30Started around 4 a.m., finished near 6:45 a.m. on a Monday morning under a tent with an alarming wind outside...
Anyhow. You'll notice I'm putting theme songs for most of the chapters.
Just warning you. 1/3 will actually have to do with the chapter or its mood. 1/3 will distort its meaning into nonsense. The last third will have nothing to do altogether with the chapter... Just sayin' ^^;
So... I dunno. You can still look them up. They're nice songs ^^
Just to warn you. I can't guarantee regular updates, much less short ones... I'll do my best though.
Rating is T for now but may change. I'll warn you in that case.
Character list isn't complete; too many people are going to show up. Pairings will show only when story gets to them.
A million thanks to GrowingAHead for proof-reading this story! I'll never thank her enough for this... (Her writing's awesome go read her stories)
Please put reviews! They're really important to people who write... 'Favorites' don't really give the impression of being people, so reviews are way more valuable to us ^^;
THIS CHAPTER IS SET DURING THE THOUSAND YEAR BLOOD WAR. TIME WILL THEN SKIP A FEW WEEKS AHEAD.
Theme: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day
Tatsuki tapped her phone's screen lightly. 3:34 a.m. Then what?
Ichigo was gone, again. She hadn't heard of him for weeks. Same for Orihime. Chad also.
Ishida had been missing for just as long a period. She briefly wondered what the teachers would say to their best student when he showed up again.
In her right hand, Tatsuki held her phone. In the other was the ticket that man in a pink coat had given her. The image of the tall Soul Reaper with an eyepatch and cut ear still stayed, not unlike an after image, rising out from the shadows of her room.
She fiddled with the bit of paper. She had taken it out to look at, and somehow it just wouldn't leave her hand...
She glanced out her window, and the wind howled over the sound of the rain, as if the sky was whining in pain. Now, thought Tatsuki, you couldn't just quietly weep, could you?
Then suddenly everything stopped. The wind, the rain, even night itself seemed to stop as one single flash of lightning blinded her. Her eyes closed reflexively. As she tentatively opened them again, thunder rumbled menacingly, and a shape seemed to appear and grow at the horizon. Tatsuki climbed off her bed and stumbled over to the window. She threw it open and, feeling the clouds weighing on her, squinted into the distance.
At the horizon? No, the shape was much closer than that... And it was growing, literally, taller and taller, as if it were nibbling at bits of Alice's magic mushroom. It was also long, stretching from northwest to southeast as far as one could see, like a great barrier circling Karakura.
Tatsuki stared into the gloom. She stayed still one moment, looking out that window. Then she turned and ran for the door, grabbing a coat along the way, then stopped, went to her desk, and scribbled on a sticky note:
went for a walk
She dashed through the door, down the stairs, and out her house barefoot, down the street and left to the southwest, her feet splashing in the puddles as she kept her eyes on her goal. There was no use going to the Kurosaki clinic, Ichigo wasn't there anyway. No, she was rather heading for that huge barrier over there.
-=-=O=-=-
4:02 a.m. Tatsuki had stopped running a while ago. A few minutes earlier the Onose river had cut her off, and she was now walking along its banks. She had left Karakura and was getting to the foot of the 'barrier'.
She looked up as it loomed over her, seeming to say: Now, where exactly do you think you're going?
She walked up to it. Now that she was close she could see it was orange and slightly translucent, amber-like. She ran her hand along the smooth surface, and when she applied pressure to it with the palm of her hand she found it felt like pushing against a balloon, or perhaps Jell-O. But she also felt something else, something inside tugging at the white spiritual ribbons that surrounded her protectively. She drew back her hand in alarm.
Tatsuki looked left and right. A few night wanderers had stopped by to 'take a glance', and were either staring in astonishment or taking selfies with the odd Jello-O. A few turned to look at her. She looked at herself: in pyjamas, hair unbrushed, feet soaking in the icy water.
It was time she went home.
There will be a different picture for each chapter. I get them from a website called 'Unsplash'. The one for this chapter is 'Looking Out' by Alec Douglas.
Review?