Bleach (c) Tite Kubo


Once More To See You Again


Konpaku Among Us


Ichigo winces, fingers brushing against the livid bruise forming on his right cheek. Which is nothing against the massive gash over his shoulder. That damn Mod Soul really took his body through its paces. He feels like he's run a hundred mile marathon, deadlifted a bus, trampled by elephants, then chewed up and spat out for good measure.

In a move which in hindsight they all should've really seen coming (Ichigo saw it coming, Rukia dismissed his concerns), Kaien may have taken exception to an artificial soul showing up in Ichigo's body, acting very much not like Ichigo.

A fight broke out that practically destroyed the entire class.

When Rukia and Ichigo ran back to the school, they were greeted with a rather enthusiastic cheer of "Holy shit! The Kurosaki twins are fighting!"

Followed by comments like "I wanted to see them duke it out for ages!" and "Who do you think'll win?!"

Tallied up; Kaien's shirt is torn and there's stains down the front from his bloody nose. He's got four bruised or cracked ribs, two dislocated fingers, a black eye and busted ankle.

Ichigo's body has a cracked cheek bone, fractured wrist, bruises all over his torso from the brawl with Kaien, and there's the massive gash on his left shoulder from when the Mod Soul decided to tank a Hollow attack (did it to protect some kids so kudos there, but it wasn't his body to abuse, damn it!).

But the physical damage is mediocre compared to the monumental collapse of Ichigo's and Kaien's own social standings in their school group. Honestly, both of them might die from embarrassment.

Ichigo was by no means a model student, but he'd spent his time carefully cultivating a reputation of being gruff, aloof and distant. A classic 'cool' kid. Closed off and distant.

Something that damn mod soul shredded to pieces by hitting on everything with a pulse in the classroom and kissing Tatsuki (on the hand but still).

Kaien on the other hand was the complete opposite. Open, warm and friendly. Wore his heart on his sleeve. Jovial. Quick with a joke or witty retort and rarely got angry.

And, well, you didn't hear it from Ichigo and his twin would deny it until the day he died, but Kaien is holding a tinsy little candle for Tatsuki. Kept it private, of course. Didn't want to make things awkward between them if she rejected him, you understand (Naturally the whole class knew, the Kurosakis are notoriously bad at subtlety).

So seeing his quote-unquote "brother" take an interest in his "girl" and kiss her (on the hand but a kiss is a kiss)? Well, teenagers are teenagers, and they drew their own conclusions. By the end of the school day, the story spread like wildfire. Their entire school knew those 'delinquent twins' got into a fight over a girl and beat each other bloody.

"Sorry." Kaien mutters again, actually pouting guiltily then casting an accusing look Rukia's way. "You could've warned me if you were doing any spirit-y stuff. Could've covered for him if I knew what the heck was going on."

"Yeah, I didn't expect to be chasing down a rogue artificial soul either. I told you that whole Soul Candy trick was a bad idea." Ichigo complains.

"I admit it wasn't the best idea, but I wasn't expecting a Mod Soul. A rogue one at that. At the very least, we managed to get your body back in one piece." Rukia answers, "It could've been far worse. Your body could've been damaged beyond my capabilities to heal."

"When you put it that way, I guess it really could've been worse. Still, I'm sorry. I thought you'd just put your body in a hiding place and some stray Hollow possessed it or whatever." Kaien offers, scratching his cheek sheepishly.

Ichigo gives him a supremely unimpressed look. Both of them were so lost in their argument, they missed the shadow passing over Rukia's face.

"Possession? Really? Been reading too much fantasy lately?"

Kaien raises his hands in defence, "I don't know all the rules; all I knew was you two scampered off somewhere to go do Shinigami stuff and something else was running around with your body. With all this freaky Hollow stuff, I made the only conclusion I could."

"Oh, brother..." Ichigo groans, then a thought occurs, "Uh, they, Hollows... can't do that right? Possess people, I mean?" Ichigo ventures uneasily to Rukia.

"Dear god, please say no." Kaien pleads, suddenly very fearful.

For a split second, there's a fleeting haunted look in her eye and the twins immediately regret the question even as that expression tells them that answer.

