"Ko!"
Reiko looked up at the warm voice calling her name, a wide smile on her lips. "Finally! What took you so long?"
"Ha, ha! Sorry, sorry! Clean up took a little longer than I expected." Ryuhei Sagara laughed good-naturally as he stood panting in front of her, "Akise-kun forgot to turn in the reports before he left, too, so I had to run them down to the teacher's lounge." He gave her one of his small boyish smiles, "You know you could have gone ahead without me, I wouldn't have minded."
Reiko shook her head, "I said I would wait, so I did. It's ok," she grinned at him, "But that means you're buying!"
"Whaaat? But I bought last time!"
"Too bad! It's your punishment for making me wait for so long!" Ryuhei heaved a dramatic sigh, but made no more complaints as he followed his best friend off the school grounds. They walked side-by-side down the street and soon came upon the small ice cream vender who had set up shop at the end of the street.
"Ah! Sagara-kun! Hitosanai-chan!" The vender gave them a warm greeting when he saw them approach, "I was starting to worry you weren't coming today, and I just got a fresh batch of pumpkin spice!" He smiled at the two high schoolers who stopped by his little cart almost every day after school to get cones of his handmade ice cream.
"Ooooh!" Reiko moaned in longing at the sound of pumpkin spice ice cream. She loved that ice cream, and wished that the vender served it all year round instead of just during the Fall.
"Two cones, please!" Ryuhei was already handing the vender the money, "Make one a double scoop," he winked at Reiko.
"Two cones, one double scoop, coming right up! And keep your cash, boy, it's on the house today."
"We couldn't-"
"I insist! With how faithful you two have been to this humble rolling shop of mine, I think I can spare a few scoops of ice cream." He smiled kindly at them, and they grinned back, happily accepting the cones he handed out to them. They walked away with a wave of thanks, greedily licking the tasty orange colored snack.
"Lucky you," Reiko said between licks, "You escaped your punishment nicely, didn't you, Ryu?"
He laughed, "I thought so, too!" He looked over at her cone, "Ah! You're dripping!" He grabbed her hand to bring her cone closer and licked the sweet drops that had threatened to drip onto her fingers. Reiko felt her face flush red, "H-Hey!" Ryuhei licked his lips with an impish smile, "Relax, you still have a whole scoop more than me!"
"That's not the point!"
Ryuhei laughed again, turning back to focus on his own cone of slowly melting ice cream. They walked for a while in silence, enjoying each other's company and finishing the cones. Even though she had more than him, Reiko finished hers first; stuffing the last bit of cone in her mouth with a sigh of satisfaction.
"I know I've said this before, but I love that man's pumpkin ice cream!"
"Oh, really? I didn't notice." Ryuhei raised an eyebrow at her as she licked the stickiness from her fingers. She stuck a tongue out at him, very childishly, and he smiled. He finished his own cone, refraining from licking his fingers, and looked up at the sky, "Sun will set soon. Wanna watch at the river before heading home?" Reiko agreed.
When they reached the riverbank-sitting on the flat grassy area overlooking nothing but water and sky-the sun had indeed begun to set. "How pretty..." Reiko said, staring at the pink and purple haze that had spread above them.
"Yeah..." she looked over at Ryuhei and met his eyes. He hadn't been talking about the sky. His soft hazel eyes, Much prettier than the sunset, Reiko thought, stared into her own. They sat like that for some time, staring into each other's eyes, and then...slowly...Ryuhei began to move closer. "Ryu...?" her voice was a whisper.
"Hmm?" His face was awfully close. She could have counted each of his long eyelashes, if she wanted to, "W-wait..." she held a hand against his chest, stopping him just before his lips brushed against hers. There was hurt in his eyes now. She had thought, had hoped, that he'd felt the same about her. But now that he was proving that to be true...
"It's just..." she bit her lower lip nervously, "I...I have to tell you something..."
"You like someone else..?"
"NO! No...that's not...I...I do like you! I never thought that you would-"
"Reiko," he surprised her by using her full name. He'd been calling her "Ko" for months now, "I've loved you since last Fall. Remember, when we went to see the leaves?" She did remember.
He'd told her of a grove of cherry trees whose leaves had all turned Fall colors. At her request, he took her to the grove. The hundreds of trees dressed in gold, red, purple, and lingering hints of green had been enchanting, especially when a strong gust of wind had swirled the leaves around them in a dance of stunning colors.
