Twilight: Hey all!
Kage: Hello…
Twilight: Didn't except me to update so soon, eh?
Kage: Actually, you're taking as long as usual.
Twilight: Shut up, I didn't need to hear that.
Kage: Too late.
Twilight: Grrrr…
Kage: Nyah.
Twilight: Hmph…well, I'm not going to update my Naruto story for a while, at least until I get this one up and rolling.
Kage: Lazy bitch…
Twilight: Furry bastard. Anyway, Yuurei is going to be a very strange person, and if things don't seem to make sense, please don't comment on it. Yuurei is a lot different from my other OC, Yukari.
Kage: You can say that again; I didn't think it was possible to come up with two people that are so different.
Twilight: Well, I did it!
Kage: It's nothing to be proud of…and YOU do the disclaimer this time. Or else I'll bother you for the next couple days with my perverted comments.
Twilight: …I hate you SO much.
Kage: I know.
. Requiem of a Wandering Spirit .
… a bleach fanfiction
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Requiem of a Wandering Spirit © Dragon of Twilight
Bleach © Kubo Tite
This introduction format © B a y o – B a y o
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CHAPTER T W O :
"Interview Investigation"
Opening Theme: "Houki Boshi" by Younha
Hitsugaya growled angrily, shoving away the thin manila folder than contained Yuurei's Academy records. The damn file had raised more questions than it answered. Propping his head up with a palm on his forehead, Hitsugaya glared ineffectually at the plain manila folder, inwardly cursing the ineffectiveness of Academy teachers. The report had been written in a jumbled mess of vague information that really didn't explain anything.
Hitsugaya grumbled irritably as he once again pulled the folder to himself and opened it, eyes scanning over for anything he might have missed, unlikely though that was. But the same crap that he had read the first few times was still there; nothing new jumped out at him. Maybe they should use that 'Report-writing for Dummies' format that the Eleventh Division used…
I mean; unknown type zanpakutō? Reiatsu manipulation? What the hell? Had a zanpakutō before arriving in the academy? How?
Hitsugaya felt an intense urge to slam his head into his desk as he felt a large headache forming. In the midst of his frustration, he recalled the Head Instructor's words.
"You'd understand it better if you talked to her yourself."
No. No. No. Hitsugaya Toushirou, Juubantai taichou, and legendary ice-prince of the Gotei 13, did NOT go around asking random recruits about their life histories. He stayed aloof from his squad, was a determined workaholic, and never concerned himself with the affairs of others, which only intensified as he got older, and after the Aizen fiasco.
But the one thing that only Matsumoto Rangiku and Momo Hinamori knew that he never grew out of was his childlike curiosity that seemed to pop up when he least expected it. Hitsugaya had tried to ignore it, had attempted to get rid of it altogether, but it often somehow landed him in some very odd situations no matter how much he tried.
"I am not going to visit a new recruit for information." Hitsugaya growled aloud stubbornly. "Besides, I don't have time to figure out where she lives." He justified to himself, closing the envelope and putting it in a cabinet with a mind to return it later, putting Maboroshi Yuurei out of his mind.
Hitsugaya picked up his favorite calligraphy brush and began to get started on his paperwork, mind blissfully blank as he became immersed in his work. He didn't even mind as he noticed that Matsumoto had, once again, stuffed her paperwork in with his. Paper after paper, he worked in silence. Suddenly, loud yells erupted in the street just outside his office and continued to grow in volume, reiatsu radiating from close by, interrupting the rare moment of peace and quiet.
White eyebrow twitching slightly, Hitsugaya attempted to ignore them.
Probably a bunch of Eleventh Division idiots beating up Yamada again. He thought dismissively, returning to his work. A loud bam rocked the wall of the building and made the bricks shudder on their foundations. Though, Yamada usually doesn't fight back…
Finally, after a few more loud crashes of trashcans being knocked over and a yowl from the local Division alley cat, Hitsugaya surrendered to his growing curiosity and abandoned his paperwork and used shunpo to get outside.
The sight that greeted him when he stopped was definitely unusual.
A group of five shinigami with the typical drunken attitude of the Eleventh Division was circling carefully around a familiar black-hooded figure that was standing protectively over a cowering Yamada Hanatarou, calling out their usual obscenities and taunts.
Hitsugaya noticed with interest that they seemed cautious, and then noticed two others in an unconscious heap by the wall, which had cracked on their impact with the bricks. He looked closely at the attackers and noticed that their clothes were scuffed and they looked a little worse for wear. Yamada was frightened and his face was slightly bruised, but other than that, he seemed fine. Hitsugaya scowled, however, when he got sight of Yuurei's face as she weaved back and forth in time with the men's feinting movements as they looked for an opening.
Yuurei's silver hair was even more tangled and stained a bit with blood, a dark bruise covering most of the left side of her face. She hadn't drawn her zanpakutō, and her hands hung limply at her sides. But she was standing, weaving back and forth as the shinigami circled her to cut off any opening that they could use to attack her.
One of the men made a rush toward her, raising his zanpakutō. Yuurei instantly whirled to meet him, throwing part of her cloak over Hanatarou and bracing her feet. Hitsugaya decided to step in.
"What's going on here?!" He yelled as commandingly and as loudly as he could. The man that was rushing to attack the recruit and medic abruptly stopped, and the others whirled to face the Juubantai taichou. Hitsugaya was pleased to note their looks of fear.
"H-Hitsugaya-taichou, sir!" One stammered. He began to sweat as Hitsugaya turned a sub-zero glare on him. "W-we were just…"
"Are you finished with whatever you were just doing?" Hitsugaya inquired icily, stressing the word just enough to see most of the men break out into a cold sweat. They men nodded frantically, desperate to get away. "Take your teammates and get out of my Division."
