Strays

Chapter 3 - Hisana - Two Days and Ten Years

It was exactly two days later when Hisana decided to put her plan into motion. She had been having a hard time procuring enough food to keep her sister from wailing like a broken siren. Some of the neighborhood toughs were scoping the dark alley she had been staying in, and if that wasn't enough, she'd gone and caught some sort of cough. With a tangle of emotions, she bundled Rukia in everything she had left, and starting walking toward the edge of town.

In the distance, she could see the house of the kind man and woman who seemed like they would take care of Rukia. She stopped, the wind blowing her yukata around her ankles, and she clutched Rukia to her chest. In one last act of sisterly love, she kissed the infant on the head before lowing her to the ground. "Good bye, Rukia. I..." she let out a strangled sob, "I hope you'll grow up strong and maybe..." She sniffed indelicately and backed up a step, "maybe you'll even forgive me someday." Without pausing to look behind her, Hisana ran off, leaving her sister to the unknown.

10 Years Later

Byakuya dipped the steel nib pen in ink, and finished the form with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. When he was the third seat, his father had taught him how to fill out all the various forms. When his grandfather retired and his father had been installed as captain, he had been promoted to fukutaicho. Inexplicably, his mother had died just a week afterward. Ever since then, he had seen a marked decline in his enthusiasm for paperwork.

Reaching for another paper from the admittedly small pile on his desk, he felt a stormy reiatsu approach. Applying pen to paper in a vain attempt to finish at least one more before he grudgingly gave in to Kaien's whims, he waited for his friend to approach.

"Hey!" The tall man with dark indigo spikes and shockingly bright turquoise eyes slammed the screen open.

"Manners cost nothing, Shiba-dono." Byakuya lay his pen down and held as tightly to the Kuchiki mask as he could. He would let it go in a minute, but why ruin a perfectly good tradition?

The man smiled and thumped down on the cushion, his form messy and his elbows on the desk, "I got manners. I just leave 'em with Ukitake-taicho." He sat forward more, leaning his chin on his clasped hands, "Anything good happen lately?"

"I achieved Bankai." Byakuya strove to maintain the straight face and smooth voice.

Kaien's brows rose, "Tell me!"

"Last night with your sister."

Kaien's rich laughter flooded the space, and Byakuya snickered right along with him, "Shit, man. She'd snap you like a twig!" He laughed again, "Come get a drink with me."

"I have to -"

"- come get a drink?" Kaien slid his eyes to the captain's adjoining door, "You haven't celebrated becoming fukutaicho yet. Can't have the badge without the puke stain to go with it."

Byakuya rolled his eyes; sometimes it was a complete mystery why he was friends with the brash older man. "I never puke." He wiped the ink from the pen, and set it across the stack, "Besides, after mother..."

He had not felt his father's spiritual pressure until the man spoke, "It's all right, son." Sōjun's red-rimmed eyes looked bleak, but the small smile seemed genuine. "Mother would not have wanted you to become a hermit. Go drinking. Have one for me while you're at it." He turned to Kaien, "Your sister is well?"

"She's got the clan reigns firmly in hand," Kaien's eyes betrayed the pity he felt for Sōjun.

"Good. You are free for the rest of today, Byakuya. Bring him home safe, Shiba-dono."

"Of course, Kuchiki-taicho."

Sōjun's head shook, "Have fun, boys."

Byakuya squared the papers on his desk, while Kaien rolled his eyes extravagantly. Having judged his friend's patience nearing the end, he stood, and shook out his long hair before pulling a thong from his sleeve and tying it back into a low ponytail.