"Inoue Orihime."
"Hai Sensei!"
"Ishida Uryu."
"Hai."
"Kurosaki Ichigo."
The room is silent. No one looks around for the red-headed boy anymore. No one whispers, asking where he went. No one expects him to come back. The only sounds are heard at the back of the room - are the sighs of Orihime and Keigo Asano.
Orihime replays the same video in her mind. He fought so bravely. She sees his long hair as he gives the final blow to Aizen, the evil man who introduced them to everything they loved in a world they couldn't have. And in return he was betrayed by his own inner self; betrayed by his own zanpakuto. Tears threaten to fall from her gloomy brown eyes. To prevent them from rushing her she shakes her head and looks back up at the teacher who is just finishing attendance.
To her surprise, the class is looking in her direction.
Her good friend Tatsuki Arisawa reaches over and grabs onto Orihime with one hand and puts the other high into the air. "Ms. Ochi, I think that Orihime needs to be brought to the nurse." Without waiting for a response, Tatsuki pulls Orihime from her tiny desk and out the classroom door. Behind them, Ms. Ochi simply waves goodbye, smiling.
Tatsuki wastes no time in apprehending her sobbing friend. As Orihime uses the wall for support, she hears three words that no one bothered to say all this time. "Go find him." Tatsuki is red in the face, enraged at the play that everyone has put on. Orihime gapes in disbelief.
"But I-"
"There is no excuse. For some reason all of you have ignored his absence as if it doesn't matter when clearly it does! I don't exactly know or remember what the hell happened to him, but I can't stand to watch you guys do this anymore. If you don't go, I will." Still, Orihime doesn't answer. She stands, crouched over, clutching her heart as if it would fall out if she were to move.
Giving a disapproving look, Tatsuki walks away and then breaks into a sprint. Why? Why is all of this happening? There is no one to give her an unfavorable look as her clunky school shoes incessantly thump down the hallway. Not a single student makes eye contact as she shoves them aside to get to the door. As if they all know what this break down is leading to, they distance themselves physically and mentally from the intense young woman. Why won't anyone say anything?
She breaks free of the school, passes the outside gates and turns down the street towards the Kurosaki clinic. I told her I'd never let anyone make her cry.
The clinic looks nearly abandoned. The outside is covered in vines and overgrown shrubs as if the entire place has been left to animals.
"ICHIGO!" Tatsuki shouts to an open window on the upstairs floor. A small face peers over the sill and then an arm sticks out in a large wave. In just moments, a not-so-tiny Yuzu has opened the door for Tatsuki and invites her in.
"Where's Ichigo? Tatsuki asks, more calm than she has been in the last five minutes.
Yuzu glances away from Tatsuki to a slender man and needs a moment to recall.
Everything is much too quite in Sereitei. The calls for hollow defense have stagnated, the Gotei 13 have acquired too much staff, and the reparations on their buildings are almost finished. Many just laze around, something that many shinigami have never experienced. Kenpachi sets his eyes on Aia as she rounds a corner with a stack of paperwork. She limps, favoring her left leg which sets her off balance. As she teeters in one direction, Kenpachi comes up behind her and prevents the disaster.
Aia smiles and thanks him, causing Kenpachi's chest to heave slightly. The foreign response triggers an unexpected response in him, and for once he responds with "You're welcome."
It seems that the whole world has stopped to stare at a dysfunctional Kenpachi Zaraki. Passersby have either ceased to continue their chores or have woken from a sleepy daze just to get a glimpse of something refreshing and to many; ridiculous.
Kenpachi's puffs out his chest, an action that says he's about to yell. Instead, Aia lays a hand on the open part of his robe and he recoils, not expecting the heat of her tiny hand. "Don't yell. Just help." She pushes her full hand towards his gaping eyes and instead of holler, he takes the stack of papers. "We're headed towards my quarters." She starts off in the proper direction, then returns back to her original spot where Kenpachi is awkwardly staring at the pile in his hands. "If you actually bring them, I'll say 'thank you' again."
With that, he simply nods and follows.
