Thank you, Haddrell, YesAnimeCharactersCanBeSexy, ShiraFuneHakuteiken, Aiko HanaKai, Itachi'sNailPolish, Lover of Stories 24, lilrenthefox, and Diane for reviewing! You guys make this story worth sloughing through writer's block and life's distractions ;)
At this rate, we have one, maybe two chapters left to this story. We're drawing to a close, people...
Anyone who can guess the half-truths will receive a dedication in the last chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of its characters. I'm just borrowing, but sharing is caring, yes? No? (At this rate, I'm starting to think it never will be...)
Half-Truths
- Disillusion -
"Tomorrow, tomorrow…"
"Gin. Stop singing."
"Hee hee! No can do, Tōsen. Nah…not when so many exciting things are gonna happen!"
"Aizen-sama says we are not to speak of that."
"What? 'S not like anyone can 'ear us…"
"Our job is not to question him. It is to follow our orders. And you have your orders, Gin, don't you?"
A wicked smile with enough malice to corrupt even the purest heart. "Oh, yes. Yes, yes. Got my orders nice 'n clear."
"Good. Then carry them out. And finish the job this time. Completely."
"'Course. You don't have ta sound so bossy."
Silence is his only response. He swaggers away, spider-fingers playing with the unforgiving hilt of his zanpakutou.
"Tomorrow, tomorrow…"
If she stares long and hard enough, Orihime is sure the lifeless ceiling above her will morph into baby-blue skies and clouds of every shape imaginable and unimaginable. She wants to float high, high up to dance with clouds that look like sheep and midget-elves and ducks with long antennae and longer tails. Contentment lazes through her veins like syrup.
Then again…she never thought her current situation was possible. Yet here she is. And here he is.
"Inoue-san," Ishida-kun murmurs in her ear. Orihime smiles and threads her fingers through his ebony hair, the long strands grown to his shoulders in the past month.
"Mmm?"
"Look."
She shifts against him and lifts herself on protesting elbows. They are lying side by side by the window, a clash of black and ginger and white and raven. Deep, rich sunlight slants into the cell as the sun begins its slow crawl below the horizon. Orihime watches the sunset streak across the sky and world spread out beneath her and takes in a breath.
This is how her world ends.
They drift in silence, watching voicelessly as the sun waves, seeming to hover in the air a moment before it admits defeat and slides out of sight. Shadows begin to set in over Soul Society.
Ishida-kun's hand is suddenly curling around hers. Orihime looks to see him still staring out the window, a grim expression on his smooth face.
"They'll come for you soon," he says. "You can't sleep here."
Can't I? Orihime wants to ask, but she knows it's true; no matter how cooperative she has made Ishida-kun, the Commander General would never let her spend the night with an alleged criminal. She has not won his trust yet.
Orihime squeezes Ishida-kun's hand and simply holds on, refusing to let go until the last vestige of light disappears from the world, and the ghosts come to send her back.
There are whispered warnings in the air. They slip and slide down her back and raise goose bumps along her spine, creep and crawl and make her feel uneasy. Orihime stands a foot from the entrance to the Penitence Tower and studies the shadows before her. There is no one there, no one to give her these feelings of caution and fear.
Women's intuition, she thinks, and immediately shudders. Intuition is beginning to become her most dreaded ally.
The chill in the air fears nothing of her clothing and penetrates to her very core. She rubs her arms, teeth chattering like living things, and misses Ishida-kun's warmth.
Orihime begins to head back to the Fourth Division. Her heart seeks to buoy itself back to happiness; Ishida-kun has finished grieving, and Kurosaki-kun has promised he will save them both tomorrow. Everything will be alright.
"Everything will be alright," she says aloud, as if it is more real in the air, and nods determinedly to herself.
Hanatarou-kun must be worried by now. Orihime has not the slightest idea of the time, but it is later than she has ever stayed before. He might even be heading over to check up on her this very instant. She should hurry back so she won't miss him.
She has every intention of going back to the Fourth, no doubt in her mind that this is where she will go. Exhaustion has replaced the marrow in her bones. Her frame aches with weariness and the desire for a soft bed.
Yet for all Orihime's determination to go to sleep, someone has other intentions.
