A/N: I have a huge, major midterm, so this will be the last chapter until, umm, Wednesday? So there is not a lot of ichihime in this chapter, which is a drag, but some things needed to be aired out, so that is what this chapter is about. I hope this chapter alludes to how Chad's character could have developed to the Chad we see in the last chapter. The dash mark (-) indicates the beginning of a message. The next chapter, and please take my word for it, will be a whirlwind of…it'll just be a whirlwind. Anyways, keep reading, enjoying, and reviewing!
Even if she hadn't told me, I would have known. Because it's around five in the morning when I am jostled awake by a feeling that something's off, and it takes a moment of franticness to set in before I can begin the process of concluding that I should not be alarmed. It's just Inoue gradually leaving Karakura Town. However, even with that realization, I can't simply fall back to sleep. It's only when I sense Tatsuki's reiatsu, which I can only do by focusing on Inoue's first, that my body finally relaxes and succumbs to slumber.
That should be the end of my unease, but when I come down for breakfast, Yuzu takes one look at me, and she asks if anything is wrong. With her head tilted back and eyes closed, Karin states that my spiritual pressure is weird. Mizuiro comments that I seem more on edge than usual when we walk to school, and Keigo complains that my elbow greets his face with just a bit too much strength. The people who sit next to me in class seem to lean away from me, and before Ishida takes his own seat, he glares at me, and under his breath, he tells me to calm down.
I have no idea what he means. I am calm, but I try my best to do as he said. When I seem to gain control of myself, my classmates become better situated in their seats. They are no longer leaning away from me, and they don't seem as tense, and I can only assume that my reiatsu is acting up. That I'm releasing too much of it, and people are being affected by it. That shouldn't be happening, especially because of Urahara-san's pills, but nonetheless, I make an effort to reel it in before I can cause any problems.
If the fidgeting of my classmates and Ishida's constant and obnoxious throat-clearing are any indication about how well I'm suppressing it, I know I'm doing just a bang-up job. Still, I keep on trying while I speculate on the reason why my reiatsu seems to be causing such a disturbance today.
I reach no definite answer, and I put it out of my mind when I stand for lunch. It's time to face something I've been avoiding for the last couple of days: the confrontation between Chad and I.
He's already there on the roof, and I nod in acknowledgement, silently telling him that I'm done with my passive-aggressive behavior and that I'm ready to talk, but when it's time to actually say words, I find myself speechless. I don't know what I want to tell him. All I know is that I have to say something.
I don't get the chance to form any cohesive ideas because Keigo bursts through the door and flings himself toward Chad's direction. He goes on to hound Chad with questions as to why he's going to Mexico, when he decides to go, what he plans to do over there, and so on. I sit down and listen to each response Chad gives, growing more frustrated and sadden with each one.
I don't participate in the conversation. I just wait until the other guys file out before I call Chad back. I want to talk to him alone before I lose my nerve. I wouldn't want Inoue's effort to go to waste.
We both walk to the same spots we were in when he first told me, but this time, I lean against the railing and stare at the trees instead of him.
"I'm sorry."
We both apologize at the same time, and we both give a soft chuckle at it.
"Okay," I let out a deep breath, steeling myself. "So you know I'm not good with this heart-felt kind of crap, so just bear with me while I get all of this off my chest. And don't say anything until I'm done." He nods. "And I swear if you laugh…" I threaten slightly for good measure. He nods again.
It's becomes quiet. I rub my neck. "Geez, this is hard! I don't even know where to begin!" I breath in deeply. "Well, I'm sorry for avoiding you. I just couldn't…accept the fact that you were voluntarily going away. And I can kind of see now why you want to go, but I don't know," I shrug my shoulders. "It just doesn't seem like a good enough reason to leave, you know? I still don't understand why you can't find your future here. I don't understand why you just want to up and leave all of us behind." Leave me behind, I omit. "After all we've been through..." I stare at the ground, chiding myself for not being completely honest. "And I'm not even talking about the hollows or our powers or shit. I'm talking about before that." I can see from the corner of my eye him stiffening. "I thought that…that we vowed to protect each other, and how can I do that when you are so far away? And believe me, I'm well aware that you can take care of yourself, but…" I release a harsh breath. "You know what? Inoue said that I owed it to myself to feel what I feel." I stand straight and look at him head-on. "And fuck! I'm so mad at you! I actually feel like I want to hit you! I want to curse you out until I can't. I want to call you selfish and heartless and an asshole. I want to tell you that we aren't friends anymore. That you mean nothing to me. That I hate you." I can't see his eyes, but I know that I've hurt him. I've hurt the friendly giant who has been by my side since the eighth grade. "But I can't. Shit, I wouldn't be acting this way if all that were true. I wouldn't feel this hurt if I thought any of that." I run a hand through my hair as I go back to leaning against the railing. "It just sucks. When you leave, I won't just be losing a best friend. I will be losing a teammate, my right-hand man…my brother."
