Note: This was originally going to be the fourth chapter of this story, but it's rather self-contained and I just lost interest in my original third chapter. So I'm going to post some chapters I wrote long ago so I can move this fic into "Completed" status.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Should we?
The question had been on the tips of our tongues since the first meeting of our wills, but never were the words spoken aloud. Yet we both knew the other was also thinking the notion; it was obvious when we gazed into one another. Heh, I could see the idea on the reflection of myself in her eyes. But neither of us ever voiced the question. It was almost a game, you could say, to find out who could go the longest without bringing it up.
And neither of us wanted to lose that battle. To dare to take the evolution of our lives further. To give up that...something that made us and our relationship special in the first place.
It simply was too fun to be as we were.
Of course, our existence could and would not remain this way forever.
3. Hollowed Mirror
It began in the deepest of blacks. Not that this strange place I had found myself in was pure black, since I could see gloomy white land below the pitch-black sky. No, it was the atmosphere of this land that could only be called black. A darkness beyond the imaginations of the living.
Yes.
I knew immediately then. I had died.
My first thoughts were of anger. How could that be possible?! I could still move. I was still in pain! How could I be dead?! Why was I in this hell?! I did nothing in my short life to deserve being sent here! It made no sense! None at all!
Yet, this strange temporal existence was oddly calming. I could not stay mad.
A distant memory surfaced in my mind. Father. Mother. My sisters. Violent crimson. The feel of steel entering me...
Quickly, I squashed them down. Never again...! Never again, I swore to my soul, and not because a soul was all that had not being taken away from me. I just never wanted to remember that horror so long as I existed in any way. To do so would be like accepting myself as a failure. It didn't matter to me that I was a kid; I should have been able to do something, I believed.
So I let myself be taken in by this impossible blackness. I would only look ahead from now on. No regrets. I had only the one path.
Where it would lead me, I had no idea.
Regardless of my choice, I was entirely unprepared for the new world I entered.
It was a cruel mirror.
At first, I wasn't aware of this. At first, it took all my energy solely to survive. To run, really, since that was all I could do. Monsters occupied this land of darkness and they were merciless. Hiding from them was the only logical course of action, though I could not say any thoughts of reason or logic filled my brain as I fled from terror after another filled only with fear. I had considered myself strong in the past life, but there was no way to deny my weakness in the blackness.
Yes, it was a mirror.
This unforgiving hell, this twisted illusion of my former life, forced you to look inside yourself without holding back. I could hide from the memories that brought me to this place, but I could not turn aside from the present. One by one, I was compelled to recognize each and every one of my flaws. Fear. Cowardice. Greed. Naivete. Kindness. Generosity. Even traits I would never call mistakes, even aspects of myself I did not realize to be a part of myself, I saw in this world. I saw how fragile they were, how quickly I abandoned thoughts of kindness. How fragile I was, when the thought of being generous backfired on me. I really wanted to look away, anyone would, but this darkness reflected everything back at me. Either through the hellish denizens residing below its gloomy moon that hung from an eternally black sky, or through my suddenly opaque soul. A mirror surrouded me from all sides, constantly bouncing back images of myself I never wished to discover.
Eventually, it would drive me insane.
That thought entertained me briefly. Being insane in an insane world was strangely appealing. Normally, I would not admit to such feelings, but the mirror had made me acknowledge jealousy towards those demons I ran away from. How lucky they were, I thought, to be heartless shells of humanity and kill without remorse. To kill with joy. I envied their lack of sanity because it allowed them to live, even if it was as a hollow reflection of the evil lurking deep inside them. In all likelihood, my Fate probably had been set to become as they were.
But then I met her, and everything changed. Whether it was for the better, I could not say.
I was running, as always. From a creature I could vaguely describe as a dragon. It had wings, breathed fire, and had cerulean scales. Except, I could not remember dragons being this scary. This fast. Or this strong. Did any of those fairy tales mention how sharp their fangs were? Those teeth had torn through solid rock easier than a scythe sliced through wheat.
And I knew exactly what would have happened if I had been that rock.
At that moment, I knew I was doomed to die. I stood no chance against a dragon. I only ran because knowing and accepting weren't being easily reconciled within me. Much as I knew I would die, I certainly had not wanted to.
