A Hollow Crown

15 - There's Always Time

"Someone to stand at my side. Two extra fists in a fight!

Why should the road be long and lonely, why not team up we've only got tonight!"

— Partner in Crime, Tuck Everlasting the Musical

Kyoka Suigetsu hummed as she walked about the Kurosaki household. It was late at night, a part of her namesake hung high in the sky. It was her first time in the World of the Living, so she would dedicate as much of this house to memory as possible. It was like whenever Aizen got to drink a new tea for the first time, taking in every sensation. It was that same memorization that led him to hold a grudge against a certain tea shop, which he said had the worst to ever exist... And if a certain teashop manager went missing around the time of Aizen's 'death', that tidbit was kept hush-hush between the two of them.

But she wasn't just wandering about for wandering's sake. This would be her one chance at meeting Ichigo and Zangetsu officially and she wasn't about to waste it! Why couldn't she meet them in Las Noches? She could only go a certain distance from Aizen before she was pulled back to him, and the Kurosaki residence was much smaller than Las Noches. Walking up the stairs, she felt for Ichigo's spiritual pressure. It was strange, a mixture of Hollow and Shinigami with something else she couldn't recognize. It was also dense, like a neutron star... or a compact ball of string. She was just about to go into Ichigo's room when the aforementioned owner opened the door.

Except it wasn't Ichigo, as Ichigo's eyes weren't blue and they didn't glow. And while Zangetsu's eyes glowed, those peepers were lemons with jaundice!

"Who are you and why are you possessing Ichigo?" Kyoka scrutinized him like bacteria under a microscope, delivering the question like she was interrogating him. And if this guy didn't play nice, it would go down that route rather quickly.

"I'm one of his spirits, specifically his Quincy aspect. Zangetsu is calming him from a nightmare at the moment." The Quincy aspect was rather calm about the whole thing. Kyoka, however, was concerned. Was it a regular occurrence for Ichigo to have his spirits possess him? Since Ichigo wasn't fighting back, it likely was. He gestured for Kyoka to move, her following him down the hall and stairs. All of his movements seemed sure and confident, as if he knew every square inch of the house. They came to the kitchen and Kyoka glanced over to the couch in the living room, where Aizen was currently sleeping. She was going to need him awake for this whole thing, two heads better than one and all that jazz.

Walking over to him, she leaned over. His hair was an utter mess and there was the slightest line of drool with an arm over his chest, the other dangling like a limp noodle by the couch. He looked so peaceful, finally getting the vacation he deserved.

Which is why Kyoka Suigetsu hated what she was going to do next. She sat down next to him, inhaling and... "WAKE THE FUCK UP, SHINIGAMI!"

"I'M NOT DOING THE ZANJUTSU EXERCISES YOU BALD FUCK!" He looked to Kyoka and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then he looked to the Quincy-possessed-Ichigo and shifted his body to sit facing the front. Quincy-Ichigo walked over, face drawn in a neutral line.

"Ichigo's Quincy aspect?" Aizen deadpanned, voice riddled with tiredness and with a look somewhere between tiredness and irritation with the slightest smattering of annoyance. Quincy-Ichigo nodded, not giving a response, though the only way they knew that was that his eyes went up and down for a second.

"And your name?"

Quincy-Ichigo thought for a moment before setttling on something.

"Juha."