The Blade That Proves Ourselves

Hard to See. Slow to Love
The Nero Angelo. Once upon a time, that name was respected. But now, that name was nothing. The man who carried that name, he didn't care. Without the woman he once loved, life was pointless, or it would be, if not for their daughter standing beside him. She reminded him so much of his lost love, but for her sake he kept that to himself. He suffered his loss in the night, away from prying eyes. Such was what he was doing now.

Alone in the darkness, the man breathed a silent prayer to the Gods of old before he started weeping quietly. He no longer prayed for her to return for his own sake, but the sake of their child who had already lost so much. Once the tears stemmed, he slowly rose to his feet and walked to where the girl slept, a look of contentment on her face. Moving with the grace and simplicity of a cat of prey, he slid onto a mat that was rolled out for him and closed his eyes in hopes of a good, if short, night's rest.

"Shade! Wake up, c'mon, you'll miss the sunrise." a female voice chirpped. It was Leathe, engaging in her favorite morning ritual, pestering Shade until he woke. She started poking him gently, proding more and more, in hopes of a reaction.

Shade, already having been up, twisted his body and grabbed his tormentor in a bear-hug. "I never miss them, do I?" he asked with a hint of exhaustion coloring his voice. The sky above brightened as if responding to his question, a sign that in some deep part of the man's mind made him feel at peace with where he was.

The duo remained where they laid for the next few minutes until the sun was risen enough and their usual morning ritual had ended. Leathe was off gathering firewood while Shade hunted for food. But neither one would expect what would happen to them.

Ends to a Means
Loran needed to get to Van and explain what had just happened. Shade Kagekyo was just effectively kidnapped by her father's goon and now the entire fate of the universe was basically in their hands. She quickly donned her Shinigami attire, grabbed her Zanpakto and headed out the door to begin her journey. Quietly, she prayed that Shade's 'true' memoiries would come to him and once again the pair could be together. The funny thing was, she never knew how close that dream really was to her, just not how she expected it to be.

Shade decided to hunt just a bit further than usual, having the off feeling his normal prey was getting used to his relentless strikes to ensure there was plenty of food for Leathe. He was wearing a helmet that he constructed with his current red armor, the day he decided to make back-ups of it just in case something were to go wrong. Out of the corner of his vision cone he saw a shape move, and before a normal man wearing the same armor could, he sprang out and landed in front of the shape, his Zanpakto ready to attack. The figure turned out to be a woman, who by the looks of her outfit was a Shinigami, stood in his way. "Leave this place. I am hunting here, so if you value your life, get going."

Loran was already to the Senkaimon access point when a strange man in red sprang out in front of her. He said something about this being his hunting ground but that was irrelivent. "Sorry sir, but I need to cut through here to get where I need to..." she started before looking at the man's Zanpakto. The large sword looked somewhat familiar to her, somewhere in the back of her mind. Not only that, but the way the man carried himself, his voice, everything about him. But where...

"Not my problem. Go somewhere else and cut through." Shade said, hefting his sword and preparing to attack if needed. Although he didn't need to, he would fight to protect the little land that he and Leathe live on. He would actually die for the girl, if he had to.

Loran was getting frustrated. "Look, I need to go this way. I always come through here to get to this place. I'm painfully OCD about it..." she lied, hoping the man would be sympathetic to her plight. If he wasn't, there was always a good fight to be had. She simply began pacing, trying to get passed him.

Shade held his hand out and pushed her back. Now where have I heard that excuse before? he pondered. "I don't think you are."

Before the two could further argue, Leathe walked out to the sound of the commotion, finding Shade and some woman standing there. "Shade, what's going on?" she called to him, wondering just what this woman could have to do with their endevers.

Loran flinched on hearing the name of the man. "S..Sha...Shade?! What the Hell is going on? I just saw you getting kidnapped..."

Shade first delt with the child behind him. "Leathe! Stop yelling my name wherever we go. As for you woman, 'kidnapped'? I've been wandering for years. After my wife and daughter will killed, I didn't have much to live for, so I became a nomad."

Loran started sweating. ''Shade? Leathe? These two can't be...NO!!!!'' "Take off your helmet knight. I want to be able to talk without questioning your true thoughts." she said, mentally making a note to release her Zanpakto if he attacked, rather than just waiting until it came time for HIM to release, or if he wasn't who the girl claimed him to be.

Shade doffed his helmet and tossed it asided. His glare was in some far off place, the more this woman spoke, the more he entertained a thought that she was his dead wife. But that was impossible...Loran was killed by her psychotic father, who's methods were rather cruel yet effective. The man was a master assassin who was a member of some wacked out wanna-be cult where assassins liked to gather, a group he and Loran had studied till they were blue in the face, to incorrectly use a human euphorisim for running out of breath. "Happy?" he asked, smirking.

Needless to say, Loran looked like she saw a ghost. Truth be told, she pretty much had. "No way. Just no way. It is you!" she yelled happily. "I thought...Dad told me...Where have you been?"

Shade turned away. It didn't make sense to him that she COULD be Loran, let alone the fact she is. "Who are you?" The question was fair, given it had been a great many years since he had seen his wife.

"It's me, Loran. You can't believe how long I thought you were dead." she replied, smiling the whole while. "Don't tell me that girl you just showed up, she's our..." she started before Shade raised his hand, stopping her from finishing.

"Yes, she is. Leathe, come here, I want you to meet someone very special." he said, turning around to once again face Loran. For the first time in eons, he finally felt complete, having the two most important people in his life next to him again.

