Yoruichi
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
A/N: I'd written this whole thing out before remembering that Kisuke's the only one besides Ichigo to have tried and tested that bankai-in-three-days thing. But please…for this story's sake, let Yoruichi have used it on Byakuya as well. Before joining Gotei 13.
Sempai is the term used for a senior.
Hime-nee translates as princess-sister (older). In Japan, its okay to relate yourself to strangers. :D
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
On the bridge to the white tower, there was a drama unfolding.
"You…Yoruichi!"
Not just any Yoruichi. (How many were running amok in Seireitei?) Shihouin Yoruichi.
She'd leapt to catch his blade's release and so save the drifter.
Kurosaki Ichigo was talking and Shihouin Yoruichi was replying but Kuchiki Byakuya was lost. He was lost in her eyes and her hair and the reiatsu he couldn't believe he hadn't sensed (but then she would know to hide her spiritual pressure, wouldn't she?) and her familiarity…
Friend.
The word thundered painfully in his temple.
Old friend.
"Sempai…"
This was not fair.
000
A hundred years ago, the wind was as angry as he was as he stomped around the training fields, the memory of his defeat burning a hole in his heart.
Zaraki Kenpachi.
Byakuya kicked a rock and it sailed through the air to smash a second floor window. Loud curses ensued from within, but the young aristocrat just gripped his sword and thought about the vagrant bastard that had so comprehensively defeated him.
It had seemed so simple, at first. Byakuya, the freshman, was class topper. He was so good he hardly needed to utilize the physical hour they were given after classes to train. Of course he used it anyway. But today the second-year Kenpachi had dared call him out.
"Kuchiki princess! How strong are you, really?"
It was bound to happen. Kenpachi loved to fight, he lived to fight. He was looking for a worthy opponent and Byakuya hadn't wanted to disappoint him.
"Scum of the earth, my sword will be soiled by your blood today."
Kenpachi had laughed. "What! No 'sempai'? You need to learn some respect when addressing your seniors!"
"Earn my respect, then," Byakuya had challenged.
Kenpachi had taken him up on it and Kenpachi had fought viciously, horribly until Kuchiki Byakuya could no longer stand up.
"Say it, bocchan. Say it, young master. Say 'let me up, Zaraki-sempai'."
"No."
The laugh belted out at him again, even though the spectators were spectacularly quiet. Kenpachi's neck tilted back in one long, dangerous line as he let loose.
"What a tough little princess! Haven't I earned your respect yet?"
"No." Byakuya couldn't stand and the blood was in his eyes but he managed to look more like a wounded tiger than a dying deer. "You've only... piqued my interest as a foe."
Another laugh! This man was a maniac. "So then, princess, I'll have to earn your respect some other time. 'Cause right now you're weak. And I have no interest in fighting a man down."
A few members among the audience stirred as though to say a man-down Byakuya was the only kind they'd contemplate fighting, and Kenpachi waved his sword at them.
"Try it, assholes! I'll tear you apart. He's mine to fight!"
Sickening shame seeped into the Kuchiki heir's stomach. Imagine having a fool like that claim him as though he was some kind of commodity. Nauseating.
The crowd had dispersed, but Kenpachi's little sidekick had lingered for just a moment.
"You get well soon, okay Byakushi?" Yachiru's eyes were scrunched up in one big happy mother of a grin. "You can play with Ken-chan again!"
What the hell was wrong with these people?
"Oho, it's little Byakuya!"
Snapping out of his trance, Byakuya turned to face the present. Yoruichi, the Shihouin princess, was slowing to a walk as she ran out of the building.
"What's the meaning of this, little Byakuya? Why throw a rock at my window? Did you want my attention so badly? You only need to ask…"
And she dragged him into herself, her breasts shoved up against his cheeks and her face nose deep in his bloody, sweaty hair. In a flash he'd squirmed free, pointing his sword at her.
"What the hell is wrong with you, demon cat! Don't think you know me well enough to smell my hair! And more importantly, what's with 'little Byakuya'! How insulting!"
