Yoruichi came upon an interesting sight when she snuck into her protege's office the next morning. The little girl that she had been looking for was sleeping in the lap of her student, who was going through a stack of recruitment forms. She looked rather disheveled, as if she had been woken up repeatedly over the night. There was the faint smell of vomit that lingered in the room. If Yoruichi had been in human form she probably wouldn't have noticed, but she was not.
She sighed in relief knowing that Keiko had not been one of the many bound casualties. She rather liked spending time with the girl who reminded her of herself when she was little.
"Well now! I didn't know you had it in ya!" She shouted from her spot on the window. "So who's the father?"
"L-Lady Yoruichi!" Exclaimed a red faced Soi Fon "P-Please Don't joke like that! She's not mine!"
"Oh relax. If you keep taking everything so seriously you're gonna give yourself a heart attack." The cat hopped down from the spot and padded to the corner of the room.
Soi Fon rolled her eyes and threw a dress robe at the cat. "With all due respect lady Yoruichi, rumors of pregnancy out of wedlock are not something I want to deal with. It never ends well for anybody"
"Thats true. Nobles are notorious for being petty and snide." There was a puff of smoke as she transformed. "Oblivious too, but I digress. So why do you look like you spent the night at a bar and got in a fight? You kinda smell."
Soi Fon then explained the events of the previous evening, pausing when she noticed the serious expression on her mentor's face.
Keiko chose this moment to wake up. She yawned a rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before noticing someone she had never seen before. She stared at her for a few moments before remarking. " You're naked. Are you a nudist? "
Soi Fon reacted in the same way most people would have if they heard that being asked in public, by turning red and doing a good impression of a large fish. "Nakenashi! You don't say things like that in public, especially to people like her! You should be embarrassed of your self!" Then she began stammering her apologies. "I am so sorry. She's just really young and-"
Yoruichi, who was used to this kind of thing from spending time with the girl in her cat form, only laughed and waved them off. "It's alright Soi Fon." Then she bent down so she could talk to Keiko at eye level. "I'm not naked, I have a dress robe on. How do you know what a nudist is anyway?"
"Shii -mama calls Enji -nii a nudist cos he keeps forgetting to put on his clothes."
Both adults squirmed uncomfortably at the comment. Soi Fon shook her head slightly. "I do not know what to say to that. Go pester Omaeda. I have work to catch up on." She commanded and returned to her paper work. She looked up after a few moments when she noticed that Keiko was still standing there. "Well? What are you waiting for?"
"Soi Fon, I don't think she knows who your talking about."
"...My lieutenant?" She tentatively suggested then frowned when the girl cocked her head. "Marechiyo? The man from last night?"
"But I don't know where he is." Whined the girl.
"That tub of lard? I'll take her" Volunteered Yoruichi. She hopped up and walked out of the room. "C'mon kid."
The two of them walked side by side for a few moments before Keiko turned to the older woman and said. "Your mean."
The woman blinked for a few moments and stopped. "What makes you say that?"
"It's not nice to call people a Soi Fon. Or tubs of lard."
"Whats wrong with being called Soi Fon?"
"Shii -mama says that those are girls slaves that are supposed to work until they break or die."
Yoruichi nodded in response. The strongest women of the Fon family had been called Soi Fon for as long as they had served the Shihoin. All of them had been workaholics. That word was nearly a taboo in her biggest resource."That makes sense. Calling anyone a slave is rude. But Soi Fon is her code name not her real name, she gets really mad if you call her anything else."
Keiko looked at the woman suspiciously "I'm still not saying it."
"Suit yourself. So what do I call you?"
"kei- I mean, Nakenashi" Keiko stuttered. She hoped that the woman across from her didn't notice.
"Nakenashi doesn't sound like a name either. Thats your code name isn't it?" She smiled when the girl squirmed. "Well, I'll tell you my name if you tell me yours?"
"I'm not supposed to tell my name to strangers" Keiko replied. She shifted awkwardly as she tried to get the woman's attention off herself. She wasn't comfortable when people were staring at her. It just felt wrong.
Yoruichi picking up on what the girl was thinking, thought for a few minutes before remembering something that Keiko had called her before when they first met. "Well, it looks like you have a good head on your shoulders. Call me Kitty then." She put her hands on the back of her head, imitating cat ears and grinned. "Meow"
"Ok Kitty." she giggled and the two of them continued on their way.
When the two of them found the lieutenant sleeping at his desk, snoring very loudly. Yoruichi stared at him for a few moments before grinning and turning to the child next to her. "Nakenashi? Do you like pranks?"
Soul Society looked like a disaster area in the aftermath of the bound attack. There were chunks missing from the walls and a division of unseated officers had to be situated at the gate to keep the peasants out. The casualties of the incited rebellion were minimal on the shinigami side, and much greater on the civilian side. The people of rukongai had realized that their support base was gone and they stood no chance against that which oppresses them, so now they have settled for throwing various objects at the shinigami guarding them. The most common of these objects were rocks, sticks, and feces.
