"This is ludicrous," the members of the Central 46 were huffing and sighing behind the screens that were hiding their faces and denoted their ranks. "The situation of Division 9's Captain Muguruma is a matter all its own. For the 1st Division to have two Lieutenants at the same time is entirely inappropriate. To break from tradition so soon after being assigned the seat of Captain-Commander is unacceptable."
Shunsui listened to the incensed murmurs of the Soul Society's administrators with his head down and his arms crossed. He knew they were a stubborn lot, steeped in the traditions that had held as long as the Seireitei and the Gotei 13 existed, but their lack of flexibility was starting to get on his nerves.
"You say you want to promote both 3rd seat Okikiba and Division 8's Lieutenant Ise to the position of 1st Division Lieutenant, but won't Okikiba be enough? After all, bringing Ise with you will leave the 8th Division without any proper leadership. Do you truly intend to weaken another of the Divisions at this point?"
"And furthermore, promoting your Lieutenant from the 8th Division is a clear display of favoritism, is it not? How can you justify a promotion that isn't based on experience and merit?"
"You would be better off giving yourself time to settle into the position before trying to rock the boat like this. What the Gotei 13 needs now is stability, not reckless shuffling of its personnel."
One after another the members of the Central 46 gave their opinions, proving that those screens obscured their view of the world as much as they obscured themselves. Old Yama had the presence and bearing to keep these people out of his business, and now that he was gone, they thought they could finally exert their will in its entirety on the Shinigami forces.
That simply wouldn't do.
"You don't want me to rock the boat, huh?" Shunsui raised his head. He couldn't look these people in the eye to get his point across, so he was going to have to make sure they could hear him clearly. "If you haven't noticed, the boat is taking on water already. Now is not the time to tread lightly." He spoke louder than necessary causing his voice to bounce off the ceiling and walls. Judging by the hush that came over the Central 46, his words reached their ears well enough.
"Lieutenant Ise Nanao has proven herself time and again in her service to the 8th Division. Yes, I admit to playing favorites, however I would not make such a thoughtless decision as to base a promotion on my personal feelings in times like these." He paused to give them time to process, but not long enough for them to get all puffed up to retort, "My plan is to promote 3rd seat Okikiba and have him handle the 1st Division's administrative business. Lieutenant Ise will stay by my side as a personal assistant, offering support where she is needed. I believe this will allow me to focus all of my energy on the war with the Quincies."
A low rumble of irritated whispers rolled out from behind the screens. They should have been realizing that he wouldn't be as easy to bully as they had hoped right about now. Sure enough, they tried to seize control again, "Captain Kyōraku, you cannot simply do as you-"
"All Captains are granted the right to promote and dismiss the members of their Divisions. That was a decision made by the Central 46 itself." Stunned silence. What a joke.
The Central 46 was not a useless gathering of nobles and sycophants. They played an important role in the governance of the Soul Society's Central Branch. But in times like these, when they forgot themselves and tried to seize power beyond the scope of their duties, Shunsui felt he could understand the actions of monsters like Aizen Sōsuke. What a nasty thought.
"We are at war. The Soul Society itself is under threat. This is no time for toothless arguments about what is proper. Our enemy possesses a great power and the willingness to use it to harm our people, so I will do whatever is necessary to defeat them." Shunsui waited for an outburst, or any sort of pushback at all. They thought they were testing him, seeing how far they could extend their influence into his authority, but that was wrong. He never intended to give an ounce of power to them. And the fact of the matter was, he was testing them.
Even as Captain-Commander, his authority had its limits. If he tried to ignore the laws set forth by the Central 46 from the get-go and they weren't receptive, he could have found himself ousted and imprisoned before he could take a single step. This silence-their inability to refute his reasoning-proved that he had the leeway he needed.
"If there are no other arguments, I'd like to get to my first official duty as Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13." The silence in the chamber was deep. They were all holding their breath. Shunsui licked his lips. "I'm going to teach Zaraki Kenpachi how to use that sword of his."
The Central 46 exploded with shouts and cries of terror. "Are you mad?!" One member's quivering voice managed to rise over the terrible noise, "His power already borders on posing a threat to the Soul Society as he is now!"
"And yet he was defeated in the last battle." Shunsui raised his voice. He demanded their attention and they were all too spooked to deny him. "The enemy has the strength to rival that of our Captains. Our two most powerful fighters were defeated by a single man. If you believe our current strength is enough, then you are deluding yourselves." Incensed scoffs died in throats all around. "Zaraki's battle power is our one and only reliable trump card. We can't afford to ignore that."
