Chapter Twenty Four, "Stories of Betrayal" – Part Four
The False King
"People worship the strong."
Yamato watched the pests flock to Enishi like flies to shit. The words echoed back into his ears, but left his mouth without intention.
Beside him, Nagisa struggled to remove the ink stain from a haori, scrubbing it hard against the washboard leaned over a wide wooden bucket. Water and suds splashed viciously, movements that mirrored her irritated glower. She paused to wipe her brow, lifting clear blue eyes to the man in question.
"People follow leaders, whether strong or weak," she said lightly, returning to scrubbing the remaining tint on the white cloth. "The only thing they need is a powerful voice and some ideas."
"Enishi is a fool, yet they worship the ground he walks on."
Nagisa sighed, starting to twist the fabric to squeeze out the water. She spun and folded it delicately in her hands until the last of its saturation dripped into the bucket's soapy surface. He sensed her disapproval long before she put it in lecture form.
"When has envy brought you happiness?" she questioned, looking at him straightly with a face that reflected his but an unrecognizable wisdom clouding her eyes. "En has his flock of admirers for being a tactician, not a force of nature. You are a unique form of genius." Her raw fingertips laced over his hand as she forced his gaze from Enishi. She raised their joined hands to eyelevel. "These hands of yours can save a thousand lives; you are just as necessary as a tactician. If his army faces strife and injury, you will sweep into the darkest grounds to breathe life into them."
"I want to be a part of that army, not a healer," he replied, hoping to contain the quaver of his voice. To tame the fury blooming in his insides at the sight of the world he wished to conquer and not forever damned to be an observer.
The softness of his sister's lips pressed against his cheek chastely. "Do not challenge fate," she advised. "It is rarely fair and understanding. You are a blessing to Soul Society and it's time you realized it."
Nagisa walked out of sight to the laundry line.
Yamato lived in a world conspiring against him. Whether human or shinigami, life never truly blessed him. Born a meek, human boy in a warring country, he lived under the shadow of his brother, the Conqueror, until his death came at the hand of disease. Soul Society unfolded before him the sweetest of utopias, full of beauty and wonder, a new shot at life, he had thought. But his body was fragile. It was in his best interest to acknowledge that he would never become physically strong when tied down by a useless body.
Meanwhile, Enishi conquered as a genius strategist with a powerful edge in battle. Touma, a mere boy, scrawny as they come, was as strong as an ox. Nagisa, his half, proved her genius a multitude of times in the objects she brought to life in formulas and scrap metal. Sometimes he wished she would pick apart his pieces and remake them into something useful, perhaps then, a spark of light might awaken within him.
Yamato dropped his eyes to his hands, feeling the skin Nagisa touched burning. His blessing, as Nagisa called it, was an understanding of medicine and healing using spiritual energy, it was all the things he derived from books, knowledge he gained through literature, not an ability born of him naturally. It wasn't new or awe inspiring.
He clenched his hands tightly, nails digging tiny crescents over his palm and his knuckles blanched. He walked among giants, longing that one day, by some miracle, he would become like them.
.
As the memory escaped him, Arashi stayed still on his feathered mattress listening to the annoying beep of his cellphone like a crow squawking curses. Vivid images simmered into darkness when he lifted his body from his comfort, pressing the phone to his ear, knowing who it was long before the caller administered the call.
"Yuka," he greeted lazily. "I was in the middle of something."
The silence on the other side branched from Yuka's assuming nature of his involvement with others, the disquiet temperament of a jealous, possessive woman with no claim on him. He admired her boldness, always had, whether for personal reasons or business, keeping her close was a no-brainer. She was as useful as they came and so long as he entrusted her heart with the slightest of affections, she was his.
"Oh?"
There were traces of sarcasm and disbelief combined to disguise the quiver to her voice, the subtle traces reminded him of his reverie. He wanted to be the soldier, not the doctor much like she wanted to be the girlfriend and not another name on a list.
"It's done," he sighed. "I need you to meet me in an hour."
"Yeah," she said dutifully. "I'll track you."
"No need, I'm home."
"…Understood."
He ended the call, dropping back onto the mattress with the cellphone clutched in his hand. The bedroom door opened and closed noiselessly as the click of heels reached his ears.
Miho came into view a second later, blond hair tied to the side in an arrangement of curls. She dressed in another ridiculous Lolita outfit, a frilly black skirt and matching sleeveless top with a small hat decorated in ribbons to complete the look. She took a seat beside him, in the middle of texting one of her friends.
She met his gaze when she finished. "You called?"
"I have a favor to ask of you."
"A favor?" she questioned, dubious.
Arashi abandoned his bed slowly, taking a moment to walk around it, stretching his legs. "A small favor, I expect you to do this well."
