Open Shortplay: In the real world

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Alternative Timeline- What if...
...Jushiro and Shunsui ntl got punished by the Commander... and now have to stay in the real world for one week....without their powers...?


"Shushu... why do humans put things into tin things that you can never open again?" asked Jushiro while he watched the "Western Ravioli" in quiet despair. "I really don t understand that..."
"Hand that thing over, Casanova." his friend said and without asking he did so. Whatever *thing* Shushu had in the other hand... he somehow made the tin box being open with it.

"Amazing. Where did you learn that?"
"Well, you should every now and then just leave Soul Society... then you would know. But you havnt recently, have you?"
"I have... but... I never had to open a thing like that."
"Well, mybe then I shall teach you... do you know how to prepare it?"
"Cooking?!"
"Microwave?!"
"I like cooking better..." ><
"Do you think... we'll meet our human friends?"
"Mh. I am kind of... uncertain when it comes to those... but they saved Rukia. That was great!"
Jushiro smiled again.
Shunsui didn t answer him and just got the tin thing box back.
"Let me do that... or you will just mess up the whole kitchen..."
Ukitake smiled a bit more.

As this is said to be alternative... whatever... what if... Henarion haven't been found by the Shinigami yet?

It was a hostel. A cheap one. Single sleeping rooms, but a shared kitchen and bath facilities.
Henarion often stayed in places such as this.
He smiled a bit and put his bag onto the bed. It had been a hard day and now he was hungry.
He didn't earn that much money, but it was, because it had been a rainy day... and on rainy days there were less people at the market place.
His money still would suffice for some more days in the hostel, but he really needed to land a greater coup soon.

The young man sighed deeply and then changed his clothes. During the days he didn't want to attract any attention, but when enjoying his leisure time he liked to dress up in a more western style rather than the typical japanese one.
So he took a brown trousers and a blue tunic and then sat up again.
Time to have lunch.
Well. What was in his bag? Oh right, great. A tin of beans. What a dinner!
He rolled his eyes, took the tin and then went for the kitchen.

When he entered the kitchen room, he was surprised by finding it already occupied.
"Ahm... good evening... lads." He greeted the two men in there and smiled at them.
"Mind if I cook something too?" He asked them politely while walking into the kitchen room, searching for a pott. His look fell onto the tin of the other two.
His eyes widened and grew bigger.
Ravioli! They had Ravioli!
Oh what would he give for having some Ravioli?!

"What? No! Just cook as much as you want to!" Jushiro smiled all over his face. "Like to have some chocolate?" He offered him some, while he heard Shushu laughing gently.

"My, my... don t mind us, Buddy. Enough room for everyone, isn t there?" He turned around again to put the Ravioli into a pot and the pott onto the heating-thing.
Shushu took a spoon in his hand, whirled it around and then let it glide into the pott.

"What will you have for dinner?" Shiro asked curiously. "You know... we are somehow new here... and I am very currious on all the eating-things there might be."
Shushu smiled gently, although the others couldn t see it. It was a punishment, that they were here, but Jui nevertheless seemed to enjoy it a lot... although he was quite helpless.

Their Gigais, artificial bodies, were an exact replication of their original ones. Just the clothes were different and a bit weird, the Captain thought.
Jui wore black linnen trousers and a hoodie in dark green. He looked quite young and as always a bit fragile. The white hair he had taken back and the brown eyes shimmered in excitement.

Shushu himself wore black trousers, a white shirt and a black vest. No hat. A pity. His brown hair he had taken back and the three-days-beard ( ) suited him here as well as back home.

"Oh, great." Henarion answered and put his pott onto the hearth.
"Can I have the tin opener, please?" He asked politely and glanced at the thing in Shushu's hand.
"The two of you are new at the hostel?" Henarion was being curious again and so just asked the two everything coming to his mind while he was opening the tin.

