Ghosts

[liralen]

Title: Ghosts
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: Ishida/Ryuuken
Prompt: You can close your eyes
Summary: Ishida goes to see his dad.
Words: 409
Notes: SLOW ficcing (I'm so SLOOOOOww) with bellumina and benizakura and shadowgirl1605.



The hospital is filled with ghosts.

Ishida, as a boy, always hated going to see his father at work. But this time he had to, to get a permission slip signed so that he could continue to live in his own apartment. He liked living alone. He liked shopping for himself and cooking for himself. And being alone made it easy to do what needed to be done.

Ishida enters the side door, trying to get through as little hallway as possible to make it up to his father's office.

The old men outside the heart ward laugh and smoke and play mah jong, while the nurses step through their placed tiles. The emergency room seethes with gunshot wounds and stabbings. A man with eyes like bruises and an arm tracked with black veins looks at him, already half Hollow. Ishida's eyes narrow, nostrils flaring just a tiny bit.

He walks. He can't do anything to lay the dead. That is Shinigami territory and his father made him swear to have nothing to do with them. On days like this he is glad of it. Rage burns him at how many of the ghosts are left to rot, left hungry, left to wander alone rather than be given a guide. It's as if only those that are threatened by Hollows have any hope of moving on.

Then again, knowing that they all go to Soul Society, Ishida isn't all that sure it's the better thing.

At the elevator, Ishida pushes the buttons with precise fingertips. On the slow slide up to the top floor, he takes a slow breath.

Outside the pediatrics ward it is just a girl this time. Ghost pale sitting in front of the aquarium and watching the fish. Her chain still has links. Ishida keeps going and reaches the polished door of his father's office.

He opens it. His father bends over paperwork, perfect hair, perfect suit all exact. Ryuuken looks up.

"How can you stand all the ghosts, Ryuuken?" Ishida knows he's being rude, he doesn't care, the rage he feels just always comes out that way.

"Ghosts? What ghosts?" His father asks, pushing up his glasses. Light reflects off his lenses, obscuring his eyes.

"I saw you out in the park. Saw you as a Quincy. You can't tell me you can't see them." Ishida bites it out, hard.

His father looks at him with that look Ishida can never read. "You can always close your eyes."

Comments

[bellumina.livejournal.com]

Oooh, wow, I really like the last line. <3 That was really nice.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. Took me too many words to get there, perhaps, but thanks.

[shadowgirl1605.livejournal.com]

I agree with Kendra~ I really like that last line. Fits and seems so Ryuuken-ish. =D Job well done~

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Just saw him in the anime... made enough of an impression, I think. *grin* Since I was last on this one anyway, I'm probably going to clean some stuff up, like the tenses! Bah. Or make it all present rather than past... more immediate.

[shadowgirl1605.livejournal.com]

=) Nice idea with the tenses. As for Ryuuken? The first time I saw him in the manga I think it was a Uryuu flashback? my first impression was "bastard". Then when we were introduced to him for real, my first thought was again "bastard". XD He didn't grow on me until I started RPing him in Karakura HS (which is sadly discontinued D=). It's funny how delving into the mind of a character makes you start liking them >.>;

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I dunno if he is a bastard or not, he helps Isshin out when his clinic is overflowing. He just seems to have different priorities than the kids do.

[shadowgirl1605.livejournal.com]

=) Yeah, I started realizing there was more to him than meets the eye after rping him. But *shrugs* first impressions die hard and all that. I agree, though, he just has different priorities than most~

[incandescens]

Mm. That is very good indeed. Lovely!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*beam* Thank you so much!!

[azardarkstar.livejournal.com]

"You can always close your eyes." Hm... and Uryuu thinks the Shinigami are bad.

In all honesty, the lot of them are self-centered bastards, Shinigami and Quincy alike. That's one thing that has always got me about this series, the subtle undertones of corruption that is prevalent in pretty much everyone. It's very obvious in the Shinigami. Somewhat, less so in the Quincy flashbacks. I mean, they regularly destroyed souls. It was to protect others, but still...

Anyway, interesting ficlet. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Zari

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yes, that self-centered attitude has always struck me as well. The whole I'm doing okay, it's those bastards that have it wrong... *grin*

And, with the Quincy folks for me it's very much "but still..."

I'm very glad you enjoyed it! Short stuff while I'm slogging through some stuff that feels so slow after those last four chapters. Whew.

[scrawled.livejournal.com]

Oh this was rly rly good and very in character. :D I loved it. :D

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it felt right for the character. I'm very glad you loved it. XDD

[madammina.livejournal.com]

Loved it. Count on Ryuuken to have the last and definitive word.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yes. He can definitely be counted on for that.

Thank you! I'm glad you loved it!

[zangetsugirl.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, shiny. This is nice. When I first read it, it took me a while to cotton on to the fact that Uryuu was seeing GHOSTS, but I put that down to sleep-deprivation. I'm normally not much for Ishida fic, but I really liked this one, particularly this bit:

A man with eyes like bruises and an arm tracked with black veins looks at him, already half Hollow. Ishida's eyes narrow, nostrils flaring just a tiny bit.

Makes you wonder how much of themselves these two are giving up to meet each other halfway, and how long they can keep it up.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

The title is Ghosts! *laughter* Sleep dep. Go get some sleep!! *grin*

But, I'm very glad you liked that image. Shiny.

It is an interesting question. It amuses me that Ishida never closes his eyes once during the trip when he really *could* have. Maybe that just emphasizes the distance.

[tangerine-haze.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. *shivers* It's like by closing his eyes he's closing the windows to his soul. Just a little creepy and sad all mixed up together.... You hit the nail on the head with Ryukken.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*bows gently*

I'm very glad you thought so. Ryukken puzzles me. But when I saw the prompt, he's the first one I thought of. *grin* He seems to close his eyes to so much, much more than any other character in the series.

[000-hester-000.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with everyone else who liked the last line! It fits so well with Ryuuken's comments that trying to help the dead is useless.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you, so much, for the comment, though! It still helps to have the affirmation that it worked. Yeah, it does fit that statement very, very well. Thanks!!

I love your icon.

[calmingeffects.livejournal.com]

OMG I LOVE this *shoves it into her memories* your descriptions are amazing I loved the way you described addicts in the ER and Ryuuken's response to Uyruu's question is so amazing

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yay! Yay! I'm so glad you loved it that much. XDD

I'm glad you liked the description of the addicts and yeah... Ryuuken always bemuses me whenever I see him.

[gackt-gratia.livejournal.com]

Oh my! Totally Ryuuken! Love it! ^^

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad that you enjoyed this.

[bloodthirstylt.livejournal.com]

shivers.
that last line scares me, but not in a bad way...it's just chilling.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Wow... reading my very old stuff, hm? *smiles* I'm glad that you found it comment-worthy.

It is very... Ryuuken, I think. He's blind to his own son and to his life and to many things it seems...

*hugs*

[bloodthirstylt.livejournal.com]

that seems true. I figured to poke through your older stuff because I wished to find more to read, but I think I read almost all of your bleach fic. *laughs*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

There's a few girl-centric ones that aren't on Y!Gal...

the Yoruichi ones, the Rukia/Renji one near the top... but yeah, most of the boy ones you've probably seen.

[bloodthirstylt.livejournal.com]

yeah, I read the Yoruichi ones. I'd read the Ruki/Renji one, but I am not really a fan of her.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Makes sense. *hugs warmly*

There's a few drabbles and things, but they're little bitty cornchip type fics.