Bleeding Cherry Blossoms
Chapter 1: Shinigami
"Ichigo!"
A spiky orange-haired boy at about the age of fifteen looked behind himself to find a girl approaching him. She had long brownish gray hair that reached the middle of her back and mysterious cerulean blue eyes. "Hurry up Sakura!" Ichigo complained, 'We don't have all afternoon!" The girl doubled upon arriving at his side before elbowing him on the ribcage. "Baka itoko. Is that how you treat a lady?" Sakura asked, slyly. The boy scratched the back of his head with an annoyed gaze at the shorter person. "Really? And you're telling me you're a lady, huh? Come on Sakura, we all know you're a tomboy." He said and placed his hand on her head. "Hai, hai." She said in annoyance. They rounded a corner, heading to none other than the Kurosaki hospital. Their home.
"Ichigo! Why are you late?" Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo's father asked upon crashing into his son with a killing intent. Sakura rolled her eyes at her uncle's idiocy, this was where Karin and her Karin were similar at. "Ru-chan, Ichi, dinner will be ready in a while." Yuzu said in an exasperated tone. "Alright, Yuzu." Both said in reply. They went to their respective rooms and got themselves dressed in their house clothes before returning to the dining room to receive dinner. It was like any usual dinner. Isshin and Ichigo's casual blabbers and Karin and Sakura's annoyed gaze at their superior.
The next day after the school's dismissal bell rung, the two cousins darted out of their classroom to head home early. 'School was a pain today and not to mention the amount of homework.' Sakura complained. Despite being the top 2 of their batch, Sakura also had a laid back attitude towards school. "Neh, Ichi, let's drop by the convenience store. I need to buy some thing." Sakura said. He glanced down at her and replies, "All right." The two were walking peacefully on the sidewalk when something exploded a few meters away from them. The surrounding people began to run away from the site. Sakura remembered, 'The news reported that there were explosions happening.' The ghost of the girl from their neighborhood appeared and hid herself behind Ichigo. Sakura was not appalled by the ghost. She had seen ghosts ever since her early childhood years. The explosions reached to the building beside the two and smoke clouded the area. As soon as the smoke dispersed, a huge monster came upon their gaze. Sakura froze in fear as a blurred memory overcame her senses. It was blurred the events were vague. As soon as the monster took a step forward it gave its gaze on Ichigo. It let out a loud bellow before it was overcame by, "I can feel your reiatsu, boy. I think I'll eat you first then I 'll have this girl beside you." The monster looked from Ichigo to Sakura who showed an annoyed glare shot on the beast. Just as it was about to get Ichigo it was bombarded by a sword and in front of the two junior high school students was a petite girl in black shihakou with a thin katana blocking the monster's fist. "Sh-Shinigami?!" the monsters deep voice questioned by the girl gave out a reply and just jump on the monster's back before impaling it's head with her sword. No sooner the monster dispersed and the girl was gone. Sakura suddenly remembered something.
It was night already when they had arrived and it was a few minutes past seven. They both got a ridiculous sermon from their ascendant. Then they proceeded to their dinner which Yuzu had left for them. No sooner the cousins headed to their respective rooms to rest and to do their casual homework. After the huge amount of assignments, it had taken Sakura a piece of lengthy time and she fell on her bed with exhaustion taking every fiber of her. Although she knew exhaustion had clung to her body like it was fastened with super glue, she couldn't help but feel like something wrong was going to happen. She was about to close her eyes when she heard a huge explosion downstairs. Immediately her eyes shot open as two screams filled the air, "Karin! Yuzu!"
She burst out her door and ran down the steps seeing Ichigo who was on his knees, struggling and the same shinigami girl she had seen earlier. "Y-You!" Sakura said and the shinigami turned to face the voice. "Ichi!" Sakura kneeled beside Ichigo but he reprimanded, "Sakura! Get out of here!" Sakura was pushed back as a strong force was emitted from Ichigo's body sending her to a nearby wall. Her head hit hard on the cream colored boundary. She slid onto the floor and she rubbed her head as pain shot through her body. "Itai…" she muttered as her face scrunched in pain. She saw a monster outside, holding Karin by the collar of her clothes. She instantly shot up and ran towards the beast. Seeing the girl the shinigami casted, "Destruction Arts #1: Restrain!" Sakura felt her body being held by a strong force. She tried her best to struggle herself from the strong force. She saw Ichigo run out, she stopped. 'Had he just released himself?!?!' she thought and struggled even more. After a while, she was losing hope. She was already tired but she couldn't let everyone get hurt. No she can't. She just wouldn't let it. With this driving force, Sakura was able to break free from the demon magic. Amazed at her success she looked at her hands, did she really do this? Brushing the thought aside, she sprinted to the exterior of the house to find the shinigami sitting at a sidewalk wall, bleeding. She spotted Karin and quickly she approached the girl. "Good, she'd just out cold." She looked at the monster. Her eyes widened, 'Am I dreaming or is Ichigo wearing the same clothes the Shinigami did?' She picked up Karin and placed her on the couch before walking back outside. Ichigo had did the final blow and the monster was already dispersing. Sakura approached her cousin and they looked to the place where the shinigami laid but she was gone. 'She disappeared again…'