A Fairy's Spirit :
Hi everyone, I'm finally back after 3 years without writing, with a new story between Bleach and Fairy Tail, I hope you enjoy this story and on that, I wish you a good read.
Disclaimer : i don't own Bleach or Fairy Tail
A Spirit's job :
Karakura, cemetery :
As the sun began to rise over the city of Karakura and the inhabitants began to wake up, a certain Orange-haired man stood in front of a tomb, Ichigo, the substitute Shinigami, hero of the winter war, had come to lay a flower on his mother's grave.
"So much has happened," thought Ichigo out loud
As the shinigami looked at the headstone, he looked back at all the events since the last time he came here, after he regained his powers and defeated Ginjo, the Quincys had declared war on the shinigamis and attacked the seireitei twice, during this conflict Ichigo learned the truth about his mother's Quincy nature and was able to awaken his true power, and with a lot of tears, blood and pain, he, Uryuu and Aizen defeated Ywach, the Quincy king and ended the thousand years blood war.
However, victory came at a high price, many lives were lost and some broken by battle, like Ukitake who had to sacrifice his life to protect the Soul King and delay the inevitable.
"And to think that 3 years have passed since all this..." whispered the Shinigami
Many things happened since the end of the war, after having buried the dead, the Soul Society began to rebuild, Rukia and Renji began a relationship, Uryuu became the new king of Quincy and settled in Karakura to become a doctor, he and Orihime also began a relationship shortly thereafter and Chad began a career as a professional boxer while the substitute trained with the Zero squad for a year to master his powers and try to learn Kido.
After the end of his training Ichigo returned to Karakura and discovered that his sisters had become substitutes like him, since then he works either at the clinic, either with Kisuke by going to eliminate some Hollow in the Hueco Mundo or by going to investigate anomalies throughout Japan.
'At least now peace reigns and I can again protect others' thought Ichigo
"Yeah, and with all of this new power we could also have fun with Kempachi." Shiro exclaimed in his inner world.
'No way! ' Answered the Shinigami, shivering as he imagined a second match against the monster
'I think it's not a bad idea to confront him to understand the extent of your progress, Ichigo.' Says Ossan
The Shinigami took the time to think of the words of the two zanpakutos, it is true that he dind't have any powerful opponents since the war, that he had not the opportunity to fight the Royal Guard to test his abilities and that it was difficult to see the results of his training, however the fact that Zaraki know the name of his zanpakuto and his growing thirst for blood against him was enough to discourage him, he did not want to destroy the seireitei again just for a «friendly fight» with the captain of the eleventh squad.
Ichigo suddenly was brought out of his thoughts by a vibration coming from his pocket, taking his phone, he saw a message from Kisuke saying, "Hello Kurosaki, could you join me at the store, I have a job for you, Kisuke."
'Back to work i guess' thought the Shinigami sighing
"Ichigo?" Asked for a new voice
The Man turned to see Ishinn, his father, and Ryuken, Uryu's father a few meters away, the former captain stepped forward and asked, "Are you leaving already?" the Shinigami simply replied, "Yes, Kisuke has a job for me." before leaving the cemetery to join the merchant.
"This boy works way too much." Ryuken says
Ishinn looked at his friend and said, "I know." Then he said, "If only he could finally find a woman and make grandchildren." comically while the Quincy ignored this and simply walked to the tomb of his former comrade.
Urahara Shoten, some time later:
It took Ichigo only a short time to reach the Urahara Shoten and be welcomed by Tessai who invited him to join Kisuke in the living room after passing in his soul form, who didn't really change outside of the Haori that was given to him the royal guard as a gift for defeating Ywach, after sitting a silence settled between him and the merchant, The substitute just hoping it wouldn't be one of those missions where he'd have to deal with these strange creatures that Kisuke called «Dragons».
"Do you have a job for me?" asked Ichigo, breaking the silence.
Urahara smiled, placing his fan in front of his face, and then said, "Yes, I need you to check a place for me." it surprised the Shinigami, but the merchant ignored his reaction and continued "A few days ago, Karin and her friends went to walk in a forest bordering Karakura, there they found an abandoned shrine that's not referenced anywhere in the city archives, one of the youngsters accidentally removed the ofuda from the door, and since then an unknown energy emanates from this shrine."
The substitute had heard this story of his sister and the abandoned shrine but knew nothing about this unknown energy, he didn't even feel it, so Ichigo said, "I guess you want me to go in case it's a new threat." the shopkeeper nodded and said "Yoruichi is at the Soul Society right now, Uryu and Chad are too busy with their work and your sisters aren't ready for this kind of thing, you're the only person I can entrust this work to."
Normally the substitute would have argued, but the situation was different, after all, if Yoruichi is at the Soul Society and Uryu and Chad are not available, it remains only him and his sisters, and he could not let his sisters put themselves in danger for this kind of mission, After a few seconds of thinking, Ichigo finally said, "All right, I'll do it."
