The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Soul Reapers (Chapter 1) To Witness the Gates of Hell
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
Note:
This story is an immediate sequel to The Iron Sole Alchemist and Magical Girl Sloth, which is part of a series of stories. Those stories introduce characters, events, and concepts. You may not understand everything if you have not read the previous stories.
I'd arrived in a new world. Traveling through the Gate, I'd reverted to my default appearance with brown hair spiked up, dark skin clothed by heavy black boots, black leather pants, and an open half vest that showed off the oroboros tattoo in the center of my chest. My left eye was brown. The right was blue. A strap over one shoulder that went across my body supported a messenger bag. A silver chain attached to a belt loop led into my right pocket.
At my side was a floppy eared brown dog. He wore a collar embroidered with complex alchemic designs and a faintly glowing red crystal at the front.
Glancing around, we took in our surroundings. We'd appeared on a paved sidewalk. There was an empty street nearby and rows of houses. In addition to telephone poles and power lines, there were trees, bushes, and garden boxes decorating each lot. The magical false eye in my right socket allowed me to look through the walls of houses and see the people inside going about their daily lives.
"Well, Loki," I said to my dog, "at least this place feels warmer and friendlier than the last one."
Loki at my side, I picked a direction and started walking. It wouldn't take too long to find a library and get a basic sense of what was normal for this world.
Suddenly, I heard an explosion. Gauging its direction, Loki and I took off at a run toward it. On arriving, I saw a broken telephone pole lying splintered on the ground, a small woman with black hair wearing a grey skirt and jacket, and a tall dark skinned, muscular man wearing a patterned, short sleeved shirt with a massive blood stain on the back.
My magical false eye allowed me to see a ten foot tall, humanoid creature that was invisible to my normal eye. It was covered in green fur and had a white, exoskeleton-like covering on only its head. A round opening went all the way through the center of its chest. The woman could see it, and wasn't taking her eyes off it. The man couldn't see it, but was aware of its presence and had his fists up defensively.
A number of frog-like creatures the size of cats were hidden in the bushes, watching the events unfold. When Loki and I arrived, the woman swung an arm out to her side, vaguely in our direction and called out, "Get back! It isn't safe here!"
As she called out, the frog-like creatures leapt out of the bushes at Loki and I. I stomped my foot and blue light surged from the transmutation circle on the bottom of my shoe along the pavement. A dozen hands made of concrete rose out of the ground and caught each of the creatures out of the air.
"I can take care of myself," I said with a smirk playing on my lips. "What exactly is going on here?"
The smirk vanished when the frog-like creatures split themselves open and dozens of fist sized purple leaches flew out of their bodies and stuck to me and Loki. The larger creature opened its mouth, incidentally revealing a second set of teeth, and extended a forked tongue. The tongue vibrated like a tuning fork, though I couldn't hear any sound. At the same instant, the leaches exploded.
The resulting injuries to myself and Loki were superficial. There were some painful burns, but the leaches exploded more like large fireworks than like fragmentation grenades. Unfortunately, the sneak attack had burned off part of the alchemy array on Loki's skin that allowed him to transform.
"Thanks for making this easy for me," I told the larger creature with my eyes narrowed. I raised my right hand and a flame alchemy array drew itself on the back of my hand. "You hurt my dog. Now you die."
In response, the creature shifted to the side revealing a birdcage with three of the frog-like creatures clinging to it and a white bird inside. Both the man and the woman recognized the bird.
"The cockatiel," said the woman. "So that's where the hollow was before. Grabbing the cockatiel as a hostage."
Then the bird spoke in a voice like a small child. "I'm so sorry, mister. I was trying to call for you."
"That's okay," said the large man, trying to comfort the bird.
Those leach bombs hadn't been particularly powerful, but that many, that close, against a body as fragile as a bird, it would definitely die from that. The woman was right. The creature was clearly trying to use the bird as a hostage.
"Do as he says," said the woman, who could apparently hear the creature speaking and making its threat explicit. "Don't think for a second he won't blow up the bird. At least the chase will take him away from here so you'll be safe."
"But what about you, new girl?" asked the large man.
"Don't be concerned. I can take care of myself," said the woman. A smirk appeared on her face and she added, "I made a promise. I'll be just fine."
