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

[prayingmantis]

The kitchen, during mid-morning, was nicely empty. It was the golden time of day between the early risers getting up and foraging for their breakfast and those who tended to sleep in shuffling in for whatever was left over.

Nnoitra liked this time of day. It got Szayel's bright and early morning-person attitude out of the way and it was before the usual rabble descended on them to make noise and disturb the peace before going out to do whatever it was they did.

The peace, mercifully, had not been disturbed yet, and so he sat at the table, the day's newspaper in front of him courtesy of Nel, and a pen in his long fingers. He didn't often do the paper's crossword, he generally considered it boring, but some of the Sound kids had booked the training centre, so he couldn't go and kill time there.

They were welcome to it though. The weather machine affected both the training centre and the grounds and, right now, rain was lashing against the back door hard enough to rattle it in its frame. He smirked slightly as he imagined the sandy floor of the training grounds turning slick and muddy underfoot.

"Nine down," he said, narrowing his eye. "'Autonomous Jyllandi City State', two words... four seven."

He wasn't sure of that one. He doubted that the Ryoka scientist, who was seated a bit away from him at the table and reading a different newspaper, knew either. Luppi could sometimes help, but the little shit had scuttled off somewhere an hour ago and not come back. If Szayel knew, he expected that he'd pipe up with his usual air of superiority, just to piss him off.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

"Ankh Morpork," Szayel responded, airily and with more than a hint of smarm. He was nursing a fresh cup of coffee while he flicked through one of the fashion magazines that had lurked inside the newspaper.

He'd been lurking in public areas more often since Even and Hojo had arrived at the Palace. They were interesting subjects of study, and he'd spent time gleaning what information he could from them without their co-operation. Unfortunately, Even was harder to gather information about than Szayel would have liked; he was too adept at suppressing his reiatsu, and the only information Nel had given up to him consisted of informing Szayel that Even was a sentinel, and that one day he was going to get his nose cut off if he insisted on poking it into places people didn't want it.

Hojo was easier; he spent less time repressing his reiatsu, so the fact that he was a rare poison type was quickly apparent, as was the fact that he wasn't of the sort of power that required hiding to spare the lives of others. Hojo clearly fell into the 'other talents' category of assets to Khamja. Though when Nel had told Szayel he was liable to lose his nose one day, Szayel had, not unfairly, pointed out that Hojo still had his.

He'd noticed when Kadaj had re-entered the Palace. The echoes of his reiatsu had faded into the background, but had still been present, and then that morning it had spiked again as someone entered the Palace. He hadn't commented, however; he wanted to observe first.

The reiatsu grew stronger as he felt Kadaj approach the kitchen, and looking into his magazine, Szayel smirked. Kadaj and Even had history, didn't they? Perhaps it would be an opportunity to see some abilities neither had shown him.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj entered the kitchen with his head held high, even if that wasn't quite how he felt.

He glanced at the other occupants. Nnoitra he knew, and owed much, Szayel he also knew, and probably owed much in the way of punches to the jaw, but Szayel wasn't worth it.

The other one he also knew, and Kadaj stopped a couple of steps into the room, staring at the blond man. He knew there was a reiatsu he recognised; he'd encountered this man before in battle, but what was he doing here?

He didn't say anything, simply stared, his expression serious.

[thechillyacademic]

Even looked up.

He didn't immediately look up, but he raised his head when he heard the person who had come through it stop only a few paces in.

After his little spat with the Fire Elemental girl, Tayuya, he found her name to be, the other members of that group had gone to tell their gang leader and most volatile friend exactly who he could expect to run into. Even didn't know whether they had been forewarned not to get into any fights with him by their owner, or whether they were smart enough to have figured that out for themselves, but he hadn't had much comeback from them.

Yes, so Grimmjow had treated him to threatening glares and aggressive body language to begin with, and the girl continued to do so, but they were apparently used to the idea that he was a defector from their enemy's side and, ultimately, not going anywhere, that they didn't push their luck.

This one, another he knew, had only arrived today. He'd had felt him enter the palace, mostly because he clearly wasn't hugely adept at hiding his reiatsu, not like the other more powerful members of the Clan and their subordinates. This one wore his power, or some of it, on his sleeve, but even noticed that he was young enough to probably grow out of it.

Still, he sighed. Apparently, he hadn't been informed of his arrival.

"If I wasn't meant to be here," he said, carefully, and deliberately not aggressively, "I would not be sitting here and drinking tea amongst Arrancar."

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra scribbled the answer Szayel gave him into the boxes provided.

His writing, it had to be said, was much neater than you'd expect.

