If she could run any faster, Ariswana-san would. She was running late to school and it was only the second day in the new semester. If she was late again, she would surely be kept after school, and she just couldn't have that; she needed to be back in time for Himari's arrival. Himari was her younger sister and it was her last year in grade school; if Swana wasn't home in time to prepare supper, she'd never hear the end of it. Somehow, she picked up the pace.
"Yes, I can see the building!" I was breathing heavier as I leapt over the gate and into the school yard. As my feet touched the pavement, the bell rang for the day's start. "No, not today!" I skid around the corner and swung from the rafter over the main entrance, into the classroom. 'Hm, not bad if I do say so myself.'
I casually took my seat next to Orihime and gave her a small wave while trying to catch my breath.
"Nice to see you this morning, Ariswana, did you enjoy your evening?" Inoue asked. I smiled and breathlessly replied – I think I needed to start doing more cardio, though the calisthenics in the morning seemed to be paying off.
"Sawa-kun! Come sit with me!" Inoue was yelling across the campus, bento box in hand. I ran over and we began walking toward our usual spot by the tree. "How was Himari's first day of school?" she asked.
"It was okay, she's trying to grow up too fast and just wants to be in the bigger school. It's weird, it's pretty much always just been the two of us and I feel more like her mother than her sister. I want time to slow down." I said with a laugh.
Ichigo walked past where we were sitting and gave our little group a wave.
"Hey Inoue, why don't you invite Kurosaki to eat with us?" I asked. She shrieked at that and almost spit out her juice.
"We can't do that! Boys and girls never eat together; it'd just be plain weird." I laughed and rolled my eyes, she was always making up excuses not to engage with him despite having the biggest crush on him. I didn't know Ichigo very well, but he was always nice to me when we were assigned partners in class.
The day carried on as normal without major incident, though Chad would avidly disagree after I spilled an entire beaker of chemicals all over his pants during science. As I was helping clean up the spill, Uryuu was nice enough to come over and assist despite not really saying much. As the day came to an end, I waved to Inoue and Tatsuki and started home to start on Himari's favorite meal, ramen with fried quail eggs and slices of Naruto fish cake!
The sun was halfway down and the streetlights were starting to kick on, I was already starting to miss the longer summer days. A soft breeze picked up that brought a smile to my face. I was feeling grateful for the wonderful life I'd somehow managed to create for Himari and I. After the accident took mom and dad, we were left to our own devices since we had no other family; I'd done my best, but was just a child myself. The most important thing to me was that she had some semblance of a real childhood.
I approached the apartment building and smiled. Our landlord had an agreement drawn up that we could stay there for less than half the cost of rent while still in school; now that I thought about it, he was the closest thing to family Himari and I had.
I walked down our hall on the second floor, the green plush carpet beneath my feet. This place was older and beginning to smell musty, maybe I should clean these carpets as a thank you.
I keyed into our apartment and Himari thankfully hadn't beaten me! She could be so bossy, you'd think she was the older sister sometimes, despite being 10 years younger than me. Since I was in my last school year, I'd have to pick up another gig on top of working part time at the tea shop by the school. Thankfully I was off today, so I could start prepping cold meals for Himari to eat for dinners when I worked the late shift.
As I clicked our small gas stove on, a memory flashed through my head from earlier that summer:
"Ariswana, come on! He's admitted that he likes you, so why won't you just humor him on ONE date?" Tatsuki chided from her spot on the towel next to her. They'd gone to the beach that day to let Himari have a chance to get out of the apartment for once; summers were hard when she had such a hard time making friends.
"That's sweet that he said so, but I'm just not interested." I lied. I was interested, he was one of the most popular guys in school and had the best dimples whenever he smiled. I just…had no time for dating. I couldn't afford to add something else into the mix of my life when I was barely scraping by with work, school when it started, and caring for Himari.
"You're just making excuses. You have to start prioritizing yourself and your happiness too, yanno. I think it would make Himari happier too, you act a decade older than you are." Tatsuki scolded. I just sighed in response, she wasn't saying anything I didn't already know, but I didn't feel like talking about it anymore. Why beat a dead horse, right?
I sighed at the stove and shrugged to myself, I really was doing my best. I clicked the stove off with dinner finished and heard footsteps in the hall and a key at the door – she was home.
Himari came bouncing into the apartment and smiled at me while she hung up her jacket.
"Ari-kun, I'm home! It's already dark outside." She said as she pulled up a stool to sit across from where I was chopping up the seaweed. I smiled at her and nodded.
