At the Hands of a Hollow

Chapter 5: A Revelation

Previously: When she didn't say anything for a minute, he squeezed her hand again. "Since...since Saturday night, last week, I..." he nodded again.

"Whatever you're going to tell me," he promised, "it's fine. Don't worry, just let me sort this out."

"You won't be saying that once you hear it..."

"Why?"

She looked at him cautiously, and inhaled. "Because every day since Saturday night I've been raped by your hollow."

Orihime waited, staring into his frozen eyes.

For a moment, she wondered if he was in there at all. It had been nearly two minutes since she said her last words and he hadn't moved at all. His facial expression hadn't changed. Maybe his heart wasn't even beating.

She almost reached out to test that theory, but instead she put up on hand and waved in front of his face, slowly. Nothing seemed to be happening.

Now she wanted to be dead. She'd never longed for death more, in fact. Maybe the hollow would kill her now anyway. Everything that he'd been doing probably wouldn't be any fun for him any more if Ichigo was fighting back.

After a moment of waiting for a response, she sighed and focused clearly into his eyes. "Okay, hollow, you can kill me now." Her voice was soft and generous, yet full of guilt. Her glistening eyes waited more, longer and longer.

It looked as if the information just got into his system. Ichigo's eyes widened, pupils shrinking in his shock and overall size showing three times as much as his usual almost-squint did.

"W-What did you say?" he shuddered.

Through all of the possibilities, the ideas that had sparked in his head while trying to figure out the truth, the thought of himself, in most aspects, being the one to harm Orihime was unimaginable. He'd simply never dared to let it cross his mind, the hollow was usually under control. What had gone wrong?

She pulled her hand back and covered her mouth. "Excuse me for a moment..." she smiled, got up, and shuffled away in the direction he assumed was the bathroom. He didn't plan on asking about that.

'So it was you all along...?'

"Yup. And what a time we had, King! It was selfish of me not to let you watch, really. She's a lot of fun..."

'...Are you really that sad?' he asked, 'Is there nothing better that you can do? ...Or, do you get lonely up there?'

"Oh please! There's nothing more fun than watching your relationship with our Queen fall apart! Because at night, she's all mine."

'Wow.'

"What?"

'I had no idea that you were really this much of a sadistic bastard.'

"You'll regret saying that. I'm at the last layer of the wall, one push and I can take over. The only difference about playing with her now is that you'd still be awake to watch."

'I won't let you touch her again.'

It was harder to shout angrily in rage when speaking through your mind. The next time he took a trip to his inner world, he wouldn't hesitate to voice it much more loudly.

Right then he realized. The hollow physically injured her. He'd left those bruises and scars, and he had done...whatever it was that he did.

Ichigo didn't even want to think about that, and now he was threatening to have him watch it? He was determined that he'd never touch her again.

He pushed the voice of his hollow away and stared at the ground until she came back. Orihime sat down next to him, slowly and quietly. She didn't want him to freak out any more.

"Sorry," she apologized, "I-I'm not feeling exactly great today," her flushed face glowed. She was feeling a little warm and dizzy, partly because she had no idea what he might say to her next.

"...Saturday night," he mimicked.

She slowly nodded at him, quickening the up and down motion as his words started to make sense in her head. That was what she said to him, 'since Saturday night'.

"Y-you," he cleared his throat, "you were...raped?"

Her head bobbed again.

"...By...by my hollow?" his hoarse voice continued.

"Yes..." she looked away from him, down to the floor. Orihime knew she wouldn't enjoy watching this. He observed her cautiously.

"How could this happen...?" his head was down in his hands.

'For years now...I've tried so hard to protect everybody. Even the people who don't need my protection. You were part of the power I used to do that, so why? Why do you have to do this to the one person that I really wanted to protect, whether she needed my protection or not? You've been the only thing to worry about all along.'

A twisted laugh echoed in his head.

The stream of tears started trickling their way down her cheek and his head shot up as he heard her. Now her own face was blocked by her hands as she leaned over to hand her head. Strands of hair were the curtains sealing her away.

"Orihime..." he said. She didn't answer to him. Hesitantly but calmly, his hand reached her shoulder and landed. "I'm so sorry."

For a moment she didn't look, but once the flow of salty liquid had died down, she tilted her head and looked at him.

"It's not your fault," she whispered,

Despite all of her arguments with her heart, all the time she had spent ignoring him, she knew it was true. Though originally he had just seemed to be a danger, he really didn't play a part in this. The only real thing was that it was his hollow that was causing all of the trouble.

