Chapter 12

Walking with Aiko proved to be surprisingly nice.

She lead me into one of the tunnels used for transportation; there was a stream running down the tunnel. It was hard to start up a conversation with her; I mean, what could I say? "Hey Aiko, sorry I lead to your parents to their grave, nice weather isn't it?"

The only topic I could come up in my head was:

"So what exactly is this festival?"

"It's the tenth year anniversary of Aizen's defeat."

Huh, the thought had never occurred to me that Aizen was truly gone. Aizen, beaten and humiliated by his own creation, defeated. I liked the feeling, but it still didn't alleviate the anxiety I had about the mysterious Hollow Lord.

"It's foolishness, I know." She winked at me. "Seeing that we still have this war with the hollows, the festival is actually meant to help with morale."

She sighed happily.

"It reminds us of the old days. The days when you could just relax on your porch, never worrying about an ambush from arrancar, or even back in the human world when the word hollow didn't mean a bloodthirsty demon. I miss those days."

I joined in with her.

"I wouldn't really know anything about that life. I think I was born in Soul Society."

"You think?"

"Yeah, in a poor district called Rukongai."

She seemed curious.

"It is a terrible place; our problems there were almost tougher than the ones here."

She chuckled. "Have you seen our world recently?"

"Okay fine you got me there! To be fair, there were worse things than hollows where I lived."

"Do tell."

Thinking about it brought back terrible memories.

"There were pitiful hollows, cruel gangsters, and the occasional psychopath."

"Aiko." My eyes connected with her and finally I admitted. "I'm sorry about your parents, I never meant to do that to you."

She looked down with tears in her eyes and brushed them off.

"It's fine," she said as she looked away.

Definitely not the violent reaction I expected.

"To be honest, I never blamed you Saidō. I blame myself for not being strong enough to save them."

Aiko then looked at me.

"The only thing I regret is the time I never spent with them when I was still alive. Tell me, Saidō, Have you ever had family?"

This conversation already went really deep, so why lie?

"No, not really. The only leads I had to my parents were rumors." I smirked. "Hell, one of the rumors was that a man with a white shikisho left me on the porch of an old lady and disappeared."

"Do you really think one of the captains was your father?"

I laughed for a second.

"Well that was the idea my friends and neighbors had. It was meant to cheer me up, but..."

I held back tears.

"It did quite the opposite."

"Why? It's probably wasn't true."

"What difference does it make whether its true or not? My parents abandoned me as a baby.. to the hollows and psychopaths of Rukongai! By rights, I should be dead."

"Then what saved you?"

Hm, it was one of the good things of Rukongai.

"An old woman who lived there raised me, along with her granddaughter who was about my age."

Remembering them always brought me happiness.

"They were my family, they cared for me like I was one of their own. Their names were Haku and Suzuka."

"They sound like really nice people. What happened to them?"

I wished she'd never asked that! I still remember feeling her cold blood on my hands.

"She- Haku passed away peacefully and Suzuka-" I held back that depression- "was eaten by a hollow."

Aiko stopped. She immediately apologized and tried to take back what she said, but was too late.

"She was the reason why I became a soul reaper, to make sure that it never happens to anyone ever again!"

A silent minute passed. There was nothing else to say. It was Aiko that finally broke the silence.

"You know, Saidō, you set yourself up with an impossible goal."

"I saved you, didn't I?"

The serious mood broke and we found ourselves laughing at each other.

"That's what I like about you Saidō! You're just like me."

"What do you mean?"

"We're both alike and all alone."

That gave me a thought I had never considered before: Aiko was right.

We are all alone.

After that, we continued our walk down the tunnel, telling stories of our pasts, the good times we had and the bad.

It was the start of a beautiful friendship.