Heroes

Chapter Sixteen

“Why did you…DO IT?!” Ichigo yelled, horrified.

“It’s all right…” a new, soothing, normal voice said. I looked around, until I realized that that voice was coming from…

Sora.

“If I stayed as I am…” he said in a normal, human, non-Hollow voice. “I’d lose myself again and attack Orihime. That’s why now…in this moment of sanity…I want to pass on…”

“But why?” Ichigo yelled. “You don’t…”

“Shut up for a second!” I said. “You don’t understand what ‘pass on’ truly means!”

“Ichigo!” Rukia yelled, looking at me with a greatful look on her face for making Ichigo quiet. “His decision is right. Hollows can never go back! Let him pass on.”

“Rukia!” he said, but she let on.

“It’s all right,” she said. “To reap hollows is not really to kill them. Reaping merely frees them of sin. The zanpaku-to cleanses them…so they can enter the Soul Society. That is the reason…Soul Reapers exist.”

Orihime’s eyes opened as she regained conciousness.

“Then…” Sora said, bending down to look closely into Orihime’s eyes with his eyes, his face, human, normal-looking with his beautiful hair, “…goodbye Orihime…”

Orihime smiled. “There’s something I always wanted to tell you. The hairpin you gave me…I never really liked it. We had a fight that day…and for the first time…we ate dinner without speaking, and I sat facing the wall all evening. Then…you went off to work the next day…I let you go without saying a word.” It looked like she was nearly about to cry. “Why did it have to be that day? Maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference…but I’ve…always regretted not saying this…Kakei….” There was a dramatic pause before Orihime could muster up the strength to speak again.

“Have a nice day….”

Sora’s eyes widened as large as saucers, and he smiled as he disintegrated to the Soul Society. It looked like he was crying blood, but he actually had a wound on his head. But it was beautiful all the while.

His few remains, a few specks of white from his broken mask, blew away in the wind with a woosh. We all gazed out the broken window, following them with our eyes.

“He’s gone…” Ichigo said.

“Gone…” Orihime confirmed.

Ichigo turned to Orihime. “Your wounds…they’re better, mostly….”

She interrupted him. “Anyway…they don’t matter! I have tons of questions I want to…” Rukia shot her with a yellow gas, “…ask you!!” Orihime said faintly. She passed out.

“Orihime?!” Ichigo asked, looking hesitantly at Rukia. “What’d you do?”

“Kiokuchikan--memory replacement,” Rukia said calmly. I walked over to Orihime to make sure she was okay. She seemed unharmed, so I carefully laid her down and checked on Tatsuki.

“I erased tonight from her memory and gave her substitute memories. We can’t let people know about us….”

“Kiokuchikan?” Ichigo asked.

“Yes…” Rukia replied dismissively, trying to concentrate on Orihime.

“Well,” I said. “What memories did you give her?”