Spoilers up to Soul Eater episode 25, you have been warned.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Soul Eater or their characters, all of which belong to Tite Kubo or Atsushi Okubo respectively. OCs and anything original from these is my own work.
Brief: After the Kishin was revived, the Madness Wavelength was released to the world and a new form of Black Blood was made that found it's way into the realm of the hollows. Lord Death decided to act by sending to Meisters to investigate, but they soon end up with more than they had bargained. Contains swearing, slight romance and potential gore/shocking imagery.
Pairings: IchiRuki, KaiHime, SoMa, potential others.
Additional: This is my first crossover so please try to take that into account while reading. I've recently gotten into Soul Eater and wanted to link the work I've done previously with it. In this crossover, Kai exhibits some new modes which may make you think 'Hang on a minute, this is new!', but that is because I'm overlapping Fanfics again. They're explained in the later chapters of After the Winter War, don't panic.
Also, thank you everyone who has read/is reading my works, it's only because of you I continue.
And thank you in particular to Aralana J'Lee Lovings, who I have been talking to since New Years. It was very nice of you to PM me.
Ok, I'm gonna shut up now and start the story. Sorry for rambling on.
Bleached Souls: Black Bloodlust
Chapter 1: The New Demon Sword?
The world had become infected, or that is how it seemed. With Asura, the first Kishin, revived and growing stronger day by day, the Madness Wavelength was beginning to sprout up in the world once more. People were returning to insanity and the world was slowly becoming more and more deranged. In the heart of it all was Shibusen, the Death Weapons Meister Academy, and it's students. With Asura revived, Crona had felt himself changing slowly in his cell in Shibusen. No one could have known the horrors that unfolded because of this and his Black Blood.
Maka, Soul and Crona walked into the dark ruins, keeping their eyes peeled for the Kishin egg souls they were looking for, the shadows creeping as if they harboured many dark creatures within them.
"Soul," Maka said softly. "I can feel them nearby."
"Right." the white-haired boy behind her replied, turning into a scythe on queue.
"Crona, how does it look over there?"
"It's really dark," the timid boy replied, shivering. "I'm not sure I know how to deal with it."
"Stop whining, Crona!" Ragnarok yelled, appearing from the boy's back. "Or do you want me to go back to scream therapy?"
"No, not the screaming, I can't deal with so much noise!"
"Man, those two have some serious issues." Soul muttered to Maka, who nodded a brief agreement before looking up, her body tensing as the Kishin souls began to vanish, leaving one huge one behind.
"Crona, behind you!" Maka yelled as a large, clawed hand reached out to slice Crona in half, but he reacted and dodged aside barely in time.
"Idiot, get it in gear!" Ragnarok yelled, activating his weapon form.
"R-right." Crona replied, swinging the sword at the claw but missing by inches.
"Maka, I can sense that thing's soul." Soul said. "We have to do it."
"Right." Maka replied. "Let's go..."
"Soul Resonance!" they both yelled, channelling their wavelengths together. "Witch Hunter!"
Crona got the gist and leapt backward.
"Ragnarok, Scream Resonance!" he yelled, the Demon Sword emitting a piercing screech. "Screech Alpha!"
A blackish purple arc bore down on the Kishin, cutting off it's arm with a sickening crunch as the bone split apart. While it was howling, Maka struck the killing blow with a swing of a Figure-Six Hunter. The Kishin soul exploded to reveal a red soul floating in it's place. Maka took the soul and walked to Crona.
"Here, you deserve this." she said.
"No, you killed it, you should have it." he replied.
"Crona, me and Soul have loads of these, it's no problem."
"Well... Alright."
Crona hesitantly took the soul and gingerly raised it above his head so that Ragnarok could swallow it whole with a lick of his lips. Then it happened.
Crona screamed as a black spike of blood erupted from his back. The spike split into a series of tangled vines of black blood with purple flowers spouting from them, the screaming not stopping until they had stopped moving and a black liquid oozed from the flowers, pooling behind Crona.
"What the hell is that stuff?" Soul asked, frowning at the black mass. "What happened?"
"Ma...ka?" Crona murmured groggily. "What are these things?"
"I don't know." she replied. "But that looks like your bloody needle in some form. What concerns me is the flowers that sprouted from them."
The pool of black shifted and speared the vines and tore them from Crona's body, who was then thrown forward as a huge black creature reared up from the mass. It gazed around blindly, roared and abruptly ran off into the darkness.
"Crona!" Maka yelled, running to his side. "Crona, are you ok? Crona!"
