That Which Was Lost
Chapter 1
Intrigue
The relentless evening sun bore down upon the Seireitei, making it unusually hot and humid for so late in September. Sweat soaked the bodies of the shinigami working to repair the Eighth Squad's jurisdiction, their muscles strained to the limit as they trudged by pulling carts laden with hundreds of pounds of lumber and clay roof tiles. Although reconstruction of this part of the Seireitei had been ongoing for almost a year, there were still many areas left to be repaired, mainly the enormous wall of Sekkiseki that separated the Seireitei from the Rukongai.
"Poor child," Jūshirō sighed as he and Shunsui walked through the district, looking at all the chaos and rubble that surrounded them. "You sure left quite the mess for her to clean up. She probably doesn't even know where to start."
"Ye of little faith, Jūshirō. She has actually proven to be quite resourceful when it comes to things like this. She had already come up with a redevelopment plan prior to me even considering her as captain of the Eighth Squad."
"But is that all you used in your consideration?" there was an uncertainty on Jūshirō's face. "Did you not consider her fighting capability? Her experience? What about the fact that she's so young, Shunsui? How in the world did you convince Central 46 to approve of this?"
Shunsui chuckled, "Well, about that…"
Jūshirō's jaw dropped, "Don't tell me that they don't know."
"Nope! They haven't a clue," Shunsui chirped, continuing to strut toward the Eighth Division's barracks, its expansive white plaster walls coming into view once they rounded the corner of a crumbling wall.
Jūshirō shook his head in disbelief, although he should have figured that, even though he was now Head Captain, his behavior wouldn't change in the least. He finally asked, "So why are we here?"
"Well, after the fiasco last night, I figured that the least I could do was offer an apology," he said, and then he glanced at Jūshirō. "And I thought that you might want to take the time and properly greet her without having a crowd around. After all, she looked at you as though you were some sort of three-headed fire breathing dragon."
"Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?" Jūshirō protested, but Shunsui shrugged.
"I don't know. All I do know is that that was the first time I ever saw a woman run away from you instead of falling at your feet like a pile of mush."
Jūshirō cast him a playful glare, but he didn't have time to respond as they ascended the wooden steps leading up to the Squad Eight barracks. Walking through the open sliding screen doors, Shunsui walked down the narrow hall and stopped once he reached the third door on the left. Jūshirō patiently stood behind him as Shunsui rapped his knuckles against the office door, but, when there was no answer, he opened the door anyway so that both captains could peek inside the room.
"Huh? She's not here," Shunsui announced even though that much was obvious. Indeed, there was nothing inside the room except for four cardboard boxes piled in the center. There wasn't even a desk tucked into the corner of the room, nor drapes hanging from the large windows that dominated the front of the room, looking out over the entire area under the jurisdiction of Squad Eight.
"Captain Commander! Captain Ukitake!" someone gasped, and they turned around to see a male member of Squad Eight dropping down to the floor in order to bow before them.
"Now, now. No need to be so formal," Shunsui waved him off, making the squad member clumsily rise to his feet and stand before them as stiff as a board. "Any idea where your captain is at the moment?"
The man visibly relaxed, gesturing toward the stack of paperwork he held in his hand, "The Captain completed all her paperwork early this morning and has dispatched several of us to deliver it. She said that she was going to help the other squad members with repairing the northern portion of the Sekkiseki wall that's still heavily damaged."
"Thank you," Shunsui dismissed him, and the man left after bowing before them once more.
Shunsui began to leave, but he stopped once he realized that Jūshirō was still peering inside the room, a somewhat confused look on his face as he asked, "Where are the rest of her belongings?"
"She doesn't have any." Jūshirō looked at him in surprise, so Shunsui elaborated, "She's only been here in the Soul Society for four years, and that's hardly enough time for anyone to get settled. I gave her a sign-on bonus yesterday, and she was actually supposed to use that to go purchase some furniture this morning, take the weekend off, and then resume her duties on Monday. But I suppose that just goes to show you what kind of person she is."
Jūshirō closed the door behind them as they disembarked from the Squad Eight barracks, altering their course in another attempt to find the new captain. The heat was immense as the sun's rays bore down directly upon them, causing beads of sweat to drip down Jūshirō's brow as he rose a hand to block the sun from his eyes.
"Returning to the matter at hand," he was becoming quite breathless as they walked, "exactly how old is she? Do you really think it wise to make such a young woman a captain?"
"She's twenty-four. She arrived in the Soul Society when she was twenty, and she's spent four years here since then. So, really, she's not that young."
"Shunsui," Jūshirō spoke slowly, trying to talk some sense into his friend, "the last time I checked, we were slightly over two thousand years old. That child is nothing more than an infant compared to us."
