With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
With a small yawn, Izaya got up from his perch on the rooftop as the sun was setting on the horizon. Sunset meant he was off duty as of...now. Patrol was over and he could back to training. If he recalled correctly, he was only up to four strikes on the dummy a second for a minute. That wouldn't do; he needed to be faster. He knew that Celia would be getting stronger and he had to do the same. He was going to kill her; he didn't care what it took. However, right now he wasn't even on her level and he knew it. He needed to get stronger quickly. Unfortunately, there was no shortcuts in the process.
"I'll do what I have to to get her back for what she did."
As he said that, a different "she" came into his mind. He hadn't seen Kin in so long and it was taking its toll on him. She had visited his dreams and those ended up being nightmares. It was incredible that someone so petite could be so monstrous a torment on his life. No, she wasn't the torment. Missing her was the torment. Having to do without and pretending everything was okay was what was tearing him up inside. Kin herself didn't hurt him. She would never.
He chose to ignore that she hadn't openly requited his feelings for her. That wasn't her fault and he wouldn't think about it in that way. Izaya wouldn't blame her for anything and he knew it. He legitimately cared about her which was something he had never done before. It was hard to deal with, but he managed. He thought about this as he meandered his way to the training grounds. Knowing that he was about to put his body through its paces, he did his best to relax his muscles so he wouldn't pull anything.
It was a nice evening, Kin decided. She was on her way back from the infirmary when she decided to take a walk. She was off duty, and she had time. It hadn't been a very busy day. Just a few overtired idiots who worked themselves to the bone.
She was going to walk around the Sereitei once or twice. That was her plan, at least, and she could never keep to her plans. Something always seemed to get in the way.
Someone's there, she thought briefly, glancing at the training grounds. The small shinigami moved just a little closer, just enough to see who was there. And sure enough, it was Izaya.
She wasn't quite mad at him. Sure, she was pissed off that he'd stepped on her drafts, but she'd corrected whatever errors he had caused. It was a non-issue.
She leaned against a wall and made herself comfortable. She would watch him train, and maybe take a mental snapshot of an interesting pose. If she was lucky, she'd get to see and exploit his shikai (though the last part would be later).
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
As Izaya walked into the training courtyard he unzipped his jacket and dropped it on the ground. He loved his jacket, and without it he was cold, but it was too loose to use in Hakuda training. Walking over to a practice dummy, he took in a few deep breaths. He was going to start off nice and slow. A slow series of thuds would fill the courtyard as he repetitively attacked the dummy with a sequence of punches, kicks, elbows, and knees. He continued to do this until he felt nice and warmed up. Then he sped up such that the series of thuds became very consistent and very successive. He was currently striking the dummy twice a second.
It was about this time that he noticed reiatsu was near him. Given, he was in the Seireitei and reiatsu sources were abundant here. However, he knew this particular reiatsu and it stuck into his mind. It was Kin; Kin was close to him at this very instant. This only motivated him more at this point. He doubled his pace to be at his maximum speed such that one could hardly hear the space between his attacks. This continued for about seventy seconds until he was done and winded. That was good, improvement at least. He could go at full force for a little over a minute.
Now, he knew that he needed to address a problem at foot. As he stopped attacking the dummy he stood there and focused on locating Kin exactly. She was close enough that she could see him and he could conversely see her. Actually, she had been there since he began attacking the dummy she had been near. What else could she have been doing but watching him? Honestly, believing in coincidence wasn't something Izaya did.
"Honestly, if you thought that, in all the Seireitei, I couldn't pick out YOUR reiatsu from the myriad of them I'm a little upset with you Kin-chan."
Kin watched. Regrettably, he only practiced his kicks and punches, and didn't so much as look at his zanpakuto. She had to hand it to him though, he lasted longer than she would have. He was getting stronger, and, she thought, she was not. That didn't matter so much to her. Her zanpakuto was horribly inconvenient in a fight.
She took solace in the fact that he couldn't draw. That was usually the one thing others couldn't do that she could.
The more she thought about it, the lamer it sounded. She was a shinigami. She was supposed to fight hollows, not just hang around and draw.
