Bleach: Heal The Soul

Chapter 1: Sense

The sun was bright today, with the sky filled with partial clouds overhead and a gentle wind that felt nice along the way to school. I have been walking by myself in the more recent days, as I noticed something strange happened to the other students. A girl by the name of Rukia appeared and pretended to be a new exchange student. Everyone, from the teachers and the students, acted as if she was. The only one who questioned the situation at first was Ichigo, who later played along. Vaguely, a memory kept coming to mind of her standing in front of me at one point, and with the sound of a pop, an image of a bird came to mind. Since then I have avoided her while still helping around the classroom, and watched as more odd things happened.

For instance, Orihime Inoue, she's a girl in the same class as me, with long orange hair and a rather air-headed personality. So when she first spoke about how a member of the yakuza busted a hole into the wall of her apartment with a gun one night, I didn't pay it any real thought. Then Chad, a tall, dark-skinned student who helped me out at times when Chizuru dragged me into helping around the class, came to school late and covered in bandages with a birdcage.

Then one day, out of nowhere, Ichigo started acting out of character. Jumping into the classroom from the window, kissing Orihime's hand, and Tatsuki on the cheek. Who promptly tried to hit him with a table. Then after Rukia showed up he left through the window, the classroom wasn't on the first floor. It was getting on my nerves how much trouble was being caused. I wanted to confront her about it all at one point, but my mind went hazy and so I continued to let it be. Taking it as a warning not to get too close.

One school day, as I was walking home, I felt the need to change my pace and took a long way there. I started to feel it, the sense that I was being watched. It was something I hadn't felt in a long time as if eyes were drilling into the back of my skull. There was no point in looking, I often told myself, no one would be there. So when I rounded the corner to a nearby park, I was surprised to be the one watching the back of someone else. Sitting on one of the swings alone was Rukia, staring off into the night sky that had appeared not long ago in my wandering.

If there was ever a time to ask her what was going on, this would be it. With no one else around and away from school. But I continued to walk, as I did I caught a glimpse of her expression as she shifted her gaze from the sky to one of her hands. It was a look I knew too well. I didn't know what was going on with her, and perhaps I was jumping to conclusions thinking she was causing the trouble. While I couldn't shake that belief completely, I had a new feeling that she had her own issues and chose not to bother her with the ones I had.

For the first few days after I moved with my family, I had my fair share of problems getting used to the people here. Perhaps if I talked with her more in class, I might find we actually get along. As the thought of reaching out to her came to me, my cell phone rang. I quickly turned my gaze back to what was ahead of me, to avoid Rukia's eyes, and answered it. "Hey, you're late," My dad said worried, "Is something going on? If not, you better get back before dinner gets cold." I paused and glanced over to where Rukia was.

"I'll be home shortly, sorry for making you both worry." I looked fully back to Rukia and saw her leaving the park. Though I wanted to reach out at that moment, I couldn't help but feel restrained, wordless, bringing up a memory that left me with a strong sense of regret to this day. With every recall of it, that regret stuck to the now and stained me. All I could bring myself to do was continue on my own way in silence and regret. Desiring nothing more than to change and reach out.

As I walked through the front door of my home, I announced myself. "I'm home. Sorry for running late." I added as I took off my shoes before walking into the living room to sit down and eat.

"So what kept you?" Dad asked across from me, reading from his newspaper as mom was likely already in bed. "If you were hanging out with your classmates, you could have said so and stayed out a bit longer."