"That may be, but she is an infant who learns very quickly. And I was also hoping that you would help show her the ropes of being a captain."
Jūshirō stopped in his tracks, "Me? You want me to aid you in this unbelievable scheme of yours? Forget it."
"Aww," Shunsui whined as he turned around to face the stubborn white-haired man. "Don't be that way, Jūshirō. Surely you see the same potential in her as I do?"
"I've only met the girl once, Shunsui-"
"Head Captain Kyōraku!"
They both turned to see the subject of their conversation standing in the middle of the intersection of two walking paths ahead of them. She was waving energetically, her long brown hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun as she balanced a wooden yoke across her shoulders, the buckets on each end swaying dangerously and about to spill their contents.
"Now see there?" Shunsui waved back at her while addressing Jūshirō, "How often does another captain greet you like that?"
Jūshirō sighed and began to follow Shunsui as he approached her. She seemed to finally notice that Jūshirō was accompanying Shunsui, and her wave faltered for a moment until her smile grew even brighter, her wave becoming even more enthusiastic as she began to walk toward them. But then she seemed to remember something and suddenly stopped walking, turning and gesturing toward something behind the wall and out of their line of sight.
"Prepare yourself," Shunsui glanced back at Jūshirō, but before he could ask Shunsui what he was talking about, his jaw dropped.
An enormous wolf stepped out from behind the wall, its head falling just a few inches short of that of a horse. Every sinew of muscle rippled underneath its thick fur coat, the strands of hair shimmering like platinum in the light of the sun. Its paws were over a foot wide, the monstrous beast making no more than a whisper as it carried itself down the stone walkway toward them. Icy blue eyes nervously shifted left than right, obviously uncertain of its approach until the young woman's hand rose high above her head in order to comb her fingers through the lush fur of its jaw. It leaned into her touch, immediately relaxing as the three captains came to stand before one another.
"What brings you all the way out here, Head Captain?" she smiled pleasantly. "I figured that you'd be inside your office where it's nice and cold."
"I'm beginning to think that you have a bad impression of me," Shunsui chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "But, on a more serious note, I wanted to drop by and personally apologize for what happened last night. Maybe if I would have handled things a little differently, the others wouldn't have been so surprised."
"Don't even worry about it," she said, even though there was a bittersweet look in her eyes. "I knew beforehand that they would have a lot of difficulty accepting me amongst their ranks. I'm just glad that things didn't escalate into a fight between me and Captain Kurotsuchi." She turned her gaze to Jūshirō, and he was surprised when she bowed her head to him, "And I wanted to thank you for stopping me before I made a bad decision. I also wanted to apologize for treating you the way I did yesterday evening- it's just that you looked familiar somehow."
Shunsui's eyes narrowed, but then Jūshirō coughed into the back of his hand, his chest beginning to spasm lightly.
"No need to thank me," he sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, his eyes wincing in pain as he pressed the palm of his hand against his chest in an attempt to control the muscle contractions. "But I hope that you'll forgive this cursed sickness of mine. It never fails to intervene when I'm trying to have a proper conversation."
He coughed into the back of his hand once more, but the coughs never stopped coming. They were powerful, causing his entire body to quake until he had to kneel down upon the ground in order to keep from falling, the terrible coughs still racking his body as he tried to calm them.
"Sir!" She dropped the yoke from her shoulders, causing the buckets of water to spill all over the walkway as she kneeled by his side, one hand going to rest on his back while the other pulled his hand away from his mouth. She gasped when she saw the blood spattered across his palm, but he quickly pulled his hand from hers as the coughing slowly subsided.
"I'm alright," he assured her as he withdrew a handkerchief from within the pocket of his white haori, using it to wipe away the blood as he rose to his feet. However, the concerned look didn't leave her eyes as she stared at where the blood had been on his snow white skin.
"My goodness!" Shunsui suddenly exclaimed, a hand shielding his face as he gazed up at the sky. "Look at the time. It appears as though I'm already late to an important meeting. Memori?"
She jumped to her feet, "Y-Yes, sir?"
He glanced sideways at her, tilting the brim of his straw hat so that it covered half of his face as he said, "Would you mind escorting old Jūshirō here back home? We'd hate for him to be out in this heat all alone if he suffered another attack like that, wouldn't we?"
Jūshirō's eyebrows rose as he instantly caught on to the game that Shunsui was playing, but the girl bowed her head,
"Yes, Head Captain Kyōraku. I will at this very moment."
"Now, hold on," Jūshirō held his hands up in a yielding gesture, making both of them turn to look at him. "Don't I get a say in the matter?"
