A/N: Funny how quickly one can write some chapters while some take so much time...

I was listening to music a lot while writing this. Well, I always listen to music but this time I listened to specific songs. First Apocalyptica's Not Strong Enough. Later Classic by MKTO. And finally Lambeth Walk.

I hope you like this chapter and at least check some of the songs I mentioned.

Created Life from Death 10
Kotobuki Mirai

Despite what happened in October, Mirai found herself living on. She gained a new friend and trusted person in Yoruichi (not that the cat-woman ever introduced herself properly) and the incident had brought her and Ichigo closer in the end. Her extra-curricular lessons progressed well and kept her occupied where school didn't manage to do so.

Mirai was happy. And when Tomo taught her to do the gigai maintenance on her own when she was twelve, things were even better. She could relax.

Frankly, nothing drastic happened in the following years aside from the fights in the streets but even they started to be commonplace. Same faces, same tricks… Boring.

Then Mirai made a new friend.

It was a pure coincidence. Mirai had been scrolling through the selection of a local manga store when she met her. And the first thing that Mirai noticed of her was her eyes. Such a brilliant blue. Just like…

"Shinbashi-iro…" She whispered. But it was quite quiet and empty in the shop so the other female heard her quite well.

"Excuse me?" Delicate brows frowned behind black-framed glasses.

"Gomenasai." Mirai blushed. "I just… Your eye color is so unique… And I just…" She stammered while the other just stared at her.

"It's… alright. Weird but… alright." The other female shrugged, face impassive, looking then at the magazine's she had been browsing before the interruption.

"Umm… If I may ask… Which school are you going to? I don't think I recognize your uniform. Of course, I don't know the schools in Naruki-shi that well but…" Mirai forced herself to stop talking. She knew very well who this… woman was but… It was fun pretending that she didn't. And she also sort of liked collecting people.

"I don't… I don't go to school. I wear uniform because I like it."

"Oh? That's… alright. Weird but alright."

The woman blinked at her and quirked a smile.

"I'm Risa. What's yours?"

"I'm Mirai. But… you can call me Asagi if you want to." Mirai smiled, fingering nervously at her bracelet. It was weird, she had felt this nervous with any other canon character this far. Maybe it was because Lisa was a really smart character and she was the first one Mirai approached without the intention of pulling spiritual world into conversation and background context.

And maybe it was also because Lisa was quite attractive too and seemed to have strong and witty sarcastic humor. Mirai approved.

"Asagi? Where does that name come from?" Quirk of an eyebrow. Mirai smiled widely.

"Saa… I wonder. It's a nickname bestowed upon me though… And since I'm probably going to call you Shinbashi-iro anyways, I thought to give you an alternative."

"I see… Nice to meet you anyways, Asagi-chan."

"You too, Shinbashi-iro-san!"

It was a strange camaraderie between them. They only occasionally met and each time was random for them. They would talk about the manga they read and anime they watched or even games they played, yet sometimes they would just sit on the bench outside the store and read in silence.

"Asagi-chan? In a bit of hurry today?" Lisa spoke up when Mirai was already heading for the cashier.

"Shinbashi-san?" She'd dropped 'iro' from the name at the woman's request a week back. "I didn't notice you, sorry."

"It's alright. We haven't seen in a while."

"I had exams. Didn't have time to come here or see friends in general? They're over though so I was heading to park to meet with a friend of mine." Mirai explained and lifted a violin case. "We play together."

"I see. I didn't know you played the violin… What do you usually play?"

"We usually talk about manga more than our lives…" Mirai mentally deadpanned but explained then. "After I dropped out of the lessons I've played more anime music but I like classical too. My friend prefers classical music and symphonic metal."

"Sounds interesting. Would you mind if I were to accompany you? I'm curious to hear how good you are."

