Lies of Sand (Tier/Ichigo)

Despite everything, Ichigo wasn't sure he felt much better than he had. He had Orihime. By all accounts, that was all he'd wanted. That should have been enough for him, should have been enough to simply cut his efforts short and let him exist in peace.

But that wasn't the case. And as he stared up at the dark, empty sky of Hueco Mundo, he still wasn't sure what had struck him more deeply. The anger Orihime had toward him, or the fact that he'd gotten her back only to realize he was still losing her again.

"Tier."

He didn't have anything much else he could say to her right now. He was thinking. Planning. Doing his best to figure out what he ought to do next. And that took a lot of energy, something he didn't really have very much of. Laying here, speaking so few words, it was a necessity, really.

After a few more moments of silence, Ichigo spoke with something that loosely resembled confidence. The spark of that moment where he had cut Tier down was still in him, and as he turned to properly face her, he spoke a bit more confidently than before.

"Yeah. I know what I have to do now. She's dying. I'm not going to let that happen."

Ichigo knew that there would be far more calamity if he pushed for this. If he continued to search for the 12 Rings of the Dead. But that was something he'd accepted already. He'd chosen to walk this path knowing that it might turn the whole world against him. If Orihime hated him too, then so be it.

"I need to find the rings faster. Before it's too late."

That was surprising, but Ichigo didn't have time to care about surprises. It just meant it was new information he had to take into account here and now, without waiting for time to think on it. It was like the old days, he supposed. Choosing without time to think, doing what his instinct told him.

"Where?"

Ichigo's voice wasn't quite threatening, but there was still a power behind it that made it abundantly clear he wasn't going to simply lie down and wait for it to come to him. He couldn't afford to. But he wasn't going to fight Tier for it unless she put herself in his way, either. She'd become a friend, and these days, those meant more to him than maybe they ever had.

Hearing her name was like ice water in Ichigo's veins, a feeling he'd grown increasingly used to in the past weeks. He hated this. Hated the entire situation. But he was here, and he'd already resolved to keep walking forward. Even if the whole world was against him--

Even if his friends here were against him. He'd keep walking forward.

"Fine."

He began to walk, no particular drive to it. He could have gone more quickly, could have used sonido or told Tier where to go. But he didn't want to. He didn't have the energy. And, in a way, Ichigo simply didn't wish to hear that conversation, out of a simple fear for how it might go. He would move forward no matter what, but that didn't mean he would like the circumstances.