Ichigo opened his eyes to the sun shining through his eye lids. He slowly opened his eyes as the sun shined brightly in the cloudless sky. His window was wide open letting in a small cool breeze. Just as Ichigo raised his hand to cover his eyes, a sharp pain surged through his body. He glanced down and noticed that his arm was tightly wrapped with bandages. It was then he remembered what happened.
His thoughts went back to the point when he was about to pass out. His vision grew blurry and his sense of hearing was fading away. The only thing he could hear the echoing laugh of the Adjucha as it watched from the skies above. His head turned to the side and it felt like the room began spinning. Just then he heard a noise coming from his closet.
The door quickly slid open and Rukia jumped out chanting a binding spell. Suddenly Ichigo's hands and feet were bound together by an invisible force.
"Hey what's the meaning of this?!" Ichigo shouted at her.
"Calm down. I felt your Reiatsu rising and I thought your hollow was coming out." She simply stated. They exchanged yells back and forth while Kon sat on Ichigo's desk watching. Just then the yelling stopped and Ichigo grew silent.
"Rukia, I want to ask you something." He said. "How are we still alive?" Rukia lowered her arms and looked away. Ichigo stared up at the ceiling wondering what happened.
"Someone saved us that day." She simply said. "I don't know who. Ichigo let me ask you something. Why didn't you use your hollow powers to try and stop him?"
"I did try." He quietly said.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"When I was fighting the Espada, I was talking to my hollow."
"What did he say?" Ichigo turned his head to look out his window.
"He said it wouldn't matter if I used his power. We were going to die." Rukia's eyes widened with shock when he said those words.
"Even Ichigo's hollow wasn't a match for that Espada. Yet that guy defeated him with ease. Who is he?"
Rukia's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of running footsteps. She quickly swung open the closet door and jumped inside, shutting it closed right when Ichigo's little sister Yuzu came in.
"Brother! Brother!" She said trying to catch her breath.
"Slow down Yuzu. What's wrong?" Ichigo said slowly getting out of bed.
"Tatsuki-Chan is here. She says she wants to talk to you." Yuzu said. Ichigo thanked his little sister and then carefully got out of bed. Rukia sat still as Ichigo closed the door behind him. She waited for the sound of his footsteps to fade away. Then she slid open the closet door and quickly jumped out the window.
Rukia landed quietly on the ground and was about to run off when she heard a voice call out to her.
"Where do you think you're going…" Rukia turned around and her eyes widened in shock "…daughter?"
"Hey Tatsuki, how are you?" Ichigo said as he reached the bottom of the stairs. The young lady was sitting on the couch staring out the window. She turned her head and gave him a light smile as she gave a small wave as a form of hello.
"I'm doing good." Tatsuki replied. "What happen to you, Ichigo?" She asked the question though she fully knew why Ichigo had all those injuries. Ichigo hesitated for a second trying to think of an excuse.
"Haha, I was running to the stairs and accidentally tripped down the stairs." She gave him a smile for his efforts in concealing the real reason he was injured. Just then Tatsuki did something completely out of character. She walked up to Ichigo and wrapped her arms around him. Ichigo was taken back by this sudden act.
"Tatsuki? Are you ok?" He quietly asked. She tightened her hold on him for a moment before she let go. She looked down for a second before she raised her head. A bigger smile than before was on her face.
"You didn't know? Today is national hug day. You give everyone you know a hug." Tatsuki said. "I stopped by Orihime's house today and gave her one. She invited me to eat some of her black beans and green olives burger with sugared potatoes with whipped cream on top." The thought of the food brought Tatsuki to stop and stick her tongue out. Ichigo lightly chuckled.
"So you ready to go?" Tatsuki asked.
"Hold on let me get my shoes." Ichigo said. One year ago Tatsuki confronted Ichigo after school. She complained that Ichigo and her never hang out together anymore. So Ichigo came up with the idea that every Sunday both him and Tatsuki would hang out together for the whole. So every Sunday of the week, either Tatsuki would go to Ichigo's house or Ichigo went to Tatsuki's house and then they headed out. After Ichigo grabbed his shoes they were both out the door.
Tatsuki's parents bought her a car about three months ago. She uses it to take Orihime and herself to school, take her and Ichigo out when she came over, and run errands she has to attend to. When they got into the car, Tatsuki turned over the engine and they headed off.
When they arrived at the mall, Tatsuki parked the car and they went inside. The first place they went to was the music store. They walked down the rock music aisle flipping through the CDs. Tatsuki picked up a CD and began reading the list of songs on it, while Ichigo slowly wandered off and looked around at the other areas.
Ichigo then wandered off to the movies section of the store. He flipped through the DVDs in the action/adventure occasionally picking up one of them to read the back cover. Tatsuki had on a pair of headphones listening to samples of songs from a CD.
Just then Ichigo picked up a movie and examined the front cover. He examined the cover of the movie with interest. The cover had a young man holding onto the hand of a beautiful young lady, though he was not looking at her. In his other hand he held a sword much like Zangetsu in Bankai form, except this sword had an intense light blue glow to it. He turned it over and read the description.
"Hemu Nasati stars in this action packed film sure to bring a thrill to all who watch. Inigo (Nasati) has been friends with Taskui all his life. But, just recently Inigo has been leading a secret life he does not want anyone to know about. Taskui confronts Inigo one day telling him she knows about his secret life. Suddenly she is kidnapped by one of his enemies and is forced to save her before it is too late." As Ichigo finished reading the back, Tatsuki jumped up and wrapped her arm around his neck.