Mirai thought for a while. In one hand… awkward and her deceit might get revealed. In the other hand…

"Why not? I got a feeling that you already know him though." After all, there was a certain flavor that she could feel from Lisa, Rose, Kensei and Mashiro all. Something that she would've sensed even without having her foreknowledge. And Mashiro? She'd once appeared at the dojo to bug Kensei but had been tossed out by the both 'Ken's. Afterwards the students had made a banner to be hung from the wall which read: 'Kenji-sensei and Kensei-shishou rule at this Kendo-dojo. Do not cause mess.'

Mirai had taken a photo of it. (And the only reason why Kensei was 'shishou' instead of 'sensei' was because no one wanted to make it rhyme and Kensei was in the end much sterner and stricter than Kenji.) She had also asked who the green-haired 'Kamen Yaiba' was. She had been told to give her a nickname.

Thus Mashiro became Moegi-chan.

But back to present day. Mirai led Lisa to the park and to their usual area. At one point, Lisa's head lifted a bit higher, probably sensing Rose ahead but trying to ignore him.

"Bara-san! I brought a friend with me!" Mirai waved when the bench they usually met at was in sight.

"Asagi-chan. Long time no see." Rose waved back, glancing at Lisa but keeping his amusement to himself. Mostly. He probably guessed that Mirai was currently trolling the woman because there was no way she couldn't have noticed the reiatsu Lisa had. After all he had been the one to taught her. He knew very well the girl's capabilities.

"Do you have any new notes?" Mirai asked.

"I have some. But why don't you introduce your friend here?"

"Oh, this is Shinbashi-san. We've known for a while. Shinbashi-san, this is Bara-san. I've known him since I was five."

"I see. Nice to meet you… Bara-san." Lisa righted her glasses with a quirked eyebrow.

"You too." Rose smiled. "I wonder if you've heard of this song, Asagi-chan. It's from a foreign band called Apocalyptica…"

Rome. Golden Week. Nice and warm weather which wasn't too hot nor too cold. And with lot to see in the city and great food, it was an excellent vacation destination. Mirai enjoyed herself immensely. And what's best?

The hotel had a bar downstairs with a dance floor, live band or dj every night and no age restriction aside from at the bar counter where the IDs where checked for certain drinks. But Mirai wasn't there for drinks and alcohol. She was for music and dance.

And she wanted a dance partner. Today was her fourteenth birthday. And she really liked this song.

Hey! where's the drum?

"Excuse me…" She approached a man by the bar counter. Her English was slightly accented by comprehensible. "Would you dance with me?"

The man glanced at her, listened for the rhythm of the song and…

"One dance. This isn't bad… for pop song." He replied in Japanese.

"Yeah, I can see you're a fifties person… Prefer Jazz?" Mirai 'guessed'.

Ooh girl you're shining
Like a 5th avenue diamond
And they don't make you like they used to
You're never going out of style

"Something like that." The man grinned and led Mirai to the dance floor.

Ooh pretty baby
This world might have gone crazy
The way you saved me,
Who could blame me
When I just wanna make you smile

Mirai had fun. And the man could lead well. They were both smiling. And thankfully there was more people on the floor too even though Mirai wouldn't have cared for the stares. She was on a vacation. And on vacation you had fun.

I wanna thrill you like Michael
I wanna kiss you like Prince
Let's get it on like Marvin Gaye
Like Hathaway write a song for you like this

He twirled her around and made her laugh when her skirt made a horizontal circle. But that's why she wore leggings beneath it.

You're over my head
I'm out of my mind
Thinking I was born in the wrong time
One of a kind, living in a world gone plastic
Baby you're so classic
Baby you're so classic
Baby you,
Baby you're so classic

And so on the song went. And eventually ended. He led Mirai out of the dance floor to the bar where they sat on the stools.

"Thank you! I had fun." She smiled.

"You're welcome. Not bad moves for a kid." He grinned back and ordered a drink.

"Thanks. I've had some dance classes at the theater okaa-san works at."

"I guess you are with your parents here then."

"They are at their room. Should come here soon though." Mirai ordered a soda from the man behind the counter. "I'm Asagi."

