Kyoraku had been out bar hopping for the past four days. For the entire time he was meant to be on post, his lieutenant had taken his place for the time being. While it was the perfect opportunity to get into their captain's personal sake, they decided to wait some more. After the lieutenant finally got tired of waiting she went to grab Ukitake. They finally felt like it was a good time to go. They could be gone for hours looking for the captain.
With Ren leading the charge for Hoshi, Isamu, and Ayato, they began to scour the room for Kyoraku's sake. Normally Junpei and Sora would stand guard, but with everyone important gone there was no need for them.
There was the occasion for a drinking night hosted by Kyoraku for all those who wanted to attend. He would often use the alcohol that wasn't ever hidden, as it was intended to be shared among the squad. Not to say it was terrible, only that what he keeps for himself is better.
It wasn't the first time he raided his commanding officer's sake supply. The first few times the cache remained unmoved, up until the fifth attempt where they had to start looking again. Typically they would have to scour the whole complex before they would find Kyoraku's sake. This time it was painfully obvious, sitting right in front of them locked behind two layers of Bakudo. The main supply was locked behind Tozanshō, which in turn was behind Danku, two very high-level Bakudo in descending order from the outside. Kyoraku was either finally done hiding his caches or playing a game with his squad.
"Ren-kun, I don't think this is worth it," Ayato said.
"What if it's a test and his sake is the reward?" Ren asked, attempting to counter Ayato.
"If it's a test then why use two high-level Kido?" countered Ayato. "Two high-level Kido none of us can counter. None of us here are seated officers, and even if we were we'd need to at least be a 10th seated officer to even have a chance of breaking through."
"What if we all do it at once?" suggested Isamu. "Blast both down with Shakkahō in a combined effort?"
"We would also blow apart Kyoraku-taicho's quarters," Ayato alerted him. "I think we should just cut our losses and leave."
"Yes, I think you should," said an unfamiliar voice from behind them.
The four froze in place. They turned around to see a short, dark-skinned woman in a captain's haori standing in the doorway. Her hair was kept in a low ponytail with tufts of her hair flipping out to the side of her head. Her golden eyes stared into them, almost like she was on her way to kill a target. She was smiling though, as if she found what she stumbled onto amusing.
"I-I'm sorry, but are you with the eighth division?" asked Hoshi, slowly and timidly moving back behind the rest.
"She's wearing a captain's haori. Take a guess," said Ayato.
"O-oh. What squad are you with?" Hoshi corrected.
"Second division. Shihouin Yoruichi" answered the stranger. "I'm here to speak with your captain?"
"He's... gone..." said Ren, doing his best to keep his composure.
"Gone where?" she asked.
"He's been bar hopping for the past four days," Ren answered. "The lieutenant has been filling in for him. Finally got tired of waiting for Kyoraku-taicho to come back so... now we're here."
"Is there something you wanted to talk to him about?" asked Ayato.
"Don't know if I can tell you," Shihouin replied. "Though I guess I could ask. Have any of you guys seen a man of average height and a silvery-white mark on his face that goes up into his hair a little? Tied up in a kind of tail?"
Ren thought back on the description. He had met a man like that long ago, but he hadn't seen him since. He wasn't even sure if he remembered his name. It had something to do with being an amputee.
"What is his name?" Ren asked.
They watched the captain with blank expressions, doing her best to remember any extra details. It was almost as if all the thoughts going through her head had vanished within an instant.
"I dunno," she said.
"Well I think I remember meeting someone who looks like what you described a while ago," Ren answered. "We last saw each other outside of the northern Rukongai."
Her eyes lit up in excitement at the news. "Thank you so much! You have saved me another four trips to the other captains!"
Without saying another word she left. Finally, with their senses scared back into them, they left the alcohol behind. Shunsui could keep it. Just because the other captain found it somewhat funny doesn't mean theirs would. Maybe it was a test, maybe it was a trap. For now, Ren would stick with the moonshine he got from his old home.
Shihouin had gone where the unseated Shinigami had said he last saw the man. The Northern Rukongai is a dense place with a lot of wandering souls. With how homogeneous the place is it was hard to find anyone who stood out. It was especially true if they didn't have any identifying features like scars, marks, or tattoos. When it came to the man in question, she did have some kind of idea of what to look for. If only she had a name, it would be so much easier.
