quinque to the floor. Ichigo stood still, with his arms crossed, and his head shaking.

"How do you use this thing?" she asked, getting back her feet and shook her strained arms. "Ow, my hands are burning."

Ichigo made it look so easy when he used the large quinque. It was like the hulking brut of a quinque was just an extension of his arms. To him it seemed to be super lightweight. He could even lift it with one arm in tight pinches. Ichigo was always really good with large kokaku quinque. He had a natural ability to wield them.

"I warned you. Tsume isn't something to joke around with," Ichigo said, bending over and picked it up like there was hardly anything to it. "I'm accustomed to large quinque. Tsume is especially dense compared to a lot of others."

"Like you?" she mocked under her breath.

"I heard that… It's a kokaku base so it's going to be heavy from the start," Ichigo pointed out, looking at his quinque. "The ghoul I got this from was a real problem. He made a large name for himself as an investigator killer. I would have been investigator number 9 that month if it wasn't for some sheer dumb luck. He thought I was out cold and stood directly over me. I saw a flaw in his armor and exploited it. Once I got my old broken quinque into his vitals he was fairly easy to bring down. As gratitude the CCG fashioned him into Tsume."

"He was your first real big target, wasn't he?" Akane asked, walking over to a chair in the corner and sat down.

"High profile, yeah… It was the only time I was slated to work with Mado. Clearly, you can see how well that went," Ichigo sighed, leaning Tsume up against the wall. "That was the only time we were partnered. 'Bull' was supposed to have been his next big conquest at the time and he wanted that kagune like it was made of gold. You can only imagine his anger when this upstart punk managed to do the job better than him and got his trophy. We were going to try one more mission together but… I knew when I wasn't wanted."

"So you showed him up and he got major butt hurt, huh? Sounds like him. He has to like you to give you gratitude," she said, leaning back in her seat. "He doesn't just 'like' people. He likes people he can mold or those that have actually earned their merit. Nothing against you, but you have this unnatural talent and I don't think he likes that. He sees it as dumb luck and that luck might just run out."

"Thanks…" he snorted.

"Hey, now. I said not to take it the wrong way."

"Didn't say I was…"

"Ichigo, you're good. No one is going to deny that… But I have heard some nasty things about you."

"I've heard them too. My senior officer before you… He made it clear that I wasn't too popular. He even called me a 'thunder stealer' and a 'glory hog' among others things just like that old corpse does. Right before he retired, he assigned me to you and I just…"

"Just of what?"

"I just started to notice that I had dug myself a hole. I realized that I got ahead of myself and as it stands right now… It will take me a long time to move up the ladder. I was due for several promotions early on but because of my actions, my co-works stabbed me in the back to keep me where they thought I should be."

"Do you think you deserved those higher rankings?"

"Looking back on everything… No, not really. They would be more of an award than a reward."

"What do you mean? I'm confused."

"I mean that… Both are good things, right? You get an award as a reward for hard work. But what I am saying is that… The awards, my promotions, would only have been things; just empty trophies with nothing to show for it. I really didn't earn those promotions like those before me. It's like the equivalent of someone just handing you a trophy for no good reason and there is no personal reward for it. In other words, I guess you could say I was cheating to an extent. I was called out for it and now… I have actually been told that I won't be up for a promotion for a while. I basically shot myself in the foot. I'm not making any sense, am I?"

She sighed and lean back more in her chair.

"You are, in your own weird way. Those promotions wouldn't have given you self-gratification. Like you said… Just empty trophies. Nice things to have but there's no meaning behind them. I started to do that once myself but I realized what I was doing. I actually declined a promotion because I didn't feel like it should have been mine. Another coworker had done more than me but I was the one with the promotion offer. He got angry and started to spread some nasty things about me. I realized what was happening and why. When I was interviewed some of those rumors came up in conversation. Well, in the end I told them flat out that I didn't want the promotion. I dropped my coworker's name instead and told the board that he was a better candidate."

"Why would you do that? If anyone was cheating it was him by starting those lies."

"We were both at fault, Ichigo. I was stealing his credits and he was destroying my name because of it. I figured something had to give. So I gave him back his credits, putting him where he should have been; up for that promotion."

"So what happened after that?"

"I got you."

Ichigo just stared at her, his face in an expression of shock. A moment later his cheeks turned a slight pink and he looked away from her. She chuckled a little.

"Perhaps, the higher-ups decided we would be a good match for each other. We've been doing good these last few months since we first met. So far I haven't had any issues while working with you."

