Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 122 - Izuru Kira — Words Unspoken

"Sorry! I didn't mean it like that!" The blond man stepped forward with a hurried apology. Wayne's blindfold covered his eyes, and the darkness made it impossible to read the man's face. But he could feel the man's Reiatsu, gentle, without a trace of ill intent.

"I was just surprised to run into a blind person out here at this hour. Are you lost, sir?"

"You weren't listening." Wayne's expression darkened. "I said your wild slashing and shouting in there scared off all my prey."

"Ah — I'm terribly sorry!" The man bowed on the spot. He didn't carry himself like a noble at all. Or perhaps it was precisely because he was a noble that he had this kind of bearing and grace.

"If apologies worked, I wouldn't be going hungry!" Wayne kept his tone flat and irritated. "Who are you? Why are you out here in the forest this late at night... practicing swordsmanship?" He tilted his ear as if listening. In truth, he could see everything perfectly clearly.

"I — my name is Izuru Kira. I'm a noble's son, living in the Seireitei."

"Oh~ a noble scion." The words came out sardonic, but inwardly Wayne was caught off guard.

Izuru Kira. Future lieutenant of the 3rd Division. What were the odds of running into him here? And he was out here practicing swordsmanship, was it for the entrance exam a few months away?

Wayne turned it over in his mind. He was pretty sure Izuru Kira was in the same year as Rukia Kuchiki, Renji, Momo, and the rest. Which meant this guy had about three months before the exam. He might even end up being a classmate.

Wayne clicked his tongue. That made things a little harder to play.

"A noble scion, all the way out here. Aren't you worried about Hollows at this hour?"

"Well..." Izuru Kira scratched the back of his head, something helpless flickering in his eyes. "Truth is, I snuck out."

"Oh?" Wayne raised an eyebrow.

"My entire family expects me to pass the Shin'ō Academy entrance exam and become a Soul Reaper. To bring glory to the family name. Honestly, the pressure has been immense."

"How so?"

"In my family, the elders have been Soul Reapers for generations. My generation is expected to carry that forward. But after the previous head — my grandfather — passed away, my father was ambushed by a rival family and left with a hidden illness. That was the beginning of our decline." Izuru Kira's gaze dimmed. "So the burden of restoring the family's glory has fallen on me. My Reiatsu is above average among my peers at home, but personally, I don't think my abilities are that strong. I have very little confidence in myself. That's why I snuck out here to practice my swordsmanship alone."

Good grief, the Soul Reaper arc's saddest case, right here. Wayne sighed internally, then said, "I appreciate your honesty. But is it really a good idea to tell a complete stranger all of this?"

"I... ah." Izuru Kira exhaled. "Maybe it's because I've had this bottled up for too long. I just wanted to say it out loud to someone. Either way, I'm truly sorry for disturbing your hunt." As he spoke, he jogged over to a tree stump and picked up his bag.

He opened it and took out a box, a packed meal he'd prepared for himself. When the lid came off, Wayne saw three rice balls, a pork cutlet, and two pieces of tempura.

"Please take these as an apology for interrupting your hunt." Izuru Kira returned to Wayne's side, bowed, and held out the lunch box with both hands.

"Mm... that's more like it." Wayne accepted the box and ran his hand over the top, feigning his way through sensing the food inside.

"Then I'll accept it." He tucked the lunch box away. As he turned to leave, he paused. "If there's nothing else, you should head back soon. Hollows do show up in this area from time to time. Judging from the sound of your swings just now, your swordsmanship still has a long way to go. It could get you killed."

"Eh?" Izuru Kira blinked. This blind man had judged his swordsmanship just from listening? Was he some kind of hidden master? "I, I'd still like to practice here a while longer. Sir, could you offer me a few pointers?"

"Pointers are out of the question. I don't even have a proper sword." Wayne gestured at the watermelon knife at his side, then shook his head. "If you want to master swordsmanship, start with the basics. Your lower body isn't stable enough to draw power from the ground. Your arms aren't agile or strong enough to control the angle of your cuts. And your focus wavers. Drawing your blade like that, someone can lock onto your presence before you've even steadied your mind. As the saying goes: long weapons are wielded by the haft, short weapons by the arm. With long weapons, advance and retreat rely on the spirit in the hands; with short weapons, advance and retreat require nimble feet. Without solid form and footwork, you'll never truly master the blade in your hands."

"Long weapons are wielded by the haft, short weapons by the arm..." Izuru Kira turned the words over slowly, but their full meaning stayed just out of reach. "Sir, could you explain that a little further?" He stepped forward at once, as if he'd just spotted a door he couldn't afford to let close.

"Don't fixate on the blade yet." Wayne waved a hand. "First, build the strength and flexibility in your arms. Then work on your footwork. After that, we can talk about sword intent." He turned away. "Consider this your thanks for the meal. Don't come back tomorrow, I'll be hunting here again." And with that, he walked off into the dark like some wandering eccentric, leaving the clearing behind.

"With long weapons, advance and retreat rely on the spirit in the hands; with short weapons, advance and retreat require nimble feet..." Izuru Kira recited the words under his breath. Then his gaze steadied. He snatched up his bag, burst out of the forest, and sprinted hard toward the Seireitei.

Wayne let out a slow breath. "Now that was a well-played performance."

Once Izuru Kira was gone, Wayne stepped out from the shadow of the trees. Everything he'd just said was trivia he'd dug up out of personal interest two lifetimes ago. He hadn't expected it to land so well on the kid.

He'd also planted a seed tonight, let Izuru Kira know he didn't have a proper sword. If the boy wanted to come back for more guidance, he'd almost certainly show up next time with a standard-issue katana in hand.

Feels like I just got a free sword. The corner of Wayne's mouth tugged upward. He made his way back to where he'd set his traps, opened the lunch box, and began working through his free meal at a leisurely pace.