"I am Henarion... or rather Henry." He introduced himself to the two men and watching them he couldn't but ask himself whether they were only friends or maybe... something else. They seemed to be quite familiar with each other. But they were too different to be brothers.
"How long will you be staying?" He continued, putting the content of his tin into the pott.
"Oh... it's not as delicious as Ravioli. "Just bean stew." He rolled his eyes a bit and raised the tin showing the beans on the etiquette.
"I didn't manage to buy anything so..." Henarion shrugged. "Have to eat what I've got." He didn't seem too happy about that, but couldn't change it anyway.

While the beans were cooking on the hearth, Henarion helped himself to a plate and a spoon and then waited for the food to become done.
"Are you new in the city? Or working here? What are you working? Were are you from... oh... if any of my questions might be too offensive, just tell me. I am usually a bit too curious."

"Yes, we are new here in the hostel!" Jushiro answered happily. The guy was talkative and he liked that. "This is Shunsui and I am Jushiro."
He watched his friend curiously over the shoulder and then focussed on Henrys beans. "But... that looks interesting... may I try it? You can have some Westernnoodlethings then!"
( ^^ May I knuddel him?! ^^ )
Jushiro looked at Shunsuis hand while it was holding the spoon and turning..turning...turning.
"We are just staying for onw week. We have holidays!" he went on explaining with a bright smile and completely conviced of what he was saying. "We annoyed our superior a little and he said we rather should go and get soem fresh air... yes yes..."
Jushiro found another wodden spoon and took it into his hand. They had those things in Seireitei too... "Weeee? We are teaching! Swordfighting!"
He aimed for Shunsui, but the man simply and without efford dogded him with his own spoon. "And we don t live in Karakura Town... but people told me there shall be nice rose fields around... I want to see that!"
Jushiro attacked Shunsui two or three times more, before his friend gently hit his fingers.
"Will you just let me cook, Jushi? You put your dinner on a stake, you know that?"
"Oh..."
Jushiro made the formal greeting with his spoon-sword and then turned to Henry again.
"And what are you doing here? And working? Do you work? Or do you still go to University?"

Shunsui smiled a little again while he heard his friend talking. He was over two thousand years old and yet was his heart easily opened to everything and everyone. At the same time, in everything Jui was doing, there was a unique and special tranquility to find.
Kindness. Tenderness. Compassion. Happiness.
He himself was different. He enjoyed life in another way, loved Sake and flirting with the women. He had an easy going attitude, but yet he knew when to become serious. Shunsui never had been much of a talker unless it was to calm somebody down (or seeing an attrctive woman passing by).
Nevertheless there was this air of melancholy around him and he knew it was partly due to his friend. Jushiro lived since two thousand years in the spring of his life, but there wouldn t be a summer or autumn. What awaited him, was the gentle yet cruel winter to embrace him for all eternity.
Shunshui knew that, although he would never put it down into words. Unlike himself- the "Spring water" that was constantly flowing and never looking back- Jushiro did not flow, but blossom.
For how long still?
(ooc: whoaaa blablabla I better stop now... -.-)

"Oh... I fear you won't like it... but yes... of course... just... help yourself." Henry offered him the beans and glanced at the ravioli again. "I may have some? Gorgeous!" He added with a bright smile on his face. "I... love them...!" He beamed all over his face happily and then put some ravioli into his plate instead of the beans.
Those guys were quite nice and offering him some ravioli nearly made them some kind of friends.

"Swordfight?" He repeated then with big eyes. Woahhh! Looked like he had met some real ninjas then! Amazing...! Or were they just joking?
Henry frowned while he watched them.
He wasn't sure at all.

Then he saw the two of them doing their spoon fight - and all his doubts within a second disappeared. Seemed like this was a lucky day for him - getting some ravioli and meeting to nice and interesting guys!
He took his plate to the table and sat down there, but then looked around, searching for something. No tea! He had forgotten the tea... mhhh maybe rather cacao then?
Once more he got up, fetched himself a cup and some soja milk from the fridge and then started looking for some brown poweder.
He found it, mixed it with the milk and smiled.
"I love cacao..." He stated and walked back to the table where he sat down again.

