10: Emotional Mask
"All creation has the promise of heavenAnd still you travel the road to hellI'm saying nothing for the good of myselfBut I'm still talking and you're not listening."
-VNV Nation 'Chrome'
Her elbow was propped up on the edge of her desk to help keep her head raised in the boredom inherit in working on her math homework. It was like the world of excitement and danger she'd dropped back into was suddenly gone again and replaced with her much more dull high school life again.
Not that she completely minded it, minus the pre-calculus nonsense in front of her. "Is it really even math anymore when they put in half the alphabet? I feel like I'm taking some sort of strange advanced vocabulary test…"
Other than the frustrating arithmetic she had a fresh appreciation for her humdrum existence. She doubted she would get many chances to keep up on her homework with her newfound knowledge of the soul society…maybe she could talk to that Ishida Quincy guy and see if he would let her copy some notes - he was the top student…it had to be a better plan than when she copied the notes of her more mediocre graded friends back in Tokyo.
She had actually finished her current homework but some of her teachers were so predictable she was spending some of her unexpected freetime that Sunday to work ahead…though if she didn't take a break soon her brain was going to pop.
She glanced toward her cell phone nearby. "I still need to call Sesshomaru…"
She had barely been able to push the blast from her past out of her mind sense she'd seen him, she did want to talk to him, he had lived through the whole of japan's history between when she was in the feudal era and now. It made her want to reach out and find out what she could about the rest of her friends. Did Shippo survive the ages as well? He was a demon like Sesshomaru, he could easily still be alive if Sesshomaru was. There were so many possible questions she could ask the former demon lord.
Finally she gave up working ahead to pick up her phone and dial the number he'd given her, she was just too curious to pass up the chance to speak to someone about the feudal era that really understood. It was a connection to Inuyasha and her other friends she never thought she'd find again.
"Hi." She greeted awkwardly when he answered the phone. "This is Kagome….I um…wanted to try to talk a little if you don't mind." "Where would you like to meet?" He was still straightforward. "and when?"
"Um…I'm not sure where." She answered honestly. "There is a park near my house, sometime today would be nice."
"Do you have a name or address for the park?" Sesshomaru asking her such a question just seemed so peculiar.
"Yes." She gave him the address and finished the conversation before hanging up. He didn't want to meet for an hour but she couldn't keep staring at the numbers and letters of her mathematics class. She picked up her sweater and headed out and downstairs, she could go ahead on to the park and enjoy the air as well as having a chance to just walk for a while. After everything that happened the past couple days she was restless and using up some of that energy before school tomorrow would be wise.
"I'll be back later mom, I'm taking a walk in the park." She called.
"Okay sweetie." Her mom smiled at her, already in the main room dusting off some of the furniture. "Be careful and don't be in too late."
Kagome smiled in answer and moved out the door.
The sweater was almost immediately tied around her waist, it was still mid-afternoon and far too warm out on the early fall afternoon to put it on. It might get cooler as the sun set though so she left it around her hips as she smiled at a few kids running around with a kite. Other than the local children it seems she was the only other one sharing the small park. She went away from them so they could play in piece and found a bench, despite her restlessness she'd run a lot lately and the short walk here had been enough for her.
The park was just starting to get hints of yellow or orange on the leaves of it's trees, many of the trees that had fall flowers released the scents and colors of their blooms. The park seeming as if someone had painted over the various greens with a whole new spectrum of color.
The wait she had was a good chance to relax and just enjoy some of the beauty inherit in the world. She didn't get to take pleasure in the natural side of things much sense her return from the feudal era and was glad to be living near a park even if she missed her home. How many hours had she wasted back in Tokyo sitting near the well hoping it would let her through again...it's no surprise her mom moved them away and sold the shrine.
"Seems I'm fated to make her worry." Kagome thought sadly. "I don't want to but I don't have a normal life either…or well…I guess I don't again."
She had to smile just a little. "I have to admit I did miss all the excitement."
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Ulquiorra was following the man he'd been sent after from a distance, he seemed mortal enough to look at but there was something there that made the arrancar just observe for now. He could feel some sort of energy to him but it was muted or somehow cloaked and that was a true sign he needed to approach this fight with caution.
It was a pity he hadn't been able to watch the battle himself that was described to him. If this man could open a gate to the true hell; as Hueco Mundo was more of a purgatory than the true accursed netherworld…well the easiest way to put it would be; he was curious.
He seemed like most other mortals, lingering in an office for a while before taking one of the automobiles to a park and meeting up with a woman. Though the change of scene offered him a whole new subject to consider. Unlike the muted energy his target was putting off, the holy reaitsu Kagome was putting forth was certainly alluring even to the pokerfaced arrancar. He still was part hollow after all.
