Anzu
New Member
word count: 1,461
Outside the warmth of the Spirit Academy, a blanket of snow covered Serireitei. The snow was trampled flat in well-worn paths toward many different destinations, while separate sets of tracks forged forth into the less frequented places.
Anzu rubbed her gooseflesh arms beneath the sleeves of her robes. “You’re serious about exploring in this weather?” she asked, her teeth chattering.
“Of course,” Ume replied simply, unaffected by the cool air that crept over her pale skin.
“Can’t we just…wait until it gets warm again?” the ginger asked helplessly.
“That won’t happen in the little bit of time we get for a break,” Ume said in a somewhat sympathetic, somewhat scolding voice. “Come on. If you get too cold, we can stop at different division houses to warm up.”
“No deal!” Anzu exclaimed quickly, flailing her arms in exasperation. “They’ll kick us out for just stopping in for a silly reason like that! Your ideas will get us in trouble before we even get out into our divisions!”
“No better time to get in trouble, though. Am I right? Before our names are tied to our divisions? Besides… You know that guys from a few different divisions have their eyes on me. Some are even seated now! We won’t have any problem.”
Anzu was weakening. “I still don’t think it’s a very good idea…”
Ume made a face. She hated that she had to hit her sister straight in her weak spot to get the girl to just agree with her. But sometimes, she was given no choice, if she wanted to get her way. “If we stop in a division, I’ll ask the guys I know if they have any friends that would like to sit with us and get to know you.”
Anzu broke. “Ume-chan, why do you have to be so cool? Show me how! Ume-sempai!!”
It was only half an act, really. While their insecurities were comfortable things to joke about, Anzu did envy so much about her sister. She was so stunning. The people that weren’t drawn in by her beauty, though, would be lured by her charm. Ume was outgoing enough to make friends and entertain people, but reflected enough to have a veil of secrecy covering her. She was everything that Anzu didn’t see herself to be.
The pair continued to walk along one of the worn paths. Aside from the frigid temperatures, the atmosphere they traveled through was quite pleasant. The day was windless, a light snow falling lazily all around. It was serene, and it was beautiful.
The scene reminded her very much of her home. The fat, wet flakes clinging to her hair and eyelashes, piling in lush drifts along parts of the untouched street… She half expected, if she could move beyond these winding streets and maze of buildings, beyond the stone wall and every district of Rokungai, that she would find the place she was born.
The shanty home would be crippled beneath the snow, the introduction to a sprawling, naked forest. Birds would fly black against the hazy gray sky, their call echoing down.
She could almost smell the deep, burnt earth of the fireplace, the scent of her father’s bedroll—a favorite napping place of hers, when she was a child.
A contented smile slipped onto her lips, and Ume caught a glimpse of it.
“Thinking about the boys already?” she said, smirking.
“Not the boys. Something much better.”
Ume raised a slim eyebrow. “Better than shinigami boys? IS there anything better?”
“Yes,” Anzu replied warmly. “If I could feel these things everyday, and in the way that I used to, I would give up every shinigami boy in Serireitei.”
The brunette gave a low whistle. “Why don’t you tell me more about your memories from home, Anzu-chan?”
“I don’t want them to spoil,” Anzu replied. Her fingers uncurled, and she held her open hand palm up before her. Sticky snowflakes clung to her skin only a moment before melting. “I don’t want my memories to grow dull or clichÁƒ © with each time I share them with another.”
They walked silently on through the snow, each seeming to lose herself. A number of people passed them by, each seeming to hurry on to somewhere that wasn’t here. It made their leisurely pace that much more important.
To keep her mind from slipping back down into the deep pit of uncertainty, Anzu let her mind wander to anything else. Kidou lessons and combat lessons swirled together, spawning complicated combinations, vivid images dancing behind her eyelids whenever she blinked.
The snow crushed wetly beneath their feet, inviting them onward. Anzu cast a glance over to her sister.
Ume was lost in thought, her face smooth and intricate, like a doll’s. She was shorter than Anzu, but was older, and had been in Soul Society much longer. One would not be able to ascertain the woman’s wisdom by just look at or listening to her. It was a deeper quality, honed and crystallized, revealed in miniscule glimpses in her thoughtful expression, sad smile, and sage words.
Drawing the girl from her reverie, Ume spoke. “You’re so meek, Anzu-chan. How are you going to survive in your division? Shinigami devoted to the arcane sciences are so…strange.”
Anzu’s smile was crooked, but genuine. “I’ll just try really hard! My taicho can’t scold me for putting my whole heart into my duties, can he?”
The lovely woman’s brow creased with worry. “Aren’t you nervous?”
A huge smile split Anzu’s face, and a sweatdrop on her forehead stung with a cold breeze. “I’m terrified! I’m only hoping that they don’t eat me alive!”