He paused, eyeing her. "Nagisa, Enishi and Touma split. We have an opening." At her arched eyebrow, he elucidated with a roll of his eyes. "Without those barbarians hunkering around her, we have a chance to reason with her."
Miho left the seat, annoyed. "Reason with her? You hate her, why would you?"
"I do, you have a point," he confessed. "But I never said I would be the one doing the reasoning. She is peaceful so long as you approach her properly. If you step into her world with bad intentions, she will know and bear her claws. At this moment, she is accessible. This is our chance to infiltrate their ranks directly. My connections aren't producing results, I need some that do."
"What does this have to do with me?" Her phone jingle went off, signaling a new message.
"I believe you are the most suited," he said. "Yuka was always an option, but she doesn't sell sympathy well. And Faye is impossible because she hates her. You are the only person able to gauge the necessary reaction, so I've chosen you."
Miho glowered, but obliged. "Fine, what do I have to do?"
"You pledge allegiance to her," he stated. "Say that you're fed up, that I'm a horrible person and you want to be as far as away from me as possible. Who cares, get creative, but make it believable."
Arashi started for the door.
"Where should I look?"
He halted. "You figure it out, and quickly," he urged. "I have a meeting with father and his shinigami friends in an hour. Make it happen." He grinned at her over his shoulder, a smile that brought forth fear from the darkest pits of one's soul and paralyzed her in place. "Report to me in three hours if you are still alive."
"Feet off the coffee table," growled Hiko, shoving Arashi's legs harshly on his way across the room. He held a brew of steaming coffee in one hand and in the other a small, ancient-looking leather book.
Arashi grimaced, dropping his feet to the ground. "What's with the attitude, pops?"
Hiko dropped into the nearest armchair. "I'm still your father."
"Oh," he said wondrously. "You're still taking credit?"
"I am still your father," Hiko repeated, setting his book open on the short table.
"You're no fun."
Hiko took a gulp of his coffee, flipping through pages lazily. "I never tried to be."
"Well, it wouldn't have killed you."
"I don't need to hear this from you."
"I'm older and wiser than you. Smarter too, no doubt."
Hiko sighed, shaking his head. "Please, shut up."
Arashi sagged in his seat, resting his cellphone over his stomach and started replying to the messages in his inbox, annoyed by how many useless greetings he received daily. "It's no wonder you're friendless."
He felt his father's eyes burning into his face. He felt his lips tug into a wide smile, but was disappointed to see, after a couple minutes, Hiko didn't plan to feed into his amusement. Whatever did he do to be cursed to have a buzz kill for a father? As he zipped through a mental list, he imagined it was one of his misdeeds.
Arashi dropped his phone beside him. "…Will your friends be any longer?"
"As long as they need," Hiko answered. "I don't appoint times."
"Well, you should have been considerate, I could have a plan in the works and all this waiting is cutting into all the timing."
Holding the mug to his lips, Hiko's eyes flickered to him. "Do you have a plan?"
"I have the makings of a plan," he replied with an easy smile, all sparkles and happiness. "It's best if this goes without a hitch."
"Do you plan to disclose this plan to me?"
"Normally, I would say 'in time,' but I suspect you and Kurosaki are in a hurry to locate your nomadic children." The scathing glare he received from his father for the lame joke made him smile. "Nagisa is a Grade A manipulator and Enishi is one of the best orators, you shouldn't be surprised if they hesitate on the subject of the Arcana. Haruka is an impressionable girl and with a bit of confidence, no matter how suspicious, you have Ichigo under your belt. It's best to get to them before either of them is corrupted."
Hiko continued flipping through his book, ignoring his taunts. "Tell me the full plan now. We'll drop the unnecessary details for Ichigo's companions."
"Agreed, some of the details are best kept from the children's ears."
His father rose from his seat. "There is something I would like to make clear."
"What?"
"The idea that you are Yamato makes no difference in the fact that you are my son," Hiko said. "Whether this makes me happy or unhappy is irrelevant, you are Sara's child, you are my child—"
"Save me the forced kindness, father," Arashi interjected. "You can't stop me from participating in my own war."
"I can and will," he said with finality. "Our agreement will help you leave your trial without a death sentence. It's in your best interest to support Soul Society until your brothers are dead, so until then, don't do anything foolish."
Ignoring the surge of sarcastic comebacks running through his head, Arashi sank into the couch like a scolded child deciding to keep the innermost secrets of his ploy to himself rather than disclosing them for his father's cause.
His angry silence persisted throughout Hiko's meandering through the kitchen for a refill on his coffee. Once his father reentered, Arashi took the incentive to start working towards completing his first set of goals. Hiko's side needed strength in numbers, people with the abilities to defeat members of the Arcana and the line-up was as bad as it looked.
