Load Game - Save File 1

Seran looked up from his work for a moment as the little bell rang out from the front of the store, announcing someone entry. He frowned slightly, no eager for interruption at the moment. It probably didn’t matter, just another browser off the street coming in to look and not buy anything. If they wanted something specific they’d make their way to the back counter to ask him eventually.

He returned his attention to the cloth spread out on the counter in front of him. A number of what looked like pieces of broken glass were spread out across it’s surface, and he picked up another one gingerly between his finger and thumb. With his spare hand he lifted up a small jeweler’s lens and went about examining the piece for imperfections. Despite their appearance, the small fragmented pieces were actually gemstones, part of one massive object that he had recently obtained. This particular piece was flawed just like many of the others, with a small crack running through the inside of the gem. He sighed and placed it in the, much larger, flawed pile.

Footsteps slowly made their way towards him from the front of the shop, and out of the corner of his eye he noted the individual emerging from the cluttered shelves. With his eyes focused on the gems, he only noted the uniform of a Karakura high school student. His mood immediately worsened, and not without reason. For some reason he could not fathom, his shop had garnered attention from the students of the surrounding area. Haunted they called it, idiots. Didn’t they realize their whole town was likely one of the most haunted areas around? Were there occasionally ghosts in the shop? Sure. But he suspected the rumor had been started more because of the dark, unkempt nature of the shop, which could likely be taken as “spooky”.

The footsteps stopped but Seran remained intent on his work, addressing the person without actually looking at them.

“Can I help you find something? Or are you just another one of those kids who comes here to take pictures and-/”

He looked up as spoke, coming face to face with a girl with long gray hair and two different colored eyes, one reddish brown and the other bright gold. He stopped mid sentence, mouth left slightly open and eyes wide with shock.

The loud THUD, and the tumbling of several books off a nearby shelf brought Seran out of his momentary shock. He extended a hand in the direction the girl had fallen.

“Hey, wait a minute!”

But is was too late, Tiru was already back on her feet and off into the depths of the store. At least he thought it was Tiru. The features, the hair, those could all certainly be coincidence, but those eyes…. no one else had eyes like that. With his attentions focused, he could feel the energy of the girl as she tried to make her way quickly out of the store. Energy gathered in Seran’s hand, but he faltered, his mind going over the possible repercussions of using his powers on a normal human. He was probably just tricked by the light right?

Shes going to get away, and then you’ll never know.

He cursed his own curiosity, and directed his energy away from the girl on onto the numerous shelves and pieces of furniture on which all of the merchandise was stacked. Hopefully this way his abilities wouldn’t be revealed. Noting the girl’s location, Seran determined her most likely path and quickly shifted the shelving along it in front of her, forming a new path that twisted and turned enough to confuse and then directed her back through the store directly to him. The shop was by no means massive, but large and cluttered enough to get somewhat lost, and with weather so overcast she wouldn’t have sunlight from the front windows to guide her back.

He eyed the area he had designated for her to pop back out, now determined to get a good look. Almost on cue, the girl emerged and Seran was once again shocked by the appearance. He had been right, she was an absolute dead ringer for the shinigami, except for the school uniform. But she was undoubtedly human, Seran could tell easily at this range, and that was certainly no gigai. Before she could dart away again he raised a hand.

“Hold on a second. Don’t you know better then to run around in someone’s store? You could break something.”

His mind raced as he waited for her to speak, attempting to come up with a way to determine her identity. Tiru was dead, this much was clear to him. He hadn’t been there himself, but reliable sources had confirmed it. He remembered how upset Hidane had been, he wouldn’t have acted like that if he hadn’t be sure of what had happened.

Please don’t hurt you?

Seran frowned in annoyance. What was he now some kind of axe murderer on top of owning a haunted pawn shop? It was a good thing he had decided to trap her here for the moment, it was all he needed to have a young girl running around claiming he’d, in some way, threatened her with violence. He sighed loudly, squatting down next to the girl. She hadn’t looked up since speaking and he was almost amused by how terrified she was.

“Come on now. The floor is dirty.”

He grabbed the back collar of her shirt and lifted her up out of the ridiculous bow. He could very easily have lifted her entirely off the ground in this manner, but settled for raising her to a kneeling position in front of him. There was that golden eye again, unmistakable. He leaned in, bringing them uncomfortably face to face. He waited just long enough for the fear on her face to change to confusion over his lack of speaking then raised a hand, pointing over her shoulder.

“Generally when someone makes a mess, the ‘I’m sorry’ is followed by cleaning it up.”

Generally speaking, Seran didn’t really care about the organization of the shop. In fact, it was entirely possible any new customer entering the shop at this exact moment would be completely incapable of telling the mess Faux Tiru had made from the mess that was Seran’s complete disinterest in keeping the store clean. But this would, at least for the moment, keep her in the store, and hopefully give him time to figure out who, or indeed what, she actually was.

