Cosgrove:
Difficulty: FULL KUBO
There are no breaks on the Kubo Train.
First, let me explain how dice rolls work here on Bleach Quest. I take the best of three, barring any Critical Successes or Critical Failures. If I have not yet asked for dice, and you roll anyway, your roll will count towards the next time I ask for rolls be it for good or ill. After I get three results for a roll, all others are discarded.
Solodark: Luckily the 100 roll that we got in the last thread still counts.
Cosgrove: Now, that being said, let's recap what happened last time.
CHAPTER SUMMARY: In which Ichigo Kurosaki forces himself into an unconscious body, violently and painfully
BLEACH QUEST
Chapter 2
Starting off, You are Kurosaki Ichigo, a fifteen year old high school student at Karakura high school. You also possess the ability to see ghosts. After going to the rescue of a ghost girl whose resting place was being disturbed by a group of teenage Japanese skateboarder punks, whose asses you decide to try to kick.
Unfortunely, a series of events of great misfortune had left you almost dead at their hands, your spirit only connected to your body by a chain.
At this time, a giant fucking monster appeared and things went worse. Not only did you get severed from your body, but there's a giant hole where a plug used to be in your chest. Awakening in a sideways world, you freak out as gravity reasserts itself and you begin to fall towards the ground as the world crumbles.
Your only companion is a mysterious man who offers you words or warning.
"We don't have much time, Ichigo."
Behind him, the building began to break apart into boxes.
"You have until the time this world decays to find something very important. You must find your powers of a shinigami, that have laid dormant inside you your whole life.
"If you fail, and this world decays completely, you will cease to exist.
"And the monster born from your remnant will hunt and kill your friends and family."
Worriedly, you begin to watch as thousands of boxes seem to scatter across the horizon. However, you overcome your fear and begin your search. Box after box seems to be useless as the man watches. The ground collapses beneath you, submerging you and the boxes into water.
Yet, despite the fact that you should be drowning, you aren't. Maybe its because you're a spirit?
An idea clicks in your head an you try to 'reach out' with your sixth sense towards the boxes, as thousands and thousands of ribbons appear, all white.
All white, except one.
In front of you, there's a red ribbon, waving in front of your face.
Pulling the red ribbon, it brings a box towards you, which opens to reveal the hilt of a sword. The man floats down behind you. "You actually found it." He lets out a sigh of relief.
"Now then, I can let you know my name."
Suddenly, the world starts breaking apart at an even more rapid pace. The man looks frantic now.
"It's collapsing! Hurry up and pull me out!"
Turning back towards the sword's hilt you rush forward to grasp it!
Pulling out the sword hilt, there's a flash of white light and when you awaken, you find yourself surrounded by a dust cloud. Your school uniform is gone, replaced by some sort of hakama. On your back is a large sword in its sheath and your face is covered by something, perhaps a mask. For a moment you fear you might've failed, but you don't notice any new urges to murder your loved ones, so its probably fine.
You can see through the eyeholes well enough, but whenever you breath, it makes an eerie rattling noise.
As the dust clears, you see the street you were in has been ruined and the monster seems to be gone.
In front of you there is young, short woman in a black hakama pointing a sword at you, presumably guarding the specter girl behind her. The ghost girl looks frightened, but that's nothing compared to the sheer horror that seems to be on the face of the woman in black, who looks like she's reliving a nightmare.
As you bring up your hand to your face, the girl tenses until you carefully pull it off. It takes a moment, as it feels like it's glued on, but it comes off, revealing a skull-like mask with three red curved lines from the top right that extends towards the bridge of its nose. Letting out a sigh of relief, you feel that its much easier to breath now, as you slide the mask into your hakama for safekeeping.
Looking as the two in front of you, you notice that while the ghost girl seems less frightened now, the lady in black seems wary. Taking a moment to look back, you see your body, still in the shape it was earlier, though it doesn't seem to be breathing anymore.
Scratching at the back of your head, you decide to find out what's been going on.
"Hey, short stuff, any chance you could tell me what the hell's been going on? I'd rather get back into my body and go home, so my family doesn't worry. Speaking of that, any clue where that big ugly monster went?"
Crossing your arms you give an annoyed look towards this woman, who you don't even know, actually.
