This chapter is freakishly long...so...Soul Society Time! I know you haven't seen Yume's promised powers that were announced in the summary, but you'll see them soon...very soon. So be patient with me! God, you need a plot before you go rushing headlong into things. So hmph. And alright I've decided to have some IchiRuki in my fanfic, if only some. But that might change later, probably become more.
I watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" yesterday. It really makes a person grateful for the fact that they're not green.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Disclaimer! I know exactly which victim to pick...Toshirou Hitsugaya!
Me: Squee! I loves you, Toshirou-kun! You're so ADORABLE! Squee! Squee! Squee!
(After about seven hundred 'squee's, Toshirou gets tired of my fangirlishness)
Hitsugaya: Alright, stop! I just came here to disclaim your story, I don't need you 'squee-ing' all over me.
Me: Okay, Toshirou-kun. You may continue. Can I can you Toto-kun?!
Hitsugaya: No! Just let me disclaim your story already! ...Kimsa Ki-Lurria doesn't own Bleach, so yeah. Stop thinking she does, or whatever the reason is that she puts these weird disclaimer things before the story.
Me: But I love my disclaimers! They amuse me, especially when the people saying them suffer!
Hitsugaya: ...Uh, I'm taking it that you have a problem with torturing people?
Me: Yes, or that's what people tell me. I don't know, though, my shrink says it's nothing to worry about; he says what I should worry about is my increasing love of chainsaws...and dark alleys...and helpless victims in the dark alleys with the chainsaws...
Hitsugaya: O.O
Me: Hahahahaha! Just kidding! You're so gullible, Toto-kun!
Hitsugaya: Sh-shut up...
Seven
An Early Morning Walk
Rukia flipped her cell phone shut just as they arrived at Ichigo's house, slipping it inside her pocket after hanging up.
"Chad's on his way to Inoue-chan's house," she said. "He should be there before we get back."
Ichigo didn't reply; he was too busy staring up at the dark shadow that was his home. His expression was unreadable, too much of a mix of emotions to be describable. Rukia stared at him silently, her violet eyes thoughtful.
"Come on," she said, putting a small hand on his arm, "let's go inside."
No one was awake. And no one should have been considering how late it was. But somehow, that fact still made Ichigo feel depressed and immensely disappointed as he tried to silently open the door to his house. He wanted someone to be awake. He wanted Yuzu to come stumbling sleepily out of her room, rubbing the dreams of her slumber from her eyes as she wondered why the front door was open when no one was there. He wanted his father and Karin to see him and ask him where he was going, and when they got their answer, to restrain him from leaving.
But that wouldn't happen. No one was awake, and no one was going to come out of their room in the near-middle of the night to console him.
No one was awake.
"Ichigo," he heard Rukia say softly. He turned to look at her, her tiny form outlined by the moonlight, creating a soft halo around her body. She stared up at him with those huge eyes of hers, her eyebrows slanted and drawn close together in concern and understanding. She knew what he was feeling.
Ichigo smiled mirthlessly. "We won't stay long."
He made his way up the stairs, to Yuzu and Karin's room. Peering in on them, Ichigo watched them sleep for a moment. They weren't small children; in fact they were nearing their teen years, but they still seemed impossibly tiny and fragile to him as they slept with the moon's dead light bathing their bodies.
Ichigo smirked; Karin would've hit him for thinking that she was "fragile."
He sensed Rukia's presence behind him and turned, brushing past her to his room. He didn't need her sympathy, and besides, he couldn't spend any more time here; Hitsugaya had only given him a limited amount of time to say goodbye. Once he reached his room, the first thing he noticed was Kon, stretched out on his bed and snoring with his mouth wide open. Ichigo wrinkled his nose and saw Rukia smirk and shake her head as she entered the room, folding her slim arms.
"Eh, Kon," she said.
Kon must've had as much skill in hearing as he did in jumping, because he jerked awake as soon as Rukia said "eh."
"Wha? Whozzat?" he slurred. "Nee-san, where'd you go? Things were just getting juicy..."
"Kon!" Rukia shouted at the modified soul, her face red. "You're lucky you're in Ichigo's form right now or I'd...!"
"Neh?!" Kon leapt off the bed and began to panic as he saw his nee-san's furious expression and Ichigo's ticked-off one. "N-nee-san!" he said nervously, "Did...did you hear me say that?"
