A/N: Hey, all. It's meee~! Finally back, after writing that insane chap on My Espada Boys (34,000 + words) and I kinda feel bad about the neglect of my other fics. I'm a bad person :(
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or "When The Day Met The Night," that is owned by Panic! At the Disco.
Misha: Good, I was worried it would be too corny :-/
himelove22: Yeah, read the other one if you haven't already ..
nypsy: Yeah, I totally get it. Ronin needs to get over himself already. He's just overreacting.
midnight03: Yep! Thanks! She will! But shh. Don't tell anyone.
Magdalena88: Yeah, I agree…except sometimes I'll go for (cue confession) UlquiHime…sorry…but! This will turn out good, don't worry.
GameFreak: Sorry, it kind of is a love triangle…I hope I'm not losing a reader here…sorry :-/
Chuain: Yeah he needs to get over it. Just bear with me, it's important to the story..
whitechan16: Thanks, that means a lot. Er.. no comment on the memories bit
luversblues: HAHAHA! I laughed soo hard when I read that! But remember, she doesn't remember liking Ichi, so…maybe she'll get embarrassed when/if she regains her memories, ne?
moonlightroruni: Nope, thanks..
When the sun found the moon, she was drinking tea in a garden under the green umbrella trees in the middle of summer. When the moon found the sun, he looked like he was barely hanging on, but her eyes saved his life in the middle of summer. So he said, "Would it be all right if we just sat and talked for a little while? If in exchange for your time I give you this smile?" Well he was just hanging around, then he fell in love and he didn't know how, but he couldn't get out…just hanging around, then he fell in love…
"Her memories are completely gone, you say?"
Ichigo nods. "Yes."
"And you're positive that this is actually her?"
"Yeah, I'm positive." Ichigo scowls. "I can't believe you don't remember her. It's not like you live in Seireitei or anything."
"What are you suggesting?"
"I'm saying maybe there's someone out there who doesn't want her to remember who she was. Maybe someone with power who didn't want her to take that away, I don't know. But that's the only explanation I can think of."
The woman in front of Ichigo, Tatsuki, and Sadako - Orihime, it's Orihime now, she reminds herself again - sighs and pulls the long, thin cigarette from her mouth. Ichigo introduced her as Kukaku Shiba earlier, and she's wearing a red smock tied at the small of her back and a sarong opened up to her waist. Her hair is tied up in bandages with two pigtails flowing from it, and one arm ends in a stump at her shoulder.
Tapping the stick on the plate in front of her, Kukaku says, "Sounds like a high-level Kidô at work."
"What do you mean?" Ichigo says with a frown.
"I mean that it sounds like someone is duping the whole Soul Society. It would have to be someone captain-class or higher - but I don't see why anyone would do it. It just doesn't make sense to me."
She sighs and looks out. They're sitting outside on a wooden deck. Far in front of them stretches a grassy field, which is bordered by trees. The sun is setting, the sky in flame. Kukaku is sitting in the shadow of a giant chimney-type thing that stretches several stories high and seems to be painted over on top.
"Do you have any idea of what spell it would be?" Ichigo asks.
Kukaku shakes her head. "No. A huge memory-erasing spell such as this one has never been seen before by us, which is why I'm so puzzled. If I knew about the spell, I'd probably know a way to reverse it and would do so immediately. But I've never heard of it at all."
Ichigo slumps. Sneaking a look at his face, Sadak -Orihime sees that he looks like he's almost in physical pain. She can't help but reach over and is about to grab his hand when Ronin's face flashes in front of her vision and she snatches her hand back. He looks questioningly at her, and she blushes. Of course.
"Anyway," Kukaku sighs. "I think we're at a bit of a dead end here. The only person who I can think of who would do this would be Captain Unohana, but that's ridiculous to even think about. Retsu wouldn't hurt a fly."
Ichigo frowns. "Is it even possible that it could be someone not captain-class?"
Kukaku quickly shakes her head. "No. Couldn't be. Something powerful enough to deceive everyone in Soul Society? No. And why? I keep coming back to that." She puts her cigarette back in her mouth, closing her eyes.
It's a minute before anyone breaks the silence. Orihime is fidgeting on the wood, uncomfortable. Just as Ichigo opens his mouth, Tatsuki jumps up.
"So what do we do?" she cries. "We're not giving up. I have to have Orihime back!"
Kukaku regards her calmly. "Now, I don't recall ever saying anything about giving up," she said. "Calm down, woman."
"I thought I might find you all here."
Orihime looks around to see Ronin in the grass, his braid waving in the wind. He slumps at seeing her next to Ichigo.
"Stand up straight, you look like L," Tatsuki snaps.
Ronin ignores her, coming over to sit with them. "What's going on?"
"We're at a dead end," Kukaku says. She cocks an eyebrow at Ronin. "Care to enlighten me on who the hell you are?"
"Abarai Ronin, ma'am," he says respectfully, bowing over his thighs.
"He's my friend," Orihime adds as an afterthought.
