Chapter Text
“… What are we doing here?”
Ichigo, who had been taking care of the afternoon meal, looked down at his younger brother. “What do you mean, Gokotai?”
Gokotai, despite having asked the question, seemed shocked at his own words. His eyes widened and looked up at his brother, clearly apologetic for asking such a strange and sudden thing. Obviously, he had not meant to ask this out loud.
“I- I have been thinking about… us. I mean, everyone and you and me, Ichinii. I had a dream the other day and… uu, I don’t know!”
Gokotai was bound to the kitchen that afternoon, it being his designated assignment (as settled between the younger Awatagutchi many months ago,) so despite his sudden discomfort, he was unable to escape.
Ichigo smiled at his brother, portraying an image of understanding and kindness. He would’ve pat the top of Gokotai’s head, but his hands were rather busy with cutting meat.
“A dream, huh. Tell me about it.”
“… … It felt real. I know dreams aren’t real but…” Gokotai tugged at the edge of his shirt in frustration. “In my dream, we were with a bunch of other people and had swords! We were fighting against monsters and… I have had crazy dreams before, but…”
Ichigo listened attentively to his younger brother for a moment before returning to his work, ear still turned to Gokotai’s words. He has heard of some crazy dreams his brothers have had, but never were they so flustered while explaining them. Then again, Gokotai was sometimes on the milder side in terms of personality.
“… We went back to this nice looking building and there was this person in control, I can’t remember how they looked like but we had to protect… Something? But suddenly we were taken away! You, me, everyone! And Ichinii… You looked like you planned something with this guy.”
“Did I now. Well, that does seem like quite the dream. Have you told your brothers about it?”
Gokotai nodded with a great fever, and he noticeably grew confident in his words.
“I did and guess what? Everyone else has had a similar dream! The swords and the monsters and this building…”
“Didn’t you all watch a movie recently? Maybe it is related to—”
“It isn’t!” It wasn’t common for Gokotai to interrupt his brother, even less so while raising his voice. Gokotai seemed to immediately regret his actions, but still pressed on. “It isn’t… We thought the same thing too, but the only movies we have seen recently have nothing to do with the monsters we saw. Sometimes swords but… both? Yagen thinks there is a reason for it. Which led me to think… What if…”
Ichigo noticed the growing discomfort in his brother’s face and pulled himself away from preparing food to wash his hands and comfort the other. With an embrace and a soothing of the others back, Ichigo began to speak in a soft voice.
“I understand. We can talk about it later with everyone. Maybe we can figure out some great mystery, hahaha. For now, can you put some oil on the pan and turn on the heat? It is about time to start putting everything together.”
Gokotai pressed his chin against Ichigo’s chest and after a moment of thought, nodded with a smile. Ichigo’s smile widened for a second as he looked at his brother go about the kitchen before breathing out a sigh.
“…What are we doing here?”
-----
The house in which they resided in was something of immense pride for Ichigo Hitofuri. While his brothers had in mind to live in a city, due to the large size of their family and the availability of cheap affordable accommodations that could hold over ten members was nonexistent, they went to the countryside.
Ichigo could remember the days of waiting in offices, signing paperwork to get his brothers into school while Nakigitsune kept them all distracted going through town. It was by good fortune that there was a house available for them all to inhabit. Albeit abandoned and worn down, they all found themselves quite comfortable despite subpar living conditions for the first few months of residency.
That period of their lives seemed so long ago and unreal but seeing the house before him with all of the love they have put it in, Ichigo knew that all of this was indeed true. Mouri, Hakata, and Midare were at the front of the house, ignoring their eldest brother to instead focus on some striped cats which had found themselves beneath their porch. Ichigo took a deep breath of the chilly fall air and approached the three near the porch.
“Are those cats back here again? I thought we agreed not to feed them any longer.”
Midare looked up at Ichigo with a large smile. “We didn’t feed them! They came on their own. Can we keep them since they love us so much?”
How funny, Ichigo thought. Midare says they weren’t fed but there did seem to be a little dish tucked underneath the porch!
“Let us not make such a commitment yet.” With that, Ichigo stepped onto the porch and entered their home, despite the small disappointed huff Midare gave. All the other brothers were inside of the house already, eating their afternoon snacks and doing homework. Maeda noticed Ichigo entering the house and jumped up from his cushion.
“Ichinii!”
