Bleach (c) Tite Kubo
Once More To See You Again
Unwelcome Guest
Okay. So maybe Rukia should've used that stupid magic bunny memory replacement device thingy on Kaien after all, if for no other reason than to spare Ichigo the brewing headache from the incessant questions.
After dinner and washing up the dishes, the twins retreated to their shared bedroom. Ichigo reclined on his bed which occupied the farthest corner from the door, under the larger northern window. His work desk and chair sat against the wall beside him. Meanwhile, Kaien's bed was step up right next to the door by the second smaller east-facing window, his desk served double duty as his bedhead and bedside table.
Right now, his dark-haired twin is propped up in that little corner workspace idly posing theological questions while casually blitzing through the homework Ichigo finished hours ago when Kaien was at afterschool practice.
Ichigo groans under the bombardment, pinching the bridge of his nose when it became clear his brother would not let any of this go.
To Ichigo's long suffering chagrin, Kaien had a seemingly infinite font of queries about Ichigo's 'arrangement' so to speak, and it seems likely he wouldn't stop asking any time soon. Though Ichigo knew this barrage was inevitable and while concern for his own health and safety is a factor, this was simply a particular character quirk of Kaien's. Give him something new to play with, he'll spend the rest of the day trying to understand it inside out and top to bottom.
Despite that, Ichigo is entirely the wrong person to pose all these spiritual-y questions to. Even if he weren't, the spiritual world would probably require longer than an afternoon's idly musing to completely understand, let alone comprehend. But that wasn't what frustrated Ichigo about this particular line of questioning.
"C'mon Kai, I've known about this literally only twenty-four hours longer than you. What on earth makes you think I'd have any more answers about this than you do?" Ichigo complains over his manga. "Why are you so curious anyway? I thought waxing on about all this deep metaphysical stuff freaked you out."
"Oh no, I'm absolutely terrified. Swimming neck deep in existential dread over here. That's why I want to question and puzzle it all out. The only reason people are afraid of anything is because they don't understand it. Practically speaking, we already knew spirits were real because you and I could see them, Karin can too and Yuzu... kind of but not really. The only person who can't is dad. But to know for certain there's an actual afterlife, its all-" Kaien raises his hands to mimic an explosion with accompanying childish sound effects. "And I wanna know how it functions. I mean, is there only one Soul Society? Is there more than one? Does it govern the entire world or does it oversee a single region? Do they have countries like we do? Are Shinigami the only kind of psychopomp that exist or does each country have their own? Do they have globalized commerce? Do we all go there when we die, regardless of deed or virtue?"
Ichigo rolls his eyes, heaving a sigh. His head hurts. "For cryin' out loud, this isn't some new TV show or fantasy novel, Kaien. I get it, you like digging deep and analyzing this kind of stuff 'cause you're a nerd-"
"Hi Pot, my name's Kettle. Nice to meet you."
Ichigo grit his teeth, "-but there's no point wondering about it. Its not like either us are gonna be shuffling off this mortal coil any time soon, so stop talking yourself in circles. You're gonna drive yourself mad."
"What, you're not the least bit curious about what'll be waiting for us when we cross over to the other side? Especially now we know there's another world beyond this one? Or what happens to that soul you sent on his way?" Kaien prompts, propping his cheek on his raised fist.
"I'm not interested in all that stuff. I never have been, you know that." Ichigo grouses.
Suddenly the manga in his hands no longer held his interest, as much as Ichigo dearly wished it would. With his twin poising all these hypothetical questions, Ichigo isn't able to absorb himself in those pages. Shame too, felt like it was building up to some massive plot twist. Some big reveal about the main character.
"Yeah I'm aware, but that's because you thought all of those so-called TV Psychics and Spiritualists were all showboating fakers who couldn't tell their ass from their elbow. We have evidence now, you have the powers of a Shinigami and she's evidently intent on going to school with us. How can you not be the least bit curious?"
"Because I don't care." Ichigo grumbles.
"Liar." Kaien accuses without heat. "Aren't you sensitive types supposed to be in tuned with this sort of stuff? Is there no poetry in your soul?" He adds with a haughty mocking tone.
Ichigo slumps back on his bed, raking his fingers through his hair with a frustrated growl. He draws in a steadying breath. "Look, its cool that you're curious and all. All the power to you. But I'm not going to say it again; I literally know as much as you do. All these questions are pointless, repetitious and frankly extremely dull."
"Huh, wouldn't you know it? Sounds a bit like Shakespeare."