"And who are you, anyway?"
The woman bristles at your tone before scowling back at you, as she seems to reflexively retort to your attitude.
"Short stuff, huh? Like you're anyone to be talking carrot top! If anything, YOU'RE the one who should be explaining what's going on! I just saw you begin the process of turning into a hollow and here you are with some damn hollow mask and in a shinigami's Shihakusho!"
She's pissed, but it seems to be an improvement over her previous attitude, somehow.
"Shinigami? Hollow?" You scratch your head. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Then you decide it's too late to deal with this shit.
"You know what, nevermind, I don't care. Can you help me get back in my body or not, shorty?"
The unknown girl's eye seems to be twitching. Her teeth are grinding, and a black aura seems to be radiating off of her.
"THE HELL DID YOU SAY?"
Well, looks like she's a small ball of fury right now. Regardless, it would probably be best to try to work on that body situation now. You were pushed out of it, so maybe you can just get back into it?
Well, its worth a try.
As you crouch over your body, you poke at it, not sure to how to get this to work. The woman is shouting something, but you have to figure this out. If you missed dinner, Yuzu would kill you, ghost or not!
Well, fortune favors the brave, they say. Taking a deep breath, you try to plunge into your own body.
Plunging forward towards your body, you ignore the fact that if this fails you're going to hit your head into the pavement, AGAIN, and focus upon the idea of being in your body again. For a moment, you think it might fail, but then you find yourself laying face first on the pavement and then comes the pain.
OH GOD THE PAIN!
Everything feels like it's made out of hurt!
Your head hurts, your body hurts, your nose is broken, but other than a good size gash on your head, you seem to have escaped the assault from the asshole roaming band of teenage skateboarders without any major injuries. Well, other than the nose.
Staggering to your feet, you stumble a bit but are eventually able to stand back up.
Yeah, you've got this. And maybe a concussion. Luckily, the small time you might've been dead hasn't seemed to affect you negatively. Well, as far as you can tell, anyway.
You gingerly stumble your way over towards the ghost girl, ignoring the 'shinigami.' Gathering your fortitude, you bow deeply before her. "I'm Sorry."
Raising your head, you watch her expression become startled and confused before lowering it again, clenching your hands into fists.
"You asked for my help, but I only caused more trouble and distress to you. The way I fought, it wasn't right. That's not how I should've fought. And, more than that, I'm sorry for not being able to do more to protect you from that monster."
Going over to the shattered vase, you rummage around in your school bag and come out with a half-filled bottle of water. Opening it up, you pick up the somewhat battered flowers and stick them in.
Setting the bottle down where the vase was, you turn back to the ghost girl. "I'll bring something better tomorrow."
And with that, it's time to make your way back to the clinic... and to Yuzu's tender care and worried questions.
Left behind, gob smacked at being ignored, the 'shinigami' girl starts ranting at you, but you tune her out, knowing that'll do more to bother her than anything else you could say.
Longer than it normally would have taken you, you approach your home.
You try to sneak in past your family.
As you decide to push off fully putting both feet in the grave, you try to quietly open the door, but you stumble making a loud noise. Immediately, you realize what is about to happen now that you presence is known here.
"YOU'RE LAAAAAAAAAAATE!"
As your father' foot comes towards you, you duck out of the way and return a kick to his stomach, doubling him over. You hear your sisters come investigate the ruckus, because when you're in visible range of Yuzu, she lets out a horrified shriek.
"Ichi-nii! What happened to you?!"
With the curious but serious stares of your family on you, you scratch the back of your head and try to make something up on the fly that is mostly the truth.
"Got beat up when I tried to stop some thugs from desecrating the memorial of a little girl. Passed out. Came home when I woke up. Now, could I get some treatment for this nose?"
As you tell what is mostly the truth, you find yourself locked into a staring contest with Yuzu, who is inches away from your face. Her eyes stare deeply into your soul and you can't help but come clean.
"Alright, fine. The truth is that I fought some pucks who were desecrating the memorial of a little girl, whose ghost asked me for help. However, they really roughed me up and I found myself floating outside my body, linked to it with a chain.
