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The perseverance of the forgotten
by afrai

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Shortly after they joined the Gotei 13, Yachiru acquired an imaginary friend. Zaraki snorted and said imaginary friends were for pansies, but they set aside an extra bowl of sake for it anyway.

Bob-chan always won at cards.

It annoyed the 11th that Yachiru never seemed able to make up her mind as to what Bob-chan looked like. Sometimes she said Bob-chan was a person ("like you and me, Ken-chan," cheerfully oblivious that any incongruity might attach to the idea of there being anyone who could resemble both her and the massive captain of the 12th division), but sometimes she did not seem sure what sort of an animal Bob-chan was. Once she said he was a storm cloud.

"A storm cloud," said Zaraki flatly.

"He's upset," said Yachiru. "Eh, stop that, Bob-chan!"

When Zaraki had left Bob-chan ricocheted despairingly off a wall and floated over to Yachiru. He was emitting frizzy little lightning bolts, but they didn't hide the fact that he was raining.

"You shouldn't hit Ken-chan," said Yachiru.

"It's not like he felt it," drizzled Bob-chan. "I bounce on his head and I jump on his back and I kick him in the nuts and nothing connects. Damn this rain and damn his thick head! Is the man deaf?"

"It's not Ken-chan's fault he can't hear you," said Yachiru loyally. "He's too busy fightin' to have imaginary friends."

Bob-chan gushed a torrent of rude words about imaginary friends.

"It's not fair to talk like that if Ken-chan can't hear," said Yachiru. "How's he gonna pick a fight with Bob-chan if he doesn't know you're calling him names?"

"Fight with him? I wish I could fight with the moron," said Bob-chan, but the heart seemed to have gone out of him. He issued a last defiant blue-white spark. "And my name is not Bob-chan."

"What is it, then?" said Yachiru.

"Ask him," said Bob-chan, already floating morosely away. But Zaraki never knew the answer.

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