章 18: Just Another Day.
As you know, I don't usually write anything at the start, but I think this is a good enough reason. No matter what I say, it will only sound as an excuse, so I'm just going to say one thing. There were some real life issues that took precedence over this. Don't get me wrong, I love writing this, I love reading your comments even more, but some things will always take priority. Last month was filled with such things, so much so that I couldn't even post already written chapters on this site, on another. I'm back and hopefully for some length of time. Thank you for sticking around and still supporting me. Just know that I won't be dropping this anytime soon, or ever, if I have it my way.
----------(Ichigo's-POV)----------
Rose wanted to directly teleport to Kyoto, but I told her to teleport us a bit further away. It would give us time to talk and I really needed to get this off of my mind. Before I could say anything, she said something that made me scoff.
"Ichigo, you know he has an ulterior motive right?" I knew who she was talking about of course. After all I went through back home, I would be retarded if I didn't learn a thing. Trust is not something you should give easily. Even if you have, you should retain the approach of 'trust, but verify'. What I gave Sirzechs and a few others was not my trust, but a chance to gain my trust. Even Azazel had his own motives for helping me so much, but right now I could say with confidence that whatever he had in mind wouldn't hurt me or those close to me. He was still holding back a lot of things from me, but as long as they aren't harmful.
"Of course Rose. Remember, we didn't exactly start out as friends either." I told her shaking my head. There was a comfortable silence between us when I decided to broach the subject.
"What's going on with you recently." I'm pretty sure if there was someone else with me at the moment, they would smack me for being so blunt, but really, what would I gain from being vague or going around in circles with her? More misunderstandings probably. She was startled for a moment before she tried to shrug it off.
"Nothing! Nothing at all." The answer was way too squeaky and she was looking everywhere but at me.
"There is something Rose, I'm somewhat of an idiot, but I'm not blind or deaf." I need her to say it, so I can turn her down. I can't keep stringing her along, if she does have feelings for me. That would straight up be cruel of me.
"I..." She didn't say anything even after a few minutes so I looked back at her. Looking at her downtrodden face, I felt like an asshole but I really couldn't keep doing this.
"Rose, Rossweisse, do you or do you not have feelings for me."
"I-I... do.." It was barely a whisper, but I did hear it.
"Knowing that I already have someone else I'm pursuing?" By God! Saying no shouldn't have been this hard!
"Yes.." She answered, probably already knowing where this was going. But, looking at her face, rather than sadness, I found.. determination? Before I could say anything else, she spoke up.
"But, I'm not giving up." She looked directly at me when she said that.
"What?"
Now I'm starting to get confused again. I told her that I already have someone else and she answered by saying that she is not giving up? What is that supposed to mean?
"I don't care if you already have someone else in your heart, I'm not giving up until I also have a place in there somewhere. And not just as a friend!" Saying that, she teleported away.
I just stood there for a while because, what the hell was I supposed to do with that declaration?
----------(General-POV)----------
While Ichigo was trying to get an understanding of his own situation, another small meeting was happening, centered on him.
"So, I heard that you met the man?" One of them said to the other.
"Yes." The other answered.
"What do you think?" The first one said with a cheerful tone.
"He... didn't feel all that powerful to be honest." Sirzechs said while thinking about his small meeting with Ichigo.
"Heh, that's the scary part." Azazel snorted in amusement.
"You've seen what he can do. He is stupidly strong but thankfully not all that aggressive or arrogant." Azazel said rolling his eyes.
"As long as you remain upfront with him, you'll get along."
"Have you been upfront with him?" Sirzechs said with a raised eyebrow.
"Mostly. Other than the more sensitive information, I've tried my best to be straightforward with him." Azazel said shaking his head.
"That... is also what I felt, but I'll sit on it for a while. At least until we have the three way meeting." Sirzechs said with a sigh. Ichigo felt like an honest kid, similar to him in a sense. Naturally born anomaly with extreme strength he didn't ask for but had to use for his family, that was his opinion on Ichigo. But just like how other were always skeptical of his reasons for doing something, he couldn't come to trust Ichigo immediately, even after knowing all that.
"I met him for a few minutes, but from the stories alone, I like him. I want to trust him but... ugh, why did he have to be so fucking powerful?" Sirzechs groaned as he thought about it.
Is this what others felt when they thought of him? Not being able to trust him simply because of his destructive power? His ability to kill them in an instant?
"It's annoying." He decided with a growl. He hadn't really been in a situation like this before. Having to associate with someone who could kill him and his family without too much effort. Usually, he would be the one the other party was afraid of.
"Not really fun being on the other side, is it?" Azazel said with a smirk.
"Get used to it. There are a lot of saying in that regard for a reason. Frog at the bottom of the well, always someone better, heaven above a heaven and all that stuff. You already knew that, now you get to experience it firsthand." He said with a laugh.
