Memoirs of an alley cat
Summary: « nothing gold can stay… » Momji recalls her time at the Academy with her best friend and she wonders on how fast things change.
Memo: the bleach world belongs to Tito Kubo. Also the story line is based on before the soul society ark, so maybe one hundred years ago from today.
A.N: the time line is around 6 years before Ukitake and co arrived, the kendos in the story are actually zanpactos.
Prologue: Nothing gold can stay
I remember a shock of black hair, big stormy gray eyes and a laughingly innocent face. For years that first impression that I had of Kuran remained buried in my brain. But as I finally write these words down nothing but pain resounds from them. That child was and is and will remain my ultimate best friend. I remember his smooth skin and strong hands; I remember his giant grin and fierce glower. I recall his exuberance and joy, his pounding feet and crystal clear laugh that even now so many years later resounds in my ears. What happened? The boy I saw that day, whose hair grown long clung to his neck with sweat, whose eyes ounce sweet and innocent now reflect only pain and hatred, from whose sword drips the blood of thousands. Is not my friend. So I ask myself what happened.
Chapter 1: OPPOSITES
My name is Momji Shouhin; I'm 12 years old to the date and am the legitimate heir to the throne. Today I start my first year at the academy, and I'd like you to listen to my story. It's a story of love and friendship, of pain and hatred, of understanding and prejudices and of growing up.
"… and this will be you're room" perched on a window seal near the rafters, I watched curiously as Matron, a rather heavyset woman showed a boy my age into the first year dorms. He was small with a bird's nest of black hair, big grey eyes, overlarge clothes and a kendo on his back. The boy nodded and walked in his rucksack, a silver and black bag of good size, slung over his shoulder, bumped on his hips. I jumped down from my sill landing lightly on my feet with the smallest of thumps and walked over to Matron, "Who is he" I asked curiously. Matron glanced down at me then answered in her annoyingly mysterious way, "you'll find out but I bet you'll get along just fine". I frowned at her crossly then stuck my head through the door. The boy's first year dorm had 6 beds, 3 on each side, compared to ours who had two smaller rooms with three beds each. Also next to each bed was a small three drawer dresser and a nightstand, in my room we had two big dressers. The newcomer had chosen the bed closest to the window. He unpacked slowly and spread out on his bed a thick blanket with a bunch of wolf pups running across it, there was also a much smaller symbol that I couldn't read.
Just then the bell announcing the start of afternoon classes' rang. (I forgot too mention this being the start of the new school year classes started at 1:00 P.M). I backed up before the other kid saw me and with bounding steps headed for theories with Gi-san. Taking a series of flights of stairs led me to the third floor and hopping to the third classroom on the right led me to Gi-san's class. The classroom was you're typical 6th grade classroom, so I won't detail it. I entered with the rare group of students who had already memorised the school plan. Yammato was already there and he assigned us seats, I got the aisle seat of the second row. (There where four rows on either side with three seats on each, which makes 4 times 3 + 4 times 3= 24 seats.) In this way I learned the names of the other two students who were with me. There was Jeanna, a small girl with blond hair and blue eyes and Jark, a dark haired, dark eyed, dark skinned kid with defiant stance I guessed that he was from the country. When the rest of the class arrived, whom I thought might be my kind of friend also showed up. Till Gi-san said Kuchiki Kuran, first row, aisle seat, the newcomer walked over and sat in front of me, unconsciously I leaned away, curling my nose. Yammato-sensei babbled for about two hours on basic theories, before the bell rang and we where allowed to go to level one battle practice.
