~ Chapter 1 : First steps into the shinigami world ~
"Does your neck still hurt?" Ishida asks seeing that Orihime is trying not to rub the black zones surrounding her neck. Seeing how bad her injury was the man was wondering how she managed to survive, let alone not to pass out like the others…
"Hehehe… I'm used to get hurt. It's just… I hope that captain Kurosaki doesn't hate me…" The dark haired man was shocked to see that she was more worried about how Ichigo saw her, rather than her injuries… But why did not captain Unohana help her with her injury? Did he miss something? The orange haired girl whispers something, making a gold shield to cover her neck and in a matter of seconds her injury was simply gone? "Is this my new room?" She asks seeing that Ishida stooped in front of a chamber.
"… No, this is not. I'm sorry, but how did you manage to heal your wound so quickly?" His answer came a little delayed considering the fact that he was still in shock about what he did witnessed. Even his captain needed half an hour in order to heal her injury, but she was amazing…
"This is one of my techniques. I have the power to reject phenomena by denying or undoing events in various forms. This power can be used for attack, defense, or healing. I had used my healing ability just a few seconds ago, in fact your captain discovered me when I was treating a little boy and she proposed to me to join your squad and here I am. I'm sorry that I caused so many problems for you already." The man was surprised that even if her powers were amazing her heart was kind too, and her beauty was undeniable. "This uniform is incredible. Who did it?" Ishida's heart was about to break, she was the first one who praised his manual labor in such a great way.
"I did it." Her eyes sparkle hearing his answer.
"Really? Can you teach me? It's the first time since I arrived here and found a yukata that fits me so well. Uh… The others were simply too small, that the shinigami in charge made me to wear a mean yukata all the time."Her cuteness overwhelmed him, making blood to pour from his nose. "Are you ok? Do you need my help?" He couldn't say to her that her desire to help was making him to blood even faster so he decided to assign to her a random room in order to calm himself down.
"I'm fine. I'll try when I'll have time. This is your room. This is a list of your task. Have a nice evening." After he manages to convey in a form or in another the message, he leaves in order to not loose even more his position.
"Little blue man, is it in my head or did I scare him too?" Orihime starts to have a debate with the imaginary friend inside her head. Since she entered in this ''world'' the people acted strange around her. But she couldn't point out what she was doing wrong or how can she change herself in order to not make the people to feel so uncomfortable.
She opens the door, a powerful smell of dust invading her. She coughs and she tries to remove the wet tears what covered her eyes in order to see how she can clean the room. She's surprised to see that the room looks somehow that it is assigned to another person?
There were several paintings on the walls with beautiful flowers or sceneries. The furniture was so small that it was like it was designed for a kid or maybe for a small person? Orihime managed to find some cloths in order to remove some of the dust to discover more about the person who used live in this room.
After some long minutes of cleaning, maybe even an hour she finds an interesting clue. There was a locked drawer and she could feel with her fingers that there was something written on it. She calls again her fairies and she asks them to restore the piece of furniture in a state where she could open it.
Orihime's whished was fulfilled and even more. The room was restored in such a good shape, like it was brand new. The light turns on and now she could see that this room was simply gorgeous. All the furniture was made of white marble, encrusted with gold particles and crystals. The room itself seemed like a room of a princess from a fairytale.
After her amazement faded, she looks again at the drawer. The name Hisana was written on it. Inside of it there was an album, a pink flower and a wedding ring. The girl's curiosity grew stringer, so she decides to open the album. Inside of it she sees pictures of a couple with dark hair, they seemed so happy, like they had no worry in the word. She sees even their wedding day, but the pictures somehow stops after it. At the end of the album there is an envelope covered with blood ''For my beloved husband".
Wet tears start to feel from her eyes seeing that this was a sad story about a wife forced to leave her husband. She doesn't have any second to put the album pack into its place when the door bursts open and she finds herself smashed to a wall with a zanpakuto treating her neck.
"How did you manage to enter this room and what are you reasons?" Seeing the album on the floor the rage of the intruder grows even bigger. "How could you open it? What do you want?" Orihime was on the verge to pass out, but luckily she was able to call Tsubaki in order to remove the intruder from her.
"I'm… Inoue… Orihime…" The girl manages to say trying hard to manage her breath. "This is… my first day here… This is… my room." She takes a big breath seeing that the intruder will not wait for her to finish. "I didn't want to pry your intimacy, but I believe that she would like for you to read the letter."
"Inoue Orhime, isn't it?" The intruder says with a solemn manner. "My name is captain Byakuya Kuchiki. Right now you are inside the room of my dead wife. I'd order precisely that no one will ever enter again in this room if they value their life, but this room was assigned to you. Do you want to die?" The girl's sure that the man will not break his words, so to be extra sure that she will be safe she uses her shield in order to protect herself.
"Captain Kuchiki, I'd already explained the situation. I know how much you loved your wife, but I believe that you need to read her last words. Even if you kill me right now, that will not ease your pain, if you don't let anyone to stay in this room, it will not make her come to live, if you don't want to recognize that she's no longer here, then that will not resurrect her."
