Notes: I have been meaning to finish this chapter for some time, but I had to finish a birthday commission for a friend’s birthday, I will post that next. Thank you for everyone who has hung in there reading this fic. Especially she who requested this fic… I shall hopefully be better at updating from now on. Keep reading, keep reviewing. Enjoy…

There was a thud as the little red book slipped onto the floor. Ichigo’s hands trembled as he stared at it. What had he just read? He felt… rage. Someone had hurt his sister. His sister! He clenched his fists and slowly rose from his seat, desperately trying not to break everything in the room in an effort to maintain calm. He kicked the offending book under the desk to hide it from Yuzu and Dad.

‘Met some guys today. Older guys, I think they’re in Ichi-nii’s class. Anyway they are upper classmen. ACE at football, oh my god, I have never had such a good game before. It was just me a Kiyoshi against all of them. Taro and Akira were pretty good, but Takai totally carried that team! Hehe, where would ‘Yoshi have been without me? I totally have to play with them again…’

The page was dotted here in there with spots where the ink had run. She has obviously wept all over this page. Denial. Her tone was too cheerful, her hands had trembled as she had written this. Desperatelytrying to lie, even to herself. But couldn’t maintain this façade. She didn’t mention names again, but Ichigo had the four he needed as he thundered down the stairs, not bothering to tell anyone where he was going.

‘…perhaps I should have pleaded. Maybe he would have let me go. I shouldn’t have kicked out at him. That just made him angry. Oh God I never want to see him angry like that again. His eyes, there was something in his eyes. He’s pure evil, he’s not human…’

There was no school today, but Ichigo could find anyone in this town, the boys in his class were always easy to locate. Kiyoshi, Akira, Taro, Takai. He recited this list to himself over and over, it was his mantra of vengeance. For what they did to his sister, they would pay.

‘I can’t believe he has a girlfriend. He just changed so suddenly when she arrived. Like nothing had happened. They both just acted like nothing had happened! She was a bitch anyway, they deserve each other. No… nobody deserved him. ’

The arcade was unusually quiet for a weekend, but that was no matter. Kurosaki had already acquired his targets. Kiyoshi and Akira, laughing and playing in the corner. They seemed so carefree and normal. But Ichigo knew. He’d never had a problem with these two, it disgusted people that he would willingly call ‘casual acquaintances’ could betray his trust so thoroughly.

They saw him striding forward, missing his scowl and not guessing his true intentions. That was, until the enraged Kurosaki grabbed the younger boy by his hair and slammed his face into a nearby game. A knee to the face, a sickening crack and Kiyoshi slumped unconscious on the floor, Ichigo rounded on his trembling companion.

“Jesus Kurosaki, what the hell?!” Akira shrieked, trying to sound even halfway relaxed, doing his best to ignore the blood still pouring from his best friend’s face.

Ichigo fought to keep himself still as he hissed.

“What did you do to my sister.”

Akira threw him a terrified look.

“Who? Karin? I never did nothing to her ok, it was Takai’s idea to let her play football with us, she’s an ok kid but I don’t hang out with her or anything…”

Realising this wasn’t the response his classmate was looking for Akira hurriedly tried to grasp for some way to talk himself out of a similar bloody fate.

“If you’re talking about her getting home late, or getting injured on the pitch, Takai sees her more than us! Yeah! Takai and Taro, they’re always with her, Aya keeps talking about it. How they spend so much time with them! It pisses her off, it’s them you want.”

Ichigo was getting rapidly bored of this guy’s terrified snivelling. He turned as if to go, leaving Akira’s mouth flapping weirdly, trying to think of something else to say before the orange haired youth spun on his heel and punched the other boy across the table and squarely into the wall with a moan.

“Coward,” muttered Ichigo, swiftly exiting the building.

Aya? Aya… the name rung a bell at the back of Ichigo’s mind. She wasn’t in his class, but she was probably in the same school. He mused that he probably shouldn’t have knocked out the only two people who give him a more precise location. He sighed and continued in his angry rampage, this time looking for someone, anyone he knew who could help him.

“I thought sex was supposed to feel good. That’s what people are always saying at school and on the TV. Why didn’t it feel good, why did it hurt so badly. I wanted to die so much, and I wanted him to die…”

Ichigo had never been happier to see Ishida in his entire life. The smug Quincy looked at him with something akin to disdain as he was roughly grabbed by the young shinigami substitute.

“Ishida! Aya What’serface! I am pretty sure she goes to our school, she’s dating Takai … What’shisface… you know in our class. The smug bastard with the blonde hair. You know! Where is she?!”

Ishida looked at him incredulously.