"I guess…"

"You guess?!" her tone was threatening.

"Well, uh…! What I mean is that… I-I…" he choked. He let out a defeated sigh. "I don't have anything…"

"Clearly. But do you have any real problems with me? Be honest."

"Other than little things… I have no real issues with you. I've been shuffled around so much since I started work here. You've been the first person I've actually stayed with for any length of time. I've either asked for a new senior officer or I was reassigned to a new one without warning."

"Soooo… Do you like working with me?"

"I gues—" Ichigo got a death glare. "I mean, yes! Yes, I really enjoy working with you! You're the greatest person ever!"

"No need to ham it up, you idiot," she grumbled, getting up to her feet and walked over to him. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders, hooking his neck in the crook of her arm. "I'm just glad you're not an ungrateful child."

"I am a very grateful child, Mommy Dearest," he grinned at her.

Akane sighed trying to force a smile. The therapist said nothing as he wrote in his notes.

"Although it wasn't much of a conversation it was the first time we had opened up to each other. We seemed have had similar objectives at one point in our past. I guess that was something we used to help bond with each other."

"I see. So that was a bit of a turning point for the both of you as a team. No doubt you used that as a stepping stone."

"It was more like the corner stone. We built on that from there. We ended up doing things outside the office like really good friends. We had parties together, took lunch with each other, or just hung out on our days off."

"Oh? Do have an example of that?"

It didn't take her long to come up with one. It was one of her favorites.

"Yeah, but that one's a little… Embarrassing…"

The therapist raised an eyebrow as she realized how she worded. She harden her expression at him.

"Nothing like that happened, thank you! It was my birthday when this happened."

Ichigo walked into Akane's office with a thin object in his fingers. She had her eyes glued to the computer and didn't notice him walk in. He stood in front of her desk as she continued to type away.

"Ahem," he said as she turned her head to look up at him.

"What?" she asked, going back to her computer.

"'What?' Seriously, I have something for you," he said as she looked at him again.

"Really?" she asked as he held out a pink envelope.

"Here. I don't want to hear you bitch at me again," he grumbled as she took the offered object

"So, you did remember…" she said, opening the envelope and pulled out a birthday card. "And here I thought we'd forgotten again like last year."

"No, I learned my lesson. I feared for my life last year," Ichigo grumbled, rubbing the back of neck as she opened the card and read it. "Since we have tomorrow night off I figured I'd take you out to dinner."

"To dinner? Well, now… I wasn't expecting that," she said, looking up over her card at him. "Do I get to pick?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's your birthday present," Ichigo answered noticing an odd glint her eyes as she set the card down on her desk. "Where do you have in mind?"

"Oh, I've got just the place. It'll be great," she smiled and Ichigo suddenly felt uneasy.

000000000000000000

Ichigo sighed as he slid into a booth with Akane opposite him. The place was packed with people given that it was a Saturday. There were several multi-colored lights moving around in the dark in the large space and the atmosphere was… Well, it was loud. Ichigo looked towards the front of restaurant and cringed. There was a stage with a man trying to sing something. Trying and failing miserably.

"So you drag me out to a karaoke bar?" Ichigo groaned, looking up at the man bellow out noise into the mic.

"I thought it would be fun. My dad would bring me to one every year growing up," she said, happily looking at her menu. "He used to sing a song for me."

"I don't sing," Ichigo said sternly.

"Not even for my birthday?" she gave him set of puppy dog eyes.

"I grew up with two little sisters, I am immune to those eyes," Ichigo stated and she flopped back into her seat. "I would only sound slightly better than that billy-goat up there."

"Oh, only slightly…?" she mused, going back to her menu. "Then why don't you prove it."

"Not happening. Not ever," Ichigo said, looking at his own menu. "I don't like that sort of attention where I look like a fool."

"Look, if that 'billy-goat,' as you put it, can swallow his pride and sing…"

"No means no. He's also drunk."

"It's my birthday."

"I'm buying you dinner, isn't that enough?"

"You know if you don't go up on that stage, I'll order the most expensive thing on here."

Ichigo just glared at her.

"Order away."

She snorted and crossed her arms as he just turned back to his menu.

"Pouting won't help either. Nor will begging."

"You really won't, huh?" she sighed in defeat.

"I really won't. I'm not stopping you, however. If want to go up and sing, be my guest."

"You are such a soil-sport!"

