Okay, so here's the second part, although it's smaller than previous chapters. Thanks to those following and even though it's short please enjoy.
Just listening to songs on youth but I'm letting them play on a playlist and it's surprising how many old (a two years ago is old now) songs I've forgotten about. I still love them though ^_^
Please R&R.
I don't own Bleach.
Shuuhei watched the white kimono drift away ahead of him. The Subject's words left him shocked and disturbed.
He'd realised quickly that they'd stopped and were no longer paying attention to their surroundings. The two of them began to get jostled and some annoyed glances were shot their way as the crowds tried to bend around them. He sent apologetic looks at them and tried to snap the Subject back to conscious thoughts. He'd called a few times but no reaction at all. He delayed for a moment before he carefully placed his hand on their shoulder and shook. It was like they suddenly clicked on and the green eyes snapped to his. He would never forget the range of emotions that swam in those depths; anger, hate, despair, loneliness, distrust, fear, pain, love, pride...and grief. It was that which hit him the hardest. He'd seen it so often in the faces of his men after losing a comrade but this was different and it unnerved him as to why.
Before he lost them among the condensing crowd he shot off after them. He could think about what happened later but for now he had to put his job first and concentrate on that. With out the others near them it was up to him to keep track of the Subject.
"Hey you there!" A shout called from just off to the side. "Why don't you try and win something for your sweetheart?"
"Excuse me?"
He turned and saw an old man sitting at a stall. The old man's knobbly knees stuck out from the hem of his kimono and led down to a pair of battered sandals. Resting against his legs was a crooked walking stick. His face was well worn and wrinkled but tanned to show his time outside. His hair was ashen white and stuck out as wispy waves around his head which was only matched by the small beard that hung from his chin. Shuuhei wanted to say this man was ancient but the spark in his eyes was hard to miss and the coy and mischievous smile settled on his lips.
"Come on. You know you want to."
"I think I'll pass."
"But you'll disappoint her."
"We're not together so it's not really my concern."
The guard wanted to hurry this along. He sent a quick look over to the Subject and made sure they were still close. Damn they were almost to the corner of the street, soon they would be out of sight. His heart jumped for just moment and he tried to keep a calm tone while speaking to the old man. It wouldn't do him any good if a Lieutenant was snapping at a civilian.
"Doesn't seem that way to me." The man shrugged nonchalantly.
"I assure you it is."
Out of the corner his eye he saw the thing bumped into a child and seemed to apologise.
They're completely out of it. He struggled not to roll his eyes.
"With the utmost respect you're a fool." That caught the Soul Reaper's attention and he swung back round.
"I don't think you can insult someone and still be respectful."
"You have a beautiful lady at your side and you say she's not yours."
"Yes."
"So you admit that she's beautiful?!"
"That's not what I said!"
"I might be half deaf but those words won't deceive me."
A large group of rowdy men rounded the corner and and walked down the road. The rest of the crowds split to allow them through and tried to avoid them and their wild gestures. Thankfully that included the Subject as he saw them step to the side and wait until they past. He closed his eyes and let out a tense breath. He still had time.
"Look, I'm sorry but I've really got to go."
"Well you better sort your feelings out soon. Someone like that is going to be snatched up quickly if she isn't already."
"I don't think so." He turned to leave yet was stopped has the man's hand gripped his elbow. He tried to shake him off.
What the? Why's his grip so strong?!
"Why so sure? Or are you jealous?" That made him snort.
"No. The situation is just very complicated."
"Excuses! Be a man. Sweep her off her feet." The old man swung his cane around and the Lieutenant had to duck to avoid a bruised head. "Look at me! If I wasn't so old I would do it myself."
"Old man please help yourself." That time he did receive a whack around the head. He blinked in surprise but didn't have time for anger to set in.
"Didn't anyone teach you to respect your elders?"
