Her Guardian Angel
A/N:You guys must be wondering when I would update 'INUGAMI'. I'm sorry to say that it's on hiatus due to some problems, mainly caused by my inability to think of a continuation to the latest chapter, and also due to the fact that I'm on a roll for this story which I'm just dying to type. I know, I should have finished my other stories. I will, but not now. Right now I'm focusing on this one and probably, maybe in two months I'll try to regroup my thoughts and try to post an update for my abandoned fics. Please enjoy.
Disclaimer:Bleach is the sole property of Tite Kubo-sensei. Or Kubo Tite-sensei. Whatever you prefer callin' him.
Prologue
Time: 1750 hours
Location: Karakura Cemetery
Subject: Ichigo Kurosaki
"Hey there, mom."
His deep voice greeted the tombstone as he knelt on one knee to place the fresh chrysanthemums he had bought on his way, before he stood up with his shoulders hunched, hands resting by his sides. A loud thunder rumbled a few miles away as the pouring rain pelted repeatedly on him, drenching his orange hair, seeping through the wet locks and chilling his scalp before drops of them ran down his neck while some of them ended running down in between his eyebrows. A hand was brought up to wipe the drops away from his face. Feeling cold, he stuffed his hands into his front pockets, his shoulders hunching a little bit more. A wry smile formed on his lips as he began talking.
"It's raining again. I know, you're probably worried about my health. I'm fine, really."
He kept silent for a few more seconds, as if waiting for his mother to answer him. Then he continued, his voice missing that rough edge he used when dealing with thugs on the other side of the one-way mirror back at the Head Quarters.
"We just closed a case. Been going on for two months… Ishida messed up in the tracking so it took us a while to pinpoint their whereabouts… But we did manage to catch that guy eventually. And I got shot,"
He removed a hand from his pocket to lift the hem of his soaked grey shirt, revealing the bandage around his abdomen, the faint red from his unhealed wound seeping through the wet cloth.
"but it was nothing that Oyaji couldn't fix. But it hurts… a bit." He added the last statement hurriedly, as if not admitting that the shot wound didn't hurt a bit.
It did hurt, like a bitch.
He hadn't been shot in a while, not since he arrested Aizen. A few days ago when he was shot, he forgot how painful it felt to be taking a bullet. The image of Yuzu and Karin crying for his loss made it all the more painful, especially Yuzu. Young, gentle, sensitive, and pregnant Yuzu. He had cursed out loud and when he went after the fleeting drug dealers; ignoring the burning pain from the gunshot, he and Renji managed to somehow bring down the whole drug operation as soon as back-up arrived. He was hospitalized and was out cold for twenty-seven hours, rested for another two days, and he was walking to visit his mother a mere two hours just after he asked to be discharged (not without a warning from his dad).
A soft gasp from beside him made Ichigo let go of his shirt to cover his bandaged torso and turn towards his right. A young girl with dark brown hair with deep green eyes stood there, looking up at him while a small hand held up a frilly light blue umbrella over her head. Her eyes were glued to his chest, and he nearly cursed out loud when he noticed the muzzles of both his 40 Calibres peeking out from under his parted jacket. He quickly adjusted the leather holster holding the guns and opted to zip up his jacket. His lips turned up into an awkward smile as he knelt on one knee to talk to the girl. He tried to find words in his head to say something to the girl, so that she would not run away from him crying. But being Ichigo, what came out of his mouth in times of emergency never seemed to be of anything intelligent.
"Uh… Hey there. You… alone?"
The girl still had her eyes on his covered chest, her small mouth falling open. Her green eyes snapped up to look at his brown ones as she felt his hand shifting her umbrella so that it would cover her head better.
"Hey, mister. You have guns."
Ichigo tried to smile, but it turned out to be a grimace.
"Of course I do. I'm a cop… But you didn't see those guns now, did you?"
The girl shook her head vigorously, all the while keeping her grip on her flowery umbrella.
"I saw them. What am I gonna tell mommy?"
"Where's your mom? I don't see anyone else with you."
As if forgetting about the nasty-looking guns peeking out from his jacket, the girl smiled up at him.
"Of course nobody's here with me, I came here to see mommy! She's resting over there."
The girl pointed out with a hand and that was when he noticed the wilted daisies in the basket dangling loosely from her small wrist. A surge of pity engulfed him, and not for the first time, he felt like a jerk for asking about her mother in the first place.
"Your flowers are… dying. Wait, where's your dad then? You didn't come here by yourself, did you?"
The girl shook her head and skipped past him towards her mother's tombstone, and placed the basket with the dying flowers in front of the stone bearing her mother's name. With her chin, she motioned towards the tombstone next to her mother's, and it didn't take a genius to process what she meant.
Something twisted his gut, and he had never felt as insensitive as he was at that moment. It seemed like the most natural thing to do when he took the girl's hand and offered to buy flowers for the girl's parents.
"But mister, I don't have money."