Yoruichi exhaled and crouched felinely on her haunches. "More insulting than 'demon cat'? Why can't you just call me sempai?"
"It seems like everyone wants my respect today."
Her ears pricked (really! What a cat. What a no-good demon cat) and she stood in a graceful motion.
"Who else asked for your respect?"
"Zaraki Kenpachi."
"I guess he lived to regret it, huh?" her eyes appraised his injuries. Byakuya swallowed hard. No way would he be the one to enlighten her.
"Tch. I'm going home."
Yoruichi watched him walk awhile, and then remembered something.
"Hey, little Byakuya! Who's going to pay for the broken window~!"
000
The topic of greatest interest the next day at school came as no surprise to Byakuya. No one had quite what it took to discuss the Kuchiki's defeat in his presence, but Byakuya got the impression that everyone was satisfied to see him taken down a peg.
He bore it all stoically and hoped Yoruichi would somehow not find out.
Pah-huh.
(That means 'wishful thinking, sweetheart'.)
Urahara Kisuke smiled at Yoruichi as he took his seat next to her.
"Hey, Shihouin-hime. You've got competition. I hear there's a new princess in the freshman year."
No way. Byakuya? Defeated? Humiliated? Called a princess in public? Who is this Kenpachi kid! Let's meet him at lunch, Kisuke. Let's see what he's like.
Kisuke smiled again, because she'd only recently dropped the honorific from his name. They'd only just gotten so close.
Such. Good. Friends.
"Ne, Shihouin-san! Do you know anything about this broken window?"
Her face was perfectly straight as she replied, "Not a clue, sensei!"
At lunch Kenpachi appeared to be eating alone when Kisuke and Yoruichi approached him.
"Hey, Zaraki-kun. Eating alone?"
Yachiru's sweet face popped out from his other side to beam at them. "Ken-chan's never alone! Yachiru is always there for him. Hey," she added to Yoruichi, "You're hime-nee!"
"What a cute child," Kisuke said.
Kenpachi studied him a bit. "She's stronger than she looks. Just like you. Perhaps we should fight sometime, sempai?"
Kisuke chuckled as he took a seat. "Ah, Zaraki-kun, I don't like fighting much. The princess here could be persuaded, I think."
Kenpachi studied her a bit too. She was hugging Yachiru already, chatting as though with a long-lost sister.
"You're so cute, Yachiru-chan!"
"Ha-ha, really? You're cute too, hime-nee!"
The dark haired male's eyes widened as he took in how much reiatsu she was suppressing. A snarling grin curled his lips. "Yes," he said to Kisuke, "I'd like to persuade her, very much."
000
Kuchiki Byakuya did not like Ichimaru Gin. He did not like him even a little bit. So what was Gin doing, calling him Byakuya-kun as though they were friends and not the loathing rivals they would be if Gin was any kind of competition for him?
"Byakuya-kun, did you hear? Shihouin-hime will be fighting Zaraki-sempai after school!"
The stupidest of thoughts flitted across his head: for me? She's fighting him to punish him for defeating me?
Sense made itself seen when he considered how much more likely it was that Zaraki Kenpachi had simply been looking for a new opponent and had found Yoruichi. Byakuya shook himself. As if the demon cat girl would involve herself in a fight for his honor.
(As if he would accept honor that had been restored by her.)
Gin's immortal grin cranked up a notch. "Gonna watch, Byakuya-kun?"
"Don't call me by my first name."
"Ah, you are so cruel, Byakuya-kun…"
He held himself well through the rest of the lessons, and before he knew it classes had ended for the day and he was lining up the rest of the commoners to watch his demon cat battle his humiliation.
Famous for her shunpo, the princess used none of it. She met his blade with her own, all riled up reiatsu and pleased eyes. They were enjoying themselves, and Byakuya could tell. He made his easy way to the front of the crowd, his eyes narrowed. Neither of them was fighting at full strength, but the blows they struck each other now would've incapacitated most of the other students.
