Author's Note

Here's chapter 6. It's got important stuff here.

I slowly wake to the sounds of birds chirping outside. They're being damn noisy today since I can hear them so well. The scent of wet grass and vegetation clouds my senses.

Wait, scent? The stupid prison box is completely sealed, why can I smell the outdoors? My consciousness fully flares to life and I remember last night. I'm free. My prison was broken, it's just an empty shrine now, well, except for me sleeping in it, but that's besides the point. I'm not stuck in an eternal darkness with no way out, I'm free.

With those happy thoughts in mind, I slip outside and take on my preferred form, my human form. I climb to the top of the shrine and sit on the roof. Letting out a content sigh and I take in a big breath of fresh air. It's simply fantastic to be out of the damn box.

I look around to see what the clearing looks like now that the sunrise is giving me proper light to see with. It's beautiful. The dewdrops glisten in the morning light on the slender stalks of the rainbow of flowers she's grown here. Damn, now I sound like some sort of cheesy poet. But they really are a sight to behold. I hope she gets to see something like this in the main gardens she's told me about.

As I continue to drink in all the sights I've been missing out on for so long, my attention is drawn to the marker before the shrine. "I'm surprised to see you here," I casually comment, "Yoruichi."

"Hmph. I come all the way out here to see you and you can't even give me a proper greeting." the black cat seated upon the marker sniffs at me.

"Sorry. Good morning, Yoruichi." I sarcastically reply. "Satisfied?"

"Not really, but I suppose that's the best I'll get out of you, Ichigo." she jabs back at me.

"And I don't even get a hello back. So what are you doing out here anyways?" I inquire.

"I already told you, I'm here to see you." she says pointedly, like I'm stupid or something.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." I crabbily reply. "So let me try again, why are you here to see me?"

"Mostly to make sure you stay out of trouble. Good job on that by the way, I expected you to go running off with a barely existent plan to continue what you were doing before." she nonchalantly comments.

"As much as I'd like to, I'm not stupid." She gives me a pointed look that says she believes otherwise. "Ok, fine. I'm not completely stupid." I gruffly concede, scowling all the while. "I've listened to her talk about her daily life and I have no freaking idea what about half the things she talks about are. I may not do much planning," another glare, "ok, almost no planning, but I usually have an idea of what I'm going up against. At this point, whatever changes have occurred during my sealing could get me totally screwed over, which I don't particularly feel like going through."

"Nice to know you do have a brain, Ichigo." My scowl deepens at that comment. Just because I don't plan ahead doesn't mean I'm brainless, I just don't see the point in fancy planning when "charge in and beat so and so" is a workable plan with barely anything to go wrong with it. "By the way, who is she?"

The question snaps me off from the questioning on the effectiveness of plans. "She is the girl who's been visiting me for the past three months and planted all the flowers around here."

"You mean the girl you saved last night?"

"Yeah. You know, I'm glad I got out in time to save her, I'm not sure what I would've done if I hadn't. …Wait, how did you know about that?" I turn a suspicious glare her way.

She calmly flicks her tail. "Geez, you still suck at sensing reiatsu, don't you?" "Hey!" "I was there last night. Hell, I was going to take care of that lycanthrope until you got involved."

"Then why didn't you? I know if you were there, you must have been there before they got to me."

Yoruichi let out a long suffering sigh, "Because I can't get caught by the guards here," I snort at that. No one catches Yoruichi unless she lets them, she's damn fast, enough said, "and letting here see me could have very well led to them searching for me and possibly finding things they don't need to know about."

"So he's in the area then?"

"Of course, this town is the Juureichi, so things are going to happen here. Besides, you know him, he likes to have a nice sideline seat in the middle of things until he's ready to act. Anyways, back to the topic of that girl. I noticed you left a small mark on her."

"It's not a mark!" I reply defensively. "I just tagged her hairpins so I can make sure if trouble decides to go after her again that I can help. I owe her a lot for what she's done." I look away at the last sentence, I don't need her commenting on the small amount of guilt I feel at what's already happened.

"And did it occur to you that the tag may attract trouble?"

I growl at that question. "If she gets trouble for the tag, then they were asking for it."

She sighs once again. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." With that she lithely jumps from the marker and starts to walk away.

"Oh, and Ichigo?"

"What?" I snap back, I'd really like to get back to appreciating the fact that I'm free of the hellish prison box.

She paused and looked back at me, "Try not to lose this one, ne?"

"Of course. What'd ya think I was gonna' do?" I grumble back.

She seemed satisfied with that answer because she turned back and with a flick of her tail was on her way once more.

As she left she called back over her shoulder, "And Ichigo, nice cosplay!" I could hear her sniggers as she took off to leave me fuming and trying to come up with a suitable comeback.

"What the hell is a cosplay?!You know what, who cares anyways? It's not like it matters." I grumble to myself.

I lean back on the shrine and think about what I've learned from Yoruichi. Well, actually she didn't leave me with much. They're in town, she doesn't know about us, I'm going to get dragged into whatever's happening, possibly, no, probably, her too, and I should lay low for a while.

I guess I'll just have to deal with troubles as they come, nothing too different from how it used to be. And laying low shouldn't be too hard, I'm still fairly drained, so I'll just stay here and rest. With my course of action decided, I retreat back inside to sleep some more.

"So how was our little friend, Yoruichi-san?"

"Fine, he seems to have cooled down rather nicely. I'd attribute most of his current level headedness on that girl's tender attentions." she comments as she settles onto the pillow I've placed in the sunlight coming in through one of the windows, just for her.

"Good, good. I was a little worried considering how much trouble he can cause, even at less than half strength. Though I'm surprised he got himself a girlfriend while he was sealed." I snigger at that one, I really am too clever. Yoruichi laughs at that one too.

"You're going to have to tell him that when you see him next, he'll turn so red!" she excitedly proclaims.

"I was already planning to, my dear Yoruichi-san. You'll have to bring him here in the next couple of days so I can explain his situation to him and start getting him up to date."

"That's probably a good idea. He was wearing that old coat of his and hakama, I almost laughed when I first saw him sitting there in it. I told him it was a nice cosplay. He probably doesn't even know what that is." she laughs to herself. I can't help but laugh too. Thinking about it draws the image of him to my head and she's right, if anyone saw that today, they'd think he was in cosplay.

"Of course it's a good idea! I am a genius after all. Anyways~, I have other things to attend to, so I'll leave you to your catnap, Yoruichi-san." I say as I get up and leave the room. She nods her head before curling up on the pillow and drifting off.

It changes things to have him back. His power and unrealized potential make him an incredible asset. I thought we'd lost him when they broke him. There didn't seem to be anything we could do to get him to recover from those blows and protecting him from sealing was really just putting others and him in danger. It wasn't an easy choice, but it had to be made. But now he's back.

I laugh quietly to myself. We didn't know how to fix him, but this girl, who knew nothing, fixed him without even knowing it. I'll keep an eye on her, for her sake, his sake, and ours, because if they break him again I know they'll wait until he's so strong that it'll be near impossible to deal with him before acting. He always said he was a monster when he was just beginning to break, but he really doesn't know the full truth of those words.

I feel a moment of guilt, thinking of this shadow game that he's going to be dragged back into, that she will likely be dragged into, but I have very little choice.

Tugging my hat down a little further, I go out to tend my shop and gather the information necessary to get us through the coming storm.

Please leave a comment/review a to tell me how I did.