A/N- Yo. Yeah, the delay… it sucks I know. I'm quite sorry about the delay on this one. True, I did have a computer virus and a heavy work schedule definitely played a role, but the main reason this took so long is writer's block. This is a pretty in depth story and I wanted to do it right, but I wasn't sure which direction to take it. I had to rewrite this thing about four times. So I'm sorry for the length between updates, but I hope to be able to write more regularly (don't hold your breath, though.). Thank you for all the positive reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you seem to have enjoyed the other three!
Pairings/Warnings/Disclaimer- It's all the same stuff you've already read or ignored and moved on so just see earlier chapters for this.
Chapter 4- Caught in Suspension
Grimmjow began telling me his story about how his body had ended up possessed in the middle of the woods, but I tuned him out almost as soon as he started. I'd begun listening with every intention of paying attention, but there was a slight problem with that.
He was lying.
I could tell right away, lies are something I just sense sometimes. That's not to say Grimmjow was a bad liar, quite the opposite. If I hadn't had a supernatural assist, I'd probably have believed every word. Anyway, his bogus story involved him attempting to reach his favorite liquor store, but realizing that it was going to close soon, he decided to take a short cut through the woods. After a minute or so of running to get to his destination he'd tripped and woken up outside of his body. Or so he falsely claimed.
I wasn't sure exactly what part of the story was a lie, but I was going to guess most of it. Especially the reason why he was out late at night. As a punishment for lying I asked him tons of questions about his "adventure", he had to come up with details on the spot. I admit he did pretty well, no obvious lies, but I could tell that he was beginning to get flustered.
"Well, we're almost there!" Grimmjow said, appearing to be relieved that my torrent of questions would end.
I nodded and began to concentrate on making my way through the dense foliage. Grimmjow, on the other hand, seemed to be playing with his ability to phase through trees, running ahead without paying attention to where he was going and then running back towards me.
Gradually, we started to go deeper into the forest, the woods becoming almost unrecognizable. Or, that's what I thought would happen. Slowly but steadily I began to recognize the area we were traveling in.
"Grimmjow?" I began to ask, causing him to glance at me, "Just where is your body, anyway?"
"Oh, it's in a clearing just up ahead. We're almost there. It's near the stump of some big tree." He explained.
That proved my suspicions of where we were and why it was so familiar. The forest began to thin ahead of us and after a few moments we burst through the trees and found ourselves in a clearing I'd visited just last night.
"I was here just last night." I commented.
Grimmjow's head whipped around "Really! Why were you here, huh?"
He sounded a little aggressive and it made me feel defensive.
"Why should I tell you? You won't even tell me the real reason you came here yourself!" I spat out back at him.
He blinked in surprise, the tension between us evaporating "You knew? How did you know?"
I glared at him "I can sometimes sense lies, asshole."
"Cool."
That's all he said before turning around and beginning to look around for something.
"Hey, Ichi! It was really dark when I left my body, so I'm not quite sure where in this area it is! Wanna help look?" He called to me.
I sighed and nodded, apparently we were going to ignore the whole issue of the reasons for our presence's in the clearing that night, which was fine by me. It's not like I cared what this Grimmjow character did in his free time. I just wanted to get this over with and move on with my normal life, whatever that was these days.
"Hey, Ichigo! Over here! And come quick, I don't look so good!" Grimmjow called from the other end of the clearing.
I sprinted over, took one look, and instantly knew it was bad. Grimmjow's body was lying prone on the ground, looking more knocked out than asleep, as I had expected him to look. The more troubling aspect of his body was that it seemed to be veiled in a thick miasma. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Judging by Grimmjow's worried look, he must have been able to see it too.
I grimaced, knowing what I'd have to do "I might be able to fix this. Wish me luck."
Grimmjow raised his eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
I took a deep breath, and this time I closed my eyes, remembering the bright flash that would emit from my bracelet, assuming that my dream wasn't actually a dream, though I knew that didn't make any sense at all.
"Absolution Activate."
As I suspected, a strong light emitted from my bracelet, but because I'd closed my eyes the pain wasn't all that bad. I could feel myself begin to slip into another state, but as I did, I felt something tug on my arm.
