Fipp: Two things are official now. 1) Starrk now belongs in the Soul Eater manga. 2) I am officially a high school graduate! Yeah for me!

Autumn Arc: The Missing Name

"When I find her, I'll kill her," Ichigo said as he stomped through the halls of the Kuchiki Manor in search of Senna, who was supposed to meet him and Hinamori several hours ago. So, Ichigo has spent since then looking allover the Sereitei for her.

It wasn't until five minutes ago though had the though occurred to him that he should look in her room.

Hinamori had then commented that that would have been the first place she would have looked, and said she was curious on how Ichigo became a captain in the first place. Ichigo growled in annoyance.

"You really aren't good at looking after people in your care, are you?" asked Rukia, who was acting as Ichigo's escort. Apparently, Byakuya didn't like it when Ichigo was left to wander then mansion unsupervised. Ichigo kind of agreed with this, mostly because he would, more often than not, break something when he came to visit. Something that cost a lot of money. More money then he, a captain, made in a year.

"Shut up," Ichigo growled at the shorter shinigami, who simply laughed at his situation.

"You're going to get in trouble with Soutaichou again if you keep loosing Senna."

"I'd like to see him watch over her," Ichigo mumbled under his breath. "When she wants to go somewhere, it's almost impossible to keep her in one place."

"Now you know how I feel from all the times I told you to stay still."

"Like hell I'd listen to you. Damn midget."

"What was that?" Rukia growled.

"Nothing, nothing."

"That's better." Rukia thought for a moment. "I wonder where she went though, no one's seen her all day."

Like various people, Rukia had especially taken a liken to Senna, especially since to two of them would often gang up on Ichigo when throwing insults at him while all he could do was simply complain that two-on-one was unfair.

"Then where'd she go?" he asked.

"I don't know," Rukia said. The two shinigami stopped in front of a door, which Rukia knocked on. "Senna? Are you in there?" When she got no reply she knocked again. "Senna?" Still no reply.

Ichigo then pounded on the door none to gently. "Hey Senna! You better not be sleeping! Get the hell up if you are!"

"Ichigo. Shut up," Rukia half-snapped.

"What? I hate it when people sleep all day."

Rukia sighed before slowly opening the door slightly. "Senna?" Ichigo then opened the door entirely. The room looked the same as many of the Kuchiki guest rooms in that it had a bed, window with a nice view, dresser, wardrobe and a private bathroom, and a wooden stand for a shinigami's sword. There was also some of her own personal items that she had gained while in Soul Society, such as several books, a soul pager, and several discarded black robes on the floor.

"Oi! Senna!" he called into the room, though he didn't receive any answer.

"Senna?" Rukia asked, stepping into the room. "I don't think she's here."

"Dammit, then where the hell could she be?" Ichigo looked around the room before turning his sights to the unmade bed, and a folded up piece of paper that rested on the pillow. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Rukia turned to the bed, and the paper. She then walked to the side of the bed and picked up and unfolded the paper, some sort of note Ichigo figured. After several moments of reading the note, Rukia's eyes widened as she gasped.

"What's it say?" Ichigo asked, looking over the smaller woman's shoulders. After he read the note, his eyes narrowed and he growled in frustration. He then grabbed Rukia by the arm and stormed out of the room. "Damn it Senna."

000

To whoever gets this note first (which I think may be either Ichigo, or Rukia, but if not, give this to them)

Sorry I had to leave without telling anyone, but hopefully I'll be back before anyone finds this note. If you've found it, then that means I'm still out. I went to Karakura Town to check something out, be back soon!

-Senna

000

The sun was setting, bathing Karakura Town in a beautiful orange and red glow.

In midair above the city, a horizontal appeared before it split open and unfolded in a way similar to tiles sliding away from each other.

Ichigo and Rukia both stepped out of the Garganta and landed on the air, the latter slightly stumbling as she exited the threshold.

"Why do we have to use Garganta?" she asked. "Why can't we just use the Senkaimon?"

"Garganta's quicker." Ichigo snapped his fingers, causing the Garganta the seal up behind them. "We have to set up a time to use it, which takes forever, and it's never easy to go through the pathway. With a Garganta, I just open it up and step through."

"Grimmjow says the same thing," Rukia sourly mumbled under her breath. She hated it how her captain would always say the same thing. She herself didn't like to use the portal, she always felt like she was going to fall into the whirling darkness below.

"Rukia, can you try and sense Senna anywhere near here?" Ichigo asked, looking around his hometown. It had been a number of years since he had lived here, and there were numerous changes to the city. There were now taller skyscrapers, replacing buildings that he had known, and the city seemed to have grown, now covering more area then before.

"I'll see what I can do," she said. Rukia closed her eyes took several deep breaths before concentrating, trying to feel for any reiatsu signatures around her.

Rukia could sense the reiatsu of the town's assigned shinigami, several weak hollows, and several humans with higher-than normal reiatsu signatures, though none of them were strong enough to be cause for concern at the moment. She stretched her range out further, slightly straining herself.

