At the Hands of a Hollow
Chapter 12: Reaching for the Light
Previously: Ichigo was losing control of his breathing, and he started to choke. "Ur...Urahara!" he yelled. Both the store owner and his father rushed into the room, starting to shout things at each other. Isshin began to check over her, while Kisuke starting chanting kido spells that Ichigo couldn't make sense of.
That was because he was losing his senses, falling into darkness. He reached out for her hand again, afraid that somebody would take her away. He sat there as his vision went blank, and he lost consciousness.
He was floating in the air. The world looked empty in his eyes. Nobody could reach him, and he couldn't move any part of his body. It was dark, and the light that could always keep him going when he was lost in a place like this had disappeared.
Time went on, not so quickly in reality, but it felt like a thousand years to him. He had lost everything he had, or so he thought. A monster ripped his happiness away from his world, just to satisfy itself.
It all seemed peaceful, but this world that he was in was his own guilt. He could have protected her, but in the end he had been so useless to her. It was as if it didn't matter how much stronger her got, or how many times he swore it, he just didn't have the power.
That monster took her away.
He couldn't reach his light.
And where was she know? He didn't know for sure, but he had a good enough idea. In this prison of mind, he couldn't hear anything but the name 'Orihime' being whispered every second.
Why was that all he could hear? Was anybody trying to get to him at all? Were they all ashamed? Occupied with their own lives and problems?
No, a new voice echoed through the darkness. He couldn't recognize it at first, but when it spoke again, his head started to hurt and his eyes started to open.
"Ichigo, are you planning to wake up any time soon?"
Somebody was poking at his face. As soon as his vision cleared up, he saw the face of Yoruichi. He groaned and rubbed his eyes. It was morning, there was light coming in through the small window at the top of the back wall.
Looking around for a moment, he knew the room. After all, he'd spent plenty of time there recently. It was the back room of Urahara Shoten.
"Come on, get up. The commotion's all over now," Yoruichi stood up and stretched her back.
"Wh-... Where are they?"
"Who?" she blinked.
"Urahara, my dad, and the hollow..."
Yoruichi smirked, "I'm quite surprised, I was expecting another name to come up."
He scowled, "Even if I asked about her, what difference w-"
"Wouldn't you like to see her?"
Ichigo's face lit up instantly, and his eyes burned with curiosity. "What did you say?"
"She's in the next room, sleeping, don't you want to see her?"
"Of course, but..."
"What?" she grinned.
"...How?"
"Please don't tell me you really thought we'd let her die," Yoruichi scoffed, "not Orihime Inoue."
In the back of his mind, the light flickered once again. It was weak, but it was there. He could see it, and it rushed back. His memories of her eyes, her smile, her innocent smiles and lines from the stories that only her imagination could produce.
Could he reach her now?
"It was difficult," Yoruichi said, "and we can't really say how long she'll need to rest. But she's perfectly stable, and she's been cleaned up and healed. It's just the blood loss and exhaustion that she needs to make up for. I think she'll be awake in a few days or so."
He sighed in relief, and pulled his legs from beneath him, eventually forcing himself up. "Where are the others then?"
Even after he'd gotten the answer he wanted, he couldn't help but wonder a little.
"Isshin went home after they finished last night, and I can only assume that Kisuke is sleeping somewhere now, too," she rolled her eyes, then her yellow gaze became serious, "and then the child..."
"Right..."
"The child is in the room next to Orihime's, also asleep."
"You're not expecting me to want to see it, are you?"
"Not exactly, but I don't expect you to just leave it be, either."
"Why?"
"Because I think you deserve to assess just how dangerous it is, should the time come when we'll have to make a decision."
Ichigo nodded, "Well, I want to see it now, anyway."
Yoruichi simply raised her eyebrow and folded her arms, "You're sure?"
He wasn't, really. But he wanted to see the creature that had caused all of this trouble, besides the hollow in his head. He nodded.
As he followed her to the room, he realized something.
'You're being very quiet... I haven't heard you speak since we got here yesterday...'
