Wooo, baby! 3,100 words! This came out much longer than I thought or wanted it to be.

Anyways, I think this chapter came out really good! And I'm not japanese so please excuse any screw up I made with any japanese words. But I really like how the mysterious soul reaper pissed off Shurai. Hehehe... Oh! And by the way, whoever gets the anime/manga refrence in this chapter gets a cookie! Also, a warning. I usually try to avoid foul language when I write, but what's a Bleach Fan Fiction without cursing! Am I right!?

Now enjoy! Tell me what you think, tell me what I need to fix, tell me whatever you want! I welcome all comments, but please no put downs...I do welcome constructive criticism though.
The Bleach universe © Tite Kubo!
This Alternate universe © Me and My Friend
Shurai Isamu © My Friend
Tsune Kemurininaru © ME!

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Chapter 1: Opening to Heaven

"Yaaaaaaawwwh…"Tsune yawned loudly as his teacher droned on and on about proper English grammar. He leaned on the palm of his right hand while he drummed the fingers of his left. He shuffled in his desk to loosen his stiff muscles. He looked around the classroom to see what his classmates were doing. Everyone seemed just as bored as he was; some were even sleeping while hiding behind their raised English books.

"The past couple of days have been so~ boring." He thought as another yawn escaped from his mouth. And it was true. The past couple of days no spirits had needed help or rescue. So Tsune and Shurai had been deprived of all excitement. Tsune turned his head over to the other side of the room towards Shurai.

He was sitting there with a scowl on his face and eyes closed in frustration. His arms were crossed tightly across his chest. It was subtle, but Tsune could see him fidgeting.

"Hmm…Not good. Shurai's getting restless." Tsune thought to himself. Shurai was a battle freak, if he didn't get into fights at least once a week he would go nuts. And since no spirits had needed saving this week, that meant no fighting. Tsune made a mental note to make sure Shurai got to beat someone up.

Tsune then stiffened in fear as he heard a blood curdling roar erupt from outside. The howl was terrible. It sounded like a cross between an elephant and a lion screaming inside Tsune's head. Tsune clamped his hands to his ears as he looked around for everyone else's reaction. To his surprise, no one seemed to notice. His classmates were still their bored, sleeping selves. The only one who seemed shocked was Shurai.

Shurai turned towards Tsune and pointed outside where the roar seemed to be coming from. His eyes seemed to be saying, "Let's go!"

Tsune just stared at him blankly. He was surprised that Shurai wanted to fight against the thing that could make such a roar. Tsune shook his head no. That was, until Shurai cracked his knuckles in his direction. Tsune could feel a drop of sweat fall down his scalp.

Tsune turned back towards the teacher nervously. He didn't want to leave class, he hated fighting. But if he didn't come up with an excuse for him and Shurai to leave he would have to fight against Shurai anyways. Tsune opened his mouth to say some pitiful excuse when he was interrupted by the teacher.

"Kemurinaru-kun? You look sick. Do you want to go to the nurse?" She asked innocently, unaware that she had just helped Tsune skip school.

"Ah, yes! I feel really sick." Tsune held his stomach and began groaning miserably.

"Tanizaki-san! I'll help take him to the nurse's office." Shurai said suddenly, catching the teacher off guard. Shurai stared at her intently as if his mind was forcing her to say yes.

"O-okay, Isamu-kun." Their teacher stammered. Shurai walked stiffly towards Tsune, who was still groaning and moaning, and picked him up from his seat. Shurai shouldered Tsune like a flour sack and ran out the classroom and down the hall, while everyone in the roomed looked on nervously.

As Shurai disappeared down the hall Tanizaki burst into an angry rant. "Did you see how he looked at me!? He looked like he wanted to kill me!!" The students just sighed at their teacher's usual behavior.

At the front of the school Shurai dumped Tsune on the ground roughly. "Oof!" Tsune gasped out.

"Tsune! Where is it?" Shurai commanded looking out for the sign of the monster that made the roar.

