.6/16
And that's why... I thought I must protect them until I die.
... That's... What I thought...
He woke up earlier that day, thanks to Kon being noisy as ever.
When he saw, he was almost late for school. Rukia went first, as she was ready.
It was when Ichigo put his watch that he realized that that day was closer than he would like.
6/16.
"I see... It's closer now."
He looked out of the window for a bit, and then decided to go downstairs, since Mizuiro was waiting for him.
When he and Tsubasa met each other, she greeted him with a good morning as always;
"Good morning, Tsubasa!" - he closed his eyes and smiled. A forced smile, she could tell. He never used to greet her in that way.
Tsubasa frowned a little, unconsciously clenching her fists around her school bag when she saw how tense Ichigo was.
Did something happened? Or it had to do with one of those dreams of hers?
They walked together in silence, while Mizuiro and Chad talked with each other. She looked just as distracted as Ichigo was.
When they arrived at the bridge, Tsubasa went her way to her school. But not before glancing one last time at him.
He did the same thing when in class, when Orihime complimented him. The girl immediately realized there was something wrong, and Tatsuki knew what it was.
"If you have something to say to him, say it now while you have time. Tomorrow he will... be taking the day off ."
In her class, Tsubasa was distracted the whole time, not being able to focus on what the teacher said. Her classmates realized that, too.
"What is happening to you, Tsubasa-san?" - asked a girl with short curly blond hair, and green eyes – Fuu.
"It's nothing, really." - she tried to brush it off, gently as she could.
"C'mon, Tsubasa. You weren't even writing what the teacher put on the blackboard!" - insisted a girl with long blue hair and blue eyes – Umi.
"Umi-chan, Fuu-chan, I think we should leave Tsubasa-chan alone. I mean, you know she won't say a thing!" - a girl with braided red hair and eyes stepped in – Hikaru.
"But we're worried about her." - Fuu said.
"Look, if you want our notes, we'll give it to you, okay? So you won't be behind in the class." - Umi offered, then.
There were times Tsubasa acted that way, just after coming out of the hospital. The three girls were the friends who used to visit her there, and they were getting closer these past months, specially when Ichigo spent that time away, too busy running around to act on his substitute shinigami work.
Tsubasa smiled faintly, and held the blue-haired girl's hands, looking at her and the other two.
"Thank you, really. I just don't know what is going on..." - she lowered her head; Thankfully, they couldn't tell she was like this because of Ichigo, or then they would make a fuss about it.
By the time they met on the bridge, Ichigo was still pretending that nothing was happening, which worried Tsubasa even more.
They walked in silence beside each other until they were in front of his house; From there, Tsubasa would be on her way home.
Before he could enter in his house, they looked at one another, her eyes full of worry;
"What's with that face, Tsubasa? You seem off for some reason."
"And you too, Ichigo-kun." - she said, firmly, making him glance at the girl in surprise - "I know you won't tell me anything, but I hope it's nothing that bad."
"... Sorry. I... I made you worry about me. My bad."
"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it-"
"Tomorrow is the day... The day my mom died." - she looked at him, astonished - "Or rather... The day my mom was killed."
Later that night, his words still haunted her. She couldn't sleep.
Killed.
His mother was killed.
Ichigo never talked about his mother before, not in this way. There was this silent understanding between the two of them that they somehow knew the other's mother wasn't around, anymore. They would speak about their fathers, their siblings, but not the mothers.
Her mother died, too, a long time ago. But that was a completely different history: no one killed her, she fell ill when Tsubasa was too young to even remember her face or her voice.
Thinking about it now, Ichigo-kun never told me when she passed away...
How long has it been?
The sorrow in his eyes and words when he said those words to her, had spoken more and louder than he would like it.
Of course he would be upset about it; And Tsubasa felt guilty for making him speak about it out loud. She was worried, but had no idea on how he was feeling, and on why, just before he turned around to open his house's gate, Ichigo looked filled with remorse.
The girl shut her eyes tight, but that image of the substitute shinigami wouldn't leave her be.
Her chest hurt everytime she remembered those eyes, the way his voice sounded - low and hurtful, but loud enough for Tsubasa understand it; And she could do nothing to ease that pain.
I feel so... powerless...
The scenery quickly changed to one she was getting used to see lately: it was dark, raining, surrounded by trees, with two different silhouettes detaching themselves in an open area.
It was Ichigo and that Hollow, again. That fight - the vision she was seeing in her dreams from weeks was starting to get clearer.
The goddamn Hollow who seemed to have a permanent, sardonic smile in his mask changed the face of his bait, but this time Tsubasa realized who she was, and why Ichigo looked so alarmed and outraged by it.
It was her. His mother.
"Even the most cool-headed shinigami has someone whom he could never cut. And for you... that person ought to be her." - the creature said, smugly.
And just before Tsubasa could fully understand what was going on, the bait had spoken.
"Isn't that right... Ichigo?" - and she was smiling, her voice soft and nurturing. It was no wonder why Ichigo couldn't do a thing next.
The Hollow shoved the bait against him to distract Ichigo, allowing the creature to shove his hand on the boy's body.
The girl started to suffocate as soon as she saw all the blood coming out of him, as if her throat was closing in.
"NOOOO!" - she screamed, immediately getting up from her sleep.
When Tsubasa realized she was in her bedroom again, she was breathing heavily and covered in sweat. The girl clutched both hands against her chest, trying to calm down. Then she saw in the clock what time it was.
13:00 pm.
"It's today...!"
Author's notes: Sorry for taking so long to update! Many things happened, including personal stuff that got me struck with a writer's block. And the summer here was hellish, I couldn't even get to stop and write a little i.i But I'm back, and will try to update more regularly, and not take all these months to post a single chapter _
Also, we're finally in Memories in the Rain arc, and I want to explore it from Tsubasa's pov instead of Ichigo's, assuming what happened in the Bleach manga, because we already know how it went from his side of the story. (At least Bleach readers D: sorry if you only had read TRC and jumped in when I just tossed with no background the bleachverse in this fic i.i)
I'll make some corrections on the first chapters later, but damn, some mistakes made me cringe, how did you guys read it? D:
Thank you for reading, and until next time!