A/N: Wow, this chapter managed to evolve into something nearly as long as the first 0_0

So here we have chapter 2. This was actually already finished when I posted chapter 1 but I wanted to wait to post it until chapter 3 was finished first. I figured if I only post a chapter if the one ahead of it was completed than if I ever got snagged with writer's block I'd have some leeway. But seeing as I'm a university student I figured I'd better post this chapter before my exam's start the week after next and chapter 3's more than halfway done anyway.

I'm frankly astonished by how many people Favorited this in the first twenty four hours. It was certainly a very heartening thing to find that I had to start setting an automatic filer on my email the next day. ...it was also kinda creepy for some reason... but still kinda nice.

Btw, I OWN NOTHING! Forgot to say that in Chapter 1, so please nobody sue me XP

Onwards!


/

Kagome sighed softly as she climbed the dormitory stairs to her room.

After her spar with Ukitake-taicho she'd been sucked into conversation about Kido with Aizen and his adorable Lieutenant, who had introduced herself as Hinamori Momo, for the ten or fifteen minutes until Takashi's spar had ended. She'd found him calm and easy to talk to, and had been very thankful for the good luck he'd added as he left after Takashi's fight was finished. It had been very heartening certainly and she thought inwardly that even if she did get passed up for Takashi it would be nice to apply for his Squad whenever she did graduate.

Although… she'd been slightly concerned to feel that Kogitsune had spent half of the conversation growling as though frustrated and the other half of it sending her images of fish of all things.

It had gotten so bad at one point that she'd had to ask sensei to excuse her a moment while she went and got a drink of water and, as a result, had missed the end of Takashi's spar. She had only returned in time to watch Takashi fume about his cut sash tip which had still been pretty funny so she wasn't too disappointed.

The Captains had stuck around, asking them a few questions about what their current lessons entailed, and what they could or could not do. Most of them had been greatly surprised by the fact that she'd already learned the name of her Zanpakuto, although sensei had been quick to note that in the state of release it seemed to be primarily a kido-type and that she still didn't have enough to control over it yet so as to avoid injuring herself much less actually make it useful in combat.

Aizen had been so gracious enough as offer her some help but she'd politely declined him, saying that her Zanpakuto liked riddles –which he did, except he'd be alot more fun for them if he wasn't playing illusory charades with her when he put one forward- and would be annoyed if she got help from someone else.

They'd dispersed shortly after that, and much to her irritation, Gin and Izuru had slipped away without her notice so she couldn't even chew the former out for his little stunt.

Takashi, who'd been in a piss poor mood after his confrontation with 'that drunken disgrace' as he'd taken to referring to Kyouraku, had practically demanded another sparring session with her. It had gotten rapidly out of hand much to Onabara-sensei's horror, and had had to be called off when she'd nearly hamstringed Takashi's left leg in retaliation for a deep wound to the side of the throat that had nearly cut down the carotid. Sensei had had to call in someone from the Squad 4 Relief Station to tend to the both of them because the wounds had been so terrible, so they'd been forced to spend nearly an hour in the 'hospital wing', as the students tended to call it, shooting acid filled glares at each other from opposite sides of the room until some poor little guy who'd insisted she call him by his name Hanatarou, had arrived and quickly dealt with the injuries.

Despite the painfulness of Takashi's injury, he worked on hers first due to the severity of the bleeding which by the time he'd arrived, had soaked her kosode and was making it difficult for her to stay awake. He had given her something to compensate for the blood loss afterwards but even then she'd needed help getting back to her room at the barracks where one of her two roommates, the other still in class, had nearly had a heart attack at the sight of her blood stained clothes. After Kagome managed to calm her roommate down she changed out of her blood stained kosode and curled up on her futon for a short hour long nap.

After, she'd left to find Nobooru and have supper with him in the mess hall before going to train with him again. His afternoon class had started to introduce the basics of shunpo but the theory had just confused him so she tried to explain it to him better and walk him through it, too tired to demonstrate herself. He had managed to pull it off repeatedly at the end, but for the moment he was only able to jump about as far as his longest stride would take him anyway, and it didn't look like he was going to pick it up in the same way he could pick up kido.

By then it was starting to get dark. A few fifth years that she knew from her hand to hand combat class had waved her down, hoping for her to join them on their way to one of the local bars that the older students frequented but exhaustion was eating at her and she politely declined them before going back to her room for the night.

So with a soft sigh she slid open her dormitory door and found that both of her roommates had returned.

Asano Hana was a very tall girl, with a whole head and a half's height on her, making her probably the tallest woman Kagome had ever met. She had very long dark hair with straight-cut ends and bangs, which reminded her of Kikyo in many ways. But that was where the comparison ended; Hana, while somewhat introspective and quiet, was very polite and approachable. She was the youngest child and only daughter of some well off family in the inner districts just outside Seireitei and all three of her older brothers before her had already been through the academy and graduated into Soul Reapers. Her grey eyes flicked up from the book she was reading to greet her before dropping to the white strip of bandage she could feel attached to the side of her neck where Takashi had cut her.

Hana had been the one already back earlier today when she'd returned, and had gone a little hysterical-which, thinking back on it now, had been really funny to watch- but she seemed to find whatever she was looking for and went back to her book.

Yamaguchi Eri oppositely was quite short, only coming up to the bottom of Kagome's shoulder blades despite only being a couple years younger by comparison. Her hair only fell to just past her shoulders, and was a pale straw colour with a small portion drawn up into a ponytail. Easily excited, outgoing, and with bright green eyes always gleaming with curiosity, she reminded Kagome of a taller, blonde haired Rin in many ways. She was the only child of a lesser noble family that lived there in the Seireitei and tended to be a bit of a ditz.

