Chapter 1
The Strange Hate
There are four great noble clans in Soul Society. Each one has their own powers in Soul Society, and each one contributed something to the world they all live in. Souls, as humans said, are beings that have departed from the Earth and the Real World. They become Souls, and are brought to the place where all calls Soul Society. This place has another kind of people living in it.
Those are the souls that came from the real world, shinigami, and lastly, the royals.
The Royals are directly connected to the King, who is living in the other world that is well protected and can only enter with the King's Key. Whoever who wanted to see them, would have to call all the Zero Division captains to reassemble the King's Key, which is separated into 7 different parts.
It is, as what people calls, for safety's sake.
The Royals consist of 4 great noble families. They are given the title as Nobles, and not royals. It is so that people would not find them if they wanted to find the King's resting place. They are the Kuchiki clan, Miyagusuku clan, Shiratoe clan and the Hikari clan.
These clans each have their own powers and areas to rule. The Kuchiki clan reigns over the military division, the Miyagusuku reigns over the Medicine for Shinigamis and Zanpaktou making division, the Shiratoe clan reigns over the Souls straying outside of the Real World division and the Hikari clan is responsible for maintaining the soul particles in the Soul Society.
The Kuchiki clan reigns over the Military Division. They are the ones who are responsible to strike up a strategy to defeat the enemies and protect Soul Society and the King's Residence. The King is never to be disturbed unless it is of the utmost importance. The Kuchiki held one third of the King's Key, and in their grounds are the King's Residence entrance, hidden in a place only the head of the Kuchiki knew. They are an important figure in the court, and no one dares to go against them for any sort of reasons.
Well, that is until Kurosaki Ichigo came to Soul Society. It was only then and there that the Head of the Kuchiki, Kuchiki Byakuya, changes his thoughts on killing his only adopted sister, who is also the sister of his beloved Hisana.
The Miyagusuku clan reigns over Medicine for Shinigami and Zanpaktou making division. It would mean that they are responsible for the makings of all Zanpaktou, and each and every one of the Zanpaktou is forged by their makers within the grounds of the Miyagusuku clan. Without the maker, and without the head of the family to give permission to enter the grounds of the Miyagusuku, no one, as in no one, would live for a long life. Zanpaktous needed to be cleaned in and out with a huge jade bowl, and once cleaned, it needed to be dipped in the spring pool in a secluded forest somewhere within the Miyagusuku compound. The pool's water has the ability to clean and rest the soul within the Zanpaktou, and in such a way, the maker is able to completely heal the Zanpaktou.
They also make medicine that is rare and unavailable anywhere in Soul Society but the Miyagusuku grounds. In the Miyagusuku grounds, there is a special kind of soil that only this medicine will grow. They will then be harvested, processed and dried properly and made into salves, ointments, creams, medicine jellies and much other medicine that the Shinigami needs. Without the Miyagusuku's medicine, the shinigami's population would dwindle, and the people in Rukongai will die quickly.
Such is the Miyagusuku clan's powers.
It had been a long time, and he loathed her. The very presence of her made his heart burn and aches with a desire to want to choke her, smother her with something and kill her to quench the hate he had deep in his heart for her. Beautiful as she was and graceful as she is, to him, the one eyesore that made his temper flares up out of nowhere is her.
Kuchiki Byakuya, the current head of the famed, feared and noblest clan in the 4 Great Noble Clans, the Kuchiki Clan, hated the current head of the famed, hated and 2nd noblest clan in the 4 Great Noble Clans, the Miyagusuku Clan with a fiery passion, to a degree that no Shinigami could ever comprehend.
The lady in question's name is Miyagusuku Kaguya, Ichi no Hime (The First Princess).
Beautiful, graceful, hateful and so full of wrath that no Shinigami who ever met her wouldn't hate her; Kaguya is the icon of hate in Soul Society. The worse streets in Rukongai knew her, and as bad as they were, they hated her too. It's not as if they've seen her in person, but they heard what she had been like, and they hated her from hearing all the gossips and rumors circling around Soul Society for almost all the time. Her story is one of the most famous ones to be told, of how cruel and heartless the princess of the Miyagusuku clan is, and of how the Kuchiki clan tries to find ways to break off the engagement between the head of the Kuchiki clan and her without breaking the bond between the two most powerful clan in Soul Society, and of how strange the princess is, and for that, she is feared and hated at the same time.
