Two Souls Intertwined

Exhausted but determined, Yuna countered and dodged all three shinai attacks. First, she craftily slid out of Rukia’s hitting range and then slammed both Rukia and Kiyone in the stomach. The force sent them all the way to the opposite wall from behind, two loud thuds sounding throughout the room. With Yuna’s back facing him, Sentaro thought he had an easy shot. But Yuna did a front handspring and Sentaro’s shinai hit the floor with a loud snap. Sentaro’s eyes went wide with shock, he couldn’t believe he’d missed her, and with that time Yuna used her flash step to finish it.

“Very good, Yuna. I’d say that was your absolute best.” Shunsui complimented with a slight chuckle as Jushiro ran over to her.

Her father wrapped her in a tight embrace, picking her up off the floor, while exclaiming, “I’m so proud of you, sweetie! You did so well! Oh, you made daddy very proud, honey!”

Yuna gasped for air and reached out to Shunsui for help. He immediately took her away from her father and into his own arms bridal style. Jushiro pouted as Yuna choked to get air back into her lungs.

“*cough*Are you *cough cough* trying to kill me?! *hack cough*” She yelled at her father, feeling her eyes change color.

She didn’t know exactly why but whenever she fought or felt a lot of emotion her eyes would change to an aqua green.

Shunsui chuckled again and said, “You really do need to go easy on the hugs, Ukitake. You might just break this girl in half one day and with your condition it’s not healthy either way.”

Yuna rolled her eyes, at least someone gets it.

“Oh I’ll be fine, besides Yuna’s way too strong to be broken in half by me!” Jushiro replied, taking his daughter into his arms again and giving her a squeeze.

Yuna glowered up at him, he didn’t even apologize!

“Yes, well I suppose you’re right about Yuna’s strength and anyways I have some things to attend to at my office so I’ll be leaving now if we’re finished here.” Shunsui said with a grin on his face.

Yuna gave him a big puppy dog look.

“You’re not really leaving me alone with my father, are you?”

Jushiro immediately responded by tightening his hold onto her while saying, “Daddy’s here, sweetie!”

“No, get off! Shunsui!” Yuna yelled, grasping at the air for Shunsui while Jushiro swung them for side to side in happiness.
But Shunsui simply chuckled at the two of them and left. Yuna’s eyes went wide with fear before she collapsed defeatedly in her father’s arms. Jushiro carefully let her down though and she whipped around in confusion.

Her father’s eyes were closed and he had a very serious look on his face as he said, “Now, Yuna, we have some things to discuss.”

Yuna’s eyes widened in fear, oh god what did he want to talk about now?! Her eyes quickly swept the room for anybody to save her, but the victims of her training session were already gone. Slowly, she looked back up into her father’s now open and unsmiling eyes. A lump formed in her throat and she immediately gulped it down. However, it still didn’t make her feel any better. Suddenly though, she was in Jushiro’s embrace again. But this one was different...

It felt so warm and light that it made her wonder if he really thought he could break her in half by one of his worthy-of-causing-claustrophobia hugs. Then he put her at arms length in front of him with his hands on her shoulders and fixed a loose hair strand, tucking it gently behind her ear. Yuna’s expression was absolute fear at this point and she couldn’t force herself to say anything as he bowed his head with a pained beholding on his face, she was practically shaking with anticipation.

“Oh, Yuna, what am I doing...” He sighed out to the ground.

Yuna frowned and she laid her right hand on his cheek, forcing him to look up into her eyes.

“What’s wrong, father?” She asked in a serenely worried tone.

“I’m sorry, Yuna, but I had to make a decision. And I fear that I’ve chosen the wrong one.” He said before turning away from her.

Yuna frowned even more in confusion and she used her flash step to get in front of him quickly.

“Father, what are you talking about?” She demanded, hoping to get a clear answer.

Jushiro just stared at his daughter for a while before finally closing his eyes and sighing out, “I’ve made you my lieutenant.”

The words immediately struck a nerve inside of her and Yuna screamed in excitement, shaking the room from the sheer volume of it. She was so happy that she started to do ballet around the training room while humming a delightful tune, Jushiro had insisted that she learn how to dance as a child.

All at once Kiyone, Sentaro, and Rukia came rushing inside with their zanpakutos drawn. Then Yuna’s cat slowly walked in with the type of daintiness only a feline could possess.

“What happened?! What’s going on?! Why is Yuna dancing?!” These were a few of the questions that all of them blurted out in unison.
Yuna stopped dancing then upon seeing her cat and picked it up before holding it high in the air and doing another elegant twirl. The cat made a low growl but Yuna was too happy to notice.

“It’s alright, it’s alright. Yuna just got told the news is all, nothing to get all worked up about. You, three, can go on and keep resting.” Jushiro said, shooing them out.

The three didn’t budge, however, and began asking about Jushiro’s condition.

But Yuna butted in, “Isn’t it absolutely wonderful, guys?! I’m so excited to be a lieutenant! My father’s even!”

She had stopped dancing and the cat was now walking in zigzags away from her till it just ended up falling on the floor, too dizzy to do anything.

The three looked at the cat and then back to Yuna before finally understanding that she just got over excited.

“Yep, well I’m going to finish organizing your paperwork, Captain. Don’t hesitate to ask for anything while I’m gone!” Sentaro said, saluting at Jushiro.

“Hey, no fair! I was going to do that!” Kiyone exclaimed.

Sentaro smirked and replied, “Yeah, well, looks like you lose again!”

He jogged out of the room then and Kiyone started after him.

However, before she totally left she turned around and said, “Oh yeah and congratulations Yuna, you deserved it!”

Yuna smiled happily at her and then turned to Rukia as the short, raven haired girl started talking, “Yeah, you really do deserve it, Yuna! I’m so happy I got to train with you!”

“Aw, thanks Rukia! Me too!” Yuna responded, giving her a quick hug as well.

When they both let go, Rukia looked away from her and mumbled out, “You know you remind me a lot of these two people I used to know...”

“Hmm?” Yuna asked, cocking her head to the side in confusion.

Rukia looked up then with a big smile on her face and said, “You know what, don’t worry about it. My imagination is just running a bit wild.”

Rukia let out a nervous chuckle then and Yuna laughed as well before giving her another hug.

“I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Yuna said, letting go.

Rukia nodded before walking out of the room with a small smile on her face.

“Well, you certainly seem to be welcomed to the team.” Jushiro said with a smile on his face.

Now if Yuna was actually paying attention, she would’ve noticed that the smile was fake. But she was too caught up now in her own little bit of happiness.

Jushiro gave her another hug and said, “I’ll just leave you to yourself then. I’m sure you want to bask in this moment for as long as you can.”

He left afterwards, giving her another one of his forced smiles.

Yuna hesitated this time but once he closed the door she just brushed it off as something unrelated to her. Little did she know that it was all related to her and her only. And as she resumed dancing around and around the room she never took any notice of her cat gradually transforming into something much larger with much less fur. Only when the cat was completely finished with the transformation was Yuna finally able to take heed of it.

“I always knew those dancing classes were a wrong choice.” A strong, feminine voice said out of the no where.

Upon seeing the owner of the voice, Yuna messed up on one of her spins and fell to the floor with a horrified look on her face from what she was looking at.