"It's shameful" Ukitake muttered as he watched Matsumoto tug on her captain's robes begging for a piggyback ride
What is?" Shunsui asked not bothering to look up from the scroll he was pretending to read "
"You know what I'm talking about," Utikake snapped as he watched the huge breast engulf the tiny captain from behind. "It's shameful; absolutely disgraceful. A captain should be treated with more respect."
"Like how you buy him candy and toys?"
"Exactly, wait no, you know what I mean" Ukitake stammered. "She's his subordinate. How can she treat him so frivolously? It like she doesn't even take him seriously."
"She takes him seriously alright. That's why she does it."
"That makes no sense"
"It's like you and your candy. Being a captain's a hard job. She's seen many a man buckle under the pressure that why she does it, to help him relax."
"Relax, that seems to stress him more than anything. Look at how he's scowling and yelling at her. Most people would bow and apologize, but no, what does she do. She stoops down and offers to carry him. Totally unprofessional. How can he rely on someone like that?"
A faint rustle of papers reminded them that Nanao was still in the room.
"I'm sorry Ise-fukutaichou," Ukitake apologized, "that was rude of me. But when I see that it bothers me. She is utterly unsuited to be his vice-captain."
"You're wrong!" she fumed barely able to control her anger.
"What do you mean?"
"You're wrong about her!" Nanao yelled forgetting her place.
"It's okay Nanao-chan," Shunsui said quickly rushing to her side and draping a protective arm around her shoulders. "I'll explain. Please take a moment to compose yourself. Place a high level barrier around the room on your way out. I wouldn't want my lovely Nanao-chan to get frown lines and wrinkles from being so upset" he added before kissing her forehead and ushering her out of the door.
Ukitake watched in amazement as Nanao meekly allowed her captain to hug and kiss her "What is going on around here? First Matsumoto now Ise-chan? I tell you that woman is a bad influence"
"Here" Shunsui said as he unceremoniously dropped a sake jug and cup in front of his friend.
"You know I don't drink." Ukitake said pushing the liquor away.
"You will" Shunsui sighed before continuing. "You know how most captains have seen the logs of their vice-captain lives in the living world and how they died. Hitsugaya's never seen hers. He knows that she lived in a brothel, but he doesn't know how she died. Hell he doesn't even know how he died"
"What do you mean hasn't seen it?"
"He's seen what we've concocted. He could never know the truth about her. It may trigger some memories that are better left forgotten."
"What do you mean memories better left forgotten? He's so young he can't have any regrets…. No, you can't mean?" Ukitake paled as the realization dawned on him
"That's right. She's the one who brought him here."
"Do you know what that means? She shouldn't even be in the same district as him, much less the same division. What if he remembers and blames her? He could turn into a hollow and we'd all be done for? "
"That's why he can never see her life"
"But she died before they met, what differences does that make?
"You're really making this difficult you know."
"What do you mean making this difficult?"
"Don't you have eyes? Look at them. Both are half foreign…"
"So they are related?"
"No, you imbecile. They were both killed by their mothers!" Shunsui shouted. "Their mothers killed them because of their looks. Japan wasn't always such an open-minded placed. Even now there are a few incidents, but those are nothing compared to what they had to go through."
"Their mothers? My God, how could any woman do that to their child? Just because they look different? Couldn't they have hidden them away?" Ukitake questioned as he shakily poured himself a bowl of sake.
"They did," Shunsui said before beginning Matsumoto's story, "Her mother was a high ranking oiran, more like a geisha than a prostitute. One of the most sought after in her day. She was hired by the emperor to entertain the Dutch traders. No one expected she would give birth to a mixed child, but she had high ranking clientele and brought in so much money that the brothel owner gave her a certain amount of leniency.
When she mother gave birth she allowed her attendants to only spread the word that the child was a girl. Many of them were whores that were too old work in any other capacity or children unfortunate enough to be beautiful in an ugly world. She treated them kindly so they were all too glad to help with her deception. Whenever she took Matsumoto out she was fully wrapped from head to toe. Occasionally she had to prove that she did indeed bear a girl and not give birth to a son, but it was easy to expose only the necessary parts and hid her eyes and hair. She told them she kept her hidden away to ensure she had soft fair skin. The owner was pleased. What better way to keep the establishment going a few more years than if the Tsukihime had a daughter to follow in her footsteps?