"Reliable?!" Another member spoke up. He was on his feet, judging by the top of his head poking out from behind the screen. "If that man becomes any more powerful there will be no way to stop him should he turn against the Seireitei! We cannot allow you to do something so dangerous!"
Shunsui sighed. They were resisting more than he was expecting. Fortunately, he had an ace up his sleeve, "So then what do you propose? Can I rely on all of you to repel the next invasion yourselves?" There was a pause and the top of the administrator's head sank back behind the screen.
"Judging by your silence, I assume I have your consent." This was a triumph, to be sure, but Shunsui couldn't smile. They were not wrong about the threat that Zaraki posed as he grew more powerful, but these were desperate times. They would have to risk destruction from one threat in order to protect themselves from another. "Since we're on the same page now, I'd like to introduce you to the Shinigami who will be handling Zaraki's training. Come on in" The soft sound of slippered footsteps echoed in the deathly quiet chamber. The air turned frigid as the Captain of the 4th Division emerged from the shadows. "I'll leave Zaraki to you, Captain Unohana. Or perhaps I should call you the first Kenpachi."
+ Break +
Ichigo burst out of the water gasping for breath. Hot, humid air filled his lungs and the stars crowding his vision slowly receded. This was his third attempt, and while it was his best yet, he was still struggling. Who would have thought the very first step would be so difficult?
"Oh what was that? You almost had it, so why'd you give up?" Squad 0's Kirinji Tenjirō sat beside him, lounging against the rock fixtures surrounding the steaming pool. He was supposed to handle the first step of Ichigo's training, but the only instruction he'd given so far was, 'take a bath'.
Ichigo ran his fingers through his hair and wiped the moisture from his face. The humidity in this place saw it return almost immediately though. This punk with a pompadour was getting less and less supportive with each go. He wasn't even doing any teaching so where did he get off? "I'll get it next time. Just watch."
"You should've gotten it the first time! Come on, kids do this all the time, don't they? It's just a hundred seconds." Easy for him to say. Counting to one hundred before getting out of the bath was normal, but kids didn't usually have to hold their heads underwater the whole time! "You've got a look on your face that says you wanna complain, but keep it to yourself. Whining won't change the fact that you can't hold your breath for only a little over a minute."
"Trying to drown myself won't change that either!"
"Just shut up and try again." Kirinji waved his hand dismissively. "This time, try not to think about the fact you can't breathe. Think about what it is you have to do, and it'll be easy as pie."
Grumbling, Ichigo took a deep breath and cleared his mind. He wasn't clear on the point of this whole exercise, but he came here to train, and if this was part of that training, he'd do it without fail. Never mind the fact that his first instructor looked like a shady gangster.
He closed his eyes and his head sank below the steaming surface. In his previous attempts, he'd tried counting and hyping himself up, but both strategies made the time pass slowly. Thinking of nothing at all worked slightly better, but he could still only manage eighty seconds. This time, he was going to follow the sage advice of his shifty teacher and focus on the reason why he agreed to this training in the first place.
Gaining strength was part of it, obviously. The enemy this time was crazy strong, and not just in terms of how powerful they were. The milky white bars of the Jail sprang to the front of Ichigo's mind. It was abilities like that that he needed to overcome. He had no illusions about his own intelligence. He wasn't stupid, of course, but he wasn't really a thinker when it came down to it. Reasoning his way out of a sticky situation was out of the question for Kurosaki Ichigo, which meant he needed to play to his strengths. In this case, that meant becoming strong enough to brute force any puzzle he found himself stuck in.
Images of his friends, spiritually beaten and injured, sprang to mind. Great strength was just a means to an end, and that end was protecting his friends. He needed strength to keep them out of the fight if at all possible. That was the only way to ensure their safety. They probably wouldn't like hearing that, but he couldn't bear to see the scene on the riverbank play out again. That was more than enough reason to go through with this ridiculous training.
It really was ridiculous, too. He was expecting some conditioning on this first stop, or just something to get his body ready for whatever the rest of the 0 Division had in store for him. But upon arriving at Kirinji's palace, Ichigo found himself in a veritable resort town. There were no wide open spaces or facilities to train in. Instead, the inside of the palace was lined with bath houses and spas. The path was all damp cobblestones winding down a steep hill. Adding the sound of rushing water created a startlingly convincing image of a quaint little village nestled deep in a forest on some mountain. If he weren't supposedly training right now, he would believe this was meant to be a pleasant hot spring vacation.
