[Video| Week 10, Day 7]
[The feed turns on , a large tree visible before the screen moves to display a face that would be familiar to quite a few residents. There's a quiet exhalation before the woman manages a weak smile to hide her concerned expression. This wasn't where she'd fallen asleep and nothing looked remotely familiar.]
I don't recall leaving the house and yet ( Read more... )
I don't recall leaving the house and yet ( Read more... )
Comments 35
He does what he feels is necessary, takes into account all sides and has come up with a way to keep everyone alive and well, even if it is not necessarily happy. He distances himself from Rukia further, allows the blockade to rise. If he does not look at her, does not speak to her, is from her presence while he does what he must do, she will never be driven from Hisato, will never be driven into the hands of death again.
Instead, they give him something else, someone else. Someone who has torn apart his defenses before and gave him that side that Kakashi would call 'human', the one that he's yearned for ever since the laws of death had been stolen away. He had searched for her, too, and did not give up, allowing this childish part of him inside to be selfish, to wish, to dream ( ... )
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She is there and she is so confused. She's looking for answers, answers he has. He learned how to push Rukia away. He had spent years doing so, preparing himself so it was possible, but Hisana... he hasn't been able to build a wall strong enough to keep her out.
Those days she was here, the ones where he talked to her, where he saw her smile so free from the pain because she could see Rukia, were ones he doesn't want to forget, even if it was all just a silly little dream.
Even if he's angry at someone else, he can't take it out on her. She--
and neither does Rukia, you know that--doesn't deserve it. Whether she is but an illusion, whether she will fade in a few days time or she will be here months longer, he can't let it go. There are things in this world, possible dangers. Aizen is here. He can hate these beings for all that they have done, but if something were to happen to her, fake or real, dream or flesh and blood... he could never forgive himself. He could never forgive himself if he had ignored her, ( ... )
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Hisana. [He makes sure he is clearly visible, so as not to startle her.] You need not worry about the estate. Tell me, how is it you feel?
[Despite the time he took to prepare himself, it's not enough. The edge he tried so hard to maintain disappears and he's studying, very carefully, to see if there's anything that could possibly be wrong with her. She would not tell him, he already knows. He can't help it. It's a habit, after all...]
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Byakuya-sama...I feel better than I did when I saw you, before waking here, wherever here is.
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The place you are in is called Himorogi apparently. It is one of the main places of interest in this world called Kannagara.
[he gives a formal bow and looks up with a friendly smile.]
Xerxes Break, at your service
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Thank you for the information.
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[a bright genuine smile with that offer.]
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It's impossible.
With every passing minute it is getting harder and harder for Rukia to believe that the universe does not hate her. She has been yanked into this new place full of strange new rules. She is off-balance, stumbling behind everyone else because she has no idea what is going on. And she hates that feeling. Has always hated it. And today, she can't seem to get away from it.
And now, this face. This person who she can only ever remember having seen in that one picture. Never in person. Never alive. Her sister, Hisana. Who is dead. Who has been dead for years. She should not be here, speaking.
She squeezes her eyes shut. She doesn't even know how to feel. Her head is spinning violently with anger and sadness and hope and fear and love and a thousand other things. She rubs her hand across her eyes, to ease the stinging because she had never ever hoped to see her sister alive again and now that she could. She had no idea what to say. Or what to do or even how to address her.
It has been a very hard day ( ... )
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Hisana...sama. Is it really you?
[Her voice is ragged and she already wants to kick herself for how childish her question is, how stupid that pause in her name. She doesn't think her sister can recognize just her voice and she prefers it this way for the moment.]
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It is, but...is something wrong?
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[She pauses, unsure, with her hand over the switch that will change the feed to video. It would be easier than trying to explain. Rukia new at least her sister could not mistake her face. They looked so much alike...
But she hovers, not certain she wants this. Not sure it's real. Not sure what to do or say to the sister who left her on the streets of Rukongai when she was only a baby.
But ultimately, she must push forward. Going back is no longer an option. She switches the video on to show her face, still so uncertain.]
It's me. Rukia.
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There's a sense of conflictedness about it. One the one hand...she did abandon her, and he knows Rukia holds resentment for that. But somehow, he can't resent her for it. He can't help but think if she hadn't done what she had...that he would never have met Rukia. Never would have grown up with her on the streets of Rukongai, never gone to the Shinigami Academy with her. In a way...he's grateful, and that feels wrong.]
So, you're her.
[Pause.]
...I'm Abarai Renji, Kuchiki Byakuya's fukutaichou.
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It's nice to meet you, Abarai-san.
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