"So, Madarame, what do you think?" asked Kiyoko, his eyes glistening with amusement as he turned to face the black haired female.

"I think it's shit and you know it's shit, so that just makes everything worse," replied Mikayla before promptly shovelling a forkful of salad into her mouth, watching as the blonde male's nose crinkled in a mixture of amusement and disgust.

"What's shit?"

Turning, the pair turned to face none other than an irritated looking Ichigo, one of his brows arching as he glared down on the duo.

Since Kiyoko's return only a week ago, the sixteen-year-old had found the pair slowly becoming closer as if something had forced the two closer together. At first, it was okay. Ichigo understood that maybe, for whatever reason, Kiyoko had chosen in his absence to gain a new form of confidence and had since been talking to Mikayla in an attempt to gain a possible relationship. However, after the one week mark passed, their interactions and ever-present friendly smiles (though in Mikayla's case it was more of a playful smirk) alongside Kiyoko's new-found playful nature, Ichigo soon found himself ready to strangle the pair of them.

In all honesty, it probably wouldn't have had that big of an effect on him if it wasn't for Kiyoko's sudden desire to focus all his attention on the dark haired female.

Twice so far Ichigo found himself walking home alone or having to abandon previously made plans to hang out with the blonde male all due to the ever-present Mikayla Madarame.

"My wondrous inability to correctly identify the issue of my problem," joked Kiyoko, chuckling lightly as he gently tapped the space next to him, ushering the orange haired male forward.

Taking the opening, the male moved to sit down next to the blonde before stealing a chip from the other's plate.

"What's your problem?"

"You know the normal… guy stuff," and as if Kiyoko had physically said that the female should leave, the dark haired female sighed loudly before placing the lid back on her salad.

"I'll go now, thank you. I can tell when my presence isn't necessary," joked the female, passing a sly wink towards the blonde, an action that left Ichigo completely dumbstruck (when did she wink?) as she walked away from the pair.

In reality Kiyoko could tell that the orange haired male needed to either speak with him or, at the very least, spend some time with him. The blonde knew that he had been spending more time away from him but since Mikayla's talk with him in the park, the pair had found themselves getting closer. Closer in the sense that the pair had come to be brainstorming about the meaning behind his dreams. Ever since, the suggestion had been placed forth that the dreams could be a warning, the pair had found themselves often talking (even joking, shockingly enough) about their possible cause and meaning. Although in this new exciting state of exploration, the blonde found himself leaving Ichigo further and further alone. Something which had caused a painful coiling of guilt to form in the bottom of his stomach.

Maybe this was a bittersweet attempt to get rid of his guilt but in truth all Kiyoko wanted to do was mend a slowly breaking bridge between the pair. As it was, the shorter male didn't want to have any more tension forming between them and as Mikayla walked further and further away, Kiyoko could feel the stress begin to leave Ichigo's shoulders.

"So, my dear friend, tell me… what's been going on?"

It was at this moment any further ideas or thoughts of doubts disappeared as Ichigo turned to look at his friend, already preparing to discuss the latest abstract idea that his father had attempted to show him as a form of 'training'.

So maybe he had missed this. Sue him. Kiyoko had been his best friend for over ten years, he was allowed to feel a little bit jealous.

.

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By the time the end of the day had neared, Ichigo felt somewhat reassured that his friendship with the blonde wasn't falling off the deep end though his suspicions towards the dark haired female still remained.

Just what did she want with Kiyoko?

So far in all the years that the pair had known one another the blonde had around six crushes all of which ending up in failure. The first two were innocent, playful childhood crushes that hardly held any effect on the male due to them occurring when they were only the ages of six or eight. However, the others all saw the boy falling slightly into himself as he found himself being used or harshly rejected by the girls that he found attractive. The most notable case was that of Saori Suzuki, a female who used Kiyoko's feelings to get the male to do things for her, such as buying her lunches or taking her on shopping trips.

The blonde was fourteen and dumb but the manipulation was soon shut down by both Ichigo and Chad as they quickly dragged the male away from her, roughly having to shake the other out of his madness before comforting him.

The whole fiasco, despite happening over a year ago, was still fresh in the back of Ichigo's mind and despite whatever the nagging voice might tell him from the back of his mind, the orange haired male didn't want to see his friend slip into the same trap.

