TO BE KING
by: Riseha
Chapter 1
There was darkness all around me, falling and wrapping around me like gauze, shrouding me like a veil. Distantly, I heard the rumbling murmurs of human voices. They soothed me; despite the darkness and apparent blindness, the voices reminded me that my situation wasn't too lugubrious.
"So you seek life in my realm," There was stronger voice, still disembodied and unfamiliar and even more uncomfortable; the unearthly voice burned in the back of my mind. If I had my body, I would've shuddered, "I will grant it, in return, I ask of you three conditions—"
And a wholly new voice interrupted: "I think it's time for you to wake up, Suou."
There was a click! and following it was a chill that blew through my bones, nestled in and made itself home; I let out a sharp noise of protest, trying to yell at whoever had tried to tear me from the comforting cocoon (in gratitude because the voice that seared its imprint into my mind was not welcomed at all), flailing my arms. (I was surprised I could actually move my arms.)
But all protests died when warm, large hands embraced me.
I stifled a sob of relief, turning and burrowing my face into the closest source of warmth. It had been so cold - as if I was standing naked in the middle of a blizzard.
Ba-thump. The rhythmic beat led me to conclude that this was a person holding me—er, not that I was expecting a gorilla to be holding me or anything - and judging from the size of the person's chest, was undoubtedly male (or a very flat-chested woman).
What disturbed me was that I couldn't even lift my eyelids. They felt heavy, from weariness and another reason I would not recognize for the time being.
Voices echoed in my ears. A large, callused palm resting on my head.
The warmth was encompassing and I surrendered to sleep, too tired to fight it anymore.
x
There was something inherently wrong and sad about finding out that the one who'd always been your source of comfort was one you should be running away from.
I found out I was an infant the first time I woke up - there was no room to deny it in the small space of the crook of the man's elbow where my fragile head rested and how the rest of my body was balanced in only one arm. I'd let out a startled scream once - and crying because I was hungry.
I figured out that this new body was ... unnatural from the start.
Merely four months after I was - supposedly - born, I could already crawl, see clearly and seize a firm grip on whatever I wanted. Furthermore, my infant body wasn't even that anymore. I'd found a hand mirror and I'd spent hours staring in shock: a fourth-month-old shouldn't have the body of an eight-month-old.
Either my sense of time was screwed up or it was the genetic make-up of this body.
I was hiccuping in panic and confusion when 'father' came and comforted me.
Though it had been years since I saw that face on TV, I recognized that square-glasses, thick wavy dark hair and deceptively kind and handsome face hiding malice: Aizen Sosuke.
I was stunned enough to forget how to breathe and when my lungs threatened to give out, only did I inhaled greedily and exhaled, trying to push the panic out with every breath. Maybe it was fatherly instinct sensing that I needed comfort or he wanted to subject me to inhuman experiments - whatever the reason, malicious or genuineness - he picked me up and held me, hand stroking my hair.
It worked, somewhat. My mind cleared enough to think. It was impossible I could be here. No, wait. It was impossible he could be here, near me, in the real world unless I was in their world. Which would not make sense.
How?
A memory surfaced instantly in response: of the ghastly disembodied voice allowing me entry into its realm, the conditions I had to fulfill ...
My heart skipped a beat. Was that the Soul King?
But why? Why did he allow me to enter?
I sniffled, clinging onto the man's white haori, burdened by tasks and conditions I did not wish to shoulder alone.
x
After that little panic attack, I had the decency to be ashamed of sniveling. However, Aizen Sosuke need not worry about a repeat performance because the body was already growing too old for coddling.
The fact that the Soul King dragged me into this world clinched when I saw Ichimaru Gin and Kaname Tosen. I poked and prodded each and every one of them. They didn't flicker or give away like illusions did so I had to accept that.
I hoped I came off as a curious child instead of someone seeking desperate proof - a semblance of normalcy and reality in this staggering world of illusions.
I stopped worrying about my safety. Actually, I had never been worried about my safety in the first place - Kaname wouldn't hurt me and Gin wouldn't dare to do it under Aizen's nose. I knew Aizen would view me as a tool but unless I showed a sign of weakness, of unworthiness, he wouldn't harm me. Basically - for now, however precariously - I was in the safest place in the world. Until Aizen decided to send Hollows and unspeakable monsters to test how powerful I was.
