I hated the city we lived in, and I was sure I would hate the next one my parents were making us move to.

The city wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had the bad memories attached to it. We lived in Sereitei, which was about as modern and contemporary as you could get.

As I stared outside the airplane window, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I took my earbud out and turned, seeing it was my younger brother Naoki who had tapped me.

"Mom's trying to talk to you," He said, motioning to our mother, who was staring at me.

"You don't have to sulk so much, Izumi," She said. "You should be excited, this is a fresh start,"

"Oh yeah," I rolled my eyes. "Moving again for the hundredth time, and during the last year of high school? Yeah, I'm definitely excited,"

Dad overheard me and looked over. "No need for the attitude; you'll soon be happy when you see where we're going,"

For some reason, they insisted on keeping our new town a secret and claimed it was a surprise for us.

"I think I know why you're upset," Mom said. "You're sad to leave your best friend behind, right? Can't you just talk to her over Instagram or something? They make it easier for you kids to stay in touch nowadays,"

My annoyance grew even more at the mention of that absolute psycho of a girl.

This girl was what you would call my "ride or die" back in the day. She and I used to be inseparable, but she did something horrible to me that I can never forgive her for. I'd rather not speak to her again or mention her name. I despised her.

I never opened up to my parents about that, either. They assume that we're still friends, and it's not like they care to know anyway.

I put my earbuds back in and reached for a book to read to pass the time.

Just as I got to a good part of it, Naoki elbowed me.

"What?" I said and paused my music.

"We landed,"

I sighed, dreading the unpacking. They've been planning this move after junior year ended, so our furniture and their cars are already over there. Some of Dad's friends helped him with all of that.

I put the book back in my backpack and stood when the flight attendant told us we could leave.

Naoki and I followed our parents off the plane, and as we walked through the airport, I couldn't help but notice the name "Karakura Town" on all the boards.

I couldn't believe it.

"Are we in Karakura Town?" I asked.

Mom turned to me with a grin.

"Yup, your father took a job offer here, and we plan to stay here for a while," She replied. "I knew you'd be happy to return,"

I didn't know how to feel.

I had three close friends back then, and I knew they had probably forgotten me by now. I felt a mixture of nervousness and relief. Karakura Town held my good memories, and I never even wanted to leave in the first place.

Maybe I'll meet new friends. I doubt I'd find my old ones and that they'd even remember me. They may have moved by now. We moved the summer after fifth grade, so it's been a long time.

"If your cars are already at our new house, how are we getting there?" I asked as we stood outside the airport.

"A friend of mine is picking us up," Dad replied. "I knew him back in high school. He's the one who offered me a job here; he took over the company years ago,"

I nodded.

Naoki was unusually quiet. I looked over at him, seeing that he seemed nervous. Probably for the same reason I was, just the idea of being a new kid again.

My thoughts were cut off when a black Maserati with dark-tinted windows parked in front of us.

The window rolled down, and a man who appeared to be the same age as my parents waved at us. He had brown hair slicked back and a strand hanging down his face. I was pretty surprised at the kind of car he had.

"This guy must be loaded," Naoki whispered to me.

I nodded in agreement with him as our dad started talking to him.

"Izumi, Naoki," Dad said, turning to us. "This is my friend Sosuke. We were friends since middle school,"

Sosuke greeted us. "Nice to finally meet you guys. Ryuji's told me a lot about you two,"

We all got inside the car, and he started driving off.

The car ride was awkward. Naoki and I were on our phones the whole time, and our parents talked to Sosuke.

"Izumi, right?" Sosuke said, looking at me through the rearview mirror.

"Yes," I looked up from my phone.

"Ryuji tells me that you're entering high school. My two sons go there, and you'll probably meet them," He said. "They're about the same age as you,"

I was about to respond but got cut off by Dad, who gave directions to Sosuke.

He seemed like a nice guy. I vaguely remember Dad showing me pictures of them in high school.

We then parked in a driveway. The new house was big compared to our old one. It was one of those nice suburban-style houses.

Sosuke got out of the car to help us gather our things.

"Do you guys need help unpacking later?" He asked Dad.

"No, we should be okay. Thank you for everything," He replied.

With that, Sosuke got back in his car and drove off. His Maserati was pretty loud. You could hear it down the street.

"Alright, guys, pick your rooms," Mom said as we entered the house.

Naoki and I looked at each other competitively and immediately rushed to the staircase. I wasn't going to let him pick the bigger room.

The room I picked had a walk-in closet, and I smirked when I saw Naoki walking in.

"I'm picking this one,"

"Not fair! This room is the biggest one," He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Sucks to suck," I held my smirk. "Guess you'll have to wait till I move out,"

He shook his head at me and walked out to find a different room. Luckily, my new room also had a view of the backyard.

Now, it was time for the fun part of moving: unpacking.

It took the entire day to unpack everything. My parents didn't think to organize boxes when they sent everything here. As I emptied a box, a Polaroid photo fell onto the floor. I looked down, and a small smile spread across my face.

My childhood best friend, Ichigo Kurosaki, was in the picture.

That day the photo was taken, I insisted on taking a picture for the memories at an arcade. Ichigo was being stubborn about taking a picture, but I persuaded him. My arm was around his shoulder, and I had a big smile while he scowled and had a light blush on his cheeks.

My parents loved him, and Naoki even liked having him come over.

The more I observed the photo, the more guilty I felt for not keeping in touch with him all these years. I'm sure he had either forgotten me by now or hated me for not talking to him after we moved.

I walked over to the lights on my wall with clips and hung the photo there. I needed to find Ichigo or talk to him again somehow.

I sat on the bed and decided to see if he had any social media accounts.

Of course, when I found his Facebook profile, the last picture he posted was seven years ago, and it wasn't even a picture of himself. He was nowhere to be found on Instagram either, so he probably goes by a different name there. I sighed with disappointment when I knew I wouldn't find him anywhere.

My parents did say that we start school in two weeks, so maybe there's a chance I'd find him at Karakura High. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not me simping for Aizen as I wrote him. This is my first modern AU story, so let's see how this goes. Also had to throw in the "nice guy" line for the irony lmao, he's not a villain in this story though 😂