Looking through my window, I watched the clouds slowly move with immense disinterest. In my hand, I twirled a little stick. I found it outside when I wandered around to try and feed the monster inside me known as boredom. This little stick I found reminded me of how my uncle would often twirl around his calligraphy brush before dipping it in ink. An interesting trick.
I sighed a little sigh. The temperature was just right for taking a nap somewhere... Maybe if I fell asleep and woke up tomorrow, I'd find something much more interesting.
"Katsuko."
I heard the door open. It was my mother. She smiled at me and beckoned me over to join her side.
With a flick of my wrist, I threw the stick out the window to obediently join her side. "Yes, mother?"
"It's time to meet them."
"Oh. I almost forgot about that." I shrugged with sheepish grin. "I was so bored today that I completely forgot about everything else."
And I didn't really make an effort to remember.
"Do you at least know what day it is today?" she asked cheekily.
"Of course." I replied proudly. I told her it was three days from today, prompting her to lightly pinch my cheek as I snickered. I closed the door behind me and followed my mother down the long hallway. My fingers kept fidgeting, replicating my uncle's hand movements. Soon, I should be able to get it right.
In the living room, there were two boys sitting on the couch. They both had black hair just like me.
"Ichida Haruki and Matsuoka Jun." she gestured to each one. The two of them smiled amicably with words of greeting at me while I simply nodded my head to them with a curt greeting, borderline rude yet still polite.
That's the first time I met them.
With a polite smile, a held out my hand for a handshake.
…
…
…
When Katsuko woke up, she did with a start, and her hand was latching onto the closest thing she sensed. It felt warm. Her eyes adjusted to the brightness and noticed that Ichigo was hovering over her, his face surprised by her sudden move. She saw that he was holding a blanket. She was also laying down on the same mattress that she slept on when she first slept at the Vizards' place.
"Ichigo." His name came out as a sigh of relief. Her hand dropped on her chest. She didn't understand why she felt so startled by sensing him nearby.
"Sorry." He set the blanket down just below her hand. "You just kicked off your blanket just now." He just wanted to throw it back on her. "Didn't mean to wake you."
"It's alright." Katsuko sat up and leaned forward to drop her forehead in her palm. She felt him take a seat on the mattress. "Gah… how long was I out for?"
"About an hour and a half." Ichigo simply replied. He was on the treadmill when Kensei came back upstairs with an unconscious Katsuko hanging on his shoulder. He was about to get off the treadmill to check on her. However, Love just kept a tight grip on the back of his Shihakusho to stop him. Shinji checked on her and believed that nothing was wrong with her. It was exhaustion from the mask usage. "You passed out after successfully Hollowfying." Mashiro was the one who picked up the nearby blanket and dropped it on her while passing by.
"Oh, thank god, that wasn't a dream." Katsuko lifted her arms and stretched with a soft yawn. One of her wrists made a cracking noise was she rotated them. Such a short dream she remembered clearly felt like it went on for longer. Strange how dreams work like that. "I'm still tired even after a nice nap…" she lazily tilted over to him and landed her forehead against his shoulder for support. There was no move on his part to shrug her off. All he did was look down at her and he could almost feel all the tension in her body and stress finally leaving her.
He shifted a little to drop his elbow on his knee. Her head just followed his shoulder like a magnet. "Heard you threw a little tantrum." Ichigo snorted. The reminder of Kensei walking away and the feeling of embarrassment made her stiffen. With a pointed look, she pulled away from him to see him smirking at her. She scowled at him. "Who told you?"
"No one. I just overheard from that guy with the long hair." he pointed his thumb to Rose in the back.
Katsuko huffed. "Rose." She lifted her hand to pat his shoulder. "Still have that awesome memory, nice."
He rolled his eyes at her comment. "Whatever." He was currently on a short break from that dumb treadmill. He finally got an explanation for it even though he basically figured it out on his own. There were two reasons why he didn't snap yet. One, he wasn't as pressed for time like when he had to train for ten days with Urahara. Two, he would trust in their methods just as Katsuko did because he trusted her. And so far, that trust in them has led to Katsuko controlling her Hollow.
