A/N: I hope you enjoy this little experiment of mine. This is dedicated to Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the two that first made me interested in myth and legend, and to my ever-helpful beta's: AlsoSprachOdin and MindAsylum. Also, please note that this is only a one-shot. I'm not ruling anything out, but I have no intention of continuing this as a series or as a chapter fic'.

-))—((-

Japan, 1783
By the sea near Edo

Ancient ages ago, when the island of Japan was first birthed from the sea, the still outpouring lava and flaming shrapnel hit the cold waves and formed the black spears and steep cliffs of the Kazasushi. Ages more passed by and the hard fire rock of the rest of Japan were tamed under the scraping wind and clinging plants. Animals and man eventually arrived and dwelled on the newly formed island, but the Kazasushi resisted the slow alterations of time and remained home to the swift fish and sea birds alone; which is why it was so unusual to see a man dancing down the black crags with all the dexterity of a mountain goat.

His curly brown locks bounced up and down his back as he twisted and twirled. His face was like that of a young man before his wedding or good friends by the hearth: ruddy, fearless and full of good cheer. On his brow he bore a silver diadem of intricate craft and his eyes held a quivering light. Over his slim shoulders fluttered a cherry red cloak of tricksy colors that shifted depending on how one might look at it. Around his waist was a belt of leather matching his hair and eyes. In his hands waved a smoking lantern that burned rose petals and an earthen jug full of fragrant wine that sloshed about.

The young man bounded down to the last of the crags, sending flocks of seagulls to scatter into the air. He leapt to the very edge of the foaming surf and then leapt again, landing on a lone pinnacle of rock thrusting out from the waves. Easily balanced on the sharp, wet rock, the man laughed while the spray leapt up to his wooden clogs. But the strange young man was not satisfied with merely admiring the view that day. He had not journeyed so far only to admire the view. His home was in forests and flower fields far from the sea.

"Yoohoohalooo!"

The man bellowed in a voice that echoed over the roar of the sea keen and clear. "Come out y'old fishes, come on out! There's strange doings in the courts of heaven and an old foe has reappeared. Come on out, you two; come and see your old friend, Etsuko!"

The wind responded in kind by picking up speed until a gale was sweeping over the beach and the waves vied to reach the top of his head. Far off the shore there was a gathering wall of black clouds moving inland at freakish speeds. Etsuko paid them no mind as he twirled and danced on the lone rock in the sea, for the waves divided before him and no chill could he ever feel.

I am laughter, I am song

Company I'll give you all the night long

I see far

I see wide

With my lightless candle burning by my side

I'm your lover, I'm your brother

I am he you pray never meets your mother

Come to me, come to me

All those burdened with sorrow

Come visit me

And I'll have you singing by the morrow!

So sang Etsuko as the wind howled and the skies grew dark as the clouds swept over. Rain swept down in icy sheets and the sky and sea became a black abyss lit only by the sudden flash of lightning as it seemed that the world itself might be swallowed by the storm. But just when the screaming wind reached a new height in ferocity, the eye of the storm passed overhead and a deceptive calm came over the sea. The faintest traces of light returned. The twin fish had come to Kazasushi.

Etsuko squatted down to his haunches and shouted down at the water.

"Hey there, old friends, you have no need to impress me. Come up so that we can share company and drink! Or shall I pour some wine into the sea and let you drink it that way, eh, eh?" Etsuko cackled while he swirled the contents of his jug teasingly over the dark waters.

In response, two giant black waves like mountains welled up over him. But instead of crashing down on the rock, they stayed still and grew even larger. When it seemed they might scrape the clouds themselves, the dark waters melted away to reveal two great serpents, each identical to the other. Their coiled bodies were thicker than a ship's mast and covered in stygian hides like a shark's, but stronger than any shell. Their heads were long and pointed with jaws like a dragon and their mouths were full of long ranks of polished ivory sharper than swords and harder than diamond.

"These shores have seen high tide a thousand and a thousand times since last we met," spoke one of the great serpents. "Why have you strayed so far from your home in the dells to summon us from the deep, Etsuko?"

