He looked up from the corner of his eye lightly as he passed by. It was a friendly little flower shop, the sweet smell of summer blooms being picked and placed out for others to find. The Rukongai had changed much, most people here didn't even remember the past of this ally. Eaon would never forget though, his first life ended, a new life began, the blood on the walls and the scream as a life withered from existence. That sickening rush and the feeling of knowledge and power that came with taking life.

This part of the Rukongai was littered with places like this. Maybe now they were places people ate, or parks, or just little allies no one went into. However almost a thousand years ago they were places of murder, and assassination. The bloodshed that was the unlikely birth place of one of the most talented warriors the Shinigami had ever known. Yet ironically one of the only warriors the Shinigami who had who really had no desire to fight, to carry his blade, nor take life. Someone who wished they could wash their hands clean of the blood.

He continued a long, not really stopping to observe places of his handy work. When he entered them long ago they had people and there were none when he left, just victims and mangled bodies. He had no desire to see that today either nothing had changed and there were still no people, or that all his murder had been for a good cause and people of all sorts had populated the Rukongai. It wasn't magic, it was reaction, reaction to blood stain, and Eaon didn't need their smiling faces or the lack of crime to know he'd been successful in his endeavor.

Finally his walk came to an end in a subtle grave yard, where he stood before the grave of a "Chiaki". Eaon felt a lump form in his throat, he usually got this way when he came here. He wasn't dressed particularly like anyone out of the ordinary. He wore a blue robe with white pants and sandals. His Zanpakutou tied around his hip on his left, and that special purple ribbon tying his black hair back in a pony tail. Eaon spent some time recollecting the past year, the friends who'd died fighting hollows, his new Captain, drinks with Taisho and more. It didn't matter how hard he tried though, one can never really undo the past, and not hearing her voice or being able to talk with her on the front porch of Eaon's house was hard sometimes.

After sometime, Eaon withdrew from the graveyard and walked back aways until he found an abandoned house. He made his way around back to the porch, weeds over taking the lawn and he sat down against a pillar. He'd bought some Sake before coming here and drank a glass, giving a cheer to the setting sun, in hopes a friend somewhere beyond was cheering back. "Yet another year has left my life, one year gone so soon..."

Kirei walked speedily, her hair swishing back and forth, tied up with a red ribbon. She held a piece of paper in her hand and sighed, looking down at the paper. The clicking her boots made on the ground stopped as she stopped in place. She looked at the list of things to do on the paper. “I think…I’m finally done with family errands.” She gave a sigh of relief.

She looked around, trying to see if she knew where she was. She was wearing her usual outfit. A dress made out of her shinigami garb, her boots and a necklace tucked away in her shirt. She looked around and abruptly stopped everything, including breathing. Her eyes slightly widened as her eyes slid to an alley way. No way

She took a small step towards the alley way. It has changed… She paused as two kids rushed in front of her. She watched them giggle and chase each other, playing a small game of tag. She smiled softly and stepped over to the alley way. She stopped just outside of it and looked to the left and sure enough she saw a carving on the wall. It was hardly legible but she knew what it said. Empty Now it just looked as if it said Fnlty. She sighed a bit and looked at a wall on the outside of the alley way. She smiled slightly and kneeled down, touching the wall softly.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the street.”

It sounded so clear. Kirei turned around to look behind her. She stood up straight and leaned against the wall with her arms folded, just like all those years ago. “Back off.” she whispered softly.

She could almost see him, a young, handsome Taisho. The Taisho she hated and that hated her. Kirei reached up and touched the bow in her hair. “We’ve come a long way, eh, Lieutenant Taisho.” She wanted to relive the moment almost. She pushed herself off the wall. Walked for a few feet before turning away to see an eager Taisho. She smiled. She closed her eyes slowly, watching the scene in her head. Being adopted into the Kurushimi family. Watching Taisho become captain… She opened her eyes to hear crying. She saw the little girl that had run past her earlier on the ground with a scraped knee.

She knelt down near the child. “There now, it’s just a scrap. You’re not going to die.” Kirei said sternly but lovingly. The girl looked up at her. “Get up now, if you cry every time you fall you’ll never win.” Kirei gestured to the boy who was still running. The little girl looked back at him. “Well? What are you waiting for? You’re not going to let a boy beat you are you?” Kirei laughed as the girl stood up and ran after the boy.

