Doomsday

The storm clouds were gathering over the Clan once again.

Shunsui stood at the window of the small bed-chamber that had once been his home, resting his fingers lightly on the sill as he glanced down as he often had before at the bustling grounds below. Today, like so many years before, he yearned to run free across the grass and disappear to the lake, yet this time he knew things had changed. He was sixteen now, no longer a small boy who could scramble out through window slats and make his way unseen into the undergrowth.

He had become several things in the time since he had left his Uncle's manor. And, as he reflected on them, he wondered how many of them he actually liked to acknowledge.

He sighed, turning from the window and moving towards the aging mirror to view his reflection pensively.

A young man of clear noble pedigree stood before him, his long, wavy hair for once neatly pulled back from his face with precision and form designed to indicate his rank more than it was for his comfort. He was dressed not in the child's play robes of a well-born infant but in the hakama and montsuki of a young adult, the crest of the Kyouraku clan imprinted clearly on the fine-woven, expensive fabric. It had been crafted by some of the most sought after weavers in the whole of Seireitei, Shunsui knew, and a sense of bitter irony touched his heart as he fingered the sleeves absently. Rich though it was, and tailored particularly to fit his own size specifications, somehow it seemed awkward and restrictive when he stopped to consider all the things that it meant. Over his shoulders hung the rose and ash sleeveless katagimu that indicated his status as second most important son of the illustrious Eighth Clan, one step away, as tradition held, from the haori of the Clan leader himself.

A bitter smile touched his lips.

The Gotei haori was, he knew, modelled on the style that the Clans had long since adopted to mark out their superior members from the rest of the family, and somehow, by acknowledging any part of Noble tradition, Shunsui felt he was almost betraying his own prejudices against the Gotei by taking a step closer to accepting their existence. He had always yearned for freedom, after all. He had often tried to run away and hide from the metaphorical steel bars that had always encased his world. Yet here he was, two years on, embracing those bars and pulling them more tightly towards him.

He had accepted Tokutarou as leader of his Clan, and had allowed his brother to re-admit him to the family home. He had been reunited with his mother, and had escaped his Uncle's greedy clutches. Yet it had come at a high price.

He sighed, rubbing his temples.

In order to do so, he had had to acknowledge himself as being Tokutarou's true brother. And as such, he was Tokutarou's heir. At least, until his brother found a wife and had a son or daughter of his own. Yet so far Tokutarou had been far more concerned with stabilising the family's dwindling power and resources, and, more recently, with the threat of insurgence at Shunsui's old hunting ground.

It seemed that his Uncle had not yet completely given up the fight for control of the Kyouraku clan.

Shunsui bit his lip, sinking down onto the window-sill and stifling a yawn as he remembered the commotion that had raised him from his sleep that morning. It had been barely past dawn, he recalled, as one of Tokutarou's chief retainers had come banging on his door, urging him to rise and join his brother in the solar as soon as he was able. Through the blur of things that had happened next, he had managed to grasp the fact that there had been a serious incident at the Uncle's manor, with one blood-soaked retainer riding up to the gates of Tokutarou's stronghold only to fall gasping from his horse, choking out 'Treason' before collapsing and dying at his master's feet.

Tokutarou's reaction had been immediate, and at the change in his expression, Shunsui had been almost chilled. Instead of the brother he had come to see as fair-minded and even kind, there had been a cold steel in the man's eyes and he had immediately ordered a party to go to the Uncle's estate to quell the trouble.

Shunsui had not had any choice but to come along as well, though he had had no wish to delve into his memories of the past by re-entering the other mansion. As they had arrived, he had slipped away from Tokutarou's main party, feeling in his heart that what was to come would result only in bloodshed. And bloodshed was something that he wanted no part in. No matter what.

To begin with, there had been a lot of commotion from the floors below but, as time had gone on, it had faded and died, till all Shunsui was aware of was the flickering, fluctuating auras of his brother, his brother's men and, defiant and strong, his resolute and obstinate Uncle. They had gathered in the Uncle's office, where Shunsui had received many a whipping in the years he had lived there, yet somehow by staying so far out of the way, the boy felt he had almost become a traitor.

A traitor to whom? He did not know.

Perhaps, in the end, it's Father I'm betraying.

He gazed up at the slatted ceiling, making up his mind as he did so.

I may hate it, but I've embraced it. If I can stop Tokutarou-nii from fighting Uncle, then I can prevent someone from dying. And if I can do that, then at least it will be better than when I watched Father die. That I couldn't change. Maybe this I can.

With this thought stirring inside of him, he pushed back the divide, stepping out into the hallway and making his way purposefully down the steps towards the place from which so many conflicting auras were flaring and clashing against one another. They were already in combat mode, Shunsui realised. But this would not be a fight like the one he had seen ten years earlier. Tokutarou was not like his Father in all ways. And he was a man who would fight, if he had to, to kill or be killed.

