Hi guys and girls, men and women. This is chapter 5. I can't believe I even managed to get that much finished. Well whatever. I hope you enjoy it though. What I dislike though is that it is always the same ones reviewing my story. 2 or 3 others maybe once, but come on. Other than that it is always the same two. If you review my story I can make things better. It is only for the best. So please, do me just this favor ;)

And for bcsaturdai asking me for action scenes: they will come, I don't know when but they surely will come. But I couldn't see where I could fit it in this chapter so I left it. But still thanks for you reviewing my story so regularly!

Ichigo sat at his desk in the office of division 6 and signed paper after paper. It seemed like there was no end to all the documents and files and what else there was to sign for him. It was really a boring job. And in addition to the job being boring as hell came, that he was totally distracted. He kept thinking about Aiko. He had to find her and yet it was already 3 weeks since he was in Soul Society. 3 weeks and she could be anywhere. Any free second he had, and it really wasn't much, he spent following the hints he got from those people living in West Rukongai. But it was tiresome. He had to go from District 20 to 35 to 18 to 26 and so on. It didn't seem like any progress at all. He also wondered how those people walked over 15 districts and back, the distance wasn't short after all. How else could they get the information they had? It was just weird.

He glanced at Hinamori, who sat on her desk and was also busy reading papers over and signing them. He and his fukutaicho had made some small progress in their relationship as taicho and fukutaicho and Ichigo was glad about that. It wasn't like Hinamori had by now opened her whole heart to him, even though she was one who was quite open about her thoughts and emotions. She didn't talk much with Ichigo the first couple of weeks and if she did, it was usually about business matters. By now she still didn't talk about all her private life with him but she allowed some small talk about nothing at all and yet it was so much for Ichigo. It was a little crack in the ice and that meant progress. He was glad about that. Ichigo looked outside and saw how the sun began to set already. Ichigo stretched his limbs on his chair and let out a huge yawn.

"Hinamori, you can go home already, I'll finish this; it isn't that much more."

Hinamori looked at him quite surprised. In the three weeks he was now her taicho he never let her go home early, so she was slightly startled at that.

"Uh, I can finish this Kurosaki-taicho, there are just a few more documents left; it won't even take 2 hours!" She replied hastily.

"I really mean it Hinamori, you can go home. You've done enough over the last three weeks for me, helping me getting used to all this and even before that you had more than enough to do as a substitute taicho, you must be dead tired by now. You really can go home. You could use the rest." He allowed his face to soften slightly and put the smallest of smiles on. "Please." He added.

"Thank you, Kurosaki-taicho." She said with a sweet smile and cleaned her desk a little. She took what was left of her work in her hands and put them down on Ichigos desk. "This is what is left; it really isn't that much anymore. Thank you again, Kurosaki-taicho." She said, bowing slightly and left.

Ichigo sighed and went on with his work. He couldn't concentrate though. His mind drifted away again, this time not to Aiko, who of course still lingered in the sorrowful back of his mind, but to that certain violet eyed midget shinigami. He recalled the past 2 weeks, how she spent every spare second she had, just to help him search for Aiko. Of course he didn't expect any different from Rukia, but still he couldn't think of any way to show her how grateful he was, if he wanted to that is. He was sure that she could see through his façade, but he wouldn't let anything of his true emotions and feelings show, not matter how obvious it was that he just put on a façade.

He looked at his desk. There was a picture of his family, him, Yuzu, Karin, his father and one lone picture with just his mother on it. He went to the living world to their house past week in the middle of the night, of course with permission from Yamamoto-sotaicho after he asked him to get some personal things from the living world. He didn't want to anyone notice that he was there, he wanted to give them some time to adjust into living without him, especially his sisters. But what he saw when he went into his room nearly broke his resolve. In his bed, there were Yuzu and Karin, sleeping together, cuddled up and nothing in his room was changed. It all looked the way it was at the day he left. He needed to collect himself and took the Shakespeare drama he wanted to finish and the two pictures he now looked at on his desk. He left through the window with a last "see you soon" to his sleeping sisters and left with a heavy heart.

He was startled out of his thoughts as someone knocked on his door.

"Come in" Ichigo answered annoyed. Who would want to see him for whatever reason at this time of a day? It was nearly night.

"You still seem busy." Rukia said as she walked inside.

"Yeah kinda. What's up? It's pretty late."

"I just thought you could use some company since I figured you were alone after I saw Momo walk to 10th division…" Rukia mumbled as she looked everywhere but at Ichigo.

Ichigo raised his eyebrow at that but mumbled a "thanks" nonetheless at her direction.

Ichigo continued his work in silence, but peeked every now and then at Rukia as she was sitting on the couch at the wall opposite of Ichigos desk. She looked around and took in everything that was in his office.

"Ichigo," she looked him deep in the eye. "I know in which district Aiko was sent to."

Ichigo looked up with a start, his eyes wide and his mouth open in a silent "O".

