NOVEL WEB Chapter 4 – Cat Talks with Bigger Cat
Chapter 4
Yoruichi sat on the bed in the little cabin, staring down at a small sword sitting across her lap. It was exceedingly plain. Small, about as long as her elbow to the tip of her hand, with a black wrapped hilt, and a plain black sheath. For all intents and purposes, it would not stand out one bit.
It was the Asauchi she chose during the Shinigami academy, over 300 years ago. But, the problem wasn’t the blade itself. It was the spirit inside of it. Rainzupuraido. Her Zanpakuto Spirit. The soul piece inside the Asauchi, the one she bonded with all the way until she achieved Bankai. Took her 11 years. One for her Shikai, and 10 for her Bankai. Very good on the scale of things. Most take much, much longer. Originally, her Bankai should have been her main weapon. The thing that most Shinigami base their fighting style off. However, that was not the case for her.
Zanpakuto reflect themselves off their masters. Or, more specifically, the one part of their wielder’s soul that is based for Battle. One such example would be Shuhei Hisagi. He joined the Shinigami to be one, because of his admiration for them. This reflected itself in his Zanpakuto manifesting as a reaper’s scythe, or his admiration for the soul reapers.
Yoruichi’s Zanpakuto is reflected with her pride. Her pride in being the princess of the Shihoin clan, at least at the time, and being an absolute genius in battle, tactics, and becoming the captain of squad 2 at such a time.
It shows in the name. Lion’s Pride. Back then, they worked amazingly together. At least, that was the case until she grew up. She sighed, thinking back on it. She had all these ideals about the Shihoin clan, which were ruthlessly shattered upon actually becoming the clan head.
‘You can’t act like that, you have to go to this event, this guy looks like a nice husband’ she thought mockingly, thinking of those wrinkled elders who tried bossing her around. They weren't even actually a part of her clan. They thought she was too young, but her parents thought otherwise. They thought she could do it, and she accepted wholeheartedly. Not realizing how stifling it was.
All that pride came crashing down in an instant once she realized that it was not anything like what she wanted. At this point, she hated the title. Luckily it was now in the hands of her annoying little brother, Yushiro, since she got exiled from the soul society. It was better this way. Its why she took the out with Kisuke and the rest. Freedom was what she wanted. To be like Kukaku, her good friend from the Shiba clan, and do what she wanted, when she wanted.
While she liked the Second division, and the stealth force, she did not like that she had to be clan head to be the captain of it. She would much rather have to not do all that stuffy stuff. The only thing, or rather person, she liked from being the Shihoin clan head was Soi Fon.
‘I wonder how my little bee is doing.’ She thought, smiling lightly ‘She was the second division's captain last I checked, because Yushiro is too young.’ She shook her head suddenly, dispersing those thoughts. Now is not the time to reminisce.
The original reason she was sitting here, lost in thought, was because she hated talking to her Zanpakuto. He never listens to her anymore. At all. She thought back to what he had told her when she originally became the clan head and came out of her existential crisis. It was when she was first training Soi Fon, and tried to summon her Zanpakuto to show her what Shikai was.
Flashback
She stood in her mind, on what looked to be a grassy plain, something straight out of Africa. The only thing that was around were a couple of trees, providing shade for animals. Well just one really. The one she needed to talk to.
At a brisk pace, she walked over to the nearest tree, where her Zanpakuto spirit, Rainzupuraido, or just Rain as she called him lay, basking in the shade of the tree. When she got close enough, she couldn’t hold it anymore, and shouted the remaining distance,
“You got some explaining to do you overgrown hairball!!” she yelled, still walking, well, storming at this point, over to where the admittedly very large lion lay. He looked to be your standard male lion, though he was the size of your average adjudicas (a/n for those who don’t know, this is a like ‘lieutenant’ hollow. Probably about the size of a small car.). The only difference between him and a normal lion, was that he was a bit metallic, and glowing in golden light. Don’t ask her why, she has no idea.
As she got closer, she continued to yell, “You want to tell me what that was back there??! Huh!? I try to summon you so I can teach my subordinate, and you just say ‘No, We do not wish to.’? What does that even mean?!! You’re my Zanpakuto! My Partner!! How am I supposed to fight without you?” she was raging in the lion’s face, at this point close enough to be in touching distance.
