A/N: Wow ! Thanks for the suggestions and for the reviews !! thank you ..sorry for the cliffhangers :)
Disclaimer: I dont own Bleach !
Late
Chapter 8-The Connection
A sudden surge of reiatsu erupted out of nowhere, causing a wave to cascade through her whole body. It's a strong one, oh yes, a very strong one. She abruptly stopped running and turned her head to the area where she thinks the unknown reiatsu came from.
She managed to tighten her eyes close, due to the fact that the reiatsu was too much to bear and had started to sting her eyes. She's also intrigue and has a sudden but mysterious urge to identify whose reiatsu this was and whether he or she is an ally or not.
The reiatsu, she notice, is full of negative emotions, anger being the strongest and clouding every inch of it, followed by sadness, cloaking it in darkness. She feels it getting stronger and stronger by the minute, like a beast being waken up in a not so good way after years and years of deep and isolated slumber. She felt a ghostly and imaginary hand closing in around her throat, choking her more and more.
This person's anger is . . . out of control!
Despite the trouble with breathing, she continued on forcing her way through the thick cloud of anger to the center of it to find out who in their right mind would produce such a negative reiatsu. As she groped her way towards the center, she felt the cloud of anger slowly vanish and disappear, to be replace by a familiar feeling that had taken over. The sudden familiarity of the reiatsu made her worry, she didn't like where this was heading but nonetheless, she continued on looking.
Whose reiatsu is this!?
Ever since the familiarity appeared, her mind had started to buzz with questions. It was as if the she and the reiatsu have an unexplainable connection between them since she didn't feel any other discomfort aside from worry; proving one thing . . . the reiatsu's owner is very close to her. Although one major thing blocks her way of finding out . . . she can't remember the person at all even with all the familiarity around her.
After a few minutes of walking and thinking as her mind flashed through her memory like a slideshow trying to figure out who the person is, she stopped as an image of Ichigo appeared in her head. All of a sudden, everything fit into place as the familiarity finally took its toll on her. There was no denying it . . . this is Kurosaki Ichigo's own reiatsu.
"Ichigo . . ." She whispers.
Suddenly, as if a trigger had been pulled due to her whisper, Ichigo appeared in front of her. She was greatly taken aback from this, she wasn't expecting to see him and stood unmoving on the spot, as if she was rooted to the ground. She wasn't just surprised by this, but also because of the weirdness of it. She was looking at him like a normal person would, from the outside yet, at the time same time, is also inside of him; feeling everything that he's feeling, seeing everything he's seeing . . . she was him. It confused her greatly, she didn't know where she stands, inside or outside of him?
From a perspective's view, his head was bowed down, his short orange messy hair hooded his head, blocking her from seeing his face. She couldn't see anything except him, everything else was pitch black. He didn't move at all, he just sat there, on the ground, with his head bent, oblivious to her presence. She tried to yell his name out but nothing came out of her mouth. What seemed like an unbreakable silence cloaked both of them. Her brain told her legs to move and surprisingly, they did. She slowly walked to his huddled figure, as she drew nearer, she felt her foot step on something wet and warm, yet sending cold shivers through her spine. She looked down and noticed a dark colored liquid around the area which she stood, she traced a long but narrow path of the liquid underneath her and found herself about to gag in horror as she realized that the warm, wet and dark colored liquid was coming from Ichigo's unmoving body, making her realize that the liquid was none other than blood. She desperately reached out for him but found herself being pulled back by a mysterious strong force. Ichigo slowly disappeared and then vanished in front of her, the familiar feel of the reiatsu followed and she felt the invisible hand that was tightly around her throat before appeared once again but this time, choking her even more.
He let his head hung low. He couldn't feel anything, his whole body had gotten numb ever since the thing punctured through his body. His hand dropping from zangetsu and slowly falling to the ground, alongside him where the rest of his already aching body. His eyesight faltered and blurred for a moment but shortly cleared up, allowing him to see a pool of blood rapidly growing around him, coming out of from his wounds. Also letting him see the zanpaktou-like object that had pierced him from the hollow, still embedded in his body.
His eyebrows furrowed together as his face turned into a scowl. He's pissed at himself for becoming such a weak person that he unintentionally turned into during the last five years. He remembered very well that he was nowhere near like this all those years ago.
What happened to my strength!?