"Ugh, give me a minute. You're too rough, Shurai!" Tsune picked himself off the ground slowly and dusted himself off. Shurai just glared at Tsune in response, causing Tsune to flinch. "Alright, alright!"

Tsune took a step forward and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and focused. In his mind's eye he could see a faint glow coming from the right. "There!" Tsune said suddenly as his eyes flashed open. He pointed towards the right, where the nearby playground was. Shurai dashed from his spot in the direction of Tsune's finger.

Tsune just sighed. "Wait up!" He yelled as he ran after his quick friend. He eventually caught up with Shurai and ran beside him. As they ran down the street he looked around for the source of the roar. As they neared the playground another horrible roar rang out across the area. Tsune had to cover his ears from the volume. It was definitely louder near the playground.

Shurai ignored it and rushed into through the playground's entrance. "Shurai! Don't just rush in!" Tsune yelled over the noise of the roar. He ran after him and entered the playground, too. Tsune ended up bumping into Shurai's back. "Gah!" Tsune cried out.

"What is it?" Tsune said as he rubbed his bruised nose.

Shurai stood there in silent shock as he pointed towards the jungle gym on the playground. Tsune looked around Shurai's large figure only to see the metal jungle gym get flattened by a gigantic monster.

The thing was huge! It was at least twice as tall as Shurai, which was pretty tall. It also looked like nothing Tsune had ever seen before. It looked as if it was composed of white bony plates covering a black shadowy body. The most terrifying feature was its mask-covered face. The mask was made of the same bone-like material as its body, and it was shaped like a T. Rex skull; only with longer fangs.

Tsune and Shurai flinched as the monster roared again. It sniffed the ground as if it were searching for something. It didn't seem as if it had noticed the boys yet. It just stomped around a little and sniffed. After awhile, it finally settled down near a tree at the edge of the park. That's also when Tsune caught sight of a kid behind the same tree the T. Rex monster was sniffing at.

"Shurai!" Tsune whispered, so as not to attract the large monster. "That…thing, is looking for that kid over there! We got to help him!"

Shurai answered with a simple, "Yeah."

"Alright, we're going to need a plan." Tsune said as he looked around for something useful to help fight the monster. "Maybe we could…Shurai? Where'd you…" Tsune trailed off as he saw Shurai run across the playground straight towards the beast. "Aw, man." Tsune grumbled as he chased after his friend…again.

Shurai rushed over to the monster, now over his previous shock. As he passed by the smashed jungle gym he picked up a broken loose pipe from the wreckage.

"Hey, You ugly pile of bones! Smile!" Shurai yelled as he leapt towards the monster's face. The monster seemed to have understood what Shurai had said and was about to turn around, when he suddenly got smacked hard in the mask by Shurai's pipe. Shurai had managed to hit the beast with enough force to make it stumble backwards, forcing it away from the tree.

That was about the time Tsune had caught up. He ran behind the tree and came face to face with the ghost he had seen earlier. It turned out to be the same ghost he and Shurai had saved several weeks ago from the punks.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Tsune whispered. The ghost-boy couldn't answer out of fear and only managed a whimper.

"Alright, don't worry. Shurai is keeping that thing distracted. Now get out of here!" The small boy still just stood there in fear and was shaking like a guy straining to hold a lead weight. Tsune just made a small 'tch' noise at the boy. "Fine" Tsune smacked the boy on the head with the palm of his hand.

This seemed to bring the young spirit back to his senses. He looked around a second in confusion, and then remembered where he was. He mouthed a silent 'thank you' and ran off across the playground out of sight.

Meanwhile…

Shurai was also running across the playground, except that he was being chased by the giant T. Rex monster. Fortunately for Shurai, the monster not only had the head of a T. Rex but also had the body of one; meaning that it was not particularly fast. Which Shurai planned to take advantage of.

Tsune peered from behind the tree cautiously to see if Shurai had somehow miraculously defeated the monster. Sadly, all he could see was Shurai running away in, what Tsune perceived as, fear. Tsune could only grimace at the scene. Shurai suddenly turned his head towards Tsune's hiding place and began running towards the tree with the beast following. Tsune twitched in fright when he saw Shurai abruptly run towards him.