With that one call, most of the other siblings dropped what they were doing and ran to Ichigo to either embrace them or give him a rundown of their time in school.
“Ichinii, how was work? Oh! What is in the bags?” Namazuo pried the bags from Ichigo’s hands and took out the groceries from within.
“Work was good. The store has been gaining business lately and it seems that the manager is thinking of having me do some weekends as well but—”
Namazuo’s face morphed from satisfaction to horror upon hearing the plans of losing his older brother to work.
“No! If you work weekends we will lose you forever!”
“Brother, I don’t think—”
“Honebami, can’t you see what is happening!? First, it is the weekends, then it is nights, and then… We will lose Ichinii forever!” Namazuo gripped Honebami’s shoulders and shook them, the other not deterred by the behavior in the slightest. Ichigo laughed at the scene before patting Namazuo on the head. Everyone else seemed amused as well, though slightly worried about the legitimacy of the outburst.
“Now now, it is just a temporary thing. Besides, it won’t start till next week. We are still going out this weekend as planned.”
The room exploded in excitement. Going out, a trip. It wasn’t to anywhere extravagant, but for the whole family to go anywhere together was an event in and of itself. A museum in the city. For it being so far away from where they lived, and the expenses that accompanied such a large-scale trip (bus fare and food) the idea of going was almost rejected on the spot earlier in the month. But after some convincing and having saved enough money for everyone to gain admission, a date for the upcoming Saturday was set to go. Ichigo could see it now; the local bus filled with all his little brothers and Nakigitsune and himself. He almost felt bad for others who were going to be taking the bus as well.
“Everyone calm down and get back to work. You still have school tomorrow so do all of your homework and… who is in charge of dinner today?”
Atsushi raised his hand and gathered up all the groceries that Namazuo had strewn on the table and took them away for later. Ichigo trusted his brother to make something nice for everyone and went off to his room to unwind for a moment. As he wished, Ichigo got a moment of rest, but only a moment.
“Ichinii, can I talk to you?”
Ichigo fought against every fiber of his being to sigh and sat up to look at Yagen, who sat at the end of the bed.
“Of course Yagen, what is on your mind?”
Yagen gave his older brother a small smile before taking the liberty to lean his body back and lay down on the bed beside his brother’s legs. Ichigo blinked in confusion before sighing. He could guess what was on his brother’s mind, what else could it be? Girls? Doubtful.
“It happened again. Another dream. I think there is a reason for them.”
“You think so?”
“I do. The only person who hasn’t had them is you.”
“That is quite strange, isn’t it? It is not like I doubt you all, I just believe that this theory you guys have is a bit…”
“Silly?”
“Not silly, just not feasible.” Ichigo sighed at having to express his thoughts out loud, but he knew out of all the brothers he had, he couldn’t hide anything from Yagen. Yagen turned onto his stomach and propped his chin on his hands.
“Ichinii, tell me about your childhood.”
Ichigo’s smile fell.
“You know I cannot remember that.”
“I know you can’t, and neither can I. Neither can anyone really here.”
“Well, all of you are in the midst of your childhood so there is not much to remember besides these past few years. I don’t think I would be comfortable remembering my first few years so vividly, hahaha.”
Despite the attempt at reassurance, Yagen’s eyes remained serious. Such attempts at reason seemed to fail under scrutiny, and Ichigo knew that well. However, to attempt and unravel the seams of their now current existence seemed-
“Troubling.” Ichigo’s eyes widened in shock at Yagen having read his mind. “This whole thing is certainly troubling. I know that but... I can’t seem to shake off this feeling that something isn’t right. No one can.”
Except himself, Ichigo thought. Ichigo swallowed down all the words he wanted to say. He knew he was in the minority between all his brothers, but this whole situation and how quickly it escalated was unbelievable to him. If whatever his brothers were proposing was based in some truth, that these past few years, their whole life, was some sort of lie, then… then what?
“I heard some of you have been doing research.”
Yagen nodded and stayed silent for a moment, and Ichigo almost thought that there was nothing to present.
“We only have some images to go by and the only thing we could all really remember was the swords we all wielded. So, we are going to look at them.”
Ichigo made a small hum in his throat. When his brothers thought to do something, they really followed through. The conversation died with those final words, and Ichigo was strangely relieved. Yagen soon sat up, seemingly satisfied with speaking his mind to some degree, and Ichigo soon fell back to sleep, trusting Nakigitsune or the older brothers to look after everyone, all the while not realizing the implication of Yagen’s final words.
