Blah Blah Blah:
*whistles* Went from 1,228 words in the last chapter to over 3,500 in this chapter. Whoops? To be fair, I warned you that Tora's chapters would be longer (and, actually, this was going to be a little longer, but I decided to cut it short since so much happened). Also, for those of you who'll end up comments "Who's Sui-Feng?": that's how her name is technically spelled even though it's pronounced like "Soifon." I looked it up and everything to double check, and yep, it's correct. Anyway, happy reading~

.:4:.
.:Tora:.

"Get up~" Shika whined in my ear.

I groaned. "Go away, Shika. I'm tired."

"You'll be late for school!"

I rolled over, pulling the covers over my head to block him out.

It didn't work, though, because all he had to do was pass through the blanket like the spirit he was and attack me, biting my ear.

"That hurt, you little brat!" I growled, throwing the comforter off as he scrambled away. "Come back here!"

I leapt out of the bed and chased after him, nearly sliding into the wall instead of heading down the stairs. I managed to catch him in the middle of the stairs, but tripped on my own foot instead, tumbling down them.

"What are you doing, making so much darn noise in the morning?" Grammy scolded, coming in the foyer with a spatula in her hand.

"It's Shika's fault!" I defended, rubbing my back. "He bit me!"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be blaming that imaginary critter of yours. Whatever he does is automatically your fault because I can't see him. Now get back upstairs and change for school."

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled, sending a cold look at Shika as he stuck his tongue out. I stuck my tongue out back at him, earning a smack from Grammy.

"Stop acting like your five."

I groaned, rubbing my cheek. "That actually hurt, hag!"

"And I'll do it again twice as hard if you don't get upstairs and change now instead of fiddle-farting around with your imaginary friend." She turned and shook her head. "Almost sixteen and still has imaginary friends…"

"He's not imaginary!" I argued as I got up. "He's just a spirit!"

"Everything's a spirit," I heard her mutter.

I made a face, but did as she said and walked upstairs.

"And your school uniform is on my dresser!"

"Alright," I said, taking a right into her room instead of heading back to mine.

Sure enough, the white button-ups were sprawled over her peach comforter, the grey skirt and red tie next to it. There was the winter school uniform—just an added grey jacket and a long-sleeve button-up as opposed to the short-sleeve one that came with the summer uniform—and an extra three skirts.

I grabbed the summer uniform since that was what everyone had been wearing yesterday, even though I wanted to put on the long-sleeve one instead, and got dressed quickly before heading down the stairs.

Shika was watching Grammy place rice and mini hotdogs in a bento box. When he noticed me walk in, he came over to me.

"She's making us a lunch!" he said.

I tilted my head. "Us?"

He nodded his whole body. "Yep!" he popped. "She added sugar to the eggs to make the sweet for me."

"And how did she know you liked sweet eggs?"

"Because something spilled the entire contents of the salt shaker on my floor," Grammy said. "That little ghost critter of yours is crafty, that's for sure."

Shika puffed out his chest proudly, making me roll my eyes.

"Here." Grammy shoved the bento in my hands. "Eat this with your parents."

I stared at the black box. "Do people do that?" I asked.

"They do when they haven't seen them in over a year."

"They're dead," I said blankly. "It doesn't matter that I haven't seen them, because they can't see anything because they're dead."

She stared at me with hard eyes. "I can't believe you can say that with a straight face when you, yourself, see ghosts."

"It's because I can see ghosts that I know they're gone." Why else would I wander the continent, searching for signs of their ghosts? All year with nothing but Shika and the ring my mom gave me, just… searching.

She sighed, losing all of her fight. "Just… eat before you go, then."

I nodded once. "Will do."

I gave her a little wave as I headed out, sighing as soon as the door shut.

"She wants to know what you found the entire year you were gone," Shika said, looking back at the closed door with solemn expression.

"I know," I said, "but she won't ask because she knows I didn't find anything."

"Yeah…" He rested on my shoulder, snuggled in the crook of my neck. "Do you wanna go by yourself?"

I shrugged. "It doesn't matter. You were there too, so if you want to come, I'm okay with it."

He didn't say anything for a moment. "I want to come."

I smiled. "Okay then; it's settled. As soon as I get out of school, you can—"

All of a sudden, Shika went ridged, but before I could ask him what was wrong, the air got dense, threatening to suffocate me.

"Shit," I cursed, grabbing onto a light pole just to keep standing up.

"That's her, Captain!" a voice said. "The one with the black hair!"

