sirenspull_logs | The ornament of a house

Who: Hitsugaya (

icy_heavens) and Kazuma (

readyforwar)
When: February 25, afternoon
Where: Kazuma's apartment
Summary: Just two friends hanging out. Kazuma discovers that Hitsugaya has actually learned something about video games.
Warnings: These two swear occasionally. Otherwise, I got nothing.

It wasn't an uncommon thing for him to do here, visiting Kazuma like this. Especially in the wake of the recurrence of the attacks of last Valentine's, and the current threat of soulless vampires roaming about at night. Hitsugaya always made it a point to check up on his friends.

He didn't bother entering the building proper at first. That was inefficient. He knew exactly which apartment was Kazuma's and instead headed straight for the window.

Before he could lift his hand to knock, he heard Kazuma's voice spout off a virulent curse. Hn. Nothing seemed to be untoward, though, so Hitsugaya didn't bother worrying about it. And then rapped firmly on the window to get his friend's attention.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I've noticed that from your stories..."

It had been more than evident, in all the things Hitsugaya had told him. Really it put the bullies of his own world in to a whole different category of 'pathetic'.

"So just because he wanted to fight you he felt the need to monologue like a bad villain?"

Of course, in all fairness, Hitsugaya was not difficult to annoy. But he seemed to be a magnet for people who would even get on the nerves of the more tolerant. He'd really prefer if someone else would get those opponents for a change.

"He wanted to fight me because I was seeing through his virtual clones better than anyone else. As for the monologuing . . ."

He took a moment to pop into the kitchen and pour himself a glass of water. He'd been here enough times that he felt comfortable enough to do something like this without asking. And he didn't see the point in making someone do something he could easily do himself.

He came back into the living room. "He'd already been talking, and he'd let something slip that could distract him further. So I brought it up to deliberately piss him off."

The simple phrase, 'You were abandoned by your parents' was what had really won the fight for him. Any rational thought Yukio had been in possession of before that had been gone.

Kazuma turned around as Hitsugaya left to the living room, leaning on the back of the couch with his arms resting on the couch, listening curiously.

"Well... that's probably better than actually doing the whole... bad villain rant," he said with a soft sigh. Sometimes he really had to wonder about the sanity of the people in his friend's world.

"Do you think it's easier to deal with when they act like that?"

Hitsugaya wondered about it sometimes, too. Far too many people seemed to be touched in the head in some way. Ukitake's two third seats were some of the most insane people he knew. Even the captain himself was crazy outside of meetings half the time -- giving him candy because they both had white hair? What the hell? And Kuchiki's fixation on that Wakame Ambassador. Matsumoto's circular logic . . .

He refused to acknowledge his own odd little quirks. Like how he still took afternoon naps because Granny had told him it would help him grow tall. And that he would still spit watermelon seeds at Hinamori or call her a bedwetter if he felt the situation warranted it. He was sane, thank you.

"Easier, perhaps. But I'd rather have an opponent I can respect on one level or another."

The people surrounding Hitsugaya reminded Kazuma more and more of his crazy, eccentric family. Only slightly more... insane. And weird.

Okay maybe not that much like his family, but there were similarities.

And there were even more similarities to how Kazuma always felt the odd one out because he wasn't high strung, or demanding, or in to geeky things like anime or comics, or obsessed with the family history, or because he was the calm one most of the time, or whatever weird quirks his family seemed to have that he didn't. Sure he had quirks but they weren't like the rest of the Jinnouchis.

If anything he was probably the closest in personality to his great grandmother, and to the rest of them that was just plain weird..

"Can you really respect anyone who is stupid enough to go after you? You own anyone who's even tried..."

"It's more in the way of how they'd conduct themselves, if they showed they actually valued anything important."

Those who were loud, boastful, or reckless -- or some combination of all three -- were just about the damned stupidest people that could possibly exist. There was nothing respectable about that. But there were other ways.

He took a sip of his water. "I mentioned that back when I'd been originally Pulled, that I'd been in the midst of a battle. I had some respect for that opponent. She fought intelligently and actually gave a damn about the lives of her subordinates."

As for that other part . . . Tch. He wished. It wasn't always that easy. He glanced at Kazuma out of the corner of his eye.

"I've had difficult fights. And fights that I've lost."

Halibel had been a good test of his abilities; they'd had some similar powers, and it took some thought as to how to work around the stalement. And as to the fights he'd lost, there was only one word:

Aizen.

"... it's hard to imagine you losing..." Kazuma admitted quietly after a few seconds had passed. He looked away, remembering there had been a point in his life when he found it hard to imagine himself losing. And then he had. Against something that wasn't even a human opponent on the other side of a computer.

And unlike his other battles, but very much like what Hitsugaya did all the time, that one HAD been life or death for everyone around him. And he had failed at it.

There was a reason he'd never taken back his title as "King" in the OMC, after it was all over.

He shrugged again, though his face was distant. He certainly wasn't going to go into detail, but he would at least say something.

"Happens occasionally. You don't become a captain by accident, but as shinigami go, I'm still really young. My power isn't fully mature yet."

There were those that would say that Hitsugaya had an arrogant streak. And he did. But he was honest with himself on this issue. He had a lot of room to grow in his abilities, and he knew it. Had been working on it even harder since the war had ended.

Because the level he'd been at before hadn't been enough to protect her.

"I see..."

He wasn't sure where he stood anymore on that. He'd never thought he was the arrogant type until Kenji had finally called him on it a few months after that fateful meeting at the clan house that had been nearly destroyed by Love Machine's attack on OZ. And he still wasn't entirely sure he agreed on the assessment. A part of him just wanted to believe that even if he no longer held the title he was just that good and Love Machine had only won by way of cheating and power mongering the very system it had hacked.

But there was a lot about the world beyond OZ and the OMC that Kazuma had just ignored for so damn long. The longer he was in the port, with Nadeko and his new found friends, the more he began to question of maybe Kenji had a point. It wasn't like the older boy was any more mature or well versed in the world than he was, but to be the one to call him out on it...

A sigh escaped him for some reason he didn't fully understand (what was there to be moody about all of a sudden?) and he stood, giving Kana another pet before moving in to the kitchen to get his own drink - a can of soda from the fridge.

"Well... for what it's worth... I'm glad you do win most of the time."

The ornament of a house

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