Well here's chapter 2!
First, review replies, cause i'm too lazy to actually send out a message. Darn you laziness and procrastination!
d-master: That's what I've been planning, but I'm still questioning whether I should or not. It'd be a nice little plot twist, keeping it a secret from Soul Society because of what happened with Hitsugaya and Hyourinmaru and what's-his-face in Diamond Dust Rebellion, no?
Ag-ro-tag: This chapter answers the majority of your questions. I'm sorry I didn't clarify their ages in the last chappy. They were supposed to be around 24.
But I've been so bored lately that I decided to update. I hope you guys think this chapter was ok. It's another product of me staying up into the wee hours of morning to complete ^_^'
Separated; Chapter 2: Soul Society's greeting
Ichigo peeked through his eyelids. His head was throbbing, and he just wanted to sleep.
"Hm….Why don't I remember anything? Did I suffer amnesia or something? And how would that have happened?"
Pushing the questions to the back of his mind for now he blinked his eyes open, only to squint them shut again and that sharp sunlight. It was quiet, but he could hear loud voices far away, though to him they were only a whisper.
Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, he stood up, only to catch himself on the tree he had apparently been lying under because his knees tried to give out, and his vision swirled with black and red dots.
"Now for the newest problem….What is wrong with me and what am I doing here? Then again…where is here?"
He glanced around, seeing trees in the foreground of his vision, small houses and people in the background. The sun was high in the sky, with clouds drifting lazily in wisps around it. It was a nice temperature outside, which tempted Ichigo to lie back down under the warmth of the sun.
"Maybe I should go ask some of those people.."
He groaned as he started walking, realizing how sore he was. But he wasn't dizzy, his knees weren't giving out, and he wasn't falling flat on his face.
'So far so good…'
He stretched, as if waking from a long sleep, and started making his way towards the crowd. They appeared to be waiting to get in somewhere, and there were hundreds of them. Some were young and old, tanned and pale, with all different possible hairstyles. They were all dressed in different ways, obviously their own personal choices.
Ichigo looked down and saw he was wearing blue jeans and a red t-shirt. They seemed so familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on why. Damn amnesia….
He wandered down to the outskirts of the group and approached a man who looked around his age.
"Uh, excuse me? Can I ask you something?"
The man turned, curious. "Sure, I guess."
"Where are we? What's everyone doing here?"
"You mean you don't know? Welcome to Soul Society!"
'Soul Society' rang a bell in Ichigo's head, but the man continued, interrupting his thoughts.
"We're all standing here because we are dead."
That one shocked Ichigo. His knees gave out and he landed on all fours on the ground.
"I'm…..dead? How is this…..possible?"
"Well it is. We're all standing here so the Soul Reapers can count us and sort us into districts. The lower the number of the district, the nicer it is. You better hope for a low number."
Ichigo nodded, still numb from the guy's last statement, barely taking in any of the new information. The crowd moved forward, and Ichigo stumbled along behind everyone else. After about an hour of standing around thinking about the fact that he was dead, he was about 10 feet from the front of the group, where people in black shihakushos were talking sternly to a group of the dead people. Then the souls separated into groups, accompanied by the 'Soul Reapers' to go into a small building with a number on it. Ichigo assumed that was the district number.
'Huh. Interesting process. I guess they send the souls to their respective districts at the end of the day…'
Suddenly someone slammed into his side, causing him to fall into some other dead souls, who grumbled angrily. Ichigo stood to look at who pushed him. The pusher looked just like himself, around his own age, 24, except he was extremely pale with white hair, and the strangest gold eyes. He was wearing black jeans with holes in them, and a dark gray shirt.
"What the hell is your problem," Ichigo demanded. He wasn't gonna get pushed and just brush it off like it was nothing!
"Me? Ya just looked too calm and bored. I thought I would liven up your day!" His white look-a-like grinned. "I'm Haku Tsukino. But you can just call me Shiro. Wanna have a quick fight before we never see each other again?"
Ichigo smirked at the thought. "Sounds great. And I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. Nice to meet ya, Shiro."
"Don't be too confident, partner, cause I'm gonna win this."
"Will ya now? Maybe we should test that theory!" Ichigo could feel the excitement for the fight flowing through him, along with the competitive feeling.
