Author's Note: See chapter 1

Bleach

Chapter 2: Remembrance

I remember. I remembered my life in the real world before I died. I remembered my father teaching me the basics of martial arts and philosophies of life. I remembered disturbing my sister all the time, especially during winter when I always throw snowballs at her. I remembered all the nagging from my mother for my naughtiness. Those were my happy times in the real world. Unfortunately, the memories of my family's death were part of what I remembered.

My father was a middle rank samurai serving in Tokugawa Shogunate. He was more of a loyalist to the shogunate than to the newly-established Meiji Government. Even thought I was eight at that time, I was old enough to have my suspicion that my father was against the new Meiji Government. I don't know if there was plot or whatsoever, but that night was the night that causes my family and me to pass over to Soul Society.

I was sleeping with my parents and my sister when shouts woke us up. Shouts from our servants told us that there were intruders. We also heard weapons clashed and shouts of death. It was terrifying for me to hear it.

My father suddenly went out with his katana. We heard more clashes and after a few minutes, we heard footsteps. I was hoping it was father. My mother took a naginata that was placed in our room, just to be sure. Her actions were justified.

Three men wearing green kimonos came in. Each of them had a katana in their hand. I was afraid at that time, but I strengthened my heart to look at them. I heard my mother ordered my sister to take me and run away while she held them back.

My sister took my hand and ran out of the window. We immediately ran towards the back door, but before my 15 year old sister managed to get out of the house, she fell to the ground. I looked back and saw her groaning in pain. On her back, there was wakizashi sticking out. She urged me to run, but I was afraid and reluctant to leave her behind.

Three men in green came to our view while another two stood outside the back door. It was then that I noticed my surroundings. Two dead servants were beside the door while three of my father's guards were on the ground in a pool of blood.

As the men in green moved nearer, my sister still urged me to run. Suddenly, the fear in me just vanished.

"I will not leave you, Tomi," I said.

"Just leave me, Ari, please!" she said, crying.

"Maybe you should listen to her, kid," said one of the men, "but it would be unwise to us."

"I do not want to do this, but for the future of this country, I'm sorry," said the man next to him, readying his katana to stab.

I stood by my sister, trying to protect her. What I got was pain on my chest caused by something very sharp. I looked down at my chest and the blade had pierced through my body. I coughed and I noticed my blood was coming out.

"Noooooo!" cried my sister and that cry was the last thing I heard as a living person in this world, and then all went black.

I suddenly woke up with a start and there he was. A man in black was standing over me, holding a sword. However, unlike the ones I previously saw, he was wearing a shihakusho.

"It is a shame to see a boy this young die like this," he shook his head as a female who was also in the same clothes came behind him.

The woman was shocked looking at me that she almost cried. The man then kneels down to level with me.

"Are you going to kill me?" I asked with an angry voice.

"No, we came here not to kill, but to help people."

"Help? What do you mean 'help'?"

He looked down to the ground, "I know it is hard to live, but I can guide you to a better place." He began to raise his katana.

Fear crept to me again, but instead of slashing, he stamped the end of the hilt of his katana onto my forehead. After that, I felt warmth.

When I opened my eyes slowly, the sun was shining on me and there was fresh air. I suddenly remembered what happened to me and quickly checked my body. I felt strange as I vividly remembered that I was stabbed, but the wound was gone and I felt much healthier than before. Then I remembered the man who stamped my head. I looked around and it seemed to be a good place and very much like home.

Yet the place was unfamiliar to me. A lot of trees that made into a jungle were not far away from where I was lying. Grass was cushioning my body and I noticed that I was at the edge of a small town. The grass was between a river and a main road that was leading to the town. Seeing that my family was not with me, I got agitated and watched the town, wondering if I should enter it.

"So you're a newbie, huh?" a male voice rang to me.

The voice caught me at unawares. I quickly turned to face the man. He appeared to be in his early twenties, muscular and good looking. He wore a red sleeveless shirt with matching pants, and boots that covered his lower legs. He was carrying a sword on his back, but it was not a katana at all. Basically, I don't know what kind of sword it was.

"Rather jumpy you are. Well, good luck in staying this 'indifferent' place. Unbelievable," he sneered, shook his head and begin to walk away.

"How do you know I am new here?" I asked as I followed him

"Those who come here from the real world for the first time always have a cleaner look. They always do."

"How do you know about that?"

"I had travelled a lot to know about this."

"What exactly is this place?"

He stopped and looked at me, annoyingly, "I told you that people come here from the real world. Can't you figure that out?"

"You mean to say that people are able to come here from real world and return as they please?"

"How stupid can you be?" he muttered and shook his head. "Understand this, all right. People that died in the real world, their spirits come here to this spiritual world. You died in the real world and your spirit come here, understand?"

"So spirits inhabit this place?" I asked, remembering what the man in black said to me about a better place.

"Yeah," he answered. He then continued his walk.

"Can you tell me what is this place called?" I asked as I evened my pace with his.

"This spiritual place is called Soul Society and this town is the 70th District, East Alley of Soul Society."