Seran watched for a moment as the girl began to pick up the items she had knocked off the shelves, wondering if he shouldn’t just try frightening her into cleaning the whole store. When it was clear she was dedicated to cleaning up the mess he turned around and set about wrapping up the crystals that were still splayed out on the counter. After a few minutes passed with naught but the sound of careful cleaning, the girl spoke rather hesitantly. Kyoko Kagami huh?

“Its Seran… just Seran.”

He finished wrapping each group of crystals and set the gently into the box he had brought up from the lab. He turned back and watched Kyoko as she cleaned, his mind still working the matter over. He knew, of course, about the soul’s cycle of reincarnation. The information wasn’t a memory for him, more like stored data on a hard drive, implanted in his mind before it was even technically a mind. It was often the case that reincarnated souls traveling from the human world to the soul society maintained their appearance and memories, be he had never heard anything about the opposite being true. But for the appearance to be so exact, there could be little doubt. He frowned, despite all his research into souls he had never really studied how exactly souls kept their memories when traveling to the soul society, until this exact moment it had seemed irrelevant. There was no point chastising himself, the odds of Tiru reincarnation walking into his shop were astronomical. He returned his attention back to where he was looking.

“So, are you going to tell me what you actually came here for? You aren’t one of the normal group that try to sneak around in here and take pictures. They put you up to this?”

Clean the whole shop…..

Seran’s eyes drifted beyond where Kyoko was working. The store wasn’t exactly huge, but it wasn’t exactly small either. Most of the stuff lining the shelves was junk, the kind of stuff he let humans dump on him to make the place seem like a legitimate business. But occasionally one some of the junk appealed to him and he…. upgrade would be a mild way of putting it. Before he could set any guidelines the girl was off into the shelves, straightening out the stacks of books and rearranging pots and pans so they fit better on the shelves. He sighed loudly, relenting that at least this way she’d stay nearby while he tried to figure out what to do with her.

“Fine, just do what you want.”

At least none of the stuff of actually value out there was dangerous, most of the good stuff was behind the counter where he’d shoo her away. But maybe that golden eye wasn’t just for show and she’d be able to pick out some of his lesser projects from the shelves. He returned behind the counter, considering how to actually pay her for her work, he didn’t need people saying he didn’t pay people for their work, whether or not the business was a front was irrelevant.

“If you have questions about where to put things ask, don’t just throw it somewhere.”

Seran jerked around as the words left Kyoko’s lips, his shock quickly changing to anger and then disgust as he saw the sword in her outstretched hand. He roughly snatched up the weapon and turned away from the girl, trying to collect himself. This damn blade seemed to trigger his old memories so easily, he hated it, hated what it represented. From behind him Kyoko would likely be able to see his left hand tightly clenching the scabbard just beneath the guard.

Get a hold of yourself!

It was the surprise that had gotten to him, he had been so focused on the girl that he forgot to keep his feelings in check. He sighed softly, and his grip on the blade lessened. The fire in the void returned back to glowing coals. He softly set the zanpakuto down on the counter, resisting the urge to fling it across the room, internally knowing he could never do such a thing to an object that meant so much to him.

At least now he needed no longer wonder about Kyoko’s identity. If she knew about shinigami that could only mean she had some form of spiritual awareness. That along with the appearance, and the fact that she could instinctively understand what the zanpakuto was could not all be coincidence. He began speaking without turning back to face her.

“And where did someone like you learn about shinigami?”

He turned to face her, his features intense with scrutiny, but void of the anger that had previously contorted his face.

“Information like that is dangerous… especially for you.”

A few huh. The mod soul found himself wondering if the events surrounding Tiru were common knowledge. She had been from a noble house after all, and the shinigami she’s meet just wandering around karakura town were hardly high ranking within the Gotei. But if she had been recognized they could be monitoring her, especially if he was correct in thinking this sort of reincarnation was a rarity. He made a mental note to send several Monitor jigokucho to follow her. Her follow up caused him to frown, like all humans she was blissfully ignorant, even after having a peak behind the curtain.

“Because those with power live in constant fear of losing it. And fear makes people do terrible things.”

Seran returned behind the counter and searched around for a moment before lifting out a cloth sleeve that he slid the zanpakuto into, setting it off to the side where he wouldn’t have to think about it.

“Just be careful. A shinigami’s job is to maintain the balance of souls, and while that is certainly a necessary task, it lends itself to a certain way of thinking, one where souls are just numbers on either side of an equation.”

The mod soul rubbed his temples, suddenly feeling exhausted by the conversation. There would come a time when she’d understand, everyone who lived in this world did eventually. But for the moment there wasn’t much more he could say that wouldn’t go right over her head. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out an envelope, extending it out to her.

“It’s basically hopeless to try and get this place straightened out, but you did try and it looks decent at least for the moment. And I know you said you’d do it as some sort of recompense, but I always compensate people who work for me, or you can just consider it a gift.”

Within the envelope, Kyoko would find a number of black cards. The cards were marked with a white symbol one side: a cross between the eternal knot and the ouroboros. The other side read as follows: