Rueketsueki-sama
Thump, thump, thump. The sound of someone's foot startled Kensei of the Rueketsueki clan. He was unaccustomed to wakening up at three o'clock in the morning because someone was running on the wooden walkway outside of his room. He lived in a rather lavish house within the woods toward the outer ring of the Seireitei. His family was one of the nobility of the Soul Society so it was only fitting that his house matches his family's status.
"What the hell is going on?" he said out loud a little lethargic, but sitting up in his bed. Although he was a member of this distinguished family he was one of its most improper members, continuously swearing and getting into all sorts of trouble.
"Rueketsueki-sama, I am sorry to disturb you at such an early hour but, there was a trespasser on your father's grounds." came a voice from behind huge shoji doors the moonlight that shown through revealed the silhouette of a large figure kneeling on the other side of the doors.
"Ah," sighed Kensei, "This is my father's house therefore he should be the one to deal with any trespassers within the grounds." Kensei was the first born of Sizuke and Hishino Rueketsueki, the heads of one of the eight noble families of the Soul Society.
"Anyway, come in, it's strange to be speaking to someone through a wall." Kensei said, even though he wanted to say go away and wake up someone else, as he worked his way out of bed the shoji doors opened.
"I would have spoken with your father, sir, but I herd that he and your mother have a very important council meeting tomorrow." The guard said as he entered the dark room.
"Well then I guess I will go with you." After he said this he rose put on his Shihakusho, tied his zanpak-to too his side, and a draped a Kimono embellished with his family's crest over his shoulders. "After all it would be unwise to wake my parents up at such an inconvenient as hell hour."
Kensei followed the guard through the courtyard, it was dark and the sound of the water that trickled from the northern end of the house to the southern made a continuous hum to the chirping of the crickets. The two crossed a small bridge over the river to a corner of the house where there was a large red and black Torii arch that led outside of the courtyard and main house to a flight of stone stairs. On either side of the steps stood rectangular pedestals each with a statue of one of Rueketsueki's ancestors and on each pillar was written their life's story. At the bottom of the earthen steps and along a short wooden path there was a rather large iron house where the family guard was stationed. Outside the guard's barracks there were four large men stationed with their hands on their zanpak-tos in front of the large iron doors.
"Thanks, I will handle the trespasser, all of you are to resume you posts around the castle." Kensei declared, trying to take on his father's solemn tone but ended up sounding uninterested and board.
"Yes, sir!" affirmed the guards in unison, then in the blink of an eye all five guards disappeared.
Kensei entered the dark quarters where there was a figure in the far back corner of the room. It was apparent that one of the guards had casted a binding Kido spell, for he was frozen still like a marble statue.
"Binding spell the first, Sai, release." Kensei said with a yawn, he was rather good at kido, after saying this the figure fell to the ground with a thump. "Who the hell are you and why were you on my family's grounds?"
As the figure rose from the floor Kensei realized that it was…
"Raven?! Why the Hell are you here?! And why at god damn three o'clock in the freaking morning?" Kensei screamed, "What if my parents had caught you? You know that my dad is, like zanpak-to happy! You are lucky the guard came to me and not to them, or they would turn you into a smothering pile of ash!"
"Kensei, calm down we have a bigger problem." Raven said in a very serious voice, given he was almost turned into mince meat. "I heard that Captain Kurotsuchi is hiding Hisagai Shuuhei somewhere in the Bureau of Technology."
"And you know this how? And why is it our big problem?" asked Kensei in a rather sarcastic tone.
"I went by the Bureau for my private lesson with the Captain and overheard him yelling at Nemu about sleeping with Hisagai within some underground cell that he was to be locked up in. And your family is in charge of keeping soul reapers safe."
"Hmm, a jail cell?...Kinky."
"KENSEI!"
"Are you sure about that?" Kensei asked now with some worry, "And why are you telling me this? Plus taking care of fellow soul reapers is everyone's job. Have you told Peaco or Akasuki?"
"Not yet I wanted to tell you first, you have the most soul reapers at your disposal out of all the families in this area of the soul society." Raven retorted.
"Yea that's true, but I just can't dispatch them to wage war on the damn Bureau, I mean, they're body guards for my family, not an army." Kensei said now loosing some patience.
"I was thinking more along the lines of using one of the members of your stealth force, or convincing the Shihowin family to lend you some of the members of their stealth force, after all both your families are nobility."
"The Shihowin Family?!" Kensei screamed, "You know that the Rueketsueki family and the Shihowin family are the two most clashing families out of all eight noble clans. Now you want ME to ask THEM for a FAVOR?! You must be out of your freakin' mind!"
"Then use your stealth force."
"I can't, they're all in the real world working on some sort of stupid hollow problem."
Thump, thump, thump, someone's footsteps could be herd coming up the wooden walkway to the barracks, and from the sound of the foot falls they were big.
"Well then the two of us need to do something!" Raven said having lost all of his patience.
The footsteps from the outside came nearer and nearer to the doors. Until they resounded like drums on the wooden walk way leading up to the building, and someone's spiritual pressure got more and more pressing.
"Quick Raven, that's my father's spiritual pressure!" Murmured Kensei "Conceal yours and hide in the rafters or he's going to kill you!"
"Ok, chill."
The doors burst open and the moonlight shown through and revealed a dark figure that almost blocked out the light coming from the outside.
"Kensei, I herd that there was a trespasser within the castle, and you were asked to handle him." Said the dark figure
"Yes, sir, it turned out that the trespasser was just a lost soul reaper out late looking for the tenth squad's barracks." Replied Kensei concealing a grin that wanted so badly to spread across his face
"Is that so?" Suzuki Rueketsueki said with a suspicious look, "Well then we should both go back to bed, it's almost four in the morning."
"Um, I think I'm just going to take a walk, I'm not going to be able to fall back asleep again."
"Ok, then I'll see you in the morning." The Suzuki said as he turned and walked back down the wooden walk way, and faded in the darkness, but Kensei remained still and didn't do anything until he saw his father walk through the Torii arch and into the courtyard.
"That was close!" declared Raven as he dropped from the rafters.
"Yea! I need to go now but I'll meet you later, right now you should to leave too." Said Kensei, "Leave the grounds by going around the guard barracks and down the hill using the eastern path, there are fewer guards that way and you probably won't be caught again."
"Fine, meet me at the arch in front of Soul Reaper Academy tomorrow at noon."
"Ok, but I'm bringing Peako and Akasuki, and we will meet at noon, not tomorrow at noon, remember you came in the earliest freaking possible hour of the day." Kensei snapped back "After all those two are like the brains of the operation. Now leave."
"Ok, later." Raven said as he disappeared around the barracks.
Kensei just stood their shaking his head as he began to walk back to the castle in the darkness, with only the light of the full moon filtering through the ancient pine and cherry trees that had been on the grounds for thousands of years, ever since the Rueketsueki family had arrived. The night was still and gentle breezes flowed through the tops of the trees scattering the cherry blossoms into the air and across the ground. He walked across the bridge in the courtyard and back to his room where he untied his zanpak-to, placed it on its wooden stand, took off his kimono and Shihakusho and fell back into his bed.
"Stupid frekin' ass clown, Mayuri!" Rueketsueki said out loud as he stared at his ceiling, "The damn captains cause more problems around the Seireitei than all the ryoka combined. It's ridiculous, but Raven was right. It is the Rueketsueki family and the Shihowin family's duty to make sure that no soul reapers are hurt or killed with in the Seireitei, and if there are any it is our job to investigate. So I guess this is my problem. Damn.
