Story: The Mansion Where Time Stands Still(Originally 'Shiro Oni'), Chapter 1[Re-write as of June 30th]
Summary: There was said to be a mansion, located approximately fifteen or so miles away from society, which stood deep in the midst of a large and dark forest. I don't know how many times we've come here, or how many times we will come here, but it I have to accept death as my fate, I will willing do so, as long as they survive.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Hetalia, Ao Oni, Heta Oni, nor Higurashi.
There was said to be a mansion, located approximately fifteen or so miles from society, which stood deep in the midst of a large and dark forest. Not a single person or soul had seemed to know how long the building had even been there, nor, even more so, who used to stay in it. Supposedly, it was 'haunted'...
"Wow, it's really here...!"
"Yeah... I thought it was just a rumor."
"Tch. It's nothing amazing, though, and will somebody please explain to me why I agreed to come explore some stupid building?!"
"For once, I have t' agree with Ichigo. I kind of have other things I'd rather be doing right now. So let's just hurry this up already."
Honestly, I wasn't ever the type to believe in ghosts or spirits, other than the ones we were used to, so I didn't really think twice about it when I heard the rumors of the place.
And after some discussion, some of us figured it would be nice to take a little time off from our everyday duties, since everything was as calm as it would be for a while. When we did get there, however, we soon found that there were beings of which we would have never comprehended, or believed to actually exist.
Ichigo, Rukia, Uryu, Renji, and a few of the others had been given some time off from their usual duties and responsibilities, and someone happened to overhear a rumor about a supposedly haunted mansion on the 'outskirts of town', or rather, the outskirts of the soul society. According to Ichigo, he'd simply been dragged along more than 'deciding' to come. Orihime came because of Ichigo, and Ishida evidently came because of Orihime. Renji might've tried to deny it, but it was obvious that he was there because of Rukia, beside of the fact that he actually didn't have anything he'd rather be doing.
Rukia looked over at them, rolling her eyes. "What are you two so scared of? It's not like there could be anything but hollows in there."
"Who said anything about me being scared?!", Renji and Ichigo retorted in unison. "I just wanna go ahead and get this over with!"
"Is that why you both are actually agreeing for once?", Ishida simply remarked, pushing up his glasses.
"That's right, Kurosaki-kun. You never agree with Abarai-san-", Orihime started, but was cut off before she could finish.
"I wouldn't agree with him if he were the last person on earth!", Ichigo and Renji immediately snapped, once again in unison, pointing at each other. Folding their arms, they glared, before turning away.
"Seriously, you both are acting like two year olds. C'mon already, let's just go on in.", Rukia told them.
Renji sighed, grumbling something incomprehensible beneath his breath. Finally, he followed behind, looking up at the mansion once more, before entering the house. Was he the only one to notice the bad vibes coming off the place?
I don't know how many times we've come here, or how many times we will come here, but if I have to accept death as my fate, I will willing do so, as long as they survive...
"Not bad for a haunted house.", Rukia admitted, scanning the room.
"And it's really clean in here, too...!", Orihime commented in surprise, sniffing the air. That's when she noticed the thick smell of old pine wood.
"A little too clean... I can't help but feel like we're being watched.", Ishida mused, wrapping a finger around his chin. Renji glanced over at him, cocking an eyebrow.
"So ya noticed it too?", He muttered questioningly, before looking away. "Looks like I'm not crazy, after all..."
"It doesn't matter.", Ichigo sighed. "Let's just take a quick look and-"
Most everyone jumped, startled, as a loud crash echoed through the house.
"What the hell was that?!", Renji exclaimed, turning to where the crash had came from.
"Kurosaki, where are you going?", Uryu asked, as Ichigo made his way to one of the doors. Said person looked back over his shoulder.
"I'm going to find out what the crash was.", Ichigo shoed his hand, nonchalantly-slash-mockingly. "Don't worry, I'll be back in a minute."
After a moment, realization sunk in, as Ishida's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "What gave you the idea that I was worried about you?!"
He growled, seeing that Ichigo had already left the room. "Hey, I was talking to you, Kurosaki!"
"Ishida-kun, I-", Orihime started to say, but was once again cut off before she could finish.
