Hey everyone! How have you been? Nightmares is back (however disturbing that sounds)! I didn't update yesterday because I didn't know what was wrong with my computer... ._. But! The internet connection has been fixed so all is well in the world.
Japan was fabulous by the way. :D
I will start a dedication every chapter, because I think people deserve it. So, the very first dedication goes to: chiharuSAICHI. This little lady was the first one to insist that I continue Dreams.
DICLAIMER GOES HERE. If I owned Bleach, I would be more creative for Isshin's zanpaku-tou.
The sky was dark, and he was running as fast as he could. Yet he felt lighter than ever. His breath came in short pants, and he kept one hand to his side. It was trying to stem the flow of an injury he had somehow received.
Footsteps chased him; they sounded heavy, like a man's. Why am I being chased? he thought, daring to glance past him.
It was the blond American he had seen only once before, years ago. He appeared older now, and he held a knife in his hand. "You can't run forever Karin!" the man shouted.
Karin? He looked over himself and found that he was, in fact, Karin. I guess if she can be me, I can be her, he concluded. It did explain why he felt lighter in his body. "Never!" he shouted back. Toushirou forced his legs to move faster, to get away from the knife and to the safety of Karin's home—which couldn't have been far. He took a sharp turn, trailing blood behind him; leaped over a wall—I remember teaching her how to do that—and dashed across a yard to a side street. There he skidded to a halt.
Sam—he remembered the name—stood there, a malicious smile on his face. "Now, Karin, if I don't get what I want then I'll have to take drastic measures."
Toushirou backed away from the advancing man. "I'll die before you so much as touch me!" her voice screeched. Her pressure gathered in her feet and Toushirou kicked him. The man was sent flying into the street, cursing.
Toushirou was then out of her body, standing next to her. Karin turned, thinking that the man was unconscious. "You'd better get to the clinic," Toushirou advised, though he knew she couldn't hear him. "That wound could get much worse."
Unfortunately, it did. Sam was not unconscious—yet—but he had enough strength in him to hurl the knife. Karin turned at the last moment to watch the knife impale her stomach and knock her to the ground. She gasped, and her breaths became shorter than before.
"NO!" Toushirou screamed, trying to pick her up. "No, Karin! Get up! You have to get home, you have to get help, there must be someone—" He looked up to see an eagle looking pitifully at the young woman. It was her eagle.
There was one person who had to hear him. "YUZU!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, hoping that this was a nightmare and not a vision.
—x—
Yuzu tumbled out of bed, the remnants of her dream pierced by a scream. Someone had screamed her name, of that she was sure. Wide awake because of that scream, she hastily pulled on some shorts under her nightgown and quickly glanced to her sister's bed—empty. "I guess Karin is still out," she decided as she ran down the stairs. She slipped on her shoes and a jacket as she ran out the door.
The echoes of the scream resonated from down the street, where she ran. Yuzu had to guess it was perhaps two in the morning, which made her wonder if anyone was out at this time of night.
The sight of blood troubled her, so she pulled out her cell phone and called her father's emergency number as she ran faster down the street. "Daddy, there's blood, and a lot of it, down the east end of the street. I'll explain why I'm out la—" she interrupted her report with a high-pitched scream and nearly dropped her phone. "Karin!" she screamed, dropping by her sister's side. "Dad, Karin's been stabbed!"
The phone fell out of her hand as she tore her nightgown into long strips, trying to stop the blood for pouring out of her sister. The blood was fresh and still warm, and unfortunately still bleeding profusely. "How—?" she couldn't even finish her sentence. What was she to do? Should she pull out the knife? Would it make the wound worse?
They'd have to pull the knife out eventually. In a swift motion, she pulled the weapon out and to her relief she her a moan come from her sister. That means she can still be saved!
"Yuzu, go to the house and call your brother," her father ordered. She hadn't noticed her father's arrival. "An ambulance is coming; let Daddy try to save your sister now." Yuzu nodded, grabbed her phone, and ran back to her house crying. Once she was gone, Isshin spoke again. "I don't know if I can save her Captain Hitsugaya. I know you're there. I can't see you, no need to worry about that. But this wound is deep, and even if I could perform healing kidou, I'm not sure she could be saved." It was as if a piece of ice stabbed his heart. Somehow, Isshin knew that Toushirou felt as if his heart was shattering.
Karin's eyes opened. She stared at her father, but didn't speak. She let out a sigh as the wails of the ambulance siren came closer and she saw the flashing lights appear over her head.
