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Chapter Five - Harmony and Balance
The day had been a long one and Masaki was exhausted as she fell on to her bed. The family had just returned from Soul Society, having spent much longer there than they normally did. Ichigo hadn't been happy about this fact however Rukia had forced him to suffer through his annoyance because their children wanted to spend some time practicing before they returned home to the World of the Living. Masaki and Kaien had been working with Shiro on perfecting some of the finer points of their kidou spells and had learned, among other things, that their older brother was a slave driver. Both of the twins had issues with kidou that they felt needed to be resolved; Masaki was good with memorizing the chants but had a little more difficulty pulling them off while her twin was the exact opposite.
"I can't believe we worked on kidou for five hours," the young girl moaned as she snuggled in bed and pulled the lavender comforter up to her chin. She couldn't believe how much her body ached after just practicing kidou and made a mental note to kick her older brother in the shins the next time she saw him.
Now that Kaien and Masaki were in the Academy Shiro didn't care if their dad knew that he was teaching them kidou so he felt free to make the lessons longer. Sometimes this was good, other times it was bad, and today had definitely been one of those other times.
"I think Nii-san was secretly trying to kill us this time," she murmured as she closed her eyes, pulling the comforter even higher.
It wasn't long before the young girl fell into a deep sleep.
Masaki found herself wandering through a lush, green forest and for a second the girl vaguely wondered how it was that she had came to be in such a place as this. The thought vanished however as her keen artist's eyes focused in on the beauty that was all around her. Tall trees formed a ceiling over the forest, bathing the area in cool shadows, with only slivers of sunlight managing to poke through the veil.
"This would make a gorgeous painting," she thought to herself as she walked down a barely visible path. The moss was cool and soft beneath her feet and the scenery that surrounded her was absolutely breath taking. Flowers bloomed all around her, making her wonder how they managed to thrive on such a small amount of sunlight.
So caught up in the beauty that was all around her Masaki was only vaguely aware of the slight noises that were coming from beyond a clump of bushes a couple of yards away from her. Yet the moment something from beyond the bushes issued a low, feral growl Masaki jumped ever so slightly, her violet eyes opened wide in surprise as she gazed around in an attempt to locate the source of the noise.
The subtle noises continued to issue from somewhere behind the bushes and, once Masaki had recovered from her initial shock, the young girl walked slowly and carefully toward the bushes. Making every attempt to be as quiet as possible Masaki reached her hand out slowly and parted the bushes.
She gasped.
There, in a small clearing were two young tigers. She could tell that they were young because they weren't as large as adult tigers would have been but they were just as beautiful. Masaki's eyes locked onto the scene, unable to look away from the two tigers that were circling one another, growling low every so often. Unlike anything that she had ever seen one of the tigers was mainly white with black stripes while the other was mainly black with white stripes.
"Unreal," Masaki whispered as she watched the two tigers. They almost seemed to be engaged in some kind of unearthly dance of power, submission, and above all of balance. The creatures circled one another but at no time did they attack; it was as though each knew that the other was necessary for their survival.
The blaring of the radio jarred Masaki from a deep sleep and she jumped slightly. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light of her bedroom she realized where she was and calmed a degree. The young girl vaguely remembered the dream that she'd been having however now that she was no longer a part of the dream world she found that she couldn't call up any of the fine details.
"Aww," Masaki groaned as she silenced the alarm clock that was blatantly reminding her that she had to get ready for school. Grumbling slightly to herself Masaki grabbed her uniform and made her way down the hall to the bathroom so that she could take a shower. "I can't help feeling that the dream was important but for the life of me I can't seem to remember what it was about."
It seemed strange to her that she couldn't remember the dream after only about ten minutes. It couldn't possibly be normal to forget a dream so quickly and yet Masaki couldn't remember any of it; it was as though it had never happened.
"So weird," Masaki murmured.
Once she was showered and dressed in her shihakusho Masaki quickly pulled her orange hair back into two low pig-tails and then made her way downstairs. She wanted, no needed, to speak with her twin and the sooner the better as far as she was concerned. Kaien had always been the one that she could talk to no matter what the subject and she needed that closeness now.
As expected her twin was seated at the kitchen table, quietly eating a bowl of cereal while his brown eyes scanned the pages of a book that was unfolded on the table beside his bowl. Not totally immersed in his book Kaien glanced up as he heard the sound of someone entering the room and he smiled as his gaze fell upon his sister. "Good morning Saki-chan," the boy said in a cheery voice.
"Morning," Masaki said as she poured herself a bowl of cereal and then sat down at the table beside him. "Hey Kai. . ."
"What is it?" Kaien asked, sensing that something was troubling his sister. He had always been able to read her like an open book and there was a worried look to her now.
"I had this dream last night," Masaki told her twin in a quiet tone of voice. "And it seemed important and strangely familiar but now I can't remember what it was about."
Kaien paused as flashes of an old man flashed through his mind. Someone seen and familiar but at the same time completely unknown. "I had a similar experience the night before last. I didn't know the same thing would happen to you."
"I wonder what this means," Masaki whispered.