"I'll buy them for you."
Time: 1759 hours
Location: Dirty Secrets Pub, 37 degrees due north of Karakura Train Station
Subject: Shishigawara
The trembling man was haphazardly thrown to the floor. His wrists and knee caps jarred as he hit the hard concrete on all fours, and a bead of sweat dribbled down a temple as he slowly lifted his head to look at the person seated on a large leather couch in front of him. The eyes of the men that lined the walls of the room glowed almost amber in the half-light. The man on the floor stared at the seated person, in the way that a cornered mouse would look at a cat.
"Evening, Shishigawara-kun." said the shadowy figure.
Shishigawara shrank away, his breath uneven and shaky. His knuckles turned white beneath the bandages covering them from his tightly clenched fists.
"You let her run away.You let a girlrun away. You dorealize that you failed me again, don't you? And yet you had promised to not do such disappointing mistakes."
Shishigawara licked his lips and swallowed. "L-listen, Tsukishima-san…" he choked out. "I swear. I didn't know. I didn't know that she was that clever to use the air vent. And the cops... there was a road-block, sir-"
"Oh really?" The man in the chair leant forward.
His apathetic eyes stared the trembling man down as he snapped the novel which he had been reading shut, and that small gesture sent shivers down Shishigawara's spine. That small movement hid so much anger in it, even as Tsukishima had a small smile playing on his lips.
"Because to me, Shishigawara-kun, it seemed like the cops had a mutual friend in our…" Tsukishima motioned to the men in the room. "Friendship group. Someone who knew about our every move." He continued, leaning forward even more, resting his elbows on his knees and bridging his fingers together at the tips, book already forgotten as he placed it on a coffee table.
"Someone like you... Shishigawara-kun."
Said name gulped. The men in the room shifted back uncomfortably. They knew what was coming, and however many times they had seen it, it still wasn't pretty. Tsukishima was angry, furious, under his cool and calm exterior layer.
Shishigawara crawled towards his boss shakily, and stared him in the eye, scared every moment.
"P-please, boss. It was an accident. It'll never happen again." His stomach churned at Tsukishima's steady gaze. "Please. I promise you. The next time I come here I'll bring her back. I'll never fail you again."
Tsukishima smiled."You made that same promise before, Shishigawara-kun."
He feigned a hurt expression as he put a hand over his heart. "But you lied to me, Shishigawara-kun... How could you lie to me again?"
Shishigawara was sweating uncontrollably. "N-n-no, boss."
"And you know exactly what happens to liars here, don't you, Shishigawara?"
A nod, with tears beginning to form at the edges of his eyes. Tsukishima smiled even more at this reaction.
"So then, I hope you don't disappoint me again, Shishigawara-kun."
Thankful that his boss gave him another chance –again-, the sweating man gulped and let out a relieved sigh. He stood up shakily, and gave a salute to his still-smirking boss.
"I won't disappoint you again, Tsukishima-san! I'll step out of here and I won't return until I get my hands on that girl, Sir!"
Tsukishima nodded, his smile never widening or faltering, as he spoke up. "Good. You can go now."
Nodding enthusiastically, Shishigawara quickly turned around and left the room through the double oak doors leading to the long corridor of the upper level of the pub. As soon as he was out of sight, the smile fell off Tsukishima's lips, and his dark eyes turned almost red with rage as he voiced out between controlled anger.
"I want each one of you here to find that girl, and keep an eye on Shishigawara-kun."
A collective "Yes sir!" was heard in the room, before Tsukishima picked up his abandoned book to continue reading.
"I want Orihime Inoue captured before she gets to the cops. She had seen too much."
Time: 1803
Location: Five block away from the Dirty Secrets Pub.
Subject: Orihime Inoue
It was raining hard, but she didn't care. Despite her bangs sticking to the back of her neck and on her forehead, Orihime continued running. For once, she didn't care if she stepped on some toes and elbowed through several stomachs as she continued running away from thatplace. She had gotten what she wanted, gripped tightly in her hands, and all she had to do was find the police station.
No, not now. I need to hide somewhere first, gather more evidence and I'll... Onii-chan, I'll finally...
She crossed the road even though the traffic light still flashed green and cars whizzed past her, several honking furiously as they nearly ran into her. But she didn't stop, and ignoring the confused, incredulous stares from others, she continued running. Even as her lungs burned despite the cold rain pelting against her, soaking through her light blue hoodie and chilling her to the bones, she took a left turn after her favourite donut shop, the donut shop she used to eat all her favourites and drink peach-scented tea with her brother before he died; but she couldn't think about those memories now as she had another important matter in her mind. She must hurry to the cemetery; that was the only place where those criminals wouldn't try to find her and that was the only place where she could hide for a while. Her apartment wasn't safe anymore.
"I'm near."
She whispered to herself as she climbed up the stairs leading to the big shrine in the middle of the cemetery. That was the only place that was left for her to stay at.
