Chapter Fifty Six: Ex Luna, Scientia

There was no mistaking it.

Standing in the remains of the deserted village, Nagesu could already make out the slender, solitary figure, cloak blowing in the wind as he stood surveying the surroundings. His aura was pensive and settled, yet Nagesu could read the faint flickers of tension at the edge of his consciousness. A knot formed in his throat as he recognised the distinctive, charismatic flare of his cousin's reiryoku - warped and twisted by his years of suffering yet still recognisable, even now.

So he had been right, then. He had feared it, yet he had come expecting it. He had stretched his senses looking for it. And as ever, his logical deductions had proven to be correct.

After more than a century, they were about to be reunited.

The rest of the Council had been reluctant to allow him to act on his own, but he had pushed his case, saying that in the end, it was a matter of Urahara justice and that the only one who could and should deal with it was him. Yet it gave him no pleasure to have won that argument. He did not want to be here - but for that exact reason, he knew he had no choice but to be. If for no other reason than to find his own sense of closure on the events of a hundred years before.

"This way now, Nagesu-nii! Come see this! Come see!"

Briefly an image flashed into his head of the wild-haired, bright eyed young four year old who had grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to explore this place or that, their walks punctuated by excited questions and cheerful chatter on a wide variety of subjects.

But that child was gone. That memory was the past, and not the present. Nagesu swallowed his hesitations, forcing his mind back to the present. The person he had come here to meet was an enemy - of his, of Soul Society's, of the Council of Elders whom he represented.

That boy I played games with, and taught things to, he may as well have died. I realise it now. I can sense it. That Keitarou is gone. No matter what comes of today...the Keitarou I knew then...is already dead.

As he drew closer, hand already clasped around the hilt of his sword, the figure spoke.

"I was waiting for you."

He turned, and for the first time in a century, the cousins locked gazes.

"I knew that you'd come to find me. Nagesu-niisama."

The words were faintly mocking, bitter yet light and soft-spoken, only just carrying on the faint breeze. For a moment Nagesu did not respond, his gaze running instead over the man who stood before him.

He was indeed a stranger, adult now and as tall as he was himself, with his thick hair stained black and his clothing coloured in the red and brown of the Endou Clan. Yet something had been torn from the fabric, and Nagesu wondered whether it had been the hunting bird of the Seventh District family. Over the unfamiliar Clan robes he wore a loose grey cloak with a hood, tattered and stained with dust and other things Nagesu did not want to identify. His eyes - classic Urahara eyes muddied with the Kyouraku blood of his mother's line - were hard and closed, no longer eager and bright with energy and enthusiasm - yet even so, Nagesu recognised their uniqueness and knew that he was right in his deductions. At his waist, the Clan leader could see the edge of a knife hilt, and he realised with a jolt that this was probably the source of the second, dully humming presence in the surrounding area. That even though the Council had never seen it, his cousin had risen a zanpakutou. And that, here, in this village, he had waited for Nagesu in order to fight.

"Keitarou." At last Nagesu found his voice, and the other man chuckled, bowing his head mockingly towards his companion.

"A hundred years and yet you remember. I'm honoured. Most of the family wouldn't. Most of them wouldn't even acknowledge that I have a name, let alone what it was."

"I'm not most of the family." Nagesu said quietly. "I'm the one who taught you to write that name, after all. Why would I then forget it?"

For a brief instant, something flickered across those unusual eyes. It was gone in a moment, but Nagesu had seen it, and had known that Keitarou also remembered that day as clearly as he did himself.

"Much has happened since then." Keitarou spoke evenly. "I've learnt quite a few more words. I've had plenty of time, you see. Time to do all kinds of things...time away from the pressures of Clan life."

There was a faint, cold note of sardonic humour in his tone, and Nagesu frowned.