They finally ordered and Akane did request the most expensive item as promised. Ichigo wasn't showing any signs of giving in no matter how much she poked and prodded him. She was going to order a couple of drinks to see if maybe she could get him a little bit drunk. She learned that Ichigo didn't drink and hadn't since his academy days. So that plan was useless.

They had pretty much finished eating their dinner. Akane ended up angry at him. She failed at every attempt to get him to sing. She let out a sigh as she listened to someone that could actually sing. The woman sounded great compared to some of the others that night. Maybe she should try her hand at it before they left. Clearly Ichigo wasn't going to. She wanted something more out of this trip other than dinner.

"Does it really mean that much to you?" Ichigo sighed as she turned to face him.

"You… You mean it?" her eyes brightened as she watched him get out of his seat. "You'll actually get up there and sing?"

"Yeah, but I'm picking the song," he said, looking down at her.

"That's fine. I don't mind," she said as he turned and started to walk towards the stage.

She sat a little impatiently as the line slowly started to empty. She had no idea what song he had in mind. Hopefully, it wasn't something embarrassing to her. She started to realize he might only be doing this as a way to get back at her. A sense of dread struck her as she saw him standing off the stage talking to the DJ. She bit her bottom lip anxiously as he started up the stairs and stood in front of the mic. She shrunk down her seat as he adjusted the stand to his height.

"So… Huh… I-I was forced into this by a certain birthday girl. Hayashi Akane, I hope you know I'm going to sing this just as bad as I possibly can. So everyone else I do apologize, nothing against you."

She slammed her hands over her bright red face. He even called her out. What had she done? People started laughing at his comment and the music started to play. The song wasn't even a good one she realized as she listened to the intro. He started singing just as bad as he promised. People started to cheer and laughing at him. She almost slid under the table, hoping to vanish. Seriously, what had she done?

About a quarter of the way through the song the DJ cut the music. She peeked out from between her fingers. He was looking dead at her with a nasty looking grin on his face. Now what was he going to do to her? She felt highly uneasy at the sudden pause.

"Didn't like that, did you?" he half pointed at her and she closed the gap in her fingers. "I can't guaranty how good this will come out but, uh, I'm actually going to try this time."

There was a touch of silence in the large room as the DJ switched to the next song. Her anxiety started to go through the roof at this point. What did he have planned this time? He cleared his throat as the intro came on. He then drew in a deep breath.

"When the niiight has cooome, and the land is daaark, and the moooon—is the onlyy light we'll see, nooo I won't—be afraid, oooh I-I-I won't be afraaid, just as long—as you stand, staaand by me. So darling, darling staaand—by me, o-o-oh sta-and—by me, oooh stand, stand by me, stand by me…"

She cracked open her fingers again to look up at him. It was certainly a far cry from the previous song but he really wasn't great by any means. He wasn't lying about that but he was actually trying. She kept her hands planted firmly over her still bright red face. She felt bad about forcing him up there.

Then of course there was the song choice. What a song to pick. Why this one? She soon started to realize that she was beginning to cry. His English wasn't the greatest thing ever but he was doing it all while singing no less. She had to give him credit where credit was due. He continued until the very end. He got a pretty good applause most likely because he gave his reasoning for singing and people got behind him.

He thanked everyone and the DJ for playing along. He walked off the stage and back over to her. Akane still had her face hidden behind her hands. He sat back down across from her and waited to see if she was going to say anything to him.

"Well? Are you happy now?" he asked as she nodded her head behind her hands. "I couldn't have embarrassed you that much."

"I-it's not that… I just…" she quietly choked out.

Ichigo leaned in closer, noticing a strange tone to her voice. He reached a crossed the table and put his hands gently around her wrists.

"Hey, what's wrong, Akane?" he asked.

"It's nothing. I'm fine."

"That's a giant lie. What's going on?"

She still didn't answer and he groaned. Something was wrong clearly.

"Are you crying?"

"N-no. Don't be stupid."

"Then why are you keeping your face covered?"

"M-my face is cold."

Ichigo just looked at her oddly. That was the worst lie he had heard in a long time.

"You're crying. I didn't mean to make you that upset," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I was just… I didn't mean to hurt your feelings like that. I'm sorry."

"I'm… I'm not crying because of that, dummy…" Akane finally pulled her hands from her red face. "It's just why did you… Pick that song?"

"It's just an old favorite of mine. My parents would play it on their anniversary. And I just struck me to sing that. I mean we're partners and we always have each other's back," Ichigo said, putting on a smile. "We'll always stand by each other, right? Even when we annoy and get angry with each other we stick together. We always work out our issues, never letting them consume us. So I just figured it was a good fit for everything."

