Water dripped down from stalactites onto the slippery, rocky, ground creating multiple puddles. The only light shed in the cave was from the reflection of the moonlight on the water's surface. The roar of the waterfall echoed throughout the damp cavern only to be drowned out the further into the cave. Mika scanned her surroundings warily hoping nothing would jump out at her. As she took her next step into the slippery cave, she swore that she heard a tiny screeching behind her. She ignored it and proceeded on. Her home was very different than Rina's or Tori's it was simply chambers in the caves that made rooms, hallways and such. After slipping and sliding, she skidded into her room reliving all the so-called 'fun times' she had when she was merely a child.
.:Flashback:.
"I'm telling ya! It's impossible to fly!!" Mika told her older male cousin Takeru, who insisted that who could fly.
"You're just saying that because you can't!" He sneered looking down at the scenery below the cliff he and Mika were standing on.
She looked up at him and knew that he had a serious issue of being 2nd at everything his younger cousin had done before him. He took a step forward off the edge, Mika looked away and pretended to be an innocent bystander. He fell forward slowly, and started to chant in his mind: I can fly, I can fly… with eyes clenched shut. He could feel the wind ripping up against him as he plunged, suddenly he started to rise. He opened his eyes to see that he wasn't falling at all.
"HA! Told ya I could fly!!" He beamed proudly. Mika stared at him like he was an idiot, and pointed up. He looked up to see something huge and furry with large wings. "Aw…"
He moped noticing that it was Isamu--the large bat that was believed to be older than any of them.
.:Flashback:.
"Glad to see Takeru decided to quit trying to fly after his death" Mika mumbled passing by some skeletons. "…I wonder where Isamu is…" She pondered stopping in her tracks and looking up.
There were many bats nesting above her although none of them were of elephant-size. They peered down at her curiously wondering what she was doing, lurking about in their own home. Their gaze was only short-lived as Mika moved on towards the next chamber.
"How long is she gonna take to come into this stupid chamber?!" Isamu grumbled shifting his large leather wings hugging his body tightly while peering down at the ground below. His patience had run low, after hiding in darkness for many years, Mika decided to return. He hissed silently as he saw her enter. He left his rock and swooped down at her head, startling her.
"ISAMU!!" She shrieked punching his body aside into the cave walls in fright.
"What the hell was that for?!" He yelled flapping his wings out to remove any rocks that had fallen down from the impact.
"You frickin scared me!!" She pointed out the obvious to the bat. He shrugged and flew back up onto the ledge where he was previously. "What is it?" She asked noticing his glares of disgust.
"How could you become a shinigami?!" He asked infuriated.
"There was nothing else to do so why not?" She replied he gave her an icy glare.
"You do remember what had happened to us because of them right?" He hissed, narrowing his beady eyes.
"Of course I do! But my grudges never last long unlike Rina's or yours for the matter" She answered back.
"Judging by your actions and attitude" He started, Mika looked at him with interest in her eyes. "Revenge is outta the question" He sighed in disappointment.
Isamu loved to fight alright, but only if there was a really good reason behind it. He would never attack someone just for fun at all. Mika nodded and proceeded over to a rock and sat on it as it were a chair.
"You really need to get over it, people die; it's part of life" She said to him.
Of course the bat understood, however ever since the massive slaughter he felt as if a huge chunk of his heart had been cut out from him.
"Even so, death is a curse for us; our spiritual bodies will not leave this world and get reincarnated back onto Earth. We are cursed to remain here for eternity" He hissed reminding Mika of the fact that none of her family members - that she knew - had disappeared and had gotten reincarnated. For some reason they wouldn't disappear; Isamu knew the real reason though...
"…You need to take a chill pill" She muttered getting up from the rock, then leaving to visit her parents which she presumed were stalking her.
As expected, the couple was lurking behind her. She whipped around with her leg extended, virtually slicing the skeletons into half. They fell into pieces but reformed as if nothing had happened.
"That's whatcha get for stalking me" She said to them.
.:Flashback:.