She stood up in the air, high above where no one could see her, so she could see all the layouts beneath her. The people walking around were like small dots moving in a maze. Some streets were empty, some were full, and others had moderate traffic. She could see which streets had stalls and which had none.
If only she knew who's spiritual pressure to track, this whole thing would be easier. That would still require her to be in the right place. The northern Rukongai is a big place, consisting of several dozen districts bordering each other. For all she knew, her mark could be leagues away from her. It had been at least a century after he last departed with the squad 8 Shinigami.
She saw a man leaving his home from where she was. He entered the street and began walking up towards the northern end towards a fork in the road. Using Shunpō, she traveled downwards and engaged with the man. She made sure to hide her sword and leave her haori behind, so as not to attract negative attention.
"Excuse me," she said from behind him, catching his attention. He was a thin man with no hair and a small goatee. His clothes were blue and a handful of prayer beads hung around his neck, reaching as low as his belly. "I'm looking for someone and am hoping you could point me in his direction."
"Who is it, miss?" he asked.
"A man of average height with a ponytail. He has a silver mark over his face and part of his hair," she told him. "I was told he lives in this area?"
His eyes darkened a shade at the mention of the feature. His face became cold and his face sounded less caring. "He's come around from time to time, picking up and dropping off orders. But be warned, miss, rumor has it from his time in the living world he was a murderer."
She almost laughed at the rumor. If he was a murderer he would be in hell instead of the Soul Society. It was funny listening to the wandering souls talk about subjects they knew nothing about.
"But do you know him?" she insisted.
For a second he remained silent, pondering. His eyes shone in a way that they seemed to look into the past. There still seemed to be some lingering negative emotion from the human world, which wasn't uncommon. A Konsō removed regrets so a spirit may pass on, but sometimes any vindictive feelings or thoughts may linger, but only for a time.
"...he has no name. Sometimes he is referred to as Okami, son of Fukurō. Isshin-sama called him... Sekiro."
He had just finished his deliveries for the day and could take some time to practice his sword. He made the trees around him his unwilling participants and made wounds on them as he practiced his Senpou martial arts. Sekiro had commissioned training dummies from a woodworker a few days ago, but they wouldn't completed for a while.
Unlike his typical spot in the clearing, he delved deeper into the woods near a river filled with Koi. From time to time between his practice, he would rest near the river and watch carp swim downstream. He wondered about how animals and how they played into all of this. If animals have souls does that mean trees do too? What about apples, grass blades, and persimmons? Briefly, he thought of the Guardian Ape and if it too was sent here upon its death. The brief thought unsettled him. He didn't wish to fight it a third time.
Yet what if the headless? They were spirits, were they not? Undead apparitions who granted him the right to invoke their names for power upon their defeat. Were they the same type of spirit that he now was or perhaps a sort of hollow, or maybe something else entirely? So too did the same question pop up for the Demon of Hatred. There had to be some explanation for these things.
As he stood over the river and watched the Koi swim, he watched over them as they traveled further into the forest. Despite it being in his mind a juvenile fascination, Sekiro admired the colors and patterns on each Koi fish. He looked at swirls of black, white, red, and orange on some of the fish as others were of a plain blue or gray color. Curiously he began to follow the fish as they swam to their destination.
Over small hills, winding between trees and mossy rocks, the former Shinobi carelessly walked along the riverside. His blade stays sheathed in its saya, yet ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice. Some of the fish he followed reminded him of the treasure carps found across Ashina and nearby lands. They were beautiful and tempting to take home, but he had nowhere to let the fish swim. Also, he would not want to displace it from its home.
Eventually, he came to a halt as the river split two ways. It split one way to where the sun rose above the trees and another way towards a wall with an opening small enough to let only the koi and their river through.
The wall tempted him to investigate, curious of why there was a structure all the way out in this part of the Rukongai. It was well maintained, free of wear and tear, and moss, as well as vines. The hole in the wall seemed to be an intentional design due to its shape, and more fish seemed to feel more enticed to take that route instead of the vacant one.
