Manatsu no Hanabi
A/N: Bleach doesn't belong to me. They're Kubo Tite-san's. Like the song 'Hanabi' by Ikimono-gakari very much, I'm gonna make the best of the inspirations that came with it. It's a bit after the fight in episode 57. Try listening to 'Hanabi' when you're reading it, it somehow fits. Well, enjoy!
Dancing flowers flitter down over a blue sea, sparkling, flaring, burning...
Appearing…Exploding…Sparkling…Flaring…Burning…Falling…Fading.
That is so typical of fireworks.
Beautiful at the beginning, but then disappearing without a trace.
She really hated that.
Soi Fong narrowed her eyes at the usual fireworks display during the summer season in the Seireitei. Acting like a grumpy old lady, she closes her windows and locked it shut. But she was unable to block the laughs and giggles that came with the exploding, sparks of fireworks that shoot to the sky.
She heard the loud whistle as it shoots towards the endless night sky and the 'oooh' and gasps from the crowd when it explodes in the air.
Honestly, such idiots. They watched fireworks from year to year in summer, yet they still act like fools seeing the aforementioned source of her agitation again and again and again.
"Why do you hate fireworks so much?" she remembered when Lieutenant Matsumoto Rangiku asks her when she refused to go fireworks-watching together earlier this afternoon.
"Why?" her eyes fell to a small familiar crest doodled earlier on one of her paper works.
'Because it reminds me of her' gritting her teeth, she ripped the paper to shreds. Watching the paper fall to the ground as though in slow motion, she slowly slids down against the wall. Her midnight blue eyes never leaving the pieces of paper, yet her mind began to haze with the reminiscence of the past.
Heedfully, into the sky,
Petals pour down like fireworks,
The song of love in our hearts echoes in the air.
Shihouin Yoruichi.
She really is like the fireworks.
The name still sends pangs in her heart.
100 years ago, looking at the fireworks brought a blush to her face. And a warm glow of love in her heart, remembering the person it resembled. Yet right now, hatred seems to fill the 2nd Division Captain of the person that held the title 'Shunshin'.
Soi remembered how the older woman had filler her rough day as part of the Onmitsukido with joy and laugh. How the purple-tinted haired woman managed to make Soi longed each of the harsh training to come with beating heart. How the slightly witty yet still elegant woman made the stoic girl felt for the first time, that she belonged in this world.
The sound of her voice, that sends shivers down her spine…
The comfortable aura that emitted from her when she's around…
The warmth of her touch that calms her even at the most dangerous situation…
The smell of her hair, that reminded her of a green field full of flowers…
The look on those fierce golden eyes that melts her heart every time she sees it…
And that lips…that had said that she reminds the smaller girl of herself.
'Bah. They were only memories. Nothing else' the Chinese girl tore her mind away from wandering and returns back to her slightly stuffy room. The laughter hadn't died yet. And it was starting to edge her even more.
"Why'd the heck didn't they stop with the laughing!!" Soi bursts out suddenly as she got to her feet in agitation "don't they get enough of them every year?! It was only fireworks?! What is wrong with them, for Godforsaken sake?! What so special about them?!! "
"They warm your heart in this cold summer night, and it looks to me you need to see one, Little bee"
Fireworks explode, sadness takes over.
Soi Fong turns around at the call of her old nickname "it can't be…"
And right before her eyes, sitting on her window sill, grinning like nothing is bothering her was the very person in her head earlier. Shihouin Yoruichi.
"yo, Soi Fon" the vivacious woman grinned at her shocked protégé.
Soi Fon gritted her teeth in agitation; Yoruichi still hadn't lost that ability to be around when she is most unwanted.
"what the heck are you doing here?" the snarl-like question issued out of the smaller girl's mouth.
Yoruichi let out a sigh as she flopped down from the window sill "why are you always grumpy when I'm around?" she asks with one of her eyebrows arched elegantly.
Soi Fon's fists tightened "I am. Asking. You. A question!" she almost growled at the taller woman in front of her, who was now examining her desk and almost gagged at the sight of the mounting paper woks.
"I know" Yoruichi answered, lifting paper from paper, as though trying to see what's below it and cringed even more seeing another pile of paper stacked below the desk "and I'm pondering the answer"
"Aaagh!!" Soi stamped her foot in irritation, finally gaining her old Senpai's attention back to her "what the heck did you come here in the first place"
"I was going to get you watch the fireworks with me"
Those words shut Soi Fon immediately.
"you used to like them a lot, did you?" Yoruichi grinned as she folded her arms in front of her chest.
