Madness
A Bleach fanfic
By Nelarun
Bleach (c) Kubo Tite
He woke with a start, a round room, white chain links shackled to wrists and ankles, people were sat in the shadows watching him, studying him. "Who are you?" he asked as he stepped into the shaft of light. A clinking of chains and then one-by-one the shadowed figures revealed themselves. They were young, gaunt, tired looking. None were ten years his senior, only a few were younger. All chained to the wall. "What are you?"
"You thought you were the first?" He turned to see a young woman perhaps five years his senior studying him.
"First what?"
"Criminal? One to be betrayed by the Shinigami? Quincy-Shinigami hybrid." The girl shrugged and her chains clicked again.
"I'm not a criminal."
"Of course you are."
"I am Kurosaki Ichigo and I am not a criminal."
"You're human but you have powers you ought not to." She spoke an older tongue of Japanese that sounded odd to Ichigo's ear, but was still very understandable. "In the eyes of the Shinigami you are a criminal. Schedule Nine – illegal but available for research purposes with permits." Ichigo grimaced at her blasé tone and almost mad sounding giggle.
"How is it possible to be a Quincy-Shinigami hybrid. I thought they hated each other!"
"Well, when a man and a woman love each other," one of the men said.
"No, no, no! Love is entirely inconsequential."
"Right, well then-"
"I know how it happens." Ichigo scowled, flushing as a rasping, hissing sound he realised was laughter broke out from even more people in the shadows. "I just don't understand how."
The girl shifted and silence reigned once more except for the clinking of chains. "The Shinigami were supposed to kill the Quincy on sight, but that didn't always happen. The unborn are sacred in our society – our death-rate is so high that our birthrate must be higher, thus our mothers carried us, birthed us, nursed us when we were sick. But we were special so the men of the Clan taught us to fight in the Quincy tradition. We had an edge on the Crows because even when we died we could still fight because we were also Shinigami."
"But the Crows don't like that," one man said. "Only Shinigami should have powers, not humans. Especially not Quincy."
"Selfish creatures."
"Godless brutes."
"Fiendish upstarts."
"Bastards."
"Heathens."
"Tried to breed the Quincy out of us."
"Genocide by any other name."
"Murderers!"
"Rapists!"
"Cowards."
"Filth."
Somehow he just knew that if he let them continue it would go on for hours, everyone taking a turn to list a fault of the Shinigami. "I'm not part Quincy though, and my Shinigami abilities are from an accident."
"And yet you introduced yourself as Kurosaki Ichigo. Kurosaki is a Quincy name. One of the first clans to marry with the Quincy who came from Europe."
"How would you know." The woman sent him a mocking grin.
"Kurosaki Natsue." She offered him a mock bow and approached him, reaching out when her chains pulled tight, her finger flicking his nose. "And that power of yours is too innate to be an accident. A Crow knew your mother and you are the result. Do you have siblings."
"Well yeah-"
"Do you miss them?"
"Of course I do, but-"
"Don't worry, they'll be joining us soon in the off chance that they too are hybrid." Ichigo felt panic hit him at that. The woman retreated to the shadows. "You thought you were the only one." She giggled madly and Ichigo shuddered as the rasping, hissing laughter sounded once more, echoing in the round chamber before he scowled at the denizens.
"I'll get out of here," he swore to more laughter.
"We all said that." It was the first man to mock him about the Talk. "We, none of us, believe it any more."
"Only when he awakens shall we be freed."
"Only when he steps from the Shadows."
"Only when he breaks the earth and douses flame."
"Only then will our chains be free."
"Juhabach. Juhabach. Juhabach."
Despite himself, Ichigo shivered and closed his eyes, backing up as he settled in his own patch of shadow.
Time passed as time was want to do. If he tried hard enough he could pretend that he was at home with his family and friends (or were they dead now? How long had he been here? Days? Months? Decades?), not stuck in a prison with the mad; not destined to become one of the mad himself. He shivered and his mouth formed the word they all chanted.
Juhabach.
He didn't know what it meant, perhaps a Quincy deity, or a hero; perhaps a spell for protection. But it gave him comfort that he belonged. And he did belong. There were two things Kurosaki Ichigo now knew – firstly: Juhabach would save them; secondly: the Soul Society would burn for their treachery.
A/N: AU. AU. AU. (And did I mention that this was AU?)
Credit where credit is due - the idea of this sort of prison was inspired in part by the Pit in the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.
I have no idea where this little story came from but it refused to leave me alone and now here you are. Love to hear your thoughts.