Returning the purse to his mother turned out to be a simple enough task, especially once he'd come up with a story about how he had gotten her purse back. Needless to say, his mother was pleased. The tears that she'd been crying dried up and she smiled at him like she always did. Which made him endlessly happy.
However, between trying to run down the purse snatcher and delivering the purse to his mother, he'd run out of any spare time needed to eat his lunch.
So, after spending a few minutes checking his mother over and holding her in his arms to reassure himself that she was really okay, he reluctantly said goodbye to her and started back to the office to resume his work. And while walking back to the office, he started to think about the woman and started to feel...that odd feeling again.
It was somewhat difficult to place aside from the bizarre feeling of anxiousness and questioning himself about why the hell he felt like this. I mean, he was a grown man/demon for Christ's sake! He shouldn't be feeling almost like a teenager about to make a love confess- oh. Oh!
"Dammit all." He muttered as the realization that he was attracted to the mysterious woman seemed to shake him. After all, he'd spent a majority of both of his lives steering clear of any and all possible romantic entanglements.
It was something that confused his human family to no end since he was pleasing enough in both appearance and personality. But then again, they didn't know that he was a demon and subject to certain behaviors and tendencies.
Besides, he was fairly certain that their opinion was completely biased anyways.
Still...how could he had become smitten with a female simply from seeing her? That wasn't normal, was it?
Sure, he knew/heard of some instances where humans only had to lay eyes on someone of the opposite sex once and somehow managed to become quite taken with the object of their desires. He knew it because he'd done several studies on the subject while he'd been in school.
It was one of the most peculiar things he'd ever studied. And it had gotten him even more fans than usual. But well...the evidence pretty much spoke for itself.
Even so, despite knowing that. He couldn't help but idly wondered if he was under some sort of spell. After all, he knew that there were certain magic users in Maki did practice love/lust spells. Then again, there was also the idea that the woman been a psychic with a strange and unheard-of new ability? And then right on the heels of that thought was another. One where he wondered if she could be a possible enemy too.
His mind raced with all kinds of questions.
But after some very, very careful reexamination of his interactions with her- and not finding anything remotely suspicious- he decided that he was probably being silly. Besides, he felt fine. Normal even.
For him anyways.
So, perhaps he was simply feeling the effects of an influx of hormones?
It was certainly more plausible than the woman being a new enemy and such. Yet, despite narrowing down his issue, he couldn't pinpoint just how deep his attraction went.
He would have to think on the subject a bit more when he had the time to do so. Right now, he had some work to finish at his company. After that, he would run some scenarios in his mind and find out what he needed to know.
His day after that went by far slower than he could have imagined it would. Especially once he was back in his office. The woman's face kept popping up in his head at random and inopportune times. And he wound up wondering whether or not she'd gone to the hospital to get her hand fixed, as well as a multitude of other things.
He wondered about her personality.
Was she a sweet girl? Or was she a bit rowdy and wild?
He, personally, was leaning a bit towards rowdy and wild given how she had taken on the purse snatcher without any concern for her wellbeing.
Not that he minded that all that much. After all, he was friends with some of the most wild and rowdy people he'd ever met before in the three realms. So, finding a woman similar to them and himself in nature wasn't a terrible thing in his opinion.
Besides, he was an excellent doctor/nurse. So, any boo-boo's that she got; he could take care of.
He also wondered if she was affectionate or if she was maybe a tad bit shy about things like holding hands or kissing in public. He thought up different scenarios where she was both. And they were frigging adorable.
However, thanks entirely to his runaway thoughts by the time his workday was over with- his work was incomplete, and he was frazzled beyond belief. But at least all of those thoughts had served a purpose.
He had come to the realization that his human body had finally decided to become sexually active.
Which was a bit nerve wrecking for him since it basically meant that he'd basically subconsciously chosen himself a mate. And he wasn't really sure how he was supposed to feel about that.
In fact, this new information just seemed to make him even more anxious.
After all, how the hell was he supposed to pursue anything remotely romantic- like an actual relationship with the woman- when he had no idea how to even find her? He didn't even know her name for crying out loud!
He didn't know anything about her at all. Not her age, her address- nothing!
If he were anyone else, he would have simply given up on the idea of finding her then and there. But Kurama wasn't the type of man/demon to simply give up on something.
No- he was the kind of man that found a way. And that was exactly what he was going to do.
