Side Quests #4: Blessings

[madimpossibledreamer]

I got real life in my iso fic. (warning: covid mention)
Shunsui and Shun Akiyama actually do have a lot in common, personality-wise. It’s kind of a cool coincidence. (He is, by the way, lying about the origin of the name, but it’s a story he came up with while he was creating the character.) Early Shunsui also has things in common with early Tony Stark—desperate and almost angry to prove himself against his father and everyone else who thinks he can’t do it, but also living down to their worst expectations.
EDIT WHOOPS I FORGOT TO CHANGE THE SUMMARY MY BAD

Main Points:
Bleach AU (where the bleach crew play innocent sin online) iso//sq
Summary: Ukitake is an optimist.
Word Count: 395
Rating: Gen
Warning: Covid mention

          Juushirou considers himself blessed.
          He knows full well that many wouldn’t agree with the assessment. He is, for the time being anyway, free of the plague tearing through the world. Japan is taking things seriously, and fortunately its citizens take the duty to not kill their neighbors just as seriously. He feels slight anger at those who would recklessly risk other’s lives, but more than anything, he feels pity and sympathy for the others, like him, considered high-risk, who don’t have advocates or protectors to keep them safe. He enjoys the data analysis and research, and even more the presentations where he gets to share the results with others, and he can do all of those things from the luxury of home, laughing about the technical difficulties and helping to diffuse tensions (because he doesn’t even have to be in the room to feel the fear permeating every wall, it’s achingly familiar and he’s never let that stop him before). It might be a small room, but that, too, has the familiarity that whispers of home, and it was large enough for a plant for oxygen and company, and to practice his kata and keep in shape. The teenager a few doors down, usually so boisterous, solemnly promised to take all the precautions as he buys the groceries Juushirou needs, which quickly draws out the competition in the other teenager one floor down, as they’re always competing about everything. He half expects in their desire to prove they’re more careful they’ll venture out in hazmat suits, and stifles a laugh into his sleeve when they’ve gone. It’ll certainly keep them out of trouble, for once.
          Admittedly, as much as he likes his books, he misses interaction, but then, his doctor, Retsu, had been kind enough to offer a solution for that, too (to keep his mind healthy, she said). He hadn’t really considered playing games as a pastime before, but it was an intriguing solution. She recommended the one she played, Innocent Sin Online, and admittedly he’d been curious, but a little skeptical. But when he’d grouped with fellow players shortly after the tutorial, coming up with fighting strategies, working in concert with others to explore and save a new world…well, how could one be gloomy? Even if a bout of coughing had kept him awake, there was always something new to find, someone new to meet. His salary was not small, enough to pay for all his needs, books, his new addiction, and even enough to send a little home.
          True, his condition was…unfortunate. But he’d lived with it practically all his life, so there was no use in cursing fate. Truly, it couldn’t be helped.
          Most families in Japan were small, anymore, but he’d come from a small fishing village, where the cost of feeding more mouths was offset by the addition of more hands to help with the labor. As headman of the village and renowned for his wisdom in their small little area of Japan, his father would have been considered a minor nobleman, once upon a time, but that was hardly a consideration in the modern era. When once reputation would have been enough, now money had taken its place. Ah, but a cure hadn’t existed back then, so perhaps his condition was as inevitable as the tide or storms.
          When he was eight, Juushirou had contracted tuberculosis. It had seemed a small thing at the time, a fever and cough, and anyway they had no money to pay for a doctor to come out all the way, or for travel and treatment, not with seven siblings to look after and their rural ways. Everyone had thought it was a small thing, but when months dragged on and he began to struggle to breathe, there was no help for it. Something had to be done.
          Juushirou didn’t remember a lot of those months. He slept for most of it, and even his time awake felt vaguely dreamlike, or perhaps nightmare-like. Distinguishing the two had become difficult. Even so, his mother informed him, he hadn’t lost his smile, and would even continue to reassure them all that everything would be all right, which helped fuel the desire they felt to ensure those words became reality. Eventually, without permission, Hiroto and Kana traveled to the city to get jobs and earn enough money for the doctor, depriving themselves all the while. The doctors accepted payments, and he was cured—but the damage had been done. His lungs were scarred and weak. But he was alive.
