Chapter Two: Starter
The bloody corpses of Airi's dead family members were shuffling toward her like zombies. She stared in horror, frozen, still in her Shinigami uniform, as they came closer and closer, slowly overtaking her…
"What's going on… Airi…?"
"It hurts… Sister…"
"I thought you became a Shinigami… to protect us…!"
"Airi!"
"Airi!"
Their moans rang in her ears. Airi was clutching at herself, face working, tears in her eyes, genuinely terrified as she stared at them guiltily, their bloody faces slowly surrounding her…
Then Rukia suddenly appeared somehow, also standing there in her Shinigami uniform.
"I am sorry!" she said with brutal matter of factness. "You were too late!"
Angry and afraid and distraught, Airi lost her head and began shrieking at Rukia -
And that was when she felt a set of arms close around her and she jolted awake. The sensation pierced through her sleep-induced nightmare full of impossible protective feelings and unending guilt.
"My beautiful daughter Airi is awake at last ~!"
"... Dad," said Airi, deadpan, "I don't even want to know how long you've been standing there embracing me in my bed, but get the fuck away from me."
Her father retreated and Airi relaxed in relief, taking deep breaths. I'm secretly grateful, she could admit to herself.
That was when she paused and leaped out of bed, full reality finally hitting her and breaking through her haze. She jumped in front of her Dad, eyes wide. "Oh yeah! How are your injuries? How are Karin and Yuzu?"
"Injuries?" Her father looked puzzled. "What are you talking about? When did we get hurt?"
"But you're… you're…" said Airi slowly, staring, and that was when she realized: "... You're not hurt."
Her next bewildered sentence: "Wait, what?"
The entire healed Kurosaki family was standing outside the house, staring at the boarded-up hole in the side of it. Airi stood in their midst looking bewildered.
"But it sure is a miracle!" said Dad brightly, hammer in hand. "A truck crashes into the side of our house and nobody even gets injured!"
"More miraculous: nobody even wakes up!" said Yuzu equally brightly, ladle in hand. "Oh! Sister! Breakfast is ready!"
"Yeah, right." Karin's arms were crossed and she looked away resolutely. "This ain't no miracle. The criminal got away and left us with the repair bills. This family…" she muttered to herself.
"Don't worry! He'll come back to apologize someday!" said Dad with childish earnestness and enthusiasm.
"No, he won't!" Karin snapped, angsty and sullen and all-teenager.
"If you don't eat soon, you'll be late," Yuzu reminded everyone naggingly.
Airi stared solemnly at the boarded-up hole. What's going on…? Everyone's wounds have been healed… And they think the damage to the house was the result of a truck accident… Only I seem to remember the truth… Is this Shinigami-style damage control?
Rukia… did she go back to the Soul Society? Airi pictured Rukia, all solemn and official in her Shinigami uniform. She must have… She said I was only taking half her power. And anyway, since I'm a human now instead of a Shinigami… my temporary Shinigami powers must be gone.
They said it was a long-term patrol mission. But maybe something like what happened would freak any Society out.
Karakura High School
10:43 AM
A curvy girl with long caramel-colored hair yawned, sitting in a hallway near a window with a book and gazing up at the ceiling absently. It was morning break. She was pretty, with a round, cheerful face and childish star barrettes tying back her hair.
"Hey, your mouth is open! You're too young to be zoning out daydreaming!" a voice said suddenly.
The girl broke from her daydream, closed her mouth, and put her book up before her face reflexively - then she saw who it was. A tall, slim girl with a messy, blunt pixie cut of black hair was smiling warmly at her, hands on her hips. Beside her, looking warm and fondly exasperated and now in a high school uniform… was Airi.
"Look who I found," said the black-haired girl playfully.
"Tatsuki-chan! Airi-chan!" said the curvy, daydreaming girl delighted.
Airi smirked, shaking her head gently. "Hey, Orihime," she said, sounding amused. "Excited and cheerful as always."
Back at their desks at the classroom, they sat down around each other. "Why are you two so late?" Orihime asked, concerned.
"Oh. A huge truck crashed into the side of Airi's house last night," said Tatsuki. "I went to walk with her to school as usual, I got sight of the clinic, and bam - there was the hole. I don't know how everyone in the neighborhood, including my family, missed the sound of an accident that big."
