Nutella
Homoerotic Subtext
Nell | Drag
11,000 words
11,000 words
Discovering the personal unconscious |
The sun shone in his face once again. This time, he couldn’t feel the grass under his feet. The cold rocks under his feet were something he remembered; he had felt them every day for the past year or so. His hand and legs were tied to a chair and his vision seemed gone. He could feel something soft in his face, probably some sort of cloth to keep him blind.
He could hear footsteps coming towards him, soft and calm, perhaps from a woman. The steps came closer and he could feel a hand touch the upper part of his face and the blindfold was immediately taken off. In front of him stood in fact a woman, a shinigami to be more precise. A silver-eyed goddess. He had not laid his eyes on a woman this fair in a very long time. Heck, he had no laid his eyes on a woman for a long time. He stared for a good few minutes before speaking up.
“And you are?”
“Ansherina Miyahara, an unseated member of the Fourth Division. It is a pleasure to meet you.” With a slight bow, the Russian healer smiled amicably at the assassin, radiating a kind of warmth that could not have been otherwise felt within the cold depths of the Seventh. “An apology might be in order, perhaps, if I happened to disturb you on your deep meditation, or perhaps, sleep. However, a queer request came from the Seventh, and it requires your attention.”
Lifting her hand, she extended her arm and held the mission brief roughly at Eiji’s eye level, the pristine piece of paper held gently between her slender, tattooed fingers.
“A request?” he asked. He looked at the folder as she tried to hand it to him.
“I don’t know how this will really work?” He was still tied to the chair and tried to glance at the rope around his hand. “I’m a bit tied up as you might see.”
Glancing slightly, there was no surprise in her her eyes, only concern when her eyes trailed to see the red spots the tight bondage had brought upon his wrists and ankles. Wouldn’t his muscles be a little stiff, then? She was a bit iffy, knowing that he had been offered a physically strenuous mission-- if her deductions were right, it would, of course, be difficult for the assassin.
“Oh, regarding your current predicament, I was led to believe that you are going to be temporarily freed and be handed your zanpakutou, solely for the purposes of this mission.” Hoping not to disconcert the assassin with her unnecessary prying, Ansherina looked back up at Eiji. “Do you accept, mister Yamamura?”
Freedom was something he had longed for but he knew not for how long he would be free this time. Even though it was a sweet offer, he doubted the female somewhat.
“So what you’re asking me is if you want me to leave my shackles and actually leave this place?” He could not believe that. Not for a second. She had to have some ulterior motive. But he could not figure out what it was for his life.
“What could possibly be a good reason for you to free me and return my weapon to me?”
“Oh, please do not get it wrong. I am not the one who deemed that this is a reason good enough for you. However, I have heard that this is a part of the Seventh’s enforced criminal service. I was told that it was a series of missions to help out the people shorten their sentence. Frankly, I am not entirely sure how many years you will have to serve, but I was told that this was made to lessen those years.
“Would you like to take this opportunity, mister Yamamura, or would you rather suffer in bondage and imprisonment?”
“I have no idea where you’re thinking of bringing me along, but yes, I will agree to this.” He would do almost anything to leave his cell and confinement. Even a day out of this place would be enough for him, as long as he could do something other than be locked up.
“What are the terms? You’re agreeing on giving me back my zanpakutou and my freedom, but for how long? And why?”
The barrage of questions began to startle the healer, almost as though she was one of the wardens. It felt queer, this feeling.
“Um, please do not get it wrong. I am not the one giving you freedom. I was sent here to assist you with the mission. As for why they are giving you back your blade although there seems to be no need for it, I would suppose it goes by the Seventh’s protocols.” With one glance at the side, she ensured that the jail warden wasn’t becoming too impatient of their short chat.
“I was told that you are to return here once we are done, so that you may report regarding your participation and reap your reward. So I would suppose that your freedom lasts as long as this mission lasts.”
“I see. I suppose I will have to agree to that.” The assassin smiled, quite happy that he would actually have to get out for at least a while.
“And the mission. What is it about?” he asked as he glanced at the briefing papers she still held. “Perhaps I could get to read them?
“And maybe you could untie me from this chair as well?”
“I will not be the one to do that,” she said with a smile. Within a few moments, she motioned the wardens to come forth and remove his bondage, which they did in a surprisingly short amount of time as the healer waited on the side, silently scrutinizing how improperly they accomplished their task. That is bound to unnecessarily force some muscles... though I doubt they care much about that.
“Ye won’t be needin’ this, but we’re givin just in case the mission’s too hard fer ye,” the warden spoke with a snicker, tossing the zanpakutou towards the assassin’s direction.
With a slight word of gratitude towards the wardens, she gestured towards the open doors and to the unwelcoming halls of the Seventh. “Perhaps I can tell you about the mission on the way. Shall we?”
Eiji grabbed both his wrist and rubbed them. The ropes had left marks on him, a little bit of blood and surfaced around the markings. His feet were luckily not as tightly bound so there were no signs of them being tied up at all.
“Thank you,” he called out to the jailor as he grabbed his sword. He unsheathed Kyoujin and looked at the blade. He had not held his blade for a very long time, and it immediately spoke to him.
You’ve been gone for a long time boy. I’ve been lonely. I know your grief, but you have to endure. I have heard everything. Hopefully we won’t be apart for too long after this.
Yes. I have the same hopes.
“We shall.” The assassin followed the healer as they left the grounds of the Seventh Division.
“There was no particular location stated here in the briefing. I suppose the only thing important is the result-- and that is, to bring back various animals to the Fourth, mostly for drug testing purposes. Just that. If you think there are other specifics, you may choose to check it out on your own,” she spoke, handing the mission brief towards the assassin as the fresh air welcomed them into its embrace.
“And oh, if you are hurting anywhere, please do not hesitate to tell me. This is a physically strenuous exercise, and considering your position earlier, you might have complications over there.” There was an amicable smile on the woman’s face as they walked further and further from the bloodstone surroundings of the Seventh, the threads of power slowly surging back to both of them. It was a draining sensation, being inside a building made of the same reiatsu-negating stone.
Slightly, she wondered how exhausted Eiji must have felt, trapped inside that monstrous thing they call a cell.
“I’m fine.” He looked at the wounds on his hands. She would probably be able to heal them but those were not really the wounds he had problems with. The mental strain he had to endure during his imprisonment were what he had problems with. He knew that there were no spells to heal that. Only time would heal those wounds.
He grabbed the briefing and started skimming through them quickly. Squirrels. Mice. Cats. Are they serious?
“So they actually want me to chase critter? And capture them. For their experiments?” He thought about it for a while and agreed to it. The idea seemed a bit stupid to him but he was glad that he was needed for a change. “I suppose i’ll have to go along with it.
“Where do we start?”
“We will start wherever you choose to start,” she simply spoke with a smile. You need this more than I do.
I need to get as far as possible and make the time last, he thought to himself. The Zaraki districts perhaps. I could make it there but I don’t know about her. Seeing as she is going to accompany me, she probably has some sort of way to defend herself.
“The higher districts.” He answered calmly, showing a hint of a smile when he said that. He was still an assassin and the fact that he would have to go to the most dangerous parts of Rukongai made him happy. The chance of him getting into a fight there made his blood boil. Eiji had missed combat; to fight someone to death, even the chance to shed some blood.
“Yes, we will move towards the Zaraki Districts. Do you think you can survive there?”
“I--um, yes, I suppose,” she said with a slight smile, the gesture barely veiling the nervous gulp she just took. She had the presupposed idea that he would take a far district, but she did not expect him to take the farthest districts of Rukongai. It would take them more than a few days on this mission, seeing as the path was long and dangerous.
Then again, they may be able to bring back more critters than required.
Should I start regretting why I allowed him to choose the destination? The thought treacherously crossed her mind as her silver gaze darted back to their path, Then again, this is probably why they chose me to accompany this one... those evil people.
He remembered the smell, the glares from the residents and the hate in their eyes. He knew that the people here were poor, living on barely anything, and that they hated every shinigami alive. That someone as normal as them could have such a good life was not something they could comprehend so easily.
“Ahh... This feeling. I’ve missed it.” The assassin was a little bit on the crazy side. It was almost as if he loved being hated. He had visited these districts a lot when he was younger, just to brawl. The fighters here were not as strong as those in the lower districts, and nowhere near the shinigami. They were simply in it to survive. That gave them a will to fight that most did not have.
“Now then, where do you think we should start?” The boy glanced to his left side at the female with smiling eyes.
A slight hum escaped her lips as her gaze darted from side to side, discerning which direction seemed least dangerous... and clear, of course. How else would they chase critters if the street was jam-packed and roaring with the brawls of common folksmen?
Ah, all streets are just equally packed! Do I suppose we just settle for the sewers? The thought immediately sent chills down her spine, making the woman visibly cringe. She was used to passing through Seireitei’s sewers, but Rukongai’s? She might as well say she’s taking the diabolic entrance to unredeemable shame.
Shaking her head to fend the thought away, Ansherina gently lifted her hand, still holding her arm close to herself as though someone was going to reach for it. “Over there,” she pointed to the left, her words accompanied by cutesy blinks towards the assassin.
“Right.” He shunpo’d away as soon as he had answered and landed at the end of the street. Under his foot, he had caught a rats tail. He bent forward and slowly picked the pest up.
“I guess that’s one. This should not take so much time.” He looked around and a flock of people had started to gather around them. Icecold eyes were starting at the two shinigami as Eiji threw the rat in a small pouch he had tied to his clothes.
“Or perhaps not.
“Do you think they’re mad because we took their food?”
“Umm, yes, probably.”
Though by probably, she meant that sarcastic doubt of seeing those children’s hands outstretched, supposedly to catch the little rat. Who could’ve mistaken those eyes for a probably?
It was most definitely, like they’d be willing to eat them both in exchange for the rat. Those kind of eyes.
And she was quite quick enough to pick up a reasonable course of action before they could get a chance to pounce on her. Without so much as another word, the woman’s form disappeared from her spot and reappeared near Eiji, taking ahold of the assassin, her soft hand curling around his forearm.
“What are you doing?” he asked, as he looked down at where she had grabbed his hand.
“Planning on running away?”
“Unless you plan to be bogged down by those hands,” she whispered, gesturing at the children who continued their pursuit for the ‘rat’ and now crawled towards Eiji from multiple directions, “You would probably want to at least move out from the center of the fray.”
“You scared?” He moved towards the kids and with the help of a finger, smacked on of them away. The child flew a few meters and landed at the foot of a tree.
“See, they are not that scary.”
She could not help but to watch silently as the small boy painfully rubbed the back of his neck, pretending she didn’t hear the yelp as the boy’s thigh smacked right onto the large roots as he landed. Ansherina was not scared-- her heart was more wrenched to see the boy sending them a derisive glare as the other children ran up to him, throwing the same spiteful glances at the two of them. Her instincts would have told her to run and give relief to the pained child, finding his gasps of pain hard to resist-- however, she also found it hard to abandon the assassin. How many more could he inflict pain to, if she ran?
“Well, we were not here to inflict damage on them,” she spoke softly, gesturing towards the child Eiji sent flying, who now busied himself with patting the dust off his filthy clothes as if it would get any cleaner.
“I am not scared scared, however, I do think that this could get messy. It will not be a good thing on your record if you did more collateral damage than what is acceptable for your mission, mister Yamamura. You were sent here to shave off some years, not to gain more.”
Slowly, the woman’s hand loosened her grip, slowly letting go as the children ran away one by one, gathering what liquid they have on their throats to shout curses and throw spits at them.
“I suppose you are right.” His eyes were still locked on the child whom he had just given the short ability to fly. The air was getting colder, most eyes had averted from the female and were now staring at solely him.
