outside his vision
7. mother's day

Orihime manages to take things in stride, all things considered, and Kazui is rather happy going home with her. Now he just needs his suspicions to be wrong and his father to be able to see him again and everything will be fine… or as fine as things can be in the wrong time, at least.

For now though, he can enjoy a bit of time with his mother. Even if it's not the same, it's better than the Kurosakis where his father and one of his aunts can't even see him…

And Orihime asks a lot of questions, but not those sorts of questions. Instead, she asks what his favourite foods are, what his school's life, who his friends are, if he has any siblings… and that last one is a little awkward because his parents have been trying but no teenager wants to hear that from their future son…

Still, she's happy enough, and he's happy enough, and they can manage like this for a bit, anyway. Until he can get back to his own time… and he really should work on that. It's probably a good thing, anyway, that he can't get completely comfortable even here. No reason not to go back to his own time: his own home where he belongs.

'I'm sorry,' Orihime says, around the same time that thought crosses Kazui's mind. 'I know it's not the same…'

'That's probably a good thing,' Kazui repeats. 'If it was the same or better, then I might not want to leave.'

'I wonder…' she muses. 'There's the future, too, you know. I'd wanted my brother back for a long time, but then actually having him back turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. And yet it also painted the path to my future. I got to really know Ichigo, then. And met Rukia-san too. And also, I got to hear my brother's last words for me.' She touches her pins, then laughs. 'And got some magic powers out of the deal too, apparently.'

'The Shun Shun Rikka,' Kazui says.

'So you know about them.' Her fingertips brush lightly against her pins again. 'I suppose you would. Can you use them?'

Kazui shakes his head. 'They're your Fullbring, so only you can use them. I've got my own Fullbring though.'

He doesn't get to mention what it is, though, because Orihime looks confused. 'Fullbring?' she repeats.

And Kazui wonders if he's said something they're not aware of again. 'Do… you know how the Shun Shun Rikka work?'

Orihime shakes her head. 'I mean, they have incantations, and centre around the hairpins my brother gave me, and seemed to start after run ins with Shinigami and Hallows, but I don't really understand it aside from that.'

His mother knows a lot more about her powers. So does his father, for that matter. And they're careful about how they teach him, so he masters every skill before using it, so they don't consume him. Because, between his parents, he's got fine control and raw power. Ichika's the same way.

She's got a wider variety of spells, though. But he can make do with what he has and he's got a Fullbring and she doesn't (because she's 100% Shinigami, unlike him).

'Well,' he hedges. 'That's all true, but you always had that power within you. It's got to do with residual Hallow power: with your parents having been exposed to Hallows before you're born… which is why I have it too. And how and when it manifests tends to vary, too. Yours is physically represented with your hairpins, so you'll be in trouble if they break.' Has been in trouble when they've broken in the past – which is part of the whole story of how he awoke his own Fullbring, actually.

And that answers the question as to whether the whole Xcution incident has happened yet or not. (Answer: it hasn't).

And then he groans. He does not want to get mixed up in that. He's nowhere near ready to be mixed up in that, either. Sure, he has a pretty varied arsenal at his disposal but he doesn't have a whole lot of sparring experience. His parents have worked on his skills individually, and only when they're satisfied he's in full control of all of them will they let him actually fight with them.

So he hasn't fought a whole lot. Except with Itsuka. And when they sneak off.

'You have that look on your face,' Orihime says quietly. 'The kind Ichigo sometimes gets before he goes out to fight somebody.'

'I can't fight,' Kazui admits.

'Neither can I.' Orihime drops her hands. 'The Shun Shun Rikka aren't offensive weapons, after all.'