"Whaaat?!" Orihime wailed, wide-eyed with alarm.
"Yeah. And then when I ran over to ask her Dad if she was dead, all shouting and angry and stuff, all ready to be made the plot of some awful docu movie, do you know what the little asshole said? She creeped up right behind me and said, 'Sorry to disappoint you, but we all survived'." Tatsuki's eyebrows had risen in a Really? sort of way.
Airi snickered. "Well ya gotta admit, if I'd died, it would have made an awesome story to tell for you at school."
"Not the point, Airi. Not even the point. Also morbid," said Tatsuki matter of factly.
"Airi-chan, you do not get to complain about how clumsy and ditzy I am and how much you worry about me anymore!" Orihime said, pointing.
"Aww, really?" Airi scowled and slumped. "But that's one of my favorite activities!"
"No! You've been doing it since we became friends two years ago in eighth grade, and after this? Nuh-uh!" said Orihime, her childish star hair barrettes flashing with a particularly fervent head movement. "And you don't get to freak me out and joke about my apartment being haunted anymore, either! Who gave you the power to see ghosts, anyway? How would you know?!"
"Ugh, fine." Airi sat back. "I nearly die and I'm punished for eternity. I give this whole 24-hour period up as a bad job." Tatsuki chuckled despite herself. "Let's talk about Orihime's latest crush instead."
Tatsuki's head shot up.
"The gym locker assistant," Orihime admitted, ducking her head and blushing. "Don't tell anybody else. It's humiliating enough as it is."
"The guy Airi and I get our karate equipment from three days a week after school for karate club?!" Tatsuki shrieked.
"The guy we're always complaining with Asano Mizuho from kendo club about because he keeps calling her a dude?" said Airi, deadpan and exasperated.
Then, together: "He's an asshole, too!"
"I know! I know!" Orihime moaned, sighing and putting her burning-hot face against her desk.
"What is it with you and assholes, Orihime?" said Tatsuki intently, leaning forward and frowning in worry. "With boobs like yours, you could do so much better than what you're reaching for."
"She's also, you know, a nice person?" said Airi dryly.
"Yeah. But we all know nobody gives a shit about that in high school. You suck 'em in with your boobs and then pounce," said Tatsuki, nonplussed.
"Wow. You're a poet," said Airi, straight-faced, and they all began giggling like mad. "Really, though," said Airi through her laughter, "at this point she's better off just pairing up with Chizuru. Chizuru -"
"Is a perv!" said Tatsuki indignantly.
"Well, she's super forward, a lesbo, and into really kinky sex. But at least she worships Orihime like a princess and treats her nicely," said Airi, frowning matter of factly, arms crossed.
"... Damn, Orihime. Your taste in guys is starting to make Honsho Chizuru look like a viable option, and you're not even gay. Are you?" Tatsuki added hopefully. "Because you know, that would be super convenient -"
"I'm not gay!" said Orihime indignantly. "Stop talking about my nonexistent sex life in front of me!"
"Fine, then. Why do you always go for assholes?" said Airi.
"In your own words," Tatsuki added, all business.
"I just think of that grimacing asshole face…" Orihime closed her eyes, smiled, and blushed. "And you know what the great thing is about dating a guy who looks like he has a stick stuck up his ass? You can imagine that face any which way you want to - clown makeup, afro, animal nose, terminator vision - and no matter how you imagine it…" Orihime snorted, opened her eyes, and began giggling hysterically, hands over her mouth and tears in her eyes. "It's hilarious!"
"Is… that the answer you were expecting?" Airi asked Tatsuki uncertainly, as if just to clarify.
"Not at all…" said Tatsuki, lost. "Two years of best friendship in, and she still baffles us…
"Anyway." She turned back to Airi. "You don't get off that easy. Weren't you helping out with repairs on your house today? I mean, the reason I'm so late is because I stuck around, but then you said you were ready and…"
"Eh." Airi shrugged philosophically. "My Dad's operating under the assumption that having a good education might be mildly important at some point in my life."
"Annoying."
"Totally annoying.
"Yup. Infuriating."
"This is 3rd period, right? Who's about to come in?" Airi asked neutrally, turning to the front and her desk.