“Where do you suggest we take off to?” he asked her as he grabbed another rat that had run past him. He tucked the rat in with the other one and glanced at the bag. The first rat had started to chew through the bag and in a matter of minutes, the hole would be big enough for it to escape. He tried to fold the bag into a double layer but could not really make it.
“I think we need to hurry, or the pests might escape their imprisonment.” He thought of himself as he said that, almost feeling a little bad for the poor rats. The assassin knew how it was to be confined; it was not easy. His thought averted back to the children as he managed pulled out another bag to put the first in.
“Ah, as for that... Material Summon!” In a moment, a two-by-three feet cage slowly appeared into view, nestled into an ironwork that barely resembles a strolley. “Surprisingly, the people who came through this ordeal before thought of this nifty contraption over here.”
Pulling it over, the Russian healer opened the top portion of the cage and waited for him to stash the little critters inside.
He grabbed the bag with the rats and shoved it in the summoned cage.
“That’s quite neat.” He quickly analyzed the cage and thought that it would be enough to actually hold them. “And who’s going to carry that?”
“Actually, there is no need to carry it~” she spoke with a smile before closing the lid and reaching out for its side. “We can push it or pull it around, almost like a critter vendor. Very convenient though. Shall we go?” It was newly oiled, its wheels gliding atop the earth quite smoothly-- at least, animal handling was at the bottom of their concerns right now.
“I suppose that works. But where do you suggest we go?” Eiji looked at the cage and searched for a way to pull it or grab it. The bars were pretty neat and easy to grab.
“You got any rope we could tie around this baby?”
“No ropes here, nope. But I could produce some. Safety Bind!” Out of nowhere, as did the Material Summon, glowing bandages made of pure reiatsu appeared, the long thin sheets dangling from her hand. “These may not be as strong if you are looking for something that could hold the cage when you attempt to throw it away with violent force. However, I can guarantee that it is strong enough to hold this one.” With a slight nod, she lifted the threads once, just to let him see, before wrapping it around the bars.
“I suspect that there may be no sewers here to look for more critters,” she spoke idly while securing a moderate tightness around the bars. “However, alleyways might be a better option.”
“That’s the best idea you’ve had all day.” Eiji knew that most troublemakers made their quarters in dark alleys and poor districts. A fight was inevitable if they were making their way towards those parts of Zaraki Districts.
The assassin tied the roped she had summoned to the cage and started pulling it. He had put the rope over his shoulder to use as leverage, which made the pulling quite easy. He slowly walked away from the kids who had picked up their mate and carried him away. The blow that Eiji had given him completely knocked the small boy out.
As he looked around, he saw small kitten in the corner of his eye. He released his grip of the rope and faster than it could react, he flash-stepped and grabbed the cat by it’s neck. He walked back towards the cage and shoved it in with the two cats.
“I hope it doesn’t eat them. Wouldn’t wanna go hunting rats again.”
“Well, there is one way to ensure that it does not happen,” Ansherina reassured the assassin before reaching inside the cage. Oh, those feral glares. She did not even have to be an expert to know what happens next, but she already had a way to calm the two felines.
“Threshold,” she whispered, letting her hands touch both of them in an attempt to affect them both. However, it did not seem quite as efficient. While one of them dropped limply into the cage like an obedient cat that it is, the other merely hissed at her, as though it knew the atrocity the healer did to his companion. Without any warning, the calico cat launched itself at the healer-- and she was lucky enough to catch it.
“You are not going anywhere, Little Cat!” she spoke, holding the furry animal close to her face as she crunched her nose in mock disgust. Sticking her tongue out to the cat for a second, as though it were an enemy, she took one of the bandages out and tied it in the feline’s neck. “You are going to stay here, whether you like it or not.”
With one more hiss directed at her, she released the cat from her not-so-friendly grip and allowed it to prowl around them, tied at the neck... like a dog.
“There. I suppose they will not be eating each other anymore~”
Eiji studied her as she seemed to struggle a bit with getting the animals in place. It took less than a few minutes for her to actually get everything in place, but it seemed longer to him. Perhaps it was too long. He was used to quick handling with anything he came in contact with, that’s simply how he had been taught. Most of the time, assassins only had one chance to finish off their targets. This taught them to take their chances and finish the task at hand as quickly as possible.
Those hands. If she only had done that a little faster, she probably wouldn’t have needed to tie that kitten down. A bit of brute strength is really all that i needed.
The boy grabbed the cage again and started moving towards the other end of the alley. Midway through he turned back to the healer.
“Do we just continue down this route?”
“Yes, well I suppose we ca--HEY!”
The woman was startled when the cat suddenly screeched, followed by a violent tug at the bandage she held on. The next thing she knew, the large, rather obese cat was launched up in the air, with a multitude of children laughing and chasing the cat still tied up on her bandage.
As soon as the cat landed though, it spared the children no mercy. Unleashing its fangs and claws at them, it hissed, and clawed, and pounced, though the idea of being tied only gave a slight thrill on the children’s faces. It was as though they took pride and happiness in the cat’s suffering, mocking its inability.
Four out of fifteen and they were already having so much ruckus. Without as much ado, she conjured several tongues of fire, slowly swirling around her. It seemed to have caught their attention, for all eyes were fixated on the fire as soon as she got them. ”Look here. If you do not stop enraging the cat, I will have to send one of these to you.”
“Why are you such a killjoy?! You old hag!” One of them spoke with a scowl.
“Oh, we’d like some fire. Do you wanna play with fire? It’s probably nicer than a cat!” Another one spoke.
The assassin burst into laughter. Seeing the female actually try to brawl with the kids made him a bit happy. She did have a little bit of fight in her and he liked that. He watched her as the fire started to gather around and hoped that the kids would back down but they seemed to be even crazier than the healer.
“Woah, calm down a bit now.” Eiji spoke up as he flashstepped between the kids and her. “I don’t really think you can attack the kids with that kind of power. Me smacking one of them in the head with a finger is one thing. But to actually bring something like this against them; it’s just crazy.”
He tried to move the children away as he still kept an eye on Ansherina. Her silvery gaze had turned into a ball of fire. What is wrong with that woman? Just a minute ago, she was calm as hell. She’s a fucking crazy one.
Just as the scarred prisoner had managed to shoo the last few kids away, she had calmed down but before he could turn back around and start moving, he heard footsteps all over the alley and on the rooftops it seemed like.
“I think we have some company. Do you think those stupid kids are back?”
“I, um, but it does not really burn, you see...” she spoke, apologetic with the kind of fuss she managed to stir with the friendly fire. “See? See?” Slowly, one of the orange tongues of fire drifted off to Eiji, sticking to his back, its edges swaying in a wild dance. “It was meant to be a light threat.”
“They may be back. If we absolutely must meet with them, we may have to learn how to deal with them... in a civil manner. Or we can probably have fun and bribe them with food... or something.”
Eiji jumped back a bit as the fire touched him. She was indeed right, it did not hurt at all, heck it didn’t feel like anything really.
“What are these fires?” he asked as the footsteps came closer. A loud thud echoed through the alley and he could see a shadow rising in one of the corners, running away immediately.
“Those kids must be back.”
”Mostly for lighting purposes, mister Yamamura. It hardly makes an actual threat, really, if you know what it is. It can also be attached to a person so that it is easier to find them in a dark area.”
Pulling the cat into her arms, the woman cast a simple Threshold, before returning it to the cage from whence it came from. “Will you be okay with bribing them with food~? I am quite understanding with your willingness to stay out of the Seventh for as long as you could-- that is quite understandable. However, if these kids make it relatively harder for us to resist making any damage or harm in the surrounding area, we might as well integrate them into the mission. It is like hitting two birds in one stone, is it not?”
“I would have no problems with that at all. Except, how are you gonna feed all of them at once. Where are you going to get the food from?”
He eyeballed her and looked for a place where she perhaps might have hidden a bunch of food. He knew that there were no demon arts to make some food.
“You don’t have anything hidden in that shihakusho do you?”
A slight laugh escaped the woman’s lips. “No, no, I do not have anything here, but perhaps we may opt to grab something on the next district on our way back. They do not mind to walk quite far just to have a few treats, you know. Alternatively, it may also be possible to summon a bowl of candies.”
A fond smile graced her lips as the vague memories of her last mission to Rukongai flooded her mind. Candies, lots of candies. It was a shame a lot of them were poisoned. It was for the trouble, perhaps, that she brought a lot of candy and opted to stash them somewhere in the house.
Eiji gestured at the kids and looked back at the female healer. Her idea of summoning some candy for the kids might’ve been exactly what they needed. Children who had lived in these districts barely had food to pass the day. He wondered if they actually had ever tasted candy.
“A bowl of candy might not be completely wrong. I don’t think they have tasted anything so sweet yet. Perhaps we could give them a treat?”
“Agreed!”
It was not long until one of the children came to them once again, eyeing the animals in the cage. He was, of course, merely trailing the two as they turned on the corner, passing by on another alley.
“What are you gonna do about those creatures, anyway?” the child mumbled sheepishly, feral eyes penetrating the bars and on to the pets inside. Oh, he would have gone on to catching them, if only he didn’t know what they could do to him.
“It is a secret,” she spoke with a smile before she continued to walk side by side with Eiji. As they walked further and further, the putrid stench of rotting flesh drifted in the air, and though thoroughly disgusted by the scent, she could not really say that she was not used to it. And though she feigned ignorance of the child’s presence, his interest simply grew and grew, same as his hunger. Ansherina kept a slight smirk from forming at the corners of her lips, the sight of the child on her peripheral vision encouraging the smirk. Go on, come closer...
What is she doing?
Eiji looked at the healer as she kept going.
Isn’t she going to give them any candy?
He walked up right beside the female as he tried to breathe from his mouth. The smell was getting to him, and he could see it in her facial expression that it was getting to her as well.
“What are you playing at?” he whispered in her air as he kept pulling the cage behind him. One of the children had started moving his hands towards it, but the assassin did not react. It was not really any danger for the animals, as the children probably couldn’t put their hands through the cage but because he wanted to keep them away, he yanked the rope a bit and moved the cage away from the children. “You should play nice with the kids.
“I don’t really know if it’s safe if they follow us his deep into the slums. I can’t protect all of you if we get attacked.”
She almost released a chuckle from that statement. Almost. “Mister Yamamura, we are in Zaraki. Do I really have to think how much worse it can get?” she whispered with a smile before turning to the child.
“You know, if you are reaaaaally hungry, a rat would not be healthy for your body,” Ansherina spoke, leaning towards the child as her foot stepped forward, putting her body between the child and the cage. Not that people here cared about health than hunger, but nonetheless, she had to make her point known. “But if you really want a treat, perhaps I can give you some. Would you like to?”
There was a bit of anger in his eyes when the pets were rendered out of view, and suspicion with Ansherina’s attempted bribery. He wasn’t holding on to an empty promise though, if only he would learn to place his trust.
“What do you mean?”
“Well~ You can fetch some critters for us, and we will give you some treats. Would that be okay?”
“And how do I know I can trust you?”
“I do not know how to answer that. That is your choice.” There was still a smile lingering on her lips when he turned on his heel and moved away, scurrying towards his friends who hid amongst themselves. “You know, mister Yamamura, I am quite happy we are not dealing with adults.”
Eiji watched as she tricked the kids into doing her bidding. Her technique worked, for some reason. Perhaps she was right, it might’ve been easier to handle kinds than adults. At least for her. The scarred reaper did not have much experience with kids in these past years, barely any with adults since he had been incarcerated. These kids were completely gullible. A thing that would seem to be an empty promise to an adult could mean everything in the world to a kid. These kids were special cases though. They had been betrayed by life, living the the Zaraki Districts was not easy for a child. Especially one without parents.