Then, I heard a terrifying scream that stopped me in my tracks. No, that wasn't true. Really, the force of that cry sent me flying towards the cold ground, and I skidded to a painful stop against my will. Frightened, I looked behind myself to witness my end...
Only, it wasn't there. The dragon's mouth wasn't closing in on me, as I had expected. Instead, a new freak had flown in below the distilled white of the moon. And that was now what the dragon was fighting, I realized. I did not know what to call this other winged beast, but what I saw was a clash of titans, both a seemingly infinite times stronger than myself. Their blows against one another came faster than my eye could follow, as if they were exchanging bolts of lightning, but the sheer power behind the thrusts was apparent even to me from the effect they had. The recoil from the shock of hits landed was enough to send both monsters back a hundred paces. Immediately, though, they would close the gap and try again. Both needed desperately to win.
Because, I realized with sickening dread, both needed to devour my existence. It was a battle for who could eat me. I was given a reprise from my earlier demise only because these demons refused to share.
I curled up. What was even the point of all this? Even in the small chance that these monsters destroyed one another, more of them lay ready to consume me in other dark fields.
I started laughing like a maniac. Oh, I really lost it then. I was so pathetic it was funny. I was wanted only as livestock. I laughed and laughed and laughed. I no longer watched the two titans slash at each other's necks, or cared about its outcome.
Madness had come for me, at last. The darkness of the landscape was reflected by myself. Both me and the world mirrored one another, for an instant.
Or, that madness is what would have happened, if my eyes had not caught sight of a girl.
Thunder echoed in my ears, despite the lack of rain or clouds. Truthfully, the sound was probably those demons fighting, but I was too captivated by that girl to listen carefully.
Why was she standing there, in the heart of evil?
Below those two monsters, she stood. How she ended up where she towered over the ground without attracting the attention of the battlers was beyond me. It was too far from where I cowered to see properly, but it had seemed to me as if she was looking upwards to the sky, to where the behemoths battled. No, that's wrong. I thought she was somehow looking down at them.
It made no sense to me. She was tiny, they were big. Anybody could see either of those beasts could bat away her life with a flick of one wrist. The shock waves from the fight were enough to nearly knock her over. She was obviously weaker than them, so why did I sense she was the strongest of them all? Maybe that madness actually had taken hold of me.
But what stood out most to me about her was how different she was from me. I refused my fate while it seemed she could not wait soon enough for hers. We were opposites. Two opposing sides of the mirror.
And that drew me to her.
So like the battered idiot I was, I watched her and tried to figure this out when I had not been memorizing the way her raven hair struggled with the wind. The clothing she wore might have been beautiful once, but by then it was as filthy and unrecognizable as all clothes became here. The rest of her features had been impossible for me to discern in the distant.
The spell she unknowingly placed on me had held strong for some time, but it was not to last.
Two high-pitched death cries rattled the earth as both demons had finally delivered mortal strikes. They had been too equally matched so this end should have been expected. Fighting over me was ultimately a mistake neither would live to regret.
Yet, I felt no joy that fortune smiled at me. I was too busy running towards that girl.
For as the giants plummeted, she stood even then. As if daring them to fall on her. Once I got closer, I saw her expression matched the defiance I detected. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground, firm and unmoving. Probably, she would have stood adamant until she was crushed to death.
That is why I was running, though.
Something had been changed inside me. Whether it was because I considered her responsible for prevented my insanity or just a natural instinct buried within me, I was not sure. However, right then, I knew I needed to save her more than anything else. My precious life was forgotten.
I screamed at her without words while I ran, desperately trying to get her to move. It did no good. The girl was lost in a world of her own.
Faster, faster, and faster I ran. Faster than my flight from the dragon, even, I ran. How far had we really been from each other? Too far, most likely, for me to have been able to grab her by the shoulders and drag her to safety before the colossi shattered the ground.
But that was exactly what I did.
Dust bloomed into the endless night sky behind us, the ground shuddered from the massive weight and knocked us off our feet, and our eardrums nearly burst from the thunderous rumble. Yet, we were safe. Covered in the debris though we were, I held her in my arms protectively.
Then, the girl finally looked up and noticed me. Purple eyes tore through mine, making me dizzy. Actually, that loss of balance most likely came from my mind being jumbled by the near earthquake those monster created, but it had felt to me like that pair of violet circles was the sole cause.
