"All rise, stand straight, bow."
An all too familiar command that we are supposed to follow until we graduate high school, I never understood why we need to show that much respect to our teachers before learning something. Seemed a little egotistical on the teachers part.
"Man, two more years of this crap. How can anyone keep their head straight?"
I turn my head over to the spiky haired ginger leaning in his chair, my childhood friend, Ichigo Kurosaki.
"Some just have more patience than you, that's for sure." I snidely reply.
"Shut up!" Ichigo says before laughing.
We sit by the window, watching the sky turn from blue to orange. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a figure in a black robe jumping from telephone pole to rooftop.
"Let's get going." I shake my head before grabbing my bag and slinging it over my shoulder.
"Didn't you say you had to pick up some medicine for your mom or something?"
"You should have some stomach medication lying around in the clinic. Wouldn't hurt if I snatched a bottle, right?"
Ichigo scratches his head before nodding. We exit the school and get told to be careful on the way home by one of the supervisors outside.
"Hey, Hiroto, you mind if I ask you a question?" Ichigo raises his hands behind his head.
"Shoot."
"You saw that girl jumping around, right? The one in the black robe?"
I stopped, "You could see that too?"
"Yeah, it's kinda hard NOT to notice."
You got that right, here I am thinking that I'm the odd one out for supposedly being able to see dead people or other weird occurrences, but Kurosaki has proven me wrong time and time again. Ichigo and I take the long way around, just doing whatever we could to speculate on what we saw. It didn't take long for something to screw up.
"Hey, you see that guy in the beanie?" I asked after stopping Ichigo with a light knock to the stomach.
"He knocked over that bottle, there."
On the sidewalk, a clear class bottle with flowers and water in it lie on its side, with these four brigands in front of us supposedly to blame.
"Hey, dumbass!"
The four guys turned to look at us, didn't even last a second before Ichigo threw a punch and curb stomped the bastard.
"Alright, first question! What is that, lying over there?!" Ichigo points to the knocked over bottle.
"Uh, a... a bottle with flowers?" One of the guys nervously answered.
"Correct!" I jumped in and gave the son of a bitch a hard knee to the gut.
"Second question, what the hell is it doing on its side?" I ask in my 'nicest' tone possible.
"W-we must've knocked it over by accident while we were skating, we-we're-"
"Quiet!" Ichigo shouted, "Now, how's about you go fix it and apologize before the next set of flowers are for you!?"
The idiots scrambled before leaving entirely.
"Should keep them out of here for a while, we definitely scared 'em." Ichigo high fives me before chuckling.
I turned to see a girl, she was see through and floating at least three inches off of the ground, her face is covered in blood.
"Sorry for the noise, we'll get you some new flowers soon." I say before the girl smiles and disappears.
"Is this something that we're gonna have to live with now?" I ask.
"Pretty sure it is." Kurosaki answers, we resume our trek to the Kurosaki residence.
I head inside the clinic and quickly snag a bottle of stomach medication before running home.
"I'm back..."
A few things to note, mom is usually home to chastise me for being late, and dad has work until nine-thirty. A note on the fridge reads as...
"Hiroto,
I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I had to work overtime to make up for the shortage last week, it's nothing to worry yourself over.
There should be something for you in the fridge if you're hungry.
Love, mom"
Smiling, I put the pills on the kitchen counter while humming a little tune to myself.
"Let's see what's left..."
Shoyu ramen with a side of rice, eggs, and peach glazed pork. Dad must've been the one to make this, mom was never much of a ramen person. After a decent meal and a shower, I hit the sheets immediately.
"Dad's not back yet, hope he hasn't got in trouble."
The night passed easily, my dreams showed me an image of a strange man in a black kimono, he had lavender hair, much like myself and my father, but his hair was much longer than ours. His clothes were billowing in the wind, as was his hair.
"Listen to the beat of the soul, only then can you find your path..."
Before I could ask for what he was on, my alarm went off and I scrambled to get everything together. That's when I noticed the answering machine, it had a little red light on it, meaning a voicemail.
"Hiroto, it's dad. I'm sorry that we couldn't come home yesterday, but your mother and I received a call from work, we are to go to secure trade deals in Germany. We might be gone for while, but we'll send you money for each week while we're gone. We love you!"
Germany, huh? Well, whatever the case...
"You have the whole house to yourself?!" Ichigo exclaimed.
"Yeah, I still need to keep my alarm set, but I can technically do whatever, as long as I clean up afterwards." I said, taking a sip from my juice box.
Then I felt a familiar arm wrap around my neck. Ladies and gentlemen, Violet Cain, foreign exchange student from Scotland and my girlfriend, probably should've mentioned that.
"Dammit, how's it fair that Hiroto is the first to get the girl?" Keigo whined.
