Note: hello, this is my first story on fanfiction and I'm glad to premere bleach as my first fancfiction chapter. This story is mostly like a spin-off where as these events happen in the same world as Bleach, but at a different time and place with a new cast of characters. DON'T BE DISCOURAGED, it's most likely that some of your famous and most beloved characters (from Bleach) will make cameos and team ups with the main character. Peace and enjoy!
"This is Channel 10 News and I'm Levor Johnson. Just a few minutes ago a series of unexplained explosions crippled the downtown area. As you can see this whole street along with the buildings has been completely demolished. If I'm not mistaken, there used to be a parking deck on my right and I can't even tell what used to be there on the left. All that's left now are giant piles of rubble. There has been speculation on terrorist, but nothing's conclusive."
The ground started to shake and two blocks away a five story building crumbles away. Giant claw marks sliced into the street and parked cars flipped over into the sky crashing down like meteors. Off in the distance, what seemed as a high pitch screech became a glass shattering shockwave. Large crowds of frighten pedestrians clawed and stampeded one another trying to get as far away as possible. Some were dropping dead for no reason as if the life was sucked out of them leaving more corpses to be trampled beyond recognition. One unfortunate girl was standing alone on the sidewalk, crying out for her parents, but her cry was drowned out by a million more.
"Get out the way girl," somebody shouted. "It's not-" and before he could finish his sentence, a flying car plowed into her exploding on impact. "NOOO!! God damn you bastard!!!!" he shouted.
As the smoke started to cloud over the city, in the sky floating above the burning wreckage was a young man dressed in a black robe. He winced before the flaming wreckage holding his head in agony blaming himself for not being faster. Tears begin to envelope around his eyes and drip down into the pit of massacre. Blood trickled down his wrist as he gripped his 4 ft long broadsword. His sword had a red aura about itself and a black hand cannon for a hilt. Red energy steamed from his body as if all his hate, pain and anguish had been sealed up inside ready to boil over at any moment. His skin was bronze with short jet black hair that was combed forward. He was 6'2 and athletic. There was a deep scar slashed diagonally between his eyes breaching his right cheek. His eyes were two different colors, hazel and the other one glowing blood red and even more so as the battle became more intense.
Out of nowhere, a gigantic deformed hand with a jet white exoskeleton smashed him into the street sending a massive shockwave scattering all the frighten pedestrians to the ground. This sent the crowd into a hysteric frenzy. Anybody that laid on the ground too long was trampled. It was very clear that it was 'every man, women and child for themselves.' Water from a broken fire hydrate spewed out causing a raining effect. From two blocks away, Levor Johnson and his cameraman started to make their way through the crowd. The cameraman tripped over a detached fire hydrate smashing his head into the step-off of the sidewalk. Blood poured from his head. Levor snatched the camera from his hands.
"Help me, Levor," the cameramen whispered.
Levor looked at him, shook his head and shrugged his shoulders as ran off. "This story is going to make my career," he said with a sadistic smile. "Don't worry, by the time this is over, you'll be immortal." As he made his way from the sidewalk knocking everybody out the way with his heavy news camera, he disappeared into the dust and debris of the danger zone.
A few feet ahead of him of laid a 20 ft tall Hollow. The Hollow had a spider-like body with a humanoid torso. One arm was crab-like and the other a deformed muscular arm trying to crush a guy in the black robe. His head was encased in a crab-like helmet only revealing his piercing white eyes.
"Gabriel, you humans are a curious kind," laughed the Hollow looking down at Levor.
"Why won't you just leave in peace," Gabriel said in an air tight voice.
"Because, I'm hungry."
As Levor Johnson got closer, he cut on his camera and started to record. "As you can see, ITS BLOODY FREAKIN MAYHEM. People are trampling one another just to get away. Children were abandoned and some of them trampled themselves. Today is a very dark day for mankind. It seems another explosion has gone off."
"Run dammit, get away," Gabriel shouted under the hand of the gigantic demon.