—x—
He threw open the door to Matsumoto's rooms. Toushirou knew she was there that night, though it wasn't very often that she was. "Matsumoto, get up!" he commanded, flicking on her lights.
"What is it Captain?" she exclaimed, waking up. The tone in his voice scared her.
"Get dressed!" he shouted, tossing her clothes at her. "Get to the gate as fast as you can; we need to get to Karakura Town!"
She was pulling on her clothes as she followed him out, carrying her shoes in her hands. "Captain, what on earth has happened? Is there a Hollow invasion or something?"
"I wish it was as simple as that!" he cried, and sped up. Matsumoto could barely keep up with him.
"You're not saying…" she trailed off.
"Keep your mouth shut and don't suggest anything until we get there. Don't even say a word," he snapped.
Her captain was truly out of sorts if he was going to snap like that at her. Matsumoto suspected that something terrible had happened to Karin, and somehow Hitsugaya knew more than instincts could tell.
Two hell butterflies flitted next to them. "Open the gates!" Toushirou ordered, slowing down long enough to wait for the smallest opening. Matsumoto quickly followed and soon enough they were in Karakura.
"Captain, will you please tell me what's going on?" Matsumoto asked.
He ignored her, or perhaps he hadn't heard her. Her captain hadn't slowed down at all. It then came to her that they were heading towards the Kurosaki household. I knew it! Something's happened to Karin!
She said nothing until they arrived at where Isshin and three paramedics were. Matsumoto let out a gasp of horror. "She's not…"
Toushirou was by the girl's side in a flash, grasping her hand. "Karin, don't die now," he almost begged. "We're not ready for you in Soul Society yet."
Karin's eyes opened again, and they slid to lock with his. She spoke nothing, and her lips didn't move. But at least she was alive, right? Nothing else mattered to him at the moment. Nothing but the fact that she was still breathing. "You've made it this far," he whispered. "You'll survive this." Yet her eyes expressed no emotion.
"Sir, we should take her to the emergency room now," said one of the paramedics. "It's clear she's not going to die at the scene." They had been working on her for at least twenty minutes already.
"Of course," Isshin replied. "My clinic is just down the street."
Karin was placed in the ambulance and driven the short distance to her home. She was rushed inside and into an emergency room. Before the doors were shut, her father gave Toushirou a meaningful look. The door leading to the home flew open, causing Matsumoto and her captain to whirl around, their hands on their hilts.
"What's going on?" Ichigo demanded. "Yuzu woke me up, saying that Karin had been stabbed." His sister poked her head out from behind him.
"Ichi-nii is someone there?" she asked.
"Some ghosts who might know what's going on," Ichigo explained.
"I don't know anything," Matsumoto answered, and she looked to her captain.
"I had a nightmare" was all Toushirou said. He was staring at the doors, willing them to open.
"Oh no, not one of those," Ichigo groaned.
"Oh yes. The person who did it is not far from where she was found."
"Yuzu, Karin was found just down the street, right?"
His sister nodded. "Towards the east end."
"I'm going." Ichigo left, leaving his sister confused.
—x—
An hour passed. Ichigo returned with the foreigner, who Yuzu had immediately taken to a room to look after. Matsumoto had fallen into a fitful doze, waking herself up shortly after falling asleep repeatedly. Ichigo and Toushirou were staring at the door, hardly blinking.
Slowly, the door slid open. Toushirou jabbed Matsumoto awake. "Well? How is she?" he demanded.
Isshin sighed. "Karin is… gone. All of the injuries she acquired affected past internal damage, and whatever caused the slash in her side got infected. She lost too much blood, and since it stabbed her stomach, her stomach acids burned her insides."
Toushirou shut his eyes and put his head in his hands. Matsumoto leaned over and drew him towards her, saying nothing.
"Dad! Why couldn't you save her?" Ichigo cried, jumping up. "There must be something—I dunno, kidou, or maybe we could call Inoue to come here. She says she can restore the dead to life."
His father shook his head. "No, son. Inoue's powers are useful, yes, but I don't think that this is the time to use them." Ichigo glared at his father, and stormed past him into the room. A few minutes passed, and Isshin spoke again. "You should go say goodbye to her."
"I'll never be able to find her," Toushirou whispered. "Even if I searched the Rukongai forever."