Hopefully, he wouldn't do that until I had a semblance of training.
I had a feeling I would be going through rigorous training soon enough.
For now, I only had to stimulate my mind ... which meant reading books. I lived somewhere underground since there were no windows and I'd never seen the sun in this world before. The shelves that lined the rocky walls were crammed full of books. The three men took turns teaching me how to read and write.
I expected it to be, like, super difficult and I panicked internally.
I was pretty sure Aizen wouldn't be impressed if he knew his daughter was struggling to learn.
I thanked whoever was watching out for me - thank you, Soul King - that it wasn't as impossible as I'd feared. I knew the Chinese language and some of the Japanese characters were similar enough to help me.
This body's brain was also more ... I felt like I was insulting myself for thinking this infant's brain was functioning better than mine did. Wait, technically, this body was also mine but ... stop thinking.
I had to owe it to my new body. Not only did it develop quicker than ordinary humans, its brain seemed to work twice as quickly - to me, anyway. I picked up hiragana sooner than I thought possible.
I was absolutely positive only half a year had passed since I'd entered this world, but the body was already that of a two-year-old. I feared I would age to fifty in another year but suppressed it. Since I was a baby, I wasn't supposed to know that ordinary babies didn't grow so quickly.
I attributed this to being born in Seireitei and since souls were fundamentally different from humans, I could grow faster than human babies I suppose. I wondered if I could be classified as human. I doubted I was born the normal way since Gin liked calling me incubator-baby and several other nicknames that - though I did not understand, I was sure - were derogatory. Gin always grinned at me and encouraged me to play with him, friendly in every gesture but I knew he loathed me for being Aizen's daughter.
He wanted me dead, perhaps not as badly as Aizen, but still lifeless nonetheless. I would have many natural enemies just because of my parentage.
So I knew I had to start Shinigami training as soon as possible.
"Suou-chan~!" Before I could strengthen my grip on my picture book, Gin ripped it away and tossed it carelessly. I stared at his blatant disrespect of books. "Let's go -"
"Can you teach me that?" I asked. Gin had fallen silent the moment I spoke. My father and his men knew that I spoke slowly in an effort to enunciate every syllable accurately.
"Wha' has you so fascinated?" he asked.
"You move very, very fast - I want to do that, too!"
Gin smirked. "Maybe when you can run."
"I can," I stressed.
"Not wit'out face-planting."
Great. Just great. I knew from his face that he was going to do his best to embarrass me with his repertoire of baby stories - that was mostly untrue and never happened but he probably counted on me not remembering my infant years to be able to counter him. I bet Gin was disappointed I would be a toddler then a child in a year or two so he wouldn't be able to take snapshots of me sniveling or drooling.
The thought made me shudder. "What do you want?"
"Let's go for a run, ne?"
x
Her first word was "Otou-san" - father. That one word was like a bucket of ice cubes that washed over him - Aizen Sosuke was not easily fazed but her word chilled him to the bone for reasons he had yet to speculate about. Suou was an active and curious baby, he'd observed and made notes of her rapid growth - deductive reasoning nodded to her immense reiatsu for an infant and her body rapidly evolved to bear the brunt of it. Aizen estimated that in seven years, she would bear the form of an adult - at least, he knew she'd stop aging once her reiatsu stabilized.
Aizen was there for every firsts: her first word, first time walking, first time laughing or smiling - which was rare. His presence seemed to elicit varying responses from her. At least he appeared to be the one she gravitated to anyway. Suou's disdain was specially reserved for Gin; she did not pay much attention to Tosen.
Aizen knew that Suou had not much stimulation and for a growing baby - toddler, child - it wasn't healthy.
In retrospect, having Gin play with her was not healthy either. Having Gin anywhere near her couldn't be healthy in the first place.
Suou looked bored, though, to play a game of 'Who can gather more dead pigeons' with Gin.
"Suou, Gin."
His daughter perked up, abandoning the bloodied pencil that had been used to prod the poor bird's organs, to rush to him. Suou ducked beneath his captain haori - the small tremors rocking her body told Aizen that she had not been as indifferent to killing birds as she had acted - and clung to his leg.
