❝ … ❞ you go quiet for just a spare moment or two. you have to gather your thoughts, & which ones would be best to share. you hated talking, especially about yourself. words were suddenly very hard for you, so you talk a bit slowly. ❝ i was … never ‘condemned’ to hell. honestly, the only reason i had any reason to suffer was because, well, i was born there. ❞
your words must have been a cause for concern, as eyes dart forward rather timidly, as if anxious for retaliation of some kind. arms fold rather solemnly, & you felt beside yourself in that moment of vulnerability. something unique to your existence ( & your existence, alone ) was that unlike so many who had dragged below to agonize for eternity, you technically had nothing keeping you bound to hell.
❝ as you might guess, it wasn’t any cakewalk just getting to this point. i started my escape at fourteen. i’m eighteen now. ❞ brows upturn in a sudden worry, & your fingers grip your sleeves a bit tighter; you look on in what could be considered the increments of a silent panic. an anxiety attack.
❝ you’re not gonna make me go back, are you ? ❞
his humanity is what sets kurosaki ichigo apart from others in the gotei: the feelings in which they’ve clung to most of their life, the ability to cast aside a judgment that most would deem final punishment in this world. ichigo is not heartless. the ichoric muscle beating away in chest harbours more compassion &. understanding than other shinigami he’s worked with. so perhaps that is why zangetsu no longer bares it’s fangs &. ichigo’s demeanor shifts so considerably in tandem with the stranger’s before him. they’re different from the sinner’s met in past. he can sense something off about them, but nothing that makes kurosaki leap into the fray of battle to protect the things he holds most dear. in truth, they remind him of so many wandering souls encountered thus far: lost, uncertain for what lies ahead, scared. how could they ever condemn that ?
heavy is the sigh exhaled betwixt chapped lips &. with slow movements shall weaponry be placed back along shoulders &. be engulfed in white ribbon once more. call them a fool, his gut has never been wrong. “ . . . right. guess you woulda attacked me by now, yeah ? ” they say with stern tonality, but a calm one all the same. “ look, i’m not gonna make you go back anywhere, but m’not gonna lie ‘an say it’s safe for you to be out here all willy nilly. i’m sure the soul society has already picked up on your spiritual pressure by now — ” &. he knows how the squads handle anomalies, especially ones with their kind of story.
a hand is reaching into the front of uniform, presenting the battered combat pass before him as a form of trust. they’ve already seen him like this, trying to hide anything else would certainly be a waste of time. “ see this ? it’s a combat pass: i’m substitute soul reaper, kurosaki ichigo. . . . you got a name ? ”