Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Heart Dawning ❯ Chapter Fourteen ( Chapter 14 )

 

Chapter Fourteen

 

Kisuke sat alone in the darkness of his workshop, arms crossed over his chest and eyes closed as he kept his head bowed in thought. His own examination of the sample Renji had manged to get for him had brought him no closer to identifying the nature or origins of the creatures that kept trying to attack Daria. He knew the Research and Development team in Soul Society would likely have better luck at coming up with answers, but he had hoped he might be able to determine something about them. He wondered if maybe he was losing his touch.

 

He was also growing increasingly concerned about whatever powers those creatures possessed. Renji told him that during this most recent confrontation he had felt the same sort of dark reiatsu as he had experienced coming from Daria that afternoon he had been watching over her. Kisuke had asked him to describe it in as much detail as possible, and Renji had explained that he felt as though he was drowning and unable to breathe. He had actually lost consciousness briefly during the attack, but Daria had been unfazed by their presence and didn't even seem to notice anything out of the ordinary besides them being there. Just another mystery about the girl he had to add to his list.

 

He hated to admit it, but the more time that went by and the more he found out about her, the more he wondered if Yoruichi was right. Whatever these things were, they were undoubtedly connected to Daria somehow. They possessed some sort of powers which she appeared to be immune to, and judging by what Renji said she might also even possess the same or similar powers, herself. Perhaps he was wrong. Maybe she really was in league with these things, whatever they were, and was just putting on an act in order to get close to them and pick them off, one-by-one.

 

But the fear... It had been real. Kisuke could feel it emanating from her when she talked about her mother's death and how those creatures had been there, and again later that same day, which was what had drawn him to her room to check on her. You couldn't fake that. You could fake a facial expression to show fear, but not the way it affected your reiatsu.

 

A frustrated sigh escaped his lips as he brought up a hand to rub his tired eyes. He was used to easily finding the answers and coming up with solutions when he set himself upon the task of researching something, not ending up with even more questions. He would have his answers soon enough, though. He had just about completed the device he had spent the better part of the past two weeks working on. In a few more days, he would be able to gather the data he needed to send to the Soul Society and see what Mayuri made of it. Then he would have the answers he needed... hopefully. All he would have to do is get Daria to follow his plans, which might prove to be a bit troublesome.

 

Kisuke winced a bit as he thought back to the fight they'd had. A week had passed since then, and in that time she had barely looked his way, let alone said a word to him. Part of that was his fault, really, since he'd remained locked in his workshop pretty much all the time. He knew he had to make an effort to clear things up with her, but he had no idea what to say. Simply apologizing for his actions didn't seem like it would suffice. Thankfully, Yoruichi had talked to Daria shortly after their argument and smoothed things over enough that she agreed to stay. Kisuke had questioned her motives for doing such a thing, knowing full well she didn't trust the other woman, but his best friend had merely shrugged and told him they needed answers - all the while wearing a smirk which he knew meant she was up to something.

 

He vaguely wondered why it even mattered to him what she thought of him. He'd never been the self-conscious type, always laughing off whatever insults others threw his way. Most of the time they were dead-on, anyway. Something about the look in her eyes when she'd confronted him, though... That look of betrayal bothered him relentlessly. Yoruichi asked him why he'd let her punch him instead of blocking the oncoming blow, and he'd told her that he was only taking the punishment he knew he deserved for what he'd done to her. She trusted him when he told her she'd be safe leaving the store for a short while, even though he knew she'd likely end up getting attacked and possibly injured. He mentally kicked himself upon realizing that he could have gone with her and killed two birds with one stone: Providing the protection she needed, while also being present to gather his own sample for his research.

 

Stifling a yawn, he stood from his desk and turned off the small lamp, then grabbed his hat from its perch at the corner of the desk and placed it back on top of his head before making his way through the dark workshop. Without the lamp it was nearly pitch black, but he knew his way around well enough to not even brush up against a single instrument within the room as he headed for the door. For the last two weeks, he had been largely sleeping in the workshop, dozing off when he became too exhausted to continue his experiments. Perhaps a nice, restful night of sleep in his own bed would do him some good and help him figure out a few things.

 

*********************

 

Daria swore under her breath as she looked at her watch, hoisting her school bag up higher onto her shoulder as she increased her pace even more. She was supposed to be home over half an hour ago, but choir practice had gone on later than she anticipated. Her mother would understand her reason for being late for dinner, but she still didn't like breaking her promise to be home on time. Tonight was one of the few nights her mother had off, after all, and eating together was such a rare occurrence these days that she relished the opportunity to actually have a real conversation transpire between the two of them.

