Hot off the press I guess. (Hey that rhymed coincidently!) Anyway, it's strange. I never plan out stories. I have weird clips in my head of what I know is going to happen and then I fill in the blanks like Wheel of Fortune. Isn't that awful planning?
Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.
Chapter 1:
Your teeth aren't from a costume store.
ICHIGO
The last thing I remembered was seeing a human by the old tree. I couldn't see them very clearly but I could smell them. A smell of lavender and jasmine, the smell of a woman. I was so hungry that I— I'm alive so that means I- I couldn't finish that thought. I needed to get out of this place and die. I didn't deserve to live! I moved to get up when I felt the rough floor beneath me and the strange cloak that lay on my body.
"Relax," a deep feminine voice said. There was a cold hand on my shoulder ushering me to lie down. I smelt the woman before I saw her and I shrank back, crawling backwards until I hit a wall. A cave? "I don't bite," she joked and when she smiled I felt unease. It was the same woman but how had she survived, I was positive I transformed. There was no way she could have survived unless she was like me.
"Who are you?" I asked pulling the cloak over me more securely. It was dark inside the cave, so dark I could barely see anything. Only her indigo eyes that seemed to glow.
She sat back on the opposite wall. "The better question would be, what am I?"
I pushed myself further against the wall, maybe if I pressed hard enough it would disappear and then I could disappear with it. Or run for my life, whichever worked. "Can't you tell what I am?" she asked with a hint of humour. I didn't know but if she had managed to live she must have been powerful. Something inside me was telling me to kill her, to attack her before she inevitably would attack me, but she looked so calm sitting there. I must be crazy. "Any final answers?"
I cleared my throat, "Are you a werewolf?"
"No. I'm an Immortal or what you would call a vampire," she smiled.
"I don't believe you," I said firmly. She was strong I knew that... but vampires? They belong in horror stories. What was I saying; werewolves are real but vampires aren't? That was a double standard if there ever was one but I wouldn't admit it, not out loud. "Prove it."
"You know you are a werewolf but you don't believe I'm a vampire?" She said with slight offence in her tone.
I felt myself blush at her comment, "I won't believe you until you prove it."
She smiled a toothy grin and slowly her pearly teeth began to elongate and sharpen into fangs, the cliché vampire bite. Something deep down was urging me to fight and if not fight run for my life. Was it because she was a vampire? "Ok so you're a vampire. Why'd you leave me alive?"
I heard from stories werewolves and vampires were mortal enemies, and yet she let me live. She leaned back and her eyes looked away, "I don't kill because I can. Killing and murdering is a barbarian's way of solving issues."
I looked away, it felt awkward in the cave all of a sudden. Maybe the fact that I was only in my birthday suit was finally setting in. I tugged the cloak tighter wrapping it around my body. I wouldn't say thank you but I gave her a nod of acknowledgement.
"I won't harm you," she said. "I only wish to help you."
"Help me," I asked. "Why?"
"Do you enjoy attacking people like a wild animal?" she questioned icily.
"Of course not! I just didn't think there was anything I could do about it!" I yelled. And just like that her eyes turned an arctic blue. A gust of snow blew in and before I knew it I was chained to the wall of the cave with snow and ice. "What the hell!"
"From now on if you want my help, you will respect me and not question any instruction I give you. Is that understood?" she commanded in a booming voice. I fought to try and escape from the chains but it was useless, they wouldn't budge. "Is that understood?" she repeated and the chains seemed to get tighter.
"Alright," I said and the chains shattered. I could still feel their icy prick through the cloak.
She got up and walked near the entrance. She bent down for a second and then I felt an object hit me in the face and land in my lap. It was a whole loaf of bread. "We start tomorrow morning so get some sleep." She walked out the cave and I sat there with the loaf of bread wondering when I would begin to understand this woman.
x.x.x.x.x.x.
ICHIGO
When I woke up this morning I felt refreshed and to my surprise there was another loaf of bread and a fresh set of clothes and boots waiting for me. I walked out of the cave to the bright sun and a snow covered forest. It was so serene and beautiful and like before my body temperature kept me warm. I must have been out of it because I didn't even notice the vampire sneak up on me.
"Glad to see you are up and about," she said. In daylight she was much shorter than I thought she would be, her voice was deceiving. She was around five feet tall and had short black hair trimmed to her shoulders with a stray bang that lay in between her two navy eyes. Her skin was pale but nothing like the overdramatized vampires I saw on t.v.
I looked down at her and she looked up at me expectantly. "Errr, thanks for the bread and clothes," I looked away.
"No problem, it was my pleasure. I couldn't let you walk around naked forever," she said with a smile.
It just dawned on me as I stared at her, she was still alive. "You're not melting or burning from the sun!"
"Oh yes. I'm an Immortal. Immortal's are impervious to the sun's powers, you would understand if you could smell shrouds," she shrugged and wrapped a violet scarf tighter around her neck.
For some reason I felt motivated to learn, I couldn't quite explain it. It wasn't only because I was going to learn to tame my wild side but it was something else. Maybe it was the company.
