Sacrament
Episode 6: Nightmare
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"I ain't such a saint that I can promise to risk my life for strangers. Neither am I scum enough to sit quietly by while people are getting hurt before my eyes." –Bleach, Ichigo Kurosaki
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Isshin cleared his throat before he spoke. "Hisana is alive."
"…what?" Ichigo stood up quickly from his seat, knocking the chair over. It fell to the ground with an audible clang that echoed throughout the dining room. "That's impossible! She died eleven years ago!"
"Calm down, Ichigo! And keep your voice down." Isshin glared at his son morosely. "The only people that know about Hisana's situation are in this very room. The only reason I am telling you this is because you are Rukia's best friend."
Ichigo blushed at the mention of Rukia, the red speckling his cheeks profusely. Hadn't they made-out just ten minutes before…?
The mockery of it all.
"So?" Ichigo clenched his fists. "You expect me to tell Rukia that her mother is alive? You fool!" He flipped the dining table over, making Urahara and Yoruichi flinch but Isshin didn't even bat an eyelash. "She won't believe me -not after all these years of thinking that her mother is dead- and she'll be furious with me for bringing it up… it's a very sensitive subject for her. You and I should both know the feeling!" Ichigo spat towards his father with zeal.
"You don't have to tell her this moment," Isshin said, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. "That would be ridiculous. First, we must locate Hisana and bring her here -secretly of course- and present her to Rukia in person. Then Rukia will be forced to see the truth."
"I see." Ichigo thought, putting a finger to his chin in contemplation. "How has Hisana managed to stay alive? She has been living alone for eleven years, for Christ's sake."
"That's where we come in." Urahara spoke up as he rubbed his wife's hand with his them."
"Hisana is an old friend of mine." Yoruichi stated simply. "It's not like I was just going to let her die because of some tradition. We've been in contact with her."
"Hisana had escaped to her homeland in England." Urahara said, tilting his hat downwards, casting a deep shadow across his long face. "She still has a few relatives there that helped her survive. Discreetly, of course. Byakuya has agents in England that would report her if they had the chance."
Ichigo nodded at all of this. But one question still stuck in his mind like honey on toast. "How did she escape, exactly? She jumped into the fire. You saw it with your own eyes, father-!"
"Ichigo." Isshin cut his son off sharply. The man took a deep breath and exhaled, calming himself. "Please, sit down. And don't try to break my chair this time."
Ichigo reluctantly righted the chair that was on the floor and sat down. He considered picking up the dining table and putting it back to its upright position but thought it was irrelevant at the moment.
"Go on," said Ichigo, waving a hand towards his father. He leaned back in the chair, taking calming breaths to steady his nerves. What could old goat face be rambling about now?
But it was Yoruichi who cleared her throat. Ichigo gave her his full attention. Yoruichi spoke.
"How much do you know about black magic, Ichigo?"
….
Rukia clenched Ichigo's blanket around her shoulders, begging for its warmth. It was extremely cold out in the wooded area were Rukia and her mother used to practice their weapon training. Snow was piled on the ground, and Rukia trudged through it in bare feet. The snow seemed to cut into her feet like glass, making them blister and bleed as she walked forcefully through the snow. The sun had set hours ago, leaving a blaring white moon in its wake. Rukia used the streaming light of the moon to find a pathway that wasn't covered in snow. Rukia sighed in relief as her feet touched warm dirt. It was in great contrast to the icy snow. She dug her toes in it, relishing in the warmth that reminded her of Ichigo.
Wait… why was she here?
In the middle of the forest, where her and her mother used to play.
In the snow.
At night.
By herself?
Rukia's brows furrowed in confusion, but for some reason, she knew she had to keep moving. She just had to. So she picked up her pace, letting the dirt warm up her aching and bleeding feet considerably. The path was leading out of the woods. The trees were starting to become less dense and more scattered as she traveled south. Rukia walked for several more minutes until the trees were gone entirely and she was in a clearing. The dirt under her feet had gotten even warmer, so much so that it was almost uncomfortable, but Rukia brushed the feeling away.
Then she saw her mother. Beautiful and glowing in the light of the moon. She was standing with her back to Rukia, just yards away from her daughter's reach.
"Mom?" Rukia called, her arm stretching out towards her mother. "Mom…?"
Hisana didn't move. The white dress she was wearing –the same one from the ceremony—was billowing around her ankles in the cold breeze.
"Mom… please…" Rukia started to run, but she was moving so slowly, as if she under tons of gallons of crushing water. The dirt beneath her heels was now scalding, it was bubbling under her feet in a boil. She screamed, the heat overtaking her. Pulling her down. Surely, her feet must have been engulfed in flames. The fire licked its way up her legs, higher, higher, burning.
"Mom!" Rukia yelled.
Her mother finally turned towards her. Her face was contorted in a mask of pain. She was crying, but it wasn't water streaming from her tear ducts, it was fire –pure white flames.
