© Copyright 2011

Written work by MsMifuyu

Blood ran down the boy's face as he concentrated on breathing in and out, in and out. He flinched as the hollow's ear piercing scream tore through him. Lifting his blood-soaked hands up to his face, he doubled over. The blur slipped in and out of his vision. A dainty hand caught him in his fall, just as his knees were about to crash into the floor.

"Well, don't you look tired." the girl muttered. Her blank eyes looked at him –stared at him before she gave him a reluctant smile. The eyes of the girl he had fallen in love with. They were so beautiful. Just like her.

"Right now's not really the best time to be funny," he corrected her.

"What else do I have but my sarcasm?" she grinned sheepishly, looking toward the oncoming monster without a trace of the worry, or the self preservation he held.

"True," he laughed bitterly.

Was it only a couple of months ago that he met her? It felt like years. It felt like lifetimes. The connection and the mutual love they had for each other was irreplaceable. Unattainable for anyone in this life time. He had caught a lucky break. The minute he saw her he knew. Perhaps it was because his father abandoned him, the bastard child, supporting him from only the shadows? Maybe that was why he got what he wanted. And it was her. Her beautiful eyes that would stare at him innocently as he astounded her with a bouquet of roses. Her long curls of hair, reaching down to her waist. And her lips, soft, light pink, the very ones he had kissed so many times. She was the very essence of beauty. The very thing that made him stare at her longingly.

The hollow's white tusks geared up, bringing him back to reality as it prepared another attack. Its left leg swept the floor, before it began a steady gallop toward them.

The two looked each other in the eye. Each mirrored each other's expression. She allowed him to lean back, letting his legs unfold in front of him, putting him in a seated position. They both knew the inevitable would happen. Both acknowledged that fate would not let them be any closer in this life time.

Time seemed to stop in that moment. Nothing around them mattered but their final farewells.

She lifted her pale, thin hand toward his bloodied face. Ever so slowly, she traced his jaw line. He closed his eyes, savoring the last moments of this –of her.

Finally, she let her hand fall back into her lap. Her hand gripped her broken leg in pain. Her face turned pale but she didn't utter any cry of pain.

"I guess… I'll have to wait for you in the next life," her tousled hair fell from her shoulder as she leaned down. Knowing her reluctance, he lifted her chin up to face him. His eyes searched hers for the answers he wanted, and he found them.

Smiling as he said,

"You'd better stay in the same place, or else you'll have me going in circles again."

Her warm smile in response was all he needed from her at that moment.

They held each other's free hand, closing their eyes, leaning their foreheads against each others'.

Time started again. Blood spilt everywhere in sight. Across the walkway, the buildings, the street lamps.

There was not one thing on that street corner untouched by blood.

The shinigami raced toward the place the cellphone was indicating. She spotted the blood and cursed under her breath before finishing off the hollow in two easy slashes.

As she got up from her finish position and sheathed her zanpakuto. Nothing short of tears could express her pain over being too late to save the two.

Though as she wiped the loose tear away, the bodies lying together began to glow. Intricate patterns and symbols of a brilliant gold mixed with dark-as-night black pulsed like a heartbeat. The shinigami was too shocked to move. Too shocked to react.

The two unrecognizable bodies began to crack at the glowing patterns and symbols. And gradually, they broke into tiny essence of spirit, rising up into the sky.

Her eyes wide, looking at the symbols as they rose, few words escaped the shinigami's mouth,

"This is…!"