Chapter 14 - Many moons ago
The next day Yuu was in an incredibly good mood and decided to take Kimi into town and treat her to cake from the bakery. Even with Kimi's many refusals she insisted, and soon found out why.
Once they had chosen their cakes they had a stroll around the town enjoying the sunshine and suddenly Yuu walled ahead and turned to look at Kimi with a glint in her eye.
"Yuu if you're gonna tell me how amazing the dance was you can stop; I've heard it enough now" she said with a yawn trying to sidestep her.
"It's not that, well, it is but-" she sighed. "I know you're not going to like me saying this but... I think you should try to contact Hatsuka again- don't give me that look!"
She understood now. She had bought her cake in an attempt to butter her up and put her in a good mood, and food bribes usually worked but not this time.
"Please just try... I think that after learning all of this you have gotten over all of your impatience- Kimi! That what it was, no please listen to me!" She said as Kimi tried to interrupt angrily. "You aren't as hasty as you were, your timings in the dance were perfect so I think your timings in a fight would be fine, I think that... You would give him a run for his money and it serves him right!" She rushed the last few words, as if it pained her to say them and the quicker she got them off her chest the better.
Kimi scowled. "You don't mean that. You're just telling me what you think I want to hear. You just want him back and you know that he won't if we don't get along." she said bluntly.
"No! I do mean it... You've improved so much in such a short stretch of time... You trained with him for longer and didn't achieve as much... But..."
"Doesn't that say a lot? You have seen that he sucks as a teacher, you've seen how mad he makes me and still want him to come back? If you miss him so much just tell him but don't use me."
Yuu looked like she was going to cry and Kimi felt a pang of guilt.
"I would tell him but I'm affraid he would say no... And even if he did say yes I wouldn't want there to be so much tension between you two... I don't have to have to chosen between the two of you... I want both of you... He really is nice if you get to know him Kimi..."
"Funny, I knew him for a fair few months and only saw his nice side when I first met him, and even that wasn't very friendly. He changed so much that he lost his good side, Yuu. If he was a good person, he wouldn't have done that-"
"Get over it already! Just get over it and move on, it's in the past!" She shouted causing a few passers by to jump and stare in alarm. Now Kimi was surprised enough to back away. Yuu never shouted even when she was angry so she must have been dying to get this off her chest for ages.
Kimi hesitated and sighed. "Fine. But you will contact him for me and I'm not apologising. I'm not even going to say hello. Just fight and get it over with."
"Thank you. That's ok by me." And they continued walking in silence. Then Kimi decided to voice something that she had been wondering for a while now.
"Yuu? I've been thinking a lot since Hatsuka left and I have always wondered... If he isn't a Soul Reaper how does he know so much about them?"
Yuu pondered the question for a moment then took her hand and pulled her away. "Come with me. What? We have no plans so let's go"
And a few minutes later they arrived in the small abandoned clearing next to the river that was home to the dilapidated old tree house, the place where she and Yuu had once eaten then sweets together.
"Why are we here?"
"This is where we first met- me and Hatsu I mean. It just seems like the right place to explain things" and they sat down on the carved tree stumps.
"We met when we were very young, I don't know, when we were about ten or something, literally ten years old in Soul Society years. He was a bit of a loner back then. He didn't have any friends, not that he really acted like he wanted any. A few people tried to approach him but he would just run away" Yuu seemed to enter a dreamy state while telling her story.
* -flashback- *
It was a blazingly hot summers day, not that it was ever otherwise during Harumachi's summer time. Most people had given up working on the market stalls due to the intense heat, but the heat wasn't enough to stop the youngest children from playing in and around the village.
Yuu, being the village leader's daughter, was automatically looked to as a leader by the other children and took it in her stride. They would often march around the town pretending to be a group of something, like soldiers or dragons or something along those lines, but Yuu would always be given the highest position.
She was no taller than about 2 foot and wearing the same sort of yukata she wore today but in kids version, with her sleek black hair a lot longer and tied into a high ponytail.
Most of the children were younger and smaller than Yuu. Seeing as she was one if the oldest and the younger ones looked up to her so much, she was expected to keep them occupied and safe at the same time. This whole pretending to be a pirate leader that she was doing at the moment was a good way to get the very small children to follow and behave.
Today they marched out of the village and along the riverside pretending to be a pirates looking for a place to dock their ship, this is how she explained the idea of building a tree house to the children. She even had an eye patch and wooden play sword to play the part convincingly.
As they marched, chanting songs and making as much noise as possible Yuu was looking for a good place for them to play in the water.
They walked into a spot next to the river where there were fewer trees. She grinned. This was perfect. It had plenty of space and was fairly sheltered but it didn't block out the sun completely.