"Exiling you wasn't my choice. Keitsune-jisama's fate, neither." He said evenly. "But Father made a decision that he felt he had no choice but to make. And I didn't like it, either. I cried just as much as I'm sure you did when that day came. I loved him too - I was a child, just like you."

Keitarou snorted, shaking his head.

"You think that you can talk to me about the past, and suddenly I'll surrender myself to you?" He asked curiously. "If so, I advise you follow a different strategy. I'm not part of your family now. They and I both agree on that fact. And I've got my own reasons - my own agenda - for being here now. I knew you'd come to me, Nagesu-niisama. I thought that you'd feel it was your duty. Because I remember, too. And I swore a long time ago...that I would get my revenge on the Urahara for what happened to my Father."

Nagesu's lips thinned.

"A pointless vengeance, then." He reflected frankly. "A cold, empty one with no eyes to see it. Those you hate are dead, Kei-kun. My father. The others who condemned him. Everyone who was complicit in sentencing Keitsune-jisama and the others to execution. You can try to kill me, but all you would do is rob my children of their father the way you were robbed of yours. Father will never know, whether you kill me or not. He is gone, like Uncle is gone. That time is over."

"Over." Keitarou repeated the word, a heavy note in his tone. "Such a nice, final word, isn't it? Over."

He shook his head as if to clear it, then,

"I know that they're all gone, now." He murmured. "Those who signed the warrant for Father. The last member of that Council died only a short time ago. There are none left now - none of them there for me to face and bring down."

"The last one..." Nagesu bit his lip, then, "Shouichi-sama?"

"Yes." A frightening smile crossed Keitarou's lips as he nodded, and Nagesu knew that his suspicions were correct.

"You killed him." He murmured, and Keitarou laughed.

"Yes, I did." he agreed pleasantly. "It wasn't hard. He wasn't expecting anything particular from me, so it wasn't hard at all. Even though he had hunted me down, he never managed to snare me. He didn't know what kind of an enemy he'd made, after all."

"From what I understand, Shouichi-sama and the Endou-ke originally gave you shelter." Nagesu pointed out. Keitarou sent him a derisive look.

"Shelter? No. He used us. Well, of course he did. No sensible man would do anything else with homeless, desperate men and women whose only form of repayment was the skills they learnt from their own Clan. We were slaves to the Endou whims for a hundred years, Nii-sama. Slaves, and then, when the old witch died, she signed our death warrant with her final breath. Take out the Urahara, that's what she told that fool husband of hers. And so he did. One by one, in all the villages and the towns in District Seven. Whether they were scientifically involved or not - it didn't matter. Every one he found, he purged. All of them, cut down and then, to spite us, the bodies burnt and ashes scattered on the wind. That is the Endou-ke. That is the level of their shelter."

Nagesu closed his eyes briefly, half feeling he could hear the screams of the dying simply from the sudden flaring of Keitarou's reiatsu.

"The last one he killed was our cousin. Daisuke." Keitarou slipped his fingers into his obi, and Nagesu tensed, readying himself to face the other's weapon. "And I could not forgive it. Did not forgive it. It sealed an already decided fate. I took his life."

"Daisuke." Nagesu repeated, and Keitarou nodded.

"I'm the only one left with a direct blood link to you and the Clan." He continued casually, running his fingers over the silver blade of his weapon - though even at this distance Nagesu could tell there was something not right with the knife's form. "If you got rid of me, the shame of Father's work would finally be buried. Wouldn't it?"

"So you lure me out here with the intention of making me fight you." Nagesu's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "And so to kill me without witness, like you killed Shouichi-sama. Using whatever demon technique you hold in that knife of yours."

Keitarou chuckled, shaking his head.

"You are not Shouichi-sama." He said regretfully. "I do not expect you to be so easily fooled."

"Then why?" Nagesu demanded.

"To see my cousin, perhaps, after a century of estrangement?" Keitarou was toying with him now, Nagesu knew, and he frowned.

