Ikumi looked at the door of the Kurosaki Clinic. She looked down at the plaque in her hand, the one Ichigo had left at her home. She knew she should have returned it months ago, but she had always hoped that Ichigo would just waltz into the store again to return to work. Yet he never did. She knocked at the door and waited. She expected either Ichigo to pull open the door and begin yelling at her for coming to his house. Either that or the brown haired girl who answered the door for her before, who would smile and offer to make her tea as she called for the orange haired idiot. However it was neither of them that opened the door, but instead a man who she had only seen a few times before.

"Oh, you're Ichigo's old boss!" the man noted. Ikumi nodded, holding out the pendent.

"You're son left this at my place." she explained, holding it out. The man actually looked afraid of the piece of wood. He didn't reach out for it but just stared at it nervously, as if the object would suck out his soul if he touched it. It was very confusing to her. Suddenly it was removed from her hand and she looked beside her to see a new man she had never before seen. He had white hair and piercing brown eyes with oval glasses.

"Oh, hey Ryuken, what brings you here?" Isshin said with a smile, as if nothing strange had happened. Ikumi was thoroughly confused who this man was. The two males had to know each other well if they were on a given name basis. The man adjusted his glasses.

"Just passing through." he said. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. Ryuken had actually thought about going to see Uryu. Since they were on break from school, he thought it might be a good opportunity to check on the boy and see how he was handling everything that happened. However when he got to Uryu's apartment, he realized the male was gone. He assumed that him and the others went to see Ichigo, so he had headed home. Yet he found himself walking by the Kurosaki clinic, for some reason or another.

"Yeah sure, why don't you come in for a cup of tea? You can too miss." he offered. Both of them looked like they were going to refuse.

"That sounds like a great idea!" came a new voice. Ikumi saw the silver haired man grimace heavily before she turned to see a light blonde man wearing a strange hat. Isshin didn't seem to mind the random people showing up at his home and moved aside. Kisuke gently pushed the two into the place before following them in himself. Ikumi decided it would be rude if she just left, and a cup of tea wouldn't be too much time out of her life.

Ryuken meanwhile was thinking there was no problem with just turning around and storming out of the clinic without even a goodbye. However when he looked down at the plaque in his hands, he changed his mind. Isshin must feel so lonely right now. His wife had died and now his son was gone. Ryuken didn't know if the boy had left the plaque on purpose or not, but this had been the boy's substitute shinigami badge. Him leaving it behind was like a sign of saying he was no longer going to be a substitute. He would either be the real thing, or nothing of it at all. In the end the boy had followed after his fathers steps.

Ryken placed the badge onto the table and sat down stiffly beside Kisuke. Another face that Ryuken didn't care to see. He was easily annoyed by both Isshin and Kisuke. After all the two males were over a hundred years. To them, he was still a child who had barley made his fourth decade. Yet out of the three of them, Ryuken was the most serious, calm, and composed. He didn't even know why he continued to associate with them, after all he avoided them both quite successfully after Misaki had left. That was until Uryu befriended Ichigo.

"How are things with your son?" Isshin decided to ask. Ikumi and Ryuken both looked up at him.

"Fine." they both said shortly. Then they looked at each other, not knowing who Isshin had been trying to talk to.

"Oh, you have a son too? How old is he?" Isshin asked, sounding excited. She winced.

"He's ten." she said. He nodded. She turned to Ryuken.

"You have a son as well?" she asked.

"He's the same age as Ichigo." Isshin explained. Ikumi nodded. These men must be parents of Ichigo's friends. It was odd to see parents of teenagers hanging out though. Judging from the looks the silver haired man had she assumed they were not all happy about the arrangement. She tried to think over all of the friends of Ichigo's she had met. She didn't really met them, only seen them a few times. There was one who looked very similar to the silver haired man that she saw once. He and Ichigo had been yelling at each other, but not in an angry argument, more like a childish one that good friends would get into from time to time. She smiled.

"What?" Ryuken asked a little shortly.

"I was just thinking, children are wonderful things." she said. Isshin smiled and nodded.

"They are arn't they? How are you and your son doing by they way? You getting along any better?" Isshin asked, putting a cup of tea in front of each of them. Ryuken looked down at it, a small smile on his lips.

"I wonder." he mused.

xxx

Sado smiled as he watched the others talking. They had all met up again, this time staying the night at the eleventh division. It was strangely nice. The division was rough and the men wanted to fight and party, but they were also very well disciplined. They were cheering and feasting, while the other guests were moving around and trying to not be a focus point.

