Cat on Water

Chapter 10

The next morning, Yoruichi walked down the stairs that led to the residential part of Party’s Bar. Going downstairs, she was surprised to see a few people sitting at a table. No one was ever awake at this hour.

Luffy and Makino were sitting at the table.   They hadn’t noticed her yet. She walked over, and sat in an empty spot at the table, and started taking some food from the plates they had set out and started eating. While she sat there, she listened to the conversation they were having.

“Is she really leaving?” Luffy asked, while stuffing his face with food. Yoruichi could tell he was sad.

Makino replied, with a slight smile on her face, “Yes, she is, but you know she will come back, don’t you? Garp said that he would come get her in a year.”

“Mehh. Gramps is never here on time. But why does she have to leave?” Luffy pouted.

Yoruichi used that opportunity to join into the conversation. “I’m leaving because I’m bored. I have been here almost 3 months at this point, and I want to do something.”

Makino yelped, dropping her fork, and jumping up from the seat. Luffy decided he was going to turn into a spring and jump so high his head was now in the ceiling. Yoruichi froze, then fell over laughing, holding her sides.

Makino, who had marched over to the purple haired woman curled up on the ground, raised her hand and started whacking her wherever she could land a hit.

“You. *wack* Will. *wack* Not. *wack* Keep. *wack* DOING THAT!” Makino yelled at Yoruichi. When she was done, she stood back up and hmphed, then turned back to the table to clean up the mess they made.

Luffy was starting to struggle up with his head in the ceiling. Yoruichi, who was still sitting on the ground, finally stopped laughing. When she looked around, she saw the scene and immediately started snickering again.

“Heh... You guys are so... heh... easy to get... hehe.” Yoruichi grinned as she got up, just as Luffy finally got himself out of the ceiling. She watched him fall onto the ground, and then look around blankly. He then started laughing.

“Bahahahah, that was great! Do it again! Bahahhaha” Luffy giggled. Yoruichi just kept chuckling, until Makino made them start cleaning the mess. Once they were done, they all sat down again. Yoruichi started talking.

“Honestly, I did not come here by choice. My good friends decided to send me on a ‘vacation’. So, I am going to be taking their implicit advice, and actually go on a vacation. You guys are great for letting me stay here even though you don’t know me.”

Luffy cut in, “But we know you. You’re Yoruichi!”

Yoruichi smiled at the teen, “That doesn’t mean you know me. Anyways, I’ll leave after this meal. I have a general idea of where I’m going, but I don’t think I’ll be back for a while. So, for what it’s worth, thanks.”

Makino asked, “Where are you going to go first?”

“Probably Shimotsuki village down south of here, or up north real quick to the marine base there at Shells Town then there. Yeah.  Then maybe take a trip over to the Sambas Region, I hear there’s a fantastic restaurant down there. After that Ill go to that carnival you mentioned yesterday, see if I can’t hear any news about the goings on around here. After that, maybe head back up north, to Mirror Bell Island, or even down into the calm belt to see what it’s like. Should be fun seeing all those massive fish.” Yoruichi grinned at the thought. “Once that is done, Ill probably go and find the rest of some stuff Garp asked me to find. Then I’ll come back.”

“Sounds like quite the trip. Are you thinking about going into any of the other blues? It isn’t that hard, there are belay stations around the red line to get people over. You could probably go wherever you wanted.” Makino said.

Luffy, wanting his two cents in, said, “Nah, Yoruichi will come back. She’s gotta be on my crew! Then we can go and be the Pirate King!” finishing off with his, what Yoruichi now knows as his dream, and pretty much catch phrase.

Yoruichi glared at Luffy, growling, “I. Will not. Be. On your crew. I don’t want to be stuck with your crazy on a boat in the middle of nowhere.”

Luffy just laughed, “Bahahaha. I don’t care. You’re coming. We gotta have an adventure, right? Everyone has to have an adventure!” Luffy paused, then turned to Yoruichi, looking probably more serious than she had seen the kid.

“What’s your dream, Yoruichi?”

Yoruichi, who was about to brush off his question, paused. ‘My dream, huh? The only real one I had was the cause for me leaving the soul society in the first place.”

Yoruichi looked at Luffy, who was still seriously staring at her, expecting her answer. She thought about it for a moment, then said, “You know, I never really thought of it as a dream, but I always wanted to be free. Since you think you know me, I’ll share a little about me so you can actually claim that. I was someone who was once in the position of those noble families in the Goa Kingdom. I had expectations, requirements, put upon me. Most of those requirements I liked, and I still do to this day, but I did not like the stifling nature of what it meant to be someone in that position. Eventually, things happened, and I left with my friends. But I still wanted to be able to do what I loved doing, as when I left, I was unable to do that anymore, besides every so often when I was able.” She paused, taking a sip of water from the table.

