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Chapter 4

"Aw crap, I'm gonna' be so late!" I hurdled over an upturned trash can that had spilled out onto the sidewalk. Almost slipping on some disgusting black mush, I barely dodged a mother pushing her baby in a stroller. "Sorry!" I shouted back, clutching my side as a sudden stitch pain stabbed at me. "Ugh, this is great. Way to start the week off right, Sayuri." Grabbing hold of a light post on the corner, I swung myself around the corner onto the next street, as I did every morning. Mentally kicking myself, I thought back to how this whole disaster had started all because I could never remember to set my alarm clock.

From the moment I opened my eyes I could tell something was off. Yawning sleepily, I rolled over to look at how much time I had until my alarm sounded. That was when I remembered I never set the alarm the night before. Blinking the sleepiness out of my eyes, I read the neon green numbers and saw that I was running a half an hour behind schedule. Like always.

After the five minutes I spent tearing around my room frantically like a crazy person, getting dressed and grabbing all my things for school, I flew down the stairs and ran into Isamu. Literally. The collision threw me back onto the floor and, as he peeled me off the hardwood, I smoothed out my clothes and re-tucked my shirt. Silently, Isamu held out his hand and offered me an apple, smiling. I obviously didn't have any time to eat a real breakfast. Grateful that at least someone had their head on straight today, I took it and yelled a thank you back to him as I ran into the kitchen.

I bit into the apple and held it tightly between my teeth as I searched for a water bottle in the pantry. Finding one on the bottom shelf, I shoved it into my bag, making sure I didn't crush the flower I had also placed in there the night before. Finally heading out, I passed Emiko who was gathering the mail from the porch, still in her bathrobe. She asked if I wanted a ride to school as I skipped the last few steps. Instead, I ran down the walkway and shouted over my shoulder, "That's ok! I have to make a stop first, but I'll be fine! See you later!" Emiko laughed and waved as I tore down the street.

I shook my head in anger at myself as I came back to the present. "I guess there's no point worrying about it all now. I'll get there when I get there, like usual." And with that, I tossed my apple core in a nearby dumpster and cleared my mind, trying to remember on which corner I had seen that little girl the day before. I knew it was at least on the way to school, thankfully, and that there was a telephone pole stapled with posters of the firework festival from back in June. I kept my eyes open and, when I finally found the right block, I skidded to a stop at the corner before it. Leaning over, I braced my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath; if that little girl was there today, I definitely didn't want to scare her again.

When my heart had slowed down to a normal human pace and I was able to breathe, I walked forward. The little girl wasn't there, I saw, but the vase still was. Kneeling down, I opened my bag and dug around to find the water bottle. Uncapping it, I thought I saw a quick flash of pink out of the corner of my eye, but I made sure not to look. Sudden movements usually scares things away, or so I had been told. Moving the small white flowers aside gently, just as my stepparents had taught me, I poured about half of the water into the vase.

I looked up through the strands of my hair that hadn't been pulled back by my headband, and saw the girl's big eyes watching me from around the corner. Smiling, I rearranged the flowers and softly said, "There we go. Good as new, huh? What do you think?" There was a breath of surprise as she realized I was talking to her, but the child stepped out from behind the fence anyway. She crossed her arms behind her back shyly and inspected my work. "Oh wait! I almost forgot!" I opened my bag again and pulled out a fully bloomed pink rose, the same shade as the girl's shirt.

Making a space carefully among the white flowers, I dropped my gift into the vase with a flourish and sat back. A wide smile broke out across the girl's face as she gazed at the flower, and I couldn't help but laugh. Maybe she would forgive me for being such a freak and knocking the vase over the day before.

"How's that?" I asked. She turned to me and, a second later, flung her arms around my neck.

"It's beautiful!" she told me through a few tears. "Thank you so much! It's the prettiest flower anyone's ever brought for me!" At first I smiled, glad that I had made her happy. She must live a lonely life if a simple flower made her happy. I mean, she was wearing the exact same clothes from the day before. Even her hair looked exactly the same. It was almost as if she hadn't even left the corner. As if she just stayed there all the time, waiting for someone to bring her flowers. Which were for the dead. The smile quickly faded from my face as the girl's words hit me.

