Death. It was all around her now as she lay limp upon the ground, nights shroud hiding her within its dark embrace. Her body was growing colder by the minute as precious red blood oozed from wounds she could not recall receiving. How did it come to this, was what she kept thinking over and over. How did she get here? Why was she here?
She lay on her back, her hand lay on her stomach, still there from when it had strength enough to try to stop the bleeding. Now, she didn't have to energy to move even a finger. If she lacked the energy to stop the blood, then what was the point in fighting for her life? She had given up.
It hadn't taken her long to come to terms with it. At first she had been scared, naturally. Her body would have been trembling if it had been capable. Long agonizing minutes passed by as she lay there, her life slipping away. Thoughts and what few memories she had flashed through her mind at a staggering rate and volume. But, as time went on and the pain began to fade away, her body growing numb until a chill began to take ahold of her, creeping its way through her veins, she settled into a strange calm.
What was she so afraid of? Why do people fear death so much? Is it a fear of the unknown; of where they will go after death? Are they afraid that they will go somewhere terrible or that their faith in life will have turned out to be false after all this time and they will simply be plunged in an eternal sleep from which they will never awake from? Not even in the paradise that whatever faith they followed at promised.
Or is it a fear of the pain? She was lucky that she didn't feel it anymore. Perhaps other people were not as lucky. Pain is horrible, but it ends either through healing or death. Either way, it will be over. So why fear death?
Perhaps it is the fear of dying alone. Sadly, she will not be dying alone this day.
Her head rolled to the side, trying to get her blue eyes to focus as they continually blurred. About ten feet away, lying face down on the ground was her older brother, Kaede. His short black hair was matted with blood and there was a large dark pool forming around the base of his body. His long dark bangs obstructed her view of his eyes but she could faintly see the uneven rise and fall of his body as he took desperate gulps of air, trying to sustain himself.
Her eyes began to blur again, but this time it wasn't from her impending death. Tears began to form, blotting out her vision. They quickly spilled over her eyelids and began trailing slowly down the side of her overturned face. She didn't have the energy to even lift her arm to brush them away so she had no choice but to allow them to fall. At least someone should shed a tear for their death. It might as well be her.
With some of the last vestiges of her energy, she rolled her head upwards so that she could gaze at the sky above. What was the point in worrying about her death? Why not just lie here, wait, and enjoy the view above her. For the first time, she had realized that there was a full moon out tonight. It was so large that it seemed to threaten to fill the entire sky. Its size overshadowed all of the other millions of stars twinkling in the sky this night. In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but wonder how many deaths the moon had witnesses over the years? How many deaths had it illuminated in the dark that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and forgotten? Did it ever feel sad? But, a part of her realized that if anyone would understand the feeling of being alone, it was the moon. It sat upon the heavens surrounded by millions of stars, but not one like it. Maybe the moon was comforting her, casting its pale light down on her in a moment of pity or an attempt at comfort. Some part of her felt relieved, even if it was all in her imagination or just some sort of last moment of her sanity slipping away from her in her last moments.
But just as that feeling passed over her, a shadow fell over the moon. Dark clouds drifted over the large moon, quickly covering it completely, blocking its comforting light. Rumbles of thunder could now be heard drawing closer. The wind began to stir up, causing the sound of rustling trees to reach her ears.
And then it began to rain. It was light at first, but slowly more and more began to fall upon her. It rolled down her cheeks and drenched her clothes and body, but the chill couldn't be felt. She couldn't feel anything anymore. It was as if the clouds had arrived to wash away any sight of her blood on the ground. Or maybe it was crying over the death of her and her brother, so that it wasn't her job anymore to worry about it. It washed away any evidence of wound or tears or any sort of weakness, making them almost look presentable in a way. Like it was preparing them for their next life.
Then, for just a brief instant, there was a break in the clouds. Moonlight poured through, casting pale rays down upon her and Kaede's limp bodies. It felt like it was reaching towards them, trying to beckon them towards it. She began to get lost in the light. It enveloped what remained over her world and drew her in. What lay outside the light began to fade away as she lost her grip on this world and reality. The thunder ceased and the wind could no longer be felt. She could still see the flashes of light on the dark clouds, a light show just for her. She felt like she was being drawn towards it. Was this the light that people spoke of? A light at the end of the tunnel? She didn't fight it. Just accepted it.
