This is a sequel to my earlier story 1 year and 5 months. It is basically my version of Lost Substitute Shinigami arc. It is Ichigo/Orihime story. You don't necessarily need to have read the first one it make mentions to events that happened in that story. For example Ichigo and Orihime will have their little things or quirks that you might not full understand or appreciate unless you read the first story. They've been a couple long enough that if you haven't read 1 year and 5 months that they may seem out of character. I assure you it matches up to character development from the previous story.

I want to thank my beta reader MasterQwertster. She really helped me clean it up.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way or form.

His eyes snapped open as consciousness was forced upon him. The first thing he was greeted with was a very bright sun. The brightness was too much for his eyes to handle that early. Tears started forming. If only that was the problem. There was a buzzing going through his ears. In addition to being blind, he was now hearing things. The day had just started and it was already off to a bad note. He could tell this was going to be a fine day. He sat up to meet the blasted sun head on. The stinging subsided and his eyes adjusted. Now he could see outside of his widow.

Karakura Town

Monday

7:00 am

"Onii-chan!" a voice cried. He assumed that must have been the buzzing in his ear. "It's morning! It's time to get up!" the voice cried again. Now that his wits had returned to him, he recognized the voice belonged to his annoyingly chipper little sister, Yuzu. How could a person be so perky this early in the morning? His body was so groggy. God knew he wanted to put his head back on the pillow and let sleep claim him again. If only he could give into temptation. If only he wasn't so responsible.

Kurosaki Ichigo

Age: 17

"So sleepy," Ichigo muttered. He could probably get a few more minutes of sleep. What if he took ten more minutes? It was just ten minutes. Ten extra minutes couldn't hurt. The moment he laid his head back on a pillow his overbearing father would barge in his room and attack him in bed. He would get pissed off and have to murder his father. That would lead him to jail. There was no more sleep for him.

Hair Color: Orange

Eye Color: Brown

Profession: High School Student

"Time to get up," he recited his sister. Ichigo got out of the bed. If Yuzu was waking him up that meant she had already gotten ready. Karin was either finishing up in the bathroom or was already dressed and showered. He was the last one to use the bathroom. A cold shower might not be so bad. It would wash away the last traces slumber.

He cannot see spirts

The bathroom was free. Ichigo quickly hopped into the shower. To his surprise there was still hot water. That was just what he needed. As soon as the water hit his skin he was fully awakened and reborn. Not wishing to test how much hot water was left Ichigo showered as fast as he could. By the time he returned to his room to get dressed he saw that it was only fourteen minutes after seven. He didn't understand how both his sisters took twice as long as he did. In less than a minute he was already dressed and ready to go out the door. The only thing left to do was collect his books.

They were on his desk. The ex-substitute gathered all his things into his bag until there was only a handmade good luck charm. A smile formed. Orihime made that for him as a Christmas gift. She was hoping it would remind him of the one his mother made for his father. It was much more than that. It was the piece of her heart that she gave him. He made sure to protect it with all his heart. That was why he had carried it with him since that day he got it. 'I'm becoming too sentimental for my own good. I'm starting to sound like an old man,' Ichigo thought. He placed the charm in his pocket all the same.

All was quiet in the Kurosaki household. It was unnaturally quiet. Ichigo didn't hear any of his father's earsplitting cries. If he wasn't bugging his sisters that would usually mean he was planning a sneak attack on him, but he usually would have attacked him by now. Would he attack him on the stairs? No. He had gone down without incident. The kitchen and dining room were safe. Yuzu wouldn't allow him to attack Ichigo there. She finally got fed up with their skirmishes taking place in the kitchen when they had accidently ruined one of her meals. She put her foot down on their dad launching sneak attacks in the kitchen. Could his father just be sitting down waiting for breakfast like a normal person? There was only one way to find out.