He doesn't respond, and I look at him. "You're not going to say anything?" I ask with a bit more bite, embarrassed with how vulnerable I am.
"I didn't know if you were done or not." His voice is as level and cool as it always is. I blush from either anger or embarrassment.
"I bare my soul out for you and that's the reaction I get?" I huff.
"Yeah."
"Ass."
Again, we both mutedly laugh.
"Some promises…they have to mature as we grow." I scowl as I take in his words. "We used to fight for each other. You made it so I wouldn't have to break the vow I made to my abuelo. But that was before things changed." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his coin. "Our opponents got stronger." Flashes of our opponents who later became allies and allies who briefly became opponents and opponents who will remain as enemies go through my mind. "What we wanted to protect grew." I picture our town and Soul Society. I look at his coin. "Who we wanted to protect expanded." Images of the people we care about fill my mind one-by-one. One face lingering just a bit longer than the others. "Somewhere along the way, I started to fight not just for you but for myself. For my own sake, and once I realized that, I knew I broke my vow…but at the same time, I hadn't. The vow wasn't just about not fighting for myself. It was about fighting for the right reasons. I learned the difference because of you, because of Inoue, and because of Ishida. In a way, I am still able to keep that old vow.
"We used to fight for each other," he repeats. "But now, we fight next to each other. We broke our own promise."
His words confuse the hell out of me while enlightening me all at the same time. A paradox.
"Things change, Ichigo." I frown. "Promises, places, people. But the one thing that will never change is our bond. No matter what."
I throw my head back and stare at the clear skies. "I feel like my speech was ten times better than yours."
He chortles, and I smirk.
"Not everyone can be so in touch with their emotions," he jokingly defends himself.
"Shut up."
He laughs as he takes out his phone.
"What are you doing?"
"Sending Inoue a message. She was worried about you and me."
I glance away from him. "Don't. I'll call her later."
"Oh?" I can hear the implications in his voice.
"What? If it weren't for her, I might still be avoiding you."
"So why can't I tell her that we resolved everything?"
"Because." I reply indignantly
I can feel his eyes on my face, and I want to shove him just to get him to stop.
"Is that why your reiatsu was all over the place? Do you miss her?"
"N-no! She's only been gone for a few hours!" I shout at him. "I do not miss her," I state with more forced conviction. "I just get worried. I mean, you know how she is. If trouble didn't already follow her around, she'd walk right into it."
He looks intently at me for a second before holding up his phone. "She seems fine."
And she does. On his phone is a picture of Inoue pressing her smiling lips against Tatsuki's cheek, who, at first glance, appears to dislike the affection Inoue showers her in by the way her face scrunches up but is secretly pleased by the slight curl of her lips.
They both look happy. She looks so happy.
I'm relieved.
"She didn't send you anything?" He asks with a hint of surprise in his voice.
I shrug my shoulders. "I don't think so." I pull out my phone, and I am caught off guard with how many notifications I am greeted with when I wake my screen. "Never mind. She did," I correct myself softly as I scroll to the first message she sent me.
-Tatsuki-chan and I are leaving! We'll be safe! We promise! Don't worry and have a fun day!
Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ
-Oh, I hope Kurosaki-kun and Sado-kun fix everything! Tatsuki-chan said that you two should fight! (ง •̀_•́)ง But don't listen to her! Anyways, good luck!
"Oi! Tatsuki wants us to fight," I offhandedly tell Chad.
He looks amused as he asks, "You wanna?"