Catching my breath, I pulled the girl back gently and held her small hands in mine. As I looked into her eyes, I realized that instead of being able to really focus on them, I was seeing the festival poster on the other side of her head. But that was crazy. People weren't transparent. But I was holding her hands. I could feel them in mine, although they were neither warm nor cold. Just…there.

"These flowers…they were brought here for you?" I asked carefully. The girl, still smiling, nodded vigorously and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. How is that possible, I thought? The vase and the flowers in it were clearly left as a death memorial. Maybe they were really for someone else this child knew, like her mother or sister, I told myself, trying my best to sound convincing in my own mind. Looking down at my hands however, I could see my own skin through hers and my breathing became choppy as I felt my stomach drop heavily. This girl was clearly no longer among the living.

"How can I see you?" I whispered, more to myself than to her, but she answered anyway.

"I don't know. Most people around here can't see spirits, but some can. Like you! And the animals, but they never listen to anything I say." She crossed her arms and pouted a bit. "Oh, and that boy with the spiky orange hair! He brought me the white flowers." I looked up at her. Spiky orange hair? The only person I had seen in Karakura Town since I moved here with hair like that was Ichigo Kurosaki. Ichigo was another one of my classmates at school and his family owned a small medical clinic nearby. Could it be that he could see spirits too? Man, what the hell was going on lately? Maybe I really did hit my head much harder than I thought.

Thinking of Ichigo suddenly reminded me of school and I realized that I was wasting time kneeling on the ground trying to figure out what was happening to me. I jumped up and grabbed my bag. Before I could speed off, I felt a small hand grip the hem of my skirt. I looked into the girl's green eyes and was caught off guard by the loneliness I saw in them, as well as heard in her voice when she asked, "Will you come back and see me again?"

If she really was a spirit, as unlikely as I wished that would be, it suddenly hit me just how scared and lonely she must feel. Never being able to communicate with people. Stuck in a world where she could never again go home, yet was unable to find her way on to the next world. I could relate to that, I thought. I was stuck between two worlds now too: my past and my present, separated only by some catastrophic event that I had erased from my memory for reasons still unknown even to me. I knew the loneliness. I knew the fear. I knew the uncertainty of what lay ahead. I couldn't just leave this kid to keep going on her own, so I smiled and placed my hand on her head.

"Of course I will. And I'll bring you some other flowers to add to your collection ok?" She smiled again and clapped excitedly.

"My name's Rikku," she told me, extending her tiny hand towards me.

"I'm Sayuri. It's very nice to meet you." I shook her hand, again marveling at how there was no temperature to it.

I waved to her as I ran down the street, once again noticing the pressure on my chest subside as I reached the main road. Looking back I noticed something strange just before I saw the girl vanish before my eyes. On her chest, there seemed to be some kind of metal plate. How it was attached to her, I couldn't tell, but it didn't look like it could come off easily. Hanging from that plate was a chain with enough links that it reached down to her waist. Hmm, I wonder what that's for. A car horn nearby snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Gah! How much time did I waste?" I took off down the street again, hoping to at least make it to school before the bell. "Wait a second." I stopped running and looked down at my feet. Wiggling my toes in my shoes, I had a sudden idea. "I wonder…."

Looking around, I waited until there were barely any people still walking on the street. I could only imagine what kind of drama this would stir up if anyone saw me. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes. Clearing my mind, I tried to remember. I have no idea how exactly this works, but all I did yesterday was think about how much I didn't want that jar to break, and then the figurine. Well now, I'm thinking about how I really really REALLY don't want to have to deal with Miss Ochi if I get to class late. So-

I braced myself, opened my eyes, and took a leap forward. Instantly, my surroundings became a blur, and I only caught glimpses of things as I felt my feet momentarily touch the ground before they pushed off again. I held on to my bag tightly, and focused on urging my body forward. Even though things were passing by quickly, I could still sense where I was going. It was such a strange feeling, as if the people and objects I passed sent out vibrations letting me know where they were. I swerved in an out of the foot traffic I came upon as people shopped and made their way to work, and let out a small laugh. This feeling of being hyperaware was absolutely crazy. It was almost like being invisible for a few seconds until I touched back down to Earth.

