I'm so happy you guys like it! Please also look at Christmas Present 2013! I have something updated there too! X3
Fate and Future
Ichigo was currently beside Yammamoto, watching people file in and report things on Sereitei. Many also came for him. They wanted his readings, his premonitions, or spiritual help. But mostly, they wanted healing.
"Cancer." When they finally were alone, Yammamoto stood at the window, his back to Ichigo. "If this battle does become bloody, stay hidden."
The boy opened his mouth to argue, angered that the Sotaicho would doubt his abilities. "I don't doubt you, but I believe that this stranger is after you."
Ichigo snapped his mouth shut at the comment. "You heal, and the four elements do circle around spirit. Spirit is the center of the universe. If our healer and past and future reader were to be taken…where would we be?"
"But…I-" The old man turned, looking tired and sad. "This is an order from Leo, the Sotaicho, Cancer. You will stay hidden if the fight turns bloody. Understand?"
Ichigo bowed, eyes closed, and stomach churning."U-understood."
"You're presence is requested, Cancer." A messenger was kneeling on the ground, facing the both of them from the open doorway. Yammamoto sighed. "Go."
Ichigo followed the messenger into a noble's home, where he was then led to a room by a panic stricken woman. She opened the paper door. "Master has been like this for several days now, haunted by the same dream over and over. Please, help him."
Cancer nodded before entering and kneeling beside the man lying on a futon on the ground. The man was tossing and turning, groaning in his sleep. When Ichigo suddenly touched his hand, eyes flew open, revealing startling wine colored orbs. "Calm down."
The man relaxed as he looked into Ichigo's dark honey orbs. "What did you see in your dream?"
"A-a tree. The leaves f-fall one by one. They all fall v-very slowly. When the last one touches the ground, I feel a burning sensation, then something ripping th-through my b-body."
When he finished, the man looked up from where he was lying to see the younger man's gaze far off and the formerly brown eyes glowing golden. When the moment passed, the orangette's face was unreadable – a complete mask.
"W-what does it mean?" The boy was still quiet, staring straight at the man on the ground. "My interpretations are simply what I see not what I make up."
Confused, the distraught man nodded. "The tree symbolizes your life. Every leaf that fell was a moment you lived. When the last leaf falls…that is when you will die. As for the burning sensation…that determines how you will die. "
"I-I will be b-b-burned to death?" Ichigo shook his head, still staring deep into the man's eyes. "Do you believe it's better to be ignorant and die a fool, yet happy, or all-knowing and die in fear?"
"…"
The psychic relaxed his gaze. "I can do neither. I have to be all-knowing, and yet I cannot fear the consequences of all actions due the truth I see. I could never be truly happy as no one can take this burden but a Cancer. That is the curse of the fourth Zodiac."
"I will return with a remedy for your …dreams. By then, choose what it is you want to know."
Ichigo stood and hurriedly left the home, giving the man no time to speak. The orangette didn't necessarily like being able to see past, present, and future, but he absolutely despised interpreting dreams…nothing good had ever accounted from them. The truth about the man lying on his futon was that he would not die burning…literally.
He would be bitten by a vampire, and the venom would invade his bloodstream. The one who turned him would reject him, and in turn, his own blood would as well. He would go through the agonizing process of dying from his blood turning into poison – a horrible burning sensation not unlike your body being ripped into a million pieces. This only confirmed one thing – Sereitei was indeed going to be attacked in the appointed time, and the vampires would attack viciously and without remorse.
Cancer shook his head clear, entering a large closet filled with millions of herbs, potions, and other odd objects. This was his "cupboard" of all his concoctions needed to cure anything and everything. The boy climbed a ladder, locating the correct shelf, and pulling a small, smoky blue vial. It read 'Dreamless Sleep'. Ichigo lowered himself and was just about to leave when he turned suddenly, thinking hard before placing the ladder elsewhere and climbing to the very top.
He couldn't prevent the man from dying, but at least he could do this. Ichigo plucked a dark red vial even smaller than the one he had chosen first. It only held about a drop or two, as it is very difficult to procure the ingredients and make the potion perfectly. The boy dropped to the ground and returned to the house of the noble man. He was sitting up now, frowning deeply until Ichigo appeared. The psychic dropped the blue vial into an elegant, slender hand.
"One drop of this in your drink each day should cure you of your dreams."
"Thank you." The man bowed. Cancer stared straight into troubled wine colored eyes once again. "Your decision?"
"I-I would like to know." Ichigo nodded, closing a fist around the red vial in his cloak.