"Well, I don't really feel like talking."
He left it alone and entered the small room, tailing Yoruichi. The door closed behind him, and he stood to observe. She jumped out of the low, open window at the back.
"What the hell are you doing?"
She smiled, "I decided to leave you in here for a bit, whether you like it or not. But you're trapped in there, so do your 'assessments' now. I'm coming back in through the front, so I will be in there. If I hear you trying to hurt her, you'll be in trouble! Just remember how much she's meant to Orihime all along."
And with that, the closed the window and vanished.
Ichigo blinked, baffled by her sudden trick. It was unexpected, definitely. Was it for the better? Should he expect to come to terms with the child all alone?
Maybe he just needed to trust himself not to kill it. For Orihime.
He took a few steps forward. It was there, lying on a futon. He couldn't see it's face, it was wrapped up in several blankets.
Ichigo sat down and watched. As it sensed his presence, it started to wriggle around. Though his guard was up, he couldn't help but stare in amazement when it's face was revealed.
This baby did not look like it had been born in the past twenty four hours. It looked more like it was a month or two.
He thought back to what Yoruichi had said. 'She.'
Orihime was wrong, in the end. Would it make her change her mind? He sighed and shook his head to himself, she seemed to love the thing even though it was half hollow, so she probably wouldn't care that it wasn't the gender she thought it would be.
"...I don't know, never mind. Why so certain with the 'he', anyway?"
She took a few seconds to calm down, and shrugged her shoulders, "I don't really know, it just feels like I should call it a he...I mean, a hollow is usually a 'he', right?".
Just as he thought back to that moment, her eyes opened.
Something between yellow and orange, glowing orbs. But they weren't completely hollow, they just didn't look the same. Much more...human.
He was almost surprised to see that she looked so unlike a hollow. She was a baby, a real person. Despite her innocent face, she was a hollow, and he wouldn't let himself forget that part.
The eyes weren't giving in, either.
As he watched her very silently, it smacked him in the face. She was pretty cute, not that he'd seen many babies in his years. Her little amber eyes gazed up at him curiously.
Ichigo tried to pick out hollow-like features, as faults, reasons to change his mind about her cuteness. Obviously the eyes were first on the list, so vibrant and clear. But that was just the colour, the usual black eye ball found in a hollow hadn't shown here. Much more like human eyes, just very bright.
Then, her skin was quite pale. Not a ridiculous shade of white, but a gentle snowy complexion which was very elegant.
Lastly, she looked so much older than she was. Thick tufts of very light brown hair were already growing on the top of her head. He wasn't sure what else to expect from her. Still, that seemed to be all he could find.
Oh, and how could he forgot. She just ripped her way out of her own mother a few hours ago.
His face set into a scowl.
The little baby giggled at him. Ichigo's eyes widened as watched her, amazed. A smile had spread across her face, and she started waving her chubby arms about while speaking baby gibberish. He was confused as well as surprised.
What was he supposed to say he felt? Because whatever that was, something had changed. It was an indescribable feeling that brought on the question he'd tried to avoid before.
Was she partly his, too?
Sure, she was half human, but it came from Orihime. Perhaps if she continued to grow very quickly, he would be able to see anything she could of inherited from him.
Then, in the light from the window, he saw a slight orange tint at the edges of her hair, where the sunlight hit it. He sighed. That probably didn't mean anything. It was all hollow and Orihime.
But then, who really was to say that he hadn't contributed anything towards her. His hollow was a part of him, maybe it was his kid, but the hollow being active at the time had changed everything. Ichigo slammed his palms into his face and scowled at his own thoughts.
"Wuuah," the baby murmured.
He looked down to her again. She was watching him with those luminous eyes, wide with curiosity. That's what everything was about. Curiosity. What would she be? Who would she be? What was she capable of...
Ichigo sighed to himself and slowly reached out to move the blanket, so he could see her face more clearly. As soon as his outstretched finger came near her, she grabbed onto him.
He pulled it back quickly. "Ouwha," she pouted at him.
