Author's Notes: Just to remind you! This was a double-update! Things might sound brutal here... :3 Enjoy!


VII. Survival

My body was frozen and cold, locked in a daze of so much pain, both emotional and physical. I was rendered useless as I did nothing but gulp down air in panicked rhythms and stare at my father's still body. Fire crackled in the air, illuminating everything in this sinister, light purple hue. I was surrounded by the sound of blazing fire, pain-filled groaning with an occasional outcry, and the baleful laughter of that monster, Grand Fisher. The air reeked of burnt earth and flesh and I wondered how many lives were lost now, and how many more will be after he's done with us. I was sure he wouldn't let anyone escape. Including me. I'll die here for sure and I silently begged the heavens to let my father live. We can't both leave Karin and Yuzu alone now.

There's this nagging feeling in my gut, telling me to move, to do something. I have to. I must. I slowed my breathing down to normal and readjusted my clothe mask to filter out the returning miasma. Slowly, one by one, I'm encouraging my body to move with some unknown source of support from within me. I turned my head, tearing my wide eyes from my father's unconscious body to examine the rest of my surroundings.

Never in my life had ever witness something so catastrophic. All the raids the town suffered from, the droughts, and the turf wars. Those were nothing compared to this. Bodies were scattered at random, some burnt and charred to crisps and others were writhing from pain and exhaustion. The air was filled with a purplish-gray hue of what would be smoke and miasma fusing together. While those who were still alive were sprawled around the ground weak and wary, amethyst colored flames loomed above us, and I knew what was going to happen to us. He was going to torch our bodies until all that remained were small specks of ash.

"To tell you the truth, it's a shame that I'd have to waste such a perfect amount of nutrients. If it were my choice, I would have just consumed you all, make your death quick and just snap your necks before eating all of you. But, orders are orders, and it's a must that I follow what my master says and eradicate you all."

Grand Fisher's mouth opened again but this time it clicked wider. The flames that were once looming over us were now sucked towards the yokai, clumping together at the center of his mouth, building up into this massive sphere of purple inferno. It was big enough to obliterate us all for sure and hopeless to dodge even if any of us were actually able to stand or run away from here.

Move. I pushed my body up on shaking arms and ignored the seething pain of the broken arm as I forced my will to move further. Come on damn it.

I quickly retrieved my fallen bow, loaded the arrow from the quiver that was still hung around my torso, and aimed. My arm was screaming at me as I did this, and it takes most of my will-power not to yelp at the feeling. I spotted an opening and targeted the corner of Grand Fisher's mouth where the flame didn't obscure and the only weak-spot visible to me from his front. I wasted no time and launched, the same time he released the monstrous fireball. I knew my arrow had hit it's target when a blood curling screech rung in my ears, but I had no time to celebrate as I watched the purple fireball hurling towards me. My breath is caught in my lungs as I watch it grow nearer and nearer, my foot are rooted to the ground and I make no movement because I know all resistance is futile, and my fate to death by immolation has now become inevitable.

Now I thinking of all the things I've done, and I'm silently apologizing to everyone. To the Soul Society. To the people of Urahara Clinic and yes, even the Ishida Clinic. To my little sisters, my father, and then my mother. And most of all, to Grimmjow. And just by the thought of him, somehow, I'm beginning to feel as if I'm wrong. That I'm not going to die yet, that I can't.

Blue. It was a small flash, but it was all that it took for my hopes to soar and my lungs start working again. It was that little flash, something that had seemed so insignificant in the perception of anyone else was yet so vital to me, it had me thinking that I was all wrong about dying here.

"Since when can you cough out fire, Fisher?" Grimmjow growled.

And just as his voice rumbled out of absolutely nowhere, blue sparks crackle around the nearing orb of fire and it suddenly collapse upon itself and dispersed into black smoke. But even after the smoke settles, I can't see Grimmjow. Was he hiding?

"Jaegerjaquez." Grand Fisher was shaking with anger and what seemed like fear as blood oozed out of his mouth from the open wound I gave him.

His scarlet eyes are wildly searching for Grimmjow as he attempts to build up another enormous fireball, but he fails when his jaw refuses to click open any farther due to the gushing wound. Grand Fisher attempts to fish out the arrow stuck in his jaw with his tentacle, but then there's a discharge of lightning in front of the yokai, and Grimmjow's there seizing the writhing appendage in his iron grip. Next thing I knew, Edrad was there, along with four others to join him.