“You’re truly are an evil woman. To think that you would be leading these kids on with a simple promise as that.” Eiji looked back at the woman as he kept walking through the alley. “I just hope you pull through with this. I would not want to betray these kids. They have had enough hardships in their life.”
“Heyyyy! I am most definitely not trying to trick them,” she spoke with a frown lining her features. “Simple as it may seem, I surmise that it will at least stop them from causing harm to us. Well, it is not to say that they actually cause lasting harm, but at least so that they would stop going against our way.”
“Besides, I do not really have any other way to make them stop.”
I know I few ways we could stop them. I can’t promise that they will survive it though.
The assassin never let his eyes stray from the children as the female spoke. They rounded one corner and within a minute, they were out of sight. Eiji kept going the same way, still pulling the cage the healer had summoned. So far, they had gathered two rats and two cats, they were well on their way to find what they actually needed.
“And how do you suggest we go about finding the rest of the test-subjects? Do we simply wait for the children to come to us with them or do we leave and continue our own way?”
“Oh, I do suppose that these children will have their own way of finding their way to us. I would be fine with following this same trail we have been walking on, really.”
On the farthest sight her eyes could reach, the gleam of treetops were reflected on her silver eyes, the thickets of a forest on the clear azure backdrop. It was like the end of the world... end of Zaraki, at least. Houses became lesser and lesser as they walked, and only vast expanses of barren land dotted with rocks, dead grass, rows and rows of dilapidated rubble and rotting bodies remained. Everything felt so dead here, save perhaps for the feast of crows, rodents, and other unseemly animals. They were, perhaps, the only ones left alive in here.
“You are probably right. But you didn’t really answer my question.” Eiji watched her as her thoughts seemed to drift away for some reason. Concentration and focus was needed if you wanted to survive in these parts of Rukongai, and a frail young woman as herself would probably have it even harsher. She seemed to look at something, not anything he could see really.
“Do you think we should go on a hunt ourselves or perhaps grab a seat and rest?”
“If you would be okay to have a seat for a while, I would suppose. That is, if you do not mind.”
Eiji pulled over the cage and pushed it towards a wall. He gestured for the healer to take a seat and the two of them jumped up on the cage. It was sturdy enough to hold the both of them, but probably nobody else.
A bird flew over the two reapers as the assassin looked up, soaring around them. The children were yet to return and Eiji had almost lost his will to hunt for small critter. The freedom felt great, there was no word about that. Being in the open without doing anything at all was not. He had been sitting in his cell doing nothing for a long while now, it had started to bother him that he could not do anything while out.
“Do you perhaps have any sake or a deck of cards? It’s getting kinda boring out here.”
“Unfortunately, I do not. I would have loved to play, though.”
She was not the one to pry on other people’s lives, but the healer held a burning curiosity within her. Why was he convicted? He must have been dangerous, the initial sight of Eiji still imprinted on her mind. After all, why else would he be so heavily bound?
Her chest rose up, ready to speak up when a child suddenly ran back to them, his small fingers wrapped around several rodents’ tails. That wasn’t what caught the woman’s attention though. It was the fear in his eyes, the urgency in his actions.
“What happened?” she asked, promptly standing up to free the cage opening that she had sat upon.
Eiji pulled the few rats he had gathered out of his hand and studied the kid for a while. He was dirty, full of bruises and when he looked closer, there was blood on the kid’s clothes but the blood was not dried and did not seem to be the kids. The blood was fresh, not more than a minutes. The assassin moved his hand towards the kids torso but the kid jumped back.
“What’s wrong?” he asked with the mildest tone he could produce. Calming a kid down was usually done with words and not actions, even he knew that.
“B-b-b-Billy!” the kid shouted. “Billy!” He shouted again. His lips started shaking, and soon his body followed. “They killed Billy!”
Eiji watched as the female turned pale. He could tell she was not used to hear about death involving such young beings but neither did he. He knew death very well, any assassin did. But a child always had a special place in any human heart. He never wanted to see someone so young lose their life, before having a chance to actually live.
“We should probably check that out”, he said, as he rose from his seat and tied the rope to a large container next to them.
“Yes, we surely need to,” she spoke in a rushed tone, her steps quickly following the frantic child’s as he ran back to where he came from, scurrying to his friend’s side. It was an involuntary gesture her own body made, upon hearing the urgency in his voice. It held its own strings on her movements, setting her own heart to motion. She was a soft-hearted individual, and she was not one to bear such pleas.
And it quickly stopped her on her tracks when she saw the group of children bullying them earlier, now huddled fearfully behind a large tree, barely peering at their friend who now lay lifeless on the sultry, barren earth. One other, perhaps someone who attempted to save Billy, was then being kicked by two massive men, laughing among themselves as one of them squished the rat one of the children caught between his large fingers.
“When we tell ye it’s fer food, it’s fer food. It doesn’t matter who come first, eh? What matters is who’s able to bring ‘em home!” the larger man bellowed, leaning towards the shivering boy who merely peeked at him fearfully.
“Halt, confine to these bars! Way of Binding number twenty seven, Keeji!” she cried, hands pointed to the burly men’s direction. As soon as the steel bars confined the men into its congested space, the woman literally dashed towards the children, specifically to check for Billy’s vital signs.
Without any time to react or answer her, Eiji followed the female healer, taking quick steps behind her. He came a second behind her, seeing the scene after her. It was a horrendous sight, something nobody should ever have to see but all three of them had to witness it. He could not believe his eyes when he looked even further.
Eiji witnessed the spell flying towards the two men who were harassing the remaining children. Before she had the time to actually conjure the bars, he flashstepped into their territory and was locked in with the two men, both hands grabbing their throats, fingers burying into them. His soft point had been shown to himself for the first time; children.
He could barely control his strength and before he could react, he felt a warm stream of blood run down his arms.
“How is the kid?” he yelled out to the healer, still holding the two men in their confinement. He did not even react a bit to the fact that he was locked up again, he was too damn mad.
“Obscure the flight. Rendering darkness. Four cranes standing. Open the eyes of the soul and return to the twilight. Way of Healing number thirty, Clear Sight.” Upon the utterance of the spell, a gold star appeared at the center of her silvery irises, granting her the power to see the damage that had been brought upon the child’s body. Several broken and disjointed bones, torn muscles and fairly large wounds. Fortunately, there were no life-threatening abnormalities. The one that stood out the most, however, was the pool of blood beneath the child’s body, spreading outward as more blood spilled from his open wounds.
“His vital signs are faint, however, there is a chance of surviving. It was thankful that the child had gone to us immediately, or he would have died of blood loss, more than anything else.” Without awaiting for any reply from the assassin, Ansherina cast another spell, touching the portion between the child’s ribs where a stab had been made, forcing her reiatsu into the wound to stop the overflow of blood.
Eiji still had his hands wrapped around their necks, his fingers digging deeper and deeper into their throats, pressing the back of their heads against the bars. After getting the reply from the healer, he calmed down for a moment only to get worked up when looking upon the perpetrators again.
“What do you suggest we do?” he asked his companion quite loudly. “My suggestion might not be the best for them...”
“This is very far from shinigami jurisdiction, if we do consider the gravity of their actual crime,” she spoke, without looking up to the shinigami as her healing reiatsu continued to seep through the child’s body, now repairing the broken bones beneath the torn muscle and bruised skin.
“I would surmise that this is an occurrence that happens quite often around these parts, so I would suggest taking them to the populous areas of the district on our way back, perhaps, and let their own people deal with them. While we were able to intervene lightly in the situation, I do not think we have to be fully involved...”
Her starburst eyes continued to focus on the little boy’s body in front of her, watching as the small bones repair themselves, slowly coming together like a puzzle.
“...After all, we still have your mission to finish,” she spoke with a smile, glancing up at the assassin with a slight nod before returning her gaze towards Billy.
“I see where you’re coming from. It’s a good idea. Perhaps they will learn a lesson on what happens when you attack children.” The scarred assassin released his grip from the two men and gestured for the female to open the cage she had created. Her thoughts this time were correct, as they had been earlier as well.
Letting the higher districts deal with people who attack their own citizen was probably not the right thing to do every time. Eiji knew that the two men they had caught would probably not get out of their “trials” alive. These parts of Rukongai were still very different from the others. Not just in the fact that there was poverty everywhere and that people barely had to eat but the system was different as well. Some may have said that they did not evolve at the same pace as their peers but the truth was much easier than that. The simply did not adapt because they did not have the same conditions as everyone in the lower numbers. They lacked the most common everyday things.
“Release me and get these two back in their cage. We can probably leave them here for the time being and let someone come pick them up.”
“There might be a big chance of them escaping, though,” Ansherina noted before looking back up at Eiji, the last word of High Mend’s incantation departing from her lips. “So if you can knock the consciousness out of them for now, perhaps it might not be on our list of worries. That Keeji does not really last forever, you know. Just a little nudge at the back of the head will probably do... I trust that you know how it is done.”
A smack over the head was all it took. He continued on to the next person and did the same. Within seconds, both of them had fallen to the ground and were sound asleep. The cage barely fit their bodies lying down but he did not really care. The last thing he would want for them was to see them in a comfortable state.
“And now, will you please let me out?”
“With pleasure..”
Natural decay was all it took to make the Keeji dissipate into thin air, its thick iron bars quickly disappearing from sight, leaving Eiji the only one standing from the spot of imprisonment. Billy’s friend ran up to them as soon as the men dropped unconscious, only concerned for the welfare of his friend, gently rubbing his eyes so as to conceal the presence of tears welling up at its corners.
“Please do not worry. Your friend should be fine in a little while. Just allow me some time to continue healing,” she smiled warmly to the child, giving a slight nod before checking up on Billy’s healing.
The child barely nodded, still stifling his little sobs. “If you would like to be occupied while I heal your little friend over here, can you resume doing what you were, just now? I assure you that we will still be here, by the time you get back.”
“It’s all right.” Eiji tried to help Ansherina calm the children down, to let them know it was safe. They had hit a soft spot in him and their safety was his number one priority now.
The scarred assassin moved towards the boy she tried healing but was stopped when one of the kids yanked his pants. He turned around to see a small child, not older than five, hold his pants tight in one hand and wiping his tears in the other one.
“Will he be all right?” he asked, still holding the pant leg. Eiji nodded, putting his hand over the kids head to calm him down.
“Of course he will. You see that girl?” Eiji pointed at the reaper. “She’s the best healer there is!”
The kid lit up a bit and a smile started surfacing on his face. He let go of his grip and ran off after his comrades.
The Russian healer gushed at the assassin’s words, lowering her head to avoid everyone from seeing her blush-kissed cheeks turning deeper. She was simply doing her duties, wasn’t she?
Even the children who slinked in the shadows slowly disappeared, perhaps following the suit of the little child who went off to fetch some more critters. They only needed fifteen, but it seemed like the number they would get to take back would be a little bit more.
By now, Billy’s broken bones had returned to its position, only little bit more into getting fixed as if it was never damaged at all. It was a good thing that the child was unconscious, otherwise, she would have to struggle with keeping him under anesthetics. Still though, quiet as he is, Ansherina could see the severity of the pain going through inside his body with the facial contortions he made, and the slight involuntary movements made by his body.
He had completely forgotten about his mission, the event that had just passed by would probably have an impact on him in the long run. If not for the remaining children running off, he would never have remembered it.
He watched closely as the silver-eyed reaper healed the boy. It seemed to go fine, but what did he know. His knowledge and expertise was in taking lives, not saving them. He kept on watching as the boy seemed to in pain. He saw it not only in his face, but in the healers as well. She felt bad that the kid had to go through this, he knew as much. It was exactly as he had thought, she was not used to this kind of thing. Children were not often involved in this kind of thing in the lower numbers of Rukongai.
