Into the Fire - (Bleach, OC-I)
Warning! OC-I has limited meta-knowledge on the series! He knows about some of the more popular characters, but has no clue about general plot elements that may not be familiar to binge-watchers!
The first time I woke up in this new life was... a year ago.
Some guy found me lying on the ground, bleeding profusely as my body was full of cuts and gashes through my clothes. Maybe I had been a victim of a car accident but... my body was far from the road. And the guy that then found me was the first sign that something was off with that very day onward.
After all, how many times I could say that I got rescued by Kurosaki Ichigo?
I wasn't a fan of Bleach - I didn't get to watch it when it started, and, by the time I got an interest in looking into it after seeing a few clips on YT, I realized it was too 'big' for me to watch. My short attention span at the time and all of that.
Still, got carried to his home where his pops was a doctor with a private clinic and he patched me up. I was still recoiling from both bleeding a lot and realizing that I was very far from home when Ichigo's sister, Yuzu, took notice of my bag and looked for my ID to avoid questioning me during that moment of shock.
"Oh, your name is Hirota Takiji. And you are- Wait, you're as old as Ichi-nii?!"
I was a bit perplexed by this detail as I definitely should be older and... 'bigger', I think. I gave a look at the mirror the earliest I could, and I realized my body was, indeed, very different. Sandy blond hair, green eyes, I looked smaller than Ichigo and...
"I don't know," I answered to Isshin's questions as he started to drill me over where I came from, my parents, and other stuff about 'my past'. As far as I knew, I was a blank slate in Karakura Town.
"I see, you are amnesiac too and..." Isshin went quiet, pondering about this situation, and then smiling. "I guess you can stay over. As my newest assistant!"
To a normal person, this doesn't sound too much. After all, I wasn't planning to be a freeloader, but I had completely missed on the fact that Isshin wasn't the normal kind of doctor - or man, actually - and he was quick to exploit my current situation to get some unpaid labor done while he allowed his 'daughters to rest'.
Karin and Yuzu, mind you, were average girls. The former was a bit edgy, the latter was a sweetie-pie. Despite these two's differing personalities, I actually bonded more with Karin. The cynical and sassy attitude was what got me interested and I have a feeling the girl was equally giddy to have a 'reliable level-headed bro' for once.
Not that Ichigo was bad as, despite his own moments, he was a legitimately normal teen with a delinquent edge. It was just that, if one was to see who he favored between the two, Yuzu's sweetness proved to be his weakness. Which left me being around Karin a lot through the year and pretty much bonding with the girl.
Still, Isshin was crazy.
He may have found a way to legally put me in school and somehow obtain guardianship over me, but the guy was keen to use this opportunity to have me endure some of the foulest situations possible. I have heard of 'bad medical days', but the shit I was 'helping' with redefined my understanding of that situation even more.
Plus, as a way to 'prepare me in case I wanted to be a doctor too', Isshin would let me handle those cases most of the time. He would tell me what to do and show me some procedures, but I don't remember signing any paperwork that would have set me up to handle emergency medical shit to this degree.
That being said, my school life didn't see anything normal to bless me. Especially when my existance as a petite guy was suddenly a reason for a certain Ichigo's childhood friend to suddenly 'target' me.
"Taki! Look at you, all bones and ribs- I will show you the ropes!"
I should have known that Arisawa Tatsuki was a demon in tomboy's clothing. I should have heeded the words of Ichigo when he told me I was walking into a path of pain and despair. Because I definitely could tell that this fiery girl, who has been upsetted many times as Ichigo left her 'dry' after their last karate match back in middle school ending with his victory, was looking for a punching bag. And I was that punching bag.
It wasn't outrageously abusive, but I sure felt anime logic being ruthless towards a normal guy like me. Training was a nightmare from the very first day as my sloppy stance was easily mawled by the ferocity behind Tatsuki's attacks. My back, ribs, and ass were wrecked through the ways of punches, and Isshin was more than happy to use his 'unconventional massage technique' to fix me.
It happened once, then that man's hands were forbidden to ever so graze my body after the pain he put me through.
So... I guess that I had a year of slice of life with the Kurosaki family. Despite some shortcomings, I kind of felt part of the family. Not a son, or a brother, or even a relative, but I was 'part' of what was going on inside that house.
I had made a few friends at Mashiba Junior High School, most of which were from Ichigo's own group and... then the plot decided to knock by. Ichigo had been saying stuff about seeing ghosts for a while now, and while most of the family ignored that, I knew he was telling the truth because I knew the basic notion of the series and-
I could see dead people too.