"So, how was it?" Ichigo looked at Katsuko as she pleasantly stretched her legs behind him. She looked at him curiously. Then it clicked with a face of realization. "It's not bad. I mean, I passed out immediately. But it feels like you're kind of… cloaked in this type of energy?" She put a thoughtful hand under her chin and closed her eyes while wrinkling her nose. She was doing her best to recall what she felt. But it was hard to remember something she barely felt.
She looked at him and grinned sheepishly. "That's the best I got it. Sorry."
Ichigo just shook his head. "It's fine. I was just curious."
She dropped her hand and sat criss cross to place her palms flat on the mattress between her legs. "I think you'll do just fine compared to me."
His narrowing eyes laced with confusion was all Katsuko needed to know to know his question. She shrugged. "You had a hard time getting your Soul Reaper powers back. So, now it's my turn to go through crap." She spoke as if such thought process was the most logical thing in the world.
"Right, so you don't know." He put his hands behind him to lean back. With a smirk, Katsuko did a 'tsk tsk' and wagged her finger twice. "You never know."
"I really just want to get this over with." Ichigo remembered seeing her look absolutely annoyed every time she came back up to the surface because of her lack of progress, and it made him wonder how the process would go for him. He just wanted to be at peace again.
Katsuko started wrapping the blanket around her body. It caught his attention when she started pulling it out from under him. "I'm sure they'll explain it to you when it's your turn, but it's normally not so hard to bring it out. But I guess, just like when doctors find rare conditions on their patients, I ended up having a rare problem." She made a makeshift hood. Ichigo watched her pull her knees up to her chest and set her chin on her knee. She looked like she making herself a little cocoon. Then she started wiggling her hand up to her face. She took out her mask and quickly hid away her hand again. Ichigo blinked when he saw it. It didn't look as menacing as his, Shinji's or Hiyori's. Hers looked rather plain.
"How do I look?" She snickered. "Scary?"
Ichigo threw her a flat look. "You look like one of those creepy statues you find in a forest."
Her mask disappeared on cue because of her lack of training, revealing a half offended look. Katsuko tried to shove him playfully until he grabbed the top of the blanket it and tugged it down to cover her eyes, lowering her head in the process. She yelped and smacked his hand away in response. He snorted when she lost her balance and fell backwards.
"Katsuko!" The two of them looked to the side to find Hiyori walking towards them with her Zanpakuto strapped on her back. "Heard you finally freakin' Hollowfied! I thought we were gonna die of old age when you finally got it!"
"You're technically already dead…" Ichigo let out as a mumble.
Peeking from under the blanket, Katsuko just stared at the short Vizard and simply nodded her head. "And?"
"I wanna see it." Hiyori nudged her head towards the entrance to the underground training room. "Come on. If it turns out to be a fluke, I'll knock you into next week."
"Ah, I am shaking in fear." Katsuko droned, letting out another soft yawn. She still removing the blanket and shuffled to Ichigo's side to get up. He picked up her sword that was resting on the cold floor at his feet. "You said you were still tired." The reminder of her looking tired every single time she resurfaced made him worry a little about whether or not she was pushing herself too hard.
"Yeah. I'm okay." Katsuko nodded. "See?" She pushed the corners of her mouth upwards while keeping her eyes apathetic. Ichigo squinted his eyes for her ridiculous look. Then she moved her fingers away to be able to stick her tongue at him. It was the crossing of her eyes that did it. The incoming flick to her forehead made her quickly snatched her Zanpakuto and roll away. She ended up in an epic kneeled position: her Zanpakuto held out behind her and her other hand in front of him with an open palm.
"Okay, you freaking ninja." He pushed himself up, ready to get back on the treadmill the moment the spotted Love glancing at the watch on the table. If she had that much energy right after she woke up then she was alright.
"Alright, get movin'." Hiyori interjected, yanking Katsuko up on her feet by her Shihakusho. Ichigo sweat dropped when he witnessed the smaller girl drag her off. This must be what he looked like when he got dragged around in the school hallway by smaller people.
"Easy, will you?!" Katsuko caught herself before she fell on her ass.
...
...
...