Perhaps it is something in the way a particular shadow shifts, or maybe there is some higher power guiding her thoughts. Whatever it is, something catches Orihime's attention and makes her turn toward it. She stops and stares to the side, eyes searching blindly for something even she doesn't know what to call.
It takes her but a moment to realize which Division she is turned toward, and even less to realize that it is night, and no one will be at the site of Ishida-kun's fall…
Gone are the thoughts of sleep and nice, comfortable beds, chased away by a sudden, burning need to sate her morbid curiosity. A warning from her long-dead brother drifts unbidden into her open mind.
"Be careful. Curiosity killed the cat…"
The soft patter of feet catches her attention.
"Inoue-san!"
Hanatarou-kun and Misora-san are suddenly there, the former jogging up to her with a relieved expression on his face. Misora-san looks as inscrutable as ever, though Orihime imagines she can see a hint of relief on the shinigami's smooth-lined face.
"Hanatarou-kun, Misora-san," she says, feeling her eyes widen in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"We were worried," Hanatarou-kun says, reaching up a pale hand to rub embarrassedly at his long hair. "We came again earlier, but they said you were still in and you'd probably be out later. But it's a lot later than we thought it would be…"
"In short," Misora-san interrupts, "we came to pick you up."
Orihime's lips wobble feebly into a small smile. "Thank you. But I'm not going back just yet."
"Eh?" Hanatarou-kun blinks and leans back in confusion. "But…but where else would you go?"
"To the Twelfth."
Both shinigami look at her with varying degrees of worry for her wellbeing.
"Inoue-san," says Misora-san, "it's late. You should rest. Tomorrow —"
"I know," Orihime replies softly. "But I have to see. Please? You can come if you want. I just need to see."
Misora-san and Hanatarou-kun exchange glances that make Orihime wither inside with affection. She can almost hear them thinking worried thoughts, wondering whether or not she has finally snapped. It should make her defensive, but Orihime is not that kind of person. She only gives that same smile that widens when Misora-san turns and nods in assent.
"I know shun-po. You and Hanatarou-san just have to hold on, and I can take us there in a second."
Orihime nods and reaches out to take Misora-san's arm. Hanatarou-kun clings to Misora-san's free hand with a quiet blush.
Sound, wind, light — they flash about her in a momentary tempest, and the next time Orihime opens her eyes from blinking, they are standing in the middle of the Twelfth division. Orihime uncurls her fingers from around Misora-san's arm and looks around her for the crater Ishida-kun spoke of.
"It's not here," Misora-san explains, seeing her confusion. "It's around the corner. But, Inoue-san, I have to ask you: are you sure you want to do this?"
Orihime jerks her head in a confident nod and silently begs her insides to stop squirming nervously. Her heart skips a desperate tune within her chest.
Misora-san's concerned expression dissolves into grim acceptance. She leads the way, Hanatarou-kun right behind her, and looks back to make sure Orihime has not stayed where she is.
Every step is agony. It is silent in the area; the "investigators" have retreated into safe dreams for the night. No one wants to be here in this place of death, no one except two unwilling shinigami and Orihime herself. Her footsteps thunder in her ears like hellish drums of war, heralds to her impending misery.
But she has to see. There is an inexplicable need to see in her that cannot be denied, so she must look. She must.
Her two death-god guides stop just before they can turn the corner of the long, towering building that blocks the crater from view. They stand along the building's side and wait for her to reach them. Orihime realizes she has been dragging her feet and forces herself to walk at a faster pace.
"It's just around this corner, Inoue-san," says Misora-san. The air is heavy with unspoken words of caution and concern for the wellbeing of her soul. Orihime tries to give her friends a reassuring smile and finds that she cannot. She sucks in a breath, holds it, and releases only when her lungs start to burn.
She closes her eyes for one blissful moment, pretending she is anywhere but here. Then she reveals her gaze again, nods to herself, and steps around the corner.
She freezes. Horror lodges in her throat, choking her, killing her.
"Ah…ah…"
There is no crater. No hole in the ground, no missing piece of the Seireitei. No sign of anything she has been told ever since that fateful day when her throat was torn open and her blood stained her skin.
