EDIT (10/8/2006): Hello, and thank you for your visit. I started this fanfic at the beginning of June, and posted a new chapter approximately every week around the same time (or at least I tried, but eventually at some point down the road, when I was going out of my mind and procrastinated a lot, I liked to play around with my self-set deadlines, how pathetic am I that I cannot even be a good boss of me.) It's already been almost a month since I finished it. It took me four months to get the story going, to put it together, and type it and post it for all of you to read. It was exciting, to say the least, while it lasted, feeling that I was contributing a tiny grain of sand to the great Bleach fandom (not to mention the beautiful IchiHime shipping), and it was a thrill to get reviews with every post, and very rewarding to learn others' opinions and views. I'd like to thank again all of those who ventured into my story, especially if you stuck around, and thank you for your reviews, your encouragement, your advice and your appreciation. And if you're new to the story, thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoy the story. Happy reading!

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Here is my attempt at a dramantic fic ("dramantic", of course, meaning a romantic drama, but it's going to contain action too, in future chapters). Hope you find it mildly interesting, or at the very least understandable.

Picking up from my two previous fics AND the latest chapters of the Bleach manga, I suggest that when you read this you forget about anything you might read after chapter 229, or you'll become confused. Because the story is etched in my mind, and I don't think any more adaptation to the current events of the series (as of this moment) will be done. Otherwise, my story would end up making no sense.

This is basically what I think could happen in the near future of the manga (but with a touch of an already blossoming romantic relationship, or should I say… two romantic relationships? You'll see. All in good time, my dears. All in good time.) If I understand the plot of the manga correctly, then this fic should make sense. If not, then I suggest you flame me in my poor itty review box. I can take it (I hope).

Title inspired by a song of the same name by Korn. Now, I don't usually listen to them (no offense to any fans, but their music scares me a bit), but I thought this song was quite good, and the video is really good, too. I thought it might be a fitting title, but maybe you'll see why in the coming chapters.

Enjoy, and please review. Domo merci very mucho!

Music: "English summer rain" by Placebo, "Elmo" by Holly McNarland, "A bad dream" by Keane, "Enjoy the silence (remix)" by Depeche Mode/Mike Shinoda.

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own anything but the storyline. I only own a Kon plushy (gah, I'm such a geek).

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Coming Undone – by Deathberry15

1: Missed

Upon entering room 1-3, Kurosaki Ichigo could almost feel the burning gaze from over a dozen pairs of eyes. And maybe that was the reason why he consequently felt his face burning up, much to his dismay.

"Good morning, Kurosaki-kun!"

That didn't help much either.

"Eh… good morning, Inoue," he said in a small voice, waving back at the red-haired girl sitting at her desk next to the windows.

Ichigo averted the glances of everyone around him, as he knew they were intently watching the interaction between the two. But he wouldn't have done anything anyway. He just waved to her, sat at his desk and leaned back on his chair casually, closing his eyes as if he were resting.

"Oi, Ichigo, good to see you're recovered," Tatsuki said, waving from where she sat on the desktop of Orihime's desk.

"Ichigo," Chad said in his deep voice, "hi."

"Hi, Chad."

"ICHIGOOOOO!"

Ichigo raised an arm into the air to stop Keigo, who came at him like a freight train out of control. The brown-haired boy slammed squarely into the open palm and fell backwards onto the floor.

"Glad to have you back…" Keigo said weakly from his spot on the ground.

"Hey, Ichigo. It's nice to see you're back on your feet. How was your weekend?" Mizuiro asked as he approached, ignoring Keigo writhing on the floor.

"I was sick. What do you think?"

"Guess that cold was really strong, then, wasn't it? Cuz you're not the type to get sick. I wonder what was different this time…" Tatsuki said with an overworked voice that was supposed to be of inquiry, making Ichigo's nostrils flare. She looked at Orihime with a sly smile. "Can you think of anything, Hime?"

Ichigo wanted to punch Tatsuki, but instead he waited to see Orihime's reaction. The girl only shrugged and smile. "It's a bit odd that you ask me, Tatsuki-chan, but I suppose it was a virus. I had it too. It was awful." Then she went back to making an origami flower with some purple-checkered paper. Everyone sweat-dropped. Ichigo would've smiled triumphal at Tatsuki, but that would've only been more suspicious. He just smiled inwardly at Orihime. In spite of her usual flakiness, it would seem that she had outsmarted her friend's teasing on purpose.

