In the Darkest of Nights, the Moonlight Dims
A/N - Hello readers! Here is a new story I've been wanting to write for quite a while now. This piece takes place within the universe of Bleach, but is AU after the current arc. The circumstances, nuances, and intrigue will be revealed to you throughout the story. Please review if you could be so kind, so I can see if there is an interest in this story. I will try to update 1-2x a week depending on my schedule. Let me know what you think, and most of all, enjoy!
"What do you think you're doing?" Ichigo questioned as the icy particles chilled his face. "We need to get home now."
"Afraid of the dark are you?" Rukia asked, clearly making light of him in the best way she could.
Ichigo knew better than to fall for it. He had experienced enough in his twenty years so that one wouldn't liken him to a child's fear. "You know what comes in the night," he said. "We've no business risking anything tonight, supplies are low."
"Are you so sure?" She asked him. "We haven't seen any of them around here for months."
"I just have a bad feeling, that's all," Ichigo said. "Remember the last time they attacked? We lost-"
"Don't." She cut him off sharply.
"Then you should know very well why we need to go back."
She understood quite plainly, though she would never admit it to him. Her restless hand found its way to the hilt of her white scabbard, drawing her zanpakutou halfway to make sure it hadn't stuck in the cold. She sheathed it with a clang.
Ichigo glanced at the setting sky with an uneasy worry. Nightfall is a gamble, and they are deep into the frozen woods where only the most harrowing of horrors reside. It is forbidden to the lot of them, but their mission was of importance, and of folly.
Rukia began to share her partner's unease. This was their second year in this new hell, and the hopelessness of it all was overbearing. It had been two years since he killed the king, since everything changed.
Ichigo pulled on the thick black hood of his cloak. The wind's chill was ever growing. The familiar weight of Zangetsu hung at his back, proud and true. "It's going to be a long trek back," he spoke softly.
The two bode fairly well in the cool. The snow was almost up to their kneecaps, and each step was heavy and taxing. Even in the worst of times, they were both comfortable being in the presence of one another. It felt reassuring, no matter what.
Even so, it surely wasn't the dark they were afraid of, light of a joke as it were. Not until tonight, anyway. The sun's ever looming light was beginning to simmer down. There was something out there, waiting for them. Waiting for the right moment to take another away. It wasn't a hollow, or a common beast of the wood. It was something more sinister than that, something dangerous, and foreign.
It had taken Ikkaku last month while he was on watch duty, leaving only tattered remains and bloody gore.
It wasn't just the Grendel they feared. It was bloody freezing.
The temperature was dropping by the minute. Ever since the worlds collided with one another, the seasons had been erratic, unstable, and especially severe. There were blistering hot summers, devastatingly wet springs, and worst of all, the long cold winters. It had almost been one revolution since the last winter began, and Ichigo couldn't remember a time where he tasted the supple of fruit or grain. He could only recall the taste of big game, and even that was becoming exceedingly scarce.
He looked aft to his companion.
Kuchiki Rukia. Black of hair, short of stature, and soft hues of blue in the eye. She was his lifelong partner, best friend, and most loyal companion. She had survived the Great War like he, even if out of pure luck. The God in his heaven had not the time for ants, as pesky as they would appear to be. In the end they were nothing more than what they were, ants.
Their time in the purgatory, as they had come to call this, had not been kind to them. Between the two of them alone, they could have aged a combined ten revolutions in such homely conditions. Gone were relaxed features of her face, the smooth, cream of her skin. In their stead was almost a thousand yard stare. Her brow was furrowed heavily, her mouth curved in an almost perpetual scowl, and her eyes dark and weary.
"How far do we have to go?" She asked him abruptly.
"Well, I don't know really." Ichigo admitted.
"The Captain-Commander will be furious."
"I will be sure to place the blame on you, then." He said while retightening his obi. "I didn't see you keeping track of time while we sulked through this frozen wasteland. For us to come back empty handed, that will be the true disappointment. "
"This is the furthest any of us have ever been out." She added. "He will not be disappointed in the slightest in that respect."
"Fools gold." Ichigo murmurs.
"Indeed, you are a fool." Rukia quipped. "But if we ever hope to expand what little civilization we have, we must make it past this wood." She shivered as the wind pushed harder. Her companion took notice.
"Are you okay?" Ichigo asked with mild concern. He reached over and pulled her hood up and over her head. She gave a small pout at the kind gesture.
"I'm fine." She uttered softly, adding her unwilling thanks with a nod of approval.
Rukia gave a glancing eye to their surroundings. Nothing but the howling of wind and sheeted snow, the dead bark of tree, and the unnerving quiet of the lifeless wood. There is no life in this place, and they know why. The game and beast fled from these haunted grounds, and for good reason.
"A couple more miles, and we should be out into the clearing, and out of harm's way." He reassured her in spite of himself.
She bit her lip. "Is that so?"
Ichigo stared blankly into the dark. "Yeah."
She looked unconvinced, but pressed on anyway.
Their heavy steps left tracks in the thick sheets of snow, large enough for any novice tracker to follow. Instead of wearing the usual garb of a Shinigami, they now wore something much warmer, and much more durable. Thick, dark, leather boots warm their feet, and under their usual shihakushou, two layers thick of leather and finery kept their core insulated.
