Amaya Kurosaki, twin sister of Ichigo, has a secret. The very same secret Ichigo now has; she's a shinigami, a soul reaper. Continuing to keep this secret from her family, Amaya watches over her beloved brother. However, she is quickly dragged into events even she can't avoid, and Amaya's secrets begin to come out one by one. The truth tears a rift in Amaya's alliances and she finds herself having to choose: her family, or their enemies?
*NOT EDITED*
Chapter 1: Who Will Protect You
6 Years Ago
Ichigo was crying again. It was those big old sobs that got Tatsuki staring dumbly at this big baby, and me fretting over him. No matter what I did, it never seemed to be enough to cheer him up. It's always been this way for the past five years. Tatsuki would beat my brother up and I could do nothing but watch, trying my best not to get sick again. Mom only let me watch as long as I didn't do anything, but how else was I supposed to protect my brother?
Ichigo calmed his tears down, breaking down into his dopey smile and I knew right away Mom was behind me, smiling that sweet smile she always had. I turned, unable to resist the small jealousy that shot through my heart then disappeared. We were supposed to be twins, as close as anyone could get, but Mom was his sun. She was all of their sun. Dad, Yuzu, Karin, Ichigo. She wasn't my sun, though. My sun was Ichigo; he was my whole world.
Shuffling over to my mother after Ichigo had long dashed to her I tried to fight down the coughs scratching against my lungs. I was always sick. Always. In the end, I lost like I always did and the dojo went quiet with murmurs as everyone around us wondered about the little girl hacking up a lung and a half.
Mom gently rubbed my back, and I was grateful. It hurt everywhere, anyway, and there was nothing we could do to stop the pain. Ichigo was hugging me tightly as if that would somehow help, and my heart melted for him like it always did.
Eventually, the tingling throughout my body silenced itself, and the coughs drew to their final dry end. Our mother gave me a worried look, and I smiled brightly to assure her I was fine. I may have been jealous of her, but I still loved her dearly. Ichigo and I slipped on our bright yellow rain coats, ready to go home.
Side by side, the three of us walked home, Mom in the middle. Not long into our walk, a passing car splashed my brother, and he exclaimed loudly. Laughing sweetly, Mom leaned down to clean Ichigo's face. "What a mean car." Always agreeing with our mother, Ichigo nodded and pouted, whereas I glared balefully after the long-gone taillights of said "mean car".
"Why don't I walk by the road?" Mom tried to switch places with Ichigo, but he stubbornly kept his spot.
"No! I'm the one wearing a rain coat! I want to protect you." Again, Mom smiled sweetly at Ichigo, he was too sweet.
"Then who's going to protect you?" I immediately took Ichigo's hand in my own and stared my mother down, determined not to back down.
"I'll protect Ichigo." My words seemed to worry Mom, but she didn't let the love in her eyes falter. Shaking her head gently, she switched with us, not giving us any room to argue.
"Alright," she relented slightly, though, "but I'll walk by the street." Our walk continued in peace as Ichigo happily chattered away with our mother, but then, something caught his eye. By the rushing river, we could both see a girl staring absently into the dangerous flow. I had already learned how to tell spirits apart from humans, probably because I was always ill. Ichigo, however, hadn't, and, before I could stop him, started rushing off to save her.
I managed to keep his hand in mine, but I was too weak to stop him. Behind us, and I looked, Mom ran after to stop Ichigo in his mindless pursuit. Then, it just happened too fast. I don't exactly remember what happened. In just a few moments, everything was dark. I had managed to wrap my arms around Ichigo as if my puny body could somehow protect his. Above the both of us, Mom laid dead.
Present Day
"Kurosaki! Are you skipping again?" I looked down at Minori and the girl yelling at me. Beneath me Minori tried her best to shush my classmate so I could sleep. Yawning out my irritation, I jumped down from the tree branch, right between Minori and the irate brunette.
"What's it to ya, Munekata?" I could see Munekata grow more irritated by the second, but I didn't care. I wasn't the one who got all the loving genes from our mother and father.
Grabbing me by my slightly unbuttoned uniform shirt, Munekata snarled straight into my face, earning a punch in hers. Staggering back, Munekata brought a twitching hand to her bleeding nose and glared at me. Speech slightly slurred from pain, Munekata warned me, "A punk like you should get expelled." Visibly flexing my hand, I glanced between Munekata and my fist as if I were debating hitting her again. I really wasn't, but Munekata got the message and ran away.