The shrine came to view, and she hurriedly took shelter and uncurled her fingers to reveal a flash-drive. She swallowed as she realized that that very flash-drive was all that she had to clear her brother's name and finally bring down the bad people who killed her brother. Those people who ruined her life, inside out. She smiled shakily as she clutched the small device to her chest, her teeth chattering from the cold.
"Just a few more hours and-"
"-We'll take you to Tsukishima-sama."
Her eyes widened as five men in dark leather jackets appeared from behind her. She backed away from them, and gasped in horror as her back hit the wall. A thunder rumbled nearby and the lights went out, causing her to swallow. She nearly gave up as the men closed in on her, but the thought of going back to Tsukishima and the hell hole he called his palace made her steel her resolve.
The muscles surrounding her ankles retracted as she got ready to sprint through the window a few steps to her right.
Time: 1805
Location: Karakura Cemetery
Subject: Ichigo Kurosaki
He stood behind the girl as he watched her place the newly-bought daisies in a white ceramic jar in front of both her parents' tombstones. The rain had slowed down a few, but still pouring. He held her umbrella over head for her as she prayed for them; a small smile wormed its way to his lips as he heard the girl telling her parents about her school –she was nine years old and she was drinking milk everyday to grow healthy and tall like her daddy- and she also told them about this funny-scowling cop with a kind heart carrying two guns beneath his jacket and also a lot of cash that bought her flowers. She even told them about his orange hair and that in his other life he might have been a tasty tangerine. His smile fell at that somewhat-compliment.
Geez, everyone talked about his orange hair.
"Thank you mister. I'll be going now. Obaa-chan's waiting for me at home 'cos she can't walk, you know. So bye!"
She cheerfully smiled up at him as she took her umbrella and skipped away. He watched as she disappeared down the steps and out of his view.
"Strong girl, isn't she?"
The orange-haired Kurosaki nodded. Realizing that there was no one else near him, he raised a brow and turned to the voice.
He nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw the nearly-transparent ghost standing right next to him. He swallowed down the would-be shriek and scowled at the brown-haired ghost who he belatedly noticed that it was floating, and it was wearing a dark-blue suit complete with a dark blue tie.
He hadn't seen ghosts in a long time. He had grown up seeing ghosts, but the last time had been when he, Hisagi and Rangiku closed a serial murder case involving a murdered eight-year old girl.
"You're a ghost. What are you doing here?"
The ghost laughed self-consciously and rubbed the back of its head. "So you can see me, huh? I should have expected that though, because you nodded when I spoke up just now."
And so I did.
"So? What do I need to do?"
The ghost looked at him, a confused smile in place. "Sorry?"
Ichigo ran a hand through his messy hair as he turned around slightly to face the brown-haired soul who hadn't crossed over for some reason.
"You have some unfinished business here, right? If not, then you're supposed to cross over to thatplace."
Momentarily amazed at Ichigo's knowledge, the ghost smiled. "So you understand why I'm here."
The orange-top shrugged. "I grew up seeing ghosts."
The nameless ghost nodded, and finally it began to sigh. "I see that I've found the perfect person."
Ichigo raised a brow. "For...?"
The ghost lend out a hand, and realizing that Ichigo couldn't actually touch a ghost, he smiled instead.
"My name's Sora Inoue. And I need your help."
Ichigo waited for another few seconds for the ghost to let out a deep sigh before he continued.
"Please protect my sister."
He had heard of many requests from ghosts before, and he grew up helping them as best as he could. He had helped an old soul to bury the body of her one and only dog, which had been her companion until she died. He had even helped a man deliver his love letter to his fiancée whom was about to marry some other man. But he had never heard such a request.
"What kind of-"
Sora's mournful eyes stopped him. "Please, Ichigo-kun."
As intimidating as he was, it was a fact that Ichigo Kurosaki was a real big marshmallow to such innocent-looking eyes. With a resigned sigh, he reasoned that Sora's sister might be some little girl staying at an orphan, or probably living with a foster family. He could figure out something as a means to protect that probably-small-little-girl-with-brown-eyes-and-brown-hair. He could... probably watch out for bullies or such. He forgot to ask the ghost how he learned about his name as he spoke up.
"Fine... What's her name?"
Sora seemed to be sensing something, before he smiled meaningfully at Ichigo. "Her name's Orihime Inoue. And... she's going to be here in a second."
Less than a second later, Ichigo heard the voice of a woman asking for help and footsteps nearing. He turned around, and saw a woman with long, odd-coloured hair running towards him.
Suddenly the image of the cute-looking little girl with brown eyes and brown hair so much like Sora's that Ichigo had been picturing in his head crumbled to millions of pixels.
"You've gotta be shittin' me."
A/N:So, how was it? I intended this chapter to be longer but I decided to make this a short prologue instead. Sorry for some mistakes that I have and have not noticed when writing this story, I really appreciate you reading this fic in the first place. ^-^
Hugs and kisses!