Chapter 43:

Before long, things had gotten back to normal in Ichigo's life. As normal as it could be for him. During his recovery, there were very few Hollow attacks. When there were attacks, his friends stepped up to help take care of the threat while he didn't overexert himself. As time when on, he became able to assist them more and more until he was finally able to handle the threat himself.

That was weeks ago.

Now, his body was no longer sore and he could get around as easily as he could before. He was finally fully recovered and had been for some time.

As nice as it was to have his friends help him out, he would rather do things himself.

Now he had fallen back into his usual routine. He got up in the morning, went to school, hung out for a bit, returned home and did it all again the next day. He didn't mind the mundane schedule. It gave him a sense of normalcy. Every now and then there was Soul Reaper business, but he didn't mind that either. It changed things up a bit.

He had told Chad and Orihime what had happened when they met up again, but he left out the part of him nearly dying. They didn't need to know that.

Orihime was thrilled to hear how Uryu saved Ichigo and defeated the enemy. Chad gave an approving nod of his head.

Orihime thanked Uryu when she saw him in school the next day but he adjusted his glasses and told her he didn't do it for praise. Sensing he didn't want to talk about it, she didn't bring it up again.

When Ichigo and Uryu saw each other, they just nodded and went to their seats. Nothing had really changed between them. Neither of them wanted it to. Things were fine as they were.

"Well, I can't say I expected either of them to suddenly become affectionate to the other. Or to honor a life dept sort of thing," said Chad when he saw their interactions.

Weeks had passed since Ichigo returned home.

Little had changed, which suited him just fine.

Although, he did catch himself daydreaming about something during class one day.

He was thinking about what Victor had told him as they parted ways.

Victor had thanked him. That wasn't very unusual, but he had also said that he didn't think Ichigo would have risked himself for them.

The more Ichigo thought about it, the more he came to understand.

Maybe Ichigo was only understanding part of it when he had first heard Victor bring it up.

Maybe it was about Victor thinking that Ichigo had hard feelings because of the past. Maybe back then he wouldn't have risked himself to help them. Maybe Victor wasn't talking about that.

Victor could have been thanking Ichigo for risking himself for them. It was the gesture. Or maybe it was him thanking Ichigo for caring enough about them to do so. It was about their friendship.

Or maybe because Ichigo saw them as people.

Was it because he had given them a chance to change?

Was Victor thanking him for trying to save them, or for caring enough about them to do what he did? Not just for Linnette but for all three of them? Or was it because Ichigo understood how much they needed each other?

Maybe it was a combination of it all. Friendship, forgiveness, understanding, caring, and everything in between.

Ichigo would have liked a bit more clarity, but a general 'thank you' was enough. He could fill in the blanks as he saw fit. He had a feeling he couldn't go wrong.

It was a cloudy day in Karakura Town. The students all shuffled to class, the deary weather effecting their mood. To many of them, it was a good day to stay in bed. Not everyone needed the sun to have energy. Keigo was pretty lively that morning when he greeted his friends. Even Orihime was in a sunny mood.

"Looks like it could rain tonight," said Mizuiro, checking his phone. "It'll be cloudy all day but we shouldn't worry about it raining during class. Even if it does, we're inside."

"I don't want to walk home in the rain, though," said Tatsuki.

"Don't worry. The weather reports say tonight. It won't rain until around dinner time or later than that. It might still be raining in the morning, so worry about that."

"So we might have to walk to school in the rain? Aww!"

"It's not like we'll melt. It's a pain but we'll be fine."

Ichigo looked out the window. "It's not really that bad. I've seen darker clouds."

"So it might wait until tonight when we're in bed."

"It shouldn't be a hard rain, right?"

"It's not saying to expect storms. Just rain."

Ichigo thought back to the state of his inner world when he was afflicted by Yagi's drug. There was a storm going on in there as well. A flooded, crumbling world.

Worried about the state of his inner world, Ichigo returned to it the night he came home and investigated.

The buildings were all repaired and the water had receded. The sun was shining again in his world. It felt pleasant.

He had even run into and old friend. Or two.

Zangetsu was standing on top of a building beside Ichigo's white doppelganger. One greeted him with a nod of his head and the other flashed a fiendish grin.

