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REFLECTION
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One month later...

Kimiko stood as still as a board in front of the kitchen cabinet. She had her hand on the little knob of the wooden cupboard and merely stared forward at the marble countertop, unmoving. Her eyes were dark and glazed over, distant and disconnected from reality. She sniffled and her nose twitched. That was the only bit of movement she had since she walked up to the cabinet.

Her eyes closed and she took a deep breath, reminding herself to stay centered and lively. A small, fake, smile appeared upon her lips when she opened her eyes again. She opened the cupboard and pulled out a plastic cup, moving to the fridge to fill it with water. She glanced behind her with her golden eyes, seeing the little girl sitting at the counter in a barstool, slowly scribbling away at a coloring book with brightly colored crayons.

The little girl's eyes were just as glazed as Kimiko's were. Her blue eyes were clouded and dark as she stared at her book. Her greyish hair was constantly falling into her face, but she didn't do much to clear her vision of her locks.

Kimiko walked over to her and sat in the barstool seat across from her. Kimiko set the water cup in front of the little girl, who merely glanced at it then looked back down at her coloring book. Kimiko raised an eyebrow at her.

"You having fun there, Tikki?" Kimiko asked.

Tikki didn't respond—she didn't even nod or bounce her head the slightest bit. She was entirely focused on her coloring but at the same time not focused on it at all. The fake smile that had illuminated Kimiko's sad expression quickly fell when she realized Tikki wasn't going to look at her anytime soon.

Tikki had always been a quiet kid. Kimiko couldn't even recall what her voice sounded like, or if she'd heard the girl speak at all. There was a thought at the back of her mind that Tikki had no voice at all, but that couldn't be right. Kimiko's mother had once asked Tikki's if the girl was mute, but Orina Shimamura insisted upon the fact that her daughter was completely capable of verbal communication. She just never spoke. Maybe it was timidness, maybe it was something else.

Kimiko reached forward and brushed a strand of straight white hair out of Tikki's vision, trying to help her. She tucked the little hairs behind the girl's ears and let her do her coloring in silence. Kimiko bit her lip as she watched her.

A thud was heard from upstairs, towards the back of the house. Kimiko glanced up at it and shook her head.

That thud was no doubt from her mother's bedroom.

Ever since Orina's death a month prior, Kimiko's mother had struggled immensely in her mourning. They all had to deal with Orina's tragic passing in their own way, but Irisa's way of managing her grief was drastically different.

The pro hero locked herself away in her room for the first few days after Orina's death. Kimiko could hear the crashing and banging of various objects as she probably destroyed her entire room while she was cooped up in there. Then, when she was done destroying her room, she left it to go out to work. She tried to focus on being a pro and fighting villains, but it was in vain. Without her partner, Irisa could do little damage against villains unless they were petty thieves. It was a strange and terrible change for the Time Hero.

However, Irisa didn't get to play solo-hero for very long. Just a week and a half after Orina's death, Tikki Shimamura entered the picture. Seeing that they couldn't find Tikki's biological father and Irisa was Tikki's next immediate relative, Irisa was designated as Tikki's legal guardian.

Kimiko thought it stupid for them to chose her mother as Tikki's guardian. In her time of grief, Irisa could barely take care of herself let alone two children. Kimiko wasn't sure Irisa understood that Tikki lost her mother that day. She was too consumed in her self-destruction after her sister's death to consider what anyone else had lost.

"It looks pretty, Teeks," Kimiko commented on Tikki's drawing.

Tikki made a small squeak of a noise in response. Kimiko's lips rose into the slightest smile at that.

Despite Irisa being unable to care for her daughter and niece, Kimiko took it under her belt to try to help Tikki as much as she could. But it was clear that Tikki didn't fully understand what was happening. She was too young to quite fathom it all.

All the little girl knew was that her mother had left and was never coming back. Why she left or where she went, Tikki could only imagine the limited possibilities. The mind of a child was so fragile and mystical, Kimiko didn't want to ruin her spirits by explaining her mother's death.

Kimiko glanced from Tikki down to the drawing, seeing a small droplet of water upon the page, slowly soaking into the crayon colors etched upon the paper. The colors seemed to leak off the drawing and swirl around in the water into a puddle of darkness. Kimiko wiped it away with her finger but more droplets appeared.

Her golden eyes gravitated back up to Tikki's sad expression. There were tears dripping from her eyes. But her expression seemed so monotone and dead. She put the crayon down and just sat there, staring at the ruined drawing. Kimiko frowned, a pitiful expression growing on her facial features.

"What's wrong?" Kimiko asked, trying to see if she can make her feel better in anyway.

Tikki sniffled but made no other peep. Tears just seemed to stream down her streaks in little waterfalls, dripping off of her jawline in little consistent droplets.

Kimiko sucked in a breath. "Hey Tikki! Check this out!"

Tikki's blue eyes danced upwards at Kimiko. Kimiko put a hand in front of her face and swiftly shifted her solid hand into a cloud of dark smoke. Her face was hidden behind the dark smoke, like a curtain pulled over a window. However, her face popped out of the smoke as she tilted her head forward, through her smokified hand. She stuck her tongue out to make a funny face, trying to make the little girl laugh to lift her spirits.

Tikki seemed unamused. She sniffled again and the tears continued to fall.

