Notes: An alternating point of view between Yuzu and Karin. Ichigo dies. ^^"
I love spring. It's the most beautiful season of the year, where flowers bloom and everyone's in a good mood. Spring is like a breath of fresh air after the cold, unforgiving winter and I think everyone's glad that this winter has finished, especially Ichi-nii.
Speaking of Ichi-nii…
He never did get around to telling us, really, where he disappeared to for the whole month of December. 'tou-san, Karin, and I were really worried when he was gone, and Rukia-chan disappeared too. But, 'tou-san said not to worry or miss him. Ichi-nii was a big boy and could take care of himself. I missed him anyway.
I thanked the gods when Ichi-nii came home. He smiled (for the first time I could remember in so long) and apologized. He was sorry he hadn't called, urgent things had come up, he said, and Rukia-chan had been adopted by her brother-in-law and wouldn't be staying with us anymore. In fact, it was all because of Ichi-nii that Rukia-chan had found and been adopted into her rich brother-in-law's family. Ichi-nii is so kind.
Lately, though, Ichi-nii has been in some of the worst moods since he disappeared that one time for a month. When he came home from school today I had all his favorite foods laid out on a table and 'tou-san and Karin were behaving their very best (well, the best for 'tou-san isn't that great, but he tried!). Ichi-nii didn't even look up from the floor when he entered. A murmured greeting and some excuse for why he wouldn't be eating dinner tonight. Again. It's been the fourth night in a row and, in a typical Ichi-nii fashion, he's always too late in the morning for Karin and me to make sure he has breakfast. I wonder if he eats lunch well to make up for the other two meals, but something tells me that's not the case. Is something wrong, Ichi-nii?
We're worried, Ichi-nii. He slipped quietly (when did Ichi-nii start being quiet?) into his room and 'tou-san and I pressed cups against the door, desperately hoping that Ichi-nii's problems would be revealed. Karin watched apprehensively and I saw her fingers twitching as if she were considering joining us at the door. She shifted from foot to foot, instead, alternately watching us at the door (as if wondering why Ichi-nii hasn't crashed through, demanding a teenage boy's privacy) and looking out to the front. I know my sister, though, and right then she wanted to be outside.
"Go on, Karin," I smiled, and waved her out. "We can have dinner later with Ichi-nii, if – no, when he's feeling better."
She frowned, contemplating what I'd said, then nodded to herself a few times. "Yeah, thanks Yuzu, I'm going out front," she called, already out the door with a soccer ball. I turned back to 'tou-san, his lip was quivering and eyes watering.
"My sweet daughter Yuzu has matured into such a responsible young girl!" he cried, crushing me in a bear hug. "Let's watch TV together, Yuzu! Karin and Ichigo may have left me, but I still have you!"
So I joined 'tou-san and we watched TV. 'tou-san is so silly. He laughs and shouts and cries, all in the space of two minutes. He talks to a poster of 'kaa-san that a wall of our house is dedicated to – and I mean he really talks to it, not just tries to embarrass us by talking to it. 'tou-san still misses 'kaa-san, a lot, I think. He really does need us. Us, I said, so that includes Ichi-nii too, no matter what 'tou-san says.
Ah. The two-hour special that 'tou-san and I were watching has finally finished. Maybe now Ichi-nii will want dinner?
"'tou-san, you go call Ichi-nii, I'll get Karin to come inside," I instructed my father, running outside to call Karin.
…
I had decided: Kurosaki Ichigo would not be leaving the house today, shinigami duties or not. It would be different from yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, and the day before, because today, I was using brute force as I deemed necessary. Will you be staying inside today, aniki? Or would you like a soccer ball in the face, aniki? Hmmm?
Aha! Caught him red-handed climbing out the window! He thought after two hours that I would maybe give up my post, did he? THINK AGAIN, Ichi-nii. Yeah, still here. I grinned, pulling my leg back to deliver the kick of a life time.
"I have to go, Karin." And my smile slowly disappeared. When did Ichigo, my brother Ichigo, start sounding so drained? It's like he didn't even have the strength to yell down to me.
