Midnight Snack (W/Knowledge)

Knowledge twisted his upper body, feet unmoving, to get a look at the Shinigami who had called out to him. He offered a closed-lipped smile through the mouthful of fruit, and then turned back to the kitchenette, a slightly disappointed look on his face.

He chewed, swallowed, and discarded the rest of the apple, wiping his hand on one of the towels that hung in front of the sink.
‘I don’t know if I would call this a kitchen at all, Kazuto. It gives me the distinct impression of being put here by someone who had the idea of a kitchen described to them without fully understanding what they were being told.’ He grimaced, running a finger along the surface of the stove. Whatever it was he found there, he rubbed between his fingers with a look of purest disdain on his face, then flicked it off to one side and turned to the younger man, peering at him with some interest.

‘Hungry, then? Come with me. The Fifth can do far better than whatever it is you choose to call this monstrosity,’ he said, motioning for the Shinigami to follow him as he took off in the direction of the division’s kitchens. There was something strangely compelling in his movements; it wasn’t often people said no when Knowledge told them what to do. Maybe that was why he didn’t do it very often.

He was certain he had described the rationale behind the Fifth’s communal cooking to a number of people in the past, but he didn’t offer a repeat performance today, preferring instead to move in silence. They passed a few people on the way, and their puzzled looks—some even tried to subtly reach for their weapons—at the sight of an outsider in their barracks quickly faded when their eyes slid from Knowledge’s face to Kirito’s.

Not, mind you, because they thought the two were keeping company, but rather because Knowledge was the kind of guy that leave a lasting impression unless he wanted to. Out of sight, out of mind, he always said. Invisibility was beyond the scope of his ability, but when people had the tendency to forget you were there the moment they looked away, you might as well never have been there.

Luckily, the kitchens were empty.

‘So, what’re you in the mood for? Some early breakfast? Late dinner? Neither? Both?’

Okay, for starters, this guy was far too casual. He waltzed into Kirito's private quarters to take an apple, proceeded to dis the kitchen, and now expected Kirito to follow him for food? Not only that, but Kirito was surprised to see that the man acted as if Kirito would do exactly has he asked him too. Ironically, as Kirito needed answers, he decided to go along with the man's plan, though he wouldn't do so without asking a few questions. Confused and rather frazzled, Kirito began to raise his voice at the man as they walked towards the Fifth's dining hall. He glanced at the two mystified faces of some new recruits who obviously had no idea what was going on, shaking his head and casting away any ideas of bringing them into this event. Then, Kirito continued his train of thought, starting the sentence he meant to start a moment prior.

"Okay, for starters, who the hell are you?? And why were you in my kitchen. Oh! And how did you know my name!?"

As they reached the white tiled expanse of the food storage, Kirito was confused as the man asked what kind of food he wanted, ignoring Kirito's requests for now.  Kirito was puzzled at how the man was acting around somebody who he had just technically stolen from and trespassed upon. Regardless, he had to answer the man, show him who was truly in charge at the moment.

"That doesn't matter right now... whoever you are! And... dinner please. But really, answer my questions, please? Why are you making me food? EVERYTHING IS SO CONFUSING!"

Calming down and taking two deep breaths, Kirito glanced at the man once more, activating his reiatsu perception.

Funny.

There was literally no spirit energy around the man. None. Not a pinch. He was blanker in the spiritual sense to Kirito's eyes than even a mundane human. Yet, there was some sort of air of power about him, floating around and enticing Kirito, overwhelming his senses and driving him to do as the man did and follow him wherever he went. Truly, it was a mystery. Decidedly, Kirito ignored the fact that the man had no spiritual presence whatsoever along with the rest of the weird circumstances and wait for the guy to give him some damn answers. Really, how complicated could it be: For all Kirito knew, he could be dealing with some misplaced Rukongai soul. Yet, something told Kirito in the back of his mind that this man was far more than just a lost being. He was here for a reason.

