New Life After Seventeen Months

Hearing the noise and a sharp cry, Kurosaki immediately jumped up, quickly enough appearing near Mary with her nightgown already raised.

- Lord, you also have to be treated. - With a degree of despair, the angler held out, sighing hopelessly. - "Perhaps, if there was a different time and place ... then everything would end as well. So right?" - He asked himself, helping the girl to stand up and handing her her clothes along with a medicinal ointment.

Clutching her clothes in her hands, Mary only now, still looking at Ichigo from the bottom up, could understand what condition he was in. The fair skin of the young man was decorated with saturated bruises and pink abrasions, as if some kind of perverted artist wanted to depict on his body a pink sunset over the sea abyss. There were so many of them that Maria seemed to have not a single untouched place on his body. Fascinated by the angler's wide back, she awkwardly touched his skin with her fingertips, having smeared a pleasantly smelling ointment from a jar on them, and then, having gathered courage, she put her whole hand, starting to gently rub the medicine. She felt an incredible heat burning her palm. Like embers, her friend's body seemed to blaze from the inside as she began to drive her fragile hand from side to side, without specifically touching fresh bruises. While Maria was still collecting ointments, her hands seemed incredibly cold, and inside there was a d.e.s.i.r.e to touch her strong, elastic body again. Soon, she finished applying the ointment to her back and, a little embarrassed by her thoughts, walked around Ichigo on her left, sitting on her knees opposite him and again applying the greenish ointment, smelling of pine and forest, in her hands.

- Usually, I myself dealt with this. - A little unexpectedly said the red-haired man, forcing the girl to embarrassingly lower her face down. "But my hands seem to refuse to obey me now." - He explained the reason for her presence. "I'm really embarrassed that I am creating so many problems."

- Nothing. - The girl answered quietly, slowly applying the medicinal ointment from the bottom up, through the elastic press and until the solar plexus. Looking up, she suddenly slowed down, examining a huge scar right in the center of Ichigo's c.h.e.s.t. Wasn't she able to notice the same on her back?

- Do not worry. Nothing wrong. - Noticing the surprised look of Mary, chained to his scar left by Kugo Ginjou, he said. "Just a reminder that in order for your friends to come to you, you just need to die."

The girl looked in surprise at the brown eyes of Ichigo, hoping to find a hint of a joke there ... but he was not joking. For the first time, she managed to see his eyes so cold, like ice cubes in a glass with a drink, so hard, as if made of steel, so confident in himself, in the words he uttered, in his actions ... This confidence frightened her so much that Maria I could not look away, continuing to gaze into the eyes of her comrade. Now he was a completely different person, completely different from the self that they all saw. Now he was a real self - a man disappointed in others who is looking for a suitable place in his life.

"Sorry ..." she pulls softly, feeling her lungs empty. The girl finally looks away and continues to evenly spread the healing ointment on the man's shoulders, and then on the strong hands. She did not even immediately realize that Ichigo was no longer bleeding - the cut on her left side was already starting to tighten. Maria unexpectedly notes incredible regenerative abilities and is lost in thoughts when her hands rested on the palms of Ichigo, gently squeezing her in her arms.

Unexpectedly for himself, he realizes that the situation is getting out of control. Of course, she left already when he entered the apartment in such and such a state, but now she has completely gone in the wrong direction.

- Probably ... I'm sorry ... I don't know what came over me. - Ichigo is stupid, but gently stretches her lips in a smile and, touching the fingers of her hands for the last time, stands on her feet, dressing what is left of his form with shinigami.

Maria sits on her l.a.p for another minute and only after it has passed does she realize the awkwardness of the situation and is in a hurry to get up.

- Yes. You're right. She nods uncertainly, fingering the buttons of her shirt on her waist. "Will I wash my hands?" - Not knowing what to say to her, she says the first thing that comes to her mind.

"Yes, of course, a washbasin sink." - Nods Ichigo, feeling the tension of the situation. Perhaps she was useless as a fighter, but for some reason she aroused much more trust in him than Marek, Blusom and especially Poong, who obviously darkened something both about his relations with his "family" and about his goals. Of course, he can tell everything at once, but lying at the very beginning is clearly not the best start of cooperation. Therefore, Ichigo did not want anyone to know about his secret.

- Thank. - Maria answers, retiring to the restroom.

Finally, Ichigo is left alone to activate the Clock and watch a message that has arrived recently. He felt a vibration even when Maria applied ointment to his back, but then he did not dare to read it. It is unlikely that the girl will be glad that he decided to drag her into his showdown.

"We agree to accept your terms, Mr. Kurosaki ..." - the message said to Ichigo.

Ichigo carefully tucked the Clock away, hearing quiet footsteps.

- Message? From whom? "Interested in someone writing Ichigo's message, Maria asked.

- So, nothing. Message from the floor administrator. I applied for participation in the "Rookie Race", but I think to refuse. It is unlikely that in my current state I will be able to win. - The young man smiled affectionately, noticing some confusion mixed with relief, instantly replacing the girl's face. "Did something happen while I was gone?" - Not sure yet, but already realizing that something bad happened, he asked.

- Sayou ... attacked. - Feeling not at ease, telling such news personally, Maria only looks helplessly at the floor.

- Need to come back. Ichigo said uneasily, heading for the bunk, from under which he immediately took a bag, from which he took out a healing ointment. "Perhaps some of this can help him." Let's go.

Surprisingly rounding her eyes, the girl didn't even have time to say anything, as Ichigo took her hand and led her to the exit, running off turning off the light along the way and closing the door with a magnetic key card. It took them only ten minutes to reach their team's apartment.