Sugi Chyko is an OC.

Chapter Twenty-five

Zero Seven Times Three…

First Ichigo disappeared and then Rukia. Tatsuki was there when they disappeared from the Ski resort but returned to Karakura when leads went cold. Months had gone by since that time in California.

Renji stayed behind on orders as Tatsuki was set to leave Karakura once more. He followed Tatsuki to the airport wanting answers he knew he'd never get. Her memory was tampered with and the Soul Reaper responsible sat in the lobby watching them. A Soul Reaper from squad two.

"I was a fool," Tatsuki said whirling around to face him.

Soon she'd enter the gates of the airport where he couldn't follow. If he had anything to say to change her mind about leaving he had to do it now. The only problem he didn't know what had changed between them. He didn't know what that squad 2 member suggested.

"You should wait for the others to search with you," he said chosing to focus on the reason he knew she wanted to go to Los Angeles.

"I couldn't see it then. You were in love with someone else. Things changed and I'm not that girl and this wasn't a crush for me. But it isn't enough I can't compete with her can I," she asked tearfully.

"You're mistaken think about what it is you are saying to me. What girl are you talking about," he asked.

"There's more than one," she scoffed.

"No. We're friends you remember that don't you. We are friends," he said.

"Kaya, I heard her name and she is much more than your friend isn't she," she asked.

It made sense now and he struggled forcing himself from strangling the smug squad 2 member he knew was Sugi Chyko. Chyko was someone he barely knew but seemed to know a lot more about him than he was comfortable with.

The only thing he could do was tell her what he knew was the truth and hope she would accept that.

"I'm in love with you," he said.

She heard him and didn't storm off but stood there quiet for a while. Suddenly as if awaken from a trance her face straightened out and she dried her eyes.

"Just stop," she said her voice even and strong.

"How can I stop," he said.

"You don't need to spare my feelings," she said and turned to leave.

"I wouldn't say something I don't believe in. I'm not a liar," he said standing in front of the barrier.

"I can't stay. I need to do this I need to go," she said and walked beyond his reach.

Renji felt as if he reached her when he told her he loved her. He couldn't explain it but even as they separated he felt alright that somehow she'd remember. He felt that even as she left the nonsense about Kaya was far from her thoughts.

000

Tatsuki took a last look back at Renji. He was walking away but she swore she saw him smile. In this moment she only wanted to find out what happened to her best friend. She couldn't trust her memories so she discarded them holding what she was sure was the truth.

Renji was in love with her. She heard it before and she knew those words were the truth but she had to move forward and try to find Ichigo and Rukia in her own way.

Maybe she couldn't trust Chyko but the mission meant everything to her. She was sure that Orihime would understand eventually what she had to do. She convinced herself that this was what all those future planning exercises were about in school.

They were all a decision away from the future. She chose this path and she was fine with it. The hardest move was saying goodbye to Renji and even with the knowledge of this other woman it remained her only regret.

000

Months had passed and Ichigo was nowhere to be found. Tatsuki leaves to search for her friend taking it on as a personal mission. Renji is still acting on orders and stays on assignment in Karakura.

000

Years go by Ichigo is now in his early twenties. Ichigo and Rukia are living in Hawaii and have undergone major life changes. Ichigo believes that Mark and Pearl are his closest friends who were injured in a boating accident that left him with amnesia. They are found and the story resumes…

000

Kisuke approached Ichigo after waiting some time for him to calm down. In his current state he would definitely hurt himself no doubt a danger to all.

"We are going to help your memories return…slowly for sure," Kisuke said.

"I don't know who you people are and I know I have rights. Are you a secret organization or something," Ichigo asked trying to break free from the Kidô spell.

"Calm down please you must realize that doing all that will only hurt you and how can you fight against something you don't understand. If I thought you could free yourself so easily I wouldn't have bothered now would I," Kisuke said but he wasn't so confident Ichigo couldn't free himself.

"Still I have to try. How can I calm down…where is my wife and what the hell is this place," Ichigo asked rifling off questions instead of struggling.

"Hum let's see you just do it tell yourself to calm down and do so…It looks like it is true that ring means something. I have to say I'm not surprised. Oh and this is my unpretentious shop," Kisuke said grinning.

"What the hell are you saying is this a game to you," Ichigo said struggling yet again.

"Relax your wife…Rukia is in the next room perfectly fine. I would bring her here but the procedure is better if you are separated. Besides I'd love to see the reaction on your faces when you remember it all," Kisuke said.

Ichigo stopped moving and remained silent.

"I see you are thinking things through. You have experienced strange moments that you cannot explain. Felt and saw things that were not explainable in the past three years. There is a gap in your memory that doesn't feel right as if someone placed these things in sequence for you.

Why do you feel the way you do as if there is something…perhaps someone missing from your life? Every time you questioned events in your life, the thoughts were put out of your mind," Kisuke said.

Ichigo felt that way. There were parts of his memory he convinced himself would never return. Times that were so faded and grey it was painful to think about them. He had trouble connecting even the happiest feelings to memories.

He could feel happiness when he considered having a family but trying to remember them would bring pain. Headaches would constantly plague him something the doctor assured him could result from some trauma. He was told not to dwell in the past after months of therapy perhaps it was better if he moved on.

All he had was the present and move on he did. Rukia felt the same way. But these people all knew them. They knew them by name. Mark and Pearl knew nothing about Ichigo and Rukia's past. If what these people were telling him were true he even had a family that he left. Not a family to be forgotten as a painful memory but a family he loved.

"I'm not going to let you do some procedure on me," Ichigo argued.

"I thought so. Well this gives me no choice. The methods they used to suppress your memories would make it painful for you to remember on your own anyhow.