Stupidly, he approached the wall and placed himself just at the edge of the hole. He listened for movement, or any noise that could indicate someone on the other side. He thought he heard something distant, but couldn't tell. At this point, he couldn't help but give in to his curiosity, becoming more cat than wolf.
Sekiro climbed atop the wall and began to walk along its tiles. From the wall, he could see only the courtyard it protected, as it was too short to see over the large buildings just a short distance away. The courtyard too, and everything in it, was in immaculate shape. In the center of it all was a large koi pond with an exit reaching the other side, surrounded by sand raked in patterns. The sand only stretched for a few feet before being walled off by stones.
Voices approached in the distance and sounded as if they were headed straight toward the courtyard. He jumped down to the outside of the wall and continued to listen hoping he could get some information about what this manor was doing all the way out here.
He could hear a small portion of their conversation, but only what he assumed to be the end. "... the presence of an intruder." The tone sounded more like instructions than a statement.
"Yes, Father," said the voice of a young boy, likely just getting into his teenage years.
"Go on, Byakuya, try it," said an older voice.
His paranoia kicked in and he immediately went to invoke the name of Gachiin. Sekiro sat cross-legged and took a meditative pose, breathing in and suddenly becoming more aware of his surroundings, as they simultaneously became less aware of him. Immediately after getting up, he dashed back into the forest, hoping to lose these pursuers, if they were tracking him that is.
...
Visualizing Reiraku was the fundamental basics to learning automatic tracking and detection of another's presence. Byakuya's father had detected the new presence right away, while Byakuya needed to be alerted of it so he could feel it himself. There was indeed a new presence just at the edge of the manor.
His father immediately saw this as a lesson for Byakuya, so they came to confront the trespasser. Byakuya was forced to track the presence as his father followed. Now it was becoming more distant and somewhat suppressed. It was becoming harder to track.
When he visualized the ribbon, a white ribbon with a slightly pinkish hue in the center, it became spotty. While it gave a general direction, it was translucent and cut into segments at distances. Was this typical?
"You see it too?" his father asked him. "Then go track it. Do not come back without this trespasser, but if he leaves the estate's borders before you can catch him, I'm getting you a tutor."
"Yes, Father," Byakuya said back, feeling a sense of urgency at the punishment he would receive at the cost of failure.
His Shunpō was amateur at best and could use some work, but it would be more than sufficient in this scenario. He was already taught to familiarize himself with the spiritual presence of others and be able to distinguish between individuals. It was the easiest aspect for him to grasp, so when he finally detected the new presence he did not recognize it.
In a flash he disappeared before father's eyes, chasing after the intruder before he got too far. He appeared just outside the manor's walls where he last felt the presence near the Koi entrance. From there it was still difficult to track the fading presence as it was still difficult to envision a full spirit ribbon. Whoever this person was had easy methods to suppress his spiritual pressure. Not to mention he was getting farther. Still, it was more gradual than large and sudden decreases, which would indicate the usage of Shunpō. Whoever this was had no knowledge of Hohō, or probably had very little talent for it.
He began wondering if this whole thing was a setup from his father. It could make sense, given how his target wasn't using movement techniques. This was probably a beginner's test to tracking a moving target through their reiatsu alone, which would likely be immediately followed by something significantly more difficult the next time.
Still doing his best to piece together the chopped-up spirit thread, Byakuya used another burst of Shunpō forward into the forest. Slowly the spirit ribbon began to become clearer, and he followed it as it wrapped around his location, weaving between trees within his radius.
A sudden figure appeared from the tree line beside him, grabbing Byakuya his coat's collar and throwing him against a tree. He left as soon as he appeared, leaving a disoriented Byakuya sitting on his rear in a daze. Byakuya began to shift more to the opinion of an actual intruder. He did automatically assume that it was the most likely scenario, but he didn't wish to discount his father setting up a training exercise. Quickly he stood back on his feet and chased the intruder the way Byakuya saw him go.
...
Sekiro quickly doubled back the opposite way after ambushing the kid. He felt sorry for what he had to do, but he didn't wish to find out what would happen to him if caught.
He didn't know how he was being followed so easily, almost as if being tracked down by some sort of hunting dog. The boy followed him relentlessly, refusing to let up. He's only happy that he wasn't forced to engage in a fight, lest he'd be forced to kill a child.
