My first BLEACH fic! Hope you all like it. And even if you don't, pls comment. If my writing style changes halfway, blame the weather. Thanks to Wikipedia for the Kido info.
Title: Freya's Moon
A/N: Takes place between volumes 23-24 of the manga. Slight implied yuri (relationship between leading two characters)
Yakumo climbed up the stairs of a well-known apartment building in the city of Karakura. She stuck her hand in her pocket and took out a slightly tarnished silver key, with the number 609 written on it in marker pen. She inserted it into the lock of the doorknob of her apartment.
She hesitated, glancing briefly behind her. In the skies, she saw a strange, large creature resembling a prehistoric dinosaur. Peculiarly, it had a large mask covering its face. A few meters behind it was familiar-looking orange-haired teenager in black traditional robes, carrying an abnormally large sword in one hand, and supporting a smaller female teenager wearing Karakura High School's uniform on his back. The figure jumped from a rooftop and assaulted the flying beast.
"…another normal day in Karakura-cho…" sighed Yamizaki Yakumo, entering her apartment, closing the door behind her.
Chapter One: Loki and Iduna
Karakura High School. Kurosaki Ichigo's class, about 8:45 a.m.
Yakumo stared at her world history book, with a sense of extreme boredom. She'd read the book already in a few private schools her aunt had sent her to before settling on Karakura. It was not unfathomable, since she'd spent most of her time in those schools reading obscure texts in the libraries.
She was not a socialite. She'd known from an early age that her life was not one of an average Japanese female. Playing in the parks around the country while she was with her traveling uncle had taught her the basics of child life, with an extra rule.
Never talk to people who you could see through.
At the boarding school she'd attended at eight, the other students regularly teased her, talked around her behind her back. When they tried to prank her however, a local spirit would notify her, and she would manage to weasel out of any trap.
"Look at Yamizaki, she's talking to herself again. What a strange girl."
"I wonder what kind of family raised her."
"I hear she lives by herself, financially supported by an aunt and uncle weaving in and out of divorce. It sounds like a soap opera."
The young Yakumo would merely ignore them, those gossiping teachers.
Now however, she was beginning to find her seatmate Rinata hard to ignore.
"Psst… Yamizaki-san… Do you understand any of this?" whispered the girl with short brown hair.
"Yes, Rusegawa-san. If you have any questions, please ask the teacher." replied Yakumo curtly. Knowing her aunt, she would probably be sent to Osaka next year, and she was trying not to form bonds with any people that she might regret later.
"Aww, but the teacher's so intimidating… Could you explain to me at lunch then, Yamizaki-san? History is my worst subject…" cooed Rinata.
Yakumo adjusted her rounded glasses. "In that case, ask Inoue."
"I can't, Chizuru-chan's always stalking her and—"
Yakumo finally gave up.
"All right, all right."
"Really? Yay! Thank you, Yamizaki-san!" said Rinata happily. Her history notebook was wide open on her desk. Yakumo noticed that amidst the neat notes, there were small drawings of fairies.
Abruptly, Kurosaki stood up, excused himself and ran out of the classroom shouting about the bathroom.
"Peculiar." thought Yakumo, turning the page of her textbook. "The men's' room is in the opposite direction. Kurosaki's excuses have been getting worse."
She turned her head in the direction of the quadrangle, where she saw that Kurosaki was now in his black robes and had Kuchiki following him. They ran out of the campus.
Yakumo discreetly took out an old book from her backpack.
"Here's the book that I got from Kisuke-san… Let's see. Shinigami."
Urahara and her aunt had a small affair while Yakumo was about four, and he sent Yakumo presents often. Among her aunt's previous beaus, only Urahara Kisuke had earned her approval and respect. Recently, she had asked him for any archive of spiritual phenomena, and he had given her an old book, which looked like it belonged in a museum.
The book, titled '12th division field research guide 5th edition', was about the same length and width as her textbook, and she concealed it easily. It resembled an encyclopedia in composition.