Things seemed to happen like that around him.

Words:441

The edges of Knowledge’s mouth curved ever so slightly downward, not quite a frown but far from a smile. ‘Well, Kazuto, like I said: I don’t know if I would call that a kitchen at all. That’s why we’re here,’ he said, making a vague sort of gesture to the gleaming stainless steel they now found themselves surrounded by. It wasn’t his favorite kitchen in Seireitei—that honor belonged to the one Nagisa had inherited from Kohara (he had been very pleased to see that it had been rebuilt just like it had been before Truth’s little project had seen fit to destroy it)—but it ranked pretty high. Top ten, maybe top five. It was that familial spirit that had sunk into the walls just like the smell of grease. The Fifth were easy to respect for what they were: honest, hard-working, a little on the dense side perhaps but then everything came with a price, didn’t it?

‘As for who I am, well, that’s a good question! Who, indeed? Maybe I’m your conscience, or the voice of good sense. Maybe, Kazuto, I’m not really here at all.’

He shrugged lightly, a brighter expression on his face to match the twinkling in his eyes. ‘I mean, who knows?’

Well, I suppose I do.

He checked the refrigerators and selected a few ingredients—mostly vegetables, but Knowledge appropriated an egg and one of the nicer cuts of beef, too—and brought them all out to the countertop before finding a wok and setting it on the gas stove.

‘Do you like stir-fry?’ he asked, as he turned the knob and the flames sputtered and coughed into life. He frowned when it reached its maximum, obviously displeased with something, flicked it once or twice and then turned it again, far beyond where it had been designed to stop. The flames leapt up higher, and that seemed to satisfy him.

‘It’s an easy enough dish to prepare,’ he continued as he pulled a knife free from the rack and inspected it carefully, ‘and depending on your ingredients it’s pretty healthy, too. You’ll be needing something to get your strength up if you’re planning on heading to Hueco Mundo. And me, I’m going to teach you how to make it.’

Knowledge beckoned for the Shinigami to come closer, then pointed at what he had prepared.

‘Those are your ingredients. You’ve got a few minutes before the pan is hot enough, so I advise you to spend them chopping what you’ve got there into roughly the same size. You’ll want to separate the egg white from the egg yolk, use the white to coat the meat, and by then the pan should be hot enough for you to add a little bit of this’—he produced a bottle of olive oil from one of the shelves—‘which is a far better alternative to the peanut or soybean oil people around here like to use.’

A smile. ‘After that, it’s easy. Add the meat, then the vegetables, keep stirring, and I’ll tell you when you’re done.’

He held out the knife, handle first, to his pupil.

‘Understand?’

Okay, to recap the absolute insanity that was racing through Kirito's mind: 

-He had met a spooky ghost who seemed to know everything, like some kind of god.

-Said spooky ghost was stealing food from his kitchen.

-Kirito had followed this spooky ghost who had proceeded to dis his kitchen, all the way to the dining hall of the fifth division. The ghost was a ghost to Kirito, because nobody else could see him.

-The ghost had opened the kitchen storage, and taken out some cooking supplies for a dinner, then began (probably) probing Kirito's mind, throwing information at him that even Kirito had hardly thought about.

-The ghost was teaching Kirito how to cook stir fry.


Phew.

Alright, that was quite the list, especially coming from one encounter with a man he had never met (or maybe he had, Kirito thought the face was familiar) who couldn't be seen by anyone else, indicated by the lack of reaction from his fellow shinigami on the long way to the dining hall from his room. The being knew about his plans to go to Hueco Mundo, and honestly probably knew the reason as well: something even Kirito couldn't honestly discern at the time. For all he knew, this man could be a figment of his imagination, an idle hallucination, perhaps.

Of course, recognizing the fact that he was likely going insane didn't make the situation any better.