What had come over me, I suddenly pondered?
Alone, we should have been clawing at each other's throats. This place was a never-ending struggle, a continuous fight to build your own mountain of corpses in order to climb to the top. However, no malice of such nature existed between the two of us.
"Why?"
Surprisingly, we both asked the same question at the same time.
In my case, the single word was directed in two ways. First and foremost, at the girl who remained still in the face of easily avoidable death. Second, at myself. Why had I risked my own life to save her, then? By then, I understood I had been attracted to this strange person, but not exactly why.
As for her, I was unaware at first that her exact question was similarly split in two ways.
"You--"
Once more, we both spoke in unison.
"You first," I finished in the next resulting pause.
Unexpectedly, her eyes shot daggers at me as she remembered the initial cause for her question. "Why didn't you run away from those monsters once they began fighting each other?!"
Dumbfounded, I listened to this in shock.
"Why didn't you run away once those giants started falling towards you?!" So, I answered by digging at the mystery which was eating into my brain.
"I did not want to move so you would have a chance to escape. They wouldn't look for you if another meal was closer by," she explained herself, as if it was perfectly rational. It wasn't, and I believe she realized how unbelievable it sounded the more she spoke the thought aloud, considering her next words. "I didn't want you to die because..."
She stopped, and I understood the reason. The girl did not know why she chose to sacrifice herself for me. Maybe it was then I started to figure out the double meaning behind her first question.
"That's stupid," I declared upon hearing her reasoning.
It made her actions even more implausible. Acting for others was purely a death wish in this place. An unspoken rule all agreed upon. If you wanted to advance here and become strong, you had to do it by yourself. No other options were available; any alliances formed ended only in betrayal, as the hunger for power would ultimately overtake the need for companionship. So, not only did she radiate a confidence as though she could defeat those demons, she had done for me?!
Despite my harsh words, I could not help but be immensely moved by that.
Disbelief then contorted her face. "I was stupid? What about you, running directly into their path to rescue me? Why did you do that?!"
I forgot she also was confused by myself. Suddenly, my face must have reflected the perplexed expression she wore when I asked my question, since I still hadn't understood why I desperately ran to save her. Once more, we were mirror images. Opposite sides of the exact same ideal.
"I didn't want you to die." That was all I had to account for myself. Somehow, I got the sense she comprehended my lack of explanation beyond that. It was only natural. We reciprocated the other so much.
Nonetheless, her poisonous retort was merciless, even though her lip curved upward slightly. "That's stupid."
Heh.
How funny. For the first time in what seemed like years--I could no longer keep track of time accurately then--I started to laugh. So did she and that made me laugh all the harder. In turn, I had the same effect on her. Before we knew it, we were practically rolling on the ground in our crazed humor. The carcasses of the demons rotted beside us.
We were both so stupid and that was the funniest thing in the world.
Eventually, we stopped. A stomach growled. Mine, hers, or both, I was uncertain but the noise made it impossible for us to deny our mutual hunger. I looked her over, another question on the verge of coming out, and took a likewise look at me, her mouth open. Tiny fangs poked out of that little mouth of hers, I noticed with a heartbeat. Then, both our heads turned to the dead beasts beside us with glee.
Before the feast, though, we each needed yet another question answered that could not be avoided.
"What is your name?"
Again, it was simultaneous.
Our lives would never be the same after that fateful encounter.
I did not know how she died and ended up in this place and I would never ask her. Secrets were not kept between us, but the past was an exception. I could tell she did not want to speak of it, just as I had not want to remember the horrible tragedy that brought me here. For her part, she did not breach the subject, either. We were content to let our histories begin with that bizarre incident that brought us together, and it was easier to fool ourselves into believing our lives truly did start there if we acted like they did.
There was no talk about teaming up. No rules were set. Nothing formal was present. We simply went wherever the other went without a word, and would lead the other to new places with the expectation the other would naturally follow. That happened without fail. It got to the point for us that imagining an existence without one another was impossible.
I can not understate how much easier it was to live here after she entered my life. Darkness is always around here, creeping inside me whether I liked it or not, and I slept restlessly every night because of it. Like, who could sleep peacefully when consumed by fears of a strong being coming across your body and tearing you apart? Much less when you had nightmares of such thoughts? A period of sleep was an impossible dream in this land.