Ichigo's lungs started to burn and the urge to stand up and take a breath made him tremble, but he wasn't done yet. One hundred seconds was absurd, but how many other absurd obstacles had he overcome through sheer force of will? He was close now, just a few more seconds and he'd be able to hold his head high and demand to get to the real training. His muscles relaxed, he'd definitely exceeded the time limit by now, and he started to push himself up out of the water.
Then somebody pushed him back down. Long fingers wrapped around his neck and held him under the steamy surface. Startled, Ichigo tried to shout, releasing what little air was left in him. Scalding hot water rushed to fill the void, searing his throat and flooding his lungs. He tried to grab at the person holding him, but with the pressure on the back of his neck he could do little else but flail. The burning in his lungs turned molten. He was at his limit.
He stopped waving his arms. He stopped trying to force himself upright. He wouldn't be able to breathe with all that water in his lungs regardless. It must have been Kirinji. That bastard really did want him to drown! He should have known. One hundred seconds was way too unreasonable in a bath this hot. Well, he wasn't dead yet. He needed to take advantage of the fleeting time before he lost consciousness.
With a baleful shout, Ichigo stood . . . and realized that his consciousness wasn't fading at all. He was completely lucid despite inhaling a tremendous amount of water. His eyes bulged and he pawed at his throat as he took a breath and a dry, confused noise escaped from his mouth.
He wasn't coughing up copious amounts of bathwater, nor was he unable to breath. It was as if he hadn't been about to drown just moments ago. The only evidence that he'd been in any danger at all was the scalding heat lingering in his chest. He looked to Kirinji, lounging beside him, for some hint as to what was going on, but the yankee bastard looked back at him like he was an idiot.
"How do you feel?" Kirinji's eyes were augers boring into Ichigo's soul, intent on his response. How was he even supposed to respond to that? The psychopath just tried to kill him and now he wanted to know how he felt? That was the most ridiculous thing he'd said so far!
"I feel . . . fine. Better than fine, actually." It didn't make any sense, but that was the truth. His limbs felt light, his muscles felt rested, his thoughts were clear and so were his sinuses. It was like getting a deep massage, waking up from a much needed night of sleep, and taking a long, hot bath all at once. "What just happened? What did you do to me?"
"In short, I brought your soul back to zero." Kirinji twirled the long oar that was suddenly in his hand and stuck a piece of grass between his teeth, looking smug all the while. "This here's my Zanpakuto. It has a blade, despite appearances, but it isn't really meant for cutting. See, this sword of mine has only one ability; it allows me to congeal my Reiatsu and dispense it. Slapping that stuff on somebody strips away all the impurities they might be carrying around, including injuries. A side effect of that process leaves the soul raw and fresh as the day you were born."
"So, what? You're saying you rubbed your Reiatsu on me? When did you do that?"
The oar-like tip of Kirinji's Zanpakuto glided through the steam, just over the surface of the water. "You've been sitting in it this whole time. My Reiatsu." Ichigo twisted around, looking for something in the water. Only after making two full rotations did he realize what the Squad 0 member was implying.
"This isn't water . . ." Indeed it had a faint spiritual presence, imperceptible until he really looked at it.
"Bingo!" The oar made a loud slapping sound against the surface of the liquid Reiatsu. "Hot springs in the living world operate off of geothermal energy. In the Soul Society, ambient spiritual pressure from all of this world's inhabitants coalesces in pockets that then heat bodies of water. Here, in my palace, my spiritual pressure is both the spring source and the heating element. Pretty cool, right?"
Ichigo met Kirinji's sparkling, prideful smirk with pure irritation, "What's the point of that?!" He drove his fists into the steaming liquid hoping to make clear his frustration, but the spiritual fluid barely made a splash. "You've had me sitting here playing bath time when you could have just told me to rub this stuff on my body? That's what you're telling me?"
"Sure, I could have just told you, but taking a dip in a hot spring relaxes the spirit, body, and mind. And besides, my Reiatsu is more effective when ingested."
"Then why didn't you-" Kirinji raised a hand to cut Ichigo off. He laid back against the rocks, still somehow seeming to look down at him despite being seated.
"If I handed you a jug of liquid Reiatsu that I excreted, then told you to drink it, would you have chugged it no questions asked? I don't think so. If I then told you that, in addition to swallowing this fluid that came from my body, you needed to make sure you inhaled a good amount as well, would you have done so without hesitation? Not a chance."
