Chapter 5: How to 'speak now' at a wedding ceremony. Holding your peace is optional
Ikkaku stumbled, searching desperately as he wondered about Yumichika's realism. Was this really just his own mind? Maybe Yumichika kept disappearing because he was afraid of the real one leaving him if he found out about his love-crush. But that couldn't be right - Yumichika just couldn't be fake.
Part of Ikkaku still believed that the real Yumichika was trying to tell him something through these nightmares, that his little Yumichika-doll had some fragment of the real Yumichika's soul or consciousness in it, because he didn't think that he could create such a perfect copy of Yumichika, given how poorly of a job he'd done on his other friends.
Hisagi was either screaming 'deadlines' or acting like a six-year-old, Renji couldn't talk and sometimes got extremely creepy, turning his dreams to nightmares, and Kira was a 'mess', whatever that meant. Rangiku had her own problems, Yachiru was a psychopath, and his Captain was a dope who followed her around. They were all messed up somehow, but Yumichika was always crystal-clear, always perfect, always identical to the real one.
It just couldn't be his own mind making things up. Yumichika was real.
'Isn't that real, Ikkaku?'
'You're thinking too hard about imaginary problems. You need to focus on what's real. Real. Real. Real.'
Even if his mind was just making up Yumichika, the brat knew what he was talking about. He was still necessary; Ikkaku could figure out how this was possible later.
"Okay, okay, gotta' findja', gotta' findja'," he muttered, shuffling along, looking all over, still thinking he might've just dropped Yumichika in a bush or something. Maybe Yumichika was sulking and giving him the silent treatment, or maybe the fall had killed him.
He observed the surroundings, still pissed that the path had suddenly disappeared, leaving him in the thick of the Bewilderness. After a few minutes of difficult traversing, he decided that he should withhold from the temptation of using Hozukimaru as a machete to cut the vines or small branches; for some reason he had a feeling something bad would happen.
So he suffered with it, stuffing his sword down his shirt as he army-crawled through a thicket and a few thorn bushes, coming out onto a dirty clearing with grass that had grown extremely tall from lack of care. He swore a couple of times, since his face had been badly scratched and there was dirt all down his front. Ikkaku noticed pulled his sword out of his shirt, wincing from where it had cut his chest when he'd lain on it. This place... it seemed like it was someone's yard.
An unkempt yard to a very creepy run-down house, which he decided not to enter. It looked haunted, if haunted buildings had a 'look'. This did not keep him from staring at it for a while, walking around it a couple of times, trying to avoid the debris and rubble that was becoming more frequent. It was becoming so frequent in fact, that Ikkaku assumed that it was more junk than forest now, and that perhaps he had come across a junkyard that had been abandoned long enough for greenery to grow.
Too many of Renji, Ichigo, and Yumichika's things from his long forgotten memories were popping up. There were wilting flowers Hisagi had brought to Yumichika, tickets to Ichigo's 'amusement parks', Renji's worn textbooks that the poor guy had slaved over trying to impress Rukia's brother. He'd even spotted Yachiru's tattered security blanket stuck up in some branches like a kite.
He approached the creepy building, wading through the tall grass, wary of snakes. God damnit, the snakes in his nightmares were fucking scary, taking his phobia up a few notches. He ran his fingers along the side of the house, getting a sliver almost immediately from the poor quality of the wood. The paint had all but flaked off of the house and the wood was splintery and cracked. The shutters hung off the windows, which were all punched out or cracked. After a quick peek in one of the window holes, he saw that it was dark, dusty, and frankly too creepy for him to enter, even though he wasn't a chicken.
He didn't feel like lingering near the building; he was scheduled to find the 'thinking place' about now. Even if he couldn't stay, he enjoyed the clearing in the woods, in which he could see the sky if he looked up. It was light enough that he could easily pick out what items were strewn along the ground, which was a nice change from dark dreary greenery which his eyes had to strain against.
There was a burlap sack half buried in the ground, which he tried to brush off, even though the dirt had been packed into the fabric. He pulled it up, getting a few worms, some grass that had grown through the cloth, and some darker moister soil too. Again, he was startled by the realism, almost forgetting that this was supposed to be a dream.
Maybe that was the whole point. Maybe this wasn't a dream anymore. Maybe since he'd left his body, he had come to this place and now couldn't leave it. Ikkaku tried to ponder what Yumichika had said, knowing that even if it sounded like nonsense, usually the things he said ended up being right or true.