"It can happen. Some hollows have the powers to influence and puppet humans' actions. Not even Shinigami are immune to those types of attacks. I've... known some to lie in wait. Allow their comrades to collect the bodies of their dead and use the deceased to slaughter their former comrades."

"Terrific!" Kaien balks. "Not only can Hollows possess people; they desecrate the dead and turn them into Trojan horses! Holy crap, the spirit world is screwed up. How about we all avoid that like its the black plague?"

"No argument from me." Ichigo mutters under his breath.

"Neither of you know the half of it." Rukia laments.

"I don't think I even want to know the rest of it." Ichigo sighs.

Kaien wraps Ichigo's shoulder lightly to catch his attention, "You know, the more I hear about the Spirit world, the more I'm convinced H.P Lovecraft wasn't a neurotic nutcase and actually got his ideas from watching all the Hollows floating around his local area," Kaien glances over his shoulder to Rukia whom Ichigo is about 99.9% certain wouldn't understand the cultural context, "No offense."

"At this point; that wouldn't shock me in the least." Ichigo shrugs stiffly then grimaces at the spike of pain through his shoulder, with a hiss of pain he nurses it.

"You okay, Ichi?"

"What's the matter, Ichigo?" Rukia prods.

"Nothing. More of the same. This little pest's stunts-!" Ichigo fishes the tiny lime coloured pill out of his pocket. "You hear me, you little bastard?!"

"You're going to look strange to outsiders." Rukia notes.

"Don't need outsiders to tell you that." Ichigo flushes red, fist raised threatening to punch his brother, Kaien raises his hands reflexively, "Sorry. Force of habit. Don't hit me."

Growling, Ichigo shakes his head and turns to their companion-slash-roommate, "Rukia, what do I do to get this guys attention? I've got a mountain of stuff I need to complain about."

Rukia blinks, pondering the question for a moment. "Hm? Well, you'd need to insert it inside a body, preferably-"

"You ain't using mine." Kaien backs away from the Soul Candy like its a nuclear bomb.

Rukia's lips curl in amusement but she tries very hard to compose herself. "Don't be ridiculous. We'd need a body without a soul. In other words, a dead body. Besides, even if we extracted your soul from your body you wouldn't be able to function independently anyway. You have no powers and you'd be bound by your Chain of Fate."

Kaien nods uncomprehendingly. "Don't know what that means. Hope I never have to find out."

"That's a good thing. Means you're not dead, idiot." Ichigo grouses.

"Less ominous than I imagined." Kaien tilts his head curiously, "Then why don't you have any chains when you're in your Shinigami form? Or is it just wrapped around you and the robes hide it?"

Rukia raises a hand, "We're venturing off topic."

"What about this?" Ichigo prompts, squatting down by a pile of discarded junk. Sitting on top is a stuffed doll. "In laymen's terms, all I need is a receptacle, right?"

"Huh? Yes, but that's not..." Rukia presses a thumb to her lip in thought, "Okay. Lets try an experiment, shall we? Put the soul candy in its mouth, I guess?"


On second thought, maybe giving the Mod Soul a body wasn't the best of ideas. Especially bringing it home where the nuisance caused a massive commotion the second it slipped out of Ichigo's backpack.

In his latest attempt to ambush Ichigo, Ichigo punted the Mod Soul across the room for good measure. Its plush face slamming into the closet door. (Rukia already shut it ages ago for some semblance of privacy and quiet.)

"Yammering away. Making such a racket this late at night. People are trying to sleep. Didn't I tell you to shut up and act like a regular old stuff animal, Kon?"

"Why in the heck are you calling me Kon?!"

"Because it's too much of a hassle to call you Kaizo Konpaku. Kon's good enough." Ichigo dismisses, stretching his limbs out. Rukia's healing kido really did wonders, he barely felt a thing from that gash and his other injuries.

"That's no reason for you to call me Kon! I know a better one: Kai! Call me Kai instead? I like Kai. Its way cooler."

"Yeah, there's a snowball's chance in hell I'm calling you that." Ichigo grumbles.