A vein pops on Ichigo's temple and he glowers at his twin, who grins jovially in response. With some significant effort, Ichigo forces his boiling annoyance down to a simmer with a deep breath. Little prick was trying to get under his skin again and Ichigo's refusal to take the bait forces that smile to drop at terminal velocity. (In his book, a much more satisfying victory than a physical altercation... even if those are fun, too.)
"I think you're looking into this a bit too much." Ichigo dismisses, ignoring Kaien's disappointed pout.
"Personally, I think I'd prefer to be schizophrenic. Pretend this is all some delusion and I'll wake up in a psyche ward 'cause I forgot to take my meds one morning." Ichigo mumbles grumpily under his breath.
"You don't mean that." Kaien states as a matter of fate. "Sure, it's a pain where the sun don't shine sometimes, but if life were any other way it'd be so sinfully boring. And you have to be totally completely honest... waving around a giant sword without a care in the world is kinda fun, isn't it?"
"... a little." Ichigo concedes with a tiny voice, then continues with a firmer tone, "But the slaying monsters part? That's somethin' I wish I read in the fine print before I agreed to this."
"You always did have a habit of leaping before you looked." His twin reminds him, not that Ichigo needed any reminders. It's a trait that's served as virtue and vice throughout his life. "No disrespect, it's a strength. But you always ended up getting yourself into some trouble or other. More than a few times."
"Your mastery of the obvious is inspiring." Ichigo quips sarcastically.
"Although... she is an odd one. That Rukia." Kaien muses at length,
Ichigo raises a pointed eyebrow at him. "Before you go working too hard on that little crush of yours, Kai, you might remember she's a ghost guardian from another world. I know you; that's what you always mean when you say some girl's 'an odd one'? I'm startin' to think you've got all your priorities mixed up."
"Don't be a pain, Ichi. That's not what I'm getting at here."
Ichigo is only a little disappointed his twin didn't rise to his own provocations.
Kaien leans forward on his desk with a puzzled frown on his face. "Just something weird about her is all. At school, she was sitting on my seat in homeroom and I was gonna ask her to move. Well, figured I'd introduce myself to the new kid before asking her to move, right? Obviously I didn't know she was some super magic ghost samurai or whatever. But the second she saw my face she damn near had a full-blown panic attack. Practically barreled everyone down on her way out of homeroom like I'd frightened her out of her wits."
"Looked in a mirror lately?" Ichigo prompts.
"Can't. Shattered the second you did." Kaien retorts without skipping a beat, Ichigo shot him a scowl and his younger brother merely responds by sticking out his tongue tauntingly.
A vein pulses on Ichigo's temple. "Don't make me come over there and kick your ass."
"Its so adorable you think you could." Kaien taunts.
"That's it-!" Ichigo surges from his bed, Kaien bolts for the door but by then its already too late.
Ichigo catches the back of Kaien's shirt and drags him back. "Ah cra-!"
The roughhousing ends rather predictably after that. With Kaien pinned on the floor, one of Ichigo's arms around his neck in a headlock, driving his knuckles into Kaien's dark scalp with the other. Kaien tries to pry Ichigo's arm off him and get free, but it's a futile effort. Between the two of them, Kaien might've had Ichigo beat in terms of sheer speed and endurance, but Ichigo was physically stronger. Once Ichigo got him pinned, it was game over.
"Owie-Owie-Ow-Ow! Okay okay! I'll stop picking on you, just let go of me already, will ya?!"
"Stop getting on my nerves, or we'll end up right back here. Got it, ya little brat?!" Ichigo emphasizes his point with a hard bonk to Kaien's head.
"Ow! You're calling me a brat? Oh, that's rich! You're the one being a miserable grumpy guts!" Kaien volleys back, about two seconds away from biting his way out of the hold.
"Are you two fighting again?" Yuzu huffs. "If I have to separate you two, I will."
Distracted by their squabbling, they hadn't noticed the bedroom door open nor their youngest sister Yuzu walk into the room with her hands planted on her hips, about ready to give her two idiot brothers the scolding of a lifetime. An action that would've actually been intimidating if she wasn't a third their size.
"Just having a friendly tussle, nothing to worry about." Kaien offers his usual good natured grin.
"Hey, what did I say about knocking next time you wanted to come in Yuzu?" Ichigo complains, releasing his hold on Kaien and returning to his bed.
Kaien merrily bounces to his feet. "Hah. You gave up. I win."
"You didn't-!' Ichigo lunges before he straightens up with a dark scowl aimed at Kaien's unrepentantly cheeky grin. "I almost fell for that."