 

A small yelp escaped her lips as her foot hit an uneven piece of sidewalk, causing her to pitch forward sharply. She managed to catch her balance before she fell on her face, though, and continued running toward the building where she and her mother lived in a small apartment. The place seemed bigger now, with Nana Katja gone, but it was still smaller than where most of her classmates lived. They had real families, though. Not that Daria thought badly of her own family... She just wished things were different, sometimes.

 

Her father had died when she was only a few months old, but she never really found out how. Every time she asked, her mother grew too upset to speak, and all Nana Katja would say was that there had been an accident. Her mother rarely spoke of her father, the memories of their happy time together causing her too much pain, but on occasion she would relate a story to Daria about something particularly sweet or funny he had done. There were only two things she really had of her father, besides a photograph of him with her mother: The pendant he'd had made for her after she was born - which she had never taken off since the day it was given to her - and a song he had written for her mother, which had been sung to Daria by her every day as a lullaby.

 

Daria sighed in relief as her building finally came into view several meters ahead of her, barely pausing to check for traffic before sprinting across the street. The moment she approached the first step of the building, however, she froze. Something didn't feel right. There was an odd, foreboding presence she couldn't quite put her finger on, and it was rooting her feet to the ground in cold dread. Her breathing slowly returned to its natural rhythm as she continued standing at the bottom of the concrete steps, staring intently at the front door of the building, afraid to go any further.

 

Reminding herself that she had made a promise to her mother, she forced herself to continue onward, taking each step at a much slower pace than she had previously been traveling. She opened the heavy oak door of the entryway with a shaky hand and stepped into the foyer of the building, her dread increasing tenfold as the foreboding sensation became stronger upon entering. Swallowing nervously, she took the stairs up to the second floor, where the apartment they lived in was, each step making the knot in her stomach tie itself tighter and tighter.

 

She paused again once she reached the front door of the apartment, her hand gripping the doorknob tightly. She slipped the key from her jacket pocket and silently unlocked the door, then cautiously pushed it open and looked around. The small living room was empty and dark, as though no one was home. She could smell food cooking in the kitchen, though, along with something else... Some unfamiliar scent while invaded her nostrils and made her feel sick to her stomach.

 

Leaving the door open behind her, Daria slowly made her way toward the kitchen. She called for her mother, but in her fear her voice came out as nothing more than a whisper.

 

She heard the thing before she saw it: A low, growling sound like some sort of a wild dog defending its meal. Another step forward and she could finally see into the kitchen, and it was the most horrific thing she had ever seen.

 

Her mother lay lifeless on the floor, eyes and mouth wide open in terror. Her throat and stomach had both been ripped open, spilling blood and intestines across the floor. And next to her body sat a man, holding a bloody dagger in his right hand while his left was covered in blood - her mother's blood. Next to the man was a terrible creature with glowing red eyes that looked like a burned, shriveled corpse. The creature noticed her presence before the man did and made another growling sound, drawing the man's attention toward her.

 

Daria looked at his face for a moment and then dropped her bag and turned on her heel, running out of the apartment and screaming for help. A few doors opened on the hall as she ran out of the apartment, but she just kept running. Out of the building, away from the horrible sight of her mother's mangled body. She ran until it hurt to breathe, then collapsed in the middle of the sidewalk and cried and begged for her mother. She knew it was no use, though. Her family was gone...

 

Daria shot straight up in her bed, eyes wide and full of tears. It had been years since she'd had nightmares about her mother's murder, but they had been coming with increasing frequency lately. Usually, she was able to wake herself up as soon as she realized what was going on in her head, but this time she had been forced to relive the entire terrible ordeal. She remembered exactly the way her mother had looked on the kitchen floor, the way the scent of the blood had mingled with the smells of dinner cooking, and that man's face.

 

She could never forget that face. He'd been a bit older than her, probably in his mid-thirties, though he had one of those faces that made him appear younger. He had piercing blue eyes and red hair that was a bit long and fell into his face. He'd looked a bit frightened when he saw her, as though he was afraid of being caught. She'd never seen him before in her life, but he'd known her name, somehow. She vaguely recalled him calling after her as she ran out of the apartment.

 

“Daria?”

 

Daria turned her head and found Kisuke standing in the open doorway of her room. She'd been so upset by her dream that she didn't even hear him enter. He took one look at her and, seeing the tears trailing down her cheeks, immediately went to kneel at her bedside, his mouth set in a concerned frown.

 

“What's wrong?” he asked gently, reaching up and smoothing his hand over her hair. Daria pulled away from his touch, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs.

 

“It's nothing, just a bad dream,” she told him, staring at the floor.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked in reply, causing her to shake her head.

 

“No, it's nothing,” she insisted, still not looking at him. “I'll be fine.”

