Chapter 5: Reveal and Unravel
*I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Just remember to not panic, wash your hands, and limit contact with others by staying home and reading fanfiction.
Please review. Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, just the OCs.*
Urahara tightly pressed his lips together forming a thin worried line. He held a folded letter in one hand and fought not to fidget with it. Uryu and Naoko sat before him and waited for him to speak. They're not going to enjoy this, he reflected before speaking.
"Your grandmother gave this to me right before she left Soul Society for the Living World. She said it was for safekeeping and to give it to you when I thought it was necessary and last night's attack has convinced me we've reached that point."
"Wait a minute," Naoko said. "Are you saying you know who attacked us and why?"
Uryu narrowed his slightly in suspicion towards the captain. While his feelings towards Soul Reapers had warmed up considerably there were still some remnants of distrust.
"I have an idea, but no way to prove it," he held up the letter, "except with this perhaps."
Uryu took the letter from him and gently broke the plain wax seal. Naoko leaned over and read their grandmother's fine script. Even in old age she still retained beautiful handwriting, but the story it told was shocking.
'My dearest grandchildren Naoko and Uryu, I want to begin by saying how much I love you both and how proud I am of you. I know your grandfather would be proud as well. You have become such wonderful people and have the makings of remarkable Quincies.
I ask that you forgive me, not only for keeping you two separate from each other's lives, but for keeping another secret from you. In 1946, I not only married your grandfather, but I also abandoned the person I was born as. My birth name is, or was, Tsukihana Fukumoto. My parents truly were Eleonora and Arata Fukumoto and I did have four older siblings: Isamu, Haru, Miki, and Miku. After my siblings and father had all died, my mother hired two young men as my personal guard. My friend Seiichi Matsuro and your grandfather, Soken.
Our clan was not only of high Quincy nobility, but my mother was the triplet sister to my uncle, Nicholas. He was the king of our people. However, he had no living children by the time he died and my aunt Isabella and her children have all perished as well. With no heirs, save myself, the title and its trappings have been passed down to me and my progeny.
While you were in the land of Hollows I was in Germany, fighting a battle of my own. Everything that once belonged to my uncle is mine… and now yours if you reading this. I have attached an address and contact information for Matsuro should you wish to visit. You do not have to if you do not wish to. I merely want to give you what I had so little of growing up.
A choice.
The only significant choice I made regarding my life was running away with your grandfather and marrying him. A choice I have nor will ever regret.
But I caution you to think this through carefully, as I believe your heritage was the reason behind Aizen's interest in you. My mother told of Soul Reapers who were once sworn to protect her family until those Soul Reapers betrayed them. They may still be lurking about waiting to finish our line and perhaps even working with Aizen to achieve this goal. Why they wish us dead, I cannot guess.
Be careful and good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Love,
Setsuna Ishida'
Uryu read the words again and Naoko numbly sat against her chair. This whole time… Memories of her grandmother flashed through her mind as if trying to find some hint to all this. Shock slowly dissolved into anger and without realizing it the teen slammed her palms on the table and shot to her feet.
"She lied to me. She lied to us. Again! She lied about her name, she lied about us, what the hell else did she lie about? !" Her voice had risen to a shout.
"Naoko she had her reasons and—" Urahara tried to defend.
The teen snarled, "Don't you try to defend her! Did she even love us? Hell, is she even our actual grandmother?"
"Yes she was and she loved you both," the captain said firmly. "I understand that you're upset about being lied to, but don't ever doubt the love she had for you."
Uryu had been silent through the vocal exchange. He finally looked up from the letter and fixed an unreadable gaze on Urahara, "Did you know about this? Her family and being a noble?"
The captain sighed, "Only what she told me years ago. Her family were nobles, her uncle a king and that she left it all behind to be with Soken and live a peaceful life."
The answer appeased Uryu only slightly and he folded up the letter carefully before rising. "Come on, Naoko. Let's go."
She huffed irritably, but followed him, nonetheless, leaving Urahara to wonder what he had just set into motion.
"This is just… unbelievable," Sakura muttered when she finished reading the letter. Uryu stood near her desk while Naoko sullenly perched on the corner. Sakura had welcomed the break from backlogged paperwork her children brought until she read the message.
"So… you didn't know anything about this?" Naoko asked hesitantly as if warily expecting another blow to her world.
She shook her head, "No, Setsuna never said much about her past and I never thought to ask. I don't know if your father knows about any of this though since he never said anything to me."
"I doubt he would have told anyone if did know. Ryu—" Uryu quickly changed words when his mother shot him a warning look. "He wasn't exactly proud to be a Quincy."
Sakura looked back at the paper in hand, "I know Mihana said they went to Germany to stay safe during the Winter War. Maybe they went here. What are you going to do?"
Naoko didn't respond as she was busy trying to untangle her emotions at today's revelation. So many damn lies and for what? She might have had reasons… good reasons maybe, but I'll never know them now.
"We could visit this place; Grandmother did leave us enough money so travel wouldn't be an issue. We could go before the start of the school year, that way we wouldn't miss any more school," Uryu suggested.
Her ears perked up at that, "Wait a minute, we? I hope by we you're counting Ichigo."
