Hello everyone of fanfiction! ^.^ This is my first fanfic and of course it has to be based around an OC... Really sorry 'bout that :P Actually, I only have 2 OCs total planned, and I highly doubt there'll be anymore. The story starts before the main plot (Prologue is a few years before Turn Back the Pendulum arc), but it will jump into the main story sooner or later.
So, please enjoy and review if you liked it or have any ideas to make it better! :)
Prologue - Deep Snow Silence
A cold breeze whistled through the night air, chilling everything in its path and rustling the frost-covered trees. Above shined the full moon, making the snow on the ground have a sparkle that rivaled the stars above. The sight was beautiful; one could almost believe it was out of a postcard, if it wasn't for red specks splashed across the snow.
Alone, a figure sat in the frigged snow. The figure was a young girl - no older than five - dressed in pajama pants and an old T-shirt. Lines streaked down her face from recently fallen tears and her light brown hair stuck to her face with caked blood. The girl's green eyes were void of any emotion as she stared ahead of her into nothingness; that is, nothingness in most human's eyes, but to her it was a tiny, creme colored, reptile-like creature. It was long, much like a snake, but had legs with small, black claws at the end. Fluffs of blue-green fur decorated the creature from head to tail and it had two tiny horns jutting out of its head. Its head was tilted to the side slightly and large, innocent striking blue eyes starred back at the young girl.
"The m-monster," the girl mumbled, "is the monster gone?" The creature's eyes glinted with sadness and it nodded. The girl smiled slightly in relief and raised a hand to pat the animal on its head. It didn't move, just kept staring at her.
"So, do you have a name?" the girl asked with young curiosity. Yet the reptile did not reply, only tilted it head to the other side.
Sighing, the young girl lowered her hand and leaned back. "No name huh? That what we gonna call you?" she asked, mostly to herself, whilst giving it a thoughtful look. The creature made no noise, save for a quite hiccup that escaped it lips. This made the girl clasp her hands together and smile brightly.
"Ah-ha! I'll call you Hipo!" she announced cheerily and looked to the creature to see what it thought of the name. A giggle like sound came from the creature's throat and the young girl's smile widened.
"Ok, Hipo it is! Now Hipo, what are you anyway? You look kinda like a snakey, but snakeys don't have legs or fluff... I know! You could be a dragon! Mommy tells me stories about dragons all the t-..." Her voiced caught in her throat as the memory finally came back to her and her eyes filled with tears that threatened to spill over any second. "M-mommy, daddy, and sissy... That monster attacked them and ate them... It tried to eat me too!'
Tears flowed freely down her face now and the girl put her face in her hands as she began to sob. Hipo's expression saddened and it nuzzled the girl's face while making cooing sounds to calm her. The girl wailed into the night, her cries echoing on the wind. Sirens could be heard off into the distance, but she ignored them.
"Oh Hipo, what am I gonna do? My whole family is gone and I'm so alone..." the girl choked through her sobs, eyes closed tightly off from the world. A single tear rolled down Hipo's face and fell onto the child's shoulder. As if a whisper of the wind, a girl's voice spoke to her: 'It is alright. The bad monster is gone, and you are safe now. I'm here for you; I'll always be here for you.' The girl's head reeled back from her hands and she stared at the dragon in shock. Hipo gazed at her knowingly before beginning to fade away like dust.
"Wait! You said you'd always be there for me!" the child cried, reaching out and trying to grasp Hipo with her tiny hands, only to have them close around nothingness. She stared at the ground until she heard a voice calling out in the distance.
"Young girl! Are you alright?" she lifted her head briefly to see a young man dressed in a police uniform reaching out to her with a worried look on his face. He gasped at the sight of blood on the girl's head and said quickly in a panicked tone, "Young miss, we need to get you to a hospital! What's your name?" The girl sat there, saying nothing, but in her mind she thought bitterly, 'Name? Whatever my name was, it died along with the rest of my family.'
'Miyuki.' The sudden voice made the girl jump in shock and look around widely. "Was that you, Hipo? Where are you?" she asked, glancing around at her surroundings to see if she could spot the small dragon. The officer placed a hand on her should and gazed at her with a worried expression. "Um, miss? It's only us two out here."
'He can't hear me, only you can,' Hipo explained gently to the child.
The girl scrunched up her eyes and stared off into the distance, trying to focus on the voice. 'Only me?' she thought in her mind. 'Why is it that I'm the only one that can hear you?'
'Because I am part of you; I am part of your soul.'
'Part of my soul? You don't make any sense, Hipo!' the girl exclaimed in her thoughts.
'Perhaps in due time, you shall understand,' the dragon whispered in her mind.
'Ack, Hipo stop talking in riddles! And who is this Miyuki anyway?' the girl cried out in frustration.
'It is you, dear Miyuki. It is the name I have given you, much like you gave me the name Hipo.'
