Slash, block, push, spin, jab
"Use your Shikai already!"
"I don't think that's-"
DODGE!
"At this rate I'm gonna cut your head off!"
"My Shikai-"
DUUUUCCCCKK!
"Shuuuuuu! You know I'm not that good at holding back in Zanjutsu! Use your Shikai already!"
Shuhei gritted his teeth and groaned in his mind. Why? Of all the people she could choose why did his best friend choose to spar with him? The results can be disastrous! Especially when she's still recovering! She's at her most fragile now!
JUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMPJUMP OR YOU GONNA DIE!
Heeding his instincts and jumping as high as he could, Shuhei managed to keep his feet attached to his legs when Kurui slashed her blade at where his feet was a second ago.
Kurui is scary!
"Stop. HESITATING!"
"REAP, KAZESHINI!"
In that one split second of fear, where Kurui's killing intent overwhelmed all sense and reason that clouded his mind, he finally called upon that one power that he is so afraid of. Even before his mind could register what he is doing, he sent his released Zanpakuto flying at Kurui, its death-like scythes spinning in a whirlwind of death.
Kurui merely narrowed her eyes as she expertly flickered away in a shunpo, reappearing in the air and stabbing her blade downwards at the gaps in the links of the chains of his weapon, pinning them down onto the ground and rendering Kazeshini useless.
"Now THAT's how you do a Shi- urgh!"
"Rui!"
Shuhei immediately threw down his Zanpakuto the moment Kurui nearly collapsed, only barely managing to stand as she leaned onto her Zanpakuto, which was stabbed into the ground when she stopped Kazeshini. She coughed uncontrollably as her other free hand held onto her side in pain, the side where the hollow had chewed a piece out of her and which Captain Unohana had stitched back as if nothing was wrong in the first place. Shuhei's first instinct is to help her up, but found his hands hovering in mid-air and not knowing where to place them.
"I'm fine." She wheezed out after a while before standing up straight. "At least now I know what my current limits are. Stupid hollow. I know I'm awesome, but I don't even taste nice!"
"You are still recovering. You aren't supposed to be training yet!"
"But it's booooring!" Kurui whined as she flopped and let herself fall onto the ground, back facing the ground as she kicked up a childish tantrum. "Nii-sama doesn't let me do anything! ANYTHING!" Kurui shouted into the sky as her hands and feet waved about agitatedly from where she is lying on the ground. "Don't use the kettle, Rui, it's too heavy, let the servants brew your tea for you. Don't cook anything, Rui, let the chefs do it, the knife's too sharp, go and rest. We will call you when it's time to eat." Kurui did her best imitation of Kuchiki Byakuya using his Kuchiki ByakuyaTM blank face and voice. "Like what the hell?! Knife's too sharp? I use a ZANPAKUTO for fuck sake-"
"Language."
"-Hisana-nee never stops hinting at me for the ENTIRE day to go and rest until I'm in my bed, tucked under my blankets like a three year old, lights off, and sleep until it is meal time! Rukia and Renji just keep giving me the creepy silent go-to-bed stare and just. Keep. STALKING me until I go back into my room! It's driving me CRAZY!"
"You are supposed to be resting. Given your track record, they have a right to take extreme measures to make sure you are resting properly."
"What extreme measures? I'm not a walking calamity! It's not like I can sleep the entire day either! I'm not a sloth!"
"You sleep all day in class all the time in the academy."
"T-That's different!"
"Oh?" Shuhei can already feel the sense of déjà vu, this particular scene had happened too frequently during their time in the academy for him to keep count. What excuse will she come up with this time? "How so?"
"T-There were spiders in my bedroom in the academy and I couldn't fall asleep! So I had no choice but to sleep in class to catch up on my beauty sleep!"
"The only spider we ever saw in the academy was the one you found shortly after we received our Zanpakuto."
"Shuheeeei~~" Kurui whined as she tugged at his sleeves and swing it from side to side, trying to delay the inevitable of her going back home. Shuhei sighed. As for the reason behind that sigh, even he doesn't know what that is anymore. Sighing had been his default reaction to anything Kurui-related from the very first day he met her, that fateful turn around the corner on their first day in the academy.
His best friend had always been his biggest source of headache.
"Please don't send me back home~ Pleeeeease~~~~~~"
"You need the rest."
"Nii-sama will just chain me to my bed if he found out I sneaked out today!"
"All the more reason for you to go back now before he finds out."
"Shuhei! You meanie! Do you really want to see me gone?!"
