Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Seeds of Destruction ❯ On the Precipice of Darkness ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

By: BDP

4. Blurred Reflections - On the precipice of darkness

The sun had begun its descent from the Heavens when he opened the door to the Urahara Shoten the next afternoon.

“Ah! Kurosaki-san! Good afternoon!”

“Hey again, Tessai-san,” Ichigo greeted the bulky man with a little smile. “Is Urahara-san in?”

The man nodded, “He has returned not too long ago and is talking to Orihime-chan now.”

“She's awake?!”

Tessai nodded courtly with a content smile. “You should go see her, she asked for you.”

“Arigatou,” Ichigo quickly stepped passed the man and into the corridor that lead to the house that was attached to the shop.

According to what Tessai told him, they found both him and Orihime unconscious in her apartment last night and brought them immediately to the shop where he and Urahara did an analyse of their injuries. When he woke up this morning, he was back in his body and she had been lying next to him on a separate futon, still unconscious. He stayed by her side the entire morning, beating himself up for not having seen the signs that had prelude the attack of his Hollow.

He still ignored why he himself passed out after last night's battle. Nothing made any sense to him and he hoped that now that Urahara was here he would get his answers.

Soft voices could be heard through the door of the 3rd bedroom and he slid it open, finding the former captain of the 12th squad of the Gotei 13 kneeled next to Orihime on the floor in the middle of the room with his back to him.

“Kurosaki-san,” Urahara softly said with a smile, having noticed his presence. “We were wondering if you would come back at all.”

A vein popped in the middle of Ichigo's left temple and he pointed at him, reprimanding. “I left a message with Tessai before I left at noon, asking for you to inform me if Orihime was to wake up!”

“Oh?” Urahara said with a pensive look on his face, turning his head around to look at him. He then smiled in faked embarrassment as he remembered what the orange haired young man was talking about. “Riiiiight!” he laughed merrily, holding his fan in front of his face. “I forgot!”

Ichigo's jaw dropped. “Dude, you seriously suck big time!”

A soft giggle could be heard and Ichigo approached the futon before kneeling next to it and taking Orihime's left hand in his. “You finally came…” she whispered with a small smile.

“Of course, Hime…” Ichigo softly spoke, placing his other hand on her head and caressing her hair gently.

Urahara silently rose upon his feet and exited to give the couple some privacy. There was a small glimmer of worry in his eyes that neither Ichigo nor Orihime caught when he slid the door closed. He would reveal the results of his research later, after the couple had had their moments of peace together.

“I'm sorry I kept you waiting…” Ichigo brought her hand he was holding up to his lips and kissed the palm. “Tessai suggested I went home to take a shower and it felt like the right thing to do at the time…”

Orihime chuckled softly. “Who's making improper excuses now?”

He smirked briefly but quickly had an apologising, yet determined look on his face again. “Hime… I promise you that I'll fix this.”

She shook her head and placed her hand on his lips. “Urahara-san told me that you're barely able of maintaining your Bankai form without using a whole lot of spirit power. I don't want you to go after your Hollow if you don't know what caused your fall-out of last night.”

Ichigo looked away from her and closed his eyes. “How can you still be worried about me when you're in a state like this?”

Orihime made him look at her again. “Because I love you, Ichigo. Did you really think you were the only one allowed to worry?”

Ichigo sighed and shook his head. “I swore to protect you, and yet, because of me, look what happened…”

“Will you stop making that depressing face already?” Orihime smirked. “I'm supposed to be the patient here!”

Despite himself he cracked a laugh and nodded. “You're right.”

“Hey,” she said softly, catching his attention once more. “I don't want that face again, alright? It'll all be ok, I know it will.”

Ichigo gave a short nod and took a breath. He was silently proud of her and the strength she showed despite what happened. He made the silent resolve to do whatever it took to catch that bastard of a Hollow.

Orihime let out a silent sigh and smiled to herself, happy to see the fire return in her Ichigo's eyes. She knew him well enough to know that unexpected set backs had a demoralizing effect on him and she just hoped that he'd keep that new found determination so he could find a way to fight his Inner Demon with renewed strength.

“How are you feeling?” Ichigo then asked, lying himself next to her on the relatively large futon. She scooted away a little to give him some space and lifted the cover for him to enter. “Are you still in a lot of pain?”

Orihime tucked a strand of her hair behind an ear and shook her head, scooting a bit closer to him again as he brushed another stray strand of her light brown hair from her right cheek. “There is no physical pain,” she whispered, closing her eyes at the welcome feeling of his presence next to hers. “Demo…”

He watched her silently as she cast her eyes down and rubbed the tip of his nose against hers; wordlessly asking her to finish her sentence.

“Urahara-san proposed to abort my pregnancy…”

Ichigo didn't say anything, but only looked at her, trying to read what she felt.

