Chapter III: Nothing but a Dream
The night sky was beautiful as millions of stars accompanied with the ever present moon illuminated the ground, lifting some of the darkness and creating shadows that didn't seem so threatening. So peaceful was the image that even the breeze was not so cold and not too humid but at a pleasant temperature. So calming was the night that guards stationed around were a bit relaxed with their guard slightly lowered to enjoy the outside for but a moment and then return to their posts with heightened senses.
It was then that Muramasa realized just where he was, he recognized a few of the faces of the guards and he recognized some of the buildings around him. A sudden wave of nostalgia hit him; looking around once more he could now see that he was in the sixth division where there grew cherry trees and other beautiful plants. Hidden underneath the protection of the shadows provided by the buildings around him, he moved and continued to take in his surroundings and it was not until he heard the subtle shifting of clothing and the quiet whispers of a conversation that just beyond the corner of one building in front of him would be a man and a women. His curiosity had gotten the better of him and so with silent footsteps he glanced to see who it was.
The sight of the two individuals shocked him to say the least. So shocked and confused was he that he stumbled back, removing his hands from the comfort of his pockets to the exposure of the wind. Hey felt clammy and humid but he could care less at the moment, too absorbed in the sight before him to even realize that he was no longer under the protection of the shadows. He let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding he gathered his bearings and straightened himself, recovering from the shock at seeing his master conversing with his wife in the night. He watched with eyes analyzing every detail, every word that came from their mouth, every subtle movement made was analyzed thoroughly that if he paid closer attention he would be able to identify what they were talking about.
He closed his eyes as he felt his chest swell with some unknown emotion that he had to inhale the fresh air to calm himself. Soon that ghost of a smile that was trying to form on his face died away to a frown and his expression turned to that of indifference as he soon came to realize that what was occurring was nothing more than a memory that was no longer in the present. That swelling in his chest now clenched into something painful as he observed from the sidelines; glancing at his master he could see from the robes that his blade was there, he didn't have to look, he remembered. He remembered that night where Kouga and his wife had been discussing about upcoming missions and the like, while he listened from inside his blade.
These memories were pleasant enough to ponder over and guess what would've happened if another different path was chosen; would it have been for the better or would it be just as bad as what had occurred? No one would know. He listened to the sounds of their voices from what remained of his memory as he closed his eyes in contentment to enjoy that fleeting memory for what it was worth, but everything that has a beginning must always come to an end. Facing the glow of the moon he allowed the darkness of the creeping shadows to engulf his mind…
Slowly, Muramasa felt his conscious return; he felt the silent shifting of his clothing as he tried to raise himself to a sitting position. He opened his eyes and listened for any sound at all; it was then that he realized that he had just fallen asleep. Placing a hand against his forehead he quickly tried to remember when exactly he had fallen asleep. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, in his attempt he failed to notice the light pattering of footsteps approaching and was startled when he felt someone poke him lightly on the shoulder.
"Ah, I'm sorry for bothering you, but it looked like you were in pain. Are you alright?" Orihime asked as she observed him closely to see if there were any signs of injury; it reminded him of a doctor but it seemed it was just her nature to care for the well-being of others. Muramasa ignored for a moment before deciding it was best to ask her.
"When did I fall asleep?" He asked with a serious tone that it slightly worried her.
"Right after we came home from school. You said you were tired and just went to take a nap on the couch."
He didn't even recall he said anything regarding fatigue, he remembered speaking with her earlier, even when they were on the roof but he couldn't remember what had happened right after. He removed his hand from his forehead and quietly stared at the floor trying to see if he was losing his mind or not.
"Well, you didn't look well when we had left and that was after I had healed you at the roof. Do you feel any pain right now?" He only closed his eyes and shook his head; he felt fine right now but he was beginning to feel like he was nothing more than a nuisance to her, like it was an obligation for her to take care of him, after all Soul Society didn't want him around for all the trouble he caused and judging from the fact that Lieutenant Rangiku and her Captain of the tenth division Toshiro, weren't back then there still must be rouge zanpakutou running around with no master to reign them in.
But then again Orihime did say she regarded him as a friend. He would've thought more on the subject had it not been for a hand waving right in front of his face. He pulled his face away and looked at her to see that she was smiling brightly.
"Since you don't feel bad anymore, how bout you come with me to shop around? I need some stuff for dinner and I bet it would be fun to go with someone!" She suggested happily, looking at him with hopeful eyes. He eyed her warily, unsure whether to take her offer or stay in the comfort of the room in silence.
As he thought of declining he was reminded of the dream he had earlier and was disturbed by it, besides how bad could a shopping trip be? He stood up wordlessly and walked to the door, turning slightly to see if she would follow.