"I broke down crying even more after that. For the next two years he made it a bit of a tradition to sing me that on my birthday but not at the karaoke bar or in front of others."

"So you two really did care for each other? By chance did that friendship—blossom into anything?" he had a sly look on his face.

"G-goodness, no! We were friends, nothing more! When Ichigo makes friends he's very invested in them," Akane's cheeks turned a striking pink. "Th-that's just who he is. Was… He was very caring and would help out anyone that asked. He just had this strange drive to help and protect others, especially those closest to him. I admired him for that. I often wished I could be like that as I can be very selfish and self-centered at times. I guess the reason we worked so well together was because we balanced each other out."

"You were counter weights for each other?"

"Yeah, I suppose so and I doubt I'll have another partner like him. A once in a life time meeting."

She looked at the floor again noticing how much the sun had moved the thin bars of light from behind her. The therapist sighed and set down his notes.

"Before we wrap this up. Are still having nightmares?" he asked and she nodded. "Can you tell me about them?"

"O-oh… Well, like most of the time they're just strange variations of Ichigo and the bridge. Like usual but since that Aogiri Tree Raid… I can't get that devil out of my head. I've started to incorporate him into those dreams. Sometimes I see him push Ichigo off the bridge. Sometimes I see both of them drop off together. It's just weird. I don't have those every night but they stick with me. I don't know why I incorporated that devil into that dream. A couple of times even Incognito was involved. I don't know why they would be there."

The therapist rubbed his chin a little.

"I'm not trying to be rude or possibly even mean… But by some strange chance do you find some sort of similarities between your partner and those two?"

"Absolutely not! I just think that they were just bad times for me and I just mixed them into one horrible collective dream," she huffed, trying to cross her arm but quickly realized she couldn't. "Ow! I don't see any similarities between any of them!"

The therapist was glued to the back of his seat with a look of fear on his face. Wrong question to ask. He straightened his neck tie and cleared his throat.

"I-I do apologize. It's about the end of our session do you have anything to add before you leave?"

"Not really," she said shaking her head.

"Well, then, I hope your arm gets better and that the surgery goes well. When you think you can make it back here go on ahead and set up a new appointment," he got up to his feet and opened the door for her. "Please take care of yourself."

She sighed and got up to her feet. She walked out of the room into a large waiting room. She saw Amon reading a magazine not far from the door.

"Oh, hello," she said, walking up to him as he looked up at her. "You're here too, I see."

"Yeah… Everyone comes here at some point whether we like it or not," Amon sighed. "I just came to get some things off my chest more than anything."

"You do know we have a meeting in just over an hour, right?" Akane said as Amon got to his feet. "They want us to be there early if possible."

"Yes, I know… I need to go. I'll see you in a little while," he gently pushed past her and walked up to the therapist she just saw.

She waved at him slightly as he ducked into the room and the door was shut. She adjusted her arm in the sling again and started towards the doors. She might as well head over. They were going to question her about what happened with her and the devil now they got all their ducks in row.

"This is not going to be pleasant," she said, pushing the doors open and walked out.

Amon took the same seat Akane had prior as the therapist dug through his files and pulled out Amon's record. He changed the papers around before finding his own seat.

"So I hear you have a meeting coming up. I won't keep you too long then. So just tell me what's troubling you today. It's been a little while. You haven't been by since…" he looked at his notes. "Kusaba Ippe passed. I know you were involved in the recent Aogiri Tree Raid, is that why you're here?"

"No… I mean I was involved but I'm not really here because of that. I… My senior officer insisted I come. I don't like coming here. No offence."

"There's nothing wrong with visiting a mental healthcare provider. I've seen more macho types come in bawling their eyes out," the therapist half smiled. "Even if it's just to get something off your chest… What happens in here stays with me."

"I'm still not fond…" Amon said, rubbing the back of his neck. He was still sore from the other night.

"Well, how about we just put your biggest issues out on the table and examine it from there."

Amon drew in a deep breath and hung his head.

"Someone really close to me died a little while back and I guess it's been eating at me more than I thought," Amon said, feeing uneasy. "I'd rather not be here."

"Why not try? Who was this person you lost? Were they a coworker like Kusaba, a family member, or maybe a friend of yours?"

"Coworker and friend. We were also classmates… And at one point bitter rivals. God, I hated him back in my academy days."