Kirito, at this point, had learned there was no point in trying to do anything but what the man suggested, and as he had been told, Kirito began to follow the man's instructions to make stir fry. His quick and rather godlike from a normal human's perspective reflexes aided him in the chopping and preparation of the meal, and as he was cooking Kazuto decided that due to the simplicity of the dish, he could multitask. 

The other task?

Figuring out who this guy was.

Kirito knew he had to choose his words carefully, and he burnt himself with the boiling hot oil several times while preparing the dish because he found himself drifting off into thoughts of how to phrase his question. He had to ask it in such a way that an answer from the man was unavoidable. So, as the dish finished cooking and Kirito had served the food for himself and the man, he beckoned for the being to try the food as he asked his question.

"Sir, or rather, just... I don't know what to call you... who exactly are you really? Or rather... what are you? Something about you instills feeling on the deepest level within my body... thought and some sort of thirst for knowledge. Just like when you were telling me how to cook the food, which I hope is good, I actually wanted to learn for a while. I don't know why. Can you please tell me? And how did you know about my journey to Hueco Mundo tomorrow?"

Kirito glanced down at his watch briefly to verify the accuracy of the last statement. It was 11:30 PM, on the dot. Still technically the day he had gone to sleep on. He then glanced back up at the man, eyes and brain desperately awaiting the answer to his question.

Words:545

‘Have I not introduced myself?’ Knowledge looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged. He could have sworn—hm, no, perhaps not. Usually he got that over with quickly, but everyone made mistakes once in a while.

‘Oh. How terribly rude of me. You know, it’s funny: most people ask what my name is, and I can never really give them a straight answer, but you’ve gone ahead and cut right to the heart of the matter, haven’t you? Who am I?’

He smiled, shaking his head politely at the offer to try the stir-fry. ‘I’m Knowledge. Pleased to meet you. I think that might even answer your other question, if you catch my drift.’

He didn’t expect it would, but then life was full of surprises.

‘You know, I see a lot of people like you every day, Kazuto. Young men and women on a quest, always moving forward to whatever end they have their minds set on. Captains, lieutenants, officers, even the rank and file. Sometimes what they’re looking for is me. Sometimes they’re looking for a friend of mine. Sometimes neither. Yours in particular stuck out as different, and different usually means interesting. Here you are, a young Shinigami, planning to go gallivanting off to Hueco Mundo all on your own.’

He slipped past the Shinigami and made sure the stove was off, then started dismantling the top of it for cleaning, indicating to the other man that he should start eating.

‘Now, I’m not going to try and stop you. You’ve made up your mind, and that’s good. A man needs goals. A man needs to eat, too, and I doubt you’re going to be doing much of that in the near future, so eat up. And what I want you to do while you do that is think real long and hard about why you’re doing what you’re doing. You’re not going to be able to undo what happened to Chie, and in fact, you risk the exact same thing happening to you, but maybe you’re not going because of that at all. You see—’

He paused, his hands covered in suds.

‘Damn. I’m rambling. Here, how about this: Kazuto, have you ever read Heart of Darkness? It’s about a man on a journey to find a god. Not his god, mind you, but a god nonetheless. At the start of his voyage, he isn’t really sure what he’ll find out there in the darkness—or even what he’s looking in the first place—but the further he goes, the more he learns, and the more he learns, the more he’s compelled to keep going. He comes awfully close to losing himself, but in the end, he pulls through and returns to civilization.’

The tap squeaked as he cut the flow of water and dried his hands.

‘Will you?’

The man, no, shinigami... no... being. Yes, being was the right word. Kirito had no other word to describe this... oh screw it, being sounded worse, so man it was. Yes, he had no other real way of describing this man. It was certain he wasn't a normal soul, for his konpaku emitted absolutely nothing to Kirito's eyes. That meant he was either absent of spirit energy entirely, or was some kind of being of a higher plane: A god, if you would, somebody who no longer was constrained by the limits of common mortality.

The latter belief was solidified instantly when the man identified himself as Knowledge.