Ichigo opened his mouth to argue, but everything Kirinji was saying was true. If he'd known about how these springs operated before getting in, he definitely would have tried to back out based on the grossness factor alone. But still, "I would have gotten over it eventually. You didn't have to make it seem like you were trying to drown me."
"Yeah, well, we don't have time for you to acclimate at your own pace," Kirinji scoffed. "What's done is done. Meaning it's just about time I sent you on your way." He stepped out of the bath, beckoning Ichigo to follow
"Wha- Already?!" It couldn't have been more than half an hour since they entered the bath. Ichigo's mouth worked silently as he tried to find the words to object. There was no way it was that simple. Even as he slipped on the robe the royal guardsman tossed his way, he searched for a reason why this training would end so soon. He hadn't insulted Kirinji by questioning his methods, had he?
Stepping out into the artificial night of Kirinji's palace, he decided to hold his tongue. Ichigo himself had been concerned about taking too long in training. He shouldn't complain when things worked out the way he wanted them to. But still . . .
"Quit looking so glum, kid. Not everything has to be a struggle. When things are easier than you expected, you should take it as is." That was . . . actually reassuring. Kirinji might look like a thug, but he said something thoughtful. It was almost enough to make Ichigo change his opinion on the guy. Almost. "That said, you sure took your damn time making it through such an easy trial. The others had a lot more to recover from and they still finished before you."
From a compliment to a criticism. Was it the nature of Shinigami to never just say something nice?
Wait, others?
Before Ichigo could ask what Kirinji meant, they passed through the palace entrance. The bright light of day forced him to shield his eyes.
"It's about time you caught up. We've been standing here forever." Before his eyes could adjust, he heard a familiar voice. Was that Renji? Blinking through the pain, Ichigo forced his eyes to focus on the two people he least expected to appear here.
"What's that look? You didn't think we would just sit back and let others fight our battles for us, did you?" Yeah, that was Rukia all right. Both of them stood wearing the same robe Ichigo wore, looking pretty impatient. "As I recall, you weren't all that injured to begin with, so why did the healing process take so long for you?"
"This kid had some trouble holding his breath, that's all," Kirinji said, messing Ichigo's hair. "I can see you're confused," he said, patting Ichigo on the back, "but explanations will have to wait until you get to your next destination." That light pat turned into a shove sending Ichigo flailing into Rukia and Renji. Almost as soon as he ran into them, the floor beneath their feet fell away, dropping the three of them into a dark hole. Kirinji leaned over the opening and called down, "Give Kirio my regards, okay?"
There was a dull click and a hiss. Then, while Ichigo was still trying to untangle his limbs from the others', the bottom of the hole erupted. An explosive force propelled them out into the air. Ichigo screamed, and he was sure Rukia and Renji did as well, but the wind swallowed the sound. Righting himself was impossible, disoriented as he was, but after a few seconds of soaring helplessly he managed to focus on the world below.
The whole of the Seireitei was spread out before him. It looked . . . different. Of course it did. There were familiar landmarks, sure, but many of them were surrounded by destroyed buildings and rubble. Some of them were rubble. And then there was the massive fortress that had engulfed a sizable area. That he couldn't remember what used to be there made his chest feel tight. He'd only been aware of this place for a couple of years, but it was such a huge part of his life.
His reflection was cut short as the second palace rapidly grew closer. A clearly solid, flat platform screamed into view. Ichigo tried to orient himself for a landing, but their speed was too great. He wasn't going to make it in time. They were going to crash!
Ichigo's back slammed into something, but instead of rebounding off and breaking every bone in his body, he sank in. Was the platform actually made of some super soft pillow? It wasn't pushing them back, so it would be more like a beanbag chair. Either way, he was uninjured. As for the other two, "Are you guys alright?"
"Could be better," came Renji's voice, "Nothing's broken at least."
The muffled sound of Rukia's voice reached his ears, but he couldn't make out what she was saying. She was definitely not happy, though.
Ichigo sighed. Kirinji could have at least warned them that they'd be sent flying. This weird landing pad wouldn't have been necessary if they'd been ready for it. "Well, let's get out of-" The stretchy material surrounding him suddenly jiggled and pressed against his back, throwing him up and out. He landed on the hard platform he was expecting with a thud and a grunt. Rukia and Renji landed beside him, tangled into a ball.
"Get off of me, idiot!" Rukia pried herself away from Renji and scrambled to her feet. "Are you guys just going to lay there all day or what? Let's go find this Kirio person."