Before reading, she glanced around. Ishida, one of the few people she relatively knew, was staring out the window uneasily. She'd met Ishida in a chatroom several years ago, and was pleasantly surprised to have him as a classmate. Inoue was reading her textbook, but she didn't seem to be concentrating. Arisawa was also staring out the window blankly, but this was normal for her. Yasutora was listening to the teacher.
"Shinigami. Spiritual beings lacking a chain of fate, capable of Kido, wield Zanpakuto or Soul Slayers. Majority have capability to fight with Soul Society, but few are able to reach true potential with Shikai and Bankai." read Yakumo silently. She wondered briefly what a Shikai and a Bankai were, moments before Kurosaki and Kuchiki reentered the classroom.
"Sheesh, those two. They come back all sweaty as well... I'm surprised that there aren't any rumors circulating about them fooling around during class hours. I suppose Madarame and Abarai took care of that ages ago…"
Ah, the new students. Matsumoto herself was a force to be reckoned with, and her presence alone attracted more perverts than half the girls in Karakura. Strangely, the occurrences of perverse incidents also declined, probably due to her tendency of sending the lechers through the roof, and occasionally hospitalizing them every time they came running. Surprisingly, Chizuru had been spared. Ayasegawa, for some reason, attracted almost as many men as Inoue did. These too were disposed of in the same manner, but only if they tried anything frisky with him (which explains why it was always so drafty in the men's locker room). Madarame and Abarai had taken to following Kurosaki around, leading many to believe they were forming a gang (the bokutou and tattoos didn't help.). These suspicions were put aside however, as soon as Kurosaki began cutting classes with Kuchiki. The only one who seemed remotely normal was the elementary student, who Yakumo didn't know a thing about, except that he'd put many a bully in the same place as the perverts who chased Matsumoto and Ayasegawa.
Yakumo shut the book. She looked at Kurosaki, noticing what looked like a keychain hanging from his belt. Strangely, according to Kurosaki, not everyone could see it.
"Ne, Yamizaki-san, did you hear about the massacre last Saturday? Tatsuki-san seemed to be a survivor…" said Rinata.
Yakumo nodded, making plans for after school in her mind.
Urahara Shoten, 4:30 p.m.
"Is Kisuke-san in?" asked Yakumo, sticking her head through the door.
A beautiful woman with coffee-colored skin and long hair answered her.
"Kisuke's in the back room. He'll be with you in a few minutes." said Yoruichi.
Yakumo began browsing the magazine section, just as Abarai, Matsumoto and the other 'new students' came into the shop. Yoruichi disappeared into the residential area of the shop momentarily.
"Ah! Shinigami-saan!" said Urahara, waltzing out of the back room holding what looked like Pez candy dispensers.
"Shut up Urahara and give us the Soul Candy." said the elementary school student.
"Ah, ah, is that how you speak to your elders, 10th captain?" cooed Urahara, distributing the candies.
Yakumo was already searching the 12th division book for a reference.
"Soul candy. Any mortal who eats a soul candy will have his/her spirit repelled from the body, and a mod soul will inhabit the body for a while. See mod soul, gigai."
"Soul…candy?" thought Yakumo.
"Kisuke!! Where's that old field guide from the 12th division that you brought back to earth?" yelled Yoruichi from the second floor.
"Field guide?" said Matsumoto. "We've got about the 13th edition already… Looks like a hundred years brings about a lot of changes."
"A hundred years?!?!" Yakumo couldn't believe her ears.
"All I brought was the fifth… It was published around the same time as the second series of soul candy came out." said Urahara. "It's near Jinta's Spirit Hunter comic books!"
There were scuffling noises from upstairs.
"Nope! No trace." shouted Yoruichi.
"Strange. Are the comics complete?" called Urahara.
"Yes."
"Oopsie."
"Whaddya mean, 'oopsie'?!" shouted Ikkaku. "This could have serious repercussions!!"
"It seems I accidentally gave away the 12th division encyclopedia away to my almost-stepdaughter…" Urahara chuckled.
Toshirou glared at him. "Urahara…"
"Um, I have it here…" said Yakumo, coming out from behind the magazine section. "Uh… Hitsugaya…taicho?"
"Oh shit. She knows." said Renji.
