Summary: Love transcends all things...
Genre(s): Tragedy/Romance
Character(s): Rukia K., Orihime I.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach
Author's Notes 9/27/10: Improved this story for better reading enjoyment, so, enjoy!
* Valiant Defense *
A cold breeze blew through the Karakura town cemetery, lightly swaying the leafless winter trees. A light snow covered the ground and headstones. All was calm and peaceful in the cemetery until a pair of headlights broke through the darkness.
A taxi pulled up next to the gate of the cemetery, a lone black haired girl sat in the back seat.
"Meter's still runnin' lady, you got five minutes," the taxi driver said gruffly as he leaned back in his seat.
"I won't be long," the girl said as she opened the car door and stepped out.
She walked to the cemetery gate, opening it and closing it behind her as she walked through. She momentarily paused to bow her head in respect for the dead and offered up a respectful prayer.
She made her way through the rows until finally she reached the the back row, a special row reserved for the graves of nobility. Slowly, she passed by the individual headstones until she found the one she was looking for. She fell down to her knees in front of it, resting her face in her palms as warm tears trickled out of her large purple eyes.
"Why did you have to do such a stupid thing..?" she choked out as she looked up at the headstone, tears flowing down her cheeks.
She reached out with her right arm, a deep jagged scar running the entire length of it, and traced the letters chiseled into the fine marble of the tombstone.
"I…I never got to tell you…" The girl leaned forward; her vision blurred with tears, and lightly kissed the cold stone of the tombstone, then fell against it and wrapped her arms around it as if she were holding the grave's occupant. She left out a strangled sob as her tears fell onto the tombstone.
A loud series of honks reminded the girl of the taxi. She slowly got to her feet, and turned to leave the cemetery, but not before dropping a bouquet of wildly colored roses at the base of the gravesite.
'Spontaneous and colorful, just like her…' She smiled a watery smile as she set a pair of hairpins on top of the grave, dragging her hand away slowly to caress the stone one last time.
"I wish I had the chance to tell you…" she paused for a moment, biting back another sob. "…I love you," she whispered before running from the cemetery before she broke down completely. She jumped back into the taxi which quickly sped off into the night.
Calm regained its reign over the area; the wind blew through and rustled the the branches of the trees and blew the snow into flurries. The snow brushed but did not scatter the roses at the base of the grave. The hairpins too stayed firmly atop the tombstone, which read: 'Here lies Orihime Inoue, beloved friend to all - She gave her life in the valiant defense of her friends, Karakura town, and the noble Rukia Kuchiki.'
END
Author's Commentary: This is the first story I've ever done that's implied a real tragedy, so for anybody that may be wondering, this is set after the end of the winter war, what happened is self explanatory. Constructive criticism is welcome as always
Author's Commentary 9/27/10: Some people have gotten confused by this story, I just wanted to clear up the confusion and confirm that this is in no way canonical, as far as I know nobody dies in the Winter War. When I wrote this story the Winter War hadn't even begun in Bleach, and it's still not even over yet, so how could this be canonical? Heh.