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Post by Seto Tetsuya on Jul 15, 2015 16:21:28 GMT -6
Vale shook his head with a sigh. "So, why won't you wear the ring?" he questioned, letting his hand slip from hers. "Or, have you fallen out of love because of what I did? I would understand if that is your reason why."
Folding her arms before her again, Yumiko shook her head. "You forget that you were dead to me until now... so I held it close to my heart. It was a a spark of hope. Now...." she stepped back and sat on the bed again, "I still need its pressure there because I don't know..." She fell silent for a few moments. "I worry you'll leave again. So much drifts away." She looked to the ring in her hand and then closed it again. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, love." Vale pushed himself from the wall and kissed her forehead. "Yumiko, I'm sorry I left you..."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jul 16, 2015 13:36:44 GMT -6
Yumiko nodded, clenching her hands into the fabric of her kimono, her body shaking as she tried not to cry anymore. She didn't want to be a bother. "Just..." her throat caught, "just stay this time. Please. I know... I know it won't be easy..." She lifted her head. "If you have to leave, at least say goodbye. I usually... don't get to ..." She lost the battle with her tears and leaned forward, crying and hiccuping.
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Post by Seto Tetsuya on Jul 16, 2015 20:19:07 GMT -6
Vale turned around quickly, grabbing Yumiko's arm and pulling her close. He held her tightly, holding back his own tears. "I'm not going anywhere without you! I'm not going anywhere." He tightened his hold on her.
"I'm not lying when I say that you mean the world to me. I don't want to lose you, Yumiko. You are something good for me." admitted Vale. He sighed, loosening his grip. Taking her hand, he led her to the bed's edge and sat down. "You make me nice and such. And, may be that's not such a terrible thing. I mean, how bad can being good be? It gives me chills and makes me want to dry heave thinking about it. But, really...It can't be all that bad. Right?"
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jul 17, 2015 11:01:36 GMT -6
Yumiko’s lips formed a smile for a moment at his fumbling. “I hope it’s not,” she replied. She lowered her head. “But I don’t want to confine you to a cage.” Suddenly overwhelmed, she turned away from him and looked out the window. “I don’t want you here if you’re going to be unhappy. It’s not…” she took a breath. “it’s not worth it spending so much of your life proving yourself to others….” She closed her eyes as nausea washed over her again.
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Post by Seto Tetsuya on Jul 17, 2015 16:43:29 GMT -6
"You say, if I love you I will stay. If you love me, why won't you come with me?" questioned Vale, his eyes focused on the crying Yumiko. "If something so simple can keep me here, then surely it can move you." His eyes narrowed as Yumiko hesitated in answering the question. "Yumiko?"
Yumiko shook her head. ‘You can’t compare those choices. It’s Las Noches you’re considering."
"What makes what Las Noches is to you any different than what Karakura or Soul Society are for me?" Vale's eyes narrowed further as the fire returned to his eyes. "You call Las Noches a prison. Well, Karakura and Soul Society...They are my prisons! These people are my enemy. You tell me how I am to be happy!"
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jul 17, 2015 19:31:07 GMT -6
“Because we were happy here before,” she hissed, shaking her head again, trying to clear it enough from the pain to focus on her lover. “Vale, Las Noches is nothing but a place of despair. It’s scarred Kita, it scarred me, it scarred Orihime. It scarred Ichimaru, Vacanze, and Ashimitsu.” She took a breath. “You have family here.”
“This was not my prison then, Yumiko,” Vale replied, tone bitter. She lowered her head, and he lifted it back up, bringing her beautiful eyes back to him, speaking slowly. “These people, they were my family, but today, I’m the enemy. And I am not the same as Ichimaru.”
“I have never said you were Ichimaru!” she snapped.
“That’s the point!” he shouted back. She flinched. He took a breath and stroked her cheek. “Ichimaru always had some redeeming reason for being in the dark. He did. I do not. They will never forgive and accept as they have him. They will always be waiting to blame me and use you against me. Is that a home, Yumiko? Is it a home to be waiting for what shapes me to be used to condemn me? As they fear you?”
