Mono no aware (pron: "ah-wah-ray"): Japanese idiom with many translations, including "pathos of things" or "empathy for ephemera." The feeling of gentle, wistful sadness one experiences knowing that nothing stays the same; everything is impermanent and, ultimately, without inherent meaning beyond what we give it.
Soul Society, circa 1550
It happened in the space of a heartbeat.
Later, some would claim it began with a blinding flash; others would insist there'd been no light involved, only the sensation of a powerful shockwave. For the Souls of the Rukongai districts, there was no adequate description; they simply fell to the ground, unable to comprehend the phenomenon.
For the Shinigami of the Seireitei, it was a different matter. Many were frozen in place, overcome by a sense of unraveling. Even Urahara Kisuke felt his heart stop with something akin to existential dread, as though the strange energy challenged his very reality.
As quickly as it had come over him, the feeling dissipated, leaving him in a cold sweat. Once he felt his heart beating soundly in his chest once again, Kisuke glanced around him. He wasn't the only one so affected. Every person, from the least remarkable Soul to his fellow Shinigami, wore similar expressions of shock and confusion.
Within seconds, the Shinigami around him exploded into action, seeking orders and trying to find out what had happened. Kisuke, his mouth set in a thin line, turned toward where he'd felt the strange phenomenon originate: the outer districts of the southern Rukongai. Within minutes, he'd flash-stepped across seventy-two districts, noting with mounting dread that the further out he went, the worse off the Souls living there were, and not just because of the living conditions. At District 73, many of the Souls were still unconscious, their loved ones trying desperately to revive them. District 75 showed the first signs of property destruction: overturned stands, blasted windows, damaged roofs.
Beyond the rubble of District 77, there was no Rukongai left.
Where once had stood ramshackle houses and filthy gutters of the three outermost districts, now there was…nothing. It wasn't that the buildings had collapsed or been blown away, as they had in the last few; there was simply nothing left. No, that wasn't quite accurate. The ground was still there, albeit looking like the outer layers of soil had been stripped away. Kisuke supposed that from the air, this whole area would appear as a crater.
What struck him more than what he was seeing was what he felt - a charge in the air, something that spoke to his most primordial, animalistic instincts. It set him on edge, making his heart race and the hairs on his neck and arms stand on end.
Whatever had caused this…it lingered.
Other Shinigami began to arrive on the scene, some from his own unit of the Stealth Division, many from other Divisions of the Gotei 13. The Kido Corps wouldn't be far behind.
"What the hell happened here?" someone asked, a question that echoed across the ranks.
"Hey," someone else exclaimed. "There's someone there!"
Kisuke squinted. Yes - there was someone, or something, just barely visible in the distance. They moved slowly toward the gathering Shinigami, almost shambling in their gait, perhaps from injury. Then, without warning, they collapsed into a heap.
For a few seconds, no one moved. Then, a couple of Shinigami darted toward the figure.
"Wait! Stop!" Kisuke shouted at them. "We don't know-"
He couldn't finish his warning. The Shinigami got within a few meters of the figure when they suddenly halted as though hitting a wall. To Kisuke's horror, they didn't just stop moving; their bodies disintegrated, turning to dust from front to back. They didn't even have time to scream before they were simply gone.
The other Shinigami fell back several steps, gasps reverberating across the crowds.
"Form a perimeter!" Kisuke shouted at the others, arms spread wide. "Everyone stay back, and someone get the Kido Corps out here! We need a barrier!"
He was mildly surprised when people obeyed. Huh. It seemed his new post as head of the Detention Unit in the Stealth Corps was actually giving him some authority. Or maybe they were just glad someone had taken the lead.
Kisuke kept one eye on the unmoving figure as the rest of the Shinigami came to order, his mind turning the situation over. Clearly, the figure had something to do with whatever had happened here - whether as an innocent bystander or as the one who caused it was to be determined. As for what had happened…the best Kisuke could describe it was an explosion. Something had detonated in the outermost districts of the Southern Rukongai, and now those districts were no more. How many Souls had lived here? Would this affect the balance of the three worlds?
Kisuke banished those questions from his mind. That wasn't his department. His effort would be better spent trying to figure out what had happened, not what would happen.
To that end, he crouched down and picked up a few small rocks near his feet. Without a word, he started moving toward the figure, his steps slow and measured.
