Lost Child (Bleach Fanfic)

Poisoned Wounds

The child sat against the wall of the house with his knees pulled to his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs. His nose was buried between his two knees in an attempt to block out the smell. His vision was fuzzy as he focused on the old woman, his mind focused on the fact not a single adult was coming to help them despite the fact he had honestly asked for help.

The sickening feeling wouldn't go away. "Is it something I've done that has made granny ill?" The sound of the door opening caused his eyes to dart from where his granny was to the entrance of the house. He heard someone speaking but choose not to move. "Maybe they'll help granny."

"What is that smell?" A masculine voice soon became matched with the face of one of the villagers. The person looked around, noticing where granny was and then turning to look at the boy who was sitting against the wall. Toshiro noticed the look of disgust on the man's face and watched as he slid back out, closing the door as he did.

The boy startled then, moving forward so that he was forced to smell what he had come to call the sickness because that was when bad smells occurred. His knees scrapped against the floor as did the palms of his hands. His body shook as he stared at the door and his lip trembled. "Why? Why can't they stop and help."

A painful feeling came to his chest and he hurried to the door, pushing the door open. "Wait!" The boy hurried forward, tripping on the ground as he did so, his foot twisting a bit. Despite the pain he got up and grabbed the sleeve of the one man's kimono. "Wait! Granny..."

The man's hand suddenly back slapped him, causing him to tumble backwards, his lip split from the blow. He back peddled a bit but then simply stopped short, the pain in his chest going away. The two strangers disappeared from where he was and his hands gripped the dirt. One part of him told him to go back into the house, but another part made him feel like not moving as doing so didn't seem to achieve anything.

He continued to stare at the ground, his lips pushed together as a small trickle of blood dripped down. His head jerked up when he heard the sound of people approaching. Toshiro's small mouth dropped when he realized that quite a few members of the village. The looks on their faces caused him to realize that they were not happy about something.

The boy lifted himself up from the ground and began to move back to the house, the first few steps causing him to limp but they became steady as he moved more. He then turned once he arrived at he house and noticed that the adults were heading towards the house and he found himself letting out a strange sound before he moved to evade them, heading to the side of the house.

He leaned against the wall as his body shook, the tips of his fingers being scratched by the wood. His teeth gritted together and his head darted down, some of his hair hanging in front of his eyes. Three of the men headed to the house while another came around the corner, causing the boy to look up at the man. Toshiro opened his mouth, asking if they would help granny, only to find nothing coming out.

The sound of raised voices came from inside of the house and he closed his eyes. The men stepped out of the room. One of them let out a deep sigh. "The old woman is dead."

Toshiro startled, panic setting in. His head shook back and forth and he tried to speak, only to find his throat tight and dry due to not drinking anything the last couple of days. "She can't be dead! She was just alive the other day!" The child could feel tears and snapped his eyes shut. "I won't cry, not in front of strangers."

Another of the men spoke. "It's the boy's fault."

The child froze, looking up at the adults. His entire body trembled. One of the men looked at him, the man's eyes filled with disgust. "I don't know how he did it, but he managed to kill the old woman. And this after everything she's done for the brat."

The boy pulled back slightly from the men, his eyes narrowing. The man who had chosen instead to approach him decided to shove Toshiro into the wall, causing the boy to fall to the ground. He felt a rough kick in his ribs which caused him to curl up and defend his head as more blows. One of the other men joined in and he then felt himself yanked up and is head shoved into the wall.

A cracking sound was heard as his skull made contact with the wall and he felt himself blacking out. When he came to his entire body continued to shake but he at first couldn't see anything. His hand reached out to touch something, anything. What he ended up feeling was his hand being kicked back. Opening his eyes he saw that he was back in the house.

In the middle of the room was his grandmother with a white cloth over her. His eyes narrowed and he felt a few tears escape from his eyes. He then found himself watching as people came and left. He noticed the mother of the two kids from next door come in and he looked at her, his mouth twisting downward. "Why is it that adults are so cruel? Why is it that people are so cruel?"

His eyes closed and he tried focusing on happy thoughts, but the fact they were talking about him caused him to open his eyes again. "That boy... while he was asleep the temperature changed."

"We should send for Shinigami.. they'll take care of him for us."

"What does taking care of me mean?" Toshiro attempted to lift his head up.

"He deserves to be executed for his crime."

"Crime?"

Another voice in his head, the voice that had been in his dreams choose to spoke then. "You need to run."

The boy pushed himself up and began to slowly crawl towards the door, hoping that none of the adults noticed that he was trying to escape. "What about granny?"

"Granny wouldn't want you to die."

This sudden realization for some reason gave him strength and he lifted himself up. It was right then that he heard one of the men suddenly snap the words out. "Hey!"

The next thing that happened was that he pushed off with his injured foot but didn't allow the pain to make him scuttle away from the house. He then took off running despite the pain in his foot, his body causing him to make a quick turn at the corner of the house to head in that direction. He found his feet continually hitting the rough ground. He could hear shouting from the adults as he sped away. He finally came to a wooded area and dove in.

To his advantage it was dark out, but this was also to his disadvantage as he hadn't a clue which direction he was going. When he finally lost the adults he found himself digging in at the base of a tree and shivering. "Momo-nee?" There came a pause in his thought. "I don't know how to find her."

The next thought that crossed his mind was painful. "I was right. I had something to do with granny being sick. I don't know what I did, but I hurt her." The boy tucked his head into his knees in an attempt to get some sleep, his senses alert in case the adults came near him. The voice was right about one thing. Granny wouldn't want him dead, but he did feel like he wanted to die.