Chapter 10: Sorrow
AN- Here's the continuation of next chapter. It took a while, since January was a terrible month for writing (Soooo... many... mooccckkks), but here it is. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of reception and reviews last chapter (Very little feedback to work with) but I'm still posting anyway, so lets be glad that this story has had so much time and effort put into it that even something as silly as my fragile ego won't stop me posting. This is primarily Mika's chapter in many ways, so I hope that you as an audience enjoy the following words.
Disclaimer: I own not the setting or the characters of Bleach, but my own plot and OC's are my creations. So if I happen to screw them over should reception be bad... lets just say 'oops. My fingers slipped and suddenly things explode'. Jokes, of course.
"What the hell is going on here!?" I half shouted and half demanded at the scene before me. I had agreed to make the dinner for a change (Since Mika normally cooked for me when Hayato wasn't around) so when Mika never arrived at the apartment I shared (But was currently alone in due to the holiday) I naturally went looking for her in the only place I knew she would be. Her garden. And what I saw then sickened me to the bone.
Lets just say that this summer Gurou and his friends hadn't gone home. They had stuck around. The three of them had decided to finish the business they had wanted from Mika for years by cornering her in her garden. And it was pretty damn clear what that business had been considering the state the four of them were in.
Gurou with his outer robe abandoned and his trousers literally down to his ankles.
His friends in a similar condition.
Mika held down on her knees by Gurou's minions, her own robes forcefully torn and ripped to shamelessly expose pale skin and previously unseen flesh.
I felt something I hadn't felt in a long, long time. Rage. Pure and sincere RAGE! RAGE at Gurou! Rage at his friends! Rage at myself for not being here sooner! Even Rage for my friends for not being here to help me express my Rage. Because I damn well knew what they had been doing to her when I wasn't there, and I certainly knew what would have happened if I hadn't interrupted.
"Javan..." I growled. "I think that I wish to commit preordained murder. And I am perfectly fine with doing this."
"Yup." Javan agreed, voice level and tense. "Bust those bastards kneecaps, yeah?"
"Well look what the cat dragged in." Sneered Gurou, pushing aside Mika and rebriefing himself, done with the beautiful girl for the moment.
"M-Marc..." She said quietly. Shame laced her voice and tainted her slumped posture.
"Shut up, bitch." Said Minion 2. "Just 'cause the boss is done with ya, don't mean I am! I ain't had my chance to have a go with you yet."
"You're having a go too, huh?" I asked brightly giving him a forced beam.
"Like you ain't had a turn yourself with the slag."
I pushed down the urge to throttle him with my bare hands, because while my Anger was hot it couldn't burn these three stupid, arrogant bastards.
"I didn't want you to find out this way..." Mika trailed off. I ignored her; there was more important things to do. Like kicking ass and taking names.
"No, I haven't. You won't either." I said simply, walking forwards without fear (Only RAGE!) towards the three. Then like it was as simple as breathing I pointed two fingers at the chest of Minion 2 and cast. "Hado No 4: Byakurai." With ease gained from hours of practice sparks coated my fingers then fired forwards as a weak beam, striking the unsuspecting, cocky moron in the chest, throwing him backwards in the process.
"Bastard!" Screamed the other minion.
Gurou regarded me with amusement. "Looks like Solus had grown some balls. What's wrong? Aren't you going to run away like you always do? Aren't you going to stand there and let me beat the shit out of you like I always do in Hakuda classes? Aren't you scared?" Then he smiled and laughed a mocking laugh. "Oh my, Solus here thinks he gonna be a hero, don't he? He wants to save the girl!"
Even the downed minion laughed, albeit with difficulty. I sent the command to Javan to prepare, and he complied by gathering Soul Oil for me to convert into usable Reiryoku. I didn't touch what he was gathering though. No, me and him had planned for this sort of incident. Using power as he provides it is slow acting, leaves me drained quickly and unable to use large amounts of Reiryoku for Kido unless I take a few seconds to charge up the spell with the Oil as he provides it. Instead we came up with an alternate method one day after we had one of our regular spars. He pre-emptively gathered Soul Oil and put it aside into a kind-of Mana Pool, one where I could immediately gather power from at any point without him needing to even act.
