I know, I know, I'm updating incredibly fast, but again, I want to at least make sure I think that this is a good story before I start planning it out. I just want to get a good start. So, the update rate will slow down drastically later. Anyway, nothing really new, considering I just posted the last chapter, so please review on anything you think should change, or anything.
Btw, I'm listening to a VERY addicting song called Blood by Papa Roach. I found a REALLY awesome video for it on youtube. My point is, I think it really goes along with the prologue, and I know it's kind of late, I think you should listen to it, it's really good.
Disclaimer: Anyway, more to the point, um, I don't own! 'Kay? So, don't sue!
I owe thanks to MoonlightOrange666 once again for being an awesome beta. Thanks!
Chapter 3: Meetings
Soon after their discussion, Ichigo and Rukia escorted Sango to see her friends and be a translator of sorts between the two parties.
Their first destination was the high school, to wait for it to end and see if Kagome was there. Then, they planned on asking her if she knew where the others were. After that, they would talk to the other friends of Sango, to let them know that she was alright and tell them how she died.
Since Sango made it a point to tell them what happened, Ichigo and Rukia suspected her story of being stabbing her to death wasn't the whole truth.
Ichigo and Rukia had decided to skip school for the day to take care of Sango if one of her ghost pains occurred again. Luckily, for them, the pains had yet to occur. The group of three walked to the school soon before the bell would ring, to search for Kagome.
The bell soon resounded throughout the campus, and almost immediately, students came flooding out of the constantly open doors. Sango spotted Kagome meandering out of the door after the majority of the students left, the same emotionless expression on her face as yesterday. She pointed her out to her escorts, and they all started heading towards the raven-haired young woman.
"Excuse me, Kagome?" Rukia asked, considering her friend's intimidating appearance.
"Hello? And just how do you know my name?" Asked the girl in a voice devoid of emotion, which surprisingly caused Ichigo to shiver.
"Um, I don't really know how to explain this, but I'm able to see ghosts," the orange-haired teen replied, not really answering her question.
"Okay? What point, exactly, are you trying to make?" She inquired.
"Well, if you want to, you could talk to your friend, Sango, thr-" Ichigo started, but was interrupted by Kagome.
"No. Just, no. I'm not going to fall for your stupid prank. Sango is dead and living happily in heaven with her family," she interrupted.
"She doesn't believe you. Maybe you could ask her to question you on stuff only I could possibly know," Sango suggested to Rukia, also considering Ichigo's slightly scary appearance.
"You could question me on things only Sango could possibly know," relayed Rukia.
"Okay, when did we meet?" Asked the disbelieving teen.
"Easy, in the second grade," Said Sango.
"In the second grade," relayed Ichigo.
This questioning and answering went on between them until, finally, Kagome believed the two teens standing in front of her.
"Okay, so you can talk to Sango. But, how did you find her? Isn't she supposed to be in heaven?" She asked.
"Well, it doesn't quite work like that. You see, the souls of the dead have to be sent to the Seireitei by soul reapers, or be eaten by and turned into hollows," Ichigo answered.
"And I'm guessing that you two are soul reapers?" She shot back.
Ichigo looked at Rukia for permission to continue, earning a nod in response.
"Yes, and I found Sango when I was answering a call about a hollow and she was about to be eaten by it," he said solemnly.
"I never did thank you for that, Ichigo. Thank you for saving me," Sango politely cut in.
"No problem," he whispered back.
"So, what exactly happened?" Kagome asked worriedly, "How did she die?"
"It was Kohaku. Before I knew what even happened, the wall was covered in blood, and the sound of Father screaming reached my ears. I rushed upstairs, and found that Kohaku had killed him with a pocketknife by slitting his throat. I screamed, which got his attention, and he turned to me.
"Oh it was so horrible! He was smiling, Kagome! Then, he chased me downstairs, into the living room. He suddenly stopped, and looked at the knife in his hand. He asked what happened, and I told him that he had killed Father. He put the knife back in his pocket, and then collapsed," by now, Sango was feeling the pain starting to ebb its way back into her side.
Kagome was staring in shock at what was said by Rukia. No way could Kohaku, Sango's own little brother, have killed them! There was just no way!
"I set him on the couch," Sango continued, "And after a few hours, he woke up. He started laughing crazily, and then started crying. Then, he told me someone was telling him to skin me alive and then cut open my stomach and let my stomach acid kill me. He pulled out a knife, and then started stabbing me in the side. Right before I died, I saw him crying. He was crying. The next thing I knew was that I had woken up as I am now."
Kagome was in tears. She suspected that someone had come to her house to rob their family, and Sango had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time. But she had never expected this. The weight of her friend's death hit her tenfold, and she sobbed even more.
Sango, on the other hand, was crying out and grabbing her side. She doubled over, before dry heaving, due to emptying her stomach the previous night and realizing she was unable to eat food, being a ghost.
Rukia rushed to comfort Kagome, while Ichigo went to Sango's side. With both of their hands full, they looked worriedly at each other, before deciding to escort the two home. Ichigo scooped Sango up into his arms, the latter having fallen into blissful unconsciousness a few moments prior.
He then walked to the Kurosaki Clinic, while Rukia walked with a still sobbing Kagome to the Higurashi shrine.
Sango awoke once again in the comfort of a bed, and rolled so instead of laying on her side, she lay on her back. She looked around while recalling again what happened preceding her passing out. She recalled talking to Kagome, and telling her what she knew about her death.
It just didn't make sense. She knew her brother well, and he had been a truly kind person. He couldn't hurt a fly, almost literally. So, what had driven him to kill his only family?
While she lay there, contemplating what would cause her only brother to lose his sanity, Ichigo watched the girl, before speaking what was on his mind.