She spotted something on the other side of the river and saw a small boy, someone that she had recognised from walking around the village a few times, about the same age as her sitting against a tree, skimming rocks across the water in the shade. Judging by his expression he had heard them coming and wasn't too happy, but at the same time he looked fed up and miserable sitting there all alone.
"Halt, me hearties!" She called, raising a hand in the air and jumping to a halt. There was a small pile up behind her as first kids weren't quick enough to stop. "Me thinks this is a perfect place for our ship! Now, we need to build it! Get to work you maggots! It's not gonna build itself!"
The other kids cheered and ran off towards the trees to pick up sticks and twigs. Yuu laughed at their enthusiasm but she would ask the adults to help them build a real tree house here later on.
The boy was still staring at her from the opposite bank with something that looked like envy. She sat down, slipped her shoes off and kicked her feet around in the cool water without speak to him.
Instead of speaking to her or moving away he completely ignored her as though she wasn't there.
"Hey, why don't you come and play with us?" She asked kindly. He still ignored her.
"It looks lonely over there, it's a lot more fun over here-" but she froze as he glared at her. His eyes like sharp amber daggers. "Or not..." She muttered.
She got up and played with the other kids for a while, noticing more and more how miserable the boy looked watching them. She got the impressions hat he wanted to join them but didn't know how to and didn't want to accept her offer, so she tried again.
"You sure you don't want to come over here with us, you are always welcom-"
"NO! Leave me alone!" He shouted, startling some birds out of the trees. In anger he threw a rock he was holding down the river with such force that it skimmed across the shimmering surface for a few meters before disappearing.
Most of the other kids had seen, having turned to look what was going on when he shouted. Their mouths were open wide in awe. "How did he do that? Did you see that? Did you see what he just did?" One little boy asked excitedly to the friends around him.
But young Hatsuka turned away as was picking his bag up off the floor beside the tree. Before he could leave Yuu jumped into the shallow river and swam to his side.
"You're coming with me" she said to him quietly, grabbing his wrist and dragged him into the water fully clothed without giving him chance to argue.
"What are you doing! Let go of me! Ugghh..." he whined as his clothes became drenched. Yuu didn't care that her clothes were drenched, she always played in the river fully clothes and was used to it. When they reached the other bank Hatsuka looked like a soggy drowned rat, his fairly long auburn hair sticking to his face messily.
Yuu cleared her throat as the other kids continued to stare, smirks on their faces at Hatsuka's confused, distressed look. "Troops! I'd like you to welcome a new member to our crew! His name is-" the she realised she didn't know his name. She whispered in his ear "What is your name?"
"Ha-Hatsuka" he shivered, not being used to the breeze cooling down his wet clothes.
"Hatsuka! Take care of him, okay?"
The children cheered and practically jumped on Hatsuka demanded for him to show how to skim rocks.
"At first he was very nervous and jittery, he would never speak unless I bought him into the conversation and he had no way out of it, like how I forced him to join us. If I didn't force him he would never do anything though I could tell he appreciated my help and counted on me. But eventually he got used to it and I didn't have to force him anymore. He started to make friends and became my best friend, being a little bit older than me." Yuu said, smiling reminiscently, staring over at a spot underneath a tree opposite them.
Kimi thought that she had watched these scenes play out as she explained at and laughed.
"Hatsuka changed as he got older. He went from being shy and reserved to liking attention and wanting to be the best at everything, he was a bit of an annoying show off at times to be honest, even I would get mad at him. But one day he found a pretty impressive reason to show off"
"What was that?"
"His uncle."
Kimi raised an eyebrow.
"The person who really taught Hatsuka kendo was his uncle, who was a soul reaper-"
"He told me it was this father" Kimi interrupted.
"I'll get to that in a minute just let me tell my story!" She smiled. "Anyway, his uncle was assigned to Harumachi, his home town, which allowed him to come home regularly and see his family. So you can imagine the reaction if the other kids when they found out someone so strong and cool was part of Hatsu's family. Hatsu practically had celebrity status because of it and a lot of the other kids expected him to be a soul reaper too. Hatsu admired his Uncle, but even more so when he was getting a lot of attention for it."
"That is pretty cool to be fair" Kimi agreed. "Even I would be impressed"
"Exactly. Naturally he didn't want to be look weak next to his awesome uncle so he asked him to teach him to be a soul reaper. But Hatsuka didn't have any spirit energy... being so young and naive he couldn't understand why this would stop him, so his uncle offered to teach him kendo instead, seeing as you don't need spirit energy to use a bamboo sword, and he was naturally really good at it. He didn't need to live in his uncle's shadow with the reflected glory anymore, he had his own talent!" Yuu said proudly. Kimi had a feeling that Yuu had given Hatsuka a lot of encouragement at the time, the same as she had done for her.
