These Melodies Chapter 6: Denial, a bleach fanfic

These Melodies

by Impervious Marr

Summary: Companion piece to 'Written Notes'. In this place that is too white and much too silent, Kurosaki Ichigo finds solace in music and melodies as he loses the abilities to track time and to judge what is right and wrong. Set in the distant future.

Warnings: AizenIchigo, insanity, ramblings and sadness. D:

A/N: I was running out of ideas for Bonds. This is bad. ;w; So I decided to start on TM first, because I wanted to write about Orihime anyway.

This chapter is confusing, and insane. To make up for the lack of insanity for the last chapter. xD;

IT CONTAINS MEGA SADNESS. D: Just a warning.

Enjoy the chapter:D Read and review, please!

Denial

Grimmjow sat beside him, and Ichigo likened his grin into that of a pleased cat. Well, he supposed he knew the reason why for the 'pleased' part. Grimmjow's own song was haunting, scary - just the way he figured that the blue-haired man liked it. He always favored the creepy, crawling melodies.

He was like the anti-thesis to Ulquiorra. The Fourth Espada liked songs that were relaxing. No surprise there.

"It's good. Seriously good. I like it." Grimmjow sometimes rewarded Ichigo with smiles. "Thanks."

No, not grins.

Smile.

With an 's'.

"Glad you like it, then," Ichigo accepted the compliment happily, before adding - "And you're welcome."

Grimmjow realized his slip, and looked to the side, scoffing.

"Whatever."

A comfortable silence passed them, and Ichigo's mind suddenly slipped. His vision was hazy, and he saw some flashes of light brown. The thought made him uncomfortable, but not enough to make him falter in his playing. The sudden heavy pressing made Grimmjow look up in curiosity. Maybe it was part of the song, but it didn't sound right.

Suddenly the mood in the air changed. Ichigo's fingers stopped suddenly, and he grasped his head, shaking. A heavy migraine settled over him.

Go away, pain.

Go away.

Go away!

"Ichigo-kun will come to save me, Ichigo-kun will come to save me, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he? Please come soon, Ichigo. Please."

"Please."

Ichigo gasped, grasping his head in his hands, and Grimmjow shouted, panicking, What's wrong! Ichigo!

Even his Hollow was shouting at him to snap out of it. Ichigo gasped again, fighting for breath, painful, painful, go away pleasepleaseplease

"Ichigo-kun!"

The repetition made his head spin. Light-brown made him think of that girl. What was she doing? Was she doing all of this? This pain in his head, in his chest, his mind? He didn't like it. He didn't like the bemoaning of that female voice in his head, asking for him to help. How was he supposed to help?

You're hurting me...

"Save me, Ichigo-kun, and now! I can't wait anymore!"

Chi

Kun

The last thing he could see before his slip into unconsciousness was a mix of blue, mostly white, a concerned pair of the warmest brown eyes and the invading light-brown that was unnatural and shouldn't be there; everything blurred by tears.

He awoke to silence.

When he opened his eyes, he was like a possessed man, brushing his clothes without thought and immediately getting up, pacing towards the end of the room. The door opened without any locks, nothing to get in his way. The whites were immaterial. He couldn't remember what he saw, but he walked, and walked, and walked.

The corridors blurred into something he couldn't distinguish.

He couldn't control it.

And distantly, he could hear a voice.

"Come to me, Ichigo-kun. I know you're in here. Please, Ichigo-kun."

He breathed his silent promise, unknowing, and stepped past an open door, where an arm grabbed him.

He looked up.

Brown eyes. I remember them from somewhere.

He's a man.

Who is he.

And he looked, and looked, not comprehending the words given to him. Ichigo, snap out of it. Ichigo, where are you going? Ichigo, Ichigo! The boy wordlessly tugged on the grip around his wrist, eyes blank. Whoever he was, he was keeping Ichigo from his destination.

"Someone's calling, sir, please, let me go," Ichigo said tonelessly, without impatience or anger or anything. Nothing.

A minute passed, before the man let him go. But he followed behind Ichigo when the orange-haired boy started walking again.

"That's, right - Ichigo-kun. Save me. There's too much white."

"And too much silence," Ichigo said in monotone, completing the sentence because he understood. The man behind him faltered slightly in his steps when Ichigo turned a corner, finally ending up in front of an unassuming door. It looked like all the others.

It looked like all the others, but he could see the difference.

He opened the door.