"It should be night-time," he said aloud, testing whether or not he might be able to break free or change something about his surroundings, but no. He was certain he'd gone to sleep during the night-time back in Seireitei, so if this was happening on real time, then it should be night here too.
Perhaps it was reversed.
"Parallel universe or something."
"No," someone said behind him. It was a voice that he didn't hear often, but one that he recognized immediately. There was no mistaking the 'holier-than-thou' - or perhaps 'smarter-than-thou' - tone, or the ironic rasp that cigarettes gave to the voice of someone who you'd think would be more health-conscious.
"Akon?" He turned around, but didn't see the scientist anywhere. He could vaguely remember that the last time he'd seen Akon in a dream, he'd been a recluse.
"Perpendicular."
"What?"
"Perpendicular universe." Okay, that had clarified nothing.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ikkaku said in relief that he was no longer alone, but still was unable to tell where the voice was coming from. Geez, he always felt like a complete moron around Akon; maybe he'd transcended into some omniscient being in his dreams.
"It doesn't matter if there are parallel universes, because we would never know. Parallel lines are those that run equal to each other, never crossing, never meeting, never changing shape. They're identical. There's no point in wondering about them or speculating, because it wouldn't matter. Like time travel."
Ikkaku picked up his filthy new rucksack and put his sword inside it, apologizing to Hozukimaru for the smell and the rough quality of the burlap. He put in some broken pieces of glass and some yellowed paper, along with what looked like a bent axle, just in case his dreams turned to nightmares and things got ugly.
Strange. It had never occurred to him before to use objects around his dream to help him escape. The surroundings had never seemed stable enough before for him to bother gathering supplies. Perhaps the thought had come to him because of how real everything was now. He seemed to be locked into lucidity or rational thought, because he hadn't yet forgotten that he was asleep, and hadn't been really pulled off track because of a short attention span. Everything was rock-solid real.
'I wonder why everything's busted.' He picked up a box of toothpicks that turned out to be matches, which he didn't know how to use. It had freaked him out the first time he'd seen Ichigo use one. He kept them anyways, along with some dirty water containers filled with sand and mud.
"Perpendicular lines however, are completely opposite to each other, racing towards one another, and only... meeting... once," Akon's voice lowered dramatically. Ikkaku furrowed his brow, pinpointing the direction of the voice, walking towards the porch of the run-down shack.
He tried to open the door, but the thing wasn't attached to the hinges, so he settled on tossing it to the side. The rotted wood split and fell apart when it landed on the porch, held up a bit by the cushion of rose bushes that were growing up through gaps in the floorboards. "Akon, what the hell are you doing?" he asked the grubby scientist who had been crouching behind the door, speaking through a paper cone to sound more ominous.
Okay, so maybe he thought Akon was a genius, but knew that he wasn't as socially adept as he thought he was. There was also that incident with his teeth...
"So it's a pendulum universe, thanks for clearing that up." Akon groaned at his idiocy, correcting him in a mumble, and Ikkaku noticed that his horns were a bit longer than they should be, and that his skin was a bit grayer as well. "Are you a vampire or something?"
"How'd you guess?" Now that he was close by, Ikkaku could see bite marks all over Akon's visible skin, and he could see that where Akon's vampire canines should be, there were no teeth at all. Perhaps he'd transferred his fangs to his head, which wouldn't make sense because those would have been some huge teeth... oohh, he could feel a nightmare coming on.
Things should have gotten darker, his gut should have twisted, and a jump-score should have played, but nothing happened, and Ikkaku hated how well he could smell the stench of decay in this old house, and how he could feel a slight breeze, and how he could hear crickets in the distance. It was just plain creepy, and wasn't being played up or made scarier by his own imagination. Everything was all too real.
"You're not hungry, are you?" he asked warily.
"No, I'm Akon," Akon said straight-faced, and Ikkaku honestly didn't know if he was joking. He suddenly remembered that he shouldn't be talking too much to nonsensical dream-wraiths, but he hadn't really had Akon play a large role in any of his dreams before, so he wanted to see if the scientist could help him a little. Akon was smart, he could probably-
Wait, Renji! He needed to find Renji. Renji always helped him. It was a shame that he couldn't talk, and even more so that he turned vicious on what almost seemed like a time-limit.