But there are bodies. Everywhere. Slumped against walls, lying in pieces on the blood-blackened ground, scattered on the rooftops. Dried blood flakes up against her feet when she steps on it. Wrinkled organs lie pooled around bodies cut neatly in half, like pale dead maggots as long as her arms. Bulging eyes stare at her, already half-eaten by decay. She can see straight through the abdomen of one man and into the open, crushed skull of another. Out of the corner of her eye, she catches the form of a gore-darkened haori, a small female figure twisted into death by her captain's side. Horror everywhere she turns.
The blood seeps through her pores, gathers in her throat in a scream that rises and pushes against her tongue but cannot escape. Orihime clamps her hands over her gasping mouth, trying to stifle the nausea and endless shrieks that build in her stomach. Her whimpers come through her trembling fingers.
"Ah…uh…"
Behind her.
Orihime whirls on her heel and finds herself face-to-face with a gleaming haori. She looks up, neck craning, eyes watering with acidic tears.
The demon gives her a friendly smile.
"Hello there," it says, and agony rips through her stomach.
Everything stops. Orihime's breath, her thoughts, the horror — it all shudders and drops dead at the coldness spreading through her limbs. Orihime blinks uncomprehendingly.
Wha…what…?
She looks down and sees her stunned reflection staring back at her in the demon's blade. The sword has buried itself hilt-deep in her middle.
The demon makes a mocking sound in the back of its throat and jerks its sword free. Orihime feels it slide out of her stomach in a spray of heat and a deep, searing agony that crushes her to her knees. She grasps desperately at the demon's coat, her shaking fingers curling in the white fabric as her blood spurts onto it, turning it crimson.
"Nuh-uh," says the demon, and knocks her aside with a single blow. "Don' dirty my haori, kiddo. We don't know each other that well. Ha haha—!"
"Inoue-san?"
The demon twitches at the sound of Hanatarou-kun's call and quickly bends down to pat Orihime's head.
"Be a good girl and die fast, just like yer little boyfriend 'n Rukia-chan, yeah?"
She shudders. The life is flowing out of her in a gleaming pool. The demon steps around the puddle distastefully and smirks at her one last time, its bloodied sword gleaming in the half-light.
"Ciao, sweetums!"
And she is alone.
Orihime's vision is fading. Her extremities tremble with the cold, and it is all she can do to raise a hand weakly toward her friends when they come hurrying around the corner.
"H-help," she gasps, and tastes copper life, but they stop in their tracks and stare right over her.
"Where'd she go?" Hanatarou-kun asks, his hair fanning around his head as he whips it back and forth, eyes frantic.
Here, Orihime tries to scream, but her tongue weighs a ton and is dragging her down, down... I'm right in front of you!
Still they are blind. Hanatarou-kun's ankle is so close that if she reaches out…
With a tremendous effort that Orihime knows is her last, she lurches forward and wraps her shaking hand around Hanatarou-kun's bony ankle. When she looks up, he is still staring right over her. Her spirit wilts and her grip starts to slip. The world fades in at the edges.
No. No, no, no, no — she can't die. Not while Ishida-kun still needs her help.
This is her last try. If she doesn't make it through with this, no amount of determination or willpower will save her forsaken soul. Orihime curls her fingers tighter around her friend's ankle and touches her hairpins with her other hand.
"I…I reject!"
She feels it the instant it, whatever it is, breaks. It feels like a heavy veil ripping into thin, dying shreds, a mirror shattering into hundreds of little shards that tinkle around her as they fall. Hanatarou-kun and Misora-san jump.
Orihime slumps to the ground. Dimly, she hears Hanatarou-kun scream her name, feels Misora-san's hands lifting her head from the lifeless, unforgiving ground, sees something small and silver flash in Hanatarou-kun's hands…
She fades.
"Heyo, Aizen-sama."
"Ah, Gin. Everything is going according to plan, I hope."
"Yessiree. It's done."
"Good, good…now all that's left is the Quincy, and we can leave this world…"
Orihime.
Big brother…
Wake up.
Her eyes open. Above her is a flat expanse of white, and she thinks she has died and gone to Heaven, only…Heaven is where she died.
She…she's dead.
