Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
This chapter is kind of emotional. So yeah, just a heads up.
Enjoy!
Take me to heaven: I'm yours
Chapter 8: Thanks for the memories
All those memories…
"Rain! Stop it!"
All those happy times…
"Oh Matsumoto, you're so depressing I could curl up and cry."
All those stupid games…
"Tag! You're it!"
Such great times…
"MATSUMOTO!"
And now this…
…
"M-Matsumoto?"
The auburn haired shinigami paused in her tracks. Her pretty eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?"
Rain could've laughed, she could've danced, she felt so light she could've flown up into the sky.
With a trill she replied. "It's me! Oh my god, I really didn't expect to see you here." She expected some sort of laugh in reply. A smile, definitely. Some trace of Matsumoto that she'd left behind.
There was a snarl, her full lips pulling back behind her teeth. "I don't know what you're talking about!" And then she charged.
Even with her sword lying useless on the ground, Rain's skills had always been better than Matsumoto's. One of them being a shinigami didn't change that fact. Rain dodged the Espada turned Shinigami effortlessly and managed to pull Matsumoto away from her by the neck of her clothes. In no time at all, she had Matsumoto down in a headlock. Matsumoto squirmed.
"Let me go, you bastard!"
Rain smiled wistfully. "You always hated it when I did this to you, didn't you, eh? Matsumoto-san?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." The buxom woman repeated, her tone was cold, disgusted. It felt like a blow to the stomach. "Growl, Haineko!"
Instantly, they were surrounded by a million sparkles of dust. Had Rain been in her right state of mind, she would've sensed danger and ran to her sword. But with shock and hurt buried deep within her heart, her brain just couldn't tell her to fear. She felt her mind shut down.
"Beautiful." Rain murmured, dropping Matsumoto and making her way over to the cloud of dust. "Isn't it beautiful, Matsumoto?" When the stunned woman didn't reply, Rain continued. "Do you remember when we used to always sit on our special place on the roof, our secret place, and watch the sand glimmer in Las Noches?"
Las Noches? Was this girl kidding her?
Matsumoto screamed at her. "I don't know what you're talking about! I did no such thing with you! I did no such thing with you!"
Rain froze, angrily, her blood began to boil. "You don't remember?" It came out as a snarl, deathly quiet. Louder… then louder…"You don't remember?" By then, her screech could've torn Matsumoto's ears off. "I'll tell you why you don't fucking remember!"
Rain grabbed her sword and flew at her, slashing furiously with each word she spoke. "You…left…me! Left us! And did you even say goodbye?" Tears poured down her face, mingling with her blood and sweat. An awkward combination of the three dripped into her mouth. It tasted salty, filled with broken promises and bittersweet memories. She stopped slashing at the bewildered shinigami and screamed at her instead, splashing wounds in her ever-so-delicate dignity, stitching her heart back up with spider web instead of thread. "I would've done everything for you." Her voice began to crack. "Yet all you left me was a stupid note. A stupid, stupid note! Want to see?" Rain pulled out the crumpled paper from her belt and thrust it at her.
"You've forgotten." She sneered when Matsumoto's face twisted in confusion. "Read it. It might help jog your memory."
Stunned by the Espada's outburst, Matsumoto sealed her zanpakuto and reached tentatively for the note. Her eyes scanned it slowly, widening at certain words. Rain snickered.
"Recognise the handwriting, traitor?"
At the last word, Matsumoto shrieked in shock. "I don't understand! I really, really don't understand!"
Rain's eyes darkened until her once beautiful blue turned grey became a repulsive black. "You don't understand…" She muttered. "Because you erased me, from all your memories. Did I really mean that little to you, Matsumoto? Did I really take up so small space of your heart that you could just toss me away like a forgotten piece of trash?" And then she charged, thrusting her sword directly through the older woman's stomach, twisting, then pulling it out.
A second passed so slowly that Rain could've sworn it had been a minute whilst the buxom auburn haired woman's eyes widened in shock and swivelled round to look at her. The hopeless look in those eyes made Rain want to scream. She would have nightmares for several days, she was sure. That helpless misunderstanding. The stunned shock, then pain of the wound.
…
-a breath, now come the words-
So, 3 years, huh? Funny how I never really noticed you before.
I could say the exact same thing to you.
-a grin, tired but lasting-
You seem different to the rest, kid. I reckon we can actually become friends.
You reckon?
-a nose, scrunched up playfully-
Yeah.
I reckon I can squeeze you into my schedule.
-an introduction, the beginning of an everlasting friendship-
7th Espada, Rain. I have no last name. You?
9th Espada, Matsumoto Rangiku. Nice to meet you.
…
And somehow Rain found herself completely contradicting her own emotions, her own words.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" Rain crouched protectively over her ex-best friend, trying, but failing to heal the wound she had created herself. Tears dripped down her bloody face. "Sorry!"