Ronin winces against his thighs, and then straightens up. Ichigo smirks at his expression, leaving Orihime confused.
"What?" she asks, confused.
"Ronin just got friendzoned," Ichigo mutters.
"What's that?"
"Sadako," Ronin interrupts, "I need to know what your plans for school are. It's the weekend now, but if you're coming to classes tomorrow, you need to come back with me now." He brushes a random bird from his shoulder.
"Oh!" Orihime jumps up. "Of course I'm going to class tomorrow! I have to. I'll be going, Kurosaki-kun. See you tomorrow!"
"Wait," Ichigo says, standing as well. "We should walk you two back."
"It's fine," says Ronin. "I'm perfectly capable of defending Sadako."
"Oh yeah? Well, let me see it, then."
Ronin looks taken aback. "Oh. Uh, okay, then.." He pulls his sword out. "Spread your wings, Rubitori!"
His blade shimmers and dissolves in a burst of reishi; the two metal birds forming. Once they've materialized, they settle on Ronin's shoulders, looking at Ichigo with their ruby eyes, challenging him.
Ichigo slumps.
"Well, okay, then. You two have fun," he says, and Orihime leaps up, following the ruby-haired boy with the metal hawks away.
**!**
Ichigo narrowed his eyes, watching the figures disappear into the trees.
"I don't like him," he murmured. "I don't trust him."
"You just don't like having competition," Tatsuki scoffed. "All her life, she's only liked you. And now, watching her with someone else, you get jealous. Now you know how she felt."
"Huh? Jealous? But I never hung out with other girls," Ichigo said, surprised.
Tatsuki coughed, the words "Kuchiki" and "Rukia" distinctly coming from her mouth.
"Rukia's like my sister," Ichigo snapped. "Dating her would be like incest."
"There was Senna, too," Tatsuki reminded him. "Try to explain your way out of that one."
"Can I ask you two something?" Kukaku said. "I just wanted to make something one hundred percent clear. No one ever actually recognized her here, did they?"
"Not that I know of," Ichigo said. "There could have been someone that she never mentioned. But no one captain-class or higher."
Kukaku narrowed her eyes and looked out over the field again, leaving Ichigo and Tatsuki to fidget in an awkward silence.
**!**
Orihime and Ronin are also enveloped in silence, but this one is more tense. Rubitori is keeping the birds away from the pair, swooping at any that dare to come near. They're walking along a well-worn path in the forest; trees line the road, with some overhanging branches and leaves.
"Can I ask you something?" Ronin asks her, ducking under a branch.
"Sure."
"Do you think…do you think I overreacted? With the whole Renji thing?"
Orihime looks taken aback. "Uh…"
"I mean, he was only three when he died," Ronin says, concentrating on the ground. "D'you think I was being too harsh on him?"
Orihime blinks, not sure what to say.
"I feel like I wasn't being fair," Ronin continues. "But at the same time, whenever I picture his face…" He brings his hands up harshly, and both birds bullet into a tree, exploding the trunk into smithereens.
"You probably don't understand," he says, sounding frustrated. "I just...don't know what to do."
"I think you should forgive him," Orihime says. "He was three, you say? I think he's lucky to have even remembered his name. There was no way he could have remembered you, especially since you were just a kid."
Ronin hangs his head. "Yeah, but..."
They walk in silence for a while longer.
"Sadako?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you...do you really want your memories back?"
"Huh?" Orihime looks at him curiously, and then a smile spreads across her face. "Of course I do! I want to know who I was! Why?"
Ronin looks at the ground, his expression helpless. "But what if we can make new memories here?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I don't want you to get your memories back."
There's a short, shocked silence. Orihime looks at him in shock, hurt welling up in her grey eyes.
"How can you even say that?" she demands.
"Because it's true," Ronin says angrily. "I don't want you to remember Ichigo Kurosaki or that Arisawa girl. I don't want you to remember your powers, your friends, your life before death."
"But why on earth not?" she says, her mouth pulling down violently at the corners. "I thought we were friends, Ronin, and I thought friends stuck by each other no matter what!"
"That's just it!" Ronin basically shouts. "I don't want that Ichigo sticking by you. I want him to go back to where he belongs and never come back! I don't want to ever see his face again. Our dynamic had just gotten started when he came in and screwed everything up. I hate him! I only want you to have memories of me, and not him!"
Orihime looks at him through new eyes, feeling betrayed. "How can you even say that?" she asks. Then a new thought hits her. "Wait...you weren't the one who made all of Soul Society forget about me, were you?"
Ronin is so surprised by this accusation that his anger is momentarily forgotten. "What? Of course not. Why would I ever do that?"
"Why would you say those things about me and my memories?" she shoots back.
"Now look here, Sadako, I -"
"Don't call me that," she says. "My name is Orihime."
Think short and sweet. LOL! Ronin got unintentionally friendzoned! Look me in the eyes and tell me it wasn't funny...
Many clues in this chap! :) R&R?