But no one knew that Byakuya had a secret he hid deep within his heart.
He loves Kaguya, and despite the hate, he still loves her.
He couldn't comprehend or remember when and how exactly he fell in love with her, but whenever he saw her, his heart just soared with relief that she is there, and it started to pound, and the next thing he knew, it turned into hate, anger coursing through his veins and burning her good image in his heart. It would start over again and again, and all of them are triggered by her presence. He finds this pattern rather strange. Whenever he is alone in his own manor, he would take out a photo consisting of the 4 Great Noble clan's head formal photos and stare. It was an old picture, and she was there, smiling slightly as the end of her lovely lips curled upward slightly, sitting just beside him, so close that he could have touched her fingers if he moved just slightly to the right. He only felt love and his heart seemed to miss her, but when he met her in person…his feelings changed immediately into hate.
He thought that it is quite normal since Kaguya had disgraced her noble line and the 4 Noble Family's name. He did despise those who had broke rules, but he didn't know that he himself is capable of such hate, and he hated that kind of hatred. It seemed to make him feel as if he's under someone's influence, orders even, to hate like that. He never told anyone his theories, but things began to make him reconsider his theories when he sees with his own eyes his Vice Captain unconsciously blabbered just how nice the princess is when he accidentally saw her leaving baskets of rice and food for the poor in Rukongai from afar, and the next thing he had blinked rapidly and begun to tell another different tale of the princess, of how proud and prudish she is just because of her status, scorning at the mention of her name, as if she is a sort of disease.
That is when he started to realize everyone is Soul Society is affected by this strange change whenever Miyagusuku Kaguya is the topic. Although it has been quite a long time, the hate he contained for her doesn't seem to be able to make him angry or as hateful as he first started to hate her. He could actually feel the strange control begun to weaken on him. He knew, the princess had done something, but he didn't know what it is. He knew that someone outside of Soul Society must know something about it, since the princess had never stepped out of Soul Society even once.
That is as far as he knows about her.
But still, he couldn't help but feel his temper boiling in him when he saw the ever so graceful black cat, Yoruichi, staring back at him while sitting purposefully on the doorstep, swishing her tail leisurely.
That is pure hate.
"Well," the cat started smoothly. "What do we have here? It's Byakuya-bo!"
"You are not supposed to be in the presence of a Shinigami, or have you forgotten that you're banished?" Byakuya replied scathingly, feeling satisfaction settling his temper a little when he saw the cat's whiskers twitched slightly.
Yoruichi stood up and strutted back and forth across the doorway to Urahara Shoten, loving every minute of doing it as she patiently waited for Byakuya to blow up. She knew that the noble man would not come to the living world for nothing, and that the interesting carvings on the gateway door had told her many, which include the fact that the head of the Kuchiki clan came into the living world via his clan's very own gateway door. Soul Society knows not of the absence of Kuchiki Byakuya in the afterlife world.
"You came alone with something juicy in your head, Byakuya-bo," Yoruichi said, grinning from ear to ear like the cat got the canary. "You won't come to the living world unless there's something you can't solve in Soul Society. After all, you're so noble and all that you can't break the rules that say 'a noble can never speak to a commoner'. Come on. Spill it and tell it to Onee-san here."
Byakuya reminded himself that he did not come here to find irritating argument with irritating cats. He kept his composure in check and reign in his anger, keeping it back into the cage. "I came here to see Urahara Kisuke."
"And here I am!" said a cheerful voice from behind Yoruichi, the door to the shop sliding open suddenly, surprising no one in the process. "Hello Captain Kuchiki! It's been a looooooong time since I last saw you, yes?"
"I'm afraid I don't have time to waste on greetings," said Byakuya coldly. "I came with questions that I wish for you to answer truthfully."
