My Easter present for you all! Happy Easter!
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Chapter 13 – Dark Path

Chapter's Music - Running up that hill by Placebo

Forgiven by Within Temptation

Amazing by Blue October

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Orihime's cheeks were flushed the first time they had lunch together as a couple.

Orihime's hands were trembling the first time he introduced her to his family as his girlfriend.

Orihime's eyes were brimming with tears when he gave her his mother's favorite book that was also her favorite.

Orihime's hair was coloring her pillow with orange and brown the first time he woke up next to her.

Orihime's lips were apart, in a breathtaking smile, while she walked down the aisle.

Orihime's heart was telling him the truth when she promised she would be okay, then why said Hanatarou those things? That was easy, the boy was drunk or it was Grimmjow's idea of a sick joke…

Then, if the boy was lying, why was Kurosaki Ichigo running full speed to the 4th Squad? Why was his heart missing from his chest like he had just left it behind? Why were his eyes stinging and aching so much? Why was his breath coming in raspy puffs of smoke? Why were all those moments, spent with his wife, kept flashing in the forefront of his mind?

The barracks were already in sight, but he didn't decrease his velocity. He entered the house, running through the hallways and searching, always searching…

"Ichigo…" a voice whispered, from somewhere in front of him. He looked down and saw Rukia sitting on the floor, with her chin over her knees and her arms hugging her legs. Her face was red, her eyes puffy and tracks of tears could be seen, shining under the moonlight.

"You want to know something? Hanatarou is totally drunk! He is saying the most ludicrous things! The boy is totally out of his mind! What he is saying are impossibilities! They can't be real! Rukia, why are you crying? Please, stop crying! Stop those fucking tears! Just answer me, damn it! Why the hell are you here? Is Orihime sleeping? Rukia, answer me! Please, Rukia, I already told to stop crying! Why are you hugging me? Stop that you midget, stop stop stop stop…

His voice rose in the middle of his rambling, with his eyes running to different directions every second, like they were looking for a solution, a shiny window to illuminate his gloomy mind, but when Rukia hugged him, his voice turned into a whisperer, repeating the word stop over and over, like a mantra. Like that could turn everything alright… But everything was not alright…

"I'm sorry…" Rukia mumbled, under her sobs. "She was protecting me and…" but her body shook again and the words failed her.

Ichigo felt his chest arise and a scream, that just an animal in profound pain could release, could be heard falling from his lips. His fist punched the window, opening a hole and his knees shook and lost his strength, making him fall to the floor.

"How…? I can feel her reiatsu, it's there, behind the door… I feel it, I feel it, she is there, she is waiting for me, she is, she is…" he whispered, with his forehead touching the floor and his eyes closed.

Rukia felt her chest tighten even more.

"It's not her reiatsu…" she whispered, feeling the lump in her throat grow; how much could her friend bear before falling totally apart. Deciding she was the one that should tell him, she grasped her last ounce of courage and whispered: "Orihime was pregnant…"

"Pregnant…?" the man gasped, feeling like his insides wanted to come out in a painful way.

"Yes, it's the baby's reiatsu you're feeling… but…" and she didn't have to continue for Ichigo to understand. You won't feel it for much longer, was what she couldn't say. His child was dying too and he couldn't do anything to save that precious being…

It was like his body was being trapped under heavy rocks: he couldn't breathe, he couldn't move, he only could look in front, to that apparently normal door that in his mind turned into the most vicious and bloody monster he could imagine. Just imagining Orihime, his wife, the love of his life, quiet, silent, cold, made his mind went into a state of stricken horror; he could no longer tell where he was, he could only see dark, feel pain and hear screams. Screams that sounded like hers, yelling his name, calling for his help, while he did nothing to protect her, leaving her alone to suffer…

Behind them, steps could be heard and three people appeared: Hitsugaya, Renji and Grimmjow, the last two with confused expressions. But, seeing Rukia and Ichigo acting like that, Renji knew immediately what happened and felt his stomach being punched by an iron fist. He walked slowly to Rukia and his arms surrounded her petit frame, crushing her against his chest. She started sobbing more violently and Renji felt his own eyes sting and the tears start their descending. What the hell was happening with the world? Was that so hard to keep one innocent person away from all the bad things in here? He felt his hands curl and his knuckles became white when his fingernails pierced his skin and the small drops of blood dirtied Rukia's back even more.

Hitsugaya already had a suspicion of what might have happened but seeing it with his own eyes was too much to bear. He failed as a protector to Momo, Matsumoto and now Orihime… He made them trust in him, just to let them down again and again and again… And now, he wouldn't be able of apologize to her ever again… She liked to hug him in public, make him blush and stutter, never called him captain, invaded his personal space with her bubbly energy, but she was like a sister, a terribly annoying older sister that always would smile proudly when she saw his ice statues, that would always remember his birthday even when no one would, that in the Winter took thousands of pictures of snowy sets just to send him… He felt his own feet gain life and before he could comprehend what was happening he was already running, heading to his old cave, where he could mourn and scream without anyone hearing him. Without anyone know that Hitsugaya Toshiro wasn't an icy captain, that he was only a child lost in a senseless world, where that ray of sunshine was no longer.

