Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ No Such Thing As Never Too Late ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

“Mayuri!” Keiko cried as she burst into his private lab. Nemu jumped in surprise and turned her doe eyes to the woman who nearly fell against Mayuri, stopping just in front of him. “Mayuri, I need you.” She said, out of breath, her chest heaving with the effort to draw in big gulps of air.
“Excuse me?” He asked, clearly not happy with the interruption, especially from one such as her. “I believe the proper way to address me is Kurotsuchi Taichou.” He corrected.
“I don’t have time for your excuses. Nemu, get out.” She ordered, not even looking at the woman.
“What?” He screeched, taking a menacing step toward her. Once again she was overwhelmed with the scent of him. The morbid smell that was like acid to her nose, making her entire face scrunch up.
“What I have to tell you I don’t think you’re going to want anyone else to hear. I’m trying to do you and your acrid image a favor.” Why she still cared about what he thought of himself, or what anyone else thought of him, was beyond her. The look on her face, the steel in her eyes made him doubt for a moment his position as the superior in the room.
“Nemu, go check on the experiment with Hollow 726.” He ordered. That was going on in a lab clear across the compound and would give this crazy woman enough time to speak her piece. Once she did, it would give him more than enough time to dispose of her, either by killing her or making her an experiment herself.
Without hesitation, his Fukutaichou left the lab, sliding the heavy metal doors closed with a forbidding slam.
“What more could you want from me? You pose as someone from my past for some sick joke. I realize the hate everyone carries for me, but I never thought those goody-two-shoe Taichou would ever allow one of their subordinates such a tasteless joke.”
“It isn’t a joke.” She informed him angrily. “My name is Kurotsuchi Keiko. I am the woman you married in the living world.”
His gold eyes slid over her body and despite his outward appearance, the familiar gesture sent the first tingle of warmth her body had known in years gliding through her. She looked the same, perhaps a few years younger than when they’d parted. Her black hair was the same length and same style, falling straight down to her shoulders. Her dark brown eyes so intense, showing everything. A window into the beautiful soul he’d fallen in love with. That certainly looked convincing enough. This woman even sounded like her.
“You can never prove that. That woman is dead.”
“Surely you’ve heard of my unusual baggage from my living years. I remember it. All of it, Mayuri. Every moment with you. From the second I first laid eyes on you to the gut wrenching sight of your back going through that gate when you left.”
His glared deepened, growing more cold. “Do not speak of such things!” He commanded in a harsh whisper. His face lowered toward her. “Those things mean nothing. Everyone knew of those events. Of my time in the living world.”
“Did they know what a good father you were to Hayaki? Or that you were the first one to hold Yuki after he was born?” Keiko asked, her eyes staring back at him, just as hard.
Startled, he took and involuntary step back.
“How about that the night we were married, you carried me over the hills to a little cabin you’d built yourself? That you’d lined the floor with flowers. Or that you stared at me the entire night, not sleeping a wink.” She let out a small laugh, closing her eyes. “I bet you had no idea I knew. You thought I was sleeping I’ll wager. I didn’t want to sleep that night. I was too busy trying to come to terms with the fact that after so many years to night you were finally mine.” The small smile that had grown on her lips faded as she opened her eyes.
“Who else could possibly know that you promised me that you would find me? That you would either come back to the living world for me, or that you would find me in the after life.”
He sputtered slightly, trying to say several things all at once. He shut up when her eyes darkened once more into anger. “Who, but the real Keiko, would know that you broke that promise?”
“You do remember!” He said, his tone oddly accusing.
“Every sad moment. Do you want to know how I died?”
“No.” He said, turning his back on her quickly. “It is not relevant.”
“Not relevant? Are you sure? Because there’s a Hollow back in that valley that begs to differ. A Hollow that’s ripping up the forest. Burning it to the ground, burning the forests around the valley. If we don’t stop it, it’ll burn through half the island. Kill thousands.”
She called upon shunpo to bring her in front of him again. “You wouldn’t know Yuki’s younger siblings, but you knew him. A beautiful little boy. You want to know what happened to him? His family was slaughtered in front of him. His father, Hayaki, your son” She added emphasis to that, hoping to jog him back into his old self. “died defending them from more men then you could have survived. He came to me in the middle of the night.”
