Hey guys! You should know, this one shot is based of my story "The Espada's guest", so if you've found your way to this, you'll understand it a lot more if you read my story. It involves the past of the two OC's in the story, Katsue and Ren. A lot of people really don't like Ren, some because she's just flat out mean, others because she was mary-sueish (which I agree with. thats why I changed chapter 20). Anyway, why was Ren so mean all the time? This tells about her and Katsue. I do not own Bleach.
Katsue stood outside the soul reapers school kido building. She and all the other students, well almost all the other students, had been evacuated. She remembered that Ren was still inside, and so she was a bit fearful for her sister.
BOOM
That definately didn't make the dark haired girl feel any better. She jumped and held her hands to her mouth, which was agape. Her eyes widened at the sight to follow.
Ren walked out of the bulding, covered in black ash. There wasn't even a strand of white hair visible under the soot. Her face looked very sullen, she knew she was in trouble. A very angry, ash-covered, Toshiro came out of the rubble from behind Ren. Even his white hair wasn't visible under the dirty coating.
"HUHNTOYA!" He shouted Ren's last name, obviously not having anytime to yell at her inside the building.
Ren's shut her eyes and swore. She stood up straight and turned to look at Toshiro. During her 180, her eyes met her sister's, which held a very worried expression. Ren just smiled at her in a goofy kind of way, trying to assure her all was fine.
"Yes Captain Hitsugaya?" Ren asked awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck.
"DO I EVEN HAVE TO SAY IT?" He shouted at her. Ren cringed a bit, she never liked it when people yelled at her. But she'd rather them yell at her than at her sister.
"No, Toshi- I mean Captain Hitsugaya." She corrected herself before the boy could go on another tirade. Toshiro was about to start yelling again before Shunsui stepped in.
"ARE YOU AN IDIOT? WHY WOULD YOU EVEN TRY SUCH A THING? WHERE IS YOUR PRIDE? WHERE IS YOUR BRAIN?"
"Captain Hitsugaya, you can relax. I'll take her for now. We don't need our prodigy to stress himself out over students." Kyoraku offered peacefully. Toshiro mumbled something, that Ren thought sounded something like 'Damn Hippie', he left.
Ren started walking before Shunsui even finished talking to Toshiro, she knew where she was heading. But she stopped in front of Katsue.
"Are you okay?" The silver eyed girl asked desperatly. Ren smiled, and placed a hand on Katsue's shoulder.
"I'm fine. I guess I shouldn't have tried mixing those elements with the wrong chant."
"But Ren, now you're getting-" Katsue was saying until Ren took her hand away and started talking.
"Don't worry. I've been there plenty of times." She tried to comfort her sister. Kyoraku came up behind Ren and gestured that it was time for them to leave. Katsue handed her sister a towel to clean up, and Ren gave a last assuring smile to her sister before leaving.
"That's why I'm scared." Katsue muttered.
Shunsui and Ren walked in silence for a few minutes. It wasn't until Ren wiped off most of the soot that Shunsui decided to speak.
"Ren, you're a good kid." He said in a assuring kind of way, like Ren didn't know that.
"We don't have to go over this." Ren told him as she hung her head low in shame. It was more of a plead than a declaration.
"Yes we do." Shunsui corrected. He took the girl's silence as a signal to continue. "And I think we'll have it with someone else to."
Ren looked up in alarm, if it was who she was thinking she was definitley in trouble.
"You mean.." Ren's throat went dry as they entered the threshold of Captain-Commander Yammamoto. Shunsui nodded gravely as they continued farther into the large building. Ren blinked feverishly, trying to keep the tears from coming. She never wanted to be like this, she never wanted to be in trouble, let alone so much trouble that she was heading towards the Captain-Commanders office. Her feet felt like lead as she continued, Shunsui had a sad look on his face. He didn't want to do this to the poor girl. She wasn't a bad girl.
They stopped in front of a sliding door. So many thoughts raced through Ren's head. What was her punishment going to be? What if Yammamoto suspended her? Or worse, what if he expelled her from the academy? Then she would never be able to become a soul reaper.
It took all her will to stop the amber eyed girl from breaking down when Kyoraku reached for the door. She just clenched her eyes shut as he opened it.
"Hello Shunsui. Greetings Ren." A voice said. Ren looked to see that Captain-Commander wasn't in the chair, instead Captain Ukitake was. Ren could of collapsed in relief. Not having to face Yammamoto... it felt as if all the weight in the world had just been taken off her shoulders, so now she felt like a feather. But that feather would quickly be caught up in the wind.
"So, I take it you're taking his place for today while he's working?" Shunsui asked.
"Yes. Now what's all the fuss I heard?" Ukitake asked, looking at Ren questioningly. Shunsui guided Ren over to two cushions in front of Ukitake's table. Ren sat down on her knees, head hung low in shame. Shunsui just sat on the other cushion in no respectful manor what-so-ever.