Grimmjow looked from shinigami to shinigami, without knowing what to say. He was an arrancar, he didn't feel emotions like sadness or sorrow or grief, he kept himself alive for the desire to fight, to beat his next opponent, and seeing those warriors break down like that, he felt immensely relieved of not being able of feeling like that. It was unbearable to watch, so he turned his back on them and walked through the house.

"We failed them…" a familiar voice traveled through the air.

Grimmjow looked in front, seeing Nell sitting in a balcony, looking up, at the moon.

"We did what we could… I believe you were with the human man?" Grimmjow asked and Nell's back tensed.

"His name is Sado Yasutora, he went to visit a small boy he saved from a hollow and gave him a little bird made of paper…" Nell said. "They have names, they have emotions, feelings, desires, dreams… I want to be like that… I want to look at the moon and see a smiling face, I want to see figures in the clouds…" Nell sighed and her shoulders shook. Grimmjow was petrified, she was crying, she was an arrancar and she was crying for a human girl! She could feel just like them, the ones he left behind because he couldn't bear their suffering…

"Fuck!" he yelled. "That's not your fault, that's not my fault! We couldn't do anything…"

"I'm not like this because I feel guilty…"

"You don't?"

"Of course I do… but I know I couldn't have done anything… I'm feeling like this because we are not so different from them as you think… We can feel too… and I wouldn't trade this wrenching emotion for an empty heart… ever…"

Grimmjow scowled, but nevertheless, sat next to her, and look at the moon too.

"I can't see a smiling face…" he confessed after some seconds of concentration.

"Me neither…" Nell replied, in a sad tone.

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Ichigo got up, supporting part of his weight against the wall and started walking, in a numb state, to the door that hidden his hell on earth. For moments he stopped, with his hand over the door, feeling like he was walking against an ocean of water, like all the heaviness of the world was keeping him from opening it. And when his hand moved from its own accord and the door revealed its horrors, he stepped inside.

Her skin was ashen colored, paler than he ever remembered seeing it.

Matsumoto was squeezing one of her hands and Unohana, noticing Ichigo, prayed the woman away, helping her to a sitting position. Chad and Shinji were sat, in a corner of the room, looking to a green wall like it would hide all the secrets in the world. Their eyes were unfocused, death-like, and apparently didn't notice Ichigo's entrance.

He approached his wife's still form, noticing how her lips were turning bluish, how the red shadow took over her body, taking her away from him, how her eyes remained closed…

Ichigo kneeled next to her, his tears falling freely and, surrounding her cold frame with his arms, pulled her against his body, like he could give her the warm she was missing. His hands curled around her hair, feeling the silky locks touch his skin when he buried his face in her neck, smelling her vanilla and chocolate shampoo. He couldn't understand why she wasn't moving… what Rukia said, what Hanatarou said… they were insane, crazy, his Orihime would never leave him, not when she promised she would be alright, not when he wasn't there to defend her and to yell at her for being reckless. Why did he have to leave with Renji? He should have cancelled the trip when everything was still alright… he could have done so many things and now…

It was like being stuck in a nightmare, but this was no nightmare; this was reality, a cold, pain wrecking reality. A reality he couldn't escape, a reality where she would never scold him for overworking, where she would never tease him with her sweet smile, where she would never wait for him until late, just to tell him she loved him, a reality that was more nightmare-ish than all his dark visions and suffering past, a reality he didn't want to exist in…

"Please, open your eyes, please just do it! It's such an easy thing, why aren't you doing it?" his voice turned a little angry, to the next moment a begging tone take control over it.

"Please Orihime, I will bring you to all the donuts shops in Japan,

I will let you eat everything you want,

I will eat everything you want,

I will wear that stupid pink apron every day,

I will let you have weird conversation with my old man,

I will give you that damn cat you fell in love with,

I will never let you out of my sight again,

I will protect you from everything…

Just let me see your eyes once again, just let me hear your voice, your laugh, you know how I love your carefree laugh… Please, don't leave me alone, I won't bear it again! Just take me with you, don't leave me behind! I need you! I need you and our baby, our weird and dysfunctional family, our crazy friends, they all need you. Please, don't let me fall to the shadows; don't take my light from me!"

Ichigo's voice rose, in a panic-stricken tone, crushing the heart of everyone that could hear him. That was the sound of a man that just lost his most precious thing, his treasure, his light, and now was left to walk alone through a dark path.


That was really hard to write, I hate to imagine Ichigo in such a state. It breaks my heart! But for the sake of this story I had to make him suffer through this...

On a positive note, next chapter will be lighter and way more... what can I say... miraculous-like...