Orihime sucked in a breath and let it go shakily, chuckling in embarrassment when she noticed that a tear had escaped from her right eye. “I mean,” she said with trembling lips as she wiped the tear away quickly, “I don't know how you feel about it, since the Hollow— raped me with your body… so… it technically makes it your child, right?” She hesitantly looked up at him, but quickly averted her eyes again. “What are we going to do?”

He took her in his arms and held her close to his chest, “What did Urahara tell you?”

Orihime shook her head. “Not much, he only told me it would be best for all if we got rid of it.”

“Tch… How very sensitive of him…” Ichigo rolled his eyes.

“He must have had a valuable reason for saying it…” she whispered.

“Orihime,” Ichigo said in a serious manner, “how do you feel about it?”

“I'm scared…” she whispered truthfully, “I'm frightened of what it is that is growing inside of me, Ichigo…” Her shoulders were trembling slightly as she spoke and he held her closer to him. “But a part of me keeps thinking that maybe this baby deserves a chance at life… that perhaps it hasn't been infected by him…”

Ichigo closed his eyes. He had expected for her to say that because he felt the same way.

But what if this child turned out to be the seed that would destroy everything he held dear like the Hollow told Orihime?

“I need to speak to Urahara about this,” he told her, soothingly caressing her back. “We need to find out why he deems it best to put an end to your pregnancy.”

She nodded and began to sob, still buried in the comforting warmth of his embrace. “Ichigo…”

“We'll get through this, Hime… I promise.” He kissed the top of her head. “I will find a way to destroy him once and for all. I have to find a way.”

Orihime sniffled and held on to his sweatshirt, opening her eyes. “Tell me,” she whispered, her voice sounding a little less shaky, “how did you manage to oppress him last time?” She had suddenly remembered something the Hollow had told her two nights ago.

“I fought with him,” Ichigo responded, recalling that intense fight in his interior world. “I fought with him and I won. He was then forced to lend me the full capacities of his hollow powers as I absorbed him into my soul. It was because of that that I was able to become a Vaizard.”

“You locked him inside your soul?”

“Aa…” Ichigo nodded. “I was capable of tapping into his power whenever the need arose for them.”

“Can you feel him there now?” she asked, looking up at him.

Ichigo focused for a brief second and scowled. “It doesn't make any sense… He's there, as if nothing happened.”

Orihime nodded silently in understanding. “He said you lowered you guard when you began to fall in love with me… He was able to grow stronger and escape because of it…” Her voice died out quietly and she looked downwards once more.

“Are you going at it again?” Ichigo tilted her chin and made her look at him. “You're going to make me sound like a broken gramophone record, Hime…”

“I-I know… and I'm sorry,” she softly whispered, nervously fidgeting with the strings of his sleeveless hooded sweatshirt. “But he still attacked me to get to you. It's easy for someone to hurt you if they attack me first. I don't want to put you in that kind of a paining situation just because I'm such an easy target.”

“Dame, Hime!” He sternly whispered, moving away from her to lock his eyes with hers that were watering up again. “I'm not going to let anyone hurt you again, you hear me? From now on, every time I need to transform into a Shinigami, I'll use Kon to take over. That way, if the need presents itself, he can come and warn me if you're in danger.”

“I wish…” she sobbed, “I wish I didn't cause you all this trouble, Ichigo-kun.” Her tears began to flow once again and he took her in his arms. “I had sworn to myself that I wouldn't be the one you'd constantly be worried about, that I could stand on my own and be strong enough to fight my own battles, but— I'm not even strong enough to distance myself sufficiently from you in order to protect you and now there's something growing inside of me that could destroy you and everything I love and care for most in my life!”

“Hime…”

“I'm so sorry!” She cried, holding on to him desperately as she sobbed on. “I'm so terribly sorry!”

Ichigo let her cry her bitter tears, not saying anything but only offering a shoulder for her to lean on in these moments of cruel torment.

He would tear that Hollow apart with his bare hands.

The ridiculous cat and mouse game they had been playing so far was going to be over now. This time he would either subdue him for once and for all, or destroy him for good. There had to be another way to attain more power than to have no choice but to revert to hollow ones.

There just had to be.

The sun was setting underneath the horizon by the time Ichigo slipped out of Orihime's room, finding the lights in the corridor lit up to illuminate the night that had fallen over the city. He silently made his way to the living room as not to wake her now that she had finally managed to fall asleep again and opened the sliding doors.

A group of people had apparently waited for him to walk in.

“Ichigo, how is she?” Rukia pushed herself away from the wall she had been leaning on and took a few steps in his direction.

Ichigo looked around the room and met with all the concerned faces of his friends.

Uryuu had come, as well as Chad, Renji, Yoruichi and the four modsouls in their stuffed animal form; Kon, RinRin, Nova and Cloud. Urahara was sitting with them around the low table he kept in the middle of the room.

