Chapter 3

He would get over it. Or at least, that was, what he told himself. Time would heal any wounds, and even if it would take decades, somewhere in the future, he would probably laugh at how stupid he was back then, to fell head over heels in love with his student.

But no matter how good the arguments of the tiny little part of his brain that was still logical thinking were, the numbness and emptiness were his heart had once been would not go away.

He thought about turning to the side and trying to get at least half an hour of sleep in this whole night, but he already knew that it would be in vain.

So he continued to stare blankly at the wooden ceiling above him and tried to find an answer to the question of when he had become such a pathetic depressed man.

That would be presumably a year ago, two years after the winter war ended.

Aizen had been defeated by Ichigo, who had been since then the hero of Soul Society. After the execution of the former captain, things had gone back to normal. The demand of Soul Society, that the substitute shinigami should join their ranks as a vice-captain, and, when he had gathered enough experience, become a captain, had been firmly refused by the teen. So he had stayed in Karakura Town, finishing school and was now studying PE at university here. Although there were not any more enemies at the moment, he had continued with his training, especially with the vizards, to improve the control of his hollow, and with him, Urahara, to finally learn some kido.

He chuckled sadly at the thought, what a hopeless case the vizard had been first. Though he had average control of the outlet of his reiatsu, the finesse, that was indispensable for kido, had been completely missing. So he had to start with the very basics that any student at the shinigami academy learned. Things like meditation, creating small balls of light and all those simple things that others mastered in days. Ichigo had needed a whole week, before he was able to calm down enough to make a marble of reiatsu that would not break down when he was disturbed.

It had been funny to watch the youth, who was a master in learning new sword techniques and anything else when it came to physical combat, struggling with those simple things.

But although it had not been easy, he had to give Ichigo credit for not giving up even once, even if he knew, how frustrating it had to be for him.

After a lot of training, he finally became capable of chanting simple Bakudo-spells. Step after step, he mastered Hado and higher Bakuda-spells. Even if he was not able now to enchant spells over thirty with Eishōhaki, he managed healing spells that would at least heal simple minor wounds.

At that point, their training had already been stagnating, due to the pressure of school and his duties as a substitute shinigami.

It was then, when he noticed, how much he missed their lessons together. How Ichigo would stay after the training, playing with Ururu and Jinta, helping in the shop or just drinking a cup of tea with Urahara.

Back then, he started counting the days since Ichigos last visit, every time he came, happiness would wash through him and every time he left, loneliness crept back.

When he was there, it was, if as his whole world was suddenly centred on the youth.

It took him nearly a whole month, till he realized, what this feeling was, and another one, to admit this fact to himself.

Love.

That had been a half year before now. Half of a year, where he had been fighting with himself, whether to tell the youth of his feelings or not. He had no evidence or even a hint that Ichigo would return those feelings and he did certainly not want to destroy their friendship. Of course, other arguments like: He is the son of one of your fucking best friends, or, He is about one and a half century younger than you, played into it too.

So he had waited and watched the youth from distance.

His fingers clung in the fabric of the bed sheets as he once more reminded himself, that even the slightest chance of a return of his feelings to Ichigo had now been wiped away.

"Tenchou?" The knock at the door startled him completely for a moment. Trying to calm himself down and let his voice sound rather sleepy and neutral than desperate and heartbroken, he replied: "Yes, Tessai?" Slightly proud of himself, he noticed, that there was no tremble in his words, his experience in pretending were helping a lot.

"Kurosaki-dono, Ishida-dono and Yasutaro-dono want to speak with you."

He suddenly was very happy about the door between him and Tessai so his friend would not notice the cringe that went through him, as he mentioned Ichigo.

"Can't that wait? It's still so early in the morning… I need my sleep." Blatant lie. He knew that there were not any chances that he would get any sleep now, but he could not face Ichigo like that.

"They said that it's very important."

"My sleep is very important too."

"Urahara-san!" He suddenly heard Ichigos voice shouting from behind the door. "Either, you come out of this room within the next ten seconds, or I'm going to break the door open."

Oh, wait, no no no! Definitely not good!

"Ten!" He heard Ichigo start to count from the other side of the door and with a sigh, he finally accepted his fate. He grabbed the kimono, that lied aside of his futon, swiftly clad himself into it, sat the hat on his head and grabbed the fan.

He opened the door, before Ichigo reached 'four', fanning himself as if nothing was wrong.

Looking into Ichigos face, he was glad like never before in his life, that he had said fan and hat. Otherwise the youth would have immediately noticed the flash of sorrow and pain in his face, before he was able to put his façade up again.

"So", he said, stifling a fake yawn. "I hope, this is really important, otherwise I'll have you to clean up my shop the whole next month."

