Just for you guys on Valentine's Day, here's a super quick update (and a longer chapter than I had intended, too). But don't expect another update this quickly; sorry (I am slow). May your day be great!


It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark...

...

Over there. The same severed legs. Same severed arms. Same severed heads. Same pile of bodies. My neck hurts. Ha...

It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. Heh heh.

...

It's dark...

...

Ha ha ha...

...

... Dear sister, is that you?

Have you returned for me?

...

It's dark.


Renji paced and stretched only briefly before he sat on the ground and slouched against a tree. Orihime watched him because there wasn't much else visible on the ground except for the small fire. The sky, however, was a different story. Here in the mountains, up in the high trees was a view she'd never seen before in her life. Orihime had lived in Karakura for a long time, as far back as she cared to remember, and even though it was just a town it was still populated and well lit. She could see the stars there, what she thought were a thousand stars or so, and she liked the night sky. But it wasn't like that up here. Here there weren't a thousand stars, there were a billion- maybe more. It was beautiful and it made Orihime happy and sad and nervous all at the same time. Happy she was able to see such a beautiful sight, sad she didn't know when she'd ever get to see it again, and nervous about how truly small and insignificant she actually was.

She flicked on her flashlight and aimed it at the stars. Here I am; I'm here too. She knew her tiny light wouldn't reach space, but she wanted to pretend that it could. A breeze blew, rocking the hammock and chilling the arm she'd poked out of her blanket. She sighed and clicked the flashlight off, tucking it back in her fanny pack before snuggling back in.

"Goodnight, Abarai-san!" she called down.

"Hey, quit rocking around, you'll fall!" came the faint reply.

She looked back up at the sky. "Goodnight, stars." She imagined they all said goodnight back to her as she fell asleep.

It was the most lovely dream, really. The sunlight was warm and it shone down on the river just perfectly. It made it sparkle and dance, and little reflections of the light came off the river and lit up rocks and trees and grass.

The river was in a forest... maybe some enchanted forest, maybe this forest, Orihime wasn't sure. Dreams that happened in forests weren't rare for her with her vivid imagination. Her feet were in the stream; it felt gentle and cool. She leaned over to see her reflection- maybe this would be one of these cool dreams where she was a fairy or princess or something- but though the water was perfectly clear her face was wavy, distorted, skewed.

She got up, figuratively, and stretched. There was another clearing in the trees not too far away. Dust and pollen fell in its streams of light and made it look like it was glowing. She stepped slowly towards it, the grass and forest floor surprisingly soft against her feet. She wanted to go to it, but as she approached the forest path between the river and the clearing she noticed that things in there were dark, so dark...

It doesn't matter, just keep your eyes forward.

She was suddenly on the path, already there in the dark. She knew the river was behind her, but she couldn't force her dream-self to turn and look. She took a step forward, then several steps. The clearing didn't come any nearer. After walking for a while, she ran. When she couldn't run anymore she bent over, hands resting on her knees, and tried to catch her breath. When she looked up again, she was already halfway there. She could look behind herself this time and yes, there was the river, although the scene looked oddly like a painting. The distance between the two clearings was only maybe 20 meters... so why wasn't she there yet?

Oh boy, I must really be out of shape.

Orihime began walking again and the same thing happened, no steps took her closer. The frustration compounded until she wanted to cry or scream, but she could do neither. Suddenly struck by inspiration, she looked down and up again. She stifled a moan when, this time, she was still no closer; yet something had changed. There was Ichigo in the clearing, not specifically looking at her but off into the distance. Perhaps this would be one of the dreams where he was a prince, and- noNono, that was embarassing- but still maybe...

She waved at him, he caught sight of her and waved back. He called something to her but she couldn't hear.

"Kurosaki-kun! I'm on my way!"

She kept walking and the longer she walked the more he frowned.

Why aren't I getting anywhere?

Against her control her head turned, at first all she could see was black but then she spotted the faintest hint of red. A pair of wings opened. It was a butterfly. It tested its wings and then finally fluttered. It was beautiful, like a dance. Orihime reached out to touch it, but it was just beyond her reach. She knocked a branch and suddenly they were all over, illuminating the darkness but not lightening the effect; soaring and fluttering and twisting. The glow didn't bother her, but the darkness surrounding it did.

No, no don't go in there.

She turned her head back to Ichigo and tried to take another step, but her body didn't move. He called something out to her. She couldn't hear it, but for some reason she could read his lips. "Don't go." And she didn't want to. But her body turned away from him. There they were, the beautiful butterflies. No, please. She wasn't sure why she didn't want to follow them. They were lovely. She looked back at Ichigo. His brows knitted together in... what looked like concern, from this far away. Stop this. Back to the butterflies. The pull was too strong. She took a step. The world seemed to slip away from her but right before it did she turned her head back to the clearing where Ichigo was... or... had been. He was no longer there, the bush he was next to rustled and shook and before she could notice anything else her head was snapped forward to a new path. Not quite so dark, but an unnatural color under an unnatural moon. Something was behind her that she couldn't name and she ran towards the butterflies, which somehow... she wasn't sure how, but somehow promised safety. The run was rough and things gouged and stuck into her feet until finally she stumbled under a shinto gate and-

Immediately in front of her was an enshrined rock. It was large and decorated, and though she was fairly sure she could see a village past it, it was somehow hard to keep her eyes off of it. It made her uncomfortable but she wasn't able to step either forward or back. Upon staring at it for a moment, she began to hear a hiss.

