Bleach (c) Tite Kubo
Once More To See You Again
Antidote to Envy
In the twilight between wakefulness and sleep, Kaien thought he glimpsed something right out of a surreal art museum.
For a brief moment he found himself in a lucid dream world devoid of colour, or so muted it may as well be grayscale, laying in a shallow pool at the center of an irregularly shaped atoll floating in middle of a gray sky. The water was cool and he could feel the individual grains of fine grain sand beneath his fingers. Above him were more scattered islands of various sizes, suspended in the sky like clouds. Some overflowed with impossible amounts of water, spilling over the ledges as waterfalls that would scatter into gentle mist down below.
It's a vista right out of those European fantasy novels Kaien enjoys in his rare downtime. However, for as many sky islands he could spot, there were entire swathes of sky where the world was... blank. Missing details as though the artist who dreamed up this imaginary world simply walked away from the canvas half-finished.
Kaien didn't know how else to describe it. Gap was his gut reaction but that singularly failed to convey the right impression the blankness gave him. Maybe holes? Or perhaps wound?
Yes. Yes! That's the correct word. They were wounds in the very fabric of this world. As though a great unknown malevolent force tore bloody chunks away, leaving nothing behind by a ragged edged void.
Thinking about them, focusing even an ounce of attention on them, makes Kaien ache in sympathy. It throbs steadily like a heartbeat. Not physical pain, but on a spiritual level. As though his very soul is scarred.
His eyes slip closed and he gently shakes his head, pushing those thoughts aside and unwilling to move. He wasn't in any pain nor could he sense any danger. Ignoring the disquieting unfinished parts of the world, he feels completely safe and perfectly content to simply lay there, half-dozing in the pleasant warmth of the bleached white sun.
But that's when he feels something shifting under him.
A presence. Colossal in its magnitude. Dark and cold as the deep, ruthless and tempestuous as a maelstrom, crashing and booming like a thunderstorm.
A snarling mouth, low and rumbling, then jaws snapping by his ear.
Kaien's eyes fly wide open, startled awake, and his heart beats like a drum against the wall of his chest.
He's laying on what feel like traditional tatami matts and an unfamiliar ceiling staring down at him. It takes a second for him to reorient himself, then he closes his eyes with an uncomfortable grimace. His body is exhausted as though he'd been run over by a freight train after blitzing a country marathon. He blinks a few times to clear his fogged vision and wonders why he feels colder than he should.
A dull ache pounds specifically in his right shoulder. Muscle strain, he guessed. He raises a hand to rub it out only to start when he feels coarse linen bandages under his finger tips.
Kaien bolts upright, dizzy for a half-second, before examining himself. He's shirtless save for the bandages that wrap around his upper torso, right shoulder and halfway down his bicep.
Tentatively, his hand reaches to the back of his head to check the wound and is shocked to feel nothing. No trace of caked dry blood or stitches or evidence of any kind.
The wound's simply gone. As for his shoulder, it hurts far less than he imagines being impaled would. Lastly, his back's mildly stiff but its hardly worth a foot note.
Clearly someone's treated his wounds. The question is who?
While Kaien ponders the question and his surroundings, he takes the time to perform his own assessment on his arm, testing out his range of mobility. He can't push it past certain extremes but that's pretty reasonable given the severity of the injury he'd suffered... he only hopes there's no nasty lingering Hollow spikes trapped inside his shoulder. He doesn't know many surgeons who could get them out if that were the case, or if they could even be removed by a regular surgeon's tools at all.
Then again, its been Kaien's observation that mundane physical laws surrounding medicine don't tend to apply to the spiritual side of things. After all green glowing hands equals healing wounds, does that stuff cover disinfecting wounds too? Ah, who knows? Maybe he should stop bothering trying to find rhyme or reason in any of this.
Side note, he realises his remaining clothes stinks heavily of chlorine. His nose wrinkles at thoroughly unpleasant stench but there's nothing he can do about that right now.
His first order of business (after finding-slash-stealing-slash-borrowing a shirt) is to figure out where the hell is he? And what happened to the others?
As if merely thinking the question were enough to conjured the answer, the door on the far side of the room slides open and Kaien is simultaneously surprised yet not to see the Shopkeeper, Kisuke Urahara.