Ichigo turned his head to Rukia and sighed. “She fell asleep not too long ago,” he softly said, moving himself to sit at the table between Chad and Uryuu. He accepted the cup of tea Urahara offered him and took a sip before falling silent.

“Is that all you're going to say, Ichigo!” Rukia exploded, “We're all worried about her!”

Urahara rolled his eyes from the black haired Shinigami to the orange haired young man sitting across from him and waited patiently for what he knew would come.

“Urahara-san,” Ichigo whispered. “Why did you suggest ending Orihime's pregnancy?”

The silence that was created with those words was heavy, engulfing any other sound in its wake.

“I-Inoue-san is expecting?” Uryuu whispered shakily, still not believing what he had just heard.

“How is that possible?” Cloud exclaimed, looking at Ichigo from his spot on the table.

RinRin placed her hands on her sides, rolled her eyes and shot her companion an annoyed look. “Ne, baka! It's obvious how she got pregnant!”

Kon made a sound somewhere near a giggle and an excited groan. “And I who thought that Ichigo wasn't man enough to use his soldier and—“

Ichigo grabbed him by one of his stuffed arms and threw him behind him, making the lion plushie hit the wall.

“The problem is the being that she's carrying inside of her,” Yoruichi explained, crossing her arms over her chest from her position next to Urahara.

“Being?” Chad asked.

Rukia had her eyes spread open wide and a trembling hand came to cover her mouth as she realised what Yoruichi had meant. “A hybrid created from a crossing between a Shinigami and a Hollow, and possessing the Event Reject powers of Inoue…”

“Let's not forget that Kurosaki is no ordinary Shinigami to begin with. Even without his hollow powers.” Renji added pensively, thinking back of the very first fight he and Ichigo had had on that night he had been ordered to bring Rukia back home to the Soul Society to stand trial. A strange power had emanated from Ichigo then, a power he couldn't possibly have had the strength to call upon since he had been near death. “That baby will be packing some serious fire power…”

“With the combined powers of Kurosaki's Hollow and Inoue that this child will have, we're facing a catastrophe in the long run,” Yoruichi spoke.

“A seed of destruction,” Urahara concluded.

Ichigo, who still hadn't said a word, placed down his cup of tea and looked up at Urahara. “Urahara-san, when do you think it'll be possible for you to begin with the extraction procedure?”

After hearing everything that had been said he had taken a decision. There was no other way for him to do this. If he did not act soon, everything would be lost.

Urahara watched him intently for a few moments and then looked at his cup of tea on the table. “As soon as Inoue-san feels strong enough to endure it.”

Ichigo nodded and began to stand. “Then do it…”

“Ichigo, where are you going?” Rukia asked.

Ichigo did not respond and continued his way to the door.

“Kurosaki-san!” Urahara loudly said, making him stop in his steps. “How do you plan on facing it with only half of your powers? Unless you plan on dying, I wouldn't just run head first into a battle you know you can't win.”

Ichigo balled his fists and gritted his teeth, shaking with held back anger. He knew Urahara was right, but still… “I can't just sit here and do nothing!” he spoke through his clenched teeth. “It's my carelessness that caused Orihime to get raped! My carelessness that has all of you silently blaming me! And don't think I don't know how you all think!”

Rukia stepped up to him with a closed expression on her face and slapped him hard. “Snap out of it!” she angrily whispered. “Right now!”

“Rukia,” he whispered, holding on to his sore left cheek, caught completely off guard.

“You shit-faced idiot,” Renji said with a disdainful chuckle, shaking his head. “You still don't get it all, do you?”

“Renji…”

“Seriously, Kurosaki,” Uryuu mockingly spoke, pushing his glasses up his nose as he stood now. “Wanting to play the hero is one thing, going into a fight with no means for defence or offence is another. Especially when you know that you have your nakama here with you.”

“Or do you need us to beat that knowledge through that thick skull of yours?” Chad added, hitting his right fist into his left hand palm with a small smile.

“Ichigo, when are you going to understand this?” Rukia asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “We're your friends, your companions in battle and through life.”

They all nodded in consent and Ichigo sighed, shaking his head. “You people don't understand!” he angrily spoke. “I'm the only one who can fight this Hollow! I need to enter my inner world and face him on my own, you can't come with me!”

“Can I have a go?” Renji asked Rukia with an amused chuckle.

“I want to be next,” Chad chimed in.

Rukia stepped aside and Renji dealt Ichigo a strong right punch in his stomach before adding an elbow blow on his back that had the orange haired youth hit the floor.

“I would like to have a house left after this!” Urahara nervously said with a slightly worried smile.

Ichigo grunted in pain. “Renji, you asshole! What the fuck do you think—“

Renji silenced him by putting his foot on his head, pushing him back down on the floor. “Now you listen, and listen well you pitiful excuse for a Shinigami!”

