Previous: Putting Together the Pieces
Tsukiro made the long trek through across the Tenth District, and through the Eleventh and Twelfth Districts, all the way to the Thirteenth district and to its Squad barracks to once again meet his quirky best friend Kairo. Earlier in the day, he had gotten a message from him simply saying one thing: "Stop by my room at the barracks later!"
So, unable to ignore his curiosity, nor disappoint his friend, he went.
Finally, Tsukiro made it to the gates of the Thirteenth Squad barracks. "I wonder what Kairo wants now?" He looked at the message he carried in his hand. "Probably to drag me away from my work. Funny, that's not unlike Rangiku with Hitsugaya-taicho." As he said the names of his superiors, he felt a familiar pulling in his gut, like somehow one of the names would come up somewhere soon. He shook it off. "Anyway, I guess I'd better find him."
Just as the guards at the front gates let him in, he heard shouting. He recognized the voices to be Kiyone and her partner in crime, Sentaro. Knowing just where his childhood friend would be, he followed the sounds of the commotion.
"No! I'm going to go get the captain his medicine!!!"
"Shut up you but faced monkey! You got it last month!!!!"
Sure enough, Kiyone and Sentaro were fighting yet again. Kairo was practically lifting Kiyone off of the ground and away from Sentaro and Rukia Kuchiki was holding her own in pulling back Sentaro. He wondered where all that strength came from in that little body of hers.
Kairo, still lifting up Kiyone, trying to calm her down, glanced over at Tsukiro. "Oh! Tsukiro!" He immediately dropped the small girl to the grass.
"Hey! What's the big idea dropping me like that!?"
Kairo strutted over to him, ignoring Kiyone's shouting at him. "You ready to go?"
"Go where?" Tsukiro asked, confused.
"To the Aoiya!"
"The what?"
"Aoiya! It's a popular restaurant for shinigami."
He sighed. "Does it look like I have money?"
Kairo laughed. "Yes. You're the kind of person to keep one of those glass animal things humans put money in so they won't spend it," he said grabbing Tsukiro by the wrist and dragging him off.
"A piggy bank?"
"Yeah, that," he continued to drag him. "Now come on! Before all the good seats fill up!"
Not a chance. Tsukiro thought as they took their positions at the back of an impossibly long line. We're never going to get in here. They'll close before we even get close.
Tsukiro mustered out another sigh. He tried to think of a way to get out of this, or if nothing else to get Kairo to pick another restaurant. Then, suddenly, his skin pricked up in gooseflesh. He shivered and looked around, rubbing his arms.
"You okay over there?" Kairo asked him.
"Yeah..."
Tsukiro did another one over of the area, scrutinizing every single detail of the scene. That's when he noticed him.
Juushiro Ukitake, Kairo's Squad Captain.
The white-haired captain waved him over. Tsukiro, thinking maybe he was there for Kairo, turned to his friend... who wasn't even paying attention. He turned back to look at Ukitake.
Me? he pointed to himself.
Ukitake nodded.
Tsukiro was hesitant, but turned to his friend and said, "Uh, Kairo, I'm going to head for another store that's nearby. This line is long and I need to take care of something."
"What?! Wait! Where're you going?!"
He quickly strode over to where Ukitake was sat perched on a short stone wall.
Juushiro had waited a few days to approach Tsukiro Ashimitsu. Meeting the youth here would cause less of a disturbance than if he had pulled him aside at the Tenth Squad barracks, and he would hate to cause Rangiku-chan to worry further than she already did. Kairo, he knew well. He would be careful with the knowledge he had learned. However, the eighth seat Tsukiro didn't seem to be the type to stop looking for more answers even after finding this much. He appeared more likely to burn himself in his search for the full truth. Perhaps he was acting out of turn, but the white-haired captain had seen too many feel the price of knowing too much too soon, how it changed them. He would do his best to prevent another from falling to the same fate this time.
If his growing sense of foreboding was correct, Soul Society needed every shinigami whole in heart and mind.
As Tsukiro neared him the captain pulled out a bamboo box and handed it to him. Tsukiro opened it to reveal its contents: Mitarashi Dango dumplings.
"Knowledge can be a dangerous thing, young man, especially when it wasn't meant for you," the wise captain told him as Tsukiro gawked at the pale, round dumplings skewered on sticks, covered in a sticky orange sauce.
