Alright, so just to warn you before hand, this story acts as a full on sequel to the original Bleach, (SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T FINISHED THE MANGA) and a major part of it is taking place during the ten years time skip of the last chapter of Bleach. I implore you to finish Bleach first before starting with this, seeing as it's, you know... a sequel.
This story does not revolve around Ichigo or the orignial cast anymore, although they will pop up here and there while encountering the protagonists. This piece of fiction might be a bit weird, both in terms of quality of the actual writing itself and the story. That's because this is an experiment of mine and also the first book I've ever written, so here's your warning.
Like I said, Ichigo and the gang are no longer the focus here and my OC's will fill he role of the protagonists instead. As a result, this story features a new roster of characters. This is also not a self insert fanfic where the MC's are somehow childhood friends or lost relatives of any of the existing characters. Instead I'm trying to create an entirely new narrative with new themes and ideas.
I see this trope everywhere; a long lost relative or friend or a secret sibling of one of the main/side characters shows up and takes center stage in an AU of the original story. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Writers are allowed to do whatever they want and I'm not trying to shit on anyone's work or criticize it. If done well, this can lead to pretty good and interesting stories.
My problem with this trope is extremely PERSONAL and comes from the fact that I'd like to see more original stories set in these universes that are disconnected from the overall plot of the original story. If I wanna see that or read it, I'll just go ahead and read the manga or watch the anime. Again, this opinion is very SUBJECTIVE and I'm NOT trying to downgrade the works of other artists. I just have incredibly specific tastes and wanted something different for once (so I did it myself).
As a result, this story reflects all of that and caters to my own incredibly precise special snowflake demands:
- New characters that have limited to no connection to the original cast
- A new story and plot that we haven't seen yet in Bleach
- New themes and ideas, some of which build on previous ones featured in the original
The story is a bit smaller in scale and is going to be rather personal most of the time. The original Bleach was always more about saving the world than about exploring the characters (even if they were still fairly well developed, I'm just saying that it was not always the focus). Bleach was pretty plot driven most of the time, so I've decided to do it very differently in my sequel story, which is a lot more character driven. Of course there's going to be plot at some points and it's not always going to be about the characters themselves.
What I am saying is that I'm trying to use the plot, story and world as a vehicle to explore these new characters to the best of my abilities and bring something to the table we haven't seen before in the Bleach universe
I'm also using a 3-way split narrative, meaning that most of the time, the story is experienced through the view of 3 different characters, whose own personal journeys are not interconnected for a good part of the story. I'm also using old elements from the original and try to build on them in new and interesting ways. Or at least what I find to be interesting.
If any of that has gotten you curious, go ahead and give it a shot, hopefully you'll like it. If not, well then that's too bad and I'm sorry.
P.S. Oh by the way; this thing is riddled with heavy language use, at times graphic violence (not the sexual kind, don't worry) and dark subject matter. Everybody drops F-bombs, sometimes people die in pretty gruesome fashion like it's going out of style and some arguably dark topics come up in regards to the characters backstories and issues, so you know; have fun with that.
Edit: Obviously, I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does. All canon Bleach material (world, characters etc.) belongs to him and the studios. I simply own the OCs and original concepts I introduce into the world of Bleach through this fanfic. I'm writng this fic for entertainment purposes and constructive criticism is encouraged. With all that being said, thank you for your time.
Bleach: Raging Spirits
Prologue:
Ichigo was walking down the streets of Karakura Town somewhat irritated. It was the middle of the night and he had received a call from Urahara Kisuke about an hour ago. From the sounds of it, the matter was important, although he wasn`t able to get any details on the phone, Urahara insisted to talk about it in person.
He was fortunate enough to hear the phone ringing just after it started, or it might have woken up his son, Kazui. Luckily he only had to wake up his wife, to tell her that he would be gone for a few hours and that she didn`t need to worry about it. After giving her a kiss, Orohime had fallen back asleep quickly, and Ichigo had been on his way.