Using the mask was finally happening. Upon seeing that long awaited progress, Hiyori took it as an opportunity to personally educated her while testing her limits. When she realized she was basically training again, Katsuko released her Shikai after she remembered what Shinji and her inner Hollow told her about lightning. It was a bit tricky to use it at first. However, she was certain that she could only use it while wearing her mask because the lightning once vanished with her mask right as she was going to swing at Hiyori. In short, it was almost like a forced out ability thanks to her Hollow mask.
Currently, she was outside Urahara's place. Her body was leaning back against the wall, waiting for someone as her fingers drummed on her crossed arms to a rhythm of a song she remembered and hummed. The girl took her leave early since she figured she could drop by to see how things were doing with Chad and Inoue, now that she passed a major hurdle. Surprisingly, Inoue was already back home. Chad was the one who was still left behind. The damage done to his arm was taking longer to heal. Outside she waited for him while he spoke with Urahara as he prepared to return home.
As Chad exited the candy shop, Katsuko spotted Inoue's healing ability around Chad's arm. Apparently, she left behind some of her little fairies to help heal him. Inoue decided to help the healing process since she was feeling much better.
"What did Urahara-san say?"
"He said to stay home tomorrow." Chad replied as she walked next to him with a slower pace. He kept in mind her shorter legs and small strides in comparison to his own. "I have to fully heal my arm before doing anything else."
Katsuko stared at the two little fairies that encompassed his injured arm. They looked at her to give her a smile once they felt her staring. No one aside from them would be able to see that glowing light around his arm.
"I heard from Urahara-san that you were given special treatment to heal faster to continue some special training you've been doing." He had asked the candy shop owner about how Katsuko was doing because he heard that the enemy almost buried her into the earth. That's when Urahara filled him in on the training Katsuko had been doing before the current semester started. He didn't go into too much detail, but he did say that it was for her own good.
"Ah… he told you that part?"
"Also, you're involved with that Hirako person, aren't you?"
"Uh… yeah…"
"I'm also going to guess that the man I saw with you that day was not your cousin either." He already had an idea as to who that man was. After all, seeing that Hirako had an ally made him believe that there were more people like him around.
"Damn, you're figuring things out, huh?" Katsuko scratched the side of her neck, preparing to argue against his own version of protests. But it never came. Instead, Chad simply paused and then looked at her. "As long as you're safe then I don't have a problem."
Katsuko met his eyes, a little surprised about his lack of protests. "You're not going to tell me to stop?"
He tipped his head slightly. "Urahara-san didn't look concerned about it, so I figured it was alright. Why, did Ichigo say something?"
"Oh yeah. He was upset. He told me I couldn't trust them and stuff. I mean, I get it. I don't think he even trusted a single hair on Shinji after the idiot attacked him." Her last words were dripping with annoyance and disappointment. "But, I believe I'm in good hands."
"Then I trust you on that." He said with nod after a second of silence. The training she was doing was making her stronger. He could feel it the moment she swung by to check on him. He could also faintly remembered it when she showed up that day when he was wavering between conscious and unconsciousness after receiving damage to his arm. It was stronger than back when he last saw her in her Soul Reaper form, which was the night when Urahara was dropping them home.
His thoughts wandered to Ichigo.
Chad gently urged her to his opposite side when he spotted a motorbike speeding.
He already knew that Ichigo was troubled about something and that Katsuko knew exactly what it was. If Ichigo would just brush it off and call it nothing, then Katsuko wouldn't tell them either because she wanted to respect his 'confidentiality' even though she didn't like taking sides. He could tell it was her way to avoid making Ichigo upset just in case he didn't want others to know. Meaning, Ichigo had to tell them, not her.
"Is he doing alright?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, he's all healed up by now."
"I meant mentally." When he was still recovering at Urahara's place, it was Inoue who told him that Ichigo looked depressed.
Katsuko nodded her head. "I talked some sense into him." she answered truthfully as she held up both her thumbs and grinned a little. "He just needed me to spit out the obvious, and then he was back to scowling again."
This brought some relief to her giant friend. "That's good. Thank you."
