The door to the back room opened up again, and she watched as Ichigo came storming into the room and tried to hold back a sigh, wincing as the woman at her feet pulled a little more of the bandages off. She was still too weak to focus for long, let alone the sort of meditation she needed to be able to find the glass tower where she went when things were worse than this, bad enough that she could not even feel the pain. The fact that she was still aware enough to hurt would normally be a good thing. None of what had happened today was normal though. Masumi had spent too much of her life seeing things that other people couldn't to not realize just what had happened to her. What she had done to herself. At least she would be able to keep one of her last promises to Ichigo before her ghost was forced to move on.
"Hail thee, blithe spirit," she said. Her voice was starting to get stronger again, a bit shaky, but no longer so hoarse from the cuts around her throat. At least she knew Ichigo would be able to hear her traditional greeting. The sooner he knew it was her, the sooner this would be over with.
"Masumi, who kil-."
She cut him off midword. "Hush, Ichigo. I need you to listen. I promised that I would tell you the next time someone hurt me. I've already broken my word to you once today with letting this happen, so let me not make things worse. I only heard the names of the men who did this to me once, as they were dragging me out of -of where I hid inside myself. They all blurred together when they did that, but I will tell you what I heard sounded like Kona, Meginai, and Sensama. Those are probably wrong, but they are the names I heard."
She bowed her head as she said the last, letting her hair fall away so that the back of her neck was bare. A few seconds passed and she gritted her teeth, trying not to think of what was going to happen when she felt Ichigo kneel down next to her."
"Look at me."
"What? I - "
"Dakamoragu Masumi, look at me."
She raised her head slowly and looked directly at Ichigo, her own hazel eyes meeting his brown ones. He reached out a hand and laid it softly against her cheek, holding her face still, and she fought not to flinch at the touch, reminding herself that this was Kurosaki Ichigo, the boy she had befriended and taught for six years. She let that unspoken mantra repeat in her head a few times before she breathed deeply, waiting for him to finish talking.
"You did not break your oath. No, don't interrupt me. You gave me your word that if anyone tried to hurt you again, you would try to stop them or get away and that afterwards, you would tell me or Ol' Beardo their names. You got to the shop, and as soon as you saw me, you told me the names. I say that means you kept your promise. And don't try to tell me you could have done more to stop them because you know damn well you couldn't have. Now, drink this before Yourichi sneezes herself to death. Unless something breaks into the shop, you'll be safe here. I promise. Now, take the freaking medicine"
Masumi took the bottle off of Ichigo and drank it down. She had a second to register that it tasted awful, like a weird amalgam of motor oil, grape jelly, and pepper before everything in her vision began to blur and darken. The last thing she saw before her vision went dark was Ichigo and the lighter complected girl who looked like the transfer student that Ichigo was friends with helping her to lay down while Karin sat keeping watch from the corner.