Where Our Lives Changed
A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update. I was suffering from a bit of a metal block. Haha… Many thanks to my reviewers! Your reviews are greatly appreciated. To those who mentioned that Ukitake is their favourite character, he's mine too. That was why I decided to write this story! I'm totally obsessed with him! And Shunsui, he totally cracks me up! To Mitsikusji, thanks for the information. You are right. Jyuushirou means '14th son'. But it was mentioned in his biography in volume 18 of the manga that he is the eldest son. While Kubo Tite did not offer an explanation, I did thought of one, and was planning to add it into this chapter. This chapter turned out to be too long, so I had to cut it into two. The explanation will be added to the next chapter instead. To TheSmallestGhost, your review helped me to edit the shorter summary. Thanks! Due to the words limit, I couldn't think of what to write.
Have fun reading, people!
Disclaimer: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the manga and the anime do not belong to me, but Kubo Tite.
Chapter Two- And So We Met
It was already long past midnight, but the man continued sitting next to where his kids were sleeping, patting the back of one of them gently, while humming a slow and soft lullaby. He turned and looked down at them. His youngest daughter, Sakura, the one whom he was coaxing to sleep, seemed to have finally fallen asleep. He stopped humming the lullaby, but instead of heading to bed, he remained where he was seated, and continued to pat Sakura's back. The kids are all lying on a big mattress positioned in a corner of the house, with only a thin and old blanket covering them. Every single one of these six children had been sleeping like that ever since they were born. However, none of them had ever complained to him about their conditions. Every night, as he looked at them sleep, his heart always felt as though it had been heavily chained to something - guilt. You are all nice children, he thought, but I can give all of you no material comfort. The only valuable thing that I can give to each of you is a chance to live.
Just then, the door of the only bedroom in the house slid open. A petite little pregnant woman walked noiselessly out of the room and took extra care to close the door to the room as quietly as possible. She would have been quite a pretty little lady if only her face did not look so worn out, and a worried look was not etched permanently onto her otherwise lovely face. She was after all still considered relatively young by Soul Society's standard. The woman turned to look at her husband, who immediately gave her a look that quite plainly asked, "How is he feeling right now?" She replied his unspoken question by closing her eyes and shaking her head sadly. They had always have a knack for being able to communicate with each other without words. It was an ability that apparently caused many around them to feel envious of. She sat down next to her husband, who took one of her hands in his immediately. With 180 years worth of experience, they knew that they were both unlikely to be able to sleep in peace tonight, and so they decided to simply sit through the night together in silence.
The sun finally rose, and the couple stood up to prepare themselves for the day.
Suddenly, a string of vigorous harsh coughs from within the bedroom broke the silence that had been maintained throughout the whole night. The woman quickly made her way to the bedroom, but the bedroom's door had already opened before she could reach.
"Jyuu-chan!" She exclaimed immediately, upon seeing her eldest son stumbling weakly out of the room. "What are you doing out of your bed? You were running an extremely high fever! Has your fever subsided?"
The pale-looking young man looked at her with a slightly groggy kind of look. "Fever…?" He murmured, and then he placed his right hand on his head to test his own temperature. "I think I should be fine now, Mother. Don't worry…" He finally concluded, and started to slap his own face lightly with his both hands to wake himself up. "By the way, what is the date today? Isn't today the day for the entrance exam?"
"Jyuu-chan! You can't possibly be thinking of taking the exam in your current condition! I'm not going to let you go!" His mother said hurriedly. "Your father will go and inform them about your condition. They might allow you to take the exam on another day."
"But Mother, you know my condition… My health is unpredictable. I must take it today." Jyuushirou protested. "I must go. Please… Mother."
Jyuushirou's mother was about to open her mouth in disapproval again, but her husband interrupted.
"Let him go, dear. Nothing can change his mind anymore after he had made a decision."
Jyuushirou's mother stopped her protests. Her husband was absolutely right.
Grinning madly, Kyouraku Shunsui sashayed towards the assembly area of the Shinigami Academy where many prospective students gathered, all of them waiting patiently to enter the examination hall and chatting excitedly about possible questions and examining methods. The entrance exam, to Shunsui, could be considered an extremely important event. The exam was the pathway to his desired paradise- a place filled with many pretty women. In order to be able to walk on this path, Shunsui spent the 'whole day' yesterday to 'study' for the exam (actually, all he did was to flip through a book named Fundamental Shinigami Skills, by Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni during the short period of time that he was not asleep). He even woke up early this morning before dear old Mutsuki-baachan could, in his view, 'arrive to knock down his door and kick him awake'. That alarmed Mutsuki so much that Shunsui was rewarded the honour to view the rare startled expression of Mutsuki. He even dressed himself in a flashy pink garment that he bought especially for this 'special event'. In his opinion, pink represented sweet romance, and no other colour would be able to bring out his manly charms better than pink.
Once he reached the assembly area, he walked idly around it, while studying each of the prospective students. Every time he passed by a female, he would stop to stare at her with eyes filled totally with pride, as though he was looking at something of his that he was extremely proud of. While he stared at others, many of the prospective students stopped in their tracks to stare at him as well. Shunsui, however, felt no discomfort from being stared at. Instead, he loved all the attention that was being 'showered' on him. My manly charms must be getting to everyone, he thought happily. He continued strolling around the compound, until he finally found what he was looking for- a girl with long dark brown hair, decorated with large beautiful curls.
Ah ha… There you are… My angel!
He walked swiftly to the would-be school belle and stopped right in front of her. Before the poor bewildered girl could say anything, Shunsui lifted her chin and stared intently into her light blue eyes. "My beloved princess, whose eyes remind me of the lovely blue skies, you must be an angel who had descended to grant me a kiss."
