This was bad.
Okay, being a bunny had been a silent wish of hers a few times back in Orihime's but not in a metro station!
"Okay, so... clothes are transforming with me... That didn't happen before..." Rukia noted, seeing that her skirt around the tail was grey fur now.
She glanced back at the mirror and saw patches of the grey fur were popping up elsewhere, and that she was visibly losing height. Two small grey objects popped out of her head, the ears, she presumed.
'But something feels weird. Like I'm kind of empty...' She realised, looking down at her body, and then she noticed something.
Her legs were shrinking fast, and her skirt had merged with her upper body. And it looked like there was...
...a zipper?
Looking up at the mirror, she noticed the ears were very droopy... Very droopy indeed. Like they were cloth... She reached up, expecting to feel her hands brush her ears and some pain as she squeezed. But it wasn't like that. It was a dull sensation, and the feeling of her hands brushing wasn't really felt by the ears. Her fingers felt the truth though.
The ears were cloth.
The grey fur of her head was looping like a hood, she saw, as she shrank down past the vision of the mirror.
"What's going... on..." She said, feeling something odd as her hands retracted and... And melted into her arms.
She looked at them. Her arms were sleeves, a hollow hole where the hands had been...
And then her legs did the same, and she fell. All of her from the waist down was hollow, and she saw that only up to her upper abdomen did she have any solidity.
"What..."
She watched and felt herself sink into the pile, feeling her arms go limp as they changed. Then it was just a head inside a hoody, and she was naturally very, very, alarmed. She tried to speak, say something... but her lungs were part of the hoody now.
'I'm turning into a jacket... How did this happen?! I'm going to kill Orihime when I...'
And then her face hollowed out, and her head became just a hood entirely. And with it, she became unconscious, in a manner of speaking.
Hikari Yagami didn't like doctors much. Not just because of needles and all the rules they had when she went to hospitals, but because after a check-up with her usual doctor, the woman had decided to try and get other opinions on why Hikari was so prone to illness.
And that meant that every couple of saturdays, she and Tai had to get on trains to go all over the place to go to a doctor for another "second opinion" as doctor after doctor seemed unable to just figure it out.
She had kind of liked the doctor here though, even if she did have to go back to Karakura Hospital again in four weeks, because that meant she wasn't going to another new place with a doctor she had never met, and she wasn't going in two weeks time.
But right now she had a slightly more pressing problem.
"Um, Tai, how long until the train is here?" She asked, fidgeting.
Tai looked at the board.
"Uh... Ten minutes. Not long." Her brother said, looking at her.
"Okay, um... I kinda need the toilet..."
He sighed.
"Okay, but we'll need to be quick..."
The pair stood from the bench they had been sitting at, as the brother led his sister towards the toilets, and waited outside.
Kari rushed inside and did what she had to do, but as she went to wash her hands, she spotted a grey hoody on the floor. After she dried, she picked it up, puzzled. There was no one else in the toilets when she had came in. She smiled at the bunny ears and the tail.
'This is cute... I wonder who dropped it?' she wondered as she walked out.
"Done? Let's go..." Tai said abruptly. He'd noticed a pair of girls about his age looking his way... Looking at him strange for waiting outside the girls toilets... and he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible
"Wait, Tai! Someone must have dropped this hoody but I didn't see anyone while I was there. Did you?"
"No one came out or went in apart from you." Tai noted, and then winced as he realised what was coming next.
"We need to take it to Lost Property!"
Tai blinked. He'd have to go past the two girls who probably thought he was some kind of weirdo to go there... but Hikari was Hikari and he wasn't going to upset her. And they'd miss the train too...
"We'll miss the train though... It's about half an hour to the next one that goes straight there..." He tried, glancing quickly at the two girls, who didn't seem to notice it as they were talking to each other.
'Probably thinking I'm some complete weirdo...'
"We can catch that one then. I don't think it would be fair for someone to lose something like this. What if they really like it and they come back and someone else took it?" Hikari said, a rather typical gesture from his sister, he thought...
"Fine. But you can be a real pain in the butt sometimes, sis. You're lucky you're cute..." He said, leading her off and trying to avoid the eyes of the two girls when he passed.
"Hey, do you play Soccer?" One of the girls suddenly asked, and Tai froze.