"Oh, would you look at that, Yuzu? He's learning. I'm so proud." Kaien sends his giggling little sister a beaming smile, ignoring their far more cantankerous brother. "What's up, Kiddo?"
"Have either of you seen my pajamas? The bright yellow ones?" Yuzu ventures hopefully.
Ichigo rolls his eyes and answers tersely, "No, neither of us have seen your pajamas."
"Well excuse me for asking. You've gotten so mean since you started High School." Yuzu pouts before dramatically throwing her arms around Kaien in a hug, "Kai! Please don't ever start being mean like Ichigo. One brother being a grouch is bad enough, we don't need another."
"Oh no, we've filled our quota on grouches in this house. Besides, one of us has to be the funny one. It doesn't work if both of us are." Kaien returns the hug with his good natured joke.
"You're really laying it on thick, aren't you?" Ichigo mutters under his breath.
"But it so weird. One of my dresses has gone missing too." Yuzu informs them.
"Why do you feel the need to bother us with every little thing?" Ichigo sighes, "No. We don't know where Pajamas are, we don't know where your dress is. There. You happy?"
Yuzu's shoulders slumps while she wears a disappointed pout.
"Ignore him. Only reason Ichi's all grizzly is because I ate the last Mochi Donut for dessert. I'll help you look for them tomorrow, okay?" Kaien promises and tousles Yuzu's hair, which earned him a giggle and feigned protest. Yuzu neatens it as best she could.
"Okay. Good night, you two."
Kaien sees her out and closes the door behind her before sending a disapproving look Ichigo's way. "Don't take your temper out of Yuzu. Its mean."
"Its annoying to have little sisters barging in on me unannounced," Ichigo grumbles, then sends a pointed glare Kaien's way. "Little brothers, too."
Kaien gives an innocent shrug, "Well you'll have to enlighten me. I certainly wouldn't know anything about that."
Ichigo stares at him, watching KAien plop himself down on his bed with a novel. He bemoans. "Why are you like this?"
"Maybe its my brilliantly subtle way of hinting that you really to work that stick out of your ass." Kaien brushes off. "Dear brother of mine, if you take life too seriously it ceases to be funny."
"Sometimes, I think you don't take things seriously enough." Ichigo accuses.
Kaien make no attempt to reply, laying back in his bed and engrossed in his novel. The only sounds that interrupted the silence was the turning of a page.
"Do you think Mum's there?" Ichigo asks quietly. The words were heavy, even as he uttered them.
Kaien props himself up on his elbows, watching his brother.
"I mean... in Soul Society or whatever. Do you think that she might be there somewhere?"
"I don't know..." Kaien answers after a long stretch, equally somber before flopping back on the bed, his discarded novel laying on his chest and eyes glued to the ceiling. "I hope so."
Rukia bites her lip. Hidden in their closet, her eyes slide closed while she listened to the brothers' exchange.
Damn it.
This is precisely why re-association was such a dangerous matter and everything Rukia wanted to avoid. Her very presence has caused irreparable damage, but there was no choice in the matter. As long as Ichigo had her powers and her Zanpakutou in his hand, she had no choice but to associate with the twins. The best she could hope for right now was to avoid any further harm by keeping all talk of the spiritual world to a minimum.
She knew she should report in, but she kept doubting that decision. How can they address this? Should she try and establish a direct link to the Captain and discuss next steps with him? The circumstances weren't in her favour.
Or maybe that Kisuke Urahara might have some means to transfer Ichigo's borrowed powers back to her at an accelerated rate. He had a reputation, one that Rukia had been well-informed of during her days at the Shin'ou Academy, but right now he was her only ally outside Ichigo.
A miserable state of affairs unto itself.
If they could accelerate the rate of Rukia's powers returning to her, then she could request an emergency reassignment. No one would ever know about the re-association, and in a few decades when the twins pass of age, they would forget in the passage between the transient world and Soul Society anyway as all souls do.
But for now; the less time Rukia spent in the twins' presence, the easier it would be to clear up this mess.
A task easier said than done.
Rukia's Denreishiki chirped with an incoming order and Rukia slips it out of her borrowed pajama pocket.
"Hey Kaien, turn your Gameboy down will ya? I don't need to hear you failed to capture another Pokémon." Ichigo tells his twin.
Kaien understandably responds with confusion, "What are you talking about? I don't have it. I loaned my Gameboy to Karin - Wait. What's that beeping sound? Did your alarm or phone go off?"
"No. Either of yours?"
"No."
"Then where's it coming from...?"
There's silence, followed by presumably one of them scooting off their bed to investigate.
"Sounds like its coming from..."
