The small green-haired lad dragged his feet, the sun cooking him from above.
How long had he been walking?
He didn't know.
He had started at some point and just didn't stop
His legs hurt.
He was tired.
His eyes hurt.
His feet hurt.
Thud!
He tripped.
His face hurt.
Grrrrrrr!
And he was hungry.
He couldn't move.
Every time he tried-
Grrrr! Grrrrrrr! GRRRRRRRR!
His stomach made a louder protest.
He heard footsteps around him.
None of them stopped.
Made sense.
Why would they?
Even if they could help, would it even matter when he died a few days later?
He didn't know.
Probably not.
He was just… tired.
He wanted to rest.
Just close his eyes and stop.
"Hey, boy."
His eyelids were so heavy…
"Boy."
He could rest there.
Rest until it all stopped.
That seemed ni-
"Mmph?"
A hand grabbed his chin and cheeks, and another shoved something into his mouth.
"Chew."
A single word, spoken by a voice from above.
He complied, his teeth digging into the firm morsel between them.
An explosion of flavor danced across his tongue.
"Mmmph!"
It was food. Real food.
He hadn't had any in so long and he had no idea what in the world it could've been before he ravaged and swallowed it, but it was delicious.
Suddenly, his aches and pains faded.
They were still there, but not weighing down his body anymore.
He pushed his body off of the ground slightly, enough to get to his knees, and looked around.
He wanted to thank the person who had tried to help, but when he looked, there was no one there.
Not a soul in sight.
Just a small wrapped package near his hands with writing on it.
"What is a Shinigami?"
"…"
"Shinigami're guardians of the souls who are goin' through the circle of transmigration. They purify Hollows who commit evil acts in the World of the Livin' and ensure the safe crossing of souls - Pluses who have lost their way after death - by givin' 'em a soul burial."
"…"
"When Souls with exceptional spiritual energy train their bodies, they reach the level of Shinigami. The most talented of 'em join up with organizations like the Gotei 13 and the Onmitsukidō."
A hand was raised.
"Umm, Banjo-san?"
The lecturing elder paused his explanation.
"Ya got a question, boy?"
The greenette nodded.
"Well, what is it?"
"Why are you explaining all of this to me?"
"Eh?"
"I know most of this already. I don't remember much of anything from before I came to Soul Society, but I do remember that a Shinigami performed a soul burial on me to cross me over and explained what was happening to me as well. So everything you just told me is kind of redundant."
"..."
Banjo looked as though he had just sucked on five lemons.
Izuku was concerned.
"Banjo-san?"
"...We live in a world ruled by a different logic than the World of the Livin'. And Shinigami are prolly the best example of that. They've got high Reiryoku and bodies of Reishi, both of which let 'em use all kinds of neat tricks."
Ah, he's gonna act like I didn't say anything. Okay then.
Izuku sighed, but raised his hand yet again.
"What is it this time, boy?"
Luckily, Banjo didn't ignore that.
Despite what he said, he did have a few questions that needed answering.
"Are you even sure that I have spiritual power? I don't feel that strong or anything. Aren't Shinigami supposed to be strong? Because that's not me. Definitely not. So-"
Banjo raised his hands in a T-sign, "Oi, oi. Stop. Time out."
Izuku shut up immediately.
"Now, to answer your questions and half questions, each of them in order: Yes, yes, no it's not, but it will be."
Succinct.
"Now, you have spiritual power, but it's unfocused and in an unnurtured body. And before you ask, the runtling has spiritual power as well. Though she won't be training with you for a long while, for obvious reasons."
Izuku nodded, looking over at Rukia, who had crawled away from him almost as soon as the bald man began his lecture.
She had acquired a stick and was tracing lines into the dirt all while quietly babbling in a language that only she (and sometimes Izuku) could understand.
At least she's keeping busy.
Banjo continued, "Now, in regards to building your body, it'll take a while. You won't hafta worry about diggin' for scraps to trade with me, I'll keep ya fed for as long we're trainin'. I'll keep that one over there fed as well, make sure she's hale 'n hearty by the time she ends up ready to join ya."
Izuku nodded again, this made sense to him.
"You though, your training starts right now. Welcome to Hell."
That made considerably less sense to him, but he nodded anyway.
He would come to regret doing so for the next decade.
"Aggggghhhhh!"
"Ga?"
"Oh no, I'm fine, Rukia. Just screaming and groaning the pains away, I'll be fine in a bit."
"Ga."
