Summary: "I am Kai Socrius. I came to Rukongai by dying. I was told to become a Shinigami. So what's next? I know now. And I will not go down without a fight." Hollows and Shinigami are at war... still. To stop the invasion, we'll need more well-trained Shinigami. Can any of the new Shinigami students rise up to become one of them? Perhaps, there is one. And this is his story.


Bleach: Waves and Rapids

Part I: Learning Arc

Prologue: Shinigami

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and its characters, except for the OC's being introduced into the story. These characters (and Zanpakutō, if applicable) belong to me, and me only.


Over to my right lay a scene of destruction; a broken asphalt road and destroyed buildings. The road was torn up as if a meteor had slid into it. Many of the buildings had massive holes in them. To my left lay a disappearing monster, cut cleanly at its waist, arms, and head, all connected by pools of blood. I sat at the road, back against a sign, panting heavily.

But in front of me was a tall figure, a long, black-haired man with ornate headpieces in a white coat over a black kimono. A mint-green scarf covered his neck. Myriad pink fragments came together and formed a katana's blade in his hand.

"You are safe now, child," the man said. He raised the hilt of his katana. "There is nothing you need to be afraid of. Stop crying."

I rubbed my eyes dry and looked up at the man. "What was that?" I asked.

"A soul just like you, only turned sinister." He lifted the back of the katana's hilt. "If that chain gets any shorter, you could turn into one too."

I held the chain in my hand, feeling like I was holding some string to my heart. It hadn't gotten shorter in two weeks, but the previous "shortenings" were painful, one more painful to the next. I had the feeling that the next time my chain shortened, it was going to kill me.

"But, there is a place you can go to, that which shall not let you become one. But it is up to you, whether you wish to go or not."

"I do." The last remnants of the monster disappeared to thin air.

"So be it." The man got down on a knee and the Kanji character of "burial" appeared on the hilt bottom. I felt the hilt bump my forehead, and I felt as if I was falling...

Falling...

My vision of everything was skewed, stretched out. My eyes burned from the experience, so I tried closing them. But I couldn't - they were already closed. Is something happening?


I woke up staring at the bright morning sun. It was almost at its peak, near noon. Must've overslept... I thought, getting up and rubbing my eyes. Awake, I inspected my surroundings.

My hideout had been left untouched during the night, which was fortunate. I was sitting at the top left corner of the hideout, if you looked at it from a bird's-eye-view from above. The hatch I used to go to the main street was down toward the center of a building and went through its foundation. To the left of me sat two water basins, one for drinking and one for washing. A circle with a small metal loop was situated in the middle of the lot. The whole hideout was blocked with a wooden roof that had taken me forever to prepare, then even more so to lead all runoff to a nearby drain. In all, it took me about a month to settle in East Rukongai like this.

East Rukongai, District Sixty-Eight, is not a place one would want to stay. It is full of child criminals whom fight and steal for food. Money has long since been proven useless to them, as no one would serve a street rat. However, I came around that by working for other people, earning money and gaining some respect by the older townsmen. I keep that activity to a low profile, so none of the kids notice what I'm doing. I sighed as I got up and washed my face with the water basin to the left. I produced a washcloth to wipe off the sweat I had accumulated during the dream.

Dream. My arrival into whatever this place was. All I knew was that I was lying in this exact same spot, but with all of the objects around me out of place. It took me a month to produce the rubbish into this... home. But it wasn't how I arrived that bothered me. It was the person.

It looked awfully like a Shinigami that were described in this place of Rukongai. This area was usually infested with Hollows, corrupted souls, so Shinigami had come here during some time to deal with it. But then again, the guards from the Kuchiki Royal Family have the power to fend them off, and sometimes kill them. But just in case, I whittled out a wooden katana to train myself for training my improvised slash, hack, and stab moves; training on invisible enemies. No one was here to criticize me.

I took a big gulp of water from the basin to the right and wiped my face with my arm. I stretched my tired limbs and, using my fingers, combed my hair into place and ambled toward the hatch, opening it before darting into it. It was pitch dark, except for the two openings. As I neared the main street hatch, the sound of the afternoon Rukongai entered my ears, the air filled with marketplace food; or crime bait. I would say it is a more... accurate term.

I found myself in an alleyway, boxes hiding my figure against the darkness. I slowly approached the main street and blended into the crowd. I watched a few kids run away from a food stall, being chased by the clerk carrying a rolling pin. Not wanting to waste any chance, I inconspicuously stole a random bun from the stall and walked away.

"You really want to give it to me," said a boy. I looked to see a kid, about to my forehead, so he couldn't have been more than my age. Two younger kids stood behind the first, albeit less fat or lean.

"Do I want to give it to you?" I asked, taking a large bite out of the pastry.

The boy, probably no older than fourteen or fifteen, boiled with anger. He clenched a shaking fist. "I think we ought to teach this guy a lesson," he declared. The kids behind him nodded their heads hungrily. Together, they lunged at me.

I didn't know what they were thinking, the street rats whom barely have enough to live off of. What's more is that they are challenging a healthy person. I would say the match-up was unfair, but they started it... so I defended myself.