I wonder how she would feel if would’ve stayed here a week. The poor bastard, she probably wouldn’t survive. Knowing her, she would probably try to heal the whole district, not knowing when to stop and lose her life in the process. I must make sure that she doesn’t return here alone.
Lifting the small boy’s body, if only by little, Ansherina conjured strips of reiatsu and wrapped it around his torso, covering up the badly-scarred portion of his back. Well, not that it would still bleed, but she figured that it might hurt, despite being healed.
“I am done here, Mister Yamamura!” she called out the assassin, cocking her head to one side to catch a glimpse of the other man, the gold starburst in her eyes slowly fading out, leaving the silver irises as it once were.
“Great. We should probably pack up here and leave soon.” Eiji looked back and wondered if the cage they had left with the few animals they captured was still there.
“We should probably try to move this kid-” Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the healer.
“Ah, you are just on time!” She beamed at the children scurrying back to them, with enough critters in their hands to fill the empty space left on their cage. Well, she expected more to come, but she didn’t expect this many. It was almost safe to say that they had overworked themselves over catching these critters.
The healer stood up from her position, gently settling the young boy’s head back to the solid earth, leaving his body comfortably lying down on the patch of soil. With a few hurried steps, she was able to bridge the gap between her and the cage, promptly opening it with both of her hands.
“Please put them on, right here, yes.”
“They’re back already? That was quick.” Eiji turned towards the children who came running. Their hands were full, a few rats and squirrels in each hand and the smallest kids carried one or two cats each. The largest of them had pulled the cage that had the few already caught animals with them.
“Material Summon,” the words departed her lips as the children busied themselves with filling the cage with their catch for today, almost too focused on the cage to have their attention elsewhere... like, say, the box that slowly appeared into view a meter or so away from the crowd of children.
“As promised,” she started as soon as the last child freed the critters from her grip, “we will give you a little something for your help. Please do not kill each other over it, there is plenty enough for everyone. Anyone who assisted may get some.” There was a smile on her lips as she slowly closed the cage’s lid and pulled the cage away, wary of the children now swarming about in the box.
The cage seemed full. Eiji moved over to it and started counting the animals. Fifteen Cats, fifteen squirrels, 15 rats. It was all there.
“Good kids,” he whispered to the silver-eyed reaper. “These might grow into good people. Perhaps they will even become shinigami some of them. The potential is there.”
He moved back and closed the cage he had counted from. Securing the lock and rope, he pulled it in front of the two of them and looked at Ansherina.
“Now, mister Yamamura, shall we?” she called out once more to the assassin, her hands hovering above the two men. “I hope you do not mind having to carry the cage to our destination. I can say I have my hands full,” she said with a smile, gesturing towards the unconscious that now started to levitate a meter from the ground, as though it was placed on an invisible stretcher.
Their weight would have been impossible to carry them all the way to a distance had she been relying on her own strength. It was only of luck that Stretcher’s strength did not rely on the caster’s own.
“Unless you would like to carry these men all the way to the next district, of course.”
“No, this is probably for the best.” He moved the rope over his shoulder and started pulling the cage towards their next destination. They simply had to leave the men at the next districts and let their own people deal with them, in their own way. It was not their job to judge them, nor was it theirs to give them their punishment. He would leave it to the residents of the Zaraki districts.
Contrary to the belief she had the first time they met a child here in Zaraki, she was delighted at the result of their long, long trip. She was happy for the mission, and Eiji, in many ways. Who knows, he could have gotten his sentence longer, if she wasn’t there earlier to stop him from dealing with the children on his own way. Somehow, although she was extremely tired, the outcome was more than enough to make her fairly contented.
They were finally on the move. The mission was finished and they had done a good deed. What was left was to get back safe, and it would not be a problem.
“We should probably make our way to the main office and give our report. Wanna lead the way?” The scarred assassin had not walked around much in his current division grounds, if anything really. His cell had been his home for the past year and would probably stay like that for a while longer. A 400-year sentence would not finish that quickly if he did not get pardoned.
“It would be a pleasure,” she spoke with a smile, now sharing the burden of carrying the little critters’ cage. It wasn’t such a good sensation, having all these busybodies running and fighting out inside the cage-- it only made things heavier and worse for both of them.
It would be a pleasure, really, to reach the end of the mission where she can at least sit for a while. But then, was it really a pleasure to stop inside the Seventh once more? The air was suffocating, and although she didn’t want to hold anything against those imprisoned inside the cells, there was still the threat inside the Seventh... some threat with unknown origins, really.
In their mission, she had been a witness to the other faces of Eiji that most people don’t see when they peer inside the prisoners’ cells, and something that was far from expectation. But despite that, she had also seen-- and felt-- the shadier side of Eiji on the earlier part of it. Half of her wanted to completely trust the assassin’s character, but there was doubt, if only a little bit.
The gravity of it all seemed to weigh in on her as they stepped inside the confines of the Seventh’s walls, the draining force of the sekkiseki stone feeding off from the reiatsu they had left.
“Um, mister Yamamura, can we leave these critters here? I suppose it would be quite inconvenient to carry them around, you see...”
“I can’t see a reason for us to carry them any further. The animals are your prize, my job was to help you retrieve it.” Eiji released the rope and let it fall over the cage. He checked to see if the animals were still alive and looked back at his companion.
“We should probably start moving. I wouldn’t want to extend my freedom any longer than necessary.” Eiji pointed towards the main building of the division, where he had seen a lot of shinigami enter and leave as they stood there.
With a smile, she brought the pets over to the guards standing by the massive entryway, and though met with quizzical looks, the healer tried to explain their intention patiently, until they finally agreed to keep the critters in their custody.
“I hope that your mission became quite the refresher,” she spoke to the assassin as they walked the halls, her mind vaguely recalling the memory of walking this same path before. “I had no idea how long you were kept in confinement, or when you are bound to leave once more. I really do hope that the long walk was enough.”
“It certainly was.” The boy was grateful that it was him who was requested. He was unsure if it was she who wanted it or if it was a random event, but he was glad. He had gotten his freedom, even if only for a little while, it was enough.
“I am really grateful that I had a chance to leave my cell. This will hopefully hold me until next time.” He knew that he had to go back to his cell immediately, without any further notice. Soon, the gaolers would show up, put chains on him and carry him away. He tried to stay as long as possible, linger for only a moment more.
What he had learned about himself would hopefully show some change in his character, perhaps to the better and calm him down a bit. His temperament was what had gotten him into this situation, a change would most probably keep him out of any further trouble.
“I am still here for some time if you need any more help. Just call and make sure to schedule an appointment.” He smiled as he finished speaking. Leaving her there in a well enough state was enough for him. He had succeeded with his task in any aspect he could think of that was relevant.
“Until next time!”
“It was a pleasure to work with you, mister Yamamura,” she spoke with the same kind of gentleness she had, when she first spoke to the assassin. “I might visit, if time and the sheer number of infirmary patients allow me to. Until then.”
With a courteous bow, the Russian healer beamed at the assassin and turned on her heel, leaving Eiji alone under the jurisdiction of his wardens. She looked back once more, giving a slight nod to him before disappearing around the corner, with only the faint clicking of her heels resounding against the cold, distant ground.
Eiji watched as the female left. Within seconds, he was surrounded by a four-man squad consisting of two gaolers and two Omnitsukidou agents. He stood quietly and let them put the shackles on him without fighting back. He was pleased. The last rays of the evening sun shone in his face, he could still feel the grass under his feet and the air was fresh.
Every time the door opened, his hopes got up. He wanted someone to bring him outside, send him out on a mission, let him roam Rukongai for a while. Anything would be fine as long as he could get out of his cell. The walls had gotten colder. It was clear that the cell had been cleaned but it was not well done. They had probably just poured some water on the walls and let it dry. Mold was starting to grow in one corner and the floor was still wet.
The door suddenly opened and Eiji figured it was time for food again. To his surprise, there was actually a man without something covering his face standing out there. He ordered the two jailers to grab the prisoner and shackled him. He was brought outside, without a bag over his head this time. He looked at the man who led the way but did not care to ask any questions. He would probably be sent out somewhere again and that made him glad.
This time, they did not stop in the yard. The boy followed them all the way to the main building of the Seventh Division grounds. He was a bit surprised to where they were taking him but did not think about it too much. If they had a reason to bring him, it was probably a good one.
He entered the main building, held by two of them and the unmasked man still in the lead. They led him into a room, sat him in a chair and removed his shackles. Eiji looked around the room, finding nothing but a light in the ceiling, the chair he was sitting on, a table in front of him and another chair behind the table. He waited. A few minutes passed but it felt like ages. After about a half an hour, the door opened. A man with a folder in his hand entered. He quietly sat down, looking inside the item he had opened. He never so much as looked at the reaper.
Eiji kept waiting. The man looked up and spoke.
“So, you’ve succeeded in something. Did not think you had it in you.”
Eiji kept staring at him.
“Are you not gonna answer me boy?”
“Yes.”
“Is that it?”
The scarred assassin still had his eyes on him.
“You did well boy. Tell me about what happened.
Eiji told his story, from beginning to end. He explained why he had picked the Zaraki Districts, how the trip there had gone, what they had found in the higher districts and how they had gotten him. He mentioned the kids and what had happened to them but did not dig too deep into it. He did not want them to know that he had used excessive force on someone, to keep himself unpunished for it.
“I heard you attacked two men.” He was caught. He wanted to explain that he had done it to help the kids. The silver-eyed woman popped up in his mind.
The healer... Don’t tell me that she told him I did something I shouldn’t have. Don’t tell me she screwed me right now.
“You did fine.” It felt like a storm had just calmed down. EIji had no time to actually work up a real stress, but the signs were there. The agent in front of him could clearly see it. And he wanted to play a prank on him it seemed.
“Ansherina-san told me everything. How you saved the kids and how you reacted in time. It was a job well done. We expect more good work from you.” He checked the briefing in his hands. “You seem to havmanaged to gather everything that was asked for in the mission.”
The assassin still sat there quiet, not uttering a single word. He felt like he did not have to speak. The healer had done all the talking for him. She had made him look out to be the good guy, given him a chance to redeem his actions and made him look good in the gaolers eyes.
The man who had recently entered got up from his chair. He slid the chair into the table opening and slowly walked towards the door. He left the briefing on the table and opened the door slowly. He looked back at the reaper. His eyes were warm, still looking at the boy. He walked out of the door, slowly turning his head towards the exit. He turned back once more towards Eiji.
“Keep up the good work and you’ll be completely fine.”
He could hear footsteps coming towards him, soft and calm, perhaps from a woman. The steps came closer and he could feel a hand touch the upper part of his face and the blindfold was immediately taken off. In front of him stood in fact a woman, a shinigami to be more precise. A silver-eyed goddess. He had not laid his eyes on a woman this fair in a very long time. Heck, he had no laid his eyes on a woman for a long time. He stared for a good few minutes before speaking up.
“And you are?”
“Ansherina Miyahara, an unseated member of the Fourth Division. It is a pleasure to meet you.” With a slight bow, the Russian healer smiled amicably at the assassin, radiating a kind of warmth that could not have been otherwise felt within the cold depths of the Seventh. “An apology might be in order, perhaps, if I happened to disturb you on your deep meditation, or perhaps, sleep. However, a queer request came from the Seventh, and it requires your attention.”
Lifting her hand, she extended her arm and held the mission brief roughly at Eiji’s eye level, the pristine piece of paper held gently between her slender, tattooed fingers.
