Getting reacquainted JT [Kyomei/Anthony]

[Deleted]

Anthony looked from his window to the outside world beneath him. The hospital itself wasn’t too big but given it had 5 stories to it and Anthony was on the 4th did allow him to have quite the view. He could see some of his fellow shinigami going to and from their destinations whether that be to the hospital itself, somewhere down the various pathways or into several nearby buildings. Although Anthony was sort of glad to see it be peaceful he was still upset to say the least. He hadn’t been able to leave the hospital yet due to his lack of ability to move and the doctors were being very cautious. Which while he appreciated this continued to frustrate him to no end. The most Anthony had been able to do was reach over and open the window if he wanted to interact with the outside world whatsoever. Thankfully he still had Smokey with him, currently laying beside him on his bed. Someone had been kind enough in the meantime to bring in food for him also, one of the nurses who saw Anthony try his damndest to fight the doctor who told him his pet would have to leave. This was a month or so back and by now it was just accepted that so long as Anthony was to remain in the hospital so would his canine companion.



Truth be told it was one of the few solace’s he had. Losing his ability to hear AND his ability to move himself had been debilitating to say the least. Obviously it would be but to the degree it debilitated him was what got him. As things currently stood he couldn’t hear anything which meant in order to understand others he had to learn to read their lips. Sometimes have them write down specifically what they were saying. That was the especially true when he had initially woken up. As he almost didn’t recognize it until he got freaked out by Smokey coming up from behind his bed. He could “hear” himself because he was used to his voice though now he realized it was his mind putting that sound on in his mind. Aside from Shinobata however he could not hear anyone else. Really anything else. And it was… jarring. Still he managed to learn the fundamentals of lip reading and now was at least able to hold a conversation so if nothing else he’d managed to do just fine with that. Though sometimes he still found himself being corrected by complex words but even that was starting to become less frequent.



But neither his inability to move nor his inability to hear anything mattered in comparison to something far more important. He hadn’t been visited by his family nor his squad. Instead his only “visitor” was a squad member from squad 4 talking about how he could get medically discharged if he was so inclined. The fury he let loose on that poor guy was something even Anthony had to admit he regretted slightly. But he’d have still done the same thing again if it meant he’d still remain a shinigami. He needed to get stronger overcome his handicaps. Perhaps he was being stupid but he didn’t want anything to do with being discharged from the SS. And though he hadn’t mentioned it to anyone else he needed or rather intensely wanted revenge. Specifically on Zahra. He’d end her existence so long as he got the opportunity however to get it he needed training and time. Lots of time to get used to his new situation.



So with a small but quiet passion he made it his goal every day to become more attuned to his new normal just a bit. Hence his lip reading as well as the fact he was training himself to keep his eyes on things even in his peripherals. And most importantly reach out to sense others. He couldn’t see 360 degrees but he could damn well feel it. Even while bedridden he’d managed to do pretty well as he now was never surprised by when a doctor or nurse entered. Which is also how he knew no squad mates of his or his family ever came by. He’d tried to remain hopeful for two weeks but with a month passed by he knew that if they hadn’t come to see him now no one would. In fact if he wasn’t already certain his own squad didn’t expect the “fuck up” to return he’d have asked for someone to come visit him from there. Maybe the vice captain to at least let him know how things were going on his end. That said while his squad was questionable he was more upset that his family did not come check in on him. He held them in high regard and to not see even one hurt him deeply. Even if he knew there was always more going on behind the scenes you’d think they’d come visit at least.



His mother however did manage to send letters his way so at least she hadn’t abandoned him. She never had the time to write a lot but from what he understood things were chaotic there. Even on her level. He wasn’t certain what all could be going on but he hoped it was important because several people would be hearing some choice “words” from him when he was finally able to leave. Which as he understood would be very soon probably a week or two more. They just wanted to make certain everything had fully healed up first. Kaido sped things up but even still time to recover was needed. Today however was different. When Anthony woke up he could tell something was on the move. The gears behind the scenes had started turning and things were finally going to start progressing. At least that’s what Anthony thought. He almost believe it, wanted to even but decided to see if his gut feeling was going to be on point by waiting it out.



