Chapter 4: Moving on.
His talks with Yasaka and her daughter kept increasing in frequency. He told them about his family, his mother, his father and especially his sisters. Talking about them still brought a pang of pain in his heart and it probably won't be stopping anytime soon but, nonetheless he told them about his life and the friends he made along the way. The fights he had to go through and the reason for those fights. In turn, Yasaka told him about herself and her people. She talked about how she got the position of the leader, the challenges she faced to get to that position and what she had to deal with after she became the leader. It all sounded like a lot of work.
"You must know Ichigo-dono, that in this world, personal power is a very important factor. The reason many have what they have is mostly due to their personal power and their connection to other powerful beings. These two factors can either make or break a person's entire life." Yasaka told him during one of their talks.
"Is there no, I don't know, a central police force of some kind that controls these people?" If there wasn't, how was this world still existing? Yasaka shook her head and answered.
"Every faction has its own, police force as you said, but they usually only control their own faction. Any thing that happens outside their territories, is inconsequential to them. For example we, the West Youkai faction focus on Kyoto and the surrounding areas. The east focuses on Kanto and the surrounding areas, while Japan as a whole is under the jurisdiction of the Shinto gods. Though there have been attempts to create a central system that watches over all the factions, all of them however, have ended in failure. The main reason being that the ones who attempted had ulterior motives."
After that, their talks usually centered around the current happenings in the world. Ichigo found these talks very intriguing and was usually the one to start the conversation, which was very rare for him to do.
Kunou, on the other hand, led him around the palace. Introducing him to the different places inside it. She also introduced him to her personal guards and proudly told him how many times she had managed to slip under their noses. The guards themselves seemed pretty embarrassed and also proud at the same time. Embarrassed that a child managed, and still continued, to slip passed them and proud because it was their little princess doing it. She would come to his room after, more often during, her studies and drag him outside the palace to have fun. He could say no, but... how do you say no to a cute little thing like her. The fact that she could make this miserable face, complete with teary eyes and droopy ears and sagging tails was just unfair.
He certainly felt that all of it brought them closer. Yasaka had finally dropped the '-dono' after days of insisting and started calling him Ichigo. Kunou though, immediately started calling him Ichigo the moment he said to drop any honorifics. It felt right. He was never one for formalities and would probably dislike them for as long as he lived.
On the topic of living though, he soon realized that he had a long fucking time to go before his natural death. He knew that the Shinigami back in his world could live for millennia and that he had not even lived for a century. It was a fact that shocked Yasaka when she first heard it. His young age combined with his immense powers was a very rare occurrence. Currently, the strongest in this world were all at least a few centuries old and no one knew the age of the oldest ones. She herself was had lived for centuries and that had for some reason, depressed her.
The moment he say her teary eyes, he tried to cheer her up by saying that he was an anomaly, a freak of nature, a strange hybrid and other such things, and that she shouldn't compare herself to him. He started talking about all the Shinigami back in his world that couldn't really amount to anything even after centuries of living. Just when he was about to actually panic, she started laughing. It began with a giggle and soon turned into laughter. He realized that he had been had. Just like how he laughed at her panicking days ago, she did the same. He couldn't do anything but shake his head and let her get it out of her system, this also let him know that Yasaka could be quite mischievous if she wanted to.
After that episode, he had been given the honour of accompanying her during her daily meetings with the people that came to her court. He realized that while she had advisors and ministers, she was still the ruler of the land and was seen as the sole empress. Since she was also a priestess of the Goddess of Sun and Mother of Japan, Amaterasu, her position was even more solid. Most of the simpler cases were handled by her officials but cases that involved murder and anything of that degree had to be brought to her notice. During the week he accompanied her, there were three cases of murder, out of which one turned out to be a suicide. The other two though, were ruled to be hate crimes and the perpetrators were found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to a lifetime of jail.
He learned during the sentencing part that he... enjoyed it. Catching criminals and giving them their just due, there was something satisfying about that. Something inside him felt invigorated and it didn't take him long to find out what part of him that was. When the criminals were sentenced, something inside him stirred and during the second time, Zangetsu told him that it was the Hell Gate. When the sinners got their punishment, the gate vibrated, as if to show approval. He got the first clue about what Hell wanted from him. Hell wanted him to find sinners and punish them. He... could get behind that actually. Not only was that a good thing, he would also have something to do besides sit around all day and accompany the mother daughter duo. He wasn't saying that he didn't like being with them, but that he would actually like to do something and not just leech off of them.