Kirei watched her run off to see a familiar face walk behind a house out of place. Kirei watched him for a second. Was that…?

She shook her head and began to walk away but paused. He looked almost…upset.

She thought about meeting him at the bar. She didn’t think upset could be an emotion for him. She turned her head to look at the house he had gone behind, it seemed so…out of place. She fiddled with the bag that hung around her shoulders. She took a step towards the house but shook her head and turned away. What if Taisho had turned his back on you?

She then sighed and turned back around to the house, heading after him. She just overheard the end of his conversation with what seemed to be himself.

“They seem to go by quicker the more you have of them.” She said, coming around the corner. She spoke of course about the years. The older you got, the quicker years passed you on.

“Norellia Fukataicho, correct?” She said with a soft smile. “I pray I’m not interrupting anything. I just caught a glimpse of you passing by, thought a hello could be used.” She took one tiny step towards him, as if asking for permission to go further.

Eaon had just finished letting the Sake run down his throat when he'd heard a familiar voice interrupt him. The more years one had, the faster they went by. Maybe that was so for some people, however Eaon didn't even think about the passage of time any more nor the effects it had on him or those he knew. The world that Eaon was born into was referred to as ancient or dead. The order he served in in life was shrouded by mystery to those in the World of the Living who couldn't fathom what they were or what they stood for.

Yet despite all this, Eaon and several others lived on always basking forever in the sun, yet always at risk for death. All of this with the betrayal of never knowing the certainty of death. Funny it was then, that in life Eaon believed so greatly in Heaven he'd be rewarded for his actions as a Knight and soldier of God. Yet here was nearly a thousand years later, none the wiser and all the more experienced, reveling in the fact that he once again knew nothing about what would be in the next life.

"Yes, you are correct, and just call me Eaon." Eaon said, it sounded weird to him. Part of him wanted to say that one should never address someone by title in their own home. To treat them as a human and person not as a warrior or whatever they were in their professional life. However this was no longer Eaon's home. Eaon was not a teacher, and this was not his place. This, too was an empty building that in another life could have been a home and a family. Killers don't really deserve that love though, solitude is ultimately what was best for them, for those who get too close are devoured by the flame of their lives.

"And I'm just seeing to some annual business. Nothing you need concern yourself with."

Kirei smiled softly when he took notice to her. She expected Eaon to glare at her, tell her to leave, throw some harsh words at her. She folded her hands in front of her and looked around. She felt like she didn’t belong there, and she felt like she wasn’t wanted but her eyes landed on Eaon’s once more and softened, a motherly smile appearing on the lips of a woman who would never be a mother.

She grinned as he basically told her to go away. She tilted her head to the side and for a second wondered if she should actually go away but she thought of Taisho again.

Back off

He hadn’t left her then and the situation might not be the same as it was then but…in case it was anything like that; Kirei didn’t want to abandon Eaon here. She smiled at him once more and looked him in the eyes, “You’re right.” She said, squatting down a little. “Your business isn’t any of my concern.” She sat down with her knees folded, the grass bending beneath her. “But you are.” She messed around with her bag a little before her nails clanked on glass. She pulled out a glass bottle and sat it beside her, then placing her arms on the tops of her knees she placed her chin on her wrist. “So Norel-…Eaon, tell me, why are you and Taisho such good friends?”

Eaon sincerely hoped that she hadn't taken his remarks that she needn't get involved with his affairs personally. However Eaon's visit to Chiaki's grave and the life they once shared together wasn't something he shared. Nobody knew that the legendary Assassin that used to be rumors in this part of the Rukongai was now the Lieutenant of Division Six. Eaon liked that, and to some of the elderly faces that walked the streets of the Rukongai they smiled, because they only knew him as a former teacher, not as one who took lives for money. Eaon every other day of the year got to work and live in the present, however once a year he took time off to think about the way things could have been. Besides this day was as much for him as it was for Chiaki, and a reminder that those who take lives must be ever vigilant less their past catch up with them.