"No," they both said at the same time, and Shunsui turned his back to them, giving a lame wave before he disappeared, using his flash step to carry him to his destination and leaving the two captains alone.
"He's the devil," Jūshirō mumbled in disdain, but then the girl turned to him, a bright smile on her face.
"I don't believe I ever properly introduced myself." She held out her hand, saying, "My name is Memori Wasure. It's a pleasure to meet you."
He couldn't help but return her smile as he reached out and shook her hand, "I am Jūshirō Ukitake, Captain of the Squad Thirteen. It's a pleasure meeting you, also."
The sound of laughter came from not too far away, and both captains looked to see a group of men passing through the intersecting pathways.
"Excuse me!" Memori called to them, but only one of the men paid her enough mind to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. However, he did a double-take as soon as he saw her, slapping one of the men next to him in the arm before all five of them eagerly ran over to her and dropped to their knees before her.
"How may we assist you, Captain Wasure?"
An embarrassed blush spread across her cheeks, "Please don't be so formal with me." She gestured for them to rise, and as they did she walked back over to the enormous wolf and gestured for it to turn slightly to the left. Jūshirō finally noticed that a wooden pull-cart carrying several stacks of lumber and at least a hundred pounds of Sekkiseki stone had been hooked up to a leather harness that the wolf wore. As Memori's nimble fingers unfastened the buckles that attached the cart to the harness, she explained to the five men, "I have to escort Captain Ukitake back to Squad Thirteen's barracks. Will you do a favor for me and deliver these materials to the job site?"
"Yes, my lady."
Once all the buckles were unfastened, the wolf stepped away from the cart and shook its entire body before sitting down on the stone path. It took four of the men to be able to push down the handle of the cart and push it forward, and another man picked up the wooden yoke and two buckets from the ground before rejoining his fellow squad members as they heaved the wheeled cart toward the northern part of the district.
The wolf rose to its feet once more as Memori approached it. Sliding her left foot into a stirrup hanging from the leather harness, she threw her right leg over its back so that she now sat behind its large shoulder blades. One hand held onto a metal handle that was also attached to the harness, and then she leaned over and extended her hand down toward Jūshirō.
"Ready to go?" she asked.
Jūshirō was skeptical as he regarded the unnaturally large animal, but when the wolf's icy blue eyes focused on him, he leaned away, "Is that safe?"
Memori tilted her head back as she laughed. The sound was like the tinkling of a wind chime, unbelievably pleasant to his ears since it had been so long since he heard anyone laugh. When was the last time, actually? It had to be before the assault by the Vandenreich, several odd years ago.
"Come on," she was still smiling, and, with one last look at the wolf's unnerving gaze, he relented. He gently grabbed the hand she offered and pulled himself onto the wolf's back, its thick fur providing the perfect cushion against its vertebrae. His hands reached forward to steady himself, but then he realized that there was nothing to hold on to except for Memori.
"Are you ready?" she glanced back at him.
"Wait! No! I mean, what am I supposed to-"
The wolf surged forward like a strike of lightning, covering the ground so quickly that Jūshirō's breath whooshed from his lungs and he began to slide back and off the wolf. His arms flailed until he reached forward and grabbed her around the waist, wrapping his arms securely around her. Her entire body grew stiff for a split second, but then she relaxed and cast a glance at him from overtop his shoulder,
"See? It's not too bad, is it?"
And it truly wasn't. The wolf effortlessly glided across the stone walkways, its brisk gait much smoother than that of any horse he had ever ridden. It didn't even seem to mind the weight of the two of them riding atop its back as Jūshirō felt its muscles rippling beneath him, stretching and contacting as it loped through the Seireitei at least five times faster than any normal shinigami could run. The breeze against his cheeks helped to cool him down, too, and he felt so weightless that the nagging pain in his chest began to fade.
"This is actually quite wonderful."
Her green eyes were alight with joy, "His name is Zetsubō."
"Do you mind me asking how you came across a wolf as enormous as this?"
"All I know is that, when I woke up in the Soul Society for the first time, he was right by my side, curled around me in the grass."
His brow furrowed, "When you woke up?"
She was quiet for a while, almost as though she was contemplating whether or not to answer his question. But she eventually shrugged,
"I have no memories of my life as a human."
His eyes grew wide, his mouth opening and closing only to open and close again as he struggled to find something to say. She glanced back at him and saw the shocked look on his face, and she continued,
"I don't even remember my own name. People in the Rukongai didn't believe me at first, and because of my spiritual pressure they were afraid that I was a spy or enemy of some sort. When Head Captain Kyōraku heard about the situation, he personally visited the Rukongai in order to meet me. Unlike the others, he didn't perceive me as a threat. He saw me for what I truly was – lonely, confused, and scared – and he brought me here to the Seireitei and gave me my name. Wasure, Memori. Forgotten Memory."