Etsuko craned his neck and leaned back on his perch as he looked up into the twin's dark eyes. "Is it not enough that I am here? Could it not be possible that I simply desire the sweet fellowship of old companions?"

The air shook with an immensely low vibration; a sort of subterranean rumble. Etsuko's grin only grew bigger.

"And tear you away from your lunar fests and those wood nymphs you insist on debauching with? Perhaps when your borders were close by to ours, but you've never had a love of traveling."

The serpent on the right then uncoiled and brought its prodigious head about so that a single, obsidian eye peered directly at Etsuko.

"My brother speaks truly. Tell us why you have summoned us."

"Still the impatient one, Kiyoshi?" Asked Etsuko, to which he received another volcanic rumble.

"Ne, ne Kiyoshi, I mean no harm," he said while bowing low in exaggeration. "Kiyoko, you know I mean nothing, right?"

The second serpent moved in close as well so that Etsuko had an eye on both his front and his back.

"That we do know, Etusko. You also know, however, that our tasks are never ending and we are loath to leave lest the Bright One's minions cause mischief. Now, tell us the tale or we'll blow that absurd hair right off your head."

This at last demand dimmed Etsuko's happy expression. He had enjoyed gently ribbing the two like in the old days before the War, but it couldn't last.

"The Bright One has sent Noelani in the shell of a man to Seretei." At this, both serpents opened their great mouths and let out a ghoulish roar that sounded like both a scream and the echo of a great pod of whales.

"Traitor,"growled one.

"Blasphemer,"rasped the other.

"Ah, so you remember him?" Etsuko asked.

"Pah, we know of him," Kiyoshi voiced with an agitated jerk of his head.

"Now tell us how you came to know this," prompted Kiyoko.

Etsuko grinned. He always liked telling stories, especially when he was the main character. "Well my friends, I was sitting one morning by the river lilies, enjoying a cup of wine brewed by a fisher's daughter. You see, her family had been tormented for months by the kappa and she gave it to me in gratitude for chasing them away. Anyway, I was enjoying my wine when I fell asleep and then immediately into dream."

"Before me on a high hill sat a golden dragon, terrible and strong, and he was placed over the souls of the spared who stood gathered below him in a great multitude. On his head rested a golden crown with forty-six jewels; onyx, sapphire, jet, diamond, jade, ruby, pearl and many more that I could not name. In one claw he held a scroll that pronounced his authority to judge the multitude while they waited and in another he held an iron scepter establishing his power to enforce his decrees and protect his subjects from the beasts that prowled in the dark. And as I walked closer, I could see that round him there were ringed twelve swords and twelve shields stained black with the blood of beasts and transgressors."

"So it seemed to me that the golden dragon was invincible, but as I walked closer still, a mist seemed to clear from my eyes and I saw that the dragon was not strong, but old and infirm. His eyes were white with his blindness and his scales dull from sickness. Suddenly, three of the swords broke ranks and turned on the dragon. Two impaled him in the claws, while the third clove his head in two and split the golden crown. Then a voice called out from the sky, crying, 'Are not the mighty the first to fall? Are not the prideful first to stumble? Shigekuni has been brought low and all he created laid to ruin, but what of the people?'"

"And I watched in horror as the lurking beasts came and snatched the people away while the remaining swords and shields were trampled to the ground. With that, the dream ended and I woke up with a start to find that three days had passed."

With Etsuko's tale ended at last, he waited while the twin's pondered the meaning of his dream. At last, Kiyoshi broke the silence.

"Your tale is a dire one indeed, Etsuko, and was it anyone else; I would question the truthfulness of the vision. But whatever your faults may be, you always were discerning. Tell us, what do you have in mind?"

At this question, Etsuko grinned shamefacedly and rubbed the back of his head. "Eh, I was kind of hoping you might know. Earthly spirits are not allowed to pass into Soul Society and even if I could go there myself, I'm not powerful enough to confront Noelani on my own."

Kiyoshi gave another meditative rumble while Etsuko watched in amusement as the wind and waves seemed to become choppier and smaller to suite their master's meditative mood.

