Chapter Two

Pain after Death

Lulu walked along the empty lane where she had died. The images from the tragic afternoon played through her mind again and again like an endless nightmare. She had died well before the paramedics had made it to the scene of the accident. The good thing was that her act of heroism that cost her life wasn't in vain; Rachel was able to walk away from the incident with only a few scrapes and bruises. Rachel didn't see it that way and Lulu had to watch as her best friend slipped into a mild depression.

As a spirit there wasn't anything she could do to help her, to tell her it wasn't her fault, to tell her that she didn't save her life to see her sad. Lulu wanted Rachel to be happy, not sad or depressed. Going to her funeral was the worst for both of them. Nothing could ever compare to the sorrow of going to your own funeral. Seeing little Jeremy ball his eyes out and confess that he always really loved her and looked up to her, that he was only a pain because he wanted her attention, to seeing her father grieve over the loss of his only child, even Tanya cried, that was a surprise. It seemed everyone in her rich little town was there, even people she didn't know and would have preferred not to see (Kelly Runell). It was closed casket. The back of her body had been so mangled in the accident that her father had actually vomited after identifying her. All the glass and metal had torn chunks of flesh right off, over half her spine was actually visible at the time. Doctors did their best to close the wounds so she wouldn't have to be cremated.

Now she was left to roam around for god knows how long, unable to leave this particular area for too long. Cars zoomed by and she sat on the dented barricade idly rubbing the black paint from Rachel's totaled car. The images still played in her head and she wondered why she looks like she always does, instead of how she did when she died. You know, in those old movies when a ghost would pass on in the same appearance as when they died? Why didn't Lulu have cuts and gashes all over her body, why didn't she have a large hole through her chest? Guess it didn't really matter, she was grateful she didn't look like a horror movie victim. There was only one strange addition to her usual look. A chain protruded from a small hole in the middle of her chest, it was cut off at her waist.

A horrible sound pulled Lulu from her thoughts. It was a monstrous cry, not one from the mortal world, but here with her in the spirit world. Lulu quickly stood to her feet and looked around, it sounded enormous, whatever it was. In the few days she was dead she hadn't met anyone else that was like her, a good thing in her eyes, but what was this cry from?

It felt wrong, like the day of the accident, when something just felt off. The cry or maybe more of a howl sounded again and it was getting closer. Lulu had pretty good instincts and had a calm mind that allowed her to make quick, smart decisions. So the decision to run from the horrid cry was easy to make and easier to follow. Her legs carried her down the wet road toward the lake that wasn't far from her home. Whatever was making the sound was obviously following her as the sound broke the heavy silence again.

It was closer now, gaining on her fast. Her instincts told her not to look behind her, but that was one she couldn't obey. Her fighting spirit had awakened and an even more powerful instinct to protect herself had made itself known. Lulu turned abruptly and planted her feet solidly on the ground. The creature making the sounds was a truly horrific sight. It was almost all white with a large mask on displaying a long row of straight white teeth turned into a permanent smile. It had eight thin legs and two arms with long fingers that reached out like long individual knives. It was getting closer.

"Stop!" Lulu yelled in a firm voice. It was stupid to think the strange being would listen to her, but she knew it would, it would not have a choice. She knew all about her power, even as a human. It was her grandmother that had told her about it. Kotodama refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. It is said that few have the power, but some individuals can control things with words. Lulu didn't like using her powers on people, it made her feel like a tyrant. She had tested it on Jeremy before, just to see how far it would go. Through other various tests she learned it worked on animals too, and apparently it worked on spirits as well.

The creature was starting to move again, slower, like it was still struggling under her edict. Lulu prepared to issue another command. A black butterfly flew past her face and then she was surrounded. A man with long black hair and weird white things on his head stood directly in front of the monster, another man with flaming red hair tied in a high pony tail was blocking her from the creature, and a little boy with short hair next to the taller red-head.

Lulu turned to run, she could feel their spiritual pressure and one of them was very strong, she had no desire to stick around. She didn't make it very far before a fist collided with her gut and she was instantly knocked unconscious.