"You already told me you have no connection to my family - that you hate me and want the Urahara dead." He pointed out. "So I find it hard to believe that that's the case."

There was a long silence, then Keitarou spoke.

"I don't remember ever saying I hated you." He said softly.

"What?" Nagesu was taken aback, and Keitarou fixed him with a regretful look.

"I would like to." He said sadly. "It would make life much easier if I could, and for a century I've tried. The cousin who was left behind - the one raised to forget us and to move on. But you're an annoyance in that respect. You haven't forgotten. I'm written out of the Clan's history, yet not by you. And even now you head the Urahara-ke - you've not yet done anything to make me hate you. Since Rikaya-jisama died, the Urahara expeditions to search for those like me have ceased completely and the taxations on those who helped us escape have been removed altogether. Almost as though you were trying to placate a ghost…or trying to make peace with a past you didn't choose. It annoys me. But there it is. As Daisuke was my weakness - so, perhaps, are you."

He laughed ruefully, though the emotion did not reach his eyes.

"Even here and now, after so long, you knew who I was." He murmured. "Even though I look like this, disguised and robed as a foreign Clansman - even so, Nagesu-nii - you knew before I spoke, didn't you?"

"Yes." Nagesu said simply. "I've never forgotten. I've never hated you, either. We were children. What happened then involved us, but we could not control it."

"You see?" Keitarou gestured languidly in his companion's direction. "And arguing with you is pointless - because now, as then, you'll always be right."

"But..."

"I hate the Clan, yes. I hate everything about the Urahara. Everything." Keitarou continued. "Even if don't hate you, what Rikaya-jisama did, I can't forgive. Won't forgive. For Father's sake, I've perpetuated his work and his dreams - I've done what he could not do. I stabilised his reidoku, to prove it could be stabilised. I continued with the projects he could not continue with, thanks to all the notes smuggled out of District Three when we fled. I grew up with that and only that in my mind - to vindicate and follow Father's work and to use it, somehow, to show Seireitei exactly what they did. To make them regret it...that was my wish."

"And yet...?" Nagesu paused, gesturing to the landscape. "You've stopped. Here, where nobody but me can see you. I don't understand."

"No, you don't." Keitarou said regretfully. "For an Urahara, you're sometimes narrow in your vision, Nagesu-nii. You always were - even when we were boys, you were cautious and hesitant about the things I wanted to drive forward into exploring. And that caution holds you back from all the things that are truly possible."

He raised the knife, sunlight glinting off the blade.

"Right now, we are here." He added. "But I - and Chudokuga - we're going into a different battle, in a different place. I brought you here for that reason. Because if you're here with me, you're not there. And if you're not there, you can't do anything to prevent it."

Nagesu's eyes widened as suddenly he realised what the man meant.

"Ukitake!" He whispered. "The District boy!"

"There. At last, you get there." Keitarou chuckled, nodding his head. "Yes. That's right. You see, I grew somewhat bored with the reidoku experiments after a while. And although I intended on testing them on him - I discovered something far more precious when he came into my power. A boy with twin blades - a District child with power and strength that even I haven't quantified fully yet."

He looked amused.

"The Council and the Clans have got into such a flap about this." He reflected. "When all I see is potential and ability and a tool worth sharpening to its full strength. The Clans are a frightened, hollow bunch, in the end. They run scared from anything that surprises them. They don't see it clearly – what that boy is going to be. And that whoever can control him…will have a weapon to be proud of."

"A…weapon?" Nagesu paled. "But…he's not…Ukitake is…a student at Genryuusai-sama's Academy. The Clans have accepted him – I ratified his sword myself! He will not be rejected by Soul Society – you are wrong!"

"Am I?" Keitarou snorted. "Think closer on that and wonder about it some more, Nagesu-nii. About the thousands of District children who've been downtrodden and forgotten for years. Powerful ones. Individuals just waiting to be discovered. I've seen plenty, in the last one hundred years. Many of them have helped me, after all, with the perfecting of reidoku."

