This part is not in the movie, but it is significant to this story and it helps me find a way to put the story together. There are going to be 2 OCs, but they are so unimportant that I didn't even give them names, so don't worry if you hate OCs.
I have now decided to rate this story T. Only for the violence, since I want to add major injuries later on on.
A Fatal Injury
It was around six PM, and the brilliant setting sun made the sky turn orange. A cloaked figure stood silently on top of an abandoned building in a small town. It was windy. The wind blew at the cloak, gently trying to tug it off the owner. The figure itself was clearly visible from the ground, but no human seemed to notice it. Even if someone had looked on top of the building where the figure stood, their eyes would simply pass over it, as if it was invisible.
The figure was faced towards two other people in the distance, as if it was watching them. The two people were also on a rooftop, but in a position where they couldn't see the cloaked figure. It was a man and woman who looked like they were either fifteen or sixteen. The male had short brown hair that was neatly combed back, and the female had shoulder-length black hair that was tied up in a ponytail. They were both wearing a standard shihakusho and were carrying their zanpakutō, which signified that they were shinigami and that they were probably decades older than they looked. It seemed like they were keeping watch over the town and were looking out for hollows.
The male shinigami had flipped open his denreishinki(1) and the female shinigami was curiously peeking over his shoulder. They exchanged words and nodded before they both jumped over the rooftops to reach their new destination. The cloaked figure followed.
The two shinigami stopped near a small playground where a small amount of human children were playing. Parents sat in the benches nearby watching their children laughing and playing with their friends. The swings were deserted, or at least it looked that way to a normal human. If a regular human saw the swings, they would wonder why one of the three swings were swinging back and forth all by itself. If one had spiritual power, however, they would see two small children sulking by the swing set.
They were pluses. They looked like siblings, a sister and her younger brother. They both had brown eyes, brown hair, and the same facial features. The siblings were looking mournfully at the ground as the girl half-heartedly pushed her brother on the swing.
The figure stopped behind a tree at a safe distance, ignoring the living children and focusing entirely on the spiritual beings.
The two shinigami slowly walked up to the pluses, causing them to jump. The little girl stopped pushing the swing and they froze, looking fixedly at the two shinigami. The shinigami stopped when they were a few yards away. The cloaked figure stayed behind the tree where he could hear the conversation.
"Um, hello," the male shinigami said awkwardly. The male plus leaped from the swings and hid behind his sister. He seemed to be crying, the shinigami could hear his sad whimpers. The girl looked close to tears herself and she put a protective arm in front of her brother. She was eyeing the sheathed zanpakutō.
"Who are you?" she asked, looking directly into their eyes.
The shinigami glanced at each other and the young woman nodded at her partner.
"We are shinigami," she said, looking like she wasn't sure what to say next. "We came here to give you two a soul burial."
The male shinigami pulled out his zanpakutō and the two children let out small noises of fright. The older plus grabbed her little brother's tiny hand and ran towards the slides.
"Wait!" the female yelled after them. She sighed and turned to her partner. "We were told not to scare them. You shouldn't have pulled out your katana yet."
The male shinigami looked at the children, seeing how afraid they were, and sheathed his sword.
"My bad," he said sheepishly. He casually leaned backward with his arms behind his head. "Now how are we going to get them to trust us?" he continued with a somewhat annoyed look on his face.
"It's your fault," his partner said, folding her arms and giving him an irritated look. "Scaring them away makes it harder for us. Thanks a lot."
The male was about to reply when his denreishinki started to beep. Startled, the shinigami looked at the device.
"A hollow is approaching this area."
The shinigami looked at each other, and then at the two small children cowering behind the slide. The male shinigami then waved to the children.
"If you don't want your souls to be devoured, you might as well stay there." he said cheerfully. His partner smacked him upside the head as the children burst into tears.
"Stop scaring them! What am I going to do with you?" she scolded him. The male shinigami pouted and mumbled incoherently as he massaged his head.
At that moment there was a horrible roar. The two shinigami whipped around to see a giant hollow. Its body was similar to an arachnid, but instead of eight hairy legs, each leg had a steel-hard shell. The mask covered all of its face, except for the ear area, where two large tusks erupted from. The hollow towered over them all like an enormous building.
"Man, that hollow's huge!" the male shinigami yelled, unsheathing his zanpakutō. His partner gulped.
"C'mon," the female shinigami said, following suit. "This is our first mission. Let's try not to mess this up."
The hollow let out another howl and skittered towards them, fast. The shinigami prepared themselves and then leaped out of the way before the hollow could get to them. The hollow crashed into the swing set, crushing and destroying it. Nearby people stopped and looked at the swing set, only seeing the swing set mysteriously crash down as if crushed by an invisible force. Then they started running. Soon the air was filled with screams from the humans as they ran for cover. The children who were playing in the playground ran screaming to their parents. Their parents scooped them into their arms and ran off.
The shinigami landed on opposite sides of the hollow and leaped in to attack. The female shinigami swung her zanpakutō forcefully at one of the legs while the male went for the head. The blades sank deeply into the shell and the mask, but didn't cut all the way through. They were stuck and the shinigami couldn't pull them out. The hollow let out a roar louder than the ones before and shook its head, trying to get the shinigami off. It got back to its feet in a jolt and the two shinigami tried to hold on to their katanas as they were lifted off their feet.
