Status: Update outlook is looking... cloudy.
A/N: ...the author is feeling lonely. She only got one review for last chapter. Please? (insert pleading expression here)
November the sixth.
It was the day Uryuu Ishida was born.
It was also the day the chalk fell.
The first indication of anything was the message in chalk, scribbled out at haste with the chalk used to write it smashed on the floor besides it. Tessai denied any knowledge of such a thing. It was a simple message; two words.
It's come.
It was the day that presence seemed to suddenly vanish.
The days after were something of a blur to Kisuke; the phone call, meeting Kimiko at the hospital, coming along with Yoruichi to Ryuuken's house to see an exuberant Isshin already there with his darling Masaki and a three-month-old Ichigo in tow. Ryuuken, who was not himself given to being overly emotional, gave in and returned the hugs while Kimiko fed Uryuu and Yoruichi cooed over the baby.
She'd looked exhausted, but nonetheless happy.
"Our family is complete now."
And then, in a teasing tone of voice, Yoruichi replied, "I wouldn't say that so soon. After all, you never know what the future might bring, do you?"
Some things stick in the memory.
The second time round, it was a girl, Ryuuken had said.
Kimiko had asked for Masaki's help in looking after Uryuu in the later stages of her pregnancy. She'd been somewhat surprised, but touched.
"Of course. We're friends, aren't we?"
There was a name.
Sakana.
Premature. Too early, where Uryuu had been late instead.
Ryuuken was forced to watch, as it came at the wrong time and his wife cried out in pain and the child didn't struggle and just for that briefest of moments he saw his daughter's soul as it came free of the body, looking up at him briefly before vanishing into Soul Society.
The souls of deceased children so young have nothing. They have no chain of Fate to anchor them to the Living World, and no familial ties to keep them behind when the body is broken.
They just leave, without a trace.
I can't even protect the ones I care about.
This power was meant for the sake of the dead. Not the living.
"Ryuuken."
He looked up.
Isshin pulled him into a silent embrace.
"How is she?"
"I don't know. But Kimiko's strong."
Why…
Is this what they felt? When they died? When they became hollow?
"Father?"
"Father!"
This pain… to lose one's heart…
But I'm still alive.
Why...
Never quite the same since that day.
Ever since, Ryuuken had been colder, even to his son. His already rare displays of affection became almost nonexistent. He took to smoking, and sometimes became so engrossed in his work that it took Kimiko's insistence to drag him out of it.
"You're killing yourself over this. There's nothing you could have done."
There was nothing he could have done.
Ryuuken had snapped when Kisuke attempted to point out the fact that it wasn't his fault. The reply he had received in return had been something of a litany on the worthlessness of shinigami, and the uselessness of any power that could save the dead when the soul was something nobody thought existed anyway.
"I will have nothing more to do with the shinigami. They aren't my business. My only affairs lie in the living… and if any of you have any respect for my wishes, you'll leave my son alone as well."
He'd left. Cut all ties in less than five minutes.
Kisuke rang up Isshin, asked him to leave him alone, explained the situation. The other man had listened, quite seriously, then agreed.
For the best.
And since I didn't put this up earlier, here's the full list of the Crimson Guard. Some of them will result in 'WTF'. You have been warned.
One: The King (Ichigo Kurosaki)
Two: The Phantom (Keigo Asano)
Three: The Tyrant (Shiro)
Four: The Healer (Retsu Unohana)
Five: The Trancer (Mizuiro Kojima: deceased)
Six: The Fire Demon (Minara Vega: OC)
Seven: The Giant (Chad/Sado Yasutora: deceased)
Eight: The Dervish (Kyoraku Shunsui)
Nine: The Amethyst Knight (Wonderweiss Margera)
Ten: The Ice Dragon (Toshiro Hitsugaya)
Eleven: The Dragon Knight (Tatsuki Arisawa)
Twelve: The Scientist (Szayel Apporo Granz)
Thirteen: The Sage (Jyuushiro Ukitake)
Fourteen: The Balance (Hanataro Yamada)
Fifteen: The Peacock (Yumichika Ayesegawa)
Sixteen: The Panther (Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez)
Seventeen: The Centaur (Neliel Tu Oderschvank: deceased)
Eighteen: The Pharaoh (Shinji Hirako)
Nineteen: The Archer (Uryuu Ishida: deceased)
Twenty: The Deva (Avir: OC)
Twenty-one: The Fallen (Raito Yagami: Death Note)
Twenty-two: The Kitsune (Yachiru Kusajishi)
Twenty-three: The Blood Demon (Ikkaku Madrame: deceased)
Twenty-four: The Flower (Lisa Yadomaru: deceased)
Twenty-five: The Castle (Kon)