I DO NOT OWN BLEACH, NOR ANY CANNON CHARACTER; I MAKE NO MONEY FROM THIS. Suzuran is my O.C. She is what became of Yachiru from my fic: Brushing Komomura (but her last name is still Yachiru, and that one of the few things I kept when I developed the "new Yachiru", and threw out the old one). She is about Shinji's age, and I estimate him to be about 300-ish, lives with the Vizard, happens to be Kensei's girlfriend. Her Zanpakuto is Kairei Tsukiakari. Her name means "Lilly of the Valley". ( Which is ironic later on) Oh and to explain the first bit of dialogue it's a two part shout-out to an omake chapter where Isane wakes up from a nightmare and yells "FISH STICKS!" and the second part goes to SpongeBob. Want more back-story on Suzu-chan or her zanpakuto? Why not review the story and ask? Oh and for the purpose of this fic, all Quincy age normally to a certain point, then the slow down, and live to be about 200.
'Thoughts' 'Zanpakuto thoughts' Stressed words
SUZURAN P.O.V.
"Ahh! Tartar sauce!" I awake with a jolt, my body shaking. I put a hand to my flushed head, my breathing and racing heart-beat coming down bit-by-bit. 'Oh it was just a dream, but there's no way I can go back to sleep now.' I look over to Kensei, who is sleeping like the dead. I glare at his snoring form, 'Lucky bastard can sleep through anything.' I shake my head, throwing on a thin kimono over my sleeping yukata, tying the garment with a nearby organza scarf, not wanting to bother with an obi I glance to the closet where my gigai hangs, and, deciding not to use it; I slip on some low-heeled geta and exit our bedroom, using shunpo to get to the roof of the warehouse. I take a deep breath of the cool September air. Sighing once more before unleashing my riatsu and flash-stepping to the tallest structure in Karakura, the bridge.* I reach one of the peaks, stepping down onto the concrete like a cat, and take a deep breath before launching my body off the pillar, head-first and backwards to the midnight colored, freezing, river below. Mere feet before I hit the ice-cold water, I flip my body over, face towards the river, and cruise above the dark shimmering liquid until I hit the outskirts of town, sending trails of water as I go. Once I see the lights of the city behind me, I dash upwards, shunpo-ing to the nearest building; I stand for awhile taking in the city skyline, thinking about the innocent living people who have no clue about hollows, about Soul Society, about zanpakuto, or anything like that. I close my eyes and take out my zanpakuto, and begin the ancient form I was taught long ago. Karei Tsukiakari now almost permanently resides in shikai form, two small bladed fans, one with a black frame, and black covering the other is all white. Both are easily concealed, and to most people, look normal. The white one has a small waning crescent moon charm at the bottom of the frame, and the black, a waxing crescent, each hanging from a cord the opposite color. I start the dance one hand straight up in the air, fan closed, the other fan open at my waist, arm exactly at 90 degrees. I go through the movements which are part dance, part combat art. I finish and once the routine is through; I snap both my fans shut, tucking them into the pockets of my sleeves. I sigh and am about to go back to the warehouse when the sound of clapping comes from behind me. I whirl around to see a man, with snow white hair, glasses and midnight blue eyes walking out of the shadows. He is dressed in all white. Then I notice the pattern of blue crosses on his tie. 'Quincy.'
"That was quite good. I haven't seen a fan-form like that in years." I remain calm, bowing my head,
"Why thank you. I am a bit rusty at it however." I don't notice that I take a step back as he comes forward.
"So, what brings a lady like you up on my hospital at this time of night? I don't remember admitting you as a patient."
'Shit, this cannot be going anywhere good.' His face remains soft, but his eyes are curious, with a dangerous edge in them that tells me he's prepared to fight at the drop of a pin. "I have insomnia sometimes, and I just picked a building to practice on. I did not intend to offend anyone or trespass. I didn't think that people would notice or care considering the fact that it's two in the morning." He cocks one eyebrow, and takes a few steps closer, I move my other foot a step back.
"I see, well I have insomnia as well." I let out the air I didn't know I was holding.
'He seems calm, at least for now.' The mystery man looks out to the river, and takes out a cigarette pack, lighting one up. I let my body relax, while keeping my guard up. He looks back to me, after a few puffs,
"I saw you, you know, on the bridge for a second I thought you were going to commit suicide. I almost went after you too. I didn't want another corpse in my morgue. I am Ishida, Ryuuken by the way." He bows in my direction. I bow back.
"Yachiru, Suzuran."
