Chapter 1: Death
Regret? Sorrow? Or was it guilt that was digging at his heart?
He didn't have enough time to figure it out.
At this point, Ichimaru Gin couldn't tell anymore. He was dead, but he couldn't feel anything, as if he was an empty shell. Darkness wrapped itself around him like a heavy blanket, slowly dragging him downwards to a place where things became number and number, until he wasn't even aware of his existence anymore, reducing him into a lump of meat- a lump of useless reiatsu.
Just when he was about to close his eyes and let himself drift away into the dark currents, a huge soft hand reached out and wrapped it's fingers around him, pulling him away from the darkness. The darkness drew away from Ichimaru, and a faint dim light spilled from where the hand was coming from as he lifted further and further away from the dark matter.
"W-who..." he whispered, as soon as he regained some control of his body, only for his voice to falter and fail him.
"You sure are lucky I decided to save you," a young child-like voice from above said cheekily, in a proud sort of way, "You were about to be disintegrated and reincarnated as a random human with a different mindset, a different appearance.. but I like you. You're like a silvery snake, and I like that... I think I'll keep you just as you are."
The large hand roughly pushed away the dark matter like it was a veil, and sent a dazed Ichimaru through it without much trouble. He felt confusion course through him, but not enough awareness to care for what in the world was happening to him. A sudden pain struck him from all sides, and he felt like he was being condensed and ripped apart at the same time. Ichimaru couldn't help but let out a scream.
"Well, that's to be expected~ You weren't broken down by the darkness into countless amounts of individual reiatsu pieces before entering the barrier," the child laughed, and tried to push him through forcefully, only serving to cause Ichimaru more excruciating pain, "But hey, you'll thank me for sparing your good looks, the previous guys who died looked gross, and we wouldn't want to sully that pretty face of yours would we~?"
The pain overwhelmed Ichimaru, and his vision blurred into a white mess, until he passed out, feeling himself depart from the area and going further and further away.
"Byebye~ I'll see you later~ Gin-chan~~!"