Images rush in on her, cruel like a lover's betrayal. She remembers watching the sunset with Ishida-kun, visiting the Twelfth division, the demon, a sword through her middle and her friends acting as though she doesn't exist…
Orihime jerks and screams, phantom pain searing through her body, the demon's face leering over hers with a smile and such cruel, cruel eyes —
Someone is at her side immediately, pressing her into the sleeping mat in a way that snaps her back to the day she was carried into the Fourth, her throat split and bleeding her life out. Orihime trembles. The person is speaking to her as if to a frightened animal, trying to soothe her terror.
"That's right, Inoue-san, relax…relax…there. Much better."
Orihime tilts her head back and blinks into Unohana's reassuring face. She presses her hands into her stomach. There is no pain.
"I…I'm —"
"Alive and well," Unohana finishes for her. "You are lucky Hanatarou-san was there with you. Without his zanpakutou's power, you might not have lasted until I arrived."
"Hanatarou-kun?"
"Yes, Inoue-san?" He appears at her side out of thin air. "She's going to be okay, right, Unohana-taichou?"
"Perfectly," Unohana says. "She just needs her rest."
"But…" Orihime puts her weight on her elbows and tries to rise. Unohana's cautious hands are there to catch her if she falls. She may be healed by the efforts of Hanatarou-kun and the Fourth captain, but her body still aches with weakness and shock.
"You didn't see me," she says to Hanatarou-kun. "You and Misora-san…it was like I wasn't even there."
"We've been trying to figure that out. We still haven't come up with an answer, but we're trying, Inoue-san." Unohana beckons to someone in the corner, and Misora-san comes into view. "Your friends told me what happened. We only needed your testimony to stop the execution."
"To stop the…the…" Orihime gapes in horror at the light coming through the thin walls. No. It's here. This is the day her world could come crashing down around her bruised knees.
"It's tomorrow."
"I'm sorry, Inoue-san. We couldn't convince the Commander-General to stop the execution."
"When is it? I have to stop them!" Orihime's voice breaks against the strain. She surges to her feet and nearly loses her balance, sagging into Unohana's waiting arms.
"Calm down, Inoue-san. You're not fully recuperated yet —"
"And Ishida-kun will never recuperate if I don't save him! You don't understand," she babbles, her hands fisting in the captain's clothes. "They did this to stop me, to keep me from helping Ishida-kun. It's all a part of their plan! If you don't let me go now, they'll win, and they'll kill them both —"
Hanatarou-kun wrinkles his forehead in confusion. "Huh? Whose plan is it? Who's going to kill who?"
"The de— Ichimaru!" Orihime gasps. "He's the one who tried to kill me. He left before I rejected whatever it was that was hiding me from you. And before he left, he told me he was going to kill Ishida-kun and Kuchiki-san!"
"What?" Hanatarou-kun's eyes glisten with panic. "But…but why?"
"I don't know!" Orihime wails. "He didn't explain! He just stabbed me and left."
"What she's saying can't be true," Misora-san says to Unohana. "But she would never lie. None of this makes any sense."
"Please, I'll show you," Orihime says, thinking that if she can just reject the spell around the missing part of the Twelfth, they will see. They will all see. "Take me to the Twelfth before we run out of time. Please, Unohana-san. Please."
Unohana simply stares at her for a moment. Then she wraps Orihime in one arm and reaches out to hold on to Misora-san and Hanatarou-kun. Orihime feels the familiar lurch and shift of leaping across space and reality, and all of a sudden, her feet strike ground and she clings to Unohana for her failed support.
There are startled, angry shouts from the Twelfth shinigami all around her. She rushes past them, ignoring their frustrated protests that they are performing important investigations. Bile surges up in a burning wave at the site of the decaying bodies rotting in open sunlight.
Orihime summons her powers. A golden-orange shield spreads as far as she can reach, covering nearly the entire scene of the massacre. Her head pounds with fatigue and adrenaline, and everything is happening so fast, so unbelievably fast that it is all she can do to concentrate on this simple, life-changing act —
Ishida-kun's kind face appears before her eyes.
"I reject!"
The burst of power it takes for her to break the spell knocks her flat on her back. The sky twists and twirls dizzily above her, making Orihime's eyes flutter. She hears a unified intake of breath. And then, the first of the screams.
