55 of 100: Homecoming


Shunsui eyed the house as he approached, shifting the dead weight of the woman in his arms. It remained the same as it had for his childhood, the pine trees, the fencing, the so-called demon pillars that guarded the front gate. He spared a glance down at his parcel. She remained obliviously unconscious, the same state she'd been in when he'd come for her.

It had taken remarkably little time to reach his childhood home on foot from the heart of Soul Society. Barely half a day's walk, less with shunpo. Once he'd received the alert from his contact inside Division Twelve that a flagged medic report about Nanao had been issued he'd immediately gone to fetch her. A flagged report was always a bad signal.

He had been monitoring her behavior from Soul Society unauthorized. That was, perhaps, his first crime. Secondly, he'd left Soul Society and gone to the real world without permission. Lastly, he'd abducted an officer from an official mission jeopardizing her ability to carry out her task. ignoring the fact that she was no longer a ranked officer, he'd still abducted an active soldier. Not only that, he'd taken one directly from the medic's hands. Not that he cared about her mission. It was solely because of them that she was in this condition to begin with.

Finding Nanao pale and drawn, her body bathed in the pale golden light of a healers touch had been the reality of his every nightmare. Every ugly scenario he encountered in his dreams ended with Nanao injured. She was medically stable for the moment, but how long she could stay that way was questionable. She needed medical attention quickly, which was no doubt their plan all along.

After determining she wasn't going to die on the trip back, he'd scooped her up despite the protests of the medic and whisked her away. She was medically stable for the moment, but how long she could stay that way was questionable. He had lived centuries but he didn't specialize in medical training and the raised welts he could see sliding up her forearms were nothing like he'd ever seen before. The medic at her side had not known either.

No doubt that was their plan. Nanao would need specialized care to recover. Shunsui wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't like it.

The Kidou Corps was part of the shady underbelly of Division Two. It had been for as long as it existed. The group with its shadowy members didn't answer the same laws as the rest of the Gotei-13, nor were they held to the same authorities. He knew better than most to never trust the Kidou Corps. He didn't care what the upper levels of that organization had planned for Nanao - she wasn't going anywhere and if he had to kidnap her and hide her, that's what he would do.

Now, walking up the front path of the Kyouraku Family house, he wondered at his reception. He had not been home in a decade or two. The last he'd heard his father had died and his older brother Kiyoshi had taken over as Head of the Family. It wasn't a shock. All the plans had been laid in writing for centuries; no doubt the transition had been a smooth one. His mother, aged, probably still lived under the thumb of his brother. She was a strict woman, his mother, and had been very vocal in her assent that his father send him away to the academy in his teens all those years ago.

He had barely set one foot upon the front step when the door clattered open and a young woman with a slip of paper in her fingers stepped out. It looked like a shopping list from his vantage point.

"Aki-chan!"

How long had it been since he'd laid eyes on her? She still worked for them? The girl with the dark bobbed hair snapped her head up in surprise, her feet coming to such an abrupt stop she almost toppled. "Shunsui-sama*?!"

The girl's eyes rounded revealing bright chestnut irises. Little Aki looked remarkably unchanged except for her height. "Ah, you remember me?" he grinned salaciously.

A flush tinted her cheeks and her bright smile faded as she noticed the woman in his arms. "Eh... Shunsui-sama*?" her voice faded to an uncertain murmur. "Is she-?"

His grin disappeared. "Gravely injured. Hurry and have a room prepared. I need to set her down."

"Right away!"

Aki spun on her heel, discarding her sandals so quickly, and so improperly, that they were turned in the wrong direction and one upside down totally. Shunsui watched her vanish into the house, at least the servants remembered him. He could only hope his meeting with his brother would go so well.

Kiyoshi had never liked Shunsui's habit of dragging trouble home.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **

"Shunsui."

The younger man looked up from his spot on the reception room floor toward his elder brother. Nanao was cradled in his arms, her head resting on one shoulder, her knees curled over his opposite thigh. Shunsui had opted to hold onto her until he saw Kiyoshi. Briefly he wondered, had he ever held her in this manner before? Nanao's room would not be ready just yet anyway and he would not relinquish her to the care of the servants until she was awake.

"You've come home bearing a woman again."

Certainly it wasn't the first time he'd done so. It was the first time the woman was unconscious but he didn't suppose that detail mattered to his brother.

"This woman is my Vice-Captain."

Shunsui let the technical details like, "former" and "not current" slip away. Nanao would always be his, no matter what title that gave or took away from her.

"Ah," Kiyoshi answered, dropping his gaze to his brother's lap to regard the woman. "Not a vacation I assume. She doesn't look like she's ready to embark upon an affair with you."

Kiyoshi's disapproval of his lifestyle wasn't new. He had been raised under the strict eye of their mother and probably still did.

"Nanao-chan is injured and needs to quiet place to sleep for a while."

"Is this Vice-Captain of yours going to die in my house?" his tone was standoffish.

Shunsui frowned. "She isn't going to die anywhere."


AN: Is Shunsui-sama the appropriate address for a second son?

CANON FACT: the Kyouraku family is a noble house. It may not be one of the 4 great noble houses, but it is a noble house. And so is Ukitake, though he's listed as a lower noble house.