78 [Video] Forwarded to the dawn.

[marsfireignite]

[When she had seen the image, she had thought it wasn't real. Why would she believe it? The very nature of this event was to see people die -- it was just a hallucination. A horrific, horrid, terrible hallucination, but a hallucination all the same. Still, Rei had a feeling in the very bottom of her heart that something was not right -- so she set

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[marsfireignite]

[She draws her coat a little closer around her, to give her hands something to do. She knew he was right. The likelihood of Toushirou forgetting her -- her, of all people -- is low. But what if it is? They were the ones who first organized the infiltration into the Inner City, to disturb the Animus. What if they decided to enact revenge on them just for spite?

-- she was being stupid. But she can't help it.]

I don't even know why we get along.

[It's said suddenly, as she tightens the coat a little more. There's only another pause before Rei starts talking. It's fast, and she's really just talking just to talk, but the more she talks, the thicker her words get, until by the end of it, she's trying not to cry.]

He's an idiot and stubborn and reckless and takes himself way too seriously and it's his way or no way at all and he's a jerk and we spend most of our time yelling at each other and he needs to get punched in the face on a good day and he can't take a joke and half of the time he just lectures me on stupid things that I

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[marsfireignite]

There isn't a point. They're just hallucinations.

[She tilts her head slightly to look up at him, with a frown.]

They can't tell you anything except what you think they would say. Or what you want them to say. They're a projection of your head.

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[wingsandwill]

If that's indeed all they are.

[Because if they could be showed things that hadn't happened yet, and those things turned out to be real, who's to say the hallucinations couldn't be accurate, at the least?

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[marsfireignite]

You just told me you weren't going to go near anyone dangerous this week.

[Rei's voice is quiet.

That includes the Animus, tyvm.]

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[wingsandwill]

Hallucinations aren't dangerous.

[He's quiet too, but he's curious. And he wonders if this might not be worth the chance that it's real.]

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[marsfireignite]

Then you've never had one.

[They could drive someone insane.]

Don't go near the fog anymore. Please.

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[wingsandwill]

[He gives her kind of a snippy look for that, but lets it go. He's much more concerned with her last statement.

He wants to just agree and not cause her any more stress, but at the same time... The temptation is so great. There are some other tombstones he wants to visit, deaths he heard about but never saw, gravestones for some who should still be alive. And he wants to find out why.]

I'll be careful, Rei.

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[marsfireignite]

Being careful means staying away from them.

[But it's tired, resigned. She's not going to argue. She doesn't have the energy or the willpower to argue. One of her main pillars of support is dead for who even knows how long -- and that fact is positively draining.

People were going to do whatever they were going to do regardless of what they were told. They can deal with the consequences without her.]

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[wingsandwill]

You cannot expect me to stay inside the entire week.

[Even if he didn't have reason to seek out any tombstones, he didn't want to be confined to the Temple. He'd spent enough time as such, and it was unpleasant and claustrophobic to be.]

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[marsfireignite]

He didn't release Hyourinmaru.

[Her voice suddenly sounds odd, as if she were speaking through a tin can connection. Tight and strained and distant. Faint.

The skies hadn't turned black. It hadn't snowed. Wind hadn't picked up. The tell-tale signs of her friend's bankai hadn't alerted her to the fact that he was in trouble. He hadn't released Hyourinmaru.

Hitsugaya Toushirou couldn't even fight back.

How many times has he saved her life and the one time she had to be at his side, she wasn't.]

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[wingsandwill]

[He goes quiet again, just watching her carefully and wondering briefly why she's telling him this, but then he has an idea. She's worried.]

He was likely surprised.

[It's the only thing he can really say back, something factual, even if he also means it as a reassurance. Even an angel could be taken out by surprise; it meant nothing but a cowardly attacker.]

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[marsfireignite]

If Hitsugaya Toushirou can be surprised without releasing Hyourinmaru, then you can be, too.

[Quietly. Castiel guessed right.]

If you want me to look for anyone you want to know about, then I'll do it. But don't go to the fog.

[It says quite a lot that she's willing to poke into his world's timeline again over him wandering into the graveyards. She hates his world.]

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[wingsandwill]

[He's silent, again, at that. And he thinks about those he's lost, those he wants to try talking to, those he would never again see. But he knows that this event isn't real. It's all an illusion, and what would be gained even if it weren't?

There's nothing that can fix what's happened, especially not talking to ghosts that shouldn't exist.]

It's fine.

[The words are soft, but he means them, no matter how a part of him still longs to go looking for the graves of those siblings that are gone forever.]

I won't go out.

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[marsfireignite]

[She's quiet for another moment before resting her head on his shoulder abruptly, not bothering to say anything.

It's a silent thanks.]