It was useful and limited, but it worked. Its like having an MP bar in an RPG to cast from that regenerates (From Javan's actions) than having to manually wait for the MP to rise before I can use spells.
Regardless, I tapped into that Mana Pool. I looked deep inside and opened an unseen tap, letting a steady drip drip of power flow.
"Yeah, I am." I told them plainly, falling into a loose Hakuda stance. "Just this once, I'll be a hero. Because I am sick and tired of your shit, Gurou. I could deal with you picking on me, but this is too FUCKING far! I don't care how good at beating me up you are, because I am stubborn as hell, and I will keep getting up to punch you in the groin until you give up because nobody and I mean nobody messes with my friends, and nobody sure as hell tries to RAPE THEM!"
"Chill out." Said the standing Minion as he held Mika's hair in one hand tightly. "Its only a girl, man."
"Well she's my girl then, you hear me?" I growled. "I have no idea how long this has gone on, or if you've done this to her before, but I swear to any deity you care to name that I will kick your ass! You'll stay the hell away from her!"
"And who's gonna make me, you?" Indignantly Gurou asked, rising to his full height to tower over me intimidatingly. This was the last straw. If I continued he would go out of his way to beat me down, and on some level I wanted to run away before I got hurt. But I'd faced him before. I'd been against his beat downs for four years. I had tolerance. And most importantly, I was pissed, so all I wanted to do was wipe that smug smile from his face.
"Why yes." I said. "Yes I am. Byakurai!" This time I shortened my incantation even further, using the vast practice I've had to cast without even the spells number. I was pretty damn close to being able to do it wordlessly. So the Kido activated and lightning gathered one more time, and then I threw it straight at Gurou's cocky grin.
"I'll kill you!" He promised, charging through the Hado spell like a tank. He was built like an ox, pain meant nothing to him. He shrugged the attack off like nothing. But that was fine. My blood boiled and my Rage was vast; it would be so unsatisfying if he went down so easily.
"Die you worm!" A heavy elbow thrust, aimed directly at my face because he was already upon me- fast. I knew that attack. It had been used against me over a hundred times before. I dodged the attack, sidestepping the thrust by predicting his attack rather than reacting. Then, as he spun to try and whip his fist into my face-
I ducked, and again I tapped into my Mana Pool for Soul Oil which I used to form Reiryoku. Then I performed a blow that Momo had recommended I use in combat. "Hado No 1: Sho." (Thrust) As I swung my own fist into the sack of muscles face I let loose the Kido, channelling it through my fist rather than my index finger. The concentrated kinetic force of the technique smashed into his face like a sledgehammer, prompting a satisfying CRACK as his thick nose broke.
"FUCK! MY NOSE!"
"If that hurt, you'll hate this." While Gurou was distracted with his nose I once more abandoned my manly pride; I kneed the bastard in the groin. And now he was on the floor, crying out in pain. I gave his downed face a kick for good measure, then a few more groin crunches just because I had so much Rage in my system to flush out.
"Because if you ain't cheating then you ain't trying."
"So then, assholes." I addressed the two minions, with 2 having got off the floor while 1 still held Mika's hair tightly. "Bring it on."
They brought it. And I was ready. I had spent four years getting ready: ready to not be useless, ready to kick ass, ready to help Mika. Now it was the time to see if it was worth it, because I sure as hell did not intend to back down.
I moved back, away from Gurou to get myself space to move and time to prepare for the two pissed Shinigami trainee's aiming to break my bones. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini!" The unseen tap continued to pour out power in my mind, and I shaped it and formed it. A faint red aura permeated from my clothing and my skin, from the Reiryoku leaking into the air to activate the binding Kido. Bakudo's are harder than Hado's... I needed my concentration. "Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat."
Minion 1 was nearly here. Perfect. I drew the symbol in the air, letting the red of my aura leave an impression where I drew.
"Bakudo No 9: Geki." (Strike) Then the crimson surrounding me was gone, coating Minion 1 instead and paralysing him. It wouldn't hold him long, since he too had studied the technique, but it would last long enough. "Bakudo No 1:" I followed through, already drawing into my worryingly low Mana Pool. "Sai." (Restrain) As he ran Minion 2 was forced to dispel the pitifully weak Kido (Since it was such a weak levelled spell and had also had its incantation cut off), costing him a single second of inattention, which I capitalised on. I threw myself at him, tackling the larger boy in a style reminiscent of a rugby player, uncaring of his reflexive crushing once he realised I was toppling him over. Sparks immediately coated my arms, telling him that he had made a mistake since it was never my intention to brawl it out mano-a-mano.
