There is a rhythmic clack and rattle as a train moves across a cement bridge. The noise echoes softly across the low river in the Karakura district.
The young man sits quietly by the river, listening to the passing train. His dark sneakers crunch the gravel on the river bank as he leans against the foot of the grassy incline. As the clatter of the train fades into the distance, someone calls to him from the road above him.
"Ahh~ I figured you’d be here," Tatsuki says. Ichigo looks behind him to see her standing at the top of the incline with her school bag hanging from one hand. "What are you up to?" she asks. "Taking another day off?"
Ichigo scowls. "Same to you, what about school?" he says.
Tatsuki pauses, noticing how the deep cuts on the side of Ichigo's face are covered poorly by a single bandage. She walks down the incline. "...I felt like leaving early," she says as she sits on the grass beside Ichigo. "I’ll be fine. I’ve got good ethics."
Ichigo easily caught the implication that Tatsuki believed he didn't have such ethics, "He~~y."
Tatsuki looks over at him with a strangely thoughtful expression.
The look catches him off-guard. "...What is it?" Ichigo says, baffled.
Tatsuki glances away. "It's nothing," she says.
It's happening again, Tatsuki thinks as she sits beside Ichigo on the riverbank. At times like this, I always remember that summer in 5th grade. That time when my name went from “Tatsuki-chan” to “Tatsuki.”
She recalls herself as a young tomboy with messy hair and dirt smuged on her face. She remembers walking home from school that day with Ichigo, who was still a few inches shorter then her. She said angrily, "What’s with calling me without honorifics? It gets on my nerves."
"It’s no big deal," the young Ichigo said amiably. Then, he added, "Tatsuki."
"...Damn it," the young Tatsuki grumbled to herself as they continued walking. "You’re ticking me off."
The truth is I wasn’t all that upset. Of course, I wasn’t happy about it either. Tatsuki recalls.
I don’t know why, but that feeling was closest to being “loneliness,” she realizes. When Ichigo grew taller than me in 6th grade... when I lost a sparring match to Ichigo for the first time in the 8th grade... and how, from then on, he wouldn’t give me a rematch.
Our height differences grew farther apart... and even now, Tatsuki glances over and takes in Ichigo's solemn profile. He is gazing into the distance that lies across the river, but his eves have more determination in them than she expected to find. His expression on June 18th is different from last year.
However, I'm not interested in finding out what this thing like loneliness really is, Tatsuki heaves herself up to stand over Ichigo.
For the time being,
"Alright!" she grunts, earning Ichigo's attention. Tatsuki turns and kicks him in the head, knocking him over. "Let’s go to the arcade!" she yells. "C’mon, stand up!"
I’m still better than him when it comes to video games.
"OUCH!!" Ichigo yelps in pain.
That’s good enough for me.