Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I make absolutely no profit from this. I do own Kyoko, so please ask to use her.
A/N: I really, really wanted to do this story, but I couldn't think of how to do it. The idea for the beginning of this came to me while I was trying to take a shower. Funny how my best ideas come to me when I can't write them down. Anyway, I hope you like this.
Pink petals drifted, twirled and danced in the air around Retsu Unohana. For once, the pink petals weren't tied to an attack on a hollow, this time Retsu was in Karakura, and she was just admiring the beauty of spring.
She always took the same week off for her yearly vacation, if the workload allowed it. There were things, a certain person, tied to the dates of that week that she needed to be alone for. While these days, she could remain calm, she couldn't focus on work very well within the time span. So, instead, she chose to wait out the week in Karakura.
She caught a cherry blossom petal between her fingers, rubbing her thumb along the silky surface. After studying it that way for a few moments, she brought it to her nose. The sweet, yet not overpowering scent washed over her.
The wind gusted past her once, knocking the petal from her soft grip, and on the wind... was someone crying? Retsu usually wasn't one to pry, but she couldn't stand to know someone was hurting. Following the sound of soft sobs and sniffles, she ended in an alley. A bare foot, small enough to be a child's, stuck out from behind a dumpster.
"Are you alright?" Retsu asked softly, leaning down to peer into the small space. She couldn't see very well, it was too dark behind the dumpster. "Please come out here, I won't hurt you." She extended her hand, hoping the child would take it.
A whimper was her only answer. Retsu's heart was breaking with just that one little sound.
"Do you need help finding your parents?" Retsu tried again. Silence bit into her heart like a deerfly biting into her arm.
Slowly, the child crawled out from behind the dumpster. Her long, dark hair was tangled and matted with mud, and while her blue eyes were intelligent, they were also wary. She was covered in bruises; every inch of skin that Retsu could see was covered with deep, angry bruises.
The girl was wearing a muddied, ripped and overall worn out arrancar outfit, with no shoes. She likely didn't stand any taller than 4'7", and she was emaciated.
Right then though, nothing mattered to Retsu. Because she recognized that face.
That girl, that emaciated, abused, meek little girl was Kyoko Unohana. Retsu's daughter.
"Hi sweetheart..." Retsu whispered. She wanted to cry. She might be calm on a battlefield, but this was a whole other story. "Let's take you somewhere and get you cleaned up, alright?"
Kyoko reached up, touching Retsu's long braid. Retsu could remember Kyoko when she was two, the last year that she had her, wanting to hide in her hair, hold onto Retsu's hair and occasionally chew on the strands. Retsu seriously doubted that Kyoko could remember any of that, but the action was enough to make a lump rise in her throat.
"I don't think you remember me..." Retsu whispered. "But I'm your Mother. I don't know what they told you where you were, but your name is Kyoko Unohana. My name is Retsu Unohana." Retsu couldn't help but note the girl's alarmingly low spiritual pressure. She had been born to two soul reapers, her spiritual pressure should've at least been substantial, but Retsu knew it was low enough that had she not been in her gigai, Kyoko would've been unable to even sense her.
Kyoko eyed her for a second, and then nodded briefly. She clearly saw the resemblance too. Retsu took her hand gently and led her out of the alley, then to her nearby hotel.
Retsu took a deep breath as she shut the hotel door behind them. Kyoko was looking at her, but she still hadn't said a word. At this point Retsu couldn't help but wonder if she had been able to pick up language in Hueco Muendo, if she had even still been there for the rest of her formative years.
"Can you speak?" Retsu studied her for a moment. She didn't appear to have any internal bleeding, so just the bruises needed attention, and a few of her fingers looked as if they had been brutally broken.
Kyoko nodded, but still didn't give a verbal answer. Retsu touched her cheek softly, healing the worst facial bruise she had ever seen. It had been the darkest purple, like black raspberries, and in the clear shape of a handprint.
Retsu didn't want to think about what had happened to Kyoko while she was in Hueco Muendo. She knew that Kyoko would have to deal with it eventually, but right now she just wanted to focus on having her back.