Hana was a sixth year, expected to graduate at the end of the term this year. She was a bit of a brainy person who more often than not had her nose stuck in some sort of book, and as a result possibly knew more about the history and goings on of Soul Society than anyone else at the whole Academy. Despite this she didn't have any substantial merit to herself, with average scores across the board, except however for healing kido which she excelled at, and as a result had already received an offer from squad four. Recently she'd started to hear the voice of her zanpakuto and as a result Kagome expected she'd land a lower level seated position, if not immediately then pretty quickly.

Eri however was only a second year, but her family had sent her to the academy as a mere formality so she could learn a bit more about Soul Society and develop some independence. She was going to be pulled out at the end of the year whereupon she'd return to her family, presumably to start her grooming into a Hime of the lesser noble house of Yamaguchi. She was a bit of an airhead when it came to the people around her but had decent grades and loved taking all the artsy classes offered at the academy, including the calligraphy lecture from Aizen, the haiku class that Izuru offered occasionally, and one ikebana workshop that the Squad 4 Captain Unohana had come to deliver on one special occasion a few months ago. The only thing that really grated Kagome's nerves was that she was head over heels when it came to anything to do with Takashi, something which they butted heads over on a regular occasion.

She gave a grunt of exhaustion and sighed, "Evening Hana-chan, Eri-chan..."

Hana nodded her head from behind her book but didn't react any further, Eri however looked up with an excited "Kagome-chan! Where've you been all day? Hey did you do something to Takashi-kun? I heard that he was in a really bad mood at the mess hall today and- OH MY GOD! What happened to your neck? Are you hurt? Are you alright? You're not bleeding are you?" Kagome was left blinking in astonishment at the rapid fire of questions, but before she could reply Hana answered dryly on her behalf, "'Takashi-kun' tried to slit her throat"

Eri's eyes widened dramatically, "What? B-but-! Why? It was a mistake, surely!" Kagome rolled her eyes and said lightly, "I am... very sure, it was... At any rate, I'm tired, I'm going to bed 'kay? Goodnight" She felt Hana's eyes burning a hole between her shoulder blades, but the taller girl said nothing as she opened the sliding door to her small room off the common area they shared.

Her room was small, just enough space for her twin sized futon and a small set of drawers in the corner where she kept her clothes and a few books she owned. Sighing she undid the sash that held Kogitsune to her back and laid him instead gently in the gap between the head of the futon and the wall. Straightening, she peeled off her uniform, briefly looking at it.

When she'd first donned it nearly a year and a half ago all she'd been able to think about was how much it looked like a Miko robe and how much she'd look like Kikyo to be wandering around wearing it. She'd almost refused it at first but after considering it realized there was no reason for her to be sensitive about it.

InuYasha was gone. Kikyo was gone. Anyone who'd ever think to compare her to her soul's past life was gone.

Hell, she was gone, when you thought about it.

Shaken from her memories by the light chatter behind her in the main room she threw her uniform over the edge of her clothes hamper then pulled on a thin cream coloured sleeping yukata. Exhausted, she climbed into her bed and lay back. For a moment she just looked up at her ceiling, rubbing at her neck where a slight stinging persisted. Hanatarou had informed her that, although the wound was sealed up, there would be a painful red welt where it was for another day or so and she could take the bandage off tomorrow night when she went to bed.

Tired she closed her eyes, and felt the familiar sinking sensation of sleep start to creep up on her… followed almost immediately by the familiar disorienting jolt as she fell into Kogitsune's world.

Kogitsune for all his interference with her thoughts on a daily basis was perhaps the single quietest creature she had ever met. The number of times he'd talked to her, since she'd first manifested his blade some three years before, she could count on one hand and it had last been about six months ago, when she'd learned his name. Yet it didn't seem to be for lack of wanting to talk, more that he simply couldn't. But for all that he couldn't make his opinions vocal he was very big on communication nonetheless.

Her sleep was his world.

Rarely was it she could lay down without being sucked into the Alice in Wonderland like world of Kogitsune's domain. His illusions and landscape varied from the tame scene of the Bone Eater's Well clearing, his favorite judging by how frequent it was- where he'd often summon canvases as tall as she was to illustrate picture stories, or occasionally write a bit of haiku or some riddles- to the grandest she'd ever seen which had been a huge unending void of space, complete with billions of stars, and brilliant shimmering blue tailed comets soaring past her. Sometimes they were strange and obscure, filled with metaphors and comparisons that were incomprehensible because they were rooted in a psychology that was barely human. Occasionally they featured illusory copies of people from her past, but the voices would be mixed up or someone would be wearing something ridiculous.

During the day when she was about her classes he'd send her fleeting bits of imagery, sometimes for no apparent reason than the fact that the thought had just occurred to him and he felt the need to share it, or he'd reach out and touch her mind so she could sense what he sensed, which almost invariably left her senses so confused she ended up tasting or smelling things that shouldn't-couldn't- be smelled or tasted; Like the whole lightning on waterfalls scent she'd picked up when Ukitake had drawn his blade on her earlier that day.

It was on the whole pretty common and, more importantly, annoying; There were only so many ways for staying focused on your kido incantation when your zanpakuto spirit was insisting on comparing the teacher to a walrus and not burst into laughter. Worst of all, though he didn't do this often, was when Kogitsune stepped out of thin air in front of her and manifested himself as her own private illusion; It was hard to take notes on barrier theory when one's zanpakuto spirit was sitting next to you on the desk writing riddles for you to solve right at that moment.

