A/N: Heard some new music this week and it has inspired quite a few more ideas for this lovely little story. I hope you all will enjoy the future ideas that will be coming up soon. Onto number fourteen and this one is very Shinji/Namika centric, let me know what you think.
A special thanks goes to: animefreak112097, KitKatKaylei and thunderyoshi for the wonderful reviews.
Another special thanks goes to: KitKatKaylei for becoming a follower to this story.
Chapter 14:
History Lesson
"Again!" Shinji shouted.
Namika got back to her feet, sweat rolling down her face. They've been down in the training grounds for the last three hours trying to get her to hollowfy on command. Each time she tried, the length of time got a little longer; but not by much. The power was taxing on her body and she was growing tired quickly.
She reached her hand up once more, pulling forward and creating the vortex of power needed to create the mask. The white shell that deemed resembles a dragon appeared across her face. Shinji smiled, he was proud of her. He knew that she was tired and that he was pushing her a little too hard; but it was needed for her to have complete control over the hollow inside.
Metal clashed against metal, echoing across the grounds. The power she was unleashing was rare, it was like she was meant to be this hybrid warrior. Pushing him back, Namika shifted her blade around and away from his. She swung upward swiftly, catching him across the cheek. The sight of crimson made Shinji realize that he was going to have to hollowfy himself if he wanted to avoid any injuries.
However, before he could, Namika's mask shattered. It hadn't lasted a minute that time, which meant she had spent nearly all of her energy. Namika collapsed to her knees before him, panting for a breath of air.
"I'm...sorry…" She apologized.
"No need for an apology. I can see that you are exhausted." He answered, offering his hand to her.
She accepting and he helped her to her feet. Her eyes went instantly to the cut on his face. The guilt set in upon seeing it with her own eyes, not those of her hollow. She reached her hand up to wipe the blood away with her index finger. "I'm glad it wasn't any deeper." Namika commented.
Shinji didn't know what to say to her. The fact that guilt was written all over her face made him realize that he probably wasn't the best training partner for her. He was going to have to convince someone else to do it, which wasn't going to be an easy task.
Once they got to the top of the stairs, Namika could see that it was dark outside. She slowly started to walk towards the sliding door that would lead her out to the city. Hiyori eyed her in passing but said nothing.
"Mika, wait!" Shinji called after her.
She stopped just shy of the door, not bothering to turn around and face him. Hiyori noticed something was off with her and decided to pay more attention to the situation. The others barely moved a muscle in their direction. They were all too busy doing other things to listen to the desperation lingering to Shinji's voice.
Namika slid the door open and took the few steps it took to get outside. Shinji rushed after her, reaching for her hand. The firm grip around her wrist lightened up when she finally stopped walking away.
"Don't walk away from me…" He said softly.
"I can't do this...she's stronger than I thought. It might have been only a slight cut this time; but who knows about next time. Shinji...I'm not going to be the one to end your life….do you think I would ever be okay after that…"
"The dumbass if stronger than you give him credit for." Hiyori interrupted, coming out of the warehouse with her hands in the pockets of her pants.
"Hiyori…" Shinji whispered.
Namika turned to look at the smaller woman in the eyes. The burning tears in her own started to fade, replaced by irritation that she had the nerve to eavesdrop on a private conversation. She pulled her hand free of Shinji's grasp and clenched her hands at her sides, doing everything she could not to attack the root of all the irritation she felt.
Shinji could feel her energy returning in waves. He couldn't really understand why they hated each other so much. From what he remembered, they didn't see eye to eye in the Soul Society either; but he never asked Namika about it, never wanted to pry into things she seemed sensitive over.
"You have no business in this conversation." Namika snapped.
"I actually do. You are a vizard now, whether you like or not and if you can't grasp control then we will have to eliminate you. You were told this right from the beginning."
"Then go ahead and eliminate me!"
Namika outstretched her arms, relinquishing all defenses. The anguish was swirling in her eyes. Shinji had never seen her so defeated before. Hiyori smirked, taking a step in her direction withdrawing her blade as she walked. "You truly are pathetic. You give up way too easily and that has always been your problem."
"You know nothing! I lost my brother, the only family that gave a damn about me, and the family I do have left cast me out like I meant nothing at all. I can't go back home! I'm stuck in this city with people who pity me, so you tell me what I have left!"
Shinji wanted to tell her that she still had him. If he was honest, even if he said something her emotions were taking over and his words wouldn't get to her. He would talk to her after the argument died down.
"I know plenty. I know that when you graduated from the Academy, they offered you a Lieutenant position and you turned it down.
Namika narrowed her eyes, flash stepping to get in front of Hiyori quickly. Her fist connected with her jaw, sending her back several feet. Shinji could see her energy's aura, just like he could see the anger across her face. He never knew that she had been offered a high ranking officer position upon graduation and he assumed that no one did, judging from the level of anger she was presenting.