Hour after hour rolled by with nothing happening and no change in the usual. Anthony was about to chuck the feeling in the garbage when he very suddenly began to feel a far more intense energy than he had felt in the past few months. It made him feel like he was in a storm almost with how heavy and intense it was and it was just present. It wasn’t even targeting him. The worst part was it felt like it was quite a distance away but very rapidly approaching his hospital. While Anthony was certain it was a shinigami he could only wonder just who held this much monstrous energy that it practically flooded out. Perhaps this is how most captains felt or vice captains even. He wasn’t certain because he’d been borderline inept at sensing others prior to his injury. Now though he could sense others and all he knew was whoever held this presence this storm of energy was coming closer. And it never faltered in how impressive and intense it was. Anthony just hoped that whoever owned this energy would enter the building and promptly leave so he could relax a bit. Because lord knew he wasn’t going to be able to relax until it left and wasn’t in the same general vicinity that he was in. In the meantime Anthony simply pulled Smokey’s head closer to his and pet him a bit in an effort to calm his nerves.

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

Life had been hard the last few months. The Captain of Squad 6 had been engrossed in adjusting to his new duties as the leader of the Restoration Squad, and there had been a lot to Restore. His cousin, Iro, who usually handled a lot of the repairs had gone missing suddenly on a Zero Division mission. He had yet to return and probably would never return at this point. This had put all of the repairs into the hands of Squad 6. With multiple large attacks on the Soul Society, especially the Rukongai, Squad 6 had been overwhelmed by their new duties. This had prevented Kyomei from even being seen for months at a time by any of his family members.

However, he had heard through the grapevine that one of his relatives, a good Shinigami that Kyomei had trained with before, had been seriously injured and had been staying in the hospital for a long time now. Anthony had shown a lot of potential, and was extremely bright when it came to tactics. So, Kyomei knew that he had to pay Anthony a visit. Forsaking many of his other duties, he proceeded to head to the hospital so he could pay the man a visit. On his way, he stopped by the Kuchiki manor to see Lady Hisano. "Greetings, Lady Hisano. I'm headed to see your son. Would you care to send a letter with me or to join me?" As gracious as ever, Anthony's mother politely declined the visit, but did have a letter to send with the Captain for Anthony's eyes only. As sly as ever, she wanted her son to have plenty of time with the Head to raise his and her own position in the family's eyes, so she stayed home while Kyomei continued on to the hospital.

"I'm here to see Anthony Mortifero Kuchiki, please. I hear that he's been lacking visitors of late?" Not knowing what to expect as Lady Hisano had not given him any information about the injury, Kyomei proceeded up the stairs to the fourth floor. As he got closer and closer to the room, trepidation filled his mind. What if this could have been avoided if only Kyomei had trained with Anthony more? As is, they had gone for a light jog and a slight tactics discussion and that was the extent of their training together. Would Anthony blame his cousin for not preparing him enough for the job of the Shinigami? Hopefully not, but the man was still nervous. With a short knock on the door, Kyomei let himself in and prepared for the worst case scenario...

[Deleted]

Anthony’s nerves were flaring, keeping him on high alert as the entity of the monstrous energy made its way to his floor. At that point Anthony lost track of where it was at all because it was just too much at such a close point. Hell it overwhelmed every other energy so Anthony gave up trying to sense anyone else while this person was here. He would simply have to wait for a few hours and try checking for them. In the meantime he continued to look outside the window while he pet Smokey. The latter practically asleep given there had been no visitors in a long while. He was also sorta pushing Anthony given his legs were extended out. Much as Anthony wanted to be even a little upset he just found himself amused. Sly dog knew he could get away with damn near anything because of how close they were. Anthony made a mental note to boop him in the nose when he woke up.

