6Hi...
I'm so sorry - again - for the lateness... I've had trouble dealing with my life - and parents - these last few months... But I'm back! So here's one more translated chapter of Aurore Heart's 'What Her Heart Wishes'! Hope you'll like it...
Hey guys, I really need your advice on this: I've originally watched all Bleach in French, and wasn't able to find any 'official' English version on internet, but noticed that Shinji's speech usually had lots of 'ya' instead of 'you' and stuff like that (which it doesn't AT ALL have in French... Well, French people rarely write accents down). I used that in this chapter, which I didn't do in the previous ones. I really need to know if this is a good idea, and if I'm doing it right. It takes literally TWO F* SECONDS to review if you're logged in, so could you tell me what you think of this please? I really need help...
One last thing. Did I write the Kidou right? I only know it in French too...
And now, read and enjoy!
The noise of the train's wheels on the track created a sad and repetitive melody that made Lisbeth doze off, and Shinji used her slumber to call Liza. It was short, but nevertheless got enough time to tell her everything he wanted to, which was to inform Urahara that his daughter was with the Visored and to notify the group of their arrival. And above all, that she tell them not to unveil her father's activities to the young woman. It was his responsibility - and his only - to tell her if he wanted to. The brunette awoke as soon as he hung up, and glanced at him with two sleepy eyes.
"Ya can go back ta sleep, we ain't there yet."
"I don't think I'll be able to," she sighed, lifting her strand of hair.
Shinji shrugged, he wasn't in her head so he couldn't tell, and anyway she would have enough time to sleep once they were at the Visored's headquarters. The two fell silent again while Lisbeth gazed out the window. It was nighttime, and the blond wondered what she was seeing outside to seem so absorbed. She must have felt he was watching her because she turned her head slightly towards him in an inquisitive manner.
"What are ya lookin' at outside?"
"Nothing. I'm not watching the landscape," she certified before taking her eyes back to the window pane.
This teenager surely was strange. Even stranger than her father, and that was saying something. Shinji sighed before directing his eyes to the ceiling and tried to think of something else. Like his division for example... He hoped his Lieutenant hadn't noticed he had disappeared or he was going to hear about it for a while since Toshiro - sorry, Captain Hitsugaya - was going to hold it against him. He could be so irritating sometimes... The commander of the fifth division was starting to get really bored, and decided to question the young woman more personally, hoping she would be okay with answering.
"Hey, Lisbeth..."
"Yes?"
The tone was wary and tired. Shinji translated it as a 'Why the hell can't this jerk leave me bloody alone' and had a fox's smile.
"... d'ya have a boyfriend?"
Upon hearing the question, he brunette swallowed her saliva sideways, nearly choking, and glared at him, her cheeks as red as apples.
"That... That's not your business!" she stammered.
The blond's smile got wider, he loved to know everybody's little secrets, and Lisbeth's reaction was one most intriguing, he wished to know more, much more... He settled comfortably in his seat, and propped his elbows on his knees, his hands under his chin.
"Come on, such a pretty girl as ya can't possibly be single!"
The comment made the teenager's face darken, and Shinji sensed he had misstepped.
"Indeed, she could be not single," she answered with a tone sour enough to corrode steel, "if she wasn't a living Hollow lure. So leave me alone now."
She returned to muteness and the captain knew he had rubbed salt into a vivid wound. Tears build up in her grey eyes but without flowing, and he felt a bit guilty.
"I'm sorry," he apologized.
"You don't need to be," said Lisbeth with a voice hoarsened by the contained tears. "It's not your fault."
She only had a gaping hole in her heart. A stranger was more interested in her than her own father, and this conclusion was painful, very painful. At that moment she realized she still hoped her father would ask her forgiveness, and that he would try to get better, to get closer to her. She still hoped despite what had happened, even though she knew what she was about to do would make the distance between them greater still. But since the very moment she had accepted the Visored's offer, she had no other choice than to disavow her father, because how could he understand, and moreover accept it? Anyway she was likely to die, as the blond had warned her, so she had to start her grieving now and tell herself she had no more family. She had only Haruka and Uryu left, as well as the other Visored, if they accepted her.
