Juice Box & Senpai [Private]

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What was this familiar aura, this Reiatsu that clung to the night air like a thin mist, alluring and drawing him ever further into the dark? The black-haired Visored found himself abandoning his usual habitat in the busy streets of Karakura’s night life, trading self-assigned patrols to keep spiritual trouble in the town at bay and enjoy a little living as a “human” for scrambling around in the woods in the dark after a small trace of Reiatsu he’d randomly picked up on the outskirts of town. It was barely anything, but he’d sensed something, and Kurosenkou’s scent-tracking bit that she’d been slipping senses of to him from time to time found it familiar, but he couldn’t place where.

And that was how he had found himself silently coming to perch on a tree branch overlooking a small hot spring in the middle of the woods that he could swear was not there before- he frequented hot springs in the area for a while, until a few awkward incidents had turned him off of the idea- and, of course, looking on at the young girl enjoying a soak in it. She was definitely the source of the familiar Reiatsu, and she seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite place the face with a name. He had approached silently and completely masking his own Reiatsu, so his presence wouldn’t be noted unless she was particularly adept at sensing those seeking to remain hidden; and it wasn’t as if he was trying to be a creep or peek at her, though he couldn’t deny the allure of her subtle curves, but he found himself lost in this confusion of her being somewhere between someone he should know and someone he clearly didn’t.

Plus, it had been a while since he’d seen a naked woman. The last time had been…

And suddenly it clicked. That was definitely Ryogi’s Reiatsu. The last time he’d seen her had been when he had left, without a word, immediately after his Hollow had confronted him and pushed him deeper into the depths of his Hollow powers. Just another thing his Hollow had taken from him, and another thing he regretted the way he’d handled something.

In his shock, he lost his footing, and with an awkward yelp he fell loudly into the bushes below. Shit. He scrambled to his feet and made the potential mistake of looking towards her again, towards her still fully nude body, depending on how she would react to the interruption.

“A-ah, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… uhm…” He couldn’t seem to form words, or think of what the proper way to handle the situation was. “Do… do I know you?”

Suddenly the air around him became tight, though not nearly enough to bother him. He raised his Reiatsu about himself to more than counter it, without extending it enough to bother the girl in the hot springs. She clearly didn’t look like Ryogi, and didn’t seem to recognize him. To be fair, his last communion with his Hollow had done some work to change his own appearance once more, but he’d hoped she would sense his Reiatsu and recognize him. She didn’t, if this was Ryogi at all. Her Reiatsu was definitely the same, if not mostly similar, though. Suddenly black particles flew towards him; he quickly drew Kurosenkou from her sheathe and sliced them apart as they came at him.

“Please, calm down, I didn’t mean to-“ The waves of black particles kept coming at him, but he kept slicing at them. He stopped slicing in a gap, turning his back and sheathing his Zanpakuto, surging his Reiatsu in a wall behind him, which given the apparent gap in their abilities, should’ve been more than enough to stop the attack. “I apologize for intruding. It was not my intention to catch you at a, uhm… moment… like this.” He took a deep breath, letting down his Reiatsu if the attacks had stopped, but not turning around, only using his Reiatsu to sense for any potential threats.

“It’s just… your Reiatsu is very familiar to me, and I was wondering why. Who are you?”

Hidane kept his back turned until this girl said it was okay for him to turn, listening closely to her words, the tone of her voice, her way of speaking. It was all different. Or, maybe, he didn’t remember clearly Ryogi’s way of speaking. Either way, it became clear when she introduced herself. Sumire. He turned when said he was allowed, and took a better look at her. She only had a towel wrapped around her, but he supposed that was better than nothing, granted it was far from an awful view. She looked different, too. So it really wasn’t her, at all. And yet, this was definitely her Reiatsu.

“It seems you aren’t her after all,” Hidane said, closing his eyes and letting out a long sigh. He relaxed his muscles and put his hands on top of his head. “I suppose I shouldn’t expect to find all the ghosts from my past. It’s just, your Reiatsu is so much like hers.” He turned back to walk way. “My apologies for intruding on your privacy. It really wasn’t my intention; I had no idea there was a hot spring around these parts, anyway.” He took a step away, though not using Sonido. Was his curiosity still getting the better of him?

Why did she have her Reiatsu?

“Have a good evening, Sumire.”

queue 'hey, what's your name, asshole!' or whatever you feel like doing

Before he could leave, suddenly a wall of earth shot up in front of him. The size of a door, and for him, easy to destroy or move around, but he didn’t. It was obviously her doing, considering there was no other explanation for it. He turned and looked at the girl again, the girl who was not Ryogi, but possessed her Reiatsu. Why? Why did she feel so much like her?

“Hidane.” He let out a deep sigh. “That’s my name.”

Not that it would have any meaning to her. He hated himself for letting his curiosity get the better of him now. It would be so much easier to just leave and let this be another ghost buried in the past. But she kept prodding, asking what it is he would do if she was who he thought she was, even though she clearly wasn’t.

“I would… apologize. She was…” He stopped, taking a deep breath. He had to hold himself together. “She was someone very important to me. And I abandoned her. She was unstable, to say the least, and it was so hard to understand her sometimes, but… I wanted to be there for her, and to protect her. But I became dangerous, to myself and to her, back then. So I just… left. Without a word. I haven’t seen her since. It’s been two decades. She’s probably dead, or thinks I am.” Though difficult, he was at least holding himself together enough to avoid crying in front of a stranger. He found himself staring absent-mindedly at the ground in front of him. “I left her in her darkness out of a selfish desire to deal with my own.” Twenty years, and he was still dealing with that. He continued, muttering to himself, “Just another regret to add to the list, I suppose.”