"I remember watching you twirl in that leaf storm like a little kid and I knew it then. Watching you laugh, all I could think was 'Damn, how I love her.' I think that all the time. I thought it just now, watching you looking at the sky. Damn, Reiko, how I love you." his voice was a whisper, but his words rang through her as if he had shouted them at the top of his lungs.
"Ryu..." she was at a loss for words. He took that as a sign and before she could protest, he brushed his lips against hers in a soft kiss. It was a sweet and delicious kiss, tasting of pumpkin spice. She pulled back with a small gasp, her heart racing, "You can't," she said urgently, her voice shaking as she clutched the emerald stone hanging around her neck, "You can't love me! You can't!" she'd begun to cry and hated herself for it.
Ryuhei reached up and wiped away a tear with a small boyish smile, "Too late," he said, and his voice was strong; determined and wonderful to her ears, "I already do."
"But you can't..." Reiko looked at him through tearful eyes; at his messy cherry red hair that framed his beautiful eyes, at the smile that always shinned on his face, at the boy who had been her one and only friend since she had moved to Shinjuku over a year ago. The boy she realized she loved very much, and because of that, could never be with, "You don't know me...not the real me. I...I've been keeping something so horribly important from you, something I know that, once you know, you'll never want to see me again!" her lip trembled at the thought of sharing her secret with him.
Gently he placed a hand on top of hers, the one clutching them gem hanging from its golden chain, the one she hadn't realized was visibly shaking as she spoke. "You can tell me anything, Ko. You know that. And nothing you say could ever stop how I feel." he smiled even wider, "I've watched you scarf more ice cream and deserts that's physically possible for a normal person, seen you sick and looking gross with the flue, even suffered through your bad action-movie phase over the past year, and I still love you."
She laughed. She couldn't help it. He laughed too, his hand tightening on hers, "I'm always on your side...you know that, don't you? No matter what, I'll always be here for you. And I'll always love you." The smile had faded. He looked at her with a serious gaze she had never seen before. She felt her heart beat faster and a strange warmth spread through her body. She kissed him, a long and desperate kiss, and felt his surprise beneath her lips before he was eagerly kissing her back, when it happened.
A cold chill engulfed them as an ear splitting screech split the air. Ryuhei and Reiko broke apart at the sound and Reiko stared up in horror at the large hole that had seemed to tear open in the once beautiful sky. The purple and pink was blocked by a swirling gape of black, a hole Reiko had seen many times. She stood hurriedly, "Oh no, not again!"
Ryuhei stood next to her, not looking at the swirling hole which he could not see, but looking at her curiously, "Did you hear that scream? What kind of creature-" whatever he said next, Reiko didn't hear over the next terrifying scream as the Hollow appeared. Large with long spindly arms, it pulled itself out of the rift between worlds before them. It was big! Much bigger than the ones she was normally used to dealing with. It grinned at them with it's elongated, lizardly mask, a long tongue flicking out between its teeth.
"GET DOWN!" Reiko pushed Ryuhei to the side, diving out of the way herself as the Hollow sprang at them. It flew between them, landing in the grass with a heavy thump that shook the ground beneath them.
Torusei!
It's ready. The voice whispered in her mind. She reached up to touch the emerald stone hanging around her neck, the stone that pulsed as quickly as her own beating heart. Out of the stone materialized a long machete. She turned, the blade in her hand, and froze in horror.
The Hollow had Ryuhei pinned to the ground, a long clawed hand holding each of his arms down at his side, "What's going on?" Ryuhei's voice trembled with fear as he spoke, struggling against the unseen force that had him trapped, "Something...something's there!" he looked over at Reiko, his voice still trembling but urgent as he spoke next, "Reiko!" he begged and she thought he was going to ask her to save him, but instead he screamed, "Get out of here, hurry! RUN!" The Hollow opened its large mouth, and Reiko knew that if Ryuhei could see it, he'd be staring into an abyss of nothingness between the Hollow's jaws.
"RYU!" she screamed, running towards him with her weapon raised. The Hollow, without even giving her a glance, swiped its long lizard tail and knocked her back. The air escaped from her lungs in a WHOOSH as she went sailing backwards, hitting the ground hard and rolling, the machete knocked from her hands. With a groan, she raised her head just in time to see the Hollow lower its own, blocking Ryuhei from view. But she heard his screams of pain when those horrid teeth clamped down on him; on the cherry red hair, on those hazel eyes, on the boyish smile he always reserved for her.
