Long ago, there was a Death God of great power who was simply known as the Wind Princess. Legends about her differed. Some said that she was a kind soul who would do anything to protect anyone, while others said she was one of the cruelest things to ever exist. Yet all of the legends always referred to one thing when talking about her…
Her strength in battle…
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"Takai…hey Takai!" Someone whispered just a little louder to him. Yawning, he disregarded it and tried to go back to sleep. "Takai…"
Then the eraser hit him right on the top of the head. "Takai Ito, into the hall with you!" Everyone in the class started to laugh loudly.
(Name: Takai Ito)
(Occupation: Middle School student of Fumikijin Middle School in Kyoto, Japan)
(Age: 15)
(Height: 5'10")
(Hair: Black/short)
(Eyes: Brown)
Grumbling angrily, Takai stood up slowly and stomped off into the hall with the two buckets of water that were used as a punishment for students who were either late or who caused a disruption in class. ("Jeez, how can you blame a guy for wanting to take a nap? It isn't like I did anything that wrong, right?")
Looking out the window in front of him and out at the school yard a few stories below him, he couldn't feel that bad. ("It's fine…I can live through this kind of minor annoyance without any problem. After all, considering what a nice day it is outside, there shouldn't be any reason to complain. That teacher probably did me a favor by getting me out of that boring lecture. Now I can look out at nature…") And so he did, right up until his eyelids started to droop and he fell asleep standing up.
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The moon shone down upon Kyoto, bathing the city in its soft light. Couples walked the streets looking for a romantic atmosphere that would be difficult to find in such a sprawling place of lights and sound, while club-goers stumbled through the streets like drunken zombies in search of the next place to party, and amongst them all were many other assorted people, all of which were under the same full moon that held in the sky like the eye of some giant god.
Atop a shadowed building, a single patch of blackness throbbed in response to something. "What's this? A delicious morsel?" It broke away from the other shadows, making a strange picture as it edged over to the side of the building to look down at the dimly lit street below. "All alone? That's good…then you can't have any excuse for not accepting my invitation to dinner." It laughed to itself, and then dispersed.
Takai walked down the street swiftly, hoping he'd get to his apartment as quickly as possible. ("I got too caught up in that discussion about the movie…I need to hurry up and head home to finish my homework. Damn stupid…") He froze as it felt like someone had just stepped on his grave. Turning white and pale, he clutched at his throat as he felt the air being forced from his lungs by some unseen source. Then he collapsed to the ground, unmoving.
When his eyes opened, he felt pressed down roughly by some kind of thick pressure coming from everywhere around him at once. ("What's going on?") He slowly stood up, and stopped in confusion at what he saw lying face-first in the ground right in front of him. ("That's…that's me?") His body was laying face-first on the sidewalk. "This…this doesn't make any sense at all…how…"
"Are you there and here at the same time?" A low and rumbling voice spoke out, the sound echoing off of everything at once. "Take a look around you before you ask stupid questions, boy."
Takai, still in shock, looked around at the surrounding landscape. It was all so blurry…like he was in some kind of dream. ("Maybe that's it…I'm dreaming all of it…")
"From the look on your ugly face, you still don't fully get it. At the moment, you're essentially dead." The voice grew closer, though still kept the strange acoustics of being far away as well. "Look at your chest, and see your fate."
Takai's eyes lowered down to the center of his torso, where there was a metal fixture attached and a chain connected to it that went to his body. His brain seemed unable to accept all of what was going on, and his eyes were already rather glossed over as he attempted to mentally escape from this all-too-real nightmare.
"I'll let you in on a little secret, boy…that chain is the only thing that gives you the possibility of ever returning to your living body again." The voice grew excited at the delicious fear it could smell coming from its prey. "You're really not that entertaining, at least say something like the other humans before have…like maybe 'Please don't hurt me', or maybe 'Someone help me!' Those were my favorite humans…because they screamed all kinds of strange things while I ate them. It made for a really interesting dinner conversation, you know?" The voice was so close now, and Takai, even in his mentally paralyzed state, could feel that something horrible and disturbing was coming.
The earth around the boy shook slightly as a shadow in a nearby alley loomed up like a living creature, taking a much more three-dimensional shape. It looked like some kind of monster at the moment. "Bah, I'm done waiting for you to start screaming. I'll just eat you right now." The darkness parted enough to reveal a vaguely humanoid body with a large white mask covering its face. "Welcome to dinner, boy!" The mask clacked its teeth together a couple of times and then the monster reached down slowly with one gigantic hand to grasp Takai.
Takai just sat there, eyes unblinking and aimed at the ground. ("This is a nightmare…this is a nightmare…this can't be real…") But if this was a nightmare, then why did it feel so real? He didn't fully understand how this could be true. ("I was just heading home to do my homework…what…what happened? Why? Why is this happening to me?") He wanted to just curl inwards on himself in fear, but something was stopping him. Somewhere, deep at his core, he didn't feel as afraid as he should have.
