"You!" the boy and I shouted. It was like I was staring into a mirror, besides the looks – his left hand was pointing in line with my right hand, our feet and body angled the same way. Hell, I bet even our faces held the same shocked expressions; I know mine did.

"You two know each other?" asked a girl with black hair, standing at the shoulder of Orihime.

Crap! So much for laying low! And how the hell does this boy know who I am? I only saw him through the window.

I had to come up with a plan and quick. When I didn't reply to the girl, she turned on the orange- haired boy.

"Ichigo, how do you know Orihime's new friend."

Ichigo... Ding, ding, ding! Idea time.

"Ichigo," I pouted, folding my arms over my chest. "How could you not tell them about me?"

"E- excuse me?" Ichigo looked thoroughly confused. His friends looked between the two of us; Rukia was studying me, so I turned my head to the side, biting the end of my thumb

"Didn't your father tell you I was coming to school here?" I said, turning to face him. I forced myself to cry slightly, which wasn't too hard if I thought about the soul society.

"Um.." Ichigo looked really confused now; he was staring at me like I was an idiot. I decided to milk it some more.

I started crying big, fat ugly tears. "How could you have forgotten about your cousin?!" I cried, before biting my bottom lip.

"Aw, don't cry, fair maiden!" cried a boy with brown hair, draping an arm over my shoulder. "One such as beautiful as you can never be forgotten. Ichigo is just hopeless at remembering people."

I resisted the urge to punch the guy in the face; he reminded me a lot of Ikkaku, albeit a lot stranger. And with hair.

"Keigo!" Ichigo shouted, throwing a book at his face. "I haven't forgotten. Old goat face just never told me that my cousin was coming to school here now." I could tell he didn't buy it, but he had to go along with it for now; he had no choice.

"Well," I said, stopping the water works and wiping a tear from my eye, "I'm Kera, Ichigo's older cousin."

"Whoa!" Keigo shouted, unwrapping his arm. "I didn't know you were a senior."

"It's true," Orihime added. "I helped her find the office then we had to split. That's why I invited her to sit with us at lunch when she did get out, so she would have some friends."

"Well, Ichigo's older cousin," said the girl with black hair, patting me on the back. "I'm Tatsuki ."

"Nice to meet you," I said, bowing. Soon, everyone was introducing themselves.

"I'm Mizuiro," said a short boy with black hair. He held out his hand for me to shake and I did so hesitantly.

"You better watch him," Keigo suddenly whispered in my ear, making me jump. "He has a thing for older woman."

I turned to glare at him. "And you obviously have a thing for all types of woman." He beamed at me before Mizuiro started getting up him.

"I'm Chizuru," said a girl with red- brown hair and red rimmed glasses. She squeezed me into a tight hug before Tatsuki got her in a head lock. 

"I'm Mahana! So, how long have you been in town? How come we've never heard of you?" a brown, curly haired girl gushed, moving around me. It was unnerving. 

"Uh." I couldn't get a reply in as she kept throwing questions at me. 

"Mahana, calm down," said a small girl with brown hair, eyes squeezed shut as she tried to hold back the other. "I think you're frightening her!" 

"That's Michiru." I turned to face a black haired girl. Her expressionless faced watched the Mahana and Michiru fighting with each other. "I'm Ryo, by the way." 

"Nice to meet you."

A shadow fell over me and when I turned, I was faced with a very tall boy. His shaggy brown hair covered parts of his face as he talked down to me. ".... I'm Yasutora Sado, but most call me Chad."

"Hi, Chad." I gave a small wave. 

"Uryu, go say hello!" Keigo whined, dragging a black- haired boy with glasses over. 

"Why should I..." He stopped mid- sentence, pushed his glasses back up his nose and stared at me. In the tense silence, I realised what little spiritual pressure wafted from him was strange. "Hello. I'm Uryu. It's nice to meet someone in the Kurosaki family that isn't all that crazy." 

"What did you say, four eyes?" Ichigo fumed, stomping over to Uryu. I backed away from the imminent brawl.

The next person to greet me was the person I was dreading to meet. Why? Because she was a soul reaper. Rukia Kuchiki.

"Hi there," she said happily, smiling at me. "I'm Rukia."

"Nice to meet you," I answered.

After all the introductions, they moved to sit down for lunch; I made to follow but Rukia snagged my arm.

"Who are you really?" she asked in a low voice, watching the friends all seated together.

"I'm a friend."

"How do you know Ichigo?"