A long silence ensued as Jūshirō ponded her words. He had never heard of anyone simply waking up in the Rukongai without a single memory of their past. Sure, there were souls who had lived in the Soul Society for so long that they began to forget their human lives, but nothing to the extent that she was describing.
The poor girl didn't even know her own name.
"But it's alright," she finally spoke. "Maybe this is a unique gift, allowing me to begin my life all over again. A fresh start. Many people dream of having this opportunity that I have."
It sounded as though she was trying to convince herself of this more than anyone else, and there was great sadness in Jūshirō's eyes as he asked, "But do you dream of this? Are you comfortable with having absolutely no memories of your past? Not just the bad one, but the good, also?"
"Of course I'm not comfortable with it," she instantly admitted, surprising him. "I would give anything in order to remember the faces of my mother and father, or any siblings if I had them. Sometimes I think that I would love to remember what kind of person I used to be in the human realm, but then…"
Her voice trailed off, and she slowly shook her head as though to dispel the thoughts swarming inside her mind.
"But then what?" Jūshirō asked, intrigued by course of her thoughts.
She glanced back at him, trying to conceal the hurt nestled deep within her eyes but failing to do so. Her hands tightened around the silver handle until her knuckles turned white, and then a bittersweet smile touched her face as she shrugged,
"Every single time I try to remember my past, the same thought keeps popping up inside my head: What kind of horrible person…must I have been… to have had all my memories taken from me?"
Jūshirō's placed his hand reassuringly upon her shoulder, causing her to jump and look at him with wide eyes,
"None of that matters now. All that does matter is that you try to live your life they best way possible and hope for the best."
The serene smile on his face was contagious, causing her own smile to finally touch her eyes as she said, "Thank you. That's the most encouraging thing that I've heard in a long time."
Zetsubō's pace gradually began to slow until he was walking along the tall plaster wall that closed off the Ugendō estate from the prying eyes of the remainder of the Seireitei. The wolf came to a halt in the center of the courtyard leading inside Ugendō, the curved, oversized eaves of the gated entrance's blue roof perfectly complimenting the late evening sky.
Memori slid off of Zetsubō's back and held out a hand in order to help Jūshirō down.
"That won't be necessary," he said, sliding off of the tall beast just as easily as Memori. He took a moment to brush off his white haori, and then he looked at Memori, "Is it alright to pet him?"
There was a smile on her face as she nodded, and Jūshirō threaded his fingers through the luxuriously soft fur of Zetsubō's mane. The wolf made a low rumbling sound in his throat, closing his eyes and leaning into Jūshirō's gentle caress.
"That was exquisite," Jūshirō spoke quietly, but whether it was to himself or the wolf was unclear. "I've never raced through the Seireitei like that. Even using flash step."
"Raced?" Memori looked amused. "That wasn't even half as fast as Zetsubō can go. When you get some free time, you should stop by Squad Eight's barracks and he can show you how fast he can really run."
Jūshirō smiled, "I just might have to do that."
"Captain! Captain!"
The shrill cries came from behind the walls of Ugendō, causing Jūshirō to sigh as he heard the stampeding footsteps of his third seats. He looked back at Memori to bid farewell, but his words caught in his throat.
She was looking at him with the same expression as yesterday. Her delicate eyebrows were knit together in confusion, her pale expression almost that of pain as she regarded Jūshirō. Her eyes lingered on his long, snow white hair as the breeze swirled the strands around his waist, but when their green eyes met she visibly shivered and looked away.
She focused on the sun as it began to set, saying, "I have to run a few errands in Rukongai tomorrow, and I also plan on doing a walk-though of the districts under my squad's control. I heard that there was a pretty decent craftsman in one of them, and that he might have some unique pieces of furniture for my new office. Do you need anything while I'm there?"
He was surprised, "You're going to the Rukongai? It gets pretty nasty once you pass the fiftieth district. You're not going alone, are you?"
She slid her foot into the stirrup and climbed onto Zetsubō's back, "Of course not. Zetsubō will be with me. That's all I need."
"But, even still- Hey, hold on a minute!" he called after her as Zetsubō ran from the courtyard.
It was no use, though, because both of them disappeared from his sight in just a second. Jūshirō sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. Pulling a strand in before his eyes in order to look at the snow white color, he remembered the way she had looked at him…
It was as though she had been desperately trying to remember something.
~)(~
I rely on reviews for constructive criticism and even ideas. Feel free to shoot some my way, and I'll try to post another chapter soon!