Shurai raised his hand to his mouth and yelled, "It's time to use plan R.K.!" Tsune finally understood what Shurai was doing and smirked deviously.

"Right!" Tsune answered in response. Tsune held his hands together as if in prayer then twisted them around each other. After a few spins his hands started to glow as his spiritual energy gathered. After he deemed enough had gathered he spread his arms wide, coalescing the energy into a long rope of bright navy-blue energy. He closed his hands around the ends of rope and focused more energy, and when he opened them the rope's ends had blades made of spirit energy. He thrust one knife deep into the ground beneath his feet then ran over a few feet to the right and shoved the other knife into the floor.

His breath was ragged from using such a tiring technique and only had enough time to dive out of the way as Shurai jumped over the rope of spirit energy. The beast had continued to follow Shurai and failed to notice the rope, causing it to trip and fall to the earth. It growled in annoyance and struggled to pick itself up with its stubby arms.

"Shurai, now!" Tsune yelled as he finished the rest of his technique and closed his fist tightly, which caused the rope to suddenly wriggle and explode into a net trapping the creature. Shurai grunted an affirmative and jumped high in the air over the creature's head, pulling the pipe to his body. His plan was to stab it in the head for a quick and easy kill, but right before he was able to stab the monster something pushed him away.

Shurai could only fly through the air with confusion on his face, "Wha…?" Time slowed down as he finally saw what had passed him. He could see a figure wielding a sword slice through the monster's head with a downward slash. He could also make out what seemed to be a black uniform, something like a kimono and hakama put together. As all this passed by in a second he could only think this, "That was my kill." And suddenly everything sped back to normal time when his body struck the floor.

The black-clad figure cackled loudly as it sheathed its katana. "That was too easy! It was already tied up and helpless!" It swiftly turned around on its waraji sandals and faced the two boys lying on the ground. As the figure revealed itself it turned out she was girl. She had dark black hair, almost purple, tied in the back with a large clip. Her face was what Tsune would describe as evil. Her eyes were devious and mocking, and her mouth was formed into a sneer. "You boys were a real help! I barely had to do anything. You guys are perfect for the Soul Reaper Academy."

Tsune tried to sit up. "Sh-shinigami? We're not dead." Tsune managed to cough out.

"No," The girl replied, "not yet. But we need new recruits. You," she said pointing to Tsune, "don't have as much spirit energy as your friend, but you're amazing at controlling it. Better than most soul reapers I'd say, no, I'm sure you're the best I've ever seen!"

Tsune couldn't help but blush at her statement. Most people weren't aware spiritually so no one but Shurai could see how hard he worked to perfect his powers, and Shurai never complimented him.

"And you," The girl continued by pointing to Shurai, "you're pretty damn clever. You caught that Hollow's weaknesses right away and directed your friend accordingly. And you had the balls to stand up to it without any problems, you've got guts. Not to mention your large amount of spirit energy."

Shurai growled in response. "You stole my kill." He grumbled through clenched teeth.

The girl blinked in surprise. "Wow, you really do have guts. I like ya', kid. You do know I can kill you right here and now, right? Well, that doesn't really matter since that's what I'm going to do now."

Tsune's eyes widened as he realized what she had said. He tried to force himself to stand, but he was still too drained from using the rope trick from earlier. "Shurai! Stop her! She's going to kill us!" Shurai jumped to his feet and rushed the girl as quick as he could, to try and surprise her.

"Oh ho ho!" The girl said as she jumped away from Shurai's attack. But it was no normal jump. It was more like a leap. She jumped a clear 10 feet away, which was beyond human abilities. "Still got some fight, eh? Well, we'll have none of that." She sucked in a deep breath and began some sort of spell. "Bakudō, number 1! Sai!"

Shurai's arms suddenly locked together behind his back causing him to fall to the ground. "Aggh! What did you do to me?!" Shurai yelled as struggled against his invisible bonds.