…

Where the hell was she? When Lulu woke up she was in a cell, that much was obvious, but where? It was warm, so she was definitely not in the mountains anymore. She sat up and stretched feeling as if she had slept on the cold ground for days, well, close enough. She was on an old fashioned Japanese bed of tatami mats and blankets. There was something keeping her from yawning. Her hands automatically flew up to her mouth to see why she couldn't open her mouth. A muzzle of some sort was secured to her face under her nose and under her chin secured behind the neck and above her ponytail.

Voices started to approach her and then her cell was opened by the red-head she had seen earlier. He stepped into the cell and walked over to her. She could tell he wasn't there to hurt her, but she still lashed out, sending her fist into his cheek and pushing him into the bars of her prison. Her eyes shot daggers at him; she didn't need to speak for him to understand what she meant.

The man regained his stature and smirked, "Careful Lulu Kaneko, you may just ruin your chances to live." He warned in a smooth voice. Lulu stepped back, releasing the man who was only an inch or two taller than her. He cuffed her hands behind her back with shackles that made her wary, like they were sucking her strength. Then he pulled her from the jail. Two other people she had never seen followed behind them but she didn't really care or even try to remember what they looked like.

Lulu was taken to a large room with one throne like chair in the back, and it was occupied. A very old, very haggard looking old man sat in the chair with a long white beard that was tied with ribbon. They weren't alone either. There was the man with long black hair from earlier, and eleven others not including the old man. "Remove her restraints." The old man ordered calmly. His orders were obeyed quickly; the red-head took off the cuffs and the muzzle and left the room with a deep bow. The room started murmuring when she was freed.

"Come closer child." The old man told her, and she listened feeling it was her best option. As she past the others she heard bits and pieces of their whispers. "…such strong reiatsu…" "…they want her…" "just a little girl…" She was peeved about the little girl part. She was seventeen, no longer considered 'little' by any standard. Lulu had noticed that only one person wasn't talking, a very large man leaned against the wall with a bored expression on his face. It was obvious he didn't want to be there and had no interest in whatever was going on. He wasn't even looking at her, but she couldn't look away from him. His hair was gelled into long spikes behind his head and they had bells on the end. Even shrouded in the clothes and a long white cloak you could still see the sheer mass of him.

She stopped a foot from the old man and bowed out of respect. Why she did this, even she wasn't sure but she felt it was expected. "Child, do you know why you were brought here?" He asked in a raspy voice his eyes only slits. "No sir." She answered fast and stood straight. The man behind the old man leaned forward and whispered something in his ear. The geezer nodded and looked back at Lulu. He didn't continue to explain instead he looked around at the others in the room. "Wait, tell me what is going on." Lulu said, her voice stern, making it a command.

Every pair of eyes in the room looked at her now, even the one from the large bored man against the wall. As her anger flared she looked at the old man. To everyone's surprise besides hers the ancient man answered her. "You were brought here to protect yourself and others. An evil organization named the Espada is after your unique abilities. We have you here to prevent that from happening." He said calmly and was only mildly surprised. He nodded his head again and suddenly she was muzzled again. "For our protection however, you shall remain incapacitated like this." Lulu glared at him and her anger grew if she could she would be streaming profanities from her mouth. She was grateful that they were trying to help her don't get her wrong, but to be treated like this?

"You are all dismissed for now." The man on the throne said and the room started to clear. Only a few stayed behind. The man that saved her from the creature, a man with long white hair, a man with long brown hair and a hat, and a petite woman with short black hair and two long…tail things coming from the bottom of her hair. They talked amongst themselves. "It is decided. You will attend the academy for training young shinigami." He said and the others all left the room.

Lulu couldn't speak to ask what it was and was led from the room and taken to a building that was obviously a school or some sort. She was taken to a room where a new set of clothes were waiting for her. When her escort left the room she found a small bathroom and took a moment to shower before putting her new clothes on. Her shinigami outfit highly resembled Captain Soi Fons' battle outfit. The top was very much the same with no material on the back or shoulders, but her pants were just like any other shinigami garb instead of the skin tight ones of the Captain of the Second division.

Dressed in her new attire and ready to cure her curiosity Lulu followed the man outside her door to her first class pulling at the muzzle over her mouth as if it would come off only by wishing it too. Didn't work.

