Bleach: Endless Shadows
Chapter 1: Freedom
"I've been here for what seems like an eternity. The soul society has betrayed me and my family. They've imprisoned me in this lone tower, by suspending me thousands of feet above the ground, and trapping me in a straight jacket, with chains emerging from the sleeves and connecting to the eight corners of this place. My reiatsu has been sealed off by a mask created by the R&D squad, making it impossible for me to escape. My blood boils with anger every moment that I am here and I've grown impatient! They never expected me to grow stronger in here, but finally my reiatsu has grown enough to leak through this accursed mask and I will be free once again!" As my reiatsu surged from the eye holes of the mask, it spiraled through the tower and shattered the walls of my prison. I was free…….and now I needed to find the old man. As I emerged from the rubble I was sure that my spiritual pressure had alerted the 13 court guard squads. My arms were still bound, my body was weak, and my only weapons were the chains that had imprisoned me for so long. I used my flash step to escape from the site and headed for the center of the soul society, knowing that as the level of danger increased I would be closer to my target. The sky was so blue. I hadn't seen it for so long…….It was beautiful. "Hey kid, what's with the outfit?" A voice called to me and I immediately knew I had to fight. "Oh this old thing? I've had it for so long that I didn't even realize I had it on!" I turned to see my foe, but he swung his sword before I could face him. I leaned back dodging the blow. "You'd fight me even though I don't have a weapon? How dishonorable of you." A small laugh leaked from my lips as I finally got a good look at him. His hair was blue, his eyes were fierce with passion, but he wasn't part of the Gotei 13. "Surprised? Were you expecting one of the Shinigami to attack you? Foolish boy I have no code of honor, and in truth I am the closest person to your heart that you will ever know!" He let out a wicked laugh and rushed towards me, but I swung my chains wrapping his leg in my own prison. Tugging at the chain I flipped him, but this seemed to build to his momentum, and he flew to me with his weapon ready to strike. He had me. My blood spilled to the ground and I was down on one knee. "Now listen here boy. I'm not going to kill you today, I'm not going to help you in your attempts at revenge, but I will tell you this: The world you knew is long gone and the ones you loved are far from your reach." Hearing those words ignited a flame in me more severe than the hatred I had in my heart already, and I was determined to kill this man. I disappeared from his sight and wrapped my chains around his neck not letting him speak. Tossing him through the air he flew helplessly like a rag doll but I wasn't finished with him. I flash stepped over him and struck him with those chains that I hated for so long, and he disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving behind a scroll. Taking it with me I headed once again for the center of the soul society. It all felt so strange: There was no one in the streets I roamed and I felt no spiritual pressure other than the old man's. I had finally reached my destination and kicked open the doors to his hall. "So you're finally here are you? I've been waiting quite a while for you Arashi boy. Don't you know it's rude to keep your elders waiting?" "Yamamoto you bastard! I've been imprisoned for far too long! What have you done with my family?" "I'll have to tell you some other time. I've sent everyone in the soul society on a wild goose chase. I know you aren't guilty for the crimes you were accused of." He appeared behind me and removed the jacket in the blink of an eye. For the first time in many years I felt the wind against my skin. "Here is your zanpakuto, now hurry and leave this world before you can prove your innocence." "What about the mask?" With a smile on his face he responded "I think it suits you, keep it on until you reach the human world, and it will keep you undetected from the soul reapers who come back. Besides I have no idea how to remove it! Hahaha. Find Kisuke in the human world, he made this contraption and I'm sure he can remove it." With one sword on the back of my waist and the other strapped to my back, I picked up the scroll and hopped through the gateway to the human world without saying another word to the old man. "What a foolish boy. He really thought I was Yamamoto, and he didn't even realize that he was in the shadow world." The impostor then touched the top of his head, and a light went down the center of his head, branching off into separate light patterns on his face. He pulls off the face and it turns into a white mask. "Things are starting to get fun around here."