Civilization was only a few minutes away at this point, so Sekiro could finally relax once he'd left the reach of the boy. The only unfortunate part of it was that he was forced to go the opposite way of his home. If he was forced to be gone for longer than the night he could find some place to rest his head for the night, be it an inn or a stable.
Just as he thought he was in the clear, two red balls of energy flew at him, one of which he cut in half easily, but detonating it in his face. The second he was sent flying over from the first explosion, barely managing to land on his feet.
Within seconds he found himself flanked by two men dressed in the garbs of Shinobi colored in purple with a golden headband with a kanji carved into it. They both pulled out thin blades, one readying himself for combat and the other pointing his at Sekiro.
"Under the orders of Sōjun Kuchiki, current heir of the Kuchiki noble family, you are being detained," ordered the with his blade pointed out. "Comply and you will not be harmed any further."
"No," Sekiro answered, preparing to fight the two men.
"Time to show Kuchiki Byakuya-sama how easy this should be," said the other, preparing an aggressive fighting stance.
This is not how Okami wanted his day to go. Today was a day meant for training his sword skills and spirit. Any progress his meditations made today were all reversed with the current stress he was experiencing. He didn't have any plans of sitting in front of Nobility and didn't even know the afterlife had such a hierarchy.
Sekiro prepared himself, sword at the ready, waiting to strike...
"Found you!" shouted a young feminine voice from the other side of the street. She sounded angry and rather irritated as well.
Kyoraku looked up as he was being helped out of the bar by his new drinking buddy. "Yadomaru-chan? I knew you couldn't resist me-" She immediately threw the back end of her spear into his nose, knocking him back slightly and out of Isshin's hold. "Ahh!" he shouted in pain.
Looking up at her, Isshin could agree she was rather cute, just as Kyoraku described her. She was short and thin, and the short-hakama she wore added to the appeal. She also appeared to be just as strict as he described, immediately shown when she began to chew him out for going out to drink in the Rukongai.
"I'm sorry about those two," said another man with long white hair. "My friend is a bit of a drinker and can sometimes get carried away with it. And his lieutenant... well..."
Isshin laughed and so did the stranger. "I can relate more with your friend than the girl. Though I was never truly yelled at."
"This has happened more than once," said the stranger with a kind smile. "Even with previous lieutenants."
Isshin leaned back against a wall and watched the argument with mild interest. "Lieutenants? Are you all from a military group?"
"Where are my manners," he said, bowing politely yet not too low. "Ukitake Jushiro, captain of the 13th court guard squad."
"A captain, eh? Why not lord," Isshin commented, jokingly.
Ukitake stifled a mild laugh. "I am afraid that would be quite informal of me. Also, I do not think my superior would think it to be too funny."
Isshin almost laughed as well. "I'll let you all be on your way then."
"Actually, if you could wait just one moment," Ukitake asked, his voice stifling the sound of Yadomaru slapping Kyoraku across the face for getting too handsy.
"I have all day," Isshin informed the man.
Ukitake smiled in response. "Before I left, another captain asked me to help locate a man while I was out. She approached me just in time." Ukitake took a step closer, away from the noise. "She was looking for a man with a patch of silver hair over the right side of his face. I wasn't given a name, however."
Isshin's curiosity was piqued. It had been a long time since he had seen that face. Memories came back to him, once long lost after the hundred years spent in the afterlife. What a glorious final fight that was.
He wondered how much longer Sekiro lived before coming to this place. He hadn't gotten to see what Sekiro and his lord did after Isshin was sent away. He hoped they at least got a happy ending.
"I know the man," Isshin answered. "At least, I do if we're thinking of the same person."
It wasn't as if many men in the world had a patch of silver hair on the right side of their face. Perhaps there could be if they were of the Dragon's Heritage.
Isshin thought back to when he first met that starving, battle-hungry pup who had just slain Gyobu. The Shinobi of the divine heir. The one-armed wolf... "Sekiro..."
Ukitake became interested this time. "How did you two meet?"
They had all been fighting for twenty minutes at this point. As wounded as they were, Sekiro found himself to be the one running out of stamina first. Was it all these years out of practice, or was it from using most of his energy evading the boy?
