Track 1: Ordinary Life Sucks!
In the dead of night a lone silhouette drifted aimlessly through the back alleys towards the large double doors, long since sealed away like the tomb of an ancient king. He pressed his hand against the cold steel and pushed. Despite being closed, the door had not been locked it seemed and so the portal opened wide for the young man to enter.
He stepped into the darkness beyond and smiled, struck by memories of a glorious past.
This was where it all began.
An underground club nestled in the heart of Karakura, the haven for heavy metal back in the day. It was where a legend was born, where Gods took their first steps towards the heavens. It was the place where the magic happened.
But those days were long gone.
Two years since the horrors of Hades and the miraculous defeat of Stan, the greatest evil the world had ever known, the world had changed. Just as metal was ascending into the world at large, to spread its wondrous infectious poison throughout the masses...Just as metal reached the precipice of untold glory and it's long over-due recognition...
Everything changed...
With the black-clad legions ready for war, they turned to their new Gods and awaited leadership in the battle to come, but the newly crowned Gods of Metal had gone into hiding and vanished from the public eye. With no-one to lead them the metal militia suffered and the glory diminished into a pale reflection of its former self. Protests and governmental interference brought metal back down into the underground and damaged the industry seemingly beyond repair.
The club where the journey all began was forced to close down.
Ichigo brushed a hand over the bar counter, tracing a long trail through the dust-covered bench. The walls once lined with the finest drinks was now empty, the hot waitresses (and Ichigo's first ever groupies) were now employed elsewhere and the halls once resounding with musical mayhem had now become uncomfortably quiet.
The stage loomed ahead of him, the familiar altar where he had once sworn to die for metal was now simply rotting away. It brought a sad smile to his face and forced the young man to turn away. As he swept his gaze across the ghostly halls he spotted the infamous barrier fence, his old foe. Even after so long, the blood he shed against it remained ever-present as the club owners had refused to clean it.
With a sigh, Ichigo sank into his familiar old corner booth and laid his head upon the table, closing his eyes and basking in fond memories of a time that felt so very long ago.
Renji let out a mighty battle cry as he brought his great sword crashing down upon the demon's bone-white skull. It howled in rage and fear as its body disintegrated into ashes to be dispersed by the chilled winds. He heaved and sighed whilst returning the weapon to its scabbard and promptly returned to his quarters. After washing the blood from his hands he staggered into his chamber and sat down at the fading old desk weighed down with endless piles of papers.
He stared at the piles distastefully and groaned.
Day in, day out, every single day...The endless tedium of hollow hunting and paper-work until he fell asleep, only to wake up and repeat the cycle. Renji hated his job. He hated it more than anything, desperately wishing for a holiday. But even so, what was the point? It's not like he had anything to do. Everyone had moved on from Soul Reaper. There was no more use for vacation days, other than to store them up until the day in which hopefully the others would come to their senses.
But that was not very likely...
In the years since Soul Reaper had split up everyone had gone their separate ways, pursuing their own goals and working towards new dreams. All the while Renji simply toiled away as usual like a loyal shinigami should. He had no other dreams, no other goals in life. Everything he ever wanted was found in the band. After coming so close to finding that which he had been searching decades for, to have it so suddenly taken away Renji had realised how dull his life really was.
He accepted their decision though in the back of his mind he resented them for giving up so easily. How could they abandon the stage after all they had been through. Surely the others had felt something change inside them after defeating Stan.
They had a responsibility to fly the flag of metal and lead their fans into a new era and yet Soul Reaper simply backed down from their duty and split up, each member flying off into the distance like the fragments of some kind of ancient artifact in an anime.
But this was the reality Renji had been forced to face, albeit reluctantly.
But in the back of his mind, Renji always dreamed of the day when Soul Reaper would reunite and return to the stage...Alas, he dreamed, though dreams they remained...
Day in, day out...
"Hey ladies! Who wants to (Censored) my (Censored) with a (Censored) and (Censored) it with a (Especially censored)?" declared the boastful blue-haired bass player of Soul Reaper, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques. With bottles of drink in each hand, the arms of which were both wrapped around beautiful women, Renji reclined in a hot tub at the house of someone he didn't even know with more people he had never even met. But they loved him anyway!
After losing his gig with the band Grimmjow simply lived out the other half of the rock star life-style, going to clubs and parties and getting shit-faced with strangers every night. He woke up in a different house every morning, though always accompanied by the same hangover, wrapped in the sheets with someone else (Not always female, much to his shock. Hell sometimes they weren't even human!) His memories of anything between the Hades incident and the present were all muddled and warped, blurred behind the booze, but he was content that way...
He didn't want to remember the crushing loneliness felt after everyone went away. He didn't want to be reminded that all the women he slept with were simply drunk off their asses and couldn't care less whether he was a rock star or not, or even if it was true that he was a God of Metal. He didn't want to relive the moment he let all the fans down and abandoned them.
Grimmjow didn't want to remember anything, except the times he spent with the band on the road. Those were the good times. He just wanted everything to return back to normal, but before that, he really needed to pee.