Or it was.
With her by my side, the nightmares vanished. Had no place, really. We would take turns on guard. It was still scary to sleep, as half the time I would either wake her or be woken by her, and then a terrifying escape from some drooling monster would begin. Dreams of being devoured by her then filled my rest, after I would fall to that etched image in my mind of her standing defiant. Yet, that did not bother me. I would never have blamed her if she chose to strengthen herself on my flesh. I was troubled only by the dreams when it was I biting into her familiar warmth.
At times I would wonder what sort of dreams she had. Were they filled of the similar sort? Of her past, as I was prone to on rare occasions? Probably, I had assumed.
With her powers added to my own, food became a non-issue for us. Unsuspecting prey fell to our superior numbers. We had an unfair advantage by breaking the rules of the world. In the beginning, we could only consume the weak. Yet, we got a continual supply and never hungered again, unlike so many living here. We became stronger and stronger, together. Our bodies grew to match these developments. My muscles expanded as I sprouted to new heights. She was never tall, always small, but that worked to our advantage as many were tricked by the hidden power in her increasingly well-toned body. It was beautiful how deadly that made her, I thought.
I was unsure when we gained the masks that covered our faces as we ascended the ranks, yet those masks were a perfect representation of the covered shrouds our existences were. Because, while, on the surface, we did break the rules of Hueco Mundo--I learned the name of this place in our travels--by joining forces, that idea is a misnomer since it was wrong to believe the darkness contained any such thing as a law. Furthermore, we were still subjected to the cruel mirror as much as we reflected each other to new heights; we never attacked the other but we were as stunningly brutal as the land when we descended upon the hunted. We changed each other so much, but there was a core of the other that could not be touched.
As an invisible boundary separates your world from its reflection. You can see the illusion presented on the other side mirror but can never cross into it so long as that barrier existed. That was true for us and it held us back, though we would never admit it.
Because there was a way to eliminate the wall, only we avoided it since we were happy to be as we were. We kept dancing around the issue as long as we could.
We were too entranced by the reflections we saw in the other.
Time passed.
Underneath the pale luminescence of the moon, clear black skies stretched into the eternity of the horizon. A horizon appeared further away than it should be, thanks to the great, flat plains of Hueco Mundo. Bare trees sparsely populated the land and, while they existed somewhere, no mountains or any rise in the land could be seen from where we stood. You might have expected it to be dark here--and it was, more than anywhere else at all times--but a strange, ephemeral light emanated from the sand below our feet. Enough light for our sharp eyes to work. More than enough for any moving shape in the distance to be spotted.
That's what we were doing then, by the way. Waiting. Just waiting. Waiting for our prey.
It was what we did to start every day. It had become a tradition, if you will. The reasons behind it, why we began, none of that mattered at the moment. Our kind didn't care about the past too much, preferring to not look behind, and we were far more concerned with the future, what would be.
Which, for me and her, was always the most succulent of feasts. That was our reward for being together so long.
And, that day, it looked like we would be hunting for top meat. Excellent. Silently, I nodded to my partner, then pointed to a speck too far away for normal human eyes to see. She understood immediately and was soon licking a trail of saliva from the tip of her lovely mouth. I could readily sympathize. But enough of that!
No words were necessary. We both knew the plan by heart and had developed an uncanny skill to react to the other's improvising. So, with preparations already complete, we vanished from our spot on the plain and split in two, like a bolt of lightning.
The unfortunate denizen was beyond regular sight, but the gap disappeared in an instant. Up close, I saw my, as well as her, estimation of its virility was accurate. The creature was massive, bigger than both those monsters I ran from so long ago. Powered by impressive muscles with multiple layers; of particular note were its mammoth arms suitable for a devil. However, beneath those muscles, a hint of scrumptious flesh could be detected for those willing to take a risk. And what a risk it was. Far larger than I it was, and probably many times stronger, too. Its teeth and claws looked sharper than mine. Not to mention its skin appeared almost too tough for me or her to penetrate. Furthermore, it had a giant mask covering a large skull, suggesting great intelligence, so it was no fool of a beast. A wild mane of curly back hair hang from behind the mask. Truly, it was a being with no major weaknesses.
