Chapter Two

When I opened my eyes, I heard adults yelling, "Hogosha! She's dead already! You can't do anything to at this point! She's dead! Ichimutsu's already dead! Do you hear what we're saying, young man?"

I heard Hogosha yelling, "She's not dead! She's my only sister! Only one I could consider to be my true family member! LET ME GO!"

I heard my friend Kieth Nosko yelling with pain, "She's dead! Give it up, Hogosha! Nothing can bring her back to life!"

I heard Hogosha then crying out with disbelief, "Ichimutsu!"

"You yelling is not gonna help! Give it up! It's too late! Harin already shot Ichimutsu and herself to death! What's done is done!" I heard my teacher yell with frustration. "Let it go, Karaguwa! Your sister died trying to save the entire school and her best friend!"

I slowly stood up and walked over to Hogosha, Kieth and the group of adults, waving a hand in front of each of their eyes. Only one who seemed to see me was Hogosha. I started to freka out as I said, "Kieth? Chang sensei? Can't you see me? Can't you hear me?" Looking over to Hogosha, I asked with panic, "Hogosha-san? Can you? Can you see me and hear me?"

I felt my brother's hand on mine before he screamed, "NO!" He fell on the ground as he cried his eyes out. All he could yell was, "Why? Why me out of all the people! I don't want this! I don't NEED this!"

Out of terror, I started to run and went straight to my karate school. Forgetting to stop to open the door, I shut my eyes tight, hoping to hear a crash. Instead, when I opened my eyes, I saw my class. They were all weeping and my teacher punched a wall, causing a crack to appear. I heard him yell, "Why? Out of all the people, why Ichimutsu Karaguwa? What has the girl done wrong for her life to be taken away by a gun shot?"

I yelled as loud as I could, "Can't anyone see or hear me?" I hoped they were all playing some sick joke on me, but no one replied. No one even looked in my way. They didn't even smile. Crying, I whispered, "Hogosha, why are you the only one?"

When I started to turn to leave, I heard Hogosha's voice quietly ask, "Sensei? Can I take all of Ichimutsu's trophies? I was hoping to put them in her room to make it seem more lively." When my teacher nodded and painfully handed a box of all my trophies in it, Hogosha looked over slightly to me as he said, "Arrigato, sensei. Ichimutsu's funeral will be the day after tomorrow." Bowing, he left the building, slowly, as though he was waiting for me to follow.

Days have passed and I followed Hogosha around from far behind. At home, I always sat on a tree outside his window. I watched almost all his moves, until one late afternoon, someone sneaked up behind me. I hear a male voice say, "You have too much of a high spiritual energy. Stay in this world any longer, you'll be either attacked by hollows or become a hollow yourself. I'll send you to somewhere more peaceful than this world. Say goodbye to this world for you'll be going to Soul Society." Before I could say anything or turn to see the person's face, he had already given me a tap on the head with a hilt of some sort of sword. I soon was covered in white light and my home town was gone. In blink of an eye, I was sitting in middle of a town somewhere and people were wearing what looked like rags passed me by.

One of the people passing by stopped and looked down at me as she said, "Never seen you around here before. Are you new, child?"

Looking around, I clutched my chest as I asked painfully, "Am I dead, lady? Is this an aferlife?" When the woman nodded with slight confusion, I slammed a fist into the ground as I screamed, "NO! I was supposed to save Harin's life! And I can't do something as simple as saving my own! I was supposed to look over Hogosha-san, damnit!" Clutching my head, I burrowed my face between my legs as I remained sitting and started to shake a bit from trying to keep calm.

I suddenly felt another presence near me and I heard an unfamiliar female voice say, "Ma'am, leave this young one to me." When the woman left, the person that asked the woman to leave handed me a hilt of some sort of a sword as she said, "You still have a chance to save more people, Ichimutsu. You take this zanpakuto right now, and you'll be able to attend school to learn how to protect many lives."

