◊ (The Heartlessness of the Enemy) ◊
∆ (Months Later) ∆ - ¤ (Apartment) ¤ - VP: Ichigo
It's already December first, it's been 3 months and the members from Soul Society are getting annoyed with being here. I'm getting annoyed with the baby and Rukia seems immune to it all.
"They should have attacked by now!" Renji yelled at me.
"Shut up." I said. "We don't want them to attack remember."
"Yeah. It's more than likely we'd die if they attacked right now anyway." Unohana said walking down the hall.
We looked at her. "We're tired, weak and honestly defenseless." She explained.
"Well I don't care if…" The next I knew Renji was on the ground.
"Shut up, I don't you're tired of this and I know that you're annoyed. I also know that you dislike everything that's going on right now. You've said it every single day since about the second week we got here. Stop now! We don't need you reminding us of what we are missing." Rukia yelled at him, she than ran out of the building.
"Rukia?" I said. It was all too fast for me but before I knew it. I was behind her in the forest. I don't know why but something kept me from walking up to her and hugging her.
"I'm alright. I really am." She said wiping her tears as she looked forward.
"You really are lying, yes." I said walking close to her. I placed my hand on her chin and made her eyes meet mine. "Tell me what's going on."
She pretty much collapsed her body into my arms. I held her tight as she almost tackled me to the ground. "With everyone talking about their home, I don't really have a home at all. I find a place wherever I am. I miss being with your family, and being in Soul Society and I just want to… have a real home."
"So you're just having a split need issue?" He asked.
"I guess. I just want to settle in somewhere, and have a life. I don't want to apart of some many people's. I want my own life that include all those people." She said.
We sat down on the bench and I held her close to me. "If I make a promise to you… would that help?"
"Depending on what it is, maybe it might, maybe it would."
"Well… how about I promise that as soon as I graduate, and maybe you too, if you want to; well after that, we'll get a place of our own and create a new life."
"Together?"
"Yeah, together." I said smiling at her.
"Like married?"
"If you want to." I said.
"That would make me happy." She said snuggling closer into my arms. "Having a place with you, a life with you, being with you, forever together. It doesn't getter better than that."
"Trust me, it does. For us, that's the best we can do." I said. "So would you really like to marry me?"
"Yeah, after we graduate. I do want to. Just because I want to have a real life since mine was all a lie."
"Yeah. It's kind of horrible. Really horrible." She nodded.
"We should be going back in." I nodded, as I stood up and took her hand. We walked back to the apartment building. I walked in. The building starting shaking and I fell to the ground, followed by Rukia.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Like I know. We should get to the others." I nodded as we ran up the stairs so we wouldn't get trapped in the elevator. I heard someone scream. We ran into the room that Hinamori was in with Hitsuguya.
Hinamori was lying on the bed, bleeding all over the room. All the walls were covered in it too. Everyone else was bleeding, not as bad as Hinamori was but they were unconscious and bleeding pretty fast.
"Where's Hitsuyguya?" I asked Hinamori.
"Stupid, she's unconscious with all that blood loss." She picked up her phone calling 911. "There was an earthquake of sorts in our apartment building and all our friends are bleeding horribly unconscious, hurry please." She said. At the beginning of the call, she was calm but she began to panic the more that she talked.
"Rukia, are you alright?" She shook her head. She grabbed her throat. She's lost it. She fainted and I caught her. I carried her down the elevator, outside. My dad as well as a lot of other doctors showed up to take care of them.
He walked over to us. "Who called the hospital?" He asked.
"Rukia did." I answered.
"Is she alright?"
"She fainted. I'm going to take her home." He nodded. I carried her into her bedroom in our house. I sat down on the bed next to her. I went to the bathroom, getting a cold rag, returning to her room and placing it on her head.
"Ichigo… what?" She said.
"You fainted seeing everybody covered in their own blood." She nodded and dug her head into my chest.
"Where is she?" Rukia mumbled in my shirt.
"We don't know. Hitsuguya and Karla are missing. I suppose they were taken." She was about to cry. Usually she didn't cry, but she always wanted to, I could tell. I pulled her close to me, and hugged her. "There's always the chance that he escaped with her, for safety."