Her face lit up and she soon bolted from the living room to quickly change in suitable clothes, leaving Muramasa to wait near the door, mulling over the dream with distaste. While waiting he heard a faint 'meow' from beyond the door. He stared at it for a moment and thought it as nothing more than a stray cat that was hungry and dismissed only to hear another insistent 'meow' that almost sounded like it was getting annoyed. Thinking his mind was going just a little whacko, Muramasa decided to ignore it by turning away from the door and stare at the hallway waiting for the girl to come back.
"Well, how rude, where are your manners?" A deep voice called from behind the door, instantly catching Muramasa's attention despite his shocked expression.
"Aren't you going to open the door? I assure you, I'm no stranger boy." The voice said once more and he couldn't help but shudder at it. For some reason the voice was quite unsettling, but nonetheless he opened the door and looked to see that it was no person, shinigami or human, but a simple black feline sitting patiently on the floor, looking up at him with gold eyes that seemed to be smiling at him. The feline walked right in and looked around to see that the girl was nowhere in sight.
"If you are here for the girl she is currently changing in her room." He stated grabbing the cat's attention as it casually waved its fine tail to and fro in ease.
"I see. Well then it's not really concerning Inoue-san all that much as it concerns you, zanpakutou." The cat turned now, to sit comfortably in front of him.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
"Oh it's nothing all that troublesome. As soon as Inoue-san comes we'll be on our way." The way the cat spoke definitely seemed deceiving, as he looked at it with a glare while the cat merely purred in amusement.
Soon enough, Orihime came out with a new set of clean clothes suitable for going out on errands but also comfortable to wear. As soon as she came to the living room she quickly noticed the cat sitting on her floor and immediately she smiled and came to the cat to wrap her arms around it in a hug.
"Yoruichi-san! It's so good to see you after some time!" She squealed as the one known as Yoruichi merely continued to purr and accept the girl's hug with no qualms. The sight was enough to leave Muramasa confused, but he uttered not a word as he silently watched the two talk among themselves.
"Actually Inoue-san, I'm here to bring your friend to Urahara's. He has something he would like to give him." They looked to glance at the mentioned zanpakutou who still remained silent even as their gaze left him feeling a tad bit uncomfortable.
"Is it something bad?" She asked; her eyebrow's creasing into a worried expression.
"Oh no, it's actually for his own benefit." Immediately Orihime's face lit up again as she walked out the door with Yoruichi still in her arms which didn't really bother all that much, it was actually quite fun to be carried around.
"Come on Muramasa-san!" She called out enthusiastically, making him look at her with a bit of confusion. She wasn't disturbed that a cat had spoken? Well he supposed that it was something not so startling but something was off about that cat and at the same time he wanted to find out only to simultaneously feel that it would be best that what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Shrugging off the feeling he quickly went to follow the girl to Urahara's.
The walk wasn't too far as they soon came to what looked like a candy store but there was a sign that clearly said it was closed, however, that didn't seem to stop the girl as the cat jumped from her arms to slip through an open window.
Not long after it had done so, the door opened to reveal a beautifully women, and it would've not been so bad if not for the fact that the woman was nude and didn't seem to care at al if anyone saw her bare unfortunately, due to his dignified nature and manners Muramasa was left to feel extremely uncomfortable and was beginning to will himself to turn back into a blade if it'll get him away from such a sight that was not meant to be casually shown before marriage. He hid his discomfort with a glaring expression that seemed to seethe.
"Oi, Yoruichi! You should know it's rude to expose yourself to customers!" Another voice called from inside.
Said girl merely rolled her eyes as she casually turned her back to enter another room to change into appropriate clothing, allowing Orihime and Muramasa to enter.
Orihime seemed to know where she was headed seeing as this was not the first visit to this small shop and Muramasa silently followed pushing away what had just happened not five seconds ago. They entered a room that had a small table where on the other side of it was a man that was fanning himself with a fan contently, bidding them to come forward with a smile that was friendly but with the hat hiding his eyes, Muramasa merely frowned. He felt like something bad was about to happen and that it would be caused by this very man.
"Why the sour face, Muramasa-san? Surely Yoruichi wasn't that bad looking?" He teased lightly only to receive a hit to the face by a giant box thrown by a certain woman that had just passed by.
"Okay, all kidding aside I had called you here to offer you something that may be useful to have.' He groaned as his nose started to bleed but quickly stuffed it with some tissues to rid the nuisance.
"I'm perfectly fine the way I am." He said quickly, not really wanting to take anything from this strange man.