When the bell sung out, I bounded up and was almost at the door when Kuran darted in front of me. I did the natural thing; I stumbled, almost fell, caught myself and glowered at the Kuchiki brat. The brat in question; glanced over his shoulder and smirked at me, I snarled at him and thought how on earth am I supposed to get along with him. Later on I would realize that Matron meant that Kuran and I resembled each other in attitude and skill level, but not yet. For the moment I was sulking through the hallways on my way to B.P, where things got worse. Our teacher Mrs. Endalm, a sadistic monster asked us to separate into four groups:
Group 1-those who where really good (Kuran Kuchiki, Me, Ryan El'taro and Stone El'taro)
Group2 -those who where okay :( Peter Smithson, Lillianne Karuen and Rain El'haro)
Group3-those who where really bad :( Rudolph Navero, Lea Karuen, Sam Lioso and Chloe Lion)
Group4 -and those who had never held a kendo before :( James Kleam [Jark's twin], Sarah Leap, Kellar James, Jark Kleam [he's very good at fist fighting though] and Jeanna Wercraft)
We where to practise among each other while she helped the beginners, I not wanting to end up with Kuran asked Ryan if he wanted to partner with me. He agreed and we both drew our kendos. Since we where in the higher up group we had our own weapons naturally. After a couple of seconds of inspecting each other's guard we attacked simultaneously, Ryan was a strong kid with dark blue hair and thoughtful eyes, his technique relied on speed and stealth. I decided I liked him as I batted off his attacks spinning around him and testing his strength before I started using marshal arts. At one point he stumbled and slammed into my legs we went rolling across the mat and bumped into Stone and Kuran. Within moments we where a rolling ball of kicking legs and scratching hands, the teacher must have had to yell halt many times before Stone rolled out of the mess and saw her waving and yelling angrily. He turned towards us calculated for a couple of seconds then reached out swiftly and grabbing Kuran by the collar yanked him out of the mess. Ryan and I managed to untangle ourselves then and lay panting on the ground.
The teacher furious gave us a good yelling to then pared us up and sent us back to our corner. Grumbling I turned towards Kuran my new partner, he was standing there lazily twirling his kendo but I sensed that he was perfectly ready. I shifted my weight from leg to leg pensively as I watched the brat in front of me, waiting for him to attack I realised that he expected he same of me. Finally I got bored, I guess that means he's more patient, and leaped foreword feinting an attack. He jumped forewords, ducking under my swing and trapped my arm with his body. With my free arm I punched him but he dodged, dropping down and taking my legs out in one fell sweep. A wave of fury rocketed through my mind and leaping to my feet I started battling for real. He matched all of my attacks with an amazing detachment, as if I where just a baby patting at him. Up until, let's just say I got a good kick in, yet even that didn't knock him down. As we fought neither willing to lose I realised that we were evenly matched to evenly match. Neither of us could land a real hit. Much later when I think back to that battle, I now notice that the techniques that Kuran and I where using where made for two reasons. Not to kill Hollows but to either completely counter the other in every way possible or to balance each other out. His defaults where my strengths, and my defaults where his strengths, I never believed in destiny until now, but I now I believe that we where meant to meet.
Finally we stepped apart panting not from exhaustion but with annoyance. I closed my eyes trying to concentrate, eventually my heart stopped pounding and I jerked my kendo up in time to barely block Kuran. My eyes flew open and I launched myself at him, with my heavier weight I pinned him down. After ten seconds the teacher called "Sorenomate" (meaning end of match). I let him up and he tackled me with a vengeance. I managed to push/kick him away and bounded off the edge of the mat, in one swift movement he rolled to his feet, and followed me obviously not defeated yet. Glowering at him, I realised that he was hardly panting I forced my breath to slow down, preparing for another attack. Luckily, just then a whooping sound distracted me, the bell was ringing.
That which was recorded above was my first fight with Kuran; it would not be my last. Oh! How I wish for those times again.
Kuran and I continued battling each other for supremacy; I swore to myself never to lose and rose to new heights. Each day we strained to be first too classe, first to answer the teacher and so on. One day many months later, later during theory class Gi-san asked a hard question. He wanted us to name the defaults of each clan. For once neither Kuran nor I raised our hands, we where both perfectly capable of answering but neither of us wanted to mention a personal default in front of the other. I guess it was out of loyalty, but also stubborn pride. All at once Kuran spun around too face me, the black eye I'd given him last week was still there. Without knowing why I stretched out a hand and tried to trace it, he leaned forewords and I woke up. While I had zoned out Jeanna a sweet Eruwen girl was answering the question. She was steadily going through the list of clans, and dutifully reciting each default. I saw Kuran tense and let out a low guttural snarl when she dared to say the Shouhin and Kuchiki clans have the same default.
I couldn't resist, so I asked "really what?" Around the same time Kuran snarled we share absolutely nothing with those filthy cats. Naturally I whacked him, Jeanna turned slowly towards us and said coldly you're both way to arrogant and you treat everything around you like shit. Also you're rivalry is pathetic; you're not the top of the world. I knew what she was saying was entirely true but I said anyway; "wrong compared to you we're the top of the world". Jeanna winced but answered anyway with a flash of anger in her voice, "that's what I mean, one day you're going to meet someone who's going to drag you down and then maybe you'll understand!" Kuran spoke up just then, "you're entirely right, but that's absolutely no reason for us to admit it". I glanced at him in surprise as he stood up and continued calmly "and you forgot one attributes of the Shihouin, there not only assassins but there also the shadow cat. Plus one of our main default's is that we constantly undermine the country" he sat down again and glared around at everyone. I felt a wave of admiration mixed with insult, but swiftly knocked away.
