Disclaimer: This is Fandom Friendly Blind. I try to make sure everything is readily understood by those not familiar with Bleach. If you find something that otherwise feels unexplained, please let me know so that I can fix it.
Chapter 3
Ichigo made his way out of the bus station. It was a cold and murky evening, with various travelers making their way home from work, or making the late shift at work. Ichigo had finished most of his early work already and had half-finished most the essays on his syllabus a few months in advanced.
Burbank was greatly impressed with his workload. The two got along just about as well as he did with his high school teachers, which made him glad the man was his Adviser as well as his teacher. There were still a few things about living in America that he wasn't used to just yet.
One time while he was out at a diner with some classmates, he got especially confused when everyone began counting the bill to calculate the tip. It ended with the entire group being dumbfounded that tipping wasn't a universal concept. The waitress said she was going to move to japan after hearing that they paid their waiters an appropriate wage.
That was an interesting meal, that slowly turned into an uncomfortable outing, especially since afterward the tipping debacle everyone began trying to pronounce 'ohaiyo gozaimas' and laughing as each of them failed horribly. He ignored it and found an opportune time to just get and up and go home.
As Ichigo makes his way up to his apartment, he makes an effort to check his mail first. Sure enough, Orihime had left him a letter. Lots of endless paragraphs with no parsing. Even if she was a straight A student, she sure was a spaz when it came to personal letters. Condensing the madness it boiled down to 'everything is fine' and 'we all miss you'. He got some relief hearing about Chad starting full time work at the construction company he would temp at, but confusion as to why. Was he happy his friend was making his own way in life or was it more that his friend would be spending less time fighting Hollows as a result? Did he care more about his friend's safety because of this lifestyle change? Perhaps what he really was relieved about was that his friends might need him to come lend a hand.
That was a fool's wish. Ichigo still hadn't gotten back any of his powers and there was no way he'd even be able to help if they did need him to come back.
As Ichigo collected his thoughts and read over Orihime's letter, Malcom walked over and got his mail across from Ichigo. Malcom was his neighbor who would occasionally greet him from time to time. They didn't know much about one another, but he was polite overall.
He looked over at Ichigo and gave a bit of an uncomfortable leer his way. "Do you have to stand so close? You're in my personal space"
Ichigo apologized a few times before backing away and leaving. Spacing was another issue Ichigo was dealing with over here in the states. Everyone was so boisterous and aggressive that one would think they'd all be in each other's faces, but it was quite the opposite. Everyone seemed to stand more than two feet apart from one another as they chat. So very different than in Japan. There, everyone was comfortable with being near everyone else, even if they didn't express their feelings as much as they do here.
Conclusion: Sorry this is a lot shorter than the last chapter, I woke up at noon-time and barely could get any work done. Still trying to parse how this story is going to go, but hopefully this is ok. 1/3 of 1k per chapter, but hopefully I improve as the story progresses. Maybe by chapter 10 I'll be getting 2k a day :P