The Darkness In Our Hearts (TDiOH Bk1)

Chapter 31: Living it up with my 'cousins'

I stood before a mirror hanging on the inside of the cupboard door. The glass surface rippled and my eyes flashed blue before everything settled back to normal.

"So we've come to an agreement?" 

The blue dragon grumbled a response incoherently.

"I said, have we come to an agreement?" I snarled, mouth twisted until my teeth were bared.

"Fine then," she snapped and the surface of the mirror rippled until the figure before me was not my own, but the blue dragon's form.

Her scales glimmered in the little light as she turned away, eyes unable to meet mine. Her aura shifted around her, turning blue in her anger. Not for the first time, I noticed how scary and how uncannily she resembled me. Body form, height, her facial features.

Her long blue hair and harsh electric blue eyes were the only differences.

I would say Hollow bone as well, but... I scratched at my left shoulder blade in discomfort. Smooth cool bone met my fingers. All the major wounds inflicted by her had turned to bone. Add that to the one still on my sternum from my fight against Kenpachi and that made five all up.

"Swear on your name and honour."

She gave a dry laugh, the corner of her mouth lifting up. "Hollows don't hold honour close to their hearts."

"Then swear on your powers." I wasn't budging until she did it. I couldn't have her running wild again and I definitely couldn't have her killing me when I least expected it.

Now it was her turn to snarl at me. But she did as I asked. "I swear upon my name, Chiya Faber, and my powers, that of the Great Dragon Queen, that I will not kill the Soul Reaper Kera Senbonsai and that I will aid her in her mission, both with my powers and my strength."

Chiya shuddered after her pledge, eyes dulled as if the words had drained her. "Happy?" she snapped.

"Quite," I responded in surprise. How did I hear her name?

"Because I let you. No, scratch that. If I had a goddamn choice, I wouldn't have even told you. Names are powerful things in our worlds. So don't go chanting it daily," she huffed, eyes narrowed dangerously.

Her spiritual pressure throbbed within me, begging to be released. I forced the twisted energy down again. "Got it. And what's this about you being the Great Dragon Queen?" I probed.

She huffed, aura flashing brilliantly. The mirror was now a beacon of dark blue light. When it cleared, she was gone.

"My secrets," she hissed crankily in my head and I felt her recede deeper in my mind, taking with her the growing spiritual pressure.

I sighed and flopped onto the bed, drained. That had taken a lot of energy. My fingers ran over the thin band of metal at my neck. Guess this thing was doing its job well enough. Urahara had fashioned a new collar, one to just mask my twisted spiritual energy and keep it down enough to not bring attention to myself. My fingers brushed against my neck, feeling the whole again.

Knock, knock!

"Just a second!" I hollered, jumping to my feet and back into my gigai. "Okay, you can come in now," I called as I straightened, adjusting to my gigai.

Yuzu poked her head in. "Kera, Karin should be out of the bathroom in a minute or so. I have your outfit out here by the way."

"Yuzu, you didn't have to buy me any new clothes," I groaned. "But thanks... cousin."

Her little face lit up as she opened the door wider to let me through. "It's so great you chose to transfer to Karakura for your final years of school!" She pounced on me, hugging me and walking down the hallway at the same time. I tried not to fall over. "I just wish your parents could have come for the festival."