"Honestly, if you thought that, in all the Sereitei, I couldn't pick out YOUR reiatsu from the myriad of them I'm a little upset with you, Kin-chan," Izaya said. He didn't turn to face her, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, Yotogi-sama?" she said mockingly. "I didn't think you forgot about me. I just thought you didn't care."
She smiled softly to herself. "And I thought, well, since everyone seems to get their butts handed to them here, you might need a medic in a few minutes."
Of course, Izaya was distinctly lacking in a sparring partner, so even if he would need a medic...well, that would just be embarrassing.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
"Oh, Yotogi-sama? I didn't think you forgot about me. I just thought you didn't care."
At both of these sentences, he felt himself cringing from the shock. He honestly didn't know what hurt worse, hearing his old surname or her telling him that she didn't think he cared. Either way, they were both distasteful to hear and think about. Turning to face her, he offered a small smile before he suddenly disappeared. He hated using Shunpo, but walking to Kin was a lot less effective than suddenly appearing in front of her.
"Honestly, if you thought I didn't care I might be a little more upset Kin-chan. And, on a side note if you're going to mock me with the honorific, at least keep updated on my surname. That's 'Kogi-sama,' just so you know."
Without waiting for an invitation, Izaya sat down before tugging on the knot that held his nodachi to his back. It fell to the ground with a 'thud' as he kind of chuckled at it. Doing the quick comparison, he saw that his zanpakuto was about as long as Kin was tall. It was comical that she talked down to him so much while here he held something easily her size as a weapon.
"And I thought, well, since everyone seems to get their butts handed to them here, you might need a medic in a few minutes."
"I'd watch what you say Kin-chan, if you haven't noticed, my sword is about as tall as you are. And, in case you haven't noticed, my arm's back, my ribs are fixed, and I'm exponentially stronger than I was."
To prove his point, he outstretched his arm to show her before turning it back and forth. Then he knocked on his abdomen to show that his ribs no longer hurt. Izaya couldn't keep the smile from showing on his face.
He appeared in front of her and sat down, noting that his name had changed. She frowned. She hadn't known that. She stopped pretending to be angry just long enough to say, "They kicked you out, huh?"
"I'd watch what you say, Kin-chan, if you haven't noticed, my sword is about as tall as you are," he said, continuing to flex his arm and beat his chest as he explained his recovery.
That Kin had heard about. Well, not explicitly. She had seen him walking with both arms swaying at his sides, so she assumed he was better. "That's great."
She pulled out Shugaka and flipped him around. The knife was tiny, and she had only ever used it to perform a Konso or finish off a hollow. She had never used it to fight outside of the academy.
"And mine fits right between your ribs," she laughed. "Better not try to sneak in a hug, ne?"
She hadn't forgotten that the last time, it had been her who hugged him. But she hadn't forgiven him for the time he'd gotten plastered. She still thought it was a bad time to bring it up.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
Izaya couldn't hide his pain for a second as he looked at the ground. She spoke of it so lightly, but she didn't know what it had been like for him. He had been disowned from his clan. His own blood had abandoned him and refused to acknowledge him as their kinsman. He had been so depressed after that day; it had mortified him. But, that didn't matter to him now. Here he was with Kin and that was what mattered to him now.
"Oh well, you know. I was injured by a lowly hollow and that was bad for the clan's reputation. So rather than take the hit, they just disowned me." Izaya simply nodded to her proclamation of how great it was that he was finally healed.
"And mine fits right between your ribs. Better not try to sneak in a hug, ne?"
Izaya thought about this for a second before he moved to respond. He was going to jump-start everything that had to do with the two of them. She was going to admit how she felt about him...one way or the other. Leaning in to her, his hands moved on their own. He was inches away from her face as his left hand touched her cheek, forcing her to look him in the eyes. What his right hand did was a little more unorthodox. It had wrapped itself around her wrist which held her zanpakuto in it.
He pulled that hand until the blade was actually pointed between his ribs. With a little force it would pass between them and puncture his heart and lung. Why would Izaya possibly put himself in that situation? Because he was just so curious and fed up with having to do without her.