"Inoue-san, can you please stay here with Kuchiki-san and Abarai?", he asked her.
"Oh, okay...", Orihime replied, hesitantly holding her chest, as she took a step backward.
Ishida looked at her once more, before leaving the room to follow Ichigo. Truth was, he cared a lot for Orihime, and if push came to shove, he would far over willingly give his life to save hers. She was just that important to him.
With that thought in mind, he finally took a gander at his surroundings. He found himself standing in a long hallway with what looked to be a total of three doors, which Ichigo had just stepped away from the middle one.
The strawberry scratched his head, slightly sighing. "This one's locked too. I guess I'll go onto the last one."
He looked over to see Ishida standing there. "Oh, Ishida, it's you."
"Are the doors locked?", The raven questioned, referring to the doors.
"Well, those two are,", Ichigo answered, as they made their way to the end of the hall. "though I'm not sure about this one."
Reaching up, he turned the knob to find out that it just so happened to be unlocked.
"It's unlocked.", he noted, stepping in the room. They took a brief moment to look around and take in their surroundings. When they saw the refrigerator and cabinets, they immediately knew it was a kitchen, and a huge one at that.
As he was walking by one of the shelves, Ishida spotted a broken plate in the middle of the floor. As he bent down to pick up the pieces, he thought back, finding it all kind of strange.
'Wait a second... Where could the plate have fallen from?', he wondered. There weren't any shelves around that area. So, how...?
Maybe there was someone there or something? But they would've seem him or her, wouldn't they have?
"Did you find anything?", Ichigo questioned, as he approached him. The Quincy snapped out of his thoughts looking up.
"No, it was just a plate that fell."
Ichigo, as well, seemed confused as to how a plate could've ended up there. He opened his mouth to speak but was immediately cut off by a loud feminine scream. Ishida's eyes widened in realization.
"That sounded like Inoue!", he exclaimed, as they ran down the hall back to the entrance. Uryu didn't even bother closing the door behind them.
They looked around to discover that the others were gone.
"What the hell?! Did they leave?!", Ichigo shouted in irritation, suddenly finding himself lost in his 'delusions'. He held up a fist, smirking evilly. "I'm beginning to think this is all a hoax."
"...What?", Ishida growled in annoyance.
"Yeah, I'll bet this was all Renji's idea and he set it up, too. Well, I'll show him what I think of his stupid plan! I'm leavi-eh?"
"Hey, what happened?", Ishida asked in alert, as Ichigo grew stiff. "Won't it open?"
"No, i-it's locked..."
"Locked?", Ishida inquired, raising an eyebrow. "How could it be locked?!"
He pushed past Ichigo, and shook the knob, but sure enough, it wouldn't budge.
"Like I said, Renji, nice try! But a single door isn't enough to keep me in!"
Grabbing his sword, Ichigo started to swing it at the door.
"Wait! Ichi...go..." Ishida trailed off into silence, his hand dropping at his side. The blade didn't even touch the door.
"What the hell?! A barrier?"
Ishida sighed. "Kurosaki, I really don't think Abarai is responsible for this.
Ichigo looked over at him, before sighing. "...Yeah, I guess you're right."
After a bit of discussion, they decided to split up, to cover more of the house. Little did they know who, or what, was lurking in the 'shadows', watching them.
[I hope Renji doesn't seem TOO out of character in this, but if you watched or played HetaOni, look at how Germany was portrayed at first, though...I suppose it is a bit different of a case, but, any who...*ahem!]
Ichigo now currently made his way down a long hallway to the left of the stairway. A fourth of the way down there was a locked door, and about a third of the way down, there was a small door-less room, containing a weird stage, that he made a mental note to check out later.
As he reached the technical end of the hallway, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that there was now yet another door to his right. 'Man, what the hell is up with all these doors, anyway?'
Fortunately, or not, this door did open, however, he'd now found himself standing in yet another - though shorter - hallway, in which one of the lights had apparently been knocked out. Looking up ahead, he momentarily froze, as he saw the door straight ahead of him suddenly slam shut, which is honestly what brought his attention to the fact that it was even open in the first place.
"Who the hell was that?", he wondered aloud, clenching the hilt of his sword. Approaching the door, he turned the knob, only to find that it'd been locked, apparently from the inside. "Give me a break...! I could of had a lead right there!"