No; this was no spar. I fully intended to abuse the hours of Kido practice I had put it, and used the Kido technique that I had practised so much in the first year holiday alone (To ace everyone in our first lesson back- Akimi's expression!) that activating it took no chant, only a name and a moment of thought.
"Tsuzuri Raiden." My body produced a current, and anything touching me had the current pass onto them. Unlucky Minion 2 was hugging me like a teddy bear and as such underwent the painful act of having an electric shock fry his nerves (Good thing I had used Tsurzuri Raiden without chant, since while I Raged at this student I had no wish to murder him). He lasted ten seconds of crushing contact before he slumped beneath me, unconscious.
SMACK!
Minion 1 had freed himself from the Kido without me noticing, capitalising on my lack of attention in enforcing the Kido, and had taken the free pause to position himself to launch a perfect kick against my face. As my head shook I was sure that I could taste blood. I spat it aside and rolled off the body I was positioned on to avoid the second kick. Minion 1 laughed viciously as I was forced to roll on the floor like a dog to avoid all of the kicks he directed against me.
"Remember Marc, no pride in combat." Reminded Javan. "There is only survival, and winning."
And I would win, this fight of all fights.
"Solus..." The growl of Gurou told me that he had recovered from my sucker punch and was now ready to fight again. "I swear I will end you!"
"Marc!" Cried Mika, "Run already!"
"Fuck. No!" I grit. Enough of this shit. He needed to go down. I stopped rolling. The foot missed my face by inches, but these inches were close enough that I was able to bite into his sweaty thigh without much effort.
"Ahh! The fucker's biting me!" Then, while distracted, I launched another dirty strike, groin shooting him too. Yes, I use the groin shot too often. Yes, even I feel pity. But damn does it work. After that I finished him off using a basic sleep inducing Kido to knock him out.
On my knees, rising to try and face Gurou and-
He was there, knee slamming into my face in a brutal take down.
"Gurou! Please stop!" Pleaded Mika. She rose from her kneeling position, showing me the extent which her clothing had been destroyed without any chance of repair. "I said I'd do what you want if you left him alone!"
"Well clearly he didn't get the memo!"
My eyes were blocked with tears; I couldn't see. A hand latched round my collar. The beefy noble tossed me into a thorned bush, and I winced in pain at the contact.
"God damn it Marc! Have you forgotten our spars already? Get your ass into gear and kick this rapists ass!"
Javan was right; I couldn't afford to let him win. "RARRGGGHHH!" I let my rage empower me, to help me ignore how much pain I was actually feeling, and I launched myself at Gurou. He blocked me, countering effortlessly, but I didn't give up. I'm stubborn like that. I got up, settled into a loose stance, and attacked again and again. I got into a rhythm, letting him smack me down again and again until-
I broke the pattern, hitting him with the same technique that sucker punched him in the first damn place. "Sho to the arm!" I expressed, slamming my palm into Gurou's elbow. Like before, the concentrated kinetic energy shot out, though instead of a broken nose Gurou was enduring a shattered bone.
"GAH!" He tried to move away, unable to properly fight now that I had surprised him again and taken his arm out of the fight.
"Sho!" To the shoulder...
"NO MORE!"
"Sho!" To the leg.
"STOP!"
"Sho!" to the knee! He can't run now.
"I GIVE UP!"
"I don't care." I told him "Did you give up? No, not until you fucking raped my friend, so I'm not stopping until there's blood on the floor."
"Marcus..." Mika's voice broke me out of my bloodrage. She placed a hand on my shoulder and pulled me away. "Enough is enough."
"He raped you."
"And you stopped him." Despite the circumstances and her attire, a true smile came to her face. "You actually managed to help me."
"I did, didn't I?" I said rhetorically. I looked down at Gurou, crying on the floor as he nursed his broken arm and held his torn thigh. Why was I ever terrified of this bastard again? He's as weak as anyone is when he's on the floor with several broken bones. "Fine. When your friends wake up, you can go, Gurou."