"Oh my, it looks like you've finally awakened. Good afternoon. We meet again, young Kaien." He greets brightly, crossing the threshold with his cane in hand and enigmatic smile plastered on his face, as though they were old friends who happened to bump into each other on the street under literally any other circumstance. "You've caused quite the ruckus on my doorstep. Rather on-brand for you and your brother, I must say."
Kaien lets out an involuntary amused sound at the quip.
"Seems to be the order of the day, considering Hollows are pouring out of that giant god awful fissure in the sky." The levity is forced while Kaien scans his surrounding, allowing himself to lower his guard just a tad. "Is this your house?"
"You would be correct." Kisuke replies, unfolding a fan to air himself.
"And you were the one who saved me."
"Indeed I was. You were in rather poor condition I might add. You lost a great deal of blood by the time my associate and I found you. Had that injury been a few millimeters further into your torso, you would've ruptured a lung and likely drowned in your own blood, a thoroughly unpleasant way to go I must say. However you'll be pleased to know that you won't have so much as a scar by the time that injury is completely heals, thanks to my associate's ministrations."
Kaien winces, not relishing the idea in the slightest.
"Three cheers for spirit magic, I suppose. I'll have to thank him if I see him. And thank you too." Kaien offers his sincere gratitude, a hand brushing his shoulder before he starts again with a sudden prang of worry, "W-Wait a minute. What about the others? Mr Shirogane and Saito? Are they alright?"
A grim shadow falls over Kisuke Urahara's face and for a split second Kaien assumes the worst, "Your teacher and your classmate have been treated and are currently resting comfortably at Karakura hospital. However I'm afraid that while we may be able to treat the spiritual maladies, your classmate must deal with the physical and legal repercussions of his actions."
"What?" Kaien's jaw drops, utterly incredulous and shakes his head. "That's got to be a joke. Is there something you can do? Sure, Saito's a total ass wipe on a good day, but it wasn't him. The guy had a Hollow inside him. Possessing him or whatever. He doesn't deserve to have his life ruined over what some worthless demon wretch influenced him to do." Kaien protests vehemently.
Kisuke bares the teenager's frustrated outburst neutrally, "Be that as it may, and regardless of whatever other circumstances were in place, he was the one who attacked your teacher and regrettably he must bare the consequences."
"That's not fair." Kaien grunts under his breath, teeth grit in anger.
"I tend to agree. Sadly, those are the unfortunate facts of the matter." Kisuke explains with a trace of sympathetically, "I'm afraid there's no legal defense for the supernatural. Very few humans are naturally gifted with the ability to see the spiritual world in the first place. You are one of the few exceptions. At best, he'll most likely survive any major fallout by pleading insanity, though I highly doubt he'll be able to pull himself out of this sticky situation with a simple slap on the wrist."
Kaien murmurs under his breath, lips pursed in a thin line. "... His folks have money. Could probably get the charges dropped with a plea deal, but his life's over."
"Perhaps." Kisuke's fan claps shut, snatching Kaien's attention. The man approaches, standing but not looming over the teenager and observing him with calculating eyes, "Though I must admit I'm rather curious about your choice in words just now. You said he had been possessed. How did you know?"
Kaien scratches the back of his head nervously, suddenly very relieved he didn't have a wound there. He might've been a smartass about his answer had been his twin brother asking, but he's not going to spit on Urahara's gratitude by being an obstreperous brat.
"It sounds crazy but he... looked possessed. Unnaturally pallid and feverish like he'd been fighting a disease for weeks, only he hadn't because I saw him at school this morning and he was physically perfectly healthy. Then when things took a turn and he got aggressive, his entire face mutated. Practically a scene straight out of a cliché poltergeist horror movie; black blood bleeding from his eyes and warped fangs." Kaien points to his own mouth, mimicking the lines of jagged teeth with a finger. He hesitates for a second. "But even if I hadn't seen his face, I... I sensed it. Saw it."
"You saw the Hollow?" Kisuke asks, eyebrow arched. "Interesting. When a hollow possesses a human, they hide their bodies nearby to puppet their victims safely from a distance or keep themselves concealed within their human host's physical body living parasitically."