The Hollow laughed. "He can't hear or see you no more than you can help yourself." Instead of the demon opening his mouth, his neck ripped open. The opening of his neck was like a second mouth, but full of razor sharp teeth. Energy collected around the opening of his neck. "Cero"
"Nooo!!" shouted Gabriel.
As the blast shot from its neck, it smashed into the ground exploding in a big ball of light. If you ever heard the sound of a thousand people dying all at once, it is a sound that will haunt you forever. A blinding light engulfed the entire downtown area. Gabriel was forced to close his eyes, but when he opened them again, half of downtown was obliterated. Nothing was left, except for a giant crater.
"I failed," Gabriel cried to himself
The blast was so strong; the people probably didn't know that they were dead. Under the rubble and the crushed remains, the ghost of the dead rose up. They were scared and confused. As they looked around with wide eyes, they made a cruel discovery; they were no more. This unfair realization made them cried out and moaned. So many dreams and desires crushed into powder. There's only one why for a spirit to turn into a Hollow on its own, die suddenly and fester in anger. A hollow is nothing but a spirit turned evil by its own hatred and self-pity. Thousands of ghostly moans turned into demonic screeching. The sound was so great Gabriel's ears begun to bleed. They begun to morph and change into something so evil and so vast in numbers, Gabriel laid his head down in shame. The newly turned hollows surrounded him while he was still being crashed under a gigantic hand.
"This is the path you chose substitute soul reaper," the hollow laughed. "And this is the fate you shall reap."
"They were innocent," Gabriel cried.
"Nothing is innocent," the monster corrected.
"That little girl was innocent," he said with anger building up in his voice.
"She's not innocent either," the monster chided with a deep booming demonic voice.
"And I was too weak to protect them." The Hollow only replied with a soft laugh. "I hate all you damn Hollows," Gabriel said as tears enveloped around his eyes. "Damn you. Damn you. Damn you! DAMN ALL OF YOU!" His body started to glow with red spirit energy. The monster's hand started to shake and burn, but he refuse to release him from under his grip. Slowly but surely the monster's hand was being forced open.
"Where is he getting this strength from?" the Hollow thought to himself. Suddenly blood started spraying from the monster's hand. He screeched in pain. Half of his forearm was cut in half thorugh the middle. A giant X was slashed through the Hollow's seemingly indestructible exoskeleton-like armor on his chest. Blood sprayed out profusely. A reverse roundhouse kick met the Hollow's ribs sending him flying backwards a few yards, but he flip over landing on his feet.
"Alright, Nagareboshi (Shooting Star)," Gabriel said while holding his sword upright. Blue energy started to collect around the barrow of the hand cannon hilt. It became as large as a wrecking ball, but compacted down to the size of a basketball. "Suisei (Comet)!"
The blue energy ball shot out toward the hollow cracking the ground underneath. Gabriel was sent colliding into the building behind him by the recoil. The blast from Gabriel's Nagareboshi collided the demon into the building 200 ft behind him making a giant hole. Shaking and trembling, the building collapsed on top of the demon burying him. There was no trace of the Hollow underneath all the rubble.
Gabriel tried to pry himself off the wall, but was too weak to move. "I shouldn't have tried that attack," he said wincing in pain. "Urahara was right, I haven't yet mastered it."
Across the street, the rubble that used to be a Hollow, a pebble bounced into the gutters. "No," Gabriel gasped. "Impossible."
The Hollow shot out of the rubble like an angry volcano. His eyes now glowing red with rage. Growls and screeches replaced his vocabulary. He spared no time for witty comments or milking the moment of Gabriel's helplessness. The Hollow had a gaping bloody hole in his chest and he wanted to share his new look. Gabriel looked just as bad; they were both covered head to toe in cuts and scratches.
The Hollow sprinted toward Gabriel with berserk-like rage. Gabriel was completely paralyzed. The demon grew seven times larger and all of his wounds healed up. The Hollow suddenly stopped only a couple of feet in front of him. It plowed its hands and feet into the ground as if they were stabilizers…and they were. Its neck opened up again with its razor sharp teeth and a ball of red energy collected around its second mouth. This cero was the size of a 3 story house and its reishi was on a completely different level than Gabriel. With no hesitation, it was fired.