"Have you seen Renji?"
"Many times, many times," Akon said a little too excitedly, cringing away from the light coming in the doorway. When Ikkaku explained once again that he meant recently, Akon rolled his eyes, saying that it had been a joke.
"He's dealing in weapons these days. Fireworks. Guarding."
"Guarding?"
"Yes," Akon said with no further clarification. Ikkaku sighed, letting Akon chatter to him about how Urahara Kisuke - who Akon seemed to have a strange level of hero-worship for, almost equal to Hisagi's for Kensei - had been whisked away to a partition of hell by Kurotsuchi, who Akon didn't seem to like for some reason.
Ikkaku had had one dream with Urahara Kisuke in it, and the man had been frighteningly sane. He didn't want to meet him again here, even though he had a huge amount of respect and admiration towards him.
"Aw fuck, I've gotta' go through hell ta' get through this?" Ikkaku asked loudly. "You hate me, don't you?" he shouted at the sky, as if daring God to come hit him with a lightning bolt so he could die here and by so doing, wake up.
"Maybe God won't hate you so much if you'd quit screaming at him," Akon suggested. "I mean, if he's up there. I dunno'."
"Akon, where is Renji?" Ikkaku asked slowly, taking the man's shoulders.
"He's nearby," Akon said after a moment of thinking and nodding to himself. "I saw him squeezing charcoal earlier. I think he's trying for diamonds... and also... look out for the man in the moon." Ikkaku sighed to himself, thanking him, but didn't turn his back on him as he moved off the porch to the far end of the clearing. He had a feeling of dread starting to build in his gut.
Akon seemed to fade, backing into the recesses of his run-down haunted-house. There was a sharp crack, as Akon's body twisted unnaturally. Ikkaku's fists clenched and his jaw tensed as he moved through some bushes into the darkness of the forest, looking back at Akon, whose eyes had seemed to turn to molten lava.
Suddenly Akon's body jolted forward, jaw unhinging, eyes bulging like some demon from a human movie - those things freaked Ikkaku out. He looked as if he were screaming his head off, and with an audible snap of bone, flames shot from his eyes and mouth, setting the dry brittle wood of the house ablaze. It was a conflagration in a matter of seconds.
Ikkaku stood watching the fireball hit the sky, rising out of control in a pillar of molten flame. He stood still in horror for a moment, before he continued on through the woods, a little shaky. Seeing Akon's face snap open like a gulper eel had fucked him up.
The revelation came to him in a sudden burst, that that had been the 'thinking place'. Ikkaku shuddered, walking for a good ten minutes without stopping, eager to get away from there.
Soon enough, the empty and destroyed boxes of explosives became more frequent, so much so that it was as if he were walking over woodchips instead of packed forest dirt.
He stopped short when he heard a noise, as if something had swiped through the air next to his head, almost like a sword narrowly missing his ear.
"Renji?" he whispered, really creeped out. What if Renji tried to kill him? He'd done it before. Ikkaku took out his sword slowly, dismayed. Hopefully it didn't come to blows. Renji was always helpful and sweet, eager to be friendly, and he seemed sane enough too, despite those violent outbursts.
Ikkaku had never killed anyone here besides Yumichika, and he didn't want to see what would happen if he did. He didn't want to have to remember Renji's dying breath every time he saw the real Renji. For the first time in his life, he decided that if it came to them fighting, he was going to make a run for it.
"Renji?" he called louder, feeling cornered from all sides. He turned around and around, backing himself up against a tree, body tensed and ready to bolt. Frick, he wished Yumichika was there to give him a little help right about then.
He startled when a dark shape moved in a tree a little ways off of the path, like somebody had flipped upside down and was hanging by their knees from a branch. There were eyes, glowing eyes that were looking right at him. "Renji, is that you?" he called, tightening his grip on his sword. Goosebumps rose on his arms and he swallowed, breath shaky.
Of course, Renji couldn't answer him, being mute, and the shape slowly climbed through the tree branches, coming closer and lower, until Ikkaku could see that it was indeed Renji. The man peeped at him from behind some leaves, almost looking frightened of him. Ikkaku suddenly remembered how much Renji liked to hide. It was almost as if he were shy of the other people wandering around at times.
Once Renji recognized him, he crawled out onto a branch, perching on it barefoot, waving down at him with a grin.