No wonder he knew all of Kirito's own secrets, things he didn't even divulge to himself in his own mind, things he had never divulged to another living soul.

There was no official name for what this man could be called. Kirito had read about people like him before, however, the infamous invasion of the seireitei, led by the man known as Tova Diablo, had been stopped by the... how could one put it... empowerment, of the then captain commander Mitsutaka Karashi. In an instant, Karashi's Reiatsu had exploded in strength, and then simply vanished. It was then that Tova Diablo retreated and the invasion ended. Kirito was fuzzy on any other details besides what he could find in history books.

Then, there was Obsession, a man with a name that rang a familiar tone to Knowledge's. Kirito knew nearly nothing about this man, except for the fact that he could fight Captain Minamoto and Commander Fujikagi at the same time. His power had been brilliant, and Kirito, who had been fighting hollows at the time several miles away could feel it as if it was a gust of wind being blown down his neck. Yet... that was the problem. Kirito could still feel Obsession's power, until it, like Fujikagi's had recently, Mitsutaka's had in the past, and the Hollow-Being that had fought Minamoto had during the invasion of Obsession, had all vanished. Three great titans of power, and their reiatsu was gone in an instant. There was nothing left. For that time though... Obsession's energy had just been... different. Only a fool wouldn't notice the difference between his and the shinigami's reiatsu.

And now Kirito was back to names as his only difference.

Obsession.

Knowledge.

Their names reminded him of an aspect of reality, a portion of the universe and the mortal mind that were subject to change under different circumstances. People like this man were myths and legends, like Hercules, or the Roman Pantheon. Could they have been like this man? No, this man was different. Those beings called themselves "Heroes", or "Kings" or... "Gods".  But, from Kirito's current perspective, he could now see the term was obviously incorrect in it's meaning. A king was still a man, it was just the title surrounding him that gave him power: like being the captain commander of the gotei. They were powerful... but this man and others like him, if such a thing did exist, made those beings look like infants.

This was an ascended being of some kind. There was no title to fit him, except for what the man truly was: Knowledge. Just speaking to him resulted in a compulsory search for answers to questions Kirito didn't even know he had lying around in his head. Every word the man spoke threw a fountain of thought into the innards of Kirito's mind, and truly, just the being's presence was awe striking. Of course, this moment of nirvana ended when the man asked a rather serious question.

About why Kirito was going to Hueco Mundo and if he would come back. It didn't help that he referenced "Heart Of Darkness" either. Yet, Kirito had his mind on other things at the time. Had Obsession, and all of those vanishing titanic spiritual pressures become like Mister Knowledge? It did make perfect sense in Kirito's mind, but in this kind of situation, he really knew not to believe he knew anything unless the actual embodiment of Knowledge in front of him told him it was so.

Another question popped into his mind, and as briefly as he could, he strained himself to both reply to Knowledge's question and ask for an answer to his own.

"Mr... um... Knowledge, you're some kind of god aren't you? I've heard of people like you, specifically identifiable by name. They usually come across as myths, or ghosts. But... you...you're real. Are there... others like you? I've heard names...Obsession being one of them, though he... wasn't as powerful as you, was he. I... I could feel his energy radiating throughout the Seireitei. But yours? I can't feel at all. Really though, if you know as much as I think you do, could you tell me where the Tova Diablo who attacked the Seireitei went? Didn't he die at some point before he invaded the seireitei? How could that happen? And Obsession, Fujikagi... even our old Commander  Karashi! Where did they dissapear to? Also, as to your question, yes I intend to return alive. And honestly, I don't know what I'm looking for by going to Hueco Mundo alone. Maybe some kind of respite for dealing with heartbreak, maybe I'm insane, but I do know one thing: I need to go there to not only find who I truly am, but where I should be going. Obviously Chie was a dead end, but that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve redemption. I'm going to kill the hollow that took her, and take some of the espada of Las Noches down with me. That is, if I can."


Words:951