She wanted to groan as the strange scene came into existence, knowing in her heart that she was going to be back up in an hour or two. The biggest thing about Kogitsune wasn't the illusions, they were distracting and baffling certainly, but manageable; It was pretty obvious when she had the brief fleeting image of a nature scene, or a patch of shadow seemed suddenly alive, that Kogitsune was feeling playful.

But at night... he got so busy!

She'd spent nights, sometimes weeks as an insomniac for no other reason than Kogitsune wouldn't calm down. In many ways he was very child-like, always wanting to play, always wanting attention. It was fairly tolerable; the few hours of sleep that she would get before being drawn out her bizarre dreams tended to be alot more restful, perhaps because she was so deep in her mind. But it still left her mentally fatigued sometimes to not have the chance to let her mind just be still.

Tonight's stage appeared to be the banks of a river. Behind her was a lush and green forest edge, so dense she was certain she wouldn't be able to enter, which ended about ten feet back from the edge of a shallow but rough and aggressive moving river. The source of this river was a waterfall that plummeted downward from over a cliff so high that it disappeared into nearly pitch-black clouds roiling overhead, and had gouged a deep navy pool of water where it fell down to earth. Even as she observed the scene that Kogitsune had picked out for her there was an ominous and deafening crack of thunder directly overhead and the clouds lit up briefly with the corresponding bolt of lightning. Despite the black clouds that blotted out the sky, the land around was bright and well lit as though in full sun, and her skin felt warmed from it.

It was curious unusual imagery for her fox-like zanpakuto spirit, who generally didn't go for running water or stormy skies, but rather preferred greenery and soft clouds. She spent several seconds twisting and turning, wondering where he was, until she found his shadowy shape slightly farther down the incline. He had his back to her, with his toro laid gently on the ground beside him, batting eagerly at the water that was rippling with impossible gentleness by the edge of the pool.

"Kogitsune" she asked, watching as his head jerked up and turned to look at her with glowing blue-green slits for eyes, "What are you doing?"

He waved his paw in what was unmistakably a beckoning motion despite his impenetrable silhouette and she rolled her eyes before complying. As she approached she couldn't help but notice that the pool of water he was batting at really was extraordinarily calm; just a small circular spot maybe two and a half feet in diameter, where the aggressive frothing and waves of the monstrous waterfall some twenty feet away halted abruptly and gave away to calm clear water that rippled faintly in a circular rotation, as though something was causing a weak whirlpool.

Coming up next to his side she looked between him and the pool of water, only to realize there was something stirring just below the surface. She crouched to look closer and after a moment was surprised to find that they were fish.

Well... sort of...

They looked to be butterfly koi, two of them. Or rather, they looked what butterfly koi would probably look like if they were put on a diet; They had a thin sleekness to their bodies that koi generally didn't have, which was all the more magnified by their flowing fins and long barbels that were swept back and ended at the base of their tail. They were almost identical appearance, though with mirrored markings; One fish with orange primarily on its left side and black on its right, the other in a perfectly matching pattern but with the colours reversed. They were swimming lazily in a circle –which probably accounted for the swirling water- each chasing the tail of the other which she found slightly hypnotic to watch. Overall though they reminded her of two very small ornate dragons, and were definitely outside Kogitsune's usual imagery.

She looked down to him to find his shadowy face and glowing eyes already staring back up at her. "What are they?" she asked, and felt immediately without having to see him flatten his ears in irritation, that it was the wrong question. She glanced back down at them to watch their circling, and noticed that their gleaming amber eyes stared at her as they curled by.

"...Who are they?" she asked instead, and a sinister glowing grin split Kogitsune's face.

Then she jerked upright in bed, startled by the suddenness of being awake. She glanced over to her clock beside the futon and reached to cast a glow on the face with a faint burst of kido in her hand. It was only three in the morning.

She groaned.

She had hand to hand combat five hours later.

After Kogitsune's mid-night riddle she'd managed to fall asleep again but only for about two more hours- he had just filled her dreams full of fish, flowing water, and lightning all over again- and thus she had been up half the night reading bakudō incantations to pass the time.

She inwardly laughed at the thought that she wasn't really a genius at any of this stuff but that she probably spent two or three times more of her day –and night- studying what she was learning for the sheer reason that she couldn't sleep.

It was an amusing thought but it didn't make her combat class any easier.

Between being up half the night and her two spars –not to mention injury- the day before she was decidedly drained. Something which the sensei seemed to notice because he, thankfully, didn't call on her for the whole class which was comprised mostly of fifth years except for her, and a third year she didn't know but understood to be excelling in hand-to-hand combat and Zanjutsu and thus was a shoe-in for the eleventh.

Afterward was a long break period, meant for recuperating from hand-to-hand combat class, which she spent most of dozing under a tree at the back of the main courtyard where alot of students meandered around between classes or sat with friends to study. After that she'd gone to lunch, briefly stopping by Nobooru's table to ruffle his hair and – to her own embarrassment- awe a few of his friends into open jawed silence.

After, she spent most of the afternoon with the special kido instructor that was specifically set aside for students like her; People who were exceeding expectations in most areas but falling behind with certain aspects of kido.

For all her success with bakudō, her hadō was atrocious, and she was banned from casting anything above level ten by herself for risk of blowing herself up. This had puzzled her once upon a time but she thought it may have something to do with her mikoki, which was naturally adept for barriers and defensive spells anyway, but not particularly meant for attacks unless channeled through the bow and/or arrow.

