Despite having escaped from the Menos Forest with the person he as supposed to escape with a few days prior, Gin still didn't feel like sharing the details of his life with the man. It was obvious that the person was in fact curious about the events that had occurred since he had left Soul Society, but he was in truth too polite to ask questions.

Ichimaru stirred the fire, his senses constantly alert due to the fact that he honestly didn't feel his only enemy to be hollows, knowing full well that many hated him. Truth of the matter was, he was used to people hating him and didn't expect any other kind of reaction. He expected the same when the soul reapers came to retrieve him.

However, sometimes the memory of Rangiku crying over his mangled body would surface. Or course, that was easy to push aside because it really wasn't a good memory that he wanted to focus on. The memory that was hard to get rid of, was of the small taicho looking up at him with those bright teal eyes of his.

Sure, the eyes that time had been filled with sleepiness, but it was obvious that the child had wanted him to stay. There had been no hatred in those eyes, despite the fact that Gin had tried planning his movements out so that said child would end up hating them. Instead, the teal orbs had begged him to stay.

"What am I going to do after this?" The silver haired man said the words out loud, not realizing that he had in fact said them.

Ashido stirred the fire. "I am getting the idea that even after rescuing me from that pit, you don't think your actions are enough to make up for the sins that you feel you have committed."

At that, two pale teal eyes turned to look at the man as words were carefully chosen."The things I've done aren't things I can easily make up for."

"Is the sin that you carry in your heart truly the sin you perceive, or is it the sin of guilt." The man continued with what he was doing. "If it is something that you are afraid of facing, then you should simply just face it."

The place then became quiet again and Ichimaru glanced up at the stars, thinking over the words but not letting them change his mind at that point. AS the silence protruded around them, there was suddenly a sharp noise from behind him, and both found themselves jumping. Ichimaru moved around one side, while his companion moved around the other, jumping on what had been spying on him.

At that, there came a large amount of screaming. "Don't hurt Nel! Nel never was going to hurt you!"

Gin found himself wincing at the toddler that stood off to the side, her two companions having been knocked unconscious by the two of them. He then noted the mask on the top of her head and found his mouth beginning to twitch, knowing full well what it meant to have a mask in this place. However, the green haired child suddenly looked at their clothing.

"Oh nos! You are shinigami! The shinigami are going to kill Nel!" At that, the child began to burst into tears and Ichimaru found his facial features softening.

Kano though let out a deep sigh. "I know you. Your that odd ball group of Arrancar who were following Rukia's friend around."

"Rukia... that name sounds familiar." At that, the toddler stopped crying, and her nose began to drip.

"Her friend had orange hair." Kano gave the child a weak smile.

At that, Gin let out a deep sigh. "You're speaking of Kurosaki Ichigo, the son of Kurosaki Isshin."

"Ichigo!" The girl's baby talk was starting to get to him and caused him to stick a finger in his ear due to the discomfort. "I like Ichigo. Is Ichigo with you?"

"No... we're by ourselves. But you can trust that we're friends." Ashido smiled down at her, then scooped up her two friends to haul them over to the fire, which caused Ichimaru to give him a rather shocked look. "Don't worry. If they were dangerous, I don't think that group would have let them follow around."

"Didn't you come here though to kill all Hollow?" Gin slid back into his spot, only to have a very sticky child climb into his lap, causing him to suddenly wince, more memories of another sticky child surfacing.

"I don't know how to explain that. That was what I came here to do, but that seems to be something that I really don't care about anymore. My killing them here had no effect on the world of the living did it?" Kano gave a half smile, almost as if his understanding of things had been changed upon meeting the Soul Reaper.

At that, Gin sat down and looked up at the sky. "You don't know if you have anyone to go back to though, do you?"

"I have that young Soul Reaper. To be honest, as old as I am, it is about time I start teaching the younger generation and worry about those things. When I became a Soul Reaper, none of us really expected to be the one to last this long." The man then turned to Ichimaru. "The question is, do you have someone to go back to? Is that part of the reason why you are running away."

"Do you mean to ask if I am running away from them, or do you mean to ask if I am running away because I have nowhere to go any more?" Ichimaru looked at the man, carefully thinking of his words. "I have a couple of people I want to see again, but I doubt that they would want to see me again."

"You won't know until you face them, that is the honest truth." The man stated, setting the two hollows against a cropping. He then went to make sure that the fire gave off no signs. "Something tells me that you are lying to yourself there, that you know full well that they would want to see you again."

Ichimaru choose to ignore him and instead turned his attention to the small child who was kicking her legs up in the air as she lay on her stomach on his lap. The corner of his mouth grimaced, as he personally believed fully in the idea that children were supposed to be seen, not heard. He could easily deal with the quite children, but this was a completely different matter.