“They don’t fear me,” she denied loudly, shaking her head and freeing her chin from his grip, lowering her head. “That was a mistake,” she muttered, voice hoarse. Though she said the words, right now they tasted like salt in her mouth, acidic, bitter.
Yumiko closed her eyes to stem more tear as all the memories of her family burned through her like the flame she’d torn through the party that night. Another gaping hole. “Those that matter… they’re trying to make up for it now. Kisuke will try to make up for the mistake of accusing you by freeing you of Alister. Give it a chance, Vale. One more chance.”
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Post by Seto Tetsuya on Jul 17, 2015 19:56:52 GMT -6
"Why should I?" asked Vale, a smirk forming on his lips. "What makes you think that I am even going to stay?" Vale's fire rimmed eyes glowed as he laid his hand to his zanpakuto.
"One more chance?"
"You want me to give you,"
"One more chance?"
Alister's words began to echo in Vale's mind and slip so easily from his lips. "You stupid bitch."
"Vale?" shouted Yumiko.
"The least you can do is give as I have. It took you nearly six fucking years to tell me you love me. And, I don't think you really do. I know you don't. You never did. You're afraid of me. Afraid of what I'll do to you. You want me to change. But, you won't change for me."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jul 17, 2015 20:31:56 GMT -6
Yumiko’s mind swam with a strange sensation of deja vu.
Vale speaking from Orihime to surrender.
Calling her a bitch when she resisted the first time Alister had trapped her with him.
Alister.
Foreboding crawled down her neck, but she resisted the temptation to leave. This was Vale. It was still Vale. He had never hurt her. She reached behind her, not for Mizue but for the box with the ring.
Her hand found it. “And I didn’t tell you for so long because I was scared of myself. I told you it wasn’t you!” she called back to his accusation. “I didn’t know what I did when I blacked out, but thanks to Alister, I do now. I maimed and killed any arrancar who dared touch me or even get in the way. I covered the walls in blood! That is not WHO I am!”
She sprang forwards and grabbed his hand. "That is not what you want me to be."
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Post by Seto Tetsuya on Jul 18, 2015 5:57:19 GMT -6
"But, that is what you are!" shouted Vale, pulling himself from Yumiko. "Aizen has shown you that much. Everyone has good and evil in them. But, they are never equal parts. One will always outweigh the other. And, the weight holds steady in its place. Ichimaru will return to the darkness. Just like I am going to. Why do keep insisting I can be happy here? I can change?"
Vale reached out, grabbing Yumiko by the neck. "Stop trying to change me, Alister. I am not yours to change..." Vale's word faded, as did the fire in his eyes, realizing he had called his Rose by another name.
"Yumiko..." His grip loosened around her neck. "I've done all I can to be with you, outside of changing what I am. I am chaos. But, I have still lost a part of myself trying to be with you. And, I was alright with that before realizing you want me to change....And, I won't. So," Vale took a step away from her. "Come back with me. Or, the next time we see each other, you will be counted among my enemies..."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jul 18, 2015 12:29:15 GMT -6
“You can’t be my enemy,” Yumiko whispered, reaching up to feel her neck. “You mean too much… I could never hurt you.” Her eyes fell to the ring that had fallen to the bed and shaking her head, she clasped it, closing her eyes against more memories - as Vale’s words overlapped her parents’ command to control her powers. But she couldn’t. Yet she didn’t want to lose them either. “We’ll both lose so much."
Tears filed her eyes, but she willed them back as she looked up into his mismatched eyes. “How could we find happiness in Las Noches? Tell me how. At the place that nearly tore both of us up? Aizen can’t be right. He can’t. You- and you regretted hurting others there. You’ve only been happy here….. I - I know it wasn’t a lie.”
Her head lowered. “I didn’t need you to change. I - i never took Chinmoku away. I didn’’t….” Her voice faded, tears falling onto her hands. “I just don’t want to lose you.”
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Post by Seto Tetsuya on Jul 18, 2015 16:07:37 GMT -6
"Then, come with me." Vale leaned over the bed and picked up Mizue. He the turned and extended his hand to Yumiko. "I'm not asking, Yumiko. Come with me."