"Hey, man," Ikkaku said in relief, putting his sword back in the bag, keeping it in quick reach in case Renji got out of control. He could see a wakizashi glittering where it was strapped to Renji's belt.
Renji made a gesture for him to talk, so Ikkaku took it to mean that he wanted to know what was going on with him.
"I lost Yumichika," he said flatly. Renji snorted, rolling his eyes. "Ya' know where he is?" Renji frowned for a moment, before wiggling a hand from side to side, in a 'so-so' gesture. "So you know where he could be?" Renji nodded, and Ikkaku was pleased that he'd guessed right. Usually Renji's sherade games and riddles were too complicated for him to guess - which was ridiculous, because it was supposed to be his own mind coming up with the puzzles.
Damn, was he lucky tonight; he hardly ever found Renji. That scare he'd been given was well worth it.
"Can ya' come down?" Renji opened his mouth as if to say something, and then clung tight to the tree trunk, as if he were afraid something would get him the moment he came down. "I mean, ya' don't have to, but..." Renji looked indecisive for a few moments, before he began to grapple the tree trunk, slowly climbing down it to a reasonable height that he could jump to the ground from. Ikkaku frowned. Renji had been really high up there.
Renji hissed and rubbed his feet where they'd hit the sharp woodchips, pulling splinters out, sitting down like a little kid putting on socks. Ikkaku sat down across from him, waiting for him to be done fretting over his bleeding feet. He probably wouldn't be able to climb very well after that. Ikkaku cringed in guilt.
"So, you think you know where Yumichika might be?" Renji nodded, looking eager to be helpful as he held up a hand, showing that he was beginning the game.
"Alright, start." Renji nodded, thinking for a moment before laying one hand flat, using the other to look like it was holding a saucer or a tea cup, setting it on his flat hand. "Uhhh... Set." Renji made a keep-going motion. "Put down, uh, place?" Renji nodded, smiling.
"Oh, a place, okay. So yer' telling me the place where he's at?" Renji again made a so-so motion. "Okay, okay, the place he might be at. Ya' gonna' take me there?" Renji nodded hesitantly, not wanting to leave his hiding place or his barrage of hodge-podge weapons, of which Ikkaku had seen none so far - just the broken crates that carried them.
Renji held up two fingers. "Two words... first word, uhhh..." Renji thought for about thirty seconds before winking and pointing at his eye.
"Eye." Renji nodded, grinning, going on to the next hint. "Second word, uh..." Renji made a gesture like he was getting sleep-sand out of his eye. "Eye crud..." Renji made a keep-going motion, "Uhhh, eye boogers, eye goo-" Renji pointed frantically, nodding, then making a motion to his ear like he was listening for something.
"Sounds like 'eye goo'?" Renji nodded, seeming really happy that he was guessing things so easily. Usually they'd be at this for a long time. "Okay, eye joo, eye boo, eye do-" Renji grabbed his shoulders.
"Eye do... I do? Like people getting married?" Renji fist-pumped, grinning. "I don't get it... A place... I do... Uhh... A wedding chapel?" Renji pinched a forefinger and thumb together. "Close? Uhhh... A church." Renji spread his hands apart. "A big church. Cathedral? A wedding at a cathedral?" Renji nodded, satisfied.
"What does that have to do with Yumichika?" Ikkaku screeched, annoyed that his time had been wasted. Renji stared at him with raised eyebrows. "Wait... What the fuck, Yumichika's getting married? Maybe?"
Renji did one big nod. "Aw fuck, I hate crashing parties. Which way do I go? Ya' gonna' come with me?"
Renji exhaled, rubbing at his mouth, before nodding, which Ikkaku took to mean that he'd come for a little while in case he changed his mind. "Alright, let's go then." Renji stood up, taking his wakizashi off his belt, causing Ikkaku to back off in surprise. The redhead didn't brandish the blade at him however, he just carved something clumsily on a tree trunk, pointing at it. It looked like a set of pointy mountains or maybe a badly drawn crown.
"Is that a crown?" Renji nodded. "A king?... No, a queen?" Renji nodded again, pale in the face, looking as though he was trying to warn Ikkaku. Ikkaku didn't ask him to explain further, in a rush to find Yumichika again. Hopefully Yumichika wasn't marrying royalty. It would just give the brat another thing to hold over his head.
