"Oh my god, we should have stayed in Europe," Ichigo said as a door was slammed behind us. "I mean, what kind of country requires you to be 21 to drink? Blasphemy!"
"I don't know why you are complaining," I said curtly. "You're not the one in the seventeen year old body."
Ichigo looked at me, still clearly pissed that we had been asked to leave the bar. "Yeah, but still, I'm not gonna go in there and drink alone while you sit outside like a dog in a car waiting for their owner."
"Except I'm not your dog and you are certainly not my owner," I growled. Ichigo had this amazing ability to weave small little comments into everyday conversation that picked fun at my size.
He claims he isn't aware of when he does it. He also claims he isn't a lying bastard.
It's not my fault that the mortal body I was given is like this. Personally, I despise it. I didn't ask to look like a teenager with spiky white hair that stood out in any crowd. But this is how I am, so I'll just have to deal with it.
It could be worse, really. Ichigo's hair is a bright shade of orange. He looks like a traffic cone.
"Look, we will just go to Urahara and have him make new passports for you that have you age up a bit," Ichigo said.
"But Ichigo, it's easy for you to have an ID saying you are 22. You look 22. Me? I look 17. You really want to go through all this trouble just so we can drink?"
"Um, yes," Ichigo said seriously. He started walking down the sidewalk we were currently loitering on and headed to our nearby hotel. "If I have to be stuck in this body, I will indulge in the few great things humans have figured out. No one, and I mean no one, does liquor like earth."
He was right, of course, but I wasn't going down without a fight.
"Besides," Ichigo said as we continued to stroll along in the night air. "You're gonna need it. We're going to Vegas."
"Vegas?" I asked. "Why Vegas? Please don't tell me it's just for partying."
Ichigo shrugged. "I just feel like going to Vegas. The rest are just perks."
Along with his incredible ability to remind me of my less than ideal height, Ichigo had another talent that made him unique. This power had no name, for I'm not sure it was not actually a power, but was closer to just sheer intuition. Whatever the case, the usefulness of this instinct could not be denied. He had realized that if he simply followed his mind's every whim and fantasy that he was eventually lucky enough to be in just the right place at the right time. I entertain him because he has an incredibly good track record.
The morning Ichigo and I had discovered each other, he had woken up from his hotel room in uptown Kyoto with an irregularly strong desire to stroll among plum trees. This lead him to the public park where I often found myself taking my morning walk.
A few months later, he succeeded again. We were in London when he walked into a random candy store in a random mall. The owner of the store was a man currently known as Kisuke Urahara.
We know him as Benihime, the keeper of intelligence.
For our limit knowledge, Urahara was the first Lightbringer to find and reunite with their pair. When I asked how he had found Yoruichi, he simply shrugged and said that he had just known. One look at her as she was strolling down the hallways in a public airport and he had been positive that she was the other half of his soul.
This made perfect sense to me. When I had first seen Ichigo, walking along with his ginger hair, I had known instantly that he was...different. That he was like myself.
So as soon as we had reached the privacy of our hotel suite, I decided to entertain Ichigo and call up Urahara.
"Morning, Toshiro," the voice said with a small chuckle. "Or should I say, good evening. You are, what, eight hours behind me now? How's America and more importantly what are you doing up at this hour?"
"Ichigo wanted to explore the bars."
"Of course he did," Urahara said with another laugh. "Now why are you calling? I doubt it's to retell a thrilling night of drinks and girls."
"See, that's the thing," I said simply. "America requires you to be 21 to legally drink and Ichigo has a... a feeling that we need to be in Las Vegas. Do you know anyone here that can give me an idea to age me up a bit?"
"You and your baby face," Urahara said, ignoring my growl. "Yeah, yeah I do. I'll contact them later today when they will be awake. You should have it within two days. Just don't leave Philadelphia until then."
"Excellent," I said. "Well, I'll be going now. Text me any information, you know I hate talking on the phone."
"Sound good. Goodbye Toshiro." Urahara said as he ended the call.
I looked over to Ichigo who was sprawled on one of the two queen beds in our hotel room. He was busy on his phone.
"I called Urahara. He said it should only be a day or two."
"Good," Ichigo said, finally removing his eyes from the small white screen. "I'm telling you Toshiro. We need to go to Vegas. Everything is drawing me there."
