I turned back to the first page again after looking at the fantastic illustrations and began to read the fairy tale that was st

I do not own bleach sadly. Please read and review if you don't like it tell me and if you do please tell me. No flames but I would not be angry at constructive criticisms. If you think anything should happen tell me I get stuck sometimes with my ideas so anything would be appreciated :D

I turned back to the first page again after looking at the fantastic illustrations and began to read the fairy tale that was strangely named 'The history of life and death.' It was a tale my mother had told me many times, I used to dislike the tale telling her I did not want to hear it again, I remember how it used to make me feel lonely and I disliked the fact it was not written like my other books, then when I grew up a little, possibly a little too old for story books I requested it, my mother did not seem to be surprised in fact she was happy, I can still remember the smile on her face as she read it.

'Once upon a time when the world was still new, when the living only just began to part to the land of the dead. When the humans began to die the gods exclaimed that there must be another life, one of fairness and justice.' The picture showed a beautiful castle full of happy people smiling and laughing with one another. I turned the page and began to read on, noting the picture of a black beast with a white mask attacking a human. 'Soon the humans became selfish creatures wishing for power over others, some of them even went as far as forcing their power on each other. The gods were angry at such foolishness and denied these cruel creatures entry to the afterlife, however the other life had already been tainted with selfish beings, these beings created a distance between the strong and the weak, claiming themselves to be the gods of the afterlife. The souls of the evil left in the living world became horrible monsters as a punishment, however the gods did not realise that such beings needed a life support and so came a time when the monsters ruled over the earth.' I turned over the page feeling a shudder at the thought of such beings, though the book was a little too bizarre to be real. 'The gods became worried at such problems, never before had they been given rule over two worlds. Aramus the god of justice came up with a solution, making one being that would destroy the monsters and bring those who ruled in the afterlife to justice. Each of the gods put in what they thought the being should be: kind, generous, honourable, loving, strong and truthful. So came about the time of the Velances, however the Velances became ill due to the monsters spirits, such beings could not understand such evil.' I looked at the picture, it was that of a beautiful young woman with shining blond hair, around her was a ring of gold, the monster in front of her was obviously going to kill her the way it held its claws, I almost wanted to scream for her, but I knew it was not true, it was just a fictional book and the woman did not really die.

'So the gods made a new being one to protect the dying Velances and destroy the monsters. At first the beings did not know what they were to do with their powers, they had so much power but no way to use it. The leader of the beings, Kane, came up with a way to use spears of their spirit. After many decades of the beings fighting, enhancing their skills so that they could use them against the monsters, but the gods realised that the afterlife was crumbling, the monsters were not going through the barrier of death and so they set about creating a new being.' I looked at the beings that looked so much like the Quincies from the other fictional book; it was almost a relief to know that they had another job that they could fall back on they were not useless beings. I let my finger touch the man whom I thought must be kane, as he held a spear that was three times his size while the others held smaller spears, they looked so amazing, they were covered with a light blue light and their spears were also made of the strange light, coming up in a point.

I turned the page over again. 'The gods knew not what to do. Finally they decided to offer the strongest spirits a chance to fight against the monsters, only a few of them accepted, the strongest and bravest of the souls. The gods gave them swords to fight with, telling them that only when they understood the swords as their own souls, only then would they become stronger. At first the souls did not do their job as they should, many of them disappeared to be reincarnated, some of them were eaten by the monsters. With the few men that were left the souls became powerful, they began to know their own souls and as such their swords began to grow more powerful. After a struggle a leader was elected to rule over these spirits and to help destroy the monsters.' I looked fascinated at the picture, what it depicted finally making sense. In the middle of the picture a man was stood with a leopard by his side, he had no sword but he did have some claws attached to his hands. The other spirits around him all had swords that were strange, not as normal as the original sword and each of them had a person or animal that stood by their side. I looked for a moment, admiring all of the beautiful weaponry in the picture before turning over the page.

'The gods were not upset with their decisions. They elected their own supreme god to rule over them. Next they gave one being the ability to rule over the entire spirit world. The new king of the spirit world gave the Velances, his second in command, the power to reign over both life and death. The beings that were sent after the Velances swore to protect them from all evil. Finally the spirits that fought against the monsters began to build a fortress, pronouncing themselves kings and queens of the spirit world. The gods decided that they would no longer make new beings and so merely watched, sealing their powers away.' I looked at thee different pictures; it was like an illustrated flow chart, though strangely the king of the spirit world was not shown.