Tsukiro's blood went cold. "I'm..."
Tsukiro paused suddenly, judging his response carefully. What he was about to say was "I'm not sure I understand what you mean." Instead, he said:
"I'm sorry, Captain Ukitake. I... tend to over think things. Once an idea appears in my head it's like a spark to a dry log; it takes flame and burns quickly."
Ukitake nodded slowly. "That is what I was afraid of and why we should talk."
The captain stood up from the wall and led them across the district, sitting down by the river on a quieter side of town. "Take a seat, Ashimitsu." He waited until Tsukiro was seated down on the grass beside him to continue. " Is there anything further you would like to say?"
Tsukiro picked up one of the dumpling skewers, pulling one of the sticky, soft pieces of sweet bread off of its stick. "Just that... it must be hard for Captain Hitsugaya to do what he's been doing. We're both young and, like me, I sense that he's been through way more than he should have to endure." Tsukiro bit into the dumpling, chewing slowly to mask his gritting teeth.
"I only wish that there was some way I could help him. Make his job easier. Even if it's from this side... Soul Society I mean," he said once his mouth was empty."
Juushiro listened quietly, eating his dango, until the youth's frustrations calmed. Then he set his skewer back in to the bamboo box and set it beside him in the grass.
"Toshiro is not as young as you believe he is, despite his stature, Ashimitsu. As a captain, he has more responsibilities than you do, and there are times he will be called to do hard things that the members of his squad cannot help out with, for their own protection." He rested his hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes, your position as a member of his squad is to trust in what you believe is true, not what has been said."
"Hai, Taicho." He took another bite, finishing off the first dumpling on the skewer he picked up. "I just hate feeling like there's nothing I can do, period. I hate sitting around doing nothing. My fellow squad members are always saying I work too hard, like the Captain, and that I should take time to just sit down and rest." He shook his head. "I can't do that. Not when..."
Tsukiro choked on the lump in his throat, and it wasn't from the dumpling. He clenched his hands, nearly snapping the skewer in his hand. He took a deep breath and blinked the scene of crimson blood and ear-splitting screams out of his mind.
"Not when sitting around doing nothing can lead to people getting hurt because you weren't there to protect them."
Ukitake closed his eyes momentarily then squeezed his shoulder. "I understand that feeling all too well, as does your captain." A moment of silence passed before he released his shoulder. After letting go, he replaced the lid over his bamboo box and stared out off in to the river. "Nonetheless, you learned something that you shouldn't have, especially in times like these. You're a bright person, Tsukiro," he said, switching to the boy's first name, "so I leave you two choices for your own safety.
"Can you be happy with what you know or will you look to know more, even with the consequences?" He reached into the folds of his kimono and pulled out two free tickets to the Aoiya restaurant. "If you are content, and I will trust you, these should cover the price of missing a meal with your friend. They will only work next Tuesday.
"However, if you find yourself unable to stop, for curiosity's sake, to protect Toshiro's reputation, or another such reason, meet me here on that same day. I will tell you what I know and you will accept the consequences of having such knowledge."
Already Tsukiro's mind flew. He eyed the tickets for a long moment before slowly reaching out for them. He eyed them once again as he took them and ran his thumbs over the smooth, paper surface. He glanced into his Dango container. He had finished only one of the five sticks.
"Hai, Ukitake-taicho. I understand."
Ukitake smiled gently. "Thank you for listening, Ashimitsu. You're free to leave now or you may stay and enjoy this site more while we finish our dango."
Deciding not to be rude, Tsukiro was going to sit with the white-haired captain longer, however, he happened to glance up to see Kairo off in the distance, glaring and looking around. His best friend looked over and spotted him. His glare got even more intense; however, when he spotted his own captain next to Tsukiro, his expression fell to guilt then worry.
Tsukiro turned back to the captain. "Thank you. However I think I'd better go with Kairo-kun. I've kept him waiting long enough."
"That is true. Have a pleasant afternoon, Ashimitsu," he smiled again and nodded at Tsukiro. He waved at Kairo with a wide grin before turning back to watching the river's current flickering gently with the sunlight.
Tsukiro rose to his feet and bowed deeply to the captain before running off towards Kairo.
Part 3: Decisions