Even so, he felt his reiatsu constantly leaking out of control from his slowly failing body. Mocking from the hollow had lit anger deep inside him that rapidly clouded his reiatsu and pushing it to higher limits, intoxicating himself. After being pierced, his reiatsu had surprisingly turned into its normal self although not greatly, traces of anger can still be sense all over it. The overwhelming power of anger mixed with his own massive reiatsu left his bones creaking, making his body ache even more after the wounds that have been inflicted on him.
"How do you like it shinigami??" All of my attacks have a special poison in them that damages the insides of a body," The hollow paused. "It's probably getting around your whole system now . . . Do you feel the numbness and pain?"
The hollow started to laugh.
Despite from his own urge to stand back up and fight the hollow, there was no denying it as numbness and pain had gotten all over his body, justifying what the hollow said. If anyone was to look at his face right now, pain was written all over it, but luckily for him, his head was bowed and no one else was around. It was painful for him to move a single muscle, and so, as he breathe, waves of pain rushed throughout his body.
Damn . . .this isn't good . . .
As his body's condition turned from bad to worse after every minute. He couldn't help but feel that this was his end. This wasn't the exact way he thought he would die but due to the condition he's in, he has no other choice but to slowly give in although it's not a common thing he would do but, again, he has no other choice.
His sight blurred, he expected it to clear up again but this time, it didn't. His eyes closed slowly, plunging him into darkness. Then all of a sudden, the noises that he had been hearing were all blocked out and all he could he hear was his own labored breathing and his beating heart that was rapidly decreasing. His life seemed to flash through out his head, sailing across one emotion to the other.
Oh shit . . . So this is what it's like when someone's about to die . . ..
Suddenly, the slideshow that was showing him his last look at life stopped at Rukia's face and a voice rang out throughout his head, a voice that he will never forget, that one voice that he had been hearing in his dreams, her voice that had haunted him every night. It sounded so close yet so far but more lively than he can remember.
"Ichigo!!!!!!"
His eyes flew open immediately, his sight was blurry at first and then gradually clearing up, for the second time. He feels his heart beat back to life once again, pumping blood throughout his body once again. His lungs functioned normally once again, although still sending waves of pain throughout his body but, to his own surprise, it didn't hurt as much. The sounds that was blocked for him to hear had invaded his hearing had finally came back.
He's not dead . . . he's still alive.
Rukia's voice seemed to have supplied energy throughout his body once more. He smiled as he feels a new wave of newly found strength tingling throughout his own body. Although he was glad at this, he couldn't help but think about how near and lively her voice sounded like as if . . . as if she was here.
No, she's not here but . . . I heard her . . . I heard her clearly than before . . . as if it was like one of those days back then . . . as if she's right in front of me.
He shook his head and pushed his thoughts aside, he decided that he'll deal with them later, he still has a hollow to kill anyway. With this new found strength and the thought of Rukia being back, it was enough to push him up on his feet once again.
His hand reached up and found zangetsu's handle, clutching it and immediately, zangetsu's voice came into his head.
"I was beginning to wonder what happened to you."
"Sorry about that."
"No need . . . well what are you waiting for!? Stand up and fight!"
"With pleasure . . ."
He slowly stood up off the ground, his legs shaking momentarily but quickly stopped.
"Impossible!" The hollow bellowed. "This is the first time my poison failed to kill someone!"
He felt his reiatsu leaking out once again but this time, it wasn't clouded with anger, something that relieved him. Although he felt much better than before, his wounds still stung but it didn't bother him as much. With his other hand, he reached out to the thing that was still embedded in him, clutched it and pulled it out, flinching and biting his lower lip to stop him from yelling out in pain. Once out of his body, he didn't let go of it but instead, continued on clutching; blood rushed out of the hole that it left but, like his other wounds, he ignored it although pain pulsed from it.
"What!? You're still alive!?" The hollow asked, its voice full of surprise. "I thought the fight ended already!"
He raised his head to look at the hollow and said,
"Feh, I was never dead," He smirked. "And I don't remember saying that this fight is over."
He let go of the zanpaktou-like thing and heard it hitting the ground with a loud clang. As soon as it hit the ground, he lunged forward and attacked the hollow, a mysterious smile dancing along on his face and his reiatsu acting as a shield around his body . . . just like before.