Tite Kubo owns Bleach. I just borrowed the characters.
Yachiru calls Zaraki “Ken-chan” in this story. I know she calls him Kenny in the manga, but I can’t. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Later
Zaraki had a hangover; at least he thought he did. Normally he did not have headaches this bad. Zaraki prided himself on his ability to ignore pain. He could ignore any pain that he received in a fight. Broken bones were not a problem, except when they stopped him fighting. The only pain he couldn’t ignore was a headache. He didn’t cope well with headaches. Headaches irritated him. He looked at the ceiling or he tried to look at the ceiling but found he was having trouble focusing on anything far away, or close-up. He rubbed his eye and tried focusing again. It didn’t work. He took off his eye-patch and tried focusing once more. A little better. He didn’t recognise the ceiling. Where the hell was he?
He tried to look around. Why had he drunk so much? Who had he been drinking with? Lots of questions, but no answers. Zaraki started to sit up and immediately lay down again. Bad move trying to get up. Instead he rolled over. He saw a table covered with empty sake bottles and plates.
He vaguely remembered playing drinking games and laughing. He’d been drinking with Unohana! Was he still at 4th Division? From the sake bottles it seemed likely.
He tried sitting up again, slowly this time. Once the dizziness stopped and the pounding in his head faded, he looked around. No, Unohana wasn’t there. That was something. He didn’t really want to see her at the moment. He didn’t want to see anyone.
Isane walked in.
“Sorry to disturb you, Captain. I just wanted to clean up in here and air the room. It’s a little stale,” she explained.
Zaraki grunted, and then clutched his head. The noise was too loud.
“My captain has prepared something for you to take for your virus,” Isane said. “Do you want it now? It seems Captain Unohana has caught your virus also.” She looked at the empty sake bottles and raised her eyebrows.
Zaraki was confused. Virus, what virus? He wasn’t sick, just hung over. What was Isane talking about? It slowly dawned on him that Unohana had prepared a hangover cure and a cover story for his hangover.
Zaraki was about to nod in response to Isane’s question, then realised it would hurt.
“Yes,” he croaked. “And some water, too.”
Isane nodded and left the room taking the empty bottles she had collected. Zaraki noted that she did not believe the virus story but that didn’t matter. He just hoped that whatever Unohana had prepared cured his headache, quickly.
As Zaraki waited he tried to remember why he had visited Unohana. Madarame was not injured from fighting, at least not that Zaraki could remember. Why was he here? He scratched his head and closed his eyes. He was still tired, very tired.
When he woke next, Unohana was in the room reading. She looked pale but composed. There was a large jug and two glasses on the table near her. A glass full of vile looking green liquid was on the table near him. Unohana seemed aware that he had woken and without turning her head said, “I didn’t want to move you. I thought sleep would be best. I suggest you drink the green liquid quickly. It may help with your headache.”
Zaraki gaped at her, but took her advice. The medicine tasted as vile as it looked. Zaraki almost vomited, but drank it all. Once he stopped retching he noticed that he had started to feel better. The headache had eased somewhat and he could focus much better. He replaced his eye-patch. Unohana poured him a glass of water, which Zaraki drank.
“The water helps the medicine to work. I recommend you drink two more glasses.” Unohana stopped speaking but continued reading. Zaraki noticed that she occasionally sipped from a glass of water she had next to her. He followed her suggestion and felt better.
“Thanks, Unohana. I guess we really let loose last night. It was fun. Must do it again sometime,” Zaraki suggested.
“Maybe,” she looked at him. “I don’t normally drink that much. The drinking games were the real problem. You have quite a capacity for alcohol, Zaraki.”
“Yeah. Not going to lecture me about it, are you?” Zaraki looked at Unohana and raised his eyebrows.
“Would there be any point? You don’t take advice, Zaraki. Here’s additional hangover cures. You might need it in the future.” Unohana handed Zaraki a few bottles.
“Thanks again, Unohana.” He did not know what else to say. He still couldn’t remember why he had come to see her. He didn’t feel like asking. He stood up. It was time to leave.
“Remember, next time try calling your zanpaku-to ‘Atonomatsuri’ when you talk to it. You’ll probably need to speak to it for some time and apologise often. You will let me know if it works?” Unohana looked directly at Zaraki.