Grand Fisher is frozen while his mouth is left hanging in a silent scream as the ugly black liquid continued to leak from his half opened mouth. I can't see the front of Grimmjow, so I can't see his face, but I can guess by his tensed shoulders and shaking form that he is beyond furious. I suddenly found myself swallowing with a dry mouth as a twinge of fear nicks me.

"Ya didn't answer my question, yokai." Grimmjow rips out the tentacle and tosses it to the side where it starts flailing like a fish out of water.

Grand Fisher screams, literally, and the volume of his outcry pains my ears so much that even after I squeezed my palms against my ears I could hear a high-pitch ringing along with his inhuman wailing. He's scrambling around, blinded by pain and fright as he bumps into trees, the base of where his tentacle once protruded was now spurting out the black liquid in steady pulses. The four new comers, which I had assumed to by Grimmjow's allies, surrounded Grand Fisher and pinned his talon-like paws to the ground with their blades. Grimmjow presses his foot against the face of Grand Fisher as he stares him down.

"Answer me now, before I tear ya to bits. One by fuckin' one." Grimmjow snarled viciously.

"I'll never betray my master." Grand Fisher replied quite boldly, but his voice was trembling.

"Ahh, ya have a master?" Grimmjow tilted his head as he sneered. He raised a finger and gauged it into one of the yokai's red eyes. "Mind givin' me a name?"

Grand Fisher let out another wail of pain as he struggled against the blades that confined him to the ground. Grimmjow flicked the remaining eye from his black tinted fingered and obliterated it with a single burst of his flame before the organ had even touched the ground. After his yowling has ceased, Grand Fisher was panting heavily from his mouth, his entire face painted in his black blood.

"R..." Grand Fisher struggled out. "Refuse."

"Then say good-bye to you other eye."

Before Grimmjow raised his finger, I screamed out to him. "Stop!"

And he did so. "He isn't somethin' ya should take pity on, Ichigo." He wasn't looking at me when he said this. He body remained in it's same position beforehand, his hand half-way raised and poised to attack Grand Fisher's other eye.

"I know that but-"

"Yer willin' to save this filthy demon? The exact same one that had attempted to kill you and your group?"

"That's not what I meant to say." I growled out. "I don't care if that bastard dies it's just..." I struggled with the words. "No one should suffer like that, not even him."

Grimmjow let a dark chuckle as he turned his head slightly to glance back at me. "Too bad this is my only way to get answers out of this useless shit." And he skewered Grand Fisher's remaining eye with his middle finger.

"Damn it!" As Grand Fisher howled and gurgled out a cry soaked in blood, I loaded my bow and shot at Grand Fisher's weak spot, the back of his throat.

One of Grimmjow's allies swiftly blocked it with his steel plated skeletal hand.

"Please do not interfere." The stranger said.

"I'd tell you the same thing." I snarled and reloaded my bow.

"Ichigo, just stop this bull shit. This is no longer your fight. We're involved too, and now that we caught him, we have to get some answers to our questions." Grimmjow snarled as he glanced back at me again. What the fuck?

"That's fucking low of you Grimmjow." I snapped.

"This is reality Ichigo. And it's the only way we can get answers from him now. I'm not risking the time or opportunity and cage him and get a higher being to look into his head. I need answers now." He focused back at Grand Fisher. "Next is your tongue."

"Refuse." Grand Fisher croaked.

"Fine." Grimmjow shrugged and prod the jaws further open with his own blade.

"Stop." I swallowed.

Grand Fisher started to force his jaw shut, but Grimmjow's katana was propping his jaws apart and digging into the inside of his mouth. He then yelped when Grimmjow reached for the tongue.

"Talk!" Grand Fisher slurred and Grimmjow retrieves his weapon from the yokai's mouth. "I'll talk..."

"Well?" Grimmjow snarled impatiently.

"My master is-" Grand Fisher then started flailing again, this time, he was able to shake the blades that pinned him and loosened them.

Grand Fisher gave a cry of victory. Before anyone else could react, purple flames descended from above.

"Fuckin' shit!" Grimmjow snarled at the sky.

Grimmjow raised his arms, one curled open as the other supported it by the wrist, and he pointed them up at the falling sea of fire. A blue spark clicked in the center of his open palm before a narrow stream of sapphire flames shot out towards the flaring blazes. The blue stream began to waver and pulse, compressing and decompressing in strange rhythms as it blasted the thick layer of purple fire. On contact, cerulean consumed lavender, and all the flames dispersed leaving us in a thick cloud of scalding smoke.

As I stumbled around the obscuring have, I bumped into Kira who was stumbling around in panic. "Hisagi-san?" He squeaked, but then frowned when he noticed it was me.

