disclaimer: i do not own bleach or any of its characters or locations mentioned in the manga or anime. i just own this story line and the OCs
Thanks to: Saber Amane, Valerie Michaelis, and xXThe-Cosplaying-BearXx for joining the bandwagon, and all my other wonderful followers.
and at last...our two main characters to this whole shebang finally meet =] enjoy
m
Chapter 7
A few hours after school had ended, I found myself hidden away in one of the Urahara Shop's storerooms, pricing new items. As I rolled the pricing gun across the lids of "Fujiko's Fabulous Fungal Treatment", I tried to keep my mind off of the events that had transpired earlier in the day. But the work was so repetitive, and it required so little brain power, that I really had nothing else to think about.
After I had tripped my way back down the stairs from the roof, I had headed straight for the bathroom, ignoring the bell ringing through the hallways. Throwing the door open, I winced as it smashed loudly into the tiled wall. My head was pounding and felt like it was being beaten in repeatedly by an invisible hammer. Stumbling to the sinks, my shaking hands fumbled with the faucet as I turned on the cold water, splashing it up on my face. Gripping the sides of the sink, I mentally begged my heart to slow down for fear that it would beat its way out of my chest.
It was utterly silent among the bathroom stalls, the only audible sound being the raspy gasps of air I was trying to force into my lungs. As I stood there, staring at my face, ghostly white in the mirror, I could see the fear in my eyes changing from a glimmer to a blinking neon sign. What was happening to me? The fact that I could now add hallucinations to my list of new abilities was not reassuring in even the slightest way. The super speed…? Ok, yeah. Pretty cool. Shooting lightning from my hands…? Terrifying…but still pretty cool. Being able to see semi-invisible masses of…something roaming around town…? Definitely grounds for admittance into a mental asylum.
Fast forward to the present at the Urahara Shop, I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and yawned. Sliding the box of fungal cream jars back under the shelf, I grabbed another one, this time filled with boxes of a strange growth enhancement powder. As I fell back into the rhythm of swiping the gun across the box tops, I fell back into my thoughts, picking up with when I had finally emerged from the bathroom at school and headed back to class.
Miss Ochi had asked me why I was late and I mumbled something about the nurse which seemed to satisfy her. As she turned back to the board, I put my head down and walked quickly past my classmates toward the back of the room. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Ichigo leaning over and whispering something to Rukia, who just answered with a shush. My stomach knotted as I felt her turn her eyes on me. She thought I was a liar and, despite my wish to not jeopardize the only friendships I had ever had, I couldn't help but feel angry at the way she had treated me. Liar or not, something was clearly wrong and she could be a little more understanding. Then again, it wasn't like I had shared the entirety of my strange experiences with her, so how could she know just how much her words really stung? Sliding into my seat, my head was pounding, trying to sort out the arguments for her behavior from both points of view. I saw Ichigo lean across the aisle, concern pulling his eyebrows together.
"You alright?" he whispered. I knew if I looked up into his eyes, I would feel even worse. Ichigo had this way of getting me to always tell him the truth, and already being vulnerable would ensure a public breakdown right there at my desk. So I didn't look at him but just nodded my head. Clearly wanting to protest, Ichigo started to argue back but then stopped. He sat back, looking angry and even though he didn't say anything else, I could see in my peripheral vision the questioning looks he kept shooting me.
For the rest of the day I had kept my eyes down and focused on the whiteness of the pages in my textbooks, tuning out all the voices around me. Once the final bell had rung, I tried to avoid everyone on my way out. I could see Ichigo pulling Rukia aside and asking her something very quietly, that same angry look of confusion still on his face. As her eyes traveled around him and locked onto mine, I knew it was definitely time to leave.
Once I had arrived at work, no one at the Urahara Shop asked me if something was wrong. Rather, my tired eyes and depressed silence screamed out an obvious, "yes," which they all heard loud and clear. Urahara had handed me the pricing gun and told me that storage room three had some new items that he wanted to put out soon. As I went to take it, he had kept a firm grip on the other end. I looked up at him, meeting his dark eyes and found a look that made me feel almost as if he could see right through me and knew what I was thinking. It was times like those, when Urahara seemed to understand the thoughts that I kept silent, that I wondered if there was more to him than met the eyes.