That said it didn’t take Smokey very long to wake up as the door was knocked upon by someone. His eyes quickly opened and his ears perked, however Anthony who was back to looking outside didn’t take notice. Hell he didn’t even hear the knocking as he had become deaf. When Kyomei walked in his first display would be Anthony sitting up one hand in his lap, the other on his dog’s stomach rubbing it over slowly. Without knowing Anthony had been deaf Kyomei could easily interpret this as Anthony willfully ignoring him. Though Smokey was initially concerned seeing Kyomei had him relax a bit and thus close his eyes. There was of course no one quite like Kyomei thus it’d be difficult for even a dog to forget him. Assuming Kyomei just remained in the doorway Anthony would continue to look outside people watching and letting small little thoughts go to and from his mind. Kyomei would have to get in contact with him to really get him to realize he was present that or wait a few minutes.

Regardless of what he chose to do Anthony would eventually look over meaning to lean in and hug Smokey only to see the one and only family head. Needless to say Anthony jumped a bit surprised as he didn’t expect the head to visit him. If anything he was hoping/expecting his mother to eventually visit. This however caught him completely off guard to the point he couldn’t read Kyomei’s lips if he started saying anything. After a couple moments though he’d reach out to shake his hand with a smile. “My apologies for not greeting you when you came in Kyomei I didn’t hear you. Heh, literally. I’m sure you already know what happened though as one doesn’t just be the family head by having their ears shut yea? Hehe so what brings you here? It’s been a hot minute since we last spoke, hopefully everything is going well?”

Anthony looked around for a chair to offer, there was one at his beds end so without a moment’s delay he gestured to it. “Be my guest to take a load off, if you want of course. I’m certainly not going anywhere with these legs haha!” Though he tried to joke about it a small frown brought itself to his face’s forefront. Anthony could joke and try to make it lighter all he wanted but having next to useless legs was never going to settle well. Understanding a situation didn’t immediately mean coming to terms with or being ok with everything about it after all. But today was a good day! He couldn’t let himself show such weakness in front of his rival. That’d just be unbecoming of him, even if he did suffer quite the loss. And if there was anything Anthony was not willing to do it was lose face to his rival because he still was hellbent to become just as strong. The only difference now was he’d legitimately need to follow a similar path as his family head.

So without a second thought he slapped himself mentally and brought up a small smile. He sat with his hands in his lap, fiddling with his thumbs as he really had nothing else to do with them. That and he kept his eyes on Kyomei’s lips. Lest he be unable to keep track of the conversation, another big no-no considering Kyomei’s position. It as about this time though that it finally hit Anthony just who that monster who held such a large amount of energy was. To say he was surprised was a genuine understatement. Anthony had understood vaguely how much depth there was to Kyomei’s reiatsu and his saw how refined it was in their training long ago. But this was different. Having focused on his energy sensory capabilities showed he literally understood next to nothing about his family head’s abilities. And that fact was compounded by the fact that this man was strong enough that he never required a zanpakuto either. Anthony took a deep breath and went back to focusing on what Kyomei was saying if anything as he didn’t want to miss out on any of it. His first visit was huge and honestly made him forget ever being upset with his family, if anything he felt incredibly childish about it. Now wasn’t the time for that though he needed to focus on the other.

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

After there was no noise at his knock, Kyo let himself into the room which was eerily silent. Anthony just sat there, facing away from the door, petting Smokey. "Greetings, Anthony." No response. Confused, a little, the Captain just kinda stood there for a moment not sure what to do. It was a good while before Anthony turned again and appeared incredibly startled. Had he not heard the other Kuchiki come in? Apparently not, given his next few statements. "My apologies for not greeting you when you came in Kyomei I didn’t hear you. Heh, literally. I’m sure you already know what happened though as one doesn’t just be the family head by having their ears shut yea? Hehe so what brings you here? It’s been a hot minute since we last spoke, hopefully everything is going well? Be my guest to take a load off, if you want of course. I’m certainly not going anywhere with these legs haha!”