Do you know that the human body paralyzes itself during a nightmare to keep the person from injuring his or herself? Dreams that feel so real…too real can harm you without this protection," Kisuke snapped a device before Ichigo's face.

I couldn't have dreamt it all.

After a minute he slumped backwards on the floor.

"Sorry about that, should have reacted a bit quicker," Kisuke said.

Ichigo and Rukia slept off the effects of Kisuke's device. Kisuke monitored Ichigo as the device started to work.

Rukia's procedure was quite different because of her makeup. The first step for her was to separate her from her Gigai altogether. The next step was to treat the damage to her soul. Finally her memories would be restored a process that was a lot more difficult because her life revolved around the Soul Society for so many years. The human memories they embedded were harder for her to let go.

Ichigo woke rubbing his head. He could remember everything now. A wave of sadness troubled his thoughts.

"Now that you remember; how do you feel," Kisuke asked.

"I don't know if I have words for it. I'm sorry I was so crazy back…before now," Ichigo said.

"No problem," Kisuke said.

"Uryû you're here too now," Ichigo said.

"You're just noticing how typical," Uryû said.

"There is something I wish I didn't notice," Ichigo said.

"Your spirit energy," Kisuke said.

"No it's not that…well that is important too but…

"There is the option of memory replacement isn't there," Uryû asked.

"That decision I'll leave up to them. I'm sure anything is possible," Kisuke answered.

Ichigo didn't care about all that. The years he missed with his family and friends he couldn't get those memories back. That was what was important to him. He graduated from college and no one besides Rukia was there to witness it. He got married without his family. He had a house in a completely different time zone and country. What device could fix those things, he wondered to himself.

"I don't think there's anything that I regret or would even want to forget," Ichigo said staring at the band on his finger.

"We'll give you some time alone let us know if you need anything," Kisuke said.

"Alright," Ichigo answered.

"Good to have you back Ichigo," Uryû said.

"Yeah, it's good to be back," Ichigo said as his friend left the room.

000

In the next room Rukia held it together long enough as Yoruichi and Tessai left the room followed by Orihime. Left alone her tears come flooding to the surface. She cried silently the painful tears that she held inside as memories resurfaced.

She didn't understand why she felt this way. All she knew was that the feelings were overwhelming. The memories overpowering her will to be strong. The last time she felt this way it was everyone else who couldn't remember her. That time when Shizuka and Homura manipulated everyone just so they could stay together. She could forgive them but this…how could she get over the life that felt so real to her.

Gathering herself together Rukia straightened up herself the best she could and left the room.

"Ichigo remembers everything now as well," she asked the small group drinking tea in the shop.

"Yes, he's in that room," Kisuke pointed.

She made her way to the room.

"Rukia," Ichigo said as she entered sitting beside him on the mat.

"Ichigo I don't know what to say to you now. I want to go somewhere else," she said.

Ichigo pushed himself up to a sitting position.

"Yeah, I want to see my family anyway it's been so long and they deserve that much," he said.

"Yes, they do," Rukia said.

"Come here," he said holding her close.

Rukia struggled not to break down again. Nearly three years and all she could feel was guilt for taking him away from his family and friends. She blamed herself. Maybe some part of her wanted to be with him so much that she ignored all common sense. What else could explain being away for that long?

"I feel so guilty," she confessed.

"Sometimes we think alike. It's not your fault. They were powerful and they studied our weakness. It was their game on their home court," he said.

"I don't feel any better knowing that," she said searching his features. From the looks of things he didn't feel any better either. The best thing they could do was to go to his family now.

"Let's get going," Ichigo said suddenly standing up and lifting her to her feet.

They left the shop and headed to the Kurosaki home promising to see their friends Uryû and Orihime the next day.

The family had known everything for a while now. Things were nothing like they were before Ichigo disappeared he was sure of it.

"What are you going to tell Byakuya," Ichigo teased.

"I don't know. I really don't but you do realize what will happen now don't you," Rukia asked.

"I'm trying hard not to think about it," Ichigo said.

He knew that they would have to separate again. Rukia would be leaving once again to return to the Soul Society. Ichigo would be bored to tears working to regain his powers.

"You wish we could just go back," Rukia said keeping up with his pace.

"Yes honestly part of me does but there are other people to consider," he said.

"I know," she replied.

"I don't want to know what you decide yet. Let's just spend this day reconnecting with everyone here. We can worry about the Soul Society latter," Ichigo reasoned.

"You can sense their spirit energy can't you," she asked noticing the Kurosaki family.

"Yeah, it's strange to think about what we are in a different light now," he said.

"Remembering all these things and all that we've been through here," she smiled.

"Kisuke gave you the option why did you choose to remember everything," he asked.

"It was…is real to me. Everything was real and I don't know that my feelings about you have changed much even though we don't have that relationship here or now," Rukia said.

"This is confusing, just what the hell do we call that time," Ichigo asked.

"I don't know," Rukia replied with laughter.

"By the way we still have that kind of relationship," he said wrapping his arms around her, holding her close.

"I suppose we were heading that way one way or another," she said hiding her head in his chest.

"The best decision we made was the surprise trip for our honeymoon," Ichigo reasoned.

"It still seems hard to believe that Pearl and Mark never saw that coming. They slipped after all that time," Rukia said.

"Our friends found us because of the wedding. Maybe Pearl and Mark were prepared for this all along. They haven't been found and we still don't know exactly why we were kept away for so long," Ichigo said.

It didn't make sense to Rukia either. The whole three years Pearl and Mark became their closest friends. Looking back on things knowing what she knew now only angered her.