O Ye Of Little Faith [Closed/Watari]

Bill danced through the estate to a tune that nobody could hear but himself. He could feel it, the veritable palpability of fate intertwining itself around him. It willed him onwards, step two three four, step two three four. He spun and he spun in the middle of the great hall, around and around faster and faster.

His dear sister had left an hour ago to launch her daring plan against the Kameko, he had of course allowed Titus to accompany her because the plan of course required absolute secrecy and Bill was terrible at that. As he spun to the music in his head, the melody grew louder and louder and he could almost feel the moment of triumph when Yuki came to him broken and beaten, with nobody to turn to.

That or she’d be insane.

Either way, that didn’t bother Bill too much, he would let the gears of fate grind as they may and let this most delicious of delicious tunes embrace him in rapture. That was until he was disturbed however - one of his servants had slowly pushed open the hall doors as he spun and unfortunately informed him that lord Hatayama was visiting. How dare - was he not privy to the plan? Well of course he wasn’t, what inconvenient timing! Well actually. It was perfect timing. Zenji Hatayama, you pious fool, what have you done?!

Moments passed as Bill guided himself down the stone pathways towards the gate, he could feel the prickling of animosity at the back of his mindseye but not yet. Zenji wouldn’t know yet and that’s what made this so delicious. But why had he come? That was the question of the hour! Had he spies in the estate? Had they informed him of the newest Suzumei family member? So many questions! So little time.

The great gates of the Suzumei estate reluctantly groaned open. The second time these two wooden doors seemed to say! The second time in an hour! Who do you think we are? Indeed, indeed, when was it ol’ Zenji had last visited, he’d asked a servant on the way down the path, apparently one hundred years ago - well Watari would know nothing about that - back then he’d been - he’d been - he’d been -

“Zenji Hatayama, a pleasure, tell me what brings the Holy Man of Soul Society to my veritable halls?”

Yuki Kameko?

His grin grew wider.

“Nothing terrible I hope!”

Bill would then gesture for the man to follow as he turned back up the path. Was it just him or did Zenji seem different? The fear in the man’s usual actions seemed to have been dashed away, even that fearful raving man who had shrieked about Quincy didn’t seem present anymore. Unfortunate. He’d liked the lunatic.

Bill would spin on his heel as he guided Zenji up the path his arms spread wide at the mention of Reika. So he did not know yet? Perfect. Well, why not have a little fun? The revered man was so uptight after all, he just needed to loosen up and plus Reika-chan was doing such a good job at being wrapped up that his spider senses were tingling at the potential that Zenji’s words had set him up to be.

“Yes, Zenji I’m most displeased about our acquaintance!” Watari began feigning a frown and then spinning on his heel once more as they continued towards the estate. Yes Zenji, I’m displeased about the Reika news! What could that mean.

“She came to me beaten and burned. Said that you’d sent her after Quincy! I would’ve assumed better from you Hatayama-san but apparently your righteous fury can not be sated. I do admit I found it a bit bizarre she’d come to me, but apparently thanks to you she’d connected the dots” A little bit of truth sprinkled in for good measure that really brought the story to life didn’t it. Zenji had told Reika who he was, Zenji had caused all of this.

“I trust that it was partly those private matters? If the rest of it is getting my support to kill the Quincy while you have it twice now” Bill said with a nod as the tall wooden doors of the Suzumei estate came into view. His servants would open the doors for them and let them in, Bill would spin again before looking towards the horizon, dark billowing storm clouds were coming towards the Soul Society - spooky.

It wouldn’t be long before they made it to the sitting room where two large leather chairs sat by an already glowing fire. It was very stereotypical, but Watari didn’t mind stereotyping, after all there were multiple rooms in this house and this was just another facade.

“A drink Zenji?”

“Would I lie to you?” Bill purred, his head tilting at the bakudo that grew around them. How rude, a dome of silence? Watari could do that but exceedingly more flashy, Bezaliel after all was an arms reach away. The Head of the Suzumei knew that Zenji’s grasp of Bakudo far surpassed most Shinigami, in fact he’d always known that he was capable of something like this but hadn’t been able to confirm it until now.

“Then if it wasn’t you, then who? Because she did come to visit and she was in a state” He shot back. A state? Yes, well, hungry for answers was indeed a state of wellbeing that could totally err on the edge of reason now wasn’t it? And being trapped in Watari’s games was how she had ended up so not entirely a lie either. Delicious. He could feel the beast clawing in the edge of his mind, he wanted nothing to do with Zenji Hatama, too much thinking, too much magic but Bill had always appreciated a finer touch.

