incandescens (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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31_days2005-11-24 02:07 pm
incandescens) wrote in 31_days2005-11-24 02:07 pm
[November 24th] [Bleach] just to see you one last time
Title: just to see you one last time
Date/Theme: November 24th / Domestic moments among the exquisite dead
Series: Bleach
Character/Pairing: Byakuya, Hisana
Rating: G
The dead cannot be haunted. It quite simply doesn't make sense. Hisana's presence in the house after her death is merely some aberration of circumstances, a trick of memory.
A man should be able to put these things away. A person of good family should be able to govern his emotions and control himself. A Captain should not let himself be swayed by personal matters.
Byakuya found himself listening for the sound of bare feet on floorboards, for the whisper of silk robes.
The day after her funeral, he went to her bedroom and found that, as he had ordered, the servants had already packed her belongings away. Cedarwood boxes held her clothing; small lacquered cases shut away her personal possessions. Everything had been done precisely as he had commanded, and it shook him to find that it hurt so much.
He opened the smallest box, and took out her favourite mirror. If he looked into it, he could imagine that he saw her face beside his own.
"I will keep my promise," he said in the silent room. "I will find your sister and care for her. You have my word."
He still felt her presence. Something was incomplete. She was waiting, and for a moment he did not know how to tell her; but finally the words came, so much harder than any epigram or quotation.
He set the mirror down on the table, and drew his sword, laying the naked blade across it so that the steel kissed the glass.
"A mirror is the soul of a woman; a sword is the soul of a man," he said. "You are my soul. Do not haunt this house, but come where you are welcome. You dwell within my heart, Hisana. Never leave me."
For a moment, there was a shadow in the mirror, a ripple in the reflection of man and sword, and once again he thought that he could hear footsteps behind him, bare feet as soft as silk on the wooden floor.
If her soul was standing behind him, then despite all his pride, despite all the honour of his house, he could not do the proper thing and tell her farewell. "Stay," he said to the sword and the mirror. "Stay, Hisana."
Her presence folded itself silently around him and into him, soft against his heart as cherry blossoms.
I've traveled
that dark path to the world
which comes down from this mountain
just to see you
one last time.
-- Izumi Shikibu
Date/Theme: November 24th / Domestic moments among the exquisite dead
Series: Bleach
Character/Pairing: Byakuya, Hisana
Rating: G
The dead cannot be haunted. It quite simply doesn't make sense. Hisana's presence in the house after her death is merely some aberration of circumstances, a trick of memory.
A man should be able to put these things away. A person of good family should be able to govern his emotions and control himself. A Captain should not let himself be swayed by personal matters.
Byakuya found himself listening for the sound of bare feet on floorboards, for the whisper of silk robes.
The day after her funeral, he went to her bedroom and found that, as he had ordered, the servants had already packed her belongings away. Cedarwood boxes held her clothing; small lacquered cases shut away her personal possessions. Everything had been done precisely as he had commanded, and it shook him to find that it hurt so much.
He opened the smallest box, and took out her favourite mirror. If he looked into it, he could imagine that he saw her face beside his own.
"I will keep my promise," he said in the silent room. "I will find your sister and care for her. You have my word."
He still felt her presence. Something was incomplete. She was waiting, and for a moment he did not know how to tell her; but finally the words came, so much harder than any epigram or quotation.
He set the mirror down on the table, and drew his sword, laying the naked blade across it so that the steel kissed the glass.
"A mirror is the soul of a woman; a sword is the soul of a man," he said. "You are my soul. Do not haunt this house, but come where you are welcome. You dwell within my heart, Hisana. Never leave me."
For a moment, there was a shadow in the mirror, a ripple in the reflection of man and sword, and once again he thought that he could hear footsteps behind him, bare feet as soft as silk on the wooden floor.
If her soul was standing behind him, then despite all his pride, despite all the honour of his house, he could not do the proper thing and tell her farewell. "Stay," he said to the sword and the mirror. "Stay, Hisana."
Her presence folded itself silently around him and into him, soft against his heart as cherry blossoms.
I've traveled
that dark path to the world
which comes down from this mountain
just to see you
one last time.
-- Izumi Shikibu