Bleach Reborn: Shadows Within

Chapter 1

I don't remember much of my life, little flashes and glimpses, which I suppose is more than some people, those I've met over these 20 years can't really remember a thing, I guess I'm blessed in that way…maybe.

I don't know how blessed someone can really be when what they remember isn't all that nice, I know I had a family, though strange as it was, I know I died of an illness, though what illness I couldn't really tell you, and I know I died long before I was supposed to, its kinda depressing.

The days here in Inuzuri, part of the 47th south district here in Rukongai are hot and not a little bit dull, I get by day to day working for the owner of a bread stall, the pay is bad and the hours are long, but at least I get to eat. Honestly, this is the weirdest afterlife I have ever heard of, not that I can remember the afterlives I've heard of, but to think that I can feel and think and do pretty much what I could in the real world is kinda a buzz-kill. Who ever heard of a heaven where you need a job?

My apologies, I didn't introduce myself, I'm Izzaria Dragovar, died at the tender age of 27, and have currently spent 20 years in Rukongai. Now don't misunderstand, it's not like I'm old now, and it's not that I'm not aging either. Souls here in Rukongai do age; we just seemingly age a lot slower than normal. I'd gather I'm the equivalent of about 33 now, although from what I've heard, the higher natural spiritual pressure you have, the slower the aging process becomes. I have black hair that goes past my shoulders, bright green eyes and a rather pale yet dusty complexion. I would like to say I have a great figure, and I do, but I wish my ankles weren't so bony.

But despite my nice looks, intelligence and my preference for black clothing...I'm still stuck in this dump working at a bread stall.

Sadly that was where I lived; at least it wasn't totally dull.

CRASH!

I had to move fast, the stall was almost coming down on my head. I guess I had been kinda daydreaming due to my problems. I saw a flash of something white fall near me; I was frozen in trepidation as I gazed down at a very strange black and white creature. It seemed to have a white exoskeleton that adorned black stripes up and down its body, its head was strange and adorning what seemed at first to be horns out of its head, but in fact they were tentacles, its body was almost humanoid although its arms and legs were inverted like the bone structure of a bird, obviously it walked on all fours, and from what I could tell it had been severely damaged, it had a hole right through its chest, but there was no blood coming from the wound. Its eye was bright yellow, but seemingly only had one of them, on its left side. I tried to keep my distance, but the only real way out was where the creature had fell, so I placed my back to the wall and seemingly tried to meld myself with the concrete, obviously without success.

The creature stirred and looked up at me, its snarl was piercing and chilled me to the bone, and one of its tentacles from its head was suddenly wrapped around my leg. I reached over to the rubble of the stall and grabbed the closest sharpest thing I could find, a bread knife. Thankfully the owner of the stall always focused on keeping his instruments in good condition, it was sharp.

The knife slashed, the glint of the blade flashing eerily in the sunlight, the feel of tentacle flesh against the blade was a rather sickening sensation, but strangely exhilarating, until the blade stopped, I looked down and saw the blade dented and damaged, the tentacle more than intact. The creature's skin was too tough.

Suddenly, a flash of a blade caught the corner of my eye, and the side of the creature's body erupted open in a large gash, blood spraying the floor, the creature turned and roared at a black clad figure, it was a Shinigami.

I have seen only one or two shinigami in my time, and I have always been rather fascinated by them. Their speed and grace was immense to me, if only their fashion sense was any better.

This shinigami had black hair, a rather angular face and brown eyes, his stance was formidable, but I could see he was slightly nervous, I wondered if he was even in a seated position. I knew about the general hierarchy of the Soul Society Shinigami, after seeing my first shinigami a mere 5 years ago, I took it upon myself to learn everything that I could, I think I became a little bit obsessed.

The creature turned in anger to the black clad figure, one of his thick long tentacles slinging out at its attacker. The Shinigami took it in the chest; I watched as he flew back and struck a wall, piles of rubble and smoke lifted into the air. I reacted as fast as I could, diving on top of the creature and gazed down at its single eye who in turn looked up at me, a strange sickening feeling erupted in my stomach, yet I couldn't shake another feeling of familiarity.

My theory was simple, anything that had a tough skin, had a weak spot, and that weak spot was usually the eyes, or eye in this case, see, what I tell ya, simple.