"I say this with the utmost respect but I don't think my relationships are any of your business." He repeated the older man's words through ground teeth as he rubbed his saw head.
"Maybe not. However, I've been watching and whatever you said earlier upset the little lady."
"Do you like listening to others' conversations?"
He remembered the Subject at that moment and dared to steal and quick glance. His heart stopped for a brief moment when he couldn't locate them but almost as quickly he spotted a blur of white moving behind the stalls. It appeared that they'd been forced to stop again as more people pushed through. That had slowed their journey , he could maybe still make it.
"I maybe be old but I can't stand by and watch a lady be sad. Youngsters these days are so selfish."
"I wouldn't really call them a lady." He let the words slip out and was rewarded with a disgruntled look and tut.
"You have balls don't you?!" The words startled some mothers nearby who blushed and covered their children's ears before shepherding them away. Shuuhei wanted to groan. "Admit your mistake and take a small blow to your ego. Then she'll look at you differently."
"Fine! Alright I'll do it." His limit had been reached and he realised that only way to shake the man off was to agree. He knew he would probably regret it but for now it was the only solution and he would deal with the consciences when they arose. He hated doing that although realised he'd being to doing it more and more since the experiments had been announced.
"That's the spirit." The old man turned away.
"Grumpy grouch." Shuuhei allowed himself to mutter under his breath.
"Run off again and I'll personally handcuff you to your cell."
4-9-6 was yanked back sharply as a hand restrained her wrist. She snapped out momentarily from her daze to snarl behind.
"Excuse me?!" Hisagi loomed over her small frame and blocked some of the light from the surrounding lanterns. She tried to wriggle her wrist free and hissed as his grip tightened.
"Don't just disappear into the crowd." He shook her body harshly as he spat out his words. A small whimper escaped her lips when her poor wrist was twisted into an uncomfortable position. She tried more urgently to ply it away and only after a few more moments of tension did his hold loosen. He didn't let go entirely and it was still a firm grip but she could feel the blood pumping through her veins again; the throbbing a comforting distraction from the warm body that was too far into her personal space.
The Subject tried to tug away again but with little success. All it earned her was a quick squeeze of the guard's fingers to reminder her that although it had loosened it did not mean he'd let go. She shot a hated gaze down at his fingers and suppressed a groan when she saw some bruises already blooming from underneath his fingertips. As she looked down light reflected of a piece of metal in the other hand of her guard. Hoping to not draw anymore attention she leaned around slightly to have a closer look.
It was a small hair pin.
It was shape like a spider lily flower with small tender petals which blazed in a red that she'd only ever seen on the real flowers themselves. There was one main one surrounded by a fewer smaller ones that had yet to fully blossom and some dainty vines made from a gold metal intertwined among them. The pin itself was also made up of the same gold metal and doubled as the stem for the flower.
"What's that?"
"This?" He brought it closer.
"Yeah."
There was only a minor twitch in his fingers around her tender wrist but she felt it as if it was a bolt of electricity running up her whole arm. Hisagi looked at the pin in his hand. The movement drew the Subject's attention and she missed the blush that tainted his cheekbones. He grunted and looked away before thrusting it into her face, causing her to scoot back, as much as her bound wrist allowed, in fear of her eye being skewered.
"I...well...it's yours."
"Mine?"
"I hate repeating myself. Do you want it?" He growled.
"Why?"
"I don't have to explain myself." He remarked in disgust.
"I want to know that it's not stolen. For all I know you could have abused some poor person to take it."
The words didn't sit nicely with her guard and 4-9-6 could tell by the way his nose scrunched up and anger flared through his eyes. It brought her a small amount of pleasure to see the inner battle rage quickly in his mind. She didn't think he would take the hit to his ego but to rectify it he would have to explain himself, something he distressed doing with her. Either way she gained the upper hand.
