Happens a lot for me, he had said, and it took her a moment to figure out whether he meant the meeting-people-you've-met-in-another-life-and-not-remembering-them thing or... getting late utility bills. He must get a lot of late fees.

But no, even she knew better than that. There was something oddly devastating in the casual way Kurogane-san mentioned it, even if she recognized the attempt to mollify her (don't let it get to you). It was difficult to swallow -- he was talking about losing friends and seeing them again and having them forget like it was all a very ordinary, everyday thing. Monsters, she had initially thought, were the worst things this place could throw at her; she never even considered all of these tests to her psyche.

But she wasn't the one directly suffering. Because there was a time when Kurogane-san had met an Orihime, and they'd gone window shopping and sipped lemonade beneath an oak tree and were good friends and bonded -- and she remembered none of it. It was one thing if she was the one who'd lost a friend, but--

...but hadn't she, in a way?

"Nn, thank you for the advice, Kurogane-sa-" Wait. They used to be friends, right? "...Kurogane-kun. I've been informed, but I-"

... Something clicked, and she noticed now, the way he kept glancing out of the corner of his eye, the message she had seen on the bulletin.

"Ah. Have you been looking for him?"