Secrets revealed: The return of 14th court guard squad
Chapter 1: Broken seal
One weak beam of sunlight broke through curtains and lit up the messy room. Pile of clothes and other things covered small bed. If it weren't for the sound of breathing you could hardly guess there was a person in that room. Indeed there was a head sticking out from the pile, a head of a 17 year old boy with long, dark hair and scar over his left cheek. As the beam reached his eyes he woke up and looked at the clock.
"7:30, already, I guess it's time for school." He thought to himself .
He got up, then bent over, like he is going to clean up the pile, but he only picked up pants and t-shirt.
When he got dressed up he heard the voice calling his name. He didn't have to look through the window to know who that was. His only friend and probably the only girl he ever spoke to was waiting for him to get ready for school.
"AKIO! Come on, we're gonna be late." She yelled.
Akio slowly approached the window and stuck his head out "I still gotta eat, so go on ahead."
The girl looked at him angrily then made a move like she is going to turn away, but she decided to enter the building and come to Akio's apartment. It wasn't long until he heard footsteps and knocking.
"Just a sec!" Akio answered to knocking.
As he opened the door petite red-haired girl entered the small apartment. She was wearing her grey school uniform. She looked straight at him with her dark brown eyes, with annoyed look on her face.
"You should really stop doing this Akio, we are always late because of you."
"I know, but I have to eat." Akio rebelled.
"Just sit down, I'll make something, but eat fast or else!", she said and took few eggs from the fridge.
Soon the whole apartment smelled like pancakes.
"Harumi"
"Huh?" she replied while breaking one more egg.
"What would I do without you?" Akio stared at Harumi's back with a soft smile on his face.
"You'd probably end up on the street and die hungry."
"Phew, then I am glad I have you as my friend." He said.
"I am glad too, now eat up, and hurry, we might still get there by 8:30", she said as she handed him pancakes.
"You know there is syrup in the fridge…"
"Then go get it yourself, I am not your servant." Harumi answered to that taunt.
"I now, I was just joking." Said Akio and got up to get syrup.
Soon they were on their way to school.
Something strange was happening in Karakura town lately. Akio noticed many strangers coming and going, also he could have sworn that he saw people disappear right in front of him. Even stranger was Harumi when he brought up that topic. "You are imagining things" was her only answer before the awkward silence. Also one night when he couldn't sleep he was looking through the small window in his room and saw giant creature for a second, but he attributed that to fatigue caused by lack of sleep. Today was no better than days before. Again many people he never saw in Karakura were roaming around. The strange thing is, he never saw the same person twice, almost like everyday new people would just pass through town. Also the fact that they all roamed without a goal, with blunt expressions on their faces confused Akio.
Harumi's voice pulled him out of his thoughts "You should really get a haircut."
"Here we go again." Akio thought, "I already told you, I am not going to get haircut, because the hair is the only thing that can hide this ugly scar of mine. "
"Come on, you have a pretty face, and scar makes you look cool." She answered to statement that she thought was silly.
"I don't think other girls think so!"
"That's because of those guys that tease you and make fun of your scar, they all think you are cute, but they don't wanna be called dorks, idiots!", she added the last word with with particularly strange tone.
"Speaking of the devil." Akio said and nodded his head towards three boys his age that just came out from one of the side streets.
"Look who it is, a scar face and his dog!" said one of the boys.
"Just let us pass." Akio answered and tried to get through them.
"I didn't hear you well, can you repeat that?" asked the other boy
"I said to get- out- of- my- way!"
Akio knew what was going to happen now, and he already raised his fists ready for a fight, when he felt pain in his stomach. The third boy kicked him so strong that he couldn't bread "That's not a way to talk with those better than you"
As Akio regained his breath he jumped on him and started hitting him with all his might. The third boy was caught unprepared and soon his lip was bleeding . Other two boys jumped on Akio and started kicking him when Harumi stepped in. One of the boys looked at her and slapped her so hard that she fell on her knees.
"That's the proper position for a dog"
Akio's blood was boiling. He was used to getting bullied by them, but they never hit Harumi, no matter what she said to them. This made him so angry. He wanted to kill them. All the rage that built up during years exploded. He hit the boy that slapped Harumi so strong, too strong actually. The boys feet got of ground and he was thrown away six feet . Other two looked at Akio and then started running. Akio wanted to chase them but Harumi grabbed his had "It's ok, let's just go to school, we are already late."