"Yep, it's about that time of year. You remember what I told you last year, don't you?" I asked. She stole a piece of seaweed from the cutting board and nodded as she chewed.
"Yeah, I'll make sure I find someone in my class to walk at least part of the way with me. Did you have someone when you were my age?"
I thought about it for a moment, I could barely remember what life was like at her age.
"Oh! I did, it was a girl named Sakura from my class. We never really ended up becoming good friends, but she was always nice." I stopped chopping and looked at my sister; she was frowning at me.
"Ari-kun, do you ever wish I wasn't here? Sometimes….I feel like I make your life harder than it has to be." Himari said with her head down. Her delicate bangs fell into her eyes so she could hide her face from me. I put the knife down and went to her side, putting my hands on both of her shoulders, getting down to her height in the stool.
"Don't you EVER think that! I'm so thankful that you are here, you're what lights up my world, Himari. I could never do this life without you. You're the grease that keeps my engine going, I love you so much." I said as I pulled her into a hug. She returned it, but I could tell that she didn't fully believe me. We pulled apart and I smiled as I walked back around to add the finishing touches to our ramen bowls.
"I'm going to be making a couple of boxes for dinner this week for you, I have to work late at the tea shop every night." Himari looked up at me with pain lingering in her eyes.
"You're working all week? Do you really have to?" she asked. I nodded my head, I felt myself getting choked up at the thought but pushed it out of my mind. "Okay…can I sleep in your bed tonight?" I stopped chopping and looked at her.
"You know we talked about this, Mar. Plus we just got you that new mattress for your birthday!" I said with a smile. "It isn't you, I just really haven't been sleeping well and need to be top notch for tomorrow."
She looked up and smiled at me. I felt my heart melt a little, she really was the spitting image of me, though opposite in a lot of ways. Her short, dirty blonde hair was styled with two matching star hairpins beside a full set of bangs; my own hair was a brighter shade of blonde, almost white, and down to my lower back. To counter with her full front bang, I had mine styled to the side with longer wisps in the front. She had dark brown puppy dog eyes where mine were a forest green.
"Why…why are you staring at me with that weird smile?" she asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. I blushed and started chopping again; it surprised me sometimes how I saw her more like my daughter than my sister.
"Nothing, go set the table while I plate this please." I said.
I hopped into bed after turning the desk lamp on beside the bed. I had everything laid out for tomorrow, I just hoped I would actually get some sleep tonight. It'd been ages since I'd actually felt well rested.
I rolled over and shut out the light. Less than 5 minutes later, I could hear rustling in my closet.
"No, please, not tonight." I grumbled as I pulled the covers over my head. I felt a pressure beside my left calf as if someone had sat down next to me.
"Ariswana, are you awake? Come on, I know you are." A voice said from outside the covers. Exasperated, I ripped the covers away and whispered as quietly, but with as much hostility as I could muster.
"Isamu! What did I say? You can't keep coming here, it really effects my sleep and I'm unsure of what to do to help you." I said defeated. I looked at the little ghost boy with the hatchet wedged in the top of his head at the end of my bed. "I don't know why I've been able to see you all these years, I really don't. There has to be someone else out there who can help you get the peace you need."
I was just so tired. Tired of working to make life alright every day. Tired because I was 19 years old and a full-time care giver for both myself and my sister. Tired because Isamu has been visiting my bedroom every night for the last 4 years, begging me to help him find his mother so that he could tell her who killed him. He was so young that he didn't even know the name of the town he grew up in. It was his uncle that killed him.
"Ariswana, I don't know where else to go though. I'm all alone." Isamu pleaded. I shook my head slowly.
"Let me think on it tomorrow, okay? Just please let me sleep. I need to sleep, Isamu." I said, feeling tears sting the back of my eyes. When I lifted my face to look at him, he was gone.
I still barely slept that night.
I hung up my small, blue apron behind the counter and turned off the lights at the tea shop. It was 11:00pm and I was dead tired after a long day of school and a very busy shift; I think I had whipped cream in my hair still.
I started walking towards home, dreading the 20 minutes I'd have to walk in the dark. When you could see ghosts at all times, being alone in the dark becomes less relaxing and far more frightening.
As I continued down the road, I noticed that all of the street lights on my side of the road were out, yet the other half of the street was fully lit.
"That's…ominous." I mumbled to myself as I hiked my satchel higher up onto my shoulder. As I continued on, I felt the air grow heavier and my breath caught in my chest when I realized that something just wasn't quite right.