The light slowly died down and I judged it safe to open my eyes. As I did, I sensed a presence to my right. I swiftly turned that way, full of panic, but it died down when I realized it was only Grimmjow, who had just let go of my arm. I was pretty surprised to see that he was able to travel with me, but I guess it was his body, so it made a little bit of sense. He was looking around with evident curiosity, and for good reason.
The landscape was far different than what I'd found when the same thing had happened with Orihime. There were hills and a road that led up to a giant castle. There was foliage everywhere, but almost no flowers, not that that surprised me. Grimmjow wasn't the type to have them. This was his inner world, after all. At least, that's what I was assuming. It was crisp, I felt almost a chill. Based on the temperature I'd have guessed that it was autumn, but I couldn't tell. Usually the color of the tree's leaves will give a general impression of what season it is, but that couldn't be said for this world. That was because the entire thing was colored in black, white, and shades of gray.
"This place…" Grimmjow began before trailing off.
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He glanced over at me, seeming to realize for the first time that I was standing there.
"Oh, it's just… this place feels so familiar…" He slowly stated.
'That's probably because it's his inner world' I thought.
"Should we head towards the castle?" I suggested.
He thought it over for a moment before agreeing "Sounds like a plan. I don't have anything better to suggest."
To me, it sounded like he said that last bit a tad grudgingly, as if he felt he should have been able to come up with something better. I didn't mention it, but it did irritate me a little.
We made our way to the castle, which was looking bigger and bigger with every step we took. There was no talking, we mostly just walked and silence and observed our surroundings. After what felt like an hour of walking, we finally approached the castle's gates. I shivered and immediately looked for a way inside, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The gates opened by themselves.
Grimmjow immediately surged forward, and I would have explained to him the benefits of caution, but I had a feeling he would just ignore me. The castle must have had a terrible architect, because it didn't appear to have any rooms. It was just one long pathway, sometimes it went up stairs and sometimes it went down them, but it appeared to be a mostly one way journey with no divergent paths. That was good and bad. We couldn't possibly get lost, but at the same time, if we needed to leave in a hurry there was only one exit. The path was easy to block and easier to be followed on.
"Grimmjow?" I asked, breaking silence.
"What is it, kid?" He answered.
I huffed, a bit offended at the "kid" part, Grimmjow couldn't be THAT much older than me. I sighed, he grinned, and I chose not to give him the satisfaction of reacting too strongly.
"How do you feel?" I asked.
He frowned "I don't talk about that touchy feely crap."
I rolled my eyes, "That's not what I meant. I mean, we're in your body or your head or whatever, and I was wondering if you were feeling weird."
"Why would I feel weird?" he demanded.
I sighed "Well, usually there's only one person in your brain. You. Now there's three. You, me and whatever's possessing you."
"I feel fine." He said, before his eyes narrowed "Wait, what do you mean by possessed? I thought we were here to fix my body!"
My eyes widened. That couldn't be right. Grimmjow wasn't this painfully stupid. How would he NOT know that his body was being taken over by some strange entity? When he saw my shocked look he seemed pleased for a split second before he changed his expression to one of confusion. I thought that was an odd reaction and briefly wondered if he was hiding something, but I deemed explaining the situation more important.
"You're being possessed you idiot! How could you possibly not realize that!" I screamed at him.
That upset him "Yeah, well it's not like I get possessed every day, so how should I know what it feels like!"
I didn't have much of a counter for that argument, but that didn't make me less upset.
I pressed on "Still! You should be able to say something more intelligent than 'fix my body'!"
His eyes narrowed and his tone turned dangerous "Well I'm sorry my vocabulary isn't good enough for you."
The path ahead seemed to expand into an actual room so I proposed to Grimmjow that we put this little discussion. He readily agreed, clearly not wanting to fight. We entered the room at about the same time, only to have doors I hadn't noticed before slam behind us. There was nowhere to go but forward now.