"Yeah, and we're trying to forget about it," Ichigo replied sourly. "Listen Kon, I have something to tell you."
Kon hastily held up his hands, waving them back and forth. "No, no, if you're going to beat me up then let me know, 'cuz I'll run...!"
"We have to leave again."
Kon blinked and stopped, frowning lightly. "Hold on..." he said. "...Come again?"
Ichigo sighed and rolled his eyes. "The war with Aizen is starting and me and Rukia have to go down to Soul Society to help fend off the freak-Arrancars. Got it?"
"So you're leaving, and you don't know when you're getting back?" Kon asked.
"Yeah, so I kind of need you to watch out for my family and take care of my body," Ichigo said. He scratched his head, grimacing awkwardly. "Don't do anything crazy or go peeping on girls, okay?"
Kon smiled. "I'll try."
"Thanks," Ichigo said. "...I think."
Rukia smiled at the modified soul, folding her arms again. "Yeah, thanks Kon."
Kon grinned and walked over to her, enveloping her in a smothering hug. "Nee-san thanked me!" he announced proudly.
Ichigo felt anger spike in his veins as his face grew hot, and he walked over and elbowed Kon in the face, pushing him away from Rukia. For some reason seeing someone, especially Kon, hug Rukia made him unbearably angry.
"Oi!" He said angrily, "Get away from her!"
"Ichigo."
Ichigo spun around to face the door, where the deep voice had sounded. He saw his father standing there, leaning against the doorframe with his thick arms folded across his chest.
"Better watch how loud you get," Isshin said. "You don't want to wake Yuzu and Karin up."
Ichigo blinked, his expression sombering. "Dad..."
Isshin straightened. His face was unusually serious. "Ichigo, you're leaving?"
"Yes. The war is starting, Dad. I've got to go help Soul Society," Ichigo said. "So, I...uh..."
"Came to say goodbye," Isshin finished.
"Well...yeah."
Isshin came over and placed his big hands on his son's shoulders, smiling grimly into Ichigo's startled face. "I'm proud of you, son," he said after a pause. "I want you to know that. It's good to know that you're going to help. I know you'll be fine, and when you see Aizen, well..."
He grinned coarsely. "Give 'im a kick in the ass for me, eh?"
Ichigo smiled.
"Yeah, Dad," he said. "I'll remember to do that."
A minute later, two black-clad figures were darting away into the moonlight, leaping over the shadowed rooftops as swiftly as their sandaled feet would allow them. Isshin and Kon watched from Ichigo's bedroom window as they jumped like hellish crickets over the houses of Karakura, following them with their eyes until they vanished into the dark, cold night.
Kon waited a moment before speaking up. "You really think they'll be alright?" he asked.
Isshin smiled again, slipping his hands into his pockets. "Yeah," he said. His eyes studied the black sky, taking in the dark expanse dotted with pinpricks of light that were like tiny forms of hope glittering amongst the greatest shadow of the world.
"Yeah, they'll be fine."
Yume, once she stepped foot inside Soul Society, could not keep quiet.
She kept oohing and aahing, and Uryu's patience had just reached its end when Hitsugaya sharply requested that she keep quiet and reminded her that she was not the only person inside Soul Society, and the world's entire population did not need to be woken up at eleven o'clock at night.
That shut her up…for about five minutes.
They had taken the nicer of the possible ways into Soul Society, through the gate that Rukia had taken when Byakuya and Renji had escorted her back to the Seretei, so the trip was relatively short. What had really sparked Yume's interest was their arrival in Soul Society, or the Seretei, specifically.
"There are thirteen divisions in here?" Yume asked Hitsugaya. The snowy-haired captain nodded. He looked slightly green, no doubt from the fact that he had actually been one of the brave few to try Yume and Orihime's cake.
"There are thirteen that make up the Gotei, and then outside of the Seretei is the Rukongai District, where the non-soul reapers reside. You will be staying with Orihime Inoue and Rukia Kuchiki in Matsumoto's room, since there is space available."
"What's that? I have to share my room?" Matsumoto squawked from the back of the group.
"With Inoue and Yamazaki and Kuchiki, Matsumoto, don't worry," Hitsugaya called back to her. He groaned and grasped his stomach with both arms, grimacing horribly as his bowels made several disturbing squelching noises.
"God, what did you put in that cake, Yamazaki?" he moaned.
