Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters and its settings aren't mine
It's graduation day.
Oh, not for me. I've got another eighteen million years left, no, it's Yuzu's graduation. The ceremony starts at noon.
This evening she's expected to stay out all night because technically she doesn't have a place to sleep. She's to report to the squads tomorrow for assignment. There'll be a run on her; all the squads will want Yuzu but I'm betting she'll go to fourth. With extra training from her friends in eleventh. Apparently the boys treat Yuzu like one of their own.
A certain captain is not going to want his smallest wandering around all night, though, so Yuzu will probably be spending a quiet evening with Karin at my dads place.
I haven't been able to talk to her in months; after Hanataro told me about the Ichigo sighting in the real world I've been keeping a very low profile – about a hundred people showed up for the false alarm, including about ten captains. I really don't want to risk areal Ichigo alarm, especially where no one has to get travel orders to drop by. It could be a thousand people next time.
I gather someone got it royally over that one. Hopefully Mayuri. One does not mobilize most of the Seireitei's brass over a false alarm.
Ever have that feeling you're at the center of a really dumb idea and there's nothing you can do about it? You may not believe this, but I sometimes get that feeling.
I'm taking the risk today; I've left Yuzu a note. My precious little sister isn't going anywhere until I've seen her. She's certainly not spending a night on the town with drunken shinigami, not on my watch.
She can be an adult starting tomorrow. Tonight she's still my little sister.
I'd had a good chance to learn my way around campus in the past several months. It hadn't been hard to find somewhere safe and quiet to meet. For Yuzu's benefit I'd chosen somewhere pretty as well. There's a sort of overgrown rose garden at the very edge of the campus. It's out of the way, little used and absolutely perfect for today. It smells and looks beautiful; when I say 'overgrown' I mean the kind of 'overgrown' you can get with a couple of gardeners working very carefully for about twenty years. That kind of overgrown.
I was just leaning back, enjoying the place and thinking.
My little sister the shinigami. It wasn't so strange with Karin, but Yuzu? And there she was now, coming nervously up the path.
The age thing is really, really weird. Yuzu hasn't aged, four years aren't long enough in soul society to change you physically. She still looks about twelve. Smaller than Hinamori, smaller than Rukia, no different today then she was the day-
I'm nineteen, or at least I was the day I died.
I can say it for me. Maybe one day I'll be able to say it about her.
She's smiling at me. Tiny Yuzu, one of the select few who could hide in Soi Fons shadow. The pair of them together would still weigh less than I do. She's so cute in her uniform.
Delivering the message had been a piece of cake, her friends never even knew I was there. Yuzu suddenly had a piece of paper in her pocket that said come see me – Ichi-nii. We'd agreed to the system months ago, the last time I'd seen her, the evening of that first reunion. Yuzu was to leave her left pocket empty. Anything she found in it would be from me.
"Ichi-nii?"
"Yuzu!" I hugged my little sister. "I'm so proud of you, a shinigami now and top of your class."
She hugged me back, said "Thank you nii-chan."
I'm glad she'd done her crying that first night; this was supposed to be a happy occasion.
"Your hair is getting long," noted Yuzu. "I sort of like the white, but I miss the orange."
"So do I." My hair has grown long enough that I have to slick it down to avoid the Snowy look. I'm surprised people aren't calling me greaseball.
Wait a second, why is she partial to white hair all of a sudden? If that little bastard-
Yuzu looked up at me with a serious look on her little face. She'd probably been building her list of questions for months now. That first evening on the roof she was too stunned to say much.
"Are you all right Ichi-nii?"
"I'm okay."
"Where is Kon?" She'd found out about Kon before it happened, come into my room to find me arguing with the plushy standing on my desk. She'd adored Kon from that moment on, took to carrying him everywhere he'd let her.
"Kon is dead Yuzu. In the accident."
Yuzu started to cry a little. It was pretty obvious she'd already suspected. I wrapped an arm around her.
