Bleach - #46: Dew - Survival
Title: Survival
Author: january_summer
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: Ayasegawa Yumichika
Prompt: #46 Dew
Word Count: 431
Rating: PG
Summary: Yumichika lives to fight another day.
Warnings: None. Author's note: Young Yumichika, before meeting Ikkaku.
Disclaimer: Bleach and all characters are exclusively copyright of Tite Kubo.
Early morning. Five a.m. or so. The sun had not yet risen and the birds were just beginning to stir from their nests. The first chirps of the day seemed to call out his name. Wake him from his slumber.
Yumi! Yumi! …Yumichi-ka! Songbirds continued to call, warming up their small voices.
Slowly his eyes opened, seeing little more than blurs of color beneath the faint light. A blink, and they focused on a single blade of grass burdened by droplets of water.
Dew.
The air smelled heavily of it and the heat only amplified the scent, spreading it throughout the Rukongai. Ironic, for even though there was grass here, nothing would grow. The land gave false promises of hope. Would anything here truly be what it seemed? Yumichika often wondered.
He pushed himself up from the warm, dirty ground with a strangled grunt. His body ached, pulsating with pains he couldn’t count. His sullen kimono was torn and soaked through, barely clinging to his body. It was then that Yumichika realized how littered with bruises and scrapes is body truly was. The most horrific of wounds was a deep gash at his left side that still leaked with blood. The cut itself wasn’t life-threatening, but the rust-brown stain it left on his clothing was garish.
So ugly.
Casting a hand to the split flesh, he took careful breaths as he looked to his left to see the perpetrator beside him. Some male of solid build lay on his side, lifeless. A pool of blood still collects where he’d been run through the stomach. Yumichika’s eyes settled on the blade’s tip protruding between bones in the other’s spine. It pointed accusingly at him but he felt no guilt.
To survive, one had to be strong. To have value, one had to define one’s worth. This man was just not strong enough.
Tike to move. The sun would be up soon to uncover his deed. Gathering the remnants of his strength, Yumichika rose to his feet and tore his sword from the nameless man’s belly. A sharp flick of his wrist flung the blood from its blade before it found its sheath.
He felt as though he should offer prayers to the fallen’s corpse, but what good where they in a dead and ignored land? Peeling his hair away from his wet face, he brushed flecks of dirt from his cheek and gave only one final look to the body hidden within the greenery before turning to walk away. The dew upon the grass swallowed his footsteps.
He would live another day.
Author: january_summer
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: Ayasegawa Yumichika
Prompt: #46 Dew
Word Count: 431
Rating: PG
Summary: Yumichika lives to fight another day.
Warnings: None. Author's note: Young Yumichika, before meeting Ikkaku.
Disclaimer: Bleach and all characters are exclusively copyright of Tite Kubo.
Early morning. Five a.m. or so. The sun had not yet risen and the birds were just beginning to stir from their nests. The first chirps of the day seemed to call out his name. Wake him from his slumber.
Yumi! Yumi! …Yumichi-ka! Songbirds continued to call, warming up their small voices.
Slowly his eyes opened, seeing little more than blurs of color beneath the faint light. A blink, and they focused on a single blade of grass burdened by droplets of water.
Dew.
The air smelled heavily of it and the heat only amplified the scent, spreading it throughout the Rukongai. Ironic, for even though there was grass here, nothing would grow. The land gave false promises of hope. Would anything here truly be what it seemed? Yumichika often wondered.
He pushed himself up from the warm, dirty ground with a strangled grunt. His body ached, pulsating with pains he couldn’t count. His sullen kimono was torn and soaked through, barely clinging to his body. It was then that Yumichika realized how littered with bruises and scrapes is body truly was. The most horrific of wounds was a deep gash at his left side that still leaked with blood. The cut itself wasn’t life-threatening, but the rust-brown stain it left on his clothing was garish.
So ugly.
Casting a hand to the split flesh, he took careful breaths as he looked to his left to see the perpetrator beside him. Some male of solid build lay on his side, lifeless. A pool of blood still collects where he’d been run through the stomach. Yumichika’s eyes settled on the blade’s tip protruding between bones in the other’s spine. It pointed accusingly at him but he felt no guilt.
To survive, one had to be strong. To have value, one had to define one’s worth. This man was just not strong enough.
Tike to move. The sun would be up soon to uncover his deed. Gathering the remnants of his strength, Yumichika rose to his feet and tore his sword from the nameless man’s belly. A sharp flick of his wrist flung the blood from its blade before it found its sheath.
He felt as though he should offer prayers to the fallen’s corpse, but what good where they in a dead and ignored land? Peeling his hair away from his wet face, he brushed flecks of dirt from his cheek and gave only one final look to the body hidden within the greenery before turning to walk away. The dew upon the grass swallowed his footsteps.
He would live another day.