"I guess we'll see what happens," he replied. Since he was already inside the Zanjutsu training facility, he soon unsheathed his Zanpakutou. Benihime chose to take her leave at this very moment, and with it, Daiki returned to his Jinzen pose. "Ja ne... Benihime," he said just before his eyes drew closed.
At the end of the vacation, Benihime returned to the Shin'o Academy. She'd had quite the eventful time home, and would be returning to the Academy to stay there until she was able to graduate. She returned to her dormitory with her Zanpakuto and the things she'd left with, and newly added bandages over her left eye. She was likely among the first to return and seemed move about with no particular purpose. 'I'm really alone now... what do I do?' she questioned herself internally. She'd spent the rest of her weekend away sleeping in Kisaragi Saya's dojo in the Rukongai trying to get over her depression, and put on the brave face she'd need for the completion of her training. Which was something she fully intended to do, if only to make good on the promise she'd made to the hollow Bergamo.
Having never left the academy during this vacation time, Nomura Daiki was the sole student present to greet Benihime upon her return. He was walking around with his sealed Zanpakutou slung over his shoulder when he saw the redhead. "You're back!" he called out from across the room. Shifting in Benihime's direction, he got a much better look at her. His eyes widened momentarily, as the bandages upon her eye were quite a disturbing sight. Moreover, despite any intentions to keep a straight face, Daiki opened his senses to pick up on small fluctuations in Reiatsu. "... Oi. What happened?"
"Ohayou gozaimasu, Dai-kun," she said at the commentary that she was back. Within a few seconds though, the boy's countenance had changed a little bit. Beyond that it seemed, that he was a bit worried and knew that something had occurred. Then again, it had been quite an undertaking and she couldn't well say she didn't feel fairly bad. "Dai-kun you seem a bit worried. It's alright... it isn't nearly as bad as it looks," she said taking a deep breath to say aloud something she hadn't tried to explain since showing up on Saya's doorstep a while after the death of her family. "Umm, a Hollow attacked in the Rukongai while I was out there. Apparently, they hold grudges. Anyways... it kind of blew up my parents house with my parents and brothers inside. They are all dead now... but so is the hollow." she said with a curt nod. But there was something missing from her explanation there was no emotion in it, it was simply the casual statement of fact... she was now an orphan and her entire family was murdered by a hollow.
"That's not saying much. 'Not as bad' as dreadful, is still horrible," Daiki replied. Soon enough, he was given the explanation as to what the redhead endured during her time away. If Daiki thought his eyes had widened to their limit, he was in for a rude awakening by his eyelids, as they certainly stretched further yet. It was one thing to hear that a Hollow had appeared in the Rukongai, but an entirely different matter to suddenly know that it had killed the redhead's family. After a moment of silence, he began walking toward Benihime while slipping his sheath into his obi. If there was anything to be said, he had no clue what it was. All he could think to do was stop in front of the young woman with his arms outstretched.
If Benihime could have thought of a proper counter to the fact that something less negative was still negative, she definitely would have said it. But alas she had nothing, not even something to fill the silence of the man's constantly widening eyes. 'I should say something...' she thought. 'Maybe make a joke about his eyes popping out of his head...' the sentences came out of her head as she watched this young man approach her, while putting his sword away. 'Yep, that's what I'll do...' she opened her mouth to speak as the young man stopped in front of her, but she couldn't say anything. Instead his outstretched arms and general closeness weren't something she could well do anything about. 'Say something, damnit.' she said to herself but she couldn't force any more words to come out, instead a tear fell from her right eye. If was as if she'd gone mute and soon enough she took the necessary step forward and into the man's outstretched arms, partly to hide her tears, but there were other reasons. Because she'd been numb to this entire situation, with her life in danger. Immediately after, she'd tried not to think about it. She put it off while she was at Saya's Dojo, so she could feel like she was a grown up and it was okay, so she could be angry at the hollows. But it really wasn't all of it. She was all alone in this world, and though she didn't have much fondness for her family on most occasions, she couldn't help but feeling emptiness at the thought of them no longer being part of her life.
Though Benihime seemed somewhat reluctant to accept his invitation, she soon enough stepped into his embrace. Daiki took on a tight grip of the redhead's body, rubbing the back of her head with one hand as he did. "Don't hold it in. I'm here for you," he said softly. He could not relate at all to what she felt, but at the very least, he could sympathize. "We'll work to get past this, alright?"
If Benihime had any plans on holding back, her body didn't seem to agree with the idea. Tears continued to stream down her face, as her rival basically comforted her about the death of her entire family. In the tight grip of his young man he rubbed the back of her head, as she cried into his chest. She couldn't help it. It was as if everything she held off for a couple of days finally spilled over into her actual life. 'Damnit, I'm actually crying... and I can't make it stop...' she thought to herself. She'd like to say it was uncomfortable, but with the young man in her presence talking to her and being so nice, she could hardly try and tell that lie nor deny the comforts being offered her. After a few minutes, when she had no more tears left to cry the young woman finally answered some words spoken to her. "Hai, arigatou gozaimasu," she finally managed.
At long last, the young woman spoke again. A smile crossed Daiki's face when she did, and he pulled away slightly to look upon her while speaking. "At least there's still a voice in there," he said. If there was one thing he could admit to, it was this individual's fortitude, even beyond her abilities as a Shinigami. Over the course of the past nine months, he had seen proof of this time and time again. Releasing her from his embrace, he placed his hands upon her upper arms. "Well, my kosode is wet now. How do you feel?"
"Hai, got a voice..." she said a small smile forming on her face, as she was released from this embrace and moved to wipe the tears from her face just a little. Benihime knew several things, and one of them was that a face covered in tears wasn't the least bit attractive. Beyond this the young man commented that his robe was wet, which was very much true, she knew this given how close she'd been to him a few seconds prior to this. She had the grace to look a little embarrassed and began rubbing the back of her head. "Sumimasen... I wanted to stop but it didn't seem to agree with me," she said of the amount of tears transferred from her eyes to his robes. As for how she felt she thought about it, and looked at the young man before her. "I feel empty. Which I suppose is better than the initial numbness, or the anger of a couple of days ago... I wrecked my room at Saya-sama's, she's gonna be pissed," she said thinking about it afterwards. Still the thought of the angry grey eyed woman was a bit of a comfort to the young woman.
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