Right. Here's a short chapter. I'll get five up soon, it's going to be longer. Hehe.
Any questions, comments on the story? They would be much loved. ;D
Again thanks to Brandeee" for Beta, and "Han and Kei" for moral support and generally being awesome. :D
[and uh, oops, sorry for the double alert. Something went weird and I had to fix it. But here's the real, edited, chapter four.----
"Keigo…Ichigo upset you, didn't he?" Mizuiro asked as the other entered his room, his reiatsu betraying his approach.
"Just a little, Mizuiro-sama," he admitted awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his head. "You're upset too, aren't you?"
Mizuiro smiled slightly once more, and didn't bother moving from his chair, "Forget my problems, Keigo." The other opened his mouth to protest, but Mizuiro shook his head.
"I'm fine now." A clear lie, but it's not as if he'd let Keigo comment on that, if he even picked up on it.
"If you say so, Mizuiro-sama." Hesitance laced his words, but Keigo didn't do anything about it.
He stopped there, not questioning or wanting to bother Mizuiro.
"Mhm. Now, was there anything you needed to know about…in particular, Keigo?"
"Yeah…I kinda wanted to know why—"
The door opening interrupted Keigo as Aizen walked into the room. The two boys bowed, greeting the leader with respect.
"Oh, I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" He questioned, knowing that of course he did, but doubting the others would remark on it.
"No, Aizen-sama. Keigo and I were simply talking about Ichigo."
Aizen nodded, satisfied with that answer. "That's fine and well, but aren't you late for a class, Keigo?" The Arrancar widened his eyes.
"Oh! You're right! My apologies, Aizen-sama."
The other just chuckled as Keigo bowed and ran out of the room quickly. Amusing, really.
The door shut behind Keigo and his reiatsu disappeared as he got farther away, heading off to his class. Aizen hadn't said anything yet, so Mizuiro figured he should speak.
"Aizen-sama?"
"Hm?"
"Could you…teach me more?" Mizuiro pleaded with the elder man. "I want to—I need to be stronger to get back at Ichigo for what he did to us…" His voice dropped as he said this next statement. "And…I need to protect Keigo."
It was sweet, really. Mizuiro was, that is. He remembered when the dark-haired boy first came here, stubborn but quiet, only wanting to protect his friends…back then, that had included Ichigo, of course. But now, obviously, it was different.
"Of course I'll teach you, Mizuiro. Such a silly question; you should have known the answer already." No matter. He had been expecting this for quite some time, and was glad that the boy was going along with this, was coming to him, rather than anything else.
"Thank you, Aizen-sama." Mizuiro bowed rather low in respect.
"Shall we get started, then?"
---
Oh god. Trembling because of fright, and blood loss, among other things, the girl (then again, was she really a girl anymore?) stumbled her way down the street. She'd been away from the real world for such a long time…only now was she was just getting used to the once familiar surroundings.
Ichigo…she had to find Ichigo. The girl knew she had to find Ichigo or else…she really didn't want to think about it.
---
"And just how do you propose we go about this, Kurosaki?" Urahara questioned, waiting for Hanatarou to finish making tea for the both of them, hopefully to calm Ichigo's nerves.
"Considering you went once into Hueco Mundo and failed…I'm not sure if Soul Society will be jumping to go once more. And who said I would help you, anyway?"
"Because…they have—"
Crash!
Ichigo jumped; startled as the front door of Urahara's Shop had slammed open. The elder frowned slightly, gazing towards the entrance and wondering just who it could possibly be.
Ichigo jolted as the figure ran into the room, wondering why Urahara wasn't ready and what if this was an Espada or something—surely it wasn't, but that was beside the point right now what if it was.
"…Tatsuki!"
The girl smiled slightly at Ichigo. "Yo, I-" She staggered for a moment. Part of her face was bleeding rather badly, and there were sharp pieces of "bone" sticking out of her skin. It seemed she had gotten her hollow mask…broken, or something. "I need to talk to you. It's—it's not as if I have forever, though…It's not as if I was supposed to leave…or, survive."
At this point, Urahara quickly got up and brought the girl to sit beside them, calling for Hanatarou, who was still in the kitchen. The boy scurried out of the room, eyes wide at the mess that was in front of him. He was shocked, really. "I'll—I'll go get my med kit," he said quickly, running off to get it from the temporary room Urahara had let him sleep in.
Tatsuki shuddered, raising a hand to run through her hair. A few moments later, Hanatarou was tending to Tatsuki while she explained.
"Ichigo, you have to save Keigo and Mizuiro. Mizu…he's just so different now. You have to help him before he…he gets hurt even more." She coughed into her hand, a small spattering of blood falling off of her face. Grimacing, Tatsuki wiped it on her already bloody clothes.
"Orihime too. You have to get them and fix them—Ichigo! I know…know that you can do it."
"Please calm down, Arisawa-san! You're making your wounds even worse." Hanatarou reminded her worriedly.
She settled after a moment, attempting to calm down, letting Hanatarou work on her even if she really didn't want him to. It's not as if she was going to live for quite a while, if you thought about it.
Ichigo felt anger again at Aizen, because he'd done this to his friends, ruined them and nearly killed Tatsuki…"Damnit! How can he just do this?"
"Contact Soul Society as soon as possible." Tatsuki reminded Ichigo, voice quiet. "Get a group. Aizen shouldn't be doing this, not at all." Not like they could stop him completely, though…that was a whole different matter entirely.