Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Where Cherry Blossoms Fall ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Where Cherry Blossoms Fall

Chapter One:

On a bright summer day of sunlight and simplicity, she swept the narrow steps of Hisakawa temple, gathering the pink snowflakes dropped by sakura trees above. She was named for them, these trees heavy with perfumed flowers, by a mother she hardly remembered. It was perhaps her greatest heartbreak, the loss of Reika Hisakawa. Her mother's face but a mere blur of color across the pages of her mind.
Barely two when her mother died, this woman had suffered the worst kind of loss. One without any happy memories to cling to. Her father, too, had abandoned her after a fashion, left to an uncle reluctant to take her in.
Reluctant to accept her bizare situation. The same misfortune which had cost a father's love.
Sakura Hisakawa paused mid-sweep, the wind brushing her cheek in such a way as to alarm her. It always happened like this, she knew, whenever one of them were around.  
Ever since she was a child. When they'd come to her chamber and haunt her so, clinging to the girl as if a beakon on a moonless night. Drawn to her living flame.
It was several years before she realized the people visiting her weren't really people at all. The conversations they shared, their friendships, all deemed crazy in the eyes of those who couldn't see. She'd caused problems at school. On the playground. At home.
That's when her father left.
Her episodes always began the same way. First the pin pricks on her neck, unnatural cold rushing up her spine. Then the panic, the feeling of something watching her. Most were kind enough but the girl knew that many were malevolent, dangerous. The potential threat kept her weary.
Spirits. Cosmic fluctuations. Small shifts in the balance of life. Sakura was forbidden to talk about her peculiar situation, of course, but it made it no less real.
The woman clutched the bamboo of her broom as if her world depended on it, stiff and unwilling to look anywhere but its handle. This one felt different somehow. A huge gaping hole, festering and hungry. All her senses were on edge.
Evil. Sinking, twisted evil. She closed her eyes, willing it gone.
"Rukia," a voice penetrated her concentration, furrowing her brow. "What the hell? The Hollow's this way!"
Sakura opened her eyes and turned toward the sound. A man, younger than herself by a few years, stood waiting, wearing a death shroud. The woman couldn't help but let confusion get the better of her, taking in his unusual appearance, so unlike the white and red of her miko attire. The blackness of fabric was overwhelming.
"I'm sorry?"
"What's with your clothes," the man was asking, lowering the long sword he carried in a hand. He'd wandered closer, screwing up his face in befuddlement. "Where'd you even find these?"
Sakura shook out of her stupor. "Uh..?"
A roar of unhuman magnitude shook the trees around them, cutting loose several pink petals. They dusted the freshly swept pathway. The smart clack of bamboo hitting stone soon followed.
The man forgot his previous doubt. Brandishing his weapon, he dashed back toward the forest mouth. It was only as he lept past the ornamental stone border did he turn and address Sakura once more.
"Rukia! Come on!"
"I...what? No, I'm not --"   
Giving up, the man cursed, chasing after that horrible monsterous sound.
Her senses overwhelmed, veins running cold as ice, Sakura simply stared at the spot the strange orange-haired man had disappeared into. Her broom lay forlorn on the stonework, pink sprinkled across the bamboo.
Was that what she'd felt before, the thing screaming beyond the trees? Such an evil thing to behold. The woman took a few steps backward. Fear consumed her heart. The weight of such a soul pressed down on her. Her mind swam with the stink of it.
Suddenly her foot faltered on stone. A moment's slip, a break of luck. The woman fell to the ground, soreness spreading from her hip in a sharp wave of pain. The beginnings of a bruise was forming, stone cutting into her flesh. Something sticky had the silk of her hakama sticking to her leg.
Sakura yelled out in agony.
And then it was upon her, a towering beast of black and white, teeth razorsharp and gaping in a face so inhuman it couldn't have been real. Yards from her prone form it screamed again, that terrible shrieking hunger freezing her to the spot.
"Oh god," she managed. "No..."
It charged her, its terrible black mouth spreading in anticipation.
"AHHHHH!"
As the beast lunged, Sakura shut her eyes tightly against her dark fate. "Help me!"
The swish of blade caught her ears, a peeling scream soon after. A familiar voice pulsated in her dazed mind as she cried softly against the cool stone.
"Getsuga Tensh?! " It shouted with conviction. Metal found purchase against heavy flesh, organic tearing echoing through Sakura's mind.
