Bleach (c) Tite Kubo


Once More To See You Again


Breakdown in Communication


If Kaien Kurosaki is any man to judge, then based on what little he'd witnessed over the past fortnight and what precious morsels he'd managed to pry out of the evasive and cagey Rukia, there's only one conclusion he could really draw.

The afterlife sucks!

Point one: his elder twin brother is currently acting as a stand-in for a psychopomp. Correction; he's a Substitute Shinigami (and yes, Ichigo's older than him by roughly four minutes but needling him about it will forever be Kaien's favourite hobby).

Initially, it was kind of cool to think about. Novel, even. Once Kaien got over the shock of the whole spirit-monsters-are-real thing he was utterly fascinated by the whole concept. To the point of probably driving Ichigo mad with all his questions, but hey, perks of being the annoying kid brother, right?

Of course, that lasted the all of a day before 'novel' and 'fascinating' became 'malformed monstrosity barging into their damn bedroom trying devour their souls'.

Kaien has absolutely no qualms admitting he was scared out of his wits seeing that monster's crimson talon sweep around the corner and surge towards him, ready to slay him and Ichigo's body. (And what a fun conversation that was with their dad. When Isshin finally got around to investigating the commotion upstairs, he'd stumbled upon them just as Ichigo mercifully returned to his body and Rukia stuffed away in her hiding spot. He took one look at the damage, presumed the worst and scolded them both about their 'rambunctious roughhousing' until he went blue in the face. But for whatever reason, Kaien had the distinct impression his dad enjoyed watching them squirm, awkwardly explaining away the claw marks and broken bedframes with increasingly elaborate excuses.)

Apparently Orihime's brother, because that Hollow was her brother, regained his wits in the end of their confrontation and allowed himself to be slain to protect his sister. That revelation was... thoroughly unsettling to say the least.

When Kaien thought his brother was only moonlighting as a monster slayer? Cool.

Finding out the monsters in question are actually lost and damned souls the Shinigami failed to save? Less cool.

Which conveniently enough circles around to point two: Apparently hollows are actually fallen human souls, their bodies corrupted and hearts consumed by whatever personal despairs anchor them to the mortal realm.

Kaien wasn't happy to learn some variety of hollows become sadistic enough to go around ripping out little kids' souls to stuff into household pets. Bait for some twisted game of cat and mouse between that monster and whatever hapless human took those pets into their care.

Ichigo reassured him the scumbag Hollow responsible for pulling that gnarly stunt on the boy possessing the cockatiel is rotting in hell after he'd killed it... correction, after he 'purified its sins' in Rukia's words. So at least there's some justice there. Not that Kaien was anywhere near that skirmish, he'd bumped into Ichigo halfway out the front door and his twin told him to look after Karin while Ichigo settled matters, their poor baby sister was left bedridden for the rest of the day.

Neatly folding into point number three; Yes. Even Hell exists in this world.

Kaien feels like that fact should be more surprising than it actually was...

In summary, when Kaien died and passed on he had three options; have a Shinigami guide him into the next world (preferably not Hell), loss his heart to his own misery and corrupt into a bestial Hollow, or end up as another Hollow's dinner if he's lucky, its plaything if not.

So yes, Kaien confidently stood by his initial statement; The afterlife really sucks.

The only thing he couldn't figure out was where Shinigami slot into the picture and Rukia's been no help either. She's been perfectly willing to answer their questions when it's Ichigo and Kaien in the same room, but she's seemingly made it a point to ignore Kaien entirely whenever it was just the two of them outside terse gratitude whenever he sneaks her some food. Frankly, that hurts his feelings. Which is a shame because crazy circumstances aside, Kaien's simply... fascinated by the very concept of her. Of Shinigami in general.

Are Shinigami born? Are they selected from the souls who pass on to become the appointed guides to others? Or do they spontaneously appear fully grown and empowered to perform their duties in response to a need or desire like tulpa?

And perhaps the most important question of all: can their skills be learned?

The last one's a stretch.

