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And so he did
by afrai

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Here is something Ichigo would never believe, even if you told it to him with your hand pressed, with all the precision of the medico, upon the exact spot on your chest beneath which throbs your still-fiery heart; even if you swore upon the graves of your parents, yes, and upon the graves of their parents too ("watch it," he would say, "that's my grandparents you're talking about"): how did you raise such a skeptic, what secret wells of thwarted sentiment must he draw upon to achieve such unsurpassed heartlessness? But it is true, even so -- his mother cursed him.

It was in the hospital, on his first day in the world, when she put her hand under his perfect downy head and said to him (your son: most welcome of thirds ever to form a glorious crowd, most excellent of boy-children ever to grace the face of this imperfect Earth): "My darling," she said into his flawless shell-like ear, "may you live in interesting times."

-- But he would adorn her with good intentions, as boys who love their mothers do. There are times when you, you are not so sure.

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