"RYUUUUUUU!" Her scream echoed through the no-longer beautiful sky.
With a gasp, Reiko woke up. Her hand was stretched out, reaching for the boy she had failed to save. She could feel the tears already drying on her face.
Many years had passed since the day she'd watched the lizard-like Hollow devour Ryuhei Sagara, the only and last boy she'd ever loved, but the memory was fresh in her mind. And the nightmares still haunted her sleep. She never knew why the Hollow had chosen to attack him (after all, hadn't it been her own uncontrollable power that had lured it in the first place?) but she never forgot the pain she'd felt watching him die, or the gripping sorrow that had threatened to consume her when she stood staring down at his bloodied and mangled body after she'd destroyed the Hollow.
It was after his death that she made it her mission to find a way to be-rid herself of the wretched curse placed upon her by her ancestors, to do anything necessary to make sure her powers were completely stripped from her. When that day came, she would go to Ryuhei's grave and beg for his forgiveness for not doing it sooner, for not looking hard enough for the solution to being normal, for having the damn power that had attracted the Hollow in the first place and ended his young life before it had really started. For not telling him the truth. Since that day, she'd taken to calling herself "Reiko Sagara", so that she would never forget.
She lowered her arm and it plopped next to her. Her breathing was hard, and her face still felt warm with the fever that had appeared ever since she drank the foul liquid Kisuke Urahara had given her. She looked around.
She was in a small and tidy room. Someone had put her to bed in a small futon and perhaps had been wiping her brow clear of sweat as she thrashed in her fever; she saw a small pail with water and a cloth sitting close by. The room was empty but she could hear voices coming from the next room over and recognized Ichigo Kurosaki's voice instantly, although she couldn't quite hear what he was saying. She tried to sit up but was hit by a wave of nausea and dizziness so strong that she had to lay back down.
Finally awake, are you? Torusei's voice whispered across her mind and she answered him in kind, What...happened?
What happened is I was right...again. The power gave out as the Shinigami's attack landed. If it weren't for that girl, you would be dead and I'd have found a new host already.
Girl? What girl?
That Orihime Inoue. Very interesting power; I'd like a chance to talk with her about it one day. For the time being we've been taken to Kisuke Urahara's shop. The little rag-tag-gang has been talking about who knows what in the other room ever since-Ahh! You shouldn't do that! Reiko tried to sit up again, slowly this time, and found that the dizziness wasn't so bad after all. Her hand nudged something and she heard a small metallic rattle. She glanced down. It was the Spiritus Patina (Spirit Charger), the reishi generated pole Torusei had given her in their last deal. In a flash, she remembered taking her hands off of it to protect herself, breaking the flow of spirit energy she had been channeling into it to fly. Pain. Then falling.
Reiko gripped the Patina and used it to help herself to her feet, panting with the effort but not feeling as if she would pass out anytime soon. Using the Patina as a cane she made her way to the door separating her from the other room and, ignoring Torusei's protests, flung it open.
They all stared at Reiko in surprise, "Rei-chan!" Orihime half raised from the table, but Reiko held a hand up to motion her to sit back down, "Which one of you did it?" she asked in a dangerously quiet voice, her head down and shielded from view by her long raven hair.
"Which...what?" Ichigo shared a look with Rukia, who looked just as perplexed. Reiko raised her head and he cringed at the furry she saw in his eyes, "Which one of you assholes attacked me full on and almost killed me?!" she demanded. They said nothing, but quietly looked, one-by-one, at Renji who was nervously tugging at his headband.
"So...it was you." Reiko studied him, remembering him as the guy who had sat next to her in class a couple days before, "The red one."
"Y-yeah..." Renji was sweating now, "S-sorry about that...I didn't mean to, honest! I thought that-"
"Thought you'd just off me and save yourself the trouble of hauling me back to that shithole?"
The venom in her voice, mixed with what she was actually saying, shocked Ichigo so that it took him a moment to realize she was talking about Soul Society. He studied the girl standing before him. She was no longer his cheery red-headed classmate, the one with the kind smile and twinkling laugh who'd shared her lunch with him on the roof. She was one hundred percent Starless, raven hair, sharp tongue and all.
"N-No! I didn't...I would never...that's not..." Renji faltered, not knowing what to say (A little harsh, don't you think? Torusei whispered to her, but he sounded amused despite his words) and Rukia saved Renji the trouble, "How do you feel, Sagara-san? Do your arms hurt at all?"