"I was about to reach the pillar you were standing on, but then I saw how you moved, how fast you were, and then there was that sound you made when you flash-stepped, or should I say, shunpo'd?" Then he was mere inches away from my face, eyes a sea of anger, "And that also explains your delicate, ancient, fan-form, shinigami." I almost flinched as his last word came out as a warning hiss. I took another step back, him following me,
"Look, I didn't know that this hospital belonged to a Quincy, or else I never would have come here to practice!" I took one more step back but this time, instead of cement under my sandal, I felt air instead, losing my balance I tumbled backward, only to have one hand grabbing my own, the other around my waist. I let out a surprised gasp as he pulls me back up. I am about to push him off of me when his angry eyes soften a little, now full of shock instead of rage.
"Wait, You, you said your name is Yachiru Suzuran?" I nod. He looks away, eyes searching in his memory for something, "But that's impossible." He looks back at me, "My grandfather told me you were executed a long time ago." I giggle at his statement.
"What's there to laugh about?"
"I had a staged execution, and in truth I was sealed away all these years, until recently, when I broke the spells Yamamoto put me in." A strange look of shock, horror and happiness came to his face, but only for a mill-second before Ishida was serious once more.
"Do you remember me?" Now it was my turn to be shocked. Looking downwards I thought about his name, and although it sounded very familiar, and he looked like he should be in my memory, I couldn't place him.
"Sorry, I can't seem to remember you." He sighs, and realizes how long he's been holding onto me. A rosy color dusts his cheeks before he lets go of me and turns away.
"You were the first Shinigami my grandfather, Ishida, Soken, ever introduced me to." My mind remembered at that point.
"You're his son?" My voice came out quieter than I wanted. The Quincy turned around.
"Yes." I scan over him. 'It must have been the white hair that caught you off-guard, because those indigo eyes have not changed.'
"I think I remember you now." My voice trails off and I take a step closer to him.
"I was barely twenty when I first met you. You were the only Shinigami who accepted and agreed with my grandfather's plan of how to respond to hollow attacks." My face lights up with remembrance. 'Ishida Soken…yes I remember him. Such a kind spirit. A deadly warrior, but so humble and level-headed. I wonder why his plan was never accepted.' I am snapped out my thoughts by Ryuken's voice, "Do you remember training me?"
"Training you?"
"Yes, you had two sessions where you spared with me." His eyes and features are calm and relaxed now, and tossing his cig onto the roof, he crushes the dying embers with his foot.
"Yes I do remember those. You had a lot of potential back then. Very quick on your feet, so clever in battle, but your downside was your temper. You were so quick to over-react, to lose focus once you were angry." I watch as a flicker of annoyance and insult passes over his face, followed by his normal expression, but a hint of arrogance reaches into those sapphire eyes.
"Would you like to have another try? It's been over a hundred years." I sigh, taking out my zanpakuto, feeling how anxious Karei's riatsu is. 'I want to see how good this guy is. We can totally kick is his ass.' I hush my weapon, focusing on the man in front of me.
"Of course. But tell me," I said eyes closing.
"What?"
"Do you care, that I'm already in Shikai?" My eyes open at that last word. He smirks,
"Not really, but since you are a lady, I will let you make the first move." I smirk right back at him,
"Don't mind if I do." I open the black blade up first, "I remember you having a lot of speed for your age. I want to see if you've gotten any faster, so" I shunpo to his ear, "Come and catch me." We play a harmless game of cat-and-mouse for awhile, jumping from roof-top to roof-top, me being the mouse, firing the occasional hado spell at him, but he fires far more arrows at me, we dodge each other's attack's like a child's game, and when we reach a large rooftop, neither of us are out of breath, not even breaking a sweat.
"Is this all you have for me?"
"No, I just wanted to test you, see if you could handle me." He looks back at me, eyes narrowing.
"Oh?"
"Don't worry you passed." I come straight at him now, both fans open, ready to attack. He fires some arrows at me, but I dodge with grace. I let my white blade slice his coat, barely touching him. I head skywards, flipping over and swan-diving towards him. This time instead of firing another arrow at me, he puts away his bow and takes out what seems to be a flat piece of metal, with a hole on one end; holding the metal thing straight up at me. "Shit!" I try and dodge the long, blue blade of riatsu that spurts from the plain-looking steel. Although I have no wounds to speak of, where the blade touched me, I feel pain, and 'wait a second, did he just steal some of my spiritual energy? That's not good.' I must have had a look of shock on my face, because the Quincy smirked once more,
"Do you understand what I just did to you?"
"Sort of. Thanks to my Shikai, I can phase by body through anything, including spiritual pressure, but for some reason I feel the pain from where your blade managed to somehow touch me. I also think that that sword of yours, seeing as how it's made of spirit energy, just stole some of mine." He smiles at me.
