The Sun and the Moon

Chapter 8

Takumi sat forlornly on the steps of the entrance of the hospital, sighing as he rested his chin on his hands, pouting slightly. He watched in boredom people walking in and out of the building, seemingly oblivious to his presence. He had seen his own parents exit the building earlier, his 'Kaa-chan sobbing uncontrollably into his Otou-san's shoulder. Takumi cried himself hoarse calling out for his parents, but they seemed unable to hear his shouts nor detect his presence. All his attempts to capture their attention were futile, until finally he was forced to watch in agony as his parents drove off from the hospital, leaving him behind.

Now he was sitting in front of the hospital building, waiting for this "shinigami" Kurosaki-sensei said would come and take him to "Soul Society". But Takumi had been waiting for almost three hours now, and there was no sign of a midget nor a person in black kimono.

The boy was starting to think the doctor had been lying to him, when a raven-haired woman in black kimono appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. There was a sword tucked in her white obi, and her eyes were the colour of freshly-picked tulips; she looked positively out of place amidst the urban setting. "Ohayou. What's your name, child?" The lady asked with a smile in a strong but gentle voice.

Takumi stood up as he answered with his name, then he asked, "Are you a… s-shinigami?"

The black-haired woman seemed taken aback by this question. "How did you know—"

"You're a midget in black kimono!" the boy answered hurriedly, his face beaming as if he was positive he had the right answer to a difficult question posed by a teacher. Rukia tried her best not to take offence with the boy's insensitive comments about her lack of height. "Who told you that?"

"Kurosaki-sensei did!"

Takumi looked at the lady when she did not respond to his answer. She now looked very serious indeed, and at that moment he realized that his all-too-honest remark might have offended the pretty lady in front of him. "Ano… I'm sorry, Onee-san…"

The lady did not seem to hear his apology; for a moment the boy thought the shinigami-lady was probably angry with him now and would refuse to lead him to this "Soul Society" Kurosaki-sensei was talking about. But to his surprise, the shinigami-lady's lips curved into a knowing smile, as if she had just shared a private joke. "Sou ka, Takumi-chan?"

"Are you angry, Onee-san?"

"Nope," replied Rukia, stooping down on her knee so that she was now the same height as the boy. "Though you're one to call someone a midget when you're hardly any taller." Takumi gave a sheepish smile as the shinigami-lady ruffled his hair in an affectionate manner.

She unsheathed her sword, the bright sign of the Kagamino Hospital reflecting on its blade. The boy looked frightened at the sight of the blade, but Rukia reassured him of his safety. "You ready?"

The boy nodded gingerly. Rukia looked up and regarded the building she faced for a moment, before pressing the butt of the hilt of her sword on the boy's forehead. As the boy disappeared slowly in front of her, Rukia gave nobody in particular in the building one last look, the corner of her lips twitching.

"Midget, eh?"

Two days had barely passed since the death of one of his patients, but Ichigo found Takumi's empty bed in the paediatrics ward quickly occupied by another young patient, this time a young girl called Hidemi, who could only be best described, in Ichigo's opinion, as a spoilt brat.

"Okaa-chan!"

The young girl's high-pitched screams had been torturing him the whole day, right from when he had attempted to insert the dextrose needle into the girl's hand, which earned his eardrums a good beating for an hour straight. The girl's mother quickly came to attend to her whim, as Ichigo scanned the contents of the girl's profile folder. Chronic asthma, the diagnosis scribbled illegibly by the previous doctor read. Great, Ichigo thought, he would be hearing this girl more often that his ears would prefer.

"So is my baby all right now, sensei? I was so terrified last night, when she had an asthma attack…"

Ichigo assured the parents of Hidemi's stable condition, but explained that the girl had to be confined in the wards for a few days to be kept under observation. To this the girl complained loudly in her high-pitched voice. Ichigo excused himself, more than happy to leave the room.

As he walked towards the doctor's lounge, hoping to get a few hours sleep before he started his on-call duty at midnight, his thoughts drifted to the events of the past few days. He assumed that his recently dead patient Takumi had been konsou-ed to Soul Society, for he no longer saw the boy hanging around in front of the hospital, where Ichigo saw the boy sitting on the day of his death. However, that the boy had disappeared was not Ichigo's main concern; on his mind for the past few days were the instances, those brief split second moments, when he had felt that familiar reiatsu. The first was outside Orihime's apartment block, which he had dismissed as his own heart's longing playing tricks on his mind, but when he felt it again – that refreshing, reminiscent reiatsu which he had not sensed in almost ten years – during his conversation with Takumi outside the hospital building, he was sure that he was not imagining things this time.

But it couldn't have been her… could it?

Ichigo noticed that outside, the rain pattered down noisily on the window panes of the building. He gave a huge yawn as he approached the doctor's lounge. Opening the door, he saw that the bunk beds were empty, and he contented himself with the fact that he would be getting a good few hours of uninterrupted sleep tonight. Perhaps he had imagined all of it indeed. As he tucked himself into one of the beds and closed his eyes, the events of their last meeting at Byakuya's house replayed themselves in his mind, and they sure did all indicate that Ichigo would never again catch sight of another death butterfly nor of a kimono-clad figure. But before he could really think thoroughly about the slim possibility that his heart's wishes might have been fulfilled, Ichigo had drifted into a deep slumber, his dreams including a certain black-haired shinigami.