Mommy's got a scarecrow, gotta let the corn grow

[joinmyreunion]

When the others had said they were going back, Kadaj had said he'd join them.

He wasn't sure if he was ready to go home. He knew that when he did things would have changed, things would need to have changed. Orochimaru was gone, and Kadaj wasn't going to be viewed as just the impulsive idiot riding Kuja's coattails any more. His relationship with Gin was going to have changed as well. Kadaj had always trusted Gin in that he'd trusted Gin to be Gin; whose actions and motives were utterly beyond Kadaj's comprehension, but in the very least he got the impression that Gin wouldn't hurt him for the fun of doing so, which was more than Kadaj could say for any of the rest of Khamja. Where Gin was concerned, Kadaj tried not to be a hindrance, even if he didn't know how to be a help.

Now Gin knew secrets about Kadaj that no one else did. No one barring Nnoitra, and now Grimmjow, Tayuya, and Yylfordt. It would have put Kadaj on Gin's radar, he knew, he just had to hope now that whatever game Gin played didn't have need of a playing piece with Kadaj's moveset.

Then there was Kuja. Since he couldn't occupy the safe spot hiding behind Kuja's skirts any more, Kadaj might be surplus to Kuja's requirements. He could play him; play at being the loyal little ex-minion, but Kadaj knew he probably wouldn't be able to keep that up for too long. Better, then, to play at ingenue ally, in need of guidance, who may be inclined to owe Kuja some favours. It hurt to think it, but Kadaj trusted Kuja marginally less than he trusted Gin when it came to his own safety if he wasn't immediately useful to him.

And then, then there was Aizen. Kadaj doubted very much that his defeat of Orochimaru had put him on Aizen's radar, but he doubted Aizen disregarded the whole affair, either. It might, at worst, or at best, have put Kadaj down as an upstart to keep an eye on. Kadaj wasn't wholly sure how to ingratiate himself with that one yet, or whether doing so was even wise.

So returning to the Palace was frought with nerves and second guessing himself. Kadaj took the time to chase down one last Hollow before he headed back; a mean thing that a Gotei Lieutenant might break a sweat over, but which Kadaj could take down almost leisurely, now. Then and only then did he head back, driving the bike through the caverns and parking her with the airships.

Yylfordt could keep the Ragnarok. Kadaj was quite fond of his bike, now.

He approached the Palace doors with a sigh, steeling himself before he let himself in. The Palace felt very, very different to what he was used to. The usual suspects were all here, of course, their reiatsu interwoven with the general feel of the place, but there were dischords in the usual symphony. Reiatsu signatures missing, faded, no longer detectable, and intruders that were too new to have found their place in the piece, yet.

One of them felt familiar, though Kadaj couldn't really pinpoint why.

He was full of sand and dust from the desert, so the first thing he did was head off to have a shower and change. On his way, he left something outside Kuja's door, and once he'd showered, he headed straight to the kitchen, where the others tended to lurk.

Comments

[declaregamuza]

"Unfortunately for Hojo," Nel said, "this particular scalpel carries a sword."

And has some infamously violent friends that won't appreciate him being harassed, there was that too.

She gave Kadaj a smile. "I'll help you with cleaning up," she told him. "Just because it's difficult doesn't mean you should make Hojo's life easy," she added.

Washing utensils, cups, plates, that was easy enough. She could wash laundry for him, too, if he brought them to her so she could do them without them lingering in a laundry pile. Fortunately, Kadaj wore a lot of leather, but bedding, towels, and the like would be good places to find stray hairs and so on.

[thechillyacademic]

"Mmmn," Even said, agreeing with Nel, but looking at Szayel. "Generally speaking, the scalpel doesn't grow up with a mind to stab the surgeon."

He didn't blame Kadaj. He didn't really blame any unwilling or unknowing participant in an experiment for wanting to rise up and fight back against the creator once it developed a mind of its own. It was almost inevitable that they would stray from the plan and, given enough power, when they stopped wanting to play the role given to them they had little compassion to spare for those who made them to be used.