The lion, who’s face was now starting to get covered in spittle, was completely ignoring her, head on paws, eyes closed. Yoruichi kept ranting, but as time went on, the lion that was ignoring her started to get visibly annoyed. Eventually, it stuck out its paw, and smacked the still talking Yoruichi, sending her flying, and skipping across the ground like a stone on a lake. When she finally stopped some yards away, she lay there on her back, face up and panting.
‘What the hell was that? I think that was the most effort he’s put into something for a while now. That lazy bastard usually doesn’t do anything.’ she thought, spitting some dirt out of her mouth. She then sat up, looking toward where she had just come from. The Lion was walking to her, and when she saw him, he started speaking,
“This King has no need for you any longer. Begone. You no longer have any authority over Us.” Rain spoke, his deep voice filled with disdain. He kept walking toward her, and she started getting up from where she sat on the plane, preparing to get into an actual fight with him. However, it seemed like Rain had other ideas. Before she got fully on her feet, in a half kneeling position, like a knight saluting their king, Rain dashed forward, and hit her with another paw. This time it did not send her physically flying, but ejected her directly from her inner mind.
Before she fully left, though, Rain left her with some parting words,
“This King has seen you have lost your fighting spirit. As such, you no longer have any right to wield Us. We shall no longer listen to you.”
Flashback End
This event had solidified in her mind that her pride in being the Shihoin clan head was misplaced. She did not want to hold the position anymore, like when she was a child.
Since that day, she started training in the skills that make a good Second Division Captain. Like the Twelfth Division, and the Kido Corps, the Second Division had their strengths. Where most were strong in Zanjutsu, the Kido corps focused on Kido, where they get their name. The Second Division however, had a focus on Hoho and Hakuda.
Yoruichi was already a genius in both Hoho, and Hakuda, and was arguably better than she was with her Zanpakuto, but she needed to have Bankai for her to be eligible for Captaincy, and her former goal, the Shihoin Clan head. She had figured since her Zanpakuto would no longer work with her; she would become strong enough without it to fight on a captain’s level.
This led her to today, where she was only one of two people who did not use Shikai or Bankai to fight at that level. She had gotten so good with both Hoho and Hakuda that she created a new combination of the two, which she had named Shunko.
‘But that is enough reminiscing,’ she thought ‘I will probably need his help to figure out what is going on here, and if we can get back.’ Even though she had trained enough to no longer need her Zanpakuto, she still liked to try to bend the bridge between them. Who wouldn’t? He was a part of her, and she kind of missed their old relationship. But it had been a couple hundred years since the rift, or what Rain called her ‘loss of pride’, and she was still no closer than when she started.
‘Eh,’ she thought, ‘he’s still a funny person to annoy, and he can’t even run away from it like most people.’ She snickered. Through the years, she had found that although he wouldn’t agree to outright work with her, he would still let her talk with him.
However, the rift between them had caused some issues. Yoruichi thought back on what Rain had looked like the last time she had seen him.
‘It probably isn’t the greatest look’ she thought, cringing at the memory. ‘Well, there’s no time like the present’ she thought, focusing. A second later she was standing in the familiar grassy plain. However, that was there the changes ended. Instead of the large, majestic lion, full of pride, lounging like a king of the jungle underneath the tree, what she saw was more akin to the king of gluttony, than anything else.
“Yo, fatass!” She waved at the lion, smiling cheerily, “look more like a puffiskein yet?” She continued walking over, to the lion, looking him over.
‘Hmm, did he get even bigger? I can barely see his head now’ she pondered, scratching her chin. Looking him over, she saw a golden, furred, ball. Rain had developed something of a metaphorical sweet tooth in the time since he told her to leave him and that, combined with a male lion’s natural tendency to laziness, now that the female lion stopped pestering him, he had gained weight. A LOT of weight. He looked more like the blow-up parade animals she had seen the humans show in their parades sometimes. Almost entirely round body, with little appendages sticking out in various spots, obviously too weak to hold anything close to the size of his body. His head was almost the worst. His mane had basically completely covered his face, with a little tunnel still left that he could see out of. His neck was entirely gone, replaced with the fat that was now his body.
Rainzupuraido rolled over, grunting a bit at the effort. “We thought We told you to leave Us alone. We will not tolerate any of your brutish disrespect any longer.” Rain growled, still panting a bit from the exertion of his body.
