Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Reminiscence ❯ Interlude~ 01 -- Burning Bridges ( Chapter 8 )

Title: ReminiscenceMemory: 08 - Burning BridgesAuthor: La Loba de MibuRating: PGCharacters: Ikkaku and YumichikaWarnings: Angst?Summary: Ikkaku had been unable to shake the tenseness from his shoulders with his thoughts dwelling constantly on the voice he kept hearing. He was no longer sure he was just imagining it. Was he simply going insane? Notes: The number of the chapter does not reflect the chronological order of the present storyline, rather the flashback portrayed therein.Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns all things Bleach.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Series Timeline~ Series Index: Chapters 1-7~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Naga-juban = thin inner kimono~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“Ikkaku, really,” Yumichika complained in an oddly embarrassed tone, “We're almost there, you can put me down now. It's fine.” “Look, I told ya. I'll put ya down soon as we reach the geta stand. Relax would ya? I can't breathe,” Ikkaku griped.Yumichika loosened the arms he had unconsciously wrapped tight around Ikkaku's neck. Ikkaku had been carrying his companion on his back for almost two and a half days now, studiously ignoring the other's profuse complaints along the way. They had reached said stand and Ikkaku finally let Yumi get down as promised. He watched Yumichika pay the man for a new pair of geta, promptly slipping into them before turning to face him again.Ikkaku tried not to wince at the atrocious bruising on the side of his face, or the way his right eye had almost swollen shut over the past couple of days. It was not a good look for the delicate face. He turned to the vender.

“Hey old man, ya got a healer `round these parts?”

The vender nodded and as he gave them directions, Ikkaku tried hard to resist the urge to pummel the defenseless old man where he stood. He was looking from Yumichika's beat up face to Ikkaku suspiciously, as if he was a man dragging his wife to the healer's after having beat her himself. He turned without thanking him, hearing Yumichika do it for them and follow quickly after him, new geta clacking softly in the dirt path. “See, I told you not to carry me into town. Did you see how strangely he was looking at us?” Yumi grumbled as he fell in step with Ikkaku.“Tsk, look I'm tired of saying it over and over. Get it through yer head. Ya never walk barefoot for anything. If ya had to do it for these last few days, yer feet woulda gotten all cut up and then I would have had ta carry ya anyway, and probably for longer. And that man wasn't looking at us funny cuz I was carrying ya. He probably thought I was the one that rearranged yer face,” Ikkaku growled in annoyance.One look at the way Yumichika lowered his head and self-consciously pulled his hair over one shoulder, combing his fingers through the long strands to get them to cover the injured side of his face, made Ikkaku realize his tone had been a lot harsher then necessary. But he couldn't help it, he was just so irritated; irritated at Yumichika, more irritated at himself, but mostly irritated at the ghost of a memory that wouldn't stop haunting him.

It had all started during a spar with Yumichika, several days earlier . . .

 

. . . . .

Ikkaku lunged for Yumichika, surprised when the man sidestepped his blade and moved toward him, readying to deliver a blow to his unguarded side. He managed to twist in a way that would be unnatural for most people and blocked with his sheath. Biting the inside of his cheek, he tried to call back his concentration, but since that morning, vestiges of sounds from his dreams of epic battles kept migrating into his waking mind, pulling his attention away from the here and now.

It was an odd sound, because it was one he'd never heard before; a voice— too familiar to have truly forgotten, yet too distant to really be remembered. It had been reverberating in his head all day long, and Yumichika was not helping any.

“Ho, what's this? You're slipping Ikkaku!” Yumichika teased with a small smirk.~~~~ ~~~~Ho, what's this? You're slipping Ikkaku!~~~~ ~~~~The echoed words stunned him like a physical blow which was quickly followed by an actual blow as Yumichika struck the tender juncture of neck and shoulder with the reverse side of his blade. Ikkaku grunted, snapped out of his reverie and jumped away with a retaliating strike to Yumi's gut from his sheath. He took a defensive stance, glaring openly instead of wearing his usual grin. Yumichika frowned, bent over slightly, rubbing his stomach as he studied the look on Ikkaku's face.“There's no need to get so sore about it.”~~~~ ~~~~There's no need to get so sore about it.~~~~ ~~~~Though he was the only one to speak, Yumichika's voice was not the only one Ikkaku was hearing. It was too much. Those two tenors entwining in dialogue only he seemed to hear; mocking his sanity, stripping him of his patience, and filling him with an irrational sense of dread that seemed to suck even his usually insatiable battlelust dry. He needed it gone, now.