"It's an annoying story and I'm afraid it would give me a migraine to explain it. Simply put it involved an old man with a walking stick who had the urge to use said stick as a way to leave me with a concussion. Old bugger was persistent that I win it and wouldn't let me go until I did. I didn't want to risk me neck with Division Twelve if I lost their Subject so I just gave him what he wanted. Now, if you hadn't been away in that empty head of yours and tried to run away I wouldn't have need to."
She ignored that he'd insulted her and accused her of running but instead blinked in surprise.
"You won it?"
"Stop asking questions. It's annoying." He muttered but quickly looked horrified as she leaned closer. He moved back. "What are you doing?"
"Do you want me to take it or not?" With that she cut his reply by plucking the pin out of his fingers and sliding it into her hair.
She raised an eyebrow at his silence and a small smirk quipped the edge of her mouth at the bitterness raining down on her from his glare.
Remembering the pink stripy bag of sweets in her hand she popped one of them in her mouth and sighed in bliss. They tasted so good.
"What kind of sweets do you like?"
"I'm not too fussed."
Renji had stopped their group as they passed a street stall selling desserts and sweets. The Subject's green eyes had widened as they beheld the scrumptious pastries and cakes. The smell of them made her mouth water and her empty stomach began to protest. Fortunately, the merry shouts and laughter from around them covered up the loud noises escaping. She thought about how long it had been; it had definitely been too long since she'd had a proper meal let alone a warm one. The apple pie close to her looked so inviting and she could practically see the warmth rising from it.
"Do you want to have that one?"
"What?" It pained her to remove her gaze and look at Renji, to find him grinning from ear to ear. "No, I'm fine."
"Oh, please. You're basically drawling over it."
"Was not." 4-9-6 felt her cheeks burst into flames and she purposefully moved away from the pie.
"Sure." He rolled his eyes. "What about some sweets instead?"
"I don't have any money."
"I'll pay." He burst out in excitement. He really did seem like a happy puppy and she felt like she was kicking him by saying no.
"You really don't have to."
"Yes I do! Now choose which one you want." He commanded her and swept his arm over the selection. The desserts had looked gorgeous but the sweets were amazing. There were so many and stacked so higher they looked like they might topple over any seconded.
"There's so many. How...How do I decide?"
"Come on. You must prefer one."
"Truthfully, I never really had sweets growing up. Well, we did but my people had our own."
"Why's that?"
"Seriously?" The expression on her face fitted her sarcastic tone. But the red head frown in confusion. "Yes, Renji, we just casually walked into villages and districts to buy sweets. It's not like we were being hunted or anything."
"Oh! I see your point." He rubbed the back of his head which she'd noted was a habit he did when he was nervous, embarrassed or flustered. "Well, what did you like? Maybe there's one here that's similar to the ones you use to have."
"I suppose I liked the pear flavoured hard boiled sweets."
"Really?"
"Is that weird?"
"No, not at all. Just unusually. Hmmm...let's see. There!" Renji pointed towards a pile and grinned. "These are called pear drops. They're like hard boiled sweets. I can't believe they actually have them, I don't usually see them around."
"Why not?"
"The pear extract can be hard to get?"
"It's just pear flavoured though. We use to have many pears, especially in the Autumn. Why don't they just use them."
"I don't know the exact technicalities-"
"Wow, big word." She snickered.
"Shut up! As I was saying, I think they use a concentrated version of the juices which takes a lot of time to prepare and can easily go wrong."
"Doesn't that mean they're expensive?"
"Stop worrying about the money. You haven't asked to buy anything else and it makes me feel so guilty when we all have stuff and you have nothing. Do you want some?"
They did look heavenly. The small sweets were split in half with one side a yellow colour and the other red. They weren't the brightest sweets by no means nor the most extravagant but they did look perfect.
"Yes please." Her mouth watered, she might have even drawled slightly but she didn't care; she swore the sweets were calling out to her.
A grin split across Renji's face and he snapped to attention, taking advantage of the Subject's weakness before she refused again. He turned to the stall owner and waved them over.