A knock came from behind me, pulling me back to the present, and I turned to find Jinta leaning against the doorframe. Too tired to antagonize him, I just raised my eyebrows questioningly at his presence.
"Kisuke says you can go now. Your shift ended fifteen minutes ago."
"Really?" I pushed the box back under the shelves and stood up. As I brushed some cardboard scraps off my shirt, Jinta pushed off of the door and walked toward me.
"Yeah, really," he said, speaking in a high falsetto that was clearly meant to mimic me. Rolling my eyes, I picked up the pricing gun and turned to face him. "Man, you're a wreck. You've been weird since you came in today. What's wrong? Your stripes on too tight?" He had reached me and stood with his arms crossed, that evil little grin spread across his evil little face.
"Ha," I laughed dully. Reaching out, I rolled the gun over Jinta's forehead, leaving behind a fluorescent orange sticker that read "¥250". Placing my other hand on the top of his head, I began to push him off to the side when suddenly, he grabbed my wrist.
Every muscle in my body tensed automatically at his touch. Without even looking at him, I could feel Jinta's body curve, could hear his sock sliding across the wooden floor towards me. Then, time either slowed down or my perception of everything sped up beyond belief because I was suddenly hyper-aware of every tiny movement and sound that he made.
Not even needing to think about it, I felt my body reacting and beginning to move automatically, as if instructions had been programmed into me. Leaning on the hand still perched on Jinta's head, I jumped into the air at the exact moment his foot would have swept my legs out from under me. Landing back on the ground, I used Jinta's moment of confused surprise to get him. His tiny hands were wrapped around my wrist tightly. Twisting my hand just a bit, I managed to get my fingers wrapped around his and pulled that same arm behind his back and up, twisting it only to the brink of being painful. As he froze, stunned at what had just happened, I leaned down so that my mouth was directly next to his ear.
"Nice try," I whispered smugly. Relishing in my swift victory, I waited a few moments before pushing him away from me and heading out the door.
"How did you…but when did you…what was that!" Slipping into another storeroom, I left the lights off and took a second to lean against the wall and catch my breath. I knew I had used my "super speed" to overpower Jinta and, just like that morning, my brain was scrambling to catch up and I felt a bit weak. It wasn't the same level of exhaustion I remembered from my run to school though. I was breathing a bit easier, and my muscles weren't completely screaming in agony. Whimpering, more like. Perhaps the more I used it, the easier it would get. Maybe the same goes for the lightning too, I thought. But, as I remembered those little charges I had created, I also remembered what had preceded them: the howling, my fit, and my friends' faces turning away from me. Rejecting me.
Angrily, I pushed off the wall, feeling my hands beginning to heat up again. Partly because I wanted to get out into the fresh air and clear my mind and partly because I didn't want to electrically charge the shop, I hurried down the hallway and into the front room. Not quite sure or concerned with where Urahara was, I grabbed my bag from the hook and slipped my shoes back on. I slid the door open and almost tripped over something that curled its way around my ankles.
"Damnit, Yuroichi!" The black cat meowed up at me and, after a moment of batting her huge yellow eyes at me, I knelt down to scratch behind her ears, sighing. "You almost broke my neck you crazy cat." Purring contentedly, it was as if she was saying that potentially killing me was well worth getting her ears rubbed. When I finished, she simply strolled back inside without so much as a thank you nuzzle for me. "I hope you choke on a hairball," I said under my breath.
"Everything alright?" I nearly jumped out of my skin as Urahara suddenly appeared beside me. I actually did, however, jump about three feet into the air and backwards into the wall of the shop, smacking my head against it. That was the second time that week.
Rubbing it furiously and glaring at him I asked, "Besides you giving me chronic anxiety?" Urahara simply smiled back at me with that infuriating wide-toothed smile of his I knew all too well. Readjusting my bag on my shoulder I walked away from him and mumbled, "I'm fine."