“Kurosaki try making more sense next time you interrupt my day.”

Ichigo could have punched him.

“Listen Ishida, this is important. Karin’s run away from home and these guys know something about it! But I don’t have a fucking clue where there are and I need to find this bloody Aya girl so I can find them, understand?”

Ishida paused and thought for a moment.

“Matsuoka Aya, I don’t think she lives far from me, her father and my father work together. I suppose you could back with me and find her that way…”

He was unable to finish his smug pontificating as he felt himself grabbed by the aggressive orange-haired and almost dragged down the unfamiliar streets of Ishida’s neighbourhood.

“Which one is her place? Do you have a number or something or should I start breaking down doors?”

His ‘travelling companion’ was worried. He had never seen Ichigo this worried and stressed before. Never in any pitch battle, or hollow fight, or even his showdown with the Menos Grande had the Quincy seen Ichigo like this.

“Ku… Kurosaki, you should probably slow down, otherwise you’re going to hurt someone (…or yourself.) I can show you which one is her house, but you have to promise to calm down. I know you are worried about your sister, but you won’t solve anything by rushing in like an idiot and throwing your weight about.”

Ichigo stopped in his stride. He knew that smug bastard was right. He couldn’t go smacking around this Aya girl like he had done with those idiots at the arcade, he would have to behave at least half way civilised. It was just so hard to act with any sort of restraint when he had so much rage inside, after what he had read.

“They don’t care. Ichi nii, Yuzu, Dad – none of them understand how it feels to be me now. None of them would notice if I just vanished and never came back. Sometimes I wish I could just disappear…”

The two of them finally came to a halt in front of an imposing white building. Ichigo found himself staring, wondering why his day had turned out this awful. He was worried, what if this Aya didn’t give him any information? What if she wasn’t even here? He could feel himself sweating, his fists clenching in frustration.

His slim companion looked up at him, Ichigo was every picture the archetypal concerned brother. His jaw was set grimly and his eyes were distant.

“Are you that worried about her, Kurosaki?”

He didn’t answer straight away, he hoped he wouldn’t have to. Confronting these strong feelings that welled up whenever he thought of his younger sister was becoming tougher. He just wanted to scream and break things when he thought of where she might be now, or what might be happening to her.

The orange haired shinigami placed a resolute hand on the gate, snapping out of his paranoid stupor. He shook his head.

“Thank you Ishida. You don’t have to come any further. I’ll see you around, ok?”

The young Quincy nodded and turned to leave.

“Good luck Kurosaki. I hope you find her…” he said, almost to himself.

When they parted ways Ichigo knew there was no turning back. He wondered why he found the idea of confronting this girl, so intimidating. Ichigo had never been terribly good at dealing with girls, especially the sort of girls in his class – shrill and bothersome.

But as he approached to front door, Ichigo was uneasy, something felt wrong about this house. He knocked tentatively at the white door. He could hear noises coming from the other side and knocked harder.

“Uh… Aya? It’s Kurosaki Ichigo. Just get out here, ok? I need to talk to you about my sister.”

Still nothing but an odd muffled noise, almost like crying. Ichigo was becoming worried.

“Oi! I’m gonna come in. I just want to talk, I won’t hurt you or nothin’…”

He reached down to open the door, ignoring the frantic scramble on the other side. As the door creaked open he cast his eyes about, before finally lighting upon something that gave him severe chills. It almost make him sick.

“Fucking hell…” he breathed.

oooo

Karin slumped behind a low wall in the park. She was safe there, away from home, from school, from everything. She wondered if she could ever go home after all this time. It had only really been a few hours, but there was no way she could ever explain her absence. She supposed they would be out looking for her, then again, what if they didn’t care?

The dying grass felt rough against the back of her legs, the sun was high and aggressive in the sky, draining Karin of her will to carry on running. She was starving hungry, skipping breakfast had probably not been the best idea in retrospect.

Tears stung the backs of her eyes, she had wanted to cry again every since finding her hiding spot in the park, she hoped a good cry would cool her head, but it didn’t, it just made her feel sick. Karin was so empty and alone here, she hadn’t felt this lost and afraid since she was a little girl.

She missed her Ichi nii. It was a realisation that struck her as she wept into her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs. Maybe she should go home, the thought of crawling into her big brother’s lap… He wouldn’t let her be afraid any more, he’d keep her safe from…

The park gate clattered open with a bang. Karin jumped and peered out from round her little shelter. She paled.

‘How she he know I was here?’

The bloodied and bruised hands, that fierce expression, her whole body went numb, how had he found her? He sneered coldly,

“What did you tell my girlfriend, little girl?”