Her mother was shrewd. She'd been teaching Matsumoto to sing and dance almost from birth. She was three when she was finally presented to the world. Tsukihime planned it to perfection. She was entertaining a group of high ranked nobles. One of whose sons had recently been diagnosed with an illness and another whose son died in battle. She sang song about a nightingale whose child had been chosen to sing for the emperor. The mother was proud of the accomplishment but at the same time sad she was losing her child. She began the song alone then a small voice chimed in behind her. She began the dance, then a small figure began to shadow her. Then the dances changed. Hers became more mournful as the child's picked up tempo. She faded into the background letting her dance alone. Then it changed again the child's dance became mournful as it searched for its mother never finding her. Tsukihime then returned as the mother bird just in time to see her child once more before they both died of sadness.
The audience was so moved by the performance and its theme they didn't care if the child was half foreign or half demon. They accepted Tsukihime's claim that the gods had blessed her with a child with hair like sunshine and eyes like the sky. Matsumoto soon became a pet and was spoiled by everyone for the first 10 years of her life.
"What do you mean for the first 10 years? What happened after that?" Ukitake asked anxiously.
"The same thing that happens to all little girls; they grow up. You've seen her, um," Shunsui paused to find an appropriate word, "assets. How many Japanese girls have you seen that endowed? Any girl growing up in a brothel would eventually reach the age when she would have to earn her keep in a capacity other than an attendant or errand girl. Her mother knew that and had been saving money hoping she could buy her child's virginity or at least set her up to be the mistress of some nobleman. She wasn't expecting the foreign blood to manifest itself in other ways.
They were the same height by the time Matsumoto was nine. By the time she was ten she was taller and her feminine aspects began to show. She'd surpassed her mother's proportions before her eleventh birthday. Her mother had been able to postpone her "debut" into the service area of the floating world by allowing the owner to check her once a week to prove she was still a child. She'd seen other girls who were deflowered too early and how it ruined their health and beauty so she played upon the owner's greed telling him a ripe plum will attract more flies than a green one.
For the most part it worked. There were a few guys who tried to press their luck and offered ridiculous sums, but not so much that the promise of more money later didn't preserve her chastity for a bit longer. Word soon spread about the untouched flower and the brothel became even more famous as more and more men clamored to see her and try their luck. On her twelfth birthday they threw an elaborate party. Both she and her mother performed. No one was expecting the shogun's nephew to offer her two chests of gold coins as a present if he could introduce her to the world womanly pleasures.
"She was just a child."
"That's the same thing her mother said, but the gold was too much to refuse. Can you imagine being told to prepare your own child to be raped? Her mother drugged her and gave her sake before taking her to the baths. She hugged her tightly and apologized before pushing her under the water. After it was done she carried her to room and dressed her before killing herself.
"That poor woman. No wonder Nanao defended her so staunchly. Wasn't she…?"
"Yes, but that's not why."
"Matsumoto was still in my division when she found Hitsugaya. It was just after the Pacific War. His mother was one of the lucky women who didn't have to turn to prostitution to support herself. She had married into a wealthy family that produced soap. Soap makers were harmless and it was a commodity that everyone needed so they didn't suffer as bad as others in spite of the fact their son had enlisted in the Japanese army. The army records said he had died in an explosion on the way to his first mission. He never got the chance to take an American life so the family was able to so some business with the occupying forces. His mother was raped on the way to the temple to make an offering for their good fortunes.
Shunsui watched as his friend poured himself another cup of sake.
Her pregnancy was not welcome. She was looked down by everyone around her. Soon people began to talk that soap wasn't the only thing the family was selling to the Americans and so they lost status. It was only natural that when the child came she took her frustrations out on him. Two years later her husband came home. The army records were wrong. He'd been held in a Philippine labor camp and hated any and all things American. Coming home to a half-breed child born to a virgin bride he'd left a week after marriage was not what he expected. He begin drank excessively and the family fell farther into ruin. Hitsugaya soon became the symbol of all that was wrong in their life.
Shunsui took a large swig of liquor before continuing. "She found him the garbage heap. Animals were fighting over his corpse. There were scars and bruises and broken bones all over his tiny body. The hollows came soon after. She was too sick to notice that his soul still lingered nearby. She has a scar on the back of her neck and another at her scalp line from diving in to shield him from the attack."
"She didn't perform the soul burial as she should. She tucked him inside her uniform knowing anything on a shinigami's person would remain on with when they returned. She didn't report back in from her mission. Someone noticed the blood in the hallway and reported it to Nanao. She followed the trail to her room then came and got me."
"I have never seen anything like it. He was so tiny and frail. She didn't even bother to stop her own bleeding; all of her attention was on him. She begged me to let her keep him. When I refused, she begged me to kill her - to kill them both so they could be reborn together or to kill her now and put him in a safe place until she was old enough to become his mother. Can you imagine someone who'd just become a seated officer begging to die and start all over? I thought she was exaggerating."