"Sssssssssss..."

If she sqinted just right, looking at the rock... were those arms?

There was a presence behind her, sudden and fierce. The wind picked up and she could feel her hair blowing in her face. She took a step back and felt something extremely cold and hard. And though she wanted to look, she couldn't tear her eyes off the stone-

"Princess..."

NO, this wasn't how her dreams were supposed to go!

Arms spread out from the rock and just as they were about to grab her from in front, arms roughly encircled her from behind-

"Gotcha!"

Orihime screamed and flailed and felt a sharp smack against one of her legs before the arms from behind pulled at her again, rough and insistant.

"Gotcha!"

"No! Let me go! Let me go! Ugh!"

Orihime threw an elbow back as hard as she could and heard a gruff, "oof."

Oof?

She opened her eyes and, unbelievably, there was Ichigo. Orange hair, brown eyes, and regular human- or shinigami or whatever- skin, and not... not anything different.

"Kurosaki-kun?"

A rustling noise came from below- she wasn't quite sure where below was at the moment because she was quite immobile- and she could hear Renji.

"What the heck is- Ichigo?! Oi what are you doing up there? What's going on?"

"That's what I wanna know!" his voice was rough and irritated, and somehow she could feel it coursing through him, even in his arms. His arms... She blushed. Was he holding her? "I'm running my butt off getting here and then once I arrive, here's Orihime, falling out of a tree. What the hell, Renji?"

Ohmygosh he was, full on bridal style and all. No wonder she couldn't move. She was quickly losing the ability to think. And her skin felt hot enough to scramble her brains!

"Hey," Renji called, "That whole tree thing was her idea, I told her it was stupid!"

"Well if you-"

"Um, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime interrupted rather meekly. "Would you mind putting me down? Now?"

"Oh, sorry," he said and the fingers that had been digging into her thigh and shoulder loosened up. He jumped to the ground and awkwardly put her down.

"So what are you doing here Kurosaki-kun?"

Renji glanced around and raised an eyebrow. "Where's Rukia?"

"We found someone still alive, but barely. It's a good thing we had an early start this morning or he wouldn't have made it. She's back with him trying to do all she can," Ichigo turned to Orihime and gave her a urgent look, "but we need you to come. Right now." He turned his back to her and motioned for her to get on.

Orihime nodded and tried to hide her red face. She wanted to protest but she knew now wasn't the time and on her own she had no chance of keeping up with Ichigo's shunpo.

"Yes," she said and tried not to blush, "S-sorry about this."

"No problem," Ichigo said bending down so she could get a piggy back, "Renji, you gather up camp and follow us as soon as you can."

Renji grumbled but agreed, and as soon as they had his consent they were off. Orihime jerked back, she hadn't been holding on too tightly because she was nervous to invade his personal space, but now she was clutching on for dear life so tightly she was nearly stripping him of his shihakusho.

"Hey, are you ok back there?"

"Y-yes! Sorry about, um, this; I could run behind you if it's too much trouble, I mean I'm a little heavy and-"

"You're fine. Get ready."

"Ok."

They'd already passed their original starting point; a whole day's journey for her could be spanned by him in moments, and they kept on going and going.

"You and Kuchiki-chan made it all this way in just a day?"

"Yeah. We went pretty high speed-" it was a little hard for her to hear him as he ran, "didn't stop unless we sensed something..."

Orihime's eyes stung from the breeze but she couldn't really turn her head to either side or else all she saw was a blur of trees. The motion and speed didn't bother her, but the disorientation did. She squoze her eyes shut and ducked her face behind his head. She didn't mean to but she breathed on the back of his neck and she felt him twich and sorta miss a step, but he recovered quickly.

"Sorry!" she called again, and his diaphragm moved in what she hoped was a chuckle and not a grunt. She quickly moved her chin up above his head once more.

"Still ok back there?"

"Wheee," she said weakly.

Just about when she was ready to ask him to stop, he thankfully did. She was glad to be back on solid ground again and was already quite familiar with this part of the drill. Orihime immediately slid down his back and ran to Rukia, who was kneeling over a man.

"Thank you Kuchiki-chan! I can take it from here." A mellow orange glow emerged over the man and she turned her attention to him. "Sir?" She noticed his eyes were open, but barely. "Can you hear me sir? Don't worry I'm here to help you."

"I know," the man wheezed, "this young lady has been helping me as well."

