Lily
Out of all I had learnt, Shunpo was perhaps one of my favourite things to use. Combining the high-speed movement of it with the ability to create platforms of reishi below my feet so I could move on any surface made for a mobility that was exhilarating to possess. So much so, in fact, that I found myself caring more about how fun it was to move around at such speeds rather than how useful it’d be in combat.
Honestly, playing what was, essentially, tag with Yoruichi was fun despite how much more experienced than me she was. It was also likely the best way to get me to improve. Constant usage of Shunpo with the goal of matching a master who held back less and less as I improved saw me master the movement technique incredibly quickly.
Within three nights, I’d gone from not knowing how to use Shunpo to being quite skilled at it. Part of it definitely came from my talent but I also had to admit that Yoruichi was a decent teacher. Not as good as me, of course, but she was still pretty good.
“You will leave soon, won’t you?” I asked once we finished the training session for the night. I’d even held back on pulling for a new power to fully focus on the lesson.
“Tomorrow, yes.” Yoruichi confirmed. “Kisuke has readied everything for the trip to Soul Society and I’ll have to go with them all. Can’t have them get killed trying to save their friend, after all.”
“And I suppose the chance to maybe reveal some of Aizen’s crimes would be worth it to you, too.” I replied, amused by it all.
Maybe Yoruichi cared more about the lives of the humans she was bringing to Soul Society than she did about clearing the names of herself, her friends and the visored Aizen had created by hollowfying shinigami since they’d been accused of said crimes a century ago at this point but I still had no doubt that working to hinder Aizen was at least part of her motivation for going to Seireitei with them.
Of course, the moment Aizen got his hands on the second Hogyoku, he’d almost certainly be willing to abandon his guise as a kind captain of the Gotei 13. Or, perhaps, he was merely willing to do so but didn’t truly have a desire to stop hiding himself. Either way, interfering with Rukia’s execution would likely end in the end of his charade.
“That, too, yes.” Yoruichi confirmed casually, seemingly unbothered by me pointing it out. “Anyways, you’re good enough already that, as long as you keep practicing, I can see you surpassing me in a couple decades.”
I didn’t point out the clear lie. I had no need to tell her that it’d be months if not weeks rather than years before I’d be better than her. She had borne witness to my growth. Considering that, most of what I’d learnt, I’d either taught myself or learnt by fighting someone, I was pretty sure that Yoruichi was the most aware of how great my talent was aside from Melina and myself.
Urahara probably had a good idea, too, but I was unsure if he could’ve had as good of an idea as the person who had taught me her specialty and watched as I rapidly mastered it.
“Hey, before you leave,” My teacher interrupted my train of thought, “where’d you learn to fight like that?”
‘I’m a master of Hakuda.’ The conclusion was one my mind reached the instant Yoruichi asked this simple question. Just as her own movements carried traces of my preferred hand-to-hand combat style, mine almost certainly held hints of my own fighting style and our game of tag would’ve turned those hints into neon signs.
‘They noticed when I was training Ichigo.’ I hadn’t questioned it before because Yoruichi had played ‘tag’ with those she taught in the past, too, but I recognized now that it had also been a method of making me reveal my fighting style to her.
A genuine smile found its way onto my lips at the realization. In this harmless little game, I had lost before I’d even been aware that it’d begun. My mind was already racing to figure out how to prevent that from ever happening again but the game was just that: harmless.
“I learnt my fighting style through an ability of mine quite some time ago.” I answered honestly.
Yoruichi and Urahara were merely trying to discover where I’d learnt something I shouldn’t have been capable of learning until recently. Neither were hostile towards me from something so simple.
“I suppose you won’t elaborate.” Yoruichi stated.
I nodded in response. “I’m afraid I have no desire to even consider giving you a more detailed answer.” The Grimoire was something I was only willing to tell one person about without requiring a binding vow and, even then, Missy hadn’t been told in as much detail as I could’ve.
“Alright then.” The shinigami woman shrugged in response, pretending to be casual when I could sense her curiosity. “I suppose this is goodbye for now, then.”
“Good luck.” I replied, smiling. I could’ve said more but there was no need to. We both knew she’d need the luck if things went wrong due to my presence in this world having changed its future.
Aizen was far from a simple foe to deal with, after all.
“Same to you.” She told me casually, waving at me once while I left this world once again.
I was still smiling by the time I arrived in my office and pulled for my new power. It’d been a fun lesson followed by an entertaining conversation, after all.
