THOUSANDS APOLOGIES FOR THE LONG DELAY, I REALLY HOPE YOU GUYS AREN'T DEAD... ARE YOU? nah.
I hope you guys have a blessed month and stay healthy, okay?
(Many people wonder if I am mad or just really really hyper yet pessimistic, but i was actually down with fever and flu and a sore throat, so... I got revived in a pit of fire... so IMMA PHOENIX.)
I felt a sense of uneasiness as I toppled over and landed on my side. "Kenpachi!" I yelled at the insane man. "Why? Running away this time!?" He stopped and reversed to look back at me. "I won't be easily defeated this time! You're gonna need balls to take me on!" He hollered, which sounded presumably beyond Soul Society and to Hueco Mundo.
"I don't have a sword! It's not fair!" I shouted. I asked Inoue to cut off my arm just to fight Ulquiorra as an equal. I thought Kenpachi would've been like that too.
The thought of her strengthen me almost instantly. Who cares? I got to fight for her, do this all for her. The woman I will forever love if I had lived five lifetimes at once.
I gripped the side of my head. The hollow powers aren't gone, are they? Let's just hope it isn't. I slid my hand past my face and my eyes blurred for a second.
"Huh? You're gonna use little stupid tricks against me? No use! You're gonna look down on me?!" He laughed. It was true, the hollow powers weren't working. It. Wasn't. I tried it repeatedly for 4 's right...
Aizen was the last I used my powers against. I literally have no power now. I continued ducking as best as I could until the old man decided to speak. "Shinigami powers and your hollow powers are not what makes you powerful. Strength,... Heart." He opened his eyes at me.
I decided that it was time to take a risk. Whatever, Captain Unohana can repair me anyway. I balled a fist and launched it at Kenpachi, which he didn't noticed. Perhaps mom knew this day was coming, at least not against souls, but against someone.
I did another kick to his head and he tumbled back, obviously annoyed. "Damnit, I ain't gonna go down that fast, Ichigo!" He charged at me again. This time, I got a cut slashed across my arm.
I looked at him. I did three, while he did one. I ran again, catching his ankle with my hand and pulled him down. Sitting on top of him, I turned towards the old man. "Is it over yet?" I should've known. I deserved the second slash.
"Come on! That all you got? You're a baby?" He looked at me after I was shocked from the unexpected cut. Just then...
"Hey, King..." Hichigo coughed and sounded across my head. I shivered at his sudden speech. Not now, you retard. "Not now!" I yelled back at him in my mind. "You and I no longer have powers!" He only wanted to kill me just five minutes ago!
My vision turned dark and focused back into a muddy yellow. Hichigo took over. "You may not have it, but I still got some red hot sparks left, ya idiot. I ain't easily extinguished." His tone had a bit of happiness to it. He was helping me?!
"Don't kill him! I can handle it myself! Come back in!" I was back in the void, but there was a projector projecting the scene before my eyes. I shouted desperately for Hichigo to come back. He got serious. "I'm going to do this for you, King. I can't live without a body anyway. So bear with me, tell me when to stop." He clenched his fist and threw them everywhere at Kenpachi. Hichigo was cooperating with me...? Kenpachi was struggling to get on his feet. "Is that enough, King? Need I do more?"
But...
What has gotten into you, Hichigo?
The princess ungracefully purged over the bathroom sink, with the ceramic structure holding her fragile figure up. She looked at herself through the mirror. Oh how bad she looked... how bad her condition is. Her cheekbones had sunken, and her flaws had only flawed more. Her forehead was protruding due to the lack of food and nutrients given, her eyes sunk deep as if they were her heart.
She would have broke the mirror just by looking at it. She looked so ugly. "I can't eat at all..." she rinsed her foul smelling mouth and wobbly shuffled back onto her bed. "Ayame... Shun'o..." she breathed. Her companions rose to help her without question.
The princess could no longer stay awake, deep inside her heart there lived a hope as little as an microorganism told her The Knight will march in to rescue her. She will sleep to wait... as long as she needed to...
The Sleeping Beauty.
"Kurosaki-...kun." The words that left her mouth before she slept had agreed to never let the princess sleep comfortably again. Her Knight, really never loved her... His love...
Was for Rukia-San, isn't it?
She cried herself to sleep, just as it forever will be...
"Enough." I called out into the void. Hichigo had knocked Kenpachi to the verge of unconsciousness. I glanced back at the old man, as of now having full control over my body. "Pass." He muttered.
"You're gonna regret it later for beating me, Ichigo. I'll fight you before you even get to leave with Squad Zero!" Kenpachi stood up and wiped the blood of his mouth. "Sorry I hit you." I could only say that to him. Any more criticisms can only lead my unqualified Soul King bum to become a see through escape plan.