"Maka, we have to get him back to Shibusen." Soul intervened. Maka looked at her weapon then nodded, before the two scooped up the boy and hurried back to Shibusen.
Meanwhile, Karakura Park, Forest area
Ichigo's eyes darted back and forth, searching for any sign of the target, but he had no luck. Rukia kept glancing at her Captain and around them, a hand instinctively wrapped around the hilt of her sword, ready to unsheathe it at the first sign of danger. Further afield, the male looked at them from his perch in the trees, blending with the dark canopy. He cracked a smirk before whispering to the weapon in his grasp.
"Buster Mode, activate."
The sword vanished in place of two pistols in his hands, armour extending over the shoulders, upper arms and forearms in three pieces, each held in place by thick black chains. Without warning, he raised his right hand, pistol primed and ready to fire, and fired a bolt of red energy before using a Shunpo to jump to the next tree and repeat the steps.
Ichigo saw the beam bear down on them and intercepted with a blue energy arc, a smokescreen hiding them so that the Captain and Lieutenant could evade another barrage of the beams. When the smoke cleared, they say the male, both pistols aimed at them and charging.
"Dragon Fang!" he barked, the pistols loosing a rapid-fire barrage of the deadly beams at each of his targets.
Ichigo dodged left and Rukia right, the pistols following their movements. The guns stopped firing, the charge too low to continue, and both Soul Reapers attacked at once, their swords arcing into the target, but the pistols blocked both swings as if they were dust in the breeze. Ichigo glared, then grinned and sheathed Zangetsu.
"Alright, that's enough for one day." he announced. Rukia nodded and sheathed her blade, while Kai frowned, returning his zanpakuto to normal.
"Damn, I was just getting into the flow of it as well!" he protested, sheathing Supernova behind him. "I still think the Frenzy Mode needs work."
"And your aim needs practising for the Buster Mode." Ichigo grinned.
"Smart arse."
Rukia smiled.
"Come on, you two, don't start bickering." she said calmly. Kai snorted.
"That's a joke coming from you, Rukia; you and Ichigo argue all the time." he commented, receiving a kick in the shin.
"That aside, we should head back to the others."
Ichigo turned to walk off, when he spotted something strange in the sky. A large, dark creature was coming through, most likely an Adjuchas, but something didn't feel right about it.
"Hey, Rukia, Kai, we should take care of that thing." he said sternly, leaping into the air. Kai smirked, calling his Buster Mode back out.
"Perfect timing." he mused, following his comrades.
Earlier, Hueco Mundo
A small hollow ran over the white sands, a metal fragment in it's hands as it sprinted towards a cave.
"Soon..." it growled insanely. "Lord Aizen will return, he will... He will!"
Inside the cave, a machine whirred, a number of hollows running around to keep the monstrosity going. The small hollow ran inside and placed the fragment on the altar, a glass dome surrounding it shortly after. A larger hollow growled and nodded, ordering the small one to take his position in the chamber next to the altar. With a loud crackling noise, the hollow shrieked as it's body was ripped apart like numerous other ones around and swirled into the metal chamber in the middle of the apparatus. There was a purple flash of light as the hollow bodies became one and took on a new shape; the form of Lord Aizen himself. The man stepped out groggily, his rebirth complete, and waited as his zanpakuto was remade.
But not everything went as planned.
Aizen had only just grabbed the green hilt as Kyoka Suigetsu shimmered back into life, when a black creature fell from the ceiling and caught everyone off guard. It sniffed the air and looked around with sightless eyes, it's liquid form rippling slowly as it tried to piece everything together. Nobody moved, wondering silently what this creature was. Suddenly, without warning, the creature extended it's arm and grabbed Kyoka Suigetsu, black spikes stabbing Aizen's forearm. He tried to shake the creature off, but it refused to release it's prey, instead changing itself. The creature vanished into the zanpakuto and it's wielder, then all was silent for a few moments. Aizen's neutral face suddenly twisted into a mask of insanity as he grinned widely, his eyes hidden. He began laughing in a mentally deprived sort of way, as though his perfect world which he had built was crumbling into the black abyss of non-existence and his mind was being dragged down with it. He gazed at the dark sword, the transformation completed.
The green hilt, now burnt black and colourless, was firmly in his grip, the silver blade dulled to a glimmering onyx, and the guard was warped, a circular metal guard that had six sharp silver spines jutting from the edge and a further six claw-like spikes pointed upwards, the points barely touching the blade. From the pommel extended a short silver spike for extra lethal backhand attacks.
