Rukongai. When he first heard that name, he was sure that his life here would be hell. After all you hear so many bad stories about the infamous Wondering Soul City, that it's hard to have a different expression about it.
Honestly speaking however his life, so far in North District 5 was fairly pleasant.
He lived alone, at a second floor of a vacanted house. While there were other souls eager to occupy this house, the resident always carried around him the aura of unapproachability, ensuring that for the time being he would have the house all to himself. And he was fine with that. After all, his situation was fairly unique.
On the riverbank, in the most solitary place possible sat a pre teenage boy.
Tall for his age, with a bit scrawny but otherwise delicate and graceful silhouette.
Medium length bright blonde hair, with streaks of blood red mixed in it, all tied into a loose ponytail.
Delicate, and borderline beautiful features but completely expressionless, as if it's a statue of a famous artist.
His eyes were closed at the moment.
One of his hands rested in the folds of nondescript white kimono, while the other held a steamed bun he had for breakfast.
Currently he was recalling the last two weeks of his life here since he was reincarnated to this world. It was a weird experience at first.
First of all he died. A pretty weird death too. After all, how many Europeans can say that they died in a monsoon in India? Everything was so random too. He returned from one of his travels home only to discover that he lost the keys to his apartment. Instead of calling his parents for a spare key, he just threw his backpack back into a cab and ordered him to drive for an airport, where he booked the next flight to a first country that caught his eye. Thank god for an internet visa. Rest of the journey was spent in a similarly irresponsible manner. Finally he was stranded on a mountain pass with monsoon raging over his head. Everyone always said that his whimsical nature will one day kill him, but that was just plain ridiculous.
Second of all, while he remembered the moment of his death, pretty vividly at that, and the moment of his rebirth, he didn't remember anything in between. And he had this nagging feeling that something monumental happened. After spending a few first days trying to recollect missing memories he gave up, figuring that he was not meant to remember.
Third and most of all, he reincarnated into the fictional universe of Bleach, as a newcomer in a soul society. If that wasn't enough he possessed quite a number of overpowered abilities from other fictional universes.
It really was mind boggling to think about. It took him nearly three days to come to terms with all this craziness. But after three days he accepted his situation for what it is. After all this is a fantastic chance. He was always an adventurous type, trying to experience as much of the world as possible. Gaining supernatural abilities with potentially centuries of a lifespan will only help with that goal. Whether he had to die first, and go through unexplainable phenomena, irrelevant.
With a sigh, the boy finished his breakfast and opened his eyes gazing at the sky. If someone were to look into his eyes they would be entranced. Blue pupils with overlapping white flower patterns inside, giving off the impression of serenity and calm. If someone was spiritually aware, they might also notice the huge build up of reiryoku within those otherworldly eyes.
It was Tenseigan. Reincarnation eye. One of the powerful abilities that he gained upon crossing to this world. There is however a catch with possessing those abilities, the great amount of attention they garner aside. They require an unbelievable amount of energy to even unlock not to mention to use. Although he had nothing to compare it to, judging by the fact that he's perpetually hungry and even regular souls being uncomfortable in close proximity to him, he possessed a prodigious amount of reiatsu. And yet, even after thirteen days of feeding all his energy, to the point of exhaustion, into those eyes of his, he barely managed to unblock basic abilities of Byakugan in them. While 360 x-ray vision is undoubtedly useful it's lackluster compared to the amount of latent potential he senses in Tenseigan. Heck he couldn't even properly control the ability he already gained not to mention, gaining new abilities like extended vision, and so on. Thinking of the fact that he didn't even attempt to unlock other abilities that came with his reincarnation he felt an incoming headache.
"It shouldn't be this hard." He murmured with frustration. "I should have reiatsu comparable to at least an average lieutenant, yet after throwing thirteen days of reiatsu at them, my eyes still cannot be awakened? There must be something wrong here."
One of his friends mocked his habit of thinking out loud while alone, but he found out that it always helps him.
"Is it because I'm unfamiliar with reiatsu in the first place? That makes sense. After all I never before manipulated any energy. I must be doing something wrong."