Arashi leaned over the coffee table, smoothing out the creased surface of a topographic map of Karakura Town and five other surrounding towns. He took it from Kazumasa's apartment and figured the fact that every apartment building he owned had been marked would come in handy in the near future. He imagined there would always be a possibility that Kazumasa would help Nagisa by providing her with a safe house. Since Yuka stuck to them after Nagisa's awakening because their powers went haywire, she confirmed his suspicions and gave him something to work with.
"What do you expect to do with a map?" asked Hiko, drawing his attention from his thoughts.
"You should answer the door," he answered.
"Nobody's knock—" The doorbell rang noisily. Hiko frowned. "You better not be psychic."
"The Kurosakis are far from spiritually inconspicuous."
Hiko headed for the doorway, paused. "He's in a gigai."
"A poorly made gigai," he sneered.
"I made that."
"That's why I said poorly made."
"Watch it."
His father disappeared down the hall to answer the door. He reentered the room with Kurosaki Isshin in tow. The dark-haired male pushed past Hiko the minute he made eye contact with Arashi, concern in his eyes.
"Have you found Ichigo?" he asked anxiously.
"I have people looking for them," answered Arashi, flipping his phone open to take snapshots of each location. "Someone will tell me if they find anything."
"Can't you Arcana sense each other?" complained Isshin.
"Not unless the entire cycle is awakened," Hiko stated, leaning into an armchair. "Alliances are created beforehand and only through a contract are they able to sense each other outside the cycle. I suspect that you formed that contract with a number of your subjects."
"It's flattering you consider them my subjects," he said with a laugh. He redirected his eyes to Ichigo's father. "You should probably sit. It'll be a while before the kiddies and Yuka show up."
Hiko raised an eyebrow. "Only the Priestess? You said the Lovers would be here as well."
"Faye is already here."
The foreigner arrived in a fresh cloud of smoke looking from one unfamiliar face to the next until she finally found Arashi seated. "How long do I need to wait?"
"As long as it takes for the children to get here," replied Arashi, sending the pictures he took as an attachment to Miho. "You've met my father and Ichigo's right?"
Faye regarded Hiko in disgust. "To some extent."
"Why is she here?" asked Isshin.
"There's an arrancar in your ranks, Mireña Cascabel—"
"What about her?" snapped Hiko, setting aside his coffee.
"Well, if you failed to take notice, her brother awakened as the Emperor."
"Jaegerjaquez is dead."
"That's all it takes, father. Of course, there were special circumstances considering the Fifth Cycle started fairly recent." Arashi left his mobile on the table as he rose to his feet. "Cascabel has yet to awaken as the Empress, nobody explained this to her and I suppose that works in our favor. She won't enter the house guarded. Faye is here for that reason. She may be no Magician, but she has a strong affinity to kidō."
"A three-hour barrier is nothing in comparison to Death's thirteen hours," said Faye, scowling.
"You helped Death into this world."
"I wanted to brainwash him for as long as it took for his memories to return to him, but I never suspected events to play out as they did," Arashi admitted. "Life and fate are mysterious entities to manipulate; rarely do things go one's way."
"You should have saved yourself the trouble, bringing a monster like that back," Isshin remarked, voice firm.
"I don't regret it," Arashi stated. "I want something from all my brothers before they leave this world." He strode away from them, gesturing to the tall, blond to follow. "Faye, come with me. I want to raid the kitchen."
.
Nagisa was a hopeless romantic. She lived and breathed love. She wanted an exorbitant wedding with flower petals floating in the air and a picturesque setting she could only put on paper. She dreamt of having a family as big as theirs smiling secretly, she would nudge him and whisper, "Maybe bigger." She wished the house was always filled with the sound of laughter and running children.
There were so many things she wanted. From time to time, Yamato imagined Nagisa would gladly give up half her brain to achieve them if it were possible, but others, he realized that even if she dreamt a thousand more, Nagisa would accomplish none. He never had the heart to tell her, so he comforted her instead. He gave her words to mend her broken heart and held her tightly while whispering lies into her ear.
She had terrible luck with men, none of them suited her, or perhaps, it was best to say, she had a way of chasing them away. The heartbreaks were so concurrent that she was famous for it. The friends she held in high regard betrayed her by mocking her behind closed doors and laughed at her expense.
He remembered how many ex-boyfriends Enishi and Touma beat to bloody pulps for insulting her and their involvement in her personal life made it difficult for men to approach her. Future suitors spent hours second-guessing their feelings because Fujikawa Azusa spread a rumor that the Housen brothers were beating up any male that came within a fifty-mile radius to Nagisa.
Azusa had no concrete reason for hating Nagisa. The only connection he made to them both was Nagisa's undying love for Azusa's brother, Shiki, that and the fact that said brother had absolutely no intention of dating someone like Nagisa.