He looked up when Kadaj entered and paused. He knew he'd been gone on his bike, so he expected, when he felt him in the Zertinan Caverns, that he would be tired from his time on the road and likely to spend a day in bed, recovering from his travels, like the others had. Apparently that wasn't the case.

He glanced at the Ryoka, and at Szayel, and then back at Kadaj. Even he knew that Clan Skite had an ongoing feud with one of this man's ex-associates, but, thus far, and probably due to intervention from either Nel or Aizen himself, there had been no fights between them.

Kadaj, who had just returned from a few months away after the last Khamja scientist he'd killed, would probably not be dumb enough to swing for this one, whether he'd been informed of his arrival or not, and it looked like he hadn't.

[joinmyreunion]

"Do you think I'm too stupid to work that out for myself?" Kadaj asked, in response. He wasn't openly aggressive, but his response, and expression, suggested aggression was possible if this started turning sour.

He eyed the blond one for a moment longer before he headed to the fridge and helped himself to a glass of orange juice. He was awake enough, but mostly, he craved some of the comforts he hadn't had while traveling on his bike; easy access to hot showers, and fresh food. He got them when he stayed at inns, but it wasn't the same.

The blond one had to have been here for long enough to be comfortable in the presence of Nnoitra and Szayel, anyway, which suggested he'd been here a little while. Kadaj wondered how long it had been, and he kept looking at him as he moved around to also help himself to toast.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel murmured thoughtfully, a noise that rose in pitch and was the equivalent of going 'OoooOOOh' in his throat. "Someone got confident while they were gone," he muttered, not entirely under his breath, still looking at his magazine. "No less unhinged, however," he added, much more quietly.

In truth, Kadaj did seem different. He was more powerful, that was for sure, but he also hadn't flipped his lid the moment he'd seen Even which, by all accounts, Tayuya had. He was still young and cocky enough to flash some of his power in his reiatsu, however, or maybe he just hadn't learned how to suppress it properly, it was difficult to tell, exactly.

Killing Orochimaru seemed to have given him a confidence boost. Whether that was a good thing or not, only time would tell. Though if this kept up, maybe not very much time.

[declaregamuza]

Nel had felt Kadaj re-enter the Palace, but she hadn't expected him to make his way to the kitchen without the rest of his band of reprobates. They'd met up while the others were away, she'd gathered that much, but Kadaj hadn't often wandered around without them before he'd left.

She'd wondered how their initial reunion had gone, but the fact that Kadaj had come back suggested it had gone well enough.

Unfortunately, the kitchen was where she knew Even was, which was less of a problem than the fact that it was also where Szayel was, which added catalyst to the possible reaction.

She entered the kitchen with a couple of empty cups that hadn't made their way back there and smiled at the room. "The wanderer returns, then," she said, brightly.

[thechillyacademic]

Even, in truth, wasn't sure how stupid Kadaj was.

He decided that he couldn't be hugely intelligent, since snapping at somebody who was undoubtedly your elemental superior was not smart by any stretch of reasoning, but he didn't comment on it. Instead he quirked an eyebrow, picked up his mug to sip his tea, and went back to his newspaper.

He had better things to do than argue with children.

[prayingmantis]

"Stuff's changed since you left," Nnoitra said, sitting back in his chair. "We've got two new scientists."

Because scientists were, apparently, like grey hairs.

Other than the addition of the Ryoka and Professor Hojo into the palace's ranks, not much was different. Kadaj likely already knew that the Sound 4 were now Kuja's minions, either from Kuja himself or from Tayuya, and he couldn't think of anything else that had happened since he'd scarpered in the wake of the murder they had jointly committed.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj huffed softly at the blond, and then proceeded to ignore him. He wasn't going to like this guy, he knew, but he was, at least, quiet enough that Kadaj could get on and ignore him.

He nodded at Nel as she entered, and then eyed Nnoitra, choosing, for now, to ignore Szayel as the worthless stirrer that he was. "I noticed," he said. Two new presences had been apparent from the moment he'd walked in, although the fact that both were scientists was interesting.

The blond Ryoka was another scientist, then. That made the snotty little one and this guy. "So he's one," he said, to Nnoitra, indicating the new Ryoka with a vague gesture, "who's the other?"

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

"The other one would be Professor Hojo," Szayel said, with a hint of irritation. While his fanboying of the other scientist had burned brightly, it had also quickly become annoyance. The man refused to acknowledge Szayel as anything other than 'you', and he persisted in calling the other Arrancar 'subjects'.

