Title: Break the Silence
Author: Merci
Series Title: Enjoy the Silence
Part: 1
Characters: Nova, Urahara
Rating: G
Source: Bleach
Wordcount: 992
Summary: Awareness sparks in the spherical pill and a little soul called Nova begins his new life. Somewhere beyond, Urahara tinkers with two other pills, modifying the old souls to serve in a new fight.
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: I am making no profit from this fanfiction. I do not own Bleach, Urahara, or Nova.
Notes: This is a series of stories I started a few years ago. I was playing with Nova and the mod souls. These stories stand well enough on their own (with only a few references to each other, but reading them all to understand is not necessary. (There is an order to them, so I've numbered them for ease of reading. Please see my profile for a list.)
If you enjoy this, then I'm glad. This is one of those works that has been sitting in my hiatus folder for too long, and I wanted to see it completed.
Also, the titles are completely lifted from Depeche Mode's song, Enjoy the Silence which feels very Nova (and Chad). I'm aware of the true meaning of the song, but I was able to interpret the lyrics in my own way, substituting my own idea of what it meant to me and to these characters.
Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
-Depeche Mode "Enjoy the Silence"
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Break the Silence
Awareness sparked in a dark void; the first illuminating flickers of light connecting the fragmented pieces of a little soul.
Was it awareness?
Yes, that's what it felt like. He was certain. He had no basis for comparison, but he would have bet his existence on it.
At the moment, that was all he had.
In the darkness, his awareness sparked and took flame. Awareness focused to a point of light, shining bright and sentient in the darkness.
There was a pause, then. The soft waves of light and awareness lightly washed over him and for uncounted minutes he reveled in the simplicity of it all. Time didn't exist. It was an eternity later when he felt a pinprick of discomfort somewhere in his being, signaling the flood of knowledge that began to pour into him.
Knowledge added another layer to his existence and he marveled at the discomfort of it all. Facts swamped him in an ocean of ideas, plumping his awareness; from simple being, to happy understanding.
It had no colour, form, taste, or sound, but he was awash in its terror as he understood the world outside. The people and places and things that had solid bodies and freedom of will all poured into his consciousness and they fought for dominance in his fledgling mind, peeling his ignorance away in tattered chunks. Understanding attached itself to his singular awareness, covering his consciousness with the mantle of identity.
Nova.
That word burned bright and hot under the layers of modified knowledge and memories.
Was it a… name? Yes, it was ihis/i name. He was certain of it.
Another pinprick touched his being, flooding him with more information that singed his delicate soul, but that simple word numbed the pain. Yes, he understood pain, and had an idea of what pleasure was, too. He understood them both; necessary opposites, as well as the shinigami and bounto. He sifted through the finely-crafted memories, finding his soul modified for a purpose. His mission, to train Ichigo… fight the bounto… but there was something… off. The ideas surged together, like the pieces of a puzzle with jagged corners that didn't quite fit together. Someone was forcing them.
With a sharp-enough scalpel, anything was possible.
Nova waited, growing with every wave of implanted facts and identity. He could feel beyond his tiny soul, feeling the solid, spherical walls of his round container.
Somewhere outside he could feel his creator – a powerful being. He churned with vertigo when he felt the that soul's reiatsu burn bright.
He understood everything and the waves of information ebbed. No more injections and painful pricks of relevant facts.
He was left to hover in darkness, a bright, perfect soul, quiet and subdued; waiting for his master's next move.
Urahara Kisuke hovered about his workbench, green haori tossed over the back of a chair and his sleeves rolled up as he carefully infused the little, round ball with information packets and combat training. It had been a while since he'd modified souls, but Ichigo was getting complacent, and he knew the human and his friends needed to increase their power if they would survive what was to come. He lifted the gumball-sized sphere and peered into it, sensing the soul trapped inside. It had gained consciousness several days earlier and, since then, Urahara had felt its little tentacles of consciousness pressing outward, touching everything around it and trying to understand. It never projected its thoughts, though; never tried to call out or communicate. Unlike the two other souls he'd been modifying, Nova was as quiet as a corpse.
He chuckled, rolling the soul between his fingers. Beyond his workbench lay three lifeless bodies set out on operating tables. Which gigai would best suit this little soul?
Making gigai was an art form, especially when building their features from scratch. Urahara walked over and inspected the bodies. He past the gigai of a little girl, her blonde hair cropped short and her blue dress vaguely bird-like. He wondered if Nova would like this body; with the quiet, observant nature of a bird. Would it like being in such a tiny body, able to travel through dimensions?
He shook his head and sighed. No, the blue was too bright, definitely wrong for Nova. He had yet to finish the soul for the girl's body, but he had something very loud in mind, nearly the opposite of the soul he held at that moment. He continued to the next bed, pausing before another gigai; an older man with multi-coloured hair. He stopped to admire the touches he'd put on this one – with the glasses that added a touch of refinement – but he knew this wasn't the proper gigai, either. He'd crafted this body with the shape shifter in mind. That particular gikon pill had begun chattering on to him a few days earlier, and he was about ready to give him his gigai to shut him up.
Urahara clenched his fist and looked to the only gigai that remained. He'd had Nova in mind when he'd begun crafting this one, and he was then certain he'd made the right decision. He'd spent more time with this one than any of the others, and he couldn't explain why he'd stayed up late just to shape the nose, or agonizing over the right shock of red hair that was now tucked under the fur hood. He'd spent hours on the design, and then covered it all up with black leather and vinyl.
He may have spent hours molding the naked body, and more time than he cared to admit in crafting the blue eyes, but it only felt right. He clenched his hand over the little gikon pill.
The soul inside didn't make a sound, and Urahara hummed to himself, content in his decision as he returned the pill to its container. Soon, Nova would have a proper body, and then, his training could begin.