"Ah, Yakumo-chan! Yakumo, now that you probably know… This is Hitsugaya Toshirou, current 10th division captain, Matsumoto Rangiku, 10th division vice-captain, Abarai Renji, 6th division vice-captain, Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika, 3rd and 5th respectively from 11th division." smiled Urahara. He put his arm around her.
Yakumo relaxed slightly.
"Ah! Yamizaki-san from class!" said Matsumoto. "Nice to meet you!" She smiled.
Ikkaku glared at her. "If word gets out about this I'd oughta…"
"Madarame-san, the average human being living in these times regard seeing as believing… So if they can't see you, they wouldn't believe me if I told you." said Yakumo cautiously.
Yumichika, who had been silent up until this point, spoke up. "Ano, Yakumo-san, what led you to ask Urahara-san about the encyclopedia?"
Yakumo gulped.
"Well….. I was seeing things… Like Kurosaki-san and Kuchiki-san running around town. You see, I moved here in the middle of summer, and I'd been seeing ghosts and strange silhouettes for some time, but I started seeing monsters a few weeks before school started and began wondering about it." explained the girl. "Kisuke-san seemed to be a good approach since I'd seen him talking with Kuchiki-san…"
Matsumoto wasn't listening.
"Almost-stepdaughter, you say? How cute! Do you live with your mother??" she asked.
"No. I live alone. Kisuke-san courted my aunt a while back, and I happened to be under her care." said Yakumo. "My parents died a long time ago."
"Yakumo-chan, could I talk to you about that….?" said Urahara suddenly.
At the same time, Matsumoto's cell phone beeped.
"Hollow!!" she said, and she popped a candy from the Pez dispenser.
What happened next was something Yakumo wouldn't forget. A second Matsumoto in black robes seemed to tear itself out of her body, which collapsed limply on the floor of the shop. Seconds later, the body stood up, brushing some dirt off her school skirt. The Shinigami grabbed hold of Toshirou, who'd undergone a similar process, and ran out of the store.
"There they go. Wanna go watch, Yakumo-chan?" said Urahara, all smiles.
He immediately ushered her out of the store, calling for Tessai.
"If she got here midsummer, then she's had no contact with Kurosaki in her life until recently." said Renji. "She might have enough spiritual power to…"
"Don't even think about it, Renji." said Yumichika. "I admit it MAY be possible, but running into a fellow like Kurosaki-dono is a one in a billion chance. There's a less than 1 percent chance that she may have the capabilities."
"Yeah, but she's got the reiatsu. I couldn't sense her in school since that damn Kurosaki's was masking every reiatsu around for miles, and it was harder to tell in here with Yoruichi-san and Urahara." said Ikkaku. "Looks like we're gonna have to watch and wait…"
Apartment 609, 6:30 p.m.
Yakumo threw herself on the green sofa in her living room. It had been a hectic afternoon. Urahara immediately had Toshirou and Matsumoto demonstrate some Kido to her after the hollow battle and she'd managed to learn a few weak spells. After returning to Urahara Shoten, the Shinigami went to Kurosaki's house and Yoruichi shooed her away to give Urahara a good scolding for letting classified info get into unauthorized hands, etc.
She pressed the button on her phone answering machine.
"Yamizaki-san, thanks for paying the rent earlier than usual this month. It's nice to know you've got a part-time job and that you're not relying completely on your aunt for funds… Anyway, my son wants to invite you to dinner and-" Yakumo instantly hit the delete button. The landlord's son was one of Karakura's least popular people and even a semi-introvert like her didn't want to associate with him.
"Yakumo-chaan! It's your aunt Paris! Is Kisuke taking good care of you? I'm touring Korea right now, and I'm sending you your allowance via bank account…" Yakumo wrote down the contact number of her aunt's hotel and the new password for the bank account. Her aunt had changed her name to Paris shortly after she was born. Yakumo thought it was a stupid name. She let the answering machine ramble on about Korea for a minute before she hit the delete button.
"YAMIZAKI-SAAAA-" Yakumo didn't think twice. She deleted it. "Damn Keigo." she muttered.