The commotion was drawing attention. Lisa poked her head outside to see what was going on and before Shinji knew it they all were standing in the doorway to the warehouse, watching the exchanges in verbal and physical attacks. Lisa looked at Shinji, pleading with him to get them to stop; but he had no idea what to do to get them to stop other than physically restraining them.
"You wouldn't understand the reasoning behind my decision just like you wouldn't understand anything I'm going through currently. You never could understand the things I did and you took it upon yourself to insult me at every turn."
"Hiyori, don't you think you've said enough?" Shinji said stepping in between them.
"She's weak, Shinji. I will never understand why you are so drawn to her."
He turned to look directly at the smaller of the two women. The amber of his eyes were soft and it caught Hiyori off guard for a moment. "Emotions are not weak if used the right way. I've told you this once before, have I not?" He asked, the softness of his eyes were gone in a flash, replaced by a subtle hardness.
Hiyori ignored his question, flash stepping to get around him and back into Namika's face. "You need to toughen up if you ever hope to avenge Kaien's death, stop fearing every obstacle in your path. I will be taking over your training. Shinji is too soft on you. I won't be." She said before turning away to return to the warehouse.
The rest of the group made an opening for her so she could enter the building. They took their leave as well, leaving Shinji alone with Namika once again. She relaxed from her tense posture. "So you were offered a high ranking officer position right when you graduated…" He commented, breaking the silence between them.
"And as Hiyori put it out there...I declined the offer…"
"Why? You told me once that you wanted to be a leader."
She let out a sigh, then leapt to the top of the warehouse to sit down. He followed suit and sat down next to her, keeping a little distance between them. "I was new, still naive to combat as you figured out later on. I didn't want to be a fresh newbie in a position of power...wanted to earn my place within my squad; but as time moved forward, I stopped caring about the position and focused on respect."
"What changed?"
"You came along and it didn't seem to matter to you what my position was, so I stopped worrying about it."
Namika rested her head on his shoulder. He looked down at her, moving her head back up so she had to look at him. He placed both of his hands on the sides of her face. "Your position didn't matter to me; but I didn't want you give up on your goals either." He said, turning his body so his knees brushed up against hers.
"None of it matters now anyway...the past is the past and we can't go back to it now." She answered, reaching her hands up to pull his down.
"No, we can't; but it doesn't change anything. You still mean the same to me as you did back then, perhaps even more so."
She smiled, sliding back a little so she could lay her head on his lap. His fingers found her hair quickly enough, with soft strokes her eyes slowly started to close. He had never actually watched her sleep with the exception of when she was in the coma, which wasn't really a peaceful slumber.
He studied every feature right down to the scar that was showing slightly above her right breast. The woman asleep on his lap had more scars than he did and he hated it. Reaching down, he lifted her up bridal style and quietly jumped down from the roof to walk back inside the warehouse.
No one said a word as he entered the building, he simply walked passed them all to climb the stairs that would lead to his room. The darkness lay bare for him so he sensed his way through the room to lay her down gently upon his bed. She stirred awake the second her head was placed upon the pillow. "Shinji…" She whispered.
"I'm right here, rest...there is no shame in it." He encouraged.
"Stay...please…"
"I'll be right back, I promise."
There was no reply, which meant she had fallen back to sleep. He exited his room and returned to the main room of the warehouse. Hiyori was the first to step forward. "You know I'm right. You can't train her properly."
"I know, she feels too guilty if she hurts me. You are perfect, considering she had absolutely no problem hurting you."
"Yes, we've all seen that. So why is it that you two hate each other so much?" Lisa asked stepping forward with her arms crossed over her chest.
"I don't have to tell any of you shit!"
Hiyori stormed off, ignoring the question altogether. Lisa studied her tone of voice and recognized the emotion all too well. Once she was out of ear range, Lisa turned to the others. "It's jealousy. She wants what Namika has. I think that has always been her problem with her."
"What does Mika possibly have that she could want?" Shinji asked oblivious the answer that was right in front of him.
"Your heart…"
Kensei scratched head, wondering if that really was the problem between the two women. He supposed it could be true, considering how Hiyori constantly fights with Shinji about everything.
Shinji shook his head and returned to his room. The sound of Namika's soft breathing was comforting. He lay beside her, careful not to disturb her. Staring at the ceiling, he remembered sitting in the chair next to her bedside a day after the coma started.
Watching her quickly became his daily activity, he wanted things to change. He had hope that she'd wake up sooner rather than later. A soft knocking came across the entry way, Shinji turned to see who was there. Retsu Unohana was standing there with a look of concern on her delicate features. "How long have you been sitting there, Captain Hirako?" She asked softly as she stepped into the room.