From the corner of her eyes, she saw movement. Her blue eyes shifted to the side. Just beyond Kaede's limp body, she could see shadows darting through the dark. Her eyes were failing her so she couldn't really make them out. They moved so fast that she surprised even herself that she could see them in her state. She watched them as they moved, seeming to almost dance through the darkness with such speed and grace. A part of her ached to go with them, to move as they do, but that was impossible. She wondered what they were but soon gave up the question as she shifted her eyes towards the light once more. What was the sense in wondering? She was to leave this world so why worry about it now?
Once she focused on the light once more, the shadows disappeared from her sight, as did everything else. Everything was just gone. It didn't matter anymore. The only thing that mattered to her was the light. Slowly, she closed her eyes as a feeling of peace passed over her. A person is never really aware of the moment they fall asleep so why would death be any different? Might as well get ready and close her eyes.
Time became confused and her ability to think began to slip away as her body shut down. Briefly, she thought back over her dying thoughts, thinking how morbid and strange it was for a young girl to have these thoughts, even in her dying moments. But her last thought was of the night rain. How fitting seeing as how her name was Amaya, which translates as night rain. And the night rain is a comforting thing indeed.
A/N: Hello there! Hope you liked the first chapter of my new Bleach story. I thought I should at least take the time to tell you guys right away what to expect for my story to give you the information you need to decide whether you wish to keep reading or not (which I highly recommend you do, but if you don't that's fine. Your decision…..but please keep reading.)
Any who, let me start off by saying, as it details in the story description that this is a Toshiro/OC fanfiction. If you are not familiar with any of my other stories then let me give you the rundown. I believe in a very strong friendship between my pairings before an actual romance. I don't really like pairings where they are just thrown together and somehow fall in love. I like to show why they like each other, trust one another, and why that leads to them falling in love. This means we start with a friendship. With my Toshiro fanfiction, I feel that would be easier since I will be having them grow up together. It would be a bit weird for them to be very romantically involved seven year olds or something. *suppresses shudder* So, this will be a VERY slow burn romance. But I encourage you to stick around. There will be friendship and even smidges of romantic and cute fluff here and there.
On another note, I would like to say that I don't write fanfictions just for one pairing. I write them when I fall in love with the entire world and all its characters and stories. That is just what happened when I watched Bleach. So I'm writing this fanfiction as a celebration of all the characters contained in the world of Bleach (seriously, I didn't hate a single character). I am very anal about keeping people in character so be sure to let me know if I get something wrong. I would LOVE to know that or discuss the difference of opinion. Also, I will also use this story to explore the world of Bleach further, posing questions and trying to fill in some gaps that I feel were too large to really be left unanswered (thanks Kubo). So if you love Bleach, please follow or favorite this story, or even PM me if you wish to discuss anything involved. And PLEASE LEAVE REVIEWS! They encourage me to write and help me to better the story through your thoughts and opinions. Though, I must say that if you have any advice, please for the love of god make it CONSTRUCTIVE! Thus, concludes my rant about that.
The last thing I feel obligated to mention is that I have not read the manga. I came to love Bleach through the anime and movies. This means that I will be following the story line of the anime, which means that YES I will be including the dreaded arcs that are completely made up, even the movies. Honestly, I didn't really hate any of the arcs. It gives you the chance to spend time with your favorite characters and put them in new situations. It even gives you more insight into their background and the world of Bleach that had been previously unanswered or unexplored. So yes, I will be including all the arcs and movies into my fanfiction, though it may take a while to get to all of them. I know that a lot of people held a grudge against those arcs so I thought it was fair to give warning to those people.
Well, I think I'm done with my author's note, which is almost longer than the entire first chapter. Future chapters will be longer than this one, promise.
Please leave me some sort of review to let me know what you think of the first chapter and any hopes you have for future ones. I am open to suggestions!