"Nice to meet you Asagi. My name is Hirako Shinji." Yeah, she knew. That's why she approached him despite her surprise.

"I think I'll call you Kitsurubami. Like your hair color." The girl decided.

"Oh? Do you give nicknames to everyone you meet?"

"Only the ones I actually like. Sometimes though I give nicknames to people I haven't met yet. That's how I got to know Shinbashi-san. She had just so beautiful eyes." Mirai gushed. "And I've never met Moegi-chan properly either but because Kamenozoki-san didn't tell me her name, I had to come up with a nickname. Kanzo-iro-kun likes the nicknames I give to people and uses them with me."

"Is Asagi a nickname then?" Shinji drawled.

"Yes. Okaa-san has said that I shouldn't give my own name to strangers." Mirai smiled before narrowing her eyes mischievously. "One can never know what sorts of intentions the other has."

The Visored sitting next to her gave a pause, looking at her face searchingly but it was gone soon after Mirai blinked and looked back in confusion.

"Is there something in my face?"

"No… I just thought your expression reminded me of something."

"Was it… my eyes?" Mirai asked hesitantly. It worried her. The shape of her eyes. Where did it come from? And if Shinji had reacted to the change of her expression... Actually reacted with hesitation and hadn't managed to conceal it… Then what was it in them that bothered the man?

She never got her answer though when Dina and Kenji arrived to the bar and dragged her off to find a nice restaurant for dinner, leaving Shinji watching after them thoughtfully.

Mirai met Shinji at the bar during the next nights too. Always dragged him off to dance for one song and then talked with him by the counter until her parents came to get her. The topic of her eyes didn't come up again but now Mirai took care to avoid certain expressions that caused her eyes narrow in calculating manner. It was hard but she had found during the years that she was a good actor so she managed.

And during the nights she dreamt more and more of the stage of the theater with flooded audience. Sometimes she could see shifting curtains in the balcony, like someone was there. Whispers were louder than they were when she was seven but not yet completely eligible. It was like static was mixed in them.

"Are you there?" Mirai asked one night, sitting on the edge of the stage and letting her feet sink into the water. The orchestra pit was beneath her feet. "Are you… my zanpakuto spirit?"

The curtains shifted. Water rippled.

"This all is a clue for me, right? I'm on the stage. On the World's Stage. And the audience… is affected by what I do, right? I'm not a butterfly causing hurricanes. I'm a ripple, causing bigger ripples." She splashed the water with her bare feet.

There was a chuckle and a flash of white clothing with a red ribbon trailing behind. Hint of golden yellow too. Mirai smiled. She was close. Even though she hadn't actively been trying to figure out the mystery behind her theater and whispers in there during the years, she could feel she was getting closer.

Ghosts in Rome spoke almost exclusively in Italian. Unless they were ghosts of tourists. But in general, it was like they had reverted to their first language. But that brought up a question of who handled the plus souls outside Japan, and if they went to Soul Society or some other place. Maybe she had to ask Yoruichi when she got back. The cat was most useful source of information concerning the afterlife.

And with ghosts and historical places willed with spirit energy, also came Hollows.

Mirai shuddered when the scream rang in the air. Rome's reishi density was thinner than Karakura's so the Hollow could be picked up much easier. It was right above the hotel. Mirai looked at the ceiling. She needed to act. She hadn't sensed any Shinigami during her stay and had begun to doubt they actively patrolled area so far away from the juureichi. She had been about the step into the bar but instead turned on her heels and run to the elevator. On the way up, she texted her parents to inform them what was going on and please stay calm and seek shelter.

The trip to the roof was agonizingly slow but thankfully there was no one at the rooftop pool or pool bar. It meant she could leave her gigai here.

Mirai removed her bracelets with care and placed them on the ground. For a second she enjoyed the feeling of her own reiatsu settling without the restraints but then focused on the present. The hollow was just twenty meters ahead and three above her. And it had sensed her. Mirai focused her reiatsu onto a single point and used it as a key to get out of her gigai which slumped on the tiled floor next to her bracelets. Mirai lifted the empty fake body to a deck chair and snapped the bracelets into the same wrist before jumping forward to stand on the ledge surrounding the rooftop. She glanced down and gulped. While she had mastered using reishi as steps and shunpo in general, she had never been this high.