“I cam't meathe!” Ichigo said, his face still pressed into the floor.

“Well you don't need to be breathing to listen to what I'm going to tell you!” Renji retorted.

“Actually,” Cloud said, sticking his stuffed hand up in the air, “If he can't breathe for a while he won't be able to hear you at all, because—”

“URUSAI NA!!” Renji, Rukia and Uryuu yelled in unison to the stuffed animal.

Renji then turned back to Ichigo. “Ichigo, did you actually think we'd let you go fight that Hollow in your current state?” He lifted his foot from his head and crossed his arms on his chest.

Ichigo moved himself into a sitting position while he held on to his nose, casting murderous glances the redhead's way.

“Rukia here told us exactly what happened last night when you two fought those Menos,” Renji continued. “It's obvious that that Hollow has significantly reduced your power by separating himself from your soul when it was ejected from your body.”

“He posses half of your Shinigami powers, Ichigo,” Yoruichi said. “And he holds the key to your Vaizard transformation. To use your Bankai without his part of necessary power is like trying to jump over a large gap without a run-up.”

“I still need to beat him to get my powers back!” Ichigo said, still holding on to his nose that was now bleeding.

Nova jumped off the table and handed him a tissue for his nose. “Let your friends help train you to become stronger,” was all he said.

“Let them train… me?” Ichigo looked up at the group of people standing around him and frowned. “Is that what you guys want? To help train me?”

Rukia chuckled. “It took a while, but it looks like he finally seems to understand.”

“Naniokure?!” Ichigo jumped on his feet and looked like he was about to spit fire. “You beat me and nearly try to kill me just to tell me THAT?!”

“Nah,” Renji shook his head, giving him a teasing grin, “You die hard. Everyone knows how many times I've tried to kill you. You're like some sort of persistent weed that won't die.”

“Yeah right!” Ichigo yelled back at him, “I won't even call those times you tried `attempts'! You barely scratched me!”

“Then maybe you should get your brain checked, carrot top!”

“Or maybe you need to get yourself some glasses to aim better instead of adding new scrawls all over your face—”

“These are not scrawls! Each one of these markings is proof that my strength has increased every time I reached a new level of power!”

“Oh? And who gave them to ya? That monkey of yours?”

“He's NOT a monkey!”

“Right… what was it? A baboon? Wait, but that is a type of monkey, right?”

“Why you…!”

“Yosh!” Urahara said, leaving Ichigo and Renji to their heated discussion and addressing the others that chose to listen to him. “If it is alright with you all, I would like to start Kurosaki-san's training tomorrow morning.”

Everyone who was still listening nodded and began to stand to return to their homes.

“Urahara,” Rukia whispered as the group was now standing outside the door to the shop.

Urahara gave her a questioning expression. “Hai, Kuchiki-san?”

“Do you think Ichigo stands a chance?”

Urahara cocked his head to the side and smiled a little. “Of all the people from whom I though would have full faith in Kurosaki-san, you sure are surprising me with that question.”

“It's just that…” She cast her look downwards after she had watched Ichigo and Renji quarrelling like an old couple a few meters away. “What happened to Inoue has made him even more impulsive then he was before. You saw how he reacted, he wanted to go fight that Hollow with no powers of his own!”

“Aa…” The shop owner nodded, “but his impulsiveness is something our Kurosaki-san is known for. He has a good sense of self, no matter how reckless he sometimes appears. So yes, I'd say that, if you guys help him, he has a fair chance of recovering some of the powers his Hollow stole from him.”

Rukia gave a court nod and began walking away, not paying attention to Renji who stood in the courtyard still yelling profanities at Ichigo who stayed behind.

Japanese Vocabulary List

-Aa: Yes/Yeah

-Arigatou: Thank you

-Baka: Idiot

-Dame (da): Stop it

-Demo: But

-Hai: Yes

-Nakama: Loosely translated, it means: `Colleagues' or `Really close friends', `Companions'

-Naniokure?: What (the fuck) is this?

-Ne: an Interjection that can be loosely translated in English as `So', `Well', `And?', `Hey' or `No?', depending on its position in the phrase

-Shoten: Shop

-Urusai (na): Shut (the fuck) up

-Yosh: Interjection that can be loosely translated in English as `Alright' or `Okay'

Err… I know it looks bad to ask for reviews but, I mean, over 500 hits for the last chapter and only 4 reviews? How is an author supposed to get encouraged from this? I mean, not that I'm not grateful, but I figured that if that much people wait each week for the next chap, there'd be more responses. How can I know if it's truly worth continuing or not? *sighs* I truly wished I didn't have to revert to this… (again).

See you next week!

Next Week: 5.Whispers in the Dark - The 3-Way Crossing

To be continued…

-BDP-