Ah, so she changed her tactics. From whiny Kurui to angry Kurui. She should be an actor. The change in demeanor only took her a split second.
"I'm not your brother. That pout won't work on me."
Kurui's expression melted immediately from mock anger to absolutely pitiful.
"Shuuuheeeeeeei~~"
Annnnd the whiny Kurui strikes back again. At the rate she is tugging at the sleeves of his uniform and swinging it from side to side, the sleeves will come off sooner or later. Maybe he should change his uniform to a sleeveless version? Sounds like an idea.
"If that assassin strikes again, right now, you are defenceless. At least back at your compound, you have the entire Kuchiki clan guards protecting you."
"But you are here!"
"I'm just a Fifth Seat, and I cannot even control Kazeshini properly yet."
"Then MAN UP and stop being so scared of your blade!"
"Rui, Kazeshini, he's…"
"Dangerous? Bloodthirsty? Crazy? Psychotic?"
"Actually-"
"Insane? Mad? Deranged? Demented?"
"All of the above." Shuhei said in a firm tone to stop Kurui's needless chattering right there before it goes needlessly long. She is surprisingly good in her vocabulary, maybe she should make her own dictionary or a thesaurus one day. "Long story short, Kazeshini is not an easy blade to handle. It reaps life too easily and it is too eager to do so. I… don't like that."
"Your Zanpakuto is a part of you. Don't run from it. All you have to do is to accept it."
"It's not that easy-"
"Trust me, it is." Kurui said with finality as she picked up her Zanpakuto, twirled it above her head with a hand before sheathing it once more across her back in one smooth practiced motion. "I fear my blade too, especially what it can really do if I really want to use it properly. Something like my Zanpakuto honestly shouldn't exist. It's a freaking cheat code. But it is a part of me, and I got to accept it. Our Zanpakuto are a reflection of our heart. You just got to look deeper within your soul and accept the true you."
Shuhei frowned. While Kurui had told him about her Zanpakuto's abilities before, she had never showed it to anyone other than her brother and her Captain. Even then, he has a feeling that she simply glossed over her Zanpakuto's abilities.
Maybe she really doesn't like her Zanpakuto's abilities too.
"Look deeper within my soul…" Shuhei muttered. "More Jinzen, perhaps?"
"Or you can experience a near-death situation." Kurui answered dryly. "There's no situation that is more suitable for doing some soulsearching than a near-death situation."
"Not funny, Rui. You nearly died."
"B-But all the protagonists in the stories always found their true selves during the soul searching they did in near-death situations! It's anime logic! And your Zanpakuto's theme is death! Then maybe experiencing a near-death situation can help you achieve Bankai!"
"Anime…?"
"It should work! Trust me! Anime logic said so!"
"I'm not even going to ask what this anime thing is." Shuhei groaned as he walked to pick up his blade and reverts the form of his Zanpakuto back to its usual self. He can hear the evil cackling of his Zanpakuto spirit at the recesses of his mind as he did so.
And why is Kazeshini agreeing with Kurui? Going through a near-death situation? For the fun of it? That's it. He's never allowing the two of them to meet face-to-face, even if that scenario can never happen.
Shuhei turned back to Kurui, who is now firmly sitting on the floor, cross legged and arms also crossed in front of her chest, with her cheeks bulging like a chipmunk as she stared at him in defiance, her long black hair floating lazily behind her thanks to the breeze in the clearing they are at right outside the Seireitei.
"Rui." Shuhei said in a tone that he only reserved for 'Kurui-is-in-her-being-difficult-mode-but-I-cannot-do-anything-too-drastic-or-she-will-make-my-life-difficult-instead' situations. Why, oh why, is he best friends with such a problematic, troublesome, stubborn, yet wonderful person, Shuhei will never ever know. "We need to get you back home. It's too dangerous out here."
"Don't wanna." As if defying all sense of logic, her cheeks puffed up even further as she stared defiantly back at him, determined to not move a single step. "Make me."
"I will carry you back if I have to. If anything happens to you out here, it will be 'Raining Sakura' for me. I don't want to be the next Omaeda."
Kurui's eyes literally lit up at the name of the Vice-Captain of the Second Division. Is her Zanpakuto a light-based Zanpakuto? Might explain her ability to tweak the surrounding lights in such an unnatural fashion. He had heard from the rumour mill that Kurui and Captain Shiba had once summoned an entire beach, complete with lapping waves, sand, squawking seagulls, sunset and all. Captain Shiba's Engetsu is a fire-based Zanpakuto, so the beach is definitely Kurui's doing.