"Social studies," said Orihime.
"Ochi-san, eh? Well, good, she won't ask many annoying questions about my absence," said Airi.
"You're… Airi-san?" said a female voice brightly from directly behind Airi. Airi turned around… and Rukia was standing there in a body in a high school uniform just like the rest of them. Everyone was looking at her. She smiled. "Nice to meet you!" she said to Airi.
Airi just stared, petrified.
"Who the hell are you?" Tatsuki asked bluntly.
"My name is Kuchiki Rukia!" said Rukia brightly with a big, fake smile. "I just transferred in today! It's an unusual time, but a family situation came up and we had to move suddenly. I don't have any textbooks yet, so I was told to sit next to and read from the textbooks of Kurosaki Airi - the one with the unusual orange hair.
"You don't mind me looking at your books, do you, Airi-san?" Rukia held out her hand.
Written on her palm were the words: You say something, I kill you. Get it?
Airi just… stared. In total disbelief. Rukia beamed brightly. "Okay?!"
And then she yelped as Airi stood up and dragged her unceremoniously out of the classroom, to the total confusion of everyone watching. Airi's first coherent thought:
What the hell is she thinking?!
A few minutes later, Rukia was following Airi to an abandoned section of the high school campus.
"Where are we going?" she asked Airi, who was walking up in front. "Are we off to do naughty highschool girl things?!" she added eagerly. "I'm really interested in trying human culture!"
"Human… culture…? Stop being weird!" Airi barked over her shoulder.
"Weird?" Rukia pouted. "How rude, is it not good for someone who studied and learned everything basic from the Shinigami's Guide to Humans textbook in a single day?"
Airi whirled around to Rukia. "Could you please just explain what's going on?" she said, throwing out her hands, frustrated.
"Explain?" said Rukia, surprised and maybe alarmed.
"Yeah! Isn't your job over?!" Airi demanded heatedly. "Why are you in my class? Didn't you have to go back to that Soul Society place?!"
"You fool. It was a long-term mission. And only Shinigami can return to Soul Society," said Rukia, her arms crossed defensively. "Right now, I am not able to return there."
"Huh? Why not?" said Airi slowly, big eyes puzzled.
"Because I lost my Shinigami powers!" said Rukia firmly.
"Wha…?!" Airi slowly began to look alarmed. She pulled at her own physical body, school uniform, clothes. "B… but I'm no longer a Shinigami! No kimono! Where did this 'Shinigami power' go?!"
"Inside of you," said Rukia, pointing. "It's not your body but your soul that has become a Shinigami. I simply put your Shinigami soul back inside your human body."
Airi paused, disconcerted.
"Anyway! Last night I had almost all my powers taken by you!" said Rukia. "I have barely any abilities left… I'm even forced to be in this gigai, or artificial body!" She put a hand against her own chest.
"Artificial…?" Airi began, bewildered.
"It is an alternate body we Shinigami use in times of emergency," said Rukia. "A weakened Shinigami enters it to wait for his or her powers to recover."
"So this body is that? And it takes a human form?" Airi guessed.
"Yes. Weakened Shinigami are targets for Hollows. So we act like humans," said Rukia.
So that's why the others in my class could see her… Airi thought. She looked serious, but uneasy. "... So? What does a weakened Shinigami want with me?" she asked tentatively.
"That's it, the point!" Rukia held out a hand and beamed. "Until my powers return… you will take over my guard shift Shinigami duties on this long-term Karakura Town mission! You will also have to write the reports to the Captain," she added matter of factly. "They would sound more natural coming from you, the one actually doing the fighting. After today, after every Hollow is when your reports would start. And -"
Airi reacted rather… viscerally in indignant fury, face twisting, fists clenched. An oblivious Rukia was still talking.
"You're the one who has the Shinigami powers now, so it makes sense," said Rukia. "I will be there to assist you at all times, of course. Eventually my powers will return, yours will fade, it will be like nothing happened, and all will be well again! And you really have no right to refuse, since you were the one who -"
Airi put up her hands in a hex sign and glared. "I refuse!" she snapped heatedly.
Rukia paused, finger in the air and mouth open. "... What?" she finally said, beginning to get both nervous and angry.