Katsuko hopped onto a small parapet and held out her arms, like as if she was walking on a tightrope. "Ichigo's strong, right? I assumed he'd pick himself up on his own. Turns out that was wrong. I realized I should have helped more. Ichigo is only human after all." When she reached the edge, she contemplated jumping over to the next one. It was too far. She didn't have enough faith in herself for it. She jumped off and landed next to her friend who had been watching her. "So, I'll have faith in Ichigo while also not… er, if that makes sense."
"I get it." He replied without missing beat. "Blind faith, basically."
"Yeah."
He nodded. "It's good to be wrong sometimes. You learned something from it, and then you were able to cheer him up. Like you said, he's still human, so he could use help sometimes."
And because he's only human, Chad needed to finish healing so he could keep having his friend's back. Even though there was no proof, a feeling in his gut told him that a threat like a few days ago wouldn't be the last. He needed to be ready next time.
Katsuko saw him look down at his healing arm. His hair was always in his face even more so than hers, so she couldn't quite see what kind of face he was making right now. With light steps, she walked in front of him backwards with her hands tucked behind her back, her steps purposely loud to make him look up. "Yep. And because he's only human, he'll need someone to watch his back like always. So, finish healing up that arm soon."
He paused for two seconds before a response came. "Mhm." She could see a small smile on his face. With his good arm, he lightly ruffled her hair. She grinned from the gesture.
"By the way, I've wanted to ask for a while now but… Ishida doesn't have any spiritual power, does he?"
"You noticed, huh?"
"He lost… his powers, right?"
He paused for a second. "Yeah."
…
…
…
"Chad, no."
"But..."
"Think of your arm!" Katsuko tried her best to push away her friend of the box behind her. Why should she even try? It was impossible to move a giant.
On their path, they heard a little dog barking and followed the sound. Because it sounded like a young pup, it had Chad almost bolting in its direction. A little brown Shiba Inu was abandoned in a little box. The moment she saw it, she instantly looked over to Chad and found that he was already enamored with it. Curse his love for small animals. She had to stop him from picking up this puppy and bringing it home.
She wouldn't be surprised if he did.
She saw him carrying around a bird in a cage before!
"Look, I like this puppy too but I can't just pick it up without thinking this through!"
He was holding the little thing in his arm. Damn he was getting attached! As if to try and bring her over to his side, he held out the dog in front of her face.
She blinked when it licked her nose.
"… Damn."
Those damn puppy dog eyes.
It took a while, but they finally agreed to bring it an animal shelter…
After at least an hour.
September 8th
DAY 12
MONDAY
…
…
…
Katsuko fixed her desk almost in rhythm to the music coming from her earphones. It was currently the break between the first and second period. She was fixing her desk to join Haru and Jun for the break. They were already heading to the door when she was putting away some papers. Just as she was about to get up from her desk, her eyes caught Inoue approaching her with a little smile. It looked like she wanted to ask her something. She gave Inoue a curious look as she removed her earphones to give her full attention. The other teen's arm was in a cast that hung around her neck. She also had a bandage wrapped around her forehead. The sight of her had Chizuru freaking out this morning.
"Doing alright, Inoue?" Katsuko asked curiously, choosing to ask about her recovering injuries first.
Seeing the slightly worry on her face made Inoue smile cheerful and wave her free good arm to dismiss her worry. "I'm fine! Urahara-san said I should be okay soon! I'm in no pain at all!"
No pain, huh? Doubt it. Maybe just a little pain compared to before.
"Uh, okay. Well, did you need something?"
Inoue just shook her head with a little smile. "No, it's just… I was wondering if you knew how Kurosaki-kun was doing." She was asking because Katsuko didn't seem worried or curious in the slightest about his absence. Plus, the fact that Katsuko seemed involved with Hirako, who was interested in Ichigo, and seem to know what Ichigo was going through before the attack didn't make it unlikely that she would be aware of what was going on with him. If anyone had an idea of what Ichigo was doing, there was a high chance Katsuko would. And also, Inoue just couldn't help but wonder and worry how he was doing after seeing him look like that. She couldn't shake it off.
Katsuko held up an 'ok' with her hand. "Oh. He's doing just fine. No more sad Ichigo." Then her hand switched to making a peace sign. "I cheered him up."
