Fly high, fly high. [OPEN]

[frakkdis]

Characters: Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (frakkdis), Kyouya Hibari (icaruschmicarus and all the pilots from all ships. Others are welcome to poke, if they want to, but this is mostly for the racer people!
Setting: The common hangar and practice grounds of the racing venue
Time: The whole day!
Warnings: All the pilots, in one area. IS THAT NOT TROUBLE ENOUGH?
Note: Use this to

Comments

[flight_15]

Ichigo had wandered down to the plane area to scope out the competition, and to check on his plane. He wasn't afraid of sabotage, not really. Ichigo wasn't one of the favorites to win, a fact that he was completely fine with. That just meant it'd be more of a shock when he left them all in the dust. He was also from a smaller ship, one that wasn't involved in the Vohemaro-Ivonan rivalry, so he didn't have to worry about zealous patriots.

It wasn't so bad, really. He wandered through the lineup of planes, looking at them all. Some of them were obviously built for speed, others power, others maneuverability. They were all interesting to look at, but he'd always favor Zangetsu. Even with the new modifications, he hadn't lost his connection to it. It was heavily upgraded, but it was still his Zangetsu.

He walked past a guy with weird grey hair washing his plane. Huh, that wasn't such a bad idea. Not that Ichigo's was horribly dirty -- he and Rikku had washed it down when they'd streamlined it and given it a fresh coat of paint -- but he didn't need desert sand and grit in the landing gear. He paused for a second to look the plane over. Decent piece of work, he thought.

No, he didn't recognize Kensei from the fight with Gintoki. Ichigo had barely even been aware that there were spectators at all, much less given them any real attention.

[kirekaze]

The Vaizard had been concentrating more on washing his plane rather than what was going on around him until he felt that presence again - it wasn't any of the others; he'd recognize them in a jiffy after being stuck with each other for so long. No, it was from none of them - and with this strange familiarity, it could only mean--

Kensei paused in his work, turning around to face that orange head who Sakata had been fighting. He knew the Winding Way was here of course, but he had no idea they were taking part in the races... or maybe there was, but he didn't notice. Either way, it didn't really matter; the fact was that the kid was here.

Keeping his own thoughts to himself for now, the silver-haired man gave the other a questioning look. "You're joinin' the race too, kid?"

[flight_15]

Again with the "kid" business. This guy had gray hair, though, so maybe he was just a really spry old guy? Ichigo didn't know, and decided to let it slide for now. "Y'think I'd be here if I wasn't?" Anyone who didn't have a plane here had to get through a couple of security guards.

He looked back at Kensei's plane. "Not bad." It was a solid enough craft. It didn't look like anything special, but then again, planes' appearances could be deceiving sometimes. He wanted to ask what kind of engine it had, and other questions, but that would probably come off as spying on the competition.

[kirekaze]

"Point," the man admitted with a slight shrug. In the hustle and bustle of everything, Kensei did tend to forget about the security that was around the area, only beefed up considerably after his whole incident with that Sogou 13 brat. He never really remembered about the security, since they had done pretty much nothing to annoy him - which was what Kensei remembered best about another person. Their annoyance.

He perked up at the other's comment, turning around to glance at his own craft before snorting lightly. "Its nothing much." He was just lucky he had Souji to help him with the tune ups, or otherwise he wouldn't even be sure of the plane was going to even finish the race in one piece.

[flight_15]

Either this guy wasn't the bragging sort, or he wasn't particularly proud of his plane. Ichigo couldn't quite tell. This told him pretty much nothing about the man.

Except that he wasn't the talking type -- something Ichigo was fine with. The redhead shrugged. "Well, we'll see." He rubbed the back of his neck.

Ichigo didn't really feel the need to engage Kensei in conversation -- he'd interrupted the guy while he was working, after all. "See you around, I guess." He turned to go.

[kirekaze]

Kensei blinked as Ichigo started to turn abound and leave - wait, this wasn't how things were supposed to go. He was supposed to try and get more information about the orange head! Granted, Gintoki would help but... there were just somethings that it was best for oneself to do alone. Like this one - he doubted that the natural perm would ever understand the concept of a Hollow.