Makino asked, “What did you do, that you liked so much?”

“I, well, can’t tell you that. Not yet anyway.” Yoruichi smiled at the green haired woman.

“Awww. Come on! I want to know what you do. Are you a pirate? Nono. A ninja?!!” Luffy almost yelled, eyes turning into sparkling stars. Yoruichi blinked in surprise. “Well, you are partially right." she replied calmly. "I was trained from a young age in arts similar to what you could consider a ninja, but there were other, more important things that I did.”

Luffy almost had an orgasm right then and there. “WAHHHH! A NINJA! NOW YOU HAVE TO JOIN MY CREW! I WANT A NINJA ON MY CREW!” He jumped at Yoruichi, wrapping himself around her face, rocking back and forth and screaming about ninja. Yoruichi just reached up, grabbed him, and ripped him off her face, throwing him back into the seat.

“As I just said, I am not a ninja. Not even close. I have had training and experience in things that a ninja may do, but that is not what my profession was. At all.”

Luffy, who was not grounded to his chair, muttered, “Still a ninja…...”, while pouting.

Giggling at the antics, Makino got up from the table. “Well, I hope you have an enjoyable trip. You’re always welcome back here whenever you want.”

“Thanks, Makino.”

They all got up and cleaned off the table, before Yoruichi headed back to her room to grab her map, and the rest of the stuff she had gotten while on the island. 20 Minutes later, she met Makino, Luffy, and a few other villagers down at the dock to Foosha village. Seems like everyone wanted to see the spectacle. Once she got near Makino, she stopped.

“Well, this is it. Thanks for letting me stay with you.”

Makino smiled at her, then replied “Oh it was no problem. You were great to have around. Right Luffy?”

Luffy, who was sitting on a fence post over to the side of the group, grinned and said “yeah. Though you’re almost as bad as gramps with the training.”

Yoruichi smiled and shook her head, but said nothing. She turned back to Makino and hugged her goodbye. Walking to the water, she waved goodbye behind her. Right as she got to the water, Luffy shouted out, “wait, don’t you need a ship? Where is it? Let me see!” He got off the post and started to come toward her.

Yoruichi paused, then turned around. “You see, brat, when you get to my level, boats are more of a secondary option.” She grinned, then started walking backwards into the ocean. Once she felt the water lapping at her shoes, she turned again and put her foot up on top of the water, and then started walking on top. She heard gasps from behind her and thought ‘guess this little trick is about as common as it was in the material world back home.’

She then almost faceplanted as she heard luffy shout with glee “OH MY GOD IT’S A COOL NINJA SKILL WAAAHHH!!!”

She turned her head to look behind her shouting angrily, “IT IS NOT A NINJA SKILL YOU IDIOT! I’M NOT EVEN A NINJA!”

Luffy laughing with glee said, “Yes you are! You have to be a cool ninja to join my crew. And you are joining my crew!”

Yoruichi just ignored him and kept walking away. ‘Bah, what did I do to deserve to get stuck with idiots like him.’

Makino, ever polite, waved goodbye herself. “We’ll miss you Yoruichi! Be safe!”

Yoruichi laughed, then disappeared in a blur of her flash-step, leaving Luffy laughing, Makino waving goodbye, and the rest of the village in awe at something that shouldn’t be possible.

 

***

 

Yoruichi made the trip to Shimotsuki village in a bit over an hour and a half. Usually, it takes almost 6 by ship, if the weather is iffy. That meant she had the whole day to explore. She had landed on the northern tip of the island, and the village was on the eastern side. She walked another few minutes along the coast, before she could see a little port town, which looked to lead into the village ‘proper’ over the hill that was against the port.

It was a green, grassy village, that looked like it was sitting in a valley. There was a small dip in the mountains near the port’s location, but that was all. Once she walked into the port, she asked a dock worker if there was a dojo there. She got pointed into the village itself, which when she got there, seemed to be surrounded by farmland squares.

After a minute or two of walking, she found the dojo in the largest open area that wasn’t farmland. It seemed to be a small, walled off area, with easily recognizable Japanese influence, or as Yoruichi found out, Wano influence. However, there was a more western, European style to the building itself, with a standard eastern shingled large building being situated in the center, along with another almost identically designed building off to the side of it. It seemed to be a home, probably where the master of the dojo lived.