Ichigo tried to call out to both of them but Zangetsu started to leave.

"You did well, Ichigo." Those were Zangetsu's words to him.

His white clone could only sneer and follow after Zangetsu like a puppy.

Ichigo wanted to speak to them more, but he understood what this was.

They were just there to show him that they were alright. They were there to let him know they were safe so he wouldn't worry.

They would all meet up again for a longer conversation when the time was right.

"Ichigo?"

"Hm?" Ichigo looked away from the window, shaken from his daze.

"Class is starting."

"Oh. Right." Ichigo took his seat and his friends did the same.

He would think about that stuff later.

Class began as usual. So far the rain was holding off just as the Mizuiro predicted. That didn't stop people from looking out the window to check. Ichigo was one of them. He kept looking outside. Partly because he was bored, partly because he was curious.

The cloudy day didn't exactly fill him with energy. The quiet classroom didn't help either.

For the past few minutes, all he could hear were pencils scrawling on paper and the chalk in the teacher's hand moving across the blackboard.

He wasn't exactly feeling very alert. Most of the class seemed to feel the same way. A lot of them had their heads down and it wasn't because they were diligently taking notes. They were just incredibly bored.

Ichigo started to yawn. He was feeling pretty bored himself.

And hungry. Lunch would be soon. Maybe eating something would help give him more energy. Or put him into a food coma.

Ichigo stopped writing.

The air in the room had changed.

Orihime, Chad and Uryu had also stopped taking notes. They sensed it, too.

Ichigo slowly turned his head to look over his right shoulder.

A slit had appeared in the space between the back row of desks and the wall. It was growing wider and started to split open like a mouth.

It was a Garganta. Was a Hollow really going to appear in the back of their classroom? That had never happened before.

What should he do? If he didn't act fast, the students would be in danger.

The Garganta wasn't that large so the Hollow must have been small. Hopefully it would be no larger than a bear.

The slit opened and something stepped out into the classroom.

"Eh?"

A young man in white stepped onto the tiled floor and dusted himself off. He looked around, his back facing Ichigo.

Then he turned around.

They spotted each other.

"Ichigo!" Veneno shouted joyfully.

Most of the students continued to work but a handful of them heard Veneno's voice and turned in their seats.

"Eh?!" Ichigo's eyes were wide.

"I finally found you!" Veneno said loudly. "It took me a few tries. I finally figured out how to use a Garganta. I've been trying to open one here but the times it worked, I ended up in different places. I tried to see if I could direct it to a specific location. Kind of random. I'm still getting the hang of it. The time before this one, I ended up in that sports yard thing. I tried again and it looks like I got it right. What luck! I actually managed to open it up right here where you are. I would have settled for the field but I wanted to look inside this building for you, thinking this is where you would be so I tried again and it's a good thing I did."

While Veneno chatted away, Ichigo peered around at the few students who could see and hear him.

Keigo looked like he was going to wet his pants. Tatsuki looked shocked and Mizuiro did nothing but gawk.

Chad and Orihime were frozen in their seats, wondering if this was a threat they should be fighting and if so what they were going to do. Uryu was on the edge of his seat, both pretending he wasn't seeing anything and preparing to fight if this Arrancar was indeed hostile.

"What's with the look, Ichigo? I came all the way here and you're not even going to tell me what a good job I did. Finding you wasn't easy, you know."

Some of the students were starting to take notice of the shocked expressions around them and turned to see what they were looking at. To them, there was nothing there. No one else could see or hear the Arrancar.

"Not now..." Ichigo said through his teeth.

"Hm?" Veneno leaned closer. "What's that?"

"I said not now." Ichigo put a finger to his lips.

"At least act like you're happy to see me."

Not wanting to be ignored, Veneno grabbed Ichigo's arm and pulled him out of his seat.

"Whoa!" Ichigo fell on the floor and everyone turned to look at him. To the other students, it looked like he simply fell out of his seat.

Their teacher looked at him. "I know this must be boring for you but do try to remain in your seat, Kurosaki."

"S- sorry." Ichigo grabbed Veneno by the arm before he could do anything else. "Can you excuse me for just one second? I'll be right back."

Ichigo walked backwards, shoving Veneno towards the door. He roughly shoved him into the hallway and shut the door.

