At the Hands of a Hollow

Chapter 6: It Gets Worse

Previously: 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.

During the moments that she stared into the mirror, somebody backed up her theory. A flutter of life flickered inside of her. Orihime fell back against the sink, grabbing on tightly to a towel rack and the toilet for support. Her knees were shaking and the picked-up pace of her heartbeat rapidly increasing. It threatened to escape from her chest.

A lot of the past events had sewn together, forming an inescapable fact. She was pregnant. She was sure, at this moment, that out of all the possible things that could have sprouted from her troubles, this was the worse possible thing. Worse than death.

Now she was gasping for air, as if she struggled to find it. There was no shortage in the room, but her organs seemed to need a little extra oxygen to keep her going, because there was almost nothing left in the world that gave her a reason to live.

Ichigo was the only thing. And now this had happened, he'd never come near her again. She'd be like so many other girls her age, who made a bad choice. Who did something stupid. Or maybe even some like her. Raped.

But she could confidently doubt that there were any hollows involved with those girls.

How could she go to school tomorrow? There was no way that she could act like there was nothing wrong now, because far too much had gone wrong. How would she ever explain this to even herself? Most importantly...how could she ever tell Ichigo?

Telling him about the raping was hard enough in the first place. Had she ever anticipated this, she wouldn't just come out with that quickly and hope the next piece of news was made easier through that. That definitely wouldn't work here.

What could she do now?

Was a part of her expecting herself to hold her head high and get herself through this? No, because this was one of the most unexpected things that had ever happened. She was raped, with no contraception used, it was more than obvious that it could easily lead to pregnancy. But how was she supposed to expect it when it was a hollow that had raped her?

She'd never imagined it could be possible, a human having a baby with a hollow. It had probably never happened before. Humans couldn't see hollows, and all the average hollow cares about it devouring souls. Not sex.

With that in mind, she was well aware that it wasn't an average hollow that had raped her. It was Ichigo's inner hollow, escaped from the confinement of his his inner world. So what did it mean? Nothing was making any sense to her, and the weight of her thoughts was too much to bare.

She shifted one foot and slipped, landing in the empty bathtub. Not planning to move, she relaxed her tense muscles and spread out as she lay there, wondering what to do.

After going over and over her thoughts again, with her head in a safe place, where it couldn't drag her down, she decided to try something. One trembling hand rose and landed on her stomach, resting on the bump. Her breathing was quiet, but fast. Every few seconds she'd have to remind herself to keep breathing.

Her other hand pulled up the material of her shirt, revealing the bare skin. Several scars still curved around the bump, not as small as she thought it was.

It was actually pretty big, and she wondered what was going on inside. Deciding not to confuse herself any further was thoughts of the length of time since the first night she was raped, she imagined the being inside of her.

No matter how it had come to be, there was something that made her more suspicious. Was this...baby, as she currently guessed, fathered by the love of her life, or the inhumane monster that she couldn't seem to escape from?

It was true that it was the hollow who had raped her, but she couldn't figure out several things about his taking over control. She wasn't sure if it would still be Ichigo's body or not, a question in which the details made her blush and shudder.

She forced her mind away from that area and thought back to the movement inside of her just a few minutes ago. It was strange, definitely. Maybe it was just some recently-developed maternal feeling, but she enjoyed it. She enjoyed the frightening contact with whatever it was that was growing in there.

Pleasure had just become her worst enemy.

–

Ichigo groaned and rolled over in his bed. The alarm clock was ringing, it was time to get up.

That was the last thing he wanted after going almost three days without sleep, but he had to return to school today. It was Wednesday, not half as bad as Monday. But it was bad enough. There was nothing enjoyable about school...

Then he remembered, it wouldn't be like last week. Orihime had opened up to him and revealed her secret, finally. He'd tortured himself over it and now half of the problem had been solved. He was confident that his powers could keep the hollow off, out of control.

Still, he really hoped he hadn't gotten out while he was sleeping. But he'd made sure to be careful about that. At least he now knew he could keep him in while awake.

As he had a quick breakfast, dressed and gathered his bag, he couldn't help but think of Orihime. She would finally be relieved of so much stress and confusion, and he was glad to do that for her. Now he wanted to see her, and watch her scars disappear. He wanted a normal day at school, so that he could he could watch her bounce back and become her normal self again. She was one of the people that made school bearable.

There would sometimes be moments where she would catch him looking at her, and they'd briefly be looking in each others eyes. Then she'd smile and turn away quickly. He thought that was adorable, and he'd never imagined that he'd ever use that adjective for anything.

Heading out the door, he travelled quickly to school. There was more snow, it had come in the previous week. He stumbled through it due to the layers of ice that still rested underneath in some patches. This reminded him of her again.

It seemed he couldn't escape the thoughts, he urged to see her even more. His pace picked up a little, though it was already fast, and he arrived at his classroom in several minutes. He was disappointed.

Her seat was empty.

The most unusual part here was that she almost always arrived before him. Even with all of the hollow stuff, he'd been greeted with at least a quick glance and then the side of her head. Today there was nothing at all.

His classmates silently watched as he stood still, frozen, for a moment at the door. When he snapped out of it, he shook it off and proceeded to his seat quietly. They ignored him for the majority of the day after that.