Bill shrugged as he approached a cabinet at the far end of the room and retrieved a bottle of whiskey for himself and a bottle of sake for Zenji and then deposited a glass on the table in front of the other man without his beverage of choice.

“Sake or Whiskey, I have my own personal cabinet so having servants come in isn’t necessary - and don’t worry about the poison, I left it in the other room” Watari smiled and poured himself a glass of whiskey and took a sip. He leant back into the leather chair and watched Zenji expectantly, what was the reason then if not Quincy? Surely Zenji had other things going on in the background.

“Chaos creates change Hatayama-san, you can’t really expect me to twiddle my thumbs when I see you and Kameko-chan moving across the Soul Society. Do either of you really think I don’t notice? Little pawns Yuki is collecting; Bishops and Rooks fortifying the Hatayama estate. Whether it’s for the Quincy or for other reasons, you can not actually think Watari Suzumei wouldn’t come into play?”

Watari’s eyes narrowed, his fingers drummed the side of his glass; he could act on that, he could but probably wasn’t worth it. Fine, Ol Zenji didn’t want to play games? Well, honestly it was refreshing wasn’t it. Somebody who couldn’t be dashed into a wheel of confusion, somebody who couldn’t be as misled and lastly somebody in as much denial about everything as he used to be.

“Fine Zenji, you want to be boring? Does Raphael know you’ve just killed him?” note to self, kill the human and burn everything he loved and everything he will love to the ground. In fact, the entire city could be written off. Raphael Laurent talked too much but it seemed prior preparation would help a lot, did Zenji know Raphael would go to the Quincy? Probably not, but the weave of fate suggested Raphael would most definitely try. Oh well, that seed was planted. He’d just have to weed the garden when the time came. Easy as that really.

“Why are you stating things people already know. Next you’ll be telling me what my shikai does, which also is just as obvious if anybody cared to pay attention” Watari sipped his glass and eyed the other man, honestly he had thought that the poison thing has passed by now but apparently not. It was fine, logistically anyone would follow another trail of breadcrumbs and it’d be Zenji’s word against his own if it ever came out so Watari wasn’t interested in pandering currently.

At the mentioning of Yuki caused him to tilt his head and open his mouth slightly.

“Wow. If somebody actually paid attention to what I’ve been saying since I first met her, maybe I wouldn’t be like this. It’s almost as if people had listened to me from the start they would’ve known how much of a spoiled brat she is” He responded dryly. It had taken this long for somebody to piece together how much of a justice entitled, law bashing ass she was? It had taken how many people to talk to Yuki and realise that all she was the righteousness of god and shinigami?

“She puts it all in a nice lens doesn’t she? That everything will be alright, that surely if you’re a better person you can overcome any obstacle! Honestly it was quite lovely really. I truly believed I did, in fact a part of me still kind of does. I could be better! I used to say, I could be better! I can be better, I can change”

He placed the glass on the table and scrunched his face up as if resolving to say something and then not. He could be better, Watari Suzumei was better.

“She’s as bad as me and twice as dangerous but I guess that’s up to your interpretation, either way she’ll be dead within the day”

“Why did I create him? Snapping was a concept I’d read about it and I wanted to know if it was possible. Karakura’s a nest. Honestly you would save all your Quincy problems Zenji if you just burned the entire place to the ground. But no, it was not just because that. You’re here right? Out of anyone in the Soul Society, I would say you are the one person who has seen the crumbs” Watari was a sly plotter but he left enough along the way to come back to him. Sure, if you checked the administrative records it would point to Sabitsura Rei or it would be signed off by Memnoch but if you looked deeper than that like Zenji had obviously done of the human world reports around that time, without a doubt you’d eventually run into Raphael in Karakura. That was why Watari had caused him to snap, partly for the man’s own good so that if it was somebody more cruel than Hatayama he’d survive but also because Raphael needed to tell them who had done it all.

Watari liked hiding, but he liked the acknowledgement of his scheming even more.

“There’s been others of course but they always get swept away by it all. Everybody here is so boring! Look at them Hatayama, these children of which Yuki is a part of. They meet me. They meet you. They meet her. Then what? I can’t kill them - the poor misguided fools. So I lead them, deeper into their despair and into the web and by the time they realise . . . ” Watari grabbed the bottle and began pouring out another hearty serving. He measured the glass with his eyes and then lifted it and took a sip swishing the liquid in his mouth, letting the warmth coat his tongue and roll down his throat.