To the left of the center building, there was another, even larger building, almost square, with the standard greyish shingles that matted the entire village. Looking at it from the outside, she could see a flag of two red crossed sabers hanging outside the entrance.

‘Hmm. Seems like they originally tried to keep the style of a dojo but didn’t have the materials for it, so they had to use the only ones available around here.’ Yoruichi paused, staring up at the symbol which undoubtedly belonged to some sort of noble or wealthy family. No one in the Soul Society, or Japanese cultures would have a symbol like this without being someone of note.

‘Interesting.’ Yoruichi thought ‘I might actually get something out of this. Might as well see what is going on inside.’ Yoruichi started walking to the door, but before she got to the steps itself, the door opened, and 3 men walked out. They were talking to themselves, before all stopped and stared at her when they saw her.

“Who are you?” The leading man asked, dressed in what looked to be a standard dark grey Gi, and a 1^st degree black belt around his waist. The other 2 men had the same clothes on, but with brown belts. “Are you looking for something miss?” The man continued, him and his friends looking down at her from the door.

Yoruichi responded, “Yeah, I’m looking for Isshin Dojo. Heard the master here was pretty good. Is this the place?”

The man frowned at her slightly disrespectful tone, but replied “Yes, but he is not available today. Please come back tomorrow.”

“May I ask why he is not available?” Yoruichi asked, crossing her arms. She had seen some of the looks on the men’s faces in front of her, on some of the particularly conservative and sexist nobles in the Soul Society. One of the downsides of living so long is you must deal with old views a lot. The old guard never really ages out, case in point Yamamoto, the captain commander of the entire corps, was the same person who founded the damn thing a thousand years prior.

“Today is the anniversary of his kid’s death.” The man said. “We just came to say our condolences, but he usually will want to be left alone. Besides, things always get a bit weird around this day.” The man and his friends muttered to themselves, before stepping away from the door and passing her.

Yoruichi watched them go, before turning around and looking back at the dojo. Instead of focusing with her physical eyes, she focused on it with her spiritual sense. She could feel one middle aged man sitting in front of a shrine, out near the back of the dojo. Other than that, there was a child sized Plus sitting next to him.

‘What the hell? Is the Plus interacting with him or is this just something else. Would that child be the master’s kid? Those guys said things get weird around her death every year. Could be the spirit doing something for attention.’

Yoruichi frowned. She hadn’t done a Konso in a while. ‘Ehh. I’ve done so many of those things its almost instinct, even if it has been 20 years.’ She walked into the dojo walls, looking around at the empty outside area. Using her spiritual sense as a guide, she followed a path out to the back of the dojo, where there looked to be a small gate, which led to the mountains surrounding the village. The Master she could sense was sitting on a small hill right behind it, in what looked to be a graveyard.

She flash-stepped over to the graveyard, before silently walking in. She stopped a few meters away from where the man sat, at the front of a gravestone with a tree engraved into it, along with some writing around the roots. ‘Shimotsuki Kuina, may her dreams live on.’

‘Shimotsuki…’ Yoruichi thought. ‘Could this village be founded by his family?’ she shook that out of her head.

She stepped forward, this time not hiding her footsteps, and said formally “Yoruichi Shihoin greets the master of Isshin Dojo."

The man froze, before picking up the sword that lay by his side and stood up. He put his sword in his belt and turned around. Yoruichi saw that he was wearing the same Gi that the other men were wearing, but he had a 10^th degree black belt on. His sword was put through his belt, in the traditional way of what Yoruichi was now beginning to equate with Wano in her mind. He was wearing a tan overcoat, with what she recognized as the crest on the entrance on both breasts. It went down to his ankles, and he wore it without his arms in his sleeves. He had black glasses on, and long black hair pulled back into a low ponytail. He was around 40, with slight wrinkles around his eyes, which were still red from what she assumed was crying.

He crossed his arms, frowned, and said, “This is not a time to disturb a man, woman. Please leave. If you have business with me, come back tomorrow.”

Yoruichi cringed a bit inside at the scathing tone he put on. Obviously, this is what those men meant by him wanting to be left alone. She could also tell that this is where those guys also got their sexist attitudes from.

“I do not have business with you. However, I do have business with one of your family.”

The man froze in confusion. “I am the only family member left. Are you referring to one of them?” He waved behind him with a hand.

Yoruichi smiled in confirmation. “Yes. I seek to confer with a family member of yours. You may watch as I go about my duties” she walked closer to the man, while thinking, ‘Ugh. I hate formal speech. So stuffy.’

