The walk through the Senkaimon had been rather uneventful, something Seree had found quite surprising. She had half expected some sort of alarm to go off and the Onmitsukidō to come out of nowhere and haul her to jail, but nothing of the sorts had happened.

Thank you, little Hell Butterfly.

The black butterfly fluttered around her head and landed on her multicolored hair, resting its wings after the dimensional trip. Seree poked it gently to make it take off, so that she could jump into her gigai, and then offered a finger for it to land.

"Let's go, Itou-san is waiting! Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean!"

The butterfly merely moved to its favourite position on her head.

What am I going to tell him? Well, I'll figure something out!

She rushed through the streets at good pace, realizing then that it was probably quite a late hour. There was nobody on the streets, and even the traffic lights had stopped working, merely blinking orange to warn drivers of the incoming road crossing. She walked up to Yaso's apartment, then walked down again to look from the street. The lights inside the apartment were still on.

Yes!

She rushed back up and stopped at the door. Her heart was beating a lot faster than she had anticipated. Even faster than when she was running. Twice she raised her hand to knock on the door, and twice she failed to muster the courage to do so.

You silly girl, what have you come all the way out here for? Do it!

"That's the thing, I don't really know what it all means!"

Seree suppressed a gasp and listened carefully. Yaso was having a conversation on the phone, but all she could hear was only his voice.

Is there someone else in there with him?

"Why wouldn't it mean something? I..." Silence. "Yes, I know. Well, no!" More silence. "No, only sometimes, the rest of the time they look perfectly normal. But-" More silence. "It's getting worse!"

What is he talking about?

There was a much longer silence before Yaso continued.

"What can I say? She was great. She was, like, the opposite of Lina." Another pause. "Yes, I know. I actually thought I had gotten over that, but I dunno, I guess it's been coming back since I started seeing her."

Seree held her breath and tried to listen more carefully. The pumping of her heart was hitting her eardrums so hard she could barely hear.

"I don't know, I guess it was because she kinda let me be when I wanted to be alone. Well, and the crazy hair helped." Yaso laughed.

Seree felt her face heating up as she blushed crimson.

What... Wait, what are you doing AGAIN?

She suddenly stood back and, quietly but also as quickly as possible, rushed to the stairs, sitting on the steps and wrapping her arms around her legs. She desperately wanted to listen, but she was there to apologize precisely because she kept putting her nose into his affairs. The latter argument won, and she waited for what seemed like an eternity, with her eyes fixed on the door.

After the wait, she stood up and listened by the door again. She made sure Yaso wasn't still speaking, and with much trepidation she knocked on the door. For some reason her knocks had been extremely vigorous.

"Sheesh. Coming!" Yaso replied.

Seree's heart leaped again when the door started opening. When Yaso looked up and their eyes met, his face suddenly turned to an expression of utter shock. The Hell Butterfly chose that moment to take off from Seree's head, fluttering inside the apartment, but neither of them even noticed. Seree was trying to speak, but her voice had completely died down in her throat. She couldn't even think clearly.

"W-What..." Yaso finally stammered.

"Itou-san!" Seree suddenly found her voice, bowind down deeply, without falling to her knees this time. "I'm so sorry! Please don't send me away! I can't just leave you like that, please!"

"Shit..."

Seree had heard that tone before, and like before Yaso seemed to take a step back. He leaned back on the wall by the door, and closed his eyes, pressing on them slightly with his right hand. He took a deep breath, opened them, and without another word made a gesture for Seree to walk in. She almost tiptoed inside and very softly pushed the door behind her, failing to properly close it. Yaso sat down on the single sofa, and Seree followed him, seating herself at the very end of the three seater, closest to him. She curled up with her legs pressed against her chest, hugging them. Yaso was leaning forward, with both his hands to his forehead.

"Itou-san, I... I don't even know where to start. Your mother..."

Serees voice faltered. Yaso sat back and looked at her, then raised his gaze to the ceiling and smiled slightly; a sad smile, Seree thought.

"My mother. She was the sweetest person in the world." Yaso took a deep breath, and Seree realized it was being unduly hard for him to speak; she didn't move a muscle, afraid to interrupt. "She just... Fell apart when dad died. Like something had switched off inside her, she just wasn't really there anymore."

Yaso looked at Seree, who was still trying her best not to stir.

"My great grandmother had the same. Runs in the family it seems. One day she lost it, I remember visiting her in the hospital when I was little. It only made sense to me when it happened to mom. When dad died, well, I thought that was what did it, but it was just the trigger."

"But, Itou-san! That's not..."

That's not what's happening to you! She thought. Her voice had died down when Yaso's look intensified.

"What, are you going to tell me she was really talking with my father's ghost?"

There was a intensely strong pulse when Yaso said that. *Thunk* it went, Seree felt it hit her with acute intensity, the same feeling of pain she had been noticing since she met Yaso.

"No." She answered in a small voice.

Yaso looked at the ceiling again, thinking.

"This all started in the Summer a couple of years ago."