I purse my lips. "Umm…maybe later?" We both chuckle, and I return to my phone.
-Wah! The school is so big! I can't beat it up! I have to concede! (oT-T)尸
I smirk. How is it that I can imagine her saying and doing everything that she writes? It's amazing. It's like she is right next to me. Like she is by my side talking to me, laughing with me, smiling at me.
Maybe Chad's right. Maybe I do miss her.
-The people are super nice here, too! We got some free food! Yay!
I wonder what she means, but before I think too long about it, my eyes are already reading the next message.
- ┬┴┬┴┤(･~├┬┴┬┴ Tatsuki-chan is about to introduce me to her future instructor! I'm so nervous!
-ヽ(｀Д´)ノ (д´ノ) ヽ( )ノ (ヽ´△) ヽ(´△`)ﾉ
-Nooo! I tripped while greeting Tatsuki-chan's Sensei! He's unconscious! (シ_ _)シ
"I told you!" I direct at Chad. His head tilts. "She walks head-first into trouble." I give him my phone as he reads her message. He laughs and gives me my phone back.
-He's okay! And he said that he forgives me but… (｡•́︿•̀｡) I feel really bad.
And then the picture that she sent Chad fills my screen, and I feel that sense of relief again. Even more so when I get to her final message.
-Ah! I wish you all were here! Maybe next time! ╰( ^o^)╮
"Why are you smiling?"
"I'm not," I tell him. I'm about to turn my phone off when I see that I have some unread messages from Tatsuki.
-We just got here, and look! Orihime has already made some friends!
I click on the image, and I am definitely not smiling. And the next picture makes me grimace. And the picture after that has my scowl deepening.
I push the call button.
"What?"
"Really? You're just going to let Inoue accept things from strangers?!" I growl at her.
"Well, why not? It's broad daylight. You think that they are going to slip something to her?"
"Does it matter? It's dangerous," I insist.
"Yeah, yeah," she dismisses.
Over the phone, I hear Inoue ask who's on the phone. "It's Ichigo." Tatsuki reveals, and Inoue tells Tatsuki to tell me hi for her. "Do it yourself."
"Oh! Hi, Kurosaki-kun!"
She sounds a hundred percent better than she sounded yesterday.
"Hey, Inoue. How are you?"
She laughs. "Great! Tatsuki-chan and I are having a blast!"
"That's good. I thought you still might be feeling guilty about knocking someone unconscious."
"You got my messages!" She sounds excited.
"I did. I would have gotten them sooner expect I had my phone on silent. Sorry about that."
"Ah, it's okay! I'm just glad you got them! And…I still feel a bit guilty, but Tatsuki-chan reassured me that I shouldn't hold it against myself. I mean, it could have happened to anyone, right?"
I shake my head. "Right."
"Although it does happen quite a lot to me…" she trails off, probably lost in thought.
"To you? Because of you," I mumble the correction with humor.
"Psh!" She retorts. I snicker. "You seem like you are in a good mood!"
"Do I?" I'm pretty sure if I asked anyone else earlier, they would have automatically disagreed.
"Uh-huh! Did something—"
"Orihime, it's our turn next!" I hear Tatsuki yell.
"Okay! Sorry, Kurosaki-kun, but I have to go. We are going to ride the ropeway to the top of Nantai Peak," she quickly explains.
"It's no problem. Be careful."
"Of course! Bye!"
"Bye." I hang up, realizing a second too late that I forgot to warn Inoue to not accept things, even if they are free, from people she doesn't know.
I guess I'll tell her later when I call her tonight because there is no way in hell that I can't tell her. Because she, in her naïve, rose-colored lenses, thinks that people are just being nice to her because they are genuinely nice. However, even in the pictures that Tatsuki had took and sent to me, it's painfully obvious that those people were just college men trying to capture Inoue's attention and affection through shameless flirting and free food.
"What's wrong?"
"Tatsuki." Before he can ask, I hand my phone over to him, letting him see the pictures she took of Inoue being surrounded by guys. "Can you believe she just stood there and let this happen?"
Chad rumbles out a hearty chuckle.
"What's so funny?" I can't even mask my irritation.
He clasps a hand on my shoulder. "You."
And then he has the audacity to laugh again.