'Crap! We played a team around here a few weeks ago didn't we?' He recalled. If they remembered him they'd soon enough have it spreading he was weird...
"Uh..." he began, about to lie.
"Yeah, Nii-chan plays for Odaiba Elementary! He'll play for the middle school next year!" Hikari replied for him.
"Ah, I know you, you're Yagami Taichi! You scored three against us..." One of the girls said.
Tai's thoughts briefly began to think cuteness was not going to be an excuse any more after today, as his sister smiled after having completely ruined his reputation, until the other girl spoke.
"It's really nice you look after your sister so well. Why are you guys all the way here though?"
Hikari frowned, and began to explain...
About an hour and a half later, they were finally on the train and finally almost back in Odaiba. Hikari had fallen asleep leaning up against her brother, who didn't mind much any more that they had been delayed, mostly because he'd profited somewhat from being a caring big brother.
The two girls had found the fact he was escorting her to doctor's appointments even better than simply making sure she got to the toilets safe, and when she'd explained the hoody situation, he'd found that fears over his reputation getting ruined across the whole of the Tokyo School Soccer League were long gone.
The girls had followed them to Lost Property, where the station worker had explained Hikari had to sign something and fill in her name and address. Lost Property was only kept for four weeks and then it would either be sold, thrown away, or donated to charity, unless the person who handed it in wanted to keep it. That "unless" had prompted Hikari to become hopeful the hoody might wind up hers if no one claimed it.
Tai however, knew that there was a good chance someone would claim it and his sister would be disappointed, so without thinking about it he'd asked the two girls if they maybe knew somewhere similar things were sold? Just in case? The fact the pair had squealed that the gesture was cute so loud his eardrums nearly burst had been well worth the fact both of them had given him their phone numbers...
"You're so lucky you're cute... And so am I." Tai grinned to his sleeping sister.
They were nearing their stop to finally be almost home. And as soon as he was back in he was going to scour the internet for something like that hoody just in case. And if he had anything to say about it so was Yamato, because the girls had specifically asked if Tai had any friends...
Hikari, for her part, was oblivious to the fact she'd helped out. She was simply dreaming of bunnies.
Rukia was very confused to now find herself in a lost property office, looking at a young boy with goggles and a messy mass of brown hair.
"Hey, it's a nice fit, Hikari. Try putting the hood up..."
'Hikari? Who is...'
Rukia felt something shift, like her head rising... but if her head was rising how could she see? Something then landed slightly above her vision, the edge of a hood. And then strange thoughts.
'I wonder what it looks like with the hood up...' A young girl's voice sounded in Rukia's mind.
'What the? What's going on? Who is that?'
The voice paid Rukia no mind, wondering if there was a mirror around, before she heard someone sigh.
"There's no mirror near here is there?" The girl asked, but not in the mind.
"The toilets, I guess..." The boy said, then yelled for someone to wait.
Rukia then watched as she was running, but not running, to the nearby toilets. No one was there, and then Rukia saw herself. Or, sort of saw herself.
A smiling young girl, about eight or nine, wearing a grey hoody with bunny ears.
'Wow! That's really cute!'
Rukia had to agree. The bunny ears made the hoody adorable... except apparently, she was the hoody.
The girl reached up to take the hood down.
'Hey, how can I hear you in my head?' Rukia tried again, but as before, the girl did not hear her.
' I'd better take it off to go home... It'll need washed before...' The girl thought, and then as the hood went down, she was cut off.
Rukia then felt herself being opened, and head the noise of a zipper. She watched, apparently through the girls eyes, as the zipper went down on the hoody she wore. The girl shifted her arms to take it off, and then Rukia was blinded as she was removed. No longer worn, she had no eyes and ears to borrow.
' Wait! What's this?! What did you do?!' She cried out, feeling herself being folded and bundled up.
She was panicking now. She'd transformed into a bunny hoody, she'd been worn by some mysterious girl, and now she was blind and deaf.
Fortunately, a moment later, she was also unconscious.
Hikari was nervous.
It wasn't that she didn't trust her mother... but she didn't have a great track record of washing precious garments really.
For example, when she had been about three, the family had went on an overseas vacation to Europe. Two weeks travelling the continent, and British and Irish Isles. She remembered very little of it, except that Tai had managed to buy replica shirts of a number of European soccer clubs. She remembered Manchester United, Rangers, Celtic, and Real Madrid had been some of the shirts. He had eight in total, seven from big clubs and one from the side that had won a game he attended with their father.