"At that point some sort of ghostly monster appeared and severed the chain where it connected to my chest. When I blacked out I found myself in some weird crumbling world being told by some guy to find something that turned out to be a sword. When I grabbed it, I found myself in some weird hakama with a sword and mask on and there was this short samurai-looking chick, who might've also been a ghost.
"She seemed pretty upset with me, but I was tired and hurt so I tried to jump back in my body to get home. Seems like it worked, but I might've been dead for a little while."
As you finish your story, your family stares at you in shock. Yuzu looks horrified, Karin looks skeptical but willing to believe you somewhat, at least. But your father is who surprises you with the serious look he seems to have before he's back to his normal goofy self.
"So you were off having adventures, you'd worried us you ungrateful brat!"
With a snort, he grabs you by the remaining sleeve to drag you off to the clinic. Yuzu and Karin following along. At the window, you swear you might've seen some movement, but you're tired.
Following a quick treatment, the worst of which was setting your nose, you talk with your father.
You're tired, but that doesn't mean you're not going to get answers. Your father was acting, odd, more odd than he normally does and that's saying a lot so there's no doubt that you're grilling old goat-chin. But first, you have a problem to take care of.
Grabbing a bucket and filling it with water, you go to the window and open it. Your voice monotone as you call out. "CAAAAAAT"
You see a moment of shock on the 'shinigami' girl's face before she's soaked with water and you slam the windows shut, locking them. As your sisters stare at you in bewilderment, you turn to your father.
"We need to talk. You know something about what happened to me, don't you?"
Your father tries to look innocent, but your unnerving stare begins to eat away at him After a few moments, he lets out a sigh. "I didn't want to tell you any of this ever, Ichigo, especially when you aren't ready. Karin, Yuzu, go to your rooms, this conversation doesn't involve you."
"No, I'm not leaving Ichi-nii. I want to know!"
Grabbing your arm, Yuzu wraps her arms around it tightly, refusing to let go. On your other side, Karin looks indignant. Both look at you pleadingly for assistance.
Your sisters stare at your father intently, and your join them. "No, this involves them as much as it does me. If there's things out there that could come after them, they need to know whatever they can to stay safe."
Your father looks deeply unhappy, but after a few minutes, he gives in. "I suppose they'd have to learn eventually, considering what's happening." Getting up, you go over to the windows and open them again.
Still sitting there, soaked and unhappy, is the girl you encountered earlier. Grabbing her by the scruff, you lift her and set her inside. Turning to her, you ignore the murder in her eyes and address her seriously.
"If you wanted any answers, this would be the time, as my father knows something. His name is Kurosaki Isshin, and I'm his son, Ichigo. These are my sisters, Yuzu and Karin."
Turning towards your father, she lets out a small gasp as she seems to recognize him before turning back to you much more seriously. "I see. I am Kuchiki Rukia, a shinigami of the Gotei 13. There is much that will have to be explained."
As you watch you father, you realize that while he sees you talking to someone, he cannot hear her, it seems. However, your sisters can and bow in return to her introduction, noting the seriousness of the conversation.
As you all sit down, you father stares intently at you.
"Where should I begin?"
There's many questions you have for him, and you want them all answered. You increase the intensity of your stare, making sure to search your father's expressions to you questions and answers to make sure he isn't hiding anything.
"Do you know what happened to me? And what was that monster I saw, with the hole in its chest that wore a mask? How exactly are you involved in all of this?!"
Slamming you hands down on your knees, you grit your teeth and endure the pain it brings you. No, that isn't the only question, there's also one more important one.
"And, why, if you can't see spirits in the first place, does it seem like you know something about what's going on?!"
Your sisters are staring at you, eyes wide, and Rukia is looking at you with something akin to pity. But in your father's face, you only see the things beneath his stern persona: Guilt, sorrow and regret.
Folding his hands together, he closes his eyes and seems to collect himself. He refuses to look directly at Yuzu or Karin, staring you directly in the eyes.
"I can't tell you everything as I don't know all the details, but I can tell you that most of what has happened in my story is the work of one man, Aizen Sosuke. As for how I got involved, it was when I met your mother, Kurosaki Masaki, when she was in high school. Back then, I was Shiba Isshin, Captain of the 10th squad in the Soul Society's 13 Court Guard.
"A Shinigami."
BLEACH QUEST END
TO BE CONTINUED
