A/N: This should actually be a picture... But sadly, I can't draw at all, so I wrote half the story behind the picture in my head instead. (That makes a drabble, as most people here call it.) Pure angst, but I do hope you appreciate it anyway.
Disclaimer: still not mine
Blood and tears
…..
"Next time... I will definitely protect you!"
…..
Uryu and Chad were throwing anxious glances to each other, as they ran amongst the dark trees, in the dim lighting of the half moon. Uryu's precious white Quincy uniform was stained with some red here and there, but apart from a shallow cut on his shoulder, he was ok. Chad looked even better: only a forming purple bruise on the left side of his face showed that he got hit a few times before conquering his opponent.
'Where are they?' the Quincy muttered, his eyes searching the darkness ahead. 'I can feel them, but...' he trailed off.
Uryu was concerned. Orihime had been separated from them in the heat of the battle, and Ichigo had gone after her. His heavy, dense spiritual pressure swirled crazily, like a living, raging tornado throughout the fight, and Inoue's warm golden pressure spiked a few times too, crying out her rejection to the heavens above. Uryu didn't know what foe or foes they were forced to fight, but could gather from the evidences that this fight must have brought both the gentle girl, and the soul reaper boy close to their limits.
But the storm was over now. The hollows must have been destroyed. Ichigo's pressure now felt shaken, still quivering. It had been a long time since he gave that feeling off after a battle, and Uryu knew how to read it. He could almost picture to himself how Ichigo's bankai coat must be disappearing, with Tensa Zangetsu transforming back to it's shikai state... Inoue's pressure was thankfully steady, but weakened.
Uryu and Chad knew they were heading in the right direction when they arrived to a place where the forest all around them bore unmistakable signs of recent disturbance. Trees were uprooted, huge boulders blasted out of their places, and the grass burned under their feet.
They separated from each other as they looked around, searching. But no Ichigo came out of the shadows, wearing a tired, but triumphant grin. There was no Inoue, demanding worriedly whether they were fine. All was silent.
'Ishida! Over here!' Chad finally cried.
Uryu ran to him, and they approached the side of a great crater on the ground together. They both stopped for a moment, and looked down. The uneasiness only grew in their hearts as they could make out more and more details in the dim light.
Two bodies lay there, entangled together, in a heap of unmoving, broken and bloody mess. Ichigo was on his back, where he had clearly impacted into the ground. Zangetsu lay a few feet away from him, having fallen out of his hands... His clothes were torn badly, and where ever the black material was missing, the redness of blood took it's place. His orange hair was also matted with blood, the sticky fluid oozing down to one side of his face.
'Kurosaki!' Uryu cried out, shocked by the sight. He began running forward, his attention shifting to the girl's form now. Inoue lay on top of Ichigo, who still had an arm around her, showing how he had been protecting her from the force of the impact, when they had slammed into the ground. Her head was over his chest, with her long brown locks falling down on both sides, as if to conceal his mangled body from more harm. Uryu's heart missed a beat as he realized, that her robes were damp with blood too.
'Inoue-san!' he heard Chad call out next to him, pain clearly discernible in his tone. They were only a few steps away now.
Slowly, very slowly, as if the move took a devastatingly huge effort, she raised her head. More blood tickled slowly down her cheeks. Uryu looked, but he couldn't find the source of all that blood on her... The materials of her robes were intact, and he couldn't see any cut, any wound at all.
Her eyes opened, and her head turned. Her huge gray orbs find Uryu, and fixed on him. So much pain laced her expression, that it was an agony to even look at. But it wasn't the expression of physical pain, but of pain of the heart... She looked simply empty, broken.
All the blood... on her arms, chest, face, even on her back... it was all from him.
Her eyes slowly brimmed with tears, and as the crystal clear drops rolled down they made paths amongst the red. She opened her mouth, clearly struggling to find her voice.
'Soten Kisshun!' she breathed finally, hardly audible.
The golden healing dome materialized instantly at her shaky command, covering both her and Ichigo completely. She still kept her head raised, so Uryu could see that along with the closing wounds, the shield slowly rejected the tears form her eyes...
…...
"I will never allow him to be broken beyond repair. Never again..."
…...
A/N: Please, review!