"You're really not worried about him, are you?" Sirzechs asked with a frown.
"Hah, I've told you dozens of times already. He is a good kid. Don't touch his little family and he won't kill you. He's exactly like you in that regard. Just accept that and stop worrying." Azazel said with a sigh. They were quiet for a moment before a female voice spoke up.
"Sirzechs, if I may."
"Go ahead Grayfia."
"To me, Ichigo Kurosaki felt like a sad and angry boy with nuclear weapons attached to him. He knows what he can do, hence is trying to move on. I believe we should help him move on rather than give him a reason to be even more angry." Grayfia said with a somewhat nostalgic tone. Sirzechs sighed and motioned her to keep going, because it was helping.
"He reminds me a bit of you, right after the civil war. Angry, sad and frustrated but wanting to move on. You had your family and your friends to help you, he has no one." She said with a sad smile.
"I had you as well, can't forget that." He said with an equally sad smile.
"Give him a chance Sirzechs." Grayfia said, hugging him from the back.
"Fine, fine. Not that I could do much about him even if I didn't." He said with a sigh.
"Are you staying, or do you have something else to do?" He asked Azazel.
"I would love to stay and drink a few bottles from your collection but I also have to meet Michael and the old pervert, tell them to calm their tits and then there are a few others that I don't really want Ichigo to meet without one of us being there with him and then there's-" He was interrupted before he could go any further.
"Just say you have work to do and leave!" Sirzechs said a bit loudly, listening to Azazels rant.
"Haha..." Azazel cheerfully laughed as he left. Things were finally getting somewhat interesting. He would have a lot of fun in the upcoming days.
Sirzechs was quiet for a moment before he said something.
"You want to take this to the bedroom?" Grayfia's lips twitched as she answered.
"Millicas has been a bit lonely." She said with a smile.
----------(Ichigo's-POV)----------
I decided to not go to the wedding ceremony because it really felt like I had no place being there. I was barely an acquaintance of the siblings and didn't even know the names of the parents, so I decided against feeling awkward in a place I didn't even want to be. Then came the real headache. I tried talking to Rose again after that little debacle but she would rush away or teleport the moment I broached the subject. I could, of course stop her but I didn't. The only other person I felt comfortable enough to talk about such a topic was Yasaka, but how the hell would I even start?
Telling your... girlfriend? No, for some reason, calling Yasaka my 'girlfriend' felt almost derogatory. But what else was I supposed to call her? Ugh, this may lead to another headache so let's shelve it for now.
Basically I went to Yasaka and told her what happened. I don't know what kind of response I was expecting, but nonchalance was not it. Her response went something like,
"If you like her, accept it. If you don't, then don't."
At least that's what I understood from our hour long talk. But that doesn't exactly help me! Should I just leave it? Stop fussing over something that others don't really seem to care about? In the end, I decided to try one more person before calling it quits and leaving it up to fate or some shit. And of course, the first person that came to my mind to talk about relationships was Azazel. I don't know why, but yeah. I went to Azazel to talk about it.
Surprisingly, I found him in his office, doing paperwork. Not only that, but it felt like he was doing it willingly. So I let him do his thing as I sat and waited for him to finish whatever he was doing. That took a few hours and he looked supremely satisfied with whatever he had done. Since we are talking about Azazel, him being satisfied means that someone else in the world was in some sort of pain.
"Ah, Ichigo! I'm glad you decided to visit. I was going to look for you soon enough." He said with a contented sigh.
"What did you do?" I asked with a sigh.
"Why do you people keep thinking that I'm up to something nefarious?" He said with mock hurt.
"You aren't?" I asked with mock shock.
"Tch, it's not exactly bad. Just pulling a few strings to make sure a few events come to pass." He said with a pout.
"And of course you won't be telling anyone what those events are." I replied, shaking my head. He frowned for a few moments before speaking again.
"I'm trying to plant a spy." He said with a thoughtful frown.
"Where?"
"A group calling themselves Chaos Brigade. They were pretty good at hiding. Even I didn't know about them until some of my own decided to join them. How they knew before me? I think you can guess how."
"The name alone points to crazy bunch."
"They are. From the few names I was able to gather, all of them are either sociopaths, psychopaths, warmongers or just egotistical assholes. Not a nice bunch. I don't know much else, that's where the spy comes in."
"There goals or reasons for banding together?" I asked with a frown.
"I'm not sure. Other than causing wide spread destruction and mayhem." He was still frowning. Probably due to the person that kept this information from him.
"Is that why you were looking for me? To tell, or rather, warn me about this group?" I asked after a while.