In the real soul society my escape was just being discovered "This guy……..how did he get out of that prison?" "The hell if I know. Let's just hope that Yamamoto doesn't get too angry over this." In the 1st division barracks the old man seemed to be very angry over the news. He had in attendance the captains of every squad available in the soul society. "So a prisoner escaped big deal. This is Soifon's territory anyway, so I say we let her take care of it." "I wouldn't expect a demon like you to understand Zeraki. Your subordinates were in charge of guarding the prisoner so why the hell should I hold all of the responsibility for his escape?" "That's enough arguing you two! You sound like a couple of kids. I'm the youngest one here but I have the most composure in this meeting, how absurd." "Now now Toshiro, you're a little too worked up over all this." "Of course you would think so Shunsui; you just let your subordinates do all the work while you relax" "Ha-ha that's true! I do!" "Enough of this bickering! Show some dignity before the head captain! With all due respect Yamamoto, the Kuchiki family is the last group of people that had connections with this man. I would like to hunt him down for you personally." The old man was deep in thought, and he looked reluctant to let anyone go after me. "I cannot allow any of you to go after him. With the recent betrayal of captains Ichimaru, Tosen, and Aizen we are currently shorthanded, and I will not put any more captains at risk. With that said, I would like captains Zeraki Soifon and Byakuya to create a retrieval squad to arrest this man. He will most likely seek out Kisuke Urahara, so I ask you to deploy your squad near his shop in the human world. Meeting adjourned!"
As I dashed through the tunnel leading to the human world, I was overjoyed to have the freedom of running again! I had been imprisoned for so long I thought I forgot how to run! I came up on the end of the tunnel and was so excited that I flash stepped the rest of the way. I finally made it. The human world……I've only been here twice. It was already dark out and the stars were scattered across the sky. Maybe I should wait until morning to find Kisuke, but then again I've been resting for so long in that tower. Ugh….I don't even have a clue as to where I should start looking. At that moment I felt an immense amount of spiritual pressure. Knowing it would be a great fight I headed towards the source of its power. "Hey what the hell do you think you're doing?" Aw great, now that kid is getting bullied in the park. Why was he out so late in the first place? AHHHH what to do? I know the fight is gonna be amazing, but that damn kid! "Hey idiot! Why aren't you helping the kid?" Damn it a soul reaper was right behind me! How did he even catch up to me? I turned to him ready to fight. He had orange hair….That's…….different. "Well you see, there's this hollow close by, and I really wanted to fight him." I replied to him as I moved my right hand towards my zanpakuto on my waist. "That's pathetic! You're a soul reaper so you're supposed to protect human souls. Why not help keep this one alive?" This guy takes his job way too seriously. He's not even good at his job! He's letting me do whatever I want instead of dragging me back to the soul society. "Fine then, I'll help him, but what can I do to help a human while I'm not in a gigai?" "Whatever, just watch and learn." I watched as he took care of things. It was kind of funny. He threw buckets and rocks at the guys and they thought the park was haunted! "So what are you doing here? Doesn't the soul society need all the help it can get?" That's when it hit me. This guy didn't even know I was a criminal! "Well the soul society got boring with all those rules and regulations so I just left." "Ha-ha I can understand that. What's up with the mask though?" "Oh this is why I came here. A crazy old inventor named Kisuke made it, and I can't get it off, but I don't even know where he is." "Well then I guess I'll have to take you to his shop."Wow this guy's great! We probably would have been good friends if I didn't think he would arrest me if he knew who I was.
We came up to a broken down shack and I couldn't believe a captain would be in a place like this! It did kind of suit his personality though. "This is it, Urahara's shop. Oh I forgot to introduce myself; I'm Ichigo Kurosaki nice to meet you." "I'm Kasai Arashi." As we were about to shake hands the door to the shop flew open. "Ah Ichigo it's you, and you even brought a friend!" That loud mouth could only be Kisuke. "Come on now Kisuke don't you recognize me?" "I don't know it's kind of hard to figure out who you are with that mask on." "What? It's me, Kasai! You made this damn mask to conceal my spiritual pressure and now I can't get it off!" "Kasai you say? Doesn't ring a bell, although that mask does look familiar." A lone black cat emerged from the doorway and actually started talking! "Oh come now Kisuke, you know full well that this boy is Kasai Arashi, the eldest son of the noble Arashi family." I was surprised to see that a cat could speak, and on top of that it knew more about me than that old fart could remember. "Hey Kisuke, how can this cat talk?" A huge grin crept across his face and he looked like he was hiding a juicy little secret. "The cat isn't important right now; you came to get the mask off so come on in." The shop was really well kept for being a shack looking thing. "Yoruichi why are you keeping your identity a secret from him, and just who is this guy?" "Don't worry about it Ichigo. I was wondering if you could stay for a while, once that guy gets his mask off he'll be at full power, and he'll want to fight something. I figure you two could use a good sparring session." "Of course I'll stay. There's no way I would ever turn down a good fight"