"Because he's cute and has good taste." Violet said before pulling on my arm, dragging me away from the others.
The beauty in front of me is a few inches shorter than me, brunette with a purple streak going through her bangs, slight tan, and kitted out her uniform with an assortment of pins and patches. She led me to roof, where all sorts of wonderful things happen among lovers, however...
"Violet..."
"Hiroto..." She said before moving in for a kiss.
We locked lips for what felt like hours before finally parting. She's moving a little fast for a week long relationship, going right for the tongue and grabbing what she wants... I let you figure that out for yourself.
"Please... let's do it... now..." Violet's breathing grew more ragged by the second.
I stare at my feet for a second before staring into her lovely green eyes.
"Violet, you shouldn't push me into this, neither of us are mature enough to start taking care of a baby, and we don't have any money to do so anyway."
Violet's lustful face quickly turned into an aggrieved frown.
"I thought you'd want to..." Violet mumbles.
"I do, when I get my own place and when I can support you. I can't right now, sorry."
The following week...
And that was just the start of my trouble. Seeing ghost or relationship drama, I'd rather have those as opposed to whatever the hell I'm looking at now.
"What is that thing?!" The ghost chick from last week squeaked.
Whatever it was, it was at least twenty feet long, had spiky legs, and wore a mask that resembled a calavera.
"I don't know!" Ichigo stated before the girl tripped.
"Dammit!" I hissed before running to the girl.
Realizing it's chance to strike, the monster lurched forward, like a stalking puma about to pounce on a nervous gazelle. Then, out of nowhere, a girl with black hair, wearing a black juban and hakama, tabi, geta, and a katana already in mid-swing, cut the monster in two before glancing at us and disappearing. Her eyes were beautiful, like shining amethyst. Little did I know that I'd be able to see them more often.
Later that night…
I couldn't sleep, I just kept tossing and turning, that thing in the city, and that girl… I couldn't stop thinking about them. It seemed like only Ichigo and I could see them, no one else seemed to notice the giant carcass that looked like it crawled out of the ass of H. R. Giger's nightmares.
'Who was she? I can't understand any of this…'
My window suddenly slid open, and the same girl jumped through it, landing on my floor with the grace of a spider.
"What the…"
My thought process was suddenly cut short by the girl gripping the hilt of her sword.
"Hey, isn't that a little overkill?!" I shouted.
She took her hand off of the sword and looked around the room, then she started talking.
"It's getting closer, I can feel it…"
I knocked on her head a couple times. "Hello, anyone home? If your trying to steal something, you're not very good at it. I'd start with not talking to myself."
The girl slowly turned to me, so slowly you could almost hear a door creaking.
"You can see me? How? I can't be seen by ordinary humans." She said, like she was on a ghost hunting show and just heard the floorboards creak.
"So, you're calling me weird? I'm not dressed like it's still the Edo period and running around with a sword, slicing ghost in half!" I turned the lights on and took a long stare at my strange intruder.
She blinked at me a few times before speaking again, "You, you're that guy I saw in town earlier, I remember."
"Nothing escapes your notice, now does it?" I snarkily replied.
"How strange…" The girl reached up to touch my face, moving my head around as if to examine me. "You appear normal but you must be defective in some way."
Wow, the mouth on her! You don't just break into a guys home and start insulting him.
"Who are you?"
"You really want to know?" Yeah, that's why I asked. "I'm a Shinigami."
"A god of death, huh? Sure as hell don't look the part."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?! What did you think a Shinigami would look like?!" The girl shouted.
"Honestly, I expected them to either look like a skeleton in a black cloak carrying a huge scythe, or the James Woods version of Hades going through a goth phase."
My ears perked up when a loud crashing sound made itself known to the world. Ignoring the noise, the girl took her time to explain what her job is, where she came from, and a few of her interest.
"Okay, you're a Shinigami, and you're here because you were sent on an assignment by the… soul society, was it?"
"Mm hmm."
"Sent to deal with monsters, like the one chasing after that girls soul?"
"Mm hmm."
"Yeah, sounds reasonable, just like a fat guy dressed in all red who breaks into your house and gives you presents." I said, cocking an eyebrow.
The girl widened her eyes, like if she was just told that her ass does indeed look fat in that dress. "How dare you! How can you just stand there and deny our existence when you just said-"
"I've never seen nor heard about your particular branch of Shinigami, and your story sounds a little romanticized."
"You do see me standing, don't you?" She hissed through her teeth.
"Yes, and I can agree with you in not being human. So, why don't you just run along and leave me alone?" I mockingly said, pulling on a loose lock of raven hair.
A louder crash was heard, most likely a block away, immediately I rushed outside to see a large dust cloud coming from…
"Ichigo!" I shouted before darting to my friend in need.