I looked up to find one of the guys from yesterday—that damned purple scarf would stand out even in a crowd of weird shinigamis dressed in black and white robes.

"Her?" some woman scoffed. "You mean to tell me that a human beat you?" She had short black hair, I noticed, with two, long, white breaded pigtails. Unlike the dude in the purple scarf, she was wearing a white haori and yellow sash around her waist.

"Don't underestimate her, Captain Sui-Feng! She only looks weak, but it's deceiving!" the guy cried. He seemed so scared of her despite the fact that he was three times her size.

The girl, Sui-Feng, scoffed again. "She's a human with a hogosha attached to her shoulder. She doesn't even have a zanpakuto. Unless the vermin was the one who took you on…?"

My fist twitched. Vermin?

Purple Scarf stopped, looking over at me. "A hogosha…?"

"This is what I'm talking about," she said, rolling her eyes. "Complete incompetence. Even if it was a hogosha who took you on yesterday, it's not much better than the human herself. Now get that ring and—"

My spiritual pressure finally adjusted, letting me stand and breathe easy again. Instead of relief, though, Shika looked horrified.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, ignoring the two bickering.

He nodded towards the woman and her follower.

I followed his gaze and blinked. The woman no longer looked agitated or berating. Now, she looked on-guard, watching me with hard, calculating eyes.

"What'd I do?" I asked.

But Shika didn't answer, watching her with horrified, wide-eyes.

"I guess I should have expected as much," she said, hawk-eyes following even the tiniest muscle movement in me. "Someone who could take out a lieutenant and his first-seat squad member is definitely not a normal human. I just forgot that since my lieutenant can be very incompetent."

"Is there a point to this?" I wondered. "Because I have to get to school soon."

"Give me the ring," she stated simply. "If you do so without resisting, I'll let you live."

I glanced at the band of gold around my ring finger and back at Sui-Feng. "No."

Her eyebrow twitched. "Excuse me?"

"I said: no." I tilted my head. "Unless shinigamis are hard of hearing. Of course, giving the amount of times I've said that lately, I wouldn't be surprised if they were."

"Fine," she said crisply. "Do it, Marechiyo."

I hadn't realized he was behind me until he grabbed Shika.

Shika cried, "Tora!"

I stared at Purple Scarf—Marechiyo or whatever—with hard eyes. "If you don't let him go, you're going to regret it."

He didn't listen to me, choosing instead to completely engulf Shika in his hand.

"Tora!" I heard him cry again.

I didn't think, just reacted. One minute I was debating whether or not to rip off the man's arm to get to Shika, the next I was physically peeling back each of his fingers to get Shika out. As soon as Shika popped out of the man's hand and back onto my shoulder, I tossed the man into the Sui-Feng woman.

As soon as I had figured out what happened, though, I realized my ring was glowing—now a blinding white instead of the soft gold it had always been.

And then Shika was back on my shoulder, rubbing my face. "Thank God!"

I smiled at him, a little unsteady.

"I was worried he was going to crush me!"

"Yeah, but I'm glad I got there in time," I said.

He stopped and looked up.

It wasn't that I had just thrown him at her—I had thrown him at her so hard that the both of them had skidded through a light pole and two buildings before ramming into a concrete wall lining another house.

"How'd…"

"I don't know," I said honestly, "but let's get out of here before either of them wake up and demand a rematch."

He nodded vigorously, and we ran all the way to school.

—x—

The late bell rang just as I got to the door of my first class. Shika and I both breathed a sigh of relief, glad to be both safe from the weird duo back there and not late, even though we had to stop at my locker on the other side of the school to grab my bag. Mr. Kido gave me a passing look, but didn't say anything as I took my seat in the far back by the window.

"Just in time~" Shika said triumphantly.

I nodded slightly, but didn't say anything in case someone noticed me talking to the air next to my shoulder. It always irritated him when I couldn't answer him properly, though, so he pouted, making a face.

Thankfully, Kido stood up and started scribbling words on the chalkboard, distracting him.

"What do you think this means?" Mr. Kido asked.

Hands shot in the air, making Shika turn to every person who wanted to answer the question in awe, and I looked out the window, smiling slightly.

It was a good thing that the whole ordeal with those two shinigami didn't scar him too much. It had been a while since Shika was the target of someone, so I didn't think he'd handle it too well, but he seemed fine now that we were in class.

