This is a Ukitake-Shunsui friendship fic, dating back to their academy days. Author's note at the end.
Ukitake Jyuushirou stepped through the portal into the real world. It would have been nice, he thought, except for the fact that there was a steady downpour that quickly soaked through his academy uniform, leaving him shivering a little and most decidedly uncomfortable. The light blue quickly became navy and his yukata clung heavily to his shoulders.
“Yare, yare, what kind of weather is this?” Jyuushirou’s best friend stepped out from behind him.
Kyouraku Shunsui’s dark brown hair was already starting to mat around his head, and Jyuushirou imagined his own white locks didn’t look much different. Studying his friend, Jyuushirou definitely decided he was not too pleased about coming here.
It was only their third time taken to the real world. The first two had been to practice helping souls pass on, but this time, as their instructor informed them, was to fight a Hollow.
They had had practice, but those had been against 12th division manufactured hollows. They were strong, but their instructors had informed them that to fight real hollows was quite a different feeling. Since Jyuushirou and Shunsui (though he tried to hide it) were at the top of their class, they had been allowed to go first with one of their instructors. The small numbers were so that in case anything did go wrong, it would not put many in danger, and perhaps allow the students for a chance to escape.
As 4th seat of the 3rd squadron, Tsubaki-san seemed less than pleased to be accompanying two students here. Especially because he had not had much practice training the new academy students. However, as Yamamoto still had an academy to run, and most of the other high seats were on assignment, Tsubaki had had to tag along.
“Alright,” Tsubaki turned to his charges. “Do you two know how to use your spirit energy to find a hollow?”
Jyuushirou nodded solemnly and set about trying to feel out the hollow with his reiatsu. Shunsui just grunted, but Jyuushirou felt his friend do the same a moment later.
A moment later, Jyuushirou felt a sharp tug at the edge of his reiatsu, and when he re-directed it, felt something he could only describe as a void space tainted with darkness. He opened his eyes and knew that Shunsui felt it too, from his sharp intake of breath.
Tsubaki smiled a sort of grim and determined grin that set Ukitake a little bit on edge. It looked out of place on his young face. However, even though he was young, he still had a few hundred years of experience on the trainees. “Let’s go then,” he said. “And try not to get lost or you’ll miss all the action.” He took off in a sprint towards the direction of the hollow, Shunsui and Ukitake following after him.
After a few minutes of running over the damp surface of the earth, Ukitake felt something identical to the hollow’s presence he felt before, but immediately to his left. He stopped short, causing Shunsui to almost smack into him. Shunsui, though he tried to give off the aura of being careless, knew instinctively that something was wrong, and was on high alert. He looked to the left quickly and then forward again to try and find Tsubaki.
Their instructor had disappeared.
“Great, now we’re going to miss the action,” he tried to joke. But Ukitake wasn’t laughing.
“Something is wrong. I feel two hollows.” He could sense his friend’s concern and knew Shunsui felt it too.
“There are probably two, now. That’s not unusual.” Shunsui said.
“Yes, but is it normal for hollows to all feel exactly identi-” his eyes grew wide as he cut off his sentence.
Shunsui knew why. The original had disappeared, as had Tsubaki’s reiatsu. “Shit,” he muttered.
In silent agreement, they both took off in the direction they had last sensed Tsubaki.
No light penetrated through the trees or clouds as they ran, and the sound of their footsteps was muffled by the wet foliage underneath them.
Shunsui stopped and turned around when another presence flared up from behind him. He turned back around to see whether or not his friend had felt it too. But Ukitake was no longer there.
“Jyuushirou!” he called, somewhat panicked now. There was no reply, but he could still feel his friend’s reiatsu, although it was somewhat spread out. Shunsui concluded it must be some type of trick meant to separate them, as had happened with Tsubaki. He didn’t know what was going on; no one had told him Hollows behaved like this. They were mindless killing machines that did not feel, or think. Weren’t they?
***
“Shunsui!” Ukitake called, when he realized his friend was no longer with him. He could still feel his reiatsu, but could not pinpoint its location which frightened him.
He started running back to where he had last seen Shunsui. He was not paying very much attention to where he was going, and tripped over something. Looking down quickly, he saw it was a hand.
Ukitake backed up so fast he nearly fell over. It was the body of Tsubaki. Or what used to be. It was only intact from the chest down.
***
Shunsui drew his zanpaktou. The twin blades seemed to bring a small amount of light to the darkness around him.
A throaty chuckle seemed to sound from all around him. “What do you hope to accomplish, young shinigami?”
With a start, Shunsui realized it was the hollow that was talking. No one in the academy had told them that hollows could be this advanced, that they could think beyond basic survival instincts.
“We came to help you pass on,” Shunsui said. He was trying to avoid fighting, if he had to. At least until backup arrived.
The hollow laughed boisterously at his reply.“And what if I don’t want to?”
“Then we will destroy you,” Shunsui replied solemnly. While not completely the truth, it was not a complete lie, either. Shunsui took up a ready stance.
“That might be difficult for you, seeing as how I’ve killed what I assume was your sensei.” Shunsui faltered slightly at this. If what this creature said was true, then he had a small chance of victory. To bring down a fully-trained 4th seat that quickly…
“And the other?” he tried to maintain a steady voice, but it still trembled slightly.
