I'm on a roll, people! Another two chapters already in the work!
Ps: Feel free to roast me for my drawing skills! I can't really draw anything resembling faces and I didn't have my pencils with me for this one: /TRRq6sY
Lilly is already waiting for them in the clearing they set up the meeting. She's sitting on a stump, the heels of her uniform-boots methodically thumping against the wood. She waves at them and Bella nearly falls over when Jacob also waves back.
"What? She was waving at us!" He tells her when he notices her incredulous expression.
"She's in her spirit form! Normal humans – sorry – shouldn't be able to see her!"
"There are wolves in Soul Society. One of them was even a Captain," Lilly tells them, appearing next to them soundlessly. Jacob jumps back, eyes wide, and Lilly just winks at him extending her hand. "Lillian Blackmoor-Kurosaki. But you can call me Lilly."
"Jacob Black. You smell like a fox." Lilly throws her head back in laughter, Jacob's hand still grasped in hers. Her eyes are gold when she looks back at him, and with a warm pulse of feral Spiritual Pressure, nine tails materialize behind her, swaying softly in the breeze.
They get along like a house on fire, Lilly's more feral traits surfacing with every minute spent together. There's clear interest on Jake's face and Bella watches him drink in the sight of Lilly in her uniform sitting on a stump like a throne until the sunlight hits her rings. She pats him on the shoulder when the woman is distracted and pretends she doesn't notice the amused glint in Lilly's eyes.
"What are you planning to do with her?" Jacob asks Lilly, and Bella throws a rock at him.
"I want to train her."
"What are you going to teach her?"
"How to control her Spiritual Pressure, connect and use her blade and function in all of the worlds on her own."
"Good."
"Which one us do you want to go with you?" Ichigo asks Bella when she buckles herself in. Her head feels so much lighter with her hair in a long bob. The hairstylist had even curled it a little for her, and now she feels another step away from her past. "It suits you."
"Thanks and I have no idea. Even Kisuke would be fine," he chuckles at that, pulling away from the curb.
"I can't wait to see his face when he finds that out."
The conversation dies down as they drive off towards Forks, Bella musing about her future trip to Soul Society and Ichigo most likely thinking about his work. Or Soul Society. He usually sported the same scowl when it came those two.
She already misses the chain extending from her chest, even if it had only been present for a few mere minutes. Ichigo catches her when they pass the Gate to Soul Society, and Bella stands there frozen for a couple of minutes, drinking in the city with white walls and Eastern style that will house her too, one day. The black butterfly that had guided them through the Gate does a loop around them, then settles on a nearby post, clearly waiting for them to return.
Bella nods at Ichigo when he raises an eyebrow in question, watching in amazement as he opens a portal with a wave of his hand.
They return with a dagger-like sword – A tantō, Bella. It's called a tantō – and restless whispers in her ears. They coil around her mind like Asagiri's mist, so close and yet so out of reach. It bugs her, leaving her with an itch under her skin that fills her with restless energy.
Her mind is still filled with those whispers on Monday, the busy hallways only rivalling slightly drowning it out. You'll first have to learn how to be its companion, Isabella, Kisuke had told her the day before, and she took those words to heart. But that didn't mean she couldn't try to reach out for them, so she could finally hear those words clearly.
"Ohmygosh!" Jessica pounces at her, breaking her concentration and the haze over her mind. Right, she was not a Reaper-in-training only, but a human too. How did Ichigo put up with this? "You cut your hair! Why? Where? When?"
"This weekend. In Port Angeles. And I wanted a change," Bella answers her questions in reverse, smiling at Angela when she compliments her new hairdo. She catches Jessica's eye twitch, and she remembers one of Edward's random comments she'd barely reacted to at that time. That Jessica only wanted to be her friend for popularity.
The bell rings and there's a bag in her way that nearly makes her fall on her nose. Instead, she kicks her other leg forward, changing her centre of gravity, just like Ichigo had told her to. She has no room to do a tumble forward, so she settles for nearly falling on her back, to the shock of her friends. At least her training works?
Jacob laughs at her frustration. She flips him off, still trying to balance on a random boulder, praying to every god out there that she'll only have to fight Lilly on a tightrope a couple of years down the line. When she would not be at such a big risk of breaking her… everything.
"Look on the bright side Bells! You have developed a sense of balance!"
"Yay," she deadpans, shifting from one foot to another, "I get to survive for another week!"
"Can't you still bow out of it?"
"I could, and they wouldn't resent me. But I already have a blade and Kisuke has started teaching me Kidou, and it'll bug me for eternity if I stop now.
"Which one is 'Kisuke'?"
"Their third. A blond guy who likes wearing traditional clothing and is around four hundred." She burst out laughing when Jacob falls on his ass, shortly following him when she loses her balance.
The world around her is foggy, random figures darting around, barely visible.
"Who are you?" She asks the unknown, and something stops in front of her. A smiling mask looks back at her, their belt clinking with other masks from their open robe. There's a shield next to them, blood dripping down onto the nothingness below them.
"Do you really want to know?" They respond as memories of all her failures start playing around them. Bella stares at them, then glances back at the spirit.
"Yes," she nods, wincing slightly when her complaining gets louder, "I want to know. Just as much as I want to become a Grim Reaper."
"Good. I am an illusion. A trick of your mind that scares you." As they speak, the world fades around them, the dream coming to an end. "I am…"
Bella bolts upright in her bed, almost falling down from it. She smiles, reaching for her phone with hands shaking from excitement.
"Phantasmagoria."
It's a simple text, but she knows Lilly will understand it. She rushes through getting ready, hoping to catch her dad while he was still home.
"Dad! I did it! I know their name!"
The first time she meets Hirako Shinji, he catches her unaware during training, and she stabs him with her longsword. Ichigo bursts out laughing while Lilly rushes forward, hands glowing green and shoulders shaking from suppressed laughter.
"That's quite a greeting, Sunshine. But we'll have ta work on yer technique." He tells her when Bella flails around, trying to apologize and help out at the same time.
"Don't worry, he had worse." Ichigo claps her on the back, wiping away his tears. "You should have aimed higher, though. Correct that monstrosity."
Ichigo gestures towards the other's head, and Bella took her time examining him. He was shorter than Ichigo, still lanky, with a smile that reminded her of the Cheshire Cat. The 'monstrosity', as Ichigo had called it, was a lopsided fringe that made him look uneven.
They share a blade-type, so Lilly and Ichigo leave them alone most of the time when it comes to her training.
"Don't you have a Division to run?"
"Lilly-chan has asked for a trial period as Captain," He shrugs, flopping down onto the ground next to her, "And I jumped at the chance of a vacation."
"And you're spending your 'vacation' with teaching me. Very wise of you, Ancient One."
"Didn't they teach you not to sass your teachers, Sunshine?"
"Only to not do it with the competent ones."