Doubt & Trust

(AN) Hey guys! I'm not dead! XDD I was just…in a bit of a writer's block, so I decided to work on some of my other fanfiction ideas. This particular one is about (of course) Bleach, but a bit fast forwarded into the future. This story is centered around 7 friends (OC chara's that I based on my friends and I) and how they end a horrible prophesy, and find love and friendship along the way. Yeah, it's a cheesy summary, but you get the point. Enjoy! –Millie (my new sign-off name ;D)

Chapter 1: The Start of Summer: Saiyako Ayumi

"Wait…Why are you looking at me like that? G-get away from me! N-no! Help! Help! She's gonna kill me!"

Ok, yeah, if you were me, you would think this was a murder scene. Well, you'd be half-right. I had heard Rai's girly screaming from outside the classroom and I sighed as I opened up the door.

"Ok guys. Break it up, break it up." I sighed even though it wasn't much of a fight, more like a beating. "Sen, get Kanae's legs, and Takeshi, you get her arms."

Only ten minutes before, Sora, Sen, and I were walking to school chatting peacefully. When we stepped into the classroom, guess what we found? We were witnessing Rai getting cornered into the wall by a very pissed off Kanae. Said Kanae was currently being restrained. Meanwhile, Rai was getting removed from the dent in the wall by Sen and I.

You would have never guessed that we were all best friends and had known each other since grade school, but we were. Kanae, Sen, and I had been friends since we were in diapers ('cause our parents were friends) and we met Takeshi and Rai at school. We instantly knew these two were just about the dorkiest people you'd ever meet, so they were fine by us.

Then, along came Sora. From a distance, you'd think she was just a normal 13-year old girl (who was mildly shorter than most her age), but once you got closer, you'd know she had SDD, also known as Spastic Dork Disease.

No, it isn't real. Yes, she acts like she's on crack. Continuing on, we were still busy restraining Kanae and her obvious fury against the pitiful Rai.

"Takeshi! Pull her arms up a bit more, she looks like she's about to hit the floor!" Sora called out. She and Takeshi had been carrying her 'dead-ant' style across the floor while she was giving them her famous death stares.

"Takeshi." Kanae managed to say through the paper towel gag that they had put in her mouth. "I'm not going to kill Rai. Put. Me. Down."

"Kanae, you know we can't trust you when you go on one of your rampages." I said calmly. "Now please explain why you were cornering him into the wall with your mechanical pencil and the intent to kill?"

"Well, let me put it this way: the imbecile stuck my math book into the toilet. Now tell me I didn't have every right to pound him into the wall!" Kanae muttered angrily. "You know I can get free right now if I didn't know that I'd kill him on accident." She added.

I considered this for a moment.

"Ok Tak-kun, let her go. She has every right to pound him." I said with a devious grin. "Besides, it's the last day of school; she can't hurt him too badly."

This had been happening during class of course. No one in their right mind would come to school that early. But everyone else was used to this; it was pretty much like a normal everyday thing now. Even the teachers decided to let us go because, 1. It was the last day of school, and 2. It was Kanae for Pete's sake! She's like a force of nature; unable to be changed. Well, technically all of us are (The girls anyways) but that's beside the point. Oh yeah! Now back to Rai getting pounded.

"Hey, stop saying that like you know she's gonna win!" Rai complained. We all looked at each other. Then we looked down at him.

"She's going to win." we replied, perfectly in sync.

Rai shook his head angrily.

"No way, I mean, I do take self defense classes! It's not like I'm helpless! Takeshi agrees, doesn't he?"

"'Takeshi' doesn't agree." Takeshi solemnly replied.

"I won against you once! Last class, remember?"

Takeshi sighed. "All I remember is you goading me on with the promise of a Hershey's bar, then suddenly pinning me to the ground, exclaiming that you won." He said with calm indifference. He chuckled. "But it's the thought that counts, isn't it?"

"I would know…" Kanae muttered to herself darkly.

"Now come on guys!" Sen objected. "You know Rai is sensitive!' And it's not his fault that he has self-confidence issues! And so what that we beat him in everything! At least he always gets up! I mean, he at least always crawls or stumbles home after Kanae beats him up instead of dying like a normal person should have." She, unlike pretty much everybody else, didn't know that Rai had a massive crush on her, and each word crushed him like a boulder.

"Er…Sen. I think you should stop before Rai drowns in his despair." Sora said to the confused girl.

While Sen was talking, Kanae had managed to dangle Rai out of the window by his ankles (while bashing him against the wall). Takeshi had for some reason, found a fishing pole, and it was attached to Rai's shirt in case he fell.