That made his watch infinitely more interesting…this unexpected party had more than one mortal with spiritual energy swirling around them, it made him wonder if their interceptions of the other arrancar was more than a mistake as the report he received seemed to imply. Though the way they were speaking of the spiritual world he doubted that was the case, they'd more seemed to have stumbled into the battle and were old colleges.
He listened to them speak to each other, though some of it he didn't fully understand he knew for certain that both of them were aware of the powers they possessed by the end of the conversation. Much of it seemed to consist of the teaching of basic spiritual information to his target, and a lovely tidbit of information that his target was unable to see the spirits easily himself but instead could sometimes sense them around him.
The girl meanwhile reminded him a little of Orihime in her kind nature, and while she obviously didn't look the same, she shared the trait of having a great power she didn't fully understand. He would need to report this girl to Aizen to see if he wanted her involved somehow in his next plan. She might have enough energy about her that she could be of use to the new plan at hand.
For now though he still needed to deal with his current target, or at least test the waters and see just what it was this Sesshomaru and the young girl were capable of…
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Kagome shared what she'd been told with Sesshomaru after asking some questions of her own about the feudal era, the conversation was surprisingly pleasant and it seemed more like reminiscing with a old friend than the tentative enemy he'd often played in the past.
He had definitely become more human-like in the decades that had pasted, learning to survive in a world of mortals he probably had to. Though she did appreciate this less vengeful Sesshomaru a lot more than the one she'd known previously.
That thought would be short-lived however as she noted a man preparing to attack him from behind.
She did the first thing instinct told her to do, she shoved the demon lord over off the bench, barely letting them both dodge the deadly strike from the arrancar in front of her.
He was so pale his nature screamed through more than the others she'd seen, his depthless forest eyes shifting to their new position on the ground and changing the direction of his blade as such.. "Why is it these guys are always trying to kill the people I'm with!"
Sesshomaru took Kagome and vanished to another area of the park, eyes narrowed as she felt her stomach jump. The demon lord let loose his own massive reaitsu and his face had taken on the marks of his heritage again, making her swallow nervously though he wouldn't notice the blush on her face as he was busy scanning the field. "You are always attracting trouble aren't you."
She was fairly sure it wasn't actually a question, glancing back over to where the green eyed monster had caught up to their flight. He had even less emotion than Sesshomaru used to or Byakuya put off now, seeming much more analytical as to his observations of the much more artful dodge Sesshomaru had pulled off compared to Kagome's clumsy version.
"You can see me then?" Ulquiorra asked Kagome, he had already been informed that the man couldn't see spirits but hadn't guessed the girl would be able to. A lack of foresight on his part. "Which means you can hear me. I'll give you and the man the option of joining Lord Aizen before I continue this fight. Translate."
"Yep that clinches it, all men are complete jackasses…" Kagome thought at the demand but she leaned up to whisper to the demon lord with her.
Sesshomaru laughed outright. "As if I'd serve some ghostly vermin…tell him no. Get out of here and fast before you absorb too much of the dark energy that will surround the battle."
Kagome started to repeat but the creature interrupted her before she had the chance. "I heard him. He is my only target here girl, you would be safest to listen to him and run off. I'll give you the time to wander off before I resume the battle."
Kagome blinked and wanted to protest but she was shocked by a sudden onset of reiastu one Sesshomaru released her that she stumbled to the edge of the park and then started to jog home, she could feel the clashes of energy behind her and it was different than the one he'd killed before…now he couldn't see it.
"I'm tired of all these men just thinking they can push me around and tell me to do whatever they want." Kagome cursed mentally as she ran toward her home, it wasn't far and once she picked up her bow and arrows she would show this damn monster that she wasn't some helpless girl that would put up with it.
Anger fueling her mad dash back to her home, her room, her sacred weapon and arrows…
End Chapter
I wanted to make this chapter a little longer but I felt that was the best place to end it so I left it there. With everyone still in soul society I thought that tossing in some more sesshy would be fitting. Could it be a love triangle maybe?! Oh noes! Next Chapter: Emo-kid versus Fluffly. Keep reading.
-Aura
P.S. Thanks so much again for the reviews, they're honestly why I keep tossing my freetime into writing this as opposed to my dozen other hobbies. Though I did take a few hours yesterday to edit up a fanart I did of Kagome and Byakuya kissing. I tossed it on deviant art but need to find someone to color it. And as to my putting up chapters in the whee hours of the morning - having insomnia does that.