"Oh thank y-"
"Shut up." I gave him one final kick to the groins, as something for him to remember me by and learn from. "I don't like you, and I don't ever want to talk to you again. This is over, got it? Whatever your deal with Mika, no matter what you've done to her before, it stops. You go anywhere near Mika and I will know, and I will hunt you down and this time when I use Sho it will be on an area of your anatomy that my foot has met many times already, one much more vulnerable than any bones."
He crossed his legs in a valiant attempt to stop the phantom and literal pain.
"So stay out of mine and my friends way, and if you tell one of the instructors about this then I'll end you." I returned my attention to the important one here: Mika, practically freezing in the early evening chills and in her present condition. "Lets go, Mika."
XXXXXXXXXX
"You don't have to tell me what happened." I told her, now attired in one of my old Academy robes and sitting at my apartments table. "You don't have to tell me why you let them use you like that, or if they have done something similar before, because I won't let them do it again, got it?"
Mika smiled into the hot chocolate I had brewed for her. "Yes. I know." For some reason she was dealing with the situation better than I thought she would; how many people get almost (Or perhaps even actually) raped and smile happily afterwards?
We sunk into an awkward silence, and we each drank our drinks. I desperately tried to ignore the screams of my muscles from the beating I had taken from Gurou, because I was far too happy about having stopped him for good and far too pissed off at him still to be able to deal with the pain.
"You know," Began Mika suddenly. "at first I disliked you. I really did. I never showed it but I detested your presence in my garden."
"It took me a while to see past the smiles, but I noticed that too."
"But now, I can honestly say that you are the one person I trust above all else in this world. I can't deny it any longer; you promised that you would help me, and you did. You forced me away from my solitude, you gave me friends, you kept me company in the silence, and you stood between me and Gurou more times than I can count." Mika smiled a true smile. I've said this before, but that smile is her one key distinguishing trait, and the only way to describe her honest beam is that it is radiant.
"Yes, you are the one person in the world whom I respect and need above all others. Now that I know you, I can't imagine a life without you in it."
"Ahh shucks..." I muttered bashfully at the girl across the tables praises. Her words mean a lot to me, since the speaker means a lot to me.
"As such," Mika took a deep breath, preparing herself mentally for what she was going to utter. "I have a request for you. I wear masks- Marc- so often that even I don't lower them when I am alone. But just this once, will you stay with me as I take off my mask?"
"Of course." I told the graceful girl. "We're friends. We've known each other for four years; I don't care if you wear a mask or not, so long as you let me be there beside you."
"Hang on Javan, did that come out as cheesy as I thought it did?"
"Yes, it did. Yet again Marc, your talent for sappy speeches shines through."
"Thank you." Mika sat back, then the smile was gone. It was jarring; she always had that aura of happiness surrounding her. That smile was a part of Mika's appearance as great as her robes or her face were. Except here and now she wasn't wearing her robes. She was wearing mine, and that smile had slipped. The empty face looking at me was void, but even so I didn't flinch or do anything stupid like that.
God no. I'm not that stupid. Mika trusted me enough to lower her barriers and remove her façade in front of me; I wasn't going to deny the true Mika just because it was different.
"I have another favour to ask." Mika said blankly, still staring deep into my eyes. Her own were tired, almost dead. I had to wonder just what could happen to make a girls eyes like that, and just what would make them want to put on a mask for her entire life. "Will you listen to a story? It isn't about me or anything, but... I would like if if you gave me your honest opinion."
"Sure. I'm listening."
"There once was a girl..." Began Mika, braking eye contact with me to stare at the nearby wall, as if she was looking at something I couldn't see. "She lived in Japan and for the most part she was happy. She lived with her mother at a temple and she was taught the responsibilities of a shrine maiden. She didn't like the jobs she was given when she was young, but she did them with a smile on her face. At a young age she never knew her father and was terribly lonely, because there were no children at the shrine and she was not allowed to leave the shrine. Again, she endured with a smile on her face to hide her sadness.