And who are we exactly? And who am I? I'm Saiyako Ayumi (Ayu for short), middle school student, 13 years old, 5'4", and exorcist in training. What does that mean? Even I don't know sometimes. All I know is that I've been able to see ghosts ever since I was a little kid. And the 'in training' part? Well, that's just a fancy term for the fact that my brother Kai can see them too, and he's teaching me how to send them to 'a better place' as he calls it.

Honestly, I don't know what to do, even if he tells me all I have to do is grab a stick and whack them over the head with it (although I have a feeling that he didn't word it like this). Of course, I've never actually done this before. I mean, how would you feel if you died and someone was whacking you over the head with a stick?

As for my friends, of course I told them! They love me the way I am. Not. I haven't told a single soul about this 'gift' because of the fact that they're either going to a) look at you funny, then hit you in the shoulder and think it's all a joke or b) send you to the loony bin. Of course, this is all told from experience. But enough about me, class is finally over!

I sighed in relief as I heard the bell ring signaling the end of first hour.

"Come on you dorks, it's time for our next class." I said with my hands on my hips. Kanae immediately dropped him and Takeshi reeled in a (barely conscious) Rai back up with his head covered in bumps and bruises.

The rest of the day went by normally (if you call Kanae randomly beating Rai up at various parts of the day normal. Which we do.) And finally the last bell of the day rang. Everybody cheered, with the exception of me. I sighed, and followed the rest of the class out of the door.

The nightmares of my new 'job' danced through my head as I picked up my school bag. This consisted of hitting ghosts over the head with my brother as far as I could tell. I had not-so-happily nicknamed this 'Whack-a-Ghost', for Kai called this routine 'whacking ghosts'. This didn't create a pleasant image in my head. Yeah, I loved my brother and I sometimes respected him, but being able to see ghosts (especially pervy ones) was something I wished I hadn't inherited from him. As far as I could tell, we were the only ones in the family, or maybe even the world, who had this ability, and it hadn't provided me with tons of friends back when I was young, innocent, and stupid enough to think that people would believe me when I told them about it. This was pretty much why I hadn't told any of my friends. But, as everything tends to do, this would bite me back in the butt later on.

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My friends and I decided to celebrate finally getting out of school by going to our hangout, an abandoned old playground in the middle of the woods. It used to be part of the park a couple years back, but suddenly a newer, better, park was built downtown, and everybody flocked to that one instead. We had stumbled across it last year, and it had unofficially become our official hangout. We brought along some snacks and music and were just getting into the makings of a good party when disaster struck.

You know how some things can change in a matter of three seconds? Well, 1, 2, 3, everything changed. And I mean changed. The first thing that tipped us off was the huge gaping hole in the sky. Yeah, that's normal. Totally normal. The second not-so-subtle hint was the huge ripple of sheer power. Only later would I learn the actual term for it. Reiatsu. Just then, Rai inhaled sharply and the same power doubled, spiking around him like the wind had decided the he made a good focal point for a tornado. We were all dumbstruck, in a trance-like state (or so I thought at the time. Like most things, this would turn out to be wrong). You know how things always happen in threes? Yeah well, the third was a bit of a whopper for us.

It came in the wonderful package of a massive, grotesque monster suddenly appearing in front of us along with a kid who looked about our age. I heard Kanae repeat the not-so-school-appropriate word again and suddenly, it felt like something had snapped inside of me.

I felt… stronger somehow. I also felt like there was a thick blanket of unknown power stifling my lungs, not allowing me to breathe or speak. My knees collapsed, and I saw that I wasn't the only one. Rai collapsed first, even though later he would deny this. Only Kanae was left standing, and the look on her face would have made me cringe if I could move.

There was pain, fear, and strangely, some familiarity. She looked at the boy who was now either bravely or stupidly fighting the thing. Then, when I thought I couldn't handle the pressure anymore, the blanket lifted, and I looked up.

If I wasn't freaking out already, I would have noticed that I had somehow changed into a black hakama (complete with a sword and hilt) with a strange chain attached to the middle of my chest. If I had followed the chain, I would have seen that it led to my body which was lying face down on the ground!

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(AN) I hope you liked it! I'm co-authoring this with my friend Megan (who I based Kanae after) and I'll see if I can get her to make an account on so she can razzle-dazzle you guys with her smartical words and stuffies in her stories. I mean, she did win best female author in fifth grade! LOL XDDD No, seriously, she's awesome, so when she posts some of her works (hopefully) you guys can read them and cheer her on! Millie, out!

P.S. Please comment!