Reunion and Ambition

Itazura didn’t remember much of what had happened after he felt and saw the point of a zanpakutō pierce his back and go out through the front of his chest. He could remember Fujimoto roaring like a man possessed, and rain, but anything after that was filled by his quiet whispers as he clung to life. Now that he thought a little more on what happened he hadn’t even screamed out in pain. Didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. The opposite was true. It hurt far more than anything he’d ever endured: his training with Kusaka and Sojiro paled in comparison, his sparring sessions with the Captain-Generals, and finally the torture he’d endured from Toshie. All were nothing compared to that one pierce. Now that he thought about it, it simply came down to killing intent.

‘So, you’ve awoken, then?’ Gin walked in slowly and took a seat at his bedside.

‘Is Fuji alright!?’ Gin pushed him gently back down onto the bed and cleared his throat.

‘He lives, but he’s sleeping right now. What he did… should have killed him.’ Wow! What had Fujimoto done beyond fighting? Who had he been fighting!? Gin read that look of confusion and wished he’d guarded his tongue a little better. ‘… Yoshinari pierced your heart,’ Gin revealed. ‘Fujimoto released his Bankai and massacred the entire group minus Yoshinari, who managed to escape. With the immediate threat dealt with he turned his attention to you… and used Chi Sōsa.’

The name rang a few bells and brought Itazura back to one of his earliest training sessions with Fujimoto, Hiei and Shiro. He had been watching Fujimoto and Shiro spar with Hiei. Fujimoto whispered two words and was suddenly surrounded by streams of blood. Hiei had explained the techniques name, and went on to further state that it was a forbidden Kidō spell that used the bodies blood supply as a weapon. Because of his zanpakutō Fujimoto could use it safely, though not all the negatives were addressed. Especially when it came to healing…!

‘… He didn’t…’ Itazura had gone as white as a sheet.

‘Oh, he did,’ Gin began to laugh. ‘His gamble paid off.’

Gin remained for a short while longer but politely excused himself so he could “catch up on his rest”. Yeah, like he could sleep now. Fujimoto was in a hospital bed because of him, and all he’d been left with was a scar and a body that ached all over! What he wouldn’t do for one of Serena’s massages… and there she was!

‘Ugh, I thought he’d never leave!’ She set herself down on the seat Gin vacated.

She still took his breathe away. At times he thought she was put on this world just to drive him insane. She had her hair unbound so it rested about her shoulders and framed her cheeks, though she kept the side-swept fringe he was quickly indentifying as her trademark. She wore a teal blue T-shirt that looked like one of his own and a pair of denim jeans. The shirt was baggy on her and its sleeves where torn and ragged.

He reached up, put his arms around her, pulled her onto the bed on-top of him, and kissed her. Sore body be damned! He needed this. He reached under her shirt, pulled it up, and tossed it aside while she undid the white shirt he was wearing. He moved to the side and started on her jeans. Then something he never could’ve predicted happened. Serena screamed, grabbed the blankets around herself and kicked out! He went flying to collide with the wall, and when he looked up, Mariko was standing in the doorway looking very much like their mother might have had she walked in.

‘… Hey there, Mariko… how are you doing?’ He was dead! He knew it.

Serena buttoned up her jeans, put the T-shirt back on, and disappeared out the door with cheeks that where so red he thought you’d be fit to light a cigarette off them.

Mariko maintained the stern look for nearly a minute until she sighed and closed the door behind her. ‘… You could have at least closed the door. Or maybe put a sock on the door handle or something?’ And he let loose the biggest sigh ever in his life. ‘I heard that you would probably wake up soon, so I decided to come and see how you where feeling. I think it’s safe to assume that that question has been answered.’

He laughed nervously. It was never a good thing to have your sister of all people walk in you doing what he and Serena had just been doing. Damn it! ‘… Yeah, well…’ what could he say? There wasn’t much he could say really. ‘Can we, you know, make a little rule?’ She looked at him curiously. ‘What happens in Heisekai stays in Heisekai?’