"If you think that, she'll come find you instead Captain," Matsumoto replied. "That eagle hasn't gone away forever. It'll tell her to go to the Soul Academy, and then she'll be a shinigami one day."
"What if she doesn't remember me?" His voice was soft.
"If she doesn't remember you than you'll have to become friends again." She patted his shoulder and then pushed him up. "Go on; tell her goodbye."
He walked slowly forward and slid into the room. Ichigo looked up to see him. "Right, I'll go." The older man left.
Toushirou sat in the chair by her bedside. They hadn't draped the white cloth over her yet—they would probably wait for Yuzu to say goodbye to her before they did that. "I'll see you again," he whispered in her ear.
"What's all this about saying goodbye?" Karin asked. Toushirou looked up to see her soul sitting on the bed. "Why can't you just say hello?"
"You're dead," he told her.
"I figured that out for myself, thanks." She tugged at the chain on her chest. "I've seen so many ghosts like this, so I must be one too. When do I get to go to Soul Society?"
"After Yuzu says goodbye," he told her. It was hard to converse with her like this. "I saw it. I saw what happened to you."
She looked at him. "I'm sorry you had to see that. How much did you see?"
"I didn't see how you got the slash in your side. I started dreaming I was you shortly before he said you couldn't run forever."
"I'm sorry you had to see my last moments, but if it hadn't been for you, I don't think that I would have been found until well after sunrise."
He remained silent, finding nothing else to say. She stood up and walked through the bed. "If I forget, you'll just have to remind me," she told him.
"I promise I will." Slowly, Toushirou stood up. Karin hugged him but quickly let go. He gave a sigh and left the room.
—x—
"There was nothing you could do," the ice dragon growled sternly. Toushirou and Matsumoto had returned to Soul Society shortly before sunrise.
"I still wish there was something I could do," Toushirou replied, staring out across the snowy plain. "I watched her die. She was stabbed right in front of my eyes!"
"Maybe it was her time to die and come here," Hyourinmaru answered calmly. "You must admit, it was getting harder and harder to resist breaking Soul Society's rules for humans."
"You're suggesting that I was hoping she'd die?" Horror crossed his face.
"Not exactly. You wanted her—don't deny it."
Red blossomed over Toushirou's face, and he looked away. "Even so… Why did I have to watch her die?"
The dragon looked at his master pityingly. The poor boy (yes, he was still a boy in the dragon's eyes though he had the body of an eighteen-year-old) was distraught. He had to be restored to his usual cold calm and radiating authority. "Why did she have to witness you die right in front of her? Remember when you first began to have nightmares, when she demanded you see her? Karin said that you had fallen out of a tree and landed on the ground below, dead. She was only eleven, and hadn't seen very many deaths. You, however, are a captain and have seen many subordinates die and in more gruesome ways than getting stabbed in the stomach like her." When Toushirou tried to protest, he lifted a talon. "I'm not saying that her death isn't a terrible thing, master. But haven't you thought that maybe now, when it's her time to join the ranks, she'll be closer to you? She can share in the battle experience with you, and it's possible she may be happier now that she isn't the only one who can see Hollows and spirits. There was a lot she had to hide from her old friends, remember?"
Toushirou nodded, remembering. "Should I try looking for her?" he asked. Matsumoto had been the one to send her on, since neither he nor the Kurosaki men could lift their swords to do so. Karin had called all three of them wimps and when she got her hands on a sword she swore she'd make them regret being so pathetic.
"Perhaps, but remember that you have a division to run. You shouldn't pour all your energy into it. Besides, it won't be long before we hear about an astounding new recruit who talks back to her teachers."
"You really think she'll do that?" Toushirou asked, chuckling.
"I think that she will. Now, sleep for two more hours and then get back to work. There's still a battle to occur."
Toushirou nodded and closed his eyes. He faded away from the snowy landscape, leaving the ice dragon to his own devices.
Okay. I know I just back, I even updated late, but I have to take a break. No update next week, but hopefully the week after. I am behind in my writing, and even though I have two and most of a third chapters ready to go, I feel extremely pressured to write in time. So, instead of ignoring this story for three weeks (who wants to think about tragic things like this story when you're in Japan?), I will actually write and brainstorm and such. It'll mean that I have to use journals as my writing medium (I usually don't like transferring stories between hand and computer-it messes me up) because I'm going to my cousin's house like I did last year. I know it's summer and for most people it means more free time and more updates, but I've got to do this. Thanks for being the understanding readers you are.