I frowned too, for I had forgotten about him. He was the reason why we all came here in the first place, and I had completely forgotten about him. I shook my head at Kira, silently telling him that I saw no signs of him.

"Sonofabitch!" It was unmistakeable that it was Grimmjow who had howled in infuriated anguish.

The smoke was swept away by an unknown force and retreated into the woods, revealing the empty spot where Grand Fisher once stood. And by observing Grimmjow and his allies current distress, Grand Fisher must have escaped. Grimmjow's nostrils were flared as he heaved air in and out through his nose. He then ran an ash smear hand through his messy hair in a jerky motion and recomposed himself to an almost calm demeanor. His eyes locked onto me and I couldn't help but jump.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Grimmjow growled at me. "What the hell made ya decide ta come out here? I thought ya already knew how dangerous it was in here? Did ya need me ta warn ya as well?"

"I needed to make up for what I've done."

"What you've done?" Grimmjow snapped. "Just for that, you threw yourself blindly into danger, just so you could redeem yourself?" Grimmjow clutched my collar. "You've gotta clean the shit outta yer head and get your priorities straight."

"I didn't just do this for my own conscience." I snapped back. "I wanted to help them too! I wasn't just going to sit around and let this happen!"

"And neither was I!"

"Then where the fuck were you when we were having our asses burned off?"

Grimmjow's eyes narrowed. "I was getting permission..." and he trailed off.

"And we ended up attacking before we were able to receive permission from the higher gods." The man with the skeletal hand finishes off for Grimmjow. "Because we ignored the importance of a god's permission to kill a high yokai, Grimmjow will receive a penalty. Again."

"Shut it Shawlong." Grimmjow muttered before releasing my kimono and turning to the other direction to regain his composure. "Anyways, we couldn't wait that long too hear whether it was acceptable or not."

"You couldn't." A short guy grumbles, receiving a warning glare from Grimmjow.

Grimmjow was still furious, and I dared not to say anything else that might set him off. But here comes Kira, shaking like a jitterbug, and panting in a way that might not be healthy for him.

"Hisagi-san." He croaked out. All of a sudden, he's crying, not exactly bawling his eyes out, but it's still disturbing. "It t-took him! It took him again!" His knees buckled under him and collapsed onto the ground.

Oh Kami, Kira please stop crying.

"P-lease help him." Kira hiccuped.

Grimmjow's jaws flexed as he glared down at Kira's quivering form. And as if that last sentenced snapped something in him, his hands lashed forward , grabbed the poor blonde by the collar of his kimono, and slapped him. Grimmjow restricted himself though, because if he hadn't, Kira's head might've flown right off his head.

Kira's sniveling stopped and he was stilled by the pain and shock of the slap he received from Grimmjow. His cheek was already swelling up and blood trickled from his cracked lip.

"Shut yer bitch ass up." Next thing is, Grimmjow's hollering out orders to his allies, or underlings. He ordered them to return everyone back outside of the forest, dead or alive, but aid those who were severely injured. "Leave no explanations for anyone." But I knew that everyone who had survive and who had witness the quarrel between me and Grimmjow will have load of things to ask and accuse me of.

"Grimmjow, I-"

Grimmjow yanks me forward by the arm that is not damaged, but I stumble a bit over my injured leg. "Yer coming with me."

"But-"

"Shut it." He growls. But then he looks me over with his scalding hot eyes and sighs. His voice is milder this time. "You'll come with me. I have somethings I want to discuss with you. And I'll heal your injuries a bit."

I gnawed at my lip a bit and wondered what was it that he wanted to talk about. Was it this whole situation that just happened? Or is it something else?

"Okay." I murmured.

Later on, I'm with Grimmjow again, in his shrine, alone. None of us had spoken a word to each other since we left the mini battlefield earlier. Instead, we stayed silent as he applied some odd cream to my burnt calf and bandaged it up. At first, he didn't even give me a warning if the ointment might hurt or not, and I ended up cringing like an idiot when it didn't sting a bit. It was only until he got to my elbow that he started to speak.

"This'll hurt." Grimmjow said.

"Yeah." I braced myself and it seems like Grimmjow's doing the same as well.

After experiencing the unbearable pain of having my elbow lock back into place, he fixed up a nice and comfortable splint and sling form a elbow. It wasn't as bad as I had thought it had been. A minor dislocation, nothing major like a complete one. Once I got over the lingering pain I noticed Grimmjow's cyan eyes boring holes at me as he stares. I tried not to squirm under his gaze, but I can't help but feel so uncomfortable.

"Sorry." I said.

"For what?" Grimmjow grumbles.

