A/N: Here's to another chapter! I'm really glad people are really like this, and it's almost finished! In fact, you might notice this chapter is rather short, and I mean SHORT. The thing was I had the problem of ending this chapter at a good place, and had to make the decision of making it short or making it longer than I wanted, so I decided to make the cemetery visit two chapters long! The ending is still in the works, but I'm definitely trying to write another chapter ahead of the story!
You might also be happy to hear since it's the last month of summer break, I have to get this finished before school! So that means instead of weekly like I've been doing for a little while I might update earlier.
I would also like to thank everyone for all the reviews, alerts, and favorites to this story! It makes me really happy! Please continue reading and leaving reviews!
Disclaimer: Bleach by Kubo, title is a Gackt song, it's a very nice song!
Thanks, and enjoy!
Chapter six: Cemetery
"Ichigo! Wake up, my son! You'll be late for school!" His father's voice rang in his ears, waking Ichigo up. A vein throbbed in annoyance at his father's usual routine of crashing into his room and yelling at the top of his lungs for him to get up as he remained under his covers.
"What's this, your closet is open! Getting too lazy to even close a door? You won't even get out of bed anymore! Oh, how should I tell Masaki that her only son has turned into a vegetable!?" His wailing made Ichigo's eyes open in alarm. He sat up and looked over to the closet. His father was sobbing onto the covers, but he saw no petite angel.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" He yelled throwing his small clock at his father. He aim at his father's head was spot on as it clinked and fell to the floor. His father spun around with a distraught look before grinning.
"So you're still fit to throw! I'm so happy, my son! Now get down to the table for breakfast before it gets cold and you make Yuzu-chan cry!" He warned his son, and left. Ichigo sighed, scratching his head. He stopped, remembering why he was so alarmed when his father mentioned the open closet. He forgot about Rukia. He looked back at the closet, but it was empty.
"Rukia…?" He stood up from his bed and walked to the closet that was still ajar and looked inside, but there was no sign of the heavenly figure anywhere.
"Yes?" He heard her answer from behind him. He turned around and saw said woman was sitting on the floor at the foot of his bed.
"What are you doing there? I thought you were sleeping in the closet?" He questioned as he looked down.
"Your father came in, so I went somewhere else. Wouldn't it be strange to feel something soft but hard in air?" She stood up from the wooden floor. "It would only make him question if he was going mad."
"He's already a mad man. Wait- what do you mean, he can feel you?" He asked, confused. Rukia walked around him, as he felt her wings brush his skin for an instance.
"Even if you hypothetically don't see me, you can still feel my presence. Any living soul can touch an angel." She explained. She walked over to the closet and closed the door. Her just watched her as she walked idly back across his room and sat down on his unmade bed.
"People can touch and feel angels, huh…" The thought mused through his head until he realized she was sitting on his bed. "Hey, you get off my bed!" he exclaimed.
"Yell any louder and your family will think you were yelling… at yourself." She remained indifferent.
"I don't care, just get off!" He reached and grabbed her sides, raising her off his bed. Her eyes widened in shock at the feeling of him raising her from the bed and ground.
He turned and gently placed her down onto the floor again.
"I'm leaving now. I'll be back this afternoon. If anyone comes in here, stay away from them, and don't let them touch you." He advised her. She only gave a nod and he left the room, closing the door behind him. She turned back and sat down on his bed, looking out the window at the scenery of houses and people walking on the sidewalks. A couple of minutes later, she saw Ichigo emerge from the house as he turned to the sidewalk and walked away.
After a few days of him leaving for the entirety of the day, she learned that Ichigo was going to a school to learn. She asked of what he was learning, and he said several subjects and explained some of them. It had taken several more days for him to look up when he walked outside to see she was always there. When he came back home(with her looking out the window again) he told her not to sit on his bed and look out. Since there was nothing wrong with her looking out and there was basically nothing else to do in his room, she did it anyway and he only complained.
The routine remained the same for over a month- him waking up with her sitting at the foot of his bed, him telling her to get off his bed, she sitting back on his bed, him leaving and seeing her looking out the window. In the afternoon, he returned, did homework, went downstairs for dinner, came back and went to bed while she rested in his closet.
The routine had suddenly changed that day.
"Rukia, I'm going to the cemetery today." Ichigo said. Rukia looked from the window and stared at Ichigo, who came back up from breakfast. It was a day he did not go to school, as she had gotten used to.
"The cemetery? Why?" She asked. He didn't even yell at her for being on his bed once again. He was somber, which was rare to see since he always seemed to be annoyed at something or another.
"We're going to visit Mom's grave." He answered. Her eyes widened - she was foolish not to know why already.
"I see." She stood up from his bed and walked towards the door, but he stopped her.
"I'm going with my dad and sisters, there's no way you can come." He explained.
"I can get there myself." She shrugged.
"No! You're staying right here!" He pointed at her, glaring. She glared right back at him. After a couple moments of heated tension, he went on. "Later then." He gave a small wave, and left the room. After he closed the door, Rukia stayed in his room for a little while, lying on his bed in the most comfortable position she could with the wings.
After knowing Ichigo and his family were close or already at the cemetery, she sat up and opened the window that was above his bed. Even with the moderately heavy wings, she jumped down to the ground with ease.
She knew the way to the cemetery, having known her way all over the town from being here so long from her first mission before. She had watched a few funerals, curious at all the ceremonies living souls had for shells. The truth was the moment a living soul dies, it separates from the shell of its body and goes on, so everyone was crying over decaying matter, or dirt, she always thought. The decomposing matter held nothing to the past loved one except of what they looked like before, and it was unnecessary to go to such lengths for a shell that was left and was now unimportant.
That made her such a hypocrite.
She reached her destination and looked up at the hill where she could see tombstones poking up. The cemetery was full of shells of people, though there was hardly a burial the past years when cremation became the more popular choice and there being less room for the shells in the boxes the living placed them in. She walked past the entrance and wandered through, listless.
She was only walking around, skimming the names on the stones that marked the name of the souls that used to use the shell. It wasn't until a grave different from the others make her stop, looking carefully at it. It was an ordinary grave; a woman's name was engraved on the stone. But when she looked down, in front of it were small flowers that were placed all over the dirt. A little child picked them. It then struck her, looking at the name on the grave, that the woman could have been a mother.
A child was leaving her mother's grave offerings. She was sure the woman probably had died before her time unfortunately, and would never see the offerings made like many can in Society Above. It was something rather upsetting to know if she was a living soul, being told someone who had died before their time could not look back down to the living world.
She chuckled bitterly, suddenly understanding the irony of the thought.
If Rukia knew of her life as a living soul, she would see if she had a grave, and if there were flowers for her. The thought made a small smile spread on her face, an amusing thought it was.
But she knew she must have died as an infant- still-born, maybe- so she wouldn't have a marked grave or a grave at all. It was plausible her shell was just dumped to the ground and left to become soil or of some other use.
Rukia continued staring at the grave as the thoughts ran idly through her mind, not noticing a figure come behind her.
A/N: Terrible place to end, it really is! It's such a big cliff hanger! I hope it makes you want to read the next chapter even sooner!
If it does or doesn't, leave a review! Thanks!