It had gone as mediocre as expected, although with an interesting twist when she'd managed to botch Hadō 11 and instead of shocking the wooden target at the other end, had somehow instead magnetized it and gotten herself, along with two other students, stuck to the stupid thing for half an hour before whatever it was had worn off.

By then she'd been late for the private sparring session against Takashi that Onabara over saw almost every evening, only to learn that Takashi hadn't shown up either.

This had worked out in her favor though at any rate because since she was there and Onabara-sensei had the evening free he opted to sit and keep an eye on her while she tried to work on her shikai.

It was a rare thing for a Soul Reaper to still have so much difficulty getting a shikai to behave after learning the zanpakuto's name. But here she was; six months later with a shikai still unusable and a spirit being annoyingly tight lipped on the problem. Generally the problem with a shikai wasn't getting it under control, it was just getting to the level of trust and understanding that you knew the name of the zanpakuto. The rest just followed along.

Not her.

Because Kogitsune had to make everything ten times more difficult than it had to be.

Which brought her to her current situation;

"Higurashi? Higurashi! Kagome!" Onabara-sensei's voice pierced the confusing black fog that had invaded her mind when she'd used her shikai. She opened her eyes and first saw the ceiling, followed by Onabara-sensei's bald head. He gave a sigh at her conscious form, reached out to help her up and returned to his spot by the wall to sit down again. Blacking out for a second every time was quite normal for her shikai release and he had seen it enough to be calm about the situation, though it didn't make it any less frustrating. Shaking her head to clear it she leaned down and picked up Kogitsune, who vibrated amusedly in her mind.

A sliding sound from the door drew her attention, thinking for a moment it might be an extremely late Takashi, but it was Nobooru. He looked between her and her sensei, who he knew very well because he was in the accelerated class for his second year, "May I watch?" he asked hopefully. She twitched, not sure if she wanted the young boy whom she'd come to care for as her little brother watching as she repeatedly fainted, but his hopeful expression caused her to crumble, and she nodded in agreement. Onabara-sensei gave no protest so he wandered over to join him.

Sighing, she looked back down to Kogitsune in her hand, and felt him perk up, interested in her next attempt to release him. She spun the blade in her hand so that it was gripped with the blade facing down like a trench knife and lowered it so that the tip touched the floor with a gentle tap. Her reiatsu spiked involuntarily at the action, and as she started to release the hilt she spoke, "Dream... Kogitsune" releasing the hilt completely from her grasp.

Rather than tipping over as expected, it stood straight and shuddered slightly on the tip. Then abruptly, like blood gushing from a wound, liquid shadow welled up from the butt of the hilt around the base of the ribbon and streamed down the blade with a mind of its own to pool with alarming swiftness at the base. It spread, racing across the floor and as it brushed past her feet were swallowed up by the incorporeal shadows. The familiar weakening sensation hit her, and the edges of her vision started to grow black. She desperately fought the blackout lashing her reiatsu against the unseen problem but ultimately succumbed to that dark confusion and the sensation not quite like falling, not quite like floating.

When she became aware of herself again she was laying confused on the ground.

Again.

This time it was Nobooru hanging over her, with an expression on his face that seemed to be a mix of surprise but also confusion. "What?" she asked, wincing at bit at the sound of her own snappish tone, and pushed herself to a sitting position so that she could glare at Kogitsune where he'd fallen in front of her.

"Onee-chan... " he started, a little tentatively, shying when she levelled her gaze on him, but continuing none the less, "Are you... resisting him?"

It was a baffling enough statement that she actually had to send it back to her ears a couple of times to confirm it; They insisted they'd heard correctly.

"What?" she repeated, this time highly aggravated "Why would you ever think that? I'm trying not to black out every time, since I can't release a shikai when I'm unconscious" He seemed to look at her, look through her actually and she felt a great swell of irritation, and he replied, "Well don't resist"

Don't resist blacking out; That was like asking someone who'd put their hand down on a hot stove to suppress the reflex to pull away the now burning appendage. It was a ridiculous suggestion... She felt compelled to ignore it.

Nobooru and she had entered in the same year, and while they'd both entered the accelerated class at the same time, she'd flown upwards through the 'years'. He was making a name for himself with his ability to pick up kido, but his small stature and youth put him at a disadvantage in nearly every other aspect of training, from Zanjutsu to Hakuda. He would graduate with high grades and quite an impressive track record but his slow progress with anything that wasn't kido meant he'd probably graduate after the standard six years.

However even she recognized that Nobooru was very... perceptive, at least he was when he was standing on the sidelines and not losing his temper –which happened frequently- and it showed in his ability to pick up kido more quickly than his fellows. It stood to reason then to infer that he may have a bit more awareness about the situation than most in the room, herself included.

So she sighed, and stood, looking at him over her shoulder; He looked expectant and vaguely hopeful. She nodded her head, "Fine. Have it your way", and ignored Onabara-sensei's obvious sigh. He toddled off back to where he had been sitting previously and she looked down at the sword in her hand. Kogitsune vibrated softly in her hand, mirroring the gentle growl –the closest he ever came to purring- that echoed softly in her mindscape.

She repeated the motions; Swinging Kogitsune around to reverse her grip, placing the tip of the blade very deliberately against the floor, pulling away as it shuddered and maintained itself upright.

"Dream... Kogitsune" she called softly, and instead of watching the liquid shadows pour from her zanpakuto she closed her eyes and let the power wash over her. The familiar feeling of weakness and her being on the verge of blacking out made a brief bolt of panic shoot through her and she had to squash the urge to flare her reiatsu in retaliation. It gave way to an obscure sensation, more of an absence of sensation really, in which she wasn't quite sure if she was floating or falling. Then quite abruptly, just at the moment she fully expected to be roused from her sleepy half-conscious by her worried instructor or brother, she took a stumbling step into alertness and fell hard onto the training room floor.