He finally sighed, briefly scratching the top of his head, knowing that trying to cut down the door was probably useless. "...Guess I'll have to continue searching elsewhere for right now... Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll find a key or something while I'm at it."
Reluctantly turning back, he then made his way over to the only other door in that hallway. 'If I'm lucky...'
With Ishida...
'It must be some sort of headband or something...', Uryu assumed somewhat nonchalantly, picking up a white cloth band off the ground of the second floor. Suddenly, he recalled something. "Wait a second, isn't this Abarai's? Why is it here?"
Something bad must have happened. He needed to find the others.
Studying his surroundings, he looked around for any doors that he might have missed, however before he could do much more, he jumped back, when Renji suddenly came out of no where, bumping into him.
Their eyes immediately met, however, as apposed to him, Renji seemed a bit frantic.
"I-Ishida,", he stammered, a bit startled.
"Abarai, is something the matter?", Ishida asked.
"Ya've seen Rukia, right?", Renji wanted to know. "Please tell me ya saw Rukia...!"
"No, I haven't. What happened? Where's Inoue-san?"
"I don't know... This may sound crazy, but earlier when ya an' Ichigo left the room, this creature suddenly came outta nowhere and attacked us. We tried to fight it, but our spirit energy was actin' like shit, and that...thing went after Rukia...! Next thing I knew, both me an' Inoue ended up gettin' separated from her. I told her to stay with me, but she suddenly disappeared, and now I don't know where either one of them are...! Dammit, what the hell is goin' on here?!", Uryu flinched a bit as Renji suddenly punched a nearby wall.
"Abarai, calm down!", Ishida snapped. "Getting worked up like that isn't going to make things any better than what they are. I want to understand what's going on, too, but we need to get to Ichigo. As far as I know, he's should still be on the first floor right now."
"...As much as I hate to say it, you're right. Thanks for that.", Renji sighed after a minute. "We need to find the ones we can first, though It's really weird. I can't feel anythin' here. It feels like our spiritual pressure is sealed off or something. To be quite honest, it's actually rather unsettlin'. Even Zabimaru isn't respondin' to me."
Uryu briefly glanced at him. It was true. One reason he'd been so worried about Orihime was the fact that hadn't been able to sense her spiritual pressure, nor Ichigo's. He couldn't even sense Renji's, even though he was right next to him. He wasn't the type to get in witchcraft or anything, but it almost felt as though everything around him, the entire atmosphere, had been...consumed in a way.
After a moment of silence, Uryu suddenly remembered finding Renji's white haircloth. "Abarai, I just recalled; this is yours, isn't it? I found it lying on the floor a short while before happening to bump into you."
He held it out to Renji, who grabbed it, nodding.
"Yeah, it is... Thanks," the redhead thought for a second, before he quickly shifted, reaching into one of the pockets of his Shihakusho to pull out a sort-of rusty looking key. "and that reminds me; Don't laugh, but earlier I slipped a key. I'm not sure what it belongs to, but I think yer better with pickin' locks an' stuff, so I assume you'd be able to make more use of it than me... Here."
"Thank you, I guess," the quincy replied, taking it. "but I don't really appreciate what I think you're trying to imply, though."
"Duly noted..." Renji grumbled in reply before turning around part of the way.
"Also, I take it that yer plannin' to look around some more? Before meetin' back up with Ichigo, I mean." he inquired.
"Yeah," Uryu briefly acknowledged, pushing up his glasses. "but you're going to find him, aren't you?"
"Yeah; I have to...and knowing Rukia, she's probably lookin' for him right now, anyway... Besides, maybe he's figured somethin' out by now."
"Yeah, I agree. You may be right..." Ishida responded pondering it.
"But, Ishida," he turned back around, giving a small smirk, as he walked towards the stairway leading back down to the first floor. "if you can help it, try not to go and die on Inoue, ya hear? I'd never forgive you for making a girl like that cry."
Uryu could hear the underlying seriousness in the soul reaper's tone even though it was meant to be more of a joke. "I hadn't planned on it."
After that, Renji had left. 'I would never allow myself to die in a place like this, and I wouldn't forgive, myself, either, if I were to just leave Inoue-san like that...'