"My...my arms?" the question threw her off so that she momentarily forgot her anger. That's right, she thought, I remember them getting all cut up. There wasn't a mark on her mocha skin at all. Her forearms, which had bled heavily when Zabimaru had slashed them, were fully healed.
"They feel fine, but how-?"
"I healed you up as quickly as I could!" Orihime said nervously, "You were loosing so much blood, I was afraid I hadn't done it soon enough." she threw a glare at Ichigo, who shrugged as if to say Better safe than sorry.
"Thank you, Orihime..." Reiko's voice was genuine as she looked at the girl her mother had talked about so much years ago, and then her eyes narrowed again and hardened, this time on Kisuke Urahara, who stiffened with the lower half of his face hidden behind his large fan.
"Kiiiisukeeee!" She staggered forward, almost falling over until Chad, who'd come from making tea in the kitchen to her left, steadied her. She glanced at him in thanks, but the rage was back in her voice as she confronted the shop owner, "What the hell did you do to me?"
"Pardon?" Urahara asked, his voice light and innocent, "I'm afraid I-"
"THE REPELLENT!" Reiko shouted, immediately wishing she hadn't as the dizziness swept over her again. She lowered her voice, "That so called 'repellent' you sold me! That nasty, disgusting smelling liquid! It didn't suppress my reishi at all, it increased it, you bastard!"
"Nasty...increased..." Urahara's voice sounded very confused, "The repellent I sold you should have done just as I said; all but blocked your spiritual energy so that it was undetectable to Hollows. And it was far from 'nasty', I made sure of that! It was lemon flavored!"
"If rotting cheese is your idea of 'lemon flavored', you really need to get yourself checked out!"
"Rotting-?" Urahara snapped the fan closed, "Sagara-san, by any chance do you still have the bottle?" She did.
She rummaged in the pocket of her cloak and tossed the bottle to him, the cork removed. The wafting smell of putrid cheese filled the room, making the others gag.
"You actually drank something that smelled like that?" Renji asked and fell quiet when Reiko fixed him with another cold stare. Urahara, unperturbed, sniffed at the bottle, both his nose and eyebrows wrinkling, "This...is not lemon. It's also not what I sold you."
"Bullshit!" Reiko cried, twinging at the dizziness and ignoring it, "That's the bottle you handed me!"
"That may well be, but this was not the repellent I-"
"Stop lying to me!" She was absolutely furious now. She raised a hand, palm up, and aimed it at Urahara, "Don't you dare lie to me, you damn Shinigami! You think I don't know? You may not work for them anymore, but you're doing their dirty work, all the same!"
"Reiko...calm down..." Ichigo had half risen from his seat at the table, "Don't so something you'll-"
"SHUT UP, SHINIGAMI!" her eyes were wild now, and even Chad had backed away from her (although it looked like he was getting ready to tackle her to the ground if need be) "You're just like them! What was the plan, huh?" she turned back to Urahara, "Make my reishi peak so the others could come and get me?! Or were you hoping that the Hollows would get to me first?!"
"Sagara-san, be rational," Rukia this time, her own hand raised, palm forward, facing her in a defensive manner, "You need some more rest. You're still weak-"
"I have enough strength for this!" Reiko's arm tensed and Ichigo knew she was going to fire one of those fireballs, the blazing red or maybe the blue, straight into Urahara's face and he prepared himself to get out of the way.
Only nothing happened. Nothing at all.
Reiko looked just as shocked as the rest of them. She looked at her hand in wonder, "What..?" she raised it again, concentrating with all her might to fire a hail of red flames into the lying bastard's face who had sold her the liquid which was making her life a whole lot more difficult. Again, nothing happened. Reiko's grip on the Patina slipped and she slid to her knees on the floor.
"The powers...are gone..." she whispered, until the emerald stone angling from its chain around her neck pulsed in a steady reminder and killing the small burst of hope that had raised its head within her.
Not quite, my lovely, Torusei whispered in her mind. No...the curse hadn't broken, but for some reason or other she couldn't access any of the powers she had exchanged her very life force to gain, the powers she needed if she had any hope of becoming strong enough to break the curse for good.
Ichigo and the others stared in wonder as Reiko broke down and began to cry for the first time since Ryuhei's death.
-To be continued...