"Not long. I've had a more paperwork than usual to finish."
"You've been here every day since it happened, are you resting?"
"As much as I can…"
She watched him for a moment before doing what she came in there to do. She stepped around the chair to get to the comatose woman laying in one of her hospital beds. Her wound looked better in her opinion; but she knew that it would leave a scar. Physically, Namika Shiba looked healthy minus the open wound. She found no reason why she should be in a coma. "I don't understand why she's like this." She said suddenly.
"What do you mean?"
"Other than the wound, there are no other injuries and when we tested her brain activity there were no damages there either, which was a concern since her heart stopped beating several times when I was healing her."
"So you're telling there is no reason she should be in this coma."
"Precisely what I telling you."
His mind wandered to all other possibilities and that's when he remembered her warning about his squad having a darkness surrounding it. Was his Lieutenant really behind the darkness she felt, like he felt? A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder, snapping him out of his inner thoughts. "Try to keep your strength up and I will do what I can to wake her. It's been a long time since I've seen two people care for each so deeply, it would be a shame for it to end before it had a chance to really begin."
"Thank you…"
Retsu continued on out of the room, leaving him alone with the only sound of Namika's steady breathing to comfort him. Shinji leaned forward, taking her hand into his. "You fight, you hear me. Don't you dare leave me before I've had a chance to really tell you how I feel." He said in a low voice. Her fingers curled a little around his hand for a brief moment before relaxing once more.
He smiled, it was his sign that she had no intentions of giving up and that she was fighting on the inside to wake up on her own. Standing up from the chair, he leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I never understood your relationship with my sister; but seeing just how caring you are towards her...it gives me a better understanding." Kaien said entering the room.
"There is no one like her in the world."
"No, there is not…"
Shinji blinked his eyes, the memory fading back to the recesses of his mind. Namika rolled to her side, facing him. He could see her face from the light of the moon coming through the small window. Her eyes were open, the blue of them sparkled with the reflection of the moon. "You've been thinking…"
"The past always seems to pop up when I don't want it to." He answered returning to look at the ceiling.
"You know...I vaguely remember hearing your voice when I was in that coma."
She could feel him tense up almost instantly, so she reached for his hand that was resting between them and pulled it up to her face. Her lips found the back of his hand, which got him to look at her once again. "That voice was what kept me fighting, it wasn't my brother's...it was yours. I wanted to get back to you. You have no idea how alive you made me feel back then and still do…"
"Why were you so adamant about being killed tonight?"
"Hiyori...always seems to bring the worst out of me. I guess I should do things differently when it comes to her."
He felt her let go of his hand and retract her own close to her chest. Sitting up quickly, he loosened his tie and tossed it to the floor then looked down at her. The curiosity of whatever happened between them got the better of him. "What happened between you guys? There is obviously a lot of hatred between you to."
"Shinji….I'd rather not talk about it…"
Letting out a sigh, he moved to stand up. Namika curled her bottom lip in. She knew that he was upset with her. It was something she hated and as he started to walk towards the door, she opened her mouth to speak. "She came to me a few months after Kisuke started the Research and Development Department. I tried to get her to give his ideas a chance, of course that failed miserably. Hiyori has always been stubborn and wants things her way."
"I'm aware…"
"She turned her frustration with the situation out on me. A lot of hurtful things were said; but nothing more so than her saying that I didn't deserve your attention. I've been told that I'm weak so many times that it barely bothers me anymore...but when she admitted that she was better suited for you than I was...I guess my jealousy got the better of me and I started to hate her, without really meaning to…"
After hearing that, Shinji came to acknowledge that Lisa had been right all along. He turned back around to face her. Her legs were pulled up against her chest and her head was tucked down between them. He walked back around to the empty side of the bed and got back on it, pulling her into his arms. "Your jealousy is kind of flattering; but you have absolutely nothing to worry about."
"That doesn't make me feel any better…"
Namika lifted her head up from her knees and proceeded to fall back until her head hit the pillow behind her. Shinji lay beside her, propped up by an elbow. "In one of the last conversations I had with Kaien, I told him that there is no one like you in the world and that statement still stands to this very moment. You've held my heart in the palm of your hand for over a century, even if I spent most of it without you."
Tears spilled over the threshold of her lashes and without letting a sob escape her mouth, his captured hers. His hand came to cup her cheek, while her tongue swiped against his in one swift motion that drove him crazy. His inner hollow beckoned, wanting a taste of his own. Fighting him down, Shinji held onto her gently, breaking the connection of their lips. Her eyes grew heavy once again, relaxed at the feeling of being in his arms. "Goodnight, princess." He whispered in her ear.