Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm so so sorry this is late! I've been taking final exams and getting ready for a trip overseas to a University I'm thinking of attending. The University, by the way, was amazing! Everyone was brilliant! So friendly! But I've been sadly busy for the past month getting ready for the end of the year exams in maths, and it's been horrible. But here I am, apologizing again. This fic is far from dead, I promise, I enjoy writing it so much I could never let it go. This chapter is from a very different perspective, and I'm taking a few creative licenses here, but let's just go with it. I want to thank all of you who have reviewed or messaged me or commented on this story, you don't even know how brilliant you all are.
Disclaimer: I own nothing here but my own brain. And sometimes I wonder about that too.
12.
Memory
The sun beats down from the too-blue sky and makes the sand shimmer underneath your feet. You stare down at your worst enemy, the man who has made it his mission to make your life a living hell, the man who tortured your friends and dealt you an underhanded blow from behind, reducing you to a mere child, a whimpering, cowering, pathetic shell of your former self.
Your gut twists, and your fingers clench around your lance. Your mind screams at you, tells you to stab the thin bastard through the heart and be done with it. Justice must be had, for his past crimes, and what he has done to Ichigo and his sweet little friend. The two humans are so young… so innocent despite what they have seen, and so very kind hearted. They do not deserve to suffer as much as they have. This man, lying beaten and bloody in front of you, deserves to die.
But as you stand here, poised over him, ready to wipe his existence from the earth, and you find your hand will not move. He looks up at you with one eye, and for once you can't tell what he's thinking. You've always been able to read him better than anyone, except during the times that it really mattered. Even now, it isn't as though he's the sort to beg for his life, you know that. You should just kill him Just cut off his head and be done with it. It will make everything easier.
But you can't. You look at him, and you see another Nnoitra. A Nnoitra from long ago. You see him as he used to be. Carefree, awkward, mischievous... you see him not as Hollow, as a bloodthirsty Espada, but as he used to be. As a human being with too long hair and a bean pole body. You see your best friend. He looks up at you in the here and now, blood spattered across his face, bruises flowering on his pale skin, and you see that look in his eyes that he always has when he looks at you. A confused, searching look, as though he is trying to remember you - but can't. And you think that this is the reason why he has always hated you. And you wish that he would remember like you do, remember back to the times you had together in the human world, before the accident. Remember how happy you both were together.
But he can't. You can. And that's why, standing over him with your lance poised, you hesitate to strike the final blow. Out of the corner of your eyes, you can see Orihime rushing to help Ichigo, see the love and concern on her face, and the corners of your mouth turn up in a sad, bitter smile. They remind you of another two young humans that you used to know. A long time ago.
"Goodbye, old friend."
You say softly, and the lance goes hurtling towards his heart. Then it happens. You begin to shrink, to revert back to your childish self. You scream in despair, but inside, you are happy. Because you wouldn't have done it. The lance wouldn't have pierced his heart. You know this. Nnoitra can't die until he's remembered you, remembered why every-time he looks at you there is a strange sense of familiarity.
You wish you could just kill him. It would make everything easier.
Even when the bonds of friendship and love are broken
Drifting threads remain
To haunt me in my sleeping hours
And in my waking ones.
Well, there it is! R&R please, if you love me. Sorry once again about the delay.