Kyomei pieced together the information he knew and the new information he was being told. Anthony had been injured, that much he knew before, but he hadn't realized that he was now deaf and crippled. Immediately, the Captain's mind sorted through the various techniques that he knew trying to think up a way to reanimate a broken body. It was his instinctual response to being faced with a challenge. The Bakudo Horin could work... he thought. If mastered and given enough force of will, the rope like kidou could function very similarly to the Quincy technique Ransotengai that the Kuchiki had only heard stories of. Settling down in the seat offered him, Kyomei couldn't help but stare at Anthony's legs.

"Everything is quite busy, yes, but well. I have to ask... If you could, would you want to walk again?" Not always the most elegant in his words, Kyomei was very direct. If he could come up with a way to help the man, he definitely would do so. However, Anthony had shown in his past training exercises that he wasn't nearly as confident with Kidou as he could be. What was that technique he had demonstrated? Oh yeah, Sazanami, right? If Kyomei remembered correctly, that had been the only kidou the man had known at the time. Maybe he had learned more in the past few months? Regardless, Kyomei had an option for him that would allow him to focus his spiritual abilities on moving his physical body. It would take training and effort, but it could work in the long run if he used it in short bursts.

"If you'd like, I could demonstrate?"

[Deleted]

"Everything is quite busy, yes, but well. I have to ask... If you could, would you want to walk again?" Time seemed to stop for Anthony when he was asked the million dollar question. He knew the question would come up at some point but he was more content letting the elephant in the room be left on it’s own for the time being. Still with the question already asked there wasn’t much Anthony could do but think on the matter. In some ways it was super easy because of course Anthony wanted his legs back. He wanted to move and stand tall on his own legs. Not be limited to a freakin bed or later a wheelchair. Still the more Anthony had thought over this question in the days past the more he’d come to feel like he’d deserved this. In a sort of twisted way it was a life lesson Anthony had to come to terms with. It wasn’t all smiles and sunshine. He couldn’t just talk or walk his way out of every fight and his interaction with Zahra proved that. Proved it several times over to the point that this memory would forever be ingrained in his mind until his next life.

So in a way it was hard to really give an honest answer. And in a way not having his legs or hearing showed him a new world he hadn't experienced prior. Such as his ability to detect others energies. Something he felt was useless prior but now could see so much more merit in with just simple tasks. And what about his spiritual presence? That wasn’t the same either since he lost his legs. He was starting to really become more proficient with his reiatsu. Really start having a firm grasp over it. And honestly? He wasn’t ready to lose that yet. There was a small voice in the back of his head whispering about how he’d lose both abilities he’d only learned about if he ever got his legs again. Right or wrong he was learning more about himself and what fields he could start to delve into that he hadn’t considered prior. For now Anthony really needed to maintain his lack of lower physical abilities. Perhaps down the line he could start to really look into a method of permanently restoring them but right now he needed to see what other lessons he could learn.

The silence had hung in the air for awhile as Anthony had merely looked down on Smokey. When Anthony finally did speak he glanced up at Kyomei and gave a small smile. “So. . . You’re probably going to say this is a weak or crazy answer but I’m actually ok with not having my legs. Hear me out though it’s not as though I would never want them back but there’s a lot on my mind with regards to their loss. And even while I’ve been in this hospital there’s a few important lessons I’ve come to learn. I feel like there’s a lot more to learn about down the line and if I have my legs back I am worried I’ll go back to my old self. A self I don’t really think is worth having due to how… naive it was. Amongst other things of course. For now I need to keep them as they are. Really learn the lessons I’ve been thrown and when I’m finished and stronger I can consider looking for a way to walk again.” Anthony may not have had a super confident voice but the look in his eyes held the sparks of determination. His determination. Something far different than Kyomei probably had seen the last time they’d spoken.

“However I do want to ask you something Kyomei. How have you overcome your hindrances? I talked with my mother, Lady Hisana, via letters and she explained that you have a “condition” of sorts. It’s spiritual and that you are harmed with every use of reiatsu. It just blows my mind honestly. And since I can no longer use my legs I’ll need to follow down the spiritual path, like you have. So how did you overcome the challenges placed before you? How did you get yourself to be as strong as you are let alone as knowledgeable on kido? Hehe I’m sure you know memorization is a bit of a weak point for me so I’ll need all the help you can give where kido is concerned.”

