She hummed quietly under her breath as she made her way towards her daughter's room, ready to check on her before heading to bed herself with her husband. She paused when she saw that the door was cracked open. She could have sworn that she had closed the door earlier and that no one had gone into the room.
She slowly approached the door, ready for a threat to be on the other side. She reached a hand out and lightly pushed the door open a little. She peeked inside and froze at the side of a man with long blond hair sitting in the rocking chair, eyes locked onto her daughter's form.
Despite her better judgment, she pushed the door open all the way. His eyes left the little girl's form and locked onto the woman's. He betrayed no emotion as she brought a fist up to her chest.
"Are you here to hurt her?" she asked quietly. She didn't want her daughter to wake up or alert her husband of the intruder.
He shook his head. "Never," he answered just as quietly.
She stared at him for a moment longer before nodding and leaving the room, leaving the stranger and her daughter alone.
"I would never dream of harming her," he whispered softly.
- - - - - - - - - -
20 YEARS LATER
"So, let me get this straight," Arisawa Tatsuki, a friend of Sayuri's, said. "You've been seeing spirits and these...Hollow...things for as long as you can remember-"
An arm slammed Tatsuki into the wall, Orihime calling out her name in fear.
"-one of them attacked Orihime and I last night-"
Sayuri appeared and blocked the Hollow from grabbing Orihime.
"-which happened to be Orihime's deceased brother-"
Part of the Hollow's mask fell off to reveal the face of Sora Inoue.
"-and you were given Shinigami powers by Kuchiki-san-"
Sayuri, with tears in the corners of her eyes, brought the blade of her Zanpakutō down through Sora's face.
"-which helped you send him to this Soul Society?"
"Pretty much," Sayuri said, a sweatdrop resting on her temple at Tatsuki's unwavering gaze.
Both girls and Orihime were sitting at a picnic table on the university grounds. They had just gotten out of class when Tatsuki cornered Sayuri and demanded that she explain what had happened the previous night.
"Why didn't you tell us this?" Tatsuki finally sighed.
Sayuri smiled softly. "I didn't want to drag you into my mess. It gets dangerous and I didn't want to risk your safety, and Orihime's."
"Don't do it again, okay?" Tatsuki said. "I want to be kept in the loop."
Sayuri hesitated before nodding. "Okay."
"How's Rukia-chan doing?" Orihime asked with a kind smile.
Sayuri snorted. "She's...adjusting," she said. "She finds university and other aspects of human life to be odd, but other than that, there's been no issues. Fingers crossed, though."
She froze as a large wave of Reiatsu rushed over her. Doors slamming open drew her attention to see Rukia rushing over to her. "Got to go," she managed to say before Rukia grabbed her arm and began to drag her away.
- - - - - - - - - -
One more slash of her Zanpakutō and the Hollow was cleansed and gone. Sayuri exhaled and wiped some sweat off her forehead. She turned to look at Rukia, who was staring at her phone with creased brows.
"Something up?" she asked, resting the blunt side of the blade on her shoulder, her free hand resting on her hip.
Rukia glanced at her before looking at her phone again. "I don't know," she muttered, pressing a couple of buttons. "There were several Hollows throughout town and now they've just...vanished."
Sayuri hummed, glancing around before freezing when she saw someone staring directly at them. "Rukia," she muttered quietly.
Rukia kept her attention on the screen, but was more alert at the sound of Sayuri's tone. "Yeah?"
"Someone's looking right at us."
Despite her better judgment, the Kuchiki girl decided to glance up towards the figure before she froze at the wicked smirk on their face before they disappeared.
"Sayuri?"
"Yeah?"
"Let's leave here. Something about them wasn't right."
"No arguments here."
- - - - - - - - - -
THE NEXT DAY
NIGHTTIME
"You have some interesting friends," Rukia said.
"You're telling me," Sayuri responded dryly, folding some laundry.
A few hours ago, they had sent the soul of a murdered boy to Soul Society after a Hollow-the boy's and his mother's killer-had decided to attack him and Chad. The boy's soul was stuck inside a parakeet and Chad had come into possession of him the day before.
Rukia sat on Sayuri's bed next to small piles of folded clothing. Yuzu and Karin were having a sleepover at a friend's house, so it was just the two of them in the house for the night.
"Okay," Sayuri abruptly said, stopping what she was doing and turned to look at Rukia. "What's got you so quiet?"
Rukia frowned. "That figure from yesterday," she answered. "They looked familiar, but I couldn't place it."
"Someone from Soul Society?" Sayuri suggested, getting worried.
"I don't think so," Rukia dismissed with a wave of her hand. "I think they were something else."
"Well, if that ain't ominous, I don't know what is," Sayuri grumbled as she began folding clothes once more.
- - - - - - - - - -
Rukia waited until Sayuri was asleep before slipping out of the house and went to the Urahara Shop, where Urahara himself was sitting on the step outside, seemingly waiting for her to show up.
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "So you're sure about the figure you saw yesterday?" he asked to be sure.
She nodded. "Did you find out something about them?"
"You're gonna want to come inside and have a seat."
They were both sitting in the small room they and Sayuri had been in a few weeks prior, this time with Yoruichi there with arms crossed over her chest with a frown.
"Well, I suppose I should start with this," Urahara began with a frown. "You know that Sayuri's father was a Shinigami, yes?"
