Welcome to an Omake chapter! These chapters are independent scenes or experiences which are totally optional and mainly meant for character development.

If you don't want to read it, you can skip this and go on to the next full chapter. Omake chapters are meant to fill the gap inbetween full chapters, so the existence of one doesn't excuse the absence of the next chapter.

Without further stalling, enjoy!

PROLOGUE:

PERCEPTION

CHAPTER 3 OMAKE:

REJECTED BY GOD

April 5th, 1985: Yumiko graduated to 4th year just a day ago and found out a detailed that she dreaded: She had to learn how to communicate with her Zanpakuto. Unlike many students who had just recently gotten Asauchis, she had already grown one, and she hated it. This thing is like no normal sword spirit, it had some sort of ulterior motive behind how it communicated. Subliminally, it projected thoughts into her head every now and then...

"You know you want to kill them..."

"They're lying..."

"Wander around at night, it'll help..."

"She doesn't deserve our sympathy..."

"There aren't any problems here..."

"There's someone watching us..."

It just kept going, on and on for every detail of every day. Far more talkative than it was in the Rukongai and far more malicious. Gods know what it would evolve into if this kept going, Well, she had just about enough,so maybe it'll be a good thing to do this! No, that's a lie, too. It'll keep happening and this will just make it worse. What if she can't even do it, what then? And if she does, what will happen? What will she say? Confront it?

She stomps on towards that class in the later evening with her thoughts raging against themselves at the delight of the spirit torturing her, even allowing her to ignore everything around, including the cries of her friends that called out but were blocked. Eventually, she manages to reject it all upon reaching her destination where people are still entering.

"Finally. Let's get this over with." Yumiko scoffs, waltzing in and taking a seat on the bare floor in the far back. This room looks just like any other, but more bare and nil than usual; the only good thing about it is that the floor isn't particularly hard to sit on. Everyone else has already congregated into somewhat neat lines when the teacher comes in.

Thankfully, it's not the neurotic Class 2 teacher, but some about-average guy with a totally shaved head like that of a monk. In a calm and collected, he tells everyone to assume the lotus position and place the enseathed blade atop their laps. As soon as Yumiko does, she feels the strange presence of the sword's spirit lingering even closer than usual, as if anticipating her. The voices have suddenly stopped, but soon she must go deeper.

Upon command, he tells everyone to focus on their meditation and forget everything around them, to invision only their sword and to keept their mind enamered in that endeavor until they become lost in a trance. As Yumiko follows these instructions, everything around her begins to fade to black until a tiring and almost superheavy gravity befalls her.

She begins to feel wet, like sitting in water. She decides to open her eyes, only to find herself in the middle of a massive black void, sitting in what appears to be water. Somehow, she can see as if there were light. One touch of the liquid she is sat in reveals a bubbly, tar-like texture, making her suddenly jump and stand. She keeps her head down, now seeing something reflecting in the water in front of her vaguely. She hesitates, not sure of what will happen next; she does anyways and is met with something undefinable.

Lost for words, her mind goes completely blank while the apparition assaults her psyche and throws her into such a horrid hallucination that the meditation is broken. In her head even after the fact, she can hear blistering screams berrating her with their sheer shock factor. She's forced to leap up and throw the sword aside; she backs up against the nearby wall and starts to visibly freak out like someone who just got shot.

The teacher has run over to her aid by the time she finally realizes that she's back in the classroom. "...what happened?" he finishes saying, as she hears from finally fading in.

It takes a little while, but she finally answers, "It threw me out." while staring directly at that accursed sword. The teacher has been holding firmly onto her shoulders, but now lets go and allows her to retrievethe sword. When she does, she takes the thing by the blade and slams its handle against the wall, shocking a few people.

The teacher quickly makes his way towards her to ask, "Do you need to take a break?" He can tell how shaken and angry she is, for she is unconsciously furrowing her brows as hard as they can possibly be furrowed without overexertion. She takes the offer by simply storming out and leaving the sliding door wide open.