Rukia could hear commotion outside her door and ignored it. Her eyes snap go wide in shock and she tears the closet door open.
"Ichigo!"
Kaien exclaims, jumping back in alarm, "What the-?!"
Ichigo thrust a finger at her, "Where in the world did you come from?!"
"Why are you in our closet?!"
"And where'd you get our sister's pajamas?!"
"No time to explain! We've got a job to do." Rukia ignores the shouts of alarm, stammers, sputtering, confused questions and accusations.
She focuses on the task at hand, knocking Ichigo off his bed and out of his body in the nick of time to avoid the greedy claw of the Hollow bursting into the room from its hidden pocket dimension.
Ichigo goes to work once Rukia snaps him out of his stupor. In the corner of her eye, she could see Kaien reach for his brother's empty body and drag it around the corner. Fear plain to see but wisely focused on staying out of the line of fire.
Rukia orders Ichigo to go for the head. He drew his Zanpakutou and rushed into action, but his movements are sloppy. Clumsy, untrained and unrefined. So much energy wasted in his technique. It's inelegant, ineffective and utterly barbaric how he flailed the sword around like some sort of brutish cudgel. A complete insult to the fine grace of a Shinigami's way of battle.
Rukia will have to train him out of so many mistakes before they form into bad habits, presuming the idiot won't get himself killed in the next five minutes.
Still Rukia had to make the best of a bad situation. Sadly, that meant she could only give curt directions and orders, to which Ichigo would bark back irritated retorts.
However, they weren't the only ones in the room with a tantalizingly high spiritual output.
The Hollow codenamed Acidwire took advantage of too wide a parry, pushing further into the room. It knocks Ichigo away with its tail and roars that characteristically distorted roar as its talon surge towards Kaien.
Locked into immobility by his own primal fear and need to protect his brother's cadaver, Kaien didn't have a chance to move. He angled himself between the Hollow's claw and Ichigo's body, determined to protect it with his own despite the specter of death looming above him.
Time slows to a trickle. Rukia feels a lance of ice pierce through her heart. History seemingly played itself out right before her eyes.
That harrowing night forty years passed superimposing itself on the present. The image of another gruesome hollow, a foul gloating creature, surging forward towards the Lieutenant they'd all loved and admired. Destroying his sword, usurping his body, twisting him into a mocking ghoulish effigy with no trace of warmth or light left behind.
Rukia's own movements are slow, too slow. As though wading through syrup, but by merciful chance, Ichigo has recovered and presses the attack.
"Stay the hell away from my brother, you big ugly prick!" Ichigo snarls, spurred by righteous fury, slicing the beast's arm clear through for the trouble.
Kaien recoils further, protectively clutching his brother's body as the dismembered limb flops harmlessly to the wooden floor then disintegrating into black reishi.
Ichigo follows through with a downward stroke against the Hollow's bone mask. A rookie move. Too shallow and the Hollow pushes back with considerable force. Driven by the monster's attack on his own twin, Ichigo digs deeper into an unknown reservoir of strength and forces his Zanpakutou downward until the top corner of the mask cracks, revealing the human face underneath.
It howls in hits pain and retreats to the void between worlds.
Fantastic.
They had the opportunity to regroup and re-strategize. If the Hollow failed to acquire its first target - first two targets, they would need to determine who it would attack next.
"Kaien. You all right?" Ichigo's voice is curiously distant and hoarse as he stands in the center of their shared bedroom, motionless and staring vacantly into the space where Acidwire had retreated.
"Y-Yeah." Kaien manages breathlessly, struggling to process what just happened. "Y-yeah, I'm okay. I, uh... might need to go change my pants in a minute."
"It got away. We're headed after it. Let's move, Ichigo." Rukia orders but Ichigo didn't move.
"I have a question." Ichigo's voice is barely above a whisper.
"What is it?" Rukia asks.
"I got a good look at that thing's face. Tell me the truth: Why was it Inoue's brother?"
"What? You can't be serious. Are you sure?!" Kaien turns his aghast expression towards his twin.
Ichigo grit his teeth and turns to face them both. "I saw what I saw. Now tell me - tell us what the hell is going on here. Why would Inoue's brother turn into that? And why would it come after us?"
Rukia glances between the twins. She matches Ichigo's raw fury and Kaien's abject horror with cool trained detachment. And explains.
Author's note:
Kaien asking the real questions 'cause nerds unite. And teasing Ichigo because younger siblings unite. And Acidwire doing as Acidwire does.
Edited - 30/3/2023: Cleaned up the prose.
Regards,
Aurora313