"Shut up!" Byakuya tries to break her shield, but he finds himself unable, even if he used a big quantity of his power. She tries to not be scared of him, than she bends for the album. "Don't dare to…" But his words were too late, because Inoue touched the unopened blooded envelope.
"I know that is hard to lose the person that you had loved the most, but after I saw the room and the pictures of the 2 of you I think that you really need this. Please. Take a look inside." His rage somehow faded when he saw his beloved one writing. Her blood seemed fresh even if there were more than one hundred years since she died. He couldn't understand how she could open the drawer without force, he being the only one having the key, or how can she resist his power and even to try to help him when all he wanted was to murder her.
He didn't say any sound, but he moved his hand in her direction requesting the envelope. She smiled fry and gave it to him.
"I hope that this will ease a little of your pain." Her words were sincere but the moment when she gave him the letter that was the moment when she passed out. Byakuya was shocked when she felt in his arms and he didn't feel to push her away. He was asking himself who she really was and what kind of spells did she manage to inflict on him, making to lose himself in this way, like he had lost himself a long time ago. Would this letter manage to recover a little of the feeling that he had buried when he lost his wife ?
"Captain Kuchiki, I'm deeply sorry that I messed up the rooms. I will assign her another room right now." Ishida tries to cover for the situation. Today was the first time when he found himself in a difficult situation, since he was assigned to this division. If Ichigo is a scary person, his perfect match would be no one other than Byakuya. The only thing that Ishida hopes was that the Orihime to not be punished too.
"There is no need. Let her to stay here. She deserves it." Having said what he wanted to say, Byakuya took his leave. Ishida moves again his eyes on Orihime, he didn't know if she was really lucky that she managed to survive twice, or unlucky that she had annoyed 2 of the most important captains in Soul Society.
The following morning Orihime feels something warm is pocking her cheek, but she's feeling too tired to move even a finger. The pocking doesn't stop what makes her finally to open her sleepy eyes, seeing Ayame (one of her fairies) trying to convey some sort of a message to her.
"Wake up or you're going to be late." Tsubaki yells, he has already known that they others will go anywhere with their soft behavior on the girl.
"Kami, I'll be ready in a second." The orange haired girl replies. Tsubaki says again some mean comments after what he reminds her of her program.
Orihime needs to be in Unohana's room in order to treat the wounded from the last night mission, if there was none then she will be taught about the structure of the division and about the people what they need to treat with a specified schedule.
It was 10 o'clock when the girl was finally ready. She goes for the specified meeting point, but she stops seeing that in the place of last night gathering there were several dozens of bodies lay on the ground, many shinigamies being assigned to treat just a wounded person.
The strange thing wasn't the big number of persons, but their wounds. From the wounds some sort of a black smoke was being emanated. There was no blood just a thick black liquid what seems to be spreading in their skin, making them to rotten still being alive. The smell's really awful, some of the shinigami wearing masks.
"Inoue, come here." Unohana calls Orihime when she feels her spiritual presence.
"Orihime Inoue is here." The beauty tries to act in an official manner, making the atmosphere a little easier to be handled.
"What do you think about this case?" The captain asks. The orange haired girl looks at the man in front of her. His case wasn't any different than the others, but she could feel that the status of the mysterious black thing was worse, it was trying to eat all his spiritual energy. "Do you think you can help him?" The girl doesn't respond for a while pondering if she's able or not.
Her fairies were anxious that this black thing can hurt their master, but they knew that if Orihime decides to help a person even with the price of her life they can do nothing than assist her till the last breath.
"You can nullify this energy, but don't try to absorb it, otherwise it can kill us all." Tsubaki advices her seeing that no other has the courage to say something.
"Do you believe that I can resume some of his spiritual energy?" Orihime concern comes from the fact that if a shinigami doesn't have a stable amount of spiritual energy, that shinigami will chase to exist, so even if she can suppress this dark energy she maybe not able to save his life.
"Tsk, that's a piece of cake. Just do what you need to do and trust us." Orihime giggles seeing that she has even more support that she could wish for so what can she ask more?
"I can do it." Orihime replies after a long moment of silence. When she's talking with her fairies no one can hear their conversation." Soten Kisshun." This command summons Ayame and Shun'ou, and they would form a shield around an injured person. The shield reverses time, thus returning the injured person to an earlier state, effectively healing all wounds.
The process is different from the usual, because they need to be extra careful to not be touched by this dark energy. After 10 minutes of concentration the shinigami could breath freely again, feeling that nothing had happened.
Ishida glanced at Unohana. They tried their best just to maintain his life, but Orihime in this short amount of time could solve the problem easily. The captain coughs making Ishida to stop staring at Orihime before she could observe.
"Good job, Orihime. Are you feeling ok?" Unohana didn't want to exhaust her, but the girl nodded that she's fine. "Everyone, listen to me. I want to place all the worst cases in the same place and let Inoue to handle them. Do you feel prepared?"
"Hai." The girl accepts her task and after all the special cases are gathered she let's Soten Kisshun to solve the rest. Ayame and Shun'ou know already how to handle the situation so she can go to see if there is something else that she can do.
