Across Worlds - A Coyote Starrk Love Story

Chapter 9 - Truth

This chapter is dedicated to Akiko_Ichimaru! Happy reading! :)

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Starrk pov:

"It's not a problem at all, ma'am. Since you had informed me that you would be coming in late, I kept the shop open. I stay close by so it's not a problem waiting." Saki smiled as she spoke to another human buying something she had made.

This human intrigued me. The way she spoke, the way she thought, the way she smiled at everyone around her....she was strange.

The first time I met her in the park was the first time I had come to the human world. I hadn't thought that I would ever meet with a human, let alone have her ask if I needed help with anything. She had smiled at me with the most radiant and honest smile I had ever seen anyone give before. Her eyes too had had the innocent and warm spark in them that I'm sure anyone would find hard to be unaffected by.

I guess it was human nature to talk to strangers but I'm quite certain she knew who I was. If she didn't have a high enough reaitsu despite being a human, she wouldn't have been able to see me standing in front of her. She knew I was a hollow because she could sense my reiatsu and see the hole I had in my sternum. And yet, she said she wanted to be friends. She offered me beverages, started light conversations and didn't mind having me around her.

So this was how it felt to have a comrade. This was how it felt to be around people without worrying about them disintegrating under your mere presence. This is what it felt like to not be alone and isolated from the world and actually share light conversations with them.

Then again, the only reason Saki was able to be around me, alive, was because of the reiastu limiter I had on my wrist.

I had come to her shop only a few times. The first few being only to take crockery that Aizen sama wanted. On the second time I had come here, she had seen me again and spoken to me. She had complained that she hadn't liked it when I had taken the tea mugs without giving money. I don't know why I had bothered with it but I had paid for whatever I had taken from the very next time onwards.

It's not like I had money. I took it from any other place it was abundantly available and left it for what I took from this girl's shop.

I didn't actually think that I would end up coming to the human world out of my own accord. After getting everything that Aizen sama had wanted, I had no reason to come back here. But I did....I came here because there was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that made me want to come here.

As expected, I had met her again. She had asked me if I was looking for something particular to buy, assuming that I had come again for her crockery. Instead of beating around the bush, I had asked her directly. I had asked her why she bothered talking to me, why she wanted to be nice to a stranger. It made no sense. The world had its own way, didn't it? Every man for himself....no one bothered about people they didn't know. Why was this girl different?

Her answer to my question had caught me off guard. She said offering friendship wasn't unusual and it meant that we could be comfortable around each other. She had even gone to the extent of being flustered and asking me if I would ever come to meet her again because she said it was what she wanted for me to do. She had offered me human beverages, which I have to say, tasted better than I had expected. It was much better than the tea Aizen sama always had us drink in Hueco Mundo anyway.

She said that she didn't feel I was a bad person. How she came to that conclusion, I have no idea. But I have to agree that it did feel rather welcoming to be around other people, human or Arrancar, without them judging your worth based on who you are and how powerful you are. And so, we had even introduced ourselves during that short meeting, though it was merely just telling each other our names.