She nodded.
"Do you know anything about what her mother was?"
Rukia thought before shaking her head.
Urahara sighed. "I thought as much. Kuchiki-chan, have you ever heard of Quincy?"
- - - - - - - - - -
LATER ON
JUNE 16
Rukia noticed that Sayuri's smiles haven't been completely genuine.
Sayuri had been acting weird all day and it was starting to worry the Kuchiki girl. She was keeping to herself, only speaking when spoken to first. It was completely...unlike Sayuri.
So, she decided to ask Tatsuki about it.
"She hasn't told you?" Tatsuki asked in surprise.
"Told me what?" Rukia questioned with a frown.
Tatsuki sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "I think she'll tell you when you guys get home today. It's...pretty big."
- - - - - - - - - -
"Your mother's anniversary?"
Sayuri nodded. "Yeah. Tomorrow is the eleventh anniversary of my mother's death at the hands of a Hollow." Her hands tightened their grip on the bag she was holding. "Dad passed away almost a month after my birthday almost three years ago."
Rukia frowned, not knowing what to say. She knew about her mother's death, but she didn't know that her father's death was so soon after her birthday.
"I'm sorry," was all she could say in response.
Sayuri waved it off. "It's fine," she said. "I've gotten over it."
Have you though? Rukia couldn't help but wonder.
"Anyway, I was hoping you could come along tomorrow," Sayuri said, packing some snacks into the bag. "Some moral support might be good for my sisters."
"And for you, right?" Rukia's question made Sayuri pause for a second.
"Yeah," she muttered. "Let's go with that."
- - - - - - - - - -
THE NEXT DAY
JUNE 17
Rukia watched silently from a small distance away from the Kurosaki siblings as they paid their respects to their deceased mother and father.
She was worried about Sayuri.
It was something that she had learned to accept after her conversation with Shūhei a few weeks earlier.
She was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of her phone beeping. Sayuri, having heard it as well, snapped her head towards Rukia, expression set to stone.
(Sayuri's poker face could bring her nii-sama's to shame, Rukia noted offhandedly.)
Rukia flipped open the phone and gave Sayuri a single nod, signaling that a Hollow was nearby, ready to ruin the Kurosaki girls' time to grieve their mother.
Sayuri murmured some words to her sisters before quickly making her way to Rukia, ready to take out her frustrations out on the Hollow.
- - - - - - - - - -
Rukia could only watch as Sayuri was beaten around by Grand Fisher, the Hollow that had killed her mother that same day eleven years ago.
She wanted to intervene in the fight, to do something to keep Sayuri from getting too seriously injured, but her captain's words from not too long ago rang in her head, from a time during a situation not too different from Sayuri's.
"There are two types of fights. Whenever we are in battle, we must be one of the two. The fight for life or...the fight for pride! Right now...He is fighting for his pride! Dismiss this as his stubbornness...and let him fight alone like this..."
Because of those words her captain had spoken in regard to her beloved mentor that Sayuri reminded her so much of, she resolved herself to not intervene.
This was a fight Sayuri had to fight on her own, and Rukia could not do anything to help her.
- - - - - - - - - -
Sayuri ran her fingers lightly over the cut on her left cheek. Rukia had healed all of her wounds after her fight with Grand Fisher, but Sayuri had insisted on her leaving the cut on her cheek to heal on its own and to leave a scar.
She wanted it as a reminder that her quarrel with Grand Fisher wasn't over, not by a long shot.
She stood in front of her mother and father's gravestone in the cemetery. She had asked Rukia to stay with Yuzu and Karin to make sure they were unharmed and to leave her alone for a little while so she could mull over her thoughts.
"Well," she breathed out, eyes staring at the ground. She didn't dare look at her parents' names. "Another year without you guys. I'm sorry that I haven't been out here sooner, but my life has been pretty..." she paused, trying to find the right word. "...hectic, I think is the right way to put it." She ran a hand through her hair. "I'm following in your footsteps, both of you. I'm a Quincy and a Shinigami with my Hollow abilities not too far behind," she muttered, in fear of the off-chance of Rukia being nearby and overhearing what she was saying. "I found the Hollow that killed you, Mama."
She finally looked up at the gravestone, eyes shining with unshed tears. She refused to let them streak down her face. "I'm gonna kill him, Mama. He killed you, so I'm gonna kill him. You should be the one living, not him!"
Despite her best efforts, a tear escaped from her eye and more began to follow.
"Sayuri."
She didn't look over at the owner of the voice, not wanting him to see her the way she was. "Go away," she whimpered out with no heat behind her words.
Urahara pulled the hat off his head and instead placed it on top of her head. He left his hand there as he pulled her into a hug, letting her bury her head into his chest. She wrapped her arms around him, sobs now escaping her lips. He could only hold onto her and let her move through her grief, as he did every year.
And for every year after that, for he would never let her suffer in silence by herself.
Never.
And the battle with Grand Fisher has occurred and Sayuri has resolved herself to be the one to kill him. I mean, Isshin's dead, so someone's gonna have to do it during the Arrancar arc.
Hehe.
Anyways, things really amp up in the next chapter. Sayuri celebrates her birthday, Uryu and her have to deal with an unholy amount of Hollows, and so much more.
Until next time, have a great day.