Takes place after end of anime, manga not included.
I do not own Bleach (oh the things I would do if I owned it...), but I really don't own it :[
Chapter 1: Shadow Player
Takeshi Mizushima P.O.V
I have always wondered why I do this. I can only think of my mother's last words... "Don't give up. Protect those who can't be protected. Don't ever let anyone find out who you are. Fight for the freedom of others." She died of heart failure when giving birth five years ago. My father died in a car crash that same year. I have been alone with my brothers since I was twelve. Not that anyone cares though.
Ever since I was born I have had blonde hair, got it from my mother. She couldn't remember what country she was from though. I used to be on the small size, some mistook me for a girl because of my face and size.
My mother told me to stay away from the soul society. She did not want me to make the same mistakes she made when she was younger. My mother was a soul reaper. She told me all about the soul society and why they exiled her. She was a visored experiment. One that went wrong. She ended up with a half-hollow in her. It couldn't do anything was too damaged and it died. She was a great warrior.
I am one of a kind. I am able to keep unlimited power in me. I am the strongest I have ever seen. By the time I was seven I had already learnt everything about shunpo and hand-to-hand combat, ten when I mastered kido and at eleven I had already mastered bankai.
When my mother died I was also blessed with twin brothers. She died giving birth to them. I stood by myself, no friends or family. Due to this, my hollow began to grow within me because of all the anger and dark feelings within my soul. It kept me sane along with my zanpakto. Brothers until the end. We are together always.
I looked after my brothers best as I could. I began to seclude myself from everyone. I took on a shadows form. I used my time to study, get in fights, shop, work and look after them. I don't mind though. They are like cute miniature copies of me, except for their eyes. Mine are a dark green, their's are a pretty chocolate colour.
I began fighting during my fourteenth year. A group of boys began making fun of my hair. Later they found out I lived on my own without parents and that I took care of my little brothers. They made fun of my life and called my brothers names. I got really angry when they began to bring my brothers into their bullying so I beat up the guys. Last I heard, one of them was in hospital with broken ribs. Not my problem anymore.
I gave up on making any friends at that point, or talking to anyone about my brothers and my make-shift family. I was deemed to live alone. I also don't talk to anyone anymore, unless I have to. After that incident I can't stand bullies, or delinquints. Funny, I guess I am a delinquint too. Blonde hair, skips class a lot and fights. Don't get me wrong though, I always make sure to be within the top ten of the class in each test. I just don't like being socialable, my brothers come first after all.
At that time in my life, a few guys wanted to be with me. At first I thought it was love and that I had found someone to care for me finally. I was wrong. Time and time again I found that they were with me just for my body. The last few were very violent with me, it go increasingly worse. The last guy I went out with broke my ribs and stabbed me in the shoulder when I did not comply with his commands. After that, I gave up on the thought of love, needless to say.
Well now, I have to get packing our things. Apparently I have to transfer due to my behaviour. I couldn't care less, but I have to make sure that Akio and Mamoru will settle in. This time I bought an apartment, this move will be permanent. I have been saving up to get a apartment for us three to share. I found one really close to both my school and their kindergarden. Luckily for me, the kindergarden and the school are only 10 mins from each other, so I don't have to leave to early in the mornings to get to school. Karakura Town. Huh, weird name for a town. I wonder if I'll see anything cool there.
Last summer, I finally went through a growth spurt. I am taller now, but I am still shorter than most guys my age. At least my muscles are finally developed. Still have the annoying blonde locks though, and the 'cute' looking face and eyes. Ugh, seriously! Someone is going to get decked over this!
Akio and Mamoru look adorable as we set off in a taxi for our new home. Luckily the driver wasn't paying attention when Akio decided to use kido on Mamoru. Argh, I wonder when their zanpakto will begin talking to them. Now that will be a mess!
I start my new school tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it, it will be fun. Hah! Who am I kidding, it will be boring. I will just get good grades and do as I always do. Look for a part-time job, in or out of school hours. I also have to make sure to skip some classes at the end of the day to do the shopping before the twins get home.