The hollow laughed. “The sickly one? He was not worth it. The healthiest and strongest subjects have the reiatsu that tasted the best. That is why I ate your teacher. And that is why I will eat you.”
Shunsui sensed something behind him, and turned around to parry. He was successful, but almost did not recover in time to block the next attack. Tentacles that seemed to end in points were shooting out of the woods from all directions. Their paleness stood out against the dark backdrop, but they were moving so fast that Shunsui could not rely on his eyes anyway. He blocked a strike on his left by diverting it into the ground with his blades. The attacks stopped and he looked up to see the hollow.
It was at least 4 meters tall and stood on two legs. It had tentacles writhing around it that were too numerous to count. Its skull mask resembled a spearhead with a stroke of red running down the center.
Shunsui realized too late that he had been focusing on an illusion. He felt the attack from behind him just in time to slightly move so that it would not go through his spine. A sickening, wet thunk sounded before Shunsui felt anything. And then he was in agony.
***
Ukitake was still staring horrified at the corpse of Tsubaki. He had to find Shunsui quickly and if they could not defeat the monster, they had to retreat and call for backup.
Just then, Ukitake felt a sharp spike in Shunsui’s reiatsu that helped him to identify his friend’s location. With a mental apology to Tsubaki, he ran off in the direction of his friend, sword drawn.
***
Pain exploded in Shunsui’s lower left abdomen, and he sank to his knees. He dropped the sword from his right hand so he could hold it to his side. His breathing came in sharp, ragged gasps, and darkness was starting to encroach on the edge of his vision.
He would not quit before this thing was dead, he resolved. It would hurt too many people, living and dead.
Shunsui grunted as the hollow yanked its tentacle out of him, but he did not waver. The hollow chuckled, as the man’s hakama and the leaves underneath it started to turn dark red, almost black.“Still alive? I must say, it was impressive you dodged my attack, though not completely. Still, I don’t think many would still be alive were they in your position. You have my respect, shingami.”
“Does that mean...” Shunsui struggled for breath, “…you won’t…eat me?”
The hollow laughed again.“My, you are something else. But no, I will still eat you, and then I’ll probably move on to your sickly friend for desert.”
“In that case…I have…some bad news…” Shunsui fought to remain kneeling.
“Oh? And what’s that?”
“That ‘sickly friend’…is about to…kick your ass.”
Any response the hollow might have had to this was effectively drowned out by “Nami kotogotoku waga tate to nare, ikazuchi kotogotoku waga yaiba to nare!”
Ukitake had appeared behind the hollow, his sword now in its twin sword shikai form. In the low light, he looked absolutely terrifying. Like a ghost, his pale form swept from the branches above and his swords launched a wave of destruction at the hollow. The hollow tried to block, but screamed instead as the wave cut through his body directly into its mask. It was still screaming as it disintegrated into the air around them.
Jyuushirou landed lightly where the hollow had stood only moments earlier, and then rushed to his friend, tearing off part of his sleeve as he did so. He reached Shunsui’s side, and pressed the cloth over his friend’s abdomen. “Just hang on, Shunsui, you’re going to be alright,” he said frantically, hands shaking.
Shunsui, who still managed to maintain his posture on his knees, chuckled softly, his whole body shaking. “I’m not…dead yet…”
“What?” Despite Jyuushurou’s fear he looked into his friend’s face with confusion in his eyes.
“You’re acting…like I’m already…dead…” he said and grinned.
Jyuushirou smiled back and said “No, that’s because you’ll die when Yamamoto-sensei finds out you stole his good sake.”
Shunsui tried to adopt a stunned look, but didn’t succeed as pain still racked his features. “That wasn’t me,” he grunted. Jyuushirou put one of Shunsui’s arms around his neck and helped him to stand. Shunsui tried to suppress a moan but didn’t quite succeed. Jyuushirou pretended he hadn’t heard.
“Is…Tsubaki really…dead?” Shunsui asked.
Jyuushirou nodded quietly. “We shall return for his body later, but we must get you help first.”
For once, Shunsui didn’t argue, as he was starting to experience tunnel vision from just standing up. Jyuushirou noticed his friend’s lack of response and hurried to perform the kidou that would open the gate back to the Soul Society.
***
Captain Yamamoto looked over his charges recovering in the 4th squadron’s recovery wing. Well, one was recovering; the other was sleeping on a chair by his side. The death of Tsubaki had been unfortunate, yes, but at the same time he had to wonder at the power of Ukitake Jyuushirou and Kyouraku Shunsui. One had evaded probably the same attack which had killed a 4th seat, and the other had destroyed the hollow. They had such potential, he was sure that soon they would become some of the Soul Society’s most powerful assets. His smile slowly turned into a frown when he noticed Kyouraku had one eye open and was stealing candies out of the sleeping Ukitake’s pockets. The older man huffed, and walked away, wondering if they would ever mature.
A/N: Some of the details about running the soul society (especially in the early academy days) I'm a little fuzzy on, so sorry for any inaccuracies regarding that. Also, I imagined that Hollows couldn't always think for themselves like the Kingfisher, so I figured for the purposes of this writing that "thinking" hollows were only starting to emerge at around the time the academy was starting. Please comment so I know if I can improve something for future writings, or just if you enjoyed it in general. Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and am making no profit off this production.