Or rather... what should have been the training room floor; She was pretty sure that the polished wooden floors hadn't been a host to moss about five seconds ago. She looked up, and her jaw dropped.

Definitely not the training room.

Her surroundings seemed to have been replaced in their entirety by a dark and gloomy forest clearing. She couldn't see much of the dense trees surrounding her owing to the thick heavy fog that unfurled lazily from the gaps between the broad, slightly blackened, trunks. This same fog reduced the sky beyond the gap in the barren branches to a hazy dome of white and obscured alot of the ground at her feet. It seemed so dead, with the trees dark and bare, and the low plants and moss below her dusted grey and obscured as though covered in a thick coat of ash. She could almost smell sulphur in the air, and wondered what this gloomy place was when movement in front of her caught her attention.

Where Kogitsune's sword form ought to have been there was a flicker of black right before the spirit in question stepped out of thin air and onto the grass in front of her. He had a broad grin, practically glowing in the dreariness of her surroundings, and she felt him brush against her senses before a low growling voice drawled, "Wellll donnnne..."

It was an almost perfect copy of the expression and tone that he had first whispered in her soul nearly three years ago, and she felt an irrational surge of whimsy at how absurd the déjà vu was. But she understood well enough what he was saying; This is her shikai. Which was why, instead of questioning in bewilderment 'just where the hell are we', she promptly burst into laughter and felt Kogitsune settle himself around her shoulders like a scarf with his tail wagging eagerly. She simply sat back and basked in all of Kogitsune's power, stroking his incorporeal body which he seemed to enjoy greatly even though she couldn't feel anything except for the faintest sensation of something soft and silken brushing against her fingertips, like feathers or dust.

However before she could muse further there was a sudden disturbance at the edge of the clearing as Nobooru stumbled out of a particularly dense patch of fog with a startled yelp. He took in the clearing with wide eyes and weak knees before abruptly his gaze settled on her. He opened his mouth, possibly to say something, possibly just to stare in shock at her, but she never found out because before he could do anything else a larger form came tumbling out of the same cloud of fog and brought them both to the ground.

She would've gotten up and helped them but they sorted themselves out easily enough and stumbled back to their feet.

"Illusion-type!" Onabara-sensei barked without warning, and she felt Kogitsune whip his tail in a curious mixture of irritation and pride, but he continued, "Why I never-! Illusion types are exceedingly rare Higurashi-kun! You should be very proud" She might've commented but noticed Nobooru wandering up to her with a nervous expression on his face, eyes trained on the black form draped around her shoulders. "You disappear..." he started nervously, then continued at her questioning glance, "When you use your shikai; You disappear. All that black stuff from before fades away suddenly too, but the air kinda ripples where it was. And when I walked into it...it felt like I sorta fell into something"

"The illusion" she said, instinct guiding her more than anything and a glance to Kogitsune showed he was pleased by her intuitive leap, "My shikai is an illusion-type, which I can cast over an area. Anyone who is in that area or enters it becomes part of the illusion..." She reached up and stroked Kogitsune again; feeling slightly awed at the discovery of her –their- power. Finally she understood, grasped her shikai, and couldn't help but revel in the way her power draped her surroundings like a cowl and the delighted growls and hums that echoed in her mind from Kogitsune's preening.

Then Nobooru asked nervously, "Can you turn it off now? It's freaking me out"

She laughed softly, amused by Nobooru's slight nervousness and suspected it was in part due to him being much less used to having his senses toyed with in such a way than she. Kogitsune jumped off her shoulders and hovered in the air in front of her, his eyes narrow, mouth jagged, the glowing grin painted clear on his face as he examined Nobooru. Then he disappeared in a swirl of shadow and reappeared instead in front of Onabara-sensei to examine him as well, much to the man's nervousness. He vanished again, then appeared again at the edge of the grove, behind him the trees seemed to flicker and blur like a mirage in high sun, before the illusion began to tear apart at the seams and opened to reveal the training hall beyond the boundaries of the mirage. He stepped out the way and waved his tail towards the doorway as if to shoo them through.

Kagome's favorite haunt was a small out of the way restaurant in the West Rukon District, called Rokudō, which was never closed and as a result spent its nights as a bar and the day as a tea house. However its hard to find location, a half hidden stairway to a small basement in the dark alley between two shops, and its small size, a maximum occupancy of maybe twenty people, meant it wasn't well frequented by many people; Mostly just the more crowd leery students from the Academy and some middle class Rukon District souls, with the odd Soul Reaper too shy to join his or her comrades at any of the rowdier local bars. It was quiet –usually- and not many, if any people, were there late in the day which made it one of her favorite places to lurk when Kogitsune was keeping her up.

Perhaps her most favorite thing about it was that they served a mean Oden which was always much more satisfying at the end of a long day of classes and practicing. The day and night staff knew her by name and didn't even ask what she wanted in evenings when she showed up before the usual crowd of late night drinkers; They just came over and handed off her Oden and tea and left her to her own devices for the next couple of hours.

Kogitsune's overflowing excitement at her having gotten her Shikai under control, mixed with her own anxiety of the knowledge that she'd have to join the sixth years tomorrow to oversee the first and second year's field practice in the living world with simulated Hollows, meant she was wide awake and alert with nervous energy.

She wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.