After thinking it through, it seemed logical. It's like trying to fill up a tank with water, by carrying water from the lake within his hands. Eventually he'll accomplish it but it's inefficient and a lot of liquid will be wasted in the process.
This presented a problem. On one hand, he could try to figure out the required control by himself through trial and error. However it would surely take a long time. Child with as much reiatsu as him in Rukongai garners attention. Not only of hollows. And to make matters worse, the first ability that he unlocked is the unique dojutsu, which is even more eye catching. Thinking back on it, it may have been a mistake to focus first on Tenseigan. It was just so exciting to possess ability from his favorite series that he focused on it without thinking about the consequences. And now he had barely any use of it while it invited potentially a multitude of problems.
On the other hand he could attempt to try to join Shinigami academy. However, while that was his intention from the start, he wanted first to familiarize himself with the rukongai before settling into the restrictive academy, and gain some trump card for the worst case scenario. After all to him academy is also very dangerous. Especially since he doesn't know the timeline he's in. If someone like Kurotsuchi saw him, he'd be stripped to a dissection table within minutes. Or Aizen. Or any other maniac that dots the landscape around here. Heck even Central 46 can see him, and without asking any questions or making any research decide to throw him into prison for being potentially dangerous.
"Ah, fuck it." Realizing that thinking about the dilemma caused him only to be more worried and indecisive, he decided to tackle the problem, like all the other problems in his life so far. Pick the choice that seems more interesting. "Shinigami academy it is then."
Coming to this life changing decision, he stood up, stretched and with his newfound determination headed back into the city proper.
While he walked, he noticed that he's garnering quite an attention from surrounding souls, but he ignored them. He remembered the few times in his past life when he visited some xenophobic communities. Compared to the treatment he received back then, some souls being curious about him is nothing. And quite understable too. Although no one came close to him. His unapproachable aura, and spiritual pressure guaranteed that regular souls kept a respectable distance from himself.
Even he himself considered his current looks to be unreasonably attractive and exotic. It's like someone took a photo of his from the previous life and put it through extensive modification in photoshop. When he first saw his reflection he considered it as an 'idealised version' of himself. Coupled it with the otherworldly look and aura of Tenseigan, he presents quite a view.
However, his 'stay away' aura baffled him. While he couldn't be considered the most social person around, in his previous life he was quite a friendly and helpful person. Heck he spent almost five years as a volunteer in various projects, travelling around the world and helping people or animals. Over time he amassed quite a number of friends from various countries.
Also while he was always a pretty stoic and calm person before his death, it was never to the point that his face is in perpetual unbreakable poker face.
That big of a change in his person worried him a bit, but he attributed it to the unique circumstances of his death and rebirth. If someone didn't hold any trauma, hidden or not, after remembering his death then there is something seriously wrong with them.
Eventually he arrived at his destination. A small quaint tea shop, that somehow seems awfully empty, for a shop at one of the main streets of the city.
At the entrance sat a middle aged woman, reading a book and almost radiating kindness. It was Reina, the only person so far in the entire Rukongai willing to approach and keep in contact with the newest and by far strangest district resident. Sensing his approach she raised her head from the book and smiled.
"Ah, Kamui-kun, nice to see you. Are you already hungry?"
Kamui. That was the name he came up with on the spot when asked about it. He couldn't give out his previous name. Not only was it foreign which would increase his weirdness. But he had strong suspicion that no one around here would be able to pronounce it. Thus he settled on japanese sounding Shirato Kamui. Strangely enough the moment he first spoke his 'name' something inside him just… clicked. As if he reaffirmed his existence.
He smiled slightly at the older woman (which for the record amounted to a titanic endeavour for his face), and replied.
"Nice to see you too Reina-san. Thank you for your earlier help, your steamed buns were delicious."
She giggled pleasantly at him,
"Forget about it. It was leftover from my own breakfast. Although it's nice to hear you compliment my cooking. It's rare nowadays that I have a chance to share it."
That's right. Reina was one of the souls possessing reiatsu, although she never joined the shinigami academy. Instead she stayed in the Rukongai, helping out other souls in need. That's also how she met Kamui in the first place.
