Beautiful Blind Eyes

Blink

Ikkaku walked along a road in the human world at sunset. He was on patrol, waiting for something from Aizen's army to dare provoke him. Preparing himself for the war the winter would bring. The summer heat was coming up in waves off the pavement, sending shivers through his vision. At the moment he was in his gigai form, carrying the wooden sword he always had. Ikkaku hated the laws of the living about weapons, he liked having his Zanpakuto close to him.

A wave of heat danced through his vision and suddenly a small figure was sitting a ways ahead of him. It had not been there a moment ago and this piqued Ikkaku's interest. He quickly transformed into his full soul-reaper form, leaving his gigai by the side of the road. He slowly approached the figure. As he drew nearer he saw it was simply a girl, human by the look of her, in a simple white dress. She was sitting on the ground, gazing off into the distance, head slightly tilted to one side like she was listening for something. When he got a few feet from her she spoke.

"Who's there?" she didn't turn her head to look at him, "Come on, speak up. I know someone's there." Ikkaku was taken aback. Human's shouldn't be able to see or hear him in his soul-reaper state. He concentrated for a moment and found that under his immense spiritual pressure was a another signature. But unlike his spiritual pressure, which was loud and powerful, this pressure was calm and controlled, ebbing and flowing around the girl.

"Come on, who are you?" she was getting impatient now.

"Uh, hi." Ikkaku said haltingly still not sure what this girl was exactly.

"Alright, that's a start. Come. Sit down. It's to hot to be out walking anyway." she patted the ground next to her and Ikkaku, still suspicious, sat a few feet away, hand on his Zanpakuto.

"My name is Rose, What's yours?"

"Ikkaku."

"Ikkaku..." she whispered, "Such an interesting sound, like the calling of a strange bird."

"Ph! Are you insulting Me?" Ikkaku jumped up. The girl, Rose, straightened quickly.

"No! No, it's a wonderful name, much better than Rose. Your name, Ikkaku, has such a lovely sound. I like it very much." Ikkaku slowly sat down again, confused by this girl. They sat in silence for a while.

"So why did you ask me to sit with you? You have no idea who I am, I could have hurt you."

"I didn't think you would." she said simply.

"That's stupid. If you knew anything about me you would know to fear me."

"Well I don't doubt that." she muttered

"What did you say?" Ikkaku was indignant.

"Just that I don't doubt your power."

"Oh... good." Ikkaku was a bit startled by the lack of sarcasm, since coming to the human world he had experienced much more of it than in the Soul Society. He had thought they all used it.

There was a slight lull in the conversation. Rose bit her lip.

"Ikkaku... please don't get mad, but you're not a normal human are you?" Ikkaku's eyes widened then narrowed. He sprang up, grabbing Rose's wrist and lifting her to her knees.

"Who told you? Are you working for Aizen? Are you an Espada?TELL ME!"

"Ow! Ikkaku! I'm not an... Espa-whatever, and I don't know who Aizen is please let go of me! Ikkaku! Please! Ow!" Ikkaku let go of her wrist and Rose sat back on her heels, rubbing her wrist.

"How do you know?" Ikkaku leaned close behind her and his voice was dark and low.

"I... I have a gift." She seemed hesitant to talk about this gift. "It's called the second sight. I can read auras, at least I think they're auras. When certain people come close to me I hear a sound and I see a light that sort of outlines them. The sounds and colors of theses outlines vary and so does the intensity of the color. But you, well you have a special aura. I've only vaguely sensed auras like yours before, they seem to flash by like lightning strikes. But one thing is always the same for them, they all have a silver outline. Usually these auras are like an average human's but recently they have become immeasurably stronger. You have one of these intense silver-lined auras. That in and of itself intrigued me, but there's something else..." she drifted off.

"Well, what is it?" Ikkaku squinted at her, leaning forward.

"The color of your aura... it changes. Usually it's a blood red which is a sign of a violent spirit but then sometimes it grows veins of black. I've never seen an aura do that."

"What does black mean?"

"It means..." she sighed, "It means evil. But something tells me that it's not... not, right. Not a true evil."

Before Ikkaku could react, she suddenly stiffened. "Oh no." she breathed, "I have to go. Please meet me here tomorrow same time." she searched for something with her hands. Ikkaku picked up a small white rod the length of his hand that was lying next to Rose. He handed it to her.

"Is this what you were looking for?"

"Yes, thank you." she grabbed it and stood up. Rose hit a button on the rod and it extended into a long thin cane.

She turned and looked at Ikkaku fully for the first time.

"You will come, right?"

"Yes." Ikkaku looked into her eyes for the first time. They were a mixed brown green color. They were also glazed, her pupils a pale gray instead of black. Rose turned and walked away tapping the cane in front of her. It was then that it dawned on Ikkaku, Rose was blind.

Rose kept walking. His aura slowly faded as she got farther away and the other aura grew as she approached. She stopped as a woman came running up to her.

"Rose! Where have you been? You should know not to go out!The Society will punish me if you go missing! Come on." the woman roughly took her elbow and pulled her down the street, toward their home.

Ikkaku put his gigai back on.

'When certain people come close to me I see a light...'

'I've only vaguely sensed auras like yours before, they seem to flash by like lightning strikes...they all have a silver outline..."

'...they have become immeasurably stronger...'

He thought on Roses words as he walked away. It suddenly hit him. Rose could detect spiritual pressure. That was her second sight. But it seemed it was more than just that, she could tell your personality. He was certainly a violent spirit.

'It means evil.'

But there still lingered doubt about what Rose had said. Was he evil? Or was it something else, were her instincts right?

_Author Comments_

I am utterly horrified at the lack of Beach only (non crossover) fanfictions there are! So I just had to post this. I had the idea a little while ago and honestly, I really like Ikkaku's character. I think he's kinda under rated in the series. I find the characters that are almost insanely into fighting (i.e. Kenpachi, Ikkaku) fascinating. ^-^ I know its weird =/, But I DON'T CARE! =D I think it would be good to let Ikkaku have more screen time. Oh and I am currently on episode 143 so please no spoiler comments. Like don't comment 'Oh didn't you know Ikkaku dies!' or something. (I don't know if he actually dies to anyone wondering) I mean let me have my fantasy OK? OK. Good. B)