Shiro grinned crazily. "Don't underestimate me," he yelled, running towards Ichigo, aiming a punch for his gut. Ichigo skittered back. Shiro was a lot faster than he looked. 'I really need to stop underestimating people. Oh well! I'm not losing to this punk.' Ichigo took his turn, this time swinging in for a punch to the jaw, but instead was kicked in the chest by his opponent.
'Damn.'
He leaped up, darting to the snowy man's side and kicked him in the ribs, earning a small crack from his body. Shiro grunted, and swung his arm towards Ichigo's head. Before it came close to connecting, a deep voice interrupted them.
"Well what do we have here? Fighting, eh? You two look like you have spirit. I think your district assignment should be 78."
Shiro froze at the voice, and the two men looked up at the soul reaper. He was big, but it was from muscle, not fat. He was tall, about half a foot taller than Ichigo and Shiro, and he had a blue handled sword hanging from his side.
"Seventy…..Eight," Ichigo managed to get out. The soul reaper smirked and nodded.
'Crap.'
"C'mon, let's go. You 2 are the last ones for the day, so hurry it up. It's Friday Night, so I'm going out drinking for the night with my buddies. And since you boys seem to be acquainted, I think I'll reset you to…say the appearance of 17 year olds, since that's the age you act. And you'll be in a high numbered district, so you can pick as many fights as you want," sneered the soul reaper.
Ichigo and Shiro protested as they were dragged over to a building with the number '78' on a sign on top, along with the characters (七十八). They were pushed through the door into an empty room. All the other souls had already been sent ahead of them. The soul reaper chuckled, causing the men to spin around.
"Have fun, you two," he chuckled as he typed something and pushed a button. Ichigo was suddenly blinded by a bright blue light, and he had the sensation of being pulled somewhere. Then he felt himself hit ground, but he was too tired to care. The sky was dark, so he shut his eyes, and his breathing slowly deepened into that of sleep.
He was awoken by voices. Gruff voices, and a familiar high pitched one. His head pulsed at the sound, but he opened his eyes anyway. Shiro was standing almost over Ichigo defensively, facing 2 tough looking thugs. He looked much younger than when they were fighting, and Ichigo looked at himself, realizing he looked a lot younger too.
"C'mon, we just want to pound the little orange haired freak. We'll let your snowy hair get by without a scratch for now if you hand him over."
"Now why would I do that? Leaving you guys to beat up a guy who's sleeping? That's low. I may not like the guy, but I'm not that mean."
"He's not sleeping, look at him."
Shiro glanced back quickly, catching Ichigo's eye. He shifted over, allowing Ichigo to stand up. He rubbed his eyes, wiping away the sleep, and yawned. "So now, why are you guys trying to attack me while I'm sleeping? It's my first day here, not like I have anything for you to take."
"Newbie, eh? Heh. Gives me all the more reason to give you a pounding, to teach you who's boss around here."
Shiro was sneaking off to the side, and disappeared behind a tree. 'He's leaving me by myself with these goons? What a SWELL guy!'
Suddenly the quiet thug dropped to the ground, and the leader jumped in surprise, only to collapse like his partner. Ichigo glanced behind where they had been standing in surprise. Shiro had hit a few pressure points on them, and they had fallen like a sack of rocks.
Ichigo rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Thanks for that. I thought you were gonna leave me to fend for myself with these idiots."
Shiro chuckled and shook his head. "Like you heard me telling the morons, I may be mean, but I'm not gonna do something that low. And it's not like I did it for you. I just want to have my first day be in peace, though considering the fact we're in this high of a district, a peaceful day is not likely."
Ichigo nodded and they stood in silence for a moment. "So Shiro….do you know what the heck we're supposed to do now?"
Shiro smirked. "I know as much as you do. Maybe we should just head towards civilization first."
"That makes sense."
Shiro turned around and started walking, Ichigo jogging to catch up to him. They were in a forest, but it looked like it was dying, and struggling to live again. They came across a larger path and turned down it, finally hearing voices. But they weren't happy voices. They were pained, as if they were constantly carrying a terrible burden, and would do anything to escape the tortures they were enduring.
Ichigo and Shiro heard a scream of pain and flinched.
"Oh don't even bother caring. This is district 78, everyone only cares for themselves. So if you idiots start trying to save everyone, you're just wasting your energy. "
Shiro sneered at the man who had stopped speaking. He was muscled, but dirty and had a beard. "Who said I cared? I just don't like screamin' that's all. It gives me a headache."
