Swords & Saniwa

Wail

~Ichigo Hitofuri~

一期一振  

Requested by JayDagger! Hope you enjoy this story! :)

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"Leave!"

An order was made for him to leave her room immediately. Keeping his words back to himself, he bowed before exiting, sighing at her condition.

It has been a month since Nikkari Aoe broke, and she has not gotten over the incident. He could vividly remember the day that she got to know the bad news. The moment she saw the pieces of broken metal, her knees went soft and she collapsed to the ground, still dazed at the misfortune. 

She felt regretful for not giving him an omamori before he went for his sortie. She thought that he would come back alive, like how he always did in the past. He would often tease the sage as he was being repaired by her, often asking her what was she going to do after stripping his clothes off. She would laugh and play along as well, saying that she was going to rape him at night. Both laughed heartily.

She missed him badly. 

She knew he could be reforged, but she couldn't bear to enter the smithing room. She was scared; fearful about the new 'Nikkari Aoe'. He will never be the 'him' she knew well. All those jokes, conversations and incidents; they were all gone the moment he broke.

If only she gave him the omamori.

If only she did, then he would not have been broken. He could still be here, sitting beside her, telling her his jokes as she handled the load of paperwork.

If only.

~~

Since that incident, Ichigo was very worried about her. She often got sick easily from the lack of rest and nutritious meals that Mitsutada specially cooked for her, which she often skipped meals and only survived on a meal, which was breakfast.

He could see how skinny she was after a month. A pale complexion always hung on her face.

No sorties were made also for the past one month, in consideration of her health. Repairing them takes up a lot of strength, and she was in no condition to do this at all.

He could not bear to see her in that way.

~~

"She only ate breakfast for the entire day, Mitsutada-dono..."

"It's not good to skip meals, especially Aruji... Her body won't be able to handle that if this goes on..." The eyepatch said as he looked at the meal tray which was barely touched and sighed. Clenching his fist, Ichigo took some sweets from the fridge and went to her room, surprising Mitsutada.

"Aruji, it's me."

There wasn't any answer from her after a long time. Thinking about the worse possible situation, he entered her room hurriedly, only to see her sleeping on the mats with her body curled up. Sighing in relief, he then took out a blanket from the cabinet and covered her with it, hoping that she wouldn't get sick from this.

"...Mom.... D-Don't leave....Dad..." She mumbled while still in her dreams, furrowing her brows as she called out to them.

"A nightmare...?" He said to himself, trying to think of a way to calm her down. Gently shaking her frail body, she woke up with tears flowing down. Confirming his presence with her eyes, she then pushed him away.

"What are you doing here..." Wiping her tears, she said as she adjusting her thin clothing reflexively.

"Aruji only had breakfast for the entire day... and I decided to bring some sweets for you. It's not good to skip meals.." He said while looking at her with a glum expression. 

She did not answer him. Instead, she took a bite from her favourite sweet, mizu yokan. She felt the sweet melting on her tongue, spreading the sweet taste around her body.

"My parents were involved in an accident yesterday... And they're now in hospital... I-I-" She said while chewing on the yokan, smiling at the sweet taste that it gave her before reverting back to her depressed self. Not able to hold her emotions back, she then let out her cries, releasing everything from her heart. 

Her cries were the only sound he heard from his ears.

Wrapping his arms around her, he attempted to soothe her down, running his hand down on the back of her head while the other on her waist.

"It's okay... Let everything out. It must be hard on you, Aruji... Relax, and calm down." Hearing him say that, she let loose of her feelings completely, crying even more from the tremendous amount of pain she felt.

She felt more comfortable after letting all out. 

"Sorry... for making your clothes dirty." She said while blowing her nose into a tissue paper. Smiling. he assured her and told her not to worry about it.

"Ask Mitsutada to cook my favourite meal for breakfast tomorrow." He brightened up at her words, glad that she had found herself back.

"As you wish, Aruji."