So the next day, he brought it up with Yasaka. He still hadn't told her about the Hell Gate inside him, but he did tell her that he was feeling a bit useless just following them around and not doing anything. When he told her that, she looked a bit relieved. He frowned and asked her what was wrong.
"What happened?" He didn't receive an answer even after waiting for a few minutes. So he looked towards her and found her fidgeting in her seat. Any other time, he would have found a woman like Yasaka fidgeting, very cute. Right now though, he had no choice but to ask again.
"Yasaka. What happened?" It was a bit more forceful than he wanted, but if there was a problem related to him, he wanted to know. Yasaka sighed as if giving up and answered him.
"Many of the officials are worrying about you being a freeloader and a ticking time bomb."
His frown got deeper, but he could see where they were coming from. He had been here for nearly a month now and all he had done was live off of Yasaka's generosity. That's why he was starting to feel a bit self conscious as well. He wanted to do something to repay her and if that was not possible, at least move away to live on his own and earn his own money. While he had come to consider Yasaka a friend and Kunou, the mischievous daughter of said friend, he didn't want to become a burden on them. He got rid of his frown and nodded.
"Yasaka, do you consider me a friend?"
His question startled her out of her reverie but she still answered him with a... pout? Whatever it was, it was cute.
"Of course. Do you not see us as such?" He shook his head, both to deny that and to clear his head of unnecessary thoughts.
"I do. That's why I would have liked if you just told me about such things. I've been thinking of leaving here for some time now but I didn't know how to bring it up."
Here he hesitated for a while. What he was going to say next was a bit out there if he was being perfectly honest. He wanted to ask if she or any of her people had the means to create an identity for him in the human world. While in the supernatural world, things like I.D card, birth certificate, address, records of education and things like that were basically unnecessary, that wasn't true for the human world. Yasaka seeing him hesitate, shook her head and said.
"Ichigo, did you not just tell me that if I considered you a friend, I should simply tell you what I had on my mind." She stopped and Ichigo nodded.
"Then why are you not doing the same?" She asked with exasperation. Ichigo looked a bit sheepish before clearing his throat and just said what he wanted. Yasaka shook her head again before she said.
"Ichigo, you might not believe it but we have hundreds, if not thousands, of such identities available. We constantly use them to check on the outside world as well as spy on any other faction that enters Japan without the permission of the Shinto gods. I have a minister solely incharge of these identities and he has to make sure that no one else knows that behind these fake identities are my people, basically a spy master." Ichigo was a bit shocked when he heard that. But it seemed Yasaka wasn't done.
"Not only us, but every other faction is most certainly to have such things in place as well. During the last century alone, the sudden and extreme increase in the number of humans allowed us to place entire families filled with fake identities without any suspicion." Yasaka kept shaking her head like she couldn't believe he had said something so stupid. He was starting to feel a bit embarrassed now.
"So, it's possible then?" Ichigo asked, clearing his throat.
"Yes, it is. But before that Ichigo, aren't you forgetting something?" Yasaka asked him with a raised brow. Ichigo thought about it for a while before shaking his head. Yasaka looked at him pointedly for a moment before saying.
"The fact that you are a spiritual entity?"
"...Right."
It was only then he remembered that his body was also destroyed with his world. Right now he was, as Yasaka pointed out, a spiritual entity. No matter how high his spiritual energy was, he would still be invisible to most humans. That shoot down his idea to try and mingle with the humans in this world. As he was lamenting about his life again, Yasaka started talking.
"I can guess your thoughts Ichigo, but what I want to know is why you even want to get closer to the humans. You are no longer a human Ichigo. Not only that but the pressure you exude passively is enough to render most normal humans catatonic, if not outright killing them." She stopped here, looking at his reaction. Seeing and feeling no anger, she continued.
"While I understand that you may still have a human mentality Ichigo, it would be best for you to get rid of it. It will only cause you pain as you easily outlive any of your new human friends."
Ichigo let out a deep sigh and smiled sardonically. He already knew all of that of course. He just wasn't thinking for a moment. What would he even do after going to the human world? Pursue higher studies? Get a job? Start a business? He couldn't do any of those. He didn't really want to study anymore and he didn't exactly have the skills to do the other things he listed. What he wanted though was some resemblance to the old life he lived. It was a strange thought but that's exactly what he wanted. Something that would keep reminding him of those he lost. His sardonic smile turned into a sad one. Yasaka once again seemed to know what he was thinking and said after some hesitation.