The bread knife in my hand came down, and I was ever so pleased as I heard the creature howl in pain, the blade went deep, gouging into the socket and further into the creature's brain, blood flowed around my murderous instrument, staining my hand and the black dress that was currently adorning the top half of my body.

A flash of pain struck my stomach, I looked down and gazed as the blood flowed freely around the creature's appendage that was half into my abdomen...it had stabbed me with one of its tentacles. I felt nauseous, weak, in a desperate attempt I shoved the knife deeper, the creature howled and collapsed on the ground, drowning in its own blood, I fell off its back onto the floor, I heard voices around me, but soon, the blackness took me.

*

The voices sounded out in the darkness, there was a whispering, and it was comforting. This dark place was nice, it was simple...it was mine.

*

"What we gonna do with the body?" A near unintelligible voice said.

"I don't know, I've never really had to dispose of a hollow's body before, they usually fade away," replied another voice nearby.

"Why didn't it disappear?" Asked the other voice.

"Well it wasn't killed by a zanpakuto was it, Quincy and other powerful humans destroy the soul, that causes them to disintegrates, Bount eat the souls causing 'em to disappear, we purify the soul, causing it to fade away, but she stabbed the thing with a bread knife, in all honesty I don't know what we're gonna do with the thing, hell, I don't even know what happened to the soul, 12th are gonna have a field day."

The bright light suddenly burst through my eyelids as my eyes opened, a groan escaped my lips.

"Hey sleeping beauty." The voice obviously came from a male, I looked up and finally the glare of the light died down and I was able to see decently. I was faced with a young looking blonde haired boy, looking no older than 20, though knowing how slow souls age, it was most likely older, his hair was wavy and untidy in a good looking sort of way and he had the strangest eye's I had ever seen, they were red. He was smiling in a geekish yet charming sort of way; he was dressed in a white robe with a blue stripe down the middle, and a blue shinobi skirt that clung to his legs. He was obviously a trainee.

"Red eyes..." I found myself commenting absent minded like.

The shinigami on my other side chuckled, he was the same one from the before that had faced the creature, he had a bandage around his chest; it was obvious the creatures attack had done some damage. The blonde haired trainee looked a little embarrassed and placed a hand behind his head and grinned nervously.

"Hey," he said, retrieving his hand from the back of his head and offering it to her. "My name is Aroki." His voice was sincere and so I took it, we shook hands and then he pulled me to a sitting position. "That was quite a feat you did, killing that hollow." He grinned.

I looked at him in confusion, "hollow?" I repeated in a questioning manner.

The other shinigami dressed in black turned to me. "A hollow is what you killed, a group of creatures, souls actually, that weren't soul buried in time or where attacked and turned by other hollows. Most of them are instinctual..." he explained whilst looking over the bandage around my stomach, I hadn't noticed but I was no longer dressed properly, I had a white skirt on now and bandages covered my top half from my stomach to over my breasts. "...some are stronger than others, quite the threat, the one you killed before was not even a Gillian, I should have handled myself better, but their stronger here in soul society due to the high concentration of spirit particles, and I didn't anticipate that." He admitted. "So I suppose I'm in your debt, I had a member of the 4th division bring you here for healing." He replied with a smile. "My way of saying, 'thank you.'"

She nodded and blushed slightly. "Thanks, and it wasn't much, I just acted without thinking." She admitted.

The shinigami giggles to himself. "Well if it's your instinct to kill hollows, then maybe you should become a Shinigami." He joked.

These words hit home to me, I thought about it and the idea was rather repealing, living to defend souls from harm, becoming stronger, and never having to work at any stall ever again.

"Erm, how do I do that?" I asked curiously, a look of shock flashed over the trainee's and the shinigami's face momentarily before they smiled.

"You serious?" Asked the black haired Shinigami, my reply was a simple nod. "Well," he began, "if you're sure about this, I'll show you were you can sign up." He offered.

I smiled at this, at first being attacked by a crazy creature wasn't very conducive to having a good day, but now it seemed a blessing in disguise.

*

The initiation was strange; the building was a wooden house as was usual in soul society, despite the universal use of soul society by all countries, if I remembered correctly it was first designed by the King himself, who was Japanese, which may be the reason for the general oriental feel of the area, besides, it was calming and strangely helped you keep focused.