One of the Shinobi came down with an overhead kick, breaking Sekiro's guard but missed the opportunity to take advantage of the opening. Sekiro rolled back, evading a strike from the Shinobi behind him. He slashed at the Ninja's arm, lacerating him and causing another bleed on the man.
All three of them were covered in wounds from head to toe, yet none of them were lethal. While Sekiro sought to kill them, these men only wished to capture him. Had they been intending to kill him, this fight would likely have been over by now. He found himself outmatched, yet not wanting to back down.
"Bakudo No.1: Sai," a voice chanted from nearby.
Suddenly, Sekiro found himself unable to move. He was brought down to his knees and his arms were locked behind his back. He was able to move his head and saw where the noise came from.
He saw the boy re-enter the scene, slowly walking out from the trees, still rubbing his head from earlier. "You threw me into a tree," he said angrily.
"Kuchiki-sama," said both the Shinobi, kneeling to him in submission.
The one on the left began to speak. "Your father sent us to shadow you in case something happened. We stepped in when you lost track of him."
"Damn," he cursed. The Kuchiki boy took a deep breath in, calming his nerves. "What happens now?"
"That is for your father to decide."
"Does grandfather know about this?" he asked.
The two guards went silent, unsure of the answer themselves. Meanwhile, Sekiro was doing his best to escape the invisible bindings that held him in place. He struggled to do it as he was, yet if he had the blessing of one of the headless, it could be made possible. It was unfortunate that he could not do so in this state.
"Is there anything of note?" Kuchiki asked.
The one on the right held out his weapon, the Zanpakuto he obtained from the fallen Shinigami. He saw the nobleboy's eyes widen, either in confusion or anger.
"How did you obtain an Asauchi?" he demanded to know.
Sekiro stayed silent, refusing to speak at all.
"If you will not explain it to me, then perhaps the Gotei can get those answers out of you," he said, hoping to scare the answers out of Sekiro.
Unfortunately for the boy, Sekiro did not care. He knew nothing of the Gotei, outside of what Ren told him. They kept balance among the worlds and guided souls to the afterlife. What did he have to be afraid of? He has faced divine dragons and demons made of fire, even a swordsman so feared and respected, his enemy waited for sickness to take him instead of killing him while he was supposed to be bedridden. Even in illness, Isshin's name commanded fear from the enemy. Especially if the Tengu had anything to say about it.
"Take him away and confiscate the sword," Kuchiki commanded the two Shinobi. "It's rightful Shinigami will be found."
Despite that, a voice rang in the back of Sekiro's head. "It already has been found..." He was unsure of whether or not that voice was his, but it felt so natural to hear it that it didn't feel like an intrusion into his mind.
The two guards grabbed onto him and vanished with Sekiro back to the courtyard. Kuchiki was with them, holding his sword.
His father coughed, smiling as he saw his son again. "You found him."
Byakuya stuttered for a moment, doing his best to show integrity. "N-no, father. These two found him before I did. I only showed up at the last minute to restrain him."
Sojun looked at the two curiously, his silent question obvious. "We made attempts to use binding Kido, but he was hard to pin down. The only way to have restrained him properly would be with a sneak attack."
A sneak attack they tried, and failed, they silently admitted. Shakkahō was not a good spell to use to stop a fleeing target, but after seeing how he moved so quickly and fluidly, they decided that most binding spells would be missed. A large explosive force to stop him in his tracks was the only way to at least slow him down.
"At least you brought him back in the end," Sojun said with a smile. "But... it was not you alone. From now on you will be spending most of your free time practicing Shunpō." He turned towards the family guard. "As for you two, go get cleaned up and visit the infirmary."
"Father," Byakuya said, grabbing the man's attention. "This commoner was in possession of an Asauchi. I do not know how he came into possession of it, but I doubt any rational Shinigami would sell their Zanpakuto."
Something about Sojun's demeanor shifted. He came across as a very gentle and kindhearted man, but part of that seemed to fade away when he looked at the sword being presented to him.
"Where did you get this sword?" he asked, Sojun's eyes staring coldly into his own. Even his son looked partly surprised at his father's attitude change.