She doubted he'd had any idea whatsoever. She certainly didn't think he could have thought of it throughout his guessing games concerning what had happened to her. It was simply unthinkable, and she still didn't want to think of it, or believe it, herself.

"Next time I'll stop him," he said calmly, "I won't let him touch you again."

Her big bright eyes glistened, pointing in his direction. "Please..." she whimpered, "please promise me that.

Ichigo could see how scared she was, though it wasn't the first time he had done that to her with the hollow. He remembered how he had frightened her in Hueco Mundo during his third and final fight against Grimmjow, where she had seen his mask for this first time. The worry in her eyes that battle still haunted him.

"I promise," he vowed, gently taking one of her hands and holding it in one of his. Orihime was surprised now. His original reaction was just about as she had expected, but now it had changed a lot. She had forgotten that he could be very level-headed when it came to protecting people. He probably knew shouting about it here would do no good to anybody.

The corners of his mouth twitched and curved slightly as she inhaled again and nodded.

Both of them stood up quietly, Ichigo preparing to leave. It would be safer to leave now, before anything else happened. Anything that he would regret.

"I guess I can leave you alone now," he said, "and I'm sorry. If I had known, or had any idea, what this was I wouldn't have tried so hard to get it out of you."

He turned, but was caught in a long, scarred pair of arms. "Thank you," she whispered. Orihime had wrapped herself around him, trembling from being nervous. But it was not like there was anything else to hug, he was the only choice.

Now his mouth really did form a smile, and he lifted one arm up and around her. "I'll see you later maybe." She said goodbye and he left quickly.

There was a very specific location in which he was now headed. He had lied in a sense when he raised the possibility of seeing her again later in the day. He didn't want to let himself see her too often, at least not until the situation was under control.

The hollow hadn't been lying, he was right there in his mind. Nearing control again, at the top of the ladder. Now Ichigo had to handle that, and he knew an experienced group of people to help him with that.

–

It was ten in the evening. Orihime had just had a realization as she turned of her light and snuggled deep into the covers of her bed. She probably wouldn't have to worry about her daily visitor every again, it could all be over soon.

She hoped the scars and bruises would heal quickly, they raised too many questions. When she returned to school on Monday, it was inevitable that people would ask again. But at least they wouldn't be any worse. Probably.

Of course, there was always a chance that he could come again. She didn't really know what Ichigo was planning to do, seeing as it was already clear that the hollow escaped during the time he slept. It wasn't like he could just stop sleeping.

So now all she could hope was that Ichigo was fighting him. No, not fighting. Sustaining his control. There was still a deadly percentage of chance that he could show up to make his claim on her again, and that was something she most definitely did not want.

After many nights of shame and guilt, she could finally be comfortable and relax. She'd placed all of her trust in him, just like always. The weight had been lifted off her shoulders, it definitely wasn't a mistake to tell him. He would help her, and stop her torture. But she was angry at him for it.

Because whenever he was nice to her, she was reminded that she loved him, and he had no idea.

Telling him about that wasn't and would never be the solution to that particular problem of hers. In fact, it would make it all worse. Besides, after keeping it from him for so long she'd just have to learn to put up with it. There'd be plenty of time to adjust in her lonely life.

She wasn't sure just how tired she was, so far there had been no life-draining activities going on. Still, she felt strangely exhausted from just the anxiety that had gripped her just after she told him. That was why she had felt the need to strip down to her underwear and dive into bed to sleep peacefully without a worry.

Somewhere, she was very confident that the hollow wouldn't be showing up.

–

Several days passed and it became Tuesday. Ichigo hadn't gone to school for the past two days, busy with some training he'd given little information to anyone about.

"You're gonna have to keep up, lover boy!" Hiyori Sarugaki screeched, swinging her zanpakuto at him. When Ichigo had showed up at the Visored's warehouse requesting help, not giving too many details about what his hollow had been doing, she had laughed right away and declared that he was in love with Orihime.

Embarrassed, he immediately rebuked the comment, as if they didn't know it was true. It was clear beyond his own eyes that they were very aware.

"I told you to quit calling me that!" he shouted back at her, shunpo'd away from her reach and glared angrily from a safer distance.

"Yeah, and I told you to quit running away! I'm the one giving up my time to help you here, so be grateful! Fight back!" she screamed.