Looking up at Sumire, he hoped that was satisfactory.

“Get what you needed?” His face betrayed no emotion. It had been a while since he’d talked about this, and was the first time he’d told anyone about this part of the things he came to regret over the past two decades. “Cause that was a one-time deal.”

Sometimes you’ll find out magic can bring lost hearts together.

Hidane’s eyes widened as he looked on at Sumire, her words ringing in his head. His lips parted as a recognition set in. Hadn’t Ryogi said something like that, back then? On top of that, this girl’s abilities seemed very similar to hers. Was she really not Ryogi? She seemed the same, yet different. Hidane took a step closer, finding a large rock along the edge of the hot spring- which he was still certain hadn’t been here before- to sit on, since it seemed he wasn’t leaving immediately after all. There were too many similarities between this girl and Ryogi- beyond just their Reiatsu- for him to just leave now.

“Well, thanks,” he responded to her saying she would forgive him, were she Ryogi, “it means… something, I guess.” And what was with the job offer? Is that how you respond to someone intruding on a private moment like this? She was certainly as odd as Ryogi was. “As for the job offer, it’s appreciated, but I’ve got a good friend in town that runs a bakery, and I’d hate to become competition for him.” He let out a deep sigh. The steam from the hot spring was really relaxing.

“So, I would think I would’ve noticed a Reiatsu like hers... like yours, I guess... in this town sooner than this. How long have you lived around here?”

So she had lived in town for a few months, according to her. He’d only recently come to regain his sense of self recently, so it was entirely possible, he supposed, that he could’ve just not noticed this familiar Reiatsu until now. Even so, given his two decades of doing nothing with his life, there could be any number of layers to what was happening now. Knowing Ryogi, there was no limit to what she might have done; for all he knew she could have reshaped her appearance and wiped her own memory, leaving the human girl he saw before him. It certainly didn’t sound like something he could rule out as being something she would do.

But then, her comment on the surprise of her ‘other self’ knowing a Shinigami; he hadn’t mentioned that the Ryogi he knew was a Shinigami, but he didn’t necessarily suggest that she wasn’t either.

So this wasn’t Ryogi after all.

“Yeah, strange, that,” Hidane replied, brushing the thought off, “making friends with humans doesn’t exactly come with the job. Until recently contact with the living was to be avoided, and I would imagine most still feel comfortable that way.” He didn’t tell her that the ‘other her’ had been a Shinigami herself; what good would it do? It seemed clear that this was not Ryogi, or at least not the Ryogi he knew.

And yet, he stayed.

Well, that was… new. Hidane had to note, of all the things he’d seen when spiritual beings interacted with others, living humans or otherwise, a hair color change was new. Sure, his own delving into his Hollow powers had transformations that came with it… he clutched his left arm that luckily did not retain the black color of his Hollowfication when he wore his Gigai… but he’d never seen it, nor anything else really, affect a human in such a physical, aesthetic way. It was a little jarring, but not so much that he let it show, or shake his demeanor.

“Can’t say I’ve seen anything like that before,” he commented on the change of appearance, “but I’ve seen stranger things, so I guess I shouldn’t have ruled it out.”

It was dark now and there was only the lamp floating about and the faint glow of the moonlight seeping through the canopy of the trees. It was a rather nice atmosphere, and the sounds of crickets and light breezes on the wind rolling through grass and leaves and branches, a light rustling on the crisp, cold air, was a nice change. Hidane sat at the edge of the hot springs, his feet just inches from the water, and felt the heat radiate from it, contrasting the cold he felt on his back. He was tempted to take a dip, but…

No, the last time he’d been in a situation even remotely like this in a hot spring had ended… awkwardly, to say the least. He’d rather not repeat that, especially not with someone that reminded him so much of… her. Or did he? He shook the thought from his head.

“Tea sounds lovely,” Hidane said, his friendly smile never wavering, “should I go get the herbs for it then?”

As Sumire spoke, even before she specifically asked, Hidane was on his feet and checking through the bushes. He found the cherries she mentioned quite easily and picked them, plucking the stems and dropping a few each into the cups she’d crafted from a fallen tree nearby. Coming back to the hot spring, he noticed her change of attire… or rather, her having put on clothes in the first place… a rather unusual get-up for a retreat in the middle of the woods, but he wasn’t much one to talk for odd clothing either. He wore his Chinese-style sleeveless top, baring his arms, the left of which was heavily bandaged to just below the shoulder, and slim, plain black pants. He sat at the edge of the hot spring, legs crossed.

“You seem rather resourceful,” the Visored would ask, noting that she seemed to have quite an intricate knowledge of things, on top of his obvious spiritual capabilities. Just who, or what, was she, this human who shared Ryogi’s Reiatsu? “Where did you learn these kinds of things? Most of the young people in this town that I’ve seen about aren’t so capable.” He was growing more curious now, not only at the similarity of her Reiatsu, but at her being in general. He still wasn’t sure what she was or what her capabilities were, and her unusual transformation before his eyes was still confusing on top of it all.