'Things remained peaceful for many generations, until the princess of the Velances, Naomi fell in love with one of her guards, an ancient ancestor of Kane. Finally she became pregnant with a half-breed child. The king of the spirit world was infuriated, as he had been promised the hand of Naomi and so he exiled the Velances and their guards, however before this happened he had both Naomi and her guard executed for their betrayal. Her child was never found, though the king wished to remove it from existence.' I let my tears fall, unaware of why I was crying, I felt sad for the king because he must have loved her, but the pain I felt for the child and its parents was one I could not describe. The picture was one of a little baby with dark hair and light blue eyes, its parents stood next to each other, Naomi holding the baby to the light, her sun blond locks almost touching the floor, with a tiara made of gold and red flowers that sat firmly on her head, a similar one was on the babies head. The man with whom she had the child with stood next to her smiling, his hair was short and unkept. He stood several inches above his wife and had a protective arm around her, while another one held a bow that shone with a blue light. Around them stood both the Velances and the quincies (what I had decided to call them to avoid any confusion.) The longer I stared at the picture the more I felt as though I was there, I could hear the cheer of the merry quincies and the laughter of the graceful Velances. Finally after almost five minutes staring at the page I turned it over and read on. 'The gods were furious with the king declaring that his selfish actions had destroyed what little balance was left and so the king was stripped of his powers, though he still had the power to make a decision if the spirits called for it. The gods then gave the spirits all of the power; they gave them the power of moving the spirits on through the gate of death, a job that was previously occupied by the Velances. Yet again life was peaceful in the world of the dead, until the spirits, who foolishly called themselves the gods of death made a wall, separating themselves from the weaker spirits and allowing no one in.' I chuckled darkly at the page thinking how ironic it was that the quincies or the Velances were not given the power over the spirit world. I looked at the picture, the souls were now dressed in black, standing high and proud over the other souls who were bowing to them. I turned over again to find the last page in the book; it only had a few lines.

'And so began the age of the shinigami. The beings that guarded the Velances separated themselves from their 'rulers' and began a life fighting against the monsters to show that they were more powerful than anyone and the Velances began a life within society, hiding themselves from the shinigami and becoming one with the humans. Some of the Velances protectors remained with the Velances but in less than three hundred years the tradition stopped.' I finally closed the book with a heavy sigh, what a funny little story, it reminded me so much of the 'Just so stories' that claimed an understanding of why something happened, in truth though the book was depressing, who wanted to think about death when we were still alive? I lay down on the bed thinking of both the 'quincies' and the 'velances', why was it so wrong that they should have children? Surely a child that was both able to fight the monsters and able to have power over life and death was a welcoming factor. I thought about this well into the night before I began to dream again.

I was with my mother again. She stood before me smiling happily.

"You have read the fairy tale book?" She said with laughter in her voice. I nodded, feeling silly, I was no longer a child I had no reason to read such idiocies. "Then you know?" She asked again, I turned to her, having been distracted by the sheer height of the floating island. I looked at her questioning her, it was just a fairy tale book nothing more, there is nothing I could have gained from such a book.

"Know what?" I asked in a less than well-presented voice. She stared at me shocked, as though puzzle pieces should have fallen into place when I read the book.

"Where we are, what we are, who you are. Do you not know?" She asked, a slight panic in her voice. "We are running out of time Alysse you must remember." By this point she had grabbed my shoulders and was shaking me, she was not as my mother had been, she was not gentle and graceful but desperate and rough, and if this had been real I would have had bruises on my shoulders from her vice like grip.

"Let go of me!" I shouted pushing her away from me and barely missing the edge of the island as I stumbled backwards. "Why have you brought me here!?" I shouted losing my self-control, letting the anger that I had internalised for so long erupt from me like a volcano. "Why did you die? Why did you let him think I killed you?! How could you?! How dare you?!" I threw myself to the floor letting my sobs rack my body, the pain in my sides almost unbearable as I did so.

"I brought you here so you would remember. I was so proud to have a daughter who had ties with-." I was listening intently to her from my spot on the floor facing the sharp grass when I felt a hand on me, shaking me, a hand that was not there.

"Alysse. Alysse. Are you ok? Can you hear me?" A voice without a body shouted. The disembodied voice began to get desperate, pleading for me to wake up.

My eyes opened to see my dearest uncle Jiro above me, his eyes full of tears and his face stricken with panic. I looked at him through eyes filled with tears.

"I-I-I t-thought y-you were d-d-dead." He cried into me, I felt uncomfortable, why did he think I was dead.

"Why did you think that I was dead?" I whispered hugging him to me as though he were a child of my own woken from a terrible dream.

"You were not breathing." He whispered, barely adible as though saying it would make it more real, his breathing fast with sobs still escaping him, though I could tell he was trying to gain control over his show of feelings. My eyes widened at his statement as I felt a pure shock go through my system, I had been dead, for how long? Had this happened before? But I was dreaming so surely I was not dead, no he made a mistake that's right a mistake…