"Mm."
Banjo was dead serious when he said that Izuku's training would be hell.
They started the day off with one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, 100 continuous side steps, and then ten laps around Inuzuri… on his hands.
Izuku thought that he had died at one point.
And it was only the third day.
He was suffering.
His whole body ached.
He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep forever, but-
A tiny hand touched his face.
He cracked an eye open.
Two big dark eyes stared back at him.
He closed his eye again and breathed in.
I can't give up on this. Not now, not ever.
Against his body's screaming protests, the greenette sat up, scooping the tiny one into his arms as she let out a small cry of surprise before attempting to squirm away.
"Alright, you, time for bed. You've eaten. You've played. It's time to go to bed."
"KU!"
'Ku'? That's new.
As new as it was, Izuku was almost certain that he knew what it meant.
"You are going to bed."
She began to flail even more at that.
"Ku! Ku! KU!"
It's always at bedtime nowadays…
Rukia used to be fussy throughout the day, which Izuku could manage.
For some reason, though, she seemed to be reserving all her rebellion for the time where Izuku decided that she should get to sleep.
"C'mon! We both have a long day tomorrow. Can't we just-?"
"DA!"
"Will you-?"
"KU!"
"Shizuka ni, shizuka ni, mak-"
"Ii!"
'Ii' now?
Her vocabulary was expanding rapidly, it was genuinely impressive.
Either way, the lullaby didn't work.
That was concerning.
Very concerning, in fact, seeing as it was already his last resort.
And with how much Rukia had worked herself up already, expecting to just give and fall asleep on her own would be like crying for the moon.
Wait a minute… the moon?
A grin spread across the freckled lad's face as a plan came to mind.
"Okay Rukia, you win."
The tiny ravenette ceased her flailing, regarding her smiling caretaker with a look that Izuku would liken to suspicion.
Well, a shame that it was far too late.
She'd already fallen into his trap.
He adjusted his grip on the unrestful infant and moved her into a sitting position on his lap, her back against his chest.
She craned her head up to look at him, his grin widened.
"You win on one condition though. You have to sit here and listen to a story. Got it?"
He booped her nose at the last word and received a giggle in return.
He took that as a 'yes'.
"Alright then young lady, our tale for tonight is Tsuki no Usagi. If you'll turn your attention forward please…"
"One night, on the night of the full moon, a fox, a monkey, an otter, and a rabbit decided to practice generosity . They saw an old beggar, who was begging for food.
'Poor beggar', they thought, 'He looks hungry and has no food. Let us bring him some.'
First, the monkey, who could climb, plucked some fruit from the trees. He sat them at the feet of the beggar.
Next, the otter, who could swim, collected some fish from a stream and sat them next to the fruit.
The fox, who could climb and could swim, but did not wish to do either, caught the first animal he could find- a lizard- and sat it and some water next to the fish.
The rabbit, however, did not know what to get for the old beggar.
'I cannot swim, so I cannot catch fish. I cannot climb, so I cannot gather fruit. I can gather grass, but humans do not eat grass…'
He wished to help, but did not know how to.
Then, he remembered something that humans loved to eat.
So, excitedly, the rabbit bounded over to the beggar saying, 'Beggar! Beggar! I have no fish, no fruit, or water, but still I would like to offer you something. Beggar, if you could, please build a fire. Not too big, not too small, but one big enough to cook.'
The beggar complied, gathering wood and lighting a fire.
The rabbit, his instructions having been followed, threw himself on the fire with no hesitation.
He could offer no fruit, no water, no fish, to the beggar, but he remembered that humans enjoyed eating rabbit meat.
So he had thrown himself on the fire to offer himself to the beggar.
Though, even though the flames burned bright, the fire did not burn him.
The beggar revealed himself to be the Man on The Moon.
He had been touched by the rabbit's kindness, so he plucked him from the flames and carried him to the moon to live with him. And if you look towards the moon on some nights, you'll see that same rabbit pounding mochi on the face of it."
Rukia's breathing had become soft and her posture loose.
She had leaned her head against his arm at some point and started drooling as well.
He took up the cleanest part of his sleeve and dabbed away the saliva running down her chin.
He grabbed her blanket, laying it over her as she slept on his chest yet again.
The comforting silence of the night warmed him.
His body still hurt, but his time with Rukia made it hurt way less.
He was glad that she liked the story, especially when he saw the gleam in her eyes at the sight of the rabbit that he had drawn in the dirt.