As he moved his face forward to deliver a big wet kiss on the lips of the frozen girl, a firm hand gripping his right shoulder stopped him. " Please stop it," came a stern voice from behind him. Shunsui turned his head around to see a young man who, in his opinion, was one of the most striking people that he had ever seen. That, to him, meant quite a lot, for despite his usual demeanour, he considered himself to be quite an observant person. Since he was young, he would sometimes sit on top of a tree whenever he was bored to observe the many people who paid visits to his father. Another hypocrite, he would often think, for hardly any one of them was sincere. All they wanted were opportunities to become closer to the Kyouraku clan, or otherwise chances to ask for favours. Besides, as a womaniser, he had observed many women before as well. If any mere acquaintance of Shunsui finds out that Shunsui considered himself an observant person, he or she might mistaken Shunsui for a shameless and immodest person, but Shunsui did honestly believe himself to have the ability to understand truth and that was why he disliked bothering himself with most people. His father probably knew his ability too, for he would often ask Shunsui for his opinions on things and people.
It was not that the man looked extremely extraordinary or anything. Granted, he did look a little unusual. The man had white hair, and even in Soul Society, white hair did not commonly grow on young men's head. Despite being a little pale and slightly on the thin side, the man whose hand was still on Shunsui's shoulder was actually quite a handsome young man, and what Shunsui would normally deem as a pretty boy. Nevertheless, he was still relatively normal. Instead, what strikes Shunsui the most were the eyes of the man. They speak of justice and protectiveness, of rights and wrongs. The man possessed a pair of eyes with genuine emotions filled in them, and that, in Shunsui's opinion, was rare.
"A man should treat women with respect," the man continued. Although he was speaking with a calm tone, Shunsui was still able to catch a slight hint of threat in the man's tone. Shunsui was no simpleton. He could tell that this man was no joke, and he had to take him seriously.
Jyuushirou hated this kind of situations. He had frail health, and these situations often require him to teach this kind of guys a lesson. It was not that he could not do it, but each 'lesson' exhausts him quite a lot, especially when he was in this type of condition. Besides, fighting was not exactly his cup of tea. However, it was also not in his nature to ignore people in distress. The flamboyantly dressed man turned and stared at him, totally forgetting about the girl whom he was about to kiss. Upon seeing Jyuushirou, the frozen girl snapped back to normal, pushed Shunsui away and ran away quickly.
"Hey! Don't go!" the man called after her. The girl did not stop, but ran even faster than before. "Aww…" groaned the man, as he turned his attention back to Jyuushirou.
"Look," he started, with a calm expression on his face, "don't think I'm some sex maniac or something. That was merely my way of showing appreciation for a female's beauty. Tell you what, I'll go look for her now to apologise, okay?"
Jyuushirou raised his eyebrow at the man in front of him. That was not what he had expected. Normally, in this type of situations, the harasser would take a short glance at Jyuushirou's pale face and rudely ask him to mind his own business. Jyuushirou would obviously refuse and the person would threaten to beat him up. Then, Jyuushirou would have no choice but to fight the man. The guy in front of him, however, sexually harassed a girl publicly, then declared that he was merely showing appreciation for the girl's beauty, and even offered to apologise to the girl immediately. Is he joking, Jyuushirou wondered, or is this his way of taunting me? He looks completely serious though.
Realising Jyuushirou's disbelief, the man gave a hurt expression and asked, "You don't believe me?"
"Ah! I know! Here, come with me, I'll apologise to her in front of you!" he added, his face brightening up suddenly with enthusiasm. Without any warning, he grabbed Jyuushirou's wrist and tugged him away with him.
"Hey, wait!" said Jyuushirou in alarm, but the man did not seem to hear him. The man suddenly caught sight of the girl and ran after her, dragging Jyuushirou along.
"Hey! You!" cried the man at the girl earlier, who was sitting with a friend, sobbing into her hands. At his voice, the girl looked up, gave a frightened scream, and started to run away again.
On the top floor of the school building, Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni looked down through the window at the prospective students of the new academy that he had set up. However, even from so high up, Yamamoto was still able to catch sight of a rather peculiar scene. A man in pink seemed to be pulling a man with white hair along with him, chasing after what seemed like a girl.
"A bunch of fools," he mumbled.
"No, no! Don't run!" Shunsui shouted after the girl. "I'm here to apologise! Look! I even brought the guy who helped you along with me!"
At his words, the girl slowed down her pace to look back over her shoulder. What she saw made her stopped in her tracks immediately and her frantic look to change into a look of horror instead, causing Shunsui to give her a look of confusion. She raised a finger and pointed to something behind Shunsui. Puzzled, Shunsui quickly whipped around. His own face turned into a look of shock. The man who stopped him earlier was looking pale and deathly, his face almost the same colour as his hair.
"Hey! What's wrong with you?" Shunsui asked in panic, quickly letting go of the man's wrist and moving forward to help the man. The man did not reply him. He was sweating profusely and gasping for air, seemingly having difficulty breathing.
"What's wrong?" Shunsui asked again, while gripping the man's shoulders.
The man started coughing violently, and then suddenly pushed Shunsui away from him. To the horror of Shunsui and the students surrounding them, the man covered his mouth with a hand hurriedly and started coughing blood onto it. After a few more coughs of blood, he collapsed onto the ground and fainted.
Author's Notes: So, how is this chapter? I couldn't think of a way to start this chapter, so it took me quite a while. There are some more things that I wanted to include in this chapter, but it became too long, so they will have to be in the next chapter then. The introduction is a bit long, right? I kind of like it though, so I left it as it is. I really liked the first chapter, so I'm hoping that this chapter will be up to standard. By the way, since I kind of shifted the story between the characters, was it a little confusing? Please read and review! Thanks!