THERE ARE NO WORDS That would describe what a failure I am.
OK! READ HERE! I have gotten a few emails saying that this fanfiction is dark and evil. WHICH IT IS! Sorta, after this chapter there is going to be humour and happiness for a while–my fave- before the EVILNESS comes back. :D
OH! And thanks for the MARVELOUS reviews! Already 32 for just 4 chapters! THAT IS INSANE!!!
And for those concerned about my updating habits, there will be more on that at the END of the chapter! SO PLEASE ENJOY!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 5: Clouds with Black Lining
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Months have passed since I last spoke with Hitsugaya. The Monday after I talked with him about the killings, he vanished from school. At first I thought he was just skipping like always, but then I stopped hearing his name during attendance, and someone else took his seat in the classes we had together.
I tried to ask Hikari where she thinks he might have gone, but she insisted she never heard of anybody by the name of "Hitsugaya Toushiro" either in our school or out. She told me I should have my head checked.
I still remember going to the roof and having a tantrum after realizing she wasn't kidding.
Afterwards I thought that maybe it was all part of his plan to get me off his back, erase everyone's memory of him then erase my own. Each night before I went to sleep, I wondered if I would remember the strange x-transfer student when I woke up in the morning. However I still remembered the conversation I had with him as clearly as I had the day it happened.
Soon after Hitsugaya's disappearance, my aunt called me to her office saying that the suicide case was closed. They blamed it on some cult that I doubt actually exists. The suicide rate returned to normal as well.
I continued to investigate on my own for a while, thinking that maybe one of those ghosts would turn up. I found absolutely nothing.
Scared and frustrated, I continued on with my life. On account that I haven't worked on another public case in half a year, I haven't been bothered by the media at all recently. It was the closest I have felt to "normal" in nearly two years.
Well, almost normal. Hikari has changed over the last few months. She spends more time some new group of friends instead of me, and each day she was looking and acting more like them. It was starting to get on my nerves. Most lunches were now spent alone on the roof, leaving my mind to think about useless things.
I was walking to the park to play on the swings when I got the call. It was from Hikari's mother. Apparently Hikari hasn't returned from soccer practice that morning, and hasn't called. I assured her that I would help look for her, even though I didn't know where I would find her anymore.
I wondered back in the direction of the school, not in much of a rush. Hikari has been disappearing a lot recently, it was worrisome at first, but after like… seven times… you sort of get immune to it.
When I arrived at the schools parking lot, I saw Hikari's bike chained to the bike rack, but there was no other bikes around it so I assumed she must be alone. What would she be doing at school at six in the evening on a Saturday?
I went inside, it was unlocked for some reason, and looked in all the places I thought I might be able to find her. She wasn't anywhere. I eventually reached the roof, the door was open. Good thing too, because I lost the key to the roof a few days ago.
Hikari was there, standing by the protective fence that surrounds the roof. It took me a second to realize she was standing on the wrong side of the fence. Her back was faced towards me and she was clinging on to the fence, looking down at the deserted street bellow. I ran towards her, swearing to myself I would kill her for doing being so stupid. Doesn't she know that what she was doing is dangerous?
I was near the fence and her name was on the tip of my tongue when I saw her let go of the fence. I thought I was having another dizzy spell when I saw her lean forwards. Moving faster then I ever moved in my entire life, I shoved my arms through the holes in the fence and grabbed her around the waist.
She wrestled to get me off, screeching at me to let go. She looked at me, with bloodshot eyes and a pale complexion that made her look like she hasn't slept in weeks. She tried to elbow me, but the fence was in the way. Normally she could easily overpower me, but there was nothing that would make me let go of her now.
She started screaming, swearing, and begging to be let go. I felt terrified tears run down my face. I wasn't sure how long I would be able to keep this up; no one was around to help and I knew what would happen if I let go. I remembered the man a few months ago, who threw himself off his balcony.
Panicking, I looked around. Sure enough, climbing up the school wall like a spider was the ghost. This one looked to be a strangely familiar looking middle aged man. I nearly had a heart attack when I realized he was the screaming man from the apartment building a few months ago.
Screaming in terror, I held Hikari closer then ever. Suddenly she managed to throw her legs over the side, leaving me to hold on to her entire weight. I felt incredible pain in my upper arm and I knew it would break soon. She dropped a bit and I was holding her by her armpits. Squiggling around she managed to slip some more until I was holding her by her wrists.