"But you managed to become good friends, huh? How did that come about?"

Amon was still very uncomfortable about talking about this. He knew mental medicine helped some people but he didn't feel it would do him much good. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

"To make a long story short… We both went with a group of classmates to go bar hopping. We got drunk and we had a bad fist fight. He won of course. Somehow the school officials were notified about our fight and it didn't end well. Our punishment was to learn to get along with each other. So they partnered us up for the rest of that school year. If we didn't learn to work together expulsion was in our future. We had to do all our classwork together, our training together, school functions together, and so on. We couldn't go anywhere on campus without the other. But over those months we did learn more about each other and that we weren't so opposite after all. We ended up pushing and challenging each for all the right reasons later on."

"So then, you very close?"

"Yeah… Despite me being at the top of my class, Valedictorian, somehow he just shot up through the ranks. He made it to Rank 1 well before I did. He did catch a lot of heat for it too and was told that he wouldn't be up for anymore promotions for a long time. He seemed okay with it. I think he just wanted to see how far he could make it."

"He sounds like a character."

"He was. I remember one time when we were first paired off we were ordered to organize and examine the school's training equipment. Simple job but tedious. We needed to make sure everything was accounted for, working properly, and so on. It was one of our punishments. It was an interesting time to put it mildly."

"Stop slacking off, Pumpkin Head!

"Get off my back, Mr. Eyebrows!"

Ichigo was sitting on the polished wood floor with a drink at his side while Amon ran around the equipment room with a clipboard in hand. Amon was about at his wits end at this point. They had been working for a little less than a month and nothing was working to make them "get along."

"Stop sitting there and help me catalogue all this stuff. We have to handed these papers in when we're done," Amon snapped, hurrying over to Ichigo. "Get up off your ass and start working!"

"I don't feel like it…" Ichigo snorted.

"Don't you dare start that crap with me," Amon yelled, reaching down and slung Ichigo's clipboard at his head.

Ichigo dodged to the right and the clipboard met the light green cinderblock wall behind him. A corner broke off from the impact.

"Breaking school equipment, you should be highly ashamed," Ichigo replied with thick sarcasm.

Ichigo grabbed his soda and went to take a sip when Amon kicked the soda can out of his hand. The can's sticky sweet contents got all over Ichigo and the floor around him.

"You really want to go?" Ichigo jumped up and pushed Amon. "Please, I'm just itching to take you down again."

"Back out of my face, Kurosaki," Amon pushed back. "Just get your act in gear and help me like you're supposed to."

Ichigo stepped back and jerked his clipboard off the floor. He looked at the broken corner in plastic clipboard. Amon really threw it at him with the intent to hurt. Ichigo had never known anyone to butt heads with him this hard with before. Even the school bullies back home never crawled under his skin this much. He found the pen a little ways away and picked it up. He'd have to clean up that soda before he left.

He picked up where he had left off and started checking all of the cases for damage, misplacement, or mislabeling. These were training quinque. They were like a real quinque but the material wasn't as good as the ones used in the field. They were a little more prone to breaking and a damaged quinque was never safe. If they found one that was damaged they had to catalogue it, tag it, and report which student last used it. There still was a magnitude to go through given that it was the end of the day. Classes were closing down but they were stuck in some back room serving out part of their punishment.

They didn't say anything for a little while. They just inspected the weapons for issues no matter how minor they were. The man in charge of the Quinque storage came in to check on them every so often to make sure they were doing their work and not fighting with each other. They put up a front while the supervisor was there. Once he left they both went back to throwing nasty comments at each other.

"Glory hog…" Amon muttered under his breath.

"Excuse me? What was that?" Ichigo asked, closing a case.

"Glory hog," Amon turned to say it to him directly.

Ichigo just glared at him before turning and walked away to work on cases farther away from Amon. They remained quiet for a few minutes more.

"Teacher's pet…" Ichigon whispered.

"What?" Amon inquired with a nasty look on his face.

"Teacher's pet…" Ichigo hissed out. "If I'm a glory hog then your butt kissing teacher's pet."

Amon slammed his clipboard down on a shelf and rushed up to Ichigo again. He grabbed Ichigo by the front of his school uniform and slammed him hard into the wall behind him. Ichigo hit the wall pretty hard, knocking the wind out of him.

"Don't you even dare start that bullshit with me," Amon snapped with venom. "You're the reason we're here to begin with!"

"It takes two to tango, need I remind you. You're just as guilty as me in that regard," Ichigo said, getting back to his feet. "I still think you're bitter about me beating you that night."