“A request?” he asked. He looked at the folder as she tried to hand it to him.
“I don’t know how this will really work?” He was still tied to the chair and tried to glance at the rope around his hand. “I’m a bit tied up as you might see.”
Glancing slightly, there was no surprise in her her eyes, only concern when her eyes trailed to see the red spots the tight bondage had brought upon his wrists and ankles. Wouldn’t his muscles be a little stiff, then? She was a bit iffy, knowing that he had been offered a physically strenuous mission-- if her deductions were right, it would, of course, be difficult for the assassin.
“Oh, regarding your current predicament, I was led to believe that you are going to be temporarily freed and be handed your zanpakutou, solely for the purposes of this mission.” Hoping not to disconcert the assassin with her unnecessary prying, Ansherina looked back up at Eiji. “Do you accept, mister Yamamura?”
Freedom was something he had longed for but he knew not for how long he would be free this time. Even though it was a sweet offer, he doubted the female somewhat.
“So what you’re asking me is if you want me to leave my shackles and actually leave this place?” He could not believe that. Not for a second. She had to have some ulterior motive. But he could not figure out what it was for his life.
“What could possibly be a good reason for you to free me and return my weapon to me?”
“Oh, please do not get it wrong. I am not the one who deemed that this is a reason good enough for you. However, I have heard that this is a part of the Seventh’s enforced criminal service. I was told that it was a series of missions to help out the people shorten their sentence. Frankly, I am not entirely sure how many years you will have to serve, but I was told that this was made to lessen those years.
“Would you like to take this opportunity, mister Yamamura, or would you rather suffer in bondage and imprisonment?”
“I have no idea where you’re thinking of bringing me along, but yes, I will agree to this.” He would do almost anything to leave his cell and confinement. Even a day out of this place would be enough for him, as long as he could do something other than be locked up.
“What are the terms? You’re agreeing on giving me back my zanpakutou and my freedom, but for how long? And why?”
The barrage of questions began to startle the healer, almost as though she was one of the wardens. It felt queer, this feeling.
“Um, please do not get it wrong. I am not the one giving you freedom. I was sent here to assist you with the mission. As for why they are giving you back your blade although there seems to be no need for it, I would suppose it goes by the Seventh’s protocols.” With one glance at the side, she ensured that the jail warden wasn’t becoming too impatient of their short chat.
“I was told that you are to return here once we are done, so that you may report regarding your participation and reap your reward. So I would suppose that your freedom lasts as long as this mission lasts.”
“I see. I suppose I will have to agree to that.” The assassin smiled, quite happy that he would actually have to get out for at least a while.
“And the mission. What is it about?” he asked as he glanced at the briefing papers she still held. “Perhaps I could get to read them?
“And maybe you could untie me from this chair as well?”
“I will not be the one to do that,” she said with a smile. Within a few moments, she motioned the wardens to come forth and remove his bondage, which they did in a surprisingly short amount of time as the healer waited on the side, silently scrutinizing how improperly they accomplished their task. That is bound to unnecessarily force some muscles... though I doubt they care much about that.
“Ye won’t be needin’ this, but we’re givin just in case the mission’s too hard fer ye,” the warden spoke with a snicker, tossing the zanpakutou towards the assassin’s direction.
With a slight word of gratitude towards the wardens, she gestured towards the open doors and to the unwelcoming halls of the Seventh. “Perhaps I can tell you about the mission on the way. Shall we?”
Eiji grabbed both his wrist and rubbed them. The ropes had left marks on him, a little bit of blood and surfaced around the markings. His feet were luckily not as tightly bound so there were no signs of them being tied up at all.
“Thank you,” he called out to the jailor as he grabbed his sword. He unsheathed Kyoujin and looked at the blade. He had not held his blade for a very long time, and it immediately spoke to him.
You’ve been gone for a long time boy. I’ve been lonely. I know your grief, but you have to endure. I have heard everything. Hopefully we won’t be apart for too long after this.
Yes. I have the same hopes.
“We shall.” The assassin followed the healer as they left the grounds of the Seventh Division.
“There was no particular location stated here in the briefing. I suppose the only thing important is the result-- and that is, to bring back various animals to the Fourth, mostly for drug testing purposes. Just that. If you think there are other specifics, you may choose to check it out on your own,” she spoke, handing the mission brief towards the assassin as the fresh air welcomed them into its embrace.
“And oh, if you are hurting anywhere, please do not hesitate to tell me. This is a physically strenuous exercise, and considering your position earlier, you might have complications over there.” There was an amicable smile on the woman’s face as they walked further and further from the bloodstone surroundings of the Seventh, the threads of power slowly surging back to both of them. It was a draining sensation, being inside a building made of the same reiatsu-negating stone.
Slightly, she wondered how exhausted Eiji must have felt, trapped inside that monstrous thing they call a cell.
“I’m fine.” He looked at the wounds on his hands. She would probably be able to heal them but those were not really the wounds he had problems with. The mental strain he had to endure during his imprisonment were what he had problems with. He knew that there were no spells to heal that. Only time would heal those wounds.
He grabbed the briefing and started skimming through them quickly. Squirrels. Mice. Cats. Are they serious?
“So they actually want me to chase critter? And capture them. For their experiments?” He thought about it for a while and agreed to it. The idea seemed a bit stupid to him but he was glad that he was needed for a change. “I suppose i’ll have to go along with it.
“Where do we start?”
“We will start wherever you choose to start,” she simply spoke with a smile. You need this more than I do.
I need to get as far as possible and make the time last, he thought to himself. The Zaraki districts perhaps. I could make it there but I don’t know about her. Seeing as she is going to accompany me, she probably has some sort of way to defend herself.
“The higher districts.” He answered calmly, showing a hint of a smile when he said that. He was still an assassin and the fact that he would have to go to the most dangerous parts of Rukongai made him happy. The chance of him getting into a fight there made his blood boil. Eiji had missed combat; to fight someone to death, even the chance to shed some blood.
“Yes, we will move towards the Zaraki Districts. Do you think you can survive there?”
“I--um, yes, I suppose,” she said with a slight smile, the gesture barely veiling the nervous gulp she just took. She had the presupposed idea that he would take a far district, but she did not expect him to take the farthest districts of Rukongai. It would take them more than a few days on this mission, seeing as the path was long and dangerous.
Then again, they may be able to bring back more critters than required.
Should I start regretting why I allowed him to choose the destination? The thought treacherously crossed her mind as her silver gaze darted back to their path, Then again, this is probably why they chose me to accompany this one... those evil people.
* * *
The scene before their eyes was far from the one that greeted them upon their exit from the White City. Multitude of filthy children running about, chased by vendors who had been recently thieved upon, crowds of loud, drunken men on broad daylight going about on a cursing row with their peers, and small, patched up houses lining the once-pristine road that they followed all the way from the more peaceful districts. One thing hasn’t changed though-- those countless pairs of eyes following the trail of the two shinigami, eyes that held a myriad of different emotions, almost judging their each and every move. He remembered the smell, the glares from the residents and the hate in their eyes. He knew that the people here were poor, living on barely anything, and that they hated every shinigami alive. That someone as normal as them could have such a good life was not something they could comprehend so easily.
“Ahh... This feeling. I’ve missed it.” The assassin was a little bit on the crazy side. It was almost as if he loved being hated. He had visited these districts a lot when he was younger, just to brawl. The fighters here were not as strong as those in the lower districts, and nowhere near the shinigami. They were simply in it to survive. That gave them a will to fight that most did not have.
“Now then, where do you think we should start?” The boy glanced to his left side at the female with smiling eyes.
A slight hum escaped her lips as her gaze darted from side to side, discerning which direction seemed least dangerous... and clear, of course. How else would they chase critters if the street was jam-packed and roaring with the brawls of common folksmen?
Ah, all streets are just equally packed! Do I suppose we just settle for the sewers? The thought immediately sent chills down her spine, making the woman visibly cringe. She was used to passing through Seireitei’s sewers, but Rukongai’s? She might as well say she’s taking the diabolic entrance to unredeemable shame.
Shaking her head to fend the thought away, Ansherina gently lifted her hand, still holding her arm close to herself as though someone was going to reach for it. “Over there,” she pointed to the left, her words accompanied by cutesy blinks towards the assassin.
“Right.” He shunpo’d away as soon as he had answered and landed at the end of the street. Under his foot, he had caught a rats tail. He bent forward and slowly picked the pest up.
“I guess that’s one. This should not take so much time.” He looked around and a flock of people had started to gather around them. Icecold eyes were starting at the two shinigami as Eiji threw the rat in a small pouch he had tied to his clothes.
“Or perhaps not.
“Do you think they’re mad because we took their food?”
“Umm, yes, probably.”
Though by probably, she meant that sarcastic doubt of seeing those children’s hands outstretched, supposedly to catch the little rat. Who could’ve mistaken those eyes for a probably?
It was most definitely, like they’d be willing to eat them both in exchange for the rat. Those kind of eyes.
And she was quite quick enough to pick up a reasonable course of action before they could get a chance to pounce on her. Without so much as another word, the woman’s form disappeared from her spot and reappeared near Eiji, taking ahold of the assassin, her soft hand curling around his forearm.
“What are you doing?” he asked, as he looked down at where she had grabbed his hand.
“Planning on running away?”
“Unless you plan to be bogged down by those hands,” she whispered, gesturing at the children who continued their pursuit for the ‘rat’ and now crawled towards Eiji from multiple directions, “You would probably want to at least move out from the center of the fray.”
“You scared?” He moved towards the kids and with the help of a finger, smacked on of them away. The child flew a few meters and landed at the foot of a tree.
“See, they are not that scary.”
She could not help but to watch silently as the small boy painfully rubbed the back of his neck, pretending she didn’t hear the yelp as the boy’s thigh smacked right onto the large roots as he landed. Ansherina was not scared-- her heart was more wrenched to see the boy sending them a derisive glare as the other children ran up to him, throwing the same spiteful glances at the two of them. Her instincts would have told her to run and give relief to the pained child, finding his gasps of pain hard to resist-- however, she also found it hard to abandon the assassin. How many more could he inflict pain to, if she ran?
“Well, we were not here to inflict damage on them,” she spoke softly, gesturing towards the child Eiji sent flying, who now busied himself with patting the dust off his filthy clothes as if it would get any cleaner.
“I am not scared scared, however, I do think that this could get messy. It will not be a good thing on your record if you did more collateral damage than what is acceptable for your mission, mister Yamamura. You were sent here to shave off some years, not to gain more.”
Slowly, the woman’s hand loosened her grip, slowly letting go as the children ran away one by one, gathering what liquid they have on their throats to shout curses and throw spits at them.
“I suppose you are right.” His eyes were still locked on the child whom he had just given the short ability to fly. The air was getting colder, most eyes had averted from the female and were now staring at solely him.
“Where do you suggest we take off to?” he asked her as he grabbed another rat that had run past him. He tucked the rat in with the other one and glanced at the bag. The first rat had started to chew through the bag and in a matter of minutes, the hole would be big enough for it to escape. He tried to fold the bag into a double layer but could not really make it.
“I think we need to hurry, or the pests might escape their imprisonment.” He thought of himself as he said that, almost feeling a little bad for the poor rats. The assassin knew how it was to be confined; it was not easy. His thought averted back to the children as he managed pulled out another bag to put the first in.
“Ah, as for that... Material Summon!” In a moment, a two-by-three feet cage slowly appeared into view, nestled into an ironwork that barely resembles a strolley. “Surprisingly, the people who came through this ordeal before thought of this nifty contraption over here.”
Pulling it over, the Russian healer opened the top portion of the cage and waited for him to stash the little critters inside.
