Title: The day I became a shinigami
Rating: G
Pairing / Characters: Kurosaki Ichigo
Word Count: 421 words
Warnings: Spoilers in general for the arc before the Soul Society arc
Summary: Ichigo remembers the day he became a shinigami
A/N: It's late. Very late. So if this doesn't make sense just let me know. I wrote it anyway, you see and thank heavens for computers with spell check or I would be up to my elbows in spelling errors…
I thought it would hurt more than it did.
What idiot voluntarily stabs himself in the heart just so that he could become something he's only just heard about?
That would be me.
Kurosaki Ichigo. I'm fifteen years old. Currently, a shinigami representative. I guess you could say that it means the higher ups have acknowledged that I'm stronger than they thought.
It's just that I wasn't always like this. Once upon a time in my life, I was just a kid who saw ghosts. I would be at school, and I would see the ghost of some dead kid who I would have to send to heaven. Or I would be out shopping and I would see the ghost of some little old lady hanging around in the fresh foods aisle.
It was a pain in the ass, I tell you.
Once I started seeing monsters, my sanity went to hell.
They were everywhere and I couldn't understand why I'd never noticed them before.
Even before she came along, I was still exorcising ghosts, still sending people to heaven, still seeing monsters.
Then Rukia walked into my bedroom, and life as I knew it was over.
One of the monsters – a hollow – attacked my family, and tried to kill my sisters. I was powerless to stop it, powerless to do anything but watch. Rukia protected them though, nearly losing her own life. That was when she gave me an option.
'Do you want to save your family?' she asked.
'Of course,' I told her in disbelief. 'Is there a way?'
'You have to become a shinigami. Plunge this zanpakutou into your heart and I will pour my powers into you. I don't know if this will work, but it's the only way.'
I didn't know what I was getting myself into.
'Give me the sword, shinigami.'
'I'm not 'shinigami'. I'm Kuchiki Rukia.'
'I'm Kurosaki Ichigo.'
I wrapped my hands around the blade and stabbed myself in the heart. It hurt, but then her power flowed into me and the pain disappeared and I was stronger than I had ever been, invincible and nothing could stop me, I could protect my family from the hollow and I could do it alone…
It's hard to believe, even now. I've gone over and over it in my mind, and nothing's changed. Well, nothing except me. I'm no longer alive, but I'm not dead either. I'm sort of in the middle. A lone flower, you might say.
Two days ago, I became a shinigami.
