The English version of my "Uśmiech Anioła" story.
Fire. An extremely high fire. A blurry shape of a house visible through the flames. The surrounding is covered by a thick mist, a semi-transparent one. The eyes cannot get adjusted to the sudden flash of light, and the ears cannot cope with the shriek that sounded from far away; the shriek of a child in misery.
Someone's hand, grasping the woman's hurting shoulders wakes her up, almost causing Hina to fall down to the ground. Laying on the bed, she wipes her eyes uncomprehending. After all they had been blinded by a field of flames cutting her way out of the fire.
'And just what are you going about, Miyazawa?' the woman heard an irritated male voice right by her ear and finally opened her eyes of honey-coloured irises just to see a dark blurry silhouette standing above her in her very own room.
'I'm talking to you, Miyazawa!' The woman felt her head about to explode, throbbing from the pain caused by the very recent hit she got. She parted her swollen lips to speak, but simply couldn't bring herself to let out any sort of sound. Along with that came a stingy feeling all over her throat; Hina swallowed to bring herself a bit of ease, but the action brough her even more stingy pain. Tears run up to her eyes and she gasped.
'Hina?' the girl heard another voice; it was softer and more gentle this time, belonging to a woman. Right after it occured, someone lit the lantern hanging by the door and the room suddenly filled with a dim orange light, merging with the moonlight darting from the outside.
She blinked a couple of times and held a hand up to her throat, eyes darting from the silhouette above her to the one that appeared along with the dim lantern. Hina did recognise her room, yet still couldn't fully comprehend where she was at that certain moment. She had no idea how she had gotten there; in fact the only thing she recognised was the katana sword hanging on the wall right across from her; her zanpakutou.
'Miyazawa Hina? Is everything alright?' yet again the same delicate – almost divine – female voice.
Hina's eyes shifted towards where the sound came from and parted her lips again to speak, but she failed yet again. The only sound the girl managed to utter was a creepy rough murmur, straight from the throat, completely unmatching the slender frame of the girl. Hina dropped her sight and entwined her pale fingers together, resting them in her lap.
'Hiroi-san, please leave Hina to me. I will try bring her some ease,' the divine voice seemed to be drawing closer to the bed and this time Hina closed her eyes tightly to manage to recall what has just happened to her and to the surrounding.
She felt her mattress pushing downwards a bit under the weight of a person sitting down on it. Was that the angel?
'Hina, can you hear me?' yes, this was defintiely the angel. 'If you do, nod your head twice.'
Quite a moment had passed before Hina could comprehend and react, nodding her head just ever so slightly. Her eyes were still clamped as if she wanted to avoid looking at the divine creature that had come to help her. However she really did need it.
'You do hear me, yokatta,' a silent, delicate voice suddenly sounded right beside her ear and Hina twitched, raising her head; it occured she felt chill overwhelming her forehead and realised that two female hands were placed upon it.
'Does that feel better? Do you feel less pain now?' Hina nodded her head yet again at the question, feeling an amazing relief. And so it happened that all her memoried suddenly struck her with all their force. The woman felt a stingy pain in the sides of her head and gasped. After a long moment she opened her eyes very slowly and a weak smile crawled onto her mouth.
'Unohana-taichou...' she managed to utter with struggle, feeling her throat burn again.
'Hush, Hina. I can see you are getting better...' captain Unohana – as Hina called her – brushed her black hair away from the forehead and stood slowly, taking away the lantern from the side of the girl's face. 'Rest for a little more and let me go to the quarters of the fourth Division to bring you some special medicine for your throat, okay?'
The girl agreed, nodding briefly.
'You had been screaming a lot through the night tonight,' the woman spoke, walking off towards the door and she only stopped to turn and look over her shoulder at Hina, leaving a narrow slit between the door and the frame as soon as she walked out. The moonlight darted yet again into the room.
Hina took a look around her room and her thoughts began to spin around that certain period she had lived through the last couple of hours before the help arrived; the same scene over and over again; the aggressive fire indulging innocent people, wooden houses and the same terrifying shriek of a child sounding from far away.
She was right about to clutch at her head, but in time she realised the moonlight that lit a narrow strand of the floor disappeared, fading to black. Hina raised her eyes to see what happened and that's when she saw a fair-haired figure standing at the door. The woman did not notice anything other than a silver reflection in the other's hair, and anything other than the well-known white captain's haori hanging loosely over the other's shoulders.
She sat without a move, waiting for any sign from the figure. The silence fell for a couple of moments and only then the silhouette moved and opened the door widely to enter the room. The moonlight blinded Hina for a brief moment and caused her to narrow her eyes and that allowed her to recognise the incomer; and it was that moment that her golden eyes shot open.
'C...captain,' she barely managed to utter one word when suddenly the figure appeared right by her side, putting an ice-cold, bony finger to her heated lips. Hina noticed the odd smile that would usually merge with a grimace when she would watch him from the distance. Hina felt her head spinning from the very touch of Ichimaru; it took one one stroke for her to feel at ease.
'Hina,' it was enough that he spoke her name with that half-whisper that he had reserved just for her to hear. It was only her who had the privilige of tangling her fingers into his silver velvety hair strands whenever she would feel blue; it was her only who was able to change that half-mocking, wide smile of his into a loving one gifting the man with gentle kisses on his cheeks. It was her only who knew when he felt blue. And finally it was her only who managed to bring him the joy of life each time it happened. Only her; the very same weak, slender girl long ago taken away from the fire as an act of a miracle, only to commit suicide afterwards. He felt guilty for not being able to decrease the fire, not being able to svae her family. She felt miserable to have been left alone.
Hina – and it only took his to say her name for the second time to have the girl kneel by his side and embrace him with her weak arms, pushing her own black-haired head against his chest. She needed shelter and it was only Ichimaru who could give it to her.
Gin Ichimaru. Just how many times the woman could repeat his name; getting up in the morning, getting dressed, fulfilling the daily duties in Seireitei, resting after a hard work, watching the sunsets, going to sleep. His name always brought the awaited ease and peace after a tough night spent on shrieking and fighting the imaginary flames. His name gave her the strenght to live on; because she had someone worth living for.
Hina felt Ichimaru's hands tangling into her black hair, gently stroking her head. The pain was immediately gone. No memories could possibly stir the moment now, they were of no matter; it was just her and Ichimaru now. There was no past, and there was no future. She focused on the now time, trying to get the most of it, herself giving twice as much in return.
In the room lit only by a dim moonlight remained unbothered silence. Even the creatures and the animals of the night seemed to try and find themselves place away from the third Division's barracks, away from Hina's room now.
The door were closed without a sound. In the last moment, between them and the frame, one could see a fading smile of an angel.