Chapter 7
Next day
Soft footsteps from outside his room, awoke him. Akihiko had shown him the room yesterday after he had awoken from his nap with Kameko. Akihiko had taken Kameko from him and left him to relax. He thought he wouldn't have been able to sleep, but it seems that his body betrayed him.
Sitting up on his futon, he decided to keep his eyes closed. Because what was the point of opening them if he couldn't see? His spirits reprimanded him, stating that he would be able to see in about a year's time. That was too long. He needed to be able to see as soon as he could, so he could disappear from the Shiba estate. He couldn't drag them into his problems. Besides his problems is not something anyone else, but himself should carry. It would be too much for them. He knew this because when he tried to confide in others before, he lost everything. He had seen how Kisuke was before he was sent here. Dark bags under his eyes, hallowed cheeks from loosing weight, his eyes seeming to have lost all hope, and even his witty jokes had long since vanished. All because of him. Then there was Ishida. Uryu's dad, who got dragged into his problems out of a promise from his own father and Uryu's death. He sucked in a ragged breath as their deaths bubbled to the surface.
Zangetsu jumped to the front of his memories and thoughts.
Get up Ichigo. Retreat and you will age. Hesitate and…
You will die. I know Zangetsu.
Apparently you don't King. He scowled.
What do you mean? Are you telling me that I am running away?
That is exactly what I am saying King. And if you run away, I will take over and became the King.
Ichigo, you wanting to leave this place is you running away. They remind you too much of them don't they?
You're wrong! I don't want to drag them into this. This is my problem and mine only.
You are making this your problem. It is our problem also, because we don't want you to suffer. He opened his mouth then snapped it shut. Sighing, he threw off the futon cover and stood up, snatching the blade from beside him.
We will talk about this later. He made his way quietly to the door and slid the sliding door open. Stepping out into the hall, he listened for any movement. With no sound presently close to him, he reached out with a sliver of reiatsu. There was a total of four people around him in different rooms. All of them sleeping peacefully. There was Akihiko about two doors down, Chiyo across from Akihiko, then Shin and Kameko farther down. Reaching farther out, he felt the bustle of servants and guards around the house.
Assuming where the kitchen was, he made his way there silently. Careful to remain in the middle of the hallway. He did not want a repeat of what happened when he first woke up. His hip ached at the thought of it.
Using his sliver of reiatsu, he was roughly able to determine if something was near him. Nearing his intended destination of the kitchen, he reached a small door off to the side of the hallway. Inside he could hear the bustle of people, the clatter of cooking utensils and the underlying buzz of conversation. It brought back both happy and sad memories.
He remembered when it was Yuzu commandeering her own kitchen. She was was the head chef of her own restaurant. He was so proud of her, even if she didn't know it. The only thing she knew was that he was gone. Gone from the family, but still watching over them. Shaking off the upcoming emotions, he slid open the door silently, and snuck in, standing near the door. He hoped he was not spotted. The sudden silence when he closed the door meant that his wish did not happen.
He stood there staring along with the kitchen staff at the intruder in the kitchen. His shockingly long orange hair an obvious give away. His eyes closed with the scars across his eyes not deterring from his looks, but enhancing them. The male stood there awkwardly as no sound was made from anyone. He gave a small cough, a light blush across his cheeks in embarrassment, but it quickly faded away. All previous embarrassment replaced with calmness.
"I apologize for intruding, but I was wondering if I was able to make my own meal?" Shaking himself out of his stupor, he roused the kitchen staff into working again before anything burned. Making his way over to the male, he stood a few steps away from him. The male's hand resting on his black blade a deterrence from approaching to close. He had worked with Kirinji-san to heal the boy, and saw him then. He had also caught a glimpse of him when he was dining with Chiyo-sama. As did the rest of the kitchen staff. That was the main conversation of this morning. No one knew what to do with this new family member that was going to be staying in the Shiba household.
"What can I do for you Ichigo-sama?" The orange head scratched the back of his neck.
"Just call me Ichigo. I don't do formalities." He gave a small smile. If there was anyway to determine if one was a Shiba was if they had any disregard for formalities. The almost imperceptible pause of kitchen activity meant that the kitchen staff were also listening.
"Very well Ichigo-san. My name is Sora. I am the staff director and the personal assistant to the clan head, Akihiko Shiba." He gave a small bow. "Now what would you like to eat? It is still quite sometime before anyone else will rise. Our chefs can prepare anything that you wish." The male shook his head.
"I don't wish to offend the chefs, but I wish to make my own meals. I have had one too many people slip something into what I eat." The kitchen staff froze in horror. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. It was appalling to any chef to try and kill anyone. What they wished in life was to make those who eat their food happy, not dead.
"Ichigo-san, I assure you, all of the kitchen staff wish you no ill will and would be delighted to cook for you." There was a murmur of agreement that ran around the room. The male almost looked sheepish.
"I truly am sorry, but for the time being, I wish to make my own meals. Especially when I can't see anything." He felt almost guilty for pushing Ichigo. He did not want to make him uncomfortable. Looking for a suitable worktable for Ichigo to work at, he spotted a table near the back that the apprentices were lounging around talking to each other as they peeled vegetables. If they wanted to continue working here they would need to work faster. Marching away from Ichigo, he stood in front of the apprentices. They had all stopped working to look at him with pale faces. He had his hands on his hips as he stared at them. There were four of them in total, and they took up an entire table when they only needed maybe a third.
There was three girls and one male. The male had dark black hair and startling heterochromatic colored eyes. One was a blazing gold while the other was a pale silver. The tallest and most mature looking girl had ginger hair with green eyes and freckles that dotted the bridge of her nose. The next girl had russet colored hair with warm brown eyes. The final and smallest of all the girls had curly golden locks and cerulean eyes.
Why didn't any of the chefs reprimand them on this? Space in a kitchen was essential.
"I suggest all of you work faster and make room for our guest. He will be preparing his own dish. Do not disturb him in any way." When none of them moved for a moment, he shooed them with his hands. "Quickly now." They all jumped into action. Moving and shuffling vegetables into organized piles. Wiping down the table with a cloth to rid it of any crumbs.
He moved back over to where Ichigo was standing.
"Ichigo-san I have prepared a place for you to work." The male gave the barest of a smile on his neutral expression. Dipping his head to him.
"Thank you Sora. What you are doing is very much appreciated." He gave a smile in return, glad that he was able to help make Ichigo more comfortable. He froze on how to guide him to the table amongst all of the staff. Ichigo seemed to notice his hesitation. He held out his right elbow for him.
"Here. I do not know where to go. It would be helpful if you could guide me there." Sora blinked in surprise. This male had saved him the embarrassment of not knowing what to do. He gave a more sincere smile. There were many things that made this male so intriguing. There was so much more to this male. It would take a very long time to learn all of it, but it would be pleasant to learn of these things one at a time.
Gently grasping the orange haired male's elbow he guided him to the table. Another kitchen staff had laid out a cutting board, knives, a cleaning cloth and baskets of breakfast essentials for him.
He stopped him in front of the table.
"Ichigo-san all of the essentials for preparing a meal are here. You may inspect them at your wish. No one will bother you, and if there are any questions you have, any of the staff are willing to answer them for you." Ichigo ran his hand along the table surface, getting a general idea of where most of the things sat.
"Thank you Sora." He gave a short bow.
"Of course. Now I will need to get back to my own duties. Please enjoy yourself Ichigo-san." Leaving the male to his won devices he set to work on getting everything ready for the day.
He felt along the table surface again to get a clearer picture of what was on the table before him. There was a cutting board, a cleaning cloth, a very nice and sharp set of cutting knives, and around that was baskets full of vegetables as far as he was able to tell. A few held fruit and one had a bread of some sort. Thinking about what to make for breakfast, he decided on a vegetable stir fry with some scrambled eggs that had meat in them, along with the bread in the basket.
He set to work on selecting his vegetables. There were string beans, carrots, peppers, eggplants, some sort of squash, mushrooms, and onions. He picked the peppers, eggplant, mushroom, onions and carrots. Starting with the eggplant, he cut off the ends then cut it into little strips. Repeating that with the peppers, carrots and mushrooms. Then he chopped the onions into little pieces. When he had first started working a bowl was placed beside him for him to put the vegetables into. He thanked the person who had kindly put it there for him. He then turned to a chef that was close by.
"Sir is there a place for me to cook my food? And is there any possibility of me getting some eggs and a little smoked pork or beef?" The chef stuttered.
"Of c-course, I-Ichigo-sama. I will g-go prepare everything that you wish for." The chef scurried off. He sighed this was not how he wanted them to act around him. Hearing hushed whispers from the other end of the table he felt four reiatsus. They quieted once he looked over to them.
"There is no need for any of you to act like this. Just treat me as one of the other staff."
"We can't do that Ichigo-sama! That is improper." He waved his hand in dismissal.
"When has a Shiba ever been proper?" This caused them to turn silent. "Now what is all of your names?"
"My name is Akemi." The girl spoke quietly. She was the farthest on the left.
"I am Hikaru." The male next to Akemi spoke. He seemed like the most outgoing and the trouble maker of the group.
"I am Katsumi, Ichigo-sama." This was another female. She was sitting on the far right. Katsumi was the one who spoke up before. He tried to look to where the final person had yet to say their name.
"This is Shizuka. She can't talk because of some past trauma." Hikaru spoke for the fourth person. The female sat there quietly, her reiatsu swirling in slight distress. He did not know from what.
"Very nice to meet all of you. Just call me Ichigo." The chef from before came up.
"Ichigo-sama here are the ingredients that you wished for. And when you are ready, I can lead you to the fire so you may cook your meal." He nodded his thanks to the chef and felt through the bowl. There were three eggs and a small slice of dried meat. He sighed. There might be too much for him to eat. He looked back to the four kids at the end of the table.
"Would all of you like to have some of my food? I was not planning to make so much, and I won't be able to eat all of this."
"Of course we would like some." Akemi answered.
"Akemi. We can't do that!" Katsumi hissed at her.
"Aww, come on Katsumi. I know that you want to try some too. Even Shizuka wants some." He couldn't tell, but he thought that the mute girl was nodding her head in agreement. Katsumi sighed. She was the mother hen of the group.
"Very well. Thank you for indulging us Ichigo-sama." He gave a small smile.
"My pleasure, Katsumi-san." Preparing the eggs and then he moved to cook the chopped vegetables first, then scrambled the eggs. After doing this for so long, he did not even need to look at his meal to know when it was done. It was all muscle memory now. He sighed. It spoke of how often he had to do this. He turned to the four that were burning holes into his back.
"Could one of you retrieve five dishes and chopsticks for us to use?" The scrape of a stool across the floor was heard.
"Shizuka is going to get them." He gave a nod and listened for the silent girl. A few moments later he felt her presence beside him. Turning to looks at the girl, he reached out for the dishes. She handed one to him. He gave a small smile. So she wanted to help? Taking the dish from her, he roughly split the eggs and stir fried vegetables and plated them. Moving everything back over to the table he sat down on the stool that was under the table and went to eat. He stopped when he heard the four children. They were happily munching away on the food. Smirking, he went about eating his own food. A difficult task when he could not see his plate. But he managed to eat at least half of the food on his plate. Anymore and he thought he might become sick. The food did not taste bad in anyway. It was just because he could only eat so much.
He pushed the half empty plate towards the children across from him.
"Here you can have the rest. I know that you enjoyed it, if all of that munching was anything to go by."
"Thank you so much Ichigo-sama!" Katsumi spoke. "It is very delicious. I have never had anything like this. Please you have to teach me how to make this."
"Yeah I could eat this everyday. Right Shizuka?" He assumed the girl gave a silent nod in agreement at Hikaru's question.
"Thank you Ichigo-sama." There was the dragging of a dish across the table towards his left. He assumed Akemi pulled the plate towards herself.
"Akemi you have to share!" Katsumi protested.
"I know. I know. Give me your plates." He then noticed the approach of Sora. His reiatsu did not felt calm. He was not happy.
"What is going on here?" He was stern and it caused the four kids to quiet down instantly. He could only imagine what their expressions were. He bet they were terrified. From what he had gathered from Sora. He was very much so a mother hen, and did not take his duties lightly. He would be stern and harsh if he was required to. He decided to save the four of them from a harsh lecture.
"I apologize Sora. I had made too much food and decided to share it with these four kids, since they were such lovely company." He imagined that Sora had looked dully surprised and was looking between him and the four kids. Sora gave a mhmm in disbelief, but did not comment.
"We are very sorry Sora-san. We did not meant to upset you because you had told us that we were not to disturb Ichigo-sama." Katsumi apologized. Sora stood there thinking silently. Then he gave a sigh of consent.
"Very well. I will not concern myself with it. Now Ichigo-san, Akihiko-sama has stated that Kirinji-san will be by later to look at your wounds. Also, Akihiko-sama asks you to join everyone for the morning meal. Although you will not be required to eat." He nodded and got up from his seat. Holding out his elbow for Sora to grasp, he was lead towards the dinning area.
"Sora how long have I been up?"
"You have been awake for about an hour and a half. Everyone else has just risen not to long ago. Will this be a normal occurrence for you to be up so early, Ichigo-sama?"
"I believe so. Sorry for troubling you." He felt Sora's grip on his arm tense.
"It is no problem whatsoever, Ichigo-sama. I am happy to make your stay here more comfortable." A door opened and Sora guided him through and to supposedly the dining table. Sora guided his hand to the top of the chair. He silently thanked Sora for not babying him. He wouldn't be able to handle that. He would have gone crazy if they did. All conversation had ceased when they both had walked into the room.
Sitting down, he tried to determine who was in the room. Sora had retreated out of the room. There were five reiatsu's. Three were calm and seemed almost happy. One was sulking. The last was so chaotic that he couldn't focus on it for more than a few seconds.
A cry of excitement broke the silence. Turning to his left, he felt the chaotic reiatsu and another smaller and very calm one. It was Kameko and possibly Ran.