"Oh, oh! I totally forgot about him! How could I?! We should totally-"
"This is where I step in to remind you that you had traumatised that poor man so badly that 'Kuruiphobia' is now a legitimate medical term in the Fourth Division."
"Hey! An achievement! Now generations of Shinigami will know how awesome I am-"
"You mean how terrifying and petty you are."
"-and then they will sing my name for generations to come-"
"I'd be surprised if you didn't somehow become the boogeyman of the Rukongai within the next century."
"-and everyone will praise, Hail Hydr- I mean, Hail Kurui!"
"I'm not going to even ask."
"We go visit Omaeda? Sweet lovely Omaeda?" Kurui asked with an innocent looking face, eyelids fluttering twice to try and sell that impression.
Shuhei never bought it, not even a second.
"Captain Sui-Feng will Bankai you to oblivion if you so much as breathe in her division. I heard from somewhere that her Bankai creates a massive explosion the equivalent of the Shiba clan's best bombs at its worst."
"But that makes it all the more fun! The thrill! The horror! The adventure! The EXPLOSIONS! Art is… a BANG!"
Honestly, he had long since given up by now what she meant with all those weird phrases. It's just something about her that you just have to accept.
"Rui, no."
"Rui, YES!"
"No, go and rest. Or I'm telling Captain Unohana all about your escapades."
Kurui's crestfallen expression is the only sign Shuhei needs to know that he had won the argument. Nobody ever goes against the scary motherly figure, Captain of the Fourth Division, Unohana Retsu. If she tells you to jump, you ask how high. If she tells you to die, you ask how it should be done. If she commands you to rest, you never question her until she gives you the green light to get out of bed. Given how fond Captain Unohana is of Kurui, she will see to it, somehow, that Kurui lies on her bed to rest and never get back up until she's fully healthy again.
Even Captain Zaraki gives Captain Unohana a very wide berth, and along with it respect the size of the entire Gotei 13 and beyond, and that is saying something.
"Mou~ You are no fun, Shu! Live a little!"
"I believe your equivalent of 'fun' is my equivalent of 'insane'."
"Tsktsk, Shu-chan. What happened to your sense of adventure?"
Oh no, this is definitely the start of a roundabout merry-go-round never ending series of questions that Shuhei had fallen prey to many times before. He is not going to let Kurui the chance to divert his attention away from the matter at hand any longer. He is not falling for this trap.
"I'm going to carry you back if you're not going to move."
"Shu! Don't change the topic!"
"YOU are the one changing the topic. Don't think I didn't realise it."
Kurui gave a sagely nod, one of her hands did an unmistakable motion of stroking an invisible beard the length of their Captain Commander's. She is definitely imitating their Captain Commander.
"It seems I trained you well, my student. I'm proud to be your sensei. Will you brew a cup of tea for this old man?"
"Did the Captain Commander seriously say this to- Wait. I'm not falling for this. DON'T change the subject. Either you move, or I carry you back."
Kurui's expression melted once more at her failure of escaping her impending doom.
"Shuuuheeeeeei~~"
The whiny Kurui strikes back again. He just knew it. This is a never-ending cycle. He is literally back to square one. It makes him wonder if her parents have precognition abilities when they named her, because her name can never be more fitting. The word 'Kurui' literally means confusion, deviation, disorder. She definitely embodies the meaning of her name right down to the very definition. Kurui is just so good at misdirection and sweeping you up in her tempo even before you realised it. Their short conversation here is proof of this. She just keeps leading him by the nose in their conversation in her attempt to delay the inevitable.
Time for a figurative Bankai. This will never end otherwise.
He held out three fingers, and began to count down.
"Three."
"Wait, what?"
"Two."
"Shu! I'm warning you!"
"One."
A second of silence followed until-
No No nonono NOT that same melting expression on her face again-
"Shuuuheeeeeeei~~~"
God damn it. Even Kazeshini is laughing at him. He knows he's not imagining that laughter howling at the back of his mind.
Steeling his heart and blocking out all noise, Shuhei picked Kurui up with a single hand by the back of her uniform, ignoring her whining and her shouts, threw her on his back, and start their long trek back to the Seireitei. He knows she hates being cooped up in a room, but she also needs to rest, so the least he can do is to drag out the journey back to the Kuchiki compound to delay the inevitable for her for as long as he can.
"See, you are tired." Shuhei chided when he saw her yawn, using a tone that he used whenever he knew she had pushed herself too hard. She had always been pushing herself too hard even back at the academy.