"You don't need to handle everything on your own you know." I froze mid step, halfway to the lot's exit. How did he always know? Was the burden of the past week weighing me down that obviously? There was no way he could possibly have seen all of the strange occurrences around me lately or known that I hadn't confided in anyone. Maybe it's just a coincidence, I thought, looking back at him, Maybe he's talking about something else completely. Like asking for help in the store-
"It's ok," he said. Those two words dropped like a weight into my stomach. I suddenly felt heavy and powerless, my blood going cold in my veins. It's ok. I had heard those words before…. In my mind, they echoed over and over again, spoken by a woman's voice. I felt an indescribable sadness as I heard them, one that I couldn't quite understand. Urahara was fixing me with that look as if he was seeing right into me, again, and in that moment, I really wanted to slap him.
Who did he think he was? How could he possibly think that he understood what I was going through at all? A chunk of my life was missing and it was the key to explaining why the most important person in the world to me was dead. I was going through changes that were scientifically impossible and terrifying. And what did he think? That he could just waltz right in and fix things with some insightful words? That he could fix me? He didn't know anything. None of them did. And yet, they had already passed judgment on me. To my classmates, I was an oddity. To Rukia, I was a liar. To Urahara, misunderstood and lonely. The heat in my hands flared dangerously, and in that moment, not one single part of me cared if the whole town was suddenly struck by lightning.
I could feel my face harden, and in his eyes I saw that Urahara understood he had overstepped a line. But I was done hearing him speak, even if it was an apology. "There's nothing to handle," I said in a voice that shook with anger. Before he could respond, I spun around and walked quickly off the lot. The second I rounded the wall, I felt a pressure subside within me similar to the one I had felt near Rikku. Not caring what it meant, I just let myself keep walking. I paid no attention to where I was going; I just wanted to get away.
The wind began to pick up as I stomped my way across town. It tugged at my clothes, pulling them back in the direction I had come as if trying to persuade me to go no further, to go back. Keeping my head down, I just pushed on, too lost in my fuming to notice the wind, or that the sky was getting steadily darker.
It was a strange feeling, the anger I felt toward my friends. It was so strong and painful, as if a part of me screamed out for their sake. I had never felt like this because of another person before, let alone a friend. And perhaps it was because they were my friends that I began to feel a twinge of guilt twist its way around my stomach along with everything else. Maybe I was being too dramatic about everything, drawing it out into something it wasn't. Maybe Rukia didn't mean-
But as soon as I thought of her, my vision was overrun by the memory of that look she had given me earlier. It was so cold and distant, very much like the way she had greeted me when we she met me on the floor of the hallway on my first day of school. Back then, her personality had changed so quickly that now I wondered if her friendship was anything more than an act. Could she really have been deceiving me from the very beginning, and I was too wrapped up in my fantasy of finally having friends to notice?
Stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, I felt a painful ache in my chest at the idea of Rukia lying to me. Closing my eyes, I could picture the smile she would greet me with whenever she would see me, the way she would whisper sarcastic comments under her breath to me, and that exasperated way she would roll her eyes at me whenever Ichigo did something notably stupid. I could remember the way she would drag me along when I couldn't make up my mind fast enough and the way she stood up for me when I needed her. I had never in my life had a close friend. Someone I could talk to about things that were bothering me and someone I could spend time with doing…anything. Now, I had two: Orihime and Rukia. Their friendships were more important to me than I would ever say, because I had never been one for sentimental speeches. But the feelings were still there and I felt my hands ball into tight fists.
No, I thought, Rukia would never trick me like that. Although her current behavior was strange, I had always felt true sincerity in Rukia ever since we had met. And Orihime, while she acted in the same cold and distant manner, had a look of apology in her eyes earlier. It was as if there was something they couldn't say…something they wanted to tell me, but were not allowed. Despite this, I still felt that familiar yet unexplainable feeling of trust push its way to the front of my thoughts, past all the negativity and confusion. Opening my eyes, I nodded once and made myself a silent promise to find out what was going on instead of wallowing in self-pity.