When Gi-san let us out we where staggering under the weight of the homework he'd given us. We made our way to kendo practise much more slowly than usual, when much to my amazement the sure-footed Kuran, tripped. Something had caught his ankle as he turned the corner and sent him sprawling. Without thinking I whipped out Zenga and launched myself forewords, just in time to see a whirl of purple disappear. I approached Kuran cautiously though and asked in a forcefully blank tone of voice, to hide my flash of worry "are you alright?" Kuran was just sitting up, when I reached him; he had one hand resting on his kendo. Not answering me, he inspected his surroundings with a sharp gaze, and then bent down to inspect his ankle. Leaning over his shoulder I spotted a white hand print etched into his skin, before he covered it up and scrambled to his feet and swinging his stuff onto his shoulder he stalked off. Surprisingly I felt stung at his refusal to answer, but pushed it of as a onetime feeling.
We arrived in class with two minutes of lateness, as a punishment after yelling at us the teacher announced that we would have a dominance battle. Half the class groaned (those who weren't good) while the rest looked pleased. There was two separate groups and the survivors (one from each group) would have to fight each other for dominance. Here sighted are the two separate groups:
Group1: Group2:
Ryan - Kuran
Me - Stone
Lillianne -Peter
Sam - Leo
Rudolph -Rain
Kellar - Sarah
Jeanna -Chloe
And James - and Jark
As usual Kuran destroyed his opponents but his style seemed strange, Stone and Rain were the only ones who seemed to actually make him work. Unfortunately I didn't have time to dwell on it because I was soon fighting my own mini war. At the time I had trouble writing these following words down but now I simply smile with a hint of sadness. I think I was a little overconfident cause I almost lost one of my final matches. I was fighting Lillianne a kid from the okay group and one o Jeanna's close friends. It seemed I ticked her off in class, I won of course but for a couple of seconds she made me fight her seriously, she was doing pretty well until without realising I slipped up and used a technique I picked up from Kuran. It involved a series of feints and a pretended injury followed by a twisting high leap and a kick on the hilt. I executed it flawlessly and she dropped her sword, match over. I straightened and watched her through narrowed eyes as she stepped of and the Brat stepped on.
Kuran stepped slowly onto the mat and said in a mocking tone of voice "nice technique." I blinked at him the mentally replayed the battle in my head then blushed when I realised what I'd done, I hastily wiped my face clean and said coldly "wasn't about to let such a nice technique be ruined by you". Kuran simply looked amused, all the same later by myself I felt slightly grateful for our rivalry, we were learning from each other, at the time I didn't notice Kuran's injury; we fought as we usually did verses each other, all out, as you may recall I won my first match against Kuran, but we've been knocking each other around so much we've forgotten the score, or I thought we did. I launched myself into a series of kick/slashes and to my shock landed one, well almost since Kuran barely blocked it, and jumped backwards. Stumbled when he landed and collapsed, surprised I simply stared at him not realising he was hurt. The teacher bounded into the arena and knelt to inspect his ankle where the pant leg had lifted, I came over and yelped. It seemed to have swollen till it was twice as large as his normal ankle, the white hand print was etched deeply into his skin while around it was puffy and pink8blue8red whatever a really nasty bruise looked like. Kuran tried to sit up but the teacher pushed him down declared me the winner and I got ordered to bring him to the infirmary.
I was most definitely non-plussed but Kuran beat me to protesting, his usually calm voice rose an octave higher shaking with anger and outrage, a strange note in his voice caught my attention but I couldn't figure it out. The Teacher ignored him and standing up she lifted him to his feet. I thought about sitting down and sulking, but a pair of holes seemed to be boring themselves in between my shoulder blades. I glanced behind me and saw Jeanna with her group of from the weaker clans and not-clans. Jeanna smiled at me and I read her thoughts out clear as day, she expected me to refuse to help Kuran and therefore prove her point. A wave of fury washed over and knocked all my arguments away, I just wanted to prove her wrong, so I spun around just as Kuran pointed his kendo, Stark, at my throat. In a low voice he growled "like he'll I'd lose to you", I noticed that he didn't say someone like you but you and for some reason I felt hurt. I looked at him with an arched eyebrow, fighting pain with all his will and ounce again without thinking (I tended to do that a lot around Kuran) I crossed the mat and punched him hard in the stomach, he dropped like a Stone. I picked him up, noticing that he was pretty light, and swung him over my shoulder; I took Stark from his hand and walked out not resisting sticking my tong out at Jeanna as I passed her. A strange thought then snuck into my mind, where not that different.
