The Past of Zeno and Iori - Rukongai.

Zeno woke up. It was still early and the first rays of sunlight appeared from behind the horizon. He rolled out of his bed, trying not to wake up his new wife and opened the window.
Even though he was poor, he still was one of the richer people of Rukongai.
Everyone in the house had a bed and only four out of eight kids had to share a room.
Also, every member of the family could take a bath once a week.
They even had a very small garden. There was also food on the table three times a day, which wasn't true for most of the inhabitants of Rukongai.

Zeno took in the fresh morning air. This was going to be another long day of hard work.
Since someone had to make all that luxury possible.
After enjoying the first bits of sunrise, he calmly went downstairs without waking anyone.
He took two apples and some dry bread as breakfast and drank some water.
Zeno then walked out on the streets finding anyone in need of help.
That was his job: helping everyone, with anything. He was quite skilled with his hands.
Yesterday he had to fix someone's roof, carry whole bunches of food from one place to the other, save a guy from getting beat up, and return a lost kid to his parents.
The people here liked him, so they never held back when paying him. The only enemies he had here were the jealous ones.

Of course he didn't do all of this alone. He worked together with a good friend. Someone he had met in the first month of his arrival in Rukongai. They met when some thugs thought they could get away with stealing Zeno's money. Zeno followed the bastards as they ran away with the first bag of coins Zeno had earned in Rukongai. He followed them into an alley where they surrounded him and wanted to beat him up. Zeno was a good fighter and those few thieves weren't really hard to defeat. But more and more thugs joined in the brawl and before he knew it he was getting punched and kicked all over the place. That was until Iori came to the rescue. His friend distracted the bastards and that gave Zeno some time to recover. But when he saw Iori was getting into trouble himself, it was his turn to return the favor and together they fought off the thieves and got Zeno's money back.

Ever since that day they've been friends. Helping each other out whenever they could, even started working together to help out everyone so they could in order to earn money.
And things were running pretty good. Sure it was hard work, but life was good.

So the first thing he did in the morning was checking on Iori.
Zeno calmly went over to Iori's house three houses further to the right.
Standing in front of the house, he raised his fist and gently knocked on the door.

From the other side of the door a sound could be hard as if someone was dragging their feet along the floor along with some heavy cloth. "For the last, sodding, time..." could be heard from the other side of the door. The voice was not loud or in any sort of rage, yet was clearly frustrating. The door opened, and a young man emerged. He had black, greasy hair that was slightly longer than shoulder length. He was wearing regular rags that were very common for a Rukongai citizen. Iori looked very sleepy and seemd like he would collapse back to sleep at any given moment. "Oh, it's you Zeno." Iori rubed his eyes so he would actually see better, because for now it was rather blurry, and it took him a while to actually see, detailly, his friend's face. "And I was thinking it's that god damn merchant who keepts selling crap that I don't even need; or even better, beggars."

Iori opened the door, letting Zeno step in. The small house was only one story high, but at least it looked like a house of some description. The hall rather empty, only a pair of wooden slippers. "So how can I help you Zeno? What's the plan for today?" Iori walked into the main room and sat down next to a wall.

Zeno smiled as his sleepy friend opened the door.
"As usual, see who we can help out and afterwards sit down and have some saké." Zeno calmly replied, as he walked in. Every morning was the same. Zeno himself has no problem with getting out of bed nor with staying up late. Or both of it combined. Iori on the other hand always talked and looked like a zombie in the morning.

Zeno went over to the dining table and sat down. Even though he liked his life as it was right now, he felt... incomplete. As if he wasn't getting the most out of his life. He missed action. Aside from beating up some troublemakers every two weeks, nothing exciting ever happened really. Three days ago, he had a talk with a guy who's 'son' had become a Shinigami. The soulreapers. Zeno didn't know what to think of them. They had all the luxury within the walls of Seireitei. Of course they put their lives on the line to protect everyone from Hollows and guide spirits into Soul Society. He admired the Shinigami for their way of life, but disliked them for doing a poor job when it comes to Rukongai. It wasn't right that everyone was poor here. Surely the Shinigami could do something about this. But why didn't they? Still... Deep inside, he wanted to be a Shinigami too. Even though he hasn't resided in Rukongai for even a year yet, he knew that the life he was leading now wasn't going to get any better. And the thought of leaving a life like this until he died again, gave him a whole new perspective on things. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to trade this life for something new. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

Zeno looked his friend in the eyes. His good mood seemed to be gone.
"Have you ever thought of... changing your life, Iori? You've been here much longer than I have. Never felt like your life was far from what it could be?" He asked with a serious tone in his voice. Of course this wasn't really the right time of the day for filosophy with Iori. Zeno knew that, but still... Maybe today would be different.

Iori was leaning against a wall, legs crossed, head raised and eyes closed. He seemed like he was meditating and took his time with answering the question. "Well, that all depends on what you mean. I've been here a while, yes, and I have definately seen life worse than this one. I also openly admit that my life here is by no stretch perfect, but I honestly can't complain at the current situation. Especially taking into consideration what I have seen." Iori then opened his eyes and looked back at Zeno. He seemed way more awake than he was a while ago. "What's on your mind?"

"You know... I haven't even been here for a year.. And I'm not complaining about my life as it is right now. But I just have this feeling that I'm not making the most out of it. Doing what I'm doing now for so many years... Heh, it just feels like a waste of time. I need action, I need strain. I can still remember some parts of my life in the World of the Living.. I was a warrior, I loved battle. Nowadays the only action I get are the fights with worthless scum that tries to rob a guy. Call me selfish and greedy, but I want more. I want to be more." He said and stood up walking around the room, thinking.
After a minute of rubbing his chin, scratching his head and running his hands through his hair he finally came to a conclusion.

"I want to be someone who matters. I've been thinking about this for a few days now, doubting too, but I think... Hell, I know that this is what I want." He spoke again finally looking up and looking his friend dead in the eyes.

"I want to be a Shinigami."

Iori listened to Zeno, letting him finish. He did not change his expression at all. After Zeno was done Iori took a while before answering. "It's not selfish at all. We all want to achieve something greater in life. Well...in death in our case, but that doesn't really matter. I understand why you want to achieve something greater. Like I said, we all do. Only some are a lot more eager about it than others." There was a pause. "As for the shinigami business, I don't know. I have to be honest, I'm a bit sceptical on that. You see, a lot of people actually resent the shinigami. The further you go into Rukongai, the worse it gets. There are few Naive enough to see the shinigami as these great heroes and all. Then again, I suppose it is a way to turn your life around, make it a tad more interesting. I really don't know about this. Ultimately it is your choise."

"I know, I know..." Zeno sighed. He didn't really like where this conversation was going.
If he wasn't going to be supported by anyone and rather more disliked for making the choice of becoming Shinigami... No, he wanted this. He needed this. He had done so many things for the people in Rukongai here. Surely they won't forget about that. Or would they?
So many questions, barely any answers. But he wasn't going back now. He had made up his mind.

"I know what the people think about the Shinigami. But think about it this way: without them, we wouldn't even be here. We'd be eaten by hollows or have turned hollows ourselves.
Maybe it isn't as easy as we think. I'm sure they could provide us more luxury, but there must be a reason why they don't. And why is it naive to think of them as heroes? We gotta stop thinking black and white here." Zeno said and walked toward the door.

"I'm gonna try to become a Shinigami, and do whatever it takes. Maybe one day, I can once again help the people of Rukongai but then I'd have more to offer." He said and stretched out.

"But let's focus on the day ahead shall we? We've got a lot of work to do I think. We'll discuss this later with some saké in our hands okay?" Zeno smiled.