I myself am English born and raised, my second name derived from my husband when I was alive obviously, I can't remember what nationality he was and Dragovar certainly is a strange name regardless of what language and nationality your from, but personally I liked it, besides, it strangely reminded me of my son, I remember he was 3 at the time, he wasn't MY son, he was adopted. I wish I could remember his face.

I approached my latest class, it was on the different classes of spiritual being's, it was the 5th class I'd attended so far. I looked down at myself as I walked to the door of the classroom, the white outfit stuck to my figure in a rather complimentary way; it had a red skirt and a red stripe down the front of a white top, as was standard for the female shinigami's. I looked around me as I stood near the door to my class, outside, around me bustled other trainee's and a few graduates here and there, the induction had been a little strange and uncomfortable. They had a shinigami send a strange aura over me at first, probably testing for spiritual strength, they seemed pleased with what they found and let me in without another word, the class was less easy. The other students didn't seem welcoming of newbies; like everything was a competition and one more person seemed to add to the list of competitors and threats. I had yet to see the strange red eyed trainee, Aroki, around anywhere, a fact that weighed heavy in my chest. I was quite lonesome; I almost yearned for my bread shop stall.

I entered the classroom and gazed around, most the seats were full except one near the back and a more appealing one near the middle, beside the seat on the right sat a black haired and rather brawny looking trainee, and on the left stood a familiar face, it was Aroki. My day brightened up instantly, at least now I would have someone to talk to. I went over and was about to sit down in the seat when suddenly it was taken by somebody else. I was a little shocked, I'd put my books on the table already and it had been plainly obvious I had claimed the seat as my own. I turned and looked at the white haired female trainee that had sat in my place, she wore the same outfit as me, had long pure white hair with a red band fixed behind her ears, and her eyes where a strange ice blue lacking any form pupil and the shape showed a foreign dissent, though which one I could not be sure. "Erm, excuse me?" I began. "Can I sit there? I was kinda here first." I asked and commented as kindly as I could.

The white haired trainee turned to me and gave me a rather amused look. "No you may not." She replied with a smile, her voice was a gentle one, her tone and manner suggesting a superiority complex. Her articulation and pronunciation was obviously from the kind of person that came from money, this wouldn't be pleasant

I looked at her with a stunned expression, turning to Aroki who gave me a rather unsure and apologetic shrug, it was obvious he was at a loss at what to do about the girl as much as I was. I thought that maybe an olive branch of sorts, allowing the girl to get to know me, and maybe she would be kind. I extended my hand towards her and tried to give her a friendly smile.

"Hey, I'm Izzaria Dragovar." I smiled down at the girl, she looked at the hand but didn't reach for it, and she looked up and raised a single eyebrow.

"Hmm, strange name, strange accent, strangely can't take a hint. I'd gather you're British. I'm Iria Starr, and you are not even worthy enough to lick my sandals, let alone stand anywhere near me. That will be all." She said, turning around and waving her hand as though to dismiss a servant.

I stood there, my hand slightly shaking, I turned, trying to quell my anger, I sat in the only other empty seat that happened to be two rows down. I plopped myself glumly on the seat, grumbling to myself incoherently.

The class started and I merely spent my time paying attention, I learned and found out many interesting things about how different things had become over the last 200 years. We were told of the Bount, the Hollows, The Arrancar, the Vizard, the spiritual Human's, and the Quincy.

The class was also something of a history class, it seemed that 200 years ago there had been a great upset involving a rouge captain, it got very complicated, but it lead to the creation of the perfect Arrancar, and how the human world was now rather spiritually charged due to certain events, how the amount of humans who developed sight and powers of the supernatural had grown immensely, how the Quincy numbers had grown, but not by much, still straggling behind in the department of powerful numbers. I was surprised to hear how many captains had retired or died over the years, apparently, new captains would usually stay for over 100 years with a relatively peaceful time until something massive came along, but within the last 200 years, almost all the original captains had left, the only truly original that remained was Soi Fon. Apparently, the current Captain Komamura was actually the son of the legendary Komamura and as for Zaraki Kenpachi, the demon himself was still alive, but his whereabouts where seemingly classified. And the ancient hero of Soul Society, Ichigo Kurasaki, he had left his sword and went to join those of the king's personal guard, his power so great that he needed no weapon, now able to completely control his Vasto form. His blade could still be found on the earth Vizard training area beneath the remains of the old Urahara shop, where the never ending barrier could be found, Ichigo's permanently shikai blade imbedded within the folding and fluxing energy of the great barrier. It was also rumoured to be the place he first learned to control his inner hollow, though many didn't really take much stock in the idea.