Rukia was sinking deeper into the dirt, the boiling hotness of it consuming her every action. She screamed once more, the piercing sound echoing off the trees and mountains surrounding them.
"Help me! Mom, please!" Rukia was sinking deeper into the boiling mouth of dirt. The pain was so unbearable. She was being burned alive. Just like her mother had been.
Hisana's sad face melted into a smirk. Her mouth opened, but her voice was not her own.
It was deeper, like a man.
"Burn! Bitch! Whore! Burn!" The flames that were streaming from Hisana's eyes caused her skin to melt. Her face reshaped itself, turning into that of a man's. Deadly brown eyes glared at Rukia. Hisana's midnight black hair retreated into her head to become a mess of curly brown locks. The dress that was billowing furiously around her legs shrunk in on themselves and became a pair of white pants, and a long-sleeved shirt.
It was no longer her mother before her.
It was Aizen.
"No!" Rukia was now waist-deep in the scorching mud. She held Ichigo's blanket in her arms, above the boiling flames.
Aizen walked up to her and grabbed the blanket. Then he tossed it aside, out of her reach. It crumpled in the dust. Forgotten, and cold. Aizen grabbed Rukia by the hair.
"I'll burn every last bit of you until you are nothing but ash." He pulled her hair sharply at the roots. "And then I'll burn the ashes too."
Rukia tried to defend herself, clawing at Aizen's hands that were tightly gripping her long black hair. "Stop! Please!"
She didn't even leave a scratch on his skin.
Aizen laughed, a horrible, echoing sound that raped her ears and made her scream. The boiling mud was up to her neck; her arms were black and burning beneath her.
She was completely defenseless.
"Goodbye." Aizen plunged her head into the mud. The hotness invaded her throat as she screamed, filling her with fire from the inside out. She thrashed around, surprised that her limbs were still attached to her body. She tried to reach the surface of the boiling mud, but she just wasn't strong enough. Rukia could see Aizen's silhouette from under the mud as if it were only water.
She was still screaming, and then she finally ran out of air.
Rukia expected the end. Her death. She closed her eyes, and waited for it to come.
But it didn't. So she opened them.
She was surrounded by water. She gasped as coolness came over her black, scorched limbs, bringing her the sweetest relief. Rukia calmed, her breathing becoming normal. Wait, she could breathe under water? Huh. The coldness of the water entered her lungs too with its sweet coolness, giving her the uttermost relief.
She was safe.
But then Rukia noticed that she was completely alone. With no one there to comfort her and kiss her goodbye. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mixing in with the water around her. She half-expected for the water to turn hot and burn her again, but it didn't.
It just got colder.
She was sinking now, into pitch blackness. Rukia didn't even trying to swim upwards to safety. Even though she could breathe, Rukia was not going to be okay. The crushing weight of the water surrounded her, and her little body could not fight it, not with a thousand arrows, or the strongest of swords. It was just her, and death.
And she accepted it like an old friend.
Rukia woke up. Ichigo's blanket was wrapped tightly around her, so she hugged it closer.
Her dreams weren't usually that bad. Maybe something had happened. Or was about to. Rukia wasn't sure. All she knew was that something was going to change.
For better or for worse, she couldn't tell.
….
Ichigo's scowl deepened. "Black magic? What are you talking about?"
"It's real." said Yoruichi. She squeezed Urahara's hand. "She escaped by using a technique called flashstep –an ability that allows you to travel from once place to another with amazing speed. Hisana used this technique right before the flames came into contact with her skin. Everyone thought she had been burned alive… but she was really safe and sound in England, miles away."
Ichigo was silent. Then, he jumped to his feet suddenly, knocking his chair over and causing it to splinter and crack in half. Much to Isshin's dismay. "YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THIS BULLSHIT?"
Ichigo stormed out of the dining room in a huff. Yoruichi, Urahara, and Isshin called after him to come back.
"Come back, son!"
"Let us explain!"
"Don't be so foolish!"
"Hisana Kuchiki is dead, dammit!" Ichigo grabbed a wool coat, put it on, and rushed out of the door, slamming it behind him.
He needed to see Rukia.
….
The sun was setting now, but Rukia's violet eyes were wide open. How could she possibly fall asleep after having such a horrifying nightmare? She wouldn't sleep at all tonight.
Since Rukia had been avoiding any social contact with Renji, she had spent the rest of the day in her room smothered in Ichigo's blanket reading books and petting her puppy Kon. She also thought about Ichigo. A lot. Thought about the kiss. A lot. Thought about how amazing his arms felt wrapped around her waist. A lot.
She sighed. Half in nostalgia, the other in longing to relive those memories again.
It was then that there was a rap on her window.
Rukia closed her book slightly, marking her page with an index finger.
