A/N: Quick little note: Bleach, volume 21, page 52, panel 1: Byakuya's face = I laugh every time I see it :) And also, before you read this chapter, I would highly recommend that you read (and review) my story The Death of Renji Abarai – it will greatly help your quest for knowledge if you do so…
Disclaimer: I own bleach! I mean the kind I wash my clothes with! Oh, you're talking about the manga? Okay, forget it. Also, Mine belongs to Christina Perri and the Atlantic Recording Corporation for the United….(something) I don't know the rest of the name, it goes off the screen of my iPod :) So yeah, responding to some reviews here…
midnight03: Maybe, maybe not…hehehe
himelove22: Ooh yes I love cliffhangers they annoy people soo much:) lol and yeah I know talk about awkward O_o
nypsy: Yeah it's gonna be weird with Ronin & Renji…let's see how that plays out. I have it all planned, so go ahead and speculate if you like. I'm SUPER surprised you haven't figured it out already, I was sure you'd be right on top of it…whatever, it just makes it better, the suspense I mean.
saga: hahaha CONFUZZLED…I know what you mean.
Misha: Yay ! Suspense! Gotta love it, honey. This is gonna be a tense, awkward chapter, I promise…
whitechan16: Wow, I can't believe something I wrote was heart stopping, I was not aware that I was that good! Oh and by the way, you're the first person to comment on my L costume, and yes, it kicked ass XD
luversblues: I totally get what you're saying. And I'm glad you commented on it because I've actually been trying to tone her down a little bit. In my mind, she's more…confused…than she is in life. She's trying to re-discover herself, and figure everything out. I think she's feeling lost and not nearly as bubbly as usual. So thank you for pointing that out. I'm succeeding…in my quest… Now on with the chapter!
What? What might you do to find out why I can't love you? I can't love you! And who said it was cool to be asking me these questions? Your "Who? What, and when? Where? And why?" are making my head spin! And when was it an option to put your lips upon my lips? And how did this happen? And why are you laughing? And how do I get back together again?
"ORIHIME!"
A black-haired girl barrels toward Sadako next; her eyes wide and betraying every emotion from anguished to overjoyed. Overwhelmed, Sadako turns away from the suddenly frozen man in front of her to face the black-haired girl, who reaches her and throws her arms around her, squeezing her so tightly Sadako feels that she can't breathe at all. She gasps for air as the man turns to the girl, tapping her shoulder and saying hollowly, "Let her go, Tatsuki."
"What?" The girl releases Sadako, who stumbles backwards. Ronin is there, ready and waiting; he catches Sadako and she falls against his chest, still shocked. "What do you mean, let her go? And who –" she whirls to face Ronin, pointing squarely at his face – "the hell are you? What are you doing with Orihime?"
"I could ask you the same question," Ronin says stiffly. "And this is Sadako. I don't know anyone named Orihime."
Sadako's lips are tingling from where the orange-haired man had kissed her. She presses her fingers to her mouth and looks up at him to see him watching her, his eyes tortured.
"Sadako?" the black-haired girl shouts. "What are you talking about? That's Orihime, make no mistake. Orihime, come on," she says, turning her attention to Sadako. "Tell this loser who you are."
Sadako shakes her head, squeezing her eyes closed. "I don't know you," she says. "I don't…I don't…"
"She doesn't remember us," says the orange-haired man.
The black-haired girl stops. Her mouth falls open. "What…what did you just say?" she croaks, her whole body becoming still.
"I said she doesn't remember us," says the orange-haired man. His fingers flex at his sides; his expression could make a grown man cry. "Orihime doesn't remember us."
"Oh, my God~ Is that her? You guys found her!" says someone else, running up. This person, Sadako remembers – it's Abarai Renji, assistant captain of squad 6 –
And Ronin's blood brother.
She feels Ronin stiffen behind her. She doesn't look up to see his expression, but she can imagine it must be as dark as a thundercloud.
"Um…did I miss something?" Lieutenant Abarai says hesitantly. "I was expecting a few more, you know, happy faces…"
"Little late there, Abarai," Ronin says, his voice dangerous. Lieutenant Abarai looks at him and takes a double-take.
"Who…the hell…?"
By now Lieutenant Hisagi has arrived, his expression serious. He puts a hand on the orange-haired man's shoulder. "Come on, gang," he says. "Let's take this to the office."
