Disclaimer: I didn't steal anything from Kubo, so don't steal from me.

Please pardon my long silence, but I've been busy with other things. Also, please forgive use of garbled Roman characters in the context of the strange language. It was originally done with wingdings, but this site doesn't like that kind of formatting

Also. please don't confuse grunting and/or other onamatopeia with the different language, if you can help it.

This will be the last installment of this story. But not because the story is over, not by a long shot! This is merely an organizational thing. Look forward to Chapter 14, which will be presented as Chapter 1 of my new story MoaP: [insert appropriate subtitle here].

Chapter 13: Blind Watcher

Inoue Orihime was officially bored. It had been over a week since she had escaped Hueco Mundo, and the entirety of the time since then had been spent being sequestered in a particular wing of a castle of which she had not even seen the exterior. She had wanted to walk around, but she was strongly advised not to leave the room, except if somebody forgot to bring her food or water.

She had not seen the Spirit King for five days. He had shown up after she had awakened for the first time after the battle to see how she was doing, but even then only stayed for a couple minutes. The next day or two ( she had trouble keeping track of time since there was no natural light and no time-keeping devices to be spoken of) saw him visit a couple more times, if only to poke his head in for a few seconds to verify she was still there. After that he had stopped coming altogether. His subordinate, who she learned was called Ishizu-san, still visited several times a day, but appeared timid in front of her (for some reason) to the extent that having an intelligent conversation was all but impossible.

To the defence of the castle staff, she had been well-accommodated in regards to food, beverages, and all manner of entertainment, from various games to live performers. She had enjoyed it all, but nothing could indefinitely forestall the aching feeling of cabin fever she was now suffering through.

Which was why she was now lost in the darkened halls of the castle.

She had resolved to leave her room and explore the castle once she was sure nobody was outside her room. She had managed to make it a fair distance, but she had yet to see an exit. As she walked she noticed it getting darker and darker, and she soon realized she was getting close to the night sky. Eager to see natural scenery, she hurried towards it but had lost sight of it just as quickly as it had come.

And now here she was, unable to find the moonlight or the way back to her room and, since it was night, there was no one to ask for help either. She knew, of course, her own limitations in regards to orienteering, but had severely underestimated the enormity of the structure in which she was confined when she had been imagining the scenario earlier.

As she pondered and worried, she continued walking, then turned another corner, only to come to face a magnificently adorned wooden door. She thought it looked somewhat imposing. Its unique appearance, however, lent itself to hope, as she had had poor luck with the myriad identical doors lining the halls she had stumbled through, all of which were locked (excluding perhaps her own, but she had no idea where it was). She walked forward, holding this small ember in her heart yet fully expecting the door to stay firmly closed when she pulled, and grasped the gilt handles.

The door opened rather easily, but she did not notice immediately, being at that moment completely entranced by the sight before her.

It could either have been described as a very wild garden or a somewhat manicured forest. The trees all looked as if they had been nice little bonsai that had somehow been enlarged a hundred fold, their proportions preserved, yet now dwarfing the human frame, and forming a tangled canopy of branches starting several feet above her head. As she took in the rare vision before her, she thought to herself, 'maybe my luck is changing.'

She walked into the forest, entranced, not bothering to notice the fact that it occupied more than a tsubo of land and was a potential labyrinth for her to become hopelessly lost in. There was, however, a nice little lantern-lined path among the twisted trees that took her somewhat deep inside. As she walked, she noticed that the ground was very sparse, there being no low growth to speak of; no bushes, no flowers, not even grass. The ground was, however, covered in small colourful stones, which appeared to have been polished before being distributed carefully between the trunks. Certainly, she thought, this was someone's idea of a garden, as it appeared much too artificial to have occurred naturally.

The path terminated abruptly after meandering from the entrance, and as she turned the final corner she once more witnessed a scene so surprising it had completely erased the events thus far in the night from her mind.

As she processed the sight before her, she realized that this must be the center of the garden, simply because of the neat geometry shown to her. Before her laid an endless sprawling field of flowers; she noticed her favourites immediately, as well as many equally impressive specimens she had never seen before, but instantly came to favour. They were laid out in square plots, with paths dividing them in a grid. The paths were lined with nice fences, or vine-laden trellises, or other aesthetically pleasing decorations, all done in a style reminiscent of both an English country garden and a traditional Japanese one.

She continued walking, consciously making her way closer and closer to the center of this sequence of concentric squares. As she went along, she noticed many insects on the flowers, akin to bees and dragonflies. The closer she looked, though, the stranger they appeared. Although similar to the insects she was familiar with, there was something different and more…colourful, about them. Perhaps if she had thought more critically, she might have noticed that such gaudy and flashy, somewhat iridescent colouring would be impractical for any naturally occurring animal to possess.