‘… Hmmm, what’s in it for me?’ She smiled at him sweetly even as she blackmailed him.

‘Name your price,’ this was going to cost him.

So she named it. It was why he was visiting a blond-haired Shinigami with sun-kissed skin and a tendency to run around without a top on. Mariko said his name was Ranmaru Shibata, and he was apparently a womanizing ass much like him. Huh, imagine his sister calling him that of all things. She used to run after him when they where kids calling him Ura ‘cause she couldn’t pronounce her Z’s right.

‘Yo,’ Ranmaru greeted him.

‘Hey,’ god this was awkward!

This was going to be one of the hardest things he ever did in all his life. He introduced himself as Mariko’s brother and explained in detail the type of guy she hated and the type she went for. Apparently he’d helped Mariko get out of some big trouble, and her opinion of him had soared from there. Though he was the type she didn’t like. He’d been sent to drop him a lifeline so he could what? Change his ways? When he walked away Ranmaru was all grateful smiles. Itazura just felt like stabbing him.

When he got back to his room he was exhausted. ‘There,’ he declared. ‘Job done,’ she smiled at him sweetly and skipped away out the door.

He wanted to do nothing more than sleep but his conscience wouldn’t allow him to. Not yet. His body was in agony and he was physically exhausted, his broken arm was still giving him jip, and he was beginning to become like a bear with sore tooth. But he got out of his bed regardless, dressed himself haphazardly and walked away using the walls as supports. Serena appeared later looking more her normal shade to give him a hand and he leaned on her for support all the way to the room where Fujimoto was laying KO’d. He settled onto the bedside table and released the breath he’d been holding, suddenly at a loss for words. He’d been thinking about what to say. But now that he was here in front of the man who’d saved his life by risking his own… he was speechless.

‘I’ll be outside,’ Serena told him.

When she left the tears came and he threw himself onto the bed, where he wept like a child at a family member’s funeral. ‘Damn it…! Damn it all!’ He was punching the mattress with his good arm. ‘This is… this is my fault!’ How many times where his loved ones going to be the ones to pay for his weakness? First it had been Mariko at the hands of Raiden’s brother, then Tedasuke to some nameless bastard and now Fujimoto too!? God damn it all! ‘… No more. I don’t care how long it takes. What are years to me? I’m a Shinigami -- a god of death. And right now I’m a fucking disgrace!’

‘… Itazura…’ Serena whispered.

He got to his feet and stumbled like a man drunk right out of the room. He passed Serena and whipped away her tears. ‘… No… more. My loved ones… won’t pay the price… for my weakness… any more…’ his legs turned to jelly beneath him and he only remained standing because of Serena.

‘You’re going back to bed,’

‘… Yeah… bed… That sounds good.’ He didn’t remember the trip back. He was exhausted. When she put him to bed again it was all he could do to keep his eyes open. She handled him as easily as one might a child and he was almost sleeping when she brought the covers to rest just beneath his chin. ‘… You’re beautiful…’ he whispered, and then he was sleeping.

End of a Holiday
It was amazing how fast a month could pass, especially when he’d been at the centre of some important events. He had arrived in Heisekai a nobody who was associated with solely because he was the younger cousin of Kusaka and Sojiro. He would never have met the queen, the princess, or so many others without being in the company of Kusaka and company. And had he not decided to go wandering the palace that one night he would never have met Fujimoto, or Hiei and Shiro for that matter. He would never have travelled to Fortune Island, never have struck up a friendship with Gin or Kain. He’d never have met Serena… no. Better that he didn’t think about her or he’d never leave for home. He would do it you know. Stay. He’d do it for her.

