"Chess, look! Look, I'm gonna be like you one day!" The rambunctious blonde seemed to talk a mile a minute, Chessebelle looking down at her with a suspicious expression, one thick white eyebrow raised. As if reading her sister's question from her face, the girl waved a piece of paper wildly in her face. The older shinigami sighed inwardly as she attempted to read the flailing letter. She managed to get the jist of it from the few words she could read- 'Shin'o academy,' 'warmly welcome,' 'acceptance.'
To the blonde's surprise, Chessebelle said nothing and instead made her way to the living room window, looking out it with cloudy blue eyes. It was a shabby house that Chessebelle had always figured would blow down one day, yet here it still stood.
"That's very exciting, Gigi. I'm very proud of you."
Again, Gigi was surprised by her older sister's actions. The blonde scrambled over to her, taking her sister's cold hand into her own warm one. "Chess?" She looked at her sister with brilliant gemstone green eyes.
Chessebelle looked down at her little sister wit ha sad smile. It felt strange to be smiling when all she could think of was her baby sister going off and risking her life for no good reason. Chessebelle was supposed to be the soldier of the family, not little Getsu. The white haired shinigami hugged her little sister-they were almost the same size despite their age gap. Gigi's concern washed away with the embrace, Chessebelle seemingly absorbing it for herself.
"Dinner is ready!"
The sisters broke apart as they heard their mother's shrill voice calling them to the dining room. Chessebelle had explained four times that she couldn't stay but her family had still set her place with a plate of food. Gigi ran to the table and started eating immediately, her father chuckling as he waved his other daughter down to eat as well. Again, Chessebelle refused the invitation and headed towards the kitchen to say goodbye to her mother before taking her leave.
"I tried talking her out of it, you know that," her mother stood at their dusty kitchen window, holding a rag to her chin like a security blanket. "You must know that I didn't want her going, just like I didn't want you going. You had failed that test and I thought-"
"Please don't remind me." The shinigami cut her mother off, joining her at the window and looking to the dirty rukongai outside.
"Well you should've stopped taking it after you had failed three ti-"
"Mother, please." Chessebelle snapped this time, regarding her mother with disdain. The older woman looked at her daughter with sad blue eyes-the ones that Chessebelle seemed to have inherit. "I'll start looking for another house in the upper districts. I'm trying to keep you guys out of the bad areas, but I'm not even a seated officer. I don't need help from Gigi to make your lives better. You can't let her go-please don't let her attend." The white-haired woman, normally cold and calculated in her words and actions, couldn't believe the sound of her voice; she sounded like she was pleading with her own mother. "I've got to get going."
Kyotori watched her daughter leave the rukongai from her perch at the window, her baby bird now grown, while her other baby bird was trying to fly before she even knew how to flap her wings. She was just as afraid as Chessebelle that Gigi would plummet to the ground, leading to her own demise. And then she started crying.