 

Kisuke sighed and stood back up. “Well, if you change your mind... I'm right across the hall.”

 

“Thank you,” she muttered. “I appreciate it.”

 

Kisuke nodded and hesitated a moment, then turned and left the room. Daria watched as he quietly shut the door behind him, wondering if she'd made the right choice by pushing him away. It had been ten years since her mother's death, and in that time she'd never really talked to anyone about it, save for the police who had investigated the crime. Maybe that was where she'd gone wrong. Perhaps if she talked about it, got it off her chest, the dreams would finally leave her alone. She knew that wasn't likely, though, and that the real reason she'd been having the nightmares again lately was probably due to the reappearance of those creatures, but it really couldn't hurt to talk about it, could it?

 

Before she could talk herself out of it, she got up from the futon and rushed to her bedroom door, pulling it open. Kisuke was still standing on the other side, just about to go into his own room. They stood there silently for a moment, both of them holding open their bedroom doors, watching each other intently. Daria was the first to break the silence, taking a step out into the hallway toward him.

 

“On second thought, maybe I would like to talk about it,” she said. Kisuke nodded and stepped aside, holding the door to his room open for her, and she quietly thanked him and shut her own door before crossing the hall and entering the room ahead of him.

 

Kisuke watched her as he closed the door to his bedroom behind them, glad for the fact that Yoruichi wasn't spending the night on his futon, for once. He had a feeling that whatever was bothering Daria was rather personal, and he didn't think she'd appreciate him letting someone else sit in on their conversation.

 

“Can I offer you a drink?” he asked her as she looked around for a place to sit.

 

“Yes, please,” she requested. Kisuke smirked a bit and went to the corner of the room, pried loose one of the floor mats, and pulled out a bottle of rare and expensive sake that he kept to himself. Normally, he reserved the drink for special occasions, but she seemed like she could use something particularly potent, so he decided to share just this once.

 

“Anywhere is fine,” he told her as he noticed she still hadn't sat down, yet. “Sit on the bed, if you like?”

 

“On the bed?” she asked him, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

 

“I promise I won't try anything,” he swore, chuckling a bit. “And if I do, all you need is to inform Yoruichi-san and she'll see to it that I'm rightfully punished.”

 

Daria almost smiled at the comment, hesitating a moment before finally taking a seat on the futon situated in the center of the room. Kisuke watched her silently as she shifted around until she was comfortable, then went over and took a seat next to her.

 

“I hope you don't mind, I only have one cup,” he said, holding out the empty sake cup toward her. Daria shook her head and took it from him, and he filled it for her from the bottle. “Enjoy this. It's the most expensive brand in all of Soul Society.”

 

“How does someone in the real world get sake from Soul Society?” Daria wondered, eyeing him as she took a sip of the potent alcohol.

 

“I had Renji smuggle some out for me,” he told her as he sat the bottle down nearby on the floor, then took off his hat and placed it by his pillow before running his hand back through his hair. Daria watched his every move, still sipping the sake, and quickly averted her eyes when he caught her staring at him.

 

“So tell me about this dream you had,” he requested, reaching over and taking the cup from her and bringing it to his lips to take a drink.

 

“First, you tell me how you even knew I had a nightmare,” she replied, taking the cup back from him when he offered it to her once more.

 

“I already told you,” Kisuke said, grabbing up the bottle to top off their drink. “I can feel when your spiritual energy changes. I was on my way to bed and I sensed something was wrong, so I decided to look in on you.”

 

“You really don't have to be so worried about me, you know,” Daria insisted, staring into the clear liquid in the cup. “I've been taking care of myself for the past ten years.”

 

“Stop pretending you're so tough, Daria,” he replied, drawing her attention back to him. “You act like you're okay, but I can tell you're not. You're scared to death. And that's okay, because we all have things we're afraid of.”

 

“Even you?”

 

“Even me,” he admitted. “But we're not here to talk about me. So, you going to tell me about this nightmare or are we just going to sit here and get drunk?”

 

Daria couldn't help but return his smile as he took the cup from her and once more drained it before refilling it and handing it back to her. Her smile fell a moment later, though, and she let out a heavy sigh before downing the entire cup full of sake in one large gulp, handing the empty cup back to Kisuke for another refill.

 

“I had a dream about my mother's murder,” she told him once he had finished filling the cup again. He merely nodded, silently prompting her to continue. “I saw her body. She was... Whoever killed her slit her throat and sliced open her stomach. There was blood everywhere, and everything that was supposed to be on the inside was outside her body. And the smell... She'd been cooking, so the smell of blood was mixed with food and it was horrible.”

 

“And you saw that creature?” he asked, remember what she'd said before.