„What's the matter?", Urahara asked, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. The sleepless night was starting to take its toll on him and it was getting more and more difficult to net let his feelings and tiredness show to the outside. The reason of all his problems sitting only a few meters away and continually staring at him was not helping at all. Once more happy about his hat and fan, he swallowed nervously. To his luck, everybody was to worried about the past incidents, so no one noticed the slight slump in his shoulders or the dark bangs under his eyes, effectual hidden by the shadow of his hat.

At his question, they all looked to him. Then Rukia started to explain.

The monstrous hollow growled at Rukia and Ichigo, the burning yellow eyes behind the white mask narrowing to slits. One of its limps, armed with thin, long blades swung in Ichigos direction. Easily, he leaned out of the way, just so far that the razor sharp weapon cut through the air mere inches from his head. However, Ichigo had already jumped high in the air, Zangetsu in both of his hands. The Zanpakuto sliced through the hollow like a hot knife through butter.

The hollow let out a sharp cry, but his body was already starting to dissolve into tiny black particles, which disappeared in the cold air of the fresh morning. Gracefully landing into the dew-wet grass of the park next to Rukia, he gave her a kiss on the cheek. „Don't worry, princess, the bad monster is dead." Playfully she boxed his side. „You were just showing off, oh prince of mine." A soft smile played around her lips as she leaned forward to kiss him.

That was when the roar broke through the silence.

Ichigos fast reaction was probably the thing that saved them. Just in time he ripped Zangetsu from its holding at his back, swinging it upwards to block the otherwise lethal attack of the hollow. His shocked expression was mirrored in Rukias, as they both saw the hollow, Ichigo had just slain standing before them, looking pretty alive and pretty enraged

Rukia drew Sode no Shirayuki, preparing to attack the hollow Ichigo was ringing with.

The hollow growled, rising to its full length, towering over the two shinigami.

Just as both thought, it would strike the next attack, leather wings, resembling that of a bat, only much more bigger, grew out of the hollows back. With one, two flaps he was high in the air above them. Just as Ichigo prepared to jump high to attack it, behind the hollow opened the black mouth of a Garganta in the sky. The hollow turned around and disappeared into the darkness of it.

The opening closed, leaving two very confused shinigami behind.

There was a short silence after Rukia ended and Urahara tried his best, to search for a clue in this riddle. His search was not really successful.

„Did you feel the hollow disappear completely?", he asked. Rukia and Ichigo looked at each other. „Um", stammered Ichigo. „We were a little bit... occupied at the moment..." His cheeks blushed slightly red. "I see...", trailed Urahara off, causing Ichigo to blush even more. On the inside, the hole, were his heart should be, became a bit greater. Shaking the feeling of, he tipped his closed fan against his mouth. "Maybe it was an ability of it", he murmured more to himself than to anybody else in the room. "But that would not explain why it fled... hmm."

"So, what do you think?", Ichigo pressed, as Urahara continued to ponder in silence.

The shopkeeper sighed. "The easiest way would be, that it was the hollows ability, but, a, I never heard of anything like that and, b, normally, when a hollow is defeated, he is not able to recall any Reiatsu or Reishi anymore, therefore no ability of his should work. Could have been that the one you 'defeated'" He marked the quotation marks with his fingers. "Was a doppelganger or kind of copy of the one, created with its ability."

"I always hear could and would", Ishida remarked. "Well, there is no clear solution, not with that less information. Only possibilities." Urahara shrugged. "Sorry, there is not really much I can say now."

"No problem, geta-boushi. Thanks anyways." Ichigo stood up, causing everyone else in the room to do so too. One after the other said there goodbyes, leaving the room.

Ishida was the last one to stay. "Now, Ishida-san, if you don't hurry up, you're gonna be late", Urahara said, as the Quincy made no attempts to leave.

"I wanted to ask you, what is going on", he said instead of moving, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Going on? Well, nothing's going on, Ishida-san."

"Something's troubling you, already since yesterday, if not even longer", Ishida said. "Don't pretend that there's nothing going on."

To be honest, Urahara was slightly stunned. He had always known that out of the group around Ichigo, Ishida was probably the most observant one, but not hat he would have managed to look past the masks he was wearing.

"My, my." Urahara pulled the rim of his hat deeper. "Guess there is no sense in denying it. But" He looked up. "That is really none of your business, Ishida-san", he said in the most stern tone he could manage at that time. Still, the Quincy did not seem to give up. "Has it something to do with the hollow?", he asked.

"What?" Urahara was surprised. Then he chuckled. "No, no, nothing like that."

"Than-" "I wish you a nice day, Ishida-san", Urahara said, turning around and walking to the door. "Urahara-san, wait!" But the shopkeeper had already firmly closed the door behind him.