"It seems Ms. Huhntoya here tried mixing a couple of kido incantations together. In fact, one being a fire spell and the other a water. It destroyed the whole building." Shunsui answered his friend.
"Ren." Ukitake groaned in dissapointment. "Why would you do that?"
"I'm sorry. I was just curious." She answered shortly. She was glad Yammamoto wasn't here. But it didn't make it any easier to dissapoint her elders.
"Curiousity killed the cat." The eigth division captain said in his rough but gentle voice.
"Stupidity is commonly misconcepted for curiousity." Ren mumbled loud enough for the two captains to hear.
"Ren. You are not stupid. Where did your pride go?" Ukitake asked sadly. Ren had been one of his personal favorite students, he had to admit. But it was only recently that so many things had been going wrong for her.
"According to some," she started. "along with the rest of the kido practice building."
"Ren, I've been meaning to have a talk with you for a while. I was hoping things would change and we could avoid it, but I don't think we can anymore." Ukitake said softly.
Ren looked up, her eyes a bit red and starting to puff. She wiped them with her sleeve and nodded for Ukitake to continue.
"You used to be one of my best students. Always doing well, never getting into trouble. You may not of been the most social but you had friends. You were great... And then you met Katsue." Ukitake's voice died off.
The white haired girl's head snapped up immediatly. "Please sir, don't bring her into this." She pleaded desperatly.
"I wish I didn't have to. But the turn of events showed me I must." Ukitake stayed firm as Shunsui just nodded solemly. "Ren, ever since you brought her back from the Rukon district and had her enroll here... you've been doing worse."
"Captain Ukitake it's not what you think! Look at her progress! She's great, she never get's in trouble, she has plenty of friends! There is absolutley nothing about her that can hurt anyone! Sure her past isn't pretty but it's behind her! She did what she needed to survive and now she can rest a bit easier!" Ren protested with all her heart. Now she was wishing Yammamoto was here. He would just punish Ren and not look into the situation any further.
"Ren. The fact that you brought this girl in from the Rukon district, and took her in as your sister. It's touching and we don't want to seperate you two. But you have to help us here, what's going on?" Shunsui asked kindly. He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. Ren looked like a sad porcelin doll. Her features never seemed so delicate, and the tear rolling down her cheek only made her seem more fragile.
"He's right Ren. All we want is to help you." Ukitake assured her. Ren looked at the two of them, then at the windows. She was thinking of making a mad dash for it. Maybe she could run, sure they'd catch her eventually, but she'd have time to make up a story. She could tell Katsue they'd talk to her another time, that they'd dismissed her.
No. That'd be lying to Katsue, innocent Katsue who wanted nothing more then peace and happiness in this world of war and blood.
"Fine. I'll tell you." Ren gave in. She shuddered a bit, for a non-existent cold breeze had swept over her. She thought about the two older males in front of her. She had run away from her life when she was 13. She was the only one in her family who had enough spiritual pressure that she was allowed powers. But her human family didn't believe in, what humans and a young Ren called, ghost. Those around her ridiculed her for her ability, so she left.
Running away wasn't an option anymore. And Ren swore to herself that she couldn't ever do it again.
"Well, let's hear it." Shunsui prodded.
"You're right. It is because of Katsue. But not in the way that you think. When I found Katsue, she was a mess. She had been running and niether of us were paying attention, so we ran into eachother. When she fell, she dropped a bunch of food she had obviously stolen. And a man soon followed behind her."
"He stopped and started screaming at her, not even noticing I was there. I wasn't going to do anything," Ren admitted in a low voice. "until he raised his hand to strike her."
"Oh my." Ukitake coughed a bit. He knew how rough the Rukon district was, he knew that children were often hit. But just thinking about a young Katsue being struck was hard to believe.
"Anyway, I stopped him." Ren was going to keep speaking until Shunsui interupted. He had noticed how the girl looked down when she said that.
"And how did you do that exactly?" He asked, knowing something must of happened. He knew Ren since she first arrived in soul society after dying, and she always had a temper towards abusive people.
"I... twisted his arm back." The young soul reaper admitted shamefully. Ukitake sighed, but a small smile had appeared on his face. He knew she did the wrong thing for the right reasons.
"And he left after I told him I'd pay for whatever she took. And then Katsue and I stopped to talk for a while. And I remember every word of our conversation. It's etched into my mind..."
Flashback
The dark haired girl wouldn't talk to the white haired soul reaper. They were about the same age, Ren determined. Of course the street girl was a bit shorter, anorexic almost, and her face was dirty. But she held an innocence in it all. Like she was a butterfly in this world of bats.
"Hi, I'm, uh, Ren." The soul reaper introduced herself awkwardly. She'd never really talked to anyone who didn't know her already.