"Very good, although I expect nothing less from a captain." I snort at his comment, "What?" He asks,
"Not a captain anymore, just an exile now." He snorts back and walks towards me, blade downwards,
"Anyway, you were wrong on one thing."
"Oh? What would that be?"
" Seele Schneider isn't a sword; Quincy only fight using bows and arrows." My eyes widen as he summons his bow once more, and this time brings both hands to fire it, using Seele as a gigantic arrow. He fires it, and I react with enough time to slip into the building below.
RYUUKEN P.O.V.
'Shit. I forgot how fast she was. Damn that Shikai of hers being able to slip through anything.' I sigh, and put away my bow, Seele Schneider in my hand, un-activated. I call out to her
"Oi, come out. I put away my bow, and I'll use my "sword" from now on. Come out and fight." I feel her riatsu behind me. She has both fans opened, hanging at her sides.
"I don't normally trust a Quincy, but I'll believe you for tonight." She runs right at me, flinging her white fan right at my face, and I get distracted by it, and before I can react, she is behind me, her black fan at my throat. I can feel the razor-sharp edge of her blade resting on my flesh. I can feel her spirit sinking into my being, her hand phasing into the one that holds Seele. "Hope I'm not too rough with you Ishida-san." I gasp as her whole body immerses into my own. I fight her strong spirit as it begins to take over my actions, muscles and spiritual pressure.
"Stop it! Get out of my head!"
"Aw, now why would I do that?" She says as her head sticks out of my chest. I widen my eyes at seeing her come out of my torso. I try to grab at her hair, but she laughs as my hand breezes through her body. "Silly Quincy; I told you that I can phase through anything! You're not going to get me out that way." She dives back into me, trying her damndest to take over my physical functions; I squint my eyes shut. I resist as best as I can until a weak voice calls out to me,
"F-father…" My eyes blast open. I see Uryu at my feet, bleeding like crazy. A hole in the center of his chest, once bright indigo eyes dulled, clouding with impending death, "Father, I failed, I disobeyed you, I'm sorry."
"Uryu…"
"Please forgive me." He started slipping away as I run over to him. His eyes started to close; the blood, a deep almost maroon color, pours everywhere. I use all my medical training, trying helplessly to plug the deep hole in my son's chest. I disregard the fight I'm in and flash-step over to my Hospital. I burst through the doors.
"Nurse! Get a room and I.V. running! 3 Kilos of blood, type AB stat!" I call out more orders only to slowly realize my hospital is empty. "No, there is always somebody here on night shift; this can't be real." I fall to my knees as Uryu slips away in my arms. I look down at him, blood running all over my suit and my hands. My eyes stare into his cloudy ones, and my gaze drifts down to his once pristine white Quincy uniform, now the one of the darkest shades of crimson. In his last few breathes, his deadened eyes looking into my own,
"Father, I-I never got-to tell you, I l-love y-you." And then he was gone. I let loose a scream that rivaled that of Menos Grande. I clutch my dead son to me. Even as the blood still flows, he grows cold, limp for now.
"Uryu, I love you as well. I never got to tell you. I am sorry for that." I revel in sheer irony of the fact that my only son died in the foyer of my hospital, the place I let take me away from him, has now taken him away from me. 'I, I really am alone now. I knew I should have been accepting of his Quincy ways instead of pushing and fighting all the time.' I collapse into despair crying, and then I feel it. 'My riatsu, it's…lower? That isn't right, oh shit…' I remember the fight I am currently in, and I realize my only option as I feel the spiritual pressure slip out of me.
"Get out of my body! Leave me alone to mourn my son!" I hear a light, yet extraordinarily dark giggle inside my head.
"Oh Ishida, you are so silly!" The Suzuran erupts into evil, insane laughter. I use all the training, powers, and remaining riatsu I have left to push her out. She laughs harder, my riatsu draining at rapid rate.
'Well that won't work. Wait Seele Schneider, it, hurts her, drains her riatsu and I don't think she has enough control to hear my thoughts yet, all I have to do is go outside, gather enough spirit energy to…' She has stopped laughing now and asks me,
"What are youplanning?" I smirk and rise to my feet, trying not to look at my dead son, rigor mortis now setting in.
"Why would I tell you that?" I have enough riatsu left to hirenkyaku to the roof and pull out Seele Schneider, Using what is left of my energy and the air of Karakura to make the long blade appear once more. I turn the handle of the chain-saw like blade toward me, the point of it dangerously close to my body. I feel a rush of surprise and anger in my body that doesn't belong to me,
"You wouldn't dare kill yourself just to beat me. You aren't that stupid." I take soul-cutter and place parallel to my body, so close I can feel the spirit of the blade vibrating against my spirit, as well as hers.
