|
|
Post by Hideyoshi Ryouma on Nov 1, 2024 1:53:18 GMT -6
Hideyoshi turned to face her again, his rage replaced by a gentle smile again. “Don’t take that tone with me, Yumiko. Is it wrong for me to want to communicate with my sister that the Gotei robbed me of?”
“The Gotei didn’t take me away from the family, Hideyoshi.”
His soft demeanor vanished. “The Gotei was responsible for retrieving you from the bane of these realms, Aizen the traitor captain, but they did not. Who else should I blame?” He looked over her shoulder to the garden. “If they had completed the job set before them, we wouldn’t be in this situation we are in now.”
|
|
|
|
Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Nov 5, 2024 23:20:27 GMT -6
Yumiko stood up. “And what situation is that, Hideyoshi? What does the Ryouma Clan Head see in this?”
“If you’re going to address me as such, you should remain at the table,” he responded, voice stiff. “You were taught better.”
Yumiko folded her hands before her. “Whether I am seated at your behest or standing before you, I took this position to ask you a question. I won’t take it back.” Somewhere in the back of her mind, her heart thudded against her eardrums, and her eyes itched, feeding on the rising tension.
Something flickered in his eyes as he faced off with her. “So much about you has changed, ever since you disappeared into that cursed realm.” He took a step towards her. “And I’m no longer a boy listening to your instruction. I’m the leader of the clan. Your defiance is an insult to me and to father.”
Yumiko stared back at her brother for a few moments in silence before she closed her eyes and sighed. “Sometimes, it is important to learn the truth to move forward.” She bowed her head. “Insult or not, I must insist.”
|
|
|
|
Post by Hideyoshi Ryouma on Nov 5, 2024 23:22:26 GMT -6
Hideyoshi huffed. “Since you persist with this, I’ll honor your wish.” He waited for her to rise. “I see a disobedient sister who has forsaken her training to happiness for another bold reason that I do not understand nor do I believe that I need to understand. You’re nothing like the sister I remember who raised me in the place of our sick mother. Making mistake after mistake, you've never came back. You never stayed by my side.” He turned around again, folding his arms to look over the garden.
His anger subsided. “Even if I made the first mistake, you were still my elder sister. I should never have made that birthday wish, but you should have come back from the confinement. You shouldn’t have been that weak.”
|
|
|
|
Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Nov 5, 2024 23:47:25 GMT -6
Yumiko’s heart twisted at his words, and she called out to the boy she’d raised. “Yoshi-” She stopped immediately when he jolted, fearing she’d overstepped.
Hideyoshi spun around at the mention of his childhood name. “Don’t call me that.”
She swallowed and nodded.
He cleared his throat. “What was the point of asking this? I told you that I want to forget about the past and move forward. Despite how little I know you, it still seems a foolish move on your part.”
Yumiko remained silent for a few moments before responding in a low, even tone. “When I came here, I didn't expect you to give me any chance to communicate with you. But you gave me a small opening, so I wanted to hear your reasoning. Even if you blamed me, it would be better to know now than to wonder about it at a later time."
|
|
|
|
Post by Hideyoshi Ryouma on Nov 6, 2024 0:21:12 GMT -6
He scoffed. “Would you even? You’ve barely sent any word here since you left to the Ukitake estate. It’s a wonder you haven’t married into the family, been adopted even, and thrown the Ryouma title aside. Does it even matter now?
She met his gaze. “It does. If I didn’t carry the Ryouma name, I’m not sure I would have made it through the confinement’s darkness without losing my loyalty to this realm.”
Hideyoshi’s back stiffened. “You dare?!” She smiled back at him, but it was a sad small thing that hid nothing of her pain and suffering. Even if he was still half in shock. His expression darkened. “Enough! You’ve changed enough. Stop talking about the nonsense of the past. It serves no more purpose here.” He doubted he would hold to his course of action if she continued this kind of discussion. It exposed too much weakness. “I’ve answered your question, so now I demand that you answer mine.”
|
|
|
|
Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Nov 6, 2024 0:50:57 GMT -6
Yumiko calmed her expression as her brother spoke. Eyes dry from closing them again, she nodded. “I will answer you, but I will not follow them blindly.”
