you know, I still have some eleven chapters left of stuff I'm just adapting, you'd think I could do this faster
and I haven't even gotten to the fun part yet
at least I'm starting to get a feel for my own writing style, which was half the point of this exercise anyway
anyway, on with the show
Ichigo slowly forced his eyes open and blinked at his room with some confusion. That had been one hell of a dream he'd had, weird monsters, bossy girls with swords, and his cousin as a vampire?
yeah
he'd have to figure out what had brought that on and make sure he never did it ever again
"what exactly did I do yesterday to end up with a dream like that?"
"I'm afraid that was no dream dear cousin"
Ichigo started, he hadn't seen Seras sitting on the end of his bed
smiling
with lots of teeth
noticing Ichigo flinch involuntarily Seras sighed
"Ichigo, I've been here for a month and I haven't eaten you yet, why would I do it now?"
"well...yeah...but... " Ichigo's mind flailed wildly for a way out, what it found just made him panic more "Oh shit! Karin! Yuzu! are they okay?"
Seras smiled warmly "They're fine, your dad is looking after them now, you can relax"
Ichigo looked relieved, but still somewhat distrustful
"oh for pity's sake I already told you I'm not going to eat you, stop looking at me like that"
"but...don't vampires basically eat humans?
Seras shook her head "well, normally yes, but for one I can count the number of humans I've drained to death on one hand, and they were all going to die anyway, and for another I can eat Hollows, so it's a moot point anyway"
"Hollows...is that what those monsters from last night are called? and I...actually killed one? I just remember getting stabbed, it all goes a bit...fuzzy after that"
"You didn't kill one..." said Seras, hiding a grin when Ichigo's face fell "you killed two!"
she accepted the pillow to the face as her just punishment, but never stopped smiling
Ichigo sat down on his bed that night after what felt like the longest day of his life. Which was saying something given what he'd been through last night
Rukia turning up at his school would have been bad enough, but then she had proceeded to inform him that he was now a "substitute Soul Reaper", and had impressed the duties the office held on him in the most direct manner possible.
He had to admit that Rukia was right that he couldn't just save only the spirits he saw and ignore everything else, but it was still a pretty big responsibility for a high schooler you know?
But still, if he had the power to protect someone, there was no way in hell he wasn't going to do just that
and oh yeah, apparently heaven was a real place
so there was that too
"Bad day?" asked Seras, startling him out of his reverie, "you want my advice? Take a nap. It'll make more sense in the morning"
Ichigo gave her a look
"do you have any idea what I've just gotten myself into?"
"as a matter of fact I do" she replied, looking immensely pleased with herself
"what? how?"
"I'm a vampire remember? when I drink a person's blood I get their memories, everything that makes them who they are. I caught Rukia before she could escape and fed from her a bit. It was a lot easier than trying to interrogate her. Point is, yes, I do know what you've gotten yourself into, probably a lot better than you do"
"wait, what does that mean?"
Seras looked distant for a moment "I'm not entirely sure, just that there's a lot she isn't telling you. Just...go with it for now and I'll see what I can put together"
"didn't you just say you had her memories though?" Ichigo was beginning to run low on patience
"look Ichigo, getting someones memories is like being handed a box full of unmarked photographs and being told to put them in chronological order, it's going to take me a while to sort out what's important and what isn't. I really don't have much experience with this"
Seras noticed the distress writ plainly on Ichigo's features and relented
"In any case, I'll do whatever I can to help but I'm not going out during the day except for dire emergencies, okay?"
and then a thought struck
"you know, you've gotten used to the idea of me being a vampire pretty quickly"
Ichigo's wary look told her that bringing that up had probably been a mistake
but then wariness turned to curiosity
"so...uh...how did you...you know..."
"die?" Seras provided
Ichigo winced, then nodded
Seras settled back and gazed into space for a bit before finally starting
"it was a little over a year ago. I was sent with the rest of my unit to a village called Cheddar. Oh right, I forgot to mention that I was a police officer didn't I? Well anyway, we'd had reports of disappearances for months, so my unit was sent in expecting a crime ring of some sort. What we got was zombies. Turns out a vampire had taken up residence in the town posing as a priest and by the time we got there the entire town had been turned into his were slaughtered. I was the only one left when the vampire himself caught me, he was just describing to me, in detail, how he was going to rape me before eating me so I'd just become one of his ghouls. Then Alucard showed up. Well, I call him Alucard because that's the name I first heard him called by, but you'd probably know him better as Vlad Dracul"
needless to say, this caught Ichigo's attention
"wait, you mean dracula!?"
"the very same, now if you'll let me finish?"