"Does anything hurt besides the bruises?" Usually Retsu didn't have to ask, but she wanted Kyoko to feel secure, and that meant including her in the healing.
Kyoko held up her left hand, and Retsu could confirm on sight that both her pinky finger and her ring finger were broken in two or three places each.
"Why didn't you come and find me?" A small voice jolted Retsu out of her trance. "Why did you leave me there with those horrible people? If you're my Mother, why didn't you care?" There were tears in Kyoko's eyes. "Real Mothers would die for their children, wouldn't they?"
Retsu choked back the tears. That definitely wasn't the first thing she wanted to hear from her daughter's lips. "How much do you know about Soul society?" She asked, holding the fingers in her palm to heal them.
Kyoko just shook her head.
"Well, there's a whole society of Soul reapers... And we work to get rid of hollows and save good souls." Retsu flinched at the cracking sound one of Kyoko's fingers made as it popped into place, but the sound – or pain- didn't bother Kyoko a bit. "And we tried to get you back for months after you were kidnapped, but every time we couldn't find your spiritual pressure. Finally, my boss said we had to quit trying to find you because it was evident that they had killed you." Retsu tapped the back of Kyoko's hand. "Can you flex your fingers for me?"
Instead of flexing her fingers, Kyoko pulled her sleeves up. Hundreds of small, circular scars dotted her arms. "Szayel gave me shots that lowered my spiritual pressure. He made sure that you wouldn't find me. And he used me for every experiment he could think of. Shouldn't I look older by now? Szayel. I shouldn't bruise so easily. Szayel." Kyoko shook her head. "But that's not the point. Who's my father? Where is he?"
"Your Father..." Retsu went silent for a moment. "He died shortly before your first birthday. He was killed by several arrancar coming at him at once."
Kyoko went silent and flexed her fingers, dropping the hems of her sleeves. "What's my name again?" She asked after a long moment, studying her fingers. The two that had been broken hadn't been healed in a time frame and were a little crooked.
"Kyoko. Meaning mirror... because you looked just like me, even as a baby." Retsu set to work healing some of the other bruises. Some of the ones that weren't as deep she would've left to heal on their own, but she knew that they had to hurt, so she refused to let them heal on their own.
Kyoko studied her Mother's face, nodding a bit. "Everyone in Hueco Muendo called me brat or bitch... except for Hallibel and Coyote..."
Anger flashed through Retsu's mind and she swallowed hard and blinked it away. "What did they call you?" Retsu asked, even though she was sure she didn't want to know.
"Reiko..." Kyoko whispered. "Sometimes just 'baby doll' if we were alone." She swallowed hard, then added, "Szayel would've killed me if they hadn't been there. They kept me from sustaining any real damage..."
Retsu couldn't believe her daughter had emotional ties to arrancar, but in the same vein, she understood. If everyone in soul society had beaten Retsu herself, and two people gave her refuge, she would have emotional ties to them too. So it wasn't fair of her to pass judgment when she hadn't been there.
"Why aren't you in soul society then?" Kyoko looked away as she switched the subject, almost as if she felt guilty. "Did you get kicked out or something?"
"No, this is my yearly vacation." Retsu smiled. "The week of your birthday and the week you were taken away from me are the same, so I always take it off and come here to be alone."
"Do I get to go back with you?" Kyoko whispered. "Because I really don't want to stay here alone."
"Of course you're coming back with me." The older woman smiled. "But... how long were you here alone? And how did you get to Karakura by yourself?"
"Only one night." Kyoko looked around the room. "Coyote dropped me off here because Szayel was planning some big experiment involving me. He said I could probably find somewhere safe."
Retsu kissed her forehead softly. "You're safe now. Why don't you take a bath while I order something for you to eat?" She guided her into the bathroom.
After Kyoko had shut the bathroom door behind herself, Retsu sighed softly. "I'm sorry I didn't save you." She whispered, reaching for the room service menu. "But I'm here now. And this time, I'm not letting you go."
A/N: Holy crow, this is a giant first chapter for me. Reiko means "pretty child" by the way. I hope you liked this and continue to read!