At this point I was screaming for help; the police, my aunt, Hitsugaya, God, anyone.
The searing pain in my arm tripled when I felt my upper right arm break. I screamed in pain and tried to hold on with my other hand. I felt her clawing my hand, trying to get me to let go. Eventually I felt her slip through my fingers.
Screaming in both pain and horror, I pulled my arms out of the fence. Still crying, I stumbled forwards and used my good hand to hold onto the fence. I closed my eyes, not sure of what to do. It was then I realized I didn't hear the sound of Hikari hitting the ground.
"Why is it that whenever there is trouble, you are always there?" Grumbled a voice I have dreamed about for the past month.
Trembling, I turned around. Standing there, with an unconscious Hikari slung over his shoulder, was Hitsugaya. I took a few moments to make sure I wasn't just seeing things, and then I ran over to see if Hikari was alright. I started crying from happiness when I saw she was breathing.
"I also took care of the Desperi; your friend should be fine once she wakes up, which may take a while."A much forgotten Hitsugaya said from beside me. I noticed that he was wearing that strange black and white uniform from my visions.
I was about to kneel down and offer my life as thanks for saving Hikari but I suddenly remember the vast amount of pain I was in because of my right arm. I looked over at my arm and saw it bent in a way that it really shouldn't. The pain seemed to double when I actually saw it. I started sobbing again.
Hitsugaya seemed to notice my arm because he came over to examine it.
"Defiantly broken, even if I knew how to heal broken bones I wouldn't be able to, it's against the law to perform healing kido on a human. You will need to go to the hospital."
I was to busy trying to stop myself from screaming to respond properly.
"You cry a lot." He complained after a few seconds.
I really didn't want to argue with him right now so I just agreed. He stood there for a few moments as if he was unsure of what to do next. I heard him pull out his cell phone.
I stayed completely still, because any movement at all would cause me to nearly lose my conscious. I continued to sob and wondered how the hell I managed to pull my arm out of the fence and run over her in this state.
I heard someone else on the roof. I heard a girl's voice and then I saw a familiar red head, only this time she didn't seem quite so cheery. She arrived with a splint and she hurried to put the arm in a splint, and she put some ice on it as well. This reduced the pain. My arm felt all numb and tingly. She talked about how a broken arm won't kill you and how it usually looks a lot worse then it was. I didn't have the energy to respond. I don't take pain very well.
"Since it would be a pain to explain to the people at the hospital why she is in this condition, I will take her to my place to stay until she wakes up. Also, if anyone asks, you fell off a bike funny."
"Aww, can't you think of something a little more epic then that?" I almost laughed.
"For you, I think a bike is epic enough."
* * *
After a string of painful stumbles and cursing on all of our parts I found myself at a hospital. At one point Hitsugaya disappeared to change and take Hikari to his place, which was a good thing because I was in no rush to walk around with him in public while he was wearing that.
They were both kind enough to wait around until I got my long arm cast on, which took a while after the x-rays and calling up my aunt and all. I left the hospital with Hitsugaya and Matsumoto because Aunt Kiko had to rush back to the office.
We were saved from the awkward silences because Matsumoto kept on blabbing about how she wanted to make some cover for my cast to make it look nicer. I told her that there is no way to make this humongous cast look any better but she was persistent.
"Oh! And I call being the first one to sign it!" Matsumoto skipped along happily in front of us. I wondered where we were headed to. They took me to an apartment building near the outskirts of Tokyo.
"This is where I am staying this time." Explained Hitsugaya.
"Oh… ok." I was defiantly worried. What if he brought me here to alter my memories? Well, if he wanted to do that wouldn't he have done it last time? What changed since then? Only this time the victim is my best friend and I know a bit more then I did back then. Oh goodness I am going paranoid.
I really wished I could see myself. That way I wouldn't have to worry about him erasing my memories. I would be able to relive my lost memories through the objects I had with me at those moments. Unfortunately though, I have never been able to see myself when seeing an objects memory.
We walked into an average sized apartment with almost the same layout as the last house. The living room had a black leather couch, and a run down television, and a few books lying around. Other then that it was empty.
"You just move in?" I asked.
"Yeah, I just came back this morning and you already are causing problems." Hitsugaya grumbled.