"So Taisho is spying on me then?" Eaon asked curiously when she mentioned that he was her business. He wasn't sure if he was offended for flattered, though he got the oddest feeling from the absent minded playing with some bottle someone threw in his yard, or the innocent smile that was on the Lieutenant's lips that she wasn't here for that. Still it was a question Eaon couldn't avoid asking, it was almost even brush off like in that Eaon didn't care regardless. Nothing about today proved anything other than Eaon had some tie to this place, and to the Shinigami that was common knowledge.

The next question was intriguing though. What was Eaon's relationship to Taisho? There were various ways to answer that question. They were friends, they were colleagues, they both killed people regularly. They both were considered masters of their respective crafts. They had a lot in common, and they'd known each other for a long time. However none of that answered the question that was really getting asked. It as interesting how in language one can ask one question, yet at the same time ask a completely different one. Kirei wanted to know how Eaon knew Taisho, and that story was much easier to recite.

"I met Taisho after I'd become the Sixth seat of Division Six. He was my Lieutenant at the time. I was already pretty famous in the Seireitei though." Eaon recited pouring another glass of Sake. The sweet mid summer taste that left him wishing he'd had Chiaki there with him to enjoy it as well. Coupled with the fond and tender memories of being an officer rising through the ranks, such an elegant though debatably a tedious task.

"You see, back before I became a Shinigami, I was a swords instructor in the Academy. The only one who wasn't a Shinigami, because I was already considered a master Swordsmen of my chosen style. So when I did become a Shinigami and quit teaching, it was big news for a lot of people." Eaon continued with his tale. He left out the part where he quit teaching because he'd killed someone in the Rukongai. Someone who'd deserved to die, and this time, unlike any other time, Eaon wasn't ordered to do it. To this day Eaon hated the person he killed, perhaps the only kill that was personal for the Shinigami. Eaon's only wish some nights was that he could have taken his time with the man and cut him down into pieces. The past was in the past though, and the taste of Sake was spoiled with hate.


"I hope that satisfies your curiosity." Eaon trailed off, his finger tips finding his Zanpakutou and tracing over the purple ribbon tied to it. Eaon worked very hard to keep its owner's sent on it. White plumb was the particular scent it carried. It never changed in summer bloodshed and the familiarness gave Eaon the strength to persist in the cold winter. However in blood shed or ice, it always gave Eaon the feeling of being at peace with everything.

Kirei giggled and awfully childish giggle and slid her face down, to where her forehead laid on her wrist. She stared down at her lap. It’d been a while since she’d laughed…just smiles…smiles and smiles. She smiled so much because she felt like she needed to. Like smiles would make someone feel better, and in a way…it made her feel better. She raised her head and placed her cheek on her wrist, so her head calmly rested on her arm, she kept her eyes on Eaon, listening to his story carefully.

When he spoke of Taisho being Lieutenant her smile became somewhat distant as she remembered the lieutenant Taisho. She probably hadn’t known him as long as Eaon, just 30ish years before he became a captain. She watched Eaon drink the sake with memories running in the back of her mind, like home made movies. A bit grainy, and bad quality but enough to bring a smile.

When he spoke about being a skilled swordsmen Kirei returned all her focus to him once more. Sliding her eyes from the piece of grass the wind was playing with, back to Eaon. She followed his lips somewhat, watching the words he lingered on then trailed up to his eyes, seeing the meaning hidden in the pupils.

She smiled up at him and lifted her head up. She was sure she looked like a small child listening to a bedtime story. Maybe that was why Taisho found it so easy to consider her a little sister. She didn’t try to act childish, she was very mature…just her body language gave her off as too innocent for her age. She nodded her head slightly. “Good enough.” She looked to the side slightly, thinking about Lt Taisho.

“He’s come a far way since then…” She whispered, then turned her head to look at Eaon. “I’m sure you have as well, right?”

Eaon couldn't help but notice some of the odd traits Kirei had while she listened to his story. Observation was something of a given that all assassin's did. Eaon actually hated observing people without them knowing so much he actually decided to no longer be an assassin to be more at peace. Yet Kirei just seemed a bit odd. She giggled at a completely unfunny story, a story that if told in full either made you hate Eaon or wish you could cry. Or hate Eaon for not really crying ever.

