7. Return:

"Ah, Ren-chan, if you keep moping around like that, you'll scare away all the customers."

"You don't have any customers besides shinigami, Kisuke-jii," Ren replied listlessly. "Leave me alone. I just got back this morning after knocking out that other shinigami that had an assignment."

"I'm sure you took care of the Hollow?" Urahara Kisuke pulled the brim of his green beach hat down.

"Of course," Ren answered with a heavy sigh. She played with the broom in her hands like a staff. "It feels weird being in my physical body again."

"You liked Seireitei then?" Urahara leaned against a post on the porch of the shop. "I heard you didn't want to come back."

Ren met Urahara's eyes, "Why'd you send me there? If you knew I'd get more of my old memories back–"

"You are more useful to us with your memories of Suiren," Urahara answered simply. "If that meant you had to deal with some heartache to save Seireitei, then so be it. It was necessary."

"You always manipulate everyone else," Ren answered as she got up heavily. "Did everyone forget me properly?"

"Of course," Urahara grinned widely. "Those pills were my invention. They work better than what that Kurotsuchi could have invented."

"I wonder about that," Ren said in a bored and skeptical tone. "Is I-chan going to get back soon?"

"Going to pick them up a few days from now, I expect," Urahara picked at his fingernails. "As for wondering, what exactly were you wondering about?"

"Whether it was better than what Kurotsuchi could have invented," Ren answered, leaning against the broom. "I saw some pretty amazing things in Seireitei. Apparently, he knows how to give a zanpakuto a sex change. Some of the guys seemed pretty excited about that."

Urahara sat down, "My Benihime is perfect. There's no need for a gender change. Are you not satisfied with Tsunami?"

"I'm more than satisfied," Ren replied unconvincingly. She was staring up at the sky listlessly.

Urahara allowed himself a sympathetic smile, "How about this, I'll give you the day off. You've had a tiring week and a half. Go home. Your brother's come back for summer vacation for awhile. Get your mind off of..."

Ren nodded distractedly, "Can I still get paid?"

"You've only been here for half an hour, so, no," Urahara replied.

"Ok," she began to turn and walk away.

"Ahem," Urahara's voice floated discreetly from behind her. "Ren-chan... the broom. And, you left your bag inside."

Ren blinked at the hand holding the broom, "Right."

The walk home seemed long and lonely. Her gloom seemed to radiate and form her own personal sphere around her. Even the ghosts avoided her.

"Tadaima," Ren opened the door to the apartment.

"Okaeri," a voice came from in front of the TV. "You're back early, Ren."

"Yeah... didn't feel like working, so the tencho gave me a day off," Ren answered. "Did you just get up, Rei-nii?"

Rei looked up from the video game, "Yeah. Come here."

Ren obeyed and sat down beside her older brother. His black hair stuck up on its ends against his tan complexion, and warm brown eyes like Ren's peered at her with concern. His hands felt her forehead, "You ok, Ren?"

"Yeah," Ren answered. "Just feeling a little...weird."

Rei put the console down, "Why? I don't think you have a fever."

"A little...sad, I think."

Rei's eyes widened alarmingly and he shifted his entire attention to his little sister, "Sad? Gimme your bag Ren, put it to the side here."

Ren obeyed unthinkingly and sighed. Rei took the bag, and rummaged through it until he found the cell phone, "Is it because of a guy?"

Ren shot up, and gave him a piercing glare, "Rei-nii, give that to me." She reached for the phone. "You're going to check my calling list aren't you? I'll tell you now, if you call all my guy friends and give them threatening messages again, I'll throw you off the balcony!"

"I just wanted to check something," Rei answered, flipping open the phone out of the reach of his little sister.

"No!" Ren leaned over and tried to grab the phone. "Give it back! Now!"

"So it is because of a guy!" Rei leapt up triumphantly as he scrolled down the call list, "I'll hurt the jerk! No one messes with my imouto! I didn't earn that black belt for nothing!"