"Fan-bloody-tastic. Glad to hear it." Kaien grumbles sarcastically, shakes his head while nursing a headache. "No. I didn't see it. Uh, well, yes I did, actually. Towards the end I saw its real body with the bone white mask and that. It left Saito to come after me when I knocked him out, but not at the start. When Saito showed up, I saw this bizarre white ribbon trailing behind him or attached to him."
The Shopkeepers' gray eyes widened fractionally in surprise. "Intriguing. You're able to visualize spirit ribbons? That's an extremely impressive feat for someone your age. Seeing spirit ribbons is a high-level sensory technique. You clearly have quite the talent for it."
"I guess I'll just have to take your word for it. I wasn't really looking for any kind of ribbon or thinking about it, I just saw the thing." Kaien offers with an uncertain shrug, only to wince and cradle his right shoulder when it pulls at the injury, he sucks in a breath and continues his tale, "There was a black contamination on it, reminded me of gangrene, and I could practically taste the Hollow stink on him. After that, he banged me up then tried to drown me. I know I can snap him in half if we ever got into a proper fist fight, but the Hollow must've been doing something to him because he was crazy strong like he'd been juiced up on steroids. I knocked him out when he let his guard down and I was about to tie him up; that's when the Hollow extracted itself from him and tried to turn me into a mid-afternoon snack. Or into its next meat suit. Whatever that damn thing was trying to do."
"And what happened next?" Kisuke inquires pointedly, fixing Kaien in place with that penetrating gaze again.
"I..." Kaien hesitates again, crossing his legs and leaning over them while he sorts through the memories in his head, "I don't actually know. Its a jumble."
That's only half-true. Truth be told, it happened so dizzyingly fast that Kaien's still half-convinced it hadn't happened at all.
But it did happen.
The wound in his shoulder and ache in his back are proof of it, as is the Shopkeeper's account of what happened to his school mates.
The problem is Kaien's not entirely sure how to put it into words. How does one explain that for a split second every ounce of agony evaporated with a word that came from everywhere and nowhere, how in that same moment they'd spontaneously developed the uncanny ability to direct and manipulate water with the wave of a hand as easily as breathing, then crushed a monster who tried to kill them to the size of a marble in a fit of pique?
His lips press into a thin line. Exactly like that, he supposed.
The silence drags on for a long moment before Kisuke breaks it.
"You seem reluctant to discuss the matter any further. I understand. It must have been a harrowing experience. In that case, allow me to segue into another question; you wouldn't have happened to noticed anything strange or unusually about yourself in recent months?" Kisuke prompts rhetorically.
Kaien gives him a blank look then shakes his head in exasperation, "I'm sorry to sound like a totally uncooperative little smartass, but my prior concepts of strange and unusual have more or less been completely shattered to pieces. You're gonna have to be a lot more specific."
Rather than be irked by Kaien's retort, there's a glint of amusement in Kisuke's eye, restrained though it was. "I'm glad to see your sense of humour remains intact. Very well then, allow me to be succinct."
The cane whips around like a sword, and before Kaien knew what was what the damned thing was aimed between his eyes.
"Whoa!" Kaien flinches back from it, sensing the power in the seemingly innocuous cane and struck by a sudden fright the thing were a sword that'd skewer him at the slightest wrong move.
Stamped on its silver capped tip is a skull icon adorned by blue flames. Exactly the same icon on the glove Rukia uses to extract Ichigo from his body for Shinigami work.
Kaien peers past it to the Shopkeeper now squatting in front of him with a knowing expression on his face. The cane lowers to hover over his sternum, jabbing over his heart like a finger.
"You can hear a voice, can't you?"
The question cuts to the core of him. Without answering, the brief flash of naked shock on Kaien's expression shouts his answer better than words ever could.
Kisuke Urahara is thoroughly satisfied by the response regardless and allows this to show by the upward tilt in the corner of his lip. Kaien's sags slightly, glancing away with a sigh and taken by a very real sense of worry for himself.
"I see. I am correct then." Kisuke muses needlessly.
Kaien remains silent, refusing to look the man in the eye.