"No hesitation… Be strong." Came a whisper to her ears. Wind blew through her blond hair and soothed her nerves.

"I will." Mirai said resolutely and stared up at the hollow. They measured each other. The hollow wasn't as big as some that Mirai had seen in Karakura. But it had a weasel-like mask and narrow body. Meaning it was probably speed oriented.

Now Mirai was quick. She was currently quicker than Ichigo who hadn't had his growth spurt yet. But her only opponents thus far had been Ichigo, Yoruichi (who was impossible to catch even she was going easy on them) and Rose (who hadn't participated on that part of training that much but was still a captain), and so she had no real measure of her own speed against real opponents.

"I have to use trickery. Who knows what else that hollow can do." Mirai tensed…

And dashed to the left when the hollow speed at her previous spot, stopping far away from the hotel.

"Okay, it has troubles in braking. And probably in turning too." And she was moving and gaining higher ground. She could sense the hollow following her. Mirai changed direction and had a direct line of attack at the hollow's back. She pointed her fore and middle fingers at the hollow, like a pistol.

"Hado no yon: Byakurai!"

The lightning hit the hollow's hind legs and it let out a wail. But it didn't stop. Instead it used its tail to turn around in the spot and jump.

"Holy-!" Mirai just barely dodged the swipe of its claws. Thankfully it didn't seem intelligent (and strong) enough to be capable of speech yet. "Sho!" She pointed at the hollow, pushing it away from her. She took a couple of quick steps to get out of its range as well. Her arm stung. The hollow was using its reiatsu to give itself a bigger bulk that wouldn't affect aerodynamics. It also meant that the claws had longer range. Mirai looked at her arm. She had claw marks on her upper arm.

"Focus!"

Mirai dodged the next imitation of the bullet train by stopping holding herself up in the air and letting herself freefall a couple of meters. It was terrifying but gave her the seconds she needed to collect herself.

"Kunrinsha yo! Chiniku no kamen, banshō, habataki, hito no na o kansu mono yo! Shōnetsu to sōran, umihedate sakamaki minami e to ho o susume yo!" She chanted and focused. "Hado no sanjuu-ichi: Shakkaho!"

It hit, disintegrating half of the hollows right side. But as long as the mask existed and the hollow had all of its legs, it wasn't defeated.

"Sai!" It was a relief that she didn't need incantation on any kidou spell under the ranking ten but she wasn't sure how well they'd work on that hollow no matter how weak it seemed to be.

And to prove the point, the hollow jumped right at her and swiped her with its tail. Arms/front legs were bound but naturally the hint legs that were stronger ones for the hollow, allowed it to move.

"Ugh…" Mirai flew through the air, clutching her stomach. Since she wasn't the way towards some building, she wasn't worried about stopping just yet. She needed to catch her breath anyways. And hope that she hadn't broken any of her ribs.

"Call me, Mirai-san."

"Huh?"

The whisper was clearly male voice. Young male voice but it couldn't be confused with female.

"You have the clues. You are so close. Call my name. I know you have it figured out even if you haven't fully grasped it yet."

Mirai opened her eyes. (Since when had she closed them?) The hollow was running towards her bipedal. It looked ridiculous but with the mouth of the mask fully open it wasn't a laughing matter. It was planning on swallowing her whole!

"D-…" The phrase was just on top of her tongue. Mirai stopped midair and stretched out her hand. "Distort, Sazanami!"

A comforting weight settled upon her palm but Mirai didn't have time to admire her zanpakuto. She could feel the shikai state remained as a sword even if didn't seem to be a katana anymore. And when the hollow was close enough, she poured everything she'd learnt about using her arm and muscles when swinging a sword on kendo lessons. Steady hold of the handle with both of her hands and one smooth strike beginning from above her head and ending with the sword pointing downwards.

