(A/N) Hey guys!
This is the first story that I am doing without my little sister [animekisses], so hopefully you'll like it. There IS an OC in this. I know, I know. Most OCs suck, but please give this a chance. I will not be instantly jumping into the HisagiXOC romance, seeing as how I like character development. It is a little dark, so be prepared. =) Thanks!
-Sme
"Hisagi! There's a survivor!" The dark-haired man turned, eyes filled with surprise. "Where?" Renji pointed to the body of a girl coated in layers upon layers of blood. Hisagi quickly pushed his way through the chaos and over to the girl. Her hand twitched slightly, but there was no other sign of life in her. The breaths she had to be taking were too shallow to even notice. Rushing to keep her alive, Hisagi picked her body up. "We need to get back." The statement was only a whisper, but the ears of his fellow shinigami were keen. The two men disappeared with the girl and the room was, once again, flooded with darkness.
Its face lurched towards hers; the knife-like pincer gleaming in the light. Its dark laugh filled her ears as its hand began painting her legs again. With their blood. Their blood. She screamed.
He was gone; it was just a dream. Just a dream. But the screaming did not cease. The voice echoed in the small room. My voice. Two women, nurses, tried to calm me down. It wasn't working. My whole body thrashed against them. Straps, they thought straps would help. Wrong. I screamed louder. Too many memories. Too much to contain. The needle was their solution. And darkness was my fate.
She watched as the life left their eyes and the blood trickled down. "Stop it! Please! Stop!" Her desperate cries were drowned out by the gargle of another fading into nothingness. "Where is he? Tell me and all of this will stop." The sneer on its face told her otherwise. It didn't matter though. She had no idea where he was. It had been years, but this thing would never believe her. She could do nothing to stop it. They were dying and she could do nothing. All of them were dying. Children. They're just children.
My eyes shot open, but I couldn't move. The straps were still in place. The room was the same; white walls with a few paintings hanging around, but it held a soft glow. Strangely, there were no windows to cause such a glow. In fact, there was no obvious source of light at all. It seemed as though the room had its own ambiance; like this lighting was chosen to relax me. It's not like anyone here would know harsh, unnatural light makes me uncomfortable. But who brought me here? Was that thing here as well? Did it bring me here? No, it left me to die. So who saved me and why? Do they know what wants me dead? They couldn't. No sane person would help me if they knew that thing wanted me dead. What would it do when it finds out that I lived? But what can it really do, except kill me? It has already taken everything that I had.
We weren't technically a family, not many of us have our real families anymore, but we were as close as you could get around here. Years ago, when I was only 10, he came and saved me from a group of older boys. He stayed with me after that, always saying that I needed protected and that no one else would do it. More and more people came to join us, mostly children who were left at our door by unknown strangers. We never turned them away. We adopted the family name 'Amparo', a name that means protection/ shelter. He was the one who protected us and made it a shelter, but he left. He never said why he left; he was just gone. And then it came. It killed them all. I could do nothing.
The door jostled, pulling me out of my thoughts. The dark-haired nurse remained stoic as she entered with a tray. She was followed by two men. The taller one had red hair pulled back by a hair tie. A white cloth partially covered the tattoos on his face. The other man had short, black hair. Scars ran down the right side of his face. The left side had the number '69' tattooed on his cheek, with a blue, stripe tattoo running above it and across the bridge of his nose. Both men wore Shinigami robes and bore the 'fukutaichou' insignia. It wasn't the fact that I was in the presence of two fukutaichous that caused my heart rate to increase; it was instead the shinigami that entered after them. It was him, my best friend. He left so many years ago. He never said why he left; but now, his reasons are clear. He left for the academy.
-Third Person POV-
His eyes widened when they fell on her face, but he did his best to hide it. He had a mission. The Soutaichou was counting on his reconnaissance. Renji spoke first. "Yo, I'm Abarai, Renji fukutaichou. This," he gestured to the dark haired man, "is Hisagi, Shuhei fukutaichou and this is Rikichi." After saying Rikichi's name, her gaze rested on him. "We need to know what happened, what attacked you." Renji paused, waiting for her to speak. She said nothing. Her gaze appeared haunted. She wanted to scream at him.
'It's your fault!'
'You left!'
'You're the reason they're dead!'
She couldn't form the words. They wouldn't justify the murders. They wouldn't bring the children back. It was hopeless. She was left to carry the words, the feelings and the images all on her own. She was alone. She wouldn't rely on someone else ever again. She closed her eyes, tuning the shinigamis out. Darkness overwhelmed her as she fell into a tortured sleep.
"Well, it looks like it's up to you, Rikichi, to figure out what happened. You up for it?" Renji asked the young shinigami. "Yes sir!"His reply was enthusiastic, but his mind was dreading the thought of stabbing her with Wareta Kagami [Shattered Mirror], even though he knew it would not harm her. It's the only way he could help her, and maybe make up for leaving her. But still- stabbing his childhood best friend was not a pleasant thought.
Rikichi took a deep breath while drawing his zanpakto. Cautiously, he walked to the bed and placed the tip of his blade above her heart. "Remember, Wareta Kagami."
Memories flooded through Rikichi's body, memories that didn't belong to him and that he wished he couldn't see. When the onslaught of memories finally ceased, he pulled his blade free of her body. To anyone who hadn't seen this technique before, the lack of injury on the girl's body would be surprising. However, to the fukutaichos behind Rikichi, this was nothing new.
"Let's go. The Soutaicho is waiting on us." Hisagi stated before walking out if the room. Renji nodded to Rikichi and then followed Hisagi. Rikichi paused. He glanced back to the girl he once he knew so well, and said his final goodbye. She would never forgive him, not after that.