Kimiko pulled her wrist forward and the smoke followed her movements, her hand shifting back into its solid form in front of her. She put her hand down on the countertop and frowned at Tikki.

As much as Kimiko tried to take care of Tikki... she realized she had no idea how to.

CRASH

Kimiko glanced behind her and up at the ceiling. Another crashing of some object from her mother's room. Kimiko sighed and stood up from the barstool.

"Stay here for a second, okay?" Kimiko told her younger cousin, but she knew she wouldn't get much of an answer out of her.

She walked up the stairs and pressed her hand which was once smoke upon the wall beside her, drawing closer and closer to her mother's room. She swallowed, hard. It felt like it'd been forever since she actually talked to her mother, when in reality it had only been a day or two since they spoke. However, the few words they did exchange before then were just short phrases. Maybe a simple 'Have you eaten?' out of Irisa and a 'Yeah' from Kimiko before Irisa receded back into the habitat of her room.

"What?"

Irisa's voice and biting tone rose up from behind the door in front of Kimiko. Kimiko blinked, not even realizing she had already knocked on the door. She put her balled fist down and stuck her hands behind her back, twirling her thumbs.

"Hi mom," Kimiko said back. "I was just wondering if you could help me with Tikki? She's crying again."

There was a silent pause. Then Kimiko could hear her sigh.

"Maybe she's hungry."

Kimiko blinked. "Ma, she's not a baby anymore. I don't think she cries when she's hungry."

Irisa grumbled back, "Well what else have you tried?"

"I gave her a coloring book and she was fine for a bit, but now she's crying again. I tried making her laugh but it's no use. Can you help me?"

Another long pause.

Then, the doorknob jiggled as Irisa unlocked the door from the opposite side and she swung the wooden door open wide. Kimiko looked up at her blonde mother, smiling up at her. Her mother was dressed in dark clothing—a black turtleneck and leggings, and a black overcoat on top. Her blonde hair was pinned up into a tight bun atop her head but seemed messy, probably from actively throwing things about her room.

Her eyes were closed when she opened the door, not bothering to look down at Kimiko. Kimiko frowned upon noticing this.

Irisa sidestepped and walked past Kimiko, but not before closing the door to her room behind her, not letting Kimiko have a peek inside. Kimiko rushed to follow behind her mother's long strides as they walked down the stairs, back to the kitchen.

Tikki hadn't moved an inch from where she sat on the barstool. Irisa took one look at Tikki before walking over to the corner counter and pulling out a plate and some cookies from a tupperware. She walked back over to Tikki and slid the plate in front of her niece.

"Cookies," Irisa said.

Tikki glanced down at it and picked up a cookie. She put it in her mouth and gnawed on it as if she were teething on it, sniffling as she did so. Her tears seemed to slow down as her mind became distracted by the sugary taste of the cookie. She continued to sniffle and nibble on the cookie as she sat there.

Irisa sighed and stared at her niece with a raised eyebrow. "See, Kimiko," she said to her daughter. "That wasn't so hard."

"Oh... I should've thought of that," Kimiko mumbled, guiltily.

Irisa clicked her tongue, shaking her head, and began to turn around towards Kimiko. "Well, now you know for next time. If you need anything else, please—"

Irisa's eyes connected with Kimiko's shorter figure and she shuddered, nearly jumping as if something had scared her. Her golden eyes flashed open upon seeing Kimiko, and a look of terror crossed her expression. Tears welled up in her eyes. She slapped a hand to her mouth.

Kimiko staggered back, confused and startled by her mother's reaction. It was the first time Irisa had looked at Kimiko all day...

Irisa stifled a sound from behind her hand, as if she were choking on her words, and quickly ripped her eyes away from Kimiko.

"So similar..." Kimiko could hear her mother mutter from behind her hand.

Irisa closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to compose herself but being unable to. She turned and walked straight past Kimiko without another word, climbing back up the stairs at a much quicker pace. Kimiko stood, frozen in place, shocked.

It was a terrible thing to understand why her mother was so distraught upon seeing Kimiko. She wished that she wasn't smart, and she couldn't tell what irked her mother so much. She wished to be wrong about her assumption, but she knew she wasn't.

"Similar..." Kimiko repeated aloud what her mother had mumbled.

Her head swiveled and she looked towards the fridge. A distorted image of Orina Shimamura appeared on the curved metal, shifting and moving upon the kitchen appliance. Kimiko lifted her arm and the image of Orina followed suit. Why, that wasn't Orina at all. It was Kimiko's reflection with golden eyes rather than blue. Irisa was right about one thing: Kimiko and Orina looked terribly similar to one another.

It didn't help that Kimiko had braided her hair like Orina's.

Kimiko closed her eyes, remembering the pure fear that her mother's eyes held when she looked at her. Kimiko bit her lip, trying to fight any melancholy or guilty emotions she felt buried so deep inside herself. Her own mother, looking down at her with such fear and terror. It was terrifying... and she didn't want to relive it. Never again.

Kimiko feverishly unbraided her hair and tied it back up into its usual high ponytail and side bangs over part of her face. She glanced back at her reflection, still recognizing the girl that looked like the spitting image of her deceased aunt.

Something which she used to see as a blessing in disguise... was now nothing more than a curse. A curse to look upon herself and see the dead staring back at her.