Author's Ramblings: I almost forgot to mention. SciLabs is also known as the Ministry of Science in the anime. It doesn't feel right typing it down so I'm going use SciLabs again.
Chapter 02: Faces
'Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary,' Toushiro thought as he walked down the quiet streets of the residential area. 'I don't feel a hollow in this area at all.'
Maybe communications got it wrong again?
'If they're wrong, I'm going to make sure they do a daily maintenance so that they won't have another blunder like this,' Toushiro thought with a scowl. He heard the school bell ringing for a distance, it just hit noon so most students would be having lunch just about now.
"Excuse me," a feminine voice asked. Toushiro turned around to see a brunette woman standing behind him. How the hell did he miss something like that? She had a worry expression on her face. "Are you lost?" She sounded genuinely worry. Toushiro is a master in reading emotions, he could tell when somebody is lying or not, and to see a person not faking worry is a rare sight to see.
The one thing that got on his nerves was the fact she was talking to him like a child ticked him off a bit, but he managed to hold it back in. After the war, he was thrown in to an anger management class for, well, having a nasty temper when riled. He was known for having the most powerful ice-zanpakutou of all of Gotei 13, but being a hot head made no sense to most shinigami. Just about his entire division petitioned (though he has a feeling that Matsumoto has a part in all of this) along with several other taicho agreed in this, thus he has no choice but to attend those accursed meetings much to his dismay.
"No, I'm not," Toushiro replied with a deadpanned voice. "My parents are at a meeting and I'm merely here on a short visit."
"What about your school?"
"They were notified in advance weeks before," Toushiro replied and paused. "You know...it's awkward for a stranger to walk up to you and ask another all these questions. One my think you're stalking them." The woman laughed, indicating she wasn't offended in any way.
"You're such a straight-forward boy," she commented.
...Toushiro had to double check his restraints to make he wasn't leaking out any reiatsu.
"I apologize," she began. "You remind me of one of my son's friend and I can't help but wonder if you're related to him."
"If that's the case, then I should be the one who should apologize," Toushiro said but his voice still sounded monotone, whether the woman sees it as a sincere apology or not is up to her.
"Hikari Haruka," Haruka introduced. If Toushiro was shock, he didn't show it.
"Hitsugaya Toushiro," Toushiro said and asked. "Is the surname 'Hikari' common by any chance?"
"That would be news to me," Haruka replied with a cheerful smile that reminded him of Hikari-taicho's. It was scary, but he would never say that aloud. "My husband and son are the only Hikari I know." He caught a tinge of sadness in the woman's eyes...a memory from the past, maybe? He wanted to ask her if she knows who Hikari Saito was but decided against it. The new taicho is dead, and it would be awkward how a stranger like him would know a Hikari. That and he weren't supposed to reveal more information than he already has to.
"I see, thank you for your time," Toushiro said. "I hope we can meet again someday."
"You're welcome," Haruka said. "And I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again very soon." With that, the Hikari-woman walked away. Toushiro would have done the same towards the opposite direction had he not sensed an all too familiar presence.
Hollow…no, this is not just a hollow. It's an arrancar.
Toushiro took out his cell and scrolled down on his contact list for Saito.
The newbie is going to flip hearing news of a living Hikari in town.
/-------------/
"And in this lab room..." Saito tuned out of tour guide's speech as he entered the room. It's not like he didn't find anything worth listening. He loves to learn new things and see new technologies the humans have developed over the years, but the gigai he's in is really, really uncomfortable. It's stuffy, stiff and he has to concentrate a lot more to be in sync with the body. It's was weird, even with the new version, he has to concentrate harder than most shinigami. Kurotsuchi offered to customize him a gigai for the price of a few tests...Saito's response was obvious. He would rather volunteer to post in Hueco Mundo for a couple years than become a lab rat for the scary scientist.
He stood at the back of the group, leaning on the wall and listen to the guide's speech and explanation. NetNavis sounds pretty interesting, from the guide's explanation, they sound like a cyber version of a zanpakutou. A part of him wondered if he could get a Navi before leaving this living-
Suddenly he felt a tinge of jealousy in the back of his mind. Ah, was that his zanpakutou feeling a bit jealous?
