Approximately one month before the incident.
"Chise."
I looked up at the familiar voice and was met with the habitual scowl he carried though the scowl never did touch his eyes so much. You could always tell that Ichigo Kurosaki actually cared via his eyes. I knew the look in his eyes now too, it's one I hadn't seen in years; he wanted to talk. I knelt down easily to be eye level with Kai and instructed her to go with Isshin for a moment while I talked to Ichigo. She nodded and obediently latched onto Isshin and followed him.
"You look tired." He said after a moment, something about the way he said it seemed like that was not what he had intended to say.
"My, oh, my, is that actual concern?" Hurt, now that was an odd thing to see in his eyes. Was it possible he felt guilty about not speaking to me? Why should he when I never tried that hard either? In the end I just sighed and answered him seriously, head inclined slightly as the height difference between us was not that vast, in order to look him directly in the eyes. "I'm always tired Ichigo."
"You weren't at school." Again it seemed as though it was not what he had wanted to say, but he looked tense. He looked stressed out about something and everything. He looked just as tired as me.
"Kai was sick. I'll be back tomorrow."
It was not until the next morning when I heard all the odd different stories of the day before that I realized that maybe Ichigo had been specifically worried about something. No one seemed to have the same memory, and for the most part they seemed to be normal. It was almost as if their memories had been replaced.
That was the day my memory started to resurface too.