 

With a frown he charged forward at full speed, holding his weapon in a distinctive manner that told Yumichika what he was planning to do. He saw the other hastily rise to defend, worry suddenly creasing his brow. Yumichika called out his name now, a wary warning from the voice of a stranger.“Ikkaku!”~~~~~~Ikkaku!~~~~~~With a war cry he jumped into the air and spun to bring his katana down upon Yumichika's kodachi with the full force of his momentum and weight of his body behind it; a move he only ever used on opponents that out weighed him, as the force of the blow could break a smaller opponents wrists, cutting a fight short, which would be no fun at all. He realized this all belatedly, watching as if in slow motion, a grimace take over Yumichika's pretty face and a pained cry escaped his lips as he did the one thing Ikkaku told him never to do in a fight: he let go of his sword.To his credit, Yumichika pulled off a “putty” move of his own and swerved out of the way of Ikkaku's reversed blade, avoiding a blow that surely would have broken bones even if it wouldn't have cut skin. However, unused to such a move, he landed gracelessly in the dirt where Ikkaku would have been well into the next stance or attack. He stared in mild shock where Ikkaku's sword struck the ground. Ikkaku too, seemed to snap out of his daze, realizing he could have seriously hurt his partner. He turned to Yumichika then, and his only warning was the angry twitch of an elegant brow before the teeth of Yumi's geta slammed into his shins with surprising force and knocked Ikkaku right off his feet, face first into the dirt. “You asshole! That hurt!” Ikkaku snarled, grabbing at his shins like a scorned child.“Serves you right, you brute!” Yumichika raised a hand to point an accusing finger in Ikkaku's face, but quickly stopped with a hiss of pain, cradling his hands close to his chest.“Shit, lemme see,” Ikkaku frowned as he gingerly inspected Yumichika's quickly swelling wrists; they were sprained. “Che, dammit. Why'd ya let go like that?”“What? Am I supposed to just let you break my wrists when you feel like it?” Yumichika snapped and pulled his hands from Ikkaku's grasp.Ikkaku felt a stab of guilt then, but at the very least Yumi sounded like himself again and not that strange voice from before. Maybe he was coming down with something. He didn't apologize; instead he pulled a roll of bandages from his pack and sat back down next to Yumichika reaching for his hands again. There was a moment's hesitation before Yumi allowed him to take them with a resigned sigh. Ikkaku gave an irritated huff of his own as he began to wrap the bandages in a way that would support the muscles he'd inadvertently strained.“Don't ya ever let go of yer sword,” Ikkaku flicked his eyes up briefly to meet calculative, violet eyes, “Yer sword is yer pride, alright? Ya don't ever let go of it for nothing or nobody. Ya let go of your sword and you'll die like a dog. Ya keep hold of it, no matter what gets sprained or broken and you die like a warrior, with it tight in your grip. You got that? Now, swear it.”He finished tying off the last bandage and looked up to see Yumichika dubiously staring back. He was struck by such an immense sense of déjà vu that he suddenly wondered if this whole the thing was not just the product of some feverish dream.

“But you wouldn't have killed me,” Yumichika whined, unaware that his voice had once again been joined by another, fraying Ikkaku's currently unsteady sense of reality.~~~~ ~~~~But you wouldn't have killed me.~~~~ ~~~~“Swear it!” Ikkaku said more forcefully then was strictly necessary, trying to silence that ominous echo, but when he saw Yumi flinch almost imperceptibly, added more softly, “It's important.”“I swear,” Yumichika answered solemnly then, “I won't let go of it ever again.”Ikkaku nodded and stood, giving Yumichika a hand up, careful of not pulling his injured wrists. They left the clearing they had been sparring in and continued on their way to the next district. According to their information, there was a bridge nearby that would lead them straight across without having to sidetrack for miles to avoid a long ravine dividing the two districts. Two days later saw them at this bridge, but it was much less then they had been expecting. “Che, ya gotta be fucking kidding me,” Ikkaku griped.

 

His mood had been fouled since the spar, by guilt and by the strange occurrences within it; strange occurrences which had diminished, but never completely departed over the last few days. Yumichika had immediately noticed his sulking, but his efforts to alleviate the tension more often then not had worsened the problem when his words kept coming to Ikkaku in that thrice damned echo. Now, the sight before him, only agitated the clouds hanging over him.The bridge was a very old, worn, moldy looking thing that didn't seem like it could take the weight of a fly, much less a grown person. He turned to suggest that they head back and find some other route when he saw Yumichika already taking a tentative step onto the creaky wooden planks of the old bridge.“Yumichika! Forget about it, it's not safe. We'd better go around. C'mon.”