Don't get him wrong, Kaien's in no great rush to risk his life as some heroic martyr or anything like that but its hard to see his brother come home from his nightly jaunts steadily accumulating more nicks and scars. More than a few have been too large for Rukia to completely heal in one sitting. He's worried, so sue him. And sometimes idle thoughts lead him to wonder if maybe Ichigo would suffer less injuries if he had someone backing him up. Rukia's got her magic spells and stuff but another sword couldn't hurt, right? (And what kid doesn't secretly dream of having powers of their own?)

Kaien frowns and shakes that pipe dream from his head.

Ichigo might have a habit of getting too big for his breeches sometimes but Kaien trusts him to handle the situation.

"Oi-oi! Rukia! This is a bad idea. Wait! We can't leave him like this-?! Hey, at least tell Kaien what's going on, okay?!"

Think of the devil and he appears.

Kaien glances out the window by his desk, a resigned sigh passing his lips. Ichigo's back in the shinigami outfit with his giant sword and Rukia's dragging him through the school courtyard by the scruff of his neck, no doubt hunting down another Hollow.

Kaien rolls his eyes and shakes his head, muttering to himself. "I'm fine with him going out but it'd be nice if they'd bothered to give me a heads up first. Guess I'll be covering for him again."

"Huh, covering for who?" Keigo asks, leaning over his desk and with a hand firmly planted on Kaien's notebook. Great. Its not like Kaien's trying to use it or anything like that.

"Don't worry about it." Kaien responds with his usual good cheer, smoothly weaving a vague tale. "I think Ichigo might miss the next few periods, ate something that didn't agree with him. Sent me a text mentioning something about heading home for the rest of the day."

"Hmm. You know Ichigo's been skipping school at random hours a lot lately." Keigo muses at length, putting his lip out and stroking his chin in his approximation of a posh British detective he loves reading about. Shy-look or something? She-look? Whatever. Weird name anyway.

"Implying there's normal hours to skip school?" Kaien challenges with an arched eyebrow, leaning back in his desk chair.

"Do you think... that maybe... those Yakuza punks finally strong-armed him into being their hitman!" Keigo ponders dramatically.

"Oh please, Ichigo can beat up half the thugs in this crappy town with his eyes closed and both arms tied behind his back, there's no way anyone could strong arm that stubborn pain in the butt into doing anything he doesn't want to." Kaien defends easily, waving a dismissive hand while pushing Keigo's off his notebook and finishing off his answer, his eyes back on the textbook.

Keigo goes on with his wild speculation as though he hadn't heard Kaien's retort. "What if he's out there right now going through some initiation right as we speak! We need to save your brother immediately."

Kaien raises an eyebrow, snorting in amusement. "I would give any amount of money to live in your world for five minutes."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothin'." Kaien teases with a sly smirk, ignoring Keigo's protests.


The Mod Soul stretches out the limbs of his nearly acquired body. Lean, not athletic but a good measure of fitness. Muscle definition but not too much. Could've gone for something a little taller but beggars couldn't be choosers. He's just glad he's not confined to that small sphere anymore. He inhales the crisp air and exhales happily, enjoying the simple pleasure of breathing with this new lungs and feeling the warmth of the sun on his new skin.

He's free.

Completely and utterly free.

He can go anywhere. Do anything and there's nothing to stop him.

He'll be gone by the time those fool shinigami get back here. The spiky haired guy mentioned something about someone else, Kaien or whatever? It didn't matter either way. That being said, this is a high school and this is the body of a teenager. Which means there's any number of gorgeous available young ladies he could ingratiate himself to first.

And there were so many gorgeous young ladies, with such a variety of lovely... 'assets', it couldn't hurt to take a quick peak now, could it? Of course, these teenagers are that, and the Mod Soul drinks in their awe at his casual feat of leaping three stories into their window.

That's when he spots her. A gorgeous angel, chestnut hair down to her waist, her trimmed fringe held in place by a pair of flower shaped blue clips and vast... tracks of land. What sane being wouldn't be enamored by such a vision of perfection. So he makes a pass at her, and he's a damn smooth operator if he says so himself. Managed to kiss the beautiful dame on the back of the hand like the perfect Prince Charming.