Eaon had been alive perhaps longer than the human mind was supposed to be alive. He couldn't remember his childhood or the idea of innocence. He remembers being a Templar, and that he was German living in a society that mirrored Japanese Feudal society. He also remembered at one time he was an alchemist who made medicine. A healer who protected life and he gave that up to be the hand of men who sought to bring others in darkness and bind them. These reasons more than any made it very hard for him to comprehend Kirei in a more positive light than he could as he watched her. Kirei's innocence was something so far removed from Eaon that it just didn't really add up to him.

Even from the stand point of a Shinigami who wasn't Eaon it confused him. There was no procedure in her actions. No strictness nor anything that made her listen to the way things were. She was closer to Taisho than made sense, she cared about things she broke in battle and didn't seem entirely infatuated with her own ability to destroy. She was just exactly the kind of person Eaon couldn't read, and he couldn't tell if he liked that, or extremely disliked that.

"It's unlikely I've changed. I stopped teaching because I don't think people should know how to kill as effectively as I kill. I've also never been challenged in combat by anyone aside from Taisho and that will likely never change." Eaon said once again boasting extreme prowess and confidence in his own skills. Tenrai Kouhei Tsurugi Ryu, Eaon's swordstyle, the style that nearly a thousand years ago through bloodshed wiped away the sins of the Rukongai, and bathed Eaon's soul in blackness. It was times like this Eaon wished he knew where his master was, so that he could finish his training and find peace with the things he'd done.

It’s unlikely I’ve changed

Kirei lingered on that statement a little longer than the regular person. She looked at him carefully then closed her eyes. “Sometimes people change…without ever knowing it. Usually, it’s when they change for the better.” She smiled softly, thinking about memories once more. Being out here, away from duties of family or the soul society, she had a chance to do what she never did. Think. And while some people might frown upon thinking, seeing as thinking leads to the past, Kirei wasn’t hurt by her past…instead she grew to learn from her mistakes and other’s.

She smiled a little and reopened her eyes to look at Eaon. She put her arms behind her, leaning against her hands and letting her legs slide out, the heels of her boots slightly digging into the ground. She crossed one leg over the other and simple let her head hang back, staring at the sky, allowing a soft sigh to rise from her mouth.

She knew there was more to Eaon than she thought and when he spoke of killing he confirmed it. She looked at the sky gently, wondering what all he was hiding from her. She found him to be a little like a puzzle. Hard to connect but amazing when you do. But…it wasn’t a subject she’d continue to push.

“Maybe not here.” She finally said and raised her head to look at Eaon. “A challenge I mean. You might not have found a challenge other than Taisho, but there is always someone stronger.” She closed her eyes once more, memories of a little girl flooded into her mind. As she suddenly felt the cold metal of the necklace she wore, pressed against her chest, under her blouse. Everyone has secrets, I guess. She thought, letting another small, soft sigh escape from her lips.

Kirei smile faded slightly as she sat up straight, opening her eyes. She looked in her lap for a few seconds before standing up. She walked closer to Eaon, reaching the pillar he leaned on. She laid a hand on the side of the pillar and looked at the home. “It’s so old…” She whispered. “For anyone to pick out this one home out of any to have a drink…it must have some sentimental value to you.”

She scanned the home very carefully; she tried to imagine it before it died and became nothing but a space taker. The only home she saw was the Kurushimi Head household. Did this home once hold children? A father of power? A lost child…trying to find her place in the world? But why was that the only home she saw? She slid her hand down the pillar slowly, her hand collecting dust that had its chance to build up there. She tried to think of a home she had been to, had seen…other than the Kurushimi House Hold. Nothing…all those years before the Kurushimi family, she had nothing.

She had probably passed this home several times when she was younger. It was near the alleyway in which she usually lingered. She couldn’t think of ever passing it by, but she probably had…just not noticed it. Although, it was so out of place…how could someone not help but notice the home? If she had noticed it what would she had done? She had broken into several abandoned homes, just so she’d have somewhere to stay. Would she have broken into this one? Unknowing that it laid in the heart of someone?

She realized she had been staring at the house for a bit too long. She lowered her head then turned it to look over at Eaon. “Why did you become a shinigami?” She asking, turning her back to the home, and completely facing Eaon.

She felt much like a child, asking him all these questions. Like a child who just met their favorite actor. In honesty, Eaon was a great mystery to her that she had found herself to be fascinated with. She was socially awkward, didn’t have friends beside Taisho, her family and some of her students. The fact that Eaon hadn’t forced her away was enough for her to get interested into who he was.