Four months later…

Lulu knocked down her opponent with the bamboo sword used for duels. It had been four months since she had been entered into this school and she knew everything. She knew about hollows, her duty as a shinigami, her reiatsu and the fact it was pretty high compared to others, the names and purposes of all the captains and the divisions they led, and other less important things. While in school she was always muzzled and she learned how to work around it. This meant that she couldn't use demon art magic either, but she didn't want to. Lulu excelled at sword style fighting and flash step.

Top of the class in everything but the things she wasn't allowed to do, demon art. Just like when she was alive she was anti social and didn't make friends. Even if she could the muzzle made it kind of hard, and here most people seemed to avoid her just as much as she avoided them. Lulu preferred to spend her time studying or training. Now that she knew what it meant she was excited to be a death god.

Captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri of the twelfth division stepped into the room and began clapping at Lulus' triumph. Oh how she hated that man. He came in often to run tests on her and today he had something in his hand. It was another muzzle, but unlike the silver one already in place, it was a solid black one. "Come with me." He said looking at her and she saw the eyes of everyone in the class following her. He led her into the nurses' office and the little woman immedietly left the room leaving the two alone….great, she thought sarcastically. The captain grabbed her arm and injected her with a tranquilizer so she couldn't speak when he removed her current muzzle to apply the new one.

"This one works much the same as that idiot Kenpachis' eyepatch. It will eat away a small part of your reiatsu so you no longer overpower your fellow classmates." He explained in an excited tone. The straps were secured like the first one but she could feel it hold back her apparent power. The odd man looked her over wistfully and left the room muttering about more experiments he wished to try. Lulu left the room and headed back toward her class as soon as the effects of the medicine wore off.

Wow, could time drag on any longer? This school day never seemed to end. They went through the classes one by one and completed the day's work. When it came time for demon art class and Lulu had to sit out she decided to work out some more. She had been tall and pretty lanky in her human life but here she was starting to get some defined muscles in her arms and legs, her stomach that had always been flat now had the tiniest hint of hard muscles underneath the velvety soft skin.

When the day finally ended Lulu was relieved and got up to head to her room. She was stopped by one of the messenger shinigami, she forgot what they were called. "Yamamoto-dono wishes to speak with you." He said and disappeared. Lulu was infinitely curious as to the reason behind the sudden summons and headed that way.

The room was empty now except captain of the first division, Yamamoto Genryuusai, his vice-captain Sasakibe Choujirou, and captain of the twelfth division Mayuri. "You have been requested Lulu Kaneko to become a seated officer of the twelfth division of the Gotei 13." Yamamoto said as soon as the door behind her was shut. Lulu didn't know what to say, and couldn't even if she did. Something told her that Mayuris' intentions were far from pure. She simply nodded afraid to disobey the man that overpowered everyone and was named captain of the first division.

Mayuri seemed very pleased that Lulu was so willingly agreeing to the offer. How wrong he was. The second he tried to do anything to her and he was going to have a fight on his hands. Her new captain led the way to his divisions' quarters. As soon as they were there Lulu was left alone, Mayuri promised he would be back for her later, not a good thing in her mind. Lulu was in a small room that had bunk beds and a small bathroom in it. She decided it would be a good idea to shower.

The water made a soothingly familiar sound as she turned it on and disrobed. The mirror above the sink revealed the scars from the crash that killed her. True, she wasn't mangled looking and gross, but the reminders of that day were plain against her back. That's why she liked that particular outfit, so she would never forget how she had got here and why she wanted to be a shinigami so bad, to protect the one she had died for, her only human friend Rachel Roe.

Lulu climbed in the shower and shivered under the cold spray. It felt good after a second or two and she washed her hair the best she could with the muzzle still in place. As she was lathering her body clean she heard a shuffle outside the shower curtain and wrenched it out of the way ready to kill someone. It was a curvy woman in a mini kimono type thing, she had seen her once or twice following her new captain. "Pardon, I was sent to get your measurements." She said and bowed her head. Lulu realized she was revealing herself to the woman and quickly pulled the shower curtain closed again and rinsed off the suds before grabbing her towel and climbing out.