"Are you out of your mind?!"

"What?"

Ichigo pointed to the classroom. "Most of those people can't see you. Or hear you. Doing that stuff back there... If I start talking to you, I'd look insane. It'd look like I'm talking to an imaginary person."

"Oh." Veneno scratched his head. "Sorry."

Ichigo relaxed a little. "It's good to see you, Veneno."

He smiled. "I worked hard and finally got it. Now I can visit the Soul Society and you any time I want. Great, huh?"

"Yeah, it is." Ichigo was worried Veneno would become too lonely and revert back to his old ways if he didn't stay in contact with his new friends. Now Ichigo didn't have to worry about that.

Ichigo and Veneno gave each other a quick hug in greeting.

"Listen," said Ichigo. "I'm in class right now, but we're going to break for lunch pretty soon. I can talk to you then if you like. I can even introduce you to some of my other friends if you want."

"Sure."

"Great. Meet me on the roof. I'll bring everybody up there when lunch starts. Think you can wait a few minutes?"

Veneno saluted. "I'll meet you on the roof." He flashed away.

Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief and returned to his classroom.

As he took his seat, he gave his friends a silent message with his eyes that everything was taken care of. They turned back in their seats and went back to taking notes.

When the class was dismissed for lunch, Ichigo's friends came rushing up to his desk.

"Who was that guy?"

"What's going on?"

"He freaking came from nowhere! Did anyone see that?!"

"Not in my ear, Keigo."

"Is everything alright, Ichigo?"

"It's fine." Ichigo stood up from his desk. "He's a friend. In fact, I asked him to join us for lunch if you want to meet him."

"Ooh! That sounds great!" chirped Orihime. "I can share my bread with him. I have lots."

"Bet he'd like that."

Ichigo led the group up the stairs to where they usually ate lunch. Keigo seemed a little nervous about meeting Ichigo's strange friend but was also looking forward to it. If Ichigo said he was a friend, then he shouldn't have much to worry about. He couldn't have been as scary as his sister. Mizuiro followed Ichigo casually as if this encounter would be no different from meeting a normal human being.

Ichigo opened the door and stepped onto the roof. He looked left then right.

"There he is."

Veneno was sitting on the safety rail by the edge of the building. Seeing Ichigo, he jumped down and landed in front of him. Veneno and Ichigo bumped fists in greeting.

"Guys," Ichigo addressed his friends, "this is Veneno."

"What's up?"

"Hi!" Orihime said cheerfully. "I'm Orihime. This is Tatsuki. She's my very best friend. And this is Chad."

"Yo."

"And these are our other friends." Orihime pointed them out but they each introduced themselves.

"Hi, I'm Mizuiro. It's nice to meet you, Veneno." He held out his hand for Veneno to shake.

"I'm Keigo. Um, did you really just come out of nowhere in the classroom? How'd you do that?"

"Lots of practice." Veneno peered over Keigo to the boy walking behind Ichigo.

Ichigo looked behind him and saw Uryu adjusting his glasses. "That's Uryu. He's a friend, too."

"Hey," Veneno greeted casually.

Uryu adjusted his glasses again and walked away.

"He's a little shy," said Ichigo.

"No, I'm not!" Uryu called over his shoulder.

Veneno smirked. "I guess you do keep strange company, Ichigo. Suddenly, I don't feel so out of place in your circle."

Mizuiro held out his lunchbox. "So, are you hungry? You're free to join us for lunch."

"He does eat normal things, right?" asked Keigo. "I mean, he looks normal, but does he eat normal?"

"I'm sure he does," said Mizuiro.

"You do eat normal things, right?"

Veneno stepped closer to Keigo. "I don't know. You look pretty tasty. Is that normal?"

"Wh- wh- what?"

"Yeah, a little salt and you'll do just fine. That is why Ichigo brought you, isn't it?"

"Yeeyai!" Keigo ran and hid behind Ichigo.

"I'm just messing with you." Veneno laughed. "Lighten up."

Keigo peered around Ichigo's hip. "Really?"

"Yup."

"Oh."

Uryu rolled his eyes. "Typical Arrancar humor."

"Nah, I'd be happy to eat whatever you got in those lunchboxes. What do you have, anyway?" Veneno asked, opening the lid of Orihime's lunchbox.