"Twenty grams please."
The sweets were now carefully wrapped in a pink and white striped bag. She gingerly took them from his outstretched hand.
"Thanks Renji."
"You're welcome, it's not much."
"No, I mean for everything you've done. Thanks for getting me here and getting permission to allow me to be able to experience all this."
"That wasn't just me. Shuuhei helped."
"Shuuhei?" A slight frown creased her forehead. It took a few moments longer to recognise the name of her own guard. She was so use to 'Hisagi' or 'him'.
"Yeah. He really helped me out and worked the hardest."
"Are we talking about the same person here?" The two chuckled softly.
"I'm pretty sure we are, I saw him with my own two eyes. I mean I came up with the initial idea but he made it become a reality. He was the one to go round and get permission. He even went to Captain Kurotsuchi to get Division Twelve to allow you to be released outside of your rotation hours. I would be scared shit to go talk to that clown."
"He did that?" Disbelief was written all over face and Renji laughed as he saw it.
"You don't believe me? You can ask him, he's right over there." He turned and raised an arm to get the attention of the unsuspecting guard.
"No!" He arched an eyebrow in question but she just shook her head and a calmer but determined look flashed in her eyes. "I'll talk to him later."
4-9-6 and her stoic guard were walking towards the river. It had been decided but not spoken aloud that they would go to watch the fireworks from the river, just as Ganju had recommended. She remembered her conversation with Renji and while they were alone thought it would be the best time to see what she could get out of the stoic guard.
"I saw a lot of people today."
"I'm not surprised. It is a festival. There are crowds." Hisagi rolled his eyes and said gruffly.
"I don't mean that. A lot of people I know. I would say almost everyone I've met from the Court Guard Squads."
"They probably would be at this festival if it was their day off."
"It's just a little odd."
"As I said, they would most likely be here."
"I also saw Captain Shunsui Kyoraku."
"I thought you said you'd seen people you'd met already?"
"So?"
"You've never met him."
"How would you know?"
"Because I'm always with you when you're rotated out. The few times I wasn't I would have heard. How do you even know who he was?" As an after thought added the last part.
"True. It was a few hours ago. I saw him watching me and asked Hanataro who he was, then I saw him again at the ring when we were all seperated. I think he was using the tightly packed crowd to talk to me discreetly."
Silence.
"What did he say?"
"Asked what I was doing there. I said that I was allowed and had permission."
"Hold on. He knew you were a Test Subject?" He'd stopped them and steel eyes bore into her.
"Yeah. Apparently it was obvious to him. He said, if you knew what to look for then I stood out." She muttered the last bit and looked at the ground by her feet.
"So he just questioned you about your reason for being there?" She thought she heard some of the uneasiness knock off in his response. It didn't feel right with her so she decided to push for a little more.
"That's the thing. He came to warn me. I think."
"About?" His quick remark made her hesitate although Hisagi seemed to think it was for a different reason. "Look, it's my job as a guard to know of any threats or reasons why you would step out of line."
"Do you know there are people watching me? Or is it a coincidence that there are so many of the others around?" The words tumbled out in a rush. For the first time she saw him taken aback and stumble over his thoughts. His mouth moved but no words came out. Later she would gleefully relish how she'd made him speechless and savour the face he wore right at that moment in time.
"Just a coincidence. I would know if there are others following us." They weren't convinced if he actually sounded so sure when replying or if it was just her imagining things. She decided to confirm what she already suspected, resolving to get the information she desired from the tight lipped man.
"Then why was the Captain inquiring as to why people were following me? He wanted to know what was so special about me they found it necessary to have so many."
"There isn't anyone tracking you."
"You're a shit liar."
"Watch your tone." His harsh words like acid hissed out and eyes blazed darkly.
"Whatever." She turned her face away from the intense stare but called out as Shuuhei stormed away. "You could at least tell me the truth. I deserve that after all."
