Feel The Rhythm Like The Rain On Your Hands
Part Three:
Decisions
Today, I was woken up about three hours earlier than I usually would wake up for school when I heard two voices arguing in my kitchen. Silently I crawled out of bed and crept down the steps only to find Mirai and Akane yelling at each other. As I came closer, I could make out their words, "Mirai-chan! I realize you are her lieutenant, but I can't allow you to stay here! She is my responsibility!" That was obviously Akane and since when was I His responsibility? Before I charged in there yelling at Akane about being a control freak and a jerk Mirai stepped up. "Akane-san, you hurt her deep! She summoned me from the Soul Society because she felt alone in her heart! Not just cause a friend dared her to! And since when is having her for a best friend a responsibility?" I smiled inwardly, Mirai had my back on this one, and I promise to myself I'll have hers if the time called for it. But I knew better than to relax, Akane has always been one to argue and never give up. "Look, Mirai. We both work for the Soul Society and we both work under Yamamoto-sensei. You should be helping me not her." I looked down, I remember just two days ago when he'd hug me and promise to be back. Now, I don't even want to be within sixty square feet of him. Mirai suddenly threw a rare china cup at Akane's head, but sadly; he ducked. "You think, just cause we are on the same side, that'd I'd trade in Captain Ai-Kitty-chan for you? If it wasn't for Ai-chan, then you wouldn't even be speaking to me!" Mirai lost it; she tackled him across the room and started beating his face. Punch after punch Akane kept repeating the same message. "Are you a traitor? Are you a traitor?" Over and over, the words burning into my skull until I had to lean on the wall for support. I slid to the ground, my mind becoming fuzzy, my thoughts raging, and my heart breaking. Then nothing, my world had turned to black.
I sat up fast, almost banging into Mirai with a bowl of chicken and rice soup. But with her quick movements, she balanced the bowl on top of her head, the glass of apple juice on her left knee, and the bag of grapes in her mouth; Mirai never ceases to amaze me. "Captain, are you feeling well? You passed out in the hall while Akane and I were…" she explained while setting everything down on a try near the bed. "Mirai? Thank you so much. You stuck up for me when I was unable to. You are the sister fate forgot to give me." Tears had welled up in her eyes and she quickly wrapped her arms around me sobbing about how happy that made her. Well, something to that extent, I couldn't really understand her; she was after all talking into my shoulder blade. "Captain, today I am in charge of you. You will stay in bed and rest, chicken and rice soup every couple of hours and fruit galore!" I smiled at her, she was about two years younger than me, and yet, she acted like he older sister, ironic no? "Mirai, you don't have to do this. Technically I'm not our captain, and I'm not in charge of you." She giggled at the sight of me trying to get out of bed, and screwing up hilariously. "I know I don't have to, but I want to! For all the years in your past life, you took care of me when I was sick and well. I'm just doing what I want! So lay back down young lady and get some rest!" I immediately fell back into bad and crawled under the covers. She smiled happily and shut off the light, but she walked back in seconds later. "What's wrong Mirai?" She looked around in search of something. "Captain, do you still fall asleep to music?" She asked moving my clothes around in my closet, searching for my CD player. "Yes, and it's over there on the desk. Right next to the stack of Gothic Sports Manga." She walked over to it and began pressing buttons randomly. "Okay, so here is my disk. I want to play track 19. What buttons do I press?" She started poking at all the sides now, even the ones without buttons on them. "Press the button on the very top to take out my CD and just set it on the table. Then once the top is closed with your CD inside press the button with the arrow facing right. That will make the CD start at one. The two arrows next to it change the song numbers." I easily explained to her. She nodded and put the CD in and put the number to 19. Suddenly Rainie Yang's Li Xang Quing Ren started to play. My eyes felt heavy and my body soon became numb as I drifted off into sleep.
My breathing had become rough and rigid as I continued to sprint up the hill towards my father.
I was so close to grabbing his hand until he turned his back to me and walked away.
Pathetically I tried calling him but he didn't hear me.