When danger seemed at last a memory, the woman dared to look at the battle before her.
There was that boy again. His orange hair unmistakeable. The close proximity of his strange black robes enough to make her heart fill with joy. Sakura watched helplessly as he raced toward the horrible creature again, cutting into its neck. Strange black blood sputtered out upon impact, illiciting a curdling shriek.
As if sucked into Hell itself, the creature was no more.
The boy released his sword to its fabric scaffold, eyes fixated on the empty space which had once held his opponent. He didn't seem to see Sakura laying there, dumbfounded.
He'd saved her. How the man did so or who he was didn't matter in this moment. She was still alive because of him.
Part of her wondered if this man was indeed real. It wouldn't have been the first time she'd been wrong, speaking to someone while others gawked and saw no one. Interacting with someone not knowing they were ghosts.
She looked around at the serene clearing, so unlike the macabre scene moments ago. At this time of day when school was in progress and jobs were at their peak, the shrine was quiet. Hardly a visitor came to pray these days. Hardly anyone suffered the many stairs to Heaven.
It all seemed so unreal. Perhaps it was.
Perhaps the man was just a lost spirit. It would explain his clothing. The sword. But Sakura had never seen a soul behave in such a way before; it frightened her.
The man tightened his jaw and sniffed, turning away from the monster's grave, finally locking eyes on the woman.
"Rukia?" He seemed just as surprised as she, his face screwed up in a frown. "You were here the whole time? Why didn't you attack?"
"Attack," she repeated lamely. The pain in her side suddenly reminded her that she was hurt. Sakura winced.
The man noticed. "Did you seriously fall?"
"Yeah," she allowed him to help her up after a fashion, awkward to be touched by a physical hand. So he wasn't a spirit after all. Then what was he? "What was that thing?"
The man screwed his face up again, as if she'd just grown another head. "Seriously? Um...It was a Menos..."
It seemed to Sakura that this odd fellow was waiting for her assent. When she made no such attempt, he backed up and seemed to be looking at her for the first time. His eyes scanned her face, locked onto her eyes, ran their way down her hair, her clothing...and rested on the swell of bossom beneath her robes.
"Whoa," the man let out a breath of disbelief.
Red in the face, Sakura swiftly turned away. Shame made rigid her features. Her voice shook with propriety. "I beg your pardon!"
"You're not Rukia, are you?"
"No!"
The woman glanced behind her shoulder, her eyes catching the man's shock. He seemed genuinely confused. Relaxing somewhat at the misunderstanding, Sakura allowed herself to turn slowly back around. Her arms crossed protectively in front of her chest.
"I take it I look like some friend of yours?"
The man nodded, eyes having a hard time looking away from the only feature telling them apart. "You could...say that."
"Stop staring."
"Sorry, it's just bizarre."
The man slowly circled around her, taking it all in. Now that he looked closely, this woman did have several differences from the Rukia he knew. Besides the very obvious one.
Her hair was slightly longer, more curled at the ends. Her eyes less open and round, matured, like two white almonds swept up in black and violet.
Her face was more feminine, softer. And she was taller than Rukia. Well, to be fair, most women were taller than Rukia. But it was distinctly unnerving to see someone look so similiar stand past his shoulder.
Tall and gracefully thin, this one. Pretty cute in her kimono and hakama, too.
"So what was that thing, really?" The woman's voice cut through his musings, making his eyes snap up once more from their default position on her chest. "Are there more of them?"
"How can you see me?"
Annoyed that he'd circumvented her question, Sakura rolled her eyes. "Because you're standing in front of me."
"What? No, I mean, how can you see me? Aren't you Human?" The man thought better of it at the onset of her anger and amended, "I mean, no normal Human could see me. Or that Hollow."
"What's a Hollow?"
Okay, this was getting nowhere. "What's your name?"
The sudden question made her bristle. "Why?"
"Just tell me your n--"
"Yo, Ichigo!" A boyish female voice called from the green cloak of forest. Within seconds swift feet drew near.
Suddenly she appeared in the clearing, like a small mirror to Sakura's eyes, clad in black like the boy. The morbid surprise painted across her face mimicked that of the other woman's. The two stood yards apart, each shocked beyond words.
"My god," Sakura breathed after a lifetime. She looks like me...
The woman vaguely registered two warm hands finding purchase on her back as the world went black.

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