...Except, it chose the mistake of living alone like everyone else did save for us.
Deciding a frontal assault would be suicidal, I stealthily approached the creature from the rear, faster than sound, and landed a clean blow on its neck with a powerful kick. One intended to stun for this one would not die so easily. Naturally, this meant it realized my presence and it reacted by shaking its head with such force that I was sent flying.
I hit the ground painfully and my right leg crunched noisily as one of my bones broke in two. I paid no attention to the grave injury, for it would regenerate once I fed, and making certain we got our meal was more important than the pain. Besides, I've had worse.
No time to think, though.
Quicker than it would seem able, the beast chased after me with a mouth ready to devour. Really, I should have died then, like so many other times in my life. But...the demon was hurt from my earlier attack and its co-ordination was thrown off. Meaning it missed me, of all things, and ran beside me.
I admit, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I took advantage of the opportunity and put all my strength into my right arm to trip the prey. Turned out I had to use all my power since tangling my arm in its legs nearly resulted in the limb getting torn off. I bit back the scream threatening to escape after my shoulder became dislocated.
Meanwhile, the prey was in the air and heading downward fast. The earth shook and dust flew up in the air upon its impact. A cry of agony followed, but that wasn't my concern. No, the only thing that caught my fancy was the fact it landed on its back and the inside of its throat was left unprotected. Not that I could have moved over there and attack the front of its neck.
Well, I couldn't but she could.
Instantly, she came from nowhere and fell upon it. Her fangs sank into its throat, provoking more screams from our prey, but our meal was quickly silenced as she pulled her back and ripped apart both its vocal chords and windpipe. Bright crimson erupted. Just like that, the powerful beast went still and perished.
And she howled in victory. And I joined in. Our bodies were electric, the heat of battle suddenly making itself known in the form of our ecstatic cries now that we were safe. For the time being.
Eventually, our howls stopped and she came over, blood dripping beautifully from her jaw, to help me to our breakfast. Seeing as how my part of the hunt was the most dangerous and crucial, not to mention I needed the energy more to recover my body, I was allowed the first bite.
I grinned at her. She did the same to me.
Then I dug into the formidable monster with reckless abandon. Shortly after, she too was consuming it and soon we picked it apart to the bone.
Another morning. Another crushing success for us.
"Ichigo," she addressed me calmly afterward, her voice a sharp contrast to her frenzied howling. Only the fresh, red stains turning brown on her ratty clothing gave away her--rather, our--earlier deed.
We sat beside a fire, then. Lighting fires was extremely dangerous in this world, as warmth was a commodity desired by all and attracted too much unwanted attention. It was a testament to our strength and growth then that we could afford the risk.
The warmth was well-deserved after our efforts, but, although I said nothing, I thought seeing the light of the flames dance around her mask was even more valuable than the heat.
Between picking meat out from between my fangs, I answered. "Yeah?" Mainly since it was expected of me to respond this way. I already knew what she would ask.
"Do you think this is enough now?"
"No." My reply was immediate. Practiced. "We still haven't ascended into the highest ranks. We need more souls." And I still wanted to be this way.
"How many more, though? We could take on most Shinigami. Especially if we fight as we have been."
Shinigami...those heartless bastards. Always, they came to our land in waves with the intention of wiping us all out. Always, they were thrown out by our kind...but not without losses. The black-clothed judges were immensely frightening, as a result. Personally, I hated them. I may have worn a mask on my face, but at least I didn't pretend I wasn't covering my self from the world. Unlike the Shinigami, which enjoyed killing as much as me but acted as though they were performing justice!
"Most Shinigami, yes. But we would be annihilated if we came across any of their Captains. You know this, Rukia."
Here it comes. That impossible suggestion.
"Then, perhaps we should speed up our growth, Ichigo." I expected it, really, but it still disturbed me to hear it. Even though half the time our roles in this play were reversed and I was the one who spoke these deadly thoughts.
You see, Rukia and I were evolving slowly since we shared our meals. Half a soul was only a quarter as nourishing as a full one, so we needed to eat four times as many fiends to reach the next level in our development. In the beginning, this didn't matter much because there are countless nobodies in Hueco Mundo. Only did this become a problem once we grew stronger and the prey we needed matched the rise in our power. Unfortunately, the top of the food chain did not have as much leg room as the bottom.