"Oh don't mind him. Captain is just grumpy because all the watermelons were sold out at the supermarket this morning."
"I am not grumpy." He said grumpily.
Matsumoto and I picked fun about the watermelons until he threatened to kick us out.
"So why did you guys disappear for so long? Being super hero's somewhere else?" I asked light-heartedly, hoping it would seem like I didn't really care.
"Well technically I was never gone." Matsumoto explained. "I was here the entire time but you never saw me. Tokyo is a big city after all! Captain had to go back though…" I noticed Hitsugaya hushing her.
Being an Investigator gave me a few tips about information gathering. Most of it I forgot the moment my aunt told me about them, but I did know how to pinpoint the person most likely to spill. Matsumoto practically had "Big Mouth" plastered to her forehead in big neon lights.
Also, I could tell that shouting and demanding answers from Matsumoto would probably just hurt her feelings. Not in my best interests at all. At this time, I want her to love me like a sister. People tend to blab to people they like rather then people they don't –obviously-.
"Hitsugaya, you called the demon ghost thing something weird earlier on. Is that what they are called?"
"Yeah, apparently we had a few encounters with their species in the past, but never anything near to this proportion; maybe one or two a century or something." He said brushing his hand through his hair.
I sat on the armrest of the couch. I could feel my eyes were still puffy from crying. I remembered I still had to thank Hitsugaya properly for saving Hikari. I was waiting for a good opportunity to say it because I felt a bit awkward just suddenly bringing it up. I don't know why, maybe I have finally lost my mind.
Hitsugaya ordered Matsumoto to go make tea, and not to come back until it was done.
"So why did you leave?" I asked, not knowing what else to say.
"Because of you, you started snooping and I had to disappear so you wouldn't meddle in our affairs. It was the only thing that saved you from getting a shinigami execution squad from knocking on your door."
"Sorry for being a hassle."
"Don't say things you don't mean." He said making the closest thing to a smile I think he could pull off.
"You are right, of course." I laughed. "Thank you, by the way." I muttered, embarrassed.
"For what?" He asked as if he didn't know what I was talking about. The idiot.
"For rescuing Hikari of course you idiot!"
"Is that how you usual thank people? No wonder you don't have any friends." He said mockingly.
"Oh and you are just Mr. Popular aren't you? Yeah, I hear that stupid looking hair cuts and white hair is all the rage now-a-days!" I retorted.
He looked pretty pissed off, but didn't say anything and just glared off into the distance, ignoring me. He must call this taking the "high road", I call it surrendering.
"So you say you left because you didn't want me finding anything more about whatever organization you are a part of?"
"That is what I said."
"Well if that's the case why did you come back?"
"I was ordered too."
"By who?"
"None of your business."
"Why?"
"Because."
"That's not an appropriate answer."
"Fine, because you might be able to be more useful then we thought."
"Hu?! Really? Awesome!!"
"No that is not awesome for you. If you do turn out to be useful for my mission your life is going to become a million times harder."
"Do you mean I could get killed like Hikari almost got killed?"
"Possibly." He said nonchalantly.
"…Sweet."
"You think possibly dying is "sweet"?"
"I laugh at the face of death."
"But scream and cry at a broken arm?"
"Shut up. Midget."
I heard the nerves in his head snap.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING "MIDGET"?!!??! YOU ARE A MILLION TIMES SMALLER THEN ME YOU… INSIGNIFICANT PINT SIZE CRY BABY!" He roared at me.
I simply laughed. "I think you might be exaggerating a little bit right there. Shrimp."
"I swear to god if it were not my mission to use your powers for my benefit, I would feed you to the pidgins in the park."
"Yeah sure you would. I am so terrified. I shall bend to your will for now on for fear of death." I said sarcastically.
"Well I am tired of answering your questions all the time. I have work to do. Get lost."
"Captain! That is so rude! Especially since you had me go make tea!" Matsumoto returned to the room with three cups.
"I meant make tea for me. I have lots of paperwork to do."
"You are always doing paperwork. How can you think of paperwork when you have such a pretty girl in your apartment?" Scolded Matsumoto.
He ignored her, and just to piss me off, looked around the room as if looking for this "pretty girl".
Annoyed, I stood up. "Thank you, very much, for your help today both of you. I actually came here today to watch over Hikari, so I must get to that. Would one of you mind showing me which room she is staying in, please?"
