AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS
Hey guys, I'm so sorry! I've been really busy and I've had no time to work on it. Guess that happens when your're in a marching band... Yeah... Well, let me know what ya think please! =)
Chapter Seven
Ichigo leapt into the fight then, not wanting his sister to be impaled on the spear of the hollow. He swung his sword and chopped the spear off just short of his sister.
"Ritsu!" he chastised her, "Be careful dammit! This hollow isn't going to get more of our family!"
Ritsu jumped away from the hollow as Ichigo shifted his sword to move. She just stood there for a moment. Ichigo looked at her, but her hair was covering her face. The rain was taking her straightened hair and making it curl softly. He shook his head and leapt after the hollow himself. It still was the beast that had killed his mother and it had almost killed Ritsu. He was angry and he was angry now.
Ritsu stood there with her hair forming a barrier between her and the outside world. A single tear fell down her cheek.
"...Mommy..." she whispered. Another tear joined the first. "Why? Why did I have to fall down the slope? If I had stayed up right, or if I hadn't been born... Mommy wouldn't have broken her ankle... Mommy wouldn't have died..." Ritsu's cheeks were covered as tears poured from her sad, lonely eyes.
"Mommy!" she screamed. Her sudden yell startled everyone. Rukia jumped and looked over at the orange haired girl. Ichigo looked over in the middle of a defensive move to see her standing there, with her hair now out of her face and her closed eyes turned to the sky. The hollow took advantage of Ichigo's distraction and stabbed him with his claws. The claws just extended like his hairy spears.
Ichigo coughed up blood and fell to his knees. He plunged his sword into the ground to keep himself from falling further.
"That'll teach you to be so reckless amateur shinigami! And now after sacrificing yourself for your loved one, you'll watch her die before I finally kill you myself!" The hollow let out a sinister lunge before sprouting another hand. He stretched it for a moment before he leapt after the still sobbing Ritsu.
Ritsu saw him coming and held up her blade to parry the blow she couldn't dodge. The hollow slammed into her blade at full force and she skidded back. It shot out spears and she just barely managed to avoid the five that came in the first round. She swung at it with her sword, feeling it get lighter as she pressed for the offense.
She swung straight at its mask, but it stopped her blade with one hand. Ritsu yanked her sword out of its grasp and leaped backwards just in time. Had she moved a moment later, she would've been skewered like her brother.
The hollow jumped away from her too and she watched suspiciously.
Rukia was at Ichigo's side, but he was waving her off.
"We do this our way. For our mother! Now stay back Rukia! We're gonna finish this! Even if we die..." he pulled himself to his feet via his zanpactou.
"Then die you will!" the hollow proclaimed ominously. "Because you allow your passion and your rage to distract you from your purpose! And that distraction dulls your sword." The hollow looked at Ritsu. "The same goes for you. You allow it to not only dull your blade, but to shatter your reason. Both of you flail wildly with those blades but your physical prowess is not enough to defeat me. And now, I will show you why your minds are not enough to fight me either! Behold!" The hollow swung his lure around and grabbed the head of his doll. When he removed his hand, their mother was staring out at them.
Ritsu froze when she saw the face. Her zanpactou hit the ground with a clang. She stayed in her stance, but without being able to hold her zanpactou, she was wide open. The hollow was giving some sort of explanation, but she couldn't concentrate enough to actually hear it.
"Even the most...shinigami... one person... kill... fact which you... deny...learning... person is... evaded every shinigami...for over fifty years... for you... one person!"
"Do you remember me children?" the picture of their mother asked them both. Ritsu fell from her stance onto her knees.
"Well shinigami?" the hollow chuckled, "Can you draw your sword against your own mother?"
"Bastard!" Ichigo said as he pulled his sword from the ground. "How dare you defile her memory by bringing her into this! You disgusting freak! You make me sick!" Ichigo started to charge the hollow. "I'll cut your heart out!" The lure swang in front of him, cutting him off.
"Ichigo! You mustn't do this! You mustn't! You mustn't hurt your mother! Please son, you must put your sword down! Do it for me."
Ichigo was shocked into not moving by the lure and he didn't see it when the hollow lashed out with five spears wound together. They punched through his right shoulder, cutting off the nerves. He sputtered as his zanpactou hit the ground.
Ritsu pulled herself to her knees, using her tremendous will power to just stand and retrieve her zanpactou.
"Bastard..." she said quietly. She lifted her sword into the air and charged. "BASTARD!" she yelled twice as loud as Ichigo had. She cut her brother loose from the hollow and charged the beast. The lure swung in front of her, but she swerved to avoid it. And it was in front of her again.
"Rii-chan, no! Put your sword down, you mustn't hurt your mother!" Ritsu heard her mother's voice and felt tears come rushing out of her eyes once more.
"You... you... you bitch!" Ritsu yelled. "You're not my mother!" Ritsu's eyes were livid as she cut off the grand fisher's lure. As soon as her sword was out of the way, the hollow sent out all of its spears. Two crashed into Ichigo, one through his stomach and one through his shoulder again. He cried out in pain at his shoulder being run through again.
Several went into Ritsu. One went through her shoulder, one through her left forearm, another through her right thigh, a forth one through her stomach, yet another in her left shoulder, and the final one through her right lung.
The twins hung suspended in midair as the hollow regrew his lure before their eyes. It had the face of their mother once more.