He huffed and charged at her, coming close as their swords collided. "It's not running away, it's dodging! I'd be dead by now if-". She pushed him away and into a rock, where a cloud of dust appeared at his contact.

"You're not gonna learn anything about fighting holllow powers if ya don't shut up with your arguing and do as you're told."

"Me?" he snapped, "You started it!" he rubbed the back of his head, which had taken the force of the blow against the rock.

Hiyori ignored him, pulling on her hollow mask and running towards him. Her sword stabbed the air in front of him, "If you're so intent on helping your girlfriend, then I suggest you do keep it shut and listen to what I'm telling you," she stared at him unenthusiastically.

He tried to keep quiet for a least a little while after, but it didn't last too long. After realizing how long he had been training, the complaints came in.

"How much longer do I have to do this for, anyway?"

"Just a few more hours!"

Ichigo counted in his head for a moment. "Well you said three days, it's been three days already!"

"Not exactly seventy-two hours. You still have a few more to go."

"What?" he shouted, "When a normal person says three days, they don't mean exactly three days!"

"Let him go, Hiyori."

Both of them swung their heads around and looked up in the direction which the voice had come from. A familiar figure strolled down the steps and into the underground training area.

"Shinji." Ichigo muttered.

Pulling up his hat to reveal his face, Shinji grinned. "I'm letting you go, and you still greet me like that?"

"He's not going anywhere! He's not finished yet!"

"Hiyori, do you really think a few more hours will make any difference?"

Ichigo straightened his pose and dusted the dirt from his shihakusho. "No, it won't," he answered for her, "I'm strong enough now. Thanks a lot for the help, but I am going now."

She crossed her arms and walked away with a sigh.

–

Orihime folded her fingers around the edge of the metal frame. 'One...two...three.' She lifted her heavy mirror and waddled along to the bathroom.

She had just gotten some new glass put in. This mirror was somewhat sentimental, it reminded her of Sora. Unfortunately, the hollow had broken it during his antics one night. Though the hollow hadn't shown up at all since she spoke with Ichigo, but neither did he.

He had only really quickly told her that he would do some training, for as long as it took to be able to fight off the hollow successfully.

Since no new marks had been laid down on her skin, parts of her were starting to heal. Bruises were fading and scars were scabbing, but the ache in her stomach remained. Her evidence was becoming less visible, proven by Chad.

She'd had to ask him to help her carry the mirror back. The store refused to bring it back as they had collected it. Snow had made another appearance since then.

Chad had only asked once about what was happening to her, and never pushed any further. It was as if he somehow understand, which she guessed was why he had agreed to help her with the mirror.

Now, as she was hauling it from the entrance into the bathroom, where it was fastened to a wall, he had left about five minutes before. She had insisted that he stay for coffee, to pay him back, which he did and said farewell as fast as possible. He didn't want to outstay his welcome.

In the short time that he'd been gone, she changed into a pair of grey shorts and a simple white long-sleeved shirt. She was more comfortable like that, rather than the tight jacket and jeans that she wore before.

As she carried the mirror through, she was quickly exhausted from the weight of it. Or maybe it was because she'd gone into town, and anything could make her tired. That was just one thing she'd noticed recently that was strange.

Another factor was her nausea. It occurred quite a lot during just a few days, maybe the curry had triggered it. She wasn't sure.

Also, she'd been having a strange variety of dreams. Death, pain, happiness, Ichigo, snow and the hollow. They'd all come up at some point. However most made it through as nightmares, rather than dreams.

Many things had brought on tears, too. Not just her dreams, but movies she saw on her little TV. Movies that she'd never once cried at before. It seemed scarily real to her. She came to realize just how many strange things had been happening, beyond getting raped by a hollow.

No ideas on what else could be going on came to her mind with ease. In fact there was just nothing to explain, or at least almost nothing. There was a slim possibility of...no.

She didn't let herself think. But it made her a little curious, and filled with terror.

As she slid the mirror back into it's bracket on the wall, she looked carefully. Taking a few steps back, she examined her abdomen.

"No..." she whispered slowly, gently prodding at her flat stomach. It was one of those moments where your life flashes before your eyes, and you just can't believe what's happening.

Turning to look at a different angle, her heart stopped. Her stomach wasn't flat at all, there was a bulge. And this bulge only meant one thing.

–

Yeah, like you didn't see that coming? XD

I won't say too much here, I've gotta goo! Soo I hope you enjoyed! I finally got my lazy ass back into action after recovering from a week of school!

Review. Please. I really need to know what you think! :D

~HellYus