Orihime looked to Rukia, surprised and confused. "He can see you?"

"Yes," Rukia nodded solemnly, "that's how close to death he was."

It took quite a while for the man to be able to speak properly again, but when he could he told them his sob story. Orihime felt for him, losing his job and afraid to be scorned by his wife and child, but she was glad when he said he'd decided he wanted to go back. Well, after a talking to from Rukia he'd decided anyway, and maybe Ichigo and Orihime had helped just a little. By the time they were confident he would go home to his family, Renji had arrived.

"How did you carry that thing the whole day yesterday?!"

"Renji, you made her carry it the whole day?" Rukia chided.

"It's not that heavy, really," Orihime said sheepishly, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Right. You heard her. You were just carrying a bag, I was carrying a whole human being," Ichigo smirked, "So what took you so long?"

"Whatever," Renji scowled, "I'm just as fast as you and you know it. I had to clean up the whole camp site. And make sure the fire was out."

"Good," Rukia said, "If you're really so fast you can carry this man back to the entrance of the forest while we go on ahead."

Renji shot her a look.

"What? He's too big for me to carry," Rukia shrugged.

"And I've already been to get you guys and back, with a passenger," Ichigo added.

Orihime could only wring her hands together, there wasn't really anything she could do to help. She turned to the now fully healed man to assist him instead. "You do still have your keys, right?"

The man nodded. "Hopefully my car hasn't been towed away. You know, it's a good thing you nice youths know the way back," the man looked at Renji and his now awkward pose incidating that the man should get on, "I'd get lost. And I certainly wouldn't want to go closer to that place with the horrible laughter on accident."

Orihime bid him goodbye as Renji rose and they left, but Ichigo slowly turned to Rukia with a concerned look on his face.

"Laughing?"

Rukia blanched. "He- he heard it too!"

"Oi Renji, come back-"

"Don't," Rukia said quietly, "they're already gone."

"Kuchiki-chan?" Orihime approached her slowly. "Are you alright? You look pale." She reached out tentatively and touched Rukia's shoulder. Rukia jumped just a little and looked up at Orihime.

"I'm fine," she reached up and patted her concerned friend's hand, "It's just that... last night, did you notice anything odd?"

"Odd?"

"Rukia was hearing voices," Ichigo sighed, "especially laughter."

Orihime looked from Rukia to Ichigo.

"No," he answered her unasked question, "I didn't hear them."

"I'm sorry Kuchiki-chan, I didn't hear voices, but, well..." Orihime tapped on her chin tentatively, "I think I kinda had a weird dream though."

Rukia crossed her arms, nodded, and looked to the side. "Sound familiar?"

Ichigo cleared his throat. "They're just dreams. I'd rather not talk about it."

"Ok," Rukia agreed, "for now, I'll let that go. Let's just keep moving until Renji catches up with us. I felt a hollow that way earlier, I think."

Ichigo nodded. "You good to go, Inoue?"

"I am!" she said, tugging on a strap of her bag still sprawled across the ground.

"Here, let me."

"No, I-"

"Really Inoue, it's ok."

They walked about 25 minutes at Orihime's pace, which was good because Rukia seemed a little bit out of it. There weren't any hollows, but soon they came across a more welcome noise.

"Hey is that a stream?" Orihime bounced towards the sound. "I could fill up my water bottle."

"It should be. I saw a river in the night while I was out patrolling."

They kept heading in that direction and came across it shortly. Orihime stooped over to fill her bottle and Rukia stared blankly into the distance. Ichigo dropped Orihime's pack, grateful for the rest.

"Hey, this place... did we pass it before? Have we been going in a circle? It seems familiar," Orihime got up and dusted off.

"No, we haven't-"

"Over there," Rukia raised a cautious finger and pointed, "Do you see them?"

Ichigo and Orihime went to stand behind her to take a better look.

"Hell butterflies?" Ichigo asked.

"No," Rukia squinted. "Hell butterflies have similar markings, but they're not that same color. And they don't glow."

"Kurosaki-kun, those butterflies, I think they were in my dream last night."

"Are you sure Inoue- hey! Where are you going?"

Rukia was walking towards the cluster of butterflies.

"To check it out, of course," she said, but her voice was oddly flat and she didn't look back.

"Kuchiki-chan!" Orihime ran after her, "I don't think that's a good idea!"

"Inoue- you guys, wait!" Ichigo ran after the two of them.

Bad things can happen in the blink of an eye, but this particular moment would have eluded even the sharpest of observers. In a second Ichigo reached for Orihime, Orihime reached for Rukia, and Rukia reached for the butterfly. Three fingers touched three different things at the same time, but the results were the same. The three personages were gone, leaving only two swords to show that they had ever been there.


A quick note to all my ardent Fatal Frame fans: Yes I know crossing the path of the twin dieties statue is actually what spirits people away... this is just more convenient, please forgive me. Actually you'll probably find quite a few plot indiscrepancies for convenience's sake... I'm sorry *bows*