Chapter 3: Pictures and Pages
*Happy Valentine's Day! Please review. Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, just the OCs.*
I suppose I really fit in now while wearing all this, Naoko thought as she trudged through the chilly streets of Seireitei. Instead of her normal black and white attire she was now coated head to toe in black. There was no color to disrupt the single shade that covered her. Not even the familiar flash of her silver and blue fascinator.
The weather matched her somber clothing with slate gray clouds above, a nipping wind, and frost spread out on the ground. But such weather would not stop the Eleventh Division, which was her destination. She wanted to stop here before meeting Uryu at the Twelfth. Hopefully, being here would go better than her visits to the Fifth and Eighth.
The way people looked at her with, what was it? Worry? Sadness? Pity? Naoko couldn't tell other than she didn't like it. What the hell are they so worried about? I'm fine. Yes, Grandma is… gone, but I'm fine. She stuffed her gloved hands into the pockets of her long, heavy skirt and walked into the Eleventh and to the training ring where she felt Zaraki's reiatsu.
Her sense of direction held true and she found the hulking scarred man sitting and watching his officers spar. Yachiru sat perched on the railing near him and occasionally shouting out encouragements to those fighting. Naoko silently stood beside him and watched, some of them she recognized from her time here before the Winter War, especially the Third and Fifth Seats going toe to toe with each other.
Yumichika caught sight of her and faltered, almost giving Ikkaku an opening. He gathered his wits a split second before being hurt and blocked the incoming blade. The bald man snapped something at him making Yumichika huff and dive at him.
Naoko's lips faintly turned upward; he should know better than to get distracted.
Zaraki grunted, "Ishida."
Her lips quirked up at the familiar, and for him, warm greeting, "Captain. I'm surprised you aren't in the middle of all that."
"Not worth it. I've either fought them before or they're too weak."
Naoko hummed and resumed watching the brutal show being put on. Normally the sounds of clashing metal were enough to incite some sense of excitement in her, now it did nothing but make her ears ache. What is wrong with me? I used to love this. Did I get my fill in Hueco Mundo? It certainly did not feel like it; if anything the experience only whetted her appetite for more battle.
But she did feel… empty after everything. Was it because she and Naomi had separated during their fight with Tousen? Did this feeling come from losing an occupant (unconscious for the most part) of her soul that had been with her since the day Naoko was born? Unohana had cleared both her and Naomi as healthy with nothing amiss, so…
"Puppy?"
Naoko looked to see the little lieutenant standing and (hesitant?) a little sad. "Your mommy said your grandma died and that it made you really sad. Baldy and Feathers said she was a nice lady."
She held out her small arms and Naoko picked her up, setting the girl on her hip. Yachiru wrapped her tiny, deceptively strong arms gently around Naoko's neck.
"It's okay to be sad, Puppy. It's okay to cry."
What's there to cry about? Grandmother is gone, but why should I cry over that? People leave all the time…
"If you ever want to fight or something Ishida, you know where to find us," Zaraki offered, not looking at them but the men still sparring.
Their words sent a distant pain through her chest that made her throat tighten and her heart pound heavily. She patted Yachiru's back and her down on the railing, before hurrying away.
"I'll remember that Captain, Lieutenant."
Apparently she could not find peace anywhere.
"Well, it looks like your blood is finally all clean. No poisons, toxins, or unusual chemicals to be found."
Urahara leaned back in his chair, feeling satisfied and looked to his lieutenant that stood stoically by his side. Her passive face revealed nothing, though he did catch a gleam of relief and delight in her eyes. She was a very quiet person, especially compared to his former lieutenant, Hiyori. Still as long as she didn't hit him with any footwear Urahara was not going to complain.
"Any reason why you decided to do this?"
Nemu had come to him asking for his assistance in cleaning her body of all the additives Kurotsuchi had placed in her. He knew she could have done it herself, especially since she knew what was all there to begin with, but she still came to him and he felt too pleased to really ask why.
