Disclaimers, Etc.: See Chapter One.
Opening Theme: Memory Loss by Esther Yu
Ending Theme: The Light by Roc Chen
Chapter Two Written 11/29/2023.
Bleach: Cross
The Fifth Division in the Red:
In These Red Times
By Eugena
Rated M
Chapter Two: Punish the Sinner
天国的白雪公主
SOUL SOCIETY - NEAR THE THIRD DIVISION
"I am staying here," Prince Ichigo practically barked out.
"You must be kidding," the Soul King said. "Do you have any idea who Ichibe is?"
"Yeah?" asked Isshin weakly. He knew who he was. And he didn't want to be here.
Prince Ichigo rounded on the Soul King. "You're not my father. You're not the emperor. But even someone as weak an unremarkable as you should know exactly what Ichibe and the others have been doing to my wife! You claim you want her as your wife! Why is that? Because you do? Or because your feel so much guilt for the murder of my own brother? Did you tell them to do it?" His voice rose with each question, now screaming at the king.
"Dad," Yuzu put her arm on Isshin's sleeve, "what's Ichigo talking about? We don't have another brother."
"It's been a long day," Isshin said dismissively without looking at her. "We just need to leave."
"This is just a nightmare," Karin insisted. "I bet if we kill Fake Princess over there, we'll all wake up. Oh, my gods! Even if this is just a nightmare, did she really rape Ichigo?"
"Sure enough," Isshin said. "I wouldn't doubt she at least tried. She's so obsessed over him that it is disgusting."
"She'll get herself pregnant just to make him marry her!" Yuzu exclaimed. "Shifu warned me about it."
"Shifu?" the Soul King repeated. He turned to Ichigo's family.
"Shifu told me all about it," Yuzu explained. "Once Fake Princess got pregnant, everyone would just feel so sorry for her as usual, and nobody would punish her. Please, whoever you are. Whoever any of you are, we can't let Fake Princess get away with this." She looked to Yukihime. "You're not -."
Isshin clasped his hand over her mouth. "My daughter's right."
Karin looked at Yukihime. She looked at Yuzu. She looked back at Yukihime. "Shifu?"
Yuzu stomped Isshin's foot. She smacked him across his face. He finally let go. She walked up to the Soul King. "I really don't understand who you are. I'm not sure I care. But maybe you're in a position to do something. So -."
Yuzu knelt before the Soul King. She held her arms out and grasped her hands together.
Prince Ichigo hadn't seen this since the days his father was the Emperor of Heaven.
"Please," Yuzu began, "on behalf of Shifu -." She knelt her head to the ground and looked back up at the Soul King. "Punish the sinner!"
"Woah!" Isshin exclaimed. "I knew hime-sama taught her some moves, but Mandarin, too?"
"I don't think that's the point right now, dad," Karin said. "What exactly did she say?"
"'Punish the sinner!'" he translated in Japanese.
"Wait, when do you speak Mandarin, dad?" Karin asked.
Isshin tried poorly to laugh it off.
"We'll talk about this later!" Karin insisted.
Chad shoved Uryu to the ground. He came up to Yukihime and knelt as Yuzu did. "Shifu, punish the sinner!"
"I really don't want to be -," Yukihime began.
Orihime's laughter cut her off. "I'm going to have Ichigo's baby. His A - K - A - CHAAAAAAAN*!"
(*Japanese for baby.)
She grabbed at her stomach, trying to imagine herself several months pregnant.
She pointed to the kneeling Yuzu. "Then you, you ungrateful loser, you'll love me. I'll be the mother of your nephew! It will definitely be a boy, too. Because men always want boys! So, I'll prove my love and loyalty by giving birth to a boy!"
"So effing delusional!"
The group turned to Renji Abarai walking in with several men from his division. Kuchiki Taicho was behind them.
Renji looked to Yukihime. "Imperial Princess." He looked to the Soul King. "Soul King." He knelt, facing Yukihime as he did so. The members of his division, besides Kuchiki Taicho knelt behind him. "Punish the sinner!"
"Punish the sinner!" the division members repeated.
"Hime-san," Kuchiki greeted Yukihime. "I thought you finally moved away from your savagery. I thought you finally accepted yourself as Japanese - as you always have been. And yet, 'punish the sinner?' I am disappointed. Shifu," he spat the word. "I thought you were finally becoming respectable. A wife that a nobleman such as I would want."
"It doesn't mean that she wants you," Prince Ichigo countered.
"You're not even the actual head of the Kuchiki clan," the Soul King said. "Ah." He looked aside a moment. "I can feel Ichibe is almost here. Perhaps you can meet your actual Kuchiki head then. Until then, kneel."
谢谢你们的阅读。