The Shopkeeper rises to his feet, hands folded into the sleeves of his overcoat and his cane hooked on the crook of his elbow, "I noticed it some time ago, the first stirrings of something awakening in your reiatsu. Roughly about the time you followed me home that evening after Don'Kanoji's live premiere is when my suspicions were confirmed. And I'm willing to wager quite the hefty sum that this voice had a great deal to do with defeating the Hollow that attacked you."
No answer.
Kisuke continues his musing. "But perhaps its not a voice. Not quite yet. Though you have a growing sense of it, don't you? That feeling that someone or something is watching over you. A guardian angel on your shoulder, or a devil if you prefer."
What, is Kisuke trying to suggest the Hollow couldn't possess Kaien because he already had a tenant he didn't know about?
Actually no, that's another lie.
He'd felt something in his spirit well before that. From as far back as when they were visiting Masaki Kurosaki's grave and Grand Fisher attacked. The Hollow spotted him and turned into that unrecognizable woman. Kaien remembers feeling outrage twisting inside him at the image, and steadily over the months, that otherness has been growing into something more tangible.
Kaien tried his best to ignore it, like an itch he keeps warning himself not to scratch, but it's beginning to seem like that wasn't an option anymore.
Kaien doesn't bother hiding his trepidation when he finally meets the shopkeeper's gaze once more. "What's happening to me?"
Kisuke flicks open his fan and begins airing himself lightly. "There's an organisation in the Soul Society designed to specifically to train young initiates and foster them into the next generation of Shinigami. Has Ms Kuchiki ever mentioned it? Perhaps she may have in passing. There they study and learn how to cultivate their abilities, they are granted swords much like the one Ichigo uses, though of a far less outrageous size. And as they develop their skills and abilities, so too do they develop the ability to speak with a Zanpakutou spirit - a manifestation of power unique to the individual."
Kaien frowns, confused where the man was headed with this topic. "While I'm deeply fascinated to learn that information and have no intention of sounding rude, I'm guessing there's some vital point to this lecture?"
"You mean you haven't guess on your own? How terribly disappointing." Kisuke sighs, shaking his head.
Kaien grumbles under his breath petulantly.
"I'm telling you that voice is the burgeoning spark of your own Zanpakutou spirit."
Kaien's eyes snap wide in disbelief, he does a doubletake and then slowly, "I'm... sorry, what?"
"Is it really such an outrageous notion? Is it not true that as your own abilities developed, so did your ability to hear that voice?" Kisuke questions the teenager, who bows his head in thought. "I've lived for a long time, and I've seen many Shinigami in during my life. I've witnessed it countless times as each and every one of them come into their own and develop along side their Zanpakutou spirits. And I've developed a keen eye for it."
"That's... an interesting bit of trivia. And if I were a less considerate person I'd ask just how old you were but there's a fundamental flaw in your premise; I'm not a Shinigami. I don't even-" Kaien cuts himself off from claim his doesn't have powers, especially considering this afternoon has proven that statement a bold faced lie. "How can I have a Zanpakutou spirit or whatever if I don't even possess their powers?"
"Very true, you didn't have powers. Not initially. Nothing beyond your ability to see and interact with the dearly departed. But consider that you have been living, eating and sleeping in close proximity to two Shinigami, or Shinigami and Shinigami Substitute if you prefer to make such delineations. Truthfully, it doesn't matter. The effect remains the same." Kisuke counters patiently.
Kaien stares at him. "You're going to have to elaborate because I don't follow."
"Very well then, I'll explain it. Since coming into contact with Rukia Kuchiki and obtaining the powers of a Shinigami, your brother Ichigo has been constantly releasing vast amounts of reiatsu without realizing it. However his ability to handle that power at rest is awkward at best, clumsy at worst. Especially if his resolve isn't hardened and focused. Think of him as a wellspring of spiritual energy. And regardless of its consistency, you are almost always at its epicentre. Due to that close proximity, you have been constantly saturated in the excess of Shinigami's reiatsu, naturally absorbing it into your own soul which in turn has coalesced into its own self-sustaining power source."
"Hang on. What you trying to suggest, that I've been leeching off Ichigo?" Kaien bite back the kernel of offense.
