"Hmmm…"
"What is it?"
The sound of fan snapping open resonated through the small room. Two men sat around a round wooden table. They had been simply enjoying some tea a few minutes ago, but now the man with the blond hair and striped hat seemed troubled. He only pulled that fan out for two reasons: scheming or pondering. The larger dark skinned male had the feeling that this time it was the latter of the two options.
"Kisuke?" The brawny male questioned as he watched the man fan himself slowly.
"My good friend, Tessai. Do you feel that?"
The man named Tessai froze at the question and attempted to find what his boss was talking about. He expanded his spiritual pressure slightly in an attempt to get a better feel of what Kisuke was speaking about.
"It feels like-" Tessai felt slightly troubled by what he was going to say. "Like… A rather powerful new spiritual pressure has entered the town… but when?"
Kisuke chuckled. "Yeah, it's not strong enough to be a Soul Reaper, and I haven't gotten any word of the Soul Society sending anyone over here recently but…" he snapped the fan shut and glanced up from the shadows that were cast over his eyes by his hat "It's definitely strong enough to attract some Hollows. And by the way it's leaking out I'd say that the person has no clue what kind of bait they're setting~".
A strange silence settled over the men for a short span of time.
"And what should we do about it boss?"
The blonde man grinned in his mischievous way "Why go find out who it's coming from before a whole ruckus starts of course~"
Tessai merely nodded "I'll go alert Ururu and Jinta that we will be leaving soon".
"If this doesn't suck, I don't know what does-" I stopped walking for a moment to kick an old empty can out of my path.
"Vacuum cleaners do…"
The can continued to bounce down the alley as I gave a soft snort of laughter and smiled a little at Kame's joke. The necklace that his spirit resided in warmed softly with approval for my appreciation of his joke. That'd never get old.
"Well nonetheless, getting stuck in this stupid town with that stupid women and having to deal with all the stupid kids- and then those stupid men telling me that I should meet them at that stupid shop-"
"You use the adjective stupid quite often, Nori. Perhaps we should see if they have a thesaurus at this "stupid" shop. It could do you some good."
I rolled my eyes but smiled at Kame's comment "Well perhaps if we were in a better place where the adjective 'stupid' didn't apply so much then maybe I'd have a wider range of words to choose from."
Sensing the impending approach of wall, I turned left without any trouble. Kame's deep chuckle rumbled in my head and bounced off the walls of my brain. I could even feel the slight tremble in my necklace that stuck to the skin in the small dip between my clavicles.
It hasn't moved from that exact spot since the day my great-grandmother had put it on me. It didn't matter how much I tugged or strained or jumped about; it was almost as though it was glued to my skin.
In a sense it was though. Kame had explained to me during the beginning that his spirit, which had been trapped within this stone long ago, was beginning to merge with mine. His spirit had been waiting for mine, bidding it's time to find my spiritual pressure in order to pass on the gift that he could no longer utilize due to his trapped state. These powers came at a price of course…
"You're not employing the powers that I'm giving you, Nori."
Sighing at this warning of an oncoming lecture I stopped walking, listened for any cars, and deciding that none were approaching started to cross the narrow road.
"I'm only blind in one eye, Kame. I can still see so what's the point?" I mounted the sidewalk on the other side and continued on my way. "The necklace isn't even close to merging completely anyways, so that means I got time."
I put my hands behind my head as I enjoyed the feeling of basking in the warmth of the sun.
"The degradation of your sight and the merging of the stone into your flesh are on two different timelines. Of all people I would've at least thought you would've noticed this."
I deadpanned at his statement. "What do you mean 'of all people'" I questioned him. "I'm the only one alive that knows about this whole ordeal, may I remind you. And thanks for the update, that would've been nice to know in the beginning yah know."
If Kame had been a blood and flesh person in front of me I could picture his eye twitching at my tone and comments. Heck- I could feel the necklace itself twitching in annoyance.