It had been 10 years since he had, together with his friends and the joined efforts of the entire soul society, defeated Yhwach in the Soul King`s palace. Yhwach. The first quincy, most powerfull foe they had ever faced. After he had absorbed the Soul King, all hope had seemed lost, but somehow, may it have been because they just kept fighting on, may it have been because Yhwach`s powers weren`t as complete as he had led them all and himself to believe, may it have simply been a flicker of fate, or all of the above, they manged to defeat him and put an end to his plans, which where to destroy the cycle of life, to prevent death from being a part of it, to fuse all the worlds, human, hueco mundo, soul society and all that was in between into a twisted state of being that maybe would have been a world without fear and death, but also a world completely devoid of any life what so ever.
After Yhwach had been defeated, the powers he had stolen from Ichigo automatically returned to him. Ichigo had gladly wellcomed his powers back, after finally having accepted powers Yhwach had taken form the Soul King latched themselves onto Sousuke Aizen, who had surprisingly fought alongside Ichigo in the final clash against Yhwach, making him the new Soul King and pillar of stability for all the existing worlds. At first it was concerning that Aizen had received those powers, as that had been his original goal all along: to slay the Soul King, take his powers, become the perfect being and destroy the world in order to rebuild it as he saw fit.
To everyone`s surprise and relief however, the short amount of time of his imprisonement and the fact that the Hougyoku had taken away a good portion of his own strength after his defeat at Ichigo`s hands, thereby fullfilling his hearts deepest wish to not be the strongest, to actually be weak, had changed his perspective. Through those experiences he had learned about himself and because of that did not perceive his original goal anymore.
Instead, he reestablished the old order and rules of reality, and therefor completely negating the changes Yhwach had made. He was now sitting on the throne as the new Soul King, and was probably spending his time thinking about the world and himself.
It was a wonderfully quiet night, the skies were clear, no lost spirits wandering around, trying to make peace with their death and trying to move on and no hollows to be seen or felt far and wide. It wasn`t particularly cold, but not to warm either. Almost none of the Houses in Karakura Town had any light in them since most of it`s inhabitans were already asleep and the ones that were lit up, were probably more from a computer or television than because of a lamp.
Ichigo took his sweet time to walk down the road that was lit up with orange streetlights. The Kurosaki clinic would not be required to open this late in the night, for the last few months had been rather quiet, the crime rate was on a low as well as supernatural activity, which is why he, the head doctor of the clinic didn`t need to be there, because the clinic would not open until 7 o`clock in the A.M. and an emergency was highly unlikely.
The Urahara Shop hadn`t changed in the last 10 years, still looking the same as it allways did. Ichigo knocked on the door, only to be greeted by Tessai, Urahara`s shop assisstent.
"Good evening, Kurosaki-san", he greeted politely.
"Good evening, Tessai-san", Ichigo replied with the same tone.
He entered, and followed Tessai to the living room-section of the shop where he saw Urahara Kisuke in the middle of preparing some tea.
"Ah, good evening Kurosaki-san, would you like some tea?", he said in his usual cheerful manner, altough he looked somewhat exhausted.
"Yeah, more like good night", Ichigo snapped back. "Couldn`t this have waited until sometime in the day, you know, when people are awake and don`t need to sleep?". He normally wasn`t that rude, but he was still somewhat groggy from getting up in the middle of the night. Nonetheless, he thankfully accepted the offer and sat down at the table, waiting for Urahara to serve the flavored liquid. After having done so, he took a seat himself, across from Ichigo, next to Tessai.
"Unfortunately not, or i would not have called you this late" he replied in a more serious tone. "Kurosaki-san, i wanted to tell you this in person." He took a few seconds until he continued. "Not even an hour i finished creating a special Gigai for an Arrancar".