Rukia looked seriously at him and continued. "I had not much work to do and was finished pretty soon so I went to Rukongai and kept on asking. There was this one man who said that he had an old friend in district 43 who told him about that girl who was sent there and that she said something about me and you and that you told her you would look for her. I thought that that has to be her. We go there tomorrow, as it is our day off."

"NO! We can't wait! We've got to go now!" Ichigo said firmly and was about to stand up when Rukia pierced him with her eyes onto his chair.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, don't you forget that you are now a taicho of gotei 13! You have duties to fulfill! You cannot forget about that fact because of one girl whom you only knew for a couple of hours!" She raised her voice as Ichigo was about to protest. "And you have tomorrow a whole day off! We can go early, so you have a whole day for your reunion." If she is still there.

Ichigo was about to protest again but closed his mouth in the end. He sighed in defeat, since she was right yet again. Being a taicho of gotei 13 meant having a position with highest responsibilities and he couldn't ignore them. It sucked.

"I hate you being always right, you know that?" He muttered darkly at her and continued to sign documents. He was glad that there wasn't much more left.

"I know, but someone has to use his brain once in a while and since you don't even have one…" She smirked at him.

"Midget."

"Strawberry."

"I hate you."

"Hate you, too." She answered sweetly.

With that they returned to their usual silence, the kind of silence that was just possible between them, the comfortable silence that hung peaceful in the air that surrounded them, that relaxed their racing minds and hearts. Ichigo continued with his work and was about to be finished when Rukia spoke up again.

"Ichigo, how does Aiko know about me anyway? I mean, all those people we asked about her said that she also mentioned me. I never gave it a thought up until now but…how does she know?" She was sure, that Ichigo told Aiko about her but she was curious just what he did tell her. Probably nothing about her being about 150 years old and that she was actually dead but there were other things to tell and she wondered what he did tell. She didn't really care but was curious nonetheless. She was allowed to be curious about things like that, wasn't she?

Ichigo didn't respond ant continued with his work. The seconds passed and Rukia tapped with one foot repeatedly on the floor, getting impatient. He ignored her. "Well?" She pressed.

Ichigo let out an annoyed sigh and looked up finally. "I told her that you are an annoying midget who draws crappy bunnies." With that he continued to finish up what was left of his work.

Rukia could just look at him with a not so amused expression and she could see, from what was left of Ichigos face in her sight, how he tried to suppress a smirk. Her face became a dangerous shade of red and she was about to explode when Ichigo looked up again with his facial features softened a bit.

"I told her nothing more than a few stories of us, when we were not hunting hollows down or fighting espadas. Funny stories." Her face softened rapidly and she had a small smile on her face. The only one who ever could make a smile genuinely like that was that carrot top, she would never admit it though.

"But", he continued, "I really told her that your drawings are shitty and that you are a midget." He grinned.

That was it.

She flew over to his deck, punched him down from his chair, towered above him and screamed at the top of her lungs right in his face.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME LIKE THAT YOU BASTARD?"

Since two weeks Aiko was wandering from district to district now but she couldn't tell if she was in the right direction or if she was in the wrong direction. She had the feeling that the shacks became shabbier by the second, that the streets became more chaotic and the people more suspicious. She was afraid. She just wanted to hide somewhere and wait for Ichigo to find her, but that was now even more unlikely. The moment she decided to take matters in her own hands the chance that Ichigo would finally find her was even more unlikely. So she kept on going, if she kept going she would find him one day. Or so she thought. There have been many people who offered her help, like something to drink or eat but she was too afraid to trust them. She preferred to steal. Yes, Aiko stole. She had to. She couldn't trust anyone here but herself. She hated it, but couldn't help it. Usually she was kind of naïve with these kind of things and because of that she was often the victim of jokes and pranks by her classmates but she never learned out of that. She always wanted to treat people like she wanted to be treated by them but she began to learn over the years, that the other people never thought the same way like her. Still she never changed her attitude. Up until now. Now she had to steal her water and food and had to run away if she got caught, hide in dark narrow streets and hope that there wasn't someone. She never thought that life after death would be like that. She always thought that if you were good, and she was good, you would live in the clouds with everything you liked. But it was nothing like that. For her it was running and hoping. All she could do was to run and to hope.

Ichigo and Rukia arrived at West Rukongai District 43 early the next morning. They walked through the district and looked around. It was a deserted street, dusty, and the houses on the left and right were slightly run down. Not that they threatened to collapse at any moment, but run down nonetheless.

"Oi, anybody there?" Ichigo yelled into the street.

Rukia punched him hard on his arm and shouted at him. "Don't you have any manners? You can't call for people like that! You are just so rude sometimes."

Rukia turned back to the street and also yelled. "Hello, is there anybody? Come out please, we need to talk to you damn it!"

Ichigo looked away with an annoyed expression.