I am not sure if this was tied to my new body, or if it was tied to my unusual soul compared to others, but I started to see ghosts around the clinic myself. I couldn't even blame Ichigo for seeing that kind of crazy shit with how deadly some medical cases can be for some patiences preferring a clinic to a hospital.
So, it wasn't like I had much of a warning for when the plot was supposed to start. I was a bit alarmed as we both hit 15, but I had nothing that could have told me that, one of those evenings, I would meet the cause of Ichigo's 'awakening' crushing my ribs my landing her sandals on me.
To put it simply, I don't have a normal bed. I had a futon right beside Ichigo's bed. It was an awkward disposition, but I was surprised by how soft the futon was to sleep into. The same couldn't be said about a short girl slamming her weight onto my hip.
A short girl wearing a black kimono, a white sash around her waist, with short dark hair and purple eyes.
Yup, that's Rukia alright.
And she had to step on me as an introduction!
"Gh!" I twitched in pain, and the dark-haired lady swiftly got off of me, a surprised look on her face.
"Y-You felt that?" Shock was evident in her voice as Ichigo shifted out of bed and replied on my stead.
"O-Of course he felt you jumping on him!"
And then she looked at the orange-haired guy. "...You can see me?! Wait, you are the guy from back then!"
So, it has begun! The plot is happening! And I am in fucking pain!
What came next was an explanation of what Kuchiki Rukia was: a 'Shinigami', a Soul Reaper whose purpose was to escort souls to the afterlife and slay Hollows. That sounded about right, but as I recovered from her 'unfortunate' landing, Ichigo got a taste of one of the abilities the Shinigami could use.
Hado 1, also known as 'Sai'. A restriction ability that limited a person's capacity to move through the use of spiritual energy.
Ichigo was on the ground restrained, but while that may have been a fun move to retort his rude talking with Rukia, it became a bit problematic when we all stopped to hear a fairly loud and particularly scary roar coming towards the house.
Then the ground shook, and as I ignored Rukia's attempt to keep me in the room, I rushed to the hallway, and I saw a slightly injured Yuzu making her way to the room.
"Y-Yuzu!" I rushed to help her as she almost fell down while running. I helped her to lean on the wall. "What happened?"
"S-Something- K-Karin is-"
She passed out, the shock being too much for her to handle. As I contemplated what to do next, I saw Rukia stepping out of the room with her sword unsheathed.
"Stay here, I will take care of this-"
"L-Like hell, I will just stay here!" Ichigo snarled, crawling out of the room to keep up with the dark-haired girl. I made sure Yuzu was truly fine even if unconscious, and then I followed the two downstairs.
A monstrous thing was squeezing at Karin's chest and throat, with humonguous arms that rendered walking as a bipedal clearly strenous when compared to be a quadruped. It was focusing on Karin, with Isshin on the ground and quite unconscious.
Rukia was not acting against the monster, and I could tell it was because the hollow was using Karin as an hostage.
Ichigo didn't seem to consider this as he managed to break the spiritual technique restricting him, picking up the closest object he could find and then trying to smack the hollow to release his sister. The monster reacted by merely swatting him away with his free hand, causing the boy to roll on the ground.
"...If I get Karin out of that hold, can you kill it?" I asked quietly, and I saw Rukia spare me a quick glance.
"I could but- W-Wait, don't just run towards it!"
In a move that I was copying from Ichigo, I picked the heaviest thing I could pick, which was a chair, rushed to the monster, noticed it trying to swat me away too, and I slid under its reach to then smack the chair and... break it uselessly against it.
It let out a low growl, releasing Karin on the spot- but suddenly grabbing me. I struggled against the sudden crushing pressure, failing to let it go and-
"H-hit it!"
Knowing that I wasn't playing hostage, the hollow tightened its hold even more, and I felt panic rising as Rukia was hesitating and the hollow was just having fun turning me in a squeaky toy. The growing dread ultimately caused something to happen.
For a brief moment, the Hollow started to roar in pain and I heard the noise of something sizzling right where my hands were pressing. As it released me, I saw dark handprints I had left behind and, as I looked incredolously at my slightly darkened palms, I barely noticed the fist slamming me against the nearest wall.
I passed out almost immediately, so I dodged a surprising amount of pain that impact would have caused me.
Still, I didn't see how Ichigo got his powers, only that the Hollow was killed and that... the whole accident was seen by pretty much everyone but Ichigo and I as a 'truck hitting the home and then running away before anyone could have seen what happened'. We were all fine and...
And Rukia is now sleeping in the closet. What the fuck?!
AN
Next time... banter. This first chapter was a lot of tell and not show, but next time will have a lot of action happening in regard to Rukia and Takiji. And others noticing the kind of barb that exists between these two.