To be honest with himself, Orihime would probably cry over anyone's death, but somehow, she'd managed to care about him more than anyone else ever had, ever since his grandfather and sensei had died. Despite who or what he was, she still accepted him, so he would be there for her no matter what, because he didn't want to ever if her cry when he could help it, just as she would ever try to do for him or anyone. She was a human he felt deserved to live as humanely as she could. She shouldn't have had to be thrown into the true chaos of the world that awaited her. So he would do anything he could to protect her from as much pain as he could. Not as a quincy but because he had his own share of pain throughout life. More than a lot of people should have. More than anything, seeing her cry; it had nearly torn him apart every time he even saw it. She was nearly everything to him at this point, he'd decided, so it only felt right.
(A/N: Trying to keep this in a platonic sense and like an extremely devoted relationship, sorta like Matsumoto and Hitsugaya, but not exactly, unless you guys want it 'otherwise'. :P)
After a lot of exploring through the second floor, Uryu realized the majority of the rooms in the house were probably locked and would required keys to get in to.
'Is this a library?' he wondered, finally happening to come across the door the key he had belonged to, though also having a little bit of trouble pushing it open. As soon as he stepped in the room, the area around him immediately felt thick and cold, and a bit dusty; like nobody had been in it for years. He couldn't help but suddenly feel like someone was standing right nearby, watching him even more than before. And as he looked up ahead, he felt his heart unexpectedly skip a beat when he saw the vague outline of a child's spirit before it moved out of his view and in between two bookshelves. However, when he followed after it, he discovered the spirit was gone. When he was just about to retrace his steps and leave, he then heard a cling behind him as something fell to the ground. He looked down, his eyes slightly widening when he saw an antique quincy cross lying at his feet. "No way... This is-what is this doing here...?!"
And that's when he heard a loud bang at his side, as several books fell of the shelf. He quickly glanced over reflexively as he saw a large being hastily approaching him.
"What the he-", he started to say, but before he could react, he felt a cold hand grab his, and begin pulling him away.
He looked in front of him to realize that it was the same child - boy - he'd seen earlier.
"Hey, kid, what are you-"
"Mister quincy, you have to run. This room is really unsafe right now! You have to get out of here. Take this...key, too! Everyone is in danger...! I can't...explain...everything! Just trust me...!" the boy told him through exasperated breaths.
"Wait, who...are yo-?" Ishida tried to ask, breathing heavily himself, as they exited the room.
"I'm sorry, I can't...talk...right now...!" he exclaimed.
"You should go to the fourth floor. There may be a few rooms that are unlocked. I have to go."
"Wait, I-" before Uryu could even finish his sentence, the boy literally disappeared into thin air.
Turning around, he expected that thing (which certainly wasn't a hollow, otherwise this wouldn't have been a problem) to be following after him, but it wasn't, much to his relief for right now. He didn't want to fight at the moment if he could help it. Either way, he wasn't sure what that stark white creature was, or what was going on here, but he knew he need to find Orihime and Rukia quickly, in the case they hadn't met up with Ichigo and-or Renji yet. It wasn't as though he thought they were weak, but anything could happen for all he knew. This place wasn't safe at all. The atmosphere was off. Everything was off.
That's all he knew as he turned, making his way to the fourth floor, as suggested by that ghost boy. Any lead was better than none, after all...
~ End of Chapter
A/N: I promise I'm not avoiding the battles, but as I said, because this is greatly inspired by HetaOni and Higurashi and Ao Oni, some things did have to be changed. And ever since first uploading this story, I have changed the original base idea, but I hope this change hasn't turned anybody off from wanting to read on. I just wanna make this a bit different than a typical oni story, I guess... Review~?
What do you think? This is based off of HetaOni, for any of you who don't know. However, that doesn't mean you have to have seen it to understand the story. Anyway, onto le next chapter.
PS: I may make this an IchiRuki fanfic, or maybe others? IshiHime? RenRuki? None? Multiple ones(NOT MEANING HAREM)? I'll do so if I get enough votes for it on my page for me to make my decision. Also, if you have any requests for others, please do PM me with your suggestions. I really would love to hear them.