Urahara waited a few moments for Ichigo`s reply, Ichigo however had trouble to process the information he was just presented with, so all he could say was: "Come again?".
"Yes, it is somwhat hard to comprehend isn`t it?" Urahara took a good sip from his teacup before he continued. "Allow me to explain. One week ago an Arrancar suddenly showed up in front of my place, completely out of nowhere. He had bypassed all my defense and sensor mechanisms that i had set up, but he didn`t seem hostile at all. He simply entered my Shop walked up to me and asked for a Body that allowed him to live as a human again."
"And you just gave it to him?!", Ichigo said, shocked from what he had just heard. An Arrancar with a Gigai. A being capable of destroying the entire Town, if not more. And now it was completely covert, inserting itself into normal human society, probably waiting for it`s time to strike.
"Why? Why would you even believe his claims, much less give him a body that makes him absolutely inextinguishable from normal human beings?"
"Because he really meant it". Urahara answered the question calmly, as if they were talking about the weather. "You see, he wasn`t just devoid of any hostility, he seemed desperate to live as a human again. Even when i at first reacted the same way you did just now and denying his requests on the spot, he did not make any attempts to threaten me, Tessai or any other person living in the town. He simply started pleading with me, negotiating, saying that he was even ready to give up his powers in order to get what he wanted. During the entire conversation he never displayed any murderous intent, or any ill intentions towards me or anyone else. It was quite confusing, really".
Ichigo slowly recovered from his shock, regaining his calm again. "So what do you 1want me to do with this situation? I am assuming you don`t want me to kill him, seeing as you could have done that yourself and just went through the trouble of creating a Gigai for him", he concluded.
"I would not be so sure about that", Urahara retorted lost in thought. "I couldn`t quite get a grasp on his full power, but i`m not so sure if i could have won had it come to a fight between us. But you are right of course", he continued more focused again. "I do not wish for you to kill him. I simply request you to help me deal with him, should he deviate from our little arrangement. Naturally i took precautions. I built in a little fail save, should he go on a rampage. It won`t kill him, but it will severly weaken him. He also has a transmitter build into his Gigai, which always tells me where he is in the humanworld."
Ichigo was comforted by these additional informations. Of course Urahara would not just mindlessly give a Gigai to an Arrancar without doubts or second thoughts. That still left Ichigo with his first question unanswered.
"Why did you do it?", he asked, way more calm this time.
Urahara smiled mysterously. "Call it an experiment", he said. "I see a potential ally in him, should he really mean what he said. He could be of great use in the future, if there still are remnants of Aizen`s little "cult" from almost eleven and a half years ago that wants revenge. Would it not be for you and your power as an absolute fail save, i would not have done it. But should the worst case scenario come to place, you can put an end to it promptly."
He stood up from the table and went into another room, only to come back shortly after in ordert to hand Ichigo a document file.
"Here is everything that i was able to gather on him. Name, height, weight, hair color and so forth. You are of course entirely allowed to refuse, it is up to you. There are other options that would be just as fitting for the part, but you are always closest to the scene, since he seemed like he wanted to stick around. As i said this is simply a request and nothing else. And should you refuse, take this Dossier with you anyway, so that you are at least informed", he said while handing the papers to Ichigo.
He sighed, took the papers and replied slightly annoyed: "Well, even though you *say* i can decline, i don`t really have a choice here, do i. I`ll try to help you as good as i can with this. Anything else i should know?", he asked while finishing his tea and getting up.
"No, that would be all", Urahara answered back in his usual cheerful tone. "Good night, Kurosaki-san."
"Yeah, thanks. You too." He went back through the shop put his shoes on and went outside, after he also wished a good night to Tessai.
After closing the door behind himself he took a deep breath. "Well, explaining this to the gang is gonna be very fun", he snorted to himself sarcastically and went on his way home.
Author`s notes:
If you want to give your opinion, PM me or better yet, review it. I`ll always welcome constructive criticism.