Gabriel closed his eyes waiting for death to swoop him up. This was his punishment for being weak, but nothing happened. When he opened his eyes his heart almost leaped out of his chest. A mysterious muscular figure swatted the cero away with a thump of only one finger. "Hey Kenny, KENNY! I told you it was Gabriel, but you didn't believe me."
Gabriel was in a state of awe. He heard stories about Kenpachi Zaraki and how powerful he was. He wanted to make a good first impression by saying a witty comment but realized how ridiculous he looked, embedded into the wall… defeated. All those people died for nothing and were turned into hollows all because he was too weak to protect them. Gabriel never had the strength to protect others. He was never the hero type to begin with.
"Hey kid, now's not the time to feel sorry about yourself," Kenpachi said. "You can't dwell on the past. Consider yourself lucky, cuz you live to fight another day." Kenpachi turned toward the Hollow with a sadistic smile on his face. "And for you… that was a cowardly move. There's no reason attacking a downed or defeated opponent." Kenpachi looked around analyzing the damage. Gabriel's head fell in shame. Kenpachi drew his sword, but Gabriel interrupted before he could unsheathe it.
"Wait," Gabriel said prying himself off the wall. "I'm not done yet." His dominate hand was broken dripping with blood and he could barely stand. "For the honor of my Sakura, I shall kill every Hollow that will cross my path." Red spirit energy started to collect around his body. A mask appeared on top of his head and he slid it down to his face. The mask was in the shape of a red dragon. His eyes were the same, but more sinister and piercing than ever.
"I didn't want to attract more attention, but seeing how my honor in on the line, I might as well," Gabriel said. His voice sounded as if a dragon was speaking with him at the same time. His reishi was so intense it forced a bigger smile onto Kenpachi's face. The ground start to shutter and in one strike the Hollow was sliced to pieces along with everything behind him.
Kenpachi laughed to himself, "Impressive, but I wasn't drawin my sword to help. I was drawing a Snickers bar. I haven't ate since breakfast. I knew you had more strength then that. Trust me I knew your mother. If you're as half as strong as she was-"
"You knew my mother?!?"
"Yes, I did. Sakura was a beautiful and a great hero. Not many women like her."
"Wow!!! Who fucked up?" a voice said in the background. Out of nowhere two guys appeared next to Kenpachi. It was Yumichika and Madarame. Madarame looked around shaking his head. "Damn, what the hell happened?"
"Don't mean to interrupt this touching reunion, but we still got to deal with the rest of the Hollows," Yumichika said.
"I would love to finish this conversation," Gabriel wheezed. His whole body started to shake and twitch. Nagareboshi fell out of his hands stabbing into the ground. "But it's time for me to sleep," he said collapsing to the ground. Lying on the ground, Kenpachi noticed something weird about him.
"What's this mark on his arm?" he asked. Madarame shrugged his shoulders.
Yumichika stepped in closer examining Gabriel's bicep. The mark on his arm was a tattoo of Urahara's face smiling and winking with a 'thumbs up' next to his face. "I'm assuming that this is the work of Urahara."
"What is it?" Kenpachi asked.
"It seems that it's a seal and a crude one at that.
"So most of his power was sealed away inside his body? A black butterfly flew past Kenpachi's face. His eyes flared up as he heard the good news. Kenpachi placed his hand over his face and laughed sadistically to himself. "Hehehehehe, this is going to be fun," he laughed.
"Yaaaay! Yaaaay," Yachiru said jumping up and down on Kenny's shoulder. "We're going on an adventure. Kenny won't be bored anymore. Maybe he'll be Gabriel's new playmate"
Kenpachi turned around and began to walk away. "Hey, what about Gabriel," Madarame shouted. "Weren't we here to bring him to the Soul Society?"
Kenpachi jolted his head around with a crazed look in his eye. "Leave him." Madarame knew whenever he had that look in his eye, there was no reason arguing.