He huffed and indicated the table where they both returned. He rang for more tea after making a face at its lukewarm taste. Yumiko finished her own in silence as she waited. When the maid had left them again, he drank deeply before turning to her once more.
“What do you want from your life? If you will not seek a marriage, what will you offer the family?”
Yumiko looked to her lap, having expected something to this degree since the day she had received his first missive. “Hideyoshi- Brother, there are very few in your circle of eligible nobles who will want anything do with such a meeting with me. Even if you hid what happened the first year, it’s been years since. I’m cursed in the street. Everyone knows that part of my life. Marriage, as you would seek to fulfill it, will never be something I can offer the Ryouma family.” Her eyes lifted to her brother’s.
His expression was guarded. “Then you’ll enter the Gotei?”
She looked down again. “I don’t know. Right now, I am not welcome there either but for select good souls. After the tragedy they’ve suffered, I will not make it worse by seeking a path there.”
She said nothing about the bitterness that she swallowed back each day. Its presence was her ghost alone.
|
|
|
|
Post by Hideyoshi Ryouma on Nov 6, 2024 1:06:15 GMT -6
Hideyoshi set his cup down. “So you’ll volunteer there as if you were a common nurse, but you won’t join them?” he pressed. “What’s the point of being somewhere you’re not wanted? When it's beneath you? Tell me, what does it do for you?
She bit her lip before correcting herself. “For now, it helps me sleep at night, and maybe it helps me clear my mind for the future."
For a moment, only one, her brother considered putting a flower with a spider in its petals behind her ear.
He sneered at himself as he drank more tea. “I will be taking a wife soon. I’ve waited long enough, and that is the best course of action I can take to strengthen the family and the realm. Moreover, the family I marry will become eligible for the new seats at Central when the season turns. That is enough reason for a gentleman to marry you as his second wife. But if you won’t consider it, then you should come back here.” She looked up at him. “You can work in the archives beneath the estate and take care of our laws. It will give you a purpose and it will honor our ancestors. It will also make implementation of new-”
“I won’t.”
Hideyoshi's eyes narrowed at the interruption. "What do you mean?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Nov 6, 2024 1:29:19 GMT -6
Yumiko slid her cup away from herself, her appetite completely gone. “I will find a path for myself that will not dishonor our family anymore than my previous failures, but I will not protect the laws of Central 46.” Her voice hardened. “The very same laws that saw me confined for decades. The very reason I fell prey to Aizen Sousuke in the first place.”
“Stop!" Hideyoshi demanded, throwing a hand down against the table. "You will not lay the blame for yours — and the Gotei’s weaknesses — at the feet of the laws our ancestors and family members have lived to build and protect!” he hissed. “I forbid it!”
She rose to her feet. “I’ll apologize to our father and to you, perhaps to our ancestors even, but the only way I will do any more honor to those ancient laws is if the new Central implements some severe changes or tears down the whole thing to start anew. I lost too much, and I am not the only one to suffer from them."
“Blasphemy!" he shouted. "You were allowed your zanpakuto, potentially one of the most powerful in this generation! Why else do you think you got it?! You refuse all other paths!”
Yumiko looked down to Mizue no Kagami and clasped her hand around it. “To break free of the illusions around me? Around us? I honestly don’t know why now but I will find out. I have to."
|
|
|
|
Post by Hideyoshi Ryouma on Nov 6, 2024 1:36:04 GMT -6
Hideyoshi stared at her. “You’re utterly mad. The laws of Central are our sacred duty! If you’re going to cast shame on them, then you have no-” He halted and looked down at his cup. “Leave this house and consider your words carefully. It was a mistake to offer such a position to you.” He could not cast out his sister completely. “Go!” he shouted. “Don’t come back until you’ve thought of a thorough apology!” He half expected Yumiko would leave the same way she had before, in a flurry of razor sharp petals, but she did not. Her tone once again level, she bowed her head. “I hope you find a good wife, Hideyoshi-sama, and that you care for her.” That was all and then she was gone. Hideyoshi pulled out a piece of paper from his sleeve and then crushed it, calling for the servants to clear the table. The sight of the setup was making him sick. Moved |
|