“Anzu…”
The girl laughed. “I don’t want to leave, Ume. I don’t know how to act around people I don’t know, like you do.” The forced smile on her lips wavered, and her eyes locked with her sister’s as her fists tightened at her sides. “I…I don’t want to be all alone!”
The words forced their way through her unwilling mouth. She watched the petite brunette before her shrink, her arms wrapping around herself, as if she was feeling the cold of the day for the first time. Anzu wanted to stop herself, but she couldn’t. Her thundering heart was not only pumping blood, but also a flood of fear and feeling that she’d been hiding.
“Ever since I lost my father, I was alone! I looked for him for so long, Ume… The shinigami told me…! He told me that I could look for my father in Rokungai. I looked everywhere, though…and I never found him.”
Tears were streaming down, burning streaks pouring over the icy chill of her skin. The dam had broken, though… What use would it be to turn back?
“People took me in along the way while I searched, but none of them were family. No one could ever replace Ryouta…my nakama. In my heart, I knew that no one could ever replace him. But it made me so angry that no one could even come close…so I pushed them all away. I continued to move, continued to search. Every day that I turned up empty handed stole a piece of my hope from me. Until the day that your family found me. My father’s old business partner wouldn’t stop following me, but I wanted nothing to do with him. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t need anyone else. I just wanted to find Ryouta so things could return to the way they were! But you saved me. You never gave up, or lost hope, no matter how many times I shoved you away! Since then, we’ve become sisters!”
Anzu coughed, fighting against the cold air rushing into her lungs as they shuddered in her chest while she sobbed. A deep pain was clutching her heart, squeezing like a vice inside her chest.
“You filled the hole in my heart where my nakama is supposed to be…! You became the one dearest to me. Ume… How am I supposed to live without you?”
She was finally able to stop her words, and she set her jaw to keep from continuing. Before her, Anzu’s beautiful sister wilted, the last lily drooping from the chill of autumn. She sat in the snow, shaking uncontrollably, her face hidden in her hands as she wept.
Anzu’s teeth clenched so fiercely that she was afraid they would shatter in her mouth. She stood over the one she loved, trembling. Another dam had broken, a dam of thoughts, and she was unable to stop them. She couldn’t fight these fears any longer. They crashed over her, carrying her on running feet away from her broken nakama, forcing her through snowdrifts, driving her lithe, sprinting form blindly down streets she’d never traveled.
Outside the warmth of the Spirit Academy, a blanket of snow covered Serireitei. The snow was trampled flat in well-worn paths toward many different destinations, while separate sets of tracks forged forth into the less frequented places.
Anzu rubbed her gooseflesh arms beneath the sleeves of her robes. “You’re serious about exploring in this weather?” she asked, her teeth chattering.
“Of course,” Ume replied simply, unaffected by the cool air that crept over her pale skin.
“Can’t we just…wait until it gets warm again?” the ginger asked helplessly.
“That won’t happen in the little bit of time we get for a break,” Ume said in a somewhat sympathetic, somewhat scolding voice. “Come on. If you get too cold, we can stop at different division houses to warm up.”
“No deal!” Anzu exclaimed quickly, flailing her arms in exasperation. “They’ll kick us out for just stopping in for a silly reason like that! Your ideas will get us in trouble before we even get out into our divisions!”
“No better time to get in trouble, though. Am I right? Before our names are tied to our divisions? Besides… You know that guys from a few different divisions have their eyes on me. Some are even seated now! We won’t have any problem.”
Anzu was weakening. “I still don’t think it’s a very good idea…”
Ume made a face. She hated that she had to hit her sister straight in her weak spot to get the girl to just agree with her. But sometimes, she was given no choice, if she wanted to get her way. “If we stop in a division, I’ll ask the guys I know if they have any friends that would like to sit with us and get to know you.”
Anzu broke. “Ume-chan, why do you have to be so cool? Show me how! Ume-sempai!!”
It was only half an act, really. While their insecurities were comfortable things to joke about, Anzu did envy so much about her sister. She was so stunning. The people that weren’t drawn in by her beauty, though, would be lured by her charm. Ume was outgoing enough to make friends and entertain people, but reflected enough to have a veil of secrecy covering her. She was everything that Anzu didn’t see herself to be.
The pair continued to walk along one of the worn paths. Aside from the frigid temperatures, the atmosphere they traveled through was quite pleasant. The day was windless, a light snow falling lazily all around. It was serene, and it was beautiful.
The scene reminded her very much of her home. The fat, wet flakes clinging to her hair and eyelashes, piling in lush drifts along parts of the untouched street… She half expected, if she could move beyond these winding streets and maze of buildings, beyond the stone wall and every district of Rokungai, that she would find the place she was born.
