The Reflected Sun

Chiaki laid down on her bed, a wave of mental exhaustion washing over her like the crushing weight of a river rapid, and she couldn't help but sigh in exasperation as she tried to find a comfortable position. Turning over in bed to lay on her side, her eyes landed on the window on the other side of the room, which in the dimmer light of the evening, reflected her appearance like a mirror, an appearance that wasn't really her. Or at least, she was having a hard time reconciling the features she now held with the image of herself as she was before, compared to the mousy appearance she'd had in life. Feeling slightly overwhelmed by the surge of emotions that rushed through her body at the sight of herself, she turned over and tried to rest on her bed as she faced the wall; That plan quickly came screeching to a halt as she realized that tired as she was, there simply was too much going through her head for her to get even a wink of sleep.

From her perspective, Chiaki had already been reincarnated into this body for a month, but that only ended up exacerbating her existential crisis. After all, she had all the memories of this girl, memories of going from Takahashi Chiaki to Kurosaki Chiaki, and memories of living with her for years. She remembered everything, the joys of two childhoods and the pain of losing a mother twice over, and with the two competing sets of memories, she could only guess at when she had been reincarnated and placed into this body. It was likely the same moment as when she became aware of that second set of memories, the only proof that she had ever had a previous life at all. Combined with the fact that she had experienced a change in temperament in her new body that was inconsistent with her old life, for all she knew she has suffered a nervous breakdown and had become completely delusional.

But there was one saving grace; there was no Chiaki Kurosaki in Bleach. She remembered reading Bleach at least in her old life, and she was there from the very beginning, retreating into it in her tween years and being there at the very end when she saw Kazui end the greatest threat the world had ever seen with a simple tap. And here she was now, in a position that was made for her, in the form of a girl with the same first name as her old life. That pointed to it really being reincarnation, which gave her a little solace. Unfortunately… that also meant she had to accept her own death.

Chiaki's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden commotion from downstairs, and she jolted upwards, almost hitting herself on the ceiling from her position on the upper portion of the bunk bed. Jumping down to the floor from her bed, Chiaki went downstairs to see what the commotion was about, only to find that a certain orange haired delinquent was wrestling with his father.

"Stop being so stuck up about seeing spirits!"

"I didn't ask to be born like this!"

That was Ichigo alright, her new twin brother in this life, which also made Isshin… her new father. It might have been funny to read, but dealing with these two in real life… that was a nightmare. Setting aside her confusion on which side of herself was driving her actions, Chiaki made an X gesture with her arms and called for a time out, looking entirely done all the while.

"Oi oi, seriously, what's with that shit?! Can't you two get along for a single minute without being at each others throats?"

Unfortunately, her words seemed to land on deaf ears and the two continued to wrestle on the ground. Yuzu and Karin didn't seem to mind nearly as much as she did either, happily eating their dinner as if nothing was happening. Seeing Chiaki come down and try to stop the commotion, Yuzu couldn't help but laugh as she always did.

"Chi-chi, they're just messing around, you shouldn't worry so much!. They're just being boys."

It was at that moment Ichigo managed to push his father off of him, before dusting his hands off, sour expression plastered on his face as always. In that way, him and Chiaki were indeed twins.

"I don't care what the fossil says… if I need to help out a ghost, then that's just what I'm going to do. Besides, what kind of idiot curfew is 7 pm?"

Karin decided that this was a good time to chime in with her opinion, not really seeming to care much either way.

"You just have to ignore them. If you don't believe they're real, they're not real."

Ichigo snorted in response, moving to sidestep another murder attempt from Isshin and putting him into a hold before responding.

"Hnngh…. Yeah, I don't think that would work, they want someone to help them out, and they know I'm good with spirits"

Chiaki rolled her eyes, though a smile played at her lips at the banter between the group, replying with a smug grin on her face.

"I don't know bro, I can do all those things too, and they don't bother me. I think you're just giving them too much attention, try ignoring them for a bit and see if it helps."

"There's one behind you right now…"

Yuzu giggled as Chiaki turned to shoo away the ghost of an old man which had snuck in, and Isshin took the opportunity to try and get a word in edgewise, even while muffled by the grappling technique he was currently imprisoned in.

"It's so wonderful to see the whole family having fun together like this! I'm so happy that twins run in Masaki's family, otherwise our family wouldn't be as big as it is today! Come on, let's all go in for a group hug."

"Yeah, no."

"Not on your life, old man."

"That's my cue to study."

Chiaki, Ichigo, and Karin all got up to leave to their rooms, leaving behind a dejected Isshin with only Yuzu to console him.

—————

Ichigo and Chiaki returned to their jointly shared room, with Chiaki climbing up to the top of her bed, before sitting at the top of her ladder, dangling her legs off of the edge as Ichigo sat down in his section.

"Can you not wave your legs in front of my face, sis?"

"Can you not sit literally anywhere else on your bed? I can only sit on the part with no railing, you can sit literally anywhere else on the bed."

Ichigo simply sighed and crossed his arms, not willing to give his sister the victory by moving. Then, two just sat there, with no sound except for the shifting of their weight in the awkward silence. The painful pause continued on for about a minute, until finally, Ichigo broke the silence with a slight cough to clear his throat.

"Hey sis… you didn't really mean what you said back there, right? About just ignoring the ghosts roaming around here? I mean, I'm the only one who can help them, if they need help, I'm the only one they've got…."

Chiaki froze, unsure of how to respond to the sudden question. She had almost blurted out a snappy retort to pick apart her brother's worry or respond with an insult, but something in the back of her head stopped her. It wasn't just a matter of not wanting to be seen as selfish for not helping out with spiritual problems: she knew that Ichigo was driven by a desire to protect. Protect family, protect friends, protect ghosts… it didn't matter who it was. Jaded and cynical as she was from death, she didn't want to take that away from him by trying to destroy his altruistic nature, and she doubted Ichigo would listen to anything she said about it anyway.

"….No. You're doing a lot of good out there. If it wasn't for you, I'd definitely be harassed by those ghosts too. They come to you because they know you're a good person, Ichigo."

Though she couldn't see with him being directly under her, she could almost feel Ichigo relax, a almost tangible shift in the air pressure. Maybe it was just the beginnings of spiritual pressure sensitivity, but Ichigo seemed as if a weight had been lifted off of him, and the aura of the room seemed to lighten with it.

"Thanks sis… that really means a lot."

Chiaki shrugged, though she couldn't help but smile a little.

"Yeah yeah, don't get too sappy. I'm going to just take a nap, alright?"

"This late…? Whatever you say I guess."

With that, Chiaki laid down in her bed; she didn't really try and sleep at all however. After all, Chiaki was 100% certain of one thing: this was the point at the beginning, the place of the fateful meeting between Rukia and Ichigo.

Things were about to get a lot more chaotic, and she would make sure that Ichigo had every opportunity to reach his full potential to meet that chaos head on. She knew one thing though: she refused to die a second time.