.the search;

Without losing time, Tsubasa rushed from her bed and opened the wardrobe just to pick the first thing that came in hand – a pale green summer dress – tossing her pajamas on the floor.

As soon as she finished dressing up, her father knocked the door a few times before the girl could answer.

"Tsubasa-chan, are you alright? I... I just heard you screaming minutes ago, but you didn't come downstairs..." - she heard the muffled sound of his voice on the other side, being followed up by her brother's.

"The kaijuu woke up late today, and as usual, doing a lot of noise!" - Touya teased with a smirk, and his father frowned to him - "Oi, won't you open the door?"

"I'm sorry." - Tsubasa said first, then they heard the knob click - "I... I had a nightmare." - the girl looked at Fujitaka, who glanced back both confused and worried. The older brother just rolled his eyes, leaning on the doorframe with one arm.

"Look, nightmare or not, it's still your day to do the chores." - he said with an annoyed expression.

No... I can't do this today! I'm already late and Ichigo-kun can be in danger!

Right now she was desperate to get out of the house and start searching for her friend as soon as possible, but they wouldn't understand why.

Calm down... You can handle him...

"Say, Onii-chan..."

"Mm?"

"How about we trade places? Just for today." - she said, hopeful, only to see him frowning more, his lips tightening.

"You know we all have different days to do stuff here." - he crossed his arms.

"Yes! But there's something important that I can only do today, so..." - she paused, and Touya arched an eyebrow - "What about this: you do my part and I'll do the chores for the two next Sundays!"

"...And?"

She almost rolled her eyes; Bargaining with her brother was never easy.

"And I will do the dishes in these two weeks." - Tsubasa said with a determined look, and Touya stared with eyes open-wide for a moment; Then he narrowed them, a cocky smile appearing in his lips.

"Deal."

The girl beamed at him and their father before rushing downstairs. Then she stopped half-way.

"O...Otou-san?"

"Yes?"

"Can I borrow your notebook for a while?"

"Of course you can."

"Thank you!"

"Here goes the kaijuu, stomping around..."

"You were very gentle to take her offer, Touya-kun. I know you have a date with Yukito-san today and thought you wouldn't concede." - his son shrugged.

"I just did that because two weeks without doing the dishes is just too great of an offer to pass it off." - he headed back to his bedroom - "Besides... It's not like Yukito will be mad at me or something if I tell him I'll be a little late. But I still don't like that punk head friend of hers."

Fujitaka smiled proudly; When Touya closed his door, he started chuckling at his son's jealousy.

Tsubasa got her father's notebook to her bedroom, and as soon as the internet was connected, she started to search for maps; Karakura maps, to be more specific.

There has to be a graveyard here...

She found it. But the smile in her face slowly disappeared as the girl realized how many they were.

Four? And scattered all over the city!

At first, her shoulders slumped.

Soon it will be 14:00 pm and I am still here! I just can't give up.

Focusing on their locations and the place in the dream, she could discard at least one of them – the one closest to her home didn't have that lot of trees surrounding it.

Okay... Ichigo-kun lives in Minamikawase... But the graveyards are in Kinogaya, Yumisawa and Tsubakidai... all far from his home.

Tsubasa breathed in, sighing deeply.

I will do this.

She went to her father's office to print the map, and from there, the auburn-haired girl could finally start her search.

Stopping at the doorstep to put her sandals, she told both Fujitaka and Touya she was leaving.

Starting in Tsubakidai seemed the most logical option at the moment. She was just hoping she wouldn't have to cross the whole city after the boy – the weather was hotter than Tsubasa expected it, and walking faster didn't help, either; She was sweating already, but had to ignore that uncomfortable feeling for the sake of what she has to do.

With the map in hand, at least she could buy some time by looking in the right direction.

As she found the graveyard, with huge disappointment crushing in her chest, the girl just knew that wasn't the right place. Even after opening the front gates, and giving a quick look around, she couldn't feel the same presence she always felt when Ichigo was close to her.

Her heart started to beat faster, her legs trembling slightly;

The summer sun surely didn't want to cooperate, as the temperatures started to rise more.

Frowning, she looked for the closest location in the map, while trying not to think about Ichigo running and bleeding.

Yumisawa next...

The orange-haired boy had no idea why Rukia decided to come along, even more so doing such an weird impression in front of his sisters – what the fuck are they going to think about me? And why she appeared waving like that? So weird...

He had to leave the twins behind to talk with the petite woman in private – and in his head, giving the girls the wrong idea about them – and she seemed pretty serious about it.

Of course it has to be the Hollow thing.

But first he made sure to voice his thoughts about the scene minutes before – You know, if you were going to follow, you should've been more covert!

"Sorry. I wasn't aware."

"... Oi, are you mad or angry?"

"I'm not angry." - she said it calmly, arms still crossed below the chest.

A beat.

Then that word came out of her lips.

"...Killed... That's what you told me last night. Your mother..."

Now he was the one angry with the subject.

"I didn't said that." - then his mind betrayed him, making Ichigo remind of what he just said to Tsubasa before.

Fuck, I told her, too...

What was going on my head that I just... Blurted out something like this? What... What is she going to think when we meet again?

The shinigami insisted.

"... Who killed her?" - and he turned his face to the left, avoiding her gaze.

"I said I didn't say that."

Then she kept pushing over, until she brought the Hollows yet again to the conversation. The more Rukia talked, the more she was pushing his buttons without knowledge, unaware of how this whole thing was hurting him.

When she said out loud that probably was a Hollow who killed her, the substitute lost his patience and yelled at her.

Just as Tatsuki was at her home talking with Orihime, telling her best friend about Ichigo's past, Tsubasa arrived at the other graveyard.

She looked up at the sky, starting to see the signs of grey clouds.

Kinogaya never seemed so far before.

Author's Note: Minamikawase, Tsubakidai, Yumisawa and Kinogaya are all from the actual Karakura city map, found here: bleach . wikia wiki / Karakura_ Town

Also, since there's no real info on where Ichigo's mother was buried, I got the map and ran with it. So the location in the fic it's pretty much made up.

Tomoeda is close to Karakura in this universe, just located below Naruki-chi on the map. I hope this helps! Until next time!