Maybe he was being too protective but there was something about Mikayla that was just screaming out to him. It could've been the fact that she couldn't (more like didn't) know what a juice box was or how to open one. Or it could've been the way that she seemed to constantly be looking at Kiyoko from the corner of her eye as though he was going to break down in the next second. Hell, the final push may have just been in the way she seemed to always glare across at Ichigo, almost as though his presence was the greatest inconvenience to ever exist on Earth.

So that might be why he found himself walking seven paces behind the dark haired girl, looking like a two dollar spy but who the hell was going to tell him off.

All he wanted to do was check whether or not she was who she said. People could judge him all he wanted but he was tired of never receiving a clear answer from her and Kiyoko's constant excuses. At this point, Ichigo deemed it best for him to check her out alone, that way there would be no bias from a certain blonde haired individual.

So far, in his little adventure, the orange haired male had found that not only did she live in the complete opposite direction to him but she also seemed to be closest to Chad, a person who lived on the opposite side of town. Not only that but on her walk home she seemed to pass by a litter of stray cats, of whom she fed a can of tuna before continuing her journey. Overall, it was peaceful and almost underwhelming in the sense that the teenager couldn't help but still have that nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that there was still something more to be discussed.

Ichigo could tell, this was a woman who knew how to hide her emotions behind a stone wall. He had seen it happen with older people, specifically those who worked as lawyers or even some housewives, when they entered the clinic with relatives or loved ones who were suffering from long-term, painful illnesses. Their figures were always carried in a tall and imposing sense whereas their brows and lips would be tightly pinched, as though they were attempting to make themselves seem stronger than they actually were so no one would question them. However, when their emotions became too strong and they became overwhelmed little signs and tells would slip through. With Madarame those tells and signs were more discrete, they could be as little as her hands clenching tightly into fists or as big (and in this case it was big for her) as her face softening, allowing a person to fully appreciate and view the youth that she actually was.

So as they passed by the last convenience store before you reach the more isolated areas of Kakuraka Town, Ichigo noticed those tells begin to show. It started off small; eyes flickering between the endless rows of houses as the sky began to darken with rain clouds. Although, as their journey furthered (at this point the orange haired male was really beginning to reconsider following the female as it had been over forty minutes and nothing had happened) the tells became far more significant, so much so that the male found himself taking a further step back, in an effort to ensure that he didn't get caught. From here, her whole body tensed as she roughly tied her hair back into a ponytail before turning her head either side, watching and examining for any unknown figure.

Yet there was no one, the streets at this hour were practically unoccupied, especially considering that the school rush had ended around thirty minutes ago and there wouldn't be the next rush of people until six o'clock when people would be coming back from the day shift. Just as Ichigo was beginning to wonder what exactly the woman was looking at, Madarame paused.

There in the centre of the pavement she stood.

Her body was still, figure tense before a shrill beeping noise echoed down the street. Then suddenly, after two minutes of her just silently standing like a deer caught in headlights, she took off.

"What the hell?" muttered the male before quickly rushing off to find where exactly the black haired female had run off to.

And then he saw it.

There in the centre of the road stood a large black figure.

The figure itself had broad shoulders and an imposing muscular physique with its body currently hunched over as its body rocked back and forth. As Ichigo took another step forward the sudden realisation that instead of it being dark fabric, a thick almost pitch black fur coated the entirety of the being. It was only then that a sound began to fill his ears; a wet crunching sound.

The thing… no, the beast wasn't just rocking back and forth; it was chewing.

Chewing on what exactly, the sixteen-year-old didn't know but he knew that he wasn't going to stick around and find out. Gingerly, the boy slowly took steps back, making sure that he didn't trip or make a noise on any scattered rocks or left over rubbish. It was clear that this being was something that Ichigo was never meant to see, this wasn't like when he saw spirits. Those were easy to ignore and offered no threat, if anything some just wanted the company as they found death to be rather lonely. These spirits would just sit and talk, just desiring to feel human and alive again even if it was only for a minute. However, this wasn't one of those spirits, this was something else and it held the underlying promise of pain. The beast didn't want to talk or feel alive, it wanted to eat and there was no way that Ichigo was staying to see what it found delicious.

However, in his bid to get away Ichigo completely missed Mikayla, the woman now standing on a roof as she stared down at the pair, eyes narrowed as she watched the orange haired male flee.

"Just who are you and what do you want, Kurosaki?"