Was Kaien envious about his twin brother? Yes, fine. He'll admit it. But was he so jealous he'd actively want to devour those powers himself? Not a chance in hell.
He wants to stand at his twin's side, not take his place.
Kisuke leans back. "I wouldn't have put such a negative connotation on it. We bask in the sun for warmth as a natural byproduct of the light it produces merely by existing, would you say we're leeching from it?"
"I'd argue celestial bodies are slightly different from people with supernatural powers. Slightly." Kaien counters.
"But the metaphor does help you understand, does it not?"
"Not entirely." Kaien challenges, "Because if that's the case, then why hasn't the same thing occurred for Rukia? If Ichigo's supposed to be a kind of supercharged reiatsu generator like in your metaphor, shouldn't the same phenomenon have helped jumpstart her recovery? Especially considering she's been living with us these past two months?"
Kisuke's answers with a shake of his head. "Not necessarily. Much like how humans possess different blood-types, so do reiatsu signatures. You and your brother possess the same type of reiatsu, or similar enough the minute differences don't matter. That's why exposure to his power has naturally resonated with and begun drawing out your own."
Kaien thinks he detects a subtle hint of deception. That answer came quickly. Almost too quickly. He stops himself from asking another follow-up question because something about that explanation didn't sit right with him and he doubts he'd get a satisfactory answer. If that was the case and reiatsu signatures were functionally spiritual blood types, then if the same rules applied shouldn't that mean Rukia wouldn't have been able to give Ichigo her powers in the first place?
Medically speaking, incompatible blood-types typically generates an immune response which can be life-threatening if not given proper treatment. Kaien read that in one of his father's medical textbooks. If reiatsu signatures functioned on similar rules, shouldn't Ichigo have perished that night?
Kaien frowns. Something fishy is definitely going on but he puts that aside. As much as he wants answers, he does remember Kisuke's warning that night; to not allow his curiosity to become his undoing. He's also well aware the shopkeeper is indulging him with these answers, not providing them out of obligation.
"A Zanpakutou..." Kaien mutters to himself, letting the idea settle. For a split second, he tries to search for that feeling, that otherness that's been growing in his core for months now, but the thing's suddenly curiously reclusive.
"Don't you think it will be interesting to hear what is has to say?" Kisuke prompts, lowering his hat to shield his eyes. "It will take some preparation, two days at most, but I do possess the method and means that will allow you to awaken your power. Of course, there is also this current crisis to contend with and I intend to depart shortly for exactly that. But I must warn you, like any worthwhile venture, there will be a significant amount of risk involved if you choose this path. You could become gravely injured, possibly even die."
Kaien winces. "Well, I can't say I don't appreciate the honesty. And say I agree; what happens then?"
"Once fully awakened, your powers will be yours to deal with as you choose. I'll also provide you the means to switch between your human self and Shinigami form at will." Kisuke explains then finishes severely, "However in exchange for teaching you how to harness your latent abilities, I would ask a favour in return."
"A favour?"
The shopkeeper nods once firmly, "Yes. Circumstances may arise the near-future where I might require your services."
"Services? What are we talking about here, odd jobs around your shop or...?" Kaien questions then a deep frown etches itself on his face, "I refuse to do anything illegal or immoral, so you can punt any ideas like that to the curb."
Kisuke puts on his hammy merchant act, waving his unfurled fan dismissively. "Nothing of the sort, I wouldn't dare dream of forcing an upstanding young fellow like yourself to do anything that'll jeopardize your future or compromise your values!"
It drops when Kaien aims a half-hearted glare Kisuke's way, "However it will be a task for which I believe you will be uniquely qualified."
"You say that but you won't even tell me what it is, or what you want me to do for you?" Kaien sighs, leaning back on his hands while he chews his lip in thought.
On one hand, it'd likely be extremely dangerous. On the other, Kisuke Urahara did go out of his way to save his life and he is going out of his way to offer Kaien a means to gain power. If he can stand by his brother, fight by his side again, what's one little job?
Kaien gives a single determined nod to himself before looking up at the shopkeeper with steely determination. "When can we get started?"
Author's note:
Wanting power yet denying the thing that's the source of his powers... wow, where have I heard that before? *glares at Ichigo*
Regards,
Aurora313