I turned to see Minori calmly holding my jacket up as if she already knew I was planning on leaving. "You know, you should really stop beating people up for such silly things." I shrugged and tossed the jacket over my shoulder, not really wanting to put it on or leave it. Uniforms are expensive!
"Shove it, Minori. This is frickin' stupid. Like I got time fer this dumb crap." Minori looked at me worriedly, following me without question as I jumped the school wall and started ambling through town even though I still wore my uniform.
Although I didn't show it, I did have a destination in mind. After a while of aimless wandering, Minori finally figured out where it was I was aiming for. "Um… Amaya? We're going to the shoten right?" Grunting, I glared sharply at her, only earning a large smile in return. "Oh! I see. You're just too embarrassed to say-"
"Say it an' I kill ya." Silence crashed down on us, and I continued walking peacefully. Looking at my watch, I was surprised to see Munekata came to bother me later than usual. The nuisance usually hounded me first thing in the morning, when I took a nap in my tree before school and accidentally stayed asleep too long. That day, she shot after me closer to the end of school, meaning I missed most of the day. Whatever. Didn't make a difference to me.
Coming to a stop in front of "the shoten" right as school was supposed to be let out, I spied Jinta bullying Ururu again. Growling, I walked up the little red-head boy and kicked him hard, and sent him flying. Petting Ururu on the head, I asked, "Is Hat-and-Clogs up yet?" Well, I needn't have. Urahara slid the door wide open as he cheerily ran towards me, surprising me with a hug.
Thoroughly annoyed, I punched him in the stomach, waiting patiently as he slid down to cradle his new injury. Behind him Tessai nodded to me silently, receiving a similar nod. "Don' frickin' hug me, creep." Instantly recovered, Urahara lifted his fan to hid the lower half of his face as he smiled coyly.
"It's been a while Amaya. What brings you here?" Sighing, I followed the taller man into his store, not feeling awkward at all since I practically lived there when I wasn't at my apartment. Tessai walked off to get us tea as I lounged beside Urahara, a table separating us.
"'M frickin' bored. Not a Hollow 'round fer weeks. An' now…" My head snapped up as I sensed a Hollow in the distance, my brother's spirit energy making it easy for me to tell he was near said Hollow. "Frickin' A. Speak o' the devil." I didn't, however, go after it. Nearby, enough so Ichigo wasn't in any apparent danger, there was a soul reaper. I had sensed her the night before, spending the moonlit hours watching her to make sure she was just in Karakura for the usual.
"Too bad! If that soul reaper wasn't here, you'd be able to do something fun." I snorted and accepted Tessai's tea, the only tea I've had better was Minori's. Tessai left to do some other odd tasks as Urahara and I continued to amiably drink our tea.
"Was hopin' ya'd fight me. Been a while, eh?" Urahara glanced at me from the corner of his eyes, and I could feel his spirit energy brush up against mine in a silent agreement. Although he was lazy, Urahara and I were friends. Well, friends enough that he told me a lot of interesting things. The friendship wasn't even one-sided either. We jumped each other in hugs often, even though I often left our pouncing embraces with a punch or kick to his person.
Urahara gracefully rose to his feet, in a way only a fighter can make it graceful, and I flipped back using my hands to get on my feet. We immediately went down to the training room, where he first taught me how to reach my full potential around four years ago. "Zanpakto?"
"If you want." I shrugged and began stretching my body for the difficult moves of my capoeira. Urahara silently removed Benihime from her sheathe, and with the shhh of her exposure, our fight started. In seconds I had my legs sweeping out to bring Urahara down from his own, but he was already jumping up in the air. Following him, I pushed myself off my hands, my feet seeking Urahara's body as a target.
I barely dodged Benihime's arc through the air save for bending back far enough and flipping away from his attacks. Moving back in, I jumped through the air, my legs kicking out in deadly arcs. As Urahara brought Benihime's edge up to block me, I twisted to kick off her side, wary of the sword. Even though we were training, Urahara had enough faith in my skills to not lose a limb to Benihime. Had I been a worse fighter, we'd be going to the trouble of reattaching my foot to my leg.
Smiling at me, Urahara circled me, as wary of my kicks as I was of his sword. When I first managed to land a hit on the mysterious shop owner, he learned Ururu wasn't the only one with a killer punch. We ended up having to postpone that match until his ribs healed properly.