As she got within normal talking distance, the man said, “My name is Shimotsuki Koushirou. As you have mentioned, I am the master of the dojo you no doubt passed through to get to this graveyard. May I ask which family member you with to confer with? I will lead them to their grave.” Yoruichi smiled at him and pointed somewhere behind him. “I seek to confer with her.” The man turned, looking behind him. “Do you mean Kuina? My daughter? How would you know her? She died when she was twelve.”

Yoruichi glanced at him. ‘Ah. He’s starting to get annoyed. Might want to hurry this up then.’

Walking over to where the child-spirit sat, next to what Yoruichi assumed was her own grave, she reached for her Zanpakuto. She then said, “Yes. Please be quiet for this, though. You can watch. Might help with some of that grief I can feel coming off you.” Yoruichi ignored the man’s confused and indignant sputtering, before looking down at the Plus. “What would your name be, then? And why do you still linger?” she said, hand still on the hilt of her weapon, sheathed on the small of her back.

The spirit, who was sitting there dazedly watching the conversation, was noticeably freaked out when she saw Yoruichi talk to her. She pointed at herself, and said, “Wait. You can see me? How can you see me?” The girl was starting to freak out.

‘Guess she’s been here for a while. Plus are usually confused at what is happening, but this one seems to understand that she is dead. Understandable since she is sitting next to her own grave.’

Yoruichi smiled kindly, and said, “Yes. I can see you. Now, I have a question to ask. How long have you been dead for? And why do you still linger?”

The man behind her, Koushirou, grabbed her by the shoulder and forcefully turned her around before she could hear the plus’ response. “What do you mean, how long has she been dead? It’s been 6 years since then. Why do you think trying to ask questions to a gravestone would get an answer. On top of that, who even are you? You’re acting like my child is alive. She isn’t. I buried her right here myself. If you are going to continue to be so disrespectful to the dead, I will have to ask you to leave.” He shouted in Yoruichi’s face.

Yoruichi deadpanned. ‘Ahh. Not used to the living still being able to watch this. It’s so much easier when they can’t see you, much less hear you.’ She focused on the man, looking at his now red with rage face. She reached up, and grabbed his arms, pulling them off her shoulders. ‘He looked quite surprised that I could do that. Probably because I look like a 5-foot-tall woman who barely weighs 100 lbs., and he is almost a foot taller than me.’

She then said, in what she tried to make a soothing voice, “Now, Mr. Shimotsuki. Please wait for a moment and watch the process. All will be explained in time. If you continue to interrupt, I will have to restrain you.” She smiled threateningly, before leaving the man shocked into silence in the middle of his rant and turning back to the soul.

“Now, are you going to answer my questions, Shimotsuki Kuina?”

The child, Kuina, sniffed, and then started crying, “I made a promise to someone. Then I went and immediately broke it when I died. It was a stupid accident, too. I fell down the stairs and hit my head. I was going to be the strongest swordsman in the world, and I would make sure to beat Zoro every time we fought. But now Its just him. And I’ve been stuck here, not able to leave, no one able to see me, and only able to interact with some things around the house when it gets closer to today. With all that, how can I leave? I don’t even know how to leave! Where would I go?”

Yoruichi crouched down in front of the plus, before patting her head. She was reminded of Soi Fon when she was a kid. So full of energy. The child stopped her rant, freezing when Yoruichi’s hand patted her head.

“Well, that is what I am here for. I can send you on. To be honest, I don’t know where you would go. Where I come from, things are slightly different. our father shouldn’t even be ablYe to see me, for one, but he and everyone else can. You could go to my home, the soul society. You said you wanted to be the greatest swordsman in the world? Try doing that there. There are some real monsters in that place, I can tell you. You also might go somewhere else, that I don’t know about. However, I can’t let you stay here. Bad things happen if you stay for too long. To be honest, I don’t know why you’ve been able to stay here long enough without being consumed.”

Kuina, who was still sniffling, exclaimed fearfully, “What do you mean, consumed?”

Yoruichi paused for a moment, before looking at the child. “Tell me, do you have a chain connected to your chest? On that seems to be slowly burning down to nothing?”

Kuina thought for a second, “Um, nope. I would have noticed that.” Yoruichi licked her lips thoughtfully, looking around the area, then back at her. “Then tell me this. Have you seen any monsters around? That the people still alive can’t, see? They have holes in their chests and wear white masks.”

The child responded without any hesitation this time. “Nope. Not those either.”

“Hmm. Well then. It seems like the process truly is different. Anyways, would you like to move on? Sitting around here must be torture.”

The kid thought for a moment, before looking over at her father. He was still behind her, staring at what Yoruichi knew looked like her talking to air.