"What is this ... mess?" Aizen asked carefully, eyeing the scene. There were about a dozen mutilated pigeons. One of them flapped its wings weakly. Aizen was not raising his daughter to be a psychopath or sociopath - those sort of people were interesting to deal with, but ultimately, not people useful to his cause. "Gin, didn't I warn you to not do anything that would upset Suou?"
Gin shrugged. "I'll clear this up."
On the upside, Aizen learned one thing about his daughter ... she was not prone to cruelty if her trembling was anything to go by ... nor did she have a measure of bloodlust - she showed no fascination for blood either - which was ... odd, considering who he had used to construct the other 50% of Suou's DNA.
The founder of the 11th Division had a daughter - though unknowingly - that despised blood and cruelty? Ironic.
Aizen smiled - perhaps it came from him? Aizen was not opposed to killing but he did not lust for blood nor did he actively seek battle regardless of his prowess in battle.
Suou deigned to step out once Gin was gone. She smiled shyly up at him. "Hello," she demurred.
"Are you still in the mood to play?"
"No birds, please," Suou said.
"Just hide-and-seek," Aizen assured her.
Suou blinked rapidly, cocking her head in question.
x
Living as Aizen Suou meant being adaptable - it meant not letting anything take you by surprise. It meant keeping up even if you found out you were a monkey's aunt. So when the big bad suggested playing an ordinary kid's game, I forced a grin and agreed.
I would be the one seeking. As I counted to twenty, my mind raced for an answer. I was pretty sure Aizen had other things to do - he couldn't be that free and bored enough to play with his daughter, right? I surmised that he wanted me to prove something.
If I were to be the seeker ... it meant he wanted me to find something ... did he want me to sense him?
I knew my body was made of reishi and seeing who my father was, I assumed I had large reiatsu for a kid my age. But sensing other people's reiatsu was a different matter entirely ... I'd never tried it. I closed my eyes and placed my palms over them, thinking, stretching my other senses, reaching for the one thread of life that had created me.
What was his presence like?
Dark, foreboding, yet calm and soothing - powerful. His reiatsu was dense. How hard could it be to head in that direction? Except that he had suppressed some of it. However faint it was, I could feel him, behind me - at the edge of my mind. In my mind's eye, I saw a violet ribbon splayed in the darkness, leading to the east.
I stood, eyes still closed, and ran in that direction. I was careful to maneuver around trees and obstacles, keeping one eye open and the other in darkness. The violet ribbon grew fainter with the light piercing into my retina from my other eye but it didn't vanish.
I disregarded the darkness the canopy of trees cast, rounding the large oak tree, expecting to see Aizen. "Chichi!" I looked up and there my father was, leaning casually against the tree. He smiled down at me - I blinked - and he was suddenly crouching in front of me.
"That was quick," he said.
"I could see your ribbon," I told him truthfully.
Otou-san - Dad? - arched a brow. "Ribbon?" he prompted.
I closed one eye, seeing the ribbon coiling around an invisible mass. I was still concentrating on finding him. I relaxed, willing the need to find him disappear and the ribbon was gone as well, leaving only darkness behind. "My eyes ... when I concentrate real hard, the ribbon appears when I close my eyes."
"Only when you close them?"
I tested that. "Yes."
Otou-san's eyes glittered brightly as he smiled. "Well, why don't we put it to a test? There's a town nearby. I'll mingle with them, try to find me, alright?"
A town nearby? I didn't know that. I nodded, slightly uncertain, but he tousled my hair in assurance before Shunpo'ing away. Any doubts that I was being paranoid and that this was a test disappeared - Aizen was testing me. I didn't know how I could sense him, I wasn't sure if I could sense others this way but ...
I closed my right eye, concentrating again.
This was actually fun - it was certainly more action than I'd had in awhile - and I started running.
x
I have no excuse for the late update. And since the popular choice is female ... so a girl, it is. I'll try to fit everyone's criteria of Suou to be powerful but not Mary-Sue, etc. But it'd be a few more chapters before her personality is properly defined. Suou has to learn where she stands in her father's eyes first.
Also, Suou is a girl's name - Suou from Darker Than Black anime is a girl.
I didn't respond to last chapter's reviews but I'll try to, this time. So feel free to throw suggestions, criticisms, questions or ideas at me - it keeps the inspiration coming.
Review!