At last the bell rang, signalling for the lesson to come to an end. The next lesson was on soul burial, a class I had been looking forward too as it meant going to earth. I lifted myself from my seat and approached Aroki.

"Hey." I began but was interrupted suddenly by Iria Starr, the girl from before.

"Hello." She began with a rather sultry expression, she was addressing Aroki. "I wouldn't associate with riffraff like that. How about you and I get something to eat sometime?" She grinned at him.

I stood there gawking...RIFFRAF! Who'd did she think she was?

Aroki placed a hand behind his head and looked embarrassed. "Erm, I'll think about it." He replied.

A single digit of Iria trailed up the side of his neck and under his chin, "don't think too long." She said raising her eyebrows in a suggestive fashion. As the girl walked away, I noticed something attached to the bottom of her hair, it seemed like a circular plate that was bone white, it was clipped onto her hair, holding it together. Realization dawned on me, I had heard about hair pieces being worn by those of the noble houses, souls that were born into soul society, a concept I had never really understood. But it seemed this girl was one of them, well, that certainly explained the superiority complex.

A single thought occurred in my mind, if she was so much on her high horse with her nobility, why was she going after Aroki, surely her tastes would be into the more democratic and high ranking people.

I walked over to the blonde haired trainee and crossed my arms, leaning against the table. My eyes were probably serious because he looked a little taken back.

"What?" He asked, obviously feeling uncomfortable.

"Who are you really?" I asked, really wanting some answers.

"Erm, Aroki Miru Samiru." He said with a slight grin, as though hoping the answer would be enough.

"You know what I mean, a girl like that doesn't take interest in anyone unless they're of high class, I can tell she's nobility, are you nobility too?" I asked.

"Well, erm…" He began, "Not really, well its not like I'm from a long line or anything." He grinned, his hand at the back of his head and laughing humorously, no doubt to try and deviate my attention and questions. I didn't fall for it, but if he wanted to keep it a secret, then fine.

"Fine, whatever." I walked past him and out of the class.

"Wait up!" I heard him call out behind me, gathering his stuff and following me.

*

The soft wind blew at my face and I rather enjoyed the sensation, if only it wasn't so chilly. The moon in the sky lit up the concrete ground, we were on earth, a very nostalgic feeling had overcame me the moment I'd entered here, like I once belonged. But no longer did.

This class was on soul burial, and several souls had been gathered up for us to practice on, we where being taught by two Vice Captains so we were pretty safe. The idea of a soul burial really was simple. As trainee's we were given soul swords, swords that absorb reiatsu and act as conduits, these were the same swords that would eventually be affected by our own reiatsu and become the vessels for the souls of our inner spirit; basically, the swords would become our zanpakuto. They were all pretty identical; apparently they changed over time, rather imperceptibly. Personally I was very excited as to how my blade would look. Now to soul burial, all you really had to do was touch a soul on the head with the butt of the blade handle and the sword did the trick for you, apparently borrowing your own reiatsu for the transference, but I never really noticed anything or felt even the slightest bit weaker. It was rather a fun experience, though a little dull, I was expecting my first visit to earth to be a little more eventful.

However, I do sometimes hate to get what I wish for.

CRASH!

I looked to my right, a very sharp white bone like point was suddenly flying towards me, I couldn't move. It was too close, too fast.

Suddenly there was a figure in front of me; it was one of the Vice Captains. His zanpakuto was in his hand, the flat surface being used to block the point. "The souls attracted hollows, get moving!" He shouted at us. I grabbed Aroki's hand and pulled him with me, the senkaimon gate had been left available just in case such a thing occurred, and we had been warned. The soul burial class was very treacherous, the concentration of so many souls in one area inviting it as a buffet for nearby hollows, thankfully they were never much higher than basic's, so far a Gillian had never attacked, it seemed until now.