"I've got one too!" she snarled. Ren grabbed his shirt. Rei absolutely could not see the photos. If he saw Byakuya–

"Who's this?" Rei stopped. He had gone into her photos. Rei held the phone just out of reach, and Byakuya's sleeping face seemed to fill her whole vision. "Is this the guy? Where's he live, Ren? I'll get him for–"

"Shut up!" Ren swiped at the phone, but failed to get it. "Give it back, Rei!"

"I didn't think you liked cosplayers, imouto," Rei continued while peering at the picture. "He's got a nagajugan on. Was he dressing up as a samurai? And this was just taken yesterday."

"Of course it was taken yesterday," Ren replied angrily.

"You spent the whole day with me yesterday," Rei replied sharply. "We went grocery shopping and you helped me clean my room, remember?"

"I snuck out last night," she snapped back. "Just give it back, Rei!"

Rei glanced at her, "This is the guy, then?"

Ren nodded miserably. Rei snapped the phone shut and handed it back, "He's a little old for you, isn't he? He looks like he's in his early twenties. You're only turning 16 this year."

"Just a little," Ren slid the phone into her pocket. About 200 years maybe.

"It's not like you to fall heads over heels for some guy," Rei said gently as he picked up the console again. "He must be really special. Or just lucky."

Ren frowned at him, "I think you just need a girlfriend, Rei-nii."

Rei flashed his white teeth at her, "I'll get one as soon as I can stop looking after you," his voice was more serious. "I just feel like no one's the right one yet. And, if there is, I must've missed her. So meanwhile, I'll just concentrate on making sure you don't get killed with all those guys from the different high schools coming to challenge you. Really, you and Ichigo must have a record of challengers coming from different schools."

"I-chan and I are picked on by idiots," Ren retorted. "We don't go looking for fights."

"Yeah, yeah," Rei returned to his game. "You use the same excuse all the time."

Ren smiled, and she gave her brother a hug, "You can always make me feel better, Rei-nii. If a girl rejects you, they're just stupid."

Rei smiled gratified, "Go make me lunch then, to show your gratitude."

Ren punched him in the shoulder, "Fine. Just this once."

Rei didn't look up from the game, "So this whole week, you've been all weird because of that guy?"

Ren picked up a long knife, "Weird?"

"Well, for one thing, you kept going, 'Pyon, pyon.' I mean, it wasn't the first time you said something weird, but you just seemed...uncharacteristically bright and nice."

Ren paused, "Yeah...that was why." Kisuke-jii managed to get Chappy then...

"Well, good to see you back to your usual grumpy self," Rei laughed.

Ren smiled, "It's good to be back."


Vocab: Imouto means little sister in japanese.

Please please please leave a review! I feel kind of sad that, even though I DO get reviews, there aren't just as many as Withered Flowers. I DO read the reviews even if I don't respond and I take into account what everyone says. I really value your opinions so please give it to me!

So, first, I wanted to say that the next chapter will be an interlude from Rei's POV. I hope the next chapter clarifies who he really is. And, the stuff about Kurotsuchi giving zanpakuto sex changes isn't a lie. He really DID have a pamphlet in an omake (side comic) in Bleach, and Renji even considered it with Hisagi. Renji was thinking about a Matsumoto-sized chest for Zabimaru (poor Zabimaru...).

So, this is a bit of a profile for Ren (http://img(dot)photobucket(dot)com(slash)albums(slash)v638(slash)TabzChewy(slash)Misc(slash)Ren(dot)jpg) The link is to an image of how she would look. Please keep in mind that I DID NOT make that wallpaper. It was done by a great artist on anime paper. I figured that this would probably be what Ren/Suiren looked like, except perhaps less murderous. I've finally decided on a theme song (this was actually much harder than I thought it'd be) and I settled on Shamrock by UVERworld. The lyrics really seem to match Ren's situation and attitude.

This chapter was meant to be a little melancholic. I'm not sure how well I did that, so suggestions here would be really helpful. And I thought that bit about getting Chappy was amusing. But other than that, I don't have much comments on this chapter.

I've also been hooked onto some of Gazette's songs (just a side note). I normally get freaked out by visual kei, but their songs are nice. And this one-line paragraph is useless...

But, thanks for reading Perpetual Spring! I appreciate it!