"Yeah no problem." Matsumoto volunteered.
She took me to a small spare bedroom at the back of the house. There, sleeping on an old pullout bed was Hikari.
"We are not sure how long she will stay unconscious, it varies with each person. We will get her a proper bed if she looks like she will be out for a while."
"Excuse me? What do you mean? Hitsugaya said she will be fine."
"Well, so far we have saved quite a few people from the Desperi. Some have woken up after a week or so, others have taken months. There are a few people in coma like states and still haven't woken up. Don't let that worry you though, out of all the cases there have only been like two or three like that. The odds are in your favour. I am sure your friend will be up and about, stalking people and having fan girl fits in no time." Matsumoto said reassuringly.
When I didn't respond she left awkwardly. I walked over to the couch and sat next to Hikari. I poked her arm with my good hand, like I usually did when we were having a sleepover and I woke up first. She didn't stir or make any noises at all. She just kept on sleeping.
Deciding it was pointless to sit here and poke at her, and I was never one to emotionally spill out my feelings to a comatose loved one, I went to a nearby vent and put my ear to it. I smiled with success when I heard two voices drifting through the air vents.
"So Captain, wouldn't it just be smarter to wipe her memories and watch her from afar? It would be safer for all of us that way."
"Wouldn't it be smarter to wait until she is out of the apartment before we talk about this Matsumoto? You should do something about that brain mouth filter of yours, get it fixed, to be precise." He complained.
"You are too paranoid you know, she doesn't have time to eavesdrop on us! She is busy watching over her friend. Who was attacked and got thrown off a building, in case you forgot."
"And in case you forgot; no matter how inept she may be, she is still an investigator for Japans top crime investigation office. Chances are she is using this opportunity to eavesdrop our conversation."
Whatever was said next was missed because of the loud sound of thunder rolling outside. I looked out the window and realized it was pouring rain. Not wanting to walk home in that I quickly checked the time. It was just shortly after six, which means my aunt should be leaving the office soon. I quickly dialled her number, and when she picked up her office phone I nearly did a victory dance.
* * *
When I got home I felt exhausted. I plopped down on my bed. I had no idea how I would fall asleep with that annoying cast on my arm. I hated having to sleep on my back but sleeping on my sides or front was just as awkward. After much tossing and turning I found a semi comfortable possession. Just as I started to nod off to sleep, I felt a chill go down my spine, followed by an intense feeling that I wasn't alone. Trying to convince myself I was still shaken up because of this afternoon, I hid under my blankets (ultimate protection) and fell asleep.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Woah, Im finally finished.
I had a really hard time writing that chapter BECAUSE I FRICKEN HATED IT! Im sorry for failing with this chapter –in my opinion it sucked majorly- I hope to do better in the next.
And as I said at the beginning of the chapter, I will tell you a bit about my updating habits in an attempt to explain why I suddenly jumped off the face of the earth for like a month.
You see, I have these spells where I can just write and write chapter after chapter and love it all! And I will update like every other day or something during those times. But then I will hit a chapter that for some reason just makes the wheels in my head stop, like this chapter, where no matter how hard I try I cant get ANYTHING to sound right and I end up writing a paragraph and then deleting it over …. And over… and over…
SO THERE YOU GO! Sorry guys for taking forever T.T
So last chapter I asked about what you guys thought about how I am portraying Hitsu-chan. I got more then one person saying that he seems robotic. I was so happy when I heard that :) Because I have been purposefully doing that at first, because in my opinion, Hitsugaya is not the kind of guy who would give a rats ass about some random human girl who doesn't even have significant spiritual energy. Therefore he would sorta be robotic "yeah ok" " no get out of my face" -.- -.- -.- a general "leave me alone human" sort of attitude. But I plan to change that now that he knows she is not just some random useless human girl.
Sorry that this authors note is so long -,- I just felt like I had a lot to say….
ANYWAYS.
QUESTIONS OF THE CHAPTER!!!
Are you all ready for the light hearted –humor part of this story?! Or are you guys enjoying the death and horror that filled the past few chapters…?
Hnn Pick a number between one and five. Depending on the number the most people pick that will be Hikari's fate……. (I have a possible outcome for each number :D)
What would be worse? Suddenly having someone fling oatmeal in your face? OR falling face first in a patch of mud…?