"No need for that, dear." Twisting his head around, Ichigo found a plump woman standing over him. He was sure this was one of the Squad 0 members he saw before. "My name is Hikifune Kirio. Welcome to my palace, young Shinigami!" Her voice, like a twittering bird, was surprisingly relaxing. A far cry from Kirinji's thuggish drawl.
Renji leaped to his feet and along with Rukia bowed to the Royal Guardsman. "Thank you for having us today. We'll be in your care!" They bowed again. Ichigo rolled his eyes at that. Going by what he'd seen so far, these guys weren't that big of a deal. They were going to be extremely helpful, sure, but that didn't make them worthy of that level of gratitude.
Standing at his own pace, Ichigo gave the member of Squad 0 his regards, "Right, what he said. Can we begin our training now, Kirio-san? We are kind of on a time limit here."
In stark contrast to the nasty looks he got from Rukia and Renji, Kirio's small smile grew into a wide grin. She giggled as she spoke, "My, you like getting straight to the point. I should think you and Hiyori-chan would get along. But never mind that. You are absolutely right. Follow me, please." With a mirthful jiggle, she crossed over the elastic landing pad and bounced effortlessly onto a platform overhead.
Ichigo grimaced at the contrivance of placing the entrance to the palace so out of the way, but followed without a word of complaint. Kirinji hadn't exactly left him with a lot of confidence in his new mentors, but it looked like Kirio at least would appreciate his haste.
His disappointment when he found himself seated at a table loaded with more food than he'd ever seen in one place, then, was palpable.
"Well? What are you all waiting for? Eat up!" Kirio waved a ridiculously oversized spatula over her head, laughing all the while like this was all some great gag. She must have been very proud, having explained the painstaking process of preparing each dish herself on such short notice while veiled servants set the table. As well she should have been. To call this a feast would be selling the sheer volume of food short. Portions this big just didn't exist outside of manga, and yet there were towers of meat standing taller than Kenpachi, wheels of cheese like monster truck wheels, and loaves of bread that could have doubled as queen sized beds.
"I'm almost afraid to ask, Kirio-san, but how does this qualify as training?" Not that Ichigo wasn't hungry. Just laying eyes on this banquet got his stomach rumbling. Combining that with the titillating aromas made him feel like he'd never eaten anything before and his stomach was eager to make up for lost time.
"Oh that? It's super simple! You see, when I prepare a meal, I add a special ingredient that bolsters your raw souls as you eat. Not only will this strengthen your body, it will also help provide you with much needed resilience for the following stages of your training. Care to guess what my special ingredient is?" She hid a giddy smile behind a plump hand. That was a bad sign. "Give up? It's my Reiatsu, of course!"
"I knew it!" Ichigo held his head in his hands, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes. Another one of these weirdoes was trying to get him to swallow their spiritual power. Was Squad 0 just a group of perverts or what?! "So . . . how much of this will we have to eat in order to move on to the next step?"
"All of it!"
Ichigo's head hit the table with a sound muffled by his hands. Identical sounds from the seats next to him showed that he wasn't the only one to find that daunting. At least she was being upfront about what she was feeding them, unlike a certain sketchy looking hot spring owner.
Kirio slapped the end of the table with her giant spatula, causing the entire spread to bounce up a few inches. "Just so we're clear, my young friends, the sooner you finish, the sooner you will be allowed to move on to the next stage of training. So, dig in already!"
As if the simultaneous growling of their stomachs were a signal, Ichigo, Renji, and Rukia grabbed at the scrumptious looking food and started stuffing their faces.
God, it was delicious.
Each bite brought Ichigo nearly to tears. His old man's cooking barely qualified as food compared to this. It was tragic that it wouldn't last forever. Kirio sounded pretty proud of herself, so if he asked for seconds, she'd bring out another amazing feast for sure! It was all so satisfying that he could lose himself in the experience. If not for the sound of someone choking on her food right beside him, he might have lost himself completely.
Both Rukia and Renji ate quietly, or at least as quietly as someone gorging themselves on delicious food could. They looked . . . fine. None of the self-pitying somberness from the 4th Division barracks remained that he could see, but Ichigo wasn't entirely convinced. They were adamant about wallowing in their failures before, so what changed? Surely being offered a chance to get stronger wouldn't have pushed them this far. There was only one way to find out.
"So you guys dragged your butts out of bed after all. I'm happy for you." He wasn't exactly trying to be patronizing, but he wasn't not trying either. They were going to get their comeuppance for being so stubborn.