Which was good, because there was already so much going on. Like that Sui-Feng woman mentioning my ring again, and the way it had seemed to glow this morning when I had lost my temper. Not to mention that zanpakuto thing she had mentioned. The word meant 'ghost cutter,' but I didn't know if that meant it could cut ghosts or something more metaphorical. Why would you need to cut ghosts anyway? They were already dead, right? Unless there was a second death they could have, like a vampire or something? It was all too much to take in at once, and I wasn't sure if I even wanted to take it in or just run for the hills again.

I did sigh this time, making Shika look at me before getting distracted by Kido again.

I would never leave Grammy, though. She seemed to feel so much better, having someone around, that I'd feel bad leaving her by herself again.

I was grateful when the bell rang and pulled me from my thoughts.

"What's next?" Shika wondered.

"I think Gym," I said, hunting through my bag to find my schedule.

Shika hissed, though, and I looked up just in time to keep from slamming into Carrot Top.

"Oh, it's you," he said, yawning. "Hey."

I internally groaned. "Hi."

Shika hissed again, making me swat at him, and Carrot Top raised an eyebrow at him. "That thing is one strange spirit."

Shika glared at him.

"His name is Shika, not thing," I grumped.

He shrugged, like it didn't matter what his name was, and yawned again. "Just don't let him wreak havoc on this place."

"As if he would," I growled, brushing past him.

Screw lunch; I might as well just go to the cemetery now.

"I don't like him," Shika concludes as we walk out of the school's main doors.

"I don't think I do either," I grumbled, but sighed. "At least he didn't try to take us to some weird spirit world, though."

Shika humphed. "He's probably just trying to butter us up."

"By calling you 'thing?'" I wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"You never know," Shika said. "Maybe it's reverse psychology or something."

I laughed, rubbing his head. "Yeah, maybe."

Apparently, we had left at the perfect time: as soon as we made it to the bus stop, the bus pulled up, letting the people sitting on the bench on. I didn't even have to run to get on in time.

It wasn't crowded thankfully, but every row had at least one person in it, leaving me with no option other than sit by a complete stranger.

On the back of the bus, though, I noticed there was a little girl sitting by herself, staring intently at a man three seats ahead of her. With a soft, resigned sigh, I sat down next to her.

She looked at me, studying my face. "You look kind of scary," she muttered.

"Well, that's rude," I huffed half-heartedly. "I've had a rough day, that's all."

She blinked. "Wait. You can see me?"

I smiled. "Sure can."

"And hear me?"

"Well, I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

She pursed her lips. "Yeah, I guess that's true," she said solemnly, looking down at her hands.

"What's wrong?" I asked, tilting my head.

Her hands tightened into fist. "I think my daddy's… I think my daddy's going to hurt himself," she whispered, looking up at the man again.

I followed her gaze to the same man she had been staring at. His face looked sunken in, dark bags under his eyes giving him an ironically ghostly look. His black hair was matted together—he clearly hadn't showered in weeks—and the clothes he was wearing were rundown and dirty, worse than mine looked yesterday at school. I'd say that he hadn't changed longer than he hadn't showered.

"Why do you think he's going to hurt himself?" I asked.

"Because I died," she said. "Daddy thinks that it's his fault."

"Is it?"

"Of course not!" she yelled. "Mommy was the one who pushed me in the pool, not him! I'm sure that if he had been there, he would have kept mommy from losing her temper, but Mommy was angry because the judge was going to let him take me, and she didn't like losing!"

Shika made a squeak out of surprise, causing the little girl to look at him. "What's that?"

"He's my friend, Shika," I explained, pulling him off of my shoulder and holding him out for her to see. "He's a spirit too."

"Did he die?" she wondered, petting the top of his fluff.

"No," I answered honestly. "He was created as a spirit."

"Oh," she said. "Can I hold him?"

I smiled. "Why don't you ask him?"

Shika hopped off my hand without her saying anything and fell gently on her lap, looking up at her with big, purple eyes. She smiled a bit and stroked his head, but he climbed up her arm instead and rubbed against her face. She giggled and rubbed back.

The bus stopped, stopping any laughter the little girl had as her father got up and shuffled off of the bus.

"Sorry," she said, placing Shika on my lap as she stood up, "but I have to go."

I put Shika back on my shoulder and stood up as well. "I'll come with you," I offered, ignoring a look from one of the lady's in the seat in front of us. "Since you were nice to my friend, I wanna do something nice for you too."

She stared at me. "Will you try to convince my daddy that it's not his fault?"

"I will. Can you tell me your name?"

"Chiyo Arita."