The mask went neatly in half and the rest of the hollow disintegrated. Mirai was breathing heavily and blackness was creeping at the edges of her vision. She needed to get onto solid ground before she…

Sazanami vanished. Mirai fell onto her knees but her reishi platform disappeared from beneath her feet just when she was about to collapse completely. She was falling.

"Geez…" Shinji muttered from his perch on the roof of the hotel he was staying at. Behind him was the girl's parents sitting next to their adoptive daughter's gigai. They had glasses on their nose and had witnessed the entire fight. "I'll be back." The Visored Leader stated and speeded after the falling figure of a fourteen-year-old girl.

When he'd first met her, he had suspected she was hiding something but it wasn't until he'd seen her run for the elevators right after the hollow's scream, he'd gotten his answers. He'd followed her and found the girl's parents there, watching the fight and but unable to act, humans as they were. With a couple of pointed questions, he'd gotten the story out of the couple and then settled to watch, ready to intervene if needed.

The girl did well, considering that this was her first real fight. Someone had obviously been training her. Probably one of the friends she'd mentioned with her silly nicknames but always evaded specifying their looks or personalities.

And manifesting shikai in mid-fight. That was something impressive. Of course, souls and humans alike performed better under duress but considering how things were traditionally done at Soul Society, shikai was generally found through numerous meditation lessons. Though what did traditions matter with this girl, he mused as he caught her in his arms.

But coming in direct contact with her reiatsu… Shinji froze. It was indeed like a regular shinigami's, traces of both parents in it even though they were mixed to become something new. But there was a third trace. Very faint but woven all through her, like it was the one that had knit her two parts together.

"Was it… my eyes?" She had asked when Shinji had reacted to her expression. It meant that she had noticed something wrong too. And according to her human parents, she knew very well her biological mother and creator but had no idea of father. Shinji called bullshit on that. If they really lived in Karakura, there was no way that Mirai hadn't run to Kisuke at least once. And he'd recognized the scientist's nervous manners in her general behavior. Wide-eyed confusion and embarrassed smile were all Kisuke. And the girl knew it too which was why she was bothered about the shape of her own eyes which didn't fit the mold.

Shinji landed onto the roof and laid Mirai on the deckchair next to the one with her gigai.

"I can fix her arm and help her back to her gigai, but you continue from there on." He informed the couple.

Maybe it was time to return to Karakura. To keep an eye on things anyways.

Mirai looked at her zanpakuto. It was shaped like Chinese sword jian. It was beautiful.

Straight and narrow silver blade. Golden hilt and pommel, with the handle in between wrapped in white. And a red tassel tangling from the pommel.

"What can I do with… you Sazanami?" She asked her zanpakuto spirit who had not joined her on the stage. He had inky hair that was tinted toward blue. He was wearing a white jacket with golden buttons and the inside of it was golden silk too which was shown with rolled up sleeves. Black belt with golden clasp and katana hanging from it. Grey, straight pants and black heelless shoes with golden shin guards over them. Not to mention the leather cuffs in his wrist and the red ribbon wrapped around his forehead with the ends trailing after him in an invisible wind.

Frankly, he looked like Asougi Kazuma from Dai Gyakuten Saiban -videogame.

"A lot." Sazanami smiled. "I've waited for you such a long time. It's great to finally reach you, Mirai-san."

"The same. The same." Mirai smiled back.

When Mirai awoke, she was lying on the bed in her parent's hotelroom. She had no recollection of how she could've gotten there, but she had an inkling. There was not many choices after all.

"Kitsurubami-san?" She greeted the man next evening.

"Asagi-chan." Shinji nodded back.

"One last dance?"

The band was playing Lambeth Walk.

"Why not?"

They didn't talk about what had happened on the previous night. They didn't talk about what they might know about each other.

"Be careful." Shinji told her when they parted ways.

"I will. I have a partner who has my back."

A/N: Ooh, I wonder what's going on in the background. Since I pulled Shinji into this, I think you can guess.

