3.) A Noble Request

“So Noisy…..”

The words were barely discernable, muffled as though spoken through a thick pillow. This observation would prove quite accurate, as the sound of shuffling and the dull thunks of objects bouncing off the floor would alert Kyoko to the voice’s location. One of the many pieces of old that made up the makeshift aisles of the shop was a large dark blue couch, dusty and faded but still perfectly adequate for use. Pushed up against a wall, the back and arms were stacked with the same miscellaneous junk that littered the rest of the shop. The rest of the couch was covered in a brown tarp, thrown haphazardly over it so it sat at and angle. One of the corners resting on the floor lifted, revealing Seran lying on his stomach with a hoodie covering most of his head. He blinked several times, adjusting to what little light there was in the shop. His eyes drifted over Kyoko.

“Oh….. it's just you.”

The arm holding up the tarp relaxed back to hanging off the couch onto the floor, covering the mod soul’s head with the tarp once more.

“Don’t you and your sister have friends to pointlessly bother? I’ve never heard of a teenage human who wanted to spend their time cleaning. Especially when it's unsolicited.”

The tarp lifted once again, this time only to reveal a finger pointing to the back of the shop.

“If you need allowance so bad the register is unlocked. Just take what you want and scram.”

With that the tarp fell again, and silence filled the shop.

Seran was quiet for a long time, staring unblinking into the tarp that still covered his face. He had been afraid this would happen from the first day he’d met Kyoko. Reincarnation was a particularly interesting thing. Completely normal for souls passing from a mortal, human life, to one as a spirit in Soul Society. But the opposite was not something he had ever encountered until he’d met this girl.

Kyoko or Tiru? The question still vexed him. Not whether they were one and the same; that much he had already confirmed. Appearance could be coincidence, but his eyes so so much more than the physical world now, and no human should have a soul so resembling of a shinigami. No the question was not if they were the same, but who was the owner of their soul? Was this human girl just some kind of “outer layer” of the soul? A thin, paper shell that would one day rip apart and reveal the previous mind beneath? Or was the soul human now, and any attempt to revert it essentially stripping Kyoko of her own, separate existence? He didn’t know, and in a way he didn’t want to know.

So he had instructed her. But only the basics required to fend for herself as a soul that would attract hollows. He had tried to teach her the importance of remaining hidden. Perhaps it had been naive to assume she could live a normal life, especially in a place like Karakura Town.

“Tell me….”

Seran lifted the tarp, pushing it to one side of the couch as he sat up. It still felt bright in the shop to him, his eyes seemed more sensitive to light now. He rubbed them wearily, and pulled the hood of his sweatshirt down a bit more over his face to block the dim glare from the lights in the ceiling.

“If a shinigami attempted to take you somewhere against your will, what do you think you would do?”

“Calm down, remember what I told you about keeping a cool head.”

She was still such a child. Her inclination to run and get an adult would’ve been comical if not for the situation she had found herself in. But how to get around the issue of her sister? He could not explain to Kyoko why the shinigami were interested in her. He had no idea what such a revelation would trigger. On the other hand, he couldn’t just let her believe the shinigami were coming for everyone with spiritual powers.

“I don’t think Emi is in any danger.”

Seran reached up and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think of the best way to continue. Memories shifted through his mind, and the pieces of the explanation started to come together.

“Although you two are siblings, her soul is fairly standard when it comes to what determines if a human will inherit spiritual awareness. Yours is….. different. An abnormality removed from what they would normally see when it comes to a human with abilities.”

The light was bothering his eyes less now, so he pushed the hood off his head and folded his legs into his normal sitting position.

“Remember that shinigami are very attached to a certain way of thinking. In their minds everything fits its place in the system, and anything that is out of place is a potential threat.”

Seran really was becoming skilled at making a collection of true statements do the untrue work he wanted. This was for her benefit after all, or at least he had convinced himself it was.

“Fly? Anyone with spiritual awareness can fly once their abilities reach a certain point; at least in the human world. It becomes more difficult in Hueco Mundo and the Soul Society.”

She was doing it again: getting him off topic. Seran tried to clear his throat to cut off further questions on the subject.

“But that's besides the point. If you’re looking for precise, logical reasoning from the Gotei 13, you won’t find any. You’re unique, and to them unique is just another word for dangerous.”

He unfolded his legs and pushed himself up off the couch, stretching his arm upwards.

“We’re basically skirting around the main issue here. It can be assumed that they at least know of you now. But given that they haven’t tried anything, they’re likely in the information gathering stage, waiting for official permission to confront and/or abduct you. I can and have protected you somewhat, but I can hardly be with you 24 hours a day.”

Done stretching, he held out his hand with three fingers displayed.

“As I see it you have three options…”

As he ran down the list, Seran pushed each of the fingers back with the index from his other hand.

“One, you can let them take you. There is a chance they’ll give you the once over in the Seireitei and then send you back home without incident. But it's far more likely they’re strip you of your powers and memories related to them just to be safe on their end.”

It would likely be even worse than that. The shinigami were far more likely to try and bring back Tiru’s personality and memories forcefully. He found it incredibly unlikely they would care about a single human life when they could have a powerful shinigami returned to their ranks.

“Second, you can hide. There are ways we could conceal your spiritual pressure and alter your appearance so they would be less likely to notice or find you again. But this would only be a temporary solution.”

He didn’t mention that he was fairly certain the shinigami didn’t know where she lived. His own monitoring would likely have picked up the shinigami there if they had.

“And third….. You could enhance your power and skill to the point where ordinary shinigami would be unable to take you.”

“I just told you, it would only be a temporary solution. How many places do you regularly visit on a weekly basis? Your home, school, and work yes? Odds are if you’ve notice them following you they know of at least one of these places. How long do you think you can stay under the radar knowing that? Maybe a month if you’re lucky.”

Seran crossed his arms, looking more perturbed than usual. Kyoko needed to take this seriously, it wasn’t some game she could just half-ass and hope for the best. But maybe that was partially his fault. All he’d taught he up until now was basics, enough to deal with random mindless hollows, but shinigami were an entirely different matter. He extended a hand, and black iron flowed out from under his sleeves. It twisted outward from his palm into a pole and then compressed together, taking on the finer details of a katana still within its sheath.

“You told me before that you’ve practiced kendo in the past right? Do you think you can deal with the heft of an actual sword.”

He tossed it to her gently, watching to see how she handled the weight of the blade. A standard length katana was much heavier than it appeared. Most japanese children seemed to think they were weightless, like the plastic toys many of them played with as children. But once you handled the actual weapon, one could almost say an enlightenment occurred. The weight of the sword represented the weight of reality, a reality that Kyoko still had not fully accepted.

“If a shinigami comes for you, that’s what he’ll be carrying.”