My companion and I land on a rooftop near the Hollow as it wreaks havoc on downtown Tokyo, the students still latched onto each of us. I shake them off as I get a good look at the Hollow. The shape of it is distinctly scorpion, complete with a stinger, and it seems to be having a meltdown with curses and angered words flying in each and every direction. The destruction is immense, each wave of his tail bringing a new set of costs to the people, and its long, thing legs stab into the ground like a tantruming child stomping his or her foot.

"What the hell is wrong with it?" Bakugou grunts, eyes narrowed in caution. I shrug my shoulders, sweeping the area for potential victims, but the Heroes have done a very good job of getting the people out of the line of fire- and the people are doing an even better job running away from the scene. The area is already evacuated, so now I have less to worry about as far as human life goes, even as the news reporters attempt and fail to get the shots they love.

"You really don't see the sword hanging out its side?" Todoroki states and points to it.

My eyes go straight to it, and my heart stops. It looks like- "Mistress, there!" my companion growls, disappearing in an instant. A body is on the ground, unmoving, and surrounded in blood. But she is, unmistakably, wearing the shihakusho of a Shinigami of the Gotei Thirteen of the Seireitei. One of my own- finally- here to do something, to help me with this world that weighs so heavily on my shoulders. My students jerk forward to help her despite the very clear and very deadly drop to the ground they might not have the skills to survive before the Hollow lets out a roar, and then a cero from its stinger. Red lights my face, even as it connects with a building closeby and it begins to crumble.

I grasp my Zanpakutou's hilt. I face my students, on the edge of the building and say, "Watch and learn, kids. Might be useful in the future." Midoriya and Yaoyorozu exclaim their fear and surprise when I allow myself to fall backwards, wind rushing all around me, blood pumping in my ears.

Body twisting, I put myself between the next cero and a building, using the blade of my Zanpakutou to block the attack as weak as it is. "Must return- must return- must go back- my Lord will be angry- must return-" the Hollow mutters frantically, almost afraid. Its "lord" won't be a problem by the time I'm done with it. It hisses when it spots me, the name of my people more like a curse and plague than anything else. Not that I mind.

I have to put on a show for the people, to make sure they know they're safe. But defeating this Hollow won't be difficult at all. It's a slow creature, taking entirely too many seconds between each attack to hide what it is going to do. My companion stands over the Shinigami girl, acting as a barrier between her and this monster, and even attempting to channel some of our reiatsu into healing Kido.

The stinger knocks some debris into the air, and I wince as an iron pipe from beneath the sidewalk whacks into my side. It tackles me, slamming all of its weight into my body to knock me down. My back hits the ground audibly, and all breath whooshes from my body in a breath that hurts my chest. "Shinigami- why so familiar Shinigami?" it asks, leaning down further. "Wait- you are the first Shinigami who found my Lord's warehouse!"

Warehouse? What the hell?

A pain splits my head for a second as a crystal clear image burns itself into my brain of some abandoned warehouse on a rainy day. I attempt to raise a hand to my head only to find it pinned down. "No matter! I'll just kill you both, and my Lord's warehouse will remain secret! I won't have failed him!" The stinger comes nearer and nearer to my face, the sharp tip barely a centimeter from my eye. I feel four reiatsus spike in concern before my companion is attacking the stinger, keeping it in his mouth as it swings him from side to side. Somehow, he succeeds in staying out of sight of cameras.

I stumble to my feet, a hand on my chest in the hopes it might help me draw breath. The Hollow shrieks and curses at my companion until he disappears, barely unseen by the media yet again. I angle my Zanpakutou, deciding this has been enough so far. The Hollow doesn't stand a chance as I use Shunpo to attack. The blade slices through cleanly.

It disappears. The public claps. I begin moving towards the Shinigami.

Instinctively, I look towards my students as Yaoyorozu's reiatsu flares violently and a new, unfamiliar reiatsu appears. It's menacing, and so much more malevolent than Rosa's reiatsu had been, much more of a throat to my students especially. My gaze catches on something humanoid and holding her so close to the edge; close enough it would only take one movement and she would fall to her death.

Lightning coats my body as I pull her away from him, holding her close to my body. My breaths come out in pants as the others begin to recognize what has happened. He stands tall and cocks his head with a smug smirk, and my gaze falls on the mask fragment at his jaw. "Aren't you a quick one?" he asks, voice deep enough to make me feel like prey in front of me. "I wondered how long you would take to get the girl, but you were so quick I didn't even get to start my counting. Who the hell are you, Shinigami? Must be one of those Onmitsukido bastards, huh?"

"I've never even cooperated with the Onmitsukido," I state, my voice much stronger than I feel as I keep myself between him and my students. Yaoyorozu starts to cry a bit into my shirt, and I gently pass her to Midoriya, who places her behind him and the other two. I stand straight as my companion is on the roof with the girl in seconds, the cameras down below too busy with the damage to pay mind to the fact I'm no longer there, or using my teaching position as an excuse for my sudden departure. "My name is Olaug of the Third Division. Who are you?"

His cyan orbs inform me he has no intention of actually learning my name as a sneer spread across his features, anger flaring ever so briefly. This thing is easily passable as attractive, especially in this particular world, and his hair and eyes match beautifully. The way his body is built- like a warrior god or some shit- is a body anyone would die or kill for, to have for a night or for eternity. But the subtle details, the deepness of his scowl, the clear predatory air he carries, are all another thing entirely to be envied. His portrait could be worth hundreds, millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars.

He flashes to in front of me, using that same damned technique. My mind is immediately jolted, stopping me from checking him out even further despite the lack of distance between us now. His breath is hot on my face as he sneers, "Shit, Shinigami- you don't even know who I am? I'm one of the last Arrancar, you twit, and one of the names that signed your fucking legal document."

Interesting bit of information he's just dropped to me. The old man must be running out of options with these Arrancar, and the sheer power this one holds- if he isn't the strongest, then I have no doubt captains fell in battle to these Arrancar before whatever document forged a truce. I tilt my chin and declare truthfully, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I haven't been in contact with anyone from my home for the last century."

"Interesting..." His eyes flash, and his teeth gleam in front of me. He has a sort of sick pleasure in what I've just stated, some sort of knowledge that I'm fully unaware of. His eyes flick to the ones behind me before dismissing them. For now. "So that means your captain was Ichimaru, hunh? What was the name again?"

He must know what happened to my captain. He knows how my captain- why he isn't here anymore. And I'll get it out of him, one way or another. I mean for my voice to come out angry and demanding, but it instead sounds scratchy, breathy, just like the tears I'm holding back so that I whisper, "Olaug."

The smile he has is sick, stretching his skin until it bites into the mask fragment at his jaw like some sort of dimple. "You're the Mouse. His Mouse. Oh, they loved to tease him about his little Mouse, who fetched for him, who doted on him, who did every little thing he ever asked for," he guffaws, leaning back, standing at his full height that easily towers over me. I feel Todoroki inch towards me, protection and the sheer arrogance of believing he can win obvious in his guarded gaze. Then his voice drops, and he comes right next to my ear to ask, "Tell me, did you ever suck his cock like a good little Mouse?"

Gritting my teeth, I reach out and wrap my hand around his neck, blade biting into the skin at his belly where his Hollow hole is. Blood hot, I hiss, "I'm no one's anything. And you ever disrespect the professional relationship my captain and I have, you won't live long enough to regret it."

His hand wraps around my Zanpakutou, and he easily moves it away from his body despite my best effort. His cocky attitude makes me wish I'd just stabbed him immediately. He looks off to the side, expression bored, and sighs. He looks to my students once more, and I see how it clicks in his head what their roles are and just how little he cares about the number of rules I'm clearly breaking. "I'd love to fight you, Mouse, but I think I should go. Kurosaki over there needs your help. Do be good to her, and you might be forgiven by your Gotei captain assholes and spared execution."

"We are not-" He disappears by using that same technique, and I don't have the energy or time to run after him. Gritting my teeth, I turn from him and to my students, and the girl bleeding out on the ground. "Tell no one about her for now. We're going to my home, so don't be obnoxious," I command, lifting her up by the waist.

Aizen is just sitting there, like he has for the last twenty years since his defeat at the hands of Kurosaki and Urahara. Toshiro storms in, looking and feeling every inch the captain he is, projecting it out so not one Soul asks him a question about his intentions or what he's doing. His cold reiatsu declares his business is official, maybe even personal, and the scars he has from just this man alone start to itch in spite of their age. Nothing about him is friendly. Nothing about him is understanding. The unfeeling, cold, detached Shinigami captain stands before the traitorous son of a bitch.

The former captain lifts his head lazily, almost as if in greeting of a good friend. "Hitsugaya," he almost purrs. "What do I owe this honor?"

"Olaug."

The name alone sparks nothing in his gaze, even as it almost pains Toshiro to say it out loud again, to remember her and how this man may damn well be connected to her, may know where the fuck she has been for almost two centuries. Not that she'd even recognize Toshiro if she saw him right now. Aizen tilts his head, eyes upward, and he hums deep in his throat.

Toshiro grits out, "Olaug of the Third Division, the Mouse."

Now he remembers. "Ah. Ichimaru's pet." His blood boils at those words. At the idea he can debase her as an individual to being nothing more than a baseless animal- a domesticated thing. "A shame what happened to her. Wasn't she killed on a mission? Hollow extermination?"

He's really going to pretend he doesn't fucking know? Toshiro's anger gets the best of him for a second, and his reiatsu freezes the ground surrounding the two of them, including Aizen's feet. Only the chains holding him down are unaffected.

"Olaug's intuition was always right." She was almost known for it- some even attributed it to her name of "mouse" because a mouse had to rely on strong instincts to survive as something so low on the food chain. He remembers it too well for that to be a lie. "And she despised the way she felt around you. I always waved her off, wrote it off as one time her instincts were wrong, but now? Now I know that isn't the case. What did you do to her? Was she an experiment?"

Aizen tilts his head, almost as if in an attempt to remember, but the answer is there in his gaze. Toshiro releases a breath, even as the rest of his body tenses up. "The Mouse was hardly on my scale of things to be concerned with. She was a trifle, nothing more, and so I never treated her as anything more than that. Ichimaru insisted she was meant to be Someone, capital S, but I never saw it. She wouldn't have been strong enough to be a worthy experiment, and she would have been greatly missed," he states, blissfully unaware that instead of riling the young captain even further, he actually helped in calming him down.

If she was never this son of a bitch's experiment, then she couldn't have suffered too badly. She couldn't be hiding from shame, from rejection. Still, Toshiro draws his arm back, and the punch Aizen takes is enough to draw blood from the former captain and to split the knuckles of Toshiro's fist. A quick Shunpo leads Toshiro out of the prison and outside. Even if he was wrong about what he thought of her, at least he didn't touch her.

Something to be grateful for, most certainly. But now we have no other leads.

We'll discuss it again with Karin. Later.

"Okay. I've done all I can," I say, pulling the mask from the bottom half of my face and setting the needle and thread down. My students have green tinted faces, even as they bravely try to stay with me and learn from this. I push the Shinigami back down onto my blood stained blue sheets and pull the blanket up. A note is already at her bedside, just in case.

They're in the living room by the time I close my bedroom door, finding somewhere to be to process what's happened today. An awful lot, between seeing a Hollow so close, the Arrancar, and the girl lying in my bed. Bakugou is surprisingly quiet, staring at the ground, brow furrowed in concentration as his red eyes swim with the memories. Yaoyorozu is still shell shocked, still processing her own near death experience, the rush of my Shunpo, and the girl. Midoriya is staring blankly ahead, afraid almost, as if only now fully realizing just how terrifying Hollows are.

It's not surprise that Todoroki asks, "So are you going to tell us what the hell just happened or not?"

My name is Olaug of the Third Division. My captain is Ichimaru Gin. I'm a Shinigami.

My mouth goes dry as I realize this is it. This is the moment of truth. I walk past them and into my kitchen to the highest cabinet, pulling out a bottle of tequila and the clear, clean shot glass next to it. I pour a shot and take it back easily, grimacing at the burn. "Anyone else want a drink before I start? You might feel better about it," I offer, knowing damn well they're minors and this could get me in trouble with their parents and the school.

My name is Olaug of the Third Division. My captain is Ichimaru Gin. I'm a Shinigami.

Silence, and then it's Yaoyorozu moving towards the counter. I pour it out for her, and she sips it slowly at first, almost like a cup of tea, then faster, like the first drink of a coke bottle, until all of it is in her system. She sets the glass down, coughing lightly with the glistening of tears in her eyes. "I respect that," I tell her honestly and pour another one to throw back for myself. "Anyone else? Last chance."

My name is Olaug of the Third Division. My captain is Ichimaru Gin. I'm a Shinigami. My name is Olaug of the Third Division. My captain is Ichimaru Gin. I'm a Shinigami.

My name is Olaug of the Third Division. My captain is Ichimaru Gin. I'm a Shinigami.

No one says anything, I put it up where it goes. "Sit down on the couch, all of you." My students obey, and they subconsciously get in order. I try not to smile at that as I run my hands through my hair. It's too long. I need to just cut it again. Chains clink together as I pull it up and out of the way entirely, forming a rough bun. I lean against the entertainment center and state, as honest as I can, "I am not from this world."

Disbelief etches their features, and they exchange glances, even as a faint flush rises on the female student's face. It's only a light buzz, one that will fade quickly, and I soon catch Midoriya staring at the ground with his jaw clenched. Bakugou asks, "So you're like a fuckin' alien or some shit?"

"Not quite. You've heard the Hollows call me it for years. I'm a Shinigami."

"Like a fuckin' death god?"

"Yes," I reply with a straight face. "In actuality, I died well over two hundred and fifty years ago, was reborn as a Soul, and have lived since. I don't remember my life as a Human. And before you ask how I know I'm not Human, shut up and let me talk."

To my astonishment, they do. Patiently, they await for me to continue. I run my fingers through my hair. "I was born in the Thirtieth District of Eastern Rukongai, an area not too poor, but not wealthy enough to actively attend to the orphans running the streets. For all of my childhood, I had to rely on the kindness of adults, or on the stinginess of adults who refused to waste. I had to fight for food, for shelter, for the right to survive. I never had a mother or a father, that I know of anyway, but I was better off than a lot of people. My biggest threats were other orphans, and those are much better odds than the Eightieth District, where my opponents would be orphans, murderers, rapists, and any other form of scum you can think of."

I tell them about it all. About how the Seireitei functions, about the Gotei Thirteen, about the relationship between Rukongai and the Gotei, and then about my role in it all. I lift my Zanpakutou and hold him closely to me, and he makes a pleased noise in the back of my mind. "The best chance for a Soul to avoid being eaten by a Hollow is to become a Shinigami, to obtain a Zanpakutou, and to learn how to use it. But a Soul has to have a certain level of reiatsu for that to happen, and I'm one of the lucky Souls who has that level. I went to Shino to learn to be a Shinigami, and then sold my life to the Gotei Thirteen.

"Our job is to protect all Souls, regardless of what they've done. Some Souls can't come to the Soul Society and Hell drags them away kicking and screaming. Some are corrupted and turned into Hollows, doomed to eternal hunger or cleansing at my blade. Notice that word: cleansing. We don't kill Hollows. We cleanse them, and their Souls are finally allowed to move on. We routinely go to the World of the Living to search for Souls or to cleanse deadly Hollows. I will say 'kill' or 'exterminate' a Hollow, but only because it's what the eye sees and how the brain processes it.

"And how do I know I'm dead? Because if I were to go to the World of Living, where everyone is, as you call them, Quirkless, none of them would see me. None of them would talk to me, none of them would know I was existing in any form at all. And when someone dies and finds trouble in moving on, then no one can see them either. No one knows they exist in that form. And I have to send them on, whether they're ready or not."

My breath catches in my throat when I feel a flicker of reiatsu from outside, but it vanishes without a trace. Nothing too threatening then. I turn back to my students to find them catching up on this information, processing it. "If you have a question, now is a time to ask it," I say softly, deciding that's enough for today. They've been through enough, and it may have been wrong of me to answer their questions so soon.

Yaoyorozu asks, "Do we have to die to be like you?"

"Yes, you have to die," I tell her bluntly, "but it won't be like me. From studying Souls here and the unnatural levels of reishi, I know I can separate you from your body and unlock the Shinigami powers within you because you far and away exceed the level necessary. You'll be able to return to your bodies. So you'll be dead, but your body won't know it. I don't know how this will affect your aging process."

She goes quiet, her fears quelled for now. But Midoriya hesitantly lifts his head to ask, "So this is why you're so lonely all the time?" It attacks me suddenly, and I feel like I can't breathe for five seconds. "Because you've had to keep such a huge secret to yourself for so long? Because you know you'll take so much longer to age and die compared to everyone else? Because... because you never had a family, and what-what you had that resembled a home is gone now too?"

"It's much more complex than that, Midoriya," I tell him softly, forcing the tears back where they belong. "So much more complex that I don't think I can explain it without presenting more of an overload than you already have. I think that'll be it for today, okay, kids?"

"No." Bakugou's red eyes gut me as they narrow. "I have a fucking question. So you're training us to be these shitty fuckin' Shinigami, and from what you've said so far, it seems like there's something else you're not fuckin' tellin' us. If it were so fucking easy to make more Shinigami, then you fucking would have."

Todoroki catches on, and his dual colored eyes fall onto me with interest and some degree of worry. "Which means it either has to do with the Gotei, your personal health, or a risk we don't yet know of."

I look away and sigh. I can't just lie to them. I have to maintain their trust. But I can't tell them the truth and let them put themselves at risk either. Shit. "I... know you'll survive becoming Shinigami- I could do it right now and you'd only be out for a few days at most afterward. A few hours minimum. My health is fine, even if I'm considerably weaker than you four. But it is against the law of the Gotei Thirteen to do this. My intention is to pass some of my power to you and awaken the abilities within you."

That's my plan, because it will work. I may have made everyone forget, even the history books, but she did it. She did it. She had considerably less reiatsu than everyone here, and she maintained those Hollow abilities until her death forty years later. Her death at my hands. Somehow their reiatsu sticks onto the powers of Souls. And that mistake, the one I lie to everyone about, even myself sometimes, is testament enough too. "And the punishment?" Todoroki asks, gaze hard as he breaks me from my thoughts.

I refuse to meet that gaze. "Death," I answer. "But it's been a hundred and eighty years. They're not going to find me. They're not going to come for me. I'm just a memory, someone who was loyal, someone who died. It doesn't matter anymore. And besides, this is for the betterment of all Souls. My death is a small price to pay, and by that point...

"By that point, I don't think it will be possible for them to kill you."

Shouto rolls over in his bed, hoping to find comfort in his pillows. The statement was met with silence, incredulous silence, aggravated silence, and then the slamming of a door as Bakugou stormed out, and the disappointment of Midoriya, of Yaoyorozu, until just the two of them were in her living room staring at one another. Her quiet acceptance of an improbable death, and his disproportionate storm of pride and disappointment. How can a woman like that just accept death?

Because she's already dead, you moron.

He rolls again, tossing his blanket off as it gets too hot. Goddamn it, why was she like this? The Immortal Hero- not so fucking immortal now, huh? There's no point in this stupid training bullshit if she just up and dies in the middle of it. Hopefully this doesn't all come to kill him anyway. Well, kill him more than she already plans to kill him so the power can come out fully or whatever bullshit it is.

What gives her the right anyway? No one gave her the fucking right because her organization- those Gotei fellows- made it against the law and punishable by death. It wouldn't be right. But if it results in her death, then just how is she justifying training them? Other than that she needs someone to carry on her legacy, but why four of them? Why the four of them now?

Goddamn it, he had fewer questions when he knew less.

It was easier to sleep too.

His phone lights up to a hesitant text from Yaoyorozu into their groupchat. The only two who ever speak in it are Yaoyorozu and Midoriya, and even then it is incredibly rare to see a text from either one of them that isn't a question. Shouto stares at his ceiling, contemplating, before picking up his phone and unlocking it to read the text.

Anyone awake? -YM

She signs her texts, just in case one of them doesn't have her number saved. Shouto only does because Olaug insisted, and to piss his father off some more. However, it wouldn't be a surprise if Bakugou didn't have her number saved.

His phone vibrates again. Midoriya.

Can't sleep either. Too many questions.

Shouto stares at the text messages open on his phone and releases a breath. He doesn't care for either one of them, but the intelligence of this group is higher than Mount Everest. If anyone can string together halfway accurate theories, it would be the four of them collectively. Before he can suggest a group call or otherwise, Bakugou's text comes through.

Shitty bastards. I can't fucking sleep, so if you're going to fucking bother me, bother me in fucking person.

The dual colored male stares at his location as it comes through and drops his phone to his chest. He hates this feeling of not knowing. Not knowing is... a shitty thing to feel. Especially when it comes from Olaug, who hasn't necessarily lied to him and, despite making him one of her successors, looks at him as a human first and a thing last. Shouto throws the thing cloth he calls a blanket to the side and reaches his closet to take out some clothes.

It takes almost no time to find Bakugou, sitting in a park with a thin jacket and seeming to shiver. His form is hunched over, eyes narrowed in focus, and a frown deep on his lips. "Bakugou," he calls, and the blonde jerks up. "Anyone else here?"

"Tch. Didn't think you'd be such a fucking irritating bitch, half 'n' half," Bakugou bites back without answering, enough of an answer in itself. No one is just yet, because if Shouto is bothered by this, no doubt the other two are, who show much more emotion than Shouto himself. "Well? What's your fuckin' thoughts on this shitty mess?"

Shouto is quiet, deciding whether he wants to answer the question or simply leave it where it is. As he spots Midoriya walking towards them with a clearly upset expression and a soft greeting, the small male is going to make his opinion heard and clear. "I think she's still hiding more from us, and I don't know if we want to find it out or leave it where it is," he states simply, closing his eyes with a heavy sigh.

"No shit, Deku," Bakugou growls, annoyed. "They're willing to kill her because she is teaching us about Shinigami, and they're willing to kill us for learning about how to be Shinigami. What the fuck you think they're gonna fuckin' do to every other fucking weakling who fuckin' knows of her?"

He has a point. Just where would these men stop?

"And," Yaoyorozu murmurs as she enters the same light, her face down, "she said they're not going to find her. But things are so very clearly changing. Arrancar, a form of Hollow she's never seen before when she cleanses them for a living, have shown up and begun wreaking havoc. She's found not one, not two, but four people to be her successors. Add to it, think of how similar the clothes that woman wore are compared to Miss East's costumes throughout the ages."

The woman. He nearly forgot about her. Shouto hadn't given her much thought, but Yaoyorozu brings up an excellent point. Throughout her entire career, Olaug has stuck to a theme and only allowed minimal changes to her costume. No one has been entirely sure why for ages, but now it makes sense. "If she's a high ranking official, she could end Olaug's life as soon as she wakes up," Shouto points out.

"Bullshit she can," Bakugou says, his voice raising in volume as he jumps to his feet. Shouto's vision is filled with Bakugou's face as his lips are drawn back in a threatening sneer, red eyes almost overcome with anger. "No one can fucking kill Miss East or Olaug, and that shitty teacher better get used to the fucking idea she's fucking stuck here until I fucking say so!"

"We don't want her to die, Kacchan," Midoriya murmurs, quiet but seeming to be a scream a conversation of this caliber. Bakugou turns to him, redirecting his emotions. "Bu-but Todoroki is right... If that woman is high enough, then Miss East will not be so easily forgiven..."

Yaoyorozu is on the verge of tears. "So-so what do we do?"

"Not concern yourself with such matters," a voice interrupts smoothly behind them. The man is dressed in all black, and a hood obscures most of his face even as silver hair glints in the light. "Olaug wouldn't want you so worked up over something like that. She's always aware of the risks she takes, even when you're not. Something I've learned in my long time of knowing her is this: Olaug will not give up unless she has no choice, not before and not after."

"But if she's high ranking enough-"

"She isn't," he interrupts, and Shouto can see a smile on his face. "Kurosaki Karin isn't even an official member of the Gotei, not if she followed her brother's footsteps. And, if she was raised anything like he was raised, she'll see the reason to training you four and fight against the Gotei itself when the time comes. She'll befriend Olaug, and the two will be a force to be reckoned with. So stop ya worryin', go home, and rest while ya have the chance. Ya can't be kids forever."

Shouto watches him turn his back and begin walking away, having said his piece, but the air around the man feels so... strange. "Why are you doing that?" Yaoyorozu asks, grimacing. "That-that thing with the air. It's hiding you, isn't it? I can feel the way you move it-"

"'It' is called 'reishi,'" he supplies, still walking away. "You'll learn to do the same thing, only better than I can. Good luck on your studies, and make sure to get some rest."

It isn't much, and it maybe left him with even more questions, but Shouto feels something close to relief at his words. He called the woman by name, and he knows of her family. How does he know all that? Shouto doesn't want to know for now, and it isn't really his business anyway. At least Olaug is safe, even if it is only temporary. And that is enough to lift something from his shoulders and his chest.

It might be nothing. It just... it just might be nothing.