Breaking the mirror would speed our growth considerably.
Back to the conversation, I shook my head in disagreement. "No, Rukia, we don't need to do that yet. One more day will be enough. Wait and see."
"All right. One more will be fine," she conceded. Well, both of us didn't want to take the risk so it was to be expected. Then, not so expectedly, she brought herself right next to me and leaned her head against my shoulder. "By the way, Ichigo, you were magnificent today," the compliment came out smoother than silk, making me feel like forgetting reason and taking her right then and now. "Being so determined that you could ignore a broken leg, I loved every second of it."
"Nonsense," I dismissed her praise. If I was so great, I wouldn't have even broken the leg. "You should have seen yourself." Now that had been a sight to send a shiver down the spine and quicken the pulse. "The way you wasted no motions going for the finish was spectacular, Rukia."
She affectionately grabbed my arm so tightly her sharp nails drew blood.
To be honest, I was surprised we hadn't destroyed the barrier by then.
The next day, we waited in the black desert once more. As always.
"...Nothing," I spat out in disgust and kicked the ground.
Rukia turned to scowl at me, her mask causing the expression to be positively horrifying...and oddly hypnotic. We had a rule about not talking in the desert plains. Thing about Hueco Mundo was, everybody had excellent hearing. Simply breathing too loudly could ruin a day's game, we had learned too often. We knew from personal experience from when we were the ones running away from strange noises. What I did there went far beyond being too loud.
Well, so what? I was too goddamn right. Nothing. There was not a single organism for us to prey upon, not even worthless, powerless scum. Of course, this fact did nothing to cool Rukia's temper.
"Come on, let's go," I put my back to her and headed for...hell, anywhere, so long as it wasn't right there.
However, a certain somebody wasn't joining me.
Behind me, she gasped lightly. Huh? That wasn't like her to be surprised. She didn't bat an eyelash when doom fell towards her. "Ichigo..." she called my name intently. Not only shocked but breaking the code? "Quick, look!"
Then she tugged on my shoulder to force me to see a refraction in reality.
My eyes widened.
A Shinigami. The greatest hunt of all had walked right through our doorstep. It only took me about a second for me to meet Rukia's gaze with a devious grin to mirror hers.
And here I had thought we wouldn't find anything worth killing that day.
"Monster! Show yourself!"
He had detected my presence well faster than I anticipated. Those reapers of souls might actually end up being as good as advertised, I figured. But we would see about that.
Nonchalant, I closed the great distance between us in an instant.
"Yo," I greeted the man, whose face scrunched in disgust in response.
Well, he looked like a typical Shinigami to me. Black clothing. Weird contraptions on his feet. Sword. Self-righteous bearing. Conceited. Plus, he had a stink about him that could only belong to a filthy Shinigami. Any Hollow who made contact with them could never forget their horrid scent. Yeah, he was pretty typical, save that one thing. I felt like asking him about that.
"Do not speak so casual with me, Hollow. You have no right."
He was not exactly the friendliest of types, was he? I don't think the sheer hatred he felt towards me could have been more obvious. Ah, not to say I didn't reciprocate those feelings three times over. Still, he could have at least attempted to hide it, like I did.
Damn, he pissed me off.
But I smiled. "Sorry." Oh, I really smiled. "Guess no one ever taught me not to talk to my food." Big time smiled.
"Why you...?!" He snarled, already pulling out his blade.
Wow, that had been easy.
The Shinigami prepared to lunge towards me.
"Wait!" I put up a claw to halt him. "Before we fight, there's something I have to know..."
"You're a fool if you expect me to tell you anything."
Who said I had? "It's about that weird thing on your face." Seriously, though, I didn't get what it was. "Is it supposed to be a mask or something?"
And he actually growled. "These?!" He pointed to what I called the weird thing on his face. "They're sunglasses! Don't you idiotic Hollows know what those are?! If nothing else, you should know of them from your past lives!"
We preferred not to look back to the past.
But "Whatever," I shrugged. That was enough delaying. "Come on," I provoked the dark-skinned Shinigami. "If you wish for me to kill you, you can charge at me any time."