Six of the seven famous ones met mishaps in the wash. First, the Manchester shirt had somehow shrunk. It fit her at the time so she wound up wearing it. Then somehow the Celtic shirt wound up in with something red, so it became a pink and green hooped shirt instead. The Rangers one suffered a similar fate and turned purple.
Tai had eventually learned to use the washing machine himself to preserve his remaining two shirts, and after she found her shirts getting a bit smaller without herself having a growth spurt, Hikari had tried to learn too.
However, Tai had helped her wash the hoody, so she felt a little more confident... but still nervous. Luckily, it came out just fine, and when it was dry there were no changes, except it now smelled of the citrus washing powder they had used. Still, she tried it on to be safe.
'I can see and hear again!
Rukia had awoken, back on someone, able to see and heard, and now seeing the skyline of Eastern Tokyo, looking across the bay if she wasn't mistaken...
'Okay, what's going on... Wait... can I smell... Citrus? ' Rukia pondered, as she felt her head/hood shift and go up, then heard the girl's thoughts again.
' Good, the hood's still a good fit too... Well, better take it off so it's not dirty for school tomorrow...'
Rukia heard this, then felt the changes again. She recalled that moments ago (from her perspective) she had been blinded and deafened by this act, and panicked.
'Wait, wait! Don't take me off, I'm only awake when...'
She never finished the thought that moment in time.
'...you wear me. Rukia finished, the next morning, as Hikari put her jacket on. She didn't put the hood up though, so Rukia could not hear her thoughts.
"Ready to go?" The boy said.
Rukia realised she didn't know his name. For her she had only 'met' him moments ago, having only been aware for a few brief moments recently. She then felt herself shift slightly as Hikari nodded and replied.
"Yeah. Let's go."
"Taichi! Remember to keep your sister close walking to school!" Their mother shouted, letting the hoody learn his name.
Taichi sighed.
"Seriously, how long is she going to keep asking that?"
Hikari merely giggled.
Rukia was now being worn properly, watching as a passenger while the siblings walked to school. Even through Hikari's eyes, she noticed that Taichi was very cautious to look after his sister. With the hood down, though, Rukia had no idea what Hikari's views were.
'She'll likely look up to him. Maybe not even notice how defensive he can be of her.'
There had been two such incidents. Hikari had likely not even noticed Taichi guiding her away from the path of someone's dog that looked somewhat aggressive, and holding her back at a pedestrian crossing even as she made no attempt to cross without the lights saying it was safe.
'When am I going to turn back? I've been like this for...'
She realised she had no idea. She'd blacked out when not worn... How long was she there? How had the girl wound up 'owning' her?
Rukia was lost in thoughts as the school neared, and she was shaken from the worry by noticing the school was Odaiba Elementary. That meant she was definitely east across Tokyo from Karakura, by nearly 20 miles. Pondering why this had occurred however was rendered secondary when she noticed the school clock.
The date said it was almost a month since she had transformed into the hoody.
Now utterly stunned, Rukia barely realised it when she was unzipped and was being removed.
'W...Wait! I need more time to think! She protested unheard as she was hung over the back of the chair, and waited on the blackness...
And then realised. She wasn't blacking out. She was watching as Hikari removed a book from inside her desk . She could still share Hikari's senses. She was talking with three other girls nearby, who apparently liked the hoody as well, but Rukia was now very puzzled. She could feel herself on the chair, and had been removed for a few minutes, but still was riding on Hikari's eyes and ears?
'Maybe it's spiritual energy. I'm aware when she's worn because of her own energy and I share her sense because my form didn't have it? This is the longest she's worn me...'
Rukia was then startled to realise something. She could smell too. And as Hikari sat in her seat she felt the girl's hands brush the wooden desk.
'I wonder if I can taste, too...' She pondered, before realising that things were getting darker. Whatever link was shared must have been weakening. By her count after about five minutes she had lost sight, sound, and feeling of what Hikari felt. A moment later, she was unaware again.
Hikari put her back on and awoke her, and Rukia presumed it was break or the end of the school day. Hikari's glance at the clock told her it was lunch, as did the urgings of another girl to hurry or there would be a long queue at the cafeteria. Perhaps she'd learn the taste part...