"And now you shall both die! You shall die by your own swords held by your mother!" The hollow sent the doll after Ritsu's sword first. Tears fell twice as thick down her cheeks, but no one could tell because of the rain. Once Maskai's (Their mother's) image had Ritsu's sword in one hand, it grabbed Ichigo's as well. It rose up into the empty space between them just as the first shinigami showed up.
Ritsu could just see him out of the corner of her eye. His face was filled with shock as he saw her suspended imapled form and Ichigo being held vertical by his own projectiles.
"...How?" He asked just as Masaki's image swooped towards Ritsu. It halted mid-swing and energy blazed from it out into the open. It looked like lightning had possessed it and it was a creature of the storm. But that wasn't it.
"Why don't you die?" the hollow yelled.
"What is that?" Rukia asked from somewhere behind the two. The shinigami started laughing quietly.
Ritsu watched in shock as the lightning turned into a warm radiant pure light. The figure of the lure hung between the twins as they watched in shock.
"M-mom?" asked Ichigo, "Is that you?" The figure hung for a moment before opening its eyes.
"That figure we see isn't actually their mother," came the shinigami from behind them, "but she's transmitting her thoughts to them."
"That can only mean that the lure recorded her thoughts," Rukia replied, "At the very moment she was killed..."
"Her dying thoughts were recorded?" Ichigo asked aloud as the pain in his shoulder faded.
Ritsu hung there silently. She didn't want to hear her mom. It would only make everything worse. She would say not to blame her, but it was her fault! Before her mom could start, Ritsu started to cry again silently.
"Ichigo," their mother started, "My son. I'm very proud of you. You, and your father, Ritsu, Karin, and Yuzu, I am so lucky to have had all those years with all of you. And I know that because of the love that all of you share, you will always keep the family together, and strong, even without me. Ichigo, live on my son, live with strength and kindness, and never lose that smile, the smile you always wore when you looked at me. Ichigo, thank you for loving me.
"Ritsu, my very special daughter," she said as she turned to Ritsu, "I love you very much and you will always be part of me no matter where I go. Stay strong and don't let others beat you down. Your heart is pure and unclouded by hate or predjudice. Stay with your brother and don't let him tease you. No matter what, do what you think is right, and never let go of your heart, the one you always put out for me even when you cried. I love my dear.
"Both of you," she started, and floated in between them, "I love you both so very, very much." She floated away from them, and then all that was left was Grand Fisher.
"Mother..." Ichigo chocked out. He put his hand on the spear of hair through his shoulder. "Know I know what you thought in those last few moments..." He grabbed his sword which the lure had planted in front of him to cut the spear out of his shoulder and leap back. "But now, Ritsu has to take her turn."
Ritsu hung there, feeling dejected. She couldn't really move to grab her sword, so she pointed the fingers on her right hand at the thing.
"Hakudo four, Byakurai..." The lightning shot through the hollow's left shoulder and he pulled his spears out of her howling as he retreated. Ritsu slumped to the ground at the base of her sword. A moment later, she struggled to her feet and dug her sword out of the ground. Her reatisu picked up from where it had been almost nothing a moment bfeore and exploded away from her. In front of everyone's eyes, her wounds sealed themselves. Down where they couldn't see, the nerves were connecting.
Ritsu soared tworads the still howling hollow and swung her sword straight down on the hollows right arm. She cut it off completely and then did the same towards the left before the hair stopped her sword no more than an inch from its arm. It struck out at her with its hair, but she backed away and then swung again. One of the spears was stopped before it could ever reach her.
Her reatisu had stopped climbing, but it was still higher than most average shinigami. She swung her sword at the hollow once more only to miss as the hollow disappeared again. It revealed its position for a split second and moved again. Ritsu spun around and nothing was there. She turned to face the other way again to get a shoulder pierced by hair spears all twined up together.
Ritsu responded by cutting off the hollow's left arm. It howled in pain then turned to retreat.
Ichigo watched as Ritsu fought the hollow, but quickly his blood loss had him passing out. He hit the ground hard as the hollow disappeared. Ritsu turned back to offer him a half smile, but she hit the ground quickly too.
A little while later, Ichigo woke up and Rukia pulled him to his body and he climbed in. He looked around for Ritsu, and found her soul laying there unconscious. Bits of black were drifting off into what he thought was her body. All of a sudden, she sat up with her eyes closed.
"Rii? He asked her. She didn't respond at all, instead stood up and walked to her body. Her face showed no expression whatsoever and she climbed into her body. A few minutes later, she opened her eyes.
"Ichi...nii?" she asked. He rushed over to her.
"Right here Rii!" he said as he knelt down by her side.
"I... couldn't... do it..." A tear ran down her cheek.
"Couldn't do what?" he asked.
"Kill... the hollow..." Tears ran down her cheeks faster and faster. "Couldn't... avenge her... It's all my fault she died in the first place!" She sat up and pressed her face into her hands. She started sobbing and the rain and her tears made her mascara trace down her cheeks.
"Baka..." he said quietly to her. "it's not your fault now and it never was... Stop blaming yourself. You won the battle. It ran. You didn't. You won."
"No..." Ritsu just started sobbing again and Ichigo pulled her close to his chest and hugged her.
"It's not your fault..." He said as she cried her heart out.
