I found what looked like a good place to camp and gathered wood to put in the fire pit, she lit the fire with her strange magic and I used the light from it to set up her tent for her to sleep in. After that I went to go get water and she used that strange mortal world cooking device to make us some of that instant noodle food that Mortals cleverly prepackaged to cook and eat quickly. While she cooked that, I went down to the side of the stream to see if I couldn't find some fish. I wandered up and down stream for a bit, looking for a likely spot, and at last came across a shallow little side-pool of the stream created by a fallen log. It was quiet, and there'd be plenty of things for the fish to eat there, so that's where I would find them. I looked down in the bright moonlight shining into the depths of the relatively quiet water and, sure enough, there were several of them there. I smiled. Dinnertime.
I'd been a kid when I'd first started to learn how to fish, it was a good and easy way to get food in the Rukon District. Over the years I'd gotten better at it. I wouldn't insult my Zanpaktou by using him as a fishing implement
::I should hope not,:: Babs said with immense dignity.
But even before I'd left Rukongai to join the Soul Reapers, I could tickle a fish. At my current level, two of them should be no problem.
I crouched on the log that hung over in the water and, ever so slowly, put my hands in.
The wind shifted and I could have sworn that I scented something familiar on it. The scent of cat and soul and mischief like a playful summer breeze. I shook my head.
:My mind's playin' tricks on me,: I thought to myself as I brought my mind back to the matter at hand.
There were three big ones in there and I intended to get them all, I was definitely a two-fish sized man, though I'd share it with the missy if she was hungry enough for it. I slowly slid one hand alongside the fish, then in movement quick as a snake-strike I jerked my two fingers into the hole behind its gills and flipped it up out of the water then moved my hand just as quickly to its neighbor and flipped him up and out to let them both flop around on the bank until they died (or I could get to them and kill them) and then I moved onto the third fellow who was trying to get away. I didn't manage to reach behind his gills, but I sharply caught his tail fins between two fingers and tossed him onto the shore as well.
I rose from the place I'd crouched on top of the log and hopped down to the side of the stream where my catch was flopping around frantically trying not to die. I was about to catch them and put them out of their misery when a shadow darted out of the larger shadows of the night and made off with one of the fish.
"Hey!" I yelped in surprise and irritation.
Some animal, I hadn't seen what it looked like due to the darkness and the fact that it was damned quick, had just made off with one of my fish! I debated going after it, but it had been a long day for me and it was only one fish. The effort wasn't worth it. I needed rest too.
I scooped up the other two floppers and killed them while I thought about maybe pursuing the fish theif, but decided that the loss of one was acceptable. I slit and gutted the remainder of my catch, then found willow sticks to cook them on. I walked back to the nearby camp.
Isana was sitting on a moss-covered rock near the fire, which by this point was going well enough to require larger sized fuel. This time I did put Zabimaru to ignominious use and reduced a larger log to smaller pieces. I set up the fish while she doled out sizable bowls of noodles and more of those grain-bars with fruit in them.
"Thank-you," I said crouching down in front of the fire across from her.
That's when I noticed that her hand was moving strangely, in a smoothing motion along her lap. I squinted across the fire and saw a black shadowy shape lying in a puddle in her lap. A shape that was holding onto my fish!
"Hey!" I said rising abruptly to my feet and glaring across the fire.
There was an animal in her lap being petted like some kind of lap-dog and it was eating my fish!
"You're the little beast that stole my fish!" I said furiously, pointing at it.
The furball (it looked feline, but given all of the weird creatures I had encountered in this trip across the Dangai, what it really was was anyone's guess what it really might be!) looked up at me from the protection of Isana's good graces with a haughty stare.
I was about to say something about it being added to the menu when the wind was abruptly taken out of my sails.
"Honestly Renji," a familiar masculine voice emerged from the... yes it was definitely a cat. (Most of the time anyway.)
"You caught three of them, the least you could do was share one of them with an old friend."
It was not just any cat but-
"Y-Y..." I said.
I literally could not speak around the sense of overjoyed elation that welled up within me. I flashed across the fire and scooped the little furball up from Isana's lap.
"Y-Yoruichi!" I crowed.
I held her up and twirled her around for joy.
"It's you! I'm so happy to see you, you have no idea!"
I pulled her in and kissed liberally distributed kisses to the top of her head like anyone would a beloved pet that had been lost and was now found.
