The Sun and the Moon
Chapter 11
"Ichi-nii, your clothes are in the closet, all right? Your old books are still in your drawers, I wasn't sure which ones you'd want to keep so I couldn't throw any away…"
Ichigo stared at his old bedroom from where he stood at the threshold of door, examining every corner of the small room. Like the rest of the house, this room had barely changed either, though there was a certain smell that indicated that while the room had been kept clean, it had certainly not been inhabited for years. In the middle lay his bed, where Yuzu was now fussing over his still pinstriped blue bedsheets, and to its left was the closet. In between the closet and the bed stood his desk, above which a memo board hung and still had notes dating back to his high school days pinned to it. Resting on the side of the desk was his old guitar and a baseball bat. Too preoccupied with scrutinizing his old bedroom, he almost did not hear Yuzu asking him to come down for dinner soon as she left the room.
Now standing alone facing his room, a voice from his memory drifted into his head.
Your small room still looks as small as ever, Ichigo!
Stop calling it small, you freeloader! Don't compare it to Byakuya's house!
Ichigo closed his eyes. This was exactly the reason why he dreaded coming back to this place, although he sometimes truly missed living with his family, even his pain-in-the-ass father. Breathing in deeply and opening his eyes, he trudged on slowly towards the bed, leaning on his crutch to prevent putting pressure on his injured left leg, determinedly ignoring the screaming existence of the closet to his left.
Finally he collapsed into the bed, his back on the soft mattress and staring blankly at the bright lamp overhead. Man, was he so fucking tired. He thought about his father's last statement to him.
Perhaps next time you will learn not to play the hero when you obviously don't have the power.
Ichigo observed a large fly as it buzzed around the source of light overhead, meanwhile contemplating the meaning of his father's words. When you obviously don't have the power. Were those words spoken just like a father concerned and angered by the fact that his own son was willing to risk his life for others recklessly? Or did his father know about…?
Ichigo laughed at the absurdity of it all. His idiotic father, know of the existence of shinigami and Soul Society and his subsequent loss of powers, or rather his forced exile from Soul Society? He could not even imagine it; it was like imagining a humorous Byakuya or a young Yamamoto.
His thoughts were quickly led astray as he noticed the dark purple stains a few centimeters away from the bright lamp overhead. One might wonder how grape juice found its way to such an unusual corner of the room, but Ichigo remembered vividly the story behind that. He also recalled the events of the past few days, more importantly those of the Hollow attack at Kagamino Hospital which left him with an injured left arm and leg.
Ichigo was now fairly certain that the shinigami who defeated the Hollow and in so doing saved his and Hidemi's lives was her. Hidemi saw the raven-haired girl in black kimono too. However, what confused him was the wooden badge armband on her arm, which was one of the last things he saw as his consciousness faded away. Was she a lieutenant now? Seemed like her life had never been better once he was gone from it, Ichigo thought bitterly. Why then was she the one who came to their rescue, when the patrolling officer shinigami could have done it instead? Ichigo hardly thought Soul Society would let its lieutenants carry out mundane trivial tasks like eliminating low-rank Hollows in the living world. Why was she here then, in the living world? Why could she just not leave him alone to live his wretched life in peace?
Ichigo closed his eyes in frustration. He would be lying to himself if he said he was not at all delighted to see her again, despite the briefness of the connection and the hardly favourable circumstances they met in. But it gave him hope that perhaps, just maybe, she had not forgotten him completely.
He half-expected a black butterfly to flit into his room above his face, as it once did almost a lifetime ago.
But nothing happened. The only sound in the room was his slow breathing and the occasional buzz when the fly hovered too close to the light.
Yuzu's voice floating up to his room indicated to him that it was time for dinner.
Attempting in vain to push away images of black hair and kimono, Ichigo slowly got up from his bed and trudged his way down the stairs to join his family for dinner.
When Ichigo finally arrived at the dining room after much difficulty, he found the rest of his family already seated around the table, his father included. "Oyaji," he greeted his father as he seated himself opposite the twins.
"Ichigo. How's the injuries?"
"Aa. I'm better now."
It seemed that in his absence Yuzu's cooking had not changed either, for the scrumptious dishes in front of Ichigo made it one of the most delicious meals he had had for a while. As he tucked in happily into his meal, he heard Karin say, "Ichi-nii thinks it's a great idea I'm marrying Sado-kun, Otou-san."
All of a sudden, Isshin got up from his seat, sending the furniture tumbling backwards onto the floor, and staggered towards the disturbing picture of Masaki, screaming dramatically, "Okaa-san! Our daughter is getting married! I'm going to have a second son!"
It seemed to Ichigo that indeed, nothing much had changed in this house.
It would have been a strange sight to outsiders indeed, seeing that the father was behaving in the most curious fashion while his three grown-up children continued eating, seemingly undisturbed by the peculiarity of it all.
When Isshin finally wiped his tears dry with his pineapple-printed sleeve and resumed his seat at the table, he said, "Well, of course your brother has to say yes. You girls can't possibly wait just because he isn't planning on marrying yet."
"Aren't you going out with Orihime-chan, Onii-chan?" Yuzu asked her brother curiously.
Ichigo brushed this off as a false rumour spread by Chizuru who still held aspirations to be Orihime's lifelong partner. He almost jumped out of his skin when his father suddenly stumbled once more towards his mother's poster, weeping uncontrollably. "O Masaki, forgive me! Our son is… Ichigo is… GAY!"
Ichigo's jaw dropped at the absurdity of his father's imagination. Across the table, Karin guffawed at the suggestion while Yuzu looked genuinely concerned. "Are you really… gay, Ichi-nii? It's okay, you know, you can confide in us…"
"The reason why your brother refuses to marry a girl is…"
"Oh shut up, you old pervert!" shouted Ichigo through gritted teeth as his fist met his father's face squarely on the jaw, causing the older Kurosaki to cower exaggeratedly in one corner. Ichigo sighed as he returned to the table.
"Don't be stupid, Yuzu. Ichi-nii doesn't wanna marry because Rukia-nee—"
Karin stopped short her explanation as soon as he had seated himself, looking furtively at her brother across the table. Ichigo's scowl had deepened further.
"Ano… Ichi-nii, will you and Rukia-nee patch up soon?"
Yuzu let out a cry as her sister threw her an admonishing glare and kicked her shin underneath the table. "Why did you do that for, Karin?"
Ichigo gave another sigh. Across the table, the twins started a banter while their idiotic father still wept at his mother's disturbing poster, rambling on about how "the Kurosaki line will die with our homosexual son".
As he helped himself to a third helping of Yuzu's cooking, the familiar sounds of the Kurosaki household filling the air, Ichigo found that he was glad to be back home again.