In an instant they were gone, leaving Hitsugaya, Yamada, and Maboroshi standing in an empty street. Yuurei dropped her hands and shuffled slowly away from Hanatarou, who was staring at Hitsugaya through his limp black hair with relief in his puppy like light gray eyes.
"Hitsugaya-taichou! Thank you!" Hanatarou exclaimed, shakily getting up and bowing in respect. Yuurei nodded, raising a hand to lower her hood. Hitsugaya noticed that one of her spindly fingers was twisted unnaturally, probably broken.
"Are you injured, Yamada?" Hitsugaya asked; turning his attention back to the medic, his tone slightly more warm than the one he had given the other shinigami. Hanatarou shook his head frantically.
"N-no, I'll be alright, b-but she—" He gestured to Yuurei without looking at her. "—she helped me. She might be hurt." This time he did look at her. "Are you alri—GAH!"
Yuurei moved her head carefully to look at Hanatarou, who cringed back slightly, having no doubt not ever seen her without her hood. Hitsugaya's scowl deepened as he noted her split lip, and the blood trailing slowly down her chin.
But he could understand why Yamada looked horrified. She looked even more bizarre in the dark light of the street lamps and half of her face bruised a dark purple, almost swelling shut one of her eyes. The other eye was grossly widened in a look of fixed shock, the black of her eyes almost completely overwhelming the whites.
Yuurei finally blinked, the first time Hitsugaya had ever seen her do so, and smiled. It looked more like a lopsided sneer, but it was obviously intended as a smile. Hanatarou didn't relax.
"Maboroshi." Hitsugaya said abruptly to bring her attention back to him, as it was fixed on Hanatarou. "I…" He hesitated, thinking that this was a bad idea, but Yuurei's flat black gaze made him continue. "I need to talk to you. Yamada, return to your division. Maboroshi, come with me."
Yamada saluted clumsily. "Yes, Hitsugaya-taichou!" He started to move away, but suddenly, Yuurei was in front of him faster than Hitsugaya could track, putting her injured hand on Hanatarou's shoulder to stop him. Hanatarou's eyes went wide in shock and flushed a deep red color as Yuurei reached up to his bruised face. Hitsugaya watched her carefully.
She's fast…obviously protective…
"I-it's n-n-nothing!" Hanatarou squeaked nervously, moving back from Yuurei's close proximity. "I-I'll be fine…I n-never got y-y-your name."
"Yuurei." The young woman said carefully, her voice scratching over the 'r'. "…It was nice protecting you, Yamada."
Leaving a stuttering, blushing, wide-eyed Hanatarou, she moved over to Hitsugaya with a peculiar shuffling stride. Hitsugaya nodded to her and turned to walk back into the building. He felt Maboroshi shift her position to be at his elbow, and he glanced at her in reflex.
She was absentmindedly inspecting her face with her fingers, tracing gently over the bruised flesh. Suddenly, she stuck her fingers inside her mouth and came out with, to Hitsugaya's disgust, a bloody tooth.
He stared in disbelief as she made a slightly comical face and tucked the tooth somewhere inside her cloak.
This was a bad idea. Hitsugaya thought decisively, moving to sit at his paperwork-filled desk.
Yuurei shuffled carefully behind him, pausing as Hitsugaya sat down with a slight sigh. She seemed to crumple to the floor in front of his desk, looking up at him with her black eye, which held a gleam of curiosity.
"I considered accepting you into the Juubantai, but when I looked at your Academy file, it raised some questions." Hitsugaya said, scowling lightly. Yuurei looked up at him silently, clenching her hand around her injured finger.
"Well, ask away." She said carefully, straightening her broken finger. Hitsugaya frowned as he noticed her actions.
"First, you should take care of your injuries." He noted her good eye widening slightly. Her mouth opened slightly, and he grimaced slightly as he noticed that her mouth was stained red from her missing tooth.
"I'll assist you." He found himself saying as he noticed her obvious surprise, getting up once again from his desk and walking over to a shelf with a variety of medical supplies. He selected a first aid kit and a few splinting materials, walking over to a shocked Yuurei.
"Take off your cloak." Hitsugaya ordered impatiently, also sitting down on the carpet to be at her level.
"…B-but…" Yuurei stammered slightly, clenching her uninjured hand in the material of her cloak, a glint of panic in her visible eye. Hitsugaya stared flatly at her, impatient. Her lower lip trembled slightly, and she slowly pulled off her cloak, revealing an absolutely filthy standard female Academy uniform. The captain beside her sucked in a breath at the sight of her body, and she flinched, huddling slightly into her knees.
I was a fool to think that he'd be different. She thought bitterly and watched shock, suspicion, disgust, and slight pity flicker across those cold teal eyes.
Hitsugaya noticed her withdrawal into herself with a bubble of guilt and self-consciously forced himself to blink, methodically taking in her condition.
Yuurei was, in essence, a skeleton.
It was obvious that she barely ate much, because the bony quality of her wrists extended to everywhere else on her body, though some sinewy muscles didn't allow her to look starved. Her skin was the same creamy brown color as her face, and it was littered with many cuts, scratches, and bruises all in various states of healing. He noted that her little toe on her left foot was missing, and her skin was covered with deep, slashing scars. What bothered him the most were the bandages wrapped tightly around her neck, and upper arms.
All of those places were the locations of major arteries or a crucial vein.
Ending Theme: "Again" by Yui
A/N: All will be explained…about five chapters from now. (Ducks thrown object)
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
The RoseBlade Ninja Alchemist, Kanervdss;
THANK YOU!
Signing out,
Dragon of Twilight!