"Kiss the kitty!" I shouted, laughing in relief and giving her more kisses, while hugging her tight.
I wasn't alone anymore!
"Alright already! Put me down you oaf, or at least let me change forms so you can kiss me properly!" the cat snapped at me.
I quickly and obdiently put her back in the grass.
"Yoruichi, how did you get here?" I asked as soon as I'd caught my breath.
She preened a paw for a long moment, exuding kitty-smugness as she did so. She eyed the fish that she'd been eating that I'd carelessly dropped. I took the hint and presented it to her. she cleared her throat and flexed a claw. I promptly gutted it and threw the offal into the fire, then descaled it and served it to her on a plate.
"That's better," she replied when this was done.
I was a slave to women. Any woman in my life could just own me. I might as well walk around with a sign on my back that said woman-slave.
"As for how I got here," she said in her masculine-sounding voice that was strangely what her voice turned into when she took cat form.
"Well, Uruhara would be the first to tell you that when I chose to run to the Mortal Realm, I didn't really make much of a habit of sticking around the shop with all the other exiles,' Yoruichi explained. "I wandered around, naturally. Eventually I stumbled across these Realms here in the Dangai. I hadn't mentioned them until now because..."
She fave a smug little secretive feline smile.
"Cats and women shall do as they please, and keep thier secrets. But when we got that letter about you, I decided that a little more investigation was in order. I have more contacts in the Divine Realms than you do so I was well on my way to finding out more about these Shadows when I happened to scent you nearby, pursuing your own Shadow."
"Am I ever glad to see you!' I said.
I rummaged through a side-bad in Tanner's saddle and pulled out my messy and maltreated sheafs of paper that I had conscientiously written my reports on. They were all folded up and tied with a string, stacked in chronological order by the date written.
"Here," I said, handing them to her. "I can't get back to my Captain, for obvious reasons, so I'd be in your debt if you'd find a way to get these to him."
Yoruichi looked up from her fish to the packet of reports I was trying to get her to deliver for me and promptly laughed.
"What's so funny?" I demanded, a little irritated.
One or two little laughs might have been understandable I guess, but the cat was enjoying a full-bellyed rolling laugh that was going to have her choking on her dinner if she wasn't careful.
"My, my, how droll," she said, sounding just tickled pink. "Has the boy ever got you trained! And here Rukia thought you'd never be house-broken... Just look at you, you could be off on a vaction and yet you're still working for him. How conscientious of you."
She laughed again and I resisted the urge to see if I could catch her and wring her neck.
"Renji..." Isana said, tapping me on the shoulder.
I looked over at her and she gazed back at me, solemn-eyed.
"Renji, I just heard that cat talk," she informed me.
"Yeah, it's Yoruichi," I said. "She does that."
"I... see..." she said faintly.
Isana went back to her rock and sat down, clearly trying to act tlike all of this was normal for her.
Yoruichi suddenly seemed very interested in Isana. The cat scrutinized the woman very closely with her golden unblinking gaze and after a long moment she turned to me.
"Is that who I think it is?" she asked calmly.
"I can neither confirm nor deny," I said quickly and carefully. "You know as well as I do that that's not the way it works."
There was a long silence in which I waited to see what the capricious woman would do and Isana looked back and forth between the two of us, clearly wondering what was up.
"It's your choice of, course, and I won't say its the wrong one... but are you planning on keeping it from her too?"
"From both of them," I said shortly, all but confirming her guess.
We were deliberately keeping it vague to keep the mortal out of the loop. It was bad enough Isana was in this mess in the first place, we didn't needed her being dragged even further into Soul Reaper business.
"Really? I wonder..." Yoruichi said. "I don't know that you'd be able to keep a secret from them. We both know how intimidating he can get without even trying, and you've always had a soft spot for her. All she'd have to do is bat her big blue eyes at you and you'll tell her everything she wants to know."
"Not everything," I defended. "I've been keeping a real doozey from her for decades. Besides, what are the odds they'd ask? As long as you don't say anything, no-one has to know. Better this way."
The cat, finished with her meal, got up and arched her back in a stretch and leaped lightly up onto Isana's lap for more scratches.
"Behind the ears dear, if you don't mind," Yoruichi said.
Isana blinked at teh kitty and obediently started to scratch. Yoruichi purred.
It's Yoruichi! The story can now commence.