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Esprit de Corps
by
Raining Sky Guy
She was staring at her.
Yoruichi scowled before choosing a patch of grass to sit down. Still glowering at nothing in particular she spat out in an uncharacteristically terse voice, "so? Ya called me here. What the heck d'ya want?"
Because the dark-skinned woman had closed her eyes stubbornly, she entirely missed the way similarly amber eyes softening for an instant in pain or in regret.
"Yoruichi…" The slender female started, unintentionally caressing her name with her once-silk-like voice. Half-Yoruichi's height, the young-looking woman stood with mock-composure, her tight golden kimono hugging her frame and pooling around her waist, leaving a pair of black shorts show beneath it. Her face was marked by thin trails on her cheeks resembling whiskers and her eyes were all swirling gold. Her hair was ink-black and pulled into a braid that fell straight down to her waist. "I must say, I'm surprised you heard me."
The other scoffed, already pissed at being here again, after so many years. "Your voice is inside my head. How could you have thought that? You were giving me a headache, I had no choice."
"I apologize for the troubles," the black-haired female said mildly, as she tried stepping towards her, something akin to hunger lighting up her features. "… How have you been, Yoruichi?"
"…" The icy glare Yoruichi sent her way had her drawing in a pained breath, not quite becoming a gasp. The Shihoin woman felt her upper lip starting to curve in a snarl, but she kept her words tightly reigned in. She hated this place, and the other knew why.
The Zanpakuto's spirit's face faltered for an instant, but it remained unchanged. The inhuman part of her made her able to stand absolutely still despite her unease. Maybe Yoruichi's own upbringing had modeled this—aristocrats needed to be impassive. "I see. I cannot brag about being well myself."
"Great. Now that that's over-" Yoruichi started with mock-enthusiasm, jumping to her feet and clapping her hands. She felt a minuscule pang of guilt at seeing her— the— spirit shrink at her icy gaze.
"That is not why I called you. No… I stopped calling you a long time ago." Here she smiled sadly to herself, her pupil and sclera-less eyes seeming unfocused for the first time since Yoruichi could remember. "I've been begging you. There's no other word for it."
A useless chill ran up the wielder's spine when the memory of her —the— ever prideful blade started melting before her very own eyes. Shoulders slumped the woman was already rejecting her soul. She had vowed. She would not turn back.
"Yoruichi, forgive me but… please acknowledge us."
If the dark-skinned woman wasn't gapping at her —the —Zanpakuto was only because she had frozen. "I-You…what? "
"Yoruichi… I'm…we…" The spirit lowered her head in shame, making a thrum of inappropriateness flush Yoruichi's body. She had never seen her so subdued, so ashamed, so mundane, so…not like her. The spirit did not need to explain why or continue explaining herself. Out of a sudden, the blade woman's appearance shimmered and gave her an almost ghostly appearance.
The miniature woman didn't seem to take notice of her flickering appearance, instead tucking a stray hair behind her ear. Her pretty slender eyebrows rose in pain. "It was not my crime, yet I endured the punishment. I have endured it for centuries now. Yoruichi… if I have to I'll beg at your feet, but please…"
Don't leave me alone.
The special spot on her heart that Yoruichi had thought she had thrown away ached in resonance to the blade-woman's despair. Maybe she had been too harsh on both of them… Why would she need to keep up the vow…?
"Stop it." Yoruichi had wanted to shout angrily but it came out as a broken whisper instead. The raven maiden sighed softly but stopped influencing her. But just when Yoruichi was going to agree with some of the things the other had said…
"She's a dual-wielder!" "She'd be the third-!" "Whoah, I'm so jealous Aniue!" "My daughter, I'm so proud of you." "Amazing, and it suits her so well-" "It resembles your mother's blade. Granted she wielded only one blade…" "Deadlier than death, Shihoin-sama…" "Show us how…" "We need to celebrate this!" "A toast for Yoruichi-dono, for having gained her zanpakuto's name!"
The long-forgotten voices made sudden echoes in her mind and the princess groaned and tried to stop the voices from becoming memories. Memories that would no doubt-
"-the one?" "Drugged to the gills, aren't you, pretty?" "Why would-… -sama need scum like her?" "Dual wielder, high position, easily impressionable, and now family-less, want me to keep going?" "-kitake or Kyoraku?" "Oh yeah, that would go out great… A lieutenant going up to one of the oldest captains and…"
.
Their gazes fell on the slack hold the blade-woman had on the twin ninja-tou. "We gave you our name," she remembered with nostalgia, continuing softly, "We saw you working towards us, and we gave it to you. You unsealed us twice."
Yoruichi flinched without meaning to and spared a glance up; she regretted it upon seeing the loneliness lurking in pure gold eyes.
"Our name was only said three times in our lifetime. We were unsealed twice. We only fought together once." She mumbled, fondness in her lips at the memories, before her features slumped again, dejectedly—looking aged and weary beyond measure. Gold eyes darkened as they rose to meet Yoruichi's not with reprimand or anger, just sheer hopelessness. "Yoruichi…
"Do you even remember our name?"
If the Shihoin princess hadn't already been looking at her she would have strained her neck. Still she felt pain, but somewhere inside her.
"What are you- of course I…" Yoruichi trailed off, a sliver of doubt crossing her features. She looked back at her Zanpakuto and horror dawned on her.
The blade-woman's features remained unchanged, but the golden of her eyes darkened to burnt bronze. To try and not give herself away, the black-haired female turned away, her braid dancing back and forth while she walked away. Feeling not unlike a scared little girl, Yoruichi followed her.