The dark shape's hand got just a few inches from the boy's body when it stopped suddenly, as if there was a wall in between it and its target. "What's this? Some kind of spiritual barrier? But that was ridiculous…this was some human off the street who had enough spiritual awareness to be worthy of being dinner, that's all. How could he have enough power to create something like that?
Takai's trembling head slowly lifted to look right into the eye sockets of that masked giant. Both of those brown orbs seemed out of place, because while they were utterly calm they were attached to a frightened body. "Do not touch me with your filthy hands, Hollow."
"What did you say, you little bug?" The giant drove its hand forward to crush the boy's soul, but gripped down on nothing. "Impossible…"
Takai was standing over his fallen body, the chain attached to his chest shuddering as if there was some kind of powerful force pulling at it. "I warn you only once, leave."
"Screw you!" The giant roared, the sound dark and unearthly. "You've made me mad…nobody makes me mad and lives!"
"I would suggest you reconsider such a declaration…but you wouldn't listen anyway." Takai's unwavering eyes closed. "I'm surprised…that such a simple event would trigger this…" Then he disappeared as his body exploded into a flash of light, leaving the metal facet and chain to drop to the ground heavily.
"What? His Chain of Fate broke? No…that…" The giant roared that unearthly roar once more. "Fine! I'll just eat your ugly little body instead!" Then it charged right at Takai's fallen body.
"Is that wise?" A calm voice asked from a nearby rooftop.
The giant slid to a stop and its yellow eyes narrowed slyly from under its white mask. "I knew that would bring you out…now die!" Pounding its fist into the ground, it roared once more and the single-story building where the voice had come from shuddered and caved in at the center slightly as five large tentacles the size of fire hoses exploded out of the building's structure. All at once the five tentacles went wild, striking in huge arcs to hit everywhere around the rooftop. "My tentacles are coated with a lethal poison…I don't know what you are but you'll be dead in a moment." Pulling its hand out of the ground, the creature flexed its fingers slightly. "It's such a let-down though, because I wanted to eat your soul so badly…especially now. You were a strange kind of prey indeed…"
"You can stop talking about me in the past tense you know." Takai's voice, which still sounded afraid and yet, unafraid, came down from across the street. "That level of attack can't beat me. Do you have any other tricks?"
"Eh?" The giant tilted its head back to look at the shadowed human form that stood just fifteen feet away from it. "You must be stupid to think that a mere human, no matter how fast, could hope to keep up with my…" Pain shot up its arm as its other arm, which had extended through the ground behind the boy, was suddenly injured. Howling in pain, the monster withdrew its hand back to it as quickly as possible.
"Like I said, any other tricks?" Takai's shadowed form moved rather strangely, as if it was resisting itself. ("Damn boy refuses to let me fight...he's so scared and confused…but there was no choice in the matter. If I didn't do this, he'd have been consumed.") Popping noises came from his arms as he reached down towards something at his waist. "Well? Is it already over with? Should I cut you apart now or let you try a few more futile attacks against me?"
The giant lifted its left hand and growled angrily at the thin cut that nearly cut halfway into its wrist. "A sword? A Death God? Were you in disguise to lure me out?" It turned fully to face the boy, looking slightly less cocky now.
As the shadows faded slightly around the boy's body, it revealed that he was now wearing black robes and straw sandals on his feet. That wasn't all though. At his belt, there was a katana, though the weapon's shape was rather hard to distinguish because the shadows were only lightly gone. But one thing that was easy to tell, was that Takai was still shaking even though his eyes had no fear in them whatsoever. "A trap? Don't be stupid, the likes of you aren't worth such efforts."
("What's with this guy? His body and his eyes are giving me two different messages…") The giant snickered quietly. "Why are you trembling, Death God? Did you suddenly realize that I won't be so easily cut by your Soul Slayer?"
"Fear?" Takai's shaky lips quirked into a smile, but the muscles of his face seemed to resist the action every second. "I'm just so happy to finally get a chance to kill something."
"You're a terrible liar, but that really doesn't matter. Once again, if the best damage you could do was this simple cut…" The giant lifted up its injured wrist to reveal that the slash-wound was almost completely gone already. "…then you're finished."
Takai grimaced slightly, his entire body almost going through one large spasm. ("Damn it, stop resisting me before you get us both killed!") His hand somehow, despite what it was going through, reached down and grasped the handle of his sword. "Hollow, if you truly value your life then begone and I promise not to end your existence."
"I keep hearing a lot of threats, but so far none of them really scare me. Maybe its because…you can't really injure me. Even if you are a Death God, which is rather interesting for a lot of reasons…"
Takai felt a painful tingle run up his spine. ("Time's running out…soon I'll have to withdraw before I run out of energy. Therefore…I'll have to risk it and attack first!") "Sorry, but I just realized that I don't have time to chat with you!" Then he drew his sword, revealing its shape. The blade was like that of a normal sword, except that it was strangely thin. Holding up the weapon's basket-hilt, he slowly bent down at the knees. "You are quite a talkative monster though…it's such a shame I don't have more time on my hands!"