"Wait, you can't fight it!" The girl said, somehow keeping up with me.
"Watch me!" I shouted back.
When we got there, it was like a truck ran through Ichigo's house, grabbed his sister, and… What was it going to do? It just stood there, making threatening faces at her. The girl whipped her sword from its sheath and crouched low.
"Hiroto, what are you doing here?!" Ichigo called, "And, what is she…"
"I'm not the person you should be asking." I signaled to the girl in black with the sword.
"Stand back, I'll take care of the Hollow. You'll get in the way." She said.
"Can it!" Ichigo snapped, "Karin, hold on!"
He ran ahead, grabbed his 'fighting stool' and prepped a swing for the Hollow, as the girl called it.
"Idiot, are you trying to get yourself killed?!" The girl shouted.
Karin was screaming for Ichigo to save her, and good 'ol ginger was ready to kill, and what happens?
Ichigo gets punched hard enough to get knocked back several feet.
"Found you…" The best way I can describe that voice is if I got Mako Iwamatsu to smoke six packs of cigars in under a minute.
Before the Hollow could strike, the girl leapt forward and swung her blade, making a large gash in the monster's arm, causing it to drop Karin, leaving Ichigo to catch her.
"No, Karin…" First time I've ever seen Ichigo about to cry.
"Don't worry, the Hollow didn't have a chance to devour their souls."
"Well, my boner's gone." Ichigo and the girl stared at me for a straight minute before the girl dove right back into exposition town.
"I see, it's because you both had such high spirit energy. That's why it came after you two and why I couldn't sense it." The girl said.
She went on into a long rant on how exactly this whole thing could work, it made no sense to me and I'm guessing less to Kurosaki. But from what little I understood, those Hollows we saw were tracking us through the soul of the dead girl. Then, a black portal appeared, floating a good ten feet off of the ground, that thing was coming back.
"Get out of here, it's not safe!" She said.
"Yeah, if this thing is attacking my friend just because of me, do you really expect me to stand by?" I retort.
"And I'm not gonna let it get away with almost killing my sister." Ichigo chimes in.
Despite the girls protest, Ichigo and I walk up to the Hollow.
"Coward, attacking those weaker than you, just to get to us." Ichigo gritted his teeth.
"How about you actually try fighting us, you dickless freak." I was so hopped up on adrenaline, it wasn't even funny.
And before we could try punching this thing, the girl got in the way of its attack, nearly getting her arm bitten off in the process.
"Hey, you alright?!" I rushed over to her.
"You're both fools, did you actually think that you'd be a match for a hollow?!" She said in a pained voice.
"Before you got brutally injured, yeah, I think I did." I tried lighting the mood a bit.
I scooped her up in my arms and set her leaning against a street light.
"I'm too injured to fight, do you wish to… save your family?" She referred to Ichigo.
"Of course I do!" He stated.
"Any way we can hurt this thing?" I asked.
She glanced at her sword before nodding, "Yes, it might only be temporary, but… You both must become Shinigami yourselves."
She handed us her sword before continuing, "Take my Zanpakuto, and run it through your being, so that I may put my powers into you."
I held the sword in an ice pick grip, "You think that this'll work?"
"I can't guarantee that you'll live, but if it does work, then it won't matter." She says.
Ichigo stood a centimeter behind me with his back turned, "Alright, but I have one more question. What is your name?" I asked.
"Rukia, Rukia Kuchiki."
"Well, if this didn't work, it was nice knowing you guys." Ichigo said before I plunged the sword through my stomach, coming out through Ichigo.
For some reason, the blow wasn't painful, it felt like getting a shot. There was no blood, so I guess that it's a good sign, and I feel... I dunno, warm would be the best way to put it.
"Let's see what we can do!" Ichigo and I shouted in unison before a bright like encompassed us.
When our vision returned, I looked at what this 'soul power' did. First, the outfits, Ichigo was wearing an outfit similar to Rukia's, black Juban and Hakama with a white undershirt, Tabi, and Geta. The only thing notable about his appearance was his sword and how impractically large it was. I, on the other hand, wore a black Juban and Hakama, but over the Juban I wore a long purple coat with silver lapels, black fingerless gloves, purple Obi with a gold disk-like buckle, and long black boots. Needless to say, I rocked this look. I also got a sword, a slightly longer than average katana with a lavender colored edge, two handed grip, and a dragons head on the pommel. Again, rockin' it.
"Hey, Hiroto."
"Yes, Ichigo?"
"You ready to roll?"
"Thought you'd never ask!"
We held our swords in a battle stance before calling out in unison, "Let's rock!"
Suffice to say, the Hollow wasn't long for this world, being taken down in a single dual slash. From that day on, I was no longer human.
I am Hiroto Kita, Shinigami.