Szayel, who considered them in no small part his, in collaboration with others of course, but he was the scientist assigned to monitor their progress and wellbeing at the Palace, did not approve of Hojo's verbal attempts to muscle in on his territory.

"Not that I expect you're familiar with him," he added, snottily. He judged Kadaj too stupid for that, that was for sure.

[declaregamuza]

Nel's tone was warning, and she drew out the 'a' of, "Szayel," as if she was scolding a child. She didn't tell him to wind his neck in, but the sentiment was definitely there.

Szayel, generally, really needed to return that spoon sometime.

She swept around to the sink, giving Even a smile as she went and deposited the used cups in it before flicking the kettle on to make herself a cup of tea.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra gave Szayel a sideways look, his thin eyebrow raised.

Szayel had not expected him to know who Professor Hojo was, and yet he had, so Nnoitra's look was mostly one of mild, irritated amusement at him thinking that he would be the only person in the palace to have heard of the guy, even after being proven wrong. Hojo was famous, famous enough to be known outside of the typical circle of scientists.

"The Ryoka's the better of the two," Nnoitra said, gruffly. "Hojo's a self-important prick. Looks at everybody like they're his own personal 'specimens'."

He wrinkled his nose. Many members of Clan Khamja were certainly interesting from a scientific point of view, especially given the absurd power levels of some of them and the origins of others, but Hojo took his interest to a creepy new level. He was like a dodgy curb crawler, except rather than sticking to red light districts for his quarry, he hit main streets and acted like he was still entitled to ogle the goods.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj sneered slightly at Nnoitra's description of the other one. At least the ryoka was keeping to himself, for the most part, even if Kadaj didn't like him on sight. The other one sounded like someone Kadaj might have an incident with if Kadaj didn't work hard to keep his temper.

He was definitely better at that, but he knew it wasn't perfect, and he'd rather not kill another member of the clan any time soon. He'd start to get a reputation.

"Great," he muttered, "just what we need." He picked out some bread to shove in the toaster and make himself what would pass for breakfast. Proper toast was something he definitely hadn't had in a while. Funny how the little things became luxuries when you traveled without an airship. "More scientists that treat everyone like an experiment."

That comment was half directed at Szayel.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel looked up from his magazine to throw Nel a look of open contempt. He always hated it when she used that tone on him; she sounded like she thought she was his mother. Not even his mother used that tone on him.

"You'll find Hojo worse than me," he said, lightly, looking back at Kadaj. Then he glanced sidelong at Even, but continued to address Kadaj. "Of course, some of us have already seen you in battle to have your data," he said, with a faint smirk.

[prayingmantis]

"Even Hojo would have to put the effort in to be worse than you," Nnoitra spat.

Szayel, Nnoitra knew, was deliberately trying to piss Kadaj off. Kadaj wasn't a friend of Nnoitra's, but they had a tentative sort of alliance and they'd already murdered one scientist. Szayel was being especially stupid trying to needle him.

"Hojo worked on the SOLDIER experiment," Nnoitra pointed out. "Unless people are of that calibre, rare as fuck or already somebody else's experiment, I doubt he's going to give a shit."

He knew that was how it was. Midgar's laboratories worked on their sapient enhanced soldiers, mostly Hyur, and Palumpolum's Gapra Laboratories worked on their animal-based troops, the so-called Militarized Units. There was a little crossover, but Hojo was known for being the head of the Shinra Laboratories in Midgar, not Gapra, though he had consulted.

[thechillyacademic]

Even looked up from his newspaper, interested.

He had met Professor Hojo and had found him wholly unpleasant, but hearing about his area of expertise was interesting, especially since it came not from the other scientist present, but one of the Arrancar that Even had been warned was a violent lunatic.

He didn't doubt that he was, but thus far, he had been collected enough, if bored, on every single occasion that he'd met him. Now, with him showing knowledge of one of Spira's famous scientists, if one that wasn't quite a household name, he didn't take him as a foolish brawler like he had imagined he'd be.

Hojo was, in Even's opinion, playing a dangerous game.

Perhaps he hadn't annoyed the wrong Arrancar, or maybe he had yet to meet Marluxia and his very dangerous pet, but if Hojo was as openly critical and analytical of every person of unusual origin and uncommon power as he had seemed when he met him, it would be a minor miracle if he didn't find himself being quietly offed at some point in the near future.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

"Oh stop," Szayel said, very inauthentically flattered, "you'll make me blush." He threw a nasty smirk at Nnoitra. "You seem to forget that nearly everyone in this Palace fits those criteria."