Ever since the collapse of the worlds, their invisibility began to fade ever slowly. Eventually they found themselves not as spirits, but as the same tangible being as everything else in the now unified world. Bar their spiritual pressure, they kept their abilities, their zanpakutou, their minds, but spirits and the living were now one in the same.
A shuffle in the distance caught the corner of his eye. He stopped dead in his tracks. She followed in his suit.
"Rukia?" His voice trembled uncharacteristically.
Her hand fell to her blade. "What is it?"
"Can you feel that?" He asked in a barely audible whisper. "Over there, beyond that fallen oak."
"I can't feel anything Ichigo." She emphasized the word carefully.
"Think we should light a fire?" He spoke quietly. "They say the creatures are afraid of fire and light."
She nodded almost immediately. "I'll get to it."
They swept up the dry tinder from their surrounding area as quickly as they could. The hair on Ichigo's neck stood up in sheer terror and urgency, but he worked meticulously anyway.
The thick crust of the snow would prove difficult to get a fire started, but they would welcome the warmth of fire as much as it yielded protection from the demons. In the night they could only hear the rustling of dead leaves, the wisps of chilling wind, but something was out there.
"Flint?" Ichigo asked.
She reached into her knapsack. "Here."
He took it and matched it against Zangetsu's steel. Sparks of fire spread over the tinder slowly but it grew even against the wind and wetness of the floor. He blew into the fire only once, in fear not to kill it. He had to let it breath on its own. Rukia reached over and added some more twigs to the birthing flame.
"That should do it," He said. "The fires growin'."
They both huddled around the light, for it was now all but pitch black in the wood. The moon now hung overhead, gifting what little light that it may. Ichigo scooted closer to Rukia for some of her own bodily warmth, but found her shivering in both maybe fear and chill. He took her hands in his with a gentle caring, and led them near the flame. She nodded, and spoke nothing, as no words were needed.
"We have to be more than close now."
She looked at him curiously. Sure enough they should be close, but she didn't have a shadow of a doubt now. Something was waiting for them out there in the dark, creeping. It would not be to debase one's pride to admit they feared the creature. Fear was good, fear meant they still held their sanity.
There he saw it, out of the corner of his eye again. A pale shape in the deepest of the wood. Ichigo turned head to his companion, and tightened his grip on her calloused hand protectively. Zangetsu hung on his back, and he would be sure to use him if it came to it.
"Do we make a run for it?" Rukia finally spoke her mind.
Ichigo grimaced deeper than his usual scowl. His eyes were heavy with tire, his movements slower than their normal, and he could scarcely feel his own limbs in spite of the cold.
"The snow runs deep." He let a small smirk get past. "Think you can run in it?"
"Is that a height joke?" She didn't take much offence. "Well, you're probably right. Running will be nonetheless difficult for someone as petite as I."
"Figured as much."
The fire was waging a war against the blistering winds. It was a war that it would eventually lose, and they would have to make a break for it sooner or later.
"If I carry you, it will leave us with less than a defense."
She nodded in silent understanding.
"Check your blade for the stick, we are going to need it."
She did, and found it difficult to unsheathe. She pulled it out and held it over the fire while it still gave heat. "You will want to heat yours up too, Ichigo."
He pulled Zangetsu off of his back and looked at him appreciatively. More often than not Zangetsu saved him from the most troubling and dangerous situations, and today proved to be one of those times. He stuck Zangetsu into the burning flame.
Another sound came from the wood.
"It's definitely here." He admitted to himself. He drew Zangetsu from the fire, it shining red with heat, and he stuck him into the snow. Steam and the sound of hissing emanated from the icy sheath. He drew it out and inspected his steel. "Much better."
Rukia followed in his suit, and found her blade sharp and ready for cutting.
A gurgling squeal, a howling shriek. Human words couldn't describe the horrible sound coming from the dark where no eye could see.
Ichigo heard the breath go out of Rukia in something akin to terror. "It's here." Her voice cracked, and the few syllables she uttered were broken in pause. She held her blade, and pulled off her hood in hopes for better sight. The howling wind ceased, and but the otherworldly hiss remained.
Something loomed in the dark, and it was coming closer. It had watched, and waited, and now its wait was over. The shuffling of snow could be heard in the distance, the breaking of branches, and the lurches in its hoarse breathing.
Likewise, Ichigo's breath hitched, and he drew Zangetsu with all his might and heady bravery. The fire around them had been reduced to just a couple smoldering embers, the ashes of the burnt tinder and eddies of smoke dissipated and torn asunder.
The moonlight seemed like it was fading, its shines against his inhuman blade dwindling.
The growling ceased.
The wood was completely silent. All that could be heard in the night were the ragged, panicked breaths of the two friends. They looked at each other curiously, but Ichigo returned his stern and powerful gaze into the night.
"Is it gone?" Rukia spoke quickly. It was barely a question.
"No." Ichigo replied. "It's here."
For a heartbeat, there was complete peace and tranquil in the wood. The snow fell softly through the dead trees and comfortably to the ground, which looked akin to a beautiful painting. The moon hung high up in the night sky, as it always did and shone down to the mortal plane.
Then a set of eyes reflected brightly in the dying moonlight, and another, and another, and another. From them came a vicious call of something that could only be described as absolute horror, as it pierced the ears of the two travelers. In a second, it lunged from the shadow.
Zangetsu fell to the floor, shattered and broken.