"I'm really sorry for what had happened last night." Ishida bends in front of her. She's feeling really awkward making him to feel like he needs to do such a gesture in order to be forgiven by her.
"Ishida-san, please raise yourself. There's not your fault. I'm fine as you can see. Hehe…" She doesn't know how she can assure him that she's fine, but she's surprised when his hands grab hers.
"You don't understand, it was my fault because I mistook the rooms. This didn't happen to me before, but I want you to know that…"
"Reiji, I will break your hands if you don't let me go right now." Ishida's moment of confession was broke by no other than Ichigo who was being dragged by Reiji in order to receive medical care. The dark haired man had a murderous look in his eyes when the 2 came to them. Ishida has asked Unohana what he should do with his feeling and she advised him to confess, that being the case why he was so close of Orihime's room when Byakuya cam and came to her rescue, but he had found her passed out. So for the second time his confession fails making him to doubt that he needs to convey his feelings.
"What did happen?" Orihime asks trying to lift the tension from the air.
"Tsh… Don't mind us. Keep doing what you were doing to Ishida. I have no reason to be here." Ichigo was trying again to escape from Reiji but he had caught his hand making him unable to move.
"For once, stop hiding your problems and face them." Reiji didn't wait anymore for the compliance of the orange haired man and he broke Ichigo's yukata showing that Ichigo's hand it was so black that it almost went for his chest.
"Kami, you need help right now." Orihime wants to touch his hand in order to see if it was the same cause as the others or maybe his was greater, but he pushes her away.
"Get lost, I don't need your help, any of your help." Ichigo's eyes became red, he was mad, but why. Why would he decline her help?
"Captain Kurosaki, I advise you to not hurt my division members,ok?" Unohana's saying this words putting pressure on Ichigo's dark hand causing him great amount of pain. "As you can see if your hand will not be treated as soon as possible you will lose it. The person who is the most capable right now with this matter is not me, but Inoue. "
"I see." Ichigo removes Unohana's hand and it seems that he understood the idea, but in the next moment… He takes his zampakuto and used it to slice his hand. "As I said I'm not here to beg for help. If you try to make me to do so, I'd better live left handed. Come one, Reiji. We have better things to do."
"Santen Kesshun. Soten Kisshun." Orihime calls her fairies but in a different way. She uses her shield (Santen Kesshun) to not let Ichigo to leave, after what she tries to put his hand back and cure him.
"Woman, are you expecting me to stay still and let you do as you please?" Ichigo's smirk was dark, he was glad that there was someone daring enough to provoke him.
"I'm not, that's why I used my abilities in order to not let you to leave." Ichigo was pocking the thin shield what's expecting to keep him captive. He must to recognize that it would work for the most of the shinigami in the Seiretrei, even the captains, but because his spiritual energy was special releasing a big quantity of it would be enough to break it.
"Tsk… You cannot keep me captive, but I admire your courage. I will give you 5 minutes. If you cannot do what you said in that time then, you'll need to resign your position and to never appear in front of me. Do we have a deal?" The orange haired man didn't believe that she will take the bet. It was simply impossible to cure him, without saying that she needs to replace his arm.
"I'll do it. But if I succeed you must not doubt me again or hurt me." Her words make him to laugh.
"Tsk… Ok then, but if you fail I will kill you." Their words were more like a negotiation rather than an understanding between 2 fellows.
"Don't bite your tongue when I'll succeed." Orihime takes out her tongue at him. She's not sure that she can do what she had just promised, but if she didn't confront Ichigo sooner or later he would probably try to kill her again. The orange haired man smiled, but not in a creepy way. He decided that he will not kill her even if she doesn't succeed because she was somehow interesting.
The time was passing fast. 5 minutes were like almost no time. In the first 2 minutes Orihime managed to remove the most part of the dark thing, but something was different. It was like there were 2 kinds of dark energies.
"Tick-Tack, Tick-Tack. You're running out of time." Ichigo tries to tease her, somehow he enjoys himself seeing her trying so hard.
"I know that this might be a strange question, but… do you have some hollow energy inside of you?" He was impressed by her guess considering the fact that it wasn't a know topic.
"Yeah. Got a problem?" Contrary of his desire to make her uncomfortable, she displayed a beautiful radiant smile.
"Not at all, you're almost done."
"Done for life ?" The orange haired man tries t joke, but she doesn't follow his lead. She has a minute left and his body structure is quite different, using all her concentration she managed to recover his body. Maybe she was some seconds late, but no one was counting so precisely the time.
Ichigo used his spiritual energy level in order to destroy the barrier to prove his words that she cannot keep him captive. "Good job, Inoue, now you made my eyes on you. You'd better not disappoint me." He throw a piece of a rock with a skull carved out on it. "Keep it in case you need it. It might save your life. Come on, Reiji. We had lost already too much time."
Next chapter : Making friends
A.N. The next update of this story will be on Thursday, if not on Saturday. Don't forget to let a review of your opinion of this chapter J
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Thank you for your time reading it, I hope it was on your liking. XOXO Justme210