= Back on Earth, August 17th =
"Hey Reina! What's up?" Masaki said.
"Just calling to check up with you..." Reina responded.
"Oh! Well... nothing too much... going on here," Masaki said. There were some metallic clashing sounds in the background.
"Are you sure?" Reina asked.
"Absolutely," Masaki said.
"So what are you really calling about dear?" Masaki she responded cutting to the chase.
"Do you remember I mentioned I was feeling like I was being watched lately?" Reina asked.
"Yeah. Are you telling me you've got yourself a little stalker?" Masaki teased.
"I don't know. The feeling of being watched has grown stronger and more frequent. It feels a little unsettling. Was just hoping talking with you would set my mind at ease some," Reina responded.
"You know. If you're worried I can get someone to look into it," Masaki said. If she nagged her husband he could probably get someone to check into it. Speaking of didn't Kisuke still owe her a favour? Then again Hisashi might not be happy about Kisuke being around his sister. He seemed to have avoided meeting anyone so far. She felt he worried too much sometimes.
"I... uh... no I'm sure it's fine. I don't want to bother you," Reina said hesitantly.
Masaki sighed. She loved the girl, but one of her major flaws was that she struggled with asking for an accepting the help of others. Always worrying about whether she was a burden to those around her.
There were some more metallic clashing sounds and a pained grunt.
"What's that sound? I'm not disturbing you am I?" Reina asked curiously.
"Oh, just my son's punishm... training," Masaki answered.
"Did you just say punishment?" Reina asked incredulously.
"No... I would never do that to my dear little boy," Masaki answered with a "kind" smile. Reina would almost have been convinced if it weren't followed by the sounds of explosions moments later.
Masaki was once again in Kisuke's basement. This time she wasn't the only one visiting though as she had brought along Ichigo and Ishida Uryū for training. She had originally planned on bringing Ichigo alone, but when she found out about Ishida being Ishida Ryūken's son and had inherited the Quincy powers she felt some level of responsibility for him.
At first Ichigo had been so excited when his mom said she was going to train him. He now knew she had combat experience and unlike with the assholes that were Kisuke and Yoruichi he thought for once he would get to enjoy some normal training. That couldn't be farther from the truth though as his usually sweet mother turned into the worst drill sergeant.
He wanted the sweet loving mother from his memories back. Not this demon that had returned from the depths of hell. He hadn't realised how much of a momma's boy he was back then which had biased his memories. He almost cried.
Masaki was in her Nichtig form and using Hirenkyaku to stand on the air while firing down spirit power arrows on Ichigo and Ishida. She was talking on an old-school clamshell mobile phone with Reina casually. She was surprised with how good the signal was down here, must have been Kisuke's work.
"Aunty... I'm really grateful for your help, but isn't this a little too much," Ishida tried to make his case.
Masaki who had been relaxed up until that point suddenly sprouted a vein on her forehead. "A-aunty!!!" she mumbled indignantly.
The rain of arrows coming from her suddenly sped up causing both boys to dodge awkwardly to the best of their ability. Unfortunately they weren't able to dodge all of them. Masaki wasn't too evil though and was holding back to the point where the hits didn't cause any serious injuries feeling more like being hit with a b.b. gun.
Very painful, but mostly harmless. Just don't shoot your eye out.
"Are they ok?" Reina questioned hesitantly after hearing various pained cries.
"They are doing just fine. They just need some more 'education'," Masaki said in a chilling voice.
"This is all your fault!" Ichigo yelled at Ishida.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Kurosaki!" Ishida yelled.
"Oh? And what are you apologising for Ishida-chan?" Masaki asked innocently.
"I shouldn't have called big sister aunty?" he said unsurely.
Kisuke was off to the side sitting in a beach chair lazily fanning his face while chuckling at their antics. Sitting on top of his green and white bucket hat was a black cat lazing away along with him.
"She has become quite powerful," the cat said in a deep voice.
"Yeah, I still can't believe it. I would really like to run some further tests on her. Almost as much as I would love to meet this secret Hollow benefactor of hers," Kisuke said with a conspiratorial smile.
"Were you able to find out more," the cat asked curiously.
"No, beyond what she shared the first time she has been quite tight lipped regarding it. I haven't been able to pry much more out of her despite my best attempts. The rest of her family doesn't seem to know much more either. The only link we know of is this Reina girl," he responded sadly.
"I could go take a closer look at her. Stealth is kind of my strong suit. You'll owe me one though. Another one..." the cat offered lazily.
"Maybe.... wait didn't you owe me one?" he asked.
"Don't even try..." the cat said threatening with a clawed paw.
Kisuke raised his hands in surrender. "I give... I give," he said.
He tipped his hat disturbing the cat who jumped down beside him. "It might indeed be worth checking though, you never know," he said.
"I can't believe you took him to our old hangout in Seireitei while you were all in Soul Society. The good times we shared there, just the two of us," Kisuke joked.
"Stop making shit up old man, you always liked to play with yourself," the cat retorted.
-X-X-X-
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Writing Soundtrack: Paramore - Various Tracks