A half moon was set high in the sky over a dark urban residential area. Most of the inhabitances were sound asleep in their beds dreaming and waiting for the next day of their lives to come and go again. None of them were even aware of the bloodcurdling roars piercing the air outside their windows.
The asphalt streets outside were imprinted with unexplainable craters in the shape of reptilian feet. Pieces of pavement littered the area and clouds of dust swirled in the air. Jumping out of one of those clouds was a young woman, looking no older than her late teens at the most.
She was dressed in black robes and a sheathed sword was strapped to her back. Her bright orange hair fluttered in the air behind her she fluidly stuck her landing on the broken street before breaking into a fast sprint. Barreling through the dust cloud behind her where two large scaly dog like creatures wearing white horned masks on their faces.
The two creatures were in hot pursuit of their prey, grunting and snarling, while the prey in question continued to run with a bored expression on her face.
"You can't run forever, little shinigami!" One of the beasts bellowed in a deep gurgling voice.
The orange haired girl cast a brief glance over her shoulders with lips quirked slightly in a smile before suddenly disappearing into a street corner. Her pursuers followed her without halting their rampage but were stopped in their tracks with the ground beneath their feet gave way into a hot sticky tar.
"GYAAAAH!" Both creatures cried out before slipping head first into the street.
The more the two struggled in the muck the more black tar got stuck to their limbs. Suddenly, all the heat from the tar was taken away and the two monsters were completely stuck in the street. They trashed their skull faced heads back and forth and attempted to break free from the asphalt streets grasp that would have crumbled away easily from their inhuman strength, but where somehow held fast by it.
"Why won't this crap come loose?!" One of the monsters bellowed.
"Idiot! Can't you smell it?! The Shinigami brat used some cheep trick to make us stick then gave us the slip!" The other roared.
"Oi, up here."
Both stopped their attempts to escape when they caught sight of a figure looming above them.
With her blade drawn and giving off faint wisps of steam, the orange haired shinigami stood atop a nearby telephone pole.
"You would think you Hollows would learn by now." The orange haired shinigami stood straight with an unreleased Zanpakuto held to her side. "Karakura is no place for your kind."
With a nimble leap the young girl held the long sword over her head preparing to carve into the panicking pair of hollows beneath her.
"Have mercy shinigami! Don't attack," cried the two hollows in trembling voices that changed gave way to mocking, "so recklessly!"
A dark shadow suddenly lunged for the orange haired girl in midair. Reacting quickly, she freed a hand from the grip of her hilt and unleashed a kido spell.
"Sokatsui!"
A large cloud of blue fire and smoke imploded in the air. The girl was thrown some feet away from the close range blast and skid to a stop. Her sword rested on her shoulder while her slightly singed hand was curled into a fist as her attacker crashed to the ground in a heap.
A third hollow dog shook its head from a smoky plume trying to rid itself from the shock of the direct hit.
"That barely had any bite to it, shinigami." The hollow scoffed as it pulled itself off the ground. Its yellow eyes went wide in fear however as it rolled on its side to avoid being hit by a large arc of white reiatsu.
"I wasn't going for bite," the shinigami smirked, readying another attack, "I just wanted to put some distance between us."
The hollow rolled into the trapped pair of his kin avoiding the next wave of energy.
"What the heck are you two doing? You were supposed to corner her!"
"We were about to! Then the little wretch did something to the ground."
"Yeah, now we're stuck!"
"Keh, typical. Looks like I'll have to do everything myself."
As the three hollows bickered amongst themselves the orange haired shinigami stood watching with an annoyed expression on her face.
"Hey, are you three done talking? I have someplace else I need to be." She deadpanned holding her zanpakuto lazily to her side.
"Quiet shinigami! This is family business!" The free hollow barked, its moss green mane standing on end.
The orange haired girl blinked before smirking.
"How ironic," she chuckled as she held her zanpakuto at the ready, "Karakura just happens to infamous for family business." A burst of white energy encircled around her tousling her clothes and hair. Her blue eyes seemed to spark with a fiery energy and her brows knotted in concentration.
"Especially…" she spoke gravely while watching the bestial spirit crouched low to the ground ready to lash out.
Both shinigami and hollow launched at each other simultaneously with tooth and sword flashing in the moonlight.
"The Kurosaki family business!"
The sound of a sword slashed through the midnight air as a black swallow-tailed butterfly floated gently against the backdrop of a half moon.
(AN) Again, something I wrote long before the actual ending and final arc's of Bleach.
You can probably tell...I have...opinions...on how I think the story should have ended.
But you know. I still love the early arcs of Bleach and the sheer amount of style this manga had in it's heyday.