-----
Ichigo couldn’t help but smile at the site of all his brothers marching towards the museum entrance. Two by two, they marched in line. It was an effective system, the line led by Namazuo and Honebami, and the end of the line looked over by Ichigo and Nakigitsune. Beside him, Nakigitsune said very little but it was clear to see even beneath the face mask that both he and Ichigo shared the same feelings—They were all very cute!
“Now everyone, make sure to meet back here at noon so we can all go to lunch,” Ichigo informed everyone as they entered the lobby of the museum. With some excited exclamations, everyone parted ways with the two oldest. Ichigo was too happy to notice how strange it was that they all went off in the same direction.
“It has been a while since we could do something together, hasn’t it?” Ichigo turned to Nakigitsune, who was looking around the pristine lobby of the museum. At the question, Nakigitsune turned his attention to the other and nodded with a hum.
“Do you want to go anywhere?”
Ichigo shook his head at Nakigitsune’s question before he too looked at the museum. He had never been here before, and nothing in particular had caught his interest when his brothers showed him the layout of the exhibitions earlier. Not that he didn’t appreciate history, it just wasn’t as high of a priority when compared to his desires to please his little brothers.
“Unless you have somewhere you want to go, I am satisfied with simply looking around,” Ichigo replied. Nakigitsune took one more moment to look at Ichigo before looking towards the gift shop.
Ichigo smiled at the hint. It wasn’t quite soon enough to be thinking of holiday gifts, but perhaps the museum had something of interest that he could get for his siblings or himself. He took the initiative to begin walking there first, Nakigitsune silently following behind.
The cashier of the gift shop greeted them before allowing the two to browse without much interference. It was quite a small shop, mostly filled with books and small trinkets of famous pieces within the museum. Trinkets sounded like a good thing to purchase, but Ichigo suddenly felt some guilt over buying something he hadn’t yet seen. Perhaps he will stop by after looking around the museum and buy one.
Nakigitsune was looking over some books, so without much interest in keychains, Ichigo went over beside him. There seemed to be some magazines mixed in with some thick books. Perhaps if we were more interested in some of these topics, he would pick one up but for the asking price… Not at the moment. His eye caught sight of some reproductions of art in the form of postcards and wandered there next, leaving Nakigitsune to finger a book about calligraphy.
“These are quite nice, aren’t they?”
Ichigo expected no reply from his question, which was just fine. He picked up a postcard and flipped it over, reading the name of the piece on it. Wondering whether or not the museum actually had the woodblock prints on the postcards, Ichigo put the down the one he had in his hand and was about to head over to look at mugs and tote bags before something caught his eye.
‘Atsushi Toushirou.’
Ichigo had to look again to make sure he wasn’t just projecting the name of his younger brother onto the sticker in front of some postcards, but no, it was just as he read.
It brought him some comfort that the postcard wasn’t some candid photo of his younger brother, but what was instead there was just as concerning. The blade of a small sword against a black background. On the back was more information about the blade. Important cultural property, tantou sword.
Ichigo looked at the postcards next to the one of this small blade that shared an eerie similarity to his brother. Shishio, Akashi Kuniyuki… Ichigo felt his mouth go dry, though he could not really understand why. Ichigo looked at Nakigitsune, who was still looking through some books, before looking back at the postcard in hand. It was strange, his heart was racing but logically there was no reason to. It was just a very well-made sword, with his brother’s name, that i—
“ICHINII!”
Ichigo, Nakigitsune, and the cashier of the gift shop jumped at the sudden yell. Hakata came running from behind some walls that separated the lobby from other exhibits, and in his hurry knocked into Ichigo. The older brother didn’t have time to ask what the cause for such a commotion was before the front of his clothes was pulled.
“Ichinii, quick, Houchou fainted!”
Ichigo felt his heart jump to his throat, and before his mind could make sense of what Hakata had said, his legs were already in motion. Hakata led Ichigo and Nakigitsune to a dark exhibit, past some statues and scrolls. Perhaps later, Ichigo could take a moment to stop and gaze in wonder at all the works of importance but not now, Houchou was more important. He fainted. Why did he faint? Where? Why?
Between some free-standing glass covered platforms were his little brothers, huddled around Houchou who was coming to after his spell. Upon seeing Ichigo come to the scene, they moved out of the way and let him kneel and gently help Houchou up.