Most people still appeared to be discussing the infamous rumor, though not as avidly as before. But everyone seemed to be paying close attention to any sort of sign or remark from either Ichigo or Orihime that might reveal the rumors to be true after all or not. Fact of the matter was that it was perhaps the biggest gossip right now, and it only made it clear that everyone needed to get a life.

Ichigo didn't really care much anymore, even if it still embarrassed him a little. He wasn't used to being the center of attention (of everyone's attention). He had more important, more upsetting things in mind; things he recalled the Gotei 13 members had told him rather cryptically when he had first gotten sick. Everyone was suddenly on their toes again, and Ichigo had no idea why. But he knew what was keeping him on his toes.

It had been two weeks already; two full weeks since he had gotten back to school after mysteriously disappearing from the public eye, worrying everyone sick. Or that's what he had thought. When he got back, it was as if nothing had happened. It didn't make any sense to him, but that wasn't his major concern either.

The reason why he had gone back to school was because he was no longer under the Vizards' training (or whatever it might have been called); two weeks ago, they had told him to go home. Hirako had pointed out that, after a month, he hadn't made much progress, and they weren't willing to waste any more time on him. He was backed up by nearly everyone. Ichigo hadn't known what to respond; only that he would still come back the next day and he could continue. I just need a bit of rest, I guess, he had told himself then, and not in the mood to retaliate, he allowed himself to be released from the underground training area, and let out of the building. It felt strange to step outside; he felt different, and the air felt different, in a good sense. He just needed a break, that was all, and he would be able to work harder and make some real progress. He would show them.

The next day, they were gone. A horrified Ichigo searched high and low, and never found them. They just vanished.

How was he supposed to get stronger now? He needed to be able to control the hollow within him, but no one else could show him how, except the Vizards. The last two weeks, even if he had been sick, he kept wondering why they had left him. If they had wanted him to join them so badly, why leave without an explanation? Why leave him in the middle of an important training period?

What scared him the most was the idea of what could happen now. He felt incomplete, unprepared. All the talk about getting ready for the greatest battle in December, and the development of the Hougyoku, and Aizen and the Arrancar and the Espada, it all barely made sense to him, because how could he have any sort of opinion on it if he didn't feel remotely ready to fight? What was he going to do? What if everyone was counting on him?

The previous day, he and Rukia had barely spoken. She had just gotten back from some sort of meeting with the other shinigami, while Ichigo was still forced to stay in bed (by his father's request). She came back, and it was obvious something was disturbing her. She mentioned something Ikkaku and Hitsugaya had said; a tear in the sky, two weeks ago, and a feeling of dread. Everyone knew what it meant. But nothing happened then. The tear disappeared, and nothing and no one came out through it, as far as they knew.

Ichigo wouldn't have noticed the tear in the sky, anyway. He had been in the storage building / training area, and the last he had seen then from the outside world was Orihime, almost a week before he was kicked out. She had come to tell him about the Hougyoku, and then she'd left. She had been a comforting presence.

It would seem she had that kind of effect on him, all the time.

Something about the tear in the sky was really confusing. Why did it seem like nothing happened? Or did something happen that no one noticed? Thinking about it gave Ichigo the chills, and it had nothing to do with his recently dissipated cold. It was a feeling of foreboding. Everything that had happened recently made him uneasy, because he almost felt like everyone was hiding something from him. It certainly felt that way with Rukia, who never mentioned anything further of what Hitsugaya and Ikkaku had told her, other than the appearance of the tear in the sky.

What did it mean, then?

He felt excluded, as if everyone didn't think him ready. As if everyone knew he hadn't finished training with the Vizards, and now they thought he wasn't prepared to know the plans for the "big battle"; and if he wasn't prepared to know the plans, he wasn't prepared to fight either. So what was the point of telling him anything?

"Hellooo, Ichigo. You're spacing out. Are you feeling alright?"

Someone was suddenly waving a hand in front of his face, and he snapped back to the present. The others had been chattering happily until they noticed he had grown quiet and distant. How long he had been deep in thought, he had no clue, but he was flustered for a moment, like a little kid caught doing something bad.

"Er, um, I'm fine. I was just… thinking, that's all."

Tatsuki eyed him suspiciously. "You had this intense look on your face, I thought you might still feel bad," she replied.

"You're probably tired, anyway. You were away for almost a week while you were sick," Mizuiro added.