Hands on her back and shoulders, lifting her to sit up, but she doesn't want to see the horrified faces, the tears, the terror that she knows will be there to rip her heart apart with guilt. She clamps her eyes shut and holds tight to the person's thin arm.
"Do you see them?" She whispers into the darkness. "Can you see what I see?"
The person is shaking even as she offers her help. "I see," Misora-san's stunned voice says. "I…oh, Gods…"
The screams are increasing in number and terror. Someone new grasps Orihime's shoulders and leads her away from the shinigami that push past her, stumbling with horror and grief in place of their sanity. Orihime grips the hands of Misora-san and the newcomer as she does her hold on reality.
"You have seen this before," Unohana says to her, her low voice cutting through the chaos like a sword's strike. "You knew this was here. How?"
Orihime shakes her head into the abyss that stretches out beneath her closed eyelids. It is better in the dark. In the dark, she is free to speak, safe from the terror of reality. "I don't know. I saw it last night, right before Ichimaru came. It was like how Hanatarou-kun and Misora-san couldn't see me, but bigger. I wasn't supposed to see it. So they tried to…"
"Okay," Hanatarou-kun squeaks. "Can anyone else feel that?"
Orihime doesn't know what he means, but by the way Misora-san and Unohana go still, they do.
"It feels like…" Unohana's steady hold disappears and Orihime panics at the sudden loss of touch. She knows all she has to do is open her eyes and she will regain her calmness, but she isn't ready to face the grief around her.
"What?" She asks frantically. "What do you feel?"
"It feels like…but that's impossible," Hanatarou-kun splutters. "He's dead…"
With those two, simple words, everything clicks into place. The broken puzzle board set before Orihime, all its pieces missing or mismatched, suddenly comes together to make a picture more horrifying than anything she's ever seen before. Her eyes fly open.
"Aizen," she says, and isn't sure how she knows, but there can't be any other explanation. "It's Aizen. He did this."
"But…but how could he? He's dead," Hanatarou-kun repeats feebly.
"No, he's not." Unohana comes forward with a crimson-stained haori in her hand and holds it out to Hanatarou-kun, who cringes away. Misora-san stares openly, her face covered with a mask of stunned disbelief.
"This belonged to Kurotsuchi-taichou before he died. Do you feel that? It's Aizen's reiatsu. This haori is covered in it."
"Ishida-kun said he saw Aizen just before he lost control," Orihime says. "He says he just appeared and disappeared. He doesn't remember that Aizen did anything, just that he smiled and vanished. And that was it."
"That's not possible," Misora-san insists faintly. "What you're saying…Unohana-taichou, he's dead. He was dead long before the Quincy killed these people."
Unohana rejects the woman's claims before Orihime can. "That's what I'm trying to tell you, Misora-san. That is what Inoue-san has been trying to tell us all along. Ishida-san did not kill these people. They killed each other."
Orihime turns rigid with shock. She may have known something was terribly wrong, that Ichimaru and Aizen had a hand in it, but to have the beliefs she has spouted for nearly two months spoken by a captain, someone with power and influence…her heart trembles. Misora-san is shaking her head so vehemently Orihime can almost picture her brain rattling loose in her skull.
"Why would they —?"
"I don't know, but these people are covered in each other's reiatsu. There's no denying it, Misora-san. There was something wrong with Aizen's corpse, and now we're finding traces of his reiatsu on murdered shinigami. All the evidence points to one conclusion. Inoue-san, if I may…"
Orihime knows what Unohana is going to ask for; it is what everyone has wanted since the horror began. She tilts back her head and shows Unohana her scar. The captain traces the uneven lines with her fingers.
"See these edges? I know a Quincy cut when I see one. An archer, losing control or not, would never make such a jagged cut."
Orihime's head starts to spin, and it is only then that she realizes she has been holding her breath. She opens her mouth and stares at Unohana, silently begging her to mean what Orihime thinks she is saying.
"Ishida-kun didn't…"
"No, Inoue-san," Unohana says. "Ishida-san is innocent. Ichimaru-taichou cut your throat."
Orihime closes her eyes.