He kept walking without me.
I laid on the ground trying to regain my breath to chase after him once more but it seemed impossible
It became harder and harder to breathe
Until I saw a silhouette of a person; a boy to be exact
He was tall and muscular
Even though I didn't know who he was I put my hand in his; I trusted him
As soon as I was on my feet able to breathe again
A heavy weight banged against my chest
He pushed my down, right off the side of the mountain
I tried to scream but to no avail; it seemed that I was about to die
Could this actually be true?
I closed my eyes accepting the inevitable
But I felt nothing; nothing but soft air
I looked up and saw the silhouette of a young girl
She pulled me to safety and smiled.
I sat up in bed, a cold but refreshing sweat stuck to my tired body. I stepped out of bed, stumbling a tad bit but easily regaining my footing as a flash passed my door. I walked out of my room slowly and quietly only to find Mirai running through out my home looking for something. "Mirai-chan? What are you looking for?" She quickly turned to face me, still frantic. "Captain! There is a hollow! I have absolutely no idea where my charmer is?!" She began to run again, almost knocking the table in my kitchen over. I just watched until I walked up stares into the first room on the left side. Waking over to her desk, I opened the middle of three drawers and pressed the purple star. Out popped a watch that looks identical to mine, only purple and white. I casually walked down stares and tripped Mirai as she tried to speed past me. "Captain! Why the hell did you just trip me when I'm trying to find my…. My charmer!!" She snatched the watch out of my hand and took out her purple key. "Stage one! Awaken the flames and eliminate the enemy!" She screamed as a white light engulfed her body. When it faded, she stood with her head high, her long black hair in a side ponytail. Her short purple bangs hung perfectly in place. She was wearing a short sleeveless purple dress with two black belts hanging loosely on her hips. She wore tall black boots, which accented the size of her legs perfectly. To make it simple, Mirai was gorgeous. "Thank you so much Captain. Now please go back to sleep!" And with that Mirai had disappeared in the blink of an eye. I sighed and walked into the kitchen, opened a pack of ramen, and let it begin to boil.
A sat there staring into space until I felt a very familiar spirit pressure right behind me. "Akane-teme, what do you want?" I said turning to face the familiar boy. "Is that anyway to talk to your best friend? The one who helped you live since you were young? The one who you ditched for that damned lieutenant!" His temper had officially gotten the best of him; this wasn't going to be a polite talk at all. "Don't you ever and I mean ever talk that way about Mirai-chan ever again! Or I'll kill you." He chuckled and walked closer to me. "That's some pretty big talk coming from a pretty little girl, isn't it?" He said putting his index finger underneath my chin, raising it to meet him Magenta eyes. "Back off Akane-teme. I don't want to be near you, let alone smell your nasty ass breath." He growled and raised his hand, about to hit me in the face when an arrow hit the wall right next to his head. Using the distraction to my advantage I punched him in the gut and ran over to Uryu, who calmly pulled back another arrow. "Oh, now you're looking for protection from a lowly Quincy? How pathetic." Uryu growled under his breath and shot an arrow towards Akane's face, but in a matter of seconds he had disappeared from sight and appeared right behind us. Uryu stepped back quickly but Akane still managed to grab his arm and flip him over his shoulder. As Uryu's body hit the ground, a loud grunt came from the back of his throat. I charged at Akane with a kitchen knife and slit his left side. "You've become a burden, Aikawa-Baka!" Uryu stepped in front of me protectively, as Akane stepped closer. "Back off Akane, or whoever you are." Uryu said dramatically. It didn't do much good, seeing as how Akane kept walking closer. I sighed, beginning to get a headache. I took out my turquoise watch from my pajama pants pocket, and swiped the key through it. "Stage One! Feel the rhythm pulsing through your veins! Let power explode like a firework!" I yelled out, allowing my first form to appear. I immediately appeared behind Akane and threw him onto the stove, making my boiling pot of ramen fall on top of his head. He screamed out in utter pain as he ripped the hot pot off of his head. "You're gonna pay for this Aikawa-Baka!" And with those last slightly threatening words, Akane left the building.