Yume adopted a thoughtful expression and put one finger to her lips. "Well…I can't really remember. Orihime and I just kind of went crazy with the recipe, and even if I did remember all of the ingredients, I couldn't tell you; a baker never tells their secrets."
Hitsugaya gagged, and Yume looked over at him. "Hey, Snowy, you look kind of sick…did you eat something weird before we came here?"
"Oh, I wonder," the snowy-haired captain muttered. "I wonder."
Matsumoto laughed. "That's what you get for eating that thing! I told you to stay away from it, but did you listen to me? Nooooo."
"Matsumoto, you were the one who forced me to eat it."
"…Oh. Never mind, then." The big-bosomed lieutenant left her suffering captain for Orihime, patting the honey-haired girl on one shoulder. "So you'll be staying in my room, eh Inoue-chan? We'll have a great time!"
She sauntered away to poke fun at Hitsugaya's misery, and Uryu found himself edging over to Orihime's side. "Don't let her poison you with sake, please," he muttered, and Orihime giggled.
"No, Ishida-kun, I won't," she replied.
"Hey, if Inoue, Yamazaki, and Rukia are staying with Matsumoto, where will the rest of us stay?" Ichigo asked loudly from the back of the group.
"We'll find someplace for you," Hitsugaya replied dismissively as he led them farther into the Seretei, towards his own division. "If we can't, you can always just stay in a cell or something." His stomach squelched again, and he moaned. "Uuurrgghhh…"
"What the hell!" Ichigo yelled. "I'm not going to stay in a freaking cell —!"
"He was kidding," Rukia muttered to him, and Ichigo relaxed. The petite shinigami frowned at the air. "…I think."
"You think!" Ichigo exploded. Ikkaku hit him over the head with his zanpakutou.
"Shut up, Ichigo," he snapped. "You're making more noise than Yamazaki!"
"My cake was good, you say?" Yume asked, turning around at the sound of her name.
No one decided to comment on just how wrong her comment was, and followed Hitsugaya silently the remainder of the way.
Uryu found that he, Ichigo, and Chad were to temporarily stay in Hitsugaya's division while the others went off into their own squads' territories. The Quincy looked after Orihime as she left with Yume for Matsumoto's room, and she turned around at the last minute before she entered the building and disappeared from his sight, giving him a small wave. He returned the gesture, but he did not know if she saw it because she turned away at that moment.
He breathed a soft sigh and turned around to find Ichigo staring at him.
"What?" he asked tartly. Ichigo shook his head.
"I wonder how long it's going to take you," he muttered. "It's getting annoying with all this waiting."
"What waiting?" Uryu demanded, but the orange-haired teenager just shook his head again and said goodbye to Rukia before walking towards the house they would be staying in. Ichigo even tried to wave half heartedly to Hitsugaya, but the short captain was sprinting for his room, or rather, his bathroom, judging by the color his face had turned.
Uryu followed Ichigo at a hurried pace, trying to catch up. Chad followed silently behind.
"Kurosaki, what waiting? What are you talking about? Kurosaki!"
The sun rose early the next day, peaking up over the horizon at a little bit before seven o'clock in the morning and spreading soft yellow rays across the sleeping Soul Society.
Yume was up before the sun's light kissed the land awake, standing quietly on top of a rooftop and staring out onto the Seretei in the shadows of lightless pre-dawn. She was dressed in a shinigami's typical outfit of a simple shihakushou, but she added a touch to the uniform with her bells hanging from her neck on the black satin ribbon. Her nameless zanpakutou was tied to her side by a white sash. She had to touch its cold hilt to make sure that it was real.
She had gone to sleep quickly and had woken up early, as was an unusual habit of hers. Yume did not find it unusual at all; she loved to watch the sunrise and detested waking up to find that half of the day was gone already. The black-haired girl had stretched to relieve her sore muscles, and then, when she was sure that no one was awake to see what she was going to do, she slipped easily out of her body and into her "shinigami form." She then tucked her body under the blankets just as if she was really sleeping there, and went outside.
So now here she was, standing up on the rooftop of her borrowed sleeping place, shivering silently as a cold air blew straight through her uniform.
These things don't do much to keep you warm, she thought sourly as she rubbed her cold arms. Yume's eyes moved to the horizon as the sun began to come up, and a small smile appeared on her face as she watched the bright yellow orb turn the clouds orange-pink.
