A Friend in Me

Chiaki looked around for the source of the voice, but couldn't find anything, much to her dismay. However, it seemed that the voice was willing to bail her out.

"Oh, I don't have a physical presence, I'm in your head!"

Now that she had a little more time to wake herself up, that fact was starting to become more obvious. It really did seem like the voice was entirely in her head, but more than that, everything seemed to be a little odd, as if her perception had been altered in some way. Everything seemed just a little clearer, brighter…. Seeing she was drawing attention to herself with her sudden sensory overload, Chiaki put her head down and began making her way outside, before ducking into the closest alleyway she could find. If this really was all in her head, it was probably best to try and communicate mentally.

[Can you hear me?]

["Oh yeah, absolutely. Sorry for the mess back there, you were just out for a while so I decided to take some time to myself, since you weren't using your body and all. I hope that's ok?"]

Chiaki took a moment to think of the situation, trying to figure out what was going on. While she had regained consciousness, her head was still pounding furiously, and she was so disoriented that she responded out loud out of instinct:

"What the hell… just explain who you are and GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD."

["Wait wait, hold on. I'll explain everything, just don't do anything rash!"]

The voice seemed to be panicked, something which put Chiaki's mind at ease just a little; if the voice was worried, it either meant she had some leverage over it or that it was legitimately concerned for her safety, which for her was a boost either way. Taking a deep breath to stabilize herself, Chiaki restrained herself enough to respond mentally again.

[…Hurry up then]

The voice let out an exasperated sigh within her mind, which was a little frustrating, but Chiaki was willing to let it slide so long as she got answers. After a moment of consideration, the voice spoke again, its tone stilted as if it was choosing its words very carefully:

["So… remember that soul candy you absorbed earlier? That third one wasn't really candy at all. I'm a mod soul, but you can call me Ayane. I think it has a nice ring to it, don't you?"]

A mod-soul? Chiaki had to admit she was more than a little flabbergasted. Of all the possibilities she had gone through, a mod-soul hadn't been one of them. The group had nearly gone extinct after extermination attempts by shinigami, and Kon should have been one of the last ones in existence. The chance of finding another one was-

["Not really unlikely at all, is it? You're smart, you can figure it out. You know Urahara had always been shady in the manga, so what might go together with that fact?"]

Chiaki frowned, but… no, the mod-soul had a point. It was always odd that even though the box that Kon had come from was supposed to be filled with normal soul candy aside from Kon, Urahara had already labeled it as poor merchandise… meaning Urahara already knew at least a good portion of the candies were "defective"…

[He was keeping that box to study it then? Or to figure out which ones were fake or real in advance.]

["Bingo. And when you ingested me and absorbed my reiatsu, I was infused into your soul, kind of in the same way your current life's mother absorbed White into herself. The shock of the event caused you to black out temporarily, so I decided to try and act as normally as I could to shield you from any trouble. Turns out playing arcade games is really fun though! I love finding all the little glitches!"]

Chiaki had to admit, she felt more than a little grateful to the little candy for going out of its way to protect her from the negative effects of her own experiment. Still…. Something Ayane had said had rubbed her the wrong way.

[Wait, time out… you said my current life's mother… and you mentioned me knowing Urahara was shady… you know about my reincarnation?!]

["Oh that? Yup! Turns out, since I'm part of your soul now, I have total access to all your memories, and I looked through them while you were out. Interesting life you had."]

Ayane's voice was tinged with a hint of pride, while Chiaki on the other hand was overwhelmed with a deluge of questions, the first of which was…

[And it doesn't bother you at all that your world is just… a manga in another world? Not real? That doesn't make you feel any sort of way at all?]

Despite Chiaki's flabbergasted response, the mod/soul simply responded with the mental equivalent of a shrug, seemingly not caring about the existential implications the way Chiaki did.

["I think therefore I am, as the saying goes. Descartes believed that even if the world was an illusion, so long as you could think you would be able to tell you were real on some level. It doesn't matter if I was made by some psycho shinigami in a lab, a depressed mangaka with a pen, or some crazy god with too much time on his hands. Whatever the reason for it, I exist, and I plan on living my life to the fullest now that I do. Besides, doesn't the fact you're here now prove that it's real on some level?"]