We reach the house late. I carry the boys up to their room. I finish unpacking everything. I fall asleep on the couch and slip into restless dreams. "But Mom! You can't leave! Akio and Mamoru need you! Dad needs you! I need you!" I shout at my mother trying to will her to live. "It is okay, Takeshi. They have you. Don't worry, one day we will be together again. I love you..."My dream skips forward in time. I can hear the whispers as I look up at my fathers picture. "That kid is on his own now...", "I heard that he won't go and get adopted beacause he is scared of losing his brothers...", "I heard his father commited sucide...". I feel Akio shaking in my arms. I glare at the gossipers and walk out of the funeral with Akio and Mamoru. We are on our own now. I wake up panting. It is six o'clock in the morning. I hate that dream. It reminds me of what I lost and what I failed to hold onto.
I fix up a quick breakfast and get the boys ready for school. I pack their lunchboxes and we head off together. On the way I get them new bags so that I can throw their old ones away. As I was walking to school I noticed a little shop at the side of the road. Akio began running for it. Oh no, looks like I will have to buy something. "Helooo? Anyone there?" I walk into the shop. A good looking-if you don't mind me saying-guy walks through. "What can I do for you?" He is wearing an adorable striped hat and is holding a fan. He looks like that old dude my mom told me about that loved experiments in the soul society, I laugh to myself, not outloud though. I know that it could be him so I stay quiet.
"Okaa-chan, look at all the sweets!" Mamoru shouts at me. 'Okaa-chan' is their nickname for me, since I act like a mother. The old man laughed, "They know that you are not their real mother right?" I almost laugh too. "We are not stuupid, Mr. Shopkeeper! We call him Okaa-chan because mommy up in the clouds looked a lot like him. We saw pictures!" I ruffle Akio's head when he said this. Hiding the pain that cropped up anytime they mentioned mother or father. The old man looked a little embarrassed. "Don't worry, that happened well over five years ago now." I reassure him. Akio and Mamoru run off to look for a sweet each. I look in my wallet and see that my funds are limited. I motion to the old man to talk to me for a minute.
"Hey, old man. You don't happen to have a job open? My cash is running short and I need to go buy groceries again soon." He looks at me then ponders this for a moment. "What about your dad..." I shake my head. "He died four months after my mother. Look old man, I really need this job." He looks at me then smiles. "Ok, you can work here!" I nod my head in gratitude. The money will be good on the job, as he told me. "Thanks old man!" I thank him nicely. We talk for a couple more minutes. He said to call him Kisuke. I told him to call me Takeshi or Take. We joked and teased for a little while. Then I had to go to school. He said that the twins could come and stay while I was at work. They could play in the back rooms. Wow! I got a really good job. Perfect! This made this all easier.
When I reached school after dropping the twins off at kindergarden, I am having fun locating all the unusual reiatsu signals in the town. There is quite a few. I can sense one quincy, four shinigami and one more with a way weaker signal. I can sense that old man's reiatsu, it is quite strong. The helpers in his shop have the same abnormality to their reiatsu. Yes they were stronger than an average human. I can sense around seven slightly higher than normal human reiatsu, but that's all. Quiet town if you ask me.
When I reach school I sign in to the office and confirm my transfer. I am in class 3 C. Apparently there is a few people that have transferred into this class recently aswell, I don't care a lot about that though. The teacher nearly had a heart attack when he met me, he kept going on about 'souless eyes'. I mean I know that I don't show expression, but was that really neccessary?
I resign myself as I head to the classroom. Oh great, it is full of shinigami reitsu, and visored reiastu. Good thing that I can hide my reiastu well. I don't trust the soul society, and will have nothing to do with it, at all. I follow the teacher into the class. The class is packed and full of tall guys, even the girls are tall?! Dammit! "This is Takeshi Mizushima, please look after him."
I bow towards the class, then I walk to the only open seat, beside an orange haired visored. He looks up as I reach my seat, "Yo, nice to meet you. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, I hope we can get along." I look him up and down, whilst doing calculations in my head for the shopping later. I sit down in my chair with a sigh. It was going to be a long day at school.
Just then I see a very handsome man sitting to my left. His hair is black, but long and shiny. His grey eyes are cold, but beneath that is the pain of indescribable loss. I nod to him and he nods back. At least I will be granted some reprieve from the boisterous carrot-top on my right. I settle in for the school day.
The lessons were boring, to say the least. I talked with my hollow the entire time. Then again, I don't think it is possible to make math sound 'fun'. When lunch rolled around I was starving, very much starving. I open my bento in the classroom, just to be interrupted by an over-active carrot-top.