As Ichigo walked into the door way a blur jumped out of nowhere. His vision was able to make out a light brown streak. "Taaaaadaaaaa!" his sister cried. He was bewildered. Yuzu had pranced around and made a pose as if she was a model presenting the latest fashion trend. Her voice was bubbly and bouncing with energy. He thought she was perky before, but what he saw now made her perkiness look quite tame in comparison. All that flailing around made her skirt ride up. He hoped she didn't do any of that at school. When had she started wearing a school uniform? That was it.

"Oh, guess today is your school entrance ceremony," he said off handedly. Yuzu was showing off her new school uniform. She was excited about entering junior high. He turned to her dark haired counterpart sitting at table. "Karin, pass the soy sauce." He took his seat when the soy sauce was slammed down right in front of him. When he looked up he saw it wasn't Karin's doing, but Yuzu's. Her face scrunched up and marred with anger, warping her appearance.

"Ok. Here's the soy sauce!" She turned her back to him and stormed off. He had no idea why her mood had shifted so suddenly. He spared a look at Karin hoping to find any clue, but she just shook her head and went on eating her breakfast.

Realizing he would get no help from one sibling he decided he would need to get to the bottom of this mood swing from the other sibling on his own. "What are you upset about, Yuzu?"

"I'm not upset!" she retorted immediately. The self-appointed caretaker of the Kurosaki family scooped rice into a bowl that he hoped was still going to be his. "It's just that I went to through all the trouble of not showing you my uniform until the day of my school entrance ceremony and you won't even look at it."

He winced. He knew that tone all too well. It was one that was now showing up more often than it originally did. He could feel the underlying fury hiding beneath her words. The displeasure remained on the surface of them.

"But I don't care," Yuzu continued. "I'm not going to give you the burnt part of the rice that you like." The light haired twin slapped the bowl right in front of her infuriating older brother. "I bet Onee-chan would notice it right away."

That was hardly fair. Orihime paid more attention to details than he did about clothes or hair styles. She could have easily picked out when Yuzu did something different or new. He didn't even notice Yuzu was growing her hair out until it went past her shoulders. He just wasn't hardwired like that. It wasn't even like he didn't notice in the end. He just didn't see the big deal. If she wanted him to be observant, he was going to be observant. He took in his younger sister's appearance. It was a good thing he did. Her skirt was unzipped. If she went to her first day of school like that she was going to be humiliated. "Your zipper's open."

He heard her squeal as embarrassment no doubt set in. Better she be embarrassed here at home than at school where she would be mercilessly teased for the rest of the year. "See I was looking," Ichigo teased.

"Stupid!" exclaimed a red faced Yuzu. "My brother's a perv!" Where did he get off saying something like that? It was so pervy! He had the nerve to tease her about it. This was her first day of junior high yet he didn't seem to care at all. It was just a joke to him. Karin wouldn't be any help. Her twin sister disregarded both of them and continued to eat. Her siblings were impossible. Was it too much to ask for at least one of them to be on her side? As if to respond to her wish there came a knock on the door. The youngest Kurosaki sibling lit up. Someone who would be on her side was here! Forgetting her dismissive brother and unsympathetic sister she went to the door as fast as her legs could carry her.

Karin immersed herself into her meal, trying to ignore the annoyances of the outside world. Ichigo and Yuzu she could handle. She understood both her brother and sister well enough to navigate through their antics. What annoyed her was the group of spirits surrounding her. Their blank stares at her food were pitiful. They were ghosts. They couldn't eat anything anymore. They had been following her all morning. One of them put their chubby face uncomfortably close to her bowl. She poked his glasses with her chopsticks hard enough to break the lens. Why would a ghost still need glasses anyway? You would figure once you died your eye sight would become perfect.

"My glasses!" the spirit whined. It served him right for getting all into her face.

"What's up, Karin?" Ichigo asked. He caught sight of her seemingly press her chopsticks at thin air. Well it was thin air to him, but most likely a spirit. Karin wasn't the type of person to randomly do silly things. He would be willing to bet his next paycheck on that.