He now had a new weapon in his arsenal to help him urge his rowdy ward to sleep at night.
If only he could remember where he had heard it first.
A month later, Izuku was delighted to hear from Banjo that he would no longer have to run on his hands as one of his mandatory exercises.
This joy was short-lived, however.
WHOP-EESH!
"Don't slow down, dammit!"
"I'm not!"
"Don't lie to me!"
WHOP-EESH!
"Aieeee!"
When the older man had taken Rukia into his arms and handed Izuku a rope, he had thought it strange.
When he told Izuku to tie the rope around his waist, he had found it stranger, though he still complied.
When Banjo sat in a small wheel-less cart which was attached to the rope looped around his waist, it became the strangest.
And then he pulled out a whip.
Izuku had spent the past several hours running around Inuzuri at top speed, dodging whip cracks and insults all the while.
He almost wanted to yell, 'Think of the children!' back at the insane baldy, but he felt that point might have been moot, seeing as the only child he cared to think of was tittering up a storm from her spot in the wagon that the greenette was pulling.
Little traitor…
"We're slowing down!"
WHOP-EESH!
"Will you stop!?"
From that day on, the citizens of Inuzuri were treated to a strange, if humorous, sight every day from early morning to noon.
This sight would come to be known as 'Sukurīmurēsu'.
"Hey, do I seem stronger to you?"
"Zu?"
Rukia looked up at him as he held both of her hands above her head and walked.
She was becoming a lot more active, crawling around whenever Izuku put her down.
He figured that it wouldn't be much longer until she started walking everywhere, so he developed a system.
Every time he walked to and from his training with Banjo, he would have Rukia put her feet atop his, take both of her hands, and have practice her strides while they moved.
It was a good way for her to learn how to walk with a safety net.
She seemed comfortable enough with it to take her eyes off her feet, at least.
"Well, I think I have more muscle now. I've been pulling that cart for months and I haven't been slacking with the other training either."
"Ga."
"Well, it definitely hurts a lot, but I'm not gonna stop. If I somehow do make it into the academy, I'll still be way too far behind all of the nobles, since they probably trained their whole lives for it."
Izuku came to a halt, Rukia looked up at him again.
He gave her a smile, "We've gotta work harder than anyone else. Got it?"
He received a big, toothless smile in return.
"Ga!"
Precious.
They weren't too far from home.
Izuku lived just at the edge of town, near the woods that he often collected scraps from to trade with Banjo.
It was quiet enough because it was just far enough out of the way that most people just didn't find it worth it to drag themselves out.
And the ones who did… they usually had something on them that was good for trade.
He was just glad that Rukia was too young to understand that those people that they had found laying on the forest floor weren't just sleeping.
And he hoped that by the time that she was old enough to understand, they'd be long gone.
They were almost there, just a short dip into the trees and-
"AGHHH!"
A scream rang out from deeper in the woods.
In an instant, Izuku had Rukia in his arms and his legs were moving without any direct input from him.
Unfortunately, they were moving in the completely wrong direction.
It was concerning.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
It truly was a concern-
CLANG! CLANG!
"Why are you doing this? What have we ever done to you?!"
"It ever occur to you that maybe we just want you dead? Or that we want your stuff?"
-how his inability to mind his own business has led him to a place that most people wouldn't go with a blade.
This time, with a child in tow.
He was hidden behind a tree, Rukia's face buried into his chest.
She was a child with sense.
Izuku had come to learn such over the months that he had been taking care of her, so he was certain that she would read the mood and stay quiet.
We'll just take a quick look and see what's going on. Then, we'll get right back to the house.
In a clearing in the forest, deeper than Izuku could remember ever going, there were four people.
Only three of them were standing.
Two of the people were definitely from Inuzuri, their rags and lack of shoes made him certain of that.
One was armed with a sickle, the other with some kind of rod.
And they were both covered in dirt and…
That's blood.
A lot of blood.
These were killers.
Murderers.
Not exactly uncommon in the lower districts, filled with liars, thieves, and all other kinds of scum.
Killing was just the next step for the unlucky and desperate ones stuck in the slums.
Though the people who they were attacking were definitely of a certain rarity.
White kosode, blue shitagi and hakama, and the most striking thing, white socks and sandals.
These people weren't from Inuzuri, definitely not.
They were too refined.
No, it was obvious, they had to have been from one of the upper districts, maybe even Seireitei.
And Izuku had just stumbled upon a robbery.
Crap…