And for not updating in a while, I bring you... my longest chapter yet.

Just proof for those of you who wonder who Six might be... it can't be Senna. If you'll notice, she was in the first chapter as the ordinary human girl Ichigo was hanging out with. We now know that Orihime is Seven, and it's rather obvious as to who Nine is (flaming red hair in a ponytail- ringing any bells?) And after this chapter, I imagine quite a few of you will have recognised another person mention who might be one of the Loric.

Anyway, thanks for the awesome reviews- you guys are the best ;)

Enjoy~

What's working and what's not working

Here's the stuff I don't mention:

1) There's a Hollow going to my school called Momo Hinamori.

2) I beat up a group of kids and now quite a few people are aware of how strong I am.

I am well aware that I probably should tell my Cêpan about this. But I'm not going to, because I'm pretty confident that Momo doesn't know I'm Loric, and Grimmjow and his mates have obviously decided not to talk after all. They're either too embarrassed to admit to anyone that they were beaten up by one kid, or they're afraid of what I might do if they tell anyone. Every time I consider this second option, an icy feeling spreads through my stomach and my mind replays the scene where I lost control and started drowning Grimmjow. It makes me feel as evil as a Hollow, and that's not good.

Still, it's been a few weeks since all that, and everything else in my life is fine, so I should probably just forget about it for now. Today was the last day of school before we break off for the Christmas holidays. For some reason Toshiro's been growing a little distant over the last few weeks, ever since the Spook Walk at Halloween. I hardly think he's the type to be frightened, but maybe when I displayed my strength I freaked him out slightly. We still hang out together but only when Momo and Rukia are around.

School has finished now and Rukia is coming round to my house. The two of us are walking back, pressed up against each other because of the cold. Snow has hit Karakura Town unexpectedly, and it's apparently going to be quite a harsh winter. Rukia says she doesn't mind, because she likes the snow. Apparently her older sister is actually named after it.

'You never talk of your family,' I say as we trudge across the snow, little snowflakes swirling around us in weird patterns.

'You never talk about yours,' she counters, a clever little grin appearing on her face as she looks up at me.

'Mine's just simple. Me and my dad,' I reply, referring to Zangetsu as my father because that's what I've always been taught to do.

'Yeah, well, we've only got two in the family too. Me and Sode no Shirayuki.'

'Well, we've got a cat called Kon. Does that count?'

She laughs. 'You never said you had any pets!'

I shrug. 'No rabbits, I'm afraid. Just Kon.'

Rukia giggles, skipping a little in anticipation. She obviously likes animals a lot, even ones that aren't bunnies. Or maybe she's just excited about going around to my house, as this is the first time. She hasn't even met Zangetsu yet, but I'm confident she'll make a good and lasting impression on him. She's headstrong, and I know he'll respect that as much as I do.

Skipping around isn't such a good idea as it turns out, because she slips on some ice and goes skidding forwards. I quickly grab her arm and pull her towards me, wrapping my arms around her to prevent her from falling.

'Thanks,' she mumbles into my jacket.

'Any time,' I reply. 'You wanna be more careful, midget?'

'Shut up, strawberry,' she answers, leaning up to give me a quick kiss on the cheek.

That's our relationship in a nutshell. And I love it.

'It's nice to finally meet you, Kuchiki-san,' Zangetsu says as he opens the door for us.

'It's nice to meet you too, Kurosaki-san,' Rukia replies with her most charming smile. I roll my eyes in exasperation as they begin with the 'Please, just call me Zangetsu' and the 'Just call me Rukia'.

'Come on, let us in already, we're freezing out here,' I complain, rubbing my arms to prove a point. The other two laugh and Rukia and I step into the hallway and hang our coats up. I lead her into the living room where Kon is already waiting for us on the couch. He stares at Rukia before letting out an excited meow and he leaps off his spot and races over to her, rubbing himself affectionately against her legs. Rukia chuckles and nudges him gently with her foot.

'Hey, come on buddy. I need to be able to move!'

As if understanding her words, Kon backs away to give her space to walk. What an intelligent cat. That's pretty cool.

'He looks like a mini lion,' Rukia grins.

'Yeah, he does. Bit too friendly to be one, though.'

'He likes me.'

'Of course he does. What's not to like?'

She punches me lightly. 'Compliment me all you like. I still know you're an idiot.'

I'm tempted to say, 'I'm your idiot', but I know what she would do if those words were to come out my mouth.

'So, what shall we do?' I ask as the two of us sit on the couch. Kon takes one more look at Rukia and then leaps on her lap and makes himself comfortable. I give Rukia a sheepish look.

