Kaede's Close Run-In

This article, , is a short one-shot featuring some of the history of Kaede Saitou, Rosuto Shiba and Akira Nakamura; with the first and second as the point-of-view characters.

The Jouin was one of the highest authorities within Heisekai. They where seen as the ruling King or Queens advisory body who where responsible for relaying the popular opinion of the citizenry; though truth be told all they did was relay their own popular opinion. The nobles of Heisekai were a bitter bunch. Behind nice eyes and easy smiles a hundred schemes where brewing to destroy one another; their justification the need for further advancement and income and fame. Of course Kaede had manoeuvred these political currents for most of her life. It came as no surprise that the nobles continued to squabble amongst one another.

“They’re a bunch of morons.” Rosuto whispered, shaking his head.

Kaede, although not overly supportive of her Warder’s tone, could nevertheless find no fault in the statement. He spoke with the ring of truth after all. He had attended this meting simply because of the threat of assassination. And here of all places Kaede felt much more at ease with the Shinigami by her side. Any meeting with the Jouin was akin to stepping into the viper’s pit. Rosuto’s senses where keen and his sword-arm ready. She didn’t need to look. She could feel his intentions through the Warder bond; if there was to be any attempt on her life he’d be on the attacker in a millisecond.

He chuckled.

“Why, my Princess does this mean you’re starting to trust me?”

Sometimes she forgot the bond worked both ways. He sensed what she sensed.

“Shut up! My mother will be here soon.”

Kaede was as good as her word. A woman with long blond hair and unimaginably blue eyes strode into the chamber. Every inch the Queen Kaede’s mother was turned out in her finest dress of sunlight yellow with delicate embroidery on the chest; a tiara set upon her head. Every eye in the room followed her as she proceeded to her seat atop an elevated dais. Flanking her where a procession of guardsmen in ceremonial armour with black hoods.

“Aside from the hair and eyes,” Rosuto whispered, “I don’t see the resemblance.”

“You think? Everyone else tells me I’m like her double. I myself think I look more like my grandmother.”

“Is she hot too then?”

Her protest – and blush – was disguised by the crowd who all got to their feet to greet their Queen.

“May this meeting of the Jouin be called-?”

One minute peace reigned. The second that peace was shattered! Kidō-like needles erupted from the Queens chest and she toppled like a sack of potatoes whose stand had been kicked out from under them. Screams rose, curses shouted and steel was drawn. Shadowy figures dropped from the roof rafters; their movements blurry and indistinct. They moved amongst the crowd striking nobles and guards alike; their weapons moving with the same casual grace as they themselves. But Kaede didn’t see them. All she seen was her mother’s body lifeless upon the stone.

“Oh, bloody hell!” Rosuto declared.

Rosuto hoisted Kaede – who protested by kicking and punching him – onto his shoulder and proceeded to draw his Zanku. Why he didn’t go for the Zanpakutō he had no idea. But he did need a quick way out… so he forcibly drew the now-flaming sword from its sheath by ripping the bindings around it! The result was immediate. The inner avatar of the weapon materialized in the centre of the room, its sheer size destroying the walls and ceiling… and probably flattening a few useless nobles for by. Oh, well. No skin off his nose. Rosuto flash stepped to its head; followed closely by shadowy figures beyond counting!

“You wanna dance!? Let’s dance!”

If his enemies where akin to a blur Rosuto was a blur in-truth. All one would see when they looked upon the Warder was his blond hair and Kaede’s blond hair blurring through the air; his fist crushing bone and sinew with remarkable ease. And then a torrent of water shot past him as a horse-like creature with a dolphin head streamed past!

“It would appear you require aid, Porcupine-head!”

“Akira you blind, sorry son-of-a-bitch! You nearly hit Kaede!”

“Eh? Oh, fuck!”

Akira caught on quick. He’d rushed here because he’d seen Rosuto’s salamander in the distance. He realized only now what that signified. The Queen’s body had been scooped up in the Salamander’s mouth, a place Rosuto soon sent Kaede, for safety.

“I’ll leave one alive.” He promised her.

“You take the left side.” Akira exclaimed.

Rosuto then drew his Zanpakutō and took a stance strikingly similar to Akira’s when they first met, mimicking the one Akira now stood in as well. They then dodged attacks from the shadowy attackers at the last possible second before then countering with a blisteringly fast strike of their own! They repeated these core steps over and over; rinsed and then repeated and all the while the blood flowed like water as a salamander and horse slaughtered what fell through the cracks. Of course Akira was speechless. After all Rosuto was using a personal style Akira and his brother Fujimoto had spent roughly a decade formulating, and he did so with as much mastery as either of them.

“Now,” the Shiba clansmen declared after Akira cut down his own share of attackers, “I want answers. And you are going to give me them.”

The man made shape to slice his own throat but Rosuto was quicker.

“Not smart. Let’s make sure you can’t try that again. After all,” Rosuto broke his hand and then done the same to the other, “you don’t need your hands to talk. In fact… you don’t need your legs either.”

End.

Next Story > Kaede's First Trial.