"..." was the street girl's response. Ren rubbed the back of her neck nervously. Then she remembered she had bought some food from the angry street vendor. She handed the girl a piece of bread, well she held it out to her. The dark haired girl just stared at the offering with wide eyes and an open mouth. She looked back at Ren with disbelieving eyes.
Ren jerked her hand a bit, trying to tell the girl to take it. The girl took it slowly, and then practically shoved the whole thing in her mouth. Ren chuckled and the girl looked at her with wide eyes. Seeing that the soul reaper was laughing, the street girl placed a big grin on her face. Ren looked closely at her face, and realized the girl's eye's were white with faint lines of silver.
"Are you blind?" Ren asked surprised. But the answer surprised her more.
"No." The girl's voice was magnificent. It was as pure as tinkling bells hanging in a willow tree. Well, that's what Ren imaigined when she heard the girl's voice. "I'm Katsue by the way."
"Ren." The soul reaper said in a daze. The voice almost made her feel faint.
"If you don't mind me asking, why'd you help me? Most people just keep walking." Katsue asked sadly.
"Because I know what it's like to be hit. I know what you went through on those streets." Ren told her softly.
"You used to live in the Rukon district?" Katsue asked. Ren shook her head.
"No. It was when I was a human still."
"Oh... How did you die?" The girl asked bluntly. Ren was taken aback a bit. No one usually asks how you died. But this girl obviously wasn't around many people that would teach her that...
"Me? Well... it was my own fault. I ran away from home, stupid thing to do when you're 13. But I couldn't take care of myself. And I froze to death in the winter. How 'bout you?"
"Well, I was murdered." She said as she looked up at the sky. She said it like it didn't matter, as if it could never affect her again.
"But... who would do such a thing? You seem so... innocent."
"Well, I was at school. And the teacher told me to stay. I asked him what it was about and he said I was in trouble and something else. And then he told me to go sit in a chair. I did. And then he went to his desk and pulled something out. It was a knife. He told me to be quiet and to take off my shirt. I told him no. I was scared, and he was blocking the door. And the windows were really small, but I was small to, so I thought I would fit."
"But when I dashed for the window, he came after me. Somehow, I knocked the knife out of his hand. And I tried crawling through the window. But... he grabbed my feet and pulled me back through the window. And then something hit me over the head. When I opened my eyes again I was standing over my body, and the teacher was scared. Probably because he hadn't ment to kill me. But he did. Suddenly, the police came and grabbed him. They said someone had seen me trying to crawl through the window and they called the police. Then some soul reaper came and brought me here."
"I'm sorry." Ren said in a muted voice. She only hoped that when this man died... that she could have the honor of hurling him into hueco mundo, and then killing him as a hollow.
"It's okay. Now he's just going to suffer the rest of his miserable life." Katsue's innocence never left her, even as she said the bitter words. Ren then saw Katsue playing with something. A little blue light that formed in her palm.
"Is that reitsu?" Ren asked curiously.
"Yeah. I think so. Is that what you guys call it?" Katsue rolled the little ball around her hand. "Watch this!" And she shot it into the air and said something. Once she said a little command, the reitsu exploded into a shower of sparks.
"How nice. It looks like a willow tree... like your voice." Ren smiled as she reached out and touched the reitsu.
"It's funny I remind you of that. I used to sit under a willow tree all the time. When you sit under them it's like you're in your own world." Katsue smiled and closed her eyes peacfully.
"Would you like to be a soul reaper?" Ren asked, the idea sparking the flint in her head.
"What?" Katsue asked in disbelief.
"Come on! It'll be fun. And you'll always have food and a place to sleep. Plus I know some captains who will absolutley love you!" Ren smiled jumping up, pulling Katsue with her.
"Really?" Katsue asked, just as excited. Ren nodded vigourously and the two started running towards the sereitai. They conversed as they ran.
"Will I make friends?" Katsue asked a bit sheepishly.
"Of course. If I could you can!"
"Does this mean we're friends?" Katsue asked, getting excited.
Ren thought about that, and then came to a conclusion. "Nope."
"Huh?" Katsue asked in a sad shock.
"This makes us sister's." Ren smiled. Katsue cheered and they laughed together.
End Flashback
"And well, she became a soul reaper in training as you know. And she looked up to me... like an older sister. And I noticed that she started doing as I did. She wanted to be just like me. And it was flattering at first, because she thought everything I did was perfect. But then I started thinking, if I let this go on... what would happen to her when we were both old and I made a horrible mistake... what if she followed in my footsteps? And I'll admit... I was getting a bit irritated by it." Ren worried.
The two captains exchanged sympathetic glances and continued listening.
"So then I started screwing up... I wanted her to know being like me isn't good. That being herself would be better."
"Ren, there are better ways you could of handled this." Ukitake scolded softly.