Something stirred in the back of her mind like a hidden thought, making Yume's smile become curious.
Oh? She thought. You want out?
Yes, please.
Yume let her eyelids fall shut and held the bell marked with the letter "Z" in her delicate fingertips, taking a deep breath.
"Zazie," she said clearly, and rang the bell.
Its ring soared out pure and flawless in the air, but it had a sense of sorrow to it that brought bitterness welling up in Yume's throat. She opened her eyes, and when she did, anyone would have seen that her pupils were now a bright purple instead of turquoise.
Yume smiled and stretched like a cat, giving a soft yawn as she did so.
Thank you, she thought quietly.
You're welcome, Zazie.
Zazie, as Yume called her, looked out onto the awakening world and smiled. "It's been such a long time since I've been out," she murmured softly. "About what happened last night, the things you said...you haven't really forgotten about Soul Society or anything of our past that is tied to it, have you, Yume?"
…No. I only said what I did because I can't let them know the truth. It'd destroy them, you know? It's better that I keep some things to myself.
"I thought so." Zazie sighed, looking up into the sky as a dark thought crossed her mind. "…We can't stop him, can we?"
…We can only hope. Now take your walk like you wanted to, and let me back in my body. I think Hitsugaya is going to want to put me in a division soon and I don't think he'll be happy if I'm missing.
"Okay."
Zazie's legs tightened and crouched beneath her in a fluid movement. They held nervous, pent up energy inside them, and like a coiled spring let loose, Zazie leapt up into the air towards the other rooftops around Hitsugaya's division. She landed delicately on one and then leapt to another, crossing the distance as easily as one breathed air. The cold air whistled through her hair as gravity slowly pulled her closer to the rooftops after a particularly high leap, and the girl closed her eyes in ecstasy. She hadn't been free like this in such a long time…with the Hollow around, it was too dangerous.
Zazie banished the thought from her mind and opened her eyes again as she felt the hard tiles of a rooftop beneath her sandals, leaping further into the air the moment she landed. She continued through the Seretei towards what she did not realize was the twelfth division, as it was only two territories down from Hitsugaya's tenth, and a large building caught her eye.
Mayuri, she thought as she realized where she was, and a tiny grimace crossed her face. Zazie landed on a rooftop a short way from the twelfth division, looking about as Soul Society started to stir awake.
Yume. Zazie looked up into the barely pink-blue sky, just recovering from having the sun light up its expanse. I think I'll go back now.
Does he really scare you so much? A cold voice asked in the back of Zazie's mind, and the girl frowned. It was not Yume's voice, but their body's other occupant.
"…I don't like him," Zazie said quietly. "He…he's bad."
Noooo, you don't say, especially after what we observed while studying him?
Leave her alone, Setsuna. Now Yume's voice joined in the conversation, soothing and just as airy but with a hint of motherly protection for Zazie. I feel the same way; Mayuri-kun is a boogie man!
Zazie let out a light giggle at Yume's brashness; the girl might say she feared the twelfth-division captain, but she certainly did not act like it.
Zazie, Yume spoke up, err...you wanna ring my bell?
"Oh, yes!" Zazie gripped the middle bell tightly in her pale hand, closed her eyes, and said Yume's name. She rang the bell, and for the second time that day a note soared out into the air. This one had a different quality to it than the first one; where Zazie's bell had a shy, sad tone, this bell's note was clear and pure, completely clean of any unwanted attributes in it and full of joy and cheerfulness.
Yume opened her eyes, her turquoise-blue eyes, and smiled as she looked down into the twelfth division.
"We've all got to conquer our fears sooner or later. Let's pay a vist to our old friend…shall we?"
"Ishida-kun!"
Uryu had woken up feeling well rested and content with life as it was, and he had just put on his clothes when he heard Orihime scream. He tore out of the room, leaving a bewildered Chad to stumble awake and a still-snoring Ichigo. His feet moved quickly over the wooden hallways as he sprinted next door and entered Orihime's room, his Quincy bow already summoned and ready for a fight.
Orihime was kneeling on the floor by Yume, who was still asleep, her hands covering her mouth in anxiety. Rukia, standing by the distraught girl's side, spun around at Uryu's appearance and regarded him solemnly. Matsumoto was just beginning to wake up from her couch and protested when she saw Uryu standing in the doorway beholding her in all her eight-hour-sleep beauty.