Which is why I have to stop them. Before more blood is spilled on the Kyouraku name.

As he reached the outer hall, he almost tripped over something and he faltered, putting his hands out to steady his fall against the wall as he glanced down to see what it was he had stumbled over. As he did so, his eyes widened in alarm and he half-wished he had not bothered, taking a hurried step back. Sprawled on the floor, his fine uniform blood-spattered and torn lay the ghostly corpse of his Uncle's chief retainer, Shikimura. A gash across his chest then his throat made it clear that his death had been a violent yet a quick one, and as Shunsui stepped gingerly over the body, he realised that the man had not even had time to fully draw his weapon from its sheath.

Too late.

He frowned, shaking his head as if to clear it.

So Tokutarou had ordered a policy of no mercy, after all. Had he stayed, perhaps he would have been required to act in the same way, too.

He pushed this thought aside, reaching across to open the divide that separated him from the circling spiritual auras of his two closest living kinsmen, gathering his courage in his young heart as he shoved the wood back.

"Stop it!" he exclaimed, stepping into the room and holding up his hands. "Nii-sama! Ojisama! Stop fighting! Stop fighting now, please, before someone gets killed!"

"Shunsui!" Tokutarou faltered, staring at him in surprise at his sudden entrance, and the Uncle's expression became derisive as he lunged forwards, as if to take advantage of Tokutarou's sudden distraction. Tokutarou was quick to recover, however, parrying the other man's blade away from him as he steadied his own stance.

"Shunsui, what are you doing?" He demanded. "You understand, don't you? Better than anyone, what this man is. What he is to this family? What his continued presence here means, more than anything else?"

"Yes." Shunsui said desperately. "I understand, Nii-sama. I understand that he's my Uncle, and you're my brother. And family shouldn't kill each other, no matter what!"

"What naive stories did your nursemaids teach you when you were a baby, Shunsui?" His Uncle demanded derisively, brushing his sweat-drenched hair from his face as he cast the boy a scornful glance. "Even now, dressed like that, you understand nothing about Clan politics, do you?"

"I understand that I hate them." Shunsui said fiercely. "And that they're full of things that shouldn't be allowed to happen."

"Shunsui..." Tokutarou sighed, shaking his head. "Listen. I told you, didn't I, when I first came to take you from this place? That I would act if need be. The time has come. Do you realise that, if I don't, this man will continue to eat away at our family from the inside? That he'll continue to kill innocent men in his quest for power - more, he'll continue to sacrifice his duties as a member of the Kyouraku in order to extort services from the surrounding areas and form his own private armies? Do you know what oath we swore as a clan the day Seireitei was divided into eight segments? We swore to uphold the peace for the people over whom we ruled. Which is why this is the only solution. In order to preserve that oath, I have to eliminate the threat. Even if that threat is my blood kin."

Shunsui hesitated for a moment, then he shook his head, making his way very purposefully across the floor until he was positioned directly between the two fighting men.

"Then eliminate me, too." He said baldly. "I'm sick of it. I'm sick of all of it. This way it's okay for people to kill their family just because if they do, no one does anything about it."

"Shunsui!" Despite himself, Tokutarou lowered his blade. "Are you even listening? As Clan leader, my duty to the people in Seireitei is greater than anything else. I can't protect someone who's causing others harm. It's not a matter of killing for the sake of killing. It's a matter of preserving the peace!"

"You can say that, you who have no loyalty to this family at all." His Uncle spat out. "You who were raised by the Shiba-ke don't care how much Kyouraku blood you spill to take full control of the clan, do you? Even if it means filling your ranks with Shiba-trained men, and allowing our proud family to become subsidiary to theirs? I've never accepted it. I never accepted Matsuhara's marriage to a Shiba and I still don't. When he sent you away, I knew it would end badly. I knew a time would come when I'd have to eliminate you, too - only for too long you were well outside of my reach."

His eyes narrowed, chilling Shunsui right to the bone as the two, Uncle and nephew met gazes properly for the first time in two years.

"As for you, you are your Father's son, after all." He muttered. "Preaching such weak, fanciful values without even understanding what you're talking about. You have no idea what this family is built on, or how easily it can fall to pieces without someone strong and capable at the helm!"

"All I understand is that it seems to be built on blood and betrayal." Shunsui snapped out, his anger rising inside of him at this. "And that too many people have already died just from being involved with the family in one way or another. Father knew that, didn't he? That's why he didn't want to fight. Why he hung up his sword. Why he didn't want to take it and fight you, even when you threw it down in front of him."

His voice became nothing more than a whisper, as he struggled with his suppressed emotions.

"That's why he let you kill him, isn't it?" He murmured. "Because he felt it better to die than to kill his own brother."

