Disclaimer: No, I don't own Bleach. Do you think I can draw that well? I can barely write!
"Suzumebachi!" Soi Fon collapsed onto her walker, heaving. Being confined to shuffling everywhere had seriously cut into her cardio. "Suzumebachi!" She glanced at her familiar's body in the shoebox bed. Isshin had jury-rigged a basket to carry it on her walker, but the sprite didn't respond. "Suzume-"
Soi Fon cut herself off. Something was moving through the underbrush. She turned, feeling her joints protest, creaking until she stopped, facing the noise. What was that? As far as she knew, S2 wasn't stocked with any wildlife. She let her mana pool in her good hand, sharpening it into shurikens. Her body wasn't in any shape to run, but maybe if she could cause whatever it was enough trouble, it would leave her alone…
The wind picked up, enough to blow through the clearing.
Soi Fon tensed.
And a black cat emerged from the brush.
Yoruichi listened to the other woman's voice. She hadn't expected that, though thinking about it, who else would have wanted to come here? The thief had probably just wanted to gloat. But then why was she calling for Suzumebachi? Wasn't she with her? What, were they playing a game of hide and seek? Ridiculous. She padded over to the clearing, staying just inside the tree cover.
"Suzumebachi!" Soi Fon picked herself back off her walker.
Yoruichi blinked. Why was that thief using a walker? Sure, she had beaten her up but it hadn't been that bad. Unohana was the greatest healer to walk the halls of Shin'o since they had invented Kaido! There was no way-
Soi Fon winced and called out again. "Suzume-!" She staggered, shoulders trembling, and turned towards Yoruichi's hiding spot.
Yoruichi froze. She hadn't realized she had been walking closer, craning her neck to get a better look at Soi Fon. She hadn't thought much of the girl the first time they had met. The sneak-thief was rude, insolent, but she had to admit that at least she was braver than most people at Shin'o, if completely idiotic. Everyone else jeering at her now were just followers. Soi Fon had been the first to challenge her.
Now though, she looked ready to shatter. Yoruichi could even tell by the way she channeled her mana in self-defense. When they had fought it had been a ragged-type of pulse. She had clearly broken herself training hopelessly, but there was still a core to her flow. Now, bent low and barely standing, her mana sputtered.
Was it weird to find a commoner so… vulnerable? Yes, her father had always gone on about how weak they were, how it was their duty to shelter them as the guardians of the divine armaments, but it had always seemed like a metaphor. There was just something to seeing someone who had actually stood up to her laid so low. She couldn't imagine Kuukaku or Kisuke in that state.
"O-oh." Soi Fon relaxed, feeling warmth return to the rest of her body as her blood and mana evened out. It was just a house cat, or maybe a stray, but nothing to get worked up over. "What are you doing out here?" Soi Fon grinned and leaned more heavily on her walker. She'd always wanted a cat when she had been a kid. That was a long time ago though. "We're a bit far from Shin'o."
The cat meowed and started pacing around her. Soi Fon almost felt like she was being studied.
"Why am I here?" Soi Fon glanced at Suzumebachi's box. "I'm… looking for a friend." She shook her head. Why did she feel the need to answer the cat? It wasn't like it could respond. "Ah, I'll get out of here soon. I don't think they're around…"
Yoruichi cocked her head. So Soi Fon really was looking for her familiar, but why wouldn't she be here? Hadn't the mage brought the two of them to S2 in the first place? Yoruichi circled the younger woman. Even up close, she could barely get a read on her mana. Surely, she couldn't have injured this thief that badly. It had been over a month ago! That was plenty of time for her reserves to recover. Or were all commoners really that weak? She padded up to Soi Fon and inspected her leg.
"Huh? Are you looking for someone too?" Soi Fon winced as she bent down. "Do you have an owner?"
Yoruichi bristled and slipped between Soi Fon's hands. An owner? Well, at least her tongue was still as crude as before.
Soi Fon frowned. The cat didn't have a collar, so it was probably a stray. Despite that, it looked much better groomed than any stray could have been. Its sleek black fur and the way it carried itself made it seem like it was from a high-class home, and it wasn't nearly as aggressive as a stray should have been, not that that would have been too much of a problem. It was still just a cat, and Isane had been helping her practice her own Kaido for treatment at home. Isshin had a fair stock of antibiotics too if that failed. "Sorry, sorry," she muttered as she straightened.