"I wish I'd get sick so I can skip school," Keigo muttered.

Ichigo stopped paying attention again. He would've liked to continue skipping school, definitively. He would've enjoyed skipping school all last week, if the reason for it had been that he was training. But his training had been cut short, and he had no idea why. He should be busy working his ass off in battle, getting a hold of his inner hollow. It was difficult, exhausting and sometimes frightening, to lose control, to get injured, to get tired, to fail. But he had to do it. He had to control it. He needed to do it. He was willing to beg the Vizards to take him back.

But he had no idea how to find them again.

"Good morning, Orihime-chan!"

Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise and he snapped his head in the direction of the source of the salutation. Hirako Shinji walked into the classroom casually, clad in the school uniform, even carrying a schoolbag, and wearing the most idiotic smile Ichigo had ever seen, and approached the group nonchalantly. He stood in front of Orihime, still grinning, and pulled her into a hug.

Much like the first time they had witnessed it, everyone was shocked to see him do that. Orihime, like last time, failed to utter any words or respond in any away that would voice the surprise and disturbance reflected on her face; obviously she wasn't used to getting randomly embraced by strangers (she did consider Hirako-kun a stranger, and a rather unpleasant one at that). However, she didn't have to do anything.

"I've missed you so mu—" Hirako began saying as he held Orihime at a distance and stared at her lovingly, but he was promptly interrupted by Ichigo. The words actually caught in his throat when he was suddenly yanked away by the taller boy, and dragged away from Orihime by the collar of his shirt, much like it had happened weeks ago already.

Orihime stared after the two, just as Ichigo dragged Hirako out of the classroom and the two disappeared from sight. Everyone was left blinking repeatedly in surprise, not only at Hirako's behavior, but at Ichigo's as well.

"What the hell was that?" was all Keigo could say. "And why do I have this feeling of déjà vu?"

"You okay, Ori…? Orihime?" Tatsuki asked, but when she turned to look at her friend, Orihime was already walking away, toward the classroom door. They didn't know if she intended to follow the two boys, or maybe she just wanted to leave. But something was definitively off. No one dared make any comments about it, and they all went back to what they had been doing, deciding to ignore what just happened. Tatsuki decided not to go after her friend; she had the feeling Orihime preferred to be alone.

---

"What the bloody hell are you doing back here? No, more importantly, where the hell have you been?"

Hirako had to shield his face from the irate Ichigo, just in case. Even though he knew Ichigo quite well now, and it didn't seem to him that this would be the kind of guy to hit someone just out of spite, he had to be careful. It seemed that every time he put his hands on Orihime, it struck a nerve with Ichigo. Maybe he should've thought of that before doing it.

"What do you mean what am I doing back here? It's a school day. I don't think it would be right to skip," Hirako replied with what Ichigo took for a cynical grin.

"Don't get cocky! I know the only reason you started coming to school was just to try to persuade me into joining your little group. Well, I eventually did, and then you guys kicked me out and disappeared! Yet here you are again! And I want to know why!"

"Uh, people are, like, staring at us. Maybe you should keep it do—"

"Shut up."

Ichigo paced momentarily in front of Hirako, while the blond boy leaned against one of the concrete columns of the outside hallway.

"Where are the others?" Ichigo asked, sounding calmer now.

"Around," Hirako responded shortly.

"Where is 'around'?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen much of them," Hirako was becoming increasingly uneasy. He was only pretending to keep his cool, when he was really feeling quite threatened by Ichigo and the way he easily lost his temper.

Ichigo ran a hand through his hair. "Why did you guys leave? Why did you stop the training? I was starting to make some progress."

"Progress! Ha!" Hirako said, momentarily forgetting about his nervousness. "You couldn't hold the transformation for more than ten seconds, and it had already been a month. That can hardly be called progress."

"So what? In that case, I had to train harder, longer, without rest. You guys could've pushed me harder. I was doing my best. I really needed to do my best. But you guys kicked me out. Now what was that for? What good was it? I feel like I'm back at the starting point, and you don't have me anymore. I thought the reason you came after me was so I would join you."

"To see how good you could be," Hirako explained. "I had seen your potential. But that potential turned out to be worthless, because you couldn't become anything better, no matter how hard or how long we tried to get it out of you. So what was the point of wasting our time with you any longer?"

