Chapter 10

Renji and Ichigo watched the girl they treated like a younger sister (even though she was older) change over the years she had been deejaying in the club, but Isshin was the one who saw every aspect of the young girl as she changed and transformed into the young woman she was today. It nearly overpowered the man.

It had been thundering that day, hard wind and stinging rain. The club was in need of a DJ and so far no one could make a cut. She had come in a curious (and very short) thirteen year old girl, covered with a long trench coat that looked ridiculous on her. Her father, shabbily dressed, soaked to the bone and barely able to speak japanese was with her, swearing she had the skills to deejay for the club. Renji and Ichigo had been playing around and Isshin had been in a foul mood and decided a grown man making a mockery of himself using his daughter would brighten his mood a little so he led the girl, now stripped of her trench coat and in scruffy boy clothes, to the old mixing table.

The young quiet girl couldn't quite reach all the switches so Isshin grabbed a drink crate and put it under her. She grinned and said something in Chinese as she stepped onto the crate and before he could flick the switch to turn on the table she had beat him to it and was mixing the records already on the table. she frowned slightly and messed with the many switches on the table and grinned as the two records mixed together seamlessly, with a beat that seemed to urge Isshin to move. Renji and Ichigo stopped playing around and watched the girl as the melody seemed to soak into every fiber of their being and they began to feel incredibly happy as the music continued lightly and quickly.

Isshin looked dumbfounded as the little girl mixed better than any adult he had ever seen, he looked back at the father who was grinning proudly at his girl, and finally he looked at his son and his friend, that could never sit still, even when he threatened them, standing stock still with pleasant smiles on their faces. Isshin couldn't believe it.

He turned once again to the father and frowned, "I will consider this, but with very severe reservations. If no one is good enough by the end of the week, we will hire her."

The man's grin disappeared, "I... See... We come back at end week."

Isshin had to swallow a lump in his throat he didn't know was there as the man gathered up his young daughter, swinging the drenched trench coat over her shoulders to keep her warm as they walked back outside into the cold, unforgiving rain. He forced himself to look away until they were gone. That was life it was tough and he couldn't be hiring little girls off the bat because they could seam together records that they had probably never seen before. Isshin growled and kept the bile from rising in his throat. He grabbed a mop and started to clean before he could think about it anymore. He turned around and flinched back as he found his son and his friend staring at him as it he had done wrong.

Children knew when something was right and when something was wrong, they knew it like an instinct. Isshin twitched and couldn't help it he yelled at them.

"What the hell are you looking at? Get out of here! I need to clean! Get out!" Anger slipped out like poison and the children scattered as Isshin angrily cleaned the floors.

It was three days before the end of the week and no one as skilled as the thirteen year old girl came to DJ. Isshin felt embarrassed for these men when he had to turn them down because 'someone better talented' had beat them to the punch. And an hour after they opened up, the same shabby looking man trudged in with his daughter.

He coughed hard before approaching Isshin and spoke in a sickly tone, "Job still open?"

Isshin stared and nodded, "Yes, your daughter is hired."

The man grinned and looked back at his daughter, speaking in Chinese. Isshin could only guess that he had told his daughter she had received the job the girl exclaimed happily before her father had fallen over. Her expression turned from happiness to horror as her father collapsed to the floor with cold shivers, Isshin jumped forward and yelled for Ichigo to call for an ambulance. The young boy ran to the telephone and dialed the hospital as the young girl screeched in Chinese, tears streaming down her face as she shook her father's shoulders.

Isshin could not think to do anything until the ambulance arrived. He grabbed up Ichigo and the girl as the ambulance loaded up. The man got into the ambulance and told them that he was a friend of his as the car screamed down the street. The girl shook with sobs and Isshin had to hold her shoulder to keep her from diving at the medics when they started charging the paddles.

"Bàbà! Bàbà, bù yào lí kāi wǒ!" The girl screamed as medics tried to restart her father's heart.

Isshin finally just pulled her back and when they arrived and the EMT's rushed the girl's father out of the ambulance, Isshin had to completely restrain the girl as she tried to follow them, screaming, kicking and crying.

He picked her up, even as she struggled to get out of his arms and told Ichigo to run to the front desk and find someone who understood Chinese. Isshin sat down and sat there, as finally the girl went limp and stared tearfully at the double doors the EMT's had taken her father through. Ichigo came back a few moments later with a regal looking woman, she seemed gentle but commanding at the same time, her name tag read UNOHANA, RETSU. She leaned down to the young girl and started whispering to her in what sounded like Mandarin. The girl started to brighten and she was speaking so quickly with the older woman Isshin couldn't understand a word of it.