A couple hundred yards in front of me, I saw a small creature with a face made from bone round the corner. It was like nothing I'd seen before, it walked on all fours with very long fingers (that could have even been nails, but they were the same black color as the rest of the creature), with a tail also made of bone.
"What the hell is that thing? It looks like a weird species of iguana, but definitely smaller." I said out loud to myself. At the sound of my voice, the creature whipped its head in my direction and immediately started sprinting towards me; as it got closer, I realized it wasn't small at all, it was probably ten times bigger than an actual iguana. "Holy shit!" I started sprinting as fast as I could in the opposite direction, throwing trash cans in the way and whatever else I could find to hopefully throw it off course. It wasn't working.
"No, no, no! Get away from me you monster!" I cried in desperation. It responded to me by letting out an enormous, Earth shaking roar. I screamed just as loud in reply as I started to become frantic. When it was just inches away from my back, I quickly used a pile of trash on the ground to leap towards an escape ladder. I'd gotten one foot on the lowest rung when the beast got a hold of my other ankle. I let out a shriek as it flung me back down to the ground a few feet from the building.
I rolled onto my back and faced the monster head on as it closed in on me slowly like the prey I was. As it was about to take its first bite, I spit in its face, causing it to momentarily pause out of either shock or confusion. I took my opportunity and planted my sneaker directly into its face, pushing it far enough away where I could get back on my feet.
"I won't go down without a fight, you clearly picked the wrong person, you ugly bastard!" I yelled. This thing was definitely going to kill me, but I at least wanted to die with my dignity intact. I raised my fists for my lame attempt at fighting for my life and silently made peace with the moment.
The creature lunged forward, but before I could lunge myself, someone in black robes appeared in front of me, pushing me back.
"Roar, Zabimaru!" the stranger cried as he swung a massive blade and struck the creature in the same place my foot did moments before. The beast let out one final roar and materialized into nothing. I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath, but let out an exhale in one puff and fell to my knees. The stranger turned to face me and regarded me from above. I finally got the air flowing well enough again to look him in the eye.
"T-thank you. I don't know what I would've done without you." I said as I slowly began to stand. "What was that thing?" He cocked his head to the side and raised a tattooed eyebrow.
"Interesting that you can see me." He said. I blanched at him
"Well, yeah! What did you expect, that I was blind?!" He laughed at that.
"No, no, it isn't that. Humans just normally can't see us Shinigami. I suppose you could say that I'm one of the dead." He said casually. I regained my composure and looked at him closer. He was beautiful in almost every way, his hair was probably about the same length as mine, but fire red.
"That's something I'm pretty used to honestly; I've been able to see ghosts for the last 4 years, since I turned 15. Are you saying that thing was a ghost? I was under the impression that all ghosts were harmless." I said.
"That wasn't just a mere ghost, that was what we call a Hollow. It's a creature created from human souls who have died but do not cross over to the next life quickly enough. They can feed on other dead souls, or as you just experienced, live ones too." He replied. I stared at him for a moment, contemplating that information. That did certainly complicate things a bit. I moved a piece of hair out of my eye and regarded this Shinigami.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Renji, Renji Abarai, the Lieutenant of the 6th squad of the Siritei." He replied while pointing at himself proudly, "who are you?"
"I'm Ariswana Thompson, the very grateful human that you just saved." I bowed forward, "really, Renji, thank you so much. Because of you, I can return home to my little sister who would have been left with no one. I am indebted to your kindness."
I looked up and Renji seemed minutely uncomfortable.
"It was really nothing, destroying that Hollow was the whole reason I was even sent down here, it's my duty."
"Well…still…"
We stood in a moment of awkward silence until he cleared his throat.
"Well, I'm glad I could help you, Ariswana Thompson. Interesting gift you have there, it's not common, so you must have some spirit energy pent up inside of you. With that in mind, I hope we meet again in the next life, but I'd better be going." He said. I smiled and gave a nod, understanding that a Lieutenant should get back to his duty.
"Same to you, Renji Abarai. I look forward to meeting again someday." I said. With that, he was gone in a flash.
I ran all the way home, in fear that I'd stumble across another Hollow hungry for my soul. This was the strangest night of my life, even more so than the one where I discovered I could communicate with the dead.
I snuck into the apartment and kissed Himari on the forehead before tucking her exposed foot back under the covers. I laid in my bed and while contemplating the events of the day realized that Isamu wasn't at the edge of my bed this night.
With the newfound knowledge of Hollows in the world, I fell asleep riddled with anxiety as I understood I not only had to protect both the living people I cared about, but also the dead.