'Ha, "Deep Snow Silence"? What a fitting name for me, huh, Hipo?" she responded, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
'No, you misunderstand me. I mean Miyuki as "Beautiful Happiness",' Hipo replied calmly, seemly not hurt from the sarcasm.
Before Miyuki could respond, she felt someone shaking her by shoulders. The officer pushed away her hair to examine the wound Miyuki received to the head and then said in a distraught tone: "Miss, can you hear me? This wound you on your head is very serious and we need to get you to a doctor right away!"
Miyuki opened her mouth, but no words came out. She blinked a few time as she felt her body get heavier as sleep tried to overtake her. And as she closed her eyes, she heard Hipo's soothing voice murmur,
'Sleep now, my dear Miyuki.'
10 years later:
Her eyes fluttered open, only for her to raise her hand to shield them from the blinding bleached walls. Miyuki scrunched up her in nose in disgust; she hated hospitals. Everyone eying her with pity in their look, the desolate walls, and the smell - oh the smell was the worst - for it was the smell of death. She saw souls wander up and down the halls, some crying in disbelief of their death, some just detached from the world around them. No one else could see them, only Miyuki. One would think someone would be frightened by their ability to see ghosts, but over the long years, Miyuki had gotten over it.
"That dream again..." Miyuki muttered to herself, sitting up in her hospital bed. That memory has haunted her for ten years now. It's no surprise really; losing your whole family tends to be the traumatic experience. After her family was killed, she lived in a orphan home for eight years. All the kids were scared of her because she was always speaking to things they couldn't see. They began to avoid her and a permanent scowl made its way onto the girl's face. The owners of the orphanage pleaded with her to wipe the scowl off her face so maybe someone would like to adopt her. That day never came and she ran away at the age of thirteen. With the help of Hipo, she manged to survive on the streets, that is until the day she started coughing up blood. Someone found her passed out on the street and dropped her off at the hospital, where she learned she had lung cancer.
Miyuki gave a dark chuckle, 'My life is just rainbows and sunshine isn't it?' There was a sudden tap on the door and she turned to she a familiar nurse walk in with a clipboard in her petite hands. The nurse had long, dark brown hair up to her waist and deep blue eyes. A sad smile was stretched across her face as she walked over to Miyuki's bed and pulled up a chair.
"Now Miyuki, this is the fifth time you ran off, don't you think this is getting a little old?" the nurse asked lightly, placing her hand over Miyuki's hand.
The girl scoffed and turned away from the nurse. "No way! I told you, I refuse to stay in this smelly hospital!"
The nurse sighed and said, "At least we aren't making you go back to the orphanage you ran away from. Miyuki, you must understand that we are trying to help you... If you put it off for much longer, the cancer is going to get worse and worse..."
"I'm fine, I've told you people to stop worrying about me already," Miyuki said as she continued to refuse to look at the nurse and crossed her arms.
"You passed out on the streets again! You can't keep this up for much longer," the nurse accused, her calm demeanor cracking a bit. The brunette did not reply, only kept looking away from the distressed woman.
After a few minutes of silence, the nurse stood. "I'm going to go get you some food and medicine," the nurse announced. "Please, don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," she added. And with that, she walked out of the room.
'You know, you could be nicer to her...' a voice pointed out and Miyuki glanced at Hipo's appearing form on her bed. The dragon, now about the size of a large dog, was lying down comfortably with her head resting on her front feet and her azure eyes gazing steadily at the girl in the bed. Aside from growing much larger, Hipo's fur and horns were longer, her claws sharper, and her eyes were now more mature.
"'Che, why should I? They all think I'm crazy anyway," Miyuki grumbled and the dragon chuckled response: 'Well you do talk to yourself quite a bit.'
"Shut up Hipo, it's their fault they can't see you," she said before her eyes widened and she erupted into a fit of coughs. Hipo rose to her feet and wrapped her tail around Miyuki until her coughs subsided. Miyuki blinked open her and smiled at the dragon as a thank you. Hipo smiled, her sharp fangs gleaming in the light of the hospital, and she curled back on the bed. The room settled into a comfortable silence as the two wait for the nurse to return.
Then, something quite peculiar happened; out of nowhere, a feminine figure dressed in a black kimono appeared, floating about two feet in the air. Her purple hair was cropped short and her eyes were cat-like and yellow. The figure's posture was very relaxed and there was a wooden band wrapped in a white fabric to her upper arm with the kanji for two and a buttercup flower on it.
"Man," the figure drawled, "I'm a fukutaicho for Kami's sake, why did I get sent I a mission to send Pluses over?" She landed on the ground with a soft thud and sighed, closing her eyes.
"Who the fuck are you?" Miyuki yelled and pointed at the figure, glaring. The figure's eyes opened her surprised and she jumped back, looking dumbfounded at the sick girl.
"Wah! You're alive? I thought with the higher reiatsu you have, that you were already dead!" she proclaimed. Her eyes then widen went she saw the dragon sitting on the bed with Miyuki. "And why are you acting so surprised when you have a dragon on your lap!"