"Why did you lie to us?" He demanded, rather than asked.
"What?" Was her smart response.
"You told us that you were stabbed to death by a mugger, but really, your brother was the one who killed you. So, my question is, why did you lie to us?" He shot back, almost angrily.
"Because I don't really know you. Also, what would you think if a random stranger told you that her brother was a murderer, the murderer of herself, nonetheless. You could have thought that I was a murderer as well. Considering the fact that I needed your help at the time, that wouldn't have been the best decision," she reasoned calmly.
"You didn't really think that I would have thought that, did you?" He asked, almost nervously.
"No, but one can never be too careful, especially after dying," Sango reassured him, then paused, and spoke slowly, "You're a good person Ichigo. I could tell that at a first glance. But, with the position I was in, I wasn't sure who I could and couldn't trust. If it hadn't been a family member who had killed me, and a really kind one at that, then I would have probably trusted you more from the beginning," she explained.
"Oh," was his intelligent response.
At that moment, Rukia decided to enter the room, thus ending Sango and Ichigo's discussion.
"Oh, you're awake," she noticed cheerfully, "How are you feeling?"
"I feel a lot better, thank you," was her equally cheerful response from the brunette.
"That's good. So, do you want to see the others?" She questioned carefully.
"Um, I was wondering if Kagome could tell them. I'd rather not keep experiencing this pain as constantly as I am now. Do you have a phone I could- I mean, could you call her and ask?" She requested, still not quite used to being dead.
"Sure, just tell me her number," responded the unusually quiet orange-haired teen.
Sango proceeded to tell Ichigo Kagome's phone number, while Rukia began to become suspicious of the usually loud teen's sudden change in aura.
Post Ichigo's phone call to Kagome, which resulted in agreement from the latter, the three decided to go to bed. It was dark outside of the house's protective lights, and they crawled into their respective beds after a short argument between Sango and Ichigo over who should get the bed. Sango had not wanted to take Ichigo's bed once again, being the polite person she was raised as, while Ichigo's equally polite personality insisted that she take comfort in his bed. Eventually, the result was that Sango would sleep in Ichigo's bed whilst he slept on the floor.
In the earliest hours of the morning, Rukia awoke to the sound of thrashing outside of the closet's sliding door. She slid it open, to find that Sango seemed to be having an especially bad nightmare. She also noticed Ichigo's seemingly dead form, still sleeping. She awoke the struggling girl, while the latter shot up into a sitting position, breathing heavily and glistening in a light sheen of sweat.
"What happened?" The raven-haired shinigami inquired worriedly.
"I-I don't exactly know. One moment, I was in an open field full of flowers, birds, trees, and life. I blinked, and the next thing I knew, all of the plants and animals in the area were dead, and the sky was red. I felt something stab me in the back, and then you woke me up," Sango confessed, finding comfort in the woman's presence.
"You were thrashing around in your sleep, so I woke you up. Do you want to talk about it?" Rukia offered.
Sango glanced at the clock, and then shook her head lightly. Noticing her glance, Rukia slightly frowned, almost pouting.
"If you're worried about me not getting enough sleep, I don't need it. I'm only in a gigai, which holds my spirit. Like you, I'm actually dead. This gigai just allows me to come in physical contact with this world, I'm really from the Seireitei," she started.
Startled, Sango became slightly wide-eyed before returning to her previous state.
"What about Ichigo? Is he dead?" Sango wondered.
"No, a hollow attacked his family and I intended to give him some of my spirit power, but he took almost all of it, unintentionally, and so until I regain enough of my spirit power, I'm trapped in this world," was the given response of the soul reaper.
"How did you… die?" The teen asked her next question carefully.
"Actually, I can't remember. You're not supposed to remember your life after you die. That's one of the reasons why we wanted to protect you while you stayed here. You can remember your life as if you were still living. I called my captains, and it stumped all of them. Once you get to the Seireitei, they might bring you to the 13 court guard squads for some interrogation on your previous life," she responded.
Now, Sango was beginning to worry. She had just wanted to meet up with her family in heaven when she died, not be interrogated on how she died and what she remembered from living. It wasn't really fair in her mind. No matter what she tried, she couldn't shake that childish thought from her head.
Seeing her companion's worried expression, Rukia put a hand on her shoulder. Sango was effectively pulled from her reverie, and looked at her worrying friend's expression. It appeared that the woman wanted her to confide in her.
"It-it just doesn't feel fair to me. I just wanted to be with my family after my death, not mixed up in an afterlife I didn't even know existed until yesterday. I thought I would go to heaven, and enjoy my afterlife watching my children, and my children's children. Apparently, the world has a twisted sense of humor," she muttered the last part, but it was clear that she didn't want part in the direction her life took.
"I know how you feel. When I was brought to the 13 court guard squads, I wanted no part in it. I just wanted to live a peaceful afterlife, like you. Though, I'm glad I became a soul reaper when I look back. If I hadn't, I wouldn't be where I am today, guiding the souls of the innocent to a safe haven with all of my friends watching my back. I feel useful, like I have a purpose in life," the petite woman confessed.
"Hey, Rukia?" Sango started, catching the woman's attention, "Do you think I could become a soul reaper?"
Before the woman could respond, however, it became apparent that they had talked throughout the entire night when an alarm clock buzzed. Ichigo stirred, before sitting up and looking at the room's other occupants. He looked a little bit curious, until Rukia gave him a look that told him it was a 'girl talk'. He learned not to interrupt these kinds of conversations over the course of his friendship with the short woman.
The three prepared for the day, and neither the orange-haired teen, nor the petite raven-haired woman realized Sango's unusual silence.
So, it's less of a cliffy this chapter. I'm not feeling particularly evil today. Please read, review, and talking cats may indicate insanity.