But Yumichika ignored him, stepping fully onto the bridge and bouncing purposely a few times. The bridge moaned and swayed with his weight, but held. Seemingly satisfied, he turned to Ikkaku with a determined look, hands on his hips.“It's fine,” he bounced again to make his point, only to receive a glare from Ikkaku, “Look, I'm tired, I want a bath, and hot food. I'm not going to spend another day more than necessary out here with your sulky hide, going around this divide when there is a perfectly safe way to cross here and now. Come on.”With that he turned and started resolutely heading across the bridge. Ikkaku cursed and hurried after him, ignoring the eerie realization hat they were so high up, they couldn't hear the rushing waters of the river below.“Ya know, yer always nagging me about my lack of common sense. Now'd be a pretty good time to nag at yerself, don't ya think?” Ikkaku groused, making a poor attempt at their usual friendly banter in acknowledgement of Yumi's `sulky' comment.

“Nag?!” Yumichika replied indignant, looking over his shoulder, “I don't nag! Only wives nag! Do I look like your wife?”Ikkaku was about to retort with something clever when Yumichika suddenly tripped in front of him, a foot having gone straight through a rotten plank. Behind them, Ikkaku heard what sounded dreadfully like the tight snapping of a rope and as he felt the bridge begin to sag beneath, he knew without having to look.“MOVE!” he pulled Yumichika up and pushed him ahead.The other didn't need to be told twice, he could hear and feel the bridge falling out from under them as they ran, still only about half way across its length for solid land and dear life on the other side. Ikkaku felt their run start to become a climb and instinctively moved, grabbing hold of Yumichika's smaller form and shoving him the last few yards as hard as he could. He saw the young man stagger and fall onto solid land just as he felt himself beginning to sink, his feet no longer standing on anything but thin air. He reached out blindly and managed to grab hold of a root and keep from falling to his doom. Unfortunately, he could feel it slipping further out of the cliff side with each passing moment he hung from it. He found a foot hold, but there was no other outcropping to grab hold of in sight. He thought for a moment what a pathetic fate it would be to have been killed, indirectly at that, by a broken bridge. A much quieter thought in a deeper part of his mind was glad Yumichika wouldn't be sharing that fate. “Ikkaku!” He looked up to find Yumi leaning over the edge, reaching out to him with real fear in his eyes. It was a strange thing to see in the usually calm and confident violet depths and he made an uncomfortable déjà vu sweep over him again. He reached out for Yumichika's hand, stretching as far as he could. He was too far, their fingertips only just brushed when Ikkaku felt his foothold crumble beneath him as he shifted more weight on it. The root he was hanging onto slipped out of the cliff side as well and as he plunged downward suddenly, he watched in morbid fascination as Yumichika lunged after him as well. He toppled awkwardly over the edge, almost head over heels, grabbing hold of one of the sagging ropes left from the bridge and thrusting a long black shape towards Ikkaku, which the man quickly grabbed onto.He heard Yumichika grunt in pain and remembered suddenly that the other man's sprained wrists had yet to heal. Ikkaku realized that the black shape he'd latched onto was Yumichika's sheathed kodachi, which the smaller man held onto with a trembling white knuckled grip. He saw Yumichika bite his lip as he twisted his other hand in circles to loop the rope around his arm for additional support in a move that must've hurt incredibly. Ikkaku could see his fingers twitching precariously with every flick of the wrist, but Yumi did not let go, nor relax his grip as he accomplished his task. Finally he looked down and met Ikkaku's eyes again. They were wary, pained and anxious and seemed to be superimposed with an unfamiliar brown pair, paralleling the same emotions. Ikkau blinked and held his eyes shut for a long time before the subtle jiggling of the kodachi he held onto forced him to look back at his companion. This time at least he saw violet once more, but filled with the subtle beginnings of panic. Yumichika's arms were starting to tremble with effort of bearing Ikkaku's weight with one hand and holding both their weights fast to the rope with the other. When Ikkaku looked back up into those eyes, it was with a look that told Yumi he couldn't hang on forever. “Ikkaku,” Yumichika spoke slowly as if to a dumb child, his voice like steel, but his eyes utterly pleading, “Don't you dare do anything hypocritical.”But Ikkaku wouldn't be given the chance as the world suddenly became a blur of motion. The rope Yumi held onto to abruptly sagged further, and they plummeted down until it just as abruptly went taut. He heard the sickening pop of a joint dislocating with the jolt of the rope, and Yumichika cried out in pain. They bounced back up once with the rope, but Yumi's grip had slipped by then and soon they were tumbling into the depths of the ravine toward the river below. The wind that whipped around him as he fell was deafening; Ikkaku couldn't make out any sound beyond it. They were quickly approaching the water and he was distantly dismayed to see the river was a rapid rocky mess. Moving without thinking, he twisted and stretched until he could grab hold of Yumichika's falling form just above him, pulling the smaller body in close and wrapping himself protectively around it, just as his back hit the water.It was unfathomable how water at the height of summer could be so bloody cold. Its sharp needle-like sensation all over his body stunned him into loosing his grip on Yumichika and by the time he surfaced he'd lost track of the other. “Yumichika!”The current swept him aside violently and he felt pain blossom along his spine as he crashed into a sharp, unyielding rock. He ignored it, turning quickly and fastening himself to it before the current decided to introduce him to another. “Ikka—”He looked over wet stone in time to see Yumichika flailing along further down stream, going under with every dip of the current, unable to keep his balance properly with the use of only one arm, meeting painfully with several large boulders as the current carried him wherever it willed. He was rushing along facing Ikkaku most of the way, until a sudden dip spun him around and he crashed head first into a log that had fallen across the rushing river. Ikkaku watched in horror as Yumichika ceased all movement and his body slipped under the current.“Yumi!”Ikkaku let go of his post then, trying to use the current to guide him to the next stone without getting completely smashed by it, making his way haltingly to the log. He'd gotten himself to the next rock without too much bruising when he heard a loud gasp followed by coughing and sputtering. Yumichika had surfaced on the other side of the log, as intent on holding on to it as he was on empting his lungs of the water he'd inhaled. Ikkaku breathed a sigh of relief and made his way through the sloshing water until he was thrown into the log himself, on the opposite side of Yumichika. “Oi, Yumi,” he said, reaching out to brush wet hair from an already bruising cheek, “Yumi, you okay?” “Just—” Yumichika coughed, then snorted tiredly, “. . . dandy.” Ikkaku grabbed hold of the scruff of Yumi's kimono and together they used the log to pull themselves out of the raging river. Once ashore, Yumi collapsed tiredly onto his knees, shaking from the cold water and the adrenaline still coursing through him. Ikkaku realized belatedly that Yumi had not let go of his kodachi and still held it in a white knuckled grip in his good hand. His dislocated shoulder made his other arm hang uselessly at his side. Ikkaku knelt beside him and took the wet bandages off one wrist, revealing hot inflamed skin underneath. Yumichika hissed as he pressed against it.“You can let go of that now,” Ikkaku said quietly. Yumichika did, seemingly unaware he still had it.“I sorry . . .” he began dejectedly after a few moments, voice very quiet, “If I hadn't ins-iyaa—!!”Ikkaku dismissed the other's cry of pain as he popped his shoulder back in place without warning, allowing Yumi to slump forward gasping, his head resting on Ikkaku's collarbone as it did on those rare nights they didn't speak about. After a moment of silence Ikkaku spoke up.“Why did ya do that, huh?” he asked without preamble, lifting Yumichika's head to look at his uncertain eyes. One was beginning to swell, “Ya were already hurt, by me no less, and ya coulda died, but ya did it anyway. Why?”He looked at Yumichika solemnly, who gazed back steadily, just as serious.“Because . . .” Yumichika said quietly, “You're my friend. I could never just let you die.”~~~~ ~~~~I could never just let you die.~~~~ ~~~~For some reason, those echoed words filled Ikkaku with a terrible dread, and something niggled ominously deep in the back of his mind. Something he couldn't understand, something he couldn't remember, yet something he knew couldn't let happen again.