"Really! Can't you people ever knock?" she demanded, readjusting her uniform. It has slipped rather…revealingly during her sleep, and Uryu turned his gaze away from her with a red face.
"What's wrong, Inoue-san?" he asked calmly, as it seemed that nothing was immediately wrong. He could not see anything remotely threatening or dangerous around the room, so he dismissed his bow and frowned down at Orihime. What had been so urgent that she had screamed his name like that?
She turned around to look up at him, and he was surprised to find that she had tears in her eyes. "Yamazaki-chan…" she said softly. "I can't wake her up."
Uryu raised his eyebrows and walked over to the kneeling girl, peering over her shoulder at Yume. She was curled up in a comfortable position with her knees near her chest and her hands under her head, and it seemed to Uryu that she was simply sleeping peacefully…except for the fact that she wasn't breathing.
He knelt next to Orihime quickly, his heart pounding as he tentatively touched Yume's skin. It was cold.
"Damn…" he whispered. "I think she's…she's…"
"A gigai," Rukia interrupted coolly.
Uryu and Orihime both looked up at the short shinigami in confusion. "A gigai?" Uryu repeated. "Yamazaki-san doesn't have a gigai, just a body."
"Well, it's not exactly a gigai, you're right," Matsumoto spoke up from the couch. She rose to her feet and came over to them, bending down to straighten out Yume's prostrate body. "It's her body, but there's no soul inside. I guess it's like Ichigo's condition; he can go in and out of his body when he wants to, and always return to it if he wishes. Just like a gigai."
"But…if this is Yamazaki-chan's body and she's not in it, then where is she?" Orihime said in a wobbly voice, still slightly shaky from her recent fear.
Matsumoto shrugged indifferently. "I don't know. Out for a walk, exploring Soul Society…creating mischief. I have no idea where she would have gone."
She got up with a great sigh. "What I do know, though, is that if I don't get to work on my paperwork soon, Toshirou is going to burn my year's supply of sake…and I don't know what I'd do without sake."
Matsumoto left without another word, and Uryu got to his feet with a sigh. "Well, I guess we should look for Yamazaki-san, then," he said tiredly.
"I've got some business to do," Rukia announced. "I'll catch up with you later. Let me know if you two find her."
Orihime nodded silently from her spot on the floor, and the petite shinigami raised her eyebrows briefly at the honey-haired girl's silence before shrugging and slipping out of the room.
"Are you ready to find Yamazaki-san, Inoue-san?" Uryu asked.
"How can we look for her?" Orihime asked from the floor. She was still staring at Yume's unresponsive body. "We don't know where she could have gone."
"That's easy, we just look for the spot where there is most chaos going on," Uryu answered. "With Yamazaki-san in an uptight place like Soul Society, I'm surprised there isn't already someone like Byakuya drawing his zanpakutou."
Orihime did not respond. Uryu looked down at her for a moment, taking in the sight of her still turned away from him. He frowned.
"Inoue-san…?"
Her shoulders began to shake, only a little bit at first, and then as if someone was taking her and thrashing her body in a fury. Uryu listened to her sobs in complete and total shock for a minute — then, he knelt by her side.
"Inoue-san," he said. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Orihime shook her head, hiccupping quietly as she struggled to stem the tears flowing from her eyes. "It's all of this," she gasped. "I thought maybe we'd get to have at least a little bit of peace for once, even with winter war so close. I thought…maybe they wouldn't need us to participate in the war and we wouldn't have to get swept up in all of this Soul Society business again. I thought I'd get to spend some time with you and everyone else, get to know Yamazaki-chan a little bit more, and see Tatsuki…because I haven't spent any time with her at all after Hueco Mundo…"
Uryu felt a soft sigh building up in his chest, but it was not out of annoyance at Orihime. He waited for her sobs to fade a bit more before speaking up.
"I know, Inoue-san," he said quietly. "I know how you feel. I, too, wanted to maybe settle down for a little bit…take a break from all of this excitement. But we're involved…we're involved, and we can't back out now. If Soul Society needs our help, then we have to respond. We can't just ignore their problems because later on, either way whether they win or lose, it's going to affect the real world too. We'll manage, Inoue-san..." he paused, taking a short breath to brace himself.