Amon went for a swing when Ichigo grabbed Amon's fist. Ichigo came in with a hard right. Amon stumbled back and rubbed his abused chin.

"Don't even. I've got the advantage over you," Ichigo warned, bending over to picked up clipboard again and the pen. "Get that through your thick skull."

"Why because this nothing cop managed to take down a ghoul all on his own just to show up seasoned invest—"

SMAAAACK!

Ichigo landed the hardest hit Amon had ever received from him but it was nothing but a slap. It felt like this skin was cut open and it was burning like fire. Amon put a hand to his cheek and he did find a small amount of blood.

"Do you think I like the fanfare I receive? I'll tell you right now to your face, I don't! I don't like it because people always expect something else amazing from me or they are like you, angry that I have a smidgen of experience over them. Well I don't," Ichigo bulked up to Amon a little more. "I did what I thought was right at the time. I got my hands dirty and saved the lives of three men. I didn't do that for the attention or the glory I did it because it was the right thing to do!"

"Oh, because you were a police officer? You were there to protect and serve, was that it?" Amon bit back.

"You're just looking for an excuse to fight," Ichigo brushed past him and shook his head. "I'll stay on this side of the room and you can back over there where you were."

"Then why did you decided to become an investigator right after, huh?"

"It sounded good, okay? Better pay and perks. But you know what I found out? I found that I was more pressured into doing this than I first realized. I became a local celebrity and everyone had high hopes for me, even the three investigators. They suggested I come here and learn the trade. People in my hometown often asked me if was going to the academy to learn. Little by little I was pushed here! I didn't realize I was pressured until well after the fact. Well, guess what? I'm here now and I'm not backing out of it. I'm invested too much now to just back out."

"You expect me to believe it was peer pressure that brought you here? Don't joking around. You wanted more than just your 15 minutes of fame!"

"I don't give a rat's ass about fame and glory. I'm just telling you the truth! If I could just drop everything and go back home I would. I'd love to see my father and sisters again and spend my days with them rather than being cooped up in some dark room with a headstrong idiot! Now I'd like to get this shit over and done with so I can go back to my apartment and not see your ugly mug for a few hours!"

Ichigo said nothing more as he pulled a case off the shelf and started to get to work again. Amon stared at him for a moment before walking off to where he was. He quietly started to work on his half again. He rubbed his swollen cheek and glared at Ichigo again. Amon still didn't believe that. Ichigo was just there for the attention. He had to be.

Amon let out a long breath and leaned back in the chair. The therapist wrote down a few more notes before looking back up again.

"So you two really had a great distain for each other?"

"Yeah… We… We just weren't hitting on anything but each other."

"So did you believe what he told you about being pressured into the academy?"

"I didn't believe him. I just thought he was trying to justify things. A week or so passed and I noticed he didn't show up for one of his classes with me. I thought he was playing hooky. It was a free period after that class so I went looking for him around campus. I found him sitting in front of one of the administrative offices signing some papers."

Amon almost growled as he spotted Ichigo sitting down in a chair outside the administrative offices. He quickly marched over and stood right in front of his"partner". Ichigo looked at him casually before going back to the form he was filling out.

"Where were you today?" Amon hissed.

"Right here. I'm making your dreams coming true," he held up the front of the form and point at the form title. "I'm withdrawing from the academy so you can be a free bird again. We won't have to share the same air anymore."

Amon just stared at him in total surprise as he watched Ichigo sign and date on lines. Pumpkin Head was actually withdrawing? That thought sounded great. He wouldn't have to deal with that moron anymore.

"Want me to help you to pack?" Amon asked with sarcasm.

"I think you'd help me into my grave if wasn't illegal," Ichigo groaned, flipping to the last page. "I just need to finish signing this, collect my belongings here on the school grounds, and you won't see me ever again."

Ichigo finished with the last of his signing and stood up. He pushed Amon out of the way as he started towards the office door. Amon was actually surprised that Ichigo was indeed withdrawing from the academy. It felt good to know he wouldn't have to deal with that pompous bastard anymore.

Ichigo opened the door and walked in. Amon followed a little ways behind. He watched as Ichigo handed over the papers to the woman at the desk. She started to go over them to make sure everything was signed correctly.

"I'm sorry to see you leave us, Kurosaki. It says here that your reason for leaving is due to loss of interest and harassment. Who's harassing you?"

"I'd rather not say," Ichigo gave Amon a sideway glance. "It's a bitter dispute more than actual harassment."