Shadows fell covering Soi's eyes "yeah. It used to" she went to her desk and tidy up the messy papers courtesy of Shihouin Yoruichi. Completely ignoring the tall woman standing near the desk, Soi worked like her companion didn't exist. She shuffled the remaining papers under her desk and prepared to leave the room when a hand covered hers.
"why, Soi?" Yoruichi's tone was softer as she looked straight into her protégé's midnight blue eyes "what made you hate them?"
Soi wouldn't fell for the unfaltering gaze "you" she almost hissed the words before wrenching her hand out of Yoruichi's hold. Soi went quickly to the door, if Yoruichi isn't leaving, then she is.
"it reminds you of me, huh?"
Soi stopped on her tracks, her eyes widening. 'WTF? How did she-"she quickly turned to her Senpai and met the piercing gaze once again. She always had the feeling that Yoruichi could read her mind when their eyes met. The feeling of fright when the taller woman breaks down the walls she had built heart and touched that raw place in the depths of her heart.
But she wont say yes to anything Yoruichi says, just like what her pride demands of her.
"What did you say?"
The question brings a smile to Yoruichi's face, that kind of calm, kind and understanding kind of smile. The one Soi hated in this situation.
"Do you know why people love the fireworks, Soi?" Yoruichi asks back, completely ignoring Soi's question.
Hating herself, Soi shook her head slowly, her eyes never leaving the beauty in front.
Yoruichi smiled again, and turned towards the window as more fireworks shoot up and exploded in the sky.
"Because they bring back memories of the summer".
Spring, a dazzling display of fluttering flowers over a blue sea beats down,
Let your feelings of love resound! Protect your beloved!
No replies meant Soi Fon was having troubles digesting those words to her brain.
"fireworks were always at the end of the summer season. Do you know why? Every summer people go out and relax. They empty their mind of frustrating things that had accompanied them for the rest of the year to take a breath of fresh air and filled themselves with happy things. Yet summer only lasts a moment. And at the end of it they held the fireworks festival. The shooting of the fireworks resembled the tension that filled them during the summer season. The explosion resembles the point where they let them out in summer, and the spark that pours down resembles the falling pieces of their troubles. The fireworks only lasts a second, yet after watching them the joy of summer seems everlasting until the next year where summer comes again.
That is why people like fireworks, Soi. It makes the warm glow of summer stays in their heart" Yoruichi shifted her eyes from the sky and turn to see her protégé,
"well, what do you say? Wanna watch them with me, Little bee?"
Soi could only gaze silently as a red fireworks shoots up to the sky and exploding right behind the figure of her beloved senpai. She bright red sparks that fell down like petals of the Sakura flowers, just like the one in her memories. The round full moon that Yoruichi loves was in the air, as though joining forces with the Shunshin to get her out and watch the fireworks.
Soi despised herself very much if she fell to one of Yoruichi's sweet talks, yet she could not help it. Memories of the past that she longed so much flooded her mind. The old feelings of trust and love for the taller woman in front of resurfaced again, reminding her of the glow she used to have at the sight of the fireworks.
'She was right, you know' a small voice at the back of her head said 'the warm glow never ceased. It always stays there in your heart. Forever'
"Soi?" Yoruichi asks when Soi Fon's hands reached up to open the sliding door.
"Why are you still standing there?" Yoruichi arched both of her eyebrows, wondering if this is an order for her to leave the room. Letting out a small sigh, she turned her crestfallen face towards the window, where she had come in from earlier. She knew Soi wont let her use the door.
"Aren't we going to watch the fireworks, Yourichi-sama?" Yoruichi froze with one had on the window sill and almost cricks her neck to look at her protégé. Soi Fon was smiling. Warmly. Yoruichi suddenly remembers the sweet and cute Soi from way back then as the present sight resembles closely to the past.
"We wont miss the last of it if we go by Shunpo towards the field" she added as a small blush appeared on her face because of Yoruichi's unfaltering gaze. The taller woman's gaze softens as she let go of her hold on the window sill and smiled.
"yeah. C'mon Soi Fon, I'll race you there!!"
"Ah- Y-Yoruichi-sama!!" the smaller girl squeak when her senpai zoomed past her and disappearing on the corner. With a smile, Soi Fon closes her room and followed after Yoruichi.
'Yoruichi-sama was right,' she thought as she jumped from roof to roof, her eyes never leaving the back of a person she loves so much 'fireworks does reminds me of her'
'it reminds me the everlasting glow of love I had for her way back then. Way back then, until now and forever…'
Fight with all you've got until the bitter end.
This flower will keep on burning.
A/N:Okay, I trailed too much off the point. But my sister thinks it's sweet, and egged me for weeks to post it. I'm still waiting for your reviews though. Please and thank you very much. By the way, the title means 'Midsummer Fireworks'.