Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, so please no suing involved. I'm just a fan who loved the show so much and incidentally found a little bit of an opening and ripped it open.

"Ichigo…" Rukia looked at the orange haired male who looked like he was more irritated than upset.

"Listen I would much rather not go to this stupid funeral." He muttered then sighed. " But it will have to be you guys to hold things down while I'm in Osaka." He looked at the group.

"Are you saying compared to you we're incompetent?" The annoyed tone of a familiar red head

"Of course I am…" Ichigo replied lazily.

"You mustn't have been close to your father's mother then?"

"Just lets drop it." He snapped and only then realizing how quiet the room had gotten. "I'm leaving to pack."

That had been the last time he'd spent time with his circle of friends. He'd snapped at them all unnecessarily. Glancing around those who rode on the same train as he had he could see majority of them were asleep. Sure many of the businessmen and women were awake on their laptops, headphones plugged into the illuminated screen, but his family were out. His father was drooling all over himself, Yuzu managed to suck on three of her fingers, a habit Ichigo assumed long gone and Karen wore a frown that he had grown accustomed to seeing when he looked at his own face in the mirror, the same frown his friends made habit of mocking him about.

With a defeated sigh he began to think there really was no harm in telling the others about why he wasn't so keen on going to the funeral. There was no harm in the fact that when his mother died he'd heard the old woman call his mother "Stupid" and such… Isn't when a person die all those negative feelings supposed to go away? Isn't that when you realize you never really truly appreciated the person as much as you could have?

"Ichi-Ni." Yuzu looked up at him with sleepy eyes. "Is something wrong?"

"No…" His frown softened a little bit. "I'm not tired."

"Try to sleep a little" She cooed in a motherly tone. "Even just a little. Tomorrow we'll make it to Ayame's home then right to the…"

"I know…" He replied taking a deep breath and closed her eyes knowing she wouldn't try to sleep unless he gave it a shot. What he hadn't expected was for the girl to move the armrest separating them and snuggle up against him in an uncharacteristic way.

As to be expected, Once he let himself succumb to sleep the night passed quickly, but the following day seemed to drag. Once they'd made it to Ayame's tiny apartment there was enough time to eat, change and keep moving. The ceremony following took forever. Is it possible that having death surround him since that day he'd accepted being a Shinigami Representative that death and things of the matter made him numb. The sound of despair that wrecked through the bodies of those who were close with her didn't truly his a pang in his heart as much as it might have years ago.

"Ichigo…." A soft voice called to him. His gaze fell onto the petit form of none other than Kurosaki Ayame. She really looked so much slimmer in real life. "We've not the chance to speak yet… with all the rushing about." She smiled at him a bit weakly, of course around the eyes her sadness was a bit more obvious, with good reason of course. When the girl wasn't off practicing about she lived with the now deceased woman.

"No, I guess we hadn't." He turned his gaze back out the window of the tiny apartment to look at the line of street lights down the street.

"You still look evil." She chuckled as he looked back at her his eyebrows scrunched in the middle. "So, you have a girlfriend yet?" She watched his face change in emotion before he answered with a simple…
"No."

"I see…" She moved and propped herself against the counter. "I will be leaving this house…" She whispered softly. "Maiku has gone off to be with his fiancée for the time we have off, so I suppose it's only time I move on and find a place to survive before I got back into strenuous training."

"What are you getting at?" In the back of his mind he wondered if she'd even consider moving to his neck of the woods….so to speak.

"Nothing." Ayame replied quickly darting her eyes to her feet as Ichigo's eyes drifted in her general direction. After finding she'd say no more, nor do anything to bring attention to herself his gaze went back to look at the street lights once more."You know…" She started breaking the simple silence. "They recorded her dying of heart failure…" She stood and stretched. "But that's far from it Ichigo… Grandma… she was murdered. The murderer gone now… but he had a reason. And I swear I'm going to find out why she was murdered." She took several steps away from him and was nearing the exit from the kitchen and the entrance to the living room.

"Why are you telling me? You know how I feel about that woman." As soon as he'd said it he wish he had some more tact to him. He could just see her flinch in the back of his mind.

"I'm telling you because if I wind up having my own funeral…I need someone to know… I don't want to be buried… I want my body burned and tossed into the wind off mount Fuji…"

"Ayame…" Ichigo turned to look at her but she was already gone. Really… above all else why did she have to inform HIM of all people.