"Jyoushiro, in all my thousand years I have never seen anything so so so…" Shunsui shuddered as the memory overtook him. "The dogs had eaten their fill. The rats… It was… There are no words. It surpassed Sekigahara."
This time Ukitake skipped the cup and drank from jug directly.
"I didn't know Nanao had followed me. Do you know what she said?"
"I'll kill her. Give me the child. I'll go wait in district 80 then we can send him on. No, don't do that. You may be implicated. I'll kill her and then kill myself. No one will blame you if I do it. Please save that child. I beg you please."
"She was offering to kill her best friend and fellow seated officer, but she thinks of me in the process. God I love that woman."
"So what did you do?" Ukitake asked, "Obviously Matsumoto and Hitsugaya are still in Soul Society"
"I gave Matsumoto a week off while I searched for the person to raise him. She stayed confined in her room the entire time. It actually took 4 days since you, Nanao, and Kaien were helping me"
"Wait a minute what do you mean Kaien and I helped you? You involved me in something illegal and didn't even tell me?"
"I didn't know how you would react. Come on now, you really didn't think I'd take a bet I'd made with Isshin-dono seriously enough to go to the library? I was looking for the woman who once called herself Tsukihime"
"Wait, didn't you say that Matsumoto's mother's stage name?"
"You catch on fast my friend. They are indeed one and the same."
"You can't mean the old crone…?"
"That raised Hitsugaya and Momo-chan is Matsumoto's mother. Absolutely. She told all of her attendants to leave and then set the room on fire. That way if she ever saw her child in the afterlife she wouldn't be recognized as the mother who killed her."
"That's awful"
"What's really sad is Matsumoto wants to see her. She didn't remember anything about herself when she arrived only waking up cold, but she does remember it being warm and feeling a sense of tranquility as she died. She remembered the rest over time. She wants to tell her that she forgives her, but her mother is too ashamed to accept that forgiveness. She still hasn't forgiven herself so she takes in all those stray children and gives them a good home."
"So Hitsugaya?"
"Thinks he died of influenza and Matsumoto died in a fire."
"Amazing truly amazing. I would have never known. Matsumoto really is devoted. All this time I've been misjudging her. Please offer Ise-chan my apologies. I need to go lay down after hearing all that." Ukitake sighed as he raised himself from the floor.
"I'll walk you back" Shunsui offered, but Ukitake politely declined.
"Ok, but don't say I didn't warn you. Your little helpers will be all over you when they see that sake flush. Can you imagine having to explain your drunken state to Retsu-chan? Or what she'll do to get the liquor out of your system? I don't even want to think what that woman will do to me for giving you alcohol. If I'm with you they'll stay away and Retsu-chan will never know."
Shunsui smiled as Ukitake accepted the escort before leaving the 8th division office.
They were at the edge of the courtyard when Nanao caught up to them "Ukitake-taichou please forgive me. I overstepped my bounds."
"No, no need apologize. I shouldn't have said those things. Your captain is lucky to have someone as loyal as you by his side. Thank you for watching over him. Please continue to do so and keep him out of trouble."
"Thank you sir."
Their walk continued peacefully until they reached the 10th Division where the sounds of Hitsugaya and Matsumoto's afternoon routine drifted to their ears.
"Get up you lazy bum"
"But taichou the dream was just getting good"
"That's why I woke you. You're drooling on my couch"
"But it's so comfortable."
If you want sleep go to bed
"Aye aye taichou"
"Dammit Matsumoto get back in here!"
This time Ukitake grinned at the lively exchange, "He really is lucky isn't he?"
"More so than anyone knows"
As they moved closer to the 13th Division the voices of another unlikely pair drifted their way.
"That way Ken-chan"
"We just came from that way"
"But it's really over there this time."
"You better be right brat"
"Bald-eee, here we come"
"That's another lucky one." Shunsui chucked as the large man followed the directions of his pink haired navigator.
Ukitake smiled mysteriously before answering, "I guess you're right . . . in some respects"
Shunsui frowned and raised his eyebrows questioningly at his friend's cryptic response.
"Not me, Kaien." Ukitake answered the unspoken question. "Come now Shun-Shun. You really don't think you're the only one who's ever indulged a subordinate and ended up changing the fabric of Soul Society?"
"You didn't? Yachiru?"
"Of course not, she was born here."
"What do you mean born here? That would make her nobility." Shunsui stopped as the implications hit him before whispering one word "Kenpachi"
"Next time old friend. I'm afraid I really must lie down"
Author's Notes
Tsukihime – Moon Princess
Floating World – Another name for the red light district
Pacific War – Japan's name for World War II
Sekigahara – Bloody battle in the 1600's that established the Tokugawa Shogunate