When there was a small break in conversation Isshin finally got in a few words, "What's her name?"

Unohana looked up at him, "Her name is Shaolin. Shaolin Fong. She's thirteen, and has been living on the streets with her father which probably explains why her father has a very bad case of pneumonia."

Isshin flinched and frowns, "How's her father?"

Unohana just shook her head, "I wouldn't know. But, can I ask how you know this girl?"

Isshin nods, "Her father is one of my new workers."

Unohana only nodded and once again whispered to the young girl, Shaolin, before straightening herself and walking away. Isshin sighed and had both children sitting next to him, hoping that God would forgive him for turning this girl and her father away those few nights ago.

It had been seven long hours before the man had been cleared. Shaolin had sprung up was chattering excitedly as Unohana herself came to announce that he was fine in both Japanese and Chinese. She led them to the hospital room and Tzu Fong, Unohana had told Isshin his name before they entered, was awake and hugging his daughter tightly. It was endearing, but he had no idea how quickly this innocent girl and loving father would become shadows of their former selves. A dark and painfully realistic girl and a far-off, closed-off man who would at times forget he even had a daughter. This of course affected the young Chinese girl very negatively and Isshin still remembered the day Shaolin Fong had become Soifon.

She had been sick and angry when she showed up on his doorstep yelling that she was done with her father. She wanted him to take her to a government building to change her name. He obliged when he saw how upset she was, and when she told him the reasons why. Her father had killed thirteen men, raped at least ten girls, and extorted countless people. She was physically ill when she had told him all she knew he had done, but the most disturbing thing she told him came last.

"The thing is I know it's not completely his fault. There's always a man there in the alley, I never saw his face, but he always tells my father what to do, and he always makes sure he listens."

Isshin took her in and helped her change her name and when they returned to the club it took all of his strength not to kill the old man as soon as he came into sight. But he was beaten to the punch anyway as a shot went off. It happened so fast. He heard the shot and he pulled Soifon down to the floor. He heard a low gasp, like air being rushed out of someone's lungs and a dull thud. He and Soifon both looked up to see Tzu on the sidewalk, eyes darting around and mouth flopping open and closed wordlessly as he covered his neck, blood flowing out between the fingers of his hands. There was so much blood, but the girl beside him didn't flinch. She stared on for a few seconds before her father bled out and died, people around screamed, one tear slowly slid down her cheek and Isshin grabbed her close, trying to whisper words of comfort through a shaky voice and Soifon only sat there tearlessly and in shock.

Isshin thought she was fine for a while after before she had a breakdown right after regular business hours, and he still didn't know if she was fine, especially since she is going up for the first time without being a boy. She had come by right before setup to tell the employees to lay off Yoruichi because it wasn't her fault, she was in a regular t-shirt and jeans, her hair in the regular style. Isshin only gave her a small smile and pet her head.

"I'll tell the rest of the guys. Just be careful okay?"

Soifon smiled back, "Alright Isshin."

She walked away and Isshin looked on with a slight sadness, this girl was growing up and changing and it saddened him, which delighted him at the same time. He felt like the girl's real father and would look after her as such. And as he looked to the entrance of the club, a scowl formed on his face and paternal instincts of protection leapt to the forefront of his mind.

Aizen was standing there, smirking happily as he spoke loudly across the room, "Enjoying your new celebrity life Shaolin?"

Isshin was proud that his small club 'family' all had something potentially lethal in their hands by the end of that unfortunate sentence and felt himself truly forgive Yoruichi as she charged up to the man with a knife in her hand, yelling for him to leave before she castrated him.

But everyone stood still as he smirked and spoke, "Would you do that to the man who could keep the paparazzi away?"

Nobody could speak and Soifon knew he was about to offer something she would usually refuse.

"What are you working at?" Yoruichi said angrily, holding the knife at his waist level.

Aizen just shrugged, "If little Shaolin signs on with me, I'll keep the paparazzi away and keep them from digging into her past."

"And if I don't?" Soifon growled lowly at him calling her by her old name.

Aizen smirked, "I will tell all the papers about the atrocities your father committed behind this club and you will get no paparazzi protection. You will forever belong to the public."

Soifon was frozen in her place and Isshin paled. This decision could decide the fate of the club. The publication of the acts of Tzu Fong could destroy them. But being held under the thumb of Aizen would destroy Soifon. And Soifon could only gape.

A/N- Wow, drama. Climax is coming up soon then the tying up of loose ends, probably within the next five chapters. Remember to review and vote on the poll on my profile if you haven't already.