“I lost my geta,” Yumi mumbled out of the blue into the quiet that proceeded his earlier statement, wisely changing the heavy subject. Yumichika always had this way of just knowing when to drop a subject, and it was one of the things about the other young man Ikkaku most appreciated, though he wouldn't admit to it. He sighed, relieved of having to respond to Yumichika's answer to his question.“You can buy new ones,” he grumbled back, then remembered, “Shit, I lost my pack.”“Mine's on the cliff, the money was in there,” Yumichika reassured, “Problem is how to get up there.”Ikkaku surveyed the cliff face. It was too steep to climb and there was no path up in sight. At the very least, they were on the right shore and had not ended up on the side they started on. Their best choice was to follow the river until they found a way up. He looked over at Yumi, sitting on the gravelly bank, rubbing his bare feet together like a small child. That would be a problem, Yumichika had never walked barefoot a day in his afterlife. Sighing, he turned and offered a piggy back, speaking over his shoulder.“Get on, I don't even wanna hear ya start complaining about yer `beautiful' feet,” Ikkaku drawled, but instead of the usual indignant retort, he heard Yumi gasp.“Ikkaku, your back . . .” he sounded worried, “You're bleeding.”It wasn't until Yumichika mentioned it that he began to feel the dull throbs, and realized the first rock he hit must have taken a chunk off of him. He tried to get Yumi to ignore it, but the other wouldn't have it. He was beyond anal about properly taking care of Ikkaku's injuries since that infection he'd gotten decades ago.“Yumi forget about it, we don't even have banda—What are you doing?!” Ikkaku was more than slightly bewildered when Yumichika suddenly untied his obi and stripped off his kimono hurriedly.He understood his intent when he took his kodachi and cut the fabric of his naga-juban, tearing off the bottom foot and a half, and quickly making strips of it. Ikkaku then had no choice but to allow Yumichika to bandage the wound with the makeshift materials. When finished, Yumichika insisted he'd walk. Ikkaku let him do as he pleased for first the two hours until Yumi's quiet hisses of pain as he walked along the pebbly shore behind him threatened to burst a blood vessel. After which, he simply tossed a loudly complaining Yumichika over his shoulder. He eventually resigned himself to be carried, not unappreciative of the gesture, simply unwilling to further agitate Ikkaku's wounded back. It took them a day to reach the top of the cliff where the perilous bridge had once been. Yumichika's small pack was still where he'd dropped it; they picked it up and continued on their way . . .

