A/N: hello, readers, and thank you for reading this! Working on this story has gotten me past many a writer's block, so I finally decided to post it! Please, read and review!
Chapter 1: The Beginning
My entire life changed when I was five years old. For better or worse, I'm not completely sure anymore.
Oh, sorry about the sudden start, I should at least tell you who I am before getting any further.
My name is Takumi Shimizu, and I'm half Soul Reaper, half Quincy. I have short white hair, like my father's, and blue eyes.
There, that's enough to get you started now. I'll tell you more about myself later in the story. My story, that is.
As I told you earlier, my entire life changed when I was five years old. That's when my mother, a Soul Reaper, and my father, a Quincy, were killed.
They met a couple years before I was born and quickly fell in love, not even knowing that they were supposed to be enemies. My mother was taking a trip to the Rukon District for informal matter, so she was just wearing casual clothes, not even carrying her Zanpakuto. My father had also been in the same area for a while, lying low after a close call with some other Soul Reapers. They first met each other on the streets, and fell in love at first sight. They were married a bit less than a year later, staying in the Rukon District. They once told me that they discovered the truth about each other the day before they were married, but didn't care. That's how in love they were.
After a few months of being married, they realized they wanted something more in their life. They wanted a family. That's where I come in. I was born two years after their marriage. My father stayed with me all the time, but my mother had to frequently leave for the Seireitei to keep up appearances, especially since she was the eighth seat in Squad 2.
Not long after my fifth birthday, though, everything changed.
"Don't worry, Taku, we'll be home soon," my parents told me as they walked out. 'Taku' is one of their nicknames for me.
"Why do you have your Zanpakuto, though?" I asked my mother. She only carried it if she needed to kill a Hollow.
"Don't worry, it's just a small problem in the World of the Living, we'll take care of it," my father assured me. I nodded hesitantly, and they walked out. I waited for them for days, but they never returned. Ten years later, I learned that Mother was called in to help deal with a Menos Grande that appeared, and Father went with her.
As the days passed, I searched the apartment we lived in for something to do. I eventually found a small chain with a cross on it. I had seen Father use it multiple times before, and I had always wanted to use the bow.
"Not until you're old enough, Takumi," he would always tell me when I asked to try.
"One try won't hurt," I whispered to myself when I found it. I had seen the effects of the bow, though, so I packed a small bag and left the apartment for a nearby forest.
"I hope Dad doesn't mind if I use this," I muttered before draping it over my wrist, twisting and repeating so that only the pendant was dangling, just like I had seen him do. I thought back to how he did it. I noticed that his pendant had been glowing slightly, from Spirit Energy as he told me. "Everyone has Spirit Energy inside them," I repeated, quoting his words. "A Quincy gathers Spirit Energy from around him or herself, forming the bow and arrows."
As I remembered the words, I also remembered the time that Mother taught me how to sense and control my own Spirit Energy.
"You have a very large amount of Spirit Energy inside yourself," she told me after I passed out once. "I hope that you never need to use it, but I will teach you how to keep it contained and summon it if you need."
"O-okay," I had said at the time. I thought back on those lessons, using my own Spirit Energy to make the pendant glow.
After a few unsuccessful tries, I finally succeeded, the pendant letting out a bright light as a small bow formed in my hands.
"Whoa, cool," I whispered to myself. I placed my other hand, my right hand, on the energy string and pulled it back. It immediately responded, an arrow forming. I pulled it as far back as I could, aiming it above me and releasing it. The arrow itself was huge, soaring high into the sky before exploding.
"Uh-oh," I said when I heard yelling in the distance. My loss of focus caused the bow to disappear, but I didn't think about that as I took off running toward the city again.
When I actually realized that my parents are dead, I did almost nothing. I simply sat in the living room of the apartment, staring across the room at a picture on a table of the three of us. Many people would've freaked out or just not accepted, but I was just frozen, not able to move in shock.
After a while, though, there came a knock at the front door.
"Open up! I'm here to collect the rent!" a voice yelled from the other side of the door. He sounded angry.
That voice was what I needed. It snapped me out of my state and I got up, walking to the door stiffly. I opened it and saw a very large, very angry man.
"Hey, kid, where are your parents?" he demanded, looking down at me. "Your rent's due."
I looked up at him and sniffled, the first tears beginning to appear. "They're gone, probably dead," I told him.
He softened up slightly and crouched down. "I'm sorry, kid," he replied, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I'm very sorry, but if there's no one else living here, I'll need you to leave. Other people need a place to live, too," he said.
I sniffled and nodded slowly. "Listen, kid, I'll give you a break," he added. I looked up at him. "I'll give you a week to find somewhere else to live and take anything you want with you," he told me. "Do you know how long a week is?" he asked me.
"Seven days," I muttered, holding up the appropriate amount of fingers.
"Good. I'll give you that long to pack your things and leave, okay?" he asked. I nodded. "Kay. I really am sorry, kid," he added before standing and walking away.
After that, I closed the door and sniffled again, wiping my nose on my sleeve and looking around. There was dust covering everything, but I knew it all by sight.
"Pull yourself together, Takumi," I told myself, walking to the middle of the room. "Neither Mother nor Father would want to see you giving up." I didn't know where this sudden maturity was coming from, but I was going to take advantage of it. I grabbed a bag, packed it with clothes, food, and water, and walked out. I hadn't felt hunger since the day I experimented with Father's pendant, but I made sure to carry food nonetheless.
"Which way, though?" I asked myself when I got outside.
"Hey, Takumi!" one of the neighbors said when she saw me. "How're you doing? Where are your parents?"
"I'm fine. My parents are away on business," I replied, making up the lie randomly.
She nodded. "Well, if you need anything, just let me know," she told me.
"Thanks," I said. I wouldn't take her up on that offer, though. I didn't want to put anybody out of their way to help me. I was raised to be gracious, caring, and independent, and I was going to be just that.
She turned away to talk to someone else, and I decided to go in the opposite direction of where she was looking so that she wouldn't see me leaving.
Once I was sure she was out of sight I began looking around for anywhere I could stay, but I couldn't find anywhere. By the end of the fifth day I hadn't found a place, so I sprinted home. As it turned out, I had almost completely walked around the Seireitei, the home of the Soul Reapers, so it only took me a day to get back home.
Once I arrived I spent the remaining day sorting through what I would need to keep with me. I found two more pendants hidden underneath their bed, one of which I draped around my neck and the other I wrapped around my other wrist. I grabbed a couple pictures of our family, and burned the rest so that nobody else could have them. I took any money hidden in the house and put anything else I would need in a simple bag I slung over my shoulder. All of the money was in a pouch strapped around my chest to make sure it couldn't be stolen as easily.
"Well, it looks like this is the last time I'll see the place," I told myself when I was finished packing. I walked out, and the person that owns the house was waiting.
"I'm sorry, kid, this is just how things happen," he told me again as I gave him the keys, which I found hidden in a drawer.
"My name's Takumi," I told him before walking away. I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't care. I just needed to keep moving forward.
I wandered like this for five more years. I made sure, though, to go to a forest at least once a week and practice controlling my Spirit Energy. Despite this, though, my Energy just grew as I practiced more. After two years of this I had fair control of my Spirit Energy, but if I overexerted myself I would lose control of my Spirit Energy and I would blackout for an hour or so, but it was becoming less and less often over time. I had an incident after about three years on my own, though, that got interesting.