Miyuki lowed her hand and gaped at the woman. "You mean... You can see her?"
"Yeah," the figure began, a little confused, "Why wouldn't I be able to see... her?"
"It's just that no one has been able to see her before... But that's not the important thing, again, who are you?"
"Oh, I'm a shinigami, and my name is Shihōin Yoruichi. I'm the fukutaicho of the second division," Yoruichi said, extending her hand out to Miyuki. "And you are?"
Miyuki raised an eyebrow and cautiously shook hands with the olive-skinned shinigami in front of her. "I'm Miyuki... What's a shinigami?"
"What, no last name?" Yoruichi inquired and when Miyuki shook her head, she continued. "We are death gods; we send souls, or Pluses, over to the Soul Society, whatever you wish to call it, and we cleanse hollows, or Pluses who lost their way, from the World of the Living. Hollows usually look like big monsters with a white mask," Yoruichi explained as briefly as she could. While she was talking, the nurse rushed in, holding a tray of food in her hands and a startled look on her face.
"Miyuki, are you ok? I heard you shouting from all the way down the hall!" the nurse sputtered, not seeming to notice Yoruichi; in fact, she was looking straight past her.
"Um..." Miyuki stammered, looking between Yoruichi and the nurse, at lost for words.
"Oh I see, it must be one of your 'ghost' friends," the nurse said, smiling awkwardly. Her postured relaxed and she set the tray of food and a bottle of medicine on the bedside table and turned to walk out of the room. She paused at the door and turned back at Miyuki, "Be sure to eat all your food and get a good night's rest, sweetie," the nurse said with a smile before closing the door quietly.
As soon as the door closed, Miyuki facepalmed, ignoring the food next to her. "Great.." she moaned, "Now they're surely going to send me to the metal asylum..." Yoruichi chuckled and sat at the foot of her bed, careful not to sit on any part of Hipo. She went more into detail about Shinigami and her duty as being one. She laughed as a Pluse soul floated through the room and Miyuki snapped at it to get lost.
"So, I assume you see ghosts quite often here?" Yoruichi offered with a smile, swinging her legs back and forth.
"Yeah, they annoy me to no end sometimes," Miyuki nodded. "I've been able to see them ever since I've been able to see Hipo," she continued, motioning to the dragon. "And that's when my parent were killed." She tried to say the last part nonchalantly, but had to bow her head so she didn't release any tears.
Hipo wrapped her tail around the girl and turned her gaze to the shinigami. "Ten years ago her whole family was killed by one of those 'hollows', as you call it," Hipo spoke aloud and not in Miyuki's mind. "Even though she is usually snappy and highly sarcastic, she still has quite a hard time talking about it..."
Yoruichi nodded at Hipo and stood, placing a comforting hand on Miyuki's shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss, and I know it must be so hard living without your family," she began sadly, giving Miyuki's shoulder a slight squeeze, "But I know you can get through this. I can tell just by all that you've been through and your amount of reiatsu that you are an extremely strong girl."
Miyuki lifted her head and gave a small smile to the shinigami. "Thank you, Yoruichi."
Yoruichi stepped back and scratched the back of her head, laughing, "Don't mention it!" She glanced out the window and turned back to Miyuki. "Well since you clearly aren't dead, I need to head off..." Before she could turn to leave, Miyuki grabbed hold of her wrist.
"Wait! One thing... You said shinigami kill hollows... Is it possible that I could become one?" Yoruichi would of thought the girl was joking, if it wasn't for the fiery determination in her eyes
"You do have high enough reiatsu," she started and looked at Hipo, thinking to herself, 'And perhaps even the start of a Zanpakutō...' She shook her head and continued out loud, "But that doesn't changed the fact that you are human."
Miyuki face fell upon hearing this and she loosed her grip on Yoruichi's wrist. "Not like I'm going to be alive much longer anyway..." she mumbled to herself.
"Hey, perk up! You're still alive, so smile, and enjoy all the time you have left!" Yoriuchi beamed, patting the girl on the back. Miyuki stared at her bewildered for a moment before laughing and flashing her a cheeky grin.
"You can count on me, Yoriuchi!" she said proudly, causing both Yoriuchi and Hipo to burst into laugher.
"Glad to hear it! Ja'ne, Miyuki," she said, before jumping out the window in the night sky below.
'Well,' Hipo said in Miyuki's mind, 'That was quite the interesting night.'
'It sure was,' the girl affirmed, nodding. She sighed contently, before she leaned back into her pillows and was greeted with a silent sleep.
A week later, Miyuki died with a smile on her face.
AN: Hipo = Spanish for hiccup, pronounced Ee-po
Ja'ne = Byebye in Japanese
The rest should be a Bleach fan's common knowledge :P
Weeeellll... I can't tell if that was a happy or sad ending to the prologue o_o I really hope you guys enjoyed it! Again, it was my first fanfiction, so go easy on my poor soul! Also, because I really don't want to disappoint you guys, I have most of the plot planned out!