Why yes, yes they are.
'Haha…you know I love you more than anyone else,' Saito said to them. He could still feel the jealousy in the back of his mind.
'Them' he refers to are Toyotama-hime and Hoori. Toyotama-hime oyobi Hikohohodemi no Mikoto is the full name of his zanpakutou, fraternal twin spirits that exist in his blade. It baffles him to this day why does he have two spirits in his blade but was glad he did at the same time. They are like family to him and best friends he trusts with his life. They don't even fight alongside with him together, mainly due to his age or his inability to control both spirits in battle at the same time, but he has the time to practice that...a really long, long time.
His cell phone rang in his pocket and the boy retreated out of the room, make sure the area was human free before reading the name of the caller: Shiro-taicho.
Ah, Toushiro-taicho already found something? Saito pouted slightly. He wanted to be the one who finds something out first. How unfair. He pushed the accept button and held his phone up against his ear.
"Saito here, Toushiro," Saito greeted cheerfully. He could feel the killing intent from the other end of the phone.
'It's Hitsugaya-taicho,' Toushiro growled from the other end.
"It would be suspicious if I said that to you right now," Saito replied. "Besides, we're supposed to be blending in, remember?" He whispered the last part and quickly changed the subject, preferably before his phone freezes over. Saito could literally feel Toushiro's spiritual pressure from the other end. "So, did you find anything yet?"
'It's an arrancar,' Toushiro replied. That hit Saito like a bombshell.
"Are you serious?" Saito asked, he was extremely surprised. "I thought they went into hiding after that war."
Many of the arrancar hid themselves and masked their pressure the moment Aizen fell, in fear of being executed by the captains. They still exist, but only in small numbers now. Why would an arrancar suddenly show up after all these years are beyond him.
'I thought so too,' Toushiro grumbled. 'I need you to scout Scilabs for any lingering presence of an arrancar, it should not be that hard to find.'
"I'm on a tour right now, but I'll see what I can find," Saito said.
'…Why in kami's name are you on a freaking tour, Hikari-taicho?'
"Best way to wander the place without being questioned," Saito replied in an almost sing-song voice. "By the way, do you want a souvenir before I leave the place?" He heard a scoff over on the other line and ignored the curse that was most likely directed at him.
'Just report back in an hour…and Saito.' Toushiro sound deadpanned right now. It means that the older shinigami is dead serious right now.
"Yeah?"
'I just met up with a Hikari,' Toushiro began and that definitely got Saito's attention. 'I'm not sure if you have a relationship with that person but I want you to start using and different surname. Is that clear?'
"Yeah…sure," Saito confirmed. He was still digesting the fact there's another Hikari around. The line went dead meaning Toushiro ended the call and resumed searching for the arrancar. "Another Hikari…" Saito said to nobody in particular as he closed his phone, stuffed it back into his pocket and walked back into the room the group was in. Hopefully he didn't miss-
"Netto?" In an instant, Saito felt as if he lost functions of his gigai. He tripped and fell flat on his face. THAT never happened before. This was like his...tenth time in a gigai and this was the first time he lost control all because of...'Netto?' Synching with his body again, Saito got up and turned to the source of voice…and blinked.
He blinked again. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear his spirits laughing at the boy's hair.
The older look boy's hair style reminded him of a skunk's tail. He couldn't blame his zanpakutou; he would have joined them if it wasn't for the fact the guy was giving him a glare for no apparent reason.
"What are you doing here?" that boy asked, slightly annoyed. "Shouldn't you be meeting with your father by now?"
"Ahahaha sorry but I'm not this 'Netto,'" Saito replied. "I'm merely a tourist here in the lab." The boy eyed him suspiciously before speaking again.
"My apologizes," the boy began. "You look just like a colleague of mine, I thought you were him."
"Whoever he is, I'm pretty sure 'Netto' is with his father by now," Saito said and flashed a grin. "I'm Saito, for your information."
"I didn't ask for your name." the boy said bluntly.
