A/N: *points* Look! Another chapter! Short one, sorry, I'm feeling drained today.


Ichigo had barely finished filling out the rest of the evaluation forms on time, much to his distaste. The clock on the wall of Central 46 side office struck 5 o'clock just as he set down boxes over the platform to the unsmiling middle-aged female secretary who pursed her thin lips, dark eyes darting quickly between the walls and his unnaturally bright head of orange spikes. Ichigo had looked around the room to see that all of the furniture and wall hangings were black and white with occasional trims of solemn(and boring) colors of brown and red. Did she think that his hair was an unsightly decoration to this place?

As ridiculous the notion was, she stayed quiet and he wasn't about to start a bout of pointless argument with a fussy old lady.

He stepped out of the side office and started walking at random. He wasn't told what to do after delivering the paperwork, so Ichigo figured that he had rest of the day to himself. By his count, he had spent about 9 hours with the folders, enough to fill up one day's average working hour in the material world. He blinked and rubbed his aching eyes, grumbling loudly about when he would finally get a chance to combat for work.

Few minutes later, he spotted a couple of shinigamis coming towards him from afar. At closer inspection, Ichigo saw that they were two teenage girls his sisters' age, one with waist-length wavy dark brown hair and the other with a pale-blond side ponytail that came down to her shoulder. The brown-haired one noticed him first; her eyes widened surprise followed by recognition and she gave her friend a hard nudge. The blond girl yelped, glared at her friend and then focused onto Ichigo's face, a confused look on her face that turned too into recognition when her friend leaned into her ear to whisper.

Ichigo half expected them to turn around and bolt in the other direction like a couple of frightened rabbits, but instead they smiled and straightened themselves up, the brown-haired one brushing and tossing her hair back with both hands, the blond combing through her ponytail with her fingers and giving a small frown when she caught a knot. Then more whispering to each other.

Drat. It was Ichigo who was contemplating on bolting on the other direction now. He already hated whatever situation he was walking towards to.

Too late now.

Ten feet apart, the two smiling girls came to a halt, gave a deep bow and then shouted in unison, "Good afternoon, Lieutenant-Colonel Kurosaki!"

Coming to a halt himself, Ichigo replied stiffly, definitely lacking the enthusiasm they had, "Good afternoon."

Straightening up from the bow, their visibly sparkled with utter admiration. The brown-haired girl clasped her hands in front of her, then positively squealed,

"Oh, Kurosaki-san! We've heard so much about you! My name is Senade Nia, my friend here is Mei Yukiko, we're both from the 10th division. How lucky are we to come across an honorable officer such as you! We've been dying for the chance. You see, we've been trying to get stronger, hearing that you have gone from a mere human being to a bankai-wielder in matter of weeks! I mean, a bankai? Only the few strongest ones of the noble clans, once in a thousand years if lucky, are believed to be born with the ability to perform a bankai! But you? It's just amazing! SO AMAZING!" her clasped hands, which had been inching up and up ever since she started speaking, was now pressing up right below her lips.

All of that had come out incredibly rapidly, in one breath, leaving Ichigo's quite winded. He caught the bit about him being a 'mere human being' before and didn't know if he was insulted or not. Before he could decide, the blond one spoke - rather, squealed up,

"Everyone is so impressed with you, Kurosaki-san! Us and so many of our friends are dying to start training with you! We were devastated when we heard that the plans to open up the training division was pushed back because of some document," sad puppy eyes, instantly replaced by happiness, "but we're excited! I have never been good with a zanpakuto. No matter how many times I ask, it won't tell me its name," sad puppy eyes again, instantly replaced by happiness again, "But with you teaching us, we'll be able to do so many things we haven't been able to before! I just can't wait to get a bankai of my own so I can show to my friends! Can't wait!" Ichigo inwardly cringed as the two girls let out a pair of high-pitched squeals of absolute giddiness.

Blinking twice, Ichigo flatly spoke, "Uh, looking forward to working with you two too." That was a lie. He was dreading it.

The girls looked as if they've been instantly stuffed with a lifetime supply of happiness. Before they could launch into another series of squeals, Ichigo interrupted,

"I gotta go, uh, to a meeting. Kind of late, actually."

Horrified looks came across the two girls' faces, and they simultaneously broke into high-pitched stutterings. Ichigo heard "don't let us keep you", "sorry to make you late" and "hope you don't get into trouble" among the squabbles of other squealy words. The blond girl elbowed her friend then they let out a not-quite-an-unison of "Have a good afternoon, Lieutenant-Colonel Kurosaki!" and they both scuttled past him, still squealing. Several seconds passed by, and then Ichigo was left standing in a quite sudden silence, blinking to himself.

He shook his head side to side, trying to get his thoughts back to place. All those high-pitched noise had him feeling as if there was a hive of wasps nesting in his skull. He walked on.


When his head stopped buzzing, Ichigo was able to think through the girls' words properly. As innocent have been, they quickly filled him up with anger. So that was what he was to them here, a mere human being who achieved bankai in a few weeks. Not someone who came to the brink of death so many times in process, not someone who painstakingly defeated enemies the Seireitei were too stupid to see to themselves. Not only that, but they thought that with some training, they would easily become powerful. And be absolutely happy with it.

Ichigo ground his teeth.

His power came from his desire at the core of his true being, his desire to protect the ones around him; family, friends, occasional souls who he got close to in the material world. When he strived to get his shinigami power back and achieve and bankai, saying that he was desperate for a way to save Rukia from execution was an unforgivable understatement. He didn't even want to think of a word for how he felt back then underneath the determination he put on his face. He didn't ask for his Hollowification. Mugetsu had been the very last resort against Aizen.

Speaking of Aizen, he had lost his power to the Hougyoku due to his desire to become an ordinary shinigami. Having born a completely different level from all others had molded him into a sociopath that self-destructed in the end.

When Ginjou - with the name, came a painful stab in the heart - had told him that the Fullbringers wanted to relieve themselves of their powers, Ichigo had understood. Then the true plot revealed and then hell brew up to throw everything haywire, but he knew, knew that the statement was true to some extent to anyone. Sometimes normality was all he wanted that it hurt.

He had gone through so much, lost so much to gain the power he had. The world imploded on him the last time he lost it. He had chosen the power to protect over normality. And here they were, squealing excitedly about how they would be able to show off to their friends.

But they haven't seen what he have, nor have they been through what he had been through.

True. They were just to ignorant.

Stumbling out of his riot of anger, he forced himself to breath properly. He looked down to his hands and saw them clenched up starch-white. He urged himself to relax, pried his hands open and gasped when he saw four small crescents of crimson on both his palms. His nails had dug in. He felt drained.

Quite embarrassed of the state he was in just moments ago, he looked around to see if there had been any audience. Instead, he found himself dead-center of the 5th squad's front entrance.

He turned and stepped in without a second thought. Nothing to do, he might as well distract himself with the dumbed down version of Shinji's reason for his return as one of the Gotei 13 captains.


Have I gone OOC? I think so. Oh well...