It was probably risky in some way, but her eyes drew him back in. The last thing he wanted was for her to cry, anyway. His hand hovered back over to her and she held his finger.
Her little face crinkled in concentration as she observed his hand. It was probably strange, in her eyes, about the size of her face, actually.
There was nothing else he could do. He was captivated and couldn't escape. As long as the little baby was holding onto his finger, he couldn't think about hurting her.
So maybe he had lost his sense too.
–
He closed the door as quietly as he could.
It was already dark outside. He'd managed to spend the whole day in there, watching over her. There wasn't really anything else to do, anyway. Yoruichi eventually came in to tell him he could leave the room.
When she asked about his evaluation of the baby, he said he needed more time.
Of course he did. She had only just been born, how much could he learn about her? Maybe her true nature would be more obvious as time went by, and not a lot of it. Even in the half-day he had been with her, something about her changed.
She grew even quicker than he ever could have thought. It gave him a headache, thinking that only twenty four hours after her birth she might appear to be four months old.
Yoruichi was waiting in the front of the shop for him.
"Dinner will be done in about ten minutes if you want to stay," she said as he walked into the room.
Ichigo sighed, "Thanks, but I think I'll head back."
"Oh, well then I'm surprised," she mused, "I thought you'd want to see Orihime."
The thought of seeing her had actually slipped his mind. Then he realized, somewhere deep down he didn't want to see what a skinny, pale, ripped up, scarred, sickly mess she could be now. It wasn't likely that she could have magically regained her previous state of health while sleeping, right after having the baby ripped out of her stomach.
"Not until I know she's stitched up again."
"Well she is, almost. Kisuke says he still needs to heal the deeper wounds. Perhaps by tomorrow she'll be in a better state..."
Ichigo nodded once and slid his hands into his pockets. After a few moments, he spoke. "I think I've just ended up confused about this whole thing."
"What do you mean?"
"The kid... she's, err... more normal than I expected."
A smile formed on her lips, "More normal than any of us expected, maybe excluding Orihime."
"I guess it's just cos' she's half human... but still, I'm glad we didn't have too much trouble."
"You mean, because she could have died?"
He turned to the man behind him. "Urahara," he muttered.
"I think you should be grateful, Ichigo," he said, "it could have been much worse. It's been a risky event, but here at the end we've got a whole new species of hollow."
"Well, hollow and human, it's not anything that amazing, right? If anything, the hollow would make it weaker than the average..."
Yoruichi walked over and ruffled his hair, "Actually, we've found out that she has the ability to become a shinigami. Kisuke read it in her spiritual pressure."
Ichigo blinked, "How? What does that mean?"
Kisuke elbowed him before following Yoruichi to the back of the shop, "It means that she technically has three parents, and you're one of them."
They disappeared just like that.
His heart rate increased as his mind twisted into a pile of questions. Sitting on top of all of that, though, was a collection of fragments of excitement, which seemed to grow in number with each knew addition to the heap below.
At the same time as all of that, his throat seemed to be closing in. Even if he tried, he couldn't speak. As he walked away from Urahara Shoten, when the hollow's voice echoed 'King?', he couldn't find a word to reply with, anyway.
–
I suck.
This is a terrible chapter, it's so slow and boring... but anyway, I'm hoping you'll like the fact that I updated anyway. Because I don't seem to do it very often, anyway...
Oh, and I think everyone has picked up on what the similar story I mentioned right at the beginning of this story is. Dunnn, yes. Somebody said it in a review once too...
Breaking Dawn! :P
I'm sorry, I know people don't like it. I don't really, it's like a love-hate relationship, me and the Twilight Saga. I've read all the books and I've seen all the movies, and I know how terrible it is! But leave me alone.
It's better not to ask questions, my mind is a strange place.
Anyways, reviews will be muchly appreciated! We're almost at 100, eek! (I've had a few PM reviews as well though!) Once we get there, I'll try my very best to update twice before the end of the year! So please, tell me what you thought about that l'il hollow baby!
~HellYus