"Helped you?" Nagesu whispered. "Are you telling me that you have an army of reidoku-infused peasantry at your beck and call?"

"See? Even you are afraid, when I put such ideas in your head." Keitarou reflected. "But you can rest at ease. No. They were untrained – they were simply steps in the process. I hadn't realised, after all…that reidoku is not necessary in the Districts. That the Clans fuss and flurry about choosing a successor with the power to hold on to their Clan – Kamuki of the Shihouin did so and died because he did so, did he not? But out there, in the wider world, there are children like this District Shinigami. If there is one, there are more. I will find them. They will be the ones, in the end, who prove the real strength of Seireitei. What the Clans have failed to see, I've seen all too clearly. In Ukitake is the first step – the first one, but there will, I'm sure, be more."

Nagesu's eyes narrowed.

"Ukitake would not so easily bend to your suggestions." He said blackly. "I've met the boy – he has pride and integrity and a determination to follow this course for the sake of Soul Society. You cannot so easily corrupt him to your own bitter feelings of revenge."

"The Districts have a grudge against Seireitei too, in the end." Keitarou shrugged. "I've seen the refugee camps in District Eight. They are all victims of Clan – their crimes being that they have too much reiryoku for the Endou-ke's liking. I'm not so foolish as you think, Nagesu-nii. You are all naïve, in your manor houses, ignoring the truth about this world over which you rule. The Clans are very small in comparison to what lies beneath."

He smiled slightly.

"As for Ukitake, I am aware of his views. He insisted on becoming involved, even despite my strong advice to the contrary. Since that is his will, I decided to test him. He has more use to me now than my allies in District Seven ever will. Seimaru is reckless - he will prove a worthless ally once he believes he has ultimate power, and even if he kills Council members and causes confusion, he has no way back now. There are too many suspicious - so he will fall, and my protection will fall as well. In the end, his reiryoku is half that of the District boy he hates - therefore...I no longer have any interest in fighting to protect or cover him. He can fight for himself - he can make decisions for himself. And he can live with the consequences of what he has done – I have moved my interest elsewhere."

"And you intend to what? Take the District boy and...?"

"Yes. I'll keep him." Keitarou agreed. "Because he's a whole new project of study I haven't even begun to explore yet."

"You think you'll be allowed to do that?"

"I don't see anyone able to stop me." Keitarou said honestly. "I will take the boy – already, he is beginning to trust me. After today, he will see the consequences of not following my guidance and he will rue bitterly the fact that he did not listen. He will understand, then. Those proud values of his will fall and everything will change. It's the first step, not the last – Ukitake Juushirou is my current and my future project. The Clans should beware."

"You won't sway him that easily." Nagesu said sharply. "You're misjudging the Clans – Ukitake has allies among them. Powerful ones, too. Shihouin. Shiba. Kyouraku. He's not as isolated as you think – nor does he have a reason to hate Soul Society."

"But he'll choose to come along with me." Keitarou laughed. "Because I tell him truths, while other people pander to him with lies. The truth is that the Council and the Clans also want to use him or destroy him. Those who see potential in him also see him as a weapon, in the end. Pretty words like protect and defend come into play, but the bottom line is still the same. Those of you who see potential in him want to train that potential to slay hollows and work according to your aims and ideals. Clan aims. Clan ideals. What about District ones? What about Ukitake's own? You haven't stopped to think of those. You've simply driven forward with what you see as the path to follow."

"Training to be a shinigami was Ukitake's own decision." Nagesu snapped, and Keitarou looked amused.

"Perhaps." He murmured. "Or perhaps it was simply the way in which his idealistic nature was appealed to that made it seem that way. Who brought him to the Academy? Who took him from his rural home and put those ideas into his head? I doubt he woke up one morning and decided, 'today I'll become a shinigami'. Somewhere, someone else was involved. Someone was the trigger...someone told him that the only way he could use that power of his was to become a shinigami and live by the Clan's rules. In contrast, I've made no secret to him that I wish I utilise him. In the end, he'll come to respect that honesty far more than the deceit and shadow games of the Clans."