"At this point, I don't care who we find as long as we try and reunite more of us," Toshiro said. "We can't still be spread across a planet with six billion people when Aizen decides to attack again."
"Don't worry," Ichigo's voice had grown serious. "We will find them. We will find her. We will find her before he does."
"I... I just don't understand," I said as I began to kick off my shoes in frustration. "Why her? Of all of us? Why does he seem to want her?"
In the last battle, just outside the atmosphere of Earth, Aizen had used all his strength and willpower to try and capture my partner, the keeper of fire and the sun. Each day we were apart was another day I remained in agony, praying that I would locate her well before Aizen or his minions.
"You've heard my theories," Ichigo said with a sigh. "They haven't changed."
I ran my fingers through my thick white hair. "I just... I just can't let him get to Tobiume."
"Toshiro!" Ichigo quickly yelled. "Remember the rules."
"Sorry, it slipped. It doesn't help that we don't have any mortal names to go by."
"I know. It happens. Now I'm going to bed and you probably should too," Ichigo said as he shut off the lamp that was resting on the nightstand next to the bed.
Instead of further narrating the night, which consisted of myself barely sleeping as I tossed and turned with anxiety, I will take this opportunity to explain the three rules my people must follow when existing around mortals.
The first rule is simple. Never show them your powers. As a divine being, all of us had strength, endurance and agility far beyond those of humans. We could speak with animals. Individually, we all had abilities significant to the attribute of balance we governed over. Under no circumstance were these powers to be displayed in the presence of a human.
The second rule was to never draw attention to the fact that we couldn't eat. We could drink, oh could we drink, but physical substance in the form of food was not something we indulged in. Food made us sluggish and slow, hindering our reflexes. We drew our energy from the stars that had been used to create us. That was enough. Contrary to popular belief, this rule was perhaps the hardest of all to follow. A significant amount of human culture centered around meals, dining and cooking. It took cunning to convince those around you into realizing that you did not, in fact, eat the lasagna you had been served as fast as they believed you did.
Besides, have you seen lasagna? It's a pile of red and brown meat chunks. Award-winning or not, I'll pass.
The third rule was to never, and I mean never, reveal your true name. There is a reason we manifested with individuals identities.
The downside is no one else knew any of the other Lightbringers names. If we had, that would have they would simply be a Google away.
So until then, that leaves Ichigo and I to wander the earth in desperate hopes of finding someone, anyone just like ourselves. The only problem is they were just as good at blending into humanity as ourselves.
Of the eight months I have been stuck in this accursed body, it was only after Ichigo found me four months ago that I've actually managed to temporarily forget the sheer, utter, loneliness that has plagued my mind since this transformation.
Another of Ichigo's talents is distraction. He learned early that brooding over a situation we couldn't change was utterly utterly pointless. Instead,, he decided that if he was going to have to live as a human, then goddammit he was going to fucking live. When we weren't traveling randomly around the world, Ichigo made sure that life was filled with the best distractions humans had produced: alcohol, women and this wonderful service known as Netflix.
Of the many complaints I have regarding my mortal exterior, my level of attractiveness is not one of them. Everywhere Ichigo and I go, we encounter numerous women who find our looks mesmerizing.
Ichigo says we make women swoon. And boy, do they swoon.
Women and liquor were a good way to pass the time, but at the end of night Ichigo and I always returned to the same thought and the same desire. We needed to find our other Lightbringers before Aizen did.
More specifically, we needed to find Tobiume before Aizen.
For as long as I could remember, Tobiume had been there with me. I was cold, she was warmth. We spent little time together in the heavens of Seireitei, both of us busy with managing our respective attributes of balance, but whenever I saw her, my day was instantly perfect.
It troubled me far greater than I would ever let on to Ichigo that Aizen had selected soft-spoken Tobiume as his main target. Neither of us could figure out why she was needed. Why did he want the keeper of the summer when he could be going after the keeper of war or the keeper of suffering? Wouldn't those be more up his alley of expertise?
It were these thoughts that motivated Ichigo and I too keep searching relentlessly. Distractions only worked for an hour or so. At the end of the day, we would not be complete until we were reunited with our partners once again.
