Flames in the Dark

by phantomhivepride

What if...Kurosaki Ichigo wasn't meant to be Soul Society's sole savior? What if there was another, someone whose past is so twisted and dark yet has the burning passion to rescue Soul Society from the darkness she endured? And what if she possessed the power strong enough to destroy Soul Society itself? Destruction or salvation? The choice lies in one person, and one person only.

1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I woke up, I was surrounded by people who were oddly garbed in old-fashioned clothing. At first, I merely thought that perhaps I had somehow stumbled into the set of some TV series. I felt weird. I couldn't remember anything significant, anything that was related to my past. Heck, I didn't even know who I was.

I sat up slowly, and to my surprise, the people circled around me took back one step as a whole when I did so. Puzzled, I looked around. Their faces bore many expressions, ranging from wonder, awe, fear, curiosity and resentment. I started to feel uncomfortable, both from my critical memory loss and the ominous aura they were radiating.

Aura...the thought struck me, and a single sliver of my past slipped back to me. A small piece of information I had learnt before I woke up here, nothing too personal. People could radiate aura, and depending on the feel of it, I was pretty adept at reading them, sometimes so well that I was practically reading their minds. Right now, none of their auras felt like they were to my favor. Instinct clutched at me, probably instincts developed in my past, and they instructed me to play it cool until there was a chance for me to slip away quietly. Something kept tugging at me, telling me that I had unfinished business somewhere else, even though I had absolutely no idea what that business was.

An old woman in the gathered crowd with a particularly kindly face caught my eye, and the aura she was emitting was better than most, though I could barely tell it apart from all the other auras present. My eyes locked onto hers, and thankfully her aura didn't falter at my gaze. The muscles in my face suddenly moved by themselves, and formed my facial expression into one of a hurt puppy. "Please tell me...where am I?"

I was right to go by my gut feeling. The old lady immediately pushed through the crowd, regardless of people trying to stop her, and knelt by my side. She took my hand in hers, the look on her face apologizing. Not good. That look on anybody's face was never good.

"My dear...I'm so sorry. You're dead."