"I just really, really, hate being all by myself in a room, you know? Especially when the walls are white." Kurui's whisper could barely be heard as she buried her face into his shoulder, her long black hair pooling over it. "Bad memories."
"Rui?"
"Nii-sama and Sofu were never home. The servants won't play with me, because I'm the princess of the Kuchiki clan and I'm a noble. It's just me and four blank walls all the time. I hate it. All I want is to spend some time with those I love."
"Your recuperation period won't last forever. It's only temporary."
"I really don't like being trapped in a room, Shu. I hate seeing walls. Especially white walls. It makes me feel like I'm trapped and suffocated. Why else do you think I keep sneaking out of my Division's barracks?"
"Will it be better if I made daily visits? I will get Aoga and Kanisawa to come along as well. They can always give Captain Unohana the excuse of 'for the patient's mental well-being' to ditch their work to visit you, I know they will be more than agreeable to it."
"Captain Unohana will slaughter them if they did that. Have you ever seen her patented you-are-so-very-dead smile? Hollows got purified just by seeing it, I swear upon it as a Kuchiki that it is the truth and nothing but the truth."
"But the patient in question is you, and you know Captain Unohana has a soft spot for you."
"…Daily visits?"
"I promise."
"You better. Or I will raise hell in the Ninth Division when I'm fully recovered. Like putting one thousand of those annoying high-pitched bells in your division that rings non-stop for an entire month. The ones that goes dingdingdingdingding forever and ever until you can hear them in your dreams. Pretty sure Captain Tousen will put you on the chopping board and skin you alive if he found out you are the cause for it."
"I doubt he can even walk straight if there are a thousand bells ringing non-stop in my Division. He uses his sense of hearing as his primary means to get around."
"Exactly, so just ditch your work and come visit me. I hate being cooped up in my room."
"I cannot just ditch-"
"Then steal Goro for me. Goro is nice company."
"You want me to steal your Captain's pet dog? Do you want me to die so badly?"
"Either you come visit me, or you steal Goro for me. Either die by Captain Komamura's totally amazing Bankai, or by a thousand ringing bells annoying you forever. Your choice."
"You know, sometimes I really wonder why I'm friends with you."
"Love you too, Shu."
"DON'T. Say that. THAT word. People will misunderstand. I don't want the weather forecast to be-"
"Raining Sakura?"
"Yes."
"Wow. You just told me a new way to murder people with just a few words. The pen is indeed mightier than a sword, nuff said. Thanks, Shu, for the inspiration."
"…What have I done?"
"You know, if by saying 'love you too' I can get Nii-sama to murder someone painfully and squeal like a pig, I wonder what would happen if I…"
"Rui?" Shuhei asked in a combination of apprehension and dread when Kurui went absolutely silent, just right when they finally reached the main gates of the Kuchiki compound.
"Hey, what's that?"
Shuhei went to look at what Kurui had pointed with her finger, but spotted nothing. The next thing he knew, something moist came into contact with his cheek and the weight is lifted off his back. By the time he turned around, Kurui had already jumped over the tall walls of the Kuchiki compound in a shunpo, her bell like laughter happily ringing in the air as she waved him an energetic goodbye before disappearing from view. The two eternal gate guards of the Kuchiki clan had a mortified expression on both their faces. Gate guard A is now not-so-subtly elbowing gate guard B, and not-so-subtly telling gate guard B 'QUICK! GET LORD BYAKUYA!', while gate guard B is now not-so-subtly scrambling to run into the Kuchiki compound, and not-so-subtly screaming "IT'S AN EMERGENCY! GET LORD BYAKUYA! RAINING SAKURA! RAINING SAKURA! TAKE SHELTER!" in a so-not-Kuchiki fashion.
Shuhei slowly raised a hand to touch where Kurui had… his cheek earlier.
It's just an imagination, right?
"BANKAI: SENBONZAKURA KAGEYOSHI!"
The fact that he is now running for dear life at the sight of those scary pink petals exploding from within the Kuchiki compound and rising into the sky tells him that it is definitely NOT an imagination. There is enough of those petals to cover the entire sky.
"Attention all souls, today's weather forecast is-"
The announcement made by the broadcast system is a huge clue too. The Kuchiki clan and the Weather Forecast Department sure works fast. Somehow, Shuhei suspects that they had a lot of practice working in collaboration with each other.
Damn it, Kurui, is this your idea of a prank? Because if it's not-
Shuhei's mind stopped working temporarily.
It's… a prank, right?
Damn it, Kurui. Why must you be so confusing to understand?!
"WHERE'S HISAGI?!"
Never mind that for now, staying alive takes priority.