'Do you like Studio Ghibli?' Rukia asks me as she rummages through her school bag.

'Uh, I've watched a couple of their films a while back. Grave Of The Fireflies and... um... Ponyo or something...'

'I've got Princess Mononoke here,' Rukia says, pulling it out of her bag. 'You wanna watch it?'

'Sure.'

She curls up on the couch beside me with Kon still on her lap and we watch the fim. I let my mind drift to Nine and his Cêpan, and how both of them must be feeling right now. From what I saw, Nine looked like the kind of kid who knew how to take care of himself, but he must still feel hopelessly lost without his Cêpan. I wonder why the Hollows haven't killed his Cêpan yet... maybe they're just using him as bait in the hope that some of our kind will rescue him...

And another thing I've begun to dwell on: ever since Halloween, I haven't heard Shiro at all. It's as if he's disappeared. I would normally have found the silence nice, but it's... weird. Really weird. And I really get the feeling that I should tell Zangetsu about that... incident where I lost control. But if I mentioned it, we would be out of this town immediately and I'd never see Rukia again.

Sounds selfish in some ways (okay, a lot of ways) but I can't let that happen. I have friends here, and I can actually keep a watchful eye on a Hollow.

I am always the first to wake up in the morning at the convent. This is probably because when Rangiku and I first arrived, I suffered from terrible nightmares where I'd dream I was found by the Hollows. I imagine I'm not the only Garde who's suffered with these terrible visions. These nightmares used to wake me up early in the morning, and even when they gradually decreased and were nowhere near as frequent, to the point where they stopped, I've always been an early riser.

Winter has taken a harsh toll on my home, and the snow is three feet deep in some places. I'm rather indifferent about snow on the whole. I like watching the snowflakes drift down in their weird patterns but at the same time whenever I see it snowing it reminds me of one of the few memories I have of my home planet, Lorien. I was with my older brother, and I was building a snowman. Except it wasn't a man, but what I assume must have been a native creature to Lorien. If anything, I would have said it was a big cat, but it had horns on its tail and tusks like those of a warthog.

I can't remember my brother, really. He was fifteen years older than me from what Rangiku told me, but she has never mentioned his name.

Another memory the snowflakes cause to resurface: maybe you have noticed, but there aren't a lot of differences, appearance-wise, between snow and ash. Both drift down from the skies, and one can often be mistaken for the other. Whenever I see the snow I remember ash from the explosions on the last day of Lorien as my brother lead me through the streets towards the ship that would take me and the other children away from Lorien. Rangiku was waiting for us there, and that was the last that I saw of my big brother.

I often walk alone to school, as I have no friends at the convent. Tatsuki has her own family that she lives with, so I only really see her at school or those occasional, happy times where I get invited round to her house. So, in one way I am lucky that Rangiku is such a lenient Cêpan. Nevertheless, sometimes Tatsuki is on time to meet me on the journey to school. Like now.

'You look deep in thought there, Hime,' Tatsuki chuckles to my side, catching me by surprise. 'Didn't even notice me coming up, did you?'

'Hello, Tatsuki,' I say with a bright smile.

'What were you thinking about?'

'Hmm?' I quickly think of an excuse. 'Well, I was just remembering the dream I had last night. I was walking across an ocean.'

Tatsuki laughs. 'How is that possible? You walked on water like Jesus?'

'Something like that,' I answer, knowing that I don't have any faith in Christianity despite the fact that our convent is founded around it.

'You have some weird dreams,' Tatsuki says, kicking up a deep pile of snow at her feet absent-mindedly as we trudge along towards school.

'Aren't dreams supposed to be weird?' I giggle.

'Yeah, I guess so.'

Most of what I have told her is true; I may not have been thinking of the it right before Tatsuki came along, but I certainly did have a dream where I was walking on water. I remember lightly treading across the waves as if it were the easiest thing in the world, and the feeling of freedom in me that I've always wished for. And the best part was this: land was in sight, and as I came closer I found a beautiful tropical island, full of jungles made of luscious green leaves. And, waiting on the beach for me, were Rangiku and the rest of the Cêpans and Garde. Even the ones that we now know are dead. Their faces were shadowy (except for Rangiku's) because I don't actually remember what the others look like. But one of them, a tall male figure, had a rather recognisable feature that I remember from my other dream: the spiky orange hair. With a start, I realised that we were all together and I knew in my heart that we were perfectly safe here. No Hollows. No death. We were back on Lorien. Everything was all right.

That's when I woke up.