"His uncle taught him everything he knows about kendo and soul reapers today. But one day Hatsuka made his uncle really mad. Even though he had explained that Hatsu could never be a Soul Reaper he was too naive to understand why spiritual pressure was so important... so... he ignored what his uncle told him and went ahead to the soul reaper academy entrance exams- this is only what I've been told from rumours, Hatsu always refuses to talk about it- He shouted to all the spectators and panel of judges about how his uncle was the best soul reaper in the world and he wanted to be just like him. He failed he exam and made a fool of himself, embarrassing his uncle and causing him a lot of grief within the Seireitei"
Kimi stared at Yuu, she seemed to be getting a bit upset. "Hatsu and his uncle argued when they next met and Hatsu said some really mean stuff that he didn't mean, he just said it out of anger. Hatsu was so mad that he stormed off in a rage and his uncle left without saying goodbye. A few days later... He died"
"No way..."
Yuu nodded, agreeing with her shocked expression.
"But what happened to his uncle?"
"Some people say he killed himself, some say he died while on duty. His family knew but Hatsu never wanted to speak shout it... He was never the same again. He went back to being shy, quiet and reserved. He stopped practising kendo, He lost the one thing that truly made him proud. He never spoke about his uncle, soul reapers or anything of the sort again."
"But that's unfair to his uncle's memory!" Kimi protested.
"I know, but I think Hatsu was too ashamed of himself and didn't want to remember his uncle in such a bad light. It was painful for him. After it happened his family moved up into the mountains, partly because they wanted to expand their business, but partly because of how miserable Hatsu was. People were making fun if him for what happened and adding to his guilt and grief, so they decided to give him a fresh start.
Hatsuka was my last friend, the last one to leave the village or move on and grow up. It was my first time in at least 80 years seeing him when he can home with you. I had no idea if he still lived in the mountains or was eve still alive..."
Kimi had been staring unblinking at the floor through this. Now she saw why Hatsu was the way he was. He was taking the role of his uncle with Kimi, but because she was able to become a soul reaper unlike him he was pushing her hard to achieve the goal that he could never reach. Kimi had done to him exactly what he had done to his uncle, got into a rage and said horrible things before storming off, and the more Kimi thought about it the more she knew how guilty should would feel if something happened to Hatsuka without having chance to apologies to him.
"I get it now." She said still not blinking. "Go and contact Hatsuka, tell him to come whenever he is available. I'll be ready for him."
Yuu nodded and rushed off to send the mail. Kimi dropped her gaze from the spot on the opposite bank, imagining the lonely little auburn haired boy huddled there while other kids played opposite him, feeling the hatred and jealously as thought it was a familiar feeling to her, as though she had felt it in her past life too.
She stood up too, breathing deeply and knowing that Hatsu would not leave it until another day. He would be here soon as always, and made her way back to the manor.
Yuu arrived back later that afternoon with the news that Hatsuka would be there the next morning Which surprised her. Whenever they had sent a message for him to meet up he had been there in a heartbeat, perhaps something came up.
So Kimi spent that night trying to clear her mind and calm her nerves, getting a little bit of last minute tactics and reading in before the morning. She felt as though everything she had learned would fall apart the second she saw him and he would laugh at her for still being useless.
But that feeling changed in the morning while she was changing in her Hakama. She realised that she had been dancing to a fast beat in tight clothing and stupidly high shoes and had got used to them fairly quickly, but now she would be fighting in lose fitting, roomy clothes and would be able to use her flash step once again.
She stood in her room waving her arms around in the Hakama and making small flash steps from one side of the room to the other, feeling incredibly light she was and her confidence peaked.
Just then, Yuu knocked on the door to say that Hatsuka was here. Kimi's stomach lurched but she ignored it and left the room with Yuu for the front courtyard.
Kimi followed her in silence and stuck to her promise of not speak to Hatsuka for the most part.
"Welcome Hatsuka, it's good to see you again" Yuu smiled. Kimi didn't even look him in the eye, just stared at her nails as if looking for dirt.
"Thank you Lady Yuuga, good to see you are well."
"Very well thank you. I'm looking forward to this, my sister has improved a lot since your last meeting" Kimi picked up on the pride in her voice and thought that maybe she was trying to worry Hatsu.
"She has, has she? I'll be the judge of that. Here-" and to her surprise, he unsheathed Kimi's own black sword from his back and throw it to her. She hadn't noticed until now but he had been carrying two swords. She looked down at it and see that the crack was still there. She felt a pang of guilt, more for abandoning the sword than for Hatsu. She had become quite attached to it.
"Let's begin, shall we?"
