Chapter 15

Orihimes point of view

"Come on now, why are you fighting the hollow, there weaklings compared to the Shinigami, you should be attacking them" Akahana purred like a lioness. She was just as deadly. Everyone else stayed silent. There wasn't much else we could do. We were all afraid in case making a noise would make Ichigo come after us instead. It was as if all our lives were hanging by a thread. Ichigo's hollowfied form was the only thing that held those threads up, and he could cut them all whenever he wanted.

Ichigo walked slowly towards her and a deep growl emitted from his chest.

Akahana started laughing for reasons unknown. Maybe she just liked the danger and the uncertainty of her own life.

Ichigo stood facing her a foot from her body and he looked at the other hollow. He roared at them and they fled.

"Fine, if that's the way you want it!" the small woman with her red lips and dark eyes looked over to me. She smiled the sickest smile I had ever seen and laughed.

I knew something was going to happen but nobody not even myself had time to react.

She threw a knife. All I could tell was that it was pointed sharp and silver. I remember it gleaming in the rays of the sun as it flew at me with intense speed.

I mouthed the word no as I realised its destination but that was all I could do. I didn't even have time to put up my own shield. Even Ishida and Chad who stood next to me couldn't even try to stop it.

The knife slipped into my chest as easily as if it were going through butter. I didn't even feel the pain, just a sense of numbness. My vision started to go black and I fell backwards to the floor.

The only sound that stood out was the beast's roars. They were shrieking and so loud no other sound could be heard.

I felt hands touch me, but my body did not react.

Ishida's point of view

A knife had been thrown and then Orihimes gasp entered my ears and she was on the floor. It all happened so fast that I found it hard to believe it was real. I knelt beside her and tried to stop the bleeding. The knife had gone deep and yet it was somehow lying on the floor. I didn't know how it got there but that didn't matter.

I held my hands to the wound on her chest just where her heart would be. The blood was running quickly. Chads hands joined mine also, his pressure was much more effective so I let him do it alone. The shinigami Captains came running over but there was no time to heal. Akahana the woman who was intent on destroying everything went running at them. She didn't have another knife but a sword instead. It was a zanpaktu it was rather short and the blade was rather rectangle but it still looked average. The only thing that looked different about it was the fact that it was glowing red. She sliced at a Shinigami and knocked him down easily. I could feel the power coming of the sword and I could tell instantly that that sword took in the power of those it sliced and killed. It was a terrible weapon one that would be hard to overcome.

Ichigos hollow roared at the top of his lungs. It was the sound of ultimate despair and anger. He screeched so much that it hurt my ears. And then he came flying over landing gently despite his power. It looked over Orihime and we froze unsure on what he would do. The beast made a low growl deep from within its chest and then it turned slowly setting its eyes on Akahana who was laughing at the top of her lungs while fighting. She was elegant in her sword movements and she seemed to be able to handle a blade. So she had been a Shinigami once?

The hollowifed Ichigo bent down and stroked with the none sharp side of his claw down one of Orihimes cheeks. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled at him, then he eyes closed again.

The hollow was angry, his pressure was starting roll from him in black and red waves of distress.

He bounded towards Akahana Knocking away the others who were trying to fight her.

"What's this?" She called to him her face staying light and happy. "You can't hurt me Ichigo, your control may have slipped a little but that was to be expected, after all I didn't know the full beast. And what a beast you are"

She swished her sword from side to side as if she liked hearing the sound it made as it cut through the air.

"There's no point fighting me, that girl over there will soon be dead, she can't even heal herself, and it was all your fault, so you might as well do as I say" She giggled like a school kid and held out her hand to the beast.

He started to speak. The words were hard to understand they were scratchy and they almost echoed around us but I could just make out what he was saying.

"Nothing …for….me….now?"

"That's right, I am all you have" She laughed again and spun around on the spot with joy. "Come" She said her hand reaching out again.

The hollow walked towards her, his stride heavy and slow. His head bent.

"KUROSAKI NO! SHE LOVED YOU! SHE LOVED YOU, YOU CANT DO THIS TO HER!" I bellowed but he kept on walking.

Soon he was near her outstretched hand. His claws entwined with her fingers and she smiled the biggest most ugly smile I had seen of her yet.

"No Ichigo why…." I whispered the colour draining from my face. I felt numb and cold. It was over, she had Ichigo's full control. We were all going to die.

Suddenly the beasts head popped up and a hiss came from his throat. Akahana only had time to let her eyes go wide when he snapped the arm she was holding his hand with. The sound of it breaking seemed to ring out for a long time.

She screamed.

The hollow hissed again while laughing and then with his zanpaktu slit her throat. The blood poured like a waterfall down her front staining her skin and clothes. She remained standing the shock plastered on her face even in death. He then thrust his claws into her chest and from it he pulled out her heart and threw it to the ground.

She fell to the floor as a corpse. A person, a shinigami, no longer.

The beast gave one final roar and then headed over to us.

"If you're going to hurt us I will fight you" I told him, but he didn't pay me attention. He wiped his bloodied hand on his robes and knelt by Orihime. He moved chads hand out the way and examined her wound. He then pulled her onto his lap, his arms wrapping over her protectively.

He looked at his sword on the floor and then to me.

"Pass….sword…"

I didn't know what to do, he seemed to want to save her but how? I hesitated but Chad grabbed it and passed it into his vice like grip.

"But wha.."

"Its fine" Chad mumbled and then he stayed silent watching.

Ichigos hollow held onto the blade just before the handle so his arm didn't have to be further away. All of a sudden his pressure rose up even higher it was black and the bloodiest kind of red it formed around him in swirls and then it started to wrap around the sword. He pushed it further and further until the sword was covered in his pressure and then he plunged that sword into Orihimes chest. But As I watched in horror I realised that the blade wasn't cutting her, it was passing through her and transferring his spiritual power. He was saving her!

Ichigo didn't have healing powers but the fact that his power was so great and so intense her body healed on its own as if the power he was lending her made her own act instinctively. I was completely amazed. He finally dropped the blade to the floor and stared at Orihime waiting. It was odd to see a beast so cruel and so savage look at a girl so tiny in his arms. He meant her no harm I could tell, just as he never did, not with Orihime. I had no idea who Akahana was and what exactly where her reasons for this, but it didn't seem to matter she was gone now, her body torn up and ruined and turning to dust.

The hard white skin that covered him started to crack and Ichigos normal face appeared. His eyes were still gold but they were starting to be his own. His hair was still long but it started to decrease.

He smiled down at Orihime and her eyes fluttered open, and then she smiled back.

End.

Note:

Akahana name meaning: Red rose, little red bird-Japanese

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I hope you dont think this chapter/story ended too quickly but to be truthful it was always going to end on chapter 15. And it was always going to end like this. Does anyone know the importance of the number 15 to Ichigo? :)

Crossing-Danger - see u soon!