"Bastard!" he yelled, then proceeded to charge at me.
What an idiot he was. It wouldn't be very fun for me if he insisted on being so stupid, in my mind then.
Yet, a fight was a fight and I was going to enjoy it. It really wasn't very often that Shinigami came around these parts and you had to take advantage of these opportunities. So I was going to do just that.
Except...
Right before he swung his blade down, a hand burst through the center of his chest, spraying me with a wave of blood. The Shinigami's body spasmed, only to be stilled when the hand coldly twisted itself.
"Fool," judged Rukia heartlessly from behind the man's corpse.
How could she have done that?! I had been planning on taking my time and enjoying every second I destroyed that guy.
"I know," I agreed, but I was mad. "But why did you-"
"Not him, you!" Rukia rudely interrupted. "What kind of a line was that?!" She then lowered her voice and did an impression of me. "'Guess no one ever told me not to talk to my food.' Pathetic!" she denounced.
Hey!
"I thought it was pretty smart," I defended myself briefly, before returning to the topic I cared about. "Anyways, why did you go and kill him on me?!"
She pulled her fist out of the Shinigami and tossed him to the ground in a heap before answering me. "You were taking too long, Ichigo. Again."
"Big deal. I let you talk as much as you want before you fight." Most of the time I did. Sometimes. Maybe once or twice.
She rolled her eyes and bent down to rip an arm off our defeated adversary. The right arm, too. My favorite. "Tell you...what," she offered, taking a bite out of the arm with a loud crunch. "Next time...you can ...finish the Shinigami."
"Yeah, but when will that be?" I settled for his left leg. "You know these guys don't come along every day."
"That so?" she talked with her mouth full. "I thought...they...hunted in...in packs..." The roughly chewed flesh of the Shinigami fell out of her mouth and Rukia's jaw dropped.
No wonder.
Black, starlit portals manifested themselves in the air and a whole Shinigami unit suddenly surrounded the two of us. Furthermore, none looked happy.
"By mercy! Look what they've done to Tousen!"
Gasps.
"Are they...eating...him?!"
Screams.
"Disgusting monsters!"
Accusations.
"Wipe them all out!"
Threats.
"I think I'm going to have nightmares from this..."
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! That was all I could think. Like, there had to have been over two dozen of them. We could not handle this many. Not unless we did something desperate. But that would have meant...
Fuck!
The Shinigami continued to talk amongst themselves. Luckily, it seemed our actions scared them enough that none rushed at us. That bought us crucial time to talk.
"Ichigo," she addressed me calmly in the eye of the storm. Only my name but it spoke volumes. Shit, neither of us wanted that.
But...we had no choice. We didn't change each other's worlds fast enough.
Our voice became one.
"Should we?"
Finally, the question was asked.
And, simultaneously, we answered.
"Yes."
A mirror cracked.
Our enemies vanished.
We were in our own world then. Not even a thousand Shinigami could interrupt the moment between us. Certainly not two dozen or so.
At the same time, we moved so as to be facing the other. Our eyes took in everything of each other anew. For countless decades, we'd seen the other every day but never like that. My heart went wild with excitement and fear battling inside every vein in my body. Scorching hot, my breathe came out. She felt exactly the same, too, I could tell from the breathe being exhaled from her and mingling with my own.
To me, she looked gorgeous in that instant. Those dirtied and bloodied rags she wore did a poor job of hiding any of her curves; always had. Her hips and the swell of her breasts were heavily distracting to me. From the knees down to her bare feet, her pale, soft, yet toned, skin entranced me. Her black and white mask covering the top half of her face, with its crescent pattern, appeared fantastic to me, but not so much as the blueish-red orbs behind the wide slits in the middle of the mask. Or the visible, white complexion contrasted by bright red lips. I had wanted those lips for so long.
And she had desired mine. I knew that even without the any possible doubt being dispelled by the rapt gaze she cast on them.
Closer, closer, we moved to one another. Slowly, because neither of us wanted it to be less than perfect, after waiting so long. Closer, closer, though we couldn't really get any closer without bumping noses by now. I tasted her breathe in me. Was no longer sure whether my lungs worked or if she was doing the job for me. The thought had sent my pulse off to the races. We were giving up our individual barriers, and I felt both empowered and protected by this new level of trust
I saw every detail of her, because she allowed me to, and found no flaws.