"Oh come now! It's not that bad, besides it'll be useful and it won't seem like Inoue's going insane when she talks to you in public!" He added happily earning a glare from the zanpakutou that was starting to get annoyed.
"It's just an offer to make things easier to adapt. You don't want Inoue to feel like an idiot do you?" He clearly did not mean to sound mean and Orihime understood that he was only trying to make Muramasa agree and really he couldn't help but want to see what he would look like in casual clothing and decided to play along, unfortunately Muramasa was in quite a predicament; he didn't want to make the girl feel negative in any way but this shop keeper was definitely getting on his nerves and no matter how fast his cunning mind worked it couldn't come up with a solution that would fix it and with a scowl had begrudgingly agreed to Urahara's offer.
"Fine, what is it?" He asked through clenched teeth; oh how badly he wanted to hurt the shop keeper, hoping there were bigger boxes to throw at him. Too bad his thoughts were interrupted when he had suddenly pulled out something that literally made him look at him with a grimace.
"It's a gigai!" He exclaimed happily with an idiotic grin plastered on his face.
"A gigai?" He questioned warily as he stared at what was supposed to be an exact replica of himself.
"Yup, with this humans will be able to see you so that you won't be invisible to their eyes and such."
He looked over it with slight interest, it didn't exactly have what he was wearing, the closest it was to his clothing was the fur collar that was around the neck and extended to a hoodie in the back. Instead of white it was a black cloak with matching pants and shoes. Pretty normal to modern standards but it wasn't all that comfortable looking but it didn't look like he had much of a choice in the situation and had quickly went into it just to get it over and done with.
As soon as he was done and inside the gigai, he took one look at himself in the mirror; nothing seemed to be different except that his nails weren't as long as before, maybe a little longer than an average male, but it was hardly noticeable unless someone got scratched then maybe they'd notice. The coloring around his eyes remained, making Urahara look a little curious as to why it didn't blend in to the skin.
"Maybe it's just a unique trait of his that it won't go away! Unless if you add make-up than maybe…" He chose to ignore his comments; he was what he was but he couldn't help but feel a little happy that Orihime had found that his features were what made him…him.
"I will say that it's just a bit uncomfortable.' He frowned as he moved his limbs to try and ease the discomfort of being in a shell.
"Oh, you'll get used to it after a while.' Urahara chuckled as he flipped out the fan again to wave it back and forth in front of him.
"Oh, so how much do I owe you Urahara-san?' Orihime asked as she tried to get her wallet out from her bag only to feel a hand touch hers.
"No charge, Inoue-san!' he said happily making her feel uncomfortable.
"It's no trouble you know…" She mumbled seeing if she would be able to change his mind but to no avail, he insisted that it was free since it wasn't really that big of a deal.
It was then that she remembered that she needed to go shopping and without any delay she bid them a quick farewell and another word of thanks before she dragged Muramasa out to accompany her to the grocery store.
The day had turned to night but it was still quite early, as the two continued their walk to their destination Muramasa had busied himself into gazing at the stars that were gradually appearing in the sky being reminded of that dream and going over it in his head. So caught up in it he failed to notice others that were walking toward them and had bumped into them rather hard.
He was still stronger than that of a normal human so the impact didn't really bother him that much, only leaving a mild ach in his chest that would most likely cause a fit of coughing should it choose to trigger. The other who had fallen to the ground did not take it as easy as he did and had growled in annoyance which had caused the two that were with him to be bothered as well.
"Watch where ya goin, punk!" One shouted angrily. Orihime quickly turned to see that calm atmosphere had quickly turned tense, she hastily came to his side ready to defend if necessary but he only pushed her behind him as he stared at the three men in front of him, choosing to remain quiet and wait for them to either respond foolishly or to just leave them be. He didn't really want to speak with such people seeing as it would just be a waste of much needed breath and had made a move to try and go around them.
Sadly, fools like them don't let anything go past them, a kid could bump into them and they'd most likely start something over nothing.
"We're talking to you, fool. Apologize or else!" They threatened as they slowly took a step forward.
"I don't find it necessary to apologize over something so insignificant." He stated firmly as he kept his hands in his pockets.
"Oh yeah…?" One of them quickly reached behind their back pocket to pull out a combat survival knife that gleamed from the lights around them. What a weak weapon compared to him when a zanpakutou.
"Please we didn't mean to cause any trouble." Orihime said trying to calm the others so as to avoid a fight. They looked at her with disturbing interest that was obviously not directed to her words or intentions. There was a group of people that was beginning to grow around, some were interested in a possible fight while others were worried considering that the other man was holding a weapon and Orihime knew it wouldn't be long till someone would call the police and get into more trouble.
