Entry for bleach_contest week #21 - entropy
week #21 - entropy
Title: One Simple Question
Rating: PG
Pairings/Characters: Kyouraku Shunsui and Ukitake Juushirou
Warnings: mention of yaoi relationship
Spoilers: none that I can think of
Word Count: 297
Word Limit: 300
Description: One little girl changed Shunsui’s goal in life
Entropy - A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system
Beta:
rozella_rising
Word count specialist:
akiaharahelped me remove 142 words from my first draft.
Shunsui still couldn’t believe Nanao-chan had finagled him into a Rukongai patrol. He hated this place. The memories that surfaced here caused him to drink entirely too much.
After subduing the bandits, he noticed a small girl who had witnessed the altercation. She had such woeful and hopeless eyes. Her despondency tore at his soul and it was clear from this encounter why he avoided this place. The bleak and desperate lives of the higher district Rukongai children made him want things he could never have; order and fairness being most important.
The change within him began with her simple question. “Why do we come here when there is no hope for happiness?” Obviously expecting no answer, the child dashed away; sobs fading as she ran. He wanted the strength to give chase, but without a reasonable reply, he could offer no true comfort.
That night, holding Juushirou in his arms, Shunsui spoke with purpose in his heart again.
Why was every soul returned randomly to Rukongai? How could Soul Society be trustworthy when there was such disorder to their system; when children arrived defenseless in the worst districts? Shouldn’t there at least be a way to reunite families?
Soul Society had spent so long buried in paperwork and hollows that they had forgotten their original objective of protecting and guiding souls from the living world. How had they failed so badly in their task? When the war was over these were the things he would ask the new ruling body of Soul Society.
Juushirou nodded in his lover’s arms, knowing that there would be changes coming. He knew Shunsui would no longer accept the chaos within their society. For the first time in a hundred years, Shunsui fell asleep before him without the aid of sake.