He shrugged.

"And even if he doesn't, it doesn't matter now. You see, Chudokuga has a special power, Nagesu-nii. This sword can cut and it can hurt. But it can also control. Like strings of a puppet, my spider's web can control the hearts and minds of others. Weak ones like Eiraki-hime...and strong ones, like Shouichi-sama and Ukitake Juushirou."

"You made Shouichi-sama kill himself!" Nagesu realised, then, "Wait, like the boy? What have you...what did you...?"

"Others are here. Bothersome youngsters in whom I have no interest." Keitarou shrugged. "The Endou boy Seimaru will deal with - he has that in his sights and whichever wins, I don't really care. I told you – Clan is no longer my concern. I'm more interested to see what happens with the other. He is scantily trained yet, but with a bit of help the District boy's power is truly frightening. I will make him exploit that strength. When he comes to himself, when he realises with that power he's managed to kill his own friends - then he'll come with me. He'll see, after all, that I'm the only one who can possibly protect him from the chaos that will follow. Once a shinigami blade tastes blood - there's no going back. I gave Sougyo no Kotowari that chance - the chance to take a monster's life to protect an innocent. Because he is of that type, I know - it has preyed on him, whether the beast he slew was a Hollow or a man. What comes from this...he will regret it. He will see no other choice but to agree to my terms. He will see no other way out."

"I'll stop you!" Now anger coursed through Nagesu's body and he drew his weapon from his sheath. "I'll fight you here and now, and then you'll have to concentrate on this instead! I'm not a weak shinigami, Keitarou!"

"Nor am I." Keitarou's eyes glittered, narrowing to near slits. "Unregistered, perhaps, but of a higher level than you can imagine, my cousin. Even with Chudokuga's highest level of manipulation taken from me, I can still fight you. It's not my wish, Nagesu-nii. I brought you here to keep you out of it, and I don't want to raise my blade against you. You don't understand, after all. A zanpakutouseals itself when its owner is taken down. But Chudokuga has already become a part of Ukitake's body. I can only use this technique on one individual at a time – but even so, that is enough. Its tendrils have seeped through and taken control of his heart completely…he is my puppet in his entirety. I am the only one who can withdraw the spell from his body without killing him. And time is running out before the child's own reiryoku starts to see him as its own enemy and attempts to break him down from the inside out. No matter how hard you fight me, that will be true. I am the only one who can stop Ukitake Juushirou. And the longer you and I talk here, the less chance there is of ever undoing that fact."

Pain rushed through Nagesu's senses, followed by resolve.

"Then I will take you down and go stop the boy myself." He said firmly. "If you aren't there to control him, there is no puppet master, after all. There is nobody to pull the strings if you are no longer there."

"But if I do not withdraw it in person, my final command will linger, even until he dies." Keitarou said softly. "And that final command could be anything, after all. Do not underestimate me, Nagesu-nii. Even if Chudokuga is active inside the boy, I still have skill enough to kill you."

"Then you will have to do so." Nagesu said quietly, extending his sword towards the ground. "Or I will kill you and the boy both to stop your plan from taking effect. Jishin o yobe, Sekizanha!"

Nagesu had released his zanpakutou.

From her safe place out of the range of battle, Midori's lips thinned, her gaze flitting automatically towards the direction from which she had felt the sudden flare of the other Clan leader's reiatsu. Her grip on Hirata automatically tightened as she tried to work out what her comrade was doing. Had he, then, encountered trouble? Her eyes narrowed slightly as she processed what this might be. Had he found his kinsman after all?

At her side, the young boy shivered involuntarily, and Midori cast him a concerned glance.

"Hirata? Are you all right?"