Only seconds after he left, my stage one disappeared and I began to sway. Luckily Uryu caught me before I fell. "Hey! Aikawa-chan, are you alright?" I stood up wobbly, but nodded holding my head. "I'm just a little sick. Probably cause the fact that there is all this drama going on." He took my arm and put it over his shoulder, then put his other arm around my waist. "Look, I'm gonna take you to bed. You need a lot of rest from the looks of it." Out of nowhere I got really really cold and I could hear Mirai yelling in pain. "Mirai-chan! Uryu, she's hurt! We have to find her!" He looked at me, weighing his options. "Fine, but only cause you know where she is." And with that he helped me out the door to find Mirai.
I was following Mirai's spirit ribbon when Uryu and I came upon Chad, Rukia, and Ichigo fighting along side and injured Mirai. My eyes grew wide whenever I saw the huge gash in her side, and yet she was still fighting as strong as Ichigo. I began to get angry, making my power surge, and making Uryu let me go from the intense energy flow around me. But what made me explode inside was the fact that Akane was just standing there, his face burned by the way, watching all of these innocent people get hurt. He was a fucking soul reaper! He could be doing something, but no! He has to be a jealous prick and let Mirai come close to dying! All my power was released at once, jumping at the hollow still in my human form. I landed on it's head and punched right through the first layer, the second layer, and when I hit the skull it cracked which made the mask crack on the hollow. "You fucking monster! How dare you hurt her! I'll kill you then I'll kill you Akane-teme!" I kept punching and punching until the hollow shook me off. When I looked up from the ground I was staring strait into the almost completely destroyed mask of the hollow. "Why hello there, who might you be? I seem to recall you saying that you'll fucking kill me? Yeah, not today!" He spit some nasty looking bug things at me and made a screeching sound with his tongue. I felt mini explosions occur all over my body, creating burns and causing blood loss galore. "Captain!!" Mirai screamed when she saw all the blood squirting out of me. I stood up again; head down and shaking as Ichigo had to hold back Mirai from running towards me. "Hey you, you think you're all that and a bag of chips don't cha? Well guess what? I'M ALL THAT AND A BAG OF SKITTLES!" I screamed and shoved my fist into the hollows mouth. I grabbed its tongue, and smiled. "Taste the rainbow bitch." I said and pulled, ripping the tongue strait out. It began flailing around screaming in pure uncut agony as I began to get dizzy. My balance had failed me; I had tipped over backwards slowly loosing consciousness until a pair of strong arms caught me. I looked up to see Ichigo looking down on me, eyes wide. "Hey Ichigo-kun, you shouldn't have your eyes that wide. It makes you look like a window licker." I said with a smile on my face as I saw Chad run over with a bird. "Ichigo-kun? Why is Chad-san carrying a bird?" I asked tiredly staring at the sad looking bird. "Umm it's a long story, I'll tell you later. But first, I have a hollow to kill." And with that Ichigo-kun handed my mangled body to Mirai and ran off to fight the hollow and my eyes eased closed.
I don't have any idea how long I was out, but I did feel the presences around me as I slept. Mirai was there almost 24/7; she only left for about three minutes at a time. Then Uryu visited me almost everyday, he still had things he had to do, and I understand that. Then Ichigo and Rukia visited me a lot too. Rukia always ended up leaving before Ichigo did. He'd tell me about what we did at school and the hollow they fought. But in the end he'd always leave way earlier than I wanted. My friends came to visit me though they didn't even know I was listening, but one thing has always made me wonder. At night after Mirai falls asleep, another presence enters the room with their spirit pressure hidden. They walk over and just look at me, and then they leave. But tonight I opened my eyes only to find Akane staring down at me; sadness was the only emotion in his eyes. Ai-chan, tell me this. Who are you going to choose, Mirai or me? Make your decision by Friday." And he disappeared. I stared at my hands in thought.
"Father? Who Should I pick?"