"But the look on your face said otherwise," Saito replied with a grin. "Well, I'll be seeing you later, I have a tour to finish, SciLabs is a pretty interesting place and there's still more places the guide haven't taken us yet."
"Ijuin Enzan," This time, Saito blinked. "That's my name."
"I didn't ask for your name," Saito said sounding just as blunt as Enzan did moments ago.
"But the look on your face said otherwise," Enzan said. Saito grinned seemed to have widened slightly.
"Touché," Saito said. "Well, it was nice seeing you." Saito said before turning to the direction of the group. "I'll see you around if I'm permitted to come back again." Without another word, Saito ran to catch up with the group. They were already leaving without him and he really needed to leave this place fast. Something about Netto is nagging him, and it won't stop.
/-------------/
"You're late, Enzan!" Netto stated the moment Enzan walked in the main computer room. Enzan did a double take with Netto as he compared the current brunet with the other one he met not too long ago. Their facial expressions were the same, Saito's hair is much neater than Netto's and their eyes were much different.
Netto's eyes are more alive than the other brunet's. It disturbed the older netbattler more than anything.
It wouldn't hurt to ask, would it?
"Do you know anybody by the name 'Saito?'" Enzan asked and watched the boy tensed. Hikari-hakase stopped typing for a moment and turned to direction of the conversation.
"How do you know about Saito?" Netto asked.
"There's a boy downstairs taking the SciLabs tour right now," Enzan said as he calmly watch younger boy pale even more. "His resemblance was uncanny, I thought he was you."
"Are you sure?" Hikari-hakase asked.
"I'm positive." Enzan found this a bit awkward. Something about Netto's sudden change of attitude concerning a boy he's never met before nerved the older boy.
Before Netto asked, his father was already three steps ahead of him.
"I'm putting up the live video feed now," he informed as calmly as he could. Multiple video windows popped up, showing live feeds of every camera posted in SciLabs.
"Is that him?" Netto asked, pointing at the bottom right window.
Lo and behold, Netto's look-alike had separated from the group and the boy seems to be mesmerized at the picture frame in front of him. From the camera's angle, they could see the boy was either very confused or very agitated just by looking at the figure in the frame.
"Zoom in on the picture he's looking at right now," the sound of typing filled the silence in the room and everybody examined the picture closely. The look-alike was staring at the picture of Hikari Yuuichirou, Netto's father.
Rockman watched the feed from the SciLabs computer alongside with Blues. His eyes were wide and he looked like he just went into shock.
"It's not possible," Rockman muttered his eyes wide with disbelief.
"Why is it not possible?" Blues asked. There was a hint of worry in the crimson Navi's voice.
'Because I'm Saito!' Rockman wanted to shout those words aloud but held it back. Netto jumped slightly from the volume of Rockman's voice in his mind and sense the other's frustration and confusion.
'It's all right,' Netto said, trying to soothe his older brother's emotions. 'We'll figure out who that look-alike is.'
'How could a look-alike claiming to be Saito be standing right there when I'm here?' Rockman asked, he was clearly upset and from the sound of it, the navi-brother was having a mental breakdown, something Netto never thought was possible.
They watched a bit longer at the screen where the look-alike occupy, for the longest time, 'Saito' didn't move until something from his pocket snapped him out of his trance and the boy pulled out an unfamiliar device.
"What in the world is that?" Netto asked.
"It's called a cell phone," Enzan replied. "A really old model, anyways, since the PET has video communication, they stopped production of the cell phone about twenty years ago."
"Why would he have something like that?" 'Saito' looked at the screen of the phone. They watched 'Saito' looked back down at the phone with annoyance before putting it back into his pocket and then he bolted off running from the opposite direction of the tour.
'I'll get to the bottom of this, don't you worry,' Netto said. "Papa, can you watch tell me where my doppelganger is heading. I'm going to catch him!"
"Netto!" Yuuichirou could only watch his son running out of the room before he could stop his youngest son.
"You never informed of us that you had another son," Chief Kifune said, he was amazed with the resemblance the look-alike has with Netto and the head scientist.