...Wait, something had been wrong with Rukia's face. My heart jumped in furious protest. Some blood still remained on her from that dirty Shinigami. How dare he foul her like that! Enraged, I felt helpless against this impurity since I could not act against it. It belonged on the other side of the mirror...
But then I remembered that I could do something.
Daringly, I let my tongue leave the confines of my mouth and it couldn't make it to her chin fast enough, as far as I was concerned, although it took less than one of my rapid heartbeats. We both gasped when the tip made first contact. She had tasted better than I ever imagined.
Then I had tenderly, if possessively, rubbed my tongue around her mouth repeatedly, each lick leaving a slick and hot trail that glistened, until I had successfully removed all the offending crimson from her features. No, that was wrong. I didn't stop there. Even with my purpose gone, I couldn't take myself away from her and continued to caress the bottom of her face with my tongue.
Likely, I would have continued to do this forever if she hadn't reminded me of her needs by licking my own face lightly. My tongue paused as a cold wave of pleasure matched the gentle brush she gave me. How foolish of me to forget that. I wasn't the only dirty one.
Each wet, lap against my skin sent me to new levels of excitement. Probably, she could have worshiped me for eternity, as I would for her, and I found it difficult to imagine a better way to spend the rest of my days. Nonetheless, I could dream of greener pastures, so I resumed my tongue's activity.
Together, we licked and sucked every impurity off the other. I held her by the shoulder, and she had embraced me. We weren't certain when we had grabbed each other but we weren't letting go again. Voices of disgust could be heard in the distance. They would never reach our ears, though, lost as we became in the other.
Abruptly, it was destined to happen, our tongues collided.
I went insane inside and tackled this new development with unrestrained enthusiasm. Of course, she reflected my emotions exactly and our tongues rolled and twisted in a fierce struggle for dominance. A very even match. It was a draw.
Really. Somehow, we drew ourselves closer to each other and soon my lips were were on hers, and hers were on mine. I lost sight of the world then, so I'm not sure how she looked. Lost track of time, too. Our tongues were still locked and we continued to kiss passionately but I could not tell for how long.
Again, a mutual desire for more kept us going further. Having gotten that far, we knew we couldn't go back. Only forward.
Around this time, it was, I believe, when my arousal extended beyond my mouth. Not letting my mouth's efforts let up, I began using my hands to feel, explore, her body. All the way to her very soul. Every place I was curious about, I felt them through her thin fabric; her shoulders, the curve of her neck and shoulders, her breasts, her nipples, her hips, the inside of her thighs. I brought moans out of her, which I was proud of. My touch was electric. And, yes, she was doing the same to me, and I wasn't exactly quiet, either.
More than ever before, our souls gained proximity. Right now, everything in our bodies belonged to our partner, down to the last drop of sweat. It was euphoric.
It was time to consummate this ritual. No looking back.
Our lips parted long enough for our individual fangs to sink deeply into a part of the other's flesh. Rukia's life filled my mouth and I devoured it in rapture, while she fiercely took my life from me. Pain hit me two-fold, both from my own neck where she bit me and I could also feel her agony from where I was biting into her. That exhilarated me more than ever.
Somebody screamed.
Not me. Or Rukia. We were ecstatic, went frenzied, each mouthful of the other tasted better than the last. We swallowed without chewing, rushing as fast as we could then to become one. I ripped her ear off. She chomped off two of my fingers. We greedily used each other's spilled blood to make the tissues go down easier. Each bite, we lost more of ourselves, but gained more of the other. We gorged our very beings on this chaotic feast.
We feasted, and feasted, and feasted and I began to forget who I was. Who Rukia was. What pain felt like. More and more of my personality was lost but the ravenous hunger for the person in front of me, inside of me, never abated.
Until, eventually, there was no more to eat and we were inseparable. We became a higher form of existence.
We opened our eyes and stared out to see a handful of Shinigami. Hadn't there been more than that? No matter. They were our enemy. We knew that. Before, they seemed frightening in their high numbers, but now they looked insignificant. And juicy.
Of course, we were still very hungry. More than ever because of the energy it had taken for us to achieve the impossible.
The mirror between us was shattered and two reflections had become one.