We fled to where you left. It was there that the men found us. At my request, they killed Yuki quickly. He didn’t suffer much. They even let me hold him…so that he would only look at me. You know what they exacted in payment for that?”
Before he could defend himself, she drew her zanpakuto and in the same movement of removing it from the sheath, sliced the meaty part of his upper arm. She uttered a word he didn’t quite hear and a flash of light had him stumbling back. If it hadn’t been for the next few disorienting seconds, she would have been dead instantly for that action.
He saw her through her eyes. She raised her hands, angry, bleeding circles where the fingernails should have been. She was sitting on the ground, bits of hair with scalp still attached sitting around her. A horrible ache on the side of her head where her ear should have been. Her body hurt everywhere, thousands of little cuts, patches where they’d simply removed her skin burned in the smoky air. In the memory, he knew this had been hours after they’d killed the young Yuki, a knife through the back of the ribs to the heart.
Her vision was fading fast, the edges blurring even as everything went dark.
“She’s dyin’.” One of them said, giving her a harsh kick in the ribs, feeling the bone snap with a sickening jerk of pain slamming into her abused body.
“Eh, leave ‘er.” The other said, disgusted. “She isn’t any fun anymore anyways.”
The first leaned down and pressed his lips to her good ear. “We’re gonna go find this Mayuri guy you keep calling for and we’re gonna do worse to him.” He’d threatened. She knew that he’d meant it to be the last little bit of torture, but it had actually given her relief from the pain and terror. She knew that he would never get to Mayuri. That he would be waiting for her on the other side.
Keiko had died with her love for him foremost in her mind.
With a gasp of pain, Mayuri grabbed his head and stumbled back a few more paces. He ran his hands over his head, then his chest, assuring himself he was whole. His eyes snapped up to her, an odd mix of anger and sorrow in them.
He simply stood there for a long few moments, breathing hard and staring at her. “This Hollow?” he said after a moment, an order to explain more.
“Hayaki.” She said, her voice breaking. The tortured look in her eyes made him uncomfortable. He wasn’t the man she’d known in her living years. An odd part of him, buried deep inside was saddened by this. Wished even that he would go and comfort her. He shook it off, and stood up straight, stepping in front of her again.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded slowly. “An old Hollow, around about as long as Hayaki has been dead. Roams the same area of his death. Burns everything in it’s path the way those who killed him did. Strong too. Damn strong. Like Hayaki was.” Every word was spoke softer, by the time she’d finished Mayuri could barely hear her.
Keiko raised her chin and took a deep, shuttering breath to steady herself. “I was hoping that you would accompany me to the living world to take care of Hayaki. Help me lay our son to rest.” She was fairly begging him.
“That isn’t Hayaki!” He yelled. “Something has dared defile his memory.” He turned and threw open the doors, so hard that one flew off the hinges, the other dented beyond repair, rebounding at the full arc of it’s swing and slamming awkwardly back into place. She followed after him quickly, not bothering to look at those who gave their Taichou an odd look as he passed by.

No one dared defy Kurotsuchi Taichou’s order to open the Senkai gate. They were so surprised by his sudden demand that they didn’t even consider the bizarre nature of his trip. He was leaving with only one other Shinigami to an area that had been Hollow free for decades.
The two appeared in the forest, the same spot where he’d left so many years ago. Keiko could hardly believe that they were there. The events leading up to his promised return were a nightmare. The current situation was a nightmare. Keiko wondered if she would be comforted at all by the memories of her happy life after this. Killing her own son would be worse than her own death.
Mayuri turned toward her, his eyes oddly different. Like perhaps the old Mayuri had resurfaced for a short time, to help see her through this. Although he didn’t look the same, she could feel something of the old Mayuri when this one laid his hands on her shoulder.
“You know this isn’t Hayaki right? He died years ago. This is a creature that may resemble him, but it is not him. It is just a body of memories and regrets.”
She nodded, wishing for a moment that he would take off that stupid mask. Just to have the comfort of his face once again. Any comfort at all.
Mayuri turned from Keiko again and headed in the direction of the wall of billowing smoke to the east of them. The entire valley was up in flames. Black trunks crumbling beneath the orange flames, acrid smoke rising into the air in heavy clouds. There had not been houses here in a long while, but she could still see familiar features of land, where a pond had once been. A small rise that had served rather well as a lookout’s post just north of them.