Kuina looked back at her, and said, “Could you tell my dad I said goodbye? Even though he didn’t support my dream, he was still a good dad. Wouldn’t want to leave him like that, you know?”

Yoruichi smiled down at the kid, before patting her head again. “Sure thing, kid. Now hold still.” Yoruichi drew her Zanpakuto, causing Koushirou to startle, before he drew his own blade. She didn’t even glance in his direction, still looking down at Kuina. “Hold still. Don’t want this to hurt. I am a bit rusty, after all.” Yoruichi flipped her blade around, so the hilt was facing Kuina. She then tapped her on the head, causing a glowing spot to be left. Kuina smiled up at her, before breaking into motes of light and disappearing into the air.

Yoruichi paused when she saw that, “Well, that was definitely different.”

Koushirou said from behind her, “What was that?? What was that glow, and then that sparkling light? What did you do?” Yoruichi turned to the visibly distraught man, confused.

“Wait, you could see that? Weird. Either way, that was your daughter’s spirit saying goodbye. Seems she wanted to make it known, in a sense.” It wasn’t. it was just a lit Yoruichi came up with on the spot. Easier to make him think that his daughter said goodbye on her own, rather than through her.

Tears pooled in Koushirou’s eyes. “Tha-That was her? What do you mean?”

Yoruichi pondered on how to explain. She decided on the simple answer. “Sometimes, when people die with grievances, or some such goal that hounds their lives that they did not accomplish, they will stay back in the material world, as spirits. They can’t be seen but can be interacted with in some sense.”

Koushirou thought about that answer. “Does that mean all the spooky stuff that has been happening was her?”

“Was your house haunted?” at an affirmative nod, she said “Well, it literally was haunted. By your daughter Kunia’s ghost, probably trying to gain your attention. Children who die usually don’t understand that they are dead for a while.”

Koushirou quietly said, “Oh….” Before going silent again. He stood there, staring at his daughter’s grave, taking in the last few minutes. He then looked back up at Yoruichi, and asked, “I apologize for my rudeness earlier. I was not in a good state of mind. But may I ask, what is your role in all of this?”

Yoruichi sighed, knowing that it was going to come up. “I, am a Shinigami. A Soul Reaper. We ferry souls to the afterlife.”

Koushirou looked at her in shock. “Aren’t soul reapers supposed to be spirits themselves? How can I see you if I couldn’t see Kuina?”

Yoruichi grimaced. She had no idea. Well, that wasn’t true, she had some. “Originally, you aren’t supposed to. Where I come from, living people in the material world can’t see us. We must inhabit special bodies to interact with them. Due to some pranks by my friends, I ended up here, where it seems the rules are somewhat different. I think it has something to do with Haki.”

Koushirou looked at her a bit weird, before saying, “Do you mean this?” unsheathed his sword and held it up. It then turned black, like Garp.

Yoruichi was quite surprised. ‘Didn’t Garp say that Haki was very rare? And that people in the Blues didn’t even know it existed?’ She said, “How do you know Haki? I thought people around here didn’t know what it was.”

Koushirou smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. “Well, my family isn’t originally from here. My father came from Wano, and he knew how to use Haki, or as we call it, Ryuo. Though what my father taught me was that most people who know about haki, how to use it one way, the one I showed you. We do something different. It took me a while to get both down, but I am still bad at it.” He finished, smiling at her.

Yoruichi’s eyebrow raised. “There is another application to Haki other than what you showed me?”

Koushirou’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yes. To the people of Wano, Ryuo and Haki are the same, but the application is different to those that aren’t from Wano. This is what ours does.” He walked over to a small boulder, on the outside of the graveyard. With a *hup* he stabbed forward with his sword, aiming to pierce the rock. He was not able to do so, but what he did do was knock the boulder back a few feet. She felt the Haki go out in a sort of force-like push, aiming for not piercing, but striking them with blunt force.

“How exactly does that work? I have been shown the general principle of Armament Haki, but I have never seen that.

Koushirou’s eyes lit up, as he turned to her. “I was wondering how I could repay you for helping my daughter. I will teach you all I can, though it would only be the general principle. You would have to go to Wano yourself to learn more. My father told me about a principle called Internal Destruction, which can use haki to destroy the insides of something.”

Yoruichi smiled, and said, “Well, let’s get out of the graveyard then. I have a feeling this might be useful to me.”

Koushirou turned and walked down to the gate. Yoruichi followed, thinking over what she just saw in her mind. ‘I wonder if this would help with my Shunko. Might help me finally perfect that thing after all.’