Chapter 10: A Selfish Coward
*Yaka stands nervously scratching the back of her head*
Yaka: I don't get why sad-sama has to do this to me, it was KasidyQ that wanted Sheep, no one said anything about me…not that it's anything new...
*sadsmile pokes her head out from the side of the screen and whispers to Yaka*
Sadsmile: Just say your line!
Yaka: Hai, hai, *anime sweat drops* *coughs into fist* sadsmile wants to thank:
MissKatress
OCLover89
KasidyQ
GrimmaulDee
Winged music box
wolfblood00
and everyone else who has read, favored, and/or reviewed Imagine I was Gone….can I go now?
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"Yaka," Sheep whispered as they followed Grimmjow down the endless halls of Las Noches. Yaka slightly glared at Grimmjow's back hoping to set his jacket on fire yet scared that he might stop and turn around to sock her in the face.
"What do you want," She snapped back in a whisper without looking at the white ram.
"Do you want to be a real human?"
The sudden question caused Yaka to stop walking and slowly turned to Sheep who also stopped.
"W-What do you mean? Is there a way?" She asked feeling a sudden happiness sprout its way in her chest yet she knew there was probably a price to pay, just like all those anime characters that she's seen.
"There is…" Sheep nodded but his eyes said something else, something that she knew she wouldn't like. "But I need you to promise that you'll take care of Grimmjow for me…"
"You're not making any sense."
"I'm telling you that there's a way you could become a real being, so just hear me out, please. This is a lifetime request." Grimmjow's figure shrunk with distance and Yaka felt uneasy leaving Orihime alone with Grimmjow yet she wanted to know this one secret….a secret that could change her life as an Imaginary Friend to a REAL spirit...Her previous thoughts of being able to feel everything, to eat ice cream, to jump into cold lake water, and to actually talk to someone besides Orihime flooded her mind. She wanted to become a real soul so badly…
With a hesitant gulp and that selfish thought in mind, Yaka nodded.
"I-I promise to take care of Grimmjow."
Both Imaginary Friends stood staring into each other's eyes waiting to see who would give in first; after a few more seconds Grimmjow's footsteps faded completely, Sheep sighed finally breaking the eye contact.
"I believe you, Yaka." He said, Yaka noticed his voice held a hint of sadness. "Follow me."
Yaka watched as her friend floated through the wall towards the outside of Las Noches.
"How long is it going to take?" Yaka asked glancing nervously back towards the tall white building. She really hated the thought of leaving Orihime alone once again; the pale teen turned her attention towards Sheep when he didn't reply. Instead of repeating, Yaka kept her mouth shut until a black forest came into view. Yaka slowed to a stop and felt a shiver run up her spine.
The silvery quartz trees were enormous and seemed to touch the sky but that wasn't the thing that bothered her, it was the fact that the forest held a gloomy aura.
"What's wrong?" Sheep popped out in front of her causing her to jump backwards.
"Sheep!" She jumped forward and swung her closed fist downwards on his fluffy head causing his head to jerk forward and a big round pink bump formed within seconds. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Etteeee!" Sheep shouted trying to reach the bump on top of his head but only succeeded in touching the area around the throbbing site because of his short chibi arms. Tears made its way to the corner of his eyes as he glared at the taller nonexistent soul and floated to her eye level. "You didn't have to hit me so hard! It's not my fault you don't pay attention!" He shouted.
The stubborn pale teen bit her lower lip and huffed turning away with her arms crossed against her chest.
"Still!" She pouted. Sheep frowned at his childish friend and shook his head,
"Whatever, we need to hurry up if you want to go back to Orihime." The small puff ball gestured towards the woods. Yaka shivered visibly. There is no way she'll go in there! "It's the only way to become real."
Well, besides that…
"F-fine." Yaka hesitantly glanced over at the woods. Sheep led the way with Yaka following, he would occasionally glance over his shoulder at her to make sure she didn't turn tails and fly the opposite way, even though that was what she had thought of doing multiple times as they continued through the dark trees.
They finally came to a clearing but Sheep held out a hoof to stop Yaka from proceeding into the clearing. She opened her mouth to question his actions but then an eerie growl rumbled from up ahead. Her brown eyes trialed from the white animal to the four legged figure that approached the clearing; she instinctively took a step back and felt cold sweat form on her forehead when she realized the species of the demonic create. It's spiky four legs were attached to a rough fiery red skinned body.