T.B.C
Extra1: here following is a list of the classe students with all there characteristics.
RyanEl'taro
Ryan is twelve years old, he was born on January 5, and his height is 5"4. He has dark blue spiky hair that reaches his collar bones. His eyes are big and the colour of a North Carolina blue sky, he wears the school uniform (blue pants, white shirt). He's a really sweet kid, who enjoys spell casting and kendo competitions. He has a twin named Stone, there both from the El'taro clan, a group of warriors who live in a giant set of caves deep in the western mountains. His kendo is named Lekaram
2) Stone El'taro
Stone is Ryan's younger twin, and is 5"4. He has light gray hair that spikes down to the bottom of his neck. It's apparently quite silky to the touch; he usually has it flopping over his right eye, compared to his twin who combs to the left. He is also from the El'taro clan, his temperament used to be as cold as his namesake but since he's arrived at the academy, he's opened up quite a bit. He wears the school uniform, but doesn't like it. His kendo is named Shikam. He's a shape-shifter.
3) Rain El'haro
Rain is the youngest student in the academy; he's from a smaller branch of the El'taro clan. He arrived at the academy with the twins and usually hangs out with them or Peter. He has light blue hair that halos out around his head and curls around his ears. His eyes are a soft turquoise that seems to sparkle when he gets excited. He where's the school uniform like everyone else, and his kendo is called Gotherekam (pronounced Goth-Re-Kam) he somewhat timid but is very smart, he likes to read history books, the academy is paying for his tuition because he's the third kid from the same clan to come in one year. Rain is by far my favourite at of all three, but shush it's a secret! He's also the sweetest, even sweeter then Kuran.
4) Lillianne Karuen and Lea Karuen
Born on February 19th this 11 year old girl, has one hell of a temper, she's very protective of her friends and defiant towards everyone, because she's at a school where district kids are looked down on. She has blond hair with white strands that she wears in a ponytail that reaches her shoulder blades. Her eyes are light green that darken when she gets angry. For clothes she wears red pants and a white shirt, which is also the school uniform. She doesn't have her own kendo yet but is used to using one. Leah on the other hand, besides looking like a spitting image of her older cousin is completely different. She's really timid, has no idea how to fight properly, can't speak up in class for her life and does not test well at all. If you look at them face on and neither is speaking you'd swear they where twins if it weren't for Leah's nervous eyes.
5) Rudolph Navero
This young man of 13 is from the outlandish sea clans; it's not known which one since over the years they have banded together into one giant group. He has short brown that stops just before the bottom of his neck, his eyes are a warm chocolaty colour and rumour has it the older girls have started eyeing him. He gets along well with his class and enjoys a good wrestling match, on the other hand his kendo skills suck on toast but luckily he's getting better. He has no kendo but enjoys fighting with two long daggers; his grades are pretty high which ranks him 5th in the class. He was born in the month of March, on the wonderful date of the 8th.
6) James and Jark Kleam
Alrighty then here's another pair of twins coming up! James and Jark are two dark haired, dark eyed, dark skinned kids with very different attitudes, while Jark is defiant and likes to stand out, James much prefers to duck his head and study, which is probably why he gets the best grades in the class, because apparently Kuran and I don't count. They both like to wear dark clothes so needless to say they dislike the school uniform. There's not that much to say on them so I'll leave I there, and of course they don't have kendo's. They where born on March 31.
7) Jeanna Wercraft
Jeanna born on April 5th, she is my most hated rival well except for Kuran. Don't worry I don't hate her cause she's from the country, but because she wont stop sticking her filthy nose where it doesn't belong. But besides that she's actually quite nice and pretty, but I'm not here to sing here her louanges because I really don't like her so I'll just say this she's twelve years old, likes horses, gets good grades and ticks me off. She has no kendo, of course.
8) Sam Lioso
Okay where back with the clans! Sam here is 11 years old born in May on the 23rd and my very (times 50) distant cousin. He has blond hair that a birds nest in every sense of the word and big blue eyes. He's also quite adorable and is in track to be the fastest 11 years old there ever was. He has the skills of a Shouhin but can only throw shurukens in terms of weapons. He's pretty smart but you'll have to wait for chapter 2 to find out more.