With a mighty swing of the head, the shinigami lost their hold on their katanas and were thrown into the air. They let out grunts of pain as they landed on their backs. The cloaked person crouched slightly, as if preparing to move, and watched on.
The two shinigami clumsily got back to their feet. The female clenched her teeth as she tried to figure out a way to get back their katanas. How they were supposed to fight a gigantic hollow was beyond her. This was their first mission, and they weren't even seated officers yet. Surely they wouldn't be assigned to defeat a gigantic hollow on their first mission. Would they?
She had no more time to think, the hollow was quickly closing in on them. With a great sweep of one of its steel-hard legs, it swept both the shinigami a few yards away. Again, they landed hard on the ground. A sticky, web-like substance shot out from the hollow's tusks. The shinigami couldn't move out of the way in time, since they were winded by the hollow's attack. They could only watch as the thin webs flew towards them.
The webs slammed into them with a large amount of force. They yelped as the webs glued them to the ground. Struggling against the webs, the shinigami watched fearfully as the hollow took its time creeping over for the kill. Its great shadow fell over them and darkness loomed over them, making it almost as dark as night.
The shadow seemed to trigger something in the webs, because the webs started to glow with red light. As the light grew brighter, they grew hotter. The trapped shinigami could feel the heat slowly growing and they struggled harder than ever to escape before it reached unbearably hot. They tried using some kidō to blast off the webs, but it was all in vain. In fact, the more they tried to escape, the faster the heat increased.
The webs were now reaching the point where it was unbearably hot. The shinigami let out cries of pain and surprise as they managed to look down at their skin beneath the webs. They were shocked to see their skin blistering and melting under the scorching hot webs. The webs still increased in heat and now the shinigami were screaming bloody murder, begging in their heads for it to stop. It felt like they were bathing in fire. It was agony, so white-hot that death somehow seemed much better than this torture.
Actually, death seemed to be coming for them, and it felt like it wouldn't take long. There seemed to be no way out of this mess. No other shinigami was there to help them, and the pluses were completely useless in this situation. The pluses could only turn their heads away, knowing they couldn't help the people who were trying to save them.
The cloaked person who had been watching the whole scene suddenly leapt into the air and appeared between the hollow and the shinigami. A quick slash of a katana and the shinigami were freed. Before they could see who it was under the cloak, the mysterious savior flash-stepped into the air. Raising his or her katana, the cloaked person said a command that the shinigami couldn't hear.
The katana straightened up and lost its curve. At the end, the katana grew longer but made two right angles, making it look sort of like a long hook with no curves. The sharp end of the katana's blades was on the inside of the hook.
Wait, they knew that shikai. Sure they weren't in the same division as the guy, but older members of the same division as them had told them about this person. It had to be Kira-fukutaichō!
Sure enough, as the cloaked person flew through the air, the hood fell off his face to reveal the gloomy face of the third division's fukutaichō.
The unseated shinigami struggled to sit up, but could only hiss in pain as the burns stung. The pain seemed to be dying away, and they could at least watch what was going on.
Kira flew towards the hollow and, as the hollow raised a leg to knock him away, gave the hollow a series of swipes at the raised limb. The leg shook for a few seconds, and then smashed to the ground making a crater.
Kira landed on the ground and calmly looked up at the hollow. The hollow lifted another leg and prepared to smash it into Kira. Kira raised his katana calmly.
"Obviously, you didn't learn from the last attack." he said before slashing at the leg a couple of times. Again, the leg smashed into the ground.
The hollow blew out the web-like substance from its tusks, but Kira easily dodged them. Leaping at its head, Kira sliced off both of the tusks, causing the hollow to wail in pain. Kira then used shunpo to appear behind the hollow's head. With one big slash, the head was cut clean in two. There was the usual hollow roar and the hollow dissolved.
Kira turned around and walked over to the two unseated shinigami. When he kneeled down in front of them, they turned their heads toward him.
"Kira-fukutaichō?" the male shinigami whispered. Kira immediately spread his hands over the burns and his palms glowed with green energy.
"I'll heal you in a minute." The pain was ebbing away faster as the burns healed up. When he was done, there were still signs of the injuries. Ugly scars marked all over where the skin was burned, and they would probably stay there for the rest of their lives.
Kira pushed himself to his feet and helped the other two up. The two were clumsily pulled up to their feet. Kira noticed the leftover scars, and he looked even more gloomy than before.
"Sorry I couldn't fix the scars... Maybe Unohana-taichō can fix them when we get back."
"It's ok, fukutaichō," the female shinigami said while bowing low. Her partner did the same. "As long as we're healed, it doesn't matter if they stay or not. Arigatō gozaimasu." She slowly raised her head and gave Kira a confused look. "Um, not to be rude or anything, but why are you here?"
Kira looked down somewhat sheepishly. "Well, it's mainly because of the Shinigami Men's Association. No one would let us use their rooms for our meetings, so Iba-san sent me to the Human World to find a good place."