"Matsumoto?"
Rain turned tearfully to the voice. It was male and sounded positively shocked. The younger Espada felt her throat clog and her breath hitch as she saw him. She… she recognised him. How did that work?
"To-Toshiro." Her voice cracked.
He looked at her in slight surprise, but cold familiarity. "Kurosaki." He acknowledged.
Somehow, Kurosaki suited her so much better than Rain. "How-" She whispered.
"I killed him." The tenth captain replied indifferently. "The one who erased your memory. He… he told me, before he died. He told me… everything."
Rain felt her tears dry in shock. "You… you killed him? Ulquiorra's… Ulquiorra's dead?" She felt weak, unprotected and blubbering like a baby but there was nothing she could do about it. She had never thought that Ulquiorra, who had always seemed so strong could've ever died. He seemed almost immortal to her.
"To my knowledge of what had happened, Kurosaki. I believe you should be regaining your memories right about now." The white-haired taicho told her stiffly. He stood a distance away from the two women but Rain knew that once she left, he would rush over to his subordinate's side in less than a heartbeat. It saddened her how his trust in her had completely vanished. "The one who cut off your memories is dead, he cannot lock them any longer."
"Memories?" She croaked.
…
-a present, cheers to happiness-
"Karin!"
"To-Toshiro?"
"Hey."
"You came back?"
"Only for a little while. I got something for you. Open it when you get home. I have to go now."
"Wait, what? Are you proposing to me?"
"Nani! Of course not! It's more like… how much our friendship has meant to me. And… and I want to thank you for making my stay in the human world so much more happier than it could have been."
"Yeah, me too."
Then he left, disappearing from her as aptly as he had come.
She smiled.
"Ja ne, Toshiro."
…
-a letter, sent to remember-
Karin,
I'm sorry that I had to leave so soon and I didn't know how to say goodbye.
I'm not an openly emotional person. In fact, I usually leave that kind of thing to Matsumoto. But I wanted you to have this as a farewell gift. I hope you will wear it for a long time to come.
I made this necklace myself. Not the chain of course, but the dragon. It's made from Hyorinmaru's ice. I wanted you to have something to remember me by.
Stay healthy, and alive, please. For me.
That is all.
Toshiro.
…
-kidnapped, a word so poorly chosen to it's meaning-
"What are you doing here, Emeralds?"
Ulquiorra stiffens at the ridiculous nickname she had given him so long ago but tries to not let her see anything as petty as emotion glide across his face.
"Karin," he murmurs, his voice dripping sickly sweet with a poison beyond recognition. "Goodbye."
And then her beautifully white-washed world turns black.
…
-an insight to her past-
"Your name is Kurosaki Karin." The green eyed one told her stoically. "That is the only thing I will tell you."
"And yours?" she jibed playfully.
He pauses, hesitates for a millisecond.
"Ulquiorra. Just call me Ulquiorra." He has passed the mark already.
She frowns, considering this. "Okay, so Ulquiorra… what's your favourite ice-cream flavour?"
He sighs, knowing that he really, really shouldn't tell her but finding no restraint. "If you must know, it's mint."
"Mint? That's my favourite too! Oh my god, will you treat me to some ice cream? I mean, we do have the same favourite flavour and everything."
He scowls, finding her language extremely hard to understand. What in the name of Kami-sama did she speak, like, a modernized Japanese slang or something? "Don't push it."
…
-Rain, the newest creation of Aizen's strong army-
"You are one of us." Aizen declares, "As a privileged member of the Espada, you must be given a name if you do not already have one. Say, do you happen to have a name?"
She has a name. It's Kurosaki Karin. Ulquiorra had told her. It's the only thing she knows about herself.
"I don't have a name." She says boldly, coldly staring at him through humourless pale grey eyes. "Why don't you give me one?"
Aizen laughs and Ulquiorra glares. His green eyes are giving her a warning, silently screaming at her to shut the hell up already. She obeys because Ulquiorra's advice can be kind of useful sometimes.
"Rain." Aizen muses thoughtfully. "I like that name. You can be Rain."
Rain smiles tremendously. It's fake and she knows it. "Arigato, Aizen-sama." She said. "I will serve under you faithfully and loyally."
That is what Ulquiorra had told her to say. He had also told her to close her eyes and ignore the scorching pain as they carve the number 7 into the flat plane of her stomach.
Grrr! The 'align center' button isn't working properly! I'm not sure if it will show up as it's supposed to. Very sorry if it doesn't. Very sorry.
By the way, if anyone's confused, I'll just give a brief summary of the chapter.
Basically, Toshiro killed Ulquiorra and because Ulquiorra was the one who had erased Rain's memory, she now has all her memories back. Ha, told you it was brief. :)
OK thanks guys for sticking with me and revieeeeeeew! Only a few more chapters to go till Part II.
