Lewis "Lou" Young of team one in the Strategic Response Unit stood with his leg trembling on a land mine. He had just walked forward towards the bomb set in the university campus, and heard a click under his foot. His heart pounded, he had already called to say good bye. Mike "Spike" Scarlatti, his best friend throughout the course of his time on team one was going out of his way to save him. But it was impossible, Spike had said it himself that the bomb was unable to be disarmed, the only way to disarm it was covered by super glue.

He looked over at Spike who was busily trying to argue with his team mates to help him perform a weight transfer so they could put a substitute of Lou's weight onto the mine and Lou could be safe, they could knock back a few beers at the bar, talk about how close of a call it was and laugh away the rest of the night.

It wasn't going to end this way.

Jules was arguing for Spike to save himself, Lou understood, but couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed. Wordy was on Spike's side, saying how he'd save Lou no matter what. Sam was talking about how helpless this situation was, Lou put most of his trust in the rookie who had seen what these mines could do. But he couldn't help but feel helpless in the face of all this trouble, but he had to do what he had to do.

"Spike?" he asked, trying to choke back his tears, but they still fell down his face.

"Yeah buddy," Spike said, his voice full of determination of getting his friend out alive.

"It's gonna be okay," Lou closed his eyes as he stepped off the mine . . .

All Lou could register was the ground exploding, and then . . . nothing, he was catapulted out of his body with such great force, it was like an atomic bomb, not a land mine, had gone off.

He was still in his SRU uniform, grey pants, black jacket and ballistic vest, he stood up groggily, had he lived through that?

Then he saw a battered and torn body, his body, Spike was in hysteria, Jules was burrowing her head in Wordy's shoulder, and Sam was walking off. Lou understood what happened, he had died.

"So . . . am I a ghost?" Lou asked looking down at a chain on his chest, "What is this?"

"It is the chain of fate . . ." a creepy voice called, and a hooded figure came out, seemingly standing on the sky, Lou's eye's widened slightly in fear, "And I am the grim reaper. MUHAHAHA-OW!!"

In that time, a woman with dark brown hair pulled back into a pony tail and brown eyes had come up behind the hooded figure so fast that Lou thought she appeared out of nowhere.

She had some sort of Japanese wardrobe on, a sword was at her side and over the black hakama ( 1 ) was a white and sleeveless haori ( 2 ). She had slapped the hooded guy on the head so hard, he toppled head over heels and the hood came off.

The guy who had so callously frightened Lou had black hair in a cowlick and light brown eyes. He had a hoodie under the long sleeved hakama, which was why he was hooded in the first place.

"Aww c'mon Saki! What was that for?!" he pouted at the woman as he rubbed a growing welt on his head.

"For being an idiot," the woman, Saki, answered, "I thought about bringing you along for a simple hollow slaying expedition, not a cosplay of some grim reaper. And it's Captain Hayashi!"

"But grim reapers are fun!" the guy retorted earning another punch on the head.

"Not when you have to do my job!" Saki muttered, she looked down at Lou, who was watching them with an intense look of confusion on his face.

"Who are you people?!" Lou finally blurted out.

Saki nodded to herself as if it seemed that she should have known he was going to ask that, "I'm Captain Saki Hayashi of the Fifth Division in the Gotei-13, I am a soul reaper."

"Yo," the other guy said, "I'm Ichirou Okamoto third seat, Division Ten of the Gotei-13, I'm also a soul reaper."

"So you are grim reapers," Lou said hesitantly.

"Yeah, except Ichirou's anything but grim . . ." Saki muttered, then said louder for Lou to hear, "We are technically Soul Reapers, carrying the same job as the Europeanized reapers, but we originate from Japan."

"Then how come you speak English," Lou said, noting that they did have a slight Japanese accent.

"Well . . . we learn the language in the academy," Ichirou said, with an air of importance to his tone, "But don't worry, there are all types in Soul Society where you are going, no doubt you will find other Canadianese Speakers like yourself."

A vein burst out on Saki's forehead, but she kept her peace, not mentioning to Ichirou that there was no such thing as "Canadianese" it was just English or French or Spanish in Canada, give or take a few dialects spoken by native tribes.

"Uhh . . ." was all Lou could say, he was at a loss for words.

"Look," Saki said in a softer tone than what she said before, "We are here to send you to the afterlife, which is Soul Society, you may call it 'Heaven' or 'passing on' in your world."

Lou blanched, everything he had known, from what the priest had told him when he was very young to what they would say at his funeral about him spending time in Heaven, was pretty much a lie.

"Yeah, we get a lot of those expressions," Ichirou said somewhat offhandedly, but with a softness in his eyes, "But it's gonna be okay, you are going to be with lost loved ones and such, not everything you've been told is a lie, there is a better place."

With that Ichirou drew his sword, Lou's eye's narrowed, instinctively reaching for the gun at his holster, then realizing he didn't have it. Saki said, "It'll be alright, we are sending you off now."

Ichirou suddenly appeared in front of Lou and tapped his forehead with the pommel of his sword. A Kanji symbol appeared on Lou's forehead and he was engulfed in a white light . . .

Saki watched as Lou's spirit disappeared with a black Swallow Tail butterfly, a Hell Butterfly which would transport his soul safely to Soul Society.

Saki looked back to where there were several people in Team One still gathered, mourning the loss of their team mate. She turned back to Ichirou, "It best be time we get going."

"Okay," Ichirou said happily as he sheathed his sword, and shunpo-ed ( 3 ) up to Saki, "You think we can get some maple syrup before we finish our mission? See Niagra Falls? Score some girls?"

"ICHIROU!" Saki's reiatsu ( 4 ) filled the area as she finally got annoyed enough.

A/N: Wow . . . so yeah, the plot bunnies in my head couldn't keep one story idea going so they decided to start another :P don't worry, un-updated fan fictions will be updated in due time my friends.

Vocab, (the little numbers in the parenthesis)

( 1 ) A hakama is a traditional Japanese clothing item, worn over a kimono, just Google it if you don't understand, I can't explain what it looks like.

( 2 ) Haoris are lightweight silk jackets used to help keep the kimono clean and dry. The length varies. And in this instance, haoris are used to signify that the person is of a captain level. (which means they are very . . . very powerful)

( 3 ) Shunpo is a method of dodging and moving that soul reapers use to move around. Namely captains and lieutenants use it, but some lower ranking soul reapers can do it as well but minimally. Shunpo is basically the essence of getting from Point A to Point B in the least amount of time and steps.

( 4 ) Reiatsu is the form of power soul reapers use, they use it to control their zanpaktou (the sword Ichirou was using to send Lou off to Soul Society) and other demon arts, which will be explained further on.

Read and review please, that's all I ask of you.