Title: Curiosity
A/N: Again, not much here to report.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Things were different back in the old days, and for once Soken wouldn't mind a return to the old days. This decision, that should have been so simple, so easy to make is instead horribly difficult, and in the old days he wouldn't have to be making it at all. Here, in this time and place, there's no escaping it, none at all.
The generally accepted truth for training among the Quincy is that a child will begin their training no later than eight years of age; the exact age varies a bit among clans but eight is the most likely to be found. Training usually lasts ten to fifteen years depending on how quick to learn the student is; they will often start the business of hunting Hollows before their training is fully complete, and if their mentor dies before they're able to finish training, another member of the clan just picks up their training. However, if a child shows interest in being taught before reaching eight then the attitude is that by all means they should be taught. The sooner, the better.
Uryuu is, as is the case with most children, naturally curious. If anything, he's much like his father was at that age: bright and alert, precocious to a degree without a doubt detrimental to happiness. Uryuu is just like Ryuuken was; sees far more than he ought to and even if he doesn't understand most of it he knows enough to be very, very serious when he asks his grandfather about training.
'Fighting monsters'. That's how Uryuu puts it. He's terrified of Hollows but his dislike of the fact that Hollows menace both the living and the dead outweighs his fear, and those eyes are too serious for his still-round, still soft and undefined face as he asks.
And what to say?
Back in their heyday, when a child started training they were not given to their parents for instruction. It was believed that they would be too soft on their child and that the child wouldn't learn quickly enough or that when the time came and they were attacked by a Hollow they wouldn't be used enough to a serious fight to survive; training had to be brutal to be at all effective. The same went for older siblings and especially for grandparents, in the admittedly unusual event that a Quincy lived long enough to see their grandchildren to start with. Instead, a Quincy child ready to start training was usually given to a member of the clan whom they had not had much interaction with beforehand, or even a member of a different clan if one was nearby—different Quincy clans had different advanced techniques but the basics were the same and would do for early stages of training.
Well, the old days are gone. There are no other clans to give Uryuu to. There is no choice but to have either his father or his grandfather, and these days if and when a Quincy takes on a student they start to take down notes immediately, from the simplest of techniques to the most advanced, because the likelihood of there being one to pick up training after they are gone has become less and less likely.
If Soken is going to start training his grandson, it will have to be soon. He knows, doesn't have any proof but just knows that he almost certainly isn't going to live long enough to see Uryuu through to adulthood. If a Hollow doesn't kill him some sort of illness will. Uryuu is very young, almost too young, but it's the best he's been presented with.
Ryuuken isn't going to like it; he hasn't said a word but with his silence had made his stance on this matter very clear. Oh well. Anyone with any level of reiatsu at all is automatically a target for any Hollows in the area; with the naturally high reiatsu of a Quincy Uryuu might as well have a bull's eye painted on his back. Soken has absolutely no intention of allowing his grandson to go around without the ability to defend himself. Ryuuken understands this all too well; he'll be angry, but he'll just have to get over it.
And with that, Soken is startled to realize that he's already come to a decision.
He forces a smile onto his face as he addresses Uryuu. The child is standing in front of the chair he sits in, small hands on one of his grandfather's knees, those clear, unblinking blue eyes still so startlingly old. "How can I say no? We'll start tomorrow morning; get plenty of rest tonight."
Uryuu's face lights up and for once he looks like the child he is to his grandfather's eyes. "Thank you!"
That looks fades a bit when Soken adds a warning, uncharacteristically stern, "Don't tell your father." It's absolutely pitiable, he can't help but think, that Uryuu either immediately knows what he's talking about or just knows his father wouldn't be happy, because he nods seriously.
When Ryuuken has come and gone and taken Uryuu with him, Soken gets out pen, paper, sits down at the kitchen table, and starts to write.