Chapter Three: As Wheat before the Reaper
The darkness around Hisana lasted only a moment before light grew, surrounding her. It resolved itself into a cityscape; Hisana found herself standing on a small street in a crowded urban area, her parents and aunt standing around her.
"This is Karakura Town," Rukia told her daughter. "Your grandfather made his home here, becoming a doctor, marrying your grandmother Masaki, and raising your father and aunts. This is where I met your father," she continued, her voice thickening, "and this is where the real story of our family begins."
Hisana listened, rapt, as Rukia, Kisuke and Karin took turns telling her about her family's past. As they talked about the people her father had known, and fought alongside, they appeared as moving illusions nearby. She learned about her father's first allies besides her parents.
Inoue Orihime, a beautiful, willowy auburn haired woman with strange power and a kind heart. Yasutora Sado, a towering Mexican with enormous strength and a quiet nature. Ishida Uryu, the withdrawn, enigmatic and powerful Quincy.
Eventually the scene around them changed to a sprawling city built in the style of the Edo period in Japan: Seireitei. Hisana learned the story of how her father and his friends had invaded to rescue Rukia from execution, and stumbled into the middle of a plot a century in the making: Sosuke Aizen's rebellion.
The story of her father and the defenders of Karakura Town took hours, and by the end Hisana had seen images of Seireitei, Hueco Mundo, and other places her father had visited. When that tale ended, the scenery around them faded back to Karakura Town.
"Ichigo and I loved each other for a long time before we admitted it to ourselves or each other," Rukia said, "but by the time all the fighting was done and we started thinking about the future, we realized that we wanted to spend our lives together. We were married four years after the Winter War, and it wasn't long before we found out that we would be having a child." Hisana saw her father, spiky orange hair and a goatee, along with her mother, her belly swollen and her body whole, stepping out of a house, talking and laughing before fading away. When Hisana looked at Rukia, she saw tears in her mother's eye.
Kisuke put his arm around her shoulder. "Four days before you were born, Ichigo and Orihime were summoned to Seireitei by the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13. Ichigo didn't want to leave Rukia when she was so close to giving birth, but we all trusted the Captain-Commander, and we thought he wouldn't have summoned them without good reason, so they went," Urahara told Hisana in a grim voice. The scenery returned to Karakura Town, and she watched a shining gate open in midair, and saw Ichigo, dressed in black with a sword like a giant cleaver as long as he was tall on his back, along with Orihime, step through. "That was the last time we saw either of them."
Day faded to night in the image of Karakura Town around them, and then Hisana saw flashes of blue and yellow in the sky. "Three days after Ichigo left, we all felt a tremendous battle nearby. Ishida Uryu was fighting an opponent of tremendous power. By the time Sado and I got to the scene, it was over. Uryu was dead, and his opponent was gone." The scene around them changed to an empty park in Karakura, her father and Sado arriving to find the park devastated, huge craters and gouges in the earth; trees blown apart and uprooted. When they found the body of the slender man who had fought alongside her father, the darkness hid the details, but Hisana could see his blood pooled around him and deep, smoking gashes in his body.
"The same night, while Sado and I were taking Uryu's body to his family, the same enemy struck the Kurosaki Clinic. Isshin was one of the strongest shinigami ever to have lived, but it didn't make a difference. He fell in battle in a matter of minutes, and then his opponent blew up the clinic, killing your aunt and your father," Kisuke's voice was ragged, and Rukia struggled to remain composed. Karin was stone-faced.
"If dad was in Seireitei, how did he die at the clinic?" Hisana asked.
"It's the one big weakness of being a substitute shinigami," Karin answered quietly. "Like us, your father was still alive, living out a human lifespan. When he went to Seireitei, he left his body behind with a mod soul named Kon to occupy and defend it. Kon was at the clinic in your father's body when it exploded, and when a substitute's body dies, even if they're not in it at the time, their soul passes on as well. Ichigo's spirit form would have vanished from wherever he was in Seireitei and reappeared somewhere in the Rukongai with no power or memory of who he was."
"After that, it was clear we were being picked off one by one. So Sado, Yoruichi and I got Rukia and took her back to my shop, where we could all face this enemy together. We thought it would make a difference," Kisuke said bitterly.