Demurely she gazed down at the floor, "The poisons and such my cap—former captain put in me did have their uses, but they often made me feel ill or weak. I told him as much and he… was not pleased by my complaints."
Urahara could only imagine what his predecessor did to convey his displeasure. Mayuri always had a notoriously short, vicious temper, particularly when it came to his experiments or plans not going his way. The more Urahara learned after retaking his captaincy the more he regretted letting Mayuri out of the Maggot's Nest.
When he learned about the Quincies and Soken, Urahara nearly drowned himself in alcohol. It was in an effort to wash away what he read and the guilt that none of this would've happened if he had just left Kurotsuchi where he belonged.
Jinta and Ururu were rightfully worried about his sudden binge drinking and fetched Tessai and Yoruichi. The kids had agreed to come live in Seireitei with them as his assistants which made sense since they were designed similarly as Nemu. Mayuri clearly had no qualms about stealing other people's work and expanding on it.
It will be interesting to see if their souls become real like Nemu's did and they developed zanpakutuo. Tessai wasn't able to retake his position as the Kidō Corps captain, but he did accept a teaching position at the Academy. He still rushed over and gave a half-hearted lecture before making tea and sitting with him for a while.
Yoruichi merely said, "You should know better than to drink without us." She sat down, snagged the bottle out of his hand, and downed the remaining liquid.
"I did not want to feel like that anymore and," Nemu raised her gaze up a little. "I wanted to have a choice in what is done to my body."
He nodded in approval and typed a few commands to save the data before exiting the program. "I can respect that and I'm glad I could help. Now that that's done let's go check on our Quincy companions and see how they're doing."
"I suppose we should be grateful that madman had some sense of organization," Uryu muttered as he began rifling through another box.
"Hey at least he didn't toss everything into a pile in some back room," Naoko said.
She held up a pair of odd-looking opera glasses, peering through them, she saw nothing unusual, so she shrugged and set them down on the table. They had opened almost half a dozen boxes and came up mostly with old books in German and Japanese, scrolls, broken trinkets, and Quincy bracelets. Naoko did not miss how sickly pale her brother went on seeing those. She started putting them in a small chest with the intent to bury them as a way to bury those who owned the bracelets died.
From the bits Naoko gathered from her brother, Nemu, and Urahara it sounded like her people had suffered greatly at the hands of the late Mayuri Kurotsuchi. How severe that suffering was, no one would say, but judging by all the Quincy artefacts the man accumulated it had clearly been severe. A Quincy wouldn't willingly hand over priceless objects, likely passed down through generations, to a Soul Reaper.
"What's this?"
Naoko drew her attention to something in his hands. It was a sheet of paper protected by a thin plastic sleeve. She came closer and could see it was an old sheaf of paper and could practically smell the dust and age on it. A ragged tear ran from one corner to the other, cutting through half the page. A sign this had been torn out of a book.
There were no words, but a picture. Half of a human figure garbed in black robes stood in the center with arm outstretched, the other side missing because of the tear. The robes looked less Eastern, but more Western like the robes of a monk or priest. A sword was at its hip and beams of light radiated outward from behind the figure. At the bottom of the page were smaller black robed figures walking in single file to the right.
"What on earth? Are those…" She peered closer at the image. "Are those supposed to be Soul Reapers?"
"I don't know," he murmured. Uryu flipped the page over carefully, looking for a clue, but the other side was blank.
"Find anything interesting?"
The siblings looked up to see Urahara and Nemu walking towards them. Uryu held up the page, "I don't suppose you know where this could've come from?"
The captain gingerly took the page and the pair peered over it closely. Urahara rubbed his chin, "I can't say that I do, looks like something out of an old book. Maybe something from Europe? I remember your grandmother once told me Quincies were thought to descend from Germany."
Naoko felt her body briefly stiffen at the mention of her… absent relative, but brushed it aside as a fluke. It would not be unusual for Urahara to know something like that, from what Naoko could tell he had known her grandparents for years. Both her grandparents had been amicable people and Urahara was a pretty laid-back, friendly guy himself.