The Hollow sat in the middle of the carnage. Both the Shinigami that approached knew where he sat. Keiko’s home had once stood there. Despite the enormous reitsu coming from the creature, it was no bigger than a man. The white skin even covered a form that resembled a man. The mask was unusual. Made of fire rather than the porcelain substance most seemed to be. Somewhere in the flames she could even make out the features familiar to her son’s own face. The empty black eyes turned toward the odd pair that walked between the flames without harm.
The large maw widened to emit a tortured, ear splitting scream, so filled with agony Keiko had to audibly repeat that this wasn’t her Hayaki. As it walked toward them, it’s footsteps left little licks of fire on the ground. Many of them simply went out in puffs of smoke for lack of anything to feed of off. Everything that could be burning already was.
“Go around behind it. If I cannot defeat it in the first pass, perhaps you can catch it by surprise.” He told her, his eyes never leaving the creature. Keiko turned to do just that, but as soon as she made a step forward, the flames ahead of her erupted into an angry wall, fed by some unseen force.
The Hollow screeched again, as if chastising her for an attempted escape. It’s void eyes moved from one to the other, as if not sure which to attack first. It seemed to grow more agitated as the moments passed. It howled at them again, throwing it’s body into it, white hands fisted at its sides.
As the moments passed, it became more fixated on Keiko. It seemed to recognize her, taking a few hesitant steps toward her, now ignoring Mayuri all together. Keiko just barely avoided a pillar of fire that sprouted up at her feet. Her shunpo carried her a relatively safe distance away. Despite the fact that Mayuri was practically standing beside it, the Hollow continued to focus on Keiko.
“This isn’t working.” She yelled to be heard over the roar of the flames. “I can’t sneak up behind it if it’s focusing on me.”
Mayuri growled and with a frustrated sweep of his arm, pulled out his odd looking zanpakuto. Moving forward to attack the creature only annoyed it, making the flames around them grow more fierce. It mostly ignored him, once the Shinigami was cut off from causing it physical harm.
Again it tried to attack Keiko, this time with a sweep of its arm. The heat that was coming off of the Hollow was amazing. It was then that she realized that the skin wasn’t the usual white of a Hollow, but the white hot of a forge. No wonder the mask was in flames. Everything it touched would burst into flames it was so hot. Including the sleeve of her kimono.
She jumped back again, batting at the flames to put them out. She had to jump back again, several bursts of Shunpo moving her around the valley to the safest places she could find. Sweat was rolling down her face, stinging her eyes and tickling her neck. The heat was so intense she could smell burning hair, sure that hers was curling up at the ends.
“Hayaki!” Came a call from behind the Hollow. They both looked, the Hollow turning quickly, forgetting about Keiko for a moment. They were both surprised at the man standing there. He was dressed like Mayuri, but the odd mask was gone, faded white and black paint smeared on his skin. For the most part, his face was clear, his dark hair so black it shown blue hung in disarray around him.
There was the man that Keiko remembered. He looked like him anyway. Some of his features had changed, he looked more gaunt than the last time she’d seen him, certainly less healthy. But it was the Mayuri she could recognize.
With a furious cry, the Hollow ran at him. Clearly, it harbored more misgivings toward Mayuri than Keiko. He raised the zanpakuto, the blade beginning to turn a splotchy orange with the heat around them. His skin was growing raw, as was Keiko’s. It was getting far too hot, especially with the Hollow feeding the flames whenever it attacked.
The thing never reached Mayuri. Suddenly Keiko was in front of him, sword raised and waiting. The thin steel slipped in the cheek of the mask, and came out at an angle at the back of the head. The black eyes focused on her and for a moment, she thought she could see sadness in them. Then, the entire Hollow simply disappeared, exploding outward in a burst of flames. Keiko was thrown back against Mayuri, sending both of them to the ground. He grunted, quickly reaching for his Zanpakuto, clamping an arm around her waist. He stood and quickly carried her back to the Senkai gate. The flames were still spreading, but they had mostly burned themselves out, having gone through fuel faster with the Hollow encouraging it.
Oddly enough, Mayuri didn’t let Keiko go once they’d reached a safe spot. Despite the heat, he kept her body tight against hers. The two watched for forest burn, Keiko for the second time in her memory. Tears were streaming down her face now, making rivulets of clean streaks amid the soot caked onto her face.
“Hayaki…” She murmured, a low whine of anguish.