          Fortunately, Hiroto and Kana were free of the disease, as were all but his youngest two brothers, Akio and Keiichi. It was decided that as long as the disease was latent, they would not treat it, though the doctors disapproved. Still, if there was no money, there was no money. Hiroto came back as soon as the treatment was paid off, but Kana remained in the city, sending back money as she could. She liked the freedom, Juushirou suspected, and counted that as yet another blessing. He enabled his dear older sister to find her happiness. She’d always been headstrong, but then, that stubbornness was more of a family trait than an individual one. It was more unfortunate that Hiroto didn’t take it as easily, alternating between a solicitous fussing, and a well-concealed resentment. Juushirou never let on that he noticed Hiroto’s secret anguish and didn’t take it personally. No one had planned for such things, and some visions of the future had to be postponed or forgotten. It was…merely sad, like the sea devouring a child’s sandcastle. Inevitable, yet still poignant. Tragic. If there’s anything at all Juushirou regrets in the whole affair, it’s that.
          They all insist that there’s no need for him to go to school or to the city, but he’s happy to do it. He likes learning, he likes interacting with others, and he likes making sure his family is safe and happy.
          Sometimes, in school, he’d use the excuse of asthma. It was an easier explanation, and didn’t have fussing or fear attached. That ceased being possible when he’d entered university and woke up in the hospital one day, hair turned white by a particularly bad attack that had turned out to be pneumonia. He’d been wearing the mask, but had considered it merely the flu, and anyway he had to study for exams. He didn’t remember any of the three days he’d spent in bed, though as always the harsh, joking lecture by Kana made him smile weakly. Even in this, he considers himself lucky. If it had occurred before, it would have been impossible to conceal, but as it was he could merely be mistaken for a professor. In fact, he ended up tutoring some of his fellow classmates and considering teaching, but discarded the idea. His absences aren’t frequent, but any potential students deserve more than that.
          But, at last, he had a job and could pay for them all. And even in the midst of several difficulties, he had many blessings to count.
          His first character, still beloved, was a Courageous Champion, because the idea of blessed bullets had intrigued him, and it was, well, unique. His next character, well.
          Unique wasn’t exactly the word for it. After all, a half-kitsune Banisher was, fairly clearly, Abe no Seimei, or at least inspired by the character, but he still enjoyed playing Shirou and spoiling every demon and ghost silly. It was as Shirou he ended up joining the Clan Retsu had mentioned, Gotei Thirteen, along with a new friend he’d made, Shun. (Privately, he suspects his own lieutenants’ faces are likewise familiar to him in real life, as they are hardly as subtle as they like to think, but he does them the service of continuing to pay for their candy and pretending that he has no idea who they are. It’s amusing, in its own way.) Shun was a rather lazy Wind of Fate and, in the same breath as teasing Juushirou about his lack of imagination (‘a white fox? really?’) had also explained that his character name had come from a different videogame about yakuza. Juushirou researched the game one week in between naps and coughing and then proceeded to tease Shun back (mostly about the shared laziness and calm attitude), an outcome that his friend apparently hadn’t foreseen (he’d responded with surprise and then pride) and soon had him proclaiming them best friends.
          Shun was, he said, the son of a CEO (he was very careful to avoid saying which one) and was expected to inherit the company. Mostly, though, he was there for ceremonial decoration, a good role for him as it required little work and he was so very handsome. The line was made complete with a winking emoji. Privately, Juushirou diagnoses his friend with existential despair (neither he nor anyone else trusts him to be competent, it seems, and better to be lazy than to fail) and mildly suggests that perhaps charity work could benefit from his time, as well as improving the image of the company. Not that his time spent with Shirou was unwanted or time wasted, but he couldn’t play all the time, and he’s always found it’s better to keep one’s hands busy, even if one does end up looking like a decorated ornament. Shun uneasily takes the advice and very quickly changes the subject, but when, the next week, he’d begun his usual rush of dialogue with “You were right, Shirou!” and continued to describe with great detail and enthusiasm his day helping at a charity, Juushirou smiles, grateful he could help a friend, says as much out loud, and proceeds to quietly ignore all the inadvertent hints Shun is dropping about his identity. He’s had practice in that regard, after all.