"Let's say your sword slips between my ribs and you impale my heart. What then? Because if you're trying to proclaim that you have it in you to kill ME then I'm calling your bluff. You were a wreck by having to look at me armless. You couldn't harm me Kin-chan; you care too much. And frankly, I'm tired of you not fessing up to that. Because if I'm wrong and you really don't care about me, then just go ahead and do it."
To emphasize his point, he pulled her blade even closer. It was pressing into his skin now and a small amount of blood was trickling under his shirt.
Suddenly, Izaya leaned in and grabbed her wrist and touched her cheek. She flinched as he put her sword between his ribs.
"Let's say your sword slips between my ribs and you impale my heart. What then?" he said. It had nothing to do with his own insinuation. That he had a sword the size of her, that she wasn't much good in a fight. "Because if you're trying to proclaim that you have it in you to kill ME, then I'm calling your bluff," he insisted. She started to tug back, but he was above her, and weighed more. It didn't do much.
"You care too much," he said, insisting that she fess up or kill him. "Your move, Queen."
Her lips pulled back. She tilted her head back to brush off his hand, but she didn't stop there. Rage carried her head forward, and their foreheads smacked together loudly. She ripped her hand free, and it passed by his arm. Maybe it cut him. Maybe it didn't. She didn't care.
"Asshole!" she yelled. "You know what? I cared. But now I don't know. But if you think I had it in me to kill anything that wouldn't try to kill me first, you don't know me."
She walked away, if only to put some distance between Izaya and herself. "You should have heard yourself," she snapped. It was anger talking. She would never have mentioned it if she wasn't furious. "I think I kind of love you, Kin-chan. You're pretty, Kin-chan," she recanted, throwing her voice and wobbling dramatically. "If we're going to talk about not fessing up, then explain why you had to be plastered to say that."
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
Izaya's eyes flashed as his lovely counterpart had politely headbutted the shit out of him. That wasn't all, however. As she withdrew her wakizashi had cut him where it was. He briefly regretted pushing the blade in that much as he did. The cut that ensued was a bit deep. If he wanted to, he could physically separate the skin from the cut. But, he didn't want to. Right now he just sat there listening to his lecture.
"You know what? I cared. But now I don't know. But if you think I had it in me to kill anything that wouldn't try to kill me first, you don't know me."
That physically stung more than the cut in his chest. He knew Kin and she knew that but here she was. She made a point actually. He should've never accused her of being willing to kill anyone. It was wrong of him. But, he wouldn't even get his chance to apologize to her as she would walk even further away from him and give him an even bigger lecture.
"You should have heard yourself. I think I kind of love you, Kin-chan. You're pretty, Kin-chan. If we're going to talk about not fessing up, then explain why you had to be plastered to say that."
His face stretched into a shape it wasn't used to forming. It was one of shock and surprise. Suddenly, all the memories of his activites from when he was drunk flooded his mind. He had told her that he loved her and how he really felt before he even knew how he felt. Shit...he had really fucked up. In a quick blast of inefficient Shunpo, he placed himself in front of Kin, on his knees. He wrapped his arms around her legs and laid his head on her.
"I'm sorry Kin-chan. I couldn't handle my emotions...I couldn't accept attachment. I never meant to cause you any harm. I don't want to harm you in any fashion." He looked up at her face with what resembled tears in his eyes. Izaya didn't cry; he just had something in his eyes. "What do I have to do to show you that I truly care? How do I show you that I love you Kin?"
Before she knew it, Izaya had appeared before her and embraced her legs. She tugged and pulled, irritated by the contact. Especially when he laid his head on her. That just made everything awkward.
"I'm sorry, Kin-chan," he pleaded, crying. He grovelled, said that he didn't mean to hurt her, and asked, "How do I show you that I love you, Kin?"
She tugged away from him, and said, "How about this? If you love me, let me go. This is really awkward."
She waited for him to oblige. She would take a few steps back and fix her clothes if he let her go, or if he didn't, she would just clap him on the ear.
Then, measures taken, she answered his question.
"You can't just show me anything. For all I know, you've never stopped playing chess, and all I am to you is, what, a queen? People sacrifice those too," she said. "If you want to show me you care, you'd better figure it out on your own."
She crossed her arms. "Love isn't something you can use a cheat sheet on."
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.