“You didn’t kill him. You set him free. He can rest in peace now.” Mayuri assured her. The voice still didn’t sound the same, but somewhere in there she heard her Mayuri. She turned to face him. His gold eyes looked down at her, harder than before, but still beautiful. She’d never seen eyes like his, not before or after him.
“Why didn’t you keep your promise?” She asked suddenly, frowning.
“Because…you weren’t supposed to remember your living years. All the souls who come to Soul Society do so with clean slates.”
“So I wasn’t worth the effort of trying to find. You didn’t want to work at our relationship again.” She wasn’t asking, she was stating a fact.
“Would you have been able to fall in love with this? I’m a different man now. Very different. The death of the village, of you changed me. I’ve done horrible things and I will continue to do them. I can’t change back to the man you knew. I’m not him anymore.”
She searched his face, looked into the hard eyes that stared back. “No…I suppose you aren’t, are you?” He shook his head. “Do you think you ever could be?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m strong enough for that. You always were stronger than I was. You handled our separation with grace. I ran away from it. I think I’ve run to far.” He released his grip on her waist and took a step back. His mask was gone, burning in the fire somewhere. It didn’t matter, he had a replacement.
He turned away from her then, opening the Senkai gate. He suddenly wished he had one. More than anything, he wanted to hide from Keiko. He didn’t want her to see the man he had become.
“Mayuri?” She asked quietly. He didn’t turn toward her, but his head cocked slightly, indicating that he was listening. “Those memories from those years with you are still the best I’ve ever had.” She glanced back at the burning valley. Somewhere under the dirt were the bones of her family. Her own bones even, probably just a few feet beneath them. “If you can ever come back to me, I’ll be waiting. I can promise that. I know you’re in there somewhere, you came to help me with this. I can see you aren’t the same man, but I know you can be better. I know that you can be someone I could fall in love with again. If you just try.”
“I can’t promise anything. I have a lot of work to do. It keeps me busy. You’ll be busy too. Transfer to a new squad will be requested.” He turned to look at her. Somewhere, deep in his soul, he was saddened by their exchange of words. He knew who the Hollow had been in life and it had been a long time since he’d had to open up his memories and heart to that past. That same part of him wanted to break free, but the walls were too high. The heavy doors slammed down too quickly.
Looking at the woman in front of him, his gold eyes softened for a moment. “I hope you keep your promises better than I do.”
She sheathed her zanpakuto and took a step toward him. “Despite knowing what you are now, I still came to see you. You were the first one I came to when I needed help. And you helped me. That shows some promise.”
Quickly, he turned toward the gate. “We have to go, the flames are spreading.” He said quickly, then disappeared into the gate.
Keiko stood alone in the forest, brushing at her cheeks to dry the tears away. The flames ahead of her seemed like a sign of the finality of it all. The last string to her former life had been cut. Everything was different now. It was impossible for it to return to the way it had been. Too much had changed, far too long ago for it to return to some semblance of normalcy.
With a steady breath, she steeled herself to travel back to Soul Society. With or without Mayuri in her life, she had something to live for now. Her work was important, more so than she realized.
Stepping through the gate, she left her old life behind. It was fitting that Mayuri hadn’t waited for her on the other side. She still had a hope that perhaps that one piece might come back into her life, but it was a slim on. Until then, she had to hold onto her love.
People said that it was never too late to try again. Sometimes that wasn’t true. Sometimes you simply were too late. Sometimes you lost things forever. But maybe time could turn things back around.
Keiko would just have to see. She would have to be strong for the both of them. People just didn’t understand Mayuri’s past. Why he was the way he was. But she knew. He was just a broken man. Perhaps he could be put together. She would never find all the pieces, but those few moments of tenderness in her burning valley attested to the fact that her Mayuri was buried away deep inside.
Maybe, it wasn’t too late for him to return to the surface.

--------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Note: Sorry for the sad ending, but I couldn’t think of anything else to fit Mayuri. However, thank you to all of you who have read this story to the end. I have to apologize for the delay in finishing. My life got a little hectic (nothing bad) and while it isn’t an excuse, it is an explanation. I can’t promise that I will be writing as frequently as before, but you will be hearing from me again. For those of you who review, I appreciate it very much and hope that you continue. I always love hearing from you. Also, if there are any suggestions for a new pair that my readers would like to read about, I am always open to suggestions.