Lore: Talking Is A Free Action; 100 CP, 600 CP left
In a VR environment, you aren’t actually breathing air. So feel free to keep chatting while sprinting, jumping around, and other battlefield actions. It won’t even be distracting, as it seems you’ve got an extra half of a mental thread to keep your tongue moving.
The perk wasn’t as useful as I’d have liked but it was worth purchasing for both the mana and the potential amusement it could bring me.
And, with that done, I began to meditate on the Force while feeding my zanpakuto some more reiatsu and aura.
Alexander Biron
Missy visiting me at work wasn’t something that usually happened. Both my daughters had free access to my office as long as I wasn’t in a meeting but only Lily had regularly made use of that and that’d been because she’d wanted to take over the company in the future before she’d become a hunter. Missy had never really had a reason to visit my office rather than just waiting for me to get home.
Then again, even with us living together again until the house was done being repaired, we did less together nowadays than before. I still ate dinner with my daughters most of the time but I purposefully avoided having breakfast in the dining room they used since Alice was there with them more often than not.
It was already embarrassing enough for parents to be hosted by their underage daughters, we didn’t need to get into fights in the home they’d moved into to avoid those fights on top of that.
“Dad, can you please let go? I wanted to talk to you about something.” Missy asked, face bright red due to being at that age where getting swept into a hug by her father was enough to embarrass her.
“Don’t you want to get hugged by your old man anymore?” Laughing a little, I let her go. There was an urge to continue to hug her but I had work to do and Missy had had a purpose for coming here. I could embarrass her more at home rather than right now.
“You know it’s not that.” Missy mumbled and I let myself bask in the warmth that came with that admission for a moment while my daughter composed herself.
I smiled a little at the sight, reminded of when the twins had been seven and I, overly eager to give them anything they desired as well as having felt inspired in the wake of my first major fight with Alice, had bought them enough presents for their birthday to fill up half a room. Missy had been just as embarrassed yet happy then and Lily’d gone silent for a couple moments before hugging me as tightly as she could and then ran off to tear open her presents for books on magic.
Alice hadn’t been happy, telling me that I was spoiling them too much, but she also tried to one-up me the next year and we did so almost every year afterwards until Missy and Lily, shortly after entering puberty, asked us to stop since a lot of the house was already being used to store presents from previous years.
If I had to guess, the fact that Alice and I had turned it into a competition rather than merely trying to make our daughters happy had had something to do with it, too.
“So, how can I help you today?” I asked, stopping my reminiscing for now.
“How do I set up a company?” Missy questioned, stunning me for a moment.
Lily was easily bored and talented so she had, eventually, decided to let herself get taught such things by me in order to alleviate her boredom. Missy, however, had never really shown any interest in learning how to run a business. “Where did this come from?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Lily said that, if I want to help people, having lots of money could let me do that.” She explained as if that sentence made much sense without whatever context I was missing out on.
In principle, none of what she’d said was wrong but it was strange to just suddenly hear it. I also didn’t know how exactly Missy had wanted to help people before Lily had told her that. Considering how much she’d idolized Protectorate hunters in her youth, I was afraid of the answer. “It certainly could.” I agreed instead of asking her about it.
I’d probably confront Lily about it this evening. In case it was nothing, my worries would’ve been unfounded and I could feel relieved. If it was what I feared it was, however, then I couldn’t trust myself to react calmly to Missy giving me that answer and…I was not blind to how much my daughters had come to hate people raising their voices around them.
Maybe Lily and Missy didn’t even acknowledge it but they’d always glare at people other than myself and Alice when arguments got heated near them. I’d know since Alice and I had both accused each other of being at fault for that in the past.
To yell at Missy wouldn’t help anything so getting the answer now would just make things worse if my fears turned out to be correct.
“Then you can help me, right?” My daughter asked, looking hopeful enough that I suddenly found myself worrying. That level of hope, of desperation was not something that I ever wanted to see in either one of my daughters.
‘What did I miss?’ I cursed myself and Alice for losing the trust of our children because there was no other way I could think of for me to have not noticed Missy changing to such a degree. “Of course I can.” I promised, unwilling to let things get worse now that I was aware of the problem.
“Thank you so much!” Missy replied cheerfully and I tried my best to mirror her happiness even as I began to make a mental list of things to ask Lily about.
“Alright, now, how about you start by telling me some things about the worlds you’ve been to so I can help you figure out what you could use to make money.” I told her and then listened carefully.
Whatever else may have been the case, my daughter had come to me for help and I’d make sure she’d get it. I could worry about her wellbeing while doing that.
Ozpin
“I assume you’re here for my notes on magic.” I asked Lilian after getting the greetings out of the way. Interestingly enough, the world-travelling teenager had actually bothered appearing somewhere that wasn’t my office, wandering Beacon for a few minutes before coming to me.