"Why not? Kon sounds so silly out loud." Kon complains (seriously, how could something so tiny be so loud?) but the rest is cut short by a wet towel smacking him down.

"Because I'm Kai." Kaien's dark hair is still damp from the shower, but all traces of his wounds are gone. There's still a bit of discoloration around his eye, but anyone looking that close is close enough to get a black eye to match.

"But if you don't like Kon we can always call you Paku? Like the second half of Konpaku?" Kaien suggests, flopping face first on his pillow and heaving a sigh of relief. "Oh my dear sweet bed, I miss you every single day."

"Isn't that the name of a dog?" Ichigo puts in ever-so-helpfully (he means a cartoon character from some ninja anime their sisters watch in the mornings. Ichigo catches the occasional glimpse on his way past).

"I am not a dog!"

"Pipe down will you, Kon? Or should I remind you you're squarely at the top of our shit lists right now; Do you really think its a good idea to get on either of our last nerves? Because I promise you that ending ain't gonna be pretty." Kaien warns sternly, a reproachful edge to his tone (he's still angry. After seeing all those years of hard work circling the drain? Ichigo would be too).

"And what did I do to you?" Kon complains.

"Because of your little joy ride Ichigo's body; I dislocated my fingers and got four broken ribs plus other miscellaneous injuries. Oh, and I got kicked off the swimming team for the trouble. We were supposed to be competing in the nationals next month. Adding to that, now Ichigo and I have to suffer a fortnight's worth of after-school detentions." Kaien grumbles into his pillow.

"And that's without mentioning you ruined our reputations at school completely. Our street cred's totally destroyed thanks to your antics. Hope you're happy leaving us to clean up your mess." Ichigo grumbles, equally displeased by the situation.

"Will you shut up?" Rukia hisses from her little hidey-hole in the closet, "Some of us are trying to sleep."

"You heard the lady. Lights out." Ichigo declares and settles in for the night while Kaien flips off the light.

"Hey! I'm not done talking yet!"

"Shut up!" All three chorused.


The next day at school is weird. Kaien and Ichigo both were expecting to get lambasted for yesterday's little kerfuffle. From teachers to class mates.

Both of them were resigned and prepared to cringe at the hooting, hollering and jeers.

Instead everything was... normal? No jeers, no teasing, no nothing. To say the twins were confused was a profound understatement. People were milling about like the fight of the year hadn't broken out yesterday between the two siblings.

"Kurosaki!"

And there it was. Ichigo winces in sympathy at the look on Kaien's face - Misery just does not belong on his twin's face and it makes Ichigo want to go back home and punch Kon around. He's supposed to be the sour one, damn it.

"Mr Shirogane. I-"

"We missed you at practice today, Kaien. Where were you?" Their teacher asked.

Kaien blinks in confusion, sending a look Ichigo's way who shrugs in response. "Uh... sir?"

Mr Shirogane gives him a long appraising look before giving a simple affirming nod. "Yes, I thought that was the case. Come to think of it, you do still seem a bit bleary yesterday too. Passion's all well and good but you need to look after your health first and foremost. Just give us some warning next time if you need to take time off to recuperate."

"Oh. Right, sorry. You're right, Mr Shirogane. I should've called to let you know I wasn't feeling too great this morning. But I'm feeling loads better now. I promise I'll be at training tomorrow right on time like always." Kaien offers his usual sunny grin in place, if edged by uncertainty.

"Good lad. Make sure you don't burn yourself out. We have the nationals next month, and I need my best swimmer ready and raring to take the competition by storm!" Mr Shirogane gave Kaien a pat on the shoulder before forging onwards, shouting loud enthusiastic instructions to the PE class waiting for him just outside the building.

Kaien leans in to whisper to Ichigo, "I got kicked off the team for smashing up the classroom, the Homeroom teacher gave us both detentions and a brawl between us would be the talk of the year! Why don't any of them they remember?"

Quickly, Ichigo realizes what happened and instructs quickly, "Rukia did a memory thing. Roll with it."

Kaien agrees without hesitation, "Rolling with it."


Author's note:

Ah, Kid Kaien. Your dramatic irony gives me life.

Regards,

Aurora313