"Vampire venom." He didn't need to say anything beyond that. The man's face paled drastically and his eyes grew wide with fear and disbelief. "But, when the time comes, when your dream finally ends, that is when you should take this."
The orange haired man gingerly held out the small vial. "It can't counter the force of vampire venom, but it will buy you enough time to do what you have to do."
The man thanked Ichigo with a sad, heavy face, thanking him multiple times and offering money for the slayer – which the younger refused and excused himself from the suddenly dark aura of the house.
Those who died of the rejection of blood…Ichigo couldn't help them, only delay the effects for a while. That was possibly the only reason why he was a slayer. To prevent vampires from turning the ones they fed from. Or killing them in the process. To sum it all up, he wanted peace.
A peace that had only been workable in the olden days, where vampires and humans coexisted with one another. There was a legend that a few vampires ruled both races, until one day, they disappeared. That was the day the peace was shattered and vampires hunted humans, and humans killed vampires. Ichigo knew that vampires could drink from humans without causing any harm, or turning them, but due the troubled past, the vampires were branded as blood-sucking, savage monsters. Humans were dumb, clueless morsels that could do nothing to protect themselves. That was when the Slayers were created.
So what was this young man, a man that desired peace, doing as the fourth Zodiac Slayer, Cancer? The spirit of the 12 Zodiacs? He hoped that joining into a higher position would stop this nonsense and bring about harmony, but here he was, waiting for yet another vampire war to start. He couldn't change the future…
Unless…He gave into the stranger's request. If he really was the man's target…wouldn't it be better for everyone if he went along willingly? There would be no fight – no war – no pain.
"You heal, and the four elements do circle around spirit. Spirit is the center of the universe. If our healer and past and future reader were to be taken…where would we be?" Yammamoto words resounded.
"But I can't just watch you all die for my sake." The boy sat on the floor of his spacious room, sitting with his legs crossed and eyes closed.
A man chuckled to himself, the moon seemingly shining from him. A white katana glinted upon his back, and the creature he rode upon seemed to be made of shadows.
'It's been too long.'
He held out a slim hand, the shadows below him breaking off one small piece. The piece of darkness morphed, shifting into a black Hell butterfly. The butterfly danced around long fingers, playfully landing on the digits, only to flutter off a little when the man moved.
'But soon, I shall have my prize, the one I have been waiting for…for so long…'
The vision switched.
Ichigo watched from a window, gripping the sill tightly – his hands white from the hard grip. He wanted to run to them, heal them, but he had stayed because Leo had ordered it of him to stay hidden. Currently, he was feeling many extinguished lives, as well as many flickering ones. Some of the flickering lights were even of the Zodiac Slayers. The psychic turned suddenly though, when he felt a presence heading in the direction of the building.
He quickly cloaked himself in a water mirror shield, or rather, a mist that concealed all that he wished. The orangette quickly masked his spiritual power and stayed stock still when a body came flying thought the doors. The boy nearly cried out when he flicked his eyes over to the unmoving man upon the ground.
Yamamoto. Leo, the strongest of the Slayers, was lying on the ground, bleeding profusely.
"I ask one more time, where is he?" Ichigo turned, but was unable to see the attacker. The Sotaicho was silent, glaring hard at the man that dared demand him something. "Alright then…it was your choice."
The intruder charged, and Ichigo could no longer stay silent. He held out his hand, spikes of ice shooting seemingly out of nowhere to speed toward the man. The man skillfully dodged them, the projectiles imbedding themselves at his feet.
"I knew you were here, Cancer."
Ichigo snapped his chocolate brown eyes open, shaking slightly. That was the outcome of the war. The death and fall of Sereitei. Everyone would be killed…but him. That reality caused him to draw up his knees and rest his forehead onto them.
"Why me? What do I have that you want?!"
Fate cannot be changed. The future however…had many paths. Many believe the two are the same…but they are each different on their own levels. Fate is the outcome and grounding of your life. Future, was the path you decided to take. You would change the future slightly, but all would end in the same fate. In this case, that was not Sereitei's fate, but rather it's future if they went to war with the strange man making his way here.
With that thought, Ichigo immediately stood and donned his Cancer cloak, attaching all his weapons as well. He knew what he had to do to change the path of which Sereitei went down…only he could do that – because that was the curse of a Cancer. That was the curse of his spiritual prow ness and time readings. It was his duty and his alone.
This was his fate.
Hahaha! I love mind tricks and metaphors! Hope you all got them! Like I said, check Christmas Present 2013! I sound like a beggar, pleading you guys to read my stories… T.T ~oh well….