“I am.” She confirmed, smiling. “But I was also wondering about something.”
“Feel free to ask me about it, then.” I encouraged her. Not just because having the ear of someone like her was useful but also because I just enjoyed helping people grow. “I do believe I have seen a great many things and might be able to help.”
Lilian snorted in response. “I suppose ‘a great many things’ can describe living countless lifetimes.” She seemed to find my wording to be amusing. In all honesty, so did I. In some ways, it was certainly an understatement of my experience. “Anyways, I was curious about whether you actually enjoy teaching or you’re just doing all this to fight against Salem.”
“Well, I won’t lie and say that that isn’t a part of it.” I admitted, somewhat surrpised by the question she’d posed. “However, a large part of me simply likes to nurture the minds of the youth so they may grow as well as possible.”
“Would you mind telling me why you like it?” Lilian questioned, looking curious but, beneath that, there was a hint of something more, something I was almost certain was uncertainty.
“If you tell me why you are so interested in the answer, I’d be happy to share it with you.” I told her, interested in why someone like her would be so interested in my love of teaching. I had a theory, of course, but it was best not to simply assume.
Lilian hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Alright then.” She verbalized her agreement. “I’m teaching some people from time to time and I actually like doing it for some reason.”
“And you feel like understanding why another immortal finds joy in teaching would help you understand your own feelings on the matter.” I concluded, smiling once again.
In some ways, it wasn’t surprising that she had turned towards me with this. Unless she knew any other immortals who taught people and were likely to enjoy doing so, there were very few options for her to pick from.
“Correct.” Lilian confirmed, doing her best to seem unperturbed but I could still see the doubt in her eyes.
Humming, I thought on how to word my response so as to best help her. “If I may, why do you believe you shouldn’t enjoy it?” I decided to ask before giving her my answer.
There was a hint of approval in her gaze at my question though it also held a spark of annoyance. “Because I know for a fact I don’t care about legacy.”
“And who’s to say that teaching has to be about leaving behind a legacy?” I challenged.
“Why else would someone want to teach someone else?” Lily replied as though it were obvious. “Teaching is just a way for mortals to tell themselves that they influenced someone else in the end, that their knowledge and influence lives on.”
“Ah, but you don’t teach for that reason, do you?” It was an obvious flaw in her logic, one that I found hard to believe Lilian would’ve missed. Preconceptions, however, had ways of blinding one that were so dangerous precisely because one wouldn’t expect someone to miss what they hid from one’s view.
If Lilian truly believed that that was all teaching was, then she wouldn’t have even bothered to ask herself that question. That was simply the way people were, always capable of overlooking even the most obvious things if the circumstances were right.
“That’s different.” Lilian denied but her doubts had definitely grown from our conversation. “I’m immortal. I teach these people because I need them to have certain skills to be useful to me.”
“And, in doing so, you defy your own definition of teaching.” I pointed out, raising an eyebrow at her while taking a sip of my coffee. “Either it is merely a tool for mortals or it is something more.”
She seemed frustrated now, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Fine then. Teaching isn’t just something for mortals to leave behind a legacy but it’s also a tool for immortals. That still doesn’t tell me why I should be able to enjoy it.”
“Well, I am, of course, not you.” I began because advising people on their own feelings was always tricky. “As such, I can only make assumptions. Hence, I’d advise you to ask yourself what your thoughts are on teaching. Are you interested in the future of those you teach? Does it make you feel good when you think on how they will grow or use what you taught them? Do you merely enjoy the thought of them being useful to you?”
A few moments after I finished speaking, Lilian sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to figure that out myself.” She acknowledged. Then, her eyes met mine, “You never actually answered my question by the way. You never told me why you like teaching.”
“Well,” I began, a fond smile finding its way onto my lips, “I mostly enjoy doing my best to contribute to the growth of others. Be it their skills as huntsmen or their growth as people, I’m happy to know that I try my hardest to make them as good as they can be.”
Lilian seemed to contemplate my words for some time before shaking her head. “Thank you for indulging me.” She told me, clearly not yet having reached her own answer on the matter.
“It was my pleasure.” I replied, certain she’d get the implication. But, if she was offended that I had essentially treated her as another student of mine – a reasonable worry considering the prideful nature she’d previously displayed – then she didn’t show it.
“Alright then, now give me the notes on your magic please and I’ll get out of your hair.” She changed the topic instead of acknowledging my words.
I was still smiling when she left my office with the notes I’d promised having been transferred to her scroll.
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