Reichiru, the only daughter of Emiko and Kosuke, feels like a gray patch in the face of her brother. After an upsetting happening at a theft, she hides in the Library and meets a boy known as Arashi. This boy helps her come to terms with who she is and shows her how much she is worth, even if she is not an Angel. But helping the boy called Arashi isn't the end of her adventures.
I do not own D.N.Angel but I do own Reichiru and Arashi. All credit for other characters goes to Yukiru Sugisaki.
Miso Soup for the Soul
Just like my mother, I wanted The Curse.
I wanted to fly across the sky on Dark's black wings, soaring through the night sky over the crowd of adoring fans and police men who would try to capture me without success. I wanted to be the one they all talked about the day after. I wanted people to talk about me.
But it's not going to happen. I'm a girl. And the curse has already been planted in my brother, Daisuke, and I have to sit and watch, as the world watches Dark and Daisuke do what I've always wished to do. But there is only so much that you can do as a girl in the Niwa family.
Reichiru Niwa, thirteen year old sister to Daisuke Niwa, rolled over in her bed, golden early morning sunlight streamed through her window on a Saturday morning. Peering sleepily through her heavy lidded amethyst eyes at her desk bracing the opposite wall to her bed; she saw that a black feather lay on her maths book. Reichiru sighed and turned over in her bed to face the other sky blue wall, turning her back on the feather. She didn't want to think about her brother, Daisuke, and (what her mother says), her other brother, Dark. It was too painful to think about them at this moment in time.
Dark always came silently into her room when he came back from an attention drenched theft and placed a feather on her desk; just a way to say 'hi' to her when he could; it was very rare that Reichiru and Dark talked face to face. Looking up at the time, which was projected onto the ceiling above her bed by the digital alarm clock, she sighed and rolled out of bed with a double 'thud' as her feet hit the dark blue carpeted floor and she walked over drearily to the mirror hanging over her desk. She had the same hair traits as Daisuke: the flaming spiky red hair and round eyes, but had somehow gotten Dark's purple eye colour. Reichiru brushed out tough tugs from her long, thick hair and tried to tidy up the mad spikes that stood up all over the place, like her brother's, but without any luck; they just sprung back up again. Reichiru's love of books and the written word was made apparent by the long shelves of books that lined the wall around her balcony window and the wall to the right of the desk. Since Reichiru couldn't take part in her brother's adventures, she could at least imagine her own. She sighed again and moved out her bedroom with her outfit for the day and down the spiral stairs to the living room.
The bright pink note on the kitchen table in swirly handwriting said that her mother and Towa had gone out shopping and they would be back for lunch. Reichiru sighed and looked up as her father, Kosuke, tripped into the living room, yawning and scratching his stomach under his pyjamas.
"Dad, how long have Mum and Towa been out for?" Kosuke yawned and opened one eye down at his daughter before answering tiredly:
"An hour maybe?"
"And when did Dai get back?"
"About five hours ago." Reichiru peered up at the ceiling with wide, purple eyes in the rough area where her brother's bed should be in the room above. Kosuke looked understandingly down at his daughter and ruffled her spiky red hair, laughing as she pulled off her annoyed face; mouth turned into an wobbly line, purple eyes narrowed in annoyance as she clamped her hands onto the top of her hair. She combed her hair with her fingers: it didn't make much difference as the unruly spikes just jumped back up into place. Kosuke walked past with a bowl of miso soup and handed it to her and placed himself heavily onto a chair at the table. Reichiru joined her father and ate her soup in silence opposite him. It was the sort of silence that only members of the Niwa family, who couldn't be part of the curse, understood. It was always like that, the morning after a theft, father and daughter sat in the mutual silence and ate miso soup as a sort of condolence for their feelings of uselessness. Kosuke felt, no, he knew, that his daughter felt it most acutely.
Reichiru finished her miso soup breakfast with a flourish, and jumped up from the table.
"Well, can't stay here moping all day! I have a meeting to be at in an hour!" And with that, she dashed away, depositing her bowl into the sink, picking up her change of clothes and skipped out the room, closing the door behind her. The look of tenderness and understanding on her father's face was too much to bare. Leaning against the closed living room door, Reichiru tried not to cry; it was too embarrassing to be caught crying. Kosuke caught her crying once; she denied the real reason, stating she had stubbed her toe on the door and was completely fine. The look her father had given her then had been too kind to bare as well. It smothered her.
Wiping the tears away, Reichiru skipped to the bathroom to take a shower. There, she cried hard in the safety of the roaring shower head and water pressure. She didn't make sounds when she cried; making sounds when you cry is for babies, she told herself. Half an hour later, Reichiru emerged from the shower, fresh eyed and clear faced. Dressing in a light white chiffon dress, just ending at the knee, matching stockings and practical matching heels, she could almost be called angelic.
Drying and brushing her hair again made the spikes a little less 'sticky-uppie' as she pulled her hair back into two bunches. With the bunches hidden behind her head, the spikes made her resemble her brother a bit with his short, spiky hair. The purple eyes ruined the small hint of glamour the image held to her, having red eyes like Daisuke's would have been great for look-a-like competitions and maybe she wouldn't have looked so out of place in the family photograph that hung in the hallway.
But this is who I am, and I have to make the most of it, she smiled to herself in the mirror; I can't complain! Many girls would kill to be in my position: related to Dark! Who would have guessed?
Indeed: who would have? She looked so much like Daisuke and too little like Dark that people would be forgiven for thinking that she wasn't related to the Phantom Thief in anyway.
And with a spring in her step, she left the bathroom and made her way cheerily to the living room again, where Kosuke was still sitting in his pyjamas, helping himself to his fifth bowl of miso. He looked up, surprised at his daughter's joyfulness.
"Going out somewhere today?" Kosuke asked.
"Yep; me and Mina are going shopping today."
"Alright," Kosuke opened up the morning newspaper, "If you see your mother or Towa, tell them that Grandpa and myself are going out as well."
"Okay!" She called back as she vanished up the stairs to Daisuke's room, three inch heels pounding on the carpet and the white ribbon bow around her waist floated behind her.
Arriving at the entrance to his room, she looked at the clothes that lay scattered across the floor. Smiling slightly, she tipped toed in quietly and picked up the items of black clothing, folding them up neatly and placing them on the chair under his bed bunk. She took a look at the amount of homework Daisuke had to do for the following Monday, certainly a lot more then what she had. There was a note on the wall above the desk, reminding him that he had to meet Riku for a drawing session that afternoon.She shook her head slightly, smiling at the thought of those two together.
She turned away from his desk and stepped silently up the ladder to Daisuke's raised bed. Her brother was sleeping peacefully there; his breathing through his mouth could be heard slightly, red hair tousled and spiky, hands thrown askew and With (a white ball of fluff at this time) weighing down his chest which heaved deeply. Reichiru tickled With behind the ear, sending him into sleepy fits of rabbit giggles. With yawned and flopped open in a content sigh and Reichiru leaned down and kissed her brother lightly on the cheek.
"Morning Dai." She whispered. As she pulled back; matching amethyst eyes looked back at her. Dark's consciousness smiled cheekily up at her.
"Hi." She whispered. Purple eyes smiled back at her in the only way Dark could, it was obvious. Dark-in-Daisuke's-body leaned up on thin elbows and kissed her back on he cheek:
"Enjoy your day...sister." Dark whispered in her ear. Reichiru blushed and looked bashful as Dark lay back down again and his eyes fell closed, Daisuke's slight snore returned.