.oO Blood Brothers Oo.
A young boy stood on the edge of town, hunger roiling madly in his stomach. Blood dripped down his slender fingers, his unkempt hair tossed wildly around his head like a bird's nest. He looked down at the body of the much larger man at his feet, giving it a sour kick before walking, unfeeling, into the small town. He was greeted, as usual, with hushed whispers, the very old and very young trampled in the rush to get away from the outcast child. He kept his dirty head down as he dragged his feet silently through the town, finally coming to the dusty alleyway he called home. Crawling into the makeshift tent he had made out of the clothes of his opponents and had propped up at the end of the alley, he brought a small, hardened crust of bread up to his mouth, forcing his jaw to open and shut over the dirt-encrusted food he had managed to find on the street.
"Hey, you!" The boy looked up to see five or six men standing at the entrance to the alleyway. Their rough hands were closed over various objects, all of them rusty and sharp. "We told you to get out of our town!"
The boy let out a whimper as one of the men stepped into the alleyway, his pitchfork aimed at the boy's throat. "But you're still here, so now we're going to kill you!" A yell reverberated across the cramped alleyway as the burly man sank to his knees, the boy's outstretched fingers smoking and trembling. Pressing himself against the back wall of the alley, the boy let out a terrified scream as the other men began to charge in, surrounding him.
"Stab on three!" The new leader shouted, pointing his rusty sword at the boy. "One, two-" The man never finished his count, as he fell forward, dead. A new boy walked calmly over his dead body, his sword soaked in the man's blood. His eyes had red smudges on the ends, and not a single hair resided on his head. To say he was abnormal was stating the obvious.
"Looked like you needed some help," he said aloofly, his sword slashing through the next man like butter. Bringing his sheath up to block a swing from a shovel, he looked at the other boy with a scrutinizing leer. "So you going to finish this fight or not?"
Nodding shakily, the other boy pointed two fingers at the man incapacitated by his own weapon. "Sh-shakaholm!" The man was blown cleanly in two, his blood seeping into his own eyes.
"You a soul reaper?" The sword-wielding boy asked, scowling. When met with a shake of the head, the scowl was replaced by a menacing grin. "Then you won't mind if I do... this!" The last man's head rolled off its former perch, the body standing on its own accord for a few seconds before toppling stiffly to the ground. The boy's sword, now soaked with blood, was replaced to the equally bloody scabbard, and slipped onto his waist.
"So what's your name?" He asked, extending his hand to the other boy.
"Yumichika," he replied, firmly grasping the bloody hand.
"Nice to meetcha. I'm Ikkaku." Noticing the blood oozing between their handshake, Ikkaku grinned ferociously, like a cat after a meal. "You know what? Now we're blood brothers."
Yumichika stood in the Squad 11 courtyard, one hand resting in his soul reaper garb, the other held up to the moon, as if to capture it. He turned as Ikkaku approached, his shiny head tinged red from a recent waxing.
"Do you remember what day it is today?" He asked as he joined Yumichika in the courtyard.
Yumichika sighed effeminately. "Unfortunately. My past is so unglamorous."
"Can it, pretty boy. I'm trying to be sentimental here."
"Try just plain mental."
Ikkaku shot a glare at his friend before looking up at the moon. "You know, this is also the day you became obsessed with beauty."
Yumichika turned to the bald man. "How could I not be? My image was just another reminder of my past."
"I'm still the same as when I was a kid."
"Yet another reason to change my look."
Ikkaku let out an impolite snort. "You're too kind... brother."
Yumichika gazed up at the moon again. This was the one day they permitted each other called the other brother. The day they met, and the day they had sealed their brotherhood with a man's life. Well, several men, actually. And many more after that to renew the bond. Yumichika smiled. But who's counting?
Ikkaku pulled a small notebook out of his pocket. "You know," he mused, "So far we've killed 541 men and 1 hollow to renew our brotherhood."
Oh.
Author's Note:
I finished this one in a single sitting. Everyone from or in Squad 11 are my favorite characters (except for MakiMaki). Just my musings of how Yumichika and Ikkaku met.