Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any or it's characters.
Chapter Four – Music to My Ears
He was sitting on the piano bench in front of a large audience. He wasn't really afraid, just nervous. Thoughts of what he was going to play ran through his head, Beethoven? Mozart? No, none of those seemed right. Nothing he could think of seemed like it would fit the situation.
He closed his eyes to think, and thought he heard something far off in the distance. Something magical. The music was like nothing he had ever heard before, something alien, and yet at the same time strangely familiar. The longer he had his eyes closed the more distinct the music became, until it was a roaring symphony of noise. Different sounds clashed and vied for his attention until it overwhelmed him.
He began to play, his fingers gliding with ease across the keys as he tried to drown out the music with some of his own. He played until his fingers bled, but still the music would not abate. It kept coming, speaking of sorrow and happiness, of laughter and tears, it spoke of a time far in the past and of events still yet to come. Kaien began to cry as he played. Unable to stop his fingers from playing along with the music, he let his hands to the music. He opened his eyes and looked out at the audience.
They weren't the people he had seen first, the auditorium was full of Hollow. Big ones, small ones, animal-like ones and the more human ones were all looking at him as he played out the keening of their minds. The animal nature that possesses each Hollow spoke to Kaien as he looked upon the white faces of them. Unable to distance himself from the minds of the Hollow, he tried to withdraw into himself, sucking up every last bit of reiatsu in an attempt to cut off the thoughts and feelings of who the Hollows used to be.
He closed his eyes again and the world went silent. Opening his eyes to see if this was just the calm before the storm, Kaien saw only one person. Dressed in the orange robes of a Tibetan Buddhist monk, the man's face looked timeless, though he had to be ancient. The lines of laughter and millions of smiles creased his face. He held a staff in his hands, gripping it as if he would fall over without it.
The staff interested Kaien, it was like nothing he had seen before. The body of it was a red wood, it glinted in the spotlights of the stage that he shared with the old man. Near the top the red wood turned to white. The white stone, carved into the likeness of a bird soaring into the air, beak open and pointed up, wings spread back ,seemed to change colors in the light, shining first white, then red, then orange, blending into yellow and then into the faintest blue before glinting back to white. A blade seemed to sprout from the open mouth of the bird, it too glinted in the blinding lights of the stage, but it didn't change color like the bird beneath it, nor shine brilliantly like the wood of the body. It showed pictures of his life, of his loved ones, of himself. It showed him things that had happened and that were happening, and even those that could but not necessarily would.
"Who are you to play the songs of Heaven and Hell?" The old man spoke, his voice like a tomb, cold and dead. Startling Kaien out of his reverie.
"I played what I could. I didn't know what it was. I couldn't stop myself." The old man frightened Kaien. He seemed ageless, yet ancient at the same time. New, yet old. Like something you get from a thrift store; new to you, but ageless, having had a previous life of its own. "
"Think before you act Kaien. Things aren't always as they seem." These were words that Kaien had heard before, but they seemed different coming from this timeless man.
"Who are you?" The question slipped out from Kaien's mouth before he could stop himself.
"It's not who I am that you should be asking, but who it is that you are. To play the Songs of Heaven and Hell is to be more than human. The Songs change with time, yet they stay the same. Will you be able to pick up the pieces of your soul when it becomes too much for your mortal body to handle?" The monk-like man hadn't moved since Kaien had opened his eyes.
"Pick up the pieces? What are you talking about? It's just a song!" Kaien was exasperated. He didn't know what to do.
"The Angels and Demons of this world and the other are gathering in the distance. Facilis descenses averno. The decent into Hell is easy, Kaien, It's the steps up that take the effort. Are you strong enough?"
Kaien was dumbstruck, "I-I don't know. Maybe-maybe if you would tell me what you're talking about I could give you answers. Who are you?" Kaien asked again.
"I am you. I am him," he gestured towards someone behind Kaien. The young Kurosaki boy turned and saw Toushirou, and to his surprise, the rest of his family. He hadn't noticed them before, "I am every one of those people behind you, just as they live in your heart, so do I."
The old man waved his hand across the space in front of him like he was trying to shoo away a fly. Kaien's family disappeared and was replaced by a single person. Masaki.
"What does my sister have to do with me?" Kaien was very scared now.
"She is you and you are her. Like I've said before, Kaien. Look deep inside of you and you will see what I am talking about. Though she is your twin, More than blood connects the two of you. Just as more than blood connects the two of us." With this the old man turned and walked off of the stage.
"Wait!" Kaien cried after him. "Who are you?"
"All will come out shortly, Kaien. Look deep and you will find me." The old, sage-like man walked out the door and out of the dream.
Kaien turned and looked at his sister, "What's happening to me?"
Masaki didn't answer, instead she turned and walked off stage, leaving Kaien alone.