"er, sorry, go ahead"
"thank you, now, the vampire priest attempted to use me as hostage, a bargaining chip, and a meat shield all at the same time. As I said, by this point I was the only survivor, and the vampire priest tried to use me to get Alucard to let him go, holding me in front of him the whole time. Instead Alucard told me that he planned to shoot through me to get to the priest, but that he could turn me and take me with him. I accepted"
"and that" said Seras with a bit of a flourish "is the story of how I died"
Seras smiled at Ichigo for a bit before glancing towards his closet
"if you found the story so fascinating, why don't you come out Rukia?"
Ichigo looked confused
"what are you..."
the closet door snapped open, revealing one de-powered shinigami wearing an expression somewhere between profound confusion and abject terror
"what the hell?" Ichigo yelled, jumping off his bed "what are you doing in there?!"
any response that may have been forthcoming was cut off by Rukia's phone ringing
Rukia flipped it open and studied it for a second before her eyes widened in shock. two seconds later she had produced a fingerless glove with some kind of flaming skull decal and simply shoved Ichigo with it
Ichigo, for his part, cried out in confusion as his body went one way while his soul went another
just in time for a clawed arm to break through the wall where he had been standing not moments before and knocked Seras clear through the opposite wall
Ichigo needed no prompting to draw his sword
"aim for the mask!" yelled Rukia as he was sent sprawling from a badly-timed block
Ichigo was back on his feet immediately, and this time actually managed to land a glancing blow on the Hollow's mask
which cracked
revealing the human face lying beneath
The hollow screamed in pain and decided that discretion was the better part of valor, disappearing into a shadowy portal of some kind
Ichigo was still standing there frozen, the face he had just seen filling his mind
Rukia looked on and sighed, she didn't have time for this
"come on, we need to go find that Hollow!"
this at least managed to snap Ichigo back to reality
"what the hell? that was Orihime's brother!"
Rukia winced, this was worse than she'd thought
"I'll just say this: Attack from behind and kill with one strike, this is the most basic rule there is for fighting Hollows. Never forget it"
Ichigo had never heard Rukia sound quite so solemn
"but why?"
"for one, it reduces casualties, but more importantly, that way you never have to see the hollow's identity"
"what do you mean identity?" asked ichigo, though he had a sinking feeling he already knew
"you saw it didn't you? Hollows...were all originally human souls"
Ichigo's eyes hardened
"you never told me that! He's not a monster?"
"a monster is all that's left of him now" Rukia replied evenly
"but he used to be human!"
Rukia shook her head
"be it anger or sadness, the souls of those who still have an attachment to this world tend to refuse burial by us Soul Reapers, and so are left to wander the world. Over time, whether they want it or not, they become Hollows. It is our job to kill them before they can hurt others" she said quietly "now let's go, and hope he hasn't done any more damage"
Seras cursed as she phased her way through the house. Undead or not, getting punched through a building hurt
she was just getting ready to run out the door when Isshin all but materialized at her side, grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, and simply lifted her off her feet.
Seras aimed her best glare at him, but he just shook his head
"he has to learn to fight his own battles Seras, you can't always be there to save him"
it should be noted that even as he said this, he looked uncomfortable, and when a resounding crash echoed through the house even he was barely restraining the urge to rush over and help
"I will not let some damned Hollow hurt Ichigo!" she snarled as she twisted in his grip, expecting him to be overcome by her inhuman strenght
imagine her surprise when his grip only got tighter
"how the hell?"
"Seras, neither I nor my children are human, even if they don't know it yet, I would've expected you to have figured that out by now" he said drily
Seras just blinked at him in confusion
"clearly your observational skills need work"
"what? you're normal enough, and the only weird thing about your kids is that they can see ghosts!"
another attempt at breaking Isshin's grip ended in miserable failure
"that's because they're still alive, and I know how to hide" he answered brightly
"then...what are you?"
"now that I'm afraid must remain secret at least a little while longer. Now, I think it's been long enough, go make sure nothing too terrible has happened to Ichigo"
"Yes sir" Seras nodded, choosing for the moment to ignore the fact that she might not be the strangest thing in her family after all
instead, she disappeared through the wall, chasing her trouble magnet of a cousin
before anyone asks, yes I did swap in the version of Seras' turning from the T.V. anime, because I like that it makes it clear that it actually was her choice. I also decided to expand that part out a bit from the original, you know, given that expanding on things is one of the things I need to work on most.
I'm still trying to keep this more or less in line with the original, but I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable making changes and turning this into something more my own.
I'm also debating adding chapter titles, but can't decide how to go about it
anyway, let me know what you think, I am desperate for feedback