Yoruichi paused and returned to her spot by Soi Fon's leg. Something had swiped across her mind as Soi Fon had leaned over. Maybe if she… Yoruichi raised a paw, stroking Soi Fon's leg, and sent a thread of her own mana out, searching for Suzumebachi through her current contractor.
Where are you…
Lightning sparked from her claws into Soi Fon's mana lines as their magic connected.
Soi Fon hissed. Her whole system jolting as the cat brushed one of her fractures. "Hey!" She glared at the feline only to catch more movement in the corner of her eye. "Suzumebachi?" She glanced back down at the cat. "…Just what are you?"
Yoruichi recoiled as she cut off her mana. Something had tried to drag her magic out of her! It wasn't malicious, or even conscious, almost as if there was a pressure difference between the two of them. But that was ridiculous. Mages didn't share mana. At most, they could pool their mana for a spell or ritual, but magic liked being in its proper container.
But now, her mana wasn't even in Soi Fon. Yoruichi started walking around her again, trying to sense where her robbed magic had gone. Maybe she was willing to entertain the idea that her own magic was slightly confused. After all, she had never practiced casting in this form, and clearly this sneak-thief had some sort of similar profile to hers in order to contract with her old familiar, even if her mana quality was vastly inferior. It would even make a sickening amount of sense based on what had happened the first time they had clashed in this clearing with the thunderbolt. First, she had stolen her familiar, and now she was trying to steal her mana. But in that case, she should have been able to still sense her magic racing through Soi Fon's body. The other mage's mana was so weak that Yoruichi's mana, even the fraction that had managed to escape, should have overpowered Soi Fon. Instead…
Soi Fon knelt down to the cat's level and studied it. Just now, when the cat had touched her, Suzumebachi had moved. Did it have some sort of connection with her? Or had Suzumebachi latched onto this cat? Is that why it had come when she had been calling out for her familiar? "Hey… I'm not going to hurt you… I just…" Just what? Soi Fon didn't know what she needed to do.
"Come here, kitty," Soi Fon cooed as she held out her fully repaired hand up to the cat and started scratching its chin. "There… that's a good girl." It really was soft. Soi Fon moved up, scratching the cat's ears before moving her palm down to stroke the rest of its fur.
In spite of herself, Yoruichi purred. It was an odd sensation, ticklish, as the younger mage smoothed her hand over nerves that had never been touched before, but still, comforting. Yoruichi even caught herself rubbing back against Soi Fon's arm.
"There… doesn't that feel good?" Soi Fon tentatively reached out with her other hand, sitting down so she could pull the cat into her lap. She had never had a pet before, but Isane and Kiyone had a cat and dog that she would sometimes play with. There had just never been enough space or time to care for one, in her original house or the Kurosaki's and certainly not on the streets with Zaraki. "I wonder where you came from?" she mused. "But I guess I better bring you back to Shin'o. Maybe they can find your own- family." Soi Fon caught herself as the cat glared at her.
The wind stopped, leaving the two of them alone in the clearing.
Soi Fon sighed. Tomorrow she would have to go back to Reaper class and put up with the rest of the delinquents. Not only that but she'd have to endure the furtive looks and whispered rumors swirling around her too. It would be another marathon… If only she could just stay here away from it all and think. Maybe she would actually have a shot at figuring out what was going on between her familiar and this cat. "I wish I could just stay here with you," she mumbled to the cat. It was the perfect size for her lap and delightfully warm under her hands. "I could just sleep here on the ground forever."
Meanwhile, Yoruichi was melting in Soi Fon's grasp. The novelty of the situation was more than just physical, and the Shihouin couldn't resist the attention and care being poured over her. The soft brushing was genuine in a way Yoruichi couldn't remember receiving in a very long time, and for once, she let herself unwind and forget about the way she was supposed to hold herself.
Soi Fon hummed as she continued to stroke the cat. It was odd thinking that this clearing, where she had been choked out and beaten within an inch of her life, was actually comfortable, though admittedly having a fluffy companion instead of a practical deathmatch with a stuck up noble went a long way to making it relaxing. "Or maybe I'm going crazy." She laughed and scritched behind the cat's ears one last time before gently scooting it off her lap, struggling to her feet. The sun was beginning to dip. She needed to get home.