Kaien woke up sweating. He was on the floor in a pile of blankets and twisted limbs. His mind was still reeling from the dream and what it was about. It had seemed real but had felt off. Like some part of him wanted to believe what had happened actually meant something.
He got up off of the floor and went to the bathroom to splash some cold water in his face and try to clear his head. This done, he went back to his room and sat at his desk. He picked up a pen and a piece of paper. He wrote a short note explaining where he was going, just in case anyone got up before he got back. He folded up the piece of paper and slipped it under the closed door of his parent's room.
He threw on a pair of dark jeans and a gray shirt. He slipped on his jacket and went downstairs quietly. Opening the door, he slipped out into the cool pre-dawn air. He turned down the street and headed towards the Urahara Candy Shop.
The piano beat out a complex melody of sorrow and longing as Urahara's fingers glided across the ebony and ivory teeth. The music filtered out through the open door, onto the street and beyond, lifted by the wind into the sweet oblivion of nothingness.
The melodic rhythm slowed and eventually came to a stop as the memories faded out of his mind again. Was he ever going to forget his isolation? Was he ever going to be able to go a day without the haunting memories of what was and could never be again?
"No, you'll never forget, Kisuke." He told himself as he shut the lid over the ebony and ivory keys of the piano, "Not in a million years.:
"Uhm, Urahara-san? Can I come in?" Kaien stood at the doorway.
"By all means Kaien. Tea?" Urahara was genuinely surprised at the young Kurosaki's visit. It was not a frequent occurrence for one of the Kurosakis to drop by unexpectedly. Not even the children.
"Yeah, thanks." Kaien's eyes darted around the small room, "May I" He asked, gesturing towards the piano in he corner.
"Be my guest."Kisuke walked out of the room to go get the tea.
Sitting in front of the grand piano, Kaien cracked his fingers and opened the lid. The keys were worn from age and the continual presence of fingers gliding across the polished surfaces, but they still shown as if the were new. He laid his fingers in the ready position and closed his eyes.
He started off slowly, coaxing the music from the keys, getting used to the sounds and feel of the instrument, but he continued and found new confidence.
Anyone who walked past and heard him would consider him a musical genius. Possibly the next Stevie Wonder. The music was unearthly. Filled with bubbly laughter, sad tears, emotions that had no name. It immersed the musician and audience alike. But Kisuke knew him. He knew that the young boy, and his sister for that matter, was just as much of a prodigy as Toushirou, his adopted older brother.
One and the same with the keys and music, Kaien's fingers flew from key to key with feverish speed, pounding out the rhythm of the song. Chords and notes floated through the air and out to Kisuke.
He, Kisuke, knew that Kaien Kurosaki could play almost anything from memory. Knew that he had never learned to read sheet music but he could play any instrument. Drums, piano, guitar, anything that was even remotely musical he could play. And play beautifully. But this was no song that Urahara had ever heard before
Urahara walked into the room silently, eager to hear more, "Hello Urahara-san." Kaien still had his eyes closed, and Kisuke was sure he hadn't made a sound as he entered the room, yet the young boy still greeted him.
"You truly are your father's son. A complete enigma, from your birth to your death. And well on after that. If your parents have any influence. Here." The scraggly haired man held out a cup of tea towards the young black-haired boy.
"Thank you."Kaien had stopped playing and put the lid down. He stood up and walked over the the small table that Kisuke was sitting at, still holding the cup.
"Where did you learn that music? It's nothing like I've ever heard before, and yet it sounds so familiar." Urahara posed the question to the young boy. Eager for the answer, but not expecting the one he got.
"My dream last night. That's actually what I came here to talk to you about. It scared me." Kaien's brown eyes shown with remembered fear. Something entirely knew to boy.
"You? Scared by a dream? It must have been pretty bad." Kisuke had always been interested in the Kurosaki children, something about them had peaked his curiosity. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on.
"It was. But, I'm not sure. Something about it seemed almost too real." Kaien looked down then, almost as if he were ashamed about it.
"Tell me about it." Kisuke set his empty cup down onto the table and sat back to listen.
Kaien told him about the dream he had, how it had started with just him on the stage in front of an audience of everyone he knew. Friends from school, family, fellow students from the Academy, Momo and Ukitake, his parents and both siblings, even people he didn't know.
He told him about the noise of the thoughts and feelings of the people watching him, told him of the change from people to all different sorts of Hollow. Kaien hesitated at the part about the old, monk-like man. He wasn't sure why, but he shrugged it off as the after effects of the dream.
After that hesitation Kaien told the rest of the story uninterrupted. Ending with Masaki's unexpected exit and him waking up, tangled in his blankets on the floor, "What does it mean?"