Without looking up at her, I hissed, "Who are you?"

She replied, "I'm your zanpakuto spirit. If you refuse to become a shinigami, and refuse to undergo the education and training to become one, I'll be gone forever."

I stared at the hilt, finally starting to accept the fact that I was dead, and I asked her quietly, "If I take this so-called zanpakuto and you live what, what do I get in exchange?"

"You'll be able to go back and forth between this world and the World of Living as many times as you wish," she replied. "As well as protecting others. You do want to protect your brother and your remaining friends. Do you not, Ichimutsu Karaguwa?" When I took the hilt, she smiled at me and started to disappear as she told me, "Call me Takikanto. You can call upon me by asking me to come out in my panther form, or in my creature of day and night. Either the shinigami form or human form. I'm looking forward to working with you."

As she disappeared, a blade appeared on the hilt. The further the blade's edge was away from the hilt, the wider the length from side to side and sharper the blade had become. On the wide part of the blade, a faint marking of a yin-yang circle appeared. I felt a pair of hands grabbing my arms just then as a female voice sternly said, "You're coming with us for being in a possession of a zanpakuto."

When I looked up, there were two people, a man and a woman, that were wearing clothes that were most unique thing I have ever seen. White inner shirt, black shirt on top of that, along with black hakama pants, almost as though kendo type of outfits, white belts, white socks and straw sandals. As they dragged me towards the center, I held tightly onto my zanpakuto and cried out, "Wait! What did I do? What's so bad about me being in possession of a zanpakuto?"

The male, who was to my left, snapped, "You have a zanpakuto and since souls just can't go around having a zanpakuto that easily, you must have stolen it."

"Because of that, we're taking you to the Second Division," the female continued. "The division that is in charge of anything theft related to things, as well as assassinations."

On the way, we bumped into a man with a long white jacket that appeared to be some sort of a haori and long white hair. This man even looked a bit sickly, but that didn't seem to bother him. All he did was just stare at me with blank look for awhile before he looked at the two people holding my arms, "Is there a problem?"

The two people quickly saluted at this man as they cried out in unison, "Good day, Captain Ukitake, sir!"

The guy with long white hair, apparently Ukitake, nodded in reply at the salute as he said, "As I said, is there a problem?"

"This girl seemed to have stolen a zanpakuto, Captain Ukitake," the female replied.

Holding tightly onto the zanpakuto, I snapped, "I didn't steal Takikanto from anyone! How the hell am I supposed to take anything from anyone when I just got here from the World of Living? I don't even know where the bloody hell I am! All I know is that this place could be the so-called Soul Society!" When the two people tried to take my zanpakuto away, I clutched even tighter onto it as I yelled, "Creature of Day and Night, Shinigami form!"

A female who looked almost exactly like me appeared as she wore the same black and white outfit as Ukitake and the other two, she quickly pulled me out of the grasp of the two people as she said with bit of a panic, "Please don't take it away from her! I'm her zanpakuto spirit! She didn't take it from any shinigami! It wasn't too long ago she arrived here in Soul Society! Really!"

Ukitake smiled as he told the two shinigamis, which what they apparently were, "I'll take her to my office and have a little chat with her. You two go off to Soi Fon and just tell her, if she asks, that this zanpakuto was a fake. Let's keep it as our little secret about this actually being a real zanpakuto." When the two shinigamis walked away, Ukitake handed me some sort of cloak as he said, "Put that on. I was planning to give that to a young man named Ichigo Kurosaki to keep his spiritual energy concealed so that he won't have to worry so much about one of our captains here, but you need it the most since you're inexperienced in fighting the way we do." When I put the cloak on without hesitation, Ukitake sternly asked, "What is your your name and your intention of being here in Soul Society, though?"

"My name is Ichimutsu Karaguwa. And my intention to stay in Soul Society is to protect the ones I couldn't protect," I replied. "And so many more."