And strangely the aspect of not being able to consider Kisuke as her father anymore made long-restained tears flow. She didn't lift her hand up to wipe them away, letting them slid down her face. It all needed to come out, she needed to express her pain. She had trouble understanding herself, she didn't know why she felt this feeling of loss even though she had never really considered the adult as someone she could rely on.
The train slowed then halted, and a disembodied voice announced the stop. Lisbeth wiped her tears quickly with her sleeve, before turning to Shinji, that picked up her luggage and motioning for her to follow. They got off, and the blond walked quickly to the exit, the teenager right behind him. The sun was already starting to show and the sky was reddening slowly in the distance. The brunette felt her heartache thinking back to yesterday's events, that already seemed a century old, and worried about Uryu. She hoped he was well. Guilt surged through her, if she hadn't insisted on stopping by Ichigo's, her friend wouldn't be in a hospital bed...
"Shinji?"
The addressed turned and knitted his brows, intrigued, before saying:
"Yes?"
"Could I go see a friend afterwards?"
"He knows?"
She nodded, and Shinji accepted, which brought a small tired smile to the tear-reddened face. They took a taxi that dropped them off at the angle of an isolated street, and, taking the brunette's luggage, the Visored headed for a disused and apparently badly-kept warehouse. He felt Lisbeth behind him hesitate a bit, before gathering her courage and following him, crossing at the same time as him the barrier that partly hid the building and repelled nosy people. The teenager shivered and pulled her jacket tighter against her, before asking him warily what it was. He explained briefly, and that relaxed her a bit. Just a bit.
Now she was starting to worry about the welcome the other Visored would give her, and she fidgeted with her watchband, having no collar she could bother. Shinji noticed and tried reassuring her:
"Calm down, they won't eat ya, we're only eight, and there are three ya won't meet before a long time, maybe never, even."
"If I die before, right?" she said with a resigned smile.
"Exactly, ya get it quickly."
They fell silent again, and she continued following the blond, with however more and more apprehension. She felt uneasy in the building that seemed abandoned to her, and she suddenly missed the little shop where she lived with her father. Despite its emptiness, it breathed with life, with Ururu and Jinta, that made it lively, and Tessai that was always there to welcome her when she came back from school. Even Yoruichi, with her exuberance, seemed better than the sinister building in which she was. She started doubting the greatness of her idea. Shinji could very well be a psychopath, or a serial killer, and she his next victim, even if he was probably a Soul Reaper. One did not preclude the others.
She watched the blond's back carefully, and the very annoying little voice in her head started making itself heard again:
"You know, one word from you and he would no longer be a problem... Stop getting yourself worked up..."
She gritted her teeth, she had to stop herself from answering her inner Hollow, it always made her go crazy in the end. But because of that, she didn't notice she was letting go of her reiatsu, and Shinji, instinctively assuming she was about to attack, reacted immediately.
"Number one bakudou, Sai!"
Instantly Lisbeth's hands were in her back, incapable of moving, and she hiccupped in shock. Her eyes met the brown and slightly awkward ones of the Visored, and they gazed at each other for a split second, until the blond did a motion with his hand and the brunette was freed. She was about to yell at him, when he said, on a dead serious tone:
"Don't let go of your reiatsu without warnin', gets me nervous. 'T would be a shame to ruin such a pretty face as yours..."
She gifted him with a dark look, her lips pursed, rubbing her shoulders. That idiot had indeed hurt her! At least, she was now sure he definitely wasn't human. She had no idea what the Visored had used to immobilize her, and she doubted a normal person could use it. Strangely enough, that only partly reassured her... Suddenly, it occurred to her she would have preferred, no, she should have stayed at the hospital, away from trouble, even if that meant she had to endure her idiot of a father.