I followed Urahara with my eyes as I maintained my ginga. "C'mon, Urahara. Ya know ya wanna get yer pretty li'l butt beat." Grinning, I invited Urahara to start our next little bout. Good natured, Urahara did just that, jumping forward with a low swing of Benihime. I swept to the side and managed to hook Urahara's leg with my own right before he jumped back with a cartwheel. As he began to dash forward again, I surprised him with an aú batendo, knocking him to the ground.
In a flash of movement, I twisted his arms so he couldn't attack and was about to disarm him, when he bent and managed to kick me off of him. Grinning as he bent over to pick up his hat, Urahara congratulated me on getting better.
Hours later, Urahara carried me up the ladder, both of us panting, sweating, and bruised. Pacing back and forth when we reached the top, Minori began getting herself worked into a frenzy when she saw me. Minori never intruded when Urahara and I were talking or training, thinking, for some reason, it wasn't her place.
"Ah, Minori! Hi. You didn't say anything earlier when you first arrived." Glaring cutely up at Urahara, Minori kicked him in the shin, causing him to drop me. Instead of sticking up for the soul reaper, I opted for laughing as hard as I could at him. "So mean! Tessai, Amaya is being mean to me again!" Laughing even harder, I wiped the tears from my eyes.
"Sucker! Ya fell ta a pathetic li'l kick like tha'?" Urahara turned on me, evil shining in his eyes. Pouncing before I could even run away, the sandy-haired shopkeeper began tickling my sides, not giving me a moments rest. "Not fair! Bastard! Tessai! Stop him!" Sighing at the usual sight of Urahara and me after our training days, Tessai separated us, ignoring me sticking my tongue out at Urahara.
"Will you be staying, Miss Kurosaki?" Humming in thought, I looked at my watch, surprised at the time.
"Ya. No point in goin' back ta my place when I gotta bed here." Cheering, Urahara hugged me, the two of us abandoning Minori and Tessai in favor of other more necessary things. Like food, baths, and a change of clothes.
First, though, Tessai's delicious home-cooked food. Sitting at the table, I greeted Ururu and shoved Jinta from his spot. "Now, now, Amaya. No need to be mean to Jinta." Grunting, I ignored Urahara and Jinta in favor of the food in front of me.
Tessai and Minori followed after us, sitting down calmly. "Looks good as always, Tessai." The large man took my compliment with a thanks, and we all began eating at various rates, Jinta eating fastest of us all. Ururu scolded Jinta until the red-headed boy began pulling at her bangs, and I defended her by giving Jinta a taste of his own medicine. Yeah, dinner at Urahara's shoten. This was the usual affair.
In the distance, we could all hear a Hollow's howl. Pausing in my antics, I sought out the location of the Hollow, and barely fought the urge to go chase it down in favor of keeping out of the eyes of the soul reapers. "Near your home, Amaya?"
Looking sharply towards Urahara, I nodded, biting my lip. "Looks like the soul reaper's there too. No need ta worry." My brow furrowed like Ichigo's often did and Urahara got up to put his hand on my shoulder.
"Soul Society wouldn't send this little one unless she could handle it." Sighing, I scratched the back of my head, growing irritated with my ratted hair.
Pulling my long, orange hair out of its ponytail, I snapped at Urahara, "Ya know better 'an anyone why I don' trust those damned soul reapers." Growling, I almost ripped out the elastic band, regardless of the hair knotted around it, but Urahara held my hand still.
"Come on, Amaya. Let me help you." I nodded, but, as that pervert's hands started touching me and not my hair, I did a hand stand to kick him, sending him jumping back to dodge.
"Hands off ya stupid perv!" Storming out of the room, I left to take a bath and go to sleep. As I laid on the futon in the room Urahara always had saved for me, I thought back to my home, getting up with restlessness after a short while.
Screw it. I wanted to go make sure Ichigo was okay. Getting up, I changed out of my sleeping yukata and into a pair of baggy jeans and a tight belly shirt. They were my clothes for dance competitions, but I figured I might get into a fight, and my fighting style needed as much freedom of movement as dancing, anyway. I held no doubt that Urahara knew the moment I left, as I jumped out the window and began running towards the Kurosaki clinic, sensing out the Hollow.