“So, that’s why I visited her,” Zaraki thought.
“Yeah, I’ll let you know. Better go back to 11th Division to see if Yachiru had decided to paint my office pink, again. She insists it’s a soothing colour, whatever that means. I don’t think it soothes me,” Zaraki wondered why he was saying this. It seemed that his mouth was bypassing his brain. Maybe, it was relief?
“By the way, when I mentioned how it might appear, don’t be surprised if I’m partially correct. I have this intuition about zanpaku-to’s and yours feels different,” Unohana explained.
Zaraki grinned, raised his hand in farewell and left 4th Division. On the way back to 11th Division he decided to go the bathhouse to think. The bath house was often deserted at this time and he would be undisturbed. As he lay soaking in the water he thought about Unohana’s suggestion. The details of the conversation he’d had with her the night before gradually returned.
“Atonomatsuri. Too late. Why would a zanpaku-to be called ‘too late”? Who names these things anyway?” Zaraki felt a moment of concern. “Now I think I know the name, should I use it?” He didn’t consider how other people would react. He was Zaraki. Why should he care? Okay, he had worried about people hearing him talk to a zanpaku-to. That was different. Unohana had set him straight on that.
The problem was how did he feel about it? Yeah, emotions, he ignored those but he did have occasional feelings of concern. Would it make him soft relying on another, or would it add to his strength? He quickly dismissed his doubts. If it didn’t work out, he’d never need to say the name again. He’d just continue as he had always done. He would lose nothing.
When he arrived back at 11th Division, he noticed briefly that Yachiru had not re-painted his office. His paperwork was still awaiting attention. He saw that some of the piles had chocolate and jam smeared over the top page. Yachiru had been here, but the office was empty now. Zaraki shrugged. Maybe he could get Ayasegwa to handle the paperwork. He was good at those tedious tasks. He might even know how to remove the food stains.
Zaraki sighed and stretched. He didn’t care. He wanted to work out. He went to the training area looking for a fight to help stretch his muscles. Very few members of 11th Division were training. Zaraki challenged the few who didn’t escape fast enough when they saw the mood he was in, but he had to hold back. He goaded 4 into attacking him at one time, but it still didn’t entertain him or make him fight hard. It was frustrating. These guys were in his Division and he could beat them so easily. He briefly wondered if he should talk to his zanpaku-to. He beat everyone too easily. Then he remembered Aizen and the other traitors. He needed to increase his power to fight them and he really wanted a new challenge. Learning to Bankai could be that challenge.
It was late. Dusk was falling and he was hungry. He looked for Yachiru and found her eating. She was surrounded by the normal horde of people who thought watching her eat was fun. He didn’t understand it himself. Maybe it was because she could eat so much, so fast. He sat down and helped himself to the food.
“Ken-chan. Where have you been all day? I looked in your office, but you weren’t there. I got bored. Don’t eat all my rice. I’m hungry,” Yachiru scolded.
“I’ve been busy. Anything happen?” Zaraki asked as he quickly ate more rice. He was hungry, having eaten nothing all day.
“Nothing to report. Someone came from long moustaches and asked when you would complete your paperwork,” Yachiru paused as she swallowed a particularly large mouthful. “It seems most of the other captains have.”
“Yeah, but I’m not the other captains. Tell Ayasegwa to do it for me. He owes me for letting him fight Hisagi. It’s not like he has anything better to do. Give him spare time and he’ll just primp,” Zaraki observed.
While he ate, he briefly thought of talking to his zanpaku-to after dinner. No. He’d sleep first. Plenty of time tomorrow. He had a cup of sake and relaxed. Maybe he was unwilling to talk to it again. Apologising was weak and he did not like the taste that saying ‘sorry” left in his mouth. He drank another cup of sake to take away the taste.
He let Yachiru yammer on about what happened during the day, not really listening. The words help shut out the thoughts. The sake helped him ignore the words. Yeah, situation normal. Maybe tomorrow the situation would change.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author’s Note:
You didn’t expect it would be that easy, did you? I believe Zaraki would feel a certain amount of reluctance after he originally failed.
Next chapter: Zaraki talks to his zanpaku-to, again. Will it talk back? Will it demand flowers and chocolate?
MS