Aizen's sword was not the only thing that had changed; his right hand had some strange black armour covering it entirely, the strange substance extending up the forearm and jaggedly covered his elbow. Abruptly, a pair of vicious red eyes appeared on either side of the wrist and Aizen let out a loud burst of insane laughter, raising his head to reveal his eyes were narrowed and his mind indefinitely warped beyond repair. A hollow approached, attempting to ask what was wrong, when the zanpakuto vanished, leaving only the armoured arm, which then wrapped itself around the Hollow's throat. Aizen brought him close as the insanity spread over him.
"Did you know my blood is black?" he asked, a spike of black stabbing the hollow and injecting the black blood into the poor creature. It's mask became a black liquid and the hollow grew larger until it was at least an Adjuchas level hollow. "Now go," Aizen whispered. "Go destroy those meddlesome hybrids that killed me." The hollow nodded and vanished, allowing Aizen to turn to the other hollows, the insane grin still on his face. "Who's next?"
Shibusen Infirmary
Maka sat beside Crona, the Demon Sword Meister still barely alive despite the work professor Stein had put into him. She balled up her hands, clenching the hem of her skirt tightly as she looked at the pink-haired boy sadly. This was just like when Soul was injured after taking a lethal blow for her; she felt completely helpless and inept.
The white-haired boy in question walked in from the hall and placed a hand on his Meister's shoulder. She looked up at him and the sorrow in her eyes made his heart ache. He hated seeing her like this. He knew full well that she was beating herself up over something out of her control and that damaged her in ways that she didn't understand. He was taken aback when she abruptly spun round and clasped him in a tight hug, her eyes watering as a few tears slipped free, but he returned the hug, knowing full well that she would need the support he could offer.
"Come on, Maka, you can't keep doing this every time someone gets hurt." he whispered. "There wasn't anything you could have done about it."
"I know." she sniffed. "I just can't believe that Crona's lying here hurt because of it."
A pang of jealousy hit Soul, but he resisted the urge to lose control and released her, holding her by the upper arms.
"Lord Death wants to see us in the Death Room." he told her, snapping her from her depression. "Let's go, we shouldn't keep him waiting."
Maka nodded and grudgingly left Crona's side, following her weapon to the Death Room. As the two approached the platform at the centre of the room, Lord Death turned to acknowledge them in his usual fashion.
"Hi there!" he said with his usual overly-joyful tone. "Good to see ya! Everyone alright?"
"Good morning, Lord Death." Maka replied courteously.
"Well, looks like everyone's here at last." came a voice from behind Death. A boy with black hair, the left side of which had three white stripes over it, and amber eyes stepped out followed by two girls in matching attire, although one was taller and the other more voluptuous. "So, dad, why is it you called us here?"
"Well, Kid, it would appear that we have a problem on our hands. According to the report from Maka and Soul, something rather peculiar happened when the Demon Sword devoured the Kishin egg soul, some sort of strange culmination caused a mass of the black blood in Crona's body to be excreted and form a new creature, which then promptly left the area. This creature was then seen near Professor Stein's Laboratory, all of which seems irrelevant at first. Stein?"
Franken Stein appeared behind Soul and Maka, the screw in his head being manually cranked until it emitted a soft click. The professor looked up, a lit cigarette in his mouth, and continued.
"As not many of you will know, I have been working on a way of stopping the spread of the Madness Wavelength through temporal or spacial displacement, but these have been failures." he said, approaching the mirror behind Lord Death before turning around and adding; "Except, that is, for one which had an unwanted result. You see, while trying to design a machine to destroy the Madness the plagues the world by isolating it in dead space, I appear to have inadvertently made a bridge between here and another dimension."
"Wait, are you saying there is more than just one dimension?" Soul asked.
"Soul, technically there are four known dimensions, length, breadth, depth and time, so really I've stumbled across the fifth dimension; co-existing realities. Imagine it, multiple realities co-existing, never touching until I tore down the barrier between them by mistake. Anyway, that is unimportant. What is important is that the creature passed through safely before the machine malfunctioned and the link was severed.
"According to reasoning, the Kishin egg soul fused with the black blood that Medusa put inside Crona to form a new Kishin and made a new creature along the lines of Ragnarok; a creature capable of turning itself into a weapon or armour with ease. I assume I don't need to explain how bad this is and how serious it is that we contain the situation."