"Shunsui!" Tokutarou's eyes widened in horror. "You...you knew that? All the time you were here...damn you, you bastard!"

He wheeled on his Uncle angrily, and had Shunsui not been in the way, a fatal blow would surely have been struck straight through the older man's lean form. "If I find you gloated to a young boy about such things..."

"I don't believe I ever had any such conversation with him." The Uncle shook his head. "It was no business of a child, after all. His business was to learn and to obey. He was surprisingly poor at both things, and therefore he was disciplined. I certainly didn't take him into any confidences regarding his father. The less he had to do with that man's memory the better."

"Then...?" Tokutarou's gaze flitted back to Shunsui, who was trembling now, a force unlike anything he had ever felt before swirling and welling up inside of him as the secret he had kept suppressed inside for ten years threatened to overwhelm his whole self. He bit his lip, tears glittering on his lashes, but he forced them back, determined not to let his Uncle have the satisfaction of seeing him cry.

"No one ever told me about how Father died. Not even Mother. Not even now." He managed, in tones that sounded foreign to his ears. "No one ever had to. I was there, Nii-sama. When Father fell, I was there. I saw it. I felt it. I was there."

"What?!" Now Tokutarou's expression became enraged, and he charged forward, pushing his brother aside as he launched himself at his Uncle, taking the man off-guard and pinning him up against the wall. "You bastard, you let a child see something like that? Not only did you steal Father's life, you also did it in front of a six year old boy?"

"Nii-sama!" Shunsui exclaimed, stumbling forward to try and pull his brother back, but Tokutarou's rage was complete and he merely pushed Shunsui aside once more, shaking his head impatiently.

"That's what you said, isn't it?" He demanded. "That you saw Father be killed by this creature, in cold blood?"

"I was hiding. No one ever knew I was there." Shunsui murmured.

"That doesn't change it." Tokutarou's eyes narrowed, and he turned his attention back to his hapless prisoner.

"I hated you the moment I knew Father had died at your hand." He murmured. "But I knew that killing you outright would achieve nothing except more chaos and bloodshed. So I let you live. Against my better judgement, I did. Because I didn't want to cause the Clan more shame and distress by taking rash action. Besides, Shunsui didn't want me to do it. And so I didn't. I didn't need to alienate him, after all - unlike you, I take seriously the fact he and I are blood brothers and yet were complete strangers until two years ago. I didn't want him to think me a monster, so I held back."

His eyes glittered.

"Now I find that you've done your best to gather resistance forces here to challenge me, and have killed men I trusted." He continued, his tones almost too low for Shunsui to hear clearly. "I find there have been pleas for help from local towns and villages about disease and plague and you've ignored those pleas unless the people have agreed to fight for you against me and my people here. And now I find, to top it all off, that you let my brother witness your arbitrary assassination of the Clan's true leader. How much lower can you fall?"

"I had no idea the boy had witnessed it, but even if he did, it's no bad thing for him to have learnt early on that vices are punished." The Uncle gathered his strength, pushing Tokutarou back at last and regaining his grasp on his weapon. "You have a glorified view of your Father, Tokutarou. He was barely more than a shadow in Shunsui's life - a man who indulged his sins more than his family obligations, and who barely even acknowledged that he had sons at all. He was a shell of a man when I killed him. All I did was end a life that cried out to be ended. I cut away dead wood. That's all."

Shunsui's head snapped up at this, horror in his brown eyes at the cruel, casual nature of his Uncle's dismissal.

"Father...was dead wood?" He murmured. "Even though...he was your brother? You never...cared about him at all?"

"I hated him." the Uncle responded simply. "Brothers are competition. Elder brothers the worst kind. I tried to teach you that, Shunsui. But you were remarkably slow to learn."

His gaze flitted to Tokutarou.

"In the end, this one may pretend he cares for you." He added. "But in truth, you're his pawn. He keeps you close so you can't turn on him. That's all it amounts to, in the end. Clan loyalty and all of that. The ideal and image of the family is more than the sum of its parts. Nothing else matters. Nothing except keeping the Kyouraku clan in its rightful place."

Shunsui's face drained of all colour, his Uncle's words reverberating through his young soul as he was overwhelmed by the cold disdain that suddenly radiated from the older man's body. He had always known it, deep down inside, what kind of a man his Uncle was. He had felt it, after all, that first day they had met. But there, in that room, he knew it even more clearly. Nothing had changed, not even in two years. His Uncle was still his Uncle. And he...he was still his Father's son.

He sighed, closing his eyes.

"Then I don't care." He said softly, pain in every word as he made up his mind. "If Tokutarou-niisama feels that way, and decides, in the future, that he wants to get rid of me like you did Father - I don't care. I don't intend on ever fighting against him, so if he wants to, it'll be easy to get rid of me. I'm Father's son, after all. I don't want to fight or kill anyone. Not even you, Uncle. Because killing never solved anything. If you kill someone, you can't negotiate with them any more. You can't come to terms or find a way to meet on common ground."