Making her way down the wide and tall halls, she ponders to herself what the hell had just happened, "First it talks to me without provocation, now it decides to blatantly give me a fucking heart attack? I hate it—"

Yet, it has the gall to interrupt her thoughts with its serpentine voice, "It's your fault..."

Yumiko stops in her tracks to smack the sword and grasp tightly at her head, "Shut the fuck up!" she screams at it, but it remains unphased and even delighted. She keeps getting even angrier at the being until her walking is intermitently interrupted by yelling at the voice in her head. In her wanders, she eventually finds herself standing in front of the door leading out to the Kido practice range. "What was I doing here?" she asks herself. "Oh, right..."

Yumiko slams the sliding door open and yells, "Kokoro!" The kido director at the time doesn't appreciate this very much, so he marches up to her and yells back, "Hey, we're in the middle of practice, you can't just barge in here like that!"

Yumiko just about loses her nerve, grabbing firmly onto her sword and almost drawing it right across him, but just barely resists the urge, not helped by the voice constantly chanting its Kill Mantra to tempt her into it. The teacher flinches, not knowing just how to handle the situation until Kokoro comes sliding over to see what the yelling is about. Yumiko refrains from losing her shit and tells her friend, "I need to talk to you."

"But I'm—" she tries to argue.

"Now." Yumiko commands. She then uses Mean Look the kido director, essentially rolling a 20 on her intimidation check to make him back off. Kokoro reluctantly follows her out into the hallway where they turn at the wall and simply relax for a minute before Yumiko actually gets to the point.

"I saw my Zanpakuto spirit today." she states, a hard expression on her face staring off into the ether.

"...You didn't like it, did you?" Kokoro guesses, turning sullen.

"That's right. Can we...?" She hangs her head lower.

"If you need to."

Yumiko sighs heavily, hesitating immeasurably in wonder of whether or not it's a good idea to get her involved. Ultimately, she decides to talk, "Well, when I looked up at it, it was like the thing couldn't even be comprehended. It kind of hit me in the face with its...something. I don't know, it all just kind of went white with lots of colors. It started yelling at me and..." She tries to trail off, but realizes it wouldn't help "...do me a favor."

Kokoro perks up suddenly, "Yeah?"

"If I ever try to kill some innocent person, stop me. Take this damn sword from me if you must." Yumiko calmly asks of her, hardly breaking voice or mood.

Kokoro stands there, staring, dumbstruck, almost unable to form a response. Eventually, she figures out to ask, "What...did it say?"

Yumiko shakes her head, "You really want to know? Well, it told me that I didn't belong. That I was like a virus, just like the others. It said that viruses needed to be removed, that the least I could do is to destroy them. It said to believe none of them, that they all had none of my interests in mind. Kept saying that everybody hates me for having it, and that the only redeeming factor I had was forfeited when I came here..."

"That's enough." Kokoro nearly yells. Yumiko jerks her head up in surprise while Kokoro continues, "Just don't listen to it, none of that is true. Even if it's partly true, I'm different. I know you think that too since you came to me. It's alright, just forget about it and stick with me! Be a little more optimistic!" She turns towards Yumiko and tilts her head with that wide, comforting grin of hers.

Yumiko lowers her head again, this time smiling and calming down from her once tense state. She reaches around to give Kokoro a quick hug, "You can go back now, I just needed to tell you."

"I'd rather stay with you. " Kokoro says, further pleasantly surprising her friend. She looks up at her, the two matching their expressions. They separate and start to walk down the hall together, with Kokoro thanking her, "Thanks, I hate sealing practice."

"No problem. What should we do now?"

"Rooftop fistfight?" Kokoro suggests.

"That sounds like something I'd suggest."

Kokoro punches her in the shoulder, "Well I'm suggesting it."

"Ha, Let's go then." Yumiko conceeds, and the two head up to the roof to spend the rest of their day punching each other in the face for fun.

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