At least one of them, anyway. Ryoka, captain level Shinigami, a magic wielding Genome, the enhanced ninja minions of another scientist, the Hollow enhanced minions of a Shinigami Captain, and, well, then there was Kadaj, who was a layman zanpakuto wielder who had been exposed to mako at some point in the past. "Admittedly," he said, "Kadaj is the least interesting one here from a scientific perspective, but he still has his merits."

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj rolled his eyes. Was he supposed to be offended that he was 'the least interesting'?

"If it means another crazy scientist leaves me alone, I can be as boring as they want," he said, directing this at Szayel. Szayel was trying to annoy him, he knew that. If Szayel got his temper up he'd get a sense of Kadaj's reiatsu and chakra, how much of it had changed, how his control had changed and so on. Kadaj didn't want him to have that information, however, and he kept himself calm by paying attention to making his own breakfast.

Szayel wasn't worth snapping over.

[declaregamuza]

Nel shook her head, listening in to the conversation.

She'd heard of Hojo before. He'd been famous a few years ago but was supposed to have died. Obviously, his death had been a ruse by someone in Khamja to hide him, but she remembered the controversy around him at the time.

The laboratory accident that was supposed to have killed him had happened just as the news was breaking that illegal alchemy and other activities were taking place under his guidance. It had been generally assumed in Archades that his accident wasn't an accident, which had turned out to be true, and that he had in fact been killed off by Shinra itself to divert attention and dispose of a rogue element, or at least, one that it now suited them to claim was a rogue element. Others had believed he'd been killed by terrorist groups or a former experiment, and that was being covered.

It had turned out, Hojo was escaping exactly that sort of fate.

Escaping it too well, in Nel's opinion, but with any luck he'd upset Marluxia and Lumi and stop being everyone's problem again shortly.

[thechillyacademic]

Even wrinkled his nose.

"He's vile," he said, unhappily. "He referred to me as a 'specimen', expressed his interest in using me in experiments that involved battle prowess despite me pointing out that I am largely non-combatant and suggested, quite cheerfully, that I might even survive them."

He shook his head, haughtily. He had plenty of experience with scientists lacking in common morals and ethics. He was one of them, or used to be, and he had no interest in putting himself up for experimentation, especially considering it would just be to test ability and endurance. It wasn't as though Professor Hojo could create more Ryoka, regardless of the results.

He was more concerned about Ienzo. He'd already been taken in by one of Khamja's psychopaths, he didn't need to fall victim to another.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj turned his head slightly to eye the blond when he mentioned he was 'largely non-combatant'. That hadn't been Kadaj's experience of him. He'd definitely been less battle crazed than the berserker, but when you were comparing to the berserker, so was Kadaj, and Yylfordt, and Tayuya.

Even if he considered himself non-combatant, he was definitely adept in battle. He had that typical Ryoka affinity for a single element that was more like running into a pissed off entite than a person. He'd brought Kadaj and Tayuya down in one spell, Kadaj remembered.

Of course, Kadaj had learned some new tricks since then, but this guys ice spells were still something Kadaj didn't want to run face first into again in a hurry.

[declaregamuza]

"I haven't run into him myself yet," Nel said, leaning back against the counter, "but I've been told he's the one who keeps smoking in my kitchen." Late at night or early in the morning, usually, from the way it smelled. He didn't venture up from his laboratory often during the day, unless he was scoping out residents or visiting the library.

Her kitchen. It wasn't technically hers, of course; it was open for use by anyone, but since Nel did the majority of the cooking and cleaning, and stocking, of the kitchen, it was nominally her domain. Others were allowed in, but there were rules.

No Malboros on the table, no trousers no service, and no smoking. Also no discussion of sex acts, body fluids, injuries, or associated nastiness at the table when food is present, a set of rules which expanded every time Szayel found something she hadn't explicitly told him not to do any more.

"With any luck," she said, "he'll try smoking in the library, and then he'll stop being a problem for everyone."

It wasn't like Nel to wish death on someone, but she'd heard nothing redeemable about Hojo, and between that and his reputation, she felt justified in judging him before she'd really met him.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

"Well," Szayel said, "unfortunate nicotine addiction aside, he does have a point." He looked at Even out of the side of his glasses and smirked at him, "The battle data for a Ryoka such as yourself would be fascinating. Your reiatsu and use of chakra is quite unusual, and there hasn't been an opportunity to study one of you before now."

He shrugged his shoulders and put his chin on his hand. "I'd have hoped a scientist would understand the potential value of such information. The things we natives could learn," he sighed, "the flaws in your own hastily learned usage that you might uncover that would allow you to make your methods more chakra-economical." He sighed, "Pity you're so stubborn."