Restless Souls
By: The Pen and Crow.
Original creator of Bleach: Tite Kubo
Chapter 1: The kid named Strawberry.
Where do we go when we die? This has been a question that many people have asked through out the ages. Some say we go to heaven, some say we return to the earth,
others say we are reincarnated into someone else. In the Japanese town of Kurakura a young high school student named Ichigo Kurosaki learns this and much more about the
life of the dead.
Tapping his pencil on his desk, seventeen year old the kid with the orange hair looks out the window. He never liked this class, soon he would fall asleep to the boring
sound of his instructor's lecture. It wasn't that he didn't know the subject, math was easy to him. "You know that back in my day, if we were to dose off in class our
teacher would slap us with a yard stick." He looked to his left to see a transparent form of what was once an elderly man in his 60s floating over him. With a sigh,
Ichigo Kurosaki laid his head down and ignored the spirit. This would shock most people, but not him. Ichigo has been able to see spirits from a very young age. A lot
would say that this was a gift to him, however, it was a curse. "You damn kids theses days don't take things seriously!" The spirit complained.
"Just shut up." Ichigo replied quietly.
"I swear if your parents had any since, they'd just sit you down and explain how important it is to do good in school!"
"Shut up!" Ichigo shouted.
The spirit jumped and flew out of the window startled at the sudden outburst.
The whole class looked over at Ichigo.
"Is there a problem Kurosaki?" Asked his teacher with an annoyed tone to his voice.
Ichigo shrugged and replied, "No teacher, sorry." and returned to staring at the window.
"Perhaps you can answer this question on the board then Kurosaki." The teacher insisted.
Ichigo looked at the old chalk board and examined the problem for a moment.
"The answer is Twenty-Three." He replied.
The teacher, looking shocked, nodded and returned to his lecture.
"That kid is so weird." Whispered one of the girls in the back.
"I know right, heard he lost his mind after his mom died in an accident."
He's heard this all before, the whispering, the gossip.
"And what is with the orange hair, so weird."
Finally Ichigo stood up and headed out the classroom door.
"Kurosaki get-" The teacher was interrupted by the slam of the door as Ichigo stormed out annoyed about the kids in the class, the spirits that bother him.
He never chose this ability he had, never wanted it either. Nobody understood or knew about it and he chose to keep it that way. Makes things more simple. Going
through the halls he made his way up stairs to the roof and looked over the his home town. Karakura, the town he was born and raised in with his two sisters. Nobody
was up here except a few spirits that kept to themselves and wondered the area lost. There was a time when Ichigo would actually talk to these ghosts but after
awhile he decided it was best to just ignore them . "Excuse me." Said a voice.
Ichigo just closed his eyes and ignored it.
"Excuse me I seem to be lost."
Aren't we all he thought.
"Can you hear me? hello!"
A pat on his shoulder made him jump. He turned around to see another student, a girl, but not one he recognized. She wore the school uniform, a white blouse and
skirt and also had red hair that had a broach made of some sort of metal that Ichigo could not recognize.
She laughed and smiled at him.
"Sorry didn't mean to scare you. You see I just moved here and well I don't know how to get to my class." She said looking down obviously embarrassed.
He rubbed his head and sighed.
"Well since this is the last class of the day there really isn't much of a point in worrying about it now. Might as well just stay up here."
The girl looked at him and frowned.
"Why were you up here then? Didn't you have class?" She asked.
"Yeah but-" He gazed around at the spirits looking at both of them then turned back, "Er...sorry I didn't quite catch your name." He said changing the subject.
"Oh right, sorry, my name is Orihime Inoue. I just moved here a few weeks ago with my brother." She extended her hand out for a handshake. Ichigo shrugged and
looked back at the view of the town.
She frowned and put her hand back down.
After a moment of silence Ichigo finally replied, "Don't get too excited, this is just another boring town with the same typical people." With that he walked past her and
went back into the stairwell. She simply watched him leave with a confused expression on her face. She wondered why he was so cold, so closed in, so distant. Then
again was she any different?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the class bell echoing through out the school and the voices of hundreds of classmates. She shrugged, missing two
classes on the first day wasn't something she was happy about.
She walked down the stairwell still wondering, who was this orange haired boy is.
The kid grunted as Ichigo landed a blow to his stomach knocking him to the ground.
