-Different-
Lightning flashed outside the window, bright and vivid. It illuminated everything outside, blinding and white.
Shortly after a loud thump of thunder sounded followed by heavy raining.
Brown tired eyes gazed out said window and observed the storm. He didn't like the rain; it brought with it bad memories.
The lightning was somehow calming though and so was the thunder, like the sky was battling with itself. Swords clashing, sparks flying.
Hearing a mutter Ichigo glanced around his room curiously, he could have sworn he heard someone. Shrugging it off he turned his gaze away from the window confused and examined his room quietly. Well it was empty except for him so he let his mind wander to today's events.
Everything had been different, well, not everything. But subtle things he noticed. No ghosts. No hollows. No Rukia or anything to do with soul society. Even old hat and clogs wasn't at his shop. Maybe something was up.
Sighing he plopped back on his bed and looked up at the ceiling. Well it was definitely different but he should just be grateful that his day was stress free. But that was just it, nothing was so easy with him. There was always at least one thing that stressed him out a day, fights, his friends annoying him. But no... everything was so... calm and peaceful.
More thunder sounded and Ichigo half smiled.
'Wonder if Soul Society gets storms,' he mused and then frowned a little as he let his mind linger on that thought. Clearly Soul Society got days and nights, but did they also get season's? Tornado's? Were there any beaches? And how big was Soul Society anyways?
Silly King.
Ichigo blinked and sat up and looked around cautiously, he had heard a voice that was for certain. It was distorted though and he didn't know what had been said, kind of like it was far off and muffled or something.
King.
There it was again, it was clearer this time. It was shorter than the first time though. Kinda sounded like... K... Khhng... or something. Frowning deeply he leaned over and looked under his bed a bit paranoid. He looked around his room and eyes locked on his own across teh room. Momentarily startled he blinked. A mirror? Since when did he have a mirror on his dresser?
Feeling like an idiot he lay back down just as lightning brightened the room and everything lit up eerily.
King!
Ichigo yelped and in his hurry to get off his bed he tumbled to the floor and scrambled to get up.
"What the fuck?" he stammered unable to say anything else as he stood up and stared at the mirror at his own reflection in the dark room.
Sure the voice had freaked him out but what had startled him more was the mirror. It may have been the lightning but he could have sworn his reflection had looked different.
With a sudden shock he realized he had walked over to the mirror and was gazing at his own reflection intently.
He stared back into warm brown eyes and he titled his head a bit in confusion.
His right hand reached hesitantly out to the mirror and stopped when his finger tips touched the hard cool surface.
What was he expecting? His own reflection to lunge at him? Ridiculous.
Taking his hand away from the mirror annoyed with himself he was shocked when his reflection hadn't moved at all. It's finger tips were still pressed against the inside of the mirror as if trying to touch him.
Frozen on the spot as a tidal wave of emotions crashed through him he watched fascinated as mirror him altered. He first noticed the hand. The finger nails blackened. The skin whitened and his eyes traveled over to his face and watched as brown melted into inverted deep gold and black.
As the now distorted image of himself took his hand away from the mirror Ichigo seemed to come out of his trance and stepped back tensed and freaked out. He stared at the pale white haired him and opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. He was shocked. It wasn't every day your own reflection just changed into something different and moved on it's own!
'This isn't real,' Ichigo thought to himself as he quickly rubbed his eyes and froze as he heard chuckling. It was distorted and had a watery or echoey sound to it. It almost sounded kind of cool.
A feeling of irritation then went through him as he realized his reflection was laughing at him.
"King. Dense as ever. Come here, I'll show ya how real I am,"
His reflection taunted and Ichigo growled as he walked forward immediately. His eyes were glowing blue and he was furious.
"Psh. And what? You think I'm scared of you?" Ichigo scoffed his eyes a sharp piercing blue then as suddenly as the change came they returned back to their original brown. Ichigo then furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he looked back at his reflection which wore an amused expression.
"Huh?" Ichigo asked as he realized how close he was to the mirror, his hands were gripping the dresser and he immediately backed up puzzled. What happened there? He remembered his reflection was talking to him, then... he couldn't remember what happened next.
Looking back at his reflection he shook his head and backed up.
"I'm asleep. This is some really confusing dream," He muttered to himself trying to convince himself that what he was saying was true. This all seemed so surreal.
"You're no more asleep than I am," His reflection cackled and it sent shivers up Ichigo's spine.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ichigo snapped as he crossed his arms. Yes, irritation, something he was familiar with. Right now he was scared and confused, that left him weak, but if he hid behind anger he was fine.
"I dunno. Why dontcha figure it out on yer own," His reflection replied and cackled once more.
Ichigo narrowed his eyes dangerously, now he was starting to get pissed off, it was overriding the fear completely.
He bit back a rude swear word and tried to be patient.
"Hey, King. Ya look kinda tense," His reflection stated gleefully and Ichigo blinked as he saw something blue as his reflection finished his taunt.
Ichigo watched as an azure tongue peaked out from between pale lips and darted out further to caress the upper lip before disappearing again. The lips curled back and the reflection grinned widely an insane gleam in his inverted eyes.
"Like what ya see?"
That was it, he couldn't take this anymore.
"Agh! What the fuck am I doing talking to my reflection? Reflections don't talk! They don't morph into creepy inverted versions of yourself! And they- Agh!" Ichigo exploded and threw his arms in the air as he breathed heavily and shook with frustration.
His reflection merely waited for him to continue and Ichigo snarled viciously before storming over to the mirror angrily.
"You're not real!" he shouted and yanked his fist back before slamming it forward at the mirror intent on smashing it.
There was no impact as his fist went through the mirror and he stumbled forward before his fist was caught and he tugged back startled as he looked into the angry face of his inverted reflection.
"Wah?" He cried out in shock and braced one hand on the dresser as he once again tugged back on his fist. No use.
"I'll show you how real I am, Ichigo."
Terror washed through him as his own skin started turning white from where his fist was caught and he then noticed he was dressed in his black shinigami uniform. It started turning white at the sleeve and he yelled out horrified. What was going on?
"Let go!" Ichigo screamed as his reflection tugged him forward then the dresser seemed to disappear and the mirror kind of hung in midair as everything around them turned black and his room vanished.
His eyes glazed over as a cold feeling washed through him and he stumbled forward and right through the mirror which had seemed to get bigger. He could hear his reflection's laughter distorted and messed up as it faded to nothing.
TBC