A/N: Hey guys I'm back with chapter 2 of this story. So it's going to be a little AU and Tatsuki's sister is going to seem like a mary-sue but vanity is the sin she will pay for. this chapter is graphically violent with dismemberment so if you're squeamish skip it.
Disclaimer: : I do not own Bleach
"You know, you're going to get skin cancer!" I called over to Kazuki, who was laying out in the backyard of our home, her body stretched out on a blanket, trying to soak up as much UV as possible.
"Please, I'd rather be tan then looking like a walking corpse." Kazuki retorted rudely, looking over at me. I was sitting in the shade, with my cell phone on my leg, rubbing sunscreen into my arms. I had texted Ichigo, a little hesitantly, asking if he was alright. He was always alright, though- always. It was me that was always hurt. I glared at my sister sourly, who lit a cigarette, turning onto her stomach so her back could be assaulted by the sun.
"Yeah, better to have lung cancer too then nice healthy lungs."
"Whatever." She flipped the page of her magazine, pushing her sunglasses back over her eyes. If her bikini top got any smaller I would barf. I could never understand why Kazuki was so opposite from me- in a way it hurt me deeply. We had been best buds when we younger, and then we just grew apart. I took to martial arts, being the classic tomboy, and she took to being the perfect girly girl. I watched as she coughed harshly and then spit something thick and yellow from her throat, a few feet away on the grass, then looking back like nothing happened. Gross. Too bad Ichigo couldn't see that. I thought bitterly.
"Can you stop glaring at me? God, what is your problem."
"Nothing!" I snapped back, turning away. Over the small, homey fence that sealed off our backyard rested our neighbours backyard, the sprinkler whizzing away as it splashed water onto the lawn. The dirt road behind us, the alleyway, was lined with small poplars, garages separated neatly from one another, other backyards. This hot summer afternoon was soaking up the neighbourhood, as a couple walked by, their necks and heads visible above the white fence posts. Our parents were out, out to dinner, to mull over politics and diplomacy before stopping by the supermarket and picking up some groceries. Just another, average day in the neighbourhood, and the guy I wanted to see most was out on a crazy adventure with a stunning, raven-haired woman. It made jealousy burn in the pit of my stomach.
"Tatsuki, let's go for a ride." Kazuki said suddenly, making me glance over at her. I raised a brow.
"And pray tell, why?" Kazuki shrugged. "Don't you have a date with your guido?"
"Nah, we broke up." My eyes widened, and was taken aback by her nonchalant tone.
"Oh… I'm sorry. Are you okay?" I asked half-heartedly.
"Oh yeah. I broke up with him this morning. He prefers little blonde sluts, obviously." I could hear the hurt in my big sister's tone and I felt a little bad for being so pissy with her earlier. "But whatever. On to the next one." Okay, that made it fade. "But seriously, let's go for a ride. I want ice cream."
"Oh, you're eating all of a sudden." I said, and she frowned darkly at me, getting to her feet, rolling the towel up.
"Rude enough. At least I don't have big manly muscles." I counted each one of her ribs from where I sat. Plenty of screaming fights between her and my parents had arisen about her dangerously underweight figure. You don't understand, she would whine, I have to look like this! I didn't understand it. The way her hip bones pulsed against her flesh made me feel a little ill.
"Oh shut up." Kazuki laughed, and then I smiled a little and got up and followed my sister inside the cool house. "I'm going to change, are you?" She looked back at me and I shook my head, fine wearing my board shorts and t shirt.
"Nope."
"Figures." She said, sighing, tossing her towel on the floor. I scolded her and she scoffed. "Pick it up then!" God, why was I going out with her again? I couldn't remember, but I still heard the hurt echo in her voice when she had spoke about ex boyfriend. I guess he cheated on her. Kazuki got involved a lot with men like that- they would have a whirlwind romance for about a month, maybe two, and then the dude would sleep with some drunk girl at a club, or she would get in a fight with him, get drunk, and sleep with another guy. It caused a lot of drama, tears, and used to be boxes of ice cream littering the place but now it was just shrugging the shoulders, mask the hurt with make up and repeating the cycle. Sometimes I wanted to punch her for this. But, what could I do?
Twenty minutes later, I wanted to storm up there and hammer on her door, but she came down before I could stand up, her feet whispering on the teal carpet.
