AN: Hey everybody! Fast chapter for you all, at least at my standards.

I believe it needs to be said that it is been a few years since I've read/watched the anime and manga, so there are going to be discrepancies to canon. Not to mention I stopped shortly after Ichigo's fight with Ulquiorra and only really skimmed summaries of what happened after that with the final fight with Aizen etc. Long story short, this story isn't going to be completely based on canon.

I did work hard on this chapter, I hope you like it! Also, thank you all so much for reviewing, it means so much.

Waking up the next morning was awful.

He had somehow managed to fall asleep again after his nightmare, face down on top of his blankets, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

What put him in a bad mood was the fact that he was ninety-five percent sure he vomited (and the taste in his mouth attested to it) but he couldn't find it anywhere. The only other indication he hadn't been imagining the whole incident was the smell of cleaner lingering in the air. Which usually meant Yuzu, but his door was still locked from the night previous. So either the vomiting was a part of the nightmare or there were gaps in his memory.

Of course, he could rationalize it if he wanted to. Most people didn't remember getting up at night to use the restroom or to grab a snack. His sisters were pretty big examples of that, with how often he caught them during a late night studying (or hunting, an unhelpful voice piped up in the back of his mind) wandering the house and not remembering what was said the next morning. He did remember the absolute raw fear he felt waking up, it's possible he was so shaken up he cleaned on autopilot and collapsed.

Usually, he would accept this conclusion, he was tempted to even now. But with what happened yesterday in class-

Wait.

What did happen in class yesterday?

He remembers falling asleep, maybe. Being reprimanded by his teacher, definitely. There was something wrong with his paper, and Uryu got mad at him. He remembered being angry with him too. Did Uryu help him study for it or something? Was he disappointed? He didn't think so but his inability to remember was dragging the panic he felt last night back up his throat and he felt like gagging again.

Gaps in his memory meant, him. Usually. Most of the time. The downside of having a raving lunatic bouncing around in one's mind. But he was gone now, gone forever and there wasn't anything he could- no- wanted to do about it. He had a normal life now.

Maybe these little gaps were caused by stress, he did have a lot of work to do still to catch up on everything he missed when he was traipsing around as a Soul Reaper. Or it could be any number of strange things that could possibly pop up in his life, the gods knew he was a magnet for it even before the whole Soul Reaper thing. He could be finally losing his mind, to be honest.

He ground his palms into his eyes and groaned.

The problem was that it could just be so many different things he couldn't guess. And he didn't really have any resources at his back anymore. (Why would he, it's not like they'd waste their time with someone who could contribute-)

Stop.

He wasn't going down this rabbit hole anymore.

He was at peace with everything that had happened, this was fine.

Ichigo gripped his hair in his fists and breathed deeply for a moment before launching himself off his bed and towards the door. He'd already wasted enough time dwelling, he was just stressed.

Everything would be fine.

Very quickly Ichigo realized everything would not be, in fact, fine. It wouldn't be okay, it wasn't alright, nothing. Today was going to be awful through and through.

First, his father was more exuberant than usual. Enough said there. Then, when he left the clinic to go to class, Uryu wasn't there which meant he was fighting something (that usually only caused a small flare of 'something' most days but today felt devastating). Next on his "Shit Day" list was the small instance of his teacher giving out a surprise quiz on the lecture from the day before- which he couldn't remember. It didn't help that the whole day his head was determined on either beating staccato beat behind his eyes, or spinning the room around him.

Putting it simply, a bad day.

At the end of a very boring (lonely) lunch hour, he decided he simply didn't care to go back to class, gathered his things and left. His absence would be noticed of course- he stuck out like a sore thumb- but he had honestly reached his quota of shitty things that he could possibly handle happening today. Perhaps he'd get lucky and run into a group of idiots who didn't know better for a good brawl. Anything to relieve this...this anxiousness itching under his skin. It's not like his head could hurt anymore, anyway.

With that idea taking hold, he began drifting away from the main roads, wandering down side streets and alleyways, only actively changing course when he started to recognize an area close to home. He was thankful for the one small mercy he was allowed today- it was heavily overcast allowing him to do a bit more than squint at his surroundings.

He'd been walking for about thirty or so minutes when he started to notice something strange. Shadows were dancing along the edges of his vision, disappearing once he snapped his attention to them. For a while he had figured perhaps it was the clouds shifting in the sky, maybe small gaps of sun were finally breaking through. But every time he looked up, the sky was just a giant expanse of gray for as far as he could see.

While he was unsettled, he chalked it up to his migraine and kept walking. (He wondered idly when he had taken Karin's place as master of denial).

It was only when the whispers began that he actually grew...concerned.

They were quiet, just barely heard phrases he couldn't quite make out. He wasn't even sure if he was hearing them, since the moment he stopped walking to listen they disappeared along with the shadows. So he kept walking, hoping to find a street he recognized so he could get home, take some obviously, desperately needed medicine and pass out until this (fever?) passed.

A stray thought occurred to him, that maybe this was 'him' making his presence known again, but he promptly shoved the idea back in the gutter where it belonged to be dealt with at another time.

Ichigo was about to pull his phone out of his pocket to pull up his GPS (he really had gotten himself lost in his attempt to well, get lost) when he saw a figure in a white robe dart down an alleyway up ahead of him. Without a thought, he bolted after the figure, whipping around the corner in an attempt to catch whatever (whoever) it was.

He stopped short.

Standing in the alley Orihime and Uryu, in their school uniforms, wiping dirt off of their clothes and grabbing their bags. In other words, very obviously just coming back from a hunt or some sort. No sign of a white-robed figure anywhere.

He couldn't help the small sound of disappointment that escaped him in that moment, and Orihime whipped around, startled.

Seeing him, she smiled as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to have randomly appeared in the same place she was. Which, to be fair, it used to be. Sick with the thought, he didn't smile back.

"Oh! Ichigo! Hi!" She simpered. To most males his age, her smile would've been everything in that moment, but he just felt empty. "We just got back from, uh, well...you know." She looked awkward now, and Ichigo found it a little easier to breathe once his annoyance flared up.

Oh, she needed a response. "Uh, right." He grunted out, bobbing his head a little.

Her smile returned and looked to Uryu, who had just fixed Ichigo with this blank look during their exchange. Ichigo felt his annoyance bubble back into anger when he met his eyes, but not knowing why he schooled his expression and didn't say anything. Orihime seemed to sense the tension building and just looked back and forth from the two men.

Something changed in Uryu's expression, as if he had found what he was looking for in Ichigo's face and opened his mouth to speak.

"I-"

"I have to go." Ichigo cut him off, not knowing why he had to go so quickly, just that he did. Something felt wrong here, there was something wrong with how he felt in this moment, he should be happy to see his friendswhydidhefeelsick-

He spun on his heel and darted down the street before they could call his name.

It wouldn't be until later he would realize that while he was talking to them his head had stopped pounding, and the shadows had faded from his vision.

A little bit of a longer chapter for ya'll this time! Yay! Haha, but seriously thank you so much for reading and leaving behind reviews. It means so much to me to hear any sort of feedback from you all, so thank you! I would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter, if you have the time.

Also, this chapter is a little basic, but it's necessary to build up to the main plot. But yeah, I know, a lot of Ichigo angst lol. More things are coming soon! :)