Author's Note
Nothing much to say here. So enjoy!
I've been free for a week and I've been getting my bearings on modern times. It's a damn slow process, but I suppose that's to be expected considering I've been out of it for a little over a hundred years apparently.
Yoruichi's been taking me out during the day to observe people on the streets and get me used to modern culture. I now get her cosplay reference, which was definitely uncalled for, it's not my fault that clothing has changed so much over the years. It's really rather amazing how much everything's changed. All the roads and pathways are paved, the buildings pierce high into the sky with the majority of them being made of stone and glass, and the most strange to me are all the lights, signs, and these cars. They are self-drawn carriages that growl and rumble and are made of steel. Yoruichi says they can go faster than any horse and are very common place.
I was also given a cellphone, which I also don't understand much. If you want to talk to someone, you should do it to their face in my opinion. But I suppose it has its uses. This texting thing is much quicker than having someone carry a letter and there's no chance of someone else intercepting it. The cellphone I've been given also has a nifty little censor in it that warns me when a hollow is coming and I've used that a few times.
I'm going to visit that stupid Geta-boshi today. He's always been good about having secret training grounds and I need somewhere to really stretch my powers and test some higher level skills in.
Yoruichi leads the way to a small shop tucked out of the way in a pleasant but slightly rundown neighborhood. I'm almost relieved to see the shop because it's almost exactly like I remember it from all that time ago. So much has changed that it's damn nice to have something unchanged. I slide the door open to see the same layout that I remember, but most of the items on the shelves are unfamiliar. Sitting in the back at the counter is the Geta-boshi, stupid hat on his head and fan lazily held in hand while a stupid, cheery grin occupies his face, hiding the master strategist and genius beneath it all.
"Yo, Geta-boshi, been a while." I lazily wave at him, the barest of grins tugging at my lips because as annoying as he is, I have kinda missed the damn bastard.
His grin widens, "Good morning, Kurosaki-san. It has indeed been a while." He jovially greets back. "And what my I do for you on this fine morning?"
"I was hoping you still had a thing for secret training rooms because I could use some space to practice." I calmly reply.
"Ah. I do happen to have a nice basement training ground. Do you need a sparring partner with that?" he cheekily grins at me as he asks the question.
I roll my shoulders a bit in anticipation. "If you're offering. I could use a good spar."
He snaps his fan shut and rises to his feet. "Then a right this way, my good sir!" He merrily exclaims. He walks over to a floor panel and pulls it up to reveal its existence as a trap door with a ladder in it leading down. "After you." he says, gesturing down to the ladder. I go over and start my decent.
As usual, the training ground is large, spacious, and resembles a barren wasteland. I take in a deep breath to relax my muscles just a bit from the tense anticipation that has set in from being in such a familiar setting. I suddenly jerk to the side as Geta-boshi's sword swings down on the spot I stood in. A feral grin spreads across my face as I feel the burning flame that ignites in my blood as I turn to him and begin our sparring match.
My patience is at its end. It's been a week and those incompetent fools have not noticed that beast running loose and using their temple as a home base. I told myself to give them time to notice its growing presence, but they have turned a blind eye to it or are so inept that they don't even realize it's there.
The only good thing is that it doesn't seem to have made any further moves upon Inoue-san. This may also be why those fools haven't noticed yet. She was back to normal the next day, so they likely just brushed off her behavior, the idiots.
It still boils my blood a bit that they would even consider having a normal human work at a temple with a rather large collection of sealed on its grounds. Don't they care at all for her safety? Or do they think that she'll be just fine and not get touched when something big comes knocking on the gates? Either way they are still reckless morons.
Tonight I'll go and confront the yokai, force it to leave Inoue-san alone or kill it if necessary. I'll have to do it close to midnight so that the guards will hopefully be a bit more lax and those off duty will be sound asleep. If I skirt the edges I should be able to stay off the temple property and thus have a loophole if caught. I suppose I'll tell them what I'm doing if I do get caught, but I'd rather not have such imbeciles for help, they'll likely only drag me down.
With those plans firmly in mind, I set my alarm clock for a half hour before midnight, a suitable amount of time to adorn my traditional uniform and properly wake up. I have heard several gruesome and embarrassing tales of men who have gone into battle half asleep.
I wake to the sound of my alarm and quickly set about my preparations. Soon I'm out the door and flying across the town rooftops towards the temple. I quickly skirt the edges until I hit the backside and find a faint trail that can barely be seen in the moonlight. The clearing I come to is filled with flowers. In the center, a marker that sits before the shrine is worn and I can't read anything off of it in the moonlight. The shrine has the signs of many seals, but I can sense that not a single one of them is active. What I do sense is a rather powerful, more so than I expected, presence centered in the shrine. It's calm, but there's a certain undercurrent to it, like it could burst to life and burn me at any moment.
I bring my bow into being and knock an arrow on it. It's best to be cautious since I'm not entirely sure what I'm dealing with. I take a deep breath to settle my nerves, it's the first time I've done something like this alone, the first time I've confronted something that isn't obviously a mindless beast since sensei died.
"Reveal yourself, yokai!" I shout out, loud and clear. "As a member of the Ishida bloodline of the Quincy and keeper of the peace of Karakura, I demand you come out!"