"I have some yummy bread if you'd like any."

"Sounds good to me."

Veneno reached inside and took a whole loaf of bread from her lunchbox. As he lifted it up to his mouth, he paused and looked down at her. He lowered the bread and split it in half with a jerk of his hands.

"Here." He offered her one of the halves.

"Thank you."

"You're the one offering him the bread," said Tatsuki. "He should be the one thanking you. Not the other way around."

"I have jam to go along with it."

"Great." Veneno took the jar of jam from her and slathered it over the bread. He took a bite and winced. "Yuck! What kind of jam is that?"

"Mayonnaise, butter, duck sauce, sugar and a touch of hot sauce for flavor."

"How is that jam?"

"Well, I mixed it together with the remains of the raspberry jam that was left over in the jar. I didn't want that little bit to go to waste so I added some extra stuff. Those things were taking up space in my fridge anyway, so I figured I'd save on space if I added them to the jam, since there was only a tiny bit in those containers as well. Now the jar is full again and tastes fresh with those ingredients."

Veneno grimaced. "Suddenly, eating Keigo doesn't sound like such a bad idea."

"What?!"

"Just to get the taste out of my mouth."

Ichigo passed Veneno his lunchbox. "Here. Help yourself."

"Thanks."

Veneno took one of his sandwiches and passed the lunchbox back to him.

Everyone divided up their lunches and shared with Veneno.

They started talking, asking Veneno all kinds of questions. He was all too happy to answer. Mostly he gloated about how strong he was to impress them.

During the conversation, Uryu dropped a bag of nuts and some cookies beside Veneno and started to walk away.

"Sharing, too, Uryu?" Orihime asked him.

"I'm just full and didn't want to waste it."

They all knew that wasn't true.

Tatsuki leaned over to Ichigo while Veneno struck up a conversation with Mizuiro and Orihime. "So this guy's a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, I thought I mentioned that."

"Hm. He's kinda different."

"Well, he explained he wasn't human, didn't he?" Ichigo took a bite of his sandwich.

"Yeah. But I'm talking about how rude he can be."

"Rude?"

"He opened Orihime's lunchbox and check it out before asking her permission."

"She didn't seem to mind."

"He just seems too... What's the word. 'Forward' I guess..? No, that's not it. 'Blunt' maybe? Yeah, blunt is a good word."

"The guy's been through a lot and compared to how he was before, this is an improvement."

Tatsuki wrinkled her nose. "Compared to before, huh? I'd hate to see how he was before."

It wasn't like Veneno was taught proper etiquette. During his recovery, those who knew about him were just surprised he could speak. Ichigo didn't mind Veneno's poor manners as much as others. In his opinion, Veneno wasn't that bad. Just a little blunt, as Tatsuki put it. At least he didn't chew with his mouth open.

"The guy has a bit of an attitude," Tatsuki went on. "Then again, so do you, Ichigo."

"I do?"

"Yeah. How you don't take crap from anyone. That's a type of attitude."

"Meh."

Tatsuki turned to him. "So what do you mean by Veneno having been through a lot? Did something happen to him? Was it bad?"

Ichigo felt it wasn't his place to say.

"Well?" Tatsuki wasn't going to quit until he answered her question.

"He hasn't exactly been around people for a while."

"Oh, I see. So it's that he's socially awkward."

"... Alright." Ichigo ate the rest of his sandwich.

"So how long are you staying?" Mizuiro asked Veneno. "Do you have a home you can return to?"

Veneno nodded. "Yup. I just came from there. I've spent the past few weeks training so I could open that gate you just saw and come here on my own. I finally mastered it. Sort of. I'm still not too sure how to make it open exactly where I want it, but I'll take what I can get. I never knew I could do it in the first place until someone pointed it out to me. It's something we're supposed to naturally be able to do. I just never knew or forgot we could."

"We?"

"Other Hollows and Arrancars. You know those things that come by and eat people."

Ichigo threw his juice box at him.

"So you do eat people!" Keigo whimpered.

"I don't. I'm not like those-"

"Veneno!" Ichigo said sharply.

"What?" Veneno asked as if Ichigo had just rudely interrupted his joke just before the punchline.