So why did she feel the urge to get away from this conversation?
Nonchalantly she stretched, "Well, we still have more boxes to get through. Let's set it aside for now and maybe we'll come across the book it belongs to. Nemu, want to help me get the boxes on the high shelves down?"
The two girls disappeared into the rows of cramped shelves while Uryu remained studying the page. If that really was a Soul Reaper, what the hell was it doing in a book belonging to Quincies?
"Speaking of pictures, I've been meaning to give this to you," Urahara held a photo out to Uryu. "Naoko already has a copy, or rather your grandmother did, sitting on the fireplace mantel. I thought you might like one too, since your grandfather is in this."
It was a photo of both his grandparents, but much younger like perhaps a few years older than Uryu was now. They stood facing each other, holding hands, and beaming with love and happiness. Both wore ceremonial kimonos and his grandmother had flower blossoms in her long dark hair. Tessai stood behind both of them while Urahara was beside his grandfather and Yoruichi by his grandmother. All three wore formal clothing and the shop keeper was missing his hat and they looked to be standing in a park or forest.
Uryu flipped the photo over to see a date neatly scrawled in the corner, Soken and Setsuna's Wedding March 22nd, 1946. The teen's eyes widened to a comical degree. This was his grandparent's wedding! And Urahara was there? !
Still staring at the photo Uryu asked, "Urahara, how long have you known my family?"
"I think your grandfather was about your age when I met him. That's right, I remember World War II was still going on at the time."
That's… sixty years. Uryu gently touched the picture, caressing the young image of two people he loved and wished he could've had more time with.
Emotion constricted his throat, but he managed to croak out, "Thank you, Urahara. This… this means a lot."
The captain smiled warmly, "You're quite welcome. It's hard to believe they're both gone now. It feels like that picture was taken just yesterday."
"Were they happy together?"
"I'd say they were. They had their rough patches and hard times just like any married couple, but you could see how much they loved each other."
Uryu studied the picture a little longer before asking, "How… how did she handle his death?"
The captain sighed slowly, "Not well. She became listless, depressed, and even catatonic at times." He looked in the direction Naoko and Nemu had gone, "Kind of like how Naoko did. However, your grandmother proved her resilience and pulled herself together, partly because that's what your grandfather would've wanted and for Naoko. She needed to be strong for her."
"Do you think you could or if it's… possible you could… find her?" It had been a question he was afraid to voice and hear the answer to.
Urahara adjusted his hat, "It would be difficult. There are 320 districts and they vary in size and population. There's also no telling if she'll remember anything or anyone from her past life."
"But my mother—"
"Was a unique case. It varies how much a person will remember, some remember nothing while others, like your mother, remember everything. People usually fall somewhere in the middle."
Disappointment draped over him like a leaden blanket. Uryu knew it, deep down inside he knew it was too much to hope for.
"Brother come on it's getting late. We better get going before Mom starts to worry."
"Coming," he answered then turned to Urahara. "Thank you again for the picture."
"Of course, now you two be safe out there."
*I'm sorry I couldn't come up with an omake. ^.^' Turns out Jinta and Ururu are the same as Nemu and my idea was that Urahara came up with the gigai/gikon and after being exiled Kurotsuchi took the idea for himself. In my headcanon, given enough time, a gikon can evolve into a soul similar to how an ausuchi can become a zanpakutuo. (I might expand on this later in the story or in a one-shot).
I'd bet that Urahara wanted to go back, but also not leave the kids behind so… Nemu ends up with a pair of younger siblings! XD I liked the interaction between her and Urahara, they'd be good for each other. He would treat her significantly better than Kurotsuchi did and she would help him with even his craziest ideas (years of experience with Yachiru would come in handy).
I don't know what it is with me writing scenes with Uryu and Urahara… are they at least good?
Tell me in your review and I'll see you again Feb 28th.*
