Rob
Pew Pew Pew
So It Does
1040 words
1040 words
“Excuse me?”
Her words, floating in the air like that, were accompanied by a certain sense of disbelief as she tightened her grip on Hateshinai Taiyou. She’d heard some crazy and ridiculous things in her life, but this was without a doubt in the world one of the most unbelievable pleas of help she’d ever heard.
“I need your help,” Yuu responded with that same deadpan.
“No, I quite got that, thank you very much,” Nana responded, her face a mixture of anger and annoyance, “I’m more so interested in getting to know just what you think you’re doing. You were always just doing whatever, but this seems excessive even for you, Nakahara-san.”
“Whatever do you mean, lady Yoshishige?”
Swallowing her pride - and not telling him to jump off a cliff for calling her a Yoshishige again - Nana took a step forward and said, “First you kill a noble, and then you come to me with more than some animosity... and you expect me to help you?
“Really?”
“I suppose,” the man responded with a sly grin, “if you put it that way, it sounds really bad.”
“It doesn’t just sound bad, it is bad. What were you thinking... what are you thinking?”
What was worse, though, was that he made no claims to refute the fact that she had accused him of murder. She’d always had trouble reading his expressions, and this time was no different. She couldn’t tell if he was being serious about it, or if he was trying to appease to her in some way or another.
“Do not presume too much, lady Yoshishige. My thoughts are still my own, and always have been.” He paused for a moment, letting the words sink in and turning his attention away from the woman in front of him for a bit. “I, just like you, have had my reasons, and my fair share of bad luck.”
“Bad luck?” she asked, not quite sure what bad luck he was talking about. Sure, she hadn’t been the luckiest girl in the world, but to say she had bad luck overall? Not really, most of the bad things that happened to her were machinations of her own accord.
“Well, yeah. You were exiled, right? And so was I. We share a similar fate, you and I.”
So, she could kind of see where he was coming from, and she could actually kind of find herself agreeing with him a little bit. Problem was, though, he sort of had his priorities wrong. And not just his priorities, he was also assuming that she’d feel bad for being exiled. Perhaps back in the day, but nowadays she felt it was more of a blessing than a curse. After all, it wasn’t like her father had always been the most cooperative of her views and ideals. The only reason why she was exiled in the first place was because she had dared to have different views on life than her father had.
Talk about close-minded, right?
“I suppose,” Nana said in a somewhat reserved manner of speaking. “There is something fundamentally different between the two of us, though.”
“And what might that be?”
Though she wasn’t wearing her haori, she didn’t think the man was stupid enough to not realize what she was talking about. Just to drive her point home, though, Nana began letting her reiatsu sip out from her person and onto Yuu’s being, gradually tightening its grip on the man’s ability to breathe.
“I am the Matriarch of House Amaterasu, and Captain of the Blitzkrieg Strike Unit. I think you know rather well what this particular difference may be, Nakahara-san.”
“Quite,” he responded as the air around him began to feel suffocating. “But once more, you presume too much of me. I too have been working for the greater good of Soul Society and, as we all know, the Gotei Juusantai is the source of all evil.
“How are we so different then, you and I?”
Nana remained silent, her guts telling her not to continue this charade any further than she really had to. She knew that if she spoke up, tried to defend her case, she would only bolster his point. She didn’t want to admit it, but when all was said and done... there were certain things he’d been right about.
Were they really so different?
Perhaps now they were, but back then? She used to be a member of the Twelfth Division. She’d never been much of a tracker so she’d made it a case to become an assassin as soon as possible. How many innocents had she killed under the false premise of truth? Under the banner of balance?
“I think you’ve made your point, Nakahara-san,” she finally conceded, sheathing her blade in the process. “Now, if you’d be so kind as to let me out of here.”
“Certainly,” he responded with that deviant smile of his again, “but you have yet to give me an answer.”
“You presume too much, Nakahara Yuu.” She’d bridged the gap between him and her in a matter of milliseconds, the blade of her sword on his throat. “Be grateful that I’ve left my past behind me, so don’t try to open old wounds that need not be reopened.
“...If you value your life, that is.”
“Till we meet again then,” he said, sheathing his zanpakutou and deactivating its ability.
“Don’t count on it.”
“I will, because I will get my answer, lady Yoshishige.”
With one last flick of her blade, she turned around and began walking away.
“I said: don’t count on it.”
With that, she disappeared from Yuu’s peripheral vision, leaving the man to just his thoughts and himself. He’d finally gotten closer to removing his former master from his high and mighty throne. Never once would he have thought that it would be done through the one person he had cared for the longest.
He smiled softly and shook his head.
No, it would be foolish of him to think that she’d be persuaded that easily. She’d always been a pain in the ass to deal with, but at least he’d made some progress. And really? That was all that mattered right now.