Yue: Ok so, to celebtrate Ichi's birthday I chose to spoil you with a second chapter for this week and a special one-shot by the name Memoirs of a Kagema. Am I not generous?

Ichi: Just hurry up and get on with it. I can't believe how this story got so popular anyway. You didn't have a plot or plan to begin with.

Hichi: Now, now King. Don't be mean to the author or she will repay it to you a thousandfold

Ichi: She already did! She's turning me into a million different things in here.

Hichi: Yeah but, think of what she used as a base. I mean originally you are a human, a shinigami, a vizard...I think you are at least five more things, that we don't know about yet.

Ichi: But...But have you read that one-shot? it's humihilating! She made me be a crossdr- *get's kick into face by author*

Yue: Well anyway, enjoy and see ya next time *waves*

Ichigo was on his way back home, with having gained a little success regarding the slayers.
Though they didn't plan on giving him help finding the unknown killer, they agreed on concluding a truce between Vampires and slayers for the time being.
The orange head was glad to have achieved at least that, still it was overshadowed by something else.
In the short moment in which the dizziness had overcome him, a myriad of images and feelings washed over him.
They had come from Ishida, a cocktail of doubts, guilt, convicts and the strongest of them was fear, but not just any fear.
The archer was afraid of him and he could understand why and wished he could make it go away.

He was so deep in thought, that when he came home, his father almost landed a hit on him, but his instincts took over just a moment before his fathers foot connected with his face and he dodged, making his dad fly over him and land harshly on the floor.
"Nice one, my son. Your reflexes are getting better by the day!"
Isshin called, still lying on the floor and giving his only son a thumbs up.
Ichigo just huffed and walked on inside.
"Ichi-nii, dinner will be ready in ten minutes!"
Yuzu called from the kitchen, as he ascended the stairs.
"Alright."
Upstairs he changed fast in some casual clothes and locked his slayer outfit, together with the weapon, away.
When he was sure his sisters wouldn't accidentally find them he went back down and sat at the dinner table, where Yuzu had already had dished out the food.

Karin and his dad came shortly after him and Yuzu sat down last.
The girls told from their exams and about the day at school, their father throwing proud comments around and fooling around a bit.
Ichigo instead sat silently at the table, barely touching his food, wandering with his thoughts from the slayers, to Ginjou and then the prophecy.
"Ichi-nii, you're acting strange. More than you did already lately."
Karin suddenly states, pulling him out of his train of thoughts, but being unable to respond anything to it.
He didn't want to lie, but he also couldn't tell the truth, because his sisters would think he was nuts.
Luckily he had a father that was a master at distraction, who noticed his distress.
"Aah~a, Karin, he's probably just thinking about a fine girl he met today. My handsome son's gonna propose to her and gift me many beautiful grandchildren!"
Isshin blabbered and gesticulated wildly.
"Dad!"
Ichigo yelled at him feeling embarrassed, but mouthing a 'thanks' when his dad looked at him.
The old goat-face jumped up from his seat, and ran over to the oversized poster of his late wife, knocking his knee against the table.
A plate fell from it, through the impact and shattered on the floor, when Isshin was already halfway at the poster.
"Masakiiii! Our son's going to marry soon!"
"Stop it already! Look what you've done you clumsy goat!"
Ichigo yelled, shutting his father up effectively.

Karin already had gotten to her knees and collected the shards and Ichigo rose to help her, while Yuzu got the vacuum cleaner and a wet cloth to clean off the remnants.
"Shit!"
Karin cursed suddenly.
Ichigo didn't need to look up to know what happened, the smell of blood was already heavy in the air around him, still he did to see how bad it actually was.
His little sister had a small cut on her pointer finger, that bled heavily, droplets of the red liquid were already falling to the wooden floor.

The orangette felt his fangs grow and his stomach cramp painfully.
He clasped a hand over his mouth and nose and toward the stairs, passing Yuzu who called after him.
"Ichi-nii?"
"Sorry, I've a weak stomach recently."
He mumbled through his hand and hurried up to the bathroom.

There he locks the door and tries to calm down.
It was his own fault, really, he had been so occupied with the whole prophecy stuff, that he forgot to eat the past day, but now he couldn't call for his dad to bring him some blood, because the girls were downstairs and sure as hell would see it then.
He needed to shut his stomach up and retreat his fangs, until he could eat later at night.
First off he should get the smell out of his nose, that should help a bit, but how?

He looked up at the mirror cabinet and a grin puled at his lips.
Ichigo opened the cabinet, looking for something with a strong smell, that could erase the bloods scent and found -.
His dads cologne.
'Oh, please no.'
The orange head thought, but there was nothing else to use, that smelled strong enough, so he had to bear with it.
He opened the bottle and took a quick sniff, cocking his nose at the old man odor.
Fortunately his stomach stopped to cramp, once he had the blood smell out of his nose, so only his fangs had to go back now.

After setting the cologne back into the cabinet and closing it, Ichigo looked concentrated at his image in the mirror.
"Ok. Retreating my fangs now."
Ichigo mumbled to himself, resting his hands on the edge of the sink.
Moments went by, until he cried out desperately and grabbed handfuls of his orange tresses.
"How the hell does that work?"
He muttered.

Until now his fangs had always gone automatically, after he fed or when he stopped threatening someone, he ha no idea how to do it willingly, when they refused to go back on their own.
He paced around in the bath, trying to force the fangs back into his skull, but it didn't work.
Finally Ichigo gave up on trying on his own, he needed help.
So, he unlocked the door and sneaked over to his room, where he had left his cell phone, to call Shiro for help.