"It is not my job to tell you everything, Nori. I will not always be here to provide information. Your sight began to die as soon as this necklace was placed on you and I feel that it will continue to die in a linear fashion; however, the speed of me being absorbed relies almost solely upon your usage of the power."
I wasn't about to get caught up in that whole trap about him disappearing once the unification completed. That's happened one too many times. I didn't really enjoy the idea of being stuck all by lonesome in my head; I've had his company since I was 5. Kame had also filled the void that both my real parents had left when they dumped me on my great-grandmother as soon as I was born.
Sighing I scratched the back of my head in slight irritation at the new information. "Okay so it isn't your job to tell me everything but can you at least remind me why I agreed to go to that big dude's and creepy guy's shop?"
"They're Soul Reapers."
"You're gonna have to give me a little more than just that, Kame" Growling and talking to myself had caught the attention of a few other people walking. I could feel their stares of concern and disgust boring into me. I really didn't care.
I could feel Kame stirring around in both my head and the necklace as he seemed to be getting ready for a longwinded explanation. I wasn't exactly excited for it but I was interested. It's not every day that a voice in your head bounces around in anticipation and yells at you to agree to go to some place that you've never been to before just because two random guys ask you.
"I know I've told you about Soul Reapers and Hollows and all that before, so I feel that that's not what you need more information on…" he paused a second before continuing "They introduced themselves as Tessai and Urahara, which do ring some bells on the list of powerful Soul Reapers-"
"So why are they here then?"
"Will you at least allow me to finish what's important here?"
Huffing out "Well sor-ry. Seems pretty important to me but whatever, Kame" and crossing my arms I continued to make my way to the shop using the directions I was given yesterday by the two strange men.
"Anyway, I believe they could be of much use to us. He could train you and increase your understanding of how to use your powers; not to mention it's a well-known fact that where there are Soul Reapers, there are some adventures to be had."
My ears automatically perked up at that.
"Oh? Well Kame you really know how to get my attention."
I chuckled a little bit as I danced out of the way of nearly getting clipped by a person racing the opposite way towards me. Kame let out a tired sigh. Probably had something to do with that fact that that would've been much easier to dodge had I been using the earth.
The next 10 minutes were complete silence.
Silence between Kame and I was never suffocating silence like it usually was with flesh and blood people. It was more like a peaceful understanding. Despite the total silence, it wasn't like Kame was completely gone either though. During times like this I could still feel him within the depths of my mind; he was sort of like a weight that sat on my brain.
Kame claimed he could retreat completely into necklace if he really wanted to, which from my understanding would grant me privacy to my own thoughts. I saw no point though, I had nothing to hide. Kame knew me well enough that I was comfortable with him hearing and seeing all my thoughts and I saw no other point to taking an action such as that.
The shop finally came into view to my relief. I was getting tired of just walking around and getting stupid looks from people for either talking to Kame (which for the record, yes I am aware it looks like I'm talking to myself like a crazy person) or for my eyes. Eyes that are blind tend to be very glassy or clouded, and my glassy orange eye stood out, I guess. Orange eyes tend to stick out already, never mind a blind one.
"Thank god, I-"
I was still walking slowly but a sudden weird feeling shot through my body, right to my core. My skin tingled and the hair on the back of my neck stood up on end. And now I was suddenly aware that my breathing was slightly labored.
"Nori, it's okay. You merely passed through a barrier. It seems to surround this entire shop. That's definitely a sign that this was a good place to come to."
Feeling better now that my skin stopped tingling and my hair was back in its rightful place, I picked up the pace slightly. I was still feeling slightly frazzled from that though.
"Yeah well I don't like how that felt" I turned my head to the right slightly and spit. "That felt just wrong."
"It's normal to feel odd passing through a barrier for the first time. Stack that on top of the fact that it's a strong barrier and the fact that you have heightened senses… it's no wonder it got you so worked up."
I let out a quiet "hmph" as I climbed the steps to the shop. As I pushed the door open a small bell chimed to alert that I had walked… it probably would've had more use if there was actually someone here. I glanced around in wonder of the lack of people. The air felt like little electric bubbles on my skin though.