What is Family

She sat there in the sunlight, her black hood covering her red scaled face, as she looked at the ground, her eyes feeling heavy and her breath slowing to a near crawl. It had been five days since she had last slept, but she had to stay awake, keep going, keep pushing herself. It had been a long five days. She ahd spent them searching for her lost ones, her lost family. She had started in the rukongai 80th district and had gone all the way to the 5th. When that didnt pan out, she had searched elsewhere. However, she found nothing.

“They are not in the Soul Society...That much is clear. Which leaves me with Hueco Mundo, and the Human Realm.....It will be dangerous in Hueco Mundo....but even more so in the Human Realm...The political climate and tensions would make it difficult to move around undetected and without causing trouble. If only I had someone to help me”

Neya said this out-loud, as well as silently in her mind. She looked around, and observed the environment around herself. She was in the 45th district of the Rukongai, sitting on the steps of her own small shambling home. It was a simple place, nothing more than a small almost shack like house. Bakumatsu period. The roof was thatched, and the walls wooden. There were two small steps. On the left side, another house of identical build was practically almost merged with her own. On the right, there was a small alley way, with another house on the far side of the alley.

It was a quiet day. There were no children running about and causing noise as usual. Neya's gaze shifted to the ground beneath her. Her eyes grew heavy, and they closed.


Screams. Thousands, hundreds of screams. Bodies piled upon bodies. All around herself, Neya bore witness to the carnage and savagery of war. A young person stood in front of her, a bow of energy formed. It was kill or be killed. The young woman had green eyes, and white hair. Her white clothes were stained in the blood of other shinigami, people that Neya had trained with and grown close to. There was no doubt, this woman had to die. If not for her orders, then for her friends. But Neya questioned the orders given to her.

“You are to kill all quincy you contact. Men, Women, and children. They all must die, for the preservation of the Soul Society and of the balance of the World!!”

These were the orders she, alongside all members of the Gotei Thirteen had been given by the Captain Commander. However, Neya did not follow them to the letter. She refused to kill children, and women who were with child. Her counterparts however, were not as merciful. They killed anyone marked, dressed, or appearing as a quincy. Had this one not confronted her, Neya would have let this one go. She appeared sickly, and Neya had seen her with a child before hand. She ahd no wish to kill her if the child was still around.

“I saw you with the child. We do not have to do this. We do not have to fight! Just turn and run away, and you can live!! “

There was nothing but a cold glare from the woman. Her eyes weren’t staring at Neya. They were staring through her. She had already made up her mind. She was going to kill this shinigami that stood before her, to protect what was left of her family. Neya knew from the look on her face that she was wiling to give her life for her family. Neya understood that. Despite her dislike of the male shinigami, Neya felt that some of them were her family. And she understood fully the want to protect.

The want for vengeance was now seeping into her as well. Those slain were friends, allies, comrades...family. They had to be avenged, if only for their memory. Neya raised her Zanpakto, a sakabato in sealed state and sighed with a weighted heart.

“You have killed members of my “family”. And I most likely yours. We both want the same thing, to kill the other. Our survival depends on one or the other dying. So just know: I shall not let you kill me!”

The quincy said nothing, and drew her bow. Neya rushed forward, and the quincy released an arrow. Using her wings, Neya pushed herself in the air before the arrow hit, and with a stroke of the sword in her hands, released a bolt of ice, and the quincy quickly dodged to the left.

Spoiler:

Her foe then, unexpectedly waited for Neya to land, and then with a sword like weapon stabbed her in the stomach. As the pain wracked her body, she released a scream.


And this is when Neya awoke, screaming in agony, clenching her side where the quincy had stabbed her with that strange weapon. The silence had been broken by the scream, and some of the residents had run outside to see the source. Neya realized now where she was. She was no longer int hat forgotten battle ground. But now, home, in the soul society, laying in the dirt of the Rukongai,clenching her side and surrounded by those that lived on the same road as her.

“are you alright miss? What is the matter?” one of the concerned people asked.

She didnt answer. She merely rose, brushed the dust off of her uniform, and walked off into the small alley, the people in the street calling after her. She ignored them, and didnt want to answer their questions. It wasnt a nightmare she had.....It had been a memory from long past that she had repressed. She was glad it had happened there in the Rukongai though, for if it had happened in the squad 5 barracks, she would have been carted off to the squad 4 hospital and been examined. Neya turned into a smaller back alley that was behind her own home, and leaned against the wall that would be the back wall of her bedroom. She opened her uniform, and looked down at her side. The scar from where she had been stabbed was there, the scales still tarnished and damaged. Sighing heavily, neya turned and climbed into the window of her own home, and once inside, collapsed on her bedroll. She laid there until dusk,then arose and went back outside, and began to wander the districts.

It was a moonless night that night, as she wandered. She had made it to the 15th district by now, and she sat on a barrel in the road to rest, and produced a small package from her robes. Unwrapping it, it was a parcel of food, mostly sweet buns and dumplings covered in sugar. She smiled with some fashion of delight and slowly ate the small ration in her hands. The houses here were a fair bit nicer. They were better spaced out, and the roads were more coherent, and the houses all had tiled roofs, and glass windows.

“I wonder what squad was given the patrol for this section of the east. Usually is seven or eight I hear...oh well...as long as it isnt me....just sitting here is kind of making me feel uncomfortable. I prefer the thirty fifth to the sixty fifth districts...at least there, everyone is equal and just striving to survive...but here in the upper twenty...the rich get richer and poor get poorer. There is no true equality.”

This was supposed to stay a silent thought but she spoke it aloud without realizing and sighed heavily, finishing her small snack and standing, She continued to wander the streets. Then, once she reached the 5th district, she felt as if she were being followed. In fact she had felt this way since the 13th, but shrugged it off as paranoia. But now, it was a gut feeling. Someone was following her. And no matter who it was, neya did not like to be followed.

So, she did what anyone would do when followed. She ran. She ran as fast and as hard as her tired body could take her. She ran for 10 minutes, before reaching her limit, and collapsed at the entrance to a small market. She lay there, completely spent, and exhausted, as the sound of footprints carried closer. In front of her eyes flashed the scene from her memory, The face of the quincy who had stabbed her staring at her. The pain in her eyes and sorrow staring back at her.

Neya's vision flickered between that face, and the ground before her. She began to cry softy, whispering,

“i'm sorry”

as she remembered then what she had done to save herself. She ahd used her fire breath, and incinerated the woman's head. Neya could only now hear the woman's screams in place of the footsteps getting closer. She grabbed her head and cringed. Each step was a scream. Each scream was a reminder of that moment. Of the sight of burnt flesh, the scent of it. Her body was exhausted. Her mind was starting to break. A pair of feet stood before her, and neya only could whisper “im sorry” before fading into unconsciousness