"Me? Och, I am not an interesting person at all." He answered the question posed to him. "I... am performing... for people... at the market..." He explained and it wasn't even a lie.
He did some performances each day... and people gave him money for that. Of course that didn't suffice for paying his living. The part with stealing nevertheless he didn't mention although he wasn't ashamed of that. He moreover considered himself some kind of Robin Hood... He took from the rich... and gave it to the poor. Himself.

"I am not got at... at reading or writing... but I can remember things very well." Henry smiled a bit. "And I love stories... I always enjoy listening to good ones... I never forget a good story..." When he looked into the faces of the others, he immediately raised his hands. "But I am not good at story telling so please don't ask me to do so... you would only be disappointed."

Shunsui listened to the boy answering Shiro-chans question and even adding some extra information and instictively knew that his friend was "in love".
It had always been that way. The more people around Jui, the more he blossomed and sparkled. Only the last years had made him more calm and quiet.

He put some Ravioli onto two plates and without commenting it gave his friend some more. Jui was always hungry, certainly a side effect of his ever exhausted body that tried to compensate its weakness by asking for energy.

Jui took the plate with Ravioli and beans, but watched Henarion curiously instead of his food.
"Can you perform something for us too?" he wondered, before he took a spoon into his hand. "I havent seen somebody doing things like that for ages!"

"You know where the markets are? I would like to see one." Shunsui added. He had seen markets before of course, but those in this real, modern world were always different from those at home. Maybe he could find a nice book there for Nanao... a book full of jokes or...
He saw Jui trying his beans and as always he seemed to like them. There was hardly anything he didnt like to eat or drink.

"Cacao... Mhhh a person I know quite well... loves cacao, too. But it is something very special, because it has to be imported, right? It's always a bit more expensive... I like tea! Nearly all kinds of tea... Shushu... did we buy tea?"
"No, we didnt. I did." He smiled a bit, when he heard Shiro sighing.
"I'm getting old..."
"Well, cannot be helped, can it?" Shunsui wished he had a hat, but he didn t and so he just smiled a little and turned his eyes to the Ravioli again.

Henry started to eat his new gained ravioli with delight and smiled.
Had he mentioned he loved ravioli?
"Perform something?" He asked and looked up. "What would you like to see?" He then asked while going on eating his ravioli quite quickly.
He got used to eating quickly, because it often happened that he didn't have enough time for eating. Or that people try to get his lunch from him. Or his dinner.
Of course he didn't think his two new acquaintances would try to rob him of his dinner, but it was just an old habbit, hard to ignore.

"Do you have some fire?" He raised his eyebrow and looked at them.
Jushi just seemed to be quite surprised, shaking his head, but Shushu immediately had some matches in his hands. He lit them and Henry smiled, took the match over and then closed his fists around it. He pulled the match out of his fist with the other hand, and put the quenched match onto the table.
Then he opened his fist, and a flame danced on the inside of his hand. He smiled, threw it to the other hand then, and quickly the dancing flame jumped to the other hand.
Henarion concentrated on it, and the flame grew a bit bigger.
Finally, he closed his hand to a fist again, and when he opened it, it was gone.
Henry smiled and looked at the two others.

"Satisfied your curiousity?" He asked them politely and then leaned back to sip his cacao.
Yes, it wasn't one of the cheapest thing to get, but when one knew the right people, it wasn't impossible to get. And Henarion knew the right people.
"Yes, Cacao has to be imported... oh and... if you want me to show you the market, no problem... I could show you around tomorrow?" He raised both eyebrows and watched the two of them.
"And... am... I know... that's personal... but... are the... two of you... I mean... are you a couple?"