She had, and it was strange. She had a feeling if Hikari liked something she did not, then if Hikari ate it she would get the girl's sensation of liking the food rather than her own of dislike. But that had been a few hours ago, and the two were now walking home with Taichi. A third person, a red-haired older girl, had joined them.
"So that's the hoody you went halfway to Osaka for?" The older girl said.
"Sora! It wasn't that far! Besides I was at the hospital too..."
'Hospital? Is she sick?' Rukia worried. Hikari was a fairly polite girl, and she'd started to get a little attached...
"Yeah, yeah. Any word on that?" Sora (presumably) said, and Taichi replied
" She doesn't have to go to anywhere else now. They're pretty sure she's either gonna grow out of it or she already has. It's been months since she was sick."
Rukia wondered if she was pleased to hear it, or if it was Hikari's pleasure
A couple of weeks passed, and Rukia realised she wasn't turning back on her own steam anytime soon. Just yesterday she'd been put straight into the washing machine off Hikari's back, and it had been an alarming, dizzy feeling as she was spun around and around, while she was also watching a cartoon through Hikari's eyes until she blacked out and woke being put on.
However, it was getting warmer. Spring was coming and the cold weather was fading. Was the need for the hoody... for her... fading?
'I'll be hanging up for a year... or more. She's young. She might outgrow me...' She fretted.
Unknown to her, Hikari was wondering something along those lines. She unexpectedly pulled the hood up, and Rukia heard Hikari's thoughts as the girl looked in a mirror
'Real rabbits change colour in Spring, don't they? From grey to brown... It'd be cool if my jacket could do that...'
The girl then gasped, and Rukia shared the sentiment. As she thought that, Rukia had turned white.
"...Hikari? What's wrong with your hoody?" Taichi asked, and Rukia felt Hikari's alarm as she jumped up... Or maybe she had been startled herseld.
"I... I wanted it to change colour and it did!" The girl said, surprised.
Taichi seemed surprisingly calm given that this wasn't normal. Rukia was confused as he spoke
"It might be something to do with the Digital World."
'Digital what?'
"...Don't tell anyone, especially not our mother. She'll panic, but I don't think it's dangerous. We'll talk about it going to school... Try and make it grey again?"
Hikari nodded, and looked back in the mirror
' Grey... Go grey...'
Rukia watched through Hikari's eyes as the jacket changed again. She was grey again for now.
On the way, she had been turned white again once their mother wouldn't see. Taichi had been cautiously watching as apparently she was changed colour again and again, hood up, and hood down. She was even taken off and watched as Hikari changed her colour just by holding her.
'It must be some residual effect of the change... Maybe I'll change back after all?' Rukia hoped.
Unfortunately, Taichi seemed a little too worried, and Hikari had reluctantly kept the hoody off. This meant blackness for her.
"We'll take it to Koushiro. He might know some way to figure it out what it is." Taichi said.
Hikari nodded, feeling a little depressed.
"Am I in trouble?"
Taichi shook his head.
"No. I don't think so."
This did little to reassure her.
Rukia awoke, not being worn, but just being touched, Hikari looking down at her.
"That's weird..." A new voice said.
"Yeah. Weird is right, Koushiro." Taichi muttered.
"I'm not sure if it really would be Digital World, Tai. It's strange but I'm not sure... " Koushiro (presumably) said as Hikari put the hoody down, and stopped Rukia from listening.
"...I'm not sure it's dangerous. It seems pretty harmless." Koushiro shrugged.
"I can keep it then?" Hikari asked hopefully.
"I don't see why not. But if anything is strange or..." Taichi paused.
"I'll be keeping an eye on it for you, okay?" He finished.
"That would be for the best. It seems harmless, after all, but you can never tell..."
Hikari nodded.
"Okay. I'll be careful with it too." She pledged.
Spring drew in. Hikari seemed strangely skilled at keeping the secret, pretending the white one was a new hoody entirely to some people and even claiming to her mother Taichi had found the white one online and ordered it. Rukia figured she had been a hoody now for nearly twelve weeks, and she felt Hikari's slight discomfort at how warm it was walking, even though there was a light drizzle at the time. This meant the hood was up and Hikari's thoughts were audible.
' I kind of wish it could be thinner... It's too warm...'
