Chapter 1: Stained Memories.
Kumori Sora was a strange boy. He wouldn't talk to any of his peers, he didn't play any sports, video games, or have any hobies. The boy was just a good imitation of a human sloth, all he ever did was listen to the sounds coming out of his headphones. People came to the conclusion that he was into music but they were all wrong.
Sora didn't listen to only music, he listened to recordings of thunderstorms or the sounds coming from the rainforest. The boy was eventually taken to a Counsler who then sent him to a Therapist. The Therapist came to the conclusion that the reason Sora prefered to listen to the sounds instead of playing was because it was the boys way to cope. He said that it was a distraction for the boy so he could tune out the fact that he was an abondoned baby, and how he looked amd felt different thanks to his strange dark blue hair and grey eyes.
So the adults took the Therapists explanation and soon accepted it to be true. They didn't want to bother with the kid much anyways so after they fed their curiousity they moved on.
Sora found this hilarous, he didn't care about his parents or his looks. He liked his dull gray eyes and he thought his blue hair looked pretty good. No the reason he listened to the sounds of the rain and the forests was because he simply just liked it, there was no deeper meaning to it.
Time went by and eventually on a stormy night Sora was struck by lightning and died. It happened when he was ten years old, he heard the sound of rain from outside his window. Sora enjoyed listening to the sound from his headphones but nothing could beat the real thing. So the boy went outside the orphanage and walked into the rain. He cleared his mind as the cold drops of water ran down his face.
His mood was eventually broken when he tripped over a small animal, It was his fault for not having his eyes open. Sora was going to apologise to the animal but he stopped when he noticed how strange it looked. Infront of him was a small black fox that had a white mask as a face. Sora not being the most carefull person alive picked up the fox to get a better look at it. The fox had a large hole in the middle of it's chest where normally the heart would be. Sora concluded that maybe this species of fox had it's heart somewhere else in it's body and that the hole was just a strange evolution, or mutation.
And the boy couldn't be faulted for this as he didn't hold any prejustices towards anyone or anything. He himself was different than the norm so why couldn't other things be bizzare as well.
That unfortunatley was his last thought as standing in the middle of a thunderstorm isn't a smart thing to do. The boy and the fox were struck by a bolt of lightning and were disintigrated into oblivion.
I awoke finding myself in an unfamilair land. Somehow I went from taking a stroll through town to ending up in some backwater village. The village itself looked old and poor, one could say it was dead.
'I wonder where I am? I don't remeber leaving town, and I certainly have no reason to come here.'
"Hey you are you okay?" I looked up to see a man wearing traditional farmer clothes from the feudal era.
"Ah yeah not really. Can you please tell me where this is? I don't really remember coming here so it would be helpfull if you could fill me in."
"Oh I see it looks like your a new soul, shame you appear to have been really young." The farmer shook his head.
"Okay so don't freak out at what I'm about to say. You are in Soul Society right now and the only way to get here is by dying. So unfortunately little boy you have died."
"What seriously!!!" The farmer nodded his head.
"Yup, but don't worry about it you'll get used to it."
"How do you get used to being dead?"
The farmer started to play with his beard. "Well you just do. After a year or so new souls gradually lose their memories of their past life and start living as if this was their first one. So essentially were just livin like normal so there's nothin to really fret about."
'Interesting.' "So if i'm dead what should I do now? Do I have to get a job like you? Or can I relax and take it easy?"
"Well that depends on two things really boy. The first being that no you don't have to work but if you want to you can." I nodded my head. "And the second?" The man laughed and pointed at my belly. "Well it's simple really, are you hungry?"
"What? I guess I am a little hungry. But what does that have to do with anything?"
The farmer started to laugh. "Haha It has to do with everything boy. You see normal souls don't get hungry, and only special souls have the need to eat."
"So basically i'm defected so I have to work to eat."
"Well that's a depressing way to look at it. But there is a perk to being a soul that gets hungry."
I raised my eyebrow. "Oh and what would that be?"
"You can become a Shinigami and join one of the 13 royal court guards."
"I get to become a death god? Why would I want to do that?"
The man laughed again. "Haha well isn't it mans romance to fight against Hollows." The mans gaze went shiny as his imagination went wild.
"What's a Hollow and why would I want to fight them?" The man started coughing into his hand hiding his embaressment.
"Oops sorry I forgot you don't know anything. Well essentially Hollows are corrupted souls that eat both humans and souls. They can vary between different shapes and sizes but they all share two common traits. The first is that they have a hole in their chest and the second being that they all have a white mask for a face."
"Ah so kinda like that fox that I saw earlier."
The man closed his head and nodded. "Right, right just like that fox you saw earli...er. WAIT WHAT!!" The farmer grabbed my shoulders and started to shake me around. "Where did you see it? We have to get out of here now!!!"
I pushed the man off of me and dusted my shoulders off. "Calm down, I saw it before I died so it's not here." The mans body visibly relaxed.
"Haa why didn't you just say so."
'Cause you started to shake me you old bat.'
"Well anyways Hollows are pretty much monsters and the Shinigami wipe them out to restore balance to the cycle of life and death. By becoming a Shinigami you can pretty much feed yourself so you don't starve while at the same time you can help out by wiping out hollows and guiding recently deceased souls to the soul society."
"So basically I'll be a soldier. That doesn't seem too appealing to me."
Sigh* "Haaaa. How about this, you stay here and don't do anything for hundreds of years as you fight off your hunger instead."
"Yeesh I see your point. So how do I become a Shinigami then?"
"Oh well it's pretty simple really, you have to go to the academy."
"What they have school here too? I always knew that the place was connected to Hell."
"Haha it's not that bad kid, also this isn't Hell that's something different."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."
"Anyways luckily for you the academy is having a screening in a few days and if you leave now you'll probably make it on time."
"How am I supposed to pass some screening, I don't know anything about the soul society."
"Ah don't worry about it kid all they test is your Reiryoku levels and your Reiatsu, then they see if a zanpakito manifests for you. As long as you pass two of those three tests you pass."
"And how do you know this?"
The man scratched his face. "Well let's just say that I was an eager young soul back in the day. I failed all three tests, but hey at least I had the guts to show up!"
"Y-yeah good for you man."
"I knew there was a reason I liked you and now I know it. It's been forever since I last met a soul who understood it's all about guts!"
'Ahh the longer I talk to this Ossan the stupider he gets.' "Yeah totally."
"Alrighty then let's fet going."
"Huh going? Where too?"
"Are you an idiot!? Were going to the screening of course! You get to test for an entry while I'll sell my vegetables to the crowd waiting to take the test. It's not everyday where a bunch of souls who need to eat are all in the same place."
"Oh okay then." I hopped up into the back of the Ossan's horse cart and we started to drive off.
[ OC looks like a ten year old version of the Persona 3 protaginist.]