The Pain That Never Shows
Fifty years prior, the family was taking a holiday in Africa. It was exhausting being Shinigami, one of which was a Kensei, one of the most skilled swordsmen alive, so their vacation was well earned, living a week 'off the grid' as the saying goes. Little did they know, this vacation would lead to a heartbreak that for two of the three, would never heal.

"Shade, me and Leathe are gonna go look around. Go look for something to eat, ok?" Loran asked, while revealing her plan for the day. She carried Leathe around, the child yet unable to walk. She was, in human years, ten, but in Soul Society years, she was more like one or two at the best.

Shade looked over from polishing his ebony armor and smiled. "Go have fun. Come back before dark, got it?" came the reply. He never liked leaving both of them to go somewhere alone, not that Loran needed protecting from anything, but he was just over-protective of her and their daughter.

That's when Kyoufu's plan to create the perfect weapon to use against the Soul Society and eventually destroy those who he veiws as against him, begain. He waited till Loran was gone for a while before making his move. He stood just behind Shade and fired a stunning round into his neck, not anticipating the Kensei being able to re-direct the electric impulse to his hand and use his armor to ground the shock. He spun around and pinned his father-in-law against the ground. "What the Hell are you doing here? I kept my end of our agreement. She doesn't know you killed her!" he growled, his spiritual pressure kicking up a localized sandsstorm.

Kyoufu quickly switched tactics. "I thought you knew...Someone just killed her and Leathe. I'm sorry I have to break the news to you. I didn't notice it was you sitting here, without your armor on you do look different, so I assumed you were the killer."

Shade stood up, feeling sick. "You know what they say about assuming. Makes an ass out of you and me. Now then, where were they?"

Kyoufu stood up and brushed himself off. "Typical. You don't think do you, that perhaps I've already buried them? Or that I've taken my vengence on their killer?" he said with a sneer, a sneer that said 'I beat you kid, you've lost.'

Shade donned the armor that gave him his title and held his silver sword high. "Leave me, Leave me to hate this world alone." he said, no emotion to be heard in his voice, the sounds of a dying man replacing his usual pride. "If you had anything to do with her death, AGAIN, I'll end you, got it?"

Kyoufu was gone without saying a word, knowing full well the Kensei was not a man you'd want as an enemy. Phase one of his plan was complete, now to make phase two a reality.

Loran and Leathe were enjoying the area. The beautiful sky was illuminated by the scalding desert sun, but Loran was quick to shield Leathe with Kido spells of her own design to dimminsh the harsh rays bearing upon them. "I think your father's just about done getting food. Wanna head back?" she cooed to her little one. That was when Kyoufu appeared from nowhere.

"Ah my dearest daughter. Glad I caught up to you." he panted, making it seem like he had ran a great distance to give this news to her. He slumped over and tried to speak in gasps. "Some...Someone just...KILLED Shade. I was going to give him something but I just found him dead. Deader than dead. Thankfully, I'm working on making him, ah what to describe it as, live again?"

Back to the Future
In the present time, Shade was holding Leathe's hand like he always did while Loran stood where she way, arms crossed. "Shade, who's this?" the child asked, tilting her head in puzzlement, part of her saying she already knew the woman in front of her, but the memories were fuzzy.

"This, is your biological mother, and my wife, Loran. I thought she was, well, dead. I'm sure it's kind of a sh-" Shade started to reply before Leathe left his side and tackled her mother.

"Mommy!" she yelled, hugging the woman close. "I...I'm so happy you came back. I always knew you would. Wait, that means Shade's my dad. Yay, I get my family back!"

Loran and Shade both let out a small chuckle. The two of them knew there was an endless sea of questions that one by one would need answered, and until they were, neither could exactly trust the other. Although there were some personality quirks, styles, other physical things that could never be perfectly copied, memories could never be mimicked. The trio passed the rest of the day quietly talking about where they had been over the past fifty or so years, waiting for Leathe to sleep before getting to the tragic part of their history.

Shade decided to start it off. "So, how, beyond all doubt can you prove who you say you are? Name one thing only the real Loran would know."

Loran scratched her head for a moment before grinning. "Our wedding day. You told me something that only one other person could know about yourself. Your actual family desends from bandits, something that was stricken from the records after the Kagekyo bandits joined the Shinigami, a token of good will."

Shade nodded, glad Loran recalled that fact. It set his mind at ease. "What makes you sure I am Shade?" he asked, expecting some odd thing that only Loran would know from the years past.

Loran looked deep in thought, the possible ideas swarming her head, however she settled for an odd one, one that struck her mind unlike the others. "No one else would have protected Leathe like you have, knowing what she is. Most other people would have turned her in, or worse."

"I've saved her from nothing. At any moment where I leave her side, she's at risk. I put her at risk. Ergo, you've proved nothing." Shade said, using reverse psychology to try and probe Loran's mind. In his own however, he wondered what sick twist of fate would just randomly have Loran walk into his life again in such a way.

Loran contemplated exactly what Shade had said. He was always quick to deflect gratitude simply because he was doing his job while people thanked him for whatever. "Fine, describe my tattoo-thing that for some odd reason, I honestly don't know what it is."

Shade didn't need to think, he memorized that mark while trying to figure it out years prior. "It's a triange-shaped mark etched in red, point facing down, a flame above the triange The two sides look more like circles while above the circles are two lines that complete the shape proper while four lines connect the longer two and the two circle shapes."

Loran smiled. "Well, that's the best way you've ever explained it. I mean, in years...you've always said it the same way. Isn't that proof enough?"