I suddenly got down on all fours and cried. Passer-bys looked at me and swordsman but they didn't care to ask.

"My family. Have you seen them?"

"Family, huh? If they are not with you, then it is impossible for you to find them in this world that has millions of spirits as its population."

I continued on crying.

"I'm sorry," he said, and left.

It was slightly more than two years now that I had been in this Eastern 70th District. In those two years, I managed to get into a place called the Protection House. This House served as an orphanage and a base of operations for our 20 stealing squads. Even though the building was called House, it was more of a mansion. It was big enough to house at most 200 children, but now it housed slightly more than 100 children.

Basically, almost every child in this House comprised the squads. Even though we hate stealing, having lack of money made us do this. Still, the administrator of this House, who preferred to be called only as Hiyato decided to lessen our guilt by planting some of the vegetables and fruits that we stole in our back yard. We didn't really worry about our water supply as this House was located by the river. Through this river, we sometimes had freshwater fish.

After living here for two years, I had learned a few things along the way. The biggest thing I had learned about this district was not to mess with the two triad gangs that resided here. Through a ramen seller that I had befriended, these two triads were previously at war, but they had been at truce for quite some time now. Instead of terrorizing the locals, both these gangs joined forces and decided to help to those who needed it. It was an unusual sight, but years of peace made the locals grateful to them.

I, for one, became quite respectable. A leader of a squad and answer directly to Hiyato. Well, actually all leaders of the squads were able to answer him directly. The thing was, he won't speak to anyone else, except to his assistants, leaders of the stealing squads and anybody that he WANTS to speak. Even though he doesn't speak much, he made every conversation that he made worth while.

There was one night which was memorable to me, even though we became close friends after that. I was lying down on the roof top, looking up at the stars, which I did almost every night, when Hiyato came up.

"Why you always come up here?" Hiyato asked.

"The stars. Aren't they beautiful?" I replied.

He looked up, "They are, but they cannot last forever."

"I know. They just calm me down, you know. They might have their own problems, but they always tell me that they will pull it through."

"That is why I always like to talk to you. You can make everything so inspirational," he chuckled as he sat down next to me.

"Orders, I presumed?"

"I want your squad to cover the north side tomorrow. Details are as usual at dawn. Okay?"

"Okay. By the way, may I ask you a question?" I asked before he could manage to get up.

"Sure. What is it?"

"First of all, don't be angry at me."

"All right."

"Why didn't you become a shinigami?"

He gave a hard look. "How do you know that I have reiatsu?"

"I was taking an evening walk when I saw you by the river. I wanted to tell you the status of my squad at that moment, but you suddenly create some sort of energy ball from your hand. So I hid behind a tree. Too afraid to talk to you at that time."

"When was this?"

"Two days ago."

"How do you know about the shinigami information?"

"I heard it from passing travellers. I also heard that Seireitei will only take in people that have reiatsu. It seems that living as a shinigami is better than living in these conditions."

"Do you believe in fate, Arisuke?"

"Yeah, I do," I answered as I looked at him, wondering where he was heading in this conversation.

"Being where I am right now is my calling of fate. Not in Seireitei. What about yours?" Hiyato got up and left, but before he got down from the roof, he reminded me to sleep early.

The question of my fate got me worried for a while. I always wondered what fate was installed for me and always hoped it would be a good one. However, knowing life as it was, fate is always out of our hands.

It had been almost another 11 years now being in this Protection House. In those years, many of the residents had come and go. Those that went away, some had died while some had found a better life in better districts or Seireitei. Out of 20 leadership positions, 10 had changed hands. Most of the children that came to the House were new in Soul Society. I still remembered what that man said about spirits that passed over from the real world. Now I know that the man and the woman in shihakusho were shinigami.

The number of residents in the House had increased to nearly 170 in this past 13 years. The little farm in the back yard doesn't seem keep up with the growing need of 170 people. This demand of food increased our stealing activities, which I still don't really like.

Those who came in were varied. The most notable and spectacular newcomer was a girl, which herself was quite spectacular. She came about six years ago. She was just an average girl of average height. She was not fat or plump, just that she was femininely muscular for a girl. Not only that, she knew how to fight. Her name was matching with her snowy white hair, her name was Yuki Kuriya. She was the only girl in the House who had white hair. I remembered that she fought with the boys and managed to beat some of them just to join in the Protection House. I also remembered that she easily beat the most skilful female fighter of the House. Now that was what I called intimidating. It was also because of that she had only a few friends. However, lately she began trying to make a larger group of friends, but she was always considered as an irritant.

There was one day that I apologised to Kuriya for treating her as an irritant. She cried on my shoulders. From that day, we became friends. That was the most memorable thing I had with her.

There was another girl that came just last year. She had long black hair that reaches her shoulders, slender body and a sweet face. Even though she was not that popular, she still managed to attract some boys. Whatever the reason, I some how had a sense of protection for her. Maybe because she reminds me of my sister. Both of them share the same personality of being shy, hardworking and able to do house chores. I remembered introducing myself to her and advising her on the circumstances of life. She took her situation quite hard at first, but she got used to it with some of our help. Her name was Kori Yamada.