"You're getting ahead of yourself, fool." The giant's eyes narrowed slowly. "My talents aren't just limited to what I can do with my hands…" Then the ground underneath Takai's feet exploded as a large pillar of dark flesh shot out like a missile to pound his body. "Every part of me can stretch and change as necessary, and all of me is coated by that lethal poison."
Takai leapt into the air to evade the mass of Hollow flesh, while slashing at it once half-heartedly. When he landed he glanced at his sword's blade, which had a strange purplish-black liquid lightly coating it.
"Get it now, Death God boy? My entire body is made of that poison, and if you damage any of my vital points it'll spray…and it attacks on contact with skin. Also, because of how I heal wounds…" The creature's fleshy pillar flipped up the point that had been cut to reveal that the wound was gone. "…there's no real way to kill more up close without putting your own life at risk. You're a dead man."
Takai wiped his blade off around the sharp edge, leaving it to glitter like a jewel in the night. "Is that so? You're right…most Death Gods would be finished against an opponent like you." His eyes locked right onto the Hollow's masked face. "However, I'm not most Death Gods."
"That's what all the Death Gods I've killed in the past have said. You're nothing special, and with that Soul Slayer as your weapon you have no choice but to get nice and close to me, which means that I'll be able to get you with my poison. So come, Death God, and let's end this." The Hollow sneered and its fleshy pillar disappeared into the ground.
"I agree." Takai turned on one heel. "Unluckily for you…" He slashed the air once in the direction of the Hollow and then sheathed his Soul Slayer. "This weapon doesn't need to hit you to damage."
"What are you…uhhh…." The Hollow's body trembled rapidly as a fracture-line cut appeared from the top of its head to its abdomen. "This can't be…it's…" Letting out a pained scream, the Hollow slowly split in half down the middle and started to dissolve into nothing.
Takai slowly walked towards his body. ("I didn't want to have to use that, but I'm out of time.")
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"Hey Takai!" Takai woke up right as someone dumped the contents of one of the buckets he had been holding over his head, soaking him completely. "If you're going to fall asleep in the hall, at least have the common sense not to snore during class."
("It was that dream again…") Takai slowly removed the bucket from his head and met eyes with one of his friend, Hiteru. "You're an ass to mess with me when I'm sleeping."
"I know man, but class is over and if you remember correctly, we were all going to the park, right?"
"True." Takai threw the bucket off to the side and placed the other one down on the ground. "Alright then, let's go."
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Not too far away, a black-robed form stood on top of tall business building, fiddling with something. "Stupid receiver must be broken or something, it's getting all these weird signals from Soul Society."
(Name: Homorue Kutochi)
(Occupation: Death God)
(Age: Unknown; Approximately 150 years or so)
(Height: 5'3")
(Hair: Blond, shoulder-length)
(Eyes: Blue)
Brushing back some of his hair, Homorue poked the silver cell-phone looking device in his hand a couple of times. "I hate technology…why is this thing acting like this?" He'd gotten three scrambled signals that indicated future Hollow appearances, but just as quickly as they had appeared those signals disappeared. ("Weird indeed…rather foreboding actually.")
Standing up and brushing his robes off, Homorue tilted back his head and looked up at the clear blue skies above him. "At least the human world has some nice sights to it, so therefore not all of it can be that bad."
A beeping came from his receiver. Tilting it up to look at its screen, his eyes widened in surprise and fear. "Ten…ten signals? That can't be right?" Staring at the screen, he flicked the device a couple of times to make sure it wasn't just malfunctioning. "This isn't right at all. How can there be that many future signals in one place in just ten minutes?" Shoving the device into his robes, he leapt off the edge of the building without the slightest hesitation. ("If I don't hurry…")
At a nearby rooftop, a form standing in the shadow of another building smiled darkly. "That's the Death God assigned to this area? If he's my only resistance, then this will be easy…don't you agree, Gensuraku?" From behind him, a pair of glowing red eyes shimmered in the shadows.
End of Chapter 1
Author's Notes: I pay my greetings to you, members of the Bleach community. This storyline is something I have long cultivated and thought about, so I'm hoping its introduction is up to par. I added the descriptions of Homorue and Takai because I didn't want to leave all of you with no idea what they looked like, since I'll be the first to admit that I tend to miss adding in heavy descriptions when I'm writing on the fly. This is something of a first draft of the first chapter, the main action of course coming from Takai's dream. I tend to have a problem with overpowering both my heroes and my villains, but that's why I like Bleach...there's not so many different comparisons between strength, and willpower can give one the ability to toppel an otherwise invincible opponent too. This little paragraph is mostly my introduction to you guys, and of course to please ask you to come at this with your disbelief suspended, if you haven't done so already.
Of course, I can't control what people think, and I certainly wouldn't want to try. So please review if you wish, I certainly won'tcomplain. I hope I can provide all of you with a truly entertaining story. Anything you can give me, flames, reviews, etc. will be accepted openly.