Szayel, Even decided, was either an immature aspirer to science or had never headed up his own, serious project before. He wasn't stupid, nor could he be as stubborn and ignorant of people as Hojo was, yet he persisted in trying to make himself look wise on matters he couldn't possibly have any experience in if he held to those rigid opinions.

It was interesting. He took himself very seriously, but Even couldn't shake the idea that all he had done thus far was ride coattails and take credit for, quite probably, joint ventures so far.

[prayingmantis]

"Yeah," Nnoitra agreed with a bark of a laugh. "You should probably avoid that, tempting as it is."

He gave Szayel a sideways look when he said that.

He half wondered what Kuja would make of Kadaj being harassed by Hojo.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel shrugged both of his shoulders, lightly. "I admire the man's work," he began, a phrase which wouldn't normally have left his mouth, but Shinra's SOLDIERs were more than a little influential in the world of bioweapon engineering, "but you have to admit he lacks a certain tact. I doubt all his specimens consented to be experimented on." Some had, certainly, the Thirds and Seconds, and possibly the Firsts that were not Sephiroth, as if anyone remembered their names, but Sephiroth, it seemed, had grown up an experiment and knew nothing else. Kadaj had been destined for the same course in life, and Szayel knew that in among Shinra's files there would be testing on illegally obtained specimens, some of them licensed species. The controversy brewing when Hojo had 'died' had been regarding the manufacture of chimaera, a controversy which combined licensed species, and illegal alchemy.

He looked at Kadaj. "He's used to hearing 'no' from his specimens, as well as threats, is my point." He gave Kadaj a nasty smirk, folding his arms across his chest. "If he acts like he doesn't hear the objections from myself and other Arrancar, don't expect him to be put off by one of your little tantrums."

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj eyed Szayel. "My last tantrum," he said, managing not to spit the word back at him, "ended with Orochimaru's Sending."

Hojo wasn't on the same level as Orochimaru, even the weakened and desperate Orochimaru he and Nnoitra had fought. Hojo's danger was the more insidious kind, in Khamja, in that you couldn't be sure who it was that might need him, and might object to his sudden passing, but it certainly wasn't in any ability to overwhelm Kadaj with force, or shatter his mind and take up residence there himself.

"If he doesn't want to listen when I warn him to back off, the next Sending I do will be his." He glanced over at Nnoitra. He hadn't been alone in dispatching Orochimaru, but he doubted he'd need help with Hojo. "I'm sick of people trying to keep me on their leash," he said, a little more quietly.

[declaregamuza]

Nel sighed, and gently ruffled Kadaj's hair before resting her hand on his shoulder. "Just so long as you're careful," she told him. Khamja was a dangerous place, and Kadaj had been in it for a long time. The thing that had protected him for so long, as far as Nel could work out, was that he had been on other people's leashes.

There was a difference between not being leashed, and being a loose cannon. Kadaj in the past had tended towards being the latter. He seemed more controlled now, but one slip could be all it took.

"Some of us like you," she added, with an amused smile, as he flicked his fingers through his hair to make sure it was straight again.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra gave Kadaj a nod.

He could see Kadaj's point of view on the subject. Hojo was unreasonable above and beyond the call of duty. For some reason that Nnoitra couldn't fathom, he didn't seem to fear what more powerful people could do to him, not even when they weren't subdued or tied down or otherwise vulnerable.

Hojo had been important to Shinra's development of human soldiers, he knew that all too well, but had nobody ever managed to fight against him in all the years he did it? He remembered news of a death or two from the Gapra laboratory complex where his mother worked, where they had made the monsters, but were there really no human-caused fatalities or had that just been kept more quiet than those caused by animals?

Regardless, Kadaj did need to be careful.

He could do without a reputation as a scientist killer in Khamja, because scientists were valuable while fighters were a gil a dozen. If you kept killing them, somebody would kill you. Nnoitra couldn't blame him for wanting to, because between Hojo, Orochimaru and Szayel he'd quite happily kill them all himself, but even he knew when to exercise a modicum of caution.

Of the scientists in-house, only the Ryoka, Even, seemed halfway tolerable.

