Welcome to the first chapter of The Shinigami's Blade! (I'm working on the title…so, don't get too attached.)
This is my first real attempt to write something that doesn't really revolve around one of the main characters of Bleach, so right now I warn you that this story DOES contain another character (just one – and I promise it's an actual legit character from another manga! Like a crossover…but not really, since it's such an unknown manga that I don't think this site will ever have it to write about…such a shame…), but I think that if you read on, you'll find that this story is a good one.
So, without further introduction –I present the first chapter!
I do not own Bleach.
Death and the Society Arc
Let the sword of Fate fall and wound Reality
Begin Chapter One:
I certainly do watch things more carefully. I might be a little paranoid now, actually...It's amazing how different your life may be, with the absence of abnormality.
It cuts me fresh every time I think of it...To be normal, to be an average girl whose only concerns are her figure and boys...To come to this, after having it never cross my mind...it cuts deep...deeper than I would have guessed. Or wanted, I should say.
The pain will come every once in a while, I find myself shrouded by depression. I can't face people while I'm like that, the shame hurt more than the burning pain in my soul. I couldn't face every day with a smile, and it took all of my will to see the faces of those I used to see every day, but now the very sight of them reminds me that there is nothing more.
For me, that is.
That's how I've felt for years now, ever since I turned seventeen, three years ago.
Seventeen long, agonizing years the finally ended that night; the night that I was able to die, in that fiery wreck. It was also, coincidentally, the last time that I ever turned seventeen. Though - I didn't know that back then. I just thought that I was going crazy; I was just dreaming up all that nonsense of swords and battle, and of traitors and demons. But, after that night, I learned that there are some things that no one can see coming. Some thing that would catch even the most cautious off guard. I had had no damn hope that night.
The night I met her – the one person who managed to save me, even when I thought I was the savior; even when I thought that I wasn't in need of saving, she still managed to prove me wrong, starting on that one night.
That Shinigami, with the violet eyes and the haunting white blade…
Kuchiki Rukia.
She stepped into my life, brandishing that blade, and the moment it touched me, I was doomed to always be in awe of it - to live in awe of those magical weapons; those blades of the Shinigami.
Well, this was just fantastic. Absolutely, fan-fucking-tastic.
Just what I needed, after the robbery, after breaking my arm and falling down those stairs, this is just the perfect way to end it. I had never given much thought to dying, just figuring that it would be as horrific as possible, considering my bad luck.
But this?
Just a little over-board, don't ya think? I contemplated this while staring into the bright flames that licked the twisted metal of my once whole car, which was now literally a metal fiery death trap. Without turning my head, which I doubt I could with my back being snapped in half and all, I could see the terrified faces of the people watching.
HA! Watching! All I wanted to do at that moment was stand up and shout "Hello? I'm DYING here? Get off of your lazy ass' and HELP ME!"
But, again, not possible, the hotter-than-fire pain coursing through my body confirmed my fears.
I was broken. Not just one bone, no, that would have been too nice, all of me was broken. From my fingers to my toes, every bone, muscle, cartilage, hell even fat, all broken. Way, way beyond repair.
So...this was what it was like to die, well how wonderful. This wasn't that bad, I guess. Just a ripping pain that pulsed with every beat of my heart...And the crushing pressure on my lungs whenever I breathed, clearly stating that I had at least three broken ribs. And the numbness in my legs, a sign that my back was broken. So, basically I was going to die, no way around that. And now, since I was sure that my skin was burned beyond repair, I didn't think I wanted to be saved. There would be too much pain in that...and frankly, life had been too full of pain for me already.
Years of agonizing, boring, day after day life was just too much. And unfair. I have to say that I am the current record holder for bad luck. Everywhere I go; it follows, and also infects the people around me. So, for their sake, I resigned to stay away from the rest of the population, in confinement of my home. Now, maybe I could finally do some good for the rest of the population of earth. With me dead, a large amount of the bad luck circulating around the world would disappear with me.
At least I would do something right before I die...well, not before but...when I die I guess...
Which couldn't be that far off from this second...
That brought me back to the terrible pain that was consuming my body. You know Twilight? That book about vampires? Well, this pain had to of been right up there with being changed into a vampire...it felt like it anyway. A terrible burning pain running through my veins...and my heart...I could feel every agonizing pump my heart made, every little movement it did to try and keep me alive.
But, I wasn't becoming a vampire. Too bad, right? That would be wicked awesome...have that super-duper strength, and the only weakness being fire...huh, that's almost ironic...At least, I didn't think that I was becoming a vampire...did anyone really pale bite me in the last few minutes? That could explain why I suddenly lost control of my car... Hmmmm...Nope, no, just me...being burned alive...after flipping my car over the side-railing...into a chemical plant...which had those big gasoline trucks parked outside...
Magnet for bad luck, right here ladies and gentlemen...
I sighed to myself, a motion that sent another wave of pain up my chest...this time I couldn't help but cry out, it HURT, dammit! I tried to wait patiently while the strangled feeling passed...great. Now it felt like I was losing circulation to my hands...when the hell was this was goona end? No, really, what was the point of me being tortured?
Too bad, though, today could have been a good day...
Suddenly, everything went white, and I felt myself leave that world with one final thought: 'It's about time.'
It wasn't the scenery that surprised me.
No, not really. It was the fact that there was still scenery.
Shouldn't I be dead? I sat still for a few moments, staring blankly at the car burning at the bottom of the hill. From where I was sitting I could still see the body- my body- trapped on the inside.
Oooh, so that was how it worked. We just get forced from our bodies when we die? Just...popped out? Though I was sitting in a few feet of snow, I couldn't really feel the cold. Kind of...I kind of could feel it when I concentrated really hard on it, but other than there was just an absence of feeling. I sat there for a few more moments, just in awe of the situation before I felt an odd feeling fall into the pit of my stomach.