And there she was.

"I found her," Rukia said, eyes snapping open.

"Really? Where is she?" Ichigo asked.

"This way, come on!" Rukia then started to fly towards Senna's destination. Ichigo followed behind.

000

Ichigo and Rukia landed on the concrete street in front of the gate.

"Why would Senna be here?" Rukia asked.

Ichigo looked up at the sign above the gate, a sudden heavy feeling forming in his gut. "Rukia," he said, gaining the smaller shinigami's attention. "Let me go in there alone."

"Why?"

"I think I know why she's here."

Rukia was silent for a moment before nodding her head and stepping back. "Alright."

"Thank you." Ichigo stepped forward and opened the gate and entered the Karakura Town Graveyard.

000

Ichigo walked along the paved stone walkway that rested between the numerous gravestones. He briefly wondered if any of the more recently buried had been sent to Soul Society (or Hell) by anyone he knew.

The captain stopped in his tracks when he saw Senna kneeling in front of one of the graves, hear head was down and her hair blocked his view of her face.

He instantly recognized it as the gravestone that he had last seen Senna at so long ago.

The one he said had her name on it.

Ichigo walked up to Senna from behind and looked up at the stone, and though the markings were very faded, they were clear enough to read.

"Ichigo," Senna said, still looking down.

"Yeah," he solemnly replied.

"This is the stone that you said that had my name on it, right?"

"I did."

"And it's not here, is it?" she asked, standing up, her back still to Ichigo.

"No, it's not. I said that it was because-"

SLAP!

Ichigo's head suddenly jerked to the side, and a painful stinging feeling hit is cheek. It took him several moment to realize that Senna had slapped him.

And hard.

"Why?" she asked, squeezing her eyes shut to stop the tears from falling. "Why did you tell that my name was there when it wasn't!" Senna opened her eyes and stared Ichigo down with a mixture of sorrow and anger. "When the Blanks were gone, and I was fading away, I was content with knowing that I had once lived in this town. But, if my name's not here, and I never lived here, what am I?"

"Senna,"

"That name was the only thing I had to prove that I existed!" she yelled. "Without it I'm nothing more than a pile of memories of different people! Why did you do that to me?!"

The whole time Ichigo hadn't turned his head from the direction that Senna had slapped in. He moved his head and looked Senna directly in the eye. "Because I couldn't tell you the truth."

"Huh?" she asked.

"Do you remember that boy we found?" Senna hesitantly nodded. "He cried because he didn't know where his father was, and I was prepared to send him to Soul Society, but you wanted his last moments in this world to be happy ones, with his father. Then when we came here, and you asked me if your name was on the graveyard, I couldn't have said that your name wasn't there. I wanted to make your last moments happy, by letting you think that you would leave happy, and you yourself said that you were happy.

"But," Senna turned her head away, taking in what Ichigo's words, "even so, just who am I?"

"Senna," Ichigo said.

"What?" she sadly said.

"No, that's who you are: Senna." She looked up at him. "That's who you've always been. It doesn't matter if you are just a collection of lost memories."

"That's easy coming from you, you've always had an identity, you've always known who you were. You've always been you! I'm just a memory! I-" she yelled.

"Don't be a memory!" Ichigo yelled back, surprising Senna. "Baka! If you don't want to be a memory, then stop living in the past and start living for the now and later. Yes, I said that you're name was on the stone when it wasn't, but what do you want me to do?!" Ichigo lowered his voice. "If you want to be your own person, and not the memories of others, then don't think about it, and just live your life as its own, because that's all you can do."

". . ." Senna turned her head to the side.

"So, Senna, what are you going to do now?"

"I don't want to be just a memory," Senna said, lifting her arm to dry her tears with sleeve. When she was done drying she looked up to Ichigo and smiled. "I like being a person. So let's head back to Soul Society and let them know who I am!" Senna then ran past Ichigo, but stopped when she was several feet away. "And Ichigo, thank you."

"No problem."

000

Rukia leaned against a telephone pole outside the graveyard. She was hoping Ichigo and Senna would come out soon as she was very worried about the two of them.

She heard the sound of a metal object bouncing on the ground and looked down to see a dull-black metal ball near her feet.

"Huh? Now what's-"

000

Senna stopped in her tracks.

"Something wrong?" Ichigo asked. Currently the two were near the exit.

"The reason I came here, it was because I didn't remember my surname. What am I supposed to call myself now? It's not like I can just make a name up."

"Why not?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Kenpachi came up with his own name, so no reason you can't come up with your own name."

"But what?"

"Don't know, I'm sure you'll come up with something."

"Any suggestions?"

"No, none I can think-"

BOOM!

Both Ichigo and Senna turned around to see the massive ball of fire erupt from the other side of the gate.

"Rukia!" Ichigo yelled out.

Please reveiw

Mrfipp