The nameless figure stopped to throw both her blades into the air. Instead of clashing together, both blades merged and an even more ghostly woman appeared.
Ashamed, Yoruichi averted her eyes from lusterless gold. Was this what happened to forgotten zanpakutos? Was this how Kuchiki Kouga's blade was-?
"No, Princess. Muramasa does not suffer as much as we do. He's eternally alone, bound by nothing but a curse. We have to suffer instead our decay at hands of the soul we were to protect." The taller, older, lonelier one of her two spirits whispered; her voice was also corroded, but still matched her, a more mature and regally dressed woman. Her long braid surrounded her forehead to nest between her breasts—which rivaled even Yoruichi's. Her pale gold eyes were filled with despair and hatred.
The woman finally looked away to beckon her younger-looking counterpart closer, to which the shorter spirit walked towards her. Letting herself melt away inside her other half.
Now merged as one, two persons stared at her behind two golden eyes in a way Yoruichi barely remembered now.
.
It hurt.
It hurt oh-so-badly.
Yoruichi needed a way out. They all needed to.
"It is solely in your hands, Princess. You inflicted this unto us." The regal zanpakuto hashed out in an even tone. But she was different from her counterpart—she actively blamed her for everything. She moved as if in pain, but her faded golden eyes shone with her disgust and hatred and, really, it was just the sense of betrayal that made her look like that.
Yoruichi couldn't help but get mad.
"Oh, so I caused this! It was my fault my family was murdered! My fault I was a double-wielder they knew about! My fau-!"
"Do not place words on my mouth, child. Do you think you're the only one who has been hurt by things past!?" The bladewoman's eyes were not narrowed, they were wide, fearful even as she got angry. "Do you think they only harmed you!? Do you think they only assassinated your family!? Don't make me laugh, you conceited child."
It was not her older spirit talking. It was both. The pain, grief and sorrow of both that did nothing but reflect Yoruichi's own.
The Shihoin princess was the first to look away.
"They killed them because of us. Because I wielded a zanpakuto in each hand. So I vowed. Vowed not to-"
With a cry of rage, the blade-woman unsheathed her blades and repeatedly stabbed at her, the blades passing through the dark skinned shinigami effortlessly.
"You vowed to kill us!"
"I didn't mean to! That wasn't why I did it!" Yoruichi shot back, sounding a bit like a justification. The woman had flinched at the assaulted but hadn't made any move to defend herself. She just let the other have her fill. And yet, still angry, she managed to smack away one of the blades, ceasing the attack. The Zanpakuto seethed. "And guess what? Ever since I declared I had lost my zanpakuto our family has stopped dying! It worked! That's all it fucking matters!"
"Our family stopped dying. But you started your own decay. Our own decay." The zanpakuto spoke in a deeper voice, still fuming with rage. "Back then you lied that you had lost me. But that falsehood has become true. You should begin choosing your heir because your life won't go on like this much longer. Since you do not care about your zanpakuto, I hope at least your death still holds some value." The bladewoman barely managed to hide the concern that couldn't help but surface at this—immediately buried at how selfish she had learned her wielder to be.
"What choice do I have!? What else can I do?" Yoruichi shot back, more as a rhetoric question than anything, already half turning away dismissively.
"Revenge." Was the swift reply, taking her off balance. "Get stronger. Strong enough to kill those who dared harm us." She finally stepped back, folding her hands into the folds of her sleeve, tucking the blades in instead of sheathing them. The royal-seeming Zanpakuto regarded her in silence, before her tired gaze slid away from Yoruichi.
"Learn our name once again, Princess. And be quick.
"Before I no longer care."
.
And with that ultimatum, Yoruichi was forced away from her inner world, to crash into the unmerciful reality.
She knew she needed to do something, anything.
But she couldn't so much as breathe without choking on her own breath...
The Shihoin massacre survivor needed to get on with her life. Her now nameless Zanpakuto was still wrong. The princess of the fallen clan was just getting too tired to go on.
But as her brother was once again murdered before her very eyes, Yoruichi knew she was wrong.
She wanted revenge. She wanted to heal.
Even if that meant breaking the vow she had made. What did it really matter anyway if those family members she had been close to had already died?
Chapter One End
AN. Hi there. So, got curious when I realized we know nothing about catgirl here, this was obviously made before we reached the latest chapters of the manga ofc. I get a feeling we'll get to know some stuff about the Shihoin soon. Hopefully.
Anyway, this is my theory on why we haven't seen Yoruichi's blade at all. I hope you enjoyed it, there's still another chapter to come as well. I made her zanpakuto a pair of Ninjato, which are short, single-edge swords supposedly used by ninjas. Still not sure if to make one bigger than the other (like Kyouraku's). It was originally going to be Sai, but...Ninjato sounded better, ha.
Also, the title, if anyone cares: "lit. "spirit of the body [group]": a feeling of solidarity among members of a group; morale." (taken from Wikipedia)
Please let me know what you thought. Plausible? Far-fetched? Not likely but still interesting? Neither? Being a dual-wielder is too OP? You have your own theories? Do share!
I mostly insinuated, so if you want a clearer view into my theory let me know and I'll put it up as an AN next chapter. Next chapter will have more on her past (all theories of course haha), Kisuke and Tessai appear here.
Created: February 19th, 2015 (hasn't been rotting all that long huh...)