"I see. Well, let me make some copies and while I'm doing that sign these last two papers," she handed him two more pieces of paper, before walking towards the back to make the copies.

Ichigo glanced at the last of the papers and started to put his name down. Amon finally realized that Ichigo was actually going through with it. He was actually fixing to drop everything here and go back home. Ichigo just got to last page when it was jerked out from under his pen.

"Seriously?! Don't you know when to quit?!" Ichigo hissed, reaching for the paper but Amon kept it out of reach. "Amon, give that back! Right now!"

"No, you listen to me, Kurosaki! You can't just quit!"

"You do realize I can easily get another copy, right?"

"That's not… Look, you can't just quit this academy."

"Uh, yes I can and I am." Ichigo gave him a sarcastic grin.

"Then I… I won't let you."

Ichigo just stared at him and Amon just felt awkward.

"Are you serious? We don't even like each other. Why keep me around? I'm poison to you."

"I-I… I don't think you should quit. You said you were invested so… Stay invested and…"

The woman walked back up and handed Ichigo his copies of the form.

"Are you finished?" she asked.

"Can I have another copy of that second page—Hey!" Ichigo's papers were pulled from his fingers. "Amon, you damn bastard! Stop fooling around!"

"Young man, what are you doing?" the woman asked in shock, looking at Amon.

"Listen to me, Kurosaki. You can't just give up like this. Don't be stupid! You're already half way through so why give up now?!"

"Because I want to. I was pressured into coming to this school. I… I just want to go back home, going back to being a simple police officer, and… Why do you even care?"

Amon paused and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Why did he care? Kurosaki was going to be out of his hair for good so why stop him? He needed to come up with the right words before Ichigo finished the last of his papers.

"Because…" was all that came out of his mouth. That was more than awkward.

"Second sheet please," Ichigo turned back to the secretary behind the desk.

She handed him another sheet and that too was jerked away.

"Stop playing around!" Ichigo snapped.

"I can't just let you quit! I've seen you in class and practice. You're tenacious in everything that you do," Amon grabbed Ichigo by the shoulders and gave him a light shake. "I can't accept the fact that you'd just give up so suddenly! You said you were too invested and I want you to remain invested, damn it! Yes, we butt heads because our personalities don't match but that's not an excuse to just cut and run. Stick it out to the end. I don't see you as the type to just give up. I don't want you to give up for any reason."

Ichigo just stared at him with a shocked, almost horrified look. Was he actually serious about all this? Did Amon really want him stay? Ichigo felt rather uneasy and pushed Amon back.

"Why are asking me to stay?" Ichigo asked, taking an uneasy step back.

"Because of you I push myself harder so that I can beat you and I think you do the same with me. We may hate each other but we need each other to keep pushing our limits," Amon added as Ichigo looked even more shocked than before. "Don't leave. We were forced to work together in hopes that we could learn to deal with each other. We don't have to like each other we just need to respect each other."

Ichigo did a slow blink and looked at the secretary as she looked between the two young men. Ichigo sighed and turned to her.

"Shred it," Ichigo ordered. "Shred the forms."

She looked at him oddly as she grabbed the original and the copy. She bent down under her desk and fed them into a shredder at her feet. When she stood up she saw both men stare each other down. She could see some tension building between them.

"Happy now?" Ichigo bit out. "I'm staying. You must be a real sucker for pain."

"I just don't believe in quitting that's all," Amon bit back, grabbing the front of Ichigo's shirt. "I have every intention of making sure you stick through this, got it?! I hate quitters more than anything!"

Ichigo pushed Amon back and straightened out his shirt. He let out a hard sigh and turned back towards the secretary.

"I'll need my uniforms back, too, please," he said and she nodded.

"I'll go fetch that for you," she answered, turning on her toes and started towards one of the rooms in the back.

Ichigo turned to face Amon again. The two glared at each other for a quiet moment.

"Thank you…" Amon coughed out, turning his head to avoid looking at Ichigo.

"Don't expect any more favors from me, Mr. Eyebrows."

"I don't expect much of anything from you, Pumpkin Head."

Amon let out a long sigh and leaned back into the soft seat. He rubbed the bridge of his nose as the therapist went about writing down that bit of information. The room was quite for a moment or two.

"After graduation he confessed to me that the day he was going to withdraw… That entire thing was a sham. He had no intentions of leaving and the secretary was in on the whole thing. He just wanted to see if I cared at all. He knew I wouldn't let him only because I hate seeing people give up. Honestly, he played me but he did it for good reasons."