He let out a small embarrassed chuckle and looked up to see both of the shinigami giving him blank looks.
"Then my phone started alerting me about a hollow so I came to help." He rubbed the back of his head. "Iba-san should just give up." he muttered. "Well, I'm quite glad to do this instead. Hopefully he'll send someone else next time."
The girl and boy exchanged glances. Then the female shinigami looked over at the two pluses. The two pluses were staring at the small group of shinigami, but they didn't seem to be as afraid of them as before. Kira followed the shinigami's gaze.
"You two can perform the konsō(2) since this is your mission." Kira said.
The two shinigami looked at Kira and nodded. Then they carefully walked over to the pluses while Kira watched from behind. This time the pluses didn't run away. The male shinigami thought of the best way to convince the small children that they were only going to send them to Soul Society. He figured the best way to do that was to tell the truth, make it so they know it won't be dangerous, and don't be so blunt about it like he was before.
"Hello, are you kids okay?"
The children nodded shyly.
"Good. I'm about to perform a konsō on you. Do you know what that is?"
The children shook their heads.
"It's a technique that shinigami use to send people like you two to a cool place called Soul Society."
The female shinigami smiled as she listened to her partner's attempt to gain the pluses' trust. It seemed to be working.
"What I do is take out my zanpakutō and give you a small tap on the head with the bottom part. It's not as bad as you think it is. It won't even cut you and it won't hurt at all." He patted his sheathed katana, making sure not to bring it out and scare the children. The children relaxed slightly.
"Are you ready to go?"
The pluses nodded. They were still slightly wary, but they wanted to get away from this place as soon as possible before another monster shows up. The two shinigami took out their zanpakutō and turned them so the blades were facing away from the children. Once they were tapped on the head, the pluses were bathed in blue light. They closed their eyes as they sank through the ground and soon two Hell Butterflies flew up from where they stood seconds before.
The two shinigami smiled as they sheathed their katanas. Kira walked over to them.
"Are you done?" he asked
The two shinigami nodded and turned around to face Kira. That was when the air had started to move oddly behind Kira, as if it was disturbed somehow. It was blurry to look at. Kira sensed the sudden change in the atmosphere and started to turn around.
A horn-like object pierced through his chest. Blood splattered all over the ground, some catching on to the other shinigami's clothes. Everything went silent. There was no wind, no birds chirping, and no creak of the swings. The only sound the two shinigami could hear was the blood splashing on the grass as Kira fell to his knees.
The thing piercing straight through Kira came from the hollow that was just defeated a while ago. It had used one of its legs to impale him. The unseated shinigami were stunned. Didn't Kira-fukutaichō just defeat the hollow? The hollow dissolved and everything. Or were there more of the same hollow?
The fukutaichō's shaking hands gripped his zanpakutō and swung his katana down behind him, cutting off the leg. The leg dissolved in the air so the blood flowed freely from the wound. He slowly struggled back up to his feet, using his zanpakutō for support.
"Hado no gojū-yon: Haien." Purple spiritual energy blasted out of his hand and hit the hollow in the face. At once flames erupted all over the hollow's face and the hollow disintegrated. Kira fell down to his knees once again and was threatening to fall over as the two other shinigami rushed to his aid. They were too late; he had already fallen forward by the time they reached him. The sand slowly started to turn red as his blood spread.
The unseated male shinigami carefully turned Kira over on his back. He gingerly examined the hole in Kira's chest while the female shinigami pulled up one of Kira's eyelids with shaking fingers. He was unconscious. Her eyes widened and she turned to her partner.
"W-what do we do? !" she whispered. "This isn't supposed to happen on our first mission!" She was frightened of the fact that one mess up could mean death for the third division's lieutenant. She tried to calm herself down, pushing her fists between her knees to keep them from trembling. Her partner watched her uncertainly.
After letting out a few shaky breaths, she calmed down a little.
"I he... dead?"
It was unlikely. It took a lot more than that to kill a shinigami. But if the hollow's leg pierced through Kira's heart, Kira would most likely die. The male shinigami put his head close to Kira's mouth. He could hear soft breathing. They were uneven, but at least his breathing signified that Kira was still alive. He relaxed slightly.
"No, he's still breathing." he said to his partner. She let out a sigh of relief, but she was still shaking. "I don't know what we should do. Should we send for other shinigami-?"
His partner nodded. "Yes, that seems like the best thing to do."
He pulled out his Denreishinki and contacted Soul Society while the female shinigami tried to heal Kira with kidō as much as she could. It didn't take long until a Senkaimon appeared and other shinigami came to help them.
(1): Denreishinki: Divine Messenger Machine. In other words, the cellphone-like thingy that shinigami use to contact Soul Society while in the Human World. They are also used to track down hollows and can detect other shinigami.
(2): Konsō: Soul Burial
A/N: Phew, this chapter was sooo embarrassing before I re-did it. -_- I personally think this version is better. I hope you feel the same way!
Please review if you can. Even if it is to tell me this story sucks. I just need to know if this story is as good as I hope it to be, and if not, how bad it really is. :)