I'm starting another multi-chapter fic, even though I have two others to deal with (even if one has been on a kind of Hiatus for forever.)

So, this, like most all of my stories, has been floating around in my head for forever, and now, I'm gonna post this part and see how well you guys like this idea. If you guys do, I'll post the next part, if not... I'll probably do it anyways.

This will have some divergence from canon. I've watched most all of the anime, but I haven't been keeping up with the manga beyond what they put on the Bleach Wiki, so some details will probably end up a little different.

Anyways, here's the prologue! Enjoy!

Disclaimer; Who the fuck owns anything but plot and OC's on this site?


Karakura town was, while sub-urban, still fairly small for a city. And since it was small, there wasn't much to see.

But, what was there to see wasn't too bad. Like this one thing in particular, maybe it wasn't overly exciting, but it was something. It was... well...

A tree.

A Japanese cedar to be exact. A very old one, standing tall and strong on top of a hill in the forest in the larger park in Karakura. If you climbed it, you could see a good ways around the forest and town, even the river that cuts through the town. It would be rather impressive, if dangerous, as nearly 220 feet high is.

As stated, the cedar is very old, several hundred years old, if scientist and environmentalists counting the rings from a pencil thin cylindrical cut out piece from the trunk confirmed anything. It was the oldest tree in the entire district, and rightly so; it was considered sacred by some monk a long time ago, as marked by the Shimenawa encircling the trunk. Maybe because it was in the direct center of the tall hill, maybe something else. Who knows? But, it was everything but outright illegal to cut down trees marked with a Shimenawa. But, while there wasn't a temple, or even a Torii gate, there was an old, stone Hokora, standing just as proudly as the tree it honors, even with the natural dilapidation.

It was called Kyuujou Sugi. And honestly, he didn't have an overly exciting life.

Ah, sorry, you must not understand why I suddenly seem to be speaking of a tree like a person.

"WOULD YOU GET ON WITH IT ALREADY."

I mean Kyuujou, the Kodama living in the cedar.

Kyuujou was probably the closest thing to a guardian deity Karakura had without him being hailed an outright god. Since his tree was the oldest, he was the oldest spirit in the districs as well. This gave him the right to, in a sense, rule over the other younger local spirits. Karakura (and a few of the surrounding districts) was his territory, has been for over 800 years, and he would damn any unruly spirit who tried to mess with it.

And boy did he have a time with that.

Karakura had a naturally above average amount of spiritual energies in it, leading to Hollows and other nasty beings being slightly more common than other areas. While he usually allowed the current locally assigned Shinigami to deal with the Hollows, Kyuujou was left with all the other negative spirites that pop up. Even though most yokai/bakemono/oni/etc. have integrated the best they can with modern humans, some still took advantage of their unseen state; Amanojaku whispering insentives to do bad and/or illegal things into peoples ears, Kappas trying to drown children, vengeful Zashiki-warashi who's houses were destroyed, he even had a bad run in with an Amazake-babaa who caused an outbreak of pneumonia about 90 years back. Only sometimes would he interfere with a Hollow if it was causing too much trouble for the Shinigami.

He wasn't alone in this though, he had the younger spirits dwelling in the parks and living in town, as well as benevolent spirits that passed through sometimes.

Life was life. And he honsetly was fine with it, even if it could be a bit lackluster and troublesome at tumes.

And in all his nearly 850 years, did he ever imagine the ride that he was about to endure when he decided to step in and save a peculiar orange haired kid from a Hollow.


And done! Hope you guys liked this. And now; Terminology! I'll be putting definitions and such here at the bottom for some of the more obscure Japanese terms I'll be using.

Shimenawa - That rope with the papers hanging from it. It's seen most commonly wrapped around trees or rocks or hanging from Torii gates or shrines, signifying that the object or space is considered holy or pure by the Shinto religeon. Cutting down trees with a Shimenawa is thought to bring misfortune, while on the other hand it is said that the Shimenawa acts as a ward against Evil spirits.

Hokora - While I'm sure most anime fans can recognise the iconic red Torii gate, I don't believe most will recognise a Hokora (or Hokura) shrine. They are basically mini shrines dedicated to folk kami or, when on the streetside, to house minor kami not under the jurisdiction of the local major kami, who protected travelers from evil. If you've played Pokemon Gold/Silver, the little structure in Ilex forest where you get Celebi is actually a Hokora shrine.

Kodama, Amanojaku, Amazake-babaa, Kappa, and Zashiki-Warashi - I will be both making refernces to and having characters be several different Japanese spirits and demons. You might recognise a few from other anime/manga or even video games, such as Kodama (Shin Megami Tensei and Mononoke Hime), Kappa (several), and the Zashiki-Warashi (xxxHolic and MONONOKE), but other spirits, not so much. A look through the 'List of legendary creatures from Japan' on wikipedia and you'll find all the ones I'll mention since that's my go to for them.

Kyuujou Sugi - A Sugi tree is the native term for a Japanese Cedar. And when looking up the oldest trees on the planet, I saw that there were some Sugi trees. They had a specific name, basically '(something) Sugi', so I stuck with that theme. Kyuujou (丘上) means 'Hilltop', and thus, his name means "Hilltop Cedar", named for obvious reasons.