And the surprises kept on coming… well, surprise was a strong word. These ideas weren't new to Chiaki, but she hadn't had the chance to really mull them over. Even so, it was pretty jarring to see Ayane reach those conclusions ever so slightly faster than she did. Having access to her memories was definitely part of it, but that couldn't be all of it, right?

[You've really got a sharp mind, especially for a mod-soul… I have to admit after seeing Kon in the anime, I didn't have the highest expectation of your capabilities, but it seems you've got a lot more going on in your head compared to him Ayane. There a reason for that?]

["Fufufu…"]

Ayane chuckled deviously within their mental space, causing Chiaki to roll her eyes. Luckily for her mental well-being, Ayane explained without too much exuberance or self-indulgence.

["I'm so glad you asked! Unlike my sweet but foolish brother, I am a model that relies on enhanced brain power instead of enhanced muscles of any kind. As soon as you ingested me, my presence began expanding and improving your brain's abilities. The reason you blacked out was because of the shock of suddenly having your mind expanded to such a degree, but now that you've woken up, you should be able to slowly get used up to it."]

Now that it was pointed out to her, Chiaki did realize she was slowly starting to feel sharper. It was a subtle effect, a little like the one that she might feel with clear air or just after drinking water, but any mental fog she had experienced before was now completely gone. Furthermore, a different sort of weight had been lifted from her shoulders: she hadn't even realized how alone she'd felt, with no one to tell about her predicament, but having someone that completely understood what was going on by being part of her… This was really a lot to go through, but it seemed her experiment had been more than effective in its goal of self-improvement.

["Exactly. Not only do you have my power, but also the exponentially boosted effects of a mod-soul brain. You were already sharp as a tactic, but now you not only have a clearer mind, but more options in how to think. For all intents and purposes, I am you. I feel what you feel and think what you think, and having a second person parsing through the information in your brain can be a real help, especially when going through the compartmentalized parts of your soul."]

"The what?"

Chiaki's confusion emanated throughout their shared brainspace, to which Ayane responded to her by presenting the image of what she was visualizing within the shared space of the brain.

Four doors appeared in front of her, manifestations of her inner world. Chiaki could see each door had its own glowing outline of a different color, being red, orange, gray, and blue respectively. From her knowledge of the races, red was Hollow, orange was Shinigami, blue was Quincy, and gray was human/spiritual medium.

[That is… incredibly trippy]

["That's not all though, look closer!"]

Upon closer inspection, each door had a slight difference in it. The orange door was sealed shut, but the blue door had cracks in it which even more light escaped through. Conversely, the red door had opened slightly, while the gray door, already open, had tinges of green light coming from inside it. Chiaki assumed each trait had a deeper meaning, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure it out.

[Any idea what the doors mean?]

["Your guess is as good as mine. For what it's worth, the Hollow door began to open when I got here, though I can't imagine why. As far as I know, mod-souls don't have a basis in Hollow souls, so there's no reason for it to react to my presence."]

[Hmmmm…..]

Chiaki hated to say it, but she was stumped at the meaning of the doors. The blue door likely opened because she had forcibly accessed her Quincy powers, and the Shinigami powers were inactive, but the meaning of the rest was completely unknown to her as of now. She supposed she could spend time pondering it later though, since it wouldn't be prudent to just spend all day outside. She'd need to get home soon, but before that, she had just one more question…

[Well, that aside, now that you're in my brain… I assume you want to negotiate some sort of terms of body sharing and control?]

["Girl… I'm just happy to be alive and not be experimented on. Trust me, I don't mind you eating me at all, it's a chance to experience at least some sort of life. Just let me take the wheel for you when you're too tired to deal with shit and give me some arcade time on weekends and I'll be fine. If I get bored with that, I'll let you know, but don't overthink it.]

[If you say so…]

On that note, Chiaki began making her way back to the Kurosaki home, basking in the midday sunlight. She couldn't help but recall a quote by Aizen from the original series, about unexpected results surpassing the expected ones… It seemed he'd been proved right. Unexpected as it was… she considered the soul candy experiment to be an unmitigated success.