For a moment, Hirako thought Ichigo would really punch him this time. But instead, Ichigo stopped squarely in front of him, arms crossed, a disbelieving look upon his face. "Are you telling me you gave up on me?"

"No one is giving up, except for you. We tried for as long as we could, but then we realized there were more important things to do. There's a war coming, you know," Hirako replied, and there was again a tone of cynicism in his voice.

A war, yeah. Of course Ichigo knew, there was no need to remind him. It all felt so surreal to him, now that he was back to his regular life. But now he was starting to feel it once again, the magnitude of what they were preparing for, and he realized how weak and powerless he felt. It was not a good feeling at all. During that month, maybe people expected him to be fully prepared to give his all, to make a significant stand. However, he felt utterly and completely lost and alone.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do now?" he asked unenergetically.

Hirako shrugged disdainfully. "What are you asking me for? I don't know, and I certainly don't give a shit. You could keep training, on your own, for all I care. Not like it would get you any far, but at least it'd give you something to do, so you'd stop looking for us."

Ichigo's nostrils flared again, and he felt angry at Hirako, at Hiyori, at all the other Vizards. They knew he was looking for them. They were hiding, running away from him. What a bunch of cowards. But when he thought about it, maybe he preferred them to do so, rather than come out of their hiding place and tell him straightforward that he was shit and he was not worth the trouble anymore. Just like Shinji just did, he thought miserably. Perhaps it was better this way.

"I still don't understand what you're doing here, putting up this act, pretending you're a regular student. What's the point?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Hirako grinned his mischievous grin again. "This is my job, Ichigo. I keep an eye on things."

Ichigo looked at him strangely; he had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but he wasn't about to ask either. Certainly he didn't care; he was just curious. All he really wanted was to not have anything to do with Shinji or any Vizards ever again. He felt sorry for the time he had lost with them. He wasn't going to sit around and sulk and do nothing. Even if it was going to be a hundred times more difficult, he would find a way to train himself and get better. He'd show them.

"One more thing," he said, pausing as he motioned to leave. Hirako glanced up at him.

"If you ever put one finger on Inoue again, I'll rip it right off your hand," Ichigo said in the most dangerous, vicious tone he could muster.

It certainly had the effect he expected. Hirako's face fell like a ton of bricks. Ichigo gave him one last warning look before stalking off back into the school building.

---

Orihime stood leaning against the wall, at the end of the empty hallway, eyes gazing intently out the window down from the classroom, lost in thought.

From where she stood she could see into the school yard clearly, and she watched as Ichigo and Hirako argued downstairs. She knew what the argument was about, even if she couldn't hear anything. She knew Ichigo must have been feeling strange. It had been two weeks already since he came back to school, acting like nothing had happened, like he hadn't been missing for the last month.

Of course, she knew where he had been, even seen him in two occasions (both on the same day), and she knew he was fine. But to see him back in school, back to his routine, so nonchalant, it was obvious something was not right.

She hadn't dared ask him or anyone else what might've happened. Everyone was behaving rather oddly, like they were waiting for something to happen; even bubbly Matsumoto had grown increasingly concerned over the past days. Even if she had asked someone, she had the feeling no one would've been able to answer her. Most likely, no one had a clue. It didn't seem like most people, even their classmates and teachers, had even noticed Ichigo had been missing. Or maybe they didn't care. What about his family? she asked herself. They should've been worried about him. But during that week she had stayed at the clinic, everything seemed normal (as normal as the Kurosaki household could ever hope to be). Nothing seemed out of place at all.

If I went missing like that, would someone notice?

Orihime had no more time to linger on that thought, when she saw Ichigo walking away from Hirako. He was heading back into the building. She observed Hirako's nervousness, which was promptly dissipated when he looked up. Maybe he had felt someone was watching him, or maybe he had noticed her reiatsu; there was no finding out. But when he looked up, his eyes met hers immediately, and after a second, he grinned and waved in a friendly manner. Orihime couldn't bring herself to smile or wave back. She just stared back at him, a strange feeling of unease overcoming her. A moment later, when he realized she wouldn't wave back, he dropped his hand to his side, and still with a dim grin on his face, he turned and walked away from the school, soon disappearing from her view behind some trees.

Leaning her head back against the wall, she sighed. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen. Everyone except her.