"Shall we?" Madarame said with a grin.
Yumichika sighed to himself as if he dreaded the moment. "There're so many of them. Hmmm, sometimes this can be a real pain.
"Alright men! Let's show them why squad 11 is the most revered!" Out of nowhere a hundred men jumped from the shadows screaming battle cries. It was like a swarm of black bees shouting all at one.
The battle clashed for hours, while they fought on top of Gabriel's body. Hollows dissolved and battle cries were roared. All of squad 11 wondered where Captain Zaraki went to, but the battle was so fierce they couldn't dwell on it too long.
The battle ended 11:00 at night. Some of the soul reapers fainted from exhaustion. Madarame stood there on top of a collapsed building, sweaty and covered in scratches. His shirt was torn off with a few cuts and he had a sadistic smile on his face. "C'mon! Is that all you got? Is it me or are the hollows getting weaker," Madarame shouted.
Yumichika was on one knee, sweaty and dirty sighing in frustration. "Eight hours! Let's get the hell out of here before the reinforcements come. I need a hot bath."
"Stop whining, but seriously do you think more will show up if we wait?" A black butterfly flew past Madarame's face. His shoulder's dropped as he heard the bad news.
"What is it?" Yumichika asked.
"We have to go back for announcements."
"Thank God." Squad 11 made their way through the portal, but Madarame paused and looked back at Gabriel. Heavy rain fell from the sky bouncing off of his shiny head. In the distance, Yumichika waved his hand trying to get Madarame to hurry up.
They vanished without a trace leaving Gabriel in the middle of the bowl of the crater, left behind by the gigantic Hollow. His body was soaked and the wind made it worse.
Get up sleepy head; get up, a voice whispered in his ear. It's time to wake up. His only reply was a moan and a twitch. GET UP! And with a mighty kick, Gabriel woke up with a start, but his face was completely submerged under a tiny puddle. A large rock was restricting his movements. It took a couple of tries but he finally toppled it off his back. When he came up for air, he coughed profusely. The rain poured over his head like a waterfall. A small warm light glowed in his face.
"Asumi, is that you?" Gabriel said in a tight voice, but the glowing warm light disappeared.
He slowly started to walk toward his sword, but collapsed again into the wet muddy ground. His hand twitched along with the rest of his body. Two hours later his hand gripped his sword and he slowly staggered to his feet. It was night and the rain flooded the area making a small pond around his feet. The hail beaded across his head and the wind almost tipped him over. It had to be at least 33 degrees.
With one foot in front of the other he made his way back to his old hideout. "I hope Mecca and Jimmy are better off than I am," he thought to himself. The mask still laid on top of his head like a helmet slightly glowing in the night air. His broken right arm was completely heal and most of his cut were gone. He looked into the night sky and above the openings in the cloud he could see a blanket of stars. Somehow he knew it was going to be a quiet night and quiet was good.
-
"Yo, where's Gabriel?" Jimmy said yarning.
"IDK, hope he's ok," Mecca said in a concerned voice.
Suddenly the door flew open and Gabriel stood there soaking wet. His piecing red eye was more sinister under the light of the kerosene lamp. "Listen up and listen well. I'm only going to tell you once and only once. So make sure you're paying attention, Jimmy… you too Mecca. The only reason why I'm telling you this is because you all are now involved. I didn't mean for this to happen, but since I can't turn back the wheels of time, I guess I owe you guys the simple truth, but I swear if you guys start to laugh…." Gabriel said punching his hand and grinding his teeth and shaking his head.
The small campfire glowed off their skin and the crumpled walls glistened. The roof had been replaced with a blue plastic sheet, but for some reason the floor had been sweep and the room was seemingly neat, but there was no broom. Mysteriously sweep floors and oddly neat rooms were the least of their problems. A slight cold draft blew by them often, but the warmth of the fire made it feel like a warm breeze.
The three of them sat close together around the campfire sticking their hands close to the flames. Gabriel sat on the right with his red mask twinkling in the light, Mecca in the middle and Jimmy sitting on the left.