He swallowed hard.

"Father was sad when he died." He whispered. "Even then, I could feel it. But maybe, if he hadn't died, he might not have been so sad always. Maybe, something would have happened to change that. Maybe I could have done something, or Mother, or Nii-sama. But he died, so he never had that chance. And I don't think that's right. Because the only time you have to resolve things is while you're alive, after all. There's nothing that can be done once you're dead."

"Shun...sui?" Tokutarou's sword slipped from his grip at this, clattering to the floor as he stared at his brother in disbelief. "What are you..."

"I don't want any more killing." Shunsui's tears couldn't be held back any more. "I'm fed up with it, Nii-sama! I'd rather be killed than let you kill anyone!"

"Even though this man killed our Father?"

"Even if he did, it doesn't make it the right thing to do, to kill him too." Shunsui shook his head. "I hate him and I think he's cold and sad and twisted inside, Nii-sama. I'll never feel any different. But that doesn't mean I want to kill him. If I did, maybe I'd be cold and twisted and bleak, too. Killing someone does that to you, after all. Mother's said more than once that it was that concept that destroyed Father, in the end. I don't want that kind of life. So I want you to stop. Both of you."

"And what? Negotiate terms?" The Uncle asked derisively. "With nephews barely out of their childhood years? Do you think I'd accept something so belittling?"

Tokutarou sighed.

"Shunsui's right." He said at length. "Enough. Killing you won't bring back Father and it won't change anything. And if he feels that way, I'm not going to let him stand there and witness another scene of carnage between kinsmen. I'm not like Father, maybe. But I'm not like you, either. I have no desire to hurt my brother."

The Uncle glared at him for a moment, and the tension in the room could have been sliced through by a sword in that instant of cold silence. Then, just as Shunsui thought it would become unbearable, the older man let out a snort of disgust.

"So, Matsuhara, in the end the last laugh was yours after all, was it?" He murmured. "But you won't win in all regards. I won't pander to the whims of foolish boys. This family was founded on proud military tradition, a tradition that's been all but eroded away by the fools that have led it astray. If the Clan is going to hell, let it go. I won't watch it fall. I won't give you that satisfaction."

Before either Tokutarou or Shunsui could move, he raised his weapon, drawing it swiftly and cleanly across his throat as he fell to his knees, tumbling forward onto the floor as blood began to pool out around him in an ever growing arc of crimson liquid. The corpse twitched for a moment, then lay still, and Shunsui knew that, with his Uncle's expert sword skills, it had been a quick and deliberate death.

His heart clenched in his throat, first with revulsion and then, belatedly, with relief. He drew a shaky breath into his lungs.

"I'm sorry, Shunsui." Tokutarou came across to join him. "You wanted him to live, didn't you?"

"Maybe...it is better this way." Shunsui admitted shakily. "If he felt...so strongly as that. I just...I didn't want you to kill him, Nii-sama. And it's not that I wanted Uncle to die - I didn't want anyone to die. But more I didn't want another member of the family to be killed by one of his kin. Not like Father was. That's all."

"You really saw it, didn't you?"

Shunsui nodded.

"Why didn't you say anything before?"

"It was a long time ago. There was nothing you or anyone could do about it."

"And even so, you lived here with that man for eight years, even knowing he'd murdered your Father?"

"I didn't have much choice." Shunsui spread his hands. "I suppose I learnt to cope with it, because I had to. Besides, not all my memories here are bad ones. I..."

He frowned, shooting his brother an alarmed look.

"Wait. Before, what did you say, Nii-sama? About the local villages and towns? And...did you say...plague?"

"A contaminated water supply that's spread through three or four of the towns nearby, and caused a number of sicknesses and deaths." Tokutarou frowned. "The remedy is here, and prepared by Uncle's men. But only administered to people who swore him fealty over me. Most wouldn't. Not even desperate - they knew that if I sent an army, they'd be in even more trouble for acting on his side, after all. But...Shunsui? What is it?"

Shunsui swallowed hard, trying to get his thoughts in order, but one thing was at the forefront of his mind.

Saku.

"I want to take the medicine to the towns." He said frankly. "Now, as quickly as I can. Because..."

"I'm going to see to it that it's done, Shunsui, there's no need to..."

"No. There is a need to." Shunsui shook his head. "Tell me where the remedy is, Oniisama. Please. Tell me now. I have to go myself. It's not something I can easily explain, but...I have to. I need...I need to ascertain something for myself. And if there's something I can do - even if it's a very little thing...then I have to do it."

He clenched his fists.

"I owe it."

Author's Note

So they had horses in ancient Soul Society :P Well, they did now :P Horses die too, right...? :D