"He wouldn't leave everyone else to protect the baby. It's not like him." She told me. I brought my lips to hers kissing her. I could feel her tenseness start to leave her as I kissed her. She pulled herself away from me to rest her head on my chest again.
"Unless there was a reason to or if Hinamori told him to." She mumbled.
"Or he wasn't even there." A voice said. I looked to the doorway to see Yuzu.
"Hinamori kept saying 'Where is Hitsuguya? He said he was trying to find Rukia and Ichigo to take care of Karla.' She said that in her sleep."
"Are they alright?" I asked.
"Yeah, they're fine. We had to ask Urahara to make them completely new gigais though. Jinta said not to worry about prices or anything. He said he thought they were too weak anyway."
"Thanks Yuzu." I said to her.
"It's my job. Dad asked me to check on Rukia. How are you?" She said.
"Oh, I'm fine. It was just a little shocking to see that much blood all over everything. I deal with returning souls to their grounds, not seeing their actual deaths. It's over whelming." Yuzu nodded.
"You usually do well though when it comes to emergency work."
"Yeah, but this is different. I know them and it's just so many people and wall coated in blood. It's just… uh!" She said shaking. I held her.
"I understand, Dad didn't want Karin and me up there either. He told us to wait for him to bring them back." She nodded. "Well I have to go check on how the Gigai's are doing."
"Thank you." Rukia managed to say.
"It's no problem Rukia. You've done more than that for us; you deserve a little break no matter how much you want to help." She said walking off.
I placed my hand on Rukia's head. She looked at me like I was crazy. "You felt a bit warm earlier. You seem fine now."
"Thank you too Ichigo." She said. She closed her eyes and rested her head on my lap, curling up under the covers. I just sat there watching her as she tried to go to sleep.
¤ (Hours Later) ¤
"Ichigo!" A voice screamed. I looked to see a soul there.
"Sh… I know that Soul Society is busy and you want to return but Rukia's sleeping and she's a soul too so you have to be quiet." I told the soul.
"Sorry, who's Rukia?" I looked down. I jumped out of the bed.
"She's gone, where did she go!" I said running out of the room, down the hall and I came crashing into someone, landing on top of them on the hard wood floor.
"What in the world are you doing Ichigo? I'm making your family and you as well as our friends in the other rooms dinner and you come crashing into me. What's your incuse?" Rukia said.
I was lying on top of Rukia's delicate frame while she was trying to cook. She was in a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and an apron. "Sorry Rukia." I tried to get up but it was harder than I thought since I was already in an uncomfortable position.
"Ichigo, get off of Rukia now." Karin yelled at me. Rukia nodded looking at me. I sighed. I grabbed my hands on her waist she gasping and I rolled onto my back. She then carefully climbed off of me. "What in the world were you trying to do…"
"Find her. I was just trying to find her. This soul needed to be send to Soul Society and then after it said there was no one else there, I freaked out wondering what happened to her. So I ran looking for her."
"Ah… well calm down so I can finish making dinner with Karin, alright?" She said. I nodded sitting in a chair. She sighed checking on the food while Karin just shook her head and read Rukia the ingredients to put in.
Dad slid into the room with Yuzu walking behind him. "I heard a huge sound, what happened in here?" He asked.
"Not much, Ichigo freaked out because Rukia wasn't there when he woke up. He ran in here, crashing into Rukia and sending them skidding across the kitchen floor."
"You are aware she can take care of herself, right?" Yuzu asked.
"Yeah, I know she can." I replied. "I just liked taking care of her more." Rukia smiled.
"That's so nice Ichi-nii-san." Yuzu said.
"Sappy but it is nice." Karin said.
"That is so wonderful, my son is growing up!" Dad said about to cry. I wanted to smack myself for being so sappy in front of him but whatever.
Soon Rukia and Karin finished up dinner and we all sat down. Renji, Chad, Ishida, and Orihime all made it to dinner. They all, besides Renji were bandaged up and in a lot of pain medications but proclaimed well. Orihime was her normal cheerful self because her fairies said that they'd heal everyone fully in a few days when all her spiritual energy was back to normal.
After dinner was finished Rukia sat in her room while I did the dishes with dad. "So she's pretty down isn't she?"
"Rukia, yeah." I said. "She's never seen that much blood. It was really horrid dad, for her."
