Bleach Hereafter RPG

Three knocks on the door, firm enough to be heard from anywhere in the home, but not so hard that it gave the impression of violence or anger. It was a comfortable looking abode, two stories tall with a brick wall surrounding it leading to a gate at the front, which he had passed through to get to the door in front of him. It was more of a Victorian style building, lanterns hanging from either side of the entrance, the brick painted white to match the ascetics of the Quincy. A handful of moments went by as Lazarus stood at the door, waiting for anyone to answer, wondering if anyone would even come to the door at this hour. Unfortunately for him someone would come to the door, he heard the lock turn and the deadbolt of the upper lock retreat from its home in the frame with a loud 'thunk'. He was met with the sight of his mother, looking maybe a handful of years older than when he was young, but not so old that wrinkles had set in yet. There was a mixed look of shock and confusion on her face, as if she were being visited by the ghosts of her past, he was sure there was some form of irony here.

"Is he awake?"

It was all he could muster in the silence that hung in the air between them, her gaze going from him to the stairway behind her, then back to him. She gave a soft nod, opening the door enough for Lazarus to walk through, closing it and locking the top lock behind him. He stood taller than her now by a good head and a bit, something that he never thought about since he left, and now something he couldn't stop thinking about. Wordlessly she led him up towards the study, he could see the tension in her gait as they walked, both sad that he could make his own mother tense, and yet strangely happy that she felt some form of unease while he was in her presence. It felt like an eternity to get to the study door, though in reality it was no more than a minute, he could feel his heart beat racing in his chest as he stared at the door. As hard as it was to do, despite how much he thought his own mother might deserve to watch what would likely be the fallout of what her husband had caused, Lazarus still held something for her in his heart. Somewhere deep down he knew she probably didn't want for her only child to be abused bay in and day out, that the arrange marriage wasn't what she wanted for her life. He looked to her with a sad smile, and with a motion back towards the steps, gave her the one free pass to escape the fallout, one last courtesy to the woman who brought him into this world. All the tension and fear slowly drained from her frame, genuine surprise painted across her face, which would soon be replaced by the beginnings of tears as they filled her eyes. She stifled her voice to avoid alerting the boogie man behind the door, but reached out to embrace her son one last time, her grip tight on his arms as she struggled to not weep openly into his chest. Memories of his childhood before his fathers teachings flashed across his mind, long forgotten emotions welling up to the surface, though he kept them at bay just long enough to give her a one armed hug and a kiss on the head. As his mother hurried down the stairs Lazarus gripped the doorknob, he had to stop himself from ripping the door off its hinges as he turned the knob, the creak of the door swinging open slowly echoing through the otherwise silent house.

"I've told you a thousand times, If you're going to come in please knock fi-"

The words died in his fathers throat as he looked up from a book to see Lazarus standing in the door frame, a cascade of emotions flashing across the bastards face as his son stepped in and closed the door behind him. His steps were slow and paced, his boots punctuating each foot fall until he was standing opposite his father, in front of the large mahogany desk that the older man sat behind.

"...Why after all this time have you returned?"

His father had a calculated gaze, trying to figure out what the end goal of his son showing up at random was, if this was his last night alive, if his son had seen the error of his ways and come home to thank him for all he had done. It was proof that the man hadn't changed since Lazarus had left, proof that he was still the weak man that tried to raise his son to be everything he couldn't be.

"I came to tell you what you're decisions have gotten you in the end, how they shaped me, and how those choices led me to the decision I've made tonight..."

In this moment they were complete opposites, his father cold and calculated, Lazarus struggling to keep his own emotions in check long enough to string together another set of words to form a sentence. It was startling how similar the two looked, Lazarus could be a carbon copy of his father, something that had always bothered him. His father paused a moment to assess, and once he deemed his death not imminent he would raise a hand for his son to continue, sitting back and giving Lazarus his undivided attention.