"Finally!" Tatsuki groaned, and Kazuki rolled her eyes, and gathered her car keys and purse from the side table by the door, and we stepped back out into the incredible heat once more, and headed for her vehicle. Of course as soon as we got in, she lit a cigarette and turned on the car, and turned up her music, annoying American pop and I groaned.
"Shut up. I'm not putting on your slit your wrists metal shit." I punched her arm. "Ouch! You whore." I couldn't help but grin a little as we pulled into the street, and drove uptown for some much needed ice cream, in this awful heat.
I wasn't surprised after we pulled away from the drive thru that Kazuki hadn't bought anything for herself, only buying an ice cream for me, which I ate. I didn't even bother asking why she didn't eat anything, already fully knowing the answer-'fuck off, man'- and I so left it as it was. "Where do you wanna go?" Kazuki asked, reaching into her purse and pulling out a fresh peach. I almost gagged- I hated peaches! She bit into it, and bright yellow juice slid down her chin, and she giggled and wiped it off, licking it off her finger, steering with her palm.
"The park?" I suggested, and Kazuki nodded, turning down the next side street and driving down it. I watched as we passed buildings, our vehicle reflected in the shop windows. I could see myself at a short flash occasionally, and I turned to look forward as we parked in the parking lot, finally getting out and stretching my thin legs. Kazuki did the same, throwing her long arms into the air, the peach jutting out of her fingers. She took another bite, then tossed it away carelessly. "Can you stop littering? you only took two bites out of the thing!" She shrugged and waved me off, and we walked onto the grass and towards the bench that revealed the large grassy plain of the park, about an acre long on all four sides, the distant skyscrapers not far. It was quiet here, the sound of traffic muffled, the sun starting to seep lovely colours of gold and purple across the skies, that were no longer cerulean but a pastel shade of aquamarine. I could see few stars. A breeze, perhaps the first one of the day, blew by. We sat down on the bench, and Kazuki leaned against, pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head.
"So." Kazuki said. "Rukia seems nice."
"Yeah, she's nice." I checked my phone, thinking of Ichigo, wondering if he answered. He hadn't. I furrowed my brow and put my phone back into my pocket, and saw Kazuki watching me out of the corner of my eye.
"Yeah, hey. Is she Ichigo's girlfriend?" I shook my head, although the shadow of doubt was in my mind. They could have a thing, very well could. It made my heart hurt. Kazuki must have caught it, and she frowned a little. "Do you like him?"
"No!" I said fiercely, insulted. I glowered at her, and her stern face melted into a grin, then a smirk, and she started laughing. "Shut up!" I snapped, and she shoved me playfully.
"Oh God, Tatsuki's got a crush! I honestly thought you were a dyke!" I punched her and she laughed again.
"I do not like him!" I denied bitterly, and Kazuki calmed down.
"Sure, yeah, whatever!" She smirked.
"I think he likes you." I blurted out, wanting to get it off my chest, just to see her reaction. Her eyebrows shot up on her forehead, and then she smirked once again. "What?"
"Ichigo likes me?" She asked, and I shrugged. "Oh God, ew!" She laughed again.
"What do you mean, ew?" I said defensively.
"C'mon, he's like 3 years younger then me and his hair is orange, it looks like a bleach job gone bad!" She shook her head. "I mean, he's cute. I'd tap him." An uncomfortable feeling of envy rose within me. "Kidding. Seriously. I have no interest in your beau."
"Ugh, he's not my-"
In the gentle silence, an unknown, unearthly squeal filled the air. It was loud, it shattered decibels, smashed the sound barrier. I knew immediately what it was. Kazuki watched my facial expression. She couldn't hear it of course. Only I could.
"Tatsuki? What were you saying? You stopped-"
"Shhh!" I hissed, leaping to my feet, adrenaline, panic and excitement flooding through me all at once. A Hollow was nearby- very closely nearby. Kazuki followed my lead, looking around.
"What is it, you fruit?"
"Shut up!" Kazuki opened her mouth to retort but the look on my face must have stopped her, because she closed it. I searched the area with my eyes.
It came again, seeming from all sides. All Kazuki could hear was the wind, but I winced at the incredible sound.
And then, from nowhere, I saw it. It was behind Kazuki. It was quite tall, topping eleven feet, a thin being from hell cloaked in black with a terrifying Hollow mask resembling a human's skull, but so much more deformed. It shot forward at my sister, and I lunged on her, and she gasped in surprise as we tumbled to the ground.