But at any rate - now that he could talk to the other he wasn't going to let go of the other so soon. The silver-haired man took a step out, frown on his face never changing as he called out to the other pilot. "Hey, kid. You're from that theater ship, right? The Winding Way?"

[flight_15]

Ichigo turned, a look of surprise on his face. "Huh? Yeah, that's me," he replied, one hand coming up to point vaguely at his chest. "What about it?"

He paused.

"Wait, how'd you know that?" he asked. Yeah, he'd made a public post or two -- had this guy recognized his voice? That seemed kinda far-fetched to Ichigo. This guy had better not be a stalker or something creepy like that. But Ichigo dismissed that idea as soon as it came into his head. The chances of him running into someone who was following him and approaching them completely by accident were pretty darn slim.

But that left the question -- how had he recognized Ichigo?

[kirekaze]

Well, good. At least he had fully established the fact that this was that same kid who had been fighting Gintoki - no embarrassing misinformation now. Kensei crossed his arms over his chest, frown deepening notably as the silver-haired man directed brown eyes towards the other and answered the other's question.

"I saw you fighting Sakata. Well. you got more or less trashed by him, anyway." If anything, Gintoki was hardly one to lose a fight - he had fought in a war, after all.

[flight_15]

Ichigo gritted his teeth. The defeat still stung a little. "I gave as good as I got, dammit," he growled, folding his arms. Gintoki had been the one to walk away, that was true, but he had been unsteady on his feet. Ichigo's pride had suffered a serious blow that day, but Gintoki had gotten away far from unscathed.

"What do you want, anyway?" Was this guy just here to rub in his defeat? Did he know Gintoki somehow?

[kirekaze]

"I'm not saying you didn't. Gintoki's just got more experience than you." He could see that the orange head did know how to fight - he could see it in how he moved, how he placed himself; he was a fighter himself after all, a survivor. Otherwise he wouldn't even be able to live in the life he was in now - not with being a dead man walking in Vohemar and an exile and possibly with money on his head from Ivona.

The Vaizard only kept his cool at the question, giving the other a once over before responding to him bluntly. "I was just wondering... you can see them too, right? The other side."

[flight_15]

Ichigo tensed at that, the look in his eyes suddenly becoming much more serious as he stared at Kensei. If the grey-haired pilot was talking about ghosts and hollows, then....how did he know? Could he tell, somehow? If so, that was weird. And more than a little unsettling.

But if he was referring to something other than ghosts, Ichigo sure as hell wasn't going to give himself away as a freakshow. "What do you mean by that?" he asked, in a carefully offhand tone.

[kirekaze]

Did he really have to say it out loud? How so very troublesome.

"You know what I mean. Ghosts and stuff. Spirits and demons that other people can't." The man shrugged, his expression nonchalant. "Things like that."

[flight_15]

Ichigo's eyes were difficult to read. "Where did you hear that?" he asked. The fact that he could see ghosts hadn't been a secret on his old ship -- in fact, it had come in useful several times. But Ichigo was still guarded about telling people his ability.

Who was this guy? What was he getting at? Ichigo was unnerved, but doing his best not to show it.

[kirekaze]

Kensei only shrugged and raised a hand to rub against his head. "Nobody did. I just... can tell, you could say." Or something like that, anyway - it was just some odd sort of sixth sense he had for being a Vaizard and a demihuman. "There's quite a lot of people who can, really."

At times, perhaps far too many.

[flight_15]

Ichigo's eyes were wary now. "So what if I can? What're you getting at?" He was definitely on his guard--this person, this total stranger, knew one of the details that Ichigo kept from most people.

He didn't trust this guy as far as he could throw him.

[kirekaze]

"Nothing in particular," the Vaizard responded neutrally, even though his eyes narrowed at that feeling he was receiving. He had hoped it had been just his mind playing tricks on him, had hoped that it was just an accidental thing but... it seemed unlikely.

This kid had a hollow growing inside him. It was small... but it was there. Its presence was more than prominent.

"So, since when could you see them?"