End of the Halcyon Days

Tatsuki on Ichigo

Ichigo is different, but he hasn't changed, only grown up.

Set soon after chapter 239 (WINGED EAGLES), which I always think is named wrong.

I wondered if I was going mad at first. When you asked me if I could see that skull thing. When I saw you dressed up in black, running away from school, reaching for the giant sword slung across your back. Then I remembered I was seeing those things more often, and that other man, Afro-san, who also wore the black outfit. Then I saw you talking to that transfer student - Hirako-san, and heard some of what you said and wondered if I was getting paranoid. Suddenly everyone seemed to know more than me, and I was left in the dark.

And then those two men in the white outfits with holes in their bodies came, and they sucked out the souls of my friends, and after that was when I realised you'd been trying to protect me.

I started worrying about you, because even though we haven't been as close as we used to be in ages, I still think of you as my friend. I would worry about nearly anyone in your situation.

But then Orihime disappeared. And you didn't tell me anything. Even if I had only known half of what I know, that would've infuriated me. As it was...

Did you really think you couldn't trust me? Or were you just trying to protect me? Again?

You should know by now, Ichigo. If I don't want to be protected, I don't let myself be protected. If I want to find something out, I find it out. Eventually.

But even I didn't expect this answer.

Why didn't you trust me? Weren't we friends? Didn't I deserve to know the truth? I told you way back: you shouldn't need to hold anything back from me. We were friends. I hope we still are. But I won't let you protect me. Not unless you'll let me protect you too.

Even so.

You may not be as stupid as you act, but I'm not as tough as I act either. You know that. And you still try to push me away, even knowing that that will hurt me far more than just telling me the truth. Or did you forget that? I guess I can't really blame you, having this much on your mind.

You are different, you know. You're not the crybaby I knocked on his ass eleven years ago. You aren't the laughing mamma's boy, either: that part of you died with Masaki-san, all those years ago, on the banks of the river. You aren't the child, sulking in the corner because he got beaten again. Now, you're this scowling teenager, with ridiculous power, so much that you've infected all of your friends. It's your fault that we have these powers, that we don't want your protection.

None of my business, huh? Like hell the end of the world as we know it isn't my business. We are involved in this. We have been from the start. From before we were born, if that's how long this 'Aizen Sousuke' guy has been planning this. If there's anything I can do to turn the tables, I will. You can't change that. I won't let you.

You are still the same, no matter how much you've changed. You still have that hero complex, like you want to save the world and everyone in it. You still lose heart after every little setback. You are still determined to follow through what you started. I guess you haven't really changed at all, just grown up. And that isn't such a bad thing.

Probably.

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