"Let's."
Kimi stood ready. Rather than standing heavily with both hands gripped tightly on her sword, she took a sideways stance with only one hand gripping the sword, something else she had learnt from dancing. He raised his eyebrows at this and gave a cocky smirk.
Smirk all you like. I'll wipe it off anyway She thought savagely.
She stared him down making sure to put all her hateful words into her glare, not daring it break eye contact with him. She was going to allow him to make the first move. And soon enough he did, running forward, but strangely he seemed slower than before, or had her senses just sharpened?
She assumed this was because of her training with the rapidly flying angry logs, in comparison Hatsuka was walking towards her, not running.
She leaned out of his way as he swung down onto her left, the side that wasn't holding the sword, and then twirled lightly to block his next incoming hit from behind.
He made a few more slashes at her then hurried backwards to distance himself. He stared her down looking slightly annoyed that she had managed to block all of his hits without even bring her second hand to the sword.
She stood still, watching for his next move as he planned it. He ran forwards again but Kimi flash stepped aside and landed a blow to his left arm.
He grunted in pain and made to swipe at her but she flash stepped again to his right, and again to his left. She did this a few more times and his frustration mounting at her speed and not being able to keep up. It was making him impatient and causing him to make mistakes, to leave himself open while desperately trying to land at his at times that usually he would be on full guard.
Kimi knew he wouldn't be able to catch her now, no matter how hard he tried, so she had an idea.
She stood still and slacked her swords grip slightly to give him the impression that she was become complacent and that he still had a chance, to give him a false sense of hope. She lowered the sword and smiled at him in a way that plainly, sarcastically asked "Can't keep up?"
She visibly saw his face grow red with rage and he charged at her without thinking. As the sword reached within millimetres of her face and Hatsuka finally thought he had won, Kimi flash stepped.
This time she did not appear next to him and it seemed that he had planned ahead for her to do so to catch her out. When she did not appear he whirled around looking for her frantically. She appeared in the air meters above and behind him and with a yell of laughter, half fuelled by adrenaline she slashed down on his right shoulder.
He hit the floor clutching the pain before he even knew what had happened. It all happened too quickly for him. Kimi landed softly on her tip toes behind him and watched him while he sat gripping the pain in his shoulder.
Before she would have landed with a thud flat on both feet, but she could tell the dancing had paid off. When she landed she felt as though the wind has placed her down gently.
This time Yuu didn't come running to them as she did before. She sat firmly on her spot on top of the wall smiling at Kimi warmly.
"How does it feel? To be beaten at your own game" she asked harshly.
Hatsuka made a Tsk sound that was partly a laugh. He stood up to face her, grinning.
He avoided her question. "When did you learn the style of a Water dancers?"
She blinked but realised what he meant after remembering Granny's words, Fluid as water.
"Let's say I picked up a few tricks since we last met."
"I see. You have improved a lot I'll give you that. You certainly do the style justice. It felt like trying to catch water with your bare hands. As soon as you think you've got it, it slips away."
Kimi didn't even smile. She just nodded and turned away. This was good to hear, reassuring to know that she was doing it right. "Then my training paid off after all. Thank you for bringing back my sword. If that is all you may leave." she was surprised by the amount of authority in her own voice, as if the two of them had switched places upon his defeat.
"Look, Kimiko. I owe you an apology" she froze and turned to look over her shoulder at him. He stayed in a kneeling bowed position. "You have proved that you were right about me being too pushy and honestly I didn't believe that you would get anywhere without me... but you've proved me wrong. You've come far in these few months and I apologise for being so harsh to you. You defeated me fair and square"
Kimi looked over at Yuu who looked as surprised as she felt. She nodded encouragingly "Thank you, Hatsuka. I'm... I'm also sorry for saying all those things back then. I didn't mean them; I was just angry" she had hesitated. She did mean them because use he annoyed her so badly and she still believe she had no reason to apologise he had deserved it... But it was more important to keep the peace.
He straightened up and smiled. "I know that feeling" and he held out his hand. She stared at it for a moment, understand his words. He knew the feeling because he had been in a similar situation. Hoping that he had seen the error of his ways, she accepted his hand shake.
Yuu came flying at them from the top of the wall and jumped on them both, pulling them close to her. Kimi saw a startled blush appear on Hatsu's cheeks as he was pulled into her chest.
"Don't you two ever do that again! It was horrible having to be in the middle of that! You both need to lighten up and stop being so serious!" They both smiled. Of course, being less serious would make the whole training ordeal a lot more fun and perhaps then they could learn to like each other without Yuu's help.
"I'm sorry" Hatsu said not hugging her back but guilt written all over his face.
"Me too, it won't happen again" she agreed returning her sister's hug.