Finally, she reached the center of the garden. The sight impressed her, but after so many consecutive surprises she had been expecting an unusual scene.

In the plaza at the very center of the garden stood a white gazebo, which enclosed a wide area, perhaps larger than her own apartment. The structure cast a large shadow underneath it, appreciable even with the small amount of light available at night. The darkness was broken by a blinding light; a floor lamp stood near the centre of the structure, illuminating a strange figure. It was an old man; sitting in a rocking chair, a blanket covering his legs, and his head slumped into his chest; he appeared to the girl to be sleeping.

Sleeping or not, she was frustrated and tired, and he was the first person she had seen in the two hours she had been wandering.

"Ummm…excuse me, sir?" she said in a rather loud voice.

"Zzzz...mmkhxfureh, Wha…" the man spluttered as he woke up suddenly, surprised.

His head lifted from his chest, and he caught his breath before addressing her.

"Oh, you startled me, young lady. Come closer and tell me what you're doing up and about at this late hour."

As she walked towards him, she noticed his strange garments. His torso and legs were completely covered, but what there was from his neck up was enough to intrigue her. He wore a strange cylindrical hat, which seemed quite stiff to her. He had a rugged white beard of about a foot in length and wore a pitch black mask over his eyes, presumably to help him sleep.

"Hmmm... I don't think we've met before; are you a new maid?"

Somewhat perturbed by his playful tone of voice, she responded, "No sir, my name is Inoue Orihime, and I'm..."

The old man interrupted her by smacking his fist into his palm. "Ohh... right! You're that – what did he call it? – flower girl." He seemed quite pleased to have remembered this.

"Umm... I'm not quite sure what you mean, sir. I don't have any flowers for sale if that's what you..."

"No no no," he shook his head seemed quite angry at having been misunderstood, "I mean you use flower, uhhh - spirits, and such – to, umm...engage your enemies with."

In spite of the stuttering and pausing, which she ignored due to his age, she fully understood him this time and smiled back, "Oh! You mean my Shun Shun Rikka. Yeah, that's me."

"I see. It's refreshing to see a free-spirited young girl such as yourself – errr, I mean, it's more fun – since everyone is ... more......business-like, if you know what I mean. Well that's if anyone bothers to have an, umm... serious conversation with me nowadays. Sometimes I don't even see them when they bring me my food, you know... because my... err...perception has waned somewhat over the years," he laughs, "Well that doesn't matter much if they bring it when I'm sleeping, which is a lot recently; you know, you're quite lucky to be able to wander around all night and not collapse from exhaustion. Ahhh, youth! Well the ummm...young master doesn't come around here so often anymore, what with his big – what do you call it... - campaign coming up. But I can still fill up the hours of my days reading, or else I'll get one of those young, errr... whippersnappers to bring my wheelchair so I can ride around the garden; but the flowers and the little critters that run around here aren't really, ummm... good company in my opinion, you know; Yemakhay would've enjoyed this..."

He trailed off, apparently lost in reminiscence. Throughout his monologue, Orihime had been opening and closing her mouth like a fish, trying to get a word in. At last she had her chance.

"Umm... sir? I don't mean to disturb you, but..."

He cut her off once more, "Hmmmm... What? Oh yes, the flower girl! That reminds me, what are you doing here at this hour; can I help you with something?"

"Yes! If you don't mind, I was wondering if you could show me back to my room."

"Hmm... which room would that be?"

Orihime recoiled in shock. 'That's right all the rooms are identical!'

"Ummm... I'm not sure... is there some sort of standard guest room that you know of?"

He brought a wizened hand up to his beard and stroked it slowly. "Well if you don't know, I can think of a couple of places in this wing we could check, but as you can see I don't have my wheelchair with me at the moment...and I can't really do without it, you know. I haven't been –how should I say it – 'all there' for years now."

He raised the bottom of the blanket covering his lower body. Suffice it to say Orihime was more than slightly shocked when she saw that both of his legs were missing from the knee down.

"Oh my, how awful! How did that happen?" she stopped abruptly and covered her mouth with her hand. Afraid she had been rude, she amended, "...if you don't mind me asking."