"Ordinarily, we would send a team of three Meisters with Resonance Link capability, but Black Star is in the middle of something and seems to have disappeared for the time being, probably something about the Enchanted Sword no doubt." Lord Death picked up. "So, due to limitations on the transport, we'll be sending you five as your mass is in accordance with the safe transport load Professor Stein has placed on his Spacial Manipulator. There are just a few important things to know first; One, the transport window is only a few hours long and we will be in a safe position to commence the transportation in about an hour; Two, we estimate that we can only bring you back in a week exactly from your departure, after that there is no guarantee you will make it back safely, so be sure to stop this thing by then; Three, communication to here will be interfered with by the dead space between the dimensions, therefore we can only communicate for a few hours after you have arrived and a few hours around the leaving time; And four, be careful on the other side, it could be dangerous. Ok?"
"Yes sir, Lord Death." the group replied.
"Excellent. Be at my lab no later than in one hour and I'll send you through." Stein said.
One Hour Later, Stein's Laboratory
"Ok, everyone's finally here, I see." Stein said as Maka and Soul arrived. "I didn't think you were coming."
"Soul got a little 'held up' with Blair." Maka said bitterly. Soul groaned.
"How many times do I have to tell you that she threw herself on me?" he asked. "You're making me out to be the problem, and that's not cool."
"If you two are quite done, we have work to do." Kid said coolly, throwing a glare at the partners. He turned to Stein. "When do we leave?"
Stein cracked a crazed smile.
"Right now." he stated, ushering the group into a room where a huge machine stood.
The professor typed in a few things on the computer screen beside the machine and it roared into life. Lights flashed, generators crackled and pumps began to flow as the middle machine, a large metal cylinder with a doorway cut into it, inside was a metal sphere of two parts attached to large rods of metal from the sides, began to activate. Red energy sparked between the two hemispheres as they began to come apart and the apparatus vanished as the doorway became a black and red swirling vortex. Stein stepped away from the console to address the group.
"This is the Spacial Manipulator which I call the Shock Bridge." he explained. "When you go through this vortex, your bodies will become energised and realign themselves on the other side. There may be side effects that you suffer from for a few hours but these will pass in due course. I should warn you all, however, that there may be some unusual mismatching parts that occur that you may acquire from each other, but your bodies will realign within a few minutes. In this time, weapons should not transform as it could lead to the effects being permanent, and I'm sure you won't want that.
"Remember, you only have a week, so be careful and deal with this thing quickly. That's really all you need to know, so get going one by one. If each of you waits a little bit before following, it should reduce the chance of mixed body parts. Kid, since you are a Reaper, you will go first, then Liz and Patty, followed by Maka and then Soul. We don't have time for much else, so get a move on."
The group nodded and left one by one. When it came to Soul's turn, he looked grudgingly at the swirling mass and wondered how it was he managed to get himself into these things, before taking a deep breath and stepping into the vortex. Instantly, he felt an electrical charge pass through him and a tingling sensation as if he had been electrocuted by a strong current. The red and black continued to pass him, nothing but red and black swirling for ages, and it began to seem that he would be alone in here, forever.
Meanwhile, back in the lab, the Shock Bridge was going out of control again. The professor struggled to control the machine, but the pressure was too great and a feedback of power fried the circuitry and electrocuted the man, the screw in his head conducting it into him before he was flung back against the wall with a sickening crack and slumped on the floor groggily. The console exploded and parts of the machine burst, sheared apart or ignited as it ceased to function and the vortex vanished, the cylinder smoking and buzzing as blue electricity flared over it lazily, the feedback from the device evident. Stein straightened up and stood with a struggle and looked at the wreckage with worry on his face.
"Oh my," he said. "I hope they all made it through, else they may be left in the dead space forever." He sighed and left the room. "Better let Lord Death know about this."
Oh dear, what's going to happen, eh?
Well, who knows, I guess it's anyone's guess what random crap I'll spout next.
Yes, I am a SoMa and an IchiRuki fan. For those unfamiliar with my Fanfics for Bleach, KaiHime refers to Orihime and my OC Kai being in a relationship, as they are in all my After War based Fanfics.
I've thought long and hard over this, and I hope to post a chapter a week on one of my ongoing Fanfics, but I can't guarantee anything; being at a crucial stage for GCSEs is a pain like that.
For now, I'm afraid you must wait, but please do read and review.
Let me know anything for a plotline for this crossover and add it to your alerts/favourites and I'll reward you with a look ahead before the rest of the crowd.
Yeah, it's an incentive to review, so what?
Please don't be afraid to PM me or just review.
Ok, I've bored you guys and girls long enough now, so I'll go for now.