Inoue paused and then blinked. "Really?"
"Yep. Now, he's out there getting stronger so he could protect you guys. So, just trust him."
He wasn't depressed anymore. That was great news! "Oh, I see! That's wonderful!" Inoue smiled at Katsuko. "Thank you, Hiragi-san."
A call of the black haired girl's name had her excusing herself from Inoue to go join her friends in the back. While Katsuko hurried to join them, Inoue's stare was on her. For some reason, Inoue couldn't help but recall the times when she saw Katsuko help Ichigo after knowing that she pulled Ichigo out of his funk. It must be because they have a good relationship that Katsuko could have an impact on him. Obviously, there wasn't a problem in hearing that Katsuko cheered him up. He could dependent on her. But still...
Like watercolour paint, an ugly feeling slowly came to her like drizzle, slowly reactivating existing insecurities.
Katsuko was on the ground floor heading to the vending machines because her mom forgot to add a juice box for her lunch. With her wallet and phone in hand and earphones in her ears, she hummed a little melody on the way. An occasional pep in her step would be evident as the rhythm of her music infected her body. She might have tried playing with her Hollow mask if it weren't for other people around. They probably couldn't see it though. As she made her was around a corner, she found 'Ichigo' crouching and peeking from behind a wall. The Ichigo at school today was someone else, troublemaker Kon. He woke up late and came to school during second period. Right now, he seemed so focused on whatever he was doing. That was already giving her reason for suspicion. With a little sigh, she took off her earphones and tucked away her phone in her pocket with her wallet. Her footsteps made little to no sound as she approached the Ichigo imposter. When she got closer, she was beginning to see just what exactly he was looking at. It was some girls in their gym uniform doing stretches. They were probably a grade higher than her.
Some students who had gym classes right after lunch just threw on their gym clothes after eating to save them time.
And she could see that one student who had an obviously big chest.
Ah. No wonder.
She soundlessly stopped behind him and leaned forward a little.
"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"AHH!"
Kon jerked his head and knocked his dome on the wall next to him. For that, she mentally apologized to Ichigo. He whimpered and nursed his head. "Who the hell?!" He came face to face with Katsuko who looked amused by his reaction.
"Oh... it's you." Kon pouted, little tears of pain in the corner of his eyes. He didn't like the way she resisted grinning at his pain. "What's your problem?! I'm kinda busy here."
"Busy checking out that girl over there with the giant balloons. Yeah I know." Katsuko droned, leaning her weight on one leg, causing her head to tilt and her hair to sway. "Don't be creepy. You'll label Ichigo as some pervert."
"I'm not hurting anyone by watching!" Kon tried looking again only for her to pinch his cheek and keep him front looking. "Ow, ow, ow! At least let me watch her jog! I wanna see the booby physics!"
"Alright." Katsuko grabbed his uniform and yanked him away with strength he didn't think her smaller body had. He choked when his collar closelined his throat. Nearby students watched 'Ichigo' throw a tantrum near the smaller teen who just opted to grabbing his ear, pulling him along with her since he was trying to fight her off.
"You're pretty cute but you're also mean! Wolf in sheep's clothing!" He whined, hand outstretched towards the girls, his haven. The fact that they ran off to jog made him complain even more.
Katsuko laughed, sounding almost like an evil villain. "You can catch these cute hands if you continue."
...
...
...
After school, she went to the art room to drop off her homework. The homework was simple: still life. She took random objects in her house and put them together. All she did was grab whatever caught her eye. In the drawing, there was a book, her glasses, a manga, a teacup atop a tissue from her mother's little china collection, a glass of water, a single fake rose and a random artbook case with her headphones hanging on it. Random pieces. She was very proud of how it turned out though. She worked super hard on it!
Still art was fairly easy for her for some reason. There wasn't much hesitation. It was also fun to see the results.
She wasn't an amazing artist as people liked to assume sometimes (mostly because she didn't bother to correct them or felt like she had to maintain that assumption). She can't draw backgrounds for shit. Drawing real life people was also beyond her abilities. It'll probably end up looking like a diseased mutant.