Suddenly the ground erupted near in front of me and Aroki, sending us flying back and crashing against the cold hard concrete of the ground. Before me stood a massive creature, pure black except for the large white mask adorning its head, there were spikes all over its body, protruding from all angles. It seemed to lean and look directly at me; a dark chill crept through my spine as I suddenly felt frozen in fear.

Spikes rapidly slashed down at me, I wasn't fast enough nor did I have the will to dodge, I was fear struck, paralyzed against the floor. Suddenly a spiritual pressure rocketed next to me; I looked and stared in wonder. It was Aroki.

Aroki seemed to be covered with a blood red and black aura, the ground started to seemingly age and crumble around it, his eyes glowing a pure red. His trainee zanpakuto suddenly rocketed with energy and burst into two blades, he slashed them down, his energy erupting forwards and slicing through the spikes, the ground around Aroki seemingly burst open in torrents of blood, it viscous and coppery fluid raised itself into the air and formed what seemed to be swords…swords made from blood. They flew at the massive hollow, rapidly shredding into its body and head, slicing it, blood poured from the creature for over half a minute before it collapsed backwards, disintegrating like ashes in the wind.

I lay gawking at him, slowly but surely, he fell forwards, and fainted. It was then I found myself able to move. I sat up and stumbled over to his side on my hands and feet, shaking him rapidly. "Aroki, Aroki wake up!"

*

I was feverish, feeling sick and worried out of my mind, I didn't understand it, a mere trainee should never be able to stand up to the likes of a Gillian. I was sat in the waiting room of the 12th Division Squad house, there was an underground section below a basic barracks, and I was currently outside the door that led down into the main laboratory.

I had expected them to take Aroki to the 4th Division Squad house, but why they brought him here I really didn't know.

Suddenly the door to the main lab opened up and the 12th Division Captain Krysten, walked over to me. "You can come see him now, but before you do, there are some things you must know." I knew I should have bowed before the Captain, but for some reason I just didn't, though thankfully she didn't seem to mind, I merely stayed rapt to attention.

"Aroki is a member of the Samiru noble family, the recently established 5th nobility house in Seretai, its foundry based on a single generation. Aroki is the child of the founders of the Samiru household; however, it sometimes goes by another name. Tell me Izzaria-san, have you ever heard the name Kenpachi?" She asked in a concerned tone.

The name struck a cord in me. There were limited resources of information on soul society outside of the court of pure souls, but there was enough. I remembered a specific book, the Kenpachi, the title awarded to the one that was the strongest, the man of each generation that seemingly could not die. The holders of such a title were meant to be like demons, the most famous of which was the legendary Zaraki Kenpachi. The only captain to have gained the rank, without achieving bankai first hand, his whereabouts where now unknown, or classified.

The 12th Division captain looked at me and smiled sheepishly. "I can tell by the look on your face you're familiar with the title. Have you heard of Zaraki Kenpachi?" She asked.

I practically flinched at the name; I was fascinated by the legendary Zaraki, riveted to her words and strangely experiencing not a small bit of fear at the direction of the conversation.

"Y…yes." I replied, embarrassed at my stuttering.

The 12th Division captain seemingly takes a deep breath. "The thing you need to know is Aroki Miru Samiru is one of two sons, of Zaraki Kenpachi."

The very concept or idea of such a thing was strangely mind numbing, I couldn't imagine someone like Aroki being raised by a being that all text books could only describe as a monster.

"I won't go into details, they're for him to divulge in his own time. What I will say is the result and the reason to why I'm telling you this. You see, which Kenpachi being the boys father, his natural reiatsu is incredibly strong, sadly his soul isn't."

I didn't quite understand this sentence and I think the 12th Captain knew I didn't from the look on my face.