I probably only had minutes left and school was still at least a few miles down the street. Taking one last deep breath, I pushed myself harder and suddenly came to a halt. I was just outside the front gate and before me stood Karakura High School, complete with students making their ways inside for another fun filled day of learning. I reached a hand up to scratch my head when I felt my hair sticking out in all different directions.

Quickly I pulled out my headband and ran my fingers through my hair a few times, pulling on the brown strands. Speedily smoothing it down and pulling it back into place again, I finished in record time and ran my hands over my head to check for loose hairs. Once I got it all sorted out, I smiled, feeling accomplished. But suddenly, it seemed as if my hyper speed run had finally caught up to my body. Gripping the fence for support, I felt my body collapse sideways, my legs like jelly. Breathing heavily, I used up the rest of the strength in my arms to lower myself to the ground.

"Maybe," I gasped out loud, "That wasn't such a good idea after all."

"What wasn't a good idea?" A shadow fell over my body and I felt my heart skip a beat. Had someone seen me? Looking up, I dreaded who my captor would be.

"Oh, Orihime." I breathed a sigh of relief. "Hi. I was just, uh, well you see I was-" I stammered, sounding like a complete idiot. Orihime blinked back at me, confused and waiting for my explanation. But I had none. I didn't know what was happening anymore and suddenly, the exhaustion caught up with me. Lowering my eyes I admitted, "I don't know. Today's been so crazy and it's not even lunchtime yet." I wrapped my arms around my chest, trying to hold myself together, feeling the tiredness and confusion mixing together. Panic was beginning to settle in, and it was frightening. "What's going on," I whispered.

"Oh, I know what you mean!" Orihime said, kneeling down next to me. "This morning I woke up with the weirdest cravings. All I wanted to eat was rice balls sprinkled with curry powder and whipped cream! I had them for dinner last night, and I guess my tummy liked them so much it just wanted more. So I found one left over in my fridge. But then I realized that it was actually from a week ago and I didn't feel so good. I didn't even know if I would make it to school today. So then-"

As I listened to Orihime ramble on about her morning and her trip to school, I couldn't believe how she had completely misunderstood my comments. I couldn't tell if I was relieved, or a bit disappointed that I couldn't confide in anyone. In the meantime, she was making me feel a bit better. She always had a knack for that, knowing just what to say to make me laugh or smile. Between her beautiful orange hair, kind brown eyes, and full, gifted figure, Orihime Inoue was the envy of almost every girl in our class. But I liked her because she was funny and sweet and always seemed to look on the bright side no matter what, even if she was a bit ditzy sometimes. In a world constantly besotted by bad news and accidents, that was a truly valuable gift, I thought. Listening to her now calmed me down and I could feel my strength returning.

The bell to signal the start of school began to ring, and both of us jumped up.

"I'm late!" we both shouted at the same time. After a moment of silence in which we both just stared at each other, smiles spread across both of our faces and we began to laugh.

"Come on Sayuri, let's go to class," Orihime said, holding out her hand to me. Grabbing my bag from where I had dropped it on the ground, I placed my hand in hers and she began to drag me across the school yard towards the front doors. Despite how upset I had been, I couldn't help but laugh the whole time we were running to class. Once we got to the right floor, I let go of Orihime and stopped in front of a glass display case.

My eyes widened as I took in my rumpled reflection. I looked like a wreck. I smoothed my shirt and re-tucked it, for the second time today. Fixing a few folds in my skirt as well, I turned around to make sure nothing was sticking out or placed anywhere it shouldn't be. I reached down to pull up my socks, and then stood up to make a final check.

While I wasn't as gorgeous as Orihime, I had been told I wasn't bad looking. I was just sort of, average. My hair fell a few inches below my shoulders and was a chocolaty brown color. Pretty boring, if you asked me. I wasn't very tall, but I wasn't short either. Again, nothing very exciting. Besides my scars, the only other intriguing things about me were my eyes. They shifted between shades of silver and an incredibly light gray so much that I wasn't really sure what to call them.