"I don't know," Kaien said, an intense look in his brown eyes as he thought back to his visit with Urahara.
Masaki sighed as she finished her cereal in record time. "Well we don't really have time to debate what's going on right now. If we don't get a move on then we're going to be late for class and twice in one week probably won't reflect well on us."
Kaien nodded wryly as he thought back on the first time that Masaki had caused them to be late for class. They had been all ready to go, two steps away from the stairs that would lead them down to the Senkaimon, when the twins had sensed the reiatsu of a Hollow. The twins had glanced at one another, not sensing the reiatsu of anyone from Squad Five, and then Masaki had said, "We can't just ignore it Kai."
"We are going to get into so much trouble," Kaien had said as he followed his sister toward the door. He was fully aware that they couldn't simply allow the Hollow to wander around unchecked but he was also fully aware that they were going to be late for class and would probably get yelled at because of it.
"But at least we had a good excuse," Masaki said as she and her twin walked toward the stairs that led down to the basement. "And we didn't get into any trouble over it."
Kaien nodded. "But if our teacher hadn't been Hinamori-sensei we probably wouldn't have gotten away with it."
"You're probably right," Masaki said, offering her brother a bright smile.
Later that day, after classes at the Shinigami Academy had came to a close, Masaki found herself alone in her bedroom. This was one of those rare moments when she needed some time alone. Her world had changed drastically as of late and she needed some time to herself to come to grips with everything that was happening. Life had ceased to be simple and to some extent Masaki mourned for her loss.
Needing an escape the young girl set up her easel against the wall next to her window and placed a blank canvas upon it. Pulling the case that contained her acrylic paints from underneath her bed Masaki prepared all of her supplies. The young girl had always enjoyed drawing, even from an early age, however she had only recently began to work with acrylics. Picking up a paint brush Masaki began to work, clearing her mind and allowing the hidden picture to form as her brush strokes added color to the plain white canvas.
Masaki could see the picture in her mind's eye and as the picture began to take shape her violet eyes widened. The picture, that of two tigers circling one another, seemed familiar to her. To the uninformed it would look as though the tigers were preparing to fight however Masaki knew that this was not the case. To her it was as though they were dancing, each playing an important part to the overall ballet.
"Where have I seen this before?" she asked herself as she held the finished painting and gazed intently at it.
Masaki's musings were interrupted by the sound of a familiar knock on the door. Placing the finished painting back on the easel she turned toward the door and called out, "You can come in Kaien."
The door opened slowly to reveal Kaien. "Hey Masaki, what's up?"
"I was just painting," Masaki told her twin, gesturing toward the completed picture that was sitting on the easel.
Kaien's eyes followed Masaki's hand and his eyes widened as he saw the painting that she was pointing to. He knew that his sister was incredibly artistic but this painting far exceeded anything that she had done in the past. The two tigers that were situated in the clearing were stunning, one mainly white with black stripes while the other was mainly black with white stripes. The creatures were circling one another and upon closer inspection it appeared to Kaien as though they were almost forming a yin yang.
"That's freakin' awesome!" he exclaimed as he turned back around to face his sister.
"Thanks," Masaki said quietly, somewhat proud of the painting.
"So where did you get the idea for this one?" Kaien asked, one eyebrow arched as he gazed at the canvas. "That one tiger is backwards."
"I know," Masaki said as she once again gazed at the two tigers that were dancing together on the canvas. "And I have no idea what made me decide to paint one of the tigers with reverse markings. It almost seems as though I've seen them somewhere before but I don't know where."
"It's probably that overactive imagination of yours," Kaien said with a chuckle. "Anyway Mom sent me up here to tell you that dinner's ready."
Masaki's violet eyes flew toward the clock. "Is it really that late already?" There was a note of surprise in the young girl's voice as she posed this question to her twin. She hadn't realized that she had spent that much time on her painting, to her it seemed as though only minutes had passed.
"Yea Saki-chan," Kaien said as he wrapped an arm around his sister's shoulder and gently guided her from the room. "It really is that late. Now come on before the food gets cold."
Masaki laughed as she twirled around and extricated herself from her brother's grasp. "Leave it to you to be worried about food. I swear you're like a bottomless pit."
Kaien laughed good naturedly. He was more than used to this particular taunt from his sister and had long sense ceased being annoyed by it. "I know but I just can't help it. Food's my weakness."
"I guess there are worse things," Masaki said as the twins reached the door. Pausing at the thresh hold Masaki cast one last glance at the picture that was sitting on the easel. Something on the canvas seemed to move and Masaki quickly rubbed her eyes and then refocused her gaze.
"Are you alright?" Kaien asked, concerned.
"Yea," Masaki said, inwardly telling herself that it must have been a trick of the light. She could have sworn that she saw one of the tiger's move it's eyes however she knew that this wasn't possible. "It was just my imagination, like Kaien said." Turning away from her room she seized her brother by the hand and quickly pulled him out into the hallway. "Come on Kaien before you're forced to eat cold food."
A/N - and thus ends chapter five of Kaien and Masaki's story. Hope you enjoyed, please review and tell us what you thought. Til next time this is Hitsu-taichou signing out.