Chapter I:

Dazed and Confused

I'm dead.

I'm … dead.

It sure is weird thinking about it, though I think it's weirder that I can still think in this apparently lifeless state of mine.

Great, now I'm contradicting my own thoughts.

But I'm dead.

…

If I'm dead then I sure as hell don't feel like a corpse soon to rot inside a coffin—or a pile of ash if my relatives decide that it's a good idea to cremate me and put me on an urn or wherever it is they wish to keep my burned remains.

… I shouldn't keep thinking about that. It sure is morbid.

Going back to topic, I'm pretty sure that my life's already ended.

I still remember how a whole freaking floor fell on top of my head, probably spilling it open like an egg but instead of yellow, the gooey stuff that came out was red. I remembered lingering around after that, though I find it quite disappointing that I couldn't see my body under all of the debris. From what I had gathered, an earthquake with a pretty high magnitude wrecked our whole city, claiming lots of lives and handicapping or injuring the ones left.

It was a natural phenomenon, something that the planet we humans called home does quite often.

No one's at fault.

As soon as I thought of that, I felt this … feeling. It's really … hard to describe but if I were to compare it, I would compare it back to the time when I was but a child going to bed while my dear mother sings one of those lullabies that I loved very much. The differences this time were that I'm quite sure I died as a young man in nineteen, not a child of three, and that I won't be sleeping, though I guess it's quite close to it.

The next time I came to, I find a warm body snuggled up next to me. It took a few moments before the questions came; shouldn't I be dead? Why am I snuggling?!

Then my mind got a bit clearer and I noticed a couple of things that I should have noticed earlier.

One, me and the so-far unnamed snuggle buddy of mine are lying on the side of a dirt road.

Two, I'm wearing some sort of japanese attire—a yukata? Yes, I guess it's a yukata.

Three, I think I'm back to being a pipsqueak of twelve, judging by my body size.

Four, this warm snuggle body of mine was actually of the female kind, a year older than me I guess and seemed very familiar.

Before I could think further about this strange situation I find myself in or even before I could scuttle away from the woman, she woke up, looking as unsure and as disoriented as I felt.

She's dressed like I am, hair dishevelled from lying on the road, and looking at me with curious blue eyes.

"W-Who are you?" she asked, obviously nervous.

"I could ask you that, too" was my reply.

"Umm … okay" She squirmed for a bit, looking unsure, before staring back at me in the eyes. "Kotetsu. Isane Kotetsu"

I blink. Why does that name sound so familiar?

"What's yours?"

"Orochi Kotetsu"

Ah. That's why.

My older sister only flashed her beautiful smile in reply.

A/N

Umm ... so greetings to the Bleach fandom! This is my first attempt at fanfiction in manga/anime and I would really love it if you lovely men and women could write a review or two on my fic!

Thanks! :D