"What'cha got there huh, Ichigo?" She said, giving Ichigo a light nuggy.
"Hey that hurts!" He yelled at her. She lightly chuckled while Ichigo gave her a little smile.
"You want to watch this later tonight?" Ichigo asked. Tatsuki nodded and he bought the movie. Tatsuki looked it over and then nodded. Ichigo went to the cashier and paid for the movie. After he paid for the movie, Tatsuki paid for some CDs that she wanted to buy. After they left the store, Ichigo and Tatsuki walked around occasionally going into stores to look at some of the things they have.
"Hey, I have an idea. Let's get our picture taken!" Tatsuki said. Ichigo looked down at her in disbelief. Tatsuki had the biggest smile on her face. Ichigo tried to convince her he didn't want to, but in the end gave up and shook his head in defeat
Tatsuki laughed as she accidentally grabbed a hold of Ichigo's bad arm.
"Owie!" He yelled as she led him into the photo booth. Tatsuki put some change into the machine and told Ichigo to make a funny face. He kept saying not to, until he saw himself on the screen. Tatsuki had already made a funny face waiting for the camera to take it. When he saw what she looked like, he couldn't help but laugh at her. They waited until the camera was ready. Though Ichigo didn't want to go in at first when it came time for the pictures to be taken, he also made a funny face.
After the last picture was taken, they stepped outside laughing their gut off. When the pictures finally printed, Tatsuki grabbed them out of the tray and looked them over with Ichigo. They started laughing again as they pointed at each other, stating how goofy they looked. After they finished making fun of themselves, Ichigo took the pictures and put them in his pocket.
"Yo Ichigo, you want to get a bite to eat?" Tatsuki asked. Ichigo agreed and they both contemplated on where to go.
"I have an idea. Let's go to that Teriyaki restaurant." Ichigo said.
"Hey that's a good idea. I've always wanted to try that place out." She said in response. So they gathered their bags and went out to Tatsuki's car. They put their bags into her trunk and got into the car. She drove up to the Restaurant and parked the car in the lot.
When they entered the restaurant, the waiter led them to a booth and asked them what they would like to drink. He gave them two menus and went into the kitchen to get their drinks. Meanwhile, they looked at what the restaurant had to offer on the menu. When the waiter returned, he gave them their drinks and they ordered their food. After the waiter wrote it down, they gave him their menus and he walked into the kitchen.
Ichigo took a small sip from his drink as he looked around. The place was a fairly big establishment. It had about 20 tablets seating 4-5 people in each. There were no windows so the place was lighted entirely by lights. It had one big chandelier in the middle to help reflect some of the lights.
Tatsuki was also looking around. She noticed on every wall panel there stood a man in traditional samurai armor guarding an injured dragon from a horde of demons. The unusual thing about the scene is the fact that the samurai had a black sword in his hand. She also noticed the fact that the dragon had the facial expression of a female dragon.
While they looked around the door opened and in walked two faces, strange to see together, but all too familiar. Uryuu pushed up his glasses to keep them from falling off his face. He held the door open as Orihime walked in looking around the place like a little child.
"Wow this place looks cool!" Orihime said. When Uryuu turned his head he caught glimpse of Tatsuki and Ichigo.
"Shit!" He said to himself. Quickly he grabbed Orihime and dragged her to a booth. He sat her down with her back to them as he sat next to her.
"Ow Uryuu, what was that for?" She asked.
"Don't say anything, but Ichigo and Tatsuki are over there." He whispered to her.
"What?" She turned around and got on her knees to look over the booth divider. When she saw the two of them sitting there laughing a big smile crept up on her face. Uryuu quickly pulled her down so they couldn't see her.
"I didn't know Ichigo and Tatsuki were dating! Wow I can't wait to tell her about this tomorrow." Uryuu nearly died at the idea.
"No no. I don't think we should." Uryuu quickly said waving his hand in front of him.
"Why not Uryuu?" She asked.
"Well you see, I'm not really… ready… to tell everyone about this." He nervously said. Orihime looked at him with a blank expression. His face turned completely tomato red.
"This?" She asked.
"I meant… us… dating." He simply said. Orihime then realized what he meant
"Oh ok" Orihime said. She put on the face that resembled an 8 year old determined expression on her face. "I promise not to say anything to Tatsuki about any of this." Uryuu let out a deep sigh as he tried to slow down his beating heart. Just then someone placed a hand on his shoulder which caused him to nearly jump out of his seat.
After he settled down he looked up only to see the waiter standing there.
"Can I get you anything to drink?" He asked as he handed them a menu. After Orihime energetically gave him her order, Uryuu stuttered just to say what type of drink he wanted. After the waiter wrote that down he went into the kitchen to grab their drinks. While the waiter was in the kitchen, Uryuu kept looking over at Ichigo and Tatsuki, who were laughing and talking.
"This is unusual." Uryuu said. "I've never seen Ichigo this happy before." The waiter returned and gave their drinks and took their order. Uryuu decided it was going to too obvious looking over his shoulder like that so he quickly switched to the other side of the table. Orihime was too busy making bubbles in her soda to notice his switch.
Just then the waiter came back out and gave their food to Ichigo and Tatsuki. Both of them broke open their chopsticks and began to eat. Uryuu decided to just leave it alone for now and he would ask him about it later. For now he just wanted to enjoy his date with his new girlfriend.