"Could not an envoy be sent? Surely there are those among the reapers who might listen to wisdom?"

Etsuko shook his head while he popped the cork from his beloved wine jug. "I'm sorry to say that's impossible. When the reapers rebelled from our ranks and exiled their guardian all those millennia ago, they also barred Seretei from any spirits that had not once been living men. Now they have even forgotten who they are. They claim to be gods of death and only carry on with a semblance o f their old duties."

Kiyoshi snarled wetly while thunder rolled ponderously through the black canopy overhead. "Arrogant fools. Regardless, we cannot abandon to them to their own fate. If Etsuko's vision was not merely his bottle speaking in his ear, then we have been tasked by the Lord Commander himself. "

Etsuko sighed quietly while imbibing more of the sweet brew that drove him to vision's sleep. "That's all well and good, but our question remains: how do we enter Seretei without ripping its very gates out of the ground?"

And so the three spirits debated over what course to take. One would suggest an idea and another would find a flaw so that they were left in silence before beginning again. Days passed while the storm dissipated and the seas calmed to gray skies and glass waters. The sun was about to rise on the sixth day when Kiyoshi reasoned that they would follow Noelani's own example and possess a living vessel to transport them into the courts of the reapers. And so the council ended as the brothers went one way as a gathering wave and swift wind while Etsuko ran wildly down the coast.

-))—((-

Etsuko was the first among the companions to find a suitable man to carry him through Seretei's gates. As he sped through the fields of Mirasma on his way to Edo, his keen nose caught the scent of death in the air. Curiosity compelled him to turn aside from his road. After a little search, he came upon a lone ronin in a field of wild flowers, his back against a border rock. The ronin was tall and broad of chest and would have been a large man indeed had he not been suffering from slow starvation. Over his shoulders was an old, threadbare winter haori. It was made with thick, navy blue fabric and decorated with twisting vines sewn in black thread. On his head there sat a wide brimmed hat made of straw which concealed his eyes. By his side, bloody and chipped, a katana and wakizashi lay.

Etsuko walked toward the strange young ronin he had discovered with a bounce in his step and a tune on his lips. Soon he stood over the man, who continued to ignore him. The sun had almost set when the silence was, at last, broken.

"Sake?" The young ronin nodded.

Etsuko poured what was now sake from his jug into a cup that had materialized out from his own voluminous sleeves. Wordlessly and without looking up, the young ronin took the proffered drink and sipped at it while Etsuko poured out for himself another cup. Time passed before any more speech was made and when it was, it was the young ronin who spoke.

"That was very good. Thank you." He held up the borrowed cup for Etsuko to take.

"Are you here to kill me?" He asked while Etsuko reclaimed the given vessel.

"Good heavens, no! What reason do you have to ask?"

The ronin made an indifferent gesture to the wildflower field in which he lay. Etsuko made a show of looking around before he asked a question of his own.

"You mean the bodies?" For there were indeed bodies; scores lay barely concealed beneath the bright hues of the flower blooms.

"Hn," was his only reply.

"Is there a reason, perchance, you seem to be surrounded by bodies?" Etsuko calmly took a seat next to the young ronin.

"They were sent to kill me," the ronin confided.

"Ah," replied Etsuko.

The sun had dipped below the horizon and the sky was lit gold and red before the next words were spoken.

"Would you tell me, my good sir, how you came to be in such a position?" As Etsuko spoke he gestured towards the corpses that lay amongst the flowers.

The young ronin hesitated to reply, but mortals cannot drink Etsuko's sake without effect and though he had had but little, the weariness that tainted his soul was already falling away.

"I'm pretty good with the sword, you see." Etsuko nodded at this and encouraged the reluctant warrior to continue with his tale. "When I was young…"

"You mean 'younger'?" Etsuko asked with a broad smile. To the ronin's surprise, he found himself returning the stranger's smile before agreeing.

"Hai, much younger. When I was a but a lad of fourteen, the shogun called me to war and I, so full of youth's fire and brash confidence, marched out happily…three years later I had slain over forty men myself and become the shogun's personal guard…and I did not like what I'd become."

Etsuko thoughtfully scratched his chin. "I see."