**!**
After saying a quick goodbye to the rest of their friends, avoiding eye contact when asked what was going on, Ronin and Sadako follow the others away from the fair. Lieutenants Hisagi and Abarai glance back every so often to make sure they're still there. The orange-haired man is hunched over, seeming to cave over in on himself, looking more like a boy now than a man. And the girl's expression when she looks back at Sadako is betrayed – her eyes fill with tears, and the energy has left her frame, leaving her looking old and weary.
It seems like just an instant until they've reached a building. Sadako's brain is reeling. Her hand still covers her mouth like she can feel the imprint of his kiss there. Ronin has her bundled into his side, making his shaking body obvious to her. When she looks at his face she can see that it's drawn and sweaty.
Lieutenant Hisagi leads them into an office and sits Sadako and Ronin down across from the rest of them. He leans forward and says, "So, what's the story, now?"
"It all started when Orihime died," says the man with the orange hair. "It was about two weeks ago. She was killed by a Hollow in a park. I was the only other one there. It was aiming for me, but I –" He swallows. "I ducked, and then went for its head. Then the Hollow ducked as well, but it – it –"
"Okay, so she died," Lieutenant Hisagi says. Sadako is beginning to get a little nervous. Two weeks? That's about when I woke up in the alley…
"Anyway, we searched all over for her soul, but we couldn't find it. Anywhere. We all assumed that the guy – ahh, what's his name…shoot, I can never remember – anyway, the Shinigami assigned to Karakura Town had taken care of it. But then we talked to him and he said he hadn't seen her ghost. So we went ahead with the funeral and afterwards had a private burial, usually only for family, but since she lived alone and never talked about where we might find any relatives there was no way for us to contact anyone. There was a Hollow attack later, and Rukia's legs were broken. Without Orihime, there was no way we could heal her. So Renji and I set out to find her. Tatsuki followed us here. And that's the story."
Lieutenant Hisagi nods. Then he turns to Sadako and Ronin. "Care to introduce yourselves?"
"Well, I'm…I'm Sadako," says Sadako. But is that who I really am? she thinks. Could this Orihime person really be me? "Who are you guys again?" she says, pointing at the girl and boy. "I'm sorry, I don't think I got your names."
Agony crosses the man's face. The girl stands up and says, "I'm Tatsuki. Arisawa Tatsuki. I've been your best friend since you – since we – were nine. We've stood together through everything. Protected each other from everything. If you remember anything –" her eyes filled with tears "-you've got to remember me. You've just got to."
"That's enough," Lieutenant Hisagi says gently.
"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo," says the man, and you can feel Ronin's jaw drop.
"Does that make her –" he pointed at Sadako – "Orihime Inoue?"
"That's Inoue all right," Kurosaki says. Kurosaki? This man is Ichigo Kurosaki? I just got kissed by one of the most famous men in the Soul Society? Sadako feels her cheeks stain red.
"There's Orihime's famous blush," Tatsuki says. "I knew it'd come out sooner or later. Anyway, who are you?" She points to Ronin.
"Abarai Ronin," Ronin says flatly.
A shocked silence settles over the room. Lieutenant Abarai, who had been dozing in his chair, started. "Wait. What?" he said. "Abarai Ronin?"
Ronin narrows his eyes. "You heard me. Do your ears need cleaning, Lieutenant Abarai? Or should I call you brother?"
"WHAT?" both the lieutenants shout, standing. Lieutenant Hisagi throws his arm over Lieutenant Abarai's face, blocking him from saying anything. "Wait. Wait. What the hell did you just say?"
"I said, "'You heard me. Do your ears need cleaning, Lieutenant Abarai? Or should I call you brother?'" Ronin stands as well, his hands clenched at his sides. "Maybe you need to get your ears cleaned as well."
"Renji doesn't have a brother," Lieutenant Hisagi says stupidly.
"What do you mean by 'brother'?" Lieutenant Abarai says warily.
"Oh, so you need it spelled out for you. Hm. Well, generally brothers have the same mother, same father, usually share a few other siblings – why do you ask, Renji?"
"But – but – I don't have a mother!"
"You did once. When you were alive. Baka! How did you think you got on this earth, you miserable piece of flesh? Did you just think you magically appeared out of thin air?"