He grabbed the bag with the rats and shoved it in the summoned cage.
“That’s quite neat.” He quickly analyzed the cage and thought that it would be enough to actually hold them. “And who’s going to carry that?”
“Actually, there is no need to carry it~” she spoke with a smile before closing the lid and reaching out for its side. “We can push it or pull it around, almost like a critter vendor. Very convenient though. Shall we go?” It was newly oiled, its wheels gliding atop the earth quite smoothly-- at least, animal handling was at the bottom of their concerns right now.
“I suppose that works. But where do you suggest we go?” Eiji looked at the cage and searched for a way to pull it or grab it. The bars were pretty neat and easy to grab.
“You got any rope we could tie around this baby?”
“No ropes here, nope. But I could produce some. Safety Bind!” Out of nowhere, as did the Material Summon, glowing bandages made of pure reiatsu appeared, the long thin sheets dangling from her hand. “These may not be as strong if you are looking for something that could hold the cage when you attempt to throw it away with violent force. However, I can guarantee that it is strong enough to hold this one.” With a slight nod, she lifted the threads once, just to let him see, before wrapping it around the bars.
“I suspect that there may be no sewers here to look for more critters,” she spoke idly while securing a moderate tightness around the bars. “However, alleyways might be a better option.”
“That’s the best idea you’ve had all day.” Eiji knew that most troublemakers made their quarters in dark alleys and poor districts. A fight was inevitable if they were making their way towards those parts of Zaraki Districts.
The assassin tied the roped she had summoned to the cage and started pulling it. He had put the rope over his shoulder to use as leverage, which made the pulling quite easy. He slowly walked away from the kids who had picked up their mate and carried him away. The blow that Eiji had given him completely knocked the small boy out.
* * *
They arrived in one of the tidier alleys in the district. The building around them was not completely demolished and it did not stink of piss. There were still a bunch of people around and Eiji could see a ton of insects just flying around.As he looked around, he saw small kitten in the corner of his eye. He released his grip of the rope and faster than it could react, he flash-stepped and grabbed the cat by it’s neck. He walked back towards the cage and shoved it in with the two cats.
“I hope it doesn’t eat them. Wouldn’t wanna go hunting rats again.”
“Well, there is one way to ensure that it does not happen,” Ansherina reassured the assassin before reaching inside the cage. Oh, those feral glares. She did not even have to be an expert to know what happens next, but she already had a way to calm the two felines.
“Threshold,” she whispered, letting her hands touch both of them in an attempt to affect them both. However, it did not seem quite as efficient. While one of them dropped limply into the cage like an obedient cat that it is, the other merely hissed at her, as though it knew the atrocity the healer did to his companion. Without any warning, the calico cat launched itself at the healer-- and she was lucky enough to catch it.
“You are not going anywhere, Little Cat!” she spoke, holding the furry animal close to her face as she crunched her nose in mock disgust. Sticking her tongue out to the cat for a second, as though it were an enemy, she took one of the bandages out and tied it in the feline’s neck. “You are going to stay here, whether you like it or not.”
With one more hiss directed at her, she released the cat from her not-so-friendly grip and allowed it to prowl around them, tied at the neck... like a dog.
“There. I suppose they will not be eating each other anymore~”
Eiji studied her as she seemed to struggle a bit with getting the animals in place. It took less than a few minutes for her to actually get everything in place, but it seemed longer to him. Perhaps it was too long. He was used to quick handling with anything he came in contact with, that’s simply how he had been taught. Most of the time, assassins only had one chance to finish off their targets. This taught them to take their chances and finish the task at hand as quickly as possible.
Those hands. If she only had done that a little faster, she probably wouldn’t have needed to tie that kitten down. A bit of brute strength is really all that i needed.
The boy grabbed the cage again and started moving towards the other end of the alley. Midway through he turned back to the healer.
“Do we just continue down this route?”
“Yes, well I suppose we ca--HEY!”
The woman was startled when the cat suddenly screeched, followed by a violent tug at the bandage she held on. The next thing she knew, the large, rather obese cat was launched up in the air, with a multitude of children laughing and chasing the cat still tied up on her bandage.
As soon as the cat landed though, it spared the children no mercy. Unleashing its fangs and claws at them, it hissed, and clawed, and pounced, though the idea of being tied only gave a slight thrill on the children’s faces. It was as though they took pride and happiness in the cat’s suffering, mocking its inability.
Four out of fifteen and they were already having so much ruckus. Without as much ado, she conjured several tongues of fire, slowly swirling around her. It seemed to have caught their attention, for all eyes were fixated on the fire as soon as she got them. ”Look here. If you do not stop enraging the cat, I will have to send one of these to you.”
“Why are you such a killjoy?! You old hag!” One of them spoke with a scowl.
“Oh, we’d like some fire. Do you wanna play with fire? It’s probably nicer than a cat!” Another one spoke.
The assassin burst into laughter. Seeing the female actually try to brawl with the kids made him a bit happy. She did have a little bit of fight in her and he liked that. He watched her as the fire started to gather around and hoped that the kids would back down but they seemed to be even crazier than the healer.
“Woah, calm down a bit now.” Eiji spoke up as he flashstepped between the kids and her. “I don’t really think you can attack the kids with that kind of power. Me smacking one of them in the head with a finger is one thing. But to actually bring something like this against them; it’s just crazy.”
He tried to move the children away as he still kept an eye on Ansherina. Her silvery gaze had turned into a ball of fire. What is wrong with that woman? Just a minute ago, she was calm as hell. She’s a fucking crazy one.
Just as the scarred prisoner had managed to shoo the last few kids away, she had calmed down but before he could turn back around and start moving, he heard footsteps all over the alley and on the rooftops it seemed like.
“I think we have some company. Do you think those stupid kids are back?”
“I, um, but it does not really burn, you see...” she spoke, apologetic with the kind of fuss she managed to stir with the friendly fire. “See? See?” Slowly, one of the orange tongues of fire drifted off to Eiji, sticking to his back, its edges swaying in a wild dance. “It was meant to be a light threat.”
“They may be back. If we absolutely must meet with them, we may have to learn how to deal with them... in a civil manner. Or we can probably have fun and bribe them with food... or something.”
Eiji jumped back a bit as the fire touched him. She was indeed right, it did not hurt at all, heck it didn’t feel like anything really.
“What are these fires?” he asked as the footsteps came closer. A loud thud echoed through the alley and he could see a shadow rising in one of the corners, running away immediately.
“Those kids must be back.”
”Mostly for lighting purposes, mister Yamamura. It hardly makes an actual threat, really, if you know what it is. It can also be attached to a person so that it is easier to find them in a dark area.”
Pulling the cat into her arms, the woman cast a simple Threshold, before returning it to the cage from whence it came from. “Will you be okay with bribing them with food~? I am quite understanding with your willingness to stay out of the Seventh for as long as you could-- that is quite understandable. However, if these kids make it relatively harder for us to resist making any damage or harm in the surrounding area, we might as well integrate them into the mission. It is like hitting two birds in one stone, is it not?”
“I would have no problems with that at all. Except, how are you gonna feed all of them at once. Where are you going to get the food from?”
He eyeballed her and looked for a place where she perhaps might have hidden a bunch of food. He knew that there were no demon arts to make some food.
“You don’t have anything hidden in that shihakusho do you?”
A slight laugh escaped the woman’s lips. “No, no, I do not have anything here, but perhaps we may opt to grab something on the next district on our way back. They do not mind to walk quite far just to have a few treats, you know. Alternatively, it may also be possible to summon a bowl of candies.”
A fond smile graced her lips as the vague memories of her last mission to Rukongai flooded her mind. Candies, lots of candies. It was a shame a lot of them were poisoned. It was for the trouble, perhaps, that she brought a lot of candy and opted to stash them somewhere in the house.
Eiji gestured at the kids and looked back at the female healer. Her idea of summoning some candy for the kids might’ve been exactly what they needed. Children who had lived in these districts barely had food to pass the day. He wondered if they actually had ever tasted candy.
“A bowl of candy might not be completely wrong. I don’t think they have tasted anything so sweet yet. Perhaps we could give them a treat?”
“Agreed!”
It was not long until one of the children came to them once again, eyeing the animals in the cage. He was, of course, merely trailing the two as they turned on the corner, passing by on another alley.
“What are you gonna do about those creatures, anyway?” the child mumbled sheepishly, feral eyes penetrating the bars and on to the pets inside. Oh, he would have gone on to catching them, if only he didn’t know what they could do to him.
“It is a secret,” she spoke with a smile before she continued to walk side by side with Eiji. As they walked further and further, the putrid stench of rotting flesh drifted in the air, and though thoroughly disgusted by the scent, she could not really say that she was not used to it. And though she feigned ignorance of the child’s presence, his interest simply grew and grew, same as his hunger. Ansherina kept a slight smirk from forming at the corners of her lips, the sight of the child on her peripheral vision encouraging the smirk. Go on, come closer...
What is she doing?
Eiji looked at the healer as she kept going.
Isn’t she going to give them any candy?
He walked up right beside the female as he tried to breathe from his mouth. The smell was getting to him, and he could see it in her facial expression that it was getting to her as well.
“What are you playing at?” he whispered in her air as he kept pulling the cage behind him. One of the children had started moving his hands towards it, but the assassin did not react. It was not really any danger for the animals, as the children probably couldn’t put their hands through the cage but because he wanted to keep them away, he yanked the rope a bit and moved the cage away from the children. “You should play nice with the kids.
“I don’t really know if it’s safe if they follow us his deep into the slums. I can’t protect all of you if we get attacked.”
She almost released a chuckle from that statement. Almost. “Mister Yamamura, we are in Zaraki. Do I really have to think how much worse it can get?” she whispered with a smile before turning to the child.
“You know, if you are reaaaaally hungry, a rat would not be healthy for your body,” Ansherina spoke, leaning towards the child as her foot stepped forward, putting her body between the child and the cage. Not that people here cared about health than hunger, but nonetheless, she had to make her point known. “But if you really want a treat, perhaps I can give you some. Would you like to?”
There was a bit of anger in his eyes when the pets were rendered out of view, and suspicion with Ansherina’s attempted bribery. He wasn’t holding on to an empty promise though, if only he would learn to place his trust.
“What do you mean?”
“Well~ You can fetch some critters for us, and we will give you some treats. Would that be okay?”
“And how do I know I can trust you?”
“I do not know how to answer that. That is your choice.” There was still a smile lingering on her lips when he turned on his heel and moved away, scurrying towards his friends who hid amongst themselves. “You know, mister Yamamura, I am quite happy we are not dealing with adults.”
Eiji watched as she tricked the kids into doing her bidding. Her technique worked, for some reason. Perhaps she was right, it might’ve been easier to handle kinds than adults. At least for her. The scarred reaper did not have much experience with kids in these past years, barely any with adults since he had been incarcerated. These kids were completely gullible. A thing that would seem to be an empty promise to an adult could mean everything in the world to a kid. These kids were special cases though. They had been betrayed by life, living the the Zaraki Districts was not easy for a child. Especially one without parents.
“You’re truly are an evil woman. To think that you would be leading these kids on with a simple promise as that.” Eiji looked back at the woman as he kept walking through the alley. “I just hope you pull through with this. I would not want to betray these kids. They have had enough hardships in their life.”
“Heyyyy! I am most definitely not trying to trick them,” she spoke with a frown lining her features. “Simple as it may seem, I surmise that it will at least stop them from causing harm to us. Well, it is not to say that they actually cause lasting harm, but at least so that they would stop going against our way.”
“Besides, I do not really have any other way to make them stop.”
I know I few ways we could stop them. I can’t promise that they will survive it though.