"In all honesty, I'm not completely sure. I'm sorry Kaien, but all I can tell you is that you're trying to tell yourself something. This "old monk-like man" that you're talking about has to be either someone you know or how you see someone. An old man, wise beyond his years, maybe?" Urahara had about a hundred questions of his own that he wasn't sure how to ask. Not the east of which how Kaien had known when Urahara had entered the room.
"Well, that's not quite what I was looking for." Kaien looked down into the now empty cup he was holding, "What do you think it means?"
"Kaien, all that I can tell you is that you are different. You know that there is no Heaven; there is no Hell. You've grown up with a foot in both the world of the living and that of the dead. Your parents are Shinigami, Death Gods in their own right to those that are superstitious. This dream was probably just you telling yourself that you are confused." Urahara poured more tea into his cup and took a sip, "But I have a question for you now, Kai. How did you know I had entered the room?"
"I sensed the feeling of the music in you." Kaien had said it like it was nothing, like every one could do it, "I mean, it was kind of like I sensed your reiatsu, but not quite, there was something different about it. Something that wasn't quite the raw power that makes you up. It seemed like something deeper."
"Hmm," Urahara's brow furrowed in concentration, "I would like you to try something for me."
"What is it?" Kaien's eyes lit up.
"Close you eyes and tell me what I'm thinking." Kisuke told him, "Don't try to reach out or anything, just tell me what I'm thinking about." He pictured Ichigo's Hollow mask, something he Knew that Kaien knew about, as the young Kurosaki closed his eyes.
Immediately the music came to his ears, it sounded like music you would hear in a movie during the pivotal battle, all violins and harps and suspenseful. The music seemed to take on a shape behind Kaien's eyelids as it continued, becoming more and more primal as the picture came into focus, the beats of the music making the form pulse with it.
Ichigo's hollow mask floated in Kaien's vision, white with the red stripes on the left of it. The eyes holes weren't empty, they held his fathers brown ones, not the yellow and black ones that came with it normally. Kaien opened his eyes and saw Urahara smirking, "Why were you thinking about my dad's mask?"
"Kaien, I think I know what that dream means now." The shop keeper took off his hat and laid it on the table next to the now empty tea pot, "You can read other peoples reiatsu. Not just sense them, like others, but you are able to reach into their consciousness, take what they are thinking and make it your own. This is unprecedented. I mean, things like this have happened before, but never to this degree." Urahara's eyes were shining as he spoke.
"So, what? I'm like, psychic or something?" Kaien was more confused now than he had been at the beginning of his visit.
"Yes and no." Urahara stood up and motioned for Kaien to follow him, "You know how Mrs. Ishida, Orihime, has the power of rejection? Well, like that, you can reject the boundaries of a person's mind. But, unlike her, your intrusion draws the thoughts out. Think of it this way. The human mind is like an egg. You know what is inside is constantly changing, going through different stages until it hatches. If Orihime wee to try to look into the egg, she would have to crack the shell, kill the egg. But you, if you wanted to look into this same egg, the shell would turn opaque for you. You could see the changes going on inside of it."
"So, I know what people are thinking because its projected onto their reiatsu?" Kaien was beginning to see where Kisuke was taking this, "So I can just walk into a person's mind like opening a door and stepping inside?"
"Exactly! Well, the first part anyway. You don't exactly walk into their mind. You take the disturbances in their normal reiatsu and read it like you would a book."Urahara put his hand on the small boy's shoulder.
Looking down, thinking, Kaien said, "Thanks Urahara-san. I think I'm going to go home and sleep a little, I didn't get much last night."
"All right, I'll tell your parents to stop worrying. They found the note you left. Don't worry, I'll cover for you." With that, Urahara winked and walked back off into his shop.
Laying down on his bed, Kaien stared at the ceiling, wondering about his dream and the things that Urahara had said. It didn't take long for sleep to claim him.
The forest floor swirled with mist as Kaien walked through it. He had dreamed of this place before. It was similar to the woods in Soul Society, all evergreens and tall trees. He walked around until he came across a harp set into the top of a tall boulder. He climbed the steps the were carved into the back of the rock and sat down on a stool near the harp. He reached over and began to pluck string after sting, blend the individual notes into the Melody of Heaven and Hell that seemed burned into his mind.
Down on the forest floor the mist stirred and sent out snake like tendrils up the rock, acting like snakes do with a charmer. The old man dressed in his robe and holding the bladed staff walked around the base of a tree and watched the young boy pluck away at strings of the golden harp.
The dream melted away as Kaien slowly came back towards consciousness.
"Kai! Wake up!" Masaki's voice cut through the last bit of sleep and Kaien was awake now.
"Time for school, Kaien." His mothered called up the stairs.
"Be right there Mom!" he called back, pulling on his uniform. The dreams all but forgotten.
A/N - hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review and tell us what you thought.