That school day was the best so far. Akio didn't really know how, but the rumor of what he did spread so fast. Everyone was talking about his punch, and many kids congratulated him. Few girls even smiled at him. He couldn't understand how such a small thing was enough to completely turn his life around, or at least he couldn't understand until he heard kids talking about one of the boys being in hospital with broken jaw and that the other two are afraid to come to school because of him. But there was no time to enjoy that fame. He was constantly thinking about what he did. How was he able to that. Harumi wasn't very interested in helping him, instead she was strangely silent and looked at him with caring eyes. In the end he decided it was adrenaline that made that punch possible and decided to enjoy the rest of the day.
School bell rang for the last time. Akio waited for Harumi, but she didn't come. He thought it was strange, she would always text him. He went to her classroom and found her English teacher there.
"Excuse me, do you know when Harumi left?" Akio asked.
"I could ask you the same question, she wasn't present in my class." Answered teacher.
"Oh, ok, thank you."
Akio wondered around and searched for Harumi, but she wasn't in school. Finally he decided to go home and ask her tomorrow where she went. On the way home he saw those strange people again, only this time they were all running in one direction and, Akio didn't believe his eyes, through people that were calmly going in the opposite direction. He decided to go to opposite direction and see what they were running from.
"Hey, HEY!" Akio stopped one guy that was running. Fear in his eyes told him that something was happening not far from here. "HOLLOW!" the man screamed, broke free and continued his run.
"Hollow, what the hell was he talking about?"
He reached the town center and finally saw what all those people were running from. And how right they were to run. The amazing sight of a giant, muscular, green monster was enough to scare him to death. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. The voice betrayed him as another hairy, doglike monster came out of nowhere. And third monster appeared. They were all different, but all of the monsters had more or less similar white mask instead of faces and hole in their chest. There was some kind of pressure, not from fear, more like an energy those monsters emitted. And then he noticed them. Strange sword wielding people In black kimonos. They all were fighting those monsters. There was one orange haired guy, petite black haired girl and Harumi!
"What the…? Is that really Harumi?" Akio thought, when bright beam of light passed him and hit the hairy monster. He turned around and saw skinny boy, about his age, with a bow, bow made of light.
"Move it if you are not fighting!" The boy said and ran right into the battle.
Akio heard screams and shouts. Soon more people in black kimonos came, but monsters were too strong. Then his rage overcame the fear again, as Harumi was struck down by one of the monsters. He ran towards the battle and heard the voices asking who the hell was he. Akio didn't care, he saw Harumi hit the ground and hairy monster hanging over her, ready to attack.
"HEEEY!" He shouted and picked up the stone. He threw it, again with the amazing force that came to him. The stone hit the monster straight in the head.
"AAAAHHH!" The monster screamed, "What was that?"
Akio was taken by surprise, the monsters can talk.
"Hahaha, it's you tiny human." Monster was now looking at him. Harumi too looked around to see who was monster talking to and when she spotted Akio the fear came across her face.
"NOOO!" She screamed, "I am your opponent, fight ME!"
"Don't worry little Shinigami, I'll deal with you, but this boy offended me, he has to pay." Answered the monster to her pleas.
Akio watched and couldn't believe what he just heard monster call Harumi. The shadow over him pulled him out of his thoughts as he saw giant hand reaching out to get him.
"What am I going to do now? Come on legs, move, jump!" But his body was not listening to his thoughts. The hand was closer and closer and closer. Suddenly something black covered his sight and he heard painful scream. The monsters hand was cut and Harumi was standing in front of him. She turned around to face him "What were you thinking coming here? This is not something you can help with, go, run, I'll cover you and I'll explain everything to you tomorrow, come on, what ar…"
The rest of the sentence was interrupted by Harumi's scream. Her eyes turned grey as her lifeless, broken body was hanging from monsters hand. The monster took it's chance. That moment she was not careful, the moment she was telling him to run. Now monster was coming to get him. Akio didn't care. Harumi is dead and it's all his fault. Tears were filling his eyes, but there was other feeling too. Not only rage, but some kind of power exploded inside him. He felt monsters hand around him and he heard his bones getting broken, but he felt no pain. He looked at Harumi's body until his last breath, until everything became dark.
To be continued.