On the way, Aia talks of small things, like how the flowers have bloomed nicely and how the fragrance makes her crave the fresh cherries of summer. She speaks highly of everyone who came with to find the hollow but of her disappointment in how it turned out to be less of a challenge. And when they arrive at her room, she asks if he'll come in for tea.
Sweat beads on Kenpachi's brow. He doesn't know whether to tell her he dislikes tea, or to accept an offer that will bring them alone in her chambers. She seems to take his silence as a "yes" and pulls him in by his thumb.
Her room is nothing like what he expects. Instead of a mat on the floor, she has a large wooden structure and what looks like many large mats stacked on top of each other. There are decorations along the walls, many photos of things like lotus flowers and trees and one photo of two small children sitting on the top of a broken wall, pinkies interlocked.
Aia offers him her desk for the papers, which is the only thing normal about the space they are in. She lights the paper lanterns before shutting the door and when she turns around, Kenpachi is staring at her bed with arms crossed and a confused look on his face. She giggles and he shoots her an unimpressed look. "What the hell is that?"
"Its a bed. You sleep in it. Its much more comfortable than a mat on the floor," she explains. Aia proceeds to the small fire pit in the floor and starts the flame beneath a kettle of water. "What kind of tea do you like?"
There is a dull thud behind her, causing her to become very alert and spin around. The view is more than enough to kill her with laughter. Kenpachi is sprawled sideways across the California king, one hand on the back of his head and a dissatisfied expression on his face. "I think your bed is too short for me."
Aia laughs wholeheartedly, stunned at Kenpachi's out-of-character action. "What did you do to end up that way?"
"I jumped," Kenpachi responds. "And then I hit my head on the wood bar."
From behind the bed, springs Yachiru. She lands on Kenpachi's stomach shouting, "KEN-CHAN! You're laying on it wrong!" After a few jumps across the monstrous bed, she gets off, pulls open a drawer from Aia's dresser and flees with the few remaining sweets that Aia had hidden for herself.
Aia makes her way to the bed and boosts herself up. "She's a sweet kid, you know. You're probably the closest thing she'll ever have to a dad." Aia lifts her ankle, and the bruising shines a bright purple in the lamp light. A fresh, white scar circles her ankle with tiny flares reaching upwards like flames. Kenpachi props himself up on his arms to see her battle wound, avoiding the topic of Yachiru.
"That doesn't look so bad." He reaches over and presses with two fingers on the pale, freshly healed skin. Aia throws her head back in a yelp and Kenpachi withdraws his fingers without apologizing. The "flames" on her ankle writhe around, the same as the tentacles of the hollow that Aia had battled and now Aia is completely laid back on the edge of the bed. But before he can say anything more or think of something to sooth her pain, the kettle shrieks, signaling that the water has finished boiling.
He slides himself down the side of the bed to the floor in front of the pit and pulls the kettle off the fire. Two small packages lay on the wood, beside him and he adds them to the cups and then pours the water. He serves the cups, one hand as a tray for both and Aia takes one in gratefully. She stirs with a finger, expecting to meet the bag of tea, but instead finds the paper of the packaging. "You forgot to open the packet, silly."
Kenpachi sighs, and does so without even a burn to his fingers. "I'm not used to your strange crap."
"This tea isn't as potent as others. You'll probably like it. Its a pumpkin spice flavor, so no mint or strong herbs." Kenpachi throws the entire cup full into his open lips and sloshes it around like mouthwash. Aia eyes him peculiarly, wondering why it doesn't burn. "Well?"
His eyes have become hard again, instead of curious. He gazes down at the woman in front of him and says, "Familiar." Aia clicks her nails on her cup, nervously and changes the topic to the other flavors she has but Kenpachi doesn't buy into it. "Who are those kids on the wall, Aia?" She tears her eyes from his and looks away, mumbling that it was just a picture she found. The room becomes tight and uncomfortable, but a knock at the door breaks the tension. Kenpachi opens the door and leaves without gazing at the new guest.
A puzzled, Izuru Kira bows at the door an announces that both captains, Retsu Unohana and Mayuri Kurotsuchi are ready to analyze her scar and run tests.