"Netto's an only child," Hikari-hakase informed. "He did have an older brother but he died when he was still an infant..."
"May I ask what your first son's name was?" Enzan asked. It seemed like an eternity before the scientist finally replied.
"His name was Saito. Hikari Saito."
/-------------/
"Hey! Wait up!" A boy. Saito frowned as he continued down the hall without looking back to see who it is that's creating all the fuss. In this high-tech building, they're letting a boy wander around like it was nothing? Are they nuts? Not even Kurotsuchi-taicho let Kenpachi's fukutaicho run around in the labs. That pink-haired girl could just accidentally blow up the entire Seireitei with just a push of a button.
He almost shuddered at the thought.
"Damn it, wait up!" the voice sounded closer now. Maybe he should slow down so whoever is shouting could go past him and Saito himself could turn to the opposite direction. He could feel his own frustration rising, there's a hollow nearby and the last thing he wants is a human getting too close. That could-
"Argh!" Saito landed face-first on the waxed floor. That really, REALLY hurts. He could feel the weight of another on top of his gigai. Maybe he should scare the idiot who tackled him down thinking that he just 'died' on impact with the floor, but the thought of facing Toushiro's icy rage made him stop otherwise.
"What's your problem?" Saito snapped. He pushed the second body off of his and turned to see who his tackler is. He froze midway, as if Toushiro did freeze him with Hyrouinmaru. For a moment, time seemed to have stopped. He knew scientifically and supernaturally time can't stop but it felt like it did. That boy has his face, or was it the other way around?
It was like staring back at a mirror.
...This must the boy, Netto, Enzan was talking about. If Netto was looking for him...then does he know something him?
The boy looks at Saito, obviously surprised and confused. Saito looks back at Netto with an equally similar expression. The shinigami's mind went numb the moment he saw the boy and he forgot what he was suppose to do in the first place. The other boy opened and closed his mouth, unable to form the words he wants to say. It felt like an eternity between the two until finally, Saito opened his mouth and asked.
"Do I know you?"
Somehow, those words seemed to have hurt the both of them more than they should of.
"...There's no way you can be him!" The boy finally exclaimed aloud. "You're nothing alike him." Saito blinked before his brown eyes narrowed and his anger finally got the better of him.
"We excuse me but weren't you the one who just tackled me?" he hissed. "Now you're pointing fingers at me claiming I'm somebody I'm not. I don't even know you, idiot!"
"Which supports my statement that you're not him!" the boy yelled. "You're just an imposter!"
For some reason, those words hurt him a lot. Imposter? Who's imposter? How is he the imposter anyways?
"What's your problem?" Saito asked. "I don't know what you're talking but you're pissing me off!"
Before Netto could argue further a loud anguished cry rang through the building following shortly with a huge explosion. Forgetting their argument momentarily, both boys turned to the direction of the explosion just outside of the building.
From a distance, Saito could see it. A masked figure with a body shape of a wolf stood in front of a blazing tank. It looked up at the building, stared rather intently at Saito before it grinned.
The stupid hollow was grinning at it.
It was daring him to follow him.
Saito accepts the god-forsaken challenge.
Without a word, Saito ran, ignoring Netto's protest and unconsciously took out a Soul Candy. He swallowed the green pill and felt the familiar sensation of separation with his faux body, letting out a sigh of relief. He felt like a caged animal finally freed from his restraints and he was going to savory every last drop of his freedom before going back to his confines. He phased through the wall(as a ghost, he doesn't have a solid body but it always sends out a shiver down his spine) and landed on the solid concrete ground. The wolf-hollow never moved from it's position meaning it was waiting for him the whole time. How peculiar.
Saito drew his blade, feeling the familiar power spreading from his fingertips and throughout his body. His blade was ready to fight just as he was. Who should he call out today? Decisions. Decisions.
"Is the big bad wolf going to strike first or should I?" Saito joked.
Author's Ramblings: Happy Thanksgiving! Writing this is a lot harder than I expected it to be, but it's kinda fun! :D Black Friday was a pain, and I did hope I would have been able to post Repetition up today too. Looks like I'm not. D;