Her soul-cutter was there by the counter. Oh yes, her soul cutter. It had appeared next to her the second day of her classes, much sooner than the others. It was a short staff with two blades on the ends of it, like a double-bladed staff. The staff would come apart in its second form, and she hadn't reached bankai yet, but she was close, she could feel it. It didn't help that she knew the name of her soul cutter, but she couldn't call it out to release its full power. Kakeme Iki, the two-headed dragon.

The woman straightened up and looked Lulu over again before leaving the room writing on a clip board in her hands. Lulu dressed quickly and brushed her hair back into its high pony-tail letting it fall down her back and hide the majority of her scars. Then she followed the woman determined to do something about the intrusion.

By the time she had dressed and left the room the vice-captain was gone. Lulu grunted behind the mask over her mouth. That was really starting to get to her. Yeah so she could control people if she wanted to, but she didn't always do that so she just wanted to curse people out from time to time or just tell them to go away and leave her alone.

After searching for awhile and unable to hunt down either her captain or his lap dog Lulu headed back to her room to go to sleep. She wasn't tired, but it was a good way to make her anger pass. There were a few other division members sitting in the room or napping so when she came in they all stared at her, the new girl, the muzzled freak apparently. Lulu ignored them and pointedly walked to an unoccupied bed and crawled in facing away from her audience and closing her eyes to sleep.

She couldn't ignore the poking of her shoulder any longer. Who had that kind of patience? To poke someone for a solid twelve minutes till they answered. It was driving Lulu to insanity and back before she gave up her 'I'm sleeping' charade and turned to look in the face of the vice-captain. She had heard some of the men earlier talking about her and learned that her name was Nemu.

"I am sorry to wake you Lulu-chan, but Mayuri-taichou wanted to see you for a moment." She said softly. Lulu sighed as best she could with the obstruction cutting off her voice. She flung the blanket to the end of the bed and got up. This is what she was dreading, and half-way expecting. Every fiber of her being knew she didn't want to go to that man, knew deep down that he wanted to do experimental things to her that he had authority to do now as her captain. Hopefully after tonight that wouldn't be a fact anymore.

Nemu walked ahead of her and didn't say a word. In truth she was very pretty and resembled Rachel in many ways, if she wasn't following a maniac like a devoted slave then she might have considered becoming the woman's friend. That thought caught fire and burned away the second Nemu opened a door to an overly bright room and gestured for Lulu to enter.

Sighing behind her mask again Lulu walked into the room, her hand tight around her sheathed soul-cutter. Mayuri was there, moving about the room moving tools around and straightening up a small laboratory. He was going around a table in the middle of the room that had a white sheet on it. Lulu immedietly took on a defensive stance. "Calm down. I am not going to hurt you." He said with barely more than a quick glance at her before moving a few more things around.

"Come here." He said really looking at her this time. She obeyed hesitantly. The smirk on his face was creeping her out. "I planned to wait a while till you got comfortable, but I just cannot hold out any longer." He said patting the table in the center of the room. Lulu never moved her eyes from his face. She was brazenly stating she wasn't just about to lie down and take it; literally, she was not getting on that table unless she was already a corpse. Mayuri was lucky that she couldn't speak or he would get much more than just a cold stair.

"I said come here. I promise to be gentle. Truly, I am very careful with my female subjects." He said repeating the lines he had once delivered to another attractive young woman by the name or Orihime. Lulu wasn't gullible, she had trust issues with just about everyone so it wasn't hard for her to blow off what he was saying as a lie. Kurotsuchi-taichou picked up a syringe that was all too familiar and took a deliberate step toward her. She stepped back, her grip on her staff tightening to the point her knuckles were paper white. "Now now, you wouldn't want to be charged with insubordination would you?" He threatened calmly.

Lulu wanted to be a shinigami so very badly, but not some lab rat so if they were a package deal, well. She would rather be a plain old prisoner than this man's new toy. He took another step closer raising the needle an inch from the crease in her elbow. This was the moment she wished would never come, the moment she lost any chance to be a god of death, a protector of mankind, a guardian over Rachel, not just Rachel but Jeffery, and Jeremy, maybe even Tanya…