Ikkaku had Renji walk in front of him to make sure he wasn't gonna' bury that knife in his shoulder. This however, made things slow, as Renji seemed to become less sure of himself the further away they got from the Bewilderness. "It's okay, man, don't worry so much." Renji nodded, panting from anxiety rather than physical exhaustion.
Up ahead, the forest stopped all together. Ikkaku could see, because light was pouring through the trees in the distance. They made it to the edge, and immediately Ikkaku could see that there was a field of tree stumps and scorched weeds that stretched for miles, opening the junk and memory-debris to the air. In the far distance, Ikkaku could see a huge missile sticking out of the ground, and even farther away was a huge cathedral.
As they walked towards it, Ikkaku realized that the place was far bigger than he'd anticipated. It was like Las Noches - so vast that you thought you were closer to it than you actually were.
They walked for about an hour, with Renji growing more and more frightened as they neared. The sky started to turn to that of dusk, and Renji timidly grabbed Ikkaku's hand, which Ikkaku allowed because he didn't want to go in the church alone anymore than Renji did.
"Do you believe in God, Renji?" Renji looked at him for a second, still eyeing the huge building with trepidation.
He slowly mouthed, 'I'm not really sure. Do you?' It took Ikkaku a couple tries to lip-read, since Renji had never done that before.
"Yeah, I guess... but not like how other people do." Renji looked at him until he explained. "I believe he exists, I just don't believe in asking him to solve your problems, er' blamin' him for the shit ya' get yerself' inta'. People pray when their kid's being hung off a bridge by its ankles. They don't when everything's fine." Renji nodded with a look that said 'I see'.
"I don't really wanna' go in there," he mumbled. "I think Yumichika was born in the Rukongai, but I wasn't. I died in a church. Haven't been in one since." Renji patted his shoulder in sympathy.
"Was an orphan... Gettin' baptized... We somehow got tangled up in some dark satanic shit. An'... no one realized that it was lighter fluid and not holy water until it was too late. Someone 'accidentally' knocked over a candle and we were all on fire in a split second. I remember my hands and my face getting burned so bad that I felt it for years after I'd died. My scalp too. See... I'm not really bald, but I don't like explainin' it ta' people... It's just painful ta' think about," Ikkaku sighed. It felt nice to get that off his chest.
Renji nodded, and Ikkaku somehow felt content with the silence as they timidly walked up to the huge double doors of the elaborate palace-like cathedral.
"Wonder who he's gettin' hitched to." Renji gave him a look that said 'no bullshit', and Ikkaku conceded that okay, he knew it was Hisagi. Ikkaku put a hand on the door, not pushing it open just yet.
Renji looked ready to flee, holding his wakizashi like a common dagger as he pressed his ear to the door. After a few silent seconds, Renji backed away and let Ikkaku crack it open and peek inside. It did indeed appear that a wedding was taking place, although Ikkaku had never seen one. It at least looked like what he'd imagine it to.
There were white flowers everywhere, dreary organ music, a long red carpet, and an altar with cushions for the bride and groom to kneel on. He didn't see Yumichika, but that could just be because Yumichika was so tiny, and he was so far away. He grabbed Renji's hand and slipped in through the crack he'd popped in the heavy doors. They were still in the back section of the church, which was set off by another set of double doors, and another door on either side of those. Beyond that room, was the last few rows of pews.
Renji was shaking all over at this point, breathing through his mouth, face gray as if he were going to throw up. Honestly, he was trembling so violently that it was freaking Ikkaku out a little. "It's okay, man," Ikkaku whispered as Renji clung to his arm. Ikkaku was starting to contemplate holding him, because it really looked like Renji was about to cry, he was so scared.
Suddenly there was a high-pitched scream that scared them both nearly out of their wits. It was so loud in the cavernous building that it had everyone clutching their ears. "What have I decreed?! All marriages must be accompanied with candy! The penalty is death by beheading!" Ikkaku then heard some frantic pleas for mercy and some heavy blows, with bones cracking under the force. He could hear Yumichika's voice begging for them to 'leave Shuuhei alone'.
"Wait is that... Yachiru?" Ikkaku asked. Renji nodded, lower lip quivering. He was trying to pull Ikkaku back out through the doors so they could leave.
Ikkaku left Renji there to his own fear, walking up the aisle to the little girl who was banging her fists on her pulpit-throne, until someone gave her some candy to quiet her down.