Yoruichi blinked as she padded to the ground, suddenly brought back to reality. She had lost track of time in Soi Fon's arms, and the sudden loss of the younger woman's heat draped over her felt as if she had suddenly lost her own coat of fur. She meowed at Soi Fon.
"Sorry…" Soi Fon smiled. "I have to go back now. Will you be alright on your own? You made it out here just fine." She wasn't in any shape to carry the cat, and she didn't want to risk balancing both it and Suzumebachi on her walker.
The cat lifted its head up indignantly.
Soi Fon chuckled. "Okay, okay. I get it." Maybe she was going insane, talking to a cat.
Yoruichi strode back towards Soi Fon. She had forgotten to examine Suzumebachi wrapped up as she had been in the other woman's arms. Come on. She patted Soi Fon's legs, asking to be held up.
Soi Fon leaned over and scratched the cat's ears. "Alright, I'll come visit you again, okay?" She grinned. Maybe having a little friend wouldn't be so bad. She'd have to return to figure out what was going on with Suzumebachi anyway.
The cat glared at her.
"I promise." Soi Fon stood up and clutched her walker. "Take care of yourself until then."
Take care of yourself, huh? Yoruichi twiddled a branch of silver between her thumb and index finger. She hadn't been able to get her time with Soi Fon out of her head. At first, it had just been confusion. What was going on with Suzumebachi? Why was that sneak thief's body still so broken? But the more she thought about it, the more her thoughts had turned to how nice it had felt. Surprisingly nice. Comfortable even. For a commoner, she was surprisingly soft. And warm.
And it felt like she had cared about her.
Not that other people didn't care about her, but there were always strings, and Soi Fon couldn't have known it was really her. Was it so bad that she enjoyed someone spending their time on her, even when she was anonymous?
"Ms. Shihouin, if you would please stop playing with the lunar branches and use them for their intended purpose," Ukitake coughed into his sleeve.
Yoruichi nodded and dipped the branch in her solution, watching the silver dissolve. It was all kinds of wrong, she reasoned. She had just been out of her mind, worked up over some petty notion of pride, and that's why the thief had seemed so comforting, because she hadn't been talking about their fight and hadn't been expecting her to do anything. Ironic that the two of them had met in the same place and kept quiet about everything that should have been between them…
She shook her head. Even then, things were too weird. What had happened when their mana had contacted? Why had Suzumebachi absorbed her magic? She frowned. Who was this Soi Fon, and what did Kisuke really know about her? Too many questions and no answers. She didn't even think Soi Fon knew.
"Shāolín."
Soi Fon looked up from her shoes. She was in the middle of retying them after changing back into her day clothes from PE. Her whole body seemed to finally be catching up to what Isane had been telling her all along. At least, now she could perform the beginning warm ups in PE instead of sitting around on the bleachers the whole class. "Zaraki." She nodded her head and went back to tying her shoes. "Did you need something?" Somehow the two of them hadn't had a single conversation since she had transferred.
Somehow, Soi Fon shook her head. As if anyone couldn't guess why they hadn't. She remembered how badly they had torn into each other after their falling out. It hadn't been on purpose, but the shame of smashing his face in and the agony of having her ribcage cracked like a rusted bar was enough. That was the kind of damage you couldn't repair with words.
"You're looking a lot better."
Soi Fon sighed. "Yeah, you too. Glad to see Unohana's still patching you up." Of course they hadn't been thinking. They were hotheads, and they were kids, and the feelings of abandonment and betrayal on both sides had come from places of love. That's why the silence had been so heavy.
"You're one to talk."
Soi Fon snorted. She didn't have to look to know Zaraki was grinning like a dork. "Old habits die hard." She moved her chair over. "Come on, you oaf. Where's Yachiru?"
Zaraki shrugged and dragged his desk over to sit on. "Beats me. Probably with that Kurotsuchi chick. Said she was following up on some candy lab or something."
Soi Fon tsked. "You're letting her hang out around the Kurotsuchis?"
"Why not? She can handle herself." Zaraki rolled his sweatshirt sleeves up, more bunched them up. It wasn't a good look. His veins bulged even harder as the shirt's elastic began to give.
"Yeah, but her brother's a freak." Soi Fon rolled her eyes. It felt good to talk like this again, but unnatural. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Unnaturally natural.
"What've you been doing?" Because she really should be saying something more important than whatever this small talk was.
"Better than you!" Zaraki roared with laughter.