Pushing the feelings of sadness and betrayal I had been harboring all day away, I took a step forward just as a clap of thunder sounded directly over Karakura Town, shaking the ground around me as if something had just crashed to Earth instead of up in the sky. It sent a thrilling jolt through my body and I froze, sensing the tension that suddenly filled the air around me. I could feel a pressure on my chest, heavier than those I had felt before. But, there was another side to it I couldn't quite make out. The pressure this time felt dark and dangerous, and it made the hairs on my neck stand up.
Looking down, I realized my hands were still in fists, my nails cutting into the skin of my palms. Opening them slowly, I could see beads of sweat on my palms. They felt warm and tingly and as I went to wipe them off on my t-shirt, I got a static shock that made me catch my breath.
Eyes widened in surprise, I held my hands out and away from me as I had earlier on the roof, worried I might blow another chunk of cement off a building if I kept moving them around.
The air around me felt thick and still, clinging to me like invisible clothing. I jumped as another forceful clap of thunder shook the ground. Looking up at the sky, I caught a flash of black move across the street out of the corner of my eye. But there was nothing but a wall.
I started walking again, just wanting to get home as quickly as possible. I began to feel uneasy, as if someone was standing just outside my line of vision, watching me. But I was clearly alone on the street. Even though I couldn't see anything, I could feel something nearby, brushing against the edges of my consciousness, alerting me to its presence. The more I thought on it and tried to figure out what it was, the hazier it seemed to get.
A creak sounded off to my left. I stopped walking and froze, slowly turning my head. As I began to wonder whether I should just run now, I discovered that the source of the sound was just the gate to the community park swinging slightly in the wind. Get a grip, Sayuri, I told myself, feeling stupid for having been so paranoid. I walked over to the gate and slipped through, figuring I could make it home faster through the park instead of around it.
Taking deep breaths, I tried to calm down, telling myself I was being ridiculous. There was no one following me. That rustling bush was just the wind, and those cracking twigs were just animals finding shelter from the approaching storm. I was overtired, my body was running on empty, and my mind was trying to overcompensate for it. That was all. But, no matter how I tried to rationalize it, I couldn't shake the feeling of that pressure on my chest or the strange electricity that hung in the air. No matter how fast I walked, I couldn't get rid of the sensation that something was following me. Something I couldn't even see. Soon enough, I was flat out running down the park path, wanting nothing more than to be curled up in my nice, warm bed at home.
As I rounded the bend, I realized where in the park I was, and knew I would soon come upon the giant footprint. A feeling of dread began to swell inside me as my mind conjured up images of that man I had seen. My steps began to falter and as I reached the jungle gym, I skidded to a stop, the footprint lying in wait a little further ahead. I could see my reflection in the fun house styled mirror; I was panting heavily, my clothes and hair disheveled. I looked as crazy as I felt.
Resisting the urge to slap myself, I took a deep breath and pulled myself together. I was almost home and soon, all of these feelings would disappear. Leaning to the side a bit, I peeked around the plastic slide. For a moment, the thought crossed my mind that I would see that man still standing there. But, there was no one. There was only me.
I slowly walked up to the footprint, noticing that the sky had gotten even darker since I had left the shop, casting contorted shadows from the trees across the grass. They stretched down into the hole like giant, black hands reaching out for something that lay on the very bottom. The wind pushed at my back, urging me to just take a few steps forward and off the edge, then down into the darkness.
The few trees that still remained at the bottom of the hole looked so small from where I stood. They had been completely stripped of their bark and broken into pieces, as if they were nothing more substantial than toothpicks. In the oncoming darkness, their white coloring glowed a bit, and I realized with a shiver that they resembled scattered bones lying at the bottom of an earthy grave.
I felt the wind pick up a bit, warmer than before; a fact that didn't fully register in my mind as I was too transfixed with how strange the trees looked at the bottom of the hole. I didn't notice much of anything else until a large raindrop hit my shoulder. Or, what I thought was a raindrop.
Looking over, I could feel my face contort in revulsion as I took in the glop of…something oozing its way down my arm. Too thick to be rain, the first thing that came to my mind was saliva, but that was ridiculous. A snort sounded from behind me, and I froze, any disgust at the spit wad vanishing instantly. Something was there. Had been there all along, just as I thought. Slowly, I began to tilt my head back, terrified at what I was going to find leaning over me.