For the rest of the day, his attention lurked at the doorway. He was mainly oblivious to the lessons as he waited for her to come in. Even during breaks, he would stay in there and watch the door. Why hadn't she come through yet? Orihime never missed school without telling anybody anything about it.

What could have happened to her that was worse than getting raped by a hollow? Probably nothing, he thought, she'd still come to school even after that.

Fed up of wondering about it, he slammed his face into his arms, folded on the surface of the desk, and tilted his view to the space in the wall. The space that the girl he loved was supposed to come though.

–

She woke up in the bath tub, the same place she'd been all night, and all day so far. Noticing the time on the clock that hung nearly above the toilet, she sighed.

Maybe I could have tried to make it to school...

Then she shivered, and remembered what had happened before she fell asleep. One hand was resting there, on her stomach. It curved over the swollen bump.

Her chest started to rise and fall quickly as her breathing picked up with speed. Sleeping had been pleasant, she wasn't thinking about this. It had slipped out of her mind completely, a truth forbidden in the land of happiness that was her imagination.

Now she was certain, given the darkest parts of the dreams she had experienced during her sleep. She was carrying some kind of demon child.

He lay within the images. She remembered dreaming a tree, a representation of herself. It was sunny and bright, like a storybook page. There was even a hole in the tree, the kind that infants had been caused to believe owls resided in. But in her dream, there was no owl. Only a pair of yellow eyes staring out from inside the tree.

As these thoughts came back, she slowed her breathing again and gulped. What should she do now? It truly was a monster, like the other half responsible for it's creation. Would it even be partly human? All human? No, she was sure it was just a hollow.

Then it had to be destroyed?

Orihime toyed with this idea for a moment, and tried to forget it. She was unsure of what exactly she could do. There was no longer any doubt that it wasn't at least half hollow. It was dangerous, still. But could she get rid of it?

Just like always, she doubted herself. There was no way she could do it. Perhaps...if she had the intention of taking herself out along with it. Whatever it was, it would be an abomination, it would upset the balance of souls living and dead.

So it had to be taken away, no matter who went with it. She repeated that in her mind several times as she slowly collected her long, slender legs and pulled her shaking body up to her feet. Hands falling away from her abdomen, she moved to the kitchen and pulled open a drawer.

Choosing a sharp knife from the collection of cutlery, she slammed it shut again and stood back a little. Her hands quivered violently as she pointed it at the stomach.

Another flutter of movement kicked about inside of her. A quiet, innocent voice whispered in her head. Please.

The cool steel blade of the knife clattered against the ground is it dropped down. Orihime felt a steady tear roll down her cheek.

Whatever had just happened, she didn't want to think of killing anybody any more. Not even the monster child. Was it his voice she had heard? That was unclear but likely. Though, how could she do anything now?

If it feared, it couldn't be full hollow. What did a hollow have to fear? The voice didn't belong to the ravenous devil spawn she had pictured, there was something of a human included. It was her child. Not just the hollow's, part hers.

That was the next line to bounce around the head that seemed empty of other things. Instead of picking up the knife and continuing, she wrapped her arms around herself and sunk down onto her knees, right in the middle of the kitchen floor.

She felt as if there was no monster left to kill.

–

It was later in the day when she left the apartment.

She'd found a disguise; clothes she was unlikely to wear on a normal day. Nobody could see her as she carried out this important mission.

There were two people in particular that she wanted to avoid, Ichigo and his hollow. There'd be nothing she could do if she ran into either of them, which seemed unlikely given her destination. Urahara Shop.

Though she was now positive of her pregnancy, she wanted to check it for sure. And throughout the whole town, there was nobody who knew more about hollows than Kisuke. Or so she imagined. There were very few spiritually aware beings other than herself and Ichigo.

Unfortunately, she would have to explain the events of the past nights. She'd hoped to keep quiet from everybody else, but then she'd realized that there was a baby involved.

It still felt weird for her to think like that, growing a baby. But it was still almost definitely true, and while she still wasn't exactly thrilled, she felt happy to some extent. There were some new motherly instincts mixed in there, though.

When she reached the door, she didn't regret coming. It was important that she found out if it was possible, a human-hollow hybrid.

The door slid open and the man in the hat appeared, waving a hand-fan in front of his face. "Good evening, Inoue-san."

"U-Urahara-san? You knew I was coming?" she was startled by his sudden appearance.

"Indeed," he nodded, "I sensed your spiritual pressure coming this way. Now, is there anything I can help you with?"

She thought carefully about her words. "...I was hoping to ask a question, a very important one. I'm very sorry to burden you with it, but it's necessary that I know."

"Yes?"

"Well, I must first quickly ask, you...you know about the nature of hollows, don't you?"

"I do," he said firmly.

"Then I think...I came to the right place with a problem like this."

–

Very short chapter, don't kill me please!

Things have been a little slow in terms of inspiration, so I do apologise for that. But I'm glad that this chapter was finally finished, and I promise to make the next extra-lengthy.

Oh, and I've had to deal with a litter of kittens for the past 6 weeks. So I've been busy for good reasons (or not, one out of three died a little after birth and one of them is now leaving us I think...) and I hope you'll forgive me for that, too!

Not a great chapter...I'm sorry. But hopefully questions will be answered next time, so until then...

reviews please! :) Let me know what you think'll happen, and what you thought of the content of this chapter!

~HellYus