"Excellent Kurosaki, Kon will accompany you just in case." Kisuke replied by pointing to the plush arriving into the room
The Mod-Soul moved towards Ichigo and said "Let's do this quickly so that I can finally go to the Soul Society to see Onee-san" the Substitute ignored the perverse remark and grabbed the plush before opening the door and going out, once outside, he saw his friend and rival Uryuu walking in his direction, the two comrades remained silent a little while before Ichigo broke the silence by asking "Geta-Boshi wanted to see you too?"
"No, Urahara contacted me earlier about this mysterious energy and explained to me that he was going to ask you to investigate it." Replied the Quincy
This surprised Ichigo who then wondered why Ishida was present here if he was supposedly unavailable because of the work, the Quincy noticed this and caught something in his pocket before throwing it to the substitute who simply caught the object, by opening his hand, Ichigo was surprised to see one of Orihime's Shun-Shun Rikka.
"Orihime is very worried about this mission and asked me to entrust it to you in case you are hurt." Say Uryuu
As the substitute was about to respond, Kon was noticed by asking, "Can we go now?" Ichigo then realised that he had been ignoring the plush all this time and just said, "Yeah." before catching the Mod-Soul and move out by using Shunpo, the Quincy looked at it before heading back to the hospital while whispering, "Be careful, Kurosaki."
Some time later, Abandoned Shrine:
After an hour of searching, the replacement finally arrived at the lost shrine described by Kisuke, in any way the place resembles a typical Shinto temple, a torii with a small path leading to a small temple with red walls and black roof, however the difference was the strange atmosphere surrounding the place and the energy emanating from the shrine, all this gave an unreal side to the places.
"Do you also have this strange feeling?" Kon asked
"Yeah," replied Ichigo.
While the two remained there in silence, the spirit of the substitute was full of questions, what is the source of this energy? Why did the air seem so strange in this place ? How is it possible that they didn't find this place earlier, all this questions gave him a feeling that this was all too strange even after everything he'd been trought.
"You should start looking for the answers by searching the place instead of standing there doing nothing." Shiro says in her inner world.
"He's right, we won't find the answer by staying here," Ossan said.
Ichigo then went out of his mind and replied in thought 'You're right' before turning to the Mod-Soul and saying, "We should start searching the place to try to find something that will give us answers." The plush nodded before heading towards the entrance of the temple to begin his research.
The substitute began to search around the torii to try to find objects related to the strange energy, but after a few minutes of searching found nothing interesting, He then decided to search the surroundings and began to inspect the forest, hoping to have more luck this time.
"Ichigo, I found something." Tell Kon in the distance.
It only took a shunpo for the substitute to join the Mod-Soul, he noticed that the plush held something resembling a Ofuda soaked with this unknown power in his paw, Kon then turned to him and brandishing the object, the Shinigami took it and inspected it, he suddenly noticed words written on the paper.
"Through the Magic's Heart and Spirit's Might."
This sentence seemed to be a form of incantation but unknown to him, perhaps Kisuke or Tessai could understand this sentence better than him, the Shinigami tried to use his spiritual senses to feel other potentials artifacts but was unable to spot any signature similar to that of this talisman, the only other place that emitted this energy was the temple itself.
"Looks like the only thing left to inspect is the shrine." said Ichigo, storing the artifact in a pocket of his Haori.
Kon nodded and said, "Yes, but we have to be careful, after all, we don't know what's behind all of that." This surprised the substitute because the Mod-Soul had never been so serious before but decided not to comment on it and started moving towards the door of the sanctuary by catching the handle of his Zanpakuto.
Once in front of the entrance of the building Ichigo slowly opened the sliding door and glanced inside, but was surprised to see that the temple was empty, however the feeling that something strange was present had still not left it, Kon then arrived and observed the inside of the place.
"It's... empty?" Asked the plush with surprise
As the Mod-Soul became confused by this, the replacement simply closed his eyes and focused on finding the strange energy they found on the talisman, as he expected, although the building was empty, the interior was saturated with the same energy, It was then that Ichigo noticed something, although the place abounds of this mysterious energy, a huge amount being accumulated at the back of the room, as if something was hidden here, hidden by all this energy.
"There is something in this room," replied the Shinigami.
These words surprised Kon, who began to look around him again, but the substitute ignored him and advanced towards what seemed to be the source of this energy, arriving just in front of this accumulation of power, Ichigo could feel a strange feeling, Perhaps apprehension, anxiety or fear, he could not really say what this feeling was in him, it took a few seconds for the substitute to pull himself together and reach out to this source to try to understand what it was.
At that very moment, a light began to emanate from the place where Ichigo was standing and engulfed the whole room, blinding the substitute and the Mod-Soul and forcing them to cover their eyes, after a few seconds the light faded and the two were able to see again what was happening, before them was something resembling a garganta with a spiritual path visible inside.
"Is it a... Portal?" asked Kon.
"It seems so." Simply replied the replacement
The two then looked at each other and Ichigo said, "We should see what is hidden on the other side." The stuffed animal seemed to get angry and made an X with his arms saying, "No way I'm going in there, I refuse to die without seeing Nee-San again." ignoring the last part the shinigami thought about the Soul-Mod's words, normally the substitute would have been ok with this but now things were different, they didn't know what was on the other side and Ichigo was sure that if the two went back to Kisuke now he would ask them to go through the portal to find out where it leads.
