[Did you guys miss me? I bet a lot of you had forgotten about this! So had I...Hence the the 4 month wait. I'm so sorry. But I hope this makes up?
Ichigo sat in the cold grass, an icy finger tracing his way up his spine. He wanted to reach out and touch the blades...but he didn't dare. He didn't dare touch them, to solidify his fears of what could have happened to them. As if on cue, the the heavens above opened, a sudden downpour raining down on them...but Ichigo barely noticed. His eyes were glazed, lost in a sea of possibilities in his head, and the only thing that brought him from his trance was a very gentle clearing of Max's throat.
"Ichigo…? Do you know what these are?" Her voice was soft...sympathetic even. Although she had no idea of the importance of the blades to the orange haired boy. After all, to her, they were just a set of very odd, clearly Japanese blade...covered in blood. But she wasn't dumb, she could tell simply from Ichigo's initial reaction just how much they meant to him. Ichigo's voice was thick with emotion when he spoke, deliberately keeping his head down.
"They...belonged to my friends." He looked at the blades for a moment, and shut his eyes, quickly standing up. As he stood up, he gently took the two blades in his each hand. "They were with me...before I was brought here…" He left the sentence open-ended, and silently, a dark aura hanging over him, he headed back into the house, an anger blossoming in his chest like no other he had ever felt.
The flock stood speechless. Max quickly cleared her throat, and stood tall, her mind quickly working to figure out what to do. "Alright...So whoever this Rukia and Renji are, they obviously mean a lot to Ichigo." The flock nodded in unison. "And I think….we should try and help Ichigo however we can." The flock again, nodded as one. Max let out one long sigh, and placed her hands in her pockets. "I can't say what's happening here...but I think we should help him get back to his own flock, if you like. And you never know, we might learn something!" She forced a chuckle, and ushered the flock inside. "Let's go."
Ichigo sat with the bloody blades in his lap, in the livingroom. Some of the blood was still liquid. Setting the blades to the side, he stared at the wall for a moment, letting his mind wander. Where was Zangetsu? He didn't feel the same without his own blade… And why was he taken from him? He had even more questions, and even less answers. Ducking his head, he intertwined his fingers above his head. He had been doing relatively well dealing with his circumstances...but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. He heard the group come into the house. The door to the living room opened quietly, and the sound of soft footfalls, combined with the shift in weight on the couch beside him alerted him to the presence of someone. A gentle touch on his shoulder brought his head up, his eyes tired.
Max looked at him with the same level of concern that has been on her face since last night. Her voice was soft, but with a hint of urgency.
"Ichigo...I don't know who your friends are...or what those swords are...but we have your back." She smiled genuinely, and gave Ichigo's shoulder a gentle squeeze.
Ichigo practised flying with a flaming determination. He was going to learn how to fly, he was going to find out what happened to his friends...and he was going to rescue them. He trained relentlessly, into the night. Fang watched from the bedroom window, his brows furrowed in thought. The sun had long dipped under the horizon, yet… Ichigo still trained. It was increasingly worrying. He knew he and the flock had more stamina than the average human...but this was ridiculous. Iggy appeared at his side, his own face worried. "What's up, Iggy?" He remained quiet for a moment. "This feels...weird." Fang perked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" Iggy turned to face Fang. "What do I mean? Everything, that's what I mean! Me and Gazzy find some normal human who, according to Gazzy and Max, looks like something out of an old Frankenstein movie….who is like us. But he wasn't born like us. He's got a great amount of stamina, more than any of us, and he's already getting his feet off the ground. It's been what… three days? A week? It took us months." Iggy's voice had begun to rise in volume and intensity. He took a moment to calm himself. "And then there's the swords….I don't trust it. I don't know if I trust him." Fang stood quietly for what seemed like a moment, the rain, which had turned to drizzle, gently tapped the windowsill. "Max trusts him… but we'll make sure he's not dangerous." Iggy nodded.
Ichigo trained through the night, now able to get himself a good eight feet off the ground. Finally, at around 10am the next morning, he collapsed exhausted. Covered in sweat, his wings in agony, and his breathing heavy. He was getting there. He had made it fully into the air, and he was even starting to gain some control over his direction...but something had scared him, and broke his concentration. A voice.
"Hello there, King….Miss me?" The voice...the voice he thought he was rid of, had returned. Ichigo had forgotten to breathe for a moment, his eyes wide with sudden fear."Looks like you needed me. So here I am." Ichigo groaned and rolled his eyes, and even that took energy he simply didn't have. [Why are you here? I thought you had disappeared with Zangetsu…?] Hichigo didn't answer vocally, but he did begin to push. Ichigo's sight began to darken as one eye changed from his natural hazel to yellow, a darkness coming over his sclera.
"Not now...not now!"
You're going to fly Ichigo. And you're going to get us the hell out of here.