“It’s too late”

The mentioning of Yuki left a sour taste in his mouth. He could still marry her, there still technically was that way out right? To be better? Zenji couldn’t see it but a door had faded into view behind the other man, a door Watari knew too well, beyond that door was Bezaliel who had seemingly vanished - maybe the spirit had grown tired of waiting.

“We would if we could, but Yuki Kameko we think is beyond Suzumei Mercy, we could break her, we could shatter her spirit but I do believe for everything that she is to the Gotei 6 - what she represents. Yuki Kameko would be better off dead and forgotten. Another lost soldier to an inevitable Quincy threat” It was sad. He could be better though? Maybe he didn’t have to kill her? But the throbbing rush of blood, the heat and desire to kill her. She needed to die, she did things to him, terrible things and he just couldn’t be himself. It was so much easier to do what he was doing. To live how he was living. Look at what he’d accomplished without her corruption? He had a sister!

“As for the noble meeting, I believe after Yuki’s dealt with we can go ahead at speed. My dear sister has kindly offered to host it here so once the Kameko are no more, well, to a better Suzumei future”

He would then hold up a finger.

He knew the question Zenji would ask.

“Before you do. You’ve seen everything else Zenji Hatayama. Do you see what Yuki Kameko has done to us?”

Us

What was Us? It was both of them, it was Watari and it was Bill, it was them. She had done this, she’d broken them in two, made them not align just right. Made his lovely Bezaliel out of sync, a prism on his mind and his spiritual pressure. But Watari saw no color through his eyes, he only saw shades of gray.

His spiritual pressure had been perfect up to this moment, perfectly superimposed over the Shinigami like all Shinigami’s spiritual pressure should be. But that was the key there, perhaps it was Zenji’s keen eyes or maybe his knowledge of spiritual arts. But as Watari’s finger curled back into his hand, a ghostly shadowy joint trailed behind. In fact, as his shoulders slightly raised and fell with his breathing, Zenji would pick up on a shadow of Watari, slightly out of sync with the physical body.

“Our sister saved us Zenji, she made it okay. We realized that this perfect Society that Yuki sees isn’t real” and as Watari curled back into his chair as a child might to escape his fear, the shadowy figure sat with the cup curled in hand, fingers tapping on the glass in a methodical clink clink clink. It had no eyes, for it was mist, but its mouth seemed to curl into a wry smile.

“Do you think it would be easier to kill Yuki or to break her mind? Personally I think the Fifth deserves a hound as a captain, a dog to sniff out those who weren’t quite right - the Soul Society is in shambles Zenji but I see beyond all the academia, I see that you see it too. We can rebuild it ” Watari could see it too, the thing that was Bill and Bezaliel, the thing that was a manifestation of his reiatsu that has escaped the doors of his mind. It mocked him, you see, he couldn’t bear to say those words. He didn’t quite know why, perhaps it was an acceptance of everything he was, perhaps it was an acknowledgement of everything that would be.

A gross mockery of a Zanpakuto spirit, a pariah. His heart laid bare perfectly mimicking his every action . . . until now. It wanted Zenji to know, it wanted Zenji to see what Watari was, a failure, a chess piece on a board unwilling to seize what was oh so close. Unwilling to truly speak the words that would spill out a new age of the Soul Society. His sister, his dear sister had saved him from Yuki of course, had reaffirmed everything in his mind that he could do this, he could purge the filth that stained the seats of captaincy. So why didn’t he truly agree?

Yuki.

It always came back to Yuki. Yuki was an antithesis, in a world that was so cruel, so chaotic and so horrible. How had a woman that believed in the purity of strawberries managed to come out wholly intact? So he needed to break her, because if Yuki was broken then the world made sense.

“The Suzumei move tonight, our agents will trigger noble infighting. In turn that will draw the captains who will be dispatched one by one. The bloated Captain Commander will twitch on his rancid throne and demand justice but there will be nobody left to answer”The glass returned to the table as the shadowy figure leant forward, Watari righting himself on the chair that he sat and the two figures snapped back into sync.

“There are only three people in the Soul Society I think I trust enough to tell this to. My butler, my sister and . . . you. The reason is simple, my dear Lord Hatayama. The only person more righteous than me in this Soul King forsaken cesspit. Is you” In truth Watari knew that there were only really two captain seats required to seize control of the Soul Society. One of them, he knew Zenji currently had his eyes on, but the second? The second was the law itself and Watari had been setting up for that particular execution for a while.