"You know, as depressing as it is to think about what you did to me, I've read enough books to understand why you did it. I can rationalize why a man without power of his own would want his own son to be better than himself, I can even understand the rage and disappointment when you thought I was the same as you. I've spent almost the entirety of my life trying to understand how you could do what you did, but there's still a part of me that thinks you just enjoyed abusing me. That you had found someone beneath you to make you feel powerful, and that you derived some sick form of satisfaction in mercilessly attacking your own son day in and day out. I can understand why you did it, I know the psychology behind it, but I'll never forgive you for it.

Because of you I came to hate how the Quincy do things, how little they question about anything at all outside this realm, how they think that they are somehow better than the other races that exist in the other realms outside of our own. I tried to be the total opposite of you and your Quincy pride, all to try and get away from you and this hell you made from our home, and it cost me what little I could try and get in that army. I have more enemies inside those barracks than I think I could make anywhere else, they all but call me a traitor to my people because I dare to question the way we do things. But most of all I started to question what else there was in the universe, and because of that I've travelled outside our realm countless times, and I've seen things you couldn't imagine exist. Things that demand our attention, but because it doesn't fit the wants and needs of his Majesty they get ignored, and for what, so we can sit and wait for some promised day to come that we know nothing about?!"

The pot was boiling over, his voice raising as what started as a soft speech started growing into a louder monologue of his life. His fists were so tightly clenched that the knuckles on both hands were turning white, his words dripping malice with every syllable. His father took a long look at his son, hands draw together in front of him with that same cold and calculated stare.

"...and yet you're stronger than I could ever hope to be. I do not regret my choices, nor do I regret how they shaped you, you have grown to be independent, self reliant, but most of all you've grown to want to get stronger, no matter the cost."

The silence that fell over the room was such that you might hear a pin drop, Lazarus would hear his heart beating in his ears, nails digging into the skin on his palms as what little control he had left vanished. His arm swung out at the contents of the desk, all the books and papers flying off in a flurry of chaos. That same fist would come down onto the desk, the thunderous cracking of wood echoing through the room as his breathing became ragged, the desk now broken down the middle. Putting both hands on either side of the crack, he would toss the halves of the desk aside, hitting the bookshelves lining the walls to send more books and papers flying, one of the bookshelves creaking as it fell over with another thunderous slam. Despite all of this his father didn't shake or startle even once, simply pushing the chair back a bit to avoid being hit by the desk. Lazarus walked the two or three paces up to his seated father, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him to his feet as he all but screamed into his face.

"You pushed all your hopes and dreams onto a child who didn't even know what his own dreams were, you robbed me of any other future happiness and that's all you can say?! "

He didn't give the man a chance to respond, tossing him back into the chair with a roar of anger, doing everything he could to not commit murder this night. His father righted himself in the chair, dusting himself off, waiting for the other shoe to drop with a cold stare. It took a full minute and some seconds for Lazarus to collect himself enough to speak again, an all but defeated expression worn on his face.

"Well you got what you wanted, I am stronger than you, far stronger than you could every hope to be as you say, but I won't waste it here. I came to here to tell you that all that hard work amounted to nothing, because I'm leaving this realm, and I'm never coming back. I went looking for the options you robbed from me all those years ago, and I've found at least one or two that I'd rather be a part of instead of this. If I'm reported and found I'll be executed, if I'm free I will be a part of something that would oppose the Quincy as a whole, either way I'm taking what you worked towards and throwing it back in your face. You get to live the rest of your days knowing that you're legacy dies tonight, to know that despite everything, you're still left with nothing. Goodbye Father, may you lay awake at night knowing you were never going to be remembered, and that your sole heir has forsaken you to that indignation..."

Lazarus didn't wait around to see the look on his fathers face, his feet carried him as quickly as they could to the furthest point of the realm, the rage and malice leaving him with every step. What was left was a hole of sadness and depression, it threatened to swallow him whole. As he made it to the forests he would step through it into the human realm, finding himself in one of the parks in the city he had first met the arrancar. He was emotionally and physically exhausted, and with what little energy he had left, Lazarus made his way to the rooftop that they had met on so many moons ago. He collapsed onto the cool stone on top, looking up at the night sky to see stars for what felt like the first time in a long time. Tears would well up in his tired eyes, and as they fell so to did he into unconsciousness, hoping to find a better tomorrow.

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