"Yes." Hirata nodded, though Midori was sure that his answer was not the truth. "I just…you felt it too, didn't you? Something on the horizon. Something strong and powerful."

"Nagesu-dono's zanpakutou." Midori said softly. "Sekizanha. Most probably that means he's found what he's looking for – and I've no doubt at all that he intends to keep his word to the Council, however much pain it causes him to do it."

"Seki…zanha?" Hirata murmured the word, then, "Nagesu-sama? The Head of the Urahara-ke…is here too?"

"The Council are here en masse because of this little situation you boys have sparked off." Midori nodded. "But you needn't look guilty about it, Hirata-kun. On the contrary, I think it's a good thing. Finally all of this is out in the open. Finally, action can be taken and the suffering can be stopped. This is the only way to do it now – we both know that, don't we? Kyouki-sama will have to defeat Seimaru to take him into custody. And Nagesu-dono knows that the same applies to him and his kinsman – which is why he's showing his intent right away."

"His kinsman." Hirata's brow creased. "Urahara…Keitarou."

"Mm." Midori nodded. "But you already knew that. You already know all about him, I think – don't you?"

"I'm not sure what's real and what's simply our assumption." Hirata admitted. "But yes. I suppose…I know at least who he is. And that he's involved with Seimaru somehow. Even if Ukitake-kun thought…"

"Juushirou thought something about this?" Midori asked sharply. "Can you tell me what?"

"I think it was Urahara Keitarou who had Ukitake-kun prisoner. He seemed…to know a lot of things and he snapped at Shunsui-kun when Shunsui-kun called Keitarou Seimaru's servant." Hirata sighed, shaking his head as if to clear it. "I don't think…he thought Keitarou was really an enemy."

"Then that's his naivete coming through." Midori said bluntly. "He's an enemy, Hirata. Make no mistake about that. He is an enemy. He may have been the victim of unfortunate circumstances as a boy, but then, so have you been. He's used and manipulated and twisted his family's work and his own ability to perpetuate poison and to help the regimes of two very evil men. He probably saw to murdering one of those men – and I very much doubt that he cares overly about it. This man was instrumental in helping to bring down my Uncle and my Clan and is doing the same within yours. All in the pursuit of his so called science – he's an enemy, no matter how you choose to look at it."

"It's all right. I think so too." Hirata nodded his head. "I'm pretty sure he manipulated my sister and hurt her badly in the process. I think Ukitake-kun's been fooled, that's all."

"But Juushirou isn't with Keitarou now?"

"No. He's with Shunsui-kun." Hirata assured her. "It's all right. Shunsui-kun doesn't think Keitarou is an ally, either. He won't let Ukitake-kun do anything foolish like interfering in Nagesu-sama's fight."

"Good." Midori let out a sigh of relief. "Because enough reiatsu and blades are already clashing. If we can restrict it to simply dealing with Seimaru and the scientist then there will be far less work for the rest of us when the dust finally settles."

"Mm." Hirata nodded, his gaze flitting back to the battle in the copse beyond, and Midori followed his line of sight, gravity in her golden eyes.

Seimaru was flagging, she realised, his breath coming in ever more heavy gasps, and despite his best attempts to staunch his wound, his constant activity meant that blood had seeped through the fabric, trickling down his wounded arm and dripping onto the snow around his feet. Each drop sizzled against the frozen white as if it was formed of the same scalding flame that coated the end of Seimaru's weapon, and Midori knew that he was throwing his all into his fight.

Yet even with his weapon in his left hand, he had not faltered for a moment. When Kyouki had broken through the barrier of flame, for a moment he had stood there, staring at it with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Then, as if woken from a deep dream he had darted forward, the remaining flames parting for him as he had launched a resolute attack on Kyouki's less well defended left side. Midori did not know whether the Shiba leader could wield her sword with both hands, but from the manner in which she had fought so far, the young Shihouin suspected not. Seimaru's flame-tipped blade had come very close to slicing through Kyouki's left arm, and Midori knew that there was some way to go yet before he was defeated.

