markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .021

Hey, Caesar! Do you mind if I stop by this afternoon? [Because mind or not, she is coming. But before she gets there, if you asked after her while she had eye-mushi and she hasn't spoken to you yet, she's looking for you. She will be all about town, since she doesn't know where some of you live. She also plans on checking in with Sokka and the rest of the Gaang at some point today.]

[And later in the evening, after dinner and far past when she is usually fast asleep, you can find Katara practicing not far from her house. Since Ginko died she's been robbed of her rest - combine that with the draft list being posted and she's decided to cope the only way she knows how - by using the time to find some peace. For that purpose, she is doing a special form. She runs through the first without doing any bending at all. When she repeats it, she bends thin tendrils of water up and around and over, following the movements of her hands - and when one catches her eye she freezes it in place, creating a small practice area of frozen arches and swirls.

They won't last long, especially not in the heat of a summer night. That's not the point. That's not the point at all.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He catches that pause, but attributes it to Ginko being kidnapped, and thinks nothing more of it.]

He was. [He shrugs.] It was something that could be taken care of without his direct attention. Freed him up for other things. [And, yes, it still makes him cringe a little, feeling that out of control with what should have been his own element.]

Yeah... that was a busy week for him.

So I gathered. I kept a close watch on the journal that week. [Since he couldn't do anything but for a few of those days.]

[Talking about Ginko hurts. So - time for a subject change.]

So what else can you do with ice?

[Subject change it is. He'll go with it.] A few things. Each sword is capable of two stages of release. In the first, I can... [He pauses. How to explain this without sounding completely... strange. Screw it. It'll sound strange and she'll question it.] ... It looks like the dragon itself, made of ice. I can direct it toward an enemy. I can freeze anything the sword touches.

Freeze it completely? All the way through?

If I want. [Shrug. Sometimes, it depends on the opponent and how much Hitsugaya himself is really trying.] The sword itself changes; there's a chain and sickle connected to the hilt in its first release. It's the chain that freezes what it touches -- it can come in pretty handy. [Like when Hollows are freaking massive and need a few limbs taken care of.]

That sounds [...ridiculous. How are you supposed to use a weapon like that?] ...intense.

[She inclines her head to peer at the sword on his back.] It changes its shape? ...what are you usually fighting, when you use somthing like that? I mean, it's pretty big as it is now. I couldn't use it long in a fight.

[He waits for the punchline -- so many short jokes start off with a note about his sword -- and just blinks at her when it doesn't come.]

It's meant to fight Hollows -- the monsters I told you about. [He did, didn't he? He's had to explain things to so many people lately...] Some of them can be pretty large. Seen a few with barbed tails. [Those are always fun.] Most of them have claws of some sort. They can be pretty destructive.

[Didn't even cross her mind, Hitsugaya. If he's carrying it, he can obviously use it.]

The corrupted souls? [Frowny and mildly disturbed face.] That's terrible. And that sort of thing happens all the time?

[He shrugs. Terrible or not...] That's how it is. They'll destroy the newly dead souls if we don't cleanse them. [Of course, Hyourinmaru's -- and other zanpakutou's -- abilities have come in pretty handy in the war, too.]

I know you told me, but... what happens when you cleanse them? Do they go.. back to normal?

[He nods.] Unless the soul was truly corrupt in life, too. We don't judge; we just cleanse the corruption after death.

...and what happens... when they go where they're supposed to. [Her hand reaches up and touches her necklace.] Are they happy there? Does your world have reincarnation?

They live their lives in Soul Society and then are reborn into the Living Realm. [He's skipping that happy part. Some are. Some aren't. At least they get another chance. That's more than he can say for some.]

[She drops her hand. It's a different world, anyway.] In our world, the Avatar is the only one we know for sure who is reborn, every cycle, to a different nation.

Different worlds. Different methods. [He shrugs. At least... maybe.] Nothing to say that others aren't and the Avatar is the only recorded one.

Heh. I guess that's true. [After all, there was that story...]

Can't really say. [He snorts.] We're death gods and there's still mysteries left.

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