A/N: This is another one-shot I wrote in 2010 on a different account. I decided to close that account and transfer everything to this one. Enjoy.
Heartless
I lowered the tip of my blade from Yuki's throat and looked away. She took a deep breath out of relief then eased off of her elbows, laying flat on the cold ground covered by autumn leaves. I didn't want to believe what she'd just said. Though I'd barely talked to her in school and had never bothered to try to befriend her, hearing her speak the truth hurt me.
I looked down at her. Her short brown hair had spread out into a halo around her as she laid an arm over her eyes, I assume to hide her tears. She was about my age, seventeen I would guess, with a slender body used to compete with Tatsuki in their karate class. She finally sat up and looked at me, her eyes were a murky brown color. I briefly wondered had they changed recently as I couldn't remember them always being so dark.
"What do I do?" Yuki asked as she forced herself to stand, looking me dead in the eye as if determined to reverse prior events.
I sighed and looked at her chest...and the broken chain in the center of it. The chain of fate to her body had been severed, something that was irreversible. "What happened to your body?"
The question seemed to catch her off guard and she shrugged. "I-I don't know. It got lost somewhere during your battle with that...thing."
Which is what I was afraid of. I didn't have the slightest idea of how to break the awful news to her.
"Ichigo..." She looked at me with hope in her eyes. "I'll be okay...won't I?"
How could I lie? Oh, man. Where the hell was Rukia when I finally needed her for this type of situation?
"Um..."
She didn't even let me finish. Tears welled up in her eyes and she shook her head furiously. "NO!" She ran forward and punched my chest. The first one was hard and stung a bit, but the rest were softer until she ended up sobbing in my arms. Now I really felt bad for thinking the hollow had made a copy of her and damned near executed her on the spot earlier, causing her to blurt out that she'd been killed during our fight. In all honesty, I was partly responsible for her death. I should have been more careful...should have paid more attention...should have cared just a bit more...
"I'm sorry...Yuki." I almost forgot her name. Jeez, I'm horrible at this.
She pulled away and wrapped her arms around herself, as if trying to keep warm. A bad sign, considering the dead shouldn't feel heat or cold at all. I tightened my grip on my blade. "What will my mother and brother do without me?" I knew she wasn't talking to me. She kept asking questions and, before I knew it, she had gotten angry. "YOU KILLED ME!"
I backed up a bit to give her room. I noticed that her chain was three links shorter and sighed with annoyance. She must have had serious anger issues when she was alive, meaning that a transformation into a Hollow was inevitable no matter how hard I tried to reason with her.
I felt the air around me, searching for any familiar spiritual pressure before proceeding.
By now, Yuki's eyes were glowing red and fangs were slowing forming in her mouth. I readied my blade. "You'll thank me later." I raised it high in the air.
Suddenly clarity hit her. "Wait. No, Ichigo, don't-"
I brought it down hard and swiftly, to end her suffering soon before it even begun. I wasn't too sure what happened to souls that were close to Hollowification, but at this moment, I just didn't care.