"This is where handicapped hollows come to fight to the death." Sheep whispered. Yaka couldn't turn away from the demon when she noticed two bloody holes on either side of its body where its arms used to be attached. "They're hoping to evolve and get a new body..."
Suddenly the air behind them shifted. The dark haired teen stiffened and she felt her blood run cold just as a second hollow walked right through the two nonexistent beings. She watched as the enormous unhealthy grey boar-like hollow limped towards the center to meet its opponent; the match started instantly. Yaka automatically covered her mouth and lurched forward, her stomach twisted into knots and she felt the whole world spin. The fight was unbearable; the boar hollow had entered the fight knowing it was going to lose no matter what, for its lower jaw was smashed and was uselessly hanging opened. Its ribs and spine were visible from months of starvation. The red skinned demon began tear chunks of flesh at a time using its white masked teeth howling as it did so. It's once pale white mask was now drenched in disgusting black and red blood as it continued its assault.
The teen felt her stomach flex harshly as she gagged, kneeling down, she held herself up with one hand and held her stomach with the other. The ear piercing squeal of the boar echoed noisily in the dark forest as it slowly met its death.
"Yaka, it's over." Sheep's voice was neither afraid nor excited. It was almost as if he was used to seeing these horrible scenes. Yaka tried to steady herself before lifting her head to see what was next. The first hollow had collapsed only a few feet away from its opponent from exhaustion. She witnessed the murdered boar slowly turn into ash flakes just like all the other hollows Ichigo killed. "Hurry, now's our chance." She felt small hooves grab a hold of her upper arm and pulled her towards the clearing. Too weak to protest and still not over the shock, the pale woman stumbled along with the tiny animal. "Okay," He circled to face her. "Now here's the easy part, just breath in the spirit particles."
It took a few minutes for the information to settle into her brain, when it finally clicked, Yaka covered her nose and mouth with both hands.
"Are you crazy?!" her voice was muffled but she knew Sheep could still hear her clearly. "I don't want to breath in dead hollow particles!"
"It's the only way!"
"No! There's always another way!"
"Yaka, we don't have time for this! Hurry up before Grimmjow reaches Ichigo!"
Yaka's body tensed when Orihime flashed through her mind. Orihime's with Grimmjow and if Grimmjow was heading to Ichigo. Yaka felt like smacking herself with a brick, why is the so slow at realizing these type of things?! Grimmjow's going to use Orihime to bring back Ichigo and knowing Orihime, she'll refuse to bring back Ichigo just to get him hurt once more. Yaka stiffly removed her hands from her mouth and nose.
Orihime's going to get killed if she disobeys Grimmjow.
Yaka forced lungful of the dead spirit particles into her system and felt her throat tighten. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to think of the 'positive' side for once. The air of spirit particles felt thick yet comfortable if one's not thinking about where these special specks are coming from.
"Okay, that's enough for now." Sheep tugged Yaka backwards causing the woman to stumble. "I don't want you to become real right away because this is the worse place you can become a spirit." Sheep pointed out as he continued to drag the weak lady. "Y-you're still so heavy!" He panted barely lifting the taller girl off the ground.
Yaka frowned at the comment before slapping his small hooves off of her.
"I can fly on my own, geez!" She turned to him and slightly pushed off the ground…only to come back down. Cold sweat immediately broke out from her forehead.
This is NOT good.
"You took too much!" Sheep yelped with slight panic in his eyes. "Baka! I told you not to take too much! Baka!"
Sheep's panic screaming was not helping one bit. Yaka tried to clear her mind and jumped a bit higher this time, she succeeded in mid-air for five seconds before landing with a thud back on her feet.
"Calm down." She whispered mostly to herself.
"Calm down? Calm down?! How are we suppose to calm down?! There are hollows in this forest! How the heck are you suppose to get out now that they can sense you?!" Sheep placed his hooves on either side of his head in pure panic. "How are you supposed to protect Grimmjow when you're dead?!"
That was the last straw.
Yaka grabbed a hold of the small ram and head locked the poor animal with an anime vein twitching above her right eyebrow.
"Would you calm down and let me think for a second?!" She shouted before blinking in surprise.
