Of Birthdays and Siblings

Icy Village

The small white haired child's stomach did a few flips as he looked at his uncle. Toshiro had never been one to enjoy being yelled at and reprimanded for things, even if he wasn't in actual trouble. He followed behind the man and stared at the back of the white cloak. The clothing blended in to the snow and he couldn't help but wonder if it was always like this.

After a bit, he found himself blinking a couple of times. His hands reached up to rub his eyes, but he then let out a deep breath upon realizing that he was making out the edge of the top of buildings. He then saw a few people move about and realized that they were coming to a small village. While the people were dressed warmly it was rather obvious that their clothing wasn't as nice as what those from the palace wore.

A couple of children paused and pointed at the people who were coming. Toshiro found himself glancing at his uncle, wondering what was going on. The people around him kept up the pace and by the time they arrived at the village they found themselves suddenly surrounded by people. A couple of the Quincy started out by deviating rations to families while another handed out clothing, shoes and a few toys.

"There are villages outside of the palace?" Toshiro asked.

"There are a few villages, but not many." His uncle spoke up. "Be sure to stay by my side."

The boy let out a deep sigh as he watched some of the children either head off to play with their toys, or what he was more interested in, the snow. He watched as they built snow men and let out laughs. His uncle turned to speak to someone when a small female came up and grabbed his gloved hand. "Come build snow men with us."

Toshiro felt himself tugged away over to an embankment of snow. Glancing around, he couldn't help but notice that some of the buildings were made of snow, while others were built out of material that was likely hauled in as he didn't see anything growing for miles. Upon arriving at the snow embankment he watched for a few minutes.

He then carefully removed his gloves and blew on his hands before sculpting something from the snow. As he knelt on the ground he carefully crafted a dragon out of the snow that looked very much like Hyorinmaru except on a much smaller scale. A few of the children gathered around and watched as he continued until he had finished.

"Toshiro..." The white haired boy found himself falling backwards onto his bottom before turning his head to look up at his uncle, who had a frown on his face. "I told you to stay by my side."

"Sorry..."

"I'm not mad. Next time let me know you're heading off to play with the other children. I need to go and see one of the older ladies and check up on her. I wish for you to come with me."

"Yes sir." The boy followed behind him and they came to a small building and stepped inside. A nice fire was burning near the woman.

"Good afternoon." The man knelt beside her and began to preform healing kido on the woman's arm, which was wrapped up. "A few of us will be going and gathering more firewood for you."

"Don't worry. While the village may not have much, we do have young men and women who can at least do that." The woman smiled at him.

"Where are the trees?" Toshiro suddenly asked.

His uncle glanced up, a surprised look on his face. He tilted his head to the side in a direction away from the palace. "It's about two miles outside of the village away from the palace. It is closer to the other villages though."

The warmth from the fire began to get to Toshiro and he found himself pulling his hood back so he could try to cool off. As he was staring off at the wall, the old woman spoke up. "You look like your grandmother, your highness."

The small white haired child blinked a couple of times. He then turned to look at his uncle in surprise. "It should not be surprising as you happen to have inherited her zampaktuo traits with your zampaktuo. Some zamapktuo pass down through the family blood lines."

"He looks more like her then your brother did." The old woman smiled at Toshiro, causing him to blink a couple of times. "Seeing him reminds me of when she used to bring you and your brother to come and visit."

"So, this is something that you started with grandmother?"

"Yes. She was a Shinigami. You're a second generation child born of darkness." The man continued working on the woman's arm.

"If your using healing kido I can finish up so that you can do other things you need to do." Toshiro volunteered.

His uncle paused. "Are you fine with that?"

"This has been the most comfortable I've been since I've gotten to Vandenreich." The boy spoke up. "I am surprised that I am actually comfortable here, but then it perhaps has something to do with this reminding me of granny's home. Except the home is better maintained. Plus, Taicho and Ukitake Taicho used to take me with them back into the Rukongai."

The man nodded his head. "I'll leave Gabrielli outside the door. Not many people know who you are but I don't want to take any chances."

Toshiro then found himself scooting over to the woman and using the healing kido on the woman's arm. She smiled at him. "I slipped on the ice and fell down. My bones don't heal like they used to. I am surprised that you know healing kido. But then you did say you just got to Vandenreich. You're his highness nephew, are you not?"

"Yes... you figured that out from seeing that I looked like my grandmother though."

"No. You could easily have been his highness child and not the child of his older brother. That would make Lady Bambietta your sister. Since you're the same age I'm thinking you are twins just like your father and uncle."

"We're twins, though I honestly didn't know my father and uncle were twins. I actually don't know a lot of things."

"You are a darling child. You'll probably here a lot of discontent from those around you about the Shinigami, but the Quincy have no ill wills towards them despite the fact they, we fear them. There are so few pure ones now."

"Pure ones?" Toshiro frowned at her.

"After the split from soul society they became known as children born of darkness, a child with a Shinigami parent and a child with a Quincy parent. I'll tell you this though, there used to be no line drawn between the two other then the powers. Those who were pure ones had to make the choice of which side they would go to."

"Your grandmother, she wasn't a pure one nor was your grandfather. But she choose to leave Soul Society with him. She may have been a Shinigami, but she's considered a saint here even among those who hate Shinigami. Well, perhaps not your generation. They could have had children a long time ago, but they held off so you're of a new generation."

Toshiro finished the healing. "I thought Quincy were humans from the living world."

"Oh... those are the ones who choose not to use Vandenreich as their safe haven. They fled to the living world and they ended up blending in with those in the living world. On top of the sudden purge two-hundred years ago they had to contend with the fact that their bloodline was dying out so to speak. A Quincy is stronger the closer they are to the source. Of course, they don't teach this in classes any more I guess."

"They don't teach about Quincy at all in the academy anymore."

"Do you know why Yamamoto let us get away a thousand years ago?"

"He doesn't. We'll get around to telling him at a later time grandmother." Toshiro glanced up to see his uncle frowning. "Don't get me wrong Toshiro. We don't mind you learning about this, but there is a lot to take in. And as she's pointed out, there is a lot that isn't taught anymore to your generation. At least your more willing to sit and listen then Bambietta is. Her attention span is horribly small."