In spite of herself, Soi Fon chuckled. "Not what I was asking, but it's not like I'm unfamiliar with Unohana, dolt."
"That's not what I'm saying either!" Zaraki grinned. "Look at you, getting your ass handed to you by Ikkaku. What happened to you, Shāolín?"
"Well, I'm sorry puberty hit that kid like a truck!"
"Ah, that's not it. You're just stroking his ego, ain't you!"
Soi Fon shrugged. "No, he beat me. Whipped me and my familiar to our knees."
"You're shitting me. You?"
Soi Fon smiled. "Yeah, me." She paused. "I'm pretty different now, I guess."
"Really?" Zaraki folded his arms, still grinning.
"… Yeah, really." Soi Fon sighed. "I've gotten all soft."
"No kidding."
The pair lapsed into silence. The rest of Reaper class had already moved out for lunch, leaving Soi Fon to finish changing after PE. Only Zaraki had stayed behind for some odd reason. Maybe because she was finally moving without her walker again.
"Listen, Zaraki." It was now or never.
"Save it, Fēng."
Soi Fon glanced up at the giant next to her. She'd never heard that tone of voice from him. Zaraki was gravelly, a thundering bass, but he always spoke with a kind of mania, maybe it was excitement. Fundamentally, he was someone who loved a lot of things, it just happened that fighting was one of those things. But now, his words had turned rock solid. There wasn't the usual driving force forward anymore.
"The same's from me, yeah? Ikkaku said it. We just want to see you back at base again. Once or twice wouldn't kill ya, would it?"
"Still…" Soi Fon closed her eyes.
"You're sorry, right? I am too. That's that. Now let's move on. We've got better things to do than piss our time away."
"I'm sorry, you oaf! Would you just let me say it?!" Soi Fon growled.
"Yeah," Zaraki stopped. "Yeah, I'm sorry too."
They let the silence overtake them again.
"You found the right place. Kurosaki's a much better bro than I ever could've been." Zaraki shifted on his "chair" and pulled his sleeves down.
Soi Fon just laughed. "What are you saying? I'm all soft now, aren't I?" The thought of them trying to have another conversation about family with this idiot was almost hysterical.
"I mean it. He's a real man. I saw how he and Abarai took on Kuchiki. You were there too. That's when I knew."
Soi Fon refocused on the man next to her. Two years. It had been two years since they'd been able to talk like this. "You know, you've really grown up, haven't you."
"Yeah." Zaraki snorted. "Kind of had to without you to help take care of the brats."
"I would've thought even Yachiru was a better fit for that," Soi Fon snickered.
"See?" Zaraki pointed a finger at her and grinned. "You haven't changed at all. Same sharp tongue and everything."
Yoruichi took a deep breath and exhaled. She could feel the tremor inside of herself, the telltale breeze that danced between her lightning.
It wasn't supposed to be there.
The pupils of her eyes constricted. It wasn't supposed to be there, and yet, it wrapped itself around her lightning so naturally. Her mana lashed out, and the wind caressed it, as if trying to calm her down. She had never thought of a lesser element taming her own. Among mages, there were classes of affinities, and the nobles were supposed to sit at the top, above the basal elements.
So why was she incapable of stamping it out? It always returned and that frustrated her in the same way Suzumebachi frustrated her. She should have been able to do something about it, and yet… and yet, it was as if she wasn't really a noble, wasn't really part of her family line… As if she herself couldn't do the bare minimum.
Her father and Byakuya's words rang in her head.
She needed to act more proper.
She needed to carry herself with the correct gravity.
She needed to manage each little thing.
Damn them.
Damn her.
She had practiced every day, tried to ingrain every last ancestral technique in her bones, but even that wasn't enough. She could never reach the heights of each member, and so she had turned to her own transformation, her own ideas, and maybe that would be enough to finally prove to them that she belonged. Maybe that would be enough to prove to herself that she deserved her station no matter how much she couldn't be them. Because at least then, she could be Yoruichi.
But who even was that?
Who was Yoruichi? A poor girl who couldn't even control her own magic?
"Where've you been?" Soi Fon opened the door to find her brothers waiting for her in the entryway.
"Physical therapy?" It was a half truth. Her session had been this morning, but she had taken a detour on the way home to walk around S2 again. Maybe there was something in the air there, but it had become something of a ritual to relax after her sessions and collect herself, even as the days cut shorter and shorter.