His dark haired sister continued to eat her meal as before. It was like nothing out of the ordinary happened at all. "Nothing," she answered. Karin kept her strengthened spiritual power and the troubles that came with it away from Ichigo. After learning the truth of his life as a shinigami she didn't feel right to confide in her bother. Instead she went to Orihime. The older girl was empathetic to her plight. She helped Karin adjust to the increased number of spirits that came to her in light of Ichigo's power loss. When the legions of spirits finally became too much with their insistent chattering, the person she had called for help was Orihime. She came to Karin's aid without a moment to spare. The two of them discussed everything, from Ichigo to Karin's increased spiritual power. That was the day they forged their own bond unique to them alone. Karin held the elder girl in high esteem.

That didn't go as he expected. Karin had gone back to eating without hesitation. Apparently she had a handle on the spirits visiting her. He wasn't sure why he was surprised. Karin hadn't asked for his advice on how to handle spirits even once this past year. She was managing all on her own.

"Good morning!" The sound of that high-spirited voice made him smile. Orihime came into the kitchen, ushering in a jubilant and loving air with her. The atmosphere had changed. The straight faced Karin cracked a small smile. The healer wished them all good morning and took her seat next to him. He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers for a brief moment. A jolt coursed through her body. They had been together for a little over a year and she still felt that same spark she did when they kissed for the first time. She hoped that feeling would never go away.

"Morning, Inoue." His tone was low and husky. It made her giddy. He did that on purpose. She couldn't believe he would do that in front of Karin-chan and Yuzu-chan. The fact that he didn't feel uncomfortable kissing her in front of his sisters showed just how far they had come along.

"Onii-chan," Yuzu called her carrot top brother. "Do you know what Onee-chan said when she saw me?"

No. He didn't particularly want to know what Orihime said, especially when it was going to be used against him. Yuzu wasn't going to stop even if he asked her not to, so he remained quiet. Light haired girl smiled cheek to cheek. "She said I looked lovely and wished me good luck on my first day of junior high." He groaned inwardly. "It's nice to have someone notice me and actually care. Thank you, Onee-chan." She made sure to put much emphasis on the last part just to rub it into Ichigo's face that her honorary sister was putting more effort than her actual brother.

"You know if I didn't care I would have let you go to school with your skirt unzipped."

"Onii-chan! You are impossible!" The blush returned in full force.

Unsure at what latest brother-sister spat she had walked into Orihime, decided to steer clear from it and turned to Karin. A small group of ghosts were around her. It looked like her anti-spirit and hollow products had run out. At least it was a small crowd. "Is everything alright?" she asked the second scowling Kurosaki.

"Everything is fine. These guys are just being bothersome as usual, but it's nothing I can't handle."

"Hey!" Yuzu mistakenly thought that Karin was referring to her and Ichigo instead of the ghosts hovering around Karin. Orihime had to admit that Karin's handle on spirits had grown considerably. When Ichigo lost his shinigami powers it caused her spiritual power to increase and she had been plagued by so many spirits that she was overwhelmed and had broken down in a public restroom. The girl Orihime was looking at now barely paid any spirits any mind. She was proud of how Karin had grown.

"Yuzu!" The head of the Kurosaki household stormed into the kitchen, uncharacteristically he ignored his son instead of trying to issue one of his so called training sessions. "Yuzu!" he cried again. Isshin came in frantic. He was wearing a formal black suit that contrasted his usual casual attire. "Hey, take a look Yuzu. What do you think of this suit?"

It looked nice on him in Orihime's opinion. It was rare for Isshin-san to need to wear a suit. Karin and Yuzu's entrance ceremony was certainly an event he would deem necessary for him to wear one.

Isshin held out two ties in his hand. In his right was a normal tie with stars on it and in his left a polka dot bow tie. "Which looks better, a normal tie or a bow tie?" He anxiously switched back forth between ties, trying them out, unable to decide. A man she had seen cool and collected while performing surgery was working himself into a frenzy just trying to decide what to wear. To a father trying to not to embarrass his daughters the healer could understand why he was so desperate to pick right.