The scene around them changed to an underground room similar to the one they were actually in. The shade of Hisana's pregnant mother was there, along with Kisuke, Sado, a dark-skinned woman with purple hair that she knew to be Yoruichi, and a strange trio: an older man with a massive build, a substantial mustache and hair in cornrows, and two teenagers, a waifish dark-haired girl and an angry-looking red haired boy. They were Tsukabishi Tessai, Hanakari Jinta and Tsumugiya Ururu.
Hisana flinched when a section of the training ground's roof collapsed, driven downward by what must have been a massive blast. The illusions of the past reacted instantly, with Tessai forming a kido barrier around himself and Rukia, while the others spread out to face their new enemy, anger and resolve on their faces.
Hisana stared in disbelief when only a single figure strode out of the dust from the collapse. He wore a red robe like Nikan, and over it a white haori with "1" on the back. He was tall and thin, with a gaunt, cruel face, his features aristocratic and haughty. His gray eyes burned in sunken sockets with hate and vicious glee. His long dark hair was arranged in a handful of thick braids, each one capped at the end by a silver ball. He held a full sized zanpakuto in his right hand, a slender dagger in a reverse grip in his left hand, and a crossbow slung over his shoulder. He and Kisuke exchanged words, but the images were silent. "He said he was the Gatekeeper; he gave no other name," Kisuke said heavily. "You can't imagine how shocked we were to see him wearing that haori, the uniform of the Captain-Commander. It meant Yamamoto Genryuusai was deposed or dead by his hand. He said Seireitei was 'purged of weakness', and that the Kurosaki line would be ended by his hand. When I asked him why, he only smiled and said that it was his will that 'Isshin's disgraceful mongrels' be wiped from existence. Then he attacked."
What followed was a bloodbath. Hisana pressed her hands to her mouth, horrified. The Gatekeeper moved so quickly that her eyes couldn't follow him; only what he left behind. Little Ururu and sullen Jinta died in seconds, to blows so fast that the older fighters couldn't protect them. They were whole one instant and then spraying blood from fatal wounds the next. Whenever the Gatekeeper slowed down enough to be seen Kisuke, Yoruichi and Sado attacked, but he danced away from their attacks like he knew were they would hit ahead of time. Sado was the next to fall to the Gatekeeper's wrath, the red robed shinigami burying his dagger in Sado's sternum and slicing down, gutting him like a trout. As the Mexican fell dead, the Gatekeeper sheathed his dagger, yanked the crossbow off of his shoulder, and fired a glowing bolt of silver light at Kisuke. Hisana watched her adoptive father, unable to dodge in time, move to block the attack with his blade, only to see a silvery explosion throw him violently into the rock face behind him and knock him senseless, his sword gone.
The Gatekeeper turned to face Yoruichi, his last opponent, sheathing his sword and putting up his crossbow, saying something to her that seemed to make her even angrier. She launched herself at him, and they fought hand to hand, the Gatekeeper seeming to revel in the fight. "I knew Yoruichi for two centuries before the day you're witnessing here, and I never knew a finer unarmed combatant," Kisuke said sadly. Yoruichi's back exploded in white light and her bare handed attacks shattered stone, but none connected with the grinning Captain-Commander. Their battle was a blur of punches and kicks that ended when the Gatekeeper caught Yoruichi's arm in a lock and broke it. Then he rained a vicious series of blows on her face and gut until she was sprawled on the ground, senseless, her face so bloody and bruised as to be unrecognizable. Not done yet, the Gatekeeper picked Yoruichi up and traced a symbol in the air with his free hand. A senkai gate opened from thin air. He tossed her unconscious form through it, and then closed it just as easily.
The action was odd enough that Hisana had to ask, "Why did he do that?"
Kisuke sighed, regret and loss etched on his face. "The only reason I can think of for him to spare her is to control the Shihoin family. They're influential in Seireitei and she's their family head, so it makes sense he'd take her hostage if he needed to shore up his position."
As they watched, the Gatekeeper approached the barrier protecting Tessai and Rukia. They had both watched the fight, and were horrified. The gatekeeper raised his hand and pointed, speaking a few words. A torrent of red light poured from his hands, striking the barrier and shattering it.
Moving away from Rukia, Tessai began incantations of his own, and Hisana witnessed her first kido battle. Blasts of lightning, fire, darkness and indescribable energies flew back and forth between them. Barriers appeared at the last moment to stop attacks that vaporized whole sections of the training room around them while Rukia maintained her own, smaller barrier simply to shield herself from the kido being thrown around.