"Nice to meet you, Chiyo. I'm Tora." I bowed a little. "Now, let's go save your dad."

By now, even the bus driver was giving me weird looks, but I ignored him as I stepped off—even though I could have sworn I heard him mutter something about 'crazies' as the bus doors closed—and searched for where the ragged man had gone.

Chiyo tugged on my sleeve. "He went that way," she said, point towards the turn.

I almost cussed, but kept myself composed for Chiyo's sake.

He was heading towards a bridge.

Picking up the pace, I rounded the corner just in time to see him climb on the railing.

"Shika!" I shouted.

The man looked over at me, distracting him and giving Shika enough time to zoom over to him and push his chest, effectively making him fall on his ass on the concrete.

Chiyo ran over to him, trying to make sure he was alright, but her hands passed through him, so I ran over in her stead, bending down to assess the damage.

"Are you okay, Mr. Arita?" I asked, helping him up.

"I'm fine," he barked, pushing me away. "How did you know my name?"

"Chiyo asked me to help," I said casually, watching him.

Like I expected, he froze, expression darkening. "What…?"

"Chiyo asked me," I repeated. "She said you were going to hurt yourself."

He sputtered. "Chiyo… Chiyo is dead. She couldn't have possibly—and for you to even suggest that she—did my ex-wife hire you? It's something she would—"

"Ask him if he doesn't believe you," Chiyo said.

I glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Do it. Trust me."

Sighing a little, I looked at Mr. Arita. "Don't you believe me?"

"What?" he demanded.

"Don't you believe me?"

"Of course I don't!" he shouted. "She—she died, and her m-m-mother was the one who—who hated even the thought of Chiyo—"

"Ask him if he'll believe you if you sign your name," Chiyo said.

I gave her a look, trying not to look like I didn't believe her, and asked, "Will you believe me if I sign my name?"

He stopped his sputtering, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Now take his hand and sign 'Chibi Chiyo' on his palm."

I did as she said, slowly reaching for Mr. Arita's hand. When all he did was follow my gaze with his mouth open in disbelief, I grabbed it and turned it around before signing Chiyo's name on his palm.

He looked from his palm to me several times before breaking down into sobs. "My Chibi Chiyo," he cried. "Daddy's so sorry he couldn't save you. If I hadn't dropped you off at that woman's house, if I had gone in with you instead of letting you spend the day there, you wouldn't have had to suffer. I'm so sorry."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Chiyo said it's not your fault," I said. "She said that there was no way for you to have known what would've happened."

"But I knew her mother was angry," he confessed, "and I thought it would rub salt in the wound if Chiyo went there alone, make her think about what she was losing, but I never thought—" He broke down into more sobs.

"You shouldn't have used her as a weapon," I agreed, "but that doesn't mean any of this is your fault. You weren't the one who pushed her in; you weren't the one who watched as she drowned. That was her mother. You said it yourself: if you had been there, you would have saved her. Or, better yet, you wouldn't have even let her push her in."

He hiccupped. "I don't know what to do with her gone."

"You live," I said simply. "And, for a time, everything will feel muddy. You'll feel angry and depressed and cheated all in the same hour until everything goes numb. You'll look at everything you could have done differently and kick yourself for not seeing it coming. Before you know it, you'll suddenly realize you're sprawled out in the middle of a street you don't even know the name of with an empty stomach and no idea what you're doing." I sighed. "But the world keeps turning. Some days, that'll be a comfort while, other days, it'll make you want to scream. And I don't want to say it gets easier because losing someone never really leaves you, but, eventually, you'll be able to eat without feeling like throwing up. Because you're alive, and that's the main difference between being alive and being dead: you continue going when you're alive. When you're dead, everything freezes."

He breaks down again, bawling into his hands, and I pat his shoulder.

"Keep moving, Mr. Arita. Chiyo will be with you the whole way," I promised.

He nodded, still sobbing, and Chiyo smiled with tears in her eyes. "Thank you, Tora."

I returned her smile before turning around, hands in my pockets.

"I knew you didn't know the name of that street when you woke up," Shika said, eyeing me.

I shrugged. "We were in Tokyo; all of the streets look the same."

"We were outside of Tokyo," he corrected, "and you swore for an entire week that that's where you wanted to be."

I shoved him away. "Whatever. I was distraught. Leave me alone."

"I know," he said, sighing. "Do you think he'll be okay?"

"I don't know," I said honestly, "but I think he'll make it. He has more hope than I did."

Shika nodded and floated silently next to me as we walked to the cemetery.