Outraged by his behaviour (the Mod Soul wonder what kind of rep the guy had to get this reaction? Surrounded by this many gorgeous beauties, didn't he have a pulse at all?) the dark-haired girl pries him off the long-haired orange babe. She's kind of cute up close too, in a butch 'I'll kick your ass if you look at my funny' way. He manages to find his way out of her head lock and take a few steps back.

He'd been completely distracted by the gorgeous queens in the room that he'd failed to notice the surprised, then concerned and finally fierce blue eyes on him from the back corner of the classroom.

The ferocity turned to outrage when the Mod Soul snuck in a kiss on the dark-haired girl's cheek in her distraction.

What happened next came so fast the Mod Soul was shocked an ordinary human could move that quickly. From a dead sprint across the desks, the boy's knee smashed into his cheek and judging by the impact, his cheekbone's cracked.

The Mod Soul stumbles back into the classroom chalkboard, barely recovered in time to dodge a wicked fist that leaves a dent.

The kid that charged him looks exactly like the Shinigami who just scarpered off but with slightly shaggier black hair. The Mod soul connects the dots instantly. This must be the Kaien he was talking about. The Mod Soul observes his knuckles are bleeding but the punk doesn't seem to care. A cold thunderous fury in his eyes as he charges the Mod Soul again.

Their fight practically destroyed the entire class, desks overturned and chair legs warped into twisted angles after being used as improvised weapons. Despite all the damage the Mod Soul's inflicting on him and he knows he's broken at least two ribs, this Kaien kid isn't letting up!

Enthusiastic cheers 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?!" ring the class room and hallway beyond. He can hear more coming. Evidently, the idea of these two - well, the Shinigami and his dark haired twin, duking it out is along awaited spectacle.

The black-haired blue-eyed twin ignores all of it. Singularly focused on his target and in a feint, managed to get his arm across the Mod Soul's throat, pinning him against a wall with more of that shockingly abnormal strength. Those blue eyes narrow dangerously and make the mod soul fractionally whither under their intensity.

"You're not my brother. Who the hell are you and what are you doing with his body, you bastard? Are you some Hollow thing?" The boy snarls.

He is definitely not a Hollow but the Mod Soul didn't have time nor inclination to answer.

"Oi!" The door bursts open, and there in the corridor are the Shinigami and his cute sidekick with the bobcut, breathless due to the mad dash back here from wherever they were. It isn't long until the orange-haired Shinigami joins the fight. "Kaien, hold him down!"

Fortunately, the distraction is enough time for the Mod Soul to get a paralyzing punch in Kaien's solar plexus that sends him stumbling back and falling to his knees, doubled over with his arms wrapped around his stomach and wheezing. The Mod Soul would've pitied him the struggle to breath if his own freedom didn't take priority. The orange haired Shinigami checks on his dark-haired twin first, yet more precious seconds the Mod Soul uses to leap out the window and make his escape.


Ichigo winces, fingers tentatively 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 ran his body through its paces. He feels like he's run a hundred mile marathon, deadlifted a bus, got 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 (correction: Ichigo saw it coming, Rukia dismissed his concerns out of hand), Kaien took extreme exception to an artificial soul showing up in Ichigo's body acting very much not like Ichigo.

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

Ichigo's body has a cracked cheek bone, fractured wrist, bruises all over his torso from the brawl with Kaien, a bruise over his kidneys (he's probably gonna be passing blood tonight), 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 social standings in their school group. Honestly, both of them might die from embarrassment.

Ichigo is 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 and Orihime (on the cheek and hand respectively, 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. In fact, today marked the first time any of their classmates ever saw his temper (plus hurricane of comments about how his 'angry face' made the twins look even more alike after the fact).

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 tiniest little candle for Tatsuki. Kept it private, of course. Didn't want to make things awkward between them if she rejected him. Pretty understandable reason to keep that under wraps, right? (Naturally the whole class knew since the Kurosakis are notoriously bad at subtlety).