. . . . .

 

Another day and a half found them in the town they'd been heading to, inside the small hut of the local healer, getting tended to and replacing the medical supplies they'd lost at the bridge days earlier. They paid the old woman for her trouble and headed toward the local.

 

Ikkaku had not been able to shake the tenseness from his shoulders with his thoughts dwelling constantly on the voice he had kept hearing. He'd been brooding and unusually silent since his spar with Yumichika, trying and failing to figure out what the hell that voice had been. He hadn't heard a peep from it since the bridge, but he was no longer sure he hadn't just imagined the whole thing. Was he simply going insane? A bright sign caught his eye then, and Ikkaku noticed a gambling house. “Oi, Yumichika, look there. Let's stop in and have some fun tonight,” Ikkaku said with a gesture at the house, but it contained none of his usual enthusiasm. “Alright,” Yumichika nodded, looking at him oddly for a moment, but saying nothing more.

 

They reached the inn and ordered food to be brought. Ikkaku was content to continue his silence, but the unusual lack of conversation over their first hot meal in days was too much for Yumichika. He finally broke the silence of the room in a quiet voice, catching Ikkaku off guard.“Ikkaku?” he sounded terribly uncertain, “Have I done something to offend you? These days past, even before the bridge, it has just seemed I like . . . well have I? I'd apologize, if you'd just inform me what I've done wrong.”He hated how formal Yumichika sounded, speaking as if to someone higher than him, someone in command. It irked something in Ikkaku, pulled at memories he didn't have anymore and making him feel almost as uneasy as the voice had. But thankfully, it kept quiet this time, not tainting the words leaving his friend's mouth. “Quit talking like that.”

But he couldn't really blame Yumichika for it, he'd learned over the years that Yumichika fell back onto this formal high dialect when he was truly worried over something. And it was true; he'd been cold and distant since the spar nearly a week ago, when he'd first heard that voice.

 

Ikkaku knew Yumichika had long noticed something was not right with him. He knew enough not to ask directly, that usually Ikkaku would tell him in his own good time. But there was nothing usual about this. How could he confess potential madness to the only person he'd met in his long afterlife mad enough to put up with his company as Yumichika did on a daily basis? Furthermore, how could he tell Yumichika that he was the source of it? That when he opened his mouth, Ikkaku kept hearing another's voice, that when he looked at his face, Ikkaku kept seeing another's eyes?

He couldn't. So he kept brooding, and kept suffocating silently in the portentous air of it all; ignoring the worried glances his companion had been throwing at him over the past days. But Yumichika wasn't knowingly at fault for his current situation, so Ikkaku wasn't about to blame him, or let him blame himself.

 

“Ya haven't done nothing,” Ikkaku eventually reassured, before switching subjects and making an effort to talk much more animatedly about the gambling house they were going to trash later that night. But as he watched Yumichika's relieved smile be mirrored by another, his own words rang in his head this time. The uneasy feeling he'd gotten used to over the past week knotted his stomach and soured his meal. And as his words continued to bounce around, he couldn't help thinking, in the furthest darkest recesses of his mind with a vague sense of dread, that someday Yumichika would.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*Owari*~