"You should go talk to people. I'm sure there are others you want to see." Shuhei said, plopping down next to him. Sado just hummed, showing that he acknowledged the statement, however he wasn't going to agree or disagree. There were plenty of people he knew but he rather liked watching people interact. The fukutaichou sighed.

"Hisagi-sempai, Sado, come have a drink with us!" Renji called. He was sitting with Ikkaku, Rangiku, Yumichika, Izuru, Shunsui, Kenpachi, and Kensei. Shuhei nodded and headed over, getting a friendly slap on the back from his taichou who proceeded to hand him a drink. Sado merely waved off the invite. He wasn't old enough to drink anyway. He glanced around, trying to locate his friends.

Orihime and Tatsuki were talking to Momo and Nanao. Orihime had been branching out more to the other female Shinigami, trying to talk to ones she hadn't much before. Mizuiro was near them, talking to Isane, Kiyone, Mashiro, and Lisa. Sado could see he was trying to flirt with them, but only Lisa recognized this and was playing back. Keigo looked a little put out and was currently being very intimidated by Yoruichi and SoiFon. Ichigo and Rukia were talking with Uryu, probably going over finer details of the situation. Sado decided to go see them, since they were quitter.

He approached the three who sensed him coming and waved him over encouragingly. "So what do you think Chad?" Ichigo asked. Sado tilted his head to the side.

"About?" he asked. Ichigo gestured around them.

"Anything." he said. Honestly he was trying to start a conversation. He hadn't seen any of them in so long and really just wanted to see how things were going.

"I work at the pet store. It's nice." Sado said. Ichigo nodded with a smile. "And you?" he asked. Rukia shrugged.

"He's not bad, for being new at being a seated officer." she responded for him. Then she looked at the others. "You guys could also join too if you wanted." she said. Uryu shook his head, as did Sado.

"We're not Shinigami, we're just humans. We don't belong here." Uryu offered. Rukia nodded and shrugged. It was worth a shot.

"So what are you going to do when you graduate?" she asked. Ichigo looked at the two of them, curious. Sado looked at the ground in thought.

"I would like to be a police officer." Sado said. He had been thinking about it long and hard, but that was what he decided on. Sado wanted to continue protecting others, that was what his fists were for. However there wasn't a lot of jobs left for people to do that. He could go into the medical field, but that wasn't him. He couldn't heal people. He was designed to protect them before they got hurt. He could be a police officer or a fireman. Either of those would do well. He could continue to use his strength to help others and keep them safe. Uryu and Orihime may still need him in the future anyway, so he would still be there. Uryu meanwhile just shrugged.

"I suppose I will be going to college." he said. Ichigo was confused now. Ever since he learned who Uryu's father was, he had always assumed Uryu would be a doctor. Yet when he asked the male a while back he made it quite clear that he would never become a doctor. It could have something to do with his strained relationship with his father, and maybe the two were getting along now.

"What for?" he decided to ask. It wasn't coming out and saying 'Hey, did you change your mind' but from the look on Uryu's face he might as well have said that.

"For now, nothing special. I will get all of my general studies out of the way first, then decide." he said. So he still had no intention of being a doctor. Sado seemed to pick up on that too.

"Are you and your father getting along?" Sado asked. Uryu looked caught off guard by the question, but then he smiled as he looked down.

"I wonder." he mused. The others realized the conversation was closed.

xxx

"So what are you two going to be doing?" asked Nanao. It was getting time to start planning out ones future after all. Humans had a much shorter lifespan than a soul. Tatsuki smirked.

"I already decided. I'm a karate teacher." Tatsuki said. Of course she would continue to participate in competitions, but she wanted to teach people how to take care of themselves. The world was a big and dangerous place, so she would make sure those that were going into it would be able to survive whatever life threw at them. Not only that, but it was all thanks to her karate experience that she had the friends she did. She had met Ichgio because he started going to the same dojo as her. She met Orihime because she had the abilities to help the girl. After those two, the others just followed. She wanted to return the favor.

The two of them looked at Orihime. She looked down in though. There was a lot of things she wanted to do. She wanted to go to space, to travel the world. She wanted to work at the bakery, to be a business woman. She had so many things she wanted to do, things that wouldn't be able to be done in her life time. She wanted to have many lives, just so she could do a few of them. It seemed strange, to have to set her life to one thing. The others weren't very sure either. Honestly it wasn't something she had put a lot of thought into. Truthfully her, Ichigo, Uryu, and Sado hadn't thought they were going to live through the Quincy issue to even have a future. Now there was a million roads ahead of her. Which one should she choose.

"I wonder." she said, a smile playing onto her lips.