Shockingly, Rukia paused, mid-bite, and set the slab of meat thicker than her arm gently on the plate in front of her. Renji, too, stopped licking his fingers. They didn't look angry. Thoughtful, maybe, but not angry. Still, when Rukia turned her eyes on Ichigo, a chill ran up his spine. "You owe us an apology, Ichigo. What you said before was beyond insulting." Renji was looking at him too, and he did look angry now. What the hell?
"Sure. Sorry for helping you get out of that funk. I'll try not to worry about you guys so much next time." Seriously, where did they get off demanding an apology? It was ungrateful is what it was. At the very least they could have led off with a little bit of gratitude.
The startlingly loud sound of a fist crashing into the tabletop was made even more so by the fact that it was Rukia's fist. She took a deep breath to cool down, but even Renji looked surprised. "What you did was far from helpful, Kurosaki Ichigo. You may think you were being considerate, which we appreciate, but the words you said may as well have been a kick in the ribs while we were already down."
"That isn't what I-"
"After you left," Renji cut in, "we wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and sulk, just to spite you. If you think about it, you can understand why, can't you?"
Unbelievable! The way these two were talking it was as if he was putting them down for getting beaten. Why would he ever do something like that? To his friends, no less! "No, I don't think I get it at all. All I wanted to do was get you moving. Seeing you both lying there, looking like you'd lost the will to live, was I supposed to turn around and leave you like that?!" He expected one of them to get mad and argue. That would have been his response, but neither of them so much as opened their mouths. The heat was gone from their eyes, too. The way they were looking at him . . . it was full of pain and disappointment. Sitting under that gaze made his chest tighten painfully.
Rukia sighed, "Let me see if I can put this in a way that you can understand. Let's say you lost an important fight. Someone you care deeply about was hurt or killed. In that position, were someone to tell you that they would cover for you, protect you, would you be able to sit and accept that?" She curled her fingers into a fist again. "'It's alright, don't worry, you don't have to worry about it. Don't bother fighting because I will succeed where you failed' . . . Do you think you could hear that and keep a cool head?" The tightness in Ichigo's chest was unbearable. He lowered his eyes and bit his lip.
"Squad 0 offered us a chance to avenge the Captain's death by our own power. They're willing to fight alongside us, rather than putting us on the bench while they take care of everything." Turning back to the food on his plate, Renji drove the point home, "If you want to motivate people who are down on themselves, then follow their example. It's way better than the crap you tried to pull on us back there."
Blood seeped from Ichigo's lip, the metallic taste overwriting the remnants of the delicious food. He stared at his lap and listened to the sound of his friends eating, much more slowly than before. He never should have said anything. They were doing just fine absorbed in the feast. It would have been awkward after, sure, but now it was more than that. There was tension and irritation there too. What he did . . . what he said to them, that was the kind of thing that ruined friendships, wasn't it?
Why was he like this? Always trying to take care of everything himself, never considering how others might feel about him butting in. Urahara-san was right. All he ever did was laud his own strength over other people. Even back by the river, he didn't really trust Chad and Inoue to hold their own. He wanted them to flee to safety and wait for help to arrive. The only reason he relented then was that he couldn't do anything to stop them. He hadn't actually put any faith in them.
Ichigo clutched his robes tightly between his fingers to keep them from digging into his flesh. He was an idiot, and now two of his closest friends might hate him. He wanted to say something to remedy the situation. There had to be some way to explain himself , to soften his lack of consideration, but all he could say was, "I'm sorry."
He couldn't expect any response to that. Such a simple apology wouldn't make a dent in the debt that he owed them. And yet, Renji chuckled, a short, derisive sort of sound that didn't carry any scorn. Neither of them stopped eating, if anything, they started to pick up speed, but Rukia found the time between bites to utter two wonderful words. "Apology accepted."
Ichigo's eyes shot up and his grip loosened. He scanned their faces for any hint of anger or reluctance, but all he saw there was amusement. They seemed happy. From just that small, insignificant apology? He wanted to cry. His eyes burned with swelling tears, but he blinked them away. He tried to thank them and express his regrets as clearly as possible, but as the sounds rose in his throat he felt sobs bubbling up right behind them. He didn't want to let them see him cry. That might spoil the moment, so he turned back to his own plate and resumed stuffing his face. If he couldn't thank them without choking up, then he'd eat and eat until the sheer joy of their forgiveness wore off. He focused solely on how unbelievably delicious the food was. Though, for some reason, it tasted slightly saltier than it did before.