In the end, it might be the only way…to kill him outright.

She frowned, chewing on her lip.

Kyouki-sama wants to avoid it, because she hopes that the Council will interrogate him and we'll learn all the things we don't yet know. She doesn't want to dispense her own justice, no matter how much she despises him. She's still holding back a little – she hasn't flared a single beam of light directly at him, yet, and even though I know she's proficient with Kidou, she hasn't tried to use any destructive spells to take him down. I wonder if she can really fight that way…I wonder if she really can just stop him, rather than taking it all the way.

"Kyouki-sama won't take him alive." As if he had read her thoughts, Hirata spoke softly, tension rippling through his young body as he watched the fight. "I know my cousin, Midori-sama. There's no way. She'll either have to kill him…or…"

He left the rest of the sentence unspoken, but Midori understood.

"I know." She agreed soberly. "I feel it too, Hirata. That edge to his reiatsu that says he intends to stand and fight all comers. If I dove into the battle now, or you, or anyone else…I think he'd still just raise his sword and charge into the fray."

"But he hasn't released his curse, yet." Hirata reflected. "I wonder…why. I wonder…"

"KouenKougetsu!"

Seimaru's voice cut through the crisp winter air, followed by a volley of flame that proved that despite his injury, he still had plenty of energy with which to fight. Kyouki slipped neatly out of its line of attack, bringing her own weapon through the air to counter it. Cold, frozen light seared across the clearing, stopping the flames dead as the two attacks collided.

"Yozuki no Kage." She murmured, and as though the moon had danced across the sun, a darkness began to fall over the whole area, the air still thick with frozen smoke and the fragmented residue of used spirit power. Midori squinted, trying to make out Kyouki in the dark haze that had engulfed the clearing.

At first she could not see the Shiba Clan leader, then she let out a gasp, for where there had been one woman with a gleaming blade, there now stood two, identical in every way except for the fact they were mirror images, the dark, heavy air reflecting back Kyouki's spiritual aura and making it take form in the unexpected eclipse.

"What the…" Despite himself, Seimaru took a step back, uncertainty flooding his features as his gaze flitted from one apparition to the other. In the ghostly light, neither one looked quite real, and Midori found she could understand what the man was thinking – were either of them actually Kyouki, or was the whole thing simply an illusion brought about by her lunar eclipse?

Gekkoushin really is exactly as I'd heard it.

She let out a faint sigh, sitting back on the grass.

I'd heard the stories – of Gekkoushin and Tensonshin and the way in which they dazzled their opponents with trickery and light magic. It's almost a shame that Matsuhara-sama is no longer fighting. Tokutarou-sama's sword isn't anything like this calibre – but if Kyouki-sama and Matsuhara-sama had the same kind of power locked away in their zanpakutou, and if they were of a similar level…it's little wonder they made such a good team. Little wonder indeed that they were so good at what they did.

She frowned.

I wonder what that young boy has inside of him, given that. If Tokutarou-sama's brother really is his father's son…whether one day Tensonshin might have a successor in the world of shadows and light.

In the gloom, everything had descended into a soft, oppressive hush. Then, with her blade glittering as though infused with moonlight, Kyouki darted forwards, breaking through the darkness and slashing her weapon down across Seimaru's chest. The young man let out a gasp as the tip of her frozen weapon sliced through his clothing to the skin beneath, and he fell back, struggling to keep his footing as blood spurted from the resultant wound.

It had not been deep enough to cut through more than flesh, yet the unmistakeable pain on Seimaru's thin features told Midori that this blow had hurt far more than the last one.