"Yeah, she hasn't had to deal with that stuff like we have." I said.
"So, what now?"
"I don't know. I don't think she'll be up for school tomorrow but knowing her she'll stay in the hospital taking care of them. I don't know what I'm going to do."
"I can't tell you what to do but you have two choices. You can try to find the baby and the boy, or you can stay by her side and help her through what's going on."
"I'm not sure she wants me there comforting her."
"Girls will never in a million years tell you what they want as in feelings wise and they will never tell you how they feel or do what's best for them when they're something better they can do for someone else."
"You're saying."
"Do what you think is best for her because she won't." He told me. I nodded. We were done with the dishes.
I walked into her room and she was sitting there, on the edge of the bed looking at the floor. "Rukia." I called to her. She looked up at me. A smile on her face. I walked over to her and pulled her into my chest. She was first at shock and then she began crying.
It's been a while since she cried. Since she was upset about the first days when we got her and she got the letter. "Ichigo… they're all in a lot of pain. Hinamori is depressed so much and she doesn't know what's going on. We don't know what's going to happen and who knows what will happen now!" She screamed.
"Calm down Rukia. Sh… calm down. I know everything is hectic, depressing and a bit frightening. We don't know who did this, if it'll happen again and what we can do to protect ourselves. There's nothing we can do now; we just have to keep our head's calm and wait."
"To be attacked?" She asked, concerned.
"No, until the others are healed. We need to return to Soul Society to check on them. I have a feeling that things aren't doing well there either." Rukia had a plastered look on her face that screamed she was worried. I didn't know what to do.
A boy walked into our room. "Eke!" Rukia said hiding behind me in embarrassment. After all she wasn't in the best things to be wearing when a stranger comes in. She's just in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt which for friends it's fine because no one will look at her but she's opposed to perverts, well who isn't.
"Oi, who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Nii-san, Ichigo, it's me, Kon!" He said smiling widely. He looked, weird. He had brown hair and his skin was very orange, as if they just turned the plushie into a person.
"Kon?" Rukia said still hiding behind me. He waved.
"You scared of me?"
I sighed. "No, she's just not dressed appropriately to run into perverted people." He crossed his arms.
"Well I was just saying hello, and bye because I'm on a mission to find the baby and Toshiro."
"Good-luck." Rukia walked up to him and hugged him. She let go and he was staring at her. I looked at her. She turned around and smacked him, extremely hard.
"Kon, if you haven't already noticed! I'm Ichigo's girlfriend!" She yelled at him.
"Hm." He said. She slammed the door in his face.
She sighed. "I hope he finds them." I nodded. "Can we go to Soul Society now? Please."
"Rukia, are you sure that's the best thing to do?"
"No, but I need to. I want to make sure that this isn't as much as a disaster as I think it is." I sighed, taking her hand in mine as we went to the back yard, and she opened the gate.
"Oi Soul! Come on!" I yelled. The soul rushed through the gate. I pulled in Rukia after me. We were in Rukia's room back in Soul Society. She ran outside and she smiled.
"Rukia, Ichigo, what are you doing here?" Hantaru said yelling at us.
"I wanted to make sure everything was alright here. It's horrible back there." She said. I nodded.
"All things are fine here. I'll call a meeting so you can all explain what's going on." I nodded. Rukia walked beside me, holding tight to my hand.
Soon we were at the meeting room. "Alright now Rukia and Ichigo will inform us about what's going on, on Earth."
Rukia let go of my hand; she was shaking. She stepped up to the podium. "Well while Ichigo and I were on the base level of the apartment building, the building started shaking. So we thought it was an attack so we ran up the stairs up there, when we got there, the earthquake stopped and it was almost as if a massacre had taken place, everyone was cut all over and everything… was covered in blood." She said closing her eyes. I placed and hand on her shoulder.
"New Gigai are already being made and it seems they're low on spiritual energy so once it's gained up and they're placed in the Gigai then we'll bring them all back here." I said.
"So everyone is going to return, correct?" The 1st Division head asked.
"No. Hitsuguya Toshiro and Karla, the baby are both missing. We inferred from what Hinamori said in her sleep that he wasn't in the building during the attack but she hasn't waken up so we're not sure." Rukia answered not looking at them.