A flame trickles out of the shrine and begins to pool before it. As its size increases, it gains height and begins to condense into a humanoid shape. As the flames die down they reveal a man who appears to be about my age in sweats and a white t-shirt. His hair is a spikey mess and he stands just a little bit taller than me. He lets lose a large yawn and stretches his hands above his head, showing off a lean but well-muscled physique. He turns, bleary eyed to look at me.
"What the hell do you want that can't wait until a decent hour? It's been a long day and I'd like to sleep." he irritably growls at me. I affronted by his rude manner and have to wonder how he can still be half asleep with an arrow aimed at his heart. He is either the most confident or the stupidest yokai I've ever met, I'm hoping a bit more for the latter, it'll make this job easier.
"I want you to leave Inoue-san alone." I say with as much command as I can. I can't allow myself to look weak just because the thing's barely awake.
"Who the hell are you talking about?" it has the nerve to question.
"The girl you marked, moron! Or did you just select a random victim?" I hiss back at this thing.
"What the hell?! One: I don't hunt humans and Two: It's not a god damn mark, it's a tag." comes the vehement reply. It seems the shock has woken him up and now he's glaring at me as if I have done something wrong.
"If that's true, then how come you don't know her name? And what the hell is a tag?"
"A tag is a lesser version of a mark. It's completely removable by anyone who knows the trick and can be placed on inanimate objects." he lectures, making it clear that he finds his answer obvious and that he believes I'm stupid for not knowing. "And I never got the chance to ask her name." he grumbles back. I can feel a twitch in my eye. "She fainted pretty quickly after we first met face to face and I wasn't gonna drag her into this shit if I could avoid it."
"Yet you marked –, excuse me, tagged her anyways." I point out. I'm not buying this story for a second.
"What the hell did you expect me to do? She came in here chased by a lycanthrope about a week ago. Are you saying I shouldn't have set up a safety measure to help her if she got into trouble like that again?" he heatedly replies. I'm starting to get fed up with his attitude. And I still doubt his story.
"And you expect me to believe that a sealed yokai would just play nice with a human girl after being freed? I think you're just trying to worm your way out of getting destroyed."
He has the gall to snort at me as a small, smug grin appears on his face. "You wouldn't stand a chance in hell against me, four-eyes, but you're welcome to try." he taunts. I can feel a vein throb in my head at the insult and he's lucky I don't just fire the arrow at him right here and now.
"I see. Then you can't complain when I kick your ass." I jab back. The feral grin that splits his face unnerves me slightly, but I blame that on the rising bloodlust I can feel from him rather than any fear of the yokai himself. A self-preservation instinct in the face of threatening deadly force.
"Fine with me." His face then goes back to a scowl, but it's more relaxed as he says, "But we can't fight here."
"What?" I can feel my jaw drop a bit at this request. He was all ready to go then he just decides out of nowhere that this isn't a good place to fight. I don't get it.
"You heard me. We can't fight here." He says as a stubborn look takes his face and he crosses his arms to complete the look. "She's worked to damn hard growing this garden and I'm not gonna see it wrecked because I had to fight some prick in the middle of the night."
I growl at his way of addressing me. "And you think I'm going to let you pick a new venue where you can have the advantage?" I mutinously ask.
"Tch, you can pick for all I care. Just not here or at the temple, she works in those gardens too. In fact why don't you pick a different time while you're at. It's damn late and I still want to just go back to sleep."
"And give you a chance to gather your friends to team up on me, unlikely."
"You could get friends in that time too, ya know." He replies in a patronizing voice. "But if it seriously worries you that much, just come back later with a different venue and I'll go fight you there. At least, as long as it's not at some god forsaken time in the middle of the night again."
I consider the proposition. It is awfully late and while I'm willing to sacrifice my attendance for the safety of Inoue-san, if I don't have to… No! I can't think like that! To put it off would give this monster a chance to run off with her or have his way with her. But… sleep and perfect attendance…
"I accept your offer, but if you run away or try anything between now and then, I'll hunt you down and kill you." I threaten.
"Fine. Now get out of here, bastard." he says with a yawn, before turning back to flames and retreating to the inside of the shrine. I glare at the shrine before turning on heel and stalking away, trying to come up with a good place to fight him. We will have that fight, I'll hold him to that, and I'll be the winner.
"Have you finished checking the seals?"
"Not yet, Taicho." I reply. We would have finished already if someone hadn't made us start all over again five nights in. As much as I want to say that, I don't because I value my life and the pain wouldn't be worth it. I respect my taicho, I really do, but sometimes I wish he wasn't so by the book. I might have let slip that no work got done on the second night because we were all asleep, but does that really mean we have to recheck all the seals that we checked after that night too? According to Taicho, yes, everything must be rechecked, even if we originally checked it after the odd night.
"How much is left?"
"Just a couple more on the grounds and then one outlier seal, sir." This process would also be faster if we weren't forced to do the thorough, full checks instead of the usual once-overs. It doesn't help that it seems to be that time again when most of the seals need renewals and strengthening. But we're almost done, so thank God for small mercies like that.
"Very well, report back when you are finished."
"Hai, Kuchiki-taicho." Then the call ends. I let out a sigh of relief. It's always hard to talk to him. Even if he's not in the room, I still get the feeling that he's staring me down, calculating my value and finding me to be less than what he asked for. I shake off those thoughts, I've still got work to do tonight and even more to do tomorrow. Tucking my cellphone in my pants pocket, I stroll out into the night and get to work.
Please leave a comment/review to tell me how I did and try my one-shot.