Yoruichi paused for a second, thinking,
‘Damn, he really has gotten out of shape hasn’t he. There is nothing I can do about it though since he won’t let me.’ She let go of that thought, one of many she has had over the years.
Yoruichi stopped in front of Rain’s face and had to jump a bit to see into the hole in his mane. Regardless of if he was the shape of the ball Ururu and Jinta kick around sometimes, he was still a decent bit taller than her.
“Well, I thought we could have a bit of a chat. You know, for old time’s sake.” Yoruichi said, sitting on top of a little pillar in her mind she quickly made to get to his height. “Something interesting happened to us, and I figured with your curiosity, that you would find it at least a bit interesting.” She smiled. Regardless of if he was a lazy and arrogant ass, he was still a cat. An unreasonably large one, but still a cat.
Rain snorted, then replied, “Of course We would be curious of the happenings in Our domain. We are the king after all. It is Our right to be informed of the happenings in Our kingdom.”
Yoruichi leaned back onto her hands, legs swinging off of the pillar.
“That’s the thing, you see.” She smirked “We are no longer in your domain, your majesty” she said a bit sarcastically. Then her face turned a bit serious. “Kisuke sent us somewhere, that I think will cause some issues.”
“What do you mean, issues. Explain clearly, servant. This King orders it.” Rain replied, noticing the change in tone.
Yoruichi then explained the situation, her theory on the alternate dimension included. After she was finished, Rain went on a little rampage. As much as a lion can when he can’t move.
“This King orders you to get Us back to Our domain! .....What was it called again? Earth?” Rain roared, muttering a bit at the end.
Yoruichi turned her head away from Rain, hoping to not get any spit on her face. She then waved her hand up and down at him dismissively, saying,
“Mah, Mah, so impatient. I was already planning on that anyway. Though it’s not like I could do much by myself, I have no idea what they did to us, or how they made the portal to begin with. Even if I did, I still wouldn’t have the tools to make it anyways.”
“We do not care!! Fix it, Now!” Rain roared, this time getting spit on the side of her face. She sat up and hopped off the pillar. Using her arm to wipe the mess off her face, she turned away from Rain and started walking away.
“Whatever you say, buddy. Not like you would help me anyways, even if you could.” She spoke. It was always fun riling him up. It was the only time she got to see anything other than dismissive ignorance come out of him, like every time she tried rebuilding the connection between them.
While she was talking, she suddenly stopped. She looked up and tilted her head.
‘Was that knocking?’ she thought. ‘Must’ve come from outside. Might as well go see what they want.’
Yoruichi then disappeared in a sprinkle of lights, ignoring the ranting lion behind her. Back in the waking world, she looked over to her left, to the door. She could sense someone outside it.
‘Huh, its Garp. Wonder what he wants.’ She thought, getting up and walking to the door. When she got there, she opened the door wide.
“Whats up old – What are you doing?” she asked, noticing something. Garp had put his hand over his eyes, so he couldn’t see. “Why are you covering your eyes? You think I’m gonna flash you again?”
“Well, I didn’t want to take the chance, see” Garp said, laughing a little. He took his hand off his face, and smiling down at her “Bahahaha, I’m not going to let you get one over on me again. I don’t want Tsuru to leave me out to dry if she found out I was peeking at some young girl.”
Yoruichi was a little surprised, ‘This Tsuru must be terrifying if he isn’t even going to take the chance. Then again, he is old, so he probably cant feel anything down there anyway.’ She thought, a little miffed at his comment. She put her hands on her hips, and asked “What do you want, Jiji.”
Garp pouted a bit at the jab but smiled at her anyways and said “Well I thought you’d want to know that we’re almost to Goa. Probably another hour. Then I can introduce you to my Grandson.” Garp smiled, with a truly happy grin on his face.
Yoruichi thought for a second, then nodded. “Thank you for letting me know, Jiji. You can stop standing in my door now.”
“Ok, well see you in a bit” Garp replied, then turned to walk away.
‘Probably to go put some orders into his crew’ Yoruichi thought, closing the door, and turning back into the room.
“Might as well do some recon” she said, talking to herself. “Wonder if I should start with the rich, or poor areas…... Heh. Rich is always better. If my experience with Byakuya-boyo is anything to go by, annoying nobles is a truly great pastime.” Yoruichi rubbed her hands together, grinning slyly. They’re never going to know what hit them.