The man frowned slightly at the warped appearance of the other man’s Spiritual Power, the Reiatsu was unnatural in how it lagged and sat out of time with its source. It was almost like some curse from the fairy tales he’d heard growing up before he realised the Spiritual Arts didn’t quite work in that way. More than likely this dissonance was a result of Watari’s fractured mind causing a fracture in his soul… or perhaps it had started the other way around? In the end they were Spiritual beings and the soul’s health could dictate everything.

Zenji tilted his head and frowned slightly. Every time he spoke Watari just reinforced the idea that he was not well. Even his perceptions of others were horribly warped - he saw what he expected, or maybe deep down wanted, not what was true. “I was unaware that a perfect society consisted of corrupt nobility that could only be solved through wanton murder.” he replied drily. When Yuki had first mentioned her plans during their original meeting he had been shocked and horrified, in truth somewhat scared, now the idea was moronic. Yuki was part of that corrupt rulership caste; it's just that her corruption had taken the form of blind self-righteousness.

Disgust registered across Zenji’s face. It was for many reasons. Blatant discussions of murder, twisted imagining of inflicting torture be it mental or physical did not sit well with him. He would do what he must but he would not enjoy these distasteful acts. “If she can be made to see reason, see her purpose as a Soul Reaper lies beyond her own desires then I welcome the child as Captain of the Fifth.”

As Watari spoke Zenji whispered a few words, too old a spell to be true Kido, and his eyes began to flow softly with his spiritual energy. It made looking into, tracking, the other man’s Reiatsu easier. He listened in silence and watched as the other man spoke.

“I doubt the Third will react to even his own house being on fire but it matters not, I’ll deal with him myself soon. I plan to remove his cronie from play in the coming days.” he admitted. The Captain of the Third barely left his office or his feeble Clan’s manor but it didn’t matter. Once Zenji had managed to seize what he needed then the old Captain would be cast aside.

The mention of the Captain Commander made Zenji frown. “Just be careful Watari. The Captains all have Spiritual Pressure on par with myself, significantly greater than your own.” he said as the light faded from his eyes. “The Captain Commander, despite his inactivity, is stronger still, for all their passiveness the greed of the other Captains would forced them to seize the leadership were it not so.” he stated.

For all the weakness of the leadership they were still Bankai-Tier Shinigami with a once in a generation gift and power to match. They were also scheming greed wretches who only listened to their Commander out of fear of the old man’s reprisals. Still they where shadows of their past, they had once been towering pillars of Shinigami virtue, or so the story said but that was before Zenji’s time. They had certainly declined in that time but their lower limits had still ensured their dominance for literally centuries.

‘They are also not as lazy and stupid as they appear, the reports I stole from the 1st suggest they sent gifted Shinigami to their death to make sure others could not challenge them.’

He could feel his weapon’s spirit push at the cage around his mind, trying to inject her own opinion but he kept her out. This was punishment. She would learn who was the master.

At the mention of righteousness Zenji let out an uncharacteristic bark of laughter, it extended until he doubled over in almost pain from the flood of amusement. He had not been expecting that.

“I… I am so sorry.” he said through his breathlessness. “That caught me by surprise.”

If it weren't for his Yuki obsession and his twisted perception of himself, his own importance and the world around him then Watari could actually be enjoyable to be around.

Zenji felt something flow over him and with uncharacteristic familiarity he leant across the table and gently placed his fingers against the other Lord’s cheek. Smiling beatifically, the monk spoke softly. “Get your shit together Watari.”

Withdrawing his hand the smile turned a little cold. “She doesn’t matter. She is strong but she lacks vision and wisdom, both of which are more important. You are cracked, you have allowed yourself to become flawed and tainted but you are still of far greater significance because you understand - at least in part, what must be done. Stay the course my friend, sharpen your focus and do what you believe you must for the good of the Soul Society and I will stand with you come what may.”

The Kido Master stood up and snapped his fingers causing the barrier of silence to unravel around them.

He smiled politely, kindly, even timidly as he bowed. He was once more the quiet lesser lord of a peaceful House. “Thank you for your visit my Lord and I apologise for taking up so much of your time.”

With another polite, respectful bow, the monk strode away with his staff jingling as he did so.

There was much work to be done but even in these darkest of days the Soul King’s light could be found at the end of the tunnel.

And he would reach the end.

Even if he had to kill every last Soul that sought to subvert the Soul King’s edict to do so.