"Indeed," said the man with a wry smile and a far off glance. "So I quit."

"Brave of you," Etsuko acknowledged with a slight bow of his head. The man laughed hoarsely.

"Perhaps, but regardless, I happily wandered the land with a price on my head until I came to Edo. While I was there, I met a fine young lady. I tried to woo her, but she only swatted me. Later, I protected her dignity from several of the local shogun's ruffians. She kissed me then, but nothing further was given."

"Shame, that is," Etsuko spoke with great sympathy. "So these men are then…"

"…the latest in a line of pursuers. I'm not sure what they were here for: assassins sent from the shogun, those ruffians seeking vengeance or for something else I've forgotten."

With the explanation given, the two lapsed into silence again, though the jug made several more rounds. The light of the sun had turned from gold to red before speech came again and this time it was the young ronin who spoke first, as if to clear his head from words he wished not to think.

"You know, I hate fighting. Why do men insist on fighting when we could sleep, compose poetry, and enjoy their lovers? "

Etsuko cheerfully shrugged his shoulders. "I do not know," he said before leaping suddenly to his feet. "However, I do know that this is fortuitous coincidence. Listen here, sirrah, I have a proposition for you. Join me in death and, though you will still be called upon to war, it will only be to free the enslaved and to fight the immoral. And when you are not called upon to slay, you may spend your days as you once did: asleep on a sunny afternoon or in the pleasure of good company."

At this, the tired young ronin looked up at Etsuko, exposing his face to the golden twilight for the first time. His face was ill shaven while his brown hair and whiskey eyes mirrored Etsuko's own to a startling degree, though his eyes were both younger and far more tired.

"How can I believe you?" He asked with a hint of pleading in his voice

"Because you know I'm telling the truth," went Etsuko's cheerful reply.

"You didn't answer my question," the ronin rejoined sourly, though his face held a smile instead of a frown.

"So are we in agreement?" Etsuko held out a hand.

"Heh, so we are," said the ronin as he took it.

-))—((-

While Etsuko's nose led him on a productive detour, another man waited in seiza for the sun to go down with an expression of deep melancholy. This would be unusual to anyone who did not know him, for at first glance, he seemed to have been blessed by the gods from birth.

This man had been born into a noble family that, while possessing little of the royal blood, enjoyed hidden wealth and power equal to that of even the Emperor. Devious cunning and guile seemed to be a trait inherent with the family, so much so that there were none that did not give them ear. As the only male scion of the family head, the melancholic man had been afforded the finest of life's privileges. He ate only the richest foods, did what he wanted, when he wanted, was trained by the greatest educators available in and out of Japan. Yet this was not enough either, for even his own body seemed to be touched by divine blessing. This particular noble was renowned throughout Japan for his great beauty, with the delicate hands of a musician, eyes of light mahogany and silken locks of ebony. No illness could ever touch him, while his strength and dexterity were shocking; especially for one so privileged while the genius of his mind seemed to know no bounds. All this had been given to him and carefully cultivated by his kin to create what seemed a monument to the highest ideals of humanity.

Yet, the nobleman was not happy. He strove for nothing, for there was nothing that had not been provided; he fought for nothing, because he knew nothing worth fighting for and he believed in nothing because everything had been told to him. As a boy, he did as he was told and never deviated so that by his middling years his every accomplishment was another's.

The nobleman's life meant nothing to him and so he despised his own self, though he was too full of self-pity to change. He could only accumulate endless wealth that advisors earned, run through training regimes instructors held him to and silently frown as his own family destroyed the lives of hundreds through their greed.

The only refuge for him was careful meditation and for this he liked the fine sand of Edo's shores the best. His wife had driven him out early in the afternoon and he remained unmoving for longer than he ever had before, lost in his own mind.

Thus it was that the twins, Kiyoko and Kiyoshi came upon him while he sat watching the sun dip into the sea. To the wealthy nobleman, it seemed that he had fallen asleep and was diving down deep, deep into the sea where thing nameless and old trod the lightless void. And when he despaired of ever feeling the warmth of the sun ever again, there came suddenly a brilliant light all around him. The man was amazed for it appeared to him that he was floating in a cloud of thousands upon thousands of fireflies.