"You're not going to try and fly again are ya?" Mika groaned as Takeru dragged her outside once more. He nodded with a bright smile as he led her out to the same cliff. It was dark so nobody was really up, this was his chance.
"You're gonna die" Mika muttered quietly to herself. "Why do I always have to come along to see your failed attempts at something?" She complained.
"Because, you'll see me succeed in something!!" He answered back triumphantly.
"Yeah right…" Mika said not believing him at all.
"OK!!" He looked down at the cliff with delight, and took a step forward.
Like before, gravity took a toll on him and he plummeted.
"I told ya" Mika said in a 'told-ya-so' voice.
"AAAAHHHH!!!" He screamed. "How come I can't fly?! I'm flapping my arms and everything!!" He yelled.
He was lucky again as Isamu, once again bailed him out.
"I saw a white light…no actually there were about 4…" Takeru gasped.
"4?" Isamu asked suspiciously.
Suddenly they heard shouts and a huge noise come up from below the mountains.
"Oh no…"
.:Flashback:.
"Hey Isamu" Mika called out.
"What?"
"Outta curiosity, did Takeru by any chance try to make others fly? You know his version of flying?" Mika asked curiously.
Isamu closed his eyes and went into deep thought, he opened them and nodded.
"That idiot…" She muttered.
"They're fine though, although they don't trust him anymore"
"Well no duh! He was a nutcase and the so-called 'backbone' of our clan!" She flailed her hands up emphasizing her points. "…So…" Mika started bored from the silence that surrounded her. "What have ya guys been up to?" She asked.
No one spoke; well it was to be expected since she was talking to a bunch of skeletons and bats that weren't that advanced to be able to speak. Everyone looked at each other and shrugged.
"What about you?" Isamu asked hoping to get some sort of conversation happening.
"Uh…nothing much…" She sighed. "What does it take to get you guys talking?!" She yelled.
Again, nobody spoke up.
"Why did you come here anyways?" Isamu asked curiously.
"Cuz we were pretty much stuck in Seireitei. Only because this crazy psychopath captain might attack us and harness our zanpakutou's powers. Psh, like that would ever happen!!" Mika grumbled.
"Right…Seireitei's security has gone up hasn't it? Ever since the betrayal"
"Yup…they're really boring too."
"It's to be expected."
"Yup, I should've known better."
---
Since Mika's attention span was not as great as many would've liked, the boredom and silence got to her. She dozed off since nobody was talking; she was able to sleep on things that many would not be comfortable on. For example…she dozed off on a rock. Although it was quite smooth, it was still very hard. It was the middle of the night so you couldn't blame her at all. In fact, when she was a little girl, she would sleep just about anywhere—except spikes and stuff—so pretty much everywhere was her bedroom if you thought about it on a grand scale. She was also a deep sleeper, and wouldn't wake up even if you yelled at her through a bullhorn. Normally, nobody would wake her up because she would be quite grumpy in the mornings usually resulting with her beating somebody up. Isamu though, decided to take a whack at it, being almost double her height, he was confident he wouldn't get hurt.
"…Mika!!!...Wake up goddammit!!" He flapped his wings back and forth creating a huge gust of wind, making Mika fall off the rock.
She was still sleeping though. The impact from her falling from a rock to the ground didn't wake her up at all. Instead of waking up, she mumbled something and grabbed a little rock (in her sleep) and tossed it. Coincidentally, it was in Isamu's direction. He dodged it swiftly and attempted to wake her up once more. This time he used a different method. He screeched loudly at her causing strong sound waves to ripple through the air. Finally Mika snapped up from her sleep glaring at the bat.
"There's someone else in the caves." He said. "A shinigami to be exact; he's probably looking for you" He finished flying up high up the caves perching himself on a ledge.
"'He'? Why would somebody be looking for me? Who is loo—oh…" She figured out who it was and got up and started prowling around for the uninvited guest.
Kurai Jiro: Father-shinigami--died from protecting family
Kurai Aiko: Mother-artist--died from protecting family
Kurai Takeru: Older male cousin-nutcase--died from trying to fly
Isamu: Bat with attitude--Alive