"Good luck," said the man.
"Thanks," said the woman, who then bolted.
More of the frog-like creatures chased her, followed soon thereafter by the larger one. I waited until the large creature had rounded a corner chasing the woman, then I stomped again. Stone spikes impaled the smaller creatures surrounding the birdcage and I quickly retrieved it, holding it to the man.
"The bombs are disarmed," I told him, then turned to follow the woman. "I'm going to help her."
"Right," said the man, running alongside me with the cage in his hand.
We caught up with them near a river, with the woman facing down the creature she'd called a hollow. The large man and I stopped as a young man with orange, spikey hair wearing a suit that same grey color as the woman's appeared and leapt on top of the hollow's head, knocking it face first onto the ground.
"Perfect timing, Ichigo, said the woman, greeting the newcomer.
"You act like you planned it this way," snapped Ichigo. "I thought you promised me you weren't gonna screw this thing all up."
"Well now," said the woman, smirking, "if I didn't know any better, I'd say you actually care about what happens to me."
"Huh, I guess I do," said Ichigo, returning her smirk.
I took advantage of their conversation to retrieve my foeglass from my bag. The enchanted mirror showed images of my enemies. While this situation looked straightforward, I wanted to be sure who's side I was on now that there was a lull in the battle. The only face clear enough to make out was the white faced, green furred creature. Neither the bird, nor any of the humans were reflected. I nodded and dropped the mirror back in my bag just as Ichigo hopped backward from the hollow.
"Ichigo Kurosaki," the young man introduced himself. "Age fifteen. Substitute Soul Reaper. And if you really want to play some serious tag, I think it's me you ought to chase."
The woman pulled a red fingerless glove onto her hand with a serious expression on her face. More of the frog-like creatures popped out of various hiding places. I snapped my fingers and the air around the smaller creatures exploded, killing them and preventing the attempted ambush. The woman slammed her gloved palm into Ichigo's chest.
Ichigo's body collapsed. A second instance of Ichigo had been expelled in a burst of blue light. This second Ichigo was identical to the first except for his clothes and the fact that my normal eye couldn't see him. This Ichigo was dressed in a black, flowing outfit with baggy pleated pants, wide sleeves, and a white belt tied around his waist holding the top closed. Two toed white socks were worn under a pair of woven sandals. A heavy leather belt was strapped to his chest, holding the sheath of a sword as big as Ichigo to his back.
Ichigo wasted no time drawing that impractically large blade and slashing it one handed at the hollow, drawing blood from a shallow cut. I kept watch for the smaller creatures, eliminating them with flame alchemy before they could attack any of us. As Ichigo fought the hollow, the large man who couldn't see him fixed his gaze on the unconscious body and asked what was wrong with him. The woman reassured him Ichigo was fine, and said we should protect the bird.
Ichigo got the upper hand, placing his sword at the creature's neck. He held it there, poised to decapitate the creature and talked. My magic eye didn't come with sound, so I had no way to tell what was being said.
The bird, responding to something that was said, explained what had led us to this point. He had been a small boy named Yuichi. His mother had been murdered. Her killer had died in an accident shortly after and had come back as the monster we were fighting. The hollow had ripped the boy's soul out of his body and stuffed it into a bird. He'd made a deal. If Yuichi could evade him for three months, the hollow would bring his mother back to life.
It had been a lie. The creature couldn't make good on that promise and turned the chase into an opportunity to murder everyone who tried to help Yuichi. The large man had been the most recent one who'd tried to help.
Ichigo wavered as the story unfolded and the hollow was able to get the blade off his neck, but Ichigo recovered quickly and after a brief exchange slashed upward through the white carapace of the creature's face. Green light poured out of the wound Ichigo had opened up and the hollow's body wavered and started to lose cohesion like a defeated familiar or witch. It didn't completely disintegrate.
Instead, the white carapace that proved to have been a mask hiding a human face disintegrated as the green light shot upward forming a column. That column of light resolved into a pair of massive rectangular slaps with a gigantic skeletal torso sticking out of each slap. Their skulls were wrapped in white cloth, and the one arm each skeleton had gripped their slab at the point they were connected.