Yachiru had a little crown on her head, which Ikkaku didn't understand. It wasn't like he held a grudge against Yachiru and her position of lieutenant that he could never advance to. So why was she superior to him here?
Suddenly, Ikkaku caught sight of Yumichika, who was hiding next to a cowering Hisagi, who was shielding him. Shuuhei looked like he had been beaten nearly senseless by the tiny queen, but was still hovering protectively over his little fiance as blood ran from his mouth.
Yumichika had on all white clothes and had a little white clover flower in his hair, while Hisagi had on formal black clothes. The beautiful little Yumichika made a shushing motion and crept towards Ikkaku, trying to stay out of sight of the tyrant crashing their wedding. Yumichika made it to his palm, kissing his finger in relief as Ikkaku brought him close to his chest in safety.
"Pachinko-dama, Gimme' Yun-Yun!" Ikkaku had by then approached the pulpit, and not a minute after he had picked up Yumichika, Yachiru crawled onto the desk and grabbed him out of his hand.
Yumichika screamed in terror, bursting into panicked tears. He kicked fruitlessly, trying desperately to escape her grasp, begging for Ikkaku to save him. Hisagi moaned, trying to pull himself up to help his love, hardly able to draw breath through his pain. "No... Please-" He began coughing, blood spattering the carpet. "Please, your highness, punish me instead."
Ikkaku could only watch in horror as Yachiru explained loudly, so as to be heard over Yumichika's frantic sobbing, that she didn't have a red crayon to write down Hisagi's sentence for his horrible crime of having no candy.
"No, no, Ikkaku help me, please help me," Yumichika blubbered, still looking so beautiful even in his terror, that Ikkaku felt Hisagi was the luckiest man in the world. The poor little thing was still screaming in fear, frantically trying to get free in a way that burnt the image into Ikkaku's eyes. He watched in growing horror as Yachiru brought Yumichika to the paper. "No, no, Please Ikkaku, NO!" he screamed, eyes wide.
Ikkaku realized what she was going to do just before it happened. "Wait!" Ikkaku lunged forward, trying to snatch Yumichika back, but not before Yachiru slammed Yumichika's little head down on the paper and dragged him roughly all over it, leaving behind blood and chunks of meat, causing a sickening crack of Yumichika's neck and half his spine.
Ikkaku's stomach roiled, mouth open in disgust, unable to look away as Yumichika's little body was slowly ground away into a mess of gore. He clutched at his face, horrified as he saw Yumichika's white clothes turn pink and then red. Hisagi began to weep, saying Yumichika's name over and over in apology.
Yumichika's dying scream was still ringing in the cavernous cathedral, so loud that it had traveled up the bell-tower to vibrate the bells. He could still hear him screaming and begging and crying, pleading for him to save him.
He'd just let Yumichika die. For now, it didn't matter whether this was a dream or reality, or whether Yumichika would ever appear again. It didn't matter that it might have been all a ruse. He'd just let Yumichika die in front of him.
Ikkaku's heart broke.
His sadness quickly turning to something that he could deal with better: anger. "You're not even drawing anything!" he screamed in rage, about to start crying over his best friend's violent demise. Those tears and Yumichika's frantic screams had really fucked up his heart.
He tried to punch her even though she was a little girl; despite the fact that she was spoilt and bratty and in the wrong, she was still just a child, but he felt no guilt. He swung on her with all his might, ready to break the jaw of a little girl he had rocked to sleep and read stories to and played with. He was just so damn angry that she'd killed Yumichika for no reason that none of that mattered. He hated her right now, so much that he felt he was turning to lava. "You just wasted him!"
She dodged his blow, moving too quick for him to catch her; Ikkaku had practically crawled up the overly tall pulpit, trying to grab her so he could beat her till she was blue in the face. "Oh, you want a turn? Draw me a heart!" she laughed, zipping out of his range. Ikkaku just shouted until he was out of breath, trying to catch her in a frustrating game of what she thought was 'tag'. He was so pissed off that he forgot he had his sword with him.
Suddenly she stopped in the middle of the aisle, causing Ikkaku to nearly trip over her. She had a solemn look on her face and she pointed at Renji, who was backed up in the dark entrance, twitching and shuddering violently. There was a sharp crack similar to the earlier one of Akon, and a low menacing growl reached his ears.