Ever since the day she went to Urahara Shouten, she had admittedly been feeling down. It was not easy to cope with it, not even when Rukia was there to support her. She was still hurt; to think she was unwanted at the warfront, in spite of everything she had done, in spite of her eagerness, her willingness, it was too much. She would've felt betrayed, but the only one she really had to blame was herself. If only she would try harder, be braver and stronger, maybe her powers wouldn't be undermined. But she didn't know how… Hachigen had fixed her hairpins, healed Tsubaki, told her she had to make a choice. Rukia told her they would find a way together, a way for her to become stronger, so that she could fight. Orihime trusted Rukia. But even Kuchiki-san seems distant. And in truth, Rukia seemed to be caught up in other things, even when she spent a lot of time with Ichigo, going about their usual business of catching hollows. Things seemed to have quieted down, for at least a while, but still she saw less and less of everyone else. She really felt now like she was on her own.

Maybe most people facing a similar situation would be glad they wouldn't have to fight, risk getting harmed or losing their lives. But Orihime knew that was not the way to go about it. She wanted to prove herself, prove to the others, that she could stand up for herself, protect and defend her friends. She would go down for her friends; she wanted to help Ichigo. But now she just wondered if she would ever be able to fight alongside him.

Of course there had been some progress, in her abilities. Not much could be done in the last two weeks, what with being sick and all that. Still, being sick had its advantages. Even if it was not much to be accounted for, she felt closer to him, like she had gotten to know him deeper during the time she spent at the clinic.

She still blushed at the memory of the kiss. Even though she couldn't yet tell how that might have changed anything, it made her feel completely different, refreshed. Seeing him every time after that felt strange, but in a good way. It made her forget momentarily everything that had been bothering her. It even seemed to bring back a bit of the old Kurosaki-kun, and still show a little bit of a new Ichigo, a side of him she had never met before.

But she didn't want to get her hopes up. Nothing good ever came off getting too hopeful.

"Ah, Inoue… you—I, uh, I didn't see you there."

Orihime snapped her head in Ichigo's direction and a yelp of surprise nearly escaped her lips. She was startled out of her thoughts so abruptly, she was certain she was blushing madly. It almost felt like she had just gotten caught doing something bad, because she had just been thinking about him; sometimes it scared her to think he would ever be able to read her thoughts.

"Oh, h-hi, Kurosaki-kun," she replied, her voice sounding feeble and high-pitched. She was so nervous that she barely noticed how nervous he seemed too. "I just… came out here to think." Maybe he knew already she had been spying on him, or maybe he didn't. But he didn't give anything away from his expression.

Maybe they could've just exchanged a few more words of pleasantry, a polite conversation or something equally shallow. But there was no point. Something always seemed to pass between them, silently, wordlessly, through their gazes, their body language. It's like it gave everything away. She toyed with her hair and he stuffed his hands into his pockets, and both were shuffling their weight from one foot to the other, in a sort of rhythmic dance.

If anyone had been watching them, the silence between them would've seemed very odd, very uncomfortable. But the truth was that neither knew what to say, or if it was necessary to say anything at all; they always did eventually, just for the sake of it. But they were learning slowly how to tell when something needed to be said, whatever it could be, and leave out anything beside the point. Words were hardly ever required, unless it was to reassure one other. Nothing that was truly important needed to be communicated through spoken language.

"I, uh… I told him to leave you alone," Ichigo said finally, averting his eyes. Orihime looked up at him in surprise. She certainly hadn't expected him to say something like that. But from the way he fidgeted after saying that, she knew he was more serious than he would want to let her know. There were butterflies fluttering annoyingly inside her stomach now, and she looked at the floor before she could reply.

"Thank you," was all she knew to say. Ichigo looked back at her after a moment, and their eyes met again. Surely there was nothing else that needed to be said. A half-smile etched itself on his face, and in turn she smile brightly but shyly at him. Not another word crossed between them at that moment; he gestured for her to follow him into the classroom, which she did after a moment.

Maybe there was something to be hopeful about, after all.

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Wow, this was harder than I expected. I like to work around what's going on right now in the manga, but I also wanted to write this story as a continuing plot from my two previous stories. To be able to do that, a lot of explanations had to be given, so as not to leave any plot-holes (I'm afraid there might still be some, but there's no helping it anymore). I kind of like the twist that I gave the story, though, as hard as it was to conjure. Hopefully you will feel the same way. But I'm open to criticism.

Once again, thank you, danke, grazie, merci, arigato, gracias, obrigado, for reading.

More to come soon.

-Nariko the Seer a.k.a Deathberry15