"Tell them." His whisper screamed urgency.
"I…I…I can't. I'm sorry," She looked down at her hands, away from the pleading of his deep ochre eyes.
He stood and grabbed her shoulders and shook her, trying to convey his message.
"Please. Tell them," he caught her eyes, saw the conflict behind them.
"I'm sorry!" She begged, "But I can't."
She shook her head, and directed her gaze back to the floor.
"Tell them, or I'll leave. I will walk away from us, this town, everything. I can't do this anymore." He wanted her to tell them. He wanted her to stop him. He wanted her to want him, need him.
"I can't tell them! You know that! You don't deserve to be held back by someone who can't openly return your feelings. I love you, but I don't deserve you. I can't tell them. I'm so sorry."
"You don't want me?" It hurt to hear what she was implying. It felt like his heart had stopped.
"You should go."
He'd run out into the rain before she'd finished. He felt so defeated, so lost, so hurt, so angry. He held back the tears.
He was quickly soaked through, wearing just a t-shirt and jeans, and just his phone, keys and wallet in his pocket.
He ran in no particular direction, until he stopped in front of the very place that would give him what he needed now. He walked through the automatic doors, made his purchase.
And with that, Ichigo Kurosaki boarded the train, and fled Karakura Town.
He sighed. He had never meant to return to Karakura Town, after leaving all those years ago, when he was just eighteen. Now he was back, albeit seven long years later.
He was twenty-five now. Ichigo remembered himself as an eighteen year old. Back then, he was the boy who'd fight one of his best friends, Renji Abarai, over anything, but they'd always pull through for each other, the boy who could never beat Tatsuki Arisawa in a Karate match, the boy who told Orihime Inoue countless times her infatuation was one-sided. He was the one who succeeded in getting her to see Uryuu Ishida as more than the guy who liked to sew. He was the one who had promised Yasutora Sado, the man he'd nicknamed Chad that he'd always have his back. He was the one who left it all behind and headed off that fateful night to Tokyo.
He reflected for a moment, while he waited for his train to pull into Karakura. He realised he had not seen or heard from any of his old friends for many years. Some tried to maintain contact in the months that followed his departure, but that slowly dwindled. He wondered what they were up to nowadays.
There was only one reason for his return now. He tried to focus on that, as the train guard announced that the train was now approaching its last stop, Karakura Town. The guard bade everyone a pleasant onward journey.
Ichigo sighed. He waited for the train doors to open and stepped onto the little platform that was his gateway back to his hometown.
No-one was here to greet him, to welcome him back. He had anticipated as much, seeing as he had told no-one of his plans to return, not even his own father or twin sisters, Yuzu and Karin.
He had missed Karakura, but he felt no rush of nostalgia as he took in his surroundings. He felt hollow.
He hailed a cab, and gave the driver the address of his new home on the opposite side of Karakura to where he'd grown up – away from his family home, his old neighbourhood, his old school.
Not twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped outside a block of apartments. Ichigo paid his fare and took his things up to the top floor, the penthouse suite. His new home.
It was a new build, the walls were all white and the floors laminate. To some it might have appeared cold, but Ichigo liked it. It reminded Ichigo of him - blank and empty. He dropped the last of his things onto the floor and looked around.
Wow, he thought to himself, Yourichi didn't do a bad job with the place.
Yourichi Shihoin was Ichigo's editor. The only person he'd allow to read his work before it was published. In the seven years away from home, he'd published 3 books, under the pen name Getsuga Tenshou. They formed part of a series, and although he told no-one, the characters where very similar to the people he had encountered in Karakura. The only person he'd really encountered in Tokyo was Yourichi – he wasn't very sociable anymore.
He lived for his black motorbike – now sitting in his garage – which he had named Getsuga Tenshou when he'd bought it at 19. Although his stories were captivating and eloquently written, coming up with names was something he struggled with, hence why he'd taken the name of his bike on as his pen name.
He opened the fridge and cupboards and saw that they were barely stocked, except for a few canned items and noodles. He sighed. He had wanted to get acquainted with his little apartment, but now it looked like he had to go to the store first.
He pulled on his hoody, covered his hair with the hood. He didn't want to see anyone from his past, and his most distinguishing feature was his naturally orange hair. He grabbed his keys, wallet and phone and headed out.
He only vaguely recollected this part of Karakura – it wasn't an area he frequented as a child. Still it didn't mean his old friends wouldn't live here now. Just in case, he mused to himself.
Soon he was outside a shop he recognised. In Karakura, there was a small chain of stores called Urahara Shoten. They stocked anything you could think of, and some things you didn't want to think of. Outside, with its little wooden sign and windows, you would have thought the shop to have been small. But on the inside it was a different story.
It was bright inside and Ichigo wandered the aisles, throwing things into the little green basket he'd picked up on entering the store. He came to the cereal aisle. He stood there, in front of the many colourful boxes, deciding which cereal to have, when all of a sudden something smacked into the back of his legs.
"Ow! What the fu-" Ichigo exclaimed aloud.
He turned to see a child of around five pushing a trolley full of groceries. A pretty little girl, with orange-red hair and blue eyes framed with glasses. She was dressed in a pink t-shirt and yellow dungarees.
"Ayame," a female voice exclaimed from the opposite direction to where the little girl stood, "Watch where you're going! I'm so sorry sir…she likes to run with the trolley…"
Ichigo turned and faced the direction of the female voice and was glad he decided to wear his hood to conceal his hair and face. He nodded to the woman in recognition of her apology and took off swiftly.
He didn't wander the shop for much longer, for fear of the woman seeing who he was. He paid for his goods and left the store, deep in thought.
Today would not have been a good day if Orihime Inoue had recognised him.
