"Let me tell you about the difference between you and me. It's like the story of the monkey trying to capture the moon. However close he thinks he is to the moon, it's still just the reflection of the moon in the middle of the lake. No matter how he struggles to capture that "moon", he inevitably sinks to the bottom of that lake to no avail. You will never reach me." – Kuchiki Byakuya.
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For all Junpei knew, one second he was having trouble being the clear focus of the remaining Hollows surrounding him (there was after all very little he could with just Kidō and Zankensoki) and the next second they were all clear away before he could even react so he just stood there confused. Had he failed? Did Mr. Itachi really just help him when he wasn’t one cut shy of death?
“You Shinigami, are you alright?”
He turned towards an unfamiliar voice and understanding soon covered his face and the realization of who he was made his reaction all the more complicated. A Captain just technically saved him, so did he fail the test or not? It was already strange enough that his first thought to being saved was whether he failed his test or not.
“Can you hear me?” He was asked again and this time he fully paid attention to the Captain talking to him.
“Um, yes sir. I’m fine.” He replied.
Byakuya looked at the worse for wear Shinigami, noting that the Shinigami did not seem to have a Shikai yet could survive this long against those Hollows and from the looks of the destruction around the fight seemed to have been going on for a while.
“What Division are you from?” Byakuya asked.
“2nd Division, sir.”
“Hmm?”
It was at that moment that Byakuya noticed that something wasn’t right. His head whipped around and he saw Itachi calmly walking towards them. ‘How did I not sense him coming?’ he wondered to himself and looked at Junpei to see awkward embarrassment instead of the expected surprise at his Captain’s arrival.
“Captain Itachi. I didn’t know you were around.” He had his personal differences regarding Itachi, mostly stemming from the man’s upright morals that was sabotaged by his lacking capabilities befitting one of his stations.
As a Captain, he couldn’t really input on how another Captain managed their Division, case in point was how nobody, even his grandfather, did anything about how Kenpachi ran his Division and whether or not it resulted in the death of his subordinate. So he couldn’t say anything even if Itachi was watching as his subordinate was almost killed.
“I was.” Itachi replied. “I appreciate you looking out for my subordinate but it was unneeded.”
If that angered Byakuya like Itachi knew it most likely would have, the man did a good job of not showing it. It wasn’t that Itachi was trying to antagonize Byakuya, far from it. In fact Itachi would go as far and say that, with the exception of Mayuri Kurotsuchi, he wasn’t interested in being at odds with any Captain. If he could become somewhat friends with someone like Zaraki Kenpachi, he doubt there were that many people he couldn’t get along with.
“I see, I’ll be on my way then.” Byakuya said and left them both to go back to Hisana who he had left behind so as not to get her hurt by being anywhere near a Hollow.
“So, did I fail the test?” He heard Junpei ask as he left but whatever he thought of it remained only in his head.
Itachi stayed silent for a beat before he replied. “Not completely.”
Junpei winced at the way his voice sounded. Granted Itachi’s voice mostly always had the same tone level to it but after knowing the man for more than a decade, he became pretty familiar with how to distinguish between the monochrome of Itachi’s voice. And it sounded, well not entirely bad but also not completely good.
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“Am I going to take it again since the other Captain, you know, ruined it?” He had to practically force the question out of his mouth because of how baleful it was.
Itachi turned around and began walking away with Junpei following just a step behind.
“It was an unaccounted interference.” He replied. “As for the test, it would be redundant to do it again would it not?”
Junpei offered a wry nod after knowing Itachi was privy to his own reluctance instead he aimed for a shift in the subject.
“So are you going to tell me why you dragged me out to the middle of nowhere and ganged me up against a bunch of Hollows?”
Itachi remained silent in the face of Junpei’s query with his charge remaining patiently silent until he wanted to answer.
Itachi’s reason for not rescheduling it was obvious, at least to him. Junpei’s limit – without his Shikai – was something he could more or less calculate.
This little exercise he organized for Junpei was actually something that recently came to mind. While Junpei was a part of his ANBU, his strength was the only thing holding him back from the position Itachi had for him beside him. Even if it remained unsaid, it wasn’t a secret that Itachi really cares for the young man behind him.
“What is on your mind?” He could sense Junpei’s uncertainty after his initial curiosity faded.
“It’s just that when Captain Byakuya appeared, or rather when he left, I tried following his movements but I couldn’t really follow him, he was really fast. Though I’m not too sure but I think I sensed something or someone in the direction he went in. Felt too weak and… empty to be a Shinigami, I don’t know.”
“You could tell that far? Commendable.” That was as much of the highest praise most people would ever get from Itachi. It was not Soi Fon level yet but it was close.
“Was it someone really strong because I couldn’t really sense anything other than their very faint presence.”
Itachi shook his head. “On the contrary.”
…….
[POV: With Byakuya]
“Lord Byakuya, you’re back!” Byakuya frowned as the all too now-familiar voice called out as soon as he arrived.
She was crouching at the base of a tree at the same spot where he left her after telling her not to move an inch. He had been in a hurry when he sensed a dwindling Reiatsu and multiple Hollow Reiatsu.
Granted, he had only been gone for barely a minute but something nagged at the back of his mind.
Even though it was perfunctory, he still found himself asking. “Are you alright, Hisana?”
Hisana smiled faintly. “I should be the one asking you that, my lord. You left in a hurry so I can only assume something important was happening up ahead.”
“It’s nothing serious.” Byakuya waved off her concern. It really wasn’t serious, only the surprising fact that he had inadvertently interrupted a test of sorts Itachi was conducting for his subordinate.
‘Looking back on it now, that Shinigami’s blade wasn’t the normal appearance of an Asauchi which means he probably has achieved Shikai and yet he wasn’t using it even when he was inching ever so closely to death’s doors.’
He pushed those thoughts and focused on Hisana and a gnawingly grim thought came back to the forefront of his mind.
Hisana was coming to terms with the fact that he would just up and leave at his earliest convenience or when he finally got tired of her.
“Let’s slow down for now. No need to rush our walk.” He said, taking her frailty into consideration.
Hisana kept the same faint smile on her face and bowed her head. Never too indulgent or overly courteous to insinuate anything like her trying to curry favor from him. She kept a reasonable distance that belied her courteous attitude.
“As you say, my lord.”
There it was again. The smile almost had a painful tint to it. Almost. It was covered by the accepting air around her.
“Like I said, you can just call me Byakuya.” He said for what was probably the seventh time and like all the times before, Hisana simply shook her head.
“It wouldn’t do, my lord. It would be too presumptuous of me.” She said with a small bow and relented, just like the six times before.
She was probably the only person that he had ever told to just call him by his name and not his stature and yet had plainly – but politely – refused.
She was also the only person that Byakuya had had the pleasure of talking to so casually. No one, and by no one he meant absolutely no one, had ever seen him so casual. Not when his station required him cold and aloof.
“Sleep Hisana.” He said when night came and sat across her with his sword on his legs in a meditative position. He needed the breather after all so what was a few more days before returning to the Seireitei?
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