"I'm so sorry sweetie."
She was able to recover from the slump in a few minutes; really I'd only confirmed what she'd already guessed. She had a free hour and there was no one around, so we just talked and talked about her. I tried to evade as many of her questions as possible, which she knew. This was her day and my problems were none of her making. I'd be fine. Ichi-nii will soldier on with a scowl for the world and a grin for his little sister. It's all good, peanut. 's aaaall good.
Yuzu wanted to show me her Zanpakuto. It was little in its unsealed state, a tanto, but instead of the usual plain scabbard it was inlaid with a pattern of roses.
"I can unseal it," she said. "Want to see my Shikai?"
"Sure Yuzu."
So she hops up, draws it and holds it in both hands. "Bloom, water lily!"
Her Shikai release is a bit like Rukia's in that it's absolutely beautiful, but unlike Rukia's it's not the standard black and white. Instead the blade is actually a very pale yellow, and the handle is an equally pale green. Like Zangetsu Water Lily has a long hilt ribbon, but the ribbon is green and comes from the guard rather than the pommel – it wraps around Yuzu's hand and forearm to protect her.
It puts you in mind of a flower, the colors and the way the ribbon coils around Yuzu's forearm like a stem. It's a really, really pretty sword. Different from Rukia's but probably the prettiest Zanpakuto I've ever seen.
"It's really lovely Yuzu."
And then she had to go, and it'd be months or years before I could see her again. She turned to me, and said very seriously, "stay low Ichigo. Karin says they haven't given up looking for you. We think Goat suspects we know something, but we haven't told him about you."
"It's all good, Yuzu. Take care. And make me proud."
And then she hugged me and walked away.
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I would have liked to go to Yuzu's graduation but it just wasn't in the cards. Yuzu said Goat is going to be there and they still don't think it's safe enough to tell Goat I'm here. There'll be other captains there too. I'm not quite ready to risk that. Instead I watched until Yuzu was out of sight, scratched my overly long hair.
My too-long, greasy white hair.
Joy.
It's been an interesting year I guess. Morisato and I aren't friends but we do make good roommates. We eat together, that sort of thing. Seymour hangs around with me, but we don't talk much. Both of us are just glad for the company. Second year should be okay too. It starts right away of course, so this weekend (as in today - it's Friday) Morisato and I have to move into our new dorm room one floor up, and they'll give out our year two emblems to stitch onto our uniforms. Most people get that done in town.
Rukia will be my kido teacher again. Kido's a problem; strictly speaking I have to take it until fourth year at least, but Rukia's not qualified to teach fourth year kido. Either I learn enough to get by with a stranger, which is unlikely, or I say hello to Hinamori and hope I can get her on my side. Hinamori is what's called a Kido Master; she tends to use Kido more than her sword. She's extremely good.
She also worries the hell out of me. By virtue of her mental state and her generally being a bit stunned she hasn't caught me. Too much on her mind. She loved Aizen until the end, regardless of what anyone thinks, regardless of him burying a sword in her. Hinamori's twisted logic has it that if Aizen had truly meant to kill her he would have, because of course Aizen was just that perfect. So Aizen's still the hero. Presumably that makes big bad Ichigo the villain of the piece because I'm the one who finally took Aizen down.
No telling what Hinamori would do if she found me, but I have to assume she'd rat me out. Rukia meanwhile is working ferociously on her kido (she thinks I don't know) so she'll qualify to teach fourth year.
Anyway, that's a problem for another day. This little garden is a nice spot. I have no plans for the rest of the day other than maybe getting an early start on our move upstairs. I haven't amassed much stuff, so it 'd be no big deal to pack and go.
Nice and shady here. Quiet too. I think I'm going to take a nap.
There's stuff going on around the graduation but I could get caught there. Not much for festivities anyway. This morning I thought I'd seen Iba but it turned out to be someone else. I like Iba, but I don't know where he stands. Thankfully it wasn't him, but all told I think I'll just avoid the party. Lean back, take a-
I feel a presence.
