Night Visit

Kaien straightened his back slightly and returned the greeting, his expression calm.

"Long time no see, Yoruichi."

He glanced at Yoruichi's current form, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.

"What brings you here so late?"

"I was passing nearby and caught a familiar whiff of fireworks, so I thought I'd stop by and see you two little ones. What, am I not welcome?"

"Of course you are."

Kūkaku's voice held a trace of delight.

"Koganehiko, fetch some snacks. Shiroganehiko, serve tea."

Yoruichi settled naturally onto a cushion nearby, her posture relaxed.

Her gaze swept across the rather modest but homey hall before finally resting on Kaien.

"I heard you joined Shin'ō Academy and made quite a stir. Sixth-class Spiritual Might?"

Shiroganehiko respectfully set the tea down in front of Yoruichi.

Yoruichi blew on the freshly served hot tea and gently lapped it twice.

"So, does the current head of the Shiba Clan intend to follow Old Man Yamamoto's path through the Spiritual Arts Academy and return to the Seireitei?"

Kaien's expression grew more serious, and then his eyes shone with determination.

"Yes. What of it?"

Yoruichi took a small sip of tea without immediately offering an opinion.

"If you want to return to the Seireitei, the road won't be easy, Kaien."

Yoruichi's voice was calm, with some of the clear-eyed awareness of someone who had been through it before.

"The nobles' petty scheming is more complicated than you think, and people are especially quick to forget and exclude others."

"The Shiba Clan has been gone too long. If you want to return, the resistance you face will be tremendous. It might even... not necessarily be a good thing. Are you ready for that?"

Kaien silently clenched his fists, his voice low but forceful.

"The Shiba Clan was once one of the families at the pinnacle of the Seireitei. Now we can only use a secret art meant to serve the Soul King to run a fireworks business here in the Rukongai. I can't accept that."

"I know the reasons for our family's decline are complicated: the great noble families joining forces to suppress us, our elders' mismanagement... But I don't believe the Shiba Clan's bloodline and dignity will simply be erased."

He looked at Yoruichi, his gaze burning.

"I'll grow stronger, strong enough to gain a firm foothold in the Gotei 13 and reclaim the respect and status that rightfully belong to the Shiba Clan."

"After that, I'll also find a way to persuade my uncle to come back. His abilities shouldn't be buried here in Soul Society."

Kūkaku listened quietly at the side, watching the rarely displayed fighting spirit in her eldest brother's eyes, which seemed almost ready to burst into flame.

She pressed her lips together and said nothing, but her gaze was just as resolute.

Kaien took a deep breath.

"I know the road ahead will be difficult, but someone has to try. I'm the head of the Shiba Clan. This is my responsibility and my choice."

Yoruichi looked at the unshakable determination in Kaien's eyes. After a long moment, a smile returned to her face.

There was admiration in that smile, along with a barely perceptible trace of emotion.

"All right. Since you've made up your mind, go ahead and do it."

"I, Yoruichi Shihōin, sincerely hope you succeed. If you need help, you can come to me, as long as it's within my power and doesn't go against my principles."

"Thank you."

Once they had moved past the subject, they chatted about their childhood days in the Seireitei, and the atmosphere gradually relaxed.

As if she had suddenly remembered something, Yoruichi asked in an apparently casual tone,

"By the way, a while ago, there was a big fire near the woods in West District 2. One of my Seated Officers mentioned it to me and said the Reiatsu left behind was a little strange."

"Kūkaku, you should be well informed about what goes on in the Rukongai. Have you been there recently? Did you notice anything unusual?"

Kūkaku hadn't expected Yoruichi to suddenly ask about that. She blinked, then remembered the incident.

"Oh, you mean that place? I actually did go there once a while ago."

"Oh?" Yoruichi raised an eyebrow slightly, looking interested. "Did you go alone? Did you find anything?"

"No, I went with Wang Xun and an older man, but the fire hadn't started when we were there."

Kūkaku answered naturally.

When Yoruichi heard the name, her golden pupils contracted slightly for an instant.

"This Wang Xun you mentioned is..."

"Oh, he's a senior of my brother's at the Spiritual Arts Academy. He was very interested in some wild fruit an older fruit seller had brought, so we followed the man to see where it grew."

"Fruit?"

"Mm, little dark purple fruits. They tasted really good, and they were about this big."

Kūkaku indicated the size with her hand.

"But we've already eaten them all. It was quite a while ago, too."

Yoruichi paused so slightly that it was almost imperceptible.

She remembered the fruit. It seemed that a long time ago, Kisuke Urahara, the Third Seat of her squad, had brought her some.

Kūkaku continued recalling the event.

"But when we got there, we didn't find anything special. We just had a look at the trees."

"But Wang Xun felt something was wrong and urged us to leave quickly. Later, he said something about not feeling safe, and that it seemed like there were other people there."

Yoruichi lowered her head to drink her tea. At that moment, her assessment of Wang Xun, and her wariness of him, quietly rose another notch.

"Is that so? It seems this student Wang Xun has pretty sharp senses."

"Mm-hm, and then the fire happened afterward... Wait, you don't suspect I did it, do you?"

Kūkaku's eyes gradually widened.

At that, Yoruichi fixed her with a sharp gaze.

"Was it you?"

Kūkaku waved her hand.

"Not this time."

"Oh, well, then it's fine."

Kūkaku began looking around, while Yoruichi lowered her head in thought, feeling that something wasn't quite right. An eerie silence settled between them.

Yoruichi remembered what Kisuke Urahara had once told her.

After hearing that the place had caught fire, Kisuke Urahara had, unusually, seemed rather concerned about it.

He seemed to have made a special trip to ask around the area. At one household, he learned that an older man had taken a young man and a young woman there.

The young woman was Kūkaku Shiba, a fireworks maker with some renown in the Rukongai. The other person was a student at the Spiritual Arts Academy.

Yoruichi truly hadn't expected that person to be Wang Xun.

Without showing it, she brought the subject of the valley to a close and chatted with the Shiba siblings about how they had been lately.

A little later, Yoruichi rose to take her leave.

"All right, it's getting late. I should be going."

Yoruichi stretched out her front paws in a lazy stretch, her fur glossy and the graceful curves of her body on full display.

"Seeing you two in such good spirits puts my mind at ease."

"Kaien, keep working hard. And Kūkaku, don't spend all day thinking about fireworks and beating up Ganju. You're a girl; pay a little more attention to your appearance."

"Oh, right, where's Ganju? How come I haven't seen him?"

"He got sleepy and went to bed. Want me to call him over? Hey, Gan-"

Seeing Kūkaku about to shout Ganju's name, Yoruichi hurriedly waved a paw.

"Forget it, forget it. There's no need. I can see him next time."

"Eh~ All right."

Kūkaku looked a little disappointed, though Yoruichi didn't know what she was disappointed about.

After they saw her to the entrance, Yoruichi waved a paw and walked out through the Shiba Clan's gate.

In the moonlight, she looked back one last time at Kaien and Kūkaku, who were seeing her off at the entrance.

Then, with a few light leaps, she vanished completely into the deep night of the Rukongai.

After putting some distance between herself and the Shiba Clan, she stopped on a secluded rooftop.

She sat on the roof ridge, gazing in the direction of the Seireitei, her golden cat eyes glinting thoughtfully in the darkness.

"That Kisuke Urahara seems to have been tinkering with his strange inventions and devices again lately."

Yoruichi licked her paw, having already reached a decision.

"Maybe he'd be interested in this Wang Xun. Why not have him try to make contact? He might be able to dig something up..."