Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Lilandra and her story
When she woke the next morning Chad was not in her room, neither was his stuff and her whole house smelled heavenly. "Chad?"
"Yeah." He had already fed all of her animals and let them out. He currently stood in her kitchen with a frying pan and was wearing a pink apron.
"Pink actually looks good on you." She giggled. "You let me sleep in."
"You had a rough night." He shrugged and served her breakfast.
"Thanks." They ate in silence and walked to school that way as well. When they got to school there was a lot of talk about all the explosions the day before. In third period Ishida walked in late and his arms were both bandaged. There was even more talk about Ishida getting in a fight. Chad, Orihime and Lilly all sat quietly, knowing what actually happened. At lunch Chad wandered off and Lilly ate alone in one of the trees. Why do I all of a sudden feel really depressed? Nothing happened that day, but all day she couldn't shake off the feeling of dread and the cold that continually seeped through her body. That night she again had dreams of death and monsters. When she woke she immediately knew something was very wrong. She ran to school and when she got there someone was sitting in the place of Rukia. What's going on? No one mentioned her. It was like she had been totally erased from everyone's minds. When school ended the whole gang, excluding Rukia, sat around together. Keigo got excited about summer vacation and had all these plans, but Ichigo passed, said he had things to do. Orihime and Lilly also passed, sensing these things would include something they could do to help. Tatsuki had Nationals and Chad just passed. So no one was going with him. Chad walked Lilly home again and almost fifteen minutes gave her a call. "Hello?"
"Orihime has made up her mind. She's with us. Ichigo is going to the spirit world to save Rukia. We have to help him."
"Of course." Lilly put the phone down and thought about what would happen next. Lilly sat in her living room waiting for Chad and Orihime. When they showed up Orihime looked more determined than she ever had before. They walked to the weird guy's house and were met by a black cat who informed them that they needed a lesson.
"A…lesson?" Orihime asked quietly.
"Yes." The cat confirmed. "If you insist on going to the Soul Society you'll need it. Are you willing? My lessons aren't for the faint of heart."
Orihime bounced along after him excited about the lesson. Chad and Lilly followed more calmly as they went in search of Uryu Ishida. After walking and climbing for forever they finally found him next to a waterfall. "HEY! THERE HE IS! HEY URYU!" Orihime exclaimed excitedly as they climbed onto the landing.
"Um…Miss Inoue, Lilly…and…Chad?" Orihime quickly explained what was happening and that they were going to be taking lessons. "A lesson?"
"Yeah! We need a lesson so we can go to the Soul Society. Want to join us?" They all sat on the ground. Lilly next to Chad, Orihime next to her and Uryu across from them on a rock.
"Um…well, I did notice you guys' spirit energy had increased recently…But I had no idea you were thinking of this. So…Who's your teacher? Whose tutelage are you under?"
"Um…" Chad and Lilly didn't quite know how to explain it so Orihime did the honors.
"Well, it's not exactly who…Actually our teacher's right beside you."
Uryu whipped around and exclaimed. "What?! Has he cloaked his presence? What power!"
"It is I." The black cat informed him.
"WHAT?!..What the…What is this!"
"Um…it's."
Orihime, Lilly and Chad looked at each other. "…a kitty." They said in unison.
"I can see that! Why is it talking?!"
The cat scoffed. "Pointing. How rude."
Uryu got embarrassed and adjusted his glasses. "I-I'm sorry…How embarrassing. Forgive my outburst."
"Indeed. Just because a cat spoke…what a disgrace."
Uryu swatted at the cat. "STOP TALKING!"
He easily dodged Uryu. "Try to be more adaptable. Take a lesson from the girl. Now, let's get to the reason we're all here shall we?"
"Yeah Uryu." Orihime looked at Uryu like he was stupid. "What's the big deal about a talking cat?"
"Um...Well…It is a little unusual." Chad said in the background with a nodding Lilly.
Orihime tried one last time to get Uryu to join their group but in the end he declined. Saying that he would rather be alone and that he didn't intend to rescue Rukia, that she meant nothing to him.