"Have you ever considered talking to Katsue?" Shunsui suggested. Ren shook her head solemnly.
"But if I talk to her... and it doesn't work... then she'll know my plan. She's really smart, she'll figure it out." Ren said.
"She is smart. That's why she'll understand." Ren nodded.
"Now go have a talk with your sister." Shunsui smiled.
"You mean, no punishment?" Ren asked surprised. Both the olders males shook their heads. Ren smiled, bowed, and left.
"She really is a good girl." Ukitake smiled.
"Yes, but sometimes she's too nice." Shunsui added.
*Now we're going to the future. The week after Katsue was killed in soul society to be precise. For those of you who've read 'The Espada's Guest' you probably know what I'm talking about. Anyways, to the future!*
Ren sat in front of the fire, watching the flames dance around the coals. She threw a piece of paper in there and watched as the fire ate away at it mercilissly. She decided it was big enough and stood, getting the preperations ready.
"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Urahara asked, leaning against the doorframe, fan in hand.
"It doesn't matter weather it is or not. I have to do it, I couldn't face them if I felt anything for them." Ren growled as she placed several candles around the fire.
"You believe you can destroy them? You don't even know who killed her."
"If I don't kill them, I'll get the message across that I'm coming for them."
"If you really insist. Just try not to light my shop on fire." Urahara said and he walked out of the room.
"You're really gonna let her try that spell thing you have?" Ichigo barked at Kisuke.
"Well... why not? If she really wants to that bad then let her." Kisuke shrugged.
"But she's erasing all of her emotions? How could that make her stronger!" Ichigo snarled.
"She believes they're holding her back. She thinks if she can go back to soul society without emotion she'll be stronger. She won't feel anything for her old friends."
"You mean, so she won't feel bad about slaughtering them!"
"It's her choice Ichigo. I have no authority over her." Kisuke reminded him.
Ichigo was speechless... he couldn't believe this. Ren was killing her emotions just so she wouldn't have to man up to them when she killed her friends. "She's being a coward."
"Ichigo, when we are sad, we are vulnerable. And when we are vulnerable, we have stupid thoughts. And when we have nothing else to protect ourselves, we give in to these thoughts."
"That's what friends are there for!"
And then a creepy smoke crawled out of the room. It slithered in and covered the doorway. Ichigo's eyes watered as he coughed. Kisuke just used his fan to fan away the evading smoke. As the smoke dissapeared, a figure appeared in the doorway.
"Ren." Ichigo said bitterly. He looked at her eyes, a vacancy occupied the amber orbs. Her mouth conveyed no notion what-so-ever. And she seemed completley gone, except she was still there... Like a puppet. "You coward."
"Say what you'd like Ichigo. But I must do things to get what I want." And she held up a little glass bottle that seemed to have a light blue liquid swirling around in it. "These are my emotions. And I won't ever use them again."
*Now fastforward even more to when Ren was dying. You know, after she was impaled by Ulquiorra. Now it's from her point of view*
I felt it. His hand go through my chest. I felt my heart explode and all the blood inside started leaving. But that's not what hurt the most.
When I fell, the glass bottle in my pocket shattered, realeasing my emotions.
I felt them all surge through me. Sad. Happy. Anger. Pity. Hate. Love. They all came back, along with realization of what I did. I nearly killed Katsue. How could I of done that? Or almost done that? What was wrong with me?
I looked as Katsue walked away from me, beside the man that impaled me. Ulquiorra, my sister had called him. Bless him. If he wasn't here... what would of happened?
Katsue turned her head to look at me. The smallest smile formed on my bloody mouth. But then I saw her gaze. It was one of scorn, of hate.
I wanted nothing more than to be able to stand then. I wanted to run to Katsue and use my last words to apologize. I wanted to beg for her forgiveness. For one last laugh and hug before I left. But I couldn't, I was too weak.
I got rid of my emotions, thinking they'd hold me back. But I was so wrong. Emotions, they're what make Ichigo strong. They're what made my sister strong. I was just too scared to be hurt... I was a coward.
My eyes widened at the next sight.
Ichigo and Ulquiorra fighting. No. Please no. Whatever holy presence is there, please just stop them. Ichigo... he wasn't a match for him right now. What have I done. Why wasn't I there for Katsue, always? Why couldn't I have been better?
Because I was bad. I never thought about anyone but myself. Even when I thought I was helping others, I always had some ulterior motive. But I did help..
I was a bad girl.
But Katsue wasn't.
As I died, as my eyes faded to black, as my heart gave one last beat. One thought ran through my head.
Katsue's not bad. She's a good girl.
HOLY CRAP THAT WAS LONG! I never thought this one-shot would come out this long... Well anyways, that's Ren and Katsue's past for the most part. Sorry about it being confusing if it is... Well I'd LOVE it if you would review, and you all know I'm usually not a review hound. See you guys later!