Shinji ignored the brunette's anger and resumed walking along the dark corridor, and she followed him, so as to not end up alone, even if she was now alert, even more than before. She wouldn't let him immobilize her again without defending herself. Or at least trying.
"There's another solution though, Lili... Why won't you let me help?"
Her inner Hollow's voice was like a whine, and Lisbeth gritted her teeth. No, she couldn't kill it just because it used the nickname she hated... Anyways, she rightfully knew she couldn't kill it, only ignore it, and even that...
The Visored suddenly stopped in front of a square cut out from the ground, from which flowed light.
"The others are down there, they're waitin' for ya. They'll explain whatever ya want ta know."
"You're not coming with me?" she suddenly worried.
True, she wasn't at ease with him, but he was the only Visored she knew, she didn't want to end up alone!
"No, I have things to do elsewhere."
He came up to her, laying his hand on her shoulder, and looked right into her eyes.
"But everythin's gonna be alright, okay? There ain't any cannibals among the Visored, so none of them will eat ya. An' if really ya're scared out of your wits... Think of somebody you love ta give you courage and just go fer it."
She nodded, and the blond let go before passing by her and leaving the opposite way. She half-turned around to watch him leave, then once she could no longer see him, she walked up to the square in the floorboards from which the light came. She noticed it was a hatch with stairs, and from where she was she could see the floor was yellowish, like sand. She breathed in deeply, and did as Shinji had advised her. She focused on the memories she had of her mother, smiling and always in a good mood, her extremely energetic and over-protective mother. A wave of heat enfolded her, and she felt like she was wrapped in her mother's arms. That soothed her, and she felt ready to confront the group of Visored. She started down the steps, and a bright light suddenly blinded her. She blinked several times, trying to get used to the intense brightness. Once she was, she got surprised by the impressive size of the place. It looked like a huge desert under a sky of a very artificial-looking blue. Her attention was then caught by a group of four people, who hadn't seen her arrive, apparently engaged in some fierce argument. Two men and two women. Well... rather a woman and a kid. Why was that? Simple, one of the two girls must have been half her height, and her blond hair tied into two ponytails didn't make her look taller. The other was a woman with long black hair braided into two plaits and oval glasses, dressed in some sort of uniform, but the aura she gave off made her age clear, she was far from being a schoolgirl. She was seated on the ground, well, rather on a blanket placed on the ground, and was reading a book. She was the first to notice her, and she addressed her a smile before getting back to her book, announcing in a calm and composed voice:
"The newbie's just arrived."
That stopped the debate, and the three others looked up towards her. The two men's appearance made her smile inwardly. One had a star-shaped afro hairstyle and the other looked like a great affectionate teddy, at least to her. The kid came to stand before her and examined her, fists on her hips. Lisbeth let her, a shudder running through her upon meeting the ferocious brown gaze.
"So it's for you that Shinji moved himself? Tch, he's gonna have to go buy himself glasses, I don't see how you could be a danger."
The brunette stood up and came to hit the kid's head with her book.
"Ow, what's wrong with you Liza?!" raged the blond. "You wanna fight or something?"
She threw her a bored glance, before turning to Lisbeth, who was starting to wonder if she might not be unwelcome...
"Don't bother about what Hiyori might say, she's always aggressive. I'm Liza Yadoumaru, pleased to meet you."
She extended her hand that Urahara's daughter shook, a bit uneasy, then got acquainted with the rest of the group. The one that looked like a teddy was called Hachigen Ushouda, the one with the weird afro haircut was Love Aikawa, and lastly the kid was Hiyori Sarugaki.
And inwardly the latter had only one thing she wanted to do: go place a big kick in Urahara's face for keeping secrets. He did know it never served him well...
Late T/N: So I learned recently that Shinji's speach in English was due to an accent he apparently has (the Kansai accent I think? Must be a Japanese region?) so I decided to ask Aurore Heart about it. I'll be changing either this chapter or the other ones according to her answer.