Lieutenant Abarai's expression said that he hadn't really given it much thought. Ronin sighed with exasperation. "Look, to make a long story short, you were born. You lived a day or two past your fourth birthday, you died. I was born a year before that. I lived to be a year or two past my eighteenth birthday. I died. Your death caused the death of two other people who passed on with me, and we lived in poverty for – oh, about a hundred years. And was there any word from you? No. Any sort of attempt to reconnect? No. Any support for your family? You guessed it – no! And while I was struggling to survive out in the Rukongai, you were here safe and sound in Seireitei, living la-di-dah, week to week, month to month, year to year – all the while completely ignorant that you had a brother out there somewhere who was trying to survive day to day. And do you care at all? NO!"
Ronin turns and runs out of the room, his braid whiplashing against the bridge of Lieutenant Abarai's nose. Lieutenant Abarai blinks, his face pale.
"He's had that bottled up for a while," Sadako offers.
"I see that." Abarai sighs. He sits back down in his chair, followed by Hisagi. "Well, just another thing I can add to my long line of screwups," he says. "I'll see if I can talk to him later. Now, back to you."
Hisagi clears his throat. "Yes, back to you. Uh…did you want to say anything about what happened after you died?"
"I woke up in an alley two weeks ago," Sadako says, feeling uncomfortable now that Ronin's gone. "I couldn't remember anything. Not my name, not my face, not what I looked like. I was wearing –"
"-A Karakura T-shirt and sweatpants," Kurosaki says.
Sadako gives him a strange look. "Yeah. Anyway, Ronin's…um, adoptive sister Kaori found me, named me and took me home. Ronin was just back from the Academy and he took me back with him when he returned, which was about a week later. And, um…that's it, really."
Hisagi frowns, opening his mouth. But Kurosaki interrupts him. "Can I talk alone with Ori – Sadako for a moment?" he asks.
Hisagi nods uncertainly. "I suppose so." He, Abarai, and Tatsuki all stand and file out of the room, and Kurosaki moves over to sit in Ronin's chair.
"Look," he says, taking a breath, "I know this must be hard to take in. I realize it must be overwhelming. I'm sorry about what happened when I first saw you. But your last words –" He struggles. "Your last words were…were you confessing your love." He swallows. "For me. I didn't realize…I didn't realize you'd forgotten. I just…I thought it would make you happy, and I'm sorry." He ducked his head, waiting for her next words.
"It's okay, Kurosaki-kun," Sadako says.
His head snaps up, his eyes flaming with emotion. "You used to call me that all the time," he rasped. "I had just begun to teach you to call me Ichigo when you…when you…" He grasps her hand and turns it over, revealing her palm. The blue scribble is still there: IK WAS HERE. "I wrote that, to show you that the 'I' comes first," he said. "I've heard that when you die with a mark like this, it'll never come off…"
He pauses. "Oh, and I wanted to show you this," he said, reaching inside his robe. "The day you died, I was over at your house, helping you study. You'd missed some school because you were sick. Anyway, you were doodling right before we left, and this was on the paper."
He hands it to her. It's a drawing of him: his mouth slightly open, like he's about to speak; his eyes warm and looking straight at the drawer. "I drew this?" Sadako says, stunned. "You're joking."
"Look on the back" was his only reply.
Sadako turns the page. On the back is a picture of her and him together, doing what could only be described as "kissing passionately". She gulps and blushes tomato red, her eyes widening.
"I drew that?" she croaks, and Kurosaki-kun laughs at her expression.
"Yes," he says, sobering up. "Do you believe me now, Orihime?"
She looks at the top corner of the drawing, where she had written OI+IK=LOVE. She nods hesitantly, her eyes still glued to the page. She folds it into her robe, then looks up at Kurosaki-kun.
"Oh, and I have one more thing for you." He reaches inside his robe again, withdrawing something closed in his fist. He opens his hand, and Sadako peers in it to see two hairpins, each decorated with a blue flower gem. They sparkle in the lights overhead.
"These were a gift from your brother, Sora, who died when you were nine," Kurosaki-kun says. "They're also the source of your power – they house the Shun Shun Rikka. You wore them like this." He reaches for her head, sliding the pins neatly behind her ears, pulling her bangs out of her face. "If you've had trouble tapping into your power before now, it's probably because you didn't have them with you. I mean, that's what I think, anyway."
"Thank you, Kurosaki-kun," she says, casting her eyes down.
"Don't do that," he says, putting his hand under her chin and drawing her head up. He smiles down at her. "The first step to remembering is calling me 'Ichigo'."
Ended with a little Ichihime XD More to come if you R&R!