"Y-you can't," I stumbled a little over the words and cringed at how pathetic it sounds. "Ichi-nii, you can't go!"
"Don't worry," Ichigo smiled a tight smile that barely stretched over his wan face. I'm really starting to dislike it now when he smiles. "I'll be back soon, Karin."
"No!" I yelled, stamping my foot on the ground. "You're not well! Please, Ichi-nii…"
His head suddenly twisted to the side as he hears something. Somberly, he turned and I feel like something's broken inside of him as he speaks again to me. "Go inside, Karin. Don't come out again." With those parting instructions, he suddenly disappeared, gone too fast for me to see.
My eyes stayed glued to the spot where my brother had disappeared from. Why hadn't I stopped him?
"Karin, are you alright?"
No, Yuzu. Our brother just disappeared. I'm scared. Worried. Anxious for our brother's return. I nodded to her anyways.
"We're going to have dinner now, okay? 'tou-san's calling Ichi-nii."
"I don't think Ichi-nii's feeling very good, Yuzu," I managed to say, hoping my voice hadn't shook too badly. "He mentioned something about a stomach bug earlier. Maybe you should just leave some food in the fridge. You and 'tou-san and me can just have dinner ourselves."
"Oh. Okay." My poor younger sister looked crestfallen. We were about to step inside when she noticed something. Pulling me back outside, she pointed to Ichi-nii's window. "Karin, Ichi-nii left his window open!" she exclaimed, a teensy bit disapproving. Only a teensy bit, though. I knew that on the inside she was thinking, It feels a little like a return to old times. Ichi-nii can be so irresponsible.
"Y-yeah, we'll tell him to close it later," I said, forcing a smile.
Before slipping into bed with Yuzu for the night, I had to check. I knocked several times on his door, but no one answered. I'm sure he was just asleep. I'm sure. So, I just went on to bed. "Good night, Ichi-nii. Sleep well."
…
Another bright morning! As always, 'tou-san was up ages ago, pouncing on Karin to wake us up. We'd started breakfast already, but Ichi-nii still hasn't come down. I noticed Karin give 'tou-san a worried look out of the corner of my eye, but he shrugged, making motions that signaled not to say anything in front of me. What were they hiding? Excusing myself from the table quickly, I bolted up the stairs towards Ichi-nii's room.
"Yuzu, wait - !" I heard Karin call, but I was already at Ichi-nii's door.
"Ichi-nii, you sleepy-head! Wake up! It's already time for breakfast!" Something worried me, and I hadn't ever gone into Ichi-nii's room without permission, but there had to be something wrong. And so I went in.
Ichi-nii was lying on top of the covers of his bed, fully dressed. Phew. No problem. It looked as though everything was alright. Silly me.
I walked up to the edge of his bed, tugged on his hand. "Ichi-nii, silly, we've got breakfast ready downstairs! Everyone's waiting… for…" His eyes were unfocused and unblinking, staring vacantly at the ceiling. When I suddenly let go of his hand, it dropped lifelessly back to his side. I waved a hand in front of his face, frantically, and received no reaction. "Ichi-nii! WAKE UP! Please…" That settled it for me. My brother… he would never - couldn't ever ignore me, not when I was screaming, begging for him to speak.
I kept on screaming his name anyway.
…
It's raining on the day of Ichi-nii's funeral. It seems fitting. I can cry all I want and Ichi-nii will never be able to see it if he's looking down on us. Since 'kaa-san's death I'd only cried once, and hadn't it broken Ichi-nii's heart to see that? The rain is fitting.
More people had come to his funeral than we could've expected. We'd never really known Ichi-nii's friends, but it seems impossible that our curmudgeonly brother could have befriended this many people. Standing by Yuzu and Dad at the very front of the procession, I watch as a minister says sad words of how depressing it was to see the bloom of youth cut off by an unexpected heart attack, place a handful of dirt over my brother's coffin, and mutely follow my father to greet all the other black-clad mourners.