Just as he grabbed the handle of his door, Karin appeared in the hallway.
"Everything ok, Ichi-nii?"
She asked him.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine Karin. What about your finger?"
Ichigo replied, smiling at her, while doing his best not to show his teeth.
His sister knit her brows, but answered.
"Goat-face treated it, but it's really no big deal. He asked if you'll come down again."
"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute."
Karin turned around and walked back down, while Ichigo burst into his room, grabbed his phone and called his albino lover.

"Ichi?"
"Shiro I need help! Karin cut her finger and I hadn't eaten yesterday so my fangs grew and now I can't get them to get back."
He told in one breath.
"First off, calm down. Take some deep breathes."
Ichigo did, audibly for Shiro on the other end.
"Now, imagine your fangs pulling back slowly, until they are back to looking like normal teeth."
Again he did as he was told, feeling how the teeth went back after some moments.
"It worked."
He told Shiro, much calmer now.
"By the way. How is it going with Ginjou?"
"Well he's getting along with the others quite well. Right now he rests in the room I've given him, so we'll see how it'll go on. But what's more important is that you should get something in your stomach now."
"Ok, thanks Shiro."
"You're welcome Ichi."
"Shiro?"
"Mhh?"
"I...love you."
"I love you too. Good night Ichi."
"Night Shiro."

With that they both hung up and Ichigo headed downstairs, where his family sat together watching a movie.
Isshin looked over the back of the sofa, when his son walked past them.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I just get some stomach pills and then I better go to bed."
Ichigo said to him, raising one eyebrow slightly at the stomach pill part, as a hidden message.
"Ok, do that."
His dad replied, understanding the non verbal statement.

In the clinic, he took two blood bags out of the fridge and emptied them fast
He threw the plastic away, then went back into the house and gave his sisters a good night kiss.

Once he had closed his eyes he fell into an uneasy sleep, dreaming from his attack on Ishida from the archers point of view and feeling everything he had felt, pain, confusion and terror until all went black.
He was fleeting in the black nothingness, until he heard a voice call out to him.
Ichigo tried to find the source of that voice and move toward it, but it felt like he didn't move at all.
A warm light appeared from above and blinded him.
When his eyes had adjusted to the light the blackness had turned into a great hall with many windows, made of colored glass.
In front of him, at the end of the hall, were three persons sitting on throne like chairs, lit from behind through three windows.

He walked closer to the persons, finding it to be a woman sitting in the middle, flanked by two males, their faces hidden under hoods.
"Who are you?"
Ichigo asked them.
The three threw their hoods back and showed their faces to him.
The female had dark hair, braided up on the left side of her face and her eyes were dark gray.
The male on her right had short silver hair and jade blue eyes, that were slitted, almost closed and a wide grin pulled on his lips.
The one on the left had long white hair tied to a ponytail, warm brown eyes and a gentle smile restring on his lips.

He was it who spoke to Ichigo.
"We are those known as the Spirits of Times."

"Mah,mah. I think he wanted our names."
The other man interrupted him.
"I'm Ichimaru Ginyanotte."
He introduced himself then, the bis grin still in place.
The second man followed suit.
"My name is Ukitake Juushiro."
"Kurotsuchi Nemu."
The female said, with an emotionless voice.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kurosaki -"
"We know who you are young one, for we have seen your arrival long before you were born."
Nemu interrupted him.
"Ah, yeah. Sorry, I forgot. The prophecy. So how come I can see you, I thought you were dead."
"Our vessels were killed, that is right, but we emerged our souls from them shortly before it happened. So we live on as Spirits now."
Ukitake explained
"That explains the death part. Why are you here?"
"We connected to you, through the young Vampire we used to speak to you."
The white haired told on.
"So you are, or were, Vampires, right?"
"Gin and Nemu are Vampires yes, but I'm no actual one. I am a born-turned, but my Vampire side never awakened fully. Through an illness my body never needed to get blood from foreign sources, so I didn't develop fangs, but I got a special ability."

Ichigo was taken aback by that, he wouldn't have thought that one could awake only halfway.
"Then you count as a human with vampire like abilities? Interesting. But I still don't know what you want from me."
"Ah, that's simple. We're here to tell you to hurry up and find out your ability, because you will need it soon."
Gin said mockingly.
"What? Why?"
"Our strings of fate are connected to one person. You will have to face it and decide the future of Vampires and slayers alike."
The female said, with her calm, emotionless voice.

"Is that part of the prophecy again? I have to face the ultimate opponent. If I win everything will be good, but when I loose we're all fucked? Is that it?"
"Your choice of words aside. Yeah that's it. And you will need your ability for it. You already got a slight idea of it today, when you faced your friend. All you need is to get a full grab on it now. The time is getting tight."
Ukitake explained to Ichigo.

"Wait, doesn't he have half a century left until then?"
"No Gin. You're in the wrong time again."
"Mah, shut up. You'd loose track of time too, if you had a million voices in your head trying to speak through you all the time. Sometimes I don't know if if was Columbus or Attila the Hun who discovered America anymore, because they blabber all together."
The two males argued, Gins bickering was getting tuned out, until it was barely audible and the three began to fade away.

"Go to Kizuki Shiro and ask for his help, filius de duo."
Nemus voice echoed in his head, before everything turned dark again.

Slowly Ichigo opened his eyes, seeing a new morning rise and golden light flood into his room.
According to Nemus words, training was in order than.
"Why always me?"

Chapter 24
End