Ichigo drew a line across his neck with his finger. "They don't need to know that stuff," he hissed.

"Why not?"

Orihime blocked Veneno's view of Ichigo by leaning forward. "So, heh heh, which of our lunches did you like the best, Veneno?" Orihime said quickly to change the topic.

Sensing that Ichigo didn't want his friends to know the full details of Hollows and Soul Reaper business, Veneno dropped the subject.

Lunch was starting to wrap up and students started to return to the building for class. Uryu went ahead but stayed near the door to listen to the conversation.

"Are you going to drop by everyday?" asked Mizuiro. "If you do that, it might be a little inconvenient. With class and all."

"Popping in unexpected is kind of rude," said Tatsuki.

"But if we know he's showing up everyday, then it won't be unexpected," pointed out Orihime. She turned to Veneno. "It'll be nice to see you again. But a little warning next time might help."

Chad nodded. "Don't want to mistake you for a threat," he said quietly to him.

"Nice meeting you," said Mizuiro. "We'd better get back to class before we're late, guys."

Ichigo's friends each bid Veneno farewell and went back inside. Uryu remained hidden in the corner. He watched each one pass by and descend the staircase without noticing him.

Ichigo was the last one to leave. He stood beside Veneno and put a hand on his shoulder.

"They're right, though," he said. "Since only some of us can see you, showing up in the middle of a classroom might be a little..."

"Yeah, sorry."

"I'm glad to see you, Veneno, but we should work out a time and place to meet up. During class time isn't a good idea. While class is going on, I'm not allowed to talk to you or anyone. It wouldn't be fair to make you stand there while we're forced to ignore you. When we meet, we should be able to talk."

Veneno nodded. "Yeah."

Explaining things to him in this way would allow Ichigo to get Veneno's cooperation. By doing this, he was able to convince Veneno to show up during certain times and not in the middle of a classroom. This would make things a lot easier. Now Veneno wouldn't be disrupting class and startling his friends.

Veneno promised not to make a habit of this. He would show up every now and again to visit Ichigo at certain times when it was convenient for the two of them. Veneno didn't mind these limitations because he also spent his time visiting the Soul Society with his ability.

"Can you get back alright?"

"Yeah," said Veneno. "Same time next week?"

Ichigo smiled. At least Veneno didn't say he would meet him tomorrow. He knew how to space things out.

"Sounds good to me," said Ichigo.

Veneno gave Ichigo a quick hug and opened a Garganta by making a clawing motion with his right hand in the air. The air split where his nails had touched and ripped apart. The opening grew wider and wider until Veneno could step inside.

Veneno stepped into the dark opening and turned to face Ichigo. "See ya," he said with a wave.

"See ya."

The Garganta closed and Veneno was gone.

The air grew still and the sky was peaceful.

"Glad he's doing well," Ichigo said to himself. "So he managed to make it work after all."

Something told him that Veneno would be visiting the Soul Society a lot, claiming he could use the practice. It wasn't against any rules. He was allowed to visit. Ichigo just hoped he wouldn't overdo it.

Ichigo took one last look at the sky before heading back to class, thinking of all his friends. Those who were here with him and those who were far away. Near and far, they were probably all thinking of him in some way.

He was happy to have them. All of them.

They gave him strength, the same way he inspired them to get stronger as well.

He wanted to protect that.

Ichigo shook his head. "I'm feeling so sentimental today. What's up with me?"

Uryu heard Ichigo approaching the door. He quickly hurried down the stairs so he wouldn't be noticed.

Ichigo returned to class just as the bell rang. The teacher made sure everyone was present before continuing the lesson. Everyone took out their books and began to take notes.

Ichigo looked around at the students. He noticed that his friends seemed a bit more lively now. Their encounter with Veneno must have perked up their spirits somehow. It seemed they were all happy to meet him. Ichigo wondered if they would ask him more questions after school got out or if they would kept quiet about it like they did about his Soul Reaper business.

They were so listless before and now they were more energetic.

Could meeting with a friend really do that? Ichigo's spirits were often raised when he was with his friends so it must have been true.

After everything he had to endure so far, he knew one thing for certain.

No matter what happened, his friends were there to help him get through it.

They gave him a reason to keep going.

The end!

It took a while, but it's finally done.

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