Rukia felt it this time. A feeling of losing some mass, growing thinner... Less warm... And Hikari gasped.
' It can change shapes too?! Maybe I should tell Tai... But he might get worried again...'
Hikari worried about this as Taichi didn't notice the jacket was thinner. Rukia's last thoughts she overheard were of Hikari deciding she'd tell Taichi later.
Taichi had taken that development well too, being told at lunch. However, the light rain had become heavier, and Hikari waited inside the school entrance for her brother, who Rukia thought looked worried.
"Um... Hikari, you can't maybe see if the jacket can be waterproof? Maybe?"
Hikari nodded, and with few people around, pulled the hood up and gave it her best.
' Okay, hoody... be waterproof!'
Rukia wanted to sigh as Hikari giggled, and she felt the rain run off her rather than be absorbed...
Hikari was worried now. She needed her uniform to go on the class trip - the school only allowed pupils to go on trips if they wore uniform, even though the rest of the time it was casual dress.
"Stupid rule... I wonder where it... went..." She realised. She had found her skirt hanging up dry, but the blouse... Had her mother left it in the machine?
"Oh..." Hikari sighed as she checked the washing machine. Sure enough, it was still in there. Smaller. And wetter.
"Great. No uniform, no trip..." Hikari sighed.
Then she had an idea...
Rukia awoke in Hikari's hands as she felt herself changing again.
'Um... What now?'
She felt like she was getting thinner again, and the hood seemed to be shrinking... Retracting. Rukia panicked a little as that seemed to be the only way to hear what Hikari was thinking, and she had began to think of it as her head.
'What am I becoming?!'
She was answered moments later as Hikari looked in the mirror again, wearing a black and grey serafuku.
"Thanks, hoody! We need a full uniform for the trip..." Hikari giggled, admiring her temporary blouse...
Rukia had no idea what this meant, but felt a little sad she'd lost her hood...
'What the hell am I thinking?! I lost way more than a hood before this!'
Rukia was glad to be a hoody again, though she'd have preferred to be human. It was still raining a little and she was waterproof, and Hikari suddenly realised something.
' It's swimming class today... I forgot my bathing suit!'
Rukia mentally sighed.
'I know where this is going...'
She wondered how she was going to solve the problem that she'd be a wet swimsuit inside and out when the class was over, and it was likely it would turn out she'd be a wet hoody inside and out...
It was Saturday, a day off school, and a day indoors for Hikari. Her father was working, Taichi was out playing soccer, and her mother had to go shopping for half an hour, allowing Hikari to try something.
She took her hoody into her room and put it down. She had a plan, to see just what it could turn into. Putting her hand on it and willing a change, Rukia awoke.
'Oh. What are you changing me into... now...' Rukia puzzled, as she felt... odd... like she was growing.... legs...
Hope that she was turning back faded as she realised Hikari had no idea about her. Rukia realised legs meant two things. A bodysuit, or Hikari planned to cut her in half to see what happened...
In fact, that wasn't the plan at all. Rukia was relieved when Hikari stood back, and then fretted as she realised she would black out. She feared she would awake in pieces...
She did not. She awoke to feel herself expanding, as a nervous looking Hikari maintained contact. She kept glancing at the door, and then Rukia felt something very strange.
She saw the door and the ceiling. She heard Hikari's heart racing with nerves as she did... whatever she was doing, and her nerves made her nose itch. Rukia hoped Hikari would scratch it soon, it was annoying. She also felt like she was growing into clothes.
And then Hikari let go, and scratched her nose.
Rukia didn't feel it.
"What... Why didn't I..." She said, and then paused.
"...I spoke?"
"Y...Yeah... You spoke but..." Hikari was confused.
"Um... Are you a different person?"
Rukia sat up and looked at her hands, and then thought she looked at Hikari in the mirror.
But then she realised.
There were two Hikaris. One sitting on the floor, awe-struck. And another right behind her, looking a little worried. The one on the floor wore clothes that were different to the one behind but they were otherwise identical. Hikari had actually dressed the changed hoody in those clothes and let the copy grown into them, so to speak.
"Um... Hikari, this... This is going to be a really long story but... What were you doing?"
"I wanted to see if I... Could make a copy of myself from you. But you have a different voice... And you're a different person?"
Rukai sighed.
"Okay, I think I had better explain this then..."