"What do you think they wanted?" The 1st Division head asked again.
"I'm not sure. Most likely the baby, but since it wasn't there they just attacked anyone who didn't have it, looking for it." I said.
"Why didn't you have the baby Rukia?"
"I had to go outside to get some air and check on things. I would be right back and Ichigo was there to protect me but the baby was sleeping when I went to get Ichigo to watch me when I left." Rukia replied.
"So who would have been watching the baby?" He asked again.
"Unohana usually does when I need a break, or have to do something. However it seems that Hinamori and Hitsuguya were the ones watching the baby this time."
"Alright, well you should return and check on them. I will see you both when you return with them, alright?" Rukia nodded sadly. "Ichigo, may I talk to you?"
"Yes sir." Rukia looked at me and nodded. She was saying she'd be fine. I followed him off into a small meeting room.
"In safety of Kuchiki Rukia, I believe we should keep her here with us. We have a signal saying that both Hitsuguya and the child are alright."
"What are you saying?"
"They're playing with you."
"Huh?"
"They went out of their way to attack them, most likely knowing that the child was not there." He explained. "I don't think they want the child. So, protecting the child is no longer necessary, give it to any adult there because it's weaking us."
"Those heartless…"
"They are heartless, they are just playing with us which is most likely to keep our focus off of what they really want."
"What is that?"
"I don't know but whatever it is. It has to be something important. So since Kuchiki Rukia is in full health, I want to keep her here with us, while you, as soon as possible return them."
"Will Rukia agree though?" I asked him.
"I don't think so but she will obey because she understands the severity of this matter. She'll listen even though she doesn't have to; since it's a matter of extreme danger."
"Does she know that I'm leaving?"
"Her brother-in-law will be telling her now. But you must go now so we don't have any problems." I nodded and opened the gate, leaving. I returned to the house.
Kon was sitting at the kitchen table talking to Karin. "I told you, they were in the Soul Society." She said crossing her arms.
"Hey." I said returning to my room.
"Ichigo, stop. Is Rukia okay?" She asked concerned.
"Yeah, that's why they're keeping her there so she doesn't get hurt."
"It really is best that way." Karin said.
I smacked my hand thru the table. "They were just playing with us. They almost killed everyone in the apartment building, for fun."
"They're Hallows Ichigo. They don't need to care about anything except themselves. They obey and do whatever they need to. It's their fun to destroy lives, that's what they live for." I nodded.
"Ichigo, where's Rukia?" Hinamori said walking over to me. She looked fine but she was tired with little to no spiritual energy left.
"She's in Soul Society. They said they want to protect her there, in time I have to take you there too."
"Not until I find Hitsuguya." She said to me.
"No, when your spiritual energy is full; I have to return you."
"No! I need to find him." She said running out of the house. I sighed. Girls don't like being told what to do, that's for sure. They don't like negative comments for sure either.
"Come back Hinamori!" I called running after her.
After a while, she stopped running and starting crying. Girls… so complicated. "Hinamori, I know you want to find him but Kon will find him, if he's here. Soul Society thinks that they weren't even going after the baby, they just wanted to kill everyone for no reason and they ignored the baby so he should be fine."
"I've check the entire city, he's not here." She said crying.
I sat down next to her. "He has to be somewhere, if he's not in Soul Society, he'll be reborn as a human but Soul Society would know about that. They said he's here." I told her.
She got up, wiping her tears. I broke out into a laughing fit. "I'm going to try something." I took her Soul Society phone and I looked at it. "Hitsuguya!" I yelled at it.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Trying to call him." I answered. She took the phone out of my hand. "Captain Hitsuguya, call." She said to the phone. She looked at me. "They're responsive to the owner's voices."
"So you haven't tried calling him?"
"No, I thought you said he was gone."
"I didn't think about it." I replied. "I never said he was gone. I said he left, and we don't know where he is."
Someone picked up. "Excuse me, this is a hospital. This phone can't take calls at the moment. They're in the emergency room." Hinamori screamed in tears. I took the phone away from her.
"What hospital?"
" Naruki Hospital." The woman answered.
"My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, my dad is a doctor in Karakura and we'll be coming soon to pick up my friend."