"Eh - wait, sir!" someone yelled after him. "I thought you said-"
Kisuke ignored him, stopping when he was a couple feet away from where the other Shinigami had perished. There was no sign of the two deceased, not even ash. Maybe any remnants had blown away on the wind? But there wasn't any wind today. Turning his attention to the figure lying on the ground, his eyes widened.
It was a child - a young girl, from the looks of it. She was a skinny little thing, her age difficult to determine at a glance; some Souls kept the same child-like appearance for decades, after all. She was dressed simply, her simple white dress akin to "European" styles in the Human World - increasingly common in this part of the Rukongai as Europeans continued to colonize and influence southern Asia. Her features were more of the latter, her skin light but tinged with bronze undertones, her hair dark with a burgundy sheen that reminded him of black maple trees.
Most of all, he was struck by just how untouched she seemed by whatever had happened. There were no bruises; the only scrapes were from her fall. Her clothes were clean and intact, which in itself was a rarity in the impoverished outermost districts. She even wore shoes, something he never saw this far out. If Kisuke wasn't looking directly at her in the middle of what used to be District 78 or 79, he'd have guessed she'd been nowhere near this scene of destruction.
He gave the rocks he'd picked up a few turns in his hand before gently tossing one toward the girl. Just as predicted, it seemed to hit some sort of invisible field and completely dissolve. No dust - just gone. Atomized?
Taking his scabbard from his belt, he reached out with it and slashed the ground, marking it just short of where the rock had disappeared. Walking sideways around the girl, he repeated the experiment three more times, each time with the same results, each time slashing the ground. When he finished, he plopped onto the dirt, sitting cross-legged and resting his chin in one hand.
"I wouldn't go beyond those marks for now," he told Tessai when the Kido Corps head arrived. "Not if you want to keep your limbs, anyway."
Tessai and his Kido specialists buzzed around him, performing a plethora of tests that Kisuke had no interest in at that moment. Every now and then, he tossed another pebble her way. The first dozen or so times, nothing changed; the pebbles ceased to exist before getting near her. But gradually, he noticed a shift.
The pebbles were getting closer - whatever field surrounded the girl was shrinking.
By now, more captains had arrived, including Yamamoto himself. Over the past few hours, Kisuke's pebbles had gotten ever closer to the child's vulnerable form. On the one hand, this was good news: whatever strange energy surrounded the girl seemed to be dissipating, lessening the danger with every passing hour.
On the other hand, Kisuke had a pretty good notion of what would happen to the kid once his fellow Shinigami could reach her unimpeded.
Kisuke stood for the first time in hours, stretched, and abandoned his self-appointed vigil. If his estimates were right, he had about an hour or so before the field around the girl completely disappeared. He had to work quickly.
The 2nd Division headquarters were quiet when he arrived - the Stealth Corps was busy keeping tabs on the public while the rest of the Gotei 13 dealt with the crisis at hand. There was one person still here, and she was curled up cat-like in her throne, just as he'd expected her to be.
"'Ay, Yoruichi-taicho," Kisuke greeted, not bothering with his usual attempts to sneak up on her. She looked like she was asleep, but he knew better. "Hard at work as always, I see."
Yoruichi cracked open a single golden eye. "Eh? Bored already, Kisuke?"
"Nah," he gave a dismissive wave. "Quite the opposite, really. Actually, I have a favor to ask."
The girl stirred, a soft groan leaving her lips. There was too much light - even through her closed lids, it burned her eyes. She tried to cover her face, to turn away from the intruding brightness.
She couldn't move.
Panic struck her. Her very bones vibrated with it as she tried to move her arms, her legs, anything! Her eyes flew open, the world too bright to comprehend at first, then gradually coming into terrifying focus as she blinked rapidly. She looked from one side to the other, trying to see what was holding her down. Ropes? Chains? No - light? But it didn't feel like light. What did light feel like? Certainly not like this, solid and pressing and where was she?!
"Mommy?" she called out, her voice feeling far too faint. "Mommy!"
A figure came into view on her left, clad in white robes with a veil over half their face. To her young eyes they seemed like something out of a nightmare, not human enough to be familiar in any way. Something about the white robes triggered a primal dread, a terror that made her want to run, run away and keep running, never looking back.
The figure raised a hand and she thought she heard it start to say something, but her whimpers drowned it all out. Go away, her panicked mind demanded, though whether aimed at the figure or at herself she had no clue. I want my mommy! Go away! Leave me ALONE!