Mecca was 5 feet with short black hair. She wore a black shirt, black jean, black fingernail polish, with black eyeliner and lipstick. Her figure was petite. From time to time she caught Jimmy looking at her from the side of his eyes. She classified that under Jimmy-being-weird file. Jimmy was tall and lanky with red hair. Gabriel would always call him 'left foot' because his left foot was shorter than the other and he was always stumbling over. Gabriel knew it is kind of mean but Jimmy never said anything about it.
"Dude, don't get so worked up. If those monsters-"
"Hollows," Gabriel corrected.
"Hollows come back, you can kill them easily," Jimmy said.
"You think Hollows are the most of our worries!" Gabriel sneered.
"Calm down," Mecca interrupted. "Just start from the beginning."
Gabriel sighed to himself trying to calm his nerves. He couldn't stop his hands from shaking and sweat keep pouring from his forehead. The last three days have been hell. Urahara sent him on a scavenger hunt for clues to find his body. It was punishment for his arrogance and totally lack of respect, he so-called it, but this little life lesson turned into a life or death quest. For some reason Hollows are only targeting him and guys dressed in red robes are hunting him like enemy of the state. And to top it off they all know his name. Urahara told them to meet up with this man named Reno so he could give us clues for the mission. Reno saw what was going on. He told them how strong the men in red robes are, but nothing he could've said would've prepared them for the battle.
They always came when he least expect it and spared no expense in trying to take his life. It's about time for some peace and quiet, at least for a little while. They met each other three days ago and since then its been hell, on ice. For some strange reason, even though it was peaceful now, Gabriel knew it was about to get worse. That calm-before-the-storm feeling he's always whispers under his breath before something major pops off. Urahara, with his strange sense of humor, probably thought it was funny to placed them together on this quest. It had to do with the right combination or something like that. Neither of them knew the exact reasons why. The old man was probably right but they weren't going to say that. They shared a unique bond. Gabriel thought it had to do with them all going to the same high school, Dudley High.
Before they were placed on the same team, they always passed each other in school but never once talked to each other. Jimmy at times tried to talk to Mecca, but always chickened out or made a complete fool of himself. Neither of them wanted to talk to Gabriel. He had that psychotic look in his eyes that if you looked at him the wrong way, he would slit your throat without a second thought and his piercing red eye and the scar on his face didn't make him seem any friendlier. Back then he was always traveling with his gang of thugs, but not so much more now given with whats been going on the past week.
"Have you guys seen Asumi?" Gabriel asked with his head down to his knees and his hands steadily shaking.
"Who's Asumi?" they asked at the same time while looking at each other. For a while Gabriel went silent. Jimmy and Mecca both couldn't of possibly realize how much pressure and stress he was under. Not only was he struggling with his new gained powers, his old life is gone, he can't protect the ones he care about and now this. Gabriel reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a prescription bottle of Lithium.
"Antipsychotics?!?" Mecca yelled. "You're on that and Urahara put you as team leader. No wonder your ass has been acting crazy. You're a-"
Before she could finish her sentence, Jimmy placed an arm on her shoulder and a hand over her mouth. "No that's for something else," he whispered in her ear. "I think he's bipolar.
"How do you know," she asked trying not to be freaked out. "You're not-"
"No," he said as he lightly jerked her by the shoulder. "My antie is bipolar and given the way he's been acting in school it makes sense. And besides if he is crazy do you want to aggitate him?"
"Ok, before I start make sure the windows are covered up securly," Gabriel said sounding a little more composed.
"Damn that medicine works fast," Mecca said than quickly putting her hand over her mouth.
Jimmy looked at Mecca signaling her to cover up the window. She gave him a nervous look than clumsily walked toward the window stumbling over bookbags and her own shoe laces. The board over the window was sturdy. "It's secure," Mecca said.
"Aye, man what happen to those guys in those black robes," Jimmy said indicating him to begin.
"I'll get to that," Gabriel sneered.
"Ok, ok," Jimmy said in a air tight voice.
"Alright, it all started….."