I hit his chest in a casual manner. "Still tough eh? We'll miss you, Ichigo." He sighed as Yachiru jumped onto his shoulder. "Why are you leaving us!?" She shouted at me. I gave a smile. "Things. There are things I have to do..."
The old man continued to walk on, so I bid farewell to Kenpachi and Yachiru. I shook my head. Even the big guy misses me, huh?
I walked along the wide paths among Seireitei to the 10th division barracks. My head was spinning from the fight earlier and I don't suppose I'll get any medical attention soon enough. "I am very well pleased with your performance so far, and I hope you can cope with the rest of the trials tomorrow. For now, be tested by Courage. Be tested your path of heroism." The old man didn't walk into the 10th division barracks. I walked in.
"Kurosaki Ichigo. Are you driven by emotion?" Toshiro voiced out in Bankai form. "I suppose not." He shook his head. "You are. Though slightly, but it is strong enough to drive someone mad. I pierced Momo thinking it was Aizen, remember?" He gave a sad snicker at his own actions.
"I became a Vasto Lorde to protect Inoue." I muttered. It was true, I resurrected from the dead to protect my princess because the look on her was unbearable. She was having a panic attack, a nervous breakdown and she was falling apart physically... mentally.
It was instinct that told me to stand up again, because I would never want to see tears on her face anymore. And I did.
"You did. Now tell me, when we labeled Inoue Orihime as a traitor, what did you do?" He looked at me with glare. " I said that she wasn't, I said that she was definitely being forced to. I stood up for her. I was on her side." I sat down.
"What made you think that she wasn't?" The question lingered for a while.
"Because of Courage." He answered for me. "You were willing to go through so much danger for her. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to protect anyone you hold dear." He looked at me.
"Now, will you do it again?" His hand made a choking pose and there materialized Inoue, struggling to break free from his grasp on her neck. "Inoue!" I shouted, running towards Toshiro. The tree standing beside Toshiro hung three nooses, each one there hung Dad, Karin and Yuzu.
"DAMN YOU!" I jumped at Toshiro. He's taking everything from me... He's the traitor. He's the true traitor. The old man must've known. He was the one who had betrayed me.
I grabbed a nearby branch and snapped it before piercing it into Toshiro's hand in hope he would release Inoue. The branch itself broke under pressure and crumbled onto the ground beneath me.
On last resort, I grabbed hold of Toshiro's shihakusho and tried dragging him down with me. "Kurosaki-...kun." I hear her whisper weakly at me, her eyes sunken and turning an ugly shade of black that didn't match her. "Inoue." I looked at her and moved up to press harder at Toshiro's neck. "Release her damnit!" Somehow, my eyesight was blurry and there was water running down my cheeks. "I said RELEASE HER!" Toshiro stood there motionless, unharmed at all.
I pulled him down so he was directly looking at my face. I punched him. He did nothing. I launched him again. He said nothing. I repeated it until my hands trembled from the fight. Inoue was soundly resting upon his hands, sleeping maybe... but presumably dead since her neck was hung by his hand like dead chicken.
"Kurosaki Ichigo." I had finally released Toshiro, sitting limply on the ground. I don't need Hichigo to help me. Not now. "King, you need me to beat his ass up?" Hichigo asked. "No. My fight, alone. Why are you like this anyway? You wanted me dead twice just an hour and a half ago." I didn't need him. I can do this myself.
"Kurosaki Ichigo."
"Shut up!" I swapped my hand across thin air. I wanted him away from me, my family, Inoue... "What do you feel now?" His icy stare maintained as well as his Bankai.
"Miserable. Unloved. Stupid. I want you dead... I want my life back... You all took it from me." I started speaking like a drunkard. I was drunk in pain due to the sight before my eyes. I hate everything.
"You do know you have no powers left, do you?" My hand was shaking terribly from hitting his unhittable body, there were blisters from the rough parts of his shihakusho. I nodded my head in response, the ever flowing salt water graced me with its presence.
"Yet you struck me. Again... again... So tell me, what made you do that?" He asked, icy cold. "I don't know." I wanted to spit at him and leave, bringing my family and Inoue with me as I proudly walk out the door, but no. He sighed and went off of Bankai, still grasping Inoue's neck. A snicker left his mouth.
"Courage, Kurosaki. Courage! You didn't care what happened to you, you just wanted her to be alive. Yet, she isn't alive at all. She isn't here in the first place." Toshiro let go of her, and she and my family vanished as I looked on with despair.
I turned around. There was a huge watermelon unattended on the ground, presumably left by Ukitake. I went over and took the melon up, ignoring Toshiro. "Hey," I started. "Are you thirsty?"