"We are going to explore it, whether you like it or not." said the replacement in an authoritative tone.
The stuffed animal wanted to protest, but Ichigo simply caught him and walked inside the portal, once on the path of light, the substitute looked around him, It really seemed like every garganta that he had gone through apart from the fact that the energy around them wasn't Reiatsu.
'For the moment, everything seems calm, let's hope things stay that way.' Thought Ichigo before starting to advance on the spiritual road while ignoring Kon's protests
Magnolia, Fairy Tail Hall:
It was a normal of the day for the people of Magnolia, except for a certain red-haired knight that wasn't in the best of moods, after all, she and part of her guild had just spent seven years stuck on Tenro island, then lose 3 months of training for the Grand Magic Games after spending a day in the spirit world.
Normally it wouldn't impact the knight too much, but after their meeting with Crime Sorciere, and seeing Jellal, her childhood friend and one of the most important people to her, Kissing Ultear, she was heartbroken, she was still happy for him, but deep down it pain her to see that and ever since that moment what happen on Tenro and with the wasted months started to really take a toll on her, and now the guild had learned the day before that the games had been delayed by 2 months after an incident happen in the capital.
Once she arrived in the new guild hall, the woman chased her thoughts and walked to the counter where her friend and former rival Mirajanne was, once sitting at the bar, the barmaid greeted the knight and handed her a strawberry cake that the woman began to enjoy with a fork, however, all these thoughts and were still present and undermined the knight's mood.
"Is something wrong, Erza?" asked the barmaid.
Erza then looked at Mira and said, "Everything is fine." The former rival shook her head and said, "I know you well and i can easily say that something is wrong." the knight knew what her friend wanted to say and decided to explain the situation to her, perhaps she would advise her on the matter.
"Well, it all starts at the end of our three months of training…" Started Erza
A few days earlier, beach:
While the other members of Fairy Tail celebrated the success of Ultear magic on their powers, Erza decided to talk to her friend Jellal that she had not seen for 7 years, she quickly spotted Meredy alone who was talking with Juvia, The knight approached the two and asked, "Have you seen Jellal? I'd like to talk to him."
"I saw him walking away with Ultear." The mage simply replied, pointing in one direction
The knight went to the place indicated, thinking that they had to talk about business or other things, but when she arrived, she was surprised to see them kissing, she expected a lot of things but not that, then, inadvertently Erza made a noise, which alerted the two who watched the newly arrived woman.
"t-that's not what you think Erza." Said Jellal, clearly embarrassed afterwards
"It doesn't matter, I'm glad you found someone who loves you." she replied with a sweet smile.
Despite the smile, Erza was heartbroken, this pain was a lot for her to handle, but she managed to hide it from the other two people and apologized before returning to her friends, struggling to keep herself together with this pain in her heart.
Back to the present:
"...From that moment on i try to bear it, but with all of what happen, it start to really affect me, sometimes i feel so powerless and i don't know what to do." Finished Erza while continuing to eat her strawberry cake
Mira, who had listened to the whole story was perplexed, at first sight Erza is definitely heartbroken, but knowing her friend and former rival, she knew there was something more than just a heartache, otherwise the knight could probably bear it, but this feeling of being powerless and how she describes everything that happen recently affecting her mean that there is more to it but Mira couldn't figure out what it is.
It was then that an idea came to the barmaid, the best for Erza would be to make a mission to change her mind, it would also allow Mira to find a way to help her former rival get better, The barmaid then grabbed a request behind the counter and then at the knight saying, "Here, this should help you at least a little."
"What is it?" asked Erza, taking the request's paper.
The knight began to read the summary of the rank S request, saying that a demon was causing problems in a forest near a village called Dianthus and had to be slaughtered with a reward of 8 million jewels, Erza looked at the barmaid with surprise and she replied "This is the only S-rank quest we have right now, so I thought it would at least help you think about something else for a little while."
After a few seconds of hesitation the knight decided to take the mission, after all, as Mira mentioned just before it should change her ideas of making a difficult mission to judge the results of «training» d'Ultear, and with that she would have something else to think about, quickly finishing her strawberry cake, Erza got up and waved to the barmaid to say that she was taking the request before heading out.
"Are you going to take Natsu and the others?" asked Mira.
This question stopped the knight in its course, normally she would have proposed to her friends to accompany her, but it was risky considering the rank of the request and a strange feeling that she felt when reading the contents of the request, Why a mission that seemed so simple would be S Rank and offer such a reward, Erza simply shook her head before leaving the guild.
The barmaid was surprised that her former rival decided to go alone, but if it was her choice she would respect him, after all, it was just a simple S-rank mission, what could go wrong.
This concludes the prologue of this new idea, I hope you'll forgive the grammar error since I'm a bit rusty, but otherwise i hope enjoyed it, and on that I'll see you next time.
