Ichigo didn't sleep much the night before.

She simply couldn't seem to manage to doze off at all due to the fact that she'd felt it again. That weird feeling that sent chills down her spine and made the hair on the back of her neck stand up in warning and put her on guard.

She'd been feeling it more and more lately. During random times of the day and night, when she was out and about. And had even sacrificed several of her late nights searching for the source of it since it seemed to be attached to the general vicinity that she lived in. So, it was only natural for her to assume that it would be found easily.

Right?

Nope. Wrong.

There were so many people in the city with spirit energy that pinpointing the exact person or location that she was getting the feeling from was next to impossible for her. But that didn't mean that she didn't try her damnedest to find it/them anyways.

She'd searched every place that she could think of both high and low in an effort to find it- the person, place, thing, or entity- and had come up with absolutely nothing at all to show for it.

And to make matters even more frustrating for her, in recent weeks she had not only felt eyes watching her, but someone had even followed her to her home earlier too.

She'd hidden herself inside of the door, once she'd been inside her house and used the small window there to see if she could find whoever had dared to follow her home. But all she had seen were shadows moving in the place where she'd sensed the unknown entity before it had left.

After that, she'd spent the rest of her night trying to relax since the possibly threat had passed without doing any harm, but her instincts had been on alert. So relaxing had been the absolute last thing on her mind.

She'd tried to watch her TV for a bit to distract herself, but most of what she had found had been about the bus incident. From what she could tell from what little bit she had seen of the news reports- the body count kept rising.

Which wasn't all that unusual when a vehicle with a lot of passengers and dead driver plowed into a building full of innocent people.

It was a small consolation to her, given how many people had actually been injured and killed thus far. But she was happy that she'd at least managed to save the elderly couple that had been right in the speeding bus's path, earlier in the day.

If nothing else...she hadn't totally failed every one of the buses victims.

Someone had survived and actually managed to go home.

"At least one family is whole right now." She muttered to herself before muting her TV and just sitting there, staring at it blankly.

She didn't know how long she had sat there just staring. But obviously she'd been there all night since her alarm in the bedroom suddenly went off signaling the beginning of a new day.

After that, she'd gotten up and went about her usual morning routine.

She showered, dressed, and did something with her hair. After that she'd went into her kitchen and grabbed a granola bar and a juice box and then put on her jacket, her shoes, and grabbed her wallet and keys and then left her home for work.

She walked briskly towards her workplace, not really in a rush to get there except that it was pretty cold outside right then and hurrying seemed to be in her best interest if she wanted to get indoors again.

Heaters were nice things when it felt like the world was going through another fucking ice age right then.

She should have known that something was off as soon as she stepped through the door. And to an extent, she did. She got that feeling again as she passed through the lobby after politely saying hello to the receptionist and a few other of her co-workers that she was on friendly terms with.

However, the feeling systematically got stronger the further into the building she got.

She totally bypassed the elevator and decided to take the stairs. Since she hadn't wanted to trap herself in a box that relied on cables to move up and down. Especially if she came under attack.

It would not only put her at serious risk, but others too if she trapped herself in one. And she didn't want that.

Upon reaching her floor, she walked down the long hall to her office and paused at her secretary's desk for a moment when she noticed the vase of flowers sitting on it.

"Oh! Ichigo, good morning!" Her secretary suddenly said when she finally noticed her standing there glaring at the flowers.

"Morning, Hana." She greeted politely before asking curiously, "Is today your birthday?"

"Huh? No ma'am. My birthday is in March." The woman said with a smile. Ichigo merely nodded her head and filed the information away for later before then asking her.

"Did someone die then?"

Hana looked startled by that question. Not that Ichigo could blame her any.

Though one of the few times the office had ever gotten flowers was because someone had died rather suddenly without any warning. So, it was a fair question to ask even if it probably wasn't the right one.

"Uh... N-No, ma'am."

"Then where did the flowers come from?" She asked as she craned her neck to get a better look at the large arrangement.

Now, don't get her wrong, Ichigo liked flowers well enough. She'd never really gotten any from a boyfriend, lover or under any other circumstances, but she still liked them.

Probably because to her they hinted they practically wreaked self-indulgence and luxury.

Something that she never really indulged in any considering how simple she preferred to keep things. Keeping things simple and modest was literally her life motto.

And she took her motto as seriously as possible to keep her life as uncomplicated as possible. But that didn't mean that she couldn't appreciate the beauty of the arrangement. Or the various fragrant and colorful blooms that it was made up of.

She had always considered roses to be lovely. Even if they sort of reminded her of her mother's funeral a little bit. But the arrangement wasn't just made up of roses. It also held hints of some lavender, baby's breath, and lilies.

All in all, it was an elegant and beautiful arrangement. But it was ill suited for an office where it couldn't be appreciated to the fullest.

Finally, Hana managed to get out the words, "Oh the flowers are for you." The woman said as she grabbed something that looked suspiciously like a card and held it up for her to take.

She felt that it totally wasn't weird in the slightest how she reacted to the card as if it were going to come alive and bite her before finally reaching out and taking it from the woman.

Hana continued to smile at her as she slowly turned the card over in her hand and gulped a little bit while she scanned the neatly scrawled cursive writing.

There wasn't much to the card aside from the simple words.

These flowers are a small token from me; to you. Your Secret Admirer.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down since the note came across as far more stalkerish than her 'Admirer' had likely intended. Then again... if her secret admirer was a stalker of some sort, then maybe she could track him down using the delivery company he'd used and nip this nonsense in the bud before it snowballed into a kidnapping attempt or something.

She really didn't need any more of those. Especially since she had more than enough attempted kidnappings occurring every other week or so already... Although if she were totally honest with herself, having them happen so that she could put the fear of god into people was usually the highlight of her week.

"Hana who delivered the flowers?" She asked in a dark, almost growling tone.

The woman was quiet for a moment and seemed to be deliberating with herself over something. But finally, she opened her mouth to reply at the same exact moment her office door opened and a tall, gorgeous man with dark red hair and green eyes peeked out and asked in a soft, velvety voice, "Is there a problem here?"

Ichigo's jaw dropped open in shock.

Mostly because she recognized the guy as the one that had bought her company a little while back and merged it with his own. Which made him her boss.

The infamous Shuichi Minimoto had to be not only one of the most stunningly beautiful men that she'd ever seen before. But he was brilliant too. So much so that he'd inherited his stepfather's company upon his retirement, several years ago.

So naturally, his presence here and now, was more than a tad bit shocking to her.

Especially since he'd not come to visit or even get into contact with her since he bought her company from her.

She heard Hana giggle in amusement as he stepped out of her office completely and move to stand a few inches from her while the woman practically crowed in glee in-between laughs. "Look at her face! I didn't tell her anything! Just like you asked, Minimoto-san."

He smiled at Hana and said something to her before then turning to her and trying to engage in conversation with her.

But Ichigo was a tad bit busy having an out of body experience, so she wasn't paying attention right then enough to catch what he was saying anyways. Much less give a damn. Her mind was being pulled in so many directions that it was a wonder that she hadn't just screamed yet.

And then there was that damned feeling, nagging at her from the back of her mind. It had intensified exponentially in the past few moments, and she still couldn't pinpoint the cause of it much less its exact location!

Which was probably why she missed the flash of concern in her boss's expression as he waved a hand in front of her face in an effort to get her attention.

And when she hadn't reacted to that, there had been a brief strange look cross his face.

She only snapped back to attention again when she felt his hand wrap around her upper arm- because of the electric shock that went through her- a second or so before he excused them both and began to drag her away from the safety of Hana's desk, and the woman's prying eyes.