The rest of the night came and went without much to show for it. Two squirrels and a single salmon, that was the full haul. But counting what Izuru Kira had given him, the night had turned out to be a decent profit.

Wayne finished every last bite of the lunch, gathered up his game, and headed home. Thin catches, but enough to eat tomorrow.

He slipped back into the house quietly and set the pushcart aside. Besides the game, he'd hauled back another load of soil and two wild carrots, roots and all, soil still clinging to them. His plan was to break ground on a second test plot and find out whether this soil could actually grow vegetables.

By the time he finished transplanting the two carrots, the sky had gone pale and the sun was just cresting the horizon. Momo stirred awake at the soft sounds coming from the yard.

"Good morning, big brother." She shuffled out with a yawn.

"Morning, Momo." Wayne was scooping water from the yard's storage jar with a ladle, washing his hands one scoop at a time. Digging a well in the yard was starting to feel necessary.

District One wasn't too far from a water source, so groundwater should be reachable. And the soil at Shiro-chan's place nearby clearly had decent growing capacity, which suggested the chances of striking water here were reasonably good.

No surveying equipment meant guesswork. Wayne figured he'd try digging somewhere near the large tree in the yard and see what happened.

"Momo, those are today's spoils over there. Not a lot, but I'll need you to prep them. The new plot is already set up, so leave it alone. Once the food is dealt with, head over to Shiro-chan's place and help with the melon field. I need to sleep."

"Mm, okay, big brother~" Momo's eyes brightened seeing that another night's work had come back with results. She bounced off to deal with the food.

Wayne lay down and began drawing the rich Reishi he'd taken in through the night inward, refining it. Noble family provisions, in both flavor and Reishi density, the quality was in a different league from anything he could buy off the street.

"Maybe... I've just found myself a steady income stream?" He said it with a dry, self-aware laugh.

Running into Izuru Kira tonight had been a happy accident. Since arriving in the Rukongai, Wayne had now crossed paths with three figures from the main storyline, not counting his encounters with Aizen and the others back when he'd still been a Hollow.

Izuru Kira's appearance had opened a new door. He didn't have to spend the entire three months farming. He could freeload off the nobles. If he could leverage Izuru Kira to build connections in noble circles, replenishing Reiatsu would practically solve itself.

He'd have to offer something in return, of course. Sword instruction, combat experience, that sort of thing. Wayne's own combat strength was still bottom-tier... well. Slightly above bottom-tier.

Against the official squad members, his current Reiatsu still wasn't enough. He'd probably lose to a seated officer, let alone a captain.

He let his mind drift through future possibilities while the Reiatsu condensed inside him. Short-term, he'd be heading back to that forest every single day for the next week. Not for hunting. For the chance to run into Izuru Kira again and score another free meal.

Gradually, sleep pulled him under.

In the dream, he was back in that desert. Vast and empty. A bright moon hung in the sky. On the pale dunes, the faces of his former comrades-in-arms watched him from a distance, Nel, Jekain, Timd, Harribel.

Then, before he could take a single step toward them, they vanished. All of them, swallowed by a world cracking apart at the seams. A blade punched through his chest. And Aizen's cold, thin smile filled his vision.

"Ah—!" Wayne jolted upright, sweat running in thick beads down his face.

"Hah..." He sat there for a long moment until his breathing steadied. The dream had dragged his former comrades back to the surface. And it had carved Aizen's name one notch deeper into the bone of his hatred.

He glanced at the water-bamboo hourglass on the shelf. Just past noon, by the looks of it. Momo was nowhere in the room, she'd already gone to Shiro-chan's place, most likely.

No point lying back down. Wayne got up, pulled on his outer clothes, and walked out into the yard.

On the stone platform, all that was left of the two squirrels were the tanned pelts. The meat, the fat, and the small salmon had already been taken to Shiro-chan's. Wayne shook his head at how fast Momo worked through a prep job and headed over.

"Big Brother Tsukishiro, you're here." He arrived in under ten minutes. Shiro-chan was perched at the yard entrance, attacking a watermelon with aggressive bites. Inside the house, Momo sat with Granny, both of them bent over sewing. The clothes Momo had brought back yesterday were too large, and Granny was taking them in.

"Big brother, you're up." Momo came out to meet him. "Granny's helping me with my clothes. You haven't eaten yet, have you? Let me get you something."

"No need, Momo." Wayne waved her off. "We're not human anymore. Three meals a day isn't something we need. I'm not hungry yet."

"Eh? Oh, right." She thought about it for a second, then stuck out her tongue. "Ever since big brother started going to the forest, I feel like we've never had to worry about food. These past couple of days eating so well, it's made me want to have meals together all the time."

"Wanting to eat is a good sign. It means your Reiatsu is growing fast. You might get very strong before long." Wayne ruffled her hair.

"Bed-wetting Momo's turning into glutton Momo," Shiro-chan called from across the yard.

Momo turned scarlet and chased him around the yard at full tilt.

"Haha. They really are just two kids." Wayne tilted his ear, listening to the two of them race and squabble, a quiet smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. A warm little family like this, it really wasn't so bad.

"Little Tsukishiro." Granny's voice dropped low as she watched the two children from inside. "Momo's told me a little about what you've been up to these past couple of days." She paused. "Granny knows your eyes are fine, but still, be careful out there. I was on the street yesterday and heard that lately, down in the districts below District Sixty, a lot of souls have been disappearing. Gone without a trace, like they evaporated. Their clothes are left behind, but the people are just gone. No one knows where. The Gotei 13 has already started looking into it, but so far there are no leads."

"Souls disappearing?" Wayne's brow drew together.

His mind turned it over quietly.

Could it be Aizen again?

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