Suddenly Tessai was scorched by a blast of red fire, and then driven to the ground by a quintet of massive metal pillars that fell on him, pinning him to the ground. Done with the kido master, the Gatekeeper approached Rukia, who dropped her barrier and rose to her feet, a hopeless yet determined expression on her face. "I knew I had no chance," Hisana's mother said softly. "But I couldn't stand there and do nothing. He was there to prevent your birth." Past Rukia raised her hand and chanted, and an orb of red fire flew at the Gatekeeper. He raised his hand and caught it, holding the fireball in his hand, looking at it. It increased in brilliance. Then he gave Rukia a sadistic grin and threw it back at her.
Past Rukia tried to dodge, but the fire still washed over the left side of her body, and Hisana shrieked at the sight of her mother engulfed in flame, falling to the ground and rolling in the dirt in an effort to extinguish it while the Gatekeeper laughed. Hate crystallized in her heart, hate like Hisana had never felt before at this horrid man who had hurt her family so much.
Hisana was shocked to see her mother rise up into a crouch, drawing her zanpakuto despite her injuries. Then the Gatekeeper vanished, and past Rukia screamed silently as her sword arm was severed, blood pouring from the stump. She fell back to the ground. The Gatekeeper put his foot on her neck, took his crossbow from his shoulder, calmly reloaded it and then fired its silver bolt into Rukia's chest at point blank range, purposely missing her vitals just to inflict more pain, a sadist's grin wide on his face. Her mother screamed again, and then passed out. The Gatekeeper looked annoyed, then shrugged and drew his dagger, crouching to administer the finishing blow.
Then the ground shook and a crimson light filled the cavern. Hisana looked back where Tessai had fallen and was surprised to see him on his feet, the metal pillars crumbling around him. His body was enveloped in a visible cloud of reddish reiatsu, and his expression was pure rage. Clenching his fists, he began to speak, clearly enough and close enough that Hisana could read his lips. "Eternal fires wait in the depths. Black lotus petals burn on the wind. Judgment comes to the wicked and righteous alike." At first the Gatekeeper only looked annoyed that he'd have to waste time killing Tessai as well, but as the burly shopkeeper spoke his incantation, Hisana saw alarm on the Gatekeeper's cruel face for the first time. He lunged at Tessai, but he was too late. "Forbidden Bakudo No. 7! Gēto jigoku!" [Hell Gate] the shopkeeper roared, extending one finger as if in accusation at the Gatekeeper.
Hisana gasped as a pair of massive black doors sprang into existence near Tessai and the Gatekeeper, a skeleton wrapped in rags emblazoned on each one. The doors swung open, revealing a sea of red beyond. The Gatekeeper turned to run, but barbed chains shot from the doorway, wrapping around his body and dragging him in, until he vanished into the sea of fire. "Yes!" Hisana whispered. But then she saw what happened next. More chains exploded from the door, and this time they wrapped around Tessai, who didn't fight as they pulled him in as well. Hisana saw Kisuke rise from where he had fallen in time to see Tessai, their eyes meeting before Tessai vanished into the gate. Then the huge black doors swung shut. Kisuke leapt forward, pounding on them, yelling something. Then they vanished. The last thing Hisana saw of the past was Kisuke noticing Rukia was still breathing and staggering over to her, ignoring his own injuries as the scene faded and their true surroundings returned.
"The only reason any of us are still alive is because one of my oldest friends consigned his own soul to Hell to save us," Kisuke said raggedly. "Naming my son after him was the least I could do."
Hisana shivered. "But it worked, right?"
"Unfortunately, even that only delayed the Gatekeeper. I had time to keep your mother alive and get her to a safe place to give birth. We went into hiding. In the years that followed I got some information out of a few red robes." The look on his face made Hisana decide not to ask how he had done that. "They all insisted the Gatekeeper was firmly in charge of Seireitei. I'm not surprised. Ichigo managed to enter Hell and escape, and he hadn't been as strong as the Gatekeeper was."
"I see." Hisana mulled over what she had seen. Learning that the monstrous shinigami she had seen was still alive was frightening. "That crossbow he used; is that why you don't have a sword, dad?"