Mr. Yoruichi, the cat, started walking away. "There you have it. He's not going to the Soul Society. Then we have no further business here."
"But…"
Chad looked down at Orihime. "Let's go…Orihime…." He and Lilly walked away but Orihime stayed for a tad longer to talk to Uryu then ran to join them.
Lilly sat eating lunch while Orihime and Chad struggled to call upon their powers. "Why aren't you doing that?" Asked Mr. Yoruichi.
"Because the voice in my head tells me what to do….what's your name by the way?" Lilly looked up as if she could see inside her head. Just call me Kuro. "Ok." She turned back to Mr. Yoruichi. "His name is Kuro. He gives me fire." Mr. Yoruichi turned his attention back to the other two to explain to them what they were doing wrong then back to Lilly.
"Show me. And tell me what was going through your head."
Lilly stood in the center of the room making sure she was away from Chad and Orihime, though they sat and watched her. Lilly closed her eyes gently and focused. Alright Kuro…let's show them what you can do.
Woohoo! It's about time! Lilly smirked and whispered the word 'phoenix' and her body was engulfed in flame. "What else can you do?" Lilly showed him her punching and kicking then let the fire down. "When did you figure this out?"
"When I was fighting a Hollow the same day they did."
"What were you thinking?"
"I figured out why I could never call on Kuro before. I was always trying to protect the people I loved that were already dead…but…that day I just thought about all the new friends I made…Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki, Rukia…and I asked my dead family to give me something to use to protect the living…and this is what happened. Oops…" She looked at the scorch mark she created on the floor. "My bad."
"Why do you go to Soul Society?" Mr. Yoruichi asked Lilly.
"To protect my friends."
"Why do you?" He turned to Orihime.
"To protect Ichigo."
"Very good." Orihime's barrettes popped out and turned into little pixies that started attacking her head. Mr. Yoruichi worked with her for a while on how to control them the turned gravely to Chad.
"Why…do you want to go to the Soul Society?" Chad never answered. But after a while his mechanical arm surrounded his right arm and he punched the wall making it crumble.
"I…I DID IT!" Chad rejoiced and Orihime and Lilly rejoiced with him but Mr. Yoruichi rained on their parade.
"You FOOLS! You've made a mess! RUN! Out the back door!" The four of them ran away form the scene and Chad, Orihime and Lilly went towards a bridge.
"Where are we going now?"
"Fire works." Orihime answered dreamily.
"Cool."
"Keigo told us to meet him here." Chad said as they approached a spot with Keigo, Ichigo and Mizuiro. Tatsuki had joined them a little earlier and entered with them. Her broken arm was soon explained as her getting hit by a car during nationals. After talking for a few hours they noticed it was getting dark so they headed to the bridge where they accidentally met up with Ichigo's drunken father. He had apparently saved seats really early that morning so the entire group except Orihime and Tatsuki left with him, running in excitement.
The fireworks were a brilliant display of colors in the air, reflecting in the river they sat next to. Chad and Lilly sat on the ground with Ichigo's little sisters who had both fallen asleep in Lilly's lap and she was stroking their hair. "You want me to move them Lilly?" Ichigo asked.
"No they're fine. Don't worry. Just enjoy the show and keep an eye on your dad."
"Crap! Where'd he go now?!" Ichigo left to find his father and Lilly let her body slump under the weight of her weariness.
"You okay Lilly?" Chad looked at her with concern in his eyes.
"Yeah…I'm fine…Just tired, that's all."
"You wanna go home?"
"No…I've never seen anything this beautiful before…I've never actually seen fireworks before tonight….so…thanks…" Lilly blushed but Chad couldn't see that because it was so dark and she was thankful. After another hour she couldn't fight her tiredness any more and let her heavy head sink onto Chad's shoulder. He shifted slightly so that she was on his chest instead and let her sleep like that for another two hours until it was time that they should go. He woke her up gently and walked around wither her. He walked her home and stopped at her door. "You should get some sleep…we still have a week of training left."
"Yeah…Goodnight." Chad kissed her on the cheek then sprinted around the corner, out of her dazed sight.