"That, and also the fact that no other place is willing to let us hold three way meeting. We could go to Africa, but that's a very good place to set up traps and ambushes. And as you know, we are not very well liked by many other pantheons." He said with a smile.
"And your own territories are not good because many probably don't agree with this alliance." I said after thinking for a while.
"Exactly. My own that left also disagreed." He said with a humourless chuckle.
"Have the Shinto gods already agreed?"
"They have. Not easily of course, not without a few concessions and conditions, but they have. I believe you will be called soon enough." He nodded before continuing.
"Anyways, tell me why you are here."
I was a bit hesitant after all that serious talk, but I still told him what happened and for a moment I saw his face twist into a scowl before he controlled it. I think it was due to me asking such a stupid question after what we just talked about. There was a group out there, a dangerous one from how serious Azazel was, that probably just wanted to see the world burn and I was worried about my love life. Sounds even more stupid now that I just put it in context. I was about to tell him to leave it before he started talking.
"Ichigo... I really, rea~lly want to punch you. I was forced to actually work while you are out there getting beautiful girls."
I looked at him shaking in his seat while.... crying? Yeah, I didn't see that wrong. He was crying, actual tears.
"You are here to make fun of me aren't you!" He abruptly stood up and pointed his shaking finger at me while shouting and crying at the same time.
"You are here to brag aren't you! Rubbing salt on my wounds!"
"Just because I'm been having a dry spell doesn't mean that I've lost charm you know!"
"One milf-tastic lady wasn't enough, now you even have a young genius vying for your attention!"
"To think you would be such an asshole. To think I called you a bro."
He just sat back down after shouting all that and had this aura of despair around him. I was dumbfounded. Here I was thinking that I might have offended him and he just... oh my god, I want to punch his face in soo hard!
"You..." I couldn't even say anything. He probably saw my face twisting in frustration as he quickly got up and teleported away. But not before saying a few more things.
"Just give it time, it will sort itself out and I don't think we should meet for a while bye!"
I just got up and went back to Kyoto and spent a few days not thinking about it and decided to just observe. Nothing changed. Rose was still acting the same with Yasaka and Kunou. Nothing changed between us either, except her getting a bit handsy. I rebuffed her, over and over, but she didn't seem to mind and kept going. She would try to be as close as possible whenever we were together. Yasaka knew what was happening but didn't say anything. I asked her why she wasn't bothered and her answer was simply,
"Better the devil you know."
Does that mean she was already expecting something like this? I was wondering about that when Yasaka pulled me away one night to drink with her and started talking about it.
"I know this may sound absurd to you but it was clear to me after just the first month, that many other women would vie for your affection. I don't like it, I never will."
"Then why..."
"But I also knew that I couldn't keep you to myself. Ichigo, I think I know you quite well. You looked at beautiful women, me included, like a piece of beautiful art, appreciation from afar, not getting close and never touching. After we decided to give.. us a try, you stopped doing even that. Your attention on me magnified and I'll be honest, it feels nice when you ignore other women and look at me." Here she gained a mischievous smile.
"And I oh so love when you undress me with your eyes, fufufu." I coughed to hide my blush. In my defence, she was way too beautiful and as much as I'm loathe to admit it, Azazel was right.
"That still doesn't answer why you don't seem all that bothered."
"I decided to accept it." She said with a shrug.
"If you are bound to attract more bitc-women, I rather control who gets closer to you. I know Rossweisse well enough. I like her, and she has been helping you a lot as well. So I decided to let her try."
I narrowed my eyes at that.
"I don't like that."
"Great news for me." She beamed at me.
"Couldn't you just have told me about this?" I sighed.
"And miss out on you shooting pleading glances at me?" She was still beaming. I just have another sigh.
"I'm going to tell her to stop, again."
"I doubt she will. You are a rare catch Ichigo."
"It will make me feel better." I said before continuing.
"You know I will get you back for this."
"Oh. Whatever will you do to this poor, single mother?" She said with mock fear.
"No more cuddling for a week? No tail brushing for a month? Yeah, that should be enough."
"Hmph. Like you will be able to resist this for that long." She said while pushing her body forward.
"We both know who enjoys it more. I do believe I heard a moan last night." I answered with a smirk.
"You simply touched a sensitive spot." She said pouting.
"Since you don't seem to really like it, how about a few months?" I said, mustering as much seriousness as I could.
"Please Ichigo. You are just as addicted as I am." She said with a harrumph.
"I can get my fix with Kunou." I replied blithely. We were quiet for a while before she said.
"You are not actually going to do that, are you?" She narrowed her eyes.
"As I said. You need a punishment. I can't think of anything better." I kept smirking.
"Ichigo..." She growled.
"Yasaka." I wasn't bothered.
She pounced at me. From there things developed in the direction I was hoping for, but never took initiative for. Yes, we had sex.
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