"I have a matter that I'd like your help with, but first thing's first. You mentioned a leaking roof. Just let me know where you keep your tools and I'll take care of it."
It was the arrangement they had. Or rather something that Kamui forced on her, after hearing that she doesn't want any payment for her food. After all it was 'leftover food' that no one would eat anyway. Kamui called her out on her bullshit, although he used nicer words, and offered to work for her for the time being. Initially he wanted to help out in the shop itself, but his considerable spiritual pressure that he was releasing unconsciously was making customers uncomfortable, so he settled on doing odd jobs around the house. Even that only after vigorous argument.
Evidently by now Reina knew better, because without any protest she directed him to her toolbox. Which mysteriously was hidden in a different place than last time.
It took Kamui around three hours to deal with the roof. The leak itself was not serious, and didn't take all that much time, but he noticed that some tiles were wearing off, so he decided to replace them, and also check the rest of the roof for any potential problems. After all he may be going away soon, and he wanted Reina to not have unnecessary worries at that time.
When he finally came down Reina was waiting for him with a tea, and a lunch in the form of a few rice balls.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Don't mention it, Reina-san. If you have anything else to do just let me know."
"Maybe some other time. Now sit down, and enjoy. I made these myself."
After thanking her Kamui joined her at her favorite place, at a bench in front of her shop, and ate in silence, deciding how to breach the subject he came here with.
"Hmm, Reina-san do you perhaps know when the test for the Shinigami academy will be held?"
"Oh, is little Kamui-kun thinking of joining?"
He was a bit displeased hearing the word 'little', but he let it slide. After all despite his mental age being twenty nine, currently he indeed looked like a twelve year old child.
"Yes. Although I don't know if I will be allowed to join. After all my control of Reiatsu is a bit lacking."
"I wouldn't worry about it. While tests depend on the proctors present during the test, generally the requirement to join is ability to externalize your reiatsu. You shouldn't have a problem with it."
"Reina-san, how do you know that?"
"Ha ha, you're not the first aspiring Shinikami that visited my shop. There are even some soul reapers that even now visit my shop for snacks and tea. There's even a captain who always visits with some flowers. Aren't I amazing?"
Kamui looked at her smug expression, finding suddenly a new side of her. As for the captain visiting, he wasn't all that surprised. Reina despite being middle aged was still a very attractive woman, and in his memory there was one gallavating captain, with a penchant for hiding from his work and hitting on attractive women. But then one detail particularly stood out.
"Reina-san, if you're that amazing, how come we're sitting here in the middle of the day while your shop is empty?"
Reina visibly deflated and started mumbling out some incoherent response.
Kamui in his past life was always brutally honest, especially to his female friends. Although that never seemed to stop them from seeking him out for all sorts of opinions and advice. He saw no point in changing this habit now.
"Cough, cough. Anyway, back to the topic. If you're interested in joining the academy, you're in luck. Recruitment will be held three days from now on, at the Seireitei gate. It should start at noon. But you should be there a little early."
That's convenient. Thought Kamui, assuming that by gate she meant the north gate. If so it should take him around fourteen hours by foot to get there. Eighteen if you consider stopping for rest here and there. Although it sounds like a lot, he wasn't a stranger to long distance march, and even if this body is still weaker than his previous one and not used to physical exertion, he still preferred to walk, instead of seeking some sort of transport. For one he didn't have any currency, and while Reina would probably lend him some if he asked he didn't want to bother her. Besides it was really nostalgic for him to walk like that.
"By the way, Reina-san. Do you mind if I use your kitchen and ingredients tomorrow? I'd like to thank you for everything and prepare a meal for you."
"Kamui-kun! You can cook?!"
"I don't know why you look so horrified. And yes, while I can cook, I'm not sure that my cuisine will suit you. It's not so traditional after all."
"Now you have me worried. I don't have that many ingredients stashed, so I'm afraid if you can do anything with it."
"Don't worry about it. I'll go tomorrow morning to catch some fish for us. If you have some rice and vegetables that will be enough."
"Then I cannot wait, Kamui-kun. Feel free to use my kitchen however you will."
Kamui just smiled at the older woman, and continued to sip his tea while thinking about his future.
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