"Y-Yaka…" Sheep gasped, "H-hu-hurting, you're hurting me!"
Yaka released the small ram who quickly flew up higher out of the half-human half-imaginary friend's reach.
"Sheep, I can still touch you." Yaka pointed out. "Maybe if I concentrate hard enough." Not waiting for a response, she furrowed her eyebrows and tried to remember the sensation of flying. "Okay…" She slightly kicked off from the ground and succeeded in about a foot off the ground. A smile broke out on her face, "Yes!"
"Okay, hurry before it's too late." Sheep brushed off the happy woman. With no time to waste, both friends headed back as fast as they could to Las Noches.
"Please make it." Yaka quietly prayed as she felt herself slowly lowering to the ground; the tip of her left boot scrapped against the loose white sand causing her to jolt her feet backwards away from the strange feeling of the soft sand. She glanced behind her and, sure enough, there was a long streak of evidence that she had left behind and that was when she realized how scared she was to try new strange things for the first time.
"We're almost there, just hold on." Sheep had flown just a few feet ahead and would glance back at her occasionally.
Right when the tall towers of Las Noches were visible, Yaka felt her feet drag against the sand once more.
"Sheep!" Before she could say another word, she fell face forward into the cold sand. Yaka would've been happy to experience how sand felt like but having them inside her mouth was a different story.
"Yaka!" Sheep flew back to his friend and helped her sit up. The tannish white sand around her lips caused the chibi animal to strangle a laugh; he coughed into a black hoof when Yaka snapped her head towards his direction with a death glare. "We were so close." He glanced back towards the building then blinked, his small ears perked up. "Hold on, stay here and don't go anywhere." He floated upwards and left full speed towards the castle without another word.
Yaka shivered, she was here alone…in a place she's not familiar with and doesn't want to be familiar with. She let out a pathetic yelp when she heard something blow against her ear and skin, she steadied her heart when she felt cool air blowing her black messy hair. It's the wind… this is how wind feels like. It felt…nice.
"Yaka," Sheep's voice snapped the young teen back to reality. "Grimmjow and Ichigo are fighting!" Sheep's eyes glistened with panic tears as he tugged violently at the pale teen's arm, "Hurry! We have to go!"
Yaka stumbled onto her feet and ran with difficulty towards the white castle.
"W-what the heck am I suppose to do?!" The thought finally hit her like a rock as the sound of giant red pillars collapsed and crashed loudly shaking the entire area, "I can't just step in the middle of the battle and try to stop them! They'll kill me!"
But the cotton fluff animal ignored her words as he continued to pull her towards her doom. He slightly huffed out of breath and his tug began to lose its power.
"We have to…" he huffed as they closed the distance between them and the battle taken place outside. "Grimmjow…"
"Why do you care about a maniac like him?!" Yaka was desperate to get away from the intense battle. She roughly pulled her arm back and took three hasty steps back. She was so close to becoming real! She didn't want to die right after that! Sheep quickly turned around towards the black tank-top woman.
"I care as much as you care about Orihime-san!" Sheep shouted furrowing his eyebrows with slight anger. "Now, hurry up! We can't just stand around and chit-chat!" He flew towards her but resulted in her stepping further away, she returned his heated look ten-folds.
"I hate Orihime!" She felt her heart pounding against her chest as she said those words. "I only cared about her because she was my only chance…to survive." She tried not to let her voice crack but failed terribly. "That's all. If I could survive without her…." She fell silent and didn't bother to finish her sentence.
"You…" Sheep stared wide eyed at the girl in front of him then narrowed his eyes into a glare causing the dark haired woman to shiver. A glare that looked very similar to the bluenette. "You're a selfish coward." Yaka felt her eyes widen.
His words pierced her chest and she couldn't understand why…she knew she was a coward and a selfish person from the beginning…but why did it still hurt? She lowered her eyes to her feet. No…she knew why. It was because her first friend called her a selfish coward.
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A/N: Sorry for the very long wait everyone! I just want to let everyone know that I love you! XD and no I'm not taking anything, I promise! Thanks everyone for reading and (some of you) reviewing! 3 I will try to post up the next chapter because it's suppose to get better! I promise! Next chapter! Please stick around until then! Also! Don't forget to send me a review, I need to know how I'm doing so far!