"Punishment, you know. Things weren't always this tranquil around here. When the queen died – rest her soul- all those years ago, the state was in an uproar. Although it was for the good of the people, I am ashamed to say I, errr... banded together, somewhat, with the powerful revolutionary party. There was really no way, ummm.... around it, you see, with the young master still an infant to, errr... form an opposing party. Still the new king was a somewhat, ummm... cruel and ill-tempered man to say the least, so he wanted to – how do you say it - put anyone who had been loyal to the previous ruler in their places, so to say. Most just got, errr... beaten or lashed, but top officials such as myself, those who would not relent until the end in our attempts at moderation, had... slightly more severe things done to them. As far as I know, I got the worst of it, with my legs and eyes being taken, you know."

"What! Your eyes?!"

"Hmmm... oh yes. The legs were more of an afterthought, really. He dearly wanted my eyes, you know. Goes back to some issues he had with his father, you see."

"So that mask... I mean, ummm - you're... blind?"

"Oh yes. Pitch-black darkness. I can't see anything - in the, errr... conventional sense. But I can still 'see' more than most blind people. For example," He furrowed his brow, as if squinting.

"Hmm... you're about, what 18 years old? You're eyes... yes, a nice pale colour and...pure – yes, very nice. Your hair is, ummm... red? Don't worry I won't hold it against you, miss. And your body, it's quite... oh my... I see that..."

"Szghrioahshdfklbkxlclasd!"

A garbled, hissing, coarse noise assaulted her ears, interrupting the old man. They both turned to look at the source of the noise.

The old man laughed as he saw him coming, presumably in response to what the he had just heard.

"Ah, Bnamsjdfksjka blkakjsdfnnb alks dslkjsdfkjsg lkjsfgjlkghlkhs lkshjdgflkhl lksdglkhl lskhdgkh aksdj aknhskgash kafs?" greeted the elder of the two men. What surprised Orihime the most was that he said all of this in this complicated tongue without pausing, even a little. Being a clever girl, it quickly occurred to her that he must have just learned Japanese, even to such a high level, only recently; this was apparently the mother-tongue of the blatantly foreign-looking men in front of her.

"Keh, Varoisuodisjdbb." With that, the Spirit King turned to her, "are you ready to get back to your room, Orihime?"

She nodded her consent, and he held a hand to assist her in rising from her seat on the ground she had taken at the start of the old man's long speech. She noticed he was wearing different clothes than she had seen him in before. Every other time she had seen him, he had been dressed in either school clothes or his ceremonial hakama that she assumed to be the traditional garb of the Spirit King. The clothes he wore now were instead reminiscent of the castle staff and, that which she had most recently seen, the old man's hat.

"See you later, young master, and Zasdfjkhkjghsjdbjlkjs!"

The spirit king shook his head and turned around to lead the pair back.

He was unusually quiet on the way back, so Orihime decided to break the silence, to see whether or not he was angry at her for wandering around.

"So, ummm... that language you were speaking earlier... I was wondering...what did you say that he found so funny?"

He turn slightly to regard her, then inclined his head and turned away so that she could not see his face at all. Terrified that she had somehow made him more angry at her, she opened her mouth, preparing to speak again, when the response came, stifled and forced.

"I said... I was telling him 'not to... undress you with his empty eye-sockets'."

To say that she was startled would be an understatement. She closed her mouth and almost tripped over her own feet as her pace shortened drastically in response. As she recovered from the initial surprise, she slowly closed her mouth, and as she did, the ends began to curl up unbidden. As she smiled to herself and resumed walking closely behind him, she thought 'Well, that was surprising. I wouldn't have imagined him saying something like that to me. But for some reason, it makes me happy too..."

After a little while he slowed down.

"This is your room. Try not to get lost in the future."

She looked quite abashed, "Errr...yeah, sorry about that, ha ha ha..."

An awkward silence ensued. After several moments, he realized she was hesitant to enter her room.

"Did you still want something?"

"Oh! Well it's just... it's nice to be able to joke about it, but... what happened to that old man is really horrible, isn't it?

"To Shimon, you mean?"

"I don't know he never told me his name..."

"That old geezer..." he clenched his fist. "Well, yes, he was crippled - in a way – but he remains functional. I'm sure from what he told you that you know that those times were rough on everyone, and he's very ... aware of that to this day."

He opened the door for her, "Now, good night."

She didn't have time to say a word before he had left. 'Is it my imagination or did he leave rather abruptly."

She lay down in her bed and turned off the light, but did not fall asleep right away. She pondered his words for a little while before giving up and falling asleep. She did not know it at the time, but it would be weeks from then, not that same night, until she was able to comprehend the meaning of the words he hadn't spoken.

Hope everyone (is there anyone here?) enjoyed that as much as I did. Thanks for reading and please, take 1 minute and review. I mean c'mon, seriously. Or fave... either one's like a gold star to me.

P.S. I didn't do a second proof-read, so feel free to point out any typos.