I threw my bun into the air, which the two younger kids looked up to try and catch it. The lead however, kept going forward and threw a punch; I caught it with my forearm and pushed it away and delivered a quick, powerful jab into his stomach. He went down reeling and grasping his stomach. I jumped over him to get the younger kids, catching my bun before sweeping them with a wide kick at head-height. I watched as they cried and tried to get away from me as fast as their wound would let them. And that only happens in anime.

I sighed, thinking that the bun would still fill me up. When I thought wrong, I cursed the District for being so poor and the kids for being greedy and "unable to try an alternative." Then I sighed as I decided to head back to my hideout. I walked back to the designated alleyway, ducking into the hatch door and through the foundation tunnel. I opened the hatch to my hideout, walking to a box. I opened it, revealing the wooden katana.

It was about two feet ten, which was about eighty six centimeters, long. The edge was blunt, due to me deliberately not sharpening it. I took it by the hilt, which was wrapped with scraps from Rukongai tunics. As I took the sword out, then felt a sudden shudder through the ground. I stared at my sword, then heard the screams of people and the sound of a building crash.

I turned around at the sudden smell that I can only imagine as allowing a corpse to ferment in the middle of summer. The sound of gurgling saliva sounded behind me. I could already figure out what it was even before seeing the smile design on its white mask. A Hollow!

It roared as it struggled to enter through the crevice it managed to break into a building wall. It looked like a snake, except had talons of some sort for front limbs. It growled at me as it reached for me with its claw. I jumped back to evade the grab, and then dove toward my hatch door. The Hollow struggled and destroyed the entire section of the building and grabbed at my foot. It promptly let go as I heard a splash of water and its piercing shriek. The timber broke as I crouch-dashed toward the hatch door to the alley, the door swung on its hinges while I crashed into it. Resisting the pain, I dashed into the direction of the torrent of people. I turned to see it following me, ignoring the other souls.

It's... going for me?

But why me? Of all people!

The village guards had assembled, and started firing volleys of reishi bolts, which barely scratched its hide. The Hollow merely turned, and lunged at me, to which I was able to jump out of the way of the not aimed grab. I deduced it was to figure out how I moved, so I had to keep dodging it... somehow.

Then the worst thing happened. My foot caught on a stray fruit on the ground and I tripped. I would have imagined who could have dropped it, until the Hollow picked me up. "Your soul shall be tasty, indeed!" it cackled, showing me its dual set of teeth.

"Shut up," I said, shoving my sword into its right eye. It howled in pain as it gripped my sword, pulling out what would be twig in his eye. He dropped me, to which I rolled to reduce the impact inflicted, then resumed running. I had forgo-ed my sword to protect myself, and had no other means to protect myself.

It shrieked at me again, the wounded eye closed tightly as a stream of blood trickled out of it. I ran faster, but I was barely able to keep it up now. I started to lose my pace, feeling tired and as if the last time I ate was yesterday morning. That alone was enough for the Hollow to catch again. I saw a bolt dissipate near me, some few centimeters from my face. It was the end; I shut my eyes as the Hollow prepared to chomp me.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura."

My eyes snapped open. Suddenly, a wave of pink washed past me, severing the Hollow's hand. It howled in pain as it turned to see a Shinigami with a white coat standing on a building's roof with a katana blade without a sword. Then I realized I was falling. But the Hollow's hand acted as something like a cushion to the ground, but the fingers were still too heavy for me to lift by myself. I turned to see the Shinigami jump down from the roof, calmly "cutting" the air in front of him. The pink wave responded to his movement and cleaved the Hollow into bit-sized pieces, which then faded to dust. The hand wrapping me dissipated too and caused me to hit the ground.

The Shinigami looked at me, his gray eyes piercing into my black-brown ones. The pink petals flew to his sword hilt, reforming its blade, and he sheathed the weapon. "Kuchiki-dono!" cried one of the guards, immediately kneeling at the man's feet. "We are terribly sorry for having you go through the trouble of having to kill the Hollow."

"It absorbed the reishi bolts; it could not be helped." His eyes were still trained on me. "I happened to be here by coincidence." He walked toward me. "Boy, get up." I did so. "There isn't anything you need to be afraid of. Get up and stop crying."

Have I heard that voice before? Those exact same words?

"Kuchiki-dono, I don't think acting harsh toward a child will help..."

"I wasn't crying, sir," I said calmly. "This wasn't the first time I have been chased by a Hollow, so I'm somewhat used to it. But it bothers me that they always chase me all the time."

The Shinigami's gray eyes brightened, then returned to his steely gaze. "Have you eaten anything?" he asked warily.

"Uhh, yeah. A bun... some few minutes ago." I finally realized something. The man had the same hair style and ornaments, same katana and reformation of the blade, and the same mint-green scarf around his neck. He was the same man whom was in my dream, the one who granted me passage to Soul Society.

"I have a request for you," the Shinigami said, "go attend the Academy of Soul Arts, or the Shinigami Academy as you call it. The Hollows will stop chasing you if you do." Then he disappeared, but I caught him at the roof of a low house before disappearing against the afternoon sun.

"Become a Shinigami..." I said. "He wants me to be a Shinigami..."


A/N: Thanks for reading the Prologue my first Bleach fic. I hope you enjoyed it, and that you will enjoy the plans I have for this fic.

-Kai