So she partook in what was probably her most favorite hobby since coming to Soul Society. The ancient leather bound notebook on the table in front of her had started life as a journal to keep track of the numerous and obscure dreams –courtesy of a then unknown Kogitsune- that had plagued her upon coming to Soul Society. It had rapidly evolved into a sketchbook when she'd simply found herself unable to articulate what she saw. She hadn't been much of an artist –her drawings had been little more than nonsensical scribbles at first- but overtime she'd found it a wonderful way to get Kogitsune, or even just herself, to settle.

So her current project was mainly the Captains she'd met just the day before. A politely interested Aizen, along with his content little Lieutenant, took up most of the upper left page, the two staring at some far away point, while the bottom was taken up by an image of Kyouraku sprawled out half-asleep with his hat low over his eyes. On the other page was an image of Kogitsune dancing around his lantern with the two dragon-koi from the night before, above which she was putting the finishing touches on an image of Ukitake, all white mane and angles like an arctic fox.

She took a sip of tea, and then moved to pencil in the man's dark eyebrows when her vision was abruptly obscured by a swath of black fabric. She yelped softly as the fabric, and the arm it obscured, settled around her throat and shoulders and someone leaned down to murmur coyly in her ear, "Looks like I caught m'self a pretty lil' blackbird"

The sly voice was familiar and if not for the good mood she was in she might have still been angered by his stunt the day before. She still tried to shove her elbow backwards and dig it into his ribs, although it didn't work seeing as he was too tall and leaned practically over her. "This bird's got teeth" she replied lightly, "Get off me Gin, even someone as willowy as you gets heavy"

The puff of air against her cheek indicated a laugh but he complied, standing and coming around to sit in the chair on the other side of her small table. He was an obvious peculiarity in an establishment that rarely, if ever, saw even seated officers much less a Captain, all white haori and disarming sneer. Despite this, he hadn't seemed to have gathered much attention from the other patrons of the bar casually drinking and chatting about the room. Granted, they were clustered closer to the bar and didn't often turn their eyes towards her far corner; She wasn't even sure if someone as sneaky as Gin could even be detected without an actual effort on his part.

A fox in human form if there ever was one.

He set down a small tokkuri sake bottle and two sakazuki cups. "I don't drink Gin" she said automatically, giving him a mildly exasperated look. "Addressin' a superior officer so casually Kagome-chan..." he murmured, catching a long lock of her hair and twisting it thoughtfully between his fingers. She noted a flush to his cheeks- the faintest of colouring to his usually alabaster skin- and knew without a doubt that Matsumoto had had her claws in him already tonight; She'd met the enthusiastic strawberry-blonde once before, just after entering the academy.

To be accurate Gin had spirited her away late one evening about a month into her first semester and taken her to whatever bar Rangiku and Izuru had been at at the time. It had been the first time she'd met either of them but the older women had gotten more alcohol into her than she'd ever cared to drink for the entirety of her life…

She felt compelled to avoid her.

"You're not my superior officer yet. And you're being strange" she said, catching his fingers and reclaiming her hair. She got the impression that the gaze he was settling on her was decidedly skeptical.

"Well... stranger" she corrected, putting her pencil back in to mark her place in her book and tucking it into her robes. "Have a drink with me Kagome-chan" he said, and his tone didn't leave any room for argument. She sighed and reluctantly acquiesced, gesturing for him to pour. He waited for her to take a sip before taking up his, and she visibly cringed at the sharp flavor and the way her stomach knotted in remembrance of the last night she'd ever had sake. The gentle warming sensation it bestowed on her insides however was a welcomed reprieve from the flavour.

He had a few sips but spent several moments afterward swirling it around in his cup. She thought it to be a strange motion, and considered him more fully, reaching out with her mikoki to brush against his soul. He felt... melancholy...

"Gin?" she asked softly, reaching out to brush his free hand with her fingertips. He seemed to welcome the gesture, flipping his hand over and catching her small hand in his own. For several long moments, during which Kagome's anxiety grew exponentially, he merely examined their two hands where they met, his long thin fingers dancing over her tanned skin like a large pale spider.

"What's wrong?" she asked, watching as he put his sharp chin into his other palm.

"Do you remember how we met?" he drawled casually. It was a strange question, she felt inclined to say as much, but Gin didn't seem to be in the mood for games, so she considered it seriously.

After a moment of thought she smiled honestly, and replied, "Of course … I was running for my life, as usual…"

It was official; She THE WORST luck of anyone who'd ever lived and probably ever would live.

This was the inner rukon district! Practically right under the goddamned Soul Reapers noses and there was a Hollow tearing up the district like Christmas had come early! How did she know? Because it thought she was the present.

And worse, there were three of them. The first had been almost depressingly easy to kill; After bursting from a storefront and into the street she and Nobooru had been wandering down, it had been confused by the dust of its own explosion and the hysterical souls running to and fro. It fell to her nodachi before it even realized she was there.

The second and third however had been real bastards.

Distracted by her own need to assure that Nobooru was unharmed by the explosion and following panic she'd didn't take notice of the figure rising up out the new gap in the storefronts. The boar like monster smacked her with its clawed hand – a spiked fly swatter the size of a car's engine hood- and sent her flying clear through the buildings on the opposite side of the street and into the road on the other side.

She laid half-conscious in the dirt, listening to the hysterical screams of nearby people running for their lives and the splintering of wood as the roof of the building she'd just gotten thrown through merrily collapsed in on itself. 'Ow' she thought inwardly, and then, just because it didn't seem enough to merely think it, spoke it aloud.

"Ow"

There, she felt better. Perhaps not as better as she would've felt had a Hollow not just drop-kicked her across two streets in the first place but one could only hope for so much. The scream of the Hollow, followed by the sound of what she suspected was him as he systematically demolished his way through the ruins of the structure in an attempt to follow after her, drew her out of her haze of half-consciousness.