"You punks don't seem to learn. Didn't we do this before?" He said, cracking his knuckles. These guys were your typically bullies who would always try to pick a fight
with Ichigo after school. Today he was greeted by three of them two of which he had given a black eye and the other he actually managed to knock a couple teeth out.
The leader of the group spit blood and stood back up.
"Not today you orange haired freak. This time we gonna be the ones to kick your ass today!" He yelled charging at Ichigo with his fists ready.
Ichigo was more than ready; he sidestepped the bully and planted a well placed elbow to the jaw, knocking the bully on his back. The other two charged in to back up
their leader. They both threw sloppy punches in unison that he easily ducked, making them both punch each other. They stumbled backwards stunned. This gave him
time plant a strong kick to one's chest knocking him to the ground coughing and gasping for breath. A pair of arms wrapped around Ichigo's torso. The leader was
holding Ichigo while the other bully came in and landed a couple punches to his face. In one fluid motion, Ichigo kicked the bully back mid-punch and slammed the back
of his head into the leader's face, breaking him free of the hold. The leader hit the pavement of the alleyway knocked out cold.
Wiping blood off of his mouth, Ichigo looked at the other two.
"I suggest you guys wipe up your friend from ground before I do the same to you." He said, cracking his neck.
"You're a fucking freak of nature Kurosaki. You haven't seen the last of us!" one yelled as they ran off both carrying their defeated leader by his arms and legs.
Ichigo sighed, this was probably true they were dumb enough to try this again.
"Home sweet home." Ichigo sarcastically said to himself as he approached his house. His dad was a doctor and ran a family owned health clinic downstairs. He
grabbed his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the front door that lead to the office. Locked the door behind him and walked past the small waiting room to the left,
past his dad's office, and stopped at the door. He took a deep breath and opened the door that lead upstairs. His dad and sisters were sitting at the dinner table
eating dinner.
His dad wearing his sweats and T-shirt as a relaxing outfit after a long day's work in the office. Still sporting the same scruffy beard since he was born having his dark
hair spiked up. He was also still as muscular as he was when Ichigo was born. His two younger sisters, Yuzu and Karin, watched Ichigo come in while putting more rice
onto their plates. "I got dinner made Ichigo, rice and curry." Yuzu said pointing at a plate on the table which, he assumed, was his. Yuzu was the one who pick up on
the house work when their mother died. She cooked and cleaned while dad was at work after she got home from school everyday. She always work some sort of
dress or skirt. Karin sat there and ate quietly. She was always the more reserved of the house. She was quite a tomboy and always wore some sort of cap and
sported a T-shirt and pair of shorts.
"Thanks Yuzu but I'm not really hungry." Ichigo replied heading towards his room.
"Told you he wouldn't want curry." Karin said to Yuzu before taking another bite.
Yuzu just shook her head at her sister and looked back at Ichigo. Isshin looked at his son and immediately noticed the bruises on his face and dried blood on his lips.
"What happened today son?" he asked. Ichigo remained silent and simply walked past them to the hallway.
Isshin sighed, Ichigo was never the same when his mother died all those years ago. Isshin's train of thought was interupted.
"Dad, Ichigo's food is gonna get cold." Yuzu said gesturing towards the plate. He sighed and got up from the table. He walked through the hallway to the door to
Ichigo's room.
"Ichigo, if something's bothering you, you're more than welcome to tell me." He said through the door. No response as expected.
Ichigo laid on his bed as he heard his dad walk away from his door. How could he tell his dad about the spirits he sees? Would he even believe him? Also, he couldn't
even think about talking about his mother. He shook his head eliminating the thought. He just closed his eyes and fell asleep hoping that maybe he will not wake up to
spirits in the morning, to kids that just want to hurt him, to girls who just talk about him badly. To a world where he can just be normal.
Night fell over Karakura town and the lights went out one by one. A robed figure watched as the moon raised to the peak of the sky. It was a women who looked
about early to mid twenties that sat on a signal tower over looking the town. A blade rested on here side that she gripped tightly as she closed her eyes to focus. A
distant screech caught her attention. It came from the business section of Kurakura. The robed woman drew her blade and jumped in the direction of the noise off the
tower and landed with perfect ease and grace on a house rooftop. She jumped rooftop to rooftop with great speed to reach her destination. She would not fail her
task. She would protect Karakura no matter what.