"Nothing harmful." The girl replied with her usual sneer. "Now sit still so I can kill ya'." She reached into her black robes and pulled out a bright red glove. It was a simple fingerless glove with nothing special about it, although the blue-black flame and skull on the back of it made Tsune sweat in dread. She pulled it on her hand and rushed over to where Shurai was kneeling. As she passed him, she pushed her palm into Shurai's chin. But it didn't stop! Her hand went straight through Shurai's head and made something drop out of his body.

It turned out to be a second body connected by a chain to Shurai's original one. "There we go!" The girl giggled as she watched Shurai's first body slump to the floor unconscious while the second one struggled to get its breath and move. "Now we cut the chain." The girl unsheathed her katana and slammed it into the chain connecting the two bodies, effectively slicing it in half.

"And now we perform konsō." She walked slowly over to Shurai's still restrained body and kneeled beside him.

"What are you doing?!" Shurai spat at her viciously. He struggled at his binds even harder now. After a few seconds there was a loud 'snap!' and Shurai was free. "Ha!" He laughed in defiance. He lunged at the girl, but before he could touch her she touched the pommel of her sword onto his forehead. A blue portal suddenly appeared from his waist and began expanding. As he was slowly sucked in he cursed at the girl, "Damn you! I'll get you for this!"

The girl just smirked in response and waved. "Have a nice trip!" The blue portal then finished covering Shurai's body and converted to a small black butterfly. It floated there for a second, then flapped its small wings and flew into the sky leaving behind a trail of glittering black dust.

The girl picked herself up and dusted herself off with her free hand. "Whew!" She sighed. "Your friend is scary. Why do you guys hang out together?"

"He's the only other person in the town who was able to see spirits. Plus, he's not such a bad guy once you get to know him." Tsune replied surprisingly calm.

The girl just looked at him strangely. "Well, you've gotten awful relaxed haven't ya'?" She said as she walked over to where Tsune lay.

"Well," He chuckled, "if you managed to stop Shurai I wouldn't have a chance; especially when I'm so worn out. So… what's heaven like?"

Tsune blinked when he saw the girl finally quiet down. She had a small smile now, but it wasn't mocking or evil. It was a sincere grin. "It's called the Soul Society, and it's a beautiful place. One I would give my life to protect." Tsune thought he saw tears on the girl's eyes, but she wiped her face with her sleeve before he could see. "A-anyway, time to go!"

She down with her gloved hand and pushed against Tsune's head gently. Tsune could feel a strange sensation travel through his body. It was as if he had been taking a warm shower all his life and now this girl had pushed him out of the shower in to the cool air. This left him feeling cold and exposed. He then rolled across the ground, and when he came to a stop he could see his body lying limp across from him. It was a strange experience for sure. But Tsune had accepted it now, "maybe the Soul Society really is as beautiful as she said." He closed his eyes in peace and awaited his death.

He could hear a shattering 'clink!' as his chain was broken; it left him with an empty feeling. As if he would soon be all hollowed out and become a shell. But soon he felt some sort of stamp press into his forehead.

As warmth spread throughout his body he heard the girl say softly, "See you later." Tsune opened his eyes to try and catch a glimpse of the girl, but his vision was already being covered by blue. And soon he was flying through the air towards the sun. A large pair of sliding paper doors unexpectedly appeared in front of him and opened wide, allowing him passage. His body continued to fly unwillingly through the doors and towards to the darkness. As the doors closed behind him the light slowly faded away until he was engulfed in the gloom.

"Well," He thought, "this is it. I'm dead. And I'm alone."

"No, you're never alone." A voice suddenly rang throughout the murkiness. "Don't worry…" It said softly.

"Where are you! Who are you!" Tsune yelled. But he found he couldn't speak, he could only think.

"I'm always with you…My name is ********" Tsune couldn't hear him say its name. It was like it was being pushed through a filter making it hard to understand. "It seems…that you can't hear my name just yet. But don't worry. Your new home is here."

A pin-prick of light appeared in front of Tsune. And as his body flew closer it grew larger and larger. The voice spoke on last thing before Tsune flew through the doorway of light. "Welcome…to Soul Society."