"What the-" Kazuki started, about to push me off, but the thing's arm was wrapped around my waist and I was suddenly pulled into the air, the limb tightening around me, squeezing me painfully. Kazuki's eyes widened and she stayed still, unable to believe she watching me rise into the air.
"Run!" I yelled. "RUN!" Kazuki stumbled to her feet.
"You're flying!" She said stupidly, and then I screamed in horror as the other limb of the creature snapped forward and wrapped around my sister's bicep, and she gasped at the sudden pressure, trying to search for her assailant, and to my absolute panic it tore her arm right off.
Watching my sister's limb become disattached from her body was the worst thing I had ever witnessed. Halfway down her bicep, it pulled, until I could hear the shoulder dislocate and my sister was screaming, trying to pull away from the thing she could not see. I fought against it savagely but my mortal hits would not impede it, as it slowly pulled, and my sister's screams became cries of agony, as skin disattached and blood poured, and finally with a sharp pull her bone snapped, and the muscles and tendons snapped apart, and it tossed Kazuki's disattached arm away carelessly, and my sister fell to the ground, screaming and rolling in agony and shock as she clutched her ruined limb.
Then, the Hollow looked at me, and I was blinking tears out of my eyes, and its mouth opened to suck in my soul.
And then, the pressure was released, and I was falling, falling to the ground, and then a pair of strong arms caught me, and I landed safely on the ground, and was looking into the tanned face of Shuuhei Hisagi, one of the Shinigami stationed on earth to protect the world from the impending assault from Aizen, who pelted forth so many strong, powerful hollows as his own power grew that the Shinigami were called to assist Ichigo. But, they had been too late for my sister, who was rolling in her pool of blood, eyes wide open and staring, reaching for me with her remaining limb. She could not see Shuuhei either. He placed me on the ground, and I sprinted for my sister, falling at my knees, scraping them roughly from the gravel pathway she had fallen on.
"T-T-Tat-Tatsuki-" She stuttered, her face white underneath her tan. Her mangled limb made me want to vomit. Her dark hair was soaked through with blood and was sticking to her face. I had no idea what to do, I turned to Shuuhei, who was in battle with the monster, and turned to my left to seek help, and saw with utmost relief as Ichigo and Abarai Renji sprinted forward, Ichigo coming to a sharp stop in front of me, eyes narrowing in anger when he saw my mutilated sister.
"Shit, we're too late!" He said, dropping to his knees and gathering Tatsuki in his arms, who did not fight or squirm, just lay in her shock.
"Where are you taking her?" I demanded, terrified. "She's going to bleed to death!"
"I know! I'm taking her to the Shoten! Meet me there!" Ichigo said, and rushed away as Renji went to join his comrade against the Hollow. I looked at my sister's arm a few feet away and almost vomited my ice cream all down my shirt, and ran after Ichigo, stepping in Kazuki's blood on my way.
It was the next morning that Urahara finally let me see my sister. I had turned off my cellphone to ignore my panicked calls from my parents, wondering where their daughters were. I had drove to the Urahara Shoten- I did not have my license but running wasn't fast enough. All I could see in my head was my sister's arm being ripped from her body and how I did nothing to help her. Urahara would not let me through the door to where Orihime was desperately working on her, trying to heal the flow of blood from her arm. A major artery had been torn and it was a wonder she was survived at all- I left it up to sheer luck and I paced back and forth all night. Ichigo stayed in the room with Orihime for support, but mostly because Kazuki would not let go of the grip on his wrist.
~Kazuki~
When I came around, I could not remember much of anything. I was swimming in darkness, and a terrible, throbbing pain was pulsating at my left arm, my strong arm. I was laying on something soft and comfortable but it was not my own bed, and the place did not smell like my place, it smelled different, like chai tea and sandalwood. It made me open my eyes as for I suddenly remembered something tugging at my arm, I had been sitting at the park with my sister Tatsuki, and then-
I sat up, very fast, and regretted it immediately. I went to clutch my forehead with my left hand, but nothing came. Nothing at all, which I thought was very odd. I looked over at it, and saw that my arm was gone. Totally, completely gone. All that was left was half my bicep, about four inches in total. My arm was gone.
I began to panic.