Each week the captains would have a meeting to discuss the reparations. The first week Captain Soi Fon reported the girl in her office. The other captains had a hard time believing that until she provided a small photo and a deadly glare. She explained the girl was intact the reason for the delay in her reports and paper work, having cried on or lost a great deal of them.
The week after that Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, who was incredibly well known in soul society came and tried to convince the girl to leave. They hoped that meeting someone famous would prove an incentive. The girl in question accused him of being a bad "waffle hanger". Soi Fon had apparently been lucky in the sense that she looked like the girl's caretaker. Byakuya on the other hand, had a variety of things shouted at him in rapid succession, which he noted on the report. Some examples included:
"Liar! Nobles don't name their kids Baka!"
"You're with the scary people aren't you!"
"I bet your here to eat me cos you hate cats!"
"Why are you staring at me like that? Your a pedo creep aren't you!"
"OH MY GOD YOU'RE TURNING INTO A FISH!"
"EWWWW! Captain -sis get the fish pedo creep away!"
"Wait you Just want to eat me to perv on captain -sis!"
"Your too old for captain -sis!"
"MARECHO -NII! THERE'S AN OLD FISH CREEP TRYING TO PERV ON CAPTAIN SIS!"
The rest of the captains found the incident to be highly amusing and a great deal of strange rumors sprang from this incident.
The week after that Soi Fon started to look slightly off. It took her several moments longer for her to respond then they normally should. She had been seen nearly walking into people. She passed it off as long hours of trying to straighten her paper work out since she still had not recovered from the flooding a month earlier. She had been spending most of her time at the office trying to keep onto of everything despite the girl waking her up multiple times in the night. She did note that the girl was no longer afraid to leave her office unattended but was still unwilling to leave the building.
Captain Ukitake was the next person to try and persuade the girl to leave the barracks. His report noted that the child was fine with his presence until he introduced himself and offered her candy. The child immediately became pale as a sheet and spent the rest of his visit either behind or clinging to Soi Fon with her face in her shoulder. No amount of scolding or pleading could get her to say a word or explain her reaction.
The Fourth weekly captains meeting only had twelve captains How ever, Amaterasu had rejoined them. Soi Fon sent a badly written note explaining that the girl's night mares had become more frequent and more severe following Captain Ukitake's visit. She also explained that because of this she had not been able to get any sleep nor had she been successful in keeping the girl away from her. She consulted some of the few books she had on child psychology to try and get answers out of the child to leave only to discover that children cling harder when they are being pushed away and are less coherent when they are being pressed.
Amaterasu was largely unfazed when the events were told to her. She was more or less aware of how things were going to end and so she went to sleep after she realized what the meeting was about.
The fifth week was rather shocking. Soi Fon showed up with the girl clinging to her shoulders, fast asleep. In one hand she had a bottle of water. In the other hand she was holding her late paper work. She took her place in the room and promptly dared them to comment on it. Half an hour into the meeting Soi Fon put the girl in the corner of the room and rubbed her stiff shoulder and sorted through her stack of papers.
What happened afterwards shocked the rest of the captains but not the wolf. The girl began whimpering 'make it stop' after half an hour alone. After an hour she sat up and shrieked 'STOP LOOKING AT ME' at the top of her lungs repeatedly until Soi Fon poured half the contents of the water bottle on her. Upon checking that the girl was actually awake she had the girl drink the rest of the water and wrapped her in her captains Haori. She once again glared at anyone who dared to comment on her actions and returned to her place.
Keiko who just realized that she was not in a place that she recognized, promptly covered her head with the haori and cried.
Amaterasu got up from where she was sitting and went over to the crying child. She nosed it a few times to get its attention.
-Are you feeling well?-
The girl peeked out for a few moments before burying her face in Amaterasu's fur. She nodded but she didn't look like she had gotten much rest recently. It's too bad she does not specialize in dreams. Then again if, like many reoccurring night mares, they weren't dreams but memories, then not even Kasugami would be able to do anything.
-Nightmares?-
Another nod.
-Do you remember them?-
A shake.
-Do you want to leave?-
Another shake then a nod.
-Do you want to leave with the young lady you have been staying with?-
A nod.
-Go back to sleep then. It will all work itself out.-
Amaterasu looked back at the people staring at the two of them and yawned.
-Everything has been taken care of. Go about your business.-
Author's note- Ack! Writers block! The bane of every reader! I say reader because its the readers that have to sit in suspense waiting for the next chapter to come out. My finals are coming up so i won't be writing much. I will say that the next chapter will be more like the beginning since there will be more gods involved.
I was originally going to have Keiko call Soi Fon Taicho -nee but that was kind of awkward and i couldn't figure out why. I guess its the continuity thing.
The first time i heard byakuya's name i thought they said Baka too.
The thing with children getting clingier when they are rejected is quite true. I've also found that trying to reason with one when they are really scared is pretty much a waste of time. Yes at one point i will write out Keiko's nightmare.
Comments and criticisms are welcome.