"I said I refuse !" Airi waved a lazy, disgusted hand and walked away gracefully. "I don't want to fight anymore of those monsters. I turn down the job."
"W… wait…!" said Rukia disbelievingly, now definitely nervous. "But last night, you -!"
"Last night…" Airi paused, her back to Rukia. "... Last night I was only able to fight because my family was in danger." She turned around, uneasy but honest. "I'm not fighting monsters like that for total strangers!" she said bluntly. "I'm not that nice of a person.
"Sorry if I disappointed you…
"But look, you don't get it, you don't know who I am," said Airi with feel, waving a hand at her chest. "On a day to day basis, I mean. I know I'm letting you down, I'm aware… that this is a shitty way to react. I get that. But you have to understand this: I am a disappointing and shitty person."
"... Your guilt complex," Rukia realized, remembering last night.
"... Maybe?" Airi shrugged, convinced she was helpless.
"That belies… absolutely everything I know about you so far," said Rukia, her face veiled. "You realize that, right? Everything. What you're telling yourself belies… literally everything I know about you."
"... Then maybe you don't know me very well. Because I'm not a hero. Never was cut out to be one. Sorry." And Airi turned back around to walk out of the courtyard.
"... I see…" said Rukia solemnly, her head lowered. She raised her head, deadly determined, and slipped on a fingerless glove with the Shinigami symbol on it - a Hollow skull mask surrounded by flames. "... Then I have no choice!"
Airi whirled around in surprise as Rukia ran at her. "What are you -?!" she began in alarm.
And then Rukia shoved the gloved hand at Airi's high school uniform laden chest and her soul, in full Shinigami regalia, was pushed outside her body.
Her physical body in school uniform fell forward and her soul body in Shinigami uniform fell backward, both in surprise.
"Wha - What the hell's going on?! My soul isn't in my body anymore?!" Airi stared at her soul hands from the ground, freaking out, possibly having a slight existential crisis. "Hey, body! Snap out of it!"
Airi's body didn't move. It didn't have her inside it - didn't have anyone inside it, in fact, though it was technically still alive.
"Hey." Airi looked up in surprise to find Rukia glaring down at her seriously. She apparently still had enough power to at least see and touch a Shinigami. "Follow me!" Rukia commanded, icy and hard to read.
Rukia as faux human and Airi as Shinigami were standing beside each other in front of a children's park somewhere in Karakura.
"... Well this is riveting," said Airi at last. They had apparently been waiting for a while. Both still stared at the park ahead.
"Wait. It will happen soon," Rukia said, her arms crossed.
"What will happen soon?!" Airi snapped, uneasy, finally looking over at her. "We've been waiting for twenty min -!"
"Does a spirit appear near this park?" Rukia asked emotionlessly, still looking forward.
"Ah - yeah, one does."
"What kind?"
"A 5 year old kid. He's small." Airi made a short gesture with her hand. "He usually plays here around noon."
"Your friend?" Rukia asked next.
"What?! I've seen him maybe three or four times. I've never even spoken to him… Why is that important…?!" she began, confused.
Rukia held out what looked like a cell phone. In the screen readout were a set of abbreviated numbers and words.
"What's this?" said Airi uneasily, taking the cell phone and staring down at it.
"An order from Soul Society," said Rukia calmly. "It means within fifteen minutes of noon, in a 20 meter vicinity of Yumizawa Children's Park… a Hollow will appear. Most likely," said Rukia casually, "it will attack the child."
Airi froze, staring down wide-eyed and blank-faced at the cell phone readout.
They looked around, Rukia for a second more cautious and assessing than she appeared, as a scream echoed out from the other side of the park. The little boy's ghost was being chased by a massive, spider-like Hollow. He was crying, his hand reached out to them.
Airi saw, her face contracted with horror, and she was at the fencing of the park with her hand on her sword before a single thought could go through her head. She tensed herself, face hard, preparing to fight -
"Wait!"
Airi turned back around to Rukia.
"You're going to help him?" Her arms crossed, her face solemn and expressionless. "Isn't he a stranger?"
"Wh… what are you talking about?!" Airi demanded, horrified. "How could I not help someone who's right in front of me…?"
"Whether it happens in front of you or far away," said Rukia seriously, "it doesn't change the fact that he's being attacked!"
