The Wind that Blows to You [Kizuna, Nelliel]

The overwhelming majority of what people knew about Kizuna was simply that she was a woman of violence. That was true, and she wouldn't argue it. She liked to fight so people would become strong, but that was the real motivation behind it. Other people growing into more than they were now. Becoming something greater.

That kind of growth didn't start in a vacuum. It began with the youth, with the children who would grow to have ambitions and desires beyond just being weak-willed husks with no future. And that was why Kizuna, in her time between drunken revelry and personal research, when she needed funding or simply when the urge struck her, worked to teach those youth. The schoolday had finished, and it would be the weekend after this; two days she would fill with more dangerous sorts of work and study.

"Hey kiddo, don't forget your homework Monday! You told me you'd get a 100 if I gave you the weekend, so I'm looking forward to reading it!"

Though there was undeniably a threat in those words, Kizuna offered it in a playful sort of challenging tone to the last of her students as he left, and only after the children had all gone from the small school in Brazil did her demeanor shift to its more usual. It might have been a vacation town, but people still had families, and kids still needed to learn shit. Letting out a long, exasperated sigh, she turned on one heel and got to walking. She'd need to find something interesting for the weekend...

And, her eyes and reikaku all too quickly seemed to give her some lead. That was a face she recognized from older records; at least, she was pretty sure it was. The mask fragment was more telling, but Kizuna wasn't going to lose her cool quite yet. She walked with a little more pep in her step toward the target in question, and when she got there, she spoke up in a somewhat overly energetic tone of voice.

"Yo! Are you actually the old Third? Ah, probably shouldn't call you that, sorry, I know it can be a touchy subject. Uh, Nelliel, right?"

Of course she would be excited. This was someone new that every record had said she should be impressed by.

She did wonder how Alex was getting along with finding the old man he spoke to her about. At first she thought it would be best to let him go alone and she would stay to watch the children. Ninsianna seemed fine with doing it though so it became harder to justify not coming. It did concern her that they might be taking advantage of the poor woman though, being a single mother was hard, she preferred to try and assist by taking the two girls where she could. It was nice at least to depend on each other, a strange kind of cooperative parenting that existed between the two households.

That wasn't why she was here though. Part of her did want to investigate the arrancar presence and to determine if Ichigo was here, only it was not Ichigo that she found but a peppy woman with a zany way of speech. She spoke so casually but was not dressed like that and Nelliel took a step back to keep an arms length between them. It was just a lot she was saying at once for coming out of nowhere. This woman knew of her but the former Espada couldn't say the same.

"Aha. That's me. Who are you exactly?"

It really was her! Oh, that was incredible! Kizuna's expression seemed to light up all the more at that particular confirmation, holding out a hand for the woman excitedly.

"Right, my bad, name's Kizuna Ishimaru! I wasn't really around for all that business back then, so no surprise you wouldn't have heard about me. Not like teachers go making names in the headlines."

Of course, Kizuna could have made headlines for plenty of other reasons, and she certainly wasn't stupid enough to think otherwise. But her actual day to day life was pretty plain. She was fairly certain that even normal humans lived a life not terribly different from her own.

"I'd heard a lot about you from some of the other people that were actually around for all that though. It true you were hanging out with that Ichigo kid?"

This was strange, especially nowadays it was very uncommon to be approached for this kind of talk about who she was a hundred years ago and the company she kept. Regardless she was correct to assume that Nelliel had never heard of this woman before. The name Kizuna Ishimaru wasn't one she'd ever heard.

"I did help Ichigo rescue his friend back then. That was a long time ago though."

She didn't have the same energy about the topic as this woman did. Nelliel was able to reflect on those times but she had things in the present that were important to her as well, she couldn't be overwhelmed by feelings of saudade.

However, she wasn't going to pretend that seeing an arrancar who was a teacher made sense. If she had to pick a human occupation that would probably be one that suited her well. Instead she had opted to be a baker and a housewife. It had been pretty fun though.

"That's pretty insane, to think you were right there. He must've been one hell of a kid."

But Kizuna could certainly tell that Nelliel wasn't interested in reminiscing on all that. Even if she would have liked to pick at her brain for a while, she wasn't so sure that it was going to be practical to get many answers out of her on that front. So she shifted her topic, willing to take the loss.

"So what brings someone like you here to Brazil? This is kinda a quiet part of the world, you know?"

There were a few possibilities, and all of them were potentially interesting.

"Ichigo Kurosaki. I want to know if he was here. Brazil is known to be a hotspot for arrancar travelling from Hueco Mundo to the Living World, so I wonder if he has came through here."

She didn't dance around the topic but Kizuna had provided her an avenue into it. Without knowing who Kizuna was or who she associated with it would be dangerous to explain that she had come here with her husband. Ah, that sounded just a little bit cynical for her didn't it? Maybe the loss of her brothers tempered her idealism over the years.

"Ahhh. I see, I see. Well, guess that does make sense, there's more of us around these parts than most places. I can't say I've ever heard of the kid being around these parts, though. Not really sure what's been sending him all over the place, but I guess whatever it is ain't really around here."

Of course, maybe that wasn't even true. Kizuna hadn't ever spoken with Ichigo, and by extension, she knew next to nothing about what he wanted. Maybe it was something that would put Brazil right into his line of fire, but she doubted that. Safira probably wouldn't have aligned herself with him so casually otherwise.

"Anything you think might be a sign he was around? I can wrack the brain, try and think if I'd have seen something."

Was that so? Then what was directing him. She wondered if it was similar to the last time. He acted in service of his friends and so if she assumed nothing had changed in that century then Nelliel wondered if it was the same motivation this time. They had all disappeared in the last century though, so she couldn't track down Inoue, Ishida, or Yasutora. If she could find Kuchiki or Abarai then she might have a lead...

"I don't think there would be anything here that might bring him here besides that... Hmm."

She said with a sigh of disappointment. The friends were the best leads, the only thing in South America that she imagined could bring him here was for their sakes.

"If he doesn't come here but other arrancar do. Do you know if he works with any other arrancar, perhaps?"

"Uh, hm. I dunno how accurate 'work with' is, but I know he's got some friends who do stuff for him sometimes. They just hit Soul Society with him, at any rate."

Was that a secret? Maybe. Probably not. Kizuna wasn't really one to keep secrets, though. They were just a way to hinder people, and if Nelliel was looking for Ichigo, that sounded like a far more compelling development in the world than simply sending the woman down some wild goose chase, anyway. Why should she hinder that progress?

"Half of the old First, the wolf girl. A fiery guy, kinda reddish yellow hair, real intense. Mm, there's a dark-skinned girl, lion ears, real crazy, intense in a different kind of way. There's Safira Aldrovandi, and then Criella, that ice witch in Hueco Mundo. Am I forgetting anyone? Like I said, I've never really talked to the guy, so I don't know who there actually knows him at all. Guess there's that little Klein twerp, too, but he's only out for himself, so he's not doing shit for Ichigo."

Honesty was, in almost all cases, Kizuna's policy. Being unhelpful was antithetical to progress.

What an eclectic bunch that she just said and an even more peculiar event. This woman seemed to have some insight into what he was up to though if she knew that much and so Nelliel pounced as she pressured for more information.

"And why did he and this group attack Soul Society, what for?"

It just didn't make any sense to her.