"Hey Takeshi, do you want to eat lunch with us?" My eyebrow twitches when he calls my name, does he not have any respect?
"Unless you stop calling me so familiarly, I won't even consider it." I see him sigh, what is with this guy?
"Fine, Mizushima-san. Would you like to eat lunch with us?" I twitch again, I have the horrible feeling he will keep asking until I accept.
"Fine, but don't talk to me. I don't like talking to idiots." I smirk at his face, priceless!
I followed him to the other classrooms. As we were joined by other people, who were obviously gifted in the reaistu department. I was introduced to everyone. Uryuu Ishida-the quincy, Chad and Orihime-strong human reiastu, Tatsuki and Keigo and Miziuro-slightly stronger human reiatsu than normal and finally Rukia Kuchiki, Byakuya Kuchiki, Renji Abarai-all strong soul reapers. Of course, just my luck. The people who I consider the biggest douchebags in the world-the soul society-and I get close to all of them on my first day! I have shitty luck!
I sat at the edge of the crowd as they ate their lunches. I noticed that Ishida and Byakuya-san were not interacting with the group as much. The do seem a little more quiet than the rest, so I slid closer to them. I was calmly eating my lunch when Kurosaki started to include me in the conversation. I didn't want to humiliate him in front of his friends, but if he won't let me eat my lunch this is going to end badly.
"So, Mizushima-san, why did you have to transfer?" I glare coldly at him until he flinched and looked away, then I answered.
"Fights, skipping school." I'm a man of few words, what can I say?
"Why were you fighting? Why did you skip school?" The red-head...Renji, asked me.
"No of your business, monkey-man." His insolent tone got on my nerves so I called him monkey-man. I thought it was funny, he didn't.
"I'll deck ya!" He shouted before launching his fist at my face. I dodge it quite easily and continue eating as he calmed down. His face was as red as his hair, due to the embarrassment.
"Too slow." I state, quite the catch phrase for myself though really.
After that they mainly stayed quiet. I finished lunch and went back to the classroom. I already noticed the looks I was getting from the teachers. They practically screamed, 'He must be a delinquint! Just look at his hair!'. Nice to know that they all still stereotype us kids. As I sat down, the raven haired beauty beside me-Byakuya Kuchiki- said his first words to me all day, "You're not bad at all Mizushima." I smiled to myself at that.
Last class of the day was english, excellent. I need to skip it if I want to get some shopping done before I have to pick up the twins for kindergarden. I pick up my bag and things before walking past the teacher. The incredulous look on her face clearly implied that she was not used to this behaviour. I went home, changed clothes and headed for the shop.
"Now what shall I make for tonight? A nice curry? Or should I make a nice yakisoba?" I think out loud to myself. I settle on a nice vegetable curry and proceed to get the ingredients in the shop before returning home. I just finsh packing everything away before it is time to collect the boys from kindergarden.
"Take-nii-chan!", "Okaa-san!" I hear Akio and Mamoru before I lay eyes on them. I lift them into my arms then I began walking to Kisuke's shop for work. I listened to tales of colouring, learning and new friends. I am glad they made new friends, I was worried that we had transferred in too late in the year. Akio gave great delight in covering my eyes, luckily my ears are actually better than my eyes so I could 'see' where I was going.
"Takeshi! Turning up early on your first day! Promising!" I almost laugh to myself at Kisuke's reaction.
"Can you take Akio and Mamoru through so they can do some colouring?" I ask Kisuke as nicely as I can. He nods and leaves me as I put on my apron and begin work. It was peaceful for awhile, then I felt Kurosaki and his friends heading this way. Of course they are all friends, should I have thought any different? As I waited for them to arrive I caught a glimpse of Kisuke without his hat on, and he looked hot! He looked very, very hot! Oh god, on my first day at work and in a new town, I am already developing feelings for my boss!
Please read and review this story. If I get 5 reviews I will continue this story, if I get 10 reviews I will update before end of May! Thank you guys!
Ps. Vote whether Byakuya x Takeshi, Kisuke x Takeshi or... Kisuke x Takeshi x Byakuya (Yay threesomes!)If you don't decide I will, so decide soon!