Yuzu was completely relaxed. She didn't seem to see the concern her father had. She looked at each tie for about a second. "Well…." Isshin was hanging on to her every word. The next words she spoke would determine his fate or at least Isshin seemed to think so. "…I don't think…" His teeth were chattered. "…it really matters." Yuzu flashed her most apologetic smile.

It did little to lessen the damage. The dark haired man became distraught. "It doesn't matter," he repeated in a monotone voice. "It doesn't matter. IT DOESN'T MATTER!?" There was a collective sigh from his children. It didn't matter? How could that be possible? This was the most important day of Yuzu and Karin's lives. They were entering junior high! They were teenagers now. His little girls were growing up. How could Yuzu not think it mattered!? He would have expected that from stupid Ichigo or blank Karin, but not his sunny, upbeat, Yuzu. She was the one who understood him. Ichigo and Karin must have gotten to her. That was the only explanation. "How can you say it doesn't matter? I want to be a cool dad who doesn't embarrass you. To do that I need to know the right clothes to wear," he whined.

"If you don't want to embarrass us then just act you age," Karin chimed in.

"Karin, why?" he cried, tears formed in within his eyes. "Why do you always have to tear daddy down?"

Ichigo wasn't going to deal with his old man's blabbering this morning. Despite his initial misgivings this was shaping up to be a perfect morning. He got hot water in the shower, his old man hadn't attacked him, and he was having a nice breakfast with his family and girlfriend. "Can you please stop whining? I mean it is ridiculous for a grown man to act like this."

"I agree," Karin said.

"All of my children have turned against me!" That wasn't entirely true. He still had one more person who hadn't turned on him yet. Isshin went to Orihime. "Promise me, you'll always stay on my side, Orihime. You have to stay on papa's side no matter what."

Ichigo came to the healer's rescue. "Don't drag her into this."

Isshin glared at him. "You stay out of this. This is between me and my favorite daughter!"

"Hey!" cried Yuzu and Karin in unison.

Their father turned his nose up on them. "You have no room to talk. You sided with Ichigo and lost your place."

"What kind of father actually admits he plays favorites?" Karin asked.

"Besides, Orihime-chan is obviously on our side," Yuzu claimed.

"No, she's on my side," Isshin insisted.

She didn't wish to take anyone's side. She loved her surrogate family. How could she be expected to take sides? "I um…don't…I mean that I….I would rather not pick sides."

Isshin and Yuzu exploded with various reasons for why Orihime should be on their respective sides. All the auburn princess could do was smile bashfully and work to appease both sides as she ate breakfast.

Eventually things had settled down. They all finished their breakfast, not in silence, but in a lively debate, which was typical for them. They all left the house together. His father left a sign explaining he would be gone for some time. He was still fidgeting with his tie much to Ichigo and Karin's dismay. If his sisters were lucky he would have it done before they made it to the school. They said their goodbyes, with Orihime giving a brief hug to Karin and Yuzu, which they returned.

They really did love Orihime. It seemed so long ago when he worried if his sisters would like Orihime. Stupid Keigo had put that fear into him. The three of them were as close as sisters. Well she had become the unofficial fifth member of the Kurosaki family. Yuzu and his father made it no secret that they hoped it would become official in the future. In his opinion they were really rushing things. They were only seventeen after all.

He was grateful his family liked and approved of Orihime. From glimpses of Mizuiro's legion of girlfriends and how his parents disapproved of all of them, he had learned how ugly that side could be. It was better to have an embarrassing father pushing marriage than one who kept badgering him about breaking up with his girlfriend. "Are you ready to go?" he asked her.

"Yes." She took his hand. It was strange how holding hands was normal. There was a time when he never would have dreamed of holding her hand, yet here they were. How did they get there anyway? It started after his battle with Aizen or when he woke up from his month long coma and lost the remaining part of his shinigami powers. He was still trying to cope with a normal life. Orihime was there for him. He in turn was there for her, to help her cope with the trials she faced in Hueco Mundo. Their bond kept growing and growing until it transformed into something neither one of them expected. It was something he couldn't imagine not having now.