I let the disappointment churn through me for quite a long time as I contemplated my perfect dream. The morning did not get better from that moment. When I went to go and tell Rangiku about it, I could tell she had been drinking all night. What for, I don't know. People do it to chase their troubles away, but as far as I can tell, Rangiku ditched all her troubles the minute she ditched Lorien.

Rangiku laughed rather bitterly when I explained exactly what had happened in the dream. She then said, 'Forget it, hon. We're not going back. Live life happily here!' she added with a drunk giggle and a dazed look in her eyes.

'These dreams must mean something,' I insisted. 'Maybe it's time we go looking for the others. My Legacies can't be far away. Maybe the dream meant that Hydrolocomotion will be one of my powers.'

'The ability to walk on water? I hardly think so, hon.'

That stung. 'Why not?' I shot back. 'That is a Legacy, isn't it? And it sounds pretty useful.'

'It doesn't matter any more. We'll just stay in Spain for the rest of our lives, Orihime.'

'How can you?' I cried. 'We have a duty to Lorien! We must-'

I knew she was drunk, but I wasn't expecting her to hit me. The slap came out of nowhere, and if I'm honest, the shock hurt more than the actual stinging on my skin. My hands flew to my cheek, tears welling in my eyes as I stared at her in disbelief.

'Let it go, Orihime,' she hissed. 'Just. Let. It. Go.'

I sigh right now, rubbing the fading red mark on my cheek sadly. Tatsuki hasn't noticed, as she is too busy trying to push her way through the snow. I'm kind of glad that we don't leave this place, because that will mean leaving my best friend behind, but staying here longer will make it all the more harder to leave.

Waking up to a hissing, scratching cat is not a nice experience.

'Hey...' I mutter groggily as open my eyes, rolling over to see what all the fuss is about. Kon's fur is on end, his back arched and his eyes wild as he spits at me. 'What did I do? I didn't roll onto you in the night or something?' I ask as I shift to get a better look at the angry cat. As I wake up properly, I notice he's not glaring at my face but at my hands instead. I look at them too, to see what the problem is.

'Sh... shit.' I kick the covers off me and leap out of bed, my head swaying at the sudden unpredictable movement. I begin to feel nausea spread through me. Kon lands on the floor and shoots me an indignant look.

'Zangetsu! My hands are on fire again!'

He's in the room thirty seconds later with a bucket of water, and I quickly shove my hands into the liquid, watching the steam rise up.

'What the hell?' I mutter. 'I thought you said it would only be brought on by strong emotions. I was asleep, for God's sake.'

'I would imagine it's your Legacies' way of showing that they want to be developed,' Zangetsu says with a sheepish smile. 'Don't worry about it. I'll get you training properly pretty soon.'

'For real? You don't just mean that meditation crap?'

He gives me a sceptical look before replying, 'Yes. We'll work on your fighting skills.'

'Good,' I say, satisfied. 'Hey, do you know anybody who can give animal therapy?'

'No. Why?'

'That cat's gonna need it,' I answer, pointing at Kon.

'He'll be all right. I think we should keep you off school today. We don't want you setting fire to the desks like you almost did last time.'

I sigh in defeat. No point arguing with him.

'Where are we going?' I ask as Zangetsu reverses the car out of the driveway and gets onto the road.

'I know an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. We probably won't be disturbed if we train there.'

'Probably? That's reassuring.' Nevertheless, I'm pretty excited.

'I've emailed the school to say you have a bad headache. Try to stick to that story when you get back.'

'No one's going to ask anyway.' Except Rukia, who will probably complain that she had to walk to school by herself. Such a considerate midget. I smile at the thought of that.

When we finally get there, Zangetsu has to kick the door to get it open and on the inside we find a vast room filled with empty crates, a few dirty windows here and there offering a small amount of light. It's not nearly enough, so I turn the light switches on, only to find that none of them work.

Zangetsu watches me carefully. 'Just because that failed doesn't mean that you can't get them to work.'

I frown and stare up at the various light bulbs dotted around across the ceiling. What would Shiro tell me to do, if I could still hear him. He'd tell me to use the initiative.

Well, it's worth a shot.

I lift up my hands and point my palms at the closest light bulb, concentrating hard. After a couple of seconds, they begin to glow as the Lumen appears. I smile and focus on beaming the light up to the bulbs. About five seconds later, the bulb lights up.

'Awesome,' I say.

'Well done,' Zangetsu says proudly.

I get to work on the other bulbs, and instead of draining my energy, I am able to get the others done quicker as I gain confidence and I grow accustomed to my new ability.