"The mother did similar tasks to the girl, though much more important. She told the girl that she was giving people peace and that her job as a priestess was helping many people; in reality she was a con artist. She was a liar and a fake, using her skills at reading people to trick and rob them of their money. With a false mask on her face she would smile at the visitors to her shrine and claim that she could call up the spirits of the dead, or help the people with their problems, but at a cost. It was from her that the girl learned to put on her own masks, to lie to the world and to herself." By now Mika didn't even seem to notice my presence as I listened to her story; her mind was on other things, no doubt remembering.
"Years passed and the girl suffered quietly, a smile worn on her like any other article of clothing. She always wanted to leave the temple though, to go and explore the world outside of the home she wasn't permitted to leave. She resolved to leave after her eighteenth birthday, but many years remained until this was an option. Then, the men came." Mika's face was no longer blank. Instead the memory of terror coated her eyes.
"One of mother's... the girl's mother's... customers came back. He realised that she was a fake and that his money had been scammed from him. He... he gathered up many of his peers and marched on the temple, revenge in mind. The girl, still young, not even twelve yet, was scared by the men, but greeted them with a smile just like she had always been taught. They set the temple alight, and the girls home burned. She and her mother fled, trying to desperately escape the inferno. Out of the frying pan though... the men caught the two."
Tears now dripped down Mika's cheeks. She left them alone, being too engrossed in talking to notice them. "Then they did terrible things to her. They hurt her and her mother. They raped the girls mother, taking the money she had conned them out of through payment. After the mother was spent, the men turned their attention on the girl. She was a pretty little thing, and they were certain she'd give them a good time, no matter how unwilling. So they all t-took their turn with the girl, then when she too was finished, they killed her."
She finally noticed the tears, almost indifferently. She wiped them, but more began to fall. I had the good grace to angle my chair so I wasn't directly looking at her; giving the poor girl some privacy.
"She was dead, but she didn't stay dead. She became a ghost, and she stuck around. She saw them rape her mother again and again until the men grew tired once more, cutting her throat too. Then the girl was alone, and she cried and cried and cried, not caring to put her mask up. Eventually a man in dark robes found her and sent her away to the Soul Society.
"But she didn't want to go. She wanted to stay and see if her murderers were eventually brought to justice or not, or if not to give into her despair and allow herself to Hollow and slay them in return. Instead that choice was taken away from her and she was left in the Rukon District with nothing but her tears and her ignorance concerning her killers fates." Mika continued talking, getting steadily more vocal as her tale continued.
"So she tried to survive, alone. She cried and cried and cried until all her tears were gone. For what could be a hundred years she stayed there, stealing water to survive and eventually began pilfering food too once her hunger returned. Then, at long last she came to a realization once she saw another black robed man. She would become a Shinigami. They could go to the human world. If she became one, she could discover her murderers fates and punish them with her own too hands if they hadn't.
"So she put on her mask, for good this time, and marched to the Seiretei. It took much time to do so, and she faced much danger along the way. But she got there, and she tried to enrol at the Academy. She failed again and again to get in, but she was able to ask them about the human world and was told that her age had gone, that those men that had murdered her was most definitely dead by this point in time. The girl didn't know what to think; her purpose for fighting on had left her, and she was left with nothing more to struggle for- no purpose. But she kept fighting, training. She got accepted into the Academy. She decided that she would become a Shinigami anyway and try and stop any other incidents like what happened to her from affecting others, as a way to remember what had been done to her."
And now Mika was hiccupping, her sobbing only escalated. "Then she learnt something. As a soul gets stronger, their memories fade. Perhaps the memories are used as fuel as a Shinigami grows in power? Normal Rukon souls were too weak to loose their memories, but now that the girl was becoming a Shinigami, she had doubts. If she continued she would probably loose her memories if she grew to a strong enough level. She would loose not only her home, her mother, her purity and childish innocence, her reason to fight and more, but would even have the memory of that suffering stolen from her!"
Mika shoved her chair aside in anger, and smashed another chair with one of her kicks with how distressed she was. "Her memories, all she had left, would be robbed! Leaving her truly alone! So tell me, Marc, just what would you tell that girl to do!? Just what choice would you say would help her!? Should she fight on, discard the old and pained person she had once been, or turn back to be content that at least she could remember her losses- that the crime that had been committed upon herself and her mother was not forgotten!?"
Mika pushed the table aside in a display of Shinigami strength that always reminded me of just how squishy I as a person am. Hot chocolate spilled onto the floor, dying the ground like brown blood. She stormed up to me and pointed at me accusingly, as if I had all the answers. I didn't. "So tell me what that girl should do!?"