But seeing his quote-unquote "brother" take an interest in his "girl" and kiss her (on the cheek, but a kiss is a kiss)...? Well, teenagers are teenagers, and without the whole supernatural context of the scenario they drew their naturally 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 apologetically, pouting guiltily then casting a scolding look Rukia's way (when he does that, they really do look alike). "You know, I hope you realise your little thing about trying to keep me out of this business really bit you in the ass today. It wouldn't have killed either of you to warn me if you up to any spirit-y stuff. I could've covered for you both if I knew what the heck was going on. You could've just told me you'd hidden his body away somewhere and I'd have told the teachers Ichigo went home because of some excuse or another."

"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 move." Ichigo complains, wincing as he adjusts his back and jarring the wound on his shoulder.

"I admit it wasn't the best idea in the world but I wasn't expecting a Mod Soul. A rogue one at that. They were supposed to be have been disposed of long ago. At the very least we managed to get Ichigo's 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 lost in their argument and they missed the shadow of guilt passing over Rukia's face.

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

Kaien raises his hands in defense, "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. Hell, for all I knew it could've been some other departed soul deciding to take your unguarded body for a joyride."

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

"Please say no." Kaien pleads, suddenly very fearful.

For a split second, there's a fleeting haunted look in her eyes and the twins immediately regret the question. That expression screamed all they needed to know and then some.

"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." Rukia explains in a detached emotionless tone.

Ichigo frowns and wishes he'd never asked. Kaien, on the other hand?

"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, that 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 need to do to get this guy's 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 hurriedly backs away from both of them like the Soul Candy is 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. The Chain of Fate binds your soul to your body. If it ain't broken it means you aren't 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? Unless I'm missing something, you're not dead either. 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 lion 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 when they'd decided to bring it home, where the walking talking nuisance promptly caused a massive commotion the second it slipped out of Ichigo's book bag.

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?!" Kon snaps back.

"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." Kon suggests. Its amazing how grating on the nerves such a tiny creature can be.

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

"Why not? Kon sounds so silly out loud. Why not call me-" The rest of Kon's complaints are cut short by a wet down smacking him down.

"Because I'm Kai." Kaien's dark hair is still damp from the shower, but practically 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!" Kon protests and its the straw that breaks the camel's back with Ichigo's twin.

"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 utterly furious. Why wouldn't he be? 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. Five years of hard work and training down the pisser because of you. We were supposed to be competing in the nationals next week. 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 scowls, 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 sharply and settles in for the night while Kaien flips off the light.

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

"Will you shut up!" All three chorused.


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

Both of them were resigned and prepared to cringe at the hooting, hollering and jeers. But it was nothing like they expected. 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 when he catches a glimpse of Kaien's face; a flash of boiling anger that evaporates just as quickly as it surges, leaving dejected misery in its wake. That expression does not belong on his twin's face and it makes Ichigo want to go back home and punch Kon around some more. He's supposed to be the sour one, damn it.

Kaien licks his lips and shakes his head, steeling himself to turn and address the swim team's coach. "Mr Shirogane. I-"

"We missed you at practice today, Kaien. Where were you?" The Coach, a stern looking man with grey around his temples, asks before Kaien could finish.

Kaien's taken aback and blinks, sending a look Ichigo's way who shrugs a shoulder in response. "Uh... sir? What do you mean?"

Mr Shirogane doesn't answer. Instead he gives Kaien a long appraising look before giving a single 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. It's for the best you took it easy today but 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 week, and I need my best swimmer ready and raring to take the competition by storm!"

"Don't worry. I'll be there." Kaien reassures him, more firm now and Ichigo notices with the faintest curl of a smile that he's stands a little taller for it.

Mr Shirogane gives another firm nod before moving past the twins, shouting loud instructions like a drill Sergeant to the PE class waiting for him in a mass outside the building.

Kaien leans towards Ichigo, tone at a whisper. "Not that I'm complaining or anything but I'm stumped. I got kicked off the swim 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 seem to remember?"

Ichigo immediately realizes what happened and instructs quickly. "Rukia did her memory thing. Roll with it."

"Rolling with it." Kaien agrees unhesitatingly.


Author's note:

Kaien might have a little envy going on, and he and Kon did not get off on the best foot.

Edited - 04/04/2023: A chunk of Kon's section was erased during editing, fixed now.

Regards,

Aurora313