Hiei and Shiro had turned out in their finery to see him and his sister off. Even Kain had been allowed to be present. The orange-haired information broker reached out his hand but Itazura pulled him into a tight hug. ‘When I visit again, I’m taking your title. Best gunslinger in the city? Yeah right,’

‘… They’re attacking a month from now,’ Kain whispered. ‘I told you I’d get you the information.’ He grinned then and the two hugged one another again. ‘Take this too.’ He took a pair of black gloves and a cylindrical piece of metal from an inside pocket and handed them over. ‘The gloves absorb reishi from the atmosphere, and the cylinder is a Seele Schneider.

‘You’d better come back and visit you hear?’ Shiro ruffled his hair but when Itazura hugged the older Shinigami he didn’t mind. ‘And watch your back. If Yoshinari learns you survived…’

‘… I’ll land in Soul Society personally.’ Gin spoke up.

‘Take these with you, too.’ Hiei handed him a bag that bulged with books. ‘It’s the collective history of the civil war. You might get a nice read out of that.’

Mariko said her goodbyes to Shiori and Erina before turning to the three young men who’d helped her during her information gathering on Boon Island. She had kind words for Kenshiro, hugged Koga, and kissed Ranmaru. Wait a minute!? Kiss? Oh, for Pete’s sake!

He turned to leave the friends he’d made. The Senkaimon that would lead him back home reared up suddenly, as though he where only seeing it for the first time. A large rectangle with an inside wrought of white light, it mocked him. He’d come to love Heisekai and the people who lived there. He enjoyed the freedom he had got with the Captain-Generals and on Fortune Island. He certainly wouldn’t get that back in the Seireitei. The Rukongai would never satisfy him again.

‘Come on, time to go.’ Kusaka whispered not without sympathy.

‘I’ll take you back sometime,’ Sojiro suggested.

Itazura made shape to leave, but a voice cut through the air and stopped him in his tracks. ‘I seriously hope you don’t plan on leaving without saying goodbye? Heh, here I thought you where a good kid.’ Fujimoto really shouldn’t have been out of bed. He was weak and tired the doctors had said, and in no condition to be going anywhere. Yet there he was leaning on Serena for support.

He ran over to the silver-haired Captain-General and hugged him tightly, shedding tears. ‘Hey now, none of that, or you’ll have me balling too.’ He had bandages covering his body. Apparently when he used Chi Sōsa he opened several wounds on his arms, legs and chest. Right now he looked like a mummy with a white robe draped over its shoulders.

‘I’m so sorry!’ If it hadn’t been for him he never would’ve been injured. In reply Fujimoto clonked him on the head.

‘Last time I checked, I never asked for your apology. I did what I did because I wanted to. Not because I had to.’ Itazura looked up at as he whipped his eyes. ‘Now, I’ve got a present for you.’ His teacher looked over at Hiei and grinned. ‘Don’t worry,’ he whispered, ‘mine is a lot better than reading material, isn’t that right, Serena?’

She nodded and showed a packed suitcase. ‘I always wanted to see the Seireitei.’ No way! Sweet! He hugged Fujimoto again and kissed Serena. ‘I’ll take that as a yes?’

‘Oh, yeah,’ now all he had to do was come up with a reason he’d brought an absolute stunner home with him. If he were lucky she’d just look at him sternly and ask to “speak in private”. She’d rant and rave about the responsibilities of having a steady girlfriend, that he’d have to stop hitting on every girl he saw, and that if he got her pregnant he’d need to get a job. She wasn’t raising another kid. Yup, he could rhyme most of it off by heart now.

‘Explain to me how this is remotely fair?’ Sojiro commented. ‘The idiot who was only here because he was in danger of being killed gets the girl?’

‘You wanna know why?’ Kusaka replied. ‘He can talk to them, dear brother.’ He winked at Itazura who winked back. ‘Okay, farewells have been said. Time to go! I’ve got a woman of my own to get back to.’

Itazura passed through the threshold holding Serena’s hand…

Dragonforce arc End.