A strong presence.
Chad.
He was standing right over me looking down.
His shadow is blotting out the entire sun.
Oh man, and here I am lounging on a bench...
I haven't spoken to him since that day.
"I've come to say goodbye Ichigo."
"You're leaving?" I sat up.
"I've been fast tracked," Chad explained. "I've graduated."
"Congratulations." As you can imagine things were still a little stiff between us, but at least he hadn't started swinging yet. "Where are you going now?"
"Second squad," said Chad. "Soi Fon is taking me on as her lieutenant in training."
"Really? Congratulations." I meant it a little more this time. It was a hell of an achievement.
"Thank you," said Chad. "It's a good fit for both of us. Soi told me herself she needs someone who'll stand up to her. She's missed Omaeda-san more than most people know." He shrugged. "He had more backbone than he let on."
I never really got to know the man. He came to a bad end. "Chad, I'm really happy for you, really I am."
There was an awkward silence.
Chad sighed and looked away.
"It wasn't about you Ichigo. It was never about you. Or me either."
He was still angry. A residual anger, something he'd been stoking the coals of for a long time. "We were always the strong ones Ichigo, you and I. We did the protecting. Then when I was killed I had to leave everything to you, and you dropped the ball. You should have been there for Orihime and Uryu. Because I wasn't-"
Chaddo clenched a fist and looked at the ground.
So that was what it was all about.
Chaddo was right, I had dropped the ball.
Orihime was a flower made of spun gold. Beautiful but soft, malleable. Delicate.
And stomped flat under Aizen's sandal.
God, the war... Orihime was still golden, but she was never what she had been. And Uryu...
Uryu was like a diamond, brilliant, incredibly hard, and like a lot of hard things just a little fragile inside. When he finally broke he shattered. That great Quincy warrior and force for what he believed was right, I didn't protect him from that weakness inside.
Chaddo and I are more like tempered steel, we've got some spring in us, enough to bounce back a little. Orihime and Uryu weren't. And didn't.
Oh Uryu. I should have known it was coming. You shrugged off every blow until the one that finally broke you. And my poor brutalized little Hime...
I should have been there. Protecting them was my job and I failed. The demons inside got them and I couldn't do a damn thing about it.
Chad had entrusted their safety to me and I failed all three of them. Chad was as angry at himself as he was with me, because he hadn't been there, but I'd lived when he died and I should have been there. Because in my place he wanted to believe he would have been. It said something about just how much he respects me that he thought he could leave it to me. And I failed him.
In failing Chad I betrayed us both, I let him-myself-everybody down.
He had a right to be angry. I couldn't meet his eyes.
"I'm - sorry Chad. You're right, I did fail, and I had no right to. I'm sorry."
Chad shrugged. "Water under the bridge. I wasn't there when I should have been either. Maybe if I'd been there we-" He shrugged again. "Water under the bridge Ichigo. Not one of our finer moments."
"I- hope they'll forgive us one day."
"I think they will Ichigo." He offered me a bit of a smile. "No one can stay mad forever."
He stuck out a hand, I shook it and felt a lot better.
"Thanks Chad. Thanks for always being there."
Chad frowned.
"Do I know you?" Then he grinned, dropped a hand on my shoulder and almost crushed it. "Be well, Sado Kon. You remind me of a friend. Maybe some day we can run down hollows together."
"Thanks Chaddo. I'm looking forward to it."
I watched Chad walk off and I figured life was going to be a little better.
------------------------
I ran into Chad one last time, and gave him a warning about Mayuri. The mad scientist of twelfth is a little too dangerous for my liking. Chad grinned and clenched that fist.
"I've already spoken to him Ichigo. I told him I catch him or any of his people around me I'll take his haori. I think he believed me. Maybe he didn't. It wasn't that big a building I dropped on him."
I had to smile.
On to second year.