You all chose death and I delivered. >:)
***
Death is all around. It is cold. It is warm. Too warm like a winter's night spent under the covers that trap body heat and kiss the skin with heated breaths. Too warm that one must shift their blankets only to be met with the cold of the night. Too cold with kisses of chilling touch and bites, teeth scraping on the tender flesh. Death is the blanket of cold and warmth, wrapping and binding a soul and guiding it into the afterlife.
The cloak of cold and warmth tear at the soul's body in different ways, pulling it every which way as if confused where to take it. It is not peaceful, too loud and too quiet. Trapped in never-ending darkness. Peaceful deaths are a blessing compared to violent deaths.
Unbeknownst to most, already shattered souls splinter with no pain and disappear without a trace. Fragments linger, watching the world and only anchored until forgotten by the living. These echoes latch onto their loved ones who mourn and remember.
The moment the body gives up on the soul, no longer strong enough to keep tight on the chains, it lets go and allows the soul freedom. Some souls are fortunate.
Others are not.
Those with shattered souls, cannot reincarnate, cannot move on.
No.
They simply disappear, leaving fragmented echoes.
Death curls and coils around the children of Life. It waits and waits until it finds the chance to pluck the child. There's no love, no tenderness in the action. Not unless it's peaceful, dying in one's sleep is a blessing. The soul slides right out. Violent deaths is similar to yanking on hair, ripping it out of the scalp. Death does not discriminate, it takes who it wants, when it wants and no one can do anything but complain and question why? why? why? Scream and cry, but death won't listen to childish pleas.
Kurosaki Ichigo is an unfortunate soul.
He lived and loved, protected and cared.
He loved like a candle.
Loved with burning passion.
Loved until it killed.
He lived as one should.
Lived with a smile.
Lived until it hurt.
He protected everything he could.
Protected with open arms
Protected until giving up.
He cared for so long.
Cared with radiant mirth
Cared until breaking down.
Yes, Kurosaki Ichigo was an unfortunate soul, whose life was beautiful in the way only a tragic story could be. Pain born from having loved, left alone when he had protected, pushed away when he had cared, and died when he could have happily lived. He had a heart too full and slowly drained, giving pieces when it was emptied.
Death is cruel.
It doesn't mean to be, but that makes it all that much crueler.
Hitting the water, his soul slips without any awareness. No pain. No suffering. One could believe it to be peaceful. It's only like this because his soul isn't intact. Once the soul slipped out, it dispersed with no one all the wiser.
* * *
Kurosaki Yuzu's spiritual awareness and ability was never strong. While she may not be able to see spirits clearly like her siblings, it didn't mean she's blind to the other world. She always had a sense of death, always known when it will happen since it's like a cold chill passing through her own body. There's always a faint outline that covers a person.
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Fanfiction⚠️ I do not own the image above. After the Winter War, Ichigo loses not only his powers but his friends as well. He's slowly losing himself in his thoughts and wishes that things were different. He attempts to go through many different thoughts and...