Meanwhile at the Budokan...
"I love you, I love you, I love you forever!" she sang, waving with animated fervour at the gigantic crowd which waved back with glow-sticks clenched tightly in their sweaty hands.
"Whoo!"
"Yeah!"
"We love you Rukia-chan!"
"Ha ha ha ha, thank you everyone, you're all so sweet!" Rukia danced about on-stage amidst a sea of flashing lights and roaring speakers. It wasn't the same as the packed little clubs and bars she used to play for but she didn't mind this either. Sure it was far from her old world, but she didn't care at all. This was fun, this was rewarding in her eyes.
It was safe...
Rukia had decided for herself to quit Soul Reaper after the events that transpired in Hades. The horrors had been too much for her to bear and fearing not only for her own safety, but for those of her closest friends, her band mates, she had chosen to stray from the path she had travelled so far. Despite giving up metal, Rukia hadn't given up on music altogether and after talks with therapists it was deemed suitable for Rukia to rehabilitate herself through the medium with which she had so fervently expressed herself.
It took only a few months for her to become recognised and only a couple of months more before she had become an idol. She knew Ichigo had never supported the venture and that telling him she had gone off to become a pop idol would only lead to an argument and so she had hidden the truth from him and simply told her husband that she was going on a business trip.
That was over a year ago.
Ichigo would have found out by now, but Rukia was too afraid to go back, afraid that he wouldn't even want to look at her after forsaking metal for the idol life. And so Rukia remained on the road, touring alone, performing at festivals and arenas across Japan.
Her self-prescribed therapy had worked, leaving only the hesitation at returning to her old world. She knew it was what Ichigo would have preferred, but she had burned that bridge when she chose to become an idol. As much as it would have pained the others to hear it, she preferred this to the troubling, painful path of metal.
She was happy with her life now, she just wished for Ichigo to be by her side...
"Aaarrgh!"
A scream billowed out from the crowd, different from the rest in that it was not of joy but of agony. Suddenly more cries rang out amidst the crowd and the music screeched to a halt. Rukia froze mid-step and stared out at the slowly spreading black mass near the back of the crowd.
What the Hell?
"Traitor!"
"Witch!"
"How dare you leave us for this crap!"
"You worthless fucking sell-out!"
More irate roars rang out through the otherwise deathly silence around them. The mob of furious metalheads waded through the crowd which parted like the red sea until they reached the front row. There were too many to simply ask security to escort them out, a proverbial army of sorts.
"W-What are you doing here?! Leave me alone!" Rukia cried, her voice cracking for all to hear.
"Yeah!" her fans backed her up, "Leave Rukia-chan alone!"
The metalheads spat back at the rest of the crowd and turned once again to their former God. "You betrayed us...And for for this?! You were a fucking God to us and you threw it all away for such childish bullshit? Why?!"
Rukia shifted unnerved glances between her old fans and her new fans. Her knees were quivering and the microphone she had been holding slipped out of her clammy hands to smash against the floor leaving a resounding hiss of feedback which sent the audience reeling.
Rukia fell to her knees and sobbed as all Hell broke loose in the crowd. Her rage-filled former fans were eager to rush up on stage and confront their former leader but the rest of the crowd ran to her aid and brought upon themselves an all-out brawl.
"Why?" Rukia cried, "I wanted to escape from the violence...Why are you doing this? Why must misfortune and bloodshed follow me everywhere I go?"
No-one answered.
In a sleazy hotel bar somewhere in Europe a man sat near the tiny TV mounted on the wall, straining to hear against the noise around him. He stroked his thin goatee and stared hard at the faces appearing on-screen.
A reporter stood outside the Budokan where a convoy of emergency vehicles parked around him forming a vehicular Berlin wall (Just ignore the fact that it's in Japan and not Berlin ok!) The great arena was in flames and under siege by riot police. The chorus of screams challenged the reporter's words which he had no choice but to yell into the camera.
#Yes, it seems the rioters sneaked through after attacking the staff at the ticket gate. They proceeded on to assault the crowd and even tried to abduct the rising new idol star, Rukia Kuchiki. Thankfully she was escorted to safety before their plan could succeed, but currently riot police are on the scene trying to control the chaos within. As you can see there are fires raging across the arena but the medics and fire-fighters have to wait until the fighting inside has calmed down enough to enter. The police have been battling for some time now and it seems the brawl is still very much under way.#
"Hmm." The man glared at the photo of the all too familiar face which flashed up on the screen. "So, they gain power and this is what they do with it? Pathetic!"
Rising from his seat the man approached the bar, various empty glasses in hand and addressed the barman, "Excuse me, put it all on my tab."
"Sure, what's your name?"
After a dramatic pause the man leaned forward and grinned a devilish grin, "Oh, you can call me Stan."
That's right, Bleached Metal is backl There will be sex drugs and rock and roll and plenty more awkward moments with Ichigo. It's gonna be a crazy ride so strap your self in! Oh and how about a review while you're at it?