Muramasa on the other hand was fixing his gaze at the man with the weapon, silently daring him to try something; if he could overcome a vasto lordes than what was a simple human to him?
He suddenly felt a tug on his coat and he moved his eyes to look at the girl who was pleading for him to avoid any trouble and despite the situation he turned his back on the trio to follow her; what a mistake on his part to carelessly turn his back. Such an attack wouldn't have affected him in any way in his original form, but he was in a gigai and this meant it was the same as human skin.
There was a shout and a few startled screams as the one that wouldn't let something so meaningless go sunk the blade deep into Muramasa's side. He managed to land a punch to the guy's face in order for him to release his hold on the small blade but in the process he had fallen as well falling onto his side; even though it wasn't the one punctured it caused movement that had made it go in just a little deeper.
Orihime had instantly appeared beside him obviously distressed to see that he had gotten injured.
So hectic it was that all the sounds had mixed with each other and it was giving Muramasa a headache. He had yet to feel anything, but he really didn't want to attract any more attention than he had. In that moment where everyone was focused on getting the three away from the both of them he had grabbed Orihime's hand and swiftly made a break for it ignoring her cries to stop.
He found it highly odd that simply bumping into another being would cause such an uproar, but then again this world was so different than his; he merely had to accept it.
He didn't know how long he had ran but now he could feel the pain coming from his side and the harsh wind scratching at his throat from the amount of air he inhaled, he began to feel dizzy as well; he didn't even realize he had come to a stop till he felt his face collide with the floor.
"Muramasa-san!" Orihime called as she fell to her knees to examine his condition quickly but thoroughly. There was so much blood that she was certain that if she pulled out the blade it would literally pour since it was in quite deep, but it had to be done in order to heal it completely.
With trembling hands she carefully removed the blade from his body and tossed it to the side so that she could see just how bad the wound was. "Please stay still." She murmured as he watched her with hazy eyes. Just great, he was about to lose conscious but he really didn't want to even as he could feel the coughing creeping up in the back of his throat. Two times she had to heal him that day and he didn't want to burden her further of having to carry him back home, fighting the biting urge, he took in careful breaths as he tried to calm himself choosing to stare at the stars again allowing that dream to be recalled into his mind. He didn't know why he thought of the dream now, at the moment it had no real purpose to just pop in his head and at such a situation, but he knew that it was pleasant and at the same time so painful, as it nothing but a dream that would soon be erased once awaken. He glanced at the girl as a weak cough escaped him.
Slowly he felt that his strength was returning but only a little, regardless he allowed his mind to wander a bit longer. Dreams were pleasant to have, an illusion that brings just a small bit of comfort from the burdens of reality and he didn't know why he was acting the way he was now, even as Orihime told him to remain still, his body just seemed to act on its own as he came to a sitting position in front of her. He may as well be drunk from the way he was acting; maybe his mind was finally slipping away from him.
It didn't matter, this in itself was a dream as well and the way he would wake was when he would fall asleep, this he knew without a doubt. He felt his body suddenly feel heavy and a sigh softly came out as he inched closer to the source of the warmth making Orihime call out to him in worry but he wasn't really paying attention as he came closer to her.
If this is bound to be a dream in reality, then why not enjoy it while it lasts?
Orihime suddenly lost her focus, her eyes widened, and her body went stiff as she felt the soft pressure of lips against her own. She was so paralyzed by the sudden contact that her focus on her healing broke and the light went away. A blush made its way across her cheeks and she felt incredibly warm, her mind went slightly haywire as she tried to grasp the situation but she was too distracted with that kiss that she failed to hear what he spoke in between and then it was over. The warmth suddenly left with only a bush left in its tracks.
Muramasa fell against her shoulder feeling warm and sleepy all at once that he just couldn't keep the heavy eyelids from falling shut and allow his breathing to slow into that of slumber.
Orihime felt that his weight was completely on her and it was then that she knew he had fallen back asleep. Her eyes softened as she stared at him with confusion and feeling flustered and feeling alert.
'So much for a shopping trip…' She thought as she used her Shun Shun Rikka to carry him back home to rest. All the while she tried to piece together what had just happened, her face was still warm from her embarrassment from that sudden kiss, perhaps he just lost too much blood and became a little out of it. She figured that would be best as an explanation and decided not to dwell on it further. She would ask him as soon as he woke but that sure won't be till the next day and she still had school so she had to wait quite a while in order to get a solid answer. Until then, however, she knew her mind wouldn't let it be and her friends would be sure to notice.
-X-X-X-
A/N: Yeah it's long, sorry if it was boring and maybe off topic a little bit but… Yeah I got nothing.