"Aroki's soul is fragile, at the age of 14 his power began to overrun him, he became unstable. His soul started tearing itself apart. Due to this, we did the only thing that we could really to keep him alive, we created a vessel that would allow him to channel his shinigami abilities, but buffet them enough to a natural level. We've used a mixture of kido engineering and cybernetic implants and created a gigai for him based on an old design found in the databanks, apparently the one who founded the 12th squads research and development division was working on a way of making gigai's that didn't block shinigami powers, the plans have been very useful. Aroki has been in a gigai this entire time, using a prototype. The gigai acts and works just like any normal body, needing nourishment and sustenance to work, and due to the cybernetic implants it also needs basic mechanical recharging. However, the incident with the Gillian earlier today, well it pushed him over the edge. He broke the gigai, we've replaced it, outfitted him with a new and improved one, sadly, the biological aspects of the faux body and the cancerous nature of Aroki's reiatsu means there is a breakdown. Slowly but surely he will need to keep replacing his gigai, swapping biological attributes for cybernetic implants. Eventually there won't be anything human left except for his soul...He'll be a machine."

For some reason this revelation really struck me, I had to choke back tears and tried my hardest to keep myself composed.

"Is…is he in pain? And how long does he have?" I asked, my voice sounding pathetically weak.

"Yes and no. His soul is constantly in pain, but we've managed to block the nerve synapses so he can't feel it to that extent, he's aware of it consciously, it just doesn't actually reach him. As for how long, we don't know. As he grows stronger in training he's deteriorating faster, we anticipate 10 years before he's stuck in a purely cybernetic gigai, 100 before that breaks down and then he'll probably die." She paused for a moment. "Do you want to see him?"

I nodded softly.

She led me to the door and slowly but surely we descended the stairs together. The main laboratory area was rather large, many rooms containing specimens and strange looking corpses or devices. Only a single rule caught my eye as I looked inside it, on the table lay a hollow, it was white, with black stripes, and on its head where tentacles laying limp, its eye had dried blood around it.

"Is that….?" I began, Krysten stepping up to my side.

"Yes, that's the hollow you've killed, it's been there for months. It seems that due to our tests, we've confirmed that its soul is currently intact, but according to all scans there is no activity, the soul is there it's just not doing something, as though it really is dead."

"The corpse of a soul?" I asked incredulously.

"A strange way of putting it, but I suppose your right, the soul is like a corpse, just laying there, rotting. I don't know what to make of it. It should have faded, but enough of that, Aroki is this way." She smiled, walking on ahead.

I stayed there for a little longer, looking at the creature I had killed; a strange thought occurred to me, I was certain the wound I'd caused had been bigger than that. Putting the thought out of my head I turned and followed the Captain to where Aroki was being kept.

We entered a door and there seemed to be something of a medical bay down here, Aroki was on what seemed to be a comfortable bed, his face brightening into a wide grin when he saw me. It was only now, after hearing the story that I understood the reason behind him having red eyes, they seemed strange now, despite his warm demeanour, his eyes made him feel somewhat cold.

"Hey." I greeted, with a slight smiled.

He looked over my face and pouted. "Gah, Captain, you told her didn't you?" I heard a chuckle from behind me and grinned.

"Oh Izzaria-san, there is one question I would like to ask you. If that's alright?" The Captain asked.

I turned to her in acknowledgment.

"Aroki's reiatsu is naturally cancerous, how is it you were able to stand directly next to him when he let loose, and you weren't affected in a negative way?"

The answer to the question actually hit my mind the moment she finished asking it, it was rather embarrassing.

"Well erm," I began. "Truth be told…I…Kinda…Liked it." I replied, blushing brightly.

The Captain suddenly seemed to be suffering from a bad cough, whilst grinning broadly; obviously the idea of me enjoying the feeling of such reiatsu was a rather disconcerting and humorous one.

"Oh, can I ask you a question in return?" I said, turning to the Captain, who replied with a simple nod and a smile.

"If Aroki was able to strike down a Gillian in a single blow with his power, why is he only a trainee?"

"I can answer that one." Aroki said behind me, I turned to him expectantly. "You see, I only reach my true power outside of my gigai or when I break down, otherwise I'm buffered down to my basic level that I should be. Right now I'm not much better than you, only got experience and a few more months of training on my side, other than that I'm not very strong at all." He said, a grin adorning his face.

We sat there and spoke for a little while, smiling and laughing together, the Captain was a kind person, nice to talk to and get along with, and I found myself enjoying my time spent there.

Though, unbeknown to me or Aroki or even the Captain, a few rooms down, the location of the seemingly dead hollow. Its wound on its eye, suddenly completely closed up, bone covering it like a patch, and it drew in a single raspy breath.

To be continued…