Byakuya held back from calling out Yoruichi's name. Once she glanced his way but Kenpachi took such thorough advantage of it she nearly lost a limb; she kept her eyes on her opponent from there on. They danced across the field until a teacher came running, waving the released form of his soul cutter to break up the fight. Impertinent Yoruichi headed straight for Byakuya (Kenpachi and Yachiru hot on her heels), scooped him up and flashed off.
"Demon cat," Byakuya said levelly to her as the wind whistled through his hair, "Just what do you think you are doing to whom?"
"I think she thinks she's saving your ass," Kenpachi opined, and Byakuya shot him a dirty look.
"Why is he here!"
"He's strong," Yoruichi admitted, "You're very strong, Zaraki-kun."
"Thanks. You're strong too—I had a great time."
"Three days. Give me three days and I'll make Byakuya stronger than you."
Yachiru sat up on Kenpachi's head and squealed, "So that they can play again? Yay, hime-nee!"
Byakuya stared.
Yoruichi continued to address Kenpachi, who was all riveted attention.
"You and I have one thing in common. We both want Byakuya to address us with respect. But he's so proud I think it'd kill him to call both of us 'sempai'. So here's how we decide: if in three days' time I can train him to defeat you, I will have earned his respect and he will call me sempai. If, however, you can defeat him, you get the honor and I'm stuck as the demon cat. Hmm? What do you think?"
Kenpachi grinned, spat on his hand, and stuck it out for her to shake. "It's a deal, sempai."
Yoruichi grabbed his hand unflinchingly and shook. Byakuya's stomach turned somersaults.
Euch, Zaraki-germs.
000
"Byakuya—"
"Demon cat, if you think for one second that I'm going to go along with this, you're insane!"
"Do you know why he wants you to call him sempai?"
He glared at her over ten solid feet of green grass. They were in one of the lush meadows in the Eastern Rukongai. Yoruichi was contemplating him in all seriousness, but Byakuya wasn't impressed.
"Because he wants a noble to acknowledge his miserable existence, or something equally mundane."
"Um." The princess blinked. "That's correct. Although I was expecting you to ask me why so that I could put it in a better way."
"He's a mongrel! And you're—"
"Am I correct in understanding, little Byakuya, that you don't want to release your bankai? That's what I'd planned to teach you in order to overcome him. Whew! He is a monster, isn't he?"
The young master was not about to be thrown off balance by any statement she made. He crossed his arms and scoffed, "Don't be such a fool. It takes years to perfect the second release of a zanpakutou. Even I can't achieve such a thing in such little time."
She smiled at him, feminine wiles glinting off her sharp white teeth and delicate, royal chin.
"Of course. But I have a short cut."
When someone tells you that they will make you five to ten times stronger than you are now in three days flat, that person is usually batshit bananas. When Yoruichi told Byakuya she'd get him to release his bankai in three days, she was showing an enormous amount of faith not in her ability to teach, but in his ability to learn.
And all the while, the little groove their bond formed in Byakuya's life grew deeper.
"I've been selected as Captain," she said nonchalantly on the second evening, "Executive militia leader. Second division's mine. It's gonna be great, Kisuke's joining up too."
"Why would I care about this?" he asked. They were in his house, eating dinner. The Kuchiki servants stood by demurely, waiting to be called and creeping Yoruichi out.
"Now you can look up to me even after you join Gotei 13. I'll be a shining example for you to follow. And can you please have your servants act slightly normal? They're just…standing there. Looking as if they're just about refraining from going for my neck."
"Hah," he snorted in reply to her first comment, "And no, Kuchiki workers are elite, trained to be the best. You should ask your second class staff to take after mine."
"My staff isn't second class," Yoruichi said, "They're just not freaks."
"Tch. Congratulations, on becoming captain."
"Not yet," she smiled at him. "I'm going to take my time and enjoy life before signing up. I think I can squeeze in at least a year's worth of classes more."