"Sharp eye. You are your mother's daughter," Kisuke said. "Yes, the quarrels from that weapon were composed of some kind of seal I've never seen before. I've been trying to figure out how to break them for years, but they're indestructible. When that shot hit Benihime I lost her."
"That's why you can't leave your gigai, mom?"
Rukia nodded, parting her kimono far enough for Hisana to see an irregular patch of silver with filaments radiating out under her skin between her breasts. "It's fused to the gigai, and it seals my soul inside."
"So this is why we kept moving around when I was little," Hisana observed. She remembered when she was very young that they had lived in a new place every few months."
"Yes Hisana. We kept moving until we were convinced that the Gatekeeper and his red robes had lost our scent. Then we moved here, where shinigami hardly ever visit."
Another thought occurred to Hisana, and she looked between her mother and father. "So before I was born, when my dad was still alive, you knew each other?"
Kisuke nodded. "For several years."
"Did you… you know… have feelings for each other then?"
Rukia and Kisuke looked at each other and then they both burst out laughing. Hisana felt herself turning slightly red. "What?" she asked.
"I suppose animosity is a feeling," Kisuke said when he could stop laughing.
"Hatred is definitely a feeling," Rukia agreed, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye. "Oh, that's right, in our story of Ichigo's past we left the part out about why Aizen was so dead set on executing me." Rukia grinned. "The generous shopkeeper here gave me a free gigai after I transferred my powers to Ichigo. He didn't mention that the gigai was designed to drain my reiatsu and leave me trapped as a human."
"WHAT?" Hisana and Karin said at the same time, exchanging a stunned look. Apparently Hisana's aunt hadn't heard this story either. Both of them glared at Kisuke, who took a step back.
"Aya!" he exclaimed. "There was a good reason!"
"There was," Rukia agreed, resting her head on Kisuke's shoulder. "He had to hide the Hogyoku from Aizen, so he decided to trap a shinigami in a gigai implanted with the Hogyoku that would turn them into an ordinary human and render the damned thing invisible to everyone. I happened to be that shinigami. It almost worked, too."
"Wow. So what changed between you?" Hisana asked.
Rukia smiled gently. "There are two kinds of love, Hisana. The first kind is fast, like an explosion. It's there in an instant, and it changes everything, even if you don't realize it at first. Ichigo and I had that."
Rukia paused, looking at Kisuke fondly, who looked slightly embarrassed. "The other kind of love is slow, like ivy growing on a wall. You don't even notice it taking root and you don't see it growing, but one day you turn around and that barren wall is covered in ivy and you discover how beautiful it is, even though you thought you would always hate that wall. For years, when you were a baby, we were running all the time, and keeping you safe was our only thought. I was grateful to Kisuke for taking care of us, but I didn't think much more of it than that. It was after we moved here that I started to understand what had changed. You were outside playing with your dolls, having a tea party, and he just sat down and joined in. Watching that, I realized that he was more than just an ally in a common goal; he was a great father. Not only that, but when it came down to it he was willing to defend us without hesitation, and even though it cost him so much he was ready to do it again. That's when I started to love him. For a time I was afraid that he wouldn't love me, looking like this," Rukia gestured to her ruined face with her one good hand. "But I was wrong."
"You were wrong," Kisuke said, kissing her cheek – the scarred one. "Because there's nothing wrong with you."
"He's got that right," Hisana said sincerely, hugging her parents. "I wouldn't trade you guys for anyone." She gave them enough time to get misty-eyed before adding impishly, "Even if you did just get me dragged into a war."
Kisuke patted her on the head. "You're not enlisted just yet, kiddo." Then he looked at her seriously. "The plan hasn't changed because you have a zanpakuto, Hisana. Hiding is still the plan, and I hope you never have to use it again. What Karin's going to teach you is a contingency, in case things don't go according to plan."
"Yes, because we Kurosakis are famous for keeping a low profile and not attracting trouble," Karin said sardonically. "Why don't you two go relieve David and I'll show Hisana a few more tricks?"
Rukia and Urahara departed, and Karin rubbed her hands. "Let's see… since you're suppressing your reiatsu all the time it's hard to get a handle on how strong you are… oh, I know! Let's see if you're good at something else your father was terrible with: kido. At heart it's just shaping your reiatsu into a desired effect. The incantation focuses you on the form you want the power to take. Let's start with some simple Hado spells and see how big a boom you can make…"