Now Sekiro felt as if he should speak if only to prevent a cascade of accusations from falling on top of him. "He was already dying when I found him," he said. The dark mood seemed to have lifted a bit, but not by much. "A tall man with long black hair killed him. He travels with a small child with pink hair... his skin cannot be pierced."
Yes, he knew that was the Reiatsu difference, but compared to the man with no name, these two standing before him were nothing compared to that. Sekiro could even feel a slight pressure from within the building but was still nothing compared to the other man's. It was like comparing a single blade of grass to a tree.
"I see..." Sojun mulled over his thoughts, wondering how to proceed. Now his mood was less hostile and accusatory, yet remained negative. "Unfortunately, I still cannot let you go. You were trespassing on these grounds and need to face punishment."
"I did not know the surrounding forest was owned," Sekiro told him, neither pleading for his life nor becoming angry at the man. He was simply stating his truth.
"If I were head of the clan I would let you go on a warning to not come back," he said. "But I am not. My father will decide your fate, but I will do my best to see he does not have you killed."
Sekiro responded with a low grunt, wishing he had chosen the other path to follow. He was lifted to his feet by the man as his arms were restrained in invisible bindings.
He was walked directly to the manor, down many long corridors, and past several rooms, more rooms than one family should even need. Not even the Hirata family had a manor this big, only having their estate take up an entire chunk of a river pass. As he walked he was able to admire the cleanliness of the place. It was up to standard to the expectations of a noble family's house, if not exceeding such care.
His journey ended at a paper sliding door. No shadows could be seen through the door, yet despite that he could feel an intimidating presence behind it. The older of the pair opened the door, sliding it to reveal an old man sitting cross-legged on a cushion. There was a low desk that reached his knees covered in scraps of parchment.
"Sōjun... who is this?"
"An intruder, father," Sōjun answered. "He managed to slip into the manor, and fought with the trackers who sent brought him in."
"Next time send Byakuya," said the old man, briefly pointing at the young boy behind them both before returning to his duties. "He needs practice if he ever aspires to be a captain."
"While I do not disagree, Father, he is bound to take up your mantle as captain as soon as you retire... whenever that should be." Sōjun laughed, and the old man looked up at him, irritated.
"He still needs practice," the old man insisted. "You could grab ahold of the Shihouin head or one of the Shiba brothers. Tell them to not go easy on him."
"I have perfectly capable teachers here at the estate, grandfather," said Byakuya with a low bow.
"We're the Kuchiki, of course, we do," the old man agreed. "But if you need work on tracking spiritual senses it's best to have someone from the Shiba clan reach you. Shunpō is a skill best taught by the current Shihouin clan heads."
"Anyway!" loudly announced Sōjun, getting the topic back on track. "What should I do with this man?"
"I don't care, I'm busy," answered the man. "Just make sure he ever comes back here."
Sōjun put his finger on Sekiro's back and slid up his spine. Sekiro felt the invisible bindings come undone and was able to freely move his hands and arms, although it caused mild pain whenever he did. Sōjun handed him back his sword and led him to where he came in from.
"Leave this estate and never return," Sōjun ordered, sounding as if he were talking to a disobedient child.
Sekiro said nothing. He grunted in annoyance and jumped high into the air. He landed on the wall and kicked off, headed in the direction of home. Sōjun watched it all and would stay to make sure the Sekiro would not return.
He did leave as ordered, but he wondered why they let him keep the sword. If they recognized it as belonging to one of their own, why give it back? Perhaps now that its owner has died they no longer saw a need to keep it.
Sekiro trudged his way back home, bruised and cut up from the earlier encounter. Even after a rest, he would still need time to heal. He felt especially exhausted after today. Maybe his reiatsu would increase after this like a damaged muscle heals itself stronger.
His bed felt so comfortable, despite it merely being a cheap bedroll that came with the house. He extinguished the candle beside him and shut his eyes to drift off.
Hello! It me again! Firstly, I would like to respond to that one review about the Yukata Sekiro was wearing. This was my fault for not going into a bit more detail, but at the time I was not thinking it would be a very important detail. The Yukata was all he was wearing aside from his underwear. Sekiro was not wearing proper pants.
Notes and Trivia
None for today.
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Let me know what you guys think! Thanks for stopping by!