"I intend to graduate as soon as possible," Byakuya said devoutly, "I can't wait to command my own division."
It was the most civil, honest conversation they'd had and it was giving them the heebie jeebies. Byakuya was profoundly grateful for Yoruichi's next comment.
"Horror! I think I saw one of your serving girls blink! She must be defective!"
It gave him reason to threaten her with his chopsticks. "Demon cat, just be glad I let you sit at the table instead of setting you out on the porch with a bowl of milk!"
And then it was back to the training grounds.
000
Kenpachi clashed against Byakuya with a roar of delight.
"Hey, princess! You've gotten strong, I hope!"
"Let me show you," Byakuya's voice was satin wrapped around a sharp knife, "Just how strong I've gotten."
Kenpachi waited. Calculating. Underestimating.
"Scatter." The young master smiled. "Senbonzakura."
Blood blossomed on Kenpachi as Byakuya's sword disappeared; the gathered crowd gasped in awe of the first-year boy's skill. Yoruichi was part of the mad cheers that broke out—not because they liked Byakuya or disliked Kenpachi, but because this was so damn cool. When everything was cleaned up and the anger of authority was averted, it wound up being Yachiru, Yoruichi, Byakuya and Kenpachi.
"Good fight," Zaraki said with a total lack of bad feeling, "That was a good fight! You've given me a reason to train, princess! Thank you."
"That was amazing butt-kicking, Byakushi! Me and Ken-chan will grow very strong and make you bleed just as much~!"
Yoruichi said, "Isn't she cute when she talks of carnage?" and Kenpachi simply grinned.
The Shihouin princess turned to the Kuchiki princess. "By the way, you have an agreement to stick to. Your honor for my respect. Say it, little Byakuya. Say 'I love you, Yoruichi-sempai, you're so beautiful~'!"
Byakuya raised a regal eyebrow. "Strange. I don't remember entering into any such agreement with you…demon cat."
She exploded. "Whaaaaat? This is too cruel, little princess! You were there when I was telling Zaraki-kun!"
"Yes, but I never agreed to it. Don't hold me accountable for your stupidity, cat. I'm going home."
Her cries of unfair and ignoble aristocrats rang loudly in his ear and Yachiru's voice of disapproval added to the din. Only Kenpachi stayed silent, a grin still twisting his lips as he watched the departing princess. At one point where he was quite sure Yoruichi wouldn't see his face clearly, Byakuya turned. Fondness filled his eyes as he surveyed the distant dark figure and said softly:
"Thanks for the training…Yoruichi-sempai."
And she hollered back, "I love you, my little Byakuya-kouhai!"
Upon which he turned tail and ran, cheeks flaming red and tongue cursing cat-ears of doom.
000
Well, yes, it was unfair. Back to the battle at hand. Yoruichi had the unconscious Ichigo over her shoulder, looking down at the kouhai she'd said she loved.
"Three days. Give me three days and I'll make him stronger than you."
His heart thudded, but his face stayed ruthlessly impassive. This was another century, another era, another life. He was Kuchiki-taichou, and she was abetting intruders. Ad he knew exactly what she was going to do with Kurosaki Ichigo in three days.
Shihouin Yoruichi.
(Instant flash!)
She was supposed to be dead. He had mourned her, dammit! He had spent sleepless nights in honor of her memory! He deserved to have her stay dead. She was not supposed to be the enemy, she was not supposed to be alive. What tricks were these?
"Ukitake, do what you want with them. I've lost interest."
If she hadn't died in a hundred years she could've had the courtesy to damn well say so. But no. Not Yoruichi. Stupid woman. Stupid cat. Stupid, unapologetic, mannerless demon cat. Back from the grave to torture him, eh?
Pffft.
Hey, sempai. You suck.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
I like the relationship between Byakuya and Yoruichi the best. It's so unexplored and full of possibilities.
Also I remembered Kenpachi would never have been in the academy anyway. So I've clearly been screwing the pooch on a lot of canon details. My bad.