#kenpxchi

Happiness.

There was a time when she thought she was happy.  Killing warrior after warrior, bathing in entire battlefields worth of blood, personally slaying the champions of Soul Society’s enemies...at the time, she had thought herself quite happy with her life.  Even as her opponents slowly started to disappear and that dreadful, all-consuming boredom began to set in, she had only ever regarded the height of her slaughters as the happiest times of her life.  She had believed that with every fiber of her being.  She would have sworn to her grave that it was so.

Then she met him, and for one glorious moment, she realized she had never known the meaning of the word.  When her sword clashed against his, when their twin smiles were as wide as the moon, even as his blade plunged into her chest and she realized with trembling elation that he was stronger than her, she finally learned the meaning of joy.  It was magnificent.  Breathtaking.

And she ruined everything!

When she fully understood what she had done to him, she could barely contain her disgust.  Her weakness and incompetence had robbed him of his strength.  She had healed the boy as quickly as she could, but the damage was done; his great power was now a shadow of its former self, shackled forever by his fear of losing his treasured foe.  Her bile rose at thought that this was all her fault, that this magnificent man’s potential had been hobbled because she hadn’t been good enough!  And so, for the first and last time in her life, Unohana Yachiru did the unthinkable.

She ran.  Before the boy had the chance to awaken, she ran as far and as fast as her legs would carry her.  Yet no matter how far she fled, she could not escape her sin.  Realizing that she would never be able to forget her great failure, Unohana completely cast aside all she had been.  As far as Soul Society was concerned, that was the day that “Yachiru” had died, and it was the day that “Retsu” was born.

It had been so long since that day.  They had both gone through so much.  So many new faces had come and gone, so many foes had reared their heads and been felled.  But now, finally, in that pit, with clashing blade and beaming grin and booming laughter, when his blade once again pierced her chest in the same spot as before, she finally felt that glorious emotion again.

Happiness.

She was on the ground now.  Her strength was fading, and her life with it.  Yet, she was still so happy.  He was finally whole again.  She had finally given him the fight he’d deserved.  The sin of her past, finally atoned.  With this...yes, with this, she could-

“DON’T DIE!”

...Oh, honestly!  Even after all these years, even after regaining his true power, he was still such a hopeless child.  He didn’t even have the good sense to see her off in triumph?  Why couldn’t he at least win with a smile?

What if he damages himself again?

A small thought.  An unbidden thought.  An absolutely unforgivable thought.  Fury spread throughout Unohana’s every pore at the very notion that she might yet again put his potential in jeopardy.  Through the sheer strength of her scalding spite, she dragged the last reserves of reiatsu she had within her body and used as much of it as she could to heal the wound he had dealt.  It wasn’t enough to close it completely, unfortunately.  But perhaps, if he could stop blubbering and bothered to think for once, then Isane...

She barely had the thought before she slipped into the inky blackness of unconsciousness.  She wasn’t sure how long it lasted; it could have been decades, or it could have been seconds.  Whatever the reality was, she felt the unbidden sting of light pierce her eyelids.  This feeling...was she laying on one of the medical beds in the Fourth Division?  How had she gotten here?

           "Excuse me?" The McDonalds play place falls silent. No one dares to make a sound, as you have just said a very poor choice of words at a very dangerous time. I remain slumped over the ball pit, not looking back to you. One hand limply holding an almost empty bottle, the other hand cradling my head. I repeat the question, this time louder. "Excuse me?!" You can hear me slur the words, the sentence sounds like a real struggle for me to get out. I’m clearly not allowed to drink caffeinated beverages. A bead of sweat rolls down your face as you realize you might have just fucked up in a very major way. Everyone else in the McDonalds is pretending to not notice what is going on.

            The cashier idly washes the counter of ketchup with a cloth. His eyes are closed and he’s muttering something to himself. A handful of people leave because we’re being incredibly obnoxious and also you look like a pennywise rough draft. One person looks back at you, a look of sorrow on their face. They almost say something, but shake their head and cast their eyes down to the floor, and leave.

But not you.

              You stand, petrified. A quick look at me reveals I’m still  in the ball pit. You look to the exit, there’s still time. But there’s not, there’s not, there’s not. Your fate was sealed the moment you opened your mouth. "Mother fuck.. what did you say?!" I slowly rise from my cheap plastic grave and being to lumber over to you.  I look a mess. My hair is unkempt, I have never shaved in my life, there are dark heavy bags under my eyes, my shirt is stained and has holes in it, and I’m missing a shoe. But the main thing you notice is the GUN tucked into my shorts, and my massive muscle arms that look like they were made for punching. You know that song about the boots that were made for walking? Yeah, it’s like that only instead of boots it’s my muscles and instead of walking it’s punching.

              As I clumsily sway over to you, you think of your family (?) … Will they mourn you, or will they try and forget this blotch of stupidity, that their child insulted the Gremmy publicly, ever happened to their family? Your thoughts are cut short as I now stand face to face with you. I grab your face and pull you even closer. (i'm on my tippy toes) "Sassy?! There was nothing sassy… no sassy you fuck. I'm not lost… I was with someone... three someones... it was real.. the realest thing I’ve ever know.. felt… Love. I loved them… Blaiz…. Chas-Chas… Funk… I loved all three of em… but they… " My face is wet with tears and I’m blinking constantly in vain to hold them back.

            "They left me… left…" Almost instantly the sadness leaves my face and is replaced with pure anger. "Lost? Lost?!" My hand leaves your face and starts to head to what you think is the gun. You close your eyes and see God looking at you, shrugging. ‘Pft, you brought this upon yourself dude.’ He says as he waves his hands at you dismissively. You're totally used to this. But instead of the gun, my hands grab yours. Your eyes jolt open and the anger is gone from my face. There is only sadness. "they got boring so i exploded their heads like balloons" I fall to the floor and sob.

"Wow, grow up."

“  APPARENTLY ‘SKY - DIVING’ IS A FAIRLY POPULAR ACTIVITY   amongst humans! it’s when they jump out of airplanes flying thousands of feet above the earth and they jump! falling to their deaths! they don’t usually die of course because they have parachutes. I don’t think it would be very popular if they did die every time.   ”    an astute observation.    “   It’s popular among adrenaline junkie types~ I think they would get two times the adrenaline if they just jumped without anything else and prayed to their Gods that they won’t go splat!    ”

@kenpxchi​

places a yachiru next to kazui