Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach and the characters. The song used is Houkiboshi by Yunna.
Title: Houkiboshi
Word count: 2079
POV: 1st person, Rukia.
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
4. Houkiboshi
When I think of you, my chest begins to hurt
I want to meet you right now
But I can't fly through the sky
A smile was plastered on my face. And it was not because of the Chappy cardigan, skirt and sneakers I had bought during my shopping spree today.
I was sure the waiter had given me a strange look the moment he saw me smiling. There must be something scary, creepy, in my smile. I didn't care. My eyes fell on this particular dessert named 'strawberry sundae' in front of me.
I didn't know since when, but suddenly I found myself crazy over the small red fruits named strawberry. I took my spoon and shoved it into the ocean of frozen cream, fruits and jelly. I scooped a considerable amount and ate it. Sweet, but cold as winter. My smile grew wider.
Ichigo, do you know how similar you are with this strawberry sundae? Well, minus the smoothness…
The glass was empty in three minutes. Still smiling, I packed my things into my Chappy handbag and walked out of the small café. I glanced at the waiter who brought me my order earlier—he was still staring at me strangely…and rather fearfully. I sighed. Humans. They never understood.
As I complain about how hateful the rain was
Even now I still remember what you said
How, after the rain, the night sky is filled with beautiful stars
Thinking of that, I could even come to like the rain
None of us liked rain so much. We loved snow, but not rain. Rain brought cries to little children playing in the park, scowls to adults coming back from work, an annoyed look to his crumpled face, and an emotionless one to my face. One more, rain brought back the memories we wanted to forget more than anything in this whole world.
And now, the sky was angry and decided to cry over whatever upset it. Big drops of water pelted the plastic roof above me. I sighed as I glanced at my watch. Six forty five pm. The dinner started at seven. My feet started to shuffle uncomfortably. I didn't want to go past the curfew—simply because I didn't want the family to delay their dinner just because of me, and I didn't want Isshin and Yuzu to be worried. Why?
The last time I went back home late Isshin rushed at me the moment I stepped in as he screamed of how he thought I was kidnapped and raped. And Yuzu…she was crying a mini river on the dining table, mainly because of Isshin's non-stop panic rant about my kidnapping and raping. I coughed hard. As if I would let filthy humans touch my sensitive parts that easily!
The scary thoughts applied not only to me, but to Ichigo as well. Once he went back home late and found his dad and littlest sister were crying over the thought of him being abducted by aliens and cooked into Ichigo chop.
You see how easily things got out of hand if someone went past the Kurosaki house's curfew.
The bus hadn't come yet. I took another swift glance at my Chappy watch—a birthday gift from Inoue. She had given it along with a cute Chappy t-shirt and a Chappy doll wearing white dress with small strawberries all over it. I wondered how she was able to point out my obsession over strawberries.
It was six fifty five. I kicked the pillar in frustration and yelped in pain. Good thing I was the only person in the bus stop, which was a little bit weird—this area happened to be quite crowded in the afternoon. I rambled towards the nearest bench and dropped myself, still wincing in pain.
The rain hadn't stopped yet.
I stared at the black sky. Ash-coloured clouds were marching fast above, still dripping raindrops to the earth below. Lucky me, there was no thunder. Rain itself was bad enough—an addition of thunders was completely unneeded. My legs swinging as I leaned forward, my hand on my chin. By the way, where the hell was the bus?
About ten minutes later, the bus finally came. I sighed in relief and quickly boarded, not forgetting to glance at my watch yet once again. Eight past seven. I was a dead meat. I sneezed once—probably because of the coldness around me, or because of the panic quarrel going on in Kurosaki house. Shivering at the last thought, I wondered what they were thinking this time. Seeing how he and Yuzu went crazy over National Geographic this week…they might think I was preyed by eagle and fed to the baby birds…
I sneezed once again.
I wondered what Ichigo thought.
If I could become a comet
I would surely go flying through the sky
Lighting you up and passing through the sky
I would surely stay by your side at any time
"I'm home."
"Oh, Rukia-chan!!" Isshin rushed towards me with his arms open, tears dripping from his eyes. Yuzu trailed closely behind her father, crying as well. Damn. I should have known this would happen. Now I couldn't wait to hear what they had thought of my lateness.
"Rukia-chan! We thought you were run over by a lorry…" Yuzu cried as she hugged me tightly. Thank you, Kami-sama, it was not the eagle one. But still, it was horrible. "By the way, do you know where Onii-chan is? He hasn't come back yet…"
"Yes, do you know where he is?" Isshin sobbed, tears hanging on his beard. It was funny in a way I could never explain. "He was in his room the last time I saw him…but when I called him for dinner he had vanished…"
I tensed. The only thing that would cause Ichigo to disappear without any warning was Hollow or Arrancar—whichever sought for trouble. Yuzu had started crying frantically again, screaming something about burglar and hostage. This was getting out of hand too fast—I had to do something about it, NOW. So I excused myself quickly from the family and hit the road once again, ignoring the hysterical scream from Isshin, ignoring the rain that soaked me wet to my bones. Good thing I had left all my new stuffs in the house. All I had with me was only my handbag, which was fortunately waterproof.
