Tomioka san ...your name is Atsushi ?

Chapter 5

"What do you mean tortured !?"

"Ability users are not normal. They are very often cast out. Jinko whose an orphan is no stranger to that. His orphanage from what I can tell did not take kindly to him. And taking hints from his behavior and my own knowledge, I am under the impression that he was abused." Akutagawa answered grimly to the wind Hashira, who along with his colleagues fell silent.

Mitsuri sniffed, brushing back tears."That's  horrible! Atsushi-kun doesn't deserve that !"

"Quite right Kanroji!" boomed Rengoku.

"Oi. As much as I agree with your sentiments, we have to move forward."

"Astute observation Iguro-san" spoke the insect Hashira, "We have to move on and watch, no matter how tragic it may be..."

Not much was remembered by the boy. Everything was so fuzzy and incomplete, like a puzzle without its last piece. He had figured out something was wrong from the start, and he had no doubt Byakko had something to do with it....

"Byakko ?Who's that?" questioned Mitsuri.

"Byakko means white tiger...maybe his ability.."mused Tengen.

Akutagawa answered "You are correct.It is Jinko's ability and she is to some extent sentient from what Jinko tells me."

"Oh,by the way Akutagawa san-

"Akutagawa is fine" the man in question corrected the insect hashira.

"Akutagawa then.Are you and Atsushi san dating?"

All the Hashira smirked evilly at the Mafioso who flushed like an apple.

"We aren't..." coughed out Akutagawa.

"Really, you seem to have a crush on him." said Sanemi with a raised eyebrow.

"I do not."

"Mmmm... Aku ..." mumbled Atsushi as he snuggled closer to Akutagawa still deep in sleep.

Safe to say Akutagawa's face was bright red because of this.

"Not a word" he warned "Anyways shouldn't we be figuring out how Jinko's losing memories?"

"Good point. It seems his ability is blocking memories for him. Traumatic ones most likely" pointed out  Iguro.

Suddenly ,the boy dissipated into his mindscape,one of a beautiful maple forest.Byakko was waiting for him there,her fur glistening in the sunlight.She chuffed in response to the boy and beckoned him closer.The boy ast on the soft carpeted grass,leaning against the tiger's fur.

"Hi Byakko...it's been a while."

"It has kit"

"Why are you blocking memories for me again? I thought we agreed you wouldn't do that anymore..."

".... I had to kit...The memories were sending your brain into an overload...I couldn't risk it again."

The boy recoiled and shuddered. His overloads were the worst. His head banged, his nose bleed he couldn't hear anything except ringing.

"I thought we dealt with everything ,suppressed everything so I would know what happened but not remember what happened to me."

"I thought we did too,kit.It seems like I can't suppress your memories out anymore, just block them out completely."

The boy frowned. He was nothing without his memories and all his memories were pain, so he couldn't be anything without his pain.

"I don't know what I am without those memories. What do we do?"

"Well, we could just delete them-"

"No.Absolutely not."

"Let me finish. Option 2 is that you sort through your own memories and suppress them yourself."

"Option 2"

"I thought you would say that. Whats your location?"

"In my closet .Kyouka chans asleep thankfully, but I'll head up to the roof just in case."

"Talk to you there then."

"So thats how his memories are blocked.I guess we will watch him go through them." said Tengen

The boy, Atsushi sighed and got out of his closet. It was going to be a long night.