"E...especially you. You're strong, even though you always say that you're not. True, you don't have great physical strength, but what you have is more important, more meaningful than any strength any of us have. It is that strength that will get you through this alright…and if you need help, I'll be here to lend you a hand."
Orihime had fallen silent somewhere near the middle of his short speech. Her sobs had subsided, her shoulders had stopped shaking…and now she turned to look up at him with a tiny, sad smile on her face.
Thank you, Ishida-kun, her smile said.
Uryu coughed awkwardly and got to his feet again, offering her a hand to help her up. Orihime stared at it for a second, and he thought she was going to decline — but then she put her soft hand in his and let him help her to her feet.
"Besides," Uryu said, trying to pick up the thread of topic to avoid further embarrassment, "we don't know really know if they'll need us the entire length of the war. They might dismiss us somewhere in the middle of it, and they'll be able to stand on their own."
Orihime nodded determinedly and wiped furiously at her eyes to dry them. "R-right! It doesn't have to be really long…and even if it is, it's like you said; we'll get through it. We'll all help each other."
Uryu smiled gently at her. "That's the Inoue-san I know."
Orihime beamed.
Uryu coughed again and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Now, let's go see what we can find to eat," he said. "I don't know where we can find it but if we look around, then I'm sure we can…"
"Oh, I know where!" Orihime said brightly. She started for the door, tugging his sleeve to drag him behind her. "Unohana-san always has something stored up for people that need to be healed, so I'm sure she'll let us have some. And if she doesn't want to, we can go visit Ukitake-san! He always has candy, so maybe we'll have that for breakfast…I wonder if he has any turkey to go with it. Probably not. But if we get some candy, maybe we could use it to bait Yamazaki-chan! Yeah, that's a great idea! She likes sugar…maybe she'll fall for our trap!"
Uryu let Orihime drag him further into the Seretei towards the fourth division, listening to her happy chatter in contentment. It comforted him to know that she was back to being her old self. He was still shaky, though; he couldn't believe he'd spouted so much about her being strong and all, and had told her that he'd be there for her, but she had accepted it gratefully and that was all he needed to lift his spirits.
Now, if only I can get her away from the idea of having candy for breakfast…
"Nemu! Stop slacking off on that document, you lazy cow!"
Nemu had been working quickly, but apparently not quickly enough for her captain and father, Mayuri Kurotsuchi. She merely nodded and said meekly, "Yes, sir," before accelerating the pace at which she was typing on the large computer she faced.
Mayuri glared at her back as he thumbed through his computer disks and returned his gaze to them, grumbling under his breath. Why couldn't the girl just work as quickly as he wanted her to? Had he designed her wrong? First the numerous slack-offs (or at least they were slack-offs in his view. From someone else's point of view, the rate he wanted her to work was considered child abuse), then the sparing of the Quincy boy's life, and now this. Maybe he needed to work out some of her faults…
The ghoul-like captain snorted and shook his head briefly. Later. He'd attend to her later. But right now…his precious research was waiting for him.
"Oooooooooohhhhhh."
Mayuri swung around, nearly crushing the delicate disks in his hand as he turned to see Yume standing in the open doorway to the room. She was standing with her hands clasped behind her back and her mouth in an "o" again, her eyes wide as her gaze roved over the gadget-filled room.
"This is some high-tech place you got here, Kurotsuchi-kun," she said appreciatively. Her brightly-colored eyes flicked to his yellow-orange ones. "It was impressive last time I was here, but I see you updated it a bit."
Yume grinned toothily. "It's been a while, eh? Didja miss me, Kurotsuchi-kun?"
Mayuri narrowed his eyes, his mouth widening grotesquely, and this time the disks did shatter in his white-knuckled grip.
"What the hell are you doing here…?"
A/N: This is the longest chapter I've ever written. Honestly, I was skimming over it and was like, wow. But oh well...I know you all love longer chapters than shorter ones, it makes the wait in between them worth it. Especially since this is another cliff-hanger...heheh, I know you all love them. P.S. Sorry if the Ichigo-goodbye scene was short or corny, I just needed to put it in there. Don't hate me for it...and if you didn't get the whole Zazie-Yume-Setsuna thing, you're not supposed to just yet. You'll understand later on in the story! And Orihime really did need that pep talk...I think the saddest people in the world are the ones that act the happiest...them, and clowns.
If I give you a virtual candy cane will you review?
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good cliffhanger!