Suddenly, voices, or maybe it was one voice in many tones and many cadences, called out to him from seemingly all around and it was in a language he did not understand or even heard, yet somehow he knew what was being said.

"Brace yourself, for today is the day you must at last make a choice and suffer its consequences."

The rich noble shook with fear and tried to plug his ears, but still the voice spoke on.

"Much you have been given, but nothing you've returned. The wealth and power of a nation have been at your disposal, yet you allow others to commit evil with it and so thereby give your own consent to their deeds. You've ignored the poor, the downtrodden and the weak while you yourself were strong. Do you deny these things?"

The man could not answer, so astounded and afraid was he. Then both the twins swam into the visible light out of the dark shadows and the man would have collapsed into a faint had he been allowed.

"No, I deny nothing," said the man as he cowered in horror.

"Do you wish to change, then? Do you wish to suffer for what you've done and work tirelessly for those you once left to suffer? Or do you wish to forget all you've heard today and wake up in your bed, safe and comfortable for the rest of your days?"

And it was not just with words that the twins fielded their questions. For in his mind, the man felt his own suffering, saw his own toil as he worked tirelessly towards all he had neglected. Long he considered and his heart quaked with fear, but through it all, he remembered the empty ache that he had lived with for so long. Thus, after many long moments of silent debate, he gave his reply.

"I wish to work," he said. "I wish to work in repayment for the pain my own apathy has caused."

The lights seemed to flair brighter at his words and the serpents gave their answer. "No man's payment is ever equal to his debt, as you will learn yourself. But hear what it is you accept. You will be sent to the afterlife with ourselves as your power. There we will root out and destroy the deceiving spirit, Noelani. This will be a task of millennia and though our power will make you greater than any other in the time of need, it's very strength will undoubtedly burn away your spirit. From the time our might comes upon you to that of your second death, you will never know a day without pain and weakness. Though you live in a desert, you will gasp for air like a drowning man, chocking and spitting. Your own strength will be as wax, melting at the slightest heat; your bones and joints those of an old man. So tell us now, do you still accept?"

Again, the rich man trembled at the awful sight of the two spirits and the thought of the trials to come. Yet still, there was something that attracted him to the offer. His whole life had been devoid of purpose, honor or challenge. What greater challenge could there be than this task, what higher purpose or honor than defending the spirit realm itself?

"Better to be broken than empty, I suppose. I accept your offer, lord spirits."

The noble felt more than heard the deep growls that came from the massive spirit beasts and he knew they were pleased.

"So let it be done!"

-))—((-

And thus it was that that very year there were two new additions to Soul Society. Ukitake Jyuushiro was born first, the eldest of a minor noble house. Shortly after birth, the child began manifesting immense amounts of reiatsu. Soon it was so much that the parents were forced to teach him how to seal away his own energy. The effort to dampen his own reiatsu began to eat away at his body and it was not long before Ukitake acquired the illness for which his famous for, along with the demeanor necessary to endure it.

Kyoraku Shunsui was born the year Ukitake Jyuushiro's hair fell out and regrew white. He was the second son of high ranking nobility. By the time he was thirty, he had effectively mastered the basics of the four shinigami arts. By the time he was thirty-five, his parents had unofficially disowned him and sent him along his way to the Shin'ō Reijutsu Academy. Ukitake Jyuushiro would join him halfway through the first session when both his parents, each soul reapers, were slain by hollows. It was not long before the two were apprenticed under Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryusai.

And together they watched and waited, though they did not know the reason why.

Names and Meanings

Courts of Heaven: Seretei

Etsuko: Joy

Kappa: River demons with the body of a tortoise, ape-like heads and monkish haircuts. Their heads were concave and held a strong fluid. If you could trick them into bowing, they would spill the fluid and be forced to return to the river.

Kiyoko/Kiyoshi: Pure

Noelani: Heavenly mist

Souls of the Spared: Those who are given another chance at life instead of being cast into Hell; the inhabitants of Soul Society.