[thechillyacademic]

"For an intelligent man," Even said, looking at Szayel, "Hojo seems remarkably stupid. He may have been able to get away with that in a government controlled complex, where he had grunts to hold down his subjects and specimens, but here ... he's on his own. Anybody can tell that his reiatsu isn't up to much, not in comparison to most of the residents."

He got up to put the kettle on. His tea was long gone and the dregs were cold.

"He's interested in anything unusual," he said. "Anything out of the ordinary. Ryoka, a prior subject that his lack of attention lost years ago, other people's experiments. Nnoitra and Kadaj are clearly formidable fighters -- I was warned against antagonising both of them, among others, before I arrived here... not that I intended to."

He paused to fill the kettle and resumed speaking once the noise of the water had gone.

"I have, regrettably, faced Kadaj before and the group I left remember well what Nnoitra is capable of," he said, recalling the reports of the fight that had gone south for them, the fight that, if Even's memory served, was how Neliel had earned that scar. "If Hojo thinks that all he's going to get are idle threats he's a fool and he's not going to live very long."

He himself wouldn't put up with experimentation unless he agreed to it and he might be tempted to, depending on the parameters. Ienzo would be less likely to agree and, whether he did or didn't, he had a feeling that his new friend's boss considered him far too valuable to allow that. He didn't know what Marluxia would make of it, but he had an idea that he still didn't view scientists very favourably, so he doubted very much that his refusal would be polite. His pet, from what he had heard, could subdue problem Arrancar with little effort, so Hojo didn't stand a chance.

"Is anybody else having tea or coffee?" He opened the cupboard to get to the teabags.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj ducked away from Nel like a teenage boy having his hair mussed by an affectionate parent and fearing being made to look terminally uncool by allowing it. He tossed his head and flicked his fingers at his hair, and threw Nel a sulky look, ready to whine at her.

He liked Nel, she was calm and kind and looked out for people, and she was, essentially, what Kadaj thought mothers were probably supposed to be. He'd seen flashes of it in his own, but it had been overshadowed by other things, things that now Kadaj had to wonder about. Had they been symptoms of other things. Some of the things she'd screamed at him for, the times she'd cried, or locked herself away, or when she'd locked him away, and when she'd finally left... Had he reminded her of another child that she hadn't been able to keep? Had she been scared of how easily she could lose Kadaj too? His mother had never been very stable, emotionally, but now there might be reasons behind some of it.

What had Hojo done to her to get her to let him use her sons?

He wished, suddenly, that she was still alive, but she'd died in an institution, and left Kadaj a few mementos, letters he couldn't read, and a bangle he couldn't wear.

He needed to learn to read. For many, many reasons.

He looked sharply at Even when he began speaking to Szayel. Even had been warned about aggravating him? That was... flattering, actually.

"No, thank you," he said, to the offer of tea or coffee, manners coming automatically.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel smirked haughtily at Even's assessment of Hojo. He wasn't wrong, Szayel would admit it. In Shinra it had probably been that no one would dare; Hojo had near legendary status there and the fear of reprisals would be present. He also had access to high security containment units, and most likely, any number of drugs and disposable lackeys to administer them.

"Shinra used Orbo," he said, thinking, "it negates chakra, makes you weak as a kitten. I imagine any unwilling participants were under its effects."

Which raised the question of whether Hojo had such a thing here. Szayel looked very, very thoughtful. If he did, he'd become very quickly unpopular; no one in the Palace would be content to be confined with someone who had that at their disposal.

"Of course, there's a reason he's still alive despite everything," he said. "Perhaps Hojo knows who wants him alive, and why, and is counting on that to make him untouchable." Szayel's smile grew bright and nasty. "Although I think I'll draft my request to take over the labs he inhabits now, rather than waiting."

[declaregamuza]

"I'm fine, thank you," Nel said, to Even, still amused at the way Kadaj reacted like a bratty teenager.

"And if that man keeps smoking in my kitchen," she said, contributing to the conversation, "I'll kill him." He'd stank of it, and something about second hand smoke in a food preparation area was as infuriating as Malboros on the dining surface. "The rest of you will have to queue."