Now what the hell was I supposed to do?
I looked around, people still gathered, watching as I was- my body- was pulled from the wreckage. None of them could see me, obviously, but my question was more about me than them.
Screw them. They weren't dead.
"My, my. Aren't you a tasty treat?"
Pain entered my world, and I suddenly could feel again. I felt a hot, blinding pain in my side, and wet blood run down my ribs. Somehow, the pain that I had experienced in the car crash seemed distant...blurry, like a fading memory, though it only happened less than five minutes ago. I crawled into my knees, and faced the direction the attack had come from.
I think I just shit myself.
"What the hell?" I sputtered, horrified at the...at the demon that stood before me. Its skin was black, and it was wearing a freaky white mask, with gold and silver decorations on it.
If it were human, I would have laughed and walked away, commenting on how stupid his Halloween costume was. But, this thing was definitely not human. It was freakin huge. Bigger than the fire truck that was stationed to its left; bigger than the refinery that stood a hundred feet from its brawny legs.
Oh no...not legs...tree trucks disguised at legs. That's what they had to be, redwood tree trunks, like the ones from Vancouver that peaked at around 150 meters high. They were not legs.
"You're quite an odd human...You have energy, almost like a Shinigami's...but not quite like it. I smell it inside you. But you can't run, and I will enjoy eating you're-"
That was when things started to fade in and out of reality.
I can't remember if I screamed. I can't remember if I ran; or attempted to run. I had no idea if it was killed by the girl who saved me, because the next thing I knew, I was cradled to the chest of a stranger. I was feeling faint. My head was light and everything was spinning...before I blacked out from the lack of oxygen- wait. No, that was impossible. I was dead, I didn't need oxygen. What was happening to me? I couldn't breath...something in my chest was being weighed down. I fought against it, even as the woman put me down, and told me in a calm voice to stay put, I fought against my weak body, and stood up to face her.
"Who are you?" I croaked out, feeling sick to my stomach.
She was blurry, but I saw her thin lips turn up in the slightest smile. Her eyes, her impossibly coloured eyes, relaxed into a comforting stance.
"I am a Shinigami. That monster was called a hollow. It's time for you to go home."
She raised her sword- was that a white blade I saw?- and pointed the hilt end at my forehead. She made a move to hit me with it, but I stopped her.
I needed to know - before anything else crazy happened, I needed to have one thing to hold onto before something else happened.
"What's your name? Where am I going?"
She looked at me solemnly for a moment, with even eyes that sent chills down my spine, and her voice was more controlled and forbidding than I had imagined, "You are going to a resting place called the Soul Society. It's the place to go when you die."
Soul Society. Hmm, didn't sound so bad...at least she didn't say hell...though I half expected her too. Maybe I had done something right in my short, pitiful life. Or maybe, who knew? Maybe I was just dreaming and at any moment I would be waking up...The errant thought shot through my head quickly; this was no dream.
I felt my grip in the sword loosen as the last wave of nausea threw me into unconsciousness. But as I drifted, I felt her near to me, and heard her say something along the lines of "Kuchiki Rukia."
Rukia. What a strange name...
Yet...I felt as if...it was something I had already known...And for some strange reason, I felt another name whispered in the line of hers...another voice that was connected to her...Who on God's green earth was Kurosaki Ichigo?
And then, mingled with all the flashes of the boy and many other people that I didn't know, I saw things that unhinged my very being - things that brought back things that for so many years I had been trying to keep controlled. But there was no denying it now - what I had once thought to be impossible was staring me in the face.
But, I didn't want it to.
God, please don't put me through that again...
Was the last thing I thought, before being swept into the freezing current.
End Chapter One
Bonus:
I watched as the Konpaku drifted into the spirit particles that I had become so used to seeing. I was proud of myself – my first solo trip to the real world, and I had already slain three hollows without having to release Sode No Shirayuki.
Things were finally looking better.
"Did you see that, Sode?" I asked - more in need of conversation than approval. A cool breeze drifted through my mind, and I felt her smooth approval for my work. Count on Sode to appreciate the littlest things - but she drifted easily in my spirit, not bothering to really pay attention. I couldn't blame her; the real world was a little dull, but I had a job to do - and I had to get moving before another Hollow appeared.
I looked back to the spot the girl had been.
Those wide, deep green eyes were still fresh in my mind, and the way she had stared at me, facing death itself, without even a flicker of fear…what a strange human she must have been…and that feeling…it was almost like she had possessed…No, that was impossible; no human could posses it - and even if a human did, they wouldn't be able to control it after so long, and would have drawn many hollow's to them...but...I thought back to how her soul had turned into the foating orb. There had been something off about it...it hadn't been the same serene blue as the other souls I had sent home. This one had been more golden...and, when I had touched it with my blade, something had shot straight through my wrists...right into my heart.
I stared at my hands, trying to remember what exactly it had felt...almost...warmth...like a flame...
My sixth sense flickered, and before I was consciously aware of it, my feet were taking me towards a powerful sensation – the same sensation that I had felt surging and subsiding since I had arrived here. Every time I had thought to seek it out, it had vanished suddenly. This time, however, I would find it – and figure out what the hell it was. My mind drifted as I ran, and I thought about the girl. I hoped we would meet again someday, just so I could find out if she was something special. But then I berated myself for thinking so wistfully.
Fate was never kind enough to change for me…
And as I felt the sensation begin to soften, I knew that tonight wasn't going to be any different, and tomorrow fate would still be the force leading me around by the nose - but, would it ever change?
No. I knew that. I was a Shinigami. Shinigami never changed, because as Shinigami, we were those who decided the brunt of fate itself, and it really didn't have much control over me. Sometimes, though, I wished it did.