Picture of Sazanami can be found at my deviantArt: tsukiko75014 dA com /art/ Bleach-Sazanami-and-Nejibana-700616850
Just ad dots, remove spaces and turn 'dA' back to 'deviantart'. I still need to have time and inspiration to draw the shikai and the sealed form.

The songs I picked up slightly randomly but not so.
-Apocalyptica I began listening to when I thought what sort of music Rose would like. He is very Classical music type but in the manga he talks about a band called Prince of Darkness while tuning his guitar and in the databook two (Masked) it is mentioned that he likes Northern European heavy metal. So Symphonic Metal became by pick and Apocalyptica the band since it is Finnish.
-The second song just happened to come by on my playlist and I like it. It would be a nice song to dance to with my friends. So I put it on the background of Mirai and Shinji.
-Lambeth Walk is from my... prom? Second year in high school we have a ball after the third years have left to prepare for their matriculation examinations(i.e. finals) so the second years celebrate becoming the oldest students of the school. We dress up in long dresses and tux and dance. Tango, waltz, et cetera. At our school, we had Lambeth Walk as the last dance and with that dance we left the hall and the audience (which was the younger students during the day and our families during the evening). So I thought it a nice dance to wrap up their meeting.

Some glossary:

-Shinbashi-iro: 'new bridge colored'

-Kitsurubami: 'golden oak'

-Moegi: 'fresh onion'

-Kamen Yaiba: A super sentai/power rangers type character found in Detective Conan franchise. Also called Masked Yaiba. And because 'yaiba' means 'blade', I thought it appropriate to call a visored that. Masked blade. :) And Mashiro's outfit is quite super sentai which pushed me to call her that first.

-juureichi: Spiritually rich ground i.e. Karakura.

-Distort, Sazanami: I'm not sure yet, which verb would be in Japanese in the release phrase. Probably Yugameru though. Sazanami in the other hand means 'ripple'. I'm quite straight forward in this, aren't I?

Replies to Reviews:

-xenocanaan:
Yesh. It was interesting to write too. To balance the fact that it's Mirai's first fight and have her win but not so easily as Ichigo did with his first hollow.

-Silverlined Phoenix:
Are you writing this on you phone? Cause it's a bit difficult to read...
Anyhow! I'd like to write Kensei a bit more but I gotta wait a while.
Yeah, despite them knowing about the spiritual world, they still live surprisingly closed off life from it. But differently than the Kurosaki's did.
Kenji is in a dilemma. He knows that something happened with Mirai and Ichigo and failed. But because Mirai doesn't approach him and Dina about the matter, he can't really address the matter either. And since Kensei steered him away from the conversation (reasons later) he doesn't know what happened or who it was. Men...

-mk0008:
Yep. Mirai is 14 now. I won't be going back in time anymore since the timeline start to be caught up with the canon.
Thank you. I'm glad to hear that.

-Yatocat19:
That's great to hear. I once read a Naruto SI-OC oneshot with Kisame narrating it and telling his observations about her. It was quite interesting in my opinion so I decided to try it. And there is another Naruto fic called Yondaime's Assistant where it mainly is from the protagonist's pov but has some omake's where they talk about her and resent events.

-Antex-The Legendary Zoroark:
Thank you. It took a while with Mirai originally just thinking of having two sets of parents, one that are shinigami and are just away and other that are human and act like her parents form the previous life. There has been a bit of disconnection for her when it comes to family but that's because of death and rebirth and stuff. But she is moving on now! :)
Yes! Rome! Originally I had planned having Ichigo there too but with the kikashinki incident, there was not good way to get him to the vacation with the Kotobuki's. But the original scene had Mirai and Ichigo dragging Shinji to the dance floor together and then taking turns in dancing with him. XD
Kitsurubami means Golden Oak. It's a shade of yellow, just like Asagi. You're confusing the word with 'kitsune' which means 'fox'. But good guess in a way anyways.

-Girl-luvs-manga:
Very true.