We start with my reflexes. Zangetsu has brought a box full of tennis balls and for the first fifteen minutes, he chucks them at all areas at and around me and I'm expected to catch them all. I'm doing fine until he increases the amount being thrown at a time and it actually starts to become a challenge. In the end, I apparently to remarkably well according to him, and we get started on my speed. He throws tennis balls to the other end of the warehouse as hard as he can and I have to run over and catch them. After a while, I just lose myself in the training and stop fretting about everything else in life as I begin to find this enjoyable. Once we've finished with this, I start focusing on my strength as we move from tennis balls to harder objects. I'm slightly scared as I see the brick sailing towards my head and I lift my hand instinctively to protect myself. I hear a cruching noise and I pray it isn't my hand. I open my eyes to find out and I see the crumpled pieces of the brick at my feet. I let out a relieved, exhilarated laugh, hardly able to believe myself.

We repeat each of this exercises a few more times until I am asked to create a flame in my hands. I find that I am still unable to do this at will, but Zangetsu says that is perfectly understandable and nothing to worry about. Instead, I am told to focus with my Lumen, seeing if I can brighten and dim the lights on my palms. It's really hard and by the end I can literally feel the beads of sweat rolling down my face. My body has grown quite hot and tired, but it is still no match for the adrenaline coursing through me.

Zangetsu finally comes up to me and places a brick on the ground a few feet in front of me then backs away.

'What am I supposed to do?'

'Try and lift it up with your mind.'

I stare at him. 'What?'

He explains, 'All Garde possess this ability. After the first Legacy becomes apparent, Telekinesis is usually developed. It often comes alongside the first Legacy. Are you sure you haven't been able to lift anything with your mind in the past?'

'If I had, I would have told you.' But would I? I never mentioned the incident where I lost control. Still, this 'Telekinesis' sounds like nothing to be ashamed of and is probably something I would tell Zangetsu about immediately if I discovered it.

'Just try,' he urges.

'But how?' I aks. 'What exactly to I do to make it rise up?'

'I'm not a Garde, so I don't have a direct experience with Legacies,' Zangetsu says. 'It's something that's got to come from you, Ichigo. Focus, and try to will it to do what you want it to do. That's about the best advice I can give you.'

'Right... thanks...'

I stare at the brick and try to imagine the brick magically rising off the ground to hover, suspended in mid air.

Nothing happens.

'Shouldn't it work?' I say worriedly.

Zangetsu hesitates. 'I shouldn't get anxious about it. You may just be a late developer.'

'But it's been months since the Legacy first properly made its appearance.' I stare at the brick, dejected.

Zangetsu frowns. 'You're just tired. You've been training for a while now. You should get some rest, and we'll try again soon. It will come eventually, Ichigo.'

'Right.'

As we drive back, I try to think about why it's not working. Telekinesis should have come by now, and although he seems to be optimistic for my sake, I can tell this worries Zangetsu as well. Why won't it work? Is it because I'm weak? Is that what Shiro would say?

Hey, Shiro? I could really use some help right now.

No answer.

Take a deep breath. Don't get scared. Just get it over with.

I think about Rangiku's drunk, angry face and how she told me we may as well give up. Well, I haven't lost hope. I'm going to find out whether that dream meant anything.

And it seems this is the only way forward.

Taking a deep, icy cold breath, I step out onto the water of the lake just outside of my town. My foot goes straight down under the water, water immediately seeping into my shoe, drenching my sock and freezing my foot. Maybe trying it out in winter is a really bad idea, but I can wait no longer. I'm sick of being so useless. I've resolved to be the Garde I'm supposed to be ever since I finally did mange to watch the footage of the boy in Mexico who stopped the building from collapsing during an earthquake. That boy (an extremely tall, well-built teen with huge muscles and dark curly brown hair) must be one of us. And he's risked his life, saving people, which makes me feel so useless being shut up here in the convent. I have to act, to prove my place, for my planet and my people.

With this re-awoken resove, the next step I take doesn't go under the surface of the water.

I walk confidently forward, still aware of how at any moment this could stop working but believing I can do it anyway. I face forward, not daring to look down for fear I'll lose my faith. I stop after a couple of minutes and close my eyes, breathing in the freezing cold, fresh air. When I open them again, I look around, noticing how far I've come, before looking down to make sure my feet are firmly places against the surface of the water.

I'm in the centre of the lake. I certainly wish Rangiku could see me right now.

I've developed Hydrolocomotion. I have my first Legacy.

Okay, so who's this teen Orihime mentioned? Seems obvious to me, but then, so did Number Nine and some of you didn't get that ;)

Review~