The air above me was rippling and shimmering slightly even in the fading light. It was as if a veil was covering something, making it almost invisible to me. My brain scrambled to come up with a plan to get away, but I could think of only running. The unknown is the true source of fear, clouding our eyes and allowing so many possibilities to swarm around us that understanding is just not possible. Being unable to come to grips with reality is enough to terrify even the strongest man, and I was no exception.
I slowly inched my foot along the grass to the side, but the moment it hit a twig and snapped it in half, all hell broke loose. A familiar howl wrenched the thick air apart and I reached up to cover my ears in pain. The sound was a thousand times worse up close, making my head feel as if it were being cleaved in half. I felt the air shift around me, but before I could really move away from the invisible creature, something very solid made contact with my side and flung me about twenty feet into the air.
I flew up and over the jungle gym, crashing through a cluster of bushes on the other side and hitting the ground with such force that I was sure I would end up with a few broken ribs. Covering my face with my arms, I skidded through branches that broke on impact, cutting my bare arms and legs, and tearing at my shirt. As I finally came to a stop I lay very still, waiting to see if any of my limbs fell off. After a good number of seconds passed, in which I wiggled every part of my body capable of doing so, I sighed in relief and closed my eyes. I was alive and somehow unscathed. For now.
Another howl sounded and I quickly sat up; I had momentarily forgotten what had thrown me into the bushes to begin with once I discovered I wasn't going to become a vegetable. After a quick inspection I was grateful to find no bones protruding from anywhere and shocked that while I was a bit sore, I was not in as much pain as I would have expected. A loud snap sounded from over near the footprint and I looked up to see a tree bend completely in half before breaking completely. The air next to it shimmered, but as I tried to focus on it, my eyes began to feel strange. It felt like I was wearing contacts, but ones that were clouding my vision rather than sharpening it. I blinked a few times and as I did, something began to slide in and out of focus. Rubbing my eyes a bit, I looked back up to find that the shimmery veil had been lifted and behind it was one of the craziest creatures I had ever seen.
It was absolutely huge for starters, at least three stories in height. The closest thing that it could possibly resemble was a rattle snake. Its head was huge and wide, a pair of round eyes rotating in their sockets. They were completely black, with golden pupils. The lower part of its jaw was covered in some kind of plating that was stark white and resembled, I thought with a bad feeling, bone. Its huge body twisted and turned as it moved, and right below its head was a gaping hole that. I stopped breathing as a forked tongue made its way past the monster's lips and tasted the air. Was it trying to smell me out as normal snakes do?
My fight or flight senses instantly kicked in and I chose the latter. Pushing myself onto one knee, I decided that if it was looking for me, I couldn't stay here, dead ended in the bushes. Looking around, I noticed that the snake's tail had curved all the way around the jungle gym, cutting off my escape towards the park paths that would lead toward the exit. But where else could I go? The dense forest area behind me eventually ended in walls too high for me to scale. The only way out, I realized, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, was to run towards the thing.
I stood up slowly, my heart pounding wildly in my ears, muffling everything. Taking a cautious step forward, I froze immediately after my foot touched the ground, waiting to see if the snake would sense my movement. Nothing about it changed, so I took another step, crossing my left foot behind my right. As yet again the monster seemed not to notice me, I kept moving in a grapevine type way toward its tail end. I kept my eyes on the snake's massive head, just waiting for the moment its bulbous eyes would shift around and lock onto me. I was trying to come up with my next move when I reached what I assumed to be the "rattler" part of the tail.
Up close, it looked like a giant beehive. A shiver ran down my spine as I suddenly recognized the material it was made of. It was the same as the snake's jaw. It can't be bone. It just can't. I instantly recoiled, both from the rattle and the thoughts of where the bone had come from, if that was indeed what it was made of. This was turning into the stuff of nightmares, and I could still see no light at the end of the long tunnel I was going to have to take to escape.
