"You were at the beach again weren't you?" was how her mum greeted her at the door. "R, you know that place is far from home. Do you really have to have me-time almost every single day? Look I'm not even nagging you as much as I used to, right? Make home your sanctuary, it's cheaper at least!"

"You're contradicting yourself right this moment," R replied nonchalantly, as she sat at the table and pulled out a cigarette. "And it's not that I need time away from you mum. I love you, and I want to come home to you. But after work ends, I need to get away to recover before I join the rush hour madness."

"Smoking again? No wait, I won't nag you. It's your choice." L started to lay the table. R looked at her. To escape an abusive marriage, she had dragged R to Japan where one of her cousins had been working. With her minimal savings, she had gone from job to job, accumulating enough to finally start her own tailoring business. It was interesting work. She did anything from office wear to kimono to cosplay costumes. The customers brought their own material and ideas, and L brought them to life. Unfortunately, R had none of that talent her mum possessed.

"How was business today?" she enquired, ignoring the comment about smoking.

"Had another weirdo come in. She was going to cosplay someone called Loly in that anime you're crazy about— Bleach, is it? She showed me a picture of it, and it was all I could do to wonder how her dress stays in place above her chest. Really, what an unearthly design!"

"Hueco Mundo is not on earth, mum, so technically it has to be unearthly." R replied with a smile, knowing her mum wouldn't get the reference. "But why was she a weirdo?"

"Oh God, she was too into it. I recommended holding the top together with a piece of flesh coloured nylon, and she started having a minor panic attack. She said she did not care if she would have to superglue it onto her chest but she had to look exactly like Loly. I asked her what she was going to do about her shoulder length hair, and she said she's worried about that. She actually asked me if I had hair tonic or oil to recommend her. Me, with my crop cut. R, why are youngsters nowadays so… passionate?"

R burst out laughing. "Good on you mum, to use a positive word on that!"

"Well what do you know? Even I need one after recalling that," L sighed, taking the pack of cigarettes from R's hands. "I'm not officially a smoker and I retain my rights to nag you about it though," she deadpanned, staring R dead in the eyes, and then blowing smoke in her face.

"Geez mum! Now I know where I get my crazy from!" R got up from the table and continued preparing for dinner.

….

"Tomorrow may be Saturday, but I require you to report in to my shop for errand work." L pointed the handle of the fruit knife at R, and then dropped in onto her lap. "Sleep early, no marathoning tonight!"

"MUMMY! Yabaiii!" screamed R, clutching up the knife before it did any serious damage. She hurled an exaggerated sigh in the direction of her mum's retreating figure. It was pretty late. R and L had stayed up after dinner with wine and cigarettes, talking. L was a vibrant woman and someone R could never live up to, in her opinion. She was an expert chef and a talented seamstress, and she was good with her hands. She could catch any art with one try. R had retained mainly the intellect her father had given her, his love for books and writing. They were different, often opposites, but they had learnt to adjust and had a bond only a mother and daughter could have. L made it a point to ask R about her seeing ability regularly, and made sure nothing bad happened as a side effect to that lightning incident. She had tried to ban R from going to the beach alone: R was the only family she had now, and it had scared her half to death to receive a phone call saying R had been admitted to the hospital following the lightning strike. The ban had never worked, and slowly L understood that R would be this way: often dreamy, needing a ton of space, sometimes displaced. But the girl had a sensible head on her, and ever since the lightning, she had gotten faster at brain work, comprehension and sensitivity. She had quickly jumped a few ranks in the MNC she worked for, owing to her innovative problem-solving skills. It had enhanced her entire being, along with her sense of emptiness in a busy, commercial and bright city like Tokyo.

R started up the DVD. This was the episode after the entire Soul Society Saga. They would chase each other around until Ichigo, Ishida, Orihime, Sado and Yoruichi returned to the Real World. She wished that the holiday period would last a little longer, so she could watch her favourite characters interacting without fights and conflict. She sat in bed, peeling her apple with the fruit knife, watching the episode.

The electricity snapped. R sighed. She was too lazy to get up and fix the generator switch. Her mum was already asleep. She checked the battery status of her laptop. Still full. She would watch the next few episodes and then go to bed. Fall was approaching, so the winds kept her room comfortably cool enough to sleep in without air conditioning.

Behind R, the mirror started buzzing. R felt her whole body react to the subtle vibration of the mirror. She knew that a normal person would not be able to sense it, but she with her tuned 6th sense felt immense power sweeping into the room through the mirror. Slowly, she turned back to face it. Her heart gripped in itself to see the whole dressing table pulse in a frequency so subtle, it did nothing to move the cosmetics placed there. Her eyes caught the reflection of the anime playing on her laptop behind her. With fear, she realised that the reflection was growing larger and larger, until the whole mirror seemed like a window to the goings on in the animation.

She didn't realise it slipping, till the fruit knife hit the floor. She was caught by the vision in the mirror. It slowly dawned on her that she was acting out the creepy myth her mother used to scare her with. R took in the atmosphere. It was just slightly past midnight, she was in complete darkness, the only source of illumination was her laptop playing bleach, and she had been peeling an apple. She tore her eyes away from the mirror and looked down at her lap. The apple peel had been severed.

Bracing herself, R put the plate to her side and stepped toward her dressing table. As if it could sense her approach, the mirror pulsated more intensely almost as if it were inviting her closer. The scene in the reflection had stopped moving. She was facing one of the streets in Seiretei. Looking back, R saw that on her laptop, the anime was playing just fine. It was as if she was under the spell of the mirror. R could not think of anything else but the mirror and the reflection. It did not even occur to her that she could not see herself in the mirror. Blankly, she put her hand out and touched the glass.

She knew it would be this way. Her hand went through, and the resulting waves of energy on the other side seeped into her room. The claustrophobia clenched at her throat. The energy was suppressing her. Even then, as if being pushed, she went ahead: grabbing her handbag with her, she climbed onto the dressing table, and took the leap of her life onto the other side of the mirror.