She also became aware of a voice yelling nearby – not the hysterical screams of people running away- followed by hands landing suddenly on her shoulders. She opened her eyes, dizzily trying to make sense of the gentle blue sky and darkness at the edges of her vision. It was when the sky spoke that she realized it was a person hanging over her. "Are you alright?" the person, a man judging by the voice, asked before he gently brushed his hand against her forehead. She felt a sharp sting at the location, and knew right away she was bleeding.

"C'mon little bird, it's coming this way, you've gotta get up"

Little bird. Why was that so familiar?

She groaned as she became aware of the full painful extent of her injuries, reached up to bat away the man's hand, blinked rapidly and finally really looked at him. Her jaw dropped as her vision cleared properly and it finally occurred to her why his presence was so familiar.

She knew the man hanging over her.

"Chi-...Chichue...?" she choked.

There were changes of course, but the middle aged man with clear blue eyes, gleaming with concern, and long black hair already streaked liberally with silver was as easily recognizable as he had been over a decade ago. Kairen Higurashi was far less wasted than she remembered him being in those last few weeks before he'd succumbed to his cancer but it was him without a doubt.

His expression contorted nervously, "Oh boy. You really hit your head hard didn't you little bird?" She felt confusion at first, but it was followed immediately by a painful trickle of despair.

He didn't remember her.

It was only natural of course; No one who died and came to Soul Society remembered their lives in the world of the living, except for her of course. But she had hoped... When he'd called her 'little bird', the nickname he'd given her when she was still a little girl, when he'd asked if she was alright, even now as he carefully wrapped his arms around her shoulders and tried to help her to a sitting position.

But she supposed... even if he didn't remember her, they'd found each other.

She could figure it out later; right now she had to deal with the Hollow over his shoulder pulling back its arm to fill him full of more holes than he'd ever need.

"Move!" she shrieked, pushing him harshly behind her and lunging to her feet as she drew the nodachi once more. She moved the blade into position just in time to block the talons that came crashing down to crush her and felt the recoil all the way up to her shoulders. Her righteous fury at the attempt on her father's life bled rapidly into panic at the sight of the cracks that spider-webbed outwards from the epicentres of the impact and she felt something –someone- flinch in agony in her mind.

There was a scream from farther down the street as another building was destroyed and she felt horror encroach rapidly at the sight of yet another Hollow dragging itself out of the debris. This one, lizard-like in appearance, settled its horrid yellow eyes on where they were and in one smooth leap, came crashing onto the ground behind her, claws reaching for Kairen where he still sat shocked on the ground behind her.

"NO!" she screamed, flaring her mikoki violently and sending her current enemy reeling back, screaming in agony. She turned and stepped into the Hollow's path, lifting her sword and shearing off the offensive creature's arm in one solid swing. Her victory was short lived; although her mikoki began to happily scorch the stump of an arm left behind, it didn't have enough bite to kill the Hollow and before she could finish the job, she was struck violently from behind and thrown farther down the street. She was distracted from her painful impact with the ground by the fact that she and her father had been thrown together and he'd taken most of the impact.

"Chichue!" she howled, flipping him over and reaching for his face. He was just unconscious, but the two pissed off slightly burned Hollows now stalking towards her were obviously intending to rectify that. She quickly rubbed away the blood dripping into her eye from a new cut on her forehead and stumbled to her feet with an almost animal snarl.

"I am going to kill both of you!" she yelled, throwing her caution to wind. Her mikoki crackled angrily through the air in response to her fury and danced down her nodachi's blade like arcing pink lightning. The swing towards them should've been too hasty, should've missed the first Hollow loping towards her now that she was standing, but the caustic power simply tore through the air space in front of her and split the top of the Hollow's mask, not low enough or deep enough to end it.

She pulled her mikoki deliberately into her blade to try again, only to flinch at the white hot knife of pain that drove itself into her brain as she did. She yelped, and went down to one knee, her power still crackling around her, but before she could think to do anything with it through the haze of agony clouding her thoughts there was a sharp crack from her hand, and her nodachi's blade simply shattered into half a dozen pieces.

She stared down at the now bladeless hilt with the same sort of horrified fascination she suspected someone had whilst watching a building fire rage out of control and found she could do nothing but gape. Stunned by the sudden lack of the weapon she'd had for almost a year, she didn't even move to attempt some sort of defense as the Hollow she'd just pissed off backhanded her into a very solid plaster wall. She couldn't even manage a scream of pain as her ribs broke, merely choked as the breath was knocked out of her and didn't come back.

The lizard Hollow hissed venomously and advanced on her, while the other turned to loom over her father with a menacing scream. She tried to yell, tried to scream, to do anything, but could only manage a strangled gasp that evolved rapidly into a choked cough as she fell away from the wall and crashed to the hard packed ground aspirating blood. The boar-like Hollow lifted its talons, already gleaming red with blood, preparing to eviscerate its oblivious prey.

"No!" she gasped, feeling the painful effort the one syllable had cost her and desperately fighting off the black edges of her vision.

She had just found him! She couldn't lose him already!

But she couldn't think, couldn't breathe, could only stare in abject horror as those terrible claws fell towards the prone form at the Hollow's feet.

Then there was a terrible shriek of agony and she opened her eyes –when had she closed them?- to see the Hollow that had been standing over her father was fading away. And hanging in the air, where it had just been standing, glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver was the longest blade she'd ever seen in her entire life. Even as she watched, it turned in the air and sailed closer to her, shearing through the Hollow standing over her like it wasn't even there.