 

“Yeah,” Daria answered, nodding. “One of those creatures was there, hovering over her body. And next to it was a man - the man who killed my mother. He still had the bloody dagger in his hand.”

 

“You saw the man who killed her?”

 

“I did, but it didn't help,” she told him, sighing and finishing off the sake again. “I gave the police his description, but they never found him. He found me, though.”

 

“What do you mean?” Kisuke asked, for his own clarification.

 

“I used to live in London, before moving here to Japan,” she informed him. “One day, I saw him lurking in the shadows of an alley, watching me. So I took off.”

 

“You think he's still stalking you?”

“I don't doubt it,” Daria said, shaking her head slightly. “Not one bit. Those things, whatever they are, they're tied to him. If they're showing up, he can't be far behind. I really shouldn't even be here, but I'm tired of running.”

 

“Why do you say that?” Kisuke wondered, realizing he had slowly been moving closer to her as she spoke.

 

“Because... Because I'm going to cause you all to get hurt,” she said, holding back tears. “It's obvious that I'm the one he was after all along, not my mother. He wouldn't keep coming after me if that wasn't the case.”

 

“Daria, you can't know for sure if--”

 

“If I hadn't been late getting home that night, maybe she'd still be alive,” she sobbed, cutting him off.

 

Kisuke sighed and took the cup from her hands, setting it on the floor next to to bottle of sake, then wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. Daria buried her face against his shoulder and cried, apologizing and insisting it was her fault.

 

“It's not your fault, Daria,” Kisuke told her in a soothing voice, stroking her hair. “If you had gotten home on time he probably would have killed both of you.”

 

“How is that supposed to make me feel any better?” she grumbled through her tears.

 

“Let me try putting it this way,” he replied. “Your mother may be gone, but I'm sure she's happy in the knowledge that you got away and were safe and that you're still alive. So don't go blaming yourself for this, because it's not your fault, okay?”

 

“You're right,” Daria managed to say after a moment, nodding slightly.

 

Kisuke continued to hold her as she kept crying, allowing her to get all of her sadness and frustration out. All the while, his mind mulled over what she had told him. This red-headed man, whoever he was, appeared to be the one who was controlling the black creatures. So now he had three new questions that needed answers: Who was this man, how was he controlling those creatures, and why did he want Daria dead? He supposed the answer to the last one would be as simple as him knowing Daria had seen his face, but he'd eluded capture for her mother's murder for ten years so he wasn't entirely sure that was the reason.

 

Daria's crying began to taper off, but Kisuke made no move to let her go. She was warm and soft, and maybe it was just the sake but holding her felt good to him. She'd let her hair down out of the usual ponytail she kept it pulled back into, and he gently ran his fingers through the long, golden-brown locks, relishing the silkiness of the strands against his skin. He heard her let out a contented sigh, and though he could only see the top of her head he imagined the way her lips must have parted to allow the sound to escape. He suddenly began to feel rather hot all over - likely another side-effect of the sake - and shifted a bit uncomfortably. The movement caused Daria to make a small, disgruntled noise. Kisuke leaned forward slightly to look at her face and discovered that she had fallen asleep against him.

 

Smiling to himself, he carefully moved from his place beside her, holding her upright with both hands. Once he was no longer providing her support with his body, he gently laid her down on his futon and covered her up, deciding to allow her to sleep there for the night. He finished up what was left of the sake in the cup, then quietly placed the cup and bottle back in their hiding place and returned to watching over Daria. She rolled over in her sleep, pulling the covers tighter around her small frame and muttering something in Russian, and Kisuke brushed her hair back from her face and leaned over her, kissing her forehead.

 

Blinking in surprise at his own actions, he quickly sat upright once more and looked down upon her sleeping form with wide eyes. Deciding that he had had entirely too much to drink, and that remaining in the room with her might prove dangerous as a result, he stood from his spot by the bed and left the room, heading to her room across the hall. He figured she wouldn't mind if he slept in her bed, since she was occupying his.

 

Once in her room, he paused for a moment to look around. He hadn't been in there since she first moved in, and it was interesting to see what she had done with the place. For the most part, everything was just as it had been before her arrival. A small table had been set up near the window, though, with a sort of memorial situated upon it. Kisuke went for a closer look and found over a dozen seashells crowded upon the table's surface, surrounding a picture of a young couple who he assumed were Daria's parents.

 

Frowning a bit, he picked up the photograph and studied the woman in it. There was something vaguely familiar about her. He assumed it was the eyes, since she had green eyes like Daria. Deciding that it wasn't important, he placed the picture back where he had found it and made his way to the bed, ready to get that good night's sleep he's promised himself earlier.