Summary: In order to defeat the 10,000 dragons, all of the dragon slayers use a powerful but forbidden spell which sacrifices the castor's life. Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel, Sting, Rogue, Laxus and Cobra die and wake up in the Soul Society. Their memories of their previous lives remain but the dragon slayers move on, making a new life for themselves in their new world. Are they safe yet though?


Chapter 1 – Welcome to heaven


The harsh rays of the spring sun penetrated through the leafy thicket and lay upon a certain man who was sleeping against the trunk of a tree. His eyes fluttered open and he took in the world around him as it came into focus. He was in a forest, lying on the mossy floor of a small clearing. Above him, the leaves on the trees shimmered with light from the bright sun in the cloudless blue sky.

'Where am I?' was his first thought. 'Wait, who am I?'

The man slowly got to his feet. All around him was forest; he couldn't see anything else.

He stood up and took a cautious step forth, trying to remember how to walk. All of a sudden, the memories flooded his mind. He was Natsu Dragneel, son of the king of fire dragons, Igneel. More memories circulated his scattered brain; laughing with his friends, fighting with his rival – Gray, meeting Lucy, fighting in the Grand Magic Games. He remembered most clearly of all the dragons. 10,000 of them. Then there was the strangest part - receiving a message from Zeref. Finally, he recalled the consequences of this message - he the other dragon slayers sacrificing their lives for everyone.

Intense emotion welled up inside Natsu and he fell to his knees. 'Happy, Lucy, Gray, Erza, Master... Everyone. I'm never going to see any of them ever again.' Another thought struck him. 'Am I dead... Is this place heaven?'

A quiet mumble woke Natsu from his stupor. He looked across to the source: Gajeel who was lying on the ground a few feet away, still asleep. Beyond him lay the other dragon slayers: Laxus, Rogue, Sting, Cobra and Wendy.

Natsu's gaze lingered on Wendy for a bit. Something was different about her. Feathers coated her wrists and ankles and small wings spouted from her back.

At that moment, however, he couldn't care less about that. Relief washed through him. 'I'm not alone.'

A strong, chill wind swept across the clearing, waking the dragon slayers. Like Natsu, they were extremely confused at first but soon understanding was visible on their features. Remembering what happened, everyone donned a solemn expression.

"What the?!" Everyone turned towards the person who had spoke. Cobra's arm was outstretched and something was materialising in his open hand. The object grew longer and thinner.

Soon it could be seen clearly; it was a katana in a dark purple sheath. The sword was about one meter in total length, with the crimson hilt making up about a foot of it. At the end of the hilt, before the beginning of the blade was a thin black guard which was mostly a straight line but curled up at each end.

"What did you do?" Rogue was the first one to break the shocked silence.

"I just tried to see if I could use my poison magic but then this happened!"

"It's happening to me too!" Sting gazed in amazement as a sheathed katana appeared in his own hand. His was completely white with a round guard.

"Alright, everyone try it! I want a sword too!" Natsu was the one to suggest this idea and none present could see a reason to protest.

Soon everyone had their own sheathed katana. Natsu's was red and orange with a flame shaped guard. The metal of the blade appeared scorched. Gajeel's was gunmetal grey with a spiky guard. Rogue wielded a pure black blade with a rectangular guard. Laxus' was yellow with a lightning bolt shaped guard. Each sword was similar in size but they varied in width, size and straightness.

Wendy's was different however. In her hand she held a small sheathed dagger which was copper coloured but with sky blue patterns. Instead of a guard, the blade and hilt were joined by four pieces of very thin metal each side which curved outwards; inside the makeshift sphere were two small glass orbs which whizzed around, not attached to anything.

"Why is mine so different?" Wendy asked the others.

"I don't know kid, but maybe it's got something to do with your current state." Laxus told the upset girl.

"What?!" The group let out a collective cry of surprise as they had been focusing too much on their new weapons to notice Wendy's new additions until then. Wendy gasped herself as she looked down, taking in the scale like feathers around her hands and feet.

"What? You only just realised?" Rogue, who had immediately noticed but hadn't said anything, shook his head at the stupidity of his companions.

"What is this?" Wendy brought everyone's attention back to her.

"I think you have dragon force, Wendy." Sting assumed the feathers were something to do with the Sky Dragon's appearance.

"Since when could you do that?" Natsu was confused.

"I didn't know I could. I wonder why I can now though." Wendy thought for a moment. "I know! It's the air!"

"Uhhh... what?" Cobra didn't see what that had to do with anything, but he did think that the air did feel different here.

"The air here is so pure. Just breathing it in gives me extreme power. Maybe that iswhy my sword is so different."

"Air...pure... So we are in heaven then. Or at least an afterlife." Gajeel - who had not spoken until then - stated. He sighed uncharacteristically and he started walk out of the clearing.

"Where are you going?" Natsu asked the mage who was acting differently to his usual self.

"Well, we're in heaven so there must be some people around." He didn't turn around or stop walking.

"You're right about that!" A voice yelled. Its owner crashed through the trees, a large group of thugs followed him soon after.