Glancing back at the snake's head, I saw that it was turned away from me, tasting the air over the footprint. Now's my chance. I stepped closer to the tail, realizing I would have about a split second in which the snake would be oblivious to what was happening. My only way out was to vault myself over the tail and use my super speed to book it towards the exit gate. I had a sudden terrifying doubt that the super speed would work, but pushed it away. I needed to stay focused if I was going to get out alive, just like when I had gotten caught up in street fights when I was younger in Hidori. I had my escape route planned and I was ready to put up a physical fight if necessary. The thought of me fighting this giant snake monster almost made me laugh. Almost.
Taking a deep breath, I looked back at the snake one more time. Its head was turned completely away from me and I realized this was it. But I was so terribly wrong.
The second I placed my hands on the bone of the snake's tail, it let out an ear splitting shriek. I was mid vault when I felt myself being lifted off the ground again. As I swung over to the other side, I scrabbled wildly for some part of the rattle I could hang on to, but it was completely smooth. I felt myself falling, but could see the ground was only a few feet away. I hit the grass and fell backwards, kicking up some dirt on my way down.
Wiping off my face, I opened my eyes and saw the snake's tail at least 100 feet above me. I glanced at the head and froze as a pair of black and gold eyes glared back at me, filled with nothing but pure hatred. A whooshing sound above me drew my gaze back to the tail which was now hurtling back towards the ground and me. It was going to crush me where I lay.
I felt my whole body tingling and prickling, as if it had fallen asleep. The adrenaline was coursing through my veins, pulsing past my eardrums, and making me hyper aware of everything around me. I was suddenly aware of how hot my hands were, as if they had been set on fire. I couldn't think of anything to do. I was immobilized in complete fear and helplessness and as I screamed I threw my arms up to cover my face and turned my head away from my oncoming destroyer.
A white hot heat suddenly erupted in my palms, and behind my eyelids there erupted a burst of light. I opened my eyes to see the snake's tail writhing in the air above me, the tip completely gone and smoldering where it had broken off. There was a dark smoking crack that ran all the way up the rattle as well, one that seemed very familiar. It looked just like the crack I had put in the roof at school.
Looking up at my hands, I felt my jaw drop. Tons of little electric bolts were leaping between my fingers and around my palms, covering my hands with a prickly heat. As I turned my hands over, the bolts didn't disappear, but seemed to grow larger and hotter the more I focused on them.
"No shit," I breathed, bewildered. Slowly, I got my feet under me and pushed myself off the ground, still staring at my hands. I could see the snake in front of me, turning itself around so that it would be facing me and I suddenly wasn't afraid anymore. I realized that this lightning could seriously damage this monster. I suddenly understood the power I held in my hands, literally, and a feeling of naïve indestructability washed over me. For a few moments, I was lost in it, the feeling so seductive and strong. But then, the snake howled again and I saw it rear back, poising to strike.
Lifting my left hand out and aiming it straight for the snake's head, I took a deep breath and held it. I curled in all but my index and middle fingers, hoping to concentrate the lightning a bit more, and pointed them straight ahead. As I exhaled, I sent thoughts of those lightning bolts shooting from my fingers at full force towards my attacker, and they did. It was incredible to watch. A silver white bolt flew through the air and struck the snake just below its jaw. It shrieked again, its tail lashing out and crashing into the tree branches nearby. I was so busy watching the snake's head smoking from where I had hit it, I didn't even notice the branch hurtling down towards me until it was a few feet above me.
I hit the ground and covered my head, all traces of my lightning powers gone. But no impact ever came. No sudden pain on my back or my head where the branch would have collided with me. I opened one eye and looked around. To my side lay half of the branch, its middle looking like it had just been sawed open. My eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. Something fluttered at the corner of my vision, and I slowly turned my head. A very tall man was standing in front of me, dressed all in black, his arm raised in the sky. An incredibly intimidating sword with serrated edges was in his hand, making me swallowed hard. Well, now I know what happened to the branch.
As he turned to face me, I was met with the man's piercing golden eyes. His red hair, which was tied up in a spiky ponytail, began to blow in the breeze, and he grinned at me.