Unfinished Gems

Soul Brothers - 15

Yoru could feel the power of the Ouin. And it felt so familiar. Like a friend he hadn't seen in a long time.

Something inside him began to pulse in time with the Ouin. Cheshire couldn't function around the Ouin's power. It was similar enough to his own, and more powerful.

It could easily supersede his ability to move across worlds.

And then, just as quickly as it had begun, the power faded. Yoru opened his eyes to find that they were on Sokyoku Hill.

Toshiro, who was standing next to him, gasped in shock.

Yoru, who's eyes were always an emerald green, were now a bright gold. Almost the exact same shade as the Ouin itself.

Kusaka smirked, and explained the full power of the Ouin. Suddenly things started to make a little more sense to Toshiro.

"Yoru...you're synchronizing with the Ouin!" said Toshiro.

"No surprise there, Toshiro. After all, most of my powers actually come from the Ouin itself."

That was news to them.

"What are you talking about, brat?" demanded Kusaka.

Yoru had a shit eating smirk as he said calmly, "You're not the only one who was reborn thanks to the Ouin. A long time ago, I naively took that glorified paperweight into my hands. It reacted to my reiatsu, and forced me to reincarnate. Thanks to that, I've been lost in the stream of souls for four hundred years."

"Yoru...You're...?"

"Who I was before is nothing to who I am now. I am Yoru Shihoin, and I don't give a damn what some old geezers seem to think."

Kusaka didn't seem the least bit surprised that he was the second person to be revived by the Ouin.

"Who were you before?"

Yoru laughed coldly.

"Who I was before makes your little rebellion insignificant. I know for a fact that if the soutaicho ever suspected who I was, then my peaceful days would be over in a heartbeat. All that matters is that I am willing to...assist...you in finally having a fight without a single interruption this time."

Kusaka sneered at him.

"You two may as well get on with it. The other captains will be arriving very shortly if you don't hurry."

Yoru could feel them rushing to the hill. Kusaka was so like his brother in that he wasn't subtle.

Or maybe he wanted an audience to witness his final demise. Perhaps to leave the soul society with the lesson they so desperately needed.

As the soul reapers appeared, Yoru was struck with the difference between the soul society and the magical society. It was as plain as night and day to him.

The Soul Society accepted battle as a way of life and embraced it. They never deluded themselves in thinking that they would become evil by killing an enemy. If something was trying to kill them, they didn't waste time in fighting back.

The magical society he knew and once loved was backward. They were so afraid of change that they opposed it with a violent fervor. People who could help bring them back into the light of day were scorned, ridiculed and ostracized without qualm. They were so dependent on ideas which had died hundreds of years ago that they were slowly killing themselves with each generation. And when challenged by an opposing force, they hid in fear like ostriches.

In short, they were rather pathetic and weak.

Yoru blinked. That thought had not come from his mind. There was only one place it could have come from, and it wasn't Ichigo.