That was right, it all started when he battled Aizen. He fought that battle so long ago. It had to have been sixteen months. No, that wasn't right. It was April. 'Seventeen months. It's been seventeen months since my battle with Aizen,' he thought. It had really been that long ago. That was nearly a year and a half ago. It had been nearly a year and half since he lost his shinigami powers. It felt like a lifetime ago. He had barely been in high school for a month when he met Rukia and became a shinigami. He was now in his third and final year. So much had changed in all that time.

"You look really deep in thought," Orihime noted.

"Do I?"

"I hope I'm not bothering you."

"Don't be ridiculous. I was just thinking about how much time has gone by. It's still hard to believe we're in our final year."

"I know. We've only been in school for a week, but it is still hard to process. It's too bad we didn't get in the same class again this year." They had been lucky enough to get the same class two times. It was probably too much to hope for a third time. It wasn't like she didn't get to see him. They still had lunch together. They spent plenty of time together outside of school. At least he had Asano-kun to keep him company. She had Kojima-kun in her class.

"I'm just glad that Honsho isn't in your class this year." Last year he, Orihime, and Honsho had all been in the same class. He was always dragging her off his girlfriend. She made him so mad. He had to remind himself constantly that she was a woman and he couldn't just punch her in the face. When was she going to get a clue that Orihime wasn't playing for the same team as she was?

"Chizuru-chan is really a good person. She can be out of hand, but she has a bunch of good qualities." Chizuru was a good person, but secretly she was happy that they had ended up in different classes. She was exhausting at times. From what she heard from Tatsuki, Chizuru had her eye on someone in their class.

That was just like her to defend even someone who constantly tried to grope her. He had given up trying to argue with her about Honsho. They came up on Mizuiro waiting for the pair. "Morning, Ichigo, Inoue." He gave them his infamous boyish smile that had charmed so many girls.

"Good morning, Kojima-kun." The healer turned to Ichigo. "I have to meet Tatsuki-chan." She planted a quick peck to his lips. "I'll see you at lunch. Please try to stay out of trouble today. I don't think Ishida-kun is going to look the other way if you get reported for fighting again," she warned.

"It's not like I asked him to do me any favors," he mumbled to himself.

"Ich-Kurosaki-kun," she pleaded.

Damn her and those puppy dog eyes. "I'll try not to get into any fights." The small smile that she reserved just for him made it worth it. She was off.

"She's tamed you," Mizuiro teased.

"Shut up and let's get going." Mizuiro still shared a smile at his expense. He was going to have to get him back later. This had become the new normality. He would go to school, hang out with his friends, spend time with his girlfriend, go to work, and everything in between. This was the life he had fought so long and hard for. This was the life his friends had fought to protect. This was the peace they had strived to create. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed his normal life. So why did he feel so lost? He loved his friends. He loved his family and Orihime. He loved this life, but it felt surreal. He should be enjoying this life, but deep down he was afraid of it. No he wasn't afraid of it. He feared enjoying it too much. He didn't expect it to last. What would happen if the peace ended? Would he be forced to the sidelines, while waiting and hoping his friends could restore the peace? Was that the role he was to play? 'This isn't like me. I'm not someone who fears the future. This isn't like me at all. I feel so….lost.'

The two friends passed through a crowd mixed of other students and workers. Everyone was perfectly normal. Nothing stood out. The orange haired man didn't spare anyone a second glance. He didn't notice him at all. They passed each other and he hadn't even spared a glance. He turned back to see the orange haired man walk off without even thinking of turning back. "Ah, it seems as if things are starting to stir. It might not be too long now. I look forward to meeting you, Kurosaki Ichigo."

That is the end of the first chapter, which depicted part of chapter 424. I tried to blend as much of the source material, while adding new stuff to try to keep it from being a total rehash. The story will probably start off slow like the actual arc itself. Bear with me. It will pick up.