"Rather demanding now, are we?" Urahara said cheerfully, waving his fan around dramatically. It was then the shadow that hides his eyes lifted and the real Urahara came out from his disguised personality. "The answer shall depend entirely on the question you are to post to me, Kuchiki-sama."
There was a long pause, with Byakuya and Urahara staring at each other for a long time.
"I wish to know the truth about Miyagusuku Hime," Byakuya said monotonously, not breaking the eye staring contest between him and Urahara.
"Miyagusuku Hime? Ichi no Hime (The First Princess)?" Urahara started, his hat covering his eyes and shadows most of his face from view. Byakuya nodded his head once.
"It is the Ichi-Hime. I want to know what she has done now. There is something unexplainable that kept on happening at a regular basis, and it always happens in her presence," Byakuya said to them, and Urahara nodded his head.
"Well then, I suppose you can enter my little humble abode for something to drink and talk about, yes?" Urahara invited Byakuya, and Byakuya enters the small house and sat himself on the table.
"Well, to start up everything," Urahara said to him, pouring hot chrysanthemum tea into Byakuya's cup. "The Miyagusuku's are well known for being a riatsu reservoir. Without even an ounce of military trainings in them, their very being vibrated with power enough to destroy a vice-captain class shinigami with just a blow or a hit. They're the true fearsome beings in Soul Society, one that everyone ought to stay out of ways that could anger them."
Urahara glanced up at Byakuya through the shadows casted by his signature striped hat.
"Well, apart from the Kuchiki clan, yes," Urahara started. "It is quite unexplainable, but to put it into words, I summarized that your memories have been suppressed against your will. She might be the person behind all these misunderstandings and hate that you have just told us."
"How's so?" Byakuya, started, and suddenly, he remember something. "I've experienced flashes of scenes and conversations that I never remembered having them. She appeared in most of my recollection, and within these lost memories of mine were a different kind of her. She appears to be a completely different person in my recollections. I suspect that she is the person behind all these misunderstandings…"
"Well of course she is!" Urahara exclaims loudly, patting the table with his hand and slamming them. "Do you actually think that the all honorable Miyagusuku Family would raise such a disgrace as a head? No. You're mistaken, boy. Ichi no Hime is no such person. When she wanted you to forget who she was, then you will forget who she was. You'll never remember her."
"Unless you have our help," Yoruichi came striding into the room in all her cat glory. She sat beside Urahara and licked her fur.
"It was a fortunate thing that her powers at the time when she casted the spell over all of Soul Society cuts out more than half of her usual riatsu reservoir. Remember the Bounts? The previous head of the Miyagusuku clan had had to draw out the clan's own riatsu reservoir, meaning that the next head would have to pay it back with their own riatsu. She's the next head, and until now, she has yet to place the riatsu back. It was taken in a large amount, and even with her current powers, the borrowed riatsu has yet to be filled back in half."
Yoruichi paused for further effect. When nobody commented and Urahara gave her a knowing glint in the eyes, Yoruichi continued.
"Meaning, she is now weak. Half of her riatsu is sucked constantly by the container in the Miyagusuku Manor, housing the riatsu reserved for unspeakable disaster, while her other half is used to contain all the memories she forced everyone to forget. She's getting stronger, but still, her current riatsu is barely enough to keep her awake at times. That would probably explains why she is not out in the open and public often enough as the Head of one of the Four Noble Families."
"This is what you shall need…" Kisuke handed Byakuya a strange golden seal. "Place it within her hand, and it will disintegrate all the false memories that she has instilled into everyone in Soul Society."
Byakuya took it from Kisuke's hand and turns it around in his hand. It was a golden plate with a phoenix embedded in front of it, richly decorated with rubies and other gems.
"It belongs to Kaguya, the Ichi no Hime. She left it here unknowingly, and anything that is untouched by her powers of her modifying all of your memories that belongs to her would be able to undo the curse."
Byakuya stood up and went out of the house after thanking Kisuke, dropping off a single golden bar to him. Kisuke rejoices at the sight of the gold, and held it in his hand.
"Spend it wisely, Urahara Kisuke…" Byakuya said, stepping into the portal and went back to Soul Society.
Now, he shall find Ichi no Hime. He hopes that she would not make him angry again this time.