The same white as his room. A bit different in the furniture - but there was no trace of another color, except for the girl who sat in the corner, hugging herself tightly. She had light-brown hair.

Light-brown.

Ichigo stared a bit more, before suddenly backpedaling, eyes widening in horror.

Where am I?

She controlled me?

I want my mind back.

Give it back.

"Who are you, what do you want with me?" Ichigo asked, breathing heavily. The girl snapped her head up at the voice, before shaking it, not facing him, merely her little corner, and started mumbling audible words.

"I can hear Ichigo-kun now."

She's that voice.

"Who are you?" Ichigo repeated, hands fisted to his sides.

"I can feel that Ichigo-kun's here... He's here? Is that you, Ichigo-kun?" the girl turned around slowly, her dead eyes piercing right through Ichigo's.

He gasped suddenly in pain, in perfect timing with her own.

"Ichigo-kun! Ichigo-kun!"

She scrambled up from where she was sitting, stumbling towards him.

"You're here, you're finally here!"

"O-Orihime?" Ichigo asked, and the girl took it as a sign of recognization, hugging him as if she never wanted to let go. Ichigo, on the other hand, voiced it out on confusion.

Then that pain. The memories of it.

Ichigo pushed her away, but she kept still.

"Aren't you happy to see me? You're here to save me, right?"

"I don't know if I should be happy, and I'm not here to save you," Ichigo said bluntly, startling the girl, who stared back at him. "You brought me here. You controlled me."

"N-N-No, Ichigo-kun's here to save me. He's here to save me!" She shouted, eyes going wide and frantic and her voice reaching hysteria. Ichigo pushed her away, but she kept holding on.

"I don't remember you, I'm sorry," Ichigo said painfully, eyes blurring from tears - not from sadness, but from the immense headache he was recieving. "You're hurting me!"

Then she stopped.

"Ichigo-kun is a funny man. Of course you remember me! I'm sorry Ichigo-kun... Let's go away from this place. Please, Ichigo-kun! Let's go away together!"

"No."

"Let's go away together!"

"No, Orihime, I can't. And I don't remember you. Please, let go."

"But you're Ichigo-kun!"

"Please, let go, you're hurting me!"

"I would never hurt Ichigo-kun! I love you, Ichigo-kun! Don't go away again," she bemoaned, burying her face into his chest. "You feel so real. I never want to let you go. Why can't you see that, Ichigo-kun?"

"Because I can't. I don't know who you are."

Orihime's breath caught, before she suddenly pushed him away, retreating to herself.

"You're one of Aizen's illusions, aren't you!?" she demanded, eyes wide and frantic. Ichigo couldn't help but to be horriby confused.

"Aizen's, what?"

"You're here to trick me. He always tricks me. Go away. Go away!" she shouted suddenly, putting hands on her ears and shutting her eyes.

And then she stopped again, opening her eyes slowly, looking at the long orange-hair and the white clothes Ichigo was wearing.

"He'll never wear those kind of clothes, my Ichigo-kun. You're not my Ichigo-kun. My Ichigo-kun would tell me that it's alright. He'll tell me he'll come to save me."

"But I am Ichigo," Ichigo mumbled, lost in this dizzying situation. Orihime suddenly shrieked hysterically.

"You are not Ichigo-kun! Go away!"

"But my name is Ichigo."

"You are not Ichigo-kun! Go away!"

"But I am Ichigo," he repeated, eyebrows furrowing at the girl's madness. She screamed again, moaning pitifully, hugging herself from a pain too great to bear.

"No, no, no! You're not Ichigo-kun! I can't - I won't accept!"

Distantly he could hear Grimmjow's voice playing in his head.

The princess-something. Inoue Orihime. Ulquiorra has to deal with her, and I pity the guy sometimes. She's cracked close, always talks about Ichigo this, Ichigo that, how you're going to save her. Do you care?

And he remembered his own response.

I can't.

And it was true. He couldn't care about this girl anymore - she means nothing to him.

Ichigo turned to leave, when he suddenly heared another haunting scream. He turned just in time to see the girl's hands shaking, turned towards himself. She was about to attack him. She was about to hurt him.

"King, King! Get out of the way!" His Hollow screamed, but it was too late.

"I reject!"

The light was blinding. The glare illuminated the whole room and the floors shook. The room was falling apart, and Ichigo couldn't scramble for cover because he couldn't see.

The sound deafened him.

The air was choking him.

And he tried so badly to scream.