"Good morning Ichigo. I am glad you could join us. I have heard from Sora that you have already eaten." Farther behind Ran and Kameko was the larger and calmer reiatsu of Akihiko who had spoken. He nodded. "Why don't you take Kameko so Ran can eat? It would be very much appreciated." He gave another nod and held his hands out towards Ran. She shifted his hands and placed a wriggling and happy Kameko in his arms.
"Thank you Ichigo-san." He gave another nod absentmindedly as he began playing with Kameko. Akihiko gave a resigned sigh. The clatter of dishes began again as everyone settled. Kameko still excited at being in Ichigo's arms. He silently wondered at why it made her so happy to be with him. Shiro commented that it was his hair color. He mentally rolled his eyes at the hollow, but said nothing. Zangetsu proposed that it was because of his reiatsu. He tried to get him explain, but Zangetsu said no more on this matter.
Kameko then gave a startling cry. Jerking away, he tried to understand what was wrong. The sulking reiatsu across from him had changed into anger. The scraping of a chair was heard as someone stood up.
"What are you doing to my little sister?" It was Shin. His reiatsu was starting to flail around dangerously. Kameko began to cry louder and louder as Shin's reiatsu lashed around even more furiously. He blinked in understanding. Kameko was able to sense reiatsu and the emotions in them. Looking at her he tried to sooth her, but with his reiatsu being sealed he couldn't do much. What made the situation worse was Akihiko getting angry himself. His own reiatsu was starting to leak out. Ran had become nervous at the atmosphere, and tried to help. Suspiciously, Chiyo had remained the calm in the storm. She knew about Kameko's gift. Why she did not try and stop this madness was probably because there was Shiba's involved.
"Shin sit down." Akihiko commanded. Shin defiantly remained standing. Akihiko's reiatsu grew larger. Large enough, that Ran breathed in shorts nervous gasps, Kameko's cries quieted and Shin's own reiatsu loosing all anger and replaced with fear. Once Shin sat down again, Akihiko noticed what he had done and reeled his raging reiatsu in.
"I'm sorry about that everyone. I did not mean to let my emotions get the best of me." A tense silence remained as everyone returned to finishing their morning breakfast. He gave a mental sigh. Why did he have to get stuck with Shiba's? His dad, Kukkaku and Ganju were more than enough in his time. Now he had to deal with a whole estate of them. How was he ever going to survive to change the future? Maybe he really should leave. His spirits vehemently denied that he was going to leave.
Once breakfast was over, Akihiko had taken him from his seat and dragged him to the older man's office. Ran followed closely behind.
Inside the clan head's office, he remembered where the couch was and made his way to it with little difficulty. Akihiko has taken his spot behind his desk.
"Ichigo, Sora has probably already told you, but Kirinji will come here later to take a look at your injuries. Is that alright with you?" He gave a nod. Ran had decided to sit on the floor, and was leaning against the couch. He could feel her reiatsu. She felt tired, like she had not gotten enough sleep. He leaned down carefully to look her in the eyes as best as possibly. Considering he couldn't see.
"Ran are you alright?" She gave a start. Not expecting him to ask anything of her.
"Yes, I am quite alright. Just a little tired." He studied her closer and noticed something. He gave a soft smile.
"Just don't push yourself alright. I can take care of Kameko, while you get some rest." He patted for her to come sit on the couch. He tried to sound as convincing as he could, and it seemed to work. She gave a resigned sigh and stood up. He stood also and switched places with her.
Sitting on the floor he played with Kameko until the door unexpectedly slammed open.
"Alright Akihiko. Where is this brat that I need to check up on?"
A shout out to:
Mullkkkkkk: Thank you very much for letting us know what you thought. Akihiko is very much like Isshin. We didn't try to have him be similar to Isshin, but he just turned out that way. We are very happy with Akihiko the way he is now. Enjoy this next chapter.
amazinglion29: Thank you for your continuous thoughts and yes Ichigo is very good with children. That is just his nature. Ichigo's time with the Shiba's will be hard but Shiro and Zangetsu will be there for him along with new friends. Here is the next chapter and we hope you enjoy this one too.
NecroexSparda Juubi-No-Kishin: Thank you very much for enjoying this so far. Yamamoto'smeeting with Ichigo will be very interesting. The hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Ice Salmons: You'll just have to wait and see. Here's the next chapter. Enjoy.
netherhunter75: Do not fear. We will continue to write this story till the very end.
Guest: Kind lady or noble gentleman, thank you for enjoying this story. Here is the next chapter for you.
Thank you to all of those that enjoy reading this story. Thank you for the silent support and encouraging comments. Let us know what you think. Have a very Merry X-mas. We will update soon.
- The Crew
P.S. - Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite. Story plot and characters belong to us.