"Ichigo... what you went through is not something that can be overcome in a month. Give yourself some time. Mourn for them. Sit around, do whatever you want. Just don't be in a hurry. I don't want to joke about it but you have a lot of time on your hands." Ichigo remained quiet for a while before asking.
"What do you think I should do?"
"In my exalted opinion, you should travel. Go around the world, meet new people, find something you like to do and do it, find people you like and surround yourself with them. It won't get rid of the pain but it will lessen it." Yasaka said all of that with a hand on her chest and her nose turned high. It was something that Kunou did once in a while and it was adorable no matter who did it. He knew she was doing it to lighten his mood and it did help. He smiled and decided to play along.
"Understood Yasaka-hime. I shall listen to your elevated judgement and make myself scarce." This sort of interaction between them was becoming more common. He liked it. He liked Yasaka and Kunou and the few others that weren't scared to talk to him. Kunou's guards and some of the palace maids mostly. Yasaka deflated, but before she could say anything, he continued.
"But I've already found some people I like and it certainly helps being around them." Yasaka looked at him for a while and a sultry smile appeared on her face.
"Ara Ichigo-kun. If I didn't hear that wrong, I believe you just said you liked me." The way she looked right now, with a sultry smile, a finger on her lip, slightly bending forward with her bare shoulders and 'open' kimono, it was one of the sexiest sight he had seen in his life. He couldn't help but look down for a second before he controlled himself. Seeing Yasaka like this flustered him but he had also come to know that she was this way with anyone she trusted so it felt nice, in different ways.
He cleared his throat and averted his eyes before he did something more that just look, but he still decided to play along.
"That is exactly what I meant." That caused Yasaka to laugh. Her laughter wasn't loud. She maintained her noble appearance even when she laughed and he didn't want to be rude but it did interesting things to her chest.
"Ichigo, you are far too young to play this game with me." She said haughtily. She said that with her chest thrust out and while he was proud of his self control, he still had limited amounts of it, so he tried to change the topic.
"As I was saying, I am with people I like but I still have to find something I want to do. I told you before that I would like to go out there and catch criminals, so any suggestions?" Ichigo asked hurriedly. Yasaka smiled at him before thinking. The room was filled with silence but it didn't feel awkward at all, it felt nice. After an hour or so of working on her paperwork, Yasaka said.
"I think it would be best for you to become a bounty hunter. Not only will it help you catch criminals but you will also be paid to do it. The icing on the cake is that you can pick and choose who you want to catch." They lapsed into another silence.
He liked that idea. Besides what she just said, he could also help her, by catching criminals she wanted to be caught. If she wanted, he could become a hunter solely associated with her faction but that a thought for later. The more he thought about it, the more he liked it. He nodded and said.
"I like it. If you have any criminals you want to be caught, I could start with them." Being a bounty hunter would require skills and patience. Skills that he did not currently have but he could learn them. As Yasaka had said before, he had a lot of time to do things he wanted to do. He would slowly get better at it, catch some criminals and get some answers. Having a goal, something to strive for was in his opinion another step in moving on.
"For that, I will introduce you to our spy master. He is a strange person but is very highly regarded by all Youkai. Not only the Youkai in Japan but Youkai all over Asia respect him, myself included."
"Is he powerful or something?"
"He is indeed powerful, at around mid-ultimate, just a level below me. But the main reason he is so highly regarded is because he is old. He is acknowledged as the oldest living Youkai in the world. He is a Tortoise Youkai, known to be the longest living species besides Gods. Many believe him to be older than 100,000 years, but no one actually knows his real age or his real name or his origins. He is simply known as Elder Gen."
Ichigo was intrigued. If anyone knew the actual history before the Great War, it would be this Elder.
"When can I meet him?"
"Oh, he comes and goes as he pleases. He usually checks in on me once every decade or so and it has already been more than a decade, so he should already be in Japan. You will have to wait for some time though. He might show up tomorrow but it also might take him a year." Ichigo wanted to retort that a year was too long but then he realized that... it really wasn't. He was still thinking like a human. He sighed and said.
"What should I do until then?" Yasaka shook her head seeing him agitated.
"As I said before Ichigo, relax. Lay around, do nothing. Give yourself some time, don't be in such a hurry. Just think about what you want to do and most importantly, mourn for your loved ones." She said all that with a soft smile. A smile that helped him relax.
"Thanks Yasaka." Ichigo said sincerely.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
DrDreams
DrDreams I tried to do something I find very difficult. Interaction between characters. IMO, it is one of the hardest aspect of writing stories and something I'm not very good at. I still think I did a decent enough job, but tell me what you guys think.
Read and review.
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