Ichigo gasped, crying into the waking world. He can't see, still. He was immediately pushed up against someone, and a shoulder, and he cried, tears flowing freely, remembering the choking feeling it was everywhere and the thought of Orihime hurting him so badly and he ached at every limb, he couldn't hear anything -

The silence scared him so much that he couldn't do anything other than letting the sobs hack his body.

A hand was comforting him, steady on his back, running up and down. He could hear distant voices. He clung to the one whispering sweet nothings in his ear.

You'll be fine.

You're all right.

It's safe.

She's gone.

She won't hurt you anymore.

Another grasp at the person who held him, and Ichigo slipped again into a dreamless sleep.

He tried to turn his head, but a hand stopped him, going to his shoulder.

"Who..."

His voice was raspy and he winced at the sound, trying to correct it. But the person responded first without giving him a chance.

"Ichigo, don't move."

Ulquiorra. What... Where was he?

What happened?

Why did he feel so weak?

His vision was so blur and he couldn't hear very well. His throat hurt from screaming, raw.

So many questions.

"Ulqui... What..."

The black-haired Arrancar paused in his movements. Ichigo tried to look at his direction but failed, not having the energy to even complete sentences. Ulquiorra sighed, pushing him down.

"Ichigo, please relax. You're incredibly exhausted, and your reiatsu was about to die off, and you can't exert yourself that much. I'll inform Aizen-sama that you're awake, but you need to rest."

Aizen.

"Can... I..."

"Rest, Ichigo," Ulquiorra repeated firmly, and Ichigo closed his eyes.

Ichigo stared at his hands, propped up on the bed. Ulquiorra was now gone to inform Aizen about his consciousness. Ichigo tried really hard to remember, but he just couldn't. Just a lot of light, and the deafening wind, along with an invisible force choking him - the light-brown haired girl who did all that, trying to hurt him.

But she said she loved him.

It was confusing. Frustrated, Ichigo held his head in his hands, sighing.

He looked up at the sound of footsteps. Aizen stepped in, looking tired. The thought of it alone made Ichigo's insides churn, unpleasant.

"Aizen? Are you alright?" he asked concernedly, trying to get up. Aizen threw him a warning look, before speaking calmly, ignoring his questions.

"Don't even think about getting off that bed. What were you thinking, going off to Inoue like that?"

Ichigo flinched at the tone. It wasn't like the Aizen he knew.

"I was -"

"No, you weren't thinking. As usual." The degrading tone made Ichigo retreat, backing away, putting arms around himself, staring at the man with more than a little bit hurt and confusion.

"But, Aizen -"

"You almost died. Your reiatsu was dropping to a dangerous level from preventing you from choking because of Inoue's sudden burst of concentrated energy," he said callously. "Be grateful I was there to see you going off in your stupidity."

Ichigo didn't listen, didn't care, not really.

Is this the Aizen everyone talks about?

"Aizen, I -"

"The next time you leave this room, you are not to go alone, do you understand?" Aizen cut him off, and Ichigo flinched, the mood to explain dying pitifully. He moved to a corner, putting hands over his ears. "That's right, be like the child you are, Ichigo."

He never thought the day would come when he thought that silence would be better than noise. He didn't whimper, didn't sob, didn't cry, even when the hurt still tore. He looked at Aizen's moving lips, and even though his hands were over his ears and the sound was dulled, it didn't stop him from understanding.

Ichigo sighed when Aizen finally stopped mouthing him off, and he emotionlessly looked up at Aizen.

"If you're done maligning me," Ichigo started, pausing slightly at his words, trying to think of what to say, what to explain, but the problem was he didn't want to explain it anymore, "Maybe I'll take another nap."

Aizen's expression didn't change.

"Not even going to explain yourself?"

Ichigo looked at Aizen, at the cold indifference, and sighed, looking away.

When the man left without another word, Ichigo turned on his side, and got up - he dragged himself, however weak, off to the little corner, much like Orihime, with bedsheet wrapped around him.

Ulquiorra and Grimmjow found him that way a few hours later, when he was still staring off blankly into space;

You almost died. You almost died. You almost died.

Wishing that maybe he should have.

End Chapter Six.

A/N: D: NO! Aizen's such a bastard. Oh, well. xD; A defensive mechanism, people! Beat him up if you want too. Wait for the next chapter when he's all over himself trying to apologize!

I think I went over the top with Orihime. Eh. Find out what happened to her in the next installment!

Wahahaha.

Have a nice day everyone:D