Cards of the Soul
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Hello everyone. My name is Hiromaru413, and I have decided to take a short break from beta-ing one of my friend's fanfictions and start writing one of my own. This story has been a work-in-progress in my imagination, and in the last week, it has been nagging me to actually write it. Thus, I have finally transferred the chicken-scratch manuscript to a neat, legible, typed-out work.
Even though this is my first work, I am excited about where this is gonna be going, especially since this is a Bleach–Yu-Gi-Oh! hybrid. I know that the prologue is long, and in truth, every chapter has the potential to be long. However, I feel that this is sufficient enough to give you, the readers, an insight as to what is to come, mainly a nice introduction to the main character, as well as another major character that is to be revealed at a later time.
I want to extend my thanks to Silver-Kitsune-Silvera for being my beta. I have been helping her with her latest fanfiction, Nature of Devotion (YGO 5D's FF), and now, she is helping me get my start here.
I do not own Bleach or YGO. I do, however, own any characters that you do not recognize (to be named later, I don't want to spoil you all ).
And now, without further adieu, here is my first fanfiction! Enjoy!
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Prologue: The Birth of a Hero
It was a rather quiet night in the city of Chesapeake; the street lights were dimmed, the full moon shone full of radiance in the clear night sky. This was the perfect night to catch some sleep, or even an overnight stroll in the streets.
However, a hollow's roar broke this magnificent, tranquil scene. Appearing in an alley, twice the size of a normal man with bone-white claws and a mask that resembled the face of a gargoyle, the fallen soul began to advance on what appeared to be the silhouette of a soul reaper, who was standing at the entrance into the alley. In response, the warrior muttered his zanpakutou's release chant as he drew his sword.
"Fuse your powers with me, Hiromaru, and set ablaze, Flame Wingman!"
The katana disappeared, and its wielder turned into someone that had a dragon head in the place of his right hand and a pure white wing that spread to his left side from his back. The hollow, out of astonishment, attempted to skewer this mysterious shinigami with his claws before he could make a move. This, however, was in vain, for the shinigami had already moved to a position between the monster's arms and its body, with the dragon's head blazing with a fierce fire in its mouth. The light the flame gave off revealed the soul reaper's new form; the red dragon head, green skin, and an oddly shaped head with no mouth and piercing red eyes. And, without even breaking a sweat, this bizarre-looking man jumped well above the hollow's head and unleashed a powerful blast of fire. Engulfed in the searing flames, the hollow eventually vanished, defeated.
Having accomplished his duty, the victorious shinigami landed on the ground. He began to return to his normal form, with his zanpakutou in his right hand. The long, mighty blade reflected the bright moonlight, revealing a hilt adorned with crossing blue and orange ribbons and no guard, as well as the sheath at his waist endowed with orange stripes that ran along the edges over a blue background. While sheathing his sword, he felt another soul reaper coming towards his location. 'Must be here to get that hollow I just killed,' the shady warrior thought, 'He'll find nothing here, not even a trace of me.'
When the incoming soul reaper arrived, there was a human walking away from the scene who emitted no spiritual pressure whatsoever. After shrugging, he left just as quickly as he came, believing that the human wouldn't see him to begin with. While leaving, he said in disappointment, "Must have been a fluke. The Research Bureau's really slipping these days."
Unbeknownst to him, the shinigami that killed the hollow in question was the human that was seen walking away. He was, in fact, occupying his gigai, trying to keep a low profile in the world of the living. "Even if I said anything to my comrade, he wouldn't have believed me," the warrior said out loud to himself, "I'm dead to the Soul Society and the 13 Court Guard Squads. They never even noticed my 'death' to begin with…on that day…about two years ago…"
His mind began to backtrack to that time when his squad, squad 11, held a training exercise in the human world, in Chesapeake. He was a new member of the squad, having only been a part of it for about a week in Soul Society time. During a drill, he remembered seeing a human biting the neck of another down below in an alley. Shortly after catching sight of the inhumane action, the attacker let go of his victim, left him for dead, and ran away from the scene as he approached the man to stop him. This struck the recruit as weird, for the attacker seemed to have noticed him, and soul reapers cannot be seen by humans.
The chase continued through the city until the attacker was trapped between a dead-end alleyway and the shinigami. Being a new recruit, the shinigami, with shaky arms, drew the standard issue zanpakutou that he was given upon his entrance into his squad. In response, the perpetrator of the earlier crime immediately jumped towards the nervous warrior, intent on claiming another life before the night was over. However, as the human came and bit into the right side of his victim's neck, the zanpakutou pierced his heart, put into that position instinctually by the defender. Since his hands were also in that position, the soul reaper pushed off his attacker, and performed a spin slash that left a large gash on the human's chest, killing him, but not without gushing out his life-blood onto the soul reaper. As the victorious shinigami examined the aftermath, he realized that not only did the blood get on the bite wound, but also on some large cuts that the attacker left on his right arm as he was pushed away. The blood seemed to even be seeping into the wounds themselves!
Shortly after he saw this, the soul reaper began to feel very weak, almost to the point of fainting. As he was walking out of the alley, he felt that his blood and that of the deranged human were fusing together. Experiencing huge surges of pain throughout his body, the shinigami collapsed, hitting a trash can on the street corner. Some of the blood, however, got onto some cards that fell out onto the ground from the trash can in front of the now fallen warrior. One of the face-up cards amongst them was named "Elemental Hero – Flame Wingman." He then saw all of the cards with blood on them and his zanpakutou glow with a blue light. When the light faded, the blood on the cards had disappeared, and the sword had took on its new form. Before the fallen shinigami lost consciousness, he saw a girl with long, red hair run up to him, kneel down next to him, and look into his brown eyes with ones of pretty blue sapphire.
Everything after that moment was lost to the blackness of his fainting at that moment, and the soul reaper returned to the present day. As he continued to walk towards his car in a nearby parking lot, he said aloud to himself:
"I still don't know who or what my attacker was, or how this even happened to me, but I must give thanks to him. Because he attacked me, I have received powers and abilities that transcend even Squad 12's rationale or comprehension. I had to adopt an English name in order to blend into the human world, for I know that I will not be allowed or accepted back into the Soul Society because I won't be recognized."
"Despite this more hollows will come, but the soul reapers of Soul Society will never get to them before me. It's not an opinion, it's a fact. My name is Eli, and my powers will keep this city safe!"
As he finished his monologue, a winged figure appeared on the arm of the streetlight that Eli just walked under. Each of the two wings was different, and the outline of what appeared to be Flame Wingman's right arm could be seen in the silhouette cast by the bright moonlight.
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Oh boy, I'm excited about where this is gonna go! I'll do my best to update this when possible. Summer's almost here, so I'll have a little more free time to make up new chapters. I do like reviews, however, so please say something about this. It'll help give me inspiration to keep writing. Also, more original characters are coming, including at least 4 additional soul reapers with pretty cool powers, as well as characters from Bleach that we all know and love!
Again, I want to thank Silver-Kitsune-Silver for being my beta and my FF mentor. If you would, please check out her own YGO 5D's fanfiction, Nature of Devotion, as well. It would be wonderful if you could leave a review there, for they also help give her inspiration to write.
Thanks for reading the prologue. I hope to see you all soon when the story itself gets underway within the next two weeks! And now, good night everyone!
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