"Don't worry," said the woman. "They're the gates of hell, but they're opening only for him."
The slabs slid apart and chains holding it closed broke. Red light was visible in the realm they opened to. The woman calmly continued her explanation.
"The zanpakto can only wash away sins a soul has committed as a hollow. Those who commit terrible crimes while alive go to hell."
The hollow screamed in pain, and an enormous arm extended out from the gate and impaled the hollow on a blade. The arm pulled back, taking the hollow with it, and the gates slid closed. Once they slammed shut, cracks spread along them and they shattered, the pieces vanishing and any sign of the portal that had been there a moment ago vanishing with them.
With the battle over, I took a red stone from my pocket and used it to heal Loki's wounds as I regenerated my own.
"Just who are you?" asked the woman.
"My name is Greed," I said. "This is Loki. What's your name?"
"Rukia Kuchki," she replied. "How are you involved in all this?"
"I heard an explosion and came to see if anyone needed help," I said. "Speaking of which, it looks like he hit you with some of those leach bombs. Here." I held a red stone out toward her, but nothing happened. "There's something unusual about your body. I can't heal it."
"It's alright," said Rukia. "My injuries aren't severe." She turned to the bird and examined him while I healed the large man who's name was Yasutora Sado, or Chad for short.
"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do," said Rukia after a long moment. "His chain of fate has been severed. There's no sign of it. Without it, there's no way I can return him to his body."
"Oh no," said Yuichi.
"Don't be sad," said Rukia. "The Soul Society is a wonderful place that's very peaceful. You'll be happy there. You'll never be hungry and you'll never grow old. In fact it's a much better place to live than this world."
Ichigo said something I couldn't hear, but which comforted the boy more than Rukia had managed to. Yuichi turned to Chad and spoke.
"Mr. Sado, thank you for everything you did for me. You carried me everywhere in your arms and kept me safe and you were even brave enough to face a terrible monster and protect me from it."
"Hey, don't even mention it," said Chad.
"I guess it's time for me to go now," said Yuichi. "I don't know what else to say except thank you. All of you."
"Yuichi?" said Chad. "Someday, when I die and pass over too, would it be okay with you if sometimes I carried you around again?"
Yuichi's spirit, now visibly separated from the bird body smiled. Ichigo got to his knees and tapped Yuichi's forehead with the hilt of his sword. A blue sigil glowed where the sword had touched, and Yuichi dissolved into the ground amid more blue light. That light coalesced into a black butterfly that flew off into the sky.
That done, Ichigo sheathed his sword and leaned down over his body. Blue light shone briefly as the black clothed figure vanished and the grey suited young man stood back up.
"Thanks for helping out with that hollow," said Ichigo, shaking my hand.
"What was that power you used to fight it?" asked Rukia. "I don't sense any spirit energy from you."
"It's called alchemy," I said. "It's the science of understanding matter, breaking it down, and rebuilding it as something else."
"I don't think I've ever heard of that," said Rukia.
"I don't think I've ever heard of hollows and soul reapers either," I said. "And that boy's spirit looked different from the ghosts I've seen before. You described the afterlife, the Soul Society, like you've really been there. I have so many questions."
Rukia smiled nervously and took a step back from my eagerness for information. "Here, I think this will answer your questions," she said taking a device that looked like a cigarette lighter out of her pocket and held it up. Chad and I leaned closer to get a better look.
Rukia clicked the button and I saw what looked like a stylized plastic bird head on a spring pop out amid a cloud of white smoke. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground with Loki whining and nudging me with his nose to wake me up. That device had hit me with the equivalent of a stunning spell and an obliviate. Fortunately, I'd been able to protect my memories using occlumency. I verified I hadn't been robbed then pulled my foeglass out.
"Funny, boy," I mused, petting my dog with my free hand. "The foeglass still doesn't think they're our enemies. Doesn't mean we won't give them a piece of our minds about trying to memory wipe us."
Author's comments:
Greed's quest to heal Sloth has brought him to the world of Bleach. With the afterlife accessible to those who haven't yet died and the properties of the soul well documented and studied, it isn't a question of whether the answers he needs are here, but what he'll need to do to get them.