The room appeared to be some sort of throne room. There was a carpet, and though it was gray it reminded me of the ones I'd seen in old movies or described in books. Said carpet led right up to a single throne, occupied by Grimmjow. Well, something that looked like Grimmjow, anyway. Physically, they looked the same, but the color scheme was all wrong. Where Grimmjow had blue hair and eyes, the copy had black. The copy's skin was paler than Ichigo had ever seen skin before.
"Welcome… to my domain." the copy greeted.
The teeth were sharpened to ridiculous points and he spoke in a weird double tone of voice. Grimmjow's voice was definitely in there somewhere, but there was also something else too.
"I think you're mistaken there." I said.
"Oh?" it asked, amused "And how is that?"
"This is Grimmjow's mind! You've just temporarily taken control." I explained.
The copy glared at me "Correction. It WAS his mind. I'm now a permanent, and soon to be only resident."
"No way I'll let that happen!" I cried.
The copy smiled "And how are you going to stop me? That fact that you're here means you must know how to expel me. You know that you have to heal the rift in Grimmjow's emotions that allowed me entrance in the first place, but how well do you even know Grimmjow? What's the rift in his emotions?"
I took a step back, shocked by the copy's words. Technically it was right, I knew next to nothing about Grimmjow. My ability to help him would be severely hampered.
"3...2...1..." it counted down "Time's up Ichigo. You lose."
It rushed towards me at superhuman speeds. It was fast, but not so fast that I didn't have time to react. Luckily my years of fighting and ghostly encounters had honed my reflexes. He grazed my side, but I knew it could have been a lot worse, he'd been aiming for my stomach. I felt the sting of pain sharpen my senses, helping me to focus. I knew this was going to be a though battle that I probably wouldn't win, but I had to try.
Up to this point Grimmjow had remained silent. Watching the back and forth between me and his double. When he saw me get injured, however, his demeanor changed. At the time, I assumed this was because he realized that we were in serious danger. He suddenly had an incredibly angry glare on his face and he was directing it towards his double.
At first the copy only smiled the glare off, not responding to it, but after a time he began to look anxious and nervous, almost fearful.
"No! You can't!" he cried.
"Oh, but I can. Heal the rift in my emotions, huh? Well, I'm doing it right now." The real Grimmjow gloated.
I was totally lost, but whatever Grimmjow was doing, it seemed to be working, so I didn't complain.
"I have one final thing to say." Grimmjow called out to his double.
Said double looked up.
"GET OUT!" Grimmjow bellowed.
In an instant the strange copy of himself was gone, and the world began to dissolve around us. Grimmjow walked over to me. At some point, I'd fallen to the ground, so when he offered his and I took it and he pulled me up. I looked questioningly into his eyes, sensing that something was different about him.
He only shook his head and said "Are you alright?"
I glanced towards my hand that was covering my wound. It was a nasty cut, but I knew from helping out in the clinic that it was nowhere near fatal, so I nodded my head. The world continued to dissolve and I felt myself being lifted up. I tried to grab Grimmjow, in order to bring him with me, but I missed and he wasn't trying.
"What about you!" I called.
He grinned "Ichi. This is my own head. You don't need to worry. I'll be fine."
That kind of made me feel like an idiot. Of course he'd be fine, it was where he was supposed to be! To cover my embarrassment I looked away as I began to drift back to reality. I woke up on the ground with Grimmjow hovering over me.
"You alright?" He asked.
I nodded and began to get up, but there was a blinding pain in my side. I glanced to where it was coming from and saw blood on my shirt. I lifted the material and saw that the cut I'd gotten had translated to the real world. That was good to know for the future.
Grimmjow saw the blood and was a little worried, but I assured him it was nothing.
"So, let's go to the doctor and get that treated." He suggested.
I almost agreed before a thought struck me "No. No, we need to see someone else."
"What could be more important than the doctor?" He argued angrily.
"An inventor. A crazy inventor." I supplied, as if it was the most natural thing in the world
xXxXx
We stood in front of Urahara's shop in the golden light of the late afternoon. We could've been there a lot sooner, but Grimmjow had insisted we at least go to a local pharmacy and treat my wound as best we could. And after that, he had the audacity to force me to walk at an old lady's pace. For "safety", he said. I sort of understood where he was coming from, I mean I was still bleeding and he didn't know my history when it came to injuries, but it was still annoying.
