It seemed that you weren't going to get any dinner tonight. You had lost track of time after you blacked out. To top it off, you also needed the bathroom, Ichigo didn't take you earlier. You didn't want to wet yourself, but you wondered what would happen if you did try to call him over. His house was detached, so he couldn't say that you were screaming for help. You decided that however long had passed, he would've had time to cool off by now.

"Ich-" you coughed, like a loser. You tried again, "Ichigo?" Yeah, he'll totally have heard that, he better have heard it, since it was his own fault your windpipe was almost crushed. Almost. After a few more attempts, you finally managed to call his name to a point where he should be able to hear it. You couldn't stand up, but even though you weren't close to the roof of the room, it should've been loud enough. You waited in anticipation, but no one came. You shuffled uncomfortably on the floor, the cold metal chain clanked as it hit the floorboards.

You just needed to make a loud enough noise. Breaking something was probably unadvised, since you couldn't even see your belongings, and you doubted you had anything that could make a clear smash sound. You tried calling out once again, but no response. You gave up and let yourself sleep some more to recover your strength. You wondered if the reason there was no response was a form of punishment, or maybe Ichigo was somewhere else, like his rehabilitation. You wondered if the nice lady at the office was wondering: 'where did Ichigo's friend go?' or if she thought: 'poor Ichigo, the only friend he had is a wanted criminal.'

The next time you woke up, you needed a drink. You were hungry too, but it was worse to feel your throat dry, especially when the only thing you could really do was call for your captor. You were really starting to need the bathroom now, so you kept your legs crossed for who knows how long.

"Learned your lesson?" You heard Ichigo ask. You hadn't even heard him come in, you felt too weak. You nodded, then realised it was dark. You tried to speak, but nothing came out. As expected, he passed you a bottle of water. You drank it greedily and gasped for air after chugging the whole thing.

You were guided on the steps again, blindfold over your eyes, then happily used the bathroom. Your eyes were still adjusting to the light as you splashed your face with cold water to hopefully clear your foggy vision a bit.

You looked at dark circles under your eyes and messy hair. You ignored dark marks on your face and body which hurt to touch. There was a knock on the bathroom door. "Time's up y/n, come out or I'm coming in," you stumbled as you turned towards the door, and fell on the floor face first. The door opened, then you felt yourself being pulled upwards, then carried somewhere. Where? It was hard to say, you were in too much pain to be bothered to look around. When you were put down, it came into your mind the idea that you were in Ichigo's bed. Why you made this assumption? The soft fabric wrapped around you smelled of strawberries. You were tired, but also restless, you didn't want to let your guard down around him.

Before you came to your senses, you felt something press against your lips, and you pulled back. The image in front of you became clear, Ichigo was feeding you soup. You didn't want to eat it, it could be poisoned. Though your stomach grumbled, you shook your head, "I don't want any." Ichigo frowned, though you expected it. You turned your head, looking forwards, and you heard the clank of the bowl on the bedside table on your left side. Ichigo pulled you upright and span you ninety degrees, so that your legs dangled off the bed.

"You need to eat something," he said, trying to make eye contact with you. You shook your head. "If you don't eat I'll force you to," you closed your eyes tightly and clenched your fists, expecting another hit. This didn't come. Instead, Ichigo had decided to feed you mama bird style. Instinctively, you pushed him away, however, this didn't turn out the way you wanted it to. He was just on top of you now. At this point, you really needed to breathe, so you gave in and swallowed the soup-saliva mix. Not wanting to repeat the grotesque act, you let him spoon feed you.

You felt better without an empty stomach, but still a long way from feeling fine. You thought again about clubbing him over the head with something and making your escape to the front door just meters away, but your gut told you that an even worse punishment would await if you acted out.









The detective sighed. Another day without any leads. She had read newspaper articles for the past four hours, and it was getting dark. As Maki started to gather her things, ready to go home for the day, the phone rang. She let it ring once, twice, "this is Maki Masa speaking, what is the nature of your concern?" As she listened to the woman on the phone, she sat down again, pulling her pen and paper closer to her, writing down notes. "Yes, thank you for the information, I'll be sure to look into it."

With one last glance at the article, she left the office. The words were carved into her mind. 'It was like looking into the sun,' they repeated. The time read 19:46, quite a late time, but this needed to be prioritised. Maki needed to pay a visit to Ichigo Satou.



Ichigo opened the front door after there was a sharp knock on it. "Hello, who is this?" He asked with a smile.

"My name is Maki Masa, I'm a detective. I hear you've been seen with someone called y/n l/n recently, do you mind if I come in and ask some questions?" Ichigo opened the door fully to let her in. He sat down on the other end of the sofa from her. "Would you like anything to dri-"

"No thank you, I only need to ask some questions then look around, I have a search warrant." She cut him off. She had expected more of a reaction when she mentioned that she would search his house, but the person sitting across from her seemed as calm as someone who had just arrived home from a pleasant walk.

"Feel free, I have nothing to hide, and I hope I can help you find y/n, I'm worried about her as well."

"Can you describe your relationship with l/n?" The detective's eyes narrowed, and her hand tensed, preparing to write anything that he said.

"We met when I walked into her on the street, a little over a month or so ago. She offered to help me get to my appointments, since I'm no good with directions."

"Did l/n know where you live?"

"Yes, she spent a few days here after she was evicted from her apartment, but I haven't seen her in a while."

"She must've been desperate if she wanted to stay with someone she barely knew."

"Yes, she was, but I think she felt confident enough to stay because it would be hard for me to try anything, she could probably easily fight me off if I tried." Ichigo heard the sound of pen on paper.

There were a few more questions, how he got money, other people he had spoken to, then he had his phone checked.

'I went out to buy milk, I'll be back soon!'

"This is the last you've heard of her?" Ichigo nodded. Perhaps y/n had been wearing her strawberry clothes, then the real criminal saw it as a perfect opportunity to target her and pin their crimes on her.

"Alright, I need to look around now." So she did, she checked the kitchen, the bathroom, the spare room, and even rummaged through every drawer in Ichigo's room. She found nothing. As she was about to give up, she noticed a thick string on the ceiling. The end had a little accessory on it, probably to make it easier to grab. This must be the attic. "Mr Satou, do you mind coming into the attic with me?"

Ichigo led the way. He flipped on the light switch, which he didn't take too much time finding, and waited as Maki looked around. "There's not much up here," the detective spoke softly. Ichigo announced that it was more storage space than anything. The attic was small, but then again Ichigo didn't live in a very big house. Most of it's contents were boxes, which had been inspected, and only contained some old books, written in braille, or some stuffed toys, which Ichigo was probably too old for now but didn't have the heart to let go.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Maki was now at the front door again, saying goodbye and giving Ichigo contact details in the event that y/n showed up. "One more thing, Mr Satou, you shouldn't let people without identification into your house so easily ."

She had expected to get a reaction at this, something completely different from the relaxed Ichigo he had been the whole time, however, the person in front of her only nodded and thanked her for the concern, followed by a "good luck on finding y/n." As she turned away and heard the door close behind her, she knew she was back to square one, and that her investigation had once again reached a dead end.