"I thought so." Kyouki shook her sword slightly as the dark haze began to lift. "I thought that if my sword didn't hurt you when it was hot, it would do more damage cold. It took out your flames so easily, after all – I thought that Yozuki might burn you where Hitsuki couldn't. Your power is fire, after all, and it's rippling through you – even to the blood you're spilling onto the snow. I noticed that…and I thought, surely only something colder than ice can truly burn someone who has command of fire?"

"You're…underestimating…me." Seimaru spat back at her, raising his weapon with some difficulty to clatter against hers as the two swords met. He winced, and Midori could tell that the chill of Gekkoushin's frozen blade was spreading through Yojinmozu to its master's core, attacking the very heart of the fire that powered it. "I'm…not going…to be taken out by…such a weak…slash."

He slipped into shunpo, reappearing on the furthermost side of the copse as he struggled to catch his breath. He was not so far now from Hirata and Midori, and Midori felt the youngster shrink back as if afraid his cousin would launch an attack his way. Midori flexed her fingers, ready to fire a second barrier of protection just in case, but Seimaru paid neither of them any heed, his gaze fixed on Gekkoushin's night moon blade.

"Fire…might be weak…against the cold." He said softly, and Midori picked up an unpleasant note in the young lord's voice. "But…fire…can also…burn through the cold. Even…cold…like…yours."

His eyes narrowed, and Midori saw him transfer his weapon to his compromised right hand, his left hand fingering at his belt for something.

"The reidoku!" Hirata whispered, and Midori stared at him, her eyes widening in dismay.

"Kyouki-sama!" She exclaimed. "Watch out! Seimaru has…"

"Shut up, wench." Now Seimaru turned towards her, eyes burning defiantly as he fixed her with a dark glare. "I will deal with you two afterwards – for now you can simply be quiet and wait your turn. Don't think your demon sword or your demon arts will get the better of me this time."

"Midori, stay out of it." As Midori's hand went to her weapon, Kyouki shook her head, impatience in her green eyes. "I'll handle him. I'm more than enough for him. It doesn't need your help."

"But he has reidoku, Kyouki-sama!" Midori protested, desperation in her tones. "He has…"

"I told you to shut up!" Somehow Seimaru managed to raise his wounded right arm, flicking a weak fireball in Midori's direction, and she grimaced, releasing an instinctive Bakudou to deflect it away from her position. "Your opinion is not asked for. This is not yet your fight!"

He opened the vial that he now clutched in his left hand, glancing at it for a moment. Then he put it to his lips, drinking from it.

"No…" Hirata whispered, fear in his eyes, and Midori bit her lip, gazing anxiously between the two fighters as she tried to gauge what might happen next. She had heard plenty of the legends surrounding reidoku, and she knew that it could cause both insane strength and fierce madness. Which would manifest in Seimaru first? Would there even be a battle? Or…

Seimaru's thumb restoppered the vial, and he tossed it onto the frozen ground, casting Kyouki a derisive glare.

"Now it's time for round two." He murmured, and as he spoke, his whole body lit up with an eerie, golden flame. "You said you'd fight fire with fire, and now you've resorted to dirty light games and playing with the cold. Well, I'm going to warm everything up from hereon in."

He transferred his blade back to his left grip, flexing his right hand absently as he did so, and Midori realised with a jolt how much more easily it was already moving.

Does the reidoku have regenerative properties? Was this what he'd been intending all of the time?

"KouenKougeki." Seimaru's eyes narrowed coldly, and he swung his blade in a decisive arc, a crescent of angry fire shooting out across the copse towards where Kyouki stood. The blast seared through the trunks of two trees, rendering them instantly in charcoal, and Midori's heart clenched in her throat as she realised how much his strength had risen simply in that one attack.

Kyouki cursed, trying to dodge the attack, but it moved too swiftly for her to evade and in a split-second, the fire engulfed her, consuming the white of her haori in its hungry blaze.

"Kyouki-sama!" Midori screamed, and Seimaru grinned, eying her in amusement.

"Now the real fun begins." He said softly. "It's time to fight this battle for real."