"Alright then, but…" I hung up the phone. I grabbed Hinamori's arm and pulled her as I ran off in the woods, she pulled her arm free and we ran quickly back.
I ran in the house. "He's at the Naruki Hospital. We have to go get him." I yelled at my dad.
"Alright, Karin, start the truck." She nodded grabbing the keys.
Yuzu came in her attendant outfit and jumped into the car. I jumped in the back, buckling up. "Go!" Dad yelled running out.
Hinamori was standing in front of the garage door as it opened. "Stop!" I yelled. The stopped. I grabbed her pulling into the truck. "Go!" I yelled to my family.
"Sorry but I wanted to go too." I nodded. She buckled herself in as Dad drove crazily to the next city over. We arrived at the hospital and I rushed in, following Hinamori who was ahead of the game.
"I'm looking for Toshiro Hitsuguya." She said to the attendant, worry evident on her face. I walked up to the desk.
"The person that you rushed in that had a small child with him." I explained to the nurse.
"Um… is that her child?" They asked, looking to Hinamori.
"No, that's Kuchiki Rukia's child." Hinamori answered.
"Oh, because we had to send it to the emergency children's hospital in order to save it." I nodded. They looked to me. "Are you the father?"
"No, Rukia adopted the child. Toshiro was watching the child with Hinamori." I said pointing to Hinamori.
"How is he?" She cried.
"Is she going to be alright?" I said resting my hand on Hinamori's shoulder to calm her down. I nodded at the nurse. "He's in room 12B. You can go see him." She said handing Hinamori a key. Hinamori grabbed it and ran down the hall frantically. I walked into the room after her. She was kneeling on the ground, crying into the bed sheets.
"Bed-wetter Momo-chan, it's alright. I'm fine. Come on, stop crying." He said running his hand through his hair. "I know you're there Ichigo." He said.
"You look unconscious." I said.
"They think I am. I can move slightly, stupid Gigai." He said annoyed.
"We'll get you a knew one. We're going to transfer you back home so we can transfer you to a Gigai."
"I wish. My spiritual energy is too weak to transfer now. Give me a few hours of sleep. Night Hinamori."
"No, come back to me!" She screamed. I pulled her away from him.
"Hinamori, calm down. He just wants to go to sleep. We need to get him home so you have to sit right there." I said pointing to a chair and stay calm. She shook her head, she knelt beside his bed, resting her head on the bed and holding his hand.
The nurse came in. "Are you sure she's going to be alright?"
"Yeah, this is something so familiar to her, she's frightened but she's going to be okay once she can be with him for every second of the day for a while. She just got out of the hospital herself and she was terrified he was dead because of everyone who almost died in the accident he wasn't there."
"Oh, I see the trauma is too much for her." I nodded.
Dad walked in the room with a stretcher. I pulled Hinamori away from Hitsuguya. Dad lifted him onto the stretcher. Yuzu and Karin carried him into the truck and Hinamori, like a zombie followed after his body. She was in love, bad in love with him.
I told my dad we had to pick up Karla too. We went over there, Hinamori's eyes never failing to leave from Hitsuguya's face, here hand holding his tight to her chest and tears never faltering as the slid down her face. She wasn't taking it very well even thought with his spiritual power, by the time he woke up; he'd be perfectly fine again. In a week, it could all be forgotten. However with the way Hinamori's eyes show, I don't think she'll ever forget this.
Most consider loving your close friend a major crime but then again, if I was the one to judge, then I'd definitely be guilty too. It's only natural to those who care about us, and we care about. They are the people who know us the most and we know the best. How can you not love them? The answer, you can't. It's only natural. Sometimes that one sided love hurts a relationship, sometimes it saves it but I know that I thing that loving your friend isn't a crime, unless you're a guy and so is he; and the same if you're a girl and so is she but other than that. It's okay.
I just now that they'd pay for what they did to everyone, all that pain, and hurt that showed on their faces. They'd definitely pay for what they did to everyone. All just for fun, those heartless jerks. They would pay. I would make sure of it.
A/N: I pretty deep chapter if I do say so myself. I'm going to update regularly, I promise. I'm on a normal schedule now so I can make a regular update time again so for those who gave me another chance. Thank you and review please. Aniecä