“Are you alright? What happened?” The last question seemed to be directed at everyone present, and after a moment, Namazuo and Honebami answered.
“We were just looking at these swords and then he said he felt a little weak and then…
“…He fainted.”
Ichigo looked at all his little brothers and concluded that they were not lying. His attention returned to Houchou who looked a little bit frightened, looking around at the swords around them. To bring Houchou back to his usual self, Ichigo reached into his bag and pulled out a lollipop. Upon noticing the sweet, Houchou took it, the smile returning to his face.
“Are you alright? Here, we can take a rest somewhere before you can join your brothers again.”
Houchou unwrapped the candy and popped it into his mouth, sucking for a moment before shaking his head. “I’m okay! Just low blood sugar, I promise!” He did his best to give Ichigo a beaming smile, but somehow it did not reach his eyes. Ichigo frowned and once again looked at everyone, then took notice of the exhibit they were in.
It was as Namazuo had said, they were looking at swords. In the dark room, the walls and platforms were illuminated to display various swords of different shapes and sizes. Ichigo stood up and looked around. His hand twitched, and he caught it before bringing it to his chest. The one they were closest to was signed under Yoshimitsu. The uneasiness in his heart grew, but Ichigo could only wave it away when there was a tug on his jacket.
“Ichinii… Do you have more candy? You shouldn’t have hidden it!” Houchou puffed out his cheeks upon learning of his older brother’s secret, and Ichigo couldn’t help but laugh. There was nothing wrong, it was just low blood sugar. As for the postcard… Perhaps his brother’s name was common.
Ichigo reluctantly handed over another piece of candy, much to the dismay of the other siblings. “If another incident happens, don’t forget to call me right away.” Ichigo didn’t need to remind them, but it made himself feel more at ease having said it. Everything will be fine. After the museum, they will get some meat bowls before heading back home. No need to worry. Nakigitsune looked at Ichigo and then at his siblings, indicating he would watch over them. It would all work out.
Ichigo let out a deep sigh after he moved to another exhibition, choosing to walk around to relieve his nerves. The hanging scrolls seemed interesting in the half of a second he got to see them when running earlier, so he decided to head there. The exhibition was more illuminated, and somehow, Ichigo felt calmer. He slowed his step and looked at a hanging painting of a sparrow. Such simple strokes to last these many years, it was quite amazing.
Ichigo moved onto the next scroll. This one was a little bit more elaborate than the previous one; a crane among some bamboo. It was almost as if the crane was hiding, yet so clearly present. Ichigo turned his head to look at the title before his body shook in surprise.
“I finally found you!”
Ichigo froze, the sudden voice in the previously empty room giving him a fright. The voice was familiar, but at the same time clearly the voice of a stranger. There was no way it was addressing him.
“Ichigo Hitofuri, I knew I would find you one of these days.”
It was addressing him!
In fear of being impolite, Ichigo turned away from the scroll with a small smile, about to confess to having no idea who he was but upon seeing the face of the stranger his breath stopped in his throat.
Ichigo knows within this lifetime he had never seen such a person. Silver hair as seen in the old, but his face was that of a young man about his own age. His golden eyes were shining even in the low lighting, and his smile… How could Ichigo even began to describe it. It was if this person had finally found his soulmate.
Ichigo felt his heartbeat two pulses faster, and he clenched his fists, finding the words he had just lost. “I am Ichigo Hitofuri, but you are…?”
Ichigo was not expecting after the question, the other man would take three steps closer to him and reach for his hands. His whole body froze as the other started groping them.
“You are really here… Hah, out of all the places I have looked.”
Ichigo looked around the room. Was there no security to protect him against such attacks? The other man was obviously not going to answer his question, too content with feeling the grooves in his palms to think of anything else. Ichigo almost yelled out for some help when he heard something drop near one of the entrances to the exhibit.
A lollipop.
The stranger turned his head to look at his younger brothers, and Ichigo felt fear strike his heart. Were his little brothers going to be victim to hand groping!? He could not allow it!
Luckily, his little brothers were a step ahead.
“Tsurumaru… Kuninaga…”
Maybe a few steps ahead. Ichigo’s eyes widened at seeing his little brothers look at the stranger with familiarity, though some of their expressions were mixed with confusion, hostility, and relief. The stranger smiled and let go of Ichigo’s hands.
“You are all here too! I am hungry, want to go eat?”