I knew I just had to find the carrot head before Karakura was flooded with Yuzu's little river of tears. Not that this small town wasn't going to get flooded if she stopped crying anyway, seeing how much rain the sky poured down today. Damn. I wondered why I didn't even sense the reiatsu—was I too engrossed in my shopping? Was I fallen too deep in thought over the stupid bus that wouldn't come? And why in the whole universe Soul Society didn't send me an order if there really was a Hollow or Arrancar around? When I took my cell phone out I realised why—the battery was dead.
"Damn!"
I gulped a pill of Chappy and quickly rushed ahead of my gigai. "Chappy, go find some shelter! But don't go back to the carrot head's house!"
"Understand!" Chappy said as she turned at opposite direction. I saw her ducked into a small cake shop before she disappeared from my sight.
She was taking advantage of me and my wallet…
Not that I gave that much damn, though. All in my mind was Ichigo, Ichigo, Ichigo. Where the hell was he? Wandering around like a moron in the middle of the rain wasn't something I really wanted, surely. I suddenly regretted teaching him how to control his reiatsu. Usually, it was easy to find him because of his ever-flowing reiatsu. But after he mastered the technique to control reiatsu, it was damn hard to locate where he was.
Too much of good thing is bad for you.
I seriously felt like a complete idiot, searching for someone invisible. Where the hell was he? Where?
Twenty minutes in the middle of the rain and I had sneezed, like, a million times. Damn it, Ichigo. I seriously would make you pay for this later. I wished I could sense his reiatsu, somewhere, but no. Nothing. A thought flashed in my mind—was he killed? Ah, no. Ichigo wasn't that kind to be killed easily. He was always close to death, yes, but death seemed to back away every time it was close to him. Lucky bastard.
This was getting futile, I realised, so I headed right to Urahara shop. Maybe Urahara and Renji knew something about the Arrancar or Hollow that invaded Karakura this afternoon…
"NO HOLLOW OR ARRANCAR?!"
I practically spurted my tea right straight at Renji's face. From the look in his eyes, I was sure he was going to kill me. But I ignored it. Ichigo was my first priority, set aside all other things. My childhood friend sighed.
"Yes. If there was, I surely would have go and settle it down." Renji said, lifting his arm to clean his face with his kimono. "What's up?"
"Ichigo's gone." I replied quickly. "I thought there was a Hollow or Arrancar, so…"
"Geez. Don't you think he might go to his classmate's house?"
"No way. His family said he disappeared without telling them anything."
"Doesn't he always do it?"
"No. He always tells at least his sisters every time he goes out for non-shinigami business. So…"
Urahara entered the room with a plate of shiratama in his hands. Even shiratama which happened to be my favourite snack couldn't divert my mind from thinking about Ichigo. Urahara dropped onto his butt beside me, taking one shiratama and started chewing. After he swallowed the first bite he turned to face me and said, "Don't you think he might go for training? Just like what he did the last time he vanished…"
My mind recalled the time when Ichigo disappeared for training with the Vizards. Could it be the same case this time? I pondered for a few seconds before I got on my feet and said, "I think I'll give it a try."
With a wave of goodbye to the two male shinigami I jumped out of the window into the rain, dashing straight ahead towards the warehouse where the Vizards usually stayed and trained.
Now I felt like a complete idiot again.
How in the whole world could I enter this barrier? I had tried some kidou spells but it fired the spells back at me. One even almost burnt my butt, if it wasn't for the raindrops that extinguished the fire spell right in time. Ugh, seriously Ichigo, you're gonna pay for this!
The rain fell hard on my head, my shoulders and the ground around me. I sighed. Should I leave? But now I knew that he was inside—his reiatsu was filtered by this barrier but it was unmistakably his. Also…what would I say to the Kurosaki family if I left now? That I didn't find Ichigo? I seriously could never say it to a crying Yuzu. I just had to get him back, no matter how. I tried another kidou spell and again, I failed. Consumed by frustration, I kicked the damned barrier and ended up jumping around in a circle, wincing in agony.
How many times had I injured my foot today?
I hung my head in defeat. I couldn't get in; neither could I go back to the Kurosaki clinic. So I ended up sitting on the ground in front of the warehouse with the rain hitting my whole body hard. I shivered in the coldness of the night. If it wasn't because of Ichigo I would have left, but it was him I was waiting for, and even if I should wait for the whole century I would do it. I didn't know the reason why he suddenly decided to vanish and train with the Vizard again, but I was sure that he had good explanation to justify his disappearance.
He was always carrying the entire burden by himself. Never once he asked me to split the load on his shoulders with mine.
I knew the best I could do was waiting for him by his side, and be there when he fell.
You are always fighting something alone
Being by your side is the best I can do…
Author's note: So…yeah. Forget the lyrics—I was having too much fun with this and without me realising I had gone astray from my original plot. Oh yeah, I've just realised that my one-shots are getting longer and longer in each update! Ahh! I'm not sure whether it's good or not but I hope you'll like it, be it long or short. Anyway, please review!! Your reviews are very precious to me!! Thank you very much for reading, double thanks with cheese for reading and reviewing!
Preview of next chapter:
Title: One Year Ago
Genre: Angst
Summary: Dear diary, I don't know whether I will be able to write this to the end, seeing how much tears I have been pouring since this afternoon. But I have to record this. I have to record this as pain…