The man looked to be in his mid forties, with matted blond hair. He was wearing what appeared to be not quite rags but clothes which were hastily sewn together. His followers were similarly dressed and all of them held a sort of spear.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Gajeel calmly asked the advancing man.

"You don't need to know that! You're in White Beast territory so unless you pay the tax, we'll kill you and take it from your corpses!"

"Well, we don't have any money so it looks like we've got a fight on our hands!"

"Great! I'm all fired up!" Natsu was ecstatic at the prospect of a good fight.

"Attack!" The man cried. All of his gang rushed forwards. The dragon slayers drew their swords except for Wendy, Laxus and Rogue who were content to let the others fight for them.

Natsu, Gajeel, Cobra and Sting ran towards the thugs to meet them. The four immediately started a competition to see who could beat up the most.

Natsu who had never used a sword before just swung it around wildly, slicing spears in half and giving his opponents minor cuts which disabled them. He also used his own hand-to-hand combat skills, kicking and punching enemies.

Sting who was not faring much better with his weapon was using similar tactics.

Gajeel used his own metal sword often so he was wielding the katana slightly better than the other two. He too was using hand-to-hand in addition to the sword.

"I can hear you!" Cobra informed his adversaries as he side stepped punches and blocked swipes from spears with his own sword.

The gang 'White Beast' was extremely easy to beat up. After a few minutes, the four dragon slayers were surrounded by a sea of unconscious bodies. The only member left was the blond haired leader himself, who by now had shaky knees.

"Uhhh...ummm...bye!" The man turned tail and fled.

Natsu pouted. "That wasn't fun at all." Everyone ignored him.

Sting started running in the direction the man had taken.

"Hey where are you going?!" Natsu yelled as he ran after him.

"Think about it, he must be running to his base, which would be near a town. That means people."

Natsu grinned at this and gestured for everyone to follow them.

^_-x-x-x-_^

Soi-Fon frowned. She was neverlate to captain's meetings. Unfortunately for her, Yoruichi had asked asked Soi-Fon to run an errand for her which involved breaking into the twelfth squad barracks. Now she hadn't wanted to do it but to say no to Yoruichi-sama was as impossible as getting her lieutenant to loose weight.

Soi-Fon grunted at the effort of flash-stepping faster. Her surroundings blurred so she couldn't tell where she was going, only the general direction. This is what made her crash into the large figure of none other than Kenpachi Zaraki.

"Heh," he grinned, "you looking for a fight?"

"I am most certainly not." She glared at him while getting up off the floor. "Now would you be so kind as to move out of my way so I can get to the captain's meeting which you should also be going to."

"Shame. I always wanted to go up against your 'ninja skills'." Kenpachi completely ignored her comment about the meeting.

"If you don't move then you will be." Soi-Fon growled menacingly. Unfortunately it achieved nothing except making his grin grow even wider. "Whatever. I don't have time for this." She decided she didn't actually want to make herself even later by getting into a fight.

Soi-Fon shoved passed him and carried on walking. She didn't use flash-step as the doors were only about ten meters away. Kenpachi followed as he actually was going to the meeting. The pair walked through the doors and took their respective places.

"Ah, Captains Soi-Fon and Zaraki are here so we can start." Head Captain Yamamoto greeted them.

"As I'm sure many of you are aware, massive spiritual pressure has been felt somewhere in East Rukongai." He began "We are unsure of the exact whereabouts but we do know that the source is near the 70th district. It is suspected that the pressure belongs to multiple individuals as one person with that level of that power is unheard of."

"If I may interject, Head Captain..."

"You may Captain Kurotsuchi."

"The person or rather persons are of great interest to me so I would like to personally seek and capture them, if I may."

"You may not!" Yamamoto seemed to be quite irritated by this request. "I have already decided who will be investigating this matter and they do not include you."

Kurotsuchi seemed downcast by the rejection. "Well if not me then at least someone from my squad."

"No." the head captain was being characteristically stubborn. "The people which will have the task of apprehending these individuals are Captain Soi-Fon, Lieutenant Omaeda and Captain Zaraki."

"Heh, I knew I would get a chance to fight them but not so soon." Zaraki spoke up. "But why Squad 2? The little princess and the fat idiot can't enjoy a good fight."

"Yes, why them? Why not me – someone who appreciates researching unusual events and beings?"

"Silence!" now Yamamoto was actually annoyed by his captains' lack of respect. "I do not have to explain my decision to the likes of you!"

That got the attention of every captain present. All eyes were turned towards Head Captain Yamamoto. Zaraki was grinning. Soi-Fon and Kurotsuchi looked annoyed. Ukitake and Kyoraku were just smiling. Unohana, Komamura and Hitsugaya were purely focused on the head captain, their faces not giving their thoughts away. Kuchiki stood there with his mask of cold indifference as usual.

^_-x-x-x-_^


End of chapter


Apologies for the short chapter; the only way I could make it longer would be by adding more dialogue which would be boring. Please review as I do wish to know what people think however please include constructive criticism so that I can improve my writing.

Another thing, if anyone has any suggestions for the story line, tell me and I will consider it. It's not that I'm don't know where it's going or anything, just that other ideas might be better than mine.

The more reviews I get, the faster I'll publish (because it shows that people actually care).