She just did the same. The only difference was that she said 'hello' and 'please' but she called for them the same way I did…

Finally a short man with tousled black hair and a tired expression on his face came out.

"What do you want, shinigami?"

"We look for a girl, Urugawa Aiko, and we would appreciate if you could help us find her. We were said, that she was sent here after her death in the living world." Rukia told him.

"Then you must be Kuchiki Rukia, I guess? That you are Kurosaki Ichigo is pretty clear, with that dyed hair of yours…" he said to Ichigo disapprovingly. Ichigo was about to raise his fist, but Rukia sensed that and took hold of his arm keeping him from raising it further. "About that Aiko girl," the man went on, "I heard that she lived with that old Takashi-san, a bald, old guy with a fuzzy beard, down in the center of District 43. You just follow the street down, should take you about an hour to get there if you take on a lazy pace. That's all I can tell you."

"Thank you very much, you really helped us." Rukia said and left the man standing there, Ichigo's arm still tightly in her grip.

Ichigo and Rukia saw the man immediately. An old man bald, with a fuzzy white beard. He was outside taking a walk with his wife as they approached him.

"Takashi-san!" Ichigo called to him.

Akaze Takashi was surprised to hear his name called out from such an unfamiliar voice and looked up to see who would talk to him. His heart sank, as he saw the ridiculous hair color and knew immediately who it was and what he would want from him. He sighed.

"Kurosaki-san, "he began and recognized than the white haori, "or should I say Kurosaki-taicho now? Well, I guess you are here for little Aiko, aren't you?"

"Yes", Ichigo nodded. "She is with you isn't she? That's what I heard after all."

Takashi's face saddened. He hated to say what he had to say, but there was no other choice. "I'm afraid she ran off two weeks ago. I guess she wanted to come to you on her own, Kurosaki-taicho but she took the wrong direction…"

"Oh man…why didn't you stop her?" Ichigo asked angrily.

"Because she ran off in the middle of the night and what could we have done? We are two old people, Kurosaki-taicho. If we could have stopped her we would have, but we couldn't. We are really sorry."

Ichigo still fumed. He thought he was so close, but now he was further away than before.

"Ichigo, come on. We still have more than a half day to search, we can make progress if we keep on searching now. Thank you for your help, Takashi-san" Rukia said politely and bowed slightly.

Ichigo and Rukia spent the next 2 hours racing from district to district, asking people if they saw a little girl with dark eyes and straight brown shoulder length hair wearing a yellow kimono, but no one saw her. Ichigo now became slowly impatient; they were now coming closer to the really bad districts and still didn't have any idea where she could be. They were tired, racing from district to district in full speed and needed a great amount of time to get back to the West Gate.

"You can go back already Rukia. I can keep searching on my own; you must be tired by now." Ichigo said, letting out a huge yawn.

Rukia just shook her head. "You keep on yawning for the last half hour in a minute's interval and worry about me being tired. Ichigo, we should go both back already, by the time we get back to west gate it will begin to dusk."

Ichigo nodded tiredly in agreement. He didn't like it here. They were in District 52 already and it was beginning to get chaotic and really dirty. He couldn't imagine how District 78 would be, where he knew Rukia grew up on her own.

He was about to leave when a high pitched scream caught his ears. Turning to the direction of the scream he saw a yellow flash and immediately ran after it.

"Ichigo, wait!" Rukia yelled and followed him. You are so hopeless, Ichigo, she grumbled in her mind.

Aiko fled into the alleyway, but to no avail. This didn't work on that man. He sold water and for her having no money she had no other choice but to steal a little bit, as she was so thirsty. But the man followed her, abandoning his stand. He seemed not to care about that but more in teaching her a lesson.

"Where do you want to go now, you little brat? Stealing my water like that. Do you now, how hard I work to get it? I shall teach you a lesson…" He said, raising his hand, threatening to slap her senseless. She was afraid, tears streaming down her face. She just wanted to find Ichigo and that was what was happening to her. It just wasn't fair.

She waited for the pain but nothing came. She looked up but could make nothing out for her eyes being clouded with tears. She just could see colors. And there was a bright orange. She closed her eyes, letting the tears clouding her eyes fall and opened them again. She could see him. Ichigo. There.

He held the arm of the man tightly, mumbling something darkly to him and the man ran off. He then came over to her and hugged her tightly. She hugged him back, letting the sobs wrecking her body and the sorrows where flying off, freeing her mind and heart. He found her. Finally.

Ah yeah, it's finished. What do you think? It was kinda slow I guess and I don't know if Ichigo finding Aiko was just too suddenly. Hm. Tell me. In reviews. Please. But not just the same people. Many different people. Thanks ;)

And I got to tell you: real life finally caught up with me. School and stuff you know. Can't write that regularly anymore. It may happen that you've got to wait a week or even more for an update. Sorry, but can't help it. Just be patient. Thanks for understanding, though.

Garganta.