"Isshin-san!" At the back of the crowd, standing next to Ichi-nii's friends Inoue Orihime, Ishida Uryuu, and Yasutora Sado, stand a couple, the only people not dressed in black. The one who had called 'tou-san is a strange man with a striped bucket hat and wooden sandals. "Isshin-san!" he called again.
The rest of the congregation turns to glare disapprovingly at the messily-dressed man and 'tou-san suddenly stops looking sad and starts looking - angry. He strides over to the man with quick, violent steps.
"Isshin-san, I can't begin to tell you how sorr – " the man begins to say, but 'tou-san has grabbed him by the front of his robes and lifted him into the air, violently shaking the man.
"'tou-san!" Yuzu cries, and is about to run up to 'tou-san, but something in me stops her, and I grab her arm, holding her back.
"Why? Can you answer that, Urahara? With that giant brain of yours, tell me why my son died!" 'tou-san yells. His voice cracks, but he compensates for that with a few extra shakes.
"Isshin-san." The dark-skinned lady with long purple hair that stands next to the man now identified as Urahara, has placed a hand delicately on 'tou-san's shoulder and though the woman is slender and at least a foot smaller than 'tou-san, she's obviously issuing a warning.
"It's alright, Yoruichi," Urahara says calmly. He places his hands over 'tou-san's. "Isshin-san…"
"Whose fault is it?" 'tou-san demands, but he's no longer yelling. He's sobbing now, and he lets the man down, dropping to his knees at Urahara's feet. "Who's the reason my son is dead?"
"Isshin-san, it's nobody's fault," Urahara answers sadly as I finally let go of Yuzu and she runs to hug 'tou-san. "Your son was just the kind of boy who didn't mind dying to protect the people he loved."
I tear my eyes away from the scene painfully and notice that a glowing sliding door has materialized out of nowhere and no one has noticed. Ah, of course. Streaming out of the doors as they open, are shinigami, too many of them to count. A familiar white head bobs out of the masses, approaching me.
"Hey," Hitsugaya Toushirou greets me, impassive and detached as always. "Do you mind?"
It took me a little while to understand what he was asking. Did I mind what? If he and the other robed shinigami passed through? If they invaded and took over our world? If they danced on my brother's grave, those idiots who couldn't protect Ichi-nii, one of their own? Turning around, I'm about to say no to whatever plea he was making, but stop when I see what the other shinigami were doing.
One by one, each robed person stopped by my brother's freshly-made grave, whispered a few words, bowed their head, and passed, unseen by the human mourners, allowing the next person their five seconds with Ichi-nii. They were paying respects. There were many faces, and I counted nine faces sporting white haoris over the uniform black robes. The tenth white haori stands behind me, awaiting permission.
"N-no, of course not," I mumble, stepping back and letting him pass by me.
I spot Rukia-chan, then, dressed in the same black robes. Rukia-chan, a shinigami too? There are tears flowing freely from her eyes and a man with spiky red hair stands beside her, an arm around her shoulder. Must've been her brother-in-law.
I fumble for something to say to comfort her, but can only bring myself to utter the beginning of a question; the energy to do anything else had left me. "D-did you…?"
She turns to me, teary and in pain. With a dark, mirthless smile she answers me. "Yeah, don't worry… We killed the sick son of a bitch that kil… that took Ichigo away from us." She looks towards the cloudy, raining sky, as if hoping to see Ichi-nii there. "Y'know… we miss him, too."
"Yeah. Yeah, I know," I breathe softly, tilting my face to the sky as well. Ichi-nii…
Notes: Yuzu's part is really much smaller than Karin's and I apologize to her for that. Sorry, Yuzu, you'll get your time to shine! NO idea, why the last section is all in present tense. For some reason it just made more sense to me when I wrote it. Ooh, that quote Urahara used to explain to Isshin why Ichigo's dead? I kinda' took inspiration from Isshin telling Ichigo not to blame himself for his mom's death 'cause she was just the type of woman who didn't mind dying for her son, or something to that effect. Did it make anyone cry? That'd be REALLY good. Not that I'm a sadist or anything, but I'd like to know if I'm just hormonal or if this fic actually works.