Hi guys 'n gals

Maybe some of you have already seen it on my profile... as for the others, I'm planning my marriage right now.
If you my dear fans want to help me on the financial part, you can do it by donating some money.

You find the donation links on my blogspot page, on facebook and in my livejournal and on DA.

I thank you a lot

See ya
your
Shiro Yue

The voice had gone silent and stayed like that for a long time now and Ichigo began to ask himself if he'd just hallucinated it.
Whether or not his problems just kept piling up on another and getting more dangerous by the hour.
He couldn't afford to drag others into it any more then they already were, so he decided to do something against it.

Far away from Kyoto, to the south, he and Hanatarou found a small, rundown shrine with an old priest who maintained it as well as he could.
The monk asked for a short stay and some tea and the priest welcomed them friendly, since they were the first visitors in a long time.
Ichigo offered to help preparing the tea and asked his apprentice to wait in the guests room.
While he made tea, he secretly put some herbs he picked outside into Hanatarous cup, without having the priest notice it.
With the three cups he went to the guest room, gave the young one the prepared one and the three drank it while chatting.
A while after Hanatarou emptied his cup he got tired and fell asleep.
The priest wondered about the unusual tiredness and concluded that it was Ichigos doing, so he asked him about it.
Ichigo just answered.
"I want him to be at a safe place. Please take care of him and don't let him leave for one month. I can't have him follow me at any cost."
"I won't ask for your reasons, but may you give me your name?"
"I'm called Ichigo."
"Well then, Ichigo. I will keep an eye on this young fellow and I wish you luck for whatever you plan on doing."
Ichigo nodded in thanks and immediately hurried away.

Some hours later he encamped in a cave not to far from the shrine.
The orangette took the sword from his hip and eyed it.
Strangely nothing had changed with it, or himself at all, well just that voice he heard maybe.
Speaking of which.

"Hey, you."
Nothing
"Onryou."
Silence
"Oh spirit of this cursed blade; speak to me."
Less than zero

Ichigo was getting pissed, what was going on?
Was he really going gaga or something?
He grabbed the hilt and just drew it to the Habaki * , when something hit him like a fist.
He'd very much preferred that, then this strange feeling and the myriad of images rushing into him.
Quickly he pushed the sword back and tried to sort himself
Was that a rejection?

"Ya betta pull yaself together, before tryin' ta take me on 'gain."
That damn voice was really mocking him.
It would see what it'd get through that.

-/-

The first thing Hanatarou saw after he came to, was the room he had stayed at with Ichigo, but the monk was nowhere to be seen.
He rose and searched the shrine for the orangette, but he only found the old priest.
The boy asked him about Ichigos whereabouts and the answer was shocking.
Hanatarou first felt like an old cloth that had been thrown away, but then he began to think.
His master had to have a reason to choose such drastic measures.
He went to the praying room to ponder about it.
After he sat there a while, he noticed some scrolls with paintings on it.

Upon looking more closely he saw that they showed a person kneeling down and bear down on something like a stick in front of him.
There were some lines around that person, which made it look like he was enclosed in something.
Hanatarou looked even closer.
Somehow that person resembled Ichigo.

"That's a painting of an old legend. Not far from here, there is a cave. There should be a man, holding onto a sword, inside of an enormous crystal that's as clean as spring water."
Hanatarou turned around.
"Is it there?"

"When I was a kid, it was. But as I took over this place after the last keeper died, just a few small pieces of the crystal remained. That was about four years ago."
Maybe it was just a wild idea, but Hanatarou began to think that the pieces of the puzzle in his had, slowly began to fit together.

Mentioned one was on the run from the Shinsengumi, who had found him faster then he anticipated.
No matter what he tried to shake them off, it wouldn't work.

"Let me handle 'em."
"No."
"Ya can't reject me foreva. I'm stronger than ya. Ya were just lucky last time."
"What do you mean?"
"Ya can't rememba, eh? Ya neva might."
"Tell me! What do you -?"

Suddenly there was a big impact and he got pushed to the side, then a heavy weight rested on him.
"Got you. You're under arrest."
This was the end.
All he ever did was run, for his life and getting nowhere.

Wait? What?
All he ever did?
Did that mean...

"Do ya wanna have 'em back? Yer memories?"

Chapter 13
End

* Habaki = metal between the Tsuba and the blade