The entire time he was gathering up his things and leaving his office to walk home, he was already planning out a hundred different ways to find his mystery woman and figure out how to approach her.
A devious smirk curving his lips as he chuckled to himself in amusement, The hunt is on.
Ichigo was carrying a bag of groceries that she'd gotten from a store nearby as she walked the streets at what would seem like, to an outside observer, a snail's pace. But in fact, she was making note of all of the stores, shops, and other places that were of importance to her now.
She'd moved to the area a couple of weeks ago and had just recently managed to get herself a nice, spacious, multiple bedroom luxury apartment nearby. And after spending the past three days trying to unpack her things, get to know the immediate area, and take care of her two-month-old infant god-daughter Yuki... Her late friend's Orihime and Uryu's daughter.
She had to say, she was just a bit wiped out.
To be fair, she was still adjusting to things.
Being a hero of the Thousand-Year Blood War, her actual retirement as a Soul Reaper, the multitude of new changes taking place within her body, the exponential growth of her abilities into God-like territory. Meeting the late Soul Kings grandson, Koenma who was working very hard to keep certain people off of her back for certain, unmentionable reasons. And then there was Orihime and Uryu's deaths in a car accident a month back and finally becoming a single, unwed mother.
So, yeah, the past few months had been a bit rough on her physically and emotionally and she was just a bit exhausted.
It was understandable from her point of view. But she was certain that she was doing okay-ish despite having to uproot her life and leave her family and some of her friends behind.
Thankfully, Koenma had found a way for her to stay in touch with everyone. And had even found a way for them to come and visit her in the new city and her new home without drawing any unwanted attention from anyone.
It was nice of Spirit World's prince to go to such trouble. But he worried far too much about her.
Still...she would admit that his help was pretty convenient at times. Especially when it led to someone babysitting Yuki for her so that she could get out for a while.
Finally reaching the building that she now called her home- a big apartment building with nearly twenty floors of incredibly large and spacious luxury apartments that was the home of several demons with ties to Spirit World and Demon World. And even some random incredibly well-off humans.
She made quick work of going through the security that hung out in the lobby and then began to make her way to the nearby stairs.
She lived on the tenth floor of the building. Which to others would be so terrible that using the elevator was absolutely necessary to their continued. Especially if someone was out of shape.
Ichigo thought those people were wusses and lazy.
But since she was neither out of shape, nor bothered by taking the stairs. She supposed that she was the one who looked nuts to them for spurning the elevator in favor of the stairs.
Which was fine. She rather liked the way that her muscles burned a bit by the time she reached her floor. On some days, taking the stairs was the only form of exercise that she got.
Especially if Yuki was being particularly fussy and didn't want to do anything but lay around with her. Not that she minded that any either. Yuki was a sweet natured baby and often reminded her of Orihime.
And in truth, she had Ichigo totally wrapped around her teeny tiny little pinky finger.
Ichigo was completely aware of that fact to and didn't give a damn. She loved and adored Yuki as if she were her very own flesh and blood child. And she wasn't very shy about showing it either. Especially since all that baby had to do was whine, and her new mommy would rip apart the heavens themselves just to make her smile.
And despite the fact that all of those things previously mentioned were totally true, at the moment, Ichigo would settle with getting back to her baby with the goodies that she'd bought for them both to enjoy so that they could settle in and watch some more Disney movies for the rest of the evening.
She was thinking that they were going to watch Labyrinth, and Muppet Treasure Island again. Maybe even Aladdin if they got bored. Mostly because she knew that Yuki liked the musical numbers and dancing that were in the movies.
To be honest, Ichigo liked those things too. Especially since they put Yuki to sleep and allowed her to do some more unpacking and other things.
She had managed to reach the seventh floor when she saw another person walking ahead of her. A person that looked vaguely familiar to her. Yet she shrugged off the feeling of familiarity and bounded up the stairs to pass the person, unaware of the fact that she had just gone past the red headed man from earlier in the day.
The one that had been nice enough to wrap her hand up after it had gotten stabbed.
If she had been paying more attention, she would have seen that he had stopped walking. Heard the sharp way that he sucked in his breath. Maybe even noticed that his eyes had gotten wide and startlement flitted across his face as she disappeared around the corner to the next set of stairs.
If she had bothered to pay attention, she would have noticed the fact that he began to climb the stairs, stealthily, so that he could follow her to her floor so that he could see for himself where she was going.