24:Misshapen Angst

"One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors; for to dwell upon them is to add to the offense."

-Henry David Thoreau

She knew that Byakuya was angry, why wouldn't he be in the circumstances.

Kagome was standing near the irritated soul reaper sheepishly, not looking up or at any of the surrounding people…many of them with wet clothes or hair and others covered in ash and dirt. A few of the other people called captains were standing amidst the half-burned down building with her and the others that had helped put out the fires.

The structure that had once served as the library and guest quarters for the Kuchiki clan was decimated, the entire wing that served as the guest area had been completely burned to the ground and it was only a matter of a well placed wall of ice by the tenth squad captain that had kept it from spreading further and obliterating the books and scrolls within. Dozens of lesser works were wandering and doing what they could to collect anything salvageable while cleaning up the wreckage.

"Well, quite the student you have there." the speaker she hadn't been introduced to yet. He wore a pink flowered haori over his uniform and when he'd first arrived he had been wearing a straw hat that had been lost somewhere in the battle against the fires…likely burned up if it had fallen free of his head. Unlike the rest of the members that seemed fairly serious and gathered he was more unkempt. He had an uneven and unshaved chin and his hair didn't seem to be well taken care of - more tossed into a ponytail. He was sitting on one of the nearby walls that hadn't been damaged - while the rest of the captains that had come were standing.

"She's a piece of work if she can set the whole soul society to worry about an attack while just burning down a building." Captain Hitsugaya muttered, though loud enough that those nearby could hear him. "Stay well Captain Kuchiki, let me know if there is anything further the tenth squad can assist with in the protection of the priestess."

The boy was already irritated with Kagome and the recent event didn't impress him any further, what sort of great priestess needed to be saved from the building she accidentally set on fire herself? If hadn't already been in the area the Kuchiki family would have suffered a much greater loss with the damages that could have been inflicted on their collection of texts.

"Thank you for your assistance Captain Hitsugaya, Captain Kyoraku…I will do what I can to repay this aid in the future." Byakuya stated without looking up from his surveillance of how the clean-up was going.

"Hey, I told you before to call me Shunsui." the flamboyant man commented with a smile on his face, wiping some ash off of a cheek. "Come on now, accidents happen Byakuya…this will be a tale to tell for nights out drinking eh?"

He moved closer to the pair then, fluid in a drunken way when he moved. "So this is the priestess, we didn't really get to talk huh? Trying to stop the fire and all…you are quite the cutie under that layer of soot." He complimented with a goofy smile. "I'm Shunsui…it's nice to meet you."

Byakuya stepped between them when he started to reach out a hand as if to shake her hand in greeting after a bow, making him straighten and consider the slightly narrowed gaze of the nobleman interrupting his introduction. "Your continued presence isn't necessary Captain Kyoraku. I need to speak with my ward now."

"Cold as ice." Shunsui laughed, putting a hand awkwardly behind his head as he scratched it. "Well, don't be too hard on the girl eh? Whatever did happen, no one was hurt and the part of the building that was lost can be rebuilt and replaced…"

"Do not think to continue your lecture as to how I should teach my ward." Byakuya directly interrupted. "You should take your leave, I'm sure you would like to get cleaned up after this."

"Sure thing." He winked over Byakuya's shoulder at Kagome when she glanced up. "It was nice to meet you young lady, perhaps we can speak more later."

He raised a hand in a wave before heading off again, he found the whole scene funny as hell, though he figured by the time he got back to his squadron Nanao would be beside herself when she saw him…just something else to do to make her annoyed. She was cute when she was annoyed.

Kagome might have normally gotten more irritated at not being allowed to speak with someone but given that she'd destroyed part of Byakuya's estate she couldn't really argue with him at that moment…she felt horrible.

He turned around once he felt that they'd retreated enough, facing her neutrally. "Come with me, you'll need to get cleaned up and will require new quarters."

He headed off then, and she was fighting to keep up, she couldn't bring herself to ask him to slow down…shaking her head…what a day it had been so far…

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Earlier that day…

She'd finished reading one of the texts and was considering the suggestions given for casting of the spell. If she could show that she'd already gotten even a minor spell in place then that would look good on Byakuya's teaching of her. After all the trouble she'd been giving him she thought it would be nice to be able to show that she was paying attention.

That and the idea of doing magic was just fascinating to her.

So she closed her eyes and settled into her practice of meditation, waiting until she was just on the edge of it to recite the incantation.

"Let part the cloud's and open the horizon…Heaven's light come at my will and gather your gentle illumination in my hand. Lighting." She spoke the incantation as she'd read it from the book, willing the light to gather in her land just as the spell was spoken.

It was several moments of concentration and a gentle blue glow flickered to life above her hand, it was beautiful. It reminded her of the souls that used to be gathered by the creatures that followed Kikiyo. She moved her hand and it raised upward as she wanted it to just as the book had explained.

Kagome's face was about to break into a beaming smile at her quick success with a lighting spell. Then her wide smile warped as her eyes widened and she jumped back out of the way of the ceiling caving in when the ball of blue energy hit it.