Mother and son shared a glance which set Naoko's nerves on alert. Sakura said gently, "Well… we thought you might benefit from going to the same school as your brother. That way you two would be close to each other and you could meet more people your age."
"And when the hell was this decided? !" It was just one thing after another today, wasn't it?
Uryu crossed his arms at her outburst, but Sakura spoke in placatingly, "Nothing's been decided, it was just an idea we could discuss later."
Naoko fumed, but said nothing more. Her life had been uprooted twice within a month. How much more was she supposed to go through?
"As I was saying," Uryu adjusted his glasses and said, "I would like to visit this place and at least see what's there."
"I don't know," Sakura said with a worried furrow of her brows. "She does mention possible enemies still there. What if these are the people who attacked you? Would it really be wise to walk right into their hands?"
"Mother, please I understand your concerns and I appreciate them, but… I—we finally have a chance to learn so much more about our people. Please," he implored.
"If it makes you feel better maybe we could get Carrot-top in on this and maybe everyone else?" Naoko proposed. "That way we wouldn't be going alone and have help if things got hairy."
"If what got hairy?" Naomi asked as she reentered the room carrying a tray of tea.
Sakura took a cup, "My children want to travel half way around the world to Germany where they might be attacked by the same people they were attacked by recently."
"We don't know for sure they're the same," Naoko groused, sipping her tea.
Naomi meditatively looked into her tea, "Well, if you're going to take Captain Kurosaki or any other Soul Reaper you'll have to get approval from the European Head Captain. If you don't, she'd have the right to detain them or at least put them under surveillance and after this debacle with Aizen I think they'd be more paranoid about outside Soul Reapers. Grandfather may not be able to help either since they'd be in her territory and the Head Captains have a strict agreement with one another not to interfere with each other's lands except for extenuating circumstances like war."
"So a Soul Reaper can't visit a country outside their assigned region unless allowed by that Head Captain? They can't even visit for vacation?" Uryu asked.
The blonde nodded, "That's right and Soul Reapers don't vacation to the Living World all that often let alone to another country or continent."
"Wait a minute," Naoko interjected. "you traveled abroad as a photographer for a while. How'd you manage that?"
"I was in a gigai and it's hard to sense a Soul Reaper's reiatsu while they're in one. I never left it unless I had to fight a Hollow and only if I was alone."
"Don't tell me you actually support their idea to go Naomi?" Sakura groaned.
The blonde gave a sympathetic shrug, "Sorry Captain, but I know Naoko and if she wants something she's going to find a way to get it. Might as well help anyway."
Their mother sighed and rubbed her temple with one hand, "Alright, if you do decide to go how will you convince the Head Captains?"
They mulled over it until Naoko made a hesitant suggestion. "Cultural exchange? I mean if Soul Reapers from other lands don't or can't visit each other maybe it's more because they don't see a need to. I know I've learned a few things from Captains Flynn and Harumi and they've learned stuff from us, right? Maybe we should spend this time trying to know each other better rather than dwell on paranoia fueled dislike for one another."
The other three shared a contemplating look. Naomi shrugged and said, "She's got a point. The less we know, the more we fear."
The mother looked at both her children and sighed, "Alright, if you're truly set on going I only ask you have at least four people accompany you and you go during your semester break."
Naoko grinned and Uryu relaxed slightly with relief, "Thank you, Mother and we might have some people in mind."
Renji sat at his desk staring listlessly at the report in front of him. His eyes ran over the characters, but his mind took none of it in. The pen sat loosely in his fingers unwilling to write. Captain Kuchiki had stepped out to oversee today's afternoon training session leaving Renji to finish the remainder of the paperwork. He knew he had to get this done, the captain would be disappointed if he didn't and yet he still didn't move.
Kira and Hinamori were gone.
It felt so unreal that two of his friends were dead. He had met them in the Academy and they were his first friends after Rukia. It felt selfish to ruminate on his pain as there were others affected by the deaths just as badly. Captain Hitsugaya holed himself up in his office and Matsumoto was inebriated at some level constantly. The red head had heard lieutenants Hisgai and Ise had buried themselves in work with more vigor than they ever had or was necessary.
He had only heard bits about how they died. Fighting three Arrancar, the Fraccións of some Espada. The only consolation being the Fraccións died too.
His friends were still gone and…
"Renji!"
His head snapped up to see Rukia standing in front of his desk looking both annoyed and concerned. "Are you alright? I've been calling your name and you weren't responding."
The lieutenant just sighed and massaged his neck, "I'm fine, tired from all the mind-numbing paperwork."
They knew each other too well for her to buy the meager excuse he was trying to sell. Her face and voice softened, "Thinking about Kira and Hinamori again? It's okay to miss them."
"…I know. So what are you doing here? Looking for your brother?" He said as a way to switch topics. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to Rukia about his grief, but rather he didn't want to talk about it at all.
She brightened slightly, "Not this time. I may have something to help you though a change of scenery."
"That's going to help me?"
"Mm-hm, we're going on a field trip."
*This was more a bridge/exposition chapter, but I hope you still liked it. Again, be safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands! Please review and I'll post again March 24th.*
