PeaCe
New Member
Nothing But Time
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Despite all the blood, sweat and tears he’d overcome to graduate from the academy, it was as if no time had passed at all. This wasn’t true, of course, in fact he’d been a student for eight years. In spite of this, the buildings he now stood among had barely aged a day. Had he succeeded? It depended on what perspective he chose. If his goal was to simply graduate from the academy and become stronger, then it was true that he had achieved a great deal in those eight years. If he had hoped to find some sort of closure, then he had not inched any further towards his goal at all.
While his feet had carried him here almost instinctively as soon as he’d graduated and been assigned to the Fifth, he wasn’t quite sure why he had bothered to return. He’d promised himself he would one day – when he believed he could do what he’d failed to do previously – but had that time really come? Whether or not he could now stand and fight the thugs who had tried to take his life was irrelevant, he’d need to find them first. That was essentially the problem all along.
He’d never needed force to get to the bottom of a problem before that day, so having acquired the means to fight back wasn’t some magical key to success. The truth, was that his failure eight years ago wasn't just a result of five men beating him into the ground. The cruel reality was that he just wasn't as smart as he thought he was. Needing eight years to pass through the academy was proof enough of this. Being inquisitive didn't make you intelligent, just more prone to learning from your mistakes, and he had suffered through many over the past eight years.
“You’ve trained your body, Reed,” he remembered a friend at the academy telling him when he recounted this very same story, “but, have you trained your mind?” It was a fair question, for all he had gone through, had this amateur detective finally gone pro?
Five people just up and vanish in the middle of the night without warning, he thought to himself, it’s not normal. The obvious answer would be a kidnapping, but by whom and for what purpose?
Looking up he noticed that he’d arrived at his destination. In front of him stood a large, two-story building which had been the home of most of his friends when they were growing up. The people that you lived with when in Rukongai were as close to family as you were going to get. He couldn’t have asked for better when he’d been invited to live in this building all those years ago. Over time as they all began to move on, the numbers had dwindled, but that sense of family had not faltered. However as it was now, only one person still lived there.
Reed knocked on the door and waited for an answer. A few seconds passed by and the door slid open. He looked down and noticed that a small girl was standing in front of him, grinning from ear to ear.
“Welcome, mister... what can I do for you?”
He laughed and knelt down so that he was only slightly above her eye-level. “I’m looking for Mieko,” the newly-inducted shinigami answered, “does she still live here?”
Taking the time to get a better look at what he was wearing, the little girl took a step back and seemed a little hesitant, but Reed continued smiling until finally she grinned. “Yeah, Miss Mieko takes care of us. She’s upstairs, I’ll go find her.”
Reed stepped into the building and took off his sandals. The little girl turned and ran towards the stairs, leaping up them with surprising speed. Taking a look around, he noticed that very little had changed, there was but one simultaneously large and small difference. Everyone living inside had shrunk – or to be more accurate - the new inhabitants were all young children. He barely had time to take a seat on a nearby chair when a woman that looked around his age ran down the stairs with a bright smile on her face.
“Finally!” she shouted, “it’s about time Reed. How long has it been?”
Reed stood up and hugged her, letting out a small laugh. “Around eight years I think. How have you been?”
“Me? How about you? Look at what you’re wearing! You’ve finally graduated then?”
Reed nodded, but deflected most of the question by dropping eye contact and looking around the room at all the children. “What happened to this place?”
“Ah... well after you left, I was the only one left, so I decided I needed some company. Most of these kids didn’t have a home, and those that did were usually being taken care of by people who couldn’t really afford to continue sparing the help. I took them in, the neighbours usually lend a hand in taking care of them and making sure we’re all doing fine.”
Reed turned his head back to look at Mieko. “You’re still the same then,” he noted with a smile, “you always were the first to help... even when you had no idea who you were helping,” he added with a light chuckle.
“What brings you back here? Shouldn’t you be in Seireitei? I can’t imagine you making a good first impression if you’re just going to slack off and come all the way out here.”
“Relax,” Reed said with a roll of his eyes, “I have some time off. I thought I’d come and pay you a visit, to see how you’ve been...”
“I’m fine,” Mieko replied plainly, “but I don’t think you’re only here to see me. You still haven’t given up, have you?”
“...Of course not, but I don’t have the time to get into all that now. Like I said, I have some time off, but not enough to really bother with all of that yet. But if we’re being honest, when I do have the time, you can be sure I’ll be here.”
One of the children approached with a tray that held two cups of tea on it, both Mieko and Reed graciously accepted and grabbed a cup each. Mieko bent down and ran her hand through the boy’s hair.
“Thanks Dai, go and play with the others,” she said, pointing outdoors where all the rest of the children had run off.
When Dai had made his way outside, Mieko turned her head and looked sternly at Reed. “I don’t want you to get involved with all of that again,” she said honestly, “we just have to accept what happened and move on... I know it’s hard, but I don’t want to lose somebody else to this. You almost didn’t make it the last time.”
“That was then,his is now,” he replied, “I wasn’t able to get to the bottom of it then, but I have the advantage here. I’m stronger now and I’ve had eight years to think about this. Trust me, it doesn’t matter how far I have to look, or who I have to go through to get answers, I have one thing on my side... I have nothing but time.”