"You're first task today will be to find me in the forest. If you don't, no lunch or dinner."
Screw the company I don't know what I was thinking. "What! That's not fair!"
"You lasted what... two days without food-" she began nonchalantly.
"Six days," I corrected. "Six."
"If you can manage six days without food you can certainly manage the rest of a day!" she said with a fake smile. She trapped me with that logic.
I crossed my arms, "Fine I can do it no problem." All I would have to do is follow her scent and walk in her footprints. It would be a piece of cake.
"Good. Why don't you wait in the cave for about a minute and then come and find me," the vampire said with a playful twinkle in her eyes but her lips were pursed in seriousness.
"See you in a bit," I said walking back into the cave. I will find her, it can't be too hard. I waited in the cave for a minute before walking out into the bright sun again. "What the hell?" If there had been tracks they were gone, covered by a fresh layer of snow. "Shit." I would have to rely on my nose alone, a sense I could barely trust. I bent down low to sniff the ground, the smell of lavender and jasmine loomed over the snow and I turned right. With each footstep I took I left an indent in the ground, her scent would get fainter behind me while it grew stronger in front.
Now I was padding my way inside the forest, it had been a few hours and soon night would fall. I hopped across a frozen stream and in an instant I lost her scent. It disappeared as if it had not existed at all. I sucked air into my nose like a vacuum, hoping I could catch even the faintest trail of her scent but nothing. Nothing at all, it was like she vanished into thin air. Air... that was it!
I took a running leap and started climbing the tree. Her scent was on the bark. I smiled to myself as I climbed, her smell once again getting stronger. I could still find her! I climbed to the top picking a thick branch that could support my weight and gazed down at the forest. When I reached the top the view was beautiful but I was once again without a scent.
"How the hell did she expect me to find her! Leaving no footprints and an untraceable scent! Damn it!" I yelled whacking the trunk. It had been three hours since I first when after her, had the scent finally gone cold? I was missing something, something important. Did she leave any hints when she talked? It still baffled me that she could stand the sun.
I know she left a clue but what? I traced back our recent conversation mulling over her words. "... you would understand if you could smell shrouds." Shrouds, what the hell was she talking about? I could smell them if I concentrated enough? It was worth a shot. I closed my eyes and thought of her petit figure, the wind gently blew against my face. Give me whiff and I'll take it far. I opened my eyes and I smelt nothing new.
I allowed a frustrated sigh to escape as I sat on the branch watching the sun. It was still high in the sky which gave me assurance that I still had time to find her. I leaned up against the bark exhausted. Three hours and I had lost my leads. It was fine, I could relax for a bit. I had a few more hours to find her. I closed my eyes and my thoughts drifted. The smell of pine trees wafted through my nostrils and the rustle of needles and leaves played gently in my ears. The slow pulses of the hibernating animals and the soft trickle of the stream's water beneath the ice. It was almost hypnotic how relaxing the forest felt. It seemed with my eyes closed my sense of smell and hearing sharpened. I could focus on things I should have been focusing on before.
I let my nose relax inhaling every new scent it could catch, the smells of life surrounding me like this frozen forest. I had to accept it, I may bare this curse I never asked for but it did have its perks. I sat on the branch until my ass became numb, the wind had picked up and the sun was going down. It would be night in a short hour but after sitting for countless hours my whole perception of the forest changed, it was a completely different forest, one I could understand. I could hear things I hadn't bothered to notice before and I could smell everything.
"Let's give this another shot," I said to myself as I stood up edging to the tip of the branch. I closed my eyes and trusted my body to balance. I inhaled the wind and then I caught it, the strange smell of lavender and jasmine. I opened my eyes and I finally understood what the vampire was talking about, the shrouds were real. It was a crimson coloured mist that seemed to blow with the wind. If I didn't know better I would have said it was a ribbon of red that had been irreparably distressed. The vampire's scent was faint but this red mist was a visible trail.
"Round two," I said to myself as I jumped off the branch. I hadn't thought about what I was doing until I was falling but I landed on my two feet without an issue. I looked at my hand and balled it into a fist; my veins were coursing with a power I had never acknowledged. I was finally beginning to understand myself and it was indescribably comforting.
I felt it, this rush to run and release my energy and be successful at what I did and so I started sprinting in the direction of the red mist. I couldn't feel it but as I passed it her scent started to overpower my nose and I knew I was getting closer. I ran for what seemed like hours watching as the sun fell and the stars rose to twinkle in the sky. I kept running until I reached a large oak that must have been at least a century old, the red shroud was coming from a branch near the top. There the vampire sat casually dangling her legs off the branch swinging them back and forth.
I was exhausted but I couldn't resist the anticipation I felt at seeing her response. "Yo," I called and a pale head turned to look down at me.
"That took you a while. How did you find me?" she asked as she placed her hands on the branch. She pushed off and floated gracefully to the ground, as if she defied gravity with natural elegance.
I smirked, "I'm the man, vampire."
She smirked back pulling a loose bang behind her ear, "It's Rukia, mutt."
"And I'm Ichigo," I said offering my hand. It was the first conventional thing we did since we met.