Old Answers to New Questions (Open-Hatayama)

Yuudai slowly walked through the Hatayama library, a place he had done his best to avoid since graduating from the academy. Back then he would have done anything to stay out of this place, to dodge the need to study but now it was the opposite. He needed to study. To research. To discover what that kido at the challenge was. It felt different to any kido he’d ever used before. Yogan was being both evasive and slightly helpful in the matter. Avoiding any direct answers but dropping hints and riddles about it. The only solid response his spirit had given was “I don’t know anything you don’t. So if I know it, you do too. You must have picked it up somewhere.” A perfectly logical statement and true, but the question became where had he learned it. It certainly wasn’t at the academy, so he must have come across it while studying here in the library.

His footsteps echoed through the still air. While the main body of the library was open to the public, this section was restricted to the core family, this is where he studied. Presumably it was where all the family had studied at one point or another. Away from the noise and prying eyes of the masses, down here were tomes not even the rest of the shinigami were allowed to access. He glanced down each of the aisles as he passed them each slightly darker than the last. It was clear no one ever really came this deep often. It was quite possible he was the last person down here when he was a student.

He smiled lightly as the memories of the place flashed through his mind. The times he was practically ripping his hair out in confusion, the times he lost track of time and someone had come looking for him when they became worried, that one time Zenji used several binding kido on him and told him to practice his kido or he’ll be stuck down here forever. The man let out a chuckle, he was furious at the time but looking back Zenji was only thinking of Yuudai’s future and didn’t want him to flunk from the academy.

Yuudai noticed that the tomes on the shelves he was passing were becoming more and more worn. The stained pages, shrunken covers, generally covered in cracks, but with all of them the spine was in decent condition, it was clear the wear was from time rather than use. Another thing he noticed, the tomes were becoming larger and thicker. Many of them had what looked like loose pages or addendums stuck in them, most likely notes from ages past until they became so outdated it was eventually just rewritten.

The shinigami let out a sigh as he continued, glancing down the aisles not really knowing what he was looking for exactly, but hoping when he saw it he’d know it. He stopped for a moment when the shelves on his left changed. These ones didn’t hold any books or tomes, just piles of rolled up scrolls. He tilted his head and squinted slightly as a vague memory of these floated through his mind. He had found and read some of these when studying but none of them had anything useful to say. Mostly just historic records going all the way back to the creation of the soul society. It shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as it was when he found them the first time. He knew the Hatayama clan went back that far but something about finding their notes and records of the time still shocked him.

Yuudai turned and walked down the first scroll aisle a few shelves in. He scanned the piles of scrolls as he went, all were showing the wear of age not dissimilar to the tomes a few aisles back. One detail he found odd though was that each and every scroll was placed perfectly on their racks. Each lining up exactly with all the other in the collection. Surely there should be at least some variance, even if almost no one ever came here anymore.

As the man stopped and reached out to one of the scroll to see what it contained, he nearly jumped out of his skin when Zenji’s voice echoed down from the end of the shelves. “Son of a… Are you trying to kill me, cousin? If so, there are far easier ways to do it.” Yuudai walked back up the shelves to where Zenji had sat and poured some wine.

Yuudai paused as he reached the seating, “Oh yeah, I forgot about the wards. They weren’t active last time I was here so they slipped my mind. I’m sure the priest will recover, we don’t take on the faint of heart usually.” He shrugged lightly as he took a seat next to the cup of wine, he’ll find the priest later and apologise. He took a sip from the cup as he thought out an answer to Zenji’s question that wouldn’t make him sound insane.

He tapped the cup lightly on the table as he began to speak, “Remember your lieutenant challenge? I don’t know if you noticed but I did step forward to help with the captain before you slapped him into place. In that instant I tried to call on the strongest Kido I could use and Yogan answered. I took the words he threw at me and began to speak them as with any other Kido, but something was off. It didn’t feel… normal I guess is the word.” He took another sip of wine, “And that reiryoku that gathered. It was unlike any I’ve ever seen, even amongst the strongest Kido uses of the Hatayama.”

Yuudai relaxed back in the chair and let out a sigh, “Of course I’ve asked Yogan where those words came from only to be met with the reminder that he only knows things that I know so I must have picked it up somewhere. A true, if vague, statement. Typical of him honestly.” The shinigami shook his head, his face showing his annoyance at his zanpakuto spirit, “With it being at least somewhat similar to Kido I assumed I must have picked it up while studying for these texts while at the academy. Though I don’t recall ever reading anything that describes this spell or its ilk, let alone memorising the spell itself.”