Jushiro looked surprised at Henarion. That one was quick! He was used to eat slowly, although he usually ate a lot. It was part of his "leisure-time" to eat and so he tried to enjoy it as long as possible.
He smiled friendly at the young man and then watched his small trick with interest. There were humans, very rare, that had sleeping Kido-abilities. It seemed they had just found one.
The Captain clapped his hands in excitement and smiled again. "That was amazing!"
Shunsui nodded as well and had his usual relaxed smile on his lips.
"Well done, young man!"

Jushiro cut another ravioli (yes, you can *cut* things with chopsticks!), before he ate it and looked at Henarion with brown, shimmering eyes: "Tomorrow...? But... I ve heard there are Night Markets? Oh, but if you are tired... you may just describe the way and we try on our own?"

Shunsui looked at Jui with slight amusement. The Captain was always more enthusiastic than it was good for him.
"Na, na, Jushiro. We just arrived here today... take it easy, will you?"
The white haired man just smiled and then looked at Henarion with surprise.
"A couple?"

Shunsui smiled. In Soul Society he could have gotten killed for such an insulting question. Well... at least when asking the wrong person.
"We are not a couple... yet we know each other for a verrrrry long time... and better than is good for the other, I fear."
He smiled shortly.

"Thank you." Henarion said kindly. He was used that people were impressed by his small fire and light tricks, he even was used to having a handclapping audience, but something in the eyes of those two was strange.
Although they also seemed curious and amazed, it looked like their amazement wasn't caused by his ability, but rather by himself.
He slightly shook his head. There was no use in thinking about it.

"Oh yes, there are night markets." Henry affirmed. It was really unbelievable how well those two were informed, although being here for just one day.
He shortly thought about it. Actually it even suited him better to show them around at night than at day when he would rather have to work.
And maybe he would even be able to earn something tonight? At least at night people wouldn't realize him that easily?
"I can show you around tonight as well, yes. Why not?" He finally answered with a smile. "After dinner maybe?" He suggested looking at the two of them curiously.

He flushed a bit, when he heard the answer.
He would have flushed even more, had the answer been another one.
"Oh... i see... and... how old are you then?" He asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Twothousandthreehundredfourtyone years." Jushiro said and smiled. "Just kidding...!"
Shunsui smiled a bit. "He doesn t like to talk about his age... and is far older than he looks like. That is why he feels embarrassed."
"I dont?!"
"Yes yes... so... you really want to go tonight, small one? We dont want to keep you from sleeping or dating or something..."

Jushiro still smiled while finally finishing his dinner. Of course he was the last one again... but that was only because Shushu had not find any Sake until now.
"I really like to see those markets..." he said and placed his chin into one hand. "They must have nice Lampinions...or candles...fruits? Maybe fruits with chocolate?"
"Didn t you just have dinner?"
Shunsui shook his head to show that he didn t need an answer at all.
"Well then... off we go?" He stood up.
_________________

Two thousand and what...?
This guy was kidding? And not fond of telling him the truth?
Alright... Everybody had his spleen.
So Jushi's spleen might be his age.
Henarion gave him another closer look. He could hardly be midthirty?

"Will you just let me fetch some things?" He asked politely and then got up too.
"Oh, and we will have to do the dishes." He looked at them thoughtfully. "Mhh... you could do the dishes, while I will fetch my things? And afterwards we can leave?" Henarion suggested, saw the two nodding and then left the kitchen.

He headed for his room, and already thought about what he would need to take with him.
When he reached the room he took his bag, filled it with everything he was convinced he would need, and then took his staff as well.
Then he left once more and went back to the kitchen.
"Alright. I am ready to leave." He told his two new companions.
He saw them looking at his staff curiously and just smiled.
"I like having that one with with me. Makes things easier." He explained.

Uiii, a staff could still make things easier in a world full of cars and... tin...openers! Jushiro felt happy and actually more like home than before, although it was an irrational thought. He got up, too and then the two of them followed Henarion out of the hostel and onto the streets. It was already dark outside and as always noisy and crowded.
Curiously Jushiro looked around and tried not to be in anybody's way. With his training as a fighter that was not a problem at all and so they walked the streets quite quickly until they came closer to the market, where everything just became more crowded.