Ikkaku didn't need to hear Yachiru say that Renji was about to get 'scary' twice, and he picked up Yumichika's mangled remains, leaving Hisagi's corpse or near-corpse to rest in its own blood. He kicked out a stain glass window with his heel and fled through the razed field of the Bewilderness until he could flee no more.
He laid down what was left of Yumichika's poor little body, trying not to look at it as he covered it with pebbles. He had looked so beautiful, even as Hisagi's tiny bride, so far out of his reach. He'd been so beautiful even if he was about to be married to someone else, signing away his love so that it could never be Ikkaku's. He was so beautiful, and Ikkaku loved him so, shedding a few more tears over his little grave, crying pitifully for the loss of his best friend in the world.
As he got up and tried to go on, his feet dragged and his heart ached, those screams still ringing in his ears and that look of terror haunting his thoughts. He had been so happy to see him; Yumichika had looked at him like he was his salvation. He'd been so relieved that Ikkaku had come to save him, and then Ikkaku had failed him.
No one had ever killed Yumichika here besides him - what was going to happen now? Yumichika was dead, and Ikkaku was lost here, and his real body was probably going to die now too. He collapsed in the middle of the dirt road, sniffling, wiping his eyes.
It was getting darker and darker and the rows of stumps eventually disappeared and gave way to a grassy field that had apple trees growing for miles in all directions. It almost looked like the place that he and Yumichika had met so long ago, except those had been sakura trees that had grown naturally, while this was obviously an orchard. The trees were grown in neat lines here, evenly spaced apart.
He looked up at the moon, face still shining with tears that had almost dried. He whispered a couple apologies that he hadn't acted quicker, just in case Yumichika's spirit was lingering near him.
"Psst."
"What?" he asked the moon miserably, not in the mood to talk to anyone.
"Want some moonshine?" asked Ichimaru curiously, tutting in sympathy for his sadness.
"No thanks," Ikkaku said pitifully, declining, sniffling a little.
"Fine." Gin seemed disappointed, but then asked him if he'd seen Rangiku around. Ikkaku replied that he hadn't, but he'd keep an eye open. Gin smiled at him, fading into the silver moon once again.
Ikkaku wandered through the sweet-smelling orchard, reminiscing about how he and Yumichika had met so long ago in that cherry-tree grove, the one beautiful place anywhere near Rukon.
After a stranger convinced him to lay down and take a nap, he climbed up into the top branches of one of the trees, resting on it as the day turned completely to night. The moon rose higher and higher and didn't try to talk to him again.
Ikkaku shed a few more hopeless tears, still replaying Yumichika's screams in his head. If only he had been quicker and had saved the poor little guy. He wouldn't have even cared if Yumichika still decided to get married to Hisagi. Just as long as he'd still been alive...
If he ever awoke from this nightmare, he would spank Yachiru next time she messed with Yumichika's feathers. Little brat.
Of course he knew that was completely childish, as Yachiru had no control over what her dream persona did, but he still thought maybe it would make him feel better.
He closed his eyes, hoping the next time he awoke that he would be back in his body, in his and Yumichika's bedroom. Just as he began dozing off, suddenly he heard Yumichika's voice from far above him, as though Yumichika were speaking through the dark star-speckled sky beyond the clouds.
"Ikkaku, it's time to get up..." There was a pause. "Ikkaku." Ikkaku sat on the branch in shock, climbing higher, sticking his head up over the leaves to try to see where it was coming from. "Ikkaku, get up... Wake up." There was another pause, and Ikkaku's face crumpled in dismay. He hadn't thought he'd be able to hear people talking to his body, but perhaps his consciousness had split. He'd been right about night and day being opposite.
"C'mon." There was a strained sound to Yumichika's voice, as if he was trying to pick him up. "You'll be late for work. Are you going to take another sick day? Iiiiikaaaakuuuu," he whispered, voice growing louder as if he were talking directly in his ear.
"C'mon, at least make a noise. This isn't funny... Are you okay?" Ikkaku listened in misery as Yumichika started to get panicked, shaking his body and trying everything to get him to respond. Eventually he left the house and was quickly joined by the Captain.
Ikkaku fell asleep with the sounds of Yumichika's desperate pleas for him to open his eyes ringing in his ears. 'I'd do it if I could... I wish you were here with me.'
He didn't feel the little body curl up in his hand, sighing in contentment as the fingers wrapped around him in a warm embrace.