Rob
Pew Pew Pew
~Resurgence~
For Every Ending, and Equal Beginning
1580 Words
For Every Ending, and Equal Beginning
1580 Words
The winter, it felt, had faded almost exclusively as fast as it had come all those months before. It made for a nice change of pace, really, and it was after almost two weeks of remaining indoors that Nana stepped outside her family’s manor again. For these past few days she had been rehabilitating what little her body had lost in terms of strength and flexibility - you’d be surprised how much you lose in but a few week’s time of doing nothing.
Looking upward she inhaled an increased amount of oxygen and then breathed out in a sigh of relief. This felt good, it felt right, and with a faint smile on her face she placed her left hand on Murakumo and disappeared into a flash of fire.
When she appeared right inside of her safe haven - an overgrow library in the middle of the Amaterasu garden - she strolled over towards one of the various bookshelves and took out a rather particular book.
As a trapdoor appeared somewhere off to the right, she wondered if she should’ve put on something a bit more... appropriate for swordplay. She was wearing a rather unimpressive beige t-shirt that seemed to be a bit too wide for her petite shoulders - if only by a very small margin. It was perhaps not the most elegant of shirts, but it was at least very, very comfortable.
What was even more comfortable was perhaps the single most hindering piece of clothing she was wearing: a nature-brown, long skirt. She wasn’t really sure if she cared enough to change into something more practical, though, especially coupled with her hair.
Whereas normally her hair would probably win the most original hair award, or maybe the you’re-really-trying-too-hard-with-your-hair-girl award. Yes, where before she would spend hours just to get it the way she wanted it, it was now hanging around her shoulders and curly as hell near the bottom.
If there was anything she had learned during these two off-weeks, it was that she should spend more time on her self, and less on others. If that meant not really caring too much what she looked like to others for a while, then that was what she was going to do.
As she walked over to the trapdoor, she knelt down - making sure her skirt didn’t show her unmentionables - and opened it with relative ease. Though it was dark at first, the ambient light permeating from Nana’s reiatsu was ample enough to keep her from getting lost in the underground passageway.
She probably could’ve easily made her way to the other side in one or two shunpo, but for some reason she didn’t much feel like it today. She wanted to walk the whole way through the half-darkness, and after a minute or twenty she finally saw light at the end of the tunnel.
The room she entered was large, spacious even, with at the far end an imposing altar of sorts. All around her, making a straight line towards the altar, were statues of imposing figures. Men and women of the Amaterasu household that had actually meant something, but also a scarce amount of men and women from branch and vassal families. Though the majority of these people were actually known to her - but for what reason she couldn’t quite remember - a decent amount were still somewhat unknown to her. The closer she came to the Amaterasu altar, the more familiar the faces became.
She had always wondered how these statues had come to be. She knew that they were not actually created by anyone, but appeared out of thin air when a member of the Amaterasu household had achieved something above expectations.
She had come to this conclusion because when she had come here about a month or three ago, there was no statue of her sister, Michiko there. But, when she came back her a month later, suddenly there she was... standing right next to her father and mother.
It made her wonder, though, why she wasn’t there. Why she, Matriarch of House Amaterasu, Captain of the Blitzkrieg Strike Unit, and the Shunshin of all of Soul Society, and indeed even all realms combined, did not have a statue.
It baffled her, to be honest. Hadn’t she done enough to warrant a statue be erected in her honour? She wasn’t just anybody!
Shaking her head softly she continued onwards towards the altar - which wasn’t a whole lot further as the current Amaterasu household stood closest to the altar, with only a single imposing, blood stone statue overlooking the altar.
It was the image of the First that greeted her as she came to a halt near the altar. She looked as imposing as ever, being at least twice as large as any other of the other statues in the room. She looked so beautiful, so noble and elegant, but every time she gazed upon her ancestor’s might she couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
For instance, why did she, Nana, have the exact same scar running below her left eye as the First?
A loud crack emanated from below Nana’s feet, but before the Blitzkrieg captain could ever react to the sound, she had already fallen through a gap that closed itself just as fast as it had opened itself.
Emptying the contents of her vocal cords with all sorts of shouts and cries fallen down, the blue-eyed Matriarch crashed to the ground with a loud oomph!
“Ugh.” She shook her head and looked up as she tried to get back on her feet. “Where am I?”
“Funny, isn’t it?” an overpowering and stern voice called out from behind Nana.
Scurrying up to her feet, Nana drew Murakumo, turned around and, despite the incredible weight of reiatsu weighing down upon her, managed to stay on her feet for the first time since she and the First had conversed - even if she couldn’t remember that.
“What is?” Nana asked in an equally powerful tone of voice. “And for that matter, who the hell do you think you are?”
A soft chuckle was all that followed as the blue-eyed Temple Knight drew her own sword.
“Hateshinai Taiyou no Tsurugi,” the First responded without actually answering anything. “Sword of the Everlasting Sun.”
The blue-eyed captain simply stood there, dazed, wondering what this imposing woman in front of her was going on about.
“What does this... blade have to do with anything?” she asked, her reiatsu slowly mingling in with the First’s.
“Everything, yet nothing at all. As you may recall - or if you’re incredibly lucky, may not recall - when last we met you were but a hopeless mass of flesh, cowering in fear as you stood before my might.”
Suddenly flashes of her greatest fears jumped to the forefront of her mind, but for some reason they did... nothing. Nothing at all. She felt nothing for them, for they were no longer hers. Her eyes narrowed slightly and her hand gripped itself tighter around Murakumo.
“So what?” What stood before her, she now realized, was not just a figment of her imagination... but a figment of her reality. Yet, why did she feel so disconnected from it all? “You broke my soul apart, and now you’re trying to do... what, exactly?”
“Educate you on your shortcomings, child.”
“I’m not a child.”
“You most definitely are.”
There was no use in arguing, really, and Nana knew that.
“Fine, I’ll play along for now.”
“First thing’s first, you are the current matriarch, are you not?” the First posed cryptically.
“Yes, and?”
“As well as Captain of the Third Division of the Goteijuusantai?”
“Yes... your point being?”
“And you also dare call yourself Shushin? You must think you’re quite the special snowflake, don’t you?”
“Does this have anything to do with my shortcomings, First?”
“Oh!” the blue-eyed Amaterasu responded with a faint smile on her face. “But, of course my dear Nana! It has everything to do with your shortcomings. Because, for someone with such grotesque titles as you... you’re surprisingly unimpressive, if I may say so myself.”
“Well, I’m so sorry for not living up to your expectations mother.”
In a violent flame, Nana’s reiatsu burst outward, encompassing the entirety of the realm they now found themselves in with fire.
“Now, I’ll ask once more: why am I?”
“Hah! That’s more like it. Believe it as you will, but what I did to you seems to have done more good than bad. As I expected it would, of course. Anyway, why have I brought you here to this place of ancients...?
“I suppose it is a fair question.”
“And...?” Nana pressed on, getting impatient.
“And? I’m not answering it. What I will answer is that I have already given you your answer. The answer you’ve been looking for ever since you lost your zanpakutou. Heed my words, and perhaps next time we meet... you’ll actually be prepared, Amaterasu Nana.”
Feeling very light, it didn’t take Nana long tolize she was floating upwards and away from the First again.
“Wait!” she shouted, but before she knew it she was right in front of the Amaterasu altar again.
“Nana?” a soft, but undeniably sharp voice called out from behind her. “What are you doing here... where did you come from?”
“...Michiko?”