I had absolutely no desire to enter the shop, but I felt that it was necessary to get the answers I needed. I opened the door, the chime ringing in the silence of the store. Urahara was behind a counter, smiling mysteriously, as he always did.
"What's going on?" I asked him, point blank.
He smiled and waved the two of us over to the back of the store. I followed him, remaining on my guard. Grimmjow was silent, acting almost like a bodyguard. Urahara stopped and sat down in what appeared to be a sitting room. He sat down and Grimmjow and myself followed suit.
"So?" I demanded.
Urahara didn't answer right away, he closed his eyes and sighed. He seemed to be about to fall asleep, and I was going to ask again when he suddenly responded, surprising me.
"You made a wish, what you've been experiencing has been a side effect of that." He explained.
I grimaced "That may be, but at the same time that's not all there is to this story, is there? For instance, you put this bracelet on me, and there's people in the shadows manipulating events."
"I admit to the bracelet," Urahara began, "but how do you know there's other people involved."
"I was murdered by them." I said simply, now knowing that what happened in my "dream" was more than that. Too many things weren't adding up for it to be a coincidence.
I saw that my comment startled Grimmjow, and even Urahara seemed a little surprised.
"Are you saying that you're dead, Mr. Kurosaki?" He asked.
"No." I answered "It doesn't matter. Just believe me when I say that there are other people involved."
Urahara hid behind his fan, "Not once did I say I did not believe you Ichigo."
That surprised me. There was more to this man than meets the eye. Just how much more still remained to be seen. Either way, it appeared as if I'd gotten all I could from Urahara. He had either told me all he knew or he wasn't going to say any more. There was no point in staying.
"Well, thank you for telling me what you could. We're leaving." I said. As soon as I did, Grimmjow stood up.
Urahara leapt up and hugged me. The freak actually hugged me! An almost complete stranger!
"Get off me!" I shouted.
I threw him off me and he landed in a heap on the floor. Grimmjow let out an amused chuckle. Whether it was at me or the crazy inventor I didn't know, or care.
"You don't have to be so mean! I was just sad that you were leaving so soon!" He cried from the floor.
"Whatever! See you never, I hope!" I yelled, angry at him.
I reached the door and was about to yank it open when Urahara shouted from behind me.
"Oh, wait!" He called.
I slowly turned around "What?"
"Not you." He said, waving me off "Your intimidating friend over there."
"What about me?" Grimmjow asked, grinning a little. I think he was pleased at being called "intimidating".
"I have something for you." Urahara explained, reaching into his pocket.
He pulled out a blue jewel. It was like the one I had at home, but obviously it was different color. My eyes narrowed.
"Where did you get that?" I demanded.
"Oh this? I found it in the woods, but I'm pretty sure it belongs to your friend here." He said.
Grimmjow looked a bit confused "I've never seen that thing in my life. I don't think it's mine."
Urahara shook his head "Just because you don't recognize it, doesn't mean it isn't yours. Here."
He held his hand out and Grimmjow looked at it curiously. He glanced at me and I nodded, encouraging him to take it.
This was an interesting development. Just what were these jewels and what did they do?
A/N- Yep, now the question of the jewel Ichigo received earlier is re-raised. Just what does it do? Why does Grimmjow have one too? These question will eventually be answered. At least I told you why things have been weird for Ichi (because of his wish). All the answers will come in time, but who knows how long I'll take to reveal them all.
Now I'll respond to reviews!
seikoxxx- Yep, there are gonna be a lot of… I don't know if I'd call them twists, but a lot of big reveals. This, after all, is a story with a lot of mysteries.
miszxbrii- Yes the woods are indeed a bit spooky. They'll factor in heavily, specifically that tree stump.
KamiKaze43v3r- I told you why Ichi's life has been stranger than usual lately, it's because he made that wish. However, he's still not quite aware of just what it is he's wished for.
Eternal Love's Eclipse- Thank you! That's what I'm going for. Everything ties in with everything else, but right now it looks like nothing is connected. I'll make things more clear as time goes on.