There was his smile again but less forced like prior. More his usual self coming back to the surface. Once Kyomei would start speaking Anthony would get serious again however as he was intent on making sure he read Kyomei’s lips properly. It was of course a very serious question so anything less than his full attention would be beyond disrespectful. Besides Anthony was going to need to lean on his family more with his current state. And who better to lean on than his family head who knew the path he’d be going down? Anthony had to admit though to learn from his rival so directly was actually a bit of a funny coincidence. He wasn’t expecting this day to come so soon but here it was. So with rapt attention he kept his eye on his family head eagerly but patiently waiting his response.

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

Kyomei nodded and listened intently to Anthony's answer. He had come to accept his injury and think of the positives of it, like Kyomei had been forced to do with more than one injury of his own. First, there had been the experience with Lucifer in the Ogatago base. That had left the Kuchiki mentally scarred and injured. Then there had been the failed attack on Las Noches that had left Kyomei spiritually scarred and injured. Then the attack from the Hollow on the Rukongai and Seiretie that had left the Captain physically scarred and injured. For being someone with vast reiatsu reserves and incredible strength, he sure did get himself into situations where he got hurt. A lot. In all the ways. Turning his head to the side (forgetting Anthony's deafness due to the ease at which the man could read his lips and respond) he sighed as he thought about the many times he had failed in the past. And what he had done to push through and just see the positives. It had always been his family that had brought him through the tough times. Ajraka, Sozen, all of the Kuchiki in general.

Pulling a crystal out from his pocket, he clutched at it tightly. It had been a gift from his adopted daughter, and it used to give him peace when he kept it near to him. It had long since lost its power as Las Arenas had lost their homes and their large crystals that powered the shards that had been sent out with the representatives of the organization. The sentiment of it still calmed him, though, as it reminded him of Ajraka. Turning back to Anthony, Kyomei spoke from the heart. "It's... difficult, even to this day. I didn't always have this spiritual wound, but I live with it. Family has always been what brought me through the toughest of trials. Family, and my service to the Soul Society. We have a duty to protect the Three Worlds, even if they hate us or scorn us. No, we're not perfect, but our overall mission is vital to the survival of billions of lives." In the back of his mind, the Captain could only hold onto the sliver of hope that the mission of the Soul Society was good. He had seen a lot of evil done in the Gotei 13, and its history was not one of clean hands...

Shaking his head to clear the doubt away, he held open his hand and began to pool reiatsu in his palm. He felt the pain of sunburns blaze across his palm and center of the chest where he had received the wound through his soul. These sunburn blisters spread across his entire body quickly and lasted more than a few seconds as he formed a small jawbreaker sized piece of crystal. Anthony, if he was paying attention, would see Kyomei's breath held sharply and a small tear form at the corner of his eye. It was quite painful to perform this technique, but it would be a Gift to the man in the bed. "One of the techniques I have learned to perform is to harness the inner Aura of Kidou and of myself. By forming this Aura in the palm of my hand, and flowing my memories and a bit of my soul into it, I can crystallize the memory of a Kidou technique. This one is simple, Bakudo #5: Kaze Utsuwa. A Kidou of my own design. Take this orb, place it into your mouth, then bite into it. It will give you the memory of how to perform this Bakudo exactly once. Use it once to be able to hold your breath for minutes at a time by binding air to your lungs."

Handing the green orb to Anthony, Kyomei fully expected the man to be wary of a weird crystal thing that was summoned up from nowhere. Especially with such a strange Bakudo to be taught. Sure, it was a useful utility spell, but why had the Kuchiki Head picked that one in particular? To be honest? Because they were in a hospital and destruction of property and injured people was -not- on Kyomei's agenda. There would be time for demonstrating Hado and other powerful techniques in a different time and place. For now, Kyo would simply give Anthony a taste of what it meant to be a Spellcaster. Let him understand how to bind air to his will with the incantation and mastery that came from the other man's knowledge. Later they could work on precise reiatsu control and further skills. For now, holding one's breath for a really really long time.