He suddenly stood up and walked to his trophy cabinet, opening the top drawer and taking something from it. He placed it on the coffe table in front of Seree. His kendo tournament trophy.

"You remember that."

It wasn't a question. Seree almost felt like he wasn't really talking to her.

"Yes."

"I won this two years ago." He resumed his tirade, sitting down on his sofa once more. "I entered the tournament almost in secret; our sensei wasn't too big on competition, he was all about feeling of presence and self-improvement."

"That's when you were doing iaidō?"

"Yes. I really wanted to go beyond that, I don't know why really. Maybe I just wanted to push myself. Mom was always encouraging me before and, well, since she wasn't anymore..."

Seree gulped and didn't say anything. Yaso took a while to start again.

"I was genuinely proud of having come out first, after going through pretty much the bottom of the preliminaries. But when I went back to class, boy was sensei pissed. I don't know why really. He said he was going to put me in my place, so he handed me a bokken and told me to fight him."

Seree opened her eyes wide, curious, but still silent. She only spoke when Yaso didn't give any signs of wanting to continue.

"What happened?"

"Well, I won." He looked at Seree and smirked. "At first he pressed me really hard and I almost hit him with two counters, then he stood back and calmed down, and I really didn't think I could touch him. So I tricked him. I feinted twice trying to hit him with a stab, and then on the third I let go with the right, used only my left hand." Yaso made a stabbing movement with his left hand. "An extra ten inches of range, I hit him right on the throat."

Seree gasped.

"He was fine, but I figured I should not show myself in there ever again."

"Wow."

"Well, to be honest I think I was lucky." Yaso's expression turned darker and he looked away from Seree. "But later..."

Seree let the silence linger for a while, then couldn't help pressing again.

"Later?"

"Well, Lina. You know, I had asked her out before and she had said no. Which is fine. But then after that she kinda became more friendly, suggested we go out... Instead she led me to get beaten up by a bunch of guys from class."

That bitch! Seree thought, anger flashing in her eyes.

"They beat you up?"

"Well, I was doing okay defending myself, trying to get out of there. But she clocked me from behind on the head with a bottle, never saw it coming. I wasn't even expecting her to do something like that. And when I went down, the guys just went to town."

"What a bitch." Seree said involuntarily.

"Yes." Yaso smiled ironically. "The smug look she gave when they left me on the ground is the last thing I remember, before waking up in the Kurosaki clinic."

"Kurosaki... You mean Kurosaki Ichigo? Orange hair kid?"

"His father, actually, yeah. That's how I met him."

Yaso laid back on the sofa and closed his eyes, passing his hands over his face. Seree held her breath, there was an intensity around Yaso she couldn't quite describe.

"That's when I started seeing all this weird shit. Just like mom." He laughed softly without mirth.

"But... Itou-san! It's re-"

"Real?" He interrupted. "What part, the monsters nobody can see or the flying people with swords?" He stood up excitedly, walking around. "I see a monster crashing through a building and everyone else sees a truck crashing instead. I don't even know what's real anymore! Me imagining you in the hospital, or imagining everyone else looking at me like I've lost my mind? I don't even know why-"

"Itou-san!"

Seree had stood up and suddenly embraced him from behind. He reacted almost immediately, but this time Seree didn't let go of him, pressing her face against his back and holding with her hands onto his shirt and with all her might in a tight hug.

"I'm right here! You're not seeing things! Don't I feel real?"

"Shit, of course you would! Why-"

Yaso was interrupted by a muffled sob, and felt a small moist spot on his back, where Seree's tears soaked his shirt.

"I don't know..." Her voice trembled. "I don't know what I can say to you to make you believe me."

They stayed like that for a long time, Seree couldn't say how long. When finally Yaso reached and grabbed her hands, she felt an almost electric jolt. He gently made her let go and turned around, looking at her in the eyes. Seree couldn't describe his expression.

Hopeful? Worried? Scared?

Whatever it was, she was sure he felt as confused as she was at the time. He put his hands on her shoulders, and she realized then she was trembling. At that point she couldn't form a single coherent thought; she stood on her toes, and when she felt his warm breath on her face she closed her eyes, tilting her head slightly. Her heart threatened to leap out of her chest, and when their lips touched she lost herself in the torrent of emotions, with only one thought in her head.

It's real. It's real. It's real!

"Oh, the door's open." Ichigo's voice, but neither Yaso nor Seree noticed.

"Hello? Ito-"

Rukia walked into the apartment, followed by Ichigo, and both of them froze in place when they saw what was happening inside.

"I suppose you're busy." Rukia said in a monotone voice, while both her and Ichigo turned around in a shocked, almost robotic fashion. "Wewillbebacklater..."

"Eh? Ah! Kuchiki-dono!" Seree suddenly exclaimed, blushing so thoroughly it looked like even her hair would turn completely red, as Yaso let her go.

"It's okay, we'll just be on our way..."

"Great timing..." Ichigo murmured.

"They could have closed the door..." Rukia whispered back.