"Ano, Yamizaki –san? My relatives are going abroad for a while and I was wondering if I could stay at your place for a while… This is Rinata by the way. Oh, and thanks for the history lesson earlier! It really helped! Yamizaki-san, can I start calling you Yakumo soon? I'll be over at your house by about seven… I'm sorry if it was on such short notice…"
Yakumo stopped. A faint smile could be seen on her face. "Stop apologizing…"
That smile vanished as a hollow appeared several meters from her apartment window.
Kurosaki residence
"It's a hollow!!" said Rukia, bursting through the door to Ichigo's room.
"I know!" shouted Ichigo. He grabbed his Shinigami license and jumped out the window. "Where is it?!"
"In an apartment building!"
"DAMN!" Ichigo grabbed her and began sprinting towards central Karakura.
Outside Yakumo's Apartment
The hollow screamed at Yakumo as she ran up the apartment building stairs. She was sweating a cold sweat.
"That's right… Hollows normally go after people with high spiritual pressure… Which means me… I'm gonna have to distract it until a Shinigami gets here…"
Yakumo soon found herself on the rooftop facing the hollow. She began to concentrate her energy to her palm.
"Kido number 9…" Yakumo muttered the incantation. "Geki! Sealing spell!"
Before the hollow could attack her, a blast of red light assaulted it, binding its arms and legs.
A few buildings away, Urahara, Yoruichi and Toshiro watched Yakumo fight the hollow.
"I sent Rangiku to delay Kurosaki and Rukia." said Toshirou. "Are you completely sure about this? Her aunt DID leave her under your watch…"
"I'm sure." said Urahara. "Since I first met Yakumo I knew that her soul's spiritual pressure had a good chance of rivaling a vice captain's even without much training. She's a bit like Ururu in that way. Who knows how much she could grow, now that she's been in contact with Kurosaki-kun? I mean, she can't sense spiritual pressure like Zaraki-san…"
"Darn, what could be taking them so long?!" thought Yakumo, as the hollow fired projectiles at her (a la Dragonball's Kamehame Ha). She got hit a few times, and started bleeding profusely. Suddenly, she sensed something.
"What's that noise on the roof?"
"Rinata…! Shit!! I've got to finish this! I haven't mastered this but….!"
"Ye Lord, Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man, Inferno and pandemonium, The sea barrier surges, March on to the south!" Yakumo shouted the incantation. "Shakkaho! Fireball cannon!"
A red fireball the size of a 10-wheeler truck tire materialized in her palms and she blasted it at the hollow's head, only several meters away from her. It hit the hollow directly.
The hollow exploded, leaving a pale ghost where a monster once stood.
Yakumo panted. The Shakkaho had taken a lot out of her, more than she'd expected.
Urahara stared. "That had more effect that I thought it would."
"Did you master it with her?" asked Yoruichi.
"No. The last time she executed this, all she managed to do was singe my hat." replied Urahara.
Toshirou was surprised as well. "Hinamori's one of the best Kido users in Soul Society, and she hasn't killed a hollow with just a weak spell. Maybe it's due to her unusual spiritual pressure?"
"I think you'd better perform Konso on that spirit and patch her up." said Yoruichi.
"Good idea…"
Minutes later…
"Ah! Yamizaki-san!!" Rinata ran towards the crouched figure on the roof. "You're hurt…"
Yakumo's wounds had been healed expertly by Urahara. He left a few bruises behind, though.
"Eheh.. Fell over." said Yakumo, thinking of an excuse. "I was collecting the laundry."
"Yamizaki-san, let me help you… That looks like a nasty fall, you can hardly stand-"
"Yakumo." said the other girl suddenly.
"…what?"
"Yakumo. Call me Yakumo." she smiled weakly.
Rinata's eyes grew wide. She nodded. "Right…. Yakumo."
Urahara and Toshiro began heading back, but Yoruichi hesitated. She looked at the two teenagers.
"It's not Kurosaki you're getting the power from, is it, Yakumo-kun…" Yoruichi smiled. They reminded her of herself and Soifon when they were a bit younger (time flies not in Soul Society..). "I'll keep watching you for a while longer."
end of chapter one