The assassin never let his eyes stray from the children as the female spoke. They rounded one corner and within a minute, they were out of sight. Eiji kept going the same way, still pulling the cage the healer had summoned. So far, they had gathered two rats and two cats, they were well on their way to find what they actually needed.
“And how do you suggest we go about finding the rest of the test-subjects? Do we simply wait for the children to come to us with them or do we leave and continue our own way?”
“Oh, I do suppose that these children will have their own way of finding their way to us. I would be fine with following this same trail we have been walking on, really.”
On the farthest sight her eyes could reach, the gleam of treetops were reflected on her silver eyes, the thickets of a forest on the clear azure backdrop. It was like the end of the world... end of Zaraki, at least. Houses became lesser and lesser as they walked, and only vast expanses of barren land dotted with rocks, dead grass, rows and rows of dilapidated rubble and rotting bodies remained. Everything felt so dead here, save perhaps for the feast of crows, rodents, and other unseemly animals. They were, perhaps, the only ones left alive in here.
“You are probably right. But you didn’t really answer my question.” Eiji watched her as her thoughts seemed to drift away for some reason. Concentration and focus was needed if you wanted to survive in these parts of Rukongai, and a frail young woman as herself would probably have it even harsher. She seemed to look at something, not anything he could see really.
“Do you think we should go on a hunt ourselves or perhaps grab a seat and rest?”
“If you would be okay to have a seat for a while, I would suppose. That is, if you do not mind.”
Eiji pulled over the cage and pushed it towards a wall. He gestured for the healer to take a seat and the two of them jumped up on the cage. It was sturdy enough to hold the both of them, but probably nobody else.
A bird flew over the two reapers as the assassin looked up, soaring around them. The children were yet to return and Eiji had almost lost his will to hunt for small critter. The freedom felt great, there was no word about that. Being in the open without doing anything at all was not. He had been sitting in his cell doing nothing for a long while now, it had started to bother him that he could not do anything while out.
“Do you perhaps have any sake or a deck of cards? It’s getting kinda boring out here.”
“Unfortunately, I do not. I would have loved to play, though.”
She was not the one to pry on other people’s lives, but the healer held a burning curiosity within her. Why was he convicted? He must have been dangerous, the initial sight of Eiji still imprinted on her mind. After all, why else would he be so heavily bound?
Her chest rose up, ready to speak up when a child suddenly ran back to them, his small fingers wrapped around several rodents’ tails. That wasn’t what caught the woman’s attention though. It was the fear in his eyes, the urgency in his actions.
“What happened?” she asked, promptly standing up to free the cage opening that she had sat upon.
Eiji pulled the few rats he had gathered out of his hand and studied the kid for a while. He was dirty, full of bruises and when he looked closer, there was blood on the kid’s clothes but the blood was not dried and did not seem to be the kids. The blood was fresh, not more than a minutes. The assassin moved his hand towards the kids torso but the kid jumped back.
“What’s wrong?” he asked with the mildest tone he could produce. Calming a kid down was usually done with words and not actions, even he knew that.
“B-b-b-Billy!” the kid shouted. “Billy!” He shouted again. His lips started shaking, and soon his body followed. “They killed Billy!”
Eiji watched as the female turned pale. He could tell she was not used to hear about death involving such young beings but neither did he. He knew death very well, any assassin did. But a child always had a special place in any human heart. He never wanted to see someone so young lose their life, before having a chance to actually live.
“We should probably check that out”, he said, as he rose from his seat and tied the rope to a large container next to them.
“Yes, we surely need to,” she spoke in a rushed tone, her steps quickly following the frantic child’s as he ran back to where he came from, scurrying to his friend’s side. It was an involuntary gesture her own body made, upon hearing the urgency in his voice. It held its own strings on her movements, setting her own heart to motion. She was a soft-hearted individual, and she was not one to bear such pleas.
And it quickly stopped her on her tracks when she saw the group of children bullying them earlier, now huddled fearfully behind a large tree, barely peering at their friend who now lay lifeless on the sultry, barren earth. One other, perhaps someone who attempted to save Billy, was then being kicked by two massive men, laughing among themselves as one of them squished the rat one of the children caught between his large fingers.
“When we tell ye it’s fer food, it’s fer food. It doesn’t matter who come first, eh? What matters is who’s able to bring ‘em home!” the larger man bellowed, leaning towards the shivering boy who merely peeked at him fearfully.
“Halt, confine to these bars! Way of Binding number twenty seven, Keeji!” she cried, hands pointed to the burly men’s direction. As soon as the steel bars confined the men into its congested space, the woman literally dashed towards the children, specifically to check for Billy’s vital signs.
Without any time to react or answer her, Eiji followed the female healer, taking quick steps behind her. He came a second behind her, seeing the scene after her. It was a horrendous sight, something nobody should ever have to see but all three of them had to witness it. He could not believe his eyes when he looked even further.
Eiji witnessed the spell flying towards the two men who were harassing the remaining children. Before she had the time to actually conjure the bars, he flashstepped into their territory and was locked in with the two men, both hands grabbing their throats, fingers burying into them. His soft point had been shown to himself for the first time; children.
He could barely control his strength and before he could react, he felt a warm stream of blood run down his arms.
“How is the kid?” he yelled out to the healer, still holding the two men in their confinement. He did not even react a bit to the fact that he was locked up again, he was too damn mad.
“Obscure the flight. Rendering darkness. Four cranes standing. Open the eyes of the soul and return to the twilight. Way of Healing number thirty, Clear Sight.” Upon the utterance of the spell, a gold star appeared at the center of her silvery irises, granting her the power to see the damage that had been brought upon the child’s body. Several broken and disjointed bones, torn muscles and fairly large wounds. Fortunately, there were no life-threatening abnormalities. The one that stood out the most, however, was the pool of blood beneath the child’s body, spreading outward as more blood spilled from his open wounds.
“His vital signs are faint, however, there is a chance of surviving. It was thankful that the child had gone to us immediately, or he would have died of blood loss, more than anything else.” Without awaiting for any reply from the assassin, Ansherina cast another spell, touching the portion between the child’s ribs where a stab had been made, forcing her reiatsu into the wound to stop the overflow of blood.
Eiji still had his hands wrapped around their necks, his fingers digging deeper and deeper into their throats, pressing the back of their heads against the bars. After getting the reply from the healer, he calmed down for a moment only to get worked up when looking upon the perpetrators again.
“What do you suggest we do?” he asked his companion quite loudly. “My suggestion might not be the best for them...”
“This is very far from shinigami jurisdiction, if we do consider the gravity of their actual crime,” she spoke, without looking up to the shinigami as her healing reiatsu continued to seep through the child’s body, now repairing the broken bones beneath the torn muscle and bruised skin.
“I would surmise that this is an occurrence that happens quite often around these parts, so I would suggest taking them to the populous areas of the district on our way back, perhaps, and let their own people deal with them. While we were able to intervene lightly in the situation, I do not think we have to be fully involved...”
Her starburst eyes continued to focus on the little boy’s body in front of her, watching as the small bones repair themselves, slowly coming together like a puzzle.
“...After all, we still have your mission to finish,” she spoke with a smile, glancing up at the assassin with a slight nod before returning her gaze towards Billy.
“I see where you’re coming from. It’s a good idea. Perhaps they will learn a lesson on what happens when you attack children.” The scarred assassin released his grip from the two men and gestured for the female to open the cage she had created. Her thoughts this time were correct, as they had been earlier as well.
Letting the higher districts deal with people who attack their own citizen was probably not the right thing to do every time. Eiji knew that the two men they had caught would probably not get out of their “trials” alive. These parts of Rukongai were still very different from the others. Not just in the fact that there was poverty everywhere and that people barely had to eat but the system was different as well. Some may have said that they did not evolve at the same pace as their peers but the truth was much easier than that. The simply did not adapt because they did not have the same conditions as everyone in the lower numbers. They lacked the most common everyday things.
“Release me and get these two back in their cage. We can probably leave them here for the time being and let someone come pick them up.”
“There might be a big chance of them escaping, though,” Ansherina noted before looking back up at Eiji, the last word of High Mend’s incantation departing from her lips. “So if you can knock the consciousness out of them for now, perhaps it might not be on our list of worries. That Keeji does not really last forever, you know. Just a little nudge at the back of the head will probably do... I trust that you know how it is done.”
A smack over the head was all it took. He continued on to the next person and did the same. Within seconds, both of them had fallen to the ground and were sound asleep. The cage barely fit their bodies lying down but he did not really care. The last thing he would want for them was to see them in a comfortable state.
“And now, will you please let me out?”
“With pleasure..”
Natural decay was all it took to make the Keeji dissipate into thin air, its thick iron bars quickly disappearing from sight, leaving Eiji the only one standing from the spot of imprisonment. Billy’s friend ran up to them as soon as the men dropped unconscious, only concerned for the welfare of his friend, gently rubbing his eyes so as to conceal the presence of tears welling up at its corners.
“Please do not worry. Your friend should be fine in a little while. Just allow me some time to continue healing,” she smiled warmly to the child, giving a slight nod before checking up on Billy’s healing.
The child barely nodded, still stifling his little sobs. “If you would like to be occupied while I heal your little friend over here, can you resume doing what you were, just now? I assure you that we will still be here, by the time you get back.”
“It’s all right.” Eiji tried to help Ansherina calm the children down, to let them know it was safe. They had hit a soft spot in him and their safety was his number one priority now.
The scarred assassin moved towards the boy she tried healing but was stopped when one of the kids yanked his pants. He turned around to see a small child, not older than five, hold his pants tight in one hand and wiping his tears in the other one.
“Will he be all right?” he asked, still holding the pant leg. Eiji nodded, putting his hand over the kids head to calm him down.
“Of course he will. You see that girl?” Eiji pointed at the reaper. “She’s the best healer there is!”
The kid lit up a bit and a smile started surfacing on his face. He let go of his grip and ran off after his comrades.
The Russian healer gushed at the assassin’s words, lowering her head to avoid everyone from seeing her blush-kissed cheeks turning deeper. She was simply doing her duties, wasn’t she?
Even the children who slinked in the shadows slowly disappeared, perhaps following the suit of the little child who went off to fetch some more critters. They only needed fifteen, but it seemed like the number they would get to take back would be a little bit more.
By now, Billy’s broken bones had returned to its position, only little bit more into getting fixed as if it was never damaged at all. It was a good thing that the child was unconscious, otherwise, she would have to struggle with keeping him under anesthetics. Still though, quiet as he is, Ansherina could see the severity of the pain going through inside his body with the facial contortions he made, and the slight involuntary movements made by his body.
He had completely forgotten about his mission, the event that had just passed by would probably have an impact on him in the long run. If not for the remaining children running off, he would never have remembered it.
He watched closely as the silver-eyed reaper healed the boy. It seemed to go fine, but what did he know. His knowledge and expertise was in taking lives, not saving them. He kept on watching as the boy seemed to in pain. He saw it not only in his face, but in the healers as well. She felt bad that the kid had to go through this, he knew as much. It was exactly as he had thought, she was not used to this kind of thing. Children were not often involved in this kind of thing in the lower numbers of Rukongai.
I wonder how she would feel if would’ve stayed here a week. The poor bastard, she probably wouldn’t survive. Knowing her, she would probably try to heal the whole district, not knowing when to stop and lose her life in the process. I must make sure that she doesn’t return here alone.
Lifting the small boy’s body, if only by little, Ansherina conjured strips of reiatsu and wrapped it around his torso, covering up the badly-scarred portion of his back. Well, not that it would still bleed, but she figured that it might hurt, despite being healed.