"Or am I?" I respond back, "My son is gone; my worst fears have come true. I've distanced myself to the point that it was that distance that killed him, killed me, and killed us. What left is there to live for other than useless money, if no-one is there to inherit it all?" The shinigami chuckled first, and then sighed, finally exiting my body through my back. I fall to my knees, exhausted. I struggle to my feet, body racking in miniature convulsions, my breath suddenly unsteady, gasping in and out of me in a ragged pace. I turn to face her. There is not a hair out of place, and she seems better than when we first started. Any trace of wounds, gone. She stands a few yards away, smug grin in place, arms folded, eyes closed. She picks-up her white fan, the one she used to distract me, and closes it, along with her black fan, tucking both weapons into her scarf-obi. Her emerald eyes open.
"Your son is not dead."
"But I felt him die in my own arms! You laughed at my misfortune!" She squints at me, a flicker of anger on her features.
"Listen to me!" She yells, and her riatsu flares at the same time. I shut up, and listen, if only for the sake of not having her go into shikai once again.
"Come, Ishida." She walks to the ledge of the roof, and jumps off, landing with a grace and elegance I have never seen, and if it weren't for the fact that I was still in the middle of a battle, my jaw would've hit the ground, however; I comply with the chestnut-haired soul reaper and jump as well, my drained body not landing as gracefully as she. She glances at me and she uses shunpo to enter my hospital, standing right next to my dead son. I feel rage at her actions,
"Have you come here to mock me again?" She gives another sigh,
"Just watch." She takes her fans out and lays them together in one hand, swinging them up and across her body, and when the lightning-quick motion stops, she is holding the unreleased state of her weapon, which takes the form of a normal katana, except the tsuba, which the shape of a circle, and has two crescent moons carved onto it, facing one another, a star carving in the middle, with an indigo wrapping around the hilt. "Now look down." I do as she says, and my son's corpse is fading away into little black shadows that in turn fade away into the night. I look at her, my rage now almost uncontrollable. But before I can do or say anything, she explains,
"Your son is not dead. What you saw, or rather, what I made you see is your worst and deepest fear come to reality, and now that I have put Kairei Tsukiakari back into his sealed state, the illusion vanishes. It's the other special ability of my shikai. Whenever I enter another persons' body in released state; I can make them see their worst fears and nightmares, giving me full control of them, as well as draining their riatsu. The illusion ends, however, if I put Kairei back into his sealed state, every trace of that nightmare ends." I sigh, all traces of my previous wrath having left me. I put a small smirk back onto my face,
"So, I guess this means you win." She doesn't smirk back, but instead gives me a genuine smile,
"Yeah, I guess it does." We both look at each other. I speak first,
"Do you think we can fall asleep now?" I am half-serious, half-sarcastic when I say that. She chuckles, and bows her head slightly,
"I think so. Goodnight, Ishida-san." She turns to leave and I call after her,
"Goodnight, Yachiru-san. And please, you may call me Ryuken." She turns her head, and even in the faint light of the approaching grey dawn-light, I can see a faint blush on her cheeks.
"Okay then, you may call me Suzuran. Good-bye, Ryuken."
"Goodbye Suzuran." I flash-step to my home, and fall onto my bed, exhausted.
MEANWHILE AT THE VIZARD WAREHOUSE
SUZURAN POV
I climb into bed, placing my zanpakuto right next to me. Kensei is still snoring, deep into sleep. I fall into the same pattern within minutes, dreaming about the good spar I had with Ryuken.
A FEW HOURS LATER
"Oi, get up, it's almost noon." A deep voice, and familiar riatsu startle me from sleep.
"What, Kensei, what time is it?" My voice was still laced with sleep, my speech slurred.
"I told you woman, it's almost noon. Get up, lunch is ready." I rise from the bed into a sitting position, and blink away the sleep, Kensei's muscled figure coming into focus. I can see is golden eyes, with annoyance written all over them. His arms are crossed over a tight chest, and he speaks once more, "And please explain why you have Quincy riatsu all over you and your clothes."
'Well shit.' I thought, forgetting about how perceptive Kensei can be.
"Well, I had a spar with one last night."
"Oh really?" His pierced eyebrow rises, questioning me. I rise from the bed, and begin to get dressed.
"Yes. You know I have insomnia sometimes. I went out to practice and run, and I landed on building owned by a Quincy then we spared."
"Uh huh." Kensei still doesn't believe me, but puts down the argument, "I'll be downstairs."
"Okay." I toss back. I put a smile on my face, thinking about the next time I have insomnia.