Cars were driving by or standing in long queues because of the traffic lights. Everywhere he could see people chatting, laughing or being in a hurry to get somewhere. The market however had no lampinions or candles. Of course it looked far more modern that what he was used to and the neon lights of shops nearby made his brown eyes shimmer.
Then the coughing started.
Did he mention he hated his Gigai?! He hated it and he disliked his Sensei for allowing it to be created equally to his real body. The air pollution was not really helpful in his state and so all he could do was hoping not to start spitting blood.
He suddenly looked up when he felt somebody tipping his shoulder.
Shushu held a face mask in his hand, similar to a surgical mask and when Jui looked around he could discover quite a lot of people wearing that (no joke... in Taiwan they do that too!). He slowly took it into his hands and realized there were a lot of small ghosts printed onto it. Jui could not, but smile.

"Never knew him without coughing." Shushu said to Henarion who looked a bit confused. "Dont mind. It s worse than it looks like... but only if he wants to avoid working. What about starting over there? It looks like they have juice there or something?"

Henarion went ahead and the two men followed him quietly.
They made their way through the streets and Henarion walked with the experience of a man who avoided to bump into others unintentional.
To his very surprise the others also followed with an attitude that was very alike to his own.
They quickly proceeded in crossing several streets and coming nearer to the market place, the voices and noises around them grew louder.

Henry used is staff like a wanderstaff, every now and then looked over his shoulder in order to not lose his two companions.
He was glad when they finally let all the traffic behind. Henry didn't like traffic. Cars were just loud and dirty. Besides that he didn't know how to drive... or he rather never learned how to drive, although he had a quite good idea of how it worked.
They just arrived at the edge of the market, when Jushiro suddenly started to cough.
And that didn't sound good at all.
His body was constrained, his hands closed to fists and Henarion surprised and worried at the same time raised an eyebrow.

Didn't they have to be in a good constitution, to give sword fighting lections?
Naja, maybe it was only the bad air. Shushu didn't seemed to concerned, and he had to know whether anything was wrong with his friends.
"Alright... if you say so...?" He answered and then let them to some of the booths.
"Yes, you can buy juice there... and ice cream... soft ice... and sugar wool...!" Henry beamed. "Paradise apples... and also some other sweets... well, in case you've got enough money." He added.

"Mhh... I'll be with you in few minutes, alright?" He asked and then melted with the crowed. It didn't take him more than some moments to get the first pocket from a passer by, and only a minute later he already had a second one. He had a look at the money in there, and with a satisfied smile upon his face got the money out, put it in his bag and then let the pockets slip to the ground. Once more he vanished in the crowd, just to meet with Jushiro and Shushu again. And to buy himself a paradise apple.

Shunsui could see Shiro-chans excitement about all the sweets and he shrugged quietly. Why not. He himself had spotted a nice hat. It was not made of straw or something, but black and big enough to suit him. So he bought it. Placing it onto his brown hair he immediatly felt more comfortable and then turned around to his old and new friends again. Shiro-chan was hard to miss with his white hair, but Shushu was not sure about that hand, that tried to steal the moneybag out of Jui's hoodiie's pocket.

"Na! What are you doing?" he said with a slightly louder voice than usual and Jui turned around surprised. The moneybag fell onto the ground and the dirty hand grabbed it before Jui knew what exactly was going on. Only parts of a second later however the Shinigami Captain whirled around and looked at the teen, who tried to escape with his money.
Shushu sighed and wished he could have performed Flash Steps, but now it had to work the ordinary way.
Moreover they just... couldnt harm children! Not even fight in front of them... that... was just not possible!

"Hee..." Jushiro said a bit sadly, but then swoosh went after the Teen and again it startled Shushu how capable he was regarding the fact that he nearly suffered a coughing fit before.
"No choice..." he said, smiled gently and run after his friend.