I could see underneath the underneath. I am not stupid. Only an idiot wouldn't realise that the girl in the story was Mika and that she was asking me- the person she previously mentioned she trusted the most- for help. But I didn't know how I could help. I didn't have the answers.
"For gods sake!" Interjected Javan. "Just use your Talk No Jutsu! Anything is better than nothing!"
While the unmasked girl in front of me vented, sobbing out years of repressed worries, I did the only thing I could do. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tight, because when there's a crying girl that's what you do. You comfort them. And quite honestly, Mika looked like she needed a hug.
I held her for a few moments until she finally gave into the hug, burying her face into my shoulder to soak my clothes. Then I spoke, to try and give an answer that was worthy of the trust that Mika had put in me.
"Mika... I can't claim to know the future." An ironic comment, I know. "I can't say that I know what will someday happen, or that I know what the best choice of actions is. Maybe the girl should press on. Maybe those tears and that heartache isn't worth it, and the girl should try to move on and find new happiness. Or perhaps that is bullshit, and she should leave the Academy; if the memory of the crime remains then that means that evidence of your struggle survives, they didn't truly get away with it. The girl would know what had happened, and the men would be judged by her alone."
I rubbed Mika's back reassuringly. "Either way, the girl was wrong about one thing. Because the girl wasn't alone. She has me. And she has her friends. And regardless of which path she chose, if she became a Shinigami or not, the one thing that I can promise is that the memory of the crime would never be forgotten, for I would remember it. Always! I'll carry the burden of that girls memories- of your sorrow- and I'll keep it as my own. If you forget, I'll remember in your place. If you loose that purpose, then I'll remind you, or carry it out myself. And if you are sad, I'll be a shoulder to cry on."
"Y-y-you mean it?" She sniffled, looking up at me not with her false smile or with those dead gems, but instead with emotive eyes, begging to have her suffering and will remembered.
"Yes." I told her simply. "I make you a new promise. I'll protect your memory like it is my own and carry your burden like I too suffered it, and I will never leave you to be alone."
"Oh Marcus..." Mika continued to hold me like a lifeline (Or a box of tissue paper), until finally her tears ceased and her sobs ended. She didn't let go though, not for a long time. I had said that she'd never be alone, and I keep my promises. I'll stay with her for as long as she needs.
"I hold you to your promise." She said at long last, loosening her hold, but not letting go. She gave me the brightest, most tender grin I had ever seen her give. "Don't leave me. Don't ever forget me."
"I won't. I promise."
Little did I realise that I would one day break that promise again and again and again.
AN- What'd ya know? Mika finally had some SERIOUS character development and backstory analysis. Seriously, I've been building to this moment, for this is about the pinnacle of her development for the near foreseeable future of this fic. On another note, Marc ate some red meat and got an actual fight scene whereby he shows how he has been started down the path of Badass Kido Combat Pragmatist, Gurou takes a Sho to the knees (Thus, stopped adventuring, but will remember how he used to be an adventurer like yourself until he took said Sho to the knee) but nobody really cares about any of that.
On Mika, her backstory has been heavily foreshadowed, and I have tried to set her up as a realistic Stepford Smiler. I want all of my OC's to be realistic. Alas, I am an asshole, and practically all of my OC's have a tragic backstory on some level, so now placing bets on just which of the characters has the most messed up beginning and which character will be screwed over the most by the plot (Hint, its Marc. Being my Main Character is Being Suffering... he just doesn't realise it yet).
But don't worry people! The light is appearing at the end of the tunnel. This Academy Arc is so long as to put all the building blocks in place, to introduce characters and themes which will impact the entire story later. It needs to be this long. Once this arc is gone I intend to try and speed things along faster and get the entire Myth Arc set up, to get the overarching plot started. By my estimation we only have two or three more chapter before this arc ends, so rejoice! For soon we will stop getting silly character interaction and detailed world building and will instead get some plot!
Now, I'm tired and have soooo much schoolwork to catch up on, for this humble writer quite frankly has neglected his education to feed the ravenous and never satisfied mouths of the internet, so 'preciate it. Until next time, Undying Soul out.