"For making things so difficult for you." I explained. "I was thinking selfishly, and like you said, I need to get my priorities straight. I wasn't thinking clearly, and all I could worry about was my own conscience, not about how much I was worrying people by putting my life in so much danger." I turned my head away from Grimmjow to make sure I couldn't see him staring at me in my peripheral vision. "And now, my father is wounded and I don't even know if he'll be okay."

"It's o-"

"Don't say it's okay Grimmjow. You know full well that what I've done wasn't okay."

"Well fuck, yer not perfect." He snapped. "So what if what you did was bad? You're still alive right?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Pay with yer life." Grimmjow replied. "Continue livin', and save lives with those medicines you and yer family makes. In turn for all those lives that have died under yer indirect doings, you will save lives and make up for all those lost lives. Don't throw away yer life around like that so recklessly." He grabs my chin and forces our eyes to lock. "Do you have any idea how many lives you have an affect on?"

"I do."

"Then don't ever do somethin' so fuckin' stupid again." His eyes are searching me. "Okay?"

"Okay."

He releases me and leans back as he lets out a sigh of relief.

"Ya know I'm sorry too." he catches the flash of confusion on my face and continues. "I was pissed earlier. After I noticed that Grand Fisher was engaging in a battle, I immediately prepared to send one of my underlings, Rinker, to go and give my 'superiors' a notice of the yokai's violent activity. But after I noticed that you were involved, I revoked the the whole 'asking-for-permission' shit and dove straight into battle. And I just got really pissed off 'cause he did this ta ya."

I remembered what Shawlong had said earlier. "Now you'll receive a penalty, huh?"

"Yeah." But he shrugs indifferently. "It's all bullshit anyways. I shouldn't have ta ask for permission to kill off a yokai when it's engagin' in battle with humans or lower beings just because it's stronger than normal yokai. I should just be able ta kill the pest right away."

"Should have." I bristled.

"You're not on good terms with that bastard?" Grimmjow asked carefully.

I nodded. "He killed my mother."Grimmjow's looking at me with a solid expression. He wasn't shocked to hear this and I start to think if he had already knew about this. But I continue anyways. "I was nine at the time. Me and my mother were picking out herbs in stuff, she was showing me a bunch of new herbs I've never seen before, and she made up this game where she would name an herb and I would go find it. And somehow, we ended up deeper in the forest than we expected. So we started heading back home. That's when I saw him."

"Grand Fisher?"

I shook my head. "It was a boy. Around his teenage years I think. He was calling out to me, but my mother didn't hear him, only I did. So I started going towards him. Next thing I know, my mother's screaming and there's this giant yokai in front of me. At the time, everything seemed big to me, I was a short kid, so up until now, I didn't know Grand Fisher was actually that big. But he was."

I gave out an exhausted sigh and settled down to lay in the comfort of the pillows. But I still didn't feel as comfortable as I should be. I felt cold inside and my bones felt like they were vibrating as I recalled the dark memories of my mother death.

"Everything else was a blur. In the end, I found myself drenched in my own mothers blood, her mauled corpse in front of me, and my father chasing away the yokai that killed my mother."

There's an extremely silent pause hanging in the air before anyone else bothers to say anything.

"That was a week after the shrine god left this place." Grimmjow said as he looks up at the ceiling.

"You think the shrine god's absence was linked to my mother's death?"

"The responsibility of a shrine god is ta keep order in the area, protect those who wish ta be protected, and keep the yokais of the forest stable." He says. "Or at least, that's my job."

"So if the shrine god would have stayed, my mother wouldn't have died?"

"Ichigo..." He trailed off and doesn't bother to finish what he was about to say.

I know that I'm lingering over my mother's death too much all of a sudden, and that it's making Grimmjow uncomfortable. "I know, it's all in the path. There's nothing I can do about it know."

"You can hope that her soul is doing well." Grimmjow attempts to cheer me up, and that fact alone makes my heart flutter a bit.

"Thank you." I say. "Yeah, I hope so."


Oh gawd, I'm done D; Finally! I'm sorry for the late update! I thought I did it, but later on I discovered that I didn't and that I only thought I did. It turns out that I had an inception moment and dreamt that I updated this story o.0

Due to my suddenly busy schedule, my other story The Songbird's Lullaby will be postponed and updated next week. Sadly, I don't know when next week ;_;

And because this is an extremely busy month for me, after I'm done updating The Songbird's Lullaby, I won't be able to update any of my stories for the rest of the month. If I ever have a chance though, I might just update one of my stories. Maybe. Sorry ;A;

I LOVE YOU ALL!