Yumiko blinked, struck by another sense of deja vu, him telling to her take his hand while he held Mizue no Kagami - when Koga had brought her back by force and he had dropped her in the lake. Never returning Mizue. She slid off the bed. "You didn't answer my question," she murmured. Hesitating, she set a hand on his cheek. "How do you know you - and we - can be happy there?"
"I don't." answered Vale. His hand remained extended toward her. "Let's go."
Yumiko took a breath and stepped back again. "I'm scared... What if - what if you change again? What- what if I do?"
"Yumiko Ryouma, I'm not going to wait forever." Vale sighed, shaking the hand still extended. "Let's go."
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Jul 18, 2015 20:26:43 GMT -6
Yumiko looked down to his hand and then back to him, her mind going over what had happened at Las Noches, what had happened to Soul Society. She twisted the ring in her hand. He still hadn’t hurt her. He’d pulled back. But….
She sighed and slipped the ring from Vale on her finger. And then took it off again, holding it again. “What will you do - about Alister? About Aizen? Are you giving in?”
Vale looked at the ring with narrowed eyes. "Giving in?" He smiled. "No. He will get what is coming to him, when the time comes. But, right now, we need to leave." He placed his hand over hers, covering the ring. Sighing, Vale looked to Yumiko. "You trust me, don't you?"
"I do," Yumiko whispered. She placed her hand over his own, closing her eyes as her heart dropped. She opened her eyes again. "I won't attack my new family, Vale. I can't." She released his hand to find the other ring, slipping it into her kimono sleeve. "But I do trust you." She walked back over.
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Post by Seto Tetsuya on Jul 18, 2015 22:02:38 GMT -6
Vale nodded, wrapping an arm around Yumiko's waist. He tightened his grip on Mizue. "I wouldn't ask you to. Doing such a thing would be your choice. And, I have no plans to place you that situation. You will stay out of harms way." Sighing, Vale loosened his hold on Yumiko and held his hand out to her again. "You have to leave the aeronite ring, here. I will give you another, when we get home...there." Yumiko sighed, slipping on Vale's ring before pulling out the second. "Do I have to?" she asked. He nodded. She wrapped her fingers around it and then let out a long breath, letting it fall to the ground. Returning to Las Noches. By her own choice. She looked to Vale and took his hand. "For you," she whispered. Vale knelt down and picked up the ring. He threw it into the same room he threw the piece of aeronite Urahara had given him. Taking her hand, Vale led Yumiko out of their apartment and out into the garden in the back of the building. There, he opened a gate. "Thank you..." he whispered, leading her into the gate. The gate closed behind them, separating them from one home as they headed toward another.
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Post by Kita Miyamoto on Aug 3, 2015 15:32:52 GMT -6
"Looking Out For Friends": (continued) Exiting the empty apartment, Kita held the chunk of Aeronite and the ring Kisuke gave to Vale tightly in her clenched hand. Her heart pounded in her chest. She was not sure if it was anger or fear that she was feeling at the moment or a mix of both. The only thing she knew for sure was her best friend was gone. AGAIN. And it was by the hands of Vale Tervaden. AGAIN. Why? Why did she leave with him or did he just take her like he did from Soul Society?
Hearing the door close and lock behind her she turned to look at the man now standing beside her. "What happened?"Gin shook his head taking her in his arms he held her close to him. "I don't know, love. If I knew the answers I would tell you."Kita buried her face into his chest and sighed. "Do you think..." she paused and lifted her head looking into Gin's eyes an even more worried look in her own. "Do you think he took her back to Las Noches?"
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Post by Gin Ichimaru on Aug 3, 2015 16:32:53 GMT -6
Gin sighed. “I don’t know, love.” There’s reiatsu traces in that bedroom, but I am not someone who can analyze them.” He squeezed her waist, pulling her tired soul against his body. “We’ll find out the truth. If anyone can figure out what happened, it’s Kisuke and his gadgets or his cat woman. Don’t give- ”
He froze as a wind picked up in the wake of an explosion of clashing reiatsu. He frowned and then spoke in cold authoritative tone. “Kita, get home and make sure Sojiro is safe.” His eyes narrowed to slits and the fox drew Shinsou. Not wasting any time, he vanished from her side, appearing on the top of the power line. “Be safe.”
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