"Fine." He spun back with force and shoved his face closer to hers. He spat out his words. "Yes, there were others watching. The three of us knew about them, we were the ones to ask them to do it."
"What?! Why?" He sighed heavily, or was it more of a huff, she couldn't tell anymore when he grew angry. Nevertheless he backed off to a more suitable distance and crossed his arms.
"We knew Division Twelve would never let you out in an area with so many civilians unless you had multiple guards around. So Renji and I agree to compromise by only letting a few of the guards be known to you."
"How many are there?"
"There were twelve in total. Although, I have no idea where they've all gone now."
"Twelve!" That was more than she'd imagined. "Are they still there?"
"They should be." His eye twitched slight and if the conversation hadn't been so serious she would have found it amusing. "I think they lost us back there, or think it's acceptable to keep a larger distance now it's later into the evening."
"Who were they?"
"I don't think I can risk telling you the identities of them. Although, you've probably managed to discover some of them."
"I didn't realise you guys put so much time and resources into getting me the chance to be here."
"I did mention before it was all Renji's idea. He was the one that chased people up and called in favours."
"Shit liar." It almost brought a smile to see him splutter. Almost.
"Stop saying that!"
"Does it annoy you? Is it because it's true?"
"No."
"Renji already told me all the stuff you did too." She finally revealed which caused on onslaught of curses and low grumbles to breakout from under his breath.
"Whatever. Be grateful that so many people agreed to help you. They gave up their hours off to guard."
"I'm surprised they would."
"I don't know why but I think you just left an impression on most of them. The others just followed them or were asked as favours."
"Why did Renji push so hard for this to happen?"
"I believe he considers you a friend." It didn't go unnoticed by the Subject the a sneer briefly graced his face.
"A friend?"
"I warned him that getting too close to any of the Subjects would hurt him in the end."
"Why did you help him then?"
There was a pregnant pause and tension filled the gap.
"I don't know."
"That seems to be your answer for most things recently."
"I-" Again he paused. "It's complicated."
"How so?" He sent a glare her way.
Before the Lientenant could reply a loud band echoed across the river and a red light illuminated the side of his face. They turned to watch across the river and saw the fireworks explode above the rooftops. The sparks scattered across the sky in an outburst of colour; red, purples, blues golds and even white. All the colours she could think of and more were covering the night sky in light. The sounds bounced around and absorbed her into the atmosphere.
"You should sit down." He motioned to the grass next to where he had taken a seat on the bank of the river. The Subject knelt down carefully and tucked the kimono behind her knees. They shifted into a more comfortable position with their legs in front and folded to their chest.
"Ganju's right. They really are the best fireworks."
In the dim but flickering light that the light display provided he saw a glow about its face. Their cheeks glowed soft red. Those green eyes that once dimmed from the captivity were finally alive again, this time they were darkened. The night sky was reflected back into those orbs giving them an endless depth.
Thud. Thump thump. His heart drummed against his ribcage.
The night fell silent as the last burst and vanished. The smoke settled and gunpowder hung in the air. He hardly noticed. His eyes hadn't once looked at towards the sky. Suddenly, one single trail flew up and exploded into the largest and brightest of them all.
Green. Just like those eyes he now couldn't take his own away from.
As I said I've got exams now so the updates will be longer. However, I've found out recently that if I go to my school's library in my frees I can write in peace and I've been able to write more. It's how I managed to finish this one off and almost complete the next chapter quicker. I feel proud :D
Although, the downside is that the public are allowed in some areas of it. I was writing the majority of the next chapter and there was a group of older ladies just behind the bookshelf I was sat next to. There were about fifteen playing scrabble but I swear at the time it sounded like they were counting and dealing money! I couldn't see anything but I kept picturing them as hustlers.
Review and follow for update alerts.
I wish luck to all those who have exams and deadlines coming up this time of the year!
22/05/2017