Welcome Respite

Rukongai was full of culture and rich with people dreams and actions. It takes one man or woman to achieve great things to alter the culture and nature. Oh what joy it brings when happiness arose in the heart of community! Oh what tears had wrought when despair blackens the heart of men and women alike! For some district, a children’s smile was priceless or from another district – strength and wealth. Even under the watchful eyes of soul society and the nobles that with their restless scrutiny, their arrival of peace was met.


Their world is shared under one, endless landscape. His world was far detached from the boon of community.

In a world so far away, at the end of a closing day, there lived a giant of a man. His identity was marred with oddity, ‘why that old man wears a skirt?’ The youth enquired the mother. ‘I want that hat,’ another line from one of many stories, It’s amazing how a simple grey bonnet hat can make the young glee. The parents, though, tarred the giant of a man with curses, ‘you go back to the forest,’ their response as they reeled in the child. Words and people are like fire and wind - Just one word and many will huff and puff. But the giant oddity cares not for the word of the adults. After all, the fire brought ruin to the forest had receded; seedlings sprout from the wilderness, paving the way for the future.


A little child was born and raised, deep in the forest on the hidden place, was the giant vivid memories of his past life. He was long since made aware of it, ever since he was found himself on the edge of the forest in the new land. Fate gave him a forked road to decide and if he ever was made to decide a thousand times, a thousand times more he decided to distance from the community and reside in the woodlands which so many chose to fear. Stones he searched and reaped from the earth to craft the abode fit for the humbling giant. With no cries of denial from man, he claimed the land by the stream as his sanctuary for his truly and those who wandered into the forest.


Deep in the forest, a hidden place, a snap of the twig and disturbance stirred the elderly man into flowing. No matter their arrival - be it their speedy breach or unnatural approach that deviates time and space, a foot on the land and he will know but he will not stir with hostility. Rooted next to the stump outside his home, the kilt wearing man with a silver bushy beard swung the long handled axe down to the wood, splitting with vigour. The weathered look billows out the gust of wind as he jerked the axe off from the stump. Again, he overexerted. Even with the strength of ten men he knows the stump will hold. He stood upright with the axe head clunked to the ground. His hands were on the tip of the lacquered handle. Being shy of seven foot, his towering posture is striking, and the outline of his broad chest is still visible even with layers of fabrics with dark green wool jacket holding them all inside. The full pleated plaid coiled around his chest and over the left shoulder, eludes the kind-hearted presence he wished. Actions, not appearance are what define a man.


Mother never saw his face. The fleet footed Shinigami would be the first person who visited in a long while. The last was a young orphan who misplaced himself in the forest. The pup tears reached the kind hearted giant, he soared through the forest fast enough, for though the forest is peaceful, it still holds the beast that feasts on the weak. The boy survived and stayed before departing. That had been a half century ago since he last saw the boy. Coins were his attraction for he was clutching to one as if life was depending on it. The giant still wishes him good health and luck, nay matter his intention was good or evil.


Hello was the stranger’s response. The giant acknowledged with a bellowing voice, but the kindness in his words - he believed that no person is lost.


“Hello friend! I will prepare the dinner.”


They are simply visiting.

When you got greeted, by a complete stranger, with such a warm, welcoming attitude and the promise of food, you couldn’t help but smile. Neither could Shun, in that instance. How often in all of these adventures had he found that kind of a welcoming attitude or atmosphere?

“Oh, please, don’t trouble yourself,” Shun insisted with a wave of his hand. “As much as I appreciate the offer, I don’t want to impose.”

Twigs snapped as Shun took a few more steps into the clearing, towards the humble home of log and plank. The man had been sitting just outside of it, wearing what seemed to be traditional Rukongai garb, even though he was nowhere near it. One thing was certain to Shun, though: He definitely looked the part of the forest-dwelling man.

As he looked around the rest of the clearing, he noticed how relatively need and organized the whole thing seemed. Despite being way out here, he seemed to be a fully functional and surprisingly social—if brief—person. Perhaps he only lived here, and visited the Rukongai for interaction, supplies, and food, more often than this all suggested?

It must have been quite the walk. How many times did he himself venture out this far, back in his own Rukongai? Shun certainly didn’t think it was more than ten, in his hundreds of years as a Shinigami.

“If it wouldn’t trouble you, I’d like to ask something else,” Shun offered once he was closer to the man and neither of them needed to shout, to speak.

“I’d like to talk with you. I have some very general questions that I’m in need of answers for.”

Although someone who lived beyond even the furthest outskirts of Rukongai was hardly the best source of information, it would have been easier than making his way back to the Rukongai or, worse, using his powers to transport himself there instantaneously.

That would quite possibly draw the attention of an unfriendly Seireitei, or knock out anyone who happened to be in the area, due to exposure to his Bankai for even the briefest of moments. The last thing Shun needed, as he had learned time and time again, was to devastate yet another world with his carelessness and narrow-minded approach to life.

More and more, he cursed Consequence—Tokiyo Fujikagi—for being so right, yet again.

“I’d like to learn about this place,” Shun explained, with a smile. “I know I look like a Shinigami, in this outfit, but I’m not from around here. If that’s not something you could help with, or too much trouble, I won’t bother you any further.”

*****

440 Words