"So, is that where you two started to get along?"

"No. Not even close. I didn't comprehend what he was doing and I made the divide greater than what it was. I didn't have time for quitters and cowards and that's what I labeled him as. We finished out the school year still arguing and fighting with each other if not worse than before. It was usually over little petty things just because we could. We were constantly trying to outdo each other. We pushed ourselves to be better and stronger. We were every bit rivals and yet we were all the better for it. Even when that school year was over and we could go our separate ways we still couldn't let the other alone. We just had to keep digging the bur in deeper."

"What an odd way to build a friendship. I take it that your bond was that much stronger for it."

"Yeah… I'm not sure exactly when we stopped bickering but I know it was just around graduation. I remember I was in the running for valedictorian along with several others that year. I was sure he was in the running as well. So I constantly pushed harder and harder. I was so happy when I found out I was top of the class and was almost sure he was dead behind me. He wasn't… He came in 6th. He still earned quite a few honors and awards but… I was so sure he was right behind me. He made it just below the top five."

Amon paused and the therapist waited. A small smile cut the investigator's face as listened to the scratching of the therapist's pen.

"After what we went through we would have done anything for each other. He's the reason I honed my craft in wielding kokaku based quinque. He thought he'd be a smart ass and do what he wanted. The instructors be damned. He grabbed a kokaku quinque on purpose and of course refused to put it up. Rumor had it that he used kokaku based quinque when he saved those 3 investigators in his hometown. Nobody believed that. So the instructor said that if Ichigo could beat him with that quinque he could continue to use it in class every day."

"H-how did that go over? Poorly I would imagine."

"Well, he was the only in the entry level class allowed to use a kokaku. And the kokaku he used to fight the teacher we found out was actually grossly off balance and shouldn't have been accessible to a student."

The therapist just sort of stared at Amon as if asking, "did I hear that right?" The therapist shook his and cleared his throat.

"Tell me something, Amon, this whole time you've been here and as much as you've talk about your friend you, have yet to drop a name," the therapist said, adjust the file on his lap. "I'm just going out on limb here but this friend of yours… Might he be Kurosaki Ichigo?"

"Yeah…" Amon breathed, turning to look at the floor.

"Now why wouldn't you just come out and say who he was?"

"I don't know… I'm mad at him still, I suppose. He just… He didn't seem the type. I never knew anything to get to him. He had a great deal of patience and tolerance with things that I just could never hope to have. When Mado called me to tell what he had just witnessed… I just broke down in the office. I can't even imagine how Hayashi felt when she physically saw it happen. Mado told me he had to restrain her or she would have jumped in after him. I know he would have done the same, holding me back. I would have jumped after him as well."

"Do you feel that it if was you there, that you could have made a difference?"

"I don't know anyone what wouldn't. I have thought about it. His own partner was there and it didn't seem to help, so I don't know if I would have made a difference or not. Would have, could have, should have… It happened and nothing can change the past."

"This is true. The past is set in stone whether we like it to be or not. How much has this whole thing affected you?"

Amon shrugged.

"I lost a good rival and even better friend… It hurts. It hurts a lot."

There was a long break of silence between both men.

"Well… It's about time for you to leave as it is," the therapist said, looking at his watch. "Do you have anything else you'd like to share? It can be anything you want."

"I've said enough. I do need to be there early," Amon said, getting to his feet.

"Yes, of course," the therapist got to his feet and opened the door. "If you'd like you can make another appointment if you think you need it. We can go over coping skills and—"

"I was just here to talk. That's all. Just had to get some things off my chest…" Amon said, standing in the door way. "That was more than enough for now."

"Sometimes that's all a person needs is just an ear that will listen and a voice that won't judge," the therapist said. "Nothing more. I hope everything works out for you, Amon. If you ever need to stop by again please don't hesitate."

"Thank you," Amon said, turning and walked away.

Amon lightly shut the door and walked back into the waiting room. He walked across the space and stepped outside, taking in a deep breath. He had that meeting to get to about that devil. This was going to a hellishly long meeting to be sure and there was no telling just what was going to be uncovered in the meeting hopefully they would figure something out and soon.

(A/N There is where I'm ended that. So yeah this was supposed to have been a chapter but I just couldn't find anywhere to place it. It had been written for quite some time ago and I just never got it to fit into the regular continuity. I hope you all enjoyed this!"

Millie M. Banshee