"I recognize his spiritual signature from the wound on your stomach. He hid his reiatsu well, but when you 'rejected' whatever spell hung over Hanatarou-san and Misora-san, you reversed his efforts to hide his crimes. Your scar reeks of Ichimaru-taichou, as this massacre does of Aizen."
"So you really were right all along," says Misora-san dazedly. She starts and gives Orihime a horrified stare. "But if you were right, then Soul Society is about to kill an innocent boy…"
"It will not happen," Unohana insists. "Inoue-san, you said that Ichimaru-taichou mentioned he would try to kill Kuchiki-san as well?"
Orihime nods. "I don't know what he wants with her."
Unohana opens her mouth to speak. A deep, resounding toll stops her before she can so much as whisper.
Orihime quivers at the sound. It rings deep in her bones, disturbing her marrow, vibrating throughout her entire body. She knows that bell. She has heard it in far too many terrible dramas, too many tragedies. The death knell.
They are ringing Ishida-kun's death knell.
"No," she gasps. "No, no — not already! It can't be happening already!"
Heads turn at the sound, torn away from the nightmare in front of them to the one about to occur on Sougyoku Hill. Unohana snaps into action in a way that belies her calm exterior.
"You three, hold on to me. We are going to the execution. Hanatarou-san, Misora-san, you go and convince them to stop. Inoue-san and I will go to Kuchiki-san —"
"No!" Orihime has no idea what possesses her to speak out against a captain, but she will not leave Ishida-kun to face his fate alone. She has promised to always be there for him. And she is no liar.
"I have to go to Ishida-kun," she says. "I have to be there with him. Please, Unohana-san. Kurosaki-kun will be there — he can help you with Kuchiki-san."
"Inoue-san, I don't know what will happen. You will be safest with me."
"I don't care!" Orihime shrieks. "Please listen to me. If something happens and you can't see what I see anymore, I need to be there to stop it. Ishida-kun will die without me. Please."
The death knell continues its ominous tolling. Unohana remains still, thinking, thinking…
"Very well. Misora-san," she says, "take Hanatarou-kun and Inoue-san to Sougyoku Hill. I will go the Penitence Tower to help Kuchiki-san."
"Thank you," Orihime murmurs as Misora-san takes her hand. "Thank you."
"We're gone," says Misora-san, and they are.
"Time to play."
Orihime's knees slam into hard-packed dirt and tiny rocks. She lurches forward and catches herself on her hands. A furious, blistering wind whips at her hair and stings her face, bringing tears to her eyes. Beside her, Hanatarou-kun wails at the spiritual pressure that presses down on them like all the weight of the world.
Orihime lifts her head. Shinigami gape at them in surprise and alarm. She can see the daunting figure of the Commander-General out of the corner of her eye. Misora-san's grip is crushing the blood from her fingers.
She has eyes only for Ishida-kun.
He is suspended in the air, his arms held up by two blocks the color of bone, his bare feet balancing on two more identical stones. He does not see her, for he is staring his death straight in the eye, and it is terrible.
Orihime cannot imagine a more terrifying beast than the one staring Ishida-kun down. Its name comes to her from the knowledge pried from reluctant shinigami mouths — phoenix — but no amount of mental or emotional preparation could have saved her from this. It is a creature of fire and might, so massive she fears if it breathes it will suck her down into its flaming bowels. It is focused entirely on its victim.
Ishida-kun.
Orihime knows what she must do.
"Misora-san," she says, and whispers her intent in the older woman's ear. Misora-san doesn't question. She does not refuse. Instead, as the wind whips around them and the shinigami hurry forward to stop them, she turns to Orihime and says, "I hope you know what you're doing."
They disappear in a fraction of a second and reappear between Ishida-kun and the beast. Ishida-kun cries out in surprise — "Inoue-san!" — and she pushes back against him the instant Misora-san jumps back to safety, sharing his space on the execution pedestal.
"Trust me," she whispers to him, even as he screams at her to get to safety. The beast is leaning forward, intent on destroying them both, and Orihime has never been more at peace.
"I reject!"
The shield goes up around them both. The beast strikes.
A/N: Review, even if I was evil to you this chapter?
-Kimsa