The shanty home would be crippled beneath the snow, the introduction to a sprawling, naked forest. Birds would fly black against the hazy gray sky, their call echoing down.
She could almost smell the deep, burnt earth of the fireplace, the scent of her father’s bedroll—a favorite napping place of hers, when she was a child.
A contented smile slipped onto her lips, and Ume caught a glimpse of it.
“Thinking about the boys already?” she said, smirking.
“Not the boys. Something much better.”
Ume raised a slim eyebrow. “Better than shinigami boys? IS there anything better?”
“Yes,” Anzu replied warmly. “If I could feel these things everyday, and in the way that I used to, I would give up every shinigami boy in Serireitei.”
The brunette gave a low whistle. “Why don’t you tell me more about your memories from home, Anzu-chan?”
“I don’t want them to spoil,” Anzu replied. Her fingers uncurled, and she held her open hand palm up before her. Sticky snowflakes clung to her skin only a moment before melting. “I don’t want my memories to grow dull or clichÁƒ © with each time I share them with another.”
They walked silently on through the snow, each seeming to lose herself. A number of people passed them by, each seeming to hurry on to somewhere that wasn’t here. It made their leisurely pace that much more important.
To keep her mind from slipping back down into the deep pit of uncertainty, Anzu let her mind wander to anything else. Kidou lessons and combat lessons swirled together, spawning complicated combinations, vivid images dancing behind her eyelids whenever she blinked.
The snow crushed wetly beneath their feet, inviting them onward. Anzu cast a glance over to her sister.
Ume was lost in thought, her face smooth and intricate, like a doll’s. She was shorter than Anzu, but was older, and had been in Soul Society much longer. One would not be able to ascertain the woman’s wisdom by just look at or listening to her. It was a deeper quality, honed and crystallized, revealed in miniscule glimpses in her thoughtful expression, sad smile, and sage words.
Drawing the girl from her reverie, Ume spoke. “You’re so meek, Anzu-chan. How are you going to survive in your division? Shinigami devoted to the arcane sciences are so…strange.”
Anzu’s smile was crooked, but genuine. “I’ll just try really hard! My taicho can’t scold me for putting my whole heart into my duties, can he?”
The lovely woman’s brow creased with worry. “Aren’t you nervous?”
A huge smile split Anzu’s face, and a sweatdrop on her forehead stung with a cold breeze. “I’m terrified! I’m only hoping that they don’t eat me alive!”
“Anzu…”
The girl laughed. “I don’t want to leave, Ume. I don’t know how to act around people I don’t know, like you do.” The forced smile on her lips wavered, and her eyes locked with her sister’s as her fists tightened at her sides. “I…I don’t want to be all alone!”
The words forced their way through her unwilling mouth. She watched the petite brunette before her shrink, her arms wrapping around herself, as if she was feeling the cold of the day for the first time. Anzu wanted to stop herself, but she couldn’t. Her thundering heart was not only pumping blood, but also a flood of fear and feeling that she’d been hiding.
“Ever since I lost my father, I was alone! I looked for him for so long, Ume… The shinigami told me…! He told me that I could look for my father in Rokungai. I looked everywhere, though…and I never found him.”
Tears were streaming down, burning streaks pouring over the icy chill of her skin. The dam had broken, though… What use would it be to turn back?
“People took me in along the way while I searched, but none of them were family. No one could ever replace Ryouta…my nakama. In my heart, I knew that no one could ever replace him. But it made me so angry that no one could even come close…so I pushed them all away. I continued to move, continued to search. Every day that I turned up empty handed stole a piece of my hope from me. Until the day that your family found me. My father’s old business partner wouldn’t stop following me, but I wanted nothing to do with him. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t need anyone else. I just wanted to find Ryouta so things could return to the way they were! But you saved me. You never gave up, or lost hope, no matter how many times I shoved you away! Since then, we’ve become sisters!”
Anzu coughed, fighting against the cold air rushing into her lungs as they shuddered in her chest while she sobbed. A deep pain was clutching her heart, squeezing like a vice inside her chest.
“You filled the hole in my heart where my nakama is supposed to be…! You became the one dearest to me. Ume… How am I supposed to live without you?”
She was finally able to stop her words, and she set her jaw to keep from continuing. Before her, Anzu’s beautiful sister wilted, the last lily drooping from the chill of autumn. She sat in the snow, shaking uncontrollably, her face hidden in her hands as she wept.
Anzu’s teeth clenched so fiercely that she was afraid they would shatter in her mouth. She stood over the one she loved, trembling. Another dam had broken, a dam of thoughts, and she was unable to stop them. She couldn’t fight these fears any longer. They crashed over her, carrying her on running feet away from her broken nakama, forcing her through snowdrifts, driving her lithe, sprinting form blindly down streets she’d never traveled.
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