“I am done here, Mister Yamamura!” she called out the assassin, cocking her head to one side to catch a glimpse of the other man, the gold starburst in her eyes slowly fading out, leaving the silver irises as it once were.
“Great. We should probably pack up here and leave soon.” Eiji looked back and wondered if the cage they had left with the few animals they captured was still there.
“We should probably try to move this kid-” Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the healer.
“Ah, you are just on time!” She beamed at the children scurrying back to them, with enough critters in their hands to fill the empty space left on their cage. Well, she expected more to come, but she didn’t expect this many. It was almost safe to say that they had overworked themselves over catching these critters.
The healer stood up from her position, gently settling the young boy’s head back to the solid earth, leaving his body comfortably lying down on the patch of soil. With a few hurried steps, she was able to bridge the gap between her and the cage, promptly opening it with both of her hands.
“Please put them on, right here, yes.”
“They’re back already? That was quick.” Eiji turned towards the children who came running. Their hands were full, a few rats and squirrels in each hand and the smallest kids carried one or two cats each. The largest of them had pulled the cage that had the few already caught animals with them.
“Material Summon,” the words departed her lips as the children busied themselves with filling the cage with their catch for today, almost too focused on the cage to have their attention elsewhere... like, say, the box that slowly appeared into view a meter or so away from the crowd of children.
“As promised,” she started as soon as the last child freed the critters from her grip, “we will give you a little something for your help. Please do not kill each other over it, there is plenty enough for everyone. Anyone who assisted may get some.” There was a smile on her lips as she slowly closed the cage’s lid and pulled the cage away, wary of the children now swarming about in the box.
The cage seemed full. Eiji moved over to it and started counting the animals. Fifteen Cats, fifteen squirrels, 15 rats. It was all there.
“Good kids,” he whispered to the silver-eyed reaper. “These might grow into good people. Perhaps they will even become shinigami some of them. The potential is there.”
He moved back and closed the cage he had counted from. Securing the lock and rope, he pulled it in front of the two of them and looked at Ansherina.
“Now, mister Yamamura, shall we?” she called out once more to the assassin, her hands hovering above the two men. “I hope you do not mind having to carry the cage to our destination. I can say I have my hands full,” she said with a smile, gesturing towards the unconscious that now started to levitate a meter from the ground, as though it was placed on an invisible stretcher.
Their weight would have been impossible to carry them all the way to a distance had she been relying on her own strength. It was only of luck that Stretcher’s strength did not rely on the caster’s own.
“Unless you would like to carry these men all the way to the next district, of course.”
“No, this is probably for the best.” He moved the rope over his shoulder and started pulling the cage towards their next destination. They simply had to leave the men at the next districts and let their own people deal with them, in their own way. It was not their job to judge them, nor was it theirs to give them their punishment. He would leave it to the residents of the Zaraki districts.
Contrary to the belief she had the first time they met a child here in Zaraki, she was delighted at the result of their long, long trip. She was happy for the mission, and Eiji, in many ways. Who knows, he could have gotten his sentence longer, if she wasn’t there earlier to stop him from dealing with the children on his own way. Somehow, although she was extremely tired, the outcome was more than enough to make her fairly contented.
They were finally on the move. The mission was finished and they had done a good deed. What was left was to get back safe, and it would not be a problem.
* * *
The two reapers entered the Seventh Division grounds, tired and hungry. They had walked for a few days and the sun was finally coming down for the night. Eiji knew that his cell was waiting for him but he was happy about what he had accomplished. Their mission was a success and they had at least managed to do some good other than hunt some critter. He looked over towards the female.“We should probably make our way to the main office and give our report. Wanna lead the way?” The scarred assassin had not walked around much in his current division grounds, if anything really. His cell had been his home for the past year and would probably stay like that for a while longer. A 400-year sentence would not finish that quickly if he did not get pardoned.
“It would be a pleasure,” she spoke with a smile, now sharing the burden of carrying the little critters’ cage. It wasn’t such a good sensation, having all these busybodies running and fighting out inside the cage-- it only made things heavier and worse for both of them.
It would be a pleasure, really, to reach the end of the mission where she can at least sit for a while. But then, was it really a pleasure to stop inside the Seventh once more? The air was suffocating, and although she didn’t want to hold anything against those imprisoned inside the cells, there was still the threat inside the Seventh... some threat with unknown origins, really.
In their mission, she had been a witness to the other faces of Eiji that most people don’t see when they peer inside the prisoners’ cells, and something that was far from expectation. But despite that, she had also seen-- and felt-- the shadier side of Eiji on the earlier part of it. Half of her wanted to completely trust the assassin’s character, but there was doubt, if only a little bit.
The gravity of it all seemed to weigh in on her as they stepped inside the confines of the Seventh’s walls, the draining force of the sekkiseki stone feeding off from the reiatsu they had left.
“Um, mister Yamamura, can we leave these critters here? I suppose it would be quite inconvenient to carry them around, you see...”
“I can’t see a reason for us to carry them any further. The animals are your prize, my job was to help you retrieve it.” Eiji released the rope and let it fall over the cage. He checked to see if the animals were still alive and looked back at his companion.
“We should probably start moving. I wouldn’t want to extend my freedom any longer than necessary.” Eiji pointed towards the main building of the division, where he had seen a lot of shinigami enter and leave as they stood there.
With a smile, she brought the pets over to the guards standing by the massive entryway, and though met with quizzical looks, the healer tried to explain their intention patiently, until they finally agreed to keep the critters in their custody.
“I hope that your mission became quite the refresher,” she spoke to the assassin as they walked the halls, her mind vaguely recalling the memory of walking this same path before. “I had no idea how long you were kept in confinement, or when you are bound to leave once more. I really do hope that the long walk was enough.”
“It certainly was.” The boy was grateful that it was him who was requested. He was unsure if it was she who wanted it or if it was a random event, but he was glad. He had gotten his freedom, even if only for a little while, it was enough.
“I am really grateful that I had a chance to leave my cell. This will hopefully hold me until next time.” He knew that he had to go back to his cell immediately, without any further notice. Soon, the gaolers would show up, put chains on him and carry him away. He tried to stay as long as possible, linger for only a moment more.
What he had learned about himself would hopefully show some change in his character, perhaps to the better and calm him down a bit. His temperament was what had gotten him into this situation, a change would most probably keep him out of any further trouble.
“I am still here for some time if you need any more help. Just call and make sure to schedule an appointment.” He smiled as he finished speaking. Leaving her there in a well enough state was enough for him. He had succeeded with his task in any aspect he could think of that was relevant.
“Until next time!”
“It was a pleasure to work with you, mister Yamamura,” she spoke with the same kind of gentleness she had, when she first spoke to the assassin. “I might visit, if time and the sheer number of infirmary patients allow me to. Until then.”
With a courteous bow, the Russian healer beamed at the assassin and turned on her heel, leaving Eiji alone under the jurisdiction of his wardens. She looked back once more, giving a slight nod to him before disappearing around the corner, with only the faint clicking of her heels resounding against the cold, distant ground.
Eiji watched as the female left. Within seconds, he was surrounded by a four-man squad consisting of two gaolers and two Omnitsukidou agents. He stood quietly and let them put the shackles on him without fighting back. He was pleased. The last rays of the evening sun shone in his face, he could still feel the grass under his feet and the air was fresh.
* * *
A few days had passed since he last saw the sun. He was back in his cell, under lockdown. Food came in three times a day, a plate of bread and beans and half a glass of water. Nothing had changed since he’d been gone but he had not expected it either. He sighed. He had not been gone long enough for them to actually implement some changes. What was a few days to the year he had been in there already?Every time the door opened, his hopes got up. He wanted someone to bring him outside, send him out on a mission, let him roam Rukongai for a while. Anything would be fine as long as he could get out of his cell. The walls had gotten colder. It was clear that the cell had been cleaned but it was not well done. They had probably just poured some water on the walls and let it dry. Mold was starting to grow in one corner and the floor was still wet.
The door suddenly opened and Eiji figured it was time for food again. To his surprise, there was actually a man without something covering his face standing out there. He ordered the two jailers to grab the prisoner and shackled him. He was brought outside, without a bag over his head this time. He looked at the man who led the way but did not care to ask any questions. He would probably be sent out somewhere again and that made him glad.
This time, they did not stop in the yard. The boy followed them all the way to the main building of the Seventh Division grounds. He was a bit surprised to where they were taking him but did not think about it too much. If they had a reason to bring him, it was probably a good one.
He entered the main building, held by two of them and the unmasked man still in the lead. They led him into a room, sat him in a chair and removed his shackles. Eiji looked around the room, finding nothing but a light in the ceiling, the chair he was sitting on, a table in front of him and another chair behind the table. He waited. A few minutes passed but it felt like ages. After about a half an hour, the door opened. A man with a folder in his hand entered. He quietly sat down, looking inside the item he had opened. He never so much as looked at the reaper.
Eiji kept waiting. The man looked up and spoke.
“So, you’ve succeeded in something. Did not think you had it in you.”
Eiji kept staring at him.
“Are you not gonna answer me boy?”
“Yes.”
“Is that it?”
The scarred assassin still had his eyes on him.
“You did well boy. Tell me about what happened.
Eiji told his story, from beginning to end. He explained why he had picked the Zaraki Districts, how the trip there had gone, what they had found in the higher districts and how they had gotten him. He mentioned the kids and what had happened to them but did not dig too deep into it. He did not want them to know that he had used excessive force on someone, to keep himself unpunished for it.
“I heard you attacked two men.” He was caught. He wanted to explain that he had done it to help the kids. The silver-eyed woman popped up in his mind.
The healer... Don’t tell me that she told him I did something I shouldn’t have. Don’t tell me she screwed me right now.
“You did fine.” It felt like a storm had just calmed down. EIji had no time to actually work up a real stress, but the signs were there. The agent in front of him could clearly see it. And he wanted to play a prank on him it seemed.
“Ansherina-san told me everything. How you saved the kids and how you reacted in time. It was a job well done. We expect more good work from you.” He checked the briefing in his hands. “You seem to havmanaged to gather everything that was asked for in the mission.”
The assassin still sat there quiet, not uttering a single word. He felt like he did not have to speak. The healer had done all the talking for him. She had made him look out to be the good guy, given him a chance to redeem his actions and made him look good in the gaolers eyes.
The man who had recently entered got up from his chair. He slid the chair into the table opening and slowly walked towards the door. He left the briefing on the table and opened the door slowly. He looked back at the reaper. His eyes were warm, still looking at the boy. He walked out of the door, slowly turning his head towards the exit. He turned back once more towards Eiji.
“Keep up the good work and you’ll be completely fine.”
M-m-m-m-mission time!
This is a D-tier mission for the 7th, eligible for shaving off 100 years. =)
Pets for the Fourth
It looks like the Fourth was kind enough not to ask for human guinea pigs this time, but everyone from the Fourth seems a tad busy lately. As a result, they were running low on animals to test their new drugs on and it is upon the convicts to collect animals all over Seireitei. There must be at least five of the following: Mice, cats and squirrels.
Fifteen animals might be too difficult for a single person to handle, thus the mission-taker may take one person to assist him.
Employer RPer: Anyone from the 4th (NPC/PC)
This is a D-tier mission for the 7th, eligible for shaving off 100 years. =)
Pets for the Fourth
It looks like the Fourth was kind enough not to ask for human guinea pigs this time, but everyone from the Fourth seems a tad busy lately. As a result, they were running low on animals to test their new drugs on and it is upon the convicts to collect animals all over Seireitei. There must be at least five of the following: Mice, cats and squirrels.
Fifteen animals might be too difficult for a single person to handle, thus the mission-taker may take one person to assist him.
Employer RPer: Anyone from the 4th (NPC/PC)