Yamato failed to comprehend her unrelenting affections for a man that wouldn't reciprocate, but there were moments, even in her sadness that he grew fond of the idea that she wouldn't give up. She believed in her love so much she felt that one day Shiki might as well. Nevertheless, her persistence never stopped her from falling in love with others when she fell out of love with Shiki.
Enishi made a game of it during hot pot dinners. He counted them on each finger and even went as far as making a song out of her misfortunes, which was received with roars of laughter from Nagisa.
If he ever wanted anything more as he lay in bed with an IV stuck to his vein, he might have wished to see her happy before he died. He hoped to find a way to amend his desire for power and watch a smile appear in her face.
The black energy was doing quick work of his body and every waking moment was another confirmation that his insides were dying before he would. It wouldn't be long before medicines or kidō could keep him alive and he accepted that. He came to terms with the idea that participation in the experiment meant many of them would die.
The Arcana Experiment gave him a glimmer of hope. Yamato always wanted to think he could survive. He would be strong and eternal alongside his siblings, at long last their equals.
But he wasn't stupid. The medical tests pointed to his death and he didn't believe in miracles.
Fujikawa Azusa returned to his bedside with the results of his tests and a dour expression. She raked her fingernails across the clipboard and shifted her weight.
"Give me an estimation," said Yamato simply.
Azusa folded her arms over the clipboard. "An estimation?"
He spared her a contemptuous glance. "I am better versed in this field than you'll ever be, so give me the estimation."
Gulping, the bright-haired woman complied with his wishes. She drew the clipboard to her view. "At your rate of deterioration, it's best to assume you will last no more than fourteen days."
"Fourteen days," he repeated bitterly.
Azusa bowed her head and took a step back.
"Wait," he called as she started to turn away.
She looked back.
"You called my sister here, why?"
"I am not allowed to disclose that inform—"
"I'd rather this not come down to blackmail, Azusa," he interjected.
Azusa hesitated as she returned to her place besides his bed. She leaned forward low enough to whisper the words into his ear. "We had reason to believe your sister kept a medical condition from us."
Yamato whipped around to see her eye-to-eye, faces inches apart. "Medical condition?" he spat lowly. "Nagisa has not once been ill. I've made sure of that."
The woman shook her head. "That isn't the type of medical condition in question."
"Then what?" he demanded, his voice escalating.
Azusa cleared her throat, whispering as she left. "A pregnancy."
Yamato hastily rose to a seat, pushing his body against the weight of his exhaustion as reality set in. "Is she?"
The malice that darkened the woman's expression as she turn to speak the last words, sent a cold strum down his back. "Not anymore."
.
"Arashi!"
Arashi snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of Yuka's voice. He noticed his face mirrored in the exterior of the toaster beside him. He lifted his head to find the Priestess standing to his left looking as grouchy as ever and Faye snacking on a bag of 100-calorie cookies.
"Finally," she said exasperatedly, "I've been calling you for minutes!"
He straightened out over the seat aligned with the kitchen island feeling strange, as if in a dream. He searched his surroundings, black marble counters and white cabinets all crisp and clean. There were many reflective surfaces in every direction he turned, in each he noticed the golden hue of his brown hair and the blue eyes staring back at him from a pale face. It reminded him, for a moment, that he was no longer a prisoner in Nagisa's stairway prison. He lived, breathed, felt and remembered.
He especially remembered the memories he thrust as far back in his head as he possibly could, of life before Sara. It wasn't the first time this happened. He occasionally liked to reminisce about his origins, about the moments in his pathetic existence that he felt inferior to even a baboon like Touma. Today, he was the opposite. Superior.
If Nagisa started the cycle, he ended it with a single touch. He could kill Yuka or Faye if he pleased, right then and there and they would be no more. Their souls burned away into nonexistence, never to return to any living plane.
He enjoyed the feel of power and control. It was a beautiful thing, and yet…
Enishi faced him at the greenhouse fearlessly, losing his prized zanpakutō to a touch of his fingertips only to lunge at him harder.
He hated it.
"What do you need?"
"Kurosaki's friends just arrived, they brought the Empress' host and Shihōin as requested," she announced.
Arashi left his seat. "Faye, be ready to cast a barrier as soon as Yuka confirms she's dead."
"What if someone interferes?" asked Faye, discarding the bag of snacks into the nearest trash bin.
"You leave them to me."
Beta'd: LULuckyTiger
xl: Arashi this time and he is scheming. When isn't he?
Thank you reality deviant, ruler of dragons and Aries01xD (So happy there is more Enishi love!) for reviewing!
Updates will be weekly for the entirety of October. Yay!
Preview for: Chapter 25: Stories of Betrayal 5 is available at my lj. I also dissected this chapter at my lj in case anyone is interested. :)