"What do you think that is, Kon?" Rukia asked her small puppy who was sleeping contentedly at the foot of her bed. Nothing answered Rukia's question accept Kon's soft snore. Then something rapped against her window again. Rukia bookmarked her page and went to her window, pulling Ichigo's blanket tighter around her cold shoulders. The Kuchiki estate was always cold.
She walked over to her windowsill, her feet making soft patters against the stone floor. Her eyes focused to the darkness outside to see a red-faced Ichigo throwing pebbles at her window. A sapphire-colored pebble hit her window right when Ichigo realized he had gotten her attention. He waved at Rukia, signaling her to come down. She gave him a nod, and held up a finger.
She needed a few minutes.
Rukia turned away from the window and looked in her mirror. God, her hair was a mess. She brushed through it vigorously until it shimmered in the soft pale light of the moon creeping through her curtains. She was about to throw on a dress when she realized that would be extremely stupid due to the cold weather and threw on some brown leather pants and a cream-colored flannel shirt. She put on her brown wool cloak that dropped down all the way to her ankles. Rukia lifted the hood over her face and grabbed Ichigo's blanket and threw it into her leather bag.
Rukia opened her door with a soft creak. She flinched at the sound.
You never really get used to sneaking out at night.
Her black-booted feet pattered across the stone floor as she ghosted past Unohana's bedchambers. Rukia smiled when she heard Unohana's subtle breathing from the other side of the door and quicked her pace. She passed Renji's door without much trouble and finally opened the door to the back entrance. She pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders as she ran through the gardens to where Ichigo was waiting outside her window. Her back was turned to her, and it briefly reminded Rukia was her nightmare she had earlier in the day. She shivered –whether from the cold or from the dream, she couldn't recall—and approached Ichigo.
"Hey." Rukia whispered.
Ichigo flinched and turned around. "Dammit, was took you so long, midget?"
"Shut up." Rukia punched him playfully in the shoulder. "I wasn't exactly expecting a visitor so late in the night."
"Oh really?" Ichigo said, a smile hinting on his lips. "You don't have any secret boyfriends to attend to at this hour? That's not was I expect—OW!"
Rukia had punched him. Harder, this time.
"Only one comes to mind, actually." Rukia rose her eyebrows flirtatiously.
"Is that so?" Ichigo closed the distance between them in one long stride. He wrapped his arms around Rukia's waist –God, it felt even better than she remembered—and pulled her flush against him. "Who is this secret boy?"
"Oh, I don't know…" Rukia put her hands on his warm, chiseled chest. "He kind of looks like you, though." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.
Ichigo hummed with satisfaction and kissed her back, his hands moving from her waist to the sides of her face in a forceful, passionate kiss. "I'm a jealous man." He said when they broke for air.
"Shut up." Rukia said and tangled her hands in Ichigo's strange orange hair. She kissed him again, soft at first, but the kiss quickly grew in intensity as their desire grew stronger. Ichigo's tongue invaded her mouth, causing Rukia to melt, blush, and moan in pleasure all at the same time. She tugged at the roots of Ichigo's hair, driving him insane. He kept one hand on her cheek, but used to other to place on the small of her back. He drove her even closer to him, if that was even possible. They were so close Rukia was surprised that they didn't melt and become one entity.
After a few hungry minutes of this vigorous activity, Rukia pulled away, gasping for air. Her lips were red and swollen, matching Ichigo. She felt something inside her gut warm and purr with need.
"How did you learn to kiss like that?" Rukia asked suddenly, whispering in Ichigo's ear.
"Must be instinct." Ichigo took advantage of her closeness and slid his tongue from the corner of her mouth to her ear. Rukia shivered with pleasure.
"God, you're so beautiful."
Rukia blushed at the compliment, and bent her neck back to give Ichigo easy access to the exposed skin there. He softly kissed, nipped, and sucked on her delicious neck for a full minute before Rukia almost went mad.
"Ichigo—" she said, pulling away from her best friend slightly. "We need to stop. Or leave. Renji will hear us."
"I'm not scared of that bastard." Ichigo mumbled against her neck, but released her anyway.
"You should be. He is a knight after all." Rukia whispered, worriedly glancing up at her window, expecting Renji to be watching from above with hate-filled eyes. "Please, let's just go."
Ichigo sighed. "As you wish." He grabbed her hand and led her away into the night.
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A/N: Hello! Are you still there? Sorry that I haven't been updating as quickly as before. I've been busy with school and work and friends and stuff. You know. Anyway, I just sat down and wrote this bad boy because I wanted you guys to have something to read on Thanksgiving. (: Thank you guys SO MUCH for all your reviews and for putting Sacrament as a Favorite Story/Story Alert! It means so much to me and I wish I could give you all a big fat piece of Boston Cream Pie. Please give me more reviews! Did you like Rukia's dream scene, or not? Tell me! I need inspiration for the next chapter! 私はあなたを愛して！