The bearded guy nodded, with a disbelieving look in his eye. "Right. I'm sure that's probably why you're looking concerned."
Shiro grumbled but continued into the town. There were stands lining the street, but it appeared people were constantly stealing. Down the street 3 guys were beating up on a 4th, and down the alley in front of them, there was a body on the ground, bleeding profusely.
The look-a-likes exchanged glances, but continued walking down the road.
So this is how our lives are going to be from here on out….
***********************************A few years later************************************
"Oi, Ichi, get up."
Ichigo groaned and mumbled, "5 minutes, Shiro, that's all I'm askin'."
Shiro glared at his friend and stuck out his tongue. "Obviously you don't remember what today is. Do you, Ichigo?"
"Today is…..Monday. The worst day of the week," he murmured, rolling over to face away from Shiro.
"Yes, but that's not what I meant. Today is our first day at the Soul Reaper Academy."
Ichigo instantly sat up, smacking his forehead against Shiro's nose. Both groaned and held their wounded faces.
"Did you really have to do that? That HURT."
"That's what you get for waking me up."
"Well we don't want to be late!"
"Fine, point taken."
Ichigo rolled out of the dorm bed, still unused to the luxuries of living at the Academy. It was much nicer than Inuzuri. You didn't have to steal for food, or defend against random attacks, or fight to protect yourself and your best friend.
Said best friend was busy changing into the uniform. "Hurry up, Aibou, or else we'll be late for breakfast! I'm starved!"
Ichigo simply chuckled and pulled on his uniform and followed his friend down the hall and down the stairs. Shiro, wanting to make a big entrance, burst through the cafeteria doors with a loud BOOM and the entire room went silent as Shiro strode with his head high to the breakfast line. Ichigo was snickering at Shiro's false noble impression.
Ichigo fake bowed and said, "Your breakfast awaits you, your illustriousness."
"Thank you, my slaving minion. You may have whatever I don't, but please, do not touch the fine china. Your hands are much too grubby," Shiro replied, with an air of fake importance about him, speaking like a snob with his nose turned up.
They erupted into laughter as the cafeteria continued to stare and got their food, choosing an empty table to sit down at. Slowly the conversations around them picked up again, but some still watched the pair scarf down their food. When they finished, they pulled out their schedules.
Ichigo examined his for a moment and set it flat on the table, taking Shiro's and putting it next to his own.
Ichigo's schedule:
Monday thru Friday;
Saturday and Sunday-Free Days
Role of the Soul Reaper (8:00-9:15)
Hoho (9:20-10:35)
Zanjutsu (10:40- 11:55)
Lunch (12:00-12:30)
Zanpakutou Communication (12:35-1:50)
Kido (1:55-3:10)
Reiatsu control (3:15-4:30)
Break (4:35-5:00)
Hakuda (5:05-6:20)
Assassination (6:25-7:40)
Dinner
Shiro's Schedule:
Monday thru Friday;
Saturday and Sunday-Free Days
Role of the Soul Reaper (8:00-9:15)
Hoho (9:20-10:35)
Zanjutsu (10:40- 11:55)
Lunch (12:00-12:30)
Zanpakutou communication (12:35-1:50)
Hakuda (1:55-3:10)
Kido (3:15-4:30)
Break (4:35-5:00)
Reiatsu Control (5:05-6:20)
Assassination (6:25-7:40)
Dinner
"Hmmm," mused Shiro. "It looks like we have 5 classes together, not including lunch, break, or dinner.
"Hey it looks like we have our optional classes together too!" "Oh you mean Zanpakutou Communication and Assassination? Yea, that's awesome, especially for assassination! That's gonna be tons of fun!" The two exchanged glances. Then they lifted their classes simultaneously. "Here's to a new start!" "And may it be a good one!"
They clinked glasses and finished off the juice inside.
'Yes. Please let it be a good one…'
Darn this stupid computer! I think it's REALLY starting to hate on me. I tried to put Ichigo's and Shiro's schedule next to each other so it'd be easier to compare them, but FF is being stupid and not letting me. Argh.
Well, I hope this was up to everyone's standards. I'm excited for the next chapter so I can write out the classes, and Assassination is one i'm REALLY looking forward to writing :D
I'll probably be updating again within the next few days, unless I have to babysit -.-
So, until next time!
d(^_^)z