She had moment, a second or two to stare confused up at the brilliant blade and feel the sheer power wafting off of it before it suddenly began to smoothly retract farther down the street. She followed its progress and felt awe when her eyes landed on its source.

It was a man, a Soul Reaper... A Captain.

All black shihakusho and white haori which hung so loosely on his frame that it only magnified his tall thin willowy appearance. But his short hair gleamed silver in the mid afternoon sun and the narrow eyed grin upon his face was so... fox-like... She felt a twinge of remembrance recalling the strange shadowy fox spirit that appeared to her months before, and with an identical grin painted on its maw.

They seemed so similar…

"Who... who are you...?" she stuttered, limbs trembling with a cocktail of adrenaline and pain. The strange man's vulpine grin broadened, almost playfully so, and he replied gently, "Gin..."

She reclaimed her hand and reached for the bottle of sake to refill his cup.

"If not for you, Chichue and I would've been those Hollows' next meals" she said softly, carefully putting the bottle back down and reaching to finish her first cup before continuing with her train of thought, "With Kogitsune I'd always thought I could take care of myself, that I was strong enough. Then I was in trouble and you saved me, and you were the first Soul Reaper I'd ever met for myself. I mean, I never liked fighting or wanted to be powerful or anything... but... I couldn't stand by powerless again, not after spending so long on the sidelines"

She trailed off, leaning back in her chair and wondering inwardly when the mood had become so dour, before quirking a soft smile and adding, "It's because of what you did for me that day that made me want to try to become a Soul Reaper at all. I never realized until I met you how powerless I really was. You were so strong, without even having to try. I wanted to… I don't know… change… myself, wanted to be something more than a Rukon street rat who barely understood her own power"

Gin's face was oddly relaxed looking, something she attributed to his grin being half-hidden behind the curve of his palm, but he felt strange when she reached out with her soul, a confusing myriad of emotions she couldn't really pin down.

"So are you going to tell me what's really bothering you or are you just going to keep being strange?" The grin that came over his face was sinister, or possibly just playful. She was willing to bet on the latter judging by the way he reached out and tugged on a lock of hair near her temple.

"Ow!" she yelped, nearly dropping her sake cup as she reached up to massage the hurt, "What was that for?"

"Felt like it" he replied, downing his cup quickly and refilling both. "Well it hurt" she whined, tucking her hair back behind her ears where –hopefully- it would be out of Gin's reach.

"Why is it that every time you're in a mood, I'm the one you pick on?" "I have no idea what yer talkin' about Kagome-chan"

She felt a short but obvious surge of irritation at his facetious tone and replied a bit waspishly, "Of course not; You obviously had nothing to do with that little stunt yesterday with the taicho"

"O'course not"

"I had to spar with Ukitake-taicho because of you! Like it wasn't nerve racking enough being sized up like a piece of livestock, I actually had to fight one?"

He grinned broadly, psychotically some would probably say, all teeth like a happy shark and said in a slightly sing-song voice, "Don' worry about tha' little game o' tag yesterday Kagome-chan; 'Shiro-kun was quite taken with ya, all the taicho were"

She spluttered, wondering privately if anyone actually called Ukitake 'Shiro-kun' to his face, but also felt an annoying trickle of hopefulness at his statement. Gin never lied to her, or rather he'd never given any indication of lying to her before. Withhold information? Yes. Tease her? Frequently.

Of her friends and family that had met Gin, none- except for perhaps her father- even liked him and she knew there was only so much she could do about it when even Gin wasn't bothering to try. He just wasn't the type to inspire trust and confidence in people around him.

Fear; sometimes.

Anxiety, nervousness, irritation; pretty reliably.

The occasional dose of self-induced stupidity; Of course.

But camaraderie and friendship; not so much.

And while she trusted Gin implicitly with her life and the lives of her family, she wasn't so sure about trusting her sanity with a man who was more fox-like than her own zanpakuto spirit.

She shook her head, reached out and took her cup back up with an exasperated sigh, "What am I going to do with you?"

/


Owarimashita!

A/N: So ends chapter 2! Not alot of action unfortunately, hopefully no one's too turned off too much by that. Next chapter is the living world training exercise so I promise a bit of bleeding XD. At any rate, we did learn a few things, got a feel for Kagome's life as a student, met Kogitsune and got to know him a bit, learned about why Kagome and Gin are so chummy chummy.

I feel a need to justify their interactions a bit. Alot of people find Gin super creepy, which makes sense seeing as that was Kubo's attention according to comments on his profile. But I think after saving her life, Kagome would have zero reason to be creeped out. She barely even blinks at people like Jinenji and when you think about it all of her friends from the "Inu-tachi" have either stolen from her, kidnapped her, or tried to kill her at some point or another.

Also I want to let my readers know, this WON'T be a Gin/Kag pairing. Having said that, Gin will be an integral part of the plot ;)

Moving on, we also got to meet the 'Otou-san' mentioned in the last chapter, which I'm not sure anybody noticed.

Not much for new vocab.

The tokkuri and sakazuki I mentioned are the large slightly round-bottomed sake bottles and the wide flat sake cups respectively, commonly seen in some anime. Google them for an image if you want a better idea.\

Also chichue, which is a contraction of chichi-ue. ue is a suffix literally meaning above. It is an extremely respectful honourific not commonly used anymore, save for when used with chichi and haha. Each means 'father' and 'mother' respectively and are neutral but still polite words typically used when referring to one's one parents when talking to someone outside the family.

I think everything else was covered in chapter 1.

CrowFeathers out!