The moment of happiness faded as it blew a hole through the top of the building, leaving pieces of it flaming as the wood splintered and broke away from where the ball of spiritual energy meant to be a simple lighting spell had grown into something a lot more…destructive.

'Oh my goodness…Byakuya's gonna kill me…" Kagome looked around frantically for some sort of well or sink or -something- with water in it. The bath tub wouldn't help - there was nothing to put the water in! If she burned down the building that wouldn't really scream that he was doing a good job keeping an eye on her. "I suck so much…my third day here and I'm gonna burn down his library!"

She was still searching around for something to help her put out the growing conflagration when she heard alarms rising outside. "Oh god…great…now everyone is going to know…must put out fire…must find bucket or equivalent."

Kagome was forced to back away from searching in the closet she was provided when part of it caved in, she blinked at that and looked back up only to scream. The entire ceiling had broken into flames just that quickly…it was already past the point of worrying about the building…if she didn't get out of the room soon she wouldn't survive the growing blaze either.

She narrowed her eyes, it had started to smoke extremely fast as well and she was coughing as she tried to breath, pushing the long sleeve of her kimono over her mouth to try to help filter the air as she stumbled for the door. Then she was grabbed and picked up from behind, making her fumble before she noted the pale aqua green of Byakuya's scarf, it was a split second later when it was fresh air reaching her lungs. She was still coughing when he settled her down, nodding in reply to his question as to if she was okay.

They were fighting the fast-burning fire for what seemed like no longer than a few minutes…the arrival of the other two captains seemed to be what really helped end it…she couldn't make out much of what happened but the ice summoned by the boy she'd met previously was what had saved the half of the building that hadn't yet caught on fire…it was just by fate that she hadn't ended up burning down much more of the structure or even the estate and she felt horrible by the time they'd ended up standing around watching other people clean up…

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"I…I'm sorry Byakuya." Kagome said softly once they'd reached her new room, it seemed like most of the estate was busy with the emergency she had caused. "I really didn't mean to…"

"It's not your fault." He broke in before she could continue. "It is mine. I should have told you not to practice any magic until I was present to help control any mishaps. Normally we would be in a place safer for such mishaps. You were unaware."

"But…I almost burned down the whole building…" She frowned a little, still feeling horrible, wanting more from him than that…almost wishing he would yell at her… "I deserve more of a punishment than this…"

"Did you do it on purpose?" The question caught her off-guard coming from him but she shook her head in an animate negative response. "Then you are not to blame Kagome. I should have informed you more fully."

"I shouldn't have tried it without you though…I'm very sorry Byakuya…I…if I can do anything…" She protested his comments until he set a finger on her lips, making her go instantly silent as she blushed at the unexpected gesture.

"Kagome. Do not blame yourself for this." Byakuya said simply, watching the young girl stare up at him and doing his best to not think about the order he wanted to refuse. "Get yourself cleaned up and when you are ready we will have lunch and we will continue your studies."

She nodded silently before managing. "Oh-okay."

She backed off from him and entered her new room, sliding the door closed and sighing to herself as she went about to do what he asked. "I am such a pathetic girl."

Byakuya meanwhile headed to attend to final orders regarding the building that had been damaged, cursing at himself internally as he moved. "Stupid. Sloppy. Lazy. I am better than this. I let my own issues with the orders I'd been given interfere with my training of her…how could I forget to tell her to wary of where she practiced? I never even warned her of the true dangers of mishaps in casting…"

He was so angry at himself he knew he wouldn't care to eat, instead he just had the kitchen send something to her with a note that he would return when he had things in order. His staff jumping to do as he asked, he might still be cold but there was a difference in him when he was angry that the people could sense if they couldn't openly see it.

"If I hadn't sensed the change in her reiatsu, or gone after her the ceiling might have crashed in on her…" He resisted an urge to punch out the wall of his own room once he went inside, hands clenched into fists once he was away from the spying eyes of his staff. "She trusted me to protect her and I continue to come very close to failing her in that…or I should phrase it as continue to fail her after accepting the orders of the royal family."

He sighed a long breath, closing his eyes as his whole body relaxed, the anger pushed away in face of the depressing thoughts. "I am not worthy of this house…of the life I was born into…perhaps Kagome would simply be better off given to a better man than I."

End Chapter

God it's ass early in the morning. I'm tired. Sorry if Byakuya seems a little emo at the end, but well…if you look at the series he can be pretty angst-ridden at times. This chapter was a pain in my rear but I finally got some inspiration for it. Hopefully my writers block will go away! Pesky stuff.

-Aura

P.S. Thanks for all the awesome awesome reviews. Keep reading.

Crow Rat - thank you for the awesome review again. I really appreciate them. I still haven't looked up Pyon - I guess I'm bad.

Enchanted - Sorry, I try to write while I have the inspiration and some people consider my chapters short though I think I have a good length compared to the majority of fictions on the site…like 500 word chapters and all.

Emogirl - I'm glad you like my fiction so much, your review actually made me finally sit down and brain storm…which eventually lead to my inspiration as to how the chapter turned out.