I don't own Bleach

Natural Causes

Chapter One: From Ashes, to Ashes

Clouds pinched together over the oh-so dismal Rukongai, insuring that rain was soon to come. The souls that scattered beneath the clouds were rushing to the houses and other buildings they worked to make. Even shelters for newly arrived souls were packed full, this was going to be one of the worst storms of the season. That, all the same, was because it wasn't real. It was forced.

Then, the sky opened up once again. Revealing the terror that struck everything there, only one soul stood in the middle of the streets—staring at the sky in defiance. Not even the bare trace of fear crossed the girl's face. Her dark eyes challenged the sky to swallow her whole. Daring them to hurt her in any way. Daring them to hurt Rukongai in any way.

A long, white, yukata dressed her small figure and it billowed out around her as the wind hoarsened. Lean, muscular, legs stretched toward the dirt ground, her feet bare. Sand and pebbles were thrown in her direction as the gillians came from the clouds. Their white faces and crooked noses made her sick to her stomach and the scent they carried with them was absolutely wretched. It felt as though it was begging her to vomit.

Regardless of what every scent told her to do, she didn't move. She refused. Those damnable soul reapers weren't coming to help Rukongai. They never did.

Souls were lost thanks to them and she wouldn't take it anymore.

The black robes of the dumb gillians touched the ground and began to scavenge the entire area. Looking for easy souls to feed on and they surely found them.

Quickly and silently, the dark haired girl ran forward with the sort of spiritual energy that would make a room explode. Not that she noticed it at all, until they were all looking at her. Fear flickered in her face and she pulled up a fighting stance she learned when she was a human. The stance felt very easy to her as one of them tried to grab her. She instantly kicked it away, it recoiled.

Her teeth ground together—it didn't recoil out of pain, but surprise. Souls usually just a run for it, but this one wanted to fight. The other thing was another shocker, this one knew how to fight.

She jumped up and kicked one of them across the arm, this time it backed away out of pain. But only for a split second. Now she was surrounded and didn't have anything on them. Numbers, she thought, strength in numbers. Her balled fists instinctively clipped another one of their hands as it tried to reach down for her.

Then one suddenly split in half as another grabbed her. The muscles from her body screamed at her as she squirmed, screamed, and kicked. Useless was a good word for how she felt. Everything was falling apart just to a damn distraction.

The very brief scent of sakura trees sent her mind to blur as the hollow holding her disappeared as well as the other one. It looked as though it was curling into a ball and disappearing. From ashes, to ashes, she thought remorsefully as she fell roughly to the ground. Coughs heaving from her chest and she held her chest.

"Dammit," She coughed, "Damn distraction!"

She looked up to see a man standing there, sheathing his sword. Tall with refined features and long black hair with a weird hair accessory. The next thing she noticed: he was a soul reaper, a captain soul reaper at that. A sea foam green scarf was the only thing that seemed to give this one captain any sort of color.

Instead of feeling any sort of thanks, she felt spite, "You're late, if it weren't for me, they would have been eaten!"

Her rage was so overwhelming that she could hardly keep still as she raced to look this captain in the face. Her pixie cut black hair waved around her as angry tears took to her eyes. It felt as though the fire would thoroughly envelope her if she couldn't see this man. Though there was one thing that wouldn't help her at all, his height. She was fairly tall for a girl, but he was far taller.

"The angrier you get," the man said coolly, "the more blood you will lose."

Her eyes widened, "Blood, what..?—" The slick liquid made contact with her hands and she looked down at it. It painted the canvas of her pale, pale white skin and she clenched her fists.

"Whatever," She murmured, wiping the blood off on her yukata, "damn soul reapers."

She took a couple steps away from him only to fall to her side and curse loudly ("SHIT!"). He stood there in front of her, practically reeking in superiority.

"You're leg has given out," He stated simply, his gaze condescending.

"No shit, Sherlock." She spat at him while trying to get back up. Something about this weird captain was putting her into one of the foulest of moods. Before she knew it, she was hoisted up into an uncomfortable grasp. She froze.

He stiffened for a moment as he held the rather stiff young woman in his arms before disappearing from the spot. Well, not disappearing, but she didn't really know what it was called. She knew he was a soul reaper, a condescending one at that, and that was enough reason for her to hate him.

"What-what did you do?" She asked, suddenly panicked, "Where are we!?"

"Arisawa Tatsuki," He said and she froze only to glare at him.

"How do you know my name?"

He didn't answer, he only carried her to continue.

It took her barely a second to regain her senses and jump out of his strong grasp. Her legs a little wobbly on the ground as she tried to stand again, and succeeded. Her glare hardened on him.

"What do you want?" She asked, "How do you know my name?"

He didn't need to answer, he wasn't even looking at her. He was looking to the left of her face and she looked back and her eyes widened. Everything that went missing in her life, was here? In the Gotei 13? There stood a young woman with waist length ginger hair, along with a orange-haired young man in a captain's uniform, and a young woman with bobbed black hair and a lock that streaked the middle of her face. All of them in soul reaper's uniforms.

"I see," She said tightly, trembling.

"Tatsuki-chan!" the ginger haired girl bounded forward with a weary expression. "What're you—?"

"I'm sorry, Orihime," Tatsuki said before looking up at the stoic captain, "I'm dead."

A/N: Stupid plot bunnies. Stuff'll come around sooner or later. I do intend to update my other stories, I just felt like writing really fantastic crack that hasn't been discovered. Review please!