I ran a hand nervously over my arm; why did it have to be so hot outside? The weather was forcing me to wear clothes that showed most of my skin and thus, my scars, which made me so uncomfortable. However, remembering back to my first day at Karakura High, I had been the only one who seemed to be bothered by them. Unfortunately, I didn't have a thrilling action packed story about how I got the scars to tell my classmates which, as I could see on all their faces, was a big letdown. But seriously, what kind of crazy stuff went down in this town that a human zebra girl was taken so lightly?

Smiling as I remembered how everyone seemed to lose interest in me almost immediately after I arrived, I didn't see Orihime lean out of the doorway until she yelled my name.

"Sayuri, come on! Miss Ochi's not here yet! We made it!"

"Coming," I yelled back down the hall. I walked towards my classroom and as I approached it, I looked up to see the sign above the door. It said 1-3, just like always. Home sweet home, I guess. As I entered the classroom, a few people turned and waved. Rukia smiled at me from across the room where she stood with Orihime, Ichigo Kurosaki, and a few others.

Making my way over to them, I couldn't help but remember what a different feeling I had had walking in to this same room just a few weeks ago. Thinking back to that day, I realized that while another storm was stirring inside me, things on the outside were finally beginning to settle in.

ooo

"And that, class is how you find the square root. Now if you'll turn to page 132, we'll do another problem. You just write this here, and then you switch this with that, and add this to that and-" Yawning, I glanced back up at the board as Miss Ochi scribbled down another math problem while talking a mile a minute. You would think that her constant chattering would be enough to keep you wired, but after a few minutes it just sounds more like an annoying mosquito buzzing around your head.

Letting her voice fade into the background, I turned my gaze to the window. A few clouds were creeping their way across the sky, which was an electric shade of blue today. According to our principal, a storm was coming. He told us during the morning announcements that he could "feel it in his bones," but the weather was just as clear and stifling as it had been all week. Who knows, maybe we really will get a break from this awful heat. I had decided not to bring my jacket for the day; it was either that or I could die of heat stroke just to save myself from an embarrassment that only made sense to me, which I decided would be a pretty stupid way to end my life. Running my hands over my bare arms I noticed how, even in this warm weather, my scars still managed to stay a few degrees hotter than the rest of my skin.

Sighing heavily, I looked back to the board where Miss Ochi was chattering away and writing out a particularly long problem. I looked around a bit, locating each of my friends around the room.

Over to my right was Rukia, back straight and fully attentive to the lesson, like always. Ichigo, who sat next to her, was the complete opposite. He was slumped over a bit, leaning his chin on his hand and also gazing out the window. Catching his eyes, I rolled mine to convey my boredom, and he grinned in agreement.

Uryuu Ishida sat at the front of the room, ramrod straight just like Rukia and somehow managing to keep up with Miss Ochi. Brainiac, I thought. Chad Yasutora (whose real name was Sado, but everyone called him Chad anyway) was a bit behind him and…well, I never really knew what Chad was thinking. His face was constantly expressionless and he rarely ever spoke. But when he did he was kind and sweet, with a calming presence that could make even Miss Ochi stop and take a few deep breaths. Orihime sat to the other side of me, closer to the window, where she daydreamed pretty much all through class.

Laughing a bit at the way her mouth was hanging open, I thought back to how I had met them all that first day. Each of them was so entirely different from one another, yet somehow they made up a complete group with friendships running thicker than blood. It still baffled me how, even back then when we had only just met, there had seemed to be a silent acceptance of me among them all. It was as if they sensed that, like them, I was different in ways other than the obvious physical ones.

They each had their own peculiarities; small, strange aspects of their personalities that no one else around us seemed to notice but me. Like how Rukia could be smiling and laughing so sweetly while her eyes cynically analyzed every inch of you, inside and out. Or, how Ichigo always managed to be at the right place at the right time, especially when a fight was about to break out. Somehow, I had found a niche in their group where I fit perfectly and had wedged myself in. Even though I didn't understand why, our friendship seemed just like that: a perfect fit.

Looking back down at my textbook I grinned to myself, thinking back to how that very first day had turned out to be nothing like I had ever expected.