"Because... I can see him." I looked at her pointedly to get the message across and she released my arm. "We can talk about this later, okay?" I moved to sit with the others and enjoyed my lunch, ignoring the stares from both Rukia and Ichigo.

I played along with the charade for the whole day, before the last school bell rang. Rushing out of the doors, I breathed deeply, hefting my heavy bag higher on my shoulder. The teachers seemed to give out a lot of homework in the world of the Living.

"Hey, Kera!" Rukia cried. "Want to walk home with us?"

I turned to see her standing beside Ichigo, waving at me. It's now or never. I headed over to them and we walked out of the school's gates, keeping conversation to a minimum until we were away from as many people as possible.

Seated on a grassy hill, a channel running down below us, Ichigo turned to me. "Okay, what's going on? Are you one of Rukia's friends?"

"I've never met Rukia before but I know of her. We aren't friends," I replied, gazing out at the sunset, a mix of reds and oranges. "The truth is, Ichigo, I know what you are and I need your help."

"You know?" Ichigo murmured, staring at me. "Just exactly who are you?"

"She's a soul reaper," Rukia interjected. "It's your spiritual pressure I felt at Urahara's shop, wasn't it?"

"That's true. I am a soul reaper; actually, I was a soul reaper. I've lost all my powers." Rukia and Ichigo shared a look. "And I'm guessing you've lost yours as well, Rukia, if Ichigo has powers; there isn't supposed to be two soul reapers in Karakura Town," I guessed, going of a whim.

Ichigo sighed, running a hand through his orange hair. "Listen, Kera, it's a long story."

"I literally have all the time in the world at the moment," I admitted, looking back at the sky again. I wondered what would be happening in the soul society at the moment.

So for about an hour, Ichigo told his story of how Rukia gave him his soul reaper powers and how he's been using them to destroy the Hollows. Then, they asked me about my story, of how I ended up in the world of the Living.

I explained from the point where my zanpakuto was rejecting me to being found by Kisuke Urahara and the shattering of my zanpakuto. My throat burned as I explained that, before I gestured at the gigai.

"Hat 'n' Clogs had to shove me in one of these after that because I was slowly dying," I finished.

"I've never heard of a zanpakuto spirit doing that," Rukia murmured.

"So, now what?" Ichigo asked.

"I was going to ask if you knew some way of giving me back my soul reaper powers, but it seems you'd be just as clueless as me."

An irk mark appeared on Ichigo's head. "I'm not clueless." Rukia rolled her eyes at him. "Anyway, why don't you ask Hat 'n' Clogs for help instead of searching for us? He seems to want to help all the time," Ichigo grumbled.

"He sent me to school," I responded.

Suddenly, Rukia's pager started flashing and beeping. A Hollow warning.

"Ichigo," she ordered, standing up and sliding a black glove onto her hand and punching Ichigo's face. Immediately, Ichigo's body splits into slumped human and soul reaper.

"We'll talk later; tomorrow perhaps," I said, dusting myself off, as soul reaper Ichigo hurried off, Rukia following behind with Ichigo's body over her shoulder. 

~ 

For the next couple of days, that was my routine. Go to school, come back to Urahara's place, eat dinner and go to sleep. Repetitive, boring, and not at all helping me recover my powers. I complained to Urahara about it one night and he said he was still trying to find a way. I left him alone after that. 

Sighing, I trudged back to Urahara's shop after another full day of school, meeting Ururu sweeping outside in the light of a lamp. Stepping in, I dumped all my stuff in my temporary room before stripping and dressing in something more appropriate.

Wanting to avoid Urahara for now, I stayed in my room, seated before the full- length mirror Tessai had brought in this morning for me as requested. My head hurt with all the thoughts spinning round and round in my head as I slowly untangled my hair, blonde and red slipping through my fingers.

"Really? That's all you're going to do all night? It's what you've been doing for the last four days. Boring."

The voice of the blue dragon seemed to fill the room, before the mirror rippled and the face of the dragon appeared behind me.

"What do you want?" I scoffed, keeping my voice low. Many a times, this dragon infiltrated my mind, prowling and spitting out scornful words. Now it seemed it could inhabit objects. I glanced at the door as small footsteps pattered past; the others didn't know yet of the dream or the blue dragon. 

"For you to hurry up."

Knock, knock, knock.

Blinking, the dragon gone from the mirror, I rose to my feet and pulled open the door. Urahara stood before me, his fan snapping closed before my face. "I think I know how to recover your powers."