In her hands were three sketchbooks. They belonged to herself, Jun and Haru. They originally planned on going together, that is until the basketball team called for a quick meetup to discuss about something. To save time, Katsuko just decided to drop off their homework and meet with them later. They were going to hang out a little after school again. She was looking forward to it! Mayuka was going to be there too!
Before the end of her last art class, the teacher told everyone to drop off their homework before the next class which was tomorrow. The art teacher was probably in the faculty office, leaving the classroom empty. She left the door open behind her since she was going to be quick about it. She looked around for the 1-3 pile. It was in the corner. She noticed that a few students had actually dropped their sketchbooks off. A little less than the majority.
Forgot to do their homework, perhaps? She mused.
Haruki. Jun. Katsuko. She neatly placed them on the pile.
She walked to the door she left open while looking at the art tools nearby. Somewhere in another corner, there was a small canvas displaying flowers.
Katsuko didn't dislike flowers. She actually liked looking at them. Sometimes, she'd stop for a few seconds to stare at the hydrangeas she saw on the way to school. They were purple. Obviously, her favourite ones were the blue ones. But she'll admit that seeing the two cold colours together was very pretty.
But these were lilies.
White lilies.
Katsuko found herself in front of the canvas.
Her gaze fixated on the painted lilies sitting in a glass vase.
The flowers of purity.
Innocence.
And also,
Death.
…
I don't like these flowers.
…
…
…
Arisawa Tatsuki was running to the art room to drop off her homework. She was going to be late for her karate club if she didn't hurry. At least she was already dressed for it though.
She noticed that the door of the art room was open because she could see a lot sunlight coming from the inside. Her footsteps echoed in the empty hallway so it sure must have alerted whoever was inside now that students were leaving the floor.
When she arrived at the door, she stopped and took a step inside.
But then she froze.
There, standing a distance from her, was Katsuko. She was staring at a painting with her head slightly tilted down. Her dark bangs had slid over her eyes. She didn't say a word. She didn't make any sign to acknowledge her classmate's presence. It was like she didn't even hear her.
"Hiragi?"
No answer.
It was strange.
Thinking that something was wrong with her, Arisawa stepped further into the classroom and gently approached the other black haired girl. No sign of acknowledgement. It made her wonder if she was upset? The moment she placed her hand on her shoulder, Katsuko let out a yelp and jumped away, like as if she sprang back to life, causing the other girl to let out a shout from fright as well.
"A-Arisawa?!" Katsuko gave her a strange look. "You scared me…"
"You scared me." She insisted with a hand on her heart. "What are you doing just standing here?"
"I was, uh," she awkwardly pointed at the flowers. "looking at this… When did you get here?"
What?
It was Arisawa's turn to give Katsuko a look. "You didn't hear me? I made so much noise on the way here and then called your name. I thought something was wrong when you just stood there… I thought maybe you were upset?"
Katsuko's eyebrows knitted as puffed her left cheek. She wasn't sure how to respond to that because she really didn't hear her. "I must have been spacing out." Her hand reached into her pocket for her phone. She saw that it had already been five minutes since she was in the classroom. What the hell? Quickly, she shoved her phone in her pocket and started heading to the door. "I gotta go! See you, Arisawa!" She rapidly said before dashing out the door.
"U-Uh, yeah, sure. See you." Arisawa lifted her hand awkwardly and watched as her hair flowed and disappeared past the doorframe. She could hear her footsteps echoing in the empty hallway until they receded down the stairs.
Katsuko's hand grabbed the rail and she took three more steps down before flinging herself down to the next floor. She didn't know if Jun and Haru were done with their little meeting while she freaking zoned out for five minutes! Like what hell? That's the longest she has spaced out for!
Upon landing, she heard her phone make a sound. She took it out and checked.
Where are you? -Jun
I'm coming! Hold on! -Katsuko
But she also had another message. It made all small little grin pause.
It was from Ichigo.
Can you come over right away? We've got Soul Society visitors and we're waiting up on you.
"Oh man..."
Katsuko stared out the window and clutched her phone close to her chest. A small part of her was upset that she couldn't be with Jun and Haru, while a major part was concerned about what the Soul Society had to say most likely about the attack from the Arrancars.
i'll fix any mistakes later i'm tired.