Still, she hadn't met that cat again, and Suzumebachi hadn't made any more progress either. The day after their encounter, Soi Fon had woken up to see her familiar tossing and turning in the shoebox bed they had set up, and Isane had mentioned that Suzumebachi's mana patterns seemed more active, but the sprite had yet to wake up fully. Soi Fon had been hoping that meeting the cat again would be the last step.
"Well get ready." Renji folded his arms. "We're headed out."
"What? Why?" Soi Fon glanced at him in the middle of slipping off her right shoe.
"We got letters." Ichigo tossed her a purple envelope with gold embossing.
"Yeah, so?" Soi Fon caught the letter with her free hand and tapped her shoe back on. "Don't we always?"
"Why don't you check the return address?" Renji shuffled past her and began shoving his feet into his own sneakers.
"What?" Soi Fon glanced down.
"Huh? Is Soi Fon here?" Yuzu poked her head out of the living room. "Great! Let's go shopping! The stores'll be packed with the pre-dinner crowd, but we'll still be able to squeeze a couple hours in before the mall closes."
"Huh?" Mall shopping was never high on Soi Fon's list of things to do to begin with, but why now? "Hey wait. What kind of invitation is this? Why do we have to go shopping?"
"Come on, Soi Fon! Don't you want to look nice for the ball?" Yuzu dragged Karin out by her collar, and Soi Fon was reminded exactly how much she resembled Ichigo. "Even Karin's getting a suit! Isn't that right?"
"Yuzu, let go! I'm going! I'm going, alright?"
"A ball? Why do we have to go to a ball?" Soi Fon turned the envelope and slipped out the invitation. "Besides, it's just an invitation. We can always decline, right? Shin'o always runs a charity ball for the solstice. It's not like it's anything special."
"Yeah, about that…" Ichigo trailed off.
Soi Fon unfolded the invitation and scanned its contents. "Yeah, see? 'You're invited to this year's Winter Solstice Ball at Shin'o Academy. Join us as we celebrate another year of continued academic success and prepare ourselves for another term of achievement. As always, your charitable contributions would be much appreciated and fund the continued pursuit of magecraft for bright young minds. This year, the Shihouins-'"
Oh.
At the bottom of the card was a message in long, flowing script. Her eyes locked onto the name they had used for her.
To Shāolíng Fēng, Ninth Head of the Fēng Family.
"And ours is different too," Renji groaned and pulled out his own envelope. "Ichigo got one as well."
"Wait, so this?-" Soi Fon looked up stiffly at her brothers. An order?
"Yeah, she handed them to us."
A/N: Whew! This took a while to write out. I'm slowly getting ready for the next "arc" as it were, and trying to line up all the actors has been killing me. Like herding cats heheheh (please don't crucify me).
Anyway, hooray! We finally got a sweet YoruSoi moment. Sure, Soi Fon doesn't know it's Yoruichi, but Yoruichi's left with some warm and fuzzy feelings (and a whole lot of confusion). My rampant shipping bias aside, we're also getting some clues into Suzumebachi's condition, and the cast is spiraling outwards towards the "gang" and the nobles.
In any case, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I really wanted to push this out as a special treat before the end of the year as a thank you to everyone who's been commenting. In fact, I'd like to directly acknowledge you guys, since you've really been the largest motivators for me to continue this project.
To Soi Yo, you always comment on my fics and I always look forward to reading them whenever I update. I really wish I could read your fics because you have so much YoruSoi material, but I am an unrefined idiot who never learned Spanish…
To Zeta Marz, I don't know if you're still around but your responses helped me regain some of my confidence that I was actually conveying the right things.
To JacobGuardian, I'm sorry for the confusion. has been acting up lately, but soon the Ao3 version will be caught up (and I'm also doing small edits and proofreading) so you can check there for updates in the near future!
To Celf7, now I'm not going to apologize for my cruelty. Yes, I like cliffhangers, yes, I like torturing my favorite characters. I like to think it makes their victories that much more meaningful. Still, I hope you find my writing interesting enough to reading it.
And to every anonymous reviewer, honestly, thank you. It's a small amount of time to leave a comment, but even that small amount can take an enormous amount of energy. I always appreciate when people pick up what I'm trying to put down into words and oftentimes, you remind me to go back and detail things I've forgotten about or that aren't clear enough.
I cannot possibly thank you all as much as you deserve, but I'll leave it there for now. Happy New Year, everyone!