He nodded. "THEN EAT IT!" I sent the watermelon flying to Toshiro's face, hitting him with a thump as the contents exploded around him. "I HOPE YOU DIE YOU LITTLE BRAT!" I screamed as loud as I can. "I'M ALREADY DEAD YOU DUMBWIT! THAT'S WHY I LIVE IN SOUL SOCIETY!" He replied back as I stormed out of the barracks.
Stupid idiot made me go through all of that... To think he could keep a straight face on for that long! I'll leave a mental note to never be serious with that rascal again. That stupid little pest...
"Not what I was expecting, but still... I can conclude it a pass. You have a special way of dealing with people, Kurosaki Ichigo. Perhaps that is what squad zero wanted." The old man had already walked yards ahead of me, so I had to run to catch up.
I coughed at his reply. I wasn't that good, plus I had used my hollowfied self to win when this was my fight alone. He shook my head to cool myself down. Things were going smoothly, but not as fast as I think it would be. "Can I get some medical treatment?" I had now only realized my wounds were still open and conjuild blood was forming on the side of the cuts and slashes and wounds.
"Later." He replied.
She got up in the knick of time, ran towards the bathroom and heaved against the sink. Everything was wrong, so so wrong...
Her face was scrunched up in tears, her eyes were red from the brutal assault: the salty water that escaped from her tear ducts.
Her face was layered, caked with dust and tear stains.
Her legs barely moved, the skin was lacking its healthy colour.
Her eyes, they no longer radiate happiness. Her lips, pale yet quivering at the slightest thought of her knight.
She coughed up the absent residue in her stomach, which was undeniably just air. She tried her best to hit the sink with her hands to vent out her frustration, but not even her fingers would want to move. Every inch of her had given up...
If her brother was here, surely everything wouldn't even become like this. He would've comforted her, given that he knew everything. He would've made sure she walked with every step of confidence and happiness.
Her cell phone chimed the notes to a call. She purged into the sink again.. How can she keep this up? Surely, she will need food... Her mind pictured the groceries left by Ishida-kun and Tatsuki... She should take them, shouldn't she? It was for survival, after all.
She will survive to see the day when her knight returns...
He returns...
But he wouldn't, and she knew that all by heart.
Shuuhei ran towards me and the old man before we even reached the 9th division barracks. "What brings you here, lieutenant Hisagi?" The old man stopped, so I followed. But if I were to walk into him, surely that would make a little bit of my day to see his reaction.
"Captain Commander, you need not worry. I am merely here to escort Kurosaki. It is my responsibility." He bowed and looked at me. I merely nodded back. "Hmm, I guess you can. However, I will still need to grade his trials, so I will have to come along." The old man hit the ground with his cane softly.
Shuuhei grabbed me and decided to drag me along. "You escaped Captain Kuchiki's manor? I will have to congratulate you for that. I never thought escaping from there would even be possible."
"Shut up." I looked away. There wasn't a point in trying to find an explanation I won't give. There was a pang in my heart, though I don't know why. It just hurts, again and again. My lip thinned into a straight line, silently bearing the pain.
We continued to walk on as I feel the tiny arrows struck my chest. Little, but bearing colossal pain. I heaved a sigh, I was tired already. This whole morning was a blur. My phone displayed the time, 2:30 p.m.
"When will we finish?" I asked Shuuhei and the old man. "When you finish this trial." Well, I wasn't asking for such a simpleton answer. I coughed and continued walking.
It was unusual, for the little music box by the Princess's study table began to chime the notes to a love song she loved years ago. She shedded a drop, then two as she listened along... unexpectedly, her mouth began to move, and sung the lyrics of the song.
It's alright, I'm fine, always smiling alot.
But even if I'm with someone, something is missing.
Even though there is no reason for you to come here...
The full moon that can be seen through the open window,
The cry the crickets cry out their loneliness,
Suppressed feelings waver again...
She cursed the little music box given by her brother. But all in all, she was thankful. This song, has recited her whole life.
If she had five lifetimes to live, then definitely... she will definitely live loving her knight.
And the little music box replayed five times as she wandered off into her dreams again.
HELLO, THANK YOU FOR READING. I know, its as if you were reading the previous chapter again. I tried my best to make it as Chapter-1-style as I can! If you want the full song, its called Unmei no Hito, and its Japanese *happy face* the song was originally for nel and nnoitra, but I figured in this case, why not ICHIHIME?
And also, you will get confused by Hichigo, Ichigos dark self. So let me explain: Hichigo has two sides of himself, thanks to Mayuri. But no, Hichigo does not have a human personification of his dark self. So he sky rockets back and forth in being helpful and being insane. Got it?
YAY.