There was pressure inside of her, something that pulsed and pushed and built like a scream - then it burst.
And so did the figure's raised hand.
Blood spurted from the stumps that seconds ago had been fingers; she felt a few drops land on her cheek. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing it all to go away, wishing herself back home, wherever home was, as long as it wasn't here. This had to be a really bad dream, and if she kept her eyes closed tight enough, she'd wake up in her bed, and her mommy would be there, and - and -
Something in her head pulsed, but it wasn't from within her this time. Everything slowed - her thoughts, her heart, her breath…and then the world did indeed fade away.
From the observation room, Kisuke stared in shock. The guard who'd gone in to check the girl's vitals was already being tended to by the medical corps, though he doubted there was much to be done. It wasn't like there was a hand left to reattach. The poor girl had been knocked unconscious thanks to a well-aimed Kido, so the situation was under control.
For now.
The shock quickly wore off, replaced by intense curiosity. There was no doubt about it now: the girl had some part in causing what was already being dubbed "The Catastrophe." She'd clearly been frightened upon waking up, and in her fear had lashed out with the same virulent spirit energy. The guard's hand wasn't the only victim; the Kido bonds holding the girl in place had dissipated too. Level sixty-some-odd Kido spells, and she'd undone them with a single pulse of reiatsu.
"Fascinating," he muttered.
"Not the word I'd use."
The gravelly voice of the Captain-Commander jostled Kisuke from his thoughts. He quickly turned and bowed to the ancient Founder of the Gotei. "Yamamoto-taicho. Sorry, I didn't hear you come in."
Yamamoto merely grunted in response. "So you're the one who got the Shihoin Clan to request a stay of execution, eh? Pretty clever - probably the only way to keep Central 46 from having the girl killed outright was to get a noble house involved. I'm afraid it won't keep them at bay for long now, though."
Kisuke bowed his head. "I take it the official reports are in? What's the damage?"
"The entirety of South Districts 78 through 80 has been decimated, and nearby districts sustained serious damage. All 4,670 Souls that inhabited the districts are simply gone without a trace, and the balance of the worlds has already begun to tip."
The numbers barely phased Kisuke - he'd seen it for himself, after all. But now that there were numbers and reports, the girl's fate would need to be decided, and he already had an idea of what Central 46 would decree.
"They're going to sentence her to death, aren't they?" Kisuke asked.
"Assuming she can be killed," Yamamoto grunted. "Given this display, I wonder if it's possible for anyone to get close enough. It may be that she'll spend the rest of her existence in Muken."
Muken - the lowest level of the Central Great Underground Prison, completely sealed off from the outside world. It was where Soul Society put criminals whose hearts could not be stopped.
Hardly a place for a child, and certainly not for one with such an intriguing ability.
"We don't know that she meant for any of this to happen," Kisuke argued. "So far, she seems like a scared kid, not some cold-blooded killer. If we let her live, help her control that power of hers - she might be of great use to Soul Society."
"Tell that to Central 46."
"I will, if I'm given an audience."
Yamamoto was quiet for a moment. Kisuke wondered what the old man was thinking: he had to consider the welfare of the entire Gotei 13, and by extension, all the people it protected. Even he was subject to the rulings of Central 46, but of all the Shinigami in the Seireitei, he had perhaps the best chance of swaying their opinions.
"You'd need at least one more noble family on your side," Yamamoto stated. "Not to mention a simple majority of the Captains to vouch for her, and even then, a plan to convince Central 46 that she can be controlled. And you'll need to work fast - once Central 46 makes a decision, they do not consider any other argument."
Relief flooded Kisuke's body. "Hai. Can I count on you being in that majority, Captain-Commander?"
"Hmm…" Yamamoto's gravelly voice hummed as he turned away, his cane clacking on the tiled floor. "We'll see. You must convince me, too."
"Thank you, sir." Kisuke bowed as the Commander left.
Turning back to the observation glass, he slipped his hand from his pocket, letting go of the item he'd been clutching protectively the whole time the Commander had been there. In the other room, the girl lay curled up on the floor, unconscious.
"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us, don't we?"
Welcome to my newest project! It's gonna be a long one, since I apparently don't know how to write short things. Comments are always appreciated - I try to read and respond to all of them!
We'll be jumping around in time throughout the story, mainly between "present-day" (starting in canon Bleach's Arrancar arc) and various points in the past. Strap in…it's gonna be one helluva ride.