Airi froze.
"Unless you commit to doing my job…" said Rukia meaningfully, "this is going to happen all the time. So what does it matter if it happens in front of you… or miles away?" she added, faux casual, shrugging. "The end result is the same. You're not helping people.
"Isn't that what you wanted? Funny. Your face doesn't look like it is."
The kid tripped and fell to the ground with a cry. Airi looked around instinctively in alarm -
"Don't help him!" Rukia shouted. "Even if you save that kid here, nothing will matter if you don't become a Shinigami! Saving him because he's right in front of you?! Don't be naive.
"A Shinigami has to treat all spirits equally! You cannot just conveniently save those you can see, those you can reach! Don't save anyone with such half-hearted spirit! If you want to save him now… accept that you must save all spirits!
"To go anywhere for them… to even be willing to give your life to save them, you have to make that kind of commitment!" she commanded, snarling. Rukia was hard and fierce - all about commitment.
Give your life, Airi thought, and she remembered Rukia throwing herself in front of the attack meant for Airi herself the night before.
She seemed to come to some sort of decision.
Just as the spider Hollow had loomed over the kid and was about to eat him, Rukia's eyes widened. Airi had just leaped into the park, stance at the ready.
"... Who are you…?" the spider Hollow asked Airi cautiously, pausing.
Then the Hollow screamed and flew away, skidding backward on the ground, as Airi slashed straight through one of its legs, slicing it off. Her face was twisted into a fierce snarl, her amber brown eyes burning. The kid looked up, tentatively hopeful on the ground through his tears, his spiritual life saved.
"... Airi… you've accepted…?" Rukia began in hopeful surprise.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" And the kid gave a cry of alarm as Airi slammed her gigantic sword into the ground right beside the kid's head. Tact was not one of Airi's specialties. "I don't accept jack! I saved him because I wanted to save him!" Airi shouted temperamentally, pointing defiantly at Rukia. "Is that wrong?!
"Think about it. Is it true that nothing would matter if I only managed to save a few lives as a Shinigami? If I only helped the people I wanted to?" Airi asked heatedly.
"Wha…?!" Rukia began indignantly.
"And are you any different?!" Airi demanded, pointing at her.
Rukia paused, her face veiled and surprised.
"You sacrificed yourself to save me last night! At that time were you thinking about really by-the-book, written-rote, page-pounding stuff like 'this is my Shinigami duty'?! No! I'm not going to ask you what you were thinking, but I know it wasn't that! It was personal for you, because it's always personal! Duty! That's not what fighting and sacrificing yourself is!
"No matter how many people we choose to save, all human beings only save the people we want to.
"No one dies out of duty. People die out of choice."
The Hollow was charging up behind Airi.
"Or if I'm wrong and they don't, at the very least…" And she reached her sword back and stuck it straight through the Hollow's face, without so much as looking. "I will be different!" she said in a voice of iron.
She turned around and slashed right through the Hollow, felling it to the ground.
"... I haven't accepted any commitment…" said Airi, her back to Rukia. "If things get bad, I might just turn one day and run… Since I'm not a good enough person to want to sacrifice myself for total strangers… But…"
She turned back around to Rukia.
"Unfortunately," she said sarcastically, "I also have a debt to pay, and I'm still a good enough person that I give a shit about that!
"So here's my deal. I still maintain that I'm a horrible person who doesn't want to help anyone she doesn't know. I still maintain that only helping the people you want to is a perfectly fine way to behave. I still maintain that I don't actually want to save anybody.
"But I'll help you out because you saved my ass."
Airi marched over, frowned firmly, and stuck out her hand. "I'm going to help you!" she said. "To do this Shinigami job thing! Even though I don't want to!"
After a surprised pause… Rukia smiled understandingly.
"Yeah," she said simply, letting Airi save face and keep her past and her secrets, and she shook the hand. "Thanks for the help."
Meanwhile back at school, alarmed students and teacher were finding Airi "passed out and alone" in a courtyard on campus.
And Tatsuki and Orihime were sitting at their desks, staring at the classroom door in worry, halfway through math with textbooks in hand. "Is her disappearing like this going to become a regular thing?!" Tatsuki hissed to Orihime.
They had no idea.