Eaon didn't believe people changed. He knew from the beginning that part of him knew the slaughter of weaker foes than he was wrong. That maybe just because the people who held his leash said that he was killing the right enemies, maybe, some of those men didn't need to die. The targets maybe, but how many of the bodyguards were just paid muscle? Or people who were forced to be there? How many innocents were possibly killed for being suspected moles to Eaon's presence? Eaon knew there had to be reprocussions for someone like himself even being in existence, and that was reason enough for Eaon to believe that he hadn't changed. He was still all too aware of the fact that he'd been a legal criminal and killer, and it wasn't right.

While Kirei leaned back and looked into the sky, Eaon poured himself another cup of Sake, this time letting the beverage seep out of the cup and over onto the deck of his porch. When one knows their home it is as much a friend as anything else. Eaon couldn't remember the number of times in the years he'd spent here drinking with friends under the cool night skies, or watching the snow fall from the warmth of the inside. It was a shame that it had come to this, and part of Eaon really felt as though he owed it to the place to come clean it up and make it nice again.

The home that had fallen into shambles, was littered and dusty, trashed and the plant life over grown. When Eaon lived here it never looked like this, the yard was always kept and the house itself was in fine condition. Eaon was proud of his home and he enjoyed having Chiaki over, and so Eaon kept it looking nice to make her happy. Likewise a peaceful place to lay one's head could help chase away the blood filled nights and make them a little more tolerable. Not that Eaon was ever really haunted by his past, he never really lost sleep over it, he was simply a light sleeper because of it. However most who've taken life are. Once you're aware how fragile the human body really is, breaking it isn't that hard at all. Then once you know that, you're aware how weak you are, and you have to protect yourself. That's just instinct.

"Not likely. Shinigami trained in Shinigami arts can't hope to stand against me. And those Hollows with Zanpakutou just aren't trained in general. Both styles or lack there of are very easy to analyze and read, thus take apart." Eaon's Tenrai Kouhei Tsurugi Ryu was famed by those who knew what it was as being a style that was swift and deadly, yet its most dangerous ability was that someone trained in it could take apart your style. They could see those small openings others would miss or the speed you fight at and lag by. They could figure you out and the longer you fought or the more often you fought, the better they got. So super effective, so deadly and uncaring. Rivals would become victims in a few bouts. That was the power of Tenrai Kouhei Tsurugi Ryu, that was Eaon's nature. Analytical destruction.

Eaon smiled and leaned back, finishing his Sake as he let the question Kirei ask resonate with him for a moment. It was a simple, yet divinely beautiful question. People had lots of things they liked to get asked, yet to ask someone about their home and understand it had value to them was to do them an honor unlike most others that one could normally get. Eaon smiled when she asked and set the empty Sake cup down. He crossed his left leg was sprawled out in front of him and his right crossed under that. His Zanpakutou back on his shoulder like the Assassin he used to be and for a moment if someone had seen him back then, as a younger man with his hair in a pony-tail and his clothing very similar to the way it was now, they might have recognized the teacher who lived here.

"Several hundred years ago, before I was a Shinigami I was a Swords instructor for the Shinigami. I lived here for fifty years or so. I've often thought of buying it again. The neighborhood is much nicer than it used to be, much safer too." Eaon said with a warmth to his voice he didn't usually have. While he could judge himself quiet harshly, and usually did. Eaon wasn't one to ignore his accomplishments easier. The people in the Rukongai now, at the very least this part of it, lived safely because the criminals were dead. While some innocents may have died to get there, the criminals who caused it did die by Eaon's hand, and this was a safe place now.

Eaon sat in silence awhile, listening to a few crickets pop up as the sun set and thought of the times before this. Eaon wondered if one day he could retire from the Shinigami and come live here again. Maybe in that future he'd find someone to be with, someone he could have a child or two with